Outside the bathroom...
"Why did Lily barge into the changing area without even knocking? That was so rude of her..."
Xiaoyun murmured as he walked past the laundry machines, exiting the bathroom before heading back downstairs.
"Huh, where are the babies?"
As he walked around the sofa and checked every crib, there was not a single one of them in the living room.
Heading over to the guest bedroom, he finally let out a small sigh of relief as all of the babies were already asleep.
"No wonder she went to take a shower."
Closing the door, Xiaoyun headed back over to the sofa, taking a seat before noticing the newspaper headline on the table.
"Two biggest upcoming startup IPOs?"
Reading past the headline, he quickly realized why it was titled like that. Two critical industries were being created.
One of them was the mining industry in Qingyuan, and the other was a steel mill also in Qingyuan.
"That place really is becoming an industrial hub again..." Xiaoyun thought to himself as a small flashback popped into his head.
Flipping to the next page, he was a little surprised to see a news coverage of an interview with Yiming from two days ago.
"He really fulfilled that bet?"
As Xiaoyun read through the lines, it was mostly just talking about how the whole event in Shenzhen was handled.
"Xiaoyun was the hero. He's the one who should be given most of the credit for defeating the fog..."
Just as a smile appeared on his face, it instantly vanished as soon as he read the last few lines of the newspaper.
"The fog had breached through his clothes, which is why he looked so red in that magazine. But he had already fully healed from the rash... Fuck!"
Xiaoyun rolled his eyes in disbelief as the picture in the magazine seemed to have spread everywhere, even to Yiming and the news.
The only relief he had at this point was the press themsleve not copying the picture and releasing it in their newspaper.
"That stupid magazine..."
"Who are you calling stupid?"
As Leyan came downstairs in her pajamas, Xiaoyun's face instantly changed back to normal as he put the newspaper back down.
"Just some work stuff... Is everyone else still taking a shower?"
"They're just changing right now... Honey, do you want a break today?" Leyan suddenly asked as she sat down right next to him.
"Break? That's surprising to hear from you. Didn't you just want to do it in the shower earlier?"
"I was just——"
Before Leyan could finish talking, Xiaoyun's phone suddenly started ringing.
"Give me a second. Houqin is calling me."
As Xiaoyun headed over to the backyard and picked up the call, he was instantly shocked by her message.
"A Y-20 landed at Foshan Shadi Airport."
---
"Where are they at?"
Xiaoyun asked as he exited his car, walking over to the airport's entrance where Houqin stood by with two other soldiers.
"Still inside their plane. They haven't sent anyone outside, nor have they answered any of our radio messages yet."
"Huh, really?"
As the Houqin guided Xiaoyun into the airport, he soon saw the massive military cargo plane resting right on one of the empty airstrips.
"God damn, that thing is big."
Xiaoyun murmured as he compared it to the commercial plane right next to it, which was barely half of its size.
"Commander!"
All of the soldiers standing by the interior entrance tried to salute, only to have him dismiss it as he signaled focus on the mission.
"How many people do we have here?" Xiaoyun asked.
"I was able to call a hundred soldiers from reserves. But a regiment is coming their way right now."
As Xiaoyun looked out the window, he could see that the Y-20 cargo plane had its lights on full blast.
"Have you tried sending a person over?"
"I was waiting for you, sir," Houqin answered.
"You, go try to communicate with them... Here's a loudspeaker. Just ask who they are and what business they have here."
As Xiaoyun pulled out a whole loudspeaker from his backpack, the soldier quickly accepted it before heading out of the interior exit.
Everyone watched in silence as the soldier walked closer and closer to the cargo plane, waiting for some sort of noise.
Hearts started beating faster and faster as he reached all the way to the nose of the plane, turning on the megaphone as a sharp initial beep rang.
"Hello! This is the 5th Army Corps from Guangzhou. Can I ask what your unit is and what business you have here?"
