Chapter 59

Although the interim committee had said these supplies were for emergencies and the warehouse shouldn't be opened unless absolutely necessary, as long as that stock of goods was sitting there, everyone felt a deep sense of security.

The next day was Monday again—no work, no need to get up early.

Most people were still asleep when the folks from BuyMore Supermarket showed up again.

But this time, Brother Dong wasn't among them.

Because Brother Dong... he'd run off.

The Youth Apartments had a busy morning ahead. Not everything from yesterday had been moved into storage; a portion had been held back.

These days, the Youth Apartments gave volunteers a cut of the goods after every group outing. Since these outings carried real risk, everyone—including those who didn't participate—agreed it was fair compensation.

So in the morning, they were tallying accounts and divvying up supplies.

That's when the BuyMore group barged in, asking directly for Jiang Cheng. They all knew who he was by now.

Jiang Cheng called together the core members of the interim committee to meet with them.

After listening to the BuyMore folks' profanity-laced account, the committee members were speechless.

—Brother Dong had actually run off.

Not only did he run, but he'd taken supplies with him!

"He said you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket," one of them explained. "He claimed someone might break into our dorm to steal stuff, so we ought to stash some goods elsewhere."

Brother Dong's reasoning wasn't entirely wrong—a few people had already sniffed around their dorm in recent days, but they'd been driven off.

With a dozen or so of them camped out in the supermarket dorm around the clock, only an idiot wouldn't figure out they were hoarding supplies.

"So he found a car on the street and told us to stash the stuff we'd brought back from your place yesterday in the trunk. The keys were still in the ignition—the owner probably turned into a zombie and got killed by you guys."

"Then that night, he grabbed more rice and canned goods from the dorm, loaded up a shopping cart, and said he was putting those in the car too for safekeeping. And then... he never came back."

"We thought something bad had happened to him, so we went out looking—and that's when we realized he'd taken off!"

Brother Dong was a native of the suburbs. He owned a place in the city, but he also had a family home with a yard out in the countryside.

When the virus hit, his wife had taken the kids to visit the grandparents—luckily for them, not a single one of the five family members had turned. He, however, had been trapped in the city.

The rural outskirts had a much lower population density. He'd talked to his family by phone—zombies were far fewer out there, and his family not only had grain stored, but land to grow more. They even had vegetables planted in the yard.

The perfect refuge.

The only reason Brother Dong had been stuck at BuyMore Supermarket was his mode of transport: a motorcycle. He'd been lucky to make it from home to the supermarket alive, and he wasn't about to risk venturing out again.

Until yesterday, when he saw those big public buses that Jiang Cheng had commandeered outside the Youth Apartments. It suddenly hit him—he could just drive any of the abandoned cars on the street.

Who was going to stop him? Nobody was in charge anymore.

As for his coworkers... what about them? They were just people he happened to work with.

If this crisis blew over like past earthquakes or floods, fine—he could always find a new job afterward.

The moment Brother Dong realized he could "commandeer" an abandoned vehicle, he was gone.

And he'd helped himself to supplies on the way out.

The BuyMore people were livid, cursing up a storm!

Jiang Cheng asked, "So what exactly do you want from us?"

The group that had been hurling curses suddenly went quiet. They shut their mouths, looking at each other, then at him.

Jiang Cheng wasn’t in any hurry either. They’d gone out of their way to come here, so they had to want something, and whoever wants something is the one who’s anxious.

In the end, a dozen-odd people pushed one of their number forward—a stocky, sturdy man.

The man scratched his face and spoke on behalf of the whole group: “We... want to throw in with you folks.”

The moment those words left his mouth, several core members of the interim committee let out a puzzled “Huh?”

The man explained: “You guys lost quite a few people too, so you must have a lot of empty houses. Our place is actually pretty unsafe—there are still zombies wandering on the upper floors, and the ones outside sometimes sneak in. We can’t sleep easy. We were thinking, could we maybe move into your compound as well, and look out for each other?”

Jiang Cheng said: “We can offer shelter, a sealed-off safe community, and the benefits of group coordination. What can you offer?”

