Chapter 19 – Trash Creatures Like Cockroaches

“Shi Yu,” Lin Xi asked while scrubbing dishes after dinner, “are there any other members of ZERO at Z City No. 1 Middle School besides me, you, and Lu Yi?”

“Why are you asking?” Shi Yu was busy wiping down the table.

Only after Lin Xi had threatened to “go on strike and stop cooking” did Shi Yu agree to take on the “heavy responsibility” of wiping the table.

“Perverted Witch, are you planning to drag more people down with you if you get caught?”

“My character isn’t that bad! I’m just curious!”

“Curiosity killed the cat.”

“I don’t have a cat, and I don’t plan on getting a dog. After all, I’m already raising you.”

This time, Shi Yu used the rag like a cannonball, firing it straight at Lin Xi.

Practice makes perfect; Lin Xi was getting more and more agile at catching the random objects Shi Yu threw her way.

Just as the rag was about to smack her in the face, Lin Xi snatched it out of the air. “Hehe, you missed.”

Shi Yu slammed her hand onto the table. “I’ll throw this next, let’s see if you can catch it!”

Lin Xi: “…”

“Let’s get back to the point.”

“I want to know if there are other ZERO members in our school purely out of curiosity.”

Shi Yu went back to sit on the sofa. “Maybe there are, maybe there aren’t. I don’t know either.”

“Huh?” Lin Xi was stunned. “Is it like those underground parties in spy dramas where they use single-line communication? We’re in Sister Lin’s group, so we can only contact her as our superior, and we have no idea what’s going on with other groups?”

Shi Yu thought for a moment. “Yeah, something like that.”

Since even Shi Yu didn’t know, Lin Xi had no choice but to drop it and ask something she would know: “Shi Yu, which class is Lu Yi in?”

“You didn’t ask her?”

“I forgot.”

“You didn’t add her as a friend?”

“I was too embarrassed to ask for her contact info.”

“Heh, what a perverted, closet-freak witch. You clearly want to pet and hug Lu Yi, yet you don’t even have the guts to ask for a normal contact method.”

“Damn it! Stop making me sound like a real pervert! If you won’t tell me, fine, I’ll just ask her myself another day.”

“Lu Yi is in Class 3,” Shi Yu said, before reciting Lu Yi’s contact information. “I’m letting you add her not so you can harass her or vent your perverted desires, but because it’s necessary for us to stay in touch.”

Lin Xi quickly noted down the contact info, planning to send a friend request as soon as she finished the dishes.

“Lu Yi is in Class 3… She’s in the same class as Xinning?!”

“So, Lu Yi and I were destined to meet after all…”

“Give it a rest and stop daydreaming,” Shi Yu said disdainfully. “Destiny? You’re actually disgusting.”

Lin Xi’s momentary sense of wonder was completely dismantled by Shi Yu’s poisonous tongue. “Our other teammate, Zheng Mo-you said she isn’t at our school, so where is she? Should I add her as well?”

“In your dreams!” Shi Yu poured cold water on the idea. “Zheng Mo is at Lanfeng Academy-“

Lin Xi interrupted, “I know Lanfeng Academy! The elite school in Z City! Does that mean Zheng Mo is a rich young lady?!”

A young lady’s contact information was, naturally, a high-level secret.

Shi Yu continued, “Didn’t I tell you before? Zheng Mo is a lady. Her codename, ‘Quantum Rose,’ isn’t just for show.”

Beating someone into a ‘quantum state’ doesn’t exactly sound like a lady, Lin Xi thought. It seemed Zheng Mo really lived up to her codename-she had the grace of the latter half and the complexity of the first.

Having learned about the team members, Lin Xi now wanted to know more about their current mission.

“Shi Yu, I still don’t know-what kind of treasure was actually hidden inside that vault safe?”

Shi Yu told Lin Xi plainly that she didn’t know either.

Her mission briefing only specified that she was to retrieve the contents of the safe.

“Actually, I’m quite curious myself. It’s a pity some Perverted Trash Witch couldn’t open the safe, otherwise, we could have seen what was inside with our own eyes.”

Lin Xi regretted bringing up the safe. There was nothing she could do about Shi Yu seizing the opportunity to take indirect jabs at her.

“Does Sister Lin know? Have you asked her?”

Shi Yu shook her head. “I don’t know if Sister Lin knows, and I haven’t asked.”

“Accept the mission, execute the mission. Where do all these questions come from?”

“This is our organization. This is our discipline.”

Hearing Shi Yu emphasize this made Lin Xi feel even more like she was part of some underground cell.

“Fine, fine, I won’t ask.” Lin Xi dried her hands, finally finished with the mountain of pots and pans.

“I’m so tired.” After the adrenaline-pumping drama of the bank robbery, Lin Xi was physically and mentally exhausted. “Let’s just wash up and go to bed early.”

Because Shi Yu was terrified of cockroaches, Lin Xi gave up her own bedroom and went to sleep in the guest room where the roaches had been spotted.

Earlier today, Shi Yu hadn’t just bought snacks; she had also bought cockroach poison.

As soon as they returned to Lin Xi’s “Cockroach Nest,” Shi Yu followed the instructions and precisely deployed the poison in every corner, vowing to exterminate the entire clan of pests.

Lin Xi had just laid down in the guest room when a frantic pounding on the door made her think an earthquake was hitting.

The moment she opened the door, Shi Yu-dressed in pajamas and clutching a pillow-burst in hysterically and scrambled onto the bed. “There’s a cockroach in your bedroom too!”

Lin Xi threw up her hands. “Maybe you put down so much poison in the guest room that you forced them to relocate.”

“Nonsense!” Shi Yu didn’t believe it. “Have they become spirits or something? They know how to make a strategic retreat?!”

“You never know,” Lin Xi said. “Roaches are evolving, too. Maybe one day in the future, they’ll evolve into Terra Formars. You know, the kind with a cockroach face but human limbs-“

“AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!” Wrapped in her duvet, Shi Yu let out a piercing scream. “If you mention cockroach people to me one more time, I’ll shoot you!”

Lin Xi shut her mouth and turned to leave.

“Wait! Where are you going?!”

“Since you don’t want to stay in the bedroom, I’ll just go back and sleep there.”

“Stop! You’re staying in the guest room too! I’ll… I’ll reluctantly let you keep sleeping in the same bed as me-“

If it weren’t for the fact that skinship could extend her lifespan, Lin Xi would have resolutely returned to her own bedroom.

As she lay down beside Shi Yu, she immediately caught a refreshing, citrus-like fragrance lingering on the other girl.

“Shi Yu, you smell really nice.”

“My body wash and shampoo don’t smell like this. Did you put on perfume?”

“Dammit!” Shi Yu flared up in rage. “You… you’re sniffing me?!”

“You perverted, disgusting witch!”

“You trash creature, just like a cockroach!”

Lin Xi responded firmly, “Say I’m like a cockroach one more time and I’m leaving.”

“If this ‘big cockroach’ leaves, you can let the little cockroaches in the room keep you company.”

Like a drowning person grabbing at a straw, Shi Yu gripped Lin Xi’s arm tightly. “I won’t let you leave even if it kills me!”

Lin Xi gave up the struggle; after all, the physical contact was good for her. 

Still, she was genuinely curious: how could Shi Yu, who didn’t hesitate to blow Wu Tian’s head off with a single shot, be so afraid of cockroaches?

Then again, it was probably for the best. Even a Scum of Humanity like Shi Yu had something she feared.

Well, the Creator was truly fair after all.

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