After waiting there for a whole minute, the cargo plane chose to open its back as a metal door resciended upward.
Through the windows, everyone could see five men in soldiers' uniforms stepping out, all fully armed to the teeth.
The soldier who had walked there seemed to have handed the megaphone over, as they soon heard a different voice.
"Hello, this is the 4th Aviation Division. I'm a Lieutenant Colonel. We're from Northwestern Theater! Can I talk to your commander?"
As the soldiers nearby began to lower their guards, Xiaoyun was still extremely alert. He couldn't think of a single reason why they would come here.
"I'll go talk to him——"
"Commander, that's too risky."
'Yeah, Commander, that can't be safe. Why don't we just send another representative to give them a walkie-talkie or something?"
"I volunteer to go!"
Seeing more and more soldiers siding with Houqin's opinion, Xiaoyun still shook his head and rejected their suggestion.
"They have no reason to hurt me... If they really wanted to, they would have flown a bomber that could blow up the whole city."
Everyone fell into silence as they watched Xiaoyun walk through the terminal tunnel, walking all alone in the landing stripes.
"You are?"
As Xiaoyun sees the Lieutenant Colonel up close, he is a little surprised by how young the man looks.
It almost felt like he was looking at a college student who had just graduated, not some high-up officer in the Air Force.
"I'm Chen Xiaoyun, the commander that you're looking to talk to."
"You look a little young as a commander." The Lieutenant Colonel murmured as he didn't seem to trust him a single bit.
"Don't you think it's a little funny for you to say that?"
Xiaoyun questioned back, showing no signs of fear despite the three men standing behind the Lieutenant Colonel with their rifles in hand.
"You aren't wrong... Ahem, since you're the commander, can you bring us somewhere else to talk?"
"Sure... What should I call you, Mister Colonel?" Xiaoyun curiously asked as he began walking back towards the terminal exit.
"My name is Li Zhangfei, we're from Gansu, Lanzhou city... Where are you from?" The man questioned back.
"Nice to meet you, Colonel Li. I'm from Guangzhou... Do you know anything about us before flying here?"
As the two of them reached the entrance, everyone could feel the tension as Zhangfei could see Xiaoyun's soldiers standing there through the windows.
"A trader told me a few things about Guangdong."
"I see... Ahem, can someone come over and open the door?"
A soldier from inside the building quickly ran over to open the terminal exit, allowing the two of them in before stopping the rest.
"Mr.Chen, can you let my bodyguard through? I don't feel safe without them." Zhangfei requested as he stopped inside the tunnel.
With a single look, Xiaoyun's soldier quickly lets them pass as they finally enter the airport.
"Do you want to go to my city to have a chat, or do you just want to talk about business here in the airport?"
Zhangfei thought about it for a second before looking back at his soldiers, who all stood still with a cold face.
"It will be great if you can give us a tour of your city."
---
As Houqin drove the car, Zhangfei and Xiaoyun were sitting in the back, while only one of Zhangfei's bodyguards sat in the passenger seat.
"Mr.Li, let's just be frank here. You didn't come here just for a little tour, did you?" Xiaoyun impatiently asked.
"I do have a little request..."
Seeing Zhangfei's face looking a little hesitant, Xiaoyun immediately realized the person in front of him was really just as young as he had imagined.
"Are there any spare chances that you guys have extra food?"
"Food? Do you guys have food shortages or something?" Xiaoyun asked again, wanting to pry more info out of him.
"Ahem."
As the bodyguard in the front seat cleared his throat, the nervousness on Zhangfei's face instantly vanished.
"We just recently had a little drought this year. So we are trying to stockpile some food for the winter."
"That's such unforunately timing," Xiaoyun murmured.
"How so?" Zhangfei curiously asked, his face already starting to look a little desperate through the rear mirror.
"Well, we just had directed most of our food to the front line. So we don't have much to give away."
"I can buy it from you guys."