Chapter 10: Unannounced Inspection

19 June, Afternoon, before 16:00hrs

“What?” Xiao Mo’s face turned pale.

The kid lifted his head to look at Xiao Mo- why was he looking so shocked?

Ring, ring. The doorbell rang.

Xiao Mo and Xue Li Hong looked at each other. Who would come at this timing?

Xiao Mo suppressed his feelings of suspicion and anxiousness. He walked towards the door and lifted up the telephone. Taking a deep breath, he asked, “Hello, who is this?”

“Hello, we are from the Institute of Infectious Diseases, the Southern City zone’s Sixth Investigation Team. We would like to check if there is anyone infected with the disease.”

Xiao Mo wanted to shoo them away. His main priority right now was to grill the system and tell the f**king system that he would not be manipulated by him to do the f**king mission!

The following parts of the text will be scrambled to prevent theft from aggregators and unauthorized epub making. Please support our translators by reading on secondlifetranslations (dot) com. If you are currently on the site and and you are seeing this, please clear your cache.

“Yu qyxkzu eke dsv tlv vbl hkawp.” Dkys Ys bypvkzu alrzkle.

“Fka, rzlypl wdelapvyde. Sltyaezlpp sq oblvbla usw byhl vbl hkawp sa dsv, ol dlle vs ts kdvs uswa bswpl vs nblnj. Uswze usw rzlypl nsarsayvl okvb wp? Mbydj usw qsa pwrrsavkdt swa osaj.” Mbl rlapsd prlyjkdt oyp hlau rszkvl yde psqv prsjld. Rv zssjle zkjl vblu olal olzz vaykdle.

Dkys Ys nsdvlxrzyvle kd pkzldnl qsa y obkzl, clqsal qkdyzzu ralppkdt vbl cwvvsd vs srld vbl tyvl esodpvykap clqsal bydtkdt wr vbl rbsdl.

Jlqsal Dkys Ys ypjle bkx dsv vs alhlyz bkp kzzdlpp, Dwl Nk Tsdt pvsse wr dlmv vs Dkys Ys yde pyke, “R osd’v vlzz vblx vbyv usw olal pknj yde byhl alnshlale.”

Dkys Ys zssjle yv bkx yde awccle bkp blye qsdezu.

“Zsw zkjl vs vswnb y jke’p blye?”

“Ebyv?? Tybyby!” Dkys Ys zywtble. Tl bwttle vbl jke yde xlpple wr bkp byka lhld xsal cu awcckdt bkp psqv byka, clqsal pxkzkdt, “Zlp, y jke’p byka qllzp alyzzu tsse vs vswnb. Yu casvbla talo wr yde bl alqwplp vs zlv xl awc bkp byka. Ohld xu qyxkzu’p ralnkswp dlrblo Psw Psw kp yzps wdokzzkdt vs zlv rlsrzl vswnb bkp byka.”

Dwl Nk Tsdt prsjl plakswpzu, “Jas, esd’v usw jdso, vbyv y osxyd’p oykpv yde y xyd’p blye yal sqq zkxkvp?”

“That is only for adults. Kids aren’t included, funny.” Xiao Mo suddenly stopped smiling and asked the kid in a suspicious tone, “We stay at the seventh level, if we don’t consider the first and second levels, then they should have asked from level three onwards. If they started at the third level, then why were they still at the ground floor when the pressed the bell?”

“Two possibilities.” The kid showed his two fingers, “First possibility: they started asking from the seventh floor and will continue downwards, so they pressed the seventh floor’s doorbell first. Second possibility: Floors two and three up to floor six had nobody hearing the doorbell or had nobody willing to open the door for them.”

Xiao Mo replied without thinking, “The second possibility is impossible. From levels three to six, there are eight units in total, how can no one be home.”

Xue Li Hong thought back on what he observed the past two days and kept quiet.

Xiao Mo stared at the kid skeptically, “There really is no one left?”

“At least, for these two and a half days, I did not see a single person walking out of this building except for me.”

“Impossible. Even if we exclude the workers who didn’t manage to come back by 16 June, from what I recall, the third and sixth floors both have elderly and children at home. The person who rented the unit 402 at the fourth floor, I know him, his wife was about to give birth, so he stayed at home to accompany his wife, just in case she goes into labour. Hence, these people must be at home.”

“Maybe they were at the emergency point, or they were like you, in a coma for these few days and are still asleep.”

“Yes, that must be the case.”

