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[Engineer Sheng’s contractor is different from what the rumors say]
Sheng Jing left feeling frustrated, but Tong Yu didn’t notice it at all.
In the past, when Sheng Jing wanted to leave, the original owner would desperately cling to him and wouldn’t let him. Compared to that, how understanding he was now.
‘Brother Jing must be extremely satisfied now,’ Tong Yu thought to himself while eating lunch.
*Ding-dong.*
As the doorbell rang, Little Fatty automatically brought up the video feed from the door and asked, “Hello, may I help you?”
“We’re here to deliver something.”
“Master, did you order something?” This item wasn’t in his system records, so he needed to ask Tong Yu.
‘Something?’ Tong Yu reacted, “Oh, right, right, right, a virtual cabin!”
Tong Yu couldn’t even bother to finish his meal, running out the door in his slippers and asking, “Is it the virtual cabin?”
“I don’t know what’s inside, but the item came from the research institute.” It was precisely because it was a delivery from the research institute that the company sent a real person to deliver it. Usually, deliveries nowadays are automatically handled by robots.
“Then it’s the virtual cabin!” Which otaku hasn’t dreamed of owning a virtual cabin? He immediately signed for the delivery and had Little Fatty move it upstairs.
Tong Yu specifically cleared out a space in the study before starting to unbox the delivery. But once the box was open and he saw what was inside, he was completely dumbfounded.
‘So many parts? How do you assemble this?’
There was an instruction manual, but he recognized every word on it, yet when put together, he had no idea what it meant.
“Little Fatty, why don’t you try?”
Little Fatty’s mechanical eyes shot out a beam of light, scanned the instruction manual, and then said, “Master, the content in the manual exceeds my knowledge reserves. I need a knowledge pack upgrade.”
‘Even AI can’t understand it?’
“What kind of knowledge pack?”
“It requires quantum physics, life sciences, human medicine…”
“Stop, stop, stop…” Little Fatty rattled off more than a dozen high-sounding fields. Even if Tong Yu was dense, he knew this wasn’t something a household robot could be equipped with. “Could it be that only people from the research institute can assemble this?”
Tong Yu suddenly thought of Sheng Jing. ‘That guy, seriously, he knew the virtual cabin was going to be delivered, yet he didn’t even bother to assemble it before leaving.’
Sheng Jing, who was chased away: …
—-
At the Research Institute
As Sheng Jing stepped through the main entrance, he ran into Bai Sheng, who had sent him home yesterday. “You haven’t gone back yet?”
Sheng Jing: “I went back already.”
Bai Sheng paused, “So you went back and then came back again?”
Sheng Jing grunted in affirmation.
Bai Sheng frowned, “Didn’t I tell you to go home and spend some quality time with Tong Yu? I know your relationship isn’t the best, but you’re still his contract partner and spouse. Moreover, he helped you so much this past week. The way spouses get along should be through mutual concession, you…”
Bai Sheng’s main job was to care for the family lives of the scientists at the research institute, including but not limited to helping resolve family conflicts, reminding workaholic scientists to go home often, and remembering to buy gifts for wedding anniversaries and birthdays…
Sheng Jing rarely went home before, and although Sheng Jing never said much, everyone could tell that the couple’s relationship wasn’t good. Now that it was finally improving, he had to nag a bit more to get this guy to open up.
“I know you’re handsome, highly educated, excellent, and the youngest chief engineer at the research institute. There are tons of people who admire you, but you’re married. Once you’re married, you must be responsible to your partner. You can’t treat him lightly just because he pursued you before. I’m telling you…”
When Bai Sheng started nagging like this, eighty percent of the people at the research institute would surrender, either making excuses to run away or immediately doing as he asked. Only Sheng Jing would listen attentively every time, never interrupting, and after listening, he would politely say, “Thank you, Director Bai, I understand.”
But Bai Sheng always felt a sense of frustration.
This guy was completely in a state of “you can say what you want, I’ll remain unshaken.”
Similarly, Sheng Jing waited for Bai Sheng to finish his nagging before speaking: “Thank you, Director Bai, but I didn’t come back by myself. Tong Yu told me to come back.”
“Ah?” Bai Sheng was prepared to hear the familiar line, but the sudden remark made him pause for two seconds before responding, “He told you to come back? Why?”
“Probably didn’t want me to eat lunch at home.”
“Hmm?” ‘Didn’t want to eat lunch, what does that mean?’
