Ch 69: Opening a Survival School Before the Zombie Outbreak

Halfway through their shopping, Fu Qing unexpectedly ran into two familiar faces.

Song Rushuang and her mother, Xu Mingyu.

They were browsing nearby shelves when Xu Mingyu recognized Fu Qing first and happily called out to her.

“Principal, happy New Year!” Xu Mingyu’s eyes curved into crescents with her smile.

The last time on the pedestrian street, Fu Qing had not only saved Song Rushuang but, because of that incident, Song Rushuang later received official commendation. An educational film adapted from her experience had played for months in schools and subway stations, allowing the whole family, after the lingering fear faded, to feel immensely proud.

Ever since then, Xu Mingyu often mentioned this young and capable principal at home.

Hearing the enthusiastic greeting, Fu Qing turned her head and met Song Rushuang’s gaze.

Song Rushuang slowly lowered her eyes and noticed the large Want Want snack gift pack in the principal’s hands.

Teacher and student meeting in the snack aisle felt just a little awkward.

Fu Qing tossed the gift pack into her already overflowing cart and gave Xu Mingyu a polite professional smile. “Hello, Song Rushuang’s parent.”

“Hello, hello, what a coincidence,” Xu Mingyu said, pulling her daughter forward to greet the principal while she herself stepped back half a step and quickly took out her phone. She hurriedly sent a message to Song Jianguo, who was nearby buying meat, telling him to grab several gift boxes and bring them over immediately.

It was New Year’s. How could they possibly let the principal leave empty-handed?

Song Rushuang was nearly yanked off balance by her unusually strong mother and almost crashed straight into Fu Qing. She steadied herself in alarm, then received her mother’s signal to stall for time.

Song Rushuang: “……”

She said stiffly, “Principal, um…”

Before she could find a topic, Fu Qing sighed quietly and initiated the classic teacher-student small talk: “How’s your homework going?”

Song Rushuang: “……”

Yes, as a peculiar institution among universities, Fangzhou assigned winter break homework.

Besides the daily five-kilometer run check-in, students also had to practice combat movements on their own. Translated on Hololo novels. Their student wristbands monitored whether movements were performed correctly and uploaded attendance automatically.

In addition, there were review assignments for Supply Stockpiling, Zombie Characteristics, and First Aid classes, along with various home tasks such as checking household medical supplies and emergency stock, or practicing suturing on pigskin.

So Fu Qing’s question was perfectly reasonable.

“It’s… okay. I check in on time every day,” Song Rushuang said miserably, feeling as though she had never truly left high school.

Just as she finished speaking, someone rounded the shelf behind Fu Qing. “Why did you take so long to come back… oh, you ran into a student?”

Xu Mingyue saw Song Rushuang and immediately straightened up, abandoning her casual posture. Even off duty, she still carried some teacher dignity.

Seeing another teacher appear, Song Rushuang grew even more nervous. “Hello, Teacher Xu.”

“Hello, hello,” Xu Mingyue replied, surprised to see a student here. She looked Song Rushuang over, realizing she didn’t seem to be from her infrastructure class, and awkwardly asked, “Uh… how’s your stockpiling going?”

Song Rushuang: “…Pretty good. I bought several padded coats online yesterday…”

Then silence returned.

Before Xu Mingyue could desperately search for another topic, yet another person wandered around the same corner. “What are you all doing? Why are you standing here like you’re being punished?”

Lu Yan lowered his head and noticed someone standing in front of Fu Qing and Xu Mingyue.

She looked familiar. He had seen her during the Xishan incident when they fought the believer. A Fangzhou student.

Their eyes met, and Lu Yan suddenly asked with uncanny intuition, “Have you mastered mattress suturing yet?”

Song Rushuang: “……”

Her greeting of “Hello, Teacher Lu” stuck in her throat. At this moment, she only wanted to dig a tunnel and escape.

Why did it keep going?!

How many people had the principal brought along?!

…

Question: what could be more terrifying than running into your principal and teachers outside campus on a day off?

Answer: each teacher lining up to check whether you finished your homework in order to ease social awkwardness.

Some even started checking assignments from classes she hadn’t taken.

At that moment, Song Rushuang felt deep envy toward Shen Qingqing, who was far away in the countryside.

If she had a choice, she would rather be outsmarting a wild boar in a village.

Seeing Song Rushuang completely overwhelmed by the triple interrogation, Fu Qing suppressed a laugh and stepped forward to stop the chaos.

Lowering her voice, she said, “Teacher Zhao and Teacher Bai came along too. There are too many of us, so there’s no need for your mother to trouble herself.”

“?” Song Rushuang turned around just in time to see her mother standing sideways, furiously tapping her phone.

The screen displayed enormous middle-aged font, so large that the group chat messages were perfectly readable from two meters away:

[Mom: @Dad, two more teachers showed up. One box of sea cucumbers isn’t enough! Get two!]

