Visiting the Store and Injured Soldiers

After sitting in the security room for a while, Xiaoyun got a little bored and decided to head out to the store.

The store was located at 302, right next to Yezi's old home. The same house where he saved Lily.

From the look of the entrance, it was heavily modified. The gates were removed and converted into a short pathway to a full-blown grocery store.

"How's business?" Xiaoyun asked as he walked up to Yuqi, who had become the store manager.

"Boring as usual... This job really sucks. Couldn't you find someone else to do this?" Yuqi complained.

"Well, unfortunately, we don't have any job for a CEO. And everyone else is already busy." Xiaoyun jokingly replied.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Move out of the way. There are customers in line."

Yuqi pushed Xiaoyun aside as a customer was waiting behind him to get ready to check out.

"Can I get a bag of lettuce?" The customer asked as she dug inside her wallet for a few food stamps.

"Here are your lettuces, ma'am... It will be five food stamps total." Yuqi replied as she handed the lettuce over inside a bag.

After the transaction was finished, the woman froze as if she suddenly realized Xiaoyun was standing right next to her.

"Good morning, mayor!" The women nervously waved.

"Good morning."

As soon as he waved back, the woman grabbed her bag filled with food and quickly ran without turning back.

"Hey Qiqi, did anyone ask you for anything else to buy?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.

"Let me think... Well, a few guys came here asking to buy cigarettes, but we didn't sell them.

Then, a few women asked if we had any pads. We didn't sell those either, but I just gave her some of mine."

Yuqi paused for a second, then continued.

"Oh yeah, some of them asked if we sold soda or alcohol. I just sold the sodas at home at three food stamps if you didn't mind."

"No wonder the soda at home was disappearing... Okay, you can keep selling them, but you should raise the price," Xiaoyun suggested.

"Why? Wouldn't people stop buying that if it is that expensive?"

"Soda is a luxury, not a necessity. People will only buy soda when they are rich enough, so it doesn't matter what price we set it as if they want to buy it.

We might as well set the price higher to collect some of the food stamps back from them... I thought our CEO would have some basic economic sense."

As Xiaoyun tried to pat her head, she instantly shoved it aside before she gently punched him on the chest as a protest.

"Shut up. I just haven't used my brain for some time... It's all this job's fault for killing all my brain cells."

After another customer came in, he decided to leave Yuqi alone and head back inside his car.

---

A minute's drive later, Xiaoyun was now all the way to mansion 309, where Yezi and Huayi live.

Walking past the front yard and into the garden, Leyan was all alone working in the field, with her wide-brim hat covering all four sides.

Slowly, Xiaoyun approached her from behind. Gently tapping on her shoulder, he waited for her to turn around.

"Huayi, I'm busy right now, okay?"

Leyan didn't look back at all as she raised her hoe and bent her back a little, positioning herself to loosen up the soil by striking it down.

After her horse was struck down, Xiaoyun's mind suddenly had an idea. A small little prank as he leaned closer to her neck.

With a small breath, it instantly sent a chill down her spine.

"Hey Huayi, what are you doing? Honey! What brought you here?"

Her cheeks flushed a deep red as she turned around, and for Xiaoyun, it was impossible to tell if it was from the summer heat—or something more. 

"I have nothing else to do today, so I'm just visiting places... What are you doing right here?"

"Just loosening the soil. Huayi and the other women are taking a break right now inside the house."

As Leyan turned back around and continued digging at the soil, Xiaoyun was a little intrigued by the mundane work.

"Babe, do you like doing this?"

"Yeah, it's super satisfying when you get to collect the fruit of your labor," Leyan responded.

"I see..."

Before Xiaoyun could ask if he could try it out, his phone suddenly started ringing. It was Yezi calling him.

"Hello? What's wrong?"

"Can you come to the front entrance? Bring Miss Leyan and her medical kit with you, too. It's an emergency."

"Okay, I'm coming... Leyan, there's a medical emergency."

She immediately put her hoe aside, running back to the car alongside Xiaoyun as she entered the passenger seat.

"Did he say what kind of emergency was it?" Leyan asked.

"I don't know."

After driving back home, Leyan ran back into the house to get her medical kit and switched into her uniform.

Once back in the car, the two drove straight towards the front entrance.

When they arrived, there were already crowds of people standing right behind the staircase to the wall.

Yezi and the guard were standing on top of the wall, with their rifles still drawn towards the outside.

"Excuse me, everyone moves out of the way."

Immediately, the crowd dispersed to the side, letting Xiaoyun and Leyan walk up to the stairs.

Two soldiers, one younger and one looking middle-aged, were standing outside the wall carrying an injured soldier on a wooden stretcher.

"What's the situation?" Xiaoyun asked.

"There's an injured person outside. But I'm not sure if I should let them in or not... I can't be sure if they are bitten or not." Yezi responded.

