Ying Ran had been staring at her phone screen, thinking seriously.
When she heard the rustling sound of Chen Jianwei getting out of bed, she finally looked up and asked about her condition with concern.
Chen Jianwei said she felt much better.
She tucked a thermometer under her armpit, then poured herself a cup of hot water and sat on the chair, drinking it.
It was almost time for dinner now.
Another day of not knowing what they could eat.
During the half day they had spent in a drowsy haze, Ying Ran had already harvested another batch of crops in the Farm Game.
After collecting the fruits, she tapped into the [Grudge Ledger] she had deployed last night, checking who had entered during the fruit maturation cycle.
Seeing the entry times that differed by only a few seconds, Ying Ran felt a headache coming on.
So many people were eyeing it greedily, if a player reacted even slightly slower, their points would be gone.
If one day an entire dorm fell sick, then no one would be able to watch the vegetable garden on time.
Now that she saw Chen Jianwei looking more energetic again, Ying Ran felt relieved.
At last, someone could take over the shift.
“Ah Wei, do you want to try contacting 619?” Ying Ran suddenly thought of this again and mentioned it to Chen Jianwei. She had just tried adding Liu Huan’s account, but the friend request had not been accepted. She was now quite worried that something might have happened in the neighboring dorm.
Hearing that they still had not managed to contact Liu Huan, Chen Jianwei opened her private chat with Liu Huan. She first explained that they had all been sick today, which was why they had not communicated in time about last night’s information. Then she added that she had seen in the Lan 2 dorm group that many students were sick, and asked how Liu Huan was doing now.
Ten minutes passed, and Liu Huan still had not replied.
“Should we report this situation to Dorm Manager Auntie?” Chen Jianwei hesitated as she discussed it with Ying Ran.
Although under the natural disaster, countless people died every day, and countless others turned into zombies,
if a classmate living right next door had really died, the fear it brought was no less than the shock and terror they felt yesterday when they learned that the original Dorm Manager Auntie of Lan 2 had died.
Even though the weather was very cold now, corpses would still rot and stink.
And what if Liu Huan turned into a ghost tonight and came looking for them?
Even though Ying Ran had once been a firm materialist college student,
now that even something as unscientific as zombies had appeared, Ying Ran felt like she was losing her mind.
“I think we should still tell Dorm Manager Auntie,” Ying Ran decided.
She sent a friend request to Dorm Manager Auntie Lian, but it had not been accepted yet.
Instead, Auntie Lian sent another message in the Lan 2 dorm group, tagging everyone.
[Dorm Manager Auntie Lian: Please carefully fill out the health report information in the mini program @All Members]
[Dorm Manager Auntie Lian: The school will provide treatment medication based on everyone’s health condition]
[Dorm Manager Auntie Lian: However, we hope students do not exaggerate their conditions, as this is not conducive to the school providing appropriate and effective treatment plans]
Seeing Auntie Lian’s message, Chen Jianwei’s first reaction was, could it be that someone had really falsified their condition? Why would they do that? And how did Dorm Manager Auntie discover it?
She could not understand it at all.
Ying Ran, who was good at checking the health reporting mini program, noticed some clues from the submissions and exclaimed that it was simply outrageous.
“These dorms 309, 310, 311, 312, and 313 are terrifying,” Ying Ran said as she walked over with her phone to share the discovery with Chen Jianwei. “They’re all completely wiped out. Their fevers have reached 40°C, their brains must be getting cooked. If their brains get fried, do you think zombies would stop eating them?”
Chen Jianwei leaned over to take a look and also felt that it was indeed too absurd.
When it came to being sick, it was actually hard to tell what was real and what was not.
But if someone was pretending to be sick or deliberately exaggerating their condition, it was most likely to attract the school’s attention.
Just like they had speculated before, some people wanted nothing more than to stay hidden in the dorm like hamsters for the rest of their lives, while others tried every possible way to get out.
In the past two days, the school had sent vehicles to take sick students away, so today some people also wanted to be taken away.
However, they had not expected that the number of flu cases would grow exponentially today, so they exaggerated their conditions.
Even if they could not leave the dorm, the school would not just let them fend for themselves. It would at least send over some medicine to treat colds and fevers.
But they had not expected that by exaggerating their conditions too much, they would be directly discovered by Dorm Manager Auntie.
After a while, Auntie Lian finally accepted Ying Ran’s friend request.
Ying Ran immediately reported the situation of the neighboring dorm to her.
She emphasized that currently, Liu Huan was the only person in dorm 619. Before going to bed last night, Liu Huan had still been chatting with her roommates until two in the morning, but when they woke up today, they could no longer contact Liu Huan at all.
In short, Liu Huan had gone missing inside her own dorm.
Because the main door of the dorm building was locked, this was also to prevent certain students from trying to sneak out. Only dorm administrators and school departments had the corresponding access cards.
And their dorm was on the sixth floor, even if Liu Huan were Spider Man, she might not be able to climb out.
After hearing the situation, Auntie Lian said she would contact Liu Huan’s counselor to verify.
