Chapter 105

Jiang Cheng walked past several aisles without seeing Song Jingshuo, but fortunately, she spotted Li Jiangbing.

She gave him a meaningful glance, and he immediately came over to follow her.

They were so perfectly in sync.

Li Jiangbing even lowered his voice when he spoke. “What’s up?”

“Candles, lighters, and quilts,” Jiang Cheng said.

“Huh?”

Jiang Cheng’s superpower was her storage space. Since she was here, she naturally had to take something with her. There was no way she’d come all this way and leave empty-handed.

But Li Jiangbing hadn’t expected her to want these things. He asked in confusion, “Shouldn’t we be taking rice, grain, and meat?”

“It’s different now,” Jiang Cheng said. “This time is different.”

In fact, some people had already begun pushing shopping carts around and loading things into them. Since they had come all this way, they might as well take something. No thief ever left empty-handed.

Jiang Cheng found the candles and lighters.

Li Jiangbing watched with his own eyes as she reached out and touched them. The items vanished instantly.

Jiang Cheng frowned.

Li Jiangbing hurriedly asked, “What’s wrong?”

“The candles are surprisingly heavy,” Jiang Cheng said.

They were heavy because of their mass. Her storage space wasn’t limited by an item’s shape. The amount it could hold was determined by weight.

Simply put, it was a matter of how much it could bear.

Jiang Cheng didn’t take everything. She left some behind.

Li Jiangbing had already realized that Jiang Cheng always left others some leeway. She wouldn’t drive people who weren’t her enemies into desperate straits.

But the cleaner who had led the strike at their residential compound—the one whose name was Liu something—belonged to the opposing side. Jiang Cheng had left that kind of person not the slightest bit of room.

Li Jiangbing especially liked Jiang Cheng’s way of doing things.

Perhaps, at the beginning, he had only realized that Jiang Cheng was quick-witted and could rapidly become the core of any group, so he had wanted to cling to her.

But later on, he had genuinely come to like her and sincerely wanted to be her partner.

Song Jingshuo must have felt the same way.

Seeing that many people had started pushing shopping carts around to gather supplies, Jiang Cheng didn’t go to the bedding section. Instead, she led Li Jiangbing straight to the warehouse.

Fortunately, the warehouse shelves also had clear labels. The two of them followed the signs until they found what they were looking for.

Aside from several zombie corpses, there was no one else in the warehouse. Jiang Cheng explained to Li Jiangbing, “I’m worried that this time, we won’t be able to count on water, electricity, gas, or heating.”

Li Jiangbing froze, then hesitantly said, “That can’t be, can it? Last time...”

“I told you, this time is different from last time.” Jiang Cheng looked at him. “Jiangbing, how many people were there in our residential compound last time? How many are there now? How many people were in Jixiang Jiayuan last time? How many are there now?”

“Try applying that same ratio to the government and the military.”

Li Jiangbing took a moment to process her words. Cold sweat began to bead on his forehead.

When Li Jiangbing had served in the militia, regular active-duty soldiers had been in charge of his unit. He had gotten quite familiar with them.

He had learned that even those soldiers and officers didn’t know exactly how many people the military had lost at the time. The authorities had never released any figures.

One could say that the losses simply hadn’t been the focus back then. But, looking at it another way, it was also possible that the losses had been so devastating that the government had decided not to disclose them because of the impact and other political considerations.

An officer he had been close to had once explained that whenever a major natural disaster occurred within the country, the military would enter a state of top-level combat readiness, to prevent foreign powers from taking advantage of the situation and invading.

It was entirely possible that the losses had been so severe that the figures were being kept secret out of fear that foreign forces would start coveting the country.

After that, the country had resumed work and production. It had only been a little over a month since then, and the nation hadn’t had time to recruit and replenish its forces.

Under these circumstances, the military had suffered another devastating blow.

As for the government... Just look at Jixiang Jiayuan. None of the people who had gone to work had returned!

Weren’t government workers also people who worked in government offices?

“Last time, the formal rescue operations didn’t begin until Wednesday,” Jiang Cheng said. “But that doesn’t mean the government did nothing on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. In fact, it should have begun taking action on Sunday. Otherwise, how could we have continued to receive water, electricity, gas, and communications?”

“But all of that depended on the government still existing.”

“Vice Mayor Zheng, Mayor Sun, and the others survived at home over the weekend. Then they gathered together and formed a new temporary government, taking on the responsibility of leading everyone. That’s what made everything that followed possible.”

