Want to be human, but cube-like

After all, in her impression, Xiangzi was a very reliable person.

Thinking about it that way, Alex felt there was no need to wait for Xiangzi's reply.

So the two of them randomly picked a restaurant that looked nicely decorated.

Although Valentine's Day is still two days away, many businesses have already started launching various Valentine's Day packages or promotions in the days leading up to and following the holiday.

This restaurant is no exception.

"Welcome! Two guests, would you like to try our newly launched couple's set meal?"

As soon as the two sat down, a waitress came over with the menu and enthusiastically recommended the newly launched Valentine's Day set menu to them.

"Huh? We're not a couple!"

Before she could even put down her shopping bags, Ai Yin heard the salesperson's words. She immediately adopted a defensive stance, clutching the shopping bags to her chest, her eyes darting away, and retorted softly.

"...I understand. I'm very sorry, guest."

Slightly surprised, the waitress maintained her smile without batting an eye, and bent down slightly to place the menu on their table.

"However, even if you're not a couple, you can still order this. Just don't make it too obvious. These days, during the promotional period, the couple's set meal is cheaper than other set meals."

She added quietly, and the waiter even winked playfully at Ai Yin.

Having worked in the restaurant for so many years, she has seen far too many couples dining in on Valentine's Day, including couples, men and men, and women like the two in front of her.

I've seen people calmly say they're not in a relationship and don't need the couple's package, I've seen people being pretentious and trying to pretend to be a couple to enjoy the discount, and I've seen people being so sweet and affectionate that it's obvious they're in the throes of new love.

But this couple in front of me, one with a blank and innocent expression, so naive that they don't seem like they know how to be in a relationship, and the other with a shy face, blushing at the slightest thing they say, that's the first time I've ever seen one like that.

It's all a bit hard to figure out what their relationship is.

Could it be that he has a one-sided love affair?

Out of professional ethics and to respect the guests' privacy, the waiter suppressed his gossipy impulse and quietly recommended other set meals to them.

"Um... I'd like to try the couple's set meal, is that alright, Ai-yin?"

Alex, who was sitting opposite Aine, hesitated for a moment and then asked a question.

"Huh? Ellie?"

Holding the menu in both hands, Aine, still hesitating about what to order, slightly widened her eyes and raised her head.

Do you want to pretend to be a couple?

it's here?

Right now?

…………

PS Meanwhile, the reliable Xiangzi was at home, all alone, eating a cold hamburger.

Volume 1: Chapter 108 The Lonely Little Xiang

"It's just that I'm a little curious."

Blinking her bright eyes, Alex gently pursed her lips and looked at Aine, wanting to ask for her opinion.

"Um... but if we order the couple's set meal, do we... do we need to... do we need to know that?"

Unable to resist Alex's adorable expression, Aine hesitated for a moment before asking the waiter next to her.

"that?"

He tilted his head in confusion, seemingly unable to understand what she meant.

"It's...it's that...that, kissing...or something like that?"

With a slightly stuttering tone, Ai Yin mumbled the word over and over again before finally managing to utter it.

She also encounters similar plots in the videos, novels, and comics she usually watches.

Usually, the male and female leads need to kiss to prove that they are indeed a couple.

Ai-yin asked the question precisely because she was worried that such proof was also needed here.

"Ah...this is not necessary."

The waiter's lips twitched noticeably as he replied.

Reality isn't that outrageous. The purpose of launching so-called Valentine's Day packages is simply to boost consumption. The discounts are not important at all. If any restaurant did this, wouldn't that be turning customers away?

"That's good... Thank you for your help. We'll just order one couple's set meal."

Slightly relieved, Ai Yin put down the menu and said.

The waitress, who was almost bursting with laughter, immediately smiled and nodded, picked up the menu, and quickly turned and left.

"Kissing...what does that mean?"

Meanwhile, Alex had new questions because of their conversation.

"Ahem...! Ellie, you don't need to know about this yet!"

Aiyin, who had just picked up her water glass and taken a sip of lemonade, choked on her drink when she was caught off guard by this question.

"Well……"

Looking somewhat sullen, Alex puffed out her cheeks slightly, appearing quite aggrieved.

Why is Ellie curious about the couple's meal deal?

Ai-ne, who was hit in the strike zone by the other party's super cute expression, quickly grabbed a tissue and wiped the liquid from the corner of her mouth. She was afraid that she would not be able to resist Alex's charm and that Alex would steer the conversation to a strange place, so she changed the subject.

"Because we're planning to launch a Valentine's Day event at our burger joint the day after tomorrow, right?"

Speaking of this, Alex also put away that expression and explained to Aine in a slightly serious tone.

"So I'd like to see what other restaurants are doing for Valentine's Day."

Please take a look at the package details.

After all, Alex had absolutely no experience in this area. Rather than staring blankly at the menu with Xiangzi in the burger shop later, it would be better to gather information about her competitors now.

She's quite organized.

Her behavior was quite unlike the consistent impression Alex had left on Aine in her memory.

……

at the same time.

the other side.

The burger joint, which had already closed, was pitch black. Even the bedrooms upstairs were dark, with the curtains drawn and no lights on. You couldn't see inside from the outside.

The perspective shifts to the basement level of the burger joint.

Behind an oak door that no detection instrument could find, was where Xiangzi was now.

She had changed the sign on the door to the "rest" side early on, originally planning to go back to her room to read a book while having dinner.

