Chapter 10

Tao Shushu slept soundly. When she woke up, the sky was already bright.
After washing up, she bounced into the dining room, where her mother served her a bowl of seafood congee.
Tao Shushu happily finished the congee and, while sipping milk, opened her phone.
Just as she was about to open the game to check on her "cub," she noticed a string of messages on WeChat.
Tao Shushu tapped on WeChat and saw over a dozen messages from her friend Li Anyu.
"Shushu, let’s go buy pretty dresses today. The Su family hired a celebrity styling team for their daughter, we can’t fall behind."
"I heard they’re also planning to set up a matchmaking session for Su Momo to secure a fiance."
"Don’t get mad when I tell you this, but that Zhou Yi who used to harass you is now going around saying he was blind and deceived back then, and now he wants to be a clean, proper fiance. It’s disgusting! He was the one harassing you, and now he’s slandering you to make himself look like a good, innocent man. Yuck, yuck, yuck."
Li Anyu sent another dozen or so emojis expressing her outrage, then added, "Shushu, once you’re up, let’s go get our styling done."
Tao Shushu calmly reassured her friend and then recalled the plot of the original story.
In the original book, Zhou Yi was also one of the female lead’s admirers. However, the female lead didn’t actually like Zhou Yi, a good-for-nothing, spoiled rich second generation. She was merely using him to get close to his older brother, Zhou Songchi, the current head of the Zhou Corporation.
To get a chance to talk to Su Momo, Zhou Yi spilled all of Zhou Songchi’s secrets to her, aiding Su Momo in her conquest.
Tao Shushu opened the screenshots Li Anyu had sent.
In the screenshots, Zhou Yi was spouting nonsense in the group chat.
She couldn’t let this slide.
She had moved to Yancheng with her parents from another province during her first year of high school.
Not wanting to cause trouble for her parents, who were still establishing themselves, Tao Shushu hadn’t retaliated immediately when Zhou Yi took a liking to her and started harassing her. Instead, she lured him to a boxing gym and, well, let’s just say she “sparred” with him until his face was bruised purple, his lips split, and he couldn’t open his mouth properly for over half a month. Zhou Yi was in the wrong to begin with, and since he cared about his reputation, he kept the truth hidden from his family and his lackeys.
Is this pretending you've never been hit so good, to the point you've convinced yourself?
Tao Shushu waved her fist and sent a message to Zhou Yi: "You there? Want to learn about signing up for the boxing gym?"
She casually sent over a set of emoji stickers before closing WeChat.
Why bother with those boring people? Her cub was way more fun.
As soon as Tao Shushu opened the game, she found the truck already repaired. Her cub was driving wildly through another night, the massive vehicle roaring past, leaving faint tire tracks in the darkness.
Perhaps he'd just crossed a threshold, "Travel distance reached 100 km, coins +5."
Getting coins earned autonomously by her cub right after logging in, this was pure bliss.
Tao Shushu checked and saw there was no danger. Her cub's stamina and health bars hadn't dropped much. Curious about what he'd been up to all day, she decided to sneak a touch while he wasn't paying attention to trigger the activity log.
Switching the view to the driver's cabin, she noticed fine threads strung around her cub, with a few precariously hanging fruits dangling from them.
What was this guarding against?
Tao Shushu couldn't figure it out. Was her cub this vigilant? Surely no creature could board the truck.
Fortunately, the game allowed direct selection of characters. Not wanting to startle him while driving, she zoomed in on his face.
Marveling at how adorable and incredibly handsome her cub looked even magnified, she gently brushed his hair strands.
A series of messages flooded the screen.
Your cub traced a circuit diagram, deep in thought.
Your cub placed red fruits and engine oil on the table.
Your cub repaired the vehicle, failed once, failed twice, failed three times, succeeded.
Your cub is test-driving the vehicle.
Your cub drove the truck back to the cave entrance, entered the cave, and saw the fruits and oil still in their original state.
Your cub didn't say anything. Lowering his eyes, he collected the fruits and oil.
Tao Shushu instinctively glanced at her cub, the fruits and oil were placed by his right side, closest to the steering wheel.
She could understand the fruits; she quite liked these bright red ones. But engine oil? Did this truck need constant oil refills?
She continued reading.
Your cub loaded all supplies onto the truck.
Your cub put on a fisherman's hat and gathered more red fruits while all plants and animals were dormant under the solar radiation.
Your cub is waiting, occasionally glancing into the void.
The passenger seat was empty but covered with a cotton padding, her cub had stored away the cotton meant for Tao Shushu's bed.
He wanted to wait for her to leave together, Tao Shushu knew this with absolute clarity.
She watched him wait for a long time, until the sun began to set and lion roars echoed outside the cave.
If he didn't leave soon, danger would approach again. This cave couldn't hold out much longer.
Your cub stood up, calling out, but received no response.
Your cub left a small portion of fruits and oil in the cave, along with some weapons.
Your cub suddenly ran back, carved a line of words on the stone table. He glanced at it, ears turning red, quickly scanned the surroundings, and erased the words. Struggling to keep a stern face, he carved a new line.
Tao Shushu's eyes lit up, yes, they could communicate through carving. Just yesterday, she had used the corrosive sap of the Bloodsucking Grass to etch a circuit diagram onto the tabletop right in front of the cub.
She wanted to return to the cave to see what the cub had left for her.
But when she tapped the screen, a message popped up: Range too far. Unable to proceed to this location.
She tried several more times, but the result remained the same.
Tao Shushu pouted. So, there was no way for her to see what words The cub had left for his "old mother" now.
