Chapter 15 Bloody Barbecue Restaurant
Song Rushuang lay down again, her mind heavy with worries. She dozed off for an hour before getting up to wash and do her morning exercise.
After her morning run, she opened social media and searched for news using keywords such as "Country R" and "XX Mountain Scenic Area".
There are no new results yet. It's unclear whether the media outlets that frequently repost foreign news have not yet received the news or are still translating it.
Helpless, Song Rushuang ate breakfast and returned to her dormitory to do her homework for the hoarding class.
Today is Saturday, and many local students have gone home, while others have made plans to go shopping in the city. The dormitory buildings are bustling with students coming and going, making it a rare moment of carefree relaxation after a long week.
After noon, Zhang Han couldn't hold back any longer. She pushed aside the draft paper on the table covered with zombie anatomy diagrams and threatened to kill herself, "inviting" her two roommates to accompany her for a stroll in the city.
Seeing her look like she was about to be driven crazy by studying, Shen Qingqing suppressed a laugh and agreed. Song Rushuang had things on her mind and also wanted to go out for a walk to clear her head.
The three hit it off immediately and boarded a bus outside the South Gate that led to downtown S City.
*
Lao Liu is the bus driver in charge of route K-713.
The route started at the foot of Xishan Mountain and drove all the way to the city center. Usually, there were few people near the starting station, with only a few villagers occasionally coming into the city to buy things. But this time, as soon as the bus arrived at the Fengqing Village station, a whole busload of people suddenly rushed onto it.
A group of young faces, full of student spirit, chattered amongst themselves.
"We're finally liberated!"
"Don't even mention it, I still have to come back for my night run tonight. I managed to stick to it for a week, I can't let it stop."
"There's only one bus an hour. Seriously, our school is way too remote!"
Old Liu stared in disbelief, instinctively looking towards the bus stop on the side of the road.
The road sign in Fengqing Village was changed at some point and now reads "South Gate of Fangzhou University".
He's been running this route for over ten years, how come he doesn't remember when he changed the station name?
Old Liu rubbed his eyes and, sure enough, saw the school gate not far away: "That's strange, it really has turned into a school."
Although it's called Fengqing Village, this is actually just the original site of Fengqing Village. The entire village moved to the resettlement area several years ago, leaving the village deserted. At night, stray cats keep howling, making it look like a gloomy ghost village.
But this infamous ghost village was transformed overnight into rows of brand-new school buildings.
"They've already started recruiting, how come no one's mentioned something this big..."
Old Liu muttered a few words, but didn't think much of it, and turned to watch the students scan the QR code.
Upon closer inspection, another problem was discovered.
The students who boarded the bus all limped, looking as if they had just come down from Mount Tai. When they went up the stairs, the stairs were too high, and they had to manually lift their legs up. Even Old Liu's elderly mother, who had just celebrated her 80th birthday this year, was much more agile than them.
Several boys had bruises on their lips, prominent cheekbones, and broken knuckles. Old Liu, who had been a gangster in his youth, immediately noticed something was off about them: something was wrong with this group!
After the boys, a group of girls boarded the bus. They were at the prime of their youth, yet instead of smelling of perfume and cosmetics, they reeked of medicinal plasters.
...Even girls are fighting?
Old Liu's hand, which was reaching for the emergency button, quietly stopped. He looked at them suspiciously, then his fist touched his palm, and he suddenly realized: "Oh, this is a sports school, right?"
The bus fell silent for a moment, then erupted in a chorus of "Haha, yeah!"
"You noticed that, Master! You have a good eye."
Old Liu laughed along, "Sports schools are great! They'll bring glory to the country in the future, and maybe even produce an Olympic champion. I'll share in your good fortune."
"Yes, yes, I accept your kind words..."
After exchanging a few laughs, several boys hurriedly ran onto the bus, exclaiming, "Great! Great! We made it!"
