Parasitic Child: Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Mr. Mao checking in.

Mr. Mao silently walked into the room, leaped onto Xiao Zhen’s desk, and swatted the pen out of his hand.

Xiao Zhen frowned, “What are you doing?”

“I’ve had enough. Keep your little sister away from me,” Mr. Mao said. His words were sharp, but his tone was unusually calm. Although Mr. Mao had only been living with them for a few days, Xiao Zhen had already gotten used to the strange contrast between his flat tone and the cutting nature of his words.

“She just wants to play with you.”

Captain Ban laughed, “All she does is dress you up in cute little outfits.”

“Yesterday, she put me in three ridiculous lace dresses in a row, and just now, she made me wear an utterly foolish hat. I demand that you control your sister’s behavior!”

“She’s just a lively human child.”

“Exactly, the little girl is just lonely.”

Both Xiao Zhen and Captain Ban were delighted that Yan Zhu had found a new playmate, so they were quite content with Mr. Mao’s predicament.

As they were talking, Yan Zhu’s footsteps approached. Mr. Mao quickly darted under the cabinet. “Tell her I’m not here.” The door opened, and Yan Zhu walked into the room.

“Kitty, kitty?” She looked around, her eyes searching the room. “Brother Zhen, have you seen the kitty?”

“It’s called Mr. Mao,” Xiao Zhen corrected her. Mr. Mao was hiding under the cabinet, staring at him from the shadows. He could feel the resentful gaze drilling into him. “I haven’t seen Mr. Mao.”

“But I clearly saw the kitty come in.” Yan Zhu pouted, “Kitty, kitty, where did you go…” Xiao Zhen felt a chill run down his spine; it seemed his sister was planning to stick around until she found the cat.

“Kiiiiittyyyyy,” she began to wail.

“What’s wrong, Zhu Zhu?” Yan’s mother also entered the room. Yan Zhu clung to her mother, whining, “The kitty’s gone! I saw it come in, but now it’s gone.”

“Don’t worry, Mommy will help you find it.” Yan’s mother started searching the room, and soon enough, she spotted Mr. Mao under the cabinet. “Here it is!”

In that moment, Xiao Zhen thought Mr. Mao looked as terrified and stunned as if he had encountered a deadly Azmasha vine from Yamuza Star. Yan’s mother reached under the cabinet and pulled Mr. Mao out. Yan Zhu beamed with joy and hugged Mr. Mao tightly.

“Come on, kitty, let’s go.” Yan Zhu happily announced. Xiao Zhen and Captain Ban watched as Mr. Mao, with a look of resignation, was dragged away.

Captain Ban said, “He’s cursing us.”

“Peace and quiet always comes at a price,” Xiao Zhen admitted.

Yan Zhu didn’t keep Mr. Mao trapped for too long because her favorite cartoon started. Every day at six o’clock, Yan Zhu would faithfully tune in to watch Heroic Thief Luosa. Nothing could keep her from watching it. The show was about a fox named Luosa who fought for justice and protected the weak.

To better understand local culture, Xiao Zhen would sometimes watch an episode with her.

He found these colorful, two-dimensional characters rather interesting, though the relationships between them seemed overly simplistic and crude.

Xiao Zhen wished human interactions were as simple as they were in the cartoon—or that everyone’s intelligence could drop a notch.

Humans in reality were just too complicated. Just dealing with Liu Xingquan recently had Xiao Zhen scratching his head, completely unable to figure him out.

Captain Ban and Mr. Mao, on the other hand, watched the cartoon from a completely different perspective, which took Xiao Zhen by surprise.

Mr. Mao had strong opinions about the fox protagonist in the cartoon.

He said, “I don’t remember fox people being so moral.”

The fox people Mr. Mao referred to were a sentient species from Kanta Star, who resembled foxes on this planet and could walk upright. This race was generally harmless and known across the galaxy for their cunning and shrewdness in trade.

They weren’t exactly infamous, but their values were far from the ideals of honesty and justice that primate-like sentient beings often revered. Almost every space traveler had been swindled by a fox merchant at some point.

Xiao Zhen said, “It’s just a cartoon, a human fantasy about a fox.”

On the screen, the fox protagonist was distributing ill-gotten wealth to the poor. “This is everyone’s wealth!!” Luosa shouted, and the crowd of poor people cheered loudly.

Captain Ban scoffed, “Nonsense! I’ve never seen a fox person willing to give up even a single coin.”

Xiao Zhen said, “It’s just a cartoon, a human fantasy about a fox.”

Mr. Mao sneered, “Hmph. You wouldn’t want to know how the last fox merchant tricked me.”

Xiao Zhen: “I don’t want to know.”

Mr. Mao continued anyway, “While vacationing on Allen Star, I was inhabiting a much better body. To keep my house clean, I foolishly ordered an automatic cleaning servant from a fox merchant. I’ll admit, the price was cheap. But I expected at least a cleaning robot. Do you know what that damned fox sent me?”

Chicken asked, “What did they send?”

Mr. Mao angrily replied, “They sent a zombie! A zombie that was forcibly programmed to clean!”

Xiao Zhen blinked, “I’ve heard about that—there’s a trade industry where zombies are brainwashed into labor.”

“I could accept it if the zombie just focused on cleaning. But this one needed fresh blood every day, and if it didn’t get any, it would puke massive amounts of mucus in my room and refuse to work. I had to buy fresh blood for my zombie every day and spray the room with triple the amount of deodorizer. By the way, the fresh blood was also sold by the fox merchant, with an additional 20% service charge.”

