About the matter of Jiang Cheng and Moli living together.
Back when Moli was a small cat, of course no one thought anything of it. Later, when Moli could transform into a giant cat and his combat power ranked first by a landslide, everyone could only feel envy.
But now Moli was human. Although he could still turn into a cat, Jiang Cheng, in order to get him used to being human, had ordered him to appear in human form during the day when there was nothing to do.
Everyone’s hearts itched and itched and itched like they had worms growing in them!
Everyone wanted to know—was Moli a human or a cat at night?
Although the computers could still be used now, there was no internet, so they couldn’t do like before and frantically pull dozens of small group chats to discuss together.
Everyone could only secretly chat a couple of sentences in the gaps between work. Sneaky, like old ladies at the village entrance.
Basically, the females—from middle school girls to elderly aunties—accepted it well.
So tall, so good-looking, such a good figure—who cares what animal he used to be.
The males’ discussion hot topic was instead about whether his human-form combat power or his giant-cat-form combat power was stronger.
Some people also ran off to ask Moli. Moli answered: “Both are me.”
Anyway, it’s all me. I can change however I want.
Moli was obviously different toward Jiang Cheng. Toward others, he didn’t refuse those familiar people’s actions like petting his head or scratching his chin.
Unfamiliar people… were just unfamiliar. You can look, but don’t put your hands on him.
Moli still always wanted to lie on Li Jiangbing’s head like before.
Li Jiangbing refused very firmly.
He could accept a pair of cute cat bells on his head, but absolutely would not accept a human male’s.
After Moli became human, the rumor that “Jiang Cheng and Song Jingshuo are dating” collapsed on its own.
Song Jingshuo suddenly gained a lot of suitors.
On Jiang Cheng’s side… still the same as before.
Previously there was Song Jingshuo, now there was Moli.
Even if someone liked Jiang Cheng, after a self-assessment, they’d just give up.
Among the refugees, a great many temporary couples appeared.
Like the kind that used to exist on construction sites.
Regardless of whether they’d had lovers before or were already married, for now, as long as the two people found each other agreeable, they’d pair up and live together.
Two people earning performance points together and exchanging things was more economical than one person alone.
At Jiang Cheng’s instruction, the teachers from No. 14 High School started a school.
Mainly for the little kids.
The middle schoolers, especially the high schoolers, had already completed their basic education. The middle schoolers had also mastered most general knowledge.
But if the little kids weren’t educated, they’d become illiterate.
There were too few entertainment options now. The development zone library had fortunately not burned down. After tidying it up, it reopened.
Every day there were many people.
After humans lost television and computers, they began to return to reading books.
Most of the work was physical labor, the mind left empty, every day passing simply—instead, they didn’t feel it was hard.
Sometimes they felt that life wasn’t unlivable.
Even felt that it was pretty good.
Changxing District, which had first proposed using radio contact, had a radio expert. He upgraded the equipment into a shortwave radio station.
Suddenly, the information received increased greatly.
There was information from other cities and regions—even some in languages they couldn’t understand, which should be foreign.
That person specifically drove to the major residential areas, delivering his newly rigged equipment to each district.
The Tech District also got a shortwave radio, able to receive all kinds of information.
That feeling… was like an isolated island suddenly docking at shore.
Knowing that beyond S City, there were still people alive.
Everyone’s situations were different.
Some had started losing water and electricity about 48 hours after the second zombie outbreak, struggling painfully from the very beginning.
Some regions, like S City, had good organization, capable leaders who led everyone in self-rescue.
Some of the people sending radio messages were organized groups, some were individuals.
Organized groups like S City mostly exchanged effective information. Exchanging where resources could be obtained—like water sources and land and plants suitable for growing.
Facing a certain problem and needing a certain piece of equipment—where it could be found.
Many real difficulties and problems were solved over the radio.
But there was also more useless information.
There were also quite a lot of lunatics and psychos. Anyway, none of them were quite normal.
Some people sounded like they lived alone, as if there were no living people around them anymore. They wished they could be on the radio 24 hours a day, chattering and rambling endlessly—yet not a single useful sentence.
