Chapter 174

Jiang Cheng had no idea why, but there was a roaring noise in her ears.

Her head throbbed as if it were splitting apart.

The people and things around her had blurred into indistinct shapes.

It felt as though there had been an earthquake. She could not shake the sense that the ground was swaying beneath her feet.

But the voice on the phone dragged her back to reality.

“We’ve only got enough coagulant and disinfectant to last another week. If we can’t replenish our supplies, the water we produce won’t meet the required standards.”

There had been no earthquake.

Everything around her was perfectly calm. People were doing what they were supposed to do, each of them composed and clear-headed.

Jiang Cheng shook her head to clear it and asked, “May I ask your name?”

“My surname is Yu.”

“Engineer Yu, let’s discuss this in person.”

He should not have been called Master Yu. Engineer Yu was the proper title.

The water treatment plant was located on the outskirts of the city, near a reservoir—the primary source of drinking water for S City.

Jiang Cheng brought her people to meet Engineer Yu. There were only a few workers left, but they had held their posts and managed to keep the water supply running for the public.

“We’ve already been through this once,” Engineer Yu said.

Because they had experienced it before, they had kept the weapons and protective gear issued to them for the later stages of the disaster in order to protect the plant. The relief supplies they had received were also still stored in the warehouse.

This was a critical facility, and Vice Mayor Zheng and Secretary Sun had allocated them a very generous amount of supplies. Whatever had not been used at the time had simply been put into storage. This time, they had not needed to obtain anything from outside.

Engineer Yu and his people had endured one dangerous moment after another: the power system had failed, bearings had overheated, and seals had begun leaking. They had been through it all.

They had survived thanks to this group of technical staff.

Jiang Cheng asked, “Why didn’t you contact us?”

Engineer Yu hesitated, but finally decided to tell her the truth. “We’re not an ordinary facility. A facility like ours can’t just be handed over to anyone. You claim to be the government, but...”

During a crisis, important public-service facilities like theirs might even be placed under military protection.

They could not simply hand everything over to a group of unknown people who claimed to represent the government.

Engineer Yu and the others had been waiting for the real government.

The entire S City government had been wiped out, so they had been waiting for the central government instead.

It was just that...the central government had never arrived, and now the water treatment plant was about to run out of options.

“I’ve tried calling the No. 2 Plant, No. 3 Plant, Beijia Plant, and Datian Plant, but I can’t reach any of them. That means we’re probably the only facility still supplying water,” Engineer Yu said. “Luckily, total water consumption has dropped drastically. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been able to keep going.

“Industrial and commercial water use has stopped completely.

“The only people still using water are the survivors who remain alive.

“The population was already reduced by a huge number during the first zombie outbreak. This time, it’s been reduced again.

“The amount of water the remaining survivors use would barely register on a statistical report under normal circumstances.”

Zhao Yi spoke with Engineer Yu for a while, then knitted his brows, looking deeply troubled.

Jiang Cheng asked, “Can’t we procure these things ourselves?”

Coagulant and disinfectant.

There had to be suppliers. The plant would certainly have records showing where to obtain them.

But Zhao Yi rejected the idea. “I disagree, Jiang Cheng. I disagree.”

Jiang Cheng stared at him.

Zhao Yi continued, “These aren’t products sitting neatly, cleanly, and safely packaged on a supermarket shelf. They’re chemical agents. Every step, from production and transportation to actual use, has to be carried out by trained professionals. A mistake at any stage could lead to a major disaster.”

Even the drivers who transported chemical products had to undergo special training.

Jiang Cheng respected every one of the technical workers.

She folded one arm across her chest, pressed her fist against her lips, and paced back and forth a few times. Then she looked up and asked, “Where does the water come from?”

Engineer Yu answered, “S City’s drinking water mainly comes from surface water in the Qinzhuang and Qilishan Reservoirs.”

Jiang Cheng asked, “Then if we stop using coagulant and disinfectant and simply supply the water as it is, would that basically make it natural water from the wilderness?”

Zhao Yi and Engineer Yu exchanged a look.

“You could put it that way,” Zhao Yi said.