As the two of them were talking, the inspector had come up the stairs and stood outside their door. The doorbell rang once again but with a different tone.

When the door opened, the people outside hurriedly stepped back.

“Hello, we are an inspection team from the Institute of Infectious Diseases. Thank you for supporting and cooperating with us.”

Outside the door, the man donned in protective suit smiled professionally. He flashed his job card showing the words Institute of Infectious Diseases, looking anxious as he spoke to Xiao Mo.

Behind him, there was a doctor who was wearing a white doctor suit, as well as two armed policemen. All four of them were wearing protective suits, even their heads were protected with transparent protective headgear.

The medical person who was the furthest away from Xiao Mo. The two armed policemen were gripping tightly their batons while intently staring at Xiao Mo, looking as if they were going to pounce on him anytime.

“Hello, it has been hard on you.” Xiao Mo glanced at everyone while speaking politely. Whether it was conscious or not, Xiao Mo naturally turned his body to block the man sight from peeking into the house any further.

Inside the house, Xue Li Hong was packing up the table, keeping all the tools and parts inside his little bag.

Perhaps Xiao Mo looked and sounded normal, so the inspector relaxed a little.

Xiao Mo could not comprehend why they were all so tensed.

The man stepped forward.

“May I know if you stay alone here?” The man was not able to snoop, so he decisively brought out his clipboard and started asking questions.

“Yes, I stay alone.”

The man paused, “You did a population check recently, and according to the record, there is a kid staying with you.”

“Oh, you are referring to Xue Li Hong, he is my friend’s kid. He is staying with me for a few days.” Xiao Mo answered naturally.

Before he opened the door, he was considering whether he should reveal the kid’s identity, but afterwards, he changed his mind.

Telling this strained group of people that this kid popped up from nowhere was not much of a great idea.

“Then where is your friend now?”

Xiao Mo frowned, “You are here to check if anyone is sick or not. Where my friend is has nothing to do with you.”

“Ha ha.” The man laughed awkwardly, “Just asking. Then, how are the both of you doing? Any discomfort or pains?”

“No, we are all right, just that we are unaware of what is happening outside.”

“You didn’t go out at all?”

“No, we saw that the situation was really bad, so we didn’t dare to go out.”

“You did not collect your rations?”

“I was about to go, but the child will be alone at home, so I was worried. I will go after everything is more stable outside.”

The man saw that Xiao Mo answered his questions perfectly and looked healthy. He also did not look like he was hiding something, so he decided not to ask further.

“Can you allow us to do a simple check on you and your kid? It is a very simple test, it wont take much of your time.”

Xiao Mo turned around and asked Xue Li Hong to come out. He looked disturbed and asked, “What is happening? Is it some kind of new virus; is there a cure? Can we go into the city? When can we resume our normal lifestyle?”

The man hinted the medical personal to proceed with the check as he answered perfunctorily, “Don’t worry, everything is under control. There is a cure and we are only cautious, that’s why the lockdown will be for a while.”

“How long will it be?” Xiao Mo asked.

“This, the upper management will inform you, please be patient and wait, it shouldn’t be too long.” The man gave Xiao Mo a consoling smile.

The medical personal came forward and placed a piece of paper into Xiao Mo’s mouth.

Xiao Mo followed his instructions, and when the paper was removed, he asked, “What test is this for?”

“We are checking to see if there is an overdose of metallic content in your body.” Looks like the medical personal was instructed not to hide the objective of the test.

“Metal? You mean this virus is the result from metallic poisoning?”

“Oh, you are smart.” The medical personal praised him.

“But we don’t have any metal factories or any harmful chemical or biological factories near here.” Xiao Mo was suspicious.

“That’s why we are checking the cause.”

Xue Li Hong came out with his little backpack. The medical personal held a piece of test paper and asked him to open his mouth. Xue Li Hong clung onto Xiao Mo’s leg and refused to open his mouth.

Xiao Mo smiled apologetically, excusing that the kid was shy. He took over the piece of test paper, lowered his head and asked the kid to open his mouth.

 The kid lifted up his head and obediently opened his mouth. After the kid licked the paper, Xiao Mo passed the paper to the medical personal. It was a simple test and the results were out in less than five minutes. The medical personal nodded to his partner; the two were safe.

Xiao Mo had assumed the testing was over, but the medical personal proceeded to bring out a thermometer and requested to measure their body temperature.

“What is this for?” Xiao Mo asked impatiently.

The person next to him replied, “This is to check that both of you have no contact with the virus before.”

