Silence and smiles didn't vanish; they simply swapped faces between Caelus and Ruan Mei.
She had been completely unprepared for Caelus to make such a move.
The warm, moist sensation was like a freshly steamed glutinous rice ball, collapsing softly against her cheek.
And the silver thread of saliva was like chilled jelly tracing the line of her lips.
This was a sensation Ruan Mei had never directly experienced before.
Perhaps this could be considered understanding the details of life from another angle?
Ruan Mei lowered her gaze slightly, the corners of her lips lifting into a very faint arc, like a plum blossom of bone breaking through frozen earth. Her gaze was calm as she looked at Caelus:
"How does it taste?"
Her voice was as clear and cold as a stream of melting snow, yet not without a faint touch of warmth.
His brow furrowed unconsciously. This time, it was Caelus's turn to be surprised.
Holy shit~!
This woman... is fascinating~!
"Mm, an excellent pastry."
Backing down was not an option. When it came to a peculiar personality and a flexible moral baseline, Caelus was confident he wouldn't lose to anyone. He smiled and gave a satisfied review.
"It seems you quite like them."
Ruan Mei gracefully tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
"Ten grams of sugar cubes, one dried and salt-cured plum blossom. Baking and cooking are just like cultivating a universe. You must have perfect control of the heat, a meticulous mind, and no matter what happens... you mustn't panic."
"When I visit Stephen Lloyd, I always bring some strawberry cakes, otherwise he won't show his face."
Lifting the dessert plate and offering it to Caelus, Ruan Mei's thin lips parted slightly:
"These were prepared especially for you. Please, have some more."
"So generous? Well then, I won't be shy."
Rubbing his hands together with the gusto of someone about to have a feast, Caelus looked up at the beauty before him—an embodiment of classic southern elegance—and offered a slightly bashful smile, pointing to the fork in her hand.
"Can you feed me?"
It was an abrupt and baseless request. If any of the researchers on this vessel had heard those words and seen this scene, their eyeballs probably would have popped out of their sockets in shock.
Who had ever dared to make such a demand of Ruan Mei?
Ruan Mei froze for a moment, her pink-accented pupils looking as if a plum blossom petal had just fallen into a garden pond.
They stared at each other for several seconds before Ruan Mei broke into a smile brimming with curiosity and nodded gracefully:
"Alright."
Ruan Mei gently picked up a plum blossom pastry. As she drew closer, a familiar, elegant plum fragrance wafted over to Caelus's nose, intoxicatingly alluring.
Caelus made no attempt to hide the fact that he was sniffing the air.
Is that her natural scent?
Or a pheromone perfume Ruan Mei concocted herself?
It smells addictively good!
Caelus opened his mouth and bit off half the pastry. It was delicious, but the flavor was a bit too subtle, too refined.
"I prefer things a little sweeter."
"Is that so? I'll remember to add more powdered sugar next time."
The cool touch of silk brushed against the corner of his mouth. Ruan Mei's slender finger dabbed at the crumbs there, gently sweeping them away.
"Now then, Caelus, do you remember my 'research'?"
Ruan Mei's voice was like the soft sound of snowmelt being brewed for tea, crisp and clear.
"Of course, I do. The study and exploration of the origin of life," Caelus said with a smile.
Tsk, this terrifyingly wicked woman. Is she starting with a honey trap?
How did she know this was the one form of torture I can't resist?
She actually drugged the pastries!
Is she trying to knock me out and drag me back to her lab for human experiments?
Caelus could feel his body being affected by something. It was hard to say if it was targeting his mind or his body.
If the complete Caelus didn't have four bodies and a quad-core brain, he definitely would have fallen for Ruan Mei's trap!
Fortunately, the drug didn't target the physical speech center, or that would have been affected too.
Before Caelus's words had fully left his mouth, Ruan Mei's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly for an instant.
"Mm-hm, these pastries are really something else. Can you tell me the recipe?" Caelus seemed to be savoring them.
"Such a gluttonous child."
Ruan Mei chuckled. "Of course. A little lotus leaf, plum blossoms, glutinous rice, and the fresh scent of powdered sugar..."
Ruan Mei listed many ingredients, and Caelus nodded along, feigning that he was taking meticulous notes.
After Ruan Mei finished, Caelus shook his head with a light laugh and said:
"I think even if I followed that recipe exactly, I wouldn't be able to make a plum blossom pastry identical to this one. It's missing a small, secret ingredient, isn't it? What is it?"
"...A Reverse-Truth Serum." After about half a second of silence, Ruan Mei admitted it quite frankly.
"My apologies. I have no hostile intent. The Reverse-Truth Serum is harmless to your body. It will simply render you unable to speak your true thoughts when answering questions related to me... I hope you don't mind."
"It's fine. I'm a very generous person. Are all these pastries laced with it?"
Caelus sat down casually in a chair.
"No, only these three."
"Oh."
Caelus picked up an untainted one and continued eating, casually asking Ruan Mei, "Why would you do something like that?"
"A few days ago, I hinted to Herta that I was interested in you. I wanted you to become my research assistant, but no wall is without cracks. I find it difficult to trust anyone but myself."
