“Aaaaah! Die, zombie! Taste old Monkey’s staff!”
A mop came plunging down from on high, accompanied by a battle cry worthy of a man charging to his death.
Bai Long’s ears twitched, and her body instinctively pulled back.
She watched, wide-eyed, as the mop and the person wielding it tumbled to the ground in front of her, frame by frame, as if in slow motion.
“Ah… my back…” The figure looked like a teenage boy, baring his teeth and clutching his lower spine.
Compared to a zombie, his attack was laughably weak. Bai Long had dodged it without breaking a sweat.
Looked like just an ordinary student.
Bai Long analyzed coolly.
Mm. A Sun Wukong fan, too.
She gave the iron rod in her hand a little flick and leveled it at the boy sprawled on the floor.
“Xiao Wan!”
“Wait!”
Two startled cries no one had managed to swallow rang out, and a girl burst out from behind the medicine cabinet, flinging her arms wide to shield the boy.
The girl’s eyes were full of wariness. Her thin frame couldn’t even fully cover the boy, yet she stood trembling in front of him anyway.
Bai Long’s gaze slid past her, to the back.
A few badly hidden feet were tucked behind the medicine cabinet.
Wasn’t this a bit like covering your own ears to steal a bell?
Bai Long’s expression suddenly hardened, and she hurled the iron rod forward.
The dark gray metal flashed faintly in the darkness.
Chi Wan instinctively shut her eyes, holding herself rigid in front of Chi Zao.
A cold wind grazed past her ear.
With a dull thud, something heavy seemed to crash to the ground behind her.
The iron rod had struck a zombie sneaking up from the rear dead in the face.
“Holy crap! Badass! That move was insane!”
“Forget ‘holy crap’! She… she’s a beastman, isn’t she?!”
The students hiding behind the medicine cabinet had spotted Bai Long’s beast eyes, so unlike a human’s.
Her beastkin identity was plain as day.
Bai Long didn’t even turn her head. She walked straight past Chi Wan, retrieved her iron rod, and started searching the cabinets beside her for the medicine she needed.
Chi Wan had noticed Bai Long’s beastkin identity too. She strained to drag Chi Zao away, putting distance between them and her, watching Bai Long’s every move with wary eyes.
Maybe because the zombies had massed inside the hospital, after the apocalypse hardly any living soul dared come here to scavenge for supplies.
The selection of medicine was remarkably complete, all sorted and arranged by category on the cabinets.
The antibiotics and basic medicines Sun Jie wanted were sitting right out in plain sight.
The problem was her own medicine.
Bai Long went through every single cabinet, examining each type of medicine carefully.
She could even open her medicine codex now, but she still couldn’t find the medicine she’d gotten from Old Tower.
Was her luck really this rotten?
“Ngh…”
She couldn’t hold back a low, pained grunt.
The sound was pressed down very low, the students were too far off to hear it.
Chi Zao, now back on his feet, turned a miserable face toward Chi Wan. “Sis, you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Chi Wan shook her head, watching Bai Long with a complicated look.
Going by where they’d all been standing just now, that zombie’s first target had actually been her and Chi Zao.
“Why would that beastman come here?”
“This is a nightmare, caught front and back. Zombies and a beastman both… Maybe we should bolt while she’s not looking?”
“But we don’t know how Yunyi and the others are doing. Can the few of us even make it out alone…?”
“We have to leave sooner or later. There’s no food here at all!”
…
The students thought they’d kept their voices down, but Bai Long, several cabinets away, heard every word crystal clear.
“…Or what if we just ask her?”
The moment that was said, the students fell instantly silent.
“Are you crazy? She’s a beastman! If word gets out you cooperated with her… do you still want to qualify for honors and awards?!”
“Dude, it’s the apocalypse and you’re still thinking about honors and awards?!”
“Maybe the Star Alliance will come rescue us! I just finished earning my credits!”
Bai Long: …
So this is what college students are like?
It’s the apocalypse and there are still course credits rattling around in their heads?
Chi Wan, supporting Chi Zao, couldn’t stop her gaze from drifting toward where Bai Long stood.
If they had her with them, maybe there’d be hope of getting out…
As long as they could find Yunyi…
Chi Zao noticed her glances. After a few seconds of silence, he pulled his arm free from Chi Wan’s support and limped over toward Bai Long.
