Ji Qingzhuo looked at the clean and tidy cabin and thought she had come to the wrong place. Yesterday, she could clearly feel the eerie atmosphere inside this sunken ship, so how did it change today?
She asked, "Mr. Shen, where's your bed?"
By "bed," Ji Qingzhuo was referring to the coffin containing Shen Rongyu that was sealed yesterday. In her society, things like coffins had long been outdated, so she didn't recognize it immediately.
"It was too broken, so I threw it away," Shen Rongyu said, leaning against a corner of the cabin and speaking in a low voice.
"In that case, you may not have a place to sleep. I apologize for my oversight," Ji Qingzhuo thought that she should find a solution to provide him with a relatively comfortable environment. After all, he couldn't leave here temporarily.
"But since we're so deep underwater, the furniture company won't bring a bed down here. So I can only buy a portable one. I apologize for the inconvenience, Mr. Shen," Ji Qingzhuo lowered her head and recorded the things Shen Rongyu might need.
"I don't need those," Shen Rongyu said.
"So, do you plan to sleep on the floor?" Ji Qingzhuo asked.
Shen Rongyu didn't need sleep at all. He found this question quite amusing, but he had already decided to deceive the researcher in front of him, who seemed easy to fool. So, he tried to make himself look like a normal creature for now.
He blinked innocently and said with a naive tone, "Yes."
Ji Qingzhuo's pen stopped sharply. She didn't say anything but quietly wrote on the paper.
The content she wrote was: "He's lying to me. He doesn't need sleep."
Ji Qingzhuo was good at detecting lies. When people lie, their expressions and body language would change, and the same was true for Shen Rongyu.
She began recording information related to him.
"Do you remember all the memories before you woke up?"
"I don't know why I ended up like this."
This sentence was the truth. Shen Rongyu was genuinely puzzled about why he ended up like this.
This was also the question he himself was confused about. He didn't have this dragon tail originally, so how did he sink to the bottom of the sea, sleep for thousands of years, and wake up with an extra tail?
Shen Rongyu had adapted well to his new tail, but he himself was also pondering the answer to this question.
He was cunning and didn't say he "didn't remember the memories before waking up," only that he was genuinely puzzled by that particular question.
Ji Qingzhuo's pen paused again. She didn't expect him to tell the truth. Did he really forget his previous memories?
"Mr. Shen, all the things that could prove your identity in this cabin have disappeared," Ji Qingzhuo reminded him.
"They were too dirty," Shen Rongyu said with a smile. "Filthy things represent memories that are not pleasant, and they don't need to be remembered."
Ji Qingzhuo became even more curious about him. What kind of existence was he?
After not getting much information from Shen Rongyu, Ji Qingzhuo took out her equipment and started testing his physical data.
She started by measuring his heart rate. Different creatures have different heart rates. Some long-lived creatures have extremely slow heart rates. Since he can live for thousands of years, his heart rate should also be slow, right?
Ji Qingzhuo placed the earpiece on his chest and heard the rhythmic sound of his heartbeat. The instrument displayed his heart rate in real time.
It was roughly within the range of a human's normal heart rate, but...
Ji Qingzhuo crouched in front of him, one hand pressing the earpiece. She was small in stature and had her head lowered, so it appeared as if she was nestled in his embrace.
To avoid data errors, she asked in a puzzled soft voice, "Mr. Shen, your heart rate seems a bit fast. Is this your normal heart rate?"
Her breath was gentle as it fell on his chest. He was wearing a shirt, but he had a loose outer robe that sometimes revealed his half-bare chest.
Shen Rongyu propped himself up with one hand and looked down at the top of Ji Qingzhuo's head. He said, "No."
"Faster or slower?"
"Faster."
"Why is that?" Ji Qingzhuo's questions sometimes had a mechanical feel of dogmatism.
"Miss Ji."
"Yes?"
"When you were operating this instrument, you first lifted my clothes and told me not to move."
"Then your fingers touched my chest. You were polite and even said 'sorry.'"
"When you moved the equipment, it was too heavy, and you stumbled and fell on top of me."
"And now you ask me why my heart rate is so fast?"
Ji Qingzhuo fell silent. Her fingertips pressing on the earpiece turned pale. This time, she completely lost her ability to think.
This... this was too offensive. She felt sorry for him. She truly wasn't good at operations that required the use of limbs.
"I'm sorry..." Even though her head was lowered, Shen Rongyu could still see that her ears turned red.
"No need to apologize," Shen Rongyu said.
"I haven't taken the relevant courses." Ji Qingzhuo admitted honestly.
In the past, her assistants would handle these things, and she would only focus on the final results.
"So, Miss Ji, are you practicing on me?" Shen Rongyu's tone was probing.
"Just that I don't have an assistant to help me anymore," Ji Qingzhuo said softly.
Ji Qingzhuo saw his heartbeat calm down on the instrument, and she recorded the normal data.
She took the earpiece and moved away from his embrace.
Ji Qingzhuo felt that it was really difficult for her. Next, she still had to record other data about his body.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Shen. I'm not very good at this, but there are still other data collection tasks to be done. I may have to ask for your patience again," Ji Qingzhuo said.
