Chapter 46

Text released by the government must be read word by word, every single character picked apart.

A lot of people don’t understand that.

Someone in the interim committee did, and nodded.

“Rebuilding” placed in an announcement like that definitely isn’t filler.

“The information we’ve gathered over the past few days has only come from a few forums. All we know is that people were beaten to death over in Jixiang Jiayuan.”

“The government has far more information than what we’ve seen.”

“City surveillance cameras are everywhere.”

“And the emergency hotline is back up.”

The municipal government could essentially monitor the whole city. They’d seen and knew far more.

“The staff at Mai Duoduo, mostly shelf-stockers, do heavy lifting all day. Whatever their height, they’ve got plenty of strength.”

“If that weren’t the case, they’d have walked away with more than just injuries.”

“Most likely, their hoarded food is as good as gone.”

Jiang Cheng paused.

A wave of murmurs swept through the room. Everyone had experienced that chaotic frenzy of Monday morning, fighting alongside the people from Jixiang Jiayuan to grab supplies at Mai Duoduo. They could all vividly recall that sense of losing control.

Song Jingshuo leaned against the cabinet with his arms crossed, scanning the sea of heads, then glanced at Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng let them whisper among themselves, letting the tension properly ferment.

Once it quieted down, she spoke again: “Over the past few days, the interim committee has done an excellent job—that’s plain for every homeowner to see. Of course, we’ve also had some help from the contrast with our neighbors.”

That last line drew a few laughs, a few “tch” sounds. But everyone agreed with her point.

“Until government rescue reaches our new district, until life returns to normal, the interim committee will not disband.” Jiang Cheng asked, “For now, our compound doesn’t have a food crisis. Did everyone take stock yesterday? Half a month, a month—is that enough?”

Everyone nodded in turn: “Yeah, enough.”

“No problem.”

“We can hold out.”

That Monday trip, with everyone pushing a shopping cart, had doubled their carrying capacity—it had really solved a huge problem. That’s why they could feel so secure, why they could sit here and laugh.

“Then the food topic can be skipped,” Jiang Cheng said. “The main topic I want to discuss with everyone today is—order.”

“Split into two parts: internal and external.”

“Internally, the interim committee must ensure that everyone in the compound abides by the law.”

Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan were both there. They’d been part of the interim committee from the start—the first group to head downstairs and fight the zombies. They just hadn’t stood out in the crowd until they’d stepped up on Tuesday and started leaving an impression.

The homebodies, upon hearing this, exchanged glances and saw a flicker of surprise and confusion in each other’s eyes. Was there really someone who wouldn’t obey the law?

“I’m not saying something is definitely going to happen,” Jiang Cheng said. “But I want everyone to understand: even if the police can’t come out right now, even if the government is in trouble, the law is still the foundation of everyone’s safety. Only when every person follows the law can we build an environment where everyone can live in peace.”

“So until government rescue arrives, until the national system recovers, any illegal act by anyone in this compound—the interim committee will step in without hesitation to stop it, manage it, and when necessary, punish it.”

The girl sat on the dining table and spoke at length.

Her voice wasn’t particularly loud or forceful, but every word was clear to everyone.

When she said “punish,” no one laughed. Everyone remembered how she’d fired and expelled a cleaner. Under the current circumstances, expulsion was essentially murder.

Many had been present at the time, and almost no one had objected. Because everyone stood on the same side as she did—the homeowners’ side. From that standpoint, that cleaner had been harming all their interests. And if he’d succeeded, if the rest of the staff—other cleaners, security guards, maintenance workers—had all gone on strike, the damage to the homeowners would have been even worse.

And so, everyone had supported that murder.

Now, they all understood her reasoning. They just couldn’t help secretly wondering what methods she’d use if such a situation ever arose.

...

They couldn’t imagine it.

But they supported it.

“Anyone opposed?” Jiang Cheng said. “If there are any opinions or suggestions, now’s the time to speak up. We’re meeting here today precisely to make this clear.”

She said, “We need to get our own people on the same page first.”

“Our own people”—those words made everyone in the room feel good. But no one voluntarily jumped in to give their opinion.

Song Jingshuo’s gaze swept across, and he called out: “Zhao Yi, what’s your take?”

The homebody was startled, stammered for a second, then said, “No, no objection. Whatever Jiang Cheng said, I agree.”

Jiang Cheng smiled and asked, “And Yuxuan?”

Gao Yuxuan quickly said, “Agree.”

Jiang Cheng’s gaze continued sweeping around, and everyone she looked at said, “No objection,” “Agree.”

That topic was passed.

Jiang Cheng: “Next, the external side. I think we need to strengthen the compound’s defenses. My prediction is that in the days ahead, we might get targeted.”

Everyone was sitting on the floor—some cross-legged, some hugging their knees—and when they heard that, they all unconsciously craned their necks, straightened their backs, and perked up their ears.

“Right now, there’s no resupply,” Jiang Cheng said. “Jixiang Jiayuan is still okay—they followed us on that supply run. The other neighboring compounds are probably nearing the end of their resources.”

“Did anyone check their homeowners’ forums this morning? It wasn’t just Shanshui Yayuan—Yujing Xiangyuan, Deqingli, and Lekang Jiayuan all went out on their own volition over the past couple of days.”

Someone couldn’t help but say, “Volition? They’ve run out of food. They finally decided to leave the house and try their luck.”

“They’re even worse off than Jixiang Jiayuan.”

“In the vicinity, it’s only us and Jixiang Jiayuan. The rest can’t manage.”

