Chapter 29: The School Beauty's Boyfriend Seeks Vengeance

The only vacant bed in the dormitory was far from spacious.

"Ugh, I hate this. Why aren't we on the inner bed? Why this lousy one?"

"Because… it’s more exciting here," Qin Feng replied with a smile.

"Ah…"

The bed frame let out a faint creak under their combined weight. For the moment, this tiny bed had become a tacit sanctuary for them both. The afterglow of the sunset outside the window had not yet fully faded; stubborn streaks of golden-red light pierced through the gaps in the curtains, casting ambiguous, flickering patches of light onto the swaying bed canopy.

It was then that the phone in Lin Yuwei’s jacket pocket began to vibrate at a most inopportune moment. The screen lit up, displaying the caller ID: "Wu Changle."

Lin Yuwei’s expression shifted slightly, her instinct to silence it kicking in, but Qin Feng was faster. He waved a finger in front of her face with a playful smirk and pressed the answer button, even going so far as to turn on the speakerphone.

"No—don't!" Lin Yuwei gasped.

The sound of heavy breathing filled the room—all of it was Lin Yuwei’s soft, gasping moans.

On the other end of the line, Wu Changle was sitting on the freezing floor of Dorm 416, his stomach growling with hunger. He had gone an entire day without food, his body trembling slightly from a lack of blood sugar, leaving his emotions dangerously volatile. He heard the distorted, high-pitched cry from Lin Yuwei, followed immediately by the heavy, ragged breathing of a man.

It was unmistakable.

Wu Changle felt as if something had detonated inside his brain. His vision blurred, and his stomach cramped violently from a mixture of starvation and rage.

"Damn it… I knew this day would come… Lin Yuwei, you green-tea bitch!"

Wu Changle silently hung up the phone. His eyes were quickly bloodshot, veins bulging on his forehead. He erupted with a terrifying, malevolent energy, like a cornered beast. Trembling from head to toe, he instinctively braced himself for a fight.

The other three students in Dorm 416 were startled by his predatory appearance. "Changle? W-what are you doing?" one roommate asked, trembling as he shrank back.

Wu Changle’s face was twisted in a snarl. "That bastard Qin Feng! He’s sleeping with Lin Yuwei! I heard it clearly on the phone! I’m going to kill those two right now!"

"Calm down, Changle! The place is crawling with zombies downstairs; you’re just throwing your life away!" another roommate urged. "Besides, doesn't that guy Qin Feng have a gun? How are you going to fight him with a steel pipe?"

The third roommate hesitated before whispering, "Besides, Lin Yuwei… isn’t she always like that? There’s more than one simp chasing after her; you know that… her 'fishpond' is full of them. You even said you liked the feeling of watching others fail to win her over… well, aren't you a fool now."

"You don't know a damn thing!" Wu Changle roared, cutting him off. "Wait for the zombie crisis to end? By then, Lin Yuwei will have already been ruined, and I’ll have been wearing the green hat for ages! Do you know how much money I spent on her? How many bags I bought, how many gifts I sent, how many red packets I transferred? Is this how she treats me? Screw her!"

"I’m going to kill Lin Yuwei with my own hands today, and then I’ll kill Qin Feng! Anyone who tries to stop me gets it too!"

The three roommates were stunned by his manic intensity, exchanging looks of helplessness and fear. One of them, usually the quickest thinker, rolled his eyes and gritted his teeth. "Changle, don't be impulsive. Charging out there won't work. We… we can help you come up with a plan. What do you think?"

He paused, and seeing Wu Changle’s glare fixed on him, swallowed hard and continued. "We have a lighter. We can set fire to our old bedding and throw it out the window to create a distraction, drawing those wandering zombies away. You take that chance to climb over the wall from our side. Remember, don’t break the chain on the dorm building gate; that’s our barrier. Once you’re over, we’ll toss you a stool from the window. You take that and climb over the wall to the girls' dormitory. Their first-floor balconies have anti-theft grilles, right? You can climb those to the second floor and find an unlocked room."

"Then, from the second floor of the girls' dorm, you take the stairs to the third floor and head to 301, where Qin Feng is staying. This whole… this whole route—a diversion followed by a flanking maneuver—what do you think? Can it work?"

The plan was delivered in stutters, but it was feasible. Wu Changle stared at him with bloodshot eyes, his chest heaving. After a long moment, he spat out the words through gritted teeth:

"It’ll work! Let’s do it! Brothers, thanks! When I’ve slaughtered that pair of dogs, I’ll buy you all a drink!"

Consumed by rage and humiliation, Wu Changle was blind to everything else. He wouldn't pass up any chance to get near Qin Feng, regardless of the plan's success rate.

The three students followed the plan. They threw two ignited mattresses from the balcony. It was late, around ten o'clock, and the flames were stark against the night. The boys' dormitory erupted in commotion; many leaned out, clapping and whistling.

"Burn it up! Throw another one!"

"Hey buddies, you’re not sleeping? Making zombie barbecue?"

"I’m so hungry I could eat a grilled zombie—pass the cumin!"

"Which dorm is that? You guys have that much bedding to spare?"

"The military isn't sending supplies, so you're burning zombies in protest?"

Before long, the mattresses were blazing in the middle of the road, the roaring fire drawing the attention of many zombies. The girls' dorm hadn't seen such activity from across the way in a long time. Driven by curiosity, many girls crowded their balconies to watch.

"Hey! What are you boys doing?" a girl shouted. "Howling like ghosts in the middle of the night—are you crazy?"

"Is it another zombie burning? Don't you boys have anything better to do?"

"Instead of having all that free time, why don't you think about finding some food?"

"Exactly! If you're so tough, go down there and fight them for real. Acting like heroes from up there is pathetic!"

"Aren't men supposed to protect women? Look at you, all you know how to do is hide in your rooms! Our building is almost out of food, and you have the nerve to play with fire?"

As they bickered, the three boys successfully tossed the burning bedding down. Thick smoke and sparks scattered, and the wandering zombies below were drawn toward the fire, shambling away.

Seizing the momentary chaos, Wu Changle took a deep breath, grabbed the cold anti-theft bars of the first-floor balcony from a second-floor unit, and nimbly slid down.