Future's First Marriage, Later Love - Chapter 21

Chapter 21

In his mind, he couldn’t help but recall the time Pollack said he wanted to make a little robot for him; could it be that? Mai Hai speculated.

As it turned out, Mai Hai’s intuition was very accurate. The gift Pollack gave him this time was indeed a portable robot with adjustable size. Most importantly, this robot could transform into a spaceship. Its appearance was like a cartoon little whale, blue all over. On the glass of the hatch door, somehow, there were even a group of little whales swimming around.

As soon as Mai Hai came out of the company, he saw this brand-new, flashy spaceship. Pollack asked, “It’s for you. Do you like it?”

“For me?” Mai Hai still couldn’t quite believe it.

Pollack turned his head to the side and said, “Nonsense, didn’t you say you wanted one?”

“Thank you.” Mai Hai knew Pollack was just being a “stubborn-mouthed dead duck.” He had just seen a suspicious blush on Pollack’s face when he spoke. However, he suddenly thought of a problem, “Uh, I don’t have a spaceship pilot’s license.”

“Just go and test for one.” Pollack looked at Mai Hai with a “you’re such an idiot” expression.

Mai Hai nodded and asked, “How does it turn back into a robot?”

Pollack handed the remote control in his hand to Mai Hai and said, “I have already engraved your name and data onto its core system, so now you only need to press that red button on the remote control to start the intelligent system. After starting the intelligent system, you can talk to it directly, and it will completely obey your commands.”

“Is that so? Then won’t it think like a human? And can it grow larger or shrink?” Mai Hai asked Pollack curiously.

“Well, from a certain perspective, you can understand it that way,” Pollack thought for a moment and said. “Normally you can shrink him and put him in your pocket, and then enlarge him when you need to use him.”

Mai Hai looked at the spaceship with joy. Then, following Pollack’s instructions, he pressed the red button. Immediately after, the spaceship suddenly began to transform just like in the Hollywood blockbusters Mai Hai used to watch. In a few seconds, a humanoid robot roughly as tall as Mai Hai appeared before him.

“Master, hello,” the robot said, looking at Mai Hai.

Mai Hai looked at his robot with a beaming smile. Back on Planet Pandora, he never had much chance to come into contact with such things. He had needed to learn how to be the king of a country—various charts, ethnic customs, foreign languages, combat techniques, and so on. As for the manufacturing of things like these robots, specialized technical personnel were responsible. When he went out, he was usually followed by a large group of people, and every detail of his daily life had to be meticulously recorded by Toffler. Although Toffler was his mentor and the teacher of the heir to the throne, Mai Hai always felt that he was just a nanny…

Mai Hai looked at the humanoid robot in front of him; the more he looked, the more it felt like Pollack. So he asked Pollack, “Why do I feel he looks a bit like you?”

Pollack turned his head away and answered evasively, “Does he?” Pollack didn’t expect to be seen through by Mai Hai. He did indeed have a selfish motive; when he had Chris make the exterior, he just told him to use his own appearance as a reference. Because of this, Chris had teased him behind his back for several days.

Mai Hai looked at Pollack suspiciously, then after a moment, he let it go and said to the humanoid robot, “What is your name?”

The humanoid robot replied, “I don’t have a name yet…”

“Hmm…” Mai Hai rubbed his chin and then said, “How about this, I’ll give you one. Let’s call you ‘Spinach’ (Bōcài).”

“Alright, Spinach,” the humanoid robot said.

Hearing this, Pollack, who was standing nearby, voiced his protest with dissatisfaction: “Why call it Spinach?!”

“Huh?” Mai Hai looked at Pollack with a blank expression and asked, “Is there some kind of problem?”

Pollack was caught by the question, so he had to say, “No.”

Mai Hai continued to ask, “Can you turn into a spaceship now?”

“Yes,” Spinach answered.

Mai Hai suddenly let out a “yi” and then turned to ask Pollack, “How come I feel Spinach’s voice is also very similar to yours?”

“You heard wrong,” Pollack said expressionlessly as he pulled open Spinach’s hatch and walked in.

Mai Hai muttered to himself, “Is that so? I heard wrong?”

Immediately after, he followed onto the ship with Spinach. As he passed the hatch, he suddenly stopped and curiously lowered his body a bit. He saw a group of little blue jellyfish on the transparent glass. His curiosity piqued, he reached out to poke them, and those little jellyfish swam away as if they were ticklish…

Mai Hai stared at them and then asked Pollack, “What is this? It looks a lot like the group of little jellyfish at home.”

“Mm, it’s a decoration I specially put on,” Pollack said as he walked toward the cockpit.

