47 3.6

One thing that Feng Mian liked about this housemate of hers was how magnanimous he was at handing out awakening values. The values had stably rose up every day too. 5 per cent today, 3 per cent yesterday, and 2 per cent the day before that. It was like no matter what she does, the values would always rise.

She smiled at him.

[SYSTEM PROMPT: Awakening revival: 23 per cent]

She complimented his shirt.

[SYSTEM PROMPT: Awakening revival: 34 per cent]

She slept.

[SYSTEM PROMPT: Awakening revival: 40 per cent]

Hao Junli had been on autopilot flying the plane solo all the way until his awakening values reached 45 per cent. Feng Mian was simply a co-pilot who was like an extra cargo weight on board of Hao Junli Express Airlines.

System 555: "All you had to do was sleep, eat and drink and the values rose by themselves. Meanwhile, other world hoppers are plotting honey traps, getting hit by buses to pretend memory loss and digesting cancer inducement pills to raise points. Lucky you! This daddy had never seen such a cooperative teammate who's willing to take on their host's jobs and raise the values themselves."

Feng Mian: 'What can she do ba? This Ye Junli was too hardworking that she was also moved.'

It took him two turns to fully revive after seeing her in the first world. The second world was even better, he dove directly to maximum value after seeing her face once. She was indeed lucky that the housemate she accidentally exploded was such a generous one.

For the last two weeks, Ye Junli had been a frequent face at cabin 119. And every time he came, he was never empty-handed and would usually be bearing sweets. Never mind that some of them were expired, it was the post-apocalyptic world after all, but Ye Junli would stay on for longer and longer hours while making small talks with his valuable experiment.

From what once was supposed to be every once in three days visit, turned into once every two days, then eventually increased to once every day, sometimes even twice a day.

One has to realise that for a guy as reticent as Ye Junli, this was considered an incredible feat.

The previous base leader, Bao Cheng's father, Bao Xingming, had once invited him over for tea to further close their relations and make sure that this person stays firmly in their, Bao's family, base's boat. Ye Junli had taken his words literally and only stayed until that cup of tea was finished (which took approximately five minutes) before excusing himself to continue working. Bao Xingming had barely spoken two sentences; and one of them was a hello.

Thus, his nickname in Z City's base became the 'winter professor' who maintained a cold exterior old year long.

Ye Junli had always viewed conversations as a waste of time, time he could spend working and developing new formulas. Now, he felt that time working was another hour he has to spend away from experiment 119.

His cognitive learning ability was unparalleled, but his communication skills were poor at best. So what he thought had been a pleasant exchange of conversation between him and 119 was just really him asking her random one sentence questionnaires.

"Are you happy with your living conditions?"

Feng Mian answered him sincerely. "It's not too bad. At least there's a bed to sleep on, I heard that outside of the base some people get eaten to death in their sleep. How about you? Did you have a good sleep? You seem sort of tired."

His eyes had indeed formed a layer of black circle around them.

Ye Junli felt extremely joyful that she could perceive how tired he actually was.

Doesn't it mean that she cares?

About him?

Yes?

Yes.

Nobody actually ever notices before that he had always been sleep-deprived. If had to be honest, most of his foul moods could be attributed to this factor as well. Even last night, he had barely managed to get a wink of sleep from having to resample the vaccine components.

None of his happiness however showed on his face.

His tone maintained its usual formality. "I'm okay. How are you feeling?"

"I'm doing alright. At least you're willing to talk to me. Hey, hear this Ha-- Ye Junli! Yesterday there was this researcher that came in. I think he's a new guy. But get this--" Feng Mian had a habit of trailing off from the topic, and after recalling yesterday's incident, she went on rambling in excited humour.

Ye Junli did not cut her off but good-naturedly went along with the conversational shift.

Look how well they're were getting along.

System 555: 'If they build a bunker made out of Ye Junli's face, it would probably be indestructible. Even zombies won't be able to claw their way in.'

System 555 watch its host who was immune to the cold chirping tirelessly.

"So I told him that I needed a jar for the sweets you got me right? But the jar was too big to be pushed through the gate. So I told him, 'Hey, why don't you just open the gate real quick and pass it over'. The guy went three shades paler and told me he wasn't allowed to and insisted on shoving the big glass of jar through the cracks even though I told him it wouldn't work."

"So what happened was, somehow, and in one way or another, his head got stuck in between and he couldn't pull it out. So I went over. I saw that his head was turning red and jokingly said, 'What now? The jar isn't passed over but your head is stuck? I can probably pull it out, so should I just use your head as a jar instead?' I didn't really mean it in a bad way, but he started shivering and the next thing I knew, there was a rancid odour coming out. That poor guy peed his pants! Don't you think it's too much? This sister was only joking with him."

Ye Junli, like the good listener he was cooperatively nodded in understanding. He continued asking her.

"Do you want anything else?"

Feeling as if his words sounded too alienating, he added on, "I could bring you something from outside."

Feng Mian pondered for awhile and decided what she wanted most now was entertainment. "It gets quite boring here. If you want to bring something, bring over something fun ba."

