A week has passed since the power came back online.

    It was another relaxing day for Xiaoyun, sitting in the bench press while the three girls did jumping jacks—until his phone rang.

    Although power has run out in the city, somehow, there is still a single bar of service.

    "What up, Yezi?"

    "Can you come to the front entrance of the Luoping community? There''s... is a bus at the gate right now. Um... some dude just walked out of the bus.

    Hey, hands up, this is private property! Stop right there before I open fire——"

    Before Yezi finished talking, Xiaoyun heard only the sound of a phone being dropped before it went dead silent.

    "Shit, I am coming right now. Just hold on."

    As Xiaoyun hung up the call, all three of the girls got a little worried seeing him in a rush, switching into his outdoor clothes.

    "What''s wrong?" Leyan asked.

    "Yezi is in trouble. I need to go help him."

    As he ran out of the gym and got into his car, Yueyue quickly followed him into the car as the two watched them drive out of the garage.

    ---

    "Who the hell are you guys?"

    Yezi asked as he stood on top of the makeshift stairs that led to the security room roof, his rifle in hand pointing directly at them.

    "We don''t have any bad intentions. We just got out of the city," the man replied as he walked out, his hand raised.

    "How many are on the bus?" Yezi asked out loud again.

    "There are twenty of us. We just want a place to stay. My name is Renqin," the man replied.

    "Lingang, go check on him, search him, and check the bus while you''re at it. Don''t be scared. I got your back."

    A man in his early twenties with a security guard outfit walked up to the outsider, patted him down, and took the axe from his back easily.

    "You don''t mind me checking inside the bus, right? Nothing dangerous inside?" Lingang asked.

    "Nope, you can go right in," Renqin replied.

    Lingang took a glance at the bus and saw several families grouped up inside, looking a little scared.

    "I''m here to verify if anyone here has any dangerous weapon..."

    Despite Lingang trying to intimate a conversation, none of them said anything back as he entered the bus.

    "Um, I am not a gang member or anything. I am a nice guy, yeah, a nice guy. You guys don''t need to be so scared."

    As Lingang said it out loud, the opposite happened.

    All of them got even more scared, especially when they noticed Lingang''s pistol on the side.

    "Never mind... Mister Yezi, all clear!" Lingang yelled as he walked back out of the bus.

    Hearing his answer, Yezi finally came down from the roof and headed over to where Renqin stood.

    "How did you guys make it out of the city? Isn''t it too late to leave at this point? The last time I went, I almost died." Yezi curiously asked.

    "It''s a long story, but we all lived in the same apartment building, and fortunately, one of us used to work as a bus driver, so we lived close by.

    After the power ran out, we were able to rush to the bus and drive out. We didn''t even have a direction to go to, so we just ended up here now," Renqin explained.

    "I thought the road was blocked by all the cars jammed? And how did you guys get off without getting caught by the zombies?" Yezi questioned.

    "The military went inside the city yesterday. They removed all the roadblocks and apparently were looking for some scientists.

    Even helicopters and explosives were used, and we were able to use that time to run out to the bus station''s garage."

    Hearing Renqin''s explanation, Yezi couldn''t help but feel the man in front of him was extremely lucky.

    "Damn, that''s certainly some timing... Just curious, are you their leader?" Yezi asked.

    "Um, I guess none of them wanted to lead and voted me to come out." Renqin awkwardly scratched his head.

    "I see... the scapegoat... Ahem, one last thing, okay? Do you guys have your food?" Yezi asked again.

    "Um... about that. We have been running out of food for almost a day now. Can you guys spare any food?" Renqin pleaded.

    "You know food is hard to get. We can''t just give it away for free," Yezi said, refusing Renqin''s plea.

    Suddenly, a car drove toward the entrance from the inside. Before they could react, the car had already stopped as the car door opened.

    "What''s the issue here?" Xiaoyun asked as the two headed over to Yezi.

    "Some people got out of the city with the bus when the military went to a rescue mission for some scientist.

    Long story short, now they want to ask us for food and a place to stay. His name is Renqin. He''s the leader of those people on the bus." Yezi explained.

    "Hm... Well, we do have several houses that you guys can stay in, and we do have some food."

    Xiaoyun glanced at the bus and saw several families looking a little scared as they looked toward him.

    "I''m sure we can work something out. How about this: You guys work for Yezi, and you all can move into Luoping."

    Xiaoyun finally came up with an idea, but he left it all to Yezi to deal with as he just wanted to enjoy life at home.

    "But there''s no way I can feed this many people——" Before Yezi could finish, Xiaoyun interrupted him.

    "Don''t worry, I can provide the food, but Yezi, can you make sure they have work to do? I don''t want to waste food for free."

    Seeing the confidence on Xiaoyun''s face, Yezi reluctantly agreed to take them in.

    "I don''t mind some extra hands to help secure this place. I was thinking of going to the construction site near the outskirts to get some material for a small wall anyway."

    Seeing Yezi accepting his suggestion, Xiaoyun turned his attention to Renqin, who still looked a little hesitant.

    "Then is that a deal, Mister Renqin?"

    After a short silence, Renqin nodded in agreement.

    "Let me go inside the bus and tell them."

    Renqin''s face looked excited as he walked away back onto the bus, with Lingang walking back to Yezi.

    "Xiaoyun, aren''t you being too generous?" Yezi raised his concern.

    Yezi and Huayi had just entered the house next to Xiaoyun on the right, with him being in the middle.

    Meanwhile, the rest of the girls, along with Lily, were on the left side of the table.

    As Leyan laid down the last dish on the table, she sat down next to Huayi as it was the only seat left on the table.

    "Miss Leyan, how did you look so young? Your skin and wrinkles are all gone... How is this possible?" Huayi curiously asked.

