Zombie Apocalypse: Creation-Chapter 806: Expanded Investigation

November loomed closer with each passing day. Time was slipping out of Xiaoyun’s hand in what felt like mere moments to him.

Everyone else was still having their day slowly go by as usual, spending time at home over the weekend before heading back to work.

However, one person had it differently. Xiaoyun hadn’t been at work ever since the weekend—he had been mostly staying at home with the babies.

All of this began with a strange feeling over the weekend, an unshakable sense that this might be his last opportunity to be with them.

Or perhaps it was just guilt catching up to him at last—the responsibility of being a father figure to six babies.

While he spent time calmly at home, the outside was a completely different story. The situation in Guangdong was evolving faster than anyone had imagined.

General Han Bang had finally completed the mission in Zhongshan, freeing his troops to focus on Jiangmen while General Lingang guarded the rear.

At this point, it was only a matter of Xiaoyun issuing the operation order to secure the southern front once and for all.

Zhuhai, Macao, and Hong Kong were the only remaining hurdles, which Lingang had full control of through troops on the bridges’ chokepoints.

Everyone in the town was having an extremely optimistic outlook as the Western Front brought even better news.

General Yezi had completely cleared Yanfu city, with both Yangjiang city and Maoming city now under siege.

Even Yiming and Xiaoyun were a little shocked when they received the information, as they didn’t expect him to progress so fast.

Although Houqin raised the concern that Yiming’s ammo request was doubling every other single week, they both chose to ignore it.

In their eyes, the ammo shortage was a numbers game. One that can be resolved by simply throwing more money at it.

Where did all the money come from? By selling zones full of goods in Zhongshan to the salvage groups as literal ’blind’ boxes.

The surge of goods managed to perfectly resolve the inflation issue. A little too good, as Yuqi immediately stepped in on the second day.

There were records of deflation across multiple cities. A dangerous price spiral with profit margin had become nearly negative for manufactured goods.

Almost a third of manufacturing in Shenzhen and Dongguan was on the edge of bankruptcy if Yuqi hadn’t stopped it sooner.

Xiaoyun and Yiming had no choice but to apologize to her, as they didn’t expect the zones they made on the map to have that much goods in the first place.

Outside of the military progress, Yueyue’s press conference after the meeting the next day went as well as he could have imagined it would.

The hidden investigation into the rank and file of the military’s own conduct shocked the news media and the general public.

Hundreds of harassment and assault cases were put into the spotlight, with well over five thousand male and female soldiers arrested at once.

It was even bigger in size than the previous cases. However, the major differences were that none of the cases were too severe.

Still, all of the negative attention was instantly directed towards Xiaoyun as the commander-in-chief by public opinion.

Even if he was the one who chose to crack down on the harassment, the blame for letting it happen in the first place was unavoidable.

The public image was tarnished with no end in sight as Xiaoyun stayed at home, until positive coverage suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

Victims were coming out and thanking Xiaoyun out loud on the radio and news for taking a zero-tolerance stance towards the perpetrator.

It even surprised Xiaoyun a little, as he hadn’t ordered Yueyue or anyone else to arrange a media campaign to repair his image.

His original plan was to give it a cold treatment for a bit, hoping everyone would forget about it over time.

Only when he called Shen Wen did he realize who was behind it. A man who previously scared him with a whole protest right in front of the office.

Wu Min.

---

"You done with your call?"

"Yeah."

As Xiaoyun took a seat back down onto the sofa, his wives were in the middle of watching the TV showing an audio replay of a court case.

"I’m sorry. I know what I did wrong. I’m sincerely sorry for the immeasurable harm I have done." The female voice apologizes.

"Do you accept her apology?" The judge asked.

"I... I don’t know."

"Based on the crime you had admitted, this warrants up til 1 year in prison... Do you accept this ruling?"

"Objection, your honor. There is no witness testimony, no surveillance footage. The only evidence was messages showing ’alleged coercion’ isn’t on solid ground."

As the public defender’s voice came out, the judge didn’t sound happy with it at all as he spoke up with annoyance.

"Your client already admitted fault with the police. Are you suggesting she was pressured to sign it?"

"No. But—"

"I see this case as settled. If you wish to appeal, you may do so... This is the most severe case I have seen."

The murmuring at the end clearly indicated the judge’s reasoning for the harsher sentencing, yet the public defender was not happy.

"Objection! The law you’re using to sentence my client doesn’t even apply to women. It only applies to men!"

"That is true. The case is technically under forcible indecency rather than usual sexual assault, typically done by a male perpetrator.

But this is an abuse of power by a military officer. The severity of doing an illegal act knowing it deserves harsher punishment."

"Wait, wait. Your honor! I-I didn’t know it was going to be this bad. Please, I can’t go to prison, I’m too young to be in prison."

As the female perpetrator begged in tears, the judge stood firm in his ruling as he repeated his line.

"The sentencing is final. If you wish to appeal, you may so do... Guards, you may begin escorting her out."

The audio quickly faded out as the news anchor came back up. But rather than a single person, this time there were two people at once.

"We had invited a law professor today to explain the recent cases... Welcome to the broadcast, Professor Min."

"Thank you for having me."

Just as the news anchor was about to speak up, the TV channel suddenly switched, changing into a blank screen.

"Hey, what was that for?" Nami complained as everyone turned over to Yuqi, who held the remote in hand.

"Xiaoyun, you did all this just to get back at me?" Yuqi coldly questioned.

"Of course not. Yueyue and I had been planning this investigation for a long time. It just happened, you said that stuff last week."

"Yuqi, why are you overreacting like this?" Leyan questioned, noticing the hint of anger on her face.

"Never mind. Sorry."

The TV channel quickly swapped back to the professor as they began to talk about the nitty-gritty of the court battle.

---

"Morning, commander."

"Morning."

As Xiaoyun stepped into Houqin’s office, he could notice her face looking much happier than usual, as if something good had happened to her.

"What’s making you be in such a good mood today?" Xiaoyun curiously asked, taking a seat across from her desk.

"I finished planning our date. You’re free this weekend, right?"

Houqin asked as she turned around to look towards the calendar behind her, holding a pen in her hand, getting ready to mark something down.

"This weekend? I might be a little busy. Is it possible to do it earlier? Or maybe like next month instead?"

"Earlier? What are you busy with over the weekend?" Houqin questioned, turning around to look him in the eyes.

"Um..." 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Xiaoyun hesitated, unable to speak up as he felt it was too inappropriate to bring up, especially talking about another woman in front of her.

"What’s wrong? Do you have to go on the trip early or something?" Houqin questioned, her face beginning to look increasingly more worried.

"It’s not that. It’s just... Tianci is about to give birth over the weekend."

"Oh, right, I completely forgot about that... You want to go on this date in November instead, then?"

"Sure. That works."

"Perfect. November 13th it is."

As Houqin marks the day on her calendar, Xiaoyun watches her celebrate it with happiness on her face once again.

"Hey, Houqin."

"Hm?"

"I keep forgetting to ask this... But is your parent doing okay?"

"My parent?"

Houqin froze for a second, staring blankly at the marked calendar as she slowly turned around to look him in the face.

"My parents are doing fine. But they really didn’t appreciate you airing their private past out to the public."

"Tell them I’m sorry. I’ll personally go to their place and apologize to them the week after next."

"Okay... Xiaoyun, I’m a little surprised by the things you have done for the past few days." Houqin suddenly pointed out.

"What surprised you?"

"All of these arrests. You could have told me beforehand so I could prepare an orderly transition in time."