Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 46: Voting List

Tang Yibu rolled out of bed and held the ice cream bowl firmly. He didn’t make any pretense and went out honestly and began to wander around.

Except for the slight difference in the number of people working, it was difficult to see the difference between day and night in the settlement of Elysium. People were nailed to their posts, covered by invisible hoods, and occasionally a few smiles that had no semblance of joy floated across their stiff faces. Like the organ birds on an antique clock, they were firmly glued to the corners of this huge machine, and their wings were just some kind of decoration.

Among this group of people, Tang Yibu, who was walking around with a bowl of ice cream, was undoubtedly an outlier.

Tang Yibu smacked on the cold dessert in his mouth and quickly lost interest in continuing to observe.

These people didn’t have much observation value. Long hours of high-intensity labor made them unresponsive and simple-minded. The endless work was only mixed with time for short-term sleep, eating, and excretion. The only moment they were liberated may have been an hour or two when the firefly had taken effect…

Another spoonful of yellowish dessert was delivered to his mouth, and Tang Yibu looked at the two people who were slumped in chairs not far away. Their faces were eerily happy and relaxed, their limbs twitched, and their lips were bloodless. The thin face was a little green, showing an obvious sign that they had been eating fireflies for a long time.

One person fell from his chair to the ground, unsure of whether he was suffering from illness or was just too weak. He pulled the hard table with one hand; his chest made a bellows-like murmur, and his face turned purple from coughing.

However, the people around weren’t interested in what was happening to these two sitting people and just kept working hard. The man gasped for a while, sat back in his position, and waited for the final effect to pass, then continued welding the electric component.

Tang Yibu suddenly began to wonder, if this false comfort completely collapsed, how would these people, who were no different from carbon-based machines, react. People who had completely lost their value for extraction were sleeping on the fifth floor. Perhaps these people weren’t ignorant of what was waiting for their own ending.

Tang Yibu put away the empty ice cream bowl, patted cold water on his hand, and decided to go downstairs for a walk.

Even if the main ship of Elysium was hidden, the settlement wouldn’t have a ship that could be easily borrowed. Tang Yibu skillfully sneaked into the surveillance blind spot, slipped underground, and successfully found several ships.

He remembered the way. As long as he activated the shuttle function, he could take the jammer and leave at any time. Tang Yibu simulated more than a dozen scenarios in his mind, and even the explosion scenes in them were passionately done, but he still couldn’t escape the boredom.

His partner was much more complicated than these topics.

Small ships were moored in the underground parking lot of the commercial building, cameras were rotating in all corners; and the guns in the hands of the patrol occasionally hit other small objects, making clattering sounds. Tang Yibu spread out his limbs on the deck of one of the ships, staring at the spider webs on the ceiling, and the patrol’s lighting beams swept around in the dark space.

He had expected to be separated for thirty-six hours, and now he still had thirty-four hours to determine if his partner would take the opportunity to escape. Tang Yibu rolled over melancholically and decided to change to a different subject.

…For example, getting the best ship.

The thought crossed his mind, and Tang Yibu jumped up. Calculating the surveillance blind spot with the beat of the music in his head, he happily left the underground floor.

Duan Lili’s eyes were red and swollen. She had stopped crying, but the dryness and pain in her eyes didn’t dissipate for a long time.

Seeing that it was already late at night, the bodyguards left by Fan Baiyan had no intention of talking to her. The two of them were asleep on the folding bed, and the remaining two were walking around the room to force themselves to stay awake.

After naming the materials that had just been sorted out by number, Duan Lili moved her stiff shoulders. The part that was kicked by Fan Baiyan seemed to wake up suddenly, and it started to hurt fiercely again. Her internal organs seemed to be twitching, and her stomach was nauseous. She pinched her throat for a while before suppressing the bloody nausea.

A dull crash suddenly sounded in the quiet room.

The two people who were patrolling fell straight to the ground, unaware of what was going on. Duan Lili stood up suddenly from the stool, stumbling and taking two steps back, gasping for air because of the pain, while looking around vigilantly.

There was a rattling sound from the vent, and a smiling head poked out. That face was plastered on with a lot of dust from the pipes and looked dirty, but it was still very handsome.

“It’s just an anesthetic needle. Let them sleep.” Tang Yibu maintained his upside-down posture as his leg hooked around a pipe. “If I’m not mistaken, your injury is real… Don’t move, behave naturally. The camera can’t capture this angle.”

Duan Lili opened her mouth, as if she had suddenly lost her language skills. She obediently pulled the chair that was almost kicked over and sat back slowly.

“Mr. Ruan and I are loyal to the Walking Stones,” Tang Yibu said happily. “I have considered the possibility of you and Fan Baiyan acting together, but judging from the extent of your injury, this possibility doesn’t exist.”

“Then—then why doesn’t Mr. Ruan cooperate with me…”

“We have to keep the initiative.” Tang Yibu hung like a bat. “Since you and Fan Baiyan are not really in a cooperative relationship, I think I need to tell you—Feng Jiang is fine. Mr. Ruan has already taken him back to the Walking Stones.”

Duan Lili showed a real relaxed expression. “That’s good. Thank you… Thank you for telling me this specifically.”

“This is the price tag.” Tang Yibu stretched his face. “I also need your help.”

“But I—I can’t go anywhere now… After these people wake up in a while, I have to make up a reasonable explanation—”

“Fan Baiyan should have a private ship,” Tang Yibu interrupted Duan Lili indifferently. “Judging from his personality and behavioral characteristics, he is very likely to have prepared the best ship for himself.”

“Yes.” Duan Lili was a little disoriented by the sudden jumps in topics.

“Where is it?”

“Why do you want to ask this?” Duan Lili put her hands on her chest and subconsciously made a posture to guard herself. “Even if you plan to steal it, in case he finds out…”

“According to my observation, Fan Baiyan is used to walking around in the morning and uses the tearoom for two hours after lunch. Don’t be nervous, I’m not going to steal the ship and run away. It’s just to do a little favor, and then I’ll drive it back as usual. I promise he won’t notice it.”

“There are many ships on the ground floor.”

“Those are too shabby.”

Duan Lili rubbed her temples fiercely. “Mr. Tang, I don’t think this is the time to be picky about aesthetics.”

“Fan Baiyan probably left the fastest and best ship to himself.” Tang Yibu pointed this out very strictly. “The faster the speed, the safer the plan.”

Extremely crazy plans sometimes work better. There were countless ships waiting underground, and the usual thieves would not take Fan Baiyan’s secret boat as the first target, so the surveillance wouldn’t be too strict.

Duan Lili wiped her red and swollen eyes, looking as if she was hesitating. “But this is too…”

“If you want to leave, I can also send you to the Walking Stones.” Tang Yibu suggested slowly, staring closely at Duan Lili’s expression.

“No, I’m not leaving.” Duan Lili’s expression stiffened for half a second. “I really can’t leave. I…I’m not that brave.”

“That’s a pity. People like you are very welcome at the Walking Stones.” Tang Yibu showed just the right expression of regret.

The two looked at each other in silence for a moment.

Trembling and sighing, Duan Lili tugged at the end of her hair with her hand. “Can you tell me your plans?”

“If you are worried about this, we will not completely destroy Elysium. I think you know that Yu Le doesn’t have that strength yet.” Tang Yibu’s gaze was still fixed on her. “The time for the disinfection order is approaching. Mr. Ruan and I are just here to explore the situation and add obstacles to Fan Baiyan.”

Duan Lili’s face paled and she didn’t say a word. In fact, she didn’t have to make a sound. “I don’t believe you” was already written all over her face.

“If we plan to stir up trouble and leave, Mr. Ruan doesn’t need to leave me here,” Tang Yibu continued to throw out half-truths and half-lies. “I’ll be back, as I still have my own tasks to complete. Think about it. If I just go away like this forever, it will definitely arouse Fan Baiyan’s vigilance. Although it’s dangerous to drive away using Fan Baiyan’s ship, it can also be used as a guarantee in itself.”

“Sixth floor.” Duan Lili moved her lips. “His boat is his room. If you have the ability to get there, you will definitely be able to recognize it.”

“Thank you, Miss Duan.”

“Promise me.” Duan Lili’s tone became cold and vicious. “Promise me that you will hurt him severely.”

There was no adulteration in this malice, and Tang Yibu narrowed his eyes.

“I promise,” he said.

At the gathering, Ruan Xian didn’t focus on Yu Le. He kept looking at Tu Rui, who was standing next to him. In order to prevent being caught by surveillance measures, Ruan Xian specially set the “appointment” at noon the day after the big gathering.

Facts have proven that this wasn’t unfounded.

After he brought Feng Jiang back, he was questioned by Tu Rui’s people for four hours. The ruins pirates asked them to tell the story straightforwardly and then have them repeat it countless times before they were willing to officially accept them back into the Walking Stones settlement.

They even made careful observations to make sure that they showed no signs of drug addiction.

However, Yu Le did what he said. The people from the Walking Stones only took away the medicine and herbs, and the valuable ship was judged to be Ruan Xian’s private property.

“You still have to earn the shuttle agent and fuel yourself.” Gang Zi said without concealing the interest in his eyes. “Just hand it in and redeem it all into contribution points. It’s enough for at least three trips.”

“I will consider it.” Ruan Xian put on the smile that he was good at performing. “Except for this ship, everything else can be exchanged for contribution points. I want to use the contribution points to buy something… No, it’s not a random spending. I remember your suggestion.”

“What do you want to buy?”

“This iron bead.” Ruan Xian held the iron bead that was about to break free from his arms. It was wilting and refused to even eat the soft plastic pieces that had been cut up for it.

‘Maybe it’s not just its problem,’ he thought. Without Tang Yibu by his side, he himself always felt a little uneasy. It was like a swordsman who suddenly lost his sword, or a gunman who suddenly lost his gun. Even if he knew that he wouldn’t die easily, the cold vigilance still jumped on his back.

Especially in this crowded gathering place.

The meeting place was set on the edge of the Sea of Ruins in the early morning sun.

Gang Zi was sitting to his right. Feng Jiang, who was a pure newcomer, didn’t appear. The foul-smelling Lei Ge staggered over and specially picked his left side to sit down. This time, Lei Ge’s hands weren’t unruly, but his body was tilted intentionally or unintentionally in the direction of Ruan Xian.

There were only two people on stage.

Yu Le looked as if he hadn’t woken up. “I’m in a bad mood” was written from head to toe, and he was still holding a bottle of wine that looked pretty valuable from a glance. Tu Rui stood beside him. His sharp eyes swept across the crowd through his lenses.

“Actually, there’s not much to say,” Yu Le said lazily, scratching his messy hair a few times. “It’s still the same. The grandchildren of the Mainbrain are coming to celebrate again. Let me give everyone their greetings.”

He paused and grinned. Ruan Xian couldn’t tell the true emotion in that smile.

“They call it disinfection, which can also be understood as catching fish by using dynamite. We can penetrate solids, and so can those things. Once it identifies a person and explodes, the probability that person is dead is 99%—Have you ever seen someone who’s on shuttle agent? They just die like that, and half their bodies sink and melt into the wall.”

Yu Le gestured carelessly. “Me, I can drive the ship and take everyone to hide. Newcomers can come free of charge. Those who have done work must contribute. In short, the number of contribution points that will be deducted is reasonable if you ask me.”

Ruan Xian used a blood gun to resist Lei Ge, who was leaning towards him while his attention was still on the two people on the stage.

“Then there is one more thing,” Yu Le said lightly. “I have received notice, and this time I’m on the voting list.”

It was as if cold water rolled into boiling oil, and the ruin pirates of the Walking Stones exploded all at once.

“Voting list?” Holding down the iron bead that was almost scared like a fly with one hand, Ruan Xian finally turned his gaze to Gang Zi beside him. Gang Zi’s face was livid. His teeth chattered, and he didn’t pay the slightest attention to Ruan Xian’s meaning.

“Thank you all for looking up to me. In just over a year, I was able to get great treatment like that old bastard, Fan Baiyan, but I know in my heart. You don’t need to have any psychological burden on who you should vote for.” Yu Le exhaled calmly. “If I’m alive, I’ll drag things on for another year and a half. If I’m voted to die, I’ve saved many lives through my tenure, so I have no regrets.”

“Lao Yu!”

“In case I’m hanged, I’ll leave this ship to Lao Tu. Sorry, Lao Tu. You have to pick up this hot potato.”

“…The Mainbrain will not let the Sea of Ruins develop freely.” Gang Zi finally calmed down. His voice trembled a little. “It will be disinfected every six months. As the captain said, they will use bombs that could penetrate solids specifically targeting people.”

“I see,” Ruan Xian responded cooperatively.

“There is only one way to stop them. Vote for the captains on the voting list and execute the one with the highest number of votes.” Gang Zi slapped his thigh. “Fan Baiyan controls Elysium and basically can force them to vote for whoever he wants. Originally, I thought that the Walking Stones had developed fast enough and this matter could be slowed down for a while… Damn, why is he recorded on the list so early!”

“When will the disinfection start?” Ruan Xian frowned. Even Lei Ge forgot to take advantage, and sat upright.

“Generally, they will send their greetings three days in advance, leaving time for people to make their contribution points. Since the captain has said it now, it will be the night after tomorrow,” Gang Zi said through gritted teeth.

Ruan Xian turned his attention back to the stage again.

Yu Le was probably the most relaxed person in the entire gathering. The pirates in the audience had expressions of joy and worry, while Tu Rui’s face was as black as the bottom of a pot.

Amazingly, Ruan Xian didn’t feel troubled, worried, or any other negative emotions. He just continued to observe Tu Rui with interest.

It seemed that his “date” with Tang Yibu would be livelier than he originally thought.

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The author has something to say:

Trivia knowledge (?): It’s difficult to tell fabricated facts upside down. XD

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 45: Black Sunshine

“Sure enough.” Ruan Xian looked at the readings on the handheld radiometer and thoroughly confirmed his judgment.

More than a dozen bright-green grasses that were quickly cultivated flickered one by one on the table, like some kind of weird neon light. Tang Yibu was next to the one with the best growth, playing the reaction speed game of “can you withdraw your fingers fast enough”. Hearing Ruan Xian’s words, he finally stopped torturing the flickering grass and focused his attention back on Ruan Xian.

“Distance.” Ruan Xian pulled the two rows of fresh rat corpses arranged in a cross with his hand. “If it’s factors such as soil, temperature, and humidity, with the resources of Elysium, it will not be impossible to simulate. The difference in concentration lies in the ‘distance from the annihilation point’.”

“Radiation.” Tang Yibu’s gaze slipped from Ruan Xian’s face.

His partner’s mood swings were greater than he expected.

Over time, instead of diminishing, that human trait had become more prominent. After peeling off the cold shell, Mr. Ruan was easily angered but also easily pleased, just like now—the other party was rubbing the corpse of a lab rat that was injected with the grass as if it was the most cherished thing in the world.

“That’s right, radiation.” Ruan Xian was in a good mood, so good that he didn’t notice Tang Yibu’s little movements. “I found organelles similar to chloroplast variants in its leaves. They absorb certain bands of radiation just like ordinary plants absorb light. Even in this room, the distance from the annihilation point will cause differences in the concentration of specific components.”

It was like a voice or another person’s body temperature. After crossing countless obstacles, they all fade into the distance. These weird plants had a black sun that devoured everything, and it was waiting in front of them.

Elysium was too far from the Annihilation Point. The grass growing here was like fruit trees that didn’t have enough sunlight, which were destined to bear unhealthy fruits.

Most of the deadly space between Elysium and the Annihilation Point belonged to the Walking Stones.

Fan Baiyan was undoubtedly a person who cherished his life. Perhaps in order to prevent being caught between Yu Le and the Annihilation Point, he insisted on choosing the west side farther from it, but because of this, he lost the only chance to stabilize the cultivation of the flickering grass. Looking at the attitude of the Walking Stones, Yu Le didn’t plan to breed this thing at all. He let them grow, and at most, would send people to harvest the waves of grass stems.

