Chapter 132
Getting from Gaoxin Middle School to the residential district didn’t require retracing their steps. They only had to keep going and turn at the next corner.
But just as they continued forward and turned, someone called out, “Jiang Cheng!”
There were more people on the return trip, so Jiang Cheng wasn’t sitting in her seat. She stood at the front of the bus, looking over the passengers. When she heard someone call her, she turned toward the direction they were pointing and paused.
“Kindergarten,” everyone murmured despite themselves.
That’s right. The Science and Technology New District had several private kindergartens, but only one public one: Gaoxin Kindergarten. Gaoxin Elementary School, Gaoxin Middle School, and the Gaoxin Central Sports Stadium were all clustered in this area.
Since they were already here, they might as well go.
The convoy stopped in front of the kindergarten. They first cleared out the zombies at the entrance, then prepared to get out and enter the building.
Everyone stood up, but Su Yu suddenly said, “I... I...”
Everyone turned to look at her.
A look of retreat appeared on Su Yu’s face.
Everyone knew that Su Yu was by no means timid, weak, lazy, or crafty—the sort of person who refused to contribute and only wanted to enjoy the fruits of others’ labor.
From the very first day of the zombie outbreak, Su Yu had participated in every operation. Even before she had any armor, she had bravely fought zombies with nothing but a frying pan. She was a reliable companion.
But now, she wanted to back down.
Su Yu said, “Can I stay here...?”
“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Li Jiangbing waved a large hand. “You stay on the bus and look after the children.”
They needed someone to remain on the bus anyway. Besides, the buses were packed with little kids.
Su Yu nodded.
Everyone filed off the bus. Mo Li transformed into a leopard and darted into the kindergarten first.
No one thought Su Yu was wrong for staying behind.
As time passed and everyone became more familiar with one another, they gradually came to understand each other’s true nature.
The true nature of Song Jingshuo, a refined and polished corporate elite, was that he had a vicious tongue.
Li Jiangbing looked frightening, as if he belonged to some criminal gang, but by now everyone knew that he actually had an exceptionally good temper. Whenever he strolled around the residential complex, the dogs all loved running up to him and wagging their tails.
Before this, everyone had assumed that Su Yu was a girl much like Jiang Cheng:
Brave, calm, and strong.
Now they knew that although Su Yu was capable of being brave, calm, and strong, she and Jiang Cheng were completely different kinds of people.
Jiang Cheng’s heart was hard—so hard that no one knew just how hard it could be.
Su Yu was the exact opposite. The more they got to know her, the more they realized that, so long as she held to her principles and did nothing wrong, her heart was genuinely soft.
Someone had once asked Su Yu whether she was religious.
Su Yu had said no.
Why did people insist on tying inner gentleness to religion, as if that somehow gave religion all the credit?
Some people were simply born that way.
Li Jiangbing got off the bus and let out a sigh.
He knew that Su Yu had reached the limit of what she could bear today.
She had already faced the little children at the elementary school.
She couldn’t face whatever might be waiting inside the kindergarten as well.
Zhao Yi had said that a person’s superpower was influenced by many factors, one of which was their innermost desires.
Brother Dong and Little Huang were typical examples. Although Zhao Yi hadn’t used the two of them as examples in public, he and the others had privately told Li Jiangbing about it.
Li Jiangbing still couldn’t understand why he had ended up with a water-based ability, but he could understand perfectly well why Su Yu possessed a protective barrier.
Some people wanted to run away.
Some were so frightened and anxious that they couldn’t sleep at night.
Some wished they had the ability to protect others.
Su Yu stayed on the bus with the children.
One little girl asked, “Auntie, will the little brothers and sisters in the kindergarten turn into zombies?”
“I don’t know either,” Su Yu said.
The little girl was tiny, yet she sighed like an adult and said, “I hope they don’t.”
Su Yu pulled the little girl onto her lap and held her close.
Then a little boy shouted, “Zombie!”
Su Yu looked outside.
Several zombies were approaching in the distance.
There had been many zombies on Preschool Street and outside the kindergarten. Over the past few days, they had gradually spread outward.
The group had just dealt with the ones in the street, but the zombies farther away had heard the commotion and were now coming over.
“It’s okay. We’re safe inside the bus.” Su Yu gently patted the little girl in her arms.
She had barely finished speaking when a zombie’s face appeared at the window, climbing up the metal bars. The sight made the children scream in fear.
