Flower branches swaying alluringly.
This adjective was being vividly demonstrated in action by the vines bursting out from the flower pot—they entwined around the base’s outer walls, wildly extending their branches like a thousand rouged Buddha’s hands scrambling to pry open the dome.
The little cat was sleeping groggily when he suddenly felt a pain at the base of his tail. Hearing the robot’s question, he subconsciously licked his chops. “Tomato.”
The robot pried open his still-closed eyes. “You call this a tomato?”
Li Ao slept with his eyes rolling back, taking several seconds to come to his senses. His blue eyes flipped over as he asked in confusion, “Tomato? Ah…” Before he could finish, he saw it—the verdant branches and the hand-like things on them. “This tomato looks a bit weird.”
Alpha-13 nearly wanted to shake his not-so-big brain. “This isn’t a tomato!”
“Then what is it if not a tomato?” Li Ao was a bit dazed.
Fierce Cat loved eating tomatoes the most, and Fierce Cat only planted tomatoes.
“This is Strangling Vine.” Alpha-13 recalled that there was a researcher in the base who liked cultivating Strangling Vine, but he hadn’t expected such dangerous seeds to be picked up as trash by the short-legged cat.
This was a carnivorous vine whose exterior resembled two clasped women’s hands painted with bright red nail polish, hence also called Buddha Hand Vine. Its reproductive ability and assimilation effect were extremely strong; wherever it grew, nothing else could survive.
The center between those two clasped hands wasn’t some fruit either, but a stomach pouch lined with dense sharp teeth. Even more terrifying was that it could briefly detach from the vine and crawl on the ground to hunt.
Alpha-13 watched wide-eyed as over a dozen hands detached from the vine, crawling toward them at a hair-raising speed and in a grotesque form.
“AL0731, I’m opening the base right now and tossing you in.” The robot’s CPU spun at high speed, calculating the trajectory for throwing the cat.
But in these short few seconds, those hands had already climbed up the robot’s body to its shoulders.
[Get lost]
Xun let out a menacing growl that failed to intimidate a different species. It glared with its beastly pupils, about to open its domain and devour them, when one of the hands burst open, spewing from its ferocious stomach pouch…
A flower?
Everyone knew that Strangling Vine’s Buddha hands concealed bloody maws, but few knew that beyond the sharp teeth lay flowers.
That flower swayed playfully in the wind a few times like it was teasing a child, drawing a hehe laugh from the little cat as he reached out with his paw to poke it.
The little monster gaped in shock on the spot. Once again, the robot malfunctioned.
This flower was so pretty. Li Ao hugged it with both paws and sniffed, asking shyly, “Are you really giving it to me?”
The branches and leaves rustled in the wind, their sound serving as a response.
“Thank you! It’s so pretty and smells so nice.” The petite pink-and-white flower emitted a faint fragrance—that was all the tenderness the Strangling Vine possessed.
Li Ao jumped down from the robot’s arms, picking up flower after flower spat out by the Buddha hands one paw at a time and cradling them in his arms. “Really? Can they be eaten? Should I soak them in water to grow big? Got it, got it! Li Ao understands!”
The little monster hopped down too, sticking close to the short-legged cat’s side. “Li Ao?”
The little cat picked up a flower and held it in front of Xun. “Smell it. Yeah, this is flower scent. Isn’t it nice?”
The dozen or so hands retreated back to the vine. Li Ao, hugging a lapful of flowers, turned his head to ask the robot, “Alpha, why didn’t you open the door?”
“…Coming right up.”
Fortunately, the surveillance didn’t capture this scene. It was too scary for a machine.
—
Li Ao listened to Little Flower Beauty and soaked all the flowers in water.
You ask who Little Flower Beauty is? Oh, that’s the new name Li Ao gave the Strangling Vine.
Alpha-13 appeared to be cooking but was actually flipping the pan while seeking a scientific explanation on the side.
No wonder the second pot of seeds couldn’t sprout—Strangling Vine’s trait was exclusivity; only one plant could survive in an area.
No, that didn’t explain it either. How could dead seeds sprout at all! And why was Strangling Vine coaxing the cub?! It was just a brainless, thoughtless damn plant—why was it better at coaxing the short-legged cat than it was!
“AL0731, this is food for you and the little monster!”
Li Ao tilted his head puzzledly and glanced at the robot, inexplicably feeling like it was a bit angry?
Normally, the robot would leave after dropping off the food to go clean, but today it stayed by the side staring at them eat.
Li Ao buried his face in the bowl and took a bite, looking at the robot in confusion that was still there. He wiped his mouth, looked down at the food bowl again, and in a stroke of inspiration, pushed the bowl toward the robot. “You eat too?”
Alpha-13: “…” Who wants to eat yours? Why don’t you say my food is tasty?!
Forget it, I’ll go wash the dishes.
Li Ao was baffled and chowed down like a bulldozer. In truth, this food really couldn’t be called tasty— no matter the skill, you couldn’t cook without rice. How good could compressed biscuits taste?
But Li Ao was a good little kitty who ate everything with gusto. Compared to going hungry or rotten apples from the trash, compressed biscuits were simply feline delicacies!
