Zombie Apocalypse: Creation-Chapter 761: Yu Hua’s Plead

Weirdly enough, the first thing Xiaoyun noticed when going through Shaoguan’s main entrance was isolation.

Something felt off.

The deafening solitude on the empty road. All the overgrown grass and the crumbling buildings in the distance.

He just never happened to notice all the small details of the city when he traveled to Shaoguan in the past.

If Xiaoyun had to describe the city in one word, it would be lifeless.

No one was walking on the streets, despite it being four o’clock on a Friday afternoon. No street vendors or food trucks.

Everywhere they looked was just abandoned buildings. If it weren’t for streetlights, he would have genuinely thought zombies still occupied the city.

"Houqin, do you know how many people live here?"

"Um, I don’t know that. You’ll need to ask Yuqi about it... But I know at least fifty logistics staff stay here full-time."

As the driver entered the city proper, Houqin quickly signaled the driver to stop as they reached a building that looked more like an old warehouse.

"Wait here."

The two of them quickly exited the car, heading towards the warehouse, before they ran into a worker who happened to be coming out.

"Miss Houqin? C-Commander Xiaoyun?"

One logistic worker’s voice soon made all nearby logistic workers turn around as they all looked right towards the open door.

"Hello. We came here just for a little visit... Ahem, do one of you guys mind showing us around?" Xiaoyun asked.

"No problem, sir!"

A senior-looking worker immediately volunteered, leaving all the other workers looking a little disappointed as they turned back around to their work.

"Long time no see, Yu Hua. You have grown so much taller since I last saw you." Houqin complimented as she led Xiaoyun to the senior worker.

"It really has been a while... Miss Houqin, what brought the two of you here to visit? Is there something wrong?"

"Is there something wrong?"

As Houqin intently looked back into Yu Hua’s eye, a sweat suddenly began to drop from Yu Hua’s forehead.

"O-Of course not."

The sheer nervousness made it abundantly clear that something was off. However, to Xiaoyun’s surprise, Houqin wasn’t mad.

"I told you you can’t feed a stray animal. Tell me you at least wrote it in the book and didn’t just count it as transportation lost again."

"The original amount is inside this warehouse right now. I already paid it out of my own pocket to cover it."

"It’s not about paying it back. It’s a crime to allocate resources outside of the original intended destination."

"B-But..."

"There is no but. I can’t let this slide again. Rules are rules, you can’t just break them and get away with it."

"What are you two talking about?"

As Xiaoyun questioned out loud, the two quickly realized they had been speaking publicly in front of all the workers right at the front entrance still.

"Ahem, nothing. Everyone, go back to work... Yu Hua, bring me to your office."

After walking for a bit, Yu Hua brings the two of them into a private room as she grabs a chair for them before closing the door.

"Miss Houqin, I’m really sorry."

"Don’t say sorry to me... Explain what you did to Commander yourself."

Yu Hua hesitated for a second as she looked over to Xiaoyun, then her face mysteriously blushed a little as she looked back down to the ground.

"Sorry, Commander, there wasn’t any food available in the market at the time, and I just couldn’t resist helping them."

"Who’s them? The stray animals?" Xiaoyun questioned, his mind recalling what Houqin had mentioned earlier.

"Yes... There are a lot of stray animals. You probably don’t see them often, but they are very much alive in the dark alleys."

"If I’m understanding this correctly, you took a soldier’s food away and fed it to stray animals?"

Seeing Yu Hua continue to stare at the ground in silence, it became clear to Xiaoyun that she had indeed broken a rule.

A rule that could lead to disastrous consequences if broken. An illegal act that was beyond breaking ’rules’ as a government worker.

"You do know those food supplies are essential for soldiers on the front line, right?" Xiaoyun coldly questioned.

"I... I know. But I..."

"I what?"

"I... I thought it wasn’t really an urgent need. I was even able to spend my own money to make up for it after the fact." Yu Hua argued.

"So you decided to do it again."

