Two hundred miles later, a row of small houses did appear on the left side of the road. They were very ordinary stone houses and nothing like the fancy high-tech shaped buildings that Rong Gui had imagined to exist in a futuristic world. In fact, they were even somewhat old-fashioned.
But there was light inside.
Not that kind of faint, fluorescent light of a mushroom lamp, but a brilliant light that only incandescent light bulbs could emit!
Rong Gui suddenly became nervous in his heart.
“S-so, we are about to see some other people soon…” Clenching his fists for a moment, he hurriedly pulled out the small mirror he placed under the seat so that he could readily reach it at any time. He looked carefully at his front in the mirror, and then his back. Convinced that his current self was still fairly clean despite looking a little shabby, he turned to tidy up Xiao Mei a bit. After slightly adjusting the green hat carelessly drooping from Xiao Mei’s head, he never spoke another word since then.
If there was one reason why a chatterbox suddenly stopped chattering, that’s probably his nervousness.
When Xiao Mei stopped the car, Rong Gui, to show his gesture of solidarity and brotherhood to Xiao Mei, took the courage to go in first. The traffic control office was empty, except for the counter ahead…
Er…it’s a very tall counter.
The counter was too high for the two little robots who were not tall enough due to insufficient materials. Rong Gui couldn’t see what’s behind it.
That’s pretty awkward.
But before he found the right footstool to step on, a man suddenly poked out his head from behind the counter. That man…was very weird indeed! He poked out not only one, but several heads, which initially scared Rong Gui so much that he almost fainted. Only after Rong Gui readjusted the focus of the imager did he realize that those so-called heads were actually not heads, but a kind of eagle-like creatures. Those birds were black and very large in size. They all stood on that man’s shoulders, almost engulfing the man’s own head.
As that man leaned over, all birds turned their glistening, orange-yellowish eyes towards Rong Gui’s face without blinking, which was truly spooky.
“What’s your business here?” That man spoke. His tone was a little different from the tone that Xiao Mei had implanted in Rong Gui. Fortunately, such difference was minor.
After listening carefully to the first sentence spoken by the first man alive whom he had ever seen since he came here, Rong Gui was going to respond to the other.
When talking to people whom you are dealing with for the first time, your voice must be bright and clear. You may have an accent, but you should never be afraid – these were the words that the dean of the orphanage used to tell them when they were kids.
Adhering to this principle, Rong Gui said loudly:
“Hello! We are here to pick up our photo!”
“Ha?” The man with a flock of birds on his head was dumbfounded.
While Rong Gui was still feeling satisfied with his neat and quick reaction, Xiao Mei, who had been standing behind until now, dragged him backward.
Standing where Rong Gui stood before, Xiao Mei raised his head and spoke to the man who was looking down on him from high above: “We are here to pay the ticket.”
Rong Gui: Oops! My gosh! I even got my first sentence wrong!
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.
It’s lucky that he had Xiao Mei with him~
Lfjglcu Wljb Zfl’r gfrqbcrf, atf wjc yftlcv atf mbecafg abbx j ofk rafqr yjmx. Coafg j ragfjw bo cblrfr ktlmt rbecvfv ilxf j qglcalcu qgfrr, tf tjcvfv bea j qlfmf bo qjqfg ogbw lcrlvf atf mbecafg.
“Tbeg mjg tjv j rqffv nlbijalbc, jcv sbe klii cffv ab qjs j olcf bo 60 cjgylfr.”
“Speeding? How come? Our Da Huang was going extremely slow!” With his both hands resting on Xiao Mei’s shoulders, Rong Gui tiptoed to poke out his head from behind, defending Da Huang loudly.
The birds on that man’s head focused their eyes on Rong Gui again. A cold voice came out under the black feathers:
“Who have told you that a speed violation means speeding? On that road outside, any act of driving with a speed lower than 80 bits per hour is considered a traffic violation. Moreover, you have been driving with an even speed of 20 bits per hour all the time, which was already a serious violation.”
Does it work too? Rong Gui was stupefied.
The man held out his hand to collect the fine. Staring at that large and powerful palm, Rong Gui suddenly noticed a very serious problem.
“Xiao Mei, do we have any money?” He asked Xiao Mei in a small voice (“small” in the sense that he thought it to be).
“No.” Xiao Mei said coldly. What’s more –
It’s too late now to forge any counterfeit coins, not to mention that he actually had never seen the so-called “narbies” here in the past.
“Then what should we do?” Rong Gui’s state of stupefaction became even more severe.
However, their conversation had already reached the ears of the man behind the counter. They couldn’t tell if he’s angry or not, but the large black birds on his shoulders suddenly all fluttered their wings and flew up, hovering around the roof, and the man finally revealed his true countenance.
The moment Rong Gui saw that man’s face, he froze again.
“Why do you look at me like this?” A sonorous, low voice came out from the man with a tinge of anger, revealing his unpleasant feeling of being gawked at.
And then –
“You…you are really good looking~” Rong Gui said with a feeble voice.
That’s clearly a robot’s voice, yet within this flat voice seemed to conceal a trail of tiny red hearts, which immediately enlivened the atmosphere in the room.
“This hairstyle really fits your face, and your neck curve looks very nice~ Are you doing strength training to build muscles? This curve is clearly the result of strength training. Also, the color of your clothes really complements your tie. You indeed know how to dress up~” An outpouring of praises from Rong Gui caught the man off guard. After listening to all of them, it’s finally the man’s turn to become stupefied.
Coughing softly, the man reached out his fingers to slightly adjust his yellow tie, and whispered: “Do you also think this tie works well with the color of the shirt?”
