Aunt Qian’s place was closer, so Song Jingshuo followed the two aunties to her home.
The moment he saw it, he immediately knew where the problem lay.
He was surprised. “Do I need to use such a big pot?”
The aunties understood. “You didn’t repot them?”
The tomato seedlings they’d brought back from Duoduo Supermarket were all in seedling pots—only the size of a wine glass, small enough to hold in one hand.
And of course, there was only a tiny bit of soil in them.
The two aunties immediately realized that Song Jingshuo hadn’t even grasped the basics.
“You must have thought it was purely our superpowers making the plants grow,” they said, correcting his understanding. “But you’re wrong.”
“Our superpowers are more like a catalyst—an accelerating force that speeds up a plant’s growth and development. It compresses a process that normally takes months into just a few minutes or a dozen minutes.”
“But that whole growth process relies on sunlight, air, water, and nutrients from the soil.”
“If you don’t provide those, no matter how much you accelerate it, it won’t grow. Think about it—if a child doesn’t eat properly, of course they’ll end up underdeveloped.”
“I bet you didn’t even water them when you got home.”
Song Jingshuo pressed his hand to his forehead.
He really hadn’t watered them. He genuinely thought superpowers alone would be enough.
The two aunties burst out laughing.
They filled his head with all sorts of knowledge about soil and fertilizer.
Aunt Qian even insisted on keeping him for a meal. Song Jingshuo politely declined.
As he was leaving, Aunt Qian insisted on giving him a lamp. “Take this. It’s a plant grow light—you won’t find it at the supermarket. You’d have to go to a gardening store at the flower and bird market.”
And those were completely unavailable now.
Song Jingshuo thanked Aunt Qian and accepted it.
He left Aunt Qian’s place, but at the west gate of Jixiang Jiayuan, he saw Jiang Cheng.
She was talking with Zhou Wang.
They must have finished dealing with the bodies already. When everyone could use their superpowers conveniently, a lot of things became simpler.
Song Jingshuo called out “Jiang Cheng” and walked over.
Jiang Cheng said, “I was just discussing with Brother Zhou whether it’s feasible to have the aunties from here run a communal kitchen over at our place.”
Song Jingshuo paused for a moment.
Jiang Cheng said, “It’s fine—go ahead.”
That meant she didn’t mind Zhou Wang hearing.
Song Jingshuo said directly, “What compensation are we offering the aunties right now?”
Before the state stepped in to restore normalcy, money was meaningless.
But at the moment, no one was really short on supplies—they had enough food and daily necessities. The rice they’d hauled back from Duoduo yesterday alone would last half a year.
So what could be offered as payment to those doing the cooking?
“That’s exactly what we’re talking about,” Jiang Cheng said. “I figure… all we can offer right now is equivalent treatment to Youth Apartments residents.”
That sounded like something pretty intangible.
Come work for Youth Apartments, and you get no material compensation. But you’d be treated the same as a resident of Youth Apartments.
Protected by Youth Apartments.
And entitled to share in everything gained through the collective actions of Youth Apartments.
Song Jingshuo thought that was pretty far-fetched—practically getting something for nothing. Would anyone actually go for it?
Zhou Wang, however, felt his heart stir.
He genuinely wanted to break away from Jixiang Jiayuan and join Youth Apartments. Then all the trivial worries would be handled by Jiang Cheng. All the dangers and heavy labor would be shared collectively.
But for each individual, the burden would be very light.
Together, their combined strength would be great.
What Youth Apartments took for granted was exactly what Zhou Wang deeply longed for.
Zhou Wang agreed, “I’ll talk it over with everyone.”
Jiang Cheng said, “Sorry to trouble you, Brother Zhou.”
She really didn’t want to waste time on cooking.
It wasn’t that she didn’t care about eating well—of course she did—but she also wanted to eat efficiently.
Like Li Jiangbing, who smartly joined forces with the property management—how easy things were for him.
