Jiang Shuiyun's eyes widened. Before she could react, something suddenly fell from the sky and hit her directly, causing her and her chair to tumble over and fall flat on their backs.
Almost suffocating from the pressure, Jiang Shuiyun pushed away the object that had hit her; it was soft.
Looking down, Jiang Shuiyun was only unable to jump up because she was being pressed down. Good heavens, this was actually a person, and a living person at that!
Who are you?!
Seeing the person who had been thrown to the ground, dazed and still clueless, Jiang Shuiyun exclaimed in horror, "Good heavens, an alien?!"
"Huh? Who are you?"
During his coming-of-age ceremony, Yi Jinbai sneaked into his mother's laboratory, but somehow triggered some mechanism and suddenly fell to this spot. His face was blank, and he leaned on Jiang Shuiyun for support, looking down at her and asking her questions.
"Is he a stupid alien? Get up, you're crushing me."
Jiang Shuiyun waved her hand in front of Yi Jinbai, muttered something, and struggled to get up.
The two stood up and looked at each other. After a long while, Jiang Shuiyun remembered and looked up at the bright moon in the sky. Now the moon had returned to normal and there was nothing unusual about it.
Looking at the moon, then at Yi Jinbai, Jiang Shuiyun righted the chair that had fallen over, crossed her arms, and sat down. "Tell me the truth, little alien, where did you come from? What's your purpose in coming to Earth?"
“No,” Yi Jinbai took a step back in fear, blinking as he looked at Jiang Shuiyun in front of him, “I’m not an alien, I don’t know how I got here, I don’t know where this is, I want to go home…”
Yi Jinbai felt more and more wronged as she spoke, and tears welled up in her eyes.
Yi Jinbai had just come of age. Her mother, Sui Yu, was the greatest scientist on Earth. She single-handedly fought against an alien army, successfully protecting Earth. After Earth was destroyed, she led humanity to a new, habitable planet, New Earth, successfully saving all of humanity. Although time flows much slower on the new planet, this didn't significantly impact humanity; people still regarded her mother as their savior. Her mother was also the most popular and talented musician on Earth, with many of her pieces having a profound influence. Yi Jinbai inherited her mother's talent and embarked on a musical career. Her mother and her husband had prepared a very mysterious coming-of-age ceremony for her. She had originally intended to sneak in and peek, but instead ended up in this strange place.
Heartbroken, Yi Jinbai cried even louder, leaving Jiang Shuiyun at a loss. "Don't cry, okay? I won't call you 'little alien' anymore. What's wrong with you?"
"I want to go home, hiccup..." Yi Jinbai couldn't help but hiccup, then quickly covered his mouth, blushing, "So embarrassing..."
“Um…” Jiang Shuiyun scratched her head, pulled out a tissue from the side, and handed it to Yi Jinbai, “It’s not embarrassing, it’s quite cute.”
"Thanks."
After thanking him softly, Yi Jinbai took the tissue, wiped away her tears, and stopped crying. "You're a good person."
"I don't know if I'm a good person or not, but you think I'm a good person just because of a tissue? Your IQ is pretty low." Jiang Shuiyun was both amused and exasperated, gesturing to the chair next to her, "Sit down, you have to tell me something before I can help you, right?"
"What did you say?" Yi Jinbai tilted his head. "My name is Yi Jinbai, and I'm eighteen years old."
Jiang Shuiyun: ? ?
"Who asked you that? I asked you where you came from and how you got here." Jiang Shuiyun thought this child might be a little silly. Are all aliens like this?
Unaware of Jiang Shuiyun's thoughts, Yi Jinbai thought carefully for a moment, "I come from New Blue Star. I don't know how I got here. My mother has a laboratory. I sneaked in and somehow ended up here."
Well, that's no different from saying nothing at all.
"Can you say something useful?"
Jiang Shuiyun continued, genuinely interested in the moon that had suddenly grown larger. "That must be alien technology, right? With that, does it mean humanity can freely traverse space and break free from its constraints?"
"What's useful? I've told you everything I know."
Yi Jinbai felt wronged and scared, and when Jiang Shuiyun asked her that question, her eyes immediately welled up with tears again.
