During her cancer treatment, Fang Yangyang had read quite a few novels. Some were female-oriented romances, while others were male-oriented power-up novels.
The apocalypse novel she had transmigrated into was a standard male-oriented power-up story, leaning towards an ensemble cast. The male lead, second male lead, and third male lead were all positive characters. The main plot centred around saving and reviving humanity. From the arrival of the apocalypse to ten years after its descent, humanity’s base was finally officially established.
The original “Fang Yangyang” was nothing more than a cannon-fodder female supporting character with very few scenes, who died early on.
In order to survive, after transmigrating into the book and before the apocalypse arrived, Fang Yangyang confessed to the third male lead, Dou Qing.
She had confessed boldly because, after realising this was not a “lucid dream,” she understood that the only advantage she could temporarily rely on was her appearance.
Fang Yangyang guessed that Dou Qing had agreed because she was very beautiful.
A male university student, single, confessed to by a pretty girl — most would not refuse.
Even if Dou Qing politely rejected her, she would still have an excuse to approach him as a “pursuer,” naturally gaining some benefits and surviving in the apocalypse.
This behaviour could not be called open and honourable.
Confessing to the third male lead, hiding the coming of the apocalypse, arriving at the cafeteria ahead of time…
She saw Dou Qing come in through the cafeteria entrance, breathless. When he saw her, his brows and eyes froze.
“Have you been waiting for me for a long time?” he asked apologetically.
“It’s okay.” Fang Yangyang revealed a bright smile. Her pupils were slightly large, clear and watery, fresh and moving. More than ten minutes had passed since Dou Qing had come downstairs. Ten minutes earlier, she had been “entangled” with Yan Fengji for a while and had temporarily sent him away with a cold face. Now, she was prepared to focus on spending time with Dou Qing.
“Have you eaten?”
Swept by those watery eyes, Dou Qing felt a honey-like sweetness spread through his heart.
“Not yet. You haven’t eaten either?”
Dou Qing seemed somewhat bad at speaking. The tips of his ears turned red. He raised his hand into a fist, pressed it against his lips, and coughed lightly twice.
“Is there anything you want to eat?”
When university couples dated, money was usually not very abundant. Both sides generally relied on living expenses from their parents, and splitting the bill was normal.
The original “Fang Yangyang’s” parents were away on business all year round. Her family was quite well-off, and her monthly living expenses started at ten thousand.
She even had a newly bought apartment near Xichi University.
Fang Yangyang’s eyes flickered. She pressed her lips together and said softly, “I want to eat from that counter—”
Before she could finish, Dou Qing immediately stood up.
“I’ll get it for you. Just sit here.”
The young man strode towards the cafeteria counter she had casually pointed at.
Fang Yangyang froze slightly. She had not even taken out her campus card for him to pay with, yet Dou Qing had already gone over decisively.
She propped her chin on one hand, lowered her lashes, and thought quietly. Soon, Dou Qing returned.
He carried the food he had bought. At a rough glance, he had basically ordered one portion of every dish from that counter.
She laughed. “Why did you get so much? I can’t finish all this.”
“It’s fine.” Dou Qing could not help glancing at her. Seeing the smile on her cheeks, he grew a little nervous. “If you can’t finish, I can help you clear the leftovers.”
“Okay. Thank you… my boyfriend.”
Her voice was soft, sweet, and tender. Her eyes were clear and moving, giving her an exquisite, delicate beauty that made people lose themselves.
Dou Qing’s face instantly turned red. His expression became awkward. His originally relaxed legs could not help crossing, one over the other, and his gaze shifted elsewhere.
Fang Yangyang smiled and began eating with her chopsticks. Before eating, she first used a clean pair of chopsticks to put some food aside for Dou Qing.
She spoke gently with him. As they chatted, she laughed softly.
“Do you have anything you’re busy with lately? Do you have experiments tonight?”
Dou Qing was a junior this year. At Xichi University, juniors were basically already guided by undergraduate supervisors for their graduation projects. His major required various data collection in biological research laboratories, which was why Fang Yangyang asked.
When his area of expertise was mentioned, Dou Qing’s confidence became outstanding. He calmly talked about the data research he had recently done with his supervisor.
After a pause, Dou Qing asked her, “For that Agricultural Research Society you joined, if there’s any data the club needs, you can come to me.”
