Chapter 56

When a group of people band together, they start to feel a sense of power, thinking themselves invincible.

But when the nation flexes its might—when armored vehicles roll in, caked in blood and dragging mangled limbs, when the supply convoys follow in orderly, silent, solemn formation—everyone present can't help but feel utterly insignificant.

The fronts of the armored vehicles were coated in dark brown—zombies do have blood in their bodies, but it's not bright red; it's a very deep, very dark brown.

There were severed limbs caught in the tracks. One arm was wedged in the tread gap, rotating with the track, slapping the ground with every revolution. Slap. Slap. Slap.

Even if the Fifth Ring Road had fewer zombies, that didn't mean there were none. The Fifth Ring Road stretched 110 kilometers in total, and to get from the south of the city to the north, one had to pass through the southern, eastern, and western sections before reaching the northern arc. It was impossible to imagine how many zombies that lead convoy had crushed along the way.

The vehicles didn't stop. Ignoring the crowd gathered at Wanzhuang Bridge, they pressed forward with grim determination.

A few people grew frantic, jumping up to chase after them, but were held back by those nearby, who scolded them: "Didn't you read the government notice yesterday? Echelon advancement."

Echelon advancement meant the lead vehicles had to go to the farthest destination.

The supply convoys had entered the Fifth Ring Road from the south, moving in both eastbound and westbound lanes, and would converge at a point on the northern Fifth Ring Road. That point was the true terminus of this supply run.

Wanzhuang Bridge was still some distance from that point.

The destination of this lead truck convoy was not Wanzhuang Bridge.

Another half hour passed, and two more convoys rolled through in the meantime. Many people were growing anxious: "When is it our turn?!"

Someone even suggested a bad idea: "Let's set up roadblocks and stop the vehicles. They're giving supplies to the people anyway—what does it matter who gets it? We're the people too!"

To everyone's surprise, some actually voiced agreement.

But when it came to who would drive their own car into the middle of the road as a barricade, no one volunteered.

In the end, they dragged some traffic barriers (water-filled barricades) into the middle of the road.

Peng Ze, perched on top of a vehicle, saw what was happening. "Some people are trying to block the convoy!"

He said, "According to the notice, the next two convoys aren't for Wanzhuang Bridge. It's the one after that."

He stayed on the roof, craning his neck, and asked, "What do we do?"

Peng Ze was a somewhat naive, hot-blooded young man. He didn't have many ideas of his own, but he had complete faith in Jiang Cheng. Whenever Jiang Cheng spoke, he followed without hesitation.

He thought blocking the road was a bit immoral, but if it worked, they could get their supplies sooner. He couldn't exactly blame those people either—many of them were probably starving and desperate.

Because he could understand them, he found himself conflicted.

Jiang Cheng said, "All we need to do is get our supplies. Nothing else matters."

No need to worry about what others did, and no need to worry about whether this batch of vehicles was meant for them.

Peng Ze let out an "Mm!" and stopped agonizing over it.

He was actually curious, though—could a few flimsy traffic barriers really stop an armored convoy? And if they did manage to stop them, what then?

After another ten-plus minutes, another convoy arrived.

Every convoy was led by armored vehicles up front. But this time, the armor looked much cleaner—less zombie blood, and no severed limbs visibly hanging off the tracks.

The convoy drove closer.

Everyone's mindset was more or less the same: blocking the convoy was wrong, sure, but in times like these, "right" and "wrong" didn't matter as much. If the convoy could be stopped, they'd rush in and grab supplies.

No harm in trying.

With that mindset, all eyes were fixed on the lead armored vehicles.

Unfortunately, the armored vehicles didn't slow down at all. In fact, they sped up and plowed straight through the traffic barriers, sending them flying.

One barrier was knocked over and crushed under the tracks—probably exactly how the zombies got flattened. The crowd heard the sickening crunch of breaking plastic and debris scattering, and those standing too close scrambled behind cars in panic.

The convoy still didn't stop. Their destination wasn't Wanzhuang Bridge. They rumbled onward, engines roaring.

Li Jiangbing happened to turn his head, about to make a joke about those fools, when he caught sight of Jiang Cheng watching the convoy disappear into the distance, a faint smile curling at the corners of her mouth.

Li Jiangbing turned to look—the vehicles were already gone.

He asked, "What are you staring at?"

