Ch 95: Opening a Survival School Before the Zombie Outbreak

Grandma Zhang was awakened by a series of violent knocks on the door.

Older people tended to sleep lightly, yet for some reason she had slept very deeply this time. Perhaps her recent good mood had improved her sleep quality as well. The knocking outside had gone on for quite a while before she slowly woke from her afternoon nap.

There was noise outside, but she couldn’t make out what people were shouting about. After gathering herself, she got up to open the door.

“Who is it, in such a hurry…”

Muttering, Grandma Zhang leaned toward the peephole and looked out, only to be startled to find her daughter Zhao Ya and granddaughter Yaya standing outside.

Zhao Ya was holding Yaya tightly. Blood was splattered across her sun-protection jacket. Her face was pale as she pressed her daughter’s head firmly into her chest, the hand covering the back of Yaya’s head trembling nonstop.

The lingering drowsiness vanished instantly. Grandma Zhang gasped in alarm, instinctively reaching toward the bloodstains on Zhao Ya, then trying to check on Yaya at the same time, her hands fumbling in confusion.

“What happened? Where did this blood come from? Who’s hurt?”

Seeing Grandma Zhang standing there safe and sound, Zhao Ya’s eyes reddened immediately. Hearing the flood of concerned questions, she choked up. “It’s not mine or Yaya’s blood. Don’t worry.”

Then she asked urgently, “Mom, are you okay?”

“I was taking a nap at home. What could’ve happened?” Grandma Zhang said, completely confused.

“That’s good… that’s good…” Zhao Ya murmured absentmindedly. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, she turned cautiously to look behind her and hurried Grandma Zhang inside. “Let’s talk inside.”

Outside felt far too unsafe. Even standing there frightened her.

Once the heavy security door shut, Zhao Ya finally relaxed. All her strength drained away, and she collapsed onto the sofa. Yaya was finally released from her mother’s arms and looked helplessly between her mother and grandmother.

Zhao Ya had protected her well, covering Yaya’s eyes the moment danger appeared. The child hadn’t seen the bloody scenes and wasn’t truly afraid, but children were sensitive. Her mother’s unusual state made her uneasy.

Grandma Zhang brought Yaya a packet of biscuits and told her to sit in the room and eat. But Zhao Ya suddenly sprang up from the sofa, ignoring her exhaustion, and pulled Yaya along to check every window in the apartment.

After what she had just experienced outside, she was too frightened to let her daughter leave her sight.

Only then did Zhao Ya notice something unexpected. Protective bars had been installed outside all the windows.

Grandma Zhang lived on the third floor, neither high nor low. In their neighborhood, only residents on the first or second floors usually installed anti-theft bars. Few people above the third floor bothered. Yet seeing the bars on her mother’s windows, Zhao Ya vaguely recalled that many higher-floor apartments in the complex now seemed to have them too.

Even the old wooden front door had been replaced with a brand-new security door.

The new key hadn’t yet been given to Zhao Ya, which was why she had been stuck knocking outside for so long.

It had only been a few days since her last visit. How had the house changed so much?

And… the timing was almost too perfect.

Zhao Ya felt puzzled. Her mother was elderly and usually found tasks inconvenient. Whenever something needed replacing at home, she would call Zhao Ya to arrange it. Yet this time, all the doors and windows had been upgraded without her knowing anything about it.

Still, the unexpected security bars and door brought her immense comfort. She finally relaxed completely, quietly telling Yaya to stay in the room eating biscuits before returning to the living room. With trembling hands, she quickly removed the bloodstained jacket, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it into the trash bin.

That still didn’t feel like enough. She tied the garbage bag tightly and moved it to an unseen corner of the balcony.

Grandma Zhang watched, confused. “What exactly happened?”

When Zhao Ya spoke, her voice was hoarse. “Something’s happened outside. A lot of people are attacking strangers in the streets. Many people have died. The ones doing the killing… they didn’t seem normal.”

She had seen with her own eyes someone pounce on another person and bite him.

And before long, the bitten person became the same as them.

…No, not them. Them.

Remembering the scene made nausea surge in her stomach.

She forced herself not to vomit. Looking at her mother’s thin figure, then thinking of her daughter in the room, she steadied herself.

With elders above and a child below, she had to be strong.

Grandma Zhang was not unfamiliar with death. Though startled, she quickly calmed down. “Are there many people hurting others?”

“Many. On the way here I saw at least seven or eight,” Zhao Ya said. While fleeing with Yaya, she had constantly watched her surroundings, distancing herself immediately whenever someone began acting strangely. That vigilance was the only reason she had managed to run so far while carrying a child.

