Chapter 19
…What did it mean, waiting for him to wake up… What did it mean, not being scared as long as it was with him…
This lump of cotton… was saying strange, unpredictable things again.
“The whole night… you were waiting for me to wake up?” Shang Che repeated the words, his voice carrying a subtle roughness he didn’t even notice himself.
The cotton doll nodded its round head forcefully, speaking in a featherlight tone as if stating the most natural thing in the world: “Mm! The whole night… watching human!”
“Human sleeps, Cotton waits.”
It gazed at Shang Che with those pure golden eyes that lacked even a trace of impurity, clearly reflecting his currently astonished expression in its pupils: “When human wakes up… human will see Cotton, and human will be the first… to talk… to Cotton.”
A deeply complex emotion flashed across Shang Che’s face.
It was like the awkwardness of having his inner feelings caught off guard, mixed with the shock of being struck by such pure expression—and if one looked closely, there even seemed to be a tiny, imperceptible sliver of… embarrassment.
The cotton doll paused, seemingly searching its mind for the most appropriate words it could think of, but in the end, it expressed itself straightforwardly: “Human can be the first… to see Cotton, and Cotton is very happy!”
Looking into the cotton doll’s large, sparkling eyes that clearly mirrored his own reflection, Shang Che was rendered completely speechless for a moment.
Those nights that were long, quiet, and even lonely for humans were, to this cotton doll, nothing more than simply “waiting for him to wake up.”
“Huuu~man—” The cotton doll suddenly dragged out its soft, squishy tone. Its full, rounded head gave a little tilt, and then, without any warning, it thrust its face forward like a launched, fluffy rice ball, bringing its face right up close with its cat-like mouth curved into an adorable arc.
“Human, why… aren’t you talking?”
Shang Che’s pupils trembled ever so slightly, as if startled by this sudden “face-to-face attack” from the cotton doll, his breath catching in his throat for a split second.
“Human?”
The cotton doll tilted its head, seemingly perplexed by the human’s silence.
Feeling a bit troubled, it raised its arms, wanting to use its soft, short little hands to touch this “human statue” that seemed to have suddenly “petrified.” The rocking chair even showed signs of swaying slightly due to its strenuous movements.
The “human statue” blinked, seemingly coming back to life all at once.
He pressed a hand to his mouth in a fist and let out a soft cough, while reaching out his other hand to press his palm against the cotton doll’s soft forehead, pushing it back to the center of the seat from the perilous edge of falling off.
“…What are you doing?” Shang Che finally found his voice, which sounded a bit dry as he spoke.
Hearing the familiar voice, the cotton doll immediately set its mind at ease. It placed its small round hands under its featureless chin, mimicking a human lost in thought, and said earnestly: “What happened to human… just now?”
“Nothing.” Shang Che averted his gaze, intentionally speaking in a disdainful tone: “Your face is too big. You scared me.”
“…”
The cotton doll froze for two seconds, and then—
“Ahhhhhhh—”
Cotton is gonna throw a fit!
Mean human, calling Cotton’s face big!!!
The cotton doll’s furious, wild shouting actually made Shang Che suddenly remember another matter he had never gotten around to asking clearly.
“At the restaurant,” Shang Che looked back at it and asked, “Why did you look like you were ready to cry the moment I took you out? And why did you suddenly start shouting wildly afterward?”
He hadn’t had the chance to dig deeper back then, but asking now wasn’t too late either.
“Because that… human named Lin Zhi… what she said…” The cotton doll’s reaction seemed a beat slow as it worked hard to search its simple vocabulary. After thinking for a long time, it finally found the word that had touched it deeply, uttering it in a solemn and serious tone:
“Moved Cotton!”
Shang Che raised an eyebrow slightly.
“You even know the word ‘moved’?” He held up his hands and gave a couple of symbolic, gentle claps, his tone carrying a touch of teasing praise. “More cultured than I thought.”
He had naturally taken in Lin Zhi’s remarks about “cotton dolls” at the time, but he hadn’t expected this little creature to understand them as well.
Shang Che continued in a flat tone: “I thought at the time…”
“…Thought?” The cotton doll mimicked his tone, repeating in curiosity.
“Nothing.” Shang Che cut himself off immediately, refusing to utter a word about his absurd assumptions at the time, merely continuing his question: “Then why did you shout wildly?”
“Because Cotton was excited!” Speaking of this, the cotton doll’s eyes sparkled brightly, like little stars suddenly lighting up. “That human… treats the chestnut doll so well. Cotton gives human… a high score!”
Shang Che: “…”
How could seeing another cotton doll get treated well make it this happy…?
Shang Che felt it was somewhat funny, yet also somewhat hard to comprehend: “What? Do all human keepers have to be scored by you? Someone like Lin Zhi gets a high score?”
The cotton doll merely blinked its eyes at him.
“Hold on, I don’t need your rating.” Shang Che promptly put an end to the cotton doll’s sizing-up look and the possibility of getting a score, speaking in an awkward tone: “It’s not like you’re the Cotton King of the cotton world.”
“Cotton King…” The cotton doll repeated the new vocabulary softly and earnestly, a novel and excited spark gradually rising in its golden eyes before it excitedly accepted this new title.
It nodded its head forcefully: “Cotton is!”
“Is what?” Shang Che gave a helpless smile, intentionally teasing it.
The cotton doll immediately puffed out its cotton-stuffed, non-existent chest with pride, announcing in the loudest and most solemn tone it could manage: “The Cotton King!”
Tsk.
