Chapter 66
Jiang Cheng looked at the people before her.
They stood along the residential road just inside the east gate, with rows of trees and greenery on either side. Sunlight filtered through the leaves in tiny fragments, casting dappled shadows across their faces.
Some were handsome, some plain; some were heavyset, others thin. They were all ordinary people.
If you looked closely, each had their own personality, along with their own flaws and shortcomings.
But when the subject was elevated to this level, they suddenly seemed to become one and the same—as different people, yet believing in or placing their trust in the same thing.
Jiang Cheng would not use the word “faith” here, because she did not think this had reached the level of faith.
In fact, when she spoke with the six building captains, the memories and perceptions of “Jiang Cheng” could no longer remain completely separate from Jiang Cheng’s individual consciousness. They had already been triggered and activated.
The patriotic education. The news reports. The touching deeds. The people who had been honored.
The sacrifices and devotion.
Yet Jiang Cheng’s brain seemed to have split in two. One “her” was just like these people, while the other felt no reverence whatsoever toward words like “the nation.” Faith was out of the question. She could even clearly sense feelings of “distrust,” “wariness,” and “caution.”
Jiang Cheng had never been curious about her past.
She valued the present and the future—since I don’t know who I was before, I’ll simply live well in the here and now.
But now, for the first time, she felt curious about what kind of world she had come from and what sort of person she had been.
She could dig through the cracks in her mind and find not a single useful piece of information. But Jiang Cheng knew that her original world had to be different from this one.
Every world had nations, but the nation in her original world must never have done anything worthy of her respect or trust.
It was not the same as the “nation” here.
Beneath the sunlight falling through the gaps in the treetops, Jiang Cheng stood alone, facing everyone else.
A summer breeze stirred the air. Song Jingshuo sensed that something was wrong with Jiang Cheng’s expression. Puzzled, he called out to her, “Jiang Cheng?”
In an instant, his voice pulled Jiang Cheng back from her thoughts.
She could not be satisfied with huddling in a single residential complex, eating nothing but rice and pickles every day while waiting for rescue that might arrive at some unknown time.
This dissatisfaction flowed outward from her genes. It could not be stopped or suppressed.
This was not “Jiang Cheng.”
This was Jiang Cheng herself.
What Jiang Cheng’s eyes saw and what her mind considered had never been limited to one or two residential compounds, or one or two streets.
The map in her mind had always been fully open. It encompassed S City—and the entire country.
It was only that her personal abilities and the conditions she could currently make use of were limited to a single community.
This was not because Jiang Cheng was some selfless saint who wanted to save everyone.
It was because Jiang Cheng simply refused to accept ever being helpless or powerless in the face of any situation.
She could not accept being unable to control events, allowing events to control her instead.
This was Jiang Cheng.
This was the “self” that had become increasingly clear and fully formed as Jiang Cheng broke free from “Jiang Cheng.”
No matter what identity she had possessed in another world, she had become this kind of person.
It was just that, until a moment ago, she had not found any new power she could borrow to bring her ideas to life. And now, the few people standing before her had opened up a new line of thought.
Or rather, this line of thought happened to be a blind spot in her understanding—
The nation.
Jiang Cheng smiled at the people before her.
“Then let’s give it a try,” she said.
“...What?” Everyone failed to follow her train of thought.
In the group chat, people were complaining about the food.
They had been eating rice with canned food, salted duck eggs, or pickles for a week and a half. They were sick of it.
Su Yu typed: [I’m getting sick of it too, but when I think about it, at least we’re able to eat our fill every meal.]
The group responded with a chorus of lamentations:
[That’s true.]
[I don’t want to look at the other forums anymore. They’re terrifying.]
[Sigh...]
[I’m being spoiled. I’ll heat up another salted duck egg. No—actually, I need to ration my duck eggs too.]
[Same here. I regret eating so much canned meat last week. I can’t live without meat. If the canned meat runs out before the zombie problem is solved, I’ll cry myself to death. I should have rationed it and spread it out more evenly.]
[The broadcast is on.]
Su Yu tilted her head and listened. Sure enough, the broadcast had begun.
She hurriedly stood up and shuffled over in her slippers to open the door. That way, she could hear more clearly.
In the hallway, the neighbors opened their doors and came out one after another.
After a brief test of the audio, everyone heard the familiar voice of Jiang Cheng.
[I have some things to tell everyone—things you may not want to hear and may not want to know. But we can’t live in a vacuum. What’s happening outside is connected to our own safety.]
[If you don’t want to listen, you still have to listen.]
Jiang Cheng’s voice came through the broadcast, steady and unhurried, as she laid out the situation outside in detail.
Leaning against her doorway, Su Yu listened until she closed her eyes.
No wonder Jiang Cheng had said that even those who did not want to listen had to do so. These things were so painful that merely hearing them was enough to make the pain spread through one’s mind; there was no need to witness them in person.
She really wanted to cover her ears.
The girl in the group chat had been right. Complaining about being sick of salted duck eggs, pickles, and canned food was spoiled and ridiculous. Without food, people would truly die.
Su Yu had never been the sort of person who ignored others simply because she herself was doing well. Once her own basic survival was secured, her empathy made her feel deep pain and helplessness over the suffering of others.
But there was still a thread of hope in her heart.
