Zombie Apocalypse: Creation

As the weekend rolled by, the Chikungunya outbreak hit the rural population the hardest, with every one in three people being infected.

Within the tri-fecta cities of Luoping, Guangzhou, and Foshan, the urban citizens were able to handle it much better than Xiaoyun had expected.

Mostly due to the sheer amount of resources that were able to be easily distributed in a city setting compared to the spread-out rural areas.

In the end, zero deaths were reported in all cases across his settlements, with almost 90% of cases being mild fever and fatigue.

What was feared as a tragedy in the level of bubonic plague turned out to be more of a seasonal flu that became a slight inconvenience.

Still, the preventative measures and caution continued for the next few days as some hospitals were overloaded with patients. Only severe cases were allowed in, leaving most of the mild cases to stay home.

After the 2nd week of June, everything seemed to have returned relatively to normal as the mosquitoes suddenly started vanishing.

---

"Holy shit, it's so god damn hot outside! Even the fucking mosquitoes are fucking dying from the stupid forty degrees heat!"

As Xiaoyun barged into Yuqi's office, his face was filled with sweat as if he had just come back from a walk outside.

"Isn't that a good thing? Less spreading of the virus." Yuqi murmured as she continued to remain seated in her air-conditioned office.

"I guess..."

Seated down, he quickly created a bottle of Coke for himself before chugging it down like there's no tomorrow.

"Anyway, why did you come to my office? Didn't you say you're going to work with Houqin for today?"

"Her office has no air conditioner. Ain't no way I'm staying in that building for more than an hour."

"Oh. That's a shame."

With the bottle emptied, Xiaoyun threw it into the trash can before suddenly remembering something.

"Yuqi, I almost forgot to ask. How's the plan with Liuqian going?"

"Still working in progress... I thought you would never ask." Yuqi murmured as her eyes continued to be glued to the monitor.

"I was just busy helping Houqin with some inventory issues. Of course I'm going to ask it when I'm free, like right now."

"Mhm..."

"What are you working on right now?"

"Just writing a letter asking my Teacher Liuqian."

"Teacher Liuqian? When did Liuqian become your teacher?" Xiaoyun surprisingly asked.

"Don't disrespect him like that. He's a man to be respected. Unlike someone who's spending their time going around."

Hearing all the praises that Yuqi is giving to an old man, Xiaoyun felt more confused than jealous by it.

"What makes him so special?"

"Let me tell you something before you embarrass yourself in the future... He's the honorary professor at UC Berkeley and Tsinghua University."

"Really? You serious?"

Xiaoyun's eyes widen in shock as he couldn't believe someone working as his manager in the bank would be at such a high level.

"Do I look like I'm joking?"

Seeing her serious face, Xiaoyun had no choice but to accept the fact that Liuqian was more of a genius than he had ever imagined.

"We are lucky to have him as our head of the Central Bank. He had done so many things for us that you don't know about."

"Call me naive and dumb, but what has he done?"

Yuqi finally stopped for a second, turning away from her computer as she stared back at Xiaoyun right in the eyes.

"How do you think you're funding your army? Do you think money just grows on trees?"

"Okay, yeah. I get that. But aren't you the one who's collecting the money to fund it? How would it be at the central bank?"

The answer made Yuqi fall into silence before Xiaoyun realized what was wrong with the answer he had just given.

"Wait, wait, wait——"

"You really are an idiot."

As she shifted her attention back to her computer, it only confirmed Xiaoyun's realization even more.

"My bad, my bad. I just remember we're running a deficit spending. Doctor Liuqian really is one of the greatest—No, the greatest men in Luoping."

"Mhm..."

Although Yuqi continued working with a cold face, Xiaoyun could feel her anger had subdued a little.

"Of course, you're the greatest woman of all of Guangdong. Everyone signs your name as praise and hope."

"Ugh, stop bootlicking me. Don't you have something better to do?"

Just as Yuqi was about to get up and kick Xiaoyun out, the door suddenly opened.

