Ch 44: Opening a Survival School Before the Zombie Outbreak

It was already the latter half of the night. Fu Qing checked the time and judged that it was about right. Taking her car keys, she turned and headed out, leaving the five-person group behind to guard the house and watch over the three tightly bound criminals.

Less than an hour later, the SUV cut through the curtain of rain, tires pressing into the soaked mud as it drove into the courtyard.

Headlights illuminated the front hall. Hearing the sound, Su Huaijin and the others hurried out to greet her.

Fu Qing returned with faint moisture clinging to her hair, carrying a cardboard box.

When the box was opened, several heads crowded around, followed by startled exclamations.

Inside was an entire box filled with fluffy, brightly dyed chicks.

“Are these… the kind they sell outside elementary schools?” Zhuo Xiaoliang said in surprise. “I raised one when I was little. It died the next day, and I cried for two days straight…”

Sun Wei glanced uncertainly at the dark sky outside. “Principal… where did you even find these at this hour?”

Yue Yuxuan quickly ran back into the living room, dug through a pile of unused camping gear, and brought back a quick-dry towel, handing it to Fu Qing.

Fu Qing accepted it and answered simply, “A nearby farm.”

“Nearby,” in truth, meant she had driven onto the ring highway right after leaving. Translated on Hololo novels. Traveling at high speed, the chicken farm she found was actually quite far away.

Most of these dyed chicks were sickly ones screened out by farms, unlikely to survive to adulthood. They were coated with cheap dye and sold outside schools to children for novelty and fun.

Because the dye was toxic, they usually died within a few days of being taken home.

Fu Qing had located such a farm, knocked on the door in the middle of the night, and although the owner was initially annoyed, the moment he heard she wanted to buy dyed chicks, his mood instantly improved. He even walked her out personally and gave her a discount.

The chicks were originally meant to be sold outside schools the next morning. Many were already weak and would likely die during transport anyway, meaning unsold ones became pure loss. The owner was eager to get rid of them early.

So Fu Qing drove back carrying a box of chirping chicks, their constant peeping filling the car the entire way.

Sun Wei held one of the tiny colorful fluff balls in her palms, gently teasing its round body with a fingertip, completely unable to understand why the principal had bought so many chicks.

Fu Qing offered no explanation. She glanced over the five students and asked, “Who can drive?”

Sun Wei’s leg was injured, and Su Huaijin was too young for a license, so the question was directed at the remaining three.

Freckles raised a hand. “I can.”

Fu Qing nodded. The next moment, the car keys traced an arc through the air toward her.

Freckles startled and fumbled before catching them, staring at Fu Qing in confusion.

“Take my car and follow the route set in the navigation back to school.”

Fu Qing had already programmed the route before getting out earlier. Once started, it would appear automatically.

Freckles grew even more confused. “You want us to leave now? But…”

But three criminals were still tied up here. Didn’t she need their help?

“You’ve already done enough,” Fu Qing said.

The rest was hers to handle.

Su Huaijin seemed to understand something. Her breathing quickened briefly before she calmed herself and said evenly, “Alright. Then we’ll head back first.”

She pulled away Sun Wei, who was about to ask more questions, signaling the others with her eyes. They opened the door and stepped into the rain.

Outside, heavy rain poured relentlessly. The courtyard had turned muddy, footprints appearing along the stone path only to be quickly washed away, erasing all traces of their presence.

Only after sitting in the passenger seat did Su Huaijin press a hand to her chest, feeling her accelerated heartbeat.

She thought she knew what the principal intended to do.

But since the principal had not said it aloud, she would not ask. She would pretend not to know.

After making up her mind, she opened the car’s navigation system and, sure enough, saw a winding route marked in red.

Freckles in the driver’s seat was still adjusting the seat. Fu Qing was 173 centimeters tall; to reach the pedals properly, Freckles had to slide the seat far forward.

The more she adjusted, the sadder her expression became. It felt less like a height difference and more like a leg-length difference.

When the map lit up on the display, her attention shifted immediately.

She blinked in surprise. “This route goes way out of the way. This isn’t the fastest path back to school.”

It was late at night, and the rain made her nervous.

“Just follow what the principal said,” Su Huaijin replied.

Her tone was unusually serious. Freckles glanced at her, slowly catching on.

“Alright. Everyone buckle up.”

She gave the reminder and then fell silent, focusing on familiarizing herself with the vehicle.

From the back seat, Yue Yuxuan leaned forward, gripping the passenger seat and asking, “Then how will the principal get back later?”

“She’ll take their car,” Su Huaijin said. She already knew.

She tilted her chin toward the courtyard entrance.

