Ch 118: Opening a Survival School Before the Zombie Outbreak

Qinghuanli was not a large residential complex. All the buildings were arranged in a ring around a massive circular central flowerbed. There was barely any space between buildings, and they were built tall, with windows packed tightly together. Standing in the middle felt like being at the bottom of a deep well, the oppressive weight hitting you head-on. From where they were, they could already take in the entire complex at a glance.

Of course, that also meant every resident could see them just as clearly.

More and more zombies gathered. The population density here was high, and who knew how many shared rentals were hidden inside. The number of zombies lurking out of sight was, unexpectedly, not small at all.

Song Rushuang stopped overthinking. She grabbed a knife and got out as well. Before leaving, she popped open the sunroof, and did not forget to shut the car door on her way out.

Earlier, she had honked not only to draw the attention of residents upstairs and check the little girl’s location, but even more to lure out the zombies hiding in the shadows and clear them out ahead of time.

A prepared head-on fight was always better than being ambushed by a zombie suddenly popping out of some corner while they were focused on searching for someone.

*

“Do you see anyone coming?”

On the eighth floor of one of the buildings on Qinghuanli’s west side, Shi Yue could not stay put in her room any longer. Uneasy, she stepped out. Hearing movement, another roommate poked her head out from her bedroom.

In the living room, the roommate on watch sat cross-legged on the bay window seat, hugging a book to pass the time. She shook her head at the question, frowning. “How could it be that fast? And honestly, I don’t think it’s likely. I’ve been watching for ages, and there hasn’t even been a single car passing on the road outside…”

That help message had been sent through Shi Yue’s account, but it had actually been a joint decision the three of them made together.

They did not dare go out. They could not see exactly where the little girl was, could not confirm the situation, and it was hard to call the authorities for help. All they could do was try their luck by posting online.

What if some civilian rescue team happened to be patrolling nearby, saw the message, and came to check?

In their imaginations, simply confirming the girl’s condition, rather than rescuing her immediately, should not have been that difficult for professionals.

But after sending the message, their unease only grew.

Their minds filled with every kind of grim thought.

Even though they had been careful with their wording and included everything they could observe, what if they still missed something, or caused ambiguity, and the rescuers overlooked a risk?

…What if the infected were even more terrifying and difficult than they had imagined?

What if the network was bad and the message had not actually gone through, or no rescuers ever arrived, and the girl died quietly wherever she was trapped?

What if, what if…

In despair, Shi Yue had even considered going out herself to take a look, but quickly abandoned the idea.

She truly did not dare, and she did not have the ability.

“Do you think someone will really come?”

It was not their watch shift, but Shi Yue and the other roommate clearly could not rest either. Translated on Hololo novels. They sat down together on the bay window seat, and one of them asked quietly.

“I don’t know. I don’t think the odds are good.” Shi Yue picked at her finger. “Our complex isn’t small. At the very least, a few thousand people live here, right? That girl’s crying is so loud everyone can hear it, but no one has come down to help.”

She could not blame them. After all, she herself did not dare go out.

There were plenty of people standing at windows like they were, looking around, probably all willing but unable.

But if no one among the thousands right nearby would step forward, could they really expect outsiders to travel all this way specifically to help?

Shi Yue felt miserable and helpless, and could only comfort herself that at least they had tried.

“What if…” one roommate bit her lip, then swallowed the words. “Forget it.”

The other asked, “What were you going to say?”

“I was thinking, what if we take out a few packs of the instant noodles I stockpiled and ask in the complex group chat whether anyone is willing to go down and check? We could lower the noodles from upstairs as payment. But trading a few packs of instant noodles for something this dangerous just feels…” The woman sighed.

These past few days, people in the complex group chat had been intermittently begging for food. If they were willing to offer supplies, maybe someone really would take the risk.

But would that not mean using food as bait, sending someone desperate into danger?

If something went wrong, she could not forgive herself.

Besides, the instant noodles were hers, but the roommates got along well. If she ran out later, would Shi Yue and the others really ignore her? What her idea would consume, in truth, was their shared stockpile.

Thinking of that, she shook her head awkwardly. “I’m just talking.”

Shi Yue exchanged a look with the other roommate and said softly, “Let’s wait a little longer. If no one comes before nightfall, we’ll think of something else.”

As she spoke, one of them, sharp-eyed, caught sight of something and straightened abruptly. “Look. Is that car coming this way?”

All three rushed to the window, pressing to the glass to look down, and sure enough, a car drove into the complex.

