Jiang Cheng had clear goals and knew exactly what she needed, unlike many others who were darting around aimlessly. She and Li Jiangbing finished their shopping fairly quickly.
She had planned to wait for Master Luo at the checkout, but to her surprise, Master Luo and his people were even faster—they were already there waiting for her.
The flatbed cart they brought was stacked solid with bags of rice. The rest of their haul mainly consisted of pickled vegetables, salted duck eggs, and canned goods. These were Jiang Cheng’s suggestions, and Master Luo had agreed with them completely and followed through. They hadn’t forgotten toilet paper either.
Even though these were all necessities, and Jiang Cheng and Song Jingshuo had promised to cover the cost, Master Luo was still a little worried they had bought too much.
The white-collar residents living in the compound earned much higher salaries than the property management staff. But in the end, it was other people’s money. He was afraid they’d think he’d gone overboard.
But the first thing Jiang Cheng said when she walked over was, “Is that enough? There are a lot of you. Maybe you should grab some more.”
Master Luo’s worries melted away. He quickly said, “It’s enough, it’s enough. My wife did the math. This will last us two weeks.”
Everyone’s expectation for the coming days was roughly the same: things might be chaotic for a few days, then the government would step in and turn things around, just as they had in every previous disaster relief effort.
This shopping trip was just to get through those “few days of chaos.”
His wife had said, “To be safe, buy enough for half a month.”
Jiang Cheng glanced over their purchases. It was clear that Master Luo was someone who listened to good advice—or perhaps he genuinely agreed with her reasoning. Either way, Jiang Cheng felt relieved.
“Let’s wait for Song Jingshuo,” Jiang Cheng said. “We agreed on this.”
Her expression was relaxed. The way she mentioned Song Jingshuo—her tone and demeanor—showed nothing unusual. It gave everyone the impression that the two of them simply wanted to share the financial burden, not that there was anything else going on.
In truth, Jiang Cheng didn’t need to share the cost.
After buying her apartment in the youth compound with her parents’ inheritance, she had some money left over. She had saved it, untouched, as an emergency fund.
From last night onward, she knew the “emergency” had arrived.
She wasn’t afraid to dip into that fund. Compared to money, some things were far more important.
You have to know your priorities.
Because the supermarket was short-staffed, the people working the registers weren’t actually cashiers. Few checkout lanes were open, so the lines moved slowly.
The first wave of residents who finished checking out were too afraid to leave alone. Even though the infected on that 800-meter road had been cleared, who could guarantee that one or two wouldn’t suddenly pop out from somewhere?
Original infected were one thing. But the transformed infected were fast and agile. If you let your guard down and got bitten, you’d be locked in that property management conference room to die.
Everyone now knew—those bitten by the infected were being held there, waiting for death.
That woman from Building 2—the one with the sweet, pretty face—her actions really didn’t match her looks.
But as people hesitated and asked each other “What do we do?” and “Should we all go back together?”, that woman from Building 2 overheard them.
Jiang Cheng shouted toward the checkout area, “Head back in groups as soon as you have enough people. Don’t wait for everyone. Just make sure each group is big enough. Stay safe!”
Many people responded, “Okay,” “Got it.”
Those who finished checking out first waited until they had gathered seventy or eighty—almost a hundred people—before leaving together.
Those behind them were still waiting in line.
Everyone had a handcart. Word was the store had already restocked handcarts from the warehouse.
Many young people had looked down on handcarts before—those were for middle-aged aunties and uncles. Who would have thought they’d end up buying one themselves? They finally realized just how useful they were.
Song Jingshuo finished his shopping too.
When he walked over and saw that Jiang Cheng and Master Luo were already together, his heart gave a small lurch. But Jiang Cheng spotted him and waved first. “We’ve been waiting for you. Let’s split it fifty-fifty.”
Song Jingshuo relaxed. He came over and shared the cost of the property management staff’s supplies with Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Cheng said, “Let them go first. We’ll bring up the rear.”
Song Jingshuo nodded. “I was thinking the same thing.”
They had organized everyone to come out. They needed to make sure the main force returned safely. They couldn’t leave anyone behind.
And so, group by group—several dozen at a time—people withdrew.
The core members of the interim homeowners’ association and the suicide squad all stayed behind to hold the line. Finally, after the staff made three announcements over the PA system confirming that no residents were left in the supermarket, Jiang Cheng and the last few dozen people prepared to leave.
The dozen or so BuyMore employees looked at them with helpless eyes. “You’re leaving…”
Reluctant to see them go.
After the bustle faded, silence returned. And outside, on the road, the biting monsters were still wandering.
Jiang Cheng spotted one of the employees she had spoken with earlier—the tough guy who had ridden his motorcycle all the way to work. He seemed to be a junior supervisor.
Jiang Cheng asked him, “Are you going home?”
The man said flatly, “I’m not stupid.”
That morning, he had left the house clueless, only discovering the monsters on the streets after stepping out. He had relied entirely on his motorcycle to escape. But at the time, he had been so fixated on getting to work that it hadn’t occurred to him he could just turn back home.
One one-way trip was enough. He wasn’t making the return trip.
“I’ll stay here for now,” he said. “There are beds in the dorms.”
There were even beds and mattresses for sale in the store, already made up with bedding—perfectly fine to sleep on directly.
