Chapter 50

People from the buildings near that spot went back home and heard some noises outside.

Some couldn't help but shiver.

A child, curious, tried to climb up to the window to look, but was yanked back by an adult: "Go to sleep!"

The noises stopped quickly.

Many didn't sleep. After a long while, a fire appeared in the central open area of the complex.

Someone glanced outside, then drew the curtains and let out a faint sigh.

Little Huang's mother waited a long time at home before he finally came back.

When Little Huang got home, his face was expressionless — he didn't even ask, "You're still up?"

His mother spoke first and asked, "How was it handled?"

Little Huang was silent for a moment, then answered, "Treated as zombies."

It was what she had sensed would happen. She couldn't help but take a deep breath.

"Uncle Zhou assigned me some work," Little Huang said mechanically, went back to his room, and sat in front of the computer.

He posted a thread on the Jixiang Jiayuan owners' forum, using Zhou Wang's tone to inform other residents: 【During these extraordinary times, discussions of certain matters in this complex on the forum are prohibited.】

What things were prohibited from being discussed, most residents had a good idea.

Jixiang Jiayuan didn't want people outside to know what had happened. Precisely because they didn't want it known, they had disposed of the ones taken alive.

Little Huang also posted as the moderator, telling everyone: 【I can trace people through IP addresses.】

Little Huang loved playing with computers. Old Huang had always supported him, buying him many computer books and sending him to training courses.

That was one reason Zhou Wang had Little Huang manage the forum.

Another reason: managing a child who had lost his father was far easier than managing an adult.

Little Huang silently finished the work Zhou Wang had assigned, stood up, and saw his mother standing at the bedroom door watching him.

Little Huang asked softly, "Mom, where are Dad's cigarettes?"

Little Huang had always been a well-behaved, excellent student. He had never touched cigarettes or alcohol.

His mother said nothing. She walked over to the tea table, bent down, opened the drawer, took out Old Huang's unfinished pack of cigarettes and a lighter, and handed them to her son.

Little Huang sat on the sofa, pressing the lighter to light a cigarette. His hands were trembling, so the flame trembled along with them.

He had no idea how to smoke. On the first puff, he choked.

His mother said gently, "Breathe in slowly, don't rush to exhale." "Your dad said, 'Breathe it into your lungs.'"

"He said it really relieves stress."

But in the end, Little Huang never learned to smoke. He had always been a good kid and had always urged his father to quit.

Watching him choke again, coughing until he couldn't catch his breath, his mother sighed faintly, lifted her hand, and gently stroked the top of his head.

Little Huang's cigarette fell to the floor.

Someone had been begging for mercy the whole time, saying over and over, "The kids at home are crying from hunger, I really had no choice."

He said his child was only five years old.

Under his mother's palm, Little Huang, suppressing his voice as hard as he could, sobbed and cried...

What happened at Jixiang Jiayuan, Jiang Cheng didn't know about.

The youth apartment complex, for now, was still fully under control. The young people there could still eat their fill — though their meals were simple, mostly staples with canned goods, pickled vegetables, salted duck eggs, or chili sauce — but they were full. Compared with what they learned about other areas online, everyone was already quite satisfied.

The young people gathered together, running, working out, playing cards, playing ball in the safe green zone, finding plenty of things to keep themselves occupied.

It effectively diffused their anxiety and aggression.

They waited for the government's rescue and supplies.

Compared with the things she could control, Jiang Cheng was more focused on what she couldn't — Mo Li.

Mo Li had fully recovered. His eyes were a deep, glossy green, with not a trace of listlessness.

Mo Li himself thought so too.

Every day, Jiang Cheng tried to communicate with Mo Li through mental telepathy, hoping to sharpen the clarity of the communication through daily practice.

Unfortunately, it didn't work.

After observation and reflection, Jiang Cheng concluded that the problem wasn't the method of telepathic communication itself, but Mo Li.

In other words, no matter what kind of incredible mutation had occurred, Mo Li was, in the end, still a cat.

His intelligence was roughly comparable to that of a human toddler. Thinking about it that way made sense — communicating with him was like communicating with a child whose thinking and language hadn't fully developed; of course it was hard to make things clear and precise.

Most messages were short and direct.

Mo Li was incapable of expressing complex thoughts or emotions.

Jiang Cheng felt a bit disappointed.

She wasn't sure what she had expected, exactly, but she still felt disappointed.

"If only you were a bit smarter," she murmured, rubbing Mo Li's head.

Even without deliberately focusing her mind to use telepathy, a faint current still carried vague meanings into Mo Li's brain.

Mo Li looked at Jiang Cheng with some confusion, then rubbed his head against her palm.

She was unhappy.

In Mo Li's understanding, showing her his belly and rubbing his head against her were ways to make her happy, so he did that.

The thought behind his action was vaguely received by Jiang Cheng.

She laughed softly, caught off guard.

"Alright, alright, thank you."

She held him in her arms.

"Time to sleep. Good night."

The residents of the youth apartment complex spent that night the same as the previous few — some up late playing games, some worrying about distant family, some sleeping soundly because of the temporary safety around them.

No one knew what had happened next door at Jixiang Jiayuan.

But the next day, Saturday, Su Yu came knocking on Jiang Cheng's door with another girl. At that time, Jiang Cheng had just taken a shower.

Because the swimming pool in the clubhouse was storing garbage and smelled awful, the fitness equipment had, as agreed, been moved out and placed in the lobbies of various buildings.

Each building got one treadmill, with one extra left over. The other equipment was assigned randomly. That way, people who wanted to work out could basically use the equipment in their own building's lobby. If their building didn't have a particular piece, they could visit other buildings to use it.

