Over at Youth Apartments, a group of men were in high spirits, enthusiastically reinforcing the community gates with additional security measures. So far, Youth Apartments had yet to encounter any outside intruders.
But on Friday night, someone broke into Jixiang Jiayuan.
Youth Apartments and Jixiang Jiayuan had been the first to rush out of their buildings, clear out the zombies, and beat every other community to Buy Duoduo, stripping it bare.
Anyone following the resident forums would know this—it was no secret.
Especially when people from nearby communities later rushed out to Buy Duoduo, only to find the shelves completely empty, leaving them to resentfully search elsewhere for supplies.
Some never made it back to their communities—they died out there.
On Tuesday, the Buy Duoduo staff had clashed with these people and gotten injured. By Wednesday, they’d pushed a few carts of beverages over to trade for medical supplies.
After returning, Dong Ge felt they couldn’t keep going like this.
There were still some small shops inside the supermarket, including a photo studio. Dong Ge and his people smashed their way in, found a camera, and took a bunch of photos. They called the studio owner, who sighed heavily over the phone and guided them through developing the film and printing the photos.
After that, when anyone came to Buy Duoduo looking for food, they were met with a banner at the entrance: [ALL FOOD IS COMPLETELY GONE—LOOK ELSEWHERE!]
They’d put up plenty of photos showing the inside of Buy Duoduo—empty shelves, empty warehouses, empty cold storage.
Some still wouldn’t give up and went in to check for themselves—and sure enough, it was all true. They left disappointed, and at least they didn’t clash with Dong Ge’s group again.
But someone had let it slip: “You came too late. Youth Apartments and Jixiang Jiayuan cleared it all out. Go find them instead.”
This remark later appeared on the forums of several other communities, and many people saw it.
Nearly every store remotely related to food in the area—restaurants, convenience stores, small supermarkets—had been smashed open and cleaned out.
Even unrelated shops, like beauty salons, had been ransacked—people could still scavenge employees’ personal snacks or some rice, flour, and cooking oil from the kitchen.
But the quantities were nowhere near enough.
People die without food. No one wanted to die, so they had to figure something out.
After dark on Friday night, someone infiltrated Jixiang Jiayuan.
Why Jixiang Jiayuan? Everyone knew Youth Apartments definitely had more supplies. But their gates were locked, the security booth lights were on, and guards were on duty.
Jixiang Jiayuan, on the other hand, had no property management left—staff were either dead or scattered. The gates were kept closed during the day, but there was no one on watch, nor did they have the extra security measures Youth Apartments had installed.
Jixiang Jiayuan was essentially wide open. And the two communities were right next to each other—the choice was obvious.
They chose the dead of night, when everyone was asleep.
But they weren’t professional thieves—they couldn’t pull it off cleanly. They ended up waking people up.
In the middle of the night, a shrill scream of “Thieves! Catch the thieves!” rang out, waking the neighbors. They were about to go help when they found thieves in their own homes too.
It turned out they weren’t acting alone—they’d come as a group.
By the time Zhou Wang rushed down wearing two mismatched shoes, two people had already been beaten to death.
After killing zombies, people had generally lost any reverence for the dead. But food was a red line—Jixiang Jiayuan residents simply didn’t have as much food as those at Youth Apartments. Every household had elders and children to feed. When it came to food, their nerves were stretched taut.
Add in the lingering fear of zombies in the dark—all these factors combined meant no one held back. By the time they realized their targets had stopped moving, they were already dead.
The group had come with over a dozen people. About seven or eight were captured alive, and a few reportedly got away.
When Zhou Wang arrived, people were still kicking and punching those who’d been caught.
Everyone was bristling with hostility—men, women, old, young—all of them.
Zhou Wang shouted for them to stop.
“Uncle Zhou,” Xiao Huang called out.
Xiao Huang’s father, Old Huang, had been Jixiang Jiayuan’s very first organizer. Even Zhou Wang had been rallied by him.
But Old Huang had been injured in the first wave of fighting and isolated himself in his bedroom—sure enough, he eventually turned into a zombie.
Xiao Huang had ended it himself, with a kitchen knife.
Now the family of three was down to just a middle-aged mother and a middle-schooler. Fortunately, the boy was already taller than his mother and could wield both a rolling pin and a kitchen knife.
For community matters, he used the rolling pin. When going outside, he brought the kitchen knife.
Zhou Wang gave him tasks. Xiao Huang’s mother saw things clearly and told her son: “Stick with Uncle Zhou. Do whatever he tells you to do. Stay close to him.”
Xiao Huang had inherited his parents’ clear-headedness and calm, steady temperament. He listened to his mother and nodded: “I know.”
In these extraordinary times, he knew he had to be the “man” of the household—not just the “orphan” in a family of a widow and her son.
The mother and daughter who’d jumped from the neighboring building—that had been a true case of a widow and orphan.
“Uncle Zhou.” Xiao Huang was gripping a rolling pin stained with blood. He took the initiative to brief Zhou Wang, who’d just come downstairs: “They came to steal. We questioned them—these ones are from Yujing Xiangyuan and Deqing Li.”
They were all young to middle-aged men.
These people all lived nearby and knew each other from working out at the same gym.