They had come today on a sudden whim to visit Grandma Zhang.

After her last phone call with her mother and brother, Zhao Ya had slept poorly for several nights, filled with regret.

Her mother had called to share details about her recent life, yet she and her brother had only poured cold water over her enthusiasm. She knew how to encourage and support her own daughter, yet somehow lost patience with the mother who had raised her.

Remembering how happy her mother sounded when the call connected made Zhao Ya’s chest ache.

She had indeed been busy with work and caring for her child, her temper growing short. Once work finally eased this week, she immediately brought Yaya to visit Grandma as soon as she had free time.

Grandma Zhang, living alone for so long, was happiest whenever her daughter and granddaughter visited.

Zhao Ya had wanted to surprise her and hadn’t called ahead. None of them expected anything like this to happen on the way.

They had originally stopped near a supermarket close to home to buy some things before coming over. Translated on Hololo novels. But chaos erupted before they could even enter. Zhao Ya didn’t dare return to the underground parking garage to retrieve the car. She picked up Yaya and ran the rest of the way.

After taking a drink of water, she continued, “Things outside are completely chaotic. I don’t think it’ll calm down anytime soon. Let’s stay home for a while. Don’t go out for the next couple of days.”

Afraid her mother’s heart couldn’t handle the shock, she avoided describing the outside situation in detail.

In Zhao Ya’s view, with security bars and reinforced doors, the three of them would be safe staying inside and simply waiting for the military to restore order.

Grandma Zhang thought for a moment, her expression growing heavier. “I’m afraid this isn’t just happening around us. Do you know if there are places elsewhere where people like this have appeared?”

What if it wasn’t only here…

Grandma Zhang’s reminder made Zhao Ya’s heart sink. She quickly pulled out her phone, scrolling through dozens of messages in succession before lowering it again, despair filling her face.

“It’s chaos all over the country… even overseas.”

With an outbreak on this scale, rescue personnel would inevitably be insufficient. Waiting for help to arrive quickly was probably impossible now.

And judging by how fast it spread, one bite was enough to turn another person. Zhao Ya had seen seven or eight earlier. By now, that number might already have become dozens.

After one day, two days… how many would there be?

Even if police or the military came to rescue people, they would first have to carve a path through blood. Just imagining it filled Zhao Ya with dread. The mutated were ordinary civilians. It felt even crueler than war.

“We can’t just wait for rescue. We have to figure out how to save ourselves,” Zhao Ya said, forcing herself to stay composed. “We should prepare to last at least a week at home… no, two weeks.”

She still held onto hope and also feared her mother couldn’t bear too much pressure, so she didn’t mention a longer timeframe.

Grandma Zhang shook her head. “If it’s really that serious, one or two weeks probably won’t solve anything.”

“Come with me.”

Her face showed no panic as she gestured for Zhao Ya to follow her into the kitchen.

The moment Zhao Ya stepped inside, her eyes lit up.

The kitchen was piled high with unopened bags of rice, flour, cooking oil, and grains. Several boxes of canned eight-treasure porridge, luncheon meat, and fruit sat nearby. Opening the cupboards revealed every kind of seasoning imaginable, along with generous amounts of millet, red beans, mung beans, soybeans, and oatmeal for cooking porridge. It was obvious everything had been recently restocked.

There was even a bag of puffed rice snacks and a bag of peanuts on the dining table, probably bought when someone downstairs had come by pushing a cart to sell goods.

Zhao Ya and Zhao Liang usually disliked these traditional snacks and only Grandma Zhang ate them. But now Zhao Ya felt nothing but gratitude. They were cheap, filling, nutritious, and peanuts in particular could be stored dry and sealed for over a month.

Grandma Zhang wasn’t finished surprising her. “There are also snacks I bought for Yaya, chocolate, biscuits, jelly cups, potato chips.”

Those items stored well, and she had bought many at once so she wouldn’t have to trouble Song Rushuang repeatedly.

“And the unopened rice and flour,” Grandma Zhang added, pointing at the supplies on the floor. “I planned for you to take them home next time you visited. You said you’re always busy with work and don’t have time to shop, and Yaya ends up eating takeout with you. So I thought I’d buy them for you. Wouldn’t it be convenient to just take them back? You drove here anyway, so moving them wouldn’t be hard. And the shopping apps really were cheap. If you bought enough, there were discounts.”

Under normal circumstances, Zhao Ya would probably have complained.

These things were heavy. Carrying them back herself would be inconvenient when delivery existed. Even with discounts, how much money could she really save? Why haul so much across cities?

And buying so much at once clearly meant her mother, new to online shopping, had gone on a spending spree like those old TV shopping channels.

