Chapter 186

Zhang Lesi sneered. “Well, that’s got everyone behaving themselves now, hasn’t it?”

“A bunch of idiots. So what if that person can predict the future? In the end, weren’t we all saved by our own efforts? It’s not like he could crawl out of the radio and rescue us!”

“If you’re going to deify someone, you might as well deify Jiang Cheng!”

“Seriously, if it hadn’t been for Jiang Cheng, put anyone else in her place and they might not have been able to keep this many people alive!”

“Exactly. Who else could’ve done it?”

Zhang Lesi’s voice was especially loud.

Su Yu knew she was saying it deliberately for the people in the dormitory to hear.

There were a lot of young girls here. At that age, their minds were still immature and easily influenced.

Zhang Lesi asked again, “Where’s Jiang Cheng?”

Su Yu looked back. “We were walking back together just now... She doesn’t seem to have come up?”

Jiang Cheng’s bunk was empty.

An open book still lay facedown on it.

“Her book’s here,” Su Yu said.

She picked it up and sighed. “So Jiang Cheng reads books like this.”

Zhang Lesi knew what sort of books Jiang Cheng read.

After living together in the communal dormitory for several months, there weren’t many secrets left between them.

Jiang Cheng read the kind of books that made people’s jaws drop. In Zhang Lesi’s view, those massive volumes were impossible to get through without settling down and focusing completely.

Most people simply couldn’t calm their minds enough to read them. They didn’t possess that level of insight, nor did they want to shoulder that kind of responsibility.

Su Yu flipped through the book to the page Jiang Cheng had left facedown and saw several lines underlined in red:

“Do not be intimidated by the enemy’s bluster.”

“Do not become disheartened by difficulties that can still be endured.”

“Do not lose heart over temporary setbacks.” (Author’s note)

Su Yu read them in a daze.

But why had Jiang Cheng underlined these particular lines?

Could someone as unyielding as Jiang Cheng also become disheartened and lose heart, just like the rest of them?

What was going on? Jiang Cheng had once been nothing more than an ordinary neighbor, just like the rest of them.

When had they started taking it for granted that Jiang Cheng could withstand anything, that she would never experience any negative emotions like everyone else?

How could that be possible?

Jiang Cheng was human too.

Jiang Cheng was human.

That was why she hadn’t returned to the communal dormitory.

She had gone back to her own place, lit the stove, and had sex with Mo Li.

Their bodies were slick with sweat.

The pressure was released.

Before the extreme cold arrived, Jiang Cheng and Mo Li had lived together and slept in the same bed, so they were already intimately familiar with each other’s bodies.

But they had never actually had sex.

Mo Li was male, after all.

Cats had their own characteristics: a female had to go into heat before a male would enter it in response.

Since Jiang Cheng never had, Mo Li never had either.

This was their first time.

When Jiang Cheng returned to the communal dormitory, she found Su Yu reading to Zhang Lesi.

She passed by their bunks and greeted them on the way.

Zhang Lesi’s expression suddenly became rather peculiar.

“Was that Jiang Cheng just now?” she asked, lowering her voice to a whisper.

Su Yu answered, “Yes.”

After finishing his work, Zhao Yi came to take Zhang Lesi for a walk in the hallway. Zhang Lesi couldn’t keep it to herself and leaned over to whisper in his ear.

No one could resist the allure of gossip.

Especially gossip about Jiang Cheng.

Zhao Yi asked cautiously, “Are you sure?”

Zhang Lesi said, “I can recognize it with one sniff.”

Jiang Cheng was radiating the unmistakable scent of sex.

Zhang Lesi tugged at him. “Who do you think it was?”

She was dying of curiosity. She just had to know.

“There are only two possibilities,” Zhao Yi said.

Zhang Lesi shoved him. “Go find out! Hurry! Tell me as soon as you know!”

It was actually very simple.

The timeline was clear: it had happened after the execution that day.

Jiang Cheng had obviously been emotional at the time, and then things had progressed from there.

Zhao Yi found out after asking just one question.

