Zombie Apocalypse: Creation

"Well, I can try to make it... But——"

"What do you need? I can try my best to get it."

Xiaoyun instantly interrupted Anna before she could finish.

"Well... I need my blueprint back in the hotel and better machining tools to make them."

"I can send soldiers to get it... But can you elaborate on better machining tools?" Xiaoyun asked curiously.

"Um, I need more precise tools and better material..."

Xiaoyun could only understand half of what Anna asked as she started speaking half German and Chinese.

"You can write a list and send it over to Yuqi. I'll schedule people to find it in the city."

Xiaoyun kicked the problem over to Yuqi as he didn't know how to deal with it.

"Okay... I'll do that tomorrow. Anyway, I'm going to head out now. It's past work time."

---

A week has passed since the zombie invasion.

Xiaoyun was able to send soldiers to retrieve the equipment from China Telecom and handed it over to Pianma's wife, Qiapan.

Xiaoyun was able to send soldiers to retrieve Anna's blueprint as well.

However, the equipment that she stated was nowhere to be found as nobody had any clue where any of the tools that Anna listed could be.

Besides two soldier trips, requests to join the army had skyrocketed after pictures were leaked of the zombies being piled up in front of the walls being burned.

Support for the town was at an all-time high as the victory against the zombie invasion brought hope for many of the newcomers who had constantly been on the run from zombies.

"Xiaoyun, should we regulate this?"

Yuqi asked curiously as she handed a newspaper over to Xiaoyun.

"Newspaper? When did the town have a new press?"

The newspaper was very simple. A bold letter on the top writing 'Luoping's weekly news.'

Below it were several headlines and a single picture attached.

"Victory at the Luoping walls," Xiaoyun murmured as he continued reading down.

The words below were from soldiers who gave their opinion on how they felt during the battle, as well as an extensive interview on their soldier's life.

"How nice of them to paint us in a bright light like this... Of course, nobody writes about the soldiers who died..."

Xiaoyun murmured as he flipped over to the next page.

"Corruption in the town! Hospital scandal! Head department on trial next week for bribes!" Xiaoyun murmured the headline out loud.

"Ah, here's the negativity that I'm more used to," Xiaoyun commented as he continued reading down.

Below was a full, detailed investigation of the corruption cases, which confused Xiaoyun at first as he couldn't understand how a news press would get all the info.

But then he quickly realized the reason behind it was that Yueyue had actually given them an interview and even said a threatening line that was recorded as the last message.

"Any corruption and injustice will be brought to its knees... What a righteous thing coming out of her mouth, isn't it?" Yuqi commented as she sat next to Xiaoyun.

"She always wanted to bring justice and fairness to everyone. That's why I trust her in that position." Xiaoyun murmured as he flipped to the last page on the back.

"Speaking of justice, I think the judge that we hired to handle the court cases wanted you to check a set of laws he had modified based on the country's current laws."

"Really? Look like I need to go to the court later then."

As Xiaoyun read the last page, it was full of advertisements for different businesses in the town, with coupons and job listings.

"So what do you think? Regulate or leave it as is? Or should we shut it down?"

"I think... Just leave it as it is for now. We can regulate it later if it goes out of line." Xiaoyun replied.

"You sure? What if they started posting bad things about us?"

Yuqi asked as she got a little worried by Xiaoyun's laid-back approach.

"Then we did a bad job and deserved to be criticized. Why would we look to silence them rather than fix what we can do?" Xiaoyun pointed out.

"I guess you're right... I was just thinking too much." Yuqi nodded in agreement.

As Xiaoyun read the other two newspapers that Yuqi had on her desk, he quickly changed his mind.

"Okay, we are definitely regulating this."

"Why?"

Yuqi asked curiously as she looked a little surprised by Xiaoyun's sudden change of mind.

"Defamation. Here, you read this line." Xiaoyun mentioned as he handed the newspaper over to Yuqi.

