Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



"Well, fuck," I said again as I slumped down against Wang Chao, wondering how I got myself into this mess.

"What are you two talking about?"  Asked Liu Yu Zeng looking back and forth between me and Wang Chao.

"Wang Chao was just saying that he was not able to read Wu Bai Hee's mind. That means that she is a spirit user, and I think I know which aspect of it she excels at," I grumbled looking at Liu Wei. "You know, you are a huge pain in my ass."

The man that the audacity to shoot me a wounded puppy dog look, like that would make me forgive him for bringing another spirit user into my life.  I was very happy back at my ranch thank you very much… I didn't need this crap. Now we were either going to be manipulated to death or die from a zombie hostile takeover. Either way… not how I wanted to go.

"Manipulation?" Asked Wang Chao, his confusion apparent in his voice. I nodded, my head still trying to take in all the information that had been thrown at me.  I tried my best in my second life to (a) avoid power users and/or (b) not piss them off.  I am pretty sure that I did not avoid Wu Bai Hee and I most definitely pissed her off. FML.

"Ever heard of a green tea bitch?" I asked, looking at the guys in front of me as they shook their heads.  Typical. The men in this room would have been targeted by green tea bitches and white lotuses all their lives and they didn't even know what that expression meant.

"A green tea bitch is a woman that seems so sweet, kind, and innocent to men that she finds useful in some way, shape, or form. But she is more interested in their money and their power than anything else, and she doesn't mind destroying relationships to get it. Does that sound familiar in any way?" I asked, looking at the four men. When they once again shook their heads, I wondered just how they were able to become as powerful as they had. Maybe they were more innocent than stupid…. Sure, let's go with that.

"A green tea bitch, in my opinion, is a master manipulator," I said like the answer was right in front of them. 

As per usual, Wang Chao was the first to catch on. "What you are saying is that before the vaccine, Wu Bai Hee was a green tea bitch… and now that she has developed into a spirit power user, she is using that power to continue to manipulate?"

I nodded my head in agreement and settled a bit more contently into his chest. "Chances are she doesn't even know what she is doing. She is just using the same tactics as before, but this time, she is having a lot more success."

"What I am having a hard time understanding is what are you guys even doing here?" Said Liu Wei as he stood up, picked up my feet, and sat down on the couch beside Wang Chao, having me effectively laying across the both of them.

Liu Yu Zeng studied our formation for a second before he shook his head and addressed his brother. "It was Wu Bai Hee's insistence. She wanted to come and visit you since she hadn't seen you in years. At first, Grandfather said no, but then she mentioned it was a good time to ensure the power of the Red Dragon Syndicate was still what it used to be. Grandfather agreed after that."

Liu Wei shook his head as he gently tickled my legs. "I mean, in my dream, you three were still very much in City H when this whole thing started. You never left the city before or after. You tried, but Grandfather kept denying you."

I stiffened when I heard what he had said.  If his dream was a vision of his past life… and let's face it… if I could be reborn, he could have visions of what once was… then his family never made this trip.  So what caused things to change in this life?

The only common factor was Wu Bai Hee. She is the one that wanted to come here now, so what changed with her? I thought that maybe she had a dream when she was vaccinated and saw that Liu Wei disappeared at the beginning of the apocalypse and she wanted to rush to his side to prevent that from happening. "When did she start pushing to come visit Liu Wei?" I asked Liu Yu Chen.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't really remember… I think the was the end of August or something like that?"

"So, before she got the vaccine?" I demanded, praying that she somehow got her hands on the vaccine sooner than almost everyone else in the country.

"Yeah, by several months."

"Well, fuck," I grumbled realizing that maybe I really should not have woken up today.  Was it really just this morning that we were still at the hotel? That was like 2 zombie hordes ago!

"Do you want to discuss your concerns?" Asked Chen Zi Han as he too looked at the arrangement on my couch. And this was why he was quickly becoming a new favorite. Or maybe it was his superpower.  Once this shit show was handled, I would get the boyos to run these two through the gauntlet to see what powers they might have.

"There are four possible scenarios, and quite frankly, they all suck. First, the woman is absolutely in love with Liu Wei and wants to marry him more than she wants her next breath and so when she had a dream about him disappearing, she frantically came here in the hopes that she could stop that from happening."

"Not a chance," said the four men. "And besides, she started pushing for this before she took the vaccine," pointed out Liu Yu Zeng.

"Second situation; she wanted whatever power Liu Wei could give her through marriage and manipulated the Old Master into coming here."

Chen Zi Han shook his head. "It is highly likely, but at the same time… if this didn't happen in a previous life, why would it happen now?" 

Have I mentioned how nice it is that these men seemed to just accept the possibility of more than one life? It was truly fantastic.

"Third; this is at least her second life and she knew what was going to happen to Liu Wei and needed to stop it before it got that far. What I don't understand is, what are the benefits that Liu Wei can give her that she could not get from the Old Master?"

"What's the fourth scenario?" Asked Liu Wei, not wanting to address the third possibility.

"That she knows exactly what is going to happen, when and why it is going to happen and she is setting herself up to be able to take advantage of it," I said simply.  But as far as I was concerned, this would be the worst-case scenario.  People did not get a rebirth for any random reason, there was always a purpose, a reason why they were sent back. Mine was for revenge since I died in such a bad way and just maybe, to save the lives that Wang Zi Mo took. So what caused her to be able to come back to life? And what was her purpose?

I closed my eyes and leaned against Wang Chao's shoulder more than ready to end the day and get out of here. But… this whole situation with Wu Bai Hee was causing me to feel unsettled… like something big was going to happen. What it was I had no idea…and there was also no way to know if it would be good for us or bad. But I knew I needed sleep before I could plan out my next step.

As my thoughts swirled, I slowly sunk further into Wang Chao's embrace and fell into a much-needed sleep.

----

Feeling Li Dai Lu relaxing against him, Wang Chao looked down at the little girl carrying the weight of the world on her small shoulders.  He knew grown men, military men that broke with the amount of pressure that she was carrying, and yet, you would never know it to look at her.

He was able to follow the majority of her thoughts, but they were definitely becoming overwhelming. Especially once this Wu Bai Hee situation occurred. Maybe we should have just stayed at the ranch. It had only been two days since the end of the world, and in those 48 hours we experienced more issues than most people did in their lives… well, at least before the apocalypse.

"Do we start with the biggest issue on her mind or the smallest?" Asked Liu Wei as he too looked down at the girl between us.

"That's the biggest problem," I scoffed. "When we first came here, her biggest issue was when she could get home. When she remembered that City B had become a zombie paradise in her last life, her biggest concern was how fast she could get us out of here before they took over."

"And now?" Asked Liu Yu Zeng. 

"Now? Now she is wondering what Wu Bai Hee knows that she doesn't. Something big is going to happen in this city within the next little while, and whether it is beneficial or not, her brain is trying to factor it into the long list of problems."