Chapter 170

Forcibly expelling those who refused to follow the rules had only made everyone wary.

What truly terrified them was Mo Li ignoring the fire wall’s defenses, charging straight into the flames, and biting through the fire-type superhuman’s neck.

That was a person—not a zombie.

A living person!

This Jiang Cheng really dared to kill.

Mo Li hadn’t even needed to grow any larger. In its current form, it had ended the life of a superhuman.

Why was Mo Li on an entirely different level?

Everyone had sparred with Mo Li before.

Against Zhou Wang and Brother Dong, it could match their speed.

Against Guo Jun and Gao Yuxuan, it could withstand high-voltage electricity.

Against Wu Jiancheng, it was impervious to the scorching flames, swallowing them in one bite and extinguishing them with a sweep of its tail.

No one had dared test it against the metal-type superhuman. They were afraid they would be killed by a single swipe before their blades could even reach Mo Li.

Mo Li carried the fire-type superhuman’s body over, dropped it at Jiang Cheng’s feet, and released it.

Jiang Cheng clasped her hands behind her back and swept her gaze over the remaining refugees.

They could feel the chill of the autumn wind now. The sun was bright, yet everyone felt cold.

“I’ll skip the unnecessary talk,” Jiang Cheng said.

“The Fourteenth Middle School shelter’s trial operation is over. Starting today, we are entering formal operation.”

“The management regulations will be announced shortly.”

“From now on—follow the rules.”

Jiang Cheng paused.

Everyone thought that was the end of it, but then she spoke again.

Her icy gaze rolled over the crowd.

“I’ve heard that an adult man claimed he couldn’t find his bedding and called a middle-school girl to help him look for it?”

Everyone froze.

How could bedding go missing? They all lived together in the classrooms, and everyone had exactly the same things. How could one person’s bedding disappear?

What did she mean?

“You know who I’m talking about.”

“You can keep hiding in the crowd.”

“I’ll make this clear—there are a lot of little girls in this school.”

Jiang Cheng placed particular emphasis on the word “little,” issuing a death warning:

“If anything happens to one of these little girls, I’ll turn you into a human pig.”

In an instant, all the adults understood. The teachers’ faces went pale.

When Jiang Cheng finally said, “Dismissed,” everyone ran off as fast as they could.

Even those living on the upper floors no longer minded the exhausting climb. They scrambled upstairs in a hurry.

They only felt a little safer once they were hiding inside their classrooms.

Many people hid behind the curtains and peered down at the scene below.

On the ground floor, Jiang Cheng turned to face a group of students, along with several teachers and parents.

Everyone lowered their heads slightly, as though they had done something wrong.

Jiang Cheng sighed and said, “Let me introduce someone.”

She pointed her thumb at the handsome man beside her. “This is Song Jingshuo. He designed our current management system. Today, he’ll be conducting your training.”

Everyone else wore sneakers and combat uniforms. Only Song Jingshuo was dressed well enough to chair a meeting and take a beautiful woman on a date afterward.

With both hands in his pockets and his long legs standing casually apart, he looked like a rich young master with his bodyguard.

Why was everyone willing to put up with Song Jingshuo showing off today?

Because the troublesome task of educating the children had been dumped on him.

Everyone had been that age once. They knew perfectly well how much of a headache teenagers could be, and no one wanted to take on the job.

Not even Jiang Cheng.

They had practically forced Song Jingshuo out into the field.

Once the matter was settled, the group split up.

Some people escorted the expelled refugees away.

Others went to search for survivors according to the original plan.

Jiang Cheng inspected the warehouse and cafeteria, left the Fourteenth Middle School with enough potatoes to last a week, and departed as well.

The cafeteria auntie was stunned by the basketball-sized potatoes.

In the auditorium, the students sat in neat rows.

Onstage stood a folding chair. Song Jingshuo sat beneath the lights, one ankle resting on the opposite knee.

“Tell me,” he said. “Why?”

Several student representatives responsible for managing things stood with their heads bowed.

The teachers and the few parents who had stayed behind had no superhuman abilities. The parents with abilities had left, while those who remained were only helping with logistics and administration.

The students had become the main force handling the most important tasks—searching for supplies and rescuing survivors.

