The next day.
The two of them were both awakened by the phone alarm. But their face looked extremely tired as they only went to sleep after three.
"Hey, pull out already... I need to go to work today." Yuqi complained as she scooched forward a little.
"Come on, we still have about two hours before work officially starts. Let's do it one more time."
"Fine, just once, okay?" Yuqi folded, as she was already a little wet from the morning wood inside her.
One hour later...
When the two headed downstairs fully dressed, only Leyan was up. She was getting ready to wake everyone up just as she finished cooking breakfast.
"Why do you two look so tired? And look at you, up so early today." Leyan commented as she carried their breakfast onto the table.
"We just got too busy drafting the town plan yesterday."
"Sure. It's totally not because somebody is having sex late into the night, just like Yueyue... I hope you two know that the walls are paper-thin."
Hearing Leyan expose the truth, Yuqi's face started to blush. But Xiaoyun didn't flinch a single bit as he sipped his cup of coffee.
"Xiaoyun, can you make a coffee for me?" Yuqi shyly asked as she sat down right next to him.
"Sure, I only know one coffee, though," Xiaoyun warned as he handed her a cup of black coffee.
"It is fine..."
---
Three days had quickly passed since Yuqi had become the co-mayor.
The wall was fully completed, and the stairs were expanded to allow the militia to stand and shoot outward rather than awkwardly lean down to the battlement.
The construction crew finally began building the houses that Yezi had been asking for a long time, as well as the administrative building for Yuqi.
Fortunately, Yiming's idea of chopping down the forest behind the wall worked perfectly for building houses, as they required a lot of wood.
Half the crew was split between building the road connecting the two entrances and simple log cabins, as originally planned.
The other half is building the administrative building, rather than having the entire crew build it at once.
At the same time, Yuqi was forced to work inside the building next to the security room, a concrete block that only had a table and a chair.
But she quickly moved every document out of the security room and into the new office space she had created.
She even called Leyan to assist her as she became overwhelmed with the workload, especially as she began conducting a full census of the town.
Besides that, the two plans to reduce inflation backfired, as the massive wage cut and food cost raises caused even more food stamps to be used.
Since their initial use of lowering prices had caused everyone to believe they were going to get lower, the fact that they rose caused panic.
It only stopped when Xiaoyun showed them a full inventory, one that almost made him pass out after overusing his ability.
Overall, Yuqi and Xiaoyun were mostly satisfied with the town's economy going back on track.
The food stamps lost by the civilians meant there was less money in the market, which was exactly what they wanted.
However, many people were extremely unhappy, leading to a massive pile of complaints against Yuqi when rumors started spreading.
It got so bad that Yuqi went from being the nice lady working in the store to earning the nickname 'The Iron Lady' among the townspeople.
Meanwhile, over in the store, Nami soon fell in love with working there.
The fact of being able to gossip with the customers every time they walked into the store was ironically the best thing she could wish for.
She was instantly hailed as a 'saint' as she leniently allowed people to loan food stamps for food.
But the truth was that the loan was just one of Yuqi's ideas to incentivize everyone to work harder and recoup even more food stamps.
Yezi had personally described it as an inhumane loan trap, but both Xiaoyun and Yuqi thought of it as just business.
During these three days, more and more visitors from the outside came in to trade, which was dealt with by Yezi's trade management job.
Several families and a lone survivor were also asking to join, which Yuqi gladly accepted as the town desperately needed more workers.
Oddly enough, the human trafficker seems to have stopped sending anyone to the town, as there is zero sign of them showing up.
It was almost as if they were facing some trouble of their own, or they were planning something big.
---
Another day passed, and it was finally Friday—the day of Huayi's and Yezi's wedding. Unlike Xiaoyun's wedding, he only invited Xiaoyun's family and ten other people.
The wedding went very smoothly, except for the fact that Xiaoyun once again had to take all of the cheers away from Yezi after he started to fumble.
"Geez, Yezi was almost just like you on our wedding night," Leyan commented as the five of them walked back home.
"Yeah, but at least he wasn't completely drunk to the point of being unable to walk," Yuqi added.
