Rong Gui’s distress eventually ended with his automatic shutdown due to battery drain.
This was the aftermath of unplugging yourself after recharging for merely a very short time.
In the end, it was Xiao Mei again who towed him home.
Having connected Rong Gui’s body to the charger, Xiao Mei checked the energy reserve in his own body to make sure that there’s still enough to use. Then, as if driven by an unknown mystical force, he looked to the freezing cabin on the bed.
He gazed at it for a long time.
Afterwards, he walked straight in the direction of the bed.
The edge of the bed was a little high for him, so he dragged the footstool next to the bed and stepped onto it. Then, he climbed onto the bed clumsily.
By the way, the footstool was also made by him.
While the idea still came from Rong Gui.
The diminutive robot stood on the bed. He was only a little taller than the freezing cabin, which precisely allowed him to look down from above on the person in the cabin.
To his surprise, he saw water streaks on the face of that “Rong Gui” inside.
They ran down from under the thick eyelashes, shallowly flowed across the extremely sunken cheeks, and were about to slide into the respirator.
It’s uncertain whether he had developed some kind of reflex during these days under all sorts of trainings mustered by Rong Gui – Xiao Mei immediately grabbed the handkerchief neatly folded at the bedside, and struggled himself to push open the cabin lid all alone. Bending down strenuously, he used his handkerchief to wipe away the water streaks below the eyes of Rong Gui inside.
Suddenly, he remembered the lyrics from a song: “…Brush away your grieving tears with my hands…”
He felt as if he heard someone singing.
The voice seemed so close, yet so far away.
Those were the lyrics from a song by the only singer he had ever liked.
He had only shed tears once in his lifetime.
That’s one day when he was traveling in a space roadster – in mid-air, he unexpectedly locked eyes with the person appearing on a giant screen erected in the prime location of the city’s central business district.
Only after a long while did he realize that it was a stare-down between him and a screen, and the other person wasn’t even looking at him.
That person was singing.
He instantly rolled down the car window, and the song poured in.
It’s the most beautiful voice he had ever heard –
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Lf kjr raeccfv. Ccv atfc, ja atf milwjz bo atf rbcu, j vgbq bo kjafg revvfcis ofii boo ab atf yjmx bo tlr tjcv.
Ca atja wbwfca, tlr wlcv kjr mbwqifafis yijcx. Lf vlvc’a ecvfgrajcv kts tf kjr lc afjgr – yea qfgtjqr, la’r yfmjerf bo atja rlculcu nblmf ktlmt rffwfv ab yf jyif ab qeglos atf rbei rb atbgbeutis.
At that moment, his whole body shuddered, inexplicable tears slipping down his face.
Since then, he finally had a new hobby.
He would purchase that singer’s albums anonymously, and would also go to his concerts.
Although he never again shed tears afterwards, that person’s voice remained beautiful.
Even if his body gradually became all metal, he still loved the melodies sung by that singer the most.
He mainly listened to that person’s voice, and paid no particular attention to the lyrics of the songs. Yet over time, he would naturally remember them, not to mention that his memory was outstanding to begin with.
It’s rather the singer who didn’t seem to have a good memory. Every time he held a live concert, when he got emotional, he would often forgot the lyrics. But he was a natural-born singer, a natural-born poet. Even if he forgot the lyrics, he could always come up with his own lyrics on the spot based on his feelings at the time.
Those improvised lyrics thus became “limited edition lyrics” which had been sung only once, the favorite collection among fans.
The lyrics that Asheville Methentahl remembered were one of the many “limited edition lyrics” from that singer.
They were nothing peculiar, really. It’s just that the singer at that time selected a lucky fan on the spot, and invited the latter to go onto the stage, and, while singing, he gently wiped away the tears of excitement from the fan’s face.
The rollicking atmosphere of that concert almost made the venue to explode!
His ears were filled with screams of excitement.
When he just wiped the tears from Rong Gui’s body, he suddenly recalled this piece of lyrics from that singer, as well as the singer’s action at that concert.
He used to think that he would never have done any action like this, yet he did it under such situation.
Having carefully wiped clean traces of tears around Rong Gui’s eyes, he even helped Rong Gui to clean up the eyelashes. After realizing that he had adeptly performed a full set of actions, he dazed a little.
Instead of closing the lid of the freezing cabin in time, he leaned on the cabin to observe the person below.
Ah…so this man is Rong Gui.
There was no other moment more than this one which made him realize that this body inside the freezing cabin was Rong Gui’s true being.
Probably because that robotic Rong Gui outside was too noisy, in his mind, Rong Gui was always like that, under a robotic shell. Even though they had daily contact with each other, even though Rong Gui repeatedly emphasized how great his body was, Xiao Mei had never equated Rong Gui with this body.