“…”

Mr. Mao glared at the cartoon fox with anger.

Chicken spoke up, “Actually, there’s a fox merchant right here.”

“What did you say?”

“Yeah, in this city, very close by,” Chicken said. “He’s the only alien merchant I’ve discovered in the past six months, and the only one legally licensed here.”

“What are you implying?”

Chicken replied seriously, “I’m saying we have no other options. It’s a monopoly.”

Xiao Zhen & Mr. Mao: “…”

Yan An picked up the scattered books from the ground.

Someone had thrown his books from his bag downstairs again.

It was the second time today.

This kind of thing happening was no surprise. The middle school student he tutored had lost valuables worth tens of thousands, and the student’s mother was adamant that he had stolen them. He still remembered the rage in her bloodshot eyes as she screamed accusations at him. First, it was at his home, and then at the police station.

By yesterday, the mother had gone straight to the school. She stormed into the principal’s office, shouting that the school’s discipline was lax and that they were producing morally corrupt students. Her voice was so sharp and loud that the entire floor could hear her. Students whispered among themselves, and even the cleaning staff were discussing it. In the corridors between classrooms, students looked at him with disdain. When he returned to class and sat down, he overheard someone behind him say, “Pretentious thief.”

Two days ago, Yan An had been the teacher’s model student and the academic role model for his peers. Now, he had become a stain on the class. He dusted off the books he’d just retrieved from downstairs and stuffed them into his desk drawer. Wei Hongzhuo, sitting nearby, grinned and chatted with others.

Yan An knew for sure he was talking about him. Wei Hongzhuo led a small group in class, and he was wealthy, generous, and always smiling, making him popular and surrounded by followers. They had been rivals since the start of high school, likely because Wei Hongzhuo had looked down on Yan An’s shabby appearance from the beginning.

Yan An opened his pencil case, and two caterpillars stared back at him from inside. The class erupted in harsh laughter. What a juvenile prank—putting bugs in someone’s pencil case. Only elementary kids trying to scare girls would pull a stunt like this. Did they want to see him scream? Yan An couldn’t help but question the maturity of his classmates. With a blank expression, he grabbed the two caterpillars with a piece of paper and tossed them into the trash.

Most of the class laughed, but Wei Hongzhuo remained silent, his face dark.

The bell rang, and the physics teacher came to the front of the room. As usual, Yan An called out, “Stand up!”

But as he went to sit down, where his chair should have been, there was only air, and he fell flat onto the floor. The room exploded in laughter. The physics teacher angrily banged on the podium, demanding to know what was going on. Wei Hongzhuo still wore a dark expression as he looked at Yan An.

Yan An felt his tailbone throbbing in pain.

“Until the police come to a conclusion, I think their actions are idiotic,” Yan An told his homeroom teacher.

The teacher frowned, “What’s going on? They’re still causing trouble? It seems I’ll have to talk to each of them. Tell me, who’s involved?”

Yan An gave a bitter smile. Snitching was the one thing his classmates hated the most. If he gave names now, even if he cleared his name later, there’d be no chance of getting along with his classmates in the future. Besides, it wouldn’t solve anything. Some idiots just wanted to see the class president suffer. The teacher and the principal had already done enough for him.

The homeroom teacher looked at him curiously, “Yan An, to be honest, you’ve surprised me.”

“What do you mean?”

“When most students encounter something like this, they’re either utterly confused, panic-stricken, or enraged beyond reason. Of course, I believe you. But you’ve been way too calm. Yan An, aren’t you angry about being wrongfully accused?”

How could he not be angry? Yan An recalled the scene from that day when that shrew came to his home and caused a ruckus. His parents were trembling with rage, and the neighbors stood on the stairwell pointing fingers. Finally, his father had erupted, shouting, “No matter how poor we are, my son would never resort to stealing!”

At that moment, it felt like his anger had been released alongside his father’s outburst, leaving only a deep exhaustion behind.

Yan An calmly responded, “There were no signs of forced entry at their home, clearly an inside job. Since it’s a case of someone close to them, the police must have already narrowed down a few suspects. It won’t take long to get results.”

He walked down the corridor toward the classroom. Before entering, he overheard a few classmates gossiping.

“Who would’ve thought our class president was a thief?”

“Yeah, I never saw that coming.”

“The teacher said nothing’s been proven yet.”

“I think it could be him. His family’s really poor… He’s still working a part-time job, even though we’re in high school. Maybe he was just desperate…”

“Stop it, all of you!” A female voice interrupted their discussion. Yan An stood at the doorway and glanced into the classroom.

Luo Qingxi had stood up, her voice firm, “The police haven’t called him a thief, so what are you all speculating about? I believe in Yan An.” Her wrist rested lightly on the desk, her bright eyes glaring at the gossiping students.

The anger Yan An thought had subsided suddenly surged back. He felt like a bird trapped in a net, struggling in vain without being able to make a sound. His fury flared up inside, thrashing wildly, seeking an outlet. He wanted to scream, to storm into the classroom and yell at everyone, forcing them to recoil in fear at his outburst. He didn’t need anyone’s pity, not even hers…

But in the end, he walked into the classroom with a calm expression, greeted his classmates as usual, and sat in his seat without glancing at Luo Qingxi again.

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