Today there was another very serious problem—the phones had no signal.
Right after the explosion yesterday, the signal had still been fine. Song Jingshuo had even called all seven other districts, and had also spoken with Jiang Cheng on the phone.
Jiang Cheng and Engineer Yu had spoken on the phone.
By today, there was no signal.
No water, so they’d lost flush toilets.
No electricity, so they’d lost communications.
The explosions and fires had burned through massive amounts of electrical wiring—a near city-wide, large-scale blackout.
The base stations were down too.
Thinking about it now, it was fortunate they’d gotten in touch with Engineer Yu yesterday. Otherwise, contacting him today would have been difficult.
At the same time, everyone realized—this meant each district had become an isolated island.
Jiang Cheng and the others returned after lunch.
Song Jingshuo saw her and asked: “Did you get it?”
Jiang Cheng nodded: “Got it.”
Diesel generators, lead-acid battery banks.
Gao Yuxuan and the others had also dismantled all sorts of things, and had Jiang Cheng pack them up and bring them back.
It felt like a mouse in a granary.
Song Jingshuo said: “Engineer Yu has arrived. He ate lunch in the cafeteria at noon and is resting now. Jiangbing and the others went to fetch water. Also, these are from Engineer Yu—location information for the other water plants.”
This was information that should be shared with other districts.
But sharing was difficult now.
Previously, they’d exchanged email addresses. Now they could find an electric-type to charge a computer, but the internet was gone.
Jiang Cheng frowned: “We need to find a way to get in contact with everyone. Also, the kids at No. 14 High School need to be brought over quickly. How many people do they have there now?”
Song Jingshuo said: “Including students and refugees, about one thousand two hundred.”
No. 14 High School’s biggest problem was that they had no wood-type or water-type superpower users.
In mid-September, Jiang Cheng and her team had gone over and straightened out No. 14 High School’s order. Song Jingshuo had taught them management hands-on.
For the following week, someone had gone over every day to keep things running, until the kids gradually became familiar with the management process.
Because they had no wood-types, the Tech District had continuously supplied them with materials—mainly potatoes.
But now, water, electricity, and gas were all gone. Gas was fine—after all, fire-types were everywhere. But no water was truly deadly.
“This needs to be handled quickly. They must be panicking. Let’s go this afternoon.”
“Alright, I’ll arrange it. You go say hello to Engineer Yu first.”
So Jiang Cheng went to see Engineer Yu: “Are you settled in? Getting used to it?”
“Pretty good.” Engineer Yu said. “The steamed buns are really delicious. I haven’t had buns like these in a long time. Now they’re all pure white buns—full of whitening agents.”
Jiang Cheng smiled: “We grew them ourselves, milled them ourselves.”
The wheat seeds had come from Taiping Town.
Gao Yuxuan, Cui Haiyang, and the others had dismantled an electric motor from somewhere and rigged up an electric mill to grind flour.
The flour came out yellowish, and the steamed buns came out yellowish too.
A bunch of city kids had made a fuss, asking why the buns weren’t white.
Sister Pan had looked at them with disdain.
Engineer Yu nodded: “You’ve planted rice too, I heard.”
The food problem could develop long-term.
The water problem was being solved too.
Livelihood issues—one by one, they were being solved.
Even without water, electricity, and gas, their standard of living could still be higher than the rural village he’d grown up in.
Jiang Cheng and Engineer Yu chatted idly for a bit—no topic, no purpose.
Purely because in yesterday’s phone call, Engineer Yu’s sense of defeat and helplessness had been too intense.
Jiang Cheng deeply empathized.
Who didn’t feel that way?
It was just that not everyone could adapt as quickly as Jiang Cheng, adjusting themselves so rapidly.
The idle chat was purely for comfort.
She still had many things waiting to be done, so she rose to take her leave.
Just as she was about to step out the door, Engineer Yu suddenly called her back: “Jiang Cheng.”
Jiang Cheng turned around.
Engineer Yu said sincerely: “You’ve already done very well.”
Jiang Cheng smiled and nodded: “Thank you.”
I know.
Of course I’ve done very well.
Otherwise, why would they keep raising the stakes, again and again suppressing me, destroying my efforts?
…Or is it some kind of sick amusement?
Could it be some kind of monstrous pervert who wanted to watch others fail and despair?
—
In the afternoon, two teams were dispatched.
One team, just one vehicle, went to find the other district governments to check on their situations, and to share whatever information and countermeasures the Tech District had—whatever could be shared, they shared with everyone.
The other team, with twelve vehicles, headed straight for No. 14 High School.
Driving now required more caution than before, because too many manholes had lost their covers.
Those manholes had basically stopped spewing fire.
But some buildings had been ignited, and large structures could burn for a day or two.
As the vehicles drove on the road, smoke was everywhere in the sky, overturned cars littered the ground—it had the look of an apocalyptic scene.
After two zombie outbreaks, people had finally developed a feeling of the world coming to an end.
When the teachers and students of No. 14 High School saw the Tech District convoy, it was like seeing heavenly soldiers.
They cheered and ran over.
“You came!”
“We knew you would come!”
“The phones stopped working!”
“We were so worried!”
Jiang Cheng had come personally. She first asked: “Was anyone hurt yesterday?”
The students started crying.
“The aunties died.”
“It happened all at once in the explosion.”
“We put out the fire and went in, but they were already…”
Such good aunties.
From the very beginning, they’d swung their big iron ladles and fought side by side with everyone.
Watching the refugees grow more and more numerous, every day counting on their fingers how much food was left, terrified of wasting even a little.
One explosion, and they were all gone.
More terrifying than zombies—zombies weren’t even scary anymore.
They weren’t even afraid of mutant zombies.
