Chapter 20
Chapter 20
Lin Yinxi thought Red Raincoat seemed to have noticed the blue wristband on her wrist and become wary of her.
He went around her and beckoned to Chu Yanran, who was hiding at the very back.
Touching her wristband, Lin Yinxi watched Red Raincoat lift the bucket’s lid. Inside were clumps of soft pink material resembling minced meat.
The mince even wriggled and spasmed slightly.
It made her want to gag.
Yet strangely, this revolting pile gave off an incredibly enticing smell of meat, its cloying sweetness overwhelming her senses!
Lin Yinxi had gone past hunger and barely felt it anymore. But when that smell drifted beneath her nose, she suddenly felt ravenous.
She wanted to eat it so badly. Her mouth was already watering.
Realizing something was wrong, she immediately covered her nose.
“Don’t take it. There’s something wrong with that meat.” Holding her breath kept her voice rather quiet.
Xu Haitang warned them more loudly. “Cover your noses! Don’t breathe in that smell!”
Unfortunately, her voice was powerless against the eerie aroma.
It had a powerful hallucinatory effect on their minds!
Chu Yanran, whose stomach had been cramping constantly, lost focus as she smelled it.
She swallowed, broke free of Chen Fei’s hand with astonishing strength, and walked toward Red Raincoat step by step, a mesmerized smile on her face, like a sleepwalker.
“It smells so good… I’m so hungry my stomach hurts. I want to eat…” Her hand reached uncontrollably toward the mince in the iron bucket.
Red Raincoat stood quietly. Though it had no face, delight radiated from its entire body.
Lin Yinxi pinched her thigh and forced herself to look away from the bucket.
Do not look.
Do not smell it.
One more glance, and she would not be able to resist either.
She tore her gaze away, looked down, and tapped her phone’s screen.
The screen flickered wildly.
Group messages refreshed one after another.
She almost missed the message tagging her.
[Emergency notification]
[Rabbit Keeper: Unregistered distribution of inferior fish feed has also been detected in Zone A’s corridor. This activity seriously disrupts market order and contaminates exhibits, compromising their quality.]
[Nearby cleaners must confiscate the inferior fish feed and expel the illegal vendor!]
[Completion reward: 100 Rabbit Coins.]
[Failure penalty: Revocation of all part-time work eligibility for this session, plus a fine.]
Another fine?!
Her still-tired eyes instantly lit with a frightening ferocity. The devastating prospect of a fine drove her hunger away at once.
She had none left! Really! Just three Rabbit Coins!
Tickets cost Rabbit Coins. Tent rentals cost Rabbit Coins. Plenty more things were bound to require them later.
Threaten her life, fine. Touch her money, and even the king of heaven would get two hefty slaps![^heaven-authority]
Before Xu Haitang’s and Chen Fei’s horrified eyes, Lin Yinxi grabbed Chu Yanran’s collar from behind and yanked her back hard.
Then, without hesitation, she reached out, snatched the iron bucket of mince from Red Raincoat, and clamped its lid shut!
Hand it over!
All the jellyfish pressed against their tanks’ glass, packing every gap as though gathering to watch the commotion.
The red water dripping from Red Raincoat grew thicker, and the nauseating fishy smell intensified.
Lin Yinxi might only be a temporary worker, but Red Raincoat was not even that. It was merely a vendor that had sneaked in and violated the aquarium’s management rules.
As an employee with a wristband, Lin Yinxi had to project authority.
She planted one hand on her hip and pointed at Red Raincoat with the other.
“You, you, you. Yes, you! What department are you from? Do you know the rules?!”
“Who said you could hand out food in the viewing area? This meat’s gone off! Who’s responsible if it makes a visitor ill?!”
“Didn’t your superior tell you Logistics Team 2 runs this area? Don’t play mute with me. Show me your staff badge!”
Ah. So exhausting.
For someone with so little energy, saying that much in one go was hard work. She needed a couple of breaths to recover.
Xu Haitang’s gun hand froze in midair.
Chen Fei held Chu Yanran, pinching the groove beneath her nose. Hearing Lin Yinxi’s sheer audacity, he stared so hard his eyes nearly fell out.
Even the perpetually mysterious Yang Shu showed a rare flash of astonishment in his visible eye. He stopped playing with his lighter.
That was Red Raincoat! Didn’t the rules say visitors should stay out of its way?
Lin Yinxi had not only stolen its bucket. She was scolding it like a naughty grandchild.
That made no sense.
Red Raincoat slowly raised a hand, pale and slender with sharp nails. Red water poured endlessly from the raincoat onto the floor, like a torrential downpour.
“What? You hand out the wrong stuff, and now you want to hit someone?”
Lin Yinxi had to grit her teeth and fulfill her duties now.
With that blue wristband on her wrist, Red Raincoat could not determine whether she was human or an entity.
The aquarium had given her temporary status as [Cleaner]. That put her under the rules’ protection!
She thrust the blue Cleaner Wristband right in front of Red Raincoat. “Here. Look carefully. I’m with Logistics Team 2. My superior has directly authorized my inspection rights. If you’ve got a complaint, take it to my immediate supervisor. I’m only doing my job.”
Please. Don’t take that anger out on her.
Go fight the entities higher up.
She was only here to work.
Entities were powerful in Deep Blue Aquarium, but they too were bound by rules.
The aura of an aquarium employee emanating from the blue wristband froze Red Raincoat’s hand in midair.
Red Raincoat tilted its head slightly. It was a low-ranking spreader of contamination.
Lin Yinxi, meanwhile, was an aquarium employee with authority to expel him.
Municipal enforcement officers could likewise confiscate an illegal street vendor’s cart.
“Ah… humanoid… My mistake…”
Red Raincoat reached toward her. It wanted its iron bucket back.
Bang! Thinking it was attacking Lin Yinxi, Xu Haitang fired at once. The bullet shot through Red Raincoat’s hand.
Using the taboo artifact made Xu Haitang a little paler.
[Rabbit Keeper: Nearby cleaners are on their way to provide support.]
Lin Yinxi did not need support.
Red Raincoat looked around. The other cleaners had not yet appeared, but entities could sense one another’s presence.
“I’ll remember you, cleaner.” It abruptly withdrew its hand, abandoned even the bucket, and turned to merge into the darkness at tremendous speed, vanishing in the blink of an eye.
[Work update: Inferior fish feed confiscated. Illegal temporary worker expelled.]
[Performance reward: 100 Rabbit Coins credited to your account. Current balance: 103 Rabbit Coins. Team 2 cleaners, keep up the good work.]
Lin Yinxi handed the iron bucket to the other cleaners.
They all wore identical blue wristbands. The entities were bizarrely shaped, most of their bodies fused with their work tools.
At last, the other cleaners left.
“You’re not human, are you?” Yang Shu, who had been watching coldly throughout, spoke in a sinister tone.
[^heaven-authority]: Invoking the king of heaven is a colloquial way of saying that even the highest authority gets no exception.