So Today Was the Day She Was Supposed to Die?

Up on the Rooftop of the Administrative Main Building, countless heads were craning over the edge.

'Holy shit! Who is that, charging in like some kind of warrior general?'

'Nancheng Students really do produce remarkable people.'

'Stop chattering!' someone cut in. 'That car is about to get surrounded by the Zombie Herd.'

Xie Li had no idea she'd acquired an audience up on the Rooftop. Both hands locked on the steering wheel, she stared at the Zombie Herd surging closer and closer, her mind drifting to oddly mundane thoughts.

She wondered whether the compensation payout from the company had come through yet. If she could get that money to the orphanage, at least her death wouldn't be entirely for nothing.

Come to think of it, the one thing she and the original owner of this body had in common was probably that they were both orphans — except Xie Li had grown up in an orphanage, while the original had inherited a fortune worth hundreds of millions.

While her thoughts were still wandering, the Zombie Herd was suddenly right in front of her. Xie Li wrenched the wheel all the way, slammed the brake and the gas at the same time, and the tires screamed against the asphalt.

Just as the car was about to plough straight into the horde, it pulled off a beautiful fishtail spin — the nose swung around, the engine roared, and with a vast, dark mass of Zombies streaming behind it, the car tore off at full speed.

'Oh my god, I genuinely thought that car was going to drive straight into them — I can't believe it got away!' someone on the Rooftop screamed.

'Look, the Zombies are all being drawn off!'

Everyone leaned over to look. Sure enough, every Zombie near the building had been lured away by that audacious car, and they were all chasing it into the distance.

The Zombie Herd became a black flood, churning and surging along the Campus Road like an enormous python, stretching longer and longer, flowing farther and farther away.

In the distance, Liu Zhaoyang gripped the steering wheel and watched the Zombie Herd outside the building gradually thin out.

She didn't rush. She waited — waited until the Zombies below had nearly cleared — then pressed the gas and drove through.

The survivors who had been trapped behind the Zombie Herd finally saw their chance. Figures burst out from every direction, sprinting madly toward the Administrative Building.

Inside the car, Jin Zhaoye couldn't help glancing sideways at Xie Li, who was focused entirely on driving.

Just yesterday, this little Alpha had been so terrified of Zombies her legs gave out. Today, she drove straight into a Zombie Herd without so much as a flicker of expression.

What had just happened was extraordinarily dangerous. One small mistake, and those thousands of Zombies could have torn them apart alive. A scene like that would rattle anyone — yet Xie Li looked almost calm.

Jin Zhaoye voiced the question that had been nagging at her: 'Xie Li, aren't you scared?'

Xie Li caught Jin Zhaoye's eyes in the rearview mirror: 'Oh, I'm terrified. If you reached into my underwear right now, you'd know exactly how scared I am.'

She wore a light, easy smile even as she yanked the wheel hard — the car swerved sharply, barely shaking off a few Zombies that lunged out from the shrubbery.

Once the car steadied again, Xie Li glanced over at the woman in the passenger seat: 'Dr. Jin, scared yet?'

Jin Zhaoye eyed Xie Li's light-grey sweatpants, unsure whether she was joking. 'I'm fine. You didn't wet yourself, did you?'

'If I had,' Xie Li shot back with a grin, 'would Dr. Jin be willing to swap pants with me?'

Jin Zhaoye couldn't be bothered continuing a conversation this pointless. She turned to look out the window, watching the situation outside through the mirror.

Xie Li shook her head with a small laugh and closed her mouth to focus on driving. It wasn't that she wasn't afraid — she was so far past afraid that she'd come out the other side into calm.

The car led its enormous procession of Zombies in loop after loop around the campus, drawing out every last one it could find.

Many survivors who had been hiding in rooms threw open their windows, waving frantically and screaming for help.

Xie Li ignored every single one of them.

She'd have to be out of her mind to stop the car now. In the Apocalypse, people who didn't fight for their own survival couldn't last. The most she and Jin Zhaoye could do was keep running circles with these Zombies and buy a little more time for the ones willing to run, willing to fight.

The sky was slowly darkening. The streetlights hadn't come on yet, and the whole campus sank into a murky grey, filled with the howling of Zombies — desolate and suffocating.

Xie Li glanced at the fuel gauge, which was nearly empty. 'We're almost out of gas. Head back?'

Jin Zhaoye gave a small nod. 'Let's go back.'

Xie Li lifted her hand from the horn she'd been leaning on, pressed the accelerator, and the car surged forward, shaking off the vast horde behind them.

In the rearview mirror, those dark figures grew smaller and smaller, until they vanished into the night.

Just before the last drop of fuel ran out, Xie Li brought the car to a stop in the Square in front of the Administrative Building.

The moment the car was still, she shoved the door open and jumped out, and together with Jin Zhaoye, the two of them ran into the building in the dark.

