Ruan Xian touched the bedside, grabbed the water cup accurately, and filled himself with half a glass of water.
To his east was whitish, indicating the sun was about to rise. The alarm for the fire in the botanical garden was still ringing in his ears and all the doors of the ward were forcibly closed. This situation lasted for two hours before the fire outside the window faded. Ruan Xian suspected that the focus of the prevention shelter had already changed from extinguishing the fire to investigation.
But this had nothing to do with him.
After the alarm sounded, Tang Yibu was immediately locked up in Ruan Xian’s ward. The two took advantage of the darkness to hide the dirt on their faces, took a shower together, and then spent more than two hours in bed.
Now Ruan Xian was too lazy to sit up again. His recovery power kept him from feeling too sore, and he was able to support his body, but his brain seemed to be soaked in alcohol, full of hot lethargy and satisfaction. His calves were still resting on Tang Yibu’s leg, and the other party’s body temperature was constantly surging.
Before, Ruan Xian’s understanding of this matter was limited to theories and books. Considering his own situation, he never had much interest in it.
Now he understood the reason why people were obsessed with it.
He once thought that the sense of solidity brought about by the touch of the skin had exceeded expectations. Facts have proved that the hormones secreted in the brain never deceived people. With a hot bath and a soft bed, the intense atmosphere that was close to killing each other had faded. Although they had been entangled in the botanical garden for a long time, the two embraced each other far beyond just for show.
Even if he knew that there were bystanders on the other side of the monitor, neither of them showed any hesitation or cramps. Tang Yibu didn’t engage in any interrogation tricks this time. They just slowly and genuinely felt each other.
Ruan Xian shook the remaining ice water in the cup and casually raised the cup to Tang Yibu to signal, “Do you want to drink water?”
The frightened iron bead had fallen asleep in the corner of the room, while Tang Yibu was half leaning on the head of the bed with the tip of his hair sweeping across his collarbone. He was looking out the window in a daze; those golden eyes in the gradually brightening night were extremely attractive.
Ruan Xian added some water to the cup again, finally propped up his body, and kissed those eyes again.
“Thank you.” Tang Yibu seemed to have come back to his senses. He took the cup with both hands and took a sip. After drinking, he slipped back into the blanket along the head of the bed, wrapped himself in a cocoon, and looked at Ruan Xian with burning eyes.
Ruan Xian lay down knowingly and turned his body sideways so that the monitor couldn’t capture their mouth movements.
“Let’s not talk about my own problems. I’m getting more and more curious about your affairs.” Ruan Xian watched Tang Yibu stretch out his hand and let the other party touch his cheeks and facial features. “If I were really Ruan Xian, wouldn’t this relationship cause you trouble?”
Tang Yibu thought for a long time, then shook his head with a stiff expression. Ruan Xian couldn’t understand the source of the stiffness, but there was no sign of a lie on the other party’s face.
After shaking his head, the android seemed to feel that the response was a bit cold. He pondered seriously for a moment, then leaned forward and gently kissed the corner of Ruan Xian’s lips.
Ruan Xian took advantage of the situation and touched the other party’s soft hair. From the perspective of outsiders, they were indeed quite close to being a sweet little couple.
It was just that what was going on in his mind now was another matter.
Assuming that the “Professor Ruan” who was wandering outside was a fake, once the news spread, the rebel army, which had been severely hit, was likely to be devastated. And as Ruan Xian’s true self, he should be the object of interest to forces other than MUL-01. Even if he lacked the impression of MUL-01 manufacturing, as long as he collected enough information, Ruan Xian believed that he could find a way to deal with it.
MUL-01 could naturally speculate on this matter. Once the news leaked, he would definitely become the highest-ranking target to kill.
Therefore, the “interest” of other forces may not be the friendly kind. After all, not all forces desired to oppose the Mainbrain. If they stood in a neutral position, they would probably stay away from this plague.
Then Tang Yibu’s origin was very interesting.
He had the A-type Prototype that the rebels claimed to have destroyed, but at the same time had no inclination to support the rebels. Along the way, he didn’t see Tang Yibu contact any companions. After obtaining a considerable amount of information and having a physical relationship with the “possible Ruan Xian” himself, Tang Yibu didn’t show the eagerness to find personal time to contact anyone, even if only a little.
‘This android is too free,’ Ruan Xian thought.
There were many things that didn’t make sense to him, and the other party was also half-hearted. In this apocalyptic world where materials were highly concentrated in the surveillance range of the Mainbrain, Tang Yibu’s behavior of running around alone was tantamount to suicide.
But since they wouldn’t be separated for the time being, there were still many opportunities for exploration.
Tang Yibu seemed to be thinking about something similar. They looked at each other and caught a little unspoken word in each other’s eyes.
“Gong Siyi will contact me soon.” Tang Yibu mouthed as he kneaded Ruan Xian’s somewhat red earlobes casually, as if his fingertips weren’t touching the other party’s skin. “I have to leave here in a while.”
“I have to lie down for a bit. After all, I just gave free access to the adult channel, so I can’t necessarily get out of bed and act all alive and kicking.” Ruan Xian snorted softly. “I think our plans will change a bit, and it’s good to take this time to plan.”
Tang Yibu hesitated and pulled out the bloodstained earring from the clothes at the head of the bed.
“…You can’t leave it as a token of affection for Gong Siyi to see?”
“Your brain is biological, so it can’t really hurt you.” Tang Yibu compared the earring stud to his left ear. “It’s more natural to wear it.”
“Excuses.”
“You can use it to contact me at close range.”
“That’s less of an excuse, but it still smells like it.”
