Chapter 74

According to the news everyone had heard, Renxin Hospital had been completely overrun. There wasn’t a single survivor left inside.

But the hospital still had medical equipment and medicine—things many people desperately needed.

There was an intern doctor who worked at Renxin Hospital living in the Youth Apartments. These past few days, she had often been treating people in the community and advising everyone on what medicine to take.

But those were all common minor ailments. There was nothing she could do for serious illnesses.

Fortunately, the people in the Youth Apartments were all young and relatively healthy. During these past two weeks, some had suffered from diarrhea, stomachaches, or gallbladder pain, but no one had developed an acute condition or serious illness that required an IV drip or surgery.

It was also thanks to Jiang Cheng, who had raided the pharmacy ahead of time and stocked the Youth Apartments with commonly used medicines.

But in other residential communities, people had died from illness over the past half month, including children.

One woman in the later stages of pregnancy had even given birth at home.

Many others were still suffering from illness. With neither doctors nor medicine available, all they could do was endure the pain.

Even though the people in the Youth Apartments were young and healthy, they couldn’t remain illness-free forever. A hospital was an absolute necessity.

Jiang Cheng’s goal was to turn the entire Technology New District into a green zone. Today, they had cleared the Food Street and successfully joined forces with the residents of Deqingli.

If distance was calculated outward from the Youth Apartments, the next closest target was the zombie nest known as Renxin Hospital.

Before today, Jiang Cheng might have stopped advancing in this direction out of consideration for the difficulty involved. She might have chosen to wait until conditions improved and let professional soldiers deal with Renxin Hospital.

But Li Feng had brought new armor. Its defensive capabilities had proven exceptionally strong during today’s operation on Food Street.

Jiang Cheng’s ambition swelled instantly.

It wasn’t an ambition for power or authority, but an ambition to win.

Jiang Cheng thought: This is the reason I came to this world.

Otherwise, why had she transmigrated here?

To work nine to five, get married, and have children?

Jiang Cheng had actually worried about whether everyone would still be willing to follow her if she continued pushing ahead at such an intense pace. If no one followed her, she couldn’t accomplish anything as a lone commander.

But when she asked for everyone’s opinion after the operation on Food Street, the local residents surprised her once again.

She had never expected so many people to respond.

There was no fear on their faces. Their eyes even shone with surging enthusiasm.

Of course, one could also say they had gotten caught up in the killing.

But when such an act had the country’s support behind it, it was no longer simply a matter of “getting carried away with killing.”

It was just. It was noble.

It brought light to people’s eyes, sent their blood racing through their veins, and multiplied their courage.

Zhou Wang said as well, “We have to take the hospital back.”

Zhou Wang had elderly family members at home, and they suffered from chronic illnesses. Fortunately, the Friday before the zombie crisis broke out, one of them had just gone to the hospital to refill their prescriptions. During the past half month, they had also been lucky enough not to catch a cold or develop a fever.

They had been very fortunate.

But luck wouldn’t last forever. With so many elderly people, children, and pregnant women, they had to reclaim the hospital.

The other communities—including Deqingli, which had just joined them—were traditional residential neighborhoods with both old people and children. Their need for a hospital was far greater than that of the mostly young, able-bodied residents of the Youth Apartments.

Jiang Cheng’s proposal immediately received everyone’s approval and support.

With the people behind her, Jiang Cheng could now bargain with the authorities.

“Give us another two hundred sets of armor,” she said. “With all six hundred people fully equipped, we’ll take Renxin Hospital.”

Li Feng and Jiang Cheng met at Duoduo Supermarket.

The people from Deqingli had come along to collect supplies as well.

Deqingli had a large population. Fortunately, most of the residents from Jixiang Garden, Lekang Garden, and Yujingxiang Garden had already come to collect supplies that morning or around noon, so the supermarket wasn’t impossibly crowded.

The people from Deqingli had been through a lot over the past two weeks, and many of them had a hardened look about them.

But the Youth Apartments and Jixiang Garden had plenty of experience by now, and the men sent over to coordinate the distribution and maintain order were all physically strong.

The scene was somewhat noisy and disorderly, but it wasn’t out of control.

Soldiers and volunteers sent by several communities were handling those tasks.

Li Feng’s more important job was to coordinate with the people in charge of the various communities, arranging and assigning responsibilities.

The main person he had to deal with was Jiang Cheng. In this area, the young woman named Jiang Cheng had practically become the sole decision-maker.

The ceiling lights shone down on her. Her bangs were slightly damp, and sweat glistened on her face and neck.

The white plastic armor she wore seemed to be a smaller size and fit her fairly well. Under the lights, it created a visual effect that was both retro and futuristic.

But what drew Li Feng’s attention were her eyes.

They were far too bright.

Li Feng had seen eyes that bright before, but they had belonged to people who had undergone specialized training. Jiang Cheng was clearly just an ordinary civilian.

While they had gone to the restroom together, he had casually asked Zhao Yi, who was helping coordinate things at the site, “What does Jiang Cheng do?”

The answer had been that she was simply an ordinary employee at an ordinary company, no different from anyone else.

But as a soldier, Li Feng could vaguely sense that Jiang Cheng was different from the others.

Those eyes were simply too bright.

“I can’t guarantee it.” Li Feng didn’t make any grand promises just because he had been swept up in the moment.

Food was no longer in short supply, but the armor was still extremely limited.

