Chapter 324

Chapter 325: Bai Li Qing Does Her Best

Life at 66 Wutong Road had always been like this. Irene was always noisy. Foxy was always munching on something and watching the fun, whether it was melons, chicken, buns, noodles, pancakes, or bread. Yu Sheng flipped between bickering with Irene and joining Foxy to watch the show. Now the same lively mood continued, except there was a new Metal Doll who just happened to be Irene’s natural counter.

Yu Sheng noticed it right away. Luna completely countered Irene. Whether it was a side effect of revival or her nature, the Artificial Saintess’s emotions were as steady as Bai Li Qing’s face. Everything she did carried a slow, calm grace. Many times she really did freeze up. Irene’s chaos was like punching cotton in front of her. No damage, no anger, no care, no reaction.

For Irene, that was worse than losing.

She bared her teeth at Luna from a stack of books by the window and said: “I’m being generous today, C Buckle. I’m only letting you go because this body is out of battery. Once I recharge, I’m poking your kidney.”

As a threat, she rubbed her palms and squeezed out a small Lightning Orb.

Luna only looked on from a short distance. After a long moment, she spoke slowly: “Oh. I remember.”

She raised a hand and touched her own waist, recalling the feeling of getting hit by Irene’s ray in their earlier fight, then shook her head: “Last time, careless. Did not dodge.”

“Fight me again then,” Irene said at once. “I’ll even let you dodge first.”

Yu Sheng had been watching with a grin. He finally stepped over to soothe the still fuming doll: “All right, don’t be mad. You’re picking on someone still in recovery. Winning that is nothing to brag about.”

Irene hugged his hand with both arms and said: “Don’t change the subject. You promised me a charging dock. This body charges super slow.”

“Relax, I remember,” Yu Sheng said with quick nods. “I already have an idea. I’ll build it once I gather the parts.”

Irene gave a satisfied “oh,” then turned to Foxy, who was watching: “Silly fox, you still owe me a new outfit. Don’t forget.”

Foxy waved a paw and said: “I didn’t forget. I’m not you.”

Yu Sheng shook his head with a smile, then felt someone’s gaze on him.

He looked back and saw Luna watching.

“What is it?” he asked easily. “Anything you don’t understand?”

Luna slowly shook her head: “No… just, very good.”

Yu Sheng scratched his hair. Her speech was still choppy, with a few clear words mixed with a lot of vague ones, which made understanding hard. He wondered when he would get fully used to it.

Still, he could tell she was happy with the current setup, and that was enough.

A phone rang and cut off his thoughts.

Yu Sheng fished out his phone. The caller was Bai Li Qing.

He paused and suddenly remembered how he had rushed out of the Special Affairs Bureau earlier. He slapped his forehead: “Oh no, I knew I was forgetting something.”

He picked up at once, and before he could speak, the voice on the other end asked with rare urgency: “Did you find the Artificial Saintess? How is it?”

Yu Sheng could not hide his embarrassment even over the phone: “Uh… I found her, but things got messy here and I forgot to tell you.”

Bai Li Qing seemed relieved and did not scold him: “As long as you’re safe. So what happened? The Artificial Saintess woke up and then left the Holy Sarcophagus Chamber?”

“It wasn’t exactly an escape, though she did wake up out of nowhere,” Yu Sheng said, glancing at Luna, who seemed to be paying attention to their call. “When I found her, she was, uh… doing farm work.”

The line went quiet for two or three seconds.

She finally asked: “Farm work?”

“Yeah, and she took over the orphanage’s labor class homework,” Yu Sheng said.

Silence again.

Yu Sheng knew she was thinking. It happened to everyone. Any time people talked about what went on at 66 Wutong Road, they drifted into this kind of silence.

“I understand,” Bai Li Qing said at last, though who knew what she understood. “As long as everything is fine on your side.”

“Yeah, nothing’s wrong. All normal,” Yu Sheng said with a cough. Then something came to him. “By the way, since you called, I need a favor from the Special Affairs Bureau.”

“Go ahead,” Bai Li Qing replied at once.

“The Hotel needs to register a new employee,” Yu Sheng said.

“…?”

“It’s the Artificial Saintess,” Yu Sheng continued bravely. “Her name is Luna. We talked. She’s going to stay here and work for a while.”

Silence again. Obviously, Bai Li Qing was thinking.

