Ch 9 – Hunger

When Yu Xi woke up, he connected to the starship’s system and was unable to find Kersz in any of the rooms. He then checked the escape pods, but found that none of them were missing.

Yu Xi was a little puzzled. He opened his door, and a second later, someone fell to the floor with a thud.

Kersz promptly got to his feet: “I almost fell asleep just now.”

Yu Xi narrowed his eyes.

“Oh, did you sleep well?” Kersz patted off his jacket. “I’m used to sleeping while sitting up, don’t worry about me.”

“What are you doing?” Yu Xi asked. “You can take any room on the ship.”

“But you were in a bad mood when you went to bed yesterday. You seemed a little sad.” Kersz seemed to realize what he had just said. “Wait, not sad! You’re a rational robot, you don’t get sad. You were just, uh….malfunctioning.” He used Yu Xi’s words despite not believing them himself.

“Considering that your malfunction might have been caused by being mistaken for my criminal accomplice, I wanted to check on you,” Kersz continued. “You didn’t open the door for me, so I figured you haven’t forgiven me yet.”

“I was asleep,” said Yu Xi.

“Oh, I see!” Kersz slapped his forehead. “I thought you never wanted to talk to me again. I was so scared.”

“No.” Yu Xi went to change his clothes.

Kersz didn’t understand: “What do you mean, ‘no?’”

“You knew that I was sleeping. When you first intruded upon my planet, I was in sleep mode, and the monitoring system showed that you wandered around my place for a long time. You’re well aware that the system will go into automatic management mode after I fall asleep.” Yu Xi said, “You’re just acting pitiful for sympathy.”

Kersz arched an eyebrow.

“You play the victim and put on a show of being pathetic in order to have an easier time around me,” Yu Xi continued. “But it is unnecessary. I won’t mistreat you just because you made me a wanted criminal.”

“Really?!” Kersz didn’t deny it. He couldn’t fathom the boundary between Yu Xi’s rationality and his emotions, but he didn’t really care about what was going on in his head – he was only concerned with things that were tangible and practical. “You’re so magnanimous.”

Yu Xi silently modified the system and canceled the order for spicy scrambled eggs he’d made before going to sleep the night before. He had already determined how to convince this human that stir-fried eggs with chilli peppers was a traditional dish of the ancient humans.

Scrambled eggs with tomatoes would do instead.

“I’m just a robot. My thoughts aren’t as convoluted as those of humans.” 

“You’re truly the most benevolent robot in the world.” Kersz stepped forward and hugged Yu Xi from the back.

Yu Xi froze.

He hadn’t even put on his shirt yet. “Oh! What are you doing?!”

“Meeting you is the luckiest thing that’s ever happened to me.” Kersz even nuzzled the back of Yu Xi’s head.

“You’re going a bit overboard with your pitiful act!” Yu Xi smacked Kersz’s hands a couple of times. “This isn’t like you. What are you planning?”

“Just think of it as the rejoicing of a terrified human who just found out he’s not going to be executed by his savior,” Kersz said rather dramatically.

“You’re really pushing your luck.” Yu Xi was still standing there with his clothes in his hand.

Kersz’s hands started to feel around, and Yu Xi reminded him: “I told you before that you don’t need to resort to depravity.”

Kersz immediately withdrew his hands and raised them in a sign of surrender.

“Are you done rejoicing?” Yu Xi asked.

“Probably.” Kersz was a little confused.

He was confident in his conclusion that Yu Xi had never truly integrated into human society. Like a child who was loved by many and whose family never pushed him to grow up, even though he had stockpiled an incredible amount of knowledge, there were still a lot of things that couldn’t be fully understood without direct experience.

Yu Xi’s reaction to negative human emotions proved his point, but he seemed indifferent to Kersz’s attempts to get closer to him.

“Then go,” said Yu Xi. “I still need to get dressed.”

Kersz hummed in response and took a couple of steps back.

He didn’t know if he had offended Yu Xi this time, but he soon received an answer to this question.

Because he was treated to the most lavish meal of his life.

Staring at the dazzling array of dishes on the large round table, Kersz was overwhelmed by the number of options before him: “My god.”

“I won’t be able to finish all of this.” Kersz gulped hard.

“If you can’t finish it, then you can’t finish it.” Yu Xi was able to process the resources of an entire planet, so this was nothing to him.

“Wasting it will make me feel guilty.” The two of them had entirely different perspectives. Before meeting Yu Xi, Kersz had never really eaten.

“Then perhaps you can try to finish it all.” Yu Xi shrugged.

After Kersz’s tentative hug, Yu Xi experienced the inexplicable urge to ply Kersz with copious amounts of food. He wanted to witness Kersz’s expression of delight, to let this complicated human experience pure joy.

Kersz looked at the table of food: “You’re right. I figure it’ll take me all day to work through it.”

Yu Xi: “…..Are you serious?” Stuffing all of this food into his stomach would hardly be enjoyable.

“I’m serious. Oh, this dish is red and yellow. Are those chili peppers?” Kersz pointed at the scrambled eggs with tomatoes.

“No, those are tomatoes,” Yu Xi replied.

