Chapter 325: Doing One's Best, Baili Qing

How to put it? The atmosphere at 66 Wutong Road has always been like this—Eileen is always making a racket, Hu Li is always watching the drama (or maybe eating watermelon, chicken, buns, noodles, cakes, or steamed buns), and Yu Sheng is often switching between joining Eileen in the noise or watching the spectacle with Hu Li. Now, that lively atmosphere remains, except there's now an iron automaton who can be called Eileen's nemesis.

After a brief contact, Yu Sheng discovered that Luna was simply the ultimate counter to Eileen—whether it was lingering aftereffects of resurrection or innate nature, this "Artificial Saintess's" emotions were as stable as Baili Qing's expression, and everything she did highlighted a slow, elegant grace (often because she was truly frozen). Eileen's jumping around in front of her was like punching cotton, resulting in no defense break, no anger, no care, and no reaction.

For Eileen, this was more painful than death.

"Let me tell you, Type-C buckle, today I'm being magnanimous!" the small automaton (pro) Eileen, still seething, sat on a stack of books near the window, baring her teeth at Luna, "It's just that this body of mine ran out of power. Wait until I recharge, and I'll poke your kidneys!"

As she spoke, she rubbed her hands together, conjuring a tiny ball of electricity in her palm as a threat.

Luna merely stood not far away, watching the scene. Only after a while did she suddenly speak: "Oh, noted."

Then she raised her hand and touched her waist and abdomen, as if recalling the feeling of being hit by the "Eileen Ray" in a previous battle, and shook her head: "Last time, I was careless. Didn't dodge."

Eileen (pro): "Let's fight again next time! I'll let you dodge first!"

Yu Sheng had been watching and laughing for a while; only then did he step forward to comfort the still-pouting small automaton: "Alright, alright, don't be angry. Arguing with someone still in recovery won't make you look good even if you win."

Eileen reached out and hugged Yu Sheng's palm: "Don't mention it. Don't forget the charging station you promised me earlier! This body of mine recharges so slowly..."

"Don't worry, I remember," Yu Sheng nodded repeatedly. "I already have an idea. Once I gather the materials, I'll make it for you."

Eileen made an "oh" sound, then turned her head to look at Hu Li, who was watching the drama not far away: "Silly fox! Don't forget you still owe me a new outfit!"

Hu Li: "I haven't forgotten! I'm not like you..."

Yu Sheng smiled and shook his head, then felt a gaze fall upon him.

He turned around and saw that it was Luna looking in his direction.

"What's wrong?" he asked casually. "Still something unclear?"

Luna slowly shook her head: "No... Just, it's good."

Yu Sheng scratched his head. The other party still spoke in such fragmented sentences, with only a few clear words often mixed with vague fragments. Sometimes understanding her was truly difficult; he didn't know when she would fully adapt.

But he could roughly feel that the other party was satisfied with the status quo, and that was enough.

Just then, a phone ring suddenly sounded again, interrupting his thoughts.

Yu Sheng quickly took out his phone and saw that the caller was Baili Qing.

He paused for a moment, then remembered how he had rushed out of the Special Operations Bureau earlier. He immediately slapped his forehead: "Oh my! Now I know why I felt like I forgot something!"

As he spoke, he quickly answered the call. Before he could even open his mouth, he heard the voice on the other end: "Has the 'Artificial Saintess' been found? How is the situation?"

The tone of that poker-faced director was unusually urgent.

Even through the phone, Yu Sheng couldn't hide his embarrassment: "Uh... found her, but things are a bit chaotic here for the moment. I forgot to tell you."

Baili Qing seemed to sigh with relief on the other end, showing no intention of blaming him: "As long as it's fine. So what's the situation? Did the Artificial Saintess awaken? And then escape the Holy Coffin Chamber?"

"Not exactly an escape... although she did wake up suddenly," Yu Sheng said, glancing up with a subtle expression at Luna not far away, who seemed to be paying attention to their situation, "When I found her, she was, uh, doing farm work."

Silence fell on Baili Qing's end for two or three seconds.

"... Farm work?"

"Yes, she even snatched the orphanage's labor class assignment."

Silence fell on the other end of the phone again.

Yu Sheng felt that Baili Qing was thinking—everyone did this; whenever discussing things happening at 66 Wutong Road, they would occasionally fall into such contemplation.

"I understand," Baili Qing finally spoke again, though no one knew what exactly she understood. "Anyway, as long as you're fine over there."

"Yeah, nothing's wrong, everything's normal," Yu Sheng cleared his throat twice, then remembered something. "Ah, since you called, I actually have another matter to tell you about. I need the Special Operations Bureau's help."

Baili Qing responded immediately: "Go ahead."

Yu Sheng: "The inn is adding a new registered employee."

Baili Qing: "...?"

"That 'Artificial Saintess,' her name is Luna," Yu Sheng continued, forcing himself to speak, "I talked with her, and she decided to stay here and work for me for this period."

Silence fell on the other end of the phone again; obviously, Baili Qing was thinking again.

Subway, old man, mobile phone, brain, universe, mathematical formulas, thinking little tune. avi.

