Chapter 32

Many rooms in the community have become empty again.

Zhu Cheng guided some of the temporary residents in the unfinished houses to the finished houses that also housed temporary residents. As a result, many unfinished houses were vacant, and Tong Shu set her sights on these unfinished houses.

She embellished her and Tong Songming's plan a little before approaching Zhu Cheng to discuss it.

"Great! This is wonderful!" Zhu Cheng was also very excited upon hearing this. The government has recently launched a new round of disaster relief efforts, and factories and fields in the mountains have come to a standstill due to the sharp drop in temperature. If community residents can work directly in the community, it will be very beneficial for both their safety and the collection of supplies.

"You need skilled workers, right? I'll ask around during my inspections to see what kind of workers you'll need later?" Zhu Cheng asked eagerly.

Tong Shu thought for a moment and said, "Right now, we're just setting up a cotton product production line. Once the machines are finished, we might need a few tailors and a few laborers to do sewing and other odd jobs. After things stabilize, we'll see if we want to set up production lines for other daily necessities. After all, we're just a small workshop supplying our own neighborhood, and we don't have much space to put the machines in. We don't need too many people. Just find me a few hardworking and diligent ones."

"I understand, I understand!" Zhu Cheng rubbed his hands together. "I've gathered everyone for you in the last couple of days. If it weren't for all the other things the community has to do, I could have come and helped you out too. I did have an engineering background!"

"You've already helped us a lot," Tong Shu said politely.

Zhu Cheng left the office in a hurry, rushing off to find skilled workers for Tong Shu and the others. Before leaving, he also handed Tong Shu the keys to several unfinished houses, telling her to make her own arrangements.

The unfinished houses were not very close to each other. Many of the people who froze to death during the sharp drop in temperature lived in these unfinished houses. The residents who lived in these unfinished houses were all relocated from the same building.

However, Tong Shu didn't mind. She had her eye on the top floor of Building 3, which was a duplex with a similar layout to her own home. It was also quite large. Tong Shu thought that she could install a generator on the terrace, use the upper floor for deseeding and pressing cotton, and put several sewing machines on the lower floor so that tailors could make finished products and pack them up. The rooms could then be used as a warehouse with a large capacity.

There are many idle generators at the factory in the north of the city. The reason why Zhu Cheng only applied for one was purely because the fuel supply was insufficient. The daily electricity consumption of a community is strictly controlled. Of course, for families like Tong Shu's who have their own connections and reserves, the community will not impose many restrictions. I heard that there are still gasoline-powered generators in the wealthy areas in the west of the city.

Tong Shu also mentioned the situation to Zhu Cheng. Zhu Cheng patted his chest and promised to apply for another generator. However, the Tong family would have to solve the fuel problem themselves. Tong Shu did the math and realized that it would cost 50 Senbi to exchange a barrel of diesel oil from the island. The daily wages of the two people on the island would be enough to support them, so she reassured Zhu Cheng that they could handle it.

Zhu Cheng assumed that their family had connections at the port and knew that he shouldn't ask too many questions about such matters. He wisely refrained from further inquiries, as long as he could handle things well and ensure the community's stability during the chaotic times, that would be enough.

---------------

Before the apocalypse, it only took two hours to travel from the north to the west of the city, but now Wen Shaocheng and his group took three whole days to travel that same distance.

“I remember this place used to be the Central Primary School,” Liu Wanqi said, pointing to the pointed tip of a clock tower protruding from the ice.

“It is indeed the central primary school. Look down here,” a soldier interjected.

The main teaching building of the central primary school was originally built on the edge of the scenic lake, and it has always been the first choice for nearby residents to take a walk in the evening. Now, the ice surface around here is probably because of this scenic lake, and it is clearer than the ice they have seen elsewhere. Therefore, when the soldiers looked down at their feet, they could vaguely see the outline of the huge building below.

The rooftop corridor, which used to be full of children playing and laughing during breaks, is now frozen in ice, with endless darkness stretching upwards, making it hard to breathe.

"The thought that I'm standing on solid ground, surrounded by cars and houses, makes me feel really strange," a soldier said, rubbing his arms.

"Who can argue with that?"

"So much time has passed, I never imagined the world would become like this."

...

Wen Shaocheng listened to the soldiers' discussion around him but did not stop them. He walked forward with firm steps. Suddenly, he stopped and squinted at a certain place in the distance.

Liu Wanqi was following behind Wen Shaocheng when he bumped into Wen Shaocheng's arm without noticing. He looked ahead in confusion, following Wen Shaocheng's gaze, and instantly felt a chill rise from his feet.

"What...what is that?"

A soldier behind him pointed forward, trembling.

A few brave ones ran forward to check, one of whom was so frightened that he fell down on the ice.

"It's...it's a person."

A pale blue hand stood upright on the ice, its five fingers curled up as if trying to grab something.