It was clearly a third-generation zombie.
Unlike second-generation zombies, third-generation zombies didn’t charge recklessly into things or smash their heads against glass. Look at this one—it knew how to grip the metal bars and climb. Its pitch-black eyes stared at Su Yu and the little girl inside, as if they were delicious meat.
The girl was terrified and trembled in Su Yu’s arms.
“Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid,” Su Yu said softly.
The children all saw white light spreading across Su Yu’s body.
The protective barrier unfolded, knocking the zombie away from the bus.
Go away.
Stay away from the children.
Su Yu held the little girl tightly and stared at the zombies outside.
Go away.
The child in her arms was so small. She was tiny—hardly bigger than a kitten or puppy.
Go away!
Deep down, Su Yu felt that she was far too weak.
She truly wanted a stronger ability, one that could protect more people—especially children.
She lowered her head and kissed the little girl’s crown.
It was greasy and smelly, but that didn’t matter. Once they got back, Auntie would give her a nice bath.
Don’t be afraid. Auntie’s here.
White light radiated from Su Yu once again.
The people in the bus behind them saw a zombie climbing onto the bus ahead. They had just gotten off and were preparing to deal with it when they saw the protective barrier surrounding the bus suddenly flare with white light and expand in an instant.
The third-generation zombie that had just been knocked away had only just gotten back up when it was pushed away again.
This time, the expanding barrier forced it against the kindergarten’s outer fence, pinning it there.
The zombie struggled and let out a furious howl.
The people behind them stared in shock.
“Holy crap?”
“Was that Su Yu?”
That white protective barrier could only belong to Su Yu.
The kindergarten was cleared out very quickly.
When Jiang Cheng and the others came back outside, they were astonished to see the white barrier surrounding the large bus.
The people who had stayed behind got off and killed the scattered zombies that wandered over. They were smoking and chatting beside the bus.
Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan went over and asked, “How long has Su Yu’s barrier been up?”
“It started as soon as you went inside.”
“Was it this big from the beginning?”
“It covered the bus at first, then suddenly expanded like it had exploded.”
“Holy crap. A burst breakthrough?”
The protective barrier retracted. Clearly, Su Yu had seen them return.
Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan immediately started toward Su Yu, eager to interview her, but Li Jiangbing grabbed one with each hand and hauled them back.
“Can you two read the situation? At least consider how she’s feeling.”
The two men had been excited in the moment. Now that they had come back to their senses, they could only smile sheepishly.
“Sorry, sorry.”
The driver opened the doors, and everyone got back onto the bus.
Su Yu looked toward Li Jiangbing.
Li Jiangbing looked away and only said to the driver, “Let’s go, let’s go. I’m starving.”
Thank goodness they hadn’t made Su Yu go inside.
Mo Li came back too. After transforming into a small cat, she chose one child’s lap and curled up there.
The child was overwhelmed with delight and carefully stroked her fur.
If they asked Zhou Wang to search a building, he might be fast, but he could still overlook survivors hiding somewhere.
Mo Li, however, couldn’t. She could sense both living beings and zombies.
Su Yu looked once more at the kindergarten outside. From Li Jiangbing’s deliberate change of subject, she understood.
There wasn’t a single survivor.
Li Jiangbing secretly glanced at Su Yu.
He knew she was sad.
That was simply the kind of person she was.
The way Su Yu held the little girl stirred an indescribable feeling in Li Jiangbing.
He wanted to look a little longer, but he didn’t dare.
The various residential developments in the new district were all fairly close to one another.
The public elementary and middle schools followed the principle of enrolling students at the school nearest to where they lived.
The convoy dropped the middle school students off at their own residential communities. The boys and girls, dressed in gleaming armor and carrying their newly acquired weapons, said goodbye to their benefactors.
“Goodbye!”
Little Huang watched them.
They were all around the same age.
Little Huang understood better than anyone that even if the house was empty and his parents were gone, he still had to go back and take a look.
He understood that better than anyone.
The thirty-odd middle school students returning with the convoy were all from Auspicious Garden and Imperial View Garden.
After getting out of the vehicles, some were reunited with their grandparents and clung to each other, sobbing. Others couldn’t find their relatives.
Not every mother who rushed out had been as quick to react—or as lucky—as Xiao Dan.
Several had gone out and never returned.
Besides the middle school students returning home, the convoy also brought back a dozen little children and two cafeteria aunties.
