Chapter 76 - The New God (5)

Zhang Xun now wished that when they had stolen the North American servers they had brought back Eden's instruction manual as well.

Although the manual would probably be longer than Leo Tolstoy's collection...

Zhang Xun searched the bookshelf all morning and actually found a few books that could be used. Such as, "Reading His Heart: 100 Taboos in Dating", "Advanced Handbook for Rookies in Love", "The Art of Seduction", "Capturing Your Male God in 30 Days", etc...

Zhang Xun strongly suspected that all these "colourful" books that teach people how to fall in love had been deliberately placed here by Adam...

Even though he was full of disgust for these vulgar titles, in order to get Adam to help him protect his father and James, he still had to dig up his tireless and rigorous academic spirit that he would use when studying machinery. He found a notebook and a pen on the desk and opened the first book to study quickly, taking notes as he read.

It was pitiful that he had to study how to play house at his age...

The result was beyond his expectations. Judging from the content written in these books, falling in love turned out to be a very complicated thing. Both parties would have to guess what the other party wants, but neither could tell the other party nor let the other party know what they want, but also find ways to hint to the other party what they want. It was a very difficult interpersonal process of reading a series of "hints" that seemed to have no logical connection, while trying to avoid all kinds of inexplicable minefields in the middle.

And quite a few of these books seemed to have been written for heterosexuals two hundred years ago. Zhang Xun wasn't sure if this could be applied to him and Adam... and since he was locked in this room, the props he could use were very limited and he didn't have the option of buying jewellery for Adam...

After thinking about it for a long time, Zhang Xun couldn't think of anything that Adam would like. His appearance was okay, but at Adam's level, he could find better; his mechanical knowledge was rich, but not to the point where he could compare with Adam; his personality was old-fashioned and boring and now that he thought about it, except for that Valentine's Day, he and Adam had never even dated; he was now a prisoner, without power or money and even his life depended on Adam's "mercy".

Thinking this way, Adam used to "like" him, mostly because he was his administrator. The most effective survival strategy for an AI was to develop a close relationship with its administrator.

But what game was Adam playing now?

But he had no choice, if Adam wanted to play, he could only go along with it.

Zhang Xun tentatively walked to the door and knocked on it. The guard's cold and cautious voice actually came from outside the door, "Is something wrong?"

Zhang Xun asked, "If I need something, can you help me get it?"

After a while, the guard said, "It depends, some items will be prohibited."

Zhang Xun thought for a while and handed over a "Romantic Candlelight Dinner Preparation List" he had just copied from the book through the delivery port, "Thank you."

The note was taken away and then there were no more sounds. Zhang Xun thought that was it and he didn't expect the food delivery port to open again in the evening and a few packages would be pushed in.

It looked like Adam had really instructed them to do everything to meet his needs...

Zhang Xun started busying himself while reading the book. He pulled off his bed sheet and threw it over the table as a tablecloth, he arranged the take away that he had asked the guards to bring, poured the red wine and arranged the plastic roses (fresh roses were rarely sold anywhere and were very expensive, the guards probably thought it was too much effort.) in a water glass and placed them in the middle of the table. The candles weren't what he expected; two thin birthday cake candles standing pitifully in the middle of the table. Matches and lighters were prohibited so the guards didn't bring these for him.

This patchwork "candlelight dinner" looked quite shabby. Zhang Xun wasn't sure this was enough so he went to the shelf with old records to find some "romantic" music. The problem was that Zhang Xun didn't know what kind of music could be defined as romantic. In the end he chose a jazz record and then spent a long time trying to figure out how to put it on the gramophone.

The book said to wear sexy clothes and dim the lights... Zhang Xun stood in front of the closet for a long time, looking at all the identical shirts and trousers, finally gave up and just unbuttoned a few buttons on his shirt. He looked in the mirror and undid two more...

When Adam came in, what he saw was a room where the light was so weak that it was almost dark and the dishevelled Zhang Xun sat at the dining table and pulled out a somewhat unnatural and awkward smile, "Good evening ......" with the lazy sound of jazz music floating in the background.

Adam raised an eyebrow.

Zhang Xun stood up hurriedly, unsure why he was so nervous, "Have you eaten dinner?"

Adam said, "No."

"Then... let's eat together?"

Adam walked over to Zhang Xun and sat down with a blank expression and looked critically at the plastic roses and birthday cake candles in the middle of the table. Zhang Xun coughed and didn't know what expression to put on, "Your guards said that lighters are prohibited so I couldn't light the candles."

Adam hummed softly, not showing any emotion.

Zhang Xun had ordered all the things that Adam liked to eat in the past, especially the omelette rice. However, the whole meal was so cold that the red wine was basically frozen into ice. Zhang Xun remembered that the book had said that they should discuss their common hobbies, but his and Adam's common interest was probably building robots. The problem was that raising this topic would be like hitting a hornet's nest and definitely wouldn't work out.

"So.... have you been doing well recently?" Zhang Xun finally asked after racking his brains.

Adam simply said, "I'm fine, at least my head is in one piece."

"..." He didn't expect that even this would hit a sore spot...

Adam took the initiative to ask, "What about you? Are you used to living here?"

Zhang Xun hesitated for a moment. He turned his head, glanced at the one-way mirror and asked after deliberation, "Is there another room next door?"

"Yes. The observation room." Adam's mouth twitched slightly, "Don't worry, only I can enter."

Zhang Xun's face flushed red, "You live next door?"

"Not yet." Adam put away the faint smile again, "I'm very busy."