Until now.
So this is what that man named Rong Gui really looks like…
That Rong Gui who was squatting by the field just now… Was he being sad?
If he wasn’t, then why would he shed tears?
So, even after the consciousness is separated from one’s body, the body may still be influenced by one’s proper consciousness?
Xiao Mei thought a lot about it.
When he was observing Rong Gui’s body, he inevitably saw his own as well.
His younger self already looked like a stranger to him.
He gazed at his own body, as if looking at a completely unfamiliar person.
That stranger was sleeping quietly next to the body of Rong Gui. He was fragile.
Fragile…and angelic.
He naturally didn’t add the latter adjective himself – this word was Rong Gui’s description of him.
After watching for another while, he closed the freezing cabin before running out of energy. Then he climbed down from the bed, put the footstool back under the bed, and finally, he went back to the other Rong Gui, and plug himself into Rong Gui’s robotic body.
When he booted up himself again the next day, what he saw was, as always, the big head of Rong Gui.
“Hehehe~” Rong Gui’s mood was as usual, which…seemed to be very happy?
“I heard it all!” If Rong Gui still bore his human appearance now, he must have been wearing a so-called “mischievous smile” on his face.
“?” Xiao Mei the robot decided to adopt a defensive response, countering any unanticipated changes with imperturbable stillness.
“Xiao Mei, you sang in your dreams at night!” As expected, hearing no response from Xiao Mei for a long time, Rong Gui spilled the tea himself.
“Brush away your grieving tears with my hands~ Wooooo~ Xiao Mei, you are such a romantic!”
Xiao Mei: ……
Xiao Mei decided to check his own security system later.
For a whole day, Rong Gui acted very normal, as if the battery drain yesterday had affected his memory, and what happened last night had never existed at all.
Until the evening, when the two robots, after a whole day’s hard work, were again connected together to recharge –
It’s past ten o’clock at night. To be more precise, it’s now 10:30 p.m., and Rong Gui had gone to sleep…no, had been shut down for half an hour.
Just as Xiao Mei was about to check his security system, Rong Gui, who he thought had been shut down already, suddenly spoke:
“Xiao Mei, yesterday you said that, if I think the current body is too shabby, I can go out to buy a better one in the future.”
Xiao Mei quietly turned his head towards Rong Gui.
“‘Go out’, you said “go out”, which means that apart from here, there are other places out there! I mean, out there!” Rong Gui had never been good at expressing himself, but Xiao Mei understood what he meant.
“So you remembered.” After a long while, Xiao Mei only came up with such a sentence.
“How can I forget? My memory isn’t bad~ Although I can’t remember all of it word for word, it’s super easy just to remember its general meaning!” Rong Gui said again, rather cockily.
Xiao Mei: ……
“What do you think…it will look like out there? Xiao Mei, do you know?”
“I don’t know.” This was the truth. In his every previous life, he left here early. He really didn’t know anything about here, and he had no interest in knowing.
He thought the other person would be disappointed to hear his answer, yet unexpectedly –
“So you don’t know? Hehehe~ Xiao Mei, it turns out that you are also a country bumpkin who has never experienced the world!”
Xiao Mei choked.
But soon, he heard the other person continue to speak:
“Just like me~ We are both country bumpkins who have never seen the world!”
Xiao Mei: ……
“Don’t be afraid, let us two country bumpkins go out together in the future! I am four years older than you, so I’ll take care of you!” During the rest of the time, Rong Gui no longer needed any reaction from Xiao Mei, as himself alone had done all the talks that could have been spoken.
“I was alone when I went to the big city to make a living back then. I didn’t listen to Rong Fu’s advice, but went rather foolishly, without any preparation or money. In the end I was tricked into signing a contract, and could only serve as a stand-in actor to earn some money…”
“It’s such a bitter memory~~~~~~~”
“I can’t be so foolish this time. We have to make some preparation before going out. First, we have to save some money!”
“But there are only two of us at this place. How do we get to save any money~”
“If there’s no money to save, let’s store something!”
“Let’s store earth beans!”
BRUH BRUH BRAAAAAAHHHH~
Amidst Rong Gui’s ambitious declarations of various saving and storing plans, Xiao Mei shut down himself.
This chapter is so cute, very heartwarming. I can feel how much Xiao Mei adores that singer. It makes me very curious about who that great singer is. Is he Ah Gui or someone else?
I can’t wait for these two country bumpkins to go out and experience the world.
Thank you very very much for this chapter! I hope you’re doing great! ヾ(＠＾▽＾＠)ﾉ