Arriving back a little later than Li Jiangbing were Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan.
Their workplaces were also very close by—right in the High-Tech Park.
The Tech New District was called “Tech New” precisely because it housed a high-tech industrial park.
Anyway, they weren’t far either, and they came back one after the other.
The security guard greeted them too.
They weren’t the only ones working in the High-Tech Park—quite a few Youth Apartments residents did.
Since the industry was clustered here, even if people switched jobs, they’d just move from one company in the High-Tech Park to another, which was why they’d bought homes here.
More people trickled back—all working in the High-Tech Park, all living nearby.
The security guard saw many familiar faces.
Some ran into each other and exchanged greetings: “You came back too?”
“Whether I believe it or not, at worst I lose half a day of work. What if it’s true?”
“That’s what I was thinking too.”
“Mainly, it’s Jiang Cheng… she just doesn’t seem like the type to joke about something like this.”
“Exactly!”
One by one, more and more people came home early.
Jiang Cheng’s mass text had gone to all the temporary committee members—dozens of people.
And those people were in all sorts of group chats: the committee chat, building chats, volunteer chats, suicide squad chats, running chats, fitness chats, ride-share chats, gaming chats, dog-walking chats, foodie chats, dating chats.
The neighborhood residents were interwoven across these groups. All these chats overlapped, covering nearly every homeowner in Youth Apartments.
So apart from those who didn’t have the app open at work, everyone who was online knew.
After feeling it was absurd, impossible, maybe a joke, many people—though they didn’t jump up and decide to go home immediately like Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan—grew increasingly uneasy after putting down their phones.
In the end, they came back, one after another.
The security guard grew more and more nervous. He did another round of checks in the booth, confirming he had enough water and food, his armor and weapons were ready, and the door was locked from the inside—only then did he feel at ease.
What was there to fear? If zombies came, they’d fight them off.
Youth Apartments had the most experience.
Jiang Cheng hadn’t been back in her apartment long when she heard two sharp knocks on the door and a shout: “I’m back too! I’m going to my place!”
It was Li Jiangbing.
Good.
Jiang Cheng sat in the lounge chair by the floor-to-ceiling window, holding Mo Li in her lap, gazing down at the courtyard below.
She saw hurried figures.
As they passed beneath her building, she could make out Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan.
She smiled.
One by one, familiar faces came back.
Wu Jiancheng, Su Yu, He Tian, even Nie Kuizhang—all returned.
And many others she couldn’t name but recognized.
They ran into each other in the courtyard, exchanged greetings, then hurried off to their respective buildings, entering their homes to isolate themselves from others.
Just as Jiang Cheng had instructed.
Jiang Cheng was satisfied.
She rubbed the little head of Mo Li in her arms.
She wondered—had anyone considered that among all these people rushing back, some would surely turn into zombies?
Jiang Cheng felt that none of them seemed to realize this.
No one thought they themselves would turn. Everyone was thinking, “I need to get home and shut the door so I don’t get hurt if someone else turns.”
Jiang Cheng closed her eyes and felt her body heating up.
Last time, she’d mistaken it for a fever from a cold.
This time, she understood clearly—her cells were burning.
Though it was overcast and dim, it was still afternoon, not even dusk yet.
This time, it was starting earlier than last time.
Like a second pregnancy—it always comes faster than the first.
“Will I turn into a zombie?” Jiang Cheng asked Mo Li.
Mo Li lay sprawled across her chest.
After being left for so long, he had that abandoned-cat effect—especially clingy, refusing to get off her.
He rubbed his furry head against her insistently, trying to mark his scent all over Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Cheng gently scratched his head with her fingertip, muttering to herself: “If I turn…”
Then what?
Have Mo Li bite her to death?
Of course not.
“If I turn, I’ll bite you, and you’ll turn too,” Jiang Cheng said, a faint smile curling at the corner of her mouth. “We’ll be the invincible zombie kings.”
“If you can’t turn, then run. Let’s not kill each other.”
Song Jingshuo ended up coming back later than the others.
Because his company was on Financial Street, in the city center. There was traffic, and it took him over an hour to get home.
He parked in the underground garage and hurried toward the elevator.
As he stepped into the elevator, he felt something was wrong.
His vision went dark. His body lost its strength.
He tried to brace himself against the elevator to stay upright, but his legs gave way.
Before losing consciousness, he thought with relief: Trusting Jiang Cheng… was the right call.
This time, the mutation struck during the transition from afternoon to dusk.
And it was a workday.
Though it hadn’t yet reached peak rush hour, people were already starting to head home.
The roads were full of cars and people. Office buildings were busy. Restaurants on bustling commercial streets were starting to fill up with dinner crowds. Shopping malls were flooded with after-work customers.
Compared to last time, far too many people were outside their homes.
Compared to a first pregnancy, the second one often comes faster but hurts more.
That description, eerily enough, applied to the current situation.
There were too many cars on the road. When the mass blackout hit everyone, chain-reaction crashes erupted everywhere.
Buses caught fire, and entire loads of people burned to death in silence.
Some private cars had aftermarket anti-theft alarms that were triggered by the collisions, blaring piercing sirens.
Headlights flashed on and off.