“On September ninth,” Song Jingshuo said, “we already broadcast the general principles and detailed regulations on television, specifically so everyone could use them as a reference.”

“It’s the sixteenth today. That section has been playing on a loop ever since.”

“How did you manage to pick up the sesame seeds while throwing away the watermelon? How could you fail to implement the most important part—the distribution system?”

“You—the tallest one. You answer.”

The student called on was Duan Junqi.

There was no way for Duan Junqi to avoid it, so he answered through gritted teeth. “It’s just... the meals. We... couldn’t do it.”

He nudged Xiao Yunshu with his elbow. Xiao Yunshu shared his misfortune and spoke up as well. “It was just... making ourselves eat the good food while giving them the bad food. That felt a little... you know. We couldn’t bring ourselves to say it.”

Song Jingshuo sneered sarcastically. “You thought you were being a great person, didn’t you? Thought you were so kind and compassionate. Thought the adults were all villains for coming up with such an evil system, right?”

Everyone lowered their heads even further, looking dejected.

Because... truthfully, they had thought that way.

Sometimes, they really did wonder if the adults were being a little unkind.

How could they give everyone else nothing but potatoes?

Song Jingshuo asked, “Do you understand now?”

The students hurriedly nodded.

Song Jingshuo said, “If you understand, sit down. I’ll explain it to you.”

“The basic operating principle of a society is that when a person contributes labor, they receive compensation.”

“But money is useless now. If you want someone to work, what can you use to compensate them?”

“What can serve as hard currency?”

“Only something everyone needs—something no one can do without.”

“In our current situation, that can only be food.”

Song Jingshuo continued, “Did everyone just lie down and refuse to do anything from the very beginning? Was there not a single person willing to help at first?”

There was a moment of silence before people gradually answered.

“There were.”

“There were people at the beginning.”

“Later...”

Later, they saw that helping earned them nothing, while those who lay around in the sun had food and drink just the same. The shameless troublemakers who refused to contribute even managed to eat more and take more. Gradually, no one was willing to help anymore.

“We all learned about the communal feeding system in history class,” Song Jingshuo criticized. “You just couldn’t connect it to what was happening right in front of you, could you?”

The country’s education system was actually quite comprehensive.

Chinese, history, and civics worked together to instill political awareness and a sense of the bigger picture in citizens from childhood.

All of that knowledge had already been absorbed into their minds.

“What you learn isn’t meant only to be written on an exam,” Song Jingshuo said. “It has to be applied to reality.”

The students’ biggest problem was that they only kept what they learned in their heads—they couldn’t put it into practice.

That day, Song Jingshuo sacrificed half a day to explain everything to them, breaking it down into the smallest details.

He even went through each incident one by one: what the other party was thinking, what their intentions were, and how they should respond.

It had been a long time since he had spoken so much. One of the students handed him a bottle of mineral water, and Song Jingshuo drank half of it in one go.

At the end, he said, “Good people can’t become leaders, because leaders have to shoulder a great many burdens and make ruthless decisions so that ordinary people can go on being good.”

He did not forget to add sarcastically, “And they have to face accusations from all those ordinary ‘good people’ that they aren’t kind enough, right?”

“Those who manage contribute their brains. Those who work contribute their strength. Those who fight risk their lives. Naturally—and rightfully—they should receive better food and supplies than others.”

“Starting tomorrow, everyone gets one potato a day. Steam it, roast it—whatever you like. Sprinkle on some salt and eat it.”

“Anything else must be earned through labor.”

“No one is allowed to reap without sowing.”

“To serve the people means allowing more good people to survive, not letting a handful of good-for-nothings ride on the heads of decent people and crap on them.”

That uncle crossed his long legs, his black leather shoes gleaming beneath the lights.

His gaze was cold as he looked down at the crowd below.

“If you don’t have the means to wield thunder, then don’t pretend to have the heart of a bodhisattva.”

Jiang Cheng was not idle, either.

Sometimes, when so many things happened at exactly the right moment, it was not coincidence. It meant they had accumulated to the point where an eruption was inevitable.

It had been more than half a month since the second outbreak of the zombie virus.

It wasn’t just the temporary governments in the various districts that had taken in large numbers of survivors at their bases. S City had also developed countless shelters, large and small, like Fourteenth Middle School, that took in survivors on a smaller scale.

