Chapter 159

Jiang Cheng opened her eyes and woke.

Mo Li leaped onto her chest, sniffed the tip of her nose, then sat quietly and stared at her.

Jiang Cheng closed her eyes and focused on what she was feeling.

She had sensed it repeatedly before going to sleep the night before, forcing herself to memorize the sensation.

There was no mistaking it. Her storage space had definitely... leveled up again.

Zhao Yi hadn’t even swallowed his first mouthful of breakfast when Jiang Cheng called him aside to talk.

Watching from a distance, Zhang Lesi nudged Su Yu with her elbow. “Look at Zhao Yi. Why does he always seem so nervous around Jiang Cheng?”

Su Yu glanced over. “He’s afraid of Jiang Cheng, I guess.”

Zhang Lesi: “...?”

Su Yu actually understood him pretty well, but she couldn’t explain it to Zhang Lesi. Someone as carefree as Zhang Lesi could never empathize with people like them, who tended to keep everything bottled up inside.

Biting into her flatbread, Zhang Lesi said, “...Zhao Yi isn’t in love with Jiang Cheng, is he?”

“...” Su Yu replied firmly, “No.”

“I didn’t think so either.” Zhang Lesi said, “Isn’t Jiang Cheng dating Song Jingshuo?”

Su Yu was firm again. “No.”

Zhang Lesi: “...How do you know?”

“You can tell after spending enough time with them.”

The hormones between two people who were attracted to each other should be something hazy and sticky, something that clung to them so tightly they could never pull apart.

Not something where, whenever the two of them drew near, a spreadsheet seemed to appear in the background: You enter one string of numbers, I enter another.

The grid lines were crisp, the values precise.

And they haggled over every last decimal.

Zhang Lesi said, “They’re looking over here. Are they looking at you or me?”

Su Yu looked up. Sure enough, the two of them glanced in their direction, then turned back and continued talking.

She turned to look at Zhang Lesi, who was biting her lip.

Now that was more like it. When someone who had always been bold, brisk, and decisive became anxious, clingy, and uncertain, that was what hormones looked like.

Zhao Yi said, “It must be related to mental and psychological factors. All the samples display this characteristic. Look at Su Yu—she’s the most typical example.”

Jiang Cheng and Zhao Yi turned to look at Su Yu in the distance.

Su Yu’s closest friend had once been He Tian. After He Tian was gone, Su Yu and Zhang Lesi had started partnering up. Their personalities were worlds apart, yet they got along harmoniously. They complemented each other quite well.

Of course, aside from Aunt Pan and Jiang Cheng, they were also widely acknowledged to be the two strongest, most unusual, and most useful superpowered women. It was only natural that they would end up together.

Humans were social creatures. Everyone needed a companion.

Zhao Yi asked, “Have you suffered some kind of mental shock? Experienced a major psychological change? Did Director Guo frighten you?”

Jiang Cheng shook her head. “That sort of thing can’t scare me.”

[That sort of thing can’t scare me.] What a heroine line!

Zhao Yi fought hard to keep his expression under control.

He tried so hard that, from a distance, Zhang Lesi and Su Yu couldn’t help but find him rather tense.

Still, it was better than losing control and grinning like an idiot, only to have people mistake him for one.

Zhao Yi tried to guide her from a professional angle. “Have you overcome something? Defeated some aspect of yourself? Made some kind of change?”

Jiang Cheng lifted her eyelids.

A change?

That was certainly true.

At the television station, she had decided to accept more than five hundred refugees who looked as if their souls had already left their bodies. She had announced during a live broadcast that the High-Tech New District would open its doors to refugees.

From that moment on, she had already begun to change.

She was no longer accepting only the strong—the “useful.” She was taking in the weak as well.

The theories she had read about in books were quite interesting. She wanted to try them.

In truth, they ran counter to her own beliefs. Even Song Jingshuo had noticed that.

The day before yesterday, five hundred refugees had moved in. Yesterday, she had been astonished to discover that her storage space could hold so many things.

Yesterday, she had saved a group of people who would have died if she hadn’t intervened. Today, when she woke up, the space had clearly leveled up again.

But this wasn’t quite the same as what had happened to Su Yu, whose brain had exploded into action after undergoing a tremendous psychological shock.

This felt more like some kind of... reward for getting the answer right.

Jiang Cheng folded her arms. “Don’t you think that theory is rather vague and insubstantial?”

Zhao Yi became energized at once. “Humanity has yet to develop even ten percent of the brain. We can’t deny infinite possibilities simply because our technology hasn’t reached that level. We can say, with awe, that it belongs to the realm of the gods, but we can’t simply dismiss it.”

The realm of the gods.

Putting a person’s soul into another world did sound like something only a god—or someone with divine powers—could accomplish.

A god was manipulating her.

A god was watching her.

A god was pleased with her.

“I understand.” Jiang Cheng nodded. “Go eat your breakfast before it gets cold.”

Jiang Cheng turned and walked away.

Wait, wait... So what exactly was the reason? He wanted to know too!

Disappointed, Zhao Yi turned around. The moment he looked up, he saw Zhang Lesi standing in the distance with her arms folded, staring at him.

Zhao Yi: “...”

She was another person he was somewhat afraid of.

Zhao Yi hurriedly looked around for Gao Yuxuan.

Where the hell had he gone? He had to be taking a dump!

“You were right,” Zhang Lesi said. “This really isn’t like me.”

Su Yu had just pointed out the state she was in.

Zhang Lesi continued, “I’m going to ask him directly later.”

“If he likes Jiang Cheng...” she said, “I’m not giving up that easily.”

Su Yu almost choked on her porridge.

“Why are you reacting so strongly?” Zhang Lesi said. “Even if he likes Jiang Cheng, Jiang Cheng isn’t dating him. Of course I have to fight for him. If there’s something you want, you have to fight for it yourself. How can you just give up?”

