There were sixty-seven people in the cafeteria, plus the twelve people in Yan Fengji and Meng Zizhao’s group.
Seventy-nine people in total.
The inside of the patented glass wall on one side of the cafeteria had no metal shutter. In the past, this had been so teachers and students outside the cafeteria could see how crowded it was inside.
Now, it had become the reason everyone tossed and turned sleeplessly at night.
The red eyes of the stray cats and dogs were like wheat seedlings swaying in a rice field, clustered together, lighting up the pitch-black night.
From four in the morning, when the animals and plants mutated, until nightfall, more than ten hours had passed. Even the daylight had never become as bright as usual. The whole world seemed covered in a veil, making it difficult to see the terrifying creatures hidden beneath the hazy shadows.
Yan Fengji, Meng Zizhao, and their group, who had passed through the school laboratory building and several campus landmarks, told the people who had stayed inside the cafeteria what they had encountered outside.
“The animals’ bodies have mutated—” the senior sister emphasised. “There was a little stray cat near our laboratory building. I always picked certain times to feed it.”
Yan Fengji could not help looking at her. The senior sister, who had been silent the whole way, was as careful as always. She closed her eyes and said hoarsely, “Its original body length was about forty centimetres. From what we can see now, after mutation, the cat is at least sixty centimetres long.”
They had trekked all the way from the laboratory building to Jiangpu Cafeteria. Because the roads had changed, it took much longer than expected. Fortunately, they were a group of young adults holding defensive weapons, which deterred the scattered stray cats and dogs. The animals did not dare come forward to attack.
The women were surrounded in the centre of the group, ensuring that none of them fell behind alone.
During the journey, the senior sister had not forgotten to observe the changes outside, and now she told everyone the data she could provide.
“If all animal mutations follow this kind of body-size change formula…”
Someone had already started calculating, and the atmosphere shifted from heavy to tense.
“Apart from size, there’s also their bite force and jumping ability—”
Dou Qing joined the conversation.
Among the seventy-nine people, some had wounds and were half-asleep. Yan Fengji’s senior brothers and sisters were all medical students. A few minutes earlier, they had used the available materials to properly bandage the wounded, preventing open wounds and worsening infections.
As soon as he spoke, everyone’s attention was drawn to him.
Beside the young man sat a beautiful girl, propping up her cheek, quietly listening to everyone speak.
Meng Zizhao remained calm. He did not miss Yan Fengji’s expression when he looked at Fang Yangyang.
“There’s no relevant equipment for experiments or data analysis right now,” Dou Qing said in a low, deep voice. In the middle of the night, his precise wording carried a chilling coldness. “This morning, a girl was…”
His hand held Fang Yangyang’s, his thumb gently rubbing the back of her hand, as if comforting her.
“That yellow dog jumped to a height of about 1.5 metres.”
It had accurately bitten a human neck, killed in one move, then dragged the corpse away and hidden in the dark to feast.
Those who had seen the big yellow dog bite that girl all fell silent.
One boy choked and wiped away his tears. His emotions collapsed in an instant.
“So what the hell is going on?”
“It’s really the apocalypse? Damn it! We had no warning at all. I only called my parents yesterday and told them I was going home this week—”
He burst into loud sobs. His crying affected everyone else. The girls quietly shed tears, while the boys’ eyes also reddened.
Among the seventy-nine people, the oldest was the cafeteria auntie. She was forty-seven this year, and her child at home was about the same age as the students in front of her. Tears and snot streamed down her face. She was pained by the sudden change in the world and worried about her child’s safety.
“I don’t even know if my girl is okay… If I’d known, I wouldn’t have rushed to work today. Staying at home would’ve been better than being stuck at school.”
Her plump hand wiped the wet tears from her cheeks, her shoulders trembling. A girl beside her was crying so hard she shook. The auntie wiped her own tears while reaching out to hug the girl, and they cried together.
Yan Fengji’s Adam’s apple moved.
He heard his senior brother wiping his nose and his senior sister sobbing softly. He exchanged a glance with Meng Zizhao and realised that both of them were still relatively stable.
Then he looked at Dou Qing and Fang Yangyang.
The two of them were also among the few who had not been too infected by the sadness. Dou Qing said a few quiet words to Fang Yangyang. Fang Yangyang shook her head and did not say much.