But now Jiang Cheng wanted to free Sister Pan from cooking duties as well.
Zhou Wang felt a bit of admiration for Jiang Cheng.
A young girl, barely grown, with depths of calculation that could rival many middle-aged veterans of office politics.
Not long ago, the clash with Cao Jiacai had clearly shaken Jiang Cheng’s authority. Yet here she was, still keeping a straight face while discussing logistics and support with him.
Wait… could it be that she hadn’t even realized it?
Zhou Wang hesitated, then spoke up anyway. “Xiao Jiang.”
Jiang Cheng and Song Jingshuo had just turned to leave. They stopped and looked back together.
Zhou Wang reminded her, “When you find a troublemaker in a team, you need to figure out a way to remove them as soon as possible. Otherwise, the longer they stay, the more damage they’ll do—cracks that won’t be easy to repair.”
Jiang Cheng gave a calm nod. “Understood.”
Zhou Wang felt she’d taken it in. But could she actually do it?
He hoped she could. He hoped the leader of Youth Apartments wouldn’t change. Or if it had to change, then swapping in Xiao Li, Xiao Song, Xiao Wu—any of them—would be acceptable.
Even Xiao Zhao wouldn’t be out of the question.
But that security guard definitely wouldn’t do. That would be the worst outcome.
A middle-aged man had walked a long road in life, seen a great deal, and knew all too well how bad things could get when someone from the bottom rose to power.
Song Jingshuo asked, “What happened?”
During the building sweep, he, Li Jiangbing, and Jiang Cheng had all been in different buildings. By the time he came down, they were already discussing how to handle the bodies.
Jiang Cheng told him about the conflict between Cao Jiacai and Zhao Yi.
Song Jingshuo had a feeling it would be Cao Jiacai—and sure enough, it was. He frowned deeply and stayed silent all the way until they entered the east gate of the neighborhood.
After walking a bit further, at the point where they were about to part ways, Song Jingshuo said seriously, “Jiang Cheng, we can’t move against Cao Jiacai lightly.”
“I know,” Jiang Cheng said.
But then she added, “But if the time comes when we have to act against him, I hope you can cross that line.”
That line?
What line?
Which line?
Song Jingshuo stared into Jiang Cheng’s eyes. His lips pressed tightly together.
Compared to other neighborhoods, during the first zombie outbreak, Youth Apartments had seen no criminal cases at all.
The worst thing that had happened there was when a person, after being bitten and infected, resisted quarantine and was killed in the ensuing scuffle.
Youth Apartments had never killed a single completely normal, uninfected person.
But Cao Jiacai’s superpower was too formidable.
He had low character, obvious resentment toward the wealthy, and clear signs of a petty person reveling in their newfound power.
With someone like that, Song Jingshuo couldn’t imagine how to punish or expel him while preventing retaliation.
He had even called the police to try to have them arrest Jiang Cheng for murder, because she had expelled Liu Hongwang.
His grudge against Jiang Cheng had clearly been simmering for a long time.
He was also deeply vindictive.
With such a person, if you didn’t act against him, fine. But if you had to act…
Song Jingshuo agreed. “Alright.”
He’d thought it would be hard to agree to this. But when the word “alright” slipped out, he suddenly felt an unexpected lightness.
The moment he said yes to Jiang Cheng, he truly let go of all the rules of the old law-abiding society and embraced the new order.
When they were about to part, Song Jingshuo instinctively raised his wrist.
But his wrist was bare—no watch worth over ten thousand yuan on it.
Because once cell phones were invented, watches lost their practicality and had been demoted to accessories.
In a world overrun by zombies, stubbornly wearing a luxury brand watch to project style and class… Song Jingshuo could no longer empathize with his former self.
He pulled out his phone to check the time.
That afternoon, many people couldn’t help glancing at the time, all asking the same question: “Still no announcement?”
Song Jingshuo asked, “Still no announcement?”