Shen Rongyu rested his chin on his hand and leaned against the side of the cabin, nodding at Ji Qingzhuo.
"Okay," he said, his words filled with anticipation, because Ji Qingzhuo was... quite amusing to him.
He couldn't understand why she could be both intelligent and a bit clumsy at the same time.
Ji Qingzhuo took out her measuring equipment, intending to continue her next task.
But when she checked the time, she realized it was the scheduled teaching time for the student from last night.
"Mr. Shen, let's pause for a moment." Ji Qingzhuo had to earn money using this method because she was short of money. She took out her electronic device. "I need to do something else."
Thanks to the development of technology, there was still signal even at such depths underwater.
Ji Qingzhuo took out the book for the class and prepared to connect with the student she scheduled last night. She had placed a lamp in the cabin beforehand, so the small space was quite bright.
Shen Rongyu observed her with narrowed eyes. He saw the complex characters in the book she held in her hands and speculated about her profession.
"Are you a teacher?" he asked.
"I'm not," Ji Qingzhuo adjusted the volume of her earpiece.
"It seems like you're teaching a class," Shen Rongyu remarked.
"I'm earning money," Ji Qingzhuo said with a hint of helplessness in her voice.
"You don't look like someone who lacks money," Shen Rongyu commented.
But the fact was, she did lack money, a lot of money to repay her loans.
"Well..." Ji Qingzhuo replied heavily, "I owe a lot of money."
At this moment, the call with the student connected. This time, Ji Qingzhuo was lucky. The other person was a female and quite talkative, which broke the awkwardness of Ji Qingzhuo's lack of communication skills.
"Teacher, where are you teaching? Is it in SpongeBob SquarePants' Pineapple Under the Sea?" She mentioned characters from an animation centuries ago.
"No." Jiqingzhuo's reply was brief.
"Teacher, you are so aloof. But it's expected for big shots like you to have a temper. Don't worry, I will listen to your class attentively, you have to trust me."
"Okay." Jiqingzhuo replied again.
The voice she sent over was short and dry, giving a sense of aloofness.
In reality, in Shen Rongyu's eyes, Jiqingzhuo was sitting alone on a small chair, curled up into a small bundle. She held her headphones and listened to the other person's enthusiastic questions. She was blushing and shy. She was not good at communication, even if it wasn't face-to-face, she still felt a bit awkward and timid.
"Class begins." Jiqingzhuo opened the book.
She started explaining another advanced course, and the other person listened with confusion, responding with "uh uh uh oh oh oh aba aba."
Halfway through the class, there was a ten-minute break. Jiqingzhuo asked the other person to take a rest first.
Jiqingzhuo took out a cup, tilted her head and took a sip of water to moisten her throat. She had been talking for so long that her voice had become hoarse.
Shen Rongyu was quite cooperative during her class before. He didn't say a word until he saw Jiqingzhuo taking a break, then he spoke.
"Is it over?" Shen Rongyu asked.
His voice was already deep and magnetic, and after resonating in the narrow cabin, it sounded even better. Moreover, due to the small space here, it felt like he was speaking right beside Jiqingzhuo's ear.
Jiqingzhuo had gotten used to this distance after being there for so long, and she was good at using the reason of "he is not human" to relax her nervousness.
However, this conversation was transmitted through the headphones to the students on the other side of the classroom.
She was a chatterbox.
As a result, a scream sounded, "Ah ah ah, such a nice male god's voice!"
"Teacher, is he your boyfriend?"
"Teacher, your boyfriend actually stayed with you for such a long class!"
"Teacher, are you still there? Why aren't you speaking?"
When Jiqingzhuo heard the second sentence, she froze. She wanted to explain this misunderstanding, but she couldn't find the right words for a while.
Meanwhile, Shen Rongyu continued speaking.
She was wearing headphones, so theoretically Shen Rongyu couldn't hear the students' voices on the other side.
That's what Jiqingzhuo thought, but in reality, Shen Rongyu could hear them, and he pretended not to.
He said, "If it's over, we can continue checking the body recording data."
The screams from Jiqingzhuo's headphones rang out again, "Ah ah ah, teacher, did you forget to turn off your headphones? I... I'm sorry, can I hear it too?"
"Although there's still half a class left, it's definitely over. We can end it in any way. Teacher, you... you should go quickly."
"Wu wu wu, the content of your half a class is worth ten classes from others. I need to digest it some more."
"I disturbed you. Teacher, go and be with your boyfriend!"
When the other person said the last sentence, Jiqingzhuo, due to this sudden misunderstanding, couldn't hold the electronic device in her hand and dropped it directly on the ground, causing the headphone cable to fall off.
This last sentence echoed in the small cabin, and Shen Rongyu could openly admit that he heard it.
So, after the other person hung up, he looked at Jiqingzhuo, who had almost turned into a robot and had visibly reddening cheeks, and asked a question.
"So, what is a boyfriend?" His tone carried the curiosity of a newly unearthed cultural relic.