Reborn in the Apocalypse: A Commoner's Survival Log

On the playground, a chubby little boy carrying a schoolbag tried hard to keep up with two other little boys, but he was too tired and could only call out to the two in front of him to stop.

"Yan Fei, you two slow down, I can't keep up."

The two boys turned around at the same time. One of them, with a backpack slung across his shoulder, smirked slightly: "Little Fatty Chai Jin, you can't keep up after just a few steps?"

Upon hearing this, Chai Jin immediately broke down: "Ahhh, Shen Zechuan! I told you not to call me Fatty anymore!! My mom said I'm just slightly chubby!"

Yan Fei and Shen Zechuan paused for a moment upon hearing this, and after looking Chai Jin up and down, they gained a new understanding of the term "slightly chubby" for the first time.

Hmm... how heavy must Chai Jin's mother's filter be?

The three of them stood facing each other in silence.

Suddenly, I heard a soft sobbing sound.

Before Yan Fei and Shen Zechuan could react, Chai Jin shuddered and hid behind them, saying, "Holy crap, it's not even late at night yet, and it's already haunted?"

Shen Zechuan rolled his eyes at Chai Jin: "It's the 21st century, where did this ghost come from? Can't you tell someone is crying?"

"No, all the other classes have already left. We're in the competition class, which is why we had an extra class. There's no one else at school at this hour."

Yan Fei: "Why don't we go and see for ourselves?"

After saying that, he was the first to step towards the direction from which the sound came.

That's a row of poplar trees next to the playground.

Behind the poplar tree, a little boy was squatting, hugging his schoolbag and crying. His round, chubby face was puffed up with anger, making him look even rounder.

Yan Fei frowned slightly as he looked at the boy, dressed in a lower-grade school uniform, crying like a little kitten.

"What grade are you in? What's your name? Why don't you go home after school?"

Lu Xingye was crying his heart out when he suddenly heard a voice above him. Startled, he cautiously looked up and saw Yan Fei, followed closely by Shen Zechuan and Chai Jin. He was so frightened that he stopped crying immediately.

"Third...third year...Lu...Lu Xingye..."

Seeing that his junior was having trouble speaking, Shen Zechuan became interested: "Hey, Lu Xingye, a third-grader, it's been a long time since school ended, why aren't you home yet?"

"I...I was just punished by the teacher, and I'm waiting for my brother to pick me up."

"Tsk, are you being punished for disobeying?"

Upon hearing this, Lu Xingye immediately widened his eyes like a little leopard and roared angrily, "No way! My deskmate stole my notebook and book, but nobody believed me. He even accused me of stealing his eraser, so I fought with him. The teacher didn't believe me either and punished me by making me clean the classroom by myself."

Chai Jin scratched his head, hardly believing it: "Didn't your deskmate not have his own books and notebooks? Why would he steal yours?"

"Hmph, his own book went missing, and he was afraid of getting scolded by the teacher, so he stole mine. I had my name written in pencil on the first page of my book, but he erased it and then smeared it with pencil. I can't find any evidence... But the notebook was a reward the teacher gave me last semester when I received an award certificate, and there's a note from the teacher at the end, so it must be mine!"

"Didn't you tell your teacher?"

“I did tell you, but we got a new teacher this semester, and the new teacher doesn’t believe me.”

"Tsk, poor thing, so you're just going to let it go like this?"

"Hmph, no way! He's just jealous that I have things he doesn't! Tomorrow I'll have my brother buy me the prettiest notebook, and then he'll draw a nice picture on the last page and sign it. Hmph, I'll tell the teacher when he steals it! I'm going to catch that thief!"

Seeing the child's vindictive nature, Yan Fei suddenly found it somewhat amusing: "What if he just tore out the last page?"

"Huh?" Lu Xingye was instantly dumbfounded.

The little brain of a third grader couldn't come up with too many complicated schemes. The method he mentioned was something he had thought about for a long time before coming up with it. So when Yan Fei came up with a countermeasure, Lu Xingye was stumped.

Seeing Lu Xingye's bewildered expression, Yan Fei smiled, a rare occurrence: "Is there really no way to fix this?"

He then added, "First, you need to buy a notebook with marked pages. Then, have your brother draw some small pictures or write some slogans on a few pages. But you must remember the page numbers so you can produce evidence."

"Oh. But what does a notebook for marking page numbers look like?" Lu Xingye was still a little confused.

Yan Fei turned around and slapped Chai Jin: "Where's that fancy notebook you were showing off to us today? Show it to your junior."

"Huh? Oh." Chai Jin was taken aback for a moment, then took out a thick notebook from his bag. The cover had beautiful cartoon illustrations.

Yan Fei took the notebook and handed it to the junior student.

Lu Xingye looked at the brand-new and beautiful notebook, wiped it on his clothes before taking it and flipping through it.