"I... I did."

"Houqin, you’re the department head. What is the punishment for someone misallocating, no, embezzling critical resources?"

"Ranging from five years in prison to life... If the embezzlement includes a weapon, it could also be a death sentence."

Within seconds, Yu Hua’s face was on the verge of tearing up, filled with fear, as her legs started trembling in disbelief.

"M-Miss Houqin, C-Commander, p-please, I didn’t mean to break the law. I’m really, really sorry for what I have done."

"Houqin, you can decide the punishment."

As Xiaoyun threw the decision over to her, she only looked back into Yu Hua’s eyes before letting out a small sigh.

"Yu Hua, I already tried to give you a chance. But you stumbled my face over and over again."

"Please, Miss Houqin. I’m begging you. Please don’t put me in jail. I-I’ll never do it again, please."

Yu Hua collapsed to the floor as she grabbed onto Houqin’s ankle, tears running down her face as she pleaded over and over again.

"If only I’d known, I wouldn’t have done it. Please, give me another chance. I-I’ll never feed those stray animals ever again."

Houqin didn’t answer back, only looking over to Xiaoyun, who was sitting there watching it unfold with a little chuckle.

"Miss Houqin! I have elderly parents and young children to take care of. I can’t lose this job, or else my whole family goes hungry."

"Why didn’t you think of that when you were feeding those animals?"

Yu Hua’s sobbing sound finally stopped for a second, but it soon resumed her pleading once again.

"I’m sorry. My mind wasn’t in the right. Please, let me fix my mistake. I’ll never do this ever again."

"Maybe you should just let this slide. It’s just some stray animal—"

"Once a rulebreaker, always a rulebreaker. She first reallocated the food meant for soldiers, what’s stopping her from allocating firearms to gangs next?"

"I-I’ll never do that! Please, Miss Houqin. Please don’t put me in jail!"

As Yu Hua’s sobbing sound increasingly gets louder and louder, Houqin still remained conflicted.

Deep inside her heart, she couldn’t bring her former co-worker and a friend to prison, especially someone whom she had known for years.

But at the same time, Houqin could feel an invisible pressure. An invisible hand was reminding her of what justice and order meant.

"I can’t let—"

"Miss Yu Hua, how about this as a punishment. Instead of firing you or throwing you into prison, you get to keep your job."

The sudden interruption caught Houqin a little offguard, but she didn’t try to intervene as Yu Hua looked up at Xiaoyun with hope.

"Y-You serious, commander?"

"Do I look like a man who’s joking?"

"N-No, sir."

"There you go... But before you get away scot-free, there are a few conditions that I need you to fulfill."

Nervousness began to fill Yu Hua’s face as she silently looked back at Xiaoyun, waiting for him to reveal the condition.

"I need you to show me where the stray animals are."

"T-That’s it?"

Yu Hua nervously asked again, her face looking taken aback as if she couldn’t believe the simple request he had made.

"I said a few... I might change my mind depending on how I feel when I meet those stray animals."

"Thank you, sir!"

---

"Xiaoyun, why are you just letting her go free like this?" Houqin questioned as the two of them waited outside the private room.

"You should be thankful that I gave you a step down to save face."

The straightforward answer caught Houqin a little offguard, but still, she wasn’t about to just accept it.

"I don’t need you to save face for me. We can’t just let this slide. What if someone sees this and breaks the rule themselves?"

"All rules are broken sometimes under extenuating circumstances... Do you want to find a new person who can do a better job than Yu Hua?"

This time, Houqin fell into silence.

No one wanted to go out of the comfort of living in the capital. No one wanted to live in the middle of nowhere, a backwater city.

Shaoguan was already a dying city before the outbreak, a place that had nothing to offer other than its strategic location.

The same strategic location that made it too important to ignore. It was the gateway to Hunan province and Jiangxi province.

It was and is a city that could be the frontline at a moment’s notice, and Yu Hua was the only one willing to take the job.