Song Jingshuo catalyzed the food crops to an activated state and then left them alone, letting them grow on their own. They were expected to reach natural maturity by tomorrow.
Li Jiangbing filled the drinking water reserves and came over to call him: “Let’s go out for a walk.”
Jiang Cheng came along too.
They also brought Moli and three of the little kids.
There were only six little kids who’d survived. Jiang Cheng and Su Yu each took three.
Since they couldn’t be sure which side would survive, even the children were split evenly.
Now, of these three, Song Jingshuo held one in his arms, and Li Jiangbing and Moli each had one riding on their necks.
Walking on the street—a pretty girl in front, three men of completely different styles each carrying a child, following behind her.
The picture was unspeakably bizarre.
People on the road looked and sighed: “Haven’t seen such small children in so long…”
Jiang Cheng heard it and turned her eyes to look. She saw many people seemingly moved by this remark. Some even had tears in their eyes.
Jiang Cheng and Song Jingshuo exchanged a glance.
“Must be food shortage,” Song Jingshuo said.
Many people were thin beyond recognition, their faces carrying the look of hunger.
Jiang Cheng nodded: “Water supply can’t keep up either.”
Most people were dirty.
The streets were dirty too. It looked like although many people lived together, it wasn’t managed very well.
Back in the Tech District, sanitation positions were divided into sweeping and garbage collection. Garbage positions earned higher performance points.
Because manpower was abundant and everyone needed to earn performance points, the community and nearby streets were very clean.
Of course, it also had to do with the water supply always keeping up.
The few of them strolled around a bit and then went back.
Partly because dinner was coming up, and partly because there really wasn’t much to see in this place.
Just some street stalls, bartering.
Food was hard currency.
Pulling out a pack of instant noodles had the swagger of pulling out a black card with no spending limit in the past.
Many gazes were uncomfortable.
Not just women like Jiang Cheng felt uncomfortable.
Even men like Song Jingshuo and the others felt uncomfortable.
Some people looked hungry enough to want to eat people.
The people who’d gone out gradually returned around dinnertime.
No one had stayed outside for long.
That “uncomfortable” feeling—everyone had noticed it.
No one dared be alone, especially women. There was no sense of security here like the Tech District gave.
Dinner was ready.
The earth-types set up rows of long tables and stools on the athletic field. Everyone ate outdoors.
They all chatted and discussed what they’d seen and heard outside.
“She asked me if I was a superpower user. I said I wasn’t.”
“Then she asked how I could be so clean.”
“I said I washed.”
“She said where’s the water. It’s so cold, washing in river water is unbearable.”
“I said have fire-types and water-types heat water.”
“She just looked at me like that.”
The girl speaking hadn’t finished her flatbread at noon and had pocketed it. Seeing a pitifully thin girl faint from hunger, she’d taken it out and given it to her.
That led to a conversation.
The girl said: “How would people with superpowers do these things for us?”
That sentence was quite a shock to the Tech District people.
Because not just this girl—actually, many people had already noticed during their brief outing—in this small city, superpower users and ordinary people seemed to no longer be in the same class.
If you saw a few people walking together on the street and the passersby all avoided them, you knew those few were all superpower users.
Superpower users stayed with superpower users. Ordinary people stayed with ordinary people.
Those superpower users looked like they could eat their fill. Not one of them was sallow and thin with hollow cheeks.
Their expressions weren’t cowering either. Their walking posture was arrogant and domineering.
On the contrary, like the Tech District people—a group with both superpower users and ordinary people, walking together chatting and laughing—there seemed to be none of that here.
They’d even seen on the street a fire-type superpower user burn an ordinary person.
Because Zhao Yi was still busy with infrastructure at the school, Zhang Lesi had gone out strolling with others.
Among the people with her were two fire-type girls.
They immediately stepped in and put out the fire. Zhang Lesi saved the person on the spot.
The person who was saved fled in panic, not even saying thank you.
As for the perpetrators, though their expressions were fierce and they cursed loudly, in the end they didn’t dare come looking for trouble with Zhang Lesi and her group.
Because the people on this side all looked well-fed and strong.
The two fire-type girls were also impressive—they reached out and grabbed at the air, extinguishing the fire. That made those people wary.
But these things quickly killed everyone’s interest in continuing to stroll. They all came back quickly.
Many people ate dinner in silence.
A big reason for going out to explore beyond the school was wanting to see what kind of life people outside S City lived.
Now they knew—completely different from S City, from the Tech District.
But many people involuntarily realized—perhaps this was what a chaotic world was supposed to look like.
—
The next morning, the crops on the athletic field had matured.
Everyone got up, washed, and threw themselves into the harvest work.
Almost everyone was experienced. After getting tools, their movements were very skilled.
How important food was.
The Tech District at its peak had a population of over thirty thousand.
All the wood-types from every community had been conscripted to the youth apartments.
At the time, some people from other communities had actually been unhappy. There was no shortage of people who wanted to control the food supply in their own hands.
But in reality, it was precisely because all the wood-type superpower users were concentrated together, cooperating fully, planting on a large scale, that the entire Tech District’s food supply was steadily guaranteed.
People with superpowers planted crops. Ordinary people without superpowers handled harvesting, threshing, milling, and processing.
City people not knowing how didn’t matter—there were people like Sister Pan and Master Luo to teach them hand by hand.
Everyone earned different performance points based on different positions and levels of hard work, maintaining a life of basic subsistence.
