In the afternoon...
"Finally, we're back in Guangdong."
As Xiaoyun stretched out his arms, the driver in the front could hear several popping sounds coming from the back.
"Commander, there are still two hours before we reach Guangzhou, " the driver pointed out as he checked the rear mirror.
"I know, I know... We're at Shaoguan now, right?"
"Yes, sir."
Looking out the windows, Xiaoyun could barely notice any zombies on the road. Even as they drove past the city, it was completely dead silent.
"I should probably start thinking about moving and settling so people at Shaoguan soon," Xiaoyun murmured as he took out his binoculars.
In the distance, he still couldn't see anything alive. It was just as empty when he first drove past it yesterday morning.
So defenses were also present at the city's main entrance, with heavy roadblocks and sandbags that Yiming's troop had once placed.
"Commander, are we going to populate every single city in Guangdong?" The driver suddenly asked out of curiosity.
"That's the goal... But so cities won't have any reasons to populate them if there's no value to it or people don't have to move there themselves."
Seeing the driver holding up a smile, Xiaoyun couldn't help but wonder why he was smiling.
"What's making you so happy?"
"S-Sorry, commander. I didn't an to——"
"I'm not punishing you or anything. I'm just curious what's making you so happy after I gave you an explanation."
After the driver realizes he misunderstood Xiaoyun's intention, he finally calms down before giving his answer.
"I'm just happy because I have lived in Guangzhou all my life. Hearing you say that there won't be any forced removal made happy."
"I see..."
As Xiaoyun thought about the practicality of people moving, he soon started to realize how fixated people were living in a place.
Attachnt to one's hotown was going to be a challenge for him, as all the strategic cities that needed people were far away from the populous cities.
"Wait, what am I thinking? Why am I worrying over that?"
Xiaoyun shook his head, realizing almost half of his population nowadays were just refugees from all over the country.
There was no 'hotown' to which those people could return. Anywhere in Guangdong was just another place to live.
"Commander, you might want to wear your seatbelt for the next hour. The road is going to get a little hilly."
"Thanks for the warning."
Thirty minutes later...
As the truck convoy approached the outskirts of Qingyuan, Xiaoyun was a bit shocked by the number of people on the side of the road.
Hundreds of thousands of people were tilting dirt with primitive equipnt, with three tractors sitting ideally on the side of the road.
"You can keep driving. Don't worry about . I'll get back to Luoping later myself."
Xiaoyun's sudden answer confused the driver a little until he heard two clicks from the back, seemingly as if sothing was being unlocked.
"Commander, what are you——"
Just as the driver was about to hit the brakes, Xiaoyun had already opened the car door and hopped out.
"Everyone, continue forward. I'm perfectly fine. I have sothing to do in Qingyuan. I'll head back to Luoping myself later."
The transmission from the walkie-talkie made the driver hesitate for a second. But he continued driving in the end.
---
"Ouch..."
As Xiaoyun got back up from the ground and checked his body, there were several cut wounds on his hands and legs.
But after waiting for a few seconds, the wound disappeared as his skin sealed up on its own, leaving zero traces of it remaining.
After sending a transmission on the walkie-talkie and watching all of the different vehicles go by him, he finally started examining his surroundings again.
One group of people were standing at a blocked-off section of the road in the far distance, while the other half of the people were farmland down below.
Neither group interacted with each other, seemingly as if they had completely different jobs.
After Xiaoyun brushed off all the dirt from his clothes, a little beard suddenly appeared on his face before he took out his phone.
Looking at the cara, his face was now much older, looking more like the old Songming rather than Xiaoyun.
"Perfect... No one should be able to recognize ."
A short walk later...
As Xiaoyun arrived at the fence, he saw even more people than he had first witnessed, working all the way in the back, tilling the soil with various kinds of stone tools.
Looking around, he soon found an entrance around the corner. Fortunately, the wooden gate wasn't locked, allowing him to enter inside.
