“Have you been able to get in touch with your families? Is everyone safe?”
Jiang Cheng’s single sentence pulled everyone back from their daze. Safe? How could they be? The neighborhood next door was still in utter chaos.
Even though they had food in hand now, as long as they didn’t see government rescue arrive, they knew that “seeing the light of day” was still a long way off.
In the pavilion, those standing, sitting, or leaning against the pillars all let out sighs.
Some even shed tears.
Jiang Cheng’s expression showed that she was completely unaffected by these emotions.
Li Jiangbing and Song Jingshuo both thought to themselves, perhaps it was because her parents had passed away and she had no lingering attachments.
Jiang Cheng continued:
“Some people left last night. Given the current situation outside, the rule is that residents are allowed to leave but not to enter.”
“Non-residents of this community are not permitted inside.”
“Residents who have left and wish to return must undergo a full-body examination.”
“Anyone coming back from outside must receive a physical check to prevent bringing in injuries.”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“Master Luo.” Jiang Cheng turned and called out.
Master Luo and his people had also been notified of this meeting. Master Luo responded.
Jiang Cheng said earnestly to Master Luo: “Given the current situation outside, none of us can really go out anyway. The property management staff will definitely have to stick with us through this.”
“I hope that until this virus is completely resolved, we can maintain the daily operations of our community,” she said.
Master Luo looked a bit troubled: “Including myself, there are only three people in the engineering department.”
The other engineers’ wives were also working in this city, but unlike Master Luo, whose wife worked in the same place and could share the dormitory with him, they would go back to their rented apartments on weekends to reunite with their wives. Now, they couldn’t come back.
Currently, the community was left with mainly elderly cleaning staff, young security guards, and one young woman, Yang Xinyan, who was an office clerk.
Things like clogged toilets or burnt-out light bulbs might seem trivial, but they could cause immense inconvenience in daily life.
And then there was the community’s hygiene.
In just two days, without regular cleaning services, the situation had visibly deteriorated. Because people generated garbage every single day.
This issue was very serious. The amount of trash produced daily by several thousand people was staggering.
But the problem now was that even if the property staff could resume cleaning services, how would the collected garbage be disposed of?
All urban public services had ceased. The fact that there was still running water, electricity, and internet was mainly due to the automated operation of modern technology and a few surviving staff members holding the fort.
But garbage—that relied on sanitation workers driving garbage trucks to each community every day to collect it, then transporting it to waste stations for sorting, burial, or incineration.
No one was doing that now.
The very reason Jiang Cheng had called this meeting was to solve the practical problems they were facing.
What were the practical problems?
They were eating, drinking, and eliminating waste.
As soon as the garbage issue was raised, everyone turned serious.
Zombies were a big deal, but trash was no small matter either. It was closely tied to everyone’s daily life.
Over the past two days, every household had accumulated several bags of garbage. Some men with poor hygiene habits hadn’t changed their trash bags in time, and their homes were already starting to stink and attract tiny black flies.
Add to that the stench of rotting corpses drifting in through the windows—don’t even mention it.
Even the slobs themselves couldn’t stand it anymore.
No wonder Jiang Cheng had called this meeting today. Community repairs and maintenance were no small matters.
Young people who chose to live in these studio apartments rather than crowded group rentals all had certain standards for quality of life. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, once safety and basic sustenance were met, human needs would naturally rise to the next level.
But Master Luo’s concerns were equally realistic: first, they were short-handed on repairs; second, garbage couldn’t be transported out.
The interim committee now had dozens of members, and they launched into a heated discussion on this topic.
Residents kept crowding around to listen and couldn’t help but chime in. Since it concerned their own interests, everyone wanted to hear and offer suggestions.
In the end, layers upon layers of people had gathered.
After much noisy debate, they finally reached a conclusion.
First, for repairs: the property had the tools, but they were short on manpower, so they needed to recruit volunteers. However, while some might be willing to change light bulbs, it would be hard to find people willing to unclog toilets or drains.
In the end, they decided on mandatory assignment.
As for how the assignment would be carried out—whether by lottery or by designated units—each building would decide for itself.
For now, the six leaders of the six buildings—now called building captains—had all demonstrated organizational skills and a willingness to step up, earning considerable influence in the community.
They could rally eight or nine people per building to help out and could keep things under control when issues arose.
Everyone trusted they could handle it.
If they couldn’t, then they’d be replaced by whoever could.
Whenever humans gathered, capable people would always emerge.
The real headache was the garbage problem. In a community this large, if the waste station didn’t send trucks for even one day, the trash would overflow.
After much deliberation, they finally decided to requisition the clubhouse swimming pool as a temporary garbage storage area.
The community clubhouse was outsourced to an external operator. After the zombie outbreak on Saturday night, the clubhouse staff hadn’t come to work. The place was now empty.
The first thing they needed to do was drain the pool.
One advantage of the youth apartments was that most of the residents held at least a bachelor’s degree, with a particularly high number of engineering-minded men.
As soon as the call went out, they didn’t even need to search the whole community—several people from the crowd that had gathered around immediately volunteered. All of them were engineers.
This was excellent.
