Qi Yan was perfectly healthy, with a great appetite, and finished off a can of luncheon meat in no time, leaving not a crumb. (Novel) Song Fei and He Zhiwen, perhaps because they didn't exercise as much as him, shared a can of meat and weren't hungry.
Compared to the abundance of food, water was in short supply. The three of them only carried one bottle with them. Qi Yan had already finished his, Song Fei's was almost empty, and He Zhiwen, being the most frugal, had half left but dared not drink any more.
"Oh right, I forgot to ask yesterday, where did you get the ping-pong balls?" Song Fei suddenly remembered this while repacking his backpack.
"There's a dedicated ping-pong room on this floor. When I rushed up yesterday, this was the floor with the most zombies. Several times I couldn't reach the elevator and had to hide there. So I just grabbed a bag."
"Sigh, it's not just table tennis, their college also has an internet cafe. Every semester they hold an e-sports competition and always invite us to watch, claiming that it's a priority for other colleges to watch. There's no more shamelessness than this!" This hatred has been brewing for more than a day or two, and He Zhiwen still feels uneasy whenever he thinks about it.
Song Fei hadn't witnessed the competition firsthand, but he knew that the Computer Science Department had this enviable tradition: "Why don't you guys do it too? Borrow a classroom, set up a few laptops, connect them to the internet, and it'll be a piece of cake."
"Other schools have computer science departments, and they can at least justify their esports dominance, but our physics department is involved in esports?"
Song Fei wanted to offer some constructive advice to the physics department alumni, but he couldn't come up with anything relevant to his field: "Your department is indeed too serious; it's not easy to put your ideas into practice."
"That's not how you put it," as a physics student, one can freely criticize one's own department, but others cannot. "Which of the fixed pulley load-bearing competitions, movable pulley innovation competitions, and high-altitude falling object shock absorption contests in our department are serious? Which one doesn't make you eager to try them out?"
Song Fei: "..."
Qi Yan: "It does sound quite interesting."
He Zhiwen: "Right, right? Let me tell you, that fixed pulley has the best load-bearing capacity. Last year, a senior made one that was both beautiful and super practical. In the competition, he even lifted a teacher from the college! If the pulley hadn't gotten stuck later, and the teacher hadn't been hanging in mid-air for almost an hour, he would definitely have won the championship!"
Qi Yan: "...Why don't you guys just go into esports?"
For a long time afterward, He Zhiwen leaned against the corner of the wall, silent and sullen.
Qi Yan hadn't expected her casual remark to have such a powerful effect. It was just a casual chat, but she had unexpectedly run into someone so sensitive. She felt a little guilty: "I take back what I said earlier. The competitions organized by your college are the ones that truly combine knowledge and fun, reflecting the spirit of contemporary college students..."
He Zhiwen laughed and quickly explained, "I'm not being difficult with you."
Qi Yan was puzzled.
"I just miss the old days a bit," He Zhiwen looked out the window, the sunlight shining brightly on his face. "Classes, meals, experiments, studying, exams… I didn't think much of it back then, but now I suddenly miss it so much."
Song Fei calculated the days and said with a smile, "It's only been about twenty days since the life you miss."
"Only twenty days?" He Zhiwen was surprised. He suddenly lay back on the table, staring at the ceiling, feeling melancholy. "It feels like twenty years have passed."
In fact, Song Fei understood He Zhiwen's question.
There's a particularly cliché, yet apt, saying: Happy times always fly by, while years of hardship always feel like an eternity.
The life that was once so ordinary now seems full of subtle, tranquil flavor. But can that peace, that carefree youth, ever return?
After reminiscing about the past, the three men worried about their comrades scattered elsewhere. While their three comrades had a clear objective—aiming directly at the radio—the four comrades who had lured the enemy to two other buildings were completely cut off from communication. Would they choose to hold their ground and wait for their comrades to return and rescue them, or would they break through and storm Gewu? Or, considering the objective circumstances and trusting their three comrades, would they, like Zhao He, safely retreat to the canteen? No one knew.
Returning to the cafeteria would be the best option, but if that's not the case, then every minute the three of them linger in the Gewu Building increases the danger for their four companions.
With this in mind, the three friends made a bold decision—to strike during the day.
Ten minutes later, the attack failed.
The only gain was that the three of them moved their position from the classroom on the seventh floor to the physics laboratory on the eighth floor.
"They're practically invincible during the day." Song Fei still felt lingering fear as she recalled the deadly sprint just half a minute earlier.
"The stubborn are afraid of the ruthless, and the ruthless are afraid of the reckless. They don't flinch when they see an attack. If we could do that too, who knows who would win?" He Zhiwen was out of breath from running, but his fighting spirit remained.
"The problem is, can't I just not dodge?!" Song Fei was so angry she wanted to kick him; his words were pointless!
After arguing for a while, Song Fei realized, "Wait a minute, this is the eighth floor. Didn't they say that the floors above the seventh were all computer science departments? Why is there a physics lab here?"
