Chapter 8

The second post Jiang Cheng opened was made by the neighbor who had exchanged a glance with Li Jiangbing when the door opened earlier. That neighbor had gone home and posted it.

Both he and Li Jiangbing had posted quickly with fewer words, so they got done before Jiang Cheng.

There wasn’t much content—just screams that she had seen a neighbor kill someone, and that it was probably that big-bodied gym guy on the same floor. No one answered when she called the police, and the property management office’s phone went unanswered too.

Below, Li Jiangbing had already replied: 【It wasn’t me!!!!!!!! Go check the post from 0306! The one with lots of exclamation marks! I’ve pinned it to the top! It’s at the very top!】

Not bad—it felt like Li Jiangbing, that guy, had already moved past his initial panic and fear.

Only then did Jiang Cheng realize she hadn’t even taken a sip of water since earlier. Her throat was dry and sore, probably from yelling too hard at Li Jiangbing.

She went to get a glass of water, sat down on the sofa, and gulped it down.

Turning to glance at the bed, she saw both the person and the cat still unconscious.

She tried calling the police again, even dialed for an ambulance, but regretfully, no one answered. So now, no one could help the person or the cat—they’d have to tough it out with just the medicine she’d applied.

Just then, her stomach rumbled. It wasn’t just thirst that hit her as she relaxed; hunger came too.

Jiang Cheng made a bowl of instant noodles and ate the leftover braised meat from yesterday’s fridge.

While she ate, the silence around her began to break.

Out on the street, there were sounds of car wheels and horns, all chaotic.

Someone in the community garden was screaming—more than one person—their voices echoing in the night. From various apartment buildings came shouts, screams, even cries of pain.

In the hallway outside her door, there were noises too—doors opening, startled cries, then panicked slamming shut.

The neighbors were gradually waking up.

Whenever someone yelled, “Someone’s dead, call the police!” Li Jiangbing would open his door and bellow back, “Get back inside! Lock your door! Check the top post on the owners’ forum!”

His build was intimidating, and his voice was loud. Every neighbor he shouted at ended up backing off.

But the noise in the hallway startled Li Ziqing again. This time, Li Ziqing finally found the door handle, and after a few tries, opened the door and stepped out.

Li Jiangbing was still leaning out his door and saw it. He shouted, “Holy shit,” then yanked himself back inside and slammed the door shut.

But by then, Li Jiangbing had gotten past his initial terror of seeing a ghost. He’d also learned from Jiang Cheng’s post that the mutated monsters had a weak point in the head, and he’d watched how Jiang Cheng had taken one down herself.

Now he was itching for a fight.

He looked through his various weapons at home, passed on the nunchucks and the telescopic baton, and finally grabbed his pair of all-steel tonfa sticks.

Taking a few deep breaths, he peeked through the peephole—to see Li Ziqing, having lost her target, drifting like a ghost slowly through the hallway.

Perfect.

Li Jiangbing gave himself a mental pep talk, then yanked the door open and charged out with a roar.

His muscles weren’t built for nothing, and the weapon felt good in his hands.

He dispatched Li Ziqing quickly.

When he charged out and started fighting, he was brave and full of spirit. But once he’d smashed in the skull of that neighbor he’d seen every day, and he stopped to take another look, a wave of nausea hit him.

Li Jiangbing leaned against the wall and threw up a huge mess, emptying his stomach completely.

Wiping his mouth afterward, he knew that by now, plenty of people would be peeking at him through their door peepholes.

So he shouted repeatedly in the hallway: “There’s a dead body in the hallway! Don’t come out! Go check the owners’ forum!”

He repeated it several times before going back into his apartment and closing the door.

The sounds in the hallway were clear to Jiang Cheng. She just lowered her eyes and noisily slurped her noodles, alternating between a sip of noodles and a bite of braised meat.

Fighting monsters took strength, so she needed to eat her fill.

From outside in the garden, screams, cries for help, and weeping turned into hysterical shrieks of agony, rising and falling before fading away.

Jiang Cheng was arguably the most experienced person in the entire community when it came to dealing with these monsters. But she wasn’t a superhero. If she could help, she would, but what was happening outside right now—this large-scale catastrophe spreading across the whole city—wasn’t something she could change on her own.

Saving one Shen Wei had taken everything she had.