The boy in the lead wiped the sweat from his bangs, swiped his bus card three times, and gestured for his roommates to board. His roommate behind him, with a stern face, clearly preoccupied with something else, waited until he found a seat and then said impatiently, "I told you, you couldn't have just stabbed it in the eye head-on from the start. What if you got bitten? Eyes are so small, how were you sure the dagger would go in precisely?"
Inside the car: "..."
Old Liu: "..."
Roommate C: "That's why I said to cut its tendons in its hands and feet first, so it can lose its mobility, and then you can do whatever you want with it!"
The boy swiping his card said, "Putting aside the feasibility, how do you guys know where the tendons in your hands and feet are?!"
Roommate B: "It's obvious you weren't paying attention in the theory class. Where's the anatomy diagram? Did you bring it? I'll show you..."
The three argued heatedly, unaware that the once lively car had suddenly fallen silent.
When the boy A, who had just swiped his card, actually started rummaging through his bag looking for anatomical diagrams, a classmate nearby finally couldn't resist stepping on his foot.
The boy yelled, "Who! Who stepped on me!"
He spun around in place but couldn't find the black foot. However, following the direction his classmates were pointing, he finally caught sight of the driver's back at the front of the bus.
Old Liu's balding head had an indescribable stiffness, and he hunched over, seemingly trying his best to minimize his presence.
Boy: "..."
The air condensed.
He weakly opened his mouth: "Is it too late for me to say that this is really a legitimate school?"
A passerby said, "I think the principal is going to kill you any second now."
"Cherish your last moments."
+1
+1
Boy: "..."
Boy: "No to that kind of thing!!"
*
On the way to the city, Lao Liu delivered the most stable driving performance of his career.
As he prepared to return to his workplace, he quickly warned his colleagues to be careful when heading to Xishan in the future, because he had just transported a carload of thugs that day!
They stab people specifically in the eyes, and they're always trying to sever their tendons and ligaments—it's terrifying.
Did the anti-gang and anti-crime campaign miss our area back then?
Thanks to that scare, Song Rushuang didn't get carsick even though she was looking at her phone the whole way.
At 5 p.m., a media outlet finally reprinted the news from the foreign website, mentioning a serious incident that occurred at a famous tourist attraction in R country, in which a Chinese tourist was caught in the crossfire and is still in critical condition.
Few people paid attention to this news, and there were few comments. Most of them were reminders to be cautious when traveling abroad and never to stand by and watch when you encounter such fights.
Song Rushuang looked up a few more news articles, but none of them mentioned that the person who caused the injury was mentally unstable or that an unknown disease had appeared.
She was probably overthinking it; it was just a simple accident caused by friction.
For some inexplicable reason, Song Rushuang recalled the young man straddling another unconscious person, mechanically pounding downwards like he was pounding rice cake.
For the first time, she realized that life does not pass silently.
Instead, it was a "thump! thump! thump!" sound.
...
A brawl broke out at a famous tourist attraction in Country R, leaving three dead and one injured! The fate of a Chinese tourist is unknown.
Fu Qing received a news notification on her phone. She glanced at it but didn't pay much attention to it.
Three lives lost can be enough to tear a family apart if they fall on an individual, but on a global scale, countless such incidents happen every day.
Not to mention, this happened overseas.
It's a huge distance away, but the scenic spot's fame has brought it into the spotlight, generating some online discussion. Many tourists who recently visited expressed their fear, while some keyboard warriors mocked the situation, saying it was all the fault of these elderly folks who love to join in the fun wherever they go, and that they "served themselves right."
[Young people, don't worry, this has nothing to do with us.]
[You can't say that. We're compatriots, after all. You're being too cold-hearted.]
[Seriously, hasn't anyone noticed an increase in bloodshed lately? This is the fourth one I've seen today.]
[Two of the other three incidents were mass shootings in Country A, right...? Isn't that commonplace in Country A? (doge)]
[But there was another one in China, which was also quite terrifying: a home invasion robbery that resulted in two deaths.]
