Ch 115: Opening a Survival School Before the Zombie Outbreak

Hearing the voice outside, Shi Guangyao’s expression changed instantly. Like a startled bird, he nearly sprang up from his chair.

His parents, however, sensed nothing wrong. His father even replied instinctively, “Who is it?”

As he spoke, he walked a couple of steps toward the entryway.

It was only the second day after the outbreak. Most households still had supplies, and military convoys passed through the streets every few hours broadcasting updates. Overall social order was still being maintained.

Neighbors, rather than distrusting one another, were mostly encouraging each other, trying to survive together.

Guided by official messaging, most people still regarded the situation as merely a wider and more severe “flu,” believing the country would eventually find a solution. Few had realized humanity might be facing an existential crisis.

History had proven again and again that when world-shaping events first occur, people are often slow to grasp their significance.

Some were beginning to worry about food supplies, but those calculations had not yet surfaced openly.

So Shi Guangyao’s parents were not overly cautious.

He hadn’t expected his father to respond so quickly. It was too late to stop him now. Anger aside, this was not the time to argue. Shi Guangyao rushed back to his room, grabbed a dagger, hid it behind his back for courage, and carefully followed his father.

Seeing his caution, his parents felt a trace of fear themselves and began to regret answering so quickly.

At that moment, the person outside replied.

“I’m from the neighborhood committee,” the steady voice said. “Just here to notify you of a few things and then I’ll leave. It’s not very safe outside. Could you open the door?”

Hearing that it was “community staff,” the parents immediately relaxed.

Just as they were about to open the door, Shi Guangyao suddenly stepped forward and looked through the peephole.

A man stood outside, bundled up heavily. He wore multiple layers of masks, a riot-control suit, and a riot helmet.

Shi Guangyao recognized the equipment. It was the same set kept in the equipment corner beside the security booth at the entrance of their residential complex.

The man outside asked again, “Hello?”

He glanced nervously behind him, as if afraid of something.

His mother urged softly, “Let him in. There are zombies everywhere now. The hallway isn’t safe either…”

That reminder struck Shi Guangyao. If zombies were attracted here and the man were bitten outside, the smell of decay would be the least of their worries. If he turned into a zombie and lingered at their door, that would be far worse.

After hesitating two seconds, Shi Guangyao unlocked the door and pulled it open.

The moment he saw what stood outside, he cried out and tried to slam the door shut. But a hand shot in from the side, and a foot wedged firmly against the bottom, locking the door open.

Despite his heavy build, Shi Guangyao could not overpower the man no matter how hard he strained. The door was forced open again.

He staggered backward in terror, reaching for the dagger in his pocket.

Four adult men stood outside.

Besides the one who had spoken, two others had been hiding in blind spots along the staircase where the peephole could not see. Only after the door opened did they descend casually. All wore riot gear, and one held a steel fork weapon.

Another man stood farther down the stairs, climbing up only after hearing movement. He carried a riot shield, apparently responsible for lookout and defense against zombies.

Four men, clearly coordinated and fully equipped.

Shi Guangyao’s heart trembled. His grip on the dagger weakened.

The blade could not pierce riot armor, and he had no confidence he could strike any exposed gaps.

The man at the door looked him up and down and smiled. “Don’t close the door. We really are from the community. Just a quick survey and we’ll leave.”

“There are more of us because it’s dangerous outside. We serve the people, sure, but we can’t risk our own lives either, right?” he added casually, stepping inside first. The other three chuckled and followed.

Four strong men filled the narrow entryway completely.

As if entering their own home, they immediately began looking around at ease.

Only then did Shi Guangyao notice they were wearing gloves. His pupils shrank in fear.

Gloves. To avoid leaving fingerprints?

The power was out across the complex, meaning surveillance cameras were likely offline. These men were still cautious enough to wear gloves. If they truly intended harm, all they needed was to clean up afterward, leave the door open, and lure zombies inside. His entire family could disappear without a trace.

Darkness swam before Shi Guangyao’s eyes. Terror drained all resistance from him, and he retreated behind his parents.

His mother squinted, trying to recognize the faces hidden behind masks. When she saw one man’s exposed eyes, she suddenly exclaimed, “You… aren’t you—”

The man’s gaze turned instantly cold.

Shi Guangyao clamped a hand over her mouth. “It’s nothing! Nothing!”

He had recognized him too. The man was one of the residential complex’s security guards, identifiable by a large mole near his brow.

That meant the others were likely rotating guards as well. The complex’s security had always been poor, often hiring temporary workers who changed frequently. Many were migrant laborers working in the city.

The security booth had beds. Night-shift guards often slept there between rotations.

With the outbreak, these men likely couldn’t return home and might have gone hungry since yesterday afternoon. Who knew what they might do now?

In the apocalypse, they had taken riot gear, disguised themselves as community staff, and gone door to door. Whatever their purpose, it could not be good.

