When Xiaoyun woke up the next morning, Yuqi was still asleep on the bed.
Checking the clock, it was already eight o'clock. Knowing how much Yuqi hates being late for work, Xiaoyun gently pushed on her elbow.
"Hm?"
As the two made eye contact, Yuqi's face blushed red in embarrassment as she could see the stain on their body before the smell of their body odor hit her.
"It's eight o'clock already. You're going to be late for work if you keep sleeping." Xiaoyun quietly whispered.
"Oh snap. I need to go take a shower first."
Yuqi instantly jumped out of the bed before Xiaoyun could react, running towards the bathroom as he followed right behind her.
"Wait for me!"
---
By the time the two of them headed downstairs to the kitchen for breakfast, it was almost nine o'clock.
Everyone was already off to work. Even Lily was off to school as the entire house was empty other than them.
All the food in the kitchen was already wrapped in plastic, waiting for them to open it and eat it.
"All your fault, you dummy! Now we are late." Yuqi murmured as she angrily punched Xiaoyun on the shoulder.
"Yeah, yeah, my bad... I just couldn't hold myself after seeing your beautiful body in the shower."
"S-shut up, your flattering won't work on me." Yuqi angrily replied, yet her silence afterward told him everything.
After the short breakfast, the two quickly hopped into the car, driving straight to the administrative office.
"What took you two so long? You two are thirty minutes later."
Yueyue curiously asked, getting up from Xiaoyun's seat as the two of them entered the main office.
"This dummy just couldn't hold it in the morning," Yuqi complained as she sat down at her main desk.
"Yeah, he always does that," Yueyue murmured, zoning out a little as if some memory popped up in her head.
"Hey, it's not my fault you all are so sexy——"
"Shut up."
The two both yelled at the same time, their faces looked a little frustrated as they turned their attention back to the work on their tables.
"Whatever, I'm just telling the truth..."
---
A few hours later...
As the clock approached noon, Xiaoyun's phone suddenly started ringing. Taking it out, it was Yiming who was calling.
"Hello? What's wrong... Okay, I'll be right there... Sorry, I need to go do something."
The two couldn't even say anything back as Xiaoyun stormed out of the room, running down the stairs before hopping into his car.
When he arrived at the gates, he could see Yiming and several soldiers all standing at the wall with their rifles pointing outward.
As Xiaoyun stepped out of the car and walked up the wall stairs, he could see a man next to a Jeep outside.
"Yiming, why did you call me here? Who's the car out here?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.
"This person wants to talk to you. He showed me his military rank and everything when he was down there." Yiming replied.
"Huh... Okay then."
The two of them quickly hopped back down, heading down to the gate before signaling the garrison to lower the bridge.
"You are the mayor?" The man asked as he looked over to Yiming.
"No, he is."
As Yiming pointed over to Xiaoyun, the man looked a little surprised as he reached his hand out for a handshake.
"Oh, what a young mayor. Nice to meet you, I'm a Platoon leader from the military."
"Thank you. Nice to meet you, too. You can call me Xiaoyun... Can I ask what business you have here?"
Seeing Xiaoyun so direct with it, the man's face smiled a little as he spoke up again.
"I assume you saw or heard about the bombing run we did near the city a few days ago, right?"
"Yeah. I almost forgot to thank you guys for crushing that zombie horde. I really appreciate it."
"No problem... Ahem, can I ask how many people live in your town?" The man suddenly asked.
"Just several families group together, like around a hundred people," Xiaoyun answered.
"Really? Those little people built a seven-meter wall stretching this long. You sure you're remembering it right?"
The man questioned again, not trusting the number Xiaoyun had given, as he couldn't see past what was behind the walls.
"Oh, right, I almost forgot, I think the number is around four hundred. Sorry, I have kind of a bad memory."
Xiaoyun still gave a lower number, but the man seemed to believe it this time as he took his word at face value.
"Wow, that is probably the biggest town I have heard of. Most of the towns I had visited are only around one hundred people max."
The man complimented, a hint of admiration on his face as his eyes examined Xiaoyun and Yiming up and down.
"Other towns? Can I ask how many towns there are?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.
"I know of around one hundred different towns that had been established outside the city."
The man paused for a second, then continued.
"But most of them are in the countryside. You know, rural villages. You're the only one that's so close to the city."
"Well, it's got a very easy chokepoint to hold with, and the steep hills and the forest really help block most of the entrances.
Anyway, I'm sure you are not just here to compliment me all day, right?" Xiaoyun asked, his voice starting to sound a little impatient.
"Well, as you know, we helped you destroy that zombie horde. I was wondering if you could supply some food as gratitude——"
"I got some food. But we can't just give it to you guys for free. We barely have enough for our own people." Xiaoyun interrupted.