Jiang Cheng had just come back from a workout, sweaty and freshly showered, when she heard Su Yu knocking.

She opened the door and saw that Su Yu had brought along another girl — the one who had a dog she often walked. Jiang Cheng remembered her. Her name was He Tian.

"He Tian got molested," Su Yu said, her expression grave.

This had happened on Friday night.

He Tian's stomach wasn't feeling well, so following the list on the forum, she contacted a person in her building to ask for some stomach medicine.

"He told me on the phone to come to his place to get it," He Tian said. "When I got there, he said he had to look for it and asked me to come inside. I was pretty stupid — I thought since he was a responsible volunteer, he must be decent, so I actually went in."

The people who were now serving as responsible leaders or core members of the interim committee were mostly the ones with some sense of duty, some capability, and some charisma.

During these past days, everyone had fought zombies together, rushed to grab supplies, participated together in all sorts of complex-organized activities — everyone had shown their good side, their brave side, their willingness to follow organizational discipline.

It had given people a beautiful illusion.

But when a young girl is alone with one of those men in a confined space that isn't very large, all those feelings of collectivity, solidarity, the courage, passion, and hot-bloodedness unique to youth simply dissipate like smoke.

In that house, at that moment, those two people were just a man and a woman, nothing more.

"Disgusting!" He Tian still felt like she wanted to vomit just thinking about it.

Disgusting!

That disgust wasn't only from the physical contact, the groping of her body. It was also a kind of disillusionment on a spiritual level.

All the beauty that had been keeping people's spirits up over these past few days had been shattered.

"Fucking disgusting!"

Even a sunny, cheerful girl couldn't help but curse, unconsciously rubbing her arm with her hand.

Whether it was goosebumps from disgust or because that place had been touched, she couldn't say.

Su Yu had already heard her tell the story once before, but listening a second time, she could still strongly empathize with her revulsion.

But she turned her gaze and saw Jiang Cheng listening intently, very serious, very patient.

But it was only listening. Su Yu couldn't detect a trace of empathy in her eyes or her expression.

Su Yu was slightly stunned.

"Alright. I understand the situation," Jiang Cheng said. "Now, did you get the medicine?"

Su Yu: "I gave it to her last night."

Jiang Cheng asked He Tian, "Are you feeling better now?"

He Tian nodded: "I'm fine now."

The incident happened last night. He Tian had slapped that man in the face, angrily rebuked him, and run off without getting the medicine.

Back at her own place, she posted about it in the female residents' group chat.

Everyone was furious when they heard about it. Girls empathize most easily with these kinds of things—if it happens to one girl, it means it could happen to all of them.

Su Yu immediately brought her the medicine.

The two of them discussed it with the other girls in the group for a while and concluded that they couldn't just leave it alone; they needed to go to Jiang Cheng.

Why Jiang Cheng? Of course, because Jiang Cheng was the universally recognized de facto leader of the provisional committee.

But also because, since last night, all the male members of the provisional committee had suddenly become untrustworthy to the girls.

The man He Tian had gone to see was even a building captain. Just like Li Jiangbing and Song Jingshuo.

At a time like this, everyone felt so relieved that the provisional committee still had Jiang Cheng and Su Yu.

"You two go back for now," Jiang Cheng said. "I'll handle this."

Su Yu and He Tian both nodded and left room 0306.

They went upstairs to Su Yu's place. They had been nothing more than neighbors in the same complex who didn't know each other before, but after this week, they had become very close friends.

"What's wrong with you?" He Tian asked.

She felt like Su Yu seemed a bit off.

Then Su Yu said, "Don't you think Jiang Cheng... seems a bit off?"

He Tian: "Huh?"

Su Yu's face flushed hot, and she quickly waved her hands: "I'm just talking nonsense. I've been overthinking lately."

Really, how could she say something like that out loud.

But Su Yu genuinely felt like Jiang Cheng had changed.

First impressions matter a lot. The "first impression" Jiang Cheng left on Su Yu wasn't actually when she stood in the middle of the crowd convincing everyone to do something—it was the look she gave Su Yu last Sunday night when they were clearing out zombies from the building. A young man had been injured and, refusing to accept his fate, was keeping everyone at bay by saying "Whoever comes near, I'll bite."

At that moment, Su Yu was actually extremely nervous and scared. Because everyone was on the opposite side, and she was the only one behind that man.

But that look from Jiang Cheng carried encouragement and trust, which gave her the courage to surge forward.

Then Jiang Cheng privately hinted to her to be careful about the girls being marginalized and suggested that the girls participate as much as possible in the things organized by the provisional committee.

That night, Jiang Cheng established an image in Su Yu's heart.

Everyone in the whole complex knew that Li Jiangbing, the big guy from Building 2, was Jiang Cheng's loyal follower, always by her side like a shadow. If Jiang Cheng's instructions were carried out effectively, Li Jiangbing definitely deserved credit for it.

Privately, some people joked that Li Jiangbing had a crush on Jiang Cheng.

Su Yu knew that wasn't it. She didn't know what had happened between Li Jiangbing and Jiang Cheng, but something must have happened.

She could especially understand Li Jiangbing.

But in the last few days, she had a vague feeling that this Jiang Cheng seemed to have undergone a subtle change or deviation from the Jiang Cheng in her mind.

Was her initial impression just wrong?

Su Yu didn't know that Jiang Cheng had already broken free from being "Jiang Cheng."

A girl's keen sixth sense allowed her to feel it, even if she couldn't understand it, leaving her mired in confusion.