Zombie Apocalypse: Creation

Evening.

"Why are you here? The office is about to close."

As Yuqi seemed to be in the middle of packing up, Xiaoyun calmly took a seat first. Then looked over to her with sincere eyes.

"I had been talking to Liuqian and several other individuals for three hours straight. Guess what I managed to pull off."

"What?"

"I secured us three billion dollars in private funding."

"What’s the cost?" Yuqi immediately questioned, her eyes and hands still busy focusing on putting her laptop away.

"There is no cost. You don’t need to pay a cent. And don’t worry, I’m not selling stuff to the salvage group."

After a few seconds of silence, Yuqi finally finished zipping up her bag as she turned around to look him in the eye.

"Free food doesn’t fall from the sky. What’s the tradeoff?"

"There’s no tradeoff, I’m serious. They chose to give the military free money like a charitable donation."

"A bunch of people having free money lying around... Is it really private funding? No central bank?"

Yuqi questioned as she slowly walked over to his side of the desk, her face changing from uninterested to slightly intrigued.

"Zero dollars from the central bank. You remember seeing those investment funds on the TV, right?"

"Of course, I did. I was the one who approved it... How did you manage to convince them to give you that much money?"

"You really want to know?"

"Say it, or I’m going back to work."

"Okay, okay. They handed me the money after I promised them I’ll pay them back in the future."

"So a loan with interest?"

Seeing Yuqi’s face looking disappointed, Xiaoyun rushed up from his chair and grabbed onto her shoulder.

"Not a loan. I just have to invest the money in specific areas that they had designated, then I won’t need to pay interest."

"But you still have to pay back," Yuqi questioned.

"Well, about that... I made a little bet with them." Xiaoyun quietly murmured as he scratched his head.

"What bet?"

"If the military index increases by 500%, then I won’t need to pay back the loan or the interest at all."

"500%? Are you out of your mind?"

As she stared back at Xiaoyun, dead in the eyes, he forcefully pulled her down to his seat while he sat on the desk himself.

"I know what I’m doing. I already figured out a way to match the percentages they’re looking for."

"How?" Yuqi questioned, her face still in disbelief.

"Just listen to the news for the next few days. You’ll know when it happens. You don’t have to do anything."

"I hope so... Hey Xiaoyun, have you thought of what to say to Mom?"

"I... Crap."

---

As the day ended, Xiaoyun was back at home with Yuqi. The moment he entered the living room, he was met with an unexpected hug.

"Welcome back," Tianci quietly whispered, her face looking extremely excited as her arms tightly held him in place.

"Where’s Mom?"

Yuqi asked as she walked past the two of them, sitting down onto the sofa before leaning flat onto the back.

"She’s in the backyard right now."

As Tianci lets him go with her face blushing red, Xiaoyun didn’t think too much about it as he turned his attention over to the coffee table.

"What are all these papers?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.

"J-Just some of my work."

Within seconds, the coffee table was emptied as Tianci shoved everything into a cardboard box.

"Don’t push yourself too hard, okay?"

"I know..."

"Can you two stop being so corny? I’m trying to enjoy my off time—"

"Hey, why are you two back home so early today?"

As Leyan entered the living room, Tianci quickly took this chance to walk off into the hallway with her box.

"Everything was done early today... Hey Leyan, where did Yongyi and Ziling go?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.

"Taking an afternoon nap. Yuqi, you want a massage?"

"I’m good."

"Xiaoyun, you want one?"

"I’m good as well... Hey, babe, I want to tell you something. It’s something important that I forgot to tell you about."

"What is it?"

"Um..."

Noticing the hesitation, Leyan grabbed onto his hand, bringing him over to the sofa as they sat down together.

"If you don’t feel like saying it, you don’t have to."

"No, it’s not that. I don’t have an issue saying it... Can you promise me you won’t get mad when I say it?"

"That depends on what you wanted to say."

"Just say it, stop trying to stall it out." Yuqi hurried, her voice clearly annoyed by Xiaoyun’s hesitation.

"Okay, fine. Leyan, I have to leave much earlier than I originally planned. Rather than the 30th, I’ll be leaving on the 14th."

"The 14th? That’s so early."

"I know it’s early. But it has to be done. I need a military accomplishment before I leave Guangdong."

Leyan sat there in complete silence. Her eyes looked down at the coffee table as her warm smile turned into a frown.

"Is it really necessary?"

"It’s been months since I led an army. Don’t worry, I’ll be mostly in the back directing the frontline, not fighting on the ground."

After a short mix of struggle, the warm smile finally returned on her face as she looked back up at Xiaoyun’s face.

"You’d better remember all of us are waiting for you to come back home safely, okay? I don’t want our kids to grow up without a father."

"I know."

As the two stared into each other’s eyes, a certain individual could see their body moving closer and closer right before her eyes.

"Can you two stop being so corny? Mom, you’re already in your 40s—"

"Ahem. Sounds like someone wants a knuckle massage—"

"I’m going to take a n-nap. Tell me when dinner is ready!"

Watch Yuqi dart up the stairs, the two of them let out a small chuckle as they turned towards the blank TV.

"Hey Leyan, I heard that you guys were planning some sort of surprise for me. Did I ruin your guy’s plan?"

"Did Yuqi tell you this?"

"Yeah, she did."

"She really needs to keep her mouth shut sometimes... Don’t worry about ruining it, you being happy is the biggest present."

"Aww, thanks."

Just as Xiaoyun dropped his guard, thinking everything was resolved, Leyan suddenly leaned her head onto his shoulder.

"Hey, honey, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, ask as many as you want."

"I have a weird intuition. Something tells me that you just wanted to leave the house."

"What? You have to be out of your mind. I want to spend every day at home to be with you and the babies.

If it weren’t for the trip to the capital, I wouldn’t even step foot out of Luoping... I’m being dead serious right now."

"I know you’re serious."

As Leyan gently caressed her hands over Xiaoyun’s chin, she slowly moved them down to his chest.

"But this weird feeling just doesn’t go away. It keeps popping in my mind every time I see you leave this house."

"What can I do to address it? Other than staying in the house?"

"Something down here."

The moment Leyan’s hand reached down to his crotch, Xiaoyun immediately pinned her down onto the sofa.

He could see her brown pupil dilated. Her warm smile remained, yet a hint of nervousness appeared on her youthful face.

"You wanted to do it right now?"

Leyan silently nodded her head, like a naive girl who had never done it despite their years of doing it together.

---

Unfortunately for the two of them, their attempt to have a little fun was short-lived as her phone suddenly started shaking with notifications.

They were forced to immediately run over to the baby’s bedroom, bringing them to the potty, feeding them, and playing with them.

By the time they were done, Leyan was no longer in the mood, and she still had to cook dinner for the night.

Meanwhile, Xiaoyun suddenly got a call from Shuli to come pick them up. It turned out her car’s tire was busted, leaving all three of his wives stranded at school.

When everyone was at the dinner table for the night, Xiaoyun finally dropped the same announcement to the rest of his family.

It went as well as he would have expected, which is to say extremely poorly. All of them were mad beyond reasoning.

Yet they had no choice but to accept the fact that he was leaving soon. Still, for the rest of the week, they tried endlessly.

Even Yuqi and Leyan occasionally joined in, despite knowing it would be fruitless. This was also when Xiaoyun finally learned the ’truth’ behind the surprise.

One that truly caught Xiaoyun off guard for once. Something that he never expected them to pull off for him.

A surprise that slowly revealed itself as the first week of November continued and came close to an end.