If we were now a family, then…how about adding one more piece of furniture~
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Such were Rong Gui’s strange brain circuits.
As a result, while Xiao Mei was studying the stones on the ground, Rong Gui also started studying them super seriously. If one hadn’t known him, one would have thought that he had also made some significant discoveries~
Unfortunately~
He was only studying the shapes and colors of the stones. That’s all.
He wanted a small table to place his head, so that Xiao Mei wouldn’t have to waste his back basket solely to carry it. Although it’s very heartwarming for Xiao Mei not to directly put his head on the ground in order to avoid dirt, such use of basket was nevertheless a waste.
So why not simply build a small stone table~ There happened to be so many stones here.
Rong Gui’s hair was yellow, and his cap was red, which were already too flamboyant. Reasonably speaking, it would be better to use a low-profile color for the table to place his head, such as black color. However…the metal used to make his current face was also fairly black…
Rong Gui finally selected a whitish stone, and he called out to Xiao Mei: “Xiao Mei, Xiao Mei, can we bring back that white stone there?”
Xiao Mei: Did he find that the stone could be the marginal ore of the blackfield mineral?
Without speaking, Xiao Mei looked at Rong Gui in silence.
And then –
It seemed that Rong Gui was born to overturn the various speculations from Xiao Mei:
“Xiao Mei, how about using that white stone to build a table for placing my head? White is a classic color able to match all other colors. Whether with my yellow hair, red cap, or black face…it will match well~”
I knew I thought too much – by Xiao Mei.
Thus, when Xiao Mei brought out that stone with him, he used Rong Gui’s reason to explain to the manager.
Of course, the explanation was also done by Rong Gui. Apart from giving a serious explanation as to why he wanted this stone, Rong Gui also expressed his gratitude to the manager. He mentioned how useful the radio in the small waist bag was, yet it’s a shame that he could only receive one channel…
“There’s only one music channel, and what it occasionally played were all songs a bit sad. Were it not for Xiao Mei, I’d feel that I would get a depression…” In the end, Rong Gui said in a melancholy mood.
The manager laughed drily.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be the last person to get a depression.” He finally said.
Rong Gui: Is it a praise? Is it my illusion that…there’s an undertone in his words?
From the beginning to the end, Xiao Mei only said one thing. To be more precise, he asked a question: “Is there a marketplace here? Where we can buy ores.”
In fact, the answer to this question was 100% affirmative.
This answer could be deduced from the conversation with the lighthouse staff member long before they entered the city. From the lighthouse, one could go to three cities, and the city entrance of Eni required the least amount of credits. Granted, for them, who owned no credit, coming here was the only choice. But for many other people, coming here was merely one among two, three or even more alternatives.
And why did those people come here?
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.
A most reasonable and straightforward guess was that they came to purchase ores.
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Pc atf qjgxlcu iba, Wljb Zfl lcvffv rjk j ofk qfbqif ktb vlv cba ibbx ilxf ijybgfgr.
“Of course! Eni is most famous for its ores!” As expected, the tall manager gave an affirmative answer.
“Could you tell me where it is?” And then, Xiao Mei naturally asked the question which he really intended to ask.
Of course, if he chose to ask around outside the mine, he would also get the answer. Yet, there’s too much risk to ask other miners just like themselves. It’s fine if those miners didn’t know the answer or didn’t want to respond, but Xiao Mei was most worried that they would just trick them by telling them untrue information.
The manager cast a glance at Xiao Mei. After a long while, he took out a piece of paper and drew a few strokes on it: “Right now you can only go here.”
“Thank you, Rhode!” Rong Gui immediately said thanks on behalf of Xiao Mei.
“You’re welcome, A Gui.” The tall manager called “Rhode” casually waved his hand.
Only then did Xiao Mei notice that these two guys had somehow already exchanged their names with each other.
“Thanks.” Casting a quick glance at the paper, and memorizing all graphics on it by heart, Xiao Mei returned the paper to Rhode.
And then, he also said thanks.
“Remember to come to work on time tomorrow, still at today’s hour.” Waving at the two robots, Rhode said to them.
“We will, we will.” Rong Gui was still the only one responding to him. After Rong Gui said goodbye to Rhode, Xiao Mei began to walk ahead.