“…I hope you wear it because it is something I gave you,” Tang Yibu continued in a low voice, using his fingers slightly. “How will you judge that?”
“I’m just teasing you. Don’t tell the truth so quickly in the future.”
Before Ruan Xian could finish speaking, his earlobe tingled, and he could feel a bit of warm blood slowly seeping out. Next, something warmer was wrapped around it. Tang Yibu leaned his head in and slurped up all the blood that came out.
At almost the same time, Tang Yibu’s wristband let out a shrill ring. The light screen with Gong Siyi’s name kept shaking in mid-air. Tang Yibu sighed softly, stood up, and began to dress himself slowly.
Tang Yibu was silent for a while, lowered his head, and slowly gave him a hug.
“I don’t like to leave without saying goodbye.”
The android whispered in his ear. His voice was still gentle but with an inexplicable sourness and determination.
“…If you still plan to run away now, even if you run all the way in front of the Mainbrain, I will drag you back with my own hands.”
“How funny.” Ruan Xian couldn’t help but touch Tang Yibu’s bangs. “If I want to escape, I will definitely give you a proper farewell—I wouldn’t do something like break up cold turkey.”
Tang Yibu didn’t say anything more. He slightly fixed his hair, straightened up, and looked down at Ruan Xian, who was still half-lying in bed.
“I will come to see you soon, Mr. Ruan. Very soon,” he said. “When we leave here, we need to have a good chat.”
Time went back to a day ago.
Yu Le caught Luo Jian’s son right out the gate. He made his way back to the apartment in a trance and opened up three bottles of beer for himself. Ji Xiaoman packed a lot of food from the restaurant they went to dine at and was nestled in a corner eating her dinner like a hamster.
“Don’t you want to eat?” Seeing Yu Le drinking at a uniform speed like a machine, Ji Xiaoman finally couldn’t help but make a noise.
“It’s strange,” Yu Le muttered as he wiped his mouth. “According to the news given by Guan Haiming, wasn’t all of Luo Jian’s family killed by the Mainbrain? What the hell was that just now? You also checked on the way. His father is really Luo Jian, and it’s not just the same name.”
Yu Le wiped the beer foam from his mouth and belched. Ji Xiaoman glared at him in disgust.
“I don’t know how those two boys are doing in the prevention shelter. I hope I can get some information about Luo Jian. To be honest, this place creeps me out.”
“Pay attention to your volume.” Ji Xiaoman didn’t bother to pay attention to Yu Le’s sentiments and kicked a pack of egg tarts in his direction.
“Right.” Yu Le casually turned the indoor music to its max volume. “Seriously, don’t you feel that way? Although the Underground City is shoddy, at least it has a human smell. Here…”
He took a while to choose his words. “…It’s like a zoo.”
“That Luo Fei is not an android,” Ji Xiaoman whispered.
“How do you know?”
“While he wasn’t paying attention, I spiked his drink,” Ji Xiaoman said in a particularly flat tone. “The stuff I used in the Underground City wasn’t used up… Ah, the homemade android anesthetic.”
Yu Le grabbed the beer he had just opened and swallowed.
“Although there’s not much left that could put down a mechanical life, it’s still possible for him to show discomfort. But he didn’t show any abnormality.”
After a simple dinner, Ji Xiaoman moved her mechanical arms for a bit, stretched out her mechanical legs, and started her daily routine of maintenance work. “So that’s probably the original, or maybe a clone.”
“What he took out isn’t interesting.” Yu Le picked up the egg tart, propped up his legs and took a bite. “However, it’s necessary to dig further. If you ask me, that’s not the original.”
“Why?” Ji Xiaoman stopped twisting the screws.
“Let’s put it this way. I have seen my sister’s body.” Yu Le took another sip of beer; his tone became a little colder. “If she was just missing at the time, or I wasn’t so sure… If I ran into her in town at this moment, I would definitely rush to identify her.”
“…” Ji Xiaoman pursed her lips.
“I think you also understand that we’re not people with pursuits. If we can deceive ourselves, we’ll do it. It’s rare to be confused in this world. That Luo Jian isn’t too young anymore, right? Even if he wasn’t sure, it would be better to stay by his son’s side than in that awful madhouse. Of course, this is just my personal opinion.”
“You mean…”
“With his son here, I don’t believe he wouldn’t want to get close. He’s probably similar to me. He witnessed the tragic death of his family with his own eyes, or he saw the corpse clearly, and he simply couldn’t deceive himself.”
Yu Le threw the beer can into the trash.
“So he forced himself to separate from his baby son, so that he wouldn’t spend a lot of time clearing up his thoughts. But with so many messy memory pills here, it’s not like he didn’t have a chance to lie to himself.”
“That guy is either struggling or has other plans. Who knows? Anyway, I don’t think Luo Fei is the original.”
“Then we can continue to engage with him.” Ji Xiaoman didn’t refute it. “Time is limited. I do have an idea for us to quickly infiltrate Pear Blossom.”
“Oh?”
“Nomination certificate*.”
*The term being used is (投名状) which refers to, in ancient times, used for an expression of loyalty. A nomination is basically a pledge of loyalty to join an illegal organization. || The context here is that they’re going to basically do something to show a pledge of loyalty to join Pear Blossom (the illegal organization).
The author has something to say:
The two had intermittently engaged at night and had an excellent experience (?
Tang, I said not to get too close to humans; this is all negative distance.
Kinky Thoughts:
Gong Siyi is so fucking lucky to get free access to the adult channel. Who do I have to pay to get that? Of course, every major fight must end with some makeup sex!