Part 4
In his deep dream, this place was very hot. Mǐ Qiū’s forehead was dripping with sweat. It was as stuffy as a steamer.
But this place was a paradise for the X-type monsters. They seemed to love disguising themselves as humans, invading their world, and replacing them.
These X-type monsters fed on human flesh and blood, devouring their souls. It was an exceptionally terrifying thing.
Just as Mǐ Qiū had been waiting for a long time, the bullet was fired.
At that extreme speed, it directly knocked the X-type monster leader to the ground.
In that instant, the human form it had maintained for so long ceased to exist. It truly turned into a half-man, half-monster appearance—the alien’s true form.
The X-type monster struggled continuously, an unknown liquid pouring from its mouth. Blue-green liquid gurgled from its lips, and it sprayed out a white mist.
When the mist cleared, the X-type monster was declared completely dead.
Zhù Shāngchén’s ammunition was incredibly powerful. That single shot was enough to tear it apart, leaving it with no strength to resist.
In that case, its followers were even easier to deal with. Zhù Shāngchén took them out almost one shot at a time. His marksmanship was so precise it left Mǐ Qiū stunned.
With the mission complete, Zhù Shāngchén collapsed. Focusing so intently on one thing had exhausted his energy.
The physical manifestation was only one aspect; more important was the psychological toll.
He threw his gun aside and fell to the ground.
He was wearing a dark green bulletproof vest and was now gasping for breath.
He didn’t look good. Mǐ Qiū thought about finding a place for him to get some water.
“Don’t go. Stay by my side. You’re not allowed to go anywhere.”
Mǐ Qiū was worried about Zhù Shāngchén’s condition, seeing him like this, but he was right. It was better not to run around. First, she wasn’t familiar with this place, and second, conserving energy and waiting for rescue was the best option.
“Do you remember the first time we met?”
Of course she remembered. It was her first hypnosis session.
“You fell into my defensive position.”
Last time, in the training field, Mǐ Qiū was with him in the haystack. But Mǐ Qiū’s presence, her bursting into his “territory” again, was completely without defense.
It gradually made him unable to distinguish the boundary between reality and illusion.
“Can you do what you did last time? Can you make my heart stop pounding like this?”
Mǐ Qiū knew what he meant. Perhaps it would still work.
Mǐ Qiū lay down beside him and wrapped her arms around the man’s waist.
His waist was firm. Mǐ Qiū naturally grasped the man’s hand, only to find that his hand was trembling slightly.
After every mission, Zhù Shāngchén would unconsciously do this.
Mǐ Qiū held his hand and pecked a kiss on his cheek. Zhù Shāngchén’s face instantly flushed red.
He pinned her beneath him. “If… if I had failed to kill it, and we were in danger, would you still have stayed with me?”
Mǐ Qiū nodded. “I would face this crisis with you.”
“Really?”
“I won’t lie to you. You are the person closest to me, the one I trust the most. Am I not?”
Zhù Shāngchén stared at her for a while, an unreadable emotion in his eyes.
Zhù Shāngchén lowered his head and kissed her soft, moist lips…
Mǐ Qiū squeezed her eyes shut.
Perhaps this really was the only way to make him relax completely.
Zhù Shāngchén waited for Mǐ Qiū’s kiss in return, as if it was a sign of her feelings. He held her in his arms, holding her tightly.
Mǐ Qiū had no chance to break free.
“You admit you love me. Then let me ask you, what exactly do you love about me?”
“Does loving someone need a reason?”
“If I have to say, it’s the many shining points about you.”
Mǐ Qiū could rattle off a whole list, like his tenacity, his seriousness, his endurance.
Then she said just one more thing: “Actually, you have many good qualities, you just can’t see them yourself. It’s like looking in a mirror. You can only see your flaws, but you can’t see the subtle things. That’s probably the best way to say it.”
Zhù Shāngchén gave her a hug.
The warmth between them gradually rose.
Until suddenly, a huge gust of wind finally separated them from their warm embrace.
The helicopter had arrived. Thankfully, they were truly rescued.
Back in reality, Mǐ Qiū pressed her temples. They were sore and heavy, feeling like they were about to explode.
This hypnosis session had pulled Mǐ Qiū deep into the scenario. It was probably a side effect of her deeper understanding of the situation.
It looked like she would need two glasses of honey water in a bit.
Mǐ Qiū felt her body aching all over. She immediately got honey water from the fridge to drink, to alleviate the damage to her body.
After drinking two large glasses of honey water, Mǐ Qiū lay down on the bed. She was too tired, too sleepy.
It was only a two-hour hypnosis, but to do it properly was still a very difficult stage, far from as easy as she had imagined.
The next day, Mǐ Qiū had rested, and her body felt fine. But when she went to measure the brainwave data, the electronic recording device was broken. How could it be broken? No way. Then she wouldn’t be able to measure anything?
She had worked so hard on this hypnosis session, only for this to be the result.
But to tell Officer Hè about this… no, no.
If she told him, he would be furious with her.
Mǐ Qiū could already imagine what Officer Hè would say to her.
He’d probably say: “The equipment I give you is state-of-the-art! If you can’t use it, then don’t! Do I need to make you a new one? Do you have any idea how expensive that device is? Not to mention its performance is irreplaceable!”
…
Mǐ Qiū played out a whole drama in her head. Then she remembered—she had to find someone to fix it. What else could she do?
But who to ask? Xiao Měi was a robot, but could Xiao Měi really fix it?
Maybe she’d ask today. Mǐ Qiū didn’t want to give up on any possibility.
If Xiao Měi really couldn’t, then she could look on the StarNet. It seemed like you could do that kind of consultation.
In the morning, Mǐ Qiū first praised Xiao Měi, saying its cooking had been great lately, and then she asked Xiao Měi about the repair.
“You’re a robot too, right? You’re so smart, you can even transport vegetables and food. This shouldn’t be hard, right?”
To this, Xiao Měi replied very mechanically:
“Sorry, I do not understand what you are saying.”
“You usually understand me, why not now?”
“Then just tell me what to do.”
“System processing. Sorry, unable to detect the meaning of your speech. Please speak standard language.”
It seemed that besides inputting food-related programs, Xiao Měi couldn’t understand any other-speak. Talking to it was useless, just a waste of breath.
Asking Xiao Měi was a complete dead end. But Mǐ Qiū should have known. What was broken was a smart device.
Maybe she should just ask on the StarNet.
Mǐ Qiū explained the general situation to the customer service representative. The other party said it could be fixed, but she needed to provide the device’s model number and the damaged part.
Mǐ Qiū primarily wanted to know the price first. The representative said: “The price depends on the situation, but based on your description of the damage, it sounds complicated to fix. So, one repair might cost thirty to forty thousand Star Credits.”
“Thirty to forty thousand Star Credits?”
That was way too expensive! Just to fix one thing!
And she didn’t have that much money right now.
Her basic living expenses didn’t even cover that. This was a rip-off!
Mǐ Qiū exclaimed, “It shouldn’t be that expensive to fix this, right?”
The representative explained: “Looking at this device, the time for a factory repair is still a long way off, and its internal structure is quite special, not easy to repair. So, you’ll generally get this price from other places too.”
No way! If it was this price everywhere, then no, no, she couldn’t get it repaired. The repair fee was too high, it was highway robbery!
But how did the electronic device suddenly break? Mǐ Qiū looked it over but couldn’t find any real damage.
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