The next day...
When Xiaoyun and Leyan got to the administrative building, it was already two o'clock in the afternoon.
"Geez, what took you two so long? Did you two pull an all-nighter?" Yuqi complained as she was already working in the office.
"Not my fault." Leyan innocently responded as she sat down.
"Yeah, yeah, it's my fault," Xiaoyun admits his fault as he joins in and starts working.
After a few hours of working, someone suddenly knocked on the door. Xiaoyun went to open the door, revealing Yezi standing right outside.
"What's wrong? Something urgent?" Xiaoyun curiously asked after noticing Yezi's serious face.
"No, but I want some resources and a few people to go outside with me... It's going to be just a tad bit more than just a scouting mission." Yezi replied.
"Why? Didn't you just married with Huayi for less than a month? You sure you want to go out now?" Yuqi asked.
"She knows I ain't the type of men who want to stay in a nest. I want to go out and take risks.
I am rotting here, staying in this town all day. I can't live like this anymore. I need to go out adventuring——"
"You got a plan to go where?" Leyan asked, interrupting him.
"I can go scout the path to the casino since I know where it is at... It'll be a fast back-and-forth mission."
Yuqi and Leyan both turned their attention over to Xiaoyun, who nodded in agreement after thinking for a few seconds.
"Fine, how much resource do you need? And how many people?" Yuqi asked.
"A few boxes of canned food and water should do. I want to bring Jixi and four people with me.
It's only going to last less than a week. I'm also going to need a car." Yezi listed his demands.
"Sure, you can get the food down the store, and for the people you want, you need to go ask Yiming if he lets you," Yuqi replied.
"I'm sure Yiming wouldn't mind," Xiaoyun commented as he handed the paper with his signature on it.
"Thank you!"
As Yezi left with the paper, the three went back to work until Xiaoyun broke the silence.
"Maybe I should go with him——" Before Xiaoyun could finish talking, the two of them interrupted him.
"Hell no! You can't leave the town. The food situation can only last three days without you, and the farm is not even close to supplying enough food.
And you are the mayor. You can't take a risk like that... Yezi is different. He's been to the city multiple times."
The two of them pushed Xiaoyun back down on the chair, locking the door to prevent him from ever thinking of leaving.
"Fine, fine, let's get back to work."
Thirty minutes later...
Yezi was back with five people, all standing before the three with their gear and food ready.
"They are the ones I want," Yezi stated.
"You guys know the risk you are taking to go with him, right? This mission is much riskier than just a scouting mission." Xiaoyun warned.
"Yes, sir! We know the risk we are facing." The four of them replied at the same time, with Jixi staying silent on the back.
"Jixi, Yiming agreed to this?" Xiaoyun asked.
"He said it's a good idea not to lose track of the outside world."
After a short silence, Xiaoyun raised his one last concern to the four soldiers.
"Fine, then you guys are all set to go. But have you said your last word to your family members yet?"
"I picked them because they are all alone," Yezi answered for them.
"Very well... Don't worry, we won't forget your contribution... Godspeed, soldier!"
Xiaoyun saluted to the soldiers, who saluted back before leaving the office, along with Jixi and Yezi, who left after them.
"Geez, you guys don't have to make it as if it is the last time you guys see each other..." Leyan commented.
"It's hard to tell if that is going to be the last time we see them... so many people have lost contact with their friends and family," Xiaoyun murmured as all his friends were back in university.
"You're right."
As Leyan looked out the window, she thought back to her two best friends, who hadn't called since the outbreak started.
"Let's not get all sad. Just because they lost contact, it doesn't mean they're doomed. Maybe their phones had no battery left.
You know electricity is hard to get outside. How is anyone supposed to change their phone?" Yuqi comforted the two.
After a short silence, the two felt a little better.
"Yeah, you're right. Maybe they're still out there... Let's get back to work." Leyan murmured.
Just as the three got back into the zone of working, the door was suddenly slammed open.
It was Huayi standing there, her face full of anger as if she was about to break a desk or something.
"Where the hell is Yezi?" Huayi asked in anger.
"Um... he just went outside on a mission for a week. He didn't tell you?" Xiaoyun curiously asked as he felt something was off.
"That bastard! I shouldn't have pushed him so hard in bed... I'm so sorry." Huayi suddenly started crying.
"Don't worry. He had five people protecting him as well. And he had a car with him. I'm sure he will make it back fine."
Leyan got up and brought her to the sofa, gently patting her on the back and comforting her.
