Chapter 325
Chapter 325: Spare No Effort: Bai Li Qing
Life at No. 66, Wu Tong Road had always been like this—Irene making a racket, Foxy watching the fun (usually while eating chicken, buns, noodles, pancakes, or steamed bread), and Yu Sheng bouncing between arguing with Irene and joining Foxy as a spectator.
The house was still just as noisy today, except for one new addition: the iron doll who was basically Irene’s natural nemesis.
After spending a little time around her, Yu Sheng realized Luna had been made to counter Irene. He had no idea if it was a lingering side effect of the resurrection or simply her nature, but this “artificial saintess” was as steady as Bai Li Qing’s expression. Everything she did carried a slow, graceful elegance—even when she’d actually crashed—and Irene’s frantic hopping around her felt like punching cotton.
No damage. No outrage. No reaction.
For Irene, that was worse than death.
“Let me tell you, C Buckle, today I’m being merciful!”
Little Doll was still furious. Sitting on a stack of books by the window, she bared her teeth at Luna. “My body’s out of power, that’s all. Wait until I’m charged up and I’ll jab you in the kidney!”
As she spoke, she rubbed her hands together and produced a tiny lightning orb in her palms, flashing it like a threat.
Luna stood a short distance away, watching. After a long while, she spoke at last.
“Oh. I’ll remember.”
Then she raised a hand and touched her waist, as if recalling the sensation of being hit by the “Irene ray” during their last fight. She shook her head slightly. “Last time… careless. Didn’t dodge.”
Irene snapped, “Then shoot me again next time! I’ll even let you dodge first!”
Yu Sheng watched for a while, laughing under his breath, before stepping in to calm the still-puffed-up Little Doll. “Alright, alright, don’t be mad. You’re picking a fight with someone who’s still recovering. Even if you win, it’s not exactly a good look.”
Irene immediately grabbed Yu Sheng’s hand. “And you—don’t forget the charging dock you promised me! This body charges so slowly…”
“Don’t worry, I remember,” Yu Sheng said, nodding quickly. “I’ve got a plan. Once I’ve gathered the materials, I’ll make it for you.”
Irene gave an “oh,” then turned to Foxy, who was watching from not far away. “Silly Fox! Don’t forget you still owe me a new outfit too!”
“I haven’t forgotten!” Foxy said. “I’m not you…”
Yu Sheng only smiled and shook his head. Then he felt someone watching him.
He turned and saw Luna looking his way.
“What is it?” he asked casually. “Still confused about something?”
Luna shook her head slowly. “No… just… good.”
Yu Sheng scratched his head. She still spoke in fragments—only a few clear words, always mixed with vague, blurry pieces. Sometimes it was genuinely hard to understand her. He had no idea when he’d fully get used to it.
Still, he could tell she was satisfied with how things were now, and that was enough.
Just then, his phone rang, cutting off his thoughts.
Yu Sheng pulled it out and glanced at the caller ID. Bai Li Qing.
He froze for a beat, then remembered how he’d stormed out of the Special Operations Bureau earlier. He smacked his forehead. “Oh hell. No wonder I kept feeling like I forgot something!”
He answered in a hurry. Before he could speak, Bai Li Qing’s voice came through the line. “Have you found the artificial saintess? What’s the situation?”
The poker-faced director sounded unusually anxious.
Even through the call, Yu Sheng couldn’t hide his awkwardness. “Uh… I found her, but things got a bit chaotic here, and I forgot to tell you.”
On the other end, Bai Li Qing seemed to let out a breath. She didn’t sound like she wanted to scold him. “As long as nothing happened. So what’s going on? The artificial saintess woke up? And escaped the holy sarcophagus chamber?”
“It wasn’t exactly an escape… though she did wake up suddenly,” Yu Sheng said. His expression turned complicated as he glanced toward Luna, who seemed to be listening. “When I found her, she was, uh… doing farm work.”
There was dead silence for two or three seconds.
“…Farm work?”
“Yeah. And she even stole the orphanage’s labor studies homework.”
No response again.
Yu Sheng figured Bai Li Qing was doing what everyone did: whenever someone heard about No. 66, Wu Tong Road, they fell into long, baffled silences.
“I understand,” Bai Li Qing said at last, though who knew what she actually understood. “In any case, as long as you’re fine.”
“Yeah, nothing’s wrong. Everything’s normal,” Yu Sheng said, clearing his throat. Then he remembered something. “Oh—since you called, I’ve got something else I need to ask. I need the Special Operations Bureau to help with it.”
Bai Li Qing answered at once. “Tell me.”
Yu Sheng said, “The Hotel has a new registered employee.”
Bai Li Qing said, “…?”
“It’s the artificial saintess. Her name is Luna,” Yu Sheng continued, stubborn as ever. “I talked with her. She decided to stay here and work for a while.”
Silence again. Bai Li Qing was clearly thinking.
Yu Sheng could almost hear the mental montage—subway lights flickering, an old man staring into the distance, math formulas floating through space, a heroic “thinking theme song” swelling in the background.
