Chapter 112: Doomsday 27

Chapter 15

Ke Yuandao soon realized that Le Yixian had gone missing.

They had clearly agreed to have breakfast together that morning.

He waited at the base for quite some time but saw no sign of Le Yixian.

So, he went to the Xia residence to look for her.

Liu Ma was cleaning when she saw Ke Yuandao and looked surprised. “Good morning, Mr. Ke. Are you here to see Miss Meimei?”

Ke Yuandao nodded. “Yes.”

“Miss Meimei is still sleeping. Please have a seat; I’ll go call her,” Liu Ma said, setting down her broom and heading upstairs.

Ke Yuandao sat on the living room sofa. After a short while, Liu Ma came down, her face puzzled. “Miss Meimei isn’t in her room. That’s strange.”

“Not in her room?” Ke Yuandao frowned.

“Yes. Could she have gone out?” Liu Ma thought for a moment. “But I haven’t seen her leave today.”

“I’ll go look around,” Ke Yuandao said, standing and heading out.

He searched the entire day but found nothing.

“This is odd. Meimei doesn’t really know anyone at the base. Where could she have gone?” Li Ziqing, who was helping search, found it strange.

Ke Yuandao suddenly remembered something and turned to ask her, “Where does Yang Zhengqi live?”

“Yang Zhengqi?” Li Ziqing thought for a moment. “I’m not sure. Let me ask around.”

Yang Zhengqi was a recent powerful addition to the base, and many had been paying attention to him.

They soon found out his residence was a rather remote apartment building.

Ke Yuandao strode up and knocked fiercely on the door, but there was no response. A sharp light flashed in his eyes as he lifted his leg and kicked it open.

“Yang Zhengqi, come out!” Ke Yuandao shouted. But the room was empty.

They searched through the apartment but found no one. On the table lay a half-eaten cup of instant noodles, and a few pieces of clothing were scattered by the bedside.

“Where could he have gone?” Li Ziqing circled the room and touched the single bed, feeling its cold surface. It was clear the occupant hadn’t slept there last night.

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“What's going on here?” A neighbor, hearing the commotion, peeked out and was surprised to see Team Leader Ke and Team Leader Li. “Are you guys alright?”

“We’re looking for the person who lives here. Have you seen him?” Li Ziqing asked.

“Oh, Xiao Yang? I saw him rush out last night,” the neighbor recalled.

Though Yang Zhengqi had recently moved in, he was friendly and got along well with the neighbors.

“Yang Zhengqi,” Ke Yuandao clenched his fists tightly as thunder crackled around him.

Li Ziqing quickly stepped back, wary of being electrocuted, and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Yang Zhengqi fought me yesterday because of Meimei,” Ke Yuandao roughly explained the situation to her.

“So, you believe Meimei’s words?” Li Ziqing felt something was off after hearing the whole story, though she couldn’t quite pinpoint it. She hadn’t entered the research institute herself and was only outside providing support, so she didn’t know the details.

“Right now, only Meimei knows the whereabouts of the zombie vaccine,” Ke Yuandao said.

Li Ziqing fell silent. The zombie vaccine—something everyone feared losing hope for amid the apocalypse. If a vaccine existed, it meant hope.

“I’ll have people search,” Li Ziqing sighed deeply.

“Thank you. I’m heading to the research institute,” Ke Yuandao said. “Yang Zhengqi might not have returned there; he could still be hiding somewhere in the base. I’ll be quick.”

“I have a suggestion if you want to find Yang Zhengqi,” Li Ziqing said.

“What is it?”

“Let everyone look together.” She sighed. “The zombie vaccine is crucial and will drive everyone crazy.”

Ke Yuandao found this reasonable and nodded. “I’ll leave these matters to you.”

He was anxious, fearing that if he delayed, Yang Zhengqi might kill Xia Meimei.

After Ke Yuandao left, Li Ziqing reported the situation to the base’s leaders.

Upon hearing the words “zombie vaccine,” the leaders’ eyes widened as they looked at General Xia. “General Xia, your daughter is involved in something so important—why didn’t you tell us sooner?”

“I didn’t know myself,” General Xia said gravely. “You must understand, I want this apocalypse to end more than anyone. If I knew Meimei could develop a vaccine, I would have set up a research lab long ago.”

The others saw the sincerity in his expression. Besides Meimei’s unique abilities, she had been wandering around the base without causing any trouble.

“The priority now is to issue a wanted notice for Yang Zhengqi and bring Meimei back,” General Xia said with a bitter smile. “I can’t believe my daughter distrusted me so much that she told that kid Ke Yuandao everything and kept it from me.”

The other leaders comforted him, ordered the issuance of the wanted notice, and sent the news to other bases, asking them to watch for Yang Zhengqi and Xia Meimei’s whereabouts.

Xia Meimei was now humanity’s hope.

Once the news broke, the base erupted in chaos.

Zombie vaccine—that meant there might be no more fear?

Then where was Xia Meimei, the one who could develop the vaccine? And where was that damn Yang Zhengqi?

The base was restless these past few days, while Le Yixian and Yang Zhengqi, locked in the underground room, knew nothing.

Occasionally, the old man would appear to draw a vial of Yang Zhengqi’s blood before disappearing again.

Liu Ma delivered their three daily meals without untying them, feeding each bite directly into their mouths.

After several days, both of them grew weak.

They realized the food contained medicine.

They started refusing to eat as a form of resistance.

One day, Le Yixian spat out the food and said expressionlessly to Liu Ma, “Liu Ma, I want boiled fish. Can you make it for me?”

“Miss Meimei, dreams are dreams. Having plain rice to eat is already good enough,” Liu Ma said, setting down her bowl. “If you don’t want to eat, then don’t.”

Then she ignored Yang Zhengqi as well and turned to leave the underground room.

“Does she not know the food is drugged?” After a long silence, Le Yixian asked.

Yang Zhengqi rolled his eyes and refused to respond.

Both of them hadn’t eaten breakfast or lunch and felt nothing at first—until they heard noises outside the underground room that afternoon.

“Professor Wang, any progress these past few days?” General Xia’s voice came through.

The old man, hands behind his back, shook his head. “There’s nothing abnormal in Yang Zhengqi’s blood. He appears to be a normal person.”

Le Yixian silently scoffed inside: “Normal? He’s clearly a zombie.”