On his way back to Jiangpu Canteen from Yinyue Stage, Yan Fengji ran into Dou Qing about a hundred meters from the building.
Dou Qing was not alone. Noticing Yan Fengji, he gave a slight nod as he directed a sharp shard of ice into a dying mutated dog nearby.
“What happened?”
“That dog was dragging half a…” Someone swallowed hard, fighting back nausea.
“…human arm. We’d just stepped out to head toward Jialeyuan Supermarket.”
The rest went unsaid, but Yan Fengji could already piece it together.
The canteen’s convenience store supplies would not last forever. According to the five newcomers, Jialeyuan Supermarket was infested with mutated rats and cats.
That made it undeniably dangerous.
At the same time, the supermarket held an inventory of food that rivaled the convenience store’s stash.
Humans were not the only ones consuming that food. When fresh meat was scarce, the mutated rats and cats roaming the aisles would naturally turn to the packaged goods on the shelves.
The senior students made a rough deduction: mutated animals grew larger, their overall capabilities increased significantly, and their appetites expanded accordingly.
The top priority was reaching Jialeyuan Supermarket to pack up everything humans could eat and use before the mutated animals devoured it all. It was a race against time. They had to fight these creatures to secure humanity’s lifeline.
A young man frowned as he stared at the gruesome mutated dog on the ground and the human arm buried in the sand. Swallowing hard, he whispered, “Good thing Dou Qing reacted fast and froze the dog in ice.”
Dou Qing gave a casual nod.
Fifteen days into the apocalypse, this dog counted as their first real enemy. Anyone would tremble with fear at the sight of a beast strutting down the street dragging a human limb.
Aside from Yan Fengji, a medical student, and Dou Qing, who studied bioinformatics, everyone else looked pale and stood in terrified silence.
Yan Fengji watched as the frozen hound drew its final, weak breath, its limbs stiffening until it went completely still.
“All right, let’s go.”
The earth-type ability user had already buried the human arm beneath sand and gravel. Having crossed paths, the two teams quickly parted ways. “Let’s head to Jialeyuan while it’s still early.”
Carrying their backpacks and defensive weapons, the group nodded in unison.
Before leaving, Dou Qing turned back to look at Yan Fengji, speaking briefly. “She’s in the cafeteria. Look after her for me.”
“Tell her I’ll be back soon.”
Yan Fengji watched Dou Qing leave in silence, his brow slightly furrowed. His tension eased only when he returned to the cafeteria and saw Fang Yangyang sitting beside his senior sister, Wen Qing, resting her chin in her hands as they talked.
Wen Qing wore a warm smile as she spoke with Fang Yangyang.
Yan Fengji knew his senior sister well. Calm and quiet, she held a deep passion for medicine, having pursued it all the way to her doctorate, and was considered their advisor’s most accomplished student.
She rarely connected with women her own age. Nearing thirty, when most of her peers were already married with children, she had always seemed a bit out of place among them.
He took a few steps closer and heard his senior sister call out gently, “Yangyang, do you know what my ability is?”
Her ability was quite unusual.
It was wind, which she described scientifically as a horizontal pressure gradient force. When air heats up or cools down and moves from one place to another, wind forms.
That was basic textbook knowledge, yet how the human body could generate such an effect after awakening a ability remained an unfathomable mystery.
A gentle breeze stirred the paper in Fang Yangyang’s hands. Her eyes widened in surprise, and her fingers rubbed together instinctively. “It’s wind.”
“Yes,” Wen Qing said with a playful grin. “Basically a living electric fan.”
In everyday life, a soft breeze like that of a small fan was genuinely pleasant.
Fang Yangyang’s eyes filled with curiosity and a faint, unspoken envy. Amused by her reaction, Wen Qing playfully directed the air toward the stray hairs by Fang Yangyang’s cheek. Under her control, the wind acted like a docile comb, gently tucking those loose strands behind her ear.
With pink dusting her ears, Fang Yangyang smiled shyly at her, the corners of her mouth curving sweetly.
“Senior sister, Fang Yangyang,” Yan Fengji’s voice came from behind them.
He watched as Fang Yangyang started slightly and turned to look at him, her delicate, pointed chin tilting up with a questioning gaze. “Hm?”
“Dou Qing said he’ll be back soon.”
Yan Fengji stood behind her, bracing his arms against the edge of the table as he looked down at what she had written on the paper.
Her handwriting was familiar. He remembered seeing it during freshman registration when she had filled in her dormitory and student ID details. It was neat and graceful.
On the page, she had written: Day 15.
Like a child diligently keeping a diary, she had carefully recorded how many days had passed since the apocalypse began, noted the weather, and even drawn an endearing cartoon character.
Yan Fengji squinted, realizing the doodle looked a bit like the Little Fat Dragon that Dou Qing had given her.
The vines in his hands began to itch, stirring restlessly, but he managed to hold back.
“I know, he told me.”
A flicker of worry crossed her pretty face. Her round, clear eyes held genuine emotion as she said, “He told me he’d be back in two hours at the latest.”
Wen Qing took her hand and comforted her gently. “Don’t worry, your boyfriend will definitely make it back safe and sound.”
Fang Yangyang nodded.
Deep down, she was confident about Dou Qing’s trip. After all, he was the third male lead in this apocalyptic novel, a righteous character who survived until the very end. She believed he would return unharmed.
Still, having had him by her side constantly over the past few days, his sudden absence left her uncharacteristically anxious.
To Yan Fengji, she simply looked lost and despondent.
Wen Qing hated seeing her like this. In her eyes, whenever the usually sweet, well-behaved Fang Yangyang was in low spirits, the surrounding atmosphere felt clouded over, as if a storm were about to break at any moment.
