Chapter 18

Aduo Duo was a large warehouse-style supermarket, the biggest one in this newly developed economic zone where the youth apartment complex was located, about eight to nine hundred meters away from the apartments.

Given the sheer number of people in front, by the time the ones at the head entered the supermarket, the ones at the back were only just leaving the residential compound.

After exiting the east gate of the complex, there was a street running between two neighborhoods called Jixiang West Street. Walk along Jixiang West Street for about two to three hundred meters, make a turn, then continue straight on the main road for another five to six hundred meters, and you'd roughly arrive.

The situation outside the complex was far worse than inside. The moment the security guard opened the gate, the people at the front spotted mutant creatures roaming on Jixiang West Street.

Right off the bat, one infected mutant came charging straight at them!

Walking in the front were all fearless fighters—people who had already gained ample experience from the morning's battle, mastered the skills for killing, and had the guts to do it.

Everyone called them the "Daredevil Squad."

That name wasn't coined by Jiang Cheng or Song Jingshuo. It came about when the first squad's volunteers were being recruited—people just started joking and shouting the name out on their own.

The sign-up turnout could even be described as enthusiastic.

Jiang Cheng genuinely felt grateful to be living in a community where the majority were young, educated people.

Youth often means hot blood. Good education means stronger collective spirit and discipline, making people easier to organize.

Jiang Cheng had imagined: if this were an ordinary neighborhood full of families with elderly and children—people with parents to care for and kids to raise—it would probably be really hard to get so many people to move together like this.

As people grow older, they lose that fire. Once they have families, they hesitate and look before they leap, afraid to charge forward.

Jiang Cheng also walked near the front, just slightly behind the Daredevil Squad.

There were plenty of mutants on the street. Actually, anything still moving on the street was a mutant. Yesterday was Saturday—a pleasant summer evening—and way too many people had been out and about.

A lurching first-stage mutant stumbled toward her. Jiang Cheng swung her axe and sliced halfway through the mutant's neck. The head flopped to one side, but since half the neck was still attached, it stumbled, fell over, and then got back up again.

Li Jiangbing stepped in and hacked through the remaining half with his own axe. The mutant's body crumpled to the ground, and the head rolled with a thud toward the crowd behind.

Jiang Cheng heard screams and retching from the rear.

Compared to the massive number of residents, those who had come out to fight in the morning were actually a minority. Although more residents gradually joined in afterward, the vast majority only emerged after the burning mound of corpses.

There was a big difference between seeing already-immobile bodies lying on the ground and watching a living, breathing "person" get decapitated right before your eyes.

Some people needed time to adapt.

The Daredevil Squad cleared the path up front, and whenever they got tired, they'd shout for people at the back to move up and take over.

Young people tend to get carried away by adrenaline. Even those who started out tense and nauseated gradually adjusted and began itching for a turn.

By the time they emerged from the side street, the front ranks had already rotated in new faces.

The main road had no living people either. Occasionally a car would race past before the road fell back into silence.

Several cars had crashed into curbs or collided with each other; some had burned down to charred black shells. Inside, you could still see scorched skeletons slumped in the driver's seats.

Seeing scenes like that stirred a desolate feeling in everyone's hearts, as if they were in a disaster movie.

Some first-stage mutants were trapped inside their cars, pounding and roaring as they spotted the massive procession of residents, desperate to get out. Mutants feel no pain, and they've been given boosted strength. They don't know how to open doors, so they battered their heads against the glass until it shattered. But the moment one poked its head out, the residents immediately smashed its skull in.

The young residents of the youth apartment complex cleared the road all the way, and by the time they reached Aduo Duo supermarket, even the people who'd been screaming and gagging at first had started to get used to it.

Partly that was because, although there were plenty of mutants on the road, there were even more residents—it was essentially a steamroll. Those in the front had also taken precautions with protective gear.

Or maybe one person would flounder alone against a mutant, but right beside them, several clubs, hammers, and cleavers would already swing in unison.

Along the way, Jiang Cheng didn't hear of anyone getting hurt.

Eight hundred meters felt like marching with a mighty army.

When the group arrived at the supermarket entrance, they found the doors shut.

Everyone exchanged uneasy looks. "What do we do?"

They all turned to look at Jiang Cheng. But this time, Song Jingshuo stepped forward first and said firmly, "Knock. See if anyone's inside. If someone's there, have them open up. If not, we smash the doors."

The entrance was made of thick, heavy glass doors. Thick, admittedly, but still glass. With this many people, they could still break through. A few people glanced at Jiang Cheng, while others slapped the doors hard. "Anyone in there? Anyone?"

Lots of voices shouted together, the sound penetrating deep into the building.

Soon, a few workers in supermarket uniforms cautiously peeked out.

Residents spotted them instantly. "People! People!"

"Open up! We want to buy things!"

"Open up! We want to spend money!"

The workers saw that the crowd outside was all living people, not mutants, and hurried over to unlock the floor locks. "Is it safe out there?"

The doors opened, and everyone swarmed inside, voices overlapping: "Are you open for business?"

Since the customers were already here, how could they not be open? The workers nodded in a daze. "Y-yes, open."

Residents flooded through the entrance, making the workers step aside in surprise.

Jiang Cheng didn't go in right away. She also stepped aside and asked one of the workers, "Are you all working a normal shift today? Did you come from home?"

