According to what everyone had heard, Renxin Hospital had completely fallen—there were no survivors left.
But the hospital had medical facilities and medicine, and many people were in desperate need of those.
The Youth Apartments had an intern doctor who worked at Renxin Hospital. Over the past few days, she’d often been helping people in the neighborhood with diagnoses and advising them on what medications to take.
But these were all minor, common ailments. For serious illnesses, there was nothing she could do.
Fortunately, the Youth Apartments residents were all young and relatively healthy. Over the past two weeks, there had been cases of diarrhea, stomach pain, and gallbladder pain, but no acute illnesses or major conditions requiring IV drips or surgery.
It was also fortunate that Jiang Cheng had ransacked the pharmacy early on, stockpiling all those common medications for the Youth Apartments.
But other neighborhoods had lost people to illness over the past half-month—including children.
A woman in her third trimester had given birth at home.
Many others were still suffering the torment of illness. With no doctors and no medicine, all they could do was endure it.
Even the young, healthy residents of the Youth Apartments couldn’t stay healthy forever. A hospital was a basic necessity.
Jiang Cheng’s goal was to turn the entire New Tech District green. Today, they’d cleared the restaurant street and successfully joined forces with the residents of Deqingli.
If you calculated distance radiating outward from the Youth Apartments, the next closest target was Renxin Hospital—a nest of zombies.
Before today, Jiang Cheng might have paused moving in that direction, considering the difficulty. She might have chosen to wait for the situation to improve and let professional soldiers handle Renxin Hospital.
But Li Feng had brought new armor. Its protective power had been proven in today’s actual combat on the restaurant street.
Jiang Cheng’s ambition swelled instantly.
This ambition wasn’t about pursuing power—it was about pursuing victory.
Jiang Cheng thought: Because this is the meaning of my coming to this world.
Otherwise, why had she been transported here? To work nine-to-five and get married and have kids?
Actually, Jiang Cheng had also worried—with such high intensity, would others still be willing to follow? If they wouldn’t, she’d be a commander with no one to command, and she couldn’t accomplish this alone.
But when she asked everyone for their opinions after the restaurant street operation, the native residents surprised her again.
She hadn’t expected so many people to respond.
There was no fear on their faces—their eyes even brimmed with surging enthusiasm.
Of course, you could also say they’d gotten caught up in the kill.
But when this behavior had state support behind it, it was no longer simply “getting caught up in the kill.”
It was righteous. It was noble.
People’s eyes shone because of it. Their blood boiled. Their courage multiplied.
Zhou Wang also said: “The hospital must be taken back.”
Zhou Wang had elderly parents at home with pre-existing conditions. Fortunately, the Friday before the zombie crisis broke out, his parents had just gone to the hospital to get their medication. Over the past half-month at home, they hadn’t caught a cold or had a fever or anything like that.
Very lucky.
But luck wouldn’t last forever. With so many people—elderly, children, pregnant women—the hospital had to be retaken.
The other neighborhoods, including Deqingli which had just joined forces with them, were all traditional residential communities with both old and young. Their need for a hospital was far greater than that of the Youth Apartments’ bunch of young, able-bodied adults.
Jiang Cheng’s proposal was immediately met with approval and support.
With popular support behind her, Jiang Cheng could now bargain with the authorities.
“Give us another 200 sets of armor,” she said. “Six hundred fully armored fighters, and we’ll take care of Renxin Hospital.”
Li Feng and Jiang Cheng met at the Buy Duo Duo supermarket.
The people from Deqingli had all come along to collect supplies.
Deqingli had a large population. Fortunately, the people from Jixiang Jiayuan, Lecheng Garden, and Yujing Xiangyuan had mostly already come and gone by morning and noon, so it wasn’t too overcrowded.
The people from Deqingli had been through a lot over the past two weeks—many of their residents had a hardened, fierce look on their faces.
But the Youth Apartments and Jixiang Jiayuan were experienced. The people they’d sent to coordinate supplies and maintain order were all sturdy, strong men.
The scene was a bit noisy, but not chaotic.
All of that was being handled by the soldiers and volunteers dispatched from the various neighborhoods.
Li Feng’s more important role was to interface, coordinate, and arrange matters with the leaders of this area.
And the main person was Jiang Cheng. This girl named Jiang Cheng had almost become a one-woman decision-maker here.
The ceiling lights shone down on her. Her hair was half-wet at the forehead, her face and neck glistening with sweat.
She wore the white plastic armor—probably a small size, and it fit her fairly well. Under the lights, it created a visual effect that was both retro and futuristic.
But what drew Li Feng’s attention were her eyes.
Her eyes were too bright.
Li Feng had seen eyes that bright before—but those people had all received special training. She was clearly just an ordinary civilian.
When they happened to go to the restroom at the same time, he casually asked Zhao Yi, who was helping coordinate the scene, “What does Jiang Cheng do?”
The answer he got was that she was just an ordinary employee at an ordinary company, no different from anyone else.
But Li Feng, as a soldier, could vaguely sense that Jiang Cheng was different from the others.
Those eyes were really too bright.
“I can’t guarantee it,” Li Feng said. He wasn’t about to make bold promises just because his emotions had been stirred in the moment.
Because right now, food wasn’t in short supply—but this armor was in high demand.
