RHWHEG – Chapter 35 Inside the Walls

The next day, they followed Fang Shanyu to the School of Life Sciences, riding shared bikes from campus. The bikes were old and creaked loudly. They had to quickly pass through a large area of direct sunlight using a tool.

The Agricultural University itself was divided into three levels of slopes. They were on the top level. The second level housed the various college and academic buildings, and the bottom level had the cafeterias, sports fields, and other public areas, which had been previously flooded and were heavily damaged. A wide bicycle path called “Ascend the Three Peaks,” also known as “Easy Downhill, Hard Uphill,” ran through the campus. Fang Shanyu told them that if they ever got lost, finding this path was the right move.

“The most important thing,” Fang Shanyu stressed, “is don’t wander off. It’s very dangerous outside.”

Yu Qunqing feigned surprise. “It’s so safe here? No calamities ever hit?”

“Maybe… they were all blocked. It’s true, no calamities have ever come. It’s really quite magical, haha.” Fang Shanyu’s face was noticeably unnatural. He quickly moved past the topic and started introducing them to the campus scenery.

As soon as they entered the School of Life Sciences, they saw Sun Min and Lin Luyi solving problems, with many people watching.

Sun Min confidently handed in his paper. “Just a little advanced math.”

“Now I can prove that I’m a student who escaped from the University of Science and Technology, right?” Sun Min pretended not to see Yu Qunqing.

Beside him, Lin Luyi looked pained. He barely managed to write ten “Solution” marks before he couldn’t figure out how to continue.

Standing nearby was a solemn-looking student. Yu Qunqing heard others say she was Yao Linlin, the person in charge who advocated for venturing outside.

The buzz-cut guy from last night, who was said to be a kinder person, was also there. His name was Gu Tian, and he looked like a good-natured, portly man.

Yao Linlin took Sun Min’s paper but didn’t give an immediate answer. Instead, she stared at Lin Luyi, urging him to keep writing.

Gu Tian was surrounded by a few adults who seemed to be his assistants.

Two of the adults aggressively insisted on separating them for “interrogation.” Fang Shanyu stood there awkwardly, explaining to Gu Tian that Yu Qunqing and his friends weren’t bad people and didn’t need such a harsh “interrogation.”

Gu Tian made the final decision. “Let’s just question them together.”

Just as Yu Qunqing was about to speak, Gu Tian looked at She Lurang. “This gentleman can go first.”

Gu Tian clicked his ballpoint pen. “What is your relationship?”

She Lurang: “Roommates.”

Gu Tian: “Where in Shangyuan City did you live before?”

They hadn’t rehearsed this answer, but Yu Qunqing figured it was fine. She Lurang recalled the keywords from yesterday. Although a bit strange, perhaps it was part of the plan. He said, “…The crematorium?”

A collective gasp seemed to ripple through the crowd.

Yu Qunqing added, “Houses are cheaper near the crematorium.”

Gu Tian asked again, “What was your job?”

She Lurang: “A body double.”

Gu Tian’s small eyes slowly widened. A body double at a crematorium? Was he thinking what he thought?

Yu Qunqing: “An actor’s body double.”

Gu Tian was half-skeptical. “How did the two of you get together?”

She Lurang: “Someone died.”

The people nearby secretly glanced at them, checking to see if they had shadows.

Yu Qunqing: “Our hearts died.”

She Lurang reminded him of their backstory. “And someone also lost their memory.”

Gu Tian asked, “The ‘someone’ here is actually a person’s name, right?”

The two teammates who had been solving problems on the side stopped. They stared at Yu Qunqing and She Lurang as if they were meeting them for the first time.

Yu Qunqing: “In short, we went through a lot and stayed together the whole time. We’ve always been close, inseparable roommates.”

She Lurang: “We even paid homage to the moonlight together.”

Paying homage to the moonlight? What kind of superstitious act is that? Why would they do that? Are they vampires from a graveyard?

…Oh, bai yueguang, “moonlight,” which in Chinese can also mean “the one who got away” or an unforgettable past love.

With that, all the details of their story were complete.

Yu Qunqing nodded to Gu Tian, his expression completely serious.

Gu Tian pondered for a moment. The story was absurd, but as everyone knows, a normal person wouldn’t make something like this up, so it must be true. He meticulously recorded their story, and with a flick of his pen, he confirmed their status as members of the Agricultural University’s shelter.

She Lurang quietly remarked, “A good plan.”

Yu Qunqing agreed heartily. “Good acting.”

They were the fastest to officially settle in recently. They followed someone into an office. The office was a mess, with many paper documents that had been soaked and then hardened by the sun, as well as electronic devices like cameras and radios.

Gu Tian: “You can get a minimum daily ration of food with your ticket.”

Yu Qunqing showed his dissatisfaction: “That’s not enough for us to eat.”

But Gu Tian seemed used to hearing this: “We have a points exchange system. We need steel, and you can exchange it for points if you find it outside. Or you can work—we need people to grind rust. And…” He listed a series of jobs, as if survival here was possible just by working.

Yu Qunqing recalled the scenes he had seen outside, where there were no traces of heavy industry. Although this place had a system of “work-for-food” relief, the demand for steel and labor was not that great, so what about the remaining people? They could only beg from the students. Although the university town’s faction appeared to be orderly on the surface, it was like walking on thin ice.

“It looks very safe here,” She Lulang mentioned a key point. “Are we the only ones here?”

“There are other universities, and they’re not friendly to you, so don’t get too close,” Gu Tian kindly warned. “As for safety, not seeing danger is safety.”

