Even though the interim committee had said the supplies were for emergency use only and that the storage wouldn’t be opened unless necessary, just knowing that stockpile existed gave everyone a deep sense of security.
The next day was Monday again—no work, no need to get up early.
Many people were still asleep when the Biduoduo crew showed up again.
This time, however, Dong Ge wasn’t with them.
Because Dong Ge… he’d run off.
The youth apartment was still quite busy that morning. Not everything from yesterday had been put into storage—some had been set aside.
The youth apartment now gave volunteers a portion of the haul as compensation for every collective outing. Since these outings carried a certain amount of risk, everyone—including those who didn’t participate—agreed that appropriate compensation was fair.
So that morning, they were tallying accounts and dividing goods.
That was when the Biduoduo group arrived and asked to see Jiang Cheng directly. They all knew who she was by now.
Jiang Cheng gathered the interim committee’s core members to meet with them.
After listening to the Biduoduo crew’s profanity-laced account, the youth apartment committee members were speechless.
—Dong Ge had actually run off.
Not only did he run, he also took supplies with him!
“He said, ‘Don’t put all your eggs in one basket—in case someone breaks into our dormitory and takes everything, we should stash some elsewhere.’”
What Dong Ge said wasn’t unreasonable. Over the past few days, people had already found their dormitory, but they’d been driven off.
With more than a dozen of them holed up in the supermarket dormitory and never leaving, even an idiot could figure out they must have supplies hidden there.
“He found a car on the street and told us to hide the stuff we got from you yesterday in the trunk. The keys were still in it—the owner probably turned into a zombie and got killed by you guys.”
“Then at night, he grabbed more rice and canned goods from the dorm, loaded up a cart, said he was putting them in the car too for safekeeping… and never came back.”
“We thought something had happened to him! When we went out to look for him, we found out he’d bolted!”
Dong Ge was from a suburban village. Though he had an apartment in the city, he still had a house with a yard in the rural outskirts.
When the virus broke out, his wife had taken the kids to visit the grandparents—luckily, all five family members survived without any mutation. He just happened to be trapped in the city.
Population density in the suburban countryside was much lower. He’d spoken with his family over the phone—there weren’t that many zombies, and they had not only food but also land. They even had vegetables growing in the yard.
A perfect refuge.
The only reason Dong Ge had been stuck at Biduoduo was that his only transportation was a motorcycle. He’d been lucky just to make it from home to the supermarket alive; he didn’t dare risk leaving the supermarket again.
Until yesterday, when he saw the buses Jiang Cheng had commandeered at the youth apartment. It suddenly hit him that he could take any of those ownerless cars on the street.
Who was going to stop him now? No one.
And his coworkers—so what if they were coworkers? They were just people he worked with.
If this crisis passed like previous earthquakes and floods had, he could always just find another job.
As soon as Dong Ge realized he could “commandeer” an ownerless vehicle, he was gone.
And he’d taken some supplies with him.
The Biduoduo people were furious, cursing up a storm!
Jiang Cheng asked: “So what do you want from us?”
The cursing stopped abruptly. Everyone fell silent, looking at each other.
Jiang Cheng wasn’t in a rush. The fact that they’d come all this way meant they wanted something—and the ones who wanted something were the ones who should be anxious.
In the end, the group pushed one man forward—a stocky, solid-built fellow.
The man scratched his face and spoke on behalf of all his coworkers: “We… want to join you.”
As soon as he said that, several of the interim committee core members let out a puzzled: “Huh?”
The man explained: “You’ve lost quite a few people too—there must be plenty of empty apartments. Our place isn’t exactly safe—there are still zombies wandering around on the upper floors, and occasionally they find their way in from outside. We can’t even sleep well. We were wondering if we could move into your neighborhood too, and look out for each other?”
Jiang Cheng said: “We can provide housing, a closed-off safe community, and the benefits of collective action. What can you provide?”