“They’ve been working around the clock to produce it, I heard,” he said. “They only started distributing it to civilians after meeting the front-line troops’ needs first. I barely managed to grab those 400 sets yesterday.”
“Thank you for your hard work,” Jiang Cheng said. “Please do whatever you can to help us get more today.”
“Deqingli has several pregnant women. There are elderly people in Lecheng Garden barely hanging on. And a lot of children are sick too.”
“Around here in the New Tech District, aside from a small community clinic, Renxin Hospital is the only option.”
“Our neighborhood, Jixiang Jiayuan, and Yujing Xiangyuan all have doctors from Renxin Hospital. Many of their doctors bought homes in this area.”
“As long as we take back the hospital—even if we can’t get it fully operational—at least we can save lives.”
Li Feng pressed down on the brim of his cap.
“Understood,” he said. “I’ll go fight for it.”
Jiang Cheng said: “Whether it works out or not, please give me a definite answer tonight so I can arrange things for tomorrow. What time are you heading back? Is 9 o’clock okay?”
Li Feng thought for a moment and agreed: “Alright.”
Before 9 PM, Li Feng called Jiang Cheng as promised: “Done. I got them.”
Jiang Cheng immediately called Zhou Wang and the people from Yujing Xiangyuan.
They weren’t familiar with the Deqingli people yet and hadn’t had time to build a working relationship, so for now they weren’t including them in the deployment. The people from Lecheng Garden were still recovering and couldn’t form an effective fighting force yet.
For now, the fighting force was still mainly composed of the three neighborhoods: the Youth Apartments, Jixiang Jiayuan, and Yujing Xiangyuan.
And that was enough.
Before going to bed, the Youth Apartments residents heard the broadcast in the hallways: [Proceed as planned tomorrow. Target: Renxin Hospital.]
Having had smooth success the past two days, many people had lost their fear of the zombies. Some were even a little excited at the thought of tomorrow’s plan.
As participants in a major event, they naturally took pride in being part of it.
Many even thought: These events—these things happening right before their eyes, that they were taking part in—would surely be recorded in the history books.
They were witnessing history in the making.
They were participating in history in the making.
The next day was another Saturday.
The zombie virus had also broken out on a Saturday.
A full two weeks had passed.
Looking back on these two weeks, many felt it was like a dream. Strange, but not absurd—or at least, the Youth Apartments hadn’t been absurd; they’d maintained the order that society should have.
But everyone also felt that the day they’d wake from this dream was not far off.
It was an exhilarating thought.
Li Jiangbing was furious.
Because Li Feng had delivered the new 200 sets of armor early in the morning—but there was still nothing that fit him.
The protective gear factories were racing against time, working day and night shifts, running assembly lines—all mass-produced in standard sizes. There was no way they could custom-make anything for anyone.
What made it even more infuriating was that, in comparison to the armor, everyone now unanimously agreed that their previous protective methods weren’t safe enough.
They’d been getting by just fine all this time, and suddenly everyone decided that magazines taped to their arms and motorcycle helmets weren’t safe anymore.
Jiang Cheng excluded both him and Nie Kuizhang from the team to retake Renxin Hospital.
It was such an insult—he was clearly a top-tier fighter in the Youth Apartments!
Thanks to Li Jiangbing’s insistence, along with others who felt the same way, they ended up joining the team heading to Renxin Hospital after all.
Their equipment was upgraded too.
Li Jiangbing’s movie-prop-like arm shield was replaced with an anti-riot shield that Li Feng had delivered along with the armor yesterday. The Youth Apartments’ door-plank shields were all swapped out for anti-riot shields.
It was the same for Jixiang Jiayuan and Yujing Xiangyuan.
In the end, the group heading to Renxin Hospital numbered far more than six hundred.
This time, the girls were all excluded.
Because the armor was limited, and the anti-riot shields were heavy—requiring strong arms to wield.
Su Yu and He Tian were among the more combat-capable girls. But there were certainly men with stronger builds and greater strength than them. With armor in limited supply, they couldn’t pass over stronger men to allocate it to them.
The only woman in the group was Jiang Cheng.
In fact, Song Jingshuo had looked at Jiang Cheng several times, opening his mouth as if to speak, then stopping himself, over and over again.
But Jiang Cheng’s calm glance in his direction made him give up the thought.
No one else had any objections to Jiang Cheng either. Because everyone knew that Jiang Cheng had “been strong since she was a kid.” Over the past half-month, that had already been proven—her strength was no different from a man’s, even greater than some of the skinnier boys.
And deep down, everyone had long since stopped seeing Jiang Cheng as a “girl.”
Song Jingshuo meant no harm. He’d long since given up any thought of competing with Jiang Cheng.
On the contrary, it was precisely because he was so familiar with her now that, when it came time to select fighters rather than mobilizing everyone, he naturally wanted Jiang Cheng—as a “girl”—to fall back and be protected.
Song Jingshuo had his own feelings. In his eyes, Jiang Cheng always had a gender.
But Jiang Cheng certainly wasn’t having it.
She had traveled through time to this world to face its challenges. She wasn’t going to back down.
Li Feng watched with somewhat complicated feelings as Jiang Cheng led several hundred people toward Renxin Hospital.
His feelings were complicated because he was the soldier. He was the warrior.
And yet, this time, the assignment had put him in the logistics group.
Li Feng desperately wanted to join the fight.
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