"Good thing Xiaoyun took all of it for him..." Yueyue chimed in as she carried Xiaoyun, who looked half-drunk.
"Is alcohol really that bad?" Lily curiously asked, with Nami's face looking just as curious as she had never drunk before.
"It's not good or bad... But you two are not drinking until you become an adult," Leyan warned as she took out the key to the house.
"Mom always has to be a party pooper. Hmph!"
Nami and Lily quickly ran back inside the house before heading upstairs as the sound of the door closing traveled to the living room.
"Qiqi and Yueyue, we can't drink any alcohol when pregnant, okay? It's extremely bad for the baby."
Leyan warned after noticing the two of them wanting to have a drink during the whole wedding.
"Yeah, yeah, we know," Yueyue murmured as she dropped Xiaoyun back down onto the sofa, which instantly woke him up.
"I have an idea! I know how to solve the electricity problem!"
Xiaoyun excitedly yelled as he seemed to sober up a little, raising his hand as a fist into the air for no reason.
"What is it?"
Yuqi curiously asked as the two had been worrying about the electric grid for the whole day now, even during the wedding.
Especially as the town kept growing, the gas generator simply couldn't keep up with the demand.
"The RV! It has a solar panel and battery——"
Before Xiaoyun finished talking, he fell back onto the sofa and completely blacked out.
"Finally, he came up with a good idea." Yuqi sighed, with the other three sighing after being unable to wake him up at all.
---
The next day.
Yuqi and Xiaoyun both went to the empty field and created a massive pile of solar panels and batteries.
But neither of them knew how to use them, let alone how to connect them to the power grid.
"What do we do now?" Xiaoyun asked as they arrived back in Yuqi's temporary office.
"Um, let me check the occupation list..."
After digging a bit in the drawer, Yuqi finally found the paper, and the two of them began reading the skill list.
"Teacher, nope, construction worker, nope, barber, nope... I found it, and it was an electrician named Li Dian. What a fitting name." Yuqi replied.
"Well then, let's go find him."
An hour later.
After walking in circles, trying to find Li Dian in the construction area, the two finally found Jingming.
Unfortunately, they were told that Li Dian was located in one of the designated forest chopping zones.
"Man, I miss our car..."
Yuqi complained as the sun was making her sweat like crazy, and her leg was starting to get tired from walking so much.
"Unfortunately, it's on a scouting mission. Too bad." Xiaoyun replied as he wiped the sweat off his forehead.
With several workers in front of them working on chopping down trees, Xiaoyun decided to take the chance.
"Hello, is anyone here named Li Dian? I have a job for him!" Xiaoyun yelled out, which instantly caused all of the workers to turn around.
"Yes, mayor, I'm here." A middle-aged man replied before walking up to the two of them on the side of the road.
"You are a former electrician?"
"Yes, I'm an electrician. Is there anything that I need to do?" Li Dian curiously asked.
"Well, you don't need to work in construction anymore. You'll maintain the generator, solar panels, and everything that's related to power."
Xiaoyun stated as he patted him on the back, handing him a contract and a pen that caught Li Dian a little off guard.
"What solar panels?" Li Dian asked in confusion.
"Just follow us."
The three of them walked back to the empty field, which still had all the things they had created earlier.
"Here it is... Can you connect them to the battery and the main power grid of the town?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.
"Um, I think I can... The electric grid is just right there. But there are so many solar panels and batteries here.
It's going to take forever for me to install it. Can I call in some of my friends? Just three people would be enough," Li Dian requested.
"Sure, you can tell Qijian that I sent you. Your pay is going to be... Qiqi, how much can I pay him?"
"If it is a one-time payment for four people, it is going to be fifty-six food stamps over a week.
And as for Li Dian's wage, it is going to be fourteen food stamps a week." Yuqi replied.
"Well, you heard her. Here are the food stamps as your signing bonus."
Xiaoyun moved his hand inside the bag to pretend he had taken it out and gave him the exact amount she had mentioned.
"Thank you, thank you, iron lady——Ahem, Ms.Yuqi and Mr.Xiaoyun. I will get going now."
