Collapse Iron: I just transmigrated! You want me to save the Black Tower?!

Black Tower paused in its movements.

She turned her head and found that Jiang Jiu had returned at some point and was standing at the door, holding a drink he had somehow gotten his hands on. His expression... seemed a little off.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"N-nothing...it's nothing." Jiang Jiu's voice was a little tense, and he forced a smile. "You can continue."

continue?

Hei Ta turned around, looked at the little doll in his hand, and then at Jiang Jiu at the door, who was clearly restraining himself.

Her eyes narrowed slightly.

A thought popped into her head, quickly captured by her genius-level calculation skills, and after a moment's thought, she came to a conclusion—

"Jiang Jiu."

"Ok?"

“This little doll,” she pinched its waist, noticing out of the corner of her eye that it stiffened, “what settings did you make?”

"Nothing much." He walked over, intending to put the cup down. "Just... uh..."

Black Tower pinched it again.

This time it's the back of the little man's neck.

Jiang Jiu stopped in his tracks, and his Adam's apple bobbed noticeably.

The air was silent for two seconds.

Black Tower lowered his head, looking at the little guy in his hand, then raised his head to look at the guy standing there, whose ears were already turning red.

The corners of her mouth gradually curved upwards.

"......interesting."

"What's interesting?" Jiang Jiu tried to play dumb, but his voice betrayed him first.

Black Tower did not answer.

She turned the little doll over and gently ran her fingertips across its heart.

Jiang Jiu's hand subconsciously rose slightly, then froze in mid-air. Under the thoughtful gaze of the Black Tower, he stiffly lowered his hand.

"Oh~" Black Tower drawled out the last syllable, his eyes crinkling into a smile. "I see."

"..."

"You and it, you've become one?" Black Tower confirmed his suspicions.

Jiang Jiu remained silent for two seconds, knowing he couldn't hide it any longer, so he simply gave a perfunctory "hmm".

"I made it following your style, because I couldn't figure out how to connect it to myself, so I tried stuffing some... my own neurons inside, and then..."

Jiang Jiu paused for a moment