Chapter 112

The television in Jiang Cheng’s home still had cracks spiderwebbing across the screen, but fortunately, it was still usable.

She had only just returned from her business trip when the zombie outbreak started up again, so she hadn’t had time to replace it.

The damaged cabinet door beside the dining table, however, had already been repaired. Master Luo had fixed it later.

The television remained on, and Jiang Cheng was waiting for an official government announcement. But the channels were still showing prerecorded programs.

After cooking and eating, she tried switching channels and discovered that several local stations had lost their signal, leaving only static.

Television stations were no ordinary media outlets. In the extreme circumstances of social upheaval, they were immediately upgraded into strategic command centers.

When the power of the state mobilized, television stations were among the things that had to be protected first, along with water, electricity, gas, and communications.

Emergency orders could be issued through television to calm public panic.

During the previous zombie disaster, almost everyone would sit in front of their televisions at a fixed time each day, waiting for the latest announcement.

Some people didn’t even turn off their televisions all day, terrified they might miss some sudden development.

It should be the same this time.

Some of the younger residents in the Youth Apartments were addicted to computers and the internet; some homes didn’t even have televisions. They had suffered for it during the last outbreak.

It was said that after the disaster ended, many people had not only upgraded their refrigerators but also bought televisions.

This time, though, even those without televisions had nothing to worry about. There were plenty of empty apartments. They could simply pick one with a television.

Jiang Cheng lived in Room 0306 in Building Two. The room next door, 0308, was being used by Master Luo and Aunt Pan, and Aunt Pan was still living there.

But including Aunt Pan, there were now only seven people left on the entire floor. All the other rooms were empty.

In a building with a reinforced-concrete frame, some apartments were separated by load-bearing walls, but most were not. Jiang Cheng knocked on the wall between her room and Room 0304 next door and confirmed that it was not load-bearing.

That made things easy.

Her room was empty now. She had temporarily put all the quilts, candles, and other supplies into her storage space, but she couldn’t occupy her storage space forever.

She needed somewhere else to put them.

She had planned to look for Aunt Pan after the older woman finished eating and returned, but unexpectedly, Aunt Pan came to find her with Li Jiangbing.

“So it was him.” After hearing what Aunt Pan had to say, Jiang Cheng nodded.

She had already guessed that the person who reported her must have been someone from property management.

The things cleaner Liu Hongwang had done had directly opposed the interests of the homeowners. No homeowner would have defended him.

Only someone from property management would understand that if one person fell, the others might be dragged down with him.

They had waited until social order was restored and the state’s law-enforcement agencies were functioning normally again before filing a complaint. That meant they had been too weak during the disaster to oppose the provisional committee led by Jiang Cheng.

“You need to be careful around him. Don’t let his age and scruffy beard fool you—he knows how to fight,” Aunt Pan warned.

Jiang Cheng didn’t understand.

Li Jiangbing did. He translated, “He knows martial arts?”

“Exactly,” Aunt Pan said. “He came from a martial-arts academy and started training when he was a child. He used to work in television and film as a stunt double and met a lot of celebrities. Later, when he got older and couldn’t keep doing that kind of work, he became a security guard.”

For someone from a martial-arts academy, the best career path was to test into the special police force and secure a stable government job.

Going from the film industry’s stunt world to working as a residential security guard at his age meant that Cao Jiacai had not exactly done well for himself.

Li Jiangbing sneered. “You should’ve seen how arrogant he was at dinner. He kept bragging nonstop.”

Actually, it could hardly be called bragging, because Cao Jiacai’s superpower really was impressive. From the moment he awakened, it had been powerful—strong enough to leave Wu Jiancheng, who belonged to the same category, far behind.

Everyone now said that Security Guard Cao Jiacai was the strongest combat-type superhuman in existence.

Li Jiangbing was jealous and envious at the same time, and couldn’t help sounding sour.

Jiang Cheng thanked Aunt Pan.

Her warning had come at exactly the right time. Jiang Cheng truly wasn’t familiar with Cao Jiacai, but he had performed so brilliantly that, judging by her usual habits, she might really have tried to recruit him.

Jiang Cheng said, “Auntie, I happen to need your help with something.”

“Tell me.”

Jiang Cheng stood up and walked over to the television. She moved aside a storage cabinet between the TV stand and the computer desk at the foot of the bed, then knocked on the wall.

“This wall. Could you help me make a doorway? I want to take over Room 0304.”

Aunt Pan’s earth-type superpower was leagues beyond Zhao Yi’s.

She went over and pressed both hands against the wall. A hole the size of a fist appeared in the surface. The bricks and mortar seemed to come alive, writhing as the opening grew larger and larger until it became a doorway a person could pass through.

On the other side was Room 0304.

The three of them walked through.

Dirty socks still lay unwashed on the sofa. Half a glass of drink remained on the coffee table, while the bag of potato chips had been sealed with a plastic clip.

The apartment’s owner had never imagined that he might not make it back.

Li Jiangbing sighed at the sight.

Jiang Cheng walked straight across the room and knocked on the opposite wall. Good—it wasn’t load-bearing either.

“Auntie.”

Aunt Pan went over and opened another doorway in the wall. The room on the other side was 0302.

Just like that, Rooms 0306, 0304, and 0302 were connected, and the space Jiang Cheng could use expanded rapidly.

In front of Aunt Pan, she took everything out of her storage space and placed it in the rooms.

She also stored the movable furniture from Rooms 0302 and 0304 in her storage space. “We’ll put it in the underground garage for now.”

Once the furniture from 0302 and 0304 was removed, there was even more usable space.

