After Waking Up I Inherited the Earth [Interstellar] – CH27

Chapter 27

“Big brother, I still want scallion pancakes.”

Little Randy clung to Ludwig’s leg, trying to act cute to get more food.

Ludwig picked the child up, felt his belly, and refused him coolly.

Scallion pancakes were delicious, but kids absolutely couldn’t eat too much.

What’s more, Little Randy wasn’t an ordinary child. He was a mechanical lifeform. Even though—like Ludwig—he’d only replaced his heart with a mechanical one, he had still been converted into a mechanical lifeform. That meant the digestive system inside his body (a specially made food-digestion system) was definitely no match for a human’s.

To be honest, if Ludwig hadn’t eaten a piece first and realized the scallion pancake was unexpectedly easy for him to absorb, he never would have let the child eat this kind of food in the first place.

Randy’s eyes turned watery. He looked at his brother pitifully, long lashes fluttering as he pleaded in a tiny voice, “Nooo… nooo… Big brother, can you give Randy one more piece? Just one piece! Randy promises I’ll only eat a little bit.”

Ludwig wanted to say no, but he couldn’t help softening. He tried to bargain instead. “How about we eat it tonight, okay?”

Little Randy shook his head stubbornly.

Ludwig had no choice. He broke off another quarter of a pancake for him.

Randy nibbled the hard-won piece like it was treasure, then smiled—sweet and pretty, his delicate features relaxing. He looked like the most expensive doll in a luxury display case.

He smiled so wide his tiny teeth showed. And he really was content: he said he’d eat only a little, and he did. Taking the small piece from Ludwig, he thanked him obediently. “Big brother is the best! I love big brother so much!”

Then the child went mwah!—pressing his oily little mouth right onto Ludwig’s cheek.

The attendants nearby almost had heart attacks.

In the entire Star Alliance, probably only Little Randy dared do something like that to Lord Alsop.

Other people wouldn’t dare kiss the slightly germ-phobic Lord Alsop with an oily mouth—heck, they barely dared to look him in the eye!

But… what exactly was this “scallion pancake”?

It smelled incredible—so fragrant it was practically irresistible to mechanical lifeforms.

None of the attendants dared ask Ludwig what it was, but they all secretly decided that after work, they’d go search StarNet for “scallion pancake.”

After being forced to give his little brother another quarter, Ludwig packed up the remaining pancakes and brought them to the personal guard training room.

That day during training, he distributed the remaining fifteen pancakes to fifteen guard members whose bodies had different degrees of mechanical modification.

Most of them handled it well after eating. A few couldn’t consume scallion pancakes directly, but when they put the pancakes into a food processor, extracted nutrient fluid, and drank it, they still tasted the scallion pancake flavor!

The guards: !

This “scallion pancake” thing was insane.

“Lord Ludwig, where did you buy this?”
“Your Excellency, can you tell us the shop name and address that sells scallion pancakes?”
“Your Excellency, I think…”

A thousand words became one message:

Boss—we want more too!

With the test results in hand—and faced with his subordinates’ intense demand—Ludwig decided to place a large bulk order personally, directly with the new friend Little Randy had met.

So the next morning, when Little Randy woke up, he happily received a mission from his big brother.

Knowing he could help his brother, the child was so excited he bounced around on the bed.

He didn’t even get off the bed. After hopping a few times, he flopped onto the blanket, opened his contact list, and found Xie Xingchen.

Once the call connected, Randy used his adorable face and sweet, babyish voice to “negotiate” the group-buy request with the Xingchen big brother who had always been so nice to him.

He asked softly, “Xingchen big brother… is that okay?”

Xie Xingchen thought for a moment, then smiled and nodded. “Sure. Of course.”

The moment he heard “sure,” the kid jumped up in delight.

With rosy cheeks, Randy looked at Xie Xingchen. “Then, Xingchen big brother, I’ll let my big brother talk to you!”

Doing business naturally required confirmation with an adult, so Xie Xingchen wasn’t surprised at all. “Okay!”

After getting the response, Randy waved at Ludwig beside him.

And then Xie Xingchen took a direct critical hit from pure handsomeness.

The man looked to be in his twenties.

His features were refined, but together they formed a distinctly handsome face.

Unlike his slightly sharp, aggressive looks, he gave off a quiet, steady presence when he didn’t speak—one that made people feel safe.

A reliable, handsome man.

That was Xie Xingchen’s first impression of Ludwig.

Xie Xingchen watched carefully, so he quickly noticed something else: the man looked expressionless, but he seemed to be awkwardly… pretending not to be uncomfortable?

Xie Xingchen: rubbing chin thoughtfully.jpg
Wait… why is that kind of cute?

He felt a bit like those simple, adorable robots—mechanical lifeforms.

