The stairwell was a little dark, though there were lights to maintain a basic level of illumination.
There was no one else around. It seemed to be just the two of them.
Mo Chen wheeled himself over to the wall, switched on the main light, and pointed to the stairs opposite them.
"You can go straight up there. You... oh, I forgot. You should already know your way around the Laboratory Building."
"Yes. Let me push you over."
Xu Le pushed Mo Chen toward the stairs. Experimental equipment lined both sides of the passage, along with things covered in white cloth.
Xu Le "accidentally" knocked off one of the white cloths, revealing what lay beneath.
A Doll was staring at him.
An actual Doll, white, seemingly unfinished and not yet painted or decorated.
"A half-finished product? You study Dolls too?" Xu Le asked.
"Yes, but this one was a failure. I don't want to research things like this anymore. I've made a new discovery recently." Mo Chen smiled.
"Oh, then I'll have to take a look sometime. I'm quite fond of Dolls myself, after all. I used to buy lots of them."
By "used to," Xu Le meant his previous life. He really had bought a great many Dolls back then, and they had all been perfectly respectable Dolls.
"Oh? To think you like these things too, Mr. Xu Le. It's so rare for me to meet someone with the same interests."
"I believe that's called mutual appreciation."
"Yes, mutual appreciation."
Xu Le and Mo Chen both smiled with narrowed eyes, though Xu Le thought of another meaning for the phrase "mutual appreciation."
Mutual appreciation: a pretense of cherishing one another, describing people who seemed close on the surface but stabbed each other in the back.
"Come on, this way."