Dragon Transformation in the Apocalypse

Chapter 164 New Year's Eve Party

On the evening of December 31st, Li Chenglong bid farewell to Wang Xiao and began organizing documents. Starting that afternoon, everyone except those in special departments or those on essential duty began a three-day leave. The Dawn Army would take turns resting, but every soldier would be guaranteed three days of rest. Actually, many soldiers didn't care much about this, because many had lost their families in the apocalypse, and the barracks were now their home; even with leave, there was nowhere else to go.

Zheng Yong and the others readily agreed to the Dawn Army's leave. Firstly, there hadn't been anything particularly unusual lately; since December, they'd only seen a few sporadic zombies and other strange beasts. Secondly, they felt they'd been on edge for too long and it was time to relax. Li Chenglong also gave Wang Xiao a three-day leave starting tomorrow. She would handle her work when she had time, while Han Xiaoling and Chen Xiaoke could take care of the work in the central computer room when they had a spare moment.

As soon as Li Chenglong entered, he was surprised to see that the living room was already full of people, at least thirty or so. Yun Lan walked over with a smile and said, "These are all the heads of various departments and members of the Dawn Army. I felt it was the one-year anniversary of the apocalypse, so I invited them all." Seeing Li Chenglong enter, everyone came up to greet him, and Li Chenglong shook hands with each of them, wishing them a Happy New Year.

The living room and dining room already have three large tables, surrounded by chairs. Yunlan had already stored the belongings in the two secondary bedrooms into her storage ring, and placed a table there. Each table can seat ten people, making a total of five tables. Thanks to his and Yunlan's design, Li Chenglong's 120-square-meter house has quite a few functional areas, which can be summarized as 3 bedrooms, 1 living room, 2 bathrooms, 1 kitchen, 1 dining room, and 1 study.

However, the food for these people was a problem. While Li Chenglong was pondering how to handle it, Li Xue smiled and said, "Brother, the canteen said the food is ready. Should we bring it up now?" It turned out that Yun Lan and Li Xue had already ordered enough food in advance through the canteen. Li Chenglong frowned: "The canteen is free, but only for regular lunch and dinner. Did you pay any crystals?" Han Xiaoling walked over and said, "We paid with crystals, don't worry, brother. We even gave the canteen staff overtime pay." Li Chenglong then said calmly, "It's good that you paid."

After the canteen staff finished serving the dishes, Li Chenglong raised his glass and spoke first: "Today is the last day of 2024. Everyone, eat and drink well. Tomorrow is the new year. I hope we can work together to create a better future for Shuguang City. Cheers!" The fifty-odd people present all toasted in unison. Some were seated too far away, and others were in the secondary bedroom, so they couldn't see Li Chenglong, only hear his voice. Afterwards, everyone casually began eating, and many went to other tables to chat with others, appearing very friendly.

In a secondary bedroom, all the guests were women. Women always have a lot to talk about, and bursts of cheerful laughter frequently erupted. Li Chenglong took out a lot of fresh fruits from his spiritual energy space, washed them, and let them help themselves; they could also take them with them later. At 10:30 PM, everyone finally dispersed. Some people offered to help tidy up, but Li Chenglong refused. He had treated them to the meal, so there was no reason for the guests to clean up.

After helping Yunlan take a bath, Li Chenglong told her to go and rest while he tidied up the place himself. It took over an hour to finally finish cleaning up.

At 7 PM the following evening, the first New Year's Eve party in Shuguang City officially began. There were six hosts: Han Xiaoling, Chu Kexin, Zhao Liying, Jiang Hui, Wang Bing, and Li Chao, with Han Xiaoling and Li Chao appearing as junior hosts. A total of 6 people attended the party, including leaders at all levels of Shuguang City, residents of Shuguang City, and soldiers of the Dawn Army. Simultaneously, the live broadcast, relayed by the Shuguang City Broadcasting and Television Bureau and then transmitted via Crystal Network to various internet TVs and Crystal computers, was shown in every household.

The first program was everyone singing the Chinese national anthem and the city song of Shuguang City. After the singing, girls organized by the Cultural and Publicity Department presented a grand dance, followed by several people with supernatural abilities performing magic tricks. Then, a variety of programs including skits, crosstalk, dances, and martial arts performances took the stage, drawing applause and cheers from the audience from time to time.

Hearing the audience's enthusiastic response, Chu Kexin couldn't help but shed tears. All her hard work over the past month had finally paid off. Liu Qingqing was also very excited. She hugged Chu Kexin and patted her back, saying, "This is just the beginning. It will get even better in the future."

After more than a dozen performances, Chu Kexin slowly walked to the front of the stage: "Next, please welcome Comrade Li Chenglong to give a work report and future outlook to all the people of Shuguang City! Let's give him a round of applause." Immediately, the hall resounded with enthusiastic applause. Li Chenglong straightened his clothes, took the microphone, walked to the front of the stage, and took out a folder he had prepared in advance.