One was Auntie Ma, and the other was Auntie Jiang.
Neither of them had anywhere to go, so Jiang Cheng asked them to come back with the group.
Everyone had eaten a little before setting out to stave off their hunger and planned to have a proper meal after returning.
Jiang Cheng had called the residential community along the way to report the number of extra people they were bringing back.
By the time they returned, the few people who had been recruited had already prepared the first meal.
Jiang Cheng brought out the cafeteria trays and chopsticks. Everyone was ravenous. There weren’t enough chairs in the coffee shop, so each person carried a metal tray and squatted on the ground to eat.
The chairs were left for the little children.
Auntie Ma and Auntie Jiang took a look around the kitchen. When they came out, they went to find Jiang Cheng.
“We can do this job too.”
They had both worked in a middle school cafeteria and were more professional.
Jiang Cheng agreed. “We’ll give you a room to share.”
The first communal meal was a great success. Everyone gave it positive feedback.
It looked like the arrangement could be expanded. The largest group in the community consisted of single young people who didn’t want to cook. People who genuinely enjoyed cooking, like Su Yu and Song Jingshuo, were in the minority.
Most people didn’t want to spend an hour cooking, five minutes eating, and another half hour washing dishes and scrubbing pots.
It simply wasn’t worth it.
Among the little children, seven were girls and five were boys. They ranged in age from six to eight.
Every child could recite their parents’ phone numbers.
But no one could get through.
The only father they managed to reach said, “I might not make it back alive. Please, I’m begging you to take care of her.”
He wanted to speak with his daughter.
No one knew what he said to her. All they heard was the little girl repeatedly answering, “Mm-hmm,” “Oh,” and “Okay.”
She was very well-behaved.
After hanging up, the little girl said, “Daddy told me to listen and behave.”
The little girl was no longer afraid.
The residential community gave off a sense of safety. Everyone was living as they had before, as if there were no zombies.
And there were so many adults around.
Children instinctively trusted the adults who had rescued them, like fledglings trusting their parents.
But to the people in the Youth Apartments, more than a dozen children were a burden that had suddenly landed in their laps.
Li Jiangbing scratched his head. “Well, this is quite a mess. What are we supposed to do?”
There was only one option: keep them.
After discussing it, everyone chose three apartments on the same floor as Su Yu, all adjacent to hers.
One of the apartments already had a girl living in it, so she was moved to another one.
Aunt Pan knocked through the walls between the three apartments. Only the entrance to the middle apartment was left; the entrances to the other two were sealed.
This was where Jiang Cheng’s storage space proved especially convenient. The beds and other furniture were moved out of the middle apartment, and two sets of sofas were brought in to create a shared activity room.
The two side apartments were filled with beds, lined up one after another. The girls would live in one, and the boys in the other.
The girls were put in charge of caring for the children, rather than the men.
This wasn’t based on the stereotypical idea that women should do certain things and men others. It was Su Yu who had proposed the arrangement.
She said, “The children are too young. They can’t tell right from wrong, and they have no ability to resist. It wouldn’t be safe to leave them with men.”
The girls all agreed, and so did Jiang Cheng.
The Youth Apartments gained fourteen residents today:
Two cafeteria aunties.
Twelve little children.
It lost eight residents:
Cao Jiacai, deceased.
Three security guards and two cleaners had been fired and left.
Wang Haotian and his companions had left of their own accord. No one stopped them.
The current population was 417.
Among them were twenty-six people with supernatural abilities.
It was September 1, the fourth day since the second outbreak of the zombie virus.
The government had still given no sign of life on television.
Information online was scarce and scattered.
The Youth Apartments now faced a shortage of vegetables.
The greens brought back from Buy More had lasted three days. There weren’t many left, and they were no longer fresh.
Now that communal meals had begun, everyone had been reporting the problem.
Jiang Cheng found the only wood-element ability user in the entire community.
“You can put everything else aside for now.”
“Focus on growing vegetables.”
“We’re all counting on you.”
Li Jiangbing was afraid he’d get smacked if he laughed in Jiang Cheng’s face, so he ran off laughing.
A group of people in the community gathered around to watch Mo Li basking in the sun.
One child asked, “Can we pet him?”
Another child said, “Sure. He fell asleep on my lap in the car. Go ahead and pet him. He doesn’t bite.”
“Right. We’re not zombies, after all.”