When the morning came, everyone ate breakfast in silence.
"Um, Nami, did you see anything last night?" Xiaoyun quietly asked.
"Nothing! Ahem, I was just sleeping with Lily. That's all." Nami answered, almost choking on the bread in her mouth.
The response only made the three newlyweds blush even harder. All of them remained silent as they turned their attention to the food.
Only Xiaoyun seemed unfazed as he acted as if nothing had happened and accepted Nami's answer.
"It's only awkward if you make it awkward. Yep, Xiaoyun, come on, just keep a straight face."
Xiaoyun thought to himself as he ate his piece of bread in his hand, acting as if nothing had happened at all.
"I'm going to work now. I think the bus is coming. I need to catch it before work."
Yuqi quickly finished her breakfast, leaving the kitchen as she couldn't stand the atmosphere.
"Me too."
Yueyue ate the breakfast and left, not even turning back once, as she couldn't tolerate the two girls' glaring looks.
"I need to go to Huayi's place now. I'll come back and clean it up later."
Leyan grabbed one of the breads and headed out, closing the door behind her without looking back.
Only Nami, Lily, and Xiaoyun remained.
"Um, I am going to go to work now."
Just as Xiaoyun was about to leave, someone suddenly grabbed his hand. As he turned around, it was Lily standing behind him.
"Mister Xiaoyun, why did they look so happy and painful at the same time last night?" Lily curiously asked.
"Um uh, they um——"
Before Xiaoyun could come up with something, Nami interrupted him.
"Lily! You can't ask this kind of stuff! I already told you not to say what happened last night." Nami warned.
"Why not? Is it something that only adults can do?" Lily asked, looking back at Nami with an innocent look.
"Yeah. Only with people you love." Nami replied awkwardly.
"Then I love you, sister, Mimi! Let's do it when we get older!"
Lily suddenly rushed over and kissed her Nami on the lips, shocking both Xiaoyun and Nami, who couldn't believe what had just happened.
"Lily! You can't do that! You can't do that kind of stuff. We're both girls." Nami lectured as she pushed Lily back.
Lily looked a little down, but she nodded in agreement after remembering what happened last night.
"Brother Xiaoyun, can you do that kind of stuff to us?" Lily curiously asked.
Xiaoyun almost spat out his water as soon as he heard what Lily said, but he quickly shook his head.
"No, we can't do that. Neither of you is old enough for this... Oh snap, I need to go to work now."
Xiaoyun quickly ran toward the garage before driving out of the house, not giving them a chance to ask anything else.
"Lily, why did you say that? I thought I already explained all this to you last night. Didn't I already explain sex-ed to you?" Nami angrily questioned.
"But it's funny seeing Big Brother get embarrassed like that. Also, don't you love big brother too?"
Nami froze for a second, then quickly shook her head.
"Him? Hell no. That will never happen. I'd rather jump off a bridge than like that perverted idiot."
"Then why did you move your hand down there yesterday when they were doing it?" Lily curiously questioned.
"Enough! Lily, it's time for your math and English class! And no more anime for today!"
Nami forcefully changed the conversation, looking a little embarrassed as she didn't want to talk about it.
"Noooooo!" Lily screamed in agony as Nami dragged her upstairs.
---
In the security room.
"Yezi, anything new today?" Xiaoyun asked, taking a seat right next to him.
"Well, Lingang got the list ready. Here it is." Yezi replied as he handed a piece of paper over.
After reading halfway through the paper, Xiaoyun was stunned by the sheer number included in the list.
Most of the items were pretty reasonable, ranging from shampoo to bigger things like microwaves.
But some of them were the definition of luxury, from makeup to lipsticks to even condoms and phones.
"Anything else? Is that all?"
Xiaoyun asked after skimming through most of the items before flipping to the back and finding more items.
"That's it... But I have been thinking about something more important that we need to do right now."
"What is it?"
"I have been thinking... We need to form a militia or at least give people some basic firearm training and melee combat to fight off zombies.
We need to be prepared when the zombies arrive at our doorstep sooner or later, or else it might be too late." Yezi explained.
"Do you have anyone in mind to be the instructor?"
"Well, we got three former soldiers at the town already... As much as I despise them, I think it will be better for them to teach rather than me."
Seeing Yezi willing to put aside the grudges towards the soldiers, Xiaoyun was a little surprised.