Although everyone had been initially deflated by Jiang Cheng’s earlier harsh words, the sight of so many capable and enthusiastic people gave everyone another shot of confidence and a renewed sense of security.
Those who arrived later, upon hearing from earlier arrivals that the interim committee had already strictly prohibited outsiders from entering the community, felt even more at ease.
In just two days, the interim committee had already gained significant credibility in everyone’s hearts.
Some people went off to the clubhouse to deal with the pool. The rest continued discussing the garbage issue and the other problems it had raised.
“We still need to make another trip to Mai Duoduo,” Jiang Cheng decided.
The two previous large-scale shopping trips to the supermarket had focused mainly on personal necessities—food, toilet paper, and the like. Since individual carrying capacity was limited, everyone had been forced to abandon non-essential items.
No one had even thought to grab supplies for the community as a whole.
“Disinfectant, bleach… everything that can kill germs,” Jiang Cheng said. “And whatever else they still have there that we can carry—grab as much as we can.”
If the garbage just piled up without being treated, the consequences were unthinkable.
This trip didn’t require a full mobilization; the people already present were enough. They organized a team of over forty on the spot.
Those who hadn’t signed up also helped by scouring the area for shopping carts.
Many supermarket carts had been brought back by residents. The supermarket was large, and the carts were large too—they could hold a lot, but they also took up space.
At the youth apartments, except for a few units with larger duplex layouts, most people lived in very small spaces. After moving their supplies, many had left the carts in hallways, building lobbies, or even out in the courtyard.
Soon, they’d found enough carts.
Since it was already clear what needed to be brought back, Jiang Cheng didn’t need to go herself. Li Jiangbing would lead this trip.
The street between the youth apartments and Jixiang Jiayuan had already been completely cleared of zombies.
Mai Duoduo faced the main road and had been cleaned up, though a few stray zombies from further away would occasionally be drawn by the noise. But they posed no real threat.
Everyone had plenty of combat experience by now.
“Leave it to me,” Li Jiangbing said. “Alright, brothers—follow me!”
The group wheeled their carts out in a bustling procession.
“Alright, everyone disperse,” Jiang Cheng said to the onlookers.
She raised her hand.
Mo Li had wanted to sunbathe, but with so many people around, Jiang Cheng worried someone might step on him, so she’d placed him on top of the pavilion.
The meeting had lasted over an hour, and Mo Li had been sunbathing the entire time.
Jiang Cheng reached up, brought him down, and put him back in her shoulder bag. She gently stroked his fur and felt his body warm to the touch—completely different from his nighttime temperature.
Was sunbathing really that effective? She’d have to make sure the little cat got more sun.
“Su Yu,” Jiang Cheng called out. “The two matters we just discussed—put together a post and put it up on the forum.”
Su Yu immediately took on the task: “Got it.”
Jiang Cheng turned to the building captains: “Want to go check out the clubhouse?”
The captains all nodded: “Let’s go, let’s take a look.”
Su Yu headed home to write and post the announcement.
The building captains, along with a few others who were especially active in various activities—like Peng Ze—and Yang Xinyan from the property management, all headed to the clubhouse together.
On the way, Song Jingshuo walked beside Jiang Cheng and said in a low voice, “Next time we have a meeting, we need to find an enclosed space.”
There had been too many onlookers, and people kept interrupting.
Although today’s discussion topics weren’t the kind that minded interruptions, Song Jingshuo still didn’t like it.
Jiang Cheng agreed: “Alright.”
She then remembered to ask Yang Xinyan: “How’s the situation in the meeting room?”
Yang Xinyan’s expression darkened: “No sound. Not a single peep.”
She was the office clerk, always stationed at the front desk answering phone calls and monitoring the group chats, separated from the meeting room by only a short corridor.
She hadn’t been alone at the property management center—others had been there with her. But the young girl had watched as so many people were locked into the meeting room, as the people on the monitor mutated, as the person from Building Four smashed the camera, and then the periodic disturbances, the welded-shut door, and finally, utter silence.
The young girl felt that these past two days had been longer than the entire first half of her life.
By the time they’d finished talking, they’d arrived at the clubhouse.
The clubhouse used to be the sales office, but it had been built with the intention of converting it into a clubhouse. Its interior layout was well-designed, with a swimming pool, a gym, and a small coffee bar.
The group that had arrived earlier was already draining the pool—very slowly.
Master Luo said, “There’s no rushing this. The water only flows at this rate.”
He added, “Good thing these guys showed up—otherwise, I wouldn’t be familiar with these machines at all.”
A young man came over and told them: “This pool is a 25-meter non-standard pool. I did some calculations. Assuming our garbage is all unsorted mixed waste, the density is roughly between 0.15 and 0.3 tons per cubic meter. That means a full pool can hold about 200 to 380 tons.”
“A community our size generates about 3 tons of garbage per day. This pool should be able to support us for about 65 to 120 days.”
“Of course, this is directly related to how compacted the trash is. If we can compress it to some degree, that number could go even higher.”
He wore a plaid shirt and large-framed glasses—practically the word “engineering guy” written all over his face.
He liked to back everything up with data.
Jiang Cheng and Song Jingshuo both appreciated this type of engineering-minded person—these were the real workhorses who could get things done.
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