Typos Fixed

Lan Luo:...

Chapter 3 (Typos Fixed)

A plate of diced Energy Blocks sat on the table.

Energy Stones were the dolls' equivalent of food, but no one would go out of their way to prepare them. It was like motor oil being a robot's food—no one would think of making strawberry-flavored motor oil for robots to try.

There was no need for it. The only people who did such things were either bored out of their minds or had something wrong with their heads.

Qi Chao was neither.

He had not thought much about it. He had only cut up the Energy Stone to make it easier for the little doll to eat.

Lan Luo looked at the Energy Blocks on the plate. His eyelashes trembled slightly, and he seemed incredibly delighted. His blue eyes sparkled as he said with obvious joy, "Thank you, Master."

Qi Chao lounged in his seat. Hearing Lan Luo thank him, he instinctively wanted to tease him and tell the little doll to call him Dad, but the words caught in his throat. He only said, "You're welcome."

Calling himself Dad while wearing the identity of that scumbag original owner was shameless enough. There was no need to rush the little doll into changing how he addressed him.

At the very least, he should wait until Lan Luo had grown familiar with him.

To Qi Chao, Dad was a very special form of address.

After the Energy Stone had been cut up, it was indeed much easier for Lan Luo to eat. He picked up an Energy Block and put it into his mouth, chewing it like a hamster before taking another one, as though he were eating candy.

Qi Chao appeared to be watching the cartoon on the projection screen, but all his attention was on Lan Luo.

This old father's heart was about to melt.

Little One was just too adorable!

Watching the little doll pick up the Energy Blocks one by one with his hand,

Qi Chao's gaze inevitably fell on his right hand.

The little doll's complexion was a cool, pale white, making the crack on the back of his hand particularly conspicuous. A black fissure about ten centimeters long stretched from the side of the joint between his index finger bones to his wrist joint.

It was a crack left behind after the original owner had beaten the doll.

Lan Luo had an identical crack on his left foot.

The original owner had never held back when beating the little doll. He had always been as ruthless as possible.

Dolls' nervous systems were underdeveloped, but that did not mean they could not feel pain. The higher a doll's rank, the more sensitive his nerves were.

Lan Luo was an S-Rank Doll.

With such a severe crack, how much must it have hurt at the time?

Qi Chao stared at the crack on the back of his hand and gradually lost himself in thought.

Lan Luo, who was sitting on the sofa, noticed Qi Chao's gaze. His lowered eyelashes concealed the emotion that flashed through his eyes. He scratched at the sofa with his fingertips, picked up the whip beneath the table, and skillfully knelt on the tiled floor.

"Master, do you want to whip Lan Luo?"

Lan Luo raised his head and revealed a sweet smile. His azure eyes curved into crescents, as though he could accept whatever the other person did to him.

Qi Chao's heart skipped a beat. Before he had time to form any thoughts, he instinctively scooped the doll up and put him back on the sofa.

Lan Luo's eyes widened slightly. By the time he reacted, the whip had already been taken from his hand. He looked up just in time to see Qi Chao toss it into the trash can.

"I won't hit you." Qi Chao's voice was still somewhat hoarse. He continued, "Little One, keep eating your Energy Stone."

Qi Chao rubbed Lan Luo's head. When he saw the little doll look up at him with a shy smile, he could not help but smile softly as well.

But when his gaze swept over the whip in the trash can, Qi Chao's heart sank again. Thinking of how the original owner had beaten the doll countless times in the villa made his teeth itch with hatred.

He told Lan Luo to continue eating while he got up and rummaged through the villa for all kinds of "torture implements."

Leather whips, wooden sticks, electric shock devices...

One by one, he picked out the things that had once been used on the little doll.

Lan Luo did not know what trick Qi Chao was playing. Where Qi Chao could not see, he narrowed his eyes, his expression dark and venomous like a snake's. His index finger scratched at the sofa, a motion that only appeared when Lan Luo felt anxious.

Qi Chao threw everything he found into the trash can and pressed the destroy button. After a series of crunching noises, the original owner's precious torture implements vanished completely.

He felt a little better and turned toward the sofa, only to meet the little doll's eyes.

The well-behaved golden-haired doll looked at him with azure eyes filled with ignorant emptiness. It seemed that no matter what Qi Chao did, he would accept it all without developing any negative emotions.

They're just slightly more advanced toys.

Emotionless, stupid things.

Robots wearing exquisite skins.

Blue Star people's evaluations of dolls flashed through Qi Chao's mind. To Blue Star people, no matter how beautiful dolls were or how human they looked, they were ultimately nothing more than emotionless toys.

Reality seemed to be exactly that. If an ordinary person had suffered the original owner's inhuman beatings day after day, then upon seeing him, even if they did not hate him, they would certainly be terrified.

Yet Lan Luo seemed incapable of such emotions. Like a programmed machine, he only ever expressed positive feelings.

Furthermore, Qi Chao had called himself Dad and addressed the doll as Little One from the moment he arrived, making him completely different from the original owner. Yet the little doll had not reacted much, as though he perfectly matched Blue Star people's assessment that dolls lacked human emotions.

Qi Chao walked over to Lan Luo. Seeing the little doll smile at him again, he crouched down halfway and met his gaze. "Lan Luo, I won't hit you again."

Lan Luo's azure eyes curved into smiling crescents, and he gave a brilliant smile. He answered crisply, "Okay!"

Once again, he accepted it all without question.

Qi Chao rubbed the little doll's fluffy hair and asked again, "Did it hurt when Dad hit you before?"

Lan Luo thought for a moment, then nodded heavily.

"It hurt!"

"Why didn't you say so before?"

In the original owner's memories, the little doll had never cried out in pain even once.

Lan Luo looked confused for a moment before asking, "Master never asked. Why should I say it?"

Qi Chao's heart stalled.

An indescribable bitterness welled up in his chest.

Why should he say it?

That sentence seemed to explain everything.