Chapter Three: Do You Have Any Sense of Decency?

Chapter Three: "Do You Have Any Sense of Common Decency~~~"

Chen Xiao stood face-to-face with the girl at his doorstep for a full ten seconds before he snapped back to reality. Hastily, he ushered her inside and closed the door behind them. If a neighbor happened to pass by and saw a girl standing in his open doorway…

The girl gazed at Chen Xiao silently in the darkness. Her eyes were so pure, untainted by the smallest impurity, and tinged with a curious light as she looked at him.

"You..." Chen Xiao reached for the light and flicked it on. Under its glow, her skin appeared as delicate as ivory.

He involuntarily drew in a sharp breath, his heart racing. Embarrassed, he turned the light off again, hurried into the living room, snatched up the bedsheet covering the freezer, and returned to the girl. Turning his head away, he handed her the sheet without meeting her eyes. "Here, put this on."

A second passed—no reaction.

Five seconds—still no response.

Chen Xiao grew restless and sighed. "Miss, whoever you are—" The words caught in his throat, and for some reason, he changed them to, "You'll catch a cold."

"Cold... what does that mean?"

At last, the girl from the freezer spoke. Her voice was gentle and soft, sweet as pudding. Her beautiful ice-blue eyes looked at Chen Xiao with innocent curiosity.

"A cold is..." Chen Xiao gave a wry smile, glancing oddly at the girl. "You've never had a cold before?"

His fingers brushed her skin—cool, yet smooth—and his heart fluttered uncontrollably. He quickly withdrew his hand.

Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief. Why did his good intentions make him feel like a thief caught in the act?

He flipped the light on again, then, after a moment's thought, went to the window to draw the curtains.

Sterile? Did he hear her right?

"You... ah, just sit down and let's talk," he said, feeling his composure slipping despite his early maturity.

He was beginning to realize that this "trouble" he'd stumbled upon was far bigger than he'd imagined.

The girl glanced at the simple sofa in his living room, hesitating slightly.

"Don't worry," Chen Xiao said, catching her reluctance. "The sofa hasn't been 'sterilized,' but it's clean enough."

"Now, can you tell me who you are?" He looked seriously at the girl, but even as he asked, he felt himself blushing.

Not for any particular reason—he tried not to look, but he was young, after all...

God! Is this some kind of test?

His heart beat faster. He coughed to cover his embarrassment and averted his eyes.

"Your face is red," the girl observed, her gaze so pure it was almost naïve. Slowly, she added, "Your heart rate has increased by nineteen percent compared to earlier."

Nineteen percent?

Chen Xiao started to suspect she was teasing him. Red cheeks were one thing, but heart rate up by nineteen percent? Did she think she was a heart monitor? He had to admit, she had a peculiar sense of humor.

But... for a girl this unnaturally beautiful—

"Who are you, really? What's your name?"

"Yaya."

Chen Xiao nodded; he had already seen that name on the letter.

"I mean your full name. Your family name?"

"Yaya."

He gave a rueful smile. "You can't be surnamed 'Ya,' can you?"

She tilted her head in thought, then shook it, a look of confusion in her blue eyes. "I don't know."

Could she be one of those amnesiacs from those melodramatic TV dramas?

Chen Xiao was at a loss, frowning as he pressed on. "Then... where are you from? Do you remember that? I mean, where did you live before? Do you remember?"

At last, the girl nodded.

Chen Xiao felt a flicker of hope—until he heard her answer.

In an earnest and definite tone, she replied, "Biological Capsule No. 16."

Sixteen... bio... biological capsule??

Chen Xiao started to doubt he was even speaking to a human.

But she didn’t seem to be lying.

He patiently asked, "Biological Capsule No. 16... where is that? You don’t remember? Do you at least remember what it was like?"

Yaya thought for a moment, then glanced at the freezer in the living room, pointing at it. "Bigger than that."

Bigger? Did she normally sleep in a freezer?

"How much bigger?" Chen Xiao asked automatically.

She thought again. "This is an M-type micro biocapsule. The one I lived in before was about 668 times the size."

Six hundred and sixty-eight times? She stated the number so precisely, as if she’d calculated it on the spot. Was her mental math really that good?

Chen Xiao stared at the freezer, then at his own apartment. Surely his place couldn’t fit over six hundred freezers...

Was this poor girl living in some industrial cold storage before?

