"You want to get so food?"
"Sure."
As Xiaoyun and Houqin walked down the street together, it was fortunately much less crowded than earlier.
"Houqin, what do you think of the date so far?" Xiaoyun suddenly asked as they walked past a full restaurant.
"Um... I think it had been great."
"Only great? Is there sothing I can do to make it perfect? Did I do sothing wrong sowhere?"
The question went unanswered as Houqin kept her mouth shut, not giving him the answer he wanted.
"Was it the lunch? Or forgetting the ticket? Hey, don’t just stay silent. I’m serious. I want to make sure everything is going smoothly—"
"You."
Houqin’s interruption shook Xiaoyun a little as he didn’t expect her to turn around and look him in the eyes.
"You, Xiaoyun. Next ti, I’m going to be the one making the date. I don’t want you to be the only one doing everything for ."
"Okay. That’s fine. You can plan out the next date if you really want to... Actually, when do you want to go on a date again then?"
"How about next—"
Before she could give her answer, Xiaoyun’s phone suddenly started ringing. Taking it out, Yuqi was calling.
"Sorry."
"It’s fine. Take the phone call first."
As Xiaoyun walked off for a bit and took the phone call, he held down his anger as Yuqi’s cold voice ca out next.
"Xiaoyun, I need you back at the office right now."
"What’s the matter? Can it not wait until tomorrow or until I get back ho? You know I’m still on a date with—"
"Your Gansu friends are here again."
---
"Good evening, Mr.Chen."
"Good evening."
Xiaoyun quickly shook hands with the young man sitting right across from Houqin, who had two bodyguards standing right by the sofa.
"Let’s just cut to the chase, Mr.Zhang. It’s sothing important that you wanted to talk about, right?"
"I like how direct you are. Ahem, you had heard about how the military remnant had taken over Beijing, right?"
"I do. What about it?"
"They had sent out an invite to all leaders of settlents in the country for talks."
"Talks?"
Xiaoyun was a little dumbfounded as his head wrapped around what kind of talk would be taking place at the capital.
"They wanted peace talks. A united front across all human settlents against the zombies."
"A united front, huh. Is this why you ca here a day after the Mid-Autumn Festival rather than be with your family?"
Zhangfei’s face flinched for a second, but he quickly recovered as he shook his head before speaking up again.
"My father is the one who personally recomnded them to send you an invite... Can I be personal with you for a second?"
Before he could continue, one of the guards behind him suddenly cleared his throat, seemingly as if he was warning Zhangfei to stop.
"I know who I’m talking to... Mr.Governor, I’m going to be honest with you, I don’t recomnd you go on this trip at all."
This ti, both of the guards started clearing their throats, interrupting the conversation completely as Yuqi got up from her seat.
"Excuse , Miss Yuqi, can you bring us to a break room? We’re a little thirsty right now."
With a single look, Yuqi led both of them out of the office, leaving only Xiaoyun and Zhangfei in the office.
"Mr.Governor—"
"No need to call governor, just call by my first na... Why do you not want to go on this trip?"
"Because it’s a one-way trip."
"A one-way trip?"
Zhangfei’s revelation shocked Xiaoyun a little. Although he expected sothing similar, he didn’t expect it to be taken that far.
"They’re most likely imprisoning you at the capital, then use you as a negotiating piece to force your settlent into capitulation."
"There’s no way that’s what they’re doing. That would literally go against the spirit of a united front against the zombies."
"Mr.Chen, do you really think the eting is just for a united front?"
Xiaoyun didn’t answer right away this ti as he sat there in silence, his mind thinking about what the possible reasoning could be.
However, all the reasoning led up to one answer. The sa answer that Zhangfei had already stated.
"Do you have any evidence?" Xiaoyun questioned, his heart still not really trusting Zhangfei’s word on face value.
"I... I don’t have any evidence. But I know for a fact those military remnants aren’t the sa as the ones at the beginning of the outbreak."
Once again, Xiaoyun sat there in silence. His mind knew Zhangfei’s warning had so truth to it, but it felt irrational just to assu it as fact.
"If that’s really the case, why would your father request an invitation for ? Are you saying your father is sabotaging ?"
"What? No. He’s... He’s thinking you’re the only one who could resist them."
"Resist?"
Zhangfei’s answer made him a little intrigued, as his mind already started forming an idea of what he could be saying next.
"We, as in the Western Theater Command, had managed to form a semi-alliance in the northwest since the start of the outbreak."
A short pause appeared as Zhangfei’s face hesitated for a second, but he eventually continued.
"Although we had accepted them as the superior command, they had only been more and more demanding recently."
"Demanding what?"
"Oil, salt, sheep, all kinds of resources we had gathered for ourselves were forced to be sold at an unfair price that they arbitrarily set.
They even requested our n to be at the capital doing the most dangerous job for them on the battlefield."
"If I’m understanding this correctly, your father wants to go so they can use as the potential shield to block everything?" Xiaoyun questioned.
"Of course not! My father was only doing this because the civilians are fed up with the unfair treatnt by the capital.
I-I just feel like you deserve to know the truth. I don’t want to sell out a man like you who’s..."
Zhangfei’s voice beca quieter and quieter before it beca completely inaudible as he looked a little upset.
"Zhangfei, I just want to thank you for your honesty."
"No problem—"
"You can tell your father that I’ll be going on this trip to the capital." Xiaoyun interrupted as Zhangfei’s eyes widened in confusion.
"What? Why would you go on to accept this trip? I literally just told you they’re setting up a mousetrap for you."
"I know. But have you thought about what the consequences of my not going? The only settlent leader who chose to ignore the military’s invite?"
This ti, Zhangfei fell into silence. Xiaoyun’s answer had caught him completely offguard as he didn’t think about that at all.
"There’s nothing they could do to you. Y-You’re all the way over in Guangzhou." Zhangfei argued as he finally ca up with a response.
"Zhangfei, do you really think your father is the one who made the invite?" Xiaoyun questioned back.
"Of course he did. That’s what he told ... If it weren’t for him, they wouldn’t even know your existence—"
"But you just said you had troops sent to the capital to work for them, and you guys do trade regularly with them.
I find it hard to believe they don’t know who I am. The chance of them knowing through your father is extrely low."
Zhangfei sat still, frozen in place as if sothing just shook him internally. His face shifted from anger to confusion within a matter of seconds.
"Why would my father lie to ?"
"He probably just wanted to test you. That’s all... I would do the sa if I were in his shoes."
"Why?" Zhangfei questioned again.
"Look, you had been talking to as if we were long-ti friends even though we had t for less than 24 hours total.
He probably wanted to see if you’ll be naive enough to be honest... Notice how your security guards cough so much earlier?"
"Uncle Liang and Uncle Wu... H-He wouldn’t dare do this to ."
"They tried to warn you, but it seems like you had failed the test... Now, please excuse , I need to go to the bathroom."
Xiaoyun got up from his chair, heading over to the exit before he turned around to look back at Zhangfei one last ti.
"As a piece of advice, you might want to check your clothes or shoes. They probably had bugged you."
"Bugged?"
As Zhangfei took his jacket off and looked around, he couldn’t find the concealed mic that Xiaoyun was talking about.
"Hey, where did Xiaoyun go?"
Yuqi questioned as she ca back to her office with the two guards, looking a little confused by the empty seat next to her chair.
"He went to the bathroom... Uncle Liang and Uncle Wu, you guys didn’t bug , right?"
"What bugged? What are you talking about?"
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