“I heard they’ve been working around the clock to produce it,” he said. “They had to meet the needs of the frontline troops first before they could start distributing it to civilians. I had a hard time getting four hundred sets yesterday.”

“You’ve worked hard,” Jiang Cheng said. “Please help us this time, no matter what.”

“There are several pregnant women in Deqingli. An elderly person in Lekang Garden is being kept alive by IV fluids, and many of the children are sick too.”

“Other than one community clinic, Renxin Hospital is the only hospital in the Technology New District.”

“There are doctors from Renxin Hospital living in our community, Jixiang Garden, and Yujingxiang Garden. Many of them bought homes here.”

“If we can take the hospital back, it may not be able to resume full operations, but at the very least, we’ll be able to save lives.”

Li Feng pinched the brim of his cap and pulled it lower.

“Understood,” he said. “I’ll try to secure them.”

Jiang Cheng said, “Whether it works or not, you must give me an answer tonight. I need to make arrangements for tomorrow. What time will you be heading back? Nine o’clock?”

Li Feng thought for a moment, then agreed. “All right.”

It wasn’t even nine that evening when Li Feng called Jiang Cheng as promised.

“Done. We got them.”

Jiang Cheng immediately called Zhou Wang and the people from Yujingxiang Garden.

She wasn’t familiar enough with the people from Deqingli yet, and they hadn’t worked together before, so for now she wouldn’t include them in the deployment. The people from Lekang Garden were still recovering and couldn’t yet form an effective fighting force.

At present, their combat strength still mainly came from the Youth Apartments, Jixiang Garden, and Yujingxiang Garden.

That was enough.

Before going to bed, the residents of the Youth Apartments heard an announcement broadcast through the hallway speakers:

“Proceed according to plan tomorrow. Target: Renxin Hospital.”

After two days of killing, many people were no longer afraid of the zombies. Some were even a little excited at the thought of tomorrow’s operation.

It was only natural to feel proud of taking part in such a major event.

Many people even thought that the things happening before their eyes—the things they were actively participating in—would one day be recorded in history books.

They were witnessing history in the making.

They were taking part in making history.

The next day was another Saturday.

The zombie virus had also broken out on a Saturday.

Two whole weeks had passed.

Looking back on those two weeks, many people felt as if they had been living in a dream. It had been bizarre, but not absurd—or at least, nothing about Youth Apartment had been absurd. It had continued to maintain the order that society was supposed to have.

But everyone could also sense that the day they woke from this dream was not far off.

That was exhilarating.

Li Jiangbing was extremely annoyed.

Li Feng had delivered another two hundred sets of armor early that morning, but there was still nothing he could wear.

The protective-gear factory was working around the clock to meet the deadline, with assembly-line production and standardized sizing. There was simply no way to custom-make a set for anyone.

What made things even more infuriating was that, compared to the armor, everyone had unanimously decided that the other methods of protection were no longer safe enough.

They had clearly managed just fine with those methods over the past few days, but now they suddenly felt that the magazines strapped to their arms and motorcycle helmets were unsafe.

Jiang Cheng had excluded both him and Nie Kuizhang from the team assigned to seize Renxin Hospital.

It was downright insulting. He was clearly one of Youth Apartment’s top-tier fighters!

Under the insistence of Li Jiangbing and several others who shared his opinion, they were ultimately allowed to join the team heading to Renxin Hospital.

Their equipment had also been upgraded.

Li Jiangbing’s movie-prop-like arm shield had been replaced with the riot shield Li Feng had delivered along with the armor the day before. The door-panel shields used by Youth Apartment had also all been replaced with riot shields.

The same was true for Jixiang Jiayuan and Yujing Xiangyuan.

In the end, the force heading to Renxin Hospital consisted of far more than six hundred people.

This time, all the girls were excluded.

There was a limited supply of armor, and riot shields were heavy. Only people with sufficient arm strength could wield them.

Su Yu and He Tian were among the stronger fighters in the group of girls. But there were certainly men who were sturdier than them and had greater strength. With the armor in short supply, it was impossible to assign it to the girls instead of the stronger men.

The only woman in the team was Jiang Cheng.

In fact, Song Jingshuo had glanced at Jiang Cheng several times, each time wanting to say something and then stopping himself.

But Jiang Cheng merely cast him a cool glance, and he abandoned the idea.

No one else had any objections to Jiang Cheng either. Everyone knew that she had “always been strong since childhood.” The past half month had already proven it. Jiang Cheng’s strength was no different from a man’s; in fact, she was even stronger than some of the thinner young men.

Moreover, deep down, everyone had already stopped paying attention to Jiang Cheng’s gender.

Song Jingshuo had not meant any harm. He had long since abandoned any thoughts of competing with Jiang Cheng.

On the contrary, it was precisely because he was so familiar with Jiang Cheng that, when the entire group was not mobilizing and fighters had to be selected, his instinct was to let Jiang Cheng, as a “girl,” stay behind and be protected.

Song Jingshuo had his own reasons. In his eyes, Jiang Cheng still had a gender.

But Jiang Cheng, of course, refused to accept that.

She had crossed over into this world to face its challenges. She would not retreat.

Li Feng watched Jiang Cheng lead several hundred people toward Renxin Hospital, his feelings complicated.

Li Feng was in a terrible mood. He was the soldier. He was the fighter.

And yet, this time, he had been assigned to the logistics team.

Li Feng desperately wanted to take part in the battle.