One week has passed since Yezi left his trade post job.
Yuqi and Xiaoyun had been busily setting up a mini-department inside the commercial department to replace Yezi's trading post.
The outsider traders themsleve were starting only to get things the town needed, which made the job a lot easier as more and more citizens' needs were being met.
Meanwhile, Yueyue had finally officially retired, with Wuli being appointed to replace her in the position of militia leader.
The plan to have her as a store guard was abandoned. Instead, she was given Leyan's previous position as Yuqi's secretary.
Where did Leyan go? She finally had her own place to work as the hospital had its grand opening.
Ten nurses and a doctor worked under her as she was quickly appointed as the head nurse and the temporary head health director.
Other than the hospital, the school had also been built, with Shuli appointed as the school principal while three teachers worked under her.
With both building projects completed, the construction crew was sent back to build more housing.
But instead of building a wooden cabin, they were finally given the resources to build a concrete building with plumbing and everything inside it.
The trees inside of Luoping were also still being chopped, making more spaces for more buildings, as the space on the side of the road had started to run out.
For the commercial sector, the new project that Yuqi had started didn't attract as much attention as the two had hoped.
Most people didn't want to risk their money going down the drain trying to start a business.
It was just safer to continue working in the 'government sector.' Still, there was a small fraction of people who were willing to risk it.
They had stayed long enough in the town with spare cash, going as far as to hire a construction crew from the government to build their business.
Besides the continuous growth of the town, what was most important to Xiaoyun wasn't the things going on in the town.
It was his three wives entering the 2nd semester as their pregnant bellies started becoming visible.
People were starting to notice the three's bulging belly as they walked on the streets to work.
Rumor soon spread among the new groups that had just moved to the town. Everyone was learning rapidly about the relationship between Xioayun and his wives.
Although he didn't go out of his way to clarify it himself, the older people who had stayed in the town for longer clarified it for him.
At first, many of the newer people felt it was immoral and wrong between the four of them, especially after learning his adopted status.
However, after a while, everybody moved on as they cared more about when their next meal was and the mandatory training they had to face.
---
Inside the rescue department...
Yezi has been going through a lot of ups and downs. He was managing hundreds of people being rescued from the city within a week.
Although he didn't need to manage the resettlement of the people he rescued, the logistics behind the rescue teams were starting to give him a big headache.
He barely had time to go out himself. He had practically dug himself into a hole as he was stuck in the office for 70% of the time.
It wasn't all downside, though, as he managed to find several vans and cars for his department to use.
He even managed to find a Hummer to drive around the town for himself while everyone else in the town had to take the buses to work.
However, as a new week arrived, many of the missions became more and more risky as the soldiers were getting injured.
Three soldiers even died from a mutant zombie that caught a small team by surprise. The zombies were clearly getting more and more aggressive.
When Yezi delivered the news to Yuqi and Xiaoyun, the first thing Yuqi suggested was to put a pause on the mission.
It was just getting way too dangerous. Yet, Xiaoyun rejected her order, overriding it as he authorized Yezi to continue his mission.
---
"Why don't you let me end this? The risk is getting bigger and bigger every day, and they almost caused a zombie horde to come here."
"Yezi and the soldiers don't want to end it. They know what they signed up for... Besides, they are also saving more lives.
Without them, those people would have eventually starved to death or been bitten by zombies, or even created a hostile organization against us."
Yuqi fell into silence for a second, but she quickly came back with an argument of her own.
"We already have enough people in the town. It's already reaching its max capacity beyond what we could house."
"We can simply just expand towards the forest behind the mansions here, after we finish expanding the area between the wall and the mansions."
Xiaoyun argued back as he pointed at the map on the wall, which showed a massive forested area near Luoping.
"How about food? We don't have enough to keep this going at the rate of people coming into the town." Yuqi argued.
"The farm harvest has been getting bigger and bigger. By the end of next month, we will be able to sustain ourselves fully.
I wouldn't even need to create more food anymore... Not to mention the weather here is year-round, so we can keep growing and continue to expand the farm as well."
As Xiaoyun went over to the cabinet and took out the storage records, Yuqi fell into silence once again.
"I think Xiaoyun's right. The people on the outskirts need our help. Or else they are just going to die out there."
Yueyue decided to chime in as she relaxed on the sofa, watching the two of them arguing back and forth with each other.
"Fine, I guess we'll let Yezi continue... But you're going to deal with the backlash if the soldiers start to quit."
"Mhm..."
Just as the two reached an agreement, suddenly someone started knocking on the door.
Xiaoyun quickly got up from his seat before Yueyue could, opening the door as he saw Wuli and Yiming standing there.
