Chapter 13 Ruojie's Gift

Although Liu Tingruo had just taken a bath and was surrounded by hot steam, Jiang Shu felt a chill when he heard her words and tone.

"You saw it too, the friend request came after the laughter," Jiang Shu shrugged, glancing at the nearby Liu Tingruo, turning the tables, "But even so, getting jealous over such a trivial matter is not a demeanor befitting a mature woman."

"I'm not jealous, just annoyed that the pig I've raised for three months was nudged away by a cabbage," Liu Tingruo said coldly, sitting up straight.

"It's a baby cabbage," corrected Jiang Shu seriously.

"So, you're implying that I'm old?" Liu Tingruo's defense seemed to shatter, her eyebrows furrowed, her voice growing colder.

"Only kids like baby cabbage," Jiang Shu chuckled, but he dared not finish the thought.

Liu Tingruo harrumphed and remained silent.

Meanwhile, Jiang Shu fetched two bowls of rice porridge, a small dish, and two plates of pan-fried dumplings from the kitchen's warming box, placing them on the table in front of her. The living room was immediately filled with the distinctive aroma of the dumplings.

"I admit my mistake, I should have explained the details of Magic to you," he said as he pulled out a chair for Liu Tingruo, gesturing for her to sit down, "However, I think that gentle and virtuous Big Sister Liu ought to overlook such a minor issue. Of course, if Big Sister Liu doesn't mind, it's because of her mature demeanor, and I certainly can't just let it slide, so I made your favorite corn and pork dumplings for you."

Finally, Jiang Shu made a gesture inviting her to eat, "Big Sister Liu, please enjoy your meal."

"Hmm," Liu Tingruo's facial features softened considerably, but then she spoke coldly again, "In the Entertainment Series, the ones belonging to the Screen System are too dirty; you better stay away from them, or else don't come back."

"Got it, got it," Jiang Shu nodded repeatedly, "I'm just a little magician at a theater, I promise to stick to my routine."

"Good, I didn't pick you up for nothing," Liu Tingruo finally mumbled past the topic, starting to voraciously eat her meal.

"I am deeply grateful for Big Sister Liu's act of creation," Jiang Shu expressed his gratitude, watching his tablemate happily eating, he felt relieved.

Praising, admitting faults, and cooking something tasty to appease Big Sister Liu's temper, it was just that simple.

"Your magic setup was very clever," said Liu Tingruo as she bit into a dumpling.

It was her who had obtained the travel information about Li Yuntang; from her perspective, it was quite easy to roughly deduce Jiang Shu's tactics.

"Yeah, thanks to your help, Big Sister Liu," laughed Jiang Shu, suddenly remembering another matter.

Now, after his explanation, Kirie Tsukimiya believed he had accessed the Seventh Police Station's database in advance to obtain Li Yuntang's information.

If she went back to check and found no record of his login into the police database, would she start doubting her life again???

However, what Jiang Shu didn't realize was that Kirie was already doubting her life, not just doubting, but even considering ditching Wolf and running away overnight.

"Look, you've gone viral," Liu Tingruo pointed at the large Simulated Light Screen released by Xiao Ba, showing the real-time Lonely City trending searches, with Jiang Shu's magic video soaring in popularity like a rocket.

"Not too bad," Jiang Shu frowned, "Anything Li Yuntang does gets more attention than this, I'm just riding on her coattails."

"That's true," Liu Tingruo nodded earnestly.

"But..." her gaze froze on those maliciously speculative comments, her eyes instantly chilling as her expression remained unchanged and her hand had already opened up Xiao Wu's keyboard, starting to trace the IP addresses of those comments.

"Hey, hey, hey! Wait!" Jiang Shu quickly stopped her, grabbing hold of Xiao Wu, and said irritably, "Don't just go burning people's prosthetic eyes!"

"Cut it out." Liu Tingruo said coldly but still chose to stop. She remembered that Jiang Shu seemed to really dislike her doing such things.

In this place, all aspects of social life relied on these experts proficient in networking.

Based on the definitions accepted by the people of Lonely City, White Hats maintained cybersecurity, Hackers threatened it, and Black Hats remained neutral with a code of ethics, but acted according to their preferences.

At Sister Ru's level, hackers could easily invade cybersecurity protocols and impose a massive amount of computational information on specific electronic devices, causing them to overload, overheat, and eventually self-combust.

Previously, the prosthetic eye Kirie Tsukimiya had made for someone had combusted due to a Hacker's invasion, and she bore secondary responsibility.

Because the prosthetic eye was convenient and practical, similar but not limited to the smartphones of the past life, in Lonely City, the penetration rate of prosthetic eyes had already exceeded 50%. Once a prosthetic eye overheated and self-combusted, it often resulted in serious injury or death, because most people's prosthetic eyes lacked the "auto-eject in high heat" feature.

However, hackers with such skills were, after all, few, and their efficiency was very low. Even if these people kept hacking and making trouble, pounding their keyboards until they smoked, couldn't disturb social stability.

"Of course, if you really can't stand it, you could upload a 3D surround-sound horror film in his prosthetic eye, put a little erotic film if he's brave, straight men might want to try a BL film," Jiang Shu continued softly.

Liu Tingruo's eyes lit up, "Good idea."

Jiang Shu drank some porridge and looked at Sister Ru. She seemed to remember something, stomping her big white legs upstairs. When she came down, she tossed a box in front of him.

"Here, to celebrate the success of your first performance." Liu Tingruo spoke calmly, pushed the gift forward, and then placed her hands behind her back.

Behind Sister Ru was a smooth marble wall. Jiang Shu slightly tilted his head and could see the reflection in the stone wall. Sister Ru's left hand was incessantly kneading her right palm, proving that her heart was not as calm as her facade suggested.

"Wow, I like it a lot," Jiang Shu said as he looked at the Syrian-war-torn style shoe box, without hesitation.

"Hey!" Liu Tingruo protested, "You haven't even looked yet."

"Anything given by Sister Ru, I like no matter what."

"Tell the truth!" Liu Tingruo's eyebrows slightly knitted.

Jiang Shu shrugged helplessly, opened the shoe box, and said, "How do you know I'm not speaking the truth?"

When he opened the shoe box, there was a neatly stacked stack of tablets inside.

Tablet computers?

Jiang Shu quickly took them out, laying the four tablets flat on the table, and looked at Liu Tingruo in confusion, "What's this for?"

"I made them myself." Liu Tingruo opened each tablet one by one, "It's something like 'Xiaoba Xiaowu.' I noticed you seem not very used to using a keyboard and mouse, so I changed it to a touchscreen."

"That's thoughtful of you," Jiang Shu acknowledged. He indeed wasn't accustomed to the keyboard and mouse Sister Ru mentioned. After all, were those keyboards and mice really meant for normal people?!

No mouse, no 26 letter keys, only a groove and a ball within the groove that was just right to hold with one hand. That was it.

Sister Ru needed only one hand to control the ball, achieving a bizarrely high efficiency in inputting information. Jiang Shu believed he definitely couldn't handle that kind of ball.

By now, the four tablets gradually lit up, evolving simple line limbs and cartoonish hands and feet from children's drawings. Finally, on the screen appeared their identical expressions—"o-0".

???

What the heck is this?