Rejected at the Door

The library's main entrance had been locked from the inside. It was not tightly sealed, however, and the scene outside could be seen through the crack in the door. Just as Zhao Tianlei was pounding on the door and calling for help, the students behind it also peered through the crack and saw what was happening outside. When they saw several zombies making their way up the steps, one of the students immediately shouted curses at Zhao Tianlei and Wu Bin.

Hearing the abuse from inside, Wu Bin instantly flew into a rage. "What? We were the ones who saved you on the field just now! Hurry up and let us in!"

"Qian Hao, what are you doing? They're our classmates! They were the ones who saved everyone just now. Hurry and open the door to let them in!" Suddenly, a familiar female voice rang out. Zhao Tianlei and Wu Bin naturally recognized it as the voice of their class monitor, Ye Sitong.

As soon as she finished speaking, the door began to tremble slightly. Clearly, Ye Sitong was trying to pull it open. Zhao Tianlei and Wu Bin also knew Qian Hao, though he was not their classmate but a student from the class next door.

"Smack."

Before Ye Sitong could open the door, a sharp smack rang out, followed by her scream. Clearly, someone had roughed her up to stop her from opening the door.

Qian Hao's voice immediately rang out again. "You stinking woman, are you trying to get everyone here killed? There are zombies behind them! The moment we open the door, those zombies will rush in too. When that happens, every one of us will die. If you want to die, go die by yourself. Don't drag everyone else down with you."

"Bastard! Qian Hao, you'd better wait for me! Once I get inside, I absolutely won't let you off!" Realizing that someone had beaten his class monitor while she was trying to save him, Zhao Tianlei immediately cursed furiously. He had risked his life to rescue these people just moments ago, yet they had abandoned him in the blink of an eye. They were even worse than beasts.

"Wu Bin, let's get out of here first and find another way in." Seeing that the zombies below the steps were about to come up, Zhao Tianlei knew that if they did not leave now, they would be surrounded. He immediately pulled Wu Bin along and ran toward the area with fewer zombies. With Zhao Tianlei clearing the way, they hacked out a bloody path.

"Tianlei, Wu Bin, I'm sorry..."

Seeing that the two of them had risked their lives to save everyone, only to be denied entry and forced to flee for their lives, Ye Sitong felt terribly upset. She shouted and sobbed loudly.

"Shut the hell up! You'll attract all the zombies over if you keep screaming. Fuck you!" Enraged by Ye Sitong's crying, Qian Hao cursed and kicked her in the abdomen, sending her crashing to the ground.

Normally, Qian Hao treated Ye Sitong with considerable respect and had even secretly been in love with her. However, after pursuing her, he had been rejected without hesitation. He had felt utterly humiliated and held a grudge ever since. Now that such a terrifying incident had erupted on campus and he had watched classmates around him being bitten to death by the monsters, Qian Hao had beaten Ye Sitong in order to survive. Part of it was fear, and part of it was the resentment that had built up inside him.

"Tianlei, when we were saving people just now, I clearly saw that bastard Qian Hao trapped on the platform too. But that bastard showed no regard for our past friendship. He saw us being chased by zombies and didn't care whether we lived or died."

After Zhao Tianlei led Wu Bin away from the front entrance of the library, Wu Bin could not help complaining to him as they ran. Afterward, however, Wu Bin became somewhat dejected. "Tianlei, what should we do? If we had just stayed in the dormitory, nothing would have happened. Now we can't get into the library either, and there are zombies everywhere on campus. I've dragged you down."

Zhao Tianlei hurriedly comforted him. "It's fine, brother. We can't get in through the library's main entrance, so we'll use the back entrance. That bastard Qian Hao treated us like this and even dared to hit our class monitor. I definitely won't let him off. I'll make him pay for that slap by slapping him across the face, then throw him out to feed the zombies."

The actions of the people hiding inside the library had left Zhao Tianlei utterly disheartened. Although Qian Hao was tall and had stopped Ye Sitong from opening the door, if even a few other students had stepped forward to help her, Qian Hao would not have dared to act so arrogantly.

The library was a three-story building. The first and second floors held the book stacks and individual reading areas, while the third floor was a spacious general reading room. The library alone could accommodate over a thousand people. Its sturdy construction also made it an extremely safe place to hide. What Zhao Tianlei found unbelievable was that this viral apocalypse had only just begun, yet the selfishness of human nature had already revealed itself.

The library was a place Zhao Tianlei often visited. Because he came from a poor family, he did not even own a computer. During holidays and breaks, while his classmates played computer games in their dormitories, Zhao Tianlei could only work part-time. His sole form of entertainment was reading at the library, so he knew the place fairly well.

The library had two entrances. One was the main entrance, where students and teachers usually came and went. The other was a concealed entrance—the internal emergency exit. The emergency exit was almost never used, except when library staff occasionally moved books. Normally, nobody passed through it. With the extremely nervous Wu Bin beside him, Zhao Tianlei felled the nearest zombie with one swing of his fire axe, then ran toward the library's back entrance with Wu Bin following behind him.

Seeing two living people slip away from their mouths, the zombies instinctively reacted to their prey and staggered after them in the direction they had run. However, these zombies had only just formed, and their walking speed could be described as tortoise-like. As long as one carefully avoided them and did not pass too close by, one generally would not be caught.

When they reached the library's back entrance, its secluded location meant there were no zombies nearby. Zhao Tianlei hurriedly tried to pull the door open, only to discover that it was also locked from the inside. Opening it from outside would be difficult. It was an iron door, and even Zhao Tianlei would have trouble chopping it open with a fire axe.

Seeing that the door still would not open, Wu Bin grew anxious. "Tianlei, what do we do? The back entrance is locked from the inside too. We can't get in at all."

Zhao Tianlei immediately said, "Step on my shoulders and climb in through this window. Once you're inside, don't make a sound. Quietly climb down and open the back door from inside so I can get in."

Wu Bin replied, "All right. Don't worry. Once I'm inside, I'll open the door for you from the other side."

Zhao Tianlei had Wu Bin step onto his shoulders and begin climbing up. After all, everyone who attended university had undergone military training and participated in various extracurricular activities and physical training. Male students in particular were not lacking in strength or agility, and getting over a height like this was easy for them.