“We can’t control what happens outside,” Jiang Cheng said as she pushed her shopping cart along the road. “But inside our residential complex, we have to hold things steady.”
The core members of the temporary committee were used to sticking together. Even those who had already filled their carts wouldn’t leave ahead of the group—they waited for the collective.
Song Jingshuo and Li Jiangbing flanked Jiang Cheng, pushing three shopping carts side by side.
Occasionally, a few cars passed by on the main road.
Someone muttered, “Who’s still going out?”
Where to? What for? Wasn’t it best to just stay home right now?
Yesterday, they could still hear the distant wail of fire engines and ambulances. Today, both sounds were gone.
Combined with the news reports urging residents to rely on self-rescue, it left everyone in grim silence.
But imagine it—rushing into a burning building to save someone, only to see a flickering silhouette that wasn’t afraid of fire, pain, or death. A zombie.
Even the bravest firefighters wouldn’t stand a chance.
Or an ambulance picking up a patient, only to have that patient suddenly open their eyes halfway through the ride—pitch-black, without any whites.
In that tiny space, blood splattering across the windows.
The more they imagined, the heavier their hearts grew. The weight pressed down on them, making even their footsteps feel sluggish.
Song Jingshuo strongly agreed with Jiang Cheng. “Right. We can’t let chaos break out inside our complex.”
The supermarket had been pure pandemonium earlier.
People were fighting over supplies.
Because the youth apartment complex had already made a big purchase yesterday—over a thousand people—and Brother Dong’s crew hadn’t restocked in time, some shelves were nearly empty of daily necessities. That sparked the scuffles.
And to be fair, it wasn’t the youth apartment residents who threw the first punch. It was the old folks from Jixiang Jiayuan.
Normally, when the elderly threw their weight around unreasonably, most young people would just swallow their pride.
First, because decades of education had made the younger generation significantly more civilized than their elders. Second, once people hit a certain age, even the cops couldn’t do much—and prisons wouldn’t take them anyway.
But this wasn’t “normal times” anymore.
They’d helped clear out the zombies for the Jixiang Jiayuan crowd just this morning, and those people showed no gratitude whatsoever. Instead, they acted like the young folks were there to compete for supplies.
Everyone was already simmering with frustration. And then those old bastards dared to throw the first punch.
They thought these young people were still the same as before?
These were people who had chopped off heads. Who had smashed in skulls. Who had, in the blink of an eye, been forced to harden their hearts and escort wounded neighbors—people they’d fought alongside just moments ago—into quarantine.
Two days’ worth of pent-up rage exploded the moment an entitled old man shoved someone without reason.
The young people fought back.
“Old bastard!” The young man’s eyes changed. He threw a punch.
Everyone heard the sharp crack of something breaking.
The old man collapsed with a fractured bone, groaning loudly. His wife screeched and cursed.
“Keep yelling! I’ll hit you too!” The young man’s veins bulged on his forehead as he pointed at her. “You think this is still the old days?! I’ve killed people! I’ve chopped off heads! Go ahead, call the cops if you dare!”
The murderous aura pouring off him stunned the old couple into silence. The groaning stopped. The cursing stopped. They just stared, frozen.
The young man turned away furiously, shoving supplies from the shelf into his cart. None of the surrounding elderly dared to compete with him anymore.
Two or three other young people nearby watched with cold eyes.
If anyone else dared to make a move, they’d jump in to help. And it was crystal clear who they’d help—their own people.
Watching these fierce, burly young men, the old folks—who were used to cutting in line, spitting wherever they pleased, and taking advantage—finally woke up to the reality that the world was no longer what it used to be.
That girl from the youth apartment complex had smashed the glass door with a single axe strike, like shattering a seal that had released some terrifying monster.
A shadow now loomed over those who weren’t young or strong enough.
Jiang Cheng, Song Jingshuo, and the others had witnessed several such incidents inside the supermarket.
The youth apartment complex, as a gated community, had remained orderly right up until this morning. Everyone had still been able to maintain a semblance of normalcy.
But the moment they stepped outside and came into direct contact with the residents of Jixiang Jiayuan, something shifted.
It wasn’t fair to blame the Jixiang Jiayuan people for “infecting” them.
What had happened since the night before last was enough to drive anyone mad. It was just that the youth apartment complex had been effectively organized from the very beginning. That sense of “collective” had held back the negative impulses, keeping them from erupting.
Everyone still felt that “order” existed.
Until now.
“We have to get this under control.”
“We don’t have to hold back with outsiders, but inside our complex, there must be order.”
The core members of the youth apartment’s temporary committee had reached that consensus on the walk back, pushing their shopping carts home.
The youth apartment complex had almost no elderly or children—overwhelmingly young people. If rescue didn’t come soon, they could already foresee things getting worse than today.
Today’s fights were just shoves and punches. Tomorrow, knives would come out.
So far, no one had killed or seriously harmed an ordinary person. The severed heads and crushed skulls had all belonged to zombies or the infected.
No one had yet turned a blade against a normal, uninfected living person.
But that might not hold true in the future.
If things reached that point, the youth apartment complex—made up almost entirely of able-bodied young adults—would absolutely be the most formidable fighting force in the vicinity if they could organize and manage themselves effectively.
At that thought, the core members’ feelings were mixed.
