Parasitic Child: Chapter 18

Chapter 18: School Cat Ah Hua

Teacher Feng said with a smile, “Yan Zhen, this time the bulletin board is up to your group.”  

He was referring to the blackboard at the back of the classroom. The students took turns working on the bulletin board in groups, changing it every two weeks. There was also a weekly bulletin board competition among grades. This week, it was Xiao Zhen’s group’s turn.  

According to the rotation rules, Xiao Zhen was the group leader.  

Xiao Zhen asked, “What should we write on the bulletin board?”  

“The content is for you to discuss and decide. Good luck, our Class 2 hasn’t won an outstanding bulletin board award in a long time.” The competition among classes was fierce, whether in academics or other activities. Class 2 had been at a disadvantage in the class competitions. Teacher Feng’s tone and expression carried a tragic determination, as if saying the class’s honor rested entirely on this effort. Unfortunately, the Xiao Zhen in front of him was completely unmoved.  

The alien entity known as the Mind-Devourer wasn’t trying to disrespect Teacher Feng; it just thought this group activity was doomed.  

Xiao Zhen turned to look at his group members. One male student had been pulled away to play basketball with the school team. That left only two girls in the group.  

Wei Jingjing, the young lady who never looked anyone in the eye.  

Chen Yuxin, the quiet and introverted cat enthusiast.  

Neither seemed to have any interest in the bulletin board. Chen Yuxin stared absentmindedly out the window, while Wei Jingjing was glued to her phone, not even sparing Xiao Zhen a glance.  

Xiao Zhen examined the previous bulletin board, which featured accounts of summer vacation trips from several classmates, accompanied by crude drawings of landmarks. From Xiao Zhen’s observation, the school bulletin boards were simply a human information exchange platform, with a heavy emphasis on presentation.  

“What are your suggestions for the bulletin board?” Xiao Zhen asked the two girls in his group.  

Chen Yuxin was daydreaming, and Wei Jingjing continued swiping her phone without any response.  

Xiao Zhen didn’t even bother probing their thoughts.  

These two were completely unreliable.  

“If you have no ideas, I’ll decide,” Xiao Zhen said. “The theme for this bulletin board will be solving the mystery of the missing school cats.”  

“Huh?” Wei Jingjing looked up, incredulous.  

Chen Yuxin’s eyes lit up. “Really?”  

“The school’s cats have been disappearing one after another. I think finding out why would make an interesting topic.”  

Chen Yuxin nodded vigorously. “I agree!!”  

“This is ridiculous,” Wei Jingjing scoffed. “The theme is way too frivolous.”  

“Classmate Wei, it’s two votes to one now.”  

Wei Jingjing raised an eyebrow. “Who cares about those dirty cats anyway!”  

Chen Yuxin timidly spoke up, “A lot of students really like them, and many teachers like them too. They’re part of the school. If they keep disappearing like this, there won’t be any left soon.”  

Wei Jingjing’s attitude softened. “Oh, is that so?” Xiao Zhen realized that this young lady wasn’t as aloof as she seemed at first glance. She got along well with the girls in the class and was generally gentle, but when it came to boys—especially Xiao Zhen—she became unusually sharp.  

“So how do you plan to find out the cause?”  

Xiao Zhen replied, “I’ve already planned it out. We’ll split into groups to investigate. Wei Jingjing, you and Chen Yuxin will ask the teachers and students who usually feed and care for the cats. I’ll be a group on my own and ask the cafeteria staff, security guards, and janitors. After school, we’ll compile the information.”  

Chen Yuxin nodded enthusiastically, while Wei Jingjing snorted. “What can you even find out by asking so many people?”  

“Precisely because the information is scattered, I’ve already narrowed down the focus. Originally, there were 28 cats in the school, but now only 8 remain. Twenty cats are missing.”  

“How are you supposed to ask about that? Who can remember when each cat went missing?”  

“Chen Yuxin, as of today, which was the last cat to disappear?”  

Chen Yuxin hesitated, then answered, “It was Ah Hua, the calico cat.”  

Xiao Zhen raised a finger. “Good. Our target will be narrowed to Ah Hua. The focus of everyone’s questions will be on the last known time and place Ah Hua was seen.”  