Ruan Mei didn't hide anything, nor did she show any embarrassment at being caught.
"A single incorrect data point in a meticulous study can cause problems. I hate uncontrollable problems."
"I see," Caelus nodded in understanding.
"But my thoughts have changed slightly."
Pausing for a moment, Ruan Mei's plum-colored eyes seemed to glisten as she looked at Caelus. "Besides a research assistant, now, I want to study you."
The Reverse-Truth Serum hadn't worked. This was completely beyond Ruan Mei's expectations. She could sense that Caelus hadn't used any power to dispel it, and ordinary power couldn't neutralize the serum's effects anyway.
This meant that Caelus had resisted the serum's effects with his body alone, or with that unique, never-before-seen form of existence.
This made Ruan Mei, who was already interested in Caelus, even more intrigued!
"I want to invite you to cooperate with my research. As a reward for being my assistant, I can give you anything you desire."
Her turquoise eyes trembled slightly. For the first time in a long while, a rare emotion colored Ruan Mei's placid face: desire.
There was another extremely important point. Ruan Mei suspected that the section of unknown code in the Simulated Universe was related to Caelus.
By cultivating the Simulated Universe's Aeon protocells, Ruan Mei could analyze that the code was only a part of some larger existence, something that, in essence, had already surpassed the Aeons!
A [Life] that surpassed the Aeons!
That was Ruan Mei's ultimate goal!
However, she wasn't certain yet. Otherwise, Caelus's personal value would exceed the sum of all her other research combined!
He would be worth her investing infinite time and energy, worth giving everything to explore!
So she used the method she learned from Herta. Herta had said that as long as the reward was sufficient, those two gray-haired kids would do anything.
"Hiss~"
Caelus was scorched by Ruan Mei's intensely passionate gaze.
Gah, another Erudition psycho who's after my body!
Caelus could clearly sense that this woman, Ruan Mei, was more erudite, more insane, and more terrifying than Herta!
"A reward! And I can have anything I want!?"
Caelus's eyes lit up instantly. Now that got his attention.
"Then how about you help me prank Aha?"
Ruan Mei: "?"
Prank the Aeon of [Elation]?
Even Ruan Mei couldn't help but go numb hearing Caelus's request.
"I'm sorry, I can't do that. The rewards I can offer are only within the scope of my abilities."
To be honest, while there were many things Ruan Mei couldn't do, from a normal person's perspective, on the scale of the universe, there were very few things she couldn't achieve.
Anything related to the Aeons was an exception.
"Don't be so serious, it was just a joke." Seeing Ruan Mei's earnest reply, Caelus raised a hand and laughed.
"Becoming your research assistant is fine, since I came to you for help with something anyway. But becoming research material is out of the question."
Although they hadn't known each other for long, Caelus already had some understanding of Ruan Mei's personality. He had an even better understanding of Mobius, a fellow scientist in the field of life sciences.
In Caelus's opinion, Ruan Mei's moral floor was probably even lower than Mobius's. A life scientist's morals were inversely proportional to the depth of their research.
"Why?" Ruan Mei asked.
"I can give you more rewards."
"But I don't see any system quest triggered by you, do I?" Caelus shrugged.
"Hm?"
Ruan Mei didn't quite understand.
"You just said you find it difficult to trust anyone but yourself. What a coincidence, me too."
"You don't trust me?" Ruan Mei blinked.
"Do you trust me?" Caelus didn't answer, instead asking with a smile.
"What reward must I offer to gain your trust?"
After a brief moment of silence, Ruan Mei asked again.
"And what kind of reward do you think is equivalent to my trust?"
Completely unsurprised by Ruan Mei's question, which sounded like it came from a warped value system, Caelus picked up a plum blossom pastry and held it to her lips.
Often, answering a question with a question is a very useful rhetorical tactic.
Equivalent...
Her gaze fell to the pastry in front of her, and Ruan Mei softly chewed on those two words.
Ruan Mei did not like relationships of equivalence. If she were to offer equivalent trust, then she might be betrayed.
That was something she hated.
Of all things in the world, only science would never betray her.
The longest silence since their conversation began. After a prolonged period of subjective thought, after weighing the options again and again, for the sake of science, for the sake of studying Caelus's form of existence, desire overcame the risk of betrayal.
She leaned forward slightly, opened her mouth, and gently bit the pastry Caelus was holding. Her cool, thin lips brushed against his fingers.
"I trust you."
"Trust isn't something you just say with your mouth. By the way, you're a slice, right?"
Even Herta didn't like to appear in her true form; Ruan Mei, known even among the geniuses as a recluse, was even less fond of making public appearances.
It was just that Herta used a large number of puppets, whereas Ruan Mei would 'copy' or 'create' herself from a specific point in time using a special method, letting this slice act on her behalf, just like a certain man from Sumeru.
The value of one of Ruan Mei's slices was far greater than Herta's puppets. Herta had over a hundred thousand puppets; the total number of Ruan Mei's slices didn't even reach three digits.
"That's correct. But my slices are no different from my main body," Ruan Mei nodded.
"Oh~" Caelus nodded thoughtfully.
"We can discuss the topic of trust later. First, let's talk about the purpose of my visit."
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