Ying Ran lay back on the electric blanket, looked out the window at the still bright sky, then turned over and said to Chen Jianwei with dark humor, “Let’s hope her counselor is still alive.”
“What do you think…” Chen Jianwei thought for a moment before continuing, “if people keep getting eaten by zombies and then turning into zombies, is it only a matter of time before we’re done for?”
Ying Ran hugged a hot water bottle to her chest, her expression turning serious, but after a while she relaxed again. “I think some of those zombie analysis posts online make sense. If zombies can’t keep eating people, they won’t have any energy intake, so they should eventually break down on their own, unless they can generate energy through photosynthesis.”
Hearing Ying Ran mention zombie analysis posts, Chen Jianwei recalled a post she had seen online yesterday and felt that it was indeed possible.
After a while, Duan Minmin and Luo Mushi also woke up one after another, got out of bed, and repeated the same process Chen Jianwei had just gone through, measuring their temperature and drinking hot water.
Luo Mushi sat listlessly on the chair, drank half a cup of hot water, then drooped her eyelids as she spoke to her roommates, “I just had a nightmare. I dreamed that I was being chased by a group of zombies in the library. I kept running, but then the road in front of me split open right in front of me. And I split open too.”
Duan Minmin nodded in agreement. “I also dreamed about being chased by zombies. They chased me around the track for three days and three nights. It was terrifying. Now every time I close my eyes, I feel like I’m really being chased by zombies.”
Chen Jianwei, who had already been chased by zombies in her dreams for three nights, felt that the zombies in her dreams were about to give her a mental breakdown.
“The dorm manager replied,” Ying Ran suddenly saw the notification pop up on her phone and quickly tapped it open.
Chen Jianwei hurriedly leaned over to read it.
Duan Minmin and Luo Mushi asked what was going on, and Chen Jianwei briefly explained the situation.
The two of them also became concerned about the dorm manager’s reply.
Auntie Lian said that she had just contacted Liu Huan’s counselor, but the counselor also had no way of reaching Liu Huan.
Auntie Lian then asked whether they were willing to go over to 619 to check on Liu Huan’s situation.
She could contact the Student Service Center to send over the spare key to dorm 619.
“That doesn’t sound very good, does it?” Ying Ran hesitated.
Right now, no one really dared to leave their dorms, even though the building had not yet been overrun by zombies.
And opening another dorm’s door without permission also did not feel appropriate.
Besides, if Liu Huan had really died inside the dorm, what were they supposed to do?
Since the Student Service Center could send over the spare key to dorm 619, wouldn’t it be better to have their staff come and open the door to check?
But after hearing Ying Ran’s suggestion, Auntie Lian fell silent for a moment before replying helplessly, “There are some situations over at Meiyuan. The Student Service Center staff can only operate a drone to deliver the spare key to Lan 2-619 for now.”
Ying Ran: “…”
Ying Ran: “That works too.”
It was not until around seven in the evening that they heard the sound of a drone outside.
Soon, someone in the Lan 2 dorm group also sent a message saying that they had received the supplies delivered tonight.
Room 618 did not receive their supplies from the drone on the balcony until eight thirty.
Yesterday at noon, what had been delivered were eight bowls of plain white rice, but this time it was various food items.
After sorting through them, they found one pack of five braised beef instant noodles, one pack of five spicy beef instant noodles, one pack of five mushroom chicken instant noodles, one pack of five braised chicken instant noodles, two boxes of square biscuits, and a few pieces of candy.
Another bag contained some medicine. Inside was half a bottle of alcohol, two fever-reducing tablets, and four sachets of cold medicine granules.
On the bag, written in black pen, were the large characters “Lan 2-618”.
They took out the supplies from the bag and sorted them neatly before finding a bunch of keys at the bottom.
This should be the spare key to dorm 619 that Auntie Lian had mentioned.
“What should we eat tonight?” Ying Ran casually asked for everyone’s opinion.
After all, they were still sick, so they did not dare to touch foods that could cause internal heat.
She rinsed some rice and put it into the pot to cook a pot of plain porridge, but drinking only plain porridge was still a bit hard to swallow.
Chen Jianwei suggested that they could buy a bunch of green beans from the [Market] in the Farm Game, and she would stir fry them to go with the porridge.
The green beans in the [Market] were priced at 2.5 points.
They reluctantly spent the points to purchase a bag of green beans, then watched helplessly as a bag of tender green beans suddenly appeared on the table.
Chen Jianwei: “666! High tech!”
The portion of green beans was quite generous, it looked like it could be divided into three portions.
This way, today’s and tomorrow’s meals were both settled.
It seemed the game was not entirely heartless after all.
“Then you all cook in the dorm. I’ll go over to 619 and check on Liu Huan,” Ying Ran said as she picked up the key to dorm 619 from the table. Luo Mushi also stood up and followed her, “Xiao Ran, I’ll go with you.”
Duan Minmin opened the iPad surveillance feed to confirm that everything in the hallway was normal, and only then did they carefully open the door and step outside.