"Let me call them right now, then."
After taking out his phone, Xiaoyun dialed Gantian's number several times before the signal finally went through.
"Gantian, can you come over? Bring Jixi and Yiming with you."
"Okay."
The two waited for a few minutes in their seat before someone knocked on the security door.
"Come in."
With the door pushed open, all three of them were now in front of Xiaoyun and Yezi, standing in their soldier unfirom.
"Major Yiming, is your leg feeling better?"
Xiaoyun signals him to take a seat, but Yiming doesn't take it. Instead, he chooses to stand still next to Gantian and Jixi.
"It's much better now. Thank you for asking... Can I ask what brought us here today?" Yiming asked directly.
"I want to hire you guys to train a small group of people to be militias to defend the town. Can you guys do that?"
"Of course, but the equipment needed——"
"Just make a list, and I'll fulfill it... Here's a pen and paper."
After Yiming accepted the paper and pen, Xiaoyun and Yezi gave them time to write on the other table.
Before they could finish writing, however, the door to the security room was suddenly busted open.
"Yezi and Xiaoyun, this massive food stamp inflation is way out of control. Do you know how many food stamps I got today?"
As Yuqi barged into the room with a box full of food stamps onto the table, both Xiaoyun and Yezi knew they might have fucked up something.
"Whoa, calm down. There's no need to be mad. Yezi and I had been working on it." Xiaoyun replied, signaling the three soldiers to stay outside for now.
"Over two hundred! It hasn't even been a day when only twenty people are working. I need you to lower it now!" Yuqi demanded.
"I said we are working on it... Give me and Yezi a few seconds to find it first."
"Yeah? Let me see the solution then. I'm not leaving today if I don't see one."
As the three soldiers headed outside, Yezi quickly scrambled to the desk's drawer before he handed her a detailed plan.
A plan that he and Xiaoyun had been making for the past few weeks before the whole wedding ceremony.
After reading it for a bit, Yuqi's anger slowly subsided. But her face was still nowhere near happy.
"This luxury thing isn't going to work long term. You're going to have way too many headaches from using your ability nonstop.
And this whole rent idea is practically useless since there are not even any houses built yet." Yuqi pointed out.
"Don't worry about the headache. It has been getting better the more I use it... And for the houses, we're going to build them right after the wall is finished."
Despite Xiaoyun's reassurance, Yuqi's face still looked a little doubtful. Her face seemed as if she didn't trust their solution a single bit.
"But we're going to run out of inventory within a month at this pace... Even with the whole luxury idea, it's nowhere near enough to meet the demand for goods."
After a short consideration, both of them fell into silence. They knew what Yuqi was stating was the truth.
The whole payment system and the inventory system they had set up were way too rudimentary.
It was more of a temporary solution just to boost workers' willingness to work, one that makes them work harder for the illusion of choice with their money.
"I don't know what to do then." Yezi shrugged, pushing all the responsibility over to Xiaoyun.
"Give me a second to think... I know what we can do."
After waiting for almost five minutes straight, Xiaoyun finally came up with an idea just as Yuqi was about to speak up again.
"How about we lower the food price?" Xiaoyun suggested.
"What? That's the solution you come up with?"
Both Yezi and Yuqi looked bamboozled by his suggestion. Lowering prices made no sense to them when they didn't have enough food to match the food stamps.
It almost sounded as if he wanted to make the inflation even worse and allow the inventory to run out even faster.
"Let me explain... If you have five food stamps, then you can buy one can of beef, right?" Xiaoyun asked.
The two nodded in agreement.
"Now, if we make the price of beef cans four food stamps, would you buy it now, or wait for an even lower price next week?"
Yezi looked completely confused, but Yuqi immediately realized what Xiaoyun was trying to imply.
"I get it! That's so smart! How did you come up with that?" Yuqi curiously asked.
"Just taught in my business class. Weren't you an economics major——"
"Oh snap, I've got to go! I'll implement the price change right now. See you tonight!"
As Yuqi ran out of the security room, Yezi still couldn't understand the logic behind lowering the price of food.
"Xiaoyun, can you explain it to me?" Yezi curiously asked.
"Um, think about it this way. Why would I spend my food stamps today if I can save up for the beef can to get cheaper in the future?