"Hey, what are you doing here?"
A middle-aged man asked, looking over to Xiaoyun for a second before shifting his attention back to the dirt in front of him.
"I'm here to find sobody."
Xiaoyun's answer finally made the middle-aged man stop. Despite seeing the soldier in uniform, his face didn't seem shocked.
"If you're here to find sobody, you entered the wrong way."
Looking around, Xiaoyun quickly realized what he ant by it, as everywhere around him was just endless tilted soil.
There were barely any roads at all, no buildings to speak of other than the wooden fence and the hot sun in the sky.
"Can you help ?" Xiaoyun asked.
"Just go back outside and follow the fence. You'll eventually run into a village settlent. You can talk to the village secretary there."
"Thank you."
After heading back out through the gate earlier, Xiaoyun began walking down the fence. Along the way, he only saw more and more land being tilled by people with basic tools.
There was zero chanical usage at all, even as he walked for almost an entire kiloter. Purely human labor working on the land underneath the seething sun
What was supposed to be the asphalt road behind him was also long gone, leaving only a dirt road and wilderness.
Only after what felt like an hour's walk did he finally run into an actual building. But rather than the village he expected, it was just a small wooden pavilion with workers inside.
"Hey! How did you get here?"
As soon as one of the workers said it out loud, everyone turned their eyes toward Xiaoyun, who stood right across from them.
"I'm trying to find a village. Am I going the right way?" Xiaoyun asked out loud.
"Yeah. Just one more kiloter, and you should be there!"
"Thank you."
Before Xiaoyun could continue walking down, one of the worker's voices at the pavilion made him stop again.
"You sure you want to keep walking down without a drink? It's pretty hot out there."
After a short consideration, Xiaoyun took a few steps back before running full speed ahead. With a jump, he landed right over to the other side of the ter fence.
"Sorry if I stepped on your guy's work." Xiaoyun imdiately apologized, noticing that the land he had stepped on was already tilled.
"Don't worry about it. We haven't even thrown in seeds yet, " Another worker said as Xiaoyun walked all the way to the pavilion.
"Hey, you're a soldier, right?" The third worker curiously asked as one of the woman workers handed Xiaoyun a bottle of water.
"Yeah... Thank you. I'm here to find sobody in this nearby area." Xiaoyun answered as he opened the water bottle.
Two of the woman worker's eyes imdiately started glowing, but they didn't speak up as one of the n asked another question.
"What's the person's na? Maybe we can help you find them."
"Her na is Chen Xiaoyue."
All four of them fell into silence, which was exactly what Xiaoyun had been hoping for as he got a little worried that soone might actually have that na.
"Sorry, I can't recall soone with that na." The first worker answered.
" either." The second worker answered.
"That's fine... Actually, what are you guys doing here? I'm just a little curious." Xiaoyun finally asked the question he had been wanting to ask.
"We're on our ten-minute break right now."
"I see... Where are you guys from? You don't really sound like you're from here."
All four looked at each other for a second before the oldest worker in the four-worker group answered.
"We're from Hunan. We just ca here three weeks ago as refugees."
"Hunan? What a coincidence. I just ca back from there just a few hours ago. I was just at Changsha before coming back."
"Really?"
The four of them looked a little shocked, with the two n looking the most shocked by the news.
"We were just fighting alongside Zhongxiong's forces against the zombie hordes yesterday and were about to head back ho."
As soon as Xiaoyun ntioned the word Zhongxiong, he could notice the change on their faces.
"Um... Did I say sothing wrong?"
"No, sir. We just that..."
Seeing the oldest worker standing in silence alongside everyone else, Xiaoyun imdiately realized there was clearly so sort of conflict between them.
"It's okay if you don't want to say it. We had just t a minute ago... But I can report to my superior if Zhongxiong's forces have unfairly treated you in Hunan."
"N-no, sir. It's nothing... Ahem, we need to get back to working now. We hope you find the person you're looking for."
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