Bai Sheng was about to ask for details when a staff member called him over. Bai Sheng had no choice but to let Sheng Jing go, planning to check in on him later when he had time.
Sheng Jing walked towards the administrative office, intending to cancel his leave and go back to work. Halfway there, he suddenly received a video call from Tong Yu.
Sheng Jing answered, revealing Tong Yu’s smiling face: “Uh… the virtual cabin has arrived.”
As he spoke, he showed Sheng Jing the virtual cabin’s components, which were scattered all over the floor to emphasize the difficulty of assembly.
A glimmer of light flashed deep in Sheng Jing’s eyes, but he only gave a faint “oh” on the surface.
Seeing that his hint wasn’t effective, Tong Yu had to add: “It’s just… this thing is quite difficult to assemble.”
Sheng Jing: “There should be an installation manual.”
‘If I could understand it, would I be calling you? You’re a scientist, how can you not figure this out?’
Tong Yu: “I don’t quite understand it.”
Sheng Jing’s lips curled into a slight smile: “Want me to go back and assemble it for you?”
Tong Yu frantically shook his head: “No, no, no, how could I trouble you to come back again? I meant, can you send me an installation video? I’ll follow that to assemble it.”
Sheng Jing’s jaw tightened: “After assembly, it also needs program settings. Can you write programs?”
Tong Yu shook his head: “Then… is there a place nearby that can assemble it? I’ll hire someone to do it.”
‘You’d rather hire someone else than let me go back, huh?’
“Only people from our research institute can assemble this. There’s no one near our house who can assemble it,” Sheng Jing said.
‘Surely now he’ll ask me to go back.’
Tong Yu looked a bit disappointed, just about to say he’d have to wait until Sheng Jing came back next time to assemble it, when a strange voice suddenly chimed in on the video call.
“Engineer Sheng, is your home on Tianhe Road? Coincidentally, Little Chang just went back. Why don’t you send him a message and have him go assemble it?”
Sheng Jing: “…”
Tong Yu’s eyes lit up with surprise: “Really?”
Sheng Jing wanted to say no, but he couldn’t say it now. He could only nod with a strained face.
Tong Yu: “Then I’ll wait at home. I won’t disturb your work. Bye-bye.”
Having achieved his goal, Tong Yu quickly ended the call.
Sheng Jing turned his head, silently looking at the colleague who had so enthusiastically “helped.”
The man waved his hand dismissively: “No need to thank me, Little Chang is in that area anyway, it’s no trouble for him to go over.”
Everyone in the lab knew that Engineer Sheng’s contract partner was quite troublesome. Although they didn’t know exactly what he did, Engineer Sheng was very reluctant to go home during holidays. So, the person who had only half-listened when passing by earlier thought that Engineer Sheng’s contract partner was causing trouble again, and decided to act selflessly.
Sheng Jing: “…Thank you!”
The man: “Oh, I already said no need to thank me.”
Sheng Jing shot him a look, then turned and walked away.
The man inexplicably scratched his head: ‘Why does Engineer Sheng still seem to be in a bad mood? It seems this contract partner’s influence on Engineer Sheng is far greater than imagined; just a phone call can affect his mood.’
Tong Yu waited less than half an hour at home before Little Chang arrived.
Little Chang was an energetic young man, dressed in loungewear. When Tong Yu opened the door, he could still see sweat beading on the young man’s forehead.
“Hello, I’m Engineer Sheng’s intern, my name is Little Chang. Engineer Sheng asked me to come help assemble the virtual cabin. I’m not late, am I?” the young man asked nervously, his eyes brimming with curiosity as he scrutinized Tong Yu.
‘So this is Engineer Sheng’s contract partner. He doesn’t seem difficult to get along with.’
“No, no, I didn’t set a time. It’s fine if you came a bit later,” Tong Yu said.
“That’s probably because Engineer Sheng was worried you needed it urgently,” Little Chang said, doing his professor a favor.
‘Worried I needed it urgently, yet he didn’t assemble it before leaving?
Never mind, he probably left in too much of a hurry and forgot.’
Tong Yu ushered him in. After entering, Little Chang glanced at the living room and praised, “Your home is so beautiful and unique.”
‘Unique? Isn’t this just ordinary Earth-style decor? But then he understood: for people nowadays, Earth-era decor was already considered antique.’
“The virtual cabin is upstairs in the study.” Tong Yu led him to the study. The young man was incredibly diligent; he even brought his own tools and immediately started working, huffing and puffing through the process. The sweat from his journey hadn’t even dried yet, and he was already drenched again.