“A few days ago, I did an analysis report on the emergence rate of wheat and rice…”
“Thank you. If there’s a chance, I’ll ask you.”
Fang Yangyang said this aloud, but in her heart, she knew there would be no chance in the future.
In a few more hours, the apocalypse would arrive.
After they finished eating, she left the cafeteria with him for a short while and found a stone bench outside to sit on. The two chatted for a while.
During their conversation, a little white cat mewed and rubbed against Fang Yangyang’s leg. She reached out to stroke its fur, gently smoothing it down, her eyes tender.
Dou Qing looked at her, lost in thought.
After a while, he said, “Should I buy some chicken breast for it?”
The convenience store in the cafeteria sold ketogenic meal sets for students who worked out. The chicken breast was salt-free, and students often used it to feed stray cats and dogs.
“No need.” Fang Yangyang did not stop stroking the cat. She knew that in a few hours, the little cat before her would evolve and mutate to several times its current size.
When the apocalypse first descended, many stray cats and dogs became the first wave of beasts to hunt humans.
After mutating, they were far stronger than humans, who would not awaken abilities until five days later. The earliest large-scale human deaths occurred during the first four days after the apocalypse arrived.
In the book, later generations called those days the “Four Days of Darkness.”
She rubbed the kitten’s chin with her finger. The kitten made a faint purring sound, sweet and adorable.
Dou Qing did not understand why she touched and stroked the cat but did not feed it, but he did not think too deeply about it.
Time reached eight o’clock at night.
They had been together for almost over an hour.
It was time to return to the dormitory. Dou Qing reluctantly parted from her. In the end, the young man endured his shyness and gave her a light hug.
It was this hug that changed Fang Yangyang’s mind.
Breaking free from Dou Qing’s arms, Fang Yangyang pointed seriously at the cafeteria.
“I’m not going back to the dorm tonight. I’m going to stay up in the cafeteria. Will you stay with me?”
Her original plan had been to survive in Jiangpu Cafeteria by following the large group of the male lead and second male lead. The third male lead would safely survive the beginning of the apocalypse in another cafeteria.
Trying not to change the original plot development as much as possible should have been the safest choice.
That was what Fang Yangyang had originally thought.
Now, she no longer felt that way.
There were eight hours left until the apocalypse arrived.
The night was deep. Under the streetlight, the beauty smiled softly. In her clear brows and eyes was a hint of lingering attachment and reluctance. Though she did not say everything aloud, her expression was full of tenderness.
“Are you willing?”
Her newly acquired boyfriend, the third male lead of the apocalypse novel, Dou Qing, was stunned by her smile for a long while.
A faint redness appeared on his face. His eyes flickered. He rubbed his nose and nodded.
“Okay.”
….
There were not many students staying up in Jiangpu Cafeteria to study.
At three in the morning, Fang Yangyang leaned against Dou Qing’s shoulder and slept for a while. When she opened her eyes again, the students in the cafeteria were already looking around and peering outside.
“What’s going on? I heard cats meowing. Are they in heat?” one student asked blankly, scratching his head. “Didn’t our school catch and neuter all the cats in the first half of the year? Was there one that slipped through?”
“What the hell? I feel like the trees outside have grown a lot bigger. Am I dreaming?”
“Damn! The phone signal is gone!”
“Is the signal station broken? Doesn’t our school have a signal station on the nearby mountaintop? Should we find someone to repair it?”
Dou Qing felt Fang Yangyang tremble lightly beside him.
She bit her knuckle and stared blankly outside, where the sun had not yet risen and everything was still pitch-black.
One wall of the cafeteria was made of glass. The material was special, a patent the chemistry department had applied for years earlier. It was bulletproof, crack-proof, and explosion-proof.
Outside the glass wall, several pairs of blood-red eyes stared fixedly at the dozen or so people inside the cafeteria.
The cafeteria door was still open. Someone saw the bright red eyes outside, and the student closest to the door shrieked, reacting quickly and shutting it.
As they shut it, they shouted to the other students in the cafeteria:
“Close the windows and doors! Lock all the windows!”
“What about the door? I saw a cafeteria auntie coming to work!”
“Don’t lock the door completely. If someone needs to come in, let them in. Watch the windows. Don’t let those things jump in!”