There was a mine train nearby. After receiving Xiao Mei and two more miners, the train started to move. The permit to the mine was, without exception, kept by the driver. While dropping them off, the driver reminded, “The train comes every hour on the hour.”
He didn’t say the aftermath of missing the train, but anyone could imagine what it would be: Since only the driver had a permit, one could not enter the mining pit without first getting onto the train. Thus, if one couldn’t catch the train on time, he would naturally lose his job.
This was a serious aftermath, and no miner would be late easily.
The train door opened, and minors got out of the train one by one.
Xiao Mei and A Gui still chose to got off last – Xiao Mei was too short, and he looked so fragile when being jostled around by the crowd.
They found a large parking lot outside, and a lot of miners parked their cars there. Rong Gui let Xiao Mei ask around, and they learned that the parking lot actually wouldn’t charge any parking fees within eight and a half hours. This was obviously to make it more convenient for miners living far away to drive to and from the work. Rong Gui instantly said to Xiao Mei: “We should drive Da Huang here tomorrow.”
Xiao Mei didn’t object.
They wouldn’t drive Da Huang here until tomorrow, so today, they were still without a car, and they had to walk their way to the market on foot.
The Mining Pit No. 4 where they initially planned to go was close to where they were now living, and it wouldn’t take much time for them to walk there. However, this Mining Pit No. 7 was a little further away.
Fortunately, the Pit No. 7 wasn’t very far away from the market shown on Rhode’s map.
After walking for two full hours, they arrived at that market at last.
Along the way, Rong Gui had actually expressed his worries to Xiao Mei: He feared that if they arrived late at the marketplace, the market may be closed. After all, Rhode didn’t mention the opening hours of the market, and Rong Gui also didn’t think about this issue at that time, so he didn’t ask.
Yet, the moment Rong Gui arrived at the market, he was no longer worried: This place was brilliantly illuminated and full of crowds – extremely bustling!
But soon he had another worry: Will there be thieves with so many people around?
Thus, he stopped Xiao Mei resolutely before the latter was about to step into the crowds. Rong Gui asked Xiao Mei to find a place as inconspicuous as possible, and then tuck his head under Xiao Mei’s miner uniform.
“My head is the most valuable thing on you! You have to take good care of it, Xiao Mei! I made some observations – it’s the safest to hide things under the miner’s belt, so you can just stuff me here.”
Xiao Mei: ……
He resolutely pushed Rong Gui’s head upward, and placed his waist bag in the position where Rong Gui deemed “safest”.
This…does it mean that ores are more valuable than his head…or that Xiao Mei thinks the safest place is the chest, not waist?
Rong Gui thought for a moment, and decided to adopt the second interpretation.
However, the advantage of hiding inside the chest was that Rong Gui was able to look out from the uniform if Xiao Mei undid one of the uniform buttons – something he couldn’t do if he’s hanging on the waist. He couldn’t ask Xiao Mei to pull down the trouser zipper, right?
Rong Gui, who was able to have one of his eyes uncovered, became happy again.
Xiao Mei, who thought Rong Gui finally had a good idea (rare for him!), was also having a rather good mood.
Therefore…
None of them realized there was an issue with Xiao Mei’s current image:
With the fanny pack hanging on the waist and Rong Gui’s head hidden in front of his chest, Xiao Mei, whose whole body was now wrapped in a miner’s uniform, looked no longer small and fragile. In fact, he now looked like a masculine, short, stout man! Er…with his plump chest – a masculine woman!
Although he was still short, his figure now looked quite mighty and majestic.
Actually, he now somehow resembled a dwarf, a race known to be particularly good at forging and smelting.
Rong Gui, who had always been paying attention to one’s appearance, failed to notice it.
Let alone Xiao Mei, who didn’t care about his appearance at all.
Thus, when Xiao Mei entered the market once more, he found for the first time that there was empty space all around him. Seeing that everyone else was keeping a distance from them, Rong Gui was amazed.
“Is it because we are dirty? But they didn’t look much cleaner, either!”
Xiao Mei…even though Xiao Mei didn’t nod, in fact, he secretly agreed to Rong Gui’s opinion.
Because he couldn’t find another reason.
