After sitting in the room for a bit, Gantian was starting to get a little bored as Jixi was only closing his eyes and relaxing.
"Jixi, what do you want to do now?" Gantian asked impatiently.
"Let's wait until Yiming is awake."
"Okay..."
An hour later...
Gantian was getting really bored out of his mind, standing up and sitting down multiple times as Jixi remained seated.
Just as he was about to go for a walk outside, their injured comrade finally woke up from the bed.
"W-Water." The injured comrade asked weakly.
Jixi quickly walked over to get his water bottle, opened it, and slowly poured it into the injured comrade's mouth.
"Ahem, ahem... Where are we right now?" The injured comrade asked.
"At a small town right now. How are you feeling right now, Major Yiming?" Jixi warmly asked.
"Me? I can barely feel my feet right now... They really fired on us when we were retreating, didn't they?"
"I am afraid so... But I'm sure it was just an accident."
Despite Jixi saying it out loud, his face didn't look confident at all, as if he knew it wasn't unintentional at all.
"I mean, they had to fire the zombies running in their direction. I would do the same, too."
Although Gantian defended the superior's decision, his face didn't look happy at all—quite the opposite, as a hint of anger based on his tone.
"I know this was going to happen one day... Fuck."
Yiming groans in pain as he accidentally bumps into the bandaged area, forcing him to lie back down on the bed.
"Are you okay, sir?" Jixi worryingly asked.
"I'm fine... Ahem, Corporal Jixi, Private Gantian. You two are to be immediately granted an honorable discharge from military duty."
The sudden announcement caught both of them off guard. Their ears couldn't believe what he had just announced.
"Wait, what? Sir, you can't do this."
Gantian immediately resisted Yiming's order. His face showed a strong disappointment of being discharged like this.
"Do you want to go back to go on a hopeless search again? You guys can go back. I am not going back."
As Yiming looked down at his injured leg, both of them fell into silence. They had no way of speaking up at all.
"But, sir, isn't this desertion?" Jixi quietly asked.
"So what? The moment they fire on us, they will all think we are dead. Besides, I was supposed to retire a few weeks ago if it wasn't for this damn outbreak."
Seeing him trying to get up from the bed, the two of them quickly walk back up to help him sit up.
"B-But you can't do this..."
"What is the soldier's duty?" Yiming questioned out loud, interrupting Gantian from continuing.
"Listen to command, sir!"
The two immediately yelled out loud, their face looking up as they saluted Yiming with their army salute.
"Am I not your superior?" Yiming questioned again.
"Sir! You are our superior!"
"Then I dismiss you two from military duty effective immediately. No more questions."
As Yiming lay back down on the bed, the two of them lowered their hands back down. Their mind all let out a sigh of relief.
Neither of them actually wants to go back. But it just felt too embarrassed to say it out loud.
"Anyway, where are we exactly?" Yiming curiously asked, noticing the houses they were in didn't look familiar at all.
"We are at the Luoping community right outside the city outskirts. It's right around here, sir."
Jixi explained as he took out his map from his backpack, pointing near a little urban zone right near the city proper.
"This is way too close to the city. We can't stay here for long if there isn't any defense." Yiming commented.
"The people in the town seem to have built a wall. They even had some pitfall traps and spikes outside the walls." Gantian added.
"That's still——"
Before Yiming could finish talking, his stomach suddenly started growling.
"The army logistics can't even give us more than a day's ration. What a joke of serving the country while they get everything."
Just as Yiming complained about the lack of food, his eyes immediately widened as he couldn't believe what Gantian took out from his backpack.
A plastic container full of rice. Something that he hasn't seen for weeks since the outbreak.
"Sir, you can have my portion. I'll go call Mr.Xiaoyun for more."
Gantian quickly handed his plastic container over to Jixi, signalling him to feed Yiming while he walked over to the side to make a call.
"Who is this Xiaoyun person?"
"He's the leader of this settlement, I think," Jixi replied as he opened the plastic container, getting ready to feed Yiming.
"Do you know why they saved us?" Yiming questioned, his face looking just as cautious as Jixi's earlier.
"I think they want to hire us. They seem to be very kind. At least that's my interaction with them so far."
As Jixi began to feed Yiming spoon by spoon, Gantian finally came back with his phone back into his pocket.
"Mr.Xiaoyun is coming over."
---
A few minutes later...
As Gantian went over to open the door, Xiaoyun was carrying two separate bags in her hand.
"Here's the food... And sorry about the water. I completely forgot this place doesn't have running water."