Tong Yu went downstairs and poured a cup of honey pomelo tea: “Have some water first before you continue.”
“Thank you.” Little Chang took a sip. The perfectly balanced sweet and sour taste was an experience he’d never had before. “This is so good.”
“Glad you like it.”
“I love it, I love it! I’ve never had water this delicious before.” Little Chang chugged the water and began assembling the virtual cabin with even more effort.
About an hour later, the virtual cabin was assembled and activated.
“If there’s nothing else, I’ll be going now,” Little Chang said, preparing to leave.
“Wait a moment.”
Little Chang was confused when he saw the chubby household robot come out with two packages.
“This is honey pomelo tea. I saw you liked it, so I packed some for you. Thank you for coming all this way to help me assemble the virtual cabin; you were a great help,” Tong Yu said, handing the package of honey pomelo tea to Little Chang.
“This… this is too valuable.” Such a delicious drink must be very expensive, he couldn’t accept it.
“It’s not valuable, I made it myself. If you like it, feel free to come and get some anytime.” Tong Yu held Little Chang back and handed him another package, “This is for Sheng Jing. Please take it to him when you go back to the research institute.”
The package Tong Yu gave Sheng Jing contained the wontons he had wrapped this morning. Although Sheng Jing had forgotten to help him assemble the virtual cabin when he left, Little Chang was, after all, called by Sheng Jing. Since he received help, he felt he ought to thank him.
Little Chang couldn’t refuse and left with the items.
In the evening, Little Chang returned to the research institute. As he was going to deliver the items to Sheng Jing, he ran into the colleague who had “acted selflessly” during the day: “Little Chang, you’re back.”
“Yeah.”
“Did you go to Engineer Sheng’s house today?”
“I did.”
“How was it?” The man lowered his voice, “Is Engineer Sheng’s contract partner particularly difficult to deal with?”
“No, I think he’s really nice. He’s good-looking and has a good personality, completely different from what the rumors say,” Little Chang replied.
The man paused: “You didn’t go to the wrong door, did you? Are you sure you’re talking about Engineer Sheng’s contract partner?”
“No, I didn’t go to the wrong door. He even asked me to bring something to Engineer Sheng,” Little Chang said, pointing to the package in his arms.
“Something? What something?”
Little Chang hadn’t answered yet when Sheng Jing happened to walk out of his dorm. Little Chang saw him and quickly greeted him: “Professor Sheng, Professor Sheng.”
Sheng Jing looked up, saw it was Little Chang, and walked over slowly.
“Professor Sheng, this is what your contract partner asked me to bring to you.”
Sheng Jing took the item Tong Yu had brought him. Before he could even look, someone beside him was even more curious: “What is it? Let me see.”
Sheng Jing was also curious and opened it. He found a small freezer inside, and when he opened that, it was a whole box of wontons.
“What is this?” Others hadn’t seen wontons before and found them a bit strange. They reached out to grab one to examine it, but Sheng Jing slapped their hand away as soon as it lifted.
“Why did you hit me?”
“It’s food,” Little Chang offered.
“Food? What kind of food is this?”
Little Chang: “I don’t know, but when I came in, the instrument determined it was food.”
Sheng Jing also found a note in the box: “Just boil it with water. Consider it the installation fee.”
Sheng Jing closed the box and headed straight to the cafeteria.
“Sheng Jing isn’t really going to eat that, is he? Can that stuff even taste good?” Their own family member also enjoyed experimenting with various natural foods, and the taste, well, they’d rather just drink nutrient solutions.”It should be very tasty; Professor Sheng’s contract partner is a great cook,” Little Chang said.
“You’ve tried it?”
In the distance, Sheng Jing also stopped.
“He gave me a bottle of honey pomelo tea, and it was delicious.”
“Really? Let me see, let me try some.”
“Professor Guo, don’t grab it, I can’t even bear to drink it myself…” Little Chang clutched his thermos, about to run.
Sheng Jing glanced at the thermos: Honey pomelo tea, he hasn’t had any!
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nan404[Translator]
(* ̄O ̄)ノ My brain's a book tornado, and I'm juggling flaming novels. I read, I translate (mostly for my own amusement, don't tell), and I'm a professional distractor. Oh, and did I mention? I hand out at least one free chapter every week! Typos? Please point 'em out, I'll just be over here, quietly grateful and possibly hiding.