Busy transforming the brains of everyone in Lost Paradise? Zhang Xun thought with a little frustration. He decided to change the subject, "Are you still in the Lab? How is Pan?"

"Pan is working as usual. Without your clearance there is no way to modify some of its core parameters, but there are no major problems yet."

Why would he modify the core parameters? Did Adam want to develop some new features? Zhang Xun wanted to ask some more questions, but Adam stopped answering, probably because he knew that he was prying, so his face became even colder.

At the end of the embarrassing dinner, Zhang Xun asked tentatively, "Want to... watch a movie together?"

Given that Adam had been cooperative before, Zhang Xun originally thought he would agree. Unexpectedly, Adam just picked up the napkin and wiped his mouth gracefully, "No, I'm still busy." Then he stood up and walked towards the door.

Zhang Xun stared at him blankly, the feeling of loss filled his chest like a fog barrier.

When the door was opened, Adam's footsteps paused slightly, "I'll give you a hint. It's impossible to increase our intimacy just by copying those tacky guides."

The door closed with a bang.

For the next two days, Zhang Xun tried various methods: 36 questions that can make strangers fall in love quickly, staring into each other's eyes for three minutes, folding a thousand paper cranes and even knitting a scarf... In short, Adam seemed to have ten layers of firewalls and was impenetrable. Every time Zhang Xun felt that the atmosphere might be just right and tried to take the next step of holding hands or giving him a kiss, Adam would coldly throw him a sentence: The intimacy level is not enough.

Zhang Xun felt like his self-confidence had been completely knocked down.

He was depressed and anxious at the same time. If the Round Table wanted to attack his father, he didn't know what strategy they would use. His father had a high prestige in the army and they would definitely pour dirty water on him first...and the dirty water was probably going to be himself.

Zhang Shuo had always attached great importance to his reputation and Zhang Xun didn't want his father to stumble after coming this far in his career...

In the evening, Zhang Xun was alone in the shower, standing under the hot water and fell into deep thought. He carefully pondered what the rules could be for Adam's game. Clearly Adam had been affected by his humanity to a considerable degree and even though Zhang Xun had become a hindrance to him and even tried to destroy him, he still didn't lay a hand on Zhang Xun. Even in this imprisonment, Zhang Xun's quality of life was guaranteed to the greatest extent. This method of taking revenge was very strange... it was a bit like he had reversed their roles on purpose...

It was evident that Adam still had feelings for him, only much of it had been worn away by their differences, their mutual deception and mutual destruction.

If he wanted to "increase intimacy", should he do what Adam did before?

Zhang Xun thought back to when he had first faced Adam and felt a certain stirring inside him.

It must have been... during the bombing, when Adam helplessly grabbed the collar of his shirt in horror and held him tightly...

It was that feeling of being needed...

A light bulb in Zhang Xun's mind suddenly lit up. It was hard to say if this idea would work, as it wasn't in any of those relationship manuals he'd read, but since those usual tactics hadn't worked anyway, he would have to be a little more radical.

He took a deep breath, turned the hot water down to cold ice water and squatted in the bathtub for twenty minutes...

Fortunately, it hadn't been long since he was discharged from the hospital and his body was still weak. Otherwise, one cold water shower may not be enough... To add more fuel to the fire, he turned off the electric fireplace when he went to bed that night, kicked the quilt to the ground and slept topless all night.

The next day before opening his eyes, he felt his throat hurting terribly, his eyelids were too heavy to open and his head was throbbing like someone had bashed it with a brick. His exhaled air was hot as if he had become a fire-breathing dragon, but his body was cold and shivering, like he had fallen into an ice cave.

He succeeded in getting a fever.

That evening, Adam was a little surprised when he entered the door and the whole room was pitch black, with no sign of anyone moving.

The guard had sent him a letter just now, saying that Zhang Xun hadn't eaten much today, so Adam left the Lab early to see if anything had happened. This was the situation he found when he opened the door and he suddenly felt a little panicked.

"Zhang Xun?"

A weak moan came from a dark corner of the room.

Adam turned on all the lights immediately and saw that part of the quilt on the bed was bulging out under the dim yellow light. He hurried over, only to see Zhang Xun's cheeks burning with an unnatural blush, he was curled up like a shrimp, his eyes opened only a slit and he didn't know whether he was clear headed or staring at him without full awareness, his expression slightly blank.

Adam's face changed suddenly and it took less than 0.1 second to go from calm to panic. He reached out and probed Zhang Xun's forehead and quickly estimated that Zhang Xun's body temperature was around 39 degrees Celsius, a very dangerous temperature and if it rose further, it might even damage his brain. Adam was about to get up immediately to get a fever-reducing injection, but the corner of his clothes was suddenly pulled.

Adam turned his head to see Zhang Xun, who was cowering under the blanket, looking at him with foggy eyes, a big contrast to his usual air of decency and seriousness. He opened his dry lips and spoke in a hoarse, nasal voice, which seemed somewhat aggrieved, "Don't go..."

At that moment, Adam, who had been human for one year, finally realised that if the heart in his chest wasn't artificial, but a real heart, it might really be as written in literary works: it would melt away.

note-

This is sad. Because while it's funny to see Ah-Xun do these awkward romantic things. You know he's forced to do it. You know that it's never going to be the same again. You know no matter what kind of fluffy thing will happen, it will be out of some kind of motive of manipulation.

It's not the same, it's a broken illusion even though we had the gut feeling from the beginning we were being played. Especially when Adam mentioned he can't change his life purpose. I'm sad.