"Now, try telling me what you sense in the room below us." Yin Mei said, as she sat across from Qin Shuang, teaching him how to control and use his ability. He had currently formed his blood into a thin, invisible string that extended from his fingertip to the floor. Like this, he could use the string to sense the vibrations in the ground and air, using it almost like An Yu's echolocation ability.
"The rooms are like our own... um, there's two people inside. One is larger... I think they're both guys?" Qin Shuang said, his eyes closed as he furrowed his brow. The information passed through by vibrations could only be so detailed, lacking the important sense known as sight, so many things had to be inferred. Such as the item in this person's hand was shaped like this, so could it be x or y? No, he used it to do that, so it's probably x and not y.
There was a knock on the door, interrupting their training, and Yin Mei gestured for Qin Shuang to quickly expel his string, going to open the door. It was the three girls and the Ri twins. Because Yin Mei had to cook dinner for Ming Wei now, she would usually end up having to make the dishes in morning and the others would heat them up when it was time for them to eat. But today, because Ming Wei was doing some important experiment, Yin Mei had made him a boxed lunch (or rather, boxed dinner) and could finally spend dinner together with the others for the first time in several days.
Because Yin Mei still couldn't figure out how to protect the Ri twins efficiently, she resorted to simply having them over for dinner everyday and checking up on them that way. She could also use the system to check up on them when she was free, but it wasn't like she could surveillance them 24/7.
As for her roommates, they were very excited to have these adorable twins over every day. There wasn't an issue with ingredients, as being Ming Wei's personal chef paid a lot. In other words, Yin Mei could be considered wealthy in this apocalypse.
The next day, Yin Mei was once more at the lab. At Yin Mei's insistence, Ming Wei had gradually given her a little more freedom to explore, though even he didn't know why he was so lenient with her. Probably because he had been seduced by her food and that resulted in his will weakening whenever he faced this girl... and also because she actually had quite a few unexpectedly useful tips when she commented on their research, for someone who clearly didn't understand any of the scientific details that went into it.
Today as well, Yin Mei was staring at the zombie emperor in his test tube-whatever thing that was-thing, as Ming Wei was looking at something through a microscope behind her. By a glance, Yin Mei guessed that the zombie emperor should already be rank 4, of which no yet zombie had been confirmed so on the outside. But, he would require another rank before he could be considered an intelligent zombie - he would also regain his memories of his former life at that point, though in no terms should he ever be considered the same person as he once was.
At rank 5, a zombie like the zombie emperor would essentially be no different from a human, save that he would have no pulse and would require human flesh for his evolution instead of zombie energy cores. Though, a zombie's evolutional route could take on many different appearances, some becoming nothing alike to humans - though only the truly powerful ones would retain their human appearance, which masked the true strength of their abilities underneath it.
Yin Mei felt that she didn't quite like seeing the zombie emperor everyday. But, she also felt like this feeling in her heart, that was like a knife slowly carving pieces of flesh out of it, would somehow go away if she did.
She didn't know if she felt better when she saw him. She only cursed that he was still as beautiful as ever, with no remorse for his actions - though, she knew they weren't the same person. Even though she knew it, she couldn't help but think otherwise.
She turned her gaze away, looking to her right where there was what appeared was a white room blocked off from them by a glass wall. Inside, there was something like a white dentist's chair that Ming Yu was sitting at the edge of while she got her blood drawn.
In the end, after Ming Wei coerced her multiple times, probably using a good amount of threats, she ended up "volunteering" herself to the lab. Though, Yin Mei didn't know for what reason it was that she ended up doing so. Yin Mei didn't even know whether Ming Wei threatened to do something to Lei Han if the girl didn't admit to her abilities, and when she asked, Ming Wei outright denied to answer. If one had to say something good about him, it was that he was straightforward.
When Ming Yu was finished with drawing her blood, she came out of the experiment room (or whatever it was) with a slightly dark face, obviously not feeling so well about having to be experimented on. But Yin Mei was not satisfied. She wasn't satisfied at all. Ming Yu, so far, had only needed to provide some blood, hair, and nail clippings. It was not the image that Yin Mei wanted to see. She wanted to see her screaming as they carved into her and operated on her without anesthesia. She wanted to see her suffering from all the things that Lei Han had suffered, and more.
Even Yin Mei didn't know what the source of these dark thoughts were, but when she glanced at that emotionless face in the glass cylinder again, this gloomy and dark feeling overwhelmed her, enveloped her like mud, sticking to her and refusing to let go. She blinked and smiled as Ming Yu approached her brother, and Yin Mei, as she was right next to Ming Wei.
"And here comes our savior! I heard from the doctor that you actually volunteered yourself to allow experiments to be performed on you. Gosh, I could never do that. But, if the cure ever does get made, I bet you would definitely go down in the history books as a legend. Your choice will save millions of people in the future," Yin Mei said, and Ming Yu had on a very uncomfortable expression as she heard this.
The girl forced a smile, laughing nervously. "No, it's nothing much," she said in a soft voice.
Of course, Yin Mei had said this with the purpose of making her uncomfortable. Ming Yu may not be a particularly good person at heart, but she certainly liked to act like one. If she said these words in front of everyone in the lab, would Ming Yu have the heart to refuse the experiments ever again? All she had to do was say this, and Ming Yu would be pressured to accept it. As for the fact about saving millions of people in the future, haha, Yin Mei felt that she would have to disappoint a lot of people. Once a zombie reach rank 5, there was no going back. In the future, Ming Wei had theorized that the cure would most likely only work on zombies rank 4 and lower, but also in the future, the majority of zombies had already ranked up, and rank 1-4 zombies probably only consisted of half of the population of zombies. And even then, if a zombie deviated too much from being "human", it was hard to predict the results that the cure would have.
