As it turned out, aside from a certain ramen-loving little prince still attending Chiyu Academy, nobody was willing to eat instant noodles forever.
Besides, Elysia's cooking skills were also exceptionally good. Apart from being a little unfamiliar with Chinese cuisine when she first tried it yesterday, the breakfast porridge she made today already tasted wonderful. It might not have surpassed the later Herrscher of Food, but it was absolutely first-rate.
Still wearing her apron, Elysia blinked her pink-and-blue eyes at Mobius, Xu Ziling, and Blanca, looking extremely eager to hear their evaluations after the meal.
Xu Ziling and Blanca naturally gave Elysia extremely high praise. However, judging from Elysia's expression, she clearly preferred to hear the opinion of Mobius, who had just said that "there can't possibly be anything more delicious than instant noodles in this world."
"...Why are you all looking at me?"
Mobius felt a little puzzled when she noticed Elysia's expectant gaze and recalled what she had just said. For a moment, she felt rather embarrassed.
But she was Mobius! Even after the Previous Civilization had perished, she had still managed to retain her sharp tongue. Getting her to admit that she had been wrong just now... was absolutely impossible!
Thus, Mobius raised her chin and put on an indifferent expression before saying,
"I thought this breakfast was just average. Compared with my instant noodles, it's still far behind."
"Ah... How could you say that..."
Hearing this, Elysia immediately drooped. Lowering her head, she said dejectedly,
"Wuu... Could it be that Miss Elf really isn't suited for cooking...? I'm so sad..."
Hearing Elysia's suddenly depressed tone, Mobius froze. In her impression, Elysia seemed to be smiling all the time and had never shown such a dejected expression before.
Looking again at the apron she was still wearing, the eager expression she had shown earlier formed a sharp contrast with her current dejection. Mobius couldn't help wondering... Had she really gone too far? Why had Elysia suddenly become so sad?
When she saw Elysia looking so aggrieved that she was poking her fingers together, Mobius was instantly startled. To tie down this meal ticket... Yes! She would just consider it a way to tie down this meal ticket, so Elysia could continue cooking for the research institute, which was short on funds. Mobius hurriedly changed her words:
"Ahem!... Of course, Elysia, you don't need to be too depressed. After all, instant noodles are the most delicious thing in the world, so it's perfectly normal for you to lose to them. But if I compare your meal with an ordinary person's cooking, I admit that you do have a tiny bit of talent in this area."
"Really?"
Elysia immediately switched to a beaming smile. She cheerfully walked behind Mobius's seat, hugged her a few times from behind, and said with a grin,
"I knew Mobius would think it was delicious! Otherwise... how could this bowl of porridge have been drunk down to the very last drop? Am I right, Professor Mobius?~"
"You!"
Only then did Mobius realize that Elysia had tricked her. She was about to explode, but then suddenly thought of something. With a cold laugh, she pushed Elysia away, dragged her chair over beside Xu Ziling, and said,
"Hmph! Elysia, joking around normally is fine, but I advise you to restrain yourself now. After all... I'm already a married woman. If you make another move on me, you'd be violating ethics and morality. Little Mouse, am I right?"
"Hmm..."
Xu Ziling thought for a moment. He could only apologize to Elysia first, but then again, Serpent was currently his nominal target for winning over.
"Generally speaking, Doctor is of course correct."
"Wow..."
Elysia recalled the words "married woman" that Mobius had used. Then, seeing that Xu Ziling's words, although he had not said it outright, were practically an admission, she opened her mouth wide. Her pink-and-blue eyes were filled with astonishment.
Blanca was just as astonished.
Professor Mobius and Doctor's relationship... It progressed that quickly?
"Mmm~"
According to the law of emotional conservation, whenever Elysia suffered a setback, Mobius would inevitably be happy. At that moment, she was very satisfied with Elysia's shocked expression. Her spirits soared so high that she even crossed her legs and pointed at Xu Ziling behind her chair.
"That's right, Elysia. You didn't hear wrong. From today onward, Little Mouse is my nominal boyfriend. If you try anything with me again, you'd better think twice... Hmm? Elysia, what kind of expression is that?"
Mobius noticed that after she had finished making those statements to draw a clear boundary, Elysia had not only failed to back off but had instead become even more excited.
No... Wait! What was going on? After she had clearly stated that she was already a married woman, shouldn't Elysia have backed off? What did it mean for her to be even more excited?!
Since a fool's thought process was never something others could fathom, Mobius was utterly confused by Elysia's current state. She had no choice but to ask Xu Ziling:
"Little Mouse, what's going on with Elysia?"
Xu Ziling thought for a moment again before slowly speaking:
"Doctor, you need to understand that although there are many people in this world who support pure love, it can't be denied that there is also another faction that reveres Cao Cao's Style. Such people feel ordinary about the opposite sex, but they have an exceptional fondness for 'mature, voluptuous, knowledgeable women who have preferably already had a partner'..."
