Chapter 177

Because they were afraid there might be more explosions, no one dared stay upstairs. Everyone gathered on the ground floor.

Jiang Cheng went next door to take a look. Every building bore signs of burning. The exteriors were blackened, and an overwhelming sense of ruin filled the air.

Wu Yan and Tao Xiaoxiao had been rescued, but their spirits had yet to return. Both looked utterly dazed, trembling at the slightest sound.

There were quite a few others like them.

They had all suffered dozens of seconds, even several minutes, of being burned alive while fully conscious.

The pain had temporarily separated their souls from their bodies.

Mr. Xu and the other men found it inconvenient to help, so they carried over a pile of supplies they had pooled together and negotiated with several older women in the neighborhood, asking them to help look after the two girls.

Xiao Dan also came over, helping with tears in her eyes.

The superpowered individuals sent out on missions returned one after another.

The utility pipelines in the Technology New District’s residential area had basically all been shut off. The flames shooting from the manholes in the streets gradually weakened before finally going out.

However, on the government-office side, the industrial district across the river was still engulfed in raging flames. Some of the materials piled outside the factories were flammable, and had caught fire.

There were simply too many combustible materials in the entire industrial district. When darkness fell, the flames across the river lit up the sky.

After hearing the reports, Jiang Cheng suddenly remembered that a married couple lived in the western district of the residential area—and the wife was pregnant.

Zhang Lesi had always said that she had devoured a massive obstetrics and gynecology textbook and was fully prepared to deliver this woman’s baby when the time came.

She went to check on the pregnant woman once a week to make sure that both mother and child were safe.

Jiang Cheng searched through her contacts, found the young couple’s number, and called.

The phone was turned off.

With a terrible premonition, she sent people over to investigate. Sure enough, in the otherwise empty western district, theirs was the only building on fire. Flames roared as they consumed half the building.

By then, putting out the fire was already meaningless.

The people sent there stood below, craning their necks upward.

They watched as the flames and thick smoke swallowed the building.

When they returned and reported to Jiang Cheng, she could sense how low their morale had fallen.

Dozens of people had already died, but the death of a pregnant woman and an unborn child was more devastating than any of the others.

Everyone had truly been looking forward to that child’s birth.

Jiang Cheng said, “Don’t tell Lesi yet.”

Everyone nodded in silence.

The power was gone, and no water came from the taps.

Questions about coagulants and disinfectants no longer mattered.

The water and electricity had simply been cut off.

That made Jiang Cheng’s meeting with Engineer Yu seem like a joke.

Engineer Yu called her. “It’s no use. We have to evacuate.”

The explosions had not only destroyed much of the city’s underground water network; the water treatment plant had also failed to survive the disaster. More than half of its buildings had burned down.

When Engineer Yu called Jiang Cheng, his face was lit orange by the roaring flames.

Some of the technicians were crying.

They had endured so many crises over the course of a month, only for everything to be reduced to ashes in the end.

How weak and helpless humanity was in the face of disaster.

Jiang Cheng consoled Engineer Yu instead. “It’s all right. We still have water-based superpowered individuals. Don’t stay there. Come over here. Do you have a vehicle? Can you make it here today? Do you know the way?”

Engineer Yu replied, “We won’t go today. We’ll find somewhere safe to lie low first. Tomorrow, send a few people who can drive heavy trucks over to take the water tankers away. They should come in handy.”

Of all the bad news, this was the only remotely positive bit. It could hardly even be called good news.

Only after they confirmed that the residential area was safe did everyone gradually return upstairs.

The water, electricity, and gas were all cut off.

Humanity groped its way forward through the darkness, stumbling at every turn.

While everyone else went upstairs to rest, Li Jiangbing and Jiang Cheng could not.

A metal-based superpowered individual quickly made a massive water tank with a faucet.

Late that night, with all the streetlights extinguished, everyone drove to the government offices.

Li Jiangbing’s water-based superpower finally found its most useful purpose.

