Zombie Apocalypse: Creation

"Welcome back!"

"Is dinner ready yet?"

"Yeah. We're waiting for you to start."

As Leyan helped take off Xiaoyun's suit jacket, he quickly took off his shoe himself before noticing his wife standing still with his jacket in hand.

"Is there something wrong?'

"Honey, what happened to your clothes?" Leyan curiously asked as she finally put the jacket on top of the coat hanger.

"It was pretty windy today. Can you iron them? You don't have to do it today. I've got more in the closet."

"Okay..."

The excuse worked perfectly as the two of them walked past the empty living room into the kitchen.

Everyone was already seated with their bowl of rice and their chopsticks. Even Houqin was there, sitting right next to Tianci in the corner.

"How was your meeting?"

Yuqi asked first as Xiaoyun took an empty seat next to her, with Leyan heading deeper into the kitchen towards the rice cooker.

"Went pretty well. Got caught up with everything... Oh, almost forgot, I'm going to resume heading to Zhuhai next week."

"That fast?" Nami questioned, her face looking a little shocked.

"Didn't I already tell you all I was going on a trip next Monday? Why are you all acting so surprised?"

"Because you just fell unconscious for almost three days, and you almost died. Can you really not take a break first?"

As Leyan came back with a bowl of rice and a pair of chopsticks, her face looked extremely unhappy with his decision.

"There is no room for levity in the army. I can't upend an entire operation for my own sake when everything is already planned."

"I thought Yezi was going to take over."

The moment Yueyue pointed it out, Xiaoyun finally moved his chopsticks, allowing everyone at the table to start eating the food.

"Yezi is too old... Besides, I'm perfectly fine now. No point in risking his health for something that was intended for me."

Nobody spoke up again as they all ate silently, accepting his decision as set in stone... Until Xiaoyun himself spoke up again.

"Houqin, how are you feeling right now?"

"I'm feeling fine."

"How was the checkup with Tianci?" Shuli curiously asked as the question instantly ignited everyone's minds in the room.

"It went well." Houqin quietly answered.

Everyone's eyes immediately turned to Tianci, seemingly as if they were trying to get a better answer from her.

"It was better than anyone had imagined. The cells in her body and the blood had mostly reverted to the previous annual checkup."

"So she's a human again?" Wuli questioned, her face still displaying a hint of caution when looking over to Houqin.

"In every sense, yes. She's as human as everyone on earth. But there are still some concerns..."

"Like what?" Xiaoyun asked this time.

"The CT scan and the MRI scans show some anomaly that shouldn't belong in a human body."

Tianci paused for a second, then continued.

"But overall, the old concern of her virus cell taking over should be eliminated. At least dormant for now."

"So it can still be active at some point?" Kate immediately raised her concern.

"Well, we don't know if the virus strand is still hidden in her body. But so far we couldn't find anything from the basic checks.

Tomorrow I'll bring her to the lab again for more testing. Until then, she needs someone to be with her at all times."

Everyone immediately turned their eyes towards Xiaoyun, except Houqin, whose eyes shyly looked down at her rice bowl.

"What are you all looking at me for?"

"You're the only one in the household who can restrain her, no?" Yuqi pointed out as she turned the rotating glass table.

"Leyan? Shuli?"

"I have to take care of the kids. Do you want to put them in potential harm? No offense, Houqin." Leyan answered first.

"I'm about to head back to Shaoguan. I'm not sure if it really is the best idea to have her so far away from the lab." Shuli answered next.

"How about Tianci? Why not just have her be with Tianci at all times?" Xiaoyun questioned as he looked over to the last option.

"There are too many things going on in the lab. I can't have her always standing near me when experimenting."

"Maybe she can be—"

"Don't be silly, Anna. Even I can restrain you. Are you going to pull out a gun if Houqin goes all crazy?"

As Kate interrupted Anna's suggestion, it left Xiaoyun no choice, so he let out a small sigh as he picked up a piece of pork.

"Fine. Houqin, you're going to be with me. I'm going to warn you, there's going to be a lot of driving and walking involved."