The rat corpses under his hands withered quickly, and the flickering grass bore fluorescent green fruits. Ruan Xian moved his hand away and turned his body to face Tang Yibu.

It was like cutting a corner of the world with a scalpel. Surrounded by various instruments and answers, the feeling of firmly controlling life in his hands came back, and he was finally able to breathe smoothly again.

“Fan Baiyan sent Jiang Lin and the others to the ruins of the hospital. This was most likely to add some fertilizers to the high-quality grass fields. If it wasn’t for us, I think the people of Elysium would’ve arrived later and taken the ship along with the fruit.”

“I want to talk more about this date.” Tang Yibu’s tone was far less ambiguous than the contents of his words. “The date to the Annihilation Point.”

“Science is not magic, and Annihilation Points don’t appear out of thin air.”

Ruan Xian raised the corner of his mouth, and his gloves were still stained with the blood of the lab rats. This was the side he was extremely reluctant to show in front of others, but the android just looked at him with no fear or vigilance in his eyes, only curiosity.

It felt so good that he didn’t bother to put on a boring mask.

“Cutting off the source of the fireflies is enough to create chaos. I got two days before going back to the Walking Stones. Before that, we can make an interferometer* that only aims at the Annihilation Point—as long as the radiation band it emits is slightly changed, the psychedelic components synthesized by the flickering grass can be drastically reduced.”

*A device that measures microscopic displacements, refractive index changes, and surface irregularities. As for the science behind this, I have no idea. Someone who’s knowledgeable about this stuff can chime in, or you can try reading the Wikipedia.

“After adjustment, the shuttle agent can still be produced normally, but fireflies can’t.” Tang Yibu raised his brows. “Such an interferometer is not small… and it must be close enough to the Annihilation Point to perform normal interferometric rewriting. Ignoring the complexity of the operation, how do you even plan to get it over?”

“You start from here, and I start from the Walking Stones. We will meet at noon three days later at the Annihilation Point.” Ruan Xian took off his contaminated gloves. “With your ability, you can get away from here—don’t look at me like that. There’s no other way. The situation doesn’t allow it. I can’t drag such a behemoth and move around freely.”

However, Tang Yibu didn’t respond.

The moment the words came out, Ruan Xian realized the problem. In his plan, after creating the interferometer, they need to be separated for more than a day.

Ruan Xian raised his hand and touched the earring on his earlobe. This half-day of research was too enjoyable, and Tang Yibu seemed too gentle and harmless. For a few seconds, he forgot Tang Yibu’s identity as his jailer.

Tang Yibu was still standing motionless next to the flickering grass that kept flickering. Ruan Xian suddenly hoped that the other party had a tail or something—at least then he could figure out signs of the other party’s emotions.

But Tang Yibu just stared at him. Just by his expression, he couldn’t read what the other party was thinking.

“…Freedom.” Tang Yibu chewed the ends of his words.

“Yes.” Ruan Xian held his breath.

Tang Yibu suddenly turned around and pulled out two rats from the cage. One of them struggled hard, screaming in horror. The other had been attacked. It dragged bloody hind legs and front paws.

He skillfully injected firefly extract into them, and then forcefully stuffed them with the flickering grass fruit.

Ruan Xian frowned. He didn’t think Tang Yibu planned to warn him in such a roundabout way, so he kept quiet and watched the android put the two rats into the glass jar.

The reddish tip of the healthy rat’s nose gradually turned green, and the black and bright pea-eyes turned into a creepy gleaming green. It first slammed around the jar violently, then passed straight through the glass and rushed into the rat cage for another bloody slaughter.

The injured rat just lay quietly, twitching on all four feet, and finally stopped breathing. Green grass buds started to emerge from its mouth and nose.

“Another problem has also been solved,” Tang Yibu said, turning the glass cylinder back. “It’s simpler than I originally thought. This thing has the characteristics of a virus—before killing the host, it will try to use them for its own benefit.”

“If the host is healthy, it will induce them to rush back to the settlement to hunt the same kind. If the host’s body is disabled and inconvenient to move, it will suck the host dry as soon as possible, preventing other creatures from coming over to take a piece of the action.” Ruan Xian was stunned for two seconds before turning his mind to the topic that Tang Yibu was speaking of.

“Yes. If you know what’s going on, you can decipher their attacks.” Tang Yibu picked up the knife casually and threw it. The knife pierced through the plastic rat cage, and the green rat that was biting other rats was nailed to the spot, then quickly grew grass buds. “The moment they attack their companions, they should be touchable.”

Taking the sprouting mouse out of the rat cage, Tang Yibu grabbed the knife in his hand and looked at Ruan Xian again.

“You’re a real scientist. I originally thought you were similar to the AI from Plan Corp, a single personality combined with countless knowledge, but your way of thinking can’t be faked—The personality data you are injected with should genuinely belong to a scholar.”

Having said that, Tang Yibu gestured Ruan Xian’s facial contours through the air with the knife that was still stained with blood.

“But I don’t know your face. It seems to be a separate thought process. Who are you in your memory?”

Ruan Xian looked at the tip of the knife that was gesticulating at him and lowered his gaze.

“You have your secrets, I have mine.” He tried to keep his voice steady. “It’s okay to tell you, but you have to take off this earring. This is a matter of trust, please understand.”

After all, the name is the first step to everything, not to mention, there was the Mainbrain looming over them.

Tang Yibu’s Adam’s apple bobbed, and he frowned slightly, as if thinking.

There was a silent gap of about half a minute between them. The flickering grass didn’t flicker far, and the injured rats were still squealing in low voices. The air was filled with the faint smell of blood.

“I understand.” The android finally put down the knife. “When we separate, will you take care of the iron bead or should I?”

“…I’ll take care of it,” Ruan Xian replied dryly.

‘A compromise, or a test, or both,’ he thought. On the positive side, at any rate, the collar on his neck had been loosened again.

“Actually, I don’t like promises very much.” Tang Yibu wiped the blood from his hands. “…At noon in three days, Annihilation Point. You will show up on time, right?”

“I will,” Ruan Xian replied seriously.

Ruan Xian really had no other ideas. For the time being, it was better to say that he had no other ideas. As Tang Yibu said, they are very “useful” to each other, but they also understood very well that trust didn’t operate through “possibility”.

Right now, he didn’t want to lose him.

Two days later at night.

Leaving Tang Yibu, the iron bead was a little sluggish. It nestled quietly under one of the ship’s seats, pretending to be a soulless bowling ball. Ruan Xian drove the ship carefully in the direction of the ruins of the hospital under the starry sky.

Feng Jiang was still in a coma in the back seat. Several days of imprisonment made him lose weight, and his clothes exuded a damp and sour smell. After a violent bump, the young man finally woke up. He shook his head, trying to regain a little sanity from the effect of the soothing agent.

“You—”

“I didn’t betray the Walking Stones.” Ruan Xian immediately spat out his remarks. “Lie back. You’re too weak now.”

“Lili and I didn’t see you two last time.” Feng Jiang was very vigilant and didn’t mean to buy it at all.

“My lover ate the fireflies. I had no choice but to pretend to obey Fan Baiyan.” In terms of emotions, Ruan Xian prided himself on not losing to anyone. “Otherwise, why would I make an excuse to bring you on as a burden? Do you think it’s easy to get you out?”

Feng Jiang groaned for a long time, but he didn’t hold back his retort.

“Not long after you were locked up, Miss Duan was also locked up by Fan Baiyan.” Ruan Xian turned his back to the steering wheel, recalling Tang Yibu’s sailing action. “She didn’t go to see you once, but I don’t think that was her intention.”

Feng Jiang showed an instant expression of relaxation, but his body language still clearly showed rejection.

“…Tang Yibu and I are both young, and we can easily get into a good position at the Walking Stones. If it hadn’t been that Yibu was deceived by that old bastard, I wouldn’t be so tied up.”

“Then you should’ve taken him away.” Feng Jiang frowned and hugged his knees tightly. “He will only sink deeper there.”

“If I didn’t deceive Fan Baiyan, how do you think we could leave, huh?” Ruan Xian sneered. “Everyone has some baggage about how they were thrown into Elysium, right?”

“What did you say to Fan Baiyan?” Feng Jiang finally asked in a hoarse voice.

“I gave him a proposal.” Ruan Xian twisted a few knobs to speed up the ship. “I told him that I would take care of Tu Rui and deliver him to his door—If you don’t believe me, you can just tell Tu Rui, so he’ll be on guard.”

Elysium.

Tang Yibu rolled from one end of the soft bed to the other by himself, and then rolled back with a sullen face. The iron bead was taken away by Ruan Xian, and the entire big room was empty.

Whether the decision to let go of his partner was correct, Tang Yibu couldn’t give himself an accurate answer. There was no absolutely perfect strategy in this world. He knew this and was deeply unhappy about it.

The interferometer they spent two full days assembling was being placed in the room. In order to emphasize the rationality of this behavior, he even added the function of making soymilk ice cream to it.

It was very simple to make Fan Baiyan happy. They just needed to submit a theoretical explanation of “how to increase firefly production”. Fan Baiyan claimed to have eight professional engineers, and they should be able to judge the authenticity of that report. It was just that when the engineers had finished their research and were ready to put it into practice, the raw materials for fireflies couldn’t provide many psychedelic ingredients.

Tang Yibu picked up the glass bowl, filled himself with a bowl of ice cream, and leaned on the edge of the bed as he ate it by the spoonful.

This was his previous life, and he should be very accustomed to this behavior pattern. However, Tang Yibu walked around the room a few times, picked up the ice cream bowl, and a strong sense of idleness mixed into the sweetness of the ice cream.

He thought to himself, “There’s still a day and a half left.’

Perhaps he could wreak some havoc ahead of time and find a good ship with high practically for their date.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 44: Date Request

Tang Yibu looked at the back of the person’s head in the dark.

His partner was facing his back to his side, seemingly not sleeping very well. Unlike in the past, the other party pressed against the side of the bed, as if he wanted to avoid him.

In order to confirm this conjecture, Tang Yibu took the quilt and leaned against the center of the bed. According to the past, Mr. Ruan, who was sleeping soundly, would unconsciously stick to him, slightly shrinking his limbs to try and grab more of his body heat, but this time, Mr. Ruan didn’t move. He was quietly leaning on the edge of the bed. His linen pajamas hung loose, revealing the back of his white neck.

The inertia of human thinking had a great impact. Tang Yibu was a little aggrieved. He envisioned many possibilities, but none of them could explain the other party’s mysterious attitude. The two of them had a chaotic* first day at Elysium, and Mr. Ruan was very tired. If he woke up the other party rashly, it might make the already delicate situation worse.

*Chickens flying, dogs jumping (鸡飞狗跳) Idiom describing chaos and panic.

Just as he was trying to understand the mysterious emotions of his partner, his target turned over and cast a slightly icy gaze.

Ruan Xian didn’t sleep well.

This made him feel even more unhappy. For a long time, he had been used to sleeping alone, but in just a few weeks, the company of another person had already begun to affect his sleep quality.

It was too dangerous.

Perhaps it was Tang Yibu’s inhumanity that was too strong, or perhaps the gap between them was too deep-rooted. Who said that “it’s impossible to trust each other” wasn’t also a kind of trust? The dark peace was also a peace of mind. It was undeniable that getting along with Tang Yibu made him very comfortable.

Ruan Xian missed his abandoned project a little. For a few moments, that comfort reminded him of the warm computer room with gum hidden in it.

At that time, he could isolate all other humans, just like now.

Half of the android’s face was sunk into the soft pillow, and his hands were frozen in the air. His face seemed to be embarrassed for being caught. After being stared at by Ruan Xian for a few seconds, Tang Yibu retracted his hand, rolled the quilt tightly, and blinked his golden eyes.

A few hours ago, facing Tang Yibu’s question of “which side to destroy”, Ruan Xian gave a relatively vague answer.

“It depends,” he replied like this at the time.

He considered many options, but each of them needed to be adjusted according to the research results of the flickering grass. ‘It seemed that Tang Yibu wasn’t very satisfied with this answer,’ Ruan Xian thought.

“If you have any questions, you can ask directly,” he said, “but I personally suggest you leave the problem until tomorrow when we have the whole day in the lab.”

Tang Yibu looked even more confused.

“Okay,” the android said with uncertainty. “But we have to confirm Duan Lili’s situation at all times. In case she finds a way to expose your affairs to Feng Jiang. When you back to the Walking Stones…”

Ruan Xian rolled over and continued to turn his back to Tang Yibu. “Nn, but I think Fan Baiyan can handle it well.”

Still, they must be vigilant. If Fan Baiyan really didn’t manage Duan Lili well, it would be even more interesting. If such things could go wrong, it would be hard to say who was the real puppet at Elysium.

At the same time, Feng Jiang was lying in a dark cell.

Not long after he finished lunch, he was waiting to greet Fan Baiyan and expressed his desire to leave in a relatively “polite” way. In front of the reception room, Feng Jiang repeatedly reviewed the prepared excuses in his heart and was waiting for Duan Lili to pick him up, but he was suddenly knocked out from behind.

When he woke up again, he had already been thrown into the cell, and there was darkness in front of him.

“I—I didn’t do anything!” He shook the study iron railing and shouted in a hoarse voice. “Please let me see Fan Baiyan! Duan Lili is also fine! …There must be some misunderstanding!”

“Oh, this kid is quite bold, still wanting to see the deputy captain.” The watchman kicked the iron bars. “At this time, the deputy captain is probably ‘busy’.”

The guard’s companion let out a wretched laugh that wasn’t very friendly in the dark shadow.

Feng Jiang swallowed his spit, and his rapid breathing made a gasp. Duan Lili was right. This was a demon’s cave, decorated with gold powder.

“Don’t worry, Fan Lao is very magnanimous, and he won’t really do anything to you. Otherwise, do you think you can still breathe? It’s probably because you’re thinking about the deputy captain when you first came and did something to attract the captain’s attention.”

“I haven’t done anything with Lili…”

“Tsk, tsk. Calling her Lili. Your hands move pretty quickly. You sure got a death wish. If the deputy captain really took you seriously, she would’ve come to see you a long time ago.”

Feng Jiang didn’t speak anymore. He retreated into the shadows and shrank into the corner of the damp cell.

On the other side, Duan Lili’s situation wasn’t as bad but wasn’t much better either. She was sitting at a table shaking violently. The heavily armed bodyguards stood behind her with their guns slightly raised, indicative that it wasn’t a protective posture.

They were full of threats.

“Lili.” Fan Baiyan stretched out a hand and put it on Duan Lili’s shoulder. “As for me, I like well-behaved little girls very much. You do a good job, and you have a good eye for people. You’ve been serving me well for the past few years. I really don’t want to replace you.”

“Fan Lao… Fan Lao. I’m sorry, I was confused…”

“No, no, why are you confused? This is called… kind-heartedness? You know that I have always been accustomed to you, but I thought about it again. Little girls can’t be spoiled unconditionally. I’ll be reasonable with you today.”

Duan Lili’s eyes flushed. “Fan Lao, please, don’t… I won’t talk nonsense anymore. It’s my fault—ah!”

Fan Baiyan retracted the hand on the girl’s shoulder, picked up the cane on the side, and whacked Lili’s upper arm. Duan Lili screamed and fell off the chair, bleeding from her arm that was broken by the cane.

She tried to climb under the table, her whole body shaking.

Unfortunately, Fan Baiyan had no intention of cherishing jade and pitying the fragrance*. He kicked Duan Lili’s back and then poked her calf hard with the tip of the cane.

*(怜香惜玉) Idioms referring to being tender towards women.

The snow-white skin was suddenly bruised.

“It is with their blessing that I am willing to support these people. I thought you were a smart girl. Can’t you even see through this?”

Fan Baiyan kicked, then stopped to take in a breath.

“If it weren’t for me creating such a place, those idiots would have to sleep in the ruins every day and pick up garbage from the mud to eat! People are such lazy things that someone must take care of them! God let the flickering grass grow here and such is his will.”

