CH 97

The little robot hanging his head while motionless, felt a light touch coming from the soles of his feet.

Countless small flower buds broke through the ground, passed through the green grass and entangled with the crystal clear, flowing electronic particles around him.

A more intense fragrance of flowers came from his surroundings. The flowers that were originally buds suddenly bloomed. A rainbow-like dreamy light appeared in the clouds, reflecting on the rusty green mechanical body that he had specially adjusted.

Ji Tong raised his head blankly and saw the scene of the white butterfly flying into the host’s body. His bright and shining eyes immediately widened.

…He forgot to hide the butterfly.

It was over. It was back in the host’s heart now. It wouldn’t carry the memories of the past with it, right?

He had done many things in front of the butterfly that could reveal his human identity.

The little robot started to drop electron particles again.

Fortunately, he observed for dozens of seconds and found that there was no violent tornado in this world. There was only more and more vigorous vitality.

There were no angry emotions in the host’s heart.

These eyes, which were usually calm with no fluctuations, looked over. At this moment, they flashed with complex emotions that were difficult to distinguish and it flustered Ji Tong.

“Your initial form looks different from reality.”

The little robot hurriedly looked away.

It was because he secretly had plastic surgery.

It was also in an ugly direction.

However, this time, he didn’t have to ask if the host was afraid of his form.

There was no fear in the other person’s eyes. They were hotter and brighter than the sun in the clouds.

Pei Qingyuan approached him. His appearance was the same as reality and he was much taller than the little robot.

The tall shadow gradually enveloped him and the little robot instinctively took a step back.

In this secret and silent world, two shadows, one tall and one short, were getting closer and closer.

Ji Tong’s mind was blank and he felt that the host was about to say something really important.

In the next second, only a bunch of sizzling electronic particles remained on the ground where flowers and grass were intertwined. The little robot had disappeared.

Ji Tong immediately chose to go offline.

“Host, it is time to get up for class. See you in the dormitory!”

Opening the consciousness space to the host was indeed a mistake!

After withdrawing his consciousness from the virtual space, Ji Tong was surrounded on all sides by the blackout bed curtain and he covered himself tightly with a quilt, not wanting to face reality.

He avoided the words that the host didn’t have time to say but couldn’t escape the emotions that were vividly imprinted in the eyes of the other person, as well as the most honest, gorgeous scenery in the emotional zone.

How did a traditional cool article where the system assisted the strong and miserable host in counterattacking become like this?

Ji Tong hit his head against the pillow in a melancholy manner but didn’t dare use too much force. He held his breath and buried himself in the pillow, afraid that the host in the next bed would find him.

He waited in fear for an unknown amount of time until he heard the gentle sound of the door closing.

The host seemed to have gone out.

Therefore, he quietly opened the bed curtains, poked out his head and looked around.

In the early morning, the gray-blue air poured into the dormitory. Huang Wen, who had a class in the morning, came out of the bathroom after brushing his teeth and greeted him in a low voice, “Good morning. Didn’t the two of you have no class in the morning? Why do you all wake up so early?”

Ji Tongs’s hair was messy as he poked his head out from the bed curtain to carefully observe his surroundings. Huang Wen was amused. He thought Ji Tong was looking for Pei Qingyuan and immediately explained, “Brother Pei got up a bit earlier than me. He should’ve gone to the cafeteria to eat while also buying you breakfast.”

…Why add the second half?

The things that JI Tong became accustomed to now seemed to have an indescribable ambiguity.

Ji Tong took advantage of the host’s absence to quickly get out of bed to wash.

Huang Wen looked at his slightly flustered back, scratched his head and said to himself, “I don’t know if Brother Pei will buy more today. I also want to steal some breakfast.”

A faint voice came from the curtain of the bed where a person was still present. “You had better not take it.”

Huang Wen trembled with fright “F*k, Master Cui. You should’ve said it earlier if you woke up. You scared me to death.”

Cui Yinan opened the bed curtain and revealed a pair of eyes with dark circles. “I basically didn’t sleep.”

“You are about to become a panda… what did you do last night, cultivate immortality?”