The dozen-some Maiduoduo employees exchanged glances.

An older woman cut in, sounding anxious: “We’re all capable of hard work. We can work—we can do anything!”

There were thirteen of them in total, including five women.

But male or female, they all genuinely looked like people who could work hard. People who do physical labor for a living have a look about them that conveys toughness and endurance.

Jiang Cheng turned and exchanged glances with a few of the others—she didn’t make every decision unilaterally. Quite the opposite: on many practical details, she was very willing to listen to other people’s opinions and suggestions, and she actively sought them out.

The core seven of the interim committee—Jiang Cheng, six building heads, and even Nie Kuizhang, who’d made mistakes before—had developed a working rhythm over the past week.

Her gaze met theirs briefly, and they reached a consensus.

“What kind of work did you all do?” she asked.

Mostly they were stock clerks and cleaners. The man in the lead was a maintenance worker. When asked what he could fix, he said: “Everything. Pipes, wiring, shelves... wherever something breaks, that’s my job. A supermarket that big has me running around all day.”

So he was a jack-of-all-trades.

Jiang Cheng had already formed an idea in her mind.

“You’re not property owners, so we can’t give you the same treatment as the owners,” she said. “But the interim committee can hire you as property staff.”

“We can provide you with housing, but you’ll have to follow the interim committee’s arrangements like the other property staff and provide services to the owners.”

A shortage of property staff was a major problem in the compound right now.

Things like fixing electrical circuits were relatively easy—volunteers could be found. That was vocational-school or trade-school level work, and the compound was full of engineering-minded guys; it was like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

But no one wanted to clean other people’s toilets or drains, or handle the compound’s garbage collection.

When the property staff couldn’t keep up, complaints piled up. When no volunteers stepped forward, the work had to be assigned by rotation. Those who got stuck with it weren’t happy either.

But if they didn’t do it that way, Master Luo would be worked to death.

The thirteen Maiduoduo people were actually just what they needed.

“Fine, fine, fine—we can do it!” The Maiduoduo folks nodded immediately.

People used to working aren’t afraid of work.

But people who can endure hardship and stay at the very bottom for a long time are often not the sharpest tools in the shed. Anyone with a bit more brains, like Brother Dong, would have worked his way up to a junior supervisor position by now.

During this period, everything they did and how they did it had been dictated by Brother Dong.

Brother Dong had abandoned them and run off, leaving them without a leader.

Fortunately, there were no zombies on the supermarket floor, but there were still some on the upper floors of the building. However, with so few people, starting from Brother Dong, no one wanted to take risks—they were all very protective of their own lives. So they had held the supermarket and the dormitory as their base, but never dealt with the upper floors of the building.

Moreover, this sort of building had too many entrances and exits. Occasionally, a zombie would wander in by mistake, which made everyone feel uneasy.

Yesterday, everyone discovered that Brother Dong had fled. They discussed it half the night and finally came up with a plan: “Why don’t we go to the Youth Apartment?”

The Youth Apartment was the safest and most reliable place in the area.

If they could stay inside that gated community, they'd be safe too.

Jiang Cheng nodded: “You have to bring your own food supplies. Old Dong couldn’t possibly have moved that much stuff by himself, right? I’m requiring each of you to bring at least five bags of rice. Anyone bringing less won’t be accepted.”

One bag of rice weighs 5 kg. People doing physical labor tend to eat more than others—let’s say about 450 grams per day. Five bags of rice would barely last them less than two months.

Food was now an extremely sensitive resource. People were spilling blood over it on the Fifth Ring Road.

Even if the Youth Apartment needed laborers, it couldn't hand out food for free.

Letting them into the Youth Apartment’s safe zone itself was the payment for their labor.

All the people from BuyDuoDuo stayed silent, all looking at the man they had chosen as their representative.

This man didn't speak either. He looked up at the sky with his eyes, used his right hand to count the fingers on his left hand, and his lips were moving slightly.

Jiang Cheng knew: he was calculating the amount of their supplies.

Sure enough, a few seconds later, he let out a sigh of relief and said, “Alright, that works. It’s enough.”