Just like an hour ago, when she opened the cafeteria door and let them in, calm as if she were simply opening the door for students queuing up to get food.
The world had changed suddenly. Emotional collapse was an inevitable stage.
…
On the first day of the apocalypse, Jiangpu Cafeteria took in seventy-nine people in total. That night, amid low sobbing and wet tears, no one could sleep peacefully. They would often doze off for a while, only to be startled awake by nightmares.
It was September, not yet the time when blankets were needed at night. According to Xichi University’s dormitory electricity statistics, air-conditioning power usage peaked every September. This meant that even in the cafeteria, no one needed to shiver from the night cold. Even so, everyone feared tomorrow and the red eyes watching hungrily outside the glass wall.
In the end, they still huddled together according to gender.
Fang Yangyang was held in Dou Qing’s arms. Her breathing was very light, and her arm rested dependently against his waist.
Before sleeping, Dou Qing had not expected her to be willing. When he suggested that she lean on his shoulder to sleep, his heart had been uneasy, afraid she might think he was taking advantage of her amid the chaos.
Her reaction surprised him a little, and also satisfied him.
Fang Yangyang merely obediently placed her pink-blue backpack beside him. Under his gaze, she unzipped it and found a women’s jacket that was not too thick, but enough to cover them while sleeping at night.
Holding the jacket, she nudged him.
Dou Qing froze.
She gently squeezed into his arms, spread the jacket over the two of them, buried her head against his chest, and said softly, “Rest well. There will be more things to worry about tomorrow.”
She did not look at anyone else.
Dou Qing sensitively noticed Yan Fengji’s gaze slide across her, then fall on him.
When he nodded slightly at Yan Fengji, he hid his untimely smile. With his arm around her, he leaned against the wall and tried his best to enter a deep sleep, so that he could face tomorrow—
A tomorrow that might be even worse.
….
The second day of the apocalypse.
There was still no signal.
Some people’s phones were already critically low on battery, so they could only turn them off for now. Some people were helping the cafeteria auntie make breakfast. The cafeteria was the same as yesterday, with electricity coming and going. Others stood by the glass doors, observing the weather outside and lowering their heads to record the mutated animals visible in their field of view on paper.
“In the dormitory area around Jiangpu, how many students do you think are still alive?”
Meng Zizhao heard someone speaking anxiously. He frowned slightly, then revealed a bright smile.
“There won’t be large-scale casualties. The water hasn’t been cut off yet.”
The human body could survive for over twenty days without food as long as there was water.
This had been tested and supported by reliable data.
Meng Zizhao’s voice was bright, and even the originally negative people relaxed a little when they heard him.
“Although I’m someone who flies planes,” Meng Zizhao said with the air of an outsider who “didn’t understand experimental data very well,” smiling, “I at least know that as long as we have water, we can survive for over twenty days.”
What hung urgently and anxiously over everyone’s hearts was this:
The world had changed. There were terrifying stray animals outside. Even the birds in the trees seemed to have mutated sharper beaks.
There were seventy-nine people, and the food was only enough for fifty people to last a week. Now, it looked like it would only be enough for them to last half a week.
Everyone was selfish.
Everyone wanted to survive.
No one knew how long the city’s water supply system would last.
The dormitory area was different from ordinary places. Students basically had water buckets, washbasins, and the like, enough for them to fill with clean water when the apocalypse arrived and use later for drinking.
Not to mention, this dormitory area housed nearly a thousand students. Many were juniors and seniors busy with graduation projects and papers. Students like them often stored bread, instant noodles, snacks, and so on in their dorm rooms because of their heavy studies.
That would be enough for them to steadily get through a period of time under these circumstances.
Yan Fengji said, “Yes. As long as the water isn’t cut off, the problem isn’t too serious.”
On the second day of the apocalypse, among the seventy-nine people, some had already gone to the cafeteria warehouse to count the pots, bowls, ladles, and basins. While there was still water in the pipes, they began storing water.
Suddenly, a soft and sweet female voice rang out.
“The water won’t be cut off. Even if it is, there’s a solution.”
It was Fang Yangyang.
She sat next to her boyfriend.
The young man had a refined, pale face and wore glasses, looking gentle and handsome. Her own appearance was no less striking. Under the flickering incandescent lights of the cafeteria hall, her eyes were clear and her features delicate, making her unforgettable.