It's like manipulating the consumer to hold on to the money rather than holding beef cans. The rational choice would be just to eat the beef cans you need.
Imagine if you already have ten beef at home stockpiling. Buying more of a product that's even lower in price tomorrow would make your existing cans worth even less."
"Oh! I get it. It's like me waiting for a sale to buy beer from the store." Yezi gave out his understanding.
"Exactly. Since they don't know how low it can go, some of them are going to hold on to their food stamps until it gets even cheaper.
And to portray the appearance of more food coming in to drive down the price, we just need to drive the car back and forth from the city."
As Xiaoyun explained his plan process, Yezi couldn't help but feel a chill traveling down his spine.
"You sound like an evil capitalist, you know that? Are you really just a university student?" Yezi questioned.
"Of course I am. I even got my student ID if you want to check it." Xiaoyun smirked as a flashback popped into his mind.
"Ahem, Mayor Xiaoyun?"
Yiming knocked on the door as the three of them finally came back inside the security with the pen and paper.
"Oh, hey, Yiming, you guys finished the list?" Xiaoyun asked.
"Yes, but we feel like it might be better to communicate directly what we need for this, and some suggestions I want to make."
"Sure, go for it."
After taking a seat, Yiming handed the paper over before taking a deep breath and speaking up.
"My thought process is that everyone in town should be able to shoot a gun when needed, and at least half of them should be full-time.
Especially when we are so close to the city center... We need at least ten hours of training every day for them to be an effective soldier in combat.
We also need all the ammo and guns listed on the paper, as well as enough protein and carbs to maintain our exercise routine."
The two sat in silence for a bit, reading the paper and processing what Yiming had just said out loud.
"All of them are possible, except the ten-hour training and half of the population needing to be full-time.
That is way too long and too many people. I'm looking mostly towards a defensive militia if you understand what I mean." Xiaoyun explained.
"That's fine. We can adjust as well." Yiming immediately backed down, not making any demands.
"Yezi, do you have any issue with it?" Xiaoyun questioned, looking over to him for his opinion.
"Nope. As long as you're the one providing all these. I have no issue."
"Great... Um, Yezi, do you have a data record——"
"It's over here. You're looking for the record of everyone's past occupation, their current health, and their age, right?"
Yezi quickly took out a stack of documents from the drawer before Xiaoyun even finished talking.
"Perfect! Here, you can select as many people as you want for your militia, assuming they want to join it.
And for everyone in the town, I will make it mandatory training for them in the afternoon to go to 310 to train for at least one hour."
As Xiaoyun carried the document over to Yiming, he quickly handed some of it over to Jixi and Gantian to read.
After waiting for a bit, the three of them had a rough idea of what everyone's capability was in the town.
"So what do you think?" Xiaoyun asked.
"Well, we only have 26 people here. Seven of them are children or the elderly. Eight of them are women.
Only 11 of them are men, and only six people are fit for service... Assuming we are drafting women as well," Yiming replied.
"Can I ask what the drafting standard is?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.
"Between the ages of 18 and 35, doesn't have any disability or eyesight issue, and that's pretty much it."
"How about if we raise the age to 16 to 40?" Yezi suggested.
"Well, it will be 10 people instead, then."
"Great. You can tell them 5 food stamps will be given for those full-time," Xiaoyun added.
"Okay, where can I find them?" Yiming curiously asked.
"Lingang!" Yezi yelled out loud.
"Yes, boss?" Lingang asked as he walked straight into the room from the outside.
"Go help Mr.Yiming find those people on the paper." Yezi directed.
"Yes, boss."
---
A week has passed since the new changes to the town.
People were certainly happy with the drop in food prices, at least for the people who held onto the food stamps rather than stockpiling food.
For those who already stocked up on the food, all they could do was suck it up and start saving up to wait for the next price drop.
The addition of the luxury good also dramatically alleviated the inventory shortage, as people began to use their spare food stamps to buy things other than food.
Inflation was somewhat controlled, at least the market flow of the food stamps relative to the people's willingness to get food out of the stores.
Over in the military department, Jingming and the construction crew were able to build the training field within the two days allocated.
The training field was split into two.
One side was set up near the front entrance, and the other at the back entrance, rather than the initial idea of having only one at 310.
Everyone was enrolled in the mandatory training, including Yezi, Xiaoyun, and his family. Even the elderly and kids were put in one hour of training.
