Chapter 16 "It's like being dragged home by your parents..."
Fangzhou's students were stunned.
How many seconds have passed since the principal appeared? Has it been half a minute?
Is that how the matter is resolved?
One second he was arrogantly waving a beer bottle, saying he'd teach them a lesson, and the next he was lying face down on the ground, as peaceful as if he were dead.
Qin Yufei had initially worried that the principal wouldn't be able to defeat the opponent alone, but now he sadly realized that he had been overthinking it. Despite being a dignified sports student, muscular and nearly 1.9 meters tall, he hadn't been able to help at all. Qin Yufei lowered his head in deep shame, and a hint of pink suddenly appeared at the edge of his vision.
He looked closely and noticed that Fu Qing had a cup of strawberry bubble tea filled with toppings hanging on her left wrist.
Qin Yufei: "..."
The principal did so much without spilling a single drop of milk tea; he's terrifyingly efficient!
For some reason, what they feared most at school was running into the principal, but when they encountered intractable troubles outside of school and saw her, he almost teared up.
The students felt with absolute certainty that she was on their side.
As this thought arose, a sense of security welled up within him. It even made Qin Yufei feel a little embarrassed when he recalled his previous comments on the forum.
How could he make such assumptions about the principal?
Thinking about it carefully, she clearly didn't do anything, and the school's curriculum was all designed with their needs in mind.
The simulation exercise may be brutal and unreasonable, but can it be more brutal than the apocalypse? Can it be more unreasonable than the people I've encountered today?
Qin Yufei's mind was in turmoil. On the day of the simulation exercise, he witnessed his roommate turn into a zombie, and he himself was infected. When he regained consciousness, he knew that he had infected countless classmates while in a daze, which almost caused him to collapse and also led him to become a supporter of conspiracy theories for a time.
But today's events changed his mind.
At that moment, Fu Qing looked at the seven classmates standing in the small courtyard.
When their eyes met, Qin Yufei instinctively looked away out of shame, only to hear that voice, which had once echoed through the loudspeakers and auditorium, seemingly so distant, now clearly reach his ears.
"You did a great job."
It was described lightly, yet it carried a weight that lingered in my heart.
The group, including Song Rushuang, were stunned for a moment, their eyes darting around, and their cheeks even felt a little hot.
The group of drunkards who had caused trouble finally sobered up a bit. One of them stepped forward, cleared his throat, looked at the group of young people in front of him, and frowned as if he were an elder, saying, "I admit that Lao Hu was a bit impulsive when he was drunk, but no matter what, you can't hit people, right? Leave your contact information, we'll take you to the hospital, and you should pay compensation. Hitting people will result in legal consequences."
They were the ones who attacked first, but now that they can't gain the upper hand through force, they've started talking about "reason" again. Qin Yufei was so angry he almost laughed.
Just then, two figures burst into the courtyard; they were the same two who had carried the dog to the hospital at the beginning.
The boy glanced around the courtyard, like a grand eunuch bursting into the hall with crucial evidence, just short of shouting "Wait!" before expertly presenting the phone to the emperor.
"..." The Emperor. Fu Qing took the phone that he handed over with a wink, and found that it was in a call, and the other party's contact name was "Dog Owner".
The boy carrying the dog whispered, "Principal, we've put it in the car. The owner is on his way to the hospital."
Ironically, the chubby Samoyed woke up as soon as it reached the intersection, and even stuck out its tongue to lick its owner's palm twice.
The wet, warm tongue made the girl cry immediately.
She ruffled the thick fur on the Samoyed's back a couple of times, then carefully flipped through the hair on its head where blood was seeping out. She discovered that the blood came from a cut on its ear, and it suddenly dawned on her: the person must have been drunk and missed, the beer bottle had broken on the table leg, and the shards had cut the Samoyed's ear.
The situation was so urgent that in the chaos, no one noticed that the chubby little dog lying on the ground was pretending to be dead.
"It usually lies on the ground and doesn't move when it makes a mistake and gets punished... I didn't expect it to be faking it today too." The girl laughed and cried at the same time.
Even so, it's still necessary to go to the hospital for a check-up, just in case.
Before leaving, the girl stopped the two and insisted on exchanging contact information.
Worried that the issues in the courtyard hadn't been resolved, she insisted they stay on the phone so she could hear the progress from her side.
Sure enough, even after the dog was given away, those people still wouldn't let it go and even demanded compensation from the kind-hearted people.
"What are you going to pay me back for?!"
The girl was furious and begged Fu Qing to turn on the speakerphone—
"Since you're talking about compensation, let's discuss the issue of compensation."
"Mao Mao is a show-quality Samoyed. I bought her for 12,000 yuan, and I still have the receipt. She is three and a half years old this year and has been with my family for three years. Including food, medical care, training fees and daily care, the monthly cost of raising her is about 6,000 yuan. I have kept all the purchase receipts for the items and services."
