147: Chapter 147 Jiang Chen: This isn't a shelter, you know!

"Hiss—"

As the last wisps of light blue nutrient fluid were drained, the stasis pod, which resembled a crystal coffin, finally opened completely.

Cold white mist spilled out along the edges of the hatch, spreading a thin layer of frost across the floor.

Jiang Chen instinctively stepped back half a pace, one hand pressing against the shock dagger at his waist, the other shielding his front. Although he was now highly skilled, this was, after all, an alien ruin on the Far Side of the Moon; who knew what kind of creature might pop out?

What if it was a Xenomorph?

What if it was one of those parasitic beasts that would open its blood-stained maw to eat people?

However, as the white mist dissipated.

That flash of long, silver-white hair was the first thing that caught his eye.

Immediately followed by an impossibly delicate little face.

The little girl, who had originally been curled up inside the pod, slowly opened her eyes. Her eyelashes were long, still hanging with crystalline droplets, and as they fluttered, they revealed a pair of... pure, amethyst-like eyes without a single impurity.

She looked to be only seven or eight years old.

She was wearing a thin, white garment resembling a hospital gown, which clung to her body, damp and wet. That pair of pointed ears twitched slightly, as if she were adapting to the sounds of the outside world.

"Uh..."

Jiang Chen froze, the dagger in his hand neither drawn nor sheathed.

This vibe is all wrong.

What happened to the ferocious monster? What happened to the alien invader?

This looks like nothing more than... a lost child who needs a police officer to take her home!

"Hey, kid."

Jiang Chen called out tentatively, waving his hand in the air, "Wake up? Can you understand Earth languages? Hello? Bonjour?"

The little girl did not speak.

She just stared blankly at Jiang Chen, and within those purple eyes, from the initial confusion and emptiness, a glimmer of something... called "dependence" gradually gathered.

Just like a newly hatched chick seeing the first creature it encounters.

Imprinting.

"It's over."

Jiang Chen's heart sank, and an ominous premonition arose spontaneously.

Before he could even react.

"Whoosh!"

A white afterimage flashed by.

Fast.

Too fast.

So fast that even with Jiang Chen's genetically enhanced dynamic vision—which could even keep up with Pikachu—he only managed to capture a blur.

Immediately after, his thigh felt heavy.

"Slap!"

Like a powerful magnet adhering to a steel plate.

The little girl, who looked weak and even a bit malnourished, was now clinging to his thigh like a koala.

Her two little hands gripped so tightly, her cheek pressed against his trouser leg, rubbing against it as if it were the safest harbor in the world.

"Damn it!"

Jiang Chen was so startled he shuddered, instinctively trying to shake his leg.

"Let go! Let go quickly!"

He shouted while shaking his leg, "Trying to scam me, huh? Let me tell you, there's no surveillance on the moon! And I don't have insurance!"

However.

No matter how hard he tried, even using all his strength to pry those little hands off, the "pendant" on his leg didn't budge.

That was not the arm strength of a little girl at all.

That damn thing was a hydraulic clamp!

"This is too heavy!"

Jiang Chen felt his leg bones groaning; this little thing looked light, but its actual density was terrifyingly high, as if he were holding a solid iron block.

"Are you... were you raised on iron weights?"

Jiang Chen gave up on brute force, panting as he leaned against the nearby instrument, looking at the pendant on his leg with a devastated expression:

"Kid, let's be reasonable."

"My place is a research base, a military restricted zone, not a shelter, hey!"

"Look at what I've already got here?"

Jiang Chen started counting on his fingers, heartbrokenly listing his assets:

"I've got a crazy female academician at home who thinks about how to slice me up for research all day; that's a mad scientist!"

"And a mechanical maid who pulls out a Gatling gun at the drop of a hat and thinks everyone looks like an assassin; that's an artificial idiot!"

"Even my pet! It's a mutated rat that releases 100,000 volts of high-voltage electricity whenever it's in a bad mood!"

"My life is already chaotic enough! There's really no room left at home!"

He pointed at the blasted-open door, trying to use intimidation to make her retreat:

"It's very dangerous outside! There are monsters! And bad uncles who want to catch you and dissect you! Hurry up and go back to your jar to sleep!"

However.

The little girl remained completely unmoved by Jiang Chen's tearful accusation.

She continued to hold onto Jiang Chen's thigh tightly, even increasing her grip strength a little, fearing that if she let go, this "long-term meal ticket" would run away.

She raised her head.

That damp little face was filled with innocence, pity, and a kind of... "I'm sticking with you" persistence.

Her purple eyes blinked and blinked, watery and sparkling, practically the embodiment of the word "cute".

"You..."

Jiang Chen looked into those eyes, and the harsh words that had reached his lips suddenly became impossible to say.

Who could withstand this?

Even knowing that this was an alien biological weapon with terrifying super strength, looking at such a face, who could have the heart to kick her?

"Sigh..."

Jiang Chen let out a long sigh, feeling that his life was doomed at the hands of these strange creatures.

"Fine, consider me unlucky."

He reached out helplessly, wanting to brush the wet hair off her face, "Let's get this straight, no biting, no peeing or pooping wherever you want, and most importantly—don't eat too much! I don't have much food left at home!"

It seemed she understood the softening in Jiang Chen's tone.

The little girl's eyes instantly lit up.

She released one hand, but the other hand was still tightly gripping Jiang Chen's belt (almost pulling his pants down).

Then.

She opened her cherry-like little mouth.

Deep in her throat, her vocal cords vibrated slightly, struggling to imitate and tune into a certain frequency of pronunciation.

Jiang Chen paused, instinctively bending down, wanting to hear what this alien cub wanted to say.

Is it a call for help?

Is it hunger?

Or some earth-shattering secret about this ruin?

"Um... you can talk?"

Jiang Chen leaned in closer, his ears pricked up like antennas, "Come on, speak slowly, don't rush. Tell big brother, what's your name? What's your mother's surname?"

The air was silent for two seconds.

Immediately after.

A soft, sweet, yet crisp call, one that was enough to petrify Jiang Chen on the spot and make the newly arrived Academician Chen Shuyin go berserk, popped out of that little mouth.

Those were the two most universal, and most easily misunderstood, syllables in the entire universe:

"Pa... pa?"