Chapter 24

Jiang Cheng returned to her own home, feeling exhausted.

Actually, many people had joined in the floor-by-floor sweep. Residents from every level had tagged along out of curiosity, and anyone wanting to take a swing at the zombies had to push to the front. She'd barely lifted a hand the whole time, just followed along without spending much energy.

But she hadn't rested properly since Saturday night. She'd been running on high alert the entire time.

Back home, she checked on Mo Li first. The hot water bottle had gone cold, but Mo Li's body temperature seemed a bit better. Things were looking up.

When she came back and touched his head, Mo Li even managed to lift it and let out a soft "meow."

He nuzzled his head against Jiang Cheng's palm.

The soft feel of it sent what felt like a faint electric current from her palm straight to her heart—

The little cat was lonely.

How strange. No post on the pet forum had ever mentioned that a person and their small companion could share a psychic connection. How was it that the moment her heart got that tiny jolt, she understood completely what the little cat meant?

Jiang Cheng leaned down and gently rubbed her cheek against the kitten's fluffy head. "Don't be afraid. I'm back. I'm here with you."

She said softly, "You're not going to die. And you didn't turn into a monster. You and I—we just got stronger, that's all."

"Don't be scared."

Mo Li said nothing. Mo Li just kept rubbing his head against her. When she lifted her head, he strained to raise his own, chasing after her.

Jiang Cheng saw him try to push himself up with his front legs, only to fail. Clearly he was still in a weakened state.

"Want something to eat? Oh, no, that's not it." Jiang Cheng understood what Mo Li wanted. "Wait for me. I'll be right back."

She washed up quickly and changed into pajamas.

She opened the down jacket and took a look. Mo Li hadn't relieved himself at all. She was a little worried.

"Need to pee or poop?" She slid her hand down to the base of his tail.

Mo Li sensed her intention and, as if using every last ounce of strength, tucked his tail over his rear and his little bells to cover them, letting out a short "meow."

Jiang Cheng decided against lifting his tail to check. She'd respect the little cat. A cat this intelligent—a little cat that could transform into a handsome big cat—would surely never soil the bed, right?

Mo Li gave a firm "Meow!"

As if to say: Never!

Jiang Cheng chose to trust Mo Li.

She carefully wrapped Mo Li up in the down jacket, lay down, and cradled the little "bundle" in her arms. "Sleep. We don't know what tomorrow will bring. Let's rest early."

Mo Li, held against her, seemed to curl up into a ball inside the jacket.

So soft. Jiang Cheng fell asleep quickly.

But Sunday night was destined for restless sleep.

In the middle of the night, the walkie-talkie went off first. The person on night duty from the property management reported: "The conference room is stirring again. It's been handled now."

There was a two-second pause, and then the duty person couldn't help but add: "People are crying in there. Damn, it's rough."

Jiang Cheng had just woken and couldn't get up right away. She picked up the walkie-talkie from her pillow, took a deep breath to reply, when Song Jingshuo's voice cut in first: "Received. Just don't let them out. All of you—don't let it get to you. Once you're infected, no one can save you. Absolutely do not open that door."

The duty person's mood was low, clearly already affected. He answered gloomily, "Understood. Don't worry."

She'd been beaten to it. Jiang Cheng wasn't angry. After all, she'd been the one stepping ahead of Song Jingshuo all along.

She steadied her breathing and pressed the talk button too. "Thanks for the hard work."

She put the walkie-talkie down and tried to sleep again, but then the phone rang. An unknown number.

Her head was pounding terribly. She took a few deep breaths and forced herself to pick up. "Hello? This is Jiang Cheng."

The voice on the other end said, "Jiang Cheng, we're on the fifth floor. That person—uh, that guy, I don't know his name, the one you left with us to watch—he's turned."

Jiang Cheng asked, "Can you deal with it?"

The caller hesitated for a moment, and Jiang Cheng said, "Got it. I'm coming up now."

Jiang Cheng climbed out of bed and grabbed the clothes she'd worn during the day. They were splattered with blood and other fluids. She put them back on.

