Chapter 96

Song Jingshuo silently exerted his power. Li Jiangbing watched as the radish in his hands sprouted roots, then grew a lush green leaf.

Li Jiangbing was silent for a moment before turning around and shouting, “Old Zhao! Come take a look! Is this the wood type you were talking about?”

Zhao Yi, Gao Yuxuan, and a whole crowd of people came hurrying over.

Zhao Yi had long believed it was impossible for them to be missing one of the five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—but he never would have guessed that the wood-type ability they had been waiting for all night belonged to Song Jingshuo.

Zhao Yi fell silent too.

Gao Yuxuan shouted excitedly, “That’s it, that’s it! This is definitely the wood type!”

Aunt Pan suddenly said, “I understand now. So that’s how it works.”

A moment ago, Zhao Yi and the others had talked for ages, and Aunt Pan had only half understood. But the moment she saw Song Jingshuo, something suddenly clicked.

She pointed at Zhao Yi. “You deal with garbage, so you’re earth.”

Then she pointed at Gao Yuxuan. “You’re an electrician, so you’re electricity.”

Finally, she pointed at Song Jingshuo. “You make money, so you’re wood.”

Zhao Yi: “...”

No, I don’t deal with garbage.

Gao Yuxuan: “...”

I’m not an electrician.

Song Jingshuo: “...”

Song Jingshuo didn’t understand what making money had to do with being wood.

But Master Luo had died yesterday, and his body had already been brought down and placed in a pile with the others.

Aunt Pan seemed perfectly calm. She neither cried nor made a scene. Still, everyone was careful not to speak too loudly around her, as if afraid of startling something fragile inside her.

Aunt Pan muttered to herself, “I have a headache too. I should have a superpower as well. What kind could it be?”

She seemed quite certain. “It’s either earth or wood. It should be earth.”

She walked straight to the lawn, crouched down, and placed a hand on the grass.

Several seconds passed, but nothing happened.

Gao Yuxuan took a step forward, wanting to comfort her and tell her that not everyone had a superpower.

Aunt Pan suddenly drew a deep breath, gathered all her strength, and let out a thunderous shout!

Gao Yuxuan jumped in fright.

With that shout, the soil beneath the lawn suddenly bulged upward, rising to knee height! It was even taller than the mound Zhao Yi had made during his demonstration the day before.

Aunt Pan, who had neither formal education nor much schooling, had somehow accurately predicted her own superpower.

Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan stared in astonishment.

Jiang Cheng went over and crouched beside Aunt Pan. She pushed at the mound of earth with one hand. It was hard.

She turned to Zhao Yi. “You try.”

Zhao Yi crouched down too. He tried to break it apart with his hands, but couldn’t. He punched it several times instead, only hurting his hand.

Shaking his hand and grimacing, Zhao Yi admitted, “It’s sturdier than the ones I make.”

Jiang Cheng hugged her knees and said, “Auntie, this is really useful.”

Aunt Pan was delighted. “Yes, it is useful. It’ll save us the trouble of using a hoe to turn the soil.”

Jiang Cheng said, “I have a feeling we may be stuck in the neighborhood with them again for quite a while. Later, we can turn over all the flower beds in the compound. You and Song Jingshuo can work together and see if we can use your superpowers to grow vegetables.”

Jiang Cheng’s voice was soft and gentle, carrying a soothing warmth.

Everyone’s hearts softened.

Even Song Jingshuo came over and crouched beside them. “Auntie, I don’t know how to grow vegetables, but I can make plants take root and sprout. You can teach me when the time comes.”

From the moment Aunt Pan appeared that day, everyone could tell that her eyes were actually dull and lifeless.

Everyone in the neighborhood knew Master Luo, but they weren’t nearly as familiar with Aunt Pan. She had always been practically invisible.

It was only when the government called on civilians to take up weapons and save themselves that Master Luo and his wife joined the fight together, and everyone began to get to know her.

After that, whenever Su Yu came across her while entering or leaving the building, she would always greet her.

