Jiang Cheng didn’t know why, but she felt a buzzing noise in her ears.
Her head ached as if it were splitting.
The people and objects around her blurred.
It felt like an earthquake—the ground seemed to be shaking.
But the voice on the phone pulled her back.
“The coagulant and disinfectant will only last another week. If we can’t resupply, the water won’t meet standards anymore.”
There was no earthquake.
Everything around her was calm—people doing what they needed to do, everyone and everything clear and steady.
Jiang Cheng shook her head to clear it and asked: “What should I call you?”
“My surname is Yu.”
“Master Yu, let’s meet in person.”
Master Yu couldn’t really be called Master Yu—he should be called Engineer Yu.
The water treatment plant was on the city outskirts near a reservoir—that reservoir was S City’s main drinking water source.
Jiang Cheng brought people to meet Engineer Yu. There were only a few of them—a handful of people holding their posts, keeping the water supply running for the citizens.
“We’ve been through this once before,” Engineer Yu said.
Because they’d been through it once, the weapons and armor distributed in the later stages to protect the plant had been kept, and the support supplies sent had been stored in the warehouse.
This was a key facility—Secretary Sun under Mayor Zheng had allocated them ample supplies. What hadn’t been consumed was stored away. This time, they hadn’t needed resupply from outside.
Engineer Yu and his people had weathered several dangerous moments—power system failures, overheated bearings, leaking seals—they’d been through it all.
They’d held on thanks to these technicians.
Jiang Cheng asked: “Why didn’t you contact us?”
Engineer Yu hesitated, then told the truth: “We’re not an ordinary facility. A facility like ours can’t just be handed over to anyone. Even though you call yourselves a government…”
During a crisis, important livelihood facilities like theirs would even have the military dispatched to protect them.
They couldn’t just hand everything over to any unknown group claiming to be a government.
Engineer Yu and his people had been waiting for the real government.
S City’s government was completely wiped out, so they waited for the central government.
It was just… they’d waited and waited, and now the water plant couldn’t hold on any longer.
“I’ve tried calling. Plant Two, Plant Three, Beijia Plant, Datian Plant—none of them answer. I think we’re the only ones still supplying water,” Engineer Yu said. “Thankfully, total water usage has plummeted, or we wouldn’t have lasted this long.”
Industrial and commercial water use had stopped.
Only the surviving survivors were still using water.
The first zombie outbreak had already sharply reduced the population. This time, another sharp reduction.
The remaining survivors’ water usage was just a rounding error on the statistical tables compared to before.
Zhao Yi talked with Master Yu, then frowned deeply, looking troubled.
Jiang Cheng asked: “Can we go get these supplies ourselves?”
Coagulant and disinfectant.
There had to be suppliers—the plant had to have records showing where they were.
But Zhao Yi rejected Jiang Cheng’s idea: “I don’t agree, Jiang Cheng. I don’t agree.”
Jiang Cheng fixed her gaze on him.
Zhao Yi: “These aren’t like goods on a supermarket shelf, packaged neatly, clean and safe. These are chemical agents. Every step—from production to transport to application—must be handled by professionals using proper procedures. Any oversight at any step could lead to disaster.”
Even the truck drivers for chemical products had to receive special training.
Jiang Cheng respected all technical professionals.
She crossed one arm over her chest, pressed her fist to her lips, paced a few steps in place, then looked up and asked: “Where does the water source come from?”
Engineer Yu answered: “S City’s drinking water mainly comes from surface water from two reservoirs—Qinzhuang Reservoir and Qilishan Reservoir.”
Jiang Cheng asked: “If we don’t use coagulant and disinfectant, is the water directly supplied equivalent to natural water from the wild?”
Zhao Yi and Engineer Yu exchanged a glance. Zhao Yi said: “You could understand it that way.”