"Please, our commander is not bitten. He's just been shot. We're begging you to please save him."

Seeing the two soldiers kneeling on the floor, Xiaoyun's heart softened a little, especially after seeing the old man's uniform.

It instantly triggered a short memory inside his head. A memory that was closest to his heart.

"Lingang, lower the bridge," Xiaoyun ordered.

"Xiaoyun, that's too risky. We can't just——"

"Just lower it," Xiaoyun ordered again, interrupting Yezi from finishing his sentence.

Both of the gate guards hesitated for a second. But after seeing Yezi nodding in agreement, they finally lowered it.

The two soldiers quickly rushed inside, holding the stretcher in their hands as they carried the injured man inside.

Xiaoyun and Leyan headed back down, bringing them over to the security room and putting the injured soldier onto the table.

"How did he get injured?" Leyan curiously asked as she began unpacking her med-kit.

"He got caught in a crossfire when some unknown group fired on us." The young soldier explained.

"Bullet wound... Do any of you know any basic first aid?" Leyan asked.

"I do." The older soldier raises his hand.

"Okay, get ready to assist me. You guys can wait outside. Don't come in until I tell you so."

---

Outside the security room, the crowd was long gone as Yezi dismissed them back to work.

Yezi and the young soldier were standing right next to each other outside, waiting for the operation to finish.

"What's your name?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.

"My name is Li Gantian." The young soldier replied.

"You guys came from the city?" Yezi asked as he walked over to Xiaoyun's side.

"No. But we were on a mission to the city center." Gantian responded.

"Going into the city center... Isn't that just a suicide mission?" Yezi questioned.

"It wasn't a suicide mission. We were fully prepared to take back a portion of the city. It was going fine until our helicopter got attacked by something.

After we lost air support, we couldn't hold them back... That's when we got separated and got hit in friendly fire." Gantian explained.

"Whoever thought of thinking they can retake the city with a helicopter must have been dropped on the head."

Hearing Yezi's sudden laugh, a frown appeared on Xiaoyun's face while the young soldier was absolutely fuming.

"Hey! How dare you disrespect the general like that?" Gantian angrily questioned, his hand reaching down for his gun strap.

"The city has over ten million people in it. You guys were probably only fighting a fraction of the zombies if you think a helicopter is enough."

Yezi's statement made Gantian fall into silence. It was almost as if he knew there was no debate against the truth.

"Ahem, where are you guys from?" Xiaoyun asked, wanting to de-escalate the tension between the two.

"We're from the southern theater——Hey, I can't tell you that."

Gantian instantly shuts his mouth, realizing he had been slipping too much information to a stranger.

"How is the military right now? I'm not asking for military plans or anything. I'm just asking if we are going to get rescued as civilians. That's all."

Seeing Yezi's face looking all innocent all of a sudden, Gantian eventually spoke up again.

"I honestly don't know... we had lost contracts from all the other theaters, and our phone signals had been getting worse every day.

All the radio lines were cut, and we couldn't even contact different army groups stationed in different cities.

I'm not sure if we can even organize a rescue mission for anybody. We can barely defend ourselves... Wait, you baited me! You——"

"I didn't force you to say any of that information. You gave it up yourself. Anyway, why would you guys try to retake the city if you can barely defend yourself?"

The soldier fell into silence again. But soon, he couldn't control his mouth as if he had been holding in his frustration for too long.

"Yeah, it wasn't. The stupid general wanted to save his family stuck in the city center and sent us to die... Wait, you baited me again!"

This time, Gantian was seriously mad as he took out his pistol and aimed it right at Yezi's head with his finger on the trigger.

Yet, Yezi wasn't scared a single bit as all of the guards aimed all of their rifles right back at Gantian's head.

"You are the one who's talking. We didn't force you with a gun or anything. Is this how the military treats someone who's saving their fellow officer?"

Realizing Yezi was right again, Gantian slowly lowered his gun back down before Xiaoyun signaled the guards to lower their guns as well.

"Yezi, enough. Don't make the job hard for Mr.Gantian... You want to eat something?" Xiaoyun asked, handing a chocolate bar over from his pocket.

"Thank you."

Gantian didn't hesitate as he finished the whole bar in a single bite, swallowing it down within seconds as if he hadn't eaten for the day.

"Here, have another one."

"Thank you so much."

Gantian bowed down in gratitude as he accepted the next bar of chocolate, this time much smaller bits at a time.

"No problem... You said earlier that something shot the helicopter. Do you remember what it was?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.

"Um, I think it was some sort of green projectile from somewhere. It was so fast that by the time we noticed it, the helicopter was already crashing," Gantian explained.

"That green projectile is probably from some sort of zombie mutation... Now we got zombies with long-range weapons?"

Xiaoyun sighed as he thought of the possibility of fighting zombies that have a gun. Something that sounds almost impossible to deal with.