Back then, everyone had been trapped inside the safe zone. They could eat nothing but canned food every day, yet Aunt Pan’s smile had always been bright and cheerful, giving people the impression that life was still going fairly well.

Some light returned to Aunt Pan’s eyes. “You people all sit in offices. What do you know about growing vegetables? Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.”

She continued reminiscing. “I had a little vegetable garden behind Building Six, but the manager wouldn’t allow it and had it dug up. What a shame. All those seedlings...”

She had often thought about it during the disaster. At the time, no one could get fresh vegetables or meat.

If only her vegetable garden had still been there.

The reason Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan had kept going on about the wood type the day before was that they had been thinking about vegetables.

Even after the supply routes reopened and supply stations were established, vegetables had always been among the last things to arrive, usually only appearing in the final few days.

But Zhao Yi had never imagined that the first person to awaken a wood-type superpower would be Song Jingshuo.

The moment he imagined Song Jingshuo removing his shiny cuff links, rolling up the sleeves of his white shirt, and following Aunt Pan around to grow vegetables, he found the image almost unbearably funny.

Jiang Cheng quietly chatted with Aunt Pan for a while, and Aunt Pan’s expression gradually softened.

Her husband was gone, but life still had to go on.

People needed something to look forward to.

Little Jiang and Xiao Song had told her that her superpower would be extremely useful, giving her hope.

Jiang Cheng’s phone suddenly rang. She pulled it out and glanced at the screen, a look of surprise appearing on her face.

She said to Song Jingshuo, “It’s Zhou Wang.”

Everyone was surprised, and a little pleased as well. Zhou Wang was still alive.

Jiang Cheng answered the call. “Hello?”

“Little Jiang, it’s me, Old Zhou,” Zhou Wang asked. “How is your neighborhood?”

“We’re fine. We’re counting everyone now. What about you?”

Zhou Wang let out a deep sigh. “We just finished killing all the zombies in the compound. We haven’t cleared all the buildings yet.”

It sounded as if they had made more progress than last time. They had managed to clear the courtyard of their own neighborhood without relying on outside help.

Jiang Cheng asked, “Do you have many people?”

Zhou Wang was silent for a moment before reluctantly admitting, “They’re all elderly.”

There were elderly people, housewives, and a small number of preschool-aged children.

There were only eleven able-bodied adults, including Zhou Wang himself.

Several of them were unemployed and had been staying at home. The others had simply been lucky enough to be home for various reasons. One of them was a middle-school student who had taken a leave of absence. Since he was as tall as an adult, he had also been counted among the able-bodied.

Still, they were relatively lucky. On a workday, the entire Technology New District was practically a ghost town, and a residential complex like Auspicious Garden was just as empty.

Moreover, at that particular time, many elderly people and housewives had been at home preparing dinner. There had been very few people in the courtyard, and therefore very few zombies—only a scattered handful.

Zhou Wang had now learned how to use the internet. He had posted on the neighborhood’s residents’ forum and gathered everyone he could. All eleven able-bodied people put on protective armor and went outside. When several elderly residents saw them heading downstairs, they put on their sons’ armor, grabbed sticks, and came down too.

They assembled a group of fewer than thirty people and killed all the zombies in the neighborhood.

Once they saw that there were no zombies left in the courtyard, some residents whose buildings and hallways were clear came straight downstairs.

At a glance, Zhou Wang saw a sea of white and graying hair. There were even more elderly women than elderly men. The scene perfectly embodied the phrase “the old, the weak, women, and children.”

Zhou Wang felt somewhat despairing about this new crisis.

That had happened yesterday evening. This morning, Zhou Wang had organized everyone to clear the buildings door by door. They had also found several sets of protective armor.

The day before, there had been able-bodied people without armor while some elderly residents possessed it. When the younger men tried to seize the armor from the elderly, a fight had nearly broken out.

Zhou Wang had stopped them.

During the previous zombie disaster, he had established his authority, and that authority had carried over into this one. Everyone was still willing to listen to him.

Some of them had awakened superpowers as well. Everyone felt as if they were living in a dream.