“Yes, yes!” Rong Gui nodded rapidly, “Frankly speaking, the color of this shirt is too rustic! I won’t want it even if it’s given to me for free. Yet somehow, when paired with this tie, the shirt instantly looks super chic~”
The corners of the man’s mouth immediately lifted slightly. Although still maintaining his reserved attitude, the man started to talk with a faster speed: “It does, doesn’t it? This shirt is just too damn rustic in terms of both color and style. I won’t want it too even if it’s free! Yet it is our uniform, so I have to wear it! Fortunately we don’t have to wear a uniform tie as well. But the ugliness of this uniform really transcends the common notion of ‘ugliness’, and no matter what tie I wear, it still looks super ugly on me, until I suddenly found this tie at a tie shop in the City of Jodt.”
“I can finally go to work in this ugly uniform with a peace of mind.” The man sighed in relief.
Both men shared a passion for beauty. Looking at each other, they instantly saw from one another’s (mechanical) eyes the tacit mutual understanding between people of the same taste.
The two people spent the rest of the time continuing their friendly and passionate discussion on the color and style of ties, until someone else inside the office called out the man’s name. The man answered, and only then did he reluctantly end his conversation with Rong Gui.
“Although I really want to go on with our chat, my colleague is calling me.” That man said.
“Never mind me, your business is more important. Please feel free to go back to work!” Rong Gui was very considerate.
“They are not calling me to work, but to play cards. There aren’t many people here, and every day we are bored to death, so we plan to get together to play cards, but we don’t have enough players…” As he spoke, that man suddenly turned to Rong Gui, “We are only short of one player. Do you want to come over and play? If you win, you can use the gains to pay the fine.”
Rong Gui’s mechanical eyes immediately twinkled.
“But I don’t know how to play cards…” Rong Gui felt pity that they couldn’t take advantage of such a good opportunity. However, he instantly thought of Xiao Mei.
What kind of person was Xiao Mei? In Rong Gui’s mind, there’s nothing that Xiao Mei couldn’t do.
With a creaking sound, Rong Gui immediately turned his head backwards to stare straight at Xiao Mei, and asked him: “Xiao Mei, can you play cards?”
Xiao Mei looked at him expressionlessly. Only after a long while did he answer: “I can.”
There was no need to ask what types of card games they were going to play, since he knew how to play them all.
“That’s it then~ Xiao Mei, you go play cards. Remember to win back the sum of our fine. Win against others, but not against this big bro – he’s my good friend! You two can form a good team~” Even though Rong Gui didn’t know how to play cards, he apparently knew a few knacks and tricks of it. As soon as he pushed Xiao Mei over, his “good friend” behind the counter promptly opened the door next to the counter.
The next moment, Xiao Mei, who initially came here to pay the fine, now stood in the staff-only work area.
“You may come, too.” Probably because he was very pleased for finding the missing player, the man behind the counter displayed an even gentler attitude. One could see him waving to Rong Gui and say: “It so happens that no one will be on duty if we all go to play cards, so you can cover for me here. If someone comes over to pay the fine, just help me collect it. Once I win, I will give you a share of my gains as your wage.”
“Really? That’s great!” Rong Gui was overjoyed. Nodding, he immediately took the job.
“Have fun playing cards!” Rong Gui said to Xiao Mei and the man in uniform.
“Have fun with your work, too!” The man said to Rong Gui, who initially came to pay the fine.
Is there something wrong with this conversation?
But –
Who cares~
The man took off his uniform hat and handed it over to Rong Gui. After putting the hat on top of his own red cap, Rong Gui began to work seriously.
Not long after he put on the hat, with a fluttering sound, that flock of black birds all landed on his head and shoulders. His face was blocked completely, and no one could see how he looked like.
Rong Gui was indeed very stupid, and there were many technical works which he could not do well. However, he had good acting skills!
It was as if he was born to be an actor – just by talking with someone for a while, he could immediately imitate that person very well.
It’s an unconscious talent that even himself wasn’t aware of.
A mere instinct.
Thus, Rong Gui, who didn’t know what he should do, intuitively started to imitate that man who had just been sitting behind the counter.
Whether it was the man’s aloof expression, his speaking tone, or his attitude, Rong Gui learned them all.
As a result, when the first client came in to pay the fine, what he saw was a gloomy-faced officer of the traffic control bureau.
Although Rong Gui knew nothing about the procedures of his work, with his superb acting skills, he successfully managed to handle the situation by merely using three words: “ah,” “huh?” and “hmm.”
By the time Xiao Mei and the man finished playing cards and came out, there had already been a small pile of money on the table inside the counter.
And Rong Gui was anxiously counting it.
A robot apparently wouldn’t have any expression, and only Rong Gui could convey his flustered feeling through his mere movements.
“What’s wrong? Did you mess up the cash amount? It’s okay if you collected less than you should have. Don’t worry, I won the most money out of the games today and I can make that up for you!” The man was obviously in a very good mood. He was not at all worried that Rong Gui messed up the work. Instead, he even comforted the little robot.
“Thanks, but…” Turning his head, Rong Gui first expressed his gratitude to the man, and then looked down at the money in his hands, saying anxiously: “but I didn’t collect less than I should have. No matter how I count it…the sum is always 200 narbies more than the amount I should have charged! Sorry, I knew that I’m bad at math, but I have never thought that I can be this bad!”
Xiao Mei: ……
The officer: ……
Thus, from this day, Xiao Mei and Rong Gui were no longer two impecunious robots. After coming over to pay the fine, their total assets reached 350 narbies. And, excluding the fine they had to pay, the money earned by Rong Gui actually accounted for the major share of the family’s total assets~
Author has something to say:
Others came to the traffic control bureau to pay money, whereas A Gui and Xiao Mei came to earn money.
Hmph~
Haha A’Gui is the one bringing home the monies~ >w<
Thanks for the chapter~
Such an adorable little robot ❤ Thank you for the chapter