After the execution, Song Jingshuo had gone back to work. He had been with the older women.

Case closed!

Zhao Yi hurried off to report back to Zhang Lesi.

This was exciting.

It wouldn’t have been nearly so exciting if it had been Song Jingshuo.

No matter how handsome Song Jingshuo was, he was still just a human man.

This time, it was a beastman.

There was simply too much to discuss!

The two of them found a corner and whispered together for quite some time.

At last, Zhang Lesi said insincerely, “Don’t tell anyone else.”

Zhao Yi gave an equally insincere promise. “Of course. You either.”

Exactly.

To Zhang Lesi, Su Yu wasn’t “anyone else.”

To Zhao Yi, Gao Yuxuan wasn’t “anyone else.”

And to Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan, Li Jiangbing wasn’t “anyone else.”

But they were all in complete agreement that Song Jingshuo was “someone else.”

He was the one person who absolutely must not be told!

So everyone who needed to know found out, with the sole exception of Song Jingshuo.

Unfortunately, Song Jingshuo discovered it himself.

Someone greeted him in passing and casually mentioned that Zhao Yi had been asking about him.

Zhao Yi hadn’t come looking for him. He had asked where Song Jingshuo had been at a particular time.

The moment Song Jingshuo heard that, he knew something was suspicious.

He found Zhao Yi and pinned him against the hallway wall.

“What’s going on?”

Zhao Yi stammered, “W-What do you mean, what’s going on?”

“Cut the crap.” Song Jingshuo didn’t bother being polite. “Why were you asking where I was this afternoon?”

Zhao Yi averted his gaze.

Oh. There was definitely something going on.

“Don’t make me use force,” Song Jingshuo warned.

Zhao Yi was no match for Song Jingshuo. After glancing around to make sure no one was nearby, he leaned in and whispered the whole story into Song Jingshuo’s ear.

Song Jingshuo’s expression turned grave.

Zhao Yi was extremely worried.

Why hadn’t he told Song Jingshuo? Because Zhao Yi considered Song Jingshuo an “involved party.” Even if he hadn’t technically been involved, he was at least connected to the matter.

The losing party.

They were afraid he’d take it badly.

Entirely unnecessary.

A womanizer and a hopeless romantic simply lived in completely different worlds. To Song Jingshuo, sex between consenting adults was no different from eating or drinking.

Song Jingshuo released Zhao Yi and sighed.

Zhao Yi cleared his throat, intending to offer him a few words of comfort.

But Song Jingshuo said, “Was she really under that much pressure?”

Zhao Yi was stunned.

Song Jingshuo’s brow furrowed.

“Of course,” he said. “We don’t feel the pressure as keenly because she’s the one carrying it for us.”

She made every final decision.

She determined the direction they would take.

And if that direction was wrong, the consequences were unimaginable.

Everyone had overlooked just how much pressure that represented.

They simply took it for granted that she could handle it.

No one stopped to consider how many people had gone mad, how many had committed suicide, how many had sunk into sex addiction, how many had binged on food, or how many had fallen in with cults.

The refugees had been dwindling continuously, becoming nothing more than fertilizer.

The next day, while eating in the cafeteria, Song Jingshuo found Jiang Cheng.

“I’d like to say something to Jiang Cheng,” he announced.

Everyone immediately took the hint and moved to another table, leaving the two of them alone.

Jiang Cheng lowered her head and drank her hot soy milk. “What is it?”

Song Jingshuo said, “I’m reminding you to be careful about contraception.”

Jiang Cheng didn’t even look up. “You found out pretty quickly.”

She thought for a moment. “Zhang Lesi, I assume.”

She had guessed it in one try.

Bathing was inconvenient these days, and Zhang Lesi’s senses were exceptionally sharp. This wasn’t the first time she had smelled out an affair.

Jiang Cheng clearly wasn’t one of the hopeless romantics.

Just as Song Jingshuo had thought, it had been nothing more than a way to relieve stress.

