The woman paused, observing the sample she had just placed in her test tube. Ruan Mei was nothing if not meticulous and precise, and there was something off about the color of this specimen. She exhaled in brief annoyance and walked over to fetch saline drops from her cabinet.

Ruan Mei was working on something big--that had been the only details she'd disclosed to her colleagues of the Genius Society. The end result would surely draw question from other regarding ethics and legality, but it would be worth it to her in the end. Perhaps her knowledge would one day surpass even that of Nous the Erudition.

She added the drops into her test tube and waited for it to dissolve, listening to the bubbling of chemicals and clicks of automatic stopwatches behind her. Her lab was her sanctuary, and it was not to be disturbed. Everyone was aware of that.

Which is why it startled Ruan Mei when the door suddenly opened, revealing a figure standing in the entryway.

Ruan Mei set aside the tongs and folded her hands, her eyes narrowing coolly.

"Pardon me," she said in her soft, composed voice, "but you're disrupting my experiment."