All in all, the typhoon lasted for twelve full days.
Girls usually liked stocking up on things, so they could barely hold out. But boys generally did not stockpile snacks, and by now the food in their dorms had been completely eaten up. As a result, several people had already started venturing outside in the rain.
Calling it “moving forward” was generous though. Against the overwhelming wind and rain, they were practically unable to move at all.
After witnessing a six foot tall guy in a basketball jersey get blown away by the wind, Cheng Zhi’s brows furrowed tightly.
“I feel like this wind is already stronger than a Category 12 typhoon. Our dorm windows aren’t going to get blown out, right?” Chen Siyu looked worriedly at the glass doors.
Even Xiao Feiran could not give a definite answer. The quality of the glass installed by the school was pretty good, and they had taped an X pattern onto the doors. Logically speaking, unless they were struck by flying debris, they should not shatter. Still, there was no ruling out the possibility that the typhoon had already become strong enough to blow glass apart.
Cheng Zhi shifted her gaze toward the window.
“We’ve already done everything we can. Don’t worry too much.”
At noon, Zheng Wan had finished cooking noodles in the space. Just as she came out and was about to call everyone over to eat, someone knocked on the dorm door.
Zheng Wan quickly shut the cabinet and returned to her seat.
Huang Yiyi sat closest to the door. She stood up and looked through the peephole, only to see Liu Min and Chen Cuixi from the dorm next door.
The moment the door opened a crack, the two slipped into Dorm 806 like eels. Liu Min even reached back and shut the door behind them.
Huang Yiyi looked stunned and had just opened her mouth to speak when Liu Min beat her to it.
“Yiyi, do you still have any food? Our dorm’s completely run out. We wanted to borrow some from you first. Well, not borrow exactly. Once the internet comes back, we’ll transfer you the money.”
Huang Yiyi smiled and said:
“The typhoon’s been going on for more than ten days. If you’ve run out of food, then I definitely don’t have any either. Everyone’s in the same situation.”
There was nothing wrong with that logic.
Liu Min was immediately left speechless.
But then the red haired Chen Cuixi behind her spoke up.
“We live right next door. Out of everyone, your dorm gets the most deliveries, and you love hoarding stuff. You buy boxes and boxes of bread and chips. Who’s going to believe you if you say you don’t have food? You just don’t want to give us any!”
“What is wrong with you? We’re all classmates. We’ve already helped where we could. Didn’t we give you that loaf of bread a few days ago? We need food ourselves too. Don’t push your luck.”
Zheng Wan instantly got angry and shot to her feet.
Chen Cuixi snorted.
“Rye bread? Even dogs would shake their heads after eating that.”
Every word out of this person’s mouth was irritating.
Xiao Feiran rolled her eyes so hard they practically flipped upside down.
“Just tell me, did you eat it or not?”
Chen Cuixi froze on the spot.
Since there was no other food around, of course she had eaten the rye bread.
She had just walked straight into a trap.
Her face immediately turned as red as her hair. And once her face turned red, her brain seemed to stop functioning too.
“You clearly still have extra food! Why can’t you give us some?!”
She sounded like a three year old throwing a tantrum.
Even Cheng Zhi was speechless. She got so angry her voice rose an octave.
“What am I, your mom? I have to give you everything and listen to whatever you say? Giving you that loaf of bread was already more than generous. Don’t push it.”
Chen Cuixi was so angry she was breathing heavily.
Liu Min’s expression had also darkened. She grabbed Chen Cuixi and started dragging her outside.
Chen Cuixi tossed back her red hair and continued shouting loudly:
“A bunch of cold blooded monsters! If you won’t give us food, then don’t expect to live peacefully either!”
With that, she slammed the door and left.
The five girls of Dorm 806 felt complicated emotions stirring inside them.
In their previous life, they had not stockpiled supplies either. They had borrowed food everywhere, so they had never experienced anything like what had just happened.
But now that it had happened, their hearts felt cold.
Cheng Zhi stared blankly at the door.
“So starving for three days is enough to throw away three years of friendship?”
Xiao Feiran plopped herself into a chair and let out a long sigh.
“Three days… they might not have eaten anything at all, and probably barely drank any water either. If it were me, seeing someone else have food but refusing to share even a little, I’d resent them too.”
That was true.
In their previous lives, they had gone around borrowing food too, and had been rejected countless times. Seeing people who clearly still had several little bread rolls refuse to spare even one for them, they had secretly cursed those people behind their backs for being stingy.
“We can’t help it either. People are selfish. Once you’re struggling to survive yourself, who has the energy to care whether others live or die?”
Chen Siyu’s face looked resolute as she turned toward everyone.
“Do you still remember our previous life? That woman carrying a baby when the three of us were searching for supplies outside? We helped her more than once. And what did she do? While we were sleeping, she stole all our food and left her dying child behind with us.”
Of course Cheng Zhi had not forgotten.
Those five bottles of purified water and half a box of bread had been gathered through blood, sweat, and risk to their lives.
Back then, that woman had been skin and bones. Even though she had just given birth, she had no milk at all. The baby in her arms had been starving too, so weak that it barely even had the strength to cry.
The three of them had taken pity on them and taken in the mother and child.
But only two days later, the woman stole everything and ran away, leaving the baby behind.
Born in the apocalypse and without proper medical care, the baby’s umbilical cord quickly became infected. The fever would not go down.
None of them knew anything about raising children, but they had frantically searched for disinfectants and anti inflammatory medicine.
Yet after just one night, the baby had stopped breathing.
Huang Yiyi walked over and wrapped an arm around Chen Siyu’s shoulder.
“None of this was your fault. Once bitten, twice shy. This time we’ll keep our eyes open and never get tricked again.”
Leaning against the wardrobe door, Zheng Wan nodded repeatedly and tried cheering up the three depressed girls.
“In novels, rebirth plus a magical space means you’re absolutely the protagonist. Which means Dorm 806 are the protagonists. This time, we’re definitely going to make it to the end!”
Their comforting words and playful tone chased away the gloom hanging over Dorm 806.
Soon, the five of them were chatting and laughing again.
Sitting in her seat drinking water, Cheng Zhi kept staring at the wardrobe across from her.
She had the nagging feeling that she had forgotten something.
“Guys… don’t you think we forgot to do something?”
Xiao Feiran’s eyes shifted around, clearly not remembering anything.
“We watered the crops, fed the chickens, finished all the chores. Didn’t we already do everything?”
The five of them spent a full five minutes thinking and still failed to remember that they had not even eaten lunch yet.
In the end, Zheng Wan was the one who finally remembered.
She smacked her thigh.
“That’s right! I cooked noodles and we never ate them! Great, now noodle soup has turned into mixed noodles.”
Huang Yiyi stuck her chopsticks in and lifted the entire thing.
“This thing can’t even be mixed anymore. It’s like a giant pancake. It’s unbelievably sturdy.”
Copying Huang Yiyi, Cheng Zhi picked the whole thing up with her chopsticks and took a bite.
It felt as though a whole new world had opened before her.
“To be fair, eating it like this is actually really convenient. It’s not hot and it doesn’t slip around either. Whoa, this is pretty good!”
“…”
Zheng Wan was speechless.
Please stop committing crimes against noodles.