Chapter 101

But every classmate was watching him, calling his name: “Huang Yuntao!”

Little Huang wasn’t just the class monitor. He excelled in both character and academics, and he was also the student council president. Whenever a student representative was needed to speak, he was the one who stepped up.

Everyone knew him.

Countless eyes were fixed on him, waiting expectantly.

At that moment, Little Huang finally understood Uncle Zhou Wang completely.

He clenched his teeth.

So this was why adults gathered in silence and smoked when faced with a difficult choice. Because it was just too hard.

“Huang Yuntao...” everyone called softly.

No one dared to raise their voice, afraid of attracting the zombies.

Faintly, from the other side of the laboratory building, came another scream.

In fact, many more students were still trapped in their classrooms.

Huang Yuntao clenched his teeth again and finally made up his mind. “If we’re going to save people, we need to find weapons first!”

Zombies weren’t all that frightening, but without weapons or protective gear, humans were at a disadvantage, and the risk of infection was extremely high.

But where could they find weapons? This was a school. It was hard enough to find even a stick. Desks and chairs could at most be used for defense; they were far too poor for attacking.

Thinking of desks and chairs, Little Huang remembered seeing people in the distance at the school building fuse the metal legs of desks and chairs together to make a ladder. That seemed to be a special ability, just like his own ability to sense danger in advance.

His gaze fell on the railing along the school’s outer wall...

Some of the seventh-graders looked so young they could have been elementary school students. When they cried, they looked even younger.

The students of Class 11, Grade 7, were crying their eyes out, yet none of them dared to make 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. He had come up with the idea of fusing the metal legs of desks and chairs into a crude single-pole ladder, allowing everyone to climb down and escape.

Who could have known that zombies would appear? The students who had already climbed down had screamed and fled. No one knew whether they had managed to get away.

Only seven students remained in the classroom. There had already been far fewer students in many classes when the new term began. Some classes had even been merged because there weren’t enough teachers.

He felt that it was all his fault. If he hadn’t made that single-pole ladder and sent his classmates down to escape, perhaps those people wouldn’t have died.

He couldn’t forgive himself.

As tears streamed down his face, he wiped away the blood from his nose and made a chair leg twist and change shape in his hand.

His head throbbed terribly. Making the ladder had nearly caused his brain to explode, and now he was still forcing himself to use his ability. The nosebleed simply wouldn’t stop.

“Wu Shuchen, what are you doing?” someone asked softly.

The boy gritted his teeth. “I’m going to make a sword. I’m going out to kill zombies.”

He had decided to die alongside the zombies. Only then could he atone for the classmates who had died.

Someone tried to stop him. “Don’t keep going! Your nose is bleeding!”

Another said, “How are you going to get out? If you open the door and the zombies come in, we’ll all die!”

Those words finally crushed Wu Shuchen’s resolve. He sank into despair and gave up.

“Will someone come rescue us?”

“I don’t know. Dad and Mom are both at work. They must have run into a lot of zombies too.”

“When we were trapped at home last time, we called the police over and over, but they never came.”

The students remembered what had happened before. The zombie outbreak had begun on Saturday, but official rescue efforts had not started until Wednesday.

The children were filled with despair.

Just then, the school’s broadcast suddenly crackled to life.

“Student in Building One who can fuse metal! Student in Building One who can fuse metal! This is Huang Xuetao, the student council president!”

Everyone looked up in astonishment.

Even the zombies in the hallway raised their heads. The voice was coming simultaneously from the speakers in every classroom, echoing through the corridors. Unable to pinpoint the source, the zombies wandered around in confusion, unable to find any fresh meat.

Wu Shuchen was bewildered. “Is... is he talking about me?”

“It’s you! It’s definitely you!”

“It has to be you!”

“Student in Building One who can fuse metal, listen carefully. In a moment, we’ll lure the zombies beneath the building toward the gymnasium. Find a way to come down while you can. I need your special ability to help everyone make weapons!”

“Students! Many teachers have sacrificed themselves to protect us! We’ve all seen what things are like now, so stop counting on someone else to come rescue us!”

“We have to save ourselves!”

“Students! Everyone in Building One, please help cover for this student. I need him very much right now!”

Countless students trapped in their classrooms tilted their heads toward the speakers above the blackboards.

“It’s Huang Xuetao!”

“Is he the student representative who spoke at the entrance ceremony?”

“Yes, that’s him! He’s the student council president!”

He was needed. People were counting on him. He still had a chance to help everyone and make up for the mistake he had made.

Wu Shuchen wiped away his tears and stood up. “I’m going!”

“Wait!”

One of his classmates called out to him and pulled a roll of wide adhesive tape from a storage cabinet.

Everyone immediately understood. The workbooks and exercise books were just the right size and thickness to be wrapped around his arms as protection.

Back when the adults had gone out to kill zombies, many of them had used the same method to protect themselves. It was the first time the children had gained a direct understanding of how tough paper could be.

Sure enough, sounds began to rise from somewhere in the distance. Everyone pressed against the windows and looked out. The zombies below were heading toward the source of the noise one after another.

The seven children in Class 11, Grade 7, worked together to lower the crude single-pole ladder out of the window again. Wu Shuchen took advantage of the opportunity and climbed down.

