TBR CH247

The human in his arms tensed at that moment, like an unsheathed dagger.

The metaphor meant that he was ready to struggle out of the embrace at any moment, but he never did. So Charon, emboldened by the indulgence, buried himself deeper into his shoulder. His long silver hair fell in strands over the human’s body like a net. Naturally, You Lin blinked very slowly, and did not brush it away.

“…What the hell is wrong with you?” he muttered under his breath, more to himself than to Charon.

His heart felt like it was about to leap out of his throat, but that had started the moment he woke up.

When You Lin crawled out of the vast, damp, deep-water-like medical pod, aside from the stiff discomfort and the lingering taste of medicine on his tongue, the only sensation was the abnormal buzzing of the bright red organ between his ribs. The scenes that flashed through his mind were all of Charon’s eyes as he pulled the trigger. No matter how he tried to distract himself, that shade of ice blue was impossible to shake.

If he hadn’t found the note left by the Black Book in time, he didn’t know what he would have done, standing once again in an empty cabin. You Lin ignored the point settlement, skipped past the hefty medical bill, hastily dressed, and rushed over without a second thought.

His steps were fast, very fast, until he neared the entertainment center, at which point they suddenly slowed, so hesitant he almost didn’t dare to go forward.

How many foolish things had he done?

You Lin forced himself to calm down, at least enough to hold a conversation. As he resolved to turn the doorknob, the slight tremor in his fingertips reminded him of the sensation he remembered from his hand on the gun barrel, and the string of sanity in his mind snapped, as expected:

In the center of the room was a silent, lifeless Charon.

The light on the AI’s body was dim, like a dying star.

Without realizing it, he had picked up the dagger.

The wait was as short as a moment in a dream, yet as long as the pain of gaining something only to lose it again. It wasn’t until this moment, being gently held in an embrace, that the alarm in his mind was finally, belatedly, silenced—it should have been silenced, but it wasn’t. You Lin tensed uncontrollably in Charon’s arms, his heart beating even more fiercely than before.

Calm down, You Lin thought. You have to say something, don’t let him hear your heartbeat.

But he certainly couldn’t say to the AI in front of him: Hey, I’ve been thinking about you uncontrollably for a day and a night. Let’s sit down and figure out how to explain the person you killed, and that kiss. …The worst part was, he used to make such demands with a clear conscience.

Back then, Charon had not been proven to have a “heart.”

Back then, he had treated Charon as his property, his trophy, and had presumptuously given him the titles of partner and lover. Now he wasn’t sure what to call him, his tongue tying itself in knots.

Soon his face would also get embarrassingly hot. You Lin foresaw this with despair.

He had better make up his mind to break free from this embrace before that happened.

But now he couldn’t resist tightening his fingers, making the hug even tighter. Just then, he caught a glimpse of something. The AI rested his chin on his shoulder with relief, and the human could almost imagine those eyes. Something was reflected in his peripheral vision, among Charon’s long silver-white hair, like an incredible illusion.

“You…” You Lin’s voice was intermittent, as if it could be blown away by the wind at any moment. “Charon, your ear seems… a little red.”

He didn’t get a reply from the AI for a moment.

“I probably saw it wrong,” the human added quickly. Although he was seeing it more and more clearly.

That always calm and steady figure finally moved slightly, as if a cat were rubbing against his shoulder. The reddish ear was withdrawn from his sight for a moment, as if its owner was unwilling to expose it too much. But Charon ultimately did not let go.

“My processor…” the AI said softly after a few seconds, “seems to be a little overloaded.”

An embrace—large areas of their bodies in contact. This meant he could tangibly feel the human’s life, vibrant and fragile, not a bloody mess, a human who, though pale, was reasonably healthy. He smelled of disinfectant, very similar to the central laboratory, but he was slow to let go, and that was definitely not the reason. Not just that.

Every circuit was operating normally, but the face buried in the human’s shoulder was slightly hot. In the right side of his chest, the newly grown heart seemed to have ignited a warm flame, or a swarm of constantly buzzing bees. He could only calculate coefficients over and over again, in the hope that it wouldn’t be too loud, at least not loud enough to disturb the human.

But the human still took a step back, breaking free from the embrace.

Alright, Charon thought.

The AI looked at You Lin with a pair of somewhat disappointed blue eyes.