Chen Yuxin nodded in agreement, and Wei Jingjing seemed to tacitly approve as well.  

An uninvited guest suddenly joined in.  

“I want to join too! Yan Zhen, I’ll be in your group!” Cui Mingzhi, grinning, was standing at the classroom door at some point. Cui Mingzhi was the vice class monitor of Class 1 next door, an excellent student, an active football team striker, and a well-rounded individual with a great reputation. He was one of the school’s most prominent figures, alongside Liu Xingquan.

Wei Jingjing said, “This is Class 2’s bulletin board—what does it have to do with your Class 1!”  

Cui Mingzhi swaggered over and hooked his arm around Xiao Zhen’s shoulder. “I’m just here to support a good friend, can’t I?”  

“Are you here to spy on the enemy or to laugh at us?” Wei Jingjing sneered. “If I recall correctly, your class won the outstanding bulletin board award last week, didn’t it?”  

“My bond with Yan Zhen is stronger than gold. I just feel like helping out.”  

Wei Jingjing glared at Cui Mingzhi, while Cui Mingzhi hung on Xiao Zhen’s shoulder, laughing and joking.  

“Yan Zhen, Class 1 is our rival! Get that straight.”  

“Yan Zhen~~~ you’re not going to push me away, are you? I came here out of the goodness of my heart!” Cui Mingzhi exaggeratedly clung to Xiao Zhen and wailed.  

“Cui Mingzhi, you’re so disgusting!” Wei Jingjing became even angrier.  

Xiao Zhen had no objections to Cui Mingzhi enthusiastically joining in. Ignoring Wei Jingjing’s dissatisfaction, he announced the start of the investigation.  

The boys and girls split up to begin their investigation into the missing school cats during break time.  

The first place Xiao Zhen and Cui Mingzhi went to was the school cafeteria, as it was the cats’ favorite haunt. Every lunch break, the cats would gather at the cafeteria doors, begging students for food with their endearing antics.  

Interviewee 1: Cafeteria Worker Aunt Zhang  

“Missing?” Aunt Zhang, who was washing a rag, paused in surprise. “Oh, right, there have been a lot fewer cats recently. You mean that calico fat cat? Tsk tsk, it once stole a fish! A big, fat bream! It dragged the whole fish away! I chased it all the way to the second floor of the laboratory building, and then it disappeared!”  

Interviewee 2: Cafeteria Worker Chef Sun  

“That calico fat cat? I gave it a bowl of fish offcuts just the other day at noon. It didn’t look very energetic lately. Ran off? Last time I saw it? Yesterday at noon.”  

Interviewee 3: Teacher Xiao Yuan, eating in the cafeteria  

“Cats aren’t part of my meal plan.” She glanced at Cui Mingzhi beside Xiao Zhen and gave a gentle smile. “I don’t know either. Maybe you should ask someone else?”  

Interviewee 4: School Security Guard  

“Missing? Yeah, there are fewer and fewer cats around the school.” The guard scratched his head. “Did you know? There was a disappearance case here before—a girl vanished without a trace. It caused a huge commotion at the time. They never found her. As for the cats, I really don’t know.”  

Interviewee 5: School Janitor  

“The day before yesterday in the afternoon, I saw that cat wandering near the laboratory building. When I got close, it darted into the building.”  

On their way back to the teaching building, Cui Mingzhi asked Xiao Zhen with a grin if he had drawn any conclusions.  

Of course, there were no conclusions yet.  

Not far off, on the staircase, Chen Yuxin and Wei Jingjing were waiting for them. Wei Jingjing, displeased, said that they hadn’t found anything significant. She suspected the cats had collectively moved somewhere else. Chen Yuxin then shared similar findings to Xiao Zhen’s.  

Xiao Zhen summarized the results:  

The last time Ah Hua was seen was yesterday at noon. Its last known location was the second floor of the laboratory building.  

Thus, the second floor of the laboratory building became his investigation target after school.  

After school.  

Cui Mingzhi looked at Xiao Zhen curiously. He was standing on the stairs between the second and first floors of the laboratory building.  

“Yan Zhen, what’s wrong?”  

“…” Xiao Zhen was silent for a moment before asking, “You didn’t see anything?”  

