Zombie Apocalypse: Creation-Chapter 734: Diagnosis and Speeches

"What’s the bad news then?"

"There are no antibodies in her body. Whatever the thing used to pause the viral replication inside her body, it’s not going to last forever."

"How long can it last exactly?" Xiaoyun questioned.

"I don’t know. It could be months, weeks, or days... There’s no exact timeline that I could tell so far from the tests conducted today." Liang Mei answered.

"So as long as it is applied over and over again, the virus will remain inactive, though, right?"

"In theory, it should work. But the likelihood of the virus mutating and going past the blockade is also possible."

The wording confused Xiaoyun a little, but he quickly got the gist of it as he asked another question.

"So in the long, long term, far into the future, the virus will reactivate itself and start replicating inside her body?"

"It could happen in the short term or the long term... There really isn’t a concrete answer since we had never seen it inactivated on such a large scale."

"I see. Thank you for your work."

"No problem, sir... Ahem, Governor, do you want to hand the folder to the Chief Scientific Officer, or should I hand it to her when she comes back?"

"You can hand it to her."

Just as Xiaoyun handed one of the folders into her hands and turned around, Liang Mei spoke up again.

"Um, Governor, the two folders are not the same copy. They are both in one report that I need to copy—"

"I’ll hand the report to Tianci. You don’t have to worry about it anymore."

As Xiaoyun grabbed the folder out of Liang Mei’s hand and went back into his car, Houqin was still standing next to the passenger door in silence. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

"Houqin, don’t just stand out there. Come inside."

She finally opened the car door and entered, but she just sat there with no seat belt as her face still looked emotionless.

"You okay, Houqin?"

"I’m okay. Sorry for the trouble."

"Don’t worry about it. I’ll always be there for you... To be honest, I’m sure this case isn’t as bad as Liang Mei had described it to be."

"How would you know?" Houqin questioned as her face finally regained some sense of emotion rather than just a deadpan face.

"Because I just have a feeling. Trust me, when Tianci comes back from her trip, she’ll figure out a way to resolve this for you."

"I hope so..."

As Xiaoyun started up the car, he quickly came to a stop on the side of the street and looked over to her.

"Why did you stop?" Houqin curiously asked.

"Where do you want to go? It’s already six o’clock... Do you want me to drive you home, or do you want to come to my house?"

"I-I’ll just want to go back to my own home."

"Okay then."

---

As the car came to a stop, the two of them arrived back at her apartment building from earlier.

"Houqin, are you sure you don’t want to live with me?" Xiaoyun asked, his face looking genuinely worried for her.

"I’m good. I’m not ready to meet your other wives yet... W-We’re only girlfriend and boyfriend, nothing more."

"Okay then... wait, before you go, promise me this. You won’t do anything stupid that you’ll regret."

"Stop making me sound like I’m some depressed edgy teen or something. I’m an adult, I don’t need you to watch over me."

Houqin’s old combative self reappeared as she pushed the car door open before stepping into the hot air outside.

"I haven’t even lived life to the fullest yet..." Houqin quietly murmured to herself as she slammed the door shut.

"Call me if anything feels off!"

"I know!"

As Houqin disappeared into the apartment, Xiaoyun finally let out a small sigh of relief, as she seemed to look much more cheerful than before.

"Why does this have to happen to her out of all people?"

Xiaoyun grumpily murmured. He just couldn’t help but feel bad for her. Out of all the things to happen, the solution they tried didn’t work fully.

"At least she’s not a zombie yet... There’s still some hope." Xiaoyun comforted himself as he started the car engine once again.

Just as he was about to drive out of the street, his phone suddenly started ringing. Taking it out, Yueyue was calling him.

"Hello?"

"Xiaoyun, can you come over? My agents finish gathering reports on the cause of Zhongxiong’s death and the lab report."

"Lab report?"

"The one in Taishan. You forgot the secret society left it? My agents had fully explored the place and discovered a lot of interesting things."

"I’ll be there in an hour or so... I need to go give Chengyi and Pinli a goodbye first before they leave Luoping."

"Okay."

As Xiaoyun hung up the phone, he let out a small sigh again as stress began to build up inside his head.

"Just a few more days of working and I’ll be free."

---

"Xiaoyun!"

"Chengyi!"

As the two of them gave each other a warm hug, all of the soldiers were already fully back, with their brand new uniforms and service rifles.

"Where’s Pinli?" Xiaoyun curiously asked as he noticed him missing from the group of officers standing in the front.

"He’s talking to his father somewhere. He’s going to catch up with us later on his own probably."

Xiaoyun didn’t dig too deep into it as the two of them quickly headed to the front stage’s podium.

"Good evening, everyone. I hope you all like your new guns and uniform... Since you’re all about to go, I’m just going to make it brief."

Looking through the crowds of soldiers, Xiaoyun could see the various faces. Some look a little emotionless, while some look a little lost.

The majority of them looked a little bored, as if their emotion had moved past amazing food and all the new toys they had received in the past few hours.

"You guys will be going to Shaoguan to be trained by General Yezi. It’s going to be a tough and vigorous training, but I’m sure you all can handle it.

For those who think they can’t do it, don’t worry. There will be opportunities once you arrive to be honorably discharged and be paid handsomely as a retiree."

As soon as Xiaoyun mentioned the word paid, the soldiers’ faces all changed in unison—a complete 180 from the deadpan face to excitement.

"There will be a physical test exam, and your citizenship will be taken care of regardless of whether you pass or not.

It will be your choice. I repeat, there will not be any draft to force you to be a soldier. The choice to leave or stay will be yours."

This time, the officers, including Chengyi himself, looked a little surprised. But they didn’t speak up as they waited for him to finish his speech.

"One last thing. I know some of you might miss your hometown in Changsha and in Hunan province, or have relatives still living there.

Although I can’t promise you all that everyone will get out safely, I can at least promise you all this."

Xiaoyun paused for a second as he waited for the soldier’s reaction. To his surprise, none of them seems to have changed.

"I’ll try my damn best to get them out. I’ll use every tool at my disposal as your commander in chief.

Diplomacy, trade, or even war. Your family will not be abandoned... As long as I’m alive, there will be no tragedy in Hunan.

Jiangxi men will not put their hands on Hunan. Those traitors who had betrayed Zhongxiong’s wish will be punished."

None of the soldiers spoke up. They all stared back at him; some of their faces looked a little shocked, while some looked overjoyed.

Soon, a soldier began to clap, quickly followed by rows upon rows of soldiers clapping in unison.

Some even covered and wiped their eyes with their hands, as even Chengyi and the officers themselves looked shocked by the announcement.

"Thank you. Godspeed, everyone."

---

"Xiaoyun, you serious? You’re actually helping the soldier’s family out of Changsha?"

Chengyi questioned as they stepped down to the back of the stage, with soldiers being loaded into long-distance buses.

"Well, I’m going to try my best... I’m sure Jiangxi’s men have no reason to hurt the soldier’s family living there unless they want to create a permanent feud."

"But how are you going to get them out?"

"I already said it earlier—diplomacy, trade, and war. Nothing is off the table... There are no permanent enemies, only interests."

As soon as Xiaoyun finished talking, Chengyi couldn’t help but feel a cold chill traveling down her spine as several officers quickly approached them.

"Commander Chen! That speech was amazing. I want to thank you——"

"No need to thank me yet. I still haven’t gotten those civilians out of Changsha yet. Save it when they arrive here."