[Subway, grandpa, phone, brain, universe, math formulas, thinking jingle dot avi.]

“I… understand,” she said after an even longer pause. “So you need…”

“See if you can file a special registration for her,” Yu Sheng said with a dry laugh. “You know her situation. If I go through normal channels, the system won’t even accept her. We’ll need a special process. Also, please get her an identification card.”

Yu Sheng knew that even with an identification card, Luna would not have many chances to use it right now. He still wanted her to have one. After all, even Irene had one. There was an even more important reason.

She is a person.

Bai Li Qing answered much faster this time: “No problem. I’ll handle it personally. Staff will come to you through The Door. Keep your phone on.”

“Great. Thanks,” Yu Sheng said, truly grateful.

“You’re welcome,” Bai Li Qing said calmly. “Also, I called for another reason.”

Yu Sheng stiffened, feeling a bad hunch: “Huh?”

“You forgot the books,” Bai Li Qing said.

Yu Sheng’s face twitched.

He thought he heard her sigh softly: “I trimmed them for you. Only two manuals need careful reading. They’re the basic Deep Space navigation rules and the must know items for using main civilization routes and docking facilities. For the rest, I’ll have the tech team integrate an assist system into your ship. I can’t cut it further. These two manuals cover items that still require ‘human decisions.’”

Yu Sheng knew the limits when she put it that way: “Okay. Thank you. I’ll read them carefully.”

He opened a small The Door next to him. It opened straight onto Bai Li Qing’s desk.

He pushed the little door open and peeked through. Bai Li Qing was leaning down from the other side, and their eyes met. The Director Sister sighed again, then helplessly pushed two books to the doorway and said: “You’re getting lazier.”

Yu Sheng chuckled, hung up, and took the two books.

He had to admit, after trimming, there were far fewer. At least they looked like they were meant for people now.

He carried the books back to the sofa in the living room. His easy mood lasted for only a moment. When he opened the first page, he still sighed.

Irene’s Pro body crawled onto the coffee table, peered at the two “manuals” that were almost as big as she was, and asked: “What is that?”

“It’s a Traffic Manual,” Yu Sheng said. “From Bai Li Qing. She says you must know this to fly a ship. No certificate otherwise.”

“We actually need a certificate?” Irene asked, blinking in surprise. Then she looked Yu Sheng up and down. “I’ve wanted to ask from the start. How did you pilot that ship? Do you really know how to drive that thing?”

“What driving? It piloted itself through me,” Yu Sheng said with an eye roll. “Same as with the Valley. The ship assimilated with me. Controlling it is like moving my own body. I don’t need to know the principles to know what to do.”

He briefly explained the ship’s state. Irene sat on the coffee table at a 45 degree angle, staring at the ceiling like she was deep in thought.

After a full half minute, she looked back at him, studied him seriously, and said: “Ship man?”

Yu Sheng was about to turn to page two, but those two words made him crack: “How did you even think of that?”

“By pure wisdom,” Irene said.

“Wisdom my foot,” Yu Sheng said as he poked her so she toppled over. “If you can’t think of a good line, don’t talk.”

Irene rolled across the table, but she did not get mad. She giggled, popped back up, and scooted to Yu Sheng again: “Then what’s the point of studying this? It’s for piloting ships. You don’t even ‘pilot’ in the usual way. Strictly speaking, in space you’re more like a pedestrian.”

“You’re quick on the uptake. If only your brain worked this well when doing real work,” Yu Sheng said, then shook his head. “Too bad that argument does not fly. These manuals have already removed the ‘driving’ parts. What’s left are traffic rules. Even pedestrians have to know red and green lights. You can treat these two books as the universe’s traffic light guide.

“And even if I can be called a ‘pedestrian,’ I’m a motorized pedestrian. Look at page two. It says ‘Immortal swordflight counts as a class II near earth or in atmosphere vehicle and follows the same rules as small powered aircraft.’ That means you can’t dodge the rules by hiding behind a ‘pedestrian’ label. There are too many strange beings in this world. Whatever you can imagine, the people in charge have already seen it.”

Irene blinked at the page, stunned by the tight, almost loophole free list of regulations and definitions that covered everything from Immortal swordflight, to human flown shuttles, to dragons flying in their true forms, to awakened AIs traveling under their own power.

Her little wooden jaw dropped.