Chapter 71 - Guinea Pigs
When Wu Yijun burst out laughing, Liang Peng finally started laughing while looking at Chen He as if he was an idiot.
Eventually, after being dumbfounded for a moment, the handsome young archer finally understood that his other childhood friend had played a bad joke on him.
Since Wu Yijun knew perfectly well that Chen He saw Bai Zemin as a potential enemy for the affection of his childhood crush, but she said such words to tease him, it was obvious what her intentions were.
"Yijun you...." He didn't know whether to laugh or cry as he secretly looked at Shangguan Bing Xue. Unfortunately, he was only disappointed to notice that her expression was as cold and indifferent as ever.
She looked at the scene with a hard-to-read expression and secretly shook her head. Shangguan Bing Xue knew that Wu Yijun was a person who when the atmosphere was bad liked to joke to ease the tension, even so, the joke was indeed a bit awkward.
"Is there any change with the test subject who ingested the flesh of the First Order Beetle?" Shangguan Bing Xue asked, not dwelling on the matter from before and immediately forgetting about it.
"For now, there is no change at all." Wu Yijun's face finally became serious and she looked towards the small enclosed room as she said, "It's already been four hours but there hasn't even been any change in those people... Do you want to wait more time just in case, Bing Xue?"
Shangguan Bing Xue nodded and said indifferently, "That's right. Let's wait until nightfall and if there are no negative changes, then we'll let them go right away as promised."
Liang Peng looked at Shangguan Bing Xue and could not help but secretly shudder as he realized that under that cold and indifferent face was actually a cruel woman.
The test subject she was talking about was actually three of Qiao Long's lackeys who had also abused other people by making use of their position as bootlickers. However, after Qiao Long was defeated and killed by Bai Zemin's group, those three lackeys became prisoners of war.
Although Shangguan Bing Xue wanted to kill them all, she was a pretty smart woman capable of seeing the big picture of the world. Therefore, after deliberating with herself, she came up with the idea of using these people as guinea pigs to test the flesh of the First Order elephant beetle and see if any kind of mutation or malformation happened in any of the three subjects.
Shangguan Bing Xue's idea was approved by Bai Zemin and Liang Peng without hesitation, and although Chen He still felt it was not right, he finally agreed.
When they told the three male students that they had abused of Qiao Long's power, naturally none of them agreed to become guinea pigs and taste the beetle's flesh. After all, who in their right mind would be willing to eat something that could kill them or turn them into some kind of weird creature?
Unfortunately for the three guys, none of them had too many options to choose from as Bai Zemin threatened to throw them alive into the zombies if they didn't want to do the job. Seizing the opportunity, Shangguan Bing Xue had promised that as long as nothing bad happened to them she would let them go and no one would stop them.
Under the cold stare of Bai Zemin, who did not seem to be lying when he said he would throw them into the zombies just as he had done before with Qiao Long, and under the "allied hand" extended by Shangguan Bing Xue, the three male students obediently became guinea pigs.
However, Liang Peng did not expect that she would still be so cunning and cruel... If she released them at night when the danger multiplied infinitely, the already slim chances of survival that the three test subjects had in case they passed the project would plummet even further.
Seeing her cold and indifferent expression remain unchanged, Liang Peng finally realized that the woman in front of him had never intended to let those three men live from the beginning.
Bai Zemin was cruel and ruthless enough to throw a living, sentient person into the midst of the zombies while he watched them being eaten alive with an impassive expression... However, Shangguan Bing Xue was not necessarily inferior to how cruel he was.
The people in the room looked at her in different ways; some with fear, some with concern, some with understanding, and various complex emotions. However, Shangguan Bing Xue seemed unconcerned by all this and continued to supervise that the survivors did not slack off and work properly while protecting them from danger.
...
Time passed quickly and on the side where the survivors were working on the beetle's shell and flesh nothing worth special had happened. Not even a single zombie had appeared in the vicinity as they had all been slaughtered by the main fighters of the group after so many battles and walks back and forth between this area and the gym.
At about three o'clock in the afternoon, the survivors began to slow down the speed at which they were moving their hands, so the work began to fall behind time.
"Gao Min, Li Na, Fan Wu, sorry to bother you but could you go call the people who are working? Tell them the food is ready and they can all eat their fill." Wu Yijun noticed the change immediately and asked her friends to take care of informing the fifty survivors who were working.
"All right."
The three girls nodded naturally and stood up without hesitation. Now that things had changed, they knew that they needed to at least do simple tasks if they didn't want to be despised by everyone.
Wu Yujin herself even went downstairs and headed to the temporary kitchen that had been set up on site to check how the other work was going; there a group of about ten female students and teachers, who had temporarily become the group's cooks, were making lunch.
"I'll go tell Bai Zemin that the food is ready." Shangguan Bing Xue walked towards the window as she said, "It's been about seven hours since he's been killing zombies and he probably needs to replenish his energy as well or he won't be able to sustain himself for the rest of the day."
"Bing Xue!"
Chen He called out to her and she stopped before looking back with doubtful eyes.
"What's wrong?"
Hearing her voice as cold as ice, Chen He hesitated to say that he would go for her to look for Bai Zemin. In the end, he shook his head and said with a worried look, "You... Be careful."
Shangguan Bing Xue looked at him for a few seconds before turning around and saying in the same voice as always, "Don't worry. I'm not as weak as I may seem."
With nothing more to say and without waiting for a response, she jumped out of the window and floated like a butterfly until her feet touched the ground before her speed burst, disappearing from everyone's sight within seconds.