“I… understand,” Bai Li Qing said at last, after even longer than before. “So you need…”
“See if you can get her registered,” Yu Sheng said with a dry laugh, not caring whether Bai Li Qing could see his awkward grin. “You know her situation is special. If I follow the normal process, there’s no way I can get her into the system. We need an exception. And she needs an ID card too.”
Yu Sheng knew that, in Luna’s current state, the ID probably wouldn’t be useful anytime soon. But he still wanted her to have one. After all, even Irene had one now, and there was a more important reason…
She was a person.
This time, Bai Li Qing responded much faster.
“No problem. I’ll arrange it myself,” she said almost immediately. “The staff will come to your place directly. Keep your phone on.”
“Alright. Thanks,” Yu Sheng said sincerely.
“You’re welcome,” Bai Li Qing replied calmly. “Also, I called for another reason.”
Yu Sheng froze, a bad feeling crawling up his spine. “Huh?”
Bai Li Qing said, “You forgot the books.”
Yu Sheng’s face twitched.
Maybe he’d misheard, but Bai Li Qing seemed to sigh softly. “I trimmed them down for you again. There are only two manuals you need to study carefully. One is the most basic deep-space navigation regulations, and the other is essential knowledge for using shipping lanes or docking facilities in major civilized regions. The rest… I’ll have the technician try to integrate an assist system on your ship later.
“It can’t be shortened any more. What’s left in these two manuals are the parts that require ‘human decision-making.’”
Since she’d put it that way, Yu Sheng knew he couldn’t push his luck. “Okay… thanks. I’ll definitely read them carefully.”
As he spoke, he casually opened a small door beside him—and the doorway opened directly onto Bai Li Qing’s desk.
He leaned his head through. Bai Li Qing bent down on her side, and they stared at each other eye to eye. The director sighed for real this time, then pushed two books toward the doorway with a helpless look. “You’re getting lazier and lazier.”
Yu Sheng chuckled, ended the call, and took the books from the other side.
To be fair, after trimming them down, there really were fewer. At least they looked like something a human being could read.
He carried the two books back to the living-room sofa, but his relaxed mood only lasted a moment. The second he opened the first page, he still couldn’t help sighing.
Irene scooted over in curiosity, climbed onto the coffee table, and craned her head at the “manuals” spread open—each one almost as big as she was. “What’s this?”
“The traffic manual,” Yu Sheng said casually. “Bai Li Qing gave it to me. She says you have to know this to fly a ship, or they won’t give you a license.”
“…You actually need a license?” Irene blinked, then looked Yu Sheng up and down. “Speaking of which, I’ve wanted to ask forever. How did you even get the ship moving? You can really drive that thing?!”
“Drive what? I was driving myself,” Yu Sheng said, rolling his eyes. “It’s like what happened in the valley. That ship assimilated with me. Controlling it is like controlling my own body. I don’t need to know the theory—I just know what to do.”
He gave Irene a simple explanation of the ship’s status. When he looked up again, Little Doll was sitting on the coffee table, staring at the ceiling at a forty-five-degree angle, like she’d fallen into deep thought.
A full half minute passed before Irene suddenly turned back and studied Yu Sheng with deadly seriousness.
“Ship man?”
Yu Sheng had been about to flip to the next page. The second those words left Irene’s mouth, he completely lost it. “How the hell did you come up with that?!”
“With wisdom,” Irene said.
“Wisdom my ass!” Yu Sheng poked Irene over with a finger. “If you can’t think of a good word, don’t talk!”
Irene rolled on the coffee table, unbothered, giggling as she scrambled back up and scooted right back in front of him. “Then there’s no reason for you to study this. It’s for people preparing to fly ships, but you don’t even have the ‘driving’ part. Strictly speaking, when you’re moving through space you should count as a pedestrian…”
“You’re quick when it comes to nonsense,” Yu Sheng said, glancing at her in surprise before shaking his head. “If your brain worked this well when you had to do real work, that’d be great.
“Too bad that argument doesn’t work. These manuals already removed everything about ‘driving.’ What’s left are traffic rules—pedestrians still need to recognize red lights and green lights, right? Think of these as an encyclopedia of cosmic traffic lights.”
He tapped the page with a finger.
“And even if we take a step back and say I can be classified as a pedestrian, I’d still be a motorized pedestrian. Look—page two literally says this: ‘During immortal sword flight, it is treated as a Class II near-ground/atmospheric traffic tool, and this traffic code also applies alongside small powered aircraft.’ That means you can’t dodge the rules by hiding behind the definition of ‘pedestrian.’ This world has too many weird creatures. Anything you can think of, the managers in every faction have seen it long before you.”
Irene blinked, staring blankly at the manual. It listed strict, almost loophole-free navigation regulations and definitions—immortals using sword flight, shuttles piloted by humans, dragons flying in true form, awakened AI that could sail on its own…
Little Doll went completely dumbfounded.