This appears to be the first time in a month that Xiangzi has eaten dinner alone at a hamburger joint.

I was just planning to make something quick and easy, so I simply used the leftover ingredients from the kitchen to make myself a double meat burger and poured myself a glass of apple juice.

She no longer feels sorry for Alex for wasting her food. Having seen the seemingly limitless resources on the Sky Island, Xiangzi sometimes has the illusion that she is living a much more luxurious life now than she did in the Toyokawa residence.

But for some reason, after returning to her room, she was always absent-minded, and even after holding a book for a long time, she couldn't absorb the contents into her mind.

Holding the hamburger in his hand, he hadn't even taken two bites when he awkwardly looked up and glanced around.

Xiangzi suddenly realized that it was because she was not used to having dinner alone for the first time in a long time.

Because Alex isn't home, I'm starting to feel... lonely?

But she quickly suppressed the thought that had just crossed her mind.

No matter how you look at it, this idea is just too strange.

Alex isn't anyone to me.

Mingming, we're just ordinary friends.

After much thought, Xiangzi, feeling listless and unmotivated to do anything in his room, finally closed the book he hadn't even finished reading, grabbed a hamburger and apple juice, and headed to the Sky Island.

Sitting on a small pavilion that Alex had specially built, Xiangzi casually grabbed a fishing rod that gleamed purple beside the wooden fence and stared blankly at the small, one-compartment deep pool in front of the pavilion.

Every now and then, she would pick up a hamburger placed to the side, take a small bite, leaving a tiny, sparkling tooth mark on it, and gaze at the float in the pool, which was connected to the fishing rod line.

The hamburger seems a little cold...

That's right. I was just sitting in my room, lost in thought with a book, and barely ate anything. Then I took a hamburger downstairs to fish on the floating island. With the weather so cold this time of year, the food would naturally cool down quickly after all that going back and forth.

Unconcerned, Xiangzi put down the hamburger, picked up the apple juice, and bit the straw. His Adam's apple, almost invisible, bobbed slightly beneath his long neck.

Alex and the others should be having dinner out by now. I wonder if Lena managed to contact them. Where are the three of them going to eat? Is it a family restaurant?

However, no restaurant outside can compare to the food at Alex's, and it's also expensive.

With his mind wandering to meaningless thoughts, Xiangzi grabbed another hamburger and took a bite.

Then you see bubbles suddenly appear on the float in the pool.

Seeing this, she gently lifted her fishing rod, and a small, round, yellow thing flew out from under the water as if it had appeared out of nowhere.

With lightning speed, he grabbed the backpack that was placed next to him, and the opening was perfectly positioned where the little thing would land, so he put it inside.

It's pufferfish again.

Looking down inside, Xiangzi pouted in annoyance.

Let's not delve into why something could be fished out of such a small, obviously shallow pond.

What Xiangzi really wanted to know was why all she caught when she fished here were pufferfish and garbage!

She clearly saw Alex fish out a book that shimmered with purple light, and even the fishing rod in her hand was fished out by Alex.

Even if all else fails, it would be good to catch her a few edible fish!

Didn't Alex mention that this fishing rod was a special fishing rod with some kind of sea blessing enchantment?

How come she uses it worse than Alex's ordinary fishing rod?

Looking at the pile of yellow pufferfish in his backpack, along with other useless junk such as sticks, bones, rotten flesh, and leather, Xiangzi began to doubt his luck.

…………

PS: Chapter 106 is ready. Just refresh the chapter list and chapter content.

I spent ages revising Chapter 106, racking my brains trying to figure out what was wrong with it, but when I finally submitted it, he told me it was because the chapter title was in violation of regulations. I was so angry I almost laughed.

Volume 1: Chapter 109 We can't finish drinking!

The celestial phenomena on the Sky Island always change very quickly.

In the short time it takes to finish a hamburger and catch a few pufferfish and some small pieces of trash, daytime has turned into night.

As the sky darkened, the torches on the floating island appeared brighter.

Xiangzi sat on an oak step at the edge of the pavilion, his bare legs, bare of shoes and socks, dangling over the small pond outside. His slender legs swayed back and forth, and his round, delicate toes moved slightly in the air with the swaying of his legs.

She put down her fishing rod, braced herself against the wooden planks on either side of her body, and looked up. She saw a patch of fireflies scattered across the sky island, illuminating the various buildings that Alex had been gradually constructing over the past few days.

Besides the small pavilion that was half suspended in the air beneath her, the most conspicuous thing was the mob farm in the distance, which was much larger than before. From the upper level, only the upper part of the mob farm could be seen, which looked like a long, huge chimney with a wide cap on top. The rest of the lower part was hidden by the ground of this level. The real entrance to the mob farm was on the lower level.

A little closer, there is a neatly arranged oak plantation, with a sapling planted every six squares.

Now they've all grown into big trees. Looking out from here, you can see a neat grove of trees, which looks very beautiful under the torchlight, much like watching trees grow up in a park after they've been planted.

Xiangzi rarely saw oak trees fully grown. After all, on the sky island, building materials were scarce, and logs were a very important resource. Once a tree had grown, it was immediately cut down.

Of course, only Alex could do this kind of rough work. Xiangzi couldn't even lift the lightest wooden axe, let alone help cut down trees.

Then there were those patches of grass that had been completely eaten bare.

Farm.