Chapter 76: The Kite

Golden hair was spread across the bed, like seaweed floating on water, dyed gold by the scorching sun.

She stared blankly at the pale ceiling, silent as a cold corpse.

"Hey, Sophia? It's Bonnie... are you okay? I called but no one answered... call me back when you hear this..."

The voicemail echoed several times in the dead silence, finally pulling her from the deepest layer of bewilderment.

"Bonnie?"

In the end, unable to resist that endlessly repeating sweet voice, a pale hand groped on the bedside table and found the phone vibrating nonstop.

Thus, a hoarse whisper struggled out of her dry throat.

"Sophia! What's wrong with you these past two days? You haven't gone to school, and you won't answer my calls... what happened?!"

A barrage of sincere concern, head-on and overwhelming like a sudden storm, instantly engulfed Sophia.

She frowned, her fingers gently twisting the strands of golden hair spread across the pillow.

"Nothing major... just... I broke up." Sophia hesitated for a moment; only when the breathing on the other end of the line grew increasingly rapid did she reveal the truth.

"That old man?"

"Yeah..."

"Weren't you dating online?"

"Actually, we only communicated through phone calls..." Sophia slowly sat up from the bed, wriggling her limbs to loosen her stiff joints.

"Uh..." Bonnie fell silent, her breathing seeming to hold, as if gathering her emotions.

After a while, she gave up the words about to spill from her lips and simply let out a heavy sigh.

"Although I know this is your first love, it's too..." Bonnie stammered, trying to scour every crease of her cerebral cortex, yet still unable to find a suitable word to describe it.

"Cough... too what?" Holding the phone slightly farther away, Sophia lowered her head and coughed once, clearing the grime accumulated in her throat, before continuing to ask Bonnie.

"You're too... innocent."

"Innocent? It's the first time I've heard someone apply that word to me."

Sophia got out of bed, bent down to pick up the drink bottle thrown at the foot of the bed, unscrewed the cap, and drank in large gulps.

Sufficient moisture recalled her body's vitality, and the shadow of two days of silence seemed to vanish in the blink of an eye.

"Never met in person, with only occasional phone calls as communication... fell in love out of nowhere, broke up out of nowhere... locked yourself at home alone..." Bonnie's tone revealed helplessness. "Are you some kind of little girl?"

"Haven't you ever been in love either? How come you sound so knowledgeable when you talk about it?" Sophia replied gloomily, picking up the clothes thrown on the floor one by one and putting them on.

"I may not have eaten pork, but I've seen pigs run!" Bonnie pinched her nose and imitated the cute squeal of a suckling pig, nearly making Sophia laugh.

"So... how exactly did you break up?" Talk aside, joke aside, even though she didn't hold high hopes for Sophia's relationship, as her best friend, Bonnie felt she should fulfill her duty.

"Probably... two days ago... after the kidnapping case, I suddenly lost contact with the old man..." Sophia glanced at the clock on the bedside table; her lonely self-imposed isolation had made her almost forget the time.

"And then? That's it?" Bonnie asked in surprise.

"... The two of us... I was always the one initiating contact, but whenever I called him, no matter what he was doing, he would answer, day or night..." Understanding what Bonnie was surprised about, Sophia frowned and explained haltingly, "Our relationship... was like flying a kite; there was always a string connecting us, no matter how far apart we were."

"So now the kite string has snapped... is contact completely lost?"

"Yeah..."

"Did he say anything about breaking up?"

"Actually... I never even confessed my feelings to him... maybe I just fell in love unilaterally..." Sophia walked with heavy steps to the bathroom, gazing at the exquisite face in the mirror, which looked much haggard.

"..." Bonnie took a few deep breaths; unfortunately, the timing wasn't right, or she would have long ago scolded Sophia, that stupid woman, into waking up.

"What does he do for a living?" After several seconds, Bonnie calmed her surging emotions and continued to ask.

"He said... he's an Agent?" Sophia spoke uncertainly; she had never taken the old man's job seriously before, but this was the only information she could provide.

"I'll help you find him, Sophia... no matter who he is..." Bonnie spoke softly; this love-struck, silly best friend was really giving her a headache. "Remember to come to school tomorrow... or I'll come to your house myself!"

"Thanks... Bonnie." Sophia thanked her quietly, then hung up the somewhat hot phone under Bonnie's urging.

Maybe Bonnie was right... she was too simple, too foolish.

Sophia stared at the pinned number in her contact list, silent for a long time.

Until cold moonlight seeped through the gap between the curtains.

Sophia threw the phone back onto the bed, walked to the bathroom, and planned to wash up, rinsing away the past events that had already passed.

On the way, she walked along the familiar corridor from the bedroom to the bathroom as usual, until she spotted a strange object at the corner.

It was something the size of a palm, mostly black in color, with some signs of patching, looking like an ugly doll.

Thinking so, Sophia bent down and picked it up from the floor.

Not a doll; the cold feeling in her hand meant it was... a Robot?

Sophia fiddled with this small Robot, examining it closely back and forth.

A large body, short limbs, a small head, various traces of manual repair; it looked like some strange Robot pieced together from a pile of scrap iron.

"Hey, who are you?"

Instinctively, she spoke to this ugly little Robot.

"Y... ou... h... ello..."

Seeming to hear her voice, the Robot suddenly came to life, two small eyes emitting blue light.

"Sh*t!" Sophia was startled by the Robot suddenly moving in her palm; her hand instinctively loosened, and the little Robot fell to the ground.

"Are you okay?" She quickly squatted down, picked up the little Robot, and checked if it was broken from the fall.

"Y... ou... h... ello..." The little Robot repeated, emitting a emotionless voice from its cold iron skin.

It shouldn't be broken?

Sophia quietly breathed a sigh of relief and tried to converse with the little Robot.

"Hello! My name is Sophia."

"Y... ou... h... ello..." The little Robot twisted its head, its blue eyes flashing, "So... p... h... i... a."

It actually can communicate!

Sophia raised her eyebrows in surprise, abandoned the idea of bathing, picked up the Little Robot, and strode quickly back to the bedroom.