Houqin silently nodded her head, accepting the new situation as everyone at the table held up a warm smile towards the two of them.

Except for one person.

"Lily, you okay?" Xiaoyun questioned, noticing her eyes staring towards Houqin as if she had something on the back of her mind.

"I'm fine!"

Seeing Lily resume eating like normal, Xiaoyun didn't think too much into it as they all ate at the dinner table.

---

As the evening slowly turned closer and closer towards nighttime, Xiaoyun was sitting on the sofa alongside his wives.

Houqin had just finished making a phone call to her parents as she sat back down next to him before putting it down onto the coffee table.

"Are you still using an iPhone 6?" Yuqi suddenly asked.

"Yeah."

"That's so old. Why don't you buy a new one? They're like dirt cheap, even for brand new ones at a hardware store."

"Maybe you're right..."

"Okay, time for you all to go to bed. No more running around... Hey Yongyi! Don't bring your sisters into the kitchen!"

While Leyan chased three of the older kids into the kitchen, all the other kids were peacefully sitting in their mother's arms.

"M-Mom!"

"Okay, okay."

Nami casually took off her blouse and bra, letting Xuanhua suckle on her nipple as she continued watching the news.

At the same time, Xiaoyun could notice Houqin's eyes constantly glancing over, not really paying attention to the TV at all.

"Something wrong, Houqin?"

"Nothing... Hey Xiaoyun, does your family always breastfeed like this?" Houqin asked, unable to resist her curiosity.

"Yeah. I mean, we've seen each other's naked bodies too many to count. No point in hiding anything at this point—"

"Ow! Bad Xuanhua!'

As Nami suddenly groaned in pain, Yuqi quickly stepped in to take Xuanhua out before she could punch something by accident.

"Don't try to breastfeed when you're nearly empty, you dummy... Mommy Yuqi is here. Xuanhua, Xuanhua, it's okay."

Watching Nami's daughter suckling onto Yuqi's nipple as if nothing had happened, Houqin was stunned once again.

"Nami, how could you forget about it again?" Yueyue jokingly asked as she rubbed salt onto her wound.

"Shut up. Hmph!"

"Mom! Mom!"

As Yongyi ran back with her two sisters, the two of them who were behind him immediately sped up past him before stopping at their legs.

"What trouble did you three get yourselves into?" Yueyue murmured as both Yuqi and Yueyue gently lifted their own daughters.

"W-We don't want to sleep yet!" Lianrong answered first.

"Yeah!" Qiaolan answered next.

"The three of you, look at the mess you created. I'm going to teach you a little lesson about bad behavior today!"

Leyan's scream from the kitchen immediately made everyone in the living room a little intrigued.

They all quickly got up before walking over to check, forcing the three of them as Xiaoyun picked up Yongyi in his arms.

What they saw next surprised them, as the trash can was knocked over, causing all the trash to be on the floor.

"Who did this?" Shuli curiously asked.

Yongyi immediately pointed towards her two sisters, only for both of them to point towards him.

"How did this even happen?"

Xiaoyun asked as he couldn't imagine a baby being able to knock over a trash bin almost 2x their size, not to mention the amount of trash inside it.

"They were running around the countertop, and the next thing I knew, the trash bin was knocked over," Leyan answered.

"Yongyi, don't lie to papa now. Who knocked it over?"

After an intense stare, Yongyi finally cracked as he shyly pointed his finger towards himself rather than his two sisters.

"I-I did it."

"Bad. Don't do it again, okay?"

As Yongyi nodded his head, Xiaoyun handed him over to Lily, signaling her to bring him back into the baby's bedroom.

"You just let him go like that?'

"What are you going to do? Trying to teach a two-year-old not to knock over something he doesn't even know the word for?"

Leyan fell into silence. Still, she felt a little annoyed as she went over to the other side to get a brand new trash bag.

"Don't stand here and watch. Bring everyone back to bed and come help." Xiaoyun murmured as he started picking up the trash by hand.