The Zombie I Flirted With After Losing My Memory, Who Was Pretending to be an Alpha, Is Actually My Ex - Chapter 28

Chapter 28: Shi Yun

Teng Xi looked horrified, the words blurting out instantly: “It has nothing to do with me! I don’t even know her!”

Seeing her scramble to clear her name, Xie Jinbing felt satisfied.

Her hands moved skillfully across the data console, successfully locating the data and surveillance footage for Lab 8.

“Is your daily work… um, this fun?” Teng Xi pointed at the Xie Jinbing on the monitor, who was sitting with her back to the camera, motionless and staring into space like a statue. It was her polite way of suggesting the work wasn’t exactly high-intensity.

Xie Jinbing gave her a white eye: “I was performing an Immunohistochemistry (IHC) experiment. It’s a test for antigen-antibody reactions, using a chromogen labeled on the antibody to identify the antigen. At that moment, it should have been at the antibody incubation stage.”

However, to be honest, Teng Xi wasn’t entirely wrong. Ever since Xie Jinbing had been transferred from the city center to the Red House Mental Hospital—shifting from a clinical talent to a research talent—she had become noticeably idle. The experiments here weren’t numerous or difficult. She lived a simple, repetitive life moving between work and home.

On the day of the incident, she had been waiting in the lab, planning to slack off until it was time to get off work. Unexpectedly, even though IHC experiments were routine, Shi Yun—the head of Section A—suddenly appeared in the lab. She claimed she was there to “exchange work ideas,” but since Xie Jinbing’s role here was largely that of a “vase” (figurehead), her work content had zero overlap with Shi Yun’s.

She had only been mildly puzzled at the time, not expecting the massive “surprise” Shi Yun would deliver an hour later.

She dragged the surveillance progress bar until a woman with wavy hair and a white lab coat pushed the door open.

The Xie Jinbing sitting at the bench quickly noticed her but didn’t turn around, remaining calm in her seat.

“That is Shi Yun,” Xie Jinbing pointed at the woman with the waves.

The camera angle in the lab wasn’t great; its primary purpose was to monitor the workbench, so it only managed to capture the back of Shi Yun’s head.

On screen, she walked in and said something to Xie Jinbing’s back. Xie Jinbing nodded and lazily gestured to a spot beside her.

Seeing Xie Jinbing’s dismissive attitude and effortless composure toward her boss, Teng Xi felt unsure: “I say, which one of you is actually the head of Section A?”

In the footage, Shi Yun sat properly beside Xie Jinbing, and the two chatted intermittently. Xie Jinbing remained cold and detached, but the other woman didn’t seem angry.

Teng Xi turned her head, staring into Xie Jinbing’s eyes with uncertainty: “She wasn’t trying to pursue you, was she?”

Xie Jinbing was about to roll her eyes but suddenly thought of something. She pretended not to hear and didn’t even give Teng Xi a glance.

Now Teng Xi grew anxious: “That woman looks like she has a lot of tricks up her sleeve. Does she even know you have a family? And yet she’s pressing so close to you! She touched your arm!”

Teng Xi pointed at Shi Yun with righteous indignation, wishing she could jump into the monitor to pull Shi Yun away, and perhaps wave her Miaodao to threaten her to stay away from Xie Jinbing.

As the person beside her chattered incessantly and grew more emotional, Xie Jinbing dragged the progress bar further. Half an hour later, red lights began flashing in the room. The two women on screen looked at each other in surprise. Shi Yun went to a corner to take a call, moving exactly into a surveillance blind spot.

Because of the warning, the lab door had automatically deadlocked. With no windows in the room, it was impossible to see the situation outside. Xie Jinbing, realizing it was futile to struggle, simply stayed at the bench messing with her glassware.

Shi Yun returned from her call quickly. She didn’t sit back down. Instead, she walked toward a shelf, casting a cautious glance at Xie Jinbing’s back. Seeing that Xie Jinbing wasn’t looking, she quickly grabbed a syringe and, in a blind spot, drew a transparent liquid from her pocket.

Xie Jinbing hadn’t been on guard. Or rather, although she disliked Shi Yun, she subconsciously believed the woman wouldn’t do anything excessive; they had no conflict of interest and very little contact.

Thus, until the moment she lost consciousness, she couldn’t fathom why Shi Yun would do this to her. It wasn’t until she woke up mysteriously in Section C with a zombie body that it all began to sink in.

The liquid in the syringe flowed rapidly into Xie Jinbing’s body. She turned her head in shock but collapsed powerlessly into her chair. Shi Yun caught her and laid her down.

The video cut off abruptly there. Shi Yun had operated the computer to shut down the surveillance.

Whether it was Shi Yun’s intentional positioning or purely the camera placement, her face was never captured from start to finish, leaving Teng Xi no chance to see what this hypothetical “love rival” actually looked like.

The two found no other useful information.

“Are you close with her?” Teng Xi asked.

Xie Jinbing shook her head. She didn’t even know the person existed before she started working at the mental hospital.

“I reasonably suspect the possibility of her acting out of unrequited love turned to hatred is quite high,” Teng Xi frowned unhappily. Otherwise, why would the head of Section A have nothing better to do than spend all day visiting Xie Jinbing?

Xie Jinbing glared at her.

Teng Xi raised her hands in surrender and said helplessly: “So, what do we do now?”

“Find her,” Xie Jinbing said succinctly.

Now they had another reason why they absolutely had to find Shi Yun.

“But how are we supposed to get out?” Teng Xi pointed at the air shower corridor. If Sister Xie hadn’t lost her memory, she should know the situation outside well.

Xie Jinbing pointed toward a corner of the lab: “Who told you there’s only one way out of here?”

The Section A building had 16 floors, with a lab every two floors. To facilitate movement between labs, a dedicated laboratory elevator had been built.

“This lab of yours looks more like it was built to hide from a zombie apocalypse,” Teng Xi pointed out. The lab was airtight, stocked with massive supplies, and had its own escape route. It looked exactly like a bunker.

Xie Jinbing packed her things in silence. She knew in her heart that Teng Xi’s guess was almost spot on. She had always suspected the Red House was more than it seemed but had been unwilling to dig deeper. Now, the complexity was laid bare before her, forcing her to consider the cause and effect.

She patted the bulging pink backpack and tossed it to Teng Xi. Before setting off, she gave a cold warning: “The crisis broke out during working hours. Even though the lab has an internal safety passage, there’s no guarantee it’s clear of zombies. There will just be fewer of them than outside.”

“If you get bitten, I will be the first one to kill you,” Xie Jinbing stood before Teng Xi, turning her body halfway, her words devoid of warmth.

The threatened Teng Xi froze for a second, then immediately leaned in with a “ying-ying-ying” whimper, her fingertips just touching the white lab coat as she prepared to act spoiled and aggrieved.

Suddenly, an accident occurred. With a light “Snap,” the room plunged into darkness. It took them completely by surprise.

In the dark, the sound of a Miaodao being unsheathed rang out. Xie Jinbing felt herself bump into a warm embrace. Teng Xi’s figure was lean with no extra body fat; the impact made her nose sting, but a warmth rose in her heart for no reason.

Teng Xi pressed a hand on her shoulder, pulling her into her arms, and held her blade up, keenly observing her surroundings.

Neither of them spoke. The room was unnervingly quiet. Three minutes later, with another light “Snap,” the lights flickered back on.

“The power finally went out,” Xie Jinbing sighed softly. “It looks like the backup power has kicked in. We have to hurry. We need to find her and leave the hospital before the backup power runs out too.”