A new comment suddenly popped up below.
[Holy crap, another one! Look at the trending topics: random killing in a downtown area, the perpetrator shot dead on the spot, six dead and eleven injured!]
The comment immediately stirred up a frenzy among netizens who initially felt detached because the incident occurred overseas.
[What happened? I'll go check it out.]
[It's terrifying! It happened right downstairs from my apartment. All I could hear was crying; I live on the 24th floor and I could hear it too… I've contacted relatives and friends immediately. I hope my family is safe.]
[Oh my god... what's wrong with me lately? Is it really because the weather is so dry and my internal heat is too strong?]
The death toll has risen again. Our prayers are for the victims.
Fu Qing finally reached the front of the line. She picked up the milk tea she had ordered online, inserted the straw with one hand, and scrolled down the comments section with the other, unable to help but frown.
Then he looked up and glanced around.
This is a large commercial area, and it's busiest time of the weekend, nearing evening. Crowds throng the area, shoulder to shoulder. Young men and women, dressed in their finest attire, form long queues in front of trendy shops. In the nearby open-air plaza, there's a children's playground where kids jump high on trampolines and reach out to touch the lights on the tall buildings.
It was peaceful and serene, without the slightest sign of anything amiss.
Having spent so much time in the apocalypse, Fu Qing had almost forgotten what it felt like. That's how the internet age is; when you pick up your phone in a crowd, you experience a strong sense of disconnect.
The fear expressed by netizens and the bloodshed that quickly dominated trending topics did not seem to have spread to the lives of most people.
While families of the victims were grieving across much of China, people in City S were still enjoying their weekend.
Fu Qing had only been reading the news while waiting in line, and after receiving her milk tea, she put her phone away.
I walked through the crowd toward a food street near the shopping plaza.
Compared to the brightly lit and exquisitely decorated shops in shopping malls, she prefers the small street stalls with their lively atmosphere, where tables and chairs are set up on the roadside, and loud shouts are heard when serving food. The owners are enthusiastic, and the customers are casual, making it a real human experience that is hard to find after the apocalypse.
As the system approached the entrance to the food street, it issued a notification: [16 Fangzhou University students have been detected nearby.]
After hearing the system's prompt yesterday, Fu Qing left home early this morning.
This is the first weekend since the start of the school year, and also the first day that students can leave the school since the start of the semester. Who knows, this might trigger some special events.
She made a special trip to this densely populated commercial area and, sure enough, ran into students who were out enjoying the weekend.
On campus, no student's every move escapes Fu Qing's eyes, which is why she was able to discover the supposedly covert behavior of the 21 expelled students.
Of course, she wouldn't be so bored as to spy on them.
There is a system to conduct initial screening, and only outrageous behaviors will be pushed to the youth support department.
However, once outside the school, the system can only sense the students' location and can no longer know their specific behavior.
In addition, a reminder will be sent to Fuqing when the distance is reduced to within a 300-meter radius.
It was dinner time, and the food street was bustling with people. Fu Qing opened the system and took a look. The light points representing the students were scattered in twos and threes in the small shops along the street.
She was just about to find a shop to sit down when suddenly everything went white and a pop-up window lit up.
[Trigger: Special event "Bloody Barbecue Restaurant"]
[Description: On a rare weekend, students left school to relax, but unexpectedly encountered a sudden incident and nearly got caught up in a bloody conflict. As the principal, protecting the students' safety is my duty!]
[Requirement: Escort students safely to the dangerous location (Incomplete)]
[Reward: 200 Teaching Points]
Bloodshed?
Fu Qing felt a sinking feeling in her heart as she thought about the various social news stories that had been trending online recently.
She opened the map and sure enough, there were several dots clustered around a restaurant called "Come on, BBQ" that was only a hundred meters away.
*
"Lai Dian Barbecue" is a popular barbecue restaurant in the area.