And once Ludwig started speaking, that “mechanical lifeform” vibe felt even stronger.

Xie Xingchen didn’t know much about mechanical lifeforms, and he’d never met a human who’d been converted into one in real life, so the thought made him want to laugh at himself.

But Xie Xingchen’s laugh made Ludwig pause.

Ludwig asked, puzzled, “Mr. Xie?”

Xie Xingchen snapped back and said awkwardly, “Sorry—I zoned out.”

Ludwig didn’t seem interested in pressing the issue, but Xie Xingchen explained anyway.

“I don’t know why, but I suddenly felt like you resemble some mechanical-lifeform friends I’ve met before, so I couldn’t help laughing.”

Ludwig repeated, “Mechanical-lifeform… friends?”

Xie Xingchen nodded naturally. “Yeah! Really similar! Like the organizer I hired back home, the delivery bots from my shop, my three robots, and—oh—the Mechanical Shop’s customer service guy, Customer Service 001… For some reason, seeing you makes me think of them.”

“Customer Service 001…”

That specific wording made Ludwig immediately figure out who Xie Xingchen was.

Recalling their past interaction, Ludwig suddenly felt awkward.

His ear tips faintly reddened, and he actually didn’t know what to say for a moment.

He truly hadn’t known that the “Xingchen big brother” Randy talked about was the same customer he’d run into during that rare visit to the Mechanical Shop.

He didn’t show much, but the flicker of oddness was still caught by Xie Xingchen.

Xie Xingchen stared in surprise—why were his ear tips red?

Then a thought struck like lightning, and a ridiculous guess popped up.

Xie Xingchen’s mouth fell open. “W-wait… Randy’s big brother… are you… are you the Mechanical Shop’s Customer Service 001?”

Ludwig stayed silent for a long time. Finally, with a complicated expression, he nodded.

Xie Xingchen: …No way.

So that’s why he felt that “mechanical” vibe—because he really was from the Mechanical Civilization.

Xie Xingchen looked at him again, thoughts swirling, until they became one big question:

Is it really this competitive these days?

With a face like that, and he chose to be customer service?

Xie Xingchen’s brain short-circuited a little. “So… you want to sell scallion pancakes in the Mechanical Shop?”

The guess sounded logical… but also absurd.

A shop selling machines also selling scallion pancakes—what kind of “illness” was that?

Ludwig was completely thrown off by Xie Xingchen’s train of thought.

For the first time in his life, he found himself unable to respond smoothly.

Seeing the silence, Xie Xingchen coughed awkwardly. “So… I guessed wrong?”

Ludwig nodded.

Xie Xingchen frowned. “Then why do you need so many scallion pancakes? Hundreds a day could feed fish.”

Ludwig answered simply, “For my subordinates.”

Xie Xingchen froze.

Subordinates?

Customer service had subordinates now?

But then Ludwig added, as if clarifying, “My personal guard members said scallion pancakes are very tasty.”

Xie Xingchen: …

Personal guard members?

This wasn’t some ordinary “customer service” at all.

He forced a polite smile. “May I ask… are you a customer service representative at the Mechanical Shop?”

Ludwig shook his head, surprised. “No.”

Xie Xingchen: Knew it.

Still smiling politely, Xie Xingchen asked, “Then… may I ask what you are…?”

Ludwig looked at him and said evenly, “The owner of the Mechanical Shop.”

Seeing Xie Xingchen look like he was about to crack, he hesitated, then added, “I occasionally do customer service.”

Xie Xingchen: 🙂

Xie Xingchen: Sorry for bothering you. Goodbye.jpg

He knew people were competitive these days—but he didn’t expect even the boss to be this competitive.

A big boss who sometimes moonlights as customer service… and the most ridiculous part was Xie Xingchen had given him a five-star rating!

It was… hard to describe.

Still, business was business. With a stiff face, Xie Xingchen agreed to the boss’s bulk order. Before ending the call, he also exchanged contact info with Ludwig.

Just like that, he casually obtained one of the three hardest-to-get contact IDs in the entire galaxy.

Xie Xingchen didn’t know the details of the Mechanical Civilization, but anyone with a personal guard clearly wasn’t low-status.

And since Xie Xingchen still hadn’t found a “buyer channel” for the output from his brand-new scallion pancake machine, he agreed readily.

Plus, in Xie Xingchen’s mind, the Mechanical Civilization was the most technologically advanced civilization in the galaxy.

This was called: securing a future lifeline.

Build goodwill now, so if he ever needed help later, it would be easier to ask.

He didn’t even know what help he might need in the future, but… if the relationship was good, maybe he could buy machines at a discount?

Xie Xingchen’s little calculations were going off like crazy. The more he thought about it, the better it felt—he even considered skimming a bit from the professors’ scallion pancakes to give to Ludwig.

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