Everyone’s eyes turned to her. She seemed a little embarrassed by everyone looking at her, and a faint blush rose on the rims of her ears.
“Xichi has a backup water supply system,” she said, mentioning something no one else knew. For a moment, everyone froze. “The campus backup water system is Jing Lake.”
Jing Lake was located within Xichi University. As one of the lakes inside Xichi, it had always been far less famous than the internet-popular “Matcha Lake.”
Everyone’s impression of it was limited to the idea that the lake seemed quite large, far from the teaching buildings and dormitories, probably somewhere near the back mountain of the school.
“There’s also a backup power station near Jing Lake. If the water and electricity really fail completely, as long as we find the teachers and students in electrical engineering…”
“The problem can basically be solved.”
She finished explaining in a few sentences, then leaned her face against Dou Qing’s arm and quieted down.
Everything she had just said was something no one had heard before.
Someone could not help wondering, “How do you know so much? I don’t think our school map says any of that.”
When all freshmen first enrolled, they received an introduction and map from Xichi University.
Xichi University was huge. Without a map, it was practically impossible to move around.
But even on the map, Jing Lake was not marked as a “backup water supply.” In fact, no one knew there was a backup power station near Jing Lake either.
Yan Fengji remained silent.
He heard Fang Yangyang say in a very relaxed and gentle tone, slowly and softly, “This kind of information wouldn’t appear in the campus introduction or map.”
“Then how do you know?”
Her soft voice and calm attitude eased the previously anxious atmosphere.
Her pleasant voice, like poetry or song, slowly flowed through the air. Even the girls who had been wiping tears in low spirits turned to look at her.
“Some confidential information,” she smiled at the person who had asked. “Someone in my family works in this industry, so they know a bit about these things.”
Now, there was no need to hide confidential information. The sooner it was said, the sooner everyone’s hearts could settle. That was best.
Human nature was unpredictable. Who knew whether, under these circumstances, people would start arguing and fighting each other over a future “possibility of water shortage”?
Human abilities would only awaken one by one on the fifth day of the apocalypse.
After abilities awakened, those with water-type abilities would no longer have to worry about water shortages. In reality, as long as there was one water-type ability user in the team, there would be no need to worry about dying of thirst.
The “Four Days of Darkness” in the original text were no joke.
During these four days, when animals and plants mutated ahead of humans, people in dark corners all over the world feared what the future might bring. Their emotions collapsed, they indulged their malice, and they did extremely ugly things.
These “Four Days of Darkness” were not only filled with the slaughter of mutated animals, but also humans killing each other, causing the human population to drop by forty percent.
The earlier people’s hearts could be stabilised, and the more calmly they could pass these four days, the better the result.
Everything she said came from information in the original apocalypse novel.
After the young girl finished speaking, she soon smiled shyly again and said softly, “I know everyone is scared…”
“I’m quite scared too.”
Meng Zizhao folded his arms with interest, watching the beautiful girl sitting close beside Dou Qing.
Using her gentle voice, she casually soothed everyone’s emotions. Her words were even more calming than his deliberately casual outsider act, where he had used subtle phrasing and a smile to say, “As long as the water isn’t cut off, we can live.”
Fang Yangyang.
Her eyes were bright and full of hope, making warmth surge in people’s hearts when they looked at her.
“But we really don’t need to worry. At least for now, we have food, water, and so many people who can rely on each other.”
Bang.
Outside, a white cat with red eyes slammed into the glass wall, but failed to affect the glass at all.
Everyone jumped in fright and looked over. Seeing that the glass wall was still sturdy, they fell silent for a while. Soon, someone laughed.
“Damn, this patented glass is seriously awesome.”
Voices of agreement rose one after another. Even the cafeteria auntie could not help joining in.
“I’ve worked at Jiangpu for two years, and I’ve long heard this patented glass was good…”
Dou Qing turned his head.
He saw Fang Yangyang smile at him.
Soft, sweet, sparkling light shone brilliantly in her eyes, like pearls and treasures set within them.
His heart instantly melted into sugar water, overflowing all over the ground.
“You’re really good,” he said quietly.
Then, under the gazes of some people, he proudly and contentedly wrapped her soft, delicate hand in his own palm.
Leave a Reply