The nearest natural source of water to the Technology New District was the Bailiang River, which ran alongside the government offices and separated the Technology New District’s residential area from the industrial park.

The firelight from the industrial district across the river dyed the water red.

Jiang Cheng released the water containers, and Li Jiangbing raised a hand. The river water immediately began to surge.

A dragon of water soared into the sky. Clean, drinkable water separated itself from the natural river water and flowed into the storage containers on its own.

Everyone had been worried whether Jiang Cheng’s storage space could hold so many water tanks. The weight of a single tank was terrifying—what if it burst the space?

As it turned out, their concerns had been completely unnecessary.

Jiang Cheng merely walked over, and the storage tanks vanished one after another.

Those enormous storage tanks.

That tremendous weight.

The capacity of Jiang Cheng’s storage space seemed bottomless.

The water tanks were delivered to the various residential compounds overnight as emergency supplies.

Only then could the group finally rest.

When Jiang Cheng returned home, a boy leaped off the bed in the darkness and walked straight up to embrace her.

“Jiang Cheng.”

Calling it an embrace was not entirely accurate.

Mo Li did not really understand the concept of “hugging” Jiang Cheng. He was actually draping himself over her shoulders, just as he had when he was still a kitten.

But he was now a tall young man standing six foot one.

Jiang Cheng could not support his weight.

She patted his back, signaling for him to stand up straight, and asked, “Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?”

All the cat food and litter they had prepared at home had gone to waste.

Mo Li had barely touched either of them over the past few months. Now that he had taken human form, Jiang Cheng did not know whether he needed to eat human food.

Mo Li said, “I’m not hungry. I just need to bask in the sun.”

When Mo Li had first transformed into a human that day, his speech had still been rather jumbled.

Jiang Cheng and Song Jingshuo had been busy, so they handed him over to the talkative Gao Yuxuan.

Apparently, choosing the right teacher really did make a difference. By the time Jiang Cheng finished her work and returned, Mo Li’s use of language had already become basically fluent.

Jiang Cheng nodded, lit a candle, and motioned for Mo Li to sit with her on the sofa.

But as soon as she sat down, Mo Li lifted one enormous foot and tried to place it on her thigh, preparing to sprawl across her lap just as he used to.

Jiang Cheng: “...”

He had absolutely no awareness of how large he was now.

Jiang Cheng pushed him away and patted the seat beside her, indicating that he should sit there.

She then had to teach him to sit on his bottom instead of crouching with his knees drawn up and all four limbs pressed against the sofa.

“Mo Li,” Jiang Cheng asked, finally voicing the question she most wanted answered. “Are you a transmigrator?”

Mo Li did not reply. He merely looked at her quietly, blinking his dark, shining eyes from time to time.

Jiang Cheng knew then that he had not understood.

When a cat did not understand something, it would not ask questions or respond with another question. It would simply stare quietly at the person who had spoken.

Therefore, even if Mo Li had also transmigrated, he either did not possess human-level intelligence or his memories had been suppressed. He had no understanding of the concept whatsoever.

Although she could not confirm whether he had transmigrated, Jiang Cheng knew that Mo Li was one of a kind.

At least in S City, he was the only one of his kind.

“Then what are you now?” she continued. “A human or a cat?”

Mo Li said, “A human and a cat.”

He had chosen both options.

He was both human and cat.

Jiang Cheng thought for a moment, then ordered, “Try turning back into a cat.”

Song Jingshuo’s designer casual clothes collapsed to the floor, and the handsome, spirited young man instantly shrank into a cat before Jiang Cheng’s eyes.

As long as he could transform back, Jiang Cheng could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Mo Li shrugged off the clothes covering her and nimbly climbed onto Jiang Cheng’s lap, curling herself into a round little ball. Content, she went, “Meow~”

Mo Li had realized that being a kitten was the most comfortable form. She could drape herself over Jiang Cheng, snuggle against her whenever she pleased, and generally stick close to her.