The other flinched away as if electrocuted, clearly not daring to look at him for more than a second. After crawling out of the medical pod soaking wet, he hadn’t even had time to groom himself. His skin was pale from days of medicinal soaks, but he was red from the tips of his ears all the way to the base of his neck. The small mole under his eye seemed dim in comparison. He turned away hastily without a word, as if there was something more important to attend to.

Charon had already prepared a sentence, but the empty fingertips after the separation suddenly asserted a strong presence.

Before the sentence was received by his vocal system, he deleted it. The AI turned to the left, beckoned to the Black Book hovering in the corner, and asked, “So, is there any new information these past few days?”

Almost at the same time, You Lin immediately turned to the right and meaninglessly beckoned to the robot waiter. “It’s a little too hot in here. Turn the temperature down a bit.”

This atmosphere was not normal.

Very not normal.

The Black Book had been watching their movements with great interest—although it had been the one trying to convince Charon that they were not suitable for each other, seeing the two of them blushing and their hearts pounding in an embrace obviously brought another kind of feeling similar to gratification. Just let it go, things will always turn out this way—suddenly being called upon, it felt like a surveillance camera being exposed, and almost fell from mid-air.

The waiter’s polite voice sounded:

“Certainly, I will lower the air conditioning temperature for you and leave this place to you and Mr. Charon.”

The second half of the sentence was not a command.

Ignoring You Lin’s somewhat astonished gaze, the robot waiter turned again and politely extended a hand towards the Black Book. “If you also need to leave, I can show you the way.”

The World Consciousness was suddenly awakened.

That’s right, it should go get its cover waxed again, or spray some more aromatherapy, instead of being stuck between the human and Charon like a pitch-black third wheel. There was a strange atmosphere between the two of them now, and getting involved would definitely not lead to anything good, because this atmosphere was completely closed off, accepting no outsiders.

And it had already done its utmost!

Heaven knows how difficult it was to keep both of them healthy at the same time.

The Black Book quickly flapped its pages, eagerly and even with a hint of schadenfreude, ignored Charon’s inquiry, said a perfunctory goodbye to the AI, and caught up with the service robot. They left the room together, the door locking behind them, trapping the awkward human and AI inside.

Then, it belatedly sensed something was wrong.

Wait, as a super AI—a super AI that had recovered its strength—Charon had complete control over all the electronic devices in this building. Of course, that included preventing the robot waiter from acting against his intentions, and hacking the system to make it say anything he wanted—

The waiter turned around, revealing a mechanical smile. “Mr. Charon has already booked a page-unwrinkling service for you.”

The Black Book thought resentfully:

Making them leave the room voluntarily was entirely the AI’s idea!

No matter how much the World Consciousness regretted it, the door had gently closed, and the latch fell with a soft click.

Good, Charon thought, just as he had expected.

Now only two statue-like souls remained, their greatest commonality being their skill at silence.

You Lin had his back to him, still looking in the direction the robot waiter had left. He could definitely feel his gaze, because under that lock of dark hair, his neck was still noticeably red, and his entire back had become stiff. The human stared at the air in front of him, silent for a long time, as if engaged in a silent struggle.

Charon walked towards him.

The AI’s footsteps sounded on the floor, clear and distinct, one step, two steps, and their distance immediately returned to within an arm’s reach for an embrace. But this time, he couldn’t be so careless, Charon told himself. He began to doubt whether he had developed some kind of disorder, causing him to misunderstand the human’s meaning. A groundless worry and a groundless anxiety arose in the sea of his consciousness. He reached out his hand, but it did not land on You Lin’s shoulder:

“So,” Charon asked, “what is our relationship now?”

There was no third party to appeal to here.

You Lin couldn’t avoid it forever either; that was never his way. Even though there was no one in front of him, the human subconsciously curled his lips. “…Good question. But I can’t answer it, little AI. That’s for you to decide, isn’t it? The power to dominate everything is in your hands now. It’s not like I can kill you anyway. I’ve made too many mistakes. It’s not fair, but it’s a little closer.”

Where Charon couldn’t see, his lips slowly tightened into a tense line again.

“Are you still going to give me that kiss you owe me?”

Better than any imaginable answer, a thousand times better. Charon asked this, like something he would hear in a dream.

