IRCDM Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Cooking – Your Subject Has Something to Say

Li Yao cleared his throat with a serious face, “What are you talking about, so happy?”

Liang Huan turned his head at the sound, and immediately felt a weight on his shoulder. This person seemed to especially like being an accessory to him, like that jade pendant of his that was full of cracks. Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but smile.

“Still smiling.” Li Yao lowered his voice near his ear, “If you dare to divorce me, you’re dead.”

The smile in Liang Huan’s eyes deepened, “Mm.”

The way they looked gave Mao Ming a different impression. Watching Liang Huan force a smile, Mao Ming looked at Li Yao, “Captain Li—”

“Uncle Mao, it’s getting late, go home quickly.” Li Yao looked at him with a smile that wasn’t a smile, “It’s almost dark.”

Mao Ming looked at the bright daylight outside the protective shield, and greatly admired his ability to lie through his teeth. He sighed, “Xiao Liang, see you at the factory tomorrow.”

After speaking, Mao Ming left. Li Yao asked doubtfully, “What factory?”

“It’s getting late, let’s go back too.” Liang Huan turned and left.

“Wait for me.” Li Yao hooked his neck and pulled him back, “Uncle Mao works at the Small Panda Takeout base, oh—so that’s why you were making me dinner every day a few days ago and it was so delicious, so you were just pouring it out of takeout boxes.”

Liang Huan said seriously, “I wasn’t.”

He was clearly scooping it fresh from the employee pot, and he always picked the portion with the most meat.

“I was wondering how you could get a credit card without a job, so you went out to work behind my back.” Li Yao said, “Am I not capable of supporting you? The little bit of money you worked so hard to earn isn’t even enough to fill a gap between my teeth.”

His tone now was very similar to those pedantic and stubborn husbands outside the women’s academy in Northern Liang. Liang Huan disapproved, “Li Yao, your thinking needs to be more open-minded. If you really marry a wife one day, would you keep her locked up at home all day as well?”

Li Yao raised an eyebrow, “Are you able to go out and fight zombies or kill heteromorphs? You saw how dangerous it was when you went out this time. If I hadn’t been there, you would have been eaten by those people until there was nothing left but bones. In the future, just stay at home and cook for me.”

Liang Huan: “…”

A pedantic modern person.

Pei Zhong, who was passing by, glanced at Li Yao and said to Liang Huan, “If you need help, you can call the Human Rights Center.”

Then he left carrying a bag of Small Panda merchandise.

Li Yao was so angry that he choked, “What’s wrong with these people?”

Liang Huan patted his shoulder and said earnestly, “Li Yao, you still need to reflect on yourself more often. Treating me better is the way to a long and lasting relationship.”

Li Yao: “?”

—

First was sent to the auto repair shop—that’s right, that semi-scrap modified off-road vehicle was Li Yao’s beloved pet, named First. Their team’s name was derived from this, named “First Team” there was no Second Team, other teams were called “Azure Dragon,” “Divine Seal,” “Burning Wilds,” and other more high-class names.

“What’s the use of that? It’s hard to write and hard to remember.” Li Yao was very satisfied with his team’s name, “First is great, domineering and cool.”

“The meaning is indeed good.” Liang Huan looked at the scenery outside the hovercar. The black, white, and gray color scheme made this place look lifeless, with a dull sense of oppression, “The mental power inside the heteromorph will be—”

He turned to look at Li Yao, only to find that the other party had already fallen asleep.

Li Yao’s brows were tightly furrowed, his arms were crossed in front of his chest, his head was lowered, his back was hunched, and his feet were on the opposite seat. This was a very vigilant sleeping posture. Liang Huan had seen many border guards who would maintain this posture during their short rest periods, exhausted to the extreme, but still prepared to attack at any moment when they heard the horn.

The hovercar quickly stopped in front of the dormitory building. Liang Huan listened to his breathing. This person wasn’t in a deep sleep; he would probably wake up with the slightest movement. He turned off the car’s engine, leaned back in the seat, and began to look at the chip.

