Ch 105: Opening a Survival School Before the Zombie Outbreak

Shen Qingqing was actually negotiating with him.

Just moments ago she had faced a scene so shocking that even the village chief found it terrifying, unable to bear looking directly into the minivan again. Yet Shen Qingqing behaved as if nothing had happened, turning around calmly to… negotiate the price of killing people.

The village chief stared at her as though he had seen a ghost.

The apocalypse had begun only a few hours earlier. For ordinary people, such a shift in mindset was not something that came easily.

To them, even if those individuals had already become zombies whose sole instinct was to attack humans, they were still people.

Killing zombies, in their eyes, was no different from killing human beings.

Shen Qingqing understood this perfectly, but she did not have time to wait for them to prepare themselves mentally.

“There isn’t much time to think,” she said, looking at the hesitant village chief. “You’ve heard it too, haven’t you? Once infected, death is the only outcome. Every minute they remain active creates more danger.”

The village chief’s expression stiffened further. He swallowed. “…How do you know that?”

The public news broadcasts had mentioned the virus’s high fatality rate but had never explicitly stated that it was one hundred percent lethal. The intention was to make people vigilant without stripping away hope.

But the instructions delivered to grassroots administrators carried a far heavier meaning.

In remote villages like theirs, rescue would be nearly impossible in the short term, and long-term isolation facilities did not exist. If even one infected person appeared and was not controlled properly, the entire village could fall.

So the directive given to the village chief had been brutally simple:

If a fully transformed infected person was discovered, isolate them immediately at any cost, and absolutely forbid anyone from visiting or caring for them afterward.

For those bitten but not yet transformed, they were to be placed alone in a room with food and water left inside. After that, no one was to enter again.

As for infected corpses, they were to be burned or buried immediately under available conditions, with gloves worn at all times to avoid contact with saliva.

For a remote mountain village with no hospital, no police station, and virtually no capacity to withstand risk, even a single mistake could lead to destruction.

The superior who had delivered these instructions had paused at the end, lowered his voice, and emphasized heavily:

“There are some things I’ll only say to you here. Absolutely do not rely on luck. If it truly comes to it… don’t hesitate.”

Then he sighed deeply and hung up.

Recalling those final words now, the village chief felt a jolt run through him, his thoughts clearing.

The unspoken meaning behind those three measures was obvious. People who turned into “zombies” were beyond saving. Even those merely infected but not yet transformed were to be isolated and abandoned.

After all, living people needed food and care. Forbidding all contact was essentially a death sentence.

In the eyes of higher authorities, these “zombies” were no longer considered living humans.

A chill crept into his heart. Just how terrifying was this virus, that even minimal exposure made officials conclude someone was already beyond saving?

Looking again at the infected inside the van, his heart lurched.

As fear receded and rational thought returned, he realized Shen Qingqing was right.

They could not wait any longer.

Their entire village had only a small population, yet four zombies had already appeared. If the virus spread, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Shen Qingqing still had not answered his earlier question, but he no longer cared to pursue it.

Glancing around, he lowered his voice and asked gravely, “What do you plan to do?”

“I checked earlier. The front of the van is damaged but should still run. I can drive it away, stop somewhere far from the village, kill the infected inside, and burn the entire vehicle before coming back.”

That would deal with both the infected and the bodies.

And by not acting directly in front of their families, it would spare them additional emotional trauma.

She spoke quickly, clearly confident.

The village chief hesitated. “But that means you’d be driving with a van full of living zombies. Are you really capable of that? Don’t forget, Old Zhao died exactly like this.”

His body was not even cold yet.

Shen Qingqing simply replied, “Whether I can or not, you’ll see soon enough.”

The chief studied her expression. This girl… truly seemed different now.

“And your condition?”

“Agree first,” Shen Qingqing said. “I’ll leave immediately. That way I can return before dark. As for the specific request, we can discuss it after I come back.”

The village chief nearly blurted out that no one could agree without knowing the condition.

But after another thought, he realized that in the entire village, he could not think of anyone besides Shen Qingqing who had both the courage and the ability to handle a van full of zombies.

After all, she was the one who had once lured away a wild boar.

And judging by her confidence, she clearly had some means of her own.

