Chapter 28 Who Am I 27

Having been inexplicably forced to watch a round of free-style wrestling, Lin Xiangjun had no choice but to toss out a few more ham sausages.

Cats with something in their mouths will keep them closed, so Lin Xiangjun focused on tossing ham to the cats with open mouths. The ball of meat rolled around in every direction, making it easy to ensure every cat got ham to eat without much effort.

A total of two packs of ham were used, with two sausages left over.

Once fed, the cat quieted down and extended its tongue to lick its fur.

But their fur had long since been stripped clean by someone. The barbs on their tongues scraped across their own flesh, bringing down a thin layer of shredded meat, which they swallowed casually before continuing to lick.

Taking a closer look, Lin Xiangjun felt as though the two teriyaki chicken rice balls she had eaten before leaving the house were struggling to grow flesh and blood.

"Stop, stop, stop, baby, stop, stop, stop. If you throw up right now, we're done for, we're done for, do you understand?"

Not only could she not throw up, she also couldn't look away.

The rules instructed them to feed ham sausages to the cats, but didn't say what would happen afterward. Lin Xiangjun speculated that there must be some reaction after the cats ate the ham sausages.

After eating the ham sausages, they stayed quietly in place, licking their own flesh. Lin Xiangjun stared intently, terrified of missing even the slightest clue.

Suddenly, one cat's neck stiffened. It tucked its head down, opened its mouth wide, and its body twitched once, then twitched again, as if it were about to vomit something up.

Lin Xiangjun's eyes lit up abruptly.

"Is it a clue?!"

Without blinking, she watched the twitching head with nervous anticipation.

The head lived up to expectations; after retching for a long time, it finally exerted force with its head and tightened its body, and a round, wet object suddenly shot out!

"Is it a clue?!"

Lin Xiangjun leaned in abruptly to look. A pungent, sour stench emanated from the round object, then drilled fiercely into her nasal cavity, hitting her like a punch!

The intense sour stench left Lin Xiangjun dazed for a moment. The cat seemed to be repulsed by the smell too; with a sharp "Meow!", it exerted force with all four limbs and darted back into the bushes it had emerged from at an unimaginable speed.

Lin Xiangjun looked at the cat's agility, which was inconsistent with its physical state, then looked down at the hairball on the ground and fell silent.

This wasn't a clue at all. Anyone who had ever owned a cat knew that this was just a hairball—the result of a cat licking its fur, swallowing it, having it tangle in its stomach, and needing to vomit it up periodically.

She didn't quite understand why, in an instance, a hairless cat that had already turned into a weird entity would still vomit up a hairball.

Where did it get the hair?

The cat didn't answer, just kept diving into the bushes.

The instance didn't answer, just kept trying to take their lives.

Lin Xiangjun stared at the hairball, pondering deeply for a long while, when suddenly, she had a moment of enlightenment.

The instance required trash to be thrown into a trash can, but it also required that one not litter. So, for two days, Lin Xiangjun hadn't been able to test this rule.

Wasn't there a piece of trash right here now?

The hairball the cat vomited up couldn't possibly have any other use, could it? Surely she couldn't string it up and wear it as a pendant?

Having figured this out, Lin Xiangjun used toilet paper to cushion the hairball and began to search everywhere for a trash can.

However, after picking up the hairball, Lin Xiangjun saw a long, white worm underneath it.

Lin Xiangjun: ...

"Why, oh why did this thing have a little Easter egg behind it? Why was there a maggot behind this hairball?"

For a split second, Lin Xiangjun wanted to fling the hairball in her hand away. She desperately suppressed her instinctive revulsion toward such things, comforted herself in her mind a few times, and only then stood up, clutching the hairball.

It was now 10:30, with half an hour left until curfew.

Lin Xiangjun took a deep breath and said loudly, "There is trash here that I cannot clean. I need a Cleaner."

【4. If you encounter trash that you cannot handle, you may call the Cleaner within the residential area. They wear yellow vests and army-green rubber boots.】

The rules said to call a Cleaner, but didn't say how, so it was highly likely that just shouting would suffice.

It was just that simple and unadorned.

A maggot wasn't exactly big, but it wasn't small either. If she insisted that it might carry pathogens and she didn't dare touch it, calling a professional to clean it up was justifiable.

As soon as she finished speaking, a voice came from behind her.

"Is it you who needs a Cleaner?"

It was two voices overlapping, with the exact same pitch and volume; at first listen, it sounded a bit like an echo.

Lin Xiangjun turned around and saw two people dressed exactly the same.

The two were indistinguishable in height and appearance, both wearing yellow vests. Looking down, their shoes were both green as well.

They both held large brooms and dustpans, and their expressions as they looked at her were identical in their indifference.

The Flashlight in Lin Xiangjun's hand swept over their hair, cheeks, the vests on their upper bodies, and the trousers on their lower bodies one by one, finally resting on the two people's shoes.

She paused, feeling that there was something different about the two pairs of shoes.

Lights on, lights off—the color of the shoes remained consistent; there was no change.

Where was the discrepancy?

She frowned and pondered. Both pairs of shoes looked similar; they were the kind of stiff rubber boots worn during military training. One pair was camouflage, and one pair was solid army green. Moreover, the quality was poor, and the color looked somewhat mottled and peeling.

...Mottled?

Lin Xiangjun suddenly realized. She immediately ordered a bottle of mineral water on the spot and mercilessly doused the shoes of both Cleaners until they were soaked.

The camouflage rubber boots showed no difference, but the army-green rubber boots were different. Once the mineral water was poured on, the shoes immediately revealed the true color underneath.

It was a pair of black shoes.

Lin Xiangjun looked at the person on the left wearing the camouflage rubber boots and said, "Yes, it is I who needs a Cleaner. There is a maggot here. I don't know if it carries a virus, so I dare not clean it up myself."

Seeing that their scheme had been exposed, the person on the right flashed a look of malice in their eyes, then their figure dissipated from the spot with reluctance.

The real Cleaner on the left stepped forward. "Where is the worm?"

Lin Xiangjun shone her Flashlight downward.

The Cleaner looked down following the light of the Flashlight, dazzled by the worm on the ground that wasn't even as long as one of his knuckles.

Out of professional courtesy, he didn't say anything, but silently extended his broom and swept the maggot into the dustpan.

The broom he used wasn't an ordinary plastic one, but the large broom made of stiff straw used by street Cleaners. With such a forceful sweep, the fragile maggot was crushed by the broom before it even reached the dustpan.

"Are there any other problems?" the Cleaner asked in a muffled voice, not even looking at the crushed worm on his broom.

"Yes, yes, I'd like to ask where the trash can is? I've walked around the residential area all day and haven't found a trash can. Now I can't even throw away trash."

"Where is the trash? I can just help you throw it away."

Lin Xiangjun: "Oh my, how could I trouble you with such a small matter? I just want to know where the trash can is; I can go throw it away myself."

The Cleaner glanced at the crushed worm on his broom, then looked at the earnest-looking Lin Xiangjun.

Lin Xiangjun confirmed that she saw confusion on his face.

"If you didn't want to trouble me, then clean up this worm yourself, you jerk!"

Lin Xiangjun pretended not to see it.

She had walked around the residential area all day and hadn't found a trash can, so she speculated that the specific location of this trash can could only be obtained from the Cleaner.

Something hidden like this must be a good thing, and it must contain an important clue. She had to go there no matter what.

Guilt about bothering others? What was that? She didn't know, and she had never heard of it.