Zhongbao Town.
On this stormy night of thunder and rain, the entire town was pulled out to work.
The town government seat of Zhongbao Town was located in a rural community called Shanshui Community.
The community developed along both sides of the national highway—one side connected to the mountains, the other to a river. It truly lived up to its name of being “backed by mountains and facing water,” with beautiful scenery.
But at this moment, that picturesque setting was nothing short of a nightmare for the community’s leadership team.
There were geological disasters in the mountains, flooding by the river, and now a so-called mutated rabies outbreak on top of everything else. Everyone felt like they were being torn into eight pieces and still couldn’t keep up with the workload.
Community Party Secretary Ren Xiumei was a woman in her thirties. After graduating from university, she returned to her hometown and joined the neighborhood committee, starting from women’s affairs and gradually working her way up to community Party Secretary. She was a typical local—short in stature, appearing gentle and refined, but in reality extremely decisive and efficient.
The moment she saw the shocking video in the town work group chat, she immediately rushed to the town government due to her proximity. She received instructions directly from the town Party Secretary and even left someone stationed at the town government to relay updates back and forth.
After all, communications had been cut off, so information could only be passed hand-to-hand.
Back in the community, Ren Xiumei gathered all members of the “two committees” and grid workers, who were already on duty due to red alert conditions, and quickly held a brief meeting. Tasks were assigned one by one, clearly divided, and everyone immediately dispersed to carry them out.
The grid workers first went to wake up the neighborhood dance team aunties. These enthusiastic women were not afraid of disturbing others or being scolded—they were the best propaganda force.
The community’s “micro-governance” system had long integrated these auntie groups effectively, even sponsoring them with beautiful square-dance outfits every year. The aunties, in return, were extremely useful in critical moments.
Unlike urban communities, rural communities had only a few grid workers, usually two or three. They gathered the chatty aunties first, then assigned them in pairs to different zones, each with a red armband.
Their task was to inform every household:
“A mutated rabies outbreak has occurred in Tashui Village. The area is under a one-week lockdown. Everyone must stay home. Cats and dogs must be locked up. Any suspicious animals should be culled if possible. If you can’t handle it, report it when volunteers deliver supplies. Do not open the door to strangers.”
Most responses they received were like:
“What?! Rabies? Mutated? People biting people? Oh, scary, alright then, lockdown it is. Just remember to send supplies every day like before, okay? You’ve worked hard!”
“Really? My dog’s vaccinated, so it should be fine! Okay okay, we got it, we’ll keep it locked up. Yes yes, we understand… hey, go to the next house already!”
“Another outbreak? That serious? You guys be careful too, don’t get bitten! We don’t have any pets, but the neighbor has a dozen cats—tell her clearly! If her cats come over, I’ll kill them!”
“What… rabies? What disease? All sick? Just treat it if they’re sick… we’re just two old folks at home, the kids work in Guangzhou…”
“Why are you knocking in the middle of the night?! Rabies? I think you’re the ones with rabies! Let me see the video—oh my god, it really is rabies! So scary… why didn’t the government prevent this earlier? Always cleaning up messes after things explode…”
These aunties had no formal constraints, no restrictions, and came directly from the grassroots population. They were fierce in combat—sharp-tongued, ready to curse on the spot, even capable of sitting at someone’s doorstep to argue for hours. At most, they would just have a loud quarrel.
In short, they carried out the task of knocking on doors and explaining isolation measures with great dedication. Efficiency wasn’t perfect (they got distracted arguing), but the effect was excellent (they always won the arguments).
At the same time, apart from door-to-door notifications, all healthy Party members under sixty were assembled into volunteer teams. Young adults over eighteen were also recruited. Participation was voluntary—those who didn’t join were simply asked to stay home and not cause trouble.
Party members were already used to this: landslides, floods, epidemics—whenever disaster struck, they were always the first to respond.
As for the young volunteers, there were all kinds:
“I can’t leave home, I need to take care of elders/children/patients. We’ll just stay home and not cause trouble.”
—Normal response.
“Sorry, can’t make it. Good luck, stay safe.”
—Polite refusal.
“Okay! I’ll come! I’ll bring my dad too. Mom, take care of things at home!”
—Helpful and well-raised.
“I… me? Okay, I’ll come! But I don’t know what I can do…”
—Hesitant but willing to work.
“Volunteers again? No pay and always calling us out in the middle of the night! Fine, I’ll come—but you better consider our safety first! Where do we gather? What do we bring? Okay, I’m coming!”