It felt like they’d already gone mad.
But even madmen had audiences.
There were actually people who liked listening, saying it relieved stress.
Among the large group of crazy, unhinged people, one frequency stood out—and actually gained quite a lot of listeners.
In it were a man and a woman. The man sounded old, like an elderly person.
The woman was slightly younger.
The two seemed to have no relationship and weren’t in the same location. It was just that when the old man broadcast, the woman would often cut in.
The two of them engaged in many discussions about the zombie problem.
They often debated, and also argued.
It came across like a talk show—yet it was very popular. Many people loved listening.
Coincidentally, the time they loved to debate most happened to be the youth apartments’ nightly limited power supply period.
At everyone’s request, during that time slot every night, the radio station and the building broadcast system were connected, so everyone could hear this “program” from the corridors.
It became a very popular “program” in the Tech District.
The old man seemed to be surnamed Jiang, so everyone called him Uncle Jiang.
The slightly younger woman seemed to be surnamed Mao, so everyone called her Sister Mao.
Many of Uncle Jiang’s and Sister Mao’s theories about zombies and superpowers aligned with Zhao Yi’s and Gao Yuxuan’s theories. Zhao Yi especially loved listening.
During that time slot, the electric lights were on, every household had their doors open, listening to the debate on the corridor broadcast.
Very much like the feeling, decades ago, before televisions were widespread, of neighbors crowding together to watch TV.
One day, Uncle Jiang said: [The weather’s gotten really cold. A big temperature drop is coming.]
When he said this, it was late October—exactly when Zhao Yi had successively told Zhang Lesi and Gao Yuxuan about his fear.
The weather suddenly began to turn cold.
Because it was already late October, the temperature drop was actually normal. Winter was already coming.
Everyone’s performance points were spent exchanging for winter coats and thick bedding.
But getting through the winter couldn’t rely on individuals alone—that would probably freeze a large number of people to death.
The Tech District Provisional Government held several meetings, brainstorming to find a way to solve the winter problem.
Fortunately, the Tech District had its own heating company, which provided centralized heating for the Tech District’s residential area.
Because of the big explosion on October 5th, many underground pipelines had been damaged. Centralized heating was no longer possible.
But the heating company had coal.
Heating companies didn’t wait until autumn to hastily transport the coal to be burned in winter.
The coal for winter was prepared in summer. Even before the first zombie disaster.
Since June, the heating company had already been an empty courtyard—no living people.
After the disaster passed, no one came back to work.
At the time, there were too many things to solve, arranged by urgency. The development zone government had clearly deemed the heating company not urgent enough to rank. Or maybe it was already on the list.
Heaven still left everyone a way to live.
On October 5th, during the big explosion, the heating company’s courtyard also had underground manholes spewing fire, but they were at a distance from the coal pile and didn’t burn it.
Moreover, the heating company was right next to the residential area. The superpower users mobilized to sever the underground pipeline network and quickly brought the Tech District residential area’s fire under control.
At the time, no one thought of the heating company, but they successfully protected the heating company’s courtyard full of coal piles.
So heaven helps those who help themselves.
Now, this coal was about to be used.
The final decided plan was individual household iron stoves, burning coal briquettes or honeycomb coal.
A vigorous movement to make stoves and coal began.
The iron stove diagrams were provided by Engineer Yu.
He sighed: “This is going back to the old days.”
Never mind Engineer Yu—actually, many young people had experienced the era of burning honeycomb coal when they were children.
It really was going back to the old days.
Slow carriages and horses, with leisure to spare.
Metal-type superpower users and mechanics worked together to build crushers and coal presses.
The heating company’s courtyard and the streets outside were all covered with drying honeycomb coal.
Many new jobs were born.
Besides winter coats and thick bedding, old-style kettles, thermos bottles, and hot water bags also became bestsellers.
Song Jingshuo watched the inventory rapidly decrease.
Sister Pan said: “I wonder if that wholesale market in Yuezhuang is still there, or if it burned.”
Song Jingshuo had never known about any Yuezhuang or any wholesale market before.
