Ch 66: Opening a Survival School Before the Zombie Outbreak

For nearly a full minute, neither Shen Qingqing nor the wild boar moved.

Seeing that the boar was no longer attacking anyone, the villagers who had been watching actually stopped running. Keeping their distance, they craned their necks curiously to watch the spectacle.

Some even quietly cracked open their heavy iron gates and stepped out with flashlights to see what was happening.

If Shen Qingqing could have spoken at that moment, she probably would have started scolding them already.

Having never faced a wild boar before, the villagers truly had no idea how serious the situation was. First the boar, second the bear, third the tiger wasn’t a joke people said for nothing.

Instead of fleeing quickly, were they really waiting for her to kill the boar?

Just then Zhao Hailin came running back, panting heavily, phone still in hand. “I called the police! They said they’ve contacted the forestry bureau. They’re on the way!”

But the village was remote. No one knew how long “on the way” would actually mean.

Somehow learning that someone had held the boar back, and reassured by the crowd, he edged closer and asked, “So… what’s going on now?”

His father shot him a glare and said sourly, “Shen Qingqing’s holding the boar off.”

A grown young man, outdone by a girl. Wasn’t that embarrassing?

“I went to call the police, didn’t I?” Zhao Hailin said shamelessly. “Besides, stepping out to play hero at a time like this isn’t smart. The boar isn’t attacking now, but if it goes berserk later, how could she possibly stop it?”

He shook his head as if Shen Qingqing had made a foolish decision just to save face.

Completely forgetting that the last person to try playing hero and fail had been himself.

Zang Lijun’s eyes reddened with anger. “Qingqing is doing this for all of you… Someone go help her!”

Her gaze landed on Zhao Hailin, and he instantly froze.

If he’d known, he wouldn’t have come back to watch.

He shuffled forward a few steps, forcing calm into his voice. “Qingqing, the boar looks like it’s calmed down. Come back!”

The boar had already grown increasingly agitated from the gathering crowd. Translated on Hololo novels. Seeing another person approach, it finally exploded into motion.

Shen Qingqing darted aside nimbly, dodging the charge. Zhao Hailin was not so lucky. With a terrified yelp, he collapsed onto the ground, scrambling to run, but the boar brushed past him at close range. Though he twisted his waist at the last moment and avoided a direct hit, its tusk still tore through his thick padded pants.

With a loud rip, the pants split open, revealing bright red underwear underneath.

It was Zhao Hailin’s zodiac year.

Half his padded trousers snagged on the tusk, dragging him down hard onto the ground. Cold wind hit his bare thigh, and his heart turned icy.

He was certain he was finished.

In panic, he remembered survival advice from online videos about encountering bears in the wild. He immediately squeezed his eyes shut and played dead.

Chaos erupted around him. The boar suddenly cried out in pain, and then, strangely, everything gradually fell quiet.

After an unknown stretch of time, realizing the boar still hadn’t attacked him, Zhao Hailin’s heart pounded wildly as joy surged through him.

Playing dead worked!

He waited a little longer before cautiously cracking one eye open.

Then he froze.

The boar was gone.

Several people were crouched around him, staring at him with complicated expressions, clearly having watched for quite a while.

Aunt Li from next door couldn’t bear the sight. “Hailin, what are you doing?”

“Stop sleeping. Get up. Qingqing already led the boar away!”

Anyone with eyes could tell the tusk had never actually stabbed him. He had simply fallen and ended up lying there with his thigh exposed.

What a rare sight. Who would have thought someone could fake an accident with a wild boar?

Meanwhile, when Shen Qingqing saw her “Hailin ge” knocked down, she had grabbed an axe without hesitation and rushed forward. Despite the boar’s thick hide, her strike actually drew blood.

Then she tossed the axe aside and ran off, luring the enraged boar away with her.

A girl barely grown into adulthood, yet at the critical moment she had shown such courage and responsibility.

Aunt Li glanced down again at Zhao Hailin’s red underwear, her feelings suddenly extremely complicated.

They had truly misjudged things before.

Shen Qingqing clearly had far more promise than the boys in the village.

Over there, Zhao Hailin had already achieved the accomplishment of complete social death across the entire village. Meanwhile, Shen Qingqing was still charging through the village with the wild boar in pursuit.

At first, Zang Lijun and Shen Mingjiang tried to follow behind their daughter and the boar, but after less than a hundred meters, they could no longer keep up.

When their daughter disappeared from sight, Zang Lijun collapsed to the ground with a thud, trembling so badly she could barely stand.