By this point, the cub had already traveled over 800 kilometers away. There was no way he would turn back.
Wait, 800 kilometers!
According to the records, the cub hadn’t stopped driving since he got in the car, and he hadn’t slept all night. That counted as fatigued driving.
After a moment’s thought, Tao Shushu tapped the red fruit next to Nan Yuan.
Just then, the car ran over a stone, and the fruit wobbled and rolled downward.
Nan Yuan noticed it and reached out to catch it, only to see the fruit being caught mid-air and carefully placed back in its spot.
Nan Yuan’s eyes brightened, and he stepped on the brake. It’s here. He had known all along, that it would follow him.
Seeing that Nan Yuan had noticed her, Tao Shushu made no attempt to hide. Instead, she vigorously ruffled the cub’s hair. Above Nan Yuan’s head, little emoticons indicating happiness kept popping up.
After ruffling his hair for a while, Tao Shushu patted the soft cushion and suddenly adjusted the passenger seat, transforming it into a recliner spacious enough for someone to sleep in.
Nan Yuan refused to comply. He discreetly observed the fine threads he had set up in front of him, all intended to detect that presence. As soon as it touched any of them, he would immediately notice.
He had discovered yesterday that this presence could pass through sealed spaces, yet it didn’t seem like a projection. It could touch him and interact with physical objects. Back in the military, Nan Yuan had never heard of any type of robot capable of such feats.
But then he thought of the medicine and the radiation particle shielding suit it had given him, each more advanced than even the peak military technology of the civilized era. So, Nan Yuan gave up trying to figure it out. He had been stranded on this barren planet for too long; perhaps, unbeknownst to him, artificial intelligence had evolved in more directions.
Nan Yuan waited, and sure enough, because he refused to rest, that presence came again to ruffle his hair.
Nan Yuan’s eyes widened.
Suddenly, his ears turned red.
Only the closest layer of threads had moved. Behind him was the seatback, and both sides were cluttered with items, leaving no space for anyone to stand.
Which meant…that presence was very close to him.
Nan Yuan even held his breath, his expression unconsciously turning serious.
Doesn’t it know about safe social distances among humans?
He didn’t exactly dislike its closeness, but this…this was really too near.
Nan Yuan's mind was fixated on that single thought, so much so that he didn’t even notice when the person had stopped.
Tao Shushu glanced at the cub with confusion. The dim light in the car prevented her from noticing his flushed ears.
Was it really that bad to ruffle his hair a little longer? Why the gloomy face? Maybe she had gotten carried away and been too rough. But with such an adorable cub, she just couldn’t help herself.
She had to ruffle his hair!
She had to pinch his cheeks!
This was the joy of raising a cub.
Tao Shushu chuckled softly, gently tapped the cub’s cheek, then picked up a red fruit and placed it in Nan Yuan’s hand.
Next, she picked up another red fruit and carefully wrote "Hello" on a leaf that served as a makeshift mat.
She had wanted to write "cub," but worried it might upset him, so she held back.
After a moment’s thought, she wrote "cub" in English.
Nan Yuan noticed the fine threads on the side move.
Snapping out of his thoughts, he saw the fruit in front of him shift as the person began drawing on the leaf.
She probably can’t see me.
Nan Yuan rubbed his ears.
He regretted not wearing his fisherman’s hat, it would have hidden his heated face and ears.
Hesitating for a moment, he examined the fine threads on the passenger side.
The person had only touched four or five of them. It was small in size. It might be a robot capable of freely changing shape and form, which would explain how it managed to shrink and slip through the blocked cave entrance.
After finishing her writing, Tao Shushu excitedly handed the leaf to Nan Yuan.
She widened her eyes, not wanting to miss a single expression on the cub’s face.
As expected, Nan Yuan didn’t understand.
Different star systems, different languages, it made sense. In her previous life during the apocalypse, even different planets had distinct scripts.
Tao Shushu blinked, comforting herself. It’s okay if he doesn’t understand.
While Nan Yuan stared at the leaf, trying to decipher its meaning, Tao Shushu quickly adjusted her mindset and picked up another leaf to draw.
She sketched the current scene: Nan Yuan sitting in the car, and herself, dressed in a pretty dress, sitting in the passenger seat watching him.
In the next panel, she drew herself with hands on her hips while the cub slept, and her standing guard around the car with a weapon. She wanted to reassure him that he could rest, she would keep watch at night.
After a moment’s thought, Tao Shushu casually wrote the script from her previous life as well. What if, by some stroke of luck, the cub happens to understand it?
She handed the three leaves to the cub in order.
Nan Yuan started examining them from the first one.
Just then, Mother Tao walked over. "Shushu, what are you playing?"
Tao Shushu waved her phone. "Mom, I’m just playing a game."
Mother Tao breathed a sigh of relief. She had thought her daughter was so focused because she was solving problems. Playing games, that was the normal Shushu. Last night, staying up late with textbooks had worried both her and her husband.
As Tao Shushu chatted with her mom, she didn’t notice the warning message that popped up on her phone screen: "Warning. Players are prohibited from bypassing the communication system and using text to communicate."
A dozen seconds later, the warning disappeared.
On the bottom leaf in Nan Yuan’s hand, the writing quietly changed its form.
Nan Yuan stared blankly at the leaf in his hand.
It depicted the current scene, but in an animated style. He was a chibi-style boy, and it was a girl in a dress.
Another painting depicted the same scene, he was male, she was female.
Robots don’t have genders.
So, is she actually a girl?
Author's Note:
Little Cub: Setting a trap to capture your traces.
Shushu: Cub is so cautious, patting his head.