Chapter 135

The moment she saw that, she knew there was someone Su Yu thought was “handsome.”

“Who is it? Who?” Zhang Lesi asked.

Su Yu avoided her gaze. “Nobody. They all look the same, more or less.”

As if anyone would believe that.

Zhang Lesi thought for a moment, then her expression changed. “It couldn’t be Old Song, could it?”

“Don’t even think about it.” Zhang Lesi tried her best to dissuade her. “My cousin works in finance, and he warned me a long time ago: never date men from finance, advertising, or civil engineering. Each industry has its own special brand of awful.”

Su Yu immediately denied it. “Don’t be ridiculous. I just think they’re all more or less the same.”

Even if they could be friends, everyone still had a different personality.

Zhang Lesi was bold and outspoken. If she liked someone, she dared to pursue him.

Su Yu, on the other hand, clearly came from a more conservative family. She was the kind of girl who had to wait for the guy to pursue her.

Grinning mischievously, Zhang Lesi decided not to press her any further.

Meanwhile, Gao Yuxuan genuinely didn’t dare sit too close to everyone else. He still couldn’t fully control the energy in his body, and electricity leaked out every now and then.

Naturally, Zhao Yi stayed with him.

Gao Yuxuan was a little worried about Zhao Yi. “Why is your face so red? You weren’t shocked in the heart just now, were you?”

“It’s the autumn heat,” Zhao Yi said.

Gao Yuxuan looked up at the sky. “Is it? It doesn’t seem that hot yet. It’ll be hot at noon.”

He was still concerned. “How about we go find Zhang Lesi and have her take a look at you? Electric shocks count as external injuries. She can treat those.”

Zhao Yi waved him off. “I told you, it’s hot. I’m hot.”

Why was his face getting even redder?

Huh?

Something wasn’t right.

Gao Yuxuan stared at Zhao Yi.

Zhao Yi turned his head away.

The children were playing with a ball.

“Mo Li, Mo Li!”

They called Mo Li’s name as they kicked the ball toward him.

Mo Li looked as though he was lazily lying on the ground, basking in the sunlight, but whenever the ball flew over, he would smack it back with his tail.

The children burst into laughter.

Suddenly, they all fell silent.

Over where the adults had gathered, the auntie had picked up a megaphone and begun to speak.

All the children knew her. She was Mo Li’s owner.

“All right, everyone’s more or less here.” Jiang Cheng raised the megaphone. “Let’s begin.”

Manager Wang had found her a red plastic stool from the property management office. Sitting on it, she was slightly higher than everyone seated on the ground.

The small plaza fell silent.

Jiang Cheng began to speak.

“This time, things are much better than they were last time. Much better in every respect. I won’t go on about that.”

“There’s only one topic for today’s meeting: What do we do from here?”

“Today is...” Jiang Cheng said. “September 2. This wave of the virus has been spreading for five days now.”

“I came downstairs a little late because I couldn’t give up. I watched the television for a while.”

“But unfortunately, there was nothing. Nothing.”

A great many sighs rose at once.

The provisional government that had gritted its teeth, refused to give up, and led everyone to victory over the zombies last time had not appeared this time.

Not even a word.

“Compared with last time, when did the government start responding?”

“I remember very clearly. It was Sunday morning, after we had just cleared the zombies out of the courtyard. It was around ten, not yet eleven.”

“Twelve—no, thirteen hours.”

“Last time, when the zombie virus broke out, the government responded in just thirteen hours, despite having no experience dealing with it at all. It issued its first announcement to the public.”

“Although that announcement contained nothing of substance, at least it showed that the government had organized people to seize control of the television station.”

“Today is already the fifth day, and the television is still showing nothing but prerecorded programs. I heard that if no one manually stops them, those programs will just keep playing on a loop?”

“In other words, by the fifth day, the government hasn’t even managed to take the television station.”

“Or perhaps no one has organized people to seize it in the first place.”

Jiang Cheng paused and scanned the crowd.

The mood grew despondent. No one spoke.

Jiang Cheng raised the megaphone again.

“All right, I won’t waste time on that. I’ll get straight to the conclusion—”

“I...”

“I believe that, in reality, we no longer have a government.”

“Raise your hand if you agree with me.”

Every hand went up.

Even the new members of the Youth Apartments, Auntie Ma and Auntie Jiang, raised their hands.

The only ones who didn’t were some of the elderly residents who had come from Auspicious Home Garden.

Uncle Eighty was among them.

Tears filled his eyes. “How can there be no government? How can there be no government...”

He kept murmuring, his lips trembling.

It was obvious that the fact that there was no government had dealt him a devastating blow.

The elderly had spent their entire lives following the government. They had watched the country flourish and prosper, only for such an excellent government to suddenly disappear.

Who could accept that?

“This time is different. We have superpowers, and we can grow our own food.”

“Once we find all kinds of seeds, we can grow whatever we want and eat whatever we grow.”

“Let’s think about where we can get some chickens, ducks, and geese to raise. Even pigs, cattle, and sheep. If we raise them ourselves, we’ll have meat to eat.”

“These things used to be difficult for us, but now that we have superpowers, a lot of them have become easier, haven’t they?”

“So are we just going to live like this?”

Jiang Cheng asked, “Is this really what we want?”

“Stay shut inside the residential compounds, plant crops, raise chickens, and become self-sufficient? Is this how we’re going to live from now on?”

It didn’t sound so bad.

But a deep sense of uncertainty still hung over everyone.

Jiang Cheng was just about to speak when someone in the crowd suddenly shouted, “Jiang Cheng, lead us into the city!”

Jiang Cheng looked over. It was someone she didn’t know very well.

