A week has passed since Xiaoyun''s tour at the bank.

Most of the damage caused by the storm was finally fully recovered, and all the soldiers were finally sent back to the training field to start training again.

Yuqi was extremely angry, as expected, but she eventually got over it after Xiaoyun went over to the warehouse to restock the entire inventory for several days straight to drive down the prices of goods.

Inflation was finally under control once again, and with more people putting their food stamps in the bank rather than spending it, the price of goods almost plummeted as there was now more supply than demand.

In the agriculture department, a long assessment was conducted. Unfortunately, all the food was damaged by the storm, but the good thing was most of the produce had already been harvested before the storm hit. So it was only minor damage.

Besides the town''s successful recovery, the bigger thing that was on everyone''s mind was the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Everyone in the town was getting more and more excited, especially when Yuqi gave a public announcement that all government employees were going to get a day off on that day.

It was big news as government employees made up eighty percent of the town''s workforce, with the other twenty percent in small private businesses or manufacturing.

Although Yuqi didn''t mandate private businesses to follow suit, most of them gave their employee a day off or paid them extra to work during the holiday, which was a win-win for everyone in the town.

However, seeing the eighty percent being government workers raised the alarm in both Yuqi''s and Xiaoyun''s minds. Both knew the planned economy that was in place was increasingly becoming more difficult to manage.

The only solution was to privatize some sections of the government. But when Yuqi gave Xiaoyun the list of the public sector that she wanted to privatize, Xiaoyun rejected all of them as he felt it was too risky to change so many at once.

In the end, both found their common ground on privatizing the construction department first as a test, as it was making up 10% of the workforce, which was just big enough to support itself and have enough money to restructure itself.

Even though the two called the process they had created ''privatization,'' it was just turning the construction department into a more ''worker-owned'' company as there was no incentive to give it to a private individual to run it.

At first, many people in the town were confused by the sudden change, especially as people were starting to get laid off from the downsizing. But the fact it maintained the same efficiency with fewer people and letting more people freed up to do another job, the two found it a success.

With every day that passed, everything was looking up for everyone in the town.

---

Halfway through September, the day before the festival.

As everyone was getting off work and getting a good night''s sleep early for tomorrow, Xiaoyun was alone in the command center.

In front of him was a piece of paper that he finally got free time to read as he was too busy working in the office or making the upcoming plan for the new military operation in the city.

"How the hell am I supposed to get all the way to the warehouse in China Telecomm?" Xiaoyun muttered as he looked toward the map.

The warehouse stood in the northern outskirts of Guangzhou, while the town was positioned in the southern region of the city.

"The sooner we get these, the faster we can move away from using paper." Xiaoyun thought to himself as he started looking for a route to the north that didn''t require going directly across the city center.

"Maybe we can use the highway and wrap around the city... This worked last time when we went to clear all the other factions near Guangzhou."

Pulling out the old plan from the drawer, Xiaoyun was able to base a new route that directly traveled there to transport the equipment.

After completing the plan for the telecom equipment, Xiaoyun pulled out the new plan for the military operation he had been working on when he had nothing to do in the office.

The new plan was similar to the first plan with bunkering down in a building, but instead of a building, it would be an actual defensive line built at the entrance of the city.

With layers of defenses that can be retreated as more and more zombies attack it. On top of that, having a more open style of defense also meant if something did go wrong, the soldiers could always retreat away to their vehicles.

This plan would be especially effective now rather than using it in the past, as all the lone zombies were already cleared out or forced to form zombie hordes in the streets.

"Come on! You guys enjoyed it, too! Besides, it''s been too hot to go outside." Xiaoyun doubled down on his suggestion.

"If you are staying home, we''re going to go shopping ourselves," Yuqi argued back.

"I kinda want to relax at home too..." Yueyue suddenly chimed in Xiaoyun''s side.

"Yueyue! You really want to do that kind of stuff this early in the morning?" Yuqi felt a little betrayed by Yueyue''s sudden switch.

"No, I just don''t like going to shopping. And it''s so hot outside, too." Yueyue replied.

"How about the rest of you?" Xiaoyun looked over to the other.

"It''s going to damage our skin too much if we go outside tomorrow." Leyan joined Xiaoyun''s side.

"I can''t really walk that much." Nami pointed toward her pregnant belly.

"How about you two?" Yuqi asked as she looked over to Wuli and Shuli.

"Sure, I don''t mind going." Wuli sided with Yuqi.

Seeing Wuli going, Shuli nodded in agreement as well.

Yuqi then turned over to the three on the other side of the table.

"Tianci, Anna, Kate, you three want to come with us?" Yuqi asked.

"I don''t mind going to shopping. I love buying things from all the different stores."

Anna spoke with a somewhat mix of Chinese and German, but it was understandable enough for everyone.

"We have to stay where Xiaoyun goes," Kate replied as she and Tianci both shook their head.

"Come on, he''s just staying at home all day. He''s in no danger at all." Yuqi tried to convince the two.

"She''s right. If you two want to go shopping, feel free to join them." Xiaoyun gave permission to the two.

"Okay, I''ll go then." Kate nodded in agreement.

"I-I think I''ll stay," Tianci replied.

With almost everyone''s options out of the way, there were only two people who still hadn''t decided.

"Lily, do you want to go?" Nami asked before Yuqi could.

"Not really. I still have a lot of homework." Lily replied.

"Mom, do you want to go?" Yuqi asked as she turned her attention to Leyan.

"Sure, I''ll come with you guys. I need to buy food for tomorrow''s dinner anyway."

"Well then, it looks like you six are going. " Xiaoyun commented as everyone began getting up to load their dishes into the dishwasher.

"Good enough. Anyway, you better practice the script before tomorrow."

Yuqi handed the paper to him before heading toward the dishwasher.