Cui Yinan nodded before shaking his head. “No, I used everything I have learned in life to calculate one thing.”

“What did you calculate?” Huang Wen immediately became energetic. “My relationship?”

“Is there any need to calculate that?”

“……” Huang Wen rolled his eyes. “Then what did you calculate? The grade points you will get at the end of the semester?”

“I can’t say, but I can give you precious life advice.”

“What is it?”

“In the days to come, you can continue to joke things like ‘Master Cui, I love you’ and occasionally ‘Brother Pei, I love you.’”

Cui Yinan paused before continuing in an inscrutable manner. “However, you can’t say ‘Xiao Ji, I love you.’”

“Why?’ Huang Wen looked puzzled. “Aren’t they all just talk? Why am I only forbidden to say this to Xiao Ji?”

“There is no reason.” Cui Yinan slowly climbed out of bed. “You can say what you want. In any case, I haven’t tried to help someone call the emergency number yet.”

Huang Wen: “……”

Seeing his confused expression, Cui Yinan sighed, pushed up his glasses and patted him on the shoulder while passing by. “My fortune-telling is very accurate.”

“The fact that you can’t see anything by this point proves that even from a scientific point of view, you will have to continue to be single.”

“Hey, speak clearly, charlatan!”

“No, the mysteries known only to heaven can’t be leaked.”

“Then isn’t the matter of my doomed relationship not considered a mystery known only to heaven?”

“Oh, that is common sense.”

By the time Pei Qingyuan returned with the hearty breakfast he bought for Ji Tong as usual, the clever Cui Yinan had already dragged Huang Wen to the cafeteria.

There were only two people left in the dormitory, Ji Tong and Pei Qingyuan.

The breakfast in the plastic lunch box on the table was all Ji Tong’s favorite food.

Reason told Ji Tong that he could no longer eat it as usual without distractions, but out of the Chinese people’s instinct for eating, he really couldn’t resist this tempting aroma.

Ji Tong complained about himself while silently eating the steamed bun. His face was bugling like a steamed bun.

“Host, you don’t have to buy me breakfast starting from tomorrow.”

He spoke very carefully.

By the way, he took a sneak peek at the host from the corner of his eye.

Ji Tong felt that he had been drifting too much in the days when he became a human again. This was why the host completely treated him as a human of the same age. It was his responsibility.

In the future, he would control it. He would be an emotionless artificial intelligence and keep an appropriate distance from the host.

If he wanted to eat something then buy it himself.

Pei Qingyuan’s expression didn’t change at all. It was as if he hadn’t heard this voice that was as thin as a mosquito.

He looked at the delicious steamed bun in Ji Tong’s hand, as if remembering something. Then he said quietly, “I can eat green onions now.”

At this plain and simple sentence, Ji Tong instantly remembered countless early mornings in high school when he and his host sat under a tree and ate breakfast with different patterns every day.

At that time, the host would secretly be a picky eater and leave one or two stuffed buns with green onions.

Ji Tong generously filled his stomach with these buns that the host was disgusted with and wrote this matter in the host’s domestication log. He intended not to tell the host that there were green onions in the filling in the future in order to correct this picky eating habit.

The sunny memories flooded his mind and Ji Tong’s back that had just straightened up immediately softened.

He couldn’t help changing his words. “It is too troublesome to go out early to pack breakfast for me… Let’s go to the cafeteria together tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Pei Qingyuan answered quietly and handed him the soy milk.

The soy milk was very sweet and it turned Ji Tong’s chaotic brain into an even more chaotic tofu brain.

…Did he just take the initiative to promise something that would run counter to his goal of keeping a proper distance from the host?

Ji Tong wanted to hammer the pillow with his head again.

The host was obviously silent in front of others. Why was he so good at speaking in front of Ji Tong?

Forget it, let’s talk about something else.

“Senior Qiao invited us to go to the team tonight to take a look but the senior sister from the mahjong club also called me,” Ji Tong said nervously. “Host, do you want to go to the robot group alone?”

If the host went alone to meet these teammates then he might be able to get closer to this group of peers.

