Zombie Apocalypse: Creation-Chapter 728: Yiming’s Dead Son
"What if they are just bluffing?" One of the officers argued that he didn’t believe Xiaoyun’s proposed scenario. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚
"Could be. But we’ll just have to wait before doing anything——"
"Commander! W-We figured out how many p-people they have."
As a scout rushed into the tent, his face could barely finish panting for breath as a nearby officer quickly helped him from the table.
"How many people?" Xiaoyun questioned.
"T-They have at least 300,000 soldiers surrounding Changsha."
Not a single person spoke up. Everyone’s face turned grim as they couldn’t believe the number that the soldier had stated.
"You serious? 300,000 soldiers? You sure you didn’t miscount or anything?" The senior officer questioned.
"We confirmed it twice and compared the drone footage with the entire team. There are at least 200,000 soldiers alone in the other three flanks."
"So there’s around 100,000 soldiers on the southern side of Changsha alone?" Xiaoyun questioned.
As the scout nodded his head, all of the officers turned their heads over to Xiaoyun. Their mouth remained closed, but it was clear what they wanted to ask him.
"We’re going to stay put."
"Commander, why don’t we tell Yiming to leave and give them the weapons? There’s no way we’re beating them with only 20,000 men."
"I’ll decide when we’re leaving or not. I don’t want this report to leak into the rest of the army."
All of the officers hesitated for a second, but eventually agreed to follow Xiaoyun’s order as they went out of the tent one by one.
"Wait, you stay."
As the senior officer remained in the HQ tent, Xiaoyun took out his walkie-talkie before trying to change the dial several times.
"Have you guys managed to communicate with Yiming at all? Or is he still radio silent?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.
"Yiming, he.... We can’t communicate with them. They haven’t responded to any of the signals we had sent."
Looking over to his own walkie-talkie, he soon realized a possible reason why Yiming might not want to respond to him.
"Have you tried sending drones over to him?"
"We tried, but they didn’t respond to it either. I think they might have thought those drones were enemy drones."
Unable to get any info on the actual situation within Changsha, Xiaoyun couldn’t help but feel a little lost at the situation at hand.
There was no ’planning’ he could do beforehand. The lack of coordination from Yiming’s side made it impossible for him to work something out.
The only thing he could pray for at this point was for Yiming himself to choose to break through the encirclement and for his army act as a backup.
"Commander, are we really going to fight those men?" The senior officer questioned as the battle seemed lost to him.
"I already said, we’re going to stay put until Yiming himself does something... He should know at this point that we’re right out here."
Xiaoyun answered, his face remained confident as he didn’t want to show the uncertainty of the situation the army faced.
"I see..."
---
As the standstill held on for hours with no signs of changing, the three-hour mark that the diplomat had promised soon arrived.
However, it didn’t go in the way that Xiaoyun had imagined. Nor did any of his officers and soldiers expect the outcome.
Jiangxi’s men in the southern flank suddenly started to withdraw, leaving an open gap seemingly intended for Yiming to escape from.
After another ten minutes of waiting, vehicles fully armed with missiles started leaving unscathed.
Not a single shot was fired by the enemy. Jiangxi’s men just watched Yiming’s men drive out of the city with their various cars and buses.
"Hey Xiaoyun!"
As a soldier yelled out in the distance, Xiaoyun quickly realized it was no one other than Chengyi, sitting on top of an APC as it drove down the highway.
"Hey... What the hell just happened?"
Before Xiaoyun could ask one of those men in the vehicle for an answer, the senior officer quickly chimed in with a suggestion of his own.
"Commander, should we get ready to leave? I don’t think we should really stay here any longer."
Seeing the whole train of vehicles leaving comes to an end, Xiaoyun agreed to the idea as soldier quickly began loading their stuff back into their trucks.
"Commander Xiaoyun, sorry for making you worried." Yiming’s voice suddenly appeared on the walkie-talkie.
"You’re going to have a lot of explaining to do when we get back," Xiaoyun murmured as he ended the transmission and hopped back into his car.
---
A few hours later...
In a small restaurant at Shaoguan, Xiaoyun and Yiming were sitting right across from each other with plates full of food.
"Xiaoyun, I need to apologize to you first."
"Apologize for what? You brought those missiles into our hands. This is literally the most impressive thing I have ever seen someone do."
As Xiaoyun looked back at him with a confused face, Yiming only lowered his head even further as if he was hesitating to tell him something.
"Regardless of what you did while in Changsha, you have made up for all the possible mistakes now you’re in Shaoguan."
After a whole minute of silence, Yiming finally spoke up again as he looked back at Xiaoyun’s face with a grateful look.
"Thank you."
"Now, can you explain the whole story of what you did in Changsha? And don’t try to trick me, Houqin already told everything she knows."
"Of course."
Yiming paused for a second as he drank the hot tea at the table before speaking up again.
"Xiaoyun, do you know I used to have a son?"
The question made Xiaoyun shake his head, as he always thought Yiming had devoted his life to the military.
"My son was actually a soldier just like me. He was actually on duty while I was on break a month before the outbreak happened.
The army recalled me to make up for the shortage of officers. I was put in charge of a small company of just over a hundred soldiers.
Since the two of us were in separate commands, we rarely got to see each other. On the day of the outbreak, my son was assigned to head north."
Yiming’s face suddenly turned darker and darker as Xiaoyun’s mind could already predict what had happened to his son.
"When the outbreak happened, I was extremely worried about my son... He was the only person I had left in this world.
I requested to head north, but the general told me to stay. I accepted it was my duty as a soldier to follow orders."
"Is this the main reason why you wanted to leave Luoping initially?" Xiaoyun questioned.
"It was partially one of the reasons. But more importantly, every soldier had gotten the memo to head up north to reinforce the capital." Yiming answered.
"But you didn’t head up north, though. You rejoined with the rest of the army, stayed in Shaogguan, didn’t you?"
Xiaoyun questioned as memory quickly filled in the details. He could still vividly remember the day Yiming left right after the first lab bust.
"Yes. I did stay in Shaoguan after the general dismissed the idea of heading north... This was when I also learned my son was long dead."
"Sorry for your loss."
"Thank you..."
After a short silence between the two of them, Yiming spoke up again.
"Xiaoyun, do you know why I chose to rejoin you rather than to continue going up north after I gain control of Shaoguan?"
"I thought you rejoined me because you guys had a lack of food and thought I had great potential, right?"
Xiaoyun’s voice got quieter and quieter, as he quickly felt too much of a braggart in this kind of moment.
"No. I wanted to rejoin you because I know you don’t like the military. You’re the one person I know who has a chance to stand up against them."
"Wait, why do you want to be against the military? You had been loyally serving the country for years at this point."
"Because my son didn’t die on the front line. He died in Changsha because of a single officer’s arrogant mistake."
As soon as Yiming answered the question, Xiaoyun could feel the frustration seething through his teeth.
"The army killed my son after a cut mark was found on his arm. He was only 19 when they shot him dead on the spot, thinking he was infected."
"What... Why would they do that?"
Xiaoyun was a little shaken, as a cut mark and a bite mark would be impossible to mix up for someone to be infected.
There was clearly something more behind the story. Something that led to Yiming’s son getting shot.
"Because of corruption. It’s always the damn corruption. They killed him in cold blood when he was never even on the front line."
As Yiming grabbed the bear bottle from the side, he lifted it for a second before putting it down as if he remembered something.