“Zao Zao?” Chi Wan started, instinctively moving to follow. “What are you doing?”
She lowered her voice, trying to call him back.
“Sis, I don’t need honors and awards.”
That was all Chi Zao said. He gave Chi Wan a little smile, then went and stood in front of Bai Long.
“Sorry, I was being reckless just now. I’ll do my best to make it up to you! We’re students from Ocean University. Have you seen any other Ocean U students on your way here? Did you come from over by Kangya Compound? What’s the situation like over there?”
Chi Zao’s face was anxious, and the hands hanging at his sides instinctively curled into fists.
Bai Long set down the useless box of medicine in her hand.
Ocean University?
So they were the batch of students Wu Hao had led out.
“No. I didn’t pass through Kangya. I came from the shipyard.”
Bai Long kept her expression neutral.
The instant she said she’d come from the shipyard, delight flooded Chi Zao’s face.
“You’re from the shipyard too! That’s perfect! Can we go together?”
“Holy crap? What’s that kid spouting? She’s a beastman! Has he read so many Gulan Star stories his brain’s gone soft?!”
The other students broke into an uproar.
Belatedly, Chi Zao’s head cleared from his rush of bravado.
He might have played the hero in front of his sister, but actually facing down a beastman, he couldn’t quite control the wave of revulsion rising in his chest.
This was a beastman, after all…
Chi Wan, on the other hand, had cooled down from her earlier vigilance.
This person knew the way to the shipyard, and she had the strength and the experience to deal with zombies. Any way you looked at it, going with her was their best option right now.
Having swiftly sorted out her thoughts and the situation, Chi Wan turned to talk to the other students, telling them her idea.
The students were wary of Bai Long’s beastkin identity, but Chi Wan had the best grades in their class.
They instinctively trusted Chi Wan, and gradually calmed down enough to face their situation.
They had no other choice.
Over by Bai Long, she shot Chi Zao a sidelong glance and said nothing, neither agreeing to nor refusing his request.
Chi Zao felt a little awkward, not knowing what to do, when he spotted Chi Wan walking over toward them.
Chi Wan’s gaze fell on the box of medicine in Bai Long’s hand.
“I’m sorry. I apologize for our rudeness to you just now. Are you looking for medicine? We can help you. I hope you’ll consider our request.”
Only then did Bai Long look at her. “You’re a medical student?”
But she distinctly remembered these people were all from Ocean University’s naval engineering program.
Chi Wan shook her head. “I’m not, but my dad’s a doctor. He’d probably know the medicine you’re looking for.”
At the mention of their father, a flicker of pride crossed the two teenagers’ faces, only to droop a moment later like a little bird folding its feathers in dejection.
“But who knows if we’ll ever see Mom and Dad again. If we could just get out of here…”
Chi Zao’s voice came out a little hoarse.
Bai Long set down the medicine in her hand and thought it over.
She figured this finding-the-right-medicine business really did call for an expert.
“Do you know the way to the respiratory ward?”
Bai Long decided to test them.
“The respiratory ward?” Chi Zao looked baffled, mumbling, “I’m not from Water City. I just started college here this year. Want me to go ask my classmates for you? What is it you’re looking for?”
Chi Wan looked equally blank.
“Never mind. It’s nothing important.”
Bai Long brushed it off with a single sentence, then changed tack. “I can go with you.”
Chi Zao gave a start and snapped his head up toward Bai Long. “Really?!”
His attention had been instantly redirected.
Bai Long nodded.
If Chi Zao and Chi Wan weren’t from Water City, then everything they’d just said very likely meant they knew a way out of Water City, they simply couldn’t pull it off, trapped here as they were.
She honestly didn’t expect this kid to be so guileless, a couple of leading questions and the truth just came spilling out.
True to form for a college student. So pure and clear.
Bai Long walked with them toward their group.
None of them had expected Bai Long to be so unexpectedly reasonable, she hadn’t even said a word about how they should apologize or make it up to her.
Thinking back on her own awful attitude earlier, Chi Wan felt a tangle of complicated emotions.
“That’s the situation. I think the most urgent thing right now is to get out of here as fast as we can. The other classmates are still waiting for us!”
Chi Zao was a fool, no, scratch that, he was cheerful and stand-up, well-liked throughout the class.