After hesitating again and again, the village chief finally gritted his teeth and nodded. “I agree. Hurry and take them away.”

As he spoke, he glanced once toward the van, then quickly turned his head aside, hiding the grief and reluctance in his eyes.

With the chief’s promise secured, Shen Qingqing let out a quiet breath. “Then I’ll trouble you to calm everyone down.”

She jumped off the platform and walked toward the minivan.

The relatives of those inside were still wailing, but none dared approach too closely. Standing several meters away, they called their loved ones’ names again and again, trying to restore their sanity.

Instead, this only agitated the zombies further. Their movements grew more violent, clawing chunks of flesh from one another’s bodies.

Not a patch of exposed skin remained intact.

Even Shen Qingqing felt a heaviness in her chest at the sight. After taking several steadying breaths, she circled to the other side of the van, where the door remained shut, and cast a glance toward the village chief on the platform.

He understood immediately.

Once Shen Qingqing began acting, everyone would realize she intended to eliminate the zombies. Translated on Hololo novels. The relatives could not be allowed to interfere.

She had already taken on the most dangerous part. Maintaining order was something the chief could still handle.

He called several men forward to hold back the grieving family members.

They were said to be supporting them, but in truth they were restraining them.

Taking advantage of the moment, the chief loudly emphasized the danger of the virus.

Facing villagers who barely read or wrote, he avoided complicated terminology and spoke bluntly:

“You all know rabies, right? This virus is even worse. Once you catch it, you die, and before dying you bite others. Anyone bitten dies too. So everyone stay far away from that vehicle!”

The villagers hurried backward, leaving a wide empty safety zone around the van.

Even that felt insufficient. Many looked around nervously for tools or weapons to hold.

After witnessing the scene inside and hearing the chief’s words, they believed immediately.

Only the relatives cried harder, struggling desperately against the men restraining them.

The men themselves were frightened, afraid the grieving family members might rush forward, get infected, and come back to bite them. Concern for their own safety outweighed village sentiment, and they held the mourners down firmly.

Seeing this, Shen Qingqing opened the door.

The sudden movement drew startled cries. Many had not even noticed she had moved to the opposite side.

What was she trying to do?

“Qingqing!” Zang Lijun and Shen Mingjiang both panicked.

A van full of infected was far more dangerous than a wild boar.

They watched as Shen Qingqing removed her jacket, wrapped it around one arm, glanced into the vehicle, then braced one hand on the door and swiftly thrust the other arm inside.

The zombies lunged the instant she entered their attack range. Their gaping jaws snapped forward, stopping only inches from her face as the seatbelts jerked them violently back into their seats.

The seats rattled with a loud creak. Every onlooker fell silent, hearts nearly stopping.

Shen Qingqing did not even blink.

She had clearly calculated the exact distance they could reach and made no attempt to dodge. Fixing her gaze on a specific point, she timed her movement with the zombie’s recoil against the seatback and twisted sharply.

Click.

The seat beneath the zombie suddenly collapsed backward, slamming down onto the legs of the zombie trapped behind it.

The front zombie struggled helplessly on its back, while the one behind was pinned beneath its weight. In an instant, two zombies lost the ability to move.

The village chief’s eyes nearly popped out.

Moments ago he had worried how she could possibly drive away with four zombies. Watching her smooth, efficient actions now, he felt she could probably handle two more without trouble.

Had this girl gone off somewhere and become a mercenary?

Shen Qingqing repeated the maneuver once more, easily subduing the remaining two zombies.

To her current self, low-level zombies restrained by seatbelts posed no real threat. At most, they served as dramatic background noise.

After firmly closing both doors, she put her jacket back on, climbed into the driver’s seat, and leaned her head out the window.

“Don’t forget what you promised.”

“Got it, got it…” the chief replied, emotions tangled.

He watched as her seat jolted slightly, likely kicked by a struggling zombie behind her. She simply moved the seat forward without changing expression, completely ignoring the chaos behind her.

Was that carelessness, or absolute confidence?

The chief no longer dared underestimate her.

Only after watching Shen Qingqing drive away in the dented minivan did he turn back, his expression stern as he ordered the men to hold the struggling relatives firmly.