"Of course, we wouldn't steal from the civilian... However, the rifles you have up there aren't what you can normally get in the country."
As the man warned, Yiming's hand started to reach for his pocket as the atmosphere immediately got a little tense.
"Are you trying to blackmail me?" Xiaoyun questioned back.
"Me? No, no, but we can register towns to be designated a safe zone... It will be a real shame if a bomber accidentally drops a bomb nearby."
Both Yiming and Xiaoyun clenched their fists in frustration, but in the end, Xiaoyun had no choice but to accept.
"How much food do you guys want?" Xiaoyun asked softly.
"Just a ton or so will be good. Or ideally two tonnes of food would be perfect." The man replied casually.
"What! There's no way I can give you that much. Not in a million years would I ever have that much food lying around."
"I'm just saying, if the army showed up and they see a bunch of men using foreign weapons, I can't guarantee what will happen next."
Hearing the threat from the platoon leader, Yiming finally couldn't endure it any longer.
"There's no way you can represent the army. You're only a low platoon leader." Yiming argued.
"How would you know, old man?"
"I have eaten salt more than you have eaten rice. Don't you think you're talking too big for a person leading less than five people?"
"Ah, so we got a former soldier here."
The man changed his attitude a little as he began to realize Yiming was standing next to Xiaoyun for a reason.
"Well, I'm going to be honest with you, my superior is only a leader of a battalion. But I wasn't lying about the safety zone.
They are planning to bomb the city soon... You would really want me to mark you as a safety zone rather than having you as a potential target."
"What? Isn't there still a civilian inside the city? How can you all do this?" Xiaoyun questioned in complete disbelief.
"That's not up to me. You would need to ask the general." The man shrugged as his face barely showed any emotion.
"Bullshit, they don't have enough to bomb the city. I remember correctly that most of the air division and ammo were sent to the capital when the outbreak happened."
As Yiming exposed his lie, the platoon leader quickly realized Yiming knew much more than he had imagined.
"Oh, we got an insider. Can I ask what your former rank was, sir?" The man asked, his arrogant tone lowered a little for the first time.
"None of your business."
"How about this? I give you ten boxes of canned food? Your car here can't even hold that much anyway."
After hearing Xiaoyun's offer, the platoon leader didn't think too much and instantly agreed to it.
"That's fine. Just load as much as you can... I will go call my superior that you are in the safety zone."
The man quickly went back into the car as Xiaoyun and Yiming both headed back inside, directing the soldier to get a few boxes of food from the store.
A few minutes later, the soldiers came back with a truckload of food. Xiaoyun once again directed them to load it into the platoon leader's car.
"You happy?" Xiaoyun asked as the platoon leader's car was now full.
"Yes, I'm happy. Let me get out my phone."
"Hey Tianci, yeah, it's me... I got a truck full of food. Would you mind marking the town we named 233 as a safe zone?
Yeah, the one next to the city. Okay, I'm driving back right now... Tell the doctor I say hi to him."
As the platoon leader hung up the phone, he turned around towards Xiaoyun and Yiming one last time.
"Well, you guys are in the safe zone now. Although we aren't bombing it, I heard that something is happening inside the city with some zombies."
"How do you guys know that if you can't go inside the city?" Yiming questioned.
"With satellite, duh. Anyway, I need to get going now. Good luck with your town building."
The man quickly drove off into the distance as Xiaoyun couldn't help but feel robbed. Even Yiming himself felt they had been robbed in broad daylight.
"Why do I feel like we just got robbed?" Xiaoyun mumbled.
"Because we did, we just got extorted... I never expected the military to be run like a bandit camp."
Yiming let out a sigh, his face looking a little disappointed as they headed back inside the wall before the garrison lifted the bridge back up.
"Oh well, it wasn't that much food anyway. No need to cry over spilled milk, I guess..."
---
When Xiaoyun headed back to the administrative office, it was already one o'clock past noon.
"Where did you go?" Yuqi curiously asked as soon as he entered her office.
"Being forced to go pay a protection fee," Xiaoyun replied.
"By who?" Yueyue asked this time.
"The military... They seem to have some food shortage, so they have been demanding food from every town, which happened to include us." Xiaoyun explained.
"Isn't that extortion? Why don't we just fight back?" Yueyue suggested.
"You remember the ground shaking a few days ago? That was a single bombing run by their planes.
We aren't strong enough to fight them, not even close. We're never going to be strong enough to fight them."
"Oh."
Yueyue quickly realized how naive her idea was as she shyly looked back down to her work, turning silent as Yuqi spoke up next.
"I hope we don't have to fight them... our enemies are still the zombies in the cities."
"Yeah, you're right, we shouldn't be infighting in a time of crisis like this," Xiaoyun mumbled, feeling a little disappointed in humanity.