After hearing what he said, and with Chi Wan adding her own persuasion, the students present still had reservations about Bai Long being a beastman, but for now they swallowed them.
Right now, their first priority was getting out of here, fast.
“We’ve still got a few classmates. They stayed behind in Kangya Compound to draw the zombies’ attention.”
Chi Wan pressed her lips together. “We have to link up with them.”
She explained to Bai Long what their group had been through since leaving the shipyard.
Their group had been led out by Wu Hao, but they’d run into a horde of zombies at Kangya Compound and gotten separated from Wu Hao and some of the other classmates.
Chi Zao, Chi Wan, Xu Yunyi, and the remaining classmates had ended up trapped in Kangya Compound.
“We’d agreed that Yunyi and the others would draw the zombies’ attention so we could escape first. Then we’d find a chance to help them get out too…”
Chi Wan lowered her head, a little ashamed. “But the moment we got out we ran straight into a wave of zombies, and in the panic we ducked in here and couldn’t get out…”
In the end, they were just a bunch of kids fresh out of high school.
The apocalypse had arrived, and these hothouse flowers wanted to save their classmates, but their hearts were willing where their strength was not.
Bai Long studied the crude map Chi Zao and the others had drawn.
Naval engineering students apparently had some basic drafting skills.
Kangya Compound and Ren’ai Hospital weren’t far apart, just one main road between them.
The problem was the sheer number of zombies along that road.
Major hospitals had been ground zero for the zombie outbreak to begin with.
On top of that, Kangya Compound was a residential block right next to the hospital, smack in the city center. The residents hadn’t evacuated in time, and by now they were probably all in there holding a zombie-edition “homeowners’ association meeting.”
Facing the hopeful eyes of Chi Zao and the others, Bai Long fell silent for a moment, then said with a touch of resignation, “We’ll need to prepare a little.”
There was just no resisting those small-animal eyes of theirs.
…
The shipyard.
While everyone was busy with their own tasks, Sun Jie made her way over to Cheng Qian.
“Ms. Sun, is there something you need?”
Cheng Qian asked with a smile.
Sun Jie silently cursed him for an old fox, but not a trace of it showed on her face as she returned the smile politely. “Professor Cheng, I’ll be blunt.”
“You have a way out of Water City, don’t you.”
Sun Jie put it as a statement.
The smile in Cheng Qian’s eyes deepened a few degrees, but his voice stayed unhurried. “Ms. Sun is a clever woman indeed.”
“I do, in fact, have a way out of Water City.”
“Name your terms, then.”
Sun Jie was unwilling to keep dancing around with him.
But the creases at the corners of Cheng Qian’s eyes only deepened. “Ms. Sun really gets straight to the point.”
“But why should I tell you?”
Cheng Qian folded his hands over his knees.
“Why don’t you guess, Ms. Sun, what is it I’m lacking right now?”
If not for how dire the situation was, the way he carried himself was like a man giving a lecture at a university.
The corners of Sun Jie’s mouth turned down, her usual polite smile had long since vanished without a trace.
She narrowed her eyes. “Our shipyard is short on supplies too. We can’t give you much, so you may as well just say it outright.”
“On the contrary, I rather think Ms. Sun can give me what I want.”
Cheng Qian looked off into the distance.
“I spent decades as a respected professor, overseeing every matter great and small at the university. Then the apocalypse came, and suddenly all of that counted for nothing.”
He sighed, as if helpless.
“Ms. Sun, do you have a way to restore me to the way things were before the apocalypse?”
Sun Jie’s hand clenched abruptly.
Her well-manicured nails nearly bit into her flesh.
“Cheng Qian, don’t push your luck too far.”
He actually wanted to take her seat!
—The one currently in charge of Hongyun Shipyard.
Meanwhile, behind a piece of equipment not far from where Cheng Qian and Sun Jie stood—
Wang Yi, hidden behind the machine, overheard the conversation between Cheng Qian and Sun Jie and her eyes widened slightly.
Professor Cheng knew how to get out of here?!
In that instant, a few calculations flickered through her mind.
Thinking of Bai Long, the one Sun Jie had actively approached with supplies, asking to cooperate, the old resentment in Wang Yi’s eyes nearly congealed into something solid.
She would not let Bai Long off the hook…