"Our department has a lot of students and not enough space, so the dean discussed it with the school and insisted on taking up half a floor," He Zhi asked. "But I only heard that it was already like this when I entered the school."
Song Fei nodded, relieved. Only then did she realize that Qi Yan hadn't said a word since he came in. Looking up, she saw that Qi Yan was sitting at an experimental table, looking quite serious.
Song Fei walked over curiously and found that he had opened a box of weights on the table and was now staring intently at the metal weights of different sizes, all of which were polished to a shine, as if deep in thought.
Just as Song Fei was about to ask what she was thinking, Qi Yan suddenly took out all the weights and stuffed them into a plastic bag that appeared out of nowhere. Not only did she take all the weights from the table, but she also seemed to be ransacking the entire laboratory.
He Zhiwen was stunned for a moment before he reacted and stopped him: "Hey, you can't touch the lab stuff, it's all public property. Besides, how are we supposed to do experiments if you take it all!"
Song Fei grabbed him by the back of the collar: "I have fully felt your deep love for the Physics Department, but the premise of doing experiments is not that the experimental equipment is complete, but that the person doing the experiment is still alive."
He Zhiwen hesitated, but was still unwilling to give up: "But..."
Qi Yan stopped what she was doing and casually raised her eyelids: "If you were a superhero right now, a physical hero, throwing knives around all the time during a fight, would that be appropriate?"
He Zhiwen: "No!"
Qi Yan: "Where are the weights?"
He Zhiwen: "So handsome!"
The shift in thinking was so huge and rapid that He Zhiwen even enthusiastically turned back to Song Fei and suggested, "I'll be the Physics Hero, so why don't you come up with a cool name for yourself?"
Every teenager dreams of being a superhero.
but--
Song Fei glanced at him and silently turned her head away.
Qi Yan poured the last box of weights into a plastic bag and explained gently, "No need, he's the Black Widow."
As the sun sets and the moon rises, night falls.
It was only 6 p.m., but the whole world was as dark as midnight.
Qi Yan peeked out of the laboratory and looked around in the dim light of the corridor.
The next second, a dozen ping-pong balls were scattered to the right and, with their initial speed, rushed along the corridor to the right!
Qi Yan quickly closed the laboratory door, pressing his ear against the door panel to listen.
Song Fei and He Zhiwen held their breath, ready to act at any moment.
Noisy footsteps came from the left side of the corridor, quickly ran past the laboratory door, and continued to the right.
Now!
Qi Yan opened the door decisively and ran to the left without hesitation!
Song Fei and He Zhiwen immediately followed, trying their best to keep their running so that only their toes touched the ground, minimizing the noise!
Perhaps due to insufficient light and lower temperatures at night, the zombies' activity was somewhat affected. The stairwell was deserted and empty. The three of them ran up to the eleventh floor in one go, and just as the twelfth floor was above them, they encountered their first zombie.
It was an old man with a full head of silver hair and a thin figure. Half of his face was covered with dried blood clots, while the other half was relatively clean, and his appearance in life could still be vaguely seen.
Usually, these elderly people are professors who have been rehired by the school. Although the three of them were not each other's students, they felt quite bad when they saw the old man in such a state.
The three hesitated for a moment, and the zombie pounced. Fortunately, the zombie wasn't particularly fast, likely due to its age and physical condition in life. Qi Yan gripped the mop gun tightly, neither retreating nor dodging, waiting for the zombie to enter his attack range before firing a single shot!
Qi Yan's tactics were simple: he knocked the enemy down with one shot, then pulled out his gun and stabbed him in the head again, while Song Fei and He Zhiwen were ready to finish him off at any time.
Experience has proven that this is a very effective combat mode.
However, this time he ran into a brick wall.
Just as the zombie was about to be stabbed, it suddenly dodged Qi Yan's attack, and then grabbed the gun barrel with its hand. With a forceful pull, it dragged Qi Yan and the gun over!
Qi Yan had a premonition the moment the other party gripped the gun and was fully prepared for a head-on confrontation. Unexpectedly, the other party's strength was far greater than he had imagined, and he used it with great skill. It was not brute force, but rather a rhythm that was impossible to resist. With a grip, a pause, and a pull, Qi Yan could no longer stand up and staggered forward, falling into the other party's arms!
As if the zombie had anticipated this, it didn't hesitate for a moment as Qi Yan fell over and bit into his face!
At the critical moment, Qi Yan, who was struggling to break free, raised her hand and pushed the other person's chin, buying herself two seconds to catch her breath!
In those two seconds, Song Fei's metal chopsticks were already aimed straight at the zombie's temple!
He Zhiwen's dagger also struck at the zombie's face!
Just 0.01 seconds more, and Song Fei's metal chopsticks would pierce the zombie's temple. But no, he really couldn't hold on any longer!
Qi Yan's hand was finally pressed down by the zombie's head, and then the zombie's head suddenly dropped heavily, hitting Qi Yan's goggles with a thud!
And this downward movement just barely avoided Song Fei's chopsticks!
He Zhiwen's knife did manage to stab, but it was originally aimed at the face, but now it went straight to the forehead, where it was blocked by the skull and couldn't penetrate.
