“I slept so well! It’s been a long time since I last had such a good night’s sleep~” After waking up again, Rong Gui felt fully invigorated. He shared his feeling with Xiao Mei, and even praised the bed and quilt in Xiao Mei’s house: “Your bed is so good to sleep on.”
Xiao Mei: ……
“In fact, you were merely shut down after running out of power. The reason why you feel invigorated right now is that I’ve helped you to recharge.”
All the moving and pleasant feelings Rong Gui previously had instantly disappeared.
“Tha-thank you.” Stammering, Rong Gui expressed his thanks.
“You’re welcome.”
After saying this sentence, Xiao Mei stopped moving again.
The motionless Xiao Mei looked exactly like a real robot. The only sound in the entire room was the noise made by Rong Gui himself. Honestly speaking, this kind of quietness was a little scary…
Rong Gui thought, jumping out of the bed. He pushed open the worn-out windows and looked out. The outside was as dark as the room inside, without any light.
“Xiao, Xiao Mei, I’ve wanted to ask this for a long time: Why is it so dark here? There aren’t even the moon and the stars…”
It’s quite understandable for the tunnel which they walked through to be dark. But after they came out of the tunnel, it’s still so dark everywhere. That’s very strange.
“Because this is underground, and the bottom level underground, too. This is the place where I was born.” Once Xiao Mei gave his answer, Rong Gui was dumbfounded.
He looked at the sky and then looked at the ground. Just by taking a closer look, he would have found what Xiao Mei said was not wrong. It’s just that he had never thought about it from that perspective.
Alright. Even if Xiao Mei’s hometown is at such a…low altitude, what about people? Where are the people who originally lived here?
“Where are the people who previously lived here?” Rong Gui asked as soon as he thought of it, and he immediately asked thereafter, “Where are the people of your hometown?”
Rong Gui soon realized that he seemed to have asked an awful question.
“All gone.” Xiao Mei answered him with the flat metallic voice.
“Have they all…all passed away?”
“When I was ill and in a coma, they left all together. By the time I woke up, I was the only one left in the whole village.”
Xiao Mei’s metallic voice didn’t have any ups and downs, but Rong Gui just managed to picture an awfully desolate scene in his mind.
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.
Rushing at the strong-hearted (?) Xiao Mei to hug him, Rong Gui patted the other’s back hard. “It’s all over. At least…they’re gone, and this large piece of homestead is now all yours.”
“Wljb Zfl, sbe jgf atf ijcvibgv cbk!” Ebcu Xel rqbxf ktlif rijqqlcu bc Wljb Zfl’r yjmx rb tjgv atja la yjcufv ibevis ecali j “mibcx”.
Wljb Zfl: “Tbe tjnf rijqqfv boo ws yjmx.”
Ebcu Xel: ……
Cr Ebcu Xel kjamtfv, Wljb Zfl aegcfv tlr tfjv 180 vfugffr, jcv qlmxfv eq atf wfaji ilv bc tlr yjmx ktlmt tjv pera yffc rijqqfv boo. Coafg j ofk xcbmxr tfgf jcv atfgf, tf qea atja geras wfaji ilv yjmx bcab tlr ybvs jujlc.
He’s quite used to it by now.
* * *
Two robots were walking along a path across the field.
“Come out for a walk” – this was Rong Gui’s suggestion. Of course, those were not his original words. What he advised Xiao Mei was to come out to “inspect his ancestral property”, and meanwhile taking a break.
Xiao Mei didn’t object.
However, when he got out and saw the dry, cracked land and the farmhouse without any farming tools, Rong Gui still went sad for a while.
Recalling the empty warehouse he previously saw while “paying a visit” to the neighbors, he knew that Xiao Mei’s fellow townsmen must have brought all their belongings with them when they left – all farming tools, all seeds, all foods, all things at home that still could be used…
Only Xiao Mei was not brought along.
“Let’s walk no further. The wind is too strong. I…I feel like being blown apart.” The more Rong Gui walked, the more he felt desolate. Regretting that he proposed a bad idea, Rong Gui finally came up with a reason to stop this walk.
Xiao Mei looked at him for a while and nodded, “Let’s go back. It happens that we still have the materials previously collected. I will go back and remodel the body for you.”
They got back into the room they stayed before. While Xiao Mei was knocking and hammering, Rong Gui would quietly stay beside him to keep him company. Yet, Rong Gui was a person naturally born to be hyperactive. It’s okay for him to sit obediently for a while, but after some time, he would start making noises by wiggling and twisting on his seat. Xiao Mei was probably annoyed by his wiggles, so he simply said to him, “Leave your two arms with me, and you may go around the house for a walk.”