In the eyes of the Tech District people, this was a matter of course—superpower users were the same as everyone else, just more capable and contributing more, therefore able to earn more performance points. Very fair.
Only now, coming outside, did they learn that not everywhere was like this.
Hunger, non-cooperation, inequality—here, that was the norm.
—
A convoy of green vehicles rumbled into the city.
People on the road looked at the convoy with awe. This was the largest force in this city. No one dared provoke them.
The convoy went straight to a luxury hotel. Someone came out from the building to greet them: “The boss is back!”
Many strong men in camouflage got out of the large vehicles. The one called “boss” had a broad back and narrow waist, stubble on his face, very masculine.
But if you looked closely at his features, you’d find he was actually very young.
“Good haul. Brought back quite a bit of stuff. Go unload it.” The boss lit a cigarette.
Many people busily unloaded things from the large vehicles.
All kinds of things—bagged rice or flour, instant noodles, crackers, barrels and even half-barrels of cooking oil.
Toilet paper, clothes, shoes, bedding.
The small city had few supplies. When they went out, it was to search for supplies in the nearest big city.
The people who’d stayed behind reported: “A convoy came yesterday. Quite a few people—looked like at least a thousand.”
The boss bit his cigarette and raised his eyes: “Huh?”
The subordinate said: “They set up camp at the elementary school on Gusi Street. Don’t know if they’re planning to stay. But they have quite a few superpower users, and none of them are weak. They all look like tough customers.”
The subordinate paused.
The boss clamped his cigarette: “What?”
The subordinate said: “They have very good organization and discipline.”
The boss was momentarily dazed.
Organization.
Discipline.
Seemed like words from the last century.
So distant.
The boss took a drag of his cigarette and said: “I’ll go take a look.”
He casually asked: “Where are they from?”
The subordinate said: “Seems like S City. Really don’t know how they survived.”
Months ago, they’d wanted to go to S City.
After passing through this small city and driving west for a few more hours, they’d realized something was wrong.
The temperature drop was astonishing. The snow on the ground was knee-deep.
And at that time, it wasn’t even the season for snow yet. S City shouldn’t have had such heavy snow at all.
Of course they didn’t know—because they were still far from S City, the snow here was only knee-deep.
In reality, at that time, S City’s snow was already taller than a person.
But they’d already realized the situation was abnormal.
After the vehicle stalled and nearly wouldn’t start, the boss decisively ordered a turnaround.
They gave up on going to S City, returned to this small city they’d passed through, and settled here, quickly becoming the largest force in the area.
With them here, this place barely maintained the appearance of a human society.
Before they came, this place had been even worse than now.
They’d made several probing trips later, confirming that S City was under extreme cold weather.
Later, this was confirmed by a local radio enthusiast.
That person had a shortwave radio, able to receive radio communications from across the country and even abroad.
He also listened to Uncle Jiang and Sister Mao, and the mysterious man.
He said: “They say it’s the entire central region and part of the eastern region.”
S City counted as the east, within the coverage area.
“Lucky us—our place just happened to be outside the range.”
They’d never given up on S City. Every so often they’d drive closer to try, and each time they saw accumulated snow, they’d retreat.
Because the temperature was simply too low, and considering the city must have lost water and power, with no centralized heating either, they’d always guessed there probably weren’t many living people left in S City.
They hadn’t expected there were still living people. And they’d actually come here.
—
Gusi Street Elementary School.
The Tech District people had finished breakfast and were holding a meeting.
This small city was called D City. In Jiang Cheng’s entire journey, it was already about two-thirds of the way.
Along the way, although there were zombies—even quite a few in some places—none had reached the level Uncle Jiang and Sister Mao described of “a Zombie Emperor commanding thousands upon thousands of zombies.”
“Could it really be in Q City?” Everyone was a bit puzzled too.
They’d even worn armor and carried weapons on the road, just to be ready to fight large hordes of zombies at any time.
But this journey had been too peaceful—really different from expectations.
The meeting hadn’t finished when visitors actually arrived. Several vehicles came—several local forces coming together.
With the boost of numbers, armor, weapons, and superpowers, the local snakes were quite polite and friendly in this visit to the crossing dragons. Everyone was courteous to each other.
Jiang Cheng said: “We’re just passing through. We’re heading to Q City.”
The local snakes breathed a big sigh of relief: “Good, good.”
Jiang Cheng and the others were just about to ask about conditions further east when more people arrived.
This time it was several green military jeeps.
The local snakes all stood up, their attitudes changing, looking very cautious.
“Is Li Feng back?”
“Counting the days, he should be back, right? He’s been gone three or four days.”
“Must have brought back quite a bit of stuff again.”
The name Li Feng was too common and ordinary, so everyone heard it but had no reaction.
They’d been through too much life and death. Even the partners who’d been by their side were gone. People they’d known briefly long ago were already passing clouds.
But Li Feng had shaved before coming.
So when his long legs stepped out of the vehicle and he stood firm, many of the youth apartments people still recognized him immediately.
Li Feng of course also recognized the people before him.
The reunion had no cheers or joy. They all silently watched each other.
Between them were nearly ten months of time, and countless life and death.
Until Li Feng confirmingly called out: “Jiang Cheng.”
He strode forward.
Jiang Cheng narrowed her eyes. Moli gathered his strength.
Just as Zhao Yi and Song Jingshuo both wanted to greet Li Feng, Li Feng drew a gun from his back waist and pointed it straight at Jiang Cheng’s brow.
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