"I was even surprised he stayed at a desk job as co-mayor for an entire month. You know, he's an arms smuggler for a reason.
He wants to live life with risk... um, he will be back soon, don't you worry. If he doesn't come back, I'll go look for him."
Xiaoyun tried to reassure Huayi, but it only made her cry even harder as she knew how dangerous the city was.
"Babe, you really don't know how to comfort people," Yuqi commented.
"My bad." Xiaoyun sat back down and stayed silent.
"Huayi, what do you mean you pushed him so hard in bed?" Leyan curiously asked as Huayi slowly calmed down a little.
"I-I heard that Nami said you guys are all already pregnant, so I wanted to have a kid as well.
But Yezi didn't want to have a kid yet and kept avoiding me. So I tried to beg him to do it raw one night."
Huayi started sobbing again as she spoke, showing zero signs of embarrassment despite the thing she had just said out loud.
"Oh..." Leyan went completely silent as her face blushed.
"Nami needs to shut her damn mouth... I'm teaching her a lesson in privacy." Yuqi's face blushed as she left the room.
"Don't worry, Huayi. I will talk some sense into Yezi when he comes back. He's almost forty. He's going to want to settle down." Xiaoyun reassured.
"Thank you. I guess I just need to wait for him to come back."
With Huayi leaving the room, the two girls turned their attention to Xiaoyun before letting out a hmph sound.
"So Yezi wasn't telling the full truth when he went out... I guess men really are a bunch of liars," Leyan commented.
"Yeah, who would have thought, saying she would be fine with it when she never agreed to let him take a risk like that," Yuqi added.
"Hey! That's his issue, not mine, okay?"
Xiaoyun pushed back before the three went back to work, as there wasn't much they could do with everything set in motion.
---
Back in the city...
"Yezi, are you sure we are driving the right way?" Jixi asked as he drove the car toward a dark alley.
"Trust me, I know the in and out of the city outskirts. We are just taking a safer route." Yezi replied as he directed Jixi on the passenger seat
Almost ten minutes later, Yezi finally signaled Jixi to stop the car.
"We are here."
As the six of them got out of the car, all of the soldiers, including Jixi, looked a little confused as Yezi continued walking forward.
"I thought we were just scouting the paths," Jixi said first, stopping the soldiers as they waited for Yezi's response.
After a short silence, Yezi finally turned back around to face the five of them.
"Yeah, it still is a scouting mission. We aren't going inside the casino... Trust me, I'm not that crazy."
The soldier hesitated for a second, but seeing Jixi stepping up, the rest quickly joined in.
"Isn't this a little too quiet? There were no zombies on the street on our entire way through," One of the soldiers pointed out quietly as they walked into another dark ally.
"Maybe they all left to the rural side or inside the city... Usually, nobody comes here since it's mostly a Demolition zone that hasn't been enforced yet."
Yezi explained as he suddenly stopped by a small hotel with zero signs of life inside the building itself.
"Isn't this just a hotel?" Jixi curiously asked as they walked inside.
"Yeah, it is just a hotel. But do you think they would have a casino in plain sight? Just for everyone to see?"
Hearing Yezi's argument, they all nodded in agreement, as none of them knew where the casino was located.
But they all assumed it to be some sketchy place, which kind of matched up to the place Yezi was bringing them towards.
"Everyone be quiet."
All of the soldiers fell dead silent as Yezi led the five of them past the main entrance, which was completely abandoned inside.
Next, they stopped right at the staircase. As Yezi tried to turn the doorknob, they all heard a sharp clunk sound, indicating it was locked.
"What's wrong?" Jixi quietly asked.
"The door is locked, and they probably stacked furniture behind it to block it."
Yezi quickly started looking around, only to find an elevator at the other side of the entrance.
Without any hesitation, Yezi pressed the elevator button, which somehow lit up as it began coming up.
"How the hell is there still power here?" Jixi murmured the same question that all of the soldiers had.
But Yezi doesn't explain it. Instead, he started warning them what not to do.
"When we go inside, don't use guns down there. It will attract way too much attention. Use the bat on your back."
The five of them quickly switched their rifles to the bat, patiently waiting for the elevator as they stood behind Yezi.
After a few seconds, the elevator opened.
The six of them entered the elevator as Yezi pressed the basement floor. As the elevator moved down, the four soldiers started to get a little nervous.
But Jixi and Yezi had zero signs of fear, not flinching a single bit despite the grim atmosphere caused by the barely lit elevator.