“How many government officials survived this time? Can they even establish a temporary government?”

Li Jiangbing’s footsteps grew heavy.

He truly felt that he wasn’t suited to think about such things. Not only did they give him a headache, they also easily made him panic.

In the end, Li Jiangbing made his choice.

“You just need to tell me what you want me to do. Whatever you tell me to do, I’ll do.”

That would certainly make things easier!

He absolutely didn’t want to be made responsible for thinking about these matters!

This time, it was Jiang Cheng’s turn to sigh.

“My storage space is too small,” she said. “Actually, there are ways to deal with everything else. What worries me most is winter.”

If everything went as she expected, then it wouldn’t just be the water, electricity, and gas supplies that failed. The most important thing they would need in winter was heating.

They followed the signs and found the bedding section.

The warehouse was filled with large packages. Many of them were enclosed in wooden crates. That was why Master Guo and Brother Dong had been able to obtain crowbars in the warehouse.

The crates were heavy too, and using them would waste precious space. Jiang Cheng pointed at one of them. “Take this apart.”

Li Jiangbing turned around without a word, found a crowbar, and immediately began prying the crate apart with loud cracking sounds.

They only needed to open a gap large enough for Jiang Cheng to reach her hand inside.

The quilts were packed one bundle after another. As long as Jiang Cheng touched a single bundle, she could empty the entire crate into her storage space in an instant.

It was incredibly convenient. Jiang Cheng even found time to joke with Li Jiangbing.

“Which is heavier, a pound of cotton or a pound of iron?”

Li Jiangbing looked at her as though she were an idiot. “Do you really need to ask?”

He replied with absolute certainty, “Iron, of course! I’ve never heard of cotton being heavier than iron!”

Jiang Cheng was speechless.

Fine, then.

There were all kinds of quilts: soybean-fiber quilts, wool quilts, down quilts, and so on. Some were advertised as seven-hole quilts, others as nine-hole quilts.

Jiang Cheng didn’t bother distinguishing between them. She shoved every last one into her storage space.

Although the quilts took up a lot of room, they didn’t weigh much. In the end, Jiang Cheng managed to store far more than she had expected. It was a pleasant surprise.

“Let’s go.” After filling her storage space to capacity—and then cramming in a little more—Jiang Cheng led Li Jiangbing out of the warehouse.

Outside, the place had become a shopping frenzy.

Ever since the previous disaster, people across the country had apparently developed a hoarding disorder. It was probably a form of post-traumatic stress disorder caused by the last zombie disaster.

So this time, there was far less urgency when it came to gathering supplies.

Everyone was mainly discussing how to divide up the fresh fruits and vegetables from Mai Duoduo. There was also fresh meat. These were the things that would rot in a few days if they weren’t taken away today.

Master Guo said there was still plenty of frozen meat, fish, shrimp, and other food in the cold-storage rooms. They could deal with those later. For today, they would focus on the fresh food.

Song Jingshuo was in the plant section with Aunt Pan and two other aunties who possessed wood-type abilities.

The potted plants here were mainly succulents, money trees, cacti, kalanchoes, mint, and similar varieties.

For Song Jingshuo and the others, the truly valuable items were the potted strawberries and cherry tomatoes.

Apart from those, there were seeds—vegetable seeds.

“Take them all, take them all!” the aunties urged. “After all, there are only three of us with wood-type abilities.”

Aunt Pan reminded them, “You should take all the fresh fruits and vegetables too. Take them back and see what you can do with them.”

Because many plants don’t necessarily need seeds.

Song Jingshuo wore a stony expression from start to finish.

There was no changing the attributes of the superpowers Heaven had given them, but accepting his fate didn’t mean he had to be happy about it.

Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan came over and squeezed Song Jingshuo aside, gathering around the aunties to chat with them. “What kind of work did you do? Are you in good health? How did you end up with a wood-type ability? Do you have any idea why?”

The aunties had been looked down on when everyone was divided into teams. But later, everyone discovered that the uncles and aunties led by Zhou Wang weren’t actually that weak.

Of course, they weren’t strong either, but they hadn’t held anyone back. They were simply at the level of ordinary, healthy people.

Considering their age, their physical strength could be described as exceptionally good.

When Zhao Yi and the others asked, they confirmed that the two elderly ladies, along with several other seniors who had dared to put on armor and go out to kill zombies, were all the type who did morning exercises in the park and danced in the square at night.

They were the kind of elderly people with more energy than the young.