“You’re such a crybaby, don’t cry,” Jiang Shuiyun said helplessly, handing her another tissue. “You don’t know how to get back? But since your mother’s lab was able to send you here, she can definitely take you back after she finds out you’re missing, right?”
Reminded by Jiang Shuiyun, Yi Jinbai realized that it made sense. He nodded, wiped away his tears, and stopped crying.
"How about this, you can stay at my house for now, but you have to promise me one thing: when your mother comes to pick you up, you have to take me with you."
Jiang Shuiyun's eyes lit up, and a plan immediately came to mind. This was an opportunity she couldn't miss.
Yi Jinbai looked at Jiang Shuiyun, thought for a moment, and agreed, "Thank you."
"You're welcome. We're friends, after all. Are you hungry? Want something to eat?"
Jiang Shuiyun looked at this silly, easily coaxed little alien, stood up and led him into the house.
Yi Jinbai rubbed her rumbling stomach and nodded sheepishly. In order to prepare for her coming-of-age ceremony and wear her best dress, she hadn't eaten for almost a day, and her stomach was growling.
"Wait," Jiang Shuiyun told Yi Jinbai to sit on the sofa. She ran to the kitchen and rummaged through the cupboards, finally taking out a bottle of milk. "You drink this first. I'll order you some takeout. Our housekeeper is on break, and I don't know how to cook."
Jiang Shuiyun tossed the milk to Yi Jinbai on the sofa, then slumped back on the sofa with her phone in hand. After pondering for a while, she looked Yi Jinbai up and down again and asked, "Can you aliens eat Earth food? What do you usually eat?"
“You’re the alien,” Yi Jinbai muttered under his breath, clearly dissatisfied.
"Okay, you've got some opinions. Well then, I'll just order whatever you like. I'm also looking for a late-night snack, so how about hot pot?"
Jiang Shuiyun wanted to laugh at Yi Jinbai's dissatisfaction, but not wanting to upset him, she suppressed her laughter and ordered a hot pot on her phone. "If I hadn't been drinking today, I would have taken you out to eat. It's more comfortable to eat this kind of thing in a lively atmosphere."
Yi Jinbai looked at Jiang Shuiyun with a puzzled expression, "What is hot pot?"
"You still say you're not an alien? You don't even know what hot pot is. Just wait, it's on me today."
Jiang Shuiyun raised an eyebrow, smiled, and sat up closer to Yi Jinbai, "If you don't even have hot pot where you're from, what do you usually eat? Like that concentrated nutritional paste?"
"We do eat nutritional paste, but not before. My mother told me that we used to have a variety of foods, but when we moved to the new planet, food storage was in crisis, so we had to simplify our diet. Over time, everyone got used to it. But now we have cultivated new vegetables and grains on the new planet, and we will soon be able to resume our previous diet."
Yi Jinbai looked at Jiang Shuiyun who was getting closer and couldn't help but shrink back a little. "How do you know about nutritional paste?"
"It's an inevitable law of development. Our current food is indeed too troublesome. In the future, there will inevitably be something that is more efficient and nutritious than our current food. But to be honest, I'm not interested in that. Anyway, the taste will definitely not be as good as our current food."
Jiang Shuiyun had already determined that Yi Jinbai must have come from a more advanced civilization. However, judging from Yi Jinbai's appearance, that world wouldn't be too far ahead of this one. The two worlds might only be separated by a single scientific breakthrough.
Jiang Shuiyun managed to extract some more information from Yi Jinbai. Just then, the doorbell rang, and Jiang Shuiyun remotely opened the door. The delivery person drove the car in, and pots, pans, and all sorts of ingredients were brought in. Incredibly, there was also a hot pot table, which was placed in the yard under Jiang Shuiyun's direction.
After placing various ingredients on the table and confirming that they were not needed, the group drove away. They would return to clean up after the host family finished eating and take everything back with them.
Jiang Shuiyun glanced at Yi Jinbai's white dress. It was beautiful, but after eating hot pot, she'd probably be inundated with suitors.
"My room is upstairs. There's a walk-in closet inside. Just pick out any clothes you like and change. I'll go cook the broth first."
After Jiang Shuiyun finished speaking, she went to the courtyard. Yi Jinbai looked at the room, then at Jiang Shuiyun who had already left, and was in a dilemma. He didn't understand why he had to change clothes before eating, but since Jiang Shuiyun had said so, he should just go along with her.
