Chapter 10

“I’m fine,” Jiang Cheng replied, but couldn’t help raising her hand.

Mo Li didn’t flinch. Her fingertips gently landed on top of Mo Li’s head.

So fluffy.

A fluffy little head.

Jiang Cheng moved cautiously, her palm slowly coming down to rest on Mo Li’s back—a bit bigger than the first time she’d seen him a week ago, but still a normal-sized cat.

So different from that beastly form from moments ago.

Just now, in that sealed, confined space: agile, vicious mutants. She’d truly escaped with her life—more dangerous than facing those four before.

And Mo Li had snapped the mutant’s neck with a single pounce. What incredible fighting strength.

Though she couldn’t explain what she’d just witnessed, Jiang Cheng finally managed to calm down. She took a deep breath, scooped the black cat into her arms, and pressed her cheek against him.

“Thank you!”

“You saved me again.”

Her back was soaked through—all from the lingering terror.

Mo Li didn’t struggle at all. His body was soft and warm.

So warm it burned.

Jiang Cheng opened her eyes and looked down—the little black cat had closed its eyes again, as if asleep.

She carefully set Mo Li down on the sofa.

She knelt beside him, lifting his leg to examine the wound on his belly. The bandage from before had probably snapped during the transformation. The bite wound from the security guard had looked so horrifying, but now, under the sleek black fur, there was no trace of injury.

She thought about Mo Li’s transformation earlier. It was surreal. But from a scientific standpoint, that kind of physical change would require massive amounts of metabolism, and during that process, wounds could indeed be repaired by new cells.

But he’d collapsed again, which meant he probably hadn’t fully recovered his strength.

He’d thrown himself into danger to save her.

Jiang Cheng held Mo Li’s paw, unable to speak.

Ever since her parents died and her relatives fought over the inheritance, no one in this world had ever been willing to do something “without regard for their own safety” for her, the way her parents had.

Jiang Cheng felt, in that moment, that she had family again—even if Mo Li was just a cat.

She gently stroked Mo Li’s fur. His body had no wounds now, but he was still scorching hot.

When a person runs a high fever, dehydration can be fatal. Mo Li’s body temperature was far higher than even a human fever.

Jiang Cheng thought for a moment, stepped over the chaotic mess on the floor, brought some water, and fed it to Mo Li drop by drop with a small spoon.

Mo Li swallowed. So he did need fluids.

She fed him several spoonfuls until he stopped swallowing.

There was only so much she could do. Mo Li would also need food to regain energy, but he was in a drowsy state, and he wasn’t a kitten who could drink milk—she couldn’t feed him right now.

So she gently carried him back to the bed, hoping he’d recover and wake up on his own.

For now, she had things she still needed to do.

She walked to Shen Wei’s body, crouched down, and examined her carefully.

Shen Wei’s skin was grayish-blue, with a tough texture, like thick leather.

Completely different from human skin.

Her neck was almost entirely torn through. A cat’s bite force was nothing to scoff at—among same-sized animals, they’re top-tier fighters. And that was before Mo Li had grown enormous.

When she’d finished examining everything, Jiang Cheng dragged Shen Wei’s body to the door. She checked the hallway through the peephole, saw nothing out of the ordinary, then quickly opened the door and dragged the body out into the corridor.

Now there were three bodies in the hallway on this floor.

Jiang Cheng locked the door, wiped her hands clean, and didn’t bother tidying up the messy living room. She opened her laptop and posted on the residents’ forum:

【!!!WARNING! People bitten by mutants will also turn into mutants!!!】

In the body of the post, she objectively described what she had observed.

【Transformation occurs about six hours after being bitten. This is only one observed case so far; the transformation time may not be universal.】

【Vision is weak; relies on smell and hearing—mainly hearing—to determine direction. But the influence of lighting can’t be ruled out; the room was very dark at the time.】

【Limb coordination is good, movements are agile. Hard to deal with.】

After posting, Jiang Cheng copied the content and shared it on various other forums as well.

Then she finally had time to browse the forum pages.

She’d gone to sleep just after midnight. Now it was between four and five in the morning. In the four hours she’d been asleep, the forum had been flooded with posts.

Jiang Cheng skimmed through them quickly and realized she wasn’t the first to warn people. There were already a few others who had encountered situations like Shen Wei’s.

She found every relevant post she could and jotted down times on paper.

Sure enough, Shen Wei was just one case—her transformation time wasn’t universal. Of the cases Jiang Cheng recorded, the fastest one transformed within half an hour.

Compared to a youth apartment building like this one, where single owners and renters gathered, each shut away in their own isolated unit, ordinary residential communities were actually more prone to situations like Shen Wei’s.

Because most families lived together in regular communities. One unit might have a mom, dad, kids, even grandparents—several people under one roof.

If just one person transformed, it became a humanitarian disaster.

Jiang Cheng also noticed that not everyone fell into a coma like Shen Wei did. Shen Wei’s state might have been caused by excessive blood loss. Some people transformed without any symptoms at all.

One post described two people working together to kill a mutant. One of them got bitten on the arm—a minor injury. After they fled back into their apartment, both were exhausted, so the other person went to the kitchen to cook some noodles.

In the time it took to boil those noodles, the bitten one transformed.

In the past couple of years, broadband had spread to cities, but it hadn’t yet reached towns and villages. Compared to the total population, the number of people who could access the internet was still small. And among those who survived such horrifying encounters, only a small fraction would even think to post warnings for others.

So the actual number of cases was likely far higher than what appeared online.