“Yet, why are you coming to the market, Xiao Mei? Are you going to buy ores? Or buy some ready-made materials to re-build my body?” Rong Gui’s voice rose in Xiao Mei’s mind – in order not to attract attention, the two robots once again adopted the inter-mind communication mode.
“We are not here to buy ores, nor to buy ready-made materials. Up to now, we only know three kinds of minerals in Eni: germanite, blackfield stones, and czarnie. These minerals are all construction materials, and none of them can be used for making mechanical bodies.” Xiao Mei’s voice was still flat and cold.
Rong Gui was curious:
“We are not buying…then why do you come here?”
“We come to observe and learn. The ores here for sale must have been excavated and authenticated, so we can research and study them. Besides, by checking the types of minerals sold at each stall, we can deduce the types of ores which Eni produces.”
“Oh oh oh!” After listening to Xiao Mei’s words, Rong Gui admired him even more.
Perhaps, such was the difference between a curve wrecker and a curve fodder?
Let alone studying together, he couldn’t even guess correctly Xiao Mei’s purpose of coming over!
They couldn’t progress along with each other at all!
But this wouldn’t prevent them from living together, because:
He and Xiao Mei were now a family~
Very pleased with this fact in his heart, Rong Gui then became silent.
He knew he was a bit of a chatterbox, yet most of the time, he chattered only because he didn’t want Xiao Mei to feel lonely if the surroundings were too quiet. But now, with so many people bustling around, he could finally turn back into a quiet, handsome man…’s head~
Thus, for the rest of the day, although Rong Gui was quiet on the surface, he was actually peeking through the small opening in the uniform from Xiao Mei’s chest, trying to look for fun. As for Xiao Mei, he walked from stall to stall, carefully studying the characteristics of the real raw ores.
Those who were originally jostling around the stalls all stood back when they saw Xiao Mei. Everyone knew that dwarves were hot-tempered, and especially good at fighting!
Particularly dwarf-women!
Due to the extremely high gender ratio among dwarf race, dwarf-women were very rare, and thus extremely cherished within the race. A dwarf-woman would have at least twenty suitors. What could this mean? This meant that, if you messed with a male dwarf, at worst, only this male dwarf would come and beat you up. But if you messed with a female dwarf, at least twenty male dwarves would come and beat you to a pulp – and wait, that didn’t include her dad, her brothers, her neighbors…
No one dared to mess with a dwarf-woman!
Surrounding people who had common knowledge all made way for Xiao Mei in silence. The stall owner was also very hospitable and accommodating. He wouldn’t shoo away Xiao Mei no matter how long Xiao Mei had stayed looking, and, without even being asked, he explained to Xiao Mei from aside all types of ores at his stall. When he saw that Xiao Mei put down an ore stone without spending much time examining it, he thought Xiao Mei wasn’t pleased with its quality, and offered to show many more better ore stones to him. These weren’t all. When Xiao Mei was leaving without buying any ores, the stall owner felt Xiao Mei must have a high standard for ores which the quality of his ores was too poor to meet, and it’s natural that Xiao Mei was not interested in them.
The owner actually waved and sent them off obligingly.
“It’s really hard to do business here. We didn’t buy anything, yet sellers here were still so complaisant.” After observing all the way down, Rong Gui could only come to this conclusion.
Rare for Xiao Mei, he secretly nodded inside his heart, agreeing with Rong Gui’s opinion once more.
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Author has something to say:
He wanted a small table to place his head, so that Xiao Mei wouldn’t have to waste his back basket solely to carry it. Although it’s very heartwarming for Xiao Mei not to directly put his head on the ground in order to avoid dirt, such use of basket was nevertheless a waste.
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Above was Rong Gui’s thought. But what was Xiao Mei actually thinking?
Let’s have a casual interview with Xiao Mei.
Xiao Mei: In fact, I wanted to put down the back basket. But there’s wind inside the cave, and I worried that the back basket would be blown away by the wind. So I used Rong Gui’s head to pin it down. His IQ didn’t weigh much, but the materials of his head were heavy enough.
That’s all.
So, Rong Gui – you didn’t have to worry about waste. Xiao Mei had been making the best use of everything.
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Lmao Xiao Mei is great at making use of his resources!!
Thanks for the chapter!!
XM being mistaken for a dwarf woman… Just splendid!🤣 And the interview in the author’s note as well… I like how A Gui is so clueless^^.