Chapter 14

Before anyone else could react, Jiang Cheng had already shifted the bat from a resting hold in her hands to a two-handed grip, angled slightly over her shoulder. The stance was ready to swing at any moment. "No need to bring weapons over there. Li Jiangbing, could you hold onto their weapons for them for now?"

Her wording was polite, her tone gentle, but the meaning behind her words was anything but.

A faint trace of blood still hung in the air, along with a rank, sickly stench. Everyone found it hard to breathe.

When the first wave of injured had been sent to the property management office, the mood hadn't been this grim. Deep down, people had still clung to the idea that maybe the mutation was only a matter of probability, that hope still existed.

But the case right in front of them had shattered that hope in an instant.

Everyone followed Jiang Cheng's lead and tightened their grips on their weapons. The atmosphere froze solid.

The two of them stood surrounded in the center of the crowd.

These people were, in theory, law-abiding citizens. Apart from a few who shared cramped rentals, most of those who'd chosen this young professionals' apartment complex were young, held respectable jobs, and had a certain standard for quality of life.

But today, every single one of them had picked up a weapon and piled up a mountain of bodies in the central plaza of the garden.

One more corpse or two on that pile wouldn't make a difference.

The two men slumped in defeat, handing their cleaver and hammer to the people beside them, and muttered flatly, "Let's go."

The one holding the hammer was already on the verge of tears.

A second later, the tears came: "I need to call my mom..."

Everyone, including Li Jiangbing, looked to Jiang Cheng. She gave a slight nod, her voice very soft: "Call her. Tell her not to worry."

The man pulled out his phone, sniffing as he dialed the home landline number.

No one answered.

He murmured, "That's weird. Sunday, they should both be home."

The rhythmic "beep—beep—beep—" of the unanswered ring was faintly audible to those standing closest.

Many people had already guessed what it might mean. Their lips moved, but no words came out.

The man on the phone slowly grew dazed.

Li Jiangbing looked left, then right, reluctant to rush him. But he'd just witnessed a case of infection and mutation that happened in a very short span of time, and he was extremely wary of anyone carrying wounds. Not getting them locked up immediately made him uneasy.

Finally, he looked at Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng said, "Maybe they've just gone into hiding. It's too chaotic right now; hiding is safer. Look, all those people upstairs are hiding too."

The man looked up. The young professionals' apartments featured floor-to-ceiling glass windows, and in a single glance he could see many of those who hadn't dared come down to help, pressing their hands against the glass and peering downward.

"Oh..." He clicked his phone shut and looked up at Jiang Cheng.

He'd left the scene fairly early, back when Jiang Cheng had just stepped forward to speak confidently and assign tasks. But in this short amount of time, he could feel that Jiang Cheng had already become the center of this group.

"Then you..." He hesitated, then held his phone out toward her. "Could you hold onto my phone for me? If my parents call, please let them know I'm safe. The last number dialed is my home number."

Jiang Cheng took the phone without any hesitation, agreeing: "Okay."

She said, "I'll go with you."

She shot a meaningful glance at the people around her.

The representatives from each building who had stepped up to take charge were all sharp-minded people. Catching Jiang Cheng's cue, the leader from Building Four chimed in first: "Let's go, let's go, we'll all go along together."

Everyone exchanged glances and filed out in a large group toward the property management office, a far bigger procession than when they'd escorted the previous dozen or so people.

That earlier group had been docile enough that they hadn't even confiscated their weapons.

On the way, they ran into the people carrying fuel back to the central plaza. At the head was the person in the property management uniform. They weren't just carrying fuel—they were also hauling two corpses, both in property management uniforms. These must have been the staff on night duty yesterday.

So that's why the property office's phone had gone unanswered.

"What's going on?" they asked.

The others told them: "One of them mutated. These two are injured, we're escorting them over."

Jiang Cheng asked, "Is the meeting room area still all right?"

The person in uniform glanced at the crowd flooding past and shrank back slightly: "It's fine. They're keeping an eye on them."

Jiang Cheng nodded: "We'll take them over. You two go ahead and start the burn. Be careful—move any flammable materials away first."

The person in uniform worked for the property company itself, so he nodded: "Don't worry. There's a fire hydrant in the garden."

Jiang Cheng gave a slight nod, and the large group escorted the two injured men to the property management office.

The office was located in the basement of one of the buildings. The people on guard duty looked surprised to see so many crowding in: "What's wrong?"

The situation was explained briefly, the guards exchanged looks, and their expressions grew graver.

The meeting room had double doors, secured with a U-shaped padlock. But the room had a surveillance camera, and the feed could be viewed on the computer at the reception desk of the property office.

The dozen or so people inside were behaving themselves. Some sat, some had simply lain down on the big conference table, looking utterly bored.

The guard unlocked the U-shaped padlock and pulled the door open.

The people inside, whether sitting or lying down, all stood up: "What's going on?"