—Complaining but responsible.
“Do we get volunteer hours recorded? Oh we do? Can we get stamps for internships? From the township committee? Okay I’m coming!”
—The resume-driven college student.
“Why always us? You government people sit around collecting salaries and make us work! I won’t go! I’ll report you for disturbing people at night! This is your fault for causing the outbreak! Not my problem if others go die! I have cats and dogs—anyone who touches them, I’ll fight you! Don’t bully ordinary people!”
—The type that always criticizes everything and refuses responsibility while blaming everyone else.
In summary, during emergencies, many people still stepped forward. The rest could be ignored—brave people would protect the majority.
Community cadres dispersed to their assigned groups, waking up group leaders, who in turn mobilized smaller grid workers, going door to door to carry out lockdown instructions.
Volunteer teams, guided by grid workers, first helped clean up an abandoned quarantine shelter, then split into groups to prepare the high school and find vehicles.
When vehicles were requisitioned, drivers had to be recruited as well—ideally locals familiar with mountain roads, brave enough to drive at night in storm conditions.
A group of volunteers quickly stepped up. Since they were already here, they might as well see it through.
At this critical moment, many people came forward regardless of personal gain.
Meanwhile, four civilian vehicles rushed toward the town government.
The iron gate was half-closed. Two cars stopped at the entrance. A man in his fifties, a village group leader, got out, grabbed the gate and shook it while shouting hoarsely:
“Something big happened! People are dead! Open the gate!”
Staff on duty rushed out to open it. The leader urgently shouted to those in the cars:
“Go, go, go! Tell the town officials! Show them the videos on your phones!”
The four vehicles carried four families. Three of them lived near the lower area of the village committee.
Because they were farther away, they were awakened by the noise in the stormy night but didn’t immediately open their doors—and quickly sensed something was wrong.
So they locked their doors and windows tightly. The bolder ones even filmed videos from upstairs.
With the rise of short videos and horror dramas, people had their own interpretations even without knowing what was happening.
Either illness or possession—Western horror or Eastern horror, pick one.
In any case, once they saw people fleeing the scene by car, they also decided to escape. When they saw many of the frenzied people being lured back toward the village committee building, they seized the opportunity and drove away.
They were terrified, but in the stormy night they didn’t know where to go, so they went to the village group leader first.
Normally they would go to the village committee, but since it had collapsed, the group leader was the nearest authority.
After seeing the footage, the group leader panicked and immediately said:
“This is serious!”
Since phones couldn’t get through, they drove straight to the town government.
Because these people were escaping from the outbreak site, Deputy Hou first conducted a brief interview with staff. Seeing no obvious injuries, they selected three articulate middle-aged people to report. The others—elderly, children, and remaining adults—were taken to a union activity room to rest and calm down before being sent to the quarantine facility.
The selected two women and one man immediately felt much safer upon seeing the SWAT officers in the hall.
“We’re saved!”
“These are real guns, right? You’ve got bullets? Will the crazed people be shot?”
“You already know what happened up there?”
They spoke over one another. Deputy Secretary Lin quickly stepped forward to calm them:
“We already have some understanding of the village committee situation. The first and second groups were from our town. This is the third support team from the county. Please calm down and describe what happened slowly.”
While they spoke, Deputy Secretary Lin waved someone over and sent them to the clinic to call back Deputy Secretary Wang and Captain He.
Within ten minutes, the electric tricycle made a round trip, and Wang and He rushed back.
One of the men had recorded video. Gu Lili connected the phone to a laptop.
On the large hall screen, a video began to play.
It was distant and blurry. The fields and mountains were swallowed by darkness. Houses stood along narrow village roads. Solar streetlights only created dim yellow halos in the rain, far less clear than the sudden flashes of lightning.
In the shaky footage, faint screams could be heard through thunder and rain. People opening doors were attacked and bitten. One person was dragged into the middle of the road as multiple infected individuals swarmed him, tearing open thin summer clothing and ripping into his chest and abdomen…
Alongside this video, there were two shorter clips: one showing people rescuing stranded vehicles during a rainstorm, and another showing five people going down from a building to lure most of the infected away.
The camera couldn’t capture the village committee building clearly, but the direction could be inferred from the map.
The three witnesses spoke intermittently, describing only what they had seen.
Finally, the footage showed most of the infected rushing upward—and then ended.
The entire room fell silent.
They knew the stranded vehicles contained the town mayor’s group, and the people in the building were police officers from the local station.