“Do you think I lied to them? Feel pitiful to see them tired like that? This is the way of the world. If you don’t like it, you can just go sell yourselves at the Walking Stones. With this face, it’s impossible for people not to make room in their carriage for you to sleep in.”

The carefully combed bun was in a mess, and Duan Lili didn’t dare to cry or resist, but kept hiding under the desk.

“You don’t even know how good you’ve got it.”

Five or six minutes later, Fan Baiyan, who was tired, put away his cane.

“I know you won’t change, but remember this. It’s fine to persuade away the thorns, but don’t drive away what I like. On the table is the information from last month. Give me a frame by frame and organize the evaluation report that I will use for the ratings.”

“Yes… Yes.” Duan Lili rubbed her injuries and replied sobbing.

“Lock her in here. Before Feng Jiang is let go, don’t let her take a step out, so as not to get in the way.” Fan Baiyan gave Duan Lili a few more kicks with the tip of his shoe and then waved to the bodyguards who remained in the room. “Someone will deliver the meals, and the folding bed is in the back. She can’t move for some time, so I have to ask you fellows to bear with it for a few days.”

“Fan Lao, Fan Lao, I…”

Fan Baiyan walked straight out of the room, and the bodyguard behind him slammed the door. Duan Lili was locked in the room, and all the exits were locked.

At breakfast the next day, Ruan Xian didn’t see Duan Lili beside Fan Baiyan.

“Fan Lao?” He deliberately glanced at the position of Duan Lili.

“Lili has been very busy with work lately, so she won’t accompany me for the time being,” Fan Baiyan replied with a smile, “but Xiao Ruan, without Lili, my heart is quite panicked. You and Xiao Tang have to do a good job so that I’ll be able to rest at ease.”

“I don’t like the way he talks.” Thirty minutes later, Tang Yibu also put on a white coat in the vacated laboratory.

“I thought you wouldn’t be inclined.”

Ruan Xian turned around in the laboratory, determining the model and function of the machines one by one.

“Of course I would. Humans occasionally evaluate which animals are cute and which are ugly.” Tang Yibu put on his gloves and said in a solemn tone, “I don’t like humans like Fan Baiyan.”

“Yet you like his fruit cake, fried meat, and soymilk ice cream.” Ruan Xian pointed out without any emotion. “Your maker made you look quite human. I don’t think you need to use me as a special reference.”

Tang Yibu stopped the movement of his hands. He walked straight to Ruan Xian, bowed his head slightly, with an expressionless face.

Ruan Xian’s hand subconsciously touched the handle of the blood gun.

“I like delicious food, snowy days, and unpredictable developments. Since there are ‘likes’, there naturally would will be ‘dislikes’.”

The android’s tone became more serious.

“Being beaten will cause fear, loss will make you sad, you can fall in love with the same kind or other creatures, and there are countless lives with similar emotions. Why do you think such emotions are just ‘human-like’?”

Ruan Xian hesitated for a moment while holding the handle of the gun. He wasn’t sure if he was seeing things, but it seemed as if Tang Yibu’s mood had dropped for an instant.

“Now I can understand the reason why my maker didn’t give me personality data.” Tang Yibu took a step back. “The impact is really too great, and it’s quite unfavorable for observation and judgement.”

“Sorry,” Ruan Xian said. He packed the wild fruits obtained from the hospital and the fruits cultivated by Tang Yibu separately and lowered his head.

“Why apologize?”

“Because I judged you without authorization.” Ruan Xian put away the two glass containers holding the fruits. “It’s my problem. ‘Unlike people’ is not a compliment to people, and ‘like people’ may not necessarily be a compliment to other creatures.”

Tang Yibu let out a sigh of understanding. “Then while you’re feeling a little guilty because of me, can I ask a question from yesterday?”

“…Ask,” Ruan Xian said helplessly. This guy was asking about the plan while he was still emotional.

“Why don’t you let me hug you?”

Ruan Xian almost knocked over the reagent in his hand.

“What?”

“When we used to sleep, you allowed me to hold you, but yesterday you were very far away from me. Judging from your physical performance, your sleep quality isn’t as good as before.” Tang Yibu pointed it out seriously. “Why?”

“I can’t give you an exact answer now.” Ruan Xian turned around irritably. “As for the sleep quality, it’s very simple. I’m just a little bit afraid of the cold. I can’t feel it when I’m near you… you know.”

He suddenly rushed to the table and picked up a handheld radiation detector. He moved quickly and forcefully, knocking Tang Yibu, who was standing in place, to one side.

Tang Yibu watched his partner sink into a one-man world.

The gentle mask and fierce temperament were gone. The man at the table was like part of a research facility. Mr. Ruan focused on grouping the reagents soaked in bright grass fruits and grass leaves and scanned them separately with a radiometer. The molecular structure of the shuttle and the psychedelic component were clearly displayed on the light screen.

“The GC-MS* is ready. Get two lab rats out.” The man’s tone was more like an order.

*An analytical method that combines the features of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry to identify different substances within a test sample.

“Ready.”

“Negative pressure crusher and micro-metering test scale.”

“I guess you also want a radiation simulation device and an isolated observation chamber,” Tang Yibu said with a smile, assembling the machines up one by one.

The man turned his head and smiled at him.

Tang Yibu’s movements stagnated for half a second. He had seen the other party’s smirk, sneer, and what could be called a hideous smile, but he had never seen such a pure—very short-lived, smile that was like a shooting star.

“I can’t answer your question just now, but I can answer your last one. I don’t plan to destroy either side… We can play a big shuffle.” Ruan Xian put down the test tube in his hand, and his voice sounded inexplicably satisfied. “Do you want to go on a date, Tang Yibu?”

“Where?”

“If I’m not mistaken, the Annihilation Point.”

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 43: A Thousand Years Scourge

It didn’t feel good to be squeezed in a closet.

The closet was built into the wall, and the depth was extremely limited. Ruan Xian turned his shoulders slightly and twisted his thighs uncomfortably. Fortunately, Doctor Hao wasn’t a neat person, so there weren’t many clothes inside the closet. The ones that were there were piled haphazardly at the bottom of the closet, so that his slight movements didn’t make a sound.

Tang Yibu pressed his entire body on him and gave him a face-to-face hug.

The other person’s slightly higher body temperature made Ruan Xian subconsciously hold his breath. The breathing and heartbeat of another life were tightly attached to him, which was completely different from being hugged from behind. The android’s right arm moved slightly, just like when he cracked Major Ding’s armor. Unfortunately, Ruan Xian’s chin rested on Tang Yibu’s shoulders, and he couldn’t see the other party’s expression or movements. There was only the dark and moldy closet wall in front of him.

“Maybe you’re wrong,” the young voice said. Unfortunately, his behavior and remarks weren’t very consistent. Ruan Xian could hear the sound of rummaging through the cabinets outside.

“We confirmed in the monitoring room together that they did come here for more than half an hour and didn’t leave.” Duan Lili sounded a little lost.

“Maybe they happened to leave. I know, but it took us a few minutes to walk over.” You see, Dr. Hao didn’t just fall asleep.”

“Forget it, it’s too late.” Duan Lili sighed. “I’ll take a look later.”

Tang Yibu’s movements stopped. His hand pulled back from behind Ruan Xian, poked Ruan Xian’s white coat, and slid his fingertips to his chest.

[I have atropine and other drugs in my trouser pocket. Take a few and put them in your pocket just in case.]

The fingertips flicked across his collarbone like butterflies, and there was a slight itch wherever they went.

[Modify. Video recording.] Ruan Xian directly used the earrings to throw back simple words and sentences.

[Ready. Not going to upload it yet. I have to see with my own eyes that soldiers have the authority to instantly confirm the route. Miss Duan’s authority may just be as high as theirs, and there may not be a need to go to the monitoring room specifically.] Tang Yibu’s fingertips went from left to right and from right to left, making Ruan Xian tremble and take in a breath.

Duan Lili was most likely lying.

If she had secretly watched the surveillance herself, any overly obvious changes were likely to arouse her vigilance, but if they were here to steal medicine under the guise of looking after a wound, it was naturally understandable to hide. Ruan Xian didn’t ask any more questions. He froze and listened to the sound of it turning from far to near.

Tang Yibu inserted one of his legs into the gap between Ruan Xian’s legs, and the two turned in the closet like a twist. While Tang Yibu’s heartbeat was very stable, his own was beating a bit faster.

That special anger and fear became even more obvious. Ruan Xian bit his lower lip fiercely, trying to recollect himself from being affected by the other’s body temperature.

Finally, the man’s footsteps stopped at the entrance of the closet. The door was pulled out fiercely, but Tang Yibu squeezed the door shaft tightly, making it stuck.

“This closet can’t be opened.” The young male voice sounded a little embarrassed.

“It may be locked.” Duan Lili replied in a gentle voice. “There’s no handle inside. Even if someone’s there, it’s impossible to fix the door like this. Your efforts are enough.”

“It may also be stuck from the inside.” The man known as Feng Jiang sounded frustrated. “Lili, step back. I’ll kick it open.”

“No, no, what should I do if it’s broken? This might wake up Dr. Hao or attract others. Just leave it.” Duan Lili hurriedly persuaded. “Come here, I’ll show you the evidence.”

“Is it okay if those two people aren’t here?”

“It can only be said that their fate is bad.” Duan Lili sighed faintly. “Those two are smart people. I believe in my own skill of assessing people… Haa, that’s it.”

Unfortunately, the airtight closet had no cracks for them to peep out of. Ruan Xian closed his eyes and focused all his attention on listening.

“You didn’t eat fireflies, did you? Give it to me.” Duan Lili continued.

There was a hissing sound of clothing rubbing, followed by the squeaking scream of the lab rat, as if it had been choked by someone.

“You don’t need three. One is enough. Feng Jiang, grab this mouse.”

“It’s gone! It… It’s a little better.”

“There may not be enough shuttle ingredients left in the firefly, but there are enough psychedelics. See? This is the fresh fruit of the flickering grass, which our people just brought back from outside. Open its mouth and let me squeeze the juice in.”

The man suddenly let out a yelp. “It bit me! Oh my god, I… I can’t catch it anymore! God, did it pass through my hand just now? Why did its nose turn green?”

There was a chaotic squeak and scream, and the other lab rats seemed to be under some kind of attack.

“Flickering grass is… very smart.” Duan Lili’s voice sounds strangely intoxicated. “The psychedelic component is slowly metabolized and the shuttle component that’s consumed allows organisms to pass through solids. When the two reach a fixed ratio—as you can see, it’ll germinate.”

“Will we become the same?” After a moment of silence, there was a little more fear in Feng Jiang’s voice. “Frantically attack our same kind and then become flickering… flickering grass…”

“This is what I want to tell you.” Duan Lili’s voice softened again. “Get out of here, Feng Jiang. Tell the truth to someone you can trust. At least that’ll be one less person tricked.”

“If you take this out and tell everyone—”

“It’s useless.” Duan Lili’s voice sounded like she was in a trance. “There is a clean environment and plenty of food here. All they have to do is work. How can they quit and endure the pain of fireflies? In a comfortable environment of unknown length versus a dilapidated life with great pain, which one would you choose?”

“……”

There was a sizzling sound of acid corroding, and Ruan Xian smelled the smell of plants and flesh being dissolved.

“Go to the Walking Stones. The deputy captain of the Walking Stone is the same as you, an ex-rebel. He might treat you better. Compared with those ships that are not climatic, the Walking Stones is more suitable for you.” Duan Lili sounded dishearteningly calm.

“But everyone seems normal.” Feng Jiang’s tone became more bitter. “If something like this happens, how many people will want to leave?”

“Fan Baiyan will not let this happen unless someone directly eats the fruit containing high concentrations of shuttle agents, but the amount of flickering grass and fruit cultivated here is very poor and most people can’t touch it.”

“…I see.”

The long-term tightness made Ruan Xian’s back a little painful. He tried to soften his body, but unfortunately, his heel was pinned by the clothes scattered on the ground. Seeing that he was about to tip over backwards, an arm caught his waist and pressed him tightly back to his chest.

Tang Yibu smiled silently. He could feel the vibration in the other party’s chest. The android buried his nose in his neck, and his warm breath sprayed directly on the skin.

[Don’t move.] This time, the scorching fingertips wandered behind his ears.

Feng Jiang left the room first, and Duan Lili’s high heels followed out later. He didn’t know if it was intentional, but she stopped in front of the closet for a few more seconds.

The two didn’t wake up Dr. Hao, who was sleeping outside, and left the room straight away. After confirming that their footsteps disappeared at the end of the corridor, Ruan Xian rushed out of the closet first.

Relatively fresh air poured into his lungs, and the heat from the closet dropped a bit.

Unlike before, this time there was a strong smell of blood in the air. The rat that became grass turned into residue in the strong acid, while the lab rats that were bitten to death and were paralyzed in the cage were eaten by their companions.

“Now there are only two questions left.” After observing the rat carcass, Ruan Xian let out a long sigh and turned his head. “First, the factors that trigger aggressive behavior. Second, the reason for the difference in the fruits of the flickering grass. It’s not difficult to operate, it’s just—”

“It’s just that we need time and resources.” Tang Yibu glanced at the time. “The doctor is about to wake up. We have to get out of here.”

Ruan Xian took some medicine casually on the medicine rack, faithfully playing the role of a thief. He glanced at Tang Yibu, but he didn’t mean to move.

In a sense, Duan Lili really helped him a lot.

“The principle of flickering grass, the operation at Elysium, these are all things you want to know. The identity of the Mainbrain spy is a matter that interests both of us, and my purpose—information on Ruan Xian, which there doesn’t seem to be any traces of.”

Tang Yibu tilted his head. “So?”

Ruan Xian smiled. “What if I can solve all the problems in one go?”

Four hours later, lunch time.

Tang Yibu was so shocked by the soymilk ice cream after lunch that he couldn’t move that they almost watched Fan Baiyan walk up the elevator with his bodyguards. When Ruan Xian caught up with him, Tang Yibu still had light yellow traces of dessert stuck to the corner of his mouth.

Seeing the two of them catching up, Duan Lili’s expression was a bit stiff.

“What’s the matter, Xiao Ruan?” The old man’s beard was neatly groomed, and he put on a Buddha-like smile.

“I have something to talk to you about in private.”

“It’s a bit difficult in private. I’m not that strong. Well, I’ll have Lili prepare the tearoom and we’ll talk as we walk.”

Duan Lili’s expression became even more ugly, but she still bowed obediently and left first. The bodyguards stood beside the two of them, holding the handles of their guns tightly in their hands.

“Are these gentlemen credible?” Ruan Xian asked knowingly.

“Don’t mind them.” Fan Baiyan touched his beard.

“My lover and I are newcomers from the Walking Stones. You must have already known. We’re very satisfied with the life here, but we’re used to casual days and don’t want to squat in one place every day to work.” Ruan Xian put on a flawless smile. “You don’t like the Walking Stones, do you?”

“Yu Le does cause me a lot of trouble.” Fan Baiyan stroked his beard.

“I can turn his deputy captain.” Ruan Xian pointed to his holster. “I have taken the firefly and I know the effect of the medicine. We can lock up Tu Rui for ten and half days and mix the fireflies in with the water. He won’t be able to go back after that.”

“Those two are slippery. Don’t count on it.” Hearing Ruan Xian’s proposal, Fan Baiyan showed a look of disappointment. “I have already asked people to try.”

“They are not me.” Ruan Xian’s smile remained unchanged. “This is an opportunity, Fan Lao. Recently, it happened that a rebel brother wanted to leave Elysium, so we could go back with him.”

“She persuaded you two to leave, didn’t she?” Fan Baiyan raised his eyebrows while his tone remained calm. “I guess she persuaded that little guy too.”

“You know. Is it what you mean, or…?”