But this kind of sudden loss of life was too terrifying.
Utterly powerless.
Seeing Jiang Cheng, they couldn’t hold back their tears.
The students obeyed Jiang Cheng’s arrangements.
The refugees, however, buzzed with discussion. Many were hesitant.
Mainly because many people weren’t familiar with the Tech District. That’s how big cities were—even though Guangxiu District bordered the Tech District, many people from Guangxiu District might never have visited the Tech District even once.
Jiang Cheng didn’t force anyone: “If you want to go to another district, that’s fine too. These are the bases for each district—we’ll post them on the wall later. If you don’t know the specific locations, you can go look. Those who want to come with us, go pack your things now.”
There wasn’t really much to pack. Just the bedding and toiletries they’d acquired here. Bring them all—save the hassle of sorting things out again at the Tech District. Things were chaotic enough right now. Whatever could be simplified, simplify.
Suddenly two people came running over, calling for Jiang Cheng: “Jiang Cheng! Jiang Cheng!”
They were very excited: “Their staff dormitory building has a bathhouse—with a boiler!”
“Let’s take that boiler!”
Jiang Cheng and a few metal-types followed them.
After some effort, they dismantled the boiler’s mounting fixtures and separated the boiler: “Jiang Cheng, take it!”
Jiang Cheng stored it. A good haul—this thing would be useful for building a bathhouse in the community.
She asked: “Where else would have this kind of thing?”
“Lots of places. Schools, government institutions—big organizations usually have them.”
Jiang Cheng instructed: “Keep it in mind. Any time you think of something useful that can be found, we’ll take it.”
Everyone laughed.
Jiang Cheng was so practical, so down-to-earth.
In the end, they took over eight hundred people back to the Tech District.
On the way, they encountered three groups flagging down their vehicles.
All were small groups of a dozen or twenty people who’d found their own places to use as bases.
Small safe points like this were quite common in the city.
The city had abundant survival resources, and safe areas were growing larger. Some people simply didn’t want to attach themselves to a larger group.
But now, without wood-types, you could still survive by scavenging existing food in the city.
Without water-types, you couldn’t survive anymore.
Those vehicles were too iconic—anyone entering or leaving the city had to pass through Guangxiu District, not to mention this was the only route to and from No. 14 High School.
Everyone knew it was the Tech District’s convoy. So they flagged down the vehicles to seek refuge.
All were accepted.
The Tech District was under vigorous construction.
Having water supply trucks made things much more convenient.
Each community added storage tanks. For now, they ensured each community had 20 tons of water in reserve per day.
They’d see how it went—adjust if it wasn’t enough.
The two most urgent matters in each community were building latrines and building outdoor stove cafeterias.
It was no longer possible for individual households to cook separately—they could only go to a large cafeteria system.
The eight hundred–plus people from No. 14 High School were arranged differently.
The three hundred–plus teachers and students—the kids had already been through education and training. Their organization, discipline, and obedience were far better than adults’. In Jiang Cheng’s eyes, they were reservists.
They were arranged to stay in the youth apartments.
The others continued with the previous refugee arrangements—packed into communities that weren’t yet full.
The kids couldn’t sit still. The youth apartments were undergoing vigorous large-scale renovation, and the kids all ran over to watch.
As they watched, they started participating.
Engineer Yu looked at the young people of the youth apartments and felt vitality.
The youth apartment residents looked at the newly joined kids and saw—now that was true vitality.
Morale was recovering bit by bit.
—
The team that had gone into the city to contact the other administrative districts didn’t return until dark, bringing back bad news.
“Fuyang District has fallen into chaos!”
Fuyang District’s leader was dead.
With these loosely organized groups formed spontaneously by civilians, if a sufficiently balanced organizational structure hadn’t been established, sometimes everything relied on the leader’s personal charisma and ability to hold it together.
The soul figure had died in the explosion. Flames engulfed the city like the apocalypse.
The people’s hearts scattered instantly. The collective rapidly disintegrated. Within a single day, it had deteriorated to the point where several factions started fighting over supplies—blood was being spilled.
The people who returned were visibly shaken: “Just one day—one day!”
How hard it was to build, how fast it could collapse.
Shilong District and Changxing District were both okay. They still seemed to have strong collective cohesion, and had already begun self-rescue construction.
The Tech District people shared the addresses of the various water plants with them, along with the youth apartments’ various construction ideas.
Zheng Junwei of Shilong District asked: “Are you still stable?”
The Tech District people thought about it and nodded with certainty: “Stable!”
Zheng Junwei was deeply moved.
“The Changxing District people suggest we use radio to communicate from now on. This is the frequency they gave.”
The returning people handed Jiang Cheng a slip of paper with numbers written on it.
Jiang Cheng asked: “Where do we find radio equipment?”
No one knew.
Jiang Cheng asked: “Would an ordinary radio work?”
Someone actually knew: “No. You can’t receive amateur radio—the operating frequencies are different. Radios are generally in the 87–108 MHz range. Amateur radio is generally in the 430–440 MHz range.”
Jiang Cheng: “Can it be modified?”
Also no—because it would essentially mean hand-building a new machine.
Radios and radio equipment had hardware barriers, and there was nowhere to find the needed parts.
Jiang Cheng had to give up on that idea: “But there has to be somewhere that has this equipment.”
Just then Song Jingshuo arrived: “What’s going on? What’s the situation?”
Everyone told him.
“Oh.” Song Jingshuo said. “Take the one off my vehicle.”
Everyone: “…”
“What’s strange about that?” Song Jingshuo said, hands in his pockets. “Those of us who do off-road outdoors stuff—we basically all use radio.”
Great. Shown off by the rich guy again.
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