After clearing two buildings that day, someone said during the break, “What are we supposed to do this time?”

There were too few people, and most of them were elderly or weak. They couldn’t even beat others in a scramble for supplies.

Zhou Wang immediately thought of the neighbors next door.

“I’ll come over and find you,” Zhou Wang said.

“Is West Street safe?” Jiang Cheng asked.

“It’s safe. There’s only one zombie wandering around there—and it’s from your residential complex. Hey, hey, all right, I’ve killed it.”

He sounded as though he was already on West Street.

Jiang Cheng called Security guard Fang over. “Is the east gate locked?”

Little Fang was quite diligent. After killing the zombies last night, he had locked it.

Jiang Cheng led a group of people over to open the gate.

Zhou Wang’s expression was especially gloomy.

The first thing Jiang Cheng asked when she saw him was, “Are your family all right?”

Zhou Wang shook his head.

When Zhou Wang received Jiang Cheng’s text, he didn’t believe it at first. But he felt deeply uneasy, and in the end, he followed that unease and decided to go home.

His behavior was much like what Su Yu had imagined she herself would do: lacking the courage to openly warn the people around him, he had slipped away quietly on his own.

He was a middle-level manager to begin with and didn’t need to ask anyone for leave. He merely told one of his subordinates, “I’m stepping out for a bit,” and left.

Once he was outside, he called his wife and asked her to pick up their child. His wife worked at a state-owned enterprise, which had an affiliated school for employees’ children. Its teachers were better than those at the schools in the Technology New District. The child attended that school, which was close to his wife’s workplace.

But by the time Zhou Wang reached home, his wife still hadn’t arrived.

When he called, she said the child was hungry and insisted on having pizza.

Zhou Wang said a couple of things, and his wife grew angry. “How did that Jiang Cheng know? What connections does she have? Didn’t you investigate her? She has no background at all, does she?”

His wife didn’t actually believe him. She had only taken time off to pick up their child because Zhou Wang had insisted.

What she said was precisely why Zhou Wang himself hadn’t believed Jiang Cheng at first.

Zhou Wang wasn’t all that resolute himself. With him wavering, his wife was even less concerned. “We’ll head back after we finish eating.”

In the end, Zhou Wang never got to see his wife and child return.

He was filled with regret. If only he had been a little more resolute then. If only he had firmly believed Jiang Cheng, he would have had the confidence to argue with his wife and make her come back immediately.

But he hadn’t.

There was no medicine for regret in this world.

Zhou Wang naturally wanted to know how Jiang Cheng had managed to predict the zombie virus.

But he knew that Jiang Cheng had only had the phone numbers of three people in Auspicious Garden. If she had selflessly sent the warning message to everyone, then only those three people in Auspicious Garden would have received it.

The other two hadn’t come back.

The rest of the people in the complex knew nothing about it. The matter was simply too suspicious, and Zhou Wang didn’t want everyone finding out at a time like this and causing further complications. He held back and didn’t ask.

He only asked, “How many people are there in your complex?”

“More than four hundred,” Jiang Cheng replied.

The moment Zhou Wang heard that number, he guessed that these people must have believed Jiang Cheng and returned. Otherwise, they should all have been trapped at their workplaces, and there wouldn’t have been so many young people at home at that time yesterday.

Zhou Wang asked again, “Has anyone in your complex developed anything unusual?”

Everyone knew what he was referring to.

Li Jiangbing asked with a grin, “You mean superpowers?”

He raised his hand. A tiny ball of water hovered in his palm—the water he had just taken from the fountain in the complex.

Zhou Wang let out a breath of relief. “So you have them too.”

“What kind of superpowers do you have?” Li Jiangbing asked.

“I run fast,” Zhou Wang said.

Li Jiangbing blinked. “Huh?”

Zhou Wang knew that words alone wouldn’t prove anything, so he demonstrated.

With a whoosh, he shot out of sight. He raced about a hundred meters down the passageway inside the east gate, then whooshed back. The whole thing took only a few seconds.

Everyone was dumbfounded.