Nearly ten months had passed since the time at the clubhouse gym when she had said coolly, “We haven’t reached the point where sex is necessary to alleviate and soothe the psychological stress caused by the threat of death.”

Now, for her, they had finally reached that point.

“What’s gotten into you?” Song Jingshuo asked. “Why are you so irritable? Is it because of those people?”

“Yes.” Jiang Cheng raised her eyes. “Their weakness disgusts me.”

The weakness of the human heart.

They thought they were being so noble. In reality, it was their inner weakness that allowed heretical ideas to take root in their minds and made them believe them as truth.

When an entire group displayed such foolishness and weakness, it was truly repulsive to her.

The corner of Song Jingshuo’s mouth twitched.

Jiang Cheng said, “If you have something to say, say it.”

Song Jingshuo put it bluntly: “An elitist mindset.”

Jiang Cheng was momentarily taken aback.

Song Jingshuo said, “I think we’ve both changed a lot over these ten months. You’ve changed a great deal too. And yet this elitist mindset is still there.”

Elites often pretended to be part of the masses, one of the masses.

But in truth, they looked down on the masses. They believed themselves to be superior, convinced that they were a cut above the rest.

Sometimes, they even despised the masses.

The disgust Jiang Cheng spoke of was, to a certain extent, contempt—a revulsion born of contempt.

Elites considered themselves outstanding, even perfect, and always viewed the masses’ lack of excellence and their imperfections with a harsh, critical eye.

Jiang Cheng stared blankly at the half bowl of soybean milk left in front of her.

After a long while, Song Jingshuo finished his soybean milk. Jiang Cheng let out a long breath.

She said, “It’s really hard to put knowledge into practice.”

It was all too easy to lose touch with the people.

She looked up. Walkways jutted diagonally between the buildings, crisscrossing one another.

She turned around. Someone was dragging a gray, wheeled ash bin, going floor by floor to clear the ashes from the stoves in the heated corridors and stairwells and replenish their coal, ensuring that the entire building stayed warm.

None of this could have been accomplished by her alone.

It had clearly been accomplished by everyone.

Yet because of a small handful of foolish people, she had overlooked the greater whole.

She had actually allowed herself to be controlled by such emotions.

Just as Jiang Cheng lifted the remaining half bowl of soybean milk to her lips, she suddenly stopped.

A realization struck her.

So this was what they had been waiting for.

They had trapped everyone inside like burrowing animals beneath the cover of this bitter cold, waiting for this moment—

Waiting for her state of mind to collapse.

Jiang Cheng raised her eyes...

But what if her state of mind did not collapse?

Jiang Cheng held on to her composure. Three days later, the mysterious man on the radio finally changed his tune.

He said: “It’s going to end.”

The words quickly spread through every residential compound, throwing the residents into an uproar.

“He said it’s ending. Is that true?”

“Is he talking about this hellish weather?”

“Probably. He was the one who predicted it in the first place.”

And so, the night before, everyone had still remembered to add coal to the stove before going to bed.

But at dawn, they were all woken by the heat.

Everyone was bewildered. They had not added any extra coal, so how had it suddenly become so warm?

Wearing only her long underwear, Jiang Cheng got out of bed and walked to the window. With a swish, she pulled open the curtains.

Everyone instinctively raised a hand to shield their eyes.

Snow reflected the sunlight, making it painfully dazzling.

But they soon realized that something was different.

Someone else, wearing slippers, climbed out of bed and ran to the window. Standing beside Jiang Cheng, they stared out at the scene without moving.

Suddenly, she whirled around and shouted, “The snow is melting! The snow is melting!”

Everyone went mad, crowding toward the windows to look.

The snowdrifts that had stood higher than a person when they went to bed the previous night had all melted.

Mud and meltwater covered the ground.

Sunlight streamed through the windows, warm against their skin.

There were already specks of green on the treetops and branches.

The world had gone from a bitterly cold winter to a spring teeming with new life in the space of a single night.

Jiang Cheng gave the rising sun a cold smile.

Note: From Quotations.