Chapter 38

Li Jiangbing led a few dozen people pushing dozens of shopping carts, heading straight for BuyDuoDuo again.

The small street east of the gate was already clean, completely free of zombies. As they turned onto the main road, they spotted two feral zombies shuffling in from somewhere in the distance.

Without hesitation, they charged forward with the carts, knocked the zombies to the ground, and smashed their heads in within seconds.

Arriving at BuyDuoDuo's entrance, the broken glass door area from before was now empty, the shattered glass cleaned up.

The supermarket staff had placed a table horizontally across the opening, stacking flood-control sandbags on top and underneath, sealing off the doorless entrance.

Everyone pushed the sandbags over, shoved the table aside, and moved into the space between the two sets of doors.

The inner glass door had no floor lock; instead, a chain lock hung from the handle.

Li Jiangbing bellowed at full volume: "Anyone there—! Anyone there—! If no one comes, we're smashing the glass—!"

Hearing the commotion, Brother Dong rushed out with his employees, furious: "Why are you back again! Rice and flour are gone! Noodles are gone! Canned goods, salted eggs, fermented bean curd—all gone! Everything is cleaned out! What more do you want?"

Li Jiangbing: "We've got other things to grab. Can you talk nicely or not?"

Robbers now complaining about being spoken to rudely—was there no justice left? Brother Dong was so angry he could've twisted his own nose off.

But circumstances dictated terms. Compared to the previous two visits, this group was much smaller, but still two to three times their numbers.

And it was the people from the Young Professionals Apartments—the ones Brother Dong hated the most.

The folks from Jixiang Jiayuan had stood at the door arguing for ages without daring to smash anything.

That girl from the apartment complex, though—she'd come straight up and put an axe through the glass door without a second word.

That rundown apartment building was all strong young men. In peacetime, Brother Dong feared old folks more; now, in chaos, the old-timers had become paper tigers.

The organized, disciplined young people from that apartment complex were the ones truly to be wary of.

"I won't waste words with you. You decide for yourself." Li Jiangbing used his height to look down at Brother Dong and his crew.

Brother Dong gritted his teeth and swallowed his pride. Grumbling, he unlocked the door.

Li Jiangbing led everyone rushing in noisily.

They hadn't been the last to leave yesterday, so they hadn't seen the final state of things.

Looking around today, many shelves were bare. Even a large supermarket, without daily restocking, could easily be stripped clean by two residential communities.

Those old folks had apparently fought over things in some chaos—much of it knocked over and scattered.

Clearly, the supermarket staff saw no point in cleaning up and had just left it. Now, a single glance showed utter ruin, like a place that had just been ransacked.

Li Jiangbing led everyone straight to the household goods section. Barrel after barrel of disinfectant and bleach went onto the carts.

"Hand soap and bar soap too!"

"Don't forget the insecticide!"

"There's medical alcohol over here! Want it?"

"Yes! Useful, useful! Don't be rigid, everyone—grab whatever seems useful!"

"Ohoh!"

"Then I also need a new pot."

Brother Dong stood off to the side, arms crossed, watching coldly for a while before finally asking: "What exactly are you planning to do?"

Everyone kept working, but among them were some chatty ones who, while hauling goods, explained the garbage disposal plan in their community.

Brother Dong was silent for a moment, then asked: "What about the other communities?"

Then again: "Did you burn the bodies in your compound?"

Someone from the apartment complex answered: "Yes. Do you have bodies here? How did you handle them?"

Brother Dong's gaze wavered slightly, but he answered: "We put them in the cold storage."

Everyone paused.

"Damn! Is it the cold storage where they keep raw meat?"

"I took frozen meat the day before yesterday! Was it already in there by then?"

Brother Dong chuckled: "Put them in early Sunday morning."

That day, the employees had no idea what to do, and he just happened to come in—the only supervisor around. Back then, he'd still been thinking of "waiting" for the police to deal with things, so he'd directed the bodies to be stored in the cold room first.

A collective groan went up from everyone.

Brother Dong pulled the conversation back: "I'm asking you—what about the other communities?"

Irritated now, they rolled their eyes at him: "What do other communities have to do with us? Can we control everyone else? Look at those people from Jixiang Jiayuan—yesterday morning, we risked our lives to go over and help them fight zombies. Apart from a few of the leaders who show basic decency, did anyone else even say thank you? Damn them."

Brother Dong asked: "Have other communities burned their dead?"

Someone said: "How should we know?"

Another said: "Jixiang Jiayuan burned theirs, we helped with that. Don't know about the rest."

Brother Dong felt worried.

He now deeply regretted his single-minded drive to go to work on Sunday morning.

His family had originally been suburban farmers, but over time they'd bought an apartment in the city, while still keeping their old house out in the countryside. If only he'd had a clear head on Sunday, he could've just headed straight to the village.

His parents, wife, and kids were all over there.

Many villagers had moved into the city, leaving lots of empty courtyards. Population density would be much lower, which meant fewer zombies.

Now he was trapped between several massive residential areas, with extremely high population density. He didn't dare risk the trip back home. It was a bitter pill to swallow.

As someone who worked in a large supermarket, he had a strong sense of "scale" and "volume." Just thinking briefly about how much garbage these densely packed communities would generate each day made him see black in front of his eyes.