The aunties exchanged a smile. “Of course there’s a reason.”

“The two of us are famous for growing flowers and vegetables.”

“That’s right. It wouldn’t be surprising at all for us to have wood-type abilities. If we didn’t have wood-type abilities, then who would?”

“You young men should come visit our homes when you have time. You’ll see how well our plants grow!”

After interviewing the aunties, Zhao Yi couldn’t help glancing at Song Jingshuo several times.

His movements were so obvious that Song Jingshuo no longer had the patience for polite small talk. “If you have something to say, say it.”

Zhao Yi asked, “Do you also like growing flowers and vegetables?”

Song Jingshuo gave him a sinister smile. “Which strand of my hair makes me look like I do?”

Gao Yuxuan, meanwhile, interviewed Aunt Pan. “Sis, you’re from an agricultural household, right? Why do you think you ended up with a earth-type ability instead of a wood-type one? We all think you should have been wood-type.”

“You just assume that farmers are born wanting to grow crops.” Aunt Pan clearly had no patience for their stereotypical thinking. “If we liked farming that much, why would we come to the city to work? If farming was so wonderful, why would Old Luo spend money to learn how to be an electrician?”

Farmers were simply born with farmland assigned to them, which naturally tied them to the soil. That didn’t mean they were born wanting to farm.

Gao Yuxuan seemed to understand. But then he asked, “Weren’t you growing vegetables behind Building Six before?”

That should have meant she liked farming, right?

Aunt Pan said, “That? The property management company had paid someone to place an order for vegetables. I saw how much money there was to be made and thought, ‘Why let outsiders profit from it when I can do it myself?’ Who knew the manager wouldn’t allow it? He said the residents of Building Six had complained, so they dug everything up.”

So that was how it was. Gao Yuxuan and Zhao Yi had gotten the information they wanted.

In the end, Zhou Wang decided to take Brother Dong in.

After Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan finished interviewing the others, they came over to interview the two of them as well, insisting that they have a race to test their abilities.

At the request of the two “superpower researchers,” the pair ran a lap around the supermarket.

Brother Dong won.

Not only was he fast, but he wasn’t even breathing hard.

Zhou Wang, on the other hand, was slightly out of breath.

They looked at each other.

One asked, “Why are you out of breath?”

The other asked, “Why aren’t you?”

Brother Dong said, “What’s there to pant about after running such a short distance? My everyday work is more tiring than this.”

He grinned. “You obviously worked in an office. Look at that belly.”

As he spoke, he gave Zhou Wang’s stomach a slap.

Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan watched as Zhou Wang’s protruding beer belly jiggled under the impact.

They felt they had more or less formed a basic profile of the superpowers.

At that moment, Zhou Wang’s phone rang.

It was an unfamiliar number.

But Zhou Wang still answered. His phone number had been posted on the neighborhood’s residents’ forum, and many people in Auspicious Garden had his number.

Whenever someone he didn’t know called, it showed up as an unfamiliar number.

“Hello, this is Zhou Wang.”

The caller was indeed someone from Auspicious Garden. “Zhou Wang, this is Longlong’s Grandma. I mean the Longlong from Building Four, not the one from Building One.”

The introduction meant nothing to Zhou Wang.

Whether it was the Longlong from Building One or the one from Building Four, he had no impression of either of them.

But he had received far too many calls like this. All he could do was pinch the bridge of his nose to ease his headache. “Please just tell me what’s going on. I’m busy here.”

Longlong’s Grandma hurriedly said, “Well, Little Huang is back.”

Zhou Wang froze. “Little Huang? Huang Xuetao?”

Longlong’s Grandma replied, “Yes. His mother calls him Little Tao. I’ve heard her.”

Zhou Wang was overcome with surprise and delight. “He’s still alive!”

For those two months, the boy had been his constant little sidekick, calling him several times a day and coming to see him several times a day.

The more time Zhou Wang spent with him, the more he realized that the boy was a textbook example of “someone else’s perfect child.” Zhou Wang had even told his own child, “You should be like Brother Little Huang when you grow up.”

After spending so much time with a child like that, it was only natural to grow attached.

Zhou Wang had been delighted for barely a second when Longlong’s Grandma continued, “He went home, took a kitchen knife, and left again. We asked him what he was going to do, and he said he was going to rescue his mother. Oh dear, how could we let him do that? But he wouldn’t listen to us. He got on his bicycle and left. The few of us old folks discussed it and decided we’d better call you.”