Some were deeply troubled, filled with unease.
Others, however, felt a small flame flicker to life inside them, and they couldn’t help glancing at Jiang Cheng’s back as she walked ahead.
Song Jingshuo’s brows were tightly furrowed.
A graduate of a prestigious university, competent in every way, he was the picture of a young urban elite. People like him could only climb higher by standing on the foundation of a law-abiding society.
The more civilized and prosperous society became, the more room there was for people like him to thrive.
He’d already bought a spacious new apartment this year, with plans to finish renovations by autumn. By year’s end, he’d be out of the youth complex and into his new home.
Chaos was the last thing he wanted.
The more he thought about it, the heavier his heart grew.
He couldn’t help turning his head to glance at Jiang Cheng. There was something strangely calm about this girl—talking to her gave people a sense of inner stability.
But Jiang Cheng had stopped walking.
The moment she halted, Song Jingshuo and Li Jiangbing stopped too, and everyone behind them had no choice but to follow suit.
Before anyone could ask “What’s wrong?”, Jiang Cheng had already let go of her shopping cart’s handle, pulled her fire axe from the small of her back, and headed straight for a ground-floor storefront by the roadside.
The youth apartment complex was surrounded by a ring of shops.
This area had high population density and heavy foot traffic, so these storefronts all did decent business. There were small restaurants, fast-food joints, hair salons, and so on.
Of course, all the shops were closed now. Most had glass doors secured with U-shaped locks, though a few had rolling metal shutters.
Jiang Cheng made a beeline for one with a U-lock.
Without a word, she swung her axe and shattered the glass door.
Everyone stared in shock.
But Song Jingshuo said, “You guys watch the carts,” then called out, “Jiangbing, let’s go.” He headed for the storefront too.
Li Jiangbing followed without hesitation.
“It’s a pharmacy,” someone finally realized.
Someone else grumbled, “What makes them the ones giving orders?”
Another person shot back, “You think you can do better? Go ahead, take charge—we’ll listen to you too.”
The complainer shut up, embarrassed.
“But for the pharmacy, should we…” Su Yu hesitated, “not pay?”
Everyone looked at her, then at the three figures.
They hadn’t paid at Duodu Supermarket because they’d just gone with the flow—everyone from Jixiang Jiayuan was grabbing and running, so the youth complex couldn’t be the only ones foolishly pulling out their wallets. Besides, the scene was pure chaos; the store employees weren’t even manning the registers, just standing there watching.
Everyone had slipped into a kind of collective unconsciousness.
Following the crowd.
But now…
Just as they looked over, Jiang Cheng emerged with an armload of medicine boxes.
Right behind her came Li Jiangbing and Song Jingshuo, both carrying just as many.
The moment they’d followed her inside, Jiang Cheng had said: “Focus on fever reducers, respiratory meds, gastrointestinal stuff, anti-inflammatories, and antibiotics. Oh, and painkillers too. Grab anything else you personally need.”
The three came out with their arms full.
Jiang Cheng took the lead—not toward her own cart, but toward her companions’: “Load them into your own carts. No need to sort—just stuff them in anywhere they’ll fit. Take as many as you can. We’ll coordinate and redistribute later when someone needs something.”
Everyone scrambled to take boxes from her arms, jamming them into every gap in their shopping carts. The carts were already packed full, so they had to wedge boxes in sideways and upright—tucking a few between bags of rice and flour, poking holes through the plastic wrap of bulk toilet paper rolls to stuff boxes into the cardboard cores.
Most medicine packaging wasn’t that big, so wherever they could squeeze out even a tiny bit of space, they forced a box in.
Song Jingshuo and Li Jiangbing followed her example, distributing their haul to the others rather than loading their own carts.
After the three had handed out their first armloads, they turned and went back inside.
On the second trip, they shared some with the group while also tucking a few boxes into their own carts.
By the time they headed back a third time, others were starting to eye the pharmacy too.
In truth, people had been watching ever since Jiang Cheng smashed the glass door.
The youth complex’s temporary committee had a habit of taking the lead during supply runs and bringing up the rear afterward. That was exactly why so many able-bodied residents were willing to follow their direction—they actually stepped up, shouldered responsibility, and gave everyone a sense of grounding.
So by now, they were essentially the last group from the youth apartment complex still on the road.
Trailing behind them in a scattered fashion were the Jixiang Jiayuan residents. Many of the elderly moved slowly, and after the bulk of the crowd had left the supermarket, they’d lingered with a “pick over the leftovers” mentality. That’s why they’d left even later.
From a distance, they spotted the young folks from the youth complex crowding around a storefront and muttered, “What are they doing now?”
They drew closer, watched for a moment, and understood: after robbing the supermarket, they were now robbing the pharmacy.
The old folks nearly slapped their thighs in frustration. “We need to stock up on meds too!”
Old people had ailments from head to toe—their need for medication was far more urgent than the youngsters’.
One old man started climbing the steps to push his way in.
Just then, Jiang Cheng and her two companions were coming back out. The old man tried to squeeze past them inside.
Jiang Cheng swung her axe through the air in a warning arc, freezing the cluster of elderly people at the bottom of the steps.
“We go first.” She pointed the axe at the people below, her voice cold. “After we’re done, then you can go in.”
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