But now Zhao Ya felt tears welling up.

Yaya ate very little, and Grandma Zhang didn’t eat much either. The three of them together probably consumed only what two adults would. These supplies could sustain them for a very, very long time.

As she counted everything, she realized there was even more hidden deep inside the cupboards, all brand new packages. Her mother must have realized she had bought too much and hidden some in advance out of embarrassment.

Now that everything had been uncovered, Grandma Zhang turned her head awkwardly. “Let’s go store some water first. You said those people infect others by biting. It’s probably some kind of contagious disease. Who knows if the water supply might get contaminated later. Better to prepare.”

“The soybeans and mung beans can be soaked and sprouted. If we stay home long enough without fresh vegetables, we can eat those. If we don’t have enough containers, there are plastic bottles I’ve saved on the balcony. Just cut them open and they’ll work.”

Zhao Ya remembered the pile of “junk” her mother kept on the balcony.

She didn’t rummage through trash outside, but every plastic bottle, bucket, cardboard box, and scrap paper used at home was washed clean and saved until there was enough to sell.

If gas stopped working, paper could be burned for fire, and plastic bottles could serve as containers. When leaving the house wasn’t possible, none of it was trash. Everything could be repurposed.

Zhao Ya had never felt so grateful for her mother’s habits of stockpiling and saving recyclables.

Of course, she still hoped those “just in case” scenarios were only her imagination.

After walking through the apartment, Zhao Ya finally felt her heart settle. Then she thought about her own home in another city and realized they had almost nothing stored.

She and Yaya went to the supermarket once every week or two, buying only fresh produce and food for the coming days. Even rice was bought in small bags because they couldn’t finish it. Aside from seasonings and toilet paper, they had no habit of stockpiling.

That lifestyle wasn’t wrong, but in an emergency, if they were trapped at home, they might not even last a week.

And what would happen then was something Zhao Ya didn’t dare imagine.

After hesitating for a long time, she finally apologized honestly. “Mom, I’m sorry. I was too busy last time we talked on the phone and in a bad mood. I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that. Please don’t be angry with me.”

She was no longer a child. Her own daughter was already grown enough to understand things. She had prepared herself mentally before coming but hadn’t known how to begin.

Yet once the words were spoken, she realized apologizing wasn’t so difficult after all.

Grandma Zhang rolled her eyes. “Do you think I’d really stay mad at you?”

Even as she said it, a smile crept onto her face.

Zhao Ya smiled too, but thinking of the chaos outside quickly wiped it away. “Still, you really had incredible foresight. Stocking all this at just the right time, and the security door…”

“That wasn’t my foresight. You should thank Xiaoshuang,” Grandma Zhang said, shaking her head. “Didn’t I tell you before? She helped me install the shopping apps. She said living alone made grocery trips inconvenient, so she taught me how to use them.”

“I learn slowly, so while she was home during summer break, she helped me buy a lot of things first. Saved me so much trouble.”

Grandma Zhang truly liked Song Rushuang. Translated on Hololo novels. Once she started talking about her, she couldn’t stop.

“The security bars and door were her idea too. She suggested everyone install them together. Oh right, I didn’t tell you. Not long ago a child in our complex nearly fell from a building…”

Grandma Zhang recounted Song Rushuang’s heroic deeds in detail, including organizing a safety lecture with local police and arranging installation of security doors and window bars.

Zhao Ya listened in stunned disbelief. “…Xiaoshuang just started college, right?”

She remembered Song Rushuang’s excellent exam scores. Smart, athletic, brave enough to climb buildings to save someone, kind to elderly neighbors, courageous and compassionate… How had her parents raised such an outstanding child?

Come to think of it, what had Zhao Ya herself been doing at eighteen or nineteen?

The thought made her face burn. Compared not only to her younger self but even to her current self, Song Rushuang seemed more accomplished.

While Zhao Ya was away, Song Rushhuang had quietly done so much for her mother.

And every single one of those actions was helping their family now.

Whether coincidence or not, if they ended up trapped for a long time, Song Rushhuang’s actions would truly count as life-saving kindness.

And she hadn’t helped only their family.

Zhao Ya silently resolved that once everything was over, she would personally visit to thank her.

Then her expression suddenly changed. “Wait. I just saw messages saying things overseas are chaotic too?”

Her younger brother Zhao Liang lived in Country A.

Grandma Zhang panicked. “Quick, call him and ask what’s happening.”

Zhao Ya didn’t need reminding. She had already initiated a video call. But it rang for a long time with no answer.

The two exchanged a glance, their faces turning pale.

₊˚.🎧📓✩

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