Ch 100: Opening a Survival School Before the Zombie Outbreak

When Fu Qing finished speaking, the other two in the room, Xue Ran and Zhao Yunxiao, both turned to watch Officer Chen’s reaction. Though neither of them had participated directly in the conversation, their tension was no less intense.

They noticed that after Fu Qing’s final words, “more people will die,” Officer Chen’s entire presence changed. The approachable demeanor he used when dealing with ordinary civilians vanished, replaced by the quiet pressure forged through years of investigating major criminal cases.

His expression barely shifted, but Xue Ran could tell from subtle changes in his posture that his whole body had tightened. Even his right arm, the one closest to his holster, moved slightly, by perhaps two centimeters. Translated on Hololo novels.

He was weighing things carefully, which was why he remained silent for a long moment.

Clearly, Officer Chen did not fully trust what Fu Qing had said.

Xue Ran grew alert. Even the less perceptive Zhao Yunxiao sensed that the atmosphere had turned tense.

Fu Qing, however, acted as if she noticed nothing. Fixing her gaze on Officer Chen, she asked her final question:

“Officer Chen, are you willing to trust me?”

Zhao Yunxiao’s expression shifted subtly as he glanced at her without drawing attention.

On the way here, the three of them had already discussed a basic plan for what to do after arriving at the station. Zhao Yunxiao had shared his own experience of turning in information about the system before. He knew that news of this magnitude could never be concealed by Officer Chen alone.

Once reported upward, higher authorities would inevitably take over. In truth, Fu Qing did not need to lower her stance or ask for his “trust.”

Yet that single, softer question changed the mood entirely.

Officer Chen seemed momentarily stunned. The gentler tone loosened something in him, prompting memories of their previous encounters.

He remembered how Fu Qing had risked herself to rescue a student trapped in a tree, how she had subdued a suspect who drove recklessly through a crowded street.

He also recalled rumors circulating within the station recently.

After everything that had happened… she should be someone worth trusting.

His eyes flickered. At last, he made his decision and stood up.

“Please wait here a moment. I’ll be right back.”

The door closed behind him. Soon afterward, faint footsteps approached and stopped outside.

Probably someone assigned to watch them, Xue Ran thought. But the next moment the door opened, and a young officer entered carrying paper cups, pouring water for the three of them.

“Please sit for a bit. The captain will be back soon.”

He hurried out again.

Xue Ran stared at the cup of cooled boiled water, incredulous. “They actually believe us?”

It had gone far more smoothly than she expected. She hadn’t even revealed her status as a hero’s family member.

“Probably thanks to the goodwill from that pedestrian street case,” Zhao Yunxiao said after thinking for a moment.

“Not just that.” Leaning back in her chair, Fu Qing glanced at Xue Ran’s puzzled face, clearly in a good mood. “We should also thank those students who couldn’t sit still during summer break and kept doing good deeds everywhere.”

“As far as I know, during the two months of summer vacation, there were four news reports in S City about university students acting bravely to help others. All four were Fangzhou students.”

Because those stories had appeared in local news, the system had informed her.

Of the four incidents, one involved rescuing a drowning child; the other three were criminal cases. Officer Chen, as captain of the Criminal Investigation Division, would certainly have known about them.

Even Fu Qing hadn’t expected the students’ actions to help her in such an indirect way.

With Officer Chen willing to trust her, everything became much easier. As captain of the municipal criminal investigation team, his position was neither low nor especially high. Compared with the officials she would soon face, it might not carry overwhelming authority, but his words still held weight.

With him vouching for her, matters would proceed far more smoothly.

…

The bureau chief was in a meeting. Officer Chen rushed straight to the deputy chief’s office, delivered a rapid report, and after a flurry of confusion was sent back with instructions to “keep them there for now.” He immediately turned and ran toward the meeting room again.

Halfway there, something suddenly occurred to him. He stopped abruptly and ordered an officer beside him:

“Tell everyone outside to cover their entire bodies. No exposed skin except the eyes. Not a single gap. They absolutely must not get bitten!”

His voice turned grave.

“And earlier some civilians came here for shelter, right? I saw injuries on some of them. Have officers wrap themselves up and ask how those wounds happened. Separate anyone with injuries and keep them isolated from others.”

Before Fu Qing arrived, they had already watched some videos and roughly understood that people bitten sometimes began behaving abnormally.

But in those videos, victims lost rationality immediately after being bitten. Those who were bitten yet still appeared normal, able to talk and move and even come to the station for help, naturally aroused no suspicion among the officers.

They had been placed together with other civilians for protection.

Yet according to Fu Qing, any bite, regardless of location, could cause infection. Officer Chen did not understand why some people had not transformed immediately, but caution now overrode doubt.

The officer beside him did not question the order and hurried off to carry it out.

Before Officer Chen could return to the meeting room, he heard a commotion echoing down the hallway.

After a brief hesitation, he changed direction and headed toward the noise, only to find a group of people shoving one another.

