Chapter 91

Chapter 91: “Machine Spirit”?

Yu Sheng realized his first impression had been a little unfair.

Even though Irene didn’t take up space, once they got in, it was still cramped—and it had nothing to do with the passengers.

It had everything to do with the car.

Which made it even more incredible that Xu Jiali could fit behind the steering wheel at all. How could a hulking man like that choose a car like this?

Yu Sheng and Foxy huddled in the back seat. The front passenger seat was piled with two big cardboard boxes, so nobody could sit there. The engine up front shuddered to life, and once they finally rolled out of the neighborhood, Yu Sheng couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“So this is your side job after work?” he asked.

Xu Jiali chuckled. “Yeah. If I’m idle, I’m idle. When I’m not traveling, I like driving around the city after work anyway. Might as well earn some pocket money.”

Yu Sheng’s expression turned strange. He looked at the shaky little car, then at the brute stuffed into the front seat. A senior deep diver from the Special Operations Bureau—driving rideshare after work—in a car that might be about as old as Yu Sheng himself.

Was life for bureau employees really that rough?

The thought stuck in his chest like a thorn. He was too embarrassed to ask.

Fortunately, Irene had no such weakness. With familiar faces around, the little doll didn’t bother pretending. Light returned to her eyes as she wriggled out of Foxy’s arms and climbed to the middle of the back seat, leaning forward.

“Your car is pretty… unique,” Irene said pointedly. “Does the Special Operations Bureau not pay salaries or what?”

Xu Jiali smiled and shook his head. “No, that’s not it. I’m attached to this one. It was the first car I bought after I started working. It was used when I got it, but I’ve driven it all these years. I can’t bear to replace it.”

As he spoke, he patted the gearshift beside him and tilted his head. “And don’t judge it for being old. This old buddy never messes up. It’s never let me down—right, old buddy?”

The moment he finished, Yu Sheng heard a deep, powerful rumble from the engine.

Then the horn gave two quick, cheerful beeps.

It happened so fast Yu Sheng didn’t register what was wrong at first.

A few seconds later, it hit him: Xu Jiali hadn’t done anything extra. He hadn’t pressed the horn.

The car had responded on its own.

“Your car…” Yu Sheng sat up straight, staring at Xu Jiali as if he’d grown a second head. “Did it just respond to you?”

In a heartbeat, his imagination went wild. Maybe this beat-up shell was actually an elite bureau vehicle in disguise, upgraded in secret. Maybe there was a brain inside the chassis. Maybe the noisy shaking was just an AI sound effect, and if needed it could lift off at any moment—wheels folding in, missiles sliding out, exhaust pipe turning into a launcher…

Xu Jiali just smiled, casual as if he were discussing the weather. “It’s nothing. It’s a machine spirit.”

Yu Sheng blinked. “…What?”

Reality somehow managed to be even more absurd than his imagination.

Xu Jiali kept talking. “That’s why a lot of people in the bureau envy me. High-tech gear is easy to get. Once the budget arrives, you can ask for as much as you want. But a machine spirit is something you either meet or you don’t. You can’t force it. Across the whole team, there are only a few pieces of equipment with souls. When we’re not on missions, people treat them like treasures.”

He tapped the wheel fondly. “Our captain tried to buy this car from me several times. Last time, my old buddy got angry and chased him around the parking lot three laps. After that, he never dared bring it up again.”

Xu Jiali glanced in the mirror. “Hey, why aren’t you saying anything?”

Yu Sheng was still frozen. But from Xu Jiali’s tone, it was clear this was common knowledge—at least inside the bureau.

So Yu Sheng swallowed his shock and forced out a mild response. “…That’s pretty impressive.”

Xu Jiali laughed. “Right? Now a lot of people in the bureau copy me. They refuse to replace old cars, old phones—anything. They keep using them, hoping they’ll polish a machine spirit out of their old stuff like I did.”

Yu Sheng stared at the seat in front of him.

So you could polish a machine spirit out of something?

In this world, if you kept rubbing beads, you got a patina… and if you kept driving a car, it grew a soul?

Xu Jiali didn’t notice the look on his face. Focused on the road, he asked casually, “Heading out this late, and this address doesn’t look like a pedestrian street or mall… night market?”