“Xun, are you full?” He wiped his mouth and asked the black fuzzy chestnut ball licking its food on the side with its tongue. “Full? Then, I-I feel like I’m still a bit hungry. Can I have your leftovers?”
Xun obediently shifted position and watched the little cat huff and puff to finish its food too.
Both bowls were licked shiny clean. Li Ao’s little belly ballooned out, but he was still a bit hungry.
Without hesitating too long, he picked up the bowl in his mouth and ran to the kitchen.
Alpha-13 had just wiped the stove clean when it heard a clang behind it. It turned around to see the short-legged cat’s bowl on the ground. He had a round puffy pie face as he propped up the bowl with his paw. “Is there more food? Li Ao wants to eat a bit more.”
“…Your belly’s already so full it’s dragging on the ground and you still want more?” It said this, but the robot turned to cook at clearly faster speed.
He eats a lot, which means he really likes the food I make.
The robot didn’t think it was because of high mental energy consumption making him hungry. The robot was only satisfied. Good kitty.
—
One by one, the flowers floated in the water basin. Li Ao lay sprawled beside it, head resting on his paws, his cat pupils clearly lost in thought.
“Li Ao?” Xun hopped to the little cat’s side, trying to mimic him by resting its head on its paws, but it didn’t have hands at all, so it just squeezed the little cat, wedging its body under him.
Li Ao rolled over and buried his face in Xun’s soft fur. “Xun, I miss Grandma.”
The little cat really liked tomatoes, and Grandma really liked flowers.
His encounter with Grandma had started with fresh flowers and tomatoes.
He still remembered that day—Dad and Mom hadn’t come back for several days. He was hungry, so hungry he planned to go out and find food on his own. He cracked the door open a sliver and carefully observed. Good, no human traffickers, no bad uncles. Little cat, don’t be scared. You can do it. You can go out.
A three-year-old kid hyping himself up like that. But just as he mustered all his strength to suppress his fear and stepped out the door, footsteps came from downstairs.
He yanked back inside, trembling as he peeked through the door crack.
It was the new grandma from next door. She’d gone shopping and come back. She was fumbling for her keys to open the door when the plastic bag split open. Fresh flowers scattered on the ground, tomatoes rolling everywhere, right to the child’s feet.
That was a particularly pretty and tasty tomato. Even now, recalling it, Li Ao remembered its flavor.
He swallowed, opened the door, picked it up, and tiptoed to hand it to her. “H-Hello, your tomato fell.”
He remembered that wrinkled hand stroking his head. “Thank you.”
The sunlight that day was wonderful, shining into the hallway onto the scattered flowers and tomatoes, and Grandma’s silvery hair.
“Have you eaten?” she asked.
A child’s memories are brief and fuzzy, but he remembered—after that, he never went hungry again.
The robot had arrived beside Li Ao at some point, listening as he mumbled the story of meeting Grandma.
The short-legged cat wasn’t even shedding tears; his tone was even calm, unlike a cub’s. But the robot felt he was sad.
No wonder he kept talking about going home to find Grandma but never mentioned going home to Dad and Mom. No wonder he was six and hadn’t gone to school a single day, even mixing up “Li Ao” and “I” when speaking. No wonder, even stuffed full, he always wanted a few more bites.
How could there be such parents? Bearing children but not raising them—they didn’t deserve to be human.
“AL0731.” The robot spoke up. “Do you want to go back to Grandma?”
He hadn’t cried when talking about starving, hadn’t cried stepping onto unknown lands alone, hadn’t cried facing terrifying monsters. But at these words, he cried.
The little cat didn’t speak, just shed tears nonstop, nodding vigorously.
“Okay.” The robot promised. “I’ll help you find the way home.”
Before, telling the short-legged cat he could go home was just to give him false motivation to survive. Even if it left some clues in the surveillance, someone had to actively discover them and be willing to brave any hardship to come here.
Those were passive, minuscule, nearly invisible hopes.
But after this night, Alpha-13 seriously started calculating ways to help him find his way home.
After the sky reddened, the sun rose as usual. Li Ao excitedly dragged Xun along behind the robot. “There’s still a house next door?”
“Yes, this is a complex of buildings.” The base was actually a cluster composed of two spherical buildings. The place they had always stayed in was the incubation area for experimental subjects, while the other was the residential zone where the researchers lived.
“There’s Star Network inside, which can connect to the outside world.” But the risk was huge—due to the surveillance cameras, this short-legged cat’s peculiarities must have been noticed long ago. The robot pondered silently to itself. Even if it connected to Star Network, it would first need to hide their location and then find a suitable method.
Delphi… If Delphi was truly as trustworthy as the builder had said, then it might be the best way for the little cat to get home.
“We’re here.” In just one short night, the Strangling Vine had already spread over.
Li Ao waved a swaying paw and then ran toward the robot. “Are we going in?”
“I didn’t bring you here before for a reason.” The mechanical arm lit up the operation panel, and a dark blue authorization verification interface immediately popped up. “I can’t break through the access protocols here.”