Engineer Yu said: “It goes through bar screen interception and sedimentation, and after settling, mud, insect eggs, and suspended solids are significantly reduced compared to wild water. But from a biosafety standpoint, it’s still natural water. Bacteria, viruses, algal toxins, colloidal particles—all still present, not removed.”
Jiang Cheng asked: “Can it be drunk if boiled?”
“In the absence of other clean water sources,” Engineer Yu prefaced, “yes.”
“But it won’t taste good. The earthy smell can’t be removed. And the water will look yellow or green—the appearance is quite different.”
Engineer Yu had actually wanted to say “not recommended for long-term consumption,” but that was peacetime advice. Under the current circumstances, having anything to drink was already satisfying.
So Engineer Yu closed his mouth.
Jiang Cheng said: “I noticed the rural areas aren’t on tap water either.”
At Jitou Village in Taiping Town, she’d seen hand-pump wells in people’s homes.
Engineer Yu explained: “That’s groundwater. Its inherent cleanliness is higher than surface water—fewer bacteria, even fewer algae.”
Jiang Cheng said: “But it’s still natural water, boiled before drinking.”
Engineer Yu could only nod: “Yes.”
Jiang Cheng said: “Then let’s continue supplying water. Skip the step requiring coagulant and disinfectant—only provide natural water that’s undergone preliminary physical treatment.”
“Water from the taps will be mainly for daily use—laundry, flushing toilets, watering plants.”
“Small safe points should be consolidated as much as possible. Major residential areas should set up storage containers at water terminals, and water-type superpower users will extract purified water for drinking!”
“Engineer Yu, does that work for you?”
The girl was very young—clearly not a technical or engineering professional.
But the words she spoke after silently pacing, the arrangements she made, made Engineer Yu understand why she was the leader.
Engineer Yu’s workplace wasn’t an ordinary enterprise—it was a facility vital to the nation and people’s livelihood.
He’d been watching the people on TV, but unlike ordinary citizens, he watched with vigilance.
The TV station had lost its effective manpower. If there had still been someone like him holding the fort at the TV station, when Jiang Cheng and her people arrived, they definitely wouldn’t have been welcomed with open doors—they’d have been refused entry, and possibly met with armed resistance.
But now, looking at this girl’s calm eyes, Engineer Yu began to build trust and expectation toward this so-called provisional government.
This girl was genuinely thinking about how to solve problems, how to keep ordinary people alive.
Engineer Yu nodded solemnly: “Deal!”
—
On the way back, Zhao Yi glanced at Jiang Cheng several times.
Jiang Cheng kept biting her knuckles.
He’d never seen Jiang Cheng like this.
Jiang Cheng had always projected calm and composure. People felt reassured just looking at her—felt they had someone to lean on.
If the sky fell, Jiang Cheng would hold it up.
What was making Jiang Cheng frown so tightly?
Zhao Yi couldn’t help asking: “Jiang Cheng, what are you thinking about?”
Jiang Cheng stopped and looked up: “Water, electricity, gas, communications. Water’s solved for now. Communications are fine. What about the others?”
Communications were fine because during the previous disaster, phone service suspension for unpaid bills had been canceled. Mayor Zheng had later announced an extension of three months—to make it easier for people searching for missing relatives.
It hadn’t been three months yet when the second zombie outbreak hit, so people’s phones could go into arrears without being disconnected.
But what about electricity and gas?
Only after meeting Engineer Yu today did she realize—all of these required human maintenance. If Engineer Yu and his few people hadn’t held the line day and night, everyone would have run out of drinking water long ago.
[Technology is so backward.]
That thought flashed through Jiang Cheng’s mind.
…So am I from somewhere with very advanced technology?
Zhao Yi said: “Then we need to contact the power company and gas company right away to see if anyone’s still there…”
Before Zhao Yi could finish, the vehicle suddenly began to shake.
Everyone felt the distinct tremors.
They were startled: “Is it an earthquake?”
Jiang Cheng also gripped the back of the front seat.