He was about to ask further when she suddenly frowned, a trace of sorrow in her eyes as she looked at Chen Xiao timidly. "I feel unwell."

"Unwell? Where?"

Chen Xiao’s mind leapt to the possibility of her being a clone or some artificial being. Could his parents have left him such a bizarre "inheritance"?

"Here." Yaya gently touched her stomach, her delicate face creased with a sadness so beautiful it tugged at his heart.

"Is your stomach hurting?" he asked, surprised.

But he quickly understood, because he clearly heard her stomach grumble.

"Ah, you’re hungry," Chen Xiao said, standing up with a sigh. "You must have come out this afternoon. It’s been several hours and you haven’t eaten. Wait here; I’ll make you some instant noodles."

But as soon as he stood, her next question left him utterly speechless.

"Excuse me, what does ‘hungry’ mean?"

Well! Even with Chen Xiao’s steady nerves, that question nearly broke him.

He fetched noodles, washed a bowl, boiled water, and put everything in the microwave.

When he flicked the switch, he turned and saw Yaya standing at the kitchen door, her gaze full of curiosity as she studied the kitchenware.

Chen Xiao’s face reddened again—he wanted to gently remind her that she was now standing exposed in his sight.

But as he hesitated, torn between propriety and impulse, the room suddenly went dark, the lights and microwave shutting off.

In the blackness, before he could speak, Yaya softly asked, "Is this what you call an energy shortage failure?"

Chen Xiao couldn’t even muster a bitter laugh.

Energy shortage… what a peculiar way to put it.

He glanced out the kitchen window and saw that the opposite building and all the surrounding ones were still brightly lit.

"It’s not a blackout," Chen Xiao thought aloud. "Maybe the fuse blew. I don’t have a spare; I’ll have to go out and buy one. Wait here."

"What is a fuse?"

Chen Xiao sighed, his tone growing serious and a little impatient in the darkness. "Miss Yaya, I don’t know who you are or where you come from. Honestly, you’ve got me in such a mess right now, I’m about to lose it."

Yaya was quiet for a moment before speaking again in a low voice. "You need this thing called a ‘fuse’ so that energy can keep running?"

So energy can keep running??

Chen Xiao was speechless.

Alright then!

Since sixteen, he’d had plenty of experience dealing with girls, but never one as bizarre as this!

She seemed to think everything should be ‘sterilized’—even bedsheets and sofas.

She didn’t know what a cold was.

She didn’t know what ‘hungry’ meant.

She called electricity ‘energy.’

She… could she be an alien?

While Chen Xiao struggled for an answer, Yaya softly asked, "Can I help you?"

"Help? You want to buy a fuse for me?" Chen Xiao eyed her skeptically, doubting she even knew what a convenience store was.

Given her string of odd behaviors, his worry seemed well-founded.

But it turned out he’d actually overestimated her.

Yaya, with her innocent eyes, skipped right over the notion of a convenience store and instead shyly asked, "Excuse me, what does ‘buy’ mean?"

What does ‘buy’ mean?!

Chen Xiao was genuinely exasperated.

Just as he was about to lose his temper, Yaya quietly walked over and placed her hand on the microwave.

In the next instant, the words of reproach on his lips died, as did a mouthful of saliva.

In the pitch-dark room, the light flickered once, twice—then blazed to life!

The lamp shone, the microwave, which had stopped, beeped gently and began spinning again!

Even the television in the living room, though it had been off, suddenly switched itself on. On the screen, a commercial played, with Jay Chou pointing at the camera, proclaiming, "I am an M-ZONE person~"

Chen Xiao was stunned.

He gaped in disbelief.

Could it really be such a coincidence—a power outage, and now… But even he couldn’t convince himself with that excuse.

He stared at Yaya, forcing out the words, "Are you—are you a human or a ghost?"

But his eyes widened further as, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the lights in the building across the street suddenly plunge into darkness, as did all the surrounding buildings.

The entire neighborhood was swallowed by darkness—except for Chen Xiao’s apartment, whose window shone alone.

And by the microwave, Yaya stood, her entire figure wreathed in blue, electric light—like a shimmering blue aura.

This was the strangest thing Chen Xiao had ever seen.

The atmosphere should have been eerie, but suddenly, from the window below, a neighbor stuck their head out and roared in a hoarse voice:

"What’s going on up there!"

[The new book is rising in popularity. Please bookmark and vote! Thank you all!]