“One can always find a better another,
Beyond the mountain is a mountain higher!
I’m not afraid of toil and trouble,
Yet a mediocre life makes my torment double -”
His Majesty Methentahl’s sorrow of parting was soon drowned in Rong Gui’s “singing voice”.
The little robot wearing a red baseball cap was pedaling the car vigorously while “singing” at the top of his “lungs”.
Pulling his thoughts away from those inexplicable feelings, Xiao Mei’s eyes fell on the dark road ahead.
There’s no day and night at the eternally dark underground, but Rong Gui still managed to define the boundary of day and night according to the hours.
“We set out at eight o’clock in the morning and it’s now twelve o’clock. It’s time for lunch.” Looking at the watch (inside his body), Rong Gui said to Xiao Mei.
“Supposedly, we should have been hungry, and tired.” Pausing, Rong Gui let out a heavy sigh. “But I feel neither hungry, nor tired.”
“This is precisely the advantage of a mechanical body.” Pedaling the car at an even speed, Xiao Mei said in a flat voice.
“It’s also a disadvantage, okay? Didn’t I suddenly fall apart yesterday when I was working?” Rong Gui immediately refuted with righteous indignation.
“That’s just a loose screw.”
“When a screw gets loose, it means that the body is tired. Yet, since we have no feelings, we won’t even know it when we fall apart! Speaking of which, Xiao Mei, I’m afraid that my screws are getting loose again. Quick, have a check on me. Oh yes, you should also check yourself.”
Xiao Mei: ……
He really wanted to retort back.
A more advanced mechanical body would have an internal warning system, so that whenever a hardware or software might stop functioning, the body would be warned beforehand. Thus, the point raised by Rong Gui actually couldn’t constitute a disadvantage of the mechanical bodies. However, due to limited materials, their current mechanical bodies were really crude, which inevitably caused such bodies to break down without warning after being used for a long time.
Nevertheless, he had checked their bodies every day, so yesterday’s accident was purely the result of Rong Gui doing too much useless work, which tripled the energy consumption.
In the end, Xiao Mei didn’t say anything. He took out the toolkit to check on their bodies.
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.
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“How is it? Did any screw get loose?” Rong Gui was still asking eagerly aside.
“No, it’s all good.” Xiao Mei…Xiao Mei lied.
It’s just to avoid giving the other the opportunity to make more chattering noises. He said to himself.
“Then that’s good. I knew none did. Hehehe, I have full confidence in everything Xiao Mei did. Actually I know it’s only because I worked too much yesterday that the screw got loose. You’ve always checked the bodies of both of us carefully every day, so there shouldn’t be any problem in normal circumstance.” Scratching his head, Rong Gui laughed.
In face of this strong sense of trust from Rong Gui, Xiao Mei…His Majesty Xiao Mei was a little guilty.
However, considering that they were now doing an amount of exercise greater than ever, he indeed started to check their bodies at a fixed frequency of once in every five hours.
In the words of Rong Gui – it could be treated as a break.
When Rong Gui said it’s a break, he really meant to take a break. He would jump off the car, and take out a large package from the trunk. Xiao Mei looked at it closely, and found…wasn’t that package made from the carpet back in their house?
Yes, that carpet which was partially dismantled by Xiao Mei to weave the green caps~
Making two caps wouldn’t use up much material, and Xiao Mei simply threw the remaining part of the carpet on the ground. Rong Gui picked it up to use it as a large bag and put some odds and ends inside, such as comb, hand towels, and foot bath basin…
Unwrapping the package, Rong Gui soon spread the irregularly shaped carpet on the flat ground by the roadside. He also placed things like comb and hand towels in an orderly way, and even put a green mushroom lamp on the carpet. Only after he finished did he wave to Xiao Mei, who was still sitting in the car:
“Xiao Mei, come and get some rest~”
Xiao Mei: ……
In the end, he got off the car, carrying his toolkit.
In this dark world, the glow from the mushroom lamp was the only light in the vast expanse nearby. Despite the eerie atmosphere, the two little robots sat on a carpet as if they were having a picnic. While Xiao Mei was examining their bodies, Rong Gui was singing aside. This atmosphere…
…Became even eerier.
