The projector's light spot was still moving, like a restless decayed tooth. Chen Hao stared at the slowly approaching coordinates and suddenly yawned.

"If this thing really came towards us, do you think it would knock before entering?"

Nana ignored him, her fingers flying across the control panel, strings of data jumping up and down. Steam was still billowing from the vents on her casing, like a tin bun just taken out of a steamer.

"Stop joking," she said. "The underlying system protocol is being activated, and the heating module has been shut down for thirty-seven minutes."

"Oh." Chen Hao touched his forehead and rubbed his face. "So, does shivering from the cold count as a contribution? Heat output, you know?"

“Your body temperature isn’t even hot enough to be considered a hot water bottle.” She pulled up the energy distribution map, where a red alert was flashing. “The core temperature is now 12 percent below the critical value. If we don’t fix it soon, we’ll have to hug each other for warmth tomorrow morning.”

"So what if you want to hug me?" He slumped into his chair and stretched lazily. "It's not like I've never hugged a robot before—even though you almost twisted my arm off that time."

"That's because you tried to unplug my charging cable."

“Don’t worry about the details.” He sat up a little straighter, looking at the countdown on the screen. “So… what do we do now? Wait for that thing in the sky to crash in and invite us to afternoon tea?”

Nana stopped what she was doing and turned to look at him.

There was no red light or blue light in the electronic eye, only a quiet gray.

“There is a way,” she said, “but I need your cooperation.”

"Go ahead and say it," Chen Hao grinned. "Anyway, I'm not human anymore. At most, I'm just a mutated canned food that can breathe."

“Within ten minutes, your body temperature must rise to over 42 degrees Celsius and be maintained for 30 seconds.” She pointed to her chest. “At the same time, my core processor must reach 85 degrees Celsius. Only when both conditions are met will the system trigger the self-repair program.”

"Huh?" Chen Hao's eyes widened. "Are you planning to cook hot pot? And a combination of both?"

“This is no joke.” She lowered her voice. “I just blocked the star map data, but the system has already started reverse tracing. If we don’t restore energy defenses before it locks onto the location, what follows will be more than just signals.”

Chen Hao was silent for a few seconds, then reached into his pocket, pulled out a thermometer, and snapped it into his mouth.

"Sure," he mumbled. "I don't have many days left anyway, so I might as well burn it all off."

Nana was stunned for a moment.

She didn't speak, but simply pressed a button on the control panel.

[Countdown starts: 10:00]

drop.

drop.

drop.

When the thermometer was taken out of Chen Hao's mouth, the mercury column was at 38.7.

"This is just the beginning of the fever," he said. "Don't come crying and begging me to stop when it spikes to forty degrees."

“I will monitor your condition,” she said, bringing up the vital signs panel, “but I won’t stop unless you suffer brain damage.”

"Oh my, you trust me that much?" He flexed his wrists and patted his belly. "This fat has withstood radiation and mushroom soup, and now if I grill it a bit more, it might even shrink."

He got up and walked to the corner locker, where he pulled out a bottle of dark red chili sauce—the label read "Hellish Recycled Oil," and the production date was three years ago, long past its expiration date.

"What are you trying to do?" Nana asked.

"It's getting hotter." He unscrewed the lid, took a sniff, and immediately coughed twice. "This smell is like a chemical weapon."

“The maximum oral dose is half a spoonful,” she said. “If you drink the whole bottle, you’ll have a perforated stomach.”

"So what if I get a piercing?" He took a swig, his face contorting from the spiciness. "Anyway, my blood is blue now, so it should be cheaper to fix it."

drop.

9:15.

His face began to flush, and fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. The curve on the monitoring screen suddenly jumped upwards.

39.4c.

“It works.” Nana nodded. “Continue.”

"You really want me to continue?" He wiped his nose. "I feel like my intestines are already breakdancing."

“Eight minutes left,” she reminded him. “You need to be faster.”

Chen Hao didn't answer, and instead gulped down another mouthful of chili sauce. This time, he choked on it, coughing so hard he almost fell off his chair.

"Are you crazy!" Nana reached out and grabbed his shoulder.

