Chapter 13 The Fool Has Nothing (13)

Chapter 13: Fools Possess Nothing (Part Thirteen)

The next morning, the outside was a racket.

Xu Jiu had originally worried about oversleeping, but before the morning shift, everyone was ordered to stay in their rooms without leaving. His sleepiness evaporated as he pressed his ear to the door, listening intently. The chaotic noise outside suggested many people moving about, setting something up.

"Will we be discovered?" Xu Jiu whispered nervously, turning to Number Six.

"No," Number Six replied. Humans could detect irregularities—knowing that large numbers of people vanished daily—but they couldn’t pinpoint specific individuals.

Xu Jiu continued whispering, "They might call me out soon. Stay here and don’t move. Better yet, hide."

Number Six nodded in understanding. Xu Jiu hurriedly changed clothes, rinsed his mouth, and wiped his face with a cold, damp towel. By the time he was ready, harsh yelling broke out outside.

"Out! Now, no delays!"

It was the supervisor’s voice. Xu Jiu could already hear him cursing "slackers" down the hallway. Just as he pushed the door open, his wrist was suddenly snagged by Number Six.

Xu Jiu turned to see Number Six hunched down, its towering height nearly brushing the ceiling.

Xu Jiu: "What’s wrong?"

Number Six extended a tentacle and poked its own forehead.

Xu Jiu: "...Huh?"

It poked again. After a pause, it finally clicked for Xu Jiu—over the past month, he’d always kissed the little jellyfish’s head before leaving.

The little jellyfish had grown into a medium jellyfish, then rapidly bloated into a bizarrely shaped large jellyfish. Yet, the habit of kissing its forehead had become deeply ingrained.

Torn between laughter and frustration, Xu Jiu leaned in, tilting his face up to plant two kisses on its still-smooth head.

"Alright, alright! I have to go now, or I’ll get scolded," he struggled with the door, whispering, "Hide well!"

Number Six touched its head, dissatisfied.

Just two kisses. So perfunctory.

It pouted as Xu Jiu dashed out, wondering if its growth had made the host less doting than before... Was it overthinking? Or was the human still secretly upset?

Number Six didn’t understand this feeling—what humans called "fear of losing affection." After some thought, it decided to label it as "overthinking."

After all, who else could the host dote on besides it?

Xu Jiu rushed out of the dormitory and lined up with other cleaners. The open area in front of the building was now fenced with alloy barriers, equipped with precision instruments flashing red and blue lights.

Nearby, the supervisor was grovelling to several people in full hazmat suits, babbling nonstop. Suddenly, his face twisted into a scowl as he scanned the crowd, his vicious gaze locking onto Xu Jiu.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

Xu Jiu groaned inwardly as the supervisor marched over with a baton, ramming it viciously into his shoulder. "You deaf? The officers want to question you!"

The pain nearly made Xu Jiu grimace, but he knew showing discomfort would earn him a blow to the head. Biting back a curse, he hunched his shoulders and mumbled, "Got it."

Just you wait. Payback’s coming. It’s too public now, but one day when you’re alone, see if I don’t bash your head in...

Seething silently, Xu Jiu obediently stood before the "officers."

Before he could steady himself, someone yanked the ID badge from his chest and scanned it in a nearby machine. Another person leafed through files, their voice muffled by the thick hazmat suit.

"You went out during curfew last night."

The Supervisor was glaring nearby, surrounded by dozens of heavily armed guards watching their every move. If Xu Jiu said one wrong word—or even just twitched his leg—he’d be swiss-cheesed in seconds.

Strangely, his heart remained calm, not a shred of fear in it.

"No, sir," Xu Jiu said. "I left just before curfew because I lost the MRE bars I brought back for lunch. I wanted to ask my coworkers if anyone had taken them by mistake."

His composure took the Supervisor by surprise.

"So, you didn’t violate curfew?" the other man pressed.

"No, sir," Xu Jiu repeated calmly. "When I couldn’t find what I lost, I returned to my room before curfew. I wouldn’t dare step out of line."

He remembered what Number Six had told him last night—this place was already a hunting ground for jellyfish. They disguised themselves among humans, indifferent to the surveillance cameras and infrared sensors everywhere. There had to be a reason for that.

Hearing his answer, the Supervisor finally looked up, bothering to glance at him.

"Right, *because* the surveillance was down," he gave a hollow laugh. *"Guess we’ll just take your word for it."*

Before Xu Jiu could respond, the man pulled out a list with photos of four people—the very guards who had caught Xu Jiu the night before.

"Ever seen them?"

Xu Jiu raised his head, studied the photos carefully, then shook his head.

"I haven’t seen them, sir."

The man stared at Xu Jiu, slowly retracting the photos before jerking his chin to the side.

"You’re up first for testing."

Confused, Xu Jiu hesitated, and the Supervisor seized the chance to jab him hard in the shoulder, shoving him toward the alloy fence. "Get moving!"

He walked along the fence to the end, following instructions to insert his hand into a small opening in a machine. A cold sensation hit his skin first, followed by a sudden, sharp pain.

Xu Jiu hissed, pulling his hand back to see a jagged gash on his skin.

A voice behind the machine barked, "Swabs and bandages are on the left. Keep moving."

