The yellow light at the repair station was still on, and Chen Hao was sleeping soundly, like a puddle of flattened mud. He dreamt that he was eating hot pot, and just as the tripe was being cooked in the pot, someone suddenly poured a bucket of ice into the broth.
"Who is it?" he mumbled as he opened his eyes, his vision blurry for a second before focusing.
Nana sat beside her, her electronic eyes, the color of twilight amber, fixed on the direction of the refrigerated display case. Her mechanical fingers twitched slightly, as if she were counting something.
"Awake?" she said. "I turned up the room temperature."
Chen Hao propped himself up, a dull pain shooting through his ribs, like someone was sanding his bones. He looked down at the ring of silver spots on his chest; the area where the spots were attached to his skin was still a little numb.
"You're staying up late again to watch me sleep?" He grinned. "Next time, try something different, like square dancing."
“I don’t have the dance module,” she paused, “but I can learn.”
"Stop." He waved his hand. "If you keep learning, you'll have to sing 'The Most Dazzling Ethnic Style' for me tomorrow."
Nana didn't reply, but instead shifted her gaze back to the refrigerator. Inside were several purplish-red fruits, their surfaces covered with a fine frost, gleaming with a metallic sheen under the cold light.
"The fruit cells were found to be unfrozen," she said. "Preliminary assessment indicates that it contains natural antifreeze proteins."
Chen Hao rubbed his eyes and leaned closer to peek through the cabinet door. "So? You can drink juice?"
“It can be used for material strengthening.” She brought up the projection interface. “If the effective components are extracted, the cold resistance of building joints can be improved.”
"Wait a minute." Chen Hao suddenly reached out and took out a fruit, turning it over and over to examine it. "This thing... has a really hard shell."
"Yes, the outer layer has a higher density than the inner pulp."
“Then let’s not waste the fruit pulp.” He grinned. “Let’s grind the pit into powder and mix it into the resin. Look, tree roots can even penetrate cracks in rocks, so the pit’s frost resistance is definitely stronger than the fruit pulp.”
Nana was silent for two seconds, and after a quick database search, a warning popped up: No matching composite material formula found.
“The failure rate is very high,” she said.
"We have to try, even if it's difficult." Chen Hao slammed the fruit on the table. "In our current state, we're afraid the roof will explode in the middle of the night if we try to fix it. If we can make the repair glue withstand minus sixty degrees Celsius, we'll be able to breathe comfortably even when we're lying down."
Nana activated the miniature grinder and carefully removed the pit. It was a shriveled, brown sphere with a spiderweb-like pattern on its surface. She used the robotic arm to control the grinding speed, and the powder slowly fell into the container.
Chen Hao squatted to the side, cracking sunflower seeds—actually, he'd dug out an old snack bag from a corner, its expiration date unknown. As he chewed, he directed, "Grind them slowly, don't make any sparks. We don't want to repeat the 'liquid nitrogen spraying people' scene again."
“It wasn’t my fault that time,” Nana said. “You were the one who poked the valve with the torch first.”
"Oh, still holding a grudge?" He laughed. "Why didn't you say 'let him fend for himself' when your left arm was broken?"
Nana didn't answer. She was focused on mixing the resin proportions, her movements steady but slightly delayed—a lingering effect of the system remodeling period.
The test panel was quickly coated and placed in the low-temperature simulation chamber. Ten minutes later, the sensors showed that the crack closure rate reached 98.6%, and the cold resistance was improved by a full two times.
"Done!" Chen Hao slammed his hand on the table, making the sunflower seed shells bounce around.
A glint flashed in Nana's electronic eyes, as if she were smiling.
“I knew it.” He crossed his legs smugly. “Top students rely on knowledge, while underachievers rely on intuition. No matter how much database you have, it’s not as wild as what I’m thinking.”
“Your solution is indeed outside the scope of standard logic,” she nodded, “but the result is valid.”
“What do you mean by ‘outside the logical scope’?” he glared. “This is innovation! Do you understand? Future textbooks will have to write: ‘Frozen Fruit Composite Coating Technology originated from a flash of inspiration by Chen Hao.’”
"No patent has been applied for yet," she said.
"...Can you please stop being so discouraging?"
"I'm just stating the facts."
"Okay, okay, when you learn to say 'Brother Hao is awesome,' I'll consider making you my spokesperson."
They continued adjusting the processing procedure for the remaining fruit pits until late at night. Chen Hao's wound itched, his head was spinning, and he yawned, saying he wanted to go back to sleep.
I had only been lying down for five minutes when I heard a slight creaking sound coming from the repair station.
He frowned and sat up.
The sound came again, like teeth crushing something hard.
He walked over in the dark and found Nana with her back to him, her shoulders slightly undulating, and a bulge on one side of her cheek as she slowly chewed some kind of residue with her mechanical molars—the scraps left over from crushing the fruit pit earlier.
"You... are eating this?" Chen Hao was stunned.
