TDRA Chapter 31

As the night fell, all the hustle and bustle fell silent, as if fearing to disturb the zombies who wouldn’t stop pursuing their prey even as night fell.

It was still nine o’clock in the evening, but in the post-apocalyptic world, there was no electricity, no lights, no mobile phones, no computers, no entertainment machines, and only in sleep could people get a little respite after a day full of fear.

Gu Ning lay on the iron-framed bed, looking at the bed board above her, she didn’t have the slightest desire to sleep at all. Ever since she had been bitten by a zombie, the feeling of wanting to sleep rarely appeared. Her ears could easily pick up the sounds of someone from the next dormitory tossing in their iron-framed bed along with the deep snoring sounds coming from other people.

When the apocalypse happened, if she needs to sleep, she usually will just curl up in the car seat and take a nap, and even while sleeping, she doesn’t dare to relax completely and she would be awakened by the slightest movement of the wind. It was the first time she slept in a bed since the apocalypse started in this world.

Beside her bed, was a rifle. More than three months ago Gu Ning was still a little girl who had just graduated from school and was job hunting everywhere under the scorching sun. Never could she have imagined that three months later she would be lying here, sleeping with a gun beside her.

Her parents were sleeping in the dormitory next door, and her father’s injury, which she had been worried about had done the operation and the black door which contained her hopes with the ability to transfer between two worlds. However, she still didn’t let her guard down.

Surviving in such a dangerous world, even alone, was never an easy task, let alone with elderly and frail parents.

That’s the reason why she exists in this world.

The sun now also sets early in the west.

The unknown changes took place in that space.

There was also the little girl she met today in the backfield…… That keen pair of eyes kept popping up in her mind, the feeling was very subtle, the feeling of when two pairs of eyes meet each other in complete darkness, the knowing look they show once they see each other……

Not only that but there was also Fang Fa and Zhuang Chen waiting for her in Times City.

Fang Fa was the only person she trusts in the post-apocalyptic world, apart from her parents. She and Zhuang Chen met at first sight, and it was a rare occasion that even though they had only spent less than a day together Zhuang Chen already left a good impression on Gu Ning.

However, it was obvious that her parents were not in the right condition to be on the road, and after this farewell, she doesn’t know if she’ll ever meet them again, but she hopes that Fang Fa will be as lucky as her to find his parents without any problems.

In all seriousness, all the people in this dormitory.

Jia DaoZhang, Cheng Ming, Huang MengYao, and Xie YuHong.

Except for Cheng Ming who she already had a vague impression of. As for the other three people, they had only been on two memorable occasions, the time the zombie dog blocked in that courtyard, and when the camps were divided, they indicated that they were on Gu Ning’s side. Frankly, she was not prepared at all to stay with them on a long-term basis. Apart from Cheng Ming who had performed well, and Huang MengYao who could help her take care of her parents’ injuries, the other two did not seem to fit her grouping requirements quite well.

Also for those people whom she had only seen in precarious situations twice, it was difficult for Gu Ning to feel comfortable handing her back to them.

She trusted Brother San a little more instead.

Then there was the most headache-inducing problem of all, money.

She thought about the dozens of gold necklaces she still had hidden in her backpack, but the main problem was how to exchange them for money without getting suspected.

She had the idea of going to the bank and taking the money directly.

However, the money would be numbered, so if she spent lots of it all at once, it would get her into trouble instead.

This world was full of gold and *RMB but Gu Ning felt she won’t be able to get her hands on anything.

(T/N: RMB is China currency.)

Sorrowful, how sorrowful.

Along with Gu Ning, nobody in the dormitory was asleep either.

Everyone was a little worried by Jia DaoZhang’s words that the sun would never rise again after it sets. However, the one who started the disturbance was snoring lightly. Apparently, he had already fallen asleep completely unburdened.

Cheng Ming was lying on his side facing Gu Ning’s bed, looking at the blurred figure of Gu Ning lying on the bed in the dark, his mood was a little subtle. He still remembered the first time when he saw Gu Ning who came to pick up the new students at the railway station, she had a light sincere smile on her face, not very pretty but the whole person looked very fresh and clean. He had been following her ever since and had created many “unexpected encounters”, mostly consisting of Gu Ning walking hurriedly with a book in her arms, or else with several people walking together, and Gu Ning was not in any club so he had no chance to approach and talk to her.

Thus, until Gu Ning graduated, he did not succeed in leaving a clear impression in front of Gu Ning. Her image of him maybe just a mentee who ate once or twice at some party and chatted a couple of words or something……

He never expected to live in the same room with Gu Ning…… This was probably the only thing that he felt grateful for in the post-apocalyptic world.

He had also thought that if he met Gu Ning during the apocalypse, he would protect her from any harm, but now it seems Gu Ning was the one who took on the protector role along the way.

It was also because the Gu Ning now was showing a completely different image from the Gu Ning he had originally conceived.

Cheng Ming was inexplicably a little melancholic in his subtle happiness.

