Mercy Zhao

[by Alice Duke]

**Mercy Zhao** is a student at Yale University and Johnathan Edwards College. She is Alex Stern's roommate in the Vanderbilt Hall dorms. Along with their other roommate Lauren, Alex and Mercy clicked very quickly as roommates and friends.

## Biography

### Early Life

Mercy Zhao was born to her parents, who are of Chinese descent and have careers as university professors. She was raised in a wealthy suburb of Chicago along with her brother. She did not have many friends as a child. When she was older, when she attended a public high school, Mercy played two years of soft ball.

Mercy is very accomplished. She plays piano, had scored a 1600 on her SAT (800 math, 800 verbal), and wrote prize-winning essays; one was on Rabelais and another comparing a passage from *The Sound and the Fury* to an excerpt about a pear tree in *The Canterbury Tales.* Her essays garnered the attention of both the Yale and Princeton English departments, however, she would choose to attend Yale University.

### Ninth House

#### Fall Semester

Mercy Zhao shares her dorm room with Alex Stern, having taken the top bunk bed in the small room that conjoins with the larger dormitory they share with Lauren and Anna Breen. Mercy had covered her side of the wall in posters (including one of Coco Chanel), family photos, Broadway ticket stubs, a poem written in Chinese characters, Alexander McQueen sketches, and red envelopes shaped into a starburst.

During that first day of moving in, Alex, Mercy and the rest of the girls would meet Darlington, who after introducing himself as Alex's cousin, would take Alex from the room with excuse of his mom asking for her. While Alex was being introduced to Lethe House, Lauren ordered pizza along with Mercy. When Alex returned, they settled in for the night, with Lauren immediately asking if Darlington was single, to which Alex claimed ignorance; Mercy quipped that he smelled like money. Alex playfully forbid the two from dating her fake cousin.

At one point in fall quarter, Alex made the mistake of returning to the dorm suite from a Thursday rite without showering. The stink of the uncanny, which was a combination of ozone after a storm and rotten pumpkin, lead Alex to fabricate a story about how she slipped into a pile of garbage on the way home—much to the amusement and laughter of Mercy and Lauren. Another time, Mercy decided to bring Alex with her to a salsa class in the Payne Whitney Gymnasium.

On Halloween, Mercy, Lauren and Alex did a group costume themed after Shakespeare's *Midsummer's Nights Dream* after Lauren found a Puck costume in the Dramat closet. After Mercy decided to dress up Tatiana, she suggested to Alex that she be Queen Mab. The trio of girls had plans to meet at Pierson Inferno, although Alex would eventually abandon those plans after Darlington got drugged at Manuscript's Halloween gathering.

#### Morning after the Murder

The morning after Alex investigated the scene of Tara Hutchins' murder, she entered the suite's common room in Vanderbilt to find Mercy awake reading her copy of *To the Lighthouse* by Virginia Woolf. Alex, lying, said that she came in late last night and got up early to run. She told Mercy she was able to freshen up at the gym because the showers were open for the rowing team, presuming that Mercy couldn't care less about sports.

That morning, Mercy handed Alex back her essay that she edited, offering to go over her essay during breakfast. At the dining hall in Johnathan Edwards, Mercy mentions possibly wearing a skirt to Omega Meltdown, "tomorrow night." Going to Omega Meltdown was part of Mercy's plan to get them to be more social. Alex is incredulous Mercy would want to go, but Mercy gets her to agree to accompany her and wear a skirt alongside her. Alex then gets distracted by Professor Maguerite Belbalm, who she goes to talk to while Mercy gets on her phone. It is then that Mercy finds out about Tara Hutchins' murder in front of Payne Whitney Gymnasium.

Mercy asks what 'La Belle Belbalm' wants, and Alex makes the excuse of wanting to talk about her schedule with Belbalm when she's free, rescheduling the editing of her essay until later.

#### Omega Meltdown

With Alex dealing with Tara Hutchins' murder, she forgot about her and Mercy's plans to go to Omega Meltdown. Mercy went to the fraternity party with a girl named Charlotte and a few others that lived on a higher level of the Vanderbilt dorms. At the frat party, Mercy was drugged with Merity, which makes a person not only highly suggestible and subservient, but also seemingly alert and willing. She was subsequently raped by Blake Keely and other Omega frat members and her violation would be recorded on Blake's phone and sent to her by text the next morning.

Mercy spent the morning crying, unwilling to let Lauren take her to the health center. Alex, who returned from talking to Detective Turner, was handed Mercy's phone and saw a text chain from Blake Keely with the video. After learning more information about the night from Lauren, Alex resolves to set the situation right, leaving the dorms set on confronting Keely at the Omega fraternity house on Lynwood St., with some magic to aid her.

Lauren would give Mercy an Ambien and put her to bed. Alex, having returned from interrogating Keely, tried to comfort Mercy after hearing her sobs, reassuring her that the video is gone. When night fell, Alex tried to convince Mercy to go to dinner with her and Lauren, confiding in her that she experienced something similar when she was really young in California. Mercy, reluctantly persuaded, covered herself in jeans and a sweater, and let Alex and Lauren escort her to the Johnathan Edwards Dining Hall. Mercy picked at her food until rather suddenly the cafeteria was abuzz with new gossip. She felt worse, especially as Evan Wiley, another Yale student, swooped down to the trio's table to talk about the news about Blake and as Lauren and Alex's phones buzzed with notifications. Unable to look, Mercy prompted Lauren to just get it over with and see if its her video. Lauren gasped in shock and each of them watched as Blake Keely bent over a dirty, clogged toilet and ate shit.