Mobius: "??? Speak plainly!"
Xu Ziling: "Put plainly... Elysia seems to be very interested in the term 'Married Woman'..."
Elysia: "Mmhmm?~"
Mobius: "??????"
Blanca—Tactically Eating Melon (In Progress)
Skipping over that topic, after breakfast, Elysia realized that Mobius now disliked her intensely after her trait had been exposed. Thus, using "going out to buy ingredients for everyone" as an excuse, she temporarily left the research institute and the upper-floor building connected to it.
It was worth mentioning that Xu Ziling, who was suspected of being a Female Bishop, had a highly feminine body and was still wearing Mobius's white lab coat and research clothes. When Elysia went out, she specifically emphasized that she would buy Xu Ziling a nice outfit, leaving Xu Ziling waiting in anticipation.
Xu Ziling naturally agreed, while Mobius waved Elysia off irritably and told her to leave quickly if she was going to go.
After that, Mobius directly took Xu Ziling back into the research institute. After deciding to use herself as a rope to bind this Humanoid Fierce Beast named Xu Ziling, Mobius could finally conduct further biological research on him without restraint.
The Human Experiment on Higher Organisms that she had been brewing in her mind for so long could finally begin without any scruples... Mobius was indescribably excited. After all, if one ignored the dangers and looked only at the benefits, every word she wrote and every diagram she drew in her research on Xu Ziling would be a magnificent document destined to be remembered throughout history!
Naturally, Xu Ziling cooperated fully. Not to mention that he himself had some questions about his body, even if it was merely to raise the favorability of his nominal girlfriend, he would not refuse Mobius's requests.
As for Mobius's so-called "Human Experiment"... How should he put it? After experiencing it personally, Xu Ziling found that the term was far more intimidating than its actual content. It was not like the rumors outside claimed, either; he did not need to be strapped to an operating table by Mobius. All he actually had to do was cooperate while Mobius drew a few tubes of blood, drink some strange reagents she handed him, and describe how he felt. Aside from that, there was really nothing else.
...Of course, that was if one ignored the ghostly expression on Blanca's face as she watched Mobius draw several liters of blood from Xu Ziling while he continued walking around as casually as if nothing had happened.
Without needing to use his own brain to examine all that research data, Xu Ziling felt that time passed quickly.
At noon, Elysia called the research institute and said that she was trapped in a dilemma of "this one looks great, but that one looks great too." After ordering takeout for the institute, she said she would return a little later.
Time soon reached evening.
"Hmm..."
Mobius held a stethoscope, the other end of which passed beneath Xu Ziling's clothes and pressed closely against his smooth chest.
However, the more she listened, the more deeply Mobius frowned. After looking at Xu Ziling strangely, she said,
"This is really strange... Little Mouse, your heart seems somewhat deformed. How do you feel right now?"
"How do I feel?"
Xu Ziling thought seriously for a moment before answering,
"Doctor, to be honest, I feel a little stuffy right now. It's as if... a hand is touching my chest."
"A pair of hands is touching you... Hey! Little Mouse, be serious!"
After understanding the cold joke Xu Ziling had made, Mobius smacked him on the shoulder in annoyance, then removed the stethoscope and said,
"I just listened to the echo of your heartbeat. Your heart seems different from an ordinary person's. It appears to be somewhat square... But you don't have a heart attack, and you can still joke around with me, so that means this probably isn't an abnormality. You were simply born this way."
"A square heart?"
Xu Ziling repeated the phrase and scratched his head in confusion. What was going on with his body's structure? Had he really become a block person in his next life?
"Doctor, shouldn't we take an X-ray? My body has been eroded by time for too long, so I can't be certain that its internal structure is still the same as I remember. If you need to perform further surgery, I will cooperate fully."
"Surgery? What surgery?"
Mobius raised her eyebrows, returned to the equipment in the research institute, and entered some data as she spoke casually.
"Little Mouse, if you have nothing better to do, stop listening to the rumors Elysia tells you about the outside world. With research data as precious as yours, how could I possibly operate on you without more detailed data?
"And as for your slightly deformed heart... Tsk, although it does have a little bug, it can still pump blood normally, so just leave it alone. Your body endured being buried underground for so long. Can't it handle this little bug? Besides, what if your entire body relies on this 'bug' to function? I couldn't bear to see such precious research data get ruined by my own hands."
Xu Ziling immediately felt that she had a point. After all, back when he had been an overworked corporate drone before transmigrating, he had personally witnessed a newly hired junior employee try to fix a minor bug, only to shut down the power to the entire company and give every employee the "glorious achievement" of enjoying half a day off.
So when it came to bugs and pitfalls, as long as the main text could still run normally, it was better not to worry about them. It was just like writing an article: before the work was finished, nobody could know whether the book would end up running only because of that bug.
Before you continue