When buying brand-name clothes, you had to buy the current season’s—not off-season discounts, and especially not from outlet stores.
In his circle, many rich people could tell at a glance.
Immediately, manpower and vehicles were organized and dispatched.
Fortunately, the wholesale market had done a good job with fire prevention. Each warehouse was independent, with fire breaks between them.
Two warehouses had burned, but several others were completely intact.
The wholesale market really had everything.
It was truly a great harvest.
Hauled back, it kicked off a major performance point exchange.
All those performance points usually saved up—now was the time they truly came in useful.
Iron stoves were distributed per household, free of charge.
Earth-types and metal-types worked in pairs, going door to door to install them.
They had to drill holes in the walls and run the chimney outside. This required earth and metal working together.
Zhao Yi was also extremely busy during this period, barely touching the ground.
No need to worry about Zhang Lesi, though.
Because Zhang Lesi had to see patients. She’d been specially assigned a life assistant to accompany her during the day.
Her eyes still couldn’t see, and everyone was very worried—yet she herself was the least worried.
She calmly analyzed herself: “Maybe it’s because I’m living too well. Not being able to see doesn’t affect me, so psychologically I don’t have a strong will to recover.”
She said smugly: “My taste in men is excellent.”
Coal was rationed per person. If you wanted more, you used performance points to exchange. If you wanted a warm winter, don’t be lazy—go to work.
But each community built public free warming houses.
Some used glass, some used plastic film.
In the warming houses, fire-type superpower users were on duty.
There were too many fire-types—they weren’t valuable. This position’s pay was decent, so competition was fierce.
Once inside, you’d see fire-type superpower users with a lounge chair, dozing.
Several fireballs of moderate size floated in the air.
Too big and they’d easily burn people. Too small and there wasn’t enough heat—and the number had to be high.
This position had high requirements for fine control of fireballs, which was why the pay was high.
Sometimes you’d see a fireball suddenly shrink, about to go out—and you’d know that fire-type had dozed off and was about to truly fall asleep. You’d hurry over and kick his lounge chair to wake him up.
The fireball would grow big again.
Warm and cozy—it really did make you sleepy.
If there was no work during the day, staying in the public warming house saved coal for your own home. Many people loved staying in the public warming house.
In an era of scarce entertainment, these warming houses became social venues, like public restrooms decades ago.
The warming houses had small stools. You could also bring your own more comfortable chair.
Some even brought bedding, swept out a clean corner with a broom, and started sleeping.
Peanut shells were dumped out bucket after bucket.
Because roasted peanuts were provided free.
Not only did it solve the problem of people’s mouths being idle while listening to gossip, but it also provided high calories to help ward off the cold.
No one knew exactly how many zombies Song Jingshuo, Zeng Qiang, and the others had buried underground. Anyway, ever since they started using zombie fertilizer, the peanut yield had been enormous. Now they just gave them out as benefits.
Now there was also manure fertilizer. According to Auntie Xue and Auntie Qian, using superpowers on it was especially easy.
Xiao Dan stuffed Wang Yunya into a warming house heating position—high pay and easy work.
Wang Yunya, a young girl, listened to all kinds of gossip every day until her eyes glazed over.
“What happened yesterday?”
“The legal wife took the mistress and the second mistress to catch the third mistress cheating.”
“Whoa, did they fight?”
“They fought.”
“Then won’t they all get the whip?”
“No—the legal wife took it all on herself. Only he got the whip. The third mistress even hugged him and cried, saying sorry to him.”
“…And then?”
“Then they set a schedule. Everyone doesn’t conflict with each other.”
“Right—as long as there’s no conflict, it’s fine.”
Under special circumstances, the monogamy system had lost its binding force.
Many people practically practiced polygamy.
Both men and women.
As long as you had one outstanding quality—whether looks, physique, superpower, or professional knowledge and skills that could earn performance points—as long as you had a standout strength, you could easily find a spouse.
Because the fights and brawls over catching cheaters caused by polygamy were endless.
The whip executioner position never had a vacancy.
In order to avoid the whip, people now advocated not resorting to violence—civilized cheater-catching.
Leave a Reply