Li Feng and his men weren’t staying here tonight.
After inspecting the Buy Duo Duo environment, the two soldiers also returned. They got into the now-empty truck with Li Feng and headed back.
The streetlights came on. Jiang Cheng said to Li Feng: “See you tomorrow.”
Jiang Cheng had originally intended to have Zhao Yi or Li Jiangbing handle the liaison with the military supply commander. She wanted supply distribution to remain within her control as well.
But almost as soon as Li Feng arrived, she observed something interesting—everyone, every single native resident of this world, was remarkably docile in front of Li Feng. No one fought for authority. All the native residents simply defaulted to accepting Li Feng’s leadership.
And Li Feng was just a young man who looked about twenty-five or twenty-six.
So Jiang Cheng wisely set aside some of her ideas, to avoid overplaying her hand.
The truck pulled away. Li Feng glanced in the rearview mirror.
The heads of the several neighborhoods were still standing there talking, all gathered around that girl. Throughout today’s interactions, it was the same—not that they obeyed her every word, but whenever something came up, they would all instinctively look to her.
“Company Commander, what are you thinking about?” A soldier in the back leaned forward and asked.
“Thinking about whether I can get them some protective gear tomorrow.”
“Company Commander, did you see? One of their neighborhoods has shields they modified themselves. There are some capable people in that neighborhood.”
“I saw. But there are only a few—not enough.”
“That’s true.”
At the command center, Mayor Zheng was listening to work reports.
The green zones were like little sprouts pushing through the soil after rain—tenacious and full of life.
The two armed helicopters and twelve small aerial bombs had finally turned the Rainbow Stadium area on the Third Ring Road from a red zone to a yellow zone.
This was the first day in half a month that he’d felt his mood wasn’t so heavy. It was the nation and its people together that had injected life into his body and brought him hope.
The zombie crisis was unprecedented, unheard of—but in the end, it couldn’t defeat this country or its people.
Mayor Zheng thought with quiet satisfaction.
While the combat units and ordinary people rested, the logistics departments were busy as ever.
The scene was like a massive construction site, with harsh floodlights mounted on tall poles. People and forklifts moved back and forth in a constant flow, loading crate after crate of supplies onto big trucks. Everyone was busy.
Li Feng had successfully secured a batch of anti-riot shields for the area under his responsibility, and then he spotted the latest model of protective armor.
He took one look and was sold: “This stuff is great!”
It felt like white plastic—knock it with a knuckle and it was hard.
It was molded to fit the shape of a human shoulder. The upper body piece was like a shawl—you just pressed it down over the shoulders from above, with a Velcro strap in the front. The neck part had a shell-shaped back guard that stood up like something out of a fairy tale princess’s costume, covering the back of the head and the neck.
There were also bracers for the upper arm and forearm, plus leg guards for the thighs and calves. All secured with Velcro.
It was very rudimentary—clearly something developed in a hurry, rushed through production.
But its advantage was obvious: the white plastic was full of holes. It was breathable!
And that mattered, because these days the temperature was hitting 31 or 32 degrees Celsius, sometimes even 34. You’d be drenched in sweat after moving around just a little.
Li Feng asked first: “Have the front-line troops been equipped with these?”
“Of course. Front-line gets priority.”
But now, the civilians were front-line too. These ordinary people, with no special training, had bravely walked out the door with kitchen knives in hand. The government couldn’t let these brave people down, so protective gear was now being included in the supply shipments.
“Give me some of these. The area I’m responsible for—they’re going to clear a restaurant street tomorrow. I’ll leave early and deliver them.”
“Sure. How many sets?”
On Friday morning, everyone woke up to a broadcast announcement echoing through the hallways: [The convoy will assemble at the original time. Everyone else, delay your assembly time by 40 minutes.]
People opened their doors and popped their heads out into the hallways, asking each other: “What’s going on?”
At the scheduled time, Song Jingshuo led the convoy out first.
Today’s target was the restaurant street.
The so-called “convoy” was the four 535 buses.
These buses were different from standard city buses—taller, bigger, and with supposedly better engines.
They’d already done major work yesterday clearing the route to the Fifth Ring Road, and today they were the main fighting force again.
The lead bus took point, honking its horn to attract the zombies as it drove along.
They couldn’t go too fast—otherwise the zombies wouldn’t be able to keep up. But they couldn’t go too slow either—they were afraid the second-generation zombies might jump onto the bus. The windows were sturdy enough, but not indestructible. You never knew.
The drivers had all gained experience on the road yesterday.
Today, they had a new strategy:
The lead bus attracted the zombies. As it picked up speed, the zombies ahead were rammed and killed, but most of the horde ended up chasing behind the bus.
But the bus was too big and too long to maneuver in reverse very nimbly. So once the zombies had clustered together, the lead bus would suddenly accelerate to shake them off.
Then the trailing bus would charge in, sending the gathered zombies flying or crushing them under its wheels.
The lead bus would take the chance to quickly clear the restaurant street.
After a few laps like this, the number of second-generation zombies on the restaurant street had dropped significantly. At a glance, it wasn’t nearly as densely packed and terrifying as before.
According to plan, after the convoy completed its primary mission, it would be time to send in the ground teams for a thorough, street-by-street sweep.
