Zombie Apocalypse: Creation

Back in Guangzhou...

As the month came to a close, Xiaoyun and Yuqi were heading to work early in the morning today as they parked their car in the parking lot.

"So many people out there... Look like Liuqian was really right. People are just waiting for an opportunity to put their money somewhere."

Xiaoyun murmured as the two of them could see a long, long line in front of the Guangzhou stock exchange building.

"Could they handle this many people?" Yuqi questioned, looking a little concerned as they entered the administrative building.

"Muxie didn't call us, so it's probably going all right for now. Let's just go inside our office."

Entering the elevator, they could feel that the administrative office was a lot emptier than usual.

When they arrived on the top floor, they could barely find anyone in their cubicle. Only the newly hired workers were working.

"Where did everyone go?" Yuqi asked as she approached her secretary, who was still working in her cubicle.

"They went downstairs to open an investment account," Jianlin answered.

"Investment account?"

Yuqi was shocked upon hearing the news, while Xiaoyun didn't seem to think too much of it as he brought her into the office.

"Hey, why are you so calm? Our workers are putting money into the stock market!"

"And? Isn't that what we wanted? Letting people who have money actually use their money rather than letting it sit in the bank."

Yuqi fell into silence for a second before speaking up again.

"Yeah, but they are government workers. They have more info than your average Joe who's investing in the stock market."

"So you're saying we should prevent them from investing?" Xiaoyun questioned.

"Yes! They should absolutely be prevented from investing! Half of them would be insider trading, knowing what is scarce and in hot demand."

As she picked up the office phone and was getting ready to call Muxie, Xiaoyun snatched it away before signalling her to take a seat.

"Listen to me for a second. Do you remember what Liuqian and Muxie said a few days ago when we met them?"

Watching her sit in silence, Xiaoyun spoke up again.

"You have to realize, one of the wealthiest classes within our settlement is the white collar office workers.

If we prevented them from investing, what do you think would happen to the stock market?

A fifth of liquidity just gone like that? Do we want a market that barely could support under its own weight?"

"But but... are we allowing for insider trading then?"

"Muxie has his own idea. We don't need to worry about it. He's the expert here, not us. We just need to trust his judgement."

After a short standoff, Yuqi backed down in the end, accepting Xiaoyun's decision as she turned her attention back to her monitor.

---

By the time the two of them headed outside for lunch, they could still see a long line outside the exchange building.

This time, even the side entrances were being used, with their own line stretching almost an entire block.

More importantly, there was even a line at the bank, all with customers of various age ranges, from teens all the way to the elderly.

"Geez, why are there two lines now?"

"Who knows. Let's just get lunch. I'm way too hungry."

As the two of them headed down the road, they could see all the nearby restaurants filled with people inside.

Not a single one of them had empty seats, with appointments booked all the way til the end of next week.

Only when they arrived at the government's cafeteria did they find some empty seats to sit in and eat.

"A lot fewer people today," Yuqi murmured as she began eating the food on her tray.

"Yep... Maybe we might have gone a little overboard with the advertisement."

Thinking back to the newspaper during breakfast, Xiaoyun couldn't help but let out a small chuckle.

"What are you smiling at?"

"Just the newspaper this morning... Hey Yuqi, do you think the government should go public and let people invest in it?"

"That sounds like the stupidest idea I've ever heard. If they want to invest, they could very well buy government bonds that the bank offers."

"You aren't wrong... They really need to hire new writers at the press."

---

After the short lunch, the two of them went their separate ways as Yuqi headed towards the administrative office while Xiaoyun headed towards the logistics office.

"Anything new I need to know about?" Xiaoyun asked as he entered Houqin's office.

"No, sir. Nothing new... But I am starting to get a little concerned with the ammo usage in Shenzhen."

"Ammo usage? What about it?"

As Houqin pulled out a report on her monitor, Xiaoyun could see a bar chart indicating each week's ammo usage since April.

"The ammo usage has been relatively stable... But ever since the report of the death zone in Shenzhen, it has been doubling every single day.

We had to send out supply trucks every two days instead of every week. It's coming dangerously close to needing to divert other theaters' ammo supply."

The more Xiaoyun stared at the graph, the more he realized the situation might be more serious than he had imagined.

It was only a matter of time before ammo supplies ran completely dry if the graph continued to go exponentially like this.

"What the hell is Yiming doing? Has he reported back what the reason is behind all this?"

"Ever since he started attacking the death zone, it has been releasing more and more zombies to fight back," Houqin answered.

After sitting there for a whole minute, Xiaoyun quickly pinpointed the issue.

"Tell him to pause the attack. No need to grind pointlessly against it. Just encircle it for now and wait."

"I'll send that message over right now."

As Houqin started typing an email into her computer, Xiaoyun's mind was thinking back to all the information that had been gathered.

Although he wasn't at the logistics office for the past few days, Houqin still sent him a phone call, reporting how Yiming's plan had failed.

His mind had no solution. He couldn't think of any other weapons that could be used that Yiming hasn't tried yet.

Meanwhile, Tianci had left for Shenzhen for the past four days, assisting her team in extracting and testing the flesh sample in the death zone.

Although she hasn't sent back any reports yet, he was optimistic that they could be the key to dealing with this problem.

"General Yiming has affirmed our decision and paused their attack against the death zone," Houqin reported out loud.

"Good... Tell him that I'll go over to Shenzhen next week. I need to leave now. See you tomorrow."

"See ya, Commander."

---

As Xiaoyun sat inside his car, he began driving towards the one destination that needed him more than ever.

It was more important than the whole stock market. More important than all of the work he had in hand.

He was to attend Lingang's wedding all alone. A small private wedding where Lingang oddly requested him not to bring any of his wivies.

Xiaoyun already knew the list of people he had invited. Every single one of them was a soldier in his motorized unit.

"What do I need to do as best man in the wedding again?"

Xiaoyun wondered as he drove down the road in Luoping, heading towards the destination that Lingang had told him the previous night.

Weirdly enough, although the road was within Luoping, all of the cabins and the nearby buildings looked to be completely abandoned.

It was clear that everyone had been moved out of this area to allow for reforestation, as the small trees were planted alongside the road.

After driving for a few minutes down the slightly bumpy road, he finally saw a small group of people gathered together in the distance.

The place was surrounded by dusty cabins, with an open grass field right in the middle that conveniently allowed for a bunch of tables to be placed.

Tables, chairs, and wedding arches were already placed down further down, with food still steaming hot.

"Commander!"

"Good afternoon, everyone. Sorry for being a little late. I had some work to do."

As Xiaoyun exited the car, a bunch of soldiers all waved towards him before he finally got the chance to see who the bride was.

It was a young woman who looked a little too young. For some odd reason, he could feel she looked a little familiar.

Looking over to the right, he instantly connected the dots. It was almost a semi-replica of Lingang's current wife, Lele.

If it weren't for the fact that he knew Lingang's wife didn't have a kid yet, he would have believed it was her daughter.

"You finally decided to show up, Commander... I thought you weren't coming at all." Lingang murmured.

"No way I would miss something so important. Ahem, what do I need to do now?" Xiaoyun asked.

"Just follow me... Everyone, get in your seats! We are finally starting the wedding!"