Zombie Apocalypse: Creation

Chapter 878: Issue at the Home Front

Back over at Guangzhou...

"Jianlin!"

"Yes, Governor!"

As the secretary entered the office, Yuqi was looking at a document on her desk. Over to the side was a TV showing a live recording of buses driving out of the city.

"Why are there so many complaints in the labor department? A twenty-three percent increase within a single month?"

"Miss... You’re the one who ordered the department to expand its scope. Should we put a pause on it?"

Yuqi thought about it for a second before throwing the paper back into one of the cabinets in her desk.

"Never mind. I want you to arrange a meeting with the labor secretary this afternoon... in my office."

"Yes, governor."

As Jianlin walked out of the office, Yuqi turned her attention back to her desk, where a newspaper rested.

It was the first time her name had been on the front cover of the newspaper. In the biggest bold font she had ever seen in Luoping Daily.

"The New Era of Chen Yuqi... Shenwen really wants to make me give him a phone call, huh?"

Yuqi quickly reached for her personal cellphone, but chose to put it down in the end as she looked over to the TV.

"Today, as the Commander-in-Chief moved its first phase of the operation into Zhuhai, we had invited an expert in Realpolitik."

"Let’s welcome Dr. Lin."

As the screen shifted from the live recording into a scheduled show, Yuqi quickly turned it off before pulling the plug.

"Young Li, can you put the TV back in the break room?" Yuqi asked as she spoke through the office telecomm.

"Will do."

After waiting for a few minutes, a middle-aged man entered the office, taking the TV out of the room and freeing the desk space.

"Governor, I had arranged the meeting for two-thirty." Jianlin’s voice came through as Yuqi pressed the telecomm.

"Thank you."

The room soon fell into silence as Yuqi quickly took out the paper on her desk that had been underneath the oversized newspaper.

"So little work today... Maybe I should go for a walk outside."

---

"Nami, can you watch the kids for me? I need to go grocery shopping... Is there anything you want me to buy for you?"

"Didn’t you already go grocery shopping yesterday?" Nami questioned back as her eyes were glued to the TV.

"Did you wake up with memory loss?"

"Oh right... Ahem, Ice cream would be nice."

"Not happening."

As Leyan changed her shoes at the doorway, Nami was sitting on the sofa watching a live replay of a short military speech from a certain leader.

"Mom! Don’t go!"

"Nami!"

"Okay, okay, fine... Yongyi, come here. Stop bothering your mom. She’ll be back in like an hour or so."

With Nami walking over to the doorway to grab Yongyi away, Leyan finally left the house with her grocery bags.

"Mommy Nami, w-why did Mom leave?"

"Because she forgot to do grocery shopping yesterday... Go back to play with your sisters, okay?"

After putting Yongyi back down in the living room, Nami shifted her attention back to the TV, which was now playing soldiers entering buses.

"Governor Chen! Can we interview you for a second?" A journalist asked out loud as she was quickly blocked by a soldier.

"Sorry, I have more important things to do. Maybe next time when we have time... Thank you, everyone, for staying out in the hot sun today."

As Xiaoyun waved his hands goodbye to the journalist, he quickly entered an armored car with Houqin.

"Dummy..."

"Where’s Leyan?"

A voice quickly came down from upstairs as Wuli came down to the living room in her full military officer’s uniform.

"Out shopping... You leaving Luoping?" Nami questioned after noticing Wuli reaching down to her own daughter.

"Yeah, need to go back to Shaoguan... Bingbing, you better behave well at home, okay?"

"Waaaaaa!"

As the baby suddenly started crying, Wuli was a little lost before Nami quickly stepped in to take the baby over.

"She’s just hungry. You can go to your work. I’ll feed her with the Mom’s milk from the fridge."

"Thanks."

With Wuli heading over to the doorway, Nami headed towards the kitchen with Bingbing still crying in her arms.

"Relax, Bingbing, your food is almost there."

Opening the fridge, Nami quickly located the bottle of milk before putting the silicone tip to the baby’s mouth.