His eyes flicked to the rearview mirror again, landing on Irene. “And Miss Doll is coming too. That’s a creative way to go out.”

Yu Sheng was about to answer, but Irene beat him to it.

“We’re going out to work!”

Then she turned to Yu Sheng a beat too late, suddenly uncertain. “…We can say that out loud, right?”

“Sure,” Yu Sheng said. “It’s not some secret operation. The other side is official anyway.”

“Work?” Xu Jiali’s tone shifted instantly. After a brief silence, he asked, serious now, “Need help?”

Yu Sheng waved it off. “No. It’s not a big project.”

Xu Jiali grunted, but a moment later he still couldn’t help asking, “It’s legal, right? Don’t blame me for asking…”

“Little Red Riding Hood introduced it.”

Xu Jiali relaxed. Even so, he added, “Then it should be fine. The Fairy Tale organization has a good reputation and always follows the rules.”

He paused, then said, with a weight that didn’t quite match his casual posture, “You’re setting up the Hotel, right? Let me say this: the Borderland is a messy place. No matter how many eyes the Special Operations Bureau has, there are always blind spots. Don’t get tricked. Stay alert for temptation. If anyone—or anything—seems suspicious, don’t hesitate. Report it right away. Reporting is a virtue.”

Something about the way he said that last line sent a brief chill through Yu Sheng.

Irene waved impatiently. “We get it. Now can you drive faster? Why does it feel like your car struggles so much when it runs?”

Xu Jiali scratched his hair. “It does seem a little nervous today. Can’t really loosen up. When we got close to your street earlier, it even stalled once. It’s not usually like that.”

Yu Sheng felt a tug on his sleeve. He turned and saw Foxy staring at him, deadly serious.

“Benefactor,” she whispered, “should I tie one tail to the back and push?”

Yu Sheng refused without even thinking.

A rocket-boosted fox was bad enough. A rocket-boosted, subsonic Chery tearing through midnight streets would be even worse. The second option was so ridiculous fewer people might believe it. The first would have the Borderland authorities on them before the tires cooled, and Xu Jiali’s driver’s license probably wouldn’t survive the investigation.

Even so, the ride took about a quarter longer than normal. Yu Sheng, still technically a pedestrian, finally made it near the location Little Red Riding Hood had sent.

Ahead, the streetlights thinned out. At the end of the road, a large building loomed in the dark.

“We can get off here,” Xu Jiali said. “The little road ahead is hard to turn around on.”

“Alright,” Yu Sheng said. “Thanks.”

Xu Jiali waved. “Get your stuff. If anything happens, call me.”

Yu Sheng climbed out into the cold night air.

Behind him, Xu Jiali watched the two figures walk away—Foxy and Yu Sheng. Irene was too small to be seen, blocked by Foxy’s body. Only after they’d gone a fair distance did Xu Jiali let out a quiet breath, loosen his grip on the wheel, and lean back into the seat that was far too cramped for him.

The car started by itself and rolled slowly to the side of the road, out of the way. The engine hummed softly, purring like steady breathing.

Xu Jiali glanced at the dashboard from the corner of his eye and smiled faintly. “Old buddy… you got scared, huh?”

The engine huffed twice, indignant.

Xu Jiali stretched in a way that should’ve been impossible in that tiny space, then laid a hand on the steering wheel. “Alright. Say no more. You worked hard today. Fill up with No. 97.”

…

Yu Sheng looked back.

Far away, faint lights moved, turned, and disappeared around the bend.

Irene’s voice slipped into his mind. “Do you think it was a coincidence?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Yu Sheng said, waving it off. “Getting in someone’s car is still getting in a car.”

“It doesn’t matter?”

“We’ll just see if Li Lin ‘happens’ to be driving rideshare near our place next time,” Yu Sheng said with a grin. “Hopefully his car is bigger. If we run into them often enough, I’ll stop paying fares. The bureau definitely reimburses them anyway.”

“You’re… really laid-back,” Irene said, sounding honestly impressed.

Yu Sheng didn’t answer. He just reached up and patted Irene’s hair, then looked ahead.

Under a streetlight that barely held back the darkness, a petite girl in a dark red coat stood quietly in the pool of light, as if she’d been waiting there for a while.