Let's just say, that god was such a cruel being, wasn't he?
Yin Mei once again looked at the man floating in that container. He was really, really, really, really unbelievably cruel. Her lips curled into a smile and her eyes became crescent moon shaped as she turned her gaze back to Ming Yu. That why it was fine right? She already had long lost the heart to be nice to these people, who only stood in her way.
For some reason, when Ming Yu saw this expression on Yin Mei's face, like she was a puppet master watching in amusement as her puppets danced in the palm of her hand, she felt a shiver go down her spine. She shook her head, sure she was imagining things. Yin Mei, by all appearances, was a very nice and sweet girl who was amazingly skilled in cooking. She must have just imagined it.
Yin Mei chatted in a friendly manner with Ming Yu, before the girl finally bid farewell to go back to her room. She glanced at Ming Wei, who was fully concentrated on his work, as if he hadn't even noticed the two girls who had been talking beside him. "Hey, doctor." Yin Mei said, causing him to raise his head in annoyance. "You can't let your sister run away, okay? You have to keep her well locked up in her little greenhouse garden, or she'll end up destroying all that you've been working toward."
She continued gazing at the zombie emperor. "I can't let her ruin anything this time." She asserted with a cold gaze.
Ming Wei didn't say anything, turning his head back to his work. But he didn't ignore Yin Mei's words either, as they echoed in his mind. He didn't need her to tell him. He knew his sister best. And better than anyone, he knew the consequences of him failing...! His face hardened as he clutched his hand into a fist. He wouldn't let anything get in the way of his research. No matter what he had to sacrifice, he would make sure that he would complete what he needed to do.
Yin Mei didn't say anymore. She had already learned what type of person Ming Wei was from the information. He wasn't someone that would just let Ming Yu slip away from him, not when he had finally grasped onto this straw of hope.
Yin Mei was just about to leave for the day when a researcher rushed in to report that a special forces soldier was demanding to see Ming Yu. Yin Mei was a little curious, so she stalled her steps, walking back toward the doctor and peering from behind him at the young assistant.
"What are you fretting for? He doesn't have the proper credentials - just go ahead and kick him out," Ming Wei said, clearly annoyed at being bothered by such a significant issue.
"Well, the thing is," The young man leaned in to whisper loudly, "he says that he's big sis Ming Yu's lover! Also, he is recently favored by the commander due to his exceptional performance during the zombie horde and has a rare lightning ability."
Ming Wei didn't care about these sorts of things and was about to order the young man to drive him out anyways, but Yin Mei stopped it with a fierce whisper. "Wait, wait, wait, doctor! Isn't that the Lei Han I told you about!?"
Yin Mei was genuinely surprised. She hadn't seen Lei Han in so long, who knew that he would pop up here? Could he even contain his anger if he revisited this place? Yin Mei felt that he might even outright destroy the lab on a rampage right now, several years earlier than in the original storyline. Oh my god, he wouldn't actually be that stupid right?
Yin Mei thought that if he really was that stupid... then she would actually be rather grateful. She could take advantage of the confusion to slip out the zombie emperor - oh wait! Sh*t! She cursed in her head. The zombie emperor hadn't reached level 5 yet! If she broke him out right now, wouldn't he just end up eating her? She groaned inwardly. It was a pity that she just couldn't have Lei Han rampaging around right now. If the zombie emperor was released at this moment, it would definitely destroy the entire city, with no one able to stand up to it.
"Doctor, for now, how about we take a look? We can't have him becoming an obstacle later on, you know what I mean?" Yin Mei inched a little closer as she lowered her voice, so that the assistant couldn't hear. His eyes were bulging as he looked at the two and their "intimate" moment, completely misunderstanding. No wonder the doctor was so lenient to her! So they had that sort of relationship!
Ming Wei paused at Yin Mei's words. He personally didn't think that the man would become a problem, because Ming Wei didn't understand things like the "power of love". In addition, he had confidence in the lab's security. But seeing that Yin Mei had said so, he trusted in her opinion. So far, trusting in it had only led to progress in his research, so he would give her the benefit of the doubt.
He then nodded, gesturing at the small researcher to let in Lei Han.
Yin Mei licked her lips slightly nervously. Although she had been in the lab all day these past weeks, she had demanded a payment of energy cores from Ming Wei once she had "found out" about their existence while he was researching them. But, the power difference between herself and Lei Han should be quite big, as she also shared these energy cores with Qin Shuang. In addition, he should be gathering quite a number of energy cores from hunting, as well as probably having consumed a good amount during the time he fought against the horde. Yin Mei didn't think she would stand a chance against him if she fought him directly.
In the end, she could only think that Lei Han would most likely not take action at the current point in time, as he was still too weak right now.
If she was wrong, well, even if she had to face the consequences of her actions later, she guessed that she would just have to unleash the zombie emperor on him for now.
A/N: Ming Wei is growing into more of a second male lead than Yang ever was! Oh my god, zombie emperor hurry up or Yin Mei might actually get stolen from you!
Yin Mei: ...
Zombie Emperor: ... *no expression or reaction*
Ming Wei: ... *snorts and leaves*
Trying to post this again by copying and pasting into a new draft and cutting out anything I think may have gotten it blocked (symbols/links/idek).
Edit: Okay, looks like it worked! Btw, the image for the doctor that I found and thought looked pretty cool is Kurama from the game Koroshiya to Strawberry, if you guys wanna google it. It's white hair and yellow glasses, same as my current profile pic as of posting this chapter.