"This is just too tragic."

"They probably came to salvage supplies at night. Didn't a lot of people make money by salvaging supplies before? Sigh... they're just unlucky, they got frozen."

...

After the initial shock, the soldiers came to their senses and looked at the person under the ice with sympathy in their voices. They were all young men, and after discussing it together, they decided to dig the person up and find a proper place to bury him.

Wen Shaocheng didn't say anything or stop it. He put his hands in his pockets and watched as the person frozen in the ice gradually revealed their face and slowly peeled out of the ice.

"Even in this situation, they're still clinging to the supplies."

"This awful weather has really killed a lot of people."

...

The team continued forward, and the closer they got to the west of the city, the more corpses they saw. Some were even piled up at the entrance of the residential area, their faces contorted in grotesque disfigurement.

"Major Wen! What brings you here? What's the situation in the north of the city?" Shan Yao, the person in charge of the central supply ship in the west of the city, rushed out to greet Wen Shaocheng and his group.

"The mortality rate in the north of the city is ten percent."

"Ten percent?!" Shan Yao exclaimed in surprise, "How did you manage that? Apart from the West City Mansion area, the mortality rate in the west of the city is fifty percent!"

Chengxi Mansion is a well-known affluent area in Z City, where security and emergency equipment are top-notch.

Wen Shaocheng pursed his lips: "The Chengbei Community has made advance preparations for the upcoming winter. I remember that I had Deputy Commander Liu send a message to the entire district before."

Upon hearing this, Shan Yao's face showed an embarrassed expression: "Yes, yes. Deputy Commander Liu did bring a message before, but at that time we were still doing production reconstruction work after the flood, so we focused on stockpiling supplies..." As she spoke, her voice lowered, and she kept regretting that if she had taken Liu Wanqi's words to heart and prepared more cold-weather supplies, the mortality rate would definitely not have been so high, and many people could have survived.

"Have you received any news from the east or south of the city?" Wen Shaocheng asked.

Shan Yao shook her head: "The radio seems to be malfunctioning; we can't contact any of us."

The eastern and southern parts of the city are the most developed industrial and commercial areas in Z City, and also the areas with the most concentrated ports. When the high-temperature disaster struck, the ground collapsed, leaving not many people behind. Later, when the flood struck, some people followed the water flow back to the eastern and southern parts of the city, where there are dense high-rise buildings and enough remaining supplies for daring people to risk their lives.

Wen Shaocheng spent several days leading his men on a tour of the western part of the city. During this time, not only he but also the young soldiers accompanying him noticed that the northern part of the city was much better than the western part.

"This... Major?" Upon seeing bodies being dumped out of who knows how many neighborhoods, Liu Wanqi couldn't help but whisper Wen Shaocheng's name.

Wen Shaocheng shook his head and turned to Shan Yao, saying, "Where people gather, we need to assign someone to manage it. The government and the military should cooperate in handling the bodies. If this situation is allowed to continue, the west of the city will riot sooner or later."

Shan Yao had been patrolling alongside Wen Shaocheng, and was already quite apprehensive. Upon hearing this, she broke out in a cold sweat: "You're right. After several disasters, the original community leaders have either run away or died. It's time to find some new ones."

Although Wen Shaocheng said this, he knew in his heart that the situation in the north of the city was an isolated case, and the current situation in the west of the city was the reality of the entire Z city and even the entire China. He nodded and said nothing more.

In fact, Wen Shaocheng went to other districts immediately after the sharp drop in temperature. One reason was to understand the situation, but his deeper purpose was to see if there were any people with prophetic abilities like Tong Shu in other districts besides the north of the city.

The situation in the west of the city clearly told him: there is only one Tong Shu. Even if someone does possess abilities beyond science, they are not the same as Tong Shu.

Wen Shaocheng stretched out his left hand and almost imperceptibly stroked his right arm. Under the layers of clothing, there was a raised area on the skin that was about the width of a finger joint.

------------------

In the Jiulongjiao community, Tong Shu stood in the middle of the duplex on the top floor of Building 3.

She took off the backpack behind her and kept taking out the parts that Tong Songming had processed.

"Whoa! This is a huge steel plate." Tong Shu used both hands instead of one, gritting her teeth as she struggled to drag the steel plate out of her backpack.

The opening of the bag is like another dimension, stretching out to an incredible width, and then returning to its original shape after the steel plate completely leaves the backpack.

“A1, A3, B5, X8…” Tong Shu held the parts list given to her by Tong Songming in one hand and pointed to the parts on the ground with the other, counting them. For each matching item, she would put a checkmark on the drawing with a pencil.

"All done!" After confirming that everything was correct, Tong Shu dusted off her hands, stuffed the list into her pocket, and skipped off happily to find Zhu Cheng to ask for the people.