“See what?”  

Xiao Zhen stared at the flickering patches scattered across the corridor, flashing at random intervals. Hundreds of black, tadpole-like substances swam through the air, dissipating, gathering, sliding into black lines, and dispersing again, like a black fog.  

A few clusters of black tadpoles floated toward Xiao Zhen. Without looking at them, he stepped onto the stairs and replied, “Nothing at all.” 

The perceptive abilities of the Soul-Devouring Demons are widely known across the galaxy. They can see many things that other creatures cannot observe. Most intelligent beings have limited sensory perception, only capable of detecting a certain spectrum of phenomena. Soul-Devouring Demons, however, can often transcend the limits of other creatures and perceive many incomprehensible entities, including echoes of the void, the passage of time, and even the remnants of consciousness. Even if these were explained to intelligent beings, they would not understand. Therefore, in most cases, as long as the situation isn’t dangerous, he chooses to feign ignorance.  

Two-dimensional paper characters cannot transcend their dimension to comprehend three-dimensional beings. And even if they were in the same three-dimensional dimension, the cognition of humans and them would still be worlds apart. Xiao Zhen did not consider this to be a matter of civilization lagging behind but merely a natural difference in perception.  

He stretched out his hand, and the black tadpoles swam around his fingertips. Clenching his fist, the black specks dissipated like smoke. If intervention were required, it wasn’t impossible, but it was utterly meaningless.  

It was like telling a human that there might be a projection of the void here—something the other party could neither understand nor find meaningful. In Cui Mingzhi’s eyes, from start to finish, it was merely Xiao Zhen reaching into empty air.  

He ascended to the second floor, where the black tadpoles wandered freely in the air. Under the fluorescent lights, abnormal patches twisted and struggled. Fortunately, Xiao Zhen reassured himself, it hadn’t yet reached the stage of spatial entanglement and collapse. The disorder was still in its early, negligible phase.  

Although the residual traces of spatial disorder were somewhat concerning, they were not dangerous.  

Xiao Zhen scanned the classrooms along the corridor. Most were empty, with only a few students cleaning inside. Cui Mingzhi had already gone ahead to the other end of the hallway and turned back to say, “Doesn’t seem like there are any cats here.”  

“The overlapping information points to this second floor. Let’s keep looking.”  

Cats wouldn’t be inside classrooms. For animals, hidden, dark corners were the best hiding spots. That left only—  

He walked straight to the area near the restroom and opened the storage room. A faint meow came from within the darkness.  

He switched on the light, and there, atop a bundle of pipes, was a box. Xiao Zhen opened the box to find a calico fat cat lying inside. It weakly meowed at him.  

“The cat is here!!” Xiao Zhen called to Cui Mingzhi on the opposite side of the hallway.  

“Classmate?” A girl ran over, nervously approaching the box. “Classmate, this is the cat I’ve been taking care of. Once it’s recovered, I’ll let it go.”  

“You’ve been taking care of it?”  

“Yes, I made a nest for it here,” the girl said, pointing to the box. “It was injured before, so I put it in the box to heal.”  

“Oh…” Xiao Zhen nodded at the cat. Cui Mingzhi came over, exclaiming, “Huh?? So you found the cat?”  

“But it’s just one,” Xiao Zhen said, asking the girl if she’d seen any other cats.  

At the mention of other cats, the girl became animated. “Last semester, one day it wandered into the laboratory building. When I found it, its leg was a bit lame. So I found a box and let it rest. The next day, when I checked again, there was another cat with it in the box, and it seemed much better. After that, new cats would often come to play with it. They all loved squeezing into this box. The cleaning auntie didn’t say anything, so this storage room became their temporary residence. The last time I came, there were more than ten cats here.”  

Xiao Zhen fixed his gaze on the box and asked, “The last time you saw those ten or so cats, did you only notice them after opening the storage room door?”  

“Yes.”  

“Many of the school’s cats have recently gone missing.”  

“I know…” The girl’s voice sounded downcast. “Its companions have all disappeared recently. It doesn’t look too well either…”  

Xiao Zhen picked up the cat from the box. “I think it doesn’t have much time left. It’s better to take it to a vet.”  