Raising his voice, he addressed the crowd:

“You all saw it. Qingqing is risking her life right now to deal with those infected for us. She stepped forward to protect the safety of our entire village.”

“If I find anyone holding resentment toward Qingqing or the Shen family afterward, or secretly trying to take revenge, that person will be betraying all of us and putting their own life at risk.”

Lowering his voice, he added, “Those people are already infected. They’re no different from the dead. The infected cannot be kept. Think it through yourselves. Even if not for your own sake, think about the children and elderly at home. If I allowed you to bring those living corpses back and care for them, the first to die when something goes wrong would be the weakest among us.”

One middle-aged woman, whose husband had been in the van, protested tearfully, “I can watch him! I promise I won’t let him go outside.”

“Nonsense!” the chief snapped. “Can you stay awake twenty-four hours a day watching him? Or will your seven-year-old son take shifts with you?”

The woman fell silent, clutching her confused young son tightly while sobbing.

“The whole country is in an emergency now,” the chief continued. “This is a special time. If we start fighting among ourselves, we’re just courting death.”

He looked around at everyone.

“Just think about today. If Qingqing hadn’t had the courage to step forward, and if she hadn’t happened to still be in the village, who among you could have handled that van full of infected?”

His gaze swept slowly across the faces below the platform. One by one, those he looked at lowered their heads.

Everyone had seen the van, its interior smeared thick with blood. Forget approaching it, even looking inside was enough to make their hearts tremble.

Yet Shen Qingqing had still considered the feelings of the relatives, choosing to drive the vehicle away before dealing with the zombies inside.

After surveying the crowd, the village chief already understood. He sighed inwardly, convinced that agreeing to Shen Qingqing’s condition and letting her step forward had been the right decision.

At a moment like this, the only person in the entire village willing to stand up and hold the situation together was a girl not yet nineteen years old.

Shaking his head and seeing that no one was causing trouble anymore, the chief finally returned to the topic he had intended to address at the start of the gathering and began organizing the village’s defensive plans for the days ahead.

…

Shen Qingqing drove the minivan some distance away before finally stopping in a barren stretch of land with little vegetation around it. She walked to the rear, drew her machete, and killed the four zombies.

Using the manual fuel pump inside the vehicle, she siphoned gasoline and evenly splashed it throughout the interior. From one of the zombies she found a lighter used for smoking, lit it, and tossed it into the van.

Flames roared to life instantly.

She stepped back a few paces, crouched with her arms folded, and watched the fire burn fiercely.

Gasoline burned faster than diesel, so she patiently added fuel several times to ensure the bodies were completely consumed.

Only after everything inside had burned away did Shen Qingqing stand up again, stretching her stiff legs. She plucked several leaves from roadside plants, approached the charred remains, and carefully gathered small fragments of bone from each of the four bodies. After marking and wrapping them separately, she placed them into different pockets.

Casting one final glance at the blackened minivan and the four human-shaped scorch marks within, she turned away and began walking back toward the village under the fading evening light.

*

Burning the bodies to ash alone had taken more than an hour. By the time Shen Qingqing returned, night had fully fallen.

To her surprise, the villagers were still gathered in the square instead of dispersing.

Zang Lijun was the first to see her. She ran faster than she ever had before, rushing toward her daughter like a gust of wind. She examined Shen Qingqing from head to toe, and only after confirming she was unharmed did she pull her tightly into an embrace, her whole body trembling.

She knew her daughter had changed. Again and again, Shen Qingqing had done things Zang Lijun had never imagined possible, each act bolder than the last. If the former Shen Qingqing had once held herself back, the current one seemed to be deliberately testing the limits she once would not cross.

Before leaving earlier, Shen Qingqing had not even comforted her or looked back.

So Zang Lijun could only stand among the crowd, helplessly watching her daughter handle the zombies with effortless precision, climb into the van, and drive away. Translated on Hololo novels. She trembled with fear yet found herself unable to call out.

She suddenly remembered their last intimate conversation, when Shen Qingqing had invited her to return to school together.

Only now did she realize that invitation had been a kind of metaphor, a quiet signal.

She could not keep her daughter from going forward.

But she could choose either to let her go… or to follow her.

