Chapter 14
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Chapter 14: Side Job
“How’s the kitty from yesterday?”
As soon as Mi Xiaoliu entered the classroom, Yiwen hurried over and grabbed her collar—so rushed she didn’t even care that the bell had just rung.
Dark circles sagged under her eyes. Even though she always lacked sleep, today she looked especially haggard—enough to make some appearance-conscious girls feel bad for her.
“I left it some food this morning,” Mi Xiaoliu replied, eyes fixed on the sheet of paper in her hand.
“Left it food this morning?” Yiwen was shocked.
“I left ‘it’ food,” Mi Xiaoliu corrected.
So, it was fine?
Yiwen let out a breath of relief. She could never tell when this boy was being serious or joking. It always felt like his “defect” was in his personality.
“Old Liu, what are you looking at?” Jim leaned over to glance at the messy stack of torn flyers in Mi Xiaoliu’s hand.
Recruitment ads.
Fake ID services.
Call girls.
Jim’s face changed. He snatched the papers and threw them away:
“Old Liu, you’re still young—don’t get lost on the path of crime!”
“I’m looking for a job,” Mi Xiaoliu frowned.
“Are you out of money?” Yiwen asked. “Can’t you ask your family?”
“Family?” Mi Xiaoliu repeated the word, puzzled.
Yiwen didn’t reply. She seemed to imagine something strange in her head and looked at Mi Xiaoliu with pity again.
“The money disappeared.” Mi Xiaoliu pulled out a bank card, her face still expressionless. “The money in the account.”
Jim patted her on the shoulder:
“Bro, you got scammed? Here’s a trick—Sunken Bank cards have no limit. Just open over a hundred of them like me, put ten bucks on each…”
“…”
“Master, your phone just got a new message,” Sasha suddenly said.
Since the phone was stored in the system space, Sasha could instantly detect any changes to the items inside.
Apparently, the system space didn’t block the signal.
“Master, please check messages from the organization somewhere private. If anyone sees it, it might cause trouble,” Sasha added.
“Mmm.”
Mi Xiaoliu stood up right in the middle of class, preparing to find somewhere quiet.
“Mi, is there something wrong with my lesson?” The chubby teacher on the podium wiped the sweat from his brow.
———
In high school, where classes were more demanding, most students ate lunch right in the classroom. Some brought bentos from home.
A few even napped at their desks.
Though the schedule at the Academy for Gifted Individuals wasn’t as tight, many students still ran home for lunch during the break.
You could spot transfer students like Mi Xiaoliu with blank expressions. But unlike her unreadable, emotionless look, most of them wore faces of numb despair.
Most transfers were students who had just awakened abilities and been forced out of normal schools… Being seen as mutants and even shunned by family wasn’t uncommon.
“You’re eating buns again today? Even if you like them, you’ll get tired of eating the same thing every meal.” Yiwen looked at Mi Xiaoliu, confused.
The past few days, he’d only ever seen her eat steamed buns—for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
“I also have a carrot.” Mi Xiaoliu pulled out a raw carrot.
Sasha had told her: don’t just eat meat—vegetables provide nutrients too.
Basic food, but difficult to buy. The moment she entered the store, other customers avoided her, and the clerk clearly wanted her gone as fast as possible.
They were on the rooftop now.
Yes, that rooftop—the one that, in anime, no one except the protagonist ever visits.
What a lie. If the rooftop was unlocked, it meant everyone would come up here—smoking, eating, and littering all over. Even with trash cans around, it would still pile up in just one lunchtime. Every morning, the poor students assigned to clean it cursed nonstop.
Mi Xiaoliu glanced over at Yiwen’s lunchbox. The smell seemed to trigger a mysterious reaction in her stomach, one that made her bun feel suddenly unappetizing.
“Wanna try some?” Yiwen offered reluctantly.
She wasn’t some anime heroine who made extra lunch on purpose.
She was just being polite. Please say no, please say no…
“I do.” Mi Xiaoliu nodded seriously.
Crap. Never asking again.
The worst part? Yiwen never expected this “boy” to take the biggest piece of meat in his lunchbox—and use ‘her’ utensils!