"Besides, Mao Mao was a comfort dog given to me by my parents to alleviate my emotional problems. She is now mentally unstable due to the beatings you have given her. If anything happens to her, I don't want to live anymore. I will definitely demand compensation and damages for emotional distress from you at the original price."
"I'm ready to go to court anytime. My legal team would be happy to use this case to double my year-end bonus."
The girl finished speaking coldly in one breath, making the men's faces turn ashen.
Upon hearing the words "unconscious," the two boys responsible for delivering the dog looked up at the sky and down at the ground, indicating that they hadn't heard anything.
Zhang Han, sitting in the corner, widened her eyes when she heard about the monthly cost of feeding a dog, counting on her fingers as if the sky had fallen: "My living expenses are even less than a dog's..."
Fu Qing was also quite surprised; the person opposite him was actually a genuine young lady from a wealthy family.
The drunkards seemed to have finally given up and, with pale faces, went to move their unconscious companion from the ground. Several bystanders were criticizing the shop assistant for refusing to provide surveillance footage, implying that a few bad reviews were inevitable. The barbecue shop assistant didn't even dare to lift his head.
Fu Qing turned off the speakerphone and walked to the side.
"Is the matter resolved?" the girl asked softly.
Fu Qing hummed in agreement, and the person opposite immediately dropped their previous arrogance, saying happily, "Thank you so much for today! Are you students from the same school? I'll definitely visit the school to thank you in person later. Could you please give me your address?"
During the meal, she overheard the conversation at the next table and could tell that they were classmates.
"By the way, my name is Zhao Tingting."
Fu Qing wanted to refuse, but Zhao Tingting kept pestering her, so she had no choice but to agree and gave her the school address and her contact information.
After hanging up the phone, she looked at the nine people in the college and wrote down each person's information in the system: "The four people who participated in the act of bravery today, including the five who responded to their classmates' calls for help, will each receive 3 points as encouragement."
Unexpectedly, there was such a pleasant surprise. Song Rushuang and the other nine people were stunned for a moment before cheering.
They excitedly discussed the points system, while Fu Qing looked at the group causing trouble.
They asked the shop for a wet towel and, with grim faces, began wiping their companion's nosebleed.
The atmosphere was extremely subdued, a stark contrast to the joyful students.
When the man hit the table, his lip seemed to be cut as well, and blood seeped from his lips, staining the towel red. Fu Qing watched it without moving for a while.
Saliva, blood, wound.
This is the main route of virus transmission in the apocalypse.
For a long time, whenever a wound appeared on his body, Fu Qing would be on tenterhooks for a long time, carefully thinking about its origin.
But in today's peaceful times, people don't have such worries, and their attitude towards wounds is quite casual.
Fu Qing forced herself to look away from the used towels and blankets that were carelessly thrown into the trash can.
She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she felt something was off.
Her intuition, which had helped her avoid countless dangers during the apocalypse, was suddenly alarming her.
It's common for drunkards to act crazy after drinking, and it's common for conflicts to occur during sightseeing. In recent years, there have been more than a few incidents of people driving their cars into busy city centers in an attempt to retaliate against society.
Perhaps it was that comment I saw today that had an effect—"By the way, doesn't anyone else feel that there have been more bloodshed lately?"
Even the students nearly got caught up in the conflict.
For the first time, Fu Qing seriously recalled the "unexpected events" that had occurred around him during this period.
It had only been a week since her rebirth, and she had spent most of that time at school, maintaining a stable and harmonious daily routine and not paying much attention to the news. However, in her previous life, when Fu Qing was just an ordinary college student, she was quite interested in current social issues.
Five years after the apocalypse, she had missed her peaceful and comfortable life more than once. But this time, when she focused on things outside herself, Fu Qing gradually realized some things she had overlooked.
Before the outbreak of the virus, there seemed to be a long period in which society appeared particularly turbulent.
Various deaths occurred frequently, and many events that, if they had occurred, would have been memorable and served as a constant warning, happened one after another in that year.
A high-speed multi-vehicle collision, a gas explosion in a residential area, and a large passenger plane crash.
Shooting, poisoning, random killing.
There were man-made disasters, and there were also "accidents".
Society did react to this, but because such events did not only occur in China, people eventually concluded that it was a "Mercury retrograde" that spread throughout the world.
Experts analyze that this can be attributed to an employment crisis caused by a poor economic situation, with rising living costs, increasing unemployment, and leading to social instability.
People's hearts are easily agitated, and even a small friction can be blown out of proportion. I advise people to remain calm and composed.
Fu Qing was a student at the time, often living in the dormitory and living off his parents' inheritance. He rarely interacted with people outside the school and could not empathize with these social changes, so he did not realize the problem at first.