With Evan gone from the table, Mercy and Lauren stared at Alex, incredulous as they recalled how she went to mysteriously fix the situation. Alex kept silent on her methods. After a beat, Mercy gave her blanket approval over Alex' actions and happily dug into dinner. After dinner, the trio had a quiet evening in their common room. They had to hold in their laughter as they heard Anna speculate that they might be witches to whoever she was talking to on the phone.

#### Alex Gets Ready

A few days later, Mercy would loan Alex her fancy black pantsuit and helped her get ready to look professional, believing her lie that it was for a job interview. She gave a tight hug for good luck. That evening, Mercy sat near the couch of the common room surrounded by books. She greeted Alex as returned, asking how her interview went, to which Alex gave a noncommittal response. As Alex put on a new outfit and a dark plum lipstick, Mercy was instantly intrigued and inquired as to where she was going. Alex idly said she was meeting someone for coffee, and with further prompting, revealed that she's on a date with a town man—much to the delight of Mercy and Lauren.

As Alex fixes her makeup, Mercy brings up that Feb Club will be over soon and that she would like to attend the last party on Friday. Alex asks if she's sure and Mercy reaffirms, saying that she'd like to go and maybe borrow Alex's lipstick. Pleased, Alex readily agrees.

#### At the Hutch

When Alex doesn't return to the dorms in three weeks, Mercy gets concerned. She contacted Alex's mother Mira Stern and expressed her concern. When Mira arrived from the flight, the pair went to the Hutch. To get Alex's attention, Mercy threw a rock through the window of the common room. It worked as Alex came to the window to find Mercy and her mother downstairs.

Entering the Hutch, Mira along with Mercy began tidying up the clutter which led to Alex joining them in cleaning up the Hutch. As Mira cleaned, Mercy asked about the Hutch, to which Alex responded that it was Darlington's. Mercy confessed to following Alex a couple of times. Alex was annoyed at Mercy calling her mom, but sighed as Mercy pointed out that she basically disappeared on them. Mira and Mercy made Alex shower and book an appointment with the university's health center to get antibiotics, though Alex refused to show them her injury. As they took a break in the afternoon from cleaning, Mercy told her that she picked up notes from three weeks-worth of classes and that she already had an approach to tackle finals. Mercy and Alex then took Mira to visit Old Campus and their residences in Vanderbilt Hall.

After Alex said goodbye to her mom, she returned to the common room, where Mercy was curled up on the couch. When Alex gives a vague answer to Mercy's concern, Mercy is amused and accepts Alex's mysteriousness, countering that she played softball in high school— much to Alex's surprise as she thought Mercy hated sports. Mercy then informs her that Blake Keely was dead after breaking and entering into a couple's home. It was reported that he had a knife that matched the one that killed Tara Hutchins. Mercy supposes she must've been lucky, although she amends her statement. She tells Alex about having to endure visiting her mean 103 year old grandmother with her brother and always coming out a little tougher. When Alex responds with what her grandmother Estrea Stern was like—superstitious and tough—Mercy supposes that's what you have to be like to survive to get old.

### Hell Bent

Over the summer, Mercy spent some time praying, as well as doing therapy and talking to her priest in order to process what happened to her. Mercy moved into the residential college of Jonathan Edwards along with Alex and Lauren. Alex and Mercy shared the double, while Lauren won the single room. While a little more wary, she easily went with Alex and Lauren to a party on Lynwood St.

## Personal Attributes

### Personality

Mercy Zhao stands out at Yale; in a place where everyone seems to blur in their attempt to fit into a label, Mercy likes being loud and expressing her personality through her style and interest in fashion. Mercy is precise, intelligent and clever, having a love of reading and even impressed Darlington with her writing. Mercy is also outgoing and compassionate, always wiling to go out with her friends, who she demonstrates her care for through her actions.

### Physical Description

Mercy Zhao had dark straight hair and dark eyes. As for her wardrobe, Mercy favored wearing feminine clothes (skirts, dresses, silk robes) that often have floral patterns, paired with various types of eyeglasses that she wears on glittery strings around her neck but rarely wears on her face.

## Relationships

### Alex Stern

Although very different in terms of interests and backgrounds, Alex and Mercy have a caring friendship and get along very well. Alex values the how normal Mercy's friendship makes her feel, appreciating her ability to not laugh at her faux pas, and their shared background of being the kid with nobody to sat next to in the cafeteria.

## Trivia

* Mercy has a birthmark shaped like Wisconsin.

## Quotes

* "But here the colors seemed to blur. There was a kind of uniform—[...] Your clothes, your car, the music pumping from it, were supposed to tell people who you were. Here it was like someone had filed down all of the serial numbers, wiped away the fingerprints [...] Mercy was an exception."
* “Then Mercy dragged her finger over the table and said, “You know how people say two wrongs don’t make a right?” “Yeah.” Mercy pulled Alex’s plate toward her and took a huge bite of her remaining cheeseburger. “They’re full of shit.”

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 *Ninth House* Chapter 5 (Winter)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 *Ninth House* Chapter 28 (Early Spring)
3. ↑ *Hell Bent* Chapter 5
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 *Ninth House* Chapter 2 (Last Fall)
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 *Ninth House* Chapter 3 (Winter)
6. ↑ *Ninth House* Chapter 1 (Winter)
7. ↑ *Ninth House* Chapter 10 (Last Fall)
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 *Ninth House* Chapter 14 (Winter)
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 *Ninth House* Chapter 16 (Winter)
10. ↑ *Ninth House* Chapter 17 (Winter)
11. ↑ *Ninth House* Chapter 24 (Winter)
12. ↑ *Ninth House* Chapter 25 (Winter)
13. ↑ *Hell Bent* Chapter 11
14. ↑ *Hell Bent* Chapter 1
15. ↑ *Hell Bent* Chapter 12