The moment she stepped out the door, she heard a door open somewhere in the distance. She turned and saw Li Jiangbing stepping out too.

Spotting her, Li Jiangbing waved from afar. They met in the middle, and Li Jiangbing swore, "What's wrong with these fifth-floor folks? If someone turns, just take care of it themselves."

Apparently, the people on the fifth floor had called both of them simultaneously. The call to Jiang Cheng had been on speakerphone, and Li Jiangbing had heard her say she was heading up, so he had no choice but to drag himself out of bed too.

"Let's go." Jiang Cheng yawned widely. "Let's go see."

They lived on the third floor. No point taking the elevator; they took the stairs up.

The hallway on the fifth floor had gathered a crowd. They were clustered around the door of that room, craning their necks to peek inside.

Li Jiangbing went over and complained, "What's going on? Didn't we already kill zombies during the day?"

A fifth-floor resident sighed, another scratched his head and said, "It's just... we watched him change..."

"And he was tied up..."

Most ordinary, normal people—as long as they aren't sociopaths—don't have particularly strong aggressive instincts. Everyone here was a law-abiding decent citizen.

Killing zombies during the day was different: those zombies bared bloody maws and lunged at you. It was self-defense.

But this man was handcuffed, his feet bound with a necktie, and even wearing a ball gag in his mouth. Despite turning, he couldn't get up to attack anyone.

When no one is under attack, good citizens find it very hard to initiate violence.

There was a mental barrier.

As everyone was chatting, a loud sound suddenly rang out!

They all turned in shock. While they'd been wasting time, Jiang Cheng had somehow slipped into the room and had already split open this second-generation zombie's head with one swing of her axe.

Jiang Cheng stood upright, closed her eyes, and let out a long breath. Her head really hurt. She hated not getting enough sleep, being woken up or forced out of bed. It was awful.

"Jiangbing, take care of this." Jiang Cheng could barely keep her eyes open, wandering out like she was sleepwalking. "I'm done. I can't hold on anymore."

The thing was, she hadn't slept well since Saturday night. She'd been running nonstop for two nights and a day now.

Everyone's mouths hung open. They instinctively stepped back to clear a path for her.

Jiang Cheng turned left.

Li Jiangbing stepped over, grabbed her shoulder, and spun her 180 degrees. "This way!"

Jiang Cheng went, "Oh." Then said, "I'll leave it to you."

"Go on, go on." Li Jiangbing said considerately. "Go catch up on your sleep."

Everyone watched her head toward the stairwell and vanish behind the fire door before they finally looked away.

Back to the room.

The unlucky young man had been left on the bed. The residents nearby hadn't dared relax. They'd set an alarm, and when it went off, they'd go in pairs to check on him.

When she looked again a moment ago, she saw that it had already mutated. But because its hands and feet were restrained, the person was flopping and squirming on the ground like a carp. Sensing the fresh blood and vital energy of living humans, it became even more frantic in its attempt to get closer to them. Unfortunately, the ball gag prevented it from moving its mouth — all that could be seen was a torrent of drool pouring out, dripping and splattering onto the floor. Absolutely disgusting.

Of course, it was even more disgusting now — brains splattered everywhere, with plenty of chunks and fragments scattered around.

Li Jiangbing’s mental fortitude was already well-honed by this point. He rested the axe on his shoulder, walked in, grabbed the corpse by the ankle with one hand, and dragged it out: “Alright, go back to sleep, everyone. The building’s clean now.”

“And hey, if you notice anyone acting off, report immediately.”

He muttered to himself as he dragged the body toward the elevator.

The residents of the fifth floor looked at one another, then at the vacant room with its sticky, grimy floor.

“Sleep. Time to sleep.”

“Exhausted.”

“Finally, we can get some proper rest.”

One by one, everyone returned to their own apartments and shut their doors.

At least by now, no one was asking “are we going to work tomorrow” anymore.

Like hell they were.