"Yezi, the secondhand man who controls everything... What kind of headline is this?" Yuqi asked in confusion.

"It's just inciting distrust between everyone. Yezi is practically retired at this point."

Xiaoyun paused for a second before continuing.

"It's just making up fake claims to get attention. Look, there's no point location, and it's fully anonymous." Xiaoyun pointed out.

"You suggesting there's someone outside doing this?"

"Maybe... Or maybe it's just someone that hates us."

Xiaoyun started thinking of possible suspects as he stacked the newspapers back together.

"Us? Who would hate us for?" Yuqi asked curiously.

"Yueyue stepped on a lot of people's nerves with so many corruption crackdowns... And not to mention the bank we set up."

Xiaoyun thought for a second as he felt there was another possible suspect.

"Wait, wait, I get your first point. But why would they hate the bank?" Yuqi asked as she felt the bank was beneficial to everyone.

"Banks mostly helped people who didn't have much in the first place. People who have a lot of money are forced to put their money in the bank to avoid losing to inflation since there's no other investment opportunity."

Xiaoyun could feel he was getting closer and closer to the answer.

"So, the rich people in the town? But couldn't they just invest in another factory or business?"

"Not exactly... I think I know who's behind this now." X

"Who?" Yuqi asked curiously.

"The rich who can't invest in real estate. You passed a law on buying houses a few weeks ago, right?" Xiaoyun asked.

"Yeah, I just limited one house per family... Oh, I see what you mean now."

Yuqi finally realized that Xiaoyun was trying to say that her restriction was hurting them.

"They wanted to invest in the housing shortage that's still going on. But since we cut them off, they are getting more and more unhappy." Xiaoyun replied.

"Then what should we do?" Yuqi asked as she had never handled this kind of situation before.

"Nothing. We need to wait until they try something more ambitious. Then we can catch them all at once."

"Are you sure we should just sit and do nothing?" Yuqi asked to make sure she heard the right thing.

"Actually, here. Let me make a draft for the newspaper regulation..."

Xiaoyun pulled out a piece of paper and began writing all the possible regulations he could think of.

Thirty minutes later...

"This should be good enough for now."

Xiaoyun hands the paper he had written over to Yuqi.

The paper regulation was mostly defamation of individuals, with most of it decided in a court case by case rather than an outright ban.

More importantly, it required the new press to have a physical location and a legal person to back it up.

"How should I enforce this?" Yuqi asked curiously as she agreed with all of the regulations Xiaoyun wrote.

"Just use the police force... If you can't find them, then use Yueyue to find them." Xiaoyun replied.

"Okay then... Oh, right, one last thing. Here's the end of the month report."

Yuqi handed the paper over to Xiaoyun.

"Already? September went by so fast..." Xiaoyun murmured as he began reading the paper.

"Yeah, time really flies, doesn't it?"

Yuqi paused her work as she looked out the window.

"Hey babe... I want to ask you something."

Yuqi's voice suddenly shifted away from her work tone.

"What?" Xiaoyun asked as he put the paper back down.

"Do you still remember our anniversary?" Yuqi asked.

"Anniversary? I'm going to be honest with you. I kind of forgot about it... Is it our anniversary?" Xiaoyun asked curiously.

"No... I don't even remember what date we got married either. Isn't that kind of sad?"

Yuqi looked a little down as she felt she had lost something important.

"Well, if we both forgot about it, we can always marry again if you want." Xiaoyun jokingly suggested.

"Shut up. That's not funny. I'm being serious, okay?"

Yuqi pinched Xiaoyun by the belly as she felt Xiaoyun wasn't taking it seriously.

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry..." Xiaoyun apologized.

"You promised Tianci that you were going to marry her... Are you still going to do that this week? Or are you going to do it at another time?" Yuqi asked curiously.

"Definitely not this week. She's still recovering right now..."

Xiaoyun replied as his mind thought back to that day after Tianci came back from the hospital.