With Li Dian gone, the two started heading back to her temporary office.
"Well, that one problem solved... I think he was trying to call your nickname in the town. Iron lady?"
"Shut up."
---
Back in the temporary office, Leyan had already recorded all the sales made today and all the loans paid.
Leyan was wearing almost the same outfit as Yuqi: a boring blazer with a buttoned shirt and suit pants below that barely showed any skin.
It was the complete opposite of what Yueyue wore a few nights ago. However, Leyan's clothes were much tighter as they barely fit her size.
"I am assuming the electricity issue is solved?" Leyan asked, not looking back up at the two as she was busy working on some paper.
"Yeah, it's done... Let me do the other half."
Yuqi sat back down and started helping Leyan. Meanwhile, Xiaoyun slowly sneaked out and left the room without them noticing.
---
"Whew, I'm free!"
Xiaoyun excitedly yelled as he started strolling around the town. Several new log cabins could be seen on the side of the road.
Each of them was meant for one family to live in, alongside the original mansions, which housed multiple families.
The still-in-construction administration building is a five-minute walk away from Xiaoyun's home, which is extremely close to the town center.
"Man, the town has changed so much..." Xiaoyun mumbled to himself.
"Yeah, a lot more buildings now... I still can't believe a town could grow this much."
Yiming's voice suddenly appeared behind Xiaoyun, making him turn around to look back at him.
"What do you think, Major Yiming? Do you think joining us was a mistake?" Xiaoyun asked as he turned around.
"Nope, this much growth in under three months is crazy," Yiming instantly replied.
"Right... almost three months have passed now."
Xiaoyun murmured as his mind still couldn't believe it had been three months since the outbreak.
"They are almost in their second month of first trimester——"
Xiaoyun accidentally spoke his mind, quickly shutting his mouth halfway before Yiming got a little curious.
"What second month? What trimester?"
"It's nothing. Just ignore it... Anyway, how have we still not found a doctor?" Xiaoyun complained as he thought back to the census paper.
"Well, doctors are not that common... I mean, Mrs.Leyan is almost like a doctor."
Yiming pointed out. His face looked just as worried as having a militia without a doctor sounded like a disaster.
"Yeah, but she can't do it to herself——She is only a nurse."
Xiaoyun almost slips up again as he is just about to say Leyan can't deliver her own baby while on the bed.
"We will find one eventually..."
Yiming commented, looking much more optimistic as he walked down the newly built road next to the wall.
After walking for a bit, the two were stopped by the construction site with a label saying fresh concrete.
"Looks like it isn't finished yet, time to go back... I'm going to go back to work now. See you later."
"See you."
The two went their separate ways as Xiaoyun headed back to Yuqi's office, slowly opening the door as he sneaked inside.
"Hey! Where had you been?" Yuqi asked as Xiaoyun had been missing for way too long not to notice.
"I was just taking a walking break," Xiaoyun replied.
"Sure you are, taking an hour's walking break." Leyan joked.
"I really mean it. I just walked past from the administration building to the road site in the middle of the wall."
Xiaoyun tries to explain himself, but neither of them believes him. They all look towards him as if they were looking at a criminal.
"Whatever, come help me with this stack of paper." Leyan waved for him to come over.
---
A few more weeks have flown by, as it is finally almost halfway to November now.
The weather is getting colder as the daylight hours decrease, indicating that winter is about to take full effect.
Meanwhile, the city's outskirts seemed to have a mass exodus as people started moving out looking for food.
Many people joined the town as they eventually stumbled upon it, but none of them were from the inner cities.
It's almost as if the inner city is a death zone that no one can enter.
The scouting mission Yezi sent out could also see many cars driving onto the highway, almost as if people were still escaping to the countryside this late.
In addition to the outside world, the town has grown to almost one hundred people, and the road behind the wall has been completed.
Both entrances are to be reached from each other directly, no longer needing to wrap around the town.
The administration building was finally finished, and the solar panel and the battery were all set up in the field, which relieved Xiaoyun from the generator duty.
The log cabin plan was also massively expanded upon as more people in the town meant more demand for housing.
