Chapter 805: NO．174：What is learned young becomes second nature; constant practice makes it habitual

NO．174：What is learned young becomes second nature; constant practice makes it habitual.

Eleven minutes ago, when Meipu Bofang put down her phone and turned to greet the nervous Mi Yu with a voice saying 'Permission granted', she unusually did not immediately pay attention to her companions' reactions.

She merely lowered her head and stared at the phone whose screen had gone dark after she pressed the standby key.

Even though the outside weather remained gloomy and uncertain, the light at the entrance of the Chestnut East Dormitory was still enough to cast her expressionless face onto the screen.

This made it look as if she were using the screen as a mirror to examine herself, but in fact……

She was really examining the phone.

Just as she had done countless times over the past two months.

This new phone had already been in use for two months.

For someone who has seen flashlights fail one after another over the past ten or more years, a wireless phone, being a relatively precise and necessary communication tool, ends up ranking among the top in the 'casualty' count.

In order not to have to keep changing phones, after trying several times the so-called 'most durable, most sturdy' phone categories, she chose the currently most backward batch.

Such phone performance naturally cannot compare with popular models; even the casing is still a transparent model, making it easy for her to visually judge whether components are damaged, and it is often mocked by peers as too ugly, not at all like a girl's phone.

Its personality, however, is maxed out— a phone whose processor, sensors, etc., are visible through the casing— so tell me, isn't that full of personality!

But even so, it only treats the symptom, not the root cause.

After a while, it will still break down.

And in order to extend its lifespan as much as possible, Meipu Bofang went against modern people's instinct (x).

She can go without carrying her phone!

During vacations she puts her phone in a designated drawer; when going to school she puts it in a designated side-pocket compartment, highlighting a 'don't touch unless you need to contact someone' attitude.

A person called a 'cyborg' horse girl, yet leads a life farthest from electronicization, and this is often unknown.

Because her friends are few like that.

Her close roommates and companions are also not the type to loudly brag.

When she entered high school, she had a contracted trainer; theoretically she should have gained another close person…… but that trainer didn't care, or rather—— regarded it as a reasonable element: Meipu Bofang was supposed to be an appliance killer.

Although he never said so, Bofang always felt that he thought that way.

To her, that wasn't a big deal……

After all, she's been like that for many years; she feels she has grown accustomed to watching from the side while her classmates play with their phones and terminals.

Even when facing the AI mechanical assistants commonly found in kindergartens and elementary schools, she keeps her distance.

But since they can project screens, and keeping distance actually makes them quite friendly, they are even easier to approach than her classmates.

This lets her often learn their way of speaking, which they praise as the most efficient means of communication.

She thus became accustomed to interacting outside her classmates' situation, accustomed to communicating with those androids and mechanical bodies while keeping distance, and accustomed to having fewer online chats and less communication companionship……

If she could truly become accustomed……

When her classmates and family are on the phone, she herself must consider exercising restraint.

When chatting online with friends, she herself can only watch.

And her mechanical friends each have their own work and duties; she can only go talk to them after their work hours or when no one is using them.

Let alone mentioning games, videos, or other electronic procedures……

She can become accustomed; she can become accustomed by running with all her might.

She can devote others' time to running; she originally lacked the conditions for online games or online socializing, thus saving a lot of time compared to others.

Accordingly, the time she spends on interpersonal interactions is also far less than that of most peers.

Even that mechanically logical way of speaking becomes increasingly solidified.

Even leading her father to think it's because his past teachings were too strict, making him feel quite guilty.

Explaining it doesn't help much; instead, it seems like the daughter is saying it out of consideration for his feelings—'I've chatted with robots too much, that's why I'm like this'—and even if she said that to a roommate, they could only manage a forced 'hahaha'.

This is the fate attached to the horse-racing spirit—she has heard many people say this, mostly adults, using such explanations to account for her 'aloofness', 'appliance killer' nature, and 'manner of speaking'.

According to them, this fate influences one's life path from childhood, so that a horse girl debuts naturally resembling the horse of that horse-racing spirit—Meipu Bofang herself is unsure whether to believe it.

After all, although the class does mention the horse-racing spirit and fate, it never says that verbal quirks or the strange ability to break appliances are also due to fate.

The trainer also doesn't care; he only wants to overcome the horse-racing spirit's fateful shackles on the racetrack that were indeed mentioned in class.

Thus she remained in that 'accustomed' state until she experienced her second contract signing with the trainer in life.

'Breaking appliances? Rather than fate, it's more like a curse……'

'If you want to change fate, shouldn't you start by correcting your way of speaking? This should also be included in the training schedule—right, you can chat more with Qianming.'

'Take some time, let's go to the Divine Blessing Gospel class to see what's up with your appliance-killer trait—this talent affecting daily life, even if it truly is fate, should be fixed.'

After that trip, she got a new phone.

With a silver casing, a phone cover with three patterns of silver powder blue, its functions once left her dazzled, not knowing where to begin.

Or rather, only after seeking help from the Chazuo team members and Miss Xie did she gradually figure out those functions of the phone.

She was also ordered by Master to carry it at all times, serving as proof experiment for 'curse-breaking'.

She carried out this order very well.

Her frequent online chats with Master serve as proof.

The daily opened 'Trainer PrettyDerby' and other mobile mini-games are also proof.

The densely appearing parental notes in the communication logs are likewise proof.

The new habit is gradually forming, yet she still feels somewhat unreal.

She often examines this phone, whose style is completely different from before, yet it truly belongs to her, and this lightweight phone has not yet shown any functional abnormalities.

From the initial carefulness and anxiety, to now being almost able to confirm that she is truly no longer an appliance killer, she still unconsciously checks, as if it too has become one of her habits.

Seriously speaking, she hasn't felt any particular joy or excitement.

Her usual self-discipline and restraint will not make her become obsessed with the phone to the point of forgetting training or neglecting sleep and food.

As for Miss Qian's joking remark about "embracing the data era, opening a new life," she didn't really feel it.

But when she no longer felt confused upon pulling out such a phone, instead, when she let it standby and gazed at its quiet appearance, she would truly realize—

—that her habits, even her future life, had become clearly different from the past.

"Bopang Sang, I'm done here."

Standing by the shoe cabinet at the dormitory entrance, Mi Yu, having changed into her outdoor shoes, spoke up to end the continuation of her new habit.

This caused her to instead put down her phone and pull out her own umbrella.

"All right, then let's go, Mi Yu."

"Let's go to Master's."

These words, utterly lacking the usual mechanical stiffness, made the petite black-haired horse girl blink in surprise, and she unconsciously lifted her gaze to her companion, who still wore a blank expression, seeming unchanged.

This...... actually made her own surprise feel quite strange......

Thus she wanted to speak but held back, and in the end she silently walked over to stand under the other person's umbrella.