If they realized their identities were exposed, his family might not survive.

Shi Guangyao didn’t want to die, and he certainly didn’t want to be dragged down by others. Translated on Hololo novels. He pressed his hand over his mother’s mouth with all his strength. Her eyes filled with tears as muffled sobs escaped her until his father finally pulled them apart.

The leader watched coldly and snorted. “At least you understand the situation. Don’t forget, I know where you live. Keep your mouth shut about things you shouldn’t say, or else…”

He tapped the knife at his waist.

The family nodded frantically.

Perhaps because it was still early in the apocalypse, the men showed some restraint and did not attack outright. After delivering their threats, they began rummaging through the home.

With the front door closed, the apartment became a sealed room. They dropped all pretense, overturning drawers and cabinets like bandits. Within moments, the once tidy home was in chaos.

One man found the locked storage room, twisted the handle, and turned toward Shi Guangyao.

Shi Guangyao swallowed instinctively, remembering the storage-room key hidden in his bedroom.

He had hidden it fairly well. Maybe… just maybe…

His thoughts churned chaotically. In his despair, Shi Guangyao even clung to a faint hope that the man might somehow overlook the suspicious room, as if suddenly struck blind.

But the next second, the man grinned at him, then lifted his foot and kicked hard at the lock.

The wooden door shuddered violently, slamming against the wall behind it and revealing a room packed to the brim with supplies.

The man needed only one glance before wild excitement filled his eyes. Remembering Shi Guangyao’s earlier evasive behavior, he instantly understood.

“You didn’t seriously think I’d need a key to open a lousy door like this, did you?”

He glanced strangely at Shi Guangyao’s parents, who stood protectively in front of their son, and sneered, “Who exactly is this lock meant to keep out? Don’t tell me… your own family?”

Shi’s mother turned deathly pale, and his father clenched his teeth.

Had their family truly become so twisted… that even home invaders could mock them?

His father swayed slightly and was steadied by his mother. Their eyes met briefly, but neither spoke.

The man called his companions over to move the supplies. Each of them carried woven sacks. They dropped the empty bags open on the floor. The one holding the shield blocked the doorway while the other three began stuffing items into the sacks.

As they worked, they casually tore open packets of biscuits and devoured them greedily.

Shi Guangyao watched crumbs scatter across the floor, his heart twisting in pain.

Those biscuits had long shelf lives. Even he had been reluctant to eat them.

But to these men, stolen supplies were windfalls from heaven. There was no need for careful rationing.

After filling several large sacks, they still weren’t satisfied. They searched the rest of the apartment, taking many of his mother’s gold and silver jewelry pieces and two watches belonging to his father.

Neither parent dared protest. Money meant nothing now. They only prayed the men would take enough and leave them alive.

Room by room, the search continued, until they reached Shi Guangyao’s large south-facing bedroom. The door was unlocked; one man pushed it open casually.

Slumped on the floor, Shi Guangyao suddenly remembered something and jerked his head up.

He wanted to stop them, but he lacked the courage.

Moments later, a shout came from inside:

“Hey! Come look! There’s a ton more stuff here!”

“With all these instant noodles and water, plus what we already got, we’ll eat well for a long time. We’ve hit the jackpot! Hahaha!”

The man barely restrained his laughter, only holding back for fear of attracting zombies.

The others hurried over, dragging out boxes of instant noodles and bottled water from beneath the bed and the bottom of the wardrobe.

The bedroom door stood wide open. Nothing could be hidden. Though Shi’s parents could not see inside, the scraping sounds of heavy objects being pulled and the men’s excited chatter told them everything.

They turned toward their son in disbelief.

Since when had there been food stored in his room?

His father cautiously stepped closer and glanced inside. The brand of instant noodles looked familiar. They were the very ones the family had bought together at the supermarket.

They had trusted their son completely. They had bought so much food over several trips that no one remembered the exact quantities. None of them knew when Shi Guangyao had secretly moved so many supplies into his own room.

Darkness swam before his father’s eyes.

The truth was, the couple had already discussed this quietly the previous night.

They had bought enough supplies to last two or three months even with normal consumption, and perhaps half a year if rationed carefully. With news broadcasts promising future airdropped supplies, they felt there was no need to be so frugal.

But their son had been emotionally unstable lately. Thinking about the hardships he had endured over the past year, they feared upsetting him further. So they endured hunger themselves, always prioritizing his feelings.

Those four men had gone hungry for a day before risking robbery.

But what about Shi’s parents? They too had barely eaten for an entire day and night, waking that morning with stomachs painfully empty.

Who could have imagined that while they starved themselves for their son’s sake, he had secretly hidden so much food and water in his own room?

There was still empty space in the storage room. It had never been completely full. Hiding supplies in his bedroom under such circumstances could only mean one thing.

He had been guarding against them.

