Chapter 104: All Head, No Tail Part 1

“Ohhh, Professor Idis~”

The mechanical female voice drew out the tone, as the mechanical arm slithered smoothly across the polished floor, the sound swirling around three hundred and sixty degrees.

But it couldn’t withstand Idis reaching out to grab it, pinching its vital spot right in his hand.

Idis: “Shut up.”

Yiwen stubbornly retorted: “The first line was clearly said by Xunxun. I just repeated it! If Professor Idis wants to settle scores, it shouldn’t be with a weak, pitiful, helpless little cutie mechanical arm.”

Idis loosened his grip, and Yiwen shot away with a whoosh, leaping onto Xie Jianxun’s shoulder. The electronic screen on its surface flashed a mocking laughing emoji.

Xie Jianxun patted its protruding electronic eye, amused. “Don’t provoke Professor Idis too much, or he might just yank out your voice module too. What would you do then?”

Idis: “Good idea. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that.”

Xie Jianxun: “…”

Yiwen: “…Xunxun!”

Xie Jianxun glanced around but didn’t spot Ela.

He asked curiously: “Ela isn’t home?”

Idis glanced down at his Light Brain and replied: “I have a class at three in the afternoon at the university. He went to do some prep work for me.”

Xie Jianxun: “Alright then, I won’t disturb you. I can study the textbook on my own and wait for Professor Idis to teach me after class.”

Yiwen seized the opportunity, darting up and down, and soon placed a thick book into Xie Jianxun’s hands.

It was a physical textbook filled with Idis’s handwriting. The pages were a bit curled from use. Xie Jianxun flipped through two pages and saw quite a few mechanical design sketches hand-drawn by Idis with pencil.

The range covered farming tools, industrial machines, vehicles, bionic structures, and even bizarre bionic monster skeletons.

He flipped through two pages in fascination, only daring to pinch the corner of the page with his thumb and forefinger, afraid of smudging the pencil drawings.

Xie Jianxun looked up and asked: “Can I take it to my bedroom to read?”

Idis nodded: “Yes.”

As he wheeled toward the elevator, the mech engineer suddenly turned back and brought up something: “Last time you came back from the market, Ela said you were willing to make some extra gourmet food for me.”

He asked calmly: “Where’s the gourmet food?”

The person and the mechanical arm on the sofa both froze in unison.

Xie Jianxun didn’t dare recall how, the day before, he had opened a bag of flour from the downstairs convenience store, rolled up his sleeves with great enthusiasm, added water when there was too much flour and more flour when there was too much water, and finally baked it into a charred mess in the oven.

Yiwen thought of that fact too.

It instantly perked up and turned the tables: “It’s all your fault. If you’d installed a cooking module on me, everyone could’ve eaten the delicious pancakes made by Xunxun.”

Idis cast a light glance its way, and the mechanical arm abruptly shoved its own electronic screen under a throw pillow, leaving a long tail sticking out behind it—caring only for the head and not the butt.

Xie Jianxun stuffed it all in, tucking it completely under the pillow.

He casually set the book aside and guiltily went to push Idis’s wheelchair: “I promise, when you come back today, there’ll be delicious pancakes to eat.”

Idis was forcibly wheeled into the elevator. He spun around on the spot to face him and repeated: “Today?”

Xie Jianxun nodded emphatically: “Today.”

Idis left. Yiwen wriggled out from behind the pillow, seeming to eye him with its little electronic eye.

“If Professor Idis comes back and there’s no food, he’ll be mad,” Yiwen said quietly. “He’s pretty serious about some things.”

Xie Jianxun thought for a moment and ventured: “If we order takeout, do you think he’d be able to tell?”

Two big question marks appeared on Yiwen’s electronic screen.

The Little Adventurer spread his hands frankly: “I didn’t say it had to be made by me, did I?”

That evening, the elevator doors opened, and Idis returned from outside.

He had just been annoyed by a group of obedient but stupid students, his blood pressure rising a bit. He slowly rubbed his temple with the knuckle of his index finger.

The wheelchair automatically carried him from outdoors into the home, all the way to the dining table.

Idis opened his eyes and saw Xie Jianxun sitting obediently in the chair across from him, with the mechanical arm coiled properly on his body.