Jiang Cheng pulled her gaze back and let out a soft sigh. "Beautiful."

Li Jiangbing was confused. "Huh?"

Jiang Cheng's eyes gleamed with appreciation. "The armored vehicles."

Li Jiangbing: "Oh, you're a military buff?"

Jiang Cheng: "Not really. I just... like them. Maybe because of the times we're in."

The decisiveness and ruthlessness of the tracks rolling over everything in their path. The silent, solemn march of the entire convoy.

[An iron tide.]

Those were the four words that came to Jiang Cheng's mind.

A bit of a liking. A strong liking. An overwhelming liking.

Li Jiangbing mimed gripping a steering wheel. "Who doesn't love that? Sitting inside, rolling straight over everything—vroom, vroom, badass. Who's afraid of zombies then?"

But what Jiang Cheng felt went beyond mere "liking."

[I want to possess them.]

She didn't know where that thought came from. Something like that wasn't something an individual could theoretically own.

But that "theoretically" belonged to the "Jiang Cheng" who existed before.

Not the Jiang Cheng of now.

The convoy for the Wanzhuang Bridge distribution point had finally arrived!

As Jiang Cheng had said, the supplies were meant for "the people." So although the four buses from the Youth Apartments were parked a bit far from the crowd, the moment they saw the convoy, they waved their arms frantically and shouted.

Sure enough, the lead armored vehicle slowed down, and the trucks behind it slowed too.

The first truck passed by. The second truck passed by... Then the last truck, before it even reached the four buses, raised its cargo bed, and cardboard boxes and sacks tumbled out, thudding onto the road.

There were a lot of people waiting for supplies. Even though the four buses from the Youth Apartments had positioned themselves at the farthest possible spot, there were still other vehicles and people crowded close to them.

The moment the boxes and sacks hit the asphalt, people surged forward.

But the Youth Apartments group had planned this out in advance—they had even rehearsed during the wait. Everyone knew exactly what to do.

A dozen or so physically imposing men—whether broad, burly, or tall, as long as they looked intimidating—formed a human wall in a single line, blocking the surging crowd.

Loud shouts rang out: "Back off!"

"Go get yours over there!"

"This side is ours!"

Li Jiangbing, a formidable giant of a man, and Nie Kuizhang, a big, heavyset man, were both in the human wall.

Naturally, some people wanted to angrily demand, "Why?!"

But facing a wall of toughs, each holding a steel pipe of identical size, thickness, and length—

And wearing cloth bands of the same color tied around their arms or foreheads—

Such unity made the scattered, disorganized crowd lose their nerve. That "Why?!" got swallowed back, and they turned to chase after the trucks instead!

The trucks in the same convoy also unloaded in echelon fashion. The rear trucks unloaded first, the front trucks unloaded later. The supplies were dropped in the slow lane, and once a truck finished unloading, it merged into the fast lane to keep moving.

The human wall from the Youth Apartments held back anyone who tried to rush in for the goods.

The rest of the crew shifted into full gear, hauling as fast as they could.

They had brought four shopping carts from the Buy More supermarket, one for each bus. Beyond that, the younger men carried boxes and sacks in their arms and over their shoulders, running trip after trip, loading everything onto the buses.

There were too many people, and it was complete chaos.

Those who had been waiting for a long time swarmed forward to grab things the moment the unloading trucks merged into the fast lane.

By the time the convoy disappeared, many people had already broken into fights.

Not all who came were men, nor were they all young. All kinds of curses, shrieks, and even sobs rang out. The scene was utter pandemonium.

On the other side of the human wall of people tied with purple cloth strips, however, everything was orderly.

But that group had taken way too much of the supplies!

When the goods on the slow lane vanished at an alarming rate while the people behind the purple-cloth wall were still methodically hauling things away, those who had failed to grab anything finally lost their fear and tried to break through the human wall.

“You guys still have so much!”

“This was distributed by the government! Why should it all go to you!”

It was actually pitiful—their frustration was understandable.

So Li Jiangbing merely shouted as he shoved people back with hands as big as bear paws: “Step back! Step back! Didn’t you hear me! Keep pushing and I’ll get rough—”

But before he could finish, Nie Kuizhang had already kicked someone!

Su Yu had just picked up a cardboard box and turned her head just in time to see it—

Nie Kuizhang was tall and fat, a man of considerable bulk, and when he kicked out, that person flew backward and crashed several meters away, landing with a heavy thud.