“What I mean? You guessed it wrong. She’s a young girl who can only serve others. She can’t fool me—It’s not the first time she’s done this. She has many flaws, but she knows I’m willing to turn a blind eye.” Fai Baiyan turned his back, and his voice was full of confidence. “But it’s fine. She persuaded away the thorns that may cause trouble and forced two great talents into my hands.”

“Then you promised us we could go back.”

“Of course, it’s okay to go back. If I can get Tu Rui back, I will give you two a long vacation.” The elevator stopped on the third floor, and Fan Baiyan slowly stepped onto the glass floor. “But little brother Tang has to stay here. It’s not convenient since he’s injured.”

“I understand.” Ruan Xian was half a step behind, following Fan Baiyan. “Actually, Yibu is very good at medicine. He can assist me here. I wonder if Fan Lao is willing to give us two days? I have to prepare the props.”

“Deal.”

As a result, not long after he came out of the tearoom, Ruan Xian was slapped in the face.

Duan Lili was standing at the door of their room menacingly. Her eyes were flushed. “You were in the closet of the laboratory in the morning, right?”

Ruan Xian touched his face and didn’t answer. Tang Yibu gasped as if he was annoyed and was about to lose his temper.

“If you want to jump into the fire pit, do it by yourself. Feng Jiang is leaving! Your conscience has been eaten by dogs.”

“At least we just arrived at this fire pit, and we haven’t had time to help burn it, unlike you.” Ruan Xian retracted his hand and responded neatly.

Duan Lili’s face turned pale. “I know that I will face my retribution, but this doesn’t prevent you from dying.”

“It’s not easy for me to die.” Ruan Xian stepped into the room first, refusing to continue the conversation. “There is a saying that a scourge remains for a thousand years*.”

*This is part of the full saying, “A good man doesn’t live long, and a scourge remains for a thousand years.” It refers to a good person who generally cares about others, so he’s easily wronged while selfish people tend to live a longer life. || In this context, he’s basically calling himself the “scourge” (selfish) because he won’t die easily (because his selfish actions will allow him to live longer).

Tang Yibu didn’t speak. He stared at Ruan Xian’s back; his eyes moved slightly. His partner’s words weren’t acting. They were said in absolute sincerity.

He decided to quietly record this discovery, then politely closed the door and shut the angry Duan Lili out.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” After locking the door, Tang Yibu asked in a low voice. “It’s too late to regret it now.”

“Yes.”

“Usually…”

“Usually, we can secretly figure out the purpose of the flickering weed. Just continue to act as two ordinary pirates, watching the fire from the other side, and slowly grabbing what we want. This is the safest way to do things, is what you’re trying to say, right?”

“Nn.” Tang Yibu nodded and licked his lips again. The sweetness of soymilk ice cream still lingered at the corner of his mouth.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s me who needs to take action. The Mainbrain won’t notice you.” There seemed to be a fire burning in the young man’s dark eyes. At this moment, his smile wasn’t warm but rather cold.

“I’m just curious. Normally, people tend to avoid risks—”

“I prefer the feeling of facing it head-on. You think with the two sides in a deadlock, and the Order Supervisor is ready to disinfect, all conditions are ready just waiting to be observed…”

The man said, turning his head sideways. His skin was still pale under the warm light.

“…Wouldn’t it be funny if the whole balance suddenly collapses?”

Tang Yibu was silent for a few seconds. According to the consistent style of MUL-01, the Mainbrain had never liked unplanned big variables. This action could indeed force the Mainbrain to take action to maintain balance. With the exception that it was highly dangerous, there was no problem with the overall direction. However…

“Which side do you want to destroy?” he asked.

---

The author has something to say:

Ruan: Let go of yourself and fly higher and higher.

Tang: Just following (?

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 42: Carnivorous Plant

Tang Yibu stepped into the medical room and closed the door smoothly with his back foot. The lack of an anti-locking mechanism on the doors of Elysium’s medical room was a bit of a shame.

Similar to the medical room of the Shade Refuge, there was no sunlight that entered through the windows. Since this was originally a shopping mall that was on the surface, it naturally didn’t need to install fake windows to cover up the ruins. Rather, it was just curtains being installed to cover up the unsightly scene outside.

The table was neat and clean, with bottles of fake flowers that looked as if they were real.

The doctor at the table looked to be in his late forties. Ruan Xian glanced at him, not quite sure if the other party was born with a pair of squinted eyes or if he was too sleepy to open his eyes at all. The doctor was wearing a crumpled white coat, and his face was sallow and a bit listless.

There was a simple timer floating on his left hand, and the numbers jumped up and down. He was two and a half minutes away from twenty hours. The cup he was holding in his right hand was empty with only dark brown stains on the bottom left. The air was filled with the smell of refreshing drinks that made it smell a bit bad.

“What’s the matter?” The doctor asked in a hoarse voice, barely able to make a sound. He looked at Tang Yibu’s injured leg in a daze.

‘The choice was right,’ Ruan Xian thought.

Sober people would exude a refreshing and warm smell like summer dew, while a sleep-deprived person smelled like moldy cheese tinged with sour fatigue and exhaustion. On Elysium, the weary had another feature—they had a strong odor of flickering grass on them, like they were scarecrows stuffed with them.

As soon as Tang Yibu entered the room, he looked at the table full of medicine. While the doctor was still struggling to look at Ruan Xian, he quickly flashed to the doctor’s side and injected a syringe full of soothing agent into his neck.

The doctor knocked his head on the table with a bang.

“The surveillance has been changed.” Tang Yibu retracted the syringe and threw it into the disinfection bucket among the pile of other syringes.

“Their medical system is really incompetent.” Ruan Xian pressed the unconscious doctor’s hand on the control desktop to activate the light screen. “Let me see… There is no medical record from last night.”

He operated the light screen in front of him intently and shook his head gently after a while. “There’s no trace of modification. However, this system is indeed backward, so they may not necessarily record medical records in a standardized manner.”

“Nn.” Tang Yibu didn’t sound surprised. He quickly opened the door of the room that had been turned into a laboratory, and the peculiar smell of animals came pouring out of it.

The laboratory was a mess. The door of the wardrobe against the wall hadn’t been closed yet, and a few white coats had been hastily put outside. Ruan Xian closed the partition door of the laboratory, and a piece of clothing almost got stuck in the door.

There was no shortage of basic inspection equipment. The bulky machinery, ranging from old to new, was densely packed in a narrow hut, making a buzzing noise. Elysium even had a decent ultracentrifuge machine. Although it wasn’t as good as the one Ruan Xian saw in the ruins of the hospital, it was enough.

Ruan Xian wasted no time. The second Tang Yibu mentioned “borrowing the medical room”, he knew exactly what the other party wanted to do. He found the tubes of blood drawn from Jiang Lin in the storage box and took out one of them.

After twelve years of improvement, the centrifuge machine efficiency was much higher, so the extraction process was very fast. The substances that should’ve been in the blood were filtered out, and the unknown components were successfully separated from the blood.

It revealed a clear light green color in the test tube.

Tang Yibu didn’t turn around this time. He also skillfully took out a few clean petri dishes and set them up. Then he took the newly obtained firefly, crushed it carefully, and licked it a little bit with the tip of his tongue.

“In addition to the ingredients of the flickering grass, there are also a lot of edible starches and sweeteners in it.” Tang Yibu smacked his lips, carefully filtered the powder grounded up from the piles with a molecular filter paper, and sifted out the bright green spots.

“I’m done here.” Ruan Xian dangled the test tube. “Give it a try.”

The two got together, held their breaths, and mixed the ingredients separated from the blood with firefly extract. Unfortunately, time passed slowly, and the green droplets lay quietly on the grass with no reaction. No matter how they adjusted the ratio, they could only at best change the shade of color of the mixture.

Ruan Xian thought for a few seconds, changed to a petri dish, kept the firefly extract, and then dripped it into untreated blood. He moved very carefully, and the amount dripped each time was basically the same.

The reaction happened very quickly this time.

After the sixth drop of blood dripped in, a thin fine root appeared in the dark red of the blood, and then the red color gradually subsided. The blood became clear, and a green bud tried to emerge. Unfortunately, after the blood completely lost its color, it stopped growing and it looked wilted without the slightest sign of flickering.

“The seeds of the flickering grass melted into the blood of its users.” Tang Yibu leaned closer with interest. “If I’m not mistaken, it needs to devour the cells of other creatures to grow.”

“Is it a mechanical life?” Ruan Xian asked quietly.

“No.” Tang Yibu shook his head. “Mechanical life may consume plants to obtain specific fibers, but the flesh and blood of ordinary creatures are useless to them, just like humans don’t specialize in eating plastic.”

“In other words, the S-type Prototype will not affect its growth.”

Ruan Xian lowered his gaze, took out a knife from his pocket, and used it to cut his fingertip.

The cut flesh was gently placed near the roots of the bud which cause them to seemingly wake up from their sleep and greedily entangled the flesh and blood. The bud grew bigger visibly to the naked eye.

Ruan Xian hummed, and then cut a piece off a piece of flesh from his finger.

Tang Yibu looked at the healing wound in surprise. When the knife passed through the flesh, the other party’s brows frowned tightly, as if he was deliberately suppressing the pain. However, his partner didn’t hesitate for a moment and used pre-prepared gauze to catch the gushing blood to ensure that they wouldn’t leave traces on the floor.

The other party seemed to be accustomed to pain.

The blood that hadn’t been absorbed by the skin flowed down his fingers, creating a dark red line across his pale skin, and traces of ice cracks started to appear along the skin texture. After the man put the cut-up flesh away, Tang Yibu grabbed his left wrist and sucked on the remaining blood from his fingertip.

The moment his fingertips were wrapped in warm lips and tongue, Ruan Xian retracted his hand like he had just experienced an electric shock.

“The injury on my leg,” Tang Yibu said succinctly.

“I’ll give you a tube of blood in a while,” Ruan Xian said coldly as his ears became a little hot.

The reason wasn’t hard to guess. They have had more intimate behavior than this. At the time when he was first kissed by the other party, he felt nothing but anger, but now, while anger was still present, there was some uncertainty and fear in that anger.

Ruan Xian couldn’t tell what the source of this was, so he took the most direct solution. He stood a little further away from Tang Yibu.

Tang Yibu didn’t seem to understand his partner’s approach of giving up the near and seeking the far*. He licked the blood stains on his lips and focused his attention back on the bright grass that continued to grow after getting more flesh and blood. The young bud happily grew a little taller.

*It means giving up what’s close at hand to seek something far away || In this context, Ruan Xian could just let Tang Yibu suck on his blood to heal him rather than give him a vial of blood later (he’s already bleeding at the moment, so why not).

Ruan Xian did several sets of controls, and the results were the same almost every time. Sufficient nutrients, higher concentrations of psychedelic ingredients, and a little shuttle agent were used as primers. As long as the conditions were met, the grass would definitely grow.

This thing was like being coded into some kind of simple program, eating as much as it was given, growing as much as it ate, and the effect was immediate.

On the other side, Tang Yibu had opened a small cage and grabbed a lab rat. “If you don’t plan to cut off your hand to feed it, I suggest something else.”

“Wait.” Ruan Xian stopped Tang Yibu with one hand, ignoring the rancid smell that rushed into his nose, and pulled out a few rat corpses and deformed young rats from the trash can on one side. He skillfully cut open the pile of corpses and threw them at the flickering grass.

After getting enough corpses, the grass grew to more than half a person’s height in just half a minute. Fleshy red flowers appeared at the top of the plant, and the flowers exuded an unpleasant fishy smell.

After that, feeding carcasses or fresh meat would only darken the flower, but it showed no sign of bearing fruit. For artificial pollination, Tang Yibu fiddled with the stamens for a while before finally sneezing at it. It continued to gnaw at the corpses with its roots and slowly bore fruit.

The small bunch of gooseberry-like fruits looked no different from what they had seen in the hospital.

“That’s not right,” Ruan Xian said.

“Huh?” Tang Yibu rubbed his nose, sounding a bit muffled.

“It smells different from the ruins of the hospital.” Ruan Xian grabbed a fluorescent green fruit. “The smell of the fruit of this plant is much lighter.”

Tang Yibu directly put the one from Ruan Xian’s fingertips into his mouth and chewed it. “The psychedelic ingredients are 10.5 times stronger than fireflies.”

“At least now we know where the people who went upstairs have gone. This thing is quite easy to grow as long as you feed it enough meat. The fifty-nine people who went upstairs are likely to have become nourishment.”

Ruan Xian changed his gloves. His white coat remained pristine as it wasn’t stained with any corpse sewage or blood.

“Conservatively estimated, Elysium has about 800 people. Relying on this method alone to produce fireflies—unless there is a steady supply of corpses, the output won’t be able to keep up.”

“The source is not just those people. Captives, people who have died unexpectedly, and other animals other than humans can theoretically be used to cultivate the flickering grass. The expats didn’t come back, the prisoners were executed… Excuses are easy to find.” Tang Yibu cracked his knuckles. “They will also look for wild plants. I think it has something to do with the concentration problem you mentioned.”

No, it was more than that. The conditions were still lacking.

Ruan Xian stared at the emerald green plant, which now flickered feebly.

During the first encounter with the people from Elysium, the wounded person Jiang Lin tried to rescue just died quietly and didn’t attack anyone, but in the second encounter, Jiang Lin’s two teammates became crazy because of the fruit of the flickering grass and suddenly chased them to the annihilation point.

There must be something different, such as…

“Dr. Hao? Dr. Hao, what’s the matter with you?” An anxious female voice sounded outside.

It was Duan Lili’s voice.

“He’s fine, breathing normally. Maybe he’s too tired.” A young male voice responded to her.

Tang Yibu jumped up like he was electrocuted. The android threw the petri dish into a bucket, then rushed into the closet with Ruan Xian in his arms. He directly shredded the flickering grass and stuffed it into his pocket. The whole process was smooth, like he was drifting among clouds; it was obvious that he had been prepared in advance.

It wasn’t until his field of vision darkened that Ruan Xian realized he had been moved.

“Yeah, like what I told you.” Duan Lili sounds a little depressed. “But it saves trouble. Feng Jiang, come with me. I will help heal you.”

The door of the laboratory opened in response.

“Strange.” The sound of high heels stopped not far from the wardrobe. Duan Lili muttered, “Mr. Ruan and Mr. Tang should be here.”

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 41: Glory

Ruan Xian smelled blood, fresh plants, sewage, and indifference from Tang Yibu.

The android didn’t behave like he had just finished dangerous espionage but was like a lion who had just finished patrolling its territory. Tang Yibu put the iron bead in the center of the soft sofa cushion and moved his bandaged legs casually. He then took off his coat with satisfaction, revealing his muscular and beautiful upper body, and was about to climb onto the bed again. “It’s before five now. We can talk about it when we wake up.”

The nameless fire lit up again, and Ruan Xian pulled away the quilt with a cold face. Tang Yibu tried unsuccessfully to burrow into the quilt and could only lean on the head of the bed, aggrieved.

“Tell me next time.” Ruan Xian’s tone was cold and harsh.

“But this matter has nothing to do with you.” Tang Yibu clutched the corner of the quilt with a trace of blankness across his face.

“The premise for me to sleep with peace of mind is to have your combat power by my side. If there was an attack just now, I might not be able to react.” Ruan Xian took the quilt away mercilessly. “Conversely, if something happens to you, I can also answer you more easily. This is the value of ‘cooperation’.”

“I’m not used to it yet.” Tang Yibu rubbed his hands. “Okay, I will remember… Can you return the quilt to me?”

Ruan Xian deeply doubted this.

He now probably understood Tang Yibu’s behavioral characteristics—the android wouldn’t make a mysterious appearance or gestures like “I have a lot of hardships”. Tang Yibu’s actions could be said to be very magnanimous to the point where they were irritating. However, even if he looked heartless, he was still a very superior person in his bones.

Ruan Xian had an inexplicable feeling. Rather than being Tang Yibu’s “partner”, he probably regarded him more as an accessory, pet, or convenient prop. It was like bringing a well-trained hound when traveling alone on a solo trip or leading a horse on the prairie. They were undoubtedly smart animals, and people would comfort and help these companions, but when humans tied them up and occasionally left to do their own things, they would rarely wake said pet up to notify them.