No one put out the fires. No one even got out of their cars.
Some people slumped over their steering wheels. Others lolled against their headrests. All were unconscious.
Everyone in Youth Apartments—whether they’d made it back or not—thought the same thing right before losing consciousness: What Jiang Cheng said was actually true.
Those who had made it home closed their eyes in peace.
Those who hadn’t heeded Jiang Cheng’s warning and were still outside were filled with fear and regret in their final moments of awareness.
Inside the government building, Deputy Mayor Sun’s legs gave out. Even bracing against the wall, he couldn’t stay upright.
He collapsed to the floor, his tilted vision revealing colleagues sprawled everywhere in the slanted hallway.
Deputy Mayor Sun realized disaster had struck.
That young woman’s warning had been real.
In a building with large internal spaces like the municipal government, it would be nearly impossible to survive an outbreak.
Back then, the city surveillance building had no survivors. They’d spent enormous effort to clear the zombies and retake it.
And that had only been possible because they were all still there—because they had all been unconscious in their own homes, not turned into second-generation zombies under the original ones.
But this time, this time… the entire municipal government team was inside the building.
And the same went for all government agencies—no one had clocked out yet; everyone was in their offices.
Deputy Mayor Sun realized that none of the civil servants would be spared.
The government was about to be completely wiped out.
So this time, who would organize the forces? Who would marshal supplies? Who would lead the people against the zombies?
Who?
Once humans lost leadership and restraint, the sudden environmental mutation would unleash unimaginable savagery and evil.
They had seen too much of that on the surveillance wall in the monitoring hall.
If only…
If only they had believed that young woman…
Filled with anxiety, worry, and fear for his country and its people, Deputy Mayor Sun slipped into unconsciousness.
This time seemed just like last time.
But this time, many people—like Jiang Cheng—began to feel their bodies heating up.
Cells began to burn.
Genes kept recombining.
The human body started changing from its most fundamental building blocks.
…
…
Peng Ze suddenly woke up.
For a moment he was disoriented, not knowing where he was or what he was doing.
Looking around, he saw trees densely packed on all sides, so thick he couldn’t see beyond them, and heard no sounds.
Then Peng Ze remembered—he had been bitten on the ear by a zombie. He was infected.
He was going to turn into a second-generation zombie.
To avoid encountering the crowds on the streets, he had gotten into an abandoned car and driven north.
Because south led to the city center; only north would take him away from people.
He’d driven all the way to the forest park on the city’s northern edge—the place where they’d come on weekends for fresh air, jogging, fishing, and flying kites.
He’d abandoned the car and walked deeper in, pushing all the way to the dense forest far from the rubber jogging track.
Almost no one came here.
He’d wanted to wait quietly for the mutation to take hold, hoping no one would find him so he wouldn’t hurt anyone.
Then.
Then…
Then he’d suddenly regained consciousness just now.
Peng Ze was bewildered. He had no idea how long he’d been standing there—he had no sense of time passing. Had he just dozed off standing up? Why hadn’t he mutated yet?
It was still daytime, with sunlight filtering down.
It should have felt hot, but Peng Ze couldn’t feel the temperature for some reason.
He suddenly didn’t want to stay here anymore.
He felt uncomfortable, as if his body craved something desperately.
It wasn’t here. He had to go find it elsewhere.
So Peng Ze started walking outward. He walked faster and faster, the trees on either side blurring past.
But he didn’t notice how fast he was moving.
He flew through the woods, and ahead appeared a concrete path, with a small grassy hill planted with trees and shrubs beyond it.
Peng Ze didn’t follow the concrete path around the hill—why bother going around? He darted straight up the slope, and there below was the rubber jogging track of the forest park.
Peng Ze raced down.
He saw a person lying on the track.
The man was wearing professional running gear and shoes. He seemed to have just woken up too, slowly sitting up.
Peng Ze walked toward him, a little concerned, wanting to ask if he needed help.
But his vocal cords seemed to have malfunctioned—the words he wanted to say came out as garbled “huh-huh” sounds.
The man on the ground looked back in shock, saw him, and his face went pale. He scrambled to his feet and bolted.
Peng Ze reached out his hand, wanting to call out to him, to tell him: Don’t be afraid. I haven’t turned yet.
And then he saw his own hand—
Cyan skin. Pitch-black nails.
Peng Ze slowly turned his palm over, his gaze fixed on it.
So that was it.
He had already mutated.
A faint, alluring scent wafted over, activating his genes.
What smelled so good? The scent was concentrated right where that man had been lying.
So fragrant.
This was what his starving body craved.
Peng Ze couldn’t help but run, faster and faster, chasing in the direction the man had gone.
The further he chased, the stronger the scent in the air.
Soon he saw the man’s back.
Peng Ze accelerated.
The fitness enthusiast, running for his life, pushed himself to his fastest sprint ever.
In terror, he looked back while running.
And saw, with horror, the zombie leap into the air, arms spread wide like a giant bird, lunging at him!
Peng Ze wrapped his arms around the runner from behind.
He bit down, sinking his teeth into the back of the runner’s neck.
Body.
Flesh.
Meat.
Skin.
Blood.
So delicious.
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