And the unclaimed corpses on the streets outside—already swarming with flies.

Brother Dong could clearly sense that this area—no, not just this area, but the entire city—was about to deteriorate at an alarming rate.

He felt that things would get worse and worse, yet he was powerless to change it.

At that moment, he envied the Young Professionals Apartments.

That impressive young woman had brought together several seemingly resourceful, capable people to manage the entire community.

He didn't know if their approach would work, but at least it inspired hope.

Unlike him, hiding out in a supermarket with a few colleagues, with no end in sight.

The more he thought, the more agitated he grew.

Li Jiangbing and his dozens of people swept through the nearly emptied supermarket once more.

Looking around now, the only food left was mainly snacks that wouldn't fill anyone up and had little nutritional value. High-calorie items like chocolate, which were good for emergencies, were all gone.

The emptiest shelves were the rice, flour, and cooking oil ones.

The toilet paper shelves were bare too.

The apartment people filled every cart they'd brought and even jammed odds and ends into the gaps between bottles and boxes.

No sense in leaving empty-handed.

With a clatter, they pushed their carts out.

Li Jiangbing even waved at Brother Dong: "We're off."

Brother Dong had no fight left in him.

After they left, he gathered his employees and relayed the latest plan from the apartment complex, saying: "There are capable people in that place. None of us even thought of this."

"We'll need these disinfectants too. Go check the back storeroom now and move out whatever we need."

Someone asked: "Brother Dong, why do we need to move things?"

Brother Dong's face was grim as he laid it out for everyone: "Youth Apartments, Lucky Homestead, Royal Scenery Gardens, Elegant Hills, Deqing Lane, Peaceful Homes... so far only Youth Apartments and Lucky Homestead have shown up. None of those other neighborhoods have come yet, and I'm telling you, they will eventually."

Once people come, they won't come empty-handed. Especially those who haven't shown up yet—the longer they delay, the more depleted their supplies at home become, and the more desperate they get.

If the shelves are empty, they won't just leave satisfied. They'll definitely try to storm the warehouse.

There's no law and order anymore. At least in the days before the government can mount an effective response, there's definitely no law and order.

The useful supplies need to be moved ahead of time. They all had to survive too—they had their own consumption needs.

Everyone understood the gravity of it and went off to carry out the orders with worried expressions.

Li Jiangbing and his group were heading back, loaded with supplies, when suddenly someone called out: "Li, Li, hold on a second!"

Jiang Cheng was petite and called Li Jiangbing directly by his given name, "Jiangbing," and Li Jiangbing would come running happily to her side.

Nobody else dared call him that. These past couple of days, everyone just addressed him as "Li."

Nowadays, who's the big brother and who's the little brother isn't determined by age—you can tell just by height and build.

"Li." The man who called out pointed to a shop on the outskirts of the neighborhood. "There's a hardware store over there. I think we should check it out."

Around the outside of the neighborhood was a row of small shops, including the convenience pharmacy that Jiang Cheng had led people to break into earlier. This man had just turned his head and suddenly spotted the four characters for "hardware and renovations."

For a big group of men, did they need a reason to go to a hardware store?

No.

It was like spotting a perfectly straight stick on the road—you had to bring it home. No reason needed.

As soon as he mentioned it, Li Jiangbing agreed immediately: "Let's go."

Dozens of people shuffled over in a hurry.

The hardware store had a rolling shutter door. The men pried it open with a bit of effort—it was easy.

Once they squeezed inside, everyone's eyes lit up: "Oh wow, so much good stuff!"

Back in Youth Apartments, Yang Xinyan ran into the clubhouse to find Jiang Cheng: "Miss Jiang!"

She was a bit flustered: "They refuse to work anymore!"

Her shout echoed through the swimming pool area, and everyone turned to look at her.

"Who?" Jiang Cheng asked.

Yang Xinyan ran up, her face flushed, panting: "The cleaning staff!"

"They said, since they're not getting paid, why should they work. They're just not doing it anymore."

"I tried to talk to them, but they wouldn't listen."

Jiang Cheng asked directly: "Who's the one leading this?"

Many situations need that one person to step up first before others dare to follow. Without that "first person," many people would just keep complaining and enduring.

Master Luo guessed right away: "Is it Liu Hongwang?"

Yang Xinyan nodded: "Yes! That's him!"

It was safe to assume the guy was usually a troublemaker or a slacker. Otherwise, Master Luo wouldn't have figured it out so quickly.

Sure enough, Master Luo said: "He's no good at work anyway, always getting complaints. The manager told me before that as soon as we hired someone new, he'd be fired. We hadn't hired anyone yet, and now this happens."

The people turned into zombies, and suddenly everything fell into chaos. The manager was stuck at home and couldn't come in either.

Jiang Cheng exchanged glances with Song Jingshuo and a few others.

Jiang Cheng: "Let's go take a look."

The provisional committee followed her out.

People always look out for their own interests. With a neighborhood this big, housing thousands of people, if the property management staff threw in the towel, the environment would deteriorate fast.

In the end, they couldn't just leave everything undone—it would all be pushed onto the homeowners anyway.

Once these necessary, unavoidable tasks were assigned, everyone would have no choice but to shoulder them. But you're the property management staff—serving the residents is your job. What right do you have to refuse?