Chapter 56: Ghostly Pet?
Looking at the various expressions of dissatisfaction and reluctant compromise on Yi Ning's face, Lu Zheng suddenly felt his heartbeat quicken for no reason.
He didn’t know why, but he just wanted to tease her a little.
“I could refuse…”
Unfortunately, before Lu Zheng could finish his sentence, Yi Ning suddenly turned her head sharply, her eyes glaring with murderous intensity, and what seemed like faint trails of bloody tears glistened at the corners of her eyes.
Faced with Yi Ning’s look of “refuse and I’ll fight you to the death,” Lu Zheng wisely swallowed back his words of rejection and gestured toward the door Yi Ning had just entered.
“Smart of you.”
Yi Ning let out a soft humph, left Lu Zheng standing where he was, and entered the base alone.
To prevent Lu Zheng from peeking through the door crack while she tidied up, Yi Ning firmly shut the base’s entrance behind her once inside.
“Sigh~”
Leaning against the door, she looked at the altered scenery before her and sighed gently.
How did things end up like this?
She had already set traps in the base, and her archenemy had shown up right outside.
Putting those two things together, it should have been a happy occasion where the enemy fell right into her trap.
So why did it turn out like this?
Why did such things have to happen at such the wrong time?
Why couldn’t everything go according to her plans?
After wallowing in self-pity for a while, Yi Ning left the doorway, walked into the kitchen, put the leftover food into the fridge, then carefully washed all her bowls and placed them in the disinfection cabinet.
Next, she went into the storage warehouse, pulled out several reality projectors, connected them, and placed them in various concealed spots throughout the base.
Yi Ning took out the remote control and pressed a button.
The previously unaltered interior projection of the base overlaid the now-modified base.
This will have to do for now.
With a helpless expression, Yi Ning tucked the remote back into her pocket and walked toward the door.
Along the way, she passed through the projections several times.
These things could only be seen, not touched.
Yi Ning had no hope for these things at all.
But with time pressing and no way to conjure a new base from scratch or pull one from the mirror world, this was the best she could do to keep up appearances.
It was practically self-deception.
Yi Ning looked despairingly at the scenery around her, pulled open the door, and stepped outside.
She stood in front of Lu Zheng, who was still squatting where she had left him.
“You're done hiding whatever it is you don’t want me to see?”
Seeing Lu Zheng emerge, Lu Zheng turned his head to look at Yi Ning.
If only it were that easy to clean up.
Though she thought this inwardly, Yi Ning’s mouth was as stubborn as ever.
“There’s nothing I don’t want you to see.”
She turned her head away proudly.
“Heh~”
Lu Zheng curled the corner of his mouth but said nothing as he stood up.
If there really was nothing, would you have gone to such lengths to block me?
Though this was what he was thinking, Lu Zheng didn’t dare say it out loud.
Seeing how on-edge Yi Ning was right now, she might just use that as an excuse to keep him out.
“So, I’m going in then?”
Lu Zheng walked up to the door, pointed his thumb inside, and tentatively asked Yi Ning.
“If I say no, would you actually stay out?”
Looking at Lu Zheng’s fake politeness, Yi Ning snorted in annoyance.
“Of course not.”
A wide grin appeared on Lu Zheng’s pixel screen as he lifted his leg, preparing to enter.
He deliberately slowed his steps, wanting to see how Yi Ning would react.
Sure enough, Yi Ning didn’t disappoint, revealing an expression of humiliated anger.
She glared unhappily at Lu Zheng’s right leg, which he swung back and forth at the doorway.
Oh no, I’m coming in!
Oops, I’m stepping back out!
How could someone be so shameless?
Thinking about the fragile projections inside and the expression Lu Zheng might show upon discovering them…
Yi Ning made a snap decision and charged at Lu Zheng, wrapping her arms around his leg, trying to use her weight to stop him.
“Damn it! You scoundrel! I absolutely will not allow someone so immoral to casually step into paradise!”
Lu Zheng hadn’t expected Yi Ning to pull such a move and froze for a moment.
But he quickly recovered and experimentally moved the leg Yi Ning was clinging to.
There was barely any resistance.
Yi Ning was too light—there was no way her full weight could stop Lu Zheng.
She realized this effort was futile.
But to avoid making her attempt seem completely meaningless, she wrapped her arms and legs around Lu Zheng’s thigh, hoping it would at least look more dignified.
Lu Zheng glanced at the human-shaped ornament clinging to his leg and, without hesitation, stepped into the base with her still attached.
He wanted to see what was so important inside.
Lu Zheng looked around the base’s interior—it was basically the same as yesterday, with no obvious changes.
“Beep beep!”
A signal sound came from inside the base.
Lu Zheng looked up. A white, round robot about half his height was carrying an empty tray and moving toward him.
But for some reason, despite the flat ground, the robot alternated between straight lines and curves, as if there were invisible obstacles ahead.
Seeing the robot, Yi Ning’s face turned grim.
She had only covered the modified interior—she’d forgotten to shut off the robots.
The robot rolled up to Lu Zheng.
“Welcome, honored guest, to Dr. Alien’s Evil Warmth—”
Just as the robot was about to say something Yi Ning didn’t want Lu Zheng to hear, she quickly slid down from his leg, pressed down on the robot’s head, and kicked its speaker.
The robot instantly went silent.
“Don’t mind this stuff. Let’s have some tea first.”
Yi Ning turned Lu Zheng 90° to the left, pushing him along the route she remembered, and kicked the silenced robot behind him.
The robot glitched through several tables and devices like a bugged model and finally vanished beneath the floor with a “thud.”
“What was that sound?”
Lu Zheng instinctively turned his head, but saw nothing behind him except Yi Ning, smiling with her hands behind her back.
He scratched the back of his head in confusion, only to have Yi Ning turn his head back again with both hands.
“Being overly curious only makes you foolish.”
Yi Ning grabbed both of Lu Zheng’s arms and guided him forward from behind.
Strangely, just like the robot, Yi Ning would guide Lu Zheng in curves after each straight segment, as if deliberately avoiding something.
What the heck?
Could Yi Ning be secretly raising ghosts or monsters in her base?