The two-story building is brand new and impressive, brightly lit up at night. There's an open-air shed in the courtyard, with a stage and sound equipment in one corner, where singers occasionally perform. If customers are in the mood, they can go up and sing a couple of songs, which is very popular among artsy young people.
Meanwhile, the exquisitely decorated courtyard of this popular online store was in complete disarray.
Tables and chairs were overturned on the ground, and broken bottles were scattered everywhere.
Several students from Fangzhou stood side by side, protecting a girl behind them.
The girl knelt on the ground, bent over and hugged a snow-white Samoyed, crying so hard she could barely breathe: "Baby, hang in there, Mommy has already called a car, we'll take you to the hospital right away."
"Damn it, he's really treating a dog like his son."
Several drunken middle-aged men stood in front of the students, their short-sleeved shirts rolled up to reveal flabby bellies, and two of them had tattoos on their backs. Their fierce appearance scared away several passersby who wanted to help, and in the end, only a few students who had just come of age stood stiffly in front of the girl.
The leader of the group held an empty wine bottle and spat it hard on the ground: "Nobody's leaving here today unless you leave the dog behind!"
"I already told you, your fall has nothing to do with Mao Mao!" the girl cried.
Seeing the man's gaze sweep over him, Qin Yufei quickly straightened up and took another half step forward.
"What are you doing! Don't you dare lay a hand on me!"
As she said this, her gaze couldn't help but fall on the beer bottle in the man's hand.
He gripped the neck of the bottle; the bottom had been smashed on something, and bloodstains on the sharp edge were still wet.
Qin Yufei knew that this was the blood of that Samoyed.
Five minutes earlier, while he and a roommate were queuing at a barbecue restaurant, they bumped into two of Fangzhou's female classmates, and the four of them decided to share a table. The restaurant's outdoor area allowed pets, and the girls at the next table were walking an exceptionally cute Samoyed with fluffy fur like a dandelion, clearly well taken care of.
The girls couldn't resist reaching out and touching it halfway through their meal.
Samoyeds are known for being friendly dogs, and this Samoyed named Mao Mao is no exception.
During the meal, it sat obediently at its owner's feet, sticking out its pink tongue and letting the girls touch it, its mouth happily upturned, living up to its nickname "Smiling Angel".
Besides them, there was another table of middle-aged men in the courtyard who had been eating for who knows how long, with empty, pale green liquor bottles piled up at their feet. One of them was completely drunk and got up to go sing karaoke, but before he even got there, he tripped over a tangled mess of electrical wires on the ground.
His companions behind him burst into laughter upon seeing this.
Perhaps feeling embarrassed by his fall, the man's first action upon getting up was to look around. When he saw the dog leash at Mao Mao's feet, his expression instantly changed to one of anger and embarrassment.
Before Mao Mao's owner could react, a beer bottle exploded on the Samoyed's head.
Qin Yufei and the other three were startled and jumped up amidst the girl's scream.
And that's how this standoff came about.
"Go ahead and check the security footage! It has nothing to do with Mao Mao!"
The girl's hair was plastered on her face as she used her entire body to shield the dog that had collapsed to the ground.
The staff at "Come on, some barbecue" were initially looking around to see what was going on, but upon hearing this, they quickly glanced at the group of tattooed men and hurriedly distanced themselves: "Our security cameras are broken and haven't been fixed yet. You can call the police yourselves to resolve this."
On Saturday night, traffic was terrible near the shopping street. The car the girl had called was probably stuck in traffic, and the men were getting impatient.
The leader raised his bottle and said, "Mind your own business. I'll kill this dog today. You've been raising it like a son, causing it to run rampant and disrupt social order! If your parents didn't teach it, I will. A person is a person, and a dog is a dog. If a dog offends a person, it must be killed."
The students from Fangzhou had only been training for a week. Although they had some basic fighting skills, they had never fought a group brawl with weapons. They could only try their best to hold on and not let their morale weaken.
They put on a convincing act, but their physical changes tell a different story.