Under the dense shadow of an old tree stood a low-profile black car, nearly blending into the thick night. Without careful observation, it would have been impossible to notice.

“And them…”

Yue Yuxuan’s voice stopped abruptly as her expression turned grave.

All of them felt it, faintly, in their hearts.

Three minutes later, the five were seated with their seatbelts fastened, and the car slowly began to move.

As they passed the black car, no one else was nearby. Freckles unconsciously slowed the vehicle.

The bright headlights shone into the interior of the parked car, and all five clearly saw what lay in the back seat: sacks, coils of rope, and a dull gray shovel.

Though they sat inside a car bathed in warm yellow light, surrounded by familiar classmates, a chill still crept up their spines.

“They never had good intentions from the start,” Sun Wei said, her lips slightly dry.

A wave of delayed fear washed over her.

This was not a simulation chamber. Death would not display a “game over” screen or let them restart.

Here, life existed only once.

Death meant death.

The excitement that had carried her through the night faded, replaced by bone-deep cold.

Whether those three had truly intended to kill from the beginning or not, once angered by resistance, they could easily have changed their minds, pushing everyone into real mortal danger.

After spending so much time in the simulation pods, Sun Wei had grown used to provoking danger, accustomed to risky behavior, sometimes even enjoying the thrill of dancing on a blade’s edge.

But the black car hidden behind the curtain of rain poured cold water over that illusion.

She remembered the steel pipe in the baseball cap man’s hands, remembered Skull’s venomous gaze, and exhaled heavily.

Fortunately… fortunately they had succeeded.

If she had to face it again, she would still choose courage.

But she would be far more cautious.

Su Huaijin said quietly, “Never lose your fear of death.”

Rain hammered against the car roof, spreading ripples across the windows. The sound nearly drowned out her voice, yet the words settled heavily in everyone’s hearts.

As they neared a turn, someone was the first to look back.

The old house still stood silently where it was, shrinking into a small shadow in the rearview mirror. The intense emotions of the night, the shock, fear, and adrenaline, seemed to fade with it, dissolving into something like a distant dream.

Beep—

Freckles suddenly honked the horn.

They were driving along an empty road, the nearest house far away. The abrupt sound startled everyone nearly out of their seats.

“Why did everyone suddenly stop talking? You’re making me nervous driving like this!” she said, stiff with tension like an alert prairie dog, eyes fixed on the road as she concentrated on the difficult driving conditions, completely missing the emotional undercurrents filling the car.

“Weren’t we amazing tonight? We completed the mission perfectly and nobody got hurt. Isn’t overthinking it now kind of disrespectful to our opponents?”

She muttered while driving.

“Don’t think about what they might have done. Think about what we actually did!”

And truly, when everyone was trapped in heavy emotions, someone breaking the mood mattered.

Following her words, they began recalling what they themselves had accomplished that night, and the reality of it slowly sank in.

…Wait.

Had they really subdued three armed, dangerous men using nothing but camping gear and materials scavenged from the old house?

The atmosphere inside the car gradually brightened. Translated on Hololo novels. They exchanged looks, equal parts disbelief and excitement.

Just half a year ago, they had been ordinary exam-focused students in plain uniforms and thick glasses, buried in endless test papers.

Back then, how could they have imagined they would change so completely?

Remaining calm before armed criminals.

Thinking strategically while chased by zombies.

Running five kilometers within the required time without stopping.

At this rate… surviving an apocalypse might actually be possible.

“Unity is Li Yiliang!”

“This strength is iron, this strength is steel!”

Suddenly, an energetic anthem blasted through the car speakers, startling everyone again.

They frantically looked around until Zhuo Xiaoliang scratched his head and grinned.

“I bravely connected to the principal’s car Bluetooth. Anyone got song requests?”

Two seconds of silence.

Then chaos erupted.

“How are you this bold?”

“The greatest rebellion against the principal: secretly connecting to her Bluetooth and playing brainwashing songs for when she gets back in the car…”

“? That’s actually evil.”

“Me! I want Phoenix Legend!”

“I’m driving, I should pick first—”

*

Inside the house, Fu Qing dragged the cardboard box over and sat down once again in front of Skull.

Skull cast a wary glance at the chicks inside the cardboard box, unable to understand what she intended to do.

There was no way she had brought over a hundred chicks here just for amusement.

Fu Qing bent down and gripped his jaw.

Her strength was immense. She easily forced Skull’s mouth open, and under his furious stare, she shoved a steel pipe horizontally into his mouth, wedging it firmly against his back molars.

Pain shot through his gums. The invasive foreign object triggered an instinctive gag reflex, and when his tongue accidentally brushed the rusted metal, a sour metallic taste mixed with salty sweat filled his mouth.