If Li Jiangbing were here, he’d recognize several of these dozen-odd men by name. That’s right—they worked out at the same gym where Li Jiangbing worked, and some were even his clients.
These men had been pushed to the brink too. Almost every store on the street that could be smashed open had been ransacked; it was nearly impossible to find food anywhere anymore. In the end, they’d set their sights on Youth Apartments and Jixiang Jiayuan. After weighing their options, they’d chosen Jixiang Jiayuan.
They’d organized online and gathered a dozen or so people from several communities to carry out the heist together.
The captured men were already battered and bruised, some with teeth knocked out.
These were regular gym-goers, in good physical shape—that’s what gave them the nerve. But they were on someone else’s turf, and outnumbered.
Seeing their companions dead, their faces turned ashen.
Some had already started begging for mercy: “…We know we were wrong. We’re sorry! We’ll never dare do it again!”
Others played the pity card: “We really have no food left at home—my kid’s only three…”
Xiao Huang asked: “Uncle Zhou, what do we do with them?”
Keep them to hand over to the police later? But they’d also raided Buy Duoduo without paying. Everyone had raided it.
And besides—people had been killed.
In the darkness, Zhou Wang glanced at Xiao Huang.
Still just a teenager, but after everything he’d been through, his eyes were no longer innocent.
Zhou Wang looked around at the others.
Many of the male residents were gripping weapons.
There was savagery in many people’s eyes.
No single person had killed those men—everyone had.
“Old Zhou,” someone called out.
Zhou Wang looked over. A body lay at that man’s feet.
Their eyes met in the dark—a pair of sinister, chilling eyes.
His weapon was stained with blood.
Even the rolling pin in Xiao Huang’s hand had blood on it.
How to handle this?
The previous incident—where someone had been beaten to death in a scuffle—the two sides had already agreed to a settlement through mediation.
The woman who jumped—she’d done it herself.
But now, the bodies lying on the ground had been beaten to death by everyone together.
It was hard to pin it on any one person—it was all of them, everyone.
“Alright,” Old Zhou said, scanning the surroundings. “Ladies, go back home first. Kids too. All the men stay—we’ll handle this together.”
Since Zhou Wang had said so, the female residents exchanged glances with their men, then gradually dispersed, taking the children back to their buildings.
A few lingered. Zhou Wang said: “Go on, go on.”
Many people sensed the shift in atmosphere.
The men urged their women: “Get back inside—I’ll handle things here!”
Xiao Huang’s mother was still there too, gripping a rolling pin. But she hadn’t had a chance to step forward, so it was still clean.
Old Huang had been a man of some standing, and his wife had naturally seen her share of the world. She sensed something was off and reached out to pull Xiao Huang back: “You’re still young. Come back with me.”
But Zhou Wang shot him a glance.
Xiao Huang, who’d been hesitating, saw it and immediately stopped wavering. He broke free: “You go back. I’m needed here. I’m not a kid anymore.”
He gripped the rolling pin with both hands, holding it diagonally across his chest.
His mother saw the blood on that rolling pin. She remembered how, after her husband turned, the temporary homeowners’ committee had come, but her son refused to let anyone else kill his father—he’d insisted on ending it himself.
Children grow up eventually. She couldn’t treat him like a child now.
She released her grip on her son and instead said politely to Zhou Wang: “Please keep an eye on him.”
Zhou Wang nodded: “Go on back, sister. I’ve got him. Don’t worry.”
She looked at him, then at her young son, a flicker of reluctance in her eyes—then hardened her heart and turned away.
The elderly also went back. Left standing downstairs were only able-bodied young and middle-aged men.
Xiao Huang was the youngest among them.
He looked around and saw, in the darkness, many eyes glinting with a fearsome light.
Several burly men huddled around Zhou Wang, speaking in low voices. Xiao Huang didn’t crowd in—he’d learned these past days to read the room and pick up on cues.
That small group, Zhou Wang included—they were the ones who could make the big decisions for Jixiang Jiayuan.
Xiao Huang had stuck close to someone who could make those decisions, and that was why he and his mother hadn’t ended up being bullied like that auntie who jumped with her baby.
Fragments of conversation drifted vaguely through the night.
“Can’t…”
“Let them go back…”
“Lives…”
“Future…”
“Legal trouble…”
“Everyone…”
Xiao Huang strained his ears, but couldn’t make out more—the uncles were deliberately keeping their voices low.
No one else spoke either; they all waited for those few to make the call.
But everyone’s bodies remained tense, not relaxing, keeping a close watch on the half-sitting, half-lying men on the ground.
Xiao Huang saw the uncles light up cigarettes for each other.
The atmosphere around the adults seemed to grow heavier—as if the decision was a difficult one.
But when they all suddenly dropped their cigarettes to the ground and ground them out fiercely with their feet, it meant a decision had been made.
“We can’t let them go.” Zhou Wang’s eyes were dark and deep as he announced, “They’ve already been bitten by zombies out there.”
The air froze for a moment.
Someone shouted in horror: “We haven’t—”
Those with quicker reflexes sprang up, trying to break through and escape.
But no matter how fast they reacted, they couldn’t beat a premeditated plan.
A kitchen knife swung into a neck. Blood sprayed out, splattering into Xiao Huang’s open mouth.
Warm. Salty. It was the blood of the living.
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