There were quite a few Zombies gathered inside — some had been trapped in the building from the start, others had followed survivors up.

The two of them climbed the Fire Escape Stairs all the way up. Their footsteps disturbed the Zombies that had been lying dormant in the shadows, sending them lunging out from corners.

Jin Zhaoye led the way with her axe, the two of them running and fighting in seamless tandem — tense moments, but no real disasters — until they cut their way steadily up to the Top Floor.

Xie Li was breathing hard. She raised her hand and knocked on the sealed iron door, calling through it: 'Open up.'

From the other side, a voice: 'You weren't bitten, were you?'

'Of course not!' Xie Li knocked again, irritated. 'Open the door — the Zombies are right behind us.'

A flurry of shuffling footsteps sounded beyond the iron door, along with the scrape of something heavy being moved. A moment later, the door was pulled open a crack, and someone peered through at Xie Li and Jin Zhaoye.

'Dr. Jin?' The person blinked, then immediately swung the door wide. 'Sorry, sorry — come in, quickly.'

The two of them slipped inside. The door slammed shut behind them, and the people guarding it dragged heavy objects back to block it.

The Rooftop was packed with people — a rough count put it at two or three hundred at least. Some clustered in small groups; others sat hugging their knees, staring blankly up at the dark sky.

More people had survived in the school than Xie Li had imagined. She had just turned to find Zhou Yu and the others to retrieve her backpack when a figure burst from the crowd and threw both arms around her.

'Wuwu, Lǐwù — 'Gift' — what took you so long? I thought you were dead!' Lan Ran's voice was thick with tears, her face buried against Xie Li's shoulder, rubbing back and forth.

Xie Li, half-strangled by the embrace, patted her on the back. 'Pfft, what are you on about? I was out there leading the Zombies away in the car — didn't you see me this afternoon?'

'I saw you.' Lan Ran loosened her grip, then spotted Jin Zhaoye standing beside Xie Li. She immediately ducked behind her friend and peeked out shyly.

People nearby had recognised Xie Li's voice and were pressing in from all sides.

'Hey — you're the one who used the Drone to warn us, right?'

'Is it true the military is coming to rescue us?'

'When? How much longer do we have to wait? There's no shelter up here on this Rooftop — don't lie to us. My roommate turned into a Zombie just so I could make it here.'

Xie Li found herself surrounded by a crowd of people, some familiar, most not, all talking at once. The noise was making her head spin; she didn't even know where to begin.

Jin Zhaoye raised a hand toward the crowd. 'Everyone, please keep it down — we don't want to draw the Zombies back up here. The military rescue is coming.'

The moment she spoke, everyone fell quiet.

The dense crowd even stepped back several metres of its own accord, leaving a clear open space around her.

Jin Zhaoye caught Xie Li's eye, then walked away toward a quieter corner, phone in hand.

Xie Li watched her go, then turned to Lan Ran beside her and teased: 'Didn't you say she was your goddess? How come you just hid behind me instead of going to say hello?'

Lan Ran stole a glance in Jin Zhaoye's direction, cheeks faintly pink, fingers twisting together. 'I can't bring myself to talk to her.'

'Tsk. Coward.'

Lan Ran shot her a look. 'Do you have any idea how incredible my goddess is? Someone like her — a divine being — just having a mere mortal like me get close would pollute the air around her. How could I possibly talk to her?'

Xie Li felt that land somewhere tender, and sighed. 'I genuinely don't know. I don't even know your goddess's name — I asked her and she wouldn't tell me.'

Lan Ran stared at her like she'd grown a second head. 'You don't know who she is? My goddess is the one who developed the limb-regeneration gene-modification technology and won an international biological sciences award. How do you not know her name?'

Xie Li really didn't. She'd meant to look her up online, but one thing after another had kept getting in the way, and she'd forgotten.

'Fine!' Lan Ran waved a hand with the magnanimous air of someone being very gracious. 'It's normal that someone as culturally illiterate as you wouldn't know her.'

She cleared her throat and made a solemn announcement: 'My goddess is Jin Zhaoye — the zhào of light illuminating all four directions, the yě of open wilderness!'

Jin Zhaoye. Xie Li turned the name over silently in her mind.

Something like a thunderclap went off in her head. That name — she turned to look at Jin Zhaoye, who was making a phone call not far away, and suddenly remembered a novel she'd read before crossing over. One of the female leads in that book had been called Jin Zhaoye.

The Apocalypse. Zombies. Jin Zhaoye. A PhD in biological genetics. And a cannon-fodder character who died the moment she appeared — Xie Li.

'...No way.' Xie Li reached up in disbelief and touched the Wushi Plaque against her chest. She had transmigrated into a novel?

And she'd transmigrated as the cannon fodder whose entire purpose was to hand the protagonist a Space jade pendant.

So — today was the day she was supposed to die?