Old Friend Reunion

"I want to ask everyone to respect the co-mayor as she is hard working for everyone.

And believe me when I say without her, this town will not function. Can we please give her a round of applause?"

The crowd hesitated for a second but reluctantly clapped after seeing Xiaoyun pass the microphone back to Yuqi.

"Thank you, mayor, for that speech. Now, the five booths at the administration building will be opened.

They will give you twenty food stamps as an allowance and a tag with the cabin number you are staying in."

Also, they will ask for your occupation and assign you the job that matches which department."

As soon as Yuqi mentioned the free food stamps, the crowd seemed extremely happy, more than when Xiaoyun made his promise.

"The twenty food stamps are enough for a week of food, and the cabin you are staying in will be free for a week, as mentioned earlier.

Please stand before Major Yiming if you want to join the army. He will determine whether you are fit enough to join the militia.

Thank you everyone for your cooperation. You may all now go ahead to the booth."

After Yuqi explained everything, she finally turned off the microphone before putting it on the podium.

"Good job, darling! That was amazing!" Xiaoyun congratulated Yuqi as they excitedly hugged each other.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm never doing this again. I'm going to write all this down in a book and print it out.

"Well, there are a lot of people this time, so it's probably better for them to know the actual people in those departments.

By the way, when did we create the names of all these departments? I don't recall making it."

Xiaoyun asked as the two of them looked over to the crowds of people lining behind the booth.

"Well, while you were away, we decided we needed to re-organize everything.

Even Yezi didn't know what department he led until I handed them the script a few hours ago."

As the atmosphere became much more lively, Xiaoyun suddenly had a question pop up.

"That's a lot of people... When did we get enough housing for them?"

"Well, there would be enough family units if the eighty of them are just sixteen families."

"You know that ain't gonna happen."

Both of them fell into silence until Yuqi spoke up again.

"Then they going to need to double up. There's not much I can do unless they want to sleep on the grass."

Turning to the other side, the two could see quite a long line in front of Yiming as well.

"Geez, look like people really wanted to join the military," Xiaoyun commented.

"Probably because they have experienced what the outside is like. They want to control their fate——"

"Hey, what you two talking about?"

Yueyue had finally walked down from the backstage as she walked over to the two of them.

"I was just talking about the crowd that was standing in front of Yiming. Anyway, where's Leyan?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.

"I think she was walking home with Wuli and another woman," Yueyue replied.

"The woman you're talking about is probably Shuli... Anyway, let's go home now."

----

When they arrived home, Leyan was already sitting on the sofa, along with the two guests.

"Hello, Miss Wuli and Miss Shuli."

"Hey, Yuqi and Yueyue! I haven't seen you two for so long!"

As the four of them hugged each other, Xiaoyun awkwardly stood in the back by the door.

"Um, hello."

As soon as Xiaoyun waved his hand, both Wuli and Shuli stared into Xiaoyun's face for a second before coming up with a conclusion.

"This is your long-lost son? He is so much like your husband. I thought you would never find Xiaoyun," Wuli commented.

"Yeah, that hair and height. Look exactly like him when he was still in university." Shuli added.

As soon as the two of them finished talking, they could notice a clear, awkward silence as none of the girls spoke up.

"Xiaoyun... He's Songming." Leyan stated as all three of Xiaoyun's wives started blushing.

"What you talking about? Isn't his name Xiaoyun? Why are you saying he's Songming?" 

Wuli asked, her face looking even more confused than earlier as she couldn't understand Leyan's statement.

"Yeah, if he's Songming, wouldn't he look much older now? He barely looks to be past his twenties." Shuli added.

Seeing the two not understanding the situation, Xiaoyun finally decided to speak up himself.

"I know this sounds confusing, but I am both Xiaoyun and Songming. If you don't believe me, let me say something that only he will know."

"Like w-what?" Wuli asked nervously.

"Leyan, do you remember our wedding night when they were watching us having——"

Before Xiaoyun could finish, Wuli instantly interrupted him before he could finish.

"Okay! Enough! I believe you now. But how is this possible? How can you be both at the same time?"

Wuli raised her question as Shuli's and her faces blushed red. They still could vividly remember what happened that night.

