"As long as you treat your people well, I don''t mind keeping you as the permanent mayor there."

Xiaoyun paused for a second as he took out a piece of paper.

"Do you understand me?"

"Yes, sir!"

The village leader immediately nodded several times in agreement.

"Good. I''ll station five thousand soldiers there. What city name do you want?" Xiaoyun asked as he pulled out a pen from the desk.

"Commander Xiaoyun, it will be a great honor for you to name our city."

After thinking for a bit, Xiaoyun came up with a name.

"Let''s call it Qijing."

Xiaoyun thought back to the original 2nd town where he took both Shuli and Wuli for the first time together.

"Sounds like a great name, commander Xiaoyun."

"Okay, no need to flatter me. Also, don''t call me commander, call me Mayor."

"Yes, Mr.Mayor."

Seeing the village leader was fully used to his role, Xiaoyun sent him away as he began drafting a plan.

"Xiaoyun, why does it feel like we got scammed?" Tianci curiously asked as she disliked how the village leader''s attitude.

"Scammed? It''s just a trade deal. He got what he wanted, and I got what I wanted... Here, you read this, and you''ll understand why."

Xiaoyun handed her a folder as he turned his attention back to the draft plan.

"Classified report by Renqin... are you sure you want me to read this?" Tianci asked out of caution.

"You''re my wife. I''m not going to hide something from you."

As Tianci opened the folder, Kate quickly turned away to the side despite her being just as curious.

"The village leader''s name is Liu Kai, the son of the old village leader who was elected a month ago after the old one retired... by a popular vote."

Tianci murmured as she read the report line by line.

"The people in the village overwhelmingly are now composed of refugees from different cities, with a small minority of original villagers..."

Xiaoyun put his pen down for a second as he looked over to Tianci.

"Do you understand why I offer him the deal?"

"Because he''s a new leader with a majority population that doesn''t care enough about him, just like Qingyuan?"

"That''s a part of it... Kate, what do you think?"

Xiaoyun asked as he turned his attention over to Kate, who had been staring at the wall the whole time.

"Me?"

Kate looked surprised by Xiaoyun''s sudden question.

"Yes, you heard everything that Tianci murmured, right?"

Kate''s face blushed for a second before recovering back to normal as she thought for a moment about how to reply to Xiaoyun''s question.

Shuli looked in disbelief at Xiaoyun as she felt bad for Nami that her husband didn''t even know how long she had been pregnant.

"I had been busy working so much... Also, it almost looks the same to me compared to the rest of her body." Xiaoyun defended himself.

"I guess Nami is on the smaller side... But still, you should pay more attention to her." Yuqi pointed out with a slight anger in her voice.

"I know, I know."

Just as both of them returned to work, Xiaoyun lay down on the sofa as the urge to fall asleep was getting stronger and stronger.

But before he could, the door was suddenly slammed open.

"Xiaoyun, Yezi wanted to meet you in the command center right now," Tianci said out loud as she stepped inside.

"Okay, okay. I''m getting up right now."

After Xiaoyun got up from the sofa, he waved goodbye to the two as he left the office with Tianci and Kate.

---

When he arrived at the command center, the first thing he saw was an excited Yezi.

"What are you so excited?" Xiaoyun curiously asked as he sat next to Yezi.

"Yiming! He''s the commander at Shaoguan right now."

"Yiming? You aren''t joking?" Xiaoyun asked as he was absolutely dumbfounded by the news that Yezi had just revealed.

"Yes! Gantian is in the training field right now. You wouldn''t believe how different he looks now."

Yezi explained as they both got up from their seat and headed out of the command center.

After arriving at the training field next door, he sees several of the regiments training.

"Where''s Gantian?" Xiaoyun asked as he couldn''t see him anywhere on the field.

"He''s right there."

Yezi pointed at the corner, where a man with a stubble beard and a different soldier uniform stood.

"Yo Gantian!" Yezi yelled.

Gantian immediately started heading towards the two as all the soldiers training at the field looked surprised by Xiaoyun''s visit and Yezi''s yelling.

"Long time no see, man. You look so much older now."

The two hugged as they couldn''t hold the excitement of meeting each other.

"You still look the same the day I left. The town has really kept you well, didn''t it?" Gantian jokingly replied.

"Well, it hasn''t been all smooth sailing. Anyway, how''s Shaoguan?" Xiaoyun asked curiously as the three of them sat down at a nearby cafeteria table.

"Absolute the worst experience I ever had. I knew I should have just stayed here instead."

Gantian started to get more and more emotional as he thought back on all the things he had experienced on this trip.

"You still can. There''s always a spot for all of you." Xiaoyun offered.

"Really? Even if we moved about one hundred thousand people to this town right now?" Gantian asked as he looked toward Xiaoyun with high hopes.

"Wait, one hundred thousand people? When did you guys have that many people?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.

"Well it''s a long story..."