The dozen or so Biduoduo employees exchanged glances.
One older woman said anxiously: “We’re all people who can work—we can do labor, we can do anything!”
There were thirteen of them total, five of them women.
But regardless of gender, they all genuinely looked like hard workers. People who’d been doing physical labor for a long time gave off a certain vibe of endurance and diligence.
Jiang Cheng turned and exchanged glances with the others—she wasn’t dictatorial about everything. On the contrary, she was very open to others’ opinions and suggestions on many details, and actively sought them out.
The seven core members of the interim committee—Jiang Cheng plus the six floor leaders, including Nie Kuizhang who’d made a mistake—had already developed a good rapport over the past week.
A quick exchange of glances was enough to reach consensus.
“What do you all do?” she asked.
Most were stock clerks and cleaners. The leader of the group was a maintenance worker. When asked what he repaired, he said: “Everything. Pipes, wiring, shelves… whatever breaks, I’m the one who fixes it. A big supermarket like that keeps me busy all day.”
So he was something of a jack-of-all-trades.
Jiang Cheng already had a plan in mind.
“You’re not owners here—we can’t give you the same treatment as residents,” she said. “But the interim committee can hire you as property management staff.”
“We can provide you with housing, but like the other property staff, you’ll have to follow the interim committee’s arrangements and provide services to the residents.”
Property staff shortage was a major issue in the neighborhood right now.
Fixing wiring and such was relatively easy to find volunteers for—that was vocational school level work, and there were plenty of engineering guys in the neighborhood who were overqualified for it.
But no one wanted to unclog other people’s toilets, clear out drains, or collect garbage for others.
Property management was overwhelmed, and residents were complaining. Since volunteers couldn’t be found, they had to assign the work by mandatory rotation. Those who got stuck with it weren’t happy either.
But if they didn’t do it that way, Master Luo would be worked to death.
These dozen or so Biduoduo people had come at just the right time.
“Fine, fine, we can do that!” The Biduoduo people immediately nodded.
People used to working weren’t afraid of work.
But those who could endure hardship while staying at the bottom rung for a long time often weren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. Anyone with a decent head on their shoulders, like Dong Ge, could become a supervisor.
During this time, they’d done everything according to Dong Ge’s instructions.
Now that he’d abandoned them and run off, they had no one to lead them.
The supermarket floor had been lucky enough to have no zombies, but there were some on the upper floors. However, with so few of them, Dong Ge hadn’t wanted to take risks—they were all very cautious and valued their lives—so they’d held the supermarket and dormitory but never dealt with the upper floors.
And the building had way too many entrances. Zombies occasionally wandered in, making them feel unsafe.
When everyone discovered Dong Ge had run off, they talked it over all night and finally came to the conclusion: “Why don’t we go join the youth apartment?”
It was the safest and most reliable place nearby.
If they could stay inside that community, they’d be safe too.
Jiang Cheng nodded: “You’ll have to bring your own provisions. Old Dong couldn’t have taken everything, right? I require each of you to bring at least five bags of rice. We won’t accept anyone with less than that.”
Each bag was 5kg. Hard laborers ate more than the average person—at around 450g per day, five bags would barely last them less than two months.
Right now, food was an extremely sensitive resource. People had been beating each other bloody on the Fifth Ring Road over it.
Even if the youth apartment needed labor, it couldn’t afford to provide free food.
Bringing them into the youth apartment’s safe zone was already the compensation for their work.
The Biduoduo people didn’t speak—they all looked at the man they’d chosen as their representative.
The man also stayed silent, staring up at the sky, counting on his fingers with his right hand, his lips moving slightly.
Jiang Cheng knew he was tallying their supplies.
Sure enough, a few seconds later, he let out a breath and said: “We can manage. It’s enough.”
Jiang Cheng said: “Whatever else you’ve stashed away, bring it all over too. Since you’re coming anyway.”
The man thought for a moment, then nodded: “Good point.”