Without even seeing who it was, she grabbed the trouser leg of someone beside her and cried desperately, “Qingqing! Qingqing! …What are we going to do? Someone help her…”

The person she grabbed hurriedly bent down to comfort her while the others sighed in alarm.

Wild boars were fast, powerful, and armed with long tusks. When they charged at full force, even iron gates could be smashed apart, let alone a thin young girl.

Shen Qingqing’s actions truly looked like self-sacrifice for others.

Shen Mingjiang gritted his teeth. “I’ll go look again. I’ll bring my daughter back safe.”

“Better wait for professionals.”

“How are you going to catch up? Qingqing runs like a rabbit. Who knew she had sprinting talent like that…”

Everyone talked at once. Then one person looked toward the direction Shen Qingqing had run and said uncertainly, “Wait… Mingjiang, isn’t that the direction of your house?”

Had she instinctively run home in fear?

Shen Mingjiang’s eyes lit up, and he quickly helped Zang Lijun to her feet.

The couple and the villagers hurried toward the Shen family home.

Shen Qingqing had not been running in a straight line. She kept detouring, vaulting obstacles, deliberately buying time. Chickens scattered and dogs barked along the way. By the time everyone arrived near the Shen house, they happened to see Shen Qingqing and the boar in the distance.

To their surprise, after all this time the boar still had not caught her.

Not only that, the distance between them had never changed. Shen Qingqing looked completely in control, nothing like someone fleeing in panic.

Had she intentionally run back home?

Someone narrowed their eyes, studying her route. “That direction looks like…”

“The septic pit?!”

…

When the noisy commotion reached outside, Grandpa Shen and Grandma Shen were waiting anxiously in the courtyard for the three family members to return.

“It’s been so long. Why aren’t they back yet?”

Grandpa Shen was still embarrassed and irritated from earlier. Hearing the noise, he stood up immediately, finally finding an outlet for his anger. “What’s all this shouting at night? Are people supposed to sleep or not? It’s just a pig!”

“I’m going to drag Shen Qingqing back. Goes off to college and suddenly thinks she’s capable!”

Ignoring Grandma Shen’s attempts to stop him, he stormed outside, grumbling.

He had barely gone a few steps when he saw his suddenly capable granddaughter returning, bringing the pig with her.

Grandpa Shen: “……”

Had his mouth been blessed today or something?

He stared dumbfounded as Shen Qingqing shouted, “Move!” and dashed past him within a few meters.

Wait… behind him was…

Shen Qingqing hadn’t expected her grandfather to appear there and nearly panicked. Fortunately, after being injured, the boar seemed completely fixated on her and showed zero interest in the randomly spawned old man by the roadside. It ran straight past Grandpa Shen without even looking at him.

Behind him was her true destination.

Seizing the moment, Shen Qingqing twisted her body sharply. The boar failed to change direction in time and charged straight forward.

Ahead of it lay the village septic pit.

The wooden boards covering the pit had long since rotted. They could never bear the weight of a wild boar. The instant its hooves landed, the boards shattered apart.

Like a natural trap, the boar could not stop in time and plunged with a loud splash into the two-to-three-meter-deep pit.

Filthy water sprayed everywhere, and the first victim was Grandpa Shen standing nearby.

The villagers who had rushed over halted instantly at the overwhelming stench. Even Shen Mingjiang silently covered his nose.

Grandpa Shen’s face turned green with rage, his beard trembling. After a long moment, he finally remembered the culprit behind all this, his own granddaughter.

Looking up, he discovered that when Shen Qingqing twisted aside, she had leapt toward the tree beside the pit.

In barely two or three seconds, she had already scrambled high up the trunk, completely avoiding the splash. Now she peeked down through thick branches, only her white teeth visible in the dark.

“Grandpa, are you okay?”

Grandpa Shen: “……”

Which only made him angrier.

*

Half an hour later, forestry officials finally arrived and hauled the nearly exhausted boar out of the septic pit.

Seeing its size, even the professionals were startled. “This is an adult male boar. Extremely aggressive. Probably came down searching for food during winter. It’s lucky no one was hurt.”

The villagers exchanged looks, unsure what to say.

Physically, no one had been injured, but two people had suffered severe psychological damage.

Especially Old Shen, who had practically bathed in sewage. The smell probably wouldn’t leave him for weeks.

At that moment, even his own son had no time to worry about him. Zang Lijun and Shen Mingjiang had been circling Shen Qingqing for half an hour, carefully checking her for injuries. Even Grandma Shen, after hearing what happened, stared at her granddaughter with disbelief.

