The Capital’s Apocalypse

Dean Zhang’s smug and cunning expression made Jiang Song very unhappy.

“Dean Zhang, why are you doing this? We are all your students.” Shen Jia cried and played the emotional card.

Dean Zhang looked at her amusedly and explained, “Nonono, our relationship now is just that of a diner and his meal.”

Shen Jia became even more desperate after hearing this: “Jiang Song, Shengsheng, what should I do? I don’t want to die, and I don’t want to become a zombie.”

Jiang Song caught a glimpse of a red fire axe out of the corner of her eye. She thought she might be able to smash the door with it. At this moment, there was a sudden knock on the door.

The three of them turned around at the same time and saw a tall and straight figure standing outside the door. He was leaning against the glass in an idle posture. He had a very handsome face and made a gesture to Jiang Song and others to step back.

They did as they were told, and then something shocking happened. The man raised his foot and kicked the glass door, breaking it. The huge impact force caused the entire piece of glass to explode, and small glass fragments flew equally towards everyone in the hall.

Jiang Song hissed as a piece of broken glass cut her arm, and fresh blood gushed out instantly.

Looking at Dean Zhang again, his neck happened to be struck by a large piece of glass, directly inserted into his aorta. His body stiffened, and even a shocked expression could be seen on his dry skin.

Three seconds later, Dean Zhang died with resentment filling his eyes¹.

After Dean Zhang fell to the ground, the remaining zombies seemed to be unsealed and all ran towards Jiang Song and the others.

“Run, you living daddies.²” Reminded the man outside the door.

As he wished, Jiang Song quickly left the girls’ dormitory building.

The man took Jiang Song and the others all the way to the nearest canteen. When the people inside saw them, they quickly opened the door and isolated the zombies chasing behind the group.

After that exhilarating run, Jiang Song leaned against the wall and looked around the area. They were all surviving students here, about a dozen men and women.

“Brother Shen, you’re back.” A girl ran towards him excitedly: “Did you find your niece?”

The man’s eyes drifted to the side slightly, and all eyes instantly fell on Jiang Song.

Jiang Song: ???

“Found her.”

In a flash of clarity, Jiang Song suddenly remembered what the mother of the in-game identity had told her: a man named Shen Tingsi would come to save her, and the classmate just now had called him Brother Shen.

Jiang Song’s gaze slowly shifted over, meeting his stare, and she asked, “Little…Uncle…?”

Shen Tingsi curled his lips slightly, his expression indifferent: “On the surface³ level.”

Jiang Song understood and nodded: “Thank you, uncle⁴. I didn’t expect you to come and save me.”

Jiang Song still found it hard to believe that genuine sentimental affection could exist within this game. This was different from the plots in the novels she had read before, which often featured dangerous games and inhumanity.

The corner of Shen Tingsi’s mouth twitched: “You’re welcome.”

“Was it you who sent me that video of Dean Zhang, uncle?” Jiang Song asked Shen Tingsi.

Shen Tingsi clearly looked to be only in his twenties, but Jiang Song kept calling him “uncle” again and again. He felt a strange and uncomfortable feeling in his heart, but he couldn’t tell why.

He hummed and admitted to it.

No matter what, it was worth celebrating that she escaped this disaster, but Jiang Song was still a little scared in her heart. So she walked up to Shen Tingsi, patted his arm, and said in a small voice, “Uncle, can I please speak to you privately for a moment?”

Shen Tingsi glanced at her, then cooperated and walked to a deserted corner.

Jiang Song believed that she had no other special abilities, but her ability to adapt to the environment was surprisingly quite impressive. Since the game gave her this life-saving straw, she had to hold on to it tightly.

“Uncle, long time no see. My mom told me that you once held me in your arms when I was a child.” Jiang Song tugged up the corners of her mouth and smiled hypocritically.

Shen Tingsi knew what kind of fart she was holding back⁵ when he heard this, so he stated directly, “Just say what you want to say.”

Jiang Song chuckled: “When are we leaving? What are your plans, uncle?”

Jiang Song has never let her guard down since she came in. She knows very well that the current environment is not actually safe. Although she is not facing zombies for now, humans are much scarier than zombies. These students don’t have much food and can’t last long, and what she brought with her is only enough to sustain her for more than ten days. If they concoct any plans or intentions towards her supplies, it will be difficult for her to save herself. Moreover, she couldn’t stay in the school forever. She had to go out and find the shelter before the game ended. So she wanted to find out when Shen Tingsi was preparing to leave.

When Shen Tingsi heard her question, his eyes seemed to smile, “Who told you that we were leaving?”

