Chapter 73: Poor Tendou, He Has No Idea What His Words Actually Mean

Chapter 73: Poor Tendou, He Has No Idea What His Words Actually Mean

Early in the morning, Chen Kong was jolted awake by a sudden earthquake and hurriedly rushed downstairs.

But the moment he saw the scene in the living room, he exclaimed in disbelief,

“Wait—Tendou, who the hell was so crazy that they actually broke your arm?”

“And that sudden earthquake just now—was that caused by the guy who injured you?”

In the living room, Tendou’s right arm was wrapped in bandages, and he was being forcibly held down on the sofa by Caroline, who was chasing him around with a spoon to feed him porridge.

Although Tendou’s expression looked as reluctant as a cat refusing to have its nails trimmed, he couldn’t win against Caroline, so he eventually surrendered and accepted this “special breakfast service.”

Meanwhile, Chen Kong had already walked into the living room and was curiously examining Tendou’s injured arm.

Ever since the very first day he met Tendou, he had never—not even once—seen Tendou get an injury worse than a scratch, let alone something like “having his arm broken.”

Noticing the curiosity in Chen Kong’s eyes, Tendou immediately prepared to say something ridiculous to tease the innocent Chen Kong.

But the moment he felt Caroline’s warning gaze from the side… Tendou could only suppress his urge to fool around and give an honest answer.

“There wasn’t any powerful enemy, Kong.”

“Both the earthquake and my sudden injury were caused by a new technique I just tried.”

“Huh? A new technique? Something that can cause that big of a commotion and injure you like this?”

Before Tendou could go into detail, the cold-faced Caroline spoke calmly:

“Kong, stop bothering the patient. Go to the yard and look for yourself.”

“Oh—okay.”

Chen Kong nodded and quickly ran outside in curiosity.

But when he reached the yard, what greeted him wasn’t just the massive crater blown into the lawn by Tendou’s punch, Chen Xing was also squatting beside the crater, carefully examining it.

Driven by curiosity, Chen Kong quietly walked over and copied her posture, staring intently at the exaggerated crater.

However, after staring for quite some time, he regretfully realized he couldn’t make sense of anything he was seeing.

So he couldn’t help but ask:

“Sis… did you see anything?”

Chen Xing’s voice was complicated as she replied:

“There’s not a trace of Star Energy left behind. That means Tendou’s technique wasn’t an energy-release move—it was something like a purely physical technique.”

“Otherwise, there’s no way absolutely no Star Energy residue would be here.”

“And just the aftershock of a single move caused this much destruction… Kong, it looks like Tendou has gotten stronger again.”

Looking at his sister—half-kneeling on the ground, clearly frustrated—Chen Kong hesitated, scratched his cheek, and said:

“Uh… Sis, is it really that strange that Tendou got stronger again?”

Chen Xing froze for a moment, then nodded.

“If this person were anyone else—it’d be strange. But if it’s Tendou… then yeah, it’s not surprising.”

Even so, the conflicted look on her face didn’t disappear.

She turned her head, staring through the yard’s glass door at Tendou inside the living room—being personally spoon-fed porridge by Caroline—while looking visibly troubled.

“I just didn’t expect the distance between me and him to widen again so quickly.”

Chen Kong glanced at his heavy-hearted sister, then looked into the living room—where Tendou’s body was clearly very honest about enjoying being taken care of, but his expression was fiercely refusing the idea of “mooching off a woman.”

He couldn’t help but say:

“Sis, why do you always want to compare yourself to Tendou?”

“You know, right? According to the Doctor, even if you combine all 35 of us together, we still couldn’t compare to a single Tendou.”

“If you keep thinking about the disparity between your strength and his, I’m worried you’ll—”

“You don’t understand.”

Before Chen Kong could finish, Chen Xing cut him off directly.

She turned to look at him. In her crimson eyes burned a stubborn, unyielding flame.

“Kong, defeating gods is important, yes… but even more important than that is having the courage to challenge gods in the first place. Besides…”

“Besides what?”

Seeing Chen Xing stop halfway, Chen Kong couldn’t help pressing her.

“…It’s nothing.”

Chen Xing shook her head, clearly not intending to say the last half of her sentence.

As for why she wouldn’t say it… the reason was rather complicated.

Because the reason she so desperately chased after Tendou wasn’t just due to her own competitive personality.

There was another very important reason:

She was clearly the one who met Tendou first.

So why… why was it that in Tendou’s eyes, there was always only Caroline—and never her?

Regarding this matter, Chen Xing firmly believed that it was because she was still not close enough to Tendou.

As long as she could get closer—close enough to block out everyone standing behind her—then one day, in Tendou’s eyes, there would be only her, and no one else.

And this reason… was something Chen Xing refused to tell anyone.

Not even her own younger brother.

After all, if people found out that one of the reasons she worked so hard to catch up to Tendou was simply to gain Tendou’s recognition… they would definitely see her as “insecure” and “weak.”

That was the last thing Chen Xing wanted.

But what even she didn’t realize was that the reason she couldn’t bring herself to say it out loud wasn’t just because she feared being looked down on.