“Is it here to help?” Shi Yue brightened.

But then, before their eyes, the car stopped, honked its horn, drew in a swarm of zombies, and two young women jumped out.

It was completely unlike the professional team she had imagined. Even from this distance, it was obvious they were young, probably students.

How… how could it be a few students?

Shi Yue stared, dumbfounded. When she snapped back to herself, sheer panic seized her. “I wrote that there were several zombies! Didn’t they see? What are they doing!”

And looking at the two of them, both had short hair and wore long sleeves and long pants, their skin covered up. They looked crisp and capable. But their protection seemed to end there. No protective suits, no helmets, no riot poles or steel forks to keep zombies at a distance.

Were they just well-meaning amateurs?

Shi Yue’s voice went shrill, then cut off as if someone had clamped a hand around her throat, because at that very moment Zhang Han raised her arm and brought a fire axe down with ferocious force onto a zombie’s face.

The three of them reflexively shut their eyes, but they were a beat too slow. They saw the axe sink halfway in, and when it was yanked out, a loud splash sent a wide sheet of red spraying out.

All three turned pale, their faces going almost purple, as if their own skulls were throbbing with pain.

“My grandpa chops firewood like that at home…” one roommate whispered.

Switching the firewood for a human head in her mind, she covered her mouth, feeling like she might vomit.

Realizing the girls actually had some skill, they finally felt less panicked, but they still watched with tense attention.

Across the way, more and more faces appeared at windows in the other building. Shi Yue even saw several people, after clearly seeing what was happening below, make shocked backward waving motions to call more companions over.

In an instant, it was no longer only a few hundred or a thousand pairs of eyes watching Zhang Han and the others.

Not long after, another girl jumped out of the driver’s seat and casually shut the car door. Shi Yue was completely sure now.

There were really only the three of them.

Their courage was a little too much…

Noticing the “audience” upstairs, Zhang Han did not slow down, but she could not help muttering, “If only I had a hat.”

Being stared at so directly was kind of awkward.

But the three of them did not have the principal’s level of skill. Even with a gas mask, it would not hinder her movements. A simple baseball cap would block part of their field of vision, and none of them dared take that risk.

“Move faster,” Sun Wei said, amused. “And you’re still thinking about that at a time like this.”

Upstairs, Shi Yue and the others had no idea what they were saying. They only felt that the atmosphere seemed… unexpectedly relaxed.

Was that an illusion?

Down below, the three girls dispatched several zombies in the blink of an eye, moving with ease.

Before the blackout, Shi Yue and her roommates had seen videos uploaded by netizens. Translated on Hololo novels. In many of them, zombies would stand up again after being knocked down. But none of the zombies killed by these three girls rose again. Each one twitched on the ground for a moment, then went completely still. Their efficiency was obvious.

But Shi Yue had a higher vantage point and a wider view. Not far away, near Building 8, even more zombies were running out after hearing the commotion.

She had not noticed earlier, but now she saw that the entrance door to Unit 1 of Building 8 was not fully shut, only loosely closed. With no one outside before, the zombies inside had likely been searching for residents in the stairwell, without any reason to come out.

In the space of a blink, seven or eight emerged. No one knew how many more were still inside.

“Oh no, oh no…” Shi Yue was about to cry. She was now basically sure these girls had come because of her post, but the zombies swarming them were more than double what she had described.

She wanted to save someone, not hurt anyone.

“We have to think of something.”

“We posted that together. We can’t get them killed.”

The other two roommates were panicking too.

Building 2, where Shi Yue lived, directly faced Building 8. It was in almost the opposite direction from where Song Rushuang and the others had parked. If they tried, they might be able to draw the zombies’ attention and stall them until the girls below dealt with the rest.

With that thought, Shi Yue and her roommates shoved the window open with all their strength, without caring about anything else.

The window of an older building screeched harshly against the frame. Several zombies turned their heads at the sound. Seeing it work, the three women felt a surge of hope.

But before they could even shout, one of the girls below somehow broke out of the encirclement, sprang onto the car roof in two quick steps, and leapt straight toward the lead zombie coming out of the unit entrance. Before she even landed, she grabbed its head and twisted.

The zombie’s head that had just turned away was twisted right back, by an extremely “forceful” method.

Shi Yue and her roommates practically had their eyes fall out.

That was not just turning it around. Twist a few dozen degrees more and its head might have come clean off.