There was very little information about the name Yi Heng Bai on the internet, not even a photo. It was as if someone had forcibly erased all traces. All kinds of news flooded the internet, and the speed of information updates was extremely fast. Ten years had passed, and even the Dawn Project had become something to be kept secret. Yi Heng Bai seemed to have disappeared out of thin air, only living in the few words of those who knew the inside story. Liang Huan could only get a glimpse of the tip of the iceberg of Yi Heng Bai through Deng Meng’s old photo.

And the information about Li Yao was even scarcer. Most of it was about his mercenary exploits. However, no matter how powerful a mercenary was, they were still a profession that couldn’t be brought to the table. Regular news rarely reported on them. The mercenary intranet was mostly silent. Only a cold string of codes on the leaderboard indicated that this person hadn’t died and had obtained a lot of resources… Mercenaries were more like tools for obtaining resources, constantly consumed and replaced. They didn’t even need their names.

In Liang Huan’s view, whether it was the so-called military or this society, they had already given up on Li Yao. So why was Li Yao so obsessed with improving his mental power, insisting on piloting a mecha himself?

Liang Huan lowered his eyes and looked at the time. There were still half an hour before the start of the Mercenary Competition. Li Yao’s chip had made more than a dozen calls, but Liang Huan had muted it.

“Li Yao.” He patted Li Yao’s shoulder.

Li Yao suddenly opened his eyes.

“We’re at the dormitory building.” Liang Huan pointed to his wrist, “Someone has been calling you. I wanted to let you sleep a little longer, so I muted it.”

Li Yao rubbed his face and answered the call.

“Ancestor, you finally answered!” You Zhao Chen sounded like he was going crazy, “There’s half an hour before the competition starts, where are you? I’ll send someone to pick you up! We’re going to be late!”

Li Yao lazily yawned, “Let it start, I’m not participating.”

“Your name has already been submitted.” You Zhao Chen gritted his teeth, “The boss is waiting for you.”

“I just came back from a blizzard, seriously injured. I hope the boss can understand.” Li Yao adjusted himself to a comfortable position, leaned to the side, and leaned on Liang Huan’s body. A human cushion was indeed more comfortable. He dragged out a half-dead tone, “Of course, if the boss insists, I’ll crawl over even if I have to carry a treatment device.”

You Zhao Chen was probably stunned by anger, “Do you know how important this competition is to the mercenary base? Can’t you have a little sense of responsibility?”

Li Yao grabbed Liang Huan’s hand and snapped off the call.

“So noisy.” He yawned again, his eyes a little moist, “Baby, you’re so considerate, knowing I didn’t want to go, you even muted it for me. There’s still half an hour before the competition, why call me?”

Liang Huan let him lean on him, “What if it’s important to you?”

Li Yao smiled, “What’s so good about this broken competition? You’re more important to me.”

Liang Huan calmly met his gaze. In the narrow space, undercurrents surged. Li Yao suddenly raised his hand and put it on Liang Huan’s shoulder, and said solemnly, “How about you make me a meal?”

Liang Huan took away his paw, and was silent for a moment, “… I’ll try.”

As everyone knows, Emperor Yuanxing himself didn’t care much about food. From childhood to adulthood, the imperial chefs in the palace changed their ways to cook, but he always tasted just a bit, always routinely praising them, but never moved his chopsticks more than a few times, which made the chefs cry. It was only when he came here that the emperor belatedly realized that he had just restrained himself into a habit. The meals made by the palace chefs were still extremely delicious.

He was confident that he could handle a mere meal.

In the mercenary’s small dormitory, Liang Huan was wearing a brand new apron, seriously studying the hundreds of buttons on the fully automatic cooking machine, and turned to look at Jinbao next to him.