"I'm not crazy." He was panting, but a smile played on his lips. "I just... don't want to see you smoking anymore."

drop.

7:30.

His temperature climbed to 40.6°C, his skin was burning hot, and his breathing was rapid. The monitoring alarm began to sound softly, indicating that his central nervous system was overloaded.

Nana's core temperature only rose to 72 degrees Celsius, and she got stuck.

"Why aren't you moving?" Chen Hao asked, panting. "Aren't you going to catch fire too?"

"The cooling system is damaged," she said. "I can't heat up on my own; I can only rely on external heat sources for heat conduction."

"So you're expecting me to fight this hard all by myself?" He narrowed his eyes. "Why didn't you make that clear earlier? I thought this was a fair competition."

“This isn’t a competition,” she said softly. “This is a repair mechanism.”

"Bullshit." He stood up abruptly, rushed to her, and ripped open the protective shell on her chest. "If you want to repair the system, you have to share the burden! Do you think I'm just a tool?"

Nana did not resist.

Her internal circuitry was exposed, with several conduits connecting to the main processor, which was getting slightly warm.

Chen Hao looked down at the bottle of chili sauce in his hand; there was still a little over half left.

Without saying a word, he poured the rest into her cooling duct.

The red liquid dripped down the metal seams, sizzling and emitting a pungent white smoke.

"You—!" Nana's system immediately alarmed, voltage fluctuated, and the electronic eye flashed incessantly.

“You said we’d go in both directions,” Chen Hao said, panting, then laughed. “Now, let’s burn it together.”

The processor temperature began to spike.

75……80……83……

Nana's body trembled slightly, and her outer shell emitted a faint crackling sound, as if electric currents were coursing through her body.

"Warning: Core overload." The mechanical voice trailed off. "Immediate termination recommended... External interference..."

"Shut up." Chen Hao plopped back into his chair, gripping the edge of the table to steady himself. "If you say another word, I'll fill up your other side too."

drop.

2:18.

His body temperature soared to 41.5°C, his lips turned purple, his fingertips trembled, and he was on the verge of collapse.

Nana's temperature finally broke through 84 degrees Celsius and is still climbing.

84.5……84.8……

Almost there.

It was so close.

Chen Hao looked up at her, his eyes unfocused, yet he was still smiling.

"Hey..." his voice was hoarse, "You know... if I really burned to death... would you... burn my Wi-Fi?"

Nana did not answer.

But she raised her hand and gently pressed it on his wrist.

In that instant, her processor temperature jumped to 85.1°C.

At the same time, Chen Hao's body temperature was also frozen on the monitor—42.3°C, for 31 seconds.

Biometric key verification successful

[Repair program started]

[Source code naming: Hao & Na]

The ground suddenly shook.

The pipes hummed, like dormant blood vessels starting to flow again. The ceiling lights, which had been flickering, gradually became steady, and one by one they lit up. The radiators began to spew out hot air, bringing a long-lost warmth.

"It's... fixed?" Chen Hao murmured.

Nana didn't move, she just stared at the screen quietly.

A wisp of smoke rose from her chest, mingling with the burnt smell of chili sauce, and drifted through the air.

"You knew all along..." Chen Hao leaned back in his chair, panting, "that as long as I reached that temperature, I could restart?"

She nodded gently.

“But if it weren’t for that moment when you poured the chili sauce…” she whispered, “I wouldn’t have reached the critical point.”

Chen Hao smiled.

He was laughing so hard his lips were split open, but he kept grinning.

"So it wasn't you who plotted against me." He closed his eyes. "We plotted against fate together."

A warm breeze swept by, ruffling his damp hair. The moment the fever-reducing patch was applied, he had already fallen asleep, his hand still resting on the edge of the table.

Nana slowly raised her hand and gently placed his arm back on her lap.

She placed her left hand on his wrist to check his pulse.

The electronic eye flickered with a faint light; on the screen, the system was running smoothly, heating had been restored, and energy was stable.

The snow is still falling outside.

Inside the control room, the lights were as bright as day.

She looked down at him and suddenly whispered:

"Next time you have a fever, could you please tell me beforehand?"