She saw him give a light nod. "Okay."

"I'll need to go now."

He said his goodbyes, but his feet had not made any move to leave. He stood straight as if waiting for something. Three seconds. Five seconds. Seven awkward seconds passed.

"I'm leaving now," he said again.

"... Okay. Bye bye then." 'Then leave ba. Why are you still standing there?'

Another two seconds passed before Ye Junli finally moved and walked out of the cabin.

Where Feng Mian couldn't see, Professor Ye was brooding in the corner outside of the cabin's door.

Why wasn't he given a hug this time?

Had his favourability dropped?

That day the research assistants were all mobilised and forced to work overtime under Professor Ye's cold, displeased gaze.

This whole time Feng Mian had thought that he was collecting data for analysis.

The next day an old retro television that should already be extinct in the 21st century was installed into her room. She just woke up one day from her sleeping pod to discover the television already set up with a VHS player plugged in. This Ye Junli is really her lucky star! She only said it once and an entire television set was already brought over.

In the apocalypse, these sorts of entertainment was a rare luxury and are usually reserved for base leaders or high-ranking personnel. Don't know what position Ye Junli has in the base but judging from how he could distribute these sorts of things at will Feng Mian assumed he should be pretty high on the hierarchy.

Feng Mian: "There's no outlet, where should I plug it in?"

She had already scoured the walls of her cabin but there was none.

There was a note on top of the VHS player.

'6000 voltage'.

So that is to say, she was the current supplier?

These researchers are sure good at coming up with ways to save on electric bills. She held the head on the plugin in her hand and generated electrical impulse.

One of the tapes was slid into the VHS player.

After taking some time to load, a wildlife documentary about a pride of lion played out in a 300 image resolution.

System 555 jumped up excitedly.

"Ooh! Ooh! Daddy knows this creature! It's what you Eartheners call lions right? But why are they showing this to you? So random ah!"

Feng Mian watched the group of female lions grooming their youngs with relish as she grabbed a crystal nucleus to snack on.'Crunch! Crunch!' Her teeth seemed as if they were made of irons

"Socialisation probably."

"Which means what?"

"Means I'll finally be seeing another face besides that ice cubicle Ye Junli."

System 555: 'So you so know that he's an ice cubicle.'

System 555 bought a bucket of virtual popcorn to watch the documentary together using its' host consciousness. It saw how a lone lion followed a lioness onto the prairie, away from the pride.

555's eyes instantly widened into saucers. "Wah! Wah! They didn't give a warning before airing out spicy contents ba! Look at that Feng Mian! Aiyooo that female is so aggressive right after they're done!"

Don't know why 555 is always excited when it comes to these explicit contents, its operating system must be run by a yellow chicken.

Ye Junli's timing was also pretty bad today. He just had to arrive right when the two lions were going at it. Gruffs and puffs of the lions mating ritual sounded clearly in the small enclosed space.

Ye Junli looked at Feng Mian, then looked at the television. Then he looked at Feng Mian once more.

Feng Mian: 'What is this feeling of having caught hiding a porn magazine?'

Feng Mian met Ye Junli's silent stare. A feeling of wanting to be devious rose in her.

Her voice and eyes were innocently inquisitive as she created trouble, "Junli ah, what are these two animals doing with each other? Why is it humping the other one ah?"

If Ye Junli was an ice cubicle before, he was now an entire ice sculpture.

Those research idiots had not bothered to filter the documentaries before they were passed over to 119.

His mouth opened to explain but no sound came out. "L- Lions. They're… mating."

"What's mating?"

Watching Ye Junli being lost for words was more entertaining than watching animal documentaries.

"A reproduction process." As expected, a succinct answer.

"Oh. Then do you mate?"

Ye Junli had fully gone offline. There was even a subtle shade of red colouring the tip of his ears.

System 555: "Your housemate is so innocent. You only teased him a little and he's redder than a boiled crayfish."

Feng Mian: "Told you he was an ascetic monk. Back then, on movie nights we used to watch American movies together and there was inevitably some, you know… uhum... scenes in them. However long those scenes were on for was how long he stared at the ceiling."

System 555: "Then why are you guys still watching it?"

Feng Mian: "Because he was funny ba. After this grandma knew he was such a reticent turtle, I had a cupboard installed exclusively in the living room for my American movie collection."

System 555: I think you're the one with the problem.

Back to Ye Junli's problem at hand. He stared grimly at the video of two animals making out.

These documentaries were a bad influence!

Walking mechanically to the VCR player, he unplugged all the chords before shoving the tape, along with the player, between his arms.

"No more videos," Ye Junli said. Then he walked out without looking back.

Feng Mian shouted after him.

"What?! Don't be so strict! They were only at it for five seconds ba! Junli!"

Ye Junli kept walking.

"Can't you at least leave the player behind?!" She wasn't even allowed other documentaries now.

So overbearing!

The VCR player was returned to her room later in the day. But every other nature documentary has all been plucked out from their shelves. Only one tape remained.

Feng Mian had watched The Lion King on loop for three straight days!