Looking back now, the most terrifying time was when the trending topics changed every day, with all sorts of events flooding the screen, and people didn't even have time to mourn before facing new deaths.
This is clearly not right.
Fu Qing recalled carefully and realized with a start that it all seemed to have started this summer.
Could this be related to the subsequent virus outbreak?
Fu Qing asked himself the question.
The system remained silent, like a stone thrown into a deep cave, falling endlessly without any response.
*
That evening, two newly posted threads appeared on the forum's homepage, sparking heated discussions.
[I received a distress signal today and was just about to hail a taxi when my watch indicated that someone had already rushed over. I wanted to ask if the student who called for help is alright?]
[I'm so excited I can't sleep. Anyone here today want to share their experience?]
Most people were busy enjoying their hard-earned day off today and were completely unaware of what happened at the barbecue restaurant until they opened the forum in the evening and realized something was wrong.
The first post was published earlier, and the poster's tone was very serious. She said she received a distress call from a classmate, but after others responded quickly, the bracelet stopped sending signals. She later became increasingly worried and regretted not rushing over sooner, so she came to the forum to ask, just in case something had really happened and she felt guilty.
Since it involved the safety of the students, the post was quickly upvoted by more than a hundred people. Several students even came forward to say that they had also received the signal, which made the people who were waiting in the thread even more worried.
More than an hour later, one of the nine people in the know saw the post and quickly came forward to reply.
Upon learning that it was a false alarm and that the students were not involved in the accident but were the ones who acted bravely, everyone felt relieved.
The discussion gradually shifted to the bracelet's "SOS function".
[Doesn't anyone find this feature convenient? The original poster mentioned that the signal also synchronizes with the sender's location, making it more accurate than even an alarm system.]
I was the one who sent the signal. At the time, we were confronting troublemakers who were armed. I was probably too nervous, and my heart rate kept spiked. My watch automatically detected the change in my body and asked if I wanted to call for help.
There was also a smaller line of text below stating that if I didn't respond within 30 seconds, it would automatically send a signal. In other words, even if I fainted and was disoriented, or was in combat and unable to act in time, it would still help me find help.
[This is my personal experience, so please upvote!]
This feature is fantastic!
[I feel like this feature would be incredibly useful if the apocalypse really came! When communications are paralyzed, the watch could unite the entire school.]
[I don't know why I suddenly felt a little moved... Whether it's the classmates who stepped forward to help strangers, the classmates who responded to the call for help immediately, or the original poster who came to the forum to find information because they were worried about someone, everyone is a good person.]
[So proud! It's the first time I've felt that we Fangzhou students are a united group. When something happens, we really step up together TT]
Have you ever thought that if those 21 people hadn't been expelled, this effect wouldn't have been achieved? We would also have to worry that the distress signal would have been sent to the wrong person, and what if the person who came instead of helping us would have kicked us when we were down?
If the apocalypse truly arrives, Fangzhou's classmates, having prepared in advance, will undoubtedly possess more supplies than others. Sending out distress signals will coincide with everyone's most vulnerable moment. If the reinforcements arriving at that time are unreliable, then we're truly doomed...
[Wow, this is terrifying to think about]
[A chilling thought +1]
[Having you all is my blessing; I could never have thought of that.]
[To be honest, isn't this all thanks to the principal?]
[Haha, the principal's picks, quality guaranteed?]
...
The second post was published after the first post.
The poster was one of the other people who were with Qin Yufei at the scene. He witnessed the whole thing and, seeing that many people in the first post were curious about what had happened, he simply stood up and gave a vivid account of it.
Her writing is quite good, making the students who read the main building feel as if they were there.
It's worth mentioning that, after this battle, the poster was clearly won over by the principal, describing the entire process from Fu Qing's emergence to the resolution of the problem in exceptional detail.
So this time, the focus of the discussion completely shifted to supporting youth.
Like the other nine students, the other students were also surprised that the principal was such a strong fighter.
[I didn't expect the principal to resolve the issue in the end... I apologize for my previous comments on the forum.]
[Did the principal come because she also received the distress signal? And since she arrived later than the first five students, she must have been farther away. Referring to the original poster in the next thread, the signal to the students stops once others arrive. Can I reasonably assume that when we are in danger, regardless of distance or whether anyone arrives to help beforehand, the principal will continue to receive the signal until she arrives?]
Holy crap.
[It seems quite possible]
[Based on the previous post, my opinion of the principal has changed.]
[Using drills to identify students with questionable character, offering opportunities to earn free shelter spots, enhancing post-apocalyptic survival skills through courses, installing emergency alarm systems on watches for immediate rescue... Think about it carefully, so far, hasn't everything the principal has done been for our benefit?]
