Chapter 14 Who Am I 13

Lin Xiangjun walked into the kitchen.

Wang Min followed her in. Holding a flashlight, she dutifully acted as a human lantern; wherever Lin Xiangjun's gaze landed, her flashlight illuminated the spot a second later.

The kitchen didn't seem to have been cleaned in a long time. The floor tiles were sticky, and there was a noticeable resistance when walking across them, giving Lin Xiangjun the illusion that she was a mouse on a glue trap.

Unwashed dishes and chopsticks were piled in the sink, with long-haired white fungal colonies growing at the bottom. The faucet was dripping, its tip rusted, and it was unclear if it even still worked.

Most things were messy and filthy. A crumpled rag emitted a foul odor, there was maggot-infested broth in a pot, and the countertop was so dirty its original color was indiscernible.

Lin Xiangjun subconsciously lightened her breathing.

She felt that breathing too much of the kitchen air would lead to poisoning, as mold was everywhere—she wondered if there was oil in this kitchen, otherwise, how could so much 'mold' (US military) grow here?

...Apologies for the dark joke.

She walked to the refrigerator, but instead of opening it directly, she stood to the side and inserted the tip of the scissors into the gap of the fridge, prying it open with a bit of force.

Wang Min tactfully stood opposite her; neither of them faced the refrigerator directly.

The sharp knife was thirty centimeters long. Lin Xiangjun was 1.75 meters tall, and the length from her wrist to her elbow was about the same as the knife. This distance was just right to give her a brief reaction time if a 'smile' suddenly appeared, preventing a direct face-to-face encounter while not being so far that she couldn't react.

The refrigerator door pried open a crack. Lin Xiangjun paused for a moment, but nothing happened.

She opened the door wider. At this angle, the light inside the fridge turned on, and warm yellow light leaked from the gap, illuminating Lin Xiangjun's startled face and the blood-red eyes staring fixedly at her from the crack—

There's a ghost!

This anomaly's intelligence wasn't low; it was hiding in the gap waiting to ambush. If she had swung the door wide open just now, this thing would have jumped right onto her face!

Lin Xiangjun was startled. Seeing it was discovered, the thing stopped pretending altogether, let out a strange cry, and lunged out like a jumping bean!

Lin Xiangjun was quick-witted; the moment the thing jumped out, she flicked the tip of her knife upward—

The side of the refrigerator had only been opened about fifteen centimeters, creating a very narrow passage. The Refrigerator Anomaly could only come out through this one path. The knife tip flicked up along the gap, splitting the anomaly right down the middle.

Carried by its momentum, the anomaly lunged forward, but before it could reach Lin Xiangjun, it fell from mid-air and hit the ground with a 'splat,' revealing a neat cross-section.

—It was a bit like those 'razor-sharp face' videos on Douyin, where an apple slides past a jawline and gets split in half.

Refrigerator Anomaly, deceased.

Age at death: three seconds.

Lin Xiangjun: ...

She looked at the perfectly halved corpse on the ground with a complicated expression, gaining a deeper understanding of the power of the sharp knife in her hand.

When she flicked upward just now, the blade passing through the anomaly's body was like passing through a bag of water; she could feel something was there, but the resistance was almost zero.

"This is practically cosplaying as a speed bump in front of a heavy truck..."

Lin Xiangjun murmured. Catching a glimpse of Wang Min across from her looking just as shocked, she felt a strange sense of pride. She coughed lightly and, feigning composure, used the sharp knife to skewer the two halves of the anomaly like a candied hawthorn stick.

"There shouldn't be any danger left in the fridge. Open the door."

Wang Min finally snapped out of her shock, gave an 'oh,' and hurriedly opened the refrigerator door.

To their surprise, the refrigerator was empty, except for a bowl covered in plastic wrap on the top shelf.

Wang Min tactfully took the bowl out and peeled back the plastic wrap.

It was a serving of tomato and egg over rice. The stir-fry was topped with some chopped green onions; the eggs were golden, the tomatoes bright red, and the rice snow-white. It looked quite nice.

The rules said this bowl of rice was edible.

Lin Xiangjun took the bowl and leaned in to sniff it. Perhaps because the food was cold, the smell wasn't strong, and there was no strange odor.

"Does Master want to eat? I'll heat it up in the microwave now."

Lin Xiangjun shook her head.

"Find a small bowl and set aside half of the rice and the dish. Then see if there are any incense sticks or candles in the house."

"Pack the remaining half with the plastic wrap from the bowl and give it to me."

Even if the rules said this food was edible, 'edible' only meant eating it wouldn't cause immediate death; it didn't mean the food wasn't contaminated.

Wang Min complied and turned to find the incense with the bowl in hand.

Lin Xiangjun carried the 'anomaly skewer' to find Patrick Star.

Patrick Star was squatting by the shoe cabinet at the door, with two shoes fitted onto its two pointed hands, entertaining itself like it was playing with hand puppets.

However, by now Lin Xiangjun had accepted the fact that it was an idiot, so she didn't have much of an emotional reaction. Holding up the anomaly skewer, she asked, "Want to eat?"

Patrick Star froze as if its frame had dropped.

After two seconds, it threw the shoes aside with a 'thud' and walked toward Lin Xiangjun with its arms held out flat like a zombie.

Lin Xiangjun was a bit disgusted by its hands that had just been inside shoes. Fortunately, Patrick Star didn't intend to take the knife with its hands. Instead, its head split in half from the middle, and it stuck out a thin organ—unclear if it was a tongue or a mouthpart—which wrapped around the anomaly's corpse and swallowed it down.

Lin Xiangjun, who had been staring at its torso guessing where the mouth was: ...

Tsk, miscalculated.

The physical structure of these anomalies truly cannot be deduced with common sense.

Patrick Star's head expanded and contracted like some kind of insect, as if it were swallowing. Lin Xiangjun waited for a while; its head was still squirming, and its whole body stood there motionless, as if it had glitched.

Just then, Wang Min found a small bowl, divided half the rice, and placed two incense sticks on the bowl like chopsticks. She was carrying the bowl, ready to set it by the door.

Seeing Lin Xiangjun staring at Patrick Star, she reminded her, "Master, it's currently digesting. That anomaly wasn't a high level, so it'll take about ten minutes to finish digesting. During this time, it can't move or speak."

Oh, so it has a vulnerable period like a crab molting its shell.

Lin Xiangjun noted this point. However, Patrick Star blocking the front door wasn't ideal. What if the Eerie Parents came back and found it? She had to manually and laboriously push Patrick Star back into her room.

Honestly, being made of paper didn't mean it lacked weight; it was like moving stacks of books back and forth in high school—indescribably heavy.

After working up a sweat, Lin Xiangjun sat on the bed in her room and ordered bottled water and a boxed meal from the Forbidden APP on her phone.

The side dishes for the meal were Di San Xian, Sweet and Sour Pork Tenderloin, and Mushrooms with Greens. The moment she ordered, it appeared in her hands, at a perfect temperature for eating.

Items on the Forbidden APP were expensive, but they were 100% free of contamination. Lin Xiangjun wasn't short on money, so she was naturally willing to pay for peace of mind.

Just as she finished eating, the sound of a key turning in the lock came from the front door.

"Dear daughter, Mommy and Daddy are back!"

The Eerie Parents were back?

Lin Xiangjun quickly threw the empty box and the half-finished water into her pocket and checked the time on her phone.

Seven o'clock sharp.