Want to be human, but cube-like

When everyone expects a reversal, but it doesn't happen, isn't that a reversal in itself?

Xiangzi actually returned to his family in this way, and as soon as he got back to the rented room, Xiangdie went into the orange shop. I feel like he did it on purpose, and maybe it even matches the reason I wrote earlier for going into the orange shop.

Now that it's exploded like this, I'm even more curious about how we'll be able to make dumplings next.

Volume 1: Chapter 92 Envy

It was another sunny afternoon.

It's almost mid-February, and although the temperature is still fluctuating in the single digits, it feels quite warm today because of the low humidity and direct sunlight.

Speaking of which, my birthday is in a few days, isn't it?

Watching another customer leave, Xiangzi went over and cleaned up the trash on the table, then took the tray and dumped it into the trash can in the corner. She returned to the counter and glanced at the date on the order system in the corner.

This will probably be the first birthday she spends without anyone celebrating it for her.

With his eyes lowered, Xiangzi unconsciously tapped the tabletop lightly with his index finger, the soft fingertip making a barely perceptible rustling sound as it rubbed together.

She didn't intend to specifically mention her birthday to Alex; she simply couldn't bring herself to say something that sounded like a pout, nor was there any need to.

Besides, Alex has probably been focusing all her attention on Aine and Rana lately...

With his lips pursed, Xiangzi silently tidied the table, which wasn't actually messy at all, while his thoughts drifted further and further away.

Since a while ago, when she, Alex, and Aine suggested that they practice their spoken English by making voice calls when they had free time at home in the evening, Aine has indeed stopped using this excuse to take up Alex's afternoon rest time.

But this doesn't mean that Alex can have a peaceful rest in the afternoon.

On the contrary, Alex's afternoons became even busier after that.

For some reason, Aine got involved in Alex and Ronna's group. Two weeks ago, when Shoko saw Aine carrying a guitar into the hamburger shop, she thought she was going to participate in some performance as the student council president. But she ended up going upstairs with Alex to play.

He even claimed to be the lead singer and guitarist, seemingly implying he wanted to compete with Ai.

The way Lix and her friends started forming a band.

Alex hadn't actually agreed to Lena's request to form a band; they were just getting together to play together for their own amusement.

When I came to my senses, it felt like their band was almost taking shape.

Now, all that's missing is a drummer or a bassist, and we're ready to go on stage and perform. We could even pre-record a bass audio clip to solve this minor problem of missing a member—Alex, who is proficient in all instruments, could easily put aside the less important keyboard in the band and switch to playing the drums or bass.

After all, keyboards are not actually a necessity in a band setup. The drummer, who is the core of the band and responsible for controlling the rhythm, and the bassist, who is the soul of the band, are much more important than the keyboardist.

Moreover, even without changing positions, Alex can use her keyboard to record audio of the drums and bass to temporarily fill in for those two positions.

Ai-on, who is the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist and can also write lyrics, according to her, and Le-nai, who is in charge of lead guitar and completes the composition through improvisation, and finally Alex, who can fill in the positions of drums or bass and is currently the keyboardist.

They even come to me for help with music arrangement.

Remembering how last week, Aine ran downstairs, directed Alex, and the two of them pulled her up to the second floor, where Rana improvised a piece and then asked her to help improve the arrangement, Xiangzi sighed helplessly.

Before I knew it, I seemed to be becoming an unofficial member of this group.

Aside from not explicitly stating that it's a band, this looks exactly like one; it's a strange combination of three people, but you can't find two normal people among them.

Moreover, with the addition of Ai-yin, the three of them became increasingly enthusiastic about playing musical instruments. Xiangzi always felt that Alex's focus in life was no longer on running the hamburger shop.

Lena and Aine have been coming to the burger shop more often than before. Lena sometimes misses out. Since January ended, Aine has been able to hand over her duties as student council president by early February. Now that she has plenty of free time after school, she has been bringing her guitar to play with Alex every day.

It was only a little before 3:30, and it was obvious that Ai-yin had taken the tram directly after school. She walked in excitedly, and as soon as she showed her face, she grabbed Alex, who had just rested, and ran upstairs to the soundproof room.

This soundproof room on the second floor could practically be renamed.

It should be called their band practice room.