Fortunately, Qi Yan, who had let go, somehow pulled out a short knife from his waist and plunged it into the zombie's temple.
The zombie stopped moving and hung heavily on his body.
Qi Yan put it down as gently as possible and leaned it against the corner of the stairwell.
Although it was a close call, it was still a close call. Song Fei was completely baffled and asked in a breathy voice, "It's so old, how could it still have the strength to subdue you?"
"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you," Qi Yan said helplessly, "but it really is extraordinary, it may have been trained."
Song Fei asked in a daze: "What kind of training could the professors in the Computer Science Department have?"
"Tai Chi." Since they see each other all the time, He Zhiwen is quite familiar with the various activities of the Computer Science Department. "When I used to go to class, I would always see him practicing in the open space downstairs. I heard from other students in the Computer Science Department that the old gentleman liked it when he was young and has been practicing it for decades."
Qi Yan: "..."
Song Fei: "From now on, give us this kind of information in advance!"
Although the other party had turned into a zombie, when it transformed from a simple "unfamiliar zombie" into a "mutant with flesh and blood and a past," the three people felt even more complicated when they looked at the corpse again.
Taking a deep breath, Qi Yan was the first to step upstairs.
Song Fei and He Zhiwen exchanged a glance and quietly followed.
The eleventh and twelfth floors were filled with conference rooms and faculty offices for the Computer Science Department, which were usually less crowded than the lower floors. Since the incident occurred on a weekend, they were almost entirely empty. Therefore, the three of them didn't encounter a single zombie until they entered the twelfth-floor corridor.
This is certainly a good thing.
But too much success can make people uneasy.
The corridor was empty. The three of them tiptoed forward, holding their breath.
According to He Zhiwen, the teacher's office was at the end of the corridor, in the opposite direction of the stairs, and now they have reduced the distance to the office by one-third.
The moonlight was bright.
It was a perfectly clear night.
The shadows of the three people were stretched long, as if they were extending into the depths of darkness.
Passing by a half-open storage room, Qi Yan hesitated for two seconds before turning back.
Song Fei and He Zhiwen were confused and stood there dumbfounded.
Qi Yan cautiously pushed open the door. What came into view was a narrow and cluttered space, but she was certain that there was no one or any zombies there.
Qi Yan entered first, then gestured with his eyes for his comrades to come in as well.
Song Fei roughly understood what Qi Yan meant, and pulled the still confused He Zhiwen inside.
Qi Yan slowly closed the door, leaving only a gap big enough for an arm to pass through, and then threw a ping-pong ball towards the stairs they had come from.
The sound of a ping-pong ball isn't loud, but in this moment of utter silence, it's clear and resonant.
Until the sound of the ping-pong ball bouncing almost completely disappeared at the end of the corridor, a few scattered footsteps ran past the storage room. There weren't many people; it sounded like there were three.
He Zhiwen also realized that this was Qi Yan's last time clearing the area.
The teachers' office was just a stone's throw away, but the closer one got to success, the more sober and cautious one had to be—in a way, Qi Yan's ability to do this was frighteningly calm.
When they opened the door again and entered the corridor, all three of them breathed a sigh of relief, both to relax themselves and to calm themselves down.
After walking about ten steps, the three of them finally arrived at the office door.
This is a solid wood door without any glass panels for viewing. The only two office windows are completely covered by blinds, with no gaps whatsoever.
Qi Yan gripped the doorknob and pressed down gently, her wrist unconsciously exerting force forward.
The door wasn't locked!
Qi Yan's heart skipped a beat, and the door opened easily with the push, revealing everything in the office without any obstruction.
In the cold moonlight, most of the workstations were empty, except for one desk where a figure sat motionless. He had his back to the door and sat motionless in his chair; from the angle of the doorway, it was impossible to tell whether it was "he" or "it".
Song Fei and He Zhiwen also saw it.
A faint sound came from the distant corridor, like footsteps, or something else entirely. Without further hesitation, Qi Yan slipped inside, and as soon as Song Fei and He Zhiwen followed, she immediately closed the door.
Click.
As she closed the door, Qi Yan locked it.
Song Fei and He Zhiwen felt a pang of anxiety, but they also understood that this was actually safer, as they could deal with only the one inside the house without any worries.
However, even locking the door didn't deter this one person from turning back, and the group still felt a chill run down their spines.
"Teacher?" He Zhiwen called out tentatively, "Um, we've come to borrow a radio."
Qi Yan and Song Fei looked at him in surprise.
He Zhiwen nodded slightly, the meaning of which was all too clear—this was the very person who owned the radio!
The person in the chair, who had been hunched over as if their head was about to touch the table, suddenly straightened up slowly upon hearing this.
The next second, the swivel chair suddenly moved, and with a creaking sound, the figure turned from having his back to the door to facing the door. His friends finally saw his bloodied and mangled face and the small black radio he had been holding in his arms for who knows how long.
"I don't know what you guys think," Song Fei swallowed, "but I think he might not be willing to lend it…"