One of them was the officer he had just dispatched. The young policeman was gripping a middle-aged man’s arm. Blood stained the man’s short-sleeved shirt, and upon closer inspection, a ring of bite marks could be seen beneath the fabric.

The wound was not deep, but blood continued to seep steadily outward.

When the young officer said he needed to take the man away for isolation, a family member flew into a rage. Face flushed, he clutched the man’s other arm and repeatedly shoved the officer trying to approach.

“What are you doing? The outside is chaos and you ignore that, but you lock up people who came here to survive? Are you police or bandits?!”

“We’re not arresting him,” the officer explained quickly, thinking on his feet. “We just want injured people to stay in a separate room. The conditions are better, he can rest, and we can help treat the wound.”

But the man refused to listen, shouting angrily, “Bullshit! You’re just making excuses to lock people up and never let them out!”

His agitation made Officer Chen frown instinctively. Something about it suggested the man was hiding something. Before he could intervene, however, the middle-aged man being held between them suddenly went limp and collapsed.

His eyes rolled upward, showing only the whites, while incoherent muttering slipped from his mouth. The relative exploded in anger.

“My brother’s been out in the sun too long already! He wasn’t feeling well, and now you pushed him. Look what you’ve done!”

The last word died in his throat.

He looked down in horror and saw his brother’s mouth opening wide, snapping blindly toward him.

Though his eyes were still rolled back, instinct seemed to guide him. Unable to see, he bit hard onto the leg of his brother’s jeans.

Realizing he had not bitten flesh, he turned his head again and lunged toward the arm supporting him.

The young officer finally reacted, shouting a warning as he pulled the two apart, but he himself let out a startled cry.

Officer Chen’s heart lurched. He sprinted down half the corridor, quickly dislocated the man’s jaw in a practiced motion, then spun toward his subordinate, eyes blazing.

“Did he bite you?!”

Looking down, he saw thick gloves covering the officer’s hands.

Startled by his superior’s reaction, the young policeman reflexively wiped saliva from the gloves onto his pants. “N-no, sir. He bit the gloves…” He had shouted earlier simply because the man’s behavior looked disgusting.

“You told us to cover ourselves up,” he added cautiously. “So I grabbed a pair of gloves too. Is something wrong?”

Only then did Officer Chen’s racing heart finally begin to settle. Still shaken, he turned to look at the middle-aged man, whose jaw hung dislocated yet who continued trying to bite relentlessly.

A small puddle of drool had already formed on the tiled floor.

The man claiming to be his brother now stood silently to the side, eyes fixed on him while subtly keeping his distance.

He really had been hiding something.

Officer Chen snorted coldly. The man had likely seen someone mutate after being bitten while fleeing and concealed the truth out of fear his relative would be taken away. Now that the situation had been exposed, he had caused a scene. Yet once he realized his brother truly posed a danger, he retreated and waited for the police to deal with it instead.

Officer Chen ordered his subordinates to cuff the infected man. Before the brother could protest, he ordered that he be handcuffed as well.

“Didn’t you say you didn’t want to be separated? Then lock the two of them together.”

The man’s face twisted instantly.

Even restrained, being confined with someone who had lost all reason was psychological torture. But Officer Chen gave him no chance to argue further. With a wave of his hand, he had both men taken away, then glanced once more at the transforming middle-aged man.

Color was rapidly draining from his skin. Blue veins began bulging along his neck, swelling grotesquely beneath the surface.

Skin turning bluish… veins protruding along the face and neck… loss of speech…

As long as zombies create a wound, contact with saliva or blood causes infection…

Everything she said was true.

Officer Chen pressed a hand to his chest. Even with his strong mental discipline, dizziness crept over him.

An extremely simple method of infection. Near-certain transmission. Overwhelming aggression and bodies with almost no weaknesses.

It felt like a bucket of ice water poured over him in the dead of winter. A bone-deep chill spread through him.

He had a sudden realization.

The apocalypse had truly begun.

At that moment, his phone rang. Grabbing it like a lifeline, he shouted into it:

“What she said is true! Just now, a civilian who had been attacked at least fifteen minutes earlier, with no abnormal symptoms during that time, suddenly mutated! No matter what it takes, this must be reported upward immediately—”

When he had reported earlier to the deputy director, he believed he had already described Fu Qing’s past actions and reliability thoroughly enough. Now he regretted not emphasizing it even more, wishing he had made her sound even more credible to ensure those above would believe her.

The person on the other end spoke.

Officer Chen’s excited voice stopped abruptly. He held his breath, listening for several seconds. His eyes widened suddenly, and he strode quickly back to the meeting room, pushing the door open with force.

The three inside turned toward him simultaneously.

His face flushed as he said, “There’s an emergency meeting in three minutes. Please cooperate and attend with me.”

Thinking of the other participants mentioned on the call, he instinctively glanced over the clothing of all four of them, including himself. In twenty years of service, he had never felt this nervous.

But within two seconds, he forced the feeling away.

At a time like this, who cared about appearances?

Steadying himself, Officer Chen turned around.

“Please follow me.”

₊˚.🎧📓✩

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