Captain He’s hand remained on his gun. His expression was calm, but his killing intent was rising.
Earlier, when he and Deputy Wang went to the clinic, they had a private discussion.
Captain He believed that although they had come without vehicles, they were fully equipped: pistols, rifles, submachine guns, explosives, stun grenades, and heavy protective gear.
Even if this was a mutated rabies outbreak, anything flesh and blood would fear firearms.
No matter how terrifying the “zombies” looked, they didn’t use guns, didn’t use weapons properly, and didn’t coordinate tactics. At most, they were just a virus-infected mob.
He had already tested them one by one—from Elder Mao to Dr. Tang to the deputy director—and confirmed that while strength and speed had increased, intelligence and combat skill had dropped to zero. Only biting instinct remained.
But Deputy Secretary Wang had asked:
“Why didn’t you shoot Elder Mao earlier?”
Captain He said nothing.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to—it was just not the right time or place.
And deep down, he didn’t want Elder Mao to exist in that walking-dead state. That wasn’t living.
Deputy Wang remained worried.
“It would be simple if we could treat them like zombies and just shoot them down.”
“But the problem is—we don’t have higher-level command to decisively handle this situation.”
About two hours after the so-called outbreak of the mutated rabies, communications were severely disrupted, and no superior authority was able—or dared—to issue an order to eliminate the infected individuals.
However, Captain He was not thinking as deeply or as cautiously as Deputy Secretary Wang had assumed.
After meeting Old Mao, he had already made up his mind: he would open fire on the attackers at the mission site.
He absolutely could not bring his subordinates to become infected themselves.
At this moment, watching the town mayor sacrifice himself in the video, Captain He became even more determined that they must take decisive, ruthless action.
Some people hesitated and overthought things; others considered every possibility. He was different. Since he held a gun and commanded a special police combat unit, he had to act decisively and without hesitation.
Because the situations he was dealing with were never ordinary to begin with.
Secretary Zhou was somewhat disbelieving. He stared at the video for a long while before muttering:
“What happened… Mayor Deng was already rescued… why did he go back down… what were they trying to do…”
Deputy Secretary Lin bit her lip. She looked at Chairman Zhao, whose eyes were red, and then at Deputy Secretary Wang, whose jaw was tightly clenched. She had to voice a painful conclusion:
“Secretary Zhou, the mayor and the others… they were probably all bitten. They confirmed they were infected, so at the final moment, they tried to lure the infected back to the village office as much as possible. To create favorable conditions for our later rescue of civilians and trapped personnel.”
Her words were sincere and difficult; every word felt heavy with life and death.
Her heart ached, but she still had to remind the secretary:
“If the mayor unfortunately dies in the line of duty, you will be the only core leader of the team. You must stay clear-headed and calm.”
Secretary Zhou lowered his head slightly. A lump seemed stuck in his throat. First Old Mao, then the mayor—how many colleagues and comrades was he going to lose tonight?
“Lili, make a copy of the video for archiving. Brother, we need to delete it from your phone first—can you understand?”
Deputy Secretary Lin turned to the middle-aged man, speaking gently and sincerely, while signaling the party office staff member Gu Lili with her hand.
Gu Lili’s eyes were as swollen as her eye bags. She quickly complied—not only deleting the video, but also clearing the recently deleted folder, and even checking cloud backups and recycle bins.
The middle-aged man, seeing everyone’s solemn and grieving expressions and the special police in the room, could only nod. “Okay… okay.”
Hou Weixiang escorted the three of them out and arranged for staff to take them to the shelter facility.
When she was about to return to the auditorium, Deputy Secretary Lin just happened to come out, and the two female leaders from the party committee met under the eaves.
Hou Weixiang could no longer hold back her tears. “The mayor… he…”
Deputy Secretary Lin hugged her tightly and patted her back hard.
“Now is not the time to grieve. The safety of tens of thousands in the whole town rests on us. You are a deputy mayor—don’t cry. At times like this, you must not let others think female leaders are weak. The special police will soon go rescue people, and we still have many things to do.”
Hou Weixiang quickly wiped her tears and nodded, then hurried away.
Deputy Secretary Lin took a deep breath. Only heaven knew she had just dug her nails into her palm until it bled.
She was third in the party committee hierarchy: first was the secretary, second was the mayor (also deputy secretary), third was her, and fourth was the政法委 (political and legal affairs secretary, also deputy secretary). The People’s Congress chairman was at the same administrative level but not part of the party committee system.