Pollack said, “Give the command. Now it only recognizes your commands.”

“Huh?” Mai Hai suddenly heard Pollack say that and didn’t react at all to what was happening.

Pollack said, “Start it.”

Only then did Mai Hai have an epiphany. He walked into the hatch, went to Pollack’s side, and tried saying, “Start.”

“At your service, Master.”

Then Pollack skillfully pressed a few buttons on the control console, and the spaceship sped out.

Pollack didn’t go directly home but took Mai Hai on a detour. He told Mai Hai this was to test the spaceship’s performance, which was why he had specifically driven it out today.

Mai Hai observed the internal structure and color of the spaceship; they were completely in accordance with his preferences. He was somewhat moved by Pollack’s attentiveness. Although it was said that one only needed to input this data into the core, the fact that he took the heart to remember his likes and dislikes still moved him deeply.

Looking sideways at Pollack’s profile as he operated the spaceship, Mai Hai’s heart suddenly skipped a beat…

Just at this moment, Pollack happened to turn his head and saw Mai Hai looking at him, so he asked casually, “What’s wrong? You’ve been staring at me?”

“Oh, nothing.” Mai Hai felt embarrassed. Having been caught red-handed, he hurriedly turned his head away, but the feeling from that moment just now continued to linger. He could feel that heart in his chest still thumping and racing irregularly. This must be what they call a “heart-fluttering moment”?

Before this, Mai Hai had never had this feeling. Before he traveled through time… while he was in school, he had a few girlfriends, but it was always because after being confessed to, he didn’t dislike the other person, so they stayed together. However, before long, the other party would be unable to stand his coldness and propose a breakup. Although Mai Hai himself didn’t feel that way, every time there was a breakup, the girl would tearfully ask him questions like “Have you ever even loved me?” or “You don’t love me at all!” This left Mai Hai caught between laughter and tears, completely unaware of what he had done wrong.

To start blushing, have a racing heart, short breath, and be so nervous your hands and feet don’t know what to do just by looking at a person… this kind of feeling had never appeared. But just now, although it was only for such a brief moment, he could still feel it—that feeling when he was looking at Pollack’s profile…

Mai Hai shook his head, trying to shake that thought out of his mind. He couldn’t keep thinking about it. He wasn’t young anymore; his body before the time travel was in its early thirties, and after the travel, it was twenty-eight. No matter what, he should be steady. Why was he acting like a green young lad? Moreover, he would one day return to Pandora. Leaving gender aside, there was no possibility between him and Pollack.

For some reason, thinking this way felt like a bucket of cold water being splashed over Mai Hai’s heart. He was very clear on what to do next. Now that Pollack basically trusted him, he had to find Spinai as quickly as possible.

He wondered if, when he finally left and Pollack found out the truth, he would fly into a rage?

And his identity… Mai Hai thought self-deprecatingly, Pollack surely wouldn’t care. He should have many pursuers and would probably be able to forget him very quickly.

“What are you thinking? Why have you suddenly stopped talking?” Pollack asked, unused to Mai Hai’s silence.

Mai Hai asked Pollack back with a smile, “What do you think of Finael?”

“What about him?” Pollack asked.

Mai Hai said, “He likes you, right?”

“Oh…” Pollack’s reaction was very cold, as indifferent as if they were discussing the grass by the roadside.

Seeing that Pollack had no heart to continue this topic, Mai Hai changed the subject. He said, “Tomorrow I’ll come back by myself.”

Pollack thought for a moment and then nodded.

Mai Hai stared at him strangely and asked, “How come you agreed so quickly today?”

“Oh, there’s a very important meeting tomorrow I must attend. I was originally going to tell you about it,” Pollack said.

Mai Hai nodded, “Then are you coming back for dinner?”

“Mm.” Pollack shook his head. “Probably not. I should be back very late. Make something to eat yourself and then go to sleep early.”

“Okay,” Mai Hai said with concern, “you should also mind your rest.”

Mai Hai’s concern made Pollack’s heart feel warm. He turned his head to look at Mai Hai and replied very solemnly, “I will.”

Returning home that evening, Mai Hai and Pollack cooked together and then went for a walk. Before going to bed, while Pollack was taking a shower, Mai Hai slipped out to the balcony to call Spinai and confirm the plan for tomorrow. Then he called Wells to request a day off. Although it was only one day, Mai Hai thought he would accomplish as much as he could. His understanding of Pandora was a bit more than Spinai’s, so if he handled deciphering those codes and Spinai handled the operation, they should get twice the result with half the effort.

Pollack walked out while using a bath towel to dry his still-dripping hair and saw Mai Hai standing outside in the cold wind, so he asked, “What are you doing out there?”