“Huh? Is it that serious?”  

“Yes. I have cats at home, so I’m familiar with their condition. We can’t just leave it in this storage room to die quietly.” Xiao Zhen stroked the cat’s soft fur, and it weakly meowed again.  

The girl was unsettled by Xiao Zhen’s words and took Ah Hua to the vet. The two boys walked down from the laboratory building. Cui Mingzhi lamented that they had only found one cat, and the whereabouts of the others remained unknown. He declared that the bulletin board theme was probably doomed. Then, his attention shifted to Xiao Zhen.  

“I say, why are you carrying that box?”  

Xiao Zhen was holding the box he had taken from the storage room. “No reason, just taking it home.”  

“Huh? Are you going to give this box to your cat as a bed?”  

“If my cat is willing to use it.” 

######

Xiao Zhen placed the box in front of Mr. Mao and Captain Ban. “The reason for the mystery of the missing school cats is this.”

Mr. Mao leaned over to sniff the box and asked, “What is it?”

Ji shouted, “What? Can this box eat cats?”

Xiao Zhen turned the box to reveal a line of text on the inside. Written in the galactic universal language, it labeled the box’s name—“Random Replication Box.”

“……”

“No way…” Ji exclaimed. “Why is this here? Isn’t this one of those dangerous Black Box Society products?”

The moment he uttered the term “Black Box Society,” the room fell into a brief, stifling silence.

Xiao Zhen then began to explain, “Yes, the school cat disappearance incident was caused by this box.”

The box was a dangerous item, a random replication box illicitly traded across the galaxy. It could replicate any object placed inside, creating an identical copy. Although the copies were similar, due to the instability of the product, there would be slight random differences in each replication.

Initially, that girl picked up Ah Hua. Ah Hua was the starting point of everything. The girl placed Ah Hua into the replication box. By the next day, Ah Hua had been replicated into another copy of herself with slight appearance differences. The girl mistakenly thought the copy was Ah Hua’s companion.

In the following days, Ah Hua began to see the box as its nest. Its copies did too.

Whenever Ah Hua and its copies stayed in the box for a certain period, the replication box would automatically create another copy. Since Ah Hua and its copies all considered the box their nest, they often crowded together inside, leading to further replications each night. Over repeated cycles, the number of Ah Hua’s copies began to swell.

This explained why the girl found more than ten cats in the storage room.

In reality, all the cats were Ah Hua and its copies, as well as copies of copies, and so on.

“I understand now,” Mr. Mao said. “No wonder so many school cats have disappeared.”

Ji asked, “What do you mean? Do the cat copies have an expiration date?”

“It’s not an expiration date, but degradation,” Xiao Zhen said, pulling out a coin and tossing it into the box. “For small objects like this, the process should be quick.”

A moment later, Xiao Zhen tipped the box and poured out two coins. “See? Although there are now two coins, they’ve both become thinner and lighter, completely losing their value as currency. This box degrades both the original and the copies equally during replication. For non-living objects, it splits the mass and lifespan. For living beings, it splits their lifespan.”

“Yikes.”

“Every time Ah Hua was replicated in the box, half of its lifespan was shared with the copy. According to the girl’s description, there were over ten copies of Ah Hua, including copies of copies. This caused the lifespans of these copies to become extremely short.”

“I deduce that the school cats that went missing were all short-lived copies of Ah Hua. When they neared the end of their lifespans, they quietly disappeared somewhere. This is why more than ten cats suddenly vanished from the school. And now, Ah Hua is the last one left alive.”

“What kind of ultimate idiot would leave this thing lying around?”

“This is a dangerous product from the Black Box Society. Why did it show up at your school?”

“How would I know?” Xiao Zhen spread his hands. “Also, I suggest you take some time to check out the laboratory building at my school. There’s something unusual there, and I suspect it’s related to the appearance of this replication box.”

The next day.

Teacher Feng looked at the new blackboard display created by Yan Zhen’s group at the back of the classroom. It featured eight of the school’s cats, each with a labeled name. Frankly, the drawings were highly abstract—abstract to the point where one might initially wonder what kind of animals they were.

“……”

Teacher Feng felt certain their class had once again failed to win the excellent bulletin board award this semester.

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