Jiang Cheng said, “If there were, someone would’ve thrown open a window and yelled by now. You think Jiangbing could keep his mouth shut?”
Song Jingshuo: “…Fair point.”
But it was already this late—the sun was slanting westward.
And people’s hearts were sinking along with the sun, lower and lower.
Zhang Lesi and a few other girls had gathered at Su Yu’s place to cook together.
They had moved in gradually over the course of the afternoon.
Moving wasn’t difficult—each unit had a similar layout and size, and all came fully furnished.
They just packed their seasonal clothes, bedsheets, pillows, cups, and towels into suitcases, swapped out the previous occupants’ belongings, and moved right in.
With so many empty units, everyone picked and chose, trying to find the cleanest, most pleasant-looking ones.
“Cao Jiacai?” Su Yu, like Song Jingshuo, was just hearing about this.
Su Yu was also quite popular now.
Especially during building sweeps—those cramped, unavoidable spaces. People liked teaming up with Su Yu.
In the hallways, they’d have Su Yu walk in front.
Because her protective shield had become instinctive. If she were caught off guard by a zombie while her shield wasn’t active, it would automatically activate to protect her life—no conscious control needed.
When breaking down doors, Su Yu would use her shield to cover everyone.
Each use didn’t last long. She’d rest a bit, then use it again. With repeated use, her shield was growing rapidly stronger.
Su Yu had now pretty well figured out the properties of her shield.
People could freely pass through it from the inside.
But from the outside, the shield was extremely hard—neither people nor zombies could break through.
Superpowers couldn’t penetrate it either.
Pretty damn impressive.
It was still a bit weak right now—couldn’t hold for long. But given time, it was easy to imagine Su Yu rising to the ranks of the superpowered elite.
“And then?” Su Yu asked.
Zhang Lesi shrugged. “That’s it. No ‘and then.’”
Su Yu fell silent, head down, chopping vegetables. Zhang Lesi took a bowl and started beating eggs.
Neither of them spoke.
Among the women, aside from Sister Pan and Jiang Cheng, they were the only two with superpowers.
Su Yu suddenly stopped chopping.
“We have to stand with Jiang Cheng. We have no choice but to stand with Jiang Cheng,” Su Yu said, lifting her eyes with determination. “Only with Jiang Cheng in charge are things best for us. Anyone else would be worse. Someone like Cao Jiacai—absolutely not.”
She said, “Don’t forget Nie Kuizhang.”
Nie Kuizhang wasn’t stronger than Li Jiangbing. The other floor leaders together could have subdued him.
So he didn’t dare commit any major offenses—just made crude jokes, groped, and took advantage.
When He Tian left, she had cursed him out thoroughly.
The other five floor leaders could decide on his punishment through meetings.
Back then, it had felt so infuriating.
He Tian had been so angry that even after turning into a zombie, she still wanted to kill Nie Kuizhang.
Now, looking back after some time had passed, they realized that back then they’d actually had order to rely on.
The other floor leaders and Jiang Cheng’s presence had all served as a deterrent to Nie Kuizhang, keeping him to minor misdeeds rather than major evils.
This was completely different from Cao Jiacai now.
Both Su Yu and Zhang Lesi clearly recognized that, right now, no one at Youth Apartments could deter Cao Jiacai.
No one could even use force to restrain him.
The more they thought about it, the more alarming it became.
“I know,” Zhang Lesi said firmly. “We have to stand with Jiang Cheng.”
“That guy has been staring at us the past two days.”
“But I noticed—the person he stares at the most is actually Jiang Cheng.”
Because she’d been paying close attention, Zhang Lesi had caught Cao Jiacai swallowing hard while staring at Jiang Cheng.
It disgusted her.
A scruffy, dirty, smelly middle-aged security guard, openly ogling a young female resident and swallowing his saliva.
So brazen.
Because he was powerful now.
Zhang Lesi asked, “Su Yu, what if even Jiang Cheng can’t do anything about him?”
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