"I... understand," this time it took even longer than before before Baili Qing spoke again, "So, you need..."

"See if you can register her. As you know, her situation is a bit special. If I follow the normal procedure, she definitely won't be entered into the system. It needs special handling," Yu Sheng chuckled dryly, not caring whether the other party could see his dry smile at that moment. "Also, we need to get her an ID card."

Actually, Yu Sheng knew that given Luna's current state, getting an ID card probably wouldn't be useful for anything, but he still insisted on getting one for her. After all, even Eileen in the house had one, and there was an even more important reason...

She is human.

This time, Baili Qing's response was significantly faster.

"No problem, I'll arrange it personally," she said almost immediately. "The staff will come directly to find you later. Keep your phone on."

"Okay, thank you very much." Yu Sheng thanked her sincerely.

"You're welcome," Baili Qing said calmly. "Also, there's another matter for which I called you."

Yu Sheng paused, suddenly having a bad feeling: "Ah?"

Baili Qing: "You forgot the books."

Yu Sheng's face immediately twitched.

Whether he heard it wrong or not, Baili Qing seemed to sigh lightly on the other end: "I simplified it for you again just now. Only two manuals need careful reading: the most basic Deep Space Navigation Regulations and the essential knowledge for using routes or docking facilities in major civilized areas. The rest... later I'll have the technical staff try to integrate an auxiliary system for you on the spaceship. It can't be simplified further. What's in these two manuals now are all parts that require 'manual decision-making'."

Hearing the other party say it to this extent, Yu Sheng naturally knew the limits: "Okay, then... thanks. I'll definitely read them carefully."

As he spoke, he casually opened a small door nearby—the door opened directly onto Baili Qing's desk.

He pushed open the small door, poked his head to look across, and saw Baili Qing leaning down on the other side, staring eye-to-eye with him. The Director Sister clearly sighed this time, then helplessly pushed the two books to the doorway: "You're getting lazier and lazier."

Yu Sheng chuckled, hung up the phone, and took the two books from the other side.

To be honest, after simplification, there really were far fewer pages; at least they looked like something a person could read.

In the time it took Yu Sheng to make a phone call, he returned to the living room sofa carrying the two books, but his relaxed state of mind lasted only a moment. When he opened the first page, he couldn't help but sigh again.

Eileen (lotus) immediately curiously leaned over, climbed onto the coffee table, and poked her head to look at the two "manuals" that, once spread open, were almost as big as her: "What's this?"

"Traffic manual," Yu Sheng said casually. "Baili Qing gave it. She said you must understand it to pilot a spaceship, otherwise they won't give you the license."

"…So you really need a license?" Erin blinked in surprise, then immediately looked Yu Sheng up and down. "Speaking of which, I wanted to ask from the start: how exactly did you get that ship running? Do you really know how to pilot that thing?!"

"Pilot? I just drove myself," Yu Sheng rolled his eyes. "It's just like the situation in the valley. That spaceship has 'assimilated' with me. Controlling it is almost like controlling my own body; I don't need to understand the principles to know what to do."

He briefly explained the status of that spaceship to Erin, then saw the little doll sitting on the tea table, looking at the ceiling at a 45-degree angle as if lost in deep thought.

After thinking for a full half-minute, Erin suddenly turned her head again, looking Yu Sheng up and down very seriously: "Ship Man?"

Yu Sheng was just about to turn to the second page when he heard the three words Erin blurted out and immediately lost his composure: "How the hell did you come up with that?!"

Erin: "By using my brain."

"Your brain, my foot!" Yu Sheng poked Erin over with his finger. "If you can't think of a good word, just don't speak!"

Erin rolled over on the tea table, but she wasn't angry; instead, she giggled, scrambled back up, and then scurried right in front of Yu Sheng again: "Then there's no reason for you to study this. This is prepared for people who pilot spaceships. You don't have a 'piloting' process—strictly speaking, when you were flying in space, you should even be considered a pedestrian…"

"You're sharp; if only your brain worked this well when doing real work," Yu Sheng first looked at the little doll with some surprise, then helplessly shook his head. "Unfortunately, that reason won't work. These manuals have already removed all content related to 'piloting.' What remains is traffic law—pedestrians walking also have to recognize traffic lights, right? You can consider these two books to be the complete encyclopedia of cosmic traffic lights."

"Moreover, even if we take a step back and assume I can truly be classified as a 'pedestrian,' I'm still a motorized pedestrian. Look, the second page of this manual states: 'Immortals flying on swords are regarded as Class II near-earth/atmospheric vehicles and are subject to these traffic laws together with small powered aircraft.' This shows that using the definition of 'pedestrian' to evade the rules is useless. There are too many strange creatures in this world; whatever you can think of, the administrators of all factions have already seen."

Erin blinked, staring blankly at the manual, which included a huge, tightly woven set of corresponding navigation regulations and related definition explanations covering sword-flying Immortals, human-piloted shuttles, giant dragons flying in their original forms, self-navigating awakened AIs, and so on. Her entire self (doll/lotus root) was dumbfounded…

(End of this chapter)