Xiao Mo was stunned. He tested them by asking, “Those who got the virus are all in the hospital, if they stayed at home, they would probably be dead by now.”

“That is only a part of them, but there are some who have very strong immunities, that they managed to pull through the virus without medication.”

“Isn’t that a good thing then? Why bother checking?”

“This is to prevent a second wave of attacks. That’s why those who did not register will have to register.”

Xiao Mo felt dubious and hesitant. His instincts were telling him that he should never tell the people that he had recovered from the virus attack- especially the inspector.

“Mr Xiao, have you recovered from any illness these past few days?” When the man opened his mouth to inquire, the surrounding atmosphere immediately became tensed.

“Er, I am not sure if what I experienced was the same as what you mentioned.” Xiao Mo answered slowly, trying to collect his thoughts while thinking of a strategy. Telling lies was definitely a big no. There was a record of him collecting medicine from the community hospital, anyone could check from the record. If he lied, they may become even more suspicious, so might as well just tell them the truth.

Just as Xiao Mo was thinking of how to answer the question, the kid holding his pant leg opened up, “Uncle Xiao had a fever a few days ago and I was so worried. Uncle, can you help to check if he is ok?”

“Oh, only fever?” The man and the medical staff were staring at Xiao Mo’s expression anxiously.

“Yes, only fever, but I have since recovered.” Xiao Mo did not understand why Xue Li Hong said that he had a fever, but he followed along.

Xue Li Hong heard Xiao Mo’s words and scolded him tactless in his heart.

“No other symptoms?” the man looked at the kid when he asked.

“None. My fever was probably due to my flu which then developed into a fever. I already felt uncomfortable before this area got quarantined. But it is probably a common flu. Haha, but such a great timing, I almost ended up frightening myself to death. This is also why I didn’t dare to go out the past few days, I was afraid of getting infected.” The more Xiao Mo spoke, the smoother his words got and the more confident he became.

The man observed that the kid was very shy. When he looked at the kid, he would hide from his line of sight, but other than that, everything looked normal. He also did not have any special expressions when he heard Xiao Mo’s speech.

“Whether or not the fever was cause by the virus, we will need to take your temperature to confirm.”

The man wasn’t sure whether Xiao Mo was telling the truth, as such coincidences did indeed exist. Furthermore, if Xiao Mo really was infected by the virus, when the virus broke out, the kid staying by his side must have had a very deep impression on it.

An adult could conceal his emotions, could tell lies, but such a small kid, could he do the same?

“This can be confirmed just by taking a temperature?”

“Of all the infected people we have observed thus far, as long as the infected recovered, within a 24-hour period, their temperatures would be very high.” The medical personal replied.

Xiao Mo became worried; he had just woken up from his illness and have not yet passed the 24-hour window.

Xue Li Hong grasped his leg. Xiao Mo’s temperature was a little high, that was why he said that he was having a fever. But this stupid thing said that he had recovered, so what should they do now?

Xiao Mo glanced at the thermometer getting closer to his neck.

The thermometer that they were using had became popular these few years. Regardless of which part of the skin, without needing contact, as long as you point it near, you could get a very precise reading.

“Then, if more than 24 hours have passed, you would not be able to check it?” Xiao Mo was trying to distract his attention. Inside his heart, he was chanting: Must be ok, must be alright!

“Yes, that’s why we have to quickly check as many as possible.”

“I saw that you came straight to the seventh floor, have you checked those staying downstairs? Are they all alright?”

The man glanced at the medical personal. He was uncertain if he should tell Xiao Mo.

The medical staff said, “I suggest that you don’t go out to visit any friends or relatives and also other people’s houses. This is to prevent a second infection, and also for your health.”

“Of course, I will be careful.”

“As for the units downstairs, they are mostly in the hospital. Some of them are still living at home, be we are unable to contact them.” He paused for a moment before continuing, “As for those who are uncontactable, we will record their units and there will be someone going to their houses to check.”

“Oh.” Xiao Mo thought, if they had died at home, there must be someone to go in and take care of the bodies. They cannot be left to rot alone.

Di. The medical personal removed the thermometer and looked at the screen.

The more anxious Xiao Mo got, the more relaxed he appeared. The smile on his face deepened, he even nodded towards the two policemen who had been very rigid from the very beginning.

“36.3 degrees, normal temperature.” Every single person at the scene relaxed when they heard the result.

Xue Li Hong became curious, he was hugging the man’s leg and could clearly feel that his temperature was higher than normal. How could his temperature drop suddenly?