Now that you mention it, it does seem... I have mixed feelings...
[The principal looks really handsome today!]
[The students who bravely intervened were so cool today! I suddenly feel so happy to be in this school, I feel incredibly safe QAQ]
...
The initial impressions were mixed, but the discussion took a rather unusual turn later on.
[After carefully reading the post's description, I suddenly found it amusing. One second the principal said, "You can tell me if there's anything," and the next second, "If you can't speak, you don't have to."]
What does "courtesy before force" mean? — (Leans back)
[Summary of everything that happened tonight:]
The drunkard uttered a sound, and the principal said, "Bang!"
The drunkard uttered two sounds, and the principal exclaimed, "Bang! Bang!"
[Accurate, correct]
[I've never heard of a head making such a crisp sound when tapped!]
I don't know which of the nine people it was, but they've been spending the whole evening on the forum, actively participating. This sudden change in their online style perfectly illustrates the nature of students who can't be serious for more than three seconds.
[I felt terrified when she was being sarcastic to us, but suddenly I felt a sense of satisfaction when she told those who were picking a fight, "There could be a few more lying here." Can anyone understand me? (flips fingers)]
[I get it! It feels like being taken home by your parents...]
"We'll talk about it when we get back to school."
Why is he so handsome?
[Why wasn't I there?!]
[My focus is on the strawberry boba. A certain social media platform recommended it to me several times, but I never got hooked. After the principal finished his, I suddenly want to buy a cup tomorrow...]
[Doesn't anyone think the principal is amazing? How is she so good at fighting? She looks about our age.]
[Damn it, it makes me look even more useless.]
...
The conversation went off-topic, and by the end, the students were lying down in tears, deciding to run a few more laps the next day.
*
The next morning, Fu Qing habitually opened the teacher's page and glanced at it. Suddenly, her gaze stopped on the section about student popularity.
"..." She rubbed her eyes, thinking she had misread it.
The pointer on the scale deflected sharply, and was actually getting close to the middle position.
Student approval rating: -13%
How could it have increased so much in just one night?
Does the fact that the scale is approaching 0 mean that most people's attitude towards her has become "neutral"?
—Although I don’t understand it, I’m no longer as wary as I used to be.
Fu Qing found it a bit strange, and only after opening the forum following a system notification did she understand why the favorability rating had reversed overnight.
The forum was still lively this morning. Some people went to bed early last night and didn't have time to read the posts. They were only called online by their roommates and classmates today to catch up.
As more and more people see the post, the favorability rating continues to rise slowly, and may even become positive today.
The system was delighted: [Congratulations, host! Your favorability rating has finally surpassed zero.]
Fu Qing: "...That's a huge improvement."
Is there any principal who is more miserable than her?
Everyone else starts from zero, but she started from a negative number.
It took all their strength to finally get back to the starting line.
Even if she were to become a positive number, it would only mean that the students would begin to acknowledge her as the principal without prejudice.
They're still quite a distance from being close, let alone giving each other their whole heart and soul.
Fu Qing sighed inwardly, "The task ahead is arduous and the road is long."
To be honest, dealing with those drunkards wouldn't have been difficult for her. Even if they hadn't been intimidated and had chosen to act, it would have just taken a little more effort. People before the apocalypse were still bound by the morals and laws of civilized society. No matter how much they loosened their grip, they wouldn't dare to be as ruthless as those struggling to survive after the apocalypse.
Fu Qing had witnessed two teams fight each other over a box of canned food, even setting fire to each other's camps. He had also seen brothers turn against each other and family members become enemies over unequal distribution of resources, beheading each other and leaving triumphantly.
Compared to them, getting drunk and fighting for the sake of saving face is as childish as playing house.
Therefore, Fu Qing didn't think it was a big deal.
The forum's speculation was largely correct; as soon as the student's wristband issued an alarm, Fuqing would receive the news immediately.
The distress signals transmitted to her have no distance limitations. Even if the student calling for help is all alone, even if it crosses most of China, she will be the first to know.
She was the one who dragged these two thousand newly-adult students into this mess, and she had to take responsibility for them.
So even without any system tasks, Fu Qing would still rush to that barbecue restaurant.
She didn't think it was necessary to talk about these things.
...
Fu Qing quickly discovered the impact of the increased popularity.
The students who used to avoid her stopped avoiding her after reading the post.
When she went to the cafeteria for breakfast, several girls boldly sat at the table next to her, secretly glancing at her the whole time while exchanging winks and chatting on their phones.
The system openly peeked around and returned excitedly to report: [Host, they said, "We suddenly realized the principal's hands are so beautiful!"]
Girl B said, "I hope I won't get caught taking pictures from this distance. Someone cover for me."
Girl C said, "I want her to hit me."
Fu Qing: "?"
Is that correct?
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