In Tang Yibu’s opinion, he might have sharp fangs at best.

This wasn’t the first time that this feeling had appeared, and it made Ruan Xian very unhappy. Although he didn’t really regard Tang Yibu as his kind, he really didn’t like this kind of superiority isolation.

‘People are really greedy,’ Ruan Xian thought. At first, this thought made him feel free, but now he instinctively wanted more.

He still hadn’t been able to get rid of the influence of the other person’s human appearance. Ruan Xian looked at Tang Yibu, trying to imagine him as a leopard, a horse, or something else…

Tang Yibu was naked, sniffling, staring straight at the soft quilt in Ruan Xian’s arms. He had bandages wrapped around his powerful and beautiful thighs, which only made him look more miserable. Ruan Xian sighed, leaned over, and covered the other person’s body with the quilt unskillfully.

Tang Yibu grabbed the quilt, and his golden pupils moved slightly with Ruan Xian’s movements.

“You go to sleep,” Ruan Xian said tiredly, his brows furrowed.

“Aren’t you sleepy?” Tang Yibu moved in Ruan Xian’s direction. “You seem to be sleep deprived.”

“I don’t want to sleep yet.” Ruan Xian dimmed the table lamp at the head of the bed.

“Oh, then I can talk to you for a while.” The android got what he wanted and slipped into the quilt and hummed comfortably.

“Like?”

“Like I just hacked into their monitoring system.” Tang Yibu tightened the quilt, as if he was afraid that Ruan Xian would pull it away again. “Their system is worse than rotten ground meat. Shabby and outdated. At present, I have only touched the separate power generator system and the alarm system. Nothing else has been found. Some machines are estimated to be turned off at night. In contrast, Guan Haiming managed the refuge very well.”

“Nn.” Ruan Xian responded briefly, which saved him from having to plan an invasion. A full-scale invasion had to reap some benefits; at least equivalent to a wealthy city waiting to be broken into. A large-scale raid on an unsuspecting broken village wouldn’t reap much benefit, so it was better to infiltrate at a fixed point.

After a few seconds of silence, Ruan Xian glanced at Tang Yibu, who was still peeking at him. “What’s on the fifth floor?”

“The outer wall is closed and there are patrols.” By the sound of his voice, Tang Yibu also wasn’t sleepy. “Then… It’s very quiet. I don’t have your perception, but I think it’s too quiet there. It was designed to look like a residential area, but there are not many traces of human activity. They also carried a dead body up.”

“I can listen to it now.” The living always have to breathe. Although this range was a bit larger, it wasn’t something that Ruan Xian couldn’t do.

“No, this is a good opportunity to practice.” Tang Yibu turned over and sat up, feeling refreshed.

Ruan Xian looked at him speechlessly.

“Tactile exercises are to let you control the degree, and the second step is to learn to narrow the target.” Tang Yibu didn’t care about his quilt any longer. He stretched out his hand and gestured happily. “Before, in order to find a point in the distance, you needed to draw a circle around yourself with you at the center. Now you need to focus on that point and learn to eliminate other distractions.”

“It’s different?”

“Yes, like the difference between a shotgun and a sniper rifle.” Tang Yibu nodded solemnly. “Energy should always be used sparingly. While we’re here and can get free meals, you can practice to your heart’s content.”

“But I don’t know what counts as ‘sniping’. I need a reference.” Ruan Xian confirmed it cautiously.

“I’ll hum a song by your side. When you can hear the situation on the fifth floor clearly and can’t hear me humming, then you know you’re successful.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the android began to hum that strange melody again.

“You seem to know a lot about the S-type Prototype.” Ruan Xian leaned firmly on the headboard of the bed and exhaled slowly.

Tang Yibu’s humming stopped, and he turned his head sideways. “The previous S-type products can do what I just said. You must have no issues with the integration of the Prototype. These are the basics.”

Watertight. Ruan Xian twitched the corners of his mouth and didn’t speak again.

The strange melody in his ears started again. Ruan Xian closed his eyes and carefully let go of his senses. The sound waves seemed to leave traces in the darkness in front of them, entangled like smoke. He heard the soft sound of skin rubbing against the tabletop downstairs and water-soaked cloth rubbing against the smooth tiles. The friction of nearby residents turning on their beds was like thunder. And there were groans, pleadings, and gasps that pierced through his eardrums. A sound of a soldier’s gun rubbed against his belt and a light screen beeped softly when it was activated and turned off.

Breathing, thousands of breaths came from all directions, like silk cocoons, wrapping him in the center. Tang Yibu’s humming voice was low and clear, and Ruan Xian’s brain was buzzing.

A full five minutes.

He held his head in both hands, retracted his senses, and gasped for breath. With ten fingers inserted into his black hair, Ruan Xian touched the cold sweat on his forehead.

This was the first time he had concentrated on listening to all the details in the vast space, and it was also the first time he had persisted for so long. Given that Tang Yibu’s eccentric tune was so clear, he probably failed.

“Don’t force it, it’s only the first day.” Tang Yibu handed over a glass of water. “Go to bed when you’re tired.”

Ruan Xian shook his head. He poured water down his throat and closed his eyes again.

The second time, he seemed to be groping in the dark sound cocoon, trying to pull out the few silks he needed. Tang Yibu’s singing voice was still in his ears, but it sounded a lot more blurred.

The time jumped from 4:25 to 7:38.

In this way, Ruan Xian practiced all the way to the sound of people in the hall, and countless footsteps and whispers joined the pot that was making chowder. Ruan Xian couldn’t hear Tang Yibu’s tune again, but he wasn’t sure if that was the result of his own efforts, or if he was simply too tired to be conscious—His brain seemed to be part of the pot of chowder that was bubbling.

“I hear twenty-five soldiers,” he said at last. His voice was low and soft, not hoarse as usual. “They keep moving on the fifth floor, and the number of breaths matched the sound of footsteps. There are only these people on the fifth floor and no other living creatures.”

After that, he opened his eyes it took a while for him to pull his hearing back. After more than three hours of practice, he seemed to have run several marathons in a row as he was covered in sweat and had a colic-like hunger coming from his stomach.

When his attention was taken away from his hunger, Ruan Xian slowly felt the other person’s body temperature—he didn’t know when, but Tang Yibu had hugged him to prevent him from bumping into him because of his loss of strength.

“Well done.” Tang Yibu let go of his arms and took out a piece of chocolate from his bag. He carefully peeled off the tin foil, stuffed it into Ruan Xian’s mouth, and then sucked his fingertips stained with the brown dessert. “Just in time for breakfast.”

Ruan Xian swallowed the chocolate in his mouth with difficulty, propped up his weak body, and took a simple shower. His limbs were so weak that Ruan Xian almost thought of his time in the wheelchair had returned—This was the first time he understood Tang Yibu’s feelings for food.

The aroma of breakfast brought his whole body to life.

“Xiao Tang, I heard about what happened last night. I’m here to apologize. You have suffered a little injustice.” Fan Baiyan was sitting at the small table with the newcomers, and he glanced at Tang Yibu with a smile. “…It’s just little brother Tang, that type of mechanical life sleeps like a log at night. Why did it run out in the early hours of the morning?”

Duan Lili sat next to the old man, with a demure and gentle look, without saying a word.

“Oh.” Tang Yibu wiped the scrambled egg from the corner of his mouth, and his tone became a little cramped. He glanced at the weak Ruan Xian and smiled shyly. “We tossed around a little late into the night and maybe woke it up because of the noise.”

Ruan Xian almost choked to death on his scrambled egg that he was chewing. In line with the principle of not wasting anything, he swallowed it forcibly.

Fan Baiyan was obviously a slick person. His gaze swept to Ruan Xian’s slightly wet hair, red eyes, and the light blue bags from lack of sleep and let out a long “oh”. “Young people nowadays are quite vigorous.”

Then he smiled. “But this can’t happen again. Xiao Tang, there are important people above, and I have to protect their safety. Although I don’t want to say it, if this happens again, those soldiers will come get you.”

He stretched out his fingers like withered branches and nodded with his eyebrows.

“No, no. I dare not.” Tang Yibu shook his head quickly. “I’m really sorry, Fan Lao. That medicine was too exciting, and I forgot myself for a while… Sorry.”

“Nn.” Fan Baiyan’s smile came back, but there was not much smile in his eyes. “Oh, I have an announcement to make to everyone, so you guys listen carefully.”

After that, he stood up, smoothed the wrinkles on his robe, and walked to the center of the dining area. Standing still on a slightly higher platform, Fan Baiyan took the microphone that Duan Lili handed over with both hands.

“Good morning, everyone.” The wrinkles on Fan Lao’s face gathered together, and he looked extremely kind-hearted. “On a new day, there are two happy events—”

The pirates who were eating breakfast stopped their chopsticks one after another and looked at the captain of Elysium.

“Liang Yilan, who was in charge of the cleaning in Area C, and Jiang Lin, who was in charge of the exploration of the flickering grass, have already risen to the fifth floor and no longer need to perform high-intensity labor. Come, Yilan and Linlin, say hello to everyone.”

A giant light screen emerged from the air, and two display boxes were divided on the light screen. Jiang Lin and a middle-aged man occupied each half of the screen, waving at the pirates in the restaurant. A hearty breakfast was placed in front of the two of them. They looked to be in good condition, and the white room behind them looked extremely luxurious.

“Hopefully, seeing these efforts will encourage you. So far, a total of fifty-nine people have received this honor, but there are still more than three hundred empty positions. Now, two people around Linlin have gone up, and Yilian has also gone to accompany his wife to live a leisurely life and enjoy the blessings of their work.”

Fan Lao stroked his beard. “There are those who you’re friends with up there. Let them pass on a few words of wisdom. I remember that Dong Cong and Chen Liming still have friends here, right? Learn from them and don’t think about harassing little girls all day long.”

There was a burst of embarrassing laughter among the pirates.

“It’s less than half a month before the disinfection by the Mainbrain. I know everyone is nervous… But listen to my advice. You should rest well. Your body comes first. It’s rare to have such a good environment these days. If you can live a year, that means you can earn a year longer. If you get sick, don’t be embarrassed. Just tell me. We have top-notch medical resources, and someone can make up the work at any time. Don’t be afraid of delay—now we have a few strong young men who have joined. You are their senior, so you have to remember to take care of them.”

A few people laughed this time, but the pirates applauded symbolically, their smile showing a bit of reluctance.

“Okay, let’s eat.” The old man shook the bell again and walked slowly down the high platform.

Ruan Xian and Tang Yibu exchanged glances in silence. The “disinfection” of the Order Supervisors; this information also appeared on the Walking Stones side. 

[You will know what’s good or bad when the Order Supervisors come to “disinfect” next time. The boarding fee is not easy to make up.]

[If it weren’t for survival, who would drive an entire ship these days?]

‘Things are getting more and more interesting,’ Ruan Xian thought as he stuffed his mouth full of greasy scrambled eggs.

“Don’t panic.” Fan Baiyan returned to his seat and took a sip of tea. “In the first few days, you’re still guests. I will send you some wine and fireflies in a while. Everyone should take a break and walk around. If you really don’t want to stay, I won’t force you to.”

“Fan Lao.” Tang Yibu smiled cautiously. “This… Can I borrow your medical room? My leg still hurts a little bit.”

Duan Lili finally raised her head and glanced in the direction of the two of them. Her eyes were full of disappointment. When Ruan Xian looked up, she turned her eyes away and looked at another young man among the newcomers.

The young man also looked straight at her, his eyes full of pity, faintly angry.

“Of course, of course, it’s on the third floor.” Without noticing the episode around him, Fan Baiyan showed a little embarrassed look. “But Xiao Tang, medicine is not cheap. When the treatment is over, I’m afraid you two will have to work here for some time to pay off your debts. This, you can understand, right?”

“No problem, right, baby?” Tang Yibu’s smile brightened again.

“Of course.” Ruan Xian also smiled.

---

Kinky Thoughts:

Yes, Tang Yibu is calling Ruan Xian baobei, if you’re wondering.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 40: Night Tour

At 3:30 in the morning, Tang Yibu sat up in the dark.

His movements were extremely light that the soft mattress didn’t vibrate at all. The ceiling lights inside the mall weren’t turned off, so the outside light came in a little. Tang Yibu turned his head and looked at the young man sleeping on the pillow.

His partner breathed evenly, and his heartbeat was gentle. His brows frowned slightly, and his forehead was covered with a fine cold sweat. He didn’t seem to sleep well, but various physiological signs proved that the other party was undoubtedly in a state of deep sleep.

Tang Yibu stretched out his fingers, poked the other party’s slightly frowning brows, and finally touched his lips.

The kiss at the dinner party gave him another chance to read the other’s body data. The S-type Prototype had been completely fused with human cells, but it was impossible to accurately estimate the capabilities of the fused prototype.

Both from the point of view of practicality and observational value, this sample was extremely interesting.

Tang Yibu tied up his slightly long hair in satisfaction, carefully wiped the sweat from the other party’s forehead with his palms, and pulled the quilt that was about to be kicked away.

After taking care of everything, Tang Yibu jumped barefoot on the thick-carpeted floor and quickly put on his clothes. The black uniform-style top was light and fitted, and his trousers were carefully tucked into his boots.

The iron bead that was dozing off on the sofa had been scrubbed and polished and was rolling around comfortably. Tang Yibu thought for a moment, scooped it into his arms and quietly sneaked out.

“Gwah.” The iron bead muttered drowsily. It rolled impatiently for a bit, then fell asleep again.

Tang Yibu took out a water bottle from his waist bag that he had prepared a while ago, pocketed the entire iron bead into the bag, and hung it on the side of his waist. Then, his eyes were aimed at the surveillance cameras that were turning around in the corridor, and he carefully stepped into a blind spot.

The marble floor tiles in the mall were polished to be discerning, reflecting the specially dimmed lights. Although it was early in the morning, there were still a lot of people in the hall. People hurriedly shuttled through the hall. Many people in hypertrophic uniforms were bending over to wipe the pillars and floors on the first floor, and the rest were sitting at the table, staring at the light screen in front of them. Almost no one talked, and Tang Yibu only heard a vague cough.

He went around, selected a corridor window leading to the outside world, and opened it carefully.

It was pitch black outside.

Tang Yibu casually broke off a piece of rubble and threw it down. He didn’t hear the slightest echo. The structure of this shopping mall was similar to the prison in the Walking Stones that held them, and it was surrounded by natural guard cliffs.

However, Tang Yibu didn’t hesitate.

He leaned over and looked out the window, easily inserting his fingers into the hard wall and moving like a gecko. The windows above the second floor were all sealed from the inside. After confirming that they couldn’t be opened quietly, Tang Yibu climbed back to the first floor.

On the first floor, even the space where the window was originally placed was crowded with people sleeping; their clothes and sheets were full of stains.

Tang Yibu carefully avoided the sleeping people, picked a storage room and squeezed into the window. After groping around in the dark, he picked up a hypertrophic uniform and put it on, then he put the iron bead that was still asleep in a bucket, lowered the ugly uniform cap, pushed the cleaning cart out of the storage room, and walked straight past the surveillance camera.

No one noticed him. It was better to say that people didn’t notice anything other than work. Their eyes were blue, their footsteps were floating, and they manipulated the light screen with extremely low efficiency, but no one went to sleep. In a remote corner, a middle-aged man who was wiping the wall bit by bit finally couldn’t resist drowsiness and fell to the ground.

The bucket containing dirty water was overturned, and the foamy sewage spilled all over the floor.

No one moved. Everyone continued to work numbly like a clockwork machine as the sewage wetted the middle-aged man’s pants. He rubbed his eyes hard, and reluctantly stood up against the wall.

Tang Yibu pushed the cleaning cart closer, picked up the mop in the cleaning cart, and began to help clean up the mess.