Hesitantly pushed open the door to Jiang Shuiyun's room. The room was basically decorated in black, white, and gray, and was kept exceptionally clean, without a trace of human habitation.
Jiang Shuiyun's bedroom has a small walk-in closet. There aren't many clothes in it, mostly casual clothes suitable for home wear. Yi Jinbai found a simple gray outfit to change into, and the faint, cool fragrance was the same as Jiang Shuiyun's.
With a slight blush, it was the first time Yi Jinbai had ever worn someone else's clothes.
"Not bad," Jiang Shuiyun said, sitting at the table with a bubbling hot pot in front of her and a half-mixed dipping sauce in her hand. She glanced up at Yi Jinbai, who had just come out. She was a little taller than Yi Jinbai, but they were about the same size. In the summer, her short-sleeved clothes didn't look out of place. "The meat is almost cooked. Are there any dietary restrictions?"
Yi Jinbai sat down opposite Jiang Shuiyun, shook her head, and looked curiously at the large table in front of her. The aroma made her stomach rumble. "This is hot pot?"
"Hmm," Jiang Shuiyun stood up and handed the dipping sauce in her hand to Yi Jinbai, then picked up the chopsticks. "These are chopsticks, do you know how to use them?"
Yi Jinbai looked at his hands and shook his head again. "I've seen it before, but I don't know how to use it."
“Okay,” Jiang Shuiyun nodded. She couldn’t expect a little alien who ate nutritional paste to know how to use something as complicated as chopsticks. “I’ll pick it up for you.”
Jiang Shuiyun picked up a freshly cooked, tender and smooth slice of meat from the boiling pot, rolled it in the dipping sauce, blew on it gently, and held it to Yi Jinbai's lips. "You can open your mouth, right?"
Yi Jinbai blushed slightly after Jiang Shuiyun's words, but the aroma was so enticing that he took a small bite. Before he could swallow, his clear black and white eyes were immediately filled with tears, making him look very aggrieved and pitiful.
"What's wrong? Is it too hot?" This startled Jiang Shuiyun, who had already blown on it.
"Spicy..." Yi Jinbai fanned herself with her hand. She felt her entire mouth burning, her face quickly turned red, and tears streamed down her face.
“Nobody told me aliens can’t eat spicy food. This is only mildly spicy,” Jiang Shuiyun looked around and quickly poured a glass of juice. “Just drink it slowly.”
Yi Jinbai gulped down half a glass of juice before feeling a little better.
Jiang Shuiyun put her hands on her hips, looked at Yi Jinbai, then at the hot pot, and said, "I should have ordered a half-and-half pot. Never mind, wait a bit, I'll order something else for you."
"This is actually quite delicious." Yi Jinbai held his juice cup, staring longingly at the hot pot. What does it mean to forget the pain once the wound has healed? He hadn't even swallowed the juice yet, and he was already thinking about eating it.
Jiang Shuiyun was about to ask if she had forgotten who had cried from the spiciness, but when she met Yi Jinbai's pleading gaze, she swallowed her words and could only wave her hand helplessly. She poured two large bowls of water, moved her chair next to Yi Jinbai, picked out the meat and vegetables from the pot, rinsed them twice with water, dipped them in sauce, and fed them to Yi Jinbai.
That's about it. Although Yi Jinbai still gasped for breath from the spiciness, he became more and more addicted to it.
After the meal, Yi Jinbai was very satisfied with his full belly, while Jiang Shuiyun was exhausted and could barely lift her arms. She hadn't eaten much during the entire midnight snack.
Rubbing her wrist, Jiang Shuiyun was surprised, "It's true that you can see all sorts of new things when you live long enough. I, Jiang Shuiyun, am also serving others in this day."
Yi Jinbai, who was sipping his juice, looked up at Jiang Shuiyun and smiled sincerely, "Thank you."
"Do I need your thank you?" Jiang Shuiyun muttered nonchalantly as she turned her head away, but she couldn't suppress the smile on her lips. To be honest, this little alien's smile was quite handsome.
After calling someone to clean the yard, Jiang Shuiyun cut some fruit and placed it in front of Yi Jinbai. "Have some fruit after your meal. After you finish, I'll take you to see your room."
