After breakfast, people were sent to pick up Engineer Yu and his group, as well as the water plant’s water supply trucks.
Emergency water supply trucks were originally meant to supply drinking water during natural disasters, large events, and temporary water outages.
Once those trucks returned, transporting water between the residential area and the Bailiang River would become convenient—no need for Jiang Cheng to personally accompany them.
The Tech District Provisional Government held a meeting. It included key personnel from each community in the Tech District.
Since June, through two zombie disasters, this was the first meeting with such low morale.
Everyone’s eyes looked a bit hollow.
Very defeated.
Jiang Cheng looked around and spoke: “Feeling down? Feeling down is useless. We still have to solve problems.”
There was no time to feel down. Laid out before them was one stark reality after another—all too real.
First was the water problem.
The Tech District had only three water-type superpower users in total.
Gao Yuxuan was holding his laptop.
He turned to look—Zhao Yi was caring for Zhang Lesi. Zhang Lesi couldn’t see but was still attending the meeting as an observer.
Gao Yuxuan turned back, staring blankly at the laptop screen.
He and Zhao Yi had been compiling data on superpower users all along.
Both were sensitive to data. They’d always known that there was a hidden balance in the ratios of various superpower types.
They’d mentioned this to Song Jingshuo too. Song Jingshuo was even more sensitive to data—one glance at the spreadsheet and he agreed with them.
But at that time, all kinds of hardware conditions could still keep up. Some things weren’t so obvious.
Until now—with water, electricity, and gas all cut off, the “balance” in the superpower user data suddenly became starkly apparent.
Fire, electric, metal, earth were the most numerous—the most everyday, the most practical.
When it came to wood-types, who were essential for keeping everyone fed—the numbers dropped sharply. Just a precious few.
And when the water stopped, they suddenly realized—water-type superpower users were so few?
Water and wood were the bottleneck. Gao Yuxuan could see that balance line even with his eyes closed.
They let you live.
But only just live.
The water problem wasn’t just about drinking.
Drinking, cooking, bathing—and one very crucial thing: flushing toilets.
How could modern toilets function without water?
The current situation meant… a life with modern toilets was about to become a thing of the past for everyone.
This was deeply painful and disheartening.
“Then here’s what we’ll do,” Jiang Cheng decided. “Drinking water will be provided centrally. We’ll run a trial first, then decide whether to set quotas.”
“All communities will stop using flush toilets and switch to dry latrines.”
“Establish communal bathhouses.”
“Establish centralized large cafeterias.”
These were responses to the water and gas outages.
Also: “There are still plenty of empty apartments. Everyone should move to lower floors. If necessary, we’ll set up some group dormitories on lower floors.”
This was because without electricity, lights and elevators couldn’t be used—too unfriendly for people living on high floors.
Song Jingshuo, for example—he lived on the twentieth-something floor.
Also, they needed to figure out the electricity problem.
Gao Yuxuan raised his hand: “Renxin Hospital.”
To guarantee surgery and intensive care, hospitals had to have zero-interruption power supply.
Usually, they had diesel generators and battery banks.
In fact, many factories had them too, but the industrial park had burned too badly last night. People had been sent to check today—they still didn’t know if the fire had stopped.
“Diesel generators?” Jiang Cheng held her chin, thinking. “Let’s bring them over first and figure it out after.”
Large vehicles all ran on diesel.
The Tech District’s gas stations had already been emptied by them earlier. Later, they’d gone into the city and found fuel tanker trucks.
Fortunately, the main people still using vehicles were the provisional government personnel of each district. That consumption was nothing compared to the entire city’s reserves—at least for now, there was no immediate fuel crisis.
But Jiang Cheng still asked: “Can generators be modified? Wind power? Hydro? Human power? Can battery banks be charged directly by electric-type superpowers?”
“We’ll have to try everything,” Gao Yuxuan said. “Wind power isn’t feasible. Hydro conditions are a bit difficult. I’m optimistic about human power.”
Someone said: “Holy crap, then we’ll need to set up a human-powered charging array.”
Gao Yuxuan disagreed: “Why not build a transmission convergence system? There are so many ownerless cars outside—differentials, belt pulleys, rear axles. Just take them apart! As many as you want. We’ll build it ourselves! With just one generator set, the efficiency would absolutely beat a human-powered array.”
“The precision requirements are too high.”
“Haiyang, where are you? Haiyang, speak up! This is your field!”
“I support Yuxuan. We can give it a try. I’ll draft a blueprint first and see.”
Jiang Cheng didn’t interrupt the engineering guys’ argument and discussion.
In fact, as the argument and discussion grew more heated, morale was recovering bit by bit.
That was good.
In the end, they decided to build a transmission convergence system.
After a big discussion, no one’s eyes looked hollow anymore. They were regaining the spirit young people should have.
When the meeting ended, everyone got busy.
Some things needed to be started immediately—
The civil engineer quickly produced a simple sketch and explained it in detail to Sister Pan.
Since there were no tools to draw lines on the ground, several people simply stood at key points as human markers for Sister Pan: “Sister, from him to me—yes, horizontally—then turn.”
“Deeper. Wait, let me crouch and test—see if the compartment spacing is enough.”
The metal-types were urging: “Hurry up and set the distances so we can start building the frames.”