[Warning! Increased heart rate detected even during non-exercise]
Current heart rate: 114 bpm
[Did you encounter an emergency?]
[You can choose to report to the nearest wristband holder]
Qin Yufei caught a glimpse of the notification popping up on his bracelet, and his first reaction was to blush: Why was his heart rate so high? It was definitely from excitement, not fear!
These few bastards who only know how to bully the weak, and they have to call for outside help when they can't beat them, that's just too shameful...
"Holy crap, they can still call in reinforcements?"
Qin Yufei's thoughts came to an abrupt halt as he watched in shock as his roommate swiftly pressed the SOS button.
Then he secretly let out a sigh of relief.
A message stating that "a Fangzhou student nearby has issued an emergency SOS" was quickly transmitted to the wristbands of all students within a 500m radius, along with the specific address.
According to the system settings, distress messages will be sent to students who are closer in location first. If no response is received, or if there are no Fangzhou students within 500 meters, the distress message will be sent to students within a radius of 1km, 2km, and 5km.
Until someone is found who is willing to respond.
...
The three girls in dormitory 1111 were halfway through their meal when they were startled by a sudden vibration. Upon seeing the message, they jumped up on the spot.
"A classmate is calling for help!"
"What does this mean? Is someone at our school in danger?"
A chorus of screams came from next door.
Song Rushuang and the other two paused, then pushed aside the green plant partition in the middle of the hot pot restaurant and found that the two people at the next table were raising their wrists with identical black watches in a daze.
Eye contact met, the signal was correct, hurry and rescue them.
Before leaving, Zhang Han used all her speed to pay the bills for the two tables, and didn't forget to remind the waiter: "We'll be back to eat later, so remember to save the hot pot broth and that plate of duck blood for me, don't take them away, please—"
In the end, Weiyin and the others turned a corner and disappeared around the street.
Shop assistant: "..."
When the five people arrived, they found that the situation was far more serious than they had imagined.
Before Song Rushuang and Shen Qingqing could ask what was going on, they quickly stood next to Qin Yufei to support their classmate.
The two girls behind Qin Yufei quickly cried for help: "Save the dog!"
—Teacher Hao said that in an emergency, the more concise the instructions, the better.
Upon hearing this, the two people who came with Song Rushuang and the others turned their gazes to the injured puppy behind them. They exchanged a glance, and without saying a word, they tacitly picked up the Samoyed and ran away.
After a week of training, including 5km of running every day and chasing each other during PE class, I didn't develop anything else, but my legwork became exceptionally agile.
These two students, in particular, seemed to be exceptionally gifted, recovering from the backaches and leg pains of exercise early on, their backs displaying an enviable agility.
Before the drunken group could react, the two men, carrying the dog, disappeared into the obstacle-filled night market through a maze of turns.
Drunk man: "???"
I've seen people call for backup when they're in a brawl, but I've never seen backup arrive and the first thing they do is steal a dog.
While their attention was focused on the two classmates who were stealing and rescuing the dog, Zhang Han watched as the dog stealthily crept to the corner of the wall and picked up a brick.
When Fu Qing arrived, this was the scene that greeted him.
Some stole dogs, others bluffed, and still others took advantage of the chaos to pick up illegal weapons, attempting to send themselves to jail and then face the end of the world upon their release.
Her eyelids twitched.
The drunken man and his gang had already noticed that these girls looked young and were obviously students, so they weren't afraid at all. When they saw a few more girls coming to help, they laughed mockingly, "Little girls, you should go home and play with your dolls. Mind your own business."
Song Rushuang clenched her fists silently.
She suddenly remembered the sensation of piercing a zombie's flesh with a shard of a thermos, and a surge of courage welled up within her. Without a word, she stood shoulder to shoulder with Qin Yufei, showing no intention of backing down.
Seeing that they didn't respond, the drunk man's eyes instead filled with anger and contempt, and a feeling of being looked down upon arose spontaneously: "You worthless coward..."