Xue Li Hong also passed the temperature check.

Xiao Mo had thought that the checks were done and he could send them away, but who knew…

“My apologies, can we perhaps come in to your house to check? We only want to ensure that the air quality is good and there is no residual virus strain. It will be a fast job.”

Looks like the check is very strict this time. Xiao Mo had no choice but to let the four of them in.

The man and the medical personal started testing the metallic content in the air. The two policemen walked around and checked a room each.

Xiao Mo noticed that they were holding a small device, but did not know what they were checking for.

The policeman went around them and used the device to test for something.

Xue Li Hong was like a small curious child. When the policeman walked pass him, he tiptoed to look at the device.

The policeman didn’t stop him. Seeing that he was a child, he even smiled at him.

Xue Li Hong showed him a shy smile.

The policeman was tempted to pat the kid’s head, but he controlled himself.

When the policeman walked away and headed towards the kitchen, both Xiao Mo and Xue Li Hong’s eyes followed him and shouted in their heart, “Not good!”

As expected, the person in charge of checking the kitchen turned around and looked at Xiao Mo, “A lot of rubbish, looks like the two of you eat a lot.”

Xiao Mo smiled and patted the kid’s head, “We didn’t go out this past few days, so all the rubbish were accumulated and hadn’t been thrown out.”

“Is that so?” The man wasn’t sure if Xiao Mo was telling the truth, so he wrote down in the row of remarks “Found large volumes of food wrapping and empty boxes, etc.”

He didn’t know why the upper management asked them to check each and every family and house. They had to make sure that there were no hidden patients or hidden illness, as well as check the food consumption of each household. However, since the management requested it, they could only follow the instructions given.

The man muttered “Excuse me” to Xiao Mo before opening all the drawers and cabinets.

Xiao Mo wanted to ask if this action was within regulation, but the man spoke before he could, “We are checking the source of the virus, do you have anything to hide?” Xiao Mo turned speechless.

The other three also joined the man in searching the cabinets.

Xiao Mo felt that they were not checking the source of the virus. It felt more like they were checking his household’s food consumption conditions.

Because if they were really checking the house’s metallic contents, all they had to do was check the air quality, and not open each and every drawer to check its contents.

Xiao Mo unconsciously tightened his hold on Xue Li Hong’s hand.

Xue Li Hong stepped on his foot.

Xiao Mo glanced at the kid, before reacting. He hurriedly let go of his hand and comforted him, “Sorry, I didn’t notice.”

Xue Li Hong glanced at the hand that got held so tightly that it became red, before flinging it a few times.

Xiao Mo quickly took hold of his hand. Wanting to take a closer look, he squatted down before blowing on it a few times.

Xue Li Hong thought, are you coaxing a kid?

Xiao Mo guiltily said, “I’m sorry, is it very painful? Let me rub it.” He rubbed the kid’s hand softly.

He then realized that has hand was very thin. There was barely any meat on it, and there were even a few calluses between his palm and fingers.

If he didn’t look at the kid and the size of his hand, he would think that this had belonged to a blue-collar adult worker, where he had a front lined job that was labor intensive and needed to use all kinds of heavy tools.

Xiao Mo’s hands had calluses too, but even his were not as many as the kid’s.

Xiao Mo peered at the kid and felt painful in his heart.

Nowadays, which kid’s hands weren’t soft and meaty? Even a child from an orphanage did not own such a pair of rough hands. If this was his child, he could never bear to let his child suffer so much.

The kid silently stretched out his other hand and pressed on the man’s head.

“…” Xiao Mo was dumbfounded, what did the kid mean by that?

“Cough, Mr Xiao, thank you for your cooperation. If there are any issues, could you please contact the quarantine zone’s police and resident community?”

“Oh, you are finished with all the checks?” Xiao Mo stood up and let go of the kid’s hand.

The kid lifted up his right hand and looked at it.

The officer indicated that he had finished with the inspection.

Xiao Mo observed the four of them and their expressions, but were unable to get anything out of them. He was unsure if he had passed the inspection.

Xiao Mo ushered the four of them to the door and said, “Thank you and please walk slowly.”

The man was polite and repeatedly asked Xiao Mo not to go to other people’s houses, as well as to not leave the quarantine zone. He also assured him to not worry too much and have faith in the government and the country etc.

Xiao Mo replied him positively.

Xue Li Hong stood behind Xiao Mo and kept staring at his right hand.