The zombie collapsed limply, motionless. The girl finished it off with another strike. Then she lifted her head, found Shi Yue’s direction, pressed her index finger to her lips, and made a gesture for silence.

Shi Yue and her roommates froze, uncertain.

Was she… telling them not to make noise?

When Shi Yue and the others nodded hesitantly, the girl turned back to deal with the remaining zombies.

One zombie after another fell. Shi Yue watched so intently that she did not notice a phone had appeared beside her at some point.

With limited battery, except for the brief hour when there was internet, their phones were basically powered off. They could not bear to waste charge.

But at that moment, Shi Yue’s roommate opened the camera, aimed it at the three girls, and began filming in earnest.

“If one day the virus gets wiped out, or the network improves and we can upload videos… we can’t let the outside world never know what they did, right?”

Noticing the others’ looks, she explained in a low voice.

*

To be honest, Song Rushuang had not expected Shi Yue and the others to risk drawing the zombies away. Most people simply watched in silence.

But she truly did not need them to do that.

Qinghuanli looked like it had been built some years ago. Unlike newer residential designs with clean, simple facades, this complex had a messy web of protective grilles and exposed pipes across the exterior. A mid-level zombie could absolutely climb up that.

Although at a glance she had not yet spotted anything beyond low-level zombies, it was not unheard of for an evolved zombie to have a moment of strange clarity and mix among its slow-moving companions.

Shi Yue and the others might not have thought that far, but Song Rushuang was here to save someone. She could not have the little girl still unrescued while three well-meaning bystanders got dragged into danger.

When the last zombie fell, Song Rushuang climbed onto the car roof again and carefully scanned the area to confirm whether any zombies remained.

After looking, she remembered something, lifted her head, and met Shi Yue’s gaze. The three women shook their heads at her.

It seemed there were no more.

Song Rushuang gave an OK hand sign and called to Sun Wei and Zhang Han, “Let’s go. We need to figure out where the trapped child actually is.”

She remembered that when they first drove in, the zombies had been concentrated at the base of that building. She did not know whether they had been trying to climb up and failed, or whether there really was something there.

Now that the zombies were cleared, Zhang Han stayed in a spot with good visibility to keep watch, while Song Rushuang and Sun Wei circled past the flowerbed below and finally saw what had been hidden by the shrubs.

Near the base of the building, close to the ground, there was a small rectangular window, roughly 40 by 25 centimeters. No one could possibly crawl out through it.

“This is…” Song Rushuang froze. “A half-basement?”

It hit her at once. The ground-floor storefronts had a raised floor level. The developer had probably taken advantage of that to build a half-basement beneath. The other buildings, not being street-facing, had no such design, which was why Shi Yue had never thought of it.

Everything became clear. The sign outside the unit entrance read that Floors 2–30 entered here. That meant the entrance to -1 should be outside as well, just like the first floor. If Shi Yue had passed by without paying attention, it was completely normal that she would not know the basement existed.

As for residents on the second and third floors, first, there was a full floor between them and the basement, so they might not hear what was happening below. Second, if, as Shi Yue said, most people here were renters rather than owners, they might not know about the basement either.

But what was the basement used for?

“I’ll do it.” Sun Wei stepped forward, turned on the flashlight built into her student wristband, and shone it through the small window.

What she saw made both of them gasp.

Inside the room closest to the window sat a mahjong table. On it were dried-out tea cups and an ashtray filled to the brim with cigarette ash.

The door stood open. Beyond it, they could see a larger hall with several more card tables. A number of people sat slumped in chairs or lay against the wall, but the flashlight beam did not reach far enough. They could only make out vague silhouettes.

Noticing the light, someone lying on the floor struggled upright. They squinted, their movements already extremely weak.

Sun Wei switched the flashlight off. Song Rushuang called out, “Is anyone in there?”

At that voice, the people inside, sitting and standing, began moving one after another. The two girls felt their scalps prickle. They had only come to rescue a little girl. Who would have expected so many people hidden down there?

It took some time for the group to gather at the room. There were about a dozen in total, men and women, but all were middle-aged or elderly.

After being trapped for three days, some of them could barely stand without support.

The moment they saw Song Rushuang and Sun Wei, tears poured down their faces. “Save us. Please, save us!”

The two exchanged a look and saw the same feelings in each other: absurdity and anger.

…In the basement of this building was a hidden gambling parlor.

Was the little girl’s crying that Shi Yue had heard because one of these elderly people had brought a granddaughter along?

₊˚.🎧📓✩