But today, that was temporarily postponed.
Jiang Cheng, Li Jiangbing, and a few others who didn’t have vehicles went to Buy Duo Duo to wait for Li Feng. Li Jiangbing in particular was raring to go, practically hopping with impatience.
Because Li Feng had called Jiang Cheng late last night, saying he’d secured a batch of protective armor for them.
He’d used the word “armor.”
Li Jiangbing was dying to see what this “armor” actually looked like with his own eyes.
Li Feng and his comrades had taken turns overseeing the loading all night, setting out at dawn just so the people of the New Tech District could get their protective gear as early as possible.
The four large trucks drove into Buy Duo Duo’s loading channel and stopped at the unloading zone.
People from all three neighborhoods had shown up, with forklifts and hand trucks ready.
Li Feng jumped down from the truck with agile precision and called out: “Unload the armor first!”
Everyone had been waiting for exactly this, and they swarmed over.
When they got their hands on the armor, Li Jiangbing studied it for a long time, running his fingers over it, puzzled: “Why does this look so familiar? I’ve definitely seen this somewhere before.”
Li Feng cleared up his confusion in one sentence: “We requisitioned a few plastic orthopedic brace factories—they used to make fracture support braces.”
Realization dawned on everyone.
No one minded the rudimentary design. To have come up with something like this in just a few days—the mold makers must have worked their hearts out.
They put on the upper body pieces first, then snapped the arm and leg guards into place, helping each other adjust the tightness.
People who’d been fighting zombies for two weeks immediately knew how practical this gear was.
Excellent!
Jiang Cheng asked: “How many sets total?”
Li Feng: “Four hundred.”
Jiang Cheng made the call directly: “Two hundred for the Youth Apartments, one hundred for each of the other two neighborhoods.”
Li Feng was taken aback and was about to speak, but then he suddenly realized that Zhou Wang and the people from Yujing Xiangyuan hadn’t said a word.
He glanced at those older men and was surprised to find that they didn’t seem inclined to object at all.
Jiang Cheng seemed to understand his surprise and confusion, and explained succinctly: “Our neighborhood is the main fighting force around here.”
Zhou Wang nodded: “That’s right.”
The people from Yujing Xiangyuan didn’t deny it either.
So it was true. Seeing that, Li Feng didn’t interfere with their distribution and approved their allocation plan.
In just half a month, the New Tech District had already formed its own hierarchy.
Sure enough, wherever there are people, there’s politics.
The only two people on site who weren’t happy were Li Jiangbing and Nie Kuizhang.
Because the armor came in three sizes—small, medium, and large—to fit different body types. But Li Jiangbing and Nie Kuizhang both had special body types.
One was too muscular, the other too fat.
Li Jiangbing’s arms were so thick that the arm guards simply wouldn’t fit over them—unless he strapped the leg guards onto his arms instead. But then someone else would have to go without leg protection.
And the upper body armor was half the width of his shoulders—no way it was going on.
Having muscles that were too big had its downsides too.
Li Jiangbing had been eagerly anticipating this all morning, only to end up empty-handed.
The fighters participating in the battle were all waiting in the supermarket. People from each neighborhood stuck together with their own.
When they brought the armor in from the unloading zone, it drew gasps of amazement.
Each neighborhood organized its own people to collect the gear. Order was maintained without any need for Li Feng or his men to step in—it was effortless.
Song Jingshuo called: “We’re just about done over here. How are things on your end? How’s that armor?”
“Pretty good,” Jiang Cheng praised. “Very breathable.”
Song Jingshuo: “…?”
Jiang Cheng: “We’re getting ready to head out.”
Seeing the fighters from the three neighborhoods preparing to head to the restaurant street, Li Feng had an idea: “We’ll come along too—”
Jiang Cheng shot it down immediately: “No.”
“You’re in charge of the supply lines. You can’t afford to lose people to combat. We have more than enough fighters on our side, but we can’t do your job.”
“Your work is too important. No one can replace you.”
Li Feng: “…”
Li Feng felt a bit strange. Because Jiang Cheng’s tone and logic sounded awfully familiar. What did it remind him of?
A leader.
Yes, that’s exactly how leaders talked. As a deputy company commander, this was the same script he used when addressing his soldiers.
But Jiang Cheng was a young, pretty girl, so the dissonance was especially strong.
Li Feng asked curiously: “Jiang Cheng, are you a civil servant?”
Jiang Cheng denied it: “No, I’m just an ordinary resident.”
Li Feng was sorely tempted to suggest she try the civil service exam after this zombie business was over. He felt she was particularly suited for a career within the system.
But there was no time for that now. He just nodded and told everyone: “Stay safe.”
He watched them leave, then turned back to help the volunteers organize the supplies and prepare for the next round of distribution.
The next time he saw Jiang Cheng was in the afternoon.
Thanks to the new armor, no one had been injured today.
Jiang Cheng had come back specifically to find Li Feng: “Please make sure to report this upward—this armor is extremely effective!”
She also made a request: “Can we get more?”
Li Feng said: “Not for now. They’re working around the clock to produce it, but the demand is enormous.”
Jiang Cheng put an offer on the table: “Give us another two hundred sets, and we’ll take Renxin Hospital.”
Li Feng: “!!!”
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