Engineer Yu added, “It would still pass through grates to screen out larger debris and then undergo sedimentation. After standing still for a while, it would contain significantly less mud, sand, insect eggs, and suspended matter than water found in the wild. But from a biological safety perspective, it would still be considered natural water. The bacteria, viruses, algal toxins, and colloidal particles would all remain. None of them would be removed.”

Jiang Cheng asked, “Would it be safe to drink after boiling?”

“In the absence of any other clean water source,” Engineer Yu said, making sure to add that condition first, “yes.”

“It just wouldn’t taste very good. The earthy, fishy smell couldn’t be removed. The water would also turn yellow or green, so the difference in appearance would be obvious.”

Engineer Yu actually wanted to say that long-term consumption was not recommended, but that advice belonged to peaceful times. Given the current situation, people would be grateful for any water they could get.

So Engineer Yu kept silent.

Jiang Cheng said, “The people in the countryside don’t use tap water either, do they?”

At Jitou Village in Taiping Town, she had seen households using hand-pumped wells.

Engineer Yu explained, “That’s groundwater. It’s naturally cleaner than surface water, with fewer bacteria and even fewer algae.”

Jiang Cheng said, “But it’s still natural water. They boil it before drinking.”

Engineer Yu could only nod. “Yes.”

Jiang Cheng said, “Then let’s continue supplying water. We’ll skip the step involving coagulant and disinfectant and provide natural water that has undergone only basic physical treatment.”

“The water in the tap-water system will mainly be used for daily needs: washing clothes, flushing toilets, and growing plants.”

“We’ll consolidate the smaller safe zones as much as possible. At the water-use terminals in the major residential areas, we’ll set up storage containers, and water-element ability users can extract purified water for drinking!”

“Engineer Yu, what do you think? Will that work?”

The young woman was clearly not a technical specialist.

But after pacing silently and considering the problem, the solution she proposed and the arrangements she made helped Engineer Yu understand why she was the leader.

The facility Engineer Yu worked for was not an ordinary company. It was a place tied to the livelihood of the entire nation.

He had been keeping an eye on the people appearing on television, but unlike ordinary citizens, he had watched them with caution.

If the television station had still had someone like him holding the fort, when Jiang Cheng and the others arrived, they would not have opened the doors to welcome them. They would have refused them outright—and might even have resisted with weapons.

But now, looking into the young woman’s calm eyes, Engineer Yu began to place his trust and hopes in this so-called provisional government.

This young woman was genuinely thinking about how to solve problems and how to keep ordinary people alive.

Engineer Yu nodded solemnly. “It will!”

On the way back, Zhao Yi turned to look at Jiang Cheng several times.

Jiang Cheng kept biting the knuckles of her fingers.

He had never seen her like this before.

Jiang Cheng had always given people the impression of being calm and unflappable. Whenever people saw her, they felt reassured, as though they had someone to rely on.

If the sky fell, Jiang Cheng would be there to hold it up.

What was it that had her brows drawn so tightly together?

Zhao Yi could not help asking, “Jiang Cheng, what are you thinking about?”

Jiang Cheng stopped and looked up. “Water, electricity, gas, and communications. Water is taken care of for now, and communications aren’t a problem. What about the others?”

Communications were still functioning because, during the previous disaster, the authorities had suspended service cutoffs for unpaid phone bills. Vice Mayor Zheng had later announced that the suspension would be extended for another three months, so that people searching for missing family members would have more time to contact them.

The three months had not yet passed when the second zombie virus emerged. That was why everyone could continue making calls without paying their bills, and their service would not be cut off.

But what about electricity and gas?

Only after meeting Engineer Yu today did she realize that all of this required manual maintenance. If Engineer Yu hadn’t led several people in holding the fort day and night, everyone would have run out of water long ago.

[The technology here is so backward.]

The thought flashed through Jiang Cheng’s mind.

...So, am I from somewhere with highly advanced technology?

Zhao Yi said, “Then we need to contact the power company and the gas company right away and see if there’s anyone left—”

Before Zhao Yi could finish, the vehicle suddenly began to shake.

Everyone clearly felt the tremor.

They exclaimed in shock, “Was that an earthquake?”

Jiang Cheng gripped the back of the seat in front of her.

An earthquake?