"There you go."

The baby’s sobbing slowly died down as Nami headed back into the living room. She sat down on the sofa, now all alone.

Other than being surrounded by babies, of course.

"Mommy Nami! C-Can you play with us?" Lianrong pleaded as she quickly wobbled her way to Nami’s legs.

"Let me finish feeding your sister first, okay?"

Just as Bingbing rested in Nami’s arms and drank from the bottle in silence, another baby’s crying ended the peace she had.

"God damn it——Ahem, ahem!"

Nami quickly excused her own foul language as she got up from the sofa, walking over to the crying baby in the crib.

"What’s wrong, Wenwen? Do you want Mommy to feed you? Or do you need to go to the bathroom?"

After an hour of absolute chaos in the living room with the babies, Nami finally had a bit of peace to herself.

"Fuck. Why did I quit my job at the worst time possible? I need to find a way out of this hellhole..."

"Sister Nami, are you okay?"

As Lily came downstairs with a half-awake face, Nami was sitting on the floor with three older babies in front of her.

"Of course I’m fine. Lily, do you not have school today?"

"Not today. Lecture got moved to the afternoon... Do you need me to help?" Lily asked as she sees both Bingbing and Wenwen resting in her arms.

"That will be great."

---

"Shu-Shu, I’m leaving today. I’m going to miss you."

"Stop sounding so gross... See you next month."

"Wait, how do you know I’m going to come back next month?"

"I have students in the military, and they all have two days off every month... You’d better use it to come back.

Bingbing is really going to miss you if you don’t. I’d better not see you choosing to stay at Shaoguan for your break—"

"Okay, love you."

As the phone call ended, Shuli was sitting in her office with a pile of paperwork stacked on top of her desk.

"Idiot..."

Just as Shuli put her phone back into her pocket, she suddenly noticed someone walking outside, closer and closer to the door.

"Come in."

The door opened, revealing Yueyue, out of all people, as she casually took a seat right across from Shuli.

"What business do you have today? Is it the funding issue again?"

"Not that. I already got Yuqi to allocate our own funding for my department... I’m here today because of you."

"Me?"

Shuli questioned, her face looking a little puzzled as she couldn’t think of anything interesting or different than usual.

"Yes, you. Has anyone called you recently?"

"Wuli just called me a minute ago about her leaving."

"Not that."

"Kate and Anna called me a few days ago about a proposal to hire top graduates fresh off university—"

"Not that either. Anyone that isn’t related to us. You know what I mean."

After a short awkward silence between the two, Shuli finally came up with an answer that satisfied what Yueyue was looking for.

"Um... Are you talking about the chemical plants?"

"Yes, exactly that."

"What about them?"

"I should be the one asking you that. Did they ask you for anything? I know you talked to them outside of the phone call."

"I can’t disclose—"

"Shuli, you trust me, right?" Yueyue interupted as she suddenly stood up and stared into Shuli’s eyes.

"O-Of course I do."

"Good. I won’t tell this to anyone else... Now, I need you to tell me word for word of your conversation with them."

"Is this related to national security?"

"Depends."

Yueyue could see the hesitation on Shuli’s face, but she still chose to confess in the end as she cracked under pressure.

"You need to promise me you’ll keep this a secret. My reputation is on the line if you ever decide to leak this."

"Does it look like I have more blackmail on you than you have on me?"

Shuli froze for a second before her face blushed red. At the same time, Yueyue’s face blushed red after realizing how suggestive it sounded.

Especially after what happened last night.

"I didn’t mean it."

"I know... Ahem, they just asked me if I knew any chemistry expert." Shuli answered as she quickly returned to normal.

"That’s it?"

"Yeah... I told them there are plenty of chemistry students and professors who are looking for work, as long as they post a job opening—"

"That!"

"Hm?"

"Job opening! I knew they were up to something... Thank you so much, Shuli. You did a fantastic job."

As Yueyue stormed out of her office, Shuli was left confused as she awkwardly scratched her head before returning to work.

"Weird..."