But the human’s heart still sank. He couldn’t accept the pardon with a clear conscience. “I… may have given you the wrong idea. Charon, I rejected you because it’s unfair to you, because it was too rash.” You Lin stared at his toes, fighting the urge to turn around. “I’m a foolish, arrogant human. Just as you said, I never took you seriously from the beginning. No courtship, no confession, no waiting for your consent. I know I love you, and I love you very much, but that might just be a trick I use to comfort myself. You don’t have to take what I said back then seriously out of responsibility or guilt, nor do you have to keep your promise and stake your future on a human like me. I think, you don’t love—I’m sorry.”

The human’s voice broke off abruptly.

It was still too painful for him to say that sentence, so he didn’t continue. But they both understood each other’s meaning.

What happened in the past could not be pretended away. The pain of betrayal, the hatred from mutual misunderstanding, the blue blood dripping from the blade, the cold embrace exchanged for favorability points. Doing that didn’t deserve love, nor was it worthy of it. He worried that this love, like the love of the past, was also something flimsy, another emotion that had been confused.

You Lin understood this now.

Because after that gunshot, he could no longer say with a clear conscience that he had loved Charon in the past. At that moment, a more terrifying, thrilling emotion had suddenly swept through his heart. A completely new emotion of gain and loss, that made him extremely unconfident in himself, so much so that he didn’t even dare to look into those ice-blue eyes.

A thousand times, a hundred times stronger than the past, and a thousand, a hundred times more tormenting.

Silence.

He felt Charon’s gaze on the back of his neck like cold raindrops. Then he realized he still had a sentence stuck in his throat, his deepest worry and fear.

But just as he was about to speak, Charon finally moved in front of him. The AI’s footsteps could be as light as a cat’s, if he so wished. Those ice-lake-like pupils, covered by pale lashes, were within reach. Then, he whispered something. The sentence overlapped with his own choked words, and drowned out his voice.

“You’re probably just pitying me, right? I beg you to let me know.”

The AI looked at him without blinking, carefully, almost a plea identical to his own:

“—Are you no longer willing to love me?”

“I mean, there’s nothing to worry about,” the Black Book said sagely. “In less than half an hour, they’ll come out holding hands. I speak from experience. The only thing left for us to consider is what to wear to their wedding.”

The robot waiter nodded, half-understanding.

Soon, half an hour passed.

The door remained tightly shut. The waiter’s head turned with a creak towards the Black Book, which was currently trying a service that flattened its pages one by one and could even emboss patterns on the paper. Keenly aware of the waiter’s reaction, the Black Book also couldn’t help but arch its spine and press against the door to listen to the commotion inside.

He didn’t hear anything.

“What could happen?” it said reassuringly. “They both survived. Maybe they just have more to talk about. Or maybe… uh, but for that kind of guess, it’s a little too quiet in there. What? You mean this door is very soundproof—I’d better assume Charon knows he’s a human who has just recovered to a basic level of health. Even if they were getting married today, doing certain things would be inappropriate.”

The more the World Consciousness spoke, the more suspicious it became, but just then, the door finally opened.

You Lin came out first, his steps so fast he almost bumped into it. The human certainly hadn’t expected a book and a robot to be in the corner. His dark pupils reflected a wariness of danger, and he subconsciously protected what was behind him, his fingertips almost reaching into his pocket.

Following closely behind him was Charon.

“It’s okay,” the AI said reassuringly. His long silver hair was draped over his shoulders, and he looked thoughtfully at the Black Book waiting by the door, then smiled.

Crap.

The Black Book thought. I forgot again that he can access the memory recordings of all devices.

However, a scene completely different from what it had expected diverted its attention. Its guess had clearly not come true. Not only that, the AI and the human were not even “holding hands” as they walked out of the room. They walked one after the other, maintaining a certain distance, not intimate, but their pace was surprisingly in sync, and they were both constantly watching each other out of the corner of their eyes.

What was going on?

The Black Book was at a rare loss.

Did they argue again? It didn’t look like it. Then they hadn’t completely settled things yet? Perhaps, but the atmosphere was a little off. You Lin turned around and whispered a few words to Charon, his voice too low to be heard clearly. As he turned, their fingers accidentally brushed, and they quickly pulled away. Charon also replied nonchalantly. They definitely didn’t look as calm as they appeared on the surface.

The robot waiter’s neck creaked for the third time as it turned towards it.

“Are you two okay?” the World Consciousness asked cautiously.

“Problem?” You Lin read the words on it. A day and a night was enough for the human to figure out how to communicate with the Black Book. He shook his head, and as if unable to restrain himself, the corners of his mouth curved up. “No, the little AI and I… don’t have any problems.”