She had felt a strange tremor when she first received Engineer Yu’s call. But when she came to her senses, it seemed no one else had noticed.

After hanging up, she had even asked, “Was that an earthquake just now?”

The people beside her had replied, “No.”

But the tremors before her now were undeniably more pronounced, more real.

Everyone felt them.

No one was particularly afraid. City S wasn’t located in an earthquake zone, and the occasional tremors it experienced were usually seismic waves traveling over from earthquakes in other regions.

But Jiang Cheng didn’t know that this wasn’t a real earthquake.

On the western outskirts of the city lay an area surrounded by open wasteland and farmland. Yet at its center stood a sprawling, complex industrial zone.

Tall fences, an intricate network of orange-yellow pipes, enormous filtration and pressure-regulating equipment, and the distinctive spherical gas storage tanks.[Note]

This was the city gate station of the natural-gas company.

It was also known as the city’s “gas shutoff valve.”

At that moment, the flames shooting into the sky were not even the most terrifying thing. The enormous shock waves exceeded anything a human being could imagine.

One explosion followed another, forming an unbroken chain. The intense heat melted everything in its path.

The main pipelines were filled with high-pressure gas. When a pipeline ruptured, the pressurized gas burst out and ignited, forming a gigantic torch.

In theory, emergency shutoff valves were installed at regular intervals along the pipelines. But monitoring the pressure and remotely closing the valves required human operators.

Now, the technicians who had held their posts at the natural-gas gate station—people like Engineer Yu—had already been consumed by the flames. No one remained to carry out the shutdown.

The flames raced along the pipelines, spreading rapidly in both directions: upstream along the long-distance high-pressure transmission lines and downstream toward the city’s gas-consuming terminals.

Inside the vehicle, everyone had just finished saying things like, “Where exactly was that earthquake?” and “It feels like it was pretty close. Could it have been over by City N?” when they heard explosions approaching from a distance.

Everyone turned to look.

Manhole covers shot into the air as flames erupted from underground.

The glass windows of shops shattered.

Cars parked along the street were sent tumbling.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The explosions came in a continuous chain, spreading along the pipelines in every direction throughout the city!

Red light reflected off the windows and burned itself onto everyone’s retinas.

Before they even had time to react, the world turned upside down.

Impact. Agony. Vertigo.

Zhao Yi gasped desperately, using every ounce of strength to try to crawl out. But the vehicle had overturned, and he was wedged helplessly between the seats.

Fortunately, it was standard procedure for a metal-element superpowered individual to travel with the group.

Jiang Cheng had brought several key personnel with her today.

Wu Jiancheng and Cui Haiyang were both in the vehicle.

Enduring the excruciating pain of his injuries, Cui Haiyang tore open the metal body of the vehicle and released the metal locking the seats in place. He shouted hoarsely, “Get out! Hurry!”

Li Jiangbing was the first to crawl out. He immediately turned around and began pulling the others free, one after another.

Those who had already escaped turned back to pull out the people still trapped inside.

Only a few seconds after the last person crawled out, the vehicle exploded.

At that critical moment, Wu Jiancheng reached out and took control of the flames. The fire roared, burning backward in defiance of the laws of physics—then abruptly went out.

No one was burned.

Zhao Yi collapsed onto the ground, completely drained, and began gasping for breath.

His forehead had struck something, and blood blurred his vision.

When he tilted his head back, he saw Jiang Cheng upside down through the red haze of blood.

Zhao Yi struggled to roll over. The world righted itself—and Jiang Cheng righted herself with it.

Years later, even on his deathbed, Zhao Yi would never forget what he saw.

Jiang Cheng stood there, blood streaked across her face, forcing herself upright as she faced the city engulfed in flames.

In the distance, explosions continued without a moment’s pause.

In the firelight, Jiang Cheng smiled.

Her smile was filled with mockery.

Because Jiang Cheng knew that all of this had happened because of Zheng Junwei.

Zheng Junwei should never have said those words.

“God” was watching.

“God” was listening.

“God” was smiling.

Zheng Junwei had said that Jiang Cheng ought to consider establishing a municipal government.

“God” had heard him.

“God” had made His move.

The difficulty level had just gone up.

[Note: The water-treatment technology mentioned here was based on information found online.]