Chapter 37

"What about sorting the garbage?" Jiang Cheng asked. "What if we only pile up the non-burnable stuff here and burn the rest? Would that make it last longer?"

The engineering guy didn't answer right away. After a pause, he said hesitantly, "...Would it really go on that long?"

"How would I know?" Jiang Cheng said. "Just asking."

Jiang Cheng had been speaking with such authority these past two days that everything she said was taken seriously by everyone.

Hearing that, the engineering guy breathed a sigh of relief.

But he added, "If you burn it without any filtering or treatment, it releases a lot of toxic substances."

Jiang Cheng thought for a moment, then asked, "Which is more toxic—that, or burning corpses?"

The engineering guy froze for a second, then said, "Well... burning corpses is... more severe, I'd say."

He continued, "Burning bodies is basically an 'enhanced version' of burning trash. Most of the toxins from burning garbage are there, but human bodies naturally contain chlorine. When it incompletely combusts with fats and proteins, it's the perfect breeding ground for dioxins. Plus there are even more complex toxic heavy metals."

"And most importantly," he said, "there's the risk of pathogen aerosols. That's the one unique danger specific to cremation."

"Take the zombie virus—we don't understand it at all right now. It could attach itself to soot particles and spread with the wind, causing a second wave of plague."

This was something Jiang Cheng hadn't known.

She pondered for a moment, then asked, "But we've already been burning for two days. So far, the later mutations in the neighborhood have all been caused by exposure through open wounds. If the zombie virus spread the way you describe, we should be seeing mutations in people without any injuries. But that hasn't happened. Can we rule out that possibility?"

The engineering guy thought it over and nodded. "Personally, I think we can."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Song Jingshuo suggested, "Separate paper products and plastics into their own piles. No need to burn them yet either. The clubhouse is spacious enough to store quite a bit. Only use the swimming pool for non-burnable items. We'll deal with the rest later." Jiang Cheng sensed that Song Jingshuo's attitude had changed.

It sounded simple enough, but in reality, mobilizing a community of several thousand people was bound to bring endless trouble and resistance.

Yet Song Jingshuo chose the more difficult path, supporting the idea of extending the usage time of the pool as much as possible.

The mindset he'd had before—hoping the government would come rescue them tomorrow—was gone.

Jiang Cheng's instincts were right.

Ever since Monday, when Jiang Cheng led everyone to smash the glass doors of the Buy Duo Duo supermarket and the crowd ransacked the place, Song Jingshuo had gone home and thought all night. He'd finally come to terms with the fact that "things were different now."

He'd started agreeing with Jiang Cheng's view that the current situation could last a long time.

Jiang Cheng adopted Song Jingshuo's suggestion. "Good idea. Spread the word as soon as possible."

After two days of supermarket raiding, everyone was bound to have a lot of packaging to tear open, which would generate plenty of cardboard boxes and cartons—bulky things that took up lots of space.

The small apartments weren't big, so everyone would definitely toss them out as garbage.

Jiang Cheng immediately pulled out her phone and called Su Yu to fill her in: "...Tell everyone not to mix cardboard boxes and packaging like that, or plastic bottles, with the rest of the trash. They should be piled up together in the small plaza downstairs."

Doing one big centralized collection was actually more convenient than dealing with it piecemeal every day.

She also talked with Master Luo, arranging for the cleaning workers to go collect those items from the plaza.

Paper products needed to be tied up in bundles to save storage space. Jiang Cheng had "Jiang Cheng's" memories and had seen how the cleaning workers neatly tied up cardboard to sell as scrap.

She said, "Once this is all over, these are for the workers to sell as scrap."

Jiang Cheng was young, but she understood people well. Song Jingshuo glanced at her, thinking to himself.

But from his experience, the women he knew like that were usually the commanding, alpha-female types. Jiang Cheng could project an intimidating sharpness at times. Yet if none of this had happened—no zombies, no chaos—and you ran into her in the neighborhood, she'd come across as nothing more than a refined, bookish girl.

Was this what they meant by "times forge the man"?

Under extraordinary circumstances, ordinary-looking people sometimes rose to the occasion.

Without this special situation, they might have lived their whole lives in obscurity.

Master Luo used his walkie-talkie to assign the cleaning crew their tasks. When they heard that the recyclables would be theirs once everything was over, they were clearly delighted.

Jiang Cheng said to Yang Xinyan, "Xinyan, go keep an eye on things. Tell them to haul it this way."

Yang Xinyan nodded and set off with light footsteps.

Everyone had grown accustomed to taking instructions from Jiang Cheng.

Su Yu moved quickly. She wrote up the notice, posted it to the forum immediately, and then contacted other people.

The members of the provisional committee then went floor by floor shouting: "Check the forum! Check the post about trash disposal!"

Su Yu called Jiang Cheng to report the progress.

They'd fully shifted into corporate work mode now.

After hanging up, Jiang Cheng sighed. "The only problem is communications."

If they relied on the property management's loudspeakers to announce things at each building, the people on the side facing away from the garden might not hear.

But announcing everything by shouting was way too primitive.

She said, "If only there were some way to notify everyone all at once. That would be so much more convenient."

The engineering guy went, "Huh? Actually..."

Jiang Cheng looked up at him.

