"Is he okay?"
Nami's question brought everyone's attention over to Xiaoyun, whose entire upper body was resting on the table.
"He's fine. He just stays up all night... Perhaps you two can forgive him now? He seemed really sorry for what he had done."
Leyan suggested after checking Xiaoyun's pulse, realizing he was just too tired and had fallen asleep on the dining table.
"Just because he stays up all night to cook breakfast, he is going to be forgiven like that? Oh, hell no."
Yuqi replied with a straight face as her mouth continued to open and chew the food that Xiaoyun had cooked up.
"I... I think he is really sorry. You have never seen him wake up early, or even cook for us... Maybe we should just forgive him."
Staring towards the innocent-looking face of her husband, Yueyue's heart started to melt as she couldn't bring herself to side with Yuqi.
In her mind, he had long made up for it during the festival. If it wasn't for Yuqi's protest, she would have long accepted his apology.
"This is why he keeps pushing our limits. You give this idiot an inch, and he'll take it a mile. Please, don't forgive him so easily."
"I guess you are right... But I-I enjoyed it too."
As Yueyue shyly looked down at her knees, Nami and Lily were more confused than ever as they couldn't remotely understand their cryptic message.
"What are you guys even talking about?"
Within seconds, all three of Xiaoyun's wives looked to each other for a second before looking down and blushing at the same time.
"Nothing! Don't worry about it. We are just talking about Xiaoyun always being so lazy and see if this breakfast would redeem him." Yueyue replied first.
"Yeah, fixing his laziness, right?" Leyan immediately replied next.
"Yeah, exactly. Xiaoyun been rotting in the woman's embrace for too long." Yuqi added last as she nervously brushes her hair.
"Hmm. Sure, whatever you all say... Lily, let's go. I'm bringing you to school today."
"Wait, I-I'm not full yet—"
"Too bad."
As Nami left the kitchen with Lily, the three of them let out a small sigh of relief before turning over to Xiaoyun, who was still asleep on the table.
"Mom, please join us in resisting him. He won't learn his lesson until he suffers some actual consequences.
You don't want to be treated like us, would you? Getting violated purely based on his random sexual urges." Yuqi pointed out.
After a short consideration, Leyan's face blushed a little as she suddenly imagined Xiaoyun requesting her to have sex in public.
"Fine, but only for a week. I can't hold it for that long." Leyan's face blushes as she says the last part out.
"That's what we're planning to do anyway. It's hard for us to hold it too... But we have to teach him a lesson."
As Yuqi quietly murmured her last few words, Yueyue's mind suddenly started having a bad feeling deep inside.
---
When Xiaoyun finally woke up from his sleep, it was already two o'clock. No one was near him as he slowly sat back up from the table.
"Hm? They all left for work already?"
Looking around, only a bunch of dirty dishes remained. Sitting there for half a minute, his mind soon realized they had all headed over to work.
"They really left this mess for me to clean up afterward... Whatever."
Xiaoyun quickly pulled up his sleeves, grabbed all the dirty and empty plates, put them in the dishwasher, and started it.
Then he went back over to the sink, manually scrubbing all the dirty pans he used to cook before heading upstairs to change his clothes.
After freshening up in the bathroom, Xiaoyun finally headed out to work. But rather than going to the office, he headed towards the old security room.
Yiming and Yezi were inside the security room, looking at a map on the table; neither of them seemed to notice him walking in.
"We finally double cleared this front, the left, and the right side of the city outskirts. Now it's just the back here that we checked only one time."
Yezi stated as he pointed at the far side of Guangzhou's metropolis area, which was really just a town-city line that had been relatively left behind.
"Hm, that's a little too far away from being the side of the city outskirts, you only went there once, right?" Yiming asked.
"Yes, we first check the entire outskirt once by driving around to see which road is blocked," Yezi stated.
"I see, then you should be fine to send people through this way, right here, and start thoroughly searching the outskirts at the back.
This way, you can always retreat in all four directions without worrying if zombies could sneak around you from the back."
As Yiming pointed at the intersection, Yezi's eyes began to stare at the path more and more intensely until he opened his mouth.
"Good idea, I think that what we're going to do next then—"
Just as Yezi was about to finish talking, Xiaoyun finally cleared his throat to make his presence known.
"Ahem, hey guys, I'm here to ask to join the rescue team!"
"What? Yiming, did I just hear that clearly?"
The two of them turned around, finally noticing him standing behind them the whole time as he walked over to the right side of the map.
"I said I want to join the rescue team. Do I need to repeat myself?" Xiaoyun questioned.
Yezi and Yiming both looked to each other for a second before Yiming himself raised his own question.
"Xiaoyun, are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure... Yezi, I finally understand you now. I need some excitement in life to avoid being all rotten living in the town."
As Xiaoyun patted Yezi on the shoulder, he quickly pushed it away before looking back at him right in the eyes.
"Huh? What does this have to do with me? I was just about to retire from going to the front-line as you said."
Yezi looked more confused than ever as he couldn't imagine Xiaoyun wanting to go back to the front line when he was the one who kept saying the front line is dangerous.
"You're an old man. I'm not. That's the difference. Ahem, anyway, just assign me to the rescue team.
You can retire from a front-line position whenever you like. I'm not going to force you to retire from this post anymore."
"Do your wives know this?"
Yiming immediately asked first, interrupting Yezi from asking the same question that was on his mind.
"Why would they need to know that? You two both know damn well they will never let that happen."
Xiaoyun paused for a second, then continued.
"But hey, remember, I'm the mayor, not them, okay? Come on, Yezi, just imagine if I were just a normal soldier.