Not being familiar with him meant he wasn’t one of the core members, nor someone close to the center of things. He was just an ordinary homeowner.

Usually, people like that weren’t particularly strong. The powerful ones naturally gravitated toward the center, and the center was happy to gather them in.

Yet this ordinary homeowner, whose name Jiang Cheng couldn’t recall and whose face she barely recognized, had shouted out:

“We can’t stay trapped here!”

His cry shattered the uncertainty weighing on everyone’s hearts.

Life was still long. How could they allow themselves to be trapped here?

Was their entire world going to consist of just a few residential compounds?

How could that be?

No!

“That’s right! Jiang Cheng, lead us out!”

“Let’s take the Technology New District first, then enter the city!”

“This world belongs to us, not those fucking zombies!”

Everyone was sitting on the ground, so they all looked short, but their fists rose high into the air, one after another.

“Fight our way out!”

“Fight our way out!”

The shouts rang out in a wave.

“Jiang Cheng, you take command. We’ll all listen to you!”

“We believe in you!”

Jiang Cheng lowered the megaphone and looked at the people before her.

Beneath the autumn sunlight, every face was clear.

She hadn’t even said anything yet. She hadn’t presented them with any options.

And they had already chosen the path she wanted them to take.

She hadn’t incited or manipulated them. They had acted of their own accord, voluntarily.

They had made their own choice.

Every pair of eyes was bright, each one seeing the way forward.

As Jiang Cheng found herself watched by all those eyes, an indescribable sense of satisfaction welled up inside her.

She lifted the megaphone.

The crowd fell silent.

“I’d prepared a whole speech designed to stir your emotions...” Jiang Cheng said.

Everyone burst into laughter.

“Well, I don’t need it now,” Jiang Cheng continued. “What I want is the same as what all of you want.”

"We are human beings. How can we be confined to a space as small as just a few residential communities?"

"We must take back the living space that belongs to humanity."

"Here, I have some bad news to share with you all, and it has been confirmed," Jiang Cheng said seriously.

Everyone focused their attention.

Jiang Cheng shared the information. "There are no survivors in the Development Zone Government."

"Mo Li went to confirm it," he added.

Someone below asked, "Not a single one?"

"None," Jiang Cheng said firmly. "Mo Li is different from us. He doesn't search with his eyes. His searching ability might be an enhanced natural skill of cats, or perhaps it's a kind of spiritual superpower. I'm not sure which, but I know it's very accurate."

Everyone couldn't help but turn their heads to look.

Because the adults were having a meeting, the children who had lost their parents became sensitive and quiet. They stopped playing football and making noise.

They gathered around Mo Li, gently stroking him and pretending to lull him to sleep.

Mo Li cooperated well.

Or maybe he was really asleep.

It was hard to believe that this well - behaved little kitten was the same huge beast as the one as large as a house yesterday.

You might not believe how capable a little kitten could be, but you would definitely believe the power of that huge beast.

That was a beast that could bite through a human body with its teeth.

"So," Jiang Cheng said, "it's confirmed that there is no government in the Science and Technology New District now."

"How could this happen?" many people murmured, whispering to each other. "How could this happen?"

Even the primary school had survivors. How could there be no survivors in such a large Development Zone Government building?

At the same time, a thought flashed through the minds of Zhao Yi, Gao Yuxuan, and Song Jingshuo -

This is unreasonable.

This is unscientific.

Even from a probabilistic point of view.

"So, I declare -"

Jiang Cheng's voice rang out in the square.

"I declare -"

"The Provisional Government of the Science and Technology New District is hereby established!"

The children all looked up.

Because it suddenly became extremely quiet on the adults' side.

Immediately afterwards, the adults erupted into huge cheers!

"Yes, we are the government!"

"The government is gone, so we'll rebuild it!"

"It doesn't matter if it's gone. There's nothing to be afraid of. As long as there are still people alive, we have everything!"

Uncle Eighty, a veteran, had tears in his eyes.

"I was behind in my thinking," he said. "I was stupid."

"As long as the people are still here, what's there to fear?"

"After all, the government originally came from the masses!"

On September 2nd, the fifth day after the second outbreak of the zombie virus.

The Provisional Government of the Science and Technology New District was announced to be established in the Youth Apartment.

There were more than six hundred people gathered at the scene.

At the scene, the Zombie Clearance Combat Team of the Science and Technology New District, abbreviated as the Science and Technology New District Team, was established.

The newly - established Science and Technology New District Team would no longer recruit volunteers on a fluid basis as before.

From today on, it would have a formal and fixed establishment.

With forty - five superpowered individuals from the Youth Apartment, Jixiang Jiayuan, and Yujing Xiangyuan as the core, the total number of members was two hundred.

Two hundred people was already a large number.

There was no need for the team to be overly large and bloated.

Now, people had integrated superpowers into their thinking patterns. For example, at Jiang Cheng's suggestion, having gold - type superpowered individuals control the "knife - carts" had been proven effective through tests and had become a trump card in outdoor battles.

Just yesterday, a new combat mode had taken shape: first, eliminate large groups of outdoor zombies in batches, and then conduct point - to - point clearances of buildings.

Under this mode, there were knife - carts outdoors, and many buildings couldn't accommodate a large number of people at the same time.

So, after discussion, it was decided that a team of 200 people was the most suitable for capturing buildings such as schools and hospitals.

The core members of the Provisional Government were transformed from the Interim Committee members of the Youth Apartment, including Jiang Cheng and all six building managers.

It also included Zhou Wang, Huang Xuetao, and Xiao Dan from Jixiang Jiayuan.

And two superpowered individuals from Yujing Xiangyuan.

These were the founding leadership of the Provisional Government.