Chapter 9: 9

Chapter 9: The Red Moon Elementary School

Do people who only you can interact with really exist?  Even if the others can’t see or hear them?

Chen Jing met and treated a lot of psyche mutants before but while she wasn’t perplexed by any of them, she’s genuinely confused this time with the current situation.

Lu Xin who was spouting supposed nonsense didn’t seem like he was joking but was rather shown to be very serious and sober.

Soberness, madness, prevalence. All these elements happened to mix equally in him.

“Leader Chen, our weapons and personnel are mobilized in place, you should examine him for the one last time!”

Only silence prevailed as the two were both indulged in deep thoughts.

Chen Jing came across many mutants and dealt with countless cases where psyche power went out of control, so she was able to quickly come up with a solution on the spot,

“One question. Say if your power came from your ’family’, can you make sure they won’t have an influence on you?”

It was smart of her to not question the existence of his “family” but rather ask whether his “family” had any influence on him.

Lu Xin looked up and said, “Are you worried they might take over my body?”

She didn’t deny the assumption.

For her, the most dangerous part of the boy was that there’s always a possibility he might turn into someone else without notice.

Lu Xin continued to dive into his thoughts.

He had some idea about his own conditions as he stayed in the library for quite some time and skimmed through all the books about mental illness when his “family” first appeared. 

It was from there that he realized the number of mental illnesses humans came across: Fregoli delusion, Capgras delusion, Angelman syndrome, Alice in the wonderland syndrome, claustrophobia, etc. While he could understand some of the illnesses by their name, he investigated further for those that he didn’t.

He made a judgment based on the stuff he learned.

Schizophrenia?

His symptoms were similar to those in the books, while they weren’t exactly the same.

He always wanted to sort himself out.

He was very excited when he first met this woman and heard about all these “psyche mutants” and  “contamination” as he believed they had a way of treating him. However, he knew his hope was lost when he introduced his family to her.

If he was a common case and they could treat him, why would she be so cautious?

He detested being looked at with those cautious gazes.

He tried to soothe her by explaining his family members,

“My sister… she’s a good kid! She likes her toys and running around…”

“My dad loves making food for us! He’s a straightforward guy who loves staying in the kitchen…”

“My mum is a meek woman. She never starts any fight and all…”

“…”

Chen Jing, who was just quietly listening to him, was extremely conflicted in her mind – He’s too normal, isn’t he?

He’s describing people who don’t exist like he’s talking about his own family…

The clearer his description, the more anxiousness built up in her mind.

There were many choices she could pick – Immediately withdraw the decision of recruiting him, increase the level of surveillance on him, or even just kill him right on the spot to avoid future risk.

But she hesitated when she recalled his performance and the current situation within the walls.

She came to a conclusion eventually as she grabbed a letter and presented it in front of Lu Xin,

“I arranged the examinations against you. The results are most accurate if the subject doesn’t know they’re being tested beforehand, but you passed the test! You even eliminated a level 1 psyche monster for us!”

“So in a sense, you completed a contract. Here’s your reward!”

The dazed Lu Xin picked up and opened the letter, inside the letter he saw stacks of $50 (around 5 USD).

He was a little disappointed but a faint glow appeared in his eyes as he started counting. 

“It’s $10,000 inside.”

She halted his counting.

“$10,000?”

There was a clear change in his expression when he heard the number.

Ever since the Red Moon, the economic system was reshuffled and inflated a lot of things. He earns $1,000 monthly, not to mention he’s the model employee within his company.

“You deserve it.”

Looking at his bewildered face, she grinned,

“With that power of yours, this amount is nothing.”

“It should still be quite hard, right…?”

He thought to himself. He took the money and said,

“I was just in need of money actually!”

Chen Jing thought to herself,

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“Greed of money. The hazardous level should be even lower then…”

Lu Xin was expectedly surprised so he asked timidly,

“Do you guys always pay this much?”

“It will be even higher.”

“The psyche monster you dealt with had been investigated thoroughly. We only paid you this amount because we already did enough preparations to eliminate and contain it if necessary. Under normal circumstances, however, you get paid around $30,000 if you complete a scavenging mission.”

“$30,000…”

He was solely focused on the money.

Chen Jing realized he was genuinely confused by the amount of money from his expressions,

“Yeah.”

She was finally at ease when she saw the boy react like a normal person.

“Now you’ll never be in need of money.”

…

…

The sky wasn’t completely dark when they left the bar and a red moon could be faintly seen hanging in the sky.

“So… this $10,000… its mine?”

The boy’s still confused about the money as he never knew he had the ability to make that much money before.

But either way, he needed the money.

Lu Xin sighed lightly and started walking towards the bus station. After traveling on the bus for around an hour, he reached the east side of the city. Walking through the run-down and lifeless streets with merchants and drunkards accompanying him, he arrived at a house.

In contrast to the streets outside, the house was bright and lively. Maybe it was because of the vivid colours and cartoons on the walls.

It was a little orphanage. “Red Moon Elementary School” could be clearly seen on the rusty sign.

Lu Xin maneuvered around the barbed wires and entered the little school.

The old man in the security booth who was reading his newspaper heard Lu Xin and tapped his head slightly to greet the young man, then he continued with his newspaper.

There was only a classroom in the school, all the other rooms were in ruins and were filled with garbage.

Lu Xin entered the classroom. In the room was a girl wearing a white sweater in a wheelchair playing with the children, some were as old as 7 to 8 years old while some were as young as 2 to 3 years old and they were all dressed in plain clothes, the clothes were very clean.

They’re playing tag?

How childish.

Lu Xin didn’t interfere as he slipped the letter inside the rusty letterbox. He placed a flower on the box in case the girl misses the letter, then he proceeded to leave the classroom quietly.

As he was passing through the security booth again, the old man didn’t even bother lifting his head and said,

“Just tell her for goodness sake. Do you know who planted those flowers?”

Lu Xin was a bit embarrassed after getting pointed out.

“I’ll come around at the weekends when I’ll buy you drinks then!”

“Nah.”

The old man was still glued to his newspaper,

“I’ll get you drinks when you come, we’ll need peanuts then!”

“Fine.”

Lu Xin accepted the offer while smiling.

He started walking towards the station after leaving the school.

“Get on the car, I’ll give you a lift.”

A jeep was right next to him, on the car was Chen Jing smiling at him.

“Thanks!”

It was going to take him around half an hour to get home, so he accepted without thinking much.

Chen Jing threw him another set of documents when he got in the car.

Lu Xin excitedly opened the documents only to be disappointed as the documents weren’t filled with what he was hoping for.

“From now on, the action group welcomes you!”

“Uh… Right… Thanks?”

Chen Jing, who was driving, didn’t give him any explanations.

The first thing anyone does with a huge amount of money often reflects the person’s desires and nature. The examination on Lu Xin would’ve been quite mediocre if he was to take the money and spend it all on himself, the examination would’ve been even lower if he was to do anything vulgar. In both cases, they probably would’ve stopped recruiting him. 

However, this person next to her didn’t do either but rather gave it all to an orphanage.

Chen Jing really couldn’t identify any similarity between this wholesome person and the monster she saw at the train station.

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