It was the weekend. The temperature was cool that evening. She had no idea how many owners had been unconscious in the garden, killed, or turned into hidden murderers.

Right now, the absolute best thing to do was what Jiang Cheng had said in her post: stay indoors with the door locked.

Just then, it seemed like someone a few floors above yelled out an open window: “What’s going on? Someone come quickly! What’s down there?”

And then she heard Li Jiangbing’s familiar voice again. He was yelling out his window too: “Eve-ry-one—go check—the own-ers’—for-um! Eve-ry-one—go check—the own-ers’—for-um!”

He had such a loud voice and huge lung capacity, stretching his syllables into a long echo. It bounced around outside.

Good. That meant a lot of people in the community probably heard him now.

Li Jiangbing really was useful.

But not long after, Li Jiangbing was shouting toward the garden again: “Stop fucking calling me! Don’t call! It’s useless calling me! If you need something, post in the forum!!!”

No guesses needed—he must have gotten flooded with calls from people who had read the post where Li Jiangbing had left his phone number for Jiang Cheng, craving advice and information.

Jiang Cheng didn’t let outside distractions bother her. She focused on eating. She drank all the broth too, and only then did her weary body feel recharged with strength.

She cleared away the small table and walked over to the bed to check.

First, she gently stroked the black cat’s head and softly called, “Mo Li... Mo Li...”

Please don’t die.

Mo Li’s limbs twitched.

Good. Still alive.

But it didn’t look good. Jiang Cheng pressed her palm against Mo Li’s back. Was a cat’s temperature this high? She remembered reading on a pet forum that cats ran hotter than humans, but... this high?

It felt almost scalding.

Jiang Cheng had a gut feeling things were dire.

But there was nothing she could do.

She hadn’t even thanked him yet for saving her life.

Little cat, hang in there!

Because she was so upset, Jiang Cheng didn’t notice that when she silently thought “Hang in there!”, Mo Li’s body twitched ever so slightly.

As if a small electric shock had gone through him.

Jiang Cheng wiped her eyes and moved to the other side of the bed to check on Shen Wei.

Shen Wei looked terrible too. Her face was pale and lifeless, as if she had lost a lot of blood. She didn’t have a fever, though—her forehead felt slightly cool.

Jiang Cheng called to her softly, hoping she’d open her eyes. But Shen Wei fared even worse than Mo Li—she showed no reaction at all. She was completely unconscious.

Even if a dead mutated monster ended up in her own apartment, Jiang Cheng would be okay—she would just be thankful she had survived again.

But she really didn’t want to see a girl who had talked to her earlier, who had bravely kept calm and clear-headed through her pain, die right in front of her.

She didn’t have much hope, but Jiang Cheng still dialed for an ambulance one more time, praying for a miracle.

And the miracle happened—the call actually went through!

Jiang Cheng’s heart skipped a beat.

Yet before she could speak, a chaotic and violent noise erupted from the phone—

Ringing phones, rising and falling in waves.

The sound of collisions.

The screams of many women.

“Pin her down! Pin Xiao Song down!”

“Ahh, she bit me! Pry her mouth open! Ahhh, pry her mouth open, she bit me!”

“Go easy! That’s Xiao Song!”

“Can’t you see she’s not human anymore! She’s crazy! She’s a monster!”

Screams, wails, cries for help, and arguments intertwined with the jumble of phone rings, hammering at the heart.

In the sealed telephone duty room, the female operators on shift faced a mutated colleague.

It was a colleague they’d spent days with, so they couldn’t bring themselves to strike hard from the start.

But the mutated one was ferocious, bloodthirsty, and once she bit down, she wouldn’t let go.

“What are you doing, Sister Wang?!”

“Ahhh, murder! Sister Wang’s killing someone!”

“Shut up! Xiao Song isn’t human anymore!”

Everyone was hysterical—helplessness, panic, and terror spilled out of the receiver, flooding into Jiang Cheng’s ears.

Jiang Cheng listened for a moment, then hung up the phone.

Outside, the noise was still faintly chaotic. The building had a calm, insane feel to it.

Helpless. No one could be counted on.

Jiang Cheng had felt this way once before—when her parents died suddenly.

But she had gotten through it alone then.

She could do it again this time.