Although it wasn't Yiming's full ten-hour training, it was still better than nothing, as most adults did the three-hour training in the afternoon.
Everyone in the town complained about the mandatory training for the first five days, which consisted of running and swinging a blunt weapon on repeat.
They had already been working all morning, but nobody was brave enough to stand up as the three soldiers kept reminding them of the zombies outside.
Especially those who had escaped from the city. They were training harder than anyone else as if they had witnessed the danger firsthand.
Or perhaps it could just be that Jixi and Gantian were holding the two M16s that Xiaoyun replicated specifically for them.
By the time day six arrived, everyone had stopped complaining. It was finally time for the gun training.
Even though there were only five pistols for people to take turns training how to shoot, everyone was more than happy to get the chance to hold a gun.
Yuqi and Leyan both jumped when they fired the gun, just like everyone else. But after a while, they got used to it.
Even Lily and most of the kids in the town were given the opportunity to participate in the shooting training, with the exception of those who are too frail to move.
Meanwhile, recruiting full-time militias was much easier than Xiaoyun expected. Eight people accepted Yiming's invitation when he had only expected five.
More surprisingly for Xiaoyun and Yezi was the fact that one of the people who accepted was Yueyue out of all people.
Despite Leyan's protest for her to quit, Xiaoyun was pressured heavily by Yueyue to let her join.
He just had no choice after she started following him everywhere, even into the public men's bathroom, forcing him to give in to her demand.
Just before the week ended, one interesting thing that someone asked Xiaoyun was from Yiming.
It was about the origin of guns and ammo. Xiaoyun instantly kicked the can over to Yezi, who kicked the can back to Xiaoyun.
It went back and forth until the three soldiers gave up and realized the two were never going to give them the answer they wanted.
---
"Yezi, any news?" Xiaoyun asked as he walked inside the security room.
"Bad news, a horde might be coming toward us. It looks like at least around several hundred in the city outskirts." Yezi stated.
"Wait, you're serious?"
Xiaoyun was completely caught off guard. He had been going to the security room to escape from dealing with his wivies, not to face new problems.
"Qingtian was checking last night and immediately turned around when he saw it on his binoculars," Yezi replied with a serious face.
"How much time do we have left?"
"He estimated within two days or shorter."
Xiaoyun immediately took out his phone and dialed Yiming's number, which went through on the first try.
"Hello, Mayor Xiaoyun."
"Yiming, can you come to the security room? It's an emergency."
After waiting for a few minutes, Yiming arrived with his two loyal assistants in their fresh soldier's uniforms.
"Is a zombie attack coming?" Yiming immediately asked.
"How do you know that?" Yezi asked, looking a little surprised by the accuracy of Yiming's guesses.
"How much time do we have left?" Yiming urgently asked again, ignoring Yezi's joking tone.
"We got two days or less, and it's about several hundred zombies," Xiaoyun replied with a serious look on his face.
"How much is several hundred?" Yiming asked again, wanting an exact number.
"Qingtian couldn't count it either. But he knows it's less than five hundred. But more than one hundred zombies.
They are all walking toward our main entrance. That's all he said before arriving back in Luoping." Yezi explained with a serious face this time.
"That's enough time to prepare... I believe we can hold them off. I have a plan to deal with them," Yiming said confidently.
"Yiming, can I trust you?" Xiaoyun suddenly asks.
"I have nowhere to go, Mayor Xiaoyun. I'm part of this town." Yiming replied as he saluted Xiaoyun.
"You don't need to call me Mayor Xiaoyun. Just call me Xiaoyun... You have my full support. Just tell us whatever you need."
Xiaoyun patted Yiming on the shoulder, giving him full permission to execute his plan without even asking what he had stored.
"Thank you, sir. I will go prepare right now."
With all three of them gone from the security, Xiaoyun and Yezi were now alone in the room.
"This is going to be a rough one..." Yezi murmured.
"Yeah... The first test for us. Let's hope Jingming's wall really works." Xiaoyun sighed as he looked out the window.
He could see the long wall expanding across the distance. The only defense that he had spent months building for this exact moment.
---
Within thirty minutes, everyone in the town was on the training field.
"You guys might be wondering why I'm calling you guys to be here before the usual mandatory meeting... Well, your training is about to be tested."
The crowds of people immediately began chattering among each other, but Yiming instantly shut it down.