“You should go to bed.” In a flat tone, Tang Yibu suggested

The man in front of him had bloodshot eyes, a pale complexion, and a surprisingly slow reaction speed. This suggestion wasn’t out of concern but was closer to a rational narrative.

“Oh, oh,” the middle-aged man muttered vaguely, as if it took him several seconds to realize that someone was talking to him. “Hey, no, my contribution is almost there.”

Then he twisted his neck hard as if there wasn’t a head attached to it but a heavy shotput. “I’m no better than you young people. I can still rely on my physical strength for contribution, and I’ve been working hard… Working hard… Fan Lao will see. Look how clean this tile is.”

The middle-aged man’s voice was intermittent, like a dream, sounding a bit breathless.

‘It’s pretty clean,’ Tang Yibu thought to himself. At a time when human civilization was almost destroyed, among the barren ruins, someone risked his life to wipe away an irrelevant tile, and this happened right before his eyes.

“Why?” He asked simply, twisting the mop that was full of sewage, causing the dirty water to tumble back into the sewage bucket.

Seeing that Tang Yibu was helping him clean up, the middle-aged man wiped his face and leaned back against the wall, as if he was about to fall asleep in the next second. “Work? It’s always right to work hard… If you contribute enough points, you can upgrade and get more fireflies… Then have a good day…”

“Firefly is a psychedelic, and I think there are more meaningful things to do than clean tiles. The resources here are wasted excessively, which isn’t reasonable.” Tang Yibu pulled down the brim of his hat, making sure he had his back to the camera.

A trace of anger squeezed out of the man’s numb face. “Nonsense, are you a spy sent by another ship? My wife has risen to the top floor, and I had a video call with her yesterday… Elysium is a good place. There’s always a reward for your efforts. There must be a return. I’m willing…”

“You didn’t deny the psychedelic part.”

Everyone must suffer a little bit in order to live a better life! Fireflies won’t kill anyone. They just make people relax better. Even if it really hurts my body, I don’t expect to live to eighty or ninety… Fan Lao is looking out for us. People have to have hope for the future, not to mention that everyone is like this… Disinformation and shady people can’t see the good…”

“I understand.” Tang Yibu wiped the last bit of sewage clean and wiped his hands on the towel. “But I still suggest you sleep a little bit.”

The middle-aged man snorted, rolled his eyes at him, ignored him, and just continued to work sullenly.

Tang Yibu didn’t say much. He pushed the cleaning cart, walked slowly around the hall, and continued to observe the surroundings. As a result, as soon as he walked ten steps, the clanking sound of a bucket sounded again.

The middle-aged man fell to the ground again, this time with his eyes wide open, and his expression was a little dazed. He fell slowly, face down into the sewage, and the wall that had just been wiped clean was splashed with overturned sewage again. His body twitched slightly for a few seconds, and soon stopped breathing.

No one moved in the hall. Tang Yibu looked back without meaning to return.

The mall had a total of six floors “above ground”, and the road to the underground was blocked, making it unsuitable for immediate exploration. The lobby on the first floor was basically filled with such people, who had little observation value and weren’t as interesting as his new partner. When he checked in on the second floor, Tang Yibu paid special attention to it. It was basically all accommodation areas.

Even if someone was awake at this time, they were most likely busy having sex. Tang Yibu parked his cleaning cart in front of the elevator and was just about to press “3”—

The elevator door opened and two machines carrying a stretcher floated out, heading straight in the direction of the middle-aged man. They stretched out their robotic arms, put the man’s body on the stretcher, and then quickly floated back in the direction of the elevator as if they were in a hurry.

From this angle, the well-partitioned fifth floor couldn’t be seen. Tang Yibu quickly glanced at the pirate team patrolling on the fourth floor. He didn’t want to alarm anyone, but the opportunity now was too good.

There was nothing that reflected the characteristics of a system better than “how they treat the dead”.

He hid in the shadows, stripped off his hypertrophic uniform, then threw the sleeping iron bead into the elevator and followed inside.

Medical machinery was a common style in the human era. Their size was close to half an oil barrel. Tang Yibu had seen a few scrapped ones in the ruins of the hospital. Although the two of them had been cleaned up nicely, metal patches and signs of old wear and tear were still clearly visible. They ignored Tang Yibu, who was squeezing in, and directly pressed the “5” with the forbidden symbol.

The metal bead finally woke up this time. It was obviously dissatisfied with the small confinement it was in at the moment and began to frantically smash about. As the elevator door slid silently open, it slipped out with a whoosh.

The two medical machines lifted the body and kept it up without delay. Tang Yibu followed them closely and got out of the elevator with them.

Unfortunately, he didn’t see anything that could be used as an intelligence reference.

The rooms here were distributed close to the residential areas, but the glass walls were coated with opaque white paint, and the doors were all tightly closed. The interior decoration was equally attentive, except that a thin layer of dust had fallen on the relief, which had obviously not been taken care of for a long time. The walls were covered with reproductions of famous paintings, and the dining table was full of electronic papers for reading, which were unnaturally arranged.

Warm lights were lit in the corridor. Compared with downstairs, the air here was more humid, and elegant living plant decorations could be seen everywhere. At first glance, it looked very much like a leisurely artificial garden. The two medical machines carried the body around the dense indoor shrubs and gradually disappeared at the corner of a certain passage.

Suddenly, Tang Yibu felt a gun push on his head. He raised his arms without the slightest intention of resisting.

“I haven’t seen you before,” a hoarse voice said. “You’re not allowed to come up here casually. Didn’t you see the warning in the elevator?”

“I’m new here.” Tang Yibu turned around obediently and blinked innocently at the muzzle of the gun pointed straight at his nose. “My iron bead ran up, sir. It chased the medical machines into the elevator. The gentleman on the stretcher didn’t look very good, so I was afraid of delaying their business and didn’t dare to stop.”

The eyes of the soldiers on the opposite side had dark blue eyes, but they looked more sober than the group of people on the first floor, and their eyes flashed with abnormal fanaticism.

“Iron bead?” The soldier’s voice was a little suspicious.

“It definitely didn’t run far; I can guarantee it. It’s a very small mechanical life, and it’s usually very naughty—”

Seeing that the environment was unfamiliar, the iron bead didn’t dare to run far. At that moment, it just rolled over with a grunt and began hitting Tang Yibu’s ankle.

“Attention all units, someone has entered the fifth floor.” The soldier glanced at the rattling iron bead and didn’t seem to buy Tang Yibu’s story. “Which room are you in? Don’t move, I’ll check the surveillance. If you lie at all…”

“I wouldn’t dare. I live on the second floor, the fifth room from the east side. I forgot the door and house number.” Tang Yibu looked scared.

The soldier snorted hastily, holding a gun in one hand, turning on the mechanical device attached to his wrist in the other, and began to look for monitoring records with one hand.

“Ouch—” Tang Yibu suddenly screamed. He seemed to have been tripped by the impact of the iron bead and rushed towards the soldier in front of him. The soldier stepped back in time, but his wrist was brushed.

Without hesitation, he directly shot Tang Yibu twice in the thigh, and bright red blood gushed out quickly.

“Be honest!” the soldier roared.

Tang Yibu sat on the ground, his golden eyes slightly moist, groaning in pain. The iron bead instantly hid behind Tang Yibu, too frightened to move.

Seeing that the other party was just covering the wound tightly, his face was confused and scared. The soldier narrowed his eyes and continued to check the surveillance records on the light screen.

On the light screen, the room on the second floor was arched open by the iron bead, and then the pretty boy in front of him chased after it and disappeared into the stairwell. There were also clips of the two in the stairwell as well. The soldier snorted, and finally brought the image up in the hall. The iron bead rushed out of the shadows in the hall and squeezed into the elevator together with the medical machines.

There didn’t seem to be a problem with the other party’s confession, but just a faint blue light flashed from his wrist, which he hadn’t seen before.

Perhaps he was seeing things because he hadn’t had a break for so long.

The young man in front of him was empty-handed and looked harmless. The soldier shook his head and cleared his throat. “Take care of your pet! The people here are very important. Not someone you can afford to offend… All units, pay attention! The crisis is over! Let the medical machine send some emergency hemostatic medicine.”

After briefly stopping the bleeding, Tang Yibu was held up by a soldier and thrown directly back to his room. The iron bead rolled honestly beside him with its mouth tightly closed.

After the soldiers left, Tang Yibu squatted at the door for a while before carefully opening the door…

“Do you mind explaining?” His partner was sitting at the head of the bed. His linen robe was tied carelessly, revealing a smooth collarbone. The other party’s expression wasn’t very good, and those dark eyes were aimed directly at him that Tang Yibu couldn’t help standing up straight.

Ruan Xian was full of a nameless fire.

For some reason, he suddenly felt cold in his sleep. Instinctively, Ruan Xian shifted in the direction of Tang Yibu, trying to warm himself up—He endured for a while but still didn’t feel Tang Yibu and eventually inched himself all the way to the other end of the bed and rolled to the ground.

There was still a little warmth left on Tang Yibu’s side, but his clothes and the iron bead were gone. He had obviously been out for a while.

Ruan Xian’s brain was blank for a moment. He was stunned for two seconds before he remembered to touch the earrings on his earlobes. The hard metal made him feel lost for an instant, followed by vigilance, mixed with an inexplicable peace of mind.

He took a deep breath, let go of his senses, and began to listen to the voices in the mall. As a result, before Ruan Xian officially started looking, he heard the sound of pain at the door, and the smell of blood was so strong that it was hard to ignore.

“You can hurt yourself here?” Seeing Tang Yibu holding the iron bead and moving to the sofa, Ruan Xian continued to ask, emphasizing the pronunciation of “here”.

“It just looks bad.” Tang Yibu took off his blood-stained trousers and took out the two bullets that were embedded in him, leaving two shallow holes. “We have to stay for three more days, and it’s not suitable to take serious action now.”

Ruan Xian crossed his arms and said nothing.

“You can’t perceive the structure of the building, so I briefly explored it.” Tang Yibu wrapped the wound with gauze, deliberately letting the blood soak into the bandage. “There are the fewest people active at this point in time, and it’s relatively safe.”

“Truly safe.” His gaze swept across the blood-stained bandage. Ruan Xian didn’t hide the sarcasm in his voice. “Have you found anything, detective?”

“Of course, I had a great time.”

Tang Yibu cocked the corners of his mouth.

“You have passed your tactile exercises. It’s time to start the next step of training—for example, determining how many living people there are on the fifth floor.”

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The author has something to say:

Tang: Daily night tour (×

Don’t be fooled by his performance. XD He… is much harder than soft (.

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Kinky Thoughts:

The iron bead is so cute. Below is the art the author herself drew of Tang Yibu, Ruan Xian, and the Iron Bead that someone shared with me on Discord.

Here’s a fanart.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 39: A Cold Person

The glass elevator was operating normally. Duan Lili led the two back to the room. As soon as the glass door with thick curtains closed, the dim yellow light in the room suddenly flooded the spacious room, like a whole jar of sticky honey.

In the same confined environment as the two young men, Duan Lili’s posture was subconsciously tense.

Ruan Xian took a few steps back knowingly, and Tang Yibu’s movements were more obvious. The android threw off his shoes, climbed onto the big bed like he was boneless, and wrapped himself tightly in a soft quilt. Ruan Xian stared at the bulging drum bag on the soft bed for a few seconds—Tang Yibu was tossing and turning under the quilt while humming softly from time to time.

After all, Tang Yibu had to play the role of eating the firefly, so his current action was reasonable.

Ruan Xian sighed, rushed into the bathroom, and pretended to “vomit” for a few minutes. When he returned to the room again, Duan Lili had already turned on the speaker and was playing soothing music.

The nominal deputy captain of Elysium was sitting in a chair with her knees clasped tightly in a defensive posture. Regarding the popular aesthetic, Duan Lili was undoubtedly a beautiful girl. Right now, her face was pale, her eyes were flushed, and her expression was mixed with forbearance and prayer, which could arouse the desire of ordinary people to protect.

In the past, he would follow her wishes, show appropriate temptation and pity, or act like what Fan Lao wanted to see earlier and play a harmless fool.

However, the box that imprisoned the demon had been opened, and the broken chain couldn’t be retrieved.

The taste of breaking free from bondage was exhilarating. Ruan Xian showed a shaken appearance without cooperation. He just sat down on the soft edge of the bed, cocked his legs, and stared at the other person calmly.

Seeing that the other party didn’t mean to take the initiative at all, Duan Lili breathed a sigh of relief, put away the complicated expression on her face, and replaced it with a reluctant smile. “Have you vomited out the medicine?”

“Yes.” Ruan Xian nodded. He could feel the thumping from Tang Yibu behind him.

“That’s good.” Duan Lili pursed her lips, “As for your… partner, there’s no way to get rid of it. You can ask him to drink more iced water and stay away from places where the grass grows. If you have medicine on hand, atropine can appropriately relieve symptoms of drug addiction. Although there are medical resources in Elysium, the monitoring is very strict, and I can’t get it for you… Please understand.”

“You’ve taken the drug yourself.” Ruan Xian didn’t mention the name of the pill.

“Yes, there’s no turning back for me a long time ago.” Duan Lili’s eyes became redder. “But— But you’re different from those people. I can tell. I have a good eye when assessing people. When you sent Jiang Lin back, you should have seen her seizure… What made her like that was the pill just now, which Fan Lao calls ‘firefly’.”

“We thought it’s a psychedelic, like mushrooms. Is there something wrong with the pill just now? Fan Lao also ate one himself.” Ruan Xian lied with ease as he patted the wriggling quilt bulge behind him, signaling for Tang Yibu to be quiet.

“The one he ate just looked like it and was marked in advance. It’s not a firefly.” Duan Lili’s smile became more bitter.

“I understand, Miss Duan. Thank you for your kind reminder, but I don’t get you at all.”

Ruan Xian knocked on his waist bag, creating a dull metallic sound.

“I recorded our conversation. Do you think I’ll get a good reward for handing this over to Fan Lao? As the deputy captain of Elysium, you are a little quick to defect when you meet strangers by chance.”

Duan Lili’s face turned pale, but she didn’t tremble nor waver.

“Please listen to me first. I have been paying attention to you at the dinner party. You sent Jiang Lin back, and you were also very restrained at the dinner party, unlike those short-sighted people…” She swallowed and twisted her hands tightly. “Deputy captain? I’m just a toy for those men to have fun with. There’s no deputy captain on this ship. There’s only one person who controls everything. I was also deceived by that old man at first, thinking it was something like smoking a cigarette, but now I’ve become addicted to drugs. I can’t run away, so is it wrong to try my best to climb up?”

Ruan Xian looked at her quietly.

“I know you doubt me, and I know it’s very presumptuous. That’s right, there are many other pirate ships out there, and it’s not like there’s people who haven’t left here. However, if the firefly is completely cut off, they become half-useless. What happens to the young women, I don’t need to tell you what you already know… Be obedient here, get fireflies regularly, and at least live as a person.”

Duan Lili clenched her hands on her knees. “…I have been comforting myself like this before.”

“Before?”

“Hu Jian is my lover, but he didn’t come back this time.” Duan Lili sniffled, and tears finally flowed down. “I thought Fan Baiyan would at least look at my so-called title, and let him go…”

“So you want revenge.” Ruan Xian responded without any emotion. Tang Yibu on one side lifted up a seam on the edge of the quilt, and quietly glanced out. Seeing that his nose was about to stick out, Ruan Xian stretched his hand back, pressed the corner of the quilt “affectionately”, and shut the gap back.

“Yes, I can see that your abilities are good, and so can Fan Baiyan.” Duan Lili raised her chest. “Fireflies are too easy to get, and they do bring relief-like pleasure. Fan Baiyan is very good at catching people’s weaknesses. Everyone had a good life before the end of the world. It’s really easy to fall… Well, by bringing back Jiang Lin, I will prepare some thank-you gifts for you. It’s better for the two of you to leave here as soon as possible.”

“So you are not going to explain the ‘rules’ here?”