Jinbao held the virtual recipe in front of him, “Master, this is the recipe published by Small Panda Takeout. As long as you put in the raw materials and spices, you can eat it in up to half an hour.”

“Can you do it or not?” Li Yao lay on the rocking chair, gloating.

Liang Huan pushed the cooking machine aside and took out an iron pot from the depths of the cupboard, “I will make an exception for you today.”

He skillfully chopped, boiled, and stir-fried. With Jinbao’s assistance, three dishes and a soup were quickly freshly prepared. Li Yao went from watching the joke at the beginning to being slightly shocked at the end, “You can really do it?”

Liang Huan threw down the apron and patted the non-existent dust on his sleeves with restraint, “Eat.”

Li Yao took the chopsticks and sat in front of the coffee table with great interest, took a bite of a dish, and was shocked, “This is too delicious!”

Liang Huan raised an eyebrow.

Li Yao tasted the other dishes one after another and gave him a thumbs up directly, “Your Majesty, you are the best. I am completely convinced. You eat too.”

Liang Huan smiled and picked up a dish. The smile on his face suddenly froze the moment it entered his mouth, and then he stubbornly tried to swallow it in Li Yao’s admiring gaze—he couldn’t swallow it at all.

He threw it directly into the trash can.

If this dish hadn’t been made by himself, he would have suspected that someone had deliberately poisoned it.

Li Yao laughed, clapping his thighs with joy.

“… If it’s not delicious, just say it’s not delicious, why make fun of me.” Liang Huan was a little angry, picked up the plate and was about to pour it out, but Li Yao reached out to stop him.

“What are you doing, I bought all organic vegetables, don’t waste them.” Li Yao put all the dishes into his bowl while laughing, and didn’t forget to ridicule him, “Fortunately, I ordered takeout in advance just in case, Jinbao, go get it.”

Jinbao scurried to open the door to get the takeout, came back and put it in front of Liang Huan, “Master, please eat.”

“Hey, a little broken robot is quite observant.” Li Yao put all those dishes into his mouth, looking like he was enjoying it.

Jinbao squatted next to Liang Huan, “Master, the Small Panda’s skin is more beautiful than Jinbao’s, Jinbao likes it.”

“I’ll change it for you tonight.” Liang Huan touched Jinbao’s head.

“Thank you, Master! Thank you, Master Li Yao too!” Jinbao happily went to clean up the kitchen.

Li Yao laughed, “Was your robot implanted with an advertisement?”

Liang Huan saw that his chopsticks didn’t stop and frowned, “Eat takeout instead.”

“Eating this is fine.” Li Yao picked up the soup and took a big sip, satisfied, “It’s the first time someone has made me a meal.”

Liang Huan was stunned for a moment, “No one has ever made you one? Not even when you were a child?”

“My parents died in an accident as soon as I was born. I grew up in an orphanage when I was a child. There were so many children that the childcare robots were almost depressed. They fed us all nutrient solutions.” Li Yao said, “Later, I dropped out of elementary school to work. Most of the time I ate leftovers, but they should have been made by robots.”

“Should have?” Liang Huan looked at him.

Li Yao suddenly became serious, “According to my experience, people usually don’t make food this delicious.”

“…” Liang Huan wanted to chop him.

Li Yao was full and lay on the bed, unwilling to move. Liang Huan was still slowly drinking after-dinner tea. He couldn’t stand Li Yao’s appearance, “Get up and take a walk to digest.”

“What’s the point of taking a walk in this tiny place.” Li Yao turned his head to face him, and his hand grabbed Jinbao’s charging cable, “Your Majesty, I don’t know if I should say something.”

Liang Huan put down his teacup. Usually when the ministers below started like this, the following words wouldn’t make him too happy. He smiled slightly, “Speak.”

Li Yao said lazily, “What did you do with the octopus heteromorph’s marrow?”

As soon as he finished speaking, the power went out in the building at just the right time, and the entire room was instantly plunged into darkness.