Aunt Pan was astonished. “You collected all these quilts and bedding? And why do you have so many candles?”

Jiang Cheng glanced at the time. “It’s already this late, and there’s still no government announcement.”

Aunt Pan fell silent for a moment. She could think of a few possible reasons herself. “I’m afraid a lot of the officials died this time too. Things probably won’t be as good as they were during the last outbreak.”

The losses in buildings where large numbers of people worked had been devastating. She had heard that in the five-story government building in the Development Zone, at least three floors were completely deserted.

The same could probably be assumed of other government offices.

Jiang Cheng said, “I’m worried that this time they won’t even be able to guarantee water, electricity, and gas. We can survive without those things, but I’m most worried about the heating.”

Aunt Pan sighed. “If we were back home, we could burn firewood. But this is a city full of apartment buildings. There’s nowhere to make a fire. What are we supposed to do?”

“We’ll think of something when the time comes. For now, I’m stocking up on quilts and bedding. That way, if everyone gets cold later, we won’t be caught unprepared with nothing to use.”

“You really do think ahead,” Aunt Pan said.

Aunt Pan might not have been highly educated, but she was a better person than many.

Jiang Cheng had emptied her storage space right in front of her, and Li Jiangbing had shown no surprise at all, which meant he had known about it for some time.

Aunt Pan understood perfectly. She had finally become one of Jiang Cheng’s “own people.”

And Aunt Pan was willing to be one of Jiang Cheng’s own.

Some people said that Jiang Cheng was ruthless, cold-blooded, and heartless.

But after observing her for so long, Aunt Pan had already realized that Jiang Cheng was actually very good to the people around her.

That morning, Jiang Cheng had awakened her superpower, and by that afternoon, she had begun displaying its might. Ever since returning from buying supplies on Duoduo, she had noticed that many people treated her differently.

It was as if she had suddenly gone from being invisible to being seen.

She could even understand Cao Jiacai’s arrogant swelling of pride.

But Jiang Cheng had been able to “see” her even before that.

Perhaps Old Luo had something to do with it. When he was alive, her Old Luo had been highly valued by Jiang Cheng.

Of course, one could also say it was because Old Luo had been capable and useful to Jiang Cheng. But Old Luo had died yesterday, and Jiang Cheng still treated her the same way. She neither ignored her nor showed her less concern—in fact, she seemed even more attentive.

In Aunt Pan’s heart, anyone who could keep treating others well after they were gone, who could continue to care for widows and orphans, was a good person.

Aunt Pan was worried. “If that’s the case, then if the government really disappears, people like Cao Jiacai will have a field day.”

Li Jiangbing’s expression turned ugly.

Cao Jiacai knew martial arts, but Li Jiangbing wasn’t necessarily any weaker than him.

But once superpowers were added to the equation, that was no longer true.

Damn it, Cao Jiacai was practically a wizard now. With nothing but a rolling pin in his hand, he could raise it and send a fireball flying—then raise it again and send another one.

At its largest, the fireball could be as big as a basketball. The heat radiating from it was so intense that no one dared approach.

At the dinner table that day, Cao Jiacai had even said that he controlled his attacks to burn only the zombies’ heads because he was afraid of starting a fire.

“If I wanted to,” he had said smugly, “I could turn their whole bodies into living flames.”

Li Jiangbing believed he really could do it. That meant, however, that there was now an enormous gap in combat strength between him and Cao Jiacai.

Aunt Pan’s concern was justified.

“Big sis.” There was not a trace of worry in Jiang Cheng’s eyes. “Fighting has never been people’s first priority.”

She gave them that same smile—one that could make a person feel completely at ease.

“To survive, people’s most basic needs...”

“Are food and water.”

Aunt Pan thought about it for a moment, then suddenly saw the light. “That’s right, that’s right. Whoever they are, they still have to eat and drink their fill before they can start a fight.”

She looked at Jiang Cheng, then at Li Jiangbing, and finally thought of Song Jingshuo.

Aunt Pan’s heart felt much lighter.

Sister Pan had not only helped Jiang Cheng open a passage through the wall; she had also sealed off the original entrance doors of Units 0304 and 0302 from the inside.

If anyone opened the doors to those two units from outside, all they would see were two walls.

This had been Li Jiangbing’s suggestion.

“They’ve been thinking about moving into our building,” he had said. “Zhang Lesi and the others have already made arrangements with Su Yu. They’re moving in tomorrow so they can be Su Yu’s neighbors.”

One of Jiang Cheng’s shortcomings was that she was always standing high above everything else, in control of the overall situation and able to grasp the key points. She was always separated from the people at the grassroots by a certain distance.

As her right-hand man, Li Jiangbing perfectly made up for that weakness.

Wherever he went and whoever he met, he could hit it off with everyone. Whenever “the people” had ideas or plans, he was always the first to find out and promptly report them to Jiang Cheng.

Otherwise, how could the Iron Triangle have been formed? Each of them had their own place in the ecosystem.

Li Jiangbing and Aunt Pan each took a pack of candles and several lighters from Jiang Cheng back to their homes for emergencies.

After entering his apartment, Li Jiangbing tossed the supplies onto the shoe cabinet in the entryway and went to the bathroom to urinate first.

When he finished and was about to flush, he glanced at the yellow liquid in the toilet bowl and suddenly remembered that Jiang Cheng had asked him to purify water.

As things stood, this ability might very well prove extremely useful in the future.

Li Jiangbing tightened his grip on his waistband, gathered his energy, and shouted at the toilet, “Hah!”

Then he began practicing water purification.