"What's wrong?" Xiaoyun asked as he guided the two inside the office.
"The military just contacted us," Yiming replied.
"Like a phone call or something?" Yuqi curiously asked.
"No, they are here right now. Outside the gate. They wanted to talk to you, Xiaoyun." Yiming explained.
"You serious? They are outside the gate right now?" Xiaoyun asked again as Yuqi and Yueyue both looked a little shocked.
"Yes, I'm serious. They have several mechanized vehicles outside the gates. We need you to come with us."
"How many people are there? What do they want?" Yueyue asked cautiously before Xiaoyun could go with them.
"I estimated them to have twenty soldiers only... It seems more like a refugee group that just fled from a military base or something.
They also have several buses of civilians behind them. They had asked for food when I approached them." Yiming replied.
"You could have said that earlier... Let's see what they want. You two stay here, okay?"
Both Yuqi and Yueyue nodded as they watched Xiaoyun follow Yiming and Wuli out of the office.
---
When the three of them got up to the walls, his soldiers were already garrisoning it with their rifles in hand.
"Hello, I'm the town's mayor. Can I ask what you need?" Xiaoyun asked out loud as he held a megaphone.
A man in a soldier's uniform stepped out of the mechanized unit, yelling right back at Xiaoyun with his request.
"We just want food, and we will be on our way... However, if you don't give us food, we will be forced to enter the town here."
"How much do you need?" Xiaoyun questioned.
"Enough to feed a hundred people for a week." The man answered.
"That's way too much, we can't give you that much. No one could possibly give you that much around here."
"How about for five days?"
Another man stepped out of the car from the passenger side, answering it before the original person could speak up.
"At most, I can give you guys fifty people's worth of food for two days. Or you guys can give us the civilians, and we can feed them ourselves." Xiaoyun answered.
"How can we trust you that you will treat them right?" The man on the left questioned.
"I can give you a tour of the town, and you can see it for yourself... But only the two of you can have the tour."
The two of them hesitated and went back inside the car. After a few minutes, the two of them finally came back out.
"Sure, we can do that."
The two men in soldiers' uniforms slowly walked up to the front of the bridge as Xiaoyun signaled to the garrison to lower the bridge.
As the two of them entered the town, the bridge was quickly lifted back up. The three of them quickly headed down before bringing the two soldiers inside a car.
An hour later...
"What do you think?" Xiaoyun curiously asked as they toured around the entire town for him to see.
"This town is perfect... Thank you for the tour. I will report this to our superior to see if we can let the civilian go to your town."
The two soldiers quickly headed back outside, heading inside the vehicles before coming back out to the front of the bridge.
"Our general had agreed to it. However, you will still need to supply us thirty people's worth of food for a week."
"Sure, we can do that. Just give us ten minutes."
Xiaoyun quickly directed Yiming to organize a few soldiers to get the car and get food from the storage.
After waiting for ten minutes, the soldier finally came back with the food in the back of the pick-up truck.
Xiaoyun signaled the garrison to lower the bridge once again, allowing the pick-up truck to drive outside to the military.
"You guys can count the boxes of food. It should be enough for a week." Xiaoyun replied as he personally stepped out of the bridge.
Several soldier from inside the mechanized vehicle quickly hopped out and started loading the food into their jeep at the back.
"Looks like they have thirty soldiers then," Wuli quietly whispered.
"No, they just have fifteen. They doubled their number since we have almost fifty people on the wall.
They are a little intimidated by our soldiers and militia, so they are bluffing it." Yiming whispered back.
"You're probably right, but I don't want any conflict with the military. They get their food, and we get the people."
As Xiaoyun shifted his attention back to the two men in the front, the soldiers had finally finished carrying all the food back into the mechanized vehicles.
"Thank you! You guys can go inside the bus to get the civilian. We'll remember your contribution to the military."
The two men hopped back into their mechanized vehicle, driving off into the distance as they waved goodbye to them.
"Well, it's time for more people to come to the town, and more work..." Xiaoyun sighed as he saw some of them being elderly and children.
---
Two days after the incident, Xiaoyun and Yuqi were able to devise an emergency plan to settle an influx of a hundred people at once into the town.
Temporary tents were set up as their living space for now. The construction crew was working overtime to build more houses.
With more workers, it seems to be only a matter of time to get things done. However, most people in the bus turned out to be white collar workers.
Some of them got injured and had to go to the hospital after working for two days there. Still, none of them complained as the house they built was for themsleve.
After just three more days had passed, the town was now back on its track as everyone settled down.
The town was on its way to hitting five hundred people living there. An achievement that no one had ever expected.