Speaking of which, how did that guy even get into Alex and the others' ensemble performance... when his technique is so terrible?

Xiangzi inwardly complained about Ai Yin's guitar skills. Even if she was the lead guitarist, her guitar only served as accompaniment, and she only needed to play a few insignificant chords. In Xiangzi's opinion, Ai Yin's skill level as a rhythm guitarist was disastrous.

Moreover, she has virtually no singing skills. Her voice is pleasant to listen to, but it lacks any remarkable characteristics. She also doesn't seem to put any emotion into her singing. At best, she's just an average singer who can sing relatively well in karaoke.

Xiangzi admitted that she was indeed a little envious of them, being able to play in a band together so carefree.

There was a time when I felt the same way, forming a band with a few partners who could be called "communities of shared destiny," rehearsing, joking around, and finally stepping onto the stage to play awe-inspiring music, only to be greeted with moving cheers from the audience.

But all of that was destroyed after that night, destroyed by his own hands.

Aine had invited her to join in the fun, but Xiangzi always politely declined with the excuse that she wasn't interested.

The same applies to Alex's inquiry.

Does she still have the courage and energy to rejoin such a luxurious activity as a band?

What happened to her former bandmates?

Xiangzi kept avoiding this question.

She could only be thankful that neither Aine nor Alex were the type to cling to someone relentlessly.

After being rejected, they simply give up instead of trying to bombard others with messages in an attempt to win them back.

"Dingling bell~"

As the wind chimes rang, Xiangzi quickly composed himself and looked up, only to find that the visitor was not a guest.

Lena, who came in pulling a small cart, went straight to the counter.

"Good afternoon, Lenai."

He took the initiative to greet her, and looked at Le Nai's somewhat dazed face.

Sometimes she would think that Lena's seemingly expressionless appearance was quite similar to Alex's—they both had a somewhat blank expression.

Maybe that's why they can get together and play so well?

"Xiangzi."

Lena also greeted them.

"Alex and the others are upstairs right now."

Understanding the other party's intentions, Xiangzi spoke directly.

Compared to Aine, she felt that Rakuna was quite harmless.

"Ah."

Xiangzi watched as the small, white-haired girl walked into the stairwell, untied the rope securing her cart, and carried her guitar and effects pedals up to the second floor. He then looked away.

She looked down at her ten slender fingers resting on the table.

Sure enough, I'm still quite envious.

…………

P.S. Xiangzi's character, especially after the events of episode five where she suddenly abandons herself for a month, completely ignoring Mu, has caused some misunderstandings in my perception of her. Previously, I thought she was a resilient and arrogant character, but now it seems the resilience is gone, leaving only arrogance, which has been crushed by reality into self-loathing.

To be honest, I didn't really want to write Xiangzi like this. Let's see how the plot develops after the hen card incident. I'm still using Xiangzi's perspective to drive the plot in these last few chapters, which is making the writing process a bit more fluid.

Volume 1: Chapter 93 Oh~ano burger~!

More than half a month has passed since the official opening. Thanks to the high-quality ingredients, Alex's cooking skills, and of course, perhaps also her and Xiangzi's excellent appearance, the burger shop's reputation has gradually spread.

In the afternoons, a time when there are usually few customers, many people have started coming from far and wide these past few days, wanting to try it out.

Sometimes, the ingredients prepared at noon will be sold out by the afternoon.

Previously, after finishing her work in the kitchen, Alex would voluntarily go to the Sky Island to slaughter some animals to supplement her meat supply.

But recently, because they all went upstairs to play together in the afternoon, leaving Xiangzi alone in the shop, she was unable to finish Alex's work. So she had to go upstairs to interrupt the three of them and ask Alex to go to the Sky Island to get some resources first.

Alex had actually considered closing the shop in the afternoon, since she didn't...

She cares about the shop's income. For her, the only meaning of this burger shop is that it was entrusted to her by her mother, so she needs to run it well, nothing more.

However, when Aine heard that it was she and Rana who came to ask Alex to play a duet, which affected the business of the burger shop, she suggested that they reduce the number of times they played music together.

For example, change it to once or twice a week.

Lena had something to say, but Aine, quick as a flash, silenced her.

Finally, Xiangzi reluctantly explained that the afternoon wasn't actually very busy and that he could manage the shop by himself, which temporarily put the topic at rest.