I'm not asking for any high-ranking position that will mess up the operation. Just put me in a newbie spot so I can get out of living in luxury."
After the repeated pressure from Xiaoyun, the two of them eventually backed down and accepted his demand.
"Fine, I'll assign you to the newest unit then." Yezi quietly murmured as he started heading over to the cabinet to change some files.
Yiming stayed silent the whole time as he watched Yezi take out a soldier's uniform and the issued rifles from the back.
"Well, soldier, you are assigned to Unit Seventy-five. Go to the training field to report for duty!"
"Yes, sir!"
Xiaoyun right saluted back at Yiming, heading out of the security room as the old men looked to each other for a second.
"Why do I have a bad feeling?" Yiming mumbled.
"I'm sure it's fine, Jixi will probably assign him the safest route possible," Yezi reassured, looking much more accepting of the decision.
"I guess... Hey Yezi, are you actually retiring?"
Yiming questioned, his mind feeling both happy and a little sad at the same time, knowing his biggest ally and enemy was now out of 'power.'
"You'll know later..."
---
When Yezi and Yiming arrived at the field, all the soldiers were standing there. This leaves fifty-one soldiers as a garrison on the wall, not including on-duty militias.
"I assume everyone is ready to go?" Yezi yelled out loud.
"Yes, sir!"
"Well, before that, I have an announcement to make... I will no longer be a part of the rescue as of today."
"Why?"
One of the soldiers interrupted, breaking the silence as all of the soldiers looked confused by the sudden decision.
"It's just from front-line duty. This doesn't mean I'm retiring from the military... I hope you all can understand, I'm already past my prime."
None of the soldiers spoke up, but some were on the verge of tearing up as they had been fighting alongside Yezi for the longest time.
"Don't worry, I will still be the head of the rescue department and plan all the missions. Corporal Jixi will be on the field in my place.
I expect everyone to respect him as if I were there! I don't want to hear or see any tears on your faces! Godspeed, everyone!"
As Yezi and Yiming saluted the soldiers, they all saluted back before heading inside their assigned buses for the mission.
---
"Hey man, you new? I never seen you before."
The soldier asked as the bus began to drive down the road, seemingly going around the city center as the skyscraper lingered in the distance.
"Yeah, I am just a fresh recruit. I joined the rescue team after I finished my training just yesterday." Xiaoyun answered.
"Hey, you are the new people who just joined. You want to learn some basics before you go in?"
"Of course I do. I would love to hear about it."
"Well, let me tell you some basic stuff.. Most units have four people in them, and each will be assigned an area to search.
With extra units staying at a center as an emergency response. You can expect them as the last resort if your unit is trapped."
The soldier next to Xiaoyun paused for a second as the bus suddenly jumped a little from the pothole.
"And in the bus, there is also a leader of the bus who acts as the head leader of all units on the bus. It only applies when Mr.Jixi isn't here.
Also, your unit leader would have a walkie-talkie to communicate with other units. Don't bother using your phone, the signal in the cities is extremely poor."
"I see... Thank you so much."
"No problem."
After sitting for another boring twenty minutes of endless bumpy drive, the bus finally came to a stop.
Everyone immediately got off the bus, getting into their assigned unit group as Jixi emerged from one of the other buses.
"Unit One to Sixty-five, you may go now. Unit Sixty-six to Seventy-five, you are staying here."
Jixi began releasing his order on top of an abandoned car nearby as more and more units went out of the temporary base to scout the nearby area.
Xiaoyun soon noticed a familiar face in the unit he was assigned to, as it was no one other than Wuli, who was the captain of his unit.
Their goal was to capture a grocery store nearby, which turned out to be empty as all nine unit reported their side to be empty.
"Man, this is so boring." One of the soldiers in Xiaoyun's unit complained as they walked through the empty aisles.
"At least we don't have any combat duty. Why are you upset over a free paycheck?" Another soldier replied.
"Be quiet, no chit-chatting," Wuli warned the two, not noticing Xiaoyun's face as she looked past the three of them.
After looking through the entire grocery store, Xiaoyun's unit returned to the temporary base and waited for an object from Jixi.
They could see him working constantly through the walkie-talkie with the other ten soldiers who made up the command post.
"Unit Five here, requesting support for carry. We rescued three survivors. Over."
"Sending one unit to your location right now."
The command center itself was composed of ten soldiers, all constantly micromanaging the soldiers based on the map they had in front of them.
The next four unit requests were all survivor-related, until a sudden, urgent message was transmitted.
"Unit Twenty-four here, we need backup! One tank mutant outside with around over several hundred zombies.
We are currently stuck hiding inside the building—"
As the transmission ended abruptly, Jixi immediately looked over to his fellow soldier who was working alongside him.
"All units, begin to pull back now," Jixi ordered.
After ten minutes, every single unit other than the one that was trapped was back standing in front of the store.
"Units One, Two, and Three, you stay in the store to watch the survivor. Everyone else, get on the bus."
Everyone went back to their designated bus, except for his unit, as the four men all went to separate buses.
"Why don't we have the same units in the same bus?" Xiaoyun mumbled to himself as he sat next to a completely different unit.
"Probably because you are new. They forgot to leave a spot for your unit... Anyway, I heard they are planning to reorganize the soldier groups and ranking soon."
As Xiaoyun turned around towards the person making the noise, he was a little surprised to see the same soldier next to him on the bus earlier.
"That makes sense... No wonder Yiming was planning to give me——ahem, what are we doing now then?"
Xiaoyun coughed as he switched the conversation, realizing he had almost accidently leaked too much info.
"In two minutes, get ready to open fire."
The soldier in front of the bus yelled as all the nearby soldiers took out their rifles, aiming them right outside the bus's open window.