He pushed up his glasses. "Actually, there are broadcast speakers in the hallways. I think we could use those."

"Huh?" Jiang Cheng was surprised. "There are?"

"Is it the fire alarm thing?" Li Jiangbing chimed in. "I remember they tested it one day during daytime, playing music. But that was on a workday, so you would've been at the office."

The last part was directed at Jiang Cheng.

Master Luo, however, waved his hand dismissively. "No, that won't work. I don't know how to operate that. The person in charge of it doesn't live in the neighborhood."

Master Luo and the other two workers were just electricians and handymen. But that broadcast system was connected to a computer system. The engineering department specifically had one person who managed the surveillance and broadcast system. His salary was much higher than theirs.

That guy didn't live in the staff dorm, so he wasn't in the neighborhood now either. No one else knew how to do it.

Once that was explained, the engineering guy said, "That's easy."

He turned his head and cupped his hands around his mouth to yell: "Gao Yuxuan! Gao Yuxuan! Come here!"

From the swimming pool area, a young man came jogging over. "What's up?"

The engineering guy told him, "We want to get the building broadcast system working. The engineer isn't around. Can you get it fixed up?"

Gao Yuxuan didn't hesitate: "Easy!"

Gao Yuxuan was clearly also an engineering type.

The engineering guys were too handy.

Gao Yuxuan went off without another word.

Jiang Cheng asked the engineering guy, "What's your name again?"

It was obvious the engineering guy wasn't great at socializing with pretty women. He'd been perfectly fluent when explaining technical things a moment ago, but the moment it became about small talk, he tensed up: "Zhao... Zhao Yi."

Jiang Cheng's eyes curved into a bright smile. "It's such a relief to have you guys around."

Zhao Yi's ears visibly turned red.

Jiang Cheng said, "Then I'll leave the club matters to you. I need you to make a plan, ensure the road for garbage transportation is smooth, and also arrange space for the rest of the trash piles."

Zhao Yi nodded firmly. "Okay, leave it to me."

Song Jingshuo glanced at Jiang Cheng, a bit surprised.

Compared to Zhao Yi, who was clearly still an innocent, pure-hearted young guy, Song Jingshuo was far more experienced. He could obviously tell that Jiang Cheng had Zhao Yi wrapped around her finger with ease.

But this broke the impression Jiang Cheng had given him over the past two days.

In the past two days, Jiang Cheng had shown herself to be completely calm and rational, detached from any sense of gender.

He had thought she was the type of girl who deliberately separates her ability from her gender in the workplace.

He had worked with many women in his career—some weaponized their beauty, while others did the exact opposite, believing that having their gender noticed at work was an insult to their capability, and strove to project a genderless image.

He had assumed Jiang Cheng was the latter, but now he saw she wasn't.

So she was the kind of person who didn't care whether she wielded beauty or competence, but instead chose the most effective solution based on the situation and the person.

Someone like that would succeed at anything she did.

He was exactly that kind of person himself.

Yang Xinyan left the club to gather the cleaning staff.

The young homeowners who stayed home without having to work kept an eye on the forum at all times. And the members of the interim committee had also notified people floor by floor.

Everyone had seen the post Su Yu had made. Coincidentally, many of the items they had panic-bought over the past two days were still unopened in their packaging, taking up space at home. Everyone started getting to work.

Before long, Yang Xinyan saw homeowners coming downstairs one after another, arms full of cardboard boxes and cartons.

"Over here, put them over here," Yang Xinyan waved to them. "You can leave them here, we'll handle the rest."

She was a young girl, and the homeowners were generally friendly toward her, even polite: "Thanks for your hard work."

Yang Xinyan responded courteously, "It's my duty."

The homeowners' mood and state right now were the best they'd been since Saturday night. Most of them were decent people and politely said thank you.

Yang Xinyan found dealing with the homeowners to be relaxed and pleasant.

Among the cleaners, one younger guy—who had been watching her interact with the homeowners the whole time—turned his head and let out a "tch."

The older cleaners were actually quite happy. Master Luo had told them that once things settled down, all these cardboard boxes, cartons, and plastic bottles would be theirs to sell for money.

But this younger guy, who wasn't even forty yet and was usually lazy and never proactive, said, "And what if things never settle down?"

The older ones said, "Huh?"

The middle-aged male cleaner continued, "What if it never gets better, and it stays this chaotic, with monsters everywhere? Then these broken cardboard boxes are worthless—no one's buying them. What's the point?"

One of the cleaning ladies said, "That can't be."

"Why not?" the middle-aged cleaner scoffed. "You see the government coming to rescue us yet? Even in the worst floods, the whole country never shut down like this. Have you ever seen anything like this?"

They really hadn't. Whether it was earthquakes, floods, or typhoons, it was always localized disasters.

When one region was in trouble, help came from all directions.

But now, zombies were in every direction.

Even the interim committee folks had said that this time even the military probably couldn't handle it—the army couldn't fight a virus with willpower alone.

If things really fell apart...

"My great-grandmother survived famine before," the middle-aged cleaner said. "In times like that, cash is just waste paper—only good for wiping your ass."

"Besides, if everything really collapses, not only can't we sell cardboard, but our wages won't be paid either..."

As he spoke, his expression gradually shifted, as if something had suddenly clicked in his mind.

"So then, why the hell should we keep working for them!"