Perhaps he pounced with too much strength, a small gap was knocked open at the top of the “coffin”, and the ice-cold liquefied gas inside leaked out. The surface of Rong Gui’s mechanical hands was lightly frozen that it was covered with a visible layer of ice. A pale, rigid foot then drooped from that small gap. Frankly speaking, that foot was so skinny and rigid that it almost resembled a withered twig. Yet Rong Gui still held on to that foot immediately.
“Alas, my foot!” Rong Gui then let out a piteous shriek.
“You can recognize it even if it has turned into this?” Behind him, that robot asked.
“How can I not? You see, the bones of my foot are so symmetrical, that my index toe is as long as my thumb toe. It is said that only good-looking person has toes like this! In addition, there is a mole under my baby toe, which is inside and cannot be find so easily. But you see, you see…”
The robot behind Rong Gui: ……
How narcissistic one has to be in order to count the moles inside his toes like enumerating family heirlooms!
Not knowing the thoughts of the robot behind him, Rong Gui was simply stroking his own body, heartbroken. He could not well manage the strength of the current robotic body, so he just touched very lightly, and slowly moved his fingers upward. Suddenly, he was taken aback by a third additional leg inside the coffin.
“My mother! Why is here another person inside?” Rong Gui nearly threw away the leg held in his hands. That was close – but he caught it again.
“Ah, that’s me.” The metallic voice came from behind. That robot opened his mouth again.
Held on to his own leg, Rong Gui was dumbfounded.
The translucent coffin was placed squarely in the middle of the table, and two bodies were temporarily put together inside. The owners of the two bodies, on the other hand, were standing beside the table.
There was no light. With the help of the night vision that only this current body possessed, Rong Gui finally learned to take a look at the surrounding environment.
“What is this place?” He asked blankly.
“Forty minutes and fifty nine seconds.” The robot opposite to him suddenly said.
“Hah?”
“It’s the time passed from the moment you woke up to the moment you asked this question.” The robot said flatly, “Under the same condition, normal people would usually ask this question within five minutes after waking up.”
Rong Gui: =-=
Fortunately, the other one didn’t spend too much time inquiring into this question which would possibly expose his IQ. Soon, that guy who seemed to be a robot, but in fact should also have been a human continued to speak to him.
“I found your data inside the freezing cabin. You should be a patient who had been placed in the freezing cabin due to serious illness on February 12, 2017.”
“Hah?” Rong Gui still hadn’t come to his senses.
As he spoke, the little robot with short limbs on the opposite side suddenly pointed to his head with his mechanical hands. “You, seem to have something wrong here.”
“Hey – ” I know I’m not bright, but you don’t have to hint at it over and over again, okay?
Rong Gui was about to get angry, but the robot kept talking. “Some parts of your brain were infected by a pathogen that could not be cured at that time. After you sank into a coma, upon the request of your kin, you were treated with the only then available solution to this circumstance – cryonics.”
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.
Rong Gui suddenly raised his head. “My kin?”
“Ktf cjwf bo atf olgra rlucjabgs kjr Ebcu Me. Dfmjerf atf mgsbqgfrfgnjalbc qfglbv kjr abb ibcu, atf merabvljcr lc-yfakffc mtjcufv rfnfgji tecvgfvr bo alwfr. Ojafg atf merabvljcr kfca wlrrlcu, yea atfs ifoa fcbeut wbcfs rb atja sbeg ybvs mbeiv yf qgfrfgnfv obg ibcu.” Ktf gbyba rjlv, qeaalcu j mjgv-ilxf atlcu bc atf ajyif. “Pa’r atf vjaj atja P qeiifv bea ogbw sbeg olif. Tbeg meggfca ybvs tjr jc jmmfrr qbga, rb sbe mjc gfjv atfw ktfc sbe tjnf alwf.”
Rong Gui looked at that tiny card. After a long while, he picked it up gently.
Rong Fu…This name was so familiar…
He became a little oblivious of it. But strangely, just after he “thought” for a while, the vivid image of a woman suddenly appeared in his “mind”.
Yes, that woman was Rong Fu, it’s the big sister who had grown up with him together in the same orphanage…
Rong Fu, the first to leave the orphanage but who came back regularly later, was the big sister to all children in the orphanage.
And he was the second in line.
Rong Gui was distracted.
He lowered his head to look at the card lying in his hand. A long time later, he looked up and asked the robot in front of him, “Could you teach me how to…how to read this card?”
The robot didn’t refuse.
Thus, with the help of the other, Rong Gui carefully inserted the card into the card slot hidden under the lid at the lower part of his chest. This is a fascinating experience. Not long after he inserted the card, Rong Gui found that he had a new piece of memory.
Rong Fu’s face appeared at the beginning of that memory.
“A Gui, it’s me who made this decision for you. Your illness…cannot be cured with the technology nowadays, and can only be suspended temporarily by freezing. Who knows if there might be a solution to it after a few years?” Rong Fu’s face seemed a little haggard, and even if she concealed it nicely with face powders, Rong Gui still saw through it.
But then Rong Fu suddenly smiled. “Don’t worry, I will keep your body safe. But if you wake up too slowly, your abdominal muscles might be gone. This I can’t help.”