But when he was halfway down, the people above suddenly cried out, “There are zombies!”

Wu Shuchen looked down. Sure enough, two original zombies had been left behind because they were slower than the second-generation zombies. The sound of the ladder hitting the ground had attracted them, and they were running back.

They were almost beneath the ladder. What should he do? What should he do?

Should he climb back up?

Suddenly, a clattering sound came from behind the zombies. The two zombies turned around together.

Wu Shuchen looked up. Students on the floor above had leaned out of their windows and were throwing pencil cases in that direction, one after another, trying to send them as far as possible.

The zombies were drawn to the constant banging of the pencil cases striking the ground. They ran wildly from side to side, chasing a sound that rang out here one moment and there the next.

The students were using their ingenuity and taking real action to cover Wu Shuchen.

His vision blurred with tears as he climbed down step by step.

A boy who was a head taller than him came running over. “So it’s you! Come on, follow me!”

It was indeed Huang Xuetao, the student council president who often appeared onstage to speak.

Little Huang also recognized Wu Shuchen—a short, bespectacled boy with a refined appearance.

At this year’s Arts Festival, the first-place prize had gone to a dragon welded from strips of metal.

When Wu Shuchen had gone onstage to accept the award, he had said that he had welded it himself, having learned to handle all kinds of tools from his father since he was little.

A photograph of him posing with the dragon had been displayed on the bulletin board in the school building. Little Huang saw it every time he passed by.

Little Huang led Wu Shuchen toward the nearest fence. “Stay close to me. Don’t be afraid. I can sense danger in advance.”

The moment he finished speaking, he suddenly grabbed Wu Shuchen and pulled him in another direction, darting through the gap between two buildings.

Wu Shuchen ran while looking back over his shoulder and saw zombies coming along the road they had just taken.

“Senior! What do you want me to do?” he asked between ragged breaths.

Little Huang asked, “Can you control metal?”

“Yes! I can fuse metal together and reshape it! But I’m very slow!” Wu Shuchen replied.

As for the fact that making anything large left him with splitting headaches and a bloody nose, he kept that to himself.

Little Huang asked, “What about cutting metal apart?”

“Huh?”

As they spoke, they had already reached the outer edge of the school. The very perimeter consisted of dark green iron fencing.

Little Huang grabbed one of the bars. “Can you cut them loose? Take them off one by one?”

Take them off one by one—that would make iron rods...!

Ready-made weapons!

Wu Shuchen understood instantly, and his eyes lit up. “I’ll try!”

He gripped the fence with both hands. A few seconds later, two “iron rods” came free from the row of fencing as if they had simply been plucked out!

Not only had he succeeded, it was also much easier than fusing metal together and reshaping it. It didn’t put any additional strain on his brain!

“Take out every other one!” Little Huang reminded him. “If you dismantle the whole thing, it’ll be easy for the zombies to get in.”

“Okay!” Wu Shuchen removed the iron rods from the fence one after another.

...

New Technology District, Maiduo Supermarket, warehouse.

Brother Dong and Guo Jun lay side by side on the mattresses in the secret base atop the storage shelves, their eyes vacant.

Their only phone had run out of power. They couldn’t contact anyone outside, and they had no idea whether Jiang Cheng and the others would come to rescue them.

They had eaten too many snacks and needed to take a dump. But with zombies below, they didn’t dare climb down.

Going on top of the shelves would be too awful to contemplate, so all they could do was hold it in.

The two men were listless, their unfocused eyes fixed on the warehouse ceiling.

Suddenly, several noises rang out in the storeroom.

Neither of them moved.

“What was that?” Guo Jun asked in a low voice.

“Probably the zombies knocking into things,” Brother Dong whispered back.

It sounded like something had fallen to the floor—or perhaps someone had collapsed.

As they spoke in hushed voices, a furry head suddenly appeared in their field of vision.

...Huh?

Guo Jun shot upright.

Brother Dong nearly jumped out of his skin and sat up as well.

Back when Brother Dong had dealt with Jiang Cheng, Mo Li had always been curled up inside Jiang Cheng’s crossbody bag. Unless he opened his eyes and looked closely, there was no way to tell what was inside.

Afterward, Brother Dong had shamelessly run off.

So he wasn’t familiar with this little black cat.

But Guo Jun knew him!

Guo Jun had always lived in the Youth Apartments, working odd jobs in exchange for rent.

After finishing his shift at Maiduo, he had to go door to door in the Youth Apartments, fixing this or that for the residents. While making repairs, he inevitably ended up chatting with them.

“Jiang Cheng’s little black cat” came up in conversation quite often.

Guo Jun had also seen the little black cat sunning himself on top of the pavilion in the mornings when he went to work.

Had Jiang Cheng come to rescue them?

Before they could even celebrate, the little black cat suddenly let out a “Meow~” that rang out with startling clarity in the cavernous warehouse.

Oh, for the love of God!

Terrified, Brother Dong and Guo Jun reached out, trying to cover the cat’s mouth.

But Mo Li had no intention of letting them succeed. With a twist of his body, he vanished from atop the merchandise.

Guo Jun and Brother Dong instinctively leaned over to look down.

They couldn’t see the little black cat anywhere, but they did see the bodies of zombies lying in the aisle.

Huh? How had those two zombies died?