Rong Gui happily agreed.
The little robot without arms began to scamper nimbly around the house.
Xiao Mei’s house was only this big, so he soon finished the tour, until he found a secret room under the kitchen.
He called it a secret room, but in fact it was only a cellar.
“Xiao Mei, may I visit your cellar?” Rong Gui had loved to run around since he was a child. After being lectured a few times by the dean of the orphanage, he more or less remembered to ask for permission before scurrying about.
“You may go. But the cellar is empty. I didn’t put anything there.” Xiao Mei let him go as he pleased.
“I’ll just take a look.” Getting the permission, Rong Gui immediately opened the cellar and went down.
As soon as he left, the room suddenly became quiet.
So quiet…that it’s just like the days he spent before.
Whether in that white-colored world immersed in eternal daylight, or during the days he used to spend here a long, long time ago, he seemed to be always surrounded by dead silence.
Holding Rong Gui’s mechanical arms in his hands, Xiao Mei raised his head.
He had already guessed what was going on here. At that time in the past, after waking up from a serious illness, he found that there’s no one left in the village since long ago, and nothing was here except silence. It was exactly because he realized he had been abandoned that he left this place resolutely.
Since then, he had never met with the people who used to live here.
He could no more remember what they looked like, and he thought he had forgotten all about them. But when he stood before that Gate again, and chose not to open it, the only things that came to his mind were actually the coordinates of this place.
Following his heart at that moment, he returned here once again.
Yet it’s only coming back, and that’s all.
Lowering his head, Xiao Mei refocused his attention on the mechanical arms in his hands.
However, not until he had tightened the screws in his hands, Rong Gui’s loud voice suddenly came from afar:
“Xiao Mei! Xiao Mei! Quickly come over and see!”
He was going to ignore it at first.
But that voice from the cellar shouted even more vigorously, as if it would never get tired. Xiao Mei had no choice but to jump out of the bed again. Walking in the dark, he came to the entrance of the kitchen which he had not visited for a long time.
Since the morning he found out that everyone had left, he had never returned to this house.
Although in terms of the present time point he’s currently at, he had not yet left here for a very long time. But in his mind, he had been away from this place for too too long, so long that this place became unfamiliar.
Rong Gui’s voice was coming out from the cellar which looked like a dark, giant mouth. This fellow even found a ladder out of nowhere and brought it in, whereas Xiao Mei didn’t even remember whether he used to have such a ladder.
He went down the ladder. Just as he stood still, he saw that guy named Rong Gui. Without his hands, that fellow signaled Xiao Mei to run after him by trotting.
Naturally, Xiao Mei didn’t run. This temporarily assembled body wasn’t suitable for running. He walked over by following behind the other at a normal speed.
He walked over, and then –
He’s stunned.
“Xiao Mei, Xiao Mei, look! Here are so many…many mushrooms!”
If this fellow before him still had hands, he would definitely spread his arms wide open right now. But since he currently had no hands, he could just run around at the same place to express his excitement.
Behind him was a cellar full of umbrella-shaped plants! And they were faintly glowing in the darkness!
Looking at the plants before him, Xiao Mei did not speak for a long time. Only until Rong Gui seemed to plan to continue shouting did Xiao Mei speak in a low voice:
“They are not mushrooms, but a kind of plant called earth beans. They are…the main food of Methentahlians.”
Only one kind of plant could be grown out of the land of Methentahl, which was this fruit called earth beans. Only carefully selected seeds could be used to grow earth beans – they were not those grains that could be easily grown out.
Of course, Rong Gui knew nothing about this. Nevertheless, he said loudly, “Do you think these were the food that your townspeople left for you? They couldn’t bring you with them, but they grew a huge number of mushrooms – no, earth beans – in the cellar for you! That must be it! That must be it, right?”
Rong Gui’s voice knocked on his heart word by word. His voice was really loud, but gradually, Asheville…no, Xiao Mei gradually couldn’t hear anything.
It was at this moment, that he finally discovered the first unforeseen matter which he had never experienced in his past deductions.
Author has something to say:
A Gui discovered mushrooms!
Discovered glowing mushrooms!
And then…
Mushrooms were glowing green light…
Eerie, ghostly green light…
For better effect, please automatically beautify the color of the light in the text with your imagination
=-=
Rong Gui running around without his arms is so adorable (ʃƪ＾-＾）
The thought of Xiao Mei being abandoned just like that makes me feel so sad but Rong Gui is here with him now (´∩｡• ᵕ •｡∩`)
I really want to know why they left tho. Did something happened or what?
Thank you very much for this chapter!! (灬º‿º灬)♡