“The last time I went to a city, I went there alone. I didn’t have enough money on me, and I jumped the turnstile twice on my way… So there’s no opportunity to enjoy the scenery on the road at all. Once when I was chatting with my colleagues, I realized I didn’t even know the places I had passed on the way, where to find the delicious local dishes and where to have fun.” Sitting up straight on the carpet and making a posture he considered to be stylish, Rong Gui continued to chat with Xiao Mei.
“But this time, I’m going to the city with Xiao Mei, and we are driving…pedaling our own car. There are even cameras in our bodies. So I was thinking that I must take a good look at everything along the way.” After speaking about his thoughts, Rong Gui looked at Xiao Mei expectantly: “Xiao Mei, where are we now?”
Xiao Mei, who was examining and repairing his arms, paused for a moment. His flat voice then followed: “I don’t know.”
For countless times, he trekked through this dark land in sheer solitude, his eyes always fixed on the other side of this vast darkness. He had no interest in the scenery along the road, and naturally, he had no interest in knowing what this land was called.
Besides…does this place have any scenery to speak of?
Raising his head, Xiao Mei finally glanced at his surroundings: As expected, there isn’t any scenery worth looking at.
“Ah…that’s right~ It’s Xiao Mei’s first time to go to a city!” Completely ignorant of His Majesty’s interior monologue, Rong Gui interpreted Xiao Mei’s words on his own.
Looking around, Rong Gui added: “It’s so desolate around here, without a single person, and it doesn’t look like that anyone lives here as well.”
“How about we give this place a name?” Rong Gui came up with a sudden idea again.
Ignoring him, Xiao Mei kept doing the work in his hands.
Rong Gui had long been used to Xiao Mei’s constant attitude of ignoring him, and he didn’t need Xiao Mei to pay attention to him all the time anyway, so he went on all by himself: “This place is very close to Xiao Mei’s hometown…”
“How about calling it Si Ping Town?”
“Si Ping Town is my hometown! I’m just thinking – since this place is so close to Xiao Mei’s hometown, if you are going back home one day, Xiao Mei, I can also come back with you, and we’ll first arrive at my hometown, and then yours. Xiao, Xiao Mei, what do you think of this name?”
After Rong Gui finished, he paused for a while, and stole a glance at Xiao Mei.
At this moment, he was a little nervous – and Xiao Mei could feel this nervousness.
Continuing his work at hand, Xiao Mei didn’t make a sound.
Rong Gui was relieved.
“If you don’t object to it, Xiao Mei, this place will be called Si Ping Town!”
“From now on, here will be my hometown~”
“It’s just in the vicinity of Xiao Mei’s hometown – we are the neighboring town~”
The shabby little robot looked very happy.
Rong Gui took a picture in his new hometown as a souvenir. Since he worried that his brain capacity was not enough, he asked Xiao Mei to save the photo in Xiao Mei’s own memory chip.
And then, after a short break, the two of them got onto the car again and left.
Meanwhile, Rong Gui’s “singing voice” started ringing once more:
“The billowing dusts of this mortal world roll ‘n’ roll,
Throughout the Heaven and Earth I go with the flow,
May our love be deep, and our entwined fate be sweet,
Into the edge of the world our hearts will forever meet~”
Rong Gui clearly sang without any melody, but after listening to it for a long time, Xiao Mei also felt this should be a nice song.
Perhaps it’s because the lyrics were well written. He thought.
He learned the lyrics by heart in the end.
Author has something to say:
The lyrics come from the song “Go With The Flow” (随遇而安) by old grandpa Huang Zhan (James Wong).
I was listening to this song all the time while writing this chapter. Although it’s a song from a martial art drama, for unknown reason I feel it really suits A Gui and Xiao Mei~
“May our love be deep, and our entwined fate be sweet,
Into the edge of the world our hearts will forever meet”
It really feels as if the song is talking about these two~
But that amount of trust tho– I CAN’T
I really love Ah Gui! I love that he always make even desolate places lively. He’s not a ray of sunshine but the sun itself.
Do they have a picture together? Hope they have one.
That song sounds lovely. And OMG YAAAAS! It really feels like it’s talking about them. Now, whenever I hear this song I’d remember this two cuties.
Ai, really makes me feel more excited to read more about them and their adventures. Thank you very very much for this chapter, translator-san! Without you, I would never be able to read this gem unless I learn the language lol. Always stay safe, hydrated, and healthy! I wish you all the best.