Page 143
"It seems that Nata trusts the commander-in-chief very much."
Kong turned his head when he heard that and found that although Xier's tone was sour when she spoke, her face unconsciously relaxed towards the window and she also found a place to sit down.
"…Do you have any more of that drink you had?"
After confirming that the meeting was still going on, she asked Sora for a beer.
"Will you still be on duty tomorrow after drinking?"
Sora shook the wine can - from Seele's appearance, she wasn't old enough to drink freely, but she was actually about the same age as Bronya, so she was already an adult.
"I've been with you for two days. I must take a rest tomorrow morning. Stop nagging. Is there anything else?" Xier turned over her palm, not treating herself as an outsider at all.
"…There's no more wine, but there's soda."
Kong would not do such a shameless thing as to use his half-drunk drink to tease a little girl, even if Xier was swallowing saliva frantically at his drink - he could only take out a bottle of Paimon's treasured "Cali White" soda from his backpack and give it to her.
"Slurp, gurgle, huh, it feels so good - I haven't had something so exciting in a long time."
Looking at her yelling and screaming with a relatively familiar face, Kong slowly distinguished the person in front of him from the Xier in his memory.
A new group of friends, a new memory - Sora said to himself, and adjusted his attitude... It was too rude to keep staring at them with a nostalgic look, and it would make them notice.
"...I don't know why, but I like you a lot more now."
Xier simply lay down on the eaves holding the jar, not caring about the possibility of Sora seeing her naked body, and not worrying about her indecent posture appearing too lazy: "Maybe it's because I owe you so much that I can't say some impolite words when they come to my lips."
“Are you sure you didn’t dare yell at me because you saw the giant robot?” Kong Kang asked jokingly.
"No, ever since you let Swarovski go and took back the sword to prevent Clara from getting hurt by mistake, I knew you were a pretty good person."
Xier actually responded seriously to Kong's joke: "I doubted you before because everyone needs to put on a layer of protection to survive underground. There are also many homeless people expelled from the mining area who are two-faced. They will show their pitiful side to the underground fire, and then show their fangs to the miners after the patrolmen leave. I have seen such disgusting guys."
Then she realized that Sora was actually listening to her complaints, and immediately cleared her throat:
"Hey, why are you saying such depressing things... Nata is very happy today. I haven't seen her so happy in a long time. I don't know if it has anything to do with you beating up Swarovski."
After her eyes wandered for a moment, she raised the can of soda towards Sora frankly as a salute: "Thank you for your help. I should say that thanks to your help, Nata was able to relax. I also feel that my body has become much more relaxed..."
"...Praise me more - I can bear it."
After seeing Seele's slightly awkward look, Kong immediately became deliberately rude - he didn't want Seele to change her approach to try to please him.
"...Why are you still pushing your luck?"
Sure enough, under Kong's deliberate guidance, Xier's rare nervousness and embarrassment all disappeared, and she even gave Kong a blank look.
She increasingly felt that getting along with Kong was a very easy thing, just like getting along with old friends from the lower class - he was receptive, had no airs, and was an outsider with a lot of life and stories.
"Since I've been helping so diligently, is there any reward from Dihuo?"
"Do you wish there was?"
As she spoke, Xier moved slightly towards Kong, and the unnaturalness on her face when she just thanked him disappeared completely.
Although Oleg and Natasha's various warnings that made her angry had an unexpected confusing effect, Xier felt that some of them made sense.
For example, if she likes a person more than a friend and wants to know him better, it may mean that she also has the sour and smelly needs...
Even though they had only been together for a few short days, Kong gave her the feeling that... he was more interesting to her in all aspects than the young man from Dihuo.
It’s not that those people aren’t good enough, but because Kong is more interesting. Xier has never seen such an interesting, calm and generous “young man” before - not to mention that he is strong enough.
Frozen by Xier's unexpectedly straightforward body movements, Kong turned his head in surprise, only to find that Xier's crossed legs had a smooth feeling as if they were touched by the moonlight in the slightly cold and not very warm light of the core area.
She actually knew very well where her charm lay, and the part she deliberately showed to Sora was not the fat on top - that was comparing her own weaknesses to Miss Iron Guard's strengths.
"...Xier, you..."
"Just tell me directly whether you want Nata to reward you in the name of the Earth Fire Organization, or you want me to reward you."
Xier looked normal, as if Kong's gaze passing over her legs did not make her feel uncomfortable.
"...Seriously?" Sora came out of his brief shock and blinked.
Although she still felt awkward, the mature thinking of the girl from the lower class district successfully overcame her shyness:
"Ah."
Xier nodded: "I know you will definitely leave, and now you are with many women who like you - but I don't care very much - well, at most I feel a little uncomfortable."
Seeing that Sora didn't distance himself from her because of her words, she moved a little closer to Sora: "You are a real person, and a good person. I think my skin is pretty good in the lower class - I don't think it's unfair to you."
In just a few minutes, she seemed to see through the past and the future...
"Nata said that if we openly oppose Cocolia, many brothers and sisters will probably die, including me... I must be prepared to never come back - don't comfort me by saying that I can't die, this is just to keep some memories for myself."
Xier's eyelashes looked like they were painted with crimson fluorescent powder under the cold light.
"Just be frank with me. Do you want to join us? Let me make it clear first. I'm just a bit...stronger, and I don't have much experience. You can't be too picky."
Having come to this point, and with Xier crawling closer and closer to him, he almost agreed to Xier's request.
This girl was so straightforward that she made him feel an overwhelming force and recklessness. But to put it another way, under such a high-pressure environment, she had always maintained her high standards, and she couldn't help but burst out until she met him... This world is really fucked up.