Xiaoyun apologized, handing one bag filled with food over to Gantian while the other bag filled with plastic water bottles to Jixi.
"No need, sir. We're extremely thankful for what you have done for us."
As Gantian bowed down in gratitude, Jixi also bowed down in gratitude before Xiaoyun noticed the injured soldier from earlier was now awake.
"Major, here's the food."
Jixi quickly took out one of the containers before the injured soldier pushed him back for a second.
"You're Mr.Xiaoyun?" The injured comrade curiously asked.
"Yes. I'm Chen Xiaoyun. You're Mr.Yiming?"
"Yes. I'm Major Yiming... Can I have a small request?" Yiming asked, wanting to get straight to the point.
"I'll try my best to fulfill it."
"Would you be kind enough to accept us as citizens of this town? We're willing to do any jobs you give us."
Xiaoyun froze for a second before snapping back to reality. He quickly nodded his head several times in agreement.
"Of course, you guys are more than welcome to join... Do you guys mind being the security guard for the back entrance?"
"Jixi and Gantian, you two heard what Mr.Xiaoyun had said. Follow his order... I'll join you two when I'm fully healed."
"Yes, sir."
Jixi instantly saluted towards Xiaoyun with no problem, while Gantian hesitated for a second before saluting in the end.
"No need to salute me. I'm not a soldier... Before you guys start working, you can visit around the town.
However, this place is a little far from the town center... Here are ten food stamps. You guys can go to 302 to trade food with them.
And for your salary, you can ask Yezi for it in the security room tomorrow at the front entrance."
After handing over the food stamps, Xiaoyun added one last thing.
"Almost forgot. The back entrance is just right outside here in 310. It's right down the road, only a few minutes walk from here."
The two of them nodded as they could remember seeing it in the distance when Xiaoyun first dropped them off at this building they are currently in.
"You guys have any questions?"
The two of them quickly shook their head.
"Great... You guys probably can just rotate between duty if someone needs to take care of Major Yiming."
---
As Xiaoyun exited the building, the two soldiers were a little surprised to see Yiming eating the food by himself.
He had already opened the plastic container, sitting upright and his hand holding the spoon perfectly fine.
"Major Yiming, why did we join them?" Gantian curiously asked, grabbing a brand new box of fried rice from the bag.
"His generosity is rare in this apocalypse... Would you help a stranger that you don't know and risk letting them in?"
Gantian shook his head as Jixi remained silent.
"On top of the stranger having guns... This man either has balls of steel or he's just naive. But I doubt that's the case."
As Yiming took a short break to eat the food, Jixi had finally opened a box of his own before eating the food.
"But Major Yiming, didn't you say this place was too close to the city, though?" Gantian paused his eating for a second to raise his concerns.
"Mhm... I did say that. But you two remember what the food situation was like back in base, right?"
Jixi and Gantian both looked down at the food they were eating right now, which was full of nutrition, from beef to broccoli to the fried rice.
"I guess you are right, Major Yiming. It was the right choice to stay." Gantian murmured as he didn't argue any further, eating the food in silence.
Jixi nodded in agreement, as he had never really opposed the idea of leaving in the first place unless Yiming wanted to leave.
"Also, you two, don't call me major anymore. Just call me Yiming. And before you argue, that is my final command. I'm going to sleep now."
As Yiming lay back down on the bed, he quickly turned his head the other way to show his determination.
"Yes, sir!"
The two gave a final salute as they emptied their plastic food container, knowing their army career was now over.
---
As Xiaoyun sat in his car, he decided to take a short turn, wrapping around the back entrance before arriving at the construction site.
Several chopped logs were carried onto the bus and driven off, with Jingming standing right in the middle directing the workers right in the field.
"How's the wall going?"
Xiaoyun curiously asked as he walked towards Jingming, who was still busy directing several people in the other direction.
"Going fine. It's going to take at least two more weeks to get all these out of the way... Oh, hey, boss."
Jingming quickly changed his loud attitude after realizing the person behind him was Xiaoyun.
"Looks like there are a lot fewer workers here than yesterday. What happened?"
"Most of the women left to go farm in the field at 308 since it's less physically demanding and only pays one less food stamp.
Only the guys are staying behind to work here to earn more since construction is now paid based on the amount of work." Jingming replied.
"I see... do you need more people?" Xiaoyun asked.
"No, I think this is a good pace. Everybody is getting used to working here. Although it's kind of weird for some of them to work here."
Seeing Jingming awkwardly scratching his helmet out of habit, Xiaoyun got a little intrigued.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well, some of them are teachers, firefighters, doctors. But they are all working here in construction rather than doing something more useful with their skills."