Thinking of their deceased relatives, Shi’s mother finally broke. She pointed at her son, her finger trembling uncontrollably.

“What were you thinking, Guangyao? Even if you hadn’t hidden it, how could your parents ever let you starve? Why? Why would you do this?”

Her voice trembled with grief.

They could not understand. Ever since he was small, hadn’t the best things always been given to him first? He was the only boy of his generation. During holidays, relatives favored him most, giving him the thickest red envelopes.

Every privilege, every kindness, every sacrifice had been for him. Yet how had it led to this insatiable selfishness?

What had all their devotion brought them in return?

Indifference when it mattered most? Or being the first ones pushed forward as shields in a crisis?

Shi’s mother remembered how, just yesterday, when he learned she had gone outside that morning, he had nearly forced her out of the house in panic.

Her heart went cold.

At last she realized that the son she had raised for nineteen years, loved to the bone, did not love her at all.

He only loved himself.

What made it even more ironic was that she herself had taught him to behave this way.

The man who had first discovered the stash was still bragging to his companions:

“See? I told you this family was suspicious. The evening before yesterday they suddenly went crazy, driving out several times. Every trip they unloaded a pile of stuff and rushed off again. I happened to be on patrol once and saw them carrying down a bunch of supermarket bags and canned food. Must be that hoarding addiction people talk about online. Worked out nicely for us though.”

“Plenty of others saw it too. Even if we hadn’t come, once they ran out of food in a few days and got hungry enough, someone else would’ve.” He snorted, clearly seeing nothing wrong with what they were doing.

Shi Guangyao’s head snapped up.

He had never imagined that his own hoarding had exposed them and drawn these people to his door.

If only he had been more careful…

Endless regret surged through him. The way he stared at the men’s backs turned venomous. He wished the food they were eating had been poisoned, wished they would collapse on the spot, bleeding from every orifice.

That was his food. His hope of survival.

His hatred was naked, undisguised.

All his life, no matter what trouble he caused, his parents had always cleaned up after him. He had grown used to acting without restraint. But this time, something went wrong.

First, one of the men suddenly turned around and met his gaze.

The look in Shi Guangyao’s eyes startled him. The man’s expression darkened instantly.

“You little bastard, what are you staring at?!”

It was their first time committing a home invasion. Excitement mingled with fear of being caught. Seeing Shi Guangyao’s vicious, scrutinizing stare, as if memorizing their faces forever, triggered that fear. Before he could think, the man had already rushed forward with a knife raised.

“What are you looking at?!” he snarled through clenched teeth. “Planning to call the police?!”

The second unexpected thing was that Shi Guangyao’s parents, who should have been standing in front of him, reacted a fraction too slowly.

Their eyes were unfocused. By the time they realized what was happening, the blade was already slashing toward their son.

They screamed and shoved the attacker away at the same moment the knife struck.

Shi Guangyao clutched his face and let out a piercing scream, collapsing backward onto the floor.

The other three accomplices rushed over in shock. One glanced at Shi Guangyao writhing on the ground, screaming endlessly, and grabbed the attacker’s arm before he could strike again.

“You can’t kill him!”

Still comparatively calm, he lowered his voice.

“Don’t kill him. Those two clearly dote on their son. Leave the kid alive and they’ll stay quiet to take care of him. They won’t come after us.”

“If he dies, they’ll have nothing left to worry about.”

Clearly the strategist among them, he was trusted by the others. The attacker, breathing heavily, finally lowered his knife.

The man stepped toward the shaken parents and pointed the blade at Shi Guangyao.

“This time it’s his eyes. Next time, it won’t be.”

Red-eyed, the couple shielded their son.

Blinding pain and sudden darkness drove Shi Guangyao into hysterical wails.

But no matter how loudly he screamed, no help would come.

His cries blended with the distant screams of people being attacked by zombies, like streams merging into the sea. Those who heard had long grown numb, simply covering their ears in silence.

After delivering the threat, the man stood up and signaled to his companions. They deliberately left behind one box of instant noodles, lest desperation drive the family to do something unpredictable.

Shi’s father hurried off to find the medical kit. His mother’s hands trembled as she pressed a towel over her son’s eyes, two streams of blood seeping down from beneath it.

The family looked as though their very spirits had been drained. The parents no longer even had the strength to care about the stolen supplies.

Before leaving, the man turned back. Half mockery, half consolation, he said,

“Look on the bright side. Maybe losing his eyes isn’t such a bad thing. He never used them for anything worthwhile anyway.”

What should have been seen, he failed to see. What should not have been watched so closely, he watched obsessively.

The front door slammed shut.

Shi’s mother flinched. Somewhere nearby, her husband seemed to stop walking, perhaps having heard those words as well.

Silence fell over them.

Only Shi Guangyao’s weakening cries echoed through the apartment, each one fainter than the last.

₊˚.🎧📓✩