Perhaps the host could gradually establish other feelings that were more in line with ordinary people’s cognition, taking his attention away from this artificial intelligence that had accompanied him through the most tormenting years of his life.

Gratitude and happiness could sometimes be mistaken for love. The difference between the two would only be discovered when encountering a real heartbeat.

This was the messy, emotional chicken soup that Ji Tong had searched up on the Internet.

It sounded plausible.

However, Pei Qingyuan defeated his difficult attempt with only one sentence.

“Senior Qiao said that a cross-group match will be arranged tonight,” Pei Qingyuan said. “You can see different forms of robots playing soccer with your own eyes.”

…They were the stupid robots that kicked hard and fell while kicking a ball.

Pei Qingyuan saw the insistence in Ji Tong’s eyes instantly collapse and a smile flashed on his face.

“You are free to do what you want.” His tone was serious. “Don’t be burdened, just like in the past.”

Ji Tong’s resistance to feelings was expected by him.

Even seeing aside the like or dislike responses, he was aware of the concerns his system might have.

This was also the reason why Pei Qingyuan didn’t speak up immediately after understanding his feelings.

Fortunately, there was still a long time between them where they were destined to be entangled together.

He could wait slowly.

Hearing him say this, Ji Tong hesitated for a while before asking, “Then can we go to the classroom separately?”

Two boys were always glued together and this would make people have many unnecessary associations. For example, Ouyang Yu yesterday.

Over time, there would be various rumors. After all, people were often interested in this type of emotional gossip.

This couldn’t be allowed to affect the emotional line of the host that hadn’t sprouted yet.

“Yes,” Pei Qingyuan answered calmly.

Ji Tong observed his reaction and felt that the host shouldn’t be angry. He immediately sighed with relief.

Changing the host’s attitude toward himself wasn’t a one-day task. He had to take his time.

With different thoughts in mind, the day of studying began.

Today, Ouyang Yu arrived in the classroom early. He wandered for a while in the classroom with many empty seats but didn’t choose the seat he used to sit in before. He instead sat in the last row.

He didn’t have the courage to sit in front of Ji Tong and Pei Qingyuan for the time being.

He was afraid to death.

Five minutes later, Ji Tong appeared at the door of the classroom.

He looked around and walked straight past where he used to sit.

As Ouyang Yu’s gaze gradually changed from doubt to shock, Ji Tong stopped beside him and said with some embarrassment, “Is there anyone sitting on the window seat inside?”

He had observed that this was a corner of the classroom and there were people in the row in front of him. It was impossible for the host who came later to be next to him.

“No one is sitting here.”

Ouyang Yu’s mouth was faster than his brain and he regretted it as soon as the words came out.

Unfortunately, he didn’t dare to change his words. He could only get up and let the other party in. He watched Ji Tong become his temporary deskmate.

Okay, he owed Ji Tong.

This was the retribution for his nonsense.

He sat next to Ji Tong and kept thinking of his amazing mouth that day. This made him want to dig frantically at the ground with his toes. This feeling was comparable to when he lay in bed in the middle of the night, unable to sleep and every embarrassing moment flashed through his mind.

The world was too cruel to him.

But… why did Ji Tong come to the classroom alone today?

Where was Pei Qingyuan going to sit?

Another five minutes passed and almost all the students had arrived when Pei Qingyuan walked into the classroom alone.

He carried a bag filled with a freshly cut fruit box and a cup of milk tea that obviously wasn’t for himself. He slowly walked to the last row under Ouyang Yu’s increasingly intense despair and sat quietly across the aisle from Ouyang Yu.

On the left was Ji Tong, who was holding his cheeks and started out the window in a daze. On the right was Pei Qingyuan, who was cold and expressionless.

The mouthwatering fruit box and the beautiful milk tea were placed on Ouyang Yu’s table by Pei Qingyuan.

“Can I trouble you to hand this to Ji Tong? Thank you.”

Ouyang Yu, who was caught in the encirclement and had dazed eyes: “……”

He took back what he had just said.

This world could obviously be more cruel to him.