The people who’d gone to observe the Bailiang River came back: “It’s still burning. Looks like it won’t stop for days.”
After consideration, they decided not to send fire-types to fight the industrial zone blaze. Who knew what was in those factories.
“Explosions keep happening. We really can’t go in. Let it burn itself out.”
The hospital’s generator set and battery bank couldn’t be moved by manpower alone—this was where Jiang Cheng was needed.
Before leaving, Jiang Cheng looked around the courtyard and found Moli.
The handsome young man was squatting on the ground, both hands pressed in front of his feet—exactly a cat’s sitting posture.
The little kids surrounded him: “Is it really Moli?”
“Look at his eyes!”
“It’s Moli!”
At first glance, the handsome youth’s eyes looked black, no different from anyone else’s. But when facing the sunlight, you could see the green.
The little kids confirmed this was Moli and were all amazed.
Little hands reached up to touch his head: “Moli, where are your pointy ears?”
Moli lifted a foot to scratch his ear, discovered the new body’s bone and joint structure wasn’t suited for that, so he used his hand to scratch instead: “They became like this.”
“Moli, can you still turn into a big cat?”
“Yes.”
“Can you still carry us running around the courtyard?”
“Yes.”
“Then now…”
“Not now.” Jiang Cheng stepped in just in time to stop it.
She told Moli: “If you want to turn into cat form, go inside first. If you want to change from cat form to human form, also go inside first. In human form, you must be dressed before seeing others. You can’t see others naked.”
Moli: “Oh!”
Jiang Cheng: “I’m going out.”
Moli made to get up. Jiang Cheng pressed him back down: “Stay home and play with everyone. I’m going to Renxin Hospital.”
There were no zombies at all within the Tech District’s boundaries—it was a clean safe zone. No need for Moli to accompany her on outings.
The little kids had been badly frightened yesterday. Several had gone pale in the face.
Especially seeing Zhang Lesi’s condition—several children had cried.
They all liked Zhang Lesi very much.
Now Moli was playing with them, and you could see the children’s moods had eased considerably.
Cats had always been the best at healing people.
Interestingly enough, an animal turning into human form was actually the easiest thing for everyone to accept.
No flush toilets—having to use dry latrines from now on—that was what felt like the sky falling for many people.
When Engineer Yu arrived at the youth apartments with his technicians, what they saw was a scene of bustling activity.
The main framework and pits for the dry latrines were already done. The civil engineer and Sister Pan had both retired from their roles.
The metal-type superpower users took over, starting to build the partitions and pit floors.
The gleaming footboards had anti-slip patterns, and the doors had bolts.
Separate men’s and women’s facilities.
It looked no different from an ordinary public restroom, except it was a dry latrine.
This was the most urgent task.
Once this was finished, they’d build the bathhouse.
But they were already discussing whether to build their own boiler or go get a boiler from outside.
With Jiang Cheng’s spatial storage, moving large items was simply too convenient.
The outdoor stoves had been further expanded and modified—they would be the main kitchen from now on.
The fire-types lit the fires. The temporary chefs had already started preparing lunch—the aroma was already wafting out.
The giant water tanks, with faucets all the way around, had a constant stream of people coming with cups, bottles, buckets, or kettles to draw water.
There was an elephant-sized giant cat carrying a group of little kids in circles around the courtyard.
It was the cat they’d seen on TV—they’d seen it yesterday too, but yesterday it was still in kitten form. Today they finally saw the giant form.
Song Jingshuo came to greet them, gripping Engineer Yu’s hand with both of his in salute: “This past month and more—thank you! You’ve worked hard!”
Engineer Yu only said: “It was my duty.”
He said: “All twelve water supply trucks have been driven back.”
Song Jingshuo gripped his hand tighter: “That’s exactly what we needed.”
With the water supply trucks, Jiang Cheng no longer needed to personally accompany the water runs.
The storage tanks didn’t need to be moved either—they could build more and increase storage capacity.
Song Jingshuo said: “Your room is ready. Since there’s no electricity now, we’ve prepared a second-floor room.”
Engineer Yu had no demands: “As long as I can stay there.”
When they actually got there, they found the conditions were quite good. Because the youth apartments were themselves fully furnished units.
The furniture and appliances the trendy young people had chosen were also nice.
Several young people helped him carry water upstairs.
The water buckets stockpiled from Duoduoduo were now proving extremely useful.
Engineer Yu thanked them.
When mealtime came, someone called him to eat.
No matter what, people had to eat.
Engineer Yu was feeling a bit dispirited now, but he still had to go downstairs to eat.
When he actually got downstairs, what he saw was almost all young people, each one wolfing down their food.
Chatting while eating.
“Go check out the private school. Isn’t it a boarding school? It has dorms and a bathhouse. Usually they have their own boiler—just bring it over.”
“Let’s scout it first. Once we’ve scouted it clearly, we’ll report to Jiang Cheng and go move it together.”
“As soon as possible. If we can’t shower soon, Zhang Lesi is going to start yelling at people.”
“Hahahahahaha.”
Engineer Yu didn’t know why, but he suddenly had an appetite.
No water, no electricity, no gas—what was there to be afraid of?
Wasn’t this just what the country looked like decades ago? Wasn’t this the life he’d lived as a child?
Nothing to be afraid of.
As long as there were people, it was fine.
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