Jiang Cheng looked at these people.
They stood on the community road just inside the east gate, with trees on both sides. Dappled sunlight and mottled shadows fell across their faces.
Some handsome, some plain, some stout, some lean—all ordinary people.
If you picked them apart, each had their own personality, their own flaws and shortcomings.
But when the conversation had elevated to this level, suddenly they seemed to homogenize—different people, all believing in or trusting the same thing.
Jiang Cheng would not use the word “faith” here, because she didn’t think it reached the level of faith.
In fact, as she spoke with the six building leaders, “Jiang Cheng’s” memories and cognitions could no longer remain completely isolated from Jiang Cheng’s personal consciousness—they had been triggered and activated.
All that patriotic education, those news reports, touching stories, commended figures.
All that sacrifice and devotion.
But Jiang Cheng’s mind seemed to split in two—one “her” was like these people, while the other felt no reverence for a word like “the nation.” Not to mention faith—she could even clearly detect “distrust,” even “vigilance,” even “wariness.”
Jiang Cheng had never been curious about her past.
She valued the present and the future—since she didn’t know who she had been, she would live well in the here and now.
But now, for the first time, she felt curious about what kind of world she had come from and what kind of person she had been.
She couldn’t pry a single useful piece of information from the fissures in her mind. But Jiang Cheng knew that her original world must have been different from this one.
Every world has its nations, but the nation in her original world must not have done anything worthy of her respect and trust.
It was different from the “nation” here.
In the sunlight filtering through the gaps in the treetops, Jiang Cheng stood alone facing all the others.
A summer breeze stirred. Song Jingshuo felt that Jiang Cheng’s expression was off. Puzzled, he called out to her: “Jiang Cheng?”
In an instant, she was pulled back from all her thoughts.
She could not be content to just hunker down in one community, eating plain rice with pickled vegetables every day, waiting for rescue that might never come.
This “discontent” overflowed from her very genes—unstoppable, irrepressible.
This wasn’t “Jiang Cheng”—this was Jiang Cheng.
What Jiang Cheng’s eyes saw and her mind considered had never been just one or two communities, nor one or two streets.
The map in her mind had always been fully open—it was S City, it was the entire nation.
It was only that her personal capabilities and the resources she could command currently only covered one community.
This wasn’t because Jiang Cheng was some saintly, great person who wanted to save others.
It was because Jiang Cheng simply would not accept being helpless or powerless in any situation.
She could not accept not being in control of the situation, but rather being controlled by it.
This was Jiang Cheng.
This was the “self” that had become increasingly clear and full-bodied ever since Jiang Cheng had broken free from “Jiang Cheng.”
Whatever identity she had held in whatever other world, she was already this kind of person.
It was only that, until just now, she hadn’t found a new force she could draw upon to realize her vision. And now, these few people before her had opened up a line of thought for her.
One could say that this line of thought happened to be her cognitive blind spot—
The nation.
Jiang Cheng smiled at the people before her.
She said, “Then let’s give it a try.”
“…Huh?” Everyone couldn’t follow her train of thought.
The chat group was currently complaining about food.
Everyone had been eating rice with canned food/salted duck eggs/pickled vegetables for a week and a half, and they were sick of it.
Su Yu typed: [Although I’m about to throw up too, think about it—we get to eat our fill every meal.]
The group responded with a chorus of sighs: [That’s true.]
[I don’t want to look at any other forums right now. It’s too terrifying.]
[Sigh…]
[I’m being too fussy. I’ll go heat up another salted duck egg. No, actually, I need to ration my salted duck eggs too.]
[Same here. I kind of regret eating too many canned meat products last week. I’m someone who can’t go without meat. If I finish all the canned meat and the zombie problem still isn’t solved, I’ll cry my eyes out. I should have eaten more sparingly—at least spread it out evenly.]
[The broadcast is on.]
Su Yu listened closely—yes, the broadcast was indeed on.
She quickly stood up, slipped on her shoes, and opened her door so she could hear more clearly.
In the hallway, neighbors were opening their doors and stepping out one after another.
After the test tone, the familiar voice of Jiang Cheng came through.
[I need to tell you all some things you might not want to hear or listen to. But we can’t live in a vacuum. What’s happening outside concerns our own safety too.]
[Whether you want to hear it or not, you have to listen.]
Jiang Cheng’s voice came over the broadcast, calmly and unhurriedly laying out the situation outside.
Su Yu leaned against the doorframe, listening, and eventually closed her eyes.
No wonder Jiang Cheng said you had to listen whether you wanted to or not. Because these things—even without seeing them with your own eyes, just hearing them with your ears was enough to cause pain.
She really wanted to cover her ears.
Just now, the girl in the group had been right—they were being too fussy.
Tired of salted duck eggs, pickles, and canned food—how ridiculously fussy. Because if you had nothing to eat, you would really die.
Su Yu had never been the type to care only about herself when she was doing well. When her basic survival was secured, her empathy made her feel deep pain and helplessness for what others were going through.
But there was a glimmer of hope in her heart.