    "Oh, um, I just forgot to wash my face last time... Anyway, Xiaoyun, how was the trip to 307?"

    Leyan changed the conversation as she couldn''t make up an excuse for how drastic she looked compared to the last time.

    "Most of them look like honest good people... but some of them are a little ambitious and are a little unhappy with their situation," Xiaoyun responded as he chewed on a chicken wing.

    "There are always going to be a few bad apples. But as long as they''re mostly good, we should be fine." Yuqi commented.

    "So accepting them was bad then?" Nami curiously asked after hearing Yuqi''s uncertain tone.

    "I mean, we might be expanding a little too fast. Hearing Xiaoyun saying earlier that it''s twenty people...

    It''s more than double our current size if we count the people we rescued from the gangs, and the people we rescued aren''t even a hundred percent loyal either.

    And that Renqin person sounds more like a figurehead. If things go south, he''s the first one out.

    We should have only allowed some in and some out instead of letting everyone inside since they might have formed groups," Yuqi explained her thoughts.

    "But most of them are families. It would be ridiculous to separate them from each other. Besides, most of them would starve if we kicked them out." Yueyue argued.

    "I''m not saying separating family members from each other. I''m saying selecting the right families to be accepted." Yuqi clarified.

    "How about we separate them right now? They aren''t even one family or anything. I doubt they would stick together anyway.

    We could make it like a family unit to make them less grouped up than now," Nami suggested.

    "Isn''t that a little too early? They are going to push back against it. Maybe when we get to know each other first, then they will be friendlier."

    Leyan argued against Nami''s idea as she knew how close-knit certain people are, especially considering they had just survived together.

    "Anyway, it''s not our problem. That''s for Yezi to deal with. I only promised about the food." Xiaoyun joked as he pushed the conversation to Yezi.

    "Hey, I''m sitting here, you know?"

    Yezi wiped down a little sweat as he didn''t even think of all the things that the girls had brought up.

    "Oh, right. I almost completely forgot about that... Haha... Anyway, what do you think about them, Yezi?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.

    "I am leaning more toward Miss Leyan''s plan... Also, Xiaoyun and Yueyue, do you two want to come to the construction site on the city''s outskirts tomorrow?

    It''s going to be in the early morning, so I can put them to work in building the wall right after breakfast." Yezi offered.

    "Sure, I can go. More things I can create in the future, consider how much material a wall is going to take."

    Xiaoyun murmured as he hadn''t touched every single building material to create in the past.

    "I''m coming with you," Yueyue stated, not giving Xiaoyun a choice.

    "Can we go too?" Yuqi and Leyan both asked at the same time.

    "Sure, an extra pair of hands always helps." Yezi nodded.

    "Are you two sure? It''s going to be a lot of heavy work," Xiaoyun warned.

    "Yeah, I am ready! My body has been training for a week now. Even Yueyue was impressed!"

    Yuqi stretched her biceps, which were barely visible since her body was still extremely slim compared to even Leyan.

    "She sure impressed me. She went from being able to lift single-digit kg to almost being able to lift her weight in less than a week." Yueyue commented.

    "How about Ley——Mom?" Xiaoyun curiously asked, changing his answer at the last second as it almost slipped out again.

    "Mom? She is even more impressive. She went from only lifting half her weight to her weight... not to mention she is much heavier——hey, why did you hit me?"

    Leyan knocked on Yueyue''s head before she could finish, interrupting her from finishing her sentence.

    "Watch your mouth," Leyan warned as her face blushed.

    "Oh, I almost forgot to tell you something, Xiaoyun. I had been seen to be getting strong, even though I barely exercised at all.

    Huayi over here got a little stronger as well despite literally doing no exercise at all," Yezi pointed out.

    "Hey, I go do gardening work every day now, okay? Don''t say I''m that lazy!"

    Huayi angrily knocked on Yezi''s head, making him retract the statement as he apologized to her.

    "Huh, everybody is getting strong despite not working out at all... Hey, Xiaoyun, do you think it''s the virus thing?" Nami suddenly asked.

    Everyone at the table turned to Nami as if she just brought up some sort of breaking news.

    "Hm... maybe you are right," Xiaoyun responded as he thought more about it.

    "What? How''s that possible?" Yueyue asked, still unable to believe that the virus was helping them to survive.

    "Well, let''s just say this zombie outbreak is airborne and can travel through the air and survive in the air for super long.

    Assuming it can survive in the wind as it moves with the wind, everyone on earth is already infected——"

    "What? Then how are we not zombies?" Yezi interrupted Xiaoyun as he couldn''t believe he could be infected.

    "Let me finish, so this virus apparently has around like 1% infect turn rate to become a zombie. I am not sure what the actual percentage is here.

    Anyway, just because you are infected doesn''t mean you will turn into a zombie. The issue is that when you do turn into a zombie and bite someone, they then have a 99.99% turn rate to zombies."

    Xiaoyun stated as he thought back to the information he read down in the basement of the house.

    "So what I am getting at is that this virus is making everyone stronger, and it''s making training even more effective than usual. Did I say it right?" Leyan asked.

    "Yep, it''s exactly like that." Xiaoyun nodded.

    "So it''s like steroids, but it''s in the air for everyone." Yezi dumbed it down for himself.

    "Yeah, you could think it like that as well." Xiaoyun nodded.

    After the conversation ended, everyone was already full, as they had been eating the whole time.

    "Thank you for the meal, Miss Leyan." Yezi and Huayi both stood up in gratitude.

    "No worry, if you like it, you can come more often," Leyan replied.

    "Will do."

    As the two walked out of the house, Xiaoyun closed the door and went back into the living room.