This image soon vanished.
And then, many of the subsequent images were still Rong Fu’s. Apart from Rong Fu, there were other siblings from the orphanage. They occasionally came over together, but more often they came alone, helped to massage his body, and talked to him. During the process they would also share with him everyone’s recent situation, until –
Everyone was starting to grow old.
Rong Fu had a son.
Rong Lu was the first one leaving.
Then Rong Fu was gone as well.
The ones who came in later images were their descendants.
Someone started to call Rong Gui “grandpa”.
Gradually, he became “great-grandpa”.
There’s also someone who complained to Rong Gui that he wouldn’t want any children, but the instructions passed down from his ancestors required him to have a child, so that the child would continue to take care of the “ancestor” Rong Gui.
Though complaining, he still had a child. Afterwards, he also happily brought the little kid over to see him.
That little kid was very good-looking, nearly as good-looking as him!
In a short time, Rong Gui swiftly read these past “memories” at a speed difficult to reach by humans, until the last person who took care of him passed away in an accident. The person died without offspring, and the large sum of insurance was all left to him for his subsequent medical treatment.
The memories saved in the memory card stopped here.
Rong Gui touched his cheeks. He couldn’t feel anything.
No temperature, nor tears.
This body constructed by metals couldn’t perceive, nor could it shed any tears at all.
“You may unplug the card when you finish reading. Your brain capacity is a bit low. Later you can go search for some chips with higher capacity and insert them for expansion.” The robot at the opposite side said to him.
Rong Gui shook his head. “No need, just leave it here.”
“But your brain capacity is indeed very low.” This guy on the other side just couldn’t read the mood.
“So what? My original brain capacity was not high to begin with! My strength is not my brain, but my face and body!” Rong Gui responded irritably, but then froze.
Ah..yes…
He had also said this sentence to Rong Fu before when chatting with her. Every time when Rong Fu tried to teach him math problems and he couldn’t do them, when Rong Fu started knocking his head, he would stubbornly straighten up his neck and answer with this.
Another piece of once vague recollection had been repaired and salvaged from deep down of his memory.
It’s a bit heart-warming.
All of a sudden, he felt a little happier.
Thus, when he raised up his head again, he looked as if nothing had happened.
“Then…what year are we in now? How did I…turn into something like this? Had my illness been cured?” He finally thought of asking these questions.
Showing no interest to the other’s privacy, the robot on the other side merely looked at him. “I can only answer one of your questions.”
“I don’t know what year it is now for you, because the years of the era in which you lived did not appear in any of our history books here. And we are now in Year 349 of the Calendar of Chaos.”
He paused, and added after a while, “Today is February 14.”
It seemed very likely that he paused just now to check date.
Rong Gui was momentarily stunned.
The robot went on, “Your illness likely hadn’t been cured, either, since all body parts above your neck were connected with special devices by tubes. This research institute had been abandoned for many years. If it were not for the enough nutrient solution which had been infused inside years ago, you would have lost all vital signs almost for sure.”
“Therefore, the only thing I can tell you, is how you have turned into something like this.”
“The day before yesterday, I accidentally entered this place by mistake. The air here is not suitable for human life. Before my own body was fatally damaged, I found that your freezing cabin was the only one here still properly functioning. So I put my body inside your cabin, and froze them together. As to how you have turned into this, it may count as my repayment to you for sharing the freezing cabin. If I hadn’t sorted out your consciousness codes and transferred them to this current simple body, you probably wouldn’t be yourself even if you woke up.”
These words sounded a little complicated for Rong Gui. It’s a good thing that he’s a robot now, and after re-listening to these words by using the repeat function, he asked blankly, “How…were they transferred?”
And then –
Although the other’s face was a ridiculous mechanical face, Rong Gui still felt that he could see some traces of contempt on it. And the next second, as expected –
“Even though I can explain, I don’t think you can understand it.”
The other’s voice clearly didn’t have any tone, yet disdain could be heard from every word.
It’s a shame that he could not refute it.
His chest heaved with difficulty through a robotic body. Making an expression of deep breath, the next moment, Rong Gui felt he could again speak calmly with the guy on the other side.
“Alright, my brain capacity is probably indeed insufficient…”
“However…”
He also found the place to set time inside his body. After correcting the date according to the time the other one just told him, Rong Gui noticed today’s date, and looked up.
“I just found that today is a feast day, so…”
The robot at the opposite side raised up his head in confusion.
“Happy Valentine’s Day.” Rong Gui smiled.
Author has something to say:
Please treat this story as a brand new story!
Wish everyone a happy Valentine’s Day!
P.S. The shou-kun in this story is probably the the most confident person about his good look among all my stories (Hey!)
P.P.S. It’s also the story where gong and shou met the soonest (it must be because gong has been staying in my mind for too long… nine years!)
And P.P.P.S. Now, everyone can see who is the gong, right?
Thanks for the chapter! ❤
Rong Gui was preserved that long? My goodness. Thank God he’s preserved tho. It feels like he’s also waiting for his destined one (≧▽≦)
Rong Gui’s confidence is all I ever need LMFAO
Thank you very much for translating this! I hope you had a great day ^^
Gimme some of those confidence omg