Finally, the elevator opened. Several zombies stood outside in the distance, wandering without a goal in mind.
"Only use a gun as a last resort," Yezi warned again as he stepped out of the elevator with the bat.
The rest of the soldiers quickly stepped out, making quick work of the zombies before catching back up with Yezi.
"What are we looking for here?" Jixi curiously asked as Yezi stood by the pay booth of the basement parking lot.
"A remote... Here it is."
As soon as Yezi pressed the remote, the wall next to the elevator from earlier suddenly started to slide open.
"If I remember correctly, this is the emergency escape to the casino," Yezi explained as they began heading toward it.
"How do you know all this?" One of the soldiers asked as he got a little curious.
"You all probably know I used to be an arms smuggler... But I used to have a partner who got out of the Middle East at the same time as me.
He started a casino business to make a living while I retired and started having a habit of drinking at bars... Enough question, everyone quiet."
The six of them began walking down the dark tunnel that was opened, with Yezi's flashlight lighting the path ahead of them.
After walking just for a few steps, several bodies were on the floor, all with stab wounds in the neck.
"What the hell happened here?" One of the soldiers murmured.
"They probably died from the infighting with the current boss and old boss... If I remember correctly." Yezi replied as he thought back to the interrogation.
After walking for five minutes, they finally reached the end of the tunnel.
However, it was another metal gate door with a body lying in front of it—a man wearing a suit with a bullet wound on it's head.
The blood had dried a long time ago, but the body hadn't decomposed too badly, as the tunnel barely had any oxygen flowing.
Just as the soldiers were about to ask what they were doing next, Yezi suddenly collapsed on top of the corpse as tears began to flow out.
"I am sorry, old friend... I should have been there. Fuck! This is all my fault."
As Yezi drowns in sorrow, all of the soldiers immediately realize the corpse Yezi held was the partner he was talking about earlier.
"Don't worry... I will get revenge for you."
Yezi slowly closed his friend's eyes before gently grabbing the keycard and turning his attention back to the gate in front of them.
"He's the boss?" Jixi asked.
"Yes, he's the old boss..."
Just as Yezi was about to scan the card, Jixi immediately pushed him away from it and tried to snatch the key away from him.
But Yezi resisted, moving his hand as far away from Jixi as possible as the two started to fight over it.
"This is a scouting mission, not an attack mission. Yezi, I know what you're trying to do," Jixi warned as he finally snatched the keycard away from him, putting it in his pocket.
All of the soldiers immediately realized what was happening, but none of them stepped up, as the two of them were their superiors.
"You guys can turn back. I'm going in no matter what. Give me the damn key." Yezi demanded as he lifted his rifle and aimed it right at Jixi.
"Yezi? Are you really pointing a gun at me?"
Jixi looked a little shocked, and all the soldiers looked just as shocked, seeing how the situation had escalated.
"Give. Me. The. Key." Yezi warned again as he clicked the safety off.
"Yezi? Why do you want to go inside now so badly? I know you want revenge against your friend, but we can plan this.
Let's all go back and do surveillance on the surrounding area first before going in." Jixi pleaded as he adamantly refused to hand over the keycard.
"I know what I'm doing is irrational. But you don't know anything about us. You're just a bunch of soldiers who've never been into real combat."
Jixi fell into silence, knowing that Yezi's statement was partially true.
Comparing his military training in relative safety to Yezi's active warzone in the Middle East was never equivalent.
But he refuses to hand over the keycard, as doing so would only lead to an outcome that nobody wants.
"What do you think Xiaoyun would say about this?" Jixi pointed out as he desperately searched for a way to convince Yezi in his head.
"It doesn't matter. Quit stalling."
Seeing Yezi give his final warning as he puts his finger on the trigger, Jixi finally gives up. But not before he gives his final message.
"Fine, but I hope you realize that if you die here, Huayi is going to kill herself if she hears about your death... If that's what you wanted."
Jixi threw the keycard over to Yezi, turning back around as the rest of the soldiers hesitated for a second before joining him.
After a long silence with quieter and quieter footsteps, Yezi didn't put the keycard up in the end.
As he headed back to the other side of the tunnel and pressed the button, Jixi, and the four soldiers were standing outside waiting.
"You changed your mind?" Jixi asked, looking a little surprised by his return.
"Fuck. You are right... I need to be responsible for her. Let's go back to scouting." Yezi replied quietly as they headed back to the elevator.