Li Chenglong spoke in a deep voice: "Ladies and gentlemen, all the people of Dawn City watching on television, hello everyone, I am Li Chenglong. On January 1, 2024, the zombie virus broke out in China, and it has been exactly one year since then. In this year, we fought from Jinghai City to Linhai City, going through more than a hundred battles, large and small, eliminating hundreds of thousands of zombies. Although we achieved a major victory, we also paid a heavy price. As of yesterday, Dawn City has a total of [number missing] residents, including 2577 people with superpowers, of whom 1855 are level four or above."

A burst of enthusiastic applause erupted and lasted for a long time. As the applause subsided, Li Chenglong spoke, “It has been almost eight months since Dawn City was officially established on May 5th. In these eight months, the area of ​​Dawn City has expanded further, the population has increased rapidly, our strength has continuously grown, and more like-minded comrades have joined us. Currently, our Dawn Army has reached over 11,000 members. In addition to these, through numerous efforts, we have restored basic power supply and the basic production and living conditions of the people, and constructed more than a dozen residential communities and workplaces…”

Li Chenglong's report was not very long, only about five minutes long, but it clearly recounted the events and achievements of the past year. At the end, he also looked forward to the future of Dawn City, giving its people great motivation and hope to continue fighting the apocalypse in the new year. At the end of the evening, an awards ceremony was held, publicly praising and rewarding organizations and individuals who made outstanding contributions throughout the year, and distributing considerable amounts of crystals and material rewards.

After the gala, dozens of leaders, including Li Chenglong, Yun Lan, Zheng Yong, and Ma Tiancheng, went backstage and had friendly exchanges with all the performers. Li Chenglong shook hands with each of them and highly praised them. He also put forward his requirements, emphasizing that artists must always stay connected with the people and, in the future, whether producing or participating in artistic works, must not do anything that is detached from the masses or runs counter to their interests.

Li Chenglong and Yun Lan arrived home at 11 p.m. Yang Liu first drove them home, and then took Shen Menghua and her daughter home. To make it easier for people who had enjoyed the show to get home quickly, the Ministry of Transportation had been working overtime, adding more than a dozen buses to facilitate public transportation. As soon as Yun Lan got home, she kicked her shoes off: "Mom, these shoes are killing me! Quickly get me some slippers, I want those pink bunny slippers." Li Chenglong first helped her sit on the sofa, put away her shoes, and then brought her the bunny slippers from the bedroom.

He brought a basin of water for Yunlan to soak her feet first, then said, "I told you not to wear high heels, but you still have to." Yunlan gestured with her thumb and forefinger to indicate the height of the heel: "Those are mid-heels, only 4 centimeters, but they're still uncomfortable. Quickly give me a massage." After washing Yunlan's feet, Li Chenglong massaged them for her, which greatly relieved Yunlan's discomfort.

He helped Yunlan take a quick shower, dried her hair, and then carried her to bed. After coaxing Yunlan to sleep, Li Chenglong left his house and went to the central computer room. Zhao Liying and Han Xiaoling were preparing for their night shift, but Li Chenglong considered that they had been hosting the night and hadn't even properly removed their makeup before coming, so they needed rest. Li Chenglong said, "You don't need to be on duty tonight. I have some work to process on the computers here. It's too late, Zhao Liying, why don't you go to Han Xiaoling's place to sleep? There's an ensuite bathroom and a dressing table there. If you need anything, just ask Han Xiaoling to get it for you."

The two women initially wanted to say something, but left at Li Chenglong's repeated request. After they left, Li Chenglong used voice control to turn off some lights in the central computer room and began learning about the planet Merar and the central computer room from the main control computer's artificial intelligence. Not only that, he also began learning the language of Merar and the universal language, knowing that he would definitely be fighting aliens in the future, and not understanding their language would be a huge disadvantage.

At 3 a.m., Yunlan called Li Chenglong through her Phoenix Ring, saying she needed to use the bathroom. Li Chenglong smiled, shook his head, closed the dictionary from Meral Star, and quickly went out. As soon as Yunlan saw Li Chenglong enter, she opened her arms and said, "Come here, give me a hug." Li Chenglong hugged Yunlan, intending to carry her to the bathroom. Actually, their master bedroom had a bathroom; Yunlan's request for Li Chenglong to help her was just an excuse. Yunlan hugged Li Chenglong, saying, "You're too tired; you should get some rest."

Li Chenglong said, "I'm not that tired. People with superpowers and awakened individuals naturally have much more energy than normal people. You, however, need to get some rest." Yun Lan pressed Li Chenglong down, "It's already past three in the morning. Just get some sleep. Nothing will happen." Li Chenglong nodded, "Okay." Then he opened an app on his crystal phone, which was used exclusively by the people they were linked to in Dawn City. It would immediately send out an alarm if anything happened.