“Actually, the rules are very simple. Give up your life to work and exchange contributions for fireflies.” The tip of Duan Lili’s nose was still red, and her voice became flat. “Fan Baiyan alone has the final say in the rating. The higher the level and contribution, the more fireflies you can get every day. If the contribution reaches a certain level, you can rise to the upper level and do the easiest indoor work. Few people can get this treatment at present.”

After that, she smiled sarcastically. “Everyone wants to rise up desperately. Seeking a ‘future’ has always been profitable, right? But according to Fan Baiyan’s methods, I don’t think there’s any ‘ideal life’ waiting up there.”

Duan Lili stood up, took out her handkerchief, and carefully wiped the wet corners of her eyes. “That’s all I have to say. Whether you go to Fan Baiyan to give a recording or you want to stay, at least I tried my best.”

Finally, she put the unwavering smile back on her face. “It’s up to you what you want to do next.”

“When did you assemble the recording equipment?” After hearing the sounds of Duan Lili’s high heels clacking away, Tang Yibu asked in a sullen voice inside the quilt.

“I just knocked on a can just now.” Ruan Xian touched the smiley food cannister in his waist bag. “You can come out of the quilt now. You acted well.”

“No, I’m really uncomfortable.” Tang Yibu poked his head out of the quilt, his eyes a little wet.

Ruan Xian tightened his nerves. “Is the firefly’s effect that strong? I thought you—”

“…I ate too much.” The android sighed seriously.

Ruan Xian grinded his teeth. “Business.”

“There are two relatively rare ingredients in fireflies.” Tang Yibu hugged the quilt tightly. His voice was extremely low. “One of them, based on its molecular structure, is probably related to the shuttle agent used by the pirates. But the amount is so small that I tend to think it’s a residue after extraction. The other kind undoubtedly has a psychedelic effect, and it directly acts on the neurotransmitters of non-mechanical life. The concentration isn’t high, but it isn’t low either, so it’s enough to get addicted after just one use.”

“This weird psychedelic ingredient is naturally formed—According to my personal inference, psychedelic ingredients can tempt small animals to devour fruits in order to spread their seeds. There is no problem with its reproductive strategy.”

Ruan Xian hugged his arms and let out a sigh. “Simply put, the psychedelic just happens to be a byproduct of the ‘shuttle agent’.”

“Yes. The two components interact. If the components of the shuttle agent aren’t separated, and the concentration of psychedelic components in the organism is too high, it will induce the host to shuttle to the most suitable environment, and then stimulate seed germination.”

Jiang Lin said at the beginning that “raw fruit isn’t good for people”. It seemed that this was most likely the reason, but…

“The fireflies didn’t remove the seeds from the flickering grass?” Ruan Xian touched his chin.

“No. It’s a small grain and tastes a bit bitter.” Tang Yibu described the taste of that deadly thing honestly.

Ruan Xian probably guessed. Everything here didn’t make sense—electricity was being wasted uncontrollably, and the environment was appallingly clean. There must be a huge labor force to support all this, but the current world was in a state of struggle. As such, enthusiasm wasn’t enough and wouldn’t last long, so fireflies were undoubtedly an excellent weapon for controlling people’s hearts.

However, psychedelics will always hurt people. The more people contributed, the more fireflies they needed, and their physical fitness would gradually decrease.

Were the people sent to the hospital ruins sent to the dangerous frontlines because they were deeply trusted, or did Elysium simply not want them back?

Or, going a step further, hope that they would become part of the “resource” for later newcomers?

“Do you want to leave?” Tang Yibu interrupted his thinking. “I don’t want to leave yet.”

“If you’re saying that because of the food…”

“No.” Tang Yibu shook his head quickly. “I just think the situation here is very interesting.”

“If you still want to go back to the Walking Stones, we still have three days left.” Ruan Xian lowered his head and looked at Tang Yibu’s face buried in the pillow. “I have no opinion on staying here.”

“Do you want to help the lady just now?” Tang Yibu raised his eyebrows slightly and increased the volume of his voice. “Like the refuge—”

“No, I don’t owe her a favor.”

Ruan Xian stretched out his hand, his fingertips bypassing Tang Yibu’s long black hair, scattered on the pillow with no expression on his face. Then he leaned down and continued the next sentence in a whisper-like voice.

“…And I don’t believe a word of what she said.”

The Walking Stones.

Yu Le stretched out, holding the wine bottle in his arms contentedly, and collapsed on a tattered couch, casually looking through a pornographic magazine with a sexually explicit cover.

“Lao Yu.” Tu Rui’s projection suddenly flashed beside Yu Le.

The captain of the Walking Stones shuddered and almost lost the magazine in his hand. He tried to catch the magazine back in his hand a couple times before spatting out, “Fuck, Tu Rui. I’ll be scared to death by you sooner or later. Can you say hello next time? What if I had my pants off right now?”

“The newcomers are very honest, but we have lost the position information for Ruan Lijie and Tang Yibu. The final positioning of the two was somewhere west.” Tu Rui ignored the other party’s nonsense.

“Oh, Elysium?”

“I’m not sure, but most likely. I suggest removing the location tracking of these two people. If they eat fireflies, they will be sent back—”

“If they get sent back, it’s fine. We can still kill them. Ah, but only laozi can, you can’t.” Yu Le threw away the magazine in his hand casually and sounded a bit serious.

“What do you mean?”

“That Ruan Lijie is not so simple.”

“I can’t see it.”

“That’s normal. After all, our captain Tu is a righteous man and a public official.” Yu Le grinned. “As for me, I’ve been squatting in the brig for so long and have seen all kinds of lunatics. Guess who is most similar to Ruan Lijie? The most dangerous group of murderers. I can live to this day because I managed to avoid those groups of great uncles.”

“In the beginning, I purposefully teased him. That boy is stable enough. Fan Baiyan, that old bastard, may not be able to coax him.”

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The author has something to say:

Tang is a good AI who knows how to have fun√

The issue of trust in troubled times is a big problem XDDD

Atropine* is a real drug, but the effect is made up by me. Don’t care (*/ωω*)

*It is a real drug that is a nervous system blocker used to treat heart rhythm problems, stomach or bowel problems, and certain types of poisoning when injected (so this part could be applicable).

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Kinky Thoughts:

Just a note on flickering grass (明灭草). The (明灭) in its name is a term used for appearing and vanishing (think now you see me, now you don’t), which is marked by its characteristic as seen in the novel.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 38: Feast

The bed was really soft, and an untimely thought jumped into Ruan Xian’s mind.

The mattress was deeply concave because of his weight. Tang Yibu was half looking down at him, smelling a light aroma unique after bathing. The light wasn’t strong, but he could still see the faint traces of water on the other person’s skin.

But this time, Ruan Xian didn’t mean to relax for half a minute, and he held his breath.

He didn’t need to ask Tang Yibu how he found out. The android’s tone was very firm, and it was difficult to say whether this was a test from the beginning, but the opportunity was fleeting, and he didn’t have much choice.

But it didn’t matter.

Ruan Xian stared at those eyes blankly. His right hand slowly moved to the holster, and the next moment, his wrist was tightly grabbed. He didn’t know if it was because he had just taken a shower, but Tang Yibu’s palm felt a bit hot.

“Too slow,” Tang Yibu said in a serious tone. “You can’t be faster than me.”

“Really?” Ruan Xian slowly raised the corner of his mouth.

The dark muzzle slanted on top of Tang Yibu’s chest, close to his heart.

“You thanked me too early,” Ruan Xian said softly, pulling the trigger with his left finger.

At this distance, the opponent’s heartbeat is clearly audible. The heart, which he didn’t know if it was a human organ, beat steadily and powerfully, and exuberant vitality seeped out of the skin. Tang Yibu tilted his head, finally showing a surprised expression.

“You quietly changed the left and right positions of the two guns. What a clever liar.” The android blinked and released Ruan Xian’s right hand, which should have grabbed the “offensive blood gun”. “I admit, I may not be faster than you at this distance… But you are here. As long as I get enough flesh and blood as soon as possible, even if my heart is blown up, I’ll still be fine.”

After that, he ignored the cold muzzle, lowered his head, and bit Ruan Xian’s throat lightly.

Ruan Xian’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he felt the warm teeth rip through the skin of his neck, and then the scorching tip of someone’s tongue closed the opening. The pain wasn’t too intense as Tang Yibu didn’t mean to hurt him.

“And you didn’t really aim at my heart. You already knew that I wouldn’t easily give a signal to destroy.” Tang Yibu stretched out his hand and pinched the deadly earring stud in Ruan Xian’s left ear. This posture seemed extremely ambiguous at first glance, but Ruan Xian secretly speeded up his breathing, and the adrenaline made every one of his nerves burn.

“Yes,” Ruan Xian didn’t want to laugh, but the corners of his mouth curled up inadvertently. He was sure that the smile on his face was by no means qualified as a warm smile. “…But even if I have to wear a collar, I don’t want the person holding the leash to feel at ease.”

Tang Yibu propped up his body and tucked the wet hair tips that were still dripping with water behind his ears. “This is an unnecessary conflict. We all know that it’s impossible for us to trust each other with our lives.”

Indeed. The fable of The North Wind and the Sun* wasn’t suitable for them. After all, the traveler didn’t have the power to retaliate against the scorching sun or the cold wind, but he did. As relatives, friends, and lovers of the same kind can turn against each other, Tang Yibu’s handling was rough but prudent, and there wasn’t any logical problem. Ruan Xian knew this, but he didn’t want to withdraw the muzzle. The stimulation of blood-burning made his whole body feel like it was walking on clouds, and his chest felt inexplicably refreshed.

*An Aesop’s fable. The moral it teaches is to use gentle and kind persuasion over force. You can click on the link to read it. || In this context, I believe there are two meanings the author is intending. First, it’s putting Ruan Xian in the position of the traveler who is susceptive to the battle between the wind and the sun (Tang Yibu). Unlike in the fable, the traveler (Ruan Xian) has the means to fight back against the sun/wind (Tang Yibu). Second, like the morale, Tang Yibu is using kind persuasion (working together with Ruan Xian cooperatively) rather than force (basically just using Ruan Xian as a blood bag). He has both the means of the sun and wind.

“I understand, but I don’t like it.” He heard himself speak, with a terrifying smile in his tone.

However, in the next second, Tang Yibu’s suddenly enlightened expression completely destroyed the atmosphere. “I see, you are losing your temper!”

He seemed to want to jump up and find a notebook or something to record this event, while Ruan Xian wanted to shoot him right on the spot.

“That’s right, I’m losing my temper.” Ruan Xian kicked off the iron bead that jumped into bed with him and was gnawing on his big toe. He squeezed the words out from between his teeth. “I don’t like having a deadly weapon hanging on my ear, I don’t like my toes being gnawed on by a stupid mechanical being, and I don’t like being pressed on by a half-naked person of the same sex.”

The quick-washing machine timely made a beep, and Tang Yibu jumped out of the bed. He quickly put on his shirt and walked back with a serious expression on his face.

“I see.” The android’s tone was solemn. “I will work hard to build a trusting relationship between us. Are you still angry?”

“Angry,” Ruan Xian said in despair. “Put on your pants before you talk again.”

After speaking, he laughed out loud. Tang Yibu quickly put on his pants and politely expressed his puzzlement.

Ruan Xian laughed harder. He had never laughed like this before; he even started to cough. He smiled to himself for a while before putting away the gun and responding to Tang Yibu in a low voice. “You… I really want to know what your maker is thinking in his mind. Speaking of which, do you really understand the meaning of ‘trust‘?”

Perhaps it was because of the light. For a moment, Tang Yibu, who had always been carefree, looked a little sad. “Don’t be on guard, don’t pretend. I think that the other party will act according to a similar standard, and they will eventually fulfill the agreement. I think this mode of thinking should be defined as ‘trust’.”

He stretched out a hand to Ruan Xian and pulled Ruan Xian up from the soft bed.

“If you follow the standards of human trust, I have indeed trusted someone. After that, there is no need for me to trust other individuals, but we’re a good fit, so I want to try and foster trust between us.”

“Why?”

“According to my observation, you’re not the type who likes to be controlled. That earring makes you angry, and too frequent anger is not conducive to the smooth development of a partnership.”

Tang Yibu stuffed Ruan Xian’s dirty coat into the quick-washing machine while his tone remained calm.

“Besides, you are very similar to me. You who have been infused with human memory but also don’t trust others, which is very… observable.”

“Maybe because we have similar experiences.” Ruan Xian walked to the bathroom, without planning to remove his holster. He closed the door, faced the bathtub full of clear water, and exhaled.

He also once trusted a person, and after that, he also had no need to trust other individuals.

[Xianxian, don’t listen to the nonsense of those doctors, you are normal.]

[Xianxian, you’ll be fine. You’ll be fine.]

[Xianxian, mom will always love you.]

The faucet wasn’t closed tightly, so water droplets dripped into the tub. In his memory, the smell of a corpse poured into his nostrils, and the woman’s swollen and rotting feet hung in the air, dangling in front of his eyes. Turbid liquid gently dripped down from the corpse onto the floor.

[This is for the best.] She said so at the end. [You should have died a long time ago.]

Ruan Xian threw off his sweat-soaked clothes and sank himself into the water, then put the blood guns within reach.

He skillfully pressed those memories back into his heart.

Half an hour later, despite staying in a refuge full of supplies, Ruan Xian was shocked by the situation in front of him.

Countless plates were placed on snow-white tablecloths, and several long tables were full of people on both sides. The meal at their small table was particularly hearty, with the aroma of creamy pumpkin soup and boiled carrots and broccoli that were next to thick, juicy steaks. The steamed eggs were sprinkled with sesame oil, and the unique aroma of the stir-fried dishes was coated with the taste of fried chili, which made one’s finger twitch.

There was even dessert on the small plate on one side. The crystal-clear fruit cake wiggled and smelled sweet and sour.

Ruan Xian sniffed vigilantly but didn’t smell the flickering grass. He hesitated for a moment, picked up a spoon, stared at the old man in front of him, and slapped Tang Yibu’s hands that were reaching for the fruit cake.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. Young people, they just have an appetite. We don’t pay attention to those polite manners.” The old man had a long beard, gray hair, and a red face with a faint smell attributed to an immortal. Behind him stood two people in suits, both holding guns.

The old man smiled and watched Tang Yibu stuff the fruit cake into his mouth and chew it happily, with a kind expression on his face.

There were still a few people at the table. Their outfits didn’t match the bustling shopping mall, and they were busy casting novel glances around, or swallowing food as if it didn’t have any taste. Most of them were “new guests” here.

Ruan Xian scooped up a spoonful of steamed eggs. He didn’t pay attention to the exquisite interior decoration and turned his gaze to the permanent residents who were enjoying dinner.

The pirates of Elysium were sitting not far away, and a steady stream of pleasant talk and laughter floated from all around, but the smiles didn’t hide the exhaustion on the pirates’ faces. The people here obviously haven’t had a good rest. Ruan Xian noticed a lot of external lesions caused by fatigue, as well as the faint smell of the flickering grass fruit.

The situation was even worse for the tables where the eating speed was relatively slow—the pirates there were thin, and their demeanor was a bit like Jiang Lin. There was a bit of madness in their numbness. The food in front of them was more exquisite, but the owners of the food generally had poor appetites, and they only moved their chopsticks laboriously, as if eating was a daunting task.

The smell of the fruit emitted from their bodies was particularly strong.

“They are our senior cadres over there.” Noticing Ruan Xian’s gaze, the old man sitting at the small table stroked his beard. Duan Lili was sitting to his right, hanging her head obediently. “This meal is my treat. If you are willing to stay and live here, you’ll be able to eat such good things sooner or later.”

Ruan Xian didn’t answer. Tang Yibu drank all the soup in front of him and was concentrating on the steak next while several newcomers around him were obviously excited and whispered to each other.

“I am the captain of Elysium, Fan Baiyan. I have been captain for about four years. In terms of stability, we are the most stable.” The old man didn’t put on any airs. “As long as you work hard, we can provide all kinds of entertainment here.”