This population increase also allowed Yuqi to create a completely new workgroup just for chopping more trees near Luoping.
Many of the cabins also started requesting connection to power, which Yuqi granted with an upfront cost of ten food stamps and weekly electric bills.
The town itself was growing perfectly, just as Yuqi had planned. However, a problem was starting to appear on the defense side.
---
As Xiaoyun sat in his chair in the administrative office, two different branches of government were looking at each other as if they were enemies.
"We need to increase the militia to at least fifty people," Yezi murmured.
"What? That is way too high. Xiaoyun, we're not doing this." Yuqi immediately refused, looking over to Xiaoyun with her gentle yet sharp eyes.
"We need to add ten of them to work as full-time soldiers rather than militia, and we need to build a hospital even if we don't have a doctor," Yiming added.
"That ten people out of the labor pool, and fifty people losing their valuable labor time. But I can accept building a hospital.
That was on the agenda anyway... The other two demands are just ridiculous." Yuqi argued as she remained defiant.
"Also, isn't the one-hour mandatory training enough? We just need a defensive force, right?"
Yuqi quickly added after noticing Xiaoyun seemed to be leaning towards Yiming's side. Unforunately, it was far too late.
"Yiming is right. Yezi's scout has been detecting more and more zombies that have started to move out of the cities in large numbers.
The civilian department needs to serve the military until the apocalypse is over... Yuqi, I hope you can understand."
Xiaoyun's explanation was too valid for Yuqi to argue back, but she was still annoyed by it.
"Fine, but you will have to convince the people to join the militia as well as convince the ten to be full-time soldiers.
Here's the salary you can give them... And there's no room for increases. "
Yuqi handed Yiming a piece of paper with the salary number and food stamps, her face still looking extremely unhappy.
"Thank you for your understanding, Mrs. Yuqi." Yiming bowed down in gratitude before leaving the room with Yezi.
"Darling, I'm sorry I had to do this." Xiaoyun apologized as the door closed.
"It's okay... I understand, I'm not some unreasonable woman, okay?"
Yuqi murmured as she began to relax in her chair. The anger seemed to have dissipated as if it were all just an act to be tough on the negotiation.
"Hey Yuqi, what do you think of this new building?" Xiaoyun suddenly asked as he moved his seat next to her.
"Well, it's pretty big. Downstairs is the new grocery store... No, it's more like a general goods store with so many different items.
The second floor is an office block, and we have our private little room here. We should probably hire some people full-time to start managing the entire workload."
Yuqi suggested. Remembering all the people who had been working under her to carry out the census were all part-time workers.
"Yeah, only three of us managing a town is not enough——"
Before Xiaoyun finished speaking, Leyan walked in with two cups of coffee and gently put them down on the table.
"Your coffee."
"Thanks." Both of them replied at the same time.
"Leyan, do you like doing this job?" Xiaoyun suddenly asked as he took a small sip of the coffee.
"I am going to be real with you two. I don't like sitting in the office all day... I want to go back to the garden or a hospital."
Leyan instantly replied as she sat down next to Xiaoyun. Her face reflected her words as it didn't look happy at all.
"Well, what a coincidence! You won't need to work here anymore. We are just planning to build a hospital.
A few days ago, a group of doctors and nurses joined us. The hospital is currently under construction," Yuqi suddenly announced.
"Wait, really?" Xiaoyun looked a little surprised, as he didn't even know it until now.
"Yeah, really. It's just yesterday." Yuqi reaffirmed before handing him a list of new people who had joined.
"Leyan, do you want to be the head nurse when the hospital is built?" Xiaoyun curiously asked as he skimmed through the paper.
"Me? The head nurse? No, no, that should depend on who has more experience." Leyan instantly responded.
"Well, the census tells us that the doctors and nurses are only in their late twenties. You definitely have more experience than they do."
Yuqi pointed out as she took a sip of the coffee before Xiaoyun handed the paper back to her.
"Fine... But I'm resigning if someone else can do a better job than I can." Leyan folded as she accepted her new position.
"Great. Let's go home now. Work is over."