"Go ahead... Here’s a pen for you."
After Lingang signed the paper with his na, the two soldiers went back to patrolling with a full smile on their faces.
"Looks like you are quite the famous person here." Xiaoyun jokingly comnted as they began walking towards a different entrance.
"I’m nowhere near as famous as you, sir."
Lingang instantly responded, his face looking even more nervous from earlier as if he was genuinely a little scared.
"Co on, I was just joking. No need to be scared. Do I look like soone who cares about fa?"
Lingang quickly shook his head.
"Exactly. I have no problem with my commanders being more famous than ... Hell, I want them to be more famous than ."
"Why’s that?"
Lingang curiously asked as the two of them walked up the stairs, arriving at the second floor before going inside a long hallway.
"Because I hate this celebrity status burden. I’m not a perfect human being. Quite frankly, I’m not even a good moral example for kids."
"I can see that... Ahem, Commander I——"
"No need to apologize. I know everyone in the town thinks I’m a womanizer... But let tell you sothing, Lingang."
Xiaoyun paused for a second, turning around to look at Lingang right in the eyes as they both stood still in the hallway.
"I deeply cared about every single one of my wives. I made a promise to love them all equally. I’m not the playboy who plays with people’s emotions."
Seeing the serious look in his eyes, Lingang nodded several tis before Xiaoyun finally turned back around.
"A sha that you’re marrying another woman. Looks like I’m going to need to use Han Bang as promotion material or sothing."
Lingang didn’t speak up as the two of them finally arrived before 302, the office room that Chengyi was supposed to be in.
With a knock, Xiaoyun waited.
"Co in."
As Xiaoyun opened the door, Chengyi’s eyes stared at so sort of letter, seemingly trying to decode sothing.
"What request do you want?"
"I want to talk about this refugee problem."
Xiaoyun’s voice finally made Chengyi look up. His eyes instantly began to widen as if he was shocked to see him here.
"Xiaoyun.. Oh my god. Bro showed up without even giving a warning."
As Chengyi quickly walked around the desk to hug Xiaoyun, he suddenly felt the need to reject it before being forced into a warm hug.
"It has only been less than a month since we last saw each other," Xiaoyun murmured as they separated.
"That’s a long ass ti for ... Anyway, what are you here for?"
"I’m here to talk about the refugees."
"Oh that... I’m afraid I can’t decide on that. You need to talk to Pinli. He’s the one who’s given the full responsibility as temporary mayor-assistant."
"Mayor-assistant? Who’s the mayor then?"
"His dad. Duh. Who else could afford to be the mayor other than him... Let tell you sothing, Xiaoyun, Pinli’s dad is filthy rich."
"Then can you call him over?"
"Nope. I have no way of contacting him. They’re out there managing the reconstruction... They’ll probably be back in the evening at six."
Looking over to the clock, it was only three in the afternoon.
"Is there really no way of contacting him earlier? I want to get back ho before nightti."
"If I could contact them, I would have done it long ago... All the cell towers are down and I don’t know what radio frequency they are on."
Seeing Chengyi genuinely having no way of getting Pinli over, Xiaoyun let out a small sigh before taking a seat.
"Then, it looks like I just have to wait, then."
"Yep... No other way around it."
---
As the tir reached closer and closer to six, the three of them were sitting in their chair, their eyes laser-focused on their hand.
Piles of cards were stacked on top of each other on the desk. They had been playing cards all day long, trying to pass the ti.
"Looks like I won this ga."
As Xiaoyun threw down a pair of aces, he only had one card left to put down to win against the two of them.
"Not so fast."
Chengyi instantly threw down two pairs of two, breaking Xiaoyun’s chance of winning, as it was now Lingang’s turn to play.
"Pass." Lingang responded.
"There’s no way you have another pair in that hand." Xiaoyun murmured as he couldn’t play his one card against the pair.
"Too bad."
With his last two cards being put down on the table, Xiaoyun had no choice but to admit defeat as Chengyi emptied his hand.
