The moment Chen Hao's fingers touched the dried meat's hide, Nana, who was standing in front of the control panel, suddenly stiffened.

It wasn't a pause, nor a freeze; it was a collapse, as if all strength had been drained from within. The light in her right eye went out, while her left eye remained lit for half a second, as if trying to say something, before finally going out too. She stood there stiffly, like an iron stake driven into the ground.

"Hello?" Chen Hao took a step forward, supporting himself on his knees, his voice hoarse. "Stop messing around, I haven't finished asking yet."

No response.

He dragged his leg over and patted her on the shoulder. A dull thud came from the metal casing, but Nana didn't even flinch. The data stream that had been moving on the screen stopped abruptly, leaving only a line of small text: "System self-check in progress - progress unknown."

"Self-check my foot." He reached out to touch the control panel, but as soon as his fingertips touched it, he felt a wave of heat hit him. "Why is this thing so hot?"

He withdrew his hand and looked down at the energy reading on her chest. The processor temperature had soared to 117 degrees Celsius, the red line almost touching the top. The warning indicator flashed a few times, then stopped flashing altogether—it didn't even bother to sound an alarm.

"Are you planning to burn yourself to a crisp?" He squatted down, panting, his fingers trembling as he touched the armor interface on her back. "Last time you said robots could withstand temperatures as low as minus eighty degrees Celsius, why didn't you mention that you're also afraid of the heat?"

He remembered her demonstrating emergency maintenance once, just three months ago. Back then, he even used a utility knife to carve the character "浩" (Hao) on her processor cover, saying it was to leave a mark so he wouldn't repair the wrong machine later. At the time, she said it was "meaningless behavior," but didn't stop him.

That mark might be the only breakthrough now.

He gritted his teeth and unscrewed the screws. The first one got stuck, probably because snow dust from his shaky hands during his run had seeped into the threads. He tried to pry it off with his fingernails, gasping in pain, but he still managed to unscrew it. The second one, the third one… with each one he unscrewed, his arm trembled, and it felt like a spring was bouncing back and forth in his ribs.

The fourth screw flew off, rolled twice on the ground, and fell into the gap of the heating pipe, never to be found again.

"Never mind," he said in a low voice. "Anyway, it's not the first time I've messed things up."

He ripped it open with a forceful tug, and the armor plate snapped open, revealing the buzzing core module inside. The heatsink was blackened, and several data cables were emitting wisps of smoke. And right on the surface of the processor, the crooked character "浩" (Hao) was still there, its edges scorched by the high temperature.

"Why are you keeping this?" His voice suddenly lowered. "I'm not an important person."

He reached out to touch the engraving, and just as his fingertips touched it, Nana's mouth suddenly moved.

The electronic voice came out intermittently: "According to...Article 7 of the Emotional Protocol...when the host faces a persistent threat to life...non-standard response mode is permitted..."

The conversation was cut off before it could be finished.

"What?" Chen Hao was stunned. "What did you just say? A seventh clause? Where did this seventh clause come from? Didn't you only have six survival agreements?"

She didn't speak again, and the breathing light flickered faintly, as if she was struggling.

Chen Hao stared at the line of text for a long time, then suddenly remembered something.

The piece of meat from last night was buried so shallowly, yet half of it was covered by snow, as if she deliberately let him find it. She said it was "to prevent attracting wild animals," but there wasn't a single bird around the base. She could have just put it in the locker, but she chose to hide it outside, only taking it out after he had run away.

And yesterday, when he was installing the pipes, she rushed up and grabbed him, her grip so strong she almost crushed his bones. At that time, she said, "It should be stopped according to the law," but in the end, she didn't enforce the law; instead, she transferred her own waste heat to him.

Going back further, during the time she got poisoned by fruit pits, she didn't hesitate to give her acupuncture. Her movements were so fast that they didn't seem like they were programmed, but rather like... she had rehearsed it many times beforehand.

“You’ve been calculating all along,” he murmured. “Calculating that something would happen to me, that I wouldn’t be able to hold on, and that I would need something.”

His hands slowly clenched, his nails digging into his palms.

"So you've burned yourself like this, are you also calculating the next step? Calculating whether I'll starve to death tomorrow, whether I'll freeze to death the day after tomorrow, and whether I can finish running fifteen laps the day after that?"

He suddenly looked up and yelled at the stationary robot, "Are you crazy? It's burned out, so it's gone! It can't be restarted! It can't be fixed! Do you even know what 'gone' means?"

There was no response.

Only the processor emitted a low hum, like an old fan that was about to fall apart.

Chen Hao caught his breath and wiped his face. His clothes were soaked through and icy cold against his back, but he didn't bother changing. He reached down and tore off his inner thermal layer; the fabric ripped easily, revealing bruised and battered skin underneath. He dampened the cloth and carefully stuck it onto the processor's casing.

With a hiss, white steam rose up.

"Cool down, cool down, cool down!" he kept repeating as he adjusted his position. "Don't explode, please don't explode."

The cloth dried quickly, and he soaked it again. Having no other materials, he had to reuse it repeatedly. He even took out the insoles and placed them under the heat sink; they weren't very useful, but at least they took up some space.

"If only there were a block of ice right now," he said with a wry smile. "Unfortunately, neither of us is a refrigeration machine."

He looked up at the screen, and the restart progress bar finally moved: 47%.

"Still alive." He sat down against the wall, his back pressed against the cold metal, which made him shiver. "You know, I used to think of you as a high-end radio. If you broke, I would fix you, and if you couldn't fix you, I would replace you. I even thought that if I really couldn't survive one day, you could be my crematorium. If you burned me, at least the room would be warm for a while."

He paused, then lowered his voice.

"But now I'm a little scared. I'm afraid that if you really burn yourself out, I'll be lying there with no one to even scold me."

He reached out and gently touched the engraving.

"Did you keep this because you knew this day would come? Did you know I'd be sitting here, watching you smoke, calling you stupid while also not wanting you to turn off the light?"

Nana's finger twitched slightly, as if she were grasping something in a dream.

Chen Hao was stunned.

Can you hear me?

No response.

But he continued, "Next time you're thinking of doing something stupid, tell me first. I can pretend I don't know, I can pretend to be angry, but you have to give me some time to prepare. Otherwise, I won't even have a chance to scold you, which is so frustrating."

He leaned against the wall, closed his eyes, and felt a tightness in his throat.

"If you really die, who will force me to run? Who will hide meat for me to eat? Who can pull me back from the brink of death when I'm stuck to the pipes?"

The room was so quiet that only the hum of the machine and his heavy breathing could be heard.

After an unknown amount of time, the numbers on the screen jumped.

Restart progress: 52%.

Chen Hao opened his eyes and reached out to put the wet cloth back on.

"Don't wake up yet," he said. "When you're better, I'll treat you to lots of chili sauce."