In all her life, Shen Qingqing had rarely received so much attention from her family.

“You… why were you so reckless…” Zang Lijun’s eyes were still red as she brushed dust from her daughter’s clothes. “You’re a girl. Don’t rush forward like that again. What would I do if something happened to you…”

Shen Qingqing lowered her gaze and repeated calmly, “Mom, I told you. Trust me.”

Zang Lijun froze at those words.

“Trust me.” Shen Qingqing had already said those words twice tonight.

But long before this, during the busiest period of her senior year in high school, she had said the same thing, asking her mother to trust her, promising she would get into a good university and bring Zang Lijun to live in a big city.

…Even earlier, when Shen Qingqing was still small, when Zang Lijun hid under the blankets crying after a miscarriage, she had said those words too.

She had told her mother to believe in her. She said she would become even more capable than any boy so her mother would not need to have another child.

Every time Shen Qingqing promised to accomplish something, she eventually did.

Yet every time, her mother had failed to believe her.

Zang Lijun’s hands suddenly stopped moving.

At that moment, personnel from the Forestry Bureau approached. Seeing Shen Qingqing, one of them hurried forward, full of praise.

“So you’re the one who drew the wild boar away? I’ve heard all about it. We don’t usually encourage this kind of behavior, but given the situation there wasn’t much choice… If you hadn’t stepped forward, someone might have been seriously hurt.”

Zang Lijun stood frozen, listening as a stranger praised her daughter without reservation.

Calm under pressure. Brave and resourceful. Exceptionally courageous.

These were words she had never imagined applying to her daughter.

She remembered Zhao Hailin’s parents, how proud and confident they looked when their son claimed he could handle the boar.

Even someone as incapable as Zhao Hailin had people who believed in him completely.

So why had she never thought to believe in her own daughter?

…Was it only because she was a girl? Yet she had accomplished what the boys could not.

Zang Lijun’s thoughts grew tangled. She began to feel she had overlooked something all these years, though she could not quite grasp what it was.

Shen Qingqing noticed the change in her mother’s expression and felt surprised.

For someone as gentle and timid as Zang Lijun, confronting a wild boar was far beyond acceptable behavior. But that was exactly the point.

Shen Qingqing needed something dramatic, something impossible to ignore, to shatter her mother’s old perception of her and quickly establish trust and reliability. Otherwise, when the virus outbreak came, her mother would never easily believe her or agree to go to Fangzhou for refuge.

Every second in the apocalypse would be precious. She could not leave persuading her mother until then.

Still, she had not expected her mother to begin reflecting so quickly.

Was it because Zhao Hailin’s uselessness had unintentionally provided such a stark contrast?

What an unexpected bonus, Shen Qingqing thought happily.

After answering a few more questions from the Forestry Bureau staff, she bid them farewell and turned to Shen Mingjiang.

“Dad, do you still not want to repair the wall?” she asked. “They just confirmed it too. Wild boars have been coming down from the mountains more often these past few years. You saw the impact force just now. Our wall won’t stop something like that.”

Shen Mingjiang was still shaken by the image of his daughter running with the boar and could not immediately respond.

But Aunt Li and several gossip-loving villagers crowded over.

“Qingqing’s right. Today scared me half to death. I’m going home and telling my son to rebuild our wall too.”

“Ours isn’t sturdy anymore either. I kept putting it off, but now we really can’t.”

“Exactly. How did wild boars suddenly start appearing around here?”

As they talked, they did not forget to praise her.

“Qingqing, you were amazing today!”

“College really is useful, huh? They even teach wild boar behavior.”

Surrounded by people, Shen Qingqing smiled and looked again at her father.

At last, Shen Mingjiang nodded. His gaze toward his daughter carried a trace of bewilderment.

“We’ll fix it. Starting tomorrow.”

*

Like Shen Qingqing, all Fangzhou students returned home for winter break carrying assignments of their own.

At the start of the semester, Fu Qing had announced that every student would receive at least one shelter slot. Once campus renovations were complete, additional storage space, such as cold rooms or supply storage areas, might also be allocated depending on availability.

In other words, stockpiling supplies on campus was permitted.

Since two thousand people purchasing survival supplies in the same area might attract attention, releasing the shelter-slot announcement at this time allowed students to buy materials quietly in their hometowns during the holiday and bring them back later.

As a result, winter break became unexpectedly busy. Under the pretense of preparing for the New Year, students shopped for supplies, renovated old homes, and worked nonstop.