The answer made Xiaoyun fall into silence before his mind came up with an explanation.
"This Wall is the most important right now. We need to finish this before we can think of anything else."
Jingming nodded in agreement, as he thought the defense was the most important thing as well.
"Speaking of the wrong people working here, boss, did you ask Miss Yueyue to work here?" Jingming curiously asked.
"No... But you can just treat her as a normal worker... No wonder she's so tired every day when she comes back."
Xiaoyun quietly murmured the last part to himself before noticing Jingming's face looking a little hesitant.
"Jingming, do you have any more questions?"
"Um, boss... You won't get mad, right?" Jingming asked, his face with the word nervousness written all over it.
"Yeah, I won't mind. What is it?"
"Well, there's like a rumor going around that you are marrying your... mom and sister? Sorry, I shouldn't have asked this question——"
"It's fine... You will know the truth in two weeks. Ahem, you should tell everyone to focus on their work, can you, Jingming?"
"Yes, boss."
As the two of them stood in silence, Xiaoyun quickly noticed Yueyue in the middle of the working area, getting ready to chop down a big tree with several other workers.
At the same time, Yueyue also noticed Xiaoyun standing next to Jingming. She quickly waved back at him, which prompted him to wave back as well.
"Ahem, I'm going to go now. You are doing a great job, Jingming. Keep it up."
Xiaoyun quickly left the construction site as the wave distraction almost caused Yueyue's tree to fall in the wrong direction.
---
Two weeks quickly flew by.
The trees were finally cleared out of the way, allowing for the wall construction to resume back at full capacity.
Yiming's leg had also healed much quicker than expected, as he could start walking again, albeit needing Jixi to support him everywhere he went.
The people were initially scared of the three soldiers, but Yiming pushed the two to talk with the town's people.
Eventually, the townspeople were no longer afraid of talking to them, only treating them as more of the police.
Besides the three newcomer, Xiaoyun and Yezi had been driving the car outside and coming back with their car.
It almost appeared as if they were getting more and more supplies from the outside. In reality, Xiaoyun was just creating them out of thin air.
Meanwhile, Yuqi, Leyan, and Yueyue have been taking a break from their jobs for the last three days as they start to put their wedding plan into reality.
Everyone in the town began to realize what was happening, as the stages and tables were set in the same grass field as the mid-autumn festival.
The only things missing are the wedding dress and the ring.
At first, both Yueyue and Yuqi gave up the idea of even getting these two essential items for the wedding, considering the only way to get them was from the city.
It was just too dangerous.
Fortunately, all hope was not lost as Leyan brought out her old wedding dress and her original wedding ring.
Xiaoyun was able to replicate her old wedding dress into three different copies easily, but it still required many fixes and modifications to fit their sizes.
---
The wedding day.
Yezi was standing outside holding a microphone as everyone in town was before him, sitting in their assigned seat, waiting for the wedding to start.
"Hello everyone, I'm Yezi, the co-mayor of this town. As some of you might already know, today, my blood brother Xiaoyun is getting married."
The crowd clapped, but many of them waited for the next part—the biggest obstacle for everyone in the town to accept his marriage.
"If you haven't lived under a rock for the past few weeks, you guys probably already know about the rumor that our mayor is marrying his mom and sister."
As soon as Yezi finished his sentence, the crowd fell into dead silence—everyone waiting for the explanation.
"Well, I'm here to confirm that... all those rumors are true. Miss Leyan, Yuqi, and Xiaoyue are indeed his relatives."
The crowd immediately started chattering and whispering among each other, preventing him from continuing until he cleared his throat.
"Ahem, I know this is hard for people to accept, but all I ask is that everyone understands my friend's situation.
Some of you might know that Xiaoyun has been an orphan for almost his entire life. There are even government documents showing he is indeed an orphan."
The noise quickly died down as everyone wanted to hear what Yezi was going to say next.
"Is it really that wrong for him to fall in love with Miss Leyan? The kind lady who adopted him into her family when the outbreak happened?"
Seeing some of the crowd's faces began to change, Yezi continued.
"How could Xiaoyun, who has never had a family, know what's different between family love and a lover's love?"
Yezi waited as the crowd chattered briefly. Everyone was debating among themselves if Xiaoyun's action was justified.
"Some of you might argue back at me. If Miss Leyan was understandable, how could her two daughters be justified?"
The crowd quickly started chattering again, realizing the wedding also included both Yuqi and Yueyue, not just Leyan.
"Ahem, you guys probably don't know this, but Xiaoyun saved Yuqi. She was actually in the city center when the outbreak happened."