Whenever she was in human form, Jiang Cheng never let her do that.

Jiang Cheng had also realized that Mo Li had always been able to freely control the size of her body.

Whenever she went outside, she transformed into the form of a leopard. Clearly, that size was the most suitable for outdoor activity.

After all, when it came to running, the difference between long and short legs was rather significant.

But whenever she was by Jiang Cheng’s side, she always maintained the form of a small black cat, specifically so she could perch on Jiang Cheng’s shoulders, burrow into her arms, or curl up on her lap at any time.

Kittens just loved cuddling.

And Mo Li loved cuddling with Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng was exhausted today as well.

The fact that the boy could still turn back into a kitten was a comfort to her.

That way, after they washed up and went to bed, she could continue holding the kitten in her arms.

They slept soundly through the night.

...

When Jiang Cheng woke the next morning, she discovered that she was being held in the boy’s arms.

As far as Jiang Cheng remembered, the last time she had been held like this was when she was a child.

Oh. That was a memory belonging to the original Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng turned over to face Mo Li.

The kitten had woken up long ago and had been quietly watching her with his eyes open.

Considering that he had refrained from planting his enormous body on her chest, that alone was a huge improvement.

The boy leaned close and sniffed Jiang Cheng’s face. After confirming that she was still alive, he happily touched his nose to hers.

That was how a kitten woke a human up.

Except that he was human now too.

After Jiang Cheng got out of bed, the naked young man, completely lacking any sense of shame, tried once again to drape himself over Jiang Cheng’s shoulders, only to be firmly rejected.

Jiang Cheng pointed at the clothes on the sofa. “Get dressed. Don’t turn back into a cat. Stay like this and put your clothes on. They taught you how to dress yourself, didn’t they? Put that down. Underwear first, then trousers.”

Mo Li had been observing all sorts of human behavior for a long time and was not unfamiliar with any of it.

It was just that this was his first time trying these things himself, so he was not quite used to them yet.

Still, human hands were remarkably nimble. After a little instruction, he was able to wash his face and brush his teeth with ease.

Once they were both cleaned up, Jiang Cheng took Mo Li downstairs.

Downstairs, everyone was lining up to draw water from the enormous storage tank that had been set up in the courtyard the previous night.

There were too many people, and the line was moving too slowly. Cui Haiyang had added more taps to the tank. There were taps all the way around it, thirty in total, allowing thirty lines of people to collect water at the same time. Efficiency immediately improved.

The natural gas supply was gone, but the earthen stoves in the courtyard of the Youth Apartments had always been in use, so the transition was seamless.

After enjoying a period of relative leisure, everyone had begun busily working as they had before.

The fire-element ability user had joined the cafeteria team and would probably remain in that position until they found another solution.

Several of the aunties were still recovering from the shock they had suffered. The others who knew how to cook had been called upon in an emergency and were shouldering the heavy responsibility of running the cafeteria.

Su Yu was among them.

The moment Gao Yuxuan saw Jiang Cheng come downstairs, he hurried over to report, “Lesi’s eyes have healed, but she still can’t see.”

Zhang Lesi’s eyeballs had completely healed. They looked dark, bright, and just as beautiful as before.

But she truly could not see. She was completely blind at present.

“Stay calm. Don’t panic.” Zhang Lesi was a doctor herself. “It should be a psychological issue.”

“I know perfectly well that my eyes have healed, but mentally, I’m still stuck at the moment when I was blind.”

“Don’t worry. You should recover after some time.”

She remained calm enough to make fun of herself. “I’ve always studied the effects psychological factors can have on the body. But when it actually happens to you, you realize just how completely the conscious and subconscious mind can be separated.”

No one knew how much pain she had suffered in that moment, or how deep her terror had been.

Zhang Lesi had never imagined that one day she would be so frightened that the shock would leave her psychologically blind. She huffed angrily, “I’m pathetic.”

But no one else saw it that way.