The next day...

When Xiaoyun woke up, it was already eight.

"Where did everyone go?" Xiaoyun thought to himself as he thought back to what happened last night after the bathtub session.

As he got up from the bed, he looked back down at the bedsheet, which was full of stains from last night.

It had an extremely strong smell, as it was full of their love juice mixed, some of which were even still a little fresh, as they only went to sleep after three o''clock.

"This is way too much... I''m going to die even if I use my ability to keep it up." Xiaoyun murmured as he headed inside the bathroom to clean up.

After Xiaoyun was fully cleaned, he went back into the bedroom to grab his army uniform before walking downstairs to the living room.

As he walked towards the kitchen, he could hear the kitchen hood already running loudly.

"Good morning everyone."

"Good morning..."

As Xiaoyun took a seat at the dining table, he noticed everyone looked extremely sleepy.

"You all okay? Why do you guys look like you haven''t slept for ages?" Xiaoyun asked as he began chewing on the fried dough sticks.

"What do you think, you dummy... Doesn''t help somebody forced us to be up all the way until three."

"Hey, I was just too energetic after laying inside that bathwater, okay? Besides, you all were enjoying it even more than me——"

"Honey, it''s ''breakfast'' time. Other people are still here."

Seeing Leyan''s vein pop on her head, Xiaoyun immediately went back to eating his fried dough sticks with the porridge that she had just put down.

"Brother Xiaoyun, you are leaving today for Foshan, right?" Lily curiously asked.

"Yeah, I''m most likely gone for the next week or so. You need me to bring you back something from the city?"

"I''m good. Everything I need is already in Luoping."

"That''s good..."

As everyone finished eating the last piece of their breakfast, Xiaoyun decided to bring something up.

"Tianci, can you stay in Luoping?"

"Why?"

"I need you to protect them... And protect yourself, too. I can take care of myself——"

"No, you cannot. You''re going to have a bodyguard with you at all times."

Yuqi immediately interrupts Xiaoyun''s suggestion as she can still remember when she saw him injured in the hospital.

"I know, I know. Kate is coming with me for this mission. I''m not that stubborn, okay?"

Seeing Kate nodding in agreement, all the girls let out a sigh of relief. They were genuinely worried that Xiaoyun was going to go on a solo mission again.

"Oh snap, I need to go now before I''m late."

As Xiaoyun got up from his seat, everyone else got up from their seats and followed the two to the doors.

Before Xiaoyun reached for the door handle, he turned back around to face all of them.

"Leyan, take care of the family, okay?"

"Very well. Then, I''m not going to explain any further... But I have one last question for you all."

Xiaoyun paused for a second, then continued.

"Are you all ready to lose your lives for the cause? To bring peace and order to this apocalypse?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Good! It looks like I don''t need to waste any more time. Godspeed everyone!"

With a salute towards the soldier, Xiaoyun stepped down the stage before running into Yezi.

"Xiaoyun! Why are you bringing so many artillery shells and stationary explosives at once?" Yezi asked, feeling something was a little fishy.

"It''s to stall out the zombies and buy time if we need to evacuate." Xiaoyun explained.

Yezi didn''t think much further as he patted Xiaoyun on the shoulder.

"Don''t worry about the town. I''ll protect everybody in the town before I die."

"I trust you, brother."

After the hug, Xiaoyun headed straight into one of the buses that was already full of soldiers.

---

As the buses began driving towards the exit, hundreds of people were gathered right near the entrances of Luoping, watching their families leaving the town.

Xiaoyun even noticed the girls standing among the crowds of people at the top of the wall, waving goodbye as if it was their last time seeing them.

However, in the buses, none of the soldiers showed any sign of fear. Instead, it was full of excitement and chattering about how many zombies they were going to kill when they got to Foshan.

After driving for a minute, Luoping was now behind them in the distance.

A bored Xiaoyun decided to look in the bus mirror, only to find that all the soldiers were unrecognizable.

They were all brand-new recruits fresh from the monthlong training at the training fields, with most of them being on the reserves or defending Luoping.

"So noisy... I should have brought my headphones..." Kate murmured as she looked just as bored as Xiaoyun.

Just as the buses got onto the highway, suddenly Xiaoyun took out his walkie-talkie and turned it on.

"All drivers head south to Longxue island except Zhen Ren''s brigade. You may continue to Foshan as planned."

Immediately, all the soldiers in different buses were confused as the driver began to reverse the bus and headed in the opposite direction of Foshan.

Still, not a single driver questioned Xiaoyun''s decision, and no soldiers dared ask why the sudden change.

"Commander Xiaoyun... What is this for?" Zhen Ren asked, his voice sounding extremely confused over the walkie-talkie.

"Special mission. Just head to Foshan and set up a defense for now. I''ll come back and meet up with you later."

Zhen Ren didn''t ask any further. He ended the transmission and eventually drove out of communication range.

"Why are we heading south to Longxue out of all places?"

Kate curiously asked as she didn''t even know what Xiaoyun was planning despite being next to him almost 90% of the time.

"You heard me. It''s a secret mission. Don''t worry about it. Just stick to your bodyguard job."

"Whatever... I guess I''m just a bodyguard..." Kate murmured to herself as she grumpily turned to the side to look out the window.

But Xiaoyun still chose to stay silent, not telling her the plan as he looked forward into the distance.