This time, the crowd all let out a cold breath. None of them could imagine willingly going back into the hellscape for someone they barely know.
"Is it really wrong for her to fall in love with her hero? Someone that she didn't even know her mother had adopted into the family?"
Seeing the crowd start leaning towards Xiaoyun's side, Yezi knew he just needed a few more excuses to get everyone on board.
"And for Xiaoyue, she has been by Xiaoyun's side almost everywhere he went. I mean, who hasn't heard stories of falling in love with your coworker?"
The crowd once again started leaning even more towards Xiaoyun's side, but one major hurdle remained.
"I know, I know, some might still argue, why is Miss Leyan marrying someone young enough to be her son?
Isn't that weird? Marrying the same person as her two daughters? Who in their right mind even thinks of that?"
Yezi waited for a second as the crowd started to get impatient for his answer, which fell right into his plan.
"But here's the thing... You guys all know Songjia group, right? One of the biggest corporations in Guangzhou."
Almost everyone in the crowd nodded, as the cooperation mentioned had been on the news multiple times, both good and bad.
"The People's Daily even praises them as one of the best companies to work for... Ahem, you might be confused as to why I'm mentioning this."
Seeing the crowd looking confused just as he had planned, Yezi continued.
"But you all have heard how Songjia's 2nd owner, Songming, died in a car accident, right?"
Immediately, the crowd burst into chatter as every single one of them could remember it hitting the national news.
Some of the older population could even remember the conspiracy running rampant since the car accident never had a body inside.
"Miss Leyan, the woman that we all know for being an energetic and nice person in the town... She was the widow of Songming."
This time, Yezi didn't wait for too long, as he could feel the crowd starting to have an 'eat the rich' mentality.
"She has been a widow for almost twenty years straight. You tell me, what more do you want from a woman to abstain from marriage for that long?
Is it really wrong for her to fall in love with a young, healthy man whom she once took as a son to be her husband?"
The crowd finally started clapping as Yezi's speech was beyond what anyone expected. Almost everyone was fully accepting what was going to happen.
"But Mr.Xiaoyun is marrying three women at once! That's illegal and falls under the bigamy law!"
One of the people in the crowd yelled out loud, overshadowing the claps as it quickly ended within seconds.
Immediately, the crowd started leaning away from Xiaoyun right before Yezi's eyes. It was the only argument that Yezi had no way of deflecting.
"They all consented. Who does it hurt? You say it's illegal under this country's law. Where is the country when people are dying in this damn outbreak?"
The man who yelled fell into silence. Everyone fell into silence as painful memories popped up in their minds.
"B-But that's morally wrong——"
"You know what? I know I'm not that intellectually gifted, but even I know the saying, 'better to tear down a temple than break up a marriage.'
If anyone wants to be that guy, then I'm more than happy to debate them with——"
Just as Yezi starts to draw his gun from the side, Xiaoyun quickly runs up the stage, preventing him from revealing it.
"It's enough. Thank you, Yezi. I really appreciate your help." Xiaoyun murmured as he patted his shoulder in gratitude.
"No problem. Just tell me if you need my help," Yezi whispered as he stepped aside to the backstage.
Turning back to the crowd before him, Xiaoyun suddenly felt relief rather than nervousness as he picked up the microphone.
"I know it might be hard for some of you to accept me marrying three people at once. I'm sorry if you can't accept it.
But I'm not going to hide them. I'm not going to hide them as my lovers. I want everyone to know they are my wife and be proud of it."
As the crowds remained silent, Xiaoyun continued with his speech.
"They had been working hard for the past few weeks for the town, and they sacrificed a lot to be with me.
I'm going to give them the wedding they deserve... It'll be great if I get support from you all, but I'm going to continue with it no matter what."
Seeing the determination on his face, some of the crowd felt a little bad. But some felt an even stronger sense of pushback towards him.
But nobody dares to speak up after hearing Xiaoyun's tone... Until one person stood up from his seat.
"Mister Xiaoyun, it's fine. You don't have to be so sorry like this. We all understand, and we can see you are genuinely in love. Everyone deserves to be happy."
Baiqun, whom Xiaoyun had rescued in the past, was the one who stood up.
The crowd suddenly flipped as more and more people whom Xiaoyun personally helped started standing up and clapping.
Eventually, the entire crowd clapped in support, as the peer pressure was beyond what an individual could endure.
"Thank you all!"
Xiaoyun bowed down in gratitude as the cheers continued. Huayi, who had been standing backstage, knew it was the perfect time to start.
"Here comes the bride!"