"Here, let me start explaining from scratch. It's a long story..."

Half an hour later...

As Xiaoyun wrapped up from the beginning to the present, both Wuli's and Shuli's minds were completely blown.

"You telling me a time machine... You can't be serious."

Wuli's face was in disbelief, as it sounded straight out of a fantasy or movie to both of their minds.

"It doesn't make sense. The time paradox breaks this scenario in every way possible..."

Shuli murmured, as it went against all scientific facts she had learned since getting her teaching degree.

"Wuli, you still remember how I pull explosives out of your bag? Even though your bag has no explosive inside it at all?"

As Xiaoyun pointed out, Wuli immediately realized what he meant by it, while Shuli looked a little confused.

"Wait, yeah. How did you do that?" Wuli curiously asked.

"Well, you see my hand here, right?"

After getting both of their attention on his left hand, he began imagining a water bottle in his hand.

Suddenly, a water bottle appeared right before his hand, full of water inside it.

"Huh?"

Both Wuli and Shuli's mouths dropped in disbelief at what just happened before them.

It was even more ridiculous than the story they had just heard earlier with the whole time machine thing.

"D-Did you just create things out of thin air?" Wuli nervously asked.

"Yep, it's exactly what you think of it... Here, catch."

Xiaoyun uses his other hand to make a pen and throws it at her before throwing another one over to Shuli.

As they both examined the pen in their hands, they quickly concluded that the story he had told was true.

"This... no wonder why this town is sustainable."

Shuli finally realized why the town had such a big population, seemingly without needing to be inside the city for loot.

"And you guys might wonder why Leyan looked so young, right?" Xiaoyun suddenly brought it up.

The two of them immediately looked at Leyan, carefully examining her face, only to realize how young she looked.

All of the wrinkles were gone, with her skin looking silk-smooth.

It was almost as if she had never aged after her marriage to Songming, despite the fact that a few years ago, her face looked much older.

"Well, I can do the same and revert your body to a younger state... only if you want, of course."

After a short moment, the two of them immediately nodded before excitedly grabbing onto Xiaoyun's hand.

"Hell yeah, I'm doing that! My back hurt so much from sitting in the office." Wuli complained as she pressed her hands onto her back.

"M-me too..." Shuli nervously replied.

"Okay, let me do Wuli first."

As Xiaoyun closed his eyes, he began to think back to when he first met Wuli with Leyan.

Suddenly, a glowing light appeared on Wuli's body until Xiaoyun let go of her hand.

All four of them were still shocked, even though they knew what Xiaoyun was doing.

Wuli had drastically changed into her younger self, much more energetic than when they first saw her.

"You feel better now? Does your back still hurt?"

Xiaoyun asked as Leyan quickly grabbed a tissue to wipe the sweat off of his forehead.

"Thank you so much! It doesn't hurt anymore!" Wuli excitedly gave Xiaoyun a warm hug before letting go.

As Xiaoyun turned over to Shuli, he could notice her excitement, yet with a hint of nervousness.

"Don't worry. I can always reverse it if you don't like it, " Xiaoyun assured her as he grabbed her hand.

Shuli slowly nodded as she waited for him to cast her ability again, sitting in silence as glowing light appeared again.

After a few seconds, the light began to fade away as Xiaoyun let go of her hand.

"Thank you!"

"No problem——"

Before Xiaoyun sat back up, he suddenly collapsed onto the coffee table face first, scaring both Wuli and Shuli.

Meanwhile, Leyan and Yuqi seemed much more calm, with Yueyue already getting down to help him get back up.

"I-Is he okay?" Shuli nervously asked.

"He's just a little tired. How could he forget his limit again... Can you two lift him back to his room?" Leyan asked.

"Sure."

As Yuqi and Yueyue supported Xiaoyun back upstairs, Wuli and Shuli squeezed each other's faces to check if it was real.

The soft, smooth feeling told them it was real, but their minds still couldn't believe how young they looked.

It wasn't just their looks that changed. Every part of their body had changed for the better.

"You two, stop touching each other's face... It's not going to go away no matter how hard you squeeze it."

As the two blushed and let go of each other's faces, a loud stomach-growling sound echoed in the living room.