Jiang Cheng, nursing a throbbing headache, made it back home. At the entrance, she stripped off her filth-covered clothes and dropped them right on the floor. Too tired to bother changing into pajamas, she went straight to bed, scooped up Mo Li, hugged him to her chest, and fell asleep with her eyes shut.

In her dream, it felt like a small tongue with tiny barbs gently licked the tip of her nose.

Jiang Cheng woke up because sunlight hit her face. When she’d come back from clearing the building last night, it was already close to eleven, and she’d been too exhausted to close the curtains.

She still felt like she hadn’t slept enough. Turning over to face away from the window, she dozed off again for who knows how long before gradually coming to her senses.

She reached out a hand — the bed was empty.

Jiang Cheng rubbed her eyes and sat up: “Mo Li?”

A soft “meow” came from beside the floor-to-ceiling window.

The morning light was a bit blinding. Jiang Cheng raised a hand to shield her eyes and looked over.

The black cat lifted its head from the bean bag chair by the window.

The morning sunlight traced a golden outline around his glossy black fur. His ears stood upright, his limbs long and sleek — he looked both agile and powerful.

For a cat, Jiang Cheng thought Mo Li’s silhouette was nearly perfect.

Jiang Cheng got out of bed and stretched toward the morning light.

Mo Li watched from the bean bag.

Last night, Jiang Cheng had been so worn out that she’d come home, kicked off her dirty clothes, skipped pajamas entirely, and flopped straight onto the bed — wearing only a tank-top bra and underwear.

Standing up to stretch, her skin gleamed white in the early light.

The black cat’s eyes gleamed green, fixed on her.

When Jiang Cheng finished stretching and walked toward him, Mo Li seemed to spook — as if trying to jump down from the bean bag.

But... his legs gave out, and he tumbled onto the floor.

He’d forgotten he still hadn’t recovered. This morning, just to get some sun, he’d struggled to move from the bed to the bean bag. It had drained almost all his energy.

Jiang Cheng hurried over and scooped him up: “You okay?”

Mo Li was held like a baby, belly up, all four paws pointing at the ceiling.

He tried to kick his legs, realized it was completely futile, and finally gave up. He sank limply into Jiang Cheng’s arms.

“You haven’t recovered yet. Don’t go running around,” she said softly, gently rubbing his belly. She glanced at the bean bag and it clicked: “You want to sunbathe, right?”

She patted the bean bag into a suitable shape, like a little nest, and placed Mo Li in the middle of it. “Get your sun, then. I’ll make breakfast.”

Breakfast was simple — there was still a bowl of congee left from yesterday. She just had to heat it up and add a salted duck egg.

Jiang Cheng lit the stove and put the congee on to warm. She glanced at her phone and saw a text from Li Jiangbing: [Are you up? More news — they said no work.]

Jiang Cheng quickly turned on the TV. Since yesterday, the government’s news announcements had been on a loop. The announcement from yesterday evening had been replaced with a new one, playing over and over:

[S City has entered temporary control status.]

[Except for units essential to the city’s basic operations, such as medical institutions and emergency support, all enterprises, public institutions, schools, and kindergartens are to suspend business and classes.]

[Police forces are being concentrated to eliminate the mutated. Residents are urged not to go out unless necessary.]

[Residents are permitted to use force to defend themselves against the mutated. Anyone suspected of infection must be immediately restrained and isolated.]

[...Remain vigilant at all times.]

Online, everyone was already calling them “zombies,” though the authorities still used the term “the mutated.”

In any case, the question everyone had been agonizing over all day — “Do we still have to go to work on Monday?” — finally had an answer.

The congee in the pot began to bubble, but Jiang Cheng paid it no mind.

She rested her chin on her hand, staring at the scrolling announcements, lost in thought.

She turned and opened her laptop, starting to search for “S City police strength” and “S City total population.”

How many police were available in S City?

After the initial mutation of the virus, how many were left?

After the unprepared first encounters with the zombies, how many more were lost?

Could she still count on others now?