If the person summoning Yu Yao to the central hall in the middle of the night weren't the city lord himself, he would have lost his temper long ago.
Not to mention there was a precious darling waiting at home right now—he couldn't stop thinking about it even as he stepped out.
At this hour, there were still quite a few people on duty in the central hall. Yu Yao made his way through the crowd, unimpeded, and descended to the third underground level.
He passed through the cultivation pods lining both sides of the corridor as before, arriving at the room he'd visited just yesterday.
Standing beside Dr. Zhang was a man in a slightly worn suit. Seeing Yu Yao approach, the man waved him over.
Wei Cheng said, "You're here—why not come closer?"
The city lord of Dingcheng Base was named Wei Cheng—even his name fit his position perfectly. When the city lord had been elected back then, his victory had been nearly overwhelming.
Yu Yao walked over, frowning. "What do you want with me?"
Wei Cheng patted his shoulder. "I heard this mission of yours went off without a hitch, and you even brought back a girl?"
Yu Yao's gaze turned slightly cold. "Why are you prying into that?"
In all of Dingcheng Base, Yu Yao was the only one who dared speak to the city lord like this.
Wei Cheng didn't take offense. He laughed heartily. "Why so tense? Everyone in the base knows how many people are trying to climb into your good graces. Who would've thought—one trip out, and this iron tree finally blooms."
Dr. Zhang chuckled along, her dark eyes behind her frameless glasses fixed on Yu Yao.
Yu Yao wasn't in the mood for pleasantries. He cut in directly: "What did you call me here for?"
Wei Cheng sighed and gave Dr. Zhang a meaningful look.
Dr. Zhang turned and opened the door behind her. "Come with me," she said.
Wei Cheng followed behind her, and Yu Yao had no choice but to do the same.
Inside was a dark chamber. Yu Yao knew the place existed but had never been in before. In truth, it wasn't much different from the outside—transparent nutrient pods were embedded in the walls on both sides, specimens soaking inside.
But a few steps deeper, Yu Yao realized what was different.
He stared coldly at the two ahead of him. "You're keeping zombies inside the base?"
Dr. Zhang turned back and shrugged. "For vaccine research—we need at least a few live specimens, don't we?"
Yu Yao's voice was icy. "The zombie virus spreads fast. Dingcheng is densely populated. If even one source of infection leaks out, this city will fall in no time."
"Relax, security is tight." Wei Cheng patted his arm. "Nothing will leak. You know vaccine research isn't easy—without live specimens, it's hard to make progress."
"I've said it before—set up a separate research facility outside the base. If you need live specimens, I'll catch as many as you want. But keeping zombies penned up in the city center—if anything goes wrong, no one can bear the consequences."
Yu Yao stopped looking at them. He strode past them, and the moment he turned the corner, he saw the zombies penned inside the transparent isolation chamber—men and women, old and young alike. He counted them: about sixteen in total.
Among them was even a pregnant woman.
Yu Yao frowned, staring at the female zombie with a heavily swollen belly. Her knees appeared crippled, unable to support her standing. She'd been infected while pregnant. The zombie virus violently drains the body of moisture, reducing a person to a skin-and-bone skeleton.
The glass of the isolation chamber was made of a special material—for now, the zombies couldn't see them, drifting in their dormant state.
Dr. Zhang walked up beside him.
"This one was eight months pregnant when infected. In another month, she'll give birth."
In the apocalypse, there were too many regrets like this. Yu Yao had seen it all, and his expression barely shifted.
Wei Cheng walked over to stand beside them, looking at the zombie. "This is a live specimen we captured on this trip. Do you know what makes it special?"
Yu Yao really didn't like people being cryptic, even if the man was the city lord.
"What?"
Wei Cheng said, "Logically speaking, after someone turns into a zombie, their body no longer has extra nutrients to sustain fetal development. There have been pregnant women who turned before, and in every case the fetus died. But this zombie is different."
