Commander Li stood where he had been for longer than he should have.

It was like he was rooted in that one spot, his gaze fixed on the front window even though there was nothing left outside worth watching.

The yard was quiet now, stripped clean of anything and everything that could have hinted at what had gone on, but the absence of the bodies did nothing to settle the unease sitting in his chest.

He had seen the horde, he had heard it, he had smelled it. He had counted what he could and estimated when the numbers got too high. He had watched the zombies close in from every direction with the kind of certainty that usually ended in the death of everyone.

He had prepared himself mentally, he had planned it all out in his head. There was still one last bullet in his sidearm. There was one last bullet in all his men’s sidearms.

And they were more than willing to pull that trigger.

But then, at the eleventh hour, it had simply... stopped.

No, stopped was the wrong word.

It ended in a crushing defeat.

He didn’t look at Rouxi again, but he was aware of her in a way that he never had been before.

That awareness had not left him since she stepped outside and closed the door behind her like she was protecting them. Like a small girl like her, one who had been spoiled and raised as a princess could really stand against an army like that.

He had commanded men through urban warfare, riot suppression, and controlled evacuations, and he had never once seen a battlefield shift the way it had just shifted outside that house.

It had not been resistance. It had not been strategy. It had been complete annihilation.

And that was the problem.

He lowered his hand to the radio clipped at his vest, his fingers pausing for a fraction longer than necessary before pressing the transmit button. The line crackled to life almost immediately, the connection clearer than he expected given the damage they had taken getting here.

"Command, this is Li Wenqiang. Requesting update."

There was a brief pause before the response came through, sharp and familiar.

"Li. Status."

His eyes moved once across the room before settling back on the window. "We are holding the mansion that Minister Jiang has requested be held," he said evenly. "There was a zombie horde attack, but that has been neutralized."

There was silence on the other end.

Then, "Clarify." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"We were hit by a large-scale wave," Li continued, his tone unchanged. "Multiple vectors. Human and animal infection types. Estimated five hundred plus. Possibly higher."

Another pause. Longer this time. "And you’re reporting success."

"Yes."

The radio went quiet again, but this time it wasn’t confusion. It was calculation.

Li closed his eyes, already knowing what was going to happen next. A new voice came over the radio and Li could feel his back stiffen with respect. "New orders. Return to base immediately. Do not engage further. Do not remain in civilian structures."

Li’s grip tightened slightly around the radio. "With respect, General Wu, we just survived a large-scale siege," he continued, keeping his voice level. "Our vehicles are compromised. We will need time to—"

"You will return immediately," General Wu Jianyu cut in. "We do not have time to entertain civilians who think they have more power than they actually do. If the minister wants that property, he can take it himself."

Li didn’t respond right away. This was an order he could have got behind three hours ago. But now?

His gaze shifted again, not to the window this time, but toward the living room. Toward the couch. Toward the girl who had just erased something that should have killed them all.

He understood the order.

He also understood what it meant.

If he left, he lost access. Not to the house, but to her.

"General Wu," he said finally, his tone controlled but quieter than before, "we are operating with reduced equipment. A delay would allow us to stabilize—"

"I’ll send a truck," the General interrupted. "How many are left alive?"

Li’s jaw tightened, but his voice didn’t change. "Eleven. Including myself."

The line went silent. "You just reported a large-scale siege with hundred of zombies," the General said after a moment.

"I did."

"And you’re telling me you still have a full team."

Li’s gaze drifted closed for just a second before he let out a long sigh. "Yes."

There was another pause and Li could hear the General’s mind working through the scenarios. But no matter what he came up with, there was no way he could ever guess the truth. "How?"

Li didn’t hesitate giving his answer. "Anime."

The silence that followed stretched just long enough to feel deliberate. Then the line clicked open again.

"Truck will arrive within the hour. Be ready." The transmission ended abruptly.

Li lowered the radio slowly and clipped it back into place, his expression unchanged even as the weight of the order settled into something final.

He had hoped for time.

A day. Two, at most.

Enough to observe, to understand how Rouxi was able to do what she did. Enough to ask questions he hadn’t yet allowed himself to form.

But there would be no delay.

His men were already moving, some out of habit, others because they had heard enough of the conversation to understand what came next. They would follow orders. They always had.

Li didn’t speak immediately. Instead, he looked across the room again, this time without pretending it was casual.

Rouxi sat on the couch, one leg stretched out, her attention on the screen in her hand as if the world outside had not just rewritten itself around her. The noise from whatever she was watching filled the room in a way that should have been irritating, but wasn’t.

He didn’t know when it happened, but now the sound of her shows grounded the space. Made it feel... normal.

That, more than anything else, was what unsettled him.

She wasn’t hiding. She wasn’t trying to explain. She had simply, quietly, stepped outside, ended a siege, and come back in to watch something like it didn’t matter.

Li turned away before she could notice he had been looking.

There was nothing left to say.

Orders were orders.

Even when they were wrong.