Chapter 6

It’s an extremely open land, with ruins of one or two houses occasionally in sight. But those ruins looked so dilapidated that, with one mere glance, one could tell they had long been abandoned.

The wind was quite strong. For several times, Rong Gui was so worried that his body would be blown away that his heart and flesh bounced with fright. Fortunately, the materials which Xiao Mei used to make his body were shoddy, allowing the wind to directly leak through his body parts. Yet it was also for this reason that, whenever the wind passed by, his body would always squeak. It sounded awkward at first, but Rong Gui soon found fun in it.

As a result, the robot who had now become Xiao Mei heard the sound of the wind behind him changing tunes.

From the eerie squeaky-squeaky sound in the beginning to an eerier…squeaky-creaky-squeaky-creaky sound.

The irregular eerie sounds had turned into regular eerie sounds, and more tones seemed to be created. Even one who had no curiosity at all couldn’t help but turn back to see what the person behind him was doing.

The body made by Xiao Mei was able to have the head rotate in 365 degrees. So when he turned his head, only his head rotated by 180 degrees, and his body remained unmoved. Rong Gui behind him was startled by this fashion of turning head, and his hands immediately fell off from his chest.

Xiao Mei the robot: “What are you doing?”

The scene of an ugly robot rubbing his own chest was…a little hurtful to the eyes.

Although startled by Xiao Mei’s bizarre way of turning his head, Rong Gui still had some nerve. His drooping arms quickly returned to his chest. Somewhat ostentatiously, he pressed deftly on the part of the chest where the wind leaked through.

“Hehe, Xiao Mei, look, aren’t there many cracks and holes on my body? Look, look, Pressing on different cracks can produce different sounds. My body can actually sing!”

Xiao Mei: ……

He swiftly turned back his head again.

Yet, the voice of that fellow behind him continued to flow around.

“Listen, listen, it sounds pretty nice! Doesn’t it sound like a clarinet? I used to learn to play the clarinet in primary school!”

As such, the two robots, one blowing a clarinet out of tune, the other blowing a clarinet with some rhythms but still out of tune, pitter-pattered their way ahead in the strong wind.

Probably because Rong Gui had been rambling next to his ears for too long, Xiao Mei even secretly went into his ROM to search what was a clarinet. After he really found out what it was and thought about it all over again, he actually felt that he indeed looked like a clarinet. Two clarinets queuing up in a neat line and moving forward…or something, he simply couldn’t stand this imagery!

He decided to plug the holes and fill the cracks of their bodies as soon as he found a place.

By the time they finally reached their destination, Rong Gui was able to play a simple little tune~

“Here we are.” Standing before a series of old houses relatively intact, Xiao Mei announced that they had arrived at the destination.

“Right here?” Rong Gui’s “clarinet” stopped abruptly. He looked at this place in front of them, which really didn’t seem to be inhabited by any people, and then looked back at Xiao Mei.

Xiao Mei didn’t continue to talk, but carried one end of the freezing cabin and proceeded toward a certain direction. As he moved, in order not to drop the freezing cabin, Rong Gui had no choice but to follow.

Among all dilapidated houses, Xiao Mei precisely spotted the one located on the most obscure corner and led the way in.

“At your ease.” After saying this sentence, Xiao Mei curled up in the corner and fell silent.

Looking at Xiao Mei who took on a cold, lofty expression, Rong Gui decided to interpret his reaction as homesickness.

All people in the hometown were gone – they must have either been dead or fled from some sort of calamity! After taking a look around, Rong Gui felt that he had to overturn the original image of Xiao Mei in his mind.

Judging from Xiao Mei’s previous behaviors, Rong Gui had always thought that he was a wealthy man. But no matter how he looked at it, this hometown didn’t seem to be rich at all! Furthermore, although this house of Xiao Mei looked rather spacious, once the freezing cabin with their two bodies was stuffed in, the room was almost full. It turned out that the house wasn’t spacious at all, but just that there hadn’t been anything inside!

Wait – it didn’t seem that simple.

The more Rong Gui looked, the more he felt that something was wrong.

His eyes wandered to and fro throughout the room and the freezing cabin, and eventually fell upon Xiao Mei’s tiny body at the corner. Suddenly, he understood.

Although this room seemed to be normal, but when compared to his original stature, it instantly became abnormal: The size of everything here was several times smaller than the normal size!

The reason why he didn’t notice it in the beginning was that his current body was too small. Were he in his original body, he would have noticed it a long time ago!

Rong Gui felt that he had discovered a secret: Is it possible that…Xiao Mei is a dwarf?

But this idea was immediately rejected: He had seen Xiao Mei’s leg in the freezing cabin, and although it was thinner and shorter than his own, it definitely would not be a limb from a short, stout dwarf.

However…

Rong Gui pitter-pattered out of the house and took a look around. After “visiting” the neighbors’ homes one by one, he was more and more convinced of one thing: Even if Xiao Mei wasn’t short, the neighbors who previously lived here were absolutely all small people.

All utensils were small and fairly exquisite. But judging by the dirt accumulated on their surface…the owners must have left for quite a long time.

Rong Gui even went to the cellar, and not a grain of rice was left there – the owners packed up everything very thoroughly when they left, so to speak.

But Rong Gui soon realized that he didn’t need to find food – he was now in a robotic body.

After having a general understanding of their surroundings, Rong Gui returned to the initial room they entered. Seeing that Xiao Mei was still sitting there “reflecting on the meaning of life”, he didn’t disturb the other, but went into the kitchen. His eyes lit up when he saw a rag on the kitchen table which looked like a dish towel. He shook the rag clean, and went outside to wipe up the dirt diligently.

“A plank is under the bed, and there’s water under the plank.” Seeing what Rong Gui was doing, the originally motionless Xiao Mei actually took the initiative to talk to him.

To tell him where the water was at this moment was obviously not for him to drink it, but for him to clean the room. Rong Gui quickly got the other’s point. When he tidied up the not-so-large bed, Xiao Mei who had been sitting in the corner quickly stood up – quickly, but no less reservedly – and sat down on the bed he just made.

A dirty little robot sitting on a bed that had just been patted narrowly clean…Rong Gui somewhat couldn’t bear the sight of it, so he waved at the other.

“There’s dirt all over your body. Let me wipe you clean so that you can sit there.”

Xiao Mei cast a side-glance at him, but didn’t refuse his proposal in the end. So when Rong Gui finished wiping Xiao Mei and asked Xiao Mei to wipe him in return, Xiao Mei, carrying the rag in his hand, at last didn’t say no.

Although their looks were still shabby, the two narrowly clean robots finally sat on the narrowly clean bed.

Not knowing why, even with a robotic body now, Rong Gui suddenly felt a little sleepy. He slowly fell asleep with his current body leaning against the freezing cabin containing his original body.

Xiao Mei’s straight, rigid back became the last image in his mind before he went to sleep.

Author has something to say:

Xiao Mei wasn’t short~

Happy weekend!