"Two threes? You saved it all this ti? What the hell is wrong with you? Why would you save the worst pair in the ga?"
"If it wins gas, why would it matter? Anyway, good job, Lingang. You played it perfectly."
"Thanks."
"I knew I shouldn’t have called the house. I’m going to call the peasant next ti." Xiaoyun murmured as he began shoving the cards.
"And next thing you know, you’re going to get two jokers. Are you really not going to call the house on that?"
"Ain’t no way. It’s a literal bait. I had lost twice because of that stupid hand——"
"What are you guys playing... Xiaoyun?"
As the doors opened, Pinli was standing right there. His face looked extrely surprised when he saw the three of them at the desk.
"Looks like you finally decided to show up. I had been waiting for you for half a day now."
"Waiting for ?" Pinli curiously questioned, looking towards Xiaoyun with a confused look now.
"Yeah. Been waiting here since three. Anyway, let’s get this done with so I can get back ho by ten."
---
Thirty minutes later...
"Xiaoyun, you know this is not possible. We can’t restrict the people’s freedom of movent."
Sitting right across Xiaoyun was no one other than Pinli’s dad, Wu Min. His eyes looked sharp as he fired right back at Xiaoyun.
Pinli, Chengyi, and Lingang all stood on the side. Their mouth remaining shut as if they didn’t want to be a part of the negotiation.
"I’m not asking you to restrict their movent. I’m asking you to assist them to Luoping. Is this really too much to ask for?"
"Mister Xiaoyun, we don’t have enough people to repair Changsha. You saw people when you ca in, right?"
Seeing Xiaoyun falling into silence, Wu Min doubled down in his argunt.
"How can we allocate resources to help people move? We can barely support ourselves, let alone help them move across province borders."
"Give a number. How much do you need to arrange an orderly transit for refugees who want to go to Luoping?"
"At least a hundred barrels of gasoline for buses." Wu Min instantly replied.
"You’re out of your mind. I can scrap the entirety of Guangzhou, and I wouldn’t find that much gas in the city."
"Then looks like there are no deals."
As the negotiation fell into a stalemate, Xiaoyun began to realize why Pinli’s dad was selected as Mayor for Changsha.
"Mister Wu Min, I just want to make sure. Zhongxiong gave you full authority to negotiate on this issue?"
"He hired for this exact reason. He knew it was only a matter of ti for you to arrive here."
Feeling his hand a little tied up, Xiaoyun’s mind started brainstorming different ways of getting Wu Min to budge.
The first solution that ca to mind was to play the empathy card. But it was clear it’s probably useless against the shrewd forr businessman in front of him.
The second solution was to use his leverage, specifically the favor he had once gained when he saved Wu Min in the far, far past.
"Mister Xiaoyun, I almost forgot to give you sothing... Pinli, can you go over to that drawer and take out the thing in the third row?"
"I got it, uncle."
As Chengyi went over to the drawer and carried a small box over to the desk, Wu Min slowly opened it to reveal what was inside.
"My wife had told I need to gift this to you for saving . I sincerely want to thank you personally with this gift as well."
"I cannot accept this."
Xiaoyun tried to push the bottle of expensive champagne back into Wu Min’s hand, but after a back and forth, Xiaoyun had no option but to accept it.
"You deserve this, Mister Xiaoyun."
"Thank you... Fuck."
The last part wasn’t said out loud. It was more of his brain’s reaction. His second option was gone right before his eyes.
At the sa ti, it made him realize he had no leverage in the negotiation at all. He had co to Changsha in a way too rushed fashion.
Wu Min was clearly more than happy to continue letting people go towards him. Whether people were dying along the way or not, the man felt no responsibility.
Nor was it Xiaoyun’s responsibility either in theory. But every life lost felt morally wrong to him.
Deep inside his heart, he just couldn’t do it. Maybe it was the newspaper. Or maybe it was just his old habits kicking in.
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