The thought formed dimly in Zang Lijun’s heart, though she still did not know what she should do. Never good with words, she held Shen Qingqing a while longer before releasing her, her gaze still clinging to her daughter, unwilling to look away.

Shen Qingqing smiled gently at her, then turned toward the crowd.

She quickly caught several gazes directed at her, belonging to the relatives of the four infected men.

Grief. Fear. Resentment.

And beneath their efforts at restraint, unmistakable hatred.

She had killed their loved ones. Even if they understood rationally that the village chief was right, emotionally they could not help but resent her.

At that moment, Shen Qingqing walked toward them. From her pockets she took out small leaf-wrapped bundles and handed them over one by one.

“This is Uncle Zhang’s.”

“This is Uncle Qian’s.”

“This is Uncle Wang’s.”

“This is Brother Dafei’s.”

She remembered clearly which belonged to whom.

After handing each bundle to its rightful family member, she turned and walked away.

The relatives opened the leaf packets in confusion. When they saw the gray ashes and fragments of bone that had not fully burned, realization struck them, and they broke into anguished sobs.

The grief in their cries spread through the square, moving everyone who heard it.

When the heart-wrenching wailing finally subsided, villagers stepped forward one by one, helping the exhausted mourners to their feet, patting their shoulders silently or shaking their heads in sympathy.

After crying so fiercely, the relatives looked hollow and unsteady, but the hatred on their faces had disappeared.

Watching from the side, the village chief clicked his tongue in amazement.

At some point, Shen Qingqing had come to stand beside him.

In a low voice, she asked, “Have you told everyone about the virus?”

“Yes, finished explaining. The village will be sealed off for now. No one is allowed to leave, so we don’t bring the virus back in.”

He answered automatically, then suddenly realized what he was doing and flushed with embarrassment.

He was the village chief, and her elder besides, yet under Shen Qingqing’s presence he felt as though he were reporting to a superior officer.

Of course, his explanation had only been a summary. The meeting itself had lasted nearly an hour, during which he repeatedly stressed the danger of the virus and urged everyone to follow national directives. Only after confirming that every villager understood did he dismiss the gathering.

Yet no one had left. They stayed discussing the virus, and eventually the topic shifted to Shen Qingqing herself.

Over the long wait, they had practically recounted everything about her life from childhood onward.

Naturally, the chief had no intention of mentioning that.

He simply waited patiently for her to state her condition.

Unexpectedly, Shen Qingqing showed no urgency. Instead, she asked, “Since the village is locked down, did you discuss supplies?”

The chief paused. “Everyone has food stored at home. It shouldn’t be a problem.”

Because transportation to the village was inconvenient and many necessities had to be purchased outside, most households already had the habit of stocking up. “Stocking up” simply meant buying extra nonperishables each time they shopped, things like seasonings and grain that could be stored for long periods.

The village chief recalled the news reports saying the army had already been deployed to eliminate the zombies. In his judgment, the chaos should settle quickly. At most, ten days to half a month, and the major cities would probably finish clearing the fighting. After that, operations would move downward to counties and districts to gradually eliminate the remaining infected. Because of this, he had not been worried before.

But after Shen Qingqing’s question, an inexplicable unease suddenly rose in his chest.

“Really?” Shen Qingqing frowned slightly. “I don’t think this chaos will end anytime soon. Do you think the food people have at home is enough to last several months?”

Several months?!

The chief’s expression changed instantly. “Th… that can’t be right. How could a virus take that long?”

Shen Qingqing shook her head. “You don’t know. I’ve been talking with my classmates. They’re all in S City right now, and their information is pretty accurate. They said infected people were already appearing on the streets around two-thirty this afternoon. The national emergency response and deployment to clear the infected only happened several hours later.”

“Think about how fast the virus spreads. In those few hours alone, there could already be millions infected nationwide, and that’s a conservative estimate. If the numbers are that high, forget small cities. Even the infrastructure of major cities could collapse.”

“There are only so many soldiers. They have to clear zombies, establish shelters, maintain water and electricity, protect hospitals… Even if big cities manage to hold out, will remote counties and mountain villages like ours still receive manpower? And if they do come, how long would we have to wait?”

“So we can’t sit here waiting for rescue. We need to prepare to be self-sufficient and fight a long-term battle.”