"I didn't—I live in employee housing, right here in the building." The person she asked gestured to someone next to him. "He's the one who came from home today, rode a motorcycle all the way chased the whole time. Pretty badass."

Even Jiang Cheng was taken aback. "Came from home?"

The man replied irritably, "What else am I supposed to do? Can't exactly skip work."

As it turned out, his wife had taken the kids to the grandparents' place yesterday, and he'd been home alone having a few drinks, then slept straight through until morning. He'd missed the initial chaos of the night. In the early dawn, the streets were dead quiet, and he had no idea what had happened.

It wasn't until he got on his motorcycle and the engine roar attracted the undead that this guy realized something was wrong. Thanks to his bike's nimble speed and handling, he managed to shake off those half-dead creatures as they chased him.

He went to work.

A strange thought rose in Jiang Cheng's mind: Why couldn't someone just not go to work?

Is going to work more important than living?

The word "work" had been floating around her ears since morning. People kept asking over and over, "Are we really going to work tomorrow?"

During the day, there were so many urgent, chaotic, tedious matters that Jiang Cheng couldn't spare a moment to think deeply about it. But deep down, she'd been feeling something odd.

Everyone seemed so fixated on "work."

But she wasn't.

"Work" wasn't even within the scope of what she was thinking about. Ever since last night, everything she'd thought about was life, safety, and survival.

She understood that fixation, of course. But she felt a strong sense of detachment—like watching a play. You understand the characters and the plot, but there's still a stage separating you from the actors.

Maybe because this wasn't "Jiang Cheng," it was "me."

—The thought flashed through her mind. Li Jiangbing called out to her: "Jiang Cheng, hurry up."

Jiang Cheng said no more and followed the crowd streaming into the supermarket.

Fortunately, the warehouse-style supermarket was big enough that over a thousand people flooding in didn't feel especially cramped. And besides the residents of the youth apartment complex, there really were no other customers.

The shopping carts here were bigger than the ordinary ones in regular supermarkets. Li Jiangbing grabbed two carts—one for himself, one for Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng tucked her handcart underneath the supermarket cart: "Let's go."

The two headed straight for the rice, flour, and cooking oil section.

Many people had taken Jiang Cheng's advice and also made a beeline for the grain and oil aisles. That area took up two full rows of shelving, but it was still packed shoulder-to-shoulder with residents.

Li Jiangbing tried to shove his way deeper in, but Jiang Cheng pulled him back: "Follow me."

She led him to the canned goods section first: "For fresh meat, buy just a little. Frozen meat is better. But my freezer isn't that big, so it's not worth it. Canned food isn't tasty, but it keeps well."

Li Jiangbing was now fully persuaded by her, and what she said made sense.

Just now, walking from the complex to the Buyduo Supermarket, he'd witnessed the situation firsthand. The trip went smoothly only because there were so many of them—there were too many factors of luck, timing, and numbers at play. Otherwise, why didn't other neighborhoods organize a crowd of a thousand to go out?

Without such a large organization, anyone going it alone probably wouldn't have made it through that stretch of road.

The two of them headed straight for the canned goods aisle.

Luncheon meat, corned beef, braised pork, and fish in cans. Not delicious, but the traditional tin-can process contains no preservatives, so it's not actually that bad. In times like these, it's a solid choice.

Then they went to the seasonings aisle for salt and sugar. Fermented bean curd and pickled vegetables—those go well with rice.

Li Jiangbing was a little worried: "What if they run out of rice later?"

"Relax," Jiang Cheng said. "A warehouse this big—they've got enough stock that it won't be cleaned out by just the people in our complex."

They also grabbed sanitary pads, shampoo, bar soap, and other daily necessities.

Figuring they had about everything they needed, Jiang Cheng went straight up to a supermarket staff member: "Open the storage room for us. We're here for the rice, flour, and oil—you can see how many people we have. What's on the shelves won't be enough."

In the short time since, the rice, flour, and oil shelves were already nearly bare.

Everyone had grabbed at least one bag of rice.

A big crowd of young people who never cooked at home stared at each other blankly:

"How long does one bag last?"

"I don't know either—let me call my mom and ask."

"What do I do if I don't know how to cook rice?"

"Forget whether you can cook it—first tell me, do you have a rice cooker?"

"Ah! No! Where do they sell rice cookers? I need to go grab one right now!"

The supermarket staff were in a situation similar to the property management workers like Uncle Luo at the complex. Some of the staff lived in the dormitory, right in the building itself. Most of them were stock clerks and security guards, along with a few cashiers.

But the managers, administrative staff, and accountants were all locals. Given today's situation, most of them hadn't shown up—only the little supervisor on the motorcycle had come in.

The remaining frontline employees had first banded together to take down their mutated colleagues, then huddled in fear, not daring to open the doors or leave—until the youth apartment residents stormed in like a swarm of bandits.

Seeing so many people, the supermarket staff, who had lost their backbone, suddenly steadied themselves.

Wasn't this just a normal weekend scene? Big crowds of customers, busy work. When people were busy, it brought an inexplicable sense of peace.

As soon as Jiang Cheng approached the staff, they promptly and cooperatively opened the storage room.

Forklifts brought out the rice, flour, and oil.

No need to even stock the shelves—everyone swarmed straight for the pallets and loaded up their carts.

With food in hand, the heart is at ease.