Some survivors, after escaping dangerous areas on their own, had sought refuge in places like these.

Wherever there were people, there would be conflict. So many strangers gathered together became miniature societies.

And not every place had abundant supplies.

Once supplies ran short, or the power to maintain order was lost, all it took was for one person to step forward and lead the way before human nature could easily slide into the abyss.

It was time to put a public security management system in place.

Fourteenth Middle School would serve as an example.

S City Television was broadcasting Jiang Cheng again.

Everyone who had access to a television gathered in front of their screens to listen to Jiang Cheng’s recommendations for implementing detailed public security regulations.

[Guangxiu District shall be placed under the unified administration of the Tech New District.]

[The following public security regulations shall be implemented:]

[Premeditated murder, including attempted murder: death penalty.]

[Gang rape and rape, including attempted rape: death penalty.]

[For lesser offenses—including assault resulting in injury, disturbing the peace, embezzlement, dereliction of duty, and theft of public property, especially essential survival supplies—flogging shall be imposed according to the severity of the offense.]

[Theft of private property: upon discovery, the stolen goods must be returned twofold, accompanied by a verbal warning. After three accumulated warnings, flogging shall be imposed.]

[Special provision: when the victim is a minor, especially a child under fourteen, the punishment may be escalated without limit.]

The people from the temporary governments in every district were watching the new broadcast.

When they heard this, they looked at one another in dismay.

“Escalated without limit?”

“They’re already sentenced to death. How can it be escalated any further?”

Among the crowd gathered around the television at Fourteenth Middle School, a scruffy, unshaven middle-aged man remembered Jiang Cheng’s mention of turning someone into a “human swine” and began to tremble.

While everyone was watching the broadcast, he quietly slipped away, stole a suit of armor and a weapon, then climbed over the wall and left the school.

He left of his own accord.

The television showed footage from Fourteenth Middle School. Those who refused to obey the rules were forcibly expelled, while those who tried to kill Jiang Cheng were executed on the spot.

Everyone who had met Jiang Cheng knew about that black cat. Some had only seen it in its feline form; others had seen it take the shape of a leopard.

But regardless of its form, it was always as docile as a pet when it stood beside Jiang Cheng.

Who would have thought that at a single command from Jiang Cheng—“Go”—the pet could instantly become a ferocious beast that killed without hesitation?

Zheng Junwei of Shilong District said, “I told you she must have some formidable abilities, especially at her age.”

The fire-type superhuman instantly raised a wall of flames to protect himself. He truly did not look weak.

But the black cat, shaped like a leopard, passed through the flames unharmed and killed him with a single strike.

Everyone began asking, “Does this count as a superpower? What kind is it? Animal control? Has anyone else ever had an ability like that?”

No. This was the first time anyone had seen anything like it.

Jiang Cheng’s face appeared on the screen again.

[Given the current circumstances, this is precisely the time to employ severe measures in troubled times.]

[Under the pressure of survival, we do not have the manpower to imprison criminals or reform them through labor.]

[There is a clear line between the death penalty and other forms of punishment. Every person of normal intelligence can understand where that line is.]

[There is no ambiguity.]

[The purpose is not to kill anyone, but to reduce the cost of enforcement and make the deterrent more immediate and obvious.]

[To preserve the survival of the collective, prevent systemic collapse, and deter acts against humanity.]

[Today, the students of Fourteenth Middle School asked me to abandon the school base and let them enter the Tech New District base to live.]

[I refused their request.]

[The Tech New District is currently the largest safe zone. It can indeed still accommodate many more people.]

[But we have never intended for the Tech New District to become an isolated island.]

[Accepting refugees into the Tech New District is only a temporary measure to help the survivors currently under our protection stay alive.]

[We have never intended to give up on this city!]

[Please do not forget: in this city, countless people have risked their lives to exterminate zombies, rescue their fellow citizens, and establish safe zones. They have never done these things so that they could abandon the city and leave it behind!]

[Nor have they done so to carve out their own territories and establish armed fiefdoms!]

[Everyone must remember that our ultimate goal is to reclaim our city, reclaim our homes, and reclaim our lives!]

[To let everyone return to the way things were!]