"Silence! This test is not just any test. You will be grouped based on your test score. Anyone causing disruption will face the consequences."
As Gantian and Jixi turned off the safety of their rifle, the entire crowd turned dead silent before turning their attention back to Yiming.
"People with full training as militia, please move up."
The eight militia members all moved up at once, standing before everyone with their faces looking proud.
"The four of you are in one group, and the other four are in one group. You two groups will be getting in two cars and delaying zombies before they get to the wall," Yiming directed.
"Yes, sir!" The militia yelled back.
"Everyone else will be defending the wall... Speaking of the wall, Jingming walks forward. Is the wall finished?" Yiming asked.
"No, sir. It is almost finished... It still needs one more week." Jingming nervously responded as he stepped forward.
The crowd started to chatter, their faces full of worry. Hearing the news of the wall not being fully complete sounded like a nightmare to them.
Yiming instantly pulled out his gun and shot a blank in the air. The sudden bang made the entire crowd fall quiet.
"Final warning. Anyone who talks one more time without permission will face the consequences," Gantian yelled out loud right behind Yiming.
"Are the two entrances completely covered?" Yiming asked Jingming again.
"The two entrances are completely covered. It's only the center that still has a little gap. But I think the zombies won't run into that.
At least they shouldn't consider it, since there's still a pretty big forest in the center where the wall isn't finished yet." Jingming replied.
"Good. You can go back now."
As Jingming stepped back, Yiming quickly pointed at seven people, ordering them to step forward.
All seven people stepped forward, their faces a little bit scared, but their bodies stood firm as they looked the healthiest out of the bunch.
"I need you seven to follow Jixi to get the gas canister in the electric room and put it next to the wall."
The seven of them quickly followed Jixi and left the field.
"Qijian, how many logs do you have in storage?" Yiming asked.
"We have almost a barn of it, sir," Qijian replied.
"Very well, Qijian, I need you to lead everyone else and bring the logs to the top of the wall. Gantian, you will go help assist him."
"Yes, sir!"
With everyone else leaving with Gantian and Qijian, the training field only had Xiaoyun and Yezi.
"What are you planning with those logs and gasoline? You aren't planning to burn the whole forest, aren't you?" Yezi curiously asked.
"I'm just preparing the worst-case scenario in case everything goes wrong... We have to consider every tool we have." Yiming replied.
"Couldn't the logs help the zombies get up after they rolled down to the moat?" Xiaoyun raises his concern.
"It's going to be only used after the walls are full of zombies. It wouldn't matter by that point...
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, I'm going to use your two cars to allow the two groups to delay the zombies."
"No problem."
Xiaoyun and Yezi both replied at the same time, handing the key over to Yiming for him to use.
"Now, one more thing I need to discuss with you two. There's still a back entrance to the town.
Although I will be using the two cars to drag it toward the main entrance, some might still go toward the back entrance by accident.
I was thinking of positioning most of the troops in the front entrance, but someone still has to direct the back entrance battle——"
"I can do it, Xiaoyun. You stay with Yiming." Yezi instantly replied.
Xiaoyun nodded in agreement, knowing the front entrance was the more important battle that needed him.
"Very well then. Three people with you should be enough. Call us if there's too much to handle."
"Will do."
---
After everything was in place, it was already almost six o'clock.
Everyone was back in the training field, awaiting Yiming's order as they stood still with their melee weapon in hand.
"Everything is prepared now, sir!" Gantian and Jixi both spoke out.
"Good. Now, everyone can get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a hard day. Please report here tomorrow morning at eight."
As everybody started leaving, Xiaoyun joined in with the rest of his family to walk back home on foot.
"You guys scared?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.
"Not really," Yueyue replied, stretching her arms out with her militia uniform.
"As long as you are here, I'm never scared," Yuqi replied, her hands grabbing Xiaoyun's arm before surrounding it inside her chest.
"Hey, you sneaky rat! That's not fair." Yueyue yelled as she grabbed Xiaoyun's other arm, surrounding it inside her chest as well.
"Y-you guys aren't scared?" Nami asked, her face showing genuine fear as her body kept shaking a little.
"Don't worry, Mimi. Mom is going to protect you. And Lily too."
Leyan quickly held onto Nami and Lily's hands firmly, not letting them go until they finally arrived back home.