But he asked: “Could you send a few people to help us out? There’s quite a bit of stuff.”
Jiang Cheng smiled. In the current situation, she wasn’t afraid of people hiding too many supplies—she was afraid they had nothing and would starve.
Li Jiangbing was always the one sent on outside missions. He rounded up a bunch of people who were bored out of their minds, and they pushed shopping carts and headed off with a clatter.
Jiang Cheng found Master Luo and told him: “I’ve got you thirteen new employees.”
After hearing the whole story, Master Luo sighed: “That Dong guy is really shady.”
But he was very happy to have help. He knew the Biduoduo people too—one look and you could tell they were all hard workers. With thirteen extra hands all at once, the pressure on him would ease significantly.
Master Luo asked: “Are we putting them in our dormitory? There aren’t that many beds—only five bunks.”
Jiang Cheng said: “No need. There are plenty of empty apartments in the neighborhood. We’ll requisition them for now.”
So many residents had died, most of them living alone, so naturally their apartments were now vacant. For example, Apartment 0308 next to hers—Xiao Bai’s father’s place.
Which units in each building were empty had already been documented when they’d done the building-wide sweep on Sunday night two weeks ago.
Master Luo hesitated, as if he wanted to say something.
Jiang Cheng didn’t need him to say it—she’d already thought of it. She brought it up proactively: “While we’re at it, let’s rearrange housing for the current property staff too. Who knows when this zombie thing will end, but for now, let’s make everyone as comfortable as possible. No more cramming into dormitories.”
Master Luo’s wife cooked for the property staff. She shared a room with Yang Xinyan and two female cleaners, while the male staff all slept together in a dormitory of bunk beds.
The couple lived separately.
Master Luo brightened: “Great—we get to live in nice apartments too.”
Jiang Cheng went even further: “You and your wife can live next door to me—convenient for communication. Jiangbing will also be on the same floor.”
Being close to two interim committee core members—how could Master Luo refuse? “Great!”
Jiang Cheng said: “You’ll need to clean the place up, though.”
Master Luo said: “That’s nothing.”
Jiang Cheng called Li Jiangbing: “Master Luo and I discussed it—we’re moving the property staff into empty apartments too, to improve everyone’s living conditions. Grab some bedding and bring it back for them.”
Li Jiangbing’s reply came through: “Fancy that—we’re getting some right now.”
As the saying goes, a thief never leaves empty-handed. Biduoduo was outside the safe zone and risky to visit alone—you had to go in groups to be safe.
Since they were already there, why leave empty-handed?
So when Li Jiangbing called for people, a whole crowd showed up, all thinking to grab a few extra things while they were at it.
Now that the Biduoduo people were joining the youth apartment, they held nothing back and brought out everything they’d hidden.
Rice, flour, canned meat… they really had stashed quite a bit.
It was a good thing Li Jiangbing had brought plenty of people and carts.
The only things left in the supermarket now were non-essential items—bedding, woks, microwaves. Still useful in daily life.
Some people needed them; others just wanted to take advantage. Either way, they grabbed whatever they could carry.
Even the shopping carts weren’t enough—they pulled out the supermarket’s flatbed carts too, and even those weren’t enough.
The man who’d spoken for his coworkers was surnamed Guo—Guo Jun, a maintenance all-rounder who claimed he could fix anything.
Watching the locust-like frenzy, Guo Jun couldn’t help twitching at the corner of his mouth.
But from now on, they were part of the youth apartment too. The more they took, the better it would be for all of them.
Guo Jun put his hands on his hips: “Forget the flatbeds—they’ll be too heavy to pull all the way back. It’s a long trip.”
Li Jiangbing asked: “Then what do we do?”
Everyone had a nagging feeling that this situation would last who knew how much longer, and they all wanted to stockpile as much as possible.
Guo Jun said: “Hold on—I’ll get the forklift.”
Leave a Reply