What she said wasn't wrong. Alex's pre-processing of the ingredients was actually quite thorough. Basically, after receiving an order, Xiangzi only needed to assemble the ingredients that Alex had prepared in advance in the kitchen one by one, and then he could serve them directly to the customer.

Xiangzi hardly needs to do any cooking or processing, which saves a lot of time.

As for the freshness of the ingredients and whether the taste would be affected by being stored for too long, it can only be said that the large box that Alex placed in the corner of the kitchen was indeed a bit too effective. Its near-time-stopping preservation ability and the ability to completely retain the heat of freshly baked food rendered the freezer next to it useless.

If it weren't for the fact that it would seem very strange for the kitchen not to have a freezer, Xiangzi would have suggested to Alex that they sell the freezer, which had become useless.

Looking up to make sure no more customers would be coming to order for the time being, Xiangzi quickly turned into the staircase and went up to the second floor.

As soon as I opened the door, I heard a somewhat familiar guitar melody.

It was a song that Aine and Alex asked me to help arrange some time ago, based on a melody that Renai improvised.

Because they said they weren't in a hurry, Xiangzi only took some time each night to work on the arrangement. The arrangement speed wasn't fast, and she finally finished the song last night. Considering that the phone screen was too small, it would be tiring for them to read if she sent it directly to them, so this morning Xiangzi gave her laptop to Alex so that she could watch it with Ai Yinnai this afternoon.

Perhaps I should go to an outside shop and print out the sheet music when I have time, and then show it to them, just like I did with the piano sheet music for Alex before.

Standing quietly at the door, listening to Lena's guitar playing, Xiangzi thought to himself.

Just then, Lena finished playing the piece. She lowered her small hand, curled her lips into a smile, and looked at Aine and Alex with satisfaction.

"Great job, little Lenai!"

Ai Yin spoke up to praise him at the right moment, and then took out a piece of paper from her bag.

"Look! I finished writing the lyrics last night too!"

She proudly handed the paper with the lyrics written on it to Alex, so that she and Lenal could look at it together.

Is it really that fast?

Xiangzi blinked in surprise. Last night, after composing the music, she sent the audio to Alex, Aine, and Lena so they could listen to it and check for any problems.

Only Lena's message status remained unread, while the other two immediately gave their respective replies, both saying they were very satisfied. However, Xiangzi did not expect that Aine could write lyrics so quickly. Was it because she already had a draft in mind?

"Knock knock!"

Seeing that none of the three had noticed him, Xiangzi had no choice but to gently knock on the door beside him, making a slight noise to interrupt their conversation.

"Excuse me, Alex, we've run out of ingredients in the kitchen again."

Seeing that the three of them had finally turned their attention to her, she then spoke.

"Oh, I'll go there now."

Upon hearing this, Alex, who was just about to take a look at the lyrics written by Aine, immediately stood up, handed the paper back to Aine, and went downstairs.

"Xiao Xiang, you've come at the right time. What do you think of the lyrics I wrote?"

Seeing that Alex had temporarily left, Aine, holding the lyrics, turned to look at Ronai beside her before turning to Xiangzi. She smiled and walked over, stuffing the lyrics into Xiangzi's hand.

"what……"

Slightly startled, Xiangzi gently held the paper with the lyrics written on it in both hands. He looked at Ai Yin's expectant expression, hesitated for a moment, and finally pursed his lips before walking to the sofa he had recently purchased and sitting down.

She glanced down at the lyrics, but stopped abruptly after only starting them.

A hint of confusion flickered in his eyes.

I quickly glanced down a few more times.

"Is this... an advertising slogan?"

Hesitantly, Xiangzi asked softly.

"Yes, it's an advertising jingle for Ellie's burger shop~ Didn't we tell you that day?"

Ai Yin came over with a grin and sat down beside her, saying...

"I see……"

As Xiangzi looked at the lyrics, his expression slowly became somewhat indescribable.

When she was asked to arrange the music that day, she was actually absent-minded, her attention was only focused on the melody played by Lena. To be honest, Xiangzi didn't remember much about what Alex and Aine said.

However, the melody that Lena played at the time was indeed quite cheerful and bright, and Aine specifically requested that the song's structure not be too complicated.