“It looks a bit like chili peppers when it’s cut into pieces like this,” Kersz said.

“I think so too.” Yu Xi said nothing more.

Looking at this table of food, Yu Xi searched his memory bank for the holding capacity of a human stomach.

Yu Xi was a little worried, and went to Kersz’s side as soon as he sat down: “Let me see your belly.”

Kersz had just picked up the cutlery, but he immediately set it back down and lifted his shirt.

Yu Xi exclaimed: “Such a flat stomach!”

“And very shapely,” Kersz added.

Yu Xi met Kersz’s eyes, and he continued: “I’ve heard that having visible eight-pack abs is a natural endowment, and I’m very much endowed.”

Wearing a smug little smile, Yu Xi reached out and rubbed Kersz’s belly as if to soothe him: “They’ll soon disappear.”

“If it’s because of this food, then I’m very honored.” Kersz pulled his shirt back down.

Yu Xi said nothing. At the realization that Kersz was really going to stuff all of this food into his stomach, he silently activated the medical pod.

He had initially thought that Kersz was just running his mouth, but as the food gradually disappeared, Yu Xi finally understood that Kersz had a food obsession.

Kersz’s stomach wasn’t very big, and he had to move around for a while to digest before digging in again.

Eating seemed to have transformed from enjoyable into a sort of mission.

Yu Xi initially warned Kersz to pay attention to digestion time, as stuffing too much food into one’s stomach could cause complications.

In the end, the scheming space pirate found himself in bed, clutching his stomach.

Yu Xi urged him to take a stroll around, and then Kersz fell into a deep sleep.

When Kersz woke up again, Yu Xi was watching him, and his head was resting on the other’s arm.

Kersz paused for a moment, then offered him a smile: “Good morning, Mr. Yu.”

“How do you feel?” Yu Xi asked.

“Not great. I’m still really full.” Kersz glanced down and saw that Yu Xi was rubbing his stomach. “Does this kind of food promote sleep? My mind went blank after eating.”

“You were in a food coma,” said Yu Xi. “While you were resting, your blood sugar was riding a roller coaster.”

“Because of the food?” Kersz asked.

Yu Xi nodded: “I will control the amount of food you eat from now on. You can’t eat like this all the time, or you will develop health problems.”

“Thank you. You’re very kind.” Kersz adjusted his position to make himself more comfortable.

He had no plans to separate himself from Yu Xi for the time being. After all, he still needed to cultivate a good relationship with him.

“No, I should apologize to you.” Yu Xi knew that Kersz was intelligent, but he had overlooked the complexity of human emotions, and the fact that even the most cunning person had an irrational side.

“I didn’t intend to waste food. Or perhaps I should say that these things don’t even count as food to me,” Yu Xi said softly. “The meat is synthetic, so no animals died to make it. And I’ve always grown vegetables, which simply grow and then die.”

“I understand, Mr. Yu. These things don’t count as important resources to you.” Kersz knew that Yu Xi didn’t need these things to live, and that they were basically just toys to him.

Yu Xi agreed with this, but he was also aware that at certain times, food held particularly different meanings for humans: “I thought that the more food there was, the happier you would be.”

“I was too greedy,” Kersz said. “It can’t be helped, that’s just how it is for space pirates.”

“No. No, this wasn’t greed.” After a moment’s thought, Yu Xi came to the following conclusion: “You just couldn’t accept such good things going bad.”

“I overlooked the environment you grew up in. That was my mistake.” Yu Xi had kept in mind that Kersz was a naughty, scheming child, but he’d forgotten his less than ideal upbringing.

Kersz’s eyes widened.

“Why do you look so surprised?” Yu Xi asked him.

“I thought you would ask if something was wrong with my brain after I stuffed myself like this.” Kersz was astonished by Yu Xi’s perceptiveness.

“I would never think that way,” said Yu Xi. 

“All humans have this problem,” Yu Xi comforted him. “You’re not the only one, so don’t overthink it.”

Kersz: …..

So Yu Xi held this stereotype for the entire human race.

“It stems from a hunger deep within the soul,” Yu Xi said.

At this moment, Yu Xi seemed to empathize with what Kersz was feeling.

Kersz added casually: “Perhaps it’s like your longing for humans.”

Yu Xi was at a bit of a loss, and subconsciously said: “Then I must be starving.”

Kersz went silent and looked toward Yu Xi.

Yu Xi slowly shifted his gaze away to avoid eye contact.

Kersz’s mind started to turn.

After waiting for a while, Yu Xi looked toward Kersz again and said quietly: “What are you thinking about?”

“I’m thinking about humans and robots,” said Kersz.

Yu Xi: “A philosophical question? People always like to ponder things like this.”

Kersz: “Pretty much.”

He suddenly had the illusion that he too could become food for a robot, allowing it to feast and fill its belly.

Was it just his imagination?

Kersz looked down at Yu Xi’s hand, which was still rubbing his stomach.

“Your abdomen is very soft,” Yu Xi blurted out.

Kersz: “It’s probably quite chewy, too.”

Yu Xi: ?

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Chapter 8 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 10