Part of her was afraid that a certain forgetful idiot—upon knowing this truth—would intentionally distance himself from her.

And another certain overly perceptive person—if she knew—would surely step in early to block her path.

Because of that, she had to hide this feeling well and bury it deep until the day she finally succeeded.

. . .

Meanwhile, in the living room, Tendou looked at Caroline, who kept glancing outside, and couldn’t help asking:

“Caroline, why have you been staring outside since earlier?”

Hearing his question, Caroline suddenly turned back and gave him an unexpected smile.

But faced with that sudden smile… Tendou didn’t relax. In fact, he instinctively began replaying his recent actions, trying to figure out what he might have done to upset Caroline again.

After all, as a Machina Type Starbearer, Caroline rarely smiled.

And the things that could make her smile fell into exactly two categories:

Things that made her happy, and things that made her unhappy

And Tendou was absolutely certain the smile she wore right now was not because she was thinking of something pleasant.

Because every time he did something out of line in the past and made her angry, she would show exactly this same creepy, bone-chilling “fake smile.”

Realizing this, yet unable to recall anything he might’ve done wrong lately, Tendou prepared to deploy his ultimate move:

The Premature Apology Technique.

A foolproof tactic—whether he knew what he did wrong or not, apologize first and ask questions later.

But before Tendou could activate his technique, Caroline suddenly spoke.

“Tendou, imagine there’s someone… someone who want to take your favorite toy, although they clearly knows what they are doing is wrong, they still can’t help constantly thinking about your favorite toy—looking for every chance to snatch it away.”

“In that case, what do you think should be done?”

Tendou, not realizing the severity of the question, answered without hesitation:

“Obviously you beat them up! How could you not?”

“That’s my toy. And they still dare try to take it?”

“Forget whether he actually tried to steal it—just the fact that he dared to even think about it means giving him a good beating wouldn’t be wrong at all!”

“…Is that so.”

Hearing Tendou’s answer, the smile on Caroline’s face grew even brighter.

And this time, Tendou could clearly feel it:

Caroline’s smile wasn’t because she was angry, she was genuinely happy.

Huh?

Why would Caroline suddenly look so pleased?

Watching the still-confused Tendou who clearly hadn’t caught on yet, Caroline—for the first time—realized that Tendou’s lazy, “I hate using my brain” temperament was actually a very useful trait.

Because with Tendou’s intelligence, if he ever genuinely noticed something and actually put in the effort to think, he would easily figure out the entire situation in a matter of moments.

There would be no chance for him to stay in the dark like he was now.

Thinking this, Caroline suddenly felt she should make full use of Tendou’s “laziness” and dig a pit for him ahead of time.

After all, opportunities this perfect didn’t come often.

With that thought, Caroline lowered her head slightly, the electronic cat ears on her head twitching.

She was clearly acting guilty.

Tendou noticed… but had no idea why.

And Caroline gave him no time to think. She leaned closer and spoke softly:

“Tendou… since you said that, does that mean if something like that happens in the future—you’ll definitely take my side?”

Tendou thought for a moment.

Not noticing anything strange, he answered without hesitation:

“Of course! We’re the best partners, aren’t we? Your toy is my toy. Anyone who tries to steal your toy is basically trying to steal mine. That’s picking a fight with me!”

“So not only would I stand with you—if that ever happens, Caroline, you can just sit back and watch. I’ll take care of that idiot myself!”

“Really?”

Caroline suddenly lifted her head, staring at him with eyes full of expectation.

And the look instantly made Tendou feel something was wrong.

Wait. Why do I get the feeling I just fell into a trap?

Although the clever Tendou sensed, with his superb intuition, that Caroline had just set him up, his absolute trust in Caroline—and the guilt he still carried for dragging her into the stabbing-pain-drama arc later on—made him voluntarily shut off his “danger sense” and jump straight into the trap she wove for him.

“Relax. Of course it’s true.”

With Tendou’s firm reassurance, Caroline immediately said with delight:

“Good. It’s a promise.”

“Yeah.”

Meanwhile, watching the oblivious Tendou walk right into Caroline’s linguistic trap, the dimensional audience couldn’t help but feel a wave of sympathy for him.

‘Poor Tendou… he has absolutely no idea what he just agreed to.’

‘My god, Tendou—if you used even one percent of your Star Origin research intelligence on literally anything else, you wouldn’t have said that.’

‘Sure, Caroline’s tactics are a little dirty… but as a loyal TenCar fan, I say—well done!’

‘Damn it, Xingxing, can you stop obsessing over that stupid “you chase me I run” game? Caroline is already pulling tricks! If you don’t step up soon, we Xing-supporters are never getting our day of justice!’

‘So sour, so sour~ Look at all that jealousy.’

‘You Caroline-fans don’t get cocky—it’s only the first season! Once the second one drops , maybe Xingxing gets buffed out of nowhere! You’ll be crying then!’

‘Hahaha! Buff Xingxing? Funniest joke I’ve heard all year! (Bookmarking this, future archaeologists welcome.)’

‘You wait—seriously, just wait. If I ever get the chance I’m gonna whack you with a shovel!’

‘HAHAHA! Someone’s mad~ someone’s mad~!’

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