Two butter pancakes sat on the table. From the surface, they looked almost identical.

Xie Jianxun said solemnly: “One is takeout, one is mine. But I forgot the salt in mine. The Light Brain recipe didn’t say if you could sprinkle it on after baking…”

Yiwen muttered: “It’s not gonna kill anyone anyway.”

The mech engineer stared fixedly at the two pancakes for a moment, then reached out, picked one up, and chewed two bites.

He said nothing, picked up the plate with the pancake, and wheeled back into the elevator.

Xie Jianxun jumped up from his chair and chased after him: “How did it taste?”

But the elevator doors closed too quickly, cutting off Idis’s response.

Xie Jianxun stood there dumbfounded: “Was it good or bad?”

He turned back. Yiwen curved into an arrow shape, pointing at the remaining pale pancake on the table. The leftover one was the takeout, which ended up in Xie Jianxun’s stomach.

The unevaluated pancake left him uneasy.

After discussing it briefly with Yiwen, they decided to pretend to take the textbook to Idis’s Workshop to investigate.

“Sixth floor, don’t get it wrong,” Yiwen reminded kindly.

Xie Jianxun tucked the textbook under his arm, with a bookmark in the middle to show how far he’d read.

He pressed the button for the sixth floor and waited for the elevator to take him higher.

The doors opened to a spacious area identical in layout to the living room below, but while the downstairs had been luxuriously renovated to feel opulent and comfortable, this floor reflected Idis’s own style—almost no extra decorations.

He followed the sound inside. Idis sat at the workbench, one hand holding a sharp-tipped tool about forearm-length, the other supporting the desk. Above it lay a metal skeleton roughly one and a half meters long.

It was Xie Jianxun’s first time entering Idis’s Workshop. He stood awkwardly at the door and lightly knocked.

Idis heard the sound and looked up.

Xie Jianxun said dryly: “Good evening, Professor Idis. Am I disturbing you?”

Idis’s face was covered by an iron-black protective mask, its shape fierce and eerie. The side panels enclosed both ears, yet somehow he had heard Xie Jianxun’s footsteps.

His eyes peered through the glass pane above the mask, signaling Xie Jianxun to stand back.

The next second, amid a harsh grinding noise, he installed the part in his hand at a tricky angle.

Once he finished, Xie Jianxun leaned in.

His eyes sparkled with anticipation, his voice unable to hide it: “…Can I touch it?”

The mech engineer’s voice came muffled from behind the mask.

“It’s hot,” he said curtly.

Xie Jianxun had already sneakily touched it with a finger and jerked back when it burned. Idis glanced down, grabbed his wrist, and dragged him to the sink in the corner to run cool water over it.

Xie Jianxun: “Good thing it didn’t turn red.”

Idis said coldly: “If it did, you’d be done for.”

He looked down to confirm no redness or broken skin, then let go. The Little Adventurer quickly pulled his hand back.

Since something had come up, Idis wasn’t in a rush to continue working. He set the machine aside and gestured for Xie Jianxun to explain.

Xie Jianxun pulled out the thick textbook from behind his back and spread it flat on the workbench.

He blurted out: “How did the pancake taste?”

Idis gave him a surprised look, as if wondering how someone could flip through his textbook so noisily while asking about that disastrous pancake from earlier.

Xie Jianxun said expectantly: “I didn’t put salt, but I followed every other step to the letter. The texture should be fine, right?”

Idis nodded reservedly, agreeing: “Indeed. Aside from the texture, it has no other merits.”

Xie Jianxun: “…”

The mech engineer placed the empty plate in front of him, indicating he should take it downstairs later.

Xie Jianxun peered inside. Aside from crumbs from breaking the pancake, it was empty.

—In other words, despite Professor Idis’s tough words, he had eaten it all.

Xie Jianxun tilted his head slightly to check the man’s expression, but that familiar face had lowered lashes, showing no anger over a single pancake.

The Little Adventurer: Heh heh.

He was practically humming a tune inside.

He dragged the thick textbook over, placing it right under Idis’s nose and boldly occupying a large swath of the workbench.

Xie Jianxun flipped to the page with the bookmark and pointed at a knowledge point above it, leaning in with a beaming smile: “Professor Idis, I don’t quite get this part here.”