Fan Lao made a somewhat obscene gesture to the group of newcomers where there were no women. “All kinds of entertainment.”

Amid the laughter of the men, Duan Lili buried her head lower.

Ruan Xian narrowed his eyes and, taking advantage of the commotion among the new people, he looked at the hall for a while. Captain Fan shouldn’t have exaggerated the time. Compared to the settlement at Elysium, the Walking Stones were indeed underdeveloped and chaotic, but…

Tang Yibu wiped the gravy from the corner of his mouth with a napkin, pushed the empty plate away, and poked Ruan Xian, who was lost in thought. “Are you going to eat your fruit cake?”

Ruan Xian glanced at him faintly and pushed the dessert towards him.

“Of course, I can’t speak much here since everyone’s attention isn’t focused. Go on, eat. Let’s not talk about business while we’re eating. When it gets dark, I’ll send a special guide to tell everyone the details.”

After that, Fan Lao clapped his hands and waved out a light screen, and the images of several beautiful girls attracted a burst of unkind laughter. “You can choose the one you want and ‘talk’ all night. Just make sure to remember the rules.”

Ruan Xian’s eyes circled the lifeless eyes of those girls without any expression on his face.

Except for Tang Yibu, who was busy sucking on a straw, among the group of extremely excited men, Ruan Xian’s reaction stood out, causing Fan Lao to look at him with interest. “This little brother has very high taste, hm?”

“Not true,” Ruan Xian responded quietly. He pulled up Tang Yibu, who was still drinking juice with a satisfied face, and lightly bit the other’s lower lip. “I’m not interested in women.”

Tang Yibu almost choked.

“Oh, I have offended you.” Fan Lao had a smile on his face, but there was no smile in his eyes. “It’s not easy to have a one-on-one relationship these days. It’s okay, you can choose one normally and let everyone go back early.”

“Then can we get an extra one?” The man next to him let out a wretched laugh.

“There’s something better.” Fan Lao took out a flannel bag and took out about eight small green pills. “You can try this and it’ll make sure you’ll have a good time tonight.”

As soon as he took out the medicine, the voices on the table instantly quieted down.

“Don’t worry, everyone here eats this. Everyone knows what it looks like outside. This thing can give you more peace of mind.” Fan Lao pinched a pill and stuffed it into his mouth. “I’m an old bone and I’ve eaten this in the past few years and lived to the present. It’s not like it’s a disease or causes harm. Just take it like smoking a cigarette. Don’t eat it, but don’t throw it away—if I wanted to do you guys dirty, I wouldn’t give it to you like this.”

Fan Lao gave Duan Lili a wink, and Duan Lili got up knowingly. She smiled sweetly and distributed the bright green pills to everyone at the table. Her towering breasts brushed against the shoulders of the men, intentionally causing them to burst out in laughter.

“It’s okay,” she persuaded softly, as if she couldn’t hear the laughter. “Look over there. Everyone takes it. Don’t worry brothers, I can help you test it out.”

After that, she picked up the pills, licked them with the tip of her pink tongue, and then put them back in the palms of the men.

Many pirates had finished their dinner at the long table not far away. They took out a small pill from the same flannel bag, threw them into their mouths like chewing gum, and then showed varying degrees of intoxication.

The tense atmosphere relaxed again, and several newcomers sniffed the bright green pills in front of them before eating them on the spot.

“Oh, good stuff.” One of them hissed and gasped. “Why am I so happy? It’s been a long time since I’ve been so relaxed.”

Ruan Xian lowered his eyes and stuffed the allocated pill into his pocket. He could feel that after this series of reactions, Fan Lao’s vision stayed with him longer. He thought for a moment, knocked Tang Yibu lightly with the tip of his shoe, and then slid across his calf in a flirtatious manner.

Tang Yibu clearly understood what he meant. The android first chewed the firefly he was allocated, then ambiguously touched Ruan Xian’s pocket and took out the one meant for Ruan Xian.

“Don’t be so formal. Come on, baby, I’ll feed you.” The android was full of smiles. He balanced the pill with the tip of his tongue and hooked his arm around Ruan Xian’s neck.

Ruan Xian didn’t resist this time.

They kissed each other in front of the captain of Elysium, covering up their vigilance with the sound of their tongues and lips. After the kiss, Ruan Xian made a gesture of swallowing something and then glanced at Tang Yibu “reproachfully”.

In the remaining light of his vision, Fan Lao looked away with satisfaction, while Duan Lili’s eyes darkened for a second.

“Go ahead, everyone. The night is still long.” As the closing speech of the dinner ended, the old man narrowed his eyes and left the hall under the escort of bodyguards.

Ruan Xian wiped away the smile on his face, grabbed Tang Yibu, who was still picking at candy and was about to go back to the room…

A thin white arm stretched out and held Ruan Xian familiarly.

“Since there is no need for ‘additional services’, let me explain it to the two of you,” Duan Lili said with a smile.

The next second, she quickly glanced at Fan Lao, who had left, buried her head, and lowered her voice, “…Go back to your room, quickly. There’s still time to vomit out the medicine.”

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The author has something to say:

Ruan: Your maker is very interesting.

Tang: ?

A long time later.

Ruan: …It’s all my fault!!!

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Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 37: Soft

Jiang Lin opened her eyes. The snow-white ceiling was pressed down head-on, and a mechanical sound of beeping was noisily in her ears. In a daze, she shed angry tears.

The two young men were really unscrupulous. It wasn’t her fault that her companion died. She was also a victim in all this. The ship itself was the property of Elysium. In that situation, she was also part owner of the ship. There was no reason to escape without the owner, but those two boys didn’t give her any due respect.

She thought faintly that the people who came from the Walking Stones were rude. Her forehead was still hurting badly, like her mind was being squeezed by a snake. Jiang Lin fumbled in her pocket, but she didn’t touch the warm velvet bag in her memory.

They had lost their firefly.

As consciousness recovered, uncontrollable numbness and itching spread throughout her body. She needed a firefly. The fireflies can get her out of all this. It would help her clear away the pain and negative thoughts that kept surging. Like a firefly in the dark, it would continue to lead her to be a perfect person, a flawless mother.

Jiang Lin squeezed the quilt under her hand and breathed in pain. Suddenly, a warm hand covered the back of her hand.

The skin of that hand was rough and dry to the touch, clearly belonging to an old man. There weren’t many old people these days, and there were very few who could move freely in Elysium.

“Fan Lao…” Jiang Lin choked and said, “I—I brought the ship back.”

“The family needs a responsible person like you.” The old man smiled and moved closer.

“I want… I want to see Chengcheng, Fan Lao. Let me see Chengcheng. How is Chengcheng doing up there?”

“Mom!” As the old man waved his fingers, a light screen was projected in the air, and a little boy’s smiling face appeared from the middle of the light screen. “Mom, when will you come upstairs to see me?”

However, Jiang Lin bent over and grabbed the old man’s hand tightly. She turned her back, hid her face out of sight of the little boy, and tried to suppress her groan.

“Fan Lao, ship, people… are all contributions. Can you give me a firefly, just one… I only ate one today and didn’t violate the rules… I don’t want Chengcheng to see me like this…”

“Of course, of course.” The old man took a step back with a smile and asked the assistant next to him to step forward. The young assistant in a suit had a sluggish expression. He touched his pocket and didn’t take out the medicine Jiang Lin longed for. Instead, he took out a thin syringe full of emerald green liquid.

Jiang Lin rolled her eyes and expressed her doubts with what sanity she had left.

“This works better.” The smile on Fan Lao’s face was even more kind. “Don’t worry. We’re a family.”

Jiang Lin stretched out her arm and didn’t question it anymore.

“Move her upstairs.” Half a minute later, the smile on Fan Lao’s face faded a bit as he looked at the dying woman in front of him. Her mouth and eyes had started to grow grass buds. “She has no relatives or friends down there, right?”

“No.” The man covered the body with a white cloth. “Both of her teammates are dead.”

“I see.” Fan Lao nodded. “The simulation video of that little boy can be deleted. No need to process her video, just plant her.”

At the same time.

“Is this your pet?”

After agreeing to Tang Yibu’s request for “dinner” with a smile, Duan Lili let go of Tang Yibu’s arm, squatted down, and gently stroked the iron bead hiding behind Tang Yibu.

“I know this kind of mechanical life. We call it Grove R-660. It’s not common to raise it, but we can help you program it.”

“Program it?” Ruan Xian stopped turning around.

“Yes, there are eight professional engineers at Elysium. In order to make everyone’s life happier, we have prepared various programs.” She patted the iron bead and stood up gracefully. “Reprogramming can make it smarter and even thoroughly understand human language. If you want, you can also add a cat or dog personality to it.”

Ruan Xian frowned slowly.

“No.” This time Tang Yibu was the first to speak. He picked up the iron bead, and there was a little more doubt in his voice. “Then it can’t communicate with its kind.”

The smile on Duan Lili’s face froze for half a second: “Isn’t it your pet?”

“No, I lied to it.” Tang Yibu flicked the shell of the iron bead, causing it to rattle comfortably. “Strictly speaking, it never belonged to me, and I have no right to deprive it of the right to communicate with its kind.”

“I think you misunderstood.” After thinking about it, Duan Lili’s smile became a bit more cordial. “It’ll only become smarter. It won’t forget its original habits and it won’t lose its ability to communicate with its companions.”

“I’m not talking about ‘ability’.” Tang Yibu widened his eyes slightly. “I have collected similar information. If its intelligence far exceeds that of its kind, it will only suffer. Its kind will no longer understand its behavior, and it will be very… An accurate description by the records in data: It will be very lonely.”

Ruan Xian, who wanted to speak, closed his mouth and gave Tang Yibu a sideways glance.

Tang Yibu sounded seriously confusing. The android and Duan Lili were not on the same wavelength at all. At this moment, he should start another topic and end this small discussion that was unimportant so as to save Duan Lili from becoming suspicious.

But he wanted to listen.

Duan Lili bluntly expressed her astonishment. She seemed to be stunned by the young man in front of her. “In other words, you don’t want it to become smarter…” She tried to summarize.

“This is not something I have the final say. I’m just an unrelated stranger and I’m not qualified to judge.” Tang Yibu shook his head. “It has a certain limit of intelligence. If it wants, it can choose by itself.”

“Do you want to be smart?” After that, Tang Yibu asked the iron bead in his arms seriously.

“Gwah?” The iron bead took a bite of Tang Yibu’s coat and chewed on it happily.

“It doesn’t seem to need it for the time being,” Tang Yibu said sincerely.

Duan Lili took a deep breath and silently took a few steps back in Ruan Xian’s direction. She wisely decided to end the topic on her own. “Well, I’ll show you two to the guest room first. Dinner is about to start, and I think the two of you will want to take a shower, change clothes, or something.”

After leading them to the empty room, Duan Lili glanced at Ruan Xian’s holster and pursed her lips. A decent smile seemed to be engraved on her face. The deputy captain kept her steps graceful as she left, her high heels clacking on the ground firmly.

The room in front of him was incredibly clean and tidy.

Even when he first arrived at the refuge, he didn’t pay such attention to his residence. Scented candles and speakers were placed on the small wooden cabinet by the bed, the retro-shaped bedside lamp was on; and the entire room was filled with warm light. Ruan Xian plucked the tassel of the window curtain with his hand, drove the iron bead off the bed, and then turned to Tang Yibu…

The android was already gone, and there was a vague sound of water humming in the bathroom.

Just as the corners of Ruan Xian’s mouth tended to rise, they tightened rapidly in the next second.

This was a good opportunity.

He threw the iron bead on the sofa beside him, quickly checked the speakers by the bed, and then the projector not far away. He kept tapping on their shells, trying to judge the model of the parts inside by sound.

As long as he figured out the possible mechanism by which the earring attacked his brain, he could design a device that blocked the killing function of the earring and remove the invisible collar. It was imperative to make a test device to determine what kind of behavior was considered “harmful to Tang Yibu” and what kind of signal Tang Yibu wanted to send to the earring…

After neatly disassembling and assembling, Ruan Xian took a metal fountain pen from the pen holder and assembled the parts into the body of the fountain pen. Listening to the pleasant humming in the bathroom, he put his hand on the handle of the blood gun.

If he hadn’t shot at Tang Yibu’s vital point, would the android immediately kill him with this earring? Or would he stop the attack in time and impose a slight punishment? Maybe he could test it out, deliberately act frightened, and then…

The iron bead rolled to Ruan Xian’s feet and began to play with his pants.

Ruan Xian glanced down at it.

…Tang Yibu would suffer minor injuries at most, while he might die. Or he might be able to deceive Tang Yibu, successfully crack the attack mechanism of the earring, and wait for the opportunity to leave by himself. It was just that the android was sometimes too smart, and Ruan Xian wasn’t sure if he could lie about the past perfectly. There was only one thing he could be sure of—whether he succeeded or not, Tang Yibu would be more alert towards him.

Ruan Xian lowered his eyes and slowly stuffed the blood gun back into the holster.

He picked up the iron bead and watched the dirt on the iron shell rub against his white coat. The metal shell of the mechanical life was slightly cool to the touch, and it wasn’t comfortable holding it.

The timing was wrong, Ruan Xian told himself. Although it wasn’t very different from human emotional patterns, androids always possessed emotions. He wasn’t familiar with it yet, so now wasn’t the time.

Their cooperation was tentatively smooth, and creating testing equipment wasn’t difficult. He could… wait a bit, at least to gather more information.

Taking an inhale, Ruan Xian took out the modified parts and put them back into their original position.

“I’m done showering!” When Tang Yibu walked out of the bathroom, Ruan Xian had just put the parts of the speaker back in place. He turned his head and looked at Tang Yibu, almost choking on his own saliva. “Where are your clothes?”

“Let me tell you, they didn’t prepare any pajamas in the bathroom.” Tang Yibu stepped across the dirty clothes carelessly, opened the wardrobe opposite of the bathroom, seemingly unaware of his nakedness. “…The clothes here are inconvenient to move around. The quick-washing machine can still be used. Take off your clothes too, and we can wash them together since I’m going to run a load.”

Ruan Xian threw a stifled look over his blank face. “No.”

Tang Yibu pouted, wrapped his lower body with a thin blanket, and left the buzzing quick-washing machine that he had turned on. In the warm light, the android stretched out his limbs and lay on the bed in the room. The soft mattress was deeply sunken, and Tang Yibu was so shocked that his whole body stretched out.

He patted the bed twice in disbelief. “Mr. Ruan, this bed is very soft.”

Ruan Xian decided to roll his eyes openly, indicating that he didn’t have any willingness to talk. He put down the struggling iron bead in his arms, took off his dirty coat, and then picked a pair of linen pajamas from the closet at random, ready to move in the direction of the bathroom.

However, before Ruan Xian took two steps, he was pulled back from behind by a hand. His field of vision rotated, and his back hit something soft.

Tang Yibu pressed one of his arms with a serious expression. “Look, it’s really soft.”

Cool water droplets were left along Tang Yibu’s half-dried black hair and dripped onto Ruan Xian’s neck. Ruan Xian only felt the fluttering anger return to his chest. He took a deep breath and was just about to attack…

Tang Yibu leaned down; his lips were close to Ruan Xian’s ears, and his voice was so low that he could barely make out what was said. “Thank you.”

Ruan Xian instantly suppressed his anger. Tang Yibu’s expression couldn’t be clearly seen from this angle. He subconsciously shrank. “…For what?”

“Thank you for not attacking me with your blood gun,” Tang Yibu whispered with a smile.

For an instant, the blood in Ruan Xian’s body seemed to freeze. He turned his head sideways, just to meet Tang Yibu’s golden eyes.

“Also, although you didn’t feel anything, I’m not sure if anyone here is listening.” Tang Yibu bent his eyes. “Be careful with everything, my Mr. Ruan.”

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The author has something to say:

You can eat in the next chapter! Hold on Tangtang! （×

After all, he is the strongest AI, so he’s not really stupid√

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