Okay, fine. You don’t really need utensils for buns and raw carrots.
“Tastes better than buns.”
That was the most precise review Mi Xiaoliu’s limited vocabulary could offer. But even so, the rankings in her head for “favorite foods” had been reshuffled again—though she could count the entire list on one hand, and didn’t even know what this food was called.
“Master, that’s red-braised pork. You used to eat it before age seven. It’s a fairly common home-cooked dish,” Sasha chimed in.
Human civilization has recovered pretty well over the past few centuries. Though population and livable land had decreased dramatically, quality of life had basically returned to pre-Cataclysm levels.
Fewer resources, but fewer people—somehow it balanced out.
“Here.”
Mi Xiaoliu reluctantly glanced at the half-eaten bun, then offered it to Yiwen in return.
“Uh…” Yiwen stiffly accepted the bun with his bite marks, then watched as he walked off alone.
Still as antisocial and strange as ever.
It wasn’t just personality flaws—was it a lack of emotional intelligence? Or common sense?
Only after he was gone did Yiwen toss the bitten bun into the trash, then take a tissue and scrub her utensils over and over.
“You’re not seriously into him, are you?” A blonde girl with glasses walked up, surprised.
“That’s not funny,” Yiwen replied quietly.
“I thought you were sympathizing with him because he’s a ‘Defective’…”
“I told you—I suspect him.” Yiwen walked to the rooftop railing and whispered, “There are so many defectives. I can’t go and pity all of them.”
Looking down, she saw Mi Xiaoliu at the water tap below, drinking with cupped hands.
The blonde girl handed her a pair of disposable chopsticks.
“Here. If some geeky glasses boy used my utensils, I’d freak out.”
“Don’t be so harsh.”
“Then why’d you throw away his bun?”
The black-haired girl in the restroom stall had no idea she’d just been judged.
Hiding in the boy’s restroom stall, she opened her phone and checked the unread message.
Hourglass: You there, Little Black? Want to take a side gig—just the two of us splitting the cash?
Princess: …
She only sent ellipses, because she still didn’t fully understand how smartphones worked.
“Princess” was the codename given to her by the purple-haired older sister.
Codenames were important—if communications failed during a mission, you couldn’t exactly shout “Mi Xiaoliu!” in front of the cops from across the street.
Hourglass: Just got out of class? So jealous of you students, swimming freely in the ocean of knowledge and enjoying the pressure of school life.
Princess: …
Hourglass: What time’s your next class? Can you come out? I figured out how to take freelance jobs on the side!
Princess: …
Hourglass: Six o’clock? Cool, I’ll wait at Miwa Diner.
Princess: …
Hourglass: One o’clock? Even better.
———
The diner was packed and noisy, business booming. There was always someone with a loud voice trying to talk over the surrounding chaos—only to be drowned out by someone even louder.
Despite what books might claim, this kind of place was terrible for gathering intel. If you didn’t raise your voice, you couldn’t even hear what the person across from you was saying.
At the same time, it was perfect for exchanging shady information. Even if some customers glanced over at the pretty girl now and then, it didn’t matter—no one could hear a word they were saying.
Mi Xiaoliu was head-down, shoveling food—despite already having eaten.
She was mentally updating her food rankings again, and quietly adding a “good guy” tag to Hayato—even though Sasha kept reminding her to be cautious around this man who’d once screwed her over.
But he fed her lots of tasty things.
Mi Xiaoliu wore her combat uniform. Sasha said she should always wear it when meeting organization contacts. But Mi Xiaoliu didn’t like it—because the outfit didn’t allow colored contacts, leaving her world in dull grayscale.
Sasha also told her to zip the coat all the way up, because the underlayer was a bit revealing.
The quick-change feature had also removed her ID badge, so the glances she was getting were purely due to her appearance. Unfortunately, she looked a bit too young, making others hesitant to ask for her social media.
“Did you figure out how to use that app on our phones?” Hayato wore his usual mischievous grin.
Mi Xiaoliu said nothing—her mouth was full.
Hayato didn’t mind:
“Our boss is a real jerk. Never told us we couldn’t take side gigs—but also never told us how. Took me two whole days to figure it out.”