And so, clutching his hand, Xu Jiu endured having his oral mucosa scraped, his pupils examined under a light, and two nonsense surveys… By the time the tedious process ended, he reached the far end of the fence, where a young man with a kind face and a mask stood waiting, an "Examiner" badge on his chest.

"Your test results," he said gently. "Congratulations, you passed. Show me your ID badge and let me see that wound."

Xu Jiu quickly peeled off the bandage. The Examiner studied the fresh cut with creepy focus, making Xu Jiu uneasy.

"Nice healthy bleed," he remarked with a smile, pressing a small device against the wound. A cold liquid injected, and his fingers—clammy and limp—brushed Xu Jiu’s hand, making his skin crawl. "That’s your ID chip. Your badge is over there. Don’t misplace it."

Xu Jiu hurriedly said, "Thanks—"

He choked on the word, the rest of his gratitude stuck in his throat.

The Examiner’s fingers were colder than the instrument—like rotted meat, limp and revolting against his skin.

Xu Jiu was certain he hadn’t imagined it—the moment the Examiner looked up, his irises flared with that telltale sickly blue.

"...nk you," he rasped, hollow.

In contrast, Six was also a dangerous alien, still linked to that colossal jellyfish from before. Yet its often naive demeanor and blunt, unfiltered manner made it more akin to an innocent beast. Xu Jiu wasn’t afraid of it—he would never be afraid of it.

But the creature he saw now filled Xu Jiu with primal dread, goosebumps rising in waves.

...It looked so much like a human—so much that it made him tremble.

The inspector froze, his eyes wide and unblinking as he stared at Xu Jiu. Suddenly, his nostrils twitched slightly, emitting a sniffing sound.

"Strange, really strange," he murmured, wearing a smile of clinical curiosity. "You smell..."

Xu Jiu couldn’t bear to meet its gaze any longer. Putting on a calm front, he whispered, "Sorry, low-level employees aren’t supposed to speak casually to superiors."

Then he lowered his head, hastily grabbed the nearby ID badge, feigned calm, and turned to leave.

Even after walking far away, he could still feel the piercing, viscous stare drilling into his back like a physical weight.

Wasn’t it ridiculous? By the time the research station finally caught on and launched a full-scale investigation, the alien disguised as a human had already infiltrated the ranks of "inspectors" and could openly sit in judgment...

Xu Jiu only felt his body grow cold, his instincts screaming at him to quicken his pace and sprint toward Six if possible. If given the choice, he’d rather have Six cocoon him again, just like last night.

However, despite passing the inspection, Xu Jiu still couldn’t return to his room—the full-scale decontamination was underway, the entire building shrouded in ghostly white vapor with no telling when it would fully dissipate.

He was somewhat worried, but then again, Six wasn’t stupid enough to stand there and let them spray it with disinfectant.

"Move it! You [expletive] lazy pigs, still waiting for a break, huh? Get to work!" the supervisor barked, his attitude toward low-ranking employees even more vicious than a prison warden’s.

Reconstruction was far from finished, leaving plenty of heavy, tedious tasks for Xu Jiu and the others. With just a few words, the supervisor could send dozens of people scrambling in all directions, working them to the bone.

He didn’t just target Xu Jiu—he was quick to lash out at anyone, always venting whatever frustration he suffered from his superiors onto his subordinates, never letting his anger linger till the next day.

"Using us as whipping boys again," a cleaner beside Xu Jiu muttered self-deprecatingly. "Wonder who pissed him off this time."

Still distracted by earlier events, Xu Jiu absentmindedly replied, "Maybe they didn’t feed him enough."

Those few words packed a punch. Someone behind him heard and immediately let out a stifled laugh.

"Who?!" The supervisor instantly caught the unusual sound and stood up, scanning for the source. "Damn it, who was laughing just now? Too easy of a life, huh? Too comfortable?"

Silence fell. The person behind Xu Jiu, realizing the danger, quickly slid into the crowd, trying to hide.

The supervisor’s gaze shifted and locked onto Xu Jiu again.

"You little piece of sh—" [cut off].

Not again?

Before Xu Jiu could defend himself, his eyes darted reflexively—above the supervisor’s head, the air seemed to distort abruptly, refracting a delicate, iridescent shimmer. Then, half of a nearly transparent human face, like some apparition or specter, materialized briefly.

...Six?!

Xu Jiu gaped, biting back a yelp. Everyone else was too busy avoiding the impending conflict to notice the otherworldly apparition unfolding.

How did you get out here—no, wait, don’t kill this fatass in front of everyone!

For a moment, Xu Jiu’s lips flapped wordlessly, his eyes darting between the approaching supervisor and the space above his head, torn between warnings.

Author's Note:

Xu Jiu: *kissing the mid-sized jellyfish* I can give you a kiss because you're my Six!

Medium jellyfish: *resentful at getting so little, but the mother jellyfish is the mother jellyfish—it can only walk away to sulk in a corner*

Xu Jiu: *walking down the road, accidentally recognizing another jellyfish in disguise* Oh crap.

Another jellyfish: *hisses, ready to kill to keep its secret*

Xu Jiu: *trying to remedy the mistake* Then... can I give you a kiss too?

Another jellyfish: *frantic hissing, covering its face as it scrambles away*