The forum, once filled with gossip and academic complaints, gradually transformed. The homepage now featured posts like:

“Comparison of down jacket fill weights from major online brands”
“Sharing discount coupons across platforms”
“Year-end merchant sale roundup”
“Looking for PXX bargain partners”
“Where to find short-term jobs in X City? My allowance isn’t enough for stockpiling!”

Occasionally, someone posted complaints about troublesome relatives or about parents suddenly changing attitudes after only two days at home.

These everyday discussions mixed strangely with conversations about the coming apocalypse, creating a surreal sense of contrast.

With winter break underway, teachers also stepped away from busy teaching duties and gained a rare moment of calm.

Aside from daily tasks, such as Grandma Liu tending the fields or Hao Zhenye guiding training for the few students who stayed on campus, there was little else to do. Bai Tang shut herself in her dorm as soon as break began, emerging only for meals while gaming day and night.

Among them, only Lu Yan remained constantly busy, spending entire days in the laboratory Fu Qing had prepared, working with Zhao Yunxiao to study the materials left behind by the hooded woman.

After several days, Zhao Yunxiao finally reached his limit and went to complain.

“Principal, could you please talk to Teacher Lu?”

Sitting on the leather sofa in Fu Qing’s office, he poured out his grievances.

“Working sixteen hours a day is one thing. Sleeping only six hours after accounting for washing and bathroom breaks is already insane. But does he have to eat in the lab too?”

He sighed dramatically.

“And even if he eats there, could you ask the cafeteria to stop serving so many intestines and offal lately? I’ve noticed that whenever he gets busy, he especially likes eating those things!”

Fu Qing was about to respond when Zhao Yunxiao sighed again, restraining himself.

“Fine, maybe I shouldn’t judge someone’s hobbies… but at least don’t eat while staring at organs soaked in formalin! I swear it looks like he’s using that stuff as a side dish!”

“You have no idea. That morning we processed the hooded woman’s remaining right hand, dissolved the flesh to expose the bones. I went out for lunch, came back, and found him sitting alone in that creepy autopsy room gnawing on chicken feet. I thought he was eating the actual hand!” Zhao Yunxiao shuddered. “Principal… do you think Teacher Lu might have some strange fetish?”

“….”

Fu Qing thought for a moment and replied carefully, “Is it possible… he just genuinely likes eating chicken feet?”

And it simply happened to coincide with the day they processed the hand.

As for eating organs alongside preserved specimens, that was probably an exaggeration.

Based on what she knew of Lu Yan, the worst he might do was calmly eat hotpot beside a half-decomposed corpse.

Rather than questioning his diet, it might be more reasonable to question whether his sensory responses were slightly abnormal.

Zhao Yunxiao hesitated. “Really? Well… I guess we shouldn’t criticize someone’s eating habits…”

Encouraged by his acceptance, Fu Qing nodded and handed him something from her desk.

Zhao Yunxiao looked down.

It was a peeled dried longan.

The wrinkled surface and the dark pit faintly visible inside instantly reminded him of an eyeball they had just processed.

His stomach churned violently.

Zhao Yunxiao immediately stood up. “Well, that’s everything I wanted to say. Thank you, Principal, for your guidance. I’ve figured things out now. I’ll definitely continue supporting Teacher Lu’s work!”

Fu Qing: “…”

Her hand paused midway through peeling a longan, her face full of confusion.

What guidance had she given?

Thinking back to Zhao Yunxiao’s three consecutive “never mind” moments after entering the office, Fu Qing had the strong impression that he had simply talked himself into feeling better.

She could not help sighing inwardly. People like Zhao Yunxiao, who had never truly entered the workforce, were different. In her previous life, he had been recruited into a research institute to fight zombies before even graduating college. No wonder he possessed such unusual enthusiasm and cooperation toward work. His slightly masochistic dedication paired perfectly with Lu Yan’s ruthless workaholic tendencies.

If it were seasoned workplace veteran Xu Mingyue instead, there was no way she would tolerate sixteen-hour workdays. She would have flipped the table or found ways to slack off long ago.

Still, Zhao Yunxiao’s complaint reminded her that since winter break began, she had not checked on their research progress at all.

Acting every bit the senior leader, Fu Qing wiped her hands with a tissue, in good spirits as she set off for an inspection.

*

Zhao Yunxiao had finally gathered the courage to complain, only to end up bringing the principal herself into the lab. He felt deeply uneasy.

Fortunately, Fu Qing did not seem to be there to reprimand Lu Yan.

After looking around briefly, she went straight to the point.

“Any discoveries?”