Song Rushuang's body tensed, her gaze falling on what was behind them, and then suddenly she froze.
"I'm their principal. Do you need to see my student?"
A hand rested on the drunk man, and the calm tone was like a gentle breeze that pierced through the stagnant air in the courtyard.
"You can tell me if there's anything you need."
As Fu Qing spoke, she turned and glanced at Zhang Han.
Zhang Han awkwardly put down the brick in his hand.
"Principal?" The drunk man turned his head and saw her. As if he had heard a joke, he turned around in an exaggerated manner with his face flushed red, his eyes and brows saying: Did you hear what she said?
A few of his cronies burst into laughter, unaware that the students beside him had somehow developed expressions of unbearable disapproval.
The students, who had stood tall and refused to back down from the very beginning, silently took a step back.
I measured the distance, and then took another step.
When the drunken man in the lead turned around, he saw the suddenly appearing empty space in front of him. The alcohol made him sluggish, and he squinted his eyes: "What, scared?"
Fu Qing thought for a moment and said, "I think they might just be a little more perceptive of the crisis than you are."
"What danger?" The man was about to laugh again. "With your... "
Bang!
A table leaning to one side was left behind by the hurriedly dispersing crowd. The man's hair was grabbed from the back of his head, and he was pressed down with tremendous force, causing him to tilt uncontrollably and slam his face hard against the table.
The loud noise made the hearts of the onlookers jump.
He was completely stunned by the impact, and when he looked up, blood gushed from his nose like a burst dam.
He realized what was happening and flew into a rage: "I... ...
Bang!
Loud noise *2.
"If you can't speak, you don't have to speak."
Fu Qing grabbed the drunk man's short hair at the back of his head with one hand, forcing him to raise his head, and patted his cheek in a friendly manner with the other.
Upon releasing his grip, the man's vision went black, and he collapsed limply onto the empty floor beside the table. He had clearly lost consciousness long ago; his bulky body had been lifted up by Fu Qing with just one hand.
The students from Fangzhou were stunned when they saw Fu Qing make a move for the first time.
They had assumed the principal would be very capable, but they hadn't imagined he would be this capable.
The middle-aged man's companions, who had been throwing a tantrum while drunk, suddenly fell silent as they looked at him lying on the ground.
It's as if the brain, which has been controlled by alcohol, suddenly becomes clear-headed, and reason returns to the body, transforming from a mad beast back into a Homo sapiens who has received nine years of compulsory education in the blink of an eye.
Fu Qing casually kicked the drunk man's limp body aside and turned to ask, "Are you guys coming too?"
"It's okay, there's plenty of space, a few more can squeeze in," she said, seemingly understanding.
Everyone: "..."
The person in front of me looked to be about the same age as the students next to me, yet there was something inexplicably unsettling about him.
The noisy shop suddenly fell silent. The men who had been picking a fight didn't want to back down, nor did they want to suffer the same fate as their companions. In the end, they could only stare awkwardly at their companions lying on the ground.
He thought to himself that they couldn't carry him to the hospital like they would carry Mao Mao.
Fu Qing waited a few seconds but received no response.
Not only were those drunk middle-aged men pretending to be dead, but their minds were also completely silent.
She coughed.
The system remained silent for a few seconds before slowly displaying a notification.
[Resolved: Special Incident "Bloody Barbecue Restaurant"]
[Requirement: Escort students safely to a dangerous location]
There was a slight pause for one second when the text refreshed to this line.
Nine students were involved, and covering their evacuation should have been a difficult and complicated task.
The system assessed the overall difficulty before awarding a reward of 200 teaching points.
But it never expected that the host would complete the task in such a simple and brutal way.
The task was too troublesome, so she chose to address the root cause of the problem directly.
How can this not be considered fulfilling the requirements?
The system eventually added "Completed" after some hesitation.
...
[Reward: 200 Teaching Points]
Fu Qing's lips curled up almost imperceptibly.
Finally, I have money!
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