"Oh right, you two haven't eaten yet. Let me go cook dinner right now."

After Leyan leaves the living room and enters the kitchen, the two guests are left alone in the living room.

"Wuli, do you believe all the things they said?" Shuli curiously asked.

"Well, he really made us both look all the way back when we were still babysitting his kids.

Let's be real here for a second. Is time traveling really that crazy when he can just create things out of thin air?"

After Wuli made her point clear, a question suddenly popped up in her head.

"Shuli, did you notice Yuqi and Yueyue are a little bit too close to Xiaoyun?"

There was a moment of silence as they didn't want to say anything until Shuli slowly nodded in agreement.

"Well, they are brother and, um, father. Yeah. It's kind of normal for them to be close, right?"

"You know what I mean... Actually, now I think about it, I still can't believe someone can make their mom pregnant and give birth to themselves."

"That's what I thought earlier too. It just doesn't make any logical sense whatsoever."

As the two of them shared their opinion, an idea popped up in both of their heads.

"Leyan... She's marrying her son, then?" Wuli raised her concern.

"Yeah. It's technically incest——"

Just before Shuli could finish, the sound of the door being knocked drew their attention.

Seeing no one was here to answer it, Wuli decided to head over to open it herself.

To her surprise, it was two girls standing outside.

One was very short, and the other was a slightly taller girl who looked slightly similar to Leyan.

"Um, who are you?" the slightly taller girl asked curiously as she looked over to Wuli.

"I'm Wuli, your mom's old friend... You're Nami, right?"

The slightly taller girl froze for a second before she excitedly jumped into Wuli's arm.

"Miss Wuli! I miss you so much! I thought I would never see you again!"

"I thought I would never see you again either. You had been a good girl to Leyan, right?"

"Yeah!"

As the three of them walked inside the house, Nami instantly noticed Shuli and excitedly ran over to hug her.

"Miss Shuli!"

"Hey Nami... Long time no see."

Shuli was able to instantly recognize Nami as she hugged her back before they separated.

"Where's Mom right now?" Nami asked curiously after noticing the living room seemed empty.

"She's cooking dinner right now. Can you not hear the fan running in the kitchen?"

Yuqi answered before the other two could as she and Yueyue had finally come back from upstairs.

"Oh hey, Nami, how's work today?" Yueyue curiously asked as Nami rolled her eyes towards Yuqi.

"Busy as hell. I was supposed to leave work an hour earlier, but I had to keep going to the storage and restock everything.

I even had to call a few volunteers to help me carry things to the store." Nami complained as she stretched on the sofa.

"Well, you're going to be even busier tomorrow. There are a lot of new people who have moved in."

As Yuqi brought the bad news to Nami, her brain was stunned, and she quickly glanced over to Yueyue.

"Oh my god! Yueyue, you have to come to the store and help me. You will be retiring from the militia soon, right?"

Nami asked as she held onto Yueyue's arm as her last hope, looking at her with teary eyes.

"I still have three days before I'm retired from active duty. I still have to patrol the street."

Yueyue's reply crushes Nami's hope, causing her to turn to the last person she wants to look for help.

"Qiqi! I know you have always loved me the most. Can I hire someone to help me?"

Nami pleaded as she ran to Yuqi's chest before grabbing her arms.

"Fine, fine. You can hire someone. Just make sure they are trustworthy and bring them to me tomorrow." Yuqi folded.

"Thank you!"

After Nami finished speaking, she quickly ran upstairs with the little girls following right behind.

"Geez, does she ever learn any manner?" Yuqi murmured as she facepalmed in embarrassment.

"It's okay. She's still very young. You can't expect a high school student to start acting so professional." Yueyue replied.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."

As the two of them sat down on the sofa, Wuli and Shuli smiled the whole time as they watched it unfold.

"Miss Wuli and Shuli, can you guys tell me what, um, Dad wanted to say earlier? 

I had been curious about it ever since I went upstairs... Can you tell me about it?" Yueyue asked.

"W-we can't tell you that. It would be an invasion of their privacy," Shuli nervously replied first.

"Yeah, you can ask them instead if they want to tell you. But it's probably best not to ask that."

Wuli looked even more nervous as both of their faces blushed red from embarrassment.