Lu Yan’s “laboratory” was no empty title. It was a room Fu Qing had specifically cleared out, equipped with professional instruments she had purchased at great expense from the system marketplace, including advanced research tools designed specifically for studying zombies.

Recruiting Zhao Yunxiao, someone who once possessed a powerful cheat ability and thus extensive knowledge about zombies, had stirred a certain ambition in her.

Perhaps in this life, they could build upon Zhao Yunxiao’s previous research and attempt to develop a serum earlier than before.

Of course, most of Zhao Yunxiao’s knowledge had been directly imprinted into his mind by the system. His undergraduate major was unrelated, leaving him unable to deeply understand or independently conduct research based on that knowledge.

In his previous life, he had been surrounded by an entire national research team. His only job was to fight zombies and provide intelligence.

As for Lu Yan, his expertise lay primarily in clinical medicine, saving lives, which also did not fully align with this kind of research.

The two of them alone could never complete antibody development. For now, their work mainly focused on gathering intelligence in advance.

Before the apocalypse, Fu Qing could not reveal anything about the virus to the outside world. But once it began, she intended to cooperate with official authorities immediately. In her previous life, Zhao Yunxiao’s failure had come from research progressing too slowly to keep up with zombie mutations. With prior knowledge this time, they could not afford to repeat that mistake.

Still…

Thinking about the mutated infected already appearing, Fu Qing could not suppress a heavy feeling.

She was not certain whether what they were doing would truly keep pace with zombie evolution.

They had to race against time.

She drifted off for two seconds before Lu Yan’s voice pulled her back.

“Not many discoveries. Just two,” he said, left hand tucked into his lab coat pocket while he raised two fingers with deliberate composure. “First, about why the hooded woman’s limbs could regenerate endlessly.”

“In our previous life, none of the zombies we encountered possessed flesh regeneration. We already knew zombies did not need to eat. Their aggression toward humans came from a desire to slaughter rather than physiological hunger. Because of that, we constantly debated how they obtained energy.”

“Zombies decay far slower than ordinary corpses. They do not eat, and when attacking humans they bite rather than swallow. Their digestive systems have long ceased functioning. So where does the energy sustaining their movement come from? I once speculated the virus altered their biological mechanisms, perhaps allowing secretion of antibacterial substances to suppress decomposers, or lowering metabolic rates like ancient nematodes that revive after thawing, enabling them to maintain bodily function for extended periods.”

Zhao Yunxiao nodded along.

Then Lu Yan abruptly changed tone.

“But frozen nematodes or antibacterial suppression at least have natural precedents. You can force some plausible explanation out of them. The hooded woman clearly isn’t like that. In the brief time she fought you, the limbs she lost and regrew already exceeded her own body weight. If every zombie in this world were like her, we might as well give up resisting entirely.”

“Fortunately, aside from her, the other believers’ corpses resemble the zombies we killed in our previous life. The differences lie mainly in infection degree. Compared to her, they’re still closer to humans. During the West Mountain incident, she was clearly their leader, and her own words showed she considered herself fundamentally different from ordinary infected. To her, the others were expendable sacrifices.”

“So she’s likely a special case. No need to panic.”

Lu Yan’s explanation left Zhao Yunxiao emotionally unsettled, but Fu Qing’s expression barely changed.

Seeing her remain unmoved, Lu Yan discreetly clicked his tongue and delivered his conclusion directly.

“I believe her ability likely came directly from the Zombie King you mentioned.”

Fu Qing finally spoke. “Current infected individuals are not contagious themselves, so they were probably all directly infected by the Zombie King.”

That conclusion came from experiments conducted on Skull.

Lu Yan shook his head. “No. What I mean is that the Zombie King gave her a part of its own body. Something parasitic attached to her, granting abilities far beyond other zombies. Have you heard of tongue-eating lice? They invade a fish’s mouth, consume its tongue, then replace it as a functional substitute. Something similar to that.”

“Except unlike the parasite, the portion inside the hooded woman likely lacks the Zombie King’s consciousness. At least, I didn’t detect living responses in her severed limbs. Based on that, I propose another hypothesis: the Zombie King infects followers by giving away parts of its own body. Sometimes only a small amount, sometimes something larger. Skull was the former. The hooded woman was the latter.”

“That also means the number of infected at this stage cannot be large, because infection itself costs the Zombie King something.”

“And it explains how the Zombie King immediately discovered Skull’s location and sent the hooded woman to retrieve the body. Because Skull still carried a part of it.”

Lu Yan finished speaking in one breath.

₊˚.🎧📓✩