Maybe it's because of a sense of crisis, fearing that the person will die in some unknown corner before he or she has experienced the love between a man and a woman. When you see a decent person, you want to give yourself up as soon as possible... It's understandable, but it's really sad.
Kong really wanted to promise Xi'er that he would help take care of everything... But after seeing Xi'er's still somewhat stubborn face, the words of comfort on his lips changed to a different tone:
"...Honestly, I'm very tempted, but Xi'er, do you want to know why I'm still hanging on the eaves in the middle of the night and refuse to go down to sleep in the tent?"
"...You wouldn't?"
Seeing that Kongde's expression became much weaker, Xier's expression also became subtle again.
"I am here to seek refuge—you can't imagine what cruel things would happen if I dared to stay in the tent down there."
Kong's cheeks shrank inward, and his expression looked as horrible as if his brain had been sucked dry by a brain worm.
"Old people have their own difficulties, and having many lovers also has its own difficulties..."
"...Tsk, it's actually because of this reason..."
Xier straightened her body with some regret. When she approached Kong just now, she could smell a certain fragrance coming from Kong, like the smell of lemongrass - she had never smelled this kind of fragrance before, but she inexplicably associated it with Kong's blonde hair.
Because of the tension, her body was covered with a layer of sweat. When she retreated, Kong could even feel that the heat around her was even greater than when she was fighting during the day.
"Actually... forget it. I don't mind if you change your mind in the future, but you'll have to beg me then."
Just as she was about to add something, Xier rolled her eyes, looked back at the place where she had climbed up, and swallowed back some of the harsh words that were about to come out of her mouth.
"...How did Clara climb up here? How did Swarovski take care of the child?"
She reported quietly to Sora and signaled him not to continue the topic which was not suitable for children in front of Clara.
Of course Kong nodded in agreement - the little girl's green dot was slowly moving towards this side just now. He rejected Xier's kindness because he was afraid of being "caught in the act".
"Big Brother! Sister Xier! I'm here to bring you dinner!"
Baimao laboriously climbed up the ladder step by step. She held an iron plate in her hand and solemnly served them the hot underground food.
"Why did you come to such a dangerous place?"
"Because I saw you guys chatting across the window."
There was still a little snowflake hanging on the little girl's nose, which had been shaken off the roof during the activity. Although it melted away quickly, it made her face look even redder.
"This is the rock lizard that the mining team sent to thank Big Brother and Sister Xier. I heard from Grandpa Oleg that you haven't had a meal for nearly twelve hours, so I asked the little robot to help roast it."
If Belfa was present, she would definitely praise her for being a good maid, but Kong's attention was all on her feet - he was afraid that there would be a bump on the iron roof and it would cut her soles, which would definitely be a great loss to the "art world".
"Thank you, Clara... Even if you have a force field protecting you when you run around without shoes, won't you feel cold?" After taking the iron plate and opening it, Sora saw something that looked like a roasted chicken.
"It will be a little cool, but Clara is used to it!"
The little girl seemed to have been asked this question more than once: "And walking barefoot is said to stimulate growth. Big brother, do you want Clara to wear shoes too?"
The child sat obediently next to Kong instead of Xier. But looking at her skillful and comfortable sitting posture at a high place...it was obvious that she was a habitual offender of "climbing up the roof and removing the tiles" in the past.
"I'm not going to correct you, just follow your preference."
After all, you are a child favored by fate.
Kong could feel a force other than the Svaro force field shield surrounding the girl - this place was really full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers. The more harmless-looking guys were, the more powerful they were...
"Tsk, why are you always paying attention to the little girl's feet..."
"I'm worried that this might be Swarlow's special hobby or something—"
"? Is that something you can say?"
"Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to disparage him - he doesn't look like a robot."
After being hit by Seele with a rice spoon, Kong set his sights on the creature called the rock lizard - he even ignored the intimate interaction between him and Seele, which had long surpassed the relationship of ordinary friends.
Strictly speaking, it should be called the "corpse" of the rock lizard... Carefully fork open its golden and crispy skin, and the contents are very decent and appetizing white meat.
It tastes a lot like roast chicken, seasoned with just simple salt, but very delicious.
Although it might not look good before being processed, it should be considered a very rare and precious ingredient underground. The miners were willing to give it to him...
As he thought about this, he felt that he had gained something from his pioneering work.
"Clara, please help me thank the miners who brought us food, but their situation is much more difficult than mine - they can just enjoy the good things themselves in the future."
"Well, I'll tell them. Big brother is so gentle!"
"...Don't say that. Every time someone says I'm gentle, something bad happens."
Sora immediately looked at Clara with some annoyance:
"Did Swarovski have any sequelae?" He didn't want to introduce himself to others too many times in one day, as that would give the illusion of socializing, so he tried to steer the topic towards the people around him as much as possible - rather than imparting information, the most important thing was to gain information.
"No, the shield offset most of the impact. I will also pay attention to the risk of loosening during the full body check... Big brother, Mr. Swarlow had already vaguely noticed that he might have misunderstood you when the duel began."
"Oh?" Kong was a little surprised.
"He didn't immediately organize the little robots to guide the residents to evacuate... I think if the threat level of Big Brother exceeded a certain limit, he should have other ways to reduce the damage to the settlement."
The little girl's eyes sparkled as she said, "After the misunderstanding was resolved, Mr. Swarrow seemed to be very nice to Big Brother! I don't know if that counts as 'liking', but his attitude towards you is a bit like when he was with Clara... I am 'family' to Mr. Swarrow, and if Big Brother is equally important to Mr. Swarrow, does that mean we can become family--?"
221. The truth and the "date" invitation
"Family? Hehe... that requires a very strong bond."
Xier thought Kong would refuse decisively, but she didn't expect him to say such an ambiguous sentence.