It really knew how to take a mile when given an inch and sing its own praises.
Looking at the little creature standing proud before him with a face that practically read “I am the Cotton King,” the corner of Shang Che’s mouth couldn’t help curving upward into an extremely faint arch.
“Pick out which ones you like from the clothes sent by your high-score keeper.”
Leaving behind that single line, the cotton doll was placed onto the sofa at the foot of the bed by Shang Che, with all sorts of doll clothes in various styles and sizes spread out in front of it.
By the time Shang Che walked out in his pajamas while drying his hair, the cotton doll raised its head to look at him.
Moist steam lingered in the soft light. Water dripped from the ends of Shang Che’s hair, falling onto his collarbone and sleepshirt collar, stripping away a bit of his daytime coldness and adding a touch of casual, domestic soft-spoken warmth to his demeanor.
“Huuu~man~” The cotton doll called out to him with a giggle, its big golden eyes curving into crescents.
Drapery a towel over his head, Shang Che casually rubbed his hair, the lines of his shoulders and back rising and falling slightly beneath his pajamas as he walked over to it: “What’s up? Dazzled by the choices?”
Only when he drew close did the cotton doll extend a soft little arm, pointing hesitantly to the left first, then slowly sweeping to the right, its voice carrying an innocent confusion: “Why… do they look… different?”
“Clothes come in different styles to begin with.”
Following the direction it pointed, Shang Che noticed the cotton doll was pointing at a light pink princess dress adorned with lace on the left, and a cool denim overalls set on the right.
He suddenly remembered an extremely important question that he had been neglecting all along.
“I kept forgetting to ask you,” Shang Che squatted half-down on the rug in front of the sofa, meeting the cotton doll at eye level, “In your factory settings, is there such a thing as ‘gender’?”
“…Gender?” The cotton doll repeated the unfamiliar word, its big eyes filled with innocence.
Shang Che rephrased it in a more direct way: “It’s the difference between boys and girls.”
Cotton Doll: ( o . o )?
Still didn’t understand.
However, this reminded it of a question it was intensely curious to ask its keeper.
The cotton doll raised a small round hand, placing it in front of one eye with great solemnity to strike a playful and mysterious pose, its cat-like mouth opening and closing:
“Human, why… are you different… from other keepers?”
“Different how?” Shang Che raised an eyebrow.
“Other keepers… have long hair… and short hair…” The cotton doll recalled its observations from this afternoon slowly, extending its two small round hands in front of Shang Che to clumsily measure, “But no one’s hair… is as short as human’s.”
It paused, then pointed to the various outfits in front of it to demonstrate: “Some wear this… some wear this… and some wear that…”
Shang Che looked at the sailor suit, Lolita dress, and overalls the cotton doll pointed at.
Finally, as if arriving at a major breakthrough discovery, it spoke in a firm tone: “And, human doesn’t… hug… with THEM.”
Shang Che’s expression turned somewhat indescribable—a mix of helplessness and a thread of “as expected” realization. Giving up on his previous question, he decided to start with the most basic science lesson for this cotton doll that knew next to nothing about human society.
“Because I’m a boy,” he explained in the simplest language possible. “The other keepers you saw today were all girls.”
“Girls can wear dresses like this,” Shang Che picked up the princess dress it had pointed at earlier, then picked up the overalls beside it, “and they can wear pants like this too.”
“But generally,” he set down the princess dress in his hand and opened his empty palms, “Boys don’t wear dresses.”
“Also,” he added the most crucial point, “Boys can’t just casually hug girls either. There’s a boundary between genders.”
“Ohhh…” The cotton doll parted its cat-like mouth as if struck by enlightenment, looking at Shang Che as though it had just accessed some incredible new knowledge: “Is this… gender?”
“Right.” Shang Che nodded, bringing the topic back to the beginning. “So back to the original question—are you a boy or a girl?”
The cotton doll shook its head truthfully, its pink ahoge hair swaying along: “Cotton doesn’t know.”
This question was clearly way beyond its scope.
Now that made things tricky.
Shang Che felt a bit troubled too. Lin Zhi had said that if there was a backstory, you went by the backstory, and if not, it depended on how the keeper wanted to raise it.
For a guy like him, raising a cotton doll was already… special enough. If he raised one with a “girl” setting on top of that, it felt… even stranger.
In a flash, Shang Che made his decision.
“Then from now on, you’re a boy.” He made the decision for the cotton doll decisively, his tone carrying an unquestionable authority. “Just like me.”
“Just like… human?” The cotton doll processed and digested this piece of information slowly, and in the next moment, its big golden eyes lit up brilliantly, filled with novelty and excitement. “Okay! Cotton wants to be… just like human!”
“Deal.” Shang Che was very satisfied with this answer.
He deftly gathered the overly “girly” dresses on the sofa off to one side and announced to the cotton doll, which clearly couldn’t make a choice on its own: “As for the rest, I’ll wash them all clean for you. You can wear whichever one you want.”
“Human, you’re so good!” The cotton doll wriggled happily on the sofa, its cat-like mouth splitting wide open.
Looking at its heartlessly joyful appearance, Shang Che felt a urge to tease it. Raising his eyebrows slightly, he asked intentionally: “Oh? How am I good?”
As if suddenly remembering something, the cotton doll mimicked Shang Che’s posture, its soft, squishy voice carrying a hint of a tiny “negotiation,” its big golden eyes flashing slyly: “If human acknowledges Cotton… as the Cotton King…”
“Cotton will tell you~”