“You all,” Jiang Cheng reminded him, “count how many of you there are. Set aside enough food for yourselves.”
“Don’t guard a massive warehouse and end up starving to death.”
Her words made everyone exchange uneasy glances.
The junior supervisor thought it over, his expression growing darker by the moment. He gave a firm nod. “Okay.”
Jiang Cheng turned to follow the main group. From behind her, the man called out, “Hey—thanks—”
Jiang Cheng glanced back and gave a small nod of acknowledgment.
Dozens of people walked out of the supermarket, dragging and carrying their supplies.
The supermarket employees immediately locked the doors again. Then they stood together behind the glass doors, watching the youth apartment residents disappear from sight.
The brief feeling that “everything is still normal” faded, leaving their hearts hollow and uneasy once more.
Walking along the road, Song Jingshuo turned his head and glanced at Jiang Cheng.
Song Jingshuo carried a double-strap backpack. He didn’t have one of those granny-style shopping carts—instead, he had dragged a fairly large business suitcase to the supermarket to pack his supplies.
Jiang Cheng pulled a handcart and carried a large sports backpack, both stuffed to bursting.
Song Jingshuo wanted to show that a man could be more capable—help a woman carry things, handle the heavy loads. But Jiang Cheng’s backpack looked very heavy. He compromised and said, “Jiang Cheng, put your backpack on my suitcase.”
Jiang Cheng refused. “No need. I can carry it.”
Li Jiangbing chuckled. “Don’t let her thin frame fool you. Jiang Cheng is really strong.”
Everyone nearby nodded. Someone added, “Yeah, she’s strong. I saw her today—she swung her bat at an infected and took its head clean off.”
Jiang Cheng thought back. That must have been when she had taken down several infected in a row, her body warmed up, the bat feeling comfortable in her hands. The timing had been perfect, and she had executed a flawless headshot.
This was no time for modesty—she couldn’t afford to be modest anyway. So she said, loud enough for all to hear, “That’s right. I am strong.”
Everyone accepted it.
Song Jingshuo’s little attempt at cleverness had backfired. He ground his teeth slightly and said nothing more.
Jiang Cheng shot him a glance.
Song Jingshuo didn’t have any real ill intent. It was just that people like him were clearly accustomed to office politics and used to being in control.
Whenever something happened, they wanted to compete for the upper hand.
Just another elite white-collar professional used to workplace competition.
Everyone turned the corner, leaving the main road for the street between the residential compounds.
Jiang Cheng kept looking back. Song Jingshuo, now very attentive to her, asked, “What’s wrong?”
Jiang Cheng said, “I was thinking about whether we should block off the intersections at both ends of the street…”
That would reduce the chances of infected from outside entering their block.
Everyone looked at her.
But then she dismissed the idea. “Never mind. Let’s not think about that for now.”
There were no usable materials. There was also another compound’s entrance on this street—and no one knew how many infected were inside that compound.
Besides, the project was too big. Jiang Cheng knew very well that she didn’t have the authority to mobilize that many residents for manual labor.
Yes, she had successfully organized a collective supply run for all the residents. But precisely because of that, their most urgent need had been met. The bodies in the compound had even been burned. For everyone now, staying safely inside their apartments and waiting for government relief was clearly the easier and safer option.
Besides, the compound was gated. As long as the main gates were locked, infected from outside couldn’t get in.
That was enough for the residents.
Everything else—Jiang Cheng was simply thinking too far, too big, too much.
But Song Jingshuo immediately understood what she had been considering—and why she had given up.
For a moment, he felt deflated. While he had been playing little power games, Jiang Cheng had been contemplating expanding their defensive perimeter.
How could that not make him feel ashamed?
“Let’s leave it for now,” he said quietly. “What we have now is good enough.”
We’ve done what we could.
Jiang Cheng nodded. “You’re right.”
It was reassuring to have someone whose thoughts aligned with hers.
Just as the compound gate came into sight, Jiang Cheng’s phone vibrated.
She tucked her axe into her waistband and pulled out her phone. She glanced at the screen, then said with a slight edge of alertness, “Li Yuan from Building 3—isn’t he on guard duty at the property management office?”
The Building 3 contact immediately replied, “Yes! We bought rice and supplies for him.”
Jiang Cheng answered the call, listened, then responded, “Okay, got it. We’re almost back at the compound. We’ll drop off our things and come over.”
She hung up. Everyone was looking at her. She said, “Someone in the conference room turned.”
“The people in the conference room handled it themselves.”
Using the weapons she had left for them.
“We’ll go check on them in a bit.”
Conference room headcount: minus one.
The mood, buoyed by the successful supply run, suddenly sank. In silence, everyone walked toward the compound gate.
The security guard was waiting anxiously inside the gate. “You’re back. Is anyone still behind you?”
“No, we’re the last group.”
“Old Luo said to lock the gate once you were all back.”
“Lock it. Thanks for your hard work.”
The compound’s vehicle gate was electric. The pedestrian gate used an electromagnetic lock.
The security guard added a chain lock to the electromagnetic gate. If the power went out or there was a malfunction, the electric gate wouldn’t open, but the electromagnetic lock would demagnetize and fail—then the door would swing open.
With that chain lock in place, everyone felt much safer.
Looking back at the inside of the compound, separated from the outside by just this iron gate, a sense of security rose up unbidden.
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