The area around the cafeteria had always been where stray cats and dogs gathered the most. Around the rubbish bins and food waste buckets, greedy cats and dogs would often gather, filling their stomachs with leftovers.
And with so many people passing by, cats and dogs could sometimes get food from students by acting cute.
The number of stray cats and dogs at Xichi University had only decreased five years ago, when the veterinary department officially began a large-scale neutering campaign. Eventually, a balance was reached. Someone had even made a data report: every year, no fewer than thirty unneutered cats and dogs from outside were estimated to enter the campus. For a university campus covering thousands of mu, this was indeed a decent achievement in managing stray animals.
In the darkness, several pairs of blood-red eyes glowed. Soon, more and more red pupils lit up.
A cafeteria auntie rode over on an electric scooter. Her plump body swiftly brushed past several cats and dogs that had already mutated and grown larger. She cursed aloud:
“What the hell are these things?”
“Damn it, they even want to rush up and bite me?!”
The cafeteria auntie fiercely drove the electric scooter straight ahead. The little scooter swerved, and she rammed several cats and dogs that were about to pounce with the front of the vehicle, knocking them to the side of the road.
The auntie was also an ordinary kind person who was willing to give stray cats and dogs a bite to eat. Usually, when she saw these animals and had something on hand, she would toss it down to feed them.
But today was different.
These cats and dogs with glowing red eyes before her—
How could these still be considered cute animals?
The cafeteria auntie hardened her heart and knocked the cats and dogs down behind her, driving all the way to the cafeteria entrance. She stopped.
As the students opened the door, she quickly squeezed her plump body inside.
She was drenched in sweat. Under the concerned questions of the student who opened the door, she explained that she had left home at three-thirty, arrived near the university gate just before four, and as soon as four o’clock arrived, the campus started changing.
“It was exactly like a ghost movie,” the auntie said, taking out her self-brewed tea from her bag, panting heavily as she drank a mouthful. “The trees were growing like crazy, crackling everywhere. I found a cement road to come through, but even that couldn’t stop those four-legged beasts. Those cats and dogs have all become much bigger than before!”
Outside the glass wall, the students who had stayed up in Jiangpu Cafeteria to study for courses, postgraduate entrance exams, and certificates stared at the scene not far away. They froze, then screamed hoarsely.
A young girl, clearly having run down from the dormitory building, was still wearing short-sleeved pyjamas. Looking panicked, she saw that people had gathered inside the cafeteria and tried to run in this direction.
But she could not outrun the four-legged yellow dog.
That dog, originally a local dog affectionately called “Da Huang” by everyone on Xichi University’s public account, made a rumbling sound in its throat. A hungry crimson light flashed in its eyes. It lunged forward and bit down on the young girl’s neck, aiming straight for the vital point.
Blood sprayed. The girl had no time to defend herself and fell straight to the ground.
…
Dou Qing heard a choked sob escape Fang Yangyang’s throat.
He immediately raised his hand, wanting to cover her eyes, but she gently pulled it down.
Her eyes were moist and red. Her lashes were still damp with tears, translucent like glass. The girl opened her mouth with difficulty.
“Dou Qing, am I dreaming?”
He lifted his face and looked straight outside the glass wall. After the young girl, a few scattered teachers and students who had come downstairs were also pounced on and bitten by the covetous stray cats and dogs.
This clearly was not a dream.
Some students on the balconies of the dormitory towers had obviously noticed this scene. In the electrical engineering major, many dormitories had high-powered flashlights, quite similar to the large flashlights used for night fishing. One student shone a flashlight down and saw the scene below. He immediately shouted:
“Don’t come downstairs! Don’t go outside!”
That shout startled the birds resting in the trees. Sharp cries rose one after another. A flock of birds surged up like a cluster of dark clouds, aiming straight at the boy on the balcony.
The boy was almost pierced through the eyes by the birds’ beaks. Luckily, his roommate immediately pulled him back into the dorm and shut the balcony door.
4:15 in the morning.
A small number of students who had been busy with graduation projects and experimental data had not slept in the first place. They were shocked speechless by the scene. They tried to contact their classmates, their families far away, and even tried to find out what exactly had happened to the world.
But their phones had no signal.
No information could be sent out.
And a large portion of students were still sleeping soundly. …The apocalypse had quietly arrived while humanity was utterly unprepared.
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