But all the classmates were looking at him, calling his name: “Huang Yuntao!”
Because Xiao Huang wasn’t just the class monitor—he was an excellent student and also the student council president. Any occasion that required a student representative to speak, it was always him.
All the students knew him.
Pairs of eyes were fixed on him, waiting expectantly.
It was at this moment that Xiao Huang finally fully understood Uncle Zhou Wang.
Xiao Huang gritted his teeth hard.
So this was why adults would huddle together and smoke in silence when faced with difficult choices. Because it was just too hard.
“Huang Yuntao—” everyone called out to him in low voices.
No one dared to speak loudly, afraid of attracting the zombies.
Through the lab building, they could faintly hear screams coming from the other side.
In truth, many other students were still trapped in their classrooms too.
Xiao Huang gritted his teeth again and finally made a decision: “To rescue people, we have to find weapons first!”
Zombies weren’t that terrifying, but without weapons and protective gear, humans would be at a disadvantage, with a high risk of infection.
But where were they going to find weapons? This was a school—you couldn’t even find a decent stick. Desks and chairs were mostly useful for defense, but their offensive capability was too poor.
Speaking of desks and chairs, Xiao Huang remembered seeing from a distance that someone in the teaching building had fused the metal legs of desks and chairs into a ladder. That seemed to be some kind of special ability—just like his own ability to sense danger in advance.
His gaze simultaneously fell on the railings along the school’s outer wall…
Some of the first-year middle schoolers even looked like elementary school students. And when they cried, they looked even more so.
Class 11 of the first year was crying all together, none of them daring to make too much noise, afraid of alerting the zombies in the hallway.
One boy’s eyes were swollen from crying.
He was the student who had awakened a metal-based ability. It was his idea to fuse the metal legs of desks and chairs into a simple makeshift ladder so everyone could climb down and escape.
But then the zombies had come. The classmates who had already gone down had screamed and scattered—no one knew if they’d made it out.
Now only seven people were left in the classroom. Originally, many classes had already lost a lot of students when this semester started, and some classes had even been combined. There weren’t enough teachers either.
He felt it was all his fault. If he hadn’t made that ladder and let everyone escape down the stairs, those people might not have died.
He couldn’t forgive himself.
Tears streaming down his face, he wiped away the blood from his nose and made a chair leg deform in his hand.
His head hurt terribly—making the ladder had already made his brain feel like it was about to explode. Now he had to keep using his ability, and the nosebleed wouldn’t stop.
“Wu Shuchen, what are you doing?” someone whispered.
The boy gritted his teeth and said, “I’m going to make a sword. I’m going out there to kill zombies.”
He’d decided to take the zombies down with him. That was the only way he could make it up to his fallen classmates.
Others tried to dissuade him: “Stop! You’re already getting nosebleeds!”
Someone else said, “How are you even going to get out? If you open the door and the zombies come in, we’ll all die.”
That last comment hit Wu Shuchen hard, and he gave up in defeat.
“Is anyone going to come rescue us?”
“I don’t know. Mom and Dad are both at work—they’re definitely encountering lots of zombies too.”
“Last time we were trapped at home, we called the police so many times, but in the end, no one ever came.”
They remembered the last time—the zombie outbreak started on Saturday, and official rescue didn’t begin until Wednesday.
The children were all starting to feel a bit hopeless.
Then, suddenly, the school’s public address system crackled to life.
[Student in Teaching Building No. 1 who can fuse metal! Student in Teaching Building No. 1 who can fuse metal! This is student council president Huang Xuetao!]
Everyone looked up in shock.
Even the zombies in the hallway looked up. Because the voice was coming from the speakers in every classroom simultaneously, echoing through the corridors, the zombies couldn’t pinpoint the source and wandered around the hallways in confusion, unable to find fresh flesh.
Wu Shuchen looked bewildered: “Is—is that me?”
“It’s you, it’s you, it’s definitely you!”
“It has to be you!”
[Student in Teaching Building No. 1 who can fuse metal, listen up! We’re going to lure the zombies under the teaching building toward the gymnasium. Find a way to get down from the building while you have the chance. I need your special ability to help everyone make weapons!]
[Fellow students! Many teachers have already sacrificed themselves to protect us! You’ve all been through this before—don’t count on anyone else to save us now!]
[We have to save ourselves!]
[Students! Students in Building No. 1, please help cover this student. I need him urgently!]
Countless students trapped in their classrooms looked up at the speakers above their blackboards.
“It’s Huang Xuetao!”
“Is that the student representative who spoke at orientation?”
“Yes, that’s him! He’s the student council president!”
He was needed! He was counted on! He still had a chance to help everyone and make up for the mistake he’d made!
Wu Shuchen wiped away his tears and stood up: “I’m going!”
“Wait a second!”
A classmate called out to him, pulling a roll of wide tape from a storage cabinet.
Everyone understood immediately. Workbooks and practice books—their size and thickness were just right. They’d wrap them around his arms as armor!
When the adults had gone out to kill zombies back then, many had used this exact method for protection. It was the first time the kids had seen firsthand just how tough paper could be.
Sure enough, sounds started coming from afar. The children pressed against the windows and watched as the zombies below the building all shambled toward the source of the noise.
