As the 2nd week of August had quickly gone by, nothing much was happening. Neither Yiming nor Yezi reported anything weird happening.

It was almost as if the warning from those secret society scientists was them trying to make some sort of prank.

With no real danger appearing, another week went by faster than anyone had ever imagined.

Things were being built everywhere, across every county, every city, every town, and even in small countryside villages.

Construction was reaching an all-time high as what was originally a proped-up industry managed to function completely on its own without government subsidy.

Ironically, what was originally an unemployment issue that constantly bothered Yuqi and Xiaoyun had turned into a labor shortage.

There were not enough people to construct all the things both the private market and the government had wanted it to do.

Why did all these construction booms occur? Partially, it was due to private investment in the manufacturing boom that demanded a ludicrous amount of raw resources.

Older homes in those small towns that are meant for raw resources were being refurbished or even demolished.

Those older buildings were just too dangerous to live in, and those workers needed a place to live before raw resource extractions could even happen.

The other reason for the construction boom was the two main flaws of the defense system that Xiaoyun had set up.

In the eastern flank, ranging from Shenzhen to Dongguan to even Shaoguan, they all needed fortifications to be built before they could be handed over to civilian control.

Meanwhile, in the western flank, which was just made up of Zhaoqing, the newly conquered city demanded even more fortification.

The city alone needed more fortification than all three cities combined, as the area under its control was just too wide to fully cover.

Under Xiaoyun's agreement, Yezi was forced to make the strategic decision to completely withdraw from the northern part of Zhaoqing.

This was not to say he was giving the area back to the zombies. Rather, he had opted to leave a single division at each of the chokepoints.

Each chokepoint was naturally built as the mountains and forests surrounded them, only requiring the division to hold the roads that led up to the next chokepoint.

The rest of Yezi's army continued the march towards Yanfu city, making contact with the city just as the month came to an end.

Besides the two flanks, what was a bigger issue to Xiaoyun, however, was the southern flank that he had mostly ignored.

More specifically, Jiangmen city and Zhongshan city. The two cities were starting to become a thorn in everyone's mind.

They were the two cities that led up to the capital that weren't under their control. Ones that are directly connected to Foshan and Guangzhou.

Even to a lesser extent, Shenzhen had to worry about it as well. Progress in the two cities was completely stalled out.

The difficulty wasn't because the soldiers were tired or some crazy mutants appeared to stop them.

Rather, it was just the raw number of zombies. Active zombies that seemed to be fueled by some sort of drug.

They ran faster than before, tougher than before, and even smarter as they ran away when they saw big groups of soldiers.

The zombies were picking fights. Not soldiers who were usually able to lure them out in public to shoot them.

Every corner, every town, every village had zombies that took days to clear. Not to mention the constant rain along with the scathing heat afterward.

It was almost as if the zombies were desperately trying to stop them from their track, preventing them from going further south.

Still, all this military progress and concerns were only a small note in Xiaoyun's settlement, as a much bigger thing finally came up.

---

"Commander! The first batch of oil had finally arrived." Houqin excitedly reported as Xiaoyun took a seat before her.

"Thank god. Took long enough... Now we can all those tanks and vehicles to the front line."

"Um... About that."

"What? Is there something wrong with the fuel?"

"We still have to process it first. It's going to take a few days before the oil refinery can kick into full gear."

"That's fine. Yuqi is going to be so happy when she hears this. You wouldn't believe how impatient she had been waiting for this."

As Xiaoyun smiled, talking about the worry, he quickly noticed the change in Houqin's face.

"Houqin, is there something wrong? Your face looked a little worried."

"Commander... this fuel isn't going to last us forever. We still need to pay them with food for more fuel in the future."

"I know. But Yuqi already estimates that we'll quadruple our food production if we are no longer restrained by fuel.

Worst-case scenario. I can make the food myself to make up for the missing amount... Don't worry about it."

Seeing the optimism on his face, the worrying look vanished from Houqin's face. But there was still something that made her look a little taken aback.

"Houqin, is that all the report you have for today?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, then I'm gonna leave early today to check up with Yuqi... Call me if something else I need to know."

Just as he turned around and started heading towards the door, Houqin's voice made him freeze for a second.

"I almost forgot to say this. Happy birthday, Commander."

"Thanks."

As Xiaoyun closed the door and exited the room, his heart was pumping like crazy as he was completely caught off guard by it.

He didn't even remember today was his own birthday. More importantly, it's also meant today was Yueyue's birthday.

"Fuck fuck fuck. I don't have a single birthday present. What am I going to give Yueyue for her birthday?"

Going inside his car, he sat there in silence as he couldn't think of a gift. There wasn't really any gift he could think of that Yueyue wanted.

"Calm down, Xiaoyun, you got an entire day to think about this... There has to be something I can find out there."

As he drove out of the logistics office and towards Guangzhou, he could see various kinds of shops selling all kinds of goods.

"Would she want me to get her some jewelry? Or a dress? Or some makeup? No, no, no, she never even put them on."

With more and more possibilities kicked out of his mind, his head was starting to go blank... Until he saw a teddy bear.

The same teddy bear with a red bow that he once brought as a gift. More specifically, ones that he brought for Yueyue back when she was still a kid.

"She would like this, right?"

Unable to come up with anything else, Xiaoyun parked his car on the road, exiting the car before walking over to the shop.

---

"Why are you here so early today? Did Houqin have nothing else to report on?" Yuqi instantly asked the moment Xiaoyun walked into her office.

"I have some good news for you——"

"The fuels had arrived in Guangzhou, right?" Yuqi instantly answered once again before Xiaoyun could even finish his sentence.

"How do you know that already?"

"I was the one who sent her the email... Anyway, don't you dare think of using this for your army."

"What? Why not?"

"Your army never had enough fuel, no matter what. It's an endless pit that has almost zero returns."

The answer made Xiaoyun fall into silence for a second, but he quickly recovered his cool as he pushed back against it.

"Zero return is way too exaggerated. If it weren't for those tanks, we would have had much higher casualties against those zombies.

And without fuel, we wouldn't even be able to transport goods to the frontline. You can't be a value on that."

"But I can certainly see the amount of fuel allocated to the army every month... I'm not saying the army is getting zero, but I'm dictating it this time."

Seeing Yuqi unwilling to compromise, Xiaoyun had no other choice but to let out a small sigh of disappointment.

"Fine. I guess you'll get to distribute it... Anyway, is there anything interesting going on today?"

As Xiaoyun sat down before her in a grumpy mood, Yuqi chose to ignore his attitude as she took out a stack of paper for him.

"I finished writing the polygamy guideline. You can have a read, and if everything is fine, I'm going to enact it as a requirement."

"This much?"

His jaw instantly dropped in disbelief. There were almost ten pages of regulations and requirements.

"Better safe than sorry. That's your motto, right?"

Xiaoyun wiped off an invisible sweat from his forehead as he started reading through the paper page by page.

The first few pages were things he expected, like how all three sides need a mental evaluation by different psychiatrists and a police background check.

But as he read further down the document, it started to get more and more ridiculous—there was a clear favor towards women over men.

From all divorce proceedings giving all legal property to the women, to the woman being allowed to able to break off the relationship at any time by herself.

Every single legal framework had protection for women, almost as if he was reading some sort of enslavement contract.