Normally, she was responsible for managing township and village cadres. At this moment, she and Deputy Secretary Wang were the secretary’s right-hand assistants and had to stabilize the situation.
After Captain He returned, he briefed Secretary Zhou on the situation at the hospital.
“The nurse documented the entire progression of infection in the deputy director.”
He showed a photo of Fan Xiaoqiu’s handwritten notes on his phone.
Secretary Zhou glanced at it and frowned. After a moment of silence, he said:
“The handwriting is too messy to read. Explain it.”
Captain He understood—it wasn’t just messy handwriting; it was difficult for ordinary people to interpret. He relayed it:
“About 12 minutes after being bitten, body temperature began to rise. At around 40–42°C, there was sustained hyperthermia for about 15 minutes. The patient had saliva secretion, and the sclera turned red from the edges inward.”
“The patient reported stiffness in limbs, hunger, neural pain, and developed a desire to eat living humans. Then the pupils gradually dilated. About 30 minutes later, respiration and heartbeat stopped. After that, the patient revived and began indiscriminately attacking people, with no rationality or consciousness.”
Deputy Secretary Lin, Deputy Secretary Wang, and the police station chief were all present. Tu Mingxiao was nearby taking notes.
Captain He then added another puzzling point:
“The nurse Fan Xiaoqiu recorded that during a certain period, when the infected person is not stimulated by light, sound, or temperature changes, they gradually enter a static state, and their body temperature drops significantly—infrared readings show around 20°C.”
Secretary Zhou frowned deeply, fingers interlaced on the desk.
“When we went there earlier, Old Mao was very agitated. We tested him with a handheld thermal imager—his temperature was rising. When his movements were slow, it was about 34°C. When his activity and explosiveness increased, it reached around 37°C.”
Captain He continued:
“This is not normal. Body temperature rising in a short time accompanied by increased physical performance and faster reactions…”
Deputy Secretary Lin asked, “In the static state, can your thermal imager still detect them?”
Captain He shook his head. “Around 20°C, it’s hard to detect outdoors.”
Chief Jiang frowned, speculating boldly:
“This virus is strange—almost like it was deliberately designed. The static state is suitable for hiding, and once activated, the core temperature spikes, making it suitable for hunting prey.”
“It is indeed strange. Normally high temperatures should kill viruses,” Secretary Zhou said, shaking his head. “This is something only the Academy of Sciences experts can study.”
“At least now we have some information. We’re not completely in the dark.”
Captain He added, “Old Mao clearly had stronger strength and faster reactions than the other two infected individuals, but overall, the infected are mindless walking corpses that only want to eat human flesh and have no intelligence.”
Deputy Secretary Wang felt relieved. It was still useful that Captain He had gone to the hospital.
He then made another suggestion:
“If there is still time, I would like to request that we release one infected person so the special police can train and overcome their fear.”
Secretary Zhou’s eyes narrowed sharply.
“…?”
Not only him—everyone else also froze.
Deputy Secretary Wang continued, “People fear what they haven’t seen. Once they’ve seen it, it won’t seem so frightening. I think it’s feasible.”
Captain He also nodded enthusiastically.
Deputy Secretary Lin said solemnly, “There is risk.”
Captain He tried to persuade them further.
Deputy Secretary Lin added gravely, “Then let’s do it quietly—don’t let the families know. Let’s use Old Mao, since he’s from our own government system; it’ll be easier to handle the family afterward.”
Captain He: “……”
Only then did he remember Old Mao’s wife was someone they all had to call “sister-in-law.”
That sister-in-law was no less formidable than Old Mao.
He was suddenly speechless. He was doomed.
The police station chief also agreed.
Secretary Zhou finally relented and reminded them to remain cautious and respectful toward infected comrades.
After a short “trial,” Captain He and Deputy Secretary Wang led the team to the hospital. Ten minutes later, they returned. Everyone’s mentality had completely changed.
The previous fear and heaviness were gone, replaced with tension, seriousness, and anger.
They no longer wanted this virus to spread.
Soon, vehicles were assembled, supplies loaded, and over a hundred members of the county-town joint rescue team formed up: cars, pickup trucks, and rows of overloaded minibuses lined up like a long dragon outside the town government.
Rain, headlights, and moving figures intertwined, creating a heavy atmosphere.
Secretary Zhou stood at the gate, seeing them off. His small frame seemed burdened with enormous weight.
“Captain He, Deputy Secretary Wang, Chief Jiang—this epidemic rescue operation is entrusted to you!”
“Wishing you success and a safe return!”