She knew that Jiang Cheng would never tell them all this without a reason. Jiang Cheng must have some kind of plan.
Although Jiang Cheng occasionally made her uneasy, in Su Yu’s heart, Jiang Cheng had always seemed to possess an aura of light.
The air in the hallway seemed to grow heavy and dispirited. People’s emotions radiated like energy, affecting one another.
Everyone felt awful now.
[I want everyone to understand that calculating how many grams of rice and how many cans we consume each day, then relying on our stockpiles to last until rescue arrives, is actually an overly idealistic scenario.]
[Because those calculations fail to account for changes in the outside environment and the impact they may have.]
[In other words: “safety.”]
[If we only calculate food consumption, then the residents of Shanshui Yayuan should also be able to sleep soundly and wait for national rescue just as we are.]
[But what happened in reality? Several households in Shanshui Yayuan were slaughtered to the last person.]
[Compared with our neighbors, we do have a more united organization and greater fighting ability. But do we really want to wait until the day when the living turn against one another, when kitchen knives are hacked into other survivors?]
[If things reach that point, and the nation solves the zombie crisis and society returns to the way it was before, will those of us who have killed people still be able to return to our old lives?]
[Everyone, are we supposed to hide inside our little apartment complex and wait for all of this to happen?]
No! No!
A voice shouted inside Su Yu’s heart. She bit down hard on her lip.
Survival was certainly important, but she could never accept such an outcome.
But what could they do? Were they supposed to send everyone rushing outside to die?
But we couldn’t be the only ones in the entire community rushing out on a wave of hot-blooded courage. This wasn’t something one residential complex could solve, and no community’s residents were obligated to sacrifice themselves to save others.
This was no longer a moment when the military could fight alone. This was a war between humanity and monsters, between humanity and the zombies, and against an unknown virus.
It wasn’t about one person or one community. It was about every person, every community.
But I, Jiang Cheng, the owner of Unit 0306 in Building Two, don’t have the ability to mobilize everyone. So I intend to...
Contact the temporary emergency command center—specifically, the temporary emergency command center of S City.
On behalf of Youth Apartment, I will issue an appeal to the government.
Jiang Cheng said, “If the government accepts it, and if the government calls upon the people, I will answer that call without hesitation.”
“I also hope that, just as everyone has done in each collective action over the past week, you’ll pick up your weapons and walk out of this community with me.”
“Even if the other communities don’t respond right away, Youth Apartment will be the first community to answer the call.”
“Human beings live in groups, but most are sheep. There must be a lead wolf willing to step forward.”
Jiang Cheng asked all the residents of Youth Apartment to bear witness as she dialed the number from that morning.
The call was answered almost instantly.
Through the building’s broadcast system, everyone heard a fairly young man’s voice. “Youth Apartment? Jiang Cheng?”
Jiang Cheng had turned on the speakerphone so the residents of Youth Apartment could listen in.
“This is Jiang Cheng. Who am I speaking to?”
“I’m Vice Mayor Zheng’s temporary secretary. My surname is Sun.”
“Secretary Sun, hello. I’m calling on behalf of all the residents of Youth Apartment. I’d like to speak with Vice Mayor Zheng.”
Another man’s voice came through the phone, much deeper and more solemn. “Jiang Cheng, have you changed your mind?”
So when they saw “Youth Apartment” on the caller ID, they had also put the call on speaker.
No one could mistake that voice. Everyone had been keeping their televisions on and waiting for him to speak each day. They could all recognize it.
It really was Vice Mayor Zheng—the very man on television who now controlled the situation in S City.
Jiang Cheng could actually speak with him directly.
Her voice remained calm and unhurried. Even when speaking to a high-ranking official, she showed not the slightest trace of nervousness.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t do what you asked. If I did, the first thing we’d have to face would be resistance within the community, division, and escalating internal conflict. What I need right now is to preserve the group’s stability and build an effective fighting force.”
Vice Mayor Zheng was silent for a moment before acknowledging her point. “You’re right.”
“Then what is the purpose of your call?”
Everyone in the hallways unconsciously held their breath, as though afraid even the slightest noise might disturb the conversation.
“Vice Mayor Zheng, on behalf of all the residents of Youth Apartment, I’d like to make an appeal to the nation: it’s time to launch a people’s war.”
After Jiang Cheng spoke, silence filled both the broadcast system and the hallways.
Only after a moment did Vice Mayor Zheng’s voice slowly return, turning the phrase over in his mind.
“A people’s war...”
“Vice Mayor Zheng, the residents of our community are young people who have attended college, who have consciences, and who are well-educated.”
“They’re the kind of young people who wait for the light to turn green even when crossing the street.”
“If this drags on, the kitchen knives in their hands may soon be forced to turn against living people.”
“You understand the situation outside better than I do. By the time all of this happens, even if the zombies are eventually wiped out, these young people will never be able to return to who they were.”
“It will destroy an entire generation.”
“Mayor, don’t let this generation of young people be left with memories like that.”
“When peace and stability return, they should be able to look back with pride and say how many zombies they killed.”
“Not how many people.”
“Mayor, there’s no time left to hesitate.”
“If we regard the zombies as a natural disaster, then this disaster is unlike any that came before. It can no longer be resolved by the military alone.”
“The people must be mobilized.”