Poor thing.
Wen Qing tapped the tip of the girl’s nose with a finger, ready to use her wind to cheer up the adorable girl. “Are you warm? Want me to blow a little breeze your way?”
It was September, and the weather outside had not yet turned cold. Without electricity and with the doors and windows shut tight, taking a cold shower was the only relief whenever the heat became unbearable. In such stifling air, Wen Qing’s wind truly came in handy.
Before Fang Yangyang could even refuse, her senior sister circled her with small, playful whirlwinds. Most supernatural abilities took on visible forms, and a wind-type power looked vastly different from the actual horizontal pressure gradient forces of nature.
The controlled breeze whisked away the faint beads of sweat on Fang Yangyang’s nose. She could not help squinting into a grin, flashing her bright white teeth, and the sweet sight made Wen Qing smile along with her.
“…”
Yan Fengji quietly withdrew the vines in his hands.
He watched Wen Qing coax the pretty girl, lowering his gaze before shooting Fang Yangyang a deep, brooding look. Her mood had bounced back almost instantly under her senior sister’s playful teasing, leaving him no room to do anything.
He sat in the chair beside her in silence.
Entirely oblivious, Wen Qing continued teasing Fang Yangyang with the easy intimacy shared between girls.
“Come here, my phone still has battery. Take a picture with me, Yangyang.”
“Huh?”
“Come on, lean in closer. That’s it, cheeks together.”
“So pretty,” Wen Qing murmured, admiring the photo on her screen before saving it. “Do you want it? I can send it over Bluetooth.”
Power in the canteen was intermittent, forcing everyone to rely on wall outlets whenever the current returned. Fang Yangyang did not need to worry about dead batteries just yet, having packed several fully charged power banks into her backpack.
Meanwhile, the young man with the lightning-type ability who had previously gone to Yinyuetai had figured out how to regulate his electrical output after days of practice. Whenever he was around, he took over charging duties for anyone whose phone had run out of power.
Even so, not many people were willing to hand their devices over, unsure whether human ability matched standard charging protocols or might fry the motherboards instead.
Wen Qing owned two phones. Her spare was completely dead, and the cafeteria’s sporadic power made charging it too slow, so she took a chance and asked the young man to charge it up for her. When the fully charged phone worked as well as ever, she felt comfortable using it again.
Taking photos was merely one of the ways she passed the time while cooped up in the canteen. Posing with a pretty girl had put her in a particularly good mood, and after admiring the shot, she sent it to Fang Yangyang over Bluetooth.
Yan Fengji remained silent. Catching a glimpse of the photo on his senior’s screen, where Fang Yangyang smiled brightly, he felt a subtle stir in his heart.
Because a group had gone to the Yinyue Stage today, Meng Zizhao took over the job of distributing the daily rations.
He gave each member of the outing party an extra piece of bread, a perk everyone had agreed upon after discussion. Leaving the canteen to head to the Yinyue Stage or Jialeyuan was a service to everyone at the Jiangpu Canteen, whether they were passing on information or gathering food.
They deserved the extra portion.
As the others lined up for their share, Yan Fengji spoke softly to his senior, Wen Qing, who was about to join the queue. “Senior, did you take any important photos today?”
Wen Qing felt for her phone and remembered something. “I think Dou Qing sent me two pictures of mutated animals he took this morning. Do you want to see them?”
“…Sure.”
Glancing at the length of the line, she scrolled through her gallery, pointed out the shots, and thrust the phone into Yan Fengji’s hand. “Transfer them yourself. Bluetooth is on. I’m going to line up. Do you want me to get yours too?”
“Thank you, Senior.” Yan Fengji answered with polite sincerity.
Watching her walk toward the queue, he turned on his phone’s Bluetooth and began sending the files over.
Beyond the photos of the mutated animals his senior sister had specified, he swiped one image further.
Yan Fengji transferred the photo of Fang Yangyang and his senior sister to his phone as well.
She had handed him her phone out of pure trust. In that moment, a feeling bordering on shame washed over him, mingled with a subtle, swelling thrill of secret joy.
When Wen Qing returned with food for them, Yan Fengji’s portion included an extra piece of bread compared to his senior sister’s.
He returned the phone, thanking her warmly. Smiling, she told him it was nothing, then began discussing the traits of the mutated animals in the photos.
“Did you notice that all the mutated animals have red eyes?”
“Yes. When I went to Yinyue Stage today, every stray cat and dog I ran into had red eyes without exception.”
Yan Fengji ate slowly while his senior sister finished her meal quickly. Taking the opportunity, he pushed his extra piece of bread over to her, hoping to make up for inappropriately flipping through her album without permission.
His senior sister looked puzzled. “Aren’t you going to eat it?”
Yan Fengji was a man of few words, simply nodding in response.
Wen Qing waved her hand dismissively. “Still, I can’t take it. You earned this extra portion from your trip to Yinyue Stage today. What’s yours is yours.”
“I’m full anyway, so I’m going over to hang out with Fang Yangyang,” she added with a cheerful laugh, speaking fondly. “Just sitting and chatting with her always puts me in a much better mood.”
Yan Fengji froze awkwardly, his attempt to push the bread on her cut short as she scampered off toward Fang Yangyang.
He stared across the room at Fang Yangyang, who was smiling sweetly at Wen Qing, looking every bit the darling sweetheart.
That strange itch in his heart lingered, refusing to fade.
Setting his phone to the side, the handsome young man opened his photo album, his gaze settling on Fang Yangyang’s smiling face. Yan Fengji blinked slowly. A vine sprouted abruptly from the palm of his hand, and without him even realizing it, curved itself into a cheesy, comical little heart.