The seven kids from Class 11, Grade 7, worked together to lower the crude single-pole ladder out the window again, and Wu Shuchen climbed down while he had the chance.
But halfway down, someone above suddenly cried out: “Zombies!”
Wu Shuchen looked down—sure enough, two regular zombies were lagging behind the faster ones. The sound of the ladder hitting the ground had attracted them, and they were shambling back.
They were about to reach the bottom of the ladder. What now, what now?
Should he retreat?
Suddenly, a clattering noise erupted behind the zombies. Both of them turned around.
Wu Shuchen looked up and saw students from the higher floors leaning out of their windows, one after another, throwing their pencil cases in that direction, trying to fling them as far as possible.
The zombies were confused by the constant clatter of pencil cases hitting the ground, running back and forth—a sound here, a sound there.
The students were covering for Wu Shuchen with their ingenuity and quick action.
Wu Shuchen’s vision blurred. Step by step, he climbed down.
A boy a head taller than him came running over: “So it’s you! Come with me, quick!”
It was indeed the student council president who was always up on stage giving speeches—Huang Xuetao.
Xiao Huang recognized Wu Shuchen too—a bespectacled, mild-mannered boy on the shorter side.
At this year’s arts festival, the first-place winner had been a dragon welded from iron scraps.
When Wu Shuchen went up to accept his award, he’d said he welded it himself, adding that he’d grown up following his father around and playing with all kinds of tools.
A photo of him with that dragon had been displayed in the school’s hallway display case, and Xiao Huang saw it every time he passed by.
Xiao Huang led Wu Shuchen toward the nearest fence: “Stay close and don’t be scared—I can sense danger before it happens.”
He’d barely finished speaking when he suddenly grabbed Wu Shuchen and veered in another direction, darting into the gap between two buildings.
Wu Shuchen ran while looking back, catching a glimpse of zombies passing by the path they’d just been on.
“Senior! What do you need me to do?” he asked, panting.
Xiao Huang asked: “You can control metal?”
“Yes! I can fuse metal and make it change shape! But I’m slow!” Wu Shuchen said.
As for the fact that making something that big would make his head throb unbearably and give him nosebleeds—he didn’t mention that at all.
Xiao Huang asked: “What about cutting metal?”
Wu Shuchen: “Huh?”
As they spoke, they had already reached the outer perimeter of the school. The outermost boundary was a dark green iron fence.
Xiao Huang grabbed one of the railings: “Can you cut these off? Take them out one by one?”
Take them out one by one—that would make them… iron rods!!! Ready-made weapons!
Wu Shuchen caught on instantly, his eyes lighting up: “Let me try!”
He gripped two railings with both hands. A few seconds later, two “iron rods” were “removed” from the row of fencing!
Not only did it work—it was also much easier than fusing metal and reshaping it. It didn’t put any extra strain on his brain!
“Take one, leave one!” Xiao Huang reminded him. “If we take them all out, zombies from outside can get in easily.”
“Got it!!” One after another, Wu Shuchen “removed” iron rods from the fence.
…
Technology New District, Mai Duoduo Supermarket, warehouse.
Brother Dong and Guo Jun lay side by side on the mattress inside their secret base on top of the shelving, both with blank, lifeless eyes.
Their only phone was turned off. They couldn’t reach anyone outside, and they had no idea whether Jiang Cheng and the others would come to rescue them.
They’d eaten too many snacks and now needed to take a dump. But there were zombies down below, and they didn’t dare go down.
Doing it up here would be too disgusting, so they could only hold it in.
The two of them were mentally scattered, their unfocused eyes staring at the warehouse ceiling.
Suddenly, a few sounds echoed through the storeroom.
Neither of them moved.
Guo Jun whispered: “What was that?”
Brother Dong whispered back: “Probably zombies bumping into stuff?”
It sounded like something had fallen to the ground or something had tripped.
Just as they were whispering, a furry little head suddenly appeared in their field of vision.
…Huh?
Guo Jun shot up into a sitting position.
This startled Brother Dong, who sat up too.
Because when Brother Dong had dealt with Jiang Cheng before, the black civet had been tucked inside Jiang Cheng’s crossbody bag. If it didn’t open its eyes, you couldn’t even tell what was in the bag.
And then Brother Dong had run off like a bastard.
So Brother Dong wasn’t familiar with this little black cat.
But Guo Jun was!
Guo Jun had been living at the Youth Apartments, paying his rent through odd jobs. After his shift at Mai Duoduo, he’d have to go door-to-door at the apartments fixing this and that. Naturally, he’d chat with the residents while working.
“Jiang Cheng’s little black cat” came up in conversation quite often.
He’d also see the little black cat sunbathing on top of the pavilion when he went to work in the morning.
Had Jiang Cheng come to rescue them?
Before they could even get excited, the little black cat suddenly let out a “Meow~” that rang out clearly in the empty warehouse.
Good heavens!
Brother Dong and Guo Jun were so startled they reached out to cover the cat’s mouth.
But there was no way Mo Li would let them succeed. He twisted his body and vanished from atop the merchandise.
Guo Jun and Brother Dong instinctively leaned over to look down.
They didn’t see the little black cat, but they did see the bodies of two zombies lying in the aisle.
Wait—how had those two zombies died?
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