Suddenly, some loud noises were heard from the corridor near the entrance of the staircase. It seemed that a group of people was climbing up the stairs. It was very quiet at this time of the night, and this group of people did not even restrain their volume, so everyone could hear a group of relatively young men and women stomping their way up to the third floor while complaining. They were very rowdy as they walked through the corridor.

The nerves of the people after the post-apocalypse became so tense that even the slightest movements could easily wake people up, plus the newcomers weren’t even holding themselves back at all, the sound of them chatting was still considered noisy even in the daytime.

A very unpleasant curse came out from one of the dormitory rooms.

Someone within the group cursed before being stopped by a low voice.

The group was much quieter all of a sudden.

It should have all been newcomers who had just entered the colony at night, it wasn’t clear if these people surrendered enough supplies or if they took the back door in.

Not long after the group passed by then, the sound of footsteps was heard returning. Immediately afterward, there was a knock on the door of Gu Ning’s dormitory.

The people in the dormitory hadn’t been asleep.

When the door knocked, they all sat up from their beds.

Yet, Jia DaoZhang rolled over and didn’t respond at all.

Instantly afterward, a beam of white shone in through the window and someone shouted from outside: “Hey open the door!”

“Gu Ning? Do we open it?” Cheng Ming asked.

Gu Ning replied: “Open it and see what’s up”

Cheng Ming then got out of bed and went to open the door.

As soon as the door opened, they saw the dormitory manager who was in charge of this building and was standing outside with the four or five people: “The other dormitory rooms were full. These guys have been allocated to your side.”

Cheng Ming glanced back at Gu Ning, who gave a slight nod.

Cheng Ming then gave way to letting them in.

“Well, you guys are staying here, I’m going off. Be quiet and don’t disturb others.” The dormitory manager who had led them walked away with the torchlight.

Gu Ning looked at this young group of three men and two women, all of whom carried the putrid smell of zombies to a certain extent, but their clothes were unexpectedly very clean and tidy.

“No way, there’s only the upper bunk left!” A girl said discontentedly after looking over the beds inside the dormitory using the little bit of moonlight that shone in from the outside.

“Excuse us, for disturbing your rest.” A man who looked to be twenty-four or twenty-five years old said with a hint of apology in his tone among several people and then to the girl: “Alright, stop talking and get to bed. Don’t disturb other people’s rest.”

It made a few others who had been subjected to so much noise in the middle of the night feel a little better.

The girl listened to the man’s words, skimmed her lips, and kept quiet. She didn’t even bother taking off her shoes and stepped on Huang MengYao’s sleeping end of the bed. Huang MengYao wanted to get angry, but after thinking about the current situation, she held back herself but her expression darkened.

“Hey! There’s so much food up here!” Suddenly there was a surprising sound of cheer from the girl above along with the rustling of plastic bags.

“Excuse me, that’s our supplies, please hand it over.” Cheng Ming said as soon as he rushed over in a single step.

The girl was frozen and didn’t move.

There was a moment of silence in the dormitory before the male voice that had spoken earlier once again called out with a hint of warning: “Yan Yu.”

The girl once again scowled and pursed her lips and threw the two bags of supplies straight down, dropping them on the floor with a loud thud.

A silence fell over the dormitory once again.

“What’s wrong? What’s going on? What’s happening?!” Jia DaoZhang, who had been sleeping, was awakened by the sound and immediately sat up straight from the bed. When he saw the new people in the room using the moonlight that shone in, he was a bit stunned: “Where did these people come from?”

“Who knows?” Xie YuHong, who had been quiet, said emotionlessly before lying down and turning over to go back to sleep.

The rest of the group were also slightly embarrassed by the girl’s actions and all climbed up to the top bunk without a word.

The last man, the one who had been restraining the girl called Yan Yu, also slept on Gu Ning’s top bunk and asked courteously as he climbed onto the bed: “Sorry, I’ll be borrowing your bed to step on.” The moment he looked down at Gu Ning, Gu Ning instantly felt the same feeling she had with the little girl she met back in the backfield. The feeling of two gazes meeting each other for a moment.  At the same time, the man who was staring at her seemed to have sensed something and looked at Gu Ning with some slight changes in his gaze.

Gu Ning, feeling the man’s tentative gaze, acted naturally and intuitively lowered her eyes, avoiding looking directly at his eyes.

Pei Jing unconsciously let out a sigh of relief after Gu Ning turned her gaze away, then silently shook his head and thought to himself that he was being too sensitive and might have created a misunderstanding. It was extremely rare for people like him in this world to have such an encounter, so how could he meet others with such chances?

Gu Ning faced the wall, her eyes glowing in the darkness……

She had just seen the same translucent ring of gold around the man’s black pupils, exactly just like hers……

What the hell is going on here?!

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(T/N: Sorry again for the late update. It had been a very busy week since works had been pilling up and the getting new furniture etc. So yea, here is the chapter, better late than never XD. Thank you for your kind understand and patients. Also this Yan Yu … arghhh… so annoying XD. The future chapters update will be changed to 3pm instead of usual 12pm. Thank you.)

(Editor: De Vile)