"What’s the bad news then?"
"There are no antibodies in her body. Whatever the thing used to pause the viral replication inside her body, it’s not going to last forever."
"How long can it last exactly?" Xiaoyun questioned.
"I don’t know. It could be months, weeks, or days... There’s no exact tiline that I could tell so far from the tests conducted today." Liang i answered.
"So as long as it is applied over and over again, the virus will remain inactive, though, right?"
"In theory, it should work. But the likelihood of the virus mutating and going past the blockade is also possible."
The wording confused Xiaoyun a little, but he quickly got the gist of it as he asked another question.
"So in the long, long term, far into the future, the virus will reactivate itself and start replicating inside her body?"
"It could happen in the short term or the long term... There really isn’t a concrete answer since we had never seen it inactivated on such a large scale."
"I see. Thank you for your work."
"No problem, sir... Ahem, Governor, do you want to hand the folder to the Chief Scientific Officer, or should I hand it to her when she cos back?"
"You can hand it to her."
Just as Xiaoyun handed one of the folders into her hands and turned around, Liang i spoke up again.
"Um, Governor, the two folders are not the sa copy. They are both in one report that I need to copy—"
"I’ll hand the report to Tianci. You don’t have to worry about it anymore."
As Xiaoyun grabbed the folder out of Liang i’s hand and went back into his car, Houqin was still standing next to the passenger door in silence.
"Houqin, don’t just stand out there. Co inside."
She finally opened the car door and entered, but she just sat there with no seat belt as her face still looked emotionless.
"You okay, Houqin?"
"I’m okay. Sorry for the trouble."
"Don’t worry about it. I’ll always be there for you... To be honest, I’m sure this case isn’t as bad as Liang i had described it to be."
"How would you know?" Houqin questioned as her face finally regained so sense of emotion rather than just a deadpan face.
"Because I just have a feeling. Trust , when Tianci cos back from her trip, she’ll figure out a way to resolve this for you."
"I hope so..."
As Xiaoyun started up the car, he quickly ca to a stop on the side of the street and looked over to her.
"Why did you stop?" Houqin curiously asked.
"Where do you want to go? It’s already six o’clock... Do you want to drive you ho, or do you want to co to my house?"
"I-I’ll just want to go back to my own ho."
"Okay then."
---
As the car ca to a stop, the two of them arrived back at her apartnt building from earlier.
"Houqin, are you sure you don’t want to live with ?" Xiaoyun asked, his face looking genuinely worried for her.
"I’m good. I’m not ready to et your other wives yet... W-We’re only girlfriend and boyfriend, nothing more."
"Okay then... wait, before you go, promise this. You won’t do anything stupid that you’ll regret."
"Stop making sound like I’m so depressed edgy teen or sothing. I’m an adult, I don’t need you to watch over ."
Houqin’s old combative self reappeared as she pushed the car door open before stepping into the hot air outside.
"I haven’t even lived life to the fullest yet..." Houqin quietly murmured to herself as she slamd the door shut.
"Call if anything feels off!"
"I know!"
As Houqin disappeared into the apartnt, Xiaoyun finally let out a small sigh of relief, as she seed to look much more cheerful than before.
"Why does this have to happen to her out of all people?"
Xiaoyun grumpily murmured. He just couldn’t help but feel bad for her. Out of all the things to happen, the solution they tried didn’t work fully.
"At least she’s not a zombie yet... There’s still so hope." Xiaoyun comforted himself as he started the car engine once again.
Just as he was about to drive out of the street, his phone suddenly started ringing. Taking it out, Yueyue was calling him.
"Hello?"
"Xiaoyun, can you co over? My agents finish gathering reports on the cause of Zhongxiong’s death and the lab report."
"Lab report?"
"The one in Taishan. You forgot the secret society left it? My agents had fully explored the place and discovered a lot of interesting things."
"I’ll be there in an hour or so... I need to go give Chengyi and Pinli a goodbye first before they leave Luoping."
"Okay."
As Xiaoyun hung up the phone, he let out a small sigh again as stress began to build up inside his head.
"Just a few more days of working and I’ll be free."
---
"Xiaoyun!"
"Chengyi!"
As the two of them gave each other a warm hug, all of the soldiers were already fully back, with their brand new uniforms and service rifles.
"Where’s Pinli?" Xiaoyun curiously asked as he noticed him missing from the group of officers standing in the front.
"He’s talking to his father sowhere. He’s going to catch up with us later on his own probably."
Xiaoyun didn’t dig too deep into it as the two of them quickly headed to the front stage’s podium.
"Good evening, everyone. I hope you all like your new guns and uniform... Since you’re all about to go, I’m just going to make it brief."
Looking through the crowds of soldiers, Xiaoyun could see the various faces. So look a little emotionless, while so look a little lost.
The majority of them looked a little bored, as if their emotion had moved past amazing food and all the new toys they had received in the past few hours.
"You guys will be going to Shaoguan to be trained by General Yezi. It’s going to be a tough and vigorous training, but I’m sure you all can handle it.
For those who think they can’t do it, don’t worry. There will be opportunities once you arrive to be honorably discharged and be paid handsoly as a retiree."
As soon as Xiaoyun ntioned the word paid, the soldiers’ faces all changed in unison—a complete 180 from the deadpan face to excitent.
"There will be a physical test exam, and your citizenship will be taken care of regardless of whether you pass or not.
It will be your choice. I repeat, there will not be any draft to force you to be a soldier. The choice to leave or stay will be yours."
This ti, the officers, including Chengyi himself, looked a little surprised. But they didn’t speak up as they waited for him to finish his speech.
"One last thing. I know so of you might miss your hotown in Changsha and in Hunan province, or have relatives still living there.
Although I can’t promise you all that everyone will get out safely, I can at least promise you all this."
Xiaoyun paused for a second as he waited for the soldier’s reaction. To his surprise, none of them seems to have changed.
"I’ll try my damn best to get them out. I’ll use every tool at my disposal as your commander in chief.
Diplomacy, trade, or even war. Your family will not be abandoned... As long as I’m alive, there will be no tragedy in Hunan.
Jiangxi n will not put their hands on Hunan. Those traitors who had betrayed Zhongxiong’s wish will be punished."
None of the soldiers spoke up. They all stared back at him; so of their faces looked a little shocked, while so looked overjoyed.
Soon, a soldier began to clap, quickly followed by rows upon rows of soldiers clapping in unison.
So even covered and wiped their eyes with their hands, as even Chengyi and the officers themselves looked shocked by the announcent.
"Thank you. Godspeed, everyone."
---
"Xiaoyun, you serious? You’re actually helping the soldier’s family out of Changsha?"
Chengyi questioned as they stepped down to the back of the stage, with soldiers being loaded into long-distance buses.
"Well, I’m going to try my best... I’m sure Jiangxi’s n have no reason to hurt the soldier’s family living there unless they want to create a permanent feud."
"But how are you going to get them out?"
"I already said it earlier—diplomacy, trade, and war. Nothing is off the table... There are no permanent enemies, only interests."
As soon as Xiaoyun finished talking, Chengyi couldn’t help but feel a cold chill traveling down her spine as several officers quickly approached them.
"Commander Chen! That speech was amazing. I want to thank you——"
"No need to thank yet. I still haven’t gotten those civilians out of Changsha yet. Save it when they arrive here."
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