Zombie Apocalypse: Creation

"Thank you."

"No problem, governor."

After refueling his car at a gas station near Luoping's entrance, Xiaoyun continued driving past until he arrived at Guangzhou proper.

Parking his car at a parking lot, he could see fewer people wandering around the street with nothing to do.

Unemployment, on the surface, was starting to disappear—at least that's what Xiaoyun thinks as he entered the administrative building.

"Morning."

"Morning, Governor."

Walking past the front desk, Xiaoyun stood in the elevator next to several other employees who looked a little sweaty from walking outside.

"You all good?" Xiaoyun curiously asked, noticing their breath panting heavily.

"Yeah, we're good. We just had to run because we are almost late for work." One of the younger employees answered.

Looking over to the clock, it was already ten o'clock, way past the nine-thirty time that all civilian government starts at.

"That's not good. You guys should probably wake up earlier next time." Xiaoyun advised as the elevator finally arrived.

"Yeah, I know. Thanks for the advice." The young employee answered sarcastically.

Inside the elevator, Xiaoyun quickly pressed the highest floor while the other employee pressed the third floor.

As the employees hopped off to their floor, he could see the senior-looking employee slapping the employee who had talked to him earlier right on the head.

"You idiot. Who told you to talk to the governor like that?"

"Governor? No one told me that——"

Xiaoyun let out a small chuckle. His mind was a little surprised that someone didn't know him while working here.

Arriving at the top floor, he immediately noticed ten employees all gathering around a cubicle in the office.

"What are you all gathering here for?"

"To talk about... The budgetary plan for the upcoming month. Ahem, good morning, governor."

"Morning."

As the groups of people all scattered back to their cubicles, the person who answered Xiaoyun let out a small sigh of relief as he released him with no further question.

Watching Xiaoyun enter Yuqi's office, all the office workers gathered together once again in the middle.

"Just me, or does the governor look to be in a nice mood today?" One of the employees questioned.

"I mean, Mrs.Yuqi walked in with a smile today rather than the grumpy look for the past few days at work." Another employee answered.

"My cousin who worked at the military told me Mr.Governor was away for a few days in Changsha." A third employee chimed in.

"Make sense. No wonder the governor was gone for so long... Ahem, is it just me, or does Miss Yuqi look much younger than usual?"

"Now you bring it up, she does look a lot energetic and youthful..."

As the first two employees pondered the reasoning behind it, the most senior-looking employee spoke up next.

"Miss Yuqi probably had a lot of sex after the Governor came back home. It would probably explain why she looks so happy, too."

"Puffff, how do you know that? Just from her smile? That's ridiculous." A fourth employee questioned.

"Hey, I'm old enough to tell. Your virgin ass of course wouldn't know what a woman is like with and without sex."

"She isn't wrong... Miss Yuqi's leg also looked weird while walking in today. She was also so much later than her usual time."

"Ahem. What are you all gossiping about?"

"Nothing, Miss Jianlin. We're just figuring out the budget plan for next month."

"Yeah, right. Don't let me catch you guys gossiping again, or else I'll be forced to report it to Mrs.Yuqi."

"Yes, ma'am."

As Jianlin walked past the cubicle in the center, all of the employees finally scattered back into their own cubicles.

---

"Yuqi, this paperwork should be easily replicable, right? Just doing it the same way as you did in Foshan and Qingyuan."

"It's not that easy. We haven't even fully evaluated the items' worth in Dongguan and Zhaoqing. How can I create paperwork with no info?"

"Then get the info. I need it by the end of this month."

"This month? What's the hurry?"

As Yuqi questioned Xiaoyun's intention, she noticed a drop of sweat fell from his forehead.

"I'm just thinking of making more money. You know, having more money never hurts. We're going to need it sooner or later——"

Before Xiaoyun could finish, the door was pushed open, revealing the secretary Xiaoyun had met last time in the office, Jianlin.

"Deputy governor, the budget sheet from Miss Houqin."

Jianlin quickly handed the file over to Yuqi, bowing slightly down as a show of respect towards Xiaoyun.

"Thank you. You can go back to your office now."

With Jianlin out of the room, Xiaoyun suddenly got up from his seat and reached over the table, preventing her from opening the file.

"What's this for?"

"I need to tell you something. When you see the paper inside the file, you might be a little shocked." Xiaoyun warned.

"It's fine. I already know this file is going to be your operations in Changsha. It's going to be costly."

Seeing Yuqi unfettered, Xiaoyun sat back down in his office chair, watching her open the file before taking a stack of paper to read.

Ten minutes later...

"Yuqi? You there?" Xiaoyun nervously asked, his face looking a little scared as Yuqi had been silent the whole time.

"Xiaoyun... I'm not going to be mad with you, okay? I know you always think I'll be mad over these bills."

Hearing Yuqi's answer, he was a little surprised. His mind had already thought of hundreds of excuses to defend himself in advance.

"Really?"

"Yes, really. I'm really fine with this. I'm not some unreasonable woman who yells at her husband at every problem."

"Thank you——"

"But not so fast. This was your mess, you're going to deal with it. You're going to come up with an idea to make up for this budget cost."

"I know, I know. I'll deal with this myself. Don't worry about the military budget at all. I got this."

As Xiaoyun took the budget sheet out of Yuqi's hand, he leaned back down onto his seat with a smile on his face.

"You know how to evaluate the items' cost in those two cities? Why are you already smiling?"

Yuqi curiously asked, her mind remembering how he had asked her earlier about evaluating the items at the two upcoming cities under their control.

"I don't need to evaluate it. They'll evaluate it for us. All I had to do was borrow your border patrol for a bit."

"Whose is 'They' you're speaking of?" Yuqi questioned.

"The salvage groups that I borrowed from. It's all just the broken-down vehicle costs that I need to pay up for."

"I see... But aren't we going to lose out so much if we just sell it blind? Shouldn't we at least send someone to check all the strategic areas first?"

"Like what?" Xiaoyun questioned back.

"Like the CT machines in the hospital. Or the food and construction material that we desperately need to restock on."

"We're going to get those. Trust me. No one out there will be buying that stuff other than us."

"You sure? They could always sell it to those traders outside." Yuqi raises her concern.

"Which trader would pay a higher price than us? Besides, why would they carry a CT machine around?

The only functioning hospital in this province is here. Everything that these salvager groups get is sold directly here in our settlements."

Yuqi fell into silence. She realized Xiaoyun's point was valid, but she just felt something was off about it.

"So you're going to pay for things that we're going to need in the future when we can get them for free?"

"Don't put it that way. Now you're making it sound bad. I call this the advanced method of separation of labor."

"You mean division of labor?" Yuqi clarified.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. You know what I mean... Look, this is the only way I can think of without just devaluing our money.

Unless you've got any other ideas, we're going with this and this only. It might even make us more money than we need to pay for."

After staring at Xiaoyun's determined eyes for a few seconds, Yuqi finally backed down and accepted his solution.

"I guess... But I really don't think the salvage group would be this dumb to accept this deal."

"They will. They have no other choice but to take it. Or else they will have no other business they can operate with in the future."

As Xiaoyun gestured a finger-gun, he pointed it right into the air. Making a pew-pew sound as he flicked his thumb.

"Whatever. Just tell me the end result after you're done with it. I have more busy things to deal with right now."

Watching Yuqi shifting her attention back to her monitor, Xiaoyun got a little curious as he put the paper back down onto the table.

"What are you busy with?"

"Your warbond that you created. Thanks for creating work for me." Yuqi responded in a sarcastic tone.

"Warbond?"