Jiang Cheng didn't tell them that someone had already been infected and mutated. She only said, "More people were injured, we're sending them over too."

Li Jiangbing and the leader from Building Four each gave a light push, and the man stepped inside reluctantly. The door was immediately shut behind him, the U-lock snapping into place with a click.

But no one left. Including Jiang Cheng, they all stood surrounding the meeting room door, staring at it.

So many people crammed into the hallway that they could barely turn around, yet the silence was terrifying.

Until Jiang Cheng said, "Come on, let's talk in the lobby."

They filed back through the corridor to the property management lobby, still silent.

Jiang Cheng broke the quiet first: "Our community is lucky."

"Everyone here has their own place."

"In other neighborhoods—the big-unit ones where three generations of five or six people live under one roof—I can't even imagine what's happening there right now."

But it was still grim. Everyone knew in their hearts that the people in that meeting room were as good as dead.

Some worried about whether that door could actually hold a person who'd mutated. Those who'd been infected before mutating were far stronger than the original mutants.

A few even harbored the thought of "dealing with" those people right now. But they didn't dare say it aloud, restrained by the baseline of social morality.

Jiang Cheng changed the subject and told the guards about the shift rotation they'd agreed on: "We'll come eat and then take over for you. You go home and have your meals yourselves."

For now, "having a meal" still meant going back to your own place. Whether you stewed ribs or had instant noodles depended on how much you'd stocked up.

Given the current circumstances, the fact that Jiang Cheng could organize the manpower and get them to follow her direction was already a feat. So far, no one in this community had any ability to mobilize supplies.

Jiang Cheng noticed another person in a property management uniform in the lobby. She asked, "Is there any food here? We can't just not feed them either."

The property management staff member said, "I think there might be some. Let me look."

She rummaged while muttering, "I remember that person just bought a box of ham sausages... and that one has instant noodles over there..."

Sure enough, she pulled out an unopened box of ham sausages and a few packs of instant noodles from a colleague's desk cabinet.

Seeing these things, someone's stomach growled at an inopportune moment.

Everyone turned to look — it was the big burly guy from Building Two.

Jiang Cheng understood exactly why Li Jiangbing's stomach was rumbling — he had no supplies at home. What he'd scavenged from Room 0308 yesterday wasn't much, and it clearly couldn't match his massive frame. It wasn't nearly enough to fill his stomach.

Jiang Cheng picked up the box cutter on the table and sliced open the ham sausage carton, then casually grabbed a handful of sausages and held them out to everyone: "You're all hungry, right? Have something to tide you over."

One by one, people reached out and took a sausage from her hand — one each.

When only three were left, Jiang Cheng shoved them all into Li Jiangbing's hands. He and she exchanged a knowing glance, and as everyone else was busy peeling off the red plastic wrappers, he slipped the sausages into his pocket.

Of course, not everyone missed it. Someone couldn't help but glance at him. But given Li Jiangbing's sheer size, those who noticed had enough sense not to question "why does he get more" at that moment.

Jiang Cheng patted the remaining half box: "These are for the meeting..."

Her voice cut off abruptly. "What's that?" she asked.

Everyone followed her gaze. The reception counter was higher on the outside and lower on the inside, like a front desk in a company. Because someone had been looking for scissors to open their sausage wrapper and created a gap, Jiang Cheng caught sight of what was piled up on the inner side of the counter.

One of the guards said, "We figured since they were going inside for observation, we'd have them leave all their things here first."

Stacked behind the counter were clubs, cleavers, and hardware tools. They were the weapons of the first group locked inside — confiscated by the guards.

Everyone felt that was exactly as it should be.

But Jiang Cheng rested her chin in her hand.

The room was filled with the sound of chewing. Everyone had fought hard all morning, burning through their energy, and they were all hungry.

As they ate, Jiang Cheng spoke up: "Send these in too."

She singled out the cleavers and the serrated knives, pushing them aside, leaving the blunt objects — "these" being what she meant.

"It's unlikely they'd all mutate at once," she said. "This way, if one of them changes, the others can handle it themselves without us having to go back in and risk danger."

The chewing in the room suddenly stopped.

Li Jiangbing had just crammed an entire sausage into his mouth, his cheeks puffed out, and even he froze at those words.

If that happened, what would the meeting room become? Just imagining it sent a chill of cold sweat down the back of everyone's neck.

But the girl who'd made this decision didn't seem to realize she was tossing desperate worms into a doomed jar of fighting crickets.

Her eyes were black and white, clear and bright: "Our first principle is to protect the normal people who haven't been infected or mutated."

Who could argue with that?

Everyone also wanted to protect themselves. They were exactly the "normal people who hadn't been infected or mutated."

No one spoke out against it. Many silently lowered their eyes and resumed chewing, only the artificial flavoring of the ham sausages now hitting so strong it killed their appetite.

It almost made them want to vomit.