It was the baseball cap man’s steel pipe.

Nausea surged through him. Under Fu Qing’s control, his heightened senses seemed to bring him nothing but pure torment.

After searching around, she had found that only this pipe was the right thickness. It was a bit long, but she chose to ignore the inconvenience.

She gave him no chance to spit it out. Tearing a strip from the dust cover that had once protected the sofa, she twisted it into a sturdy rope and tied it around the back of Skull’s head, securing the pipe tightly in place.

He could no longer close his mouth. Saliva dripped from the corners of his lips as he glared at her with eyes that looked ready to devour her alive.

But by now, he understood that threats meant nothing to this woman.

Fu Qing ignored him completely. Circling past him, she bent toward the cluster of soft, chirping fluff. A faint crease appeared between her brows, and the pity she felt toward the chicks was greater than anything she felt for Skull.

They were still young, ignorant of the world, unaware that from the moment they were born, every day of their lives had been a step closer to death.

Using such small creatures made her instinctively uncomfortable.

But she had long since stopped letting compassion change her decisions.

“I’m really curious how you became what you are now. That so-called Zombie King probably can’t turn people into zombies from afar yet, otherwise the streets would already be full of them… which means you most likely met it in person.”

“But unfortunately, I know you won’t tell me where it is.”

She picked up a chick and stood, calm and composed. “So I’ll have to use another method.”

Anger burned in Skull’s eyes. He tried to speak, but the pipe blocking his mouth reduced everything to meaningless muffled sounds.

Holding the chick gently by its wings, Fu Qing brought it close to his sharp canine teeth.

She pressed lightly.

Two or three seconds later, the chick flapped its blood-stained wings, chirping frantically as it stumbled back toward the others.

With the seriousness of a scientific researcher, Fu Qing carefully observed its condition.

Two minutes passed. The chick looked slightly weak, but its size hadn’t changed, its feathers were the same, and its eyes remained glossy black beads.

She repeated the process, lifting another chick.

One. Two. Three. Four…

The zombie virus could spread to animals through saliva, but unlike humans, animals bitten were not infected one hundred percent of the time.

Moreover, zombies showed little interest in attacking animals, which further reduced the number of mutated creatures.

But from Fu Qing’s observations, among animals that were bitten, the infection rate rose to roughly twenty percent.

There were over a hundred chicks in the box. Under normal circumstances, at least a dozen or two should become infected.

As for incubation periods, the smaller the body, the shorter the delay.

Adults could take up to half a month to show symptoms, but infants typically developed the virus within six hours.

These chicks were smaller than a palm. Fu Qing estimated that symptoms should appear within ten minutes at most.

It was a pity the farm didn’t sell mice. Otherwise, she would have liked Skull to experience eating one alive.

From the moment she began, Skull’s pupils had been trembling violently.

He had never imagined Fu Qing would keep forcing chick after chick into his mouth.

Farm chicks were nothing like carefully raised pets. Hundreds had been crowded together, eating and defecating in the same space. Even after being washed before dyeing, they still carried the heavy stench of chicken manure.

He wanted to vomit but couldn’t. Bound hand and foot, he could only endure the sensory assault.

By this point, his mental state had completely collapsed.

Fu Qing worked like an assembly-line technician, efficient and methodical. Translated on Hololo novels. In no time, every chick had been bitten once. Returned to the box, they chirped noisily together, sounding almost like angry complaints.

She gently stroked a chick’s head in apology, then crouched beside the box and waited for results.

Ten minutes passed.

Half an hour passed.

The chicks continued chirping. Not one mutated.

Fu Qing let out a small breath of relief and murmured, “No transmissibility.”

“Looks like you really were infected personally by the Zombie King.” She looked up at Skull with a faint smile. “If I keep you here indefinitely, will your master come rescue you?”

He obviously could not answer. His eyes burned red, filled with hatred.

“No… probably not,” she said, standing and stretching casually, answering herself. “Zombies are a strictly hierarchical species. High-level zombies exert absolute dominance over lower ones. Killing a high-level member can even temporarily intimidate the rest. That method has always worked well.”

“In a system like that, why would someone at the top rescue a mere dog?”

She looked at him with mild regret. “Seems I’ll have to ask you to die instead.”

His eyes widened further. Breath rasped through his nostrils as her figure drew closer, reflected in his pupils.

She grabbed his hair and forced his head upward.

As his neck bones snapped with a sharp crack, he heard her whisper beside his ear:

“Thank you for letting me see, for the first time, a zombie wearing an expression of fear.”

The world sank into darkness.

Those were the last words he heard in the human world.

₊˚.🎧📓✩