Jiang Song was stunned for a moment: “But my mother said that you’re here to save me.”

Shen Tingsi said with a hint of mockery: “You don’t think it’s safer outside the school than here, do you?”

Jiang Song ignored his tone and asked directly: “Then how long do you plan to stay here?”

Shen Tingsi seemed to be quite laissez-faire⁶: “We’ll wait until the rescue comes.”

“What about food? What will you eat if help doesn’t arrive in time?”

Shen Tingsi impatiently replied: “Eat whatever you have. If you don’t have anything to eat, just starve for a few days.”

Jiang Song thoroughly understood that this was no life-saving straw at all, but clearly a broken piece of mud that could not support anything, so she no longer had the desire to continue communicating with him. At this time, Shen Jia had integrated into the collective of this canteen because she found a senior sister she knew and quickly mingled with her.

Jiang Song walked up to Lin Shengsheng, who was waiting for her on the side. After spending the past few days together, Jiang Song felt that Lin Shengsheng, the character in this game, was quite reliable. At least it was quite comfortable to stay with her.

“Baby, now that we’re here, let’s make the best of it. There are a lot of people here and it’s safe. Let’s just stay here for a while and see if there’s any rescue coming.”

Jiang Song agreed, after all, she had no other choice.

Jiang Song and Lin Shengsheng found an isolated area to stay. Soon, nighttime came, and many people’s stomachs rumbled in protest. The senior sister in charge here took out food and even warmly entertained Jiang Song: “Come on, let’s eat together.”

Lin Shengsheng tugged on Jiang Song’s sleeve and said, “Let’s go together.”

Jiang Song was pulled over. She did not reveal that she had food. Everyone seemed very enthusiastic and the situation did not seem to be as bad as she had imagined.

Lin Shengsheng posted a message on the school forum during the evening about zombies pretending to be humans. She used what happened to them today as an example to warn other students.

Jiang Song watched her edit and reminded her, “Don’t expose our location. If you send it out, not only will other classmates see it, but those zombies will too.”

Lin Shengsheng belatedly realized her carelessness and immediately deleted the words about them hiding in the cafeteria. “Oh, thank goodness you reminded me. Look at my stupid brain.”

Jiang Song shook her head: “It’s okay, just be careful.”

Soon, people started asking follow-up questions under Lin Shengsheng’s post.

[Really? You’re not deceiving us, are you? How can you even come up with something as bizarre as zombies pretending to be humans?]

[You said you escaped. Where did you escape to?]

[That’s right, if you don’t say more, it won’t be convincing. You can’t even be truthful and comprehensive.]

Countless similar words filled the comments. Lin Shengsheng looked at Jiang Song helplessly: “Baby, what should we do?”

Jiang Song had a deadpanned expression: “You tried your best. Whether or not they believe it is their own business, we can’t interfere.”

Lin Shengsheng lowered her head in frustration, poking at the screen helplessly.

1. ‘飲恨西北’ – literal meaning is ‘Drinking Regrets in the Northwest’: From 
   Baidu Encyclopedia , it originally refers to being defeated in the northwest region and dying with regret and resentment.
   This phrase is often used to describe historical battles, such as on the northwest battlefield, where soldiers were defeated with endless regrets.
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2. LMAO it’s legit “run, you living daddies” “跑吧，活爹們” and it’s a popular internet term that came from the Northeastern Chinese dialect.
   Basically: used to describe those who are difficult to serve, often causing trouble, and are not to be provoked. It’s similar to the metaphor of “living ancestors”, expressing a sense of helplessness and grievance towards someone. People who use this term usually feel annoyed when interacting with someone, but have to accommodate them. Therefore, “living dad” is used to describe this conflicting feeling of both annoyance and helplessness.
   Initially, I was going to translate it to “you living ancestors” for more of that helpless tone in this high-stakes environment, but it was so funny and out of the blue for me that I decided to keep it as is, cause it seems like a part of ML’s personality bwahahaha
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3. ‘表的’ – He’s specifying it lol.
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4. Once again, he is her in-game identity’s father’s younger male cousin. Jiang Song is addressing him as ‘表叔’, adding the ‘表’ this time instead of just “小…叔. ↩︎
5. ‘一聽就知道她沒憋好屁’ – So like, as soon as Shen Tingsi heard her, he knew that whatever intentions or designs she was harbouring mustn’t be anything good. Because she’s holding back whatever words she’s going to say, like how you would hold back a fart lol. ↩︎
6. Original text says ‘擺爛’ – (neologism c. 2014) (slang) to stop striving (esp. when one knows one cannot succeed); to let it all go to hell; (sports) to tank. ↩︎