An earthquake?
When she’d first received Engineer Yu’s call, she’d also felt strange vibrations. But when she snapped out of it, it seemed no one else had noticed.
After hanging up, she’d even asked: “Was there a small earthquake just now?”
But the people around her said: “No.”
Yet now the tremors were more obvious, more real.
Everyone felt them.
No one was particularly frightened, because S City wasn’t on a seismic fault line—occasional tremors were just seismic waves from earthquakes in other regions.
But Jiang Cheng didn’t know—this wasn’t a real earthquake.
On the western outskirts of the city, there was an area surrounded by open wasteland and farmland, with a complex industrial zone at its center.
Tall fences, intricate orange-yellow pipelines, massive filtration and pressure regulation equipment, and iconic large gas storage spheres.
This was the natural gas company’s city gate station.
Also known as the city’s “gas master valve.”
At this moment, the towering flames weren’t even the most terrifying part—the massive shockwave exceeded all imagination.
The explosions chained from one point to the next, linking into a string. The heat could melt anything.
The main pipelines were filled with high-pressure gas. When the pipes ruptured, the pressurized gas shot out and ignited into enormous torches.
In theory, there were emergency shut-off valves at regular intervals along the pipelines—but they required manual pressure monitoring and manual remote operation to close.
But now, the technicians at the natural gas gate station who had held on like Engineer Yu had perished in the flames. There was no one left to perform that shutdown operation.
The flames followed the pipelines, rapidly spreading both toward the upstream long-distance high-pressure lines and downstream—toward the city’s gas terminals!
In the vehicle, everyone had just finished saying “Where exactly was the earthquake?” “Feels like it’s not far—could it be over in N City?”—when they heard the explosions approaching from afar.
Everyone turned to look.
Manhole covers flew into the sky. Flames erupted from underground.
Storefront glass shattered.
Cars parked on the street flipped and tumbled.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The explosions came in strings! Spreading along the pipelines in all directions across the city!
Red light reflected off the glass windows, off everyone’s retinas.
Before they could even process the shock, the world flipped over!
Impact, searing pain, dizziness!
Zhao Yi gasped for air, using all his strength to try to crawl out, but the vehicle had flipped and he was wedged between the seats, unable to move.
Fortunately, having a metal-type superpower user with the vehicle had long been standard procedure.
Today, Jiang Cheng had brought several core members.
Wu Jiancheng and Cui Haiyang were both in the vehicle.
Cui Haiyang, enduring the agonizing pain of his injuries, opened up the metal vehicle body and released the metal securing the seats, hoarsely roaring: “Get out! Get out now!”
Li Jiangbing was the first to crawl out. He immediately turned back to pull people out—one after another.
Those who were pulled out also turned back to pull out those still inside.
Just seconds after the last person crawled out, the vehicle exploded.
In the critical moment, Wu Jiancheng reached out and took control of the flames. The fire blazed—then, defying physics, burned in reverse and was extinguished.
No one was burned.
Zhao Yi lay on the ground, spent, gasping for breath.
His forehead was cut open, blood smearing his eyes.
Looking up, through the red haze, he saw Jiang Cheng—upside down.
Zhao Yi struggled to roll over. The world was inverted—Jiang Cheng was inverted too.
Later, Zhao Yi would never forget what he saw—
Jiang Cheng stood there, blood on her face, forcing herself upright, facing the blazing city.
In the distance, the explosions chained on without a moment’s pause.
In the firelight, Jiang Cheng smiled.
Jiang Cheng smiled with utter mockery.
Because Jiang Cheng knew—all of this was because of Zheng Junwei.
Zheng Junwei shouldn’t have said those words.
“God” was watching.
“God” was listening.
“God” was smiling.
Zheng Junwei had said: Jiang Cheng, it’s time to consider establishing a city-level government.
“God” heard.
“God” made its move.
Difficulty increased.
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