But Jiang Cheng had met with Brother Dong and his crew from Mai Duoduo yesterday—only people from Yujing Xiangyuan and Deqingli had made it to Mai Duoduo.

People guessed: “Must be because of the restaurant street.”

Jiang Cheng nodded. “I think so too. They probably couldn’t get past it.”

The other two compounds had to cross a strip of restaurants and nightlife to reach Mai Duoduo. That street wasn’t just restaurants—there were bars and coffee shops too.

Remember, the zombie virus broke out on a Saturday night, and it was summer.

Who knows how many people were on that street at that time of night. A decently popular restaurant would have a waitlist of dozens, even over a hundred people.

“Jesus.” Someone pictured it and involuntarily rubbed their arms, feeling the hairs stand on end.

“But even for Jixiang Jiayuan, they didn’t get nearly as many supplies from that run as we did,” Jiang Cheng said. “And their average household size is bigger than ours. Also, take Yujing Xiangyuan—if someone from there cuts through Jixiang Jiayuan, they could reach us.”

“What’s happening in our compound isn’t just visible on our forum—people on the Jixiang Jiayuan forum are talking about it too. All anyone has to do is look, and they’d see that Youth Apartment has plenty of supplies.”

"I'm worried that under the current circumstances, some people who are starving might set their sights on us and take the risk."

The atmosphere in the room suddenly turned serious.

Everyone agreed with Jiang Cheng's concern: "Could happen, it really could."

Jiang Cheng threw the question to the group: "Let's discuss it."

When it came to making decisions, everyone tried to avoid eye contact. But when it came to concrete measures at a practical level, people got eager and lively.

The room buzzed with heated discussion.

Jiang Cheng took his own cup to the kitchen to get some water. Song Jingshuo's kitchen had a water purifier with direct drinking water, which was very convenient.

The interim committee currently only had Jiang Cheng and Su Yu—everyone else was male.

Although the first group to go downstairs and kill zombies were all men, later on, brave women like Su Yu gradually joined in as well. But the women were at a disadvantage because their awareness of power was too weak. Years of social conditioning had not given them a strong sense of initiative to actively seize and wield power.

So when the interim committee was formed, they only watched from the sidelines.

In the end, only Su Yu got pulled in by Jiang Cheng because she lived in the same building as him.

With mostly men, they were very enthusiastic about getting things done, and quickly came up with many useful suggestions.

At the beginning of the year, because of theft incidents, the community's perimeter fences had been equipped with barbed wire mesh, but the east and west gates did not have it. It needed to be installed.

That stuff was priced by the meter, and however much had been installed was all there was—there was no leftover.

But it wasn't a problem for the engineering-minded men. The tech and engineering guys especially offered a lot of feasible suggestions.

The limitation was what materials were available in the property management warehouse.

Jiang Cheng asked the man who had spoken most often and most enthusiastically: "What's your name?"

"Cui Haiyang."

Cui Haiyang—Li Jiangbing knew him. He was the one who had done the main cutting on that batch of steel pipes.

The people on the interim committee, strangers who didn't know each other at first, were gradually becoming familiar, even close.

"Good. Cui Haiyang." Jiang Cheng made the call. "You're in charge of this."

"Count on it."

Then they moved on to the issue of the youth apartment building's windows that didn't have security bars—the first and second floors were relatively more dangerous, and they needed to figure out how to prevent break-ins.

Master Luo gave a very practical suggestion: "What about rat glue?"

The property management had a batch of rat glue, and because it would be used long-term, they had stockpiled quite a lot. And it came in large sheets that needed to be cut to size.

"Put it under the windows. That glue is strong—one step and both feet get stuck."

That way, an intruder couldn't stand properly and would basically end up falling flat on their face.

Others suggested making tripwire-style traps and similar small tricks.

Then the topic started to wander, went off the rails, drifted further and further, and the chatter grew even more animated.

"Alright, alright. We'll open a dedicated thread later, and everyone can write up their suggestions and the specific methods for making them." Jiang Cheng had to knock on the table to pull the conversation back.

Maintaining order for survival—both internally and externally—was the main agenda item for today's meeting. Once those two issues were discussed, they moved on to other small, miscellaneous matters.

The clubhouse had been holding garbage since Tuesday, and although Zhao Yi and his team had taken various measures, under the limited conditions they couldn't completely get rid of the smell.

In fact, this morning Song Jingshuo and Jiang Cheng had already noticed that the odor was starting to drift into the gym.

Now that everyone was stuck at home, the gym was being used frequently—not just for workouts, but also for socializing.

Song Jingshuo suggested moving the exercise equipment out of the clubhouse. In the end, they decided to distribute the machines across the ground-floor lobbies of each building.

Things like that—small, trivial details.

There was also a bigger matter. Jiang Cheng said: "The bodies on Jixiang West Street need to be dealt with. They're too close to us."

Jixiang West Street was the road sandwiched between the east gate of the youth apartment building and the west gate of Jixiang Jiayuan. Whenever they went to buy things from Duoduo, they'd exit through the east gate and take that road.

Jixiang Jiayuan was one of the earlier-built residential complexes in the new district, and the roads to the east and west of it were named after the community.

Jixiang West Street was right next to the youth apartment, and the bodies on that street were now badly decomposed.

Yesterday, when Jiang Cheng met with Brother Dong at the east gate, he saw the situation outside and felt it was necessary to clean it up.

Things like this required someone to bring them up—otherwise, most people would just see the problem, think it wasn't great, but wouldn't lift a finger to deal with it.

When humans live together in groups, someone has to step up and call the shots.