No wonder, no wonder that after Jingliu finished off that mara-struck being, he felt something was off about her mood.
Was Jingliu worrying about their age difference?
But judging by their mental states, Zero figured that if anyone was going to fall to mara first, it would probably be him…
Especially with that "Memory" Aeon stirring up trouble again.
Zero had every reason to suspect that guy was just trying to drive him insane.
Otherwise, why give him the memories of his past life?
No good deed goes unpunished, if someone's suddenly being generous, they're either scheming or stealing.
There's no way it's because that Aeon was worried he'd leave behind too many contingencies, remember his past, and then turn his wrath on "Memory" itself, causing chaos across the whole universe, right?
Zero didn't buy it.
He'd always been a reasonable person, just that the people he extended that reasonableness to were very limited, restricted to his subordinates and a handful of sensible Xianzhou folk.
Oh, and Aha.
Zero stared at the jade communicator, sighing inwardly.
He really shouldn't have said that…
That whole line about "doing his best to teach her everything he could"…
After hearing that, what must Jingliu have been thinking?
He couldn't guess, but he knew that when Jingliu made this decision, she must have thought about it for a long time.
He looked at the words "five o'clock" on the communicator, Jingliu's message, and wailed internally.
Other than slacking off, his favorite thing to do was sleep. He always clocked in right on time and only showed real motivation when it came to clocking out.
But he understood Jingliu's thoughts and intentions, so even when she said to meet at five, he agreed.
Early rising… but he wasn't sure he could actually get up on time.
He could only set alarms.
Starting from four o'clock, one every fifteen minutes, four alarms in total.
Yeah, he'd better be up by 4:45 to wash and get dressed…
The more he thought about it, the more uneasy he became. What if he couldn't wake up and made Jingliu wait outside?
So he sent her more messages, trying to push the time later.
[Zero: Can we make it six instead?]
[Jingliu: What's wrong?]
He told her honestly.
[Zero: I don't know if I can wake up on time…]
[Jingliu: It's fine.]
After thinking it over, Zero sent her his front door passcode.
No matter what, he couldn't let her wait outside in the cold…
[Zero: Just come in directly when you arrive.]
The other side went silent for a while, then replied with a simple "Okay."
He figured the Cloud Knights must be starting their drills, so he ended the chat with another cat sticker. Then his thoughts drifted to the company execs, and Yingxing.
Those execs would send him progress reports every few days, like how they'd found over a dozen models with similar builds to him.
Or how they'd gathered several luxury brands' latest clothing lines and had those models try them on so he could choose.
Seeing that, Zero could only pick out a few dozen outfits.
As for the antique jewelry he'd prepaid for with credit points,
The auction hadn't started yet, and he didn't even know Jingliu's ring size, so he'd have to hold off. That could be a gift after they started dating.
'But seriously, Yingxing, why haven't you finished making those three hairpins yet?!'
In a sense, Zero was a perfectionist. He could ignore his own health bar, but the "resident satisfaction rate" had to be maxed out.
And when it came to romance, he was just as much a perfectionist.
It's his first relationship in thousands of years, there had to be a sense of ceremony, right? Things had to go by the book, step by step.
A confession obviously required a gift. As for what came next, he didn't really know, but he had the all-knowing internet.
So he went onto a forum with the most female users, searching posts to understand their thoughts.
Coincidentally, they too were big on ceremony, every step mattered, especially the confession.
An experienced user said men could never pick the right time to confess; they had to wait for the woman to hint first.
Someone asked what counted as a hint.
[Of course it's when she asks what your relationship is. Only when she says "what are we now?" can you confess!]
Zero was just reading about dating steps but somehow ended up learning a whole new lesson.
That kind of sounds like something a scumbag would say, doesn't it? If a girl's the one asking, it means she's already at her limit, so confused and desperate to define the relationship.
Still, he kept that advice in mind and continued reading.
The next step, they said, was that you had to ask before holding hands, hugging, or kissing.
Zero's views were far more conservative than most, and given his past experiences, he greatly respected others' wishes, so he agreed with that wholeheartedly.
As for anything more intimate… the users said to wait a year or two into the relationship. For long-lived species, that might be much longer, but he didn't mind.
He scrolled through several posts and finally grasped the general "relationship process" and timing.
All in all, the main takeaway was, respect the other person's wishes.
That was easy enough.
Thinking that, he contacted Yingxing and sent him one hundred million credits straight away.
Before the man could refuse, Zero started working on his psyche.
Once he messed with Yingxing's head a bit, maybe the guy would accept the money.
[Zero: Take it. I'm broke lately.]
On the other end, Yingxing frowned, ready to return the full amount to help out.
[Zero: My daily allowance's been cut down to just one hundred million credits.]
Yingxing, "…"
He, Yingxing, would rather starve to death, die outside, jump off Luofu itself, than ever believe Zero's nonsense again.
Fuming, he deleted his half-written reply and sent the credits back once more.
The craftsman, facing this flawless godlike client, couldn't really say what he wanted. All his thousand thoughts condensed into a few words he sent to Zero.
[Yingxing: You're just like Dan Feng.]
Zero gave up. He never expected that money wouldn't work on Yingxing, and even psychological tactics wouldn't either.
So he tried again, transferring the credits and persuading him.
[Zero: It's overtime pay. I need you to work overtime on those hairpins.]
[Zero: Honestly, it's the confession gift I'm preparing for her.]
Yingxing, "…"
He gripped his communicator, rage boiling up.
He'd asked before. Asked if it was urgent. Said that if it wasn't, he'd take some time to experiment and get the design right.
But, he never imagined that the hairpins he was making… were for Zero's confession gift...
'Damn it! Zero, you really deserve to die! You, Xianzhou expletive, why didn't you say so earlier?!'
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[email protected]/XenosX
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