Zombie Apocalypse: Creation-Chapter 740: Betting on Xiaoyun

Chapter 740: Betting on Xiaoyun
"If you can do it for free, why don’t you become a governor of a province yourself? I’m more than willing to work with you."
Seeing Xiaoyun still not buying his word, Wu Min looked over to his son for a second before taking out a small envelope.
"A common man possessing a precious jade will only bring trouble... I know my kid is too dull to be a ruler."
The word instantly made Pinli a little mad, but he quickly fell into silence by a single glare from his dad’s eye.
"I want to make a bet on you, Governor." Wu Min declared as he inched forward a little to have a close look.
"Me? Why me? Just because I saved you in the past?" Xiaoyun questioned, silently moving back a little in his seat.
Wu Min shook his head, handing the envelope over to his hand before signalling him to open it to have a look.
"You’re the only one who still has some sense of duty to the people. Every ruler I had met had only sought benefit for themselves.
I want someone who’s not too negligent of the people, and the things I have seen from you are nothing but kindness."
As Xiaoyun opened the letter, he was a little shocked by the very first line. It was a letter written by no other than Zhongxiong.
"That old man wanted you to be the next Hunan leader. Not Yezi... But he died a lot sooner than any of us had imagined."
Wu Min murmured as his eyes suddenly looked a little depressed, seemingly to be on a short nostalgia trip.
"Me, Xioayun, out of all people... I had only met him once. How could he come up with that conclusion? How did he even suddenly die out of nowhere?"
"That I would not know... But he had been having small strokes long before he died. It’s not really that surprising to see it happen."
Seeing no answer coming out of Wu Min that could clarify most of his questions, Xiaoyun slowly puts the letter back down.
His mind was more confused than ever as the letter was just an authorization signed by Zhongxiong to transfer command power over to Xiaoyun.
"Didn’t you guys let Yezi be the commander next? Why would this letter say my name instead of his?"
Xiaoyun questioned, realizing a critical flaw in the letter that didn’t add up to any of the narratives he had heard from the past.
"You weren’t there at the time, and we needed someone to lead. The majority of us thought he was the best candidate at the time until—"
This time, Wu Min hesitated. His face looked a little uneasy, as if he regretted some past decision he had made.
"We didn’t expect the first order to be to arrest a high-ranking officer... I’m sure your general had already told you what happens next."
Despite not saying a single word back, the slight flinch on Xiaoyun’s face told everything Wu Min needed to know.
"What does this have to do with giving me a province for free? This letter isn’t going to change the situation in Hunan, is it?"
As Xiaoyun finally moved on from digging more about Zhongxiong, Wu Min looked a little at ease as he slowly picked up the tea cup for a sip.
"I can contact the officer who rebelled against Yezi. He’s more than willing to switch sides as long as you promise him..."
"Promise him what?"
"He wanted to be pardoned of all crimes in the past and be shielded from reprecussion from General Yezi."
The decision made Xiaoyun fall into a little conflict inside. But he soon made up his mind as he put the letter back into the envelope.
"I’m good."
"You sure?"
Wu Min’s face looked a little shocked, unable to believe Xiaoyun just denied something so trivial for a massive potential payout.
"Everyone must be held accountable for the crime. If justice is taken away from Yezi, then that will just make me an accomplice."
"Is the crime he committed that bad? Surely you, as the Governor, can settle the grudges between the two of them."
Seeing Xiaoyun continuing to shake his head, Wu Min still refused to take no as an answer.
"Mr.Governor, I really want you to reconsider. Is the feud between two people more important than the innocent civilians in Hunan?
Hundreds of thousands of people’s lives are at stake in a single decision. You could turn Hunan into a warzone—"
"There are no signs or evidence that Jiangxi’s men or the rebels are hurting the civilians in Changsha or in Hunan."
"Even if they hold those civilians hostage? Putting them against the soldiers who moved here?"
Wu Min questioned, his voice growing impatient as he sat on the edge of his seat, almost as if he was about to force Xiaoyun into a deal.
"If they dare, the whole world would know of their crime. They will be the enemy of all citizens around the country for such a cruel collective punishment."
"What if it is too late? You can’t bet all those lives—"
Before Wu Min could come up with another argument, a knock on the door instantly snapped him back to reality.
"Come in."
As several waiters entered the room, various kinds of dishes were put onto the table as Wu Min looked back at Xiaoyun with a smile.
"Sorry, Governor, I lost control a little... It’s a decision for you to make, Governor. If you changed your mind, you can contact me anytime."
"I know."
---
As Xiaoyun left the restaurant full, Pinli was right behind him, rubbing his belly over and over again.
"Xiaoyun, I think you made the right call," Pinli murmured, letting out a small burp as he slowly stretched out his arm.
"What makes you think that?" Xiaoyun asked, looking a little surprised by Pinli’s willingness to side against his father.
"I heard a lot of bad rumors about this officer."
"Like what?"
"He gambles a lot. He opened a prostitution ring in Liling, and he even..."
Pinli fell into silence as the two of them stopped right at Xiaoyun’s car. His mouth was unable to finish the sentence for some weird reason.
"Even what?"
"T-This is just a rumor, okay? I don’t want to be all gossip—"
"Just tell me. No one else would know what we talked about other than the two of us." Xiaoyun reassured.
After a short pause, Pinli finally spoke up again.
"I heard this officer has a lot of... um, how would I call this? Male concubine? Or a couple of men?"
"Huh?"
The revelation shocked Xiaoyun a little, making his face flinch before he took a step back away from Pinli.
"Hey, I’m just saying what other soldiers had rumored. Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Nothing. Ahem, so this officer has no discipline and no moral order?" Xiaoyun questioned as he cleared his throat.
"Yeah, at least that’s what everyone calls him. But I never met him in person or anything, so I wouldn’t really know if it is true."
"I see... Well, I’m going to get going now. Hopefully, the next time we meet each other is when we’re celebrating our next victory in Shaoguan."
"W-Wait, Xiaoyun, can you drive me to the training field? I forgot to—"
"Get in."
---
After dropping Pinli off at the training field, Xiaoyun finally drove his car back towards the administrative building.
Parking it off, he headed straight to the elevator before exiting it at the top floor. To his surprise, Yueyue was in Yuqi’s office as well.
"Hey Xiaoyun." Yueyue quietly whispered.
"You’re late." Yuqi grumpily murmured.
"Just ran into someone familiar earlier... Why is Yueyue in the office? You two chatting about something?"
"Did you forget today was the day we’re analyzing the pros and cons of reopening the Taishan nuclear power plant?" Yuqi questioned.
"Oh, oops. I completely forgot about that."
"Whatever. Here’s the conclusion we have made so far. You can have a read and tell us what you think."
As Yuqi handed him several pages of a document, Xiaoyun took a short breath before opening the first page.
"You two came up with all these?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.
"No. We just combined all the data gathered by the experts and the situation on the ground to conclude if it is safe enough to operate."
Reading past the first few pages, he soon found himself a little confused as most of the stuff was too technical to understand.
He still could understand the engineer’s conclusion, though, which was that the power plant itself didn’t suffer any critical damage.
In actuality, the secret society seems to have been using the nuclear facility and maintaining it at a very low capability.
And to fully activate and restart both sections of the nuclear facility was going to cost at least several trillions over a year and a half.
"Hm. Seems pretty impossible so far..."
Moving on to the next section, it was the material expenses calculation. This section was the shortest as it only had five lines.
"No component replacement, no Uranium dioxide... So you’re telling me this nuclear facility is completely useless?"