Jiang Cheng said: “Whatever else you've hidden, just bring it all over now that you're all here.”

The man thought for a moment, then nodded: “True enough.”

But he did ask: “Could you send a few people to help us? We have quite a lot of stuff.”

Jiang Cheng smiled. In the current situation, they weren't afraid of you having too many hidden supplies—what they feared was people with nothing to eat and dying of hunger.

Handling outside tasks was always Li Jiangbing’s job. He called over a bunch of people who had nothing better to do and were about to grow mold, and they all pushed shopping carts and went along with a clatter.

Jiang Cheng found Master Luo and told him: “I got you thirteen new workers.”

After hearing the whole story, Master Luo sighed: “This Brother Dong, he’s not an honest man.”

Master Luo was very glad to have more hands. He knew all the BuyDuoDuo folks—one look told him they were all capable of hard work. With thirteen more laborers, the pressure on his side had eased quite a bit.

Master Luo asked: “Are we going to let them stay in our dormitory? We don't have that many beds left—only five are free.”

Jiang Cheng said: “No need. There are a lot of empty units in the complex. Let's just requisition them.”

So many owners had died, and most of them had lived alone, so naturally their apartments were vacant now—like the unit next door to hers on floor 0308, the one that belonged to Little White's Dad.

Which rooms in which buildings were empty had already been compiled during group building sweep a week ago the Sunday before last.

Master Luo hesitated as if he wanted to say something.

Jiang Cheng, without needing him to explain, already knew and brought it up proactively: “While we're at it, let's also find better accommodations for our current maintenance staff. No matter when this zombie business ends, at least for now we should let everyone live more comfortably. No more cramming in the dorms.”

Master Luo's wife cooked for the property management staff. She shared a room with Yang Xinyan and two female cleaners, while the other male staff members slept together in a group dormitory with bunk beds.

The couple was separated.

Master Luo cheered up: "Great, let's stay in a nice place for a change."

Jiang Cheng arranged things directly: "You two can stay next door to me, so it's convenient to get in touch if anything comes up. Jiangbing will also be on the same floor as me."

Being able to stay close to two key members of the interim committee at once, Master Luo was more than happy: "Sure!"

Jiang Cheng said, "We'll just need to clean it up a bit."

Master Luo replied, "What's there to worry about."

Jiang Cheng called Li Jiangbing: "I talked with Master Luo. We're moving the property staff into the empty apartments too, to improve everyone's living conditions. Grab some bedding and bring it back for everyone."

Li Jiangbing replied on the other end: "What a coincidence, we're already grabbing some."

As the saying goes, a thief never comes back empty-handed. Since it wasn't safe to go alone outside the safe zone, anyone who made the trip had to go in a group.

Since they were already there, why go back empty?

So when Li Jiangbing called for people, a whole crowd came flooding in. Everyone figured they'd grab some extra stuff while they were at it.

Since the Maiduoduo people had already pledged to join the youth apartment, they stopped hiding things and brought out everything they'd stashed.

Rice, flour, canned meat... they really had hidden a lot of stuff.

Good thing Li Jiangbing had brought plenty of people and vehicles.

The remaining supplies in the supermarket were no longer survival necessities—like bedding, woks, and microwaves—but they were still daily necessities.

Some people needed them, and some just wanted to take advantage, but either way, they grabbed everything they could carry, hauled everything they could haul.

People even thought the shopping carts weren't big enough, so they pulled out the supermarket's flatbed carts too, and even those weren't enough.

The man who could speak up for his colleagues was surnamed Guo, named Guo Jun, an all-around repairman who claimed he could fix anything.

Guo Jun couldn't help but twitch at the corners of his mouth at the sight of this locust-swarm mentality.

But from now on, they were part of the youth apartment too, and the more they took, the better it would be for all of them.

Guo Jun planted his hands on his hips: "Forget the flatbed carts. If you pile too much on those, you won't be able to pull them at all, and it's a long way back."

Li Jiangbing asked, "Then what do we do?"

Everyone had a nagging feeling that the current situation might last who knows how long, and they all wanted to stockpile as much as possible.

Guo Jun said, "Wait here. I'll bring out the forklift."