"I doubt it. They drove a helicopter in the city, so it's probably just zombies that looked a little extra green and jumped onto it from a high-rise building."

Yezi's suggestion made both of them let out a small relief. Their mind chose to believe his theory over the mutant theory.

"I hope so... I wonder how the surgery is going——"

Before Xiaoyun could finish talking, a sudden scream came out from the security room.

"Fuck! My leg! It hurts!"

The three of them quickly turned to the window, only to see that the injured soldiers were now awake.

But with nothing they could do, the three turned their attention back to the wall.

"Enough of asking me. How about you two? The map didn't show there was supposed to be a wall here." Gantian curiously asked.

"What do you think, smartass? It's to stop zombies from getting in. Isn't it obvious——"

"Yezi, remember you said you had moved past that?" Xiaoyun warned, sounding much more serious this time.

After a short silence, Yezi lowered his voice before apologizing.

"My bad. Sorry."

"Ahem, we built this wall to protect this town from city zombies," Xiaoyun explained.

"Interesting... how many people are here?" Gantian curiously asked again.

"Just several families that escaped from the city," Xiaoyun replied, not wanting to reveal any more information.

The conversation fell into silence until Xiaoyun decided to speak up again.

"Where do you plan to go now after the injured soldier is fixed up?"

"After Yiming is fully healed, we will probably try to find our way back," Gantian answered.

"I wouldn't go back if I were you. It's only a matter of time for them to send more soldiers again to another suicide mission." Yezi commented.

The atmosphere fell into silence as Gantian didn't want to respond to Yezi's comment until Xiaoyun decided to suggest something.

"Before Yiming is fully healed, would you mind if I could hire you guys as security guards? I will pay you guys for food and provide housing.

I just wanted a professional like you to protect this town——"

"Xiaoyun, we don't need them——"

"Yezi?"

After a few eye signals, Yezi fell into silence. Xiaoyun waited as Gantian considered his options.

"I guess we don't have anything better to do in the meantime. I can——"

Before Gantian could accept the offer, the door to the security room finally opened. Everyone's attention was instantly shifted to the two walking out.

"How's Yiming?" Gantian urgently asked.

"He's fine. But he won't be able to move for at least a month. After that, he might need physical therapy to start walking again." Leyan replied.

"Thank you so much, doctor."

Both of the soldiers bowed down in gratitude towards her, only to have her quickly help them back up.

"No problem. Xiaoyun, can you drive me back home? I'm getting a little tired." Leyan asked as she wiped off the sweat from her forehead.

"Sure... Yezi, can you go give them a place to stay for now?"

"Okay."

As Leyan and Xiaoyun drove off into the distance, Yezi suddenly felt a little bit of regret as two soldiers were now stuck in front of him.

"Fuck..."

---

After dropping Leyan back home, Xiaoyun drove back to the security room, only to find Yezi gone.

"Hey Gantian, where is Yezi?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.

"He left with Lingang... He just told us to stay here." Gantian replied.

"This guy... Oh, I almost forgot to ask, what's your name?" Xiaoyun asked as he turned to the middle-aged soldier.

"My name is Jixi." The middle-aged soldier responded.

"Hello, Jixi, would you two like some food? I just brought some fried rice back home. It might be a little cold, though."

Xiaoyun took out two containers, which he had just created on the spot inside his backpack.

"Thank you, Mr.Xiaoyun."

Gantian happily accepted the offer, opening the fried rice in pure excitement. But the lid was instantly slammed shut as Jixi looked straight back at Xiaoyun.

"What do you want?" Jixi cautiously asked, his face showing a hint of distrust towards him.

"Nothing. You guys look like you haven't eaten for a long time. I just want to give you guys some food."

Seeing him reply with a genuine smile, the two eventually accepted the plastic container before opening it.

"Do you guys want somewhere to stay for the night? You can't just sleep in the security room. I can give you guys a place to stay," Xiaoyun suggested.

The two thought about it for a second, but shook their head as Xiaoyun handed them two pairs of chopsticks.

"Come on, your injured comrade needs some rest first. He needs a proper bed more than anything right now."

Looking over to the bandaged wound on their senior officer, they eventually nodded in agreement.

"Great. Let me drive you guys to your place to stay."

A few minutes later...

As Xiaoyun parked his car outside 310, the two of them slowly carried their senior officer on the wooden stretcher.

"Inside, there are several bunk beds that you guys can sleep in. If you guys have any problems, just call me or come to 303."

Seeing Xiaoyun once again offering help with no demand, Jixi finally felt a little guilty inside.

"Thank you, sir. You are really generous. I'm sorry for questioning you earlier." Jixi bowed down apologetically toward him.

"No problem, I always help people in need... See you guys tomorrow." Xiaoyun waved to the two goodbye as he left the small house.