[Mom: Also grab two boxes of nuts! Do they have lobster? Get an Australian lobster! Otherwise it won’t match the principal’s status!]

[Mom: Wait, I forgot to ask if the principal is allergic to seafood. Hold on, I’ll find a way to ask…]

Song Rushuang went completely numb.

With the principal’s eyesight, sharp enough to count the holes in a zombie two hundred meters away, she had probably understood Xu’s intentions from the moment Xu typed the first character.

So just now… the principal had been stalling along with her?

That made sense. If the principal left right away, Song Rushuang would probably get scolded by her mom the moment she got home.

Once she figured out the principal’s motive, Song Rushuang felt a little dazed.

After saying her piece, Fu Qing returned to a normal speaking volume and, impeccably polite, bid Xu Mingyu farewell. Xu tried to insist they stay, but Fu Qing only smiled.

“It’s getting late. We came out to buy supplies, and we still have to head back to campus. The students staying over the holiday are waiting.”

“So that’s how it is, yes, of course. We won’t hold you up, then. Don’t keep the kids waiting,” Xu Mingyu said, nodding.

Hearing there were students who couldn’t go home for the New Year, Xu Mingyu agreed at once, then glanced regretfully at her phone. Song Jianguo still hadn’t had time to buy anything.

It seemed she would have to wait for next time.

Fu Qing looked at Song Rushuang and, as a matter of routine, reminded her, “When break ends, make sure you return to school on time.”

Then she paused for two seconds. Just as Song Rushuang thought the principal was about to leave, Fu Qing added, neither too light nor too heavy, “Happy New Year.”

“Teacher Xu and the others were kidding. The homework can wait. Enjoy this New Year properly.”

Song Rushuang froze. By the time she reacted, the three of them were already pushing their carts away.

That “Happy New Year” never found a chance to be said back.

She rose onto her toes and watched Fu Qing and the others disappear into the shopping crowd, then quickly pulled out her phone.

She had to show off in the dorm group chat.

The first “Happy New Year” she received this year was from the principal.

*

Fu Qing hadn’t lied. This year, more than forty people were staying on campus for the New Year. Translated on Hololo novels. On New Year’s Eve, all of them would eat the reunion dinner together in the cafeteria.

Most of the dishes were made by robots. Only a few signature dishes were cooked by the teachers themselves as a special holiday perk, with Xu Mingyue as head chef and everyone else helping.

The students took the paper-cuts, couplets, and red lanterns Fu Qing had bought and decorated the cafeteria and the interior of the campus.

Both sides busied themselves in their own ways. The whole place ran hot and bright with activity.

Hao Zhenye took charge of the wok. With one hand he could lift the heavy iron pan, tossing the fried rice into a perfect half-moon arc, earning vigorous applause from Bai Tang and Zhao Yunxiao, two complete amateurs.

Fu Qing worked with two cleavers at once, chopping dumpling filling so fine and even it put a meat grinder to shame.

Lu Yan used his scalpel. In half an hour he had deboned a huge vat of chicken feet.

Granny Liu went to the fields and picked a few big cabbages. She peeled away the outer leaves, wilted from the cold, and the inside was still tender and crisp, perfect for pickling and for dumpling filling.

As for Xu Mingyue, the head chef, there was nothing to say. She moved between several large pots, spinning in circles from how busy she was.

When all the prep work was done, Xu Mingyue chased the idle bystanders out, leaving only Hao Zhenye and the robots to finish the final steps.

With nothing else to do, everyone sat around the cafeteria’s big round table and learned to wrap dumplings from Granny Liu.

The students came back at that moment and crowded in.

“Principal, is there anything we can do?”

They couldn’t let the teachers cook for everyone while they just stood there watching.

Catching the eager, pleading looks, Fu Qing thought for a moment, tore off several small lumps from the giant mound of dough, and generously handed them out one by one.

“Here. Go play with these.”

Everyone: “……”

The principal’s tone sounded like she was soothing little kids.

The students stared at the dough lumps in their palms, brows knotted.

They wanted to say more, but Fu Qing had already plunged back into her hard-fought battle with the dumplings and ignored them.

Left with no choice, the students shuffled away, sulking.

They found a few tables beside the teachers’ area, put their heads together to whisper about something, and soon started bustling about just as noisily.

Among the teachers, Fu Qing, Zhao Yunxiao, Lu Yan, and Bai Tang, all four young ones happened to be terrible at dumplings. The only two who knew how, Xu Mingyue and Hao Zhenye, were still in the back kitchen, so progress was painfully slow.

After working for ages, they produced only two boards of crooked, misshapen dumplings.

Low efficiency was one thing. Ugly was another.

Fu Qing studied the dumplings on the board, clearly dissatisfied. Just as she was about to speak, she felt someone carefully poke her shoulder.