Su Yu sighed. “The two of us really are different.”

Zhang Lesi teased her, “Right. You’re just waiting for the rabbit to run into the tree, aren’t you? You’re staying home and waiting for the other person to make the first move. If they happen to be the same kind of person as you, the two of you can wait for each other for ten thousand years.”

Su Yu fell silent.

She simply stared at Zhao Yi until he finished eating and returned his tray.

Zhang Lesi stood up. “Wish me luck.”

“Good luck! You can do it!” Su Yu cheered.

She went to return her tray. When she turned around, she saw Zhang Lesi in the distance with one palm planted against the wall, forcibly blocking Zhao Yi in.

She looked incredibly domineering.

Su Yu couldn’t help laughing, though she felt a little envious as well.

There was no point in being envious. She simply wasn’t that kind of person, and she couldn’t imitate it even if she tried.

The refugees at Auspicious Garden had come downstairs early in the morning.

They had nothing to do, and since they had gone to bed early, they had woken up early too. They had also been informed the day before that they needed to come downstairs early to collect potatoes. There was another announcement to be made, and everyone had to attend.

Standing at a higher spot with a loudspeaker in hand, Zhou Wang looked out at the enormous crowd.

The refugees’ spirits really couldn’t compare with those of the local residents. Even after a full day of rest, they still looked like this.

Zhou Wang raised the loudspeaker. “Those who moved in yesterday can take today off and join the group activities tomorrow. But don’t leave after collecting your potatoes. Watch for a while first, so I won’t have to repeat everything tomorrow.”

“To those who came from the television station the day before yesterday: rested enough? Good. Then we’re getting ready to work.”

“No one is obligated to support other people for free. Our provisional government was established by residents from several neighborhoods, and everyone has put in a lot of time and effort. So let’s not sit around doing nothing while eating and drinking for free.”

“Of course, if you’re genuinely too sick or weak to do anything, don’t panic. As we said, potatoes—enough to fill your stomach! At any rate, no one is going to starve to death.”

“But if you want to live a little better, then we need to get moving and put in some work.”

“Work is glorious!”

Zhou Wang announced the performance-point system created by Song Jingshuo—the points assigned to each position, the work required, the supplies that could be exchanged for them, and so on.

Zhou Wang shouted at the top of his lungs, “I won’t waste time with unnecessary talk. A household can only thrive when everyone contributes. We’re one big family now, so everyone has to do their part if we all want to live better!”

“All right, let’s start by handing out potatoes.”

“Sign up at the table over there. Anyone registering for a squad, move to the front—the squad is about to depart, so hurry!”

The reason Song Jingshuo had chosen potatoes, of course, was their astonishing yield.

Every single one was as big as a basketball.

The metal-type ability users had made waist-high iron cages to hold them. Forklifts carried the potatoes from the Youth Apartments to Jixiang Jiayuan.

A long line had already formed in front of the registration table.

The squads offered considerably better benefits than the other positions, which made them highly appealing.

With armor, zombies were actually nothing to fear—as long as you didn’t run into some kind of super-mutated one.

Besides, there were plenty of formidable people in the temporary government of the Technology New District, along with a super-powerful God-Cat.

But the main reason was...

Nobody wanted to eat potatoes every day!

All the men from Mr. Xu’s company went to sign up for the squads.

Mr. Xu had generously set up a gym at the company, so everyone was in fairly good physical shape. The squads also issued armor and weapons. With so many people around, anyone afraid of dying could simply blend into the middle and slack off a little. It wasn’t as if that were impossible.

The administrative manager and the HR assistant wanted to sign up too. Since they were all on the same side, they figured they could at least watch each other’s backs even if they had to fight zombies.

Who could have guessed they would be turned down?

“At present, the squads are only accepting women with special abilities.”

Ordinary people without special abilities would have to rely entirely on brute strength. And when it came to brute strength, the men were sufficient for the time being, so they were accepting men first.

The two women were somewhat disappointed.

Then the administrative manager turned her head and spotted the woman in charge of Jixiang Jiayuan, who was so busy she could barely keep up with everything. Her eyes lit up. She grabbed the HR assistant and went over to offer their services.

“We handle administration and human resources at the company. We’re good at management and organization.”

That was exactly what Xiao Dan needed, so she hired them on the spot.

Excellent. The first people from the company to work their way into the management team were neither Mr. Xu nor Director Yu, but the administrative manager and the HR assistant.

After listening to Zhou Wang’s speech, Mr. Xu and Director Yu herded all their employees off to register, then went to the Youth Apartments for breakfast.

Many people at the Youth Apartments had already finished eating.

Some had already started working, sweeping the courtyard and clearing away trash.

A group of little children finished breakfast and followed the young auntie assigned to look after them that day in doing morning exercises.

They weren’t getting a free meal, either. A pile of child-sized brooms sat nearby. Once their exercises were done, each child picked up a small broom and carried it off to sweep the corridors.

Mr. Xu and Director Yu watched.

Mr. Xu nodded. “Not bad.”

He had barely finished speaking when someone came over and threw an arm around his shoulders.

“Brother Xu, have you eaten yet? You haven’t? Then eat first. We’re going out to kill zombies today!”

Mr. Xu said, “Wait a second, I...”

“Wait for what? Stick with us. Don’t be scared.”

“Come on, come on!”

“We’re splitting into teams today. There are too many people asking for help, so we have to divide into several squads to rescue them. Everyone has to pitch in!”

“Our metal-type ability users have to go with the vehicles. They can’t do without us.”

“I’m telling you, you earn a lot more work points with the squads.”

“Don’t say ‘work points’ again, or Old Song will come after you.”

“Hahahahahaha!”