As of now, Shen Wei’s transformation time was the longest among known cases. She had practically woken up the fastest—and the timing was calculated from when she woke. So that didn’t mean there weren’t longer incubation periods.

If someone received a minor injury and showed no obvious symptoms like unconsciousness, wouldn’t they easily be able to hide among the crowd?

Jiang Cheng cupped her chin, staring at the screen, these thoughts racing through her mind.

But thinking about that now was still too far off.

Jiang Cheng closed her laptop, stood up, and looked at the living room.

The dining table was overturned, chairs lying on the floor. The glass in the sideboard was shattered, mugs and glasses had fallen and smashed, and shards of glass littered the floor.

Jiang Cheng righted the table and chairs, swept all the glass bits into the trash can.

She looked up at the floor-to-ceiling window—the sky outside was beginning to brighten. Dawn was breaking.

Putting away the broom, she went to the bed to check on Mo Li.

Mo Li’s eyes were closed, but his breathing was steady. His temperature was still high. When she gently touched him, he’d open his eyes for a moment, then close them again—looking very weak.

Jiang Cheng rinsed the rice and put the porridge on to cook, then soaked a small bowl of cat food in warm water. She carried it over and gently shook Mo Li: "Eat something."

All living things need food to replenish their energy, and a mystical transformation like Mo Li's must consume far more energy than usual. He was so weak right now—there was no way he didn't need to replenish.

Jiang Cheng tried tucking a softened piece of cat food into Mo Li's mouth, and sure enough, he swallowed it. She had guessed right.

Mo Li couldn't move at all right now. Jiang Cheng tested it and found that feeding him three or four pieces at a time was the fastest to swallow. Fewer pieces wasted efficiency; more pieces meant he had to lift his neck, which seemed very difficult for him in his current, utterly weakened state.

So Jiang Cheng fed him four pieces at a time. Mo Li cooperated well—once four pieces were in his mouth, he swallowed once, without even opening his eyes.

Not until he had finished the entire bowl of cat food did he close his eyes again and drift back to sleep, snoring softly.

Jiang Cheng worried he might relieve himself on the bed, so she found an old pillowcase, folded it several times, and tucked it under Mo Li.

Mo Li kept his eyes closed and didn't open them, letting her fuss over him however she liked.

The porridge was done. Jiang Cheng had a simple breakfast.

As she ate, she opened the owners' forum online and saw someone posting that they had no food at home, asking what to do. A kind neighbor had already replied offering to share some.

Below, someone asked: "So when can we go outside?"

Another asked: "Are we still going to work on Monday?"

These two questions sparked a lively discussion. Many people wanted to know what to do about Monday's commute and whether the monsters on the road would bite them.

Jiang Cheng spooned a mouthful of porridge into her mouth.

Scrolling further down, she saw someone saying they planned to go out and check things in "tomorrow's daylight." Since the post was made in the middle of the night, that so-called "tomorrow" meant today.

After breakfast, Jiang Cheng cleaned up and turned on the television. Still no news or government announcements.

She lowered the volume but didn't turn the TV off, planning to leave it on in case there was a temporary government notice she could catch in time.

Before long, it was seven or eight in the morning. Jiang Cheng gave Mo Li some water again.

By then, sounds began to stir in the hallway. Not the mutated ones—ordinary neighbors. In the end, people can't bear to turn their own homes into prison cells; someone was bound to crack.

Three bodies lay in the hallway, but that didn't stop someone from finally working up the nerve to step out and take a look.

With the first, a second and third soon opened their doors. Before long, the neighbors were all out, gathered around the bodies, chattering quietly.

Li Jiangbing came out too, bragging to the others about how he had killed Li Ziqing: "I saw her wandering around in the hallway, and that just wouldn't do—what if she bit somebody? So I went back inside, grabbed my weapon, and came out..."

Even now, he held a baton in each hand, and with his hefty build, he cut an imposing figure to the neighbors.

Especially since no one else besides Jiang Cheng had seen his cowardly side yesterday. The neighbor who had woken up later also assumed the one Jiang Cheng killed was actually the one he had taken down.

Everyone praised him: "Thank god you were here."

"I looked through the peephole and it scared me half to death."

"Same here. I didn't even know what was going on. I thought it was a murder."

"So, uh... does this count as murder?"

"...Can't be, right?"

Li Jiangbing said, "I don't think it does. If the police saw one of these things with their own eyes, they'd know it had to be killed. Go look at her place—her boyfriend got bitten to death by her."

Li Ziqing's door was still wide open, and everyone couldn't resist poking their heads in for a look.

The apartment was tiny, visible at a glance. Li Ziqing's boyfriend's death was brutal—his neck had been chewed completely through.

Someone gagged.

Someone's voice trembled: "They're fucking eating people?"

Li Jiangbing let out a grunt and said, "The police ought to give me a bravery award. If they call this murder, there's no justice in the world."

Li Jiangbing wasn't too worried.

He had come face to face with a mutant, and he knew they couldn't be considered "people" at all anymore. The police would certainly understand.

Besides, during the large-scale awakening last night, many people and mutants had died together. He himself had stayed online until the early hours, and from what he saw online, this was happening everywhere. He wasn't worried.

Deep down, he felt there was safety in numbers.

But he was puzzled: "When did another one show up?"

There should have been just two mutated corpses in the hallway—Li Ziqing and the neighbor next to her. But now there were three.

Li Jiangbing's voice boomed: "Who's this one? Never seen him before. He's not from this floor, right?"