A male student held out a tray, looking at her with bright, hopeful eyes. “Principal, is it okay if it turns out like this?”

Zhao Yunxiao and Granny Liu were drawn by the commotion. The boy set the tray gently in the center of the round table.

A dead silence fell.

Everyone stared at the exquisitely crafted rose on the tray.

Its petals were tender and softly unfurling. Beneath it were even a stem and leaves, dyed with vegetable juice. It looked lifelike.

Zhao Yunxiao blurted, “That’s way too real! How did you make it?”

“My grandpa used to do white-dough work,” the boy explained shyly, as if it were nothing. “When I was little, he taught me a lot of Chinese pastry styles with modeling clay. If the kitchen has things like date paste or black sesame, I can try making more patterns.”

Then, worried the teachers might not trust him, he added, “Don’t worry. It’s really simple.”

Fu Qing: “……”

Her gaze drifted to the edge of the table, to a hideous little rabbit she had casually pinched out herself. Translated on Hololo novels. She cleared her throat and said with perfect composure, “No date paste, but we should have red bean, black sesame, and purple sweet potato powder. Teacher Xu can help you look in the back.”

“That’s plenty. Thank you, Principal!”

Having permission to join the reunion dinner prep, the boy was clearly thrilled. He turned around and went straight to the back kitchen to find Xu Mingyue.

Even after he left, everyone still looked at the rose with pure admiration.

No one dared touch it, afraid of ruining a work of art.

Fu Qing calmly finished wrapping the dumpling in her hands. As if simply easing a sore wrist, she casually flicked her hand.

Then, in a blink, she slammed her fist down with a loud thunk, flattening the ugly rabbit into a pancake, kneaded it back into the giant mound of dough at lightning speed, erased all evidence, and immediately picked up a fresh wrapper.

The whole sequence happened so fast it was like a drama on triple speed.

By the time anyone at the table heard the sound and turned around, everything was tranquil again. Fu Qing was already spooning filling, lips slightly pressed, expression focused.

Zhao Yunxiao hesitated. “It feels like the table just shook?”

Bai Tang, sitting directly opposite Fu Qing, looked at her nose, then at the floor, then at her own heart. “Probably your imagination.”

Zhao Yunxiao looked even more puzzled. “But I swear there was a thunk…?”

Bai Tang said firmly, “Definitely your imagination.”

Zhao Yunxiao: “…Okay.”

Still baffled, he went back to struggling with dumpling wrappers.

*

At eight o’clock sharp, the small TV hung in the cafeteria started the Spring Festival Gala, and steaming dumplings came out of the pot.

The filling was Granny Liu’s secret recipe. And because the teachers put filling in without mercy, every bite burst with juice. The savory meat and crisp cabbage blended perfectly. The shrimp dumplings even held whole, sweet shrimp, along with crunchy bamboo shoots, tender mushrooms…

Everyone lowered their heads and ate with abandon. Xu Mingyue ate until she was deeply satisfied, then looked up and let out an unglamorous belch.

“I haven’t eaten dumplings this good in so long!”

That “so long” really meant so long.

It felt like at least three or four years.

Xu Mingyue continued, “But as good as they are, the shape is really…”

She couldn’t bear to look.

Some were the size of tiny wontons, some looked like buns, and others resembled twisted crawling creatures.

Who on earth made the bun?

Fu Qing was still devouring food at speed, and somehow found time to say four succinct words: “If you won’t eat, give it to me.”

Xu Mingyue shut up immediately.

After dinner, dozens of them gathered on the sports field to set off fireworks.

Fangzhou was in the far suburbs, outside the no-fireworks zone, so Fu Qing went all out and bought a whole vehicle’s worth. She spread a large oilcloth over the artificial turf, piled all the fireworks on it, and let everyone pick whatever they wanted.

Even the teachers joined in, weaving through the crowd, bending over with serious faces to choose their favorites, then grabbing a few sparklers or a more aggressive double-bang.

Bai Tang carried a small stool over for Granny Liu to sit and watch, then ran off to find Fu Qing and the others.

Hao Zhenye wasn’t interested in fireworks, so he stayed behind with Liu Yingchun.

When the first firework bloomed in the night sky, the crowd screamed and roared with excitement, loud enough to drown out the explosive crackle overhead.

Looking closely, you could even see the young teachers mixed in, hopping up and down in secret.

Liu Yingchun couldn’t help smiling. She pointed at them, her wrinkles deepening with laughter.

“They put on such a serious act every day… but they’re still just a bunch of kids.”

In Liu Yingchun’s eyes, the small age gap between Fu Qing’s group and the students hardly counted for anything.

Hao Zhenye watched them carefully too. When he spoke, a puff of white breath left his mouth and dissolved into the darkness along with the faint smile in his voice.

“True.”

₊˚.🎧📓✩