Back at the computer, she opened the forum. New posts had appeared, more and more people waking up.

Her own post sat at the top, pinned by an admin. In the time it took to cook a bowl of instant noodles, it had already amassed hundreds of replies:

“My neighbor got bitten to death! The biter is also a resident!”

“There was one on our floor. We all worked together to kill it. Will we go to jail?”

“No one’s picking up the emergency line!”

Most of the residents and tenants in the youth apartment complex were young, so the community forum was usually very active.

Now it was like an explosion. A single refresh brought up new towering threads.

“From what OP says in the post, the affected area is huge. The cops probably ended up like us too. Some of them might’ve turned into monsters.”

“Is what OP says even true? How would she know?”

“For sure, they’re human too. It’s not like being a cop gives you job immunity.”

“What’s going on? Is this some kind of virus infection?”

“Everyone, turn on your TVs and wait for the news. If the situation’s serious, there’ll definitely be bulletins and announcements. Keep the TV on to receive updates.”

That last suggestion was a good one, a correct one.

Jiang Cheng turned on the TV and cycled through several channels, but obviously the government hadn’t reacted yet. All the programs were prerecorded.

She turned the TV off.

Pacing back and forth in her cramped apartment, she thought.

Some cause led to everyone’s collective unconsciousness. The “cause” was unknown—maybe a virus, maybe radiation. Among them, some underwent mutation.

If what happened in the youth apartment complex was happening indiscriminately across the city, or even farther, then the police who maintained order would have lost some personnel first. Doctors too. Same for every other sector, because it had nothing to do with profession—it probably covered all jobs equally.

In this situation, though, police and doctors were the most needed professions.

That meant order might not be restored until tomorrow or even the day after. At least the next day or two wouldn’t be safe to go out. People would be stuck at home.

Jiang Cheng quickly checked her supplies.

Lucky for her, living alone meant she couldn’t afford the embarrassment of “finishing in the bathroom and realizing there’s no toilet paper.” She kept a small stock of daily essentials at home.

She always followed the principle of “use one, keep one in reserve.”

For staple food, she had one bag of rice (5kg, two-thirds left) and another unopened bag (5kg).

Eggs: four, plus an unopened carton.

Canned luncheon meat: six cans, usually for fried rice.

Pickled vegetables: one big pack containing 12 small packets.

Frozen meat: several large pieces, she couldn’t say the exact weight.

Vegetables: a small amount.

The rest: two big tubs of chocolate, four boxes of various flavored pies, and two types of cookies.

Snacks—beef jerky, nuts, chips, and a few bags of puffed food.

Even if she ran out of non-staples, the rice alone (one and a half bags) could keep her going for twenty days. Food was adequate for now.

Toilet paper was also sufficient.

The water dispenser had half a bucket. At home, she had another full bucket saved. That would last a long time.

But the antiseptic solution in her small medicine cabinet had been used up all at once by Shen Wei and Mo Li. Given the situation, wound care supplies would likely be badly needed in the coming days.

This needed replenishing.

After checking everything, Jiang Cheng turned on the TV again. Still no emergency news. It seemed at least tomorrow before the government reacted.

She logged back into the community forum. More posts had appeared.

Her thread was still pinned, but with too many replies now to read conveniently. Others had started new threads.

From what she scanned, most people showed a certain level of fear, panic, and anxiety, but basically everyone agreed that staying put in their homes was the safest move.

By now, the courtyard outside had gone almost completely quiet. Looking down from the window, she could see a few ghostly figures moving slowly.

There were fewer screams and shrieks from the building too.

The first wave of encounters between ordinary people and the mutated monsters had ended in a short burst.

Those who ran slowly, had little strength, or panicked—without rescue—had probably already died.

As for the others, they were mostly now holed up in their homes, safe for the moment, actively contacting others, going online, and gathering information.

After that initial chaos, an eerie silence had settled once more over the complex.

Only the cars on the road were getting louder.

The community was gated, and residents had apartments to hide in.

She wondered what it was like outside a closed community like this.

Someone, it turned out, had the same thought. Another forum user had reposted external information: “It’s not just our complex! It’s everywhere! The whole of S City! And C City, N City, L City... this might be nationwide today!”

Even though she had suspected it, Jiang Cheng felt a weight sink in her heart when she saw this.