The first page was a blank table of contents. From the second page onwards, the paper was lined like a regular notebook, but the paper was noticeably better than any notebook he had ever used. It even had a subtle, attractive pattern on it, and the page number was marked at the bottom of each page.

"It looks so nice! Where can I buy it?"

After Lu Xingye finished speaking, he blinked his big eyes and looked at Chai Jin.

Chai Jin frowned and remained silent for a long time.

Shen Zechuan, who was standing nearby, nudged him and asked, "I'm asking you, where did you buy it?"

Chai Jin scratched his head: "Ah, I don't know either. I got this from my mom."

Yan Fei thought for a moment and said directly, "Then give him this one, and you can buy another one later."

"What?!"

"Brother, I'm not taking this for nothing. This is my allowance for this week. Is it enough for you?"

After Lu Xingye finished speaking, he took out five crumpled 10-yuan bills from his pocket.

Upon seeing this, Chai Jin quickly waved his hand and said, "Never mind, it's just a notebook, you can keep it."

Lu Xingye shook his head: "No, I can't take your notebook for free."

Then he handed over all the banknotes he had.

Seeing that Lu Xingye insisted on giving it, Yan Fei symbolically took one bill from the child's banknotes: "This one is enough." Then he stuffed the banknote directly into Chai Jin's hand.

Lu Xingye's eyes lit up as he stuffed the remaining pocket money back into his pocket.

Yan Fei couldn't help but smile at the sight of the little money-grubber. Just as he was about to reach out and pat the little brat's fluffy head, he heard a gentle male voice coming from afar.

"Ono, it's time to go home!"

When Yan Fei and the other two heard the voice, they turned around and saw a senior in a middle school uniform standing in the center of the playground with a backpack slung over one shoulder, looking both cool and dashing.

This must be the older brother the child is waiting for.

Yan Fei thought to himself.

Sure enough, the next second he heard Lu Xingye's clear voice.

"Coming!" Upon hearing his brother's voice, Lu Xingye immediately responded loudly.

She turned around, picked up her little schoolbag, carefully put away her pretty new notebook, and then waved her little hand at Yan Fei and the other two.

"My brother's here to pick me up. I'm going home now. Thank you! Goodbye!"

Then, clutching her schoolbag tightly with both hands, she turned and ran towards her older brother in the playground.

Watching the child walk further and further away with his brother, Yan Fei and the other two turned and left.

None of the three took this little incident to heart.

Yan Fei thought he would probably never see this brat again.

Unexpectedly, the next day after class, the three of them were ambushed by Lu Xingye, who had been waiting for them, as they passed by the playground.

Chai Jin stared in disbelief: "Why are you still out so late today? Did you get punished again?"

Lu Xingye snorted: "That's not true! I was waiting for you guys!"

"Today I showed off my pretty notebook to my deskmate, and sure enough, he stole it while I was taking a nap. Hmph, I just pulled it out of his bag, and he tried to claim it as his, but I told him everything inside, and he had nothing to say. Now nobody in our class wants to play with him anymore, afraid he'll steal their things, hahaha!"

Yan Fei: "You waited for us just to say this?"

"No, not exactly." Lu Xingye shook his head, then pulled out a crumpled 10-yuan bill from his pocket, just like yesterday. "My brother said the notebook was expensive yesterday, and 10 yuan wasn't enough. He told me to give this brother two more. Here!"

After hesitating for a moment, he reluctantly separated two bills and handed them to Chai Jin.

Seeing Lu Xingye's righteous yet extremely reluctant expression, Chai Jin almost burst out laughing.

"Alright, no need to give me money. Just get us each a Coke when we go to the school gate later."

"Really?!" Lu Xingye's eyes lit up immediately upon hearing this, then he asked again, "Well, you didn't want it yourself, it's not that I didn't give it to you! You can't come back to me for it!"

Upon hearing this, Chai Jin nodded, suppressing a laugh.

The four of them then arrived at the school gate, where Lu Xingye paid for each of them to buy a bottle of Coke.

All three of them thought that they would never run into that brat again.

The next day, after class, the three of them ran into Lu Xingye again on the playground. He was so bored that he was squatting under a tree watching ants move.

The three of them found it strange and went up to ask him. They found out that this kid couldn't go home early even when he had nothing to do, because the older students in the middle school didn't get off get out of class until after 5 o'clock, which was only a little bit earlier than them.

From then on, every day after class, when the three of them went to eat barbecue at the school gate, they had a little tail following them.

And for some reason, even though Yan Fei was the one who liked to have a cold face the most, Lu Xingye still liked to follow Yan Fei around the most.

This continued until all of them entered junior high school.

During this time, Lu Xingye also met Xu Zhiyi, the genius cousin that Shen Zechuan had mentioned.

From then on, the group of four evolved into a group of five.