Those who had been lurking, quietly planning to take advantage of the confusion to break through the human wall, all backed off. They realized these people with the purple cloth strips were not joking—they were a genuine organized group, seizing and occupying supplies.

A inexplicable despondency settled over the crowd. No one had time to figure out why they felt that way, but the feeling flooded over them nonetheless.

It was a sense of powerlessness.

In truth, Young Apartment wasn’t the only community that was organized.

But the other organized communities didn’t tie colored cloth strips around their arms and foreheads like Young Apartment did, making members instantly recognizable and preventing internal conflict.

Those other organized groups descended into chaos while grabbing supplies. After all, not every neighbor knew each other, and in the panic, who could tell whether someone was from your own community or a different one? Whoever came to grab got shoved around, and it escalated into fists, hair-pulling, and drawing weapons.

There was a lot of bloodshed.

Now, facing Young Apartment—organized, disciplined, everyone calm and unflustered—many people felt powerless.

How could an individual, or even a whole family, stand up against this many organized and able-bodied men and women?

How could anyone else get any supplies?

Su Yu held the box and watched for a few seconds.

Jiang Cheng stood right behind the human wall. Although the row of people in front were all tall and sturdy, that didn’t stop her from seeing everything.

She had positioned herself there precisely for crowd control, so she could respond quickly if anything happened.

But when Nie Kuizhang knocked the man down, Jiang Cheng didn’t react at all. She simply kept standing there.

Su Yu could only see her back, not her expression. But the fact that she didn’t move meant she believed Nie Kuizhang’s actions didn’t need to be stopped or corrected.

She thought it was the right call.

Su Yu paused only for those few seconds before turning back and carrying the box to the vehicle.

The supplies on the stretch of road that Young Apartment had cordoned off were massive. But this trip wasn’t calculated per person—it was a collective undertaking. The scavenging crew was grabbing supplies for the entire building’s residents.

In the minds of Young Apartment’s people, once things were divided equally after bringing them back, each person would actually get very little.

But in the eyes of outsiders, this group in purple cloth strips driving public buses had taken far too much.

Despicable.

One by one, private cars began to leave, and the roadside that had been as crowded as a vegetable market gradually fell into quiet.

The four large public buses also started to turn around.

By now, there were no traffic rules whatsoever. Though the traffic lights still cycled automatically, nobody obeyed them anymore. The buses drove straight up onto the sidewalks to make their turns, going against traffic.

On the road, their fleet merged once again with the one from Lucky Blessing Estates.

Li Jiangbing poked his head out the window: “Old Zhou! Old Zhou!”

Zhou Wang rolled down his car window, his head covered in blood.

Li Jiangbing: “How’d you get hurt?”

Zhou Wang said helplessly: “Too many people, too chaotic.”

Li Jiangbing grinned, then asked: “How’s the haul?”

Zhou Wang looked up at the towering bus. Through the windows, he could see stacks of cardboard boxes piled to the brim, with sacks pressed on top.

Envy rose in Zhou Wang’s heart. He replied: “Better than nothing, at least.”

Su Yu sat in the bus on the same side, up close, watching Li Jiangbing talk with Zhou Wang below in his small car.

She glanced ahead. Nie Kuizhang, because of his size, occupied a double seat all to himself—no one squeezed in next to him.

And in the row right in front of where Su Yu sat—barely an arm’s length away—sat Jiang Cheng and Song Jingshuo.

A strange thought suddenly crossed Su Yu’s mind.

She knew, of course, that Li Jiangbing was someone Jiang Cheng trusted deeply. Everyone in private conversations now said that among the core members of the interim committee, Jiang Cheng, Li Jiangbing, and Song Jingshuo formed an iron triangle.

People generally believed that Li Jiangbing and Jiang Cheng were like brothers, while Song Jingshuo and Jiang Cheng had probably already become a couple.

Nie Kuizhang was also a core member of the interim committee and a building manager, but he didn’t share that same close and special connection with Jiang Cheng.

Su Yu knew all of this.

But that strange thought still surfaced in her mind: Li Jiangbing and Nie Kuizhang were both, in terms of appearance, very intimidating people. Yet their personalities and conduct were completely different. If you set aside emotions and private relationships, set aside existing factions, and only considered the current environment and personal capability alone—who would Jiang Cheng value more?

Would it really be Li Jiangbing?