Yi Jinbai looked up at the starry sky and asked, "Do you live alone?"
“Yes, I’m finally free. By the way, you’re only eighteen, you should still be in school, right? How do you go to school in your world?” Jiang Shuiyun sat down next to Yi Jinbai, poured herself a cup of tea. This can also help with quitting drinking, and I won’t have a headache tomorrow morning.
"No, I've already graduated. My mom personally taught me music. She said I have a talent for it, and I got my graduation certificate at seventeen. If other people go to school, they have three years of introductory studies, six years of foundational studies, and then a specialized major. After reaching a certain level, they can graduate after passing an assessment. This way, they are selected based on their abilities and trained to cultivate targeted talents needed by society. After graduation, they can directly enter the arranged jobs. The graduation time is not fixed, but generally, students complete their studies around the age of twenty. I graduated relatively early."
When Yi Jinbai mentioned this, he raised his small face slightly, looking somewhat proud.
“That’s good, but the pressure of overall planning and coordination is quite high, and it’s easy for biases to occur, right? There may be loopholes in many places, and humans are not like robots. Humans have their own choices and emotions, and it is often difficult for them to completely obey society…” Jiang Shuiyun propped her head up. This was more like an ideal society, which was too difficult to implement and not very realistic.
"Stop. Why do you always talk like your mother, saying things I don't understand? But you probably have more to talk about with your mother."
Yi Jinbai, while eating fruit, interrupted Jiang Shuiyun. Her mother had once wanted her to follow in her footsteps, but it was clear that she was thoroughly disappointed. However, her mother seemed quite happy. Thinking this, Yi Jinbai looked at Jiang Shuiyun and asked, "By the way, I haven't asked you your name yet?"
"Jiang Shuiyun, is your mother very powerful?"
Jiang Shuiyun already knew that Yi Jinbai had come here through her mother's laboratory, and now that she was talking about her mother, she guessed that she must be a very powerful person.
"Of course, my mother is the most amazing scientist on the entire planet, and everyone on the planet listens to her. My mother said that she saved the planet back then, and it was also her decision to move to the new planet. So she saved the planet twice. I don't know anything else. I'm not interested in that. Anyway, my mother is just incredibly amazing."
Speaking of his mother, Yi Jinbai's eyes were full of admiration. Before leaving, he couldn't help but praise his mother again, "Of course, my mother is also very amazing. She is the most amazing musician and the most beautiful woman on Earth."
"Wow, that's amazing! So you're the little princess of Earth? Then I didn't ask for enough before. I should have asked for a much bigger one."
Jiang Shuiyun thought about it seriously for a moment, then deliberately tried to scare Yi Jinbai.
"No, we don't have princesses where I'm from. When I was little, I got punished for not finishing my homework, and I got double the punishment too. Besides, if you ask for too much, my mother and mother might not want me anymore. Anyway, they can have another child, anyway..." Yi Jinbai clearly believed Jiang Shuiyun's words, stopped eating his fruit, and quickly denied it. As he spoke, he carefully observed Jiang Shuiyun's expression, "You won't ask for too much, right?"
Seeing Yi Jinbai's cautious demeanor, Jiang Shuiyun couldn't help but burst into laughter, "Kidnapping and extortion are illegal, and you actually believe that?"
Yi Jinbai: ...Bad person.
Jiang Shuiyun finished laughing and wiped away her tears. "Alright, I'll stop teasing you. I'll take you upstairs to see your room. Tell me what you need, and I'll take you out to buy clothes tomorrow."
"You really won't use me to threaten Mother?" Yi Jinbai still didn't quite believe Jiang Shuiyun, so he asked again.
"No, it's okay, don't worry. If your mother doesn't want you anymore and goes to have another child, I'll want you. This is the first time I've ever seen an alien. How about I slice you up and study you?"
Jiang Shuiyun stood up and teased Yi Jinbai with a smile, reaching out to help her up.
Yi Jinbai angrily slapped Jiang Shuiyun's hand away, "You're the alien! Go study you!"
After saying that, Yi Jinbai stood up and walked quickly into the house.
Seeing that she had really angered him, Jiang Shuiyun quickly followed up, "I was just joking. Human experimentation is illegal. I won't call you little alien anymore, Jinbai, okay? I was wrong!"