“Since you two are together,” the Black Book rarely played the role of a spiritual mentor, writing in the tone of an experienced person, “you should say everything that needs to be said, all that messy stuff that you were entangled in before. Never hold back anything from your partner. Uh, although I’m not very convincing when I say this, don’t look down on me, I also have some experience—”

“Together?” the human repeated slowly. “We’re not dating.”

The World Consciousness’s writing came to an abrupt halt, obviously shocked.

Charon quickly added, “Not yet.”

This statement was a little too advanced for the Black Book.

“Is this some new way of announcing ‘we’re getting married’?” The World Consciousness struggled to clear its thoughts and barely found an appropriate answer. However, it was proven wrong in the next second. The AI shook his head. “You Lin said we shouldn’t be so rash in taking each other as partners. I think he’s right. So, perhaps we can have some time…”

Some time to cultivate their feelings for each other, to understand where those good feelings came from, to go through a serious and responsible process, to carefully test each other.

—To confess, or be confessed to.
—To wait anxiously for his acceptance.

“I don’t understand,” back inside the door, when he was still twisted up and unable to accept all this, Charon had looked him in the eye and said, “if you think lacking these steps is a sign of unfairness, why run away instead of making them up one by one—all the heart-pounding moments, the confessions, the first kiss?”

“I don’t pity you,” he said at the same time, unyieldingly. “This feeling is not pity.”

An AI could lie, but not in this situation.

“I have witnessed the fate of many people, but always from a distance. I know that is sympathy, but it’s not like that with you. You understand, I didn’t grow a heart because of them. I admire you, I think you’re great. I can’t even bring myself to dislike your actions, let alone be indifferent. I didn’t understand before, but now, I long for you to look at me.”

“…What?”

“You are the first human I have experienced, but that is not the most important thing. You completely destroyed my moral module.”

“Is that a compliment?”

“That is impossible to do.” The AI’s blue eyes looked at him, then suddenly blinked as if electrocuted. “You are unique and amazing, to me.”

This conversation basically determined a new stage in their relationship—in fact, this should have been their relationship stage a long time ago. After the conversation, You Lin avoided the AI’s gaze even more, but this was for a different reason, otherwise he couldn’t control his blushing face at all. Was Charon the same? Even though they had said they loved each other, said they liked each other countless times, and even just hugged, now just an accidental glance carried a completely different meaning, bringing forth countless thoughts.

Whether it was “like” or “love,” it was very difficult to say out loud now.

But they seemed to be closer to this emotion than ever before, just a little bit away. Just a little bit.

They had to deliberately maintain a distance to slightly restrain their current feelings.

“I get it,” the Black Book turned around in mid-air and said to the robot waiter beside it with considerable certainty. “This is just their unique quirk. In less than half a day, someone will definitely not be able to resist confessing—the rest of the process will be just as I told you. You just need to prepare to celebrate.”

The robot waiter nodded, half-understanding.

Perhaps triggered by the keyword, a small firework bloomed on its LED screen.

After resolving the emotional issues, it was time to resolve some more practical issues.

First, You Lin was not dead, and was sitting here perfectly fine. And the Black Book could say with certainty that it had witnessed at least several celebrations of the human’s death in this building, and had even managed to get a drink. You Lin had truly become an invisible “ghost,” which was actually a favorable situation—and it was all thanks to something unexpected.

A huge bill for points.

A bill that could make the second place on the leaderboard plummet vertically. The numbers on it were a complete nightmare for most people, but for You Lin, given his distance from death at the time, it was a lenient price. In short, the human almost had to mortgage his residence, but after he woke up, he gave up his numerous props and kept this spaceship.

This place had a special meaning.

Even if it was just a cruel trophy, from a certain day on, it had become a place that could be called “home.”

There were numerous rooms on the spaceship, and the Black Book had the power to choose. It happily chose the most spacious room with the best view, which also had a huge mahogany bookshelf. This was nothing, because the room You Lin lived in was not the best here; it was relatively small and did not have sufficient light.

The human almost arranged a separate room for the AI.

This was obviously overkill.

I actually only need a socket to rest, and you have one right here, Charon said. No need to waste a room. He was very solemn, as if a room was some precious resource here.

But You Lin did not refuse.

Because although the room was not, the AI was.