The more he listened, the paler the village chief became.

Because he realized… what she said actually made sense.

He lacked Shen Qingqing’s sources of information. Most of what he knew about the virus came from official broadcasts and directives from higher authorities. He had indeed been thinking too simply.

As he reflected on his own assumptions, he did not realize that even the officials who relayed instructions to him might not yet have understood the virus’s true severity.

Aside from those who had spoken directly with Fu Qing and the students of Fangzhou, almost no one could accurately judge how terrifying the outbreak truly was.

The chief’s mind began racing.

The terrain around their village was poor for farming. People raised chickens and ducks and cultivated small vegetable plots, but most income came from men working outside while women did handicraft work at home. Some households had both adults working away, leaving only elders and children behind. That was why the village remained so poor.

Their food supply relied heavily on outside purchases. Although people stocked up a little, no one stored large quantities. Food spoiled easily, and since they could always go into town to buy more, families preferred spending small amounts each time and keeping cash on hand for emergencies.

From what he knew, the villagers’ remaining grain, rice, flour, potatoes, and similar staples would probably last only one or two months at most.

Fresh vegetables and meat were even scarcer.

And then…

The chief suddenly remembered something, his body jolting as he turned toward a corner of the crowd, locking onto Zhao Hailin and glaring fiercely at him.

Still dazed by his father’s sudden death, Zhao Hailin reacted a moment too late to the chief’s stare, looking confused.

Unbeknownst to him, the chief was nearly ready to explode in anger.

Because not long ago, Zhao Hailin had returned to the village talking nonsense about relocation housing with free meals and lodging, stirring unrest among the villagers. Many people had stopped tending their vegetable plots, leaving fields abandoned. And now, when food might become scarce, that meant even less to eat.

As village chief, he had always known about those rumors. In fact, though he had doubted Zhao Hailin at the time, he had never stopped the gossip from spreading.

Encouraging villagers to move into relocation housing had been one of the tasks assigned to him by higher authorities. If it succeeded, he himself would benefit.

Back then, he had been happy to let Zhao Hailin help push things along.

But the situation had changed completely. Who could have predicted a sudden outbreak trapping the entire village?

He conveniently forgot his own role in allowing the rumors to grow and instead burned with resentment: Zhao Hailin might end up getting the whole village killed.

Then another thought struck him. He remembered the different wave of rumors started earlier by Shen Qingqing and couldn’t help glancing at her, suspicion rising in his heart.

When she had encouraged Aunt Li and the others to resume planting vegetables… could it be that she had already anticipated something like this?

The idea made the hairs on his arms stand up. He hurriedly dismissed it.

Impossible. If that were true, she would have known earlier than the government itself.

Watching the chief’s expression change several times within just a minute or two, Shen Qingqing suppressed the smile threatening to form and said seriously,

“Grandpa Village Chief, right now everyone’s food reserves are roughly the same, but the village has split into two groups. Those with vegetable plots and those without.”

“The people with plots have been working in the fields every day through the summer heat. They’ve poured in enormous effort. If we ask them to freely share their harvest with those who rested all summer, resentment will definitely grow. And honestly, it wouldn’t be fair.”

The chief nodded unconsciously, not realizing he had once again been drawn into her line of thinking.

It really wasn’t fair.

Those people had labored under the blazing sun. Why should they hand over their harvest to people who had stayed home doing nothing?

Yet this was an extraordinary time. He had just declared that the entire village must face the crisis together…

Sensing his dilemma, Shen Qingqing continued,

“So I propose that those who didn’t plant crops before form a labor collective. They can reclaim the remaining abandoned fields in the village and plant vegetables again. As for seeds, Aunt Li and I stocked up some earlier. I believe they’d be willing to share part of them.”

The chief was about to respond emotionally, touched by what sounded like generosity. “You all…”

But Shen Qingqing’s tone shifted as she smiled.

“Of course, the seeds won’t be provided for free. The new fields will be managed by those workers, but thirty percent of the harvest must go to the people who supplied the seeds.”

She paused, meeting his gaze.

“—That’s the condition I mentioned earlier. The one I’d like you to agree to.”

₊˚.🎧📓✩

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