"Boss, last week's refugee reports," Jianlin reported out loud as she came in with a three-page paper in hand.

"Just put it on the table."

After her secretary left the room, Xiaoyun immediately resumed with his barrage of nonsensical talking.

"I want to have something better to do. But every single one of the military operations is on pause right now."

"Why's that?"

Yuqi immediately looked over to Xiaoyun with curiosity, her eyes seemingly a little surprised by the news.

"It's just too hot to operate. Like a third of the soldiers almost passed out from heatstroke. Some even ended up in the hospital right now."

"Is it really that hot?"

Seeing her not really trusting his word, Xiaoyun immediately walked over to the curtain before pushing it aside.

"Go outside of your office and stand out there for ten minutes... I just saw a person cooking eggs with a pan outside earlier."

As the two of them looked out the window, they could feel the air outside seemingly bending reality apart.

Even the sky was fully cleared as if the sun's heat had just evaporated all the rainy clouds from even existing at all.

"This is so much worse than I had imagined... It's so much different than the one in the morning."

She tried to put her hand onto the window, only to instantly remove it as the burning sensation almost burned her hand, literally.

"Exactly. I can't imagine those people who have to work outside. They would have to pay triple if they want me to work in this kind of weather."

The room fell into silence as the two of them soon realized how severe this problem could become.

"Yuqi, the temperature surely can't get any hotter than forty degrees, right?"

"I... I don't know."

Looking down at the streets, they could see people hiding in the shade and even some men walking with umbrellas.

What's worse was the fact that it was only twelve o'clock in the afternoon, with a few more hours to go before the actual peak heat of the day arrived.

"This is a fucking nightmare... It's only June."

---

As Xiaoyun and Yuqi headed downstairs to attempt to get some lunch, they were instantly met with the crazy heat that hit them right in the face.

The only saving grace was the fact that it was mostly dry heat, rather than the usual humid heat, oddly enough.

"You want to just eat in your office?"

"Yeah, let's do that."

The two of them quickly turned around, heading towards the elevator while more and more office workers exited for their lunch break.

"Holy shit, what the fuck is this heat?" One of the workers complained as soon as he took one step outside.

"Ah, fuck it. Li Chung, help us buy lunch. We'll pay extra." Another worker offered as they began deciding among themselves to get takeouts.

"Hell no."

"Xiaoyun, the elevator is here."

The two of them quickly rushed into the elevator, heading up before they suddenly reached a stop.

As the door opened, they were a little surprised to see Jianlin standing with a bag, heading up with them rather than taking the elevator going down.

"Jianlin, you aren't going to have a lunch break?" Yuqi curiously asked.

"I brought my own lunch today... Oh, see you later, boss."

"See ya."

Watching her exit a floor below them, Xiaoyun suddenly felt a little ignored as he looked over to Yuqi.

"What are you looking at me for?"

"Why didn't she even wave at me? Do I wear some invisible cloak or something?"

Xiaoyun curiously asked as the two of them exited the elevator before heading back to her office together.

"I told her not to interact with you... That's why." Yuqi explained as the two of them sat down on the sofa.

"What's that for? Isn't that a bit rude?"

"So you want my secretary to bow down to you and ask you how you're doing? What's next? Banging her at my desk?"

"Woah. What kind of wild accusation is this? I didn't even do anything to make you mad today, did I?"

"Mhm... Totally someone didn't just sit on the sofa scrolling on their phone watching me work earlier."

"I offered you my help, didn't I? I gave you the idea to loosen the labor law to encourage more jobs."

"A single one in an hour of sitting here... Your brain truly works in mysterious ways."

"Thanks for the compliment."

Seeing Xiaoyun taking her insult as a compliment, Yuqi rolled her eyes before moving, bringing an entire foldable table to the sofa.

"Whatever, thick-skinned. Can you make my lunch already? I'm hungry." Yuqi hurried as her belly started grumbling.

"What lunch do you want?"