Because she knew Jiang Cheng wouldn’t bring all this up for no reason. Jiang Cheng must have some plan.
Although Jiang Cheng occasionally made her feel uneasy, in Su Yu’s heart, Jiang Cheng had always had an aura of brilliance about her.
The air in the hallway seemed to sink. People’s emotions radiated like energy, influencing one another.
Everyone was feeling down right now.
[I want everyone to understand that calculating how many grams of rice and how many cans of food you consume each day, hoping to stockpile enough to last until rescue arrives—that’s actually an overly idealized scenario.]
[Because this calculation doesn’t factor in changes and impacts from the external environment.]
[Specifically, “security.”]
[If you only calculate food consumption, then the owners of Shanshui Yayuan should have been just as worry-free as we are, lying back and waiting for state rescue.]
[But what happened in reality? Several households in Shanshui Yayuan were slaughtered—entire families wiped out.]
[Compared to our neighbors, we do have a more united organization and stronger combat capability. But do we really want to wait until it’s living people fighting living people, until kitchen knives are aimed at other survivors?]
[If it reaches that point, and the state eventually eliminates the zombies and society returns to its former order—then those of us who have killed people—can we ever go back to how we were?]
[Everyone, are we going to hide in our little apartments and wait for all of this to happen?]
No! No!
A voice cried out in Su Yu’s heart. She bit her lip hard.
Survival was certainly important, but she could never accept that kind of situation.
But what could be done? Did they expect everyone to charge out and get themselves killed?
[However, it can’t be just our community charging out in a fit of passion. Because this isn’t something one community can solve, nor should any community’s residents bear the obligation to sacrifice themselves to save others.]
[This isn’t even the time for the military to fight alone with desperate courage. This is a war between humans and monsters, between humans and zombies, against an unknown virus.]
[It’s not about one person or one community—it’s about every person, every community.]
[But I, Jiang Cheng, owner of Unit 0306, Building 2, do not have the ability to mobilize everyone on my own. So I plan to…]
[Contact the temporary emergency command center—I mean S City’s temporary emergency command center.]
[I will issue a proposal to the government in the name of Youth Apartments.]
Jiang Cheng said: [If the government adopts it, if the government issues the call, I will answer that call without hesitation.]
[I also hope that everyone, just like in every collective action over the past week, will pick up their weapons and walk out of the community with me.]
[Even if other communities don’t respond immediately, Youth Apartments will be the first community to answer the call.]
[Humans live in groups, but most are sheep—there must be a lead wolf at the very front.]
Jiang Cheng had the entire Youth Apartments community witness as she dialed the phone number from this morning.
It was answered almost instantly.
Everyone heard a relatively young male voice through the building broadcast: “Youth Apartments? Jiang Cheng?”
Jiang Cheng had it on speakerphone so that the residents of Youth Apartments could listen in.
“This is Jiang Cheng. Who is this?”
“I’m Mayor Zheng’s temporary secretary. My surname is Sun.”
“Secretary Sun, hello. I am now speaking on behalf of all residents of Youth Apartments. I request to speak with Mayor Zheng.”
A much deeper, more authoritative male voice came through the phone: “Jiang Cheng, have you changed your mind?”
It turned out that upon seeing the caller ID “Youth Apartments,” they had also put it on speakerphone.
This voice was unmistakable—everyone watched the television every day waiting for him to speak, and everyone could recognize it.
It really was Mayor Zheng from the news—the man currently in control of the overall situation in S City.
Jiang Cheng could actually speak directly with him.
Jiang Cheng’s pace remained unhurried. Even facing a high-ranking official, she showed no trace of nervousness: “I’m sorry, but what you asked for—I can’t do it. If I did, the first thing I’d face would be internal resistance, division, and escalating conflicts within the community. And what I need right now is to maintain collective stability and build effective combat capability.”
Mayor Zheng was silent for a beat, then acknowledged: “You make a good point.”
He asked: “Then what is the purpose of your call?”
Everyone in the hallways couldn’t help but hold their breath, as if afraid to disturb the conversation.
“Mayor Zheng, on behalf of all residents of Youth Apartments, I propose to the nation: it is time to launch a people’s war.”
After Jiang Cheng’s words fell, silence filled both the broadcast and the hallways.
After a moment, Mayor Zheng’s voice slowly rose, chewing over the term: “A people’s war…”
“Mayor Zheng, the residents of our community are young people who have gone to college—conscientious, upstanding young people.”
“Young people who wait for the green light to cross the street.”
“If we wait any longer, the kitchen knives in these young people’s hands may have to be turned against the living.”
“You know the situation outside better than I do. If all of that happens, even if all the zombies are eventually eliminated, they can never go back.”
“This will destroy an entire generation.”
“Mayor, don’t let this generation of young people carry that kind of memory.”
“It should be that, when looking back in the future once things are stable, everyone can proudly say how many zombies they killed.”
“Not how many people.”
“Mayor, there’s no time to hesitate anymore.”
“If we regard the zombies as a natural disaster, then this disaster is different from any before—it’s no longer something the military alone can solve.”
“The masses must be mobilized now.”
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