After they registered, Gu Tian opened the office door. Soon, a large crowd surrounded him, saying they were pitiful and hungry. Gu Tian casually agreed with them and, using his physical advantage, squeezed his way out, followed by a swarm of people like locusts.

Gu Tian was indeed one of the more agreeable people. Especially when other students were indignant, Gu Tian would mediate: “Everyone just wants to survive, what’s wrong with that? Just eat if you can.”

However, a closer look revealed that Gu Tian’s eyes held not gentle kindness, but the calm of despair.

How could he not know that the shelter’s system had loopholes?

But the calamities outside were too terrifying… That monster just walked by lightly and easily stole the sanity of so many of his classmates. Faced with such a powerful enemy, humans had no chance of winning!

It was better to have a full meal before dying.

He agreed to another request from a survivor from Shangyuan City.

Soon, more than half of the people in the School of Life Sciences were gone. Yu Qunqing said he was going with She Lulang to find steel, staying away from the crowd’s sight. In reality, they were looking for the victims of the Klein bottle. They still had some things they needed to confirm.

The two teammates they left behind were not so lucky.

Lin Luyi, under many gazes, calmly drew little stick figures on a test paper. After a few strokes, Yao Linlin took the paper. She said firmly, “You are indeed a university student who came for help.”

She looked at Sun Min: “Your advanced math score is perfect. Your identity is suspicious.”

Only the spies from the Polytechnic University who were trying to sneak in would take the test so seriously!

Sun Min: ???

He watched helplessly as Lin Luyi was taken to the office to register his identity, while he was surrounded by others for the next round of questioning.

Lin Luyi desperately gave him a look: What should I do? I’m terrible at gathering intelligence!

Sun Min didn’t see it; he was arguing with someone about the three different ways to solve the advanced math problem.

Lin Luyi entered the office without hope, thinking he would just ask what he could.

Yao Linlin asked, “Do you want to go out?”

“Of course, my home is in…” Lin Luyi paused. “Downtown. I want to go back.”

“I heard there’s a community there,” Yao Linlin said with a cheerful demeanor and a gentle smile. “If it’s safe outside, we’ll go together.”

Lin Luyi crossed his arms and said frankly, “It’s never going to be safe outside.”

Yao Linlin’s expression was still firm: “There will be a safe path. We’ve sent people out.”

Lin Luyi, thinking about the visibly small number of people available to Yao Linlin, asked, “How many people are in favor of going out?”

“We sent out sixteen people,” Yao Linlin’s confidence began to waver slightly. “So there aren’t many left.”

He didn’t know what to say and started a random topic, trying not to reveal his true information.

Yao Linlin noticed that Lin Luyi’s common sense wasn’t at a normal person’s level and asked a few more questions. Lin Luyi almost revealed a flaw and quickly asked who the person in the Polaroid photo on the desk was.

Yao Linlin said, “He’s an excellent graduate from our Normal University, but he only wanted to be an elementary school teacher. We all call him our ‘Senior Brother’.”

Lin Luyi looked at the photo over and over again before remembering that he had seen this face at the elementary school shelter. This was the very person who had written “Song of Everlasting Sorrow,” “Quiet Night Thoughts,” and a “1+1” arithmetic problem on the desk, and who, in an unknown corner, had been stripped of human intelligence.

This person had been attacked by the Klein bottle, and now lived like a pig, tied up in the elementary school shelter, and might be dead if he came back late.

“You know him?” Yao Linlin keenly noticed something was off with Lin Luyi.

Lin Luyi: “Uh…”

He wasn’t good at lying and hesitated for a moment before saying bluntly, “I’ve seen him.”

Yao Linlin awkwardly shrugged her shoulders and turned her face away: “Many people have seen him.”

Lin Luyi repeated, “I saw him after the apocalypse.”

“He didn’t go out before,” Yao Linlin suddenly raised her voice. “He… only led a team outside a few days ago. Could you be mistaken?”

Lin Luyi: “Isn’t that a coincidence then? I also saw him yesterday, uh, a few days ago.”

Yao Linlin seemed very tired and asked stiffly, “Okay, then do you know what their condition is?”

Lin Luyi tried to evade the question, praying that Yu Qunqing or someone would appear soon to save him. He didn’t want to seem like he was bullying her. Why was he the one to tell Yao Linlin the truth?

Yao Linlin kept staring at him. He failed to be vague and said directly, “They’ve all been victimized. I don’t know if they can be saved.”

The more than a thousand survivors in the university town were split into two factions. About three hundred of them were farming peacefully at their base in the Agricultural University. Of these three hundred, thirty had regressed intellectually. Some people stayed put, while others hoped that a spark of hope might exist outside. The “going out” faction had sent out sixteen ambitious young people to find the community mentioned on the radio and to find hope.

And these sixteen people were also attacked, silently stopping at that elementary school.

The world outside the university town was full of dangers, and they couldn’t survive for long.

Her familiar friends would not be coming back.

“He shouldn’t have gone out.”

After a long silence, Yao Linlin finally said this.

She covered her face with her hands, and large tears overflowed from between her fingers. The hopeless waiting of many days had finally broken her resolve: “We shouldn’t have gone out!”

Lin Luyi felt a pang of sympathy but could only accept his own powerlessness.

How great would it be if the downtown community could move closer?

The entire university town was shrouded in a depressing atmosphere. The remains of a ring of elevated highways surrounded this area, like a prison.

As the sun began to set, the weather cooled down slightly.

Suddenly, a sharp whistle pierced the sky.

—”Someone’s here to steal our food!!”

From a telescope at the Agricultural University, a dense cluster of cone-shaped iron objects was seen smashing into the deep gully in the center of the university town. Then, several groups of people crossed the chasm, arriving with hostile intent.