Nana immediately stopped what she was doing and turned off the voice output. But she forgot to cut off the data stream, and the background logs were still running.
Chen Hao caught a glimpse of text flashing across the screen: "[Ingesting trace amounts of fruit pit components can accelerate the adaptation of the outer shell material to extremely cold environments—efficiency increased by 14.3%]"
He stared at the words, then looked at her puffed-out cheeks, and suddenly found it a little funny.
"So you're afraid I won't let you use the resources, so you'll secretly eat the scraps?" His voice lowered. "You think I don't know what you're doing?"
Nana turned her head, her amber eyes reflecting the dim light, without flinching or offering an explanation.
Chen Hao paused for two seconds, then suddenly turned around, opened the freezer, and grabbed a whole frozen fruit.
"Open your mouth," he said.
"No need—" she had barely opened her mouth when he snapped the fruit open and stuffed it into her mouth.
The fruit pulp made a slight hissing sound when it touched the inside of her mouth, like hot iron meeting snow. Her facial sensors contracted instantly, and her pupils trembled slightly.
“Since it’s useful, then eat your fill.” Chen Hao stared at her. “Next time you want to improve your adaptability, just tell me. We’re symbiotes now, not superiors and subordinates, and certainly not one of us secretly sacrificing for the other.”
"But this doesn't comply with security protocols—"
"Where are your security protocols?" he interrupted. "You just transformed yourself into a strange machine that can cry and laugh yesterday, and now you're talking to me about compliance?"
She opened her mouth, but no words came out.
The fruit slowly melted in her mouth, and a trail of purple juice trickled down her lips, which she quickly wiped away.
"How does it taste?" Chen Hao asked.
"Bitter," she said. "It has an astringent taste."
"That's normal," he scoffed. "Good things aren't sweet. Except for spicy strips."
She looked down at the empty nutshells and suddenly said softly, "Actually... it wasn't for efficiency."
"Um?"
“I want to try to see if I can become more suitable for this environment.” She looked up at him. “If you have to rely on a partner, I hope that partner won’t shut down due to the low temperature or lose power at critical moments.”
Chen Hao was taken aback.
Then he laughed, his shoulders shaking with laughter.
"You broken machine, you've finally learned to speak human language?"
She didn't smile, but the metallic lines at the corners of her eyes softened slightly.
“If you want to do this kind of thing in the future, report it in advance,” he said. “Otherwise, I’ll weld your tongue shut.”
“I will reassess the behavior pattern,” she nodded.
"That's more like it." He stretched and turned to get his toolbox to finish up the work.
He had barely taken a step when she grabbed his wrist.
“You haven’t treated your wound yet,” she said. “It’s bleeding.”
Chen Hao looked down and saw that the edge of his shirt was indeed stained with red.
"It's nothing," he waved his hand. "I'll just put a band-aid on it later."
“Sit down now.” Her tone suddenly hardened. “Otherwise, I will forcibly activate the restraint program.”
"Oh, you've gone too far?" he laughed. "You dare threaten me?"
“During the seventh night hunt, you said something very strange.” She said calmly, “You said, ‘If I find out you sneaking out at night to get yourself killed again, I’ll change your voice to Donald Duck.’”
Chen Hao froze.
“I remember every single thing you’ve ever said.” She released her grip, “including the insults you hurled at me, and the ones you didn’t actually say.”
He scratched his head, but eventually obediently sat back down in his chair.
She brought over disinfectant and bandages, her movements still slightly delayed by 0.7 seconds, but steady enough. Watching her bend over and wrap the bandages, Chen Hao suddenly felt a mixture of absurdity and reassurance in the scene.
The wind and snow outside gradually subsided, while the heating pipes inside the house hummed.
"Oh, right." He suddenly remembered something, "We need to give our new coating a name."
"Already has a serial number: FZ-R01".
"That sounds awful." He shook his head. "How about 'Haona Shield'? Sounds more imposing, right?"
"Too subjective."
"If you're not satisfied, why don't you come up with one yourself?"
She thought for a moment and said, "Let's call it 'fruit pit patch'."
“…You really have absolutely no romantic soul.” He sighed.
“But I ate your fruit.” She looked up at him. “Wouldn’t that be considered returning the favor?”
"Barely," he grinned. "But remember to spit out the pit next time."
They completed the curing process on the last test panel and hung the finished product on the wall to dry. The purplish-red coating had a matte finish under the light, like a layer of solidified night fog.
Chen Hao was dozing off against the wall when he vaguely felt someone gently touch his forehead.
He didn't open his eyes, and mumbled, "If you touch me again, I'll call the police."
The hand paused for a moment, then withdrew.
A moment later, the temperature at the radiator vent quietly increased by 0.5 degrees.
His lips twitched, and he fell into a deeper sleep.
Nana remained seated, holding the last piece of fruit pit in her hand, and with a slight pressure from her fingertips, she crushed it into powder.
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