Yu Yao saw the zombie make a movement.
It raised its hand, unconsciously stroking its belly, and beneath the paper-thin skin of its abdomen, something was stirring.
Yu Yao turned his head away. "The fetus inside it is alive?"
Could it be an antibody that's immune to the Zombie Virus?
Dr. Zhang nodded. "Yes, but unfortunately, the fetus's nutrients are supplied by the mother, and all the mother gives it is the Zombie Virus. After an ultrasound examination, while this fetus does show limb movement, it's an infant zombie infected by the Zombie Virus."
"Still an embryo, it didn't become nutrients for its zombie mother in turn. Instead, it used every means to invade the maternal tissue. There's a biological term for this—maternal-fetal conflict."
Yu Yao said bluntly, "Speak plainly."
This man really had zero patience. Dr. Zhang said in one breath, "In short, when a fetus is in an extremely harsh environment, there's a chance it develops a self-protection mechanism, plundering maternal nutrients without restraint and draining the mother's health."
Wei Cheng said, "Would you believe it? This mother only contracted the Zombie Virus a month ago?"
A month, and she was already completely unrecognizable as human.
Yu Yao said, "So this unborn zombie is draining its zombie mother dry."
Dr. Zhang nodded. "Yes."
Yu Yao wasn't stupid. He knew exactly what that meant.
Dr. Zhang said, "The Zombie Virus is evolving. This is the virus's healthy-host preference. This mother is already crippled, unable to stand, which means she can't hunt. So the virus inside her has preferentially targeted the fully-formed fetus, channeling all the mother's nutrients and energy into fetal development. When that fetus breaks out of the body, it will become an infant zombie. You've seen them before. You know how terrifying they are."
Small targets, fast, hard to hit, hard to detect, and devastatingly powerful.
Wei Cheng looked at Yu Yao, whose face had turned ashen. "The virus has evolved beyond anything we can estimate, but vaccine research is stuck at the first step—strain screening. We need to identify a standard strain."
All this dancing around the subject, and in the end, it always came back to that one thing.
Yu Yao said coldly, "The original virus."
He didn't give the two men a chance to persuade him. "I've already said it. Winter is coming. We're not going out, let alone into a zombie pit like Lan City."
He turned and walked away. Wei Cheng and Dr. Zhang exchanged a glance and sighed in unison.
Yu Yao reached the door when someone caught up to him from behind.
Dr. Zhang called out, "If the Zombie Virus evolves too quickly, once humanity falls behind, what little remains of human civilization might no longer exist. Also, I heard that two of your teammates are from Lan City. They should know the terrain there well."
Yu Yao didn't even look back. "So what? The apocalypse hasn't stopped people from wanting to go home and see the old place? Homesick?"
…Could he be any more unpleasant?
Dr. Zhang sounded somewhat helpless: "This time, City Lord Wei went out to scout the area around Lan City. The drone showed that Lan City has indeed been overrun by zombies, but take a look at this."
The tablet was handed over from the side. Yu Yao glanced at it. The footage captured by the drone showed that within the tightly packed zombie horde surrounding a building, a protective barrier had actually formed. This situation was very familiar.
"There's a high-rank zombie here. This is the Lan City Science Research Institute." Dr. Zhang stepped forward and stood beside Yu Yao. "Infrared thermal imaging shows that this high-rank zombie's energy crystal nucleus is extremely powerful, estimated to be at the seventh rank. Yes, you heard that right—it's the same rank as you."
Yu Yao slightly lifted his eyelids and looked over. Wei Cheng also walked over.
"This zombie detected our drone and sent a zombie army to attack us, so we didn't dare scout any further and returned the way we came. But Captain Yu, you know the seriousness of the situation."
Wei Cheng sighed and said softly, "The higher the rank of a zombie, the closer it is to a human. Once it evolves to a certain degree, could it have completely shed its zombie appearance and be able to infiltrate the base undetected?"
Yu Yao asked, "So you want me to go deal with this zombie? Anyway, judging by the situation, there's no one alive in the city anymore. Can't you just blow it up with a cannon shell?"
A dead city with only zombies was easy to deal with. A few long-range cannon bombardments could directly raze the entire city to the ground.
"But unfortunately, we can't." Wei Cheng shook his head. "If the original virus really is there, it's the key to identifying the strain and developing a vaccine. Once we bombard it, wouldn't it destroy the original virus? Or cause the original virus to leak? That's a more powerful strain—it would greatly boost the combat power of the zombie horde."
Yu Yao opened the door and turned to leave.
"Do whatever you want. I'm not the only seventh-rank superpowered individual. Find someone else."
This time no one stopped him. Yu Yao left directly.
Dr. Zhang tilted his head to look at Wei Cheng and shrugged helplessly.
"I told you he wouldn't go. Lan City has already become a zombie nest. Captain Yu cherishes his teammates and won't take them into a zombie nest. Threatening him with his sister won't work either."
"How could I threaten him with his sister?" Wei Cheng was also somewhat helpless.
Dr. Zhang pursed his lips, thinking to himself: Wasn't it Wei Cheng's request in the beginning to exchange information about Yu Yao's sister for them taking on this mission to Jiang City Base?
Yu Yao drove home. As soon as he reached the door, he saw the document bag stuck in the mailbox by the door. He took it down, opened the door, and went inside.
The house still had only the entryway light on. It was now three in the morning. Yun Ying should be asleep.
Coming back from the research base, although he had been disinfected, Yu Yao still felt somewhat uneasy about it. He went to the bathroom for a quick shower, changed into casual loungewear, and came out to sit in the living room.
He turned on a small desk lamp and opened the documents Wei Cheng had sent.
Inside were some information Wei Cheng had gathered, somewhat more comprehensive than what Chang Shuo had found. There was even Yu Yao's university graduation photo and diploma.
But there was one group photo.
It was taken on the day of the Yu family company banquet. Yu Yao saw himself in a crisp suit, one arm wrapped around a girl in a school uniform. He had raised his hand to shield the girl's face, staring coldly at the camera—probably intimidating those who were taking photos.
The walkie-talkie rang. Yu Yao took the documents and the walkie-talkie into his room and only connected after closing the door.
"Speak."
Wei Cheng's voice came through: "You do have a sister—not a biological one. The Yu family's protection over this girl has been too thorough; to this day, not a single clear photo of her face has surfaced. That girl should be the one you've been taking care of. Your bank transactions show many purchases of women's clothing, cosmetics, study materials, tutoring fees, and the like. She's probably around twenty-three to twenty-five now, a graduate of the dance department at Jinzhou University."
Yu Yao leaned back into his chair, staring at the only group photo in the file. The girl's face was covered so completely that it was impossible to make out, yet it still gave him an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
"Your father doted on her as well, spending a considerable sum to hire a dedicated dance conductor for her. This girl was once treated at Jinzhou Hospital, and you were her escort. Under 'relationship,' you filled in 'brother.' But her identity information is tightly sealed—I only managed to find that she was hospitalized once for a knee ligament injury. I'm already looking into whether your parents had any deceased close friends; perhaps this girl was entrusted to your family."
Yu Yao, upon learning he had no biological sister, had already considered the possibility that she might be the orphaned child of his parents' close friends.
"So what about the person? After all this talk, that's all you've got?"
Wei Cheng said: "A few days before the apocalypse, your father's funeral was held at the old estate in Linzhou. She should have attended as well—at the very least, she wouldn't have left until the funeral was over. You mentioned wanting to go to Linzhou at the time, presumably to pick her up after the funeral. When the apocalypse broke out, the Yu family's old estate arranged for someone to escort her out. I asked those survivors about it—they only said she boarded an evacuation bus."
"The bus was originally headed for the nearby military base, which later became Huaishi Base. But they ran into a Zombie Horde midway, so they had to head in the opposite direction. I checked that route—with the bus's fuel supply, they could only reach one base: Jiangcheng Base."
Wei Cheng paused, then asked with some curiosity: "Though I am puzzled—your father's funeral, why weren't you there?"
Yu Yao couldn't figure that out either.
No matter how badly he'd fought with his father, it wouldn't have been enough to make him that unfilial.
This damned memory had caused him no small amount of trouble along the way.
Wei Cheng said: "Whether or not you go to Lanshi, I promised I'd help you find your sister, and I will. But regarding the Lanshi matter, I still hope you'll consider it—for the future of humanity's base."
Yu Yao had no mood to play savior. He cut off the intercom without hesitation.
Yun Ying woke up early the next morning. The moment she stepped out of the living room and saw the person sitting on the sofa, she jumped in surprise.
Yu Yao looked up at her: "Awake? I've already washed up. Get yourself ready—let's go eat."
Yun Ying walked over. To guard against this pervert getting any ideas first thing in the morning, she kept a table between them as she looked at him: "You didn't sleep all night?"
Yu Yao raised a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose: "Had some things on my mind. Couldn't sleep."
Yun Ying nodded: "Oh."
Someone as powerful as him probably had to worry about the team's future and the base's safety—he must be quite busy.
Yun Ying turned and headed to the bathroom. Yu Yao watched her decisive retreating figure and let out a short, exasperated laugh.
This ungrateful little ingrate—Yu Yao felt like he could die right in front of her and she wouldn't even blink.
Yun Ying brushed her teeth and washed her face. The moment she stepped out of the bathroom door, a shadow loomed over her. One hand gripped the back of her neck, tilting her head up, and he captured her slightly parted lips.
The bedroom door behind her was pushed open, and Yu Yao guided her inside.
After tangling for over ten minutes, Yun Ying rubbed her red, swollen lips haphazardly and glanced at Yu Yao, who looked fresh and energized. As soon as he let go, she jumped several steps away.
"Yu Yao, is your mind filled with nothing but yellow garbage!"
Yu Yao leaned against the door, blocking her way out, and let out a muffled laugh. "Heaven and earth as my witness, I wasn't this hooligan before. Who told you to look so tempting to me?"
So it was her fault?
Yu Yao walked toward her. Yun Ying retreated a few steps, but the bed was right behind her. Her knees hit the edge of the bed, and she lost her balance, falling onto it. The back of her head hit the blanket, so it didn't hurt.
Yu Yao didn't even try to stop her. He knelt on one knee on the bed, leaned over, cradled her face, and gave her an affectionate kiss.
Yun Ying pressed her hand against his face and pushed him away. "Are you a pervert? Kissing, kissing, kissing—is there no end to it!"
Yu Yao really had no end to it. He grabbed her hand and kissed her wrist a few times. Facing Yun Ying's flushed, angry face, he pulled out a card.
"Look, what's this?"
Yun Ying frowned and glanced at the card in Yu Yao's hand.
"…A Credit Card?"
"Yeah." Yu Yao stuffed the card into her hand, sat up, and pulled her onto his lap. "Take it and spend it. Buy whatever you want."
Yun Ying shoved it back at him. "I don't want it. I can earn Credits myself."
"The squad isn't planning any missions lately, so you have no Credits to earn. Spend mine for now." Yu Yao pinched her cheek, afraid the thin calluses on his hand might hurt her, not even daring to use force.
…So soft. Soft everywhere.
Yun Ying's brows furrowed slightly as she stared at the Credit Card in her hand.
Yu Yao's throat bobbed. The girl's focused expression fell into his eyes, adorable in every way.
He lowered his head and nuzzled the base of her ear with the tip of his nose, coaxing her half-jokingly. "There are lots of Credits, enough for you to spend a lifetime. You can buy plenty of spicy strips, cake, and the starch sausages you love. How about it—would you consider me for a second marriage?"
Yun Ying frowned. "Yu Yao, you could clearly choose a very powerful Ability User as a partner. I'd just hold you back."
"What a coincidence. I just happen to like your type." Yu Yao was amused by her, holding the fragrant, soft girl. "See, things have come to this. As long as you can't knock me down in a day, you can't escape in a day. I'm not happy about using force on a girl, but I'm not exactly a moral person either—I'd even poach someone's corner."
Yun Ying glared at him fiercely.
So he knew! Pervert, bad dog!
Yu Yao was completely shameless. He smacked two kisses on her lips, and Yun Ying nearly raised her hand to slap him.
"I'm way better than your ex-husband. Won't you try me out? You've got to at least give me a trial period, right?"
A trial period—is this a job or what!
Yun Ying struggled. "Let me down!"
He couldn't push her too hard. Yu Yao released his hold and stuffed the Credit Card into Yun Ying's pajama pocket.
Just as Yun Ying was about to return it to him, Yu Yao braced both hands on the bed and looked up at her with a smile. "Keep it. I've bullied you this much—you've got to let me bleed a little."
His gaze fell on Yun Ying's slightly red lips. Yun Ying clenched the Credit Card, stepped on his foot, and then left.
Yu Yao tidied himself up and waited for her at the door for a while. Yun Ying changed her clothes and came out. Passing by him, she instinctively hid her hands behind her back.
Still guarding against him?
But Yu Yao was always stubborn. He reached over, grabbed her hand, and held it. Yun Ying couldn't out-stubborn him either.
Yu Yao led her out by the hand, giving the little girl's soft hand a squeeze. He turned his head to look at her inside the elevator—from this angle, her eyelashes were simply thick and long.
He chuckled twice, lowered his head, and murmured by her ear: "Baby, did you study dance before? Your whole body is so soft."
Yun Ying glared at him: "Stop talking nonsense!"
How could it be nonsense? She really was soft.
Her waist was soft too. When he pinned her to the bed to tease her, even when she raised her leg to kick him, she could reach his chest directly—her limbs weren't stiff at all.
The elevator reached the first floor, and they happened to run into Lu Yao and the others, who had just packed food from the cafeteria to bring back.
Seeing him approach, Lu Yao said: "Captain, let's go back and eat."
Yu Yao narrowed his eyes and nodded: "Alright."
They ate at He Fangchen and Cheng Zainan's place. The group put on shoe covers and went in. Yun Ying was dragged away by Lu Yao, and the little girl was happy to get away from that pervert Yu Yao.
Yu Yao was preparing the food, with Cheng Zainan washing dishes beside him, when Cheng Zainan said: "Captain Yu, Jiangcheng Base sent people over. The city lord went to receive them, but it doesn't seem like they're here to settle scores with us."
Yu Yao looked up at them.
He Fangchen said: "Seems like they want to discuss something. This morning I saw people from Jiangcheng Base in the cafeteria, and among them was…"
He paused, glanced at Yun Ying in the living room, and lowered his voice: "Yun-mei's husb—ex-husband."
Yu Yao suddenly laughed.
Cheng Zainan secretly glanced at Yu Yao. This bad dog looked calm, but they all knew that someone was probably dying of jealousy inside—after all, his sweetheart was someone he'd snatched back.
He Fangchen said quietly: "The legitimate husband is here, Captain. Your situation as the other man is a bit worrisome."
Yu Yao stared at Yun Ying's face. She was smiling brightly, very happy being with Lu Yao and Lin Xizhi. This kind of smile Yu Yao had never seen before, and it made him feel somewhat jealous.
"Legitimate husband? He's worthy of that title?"
Cheng Zainan muttered: "They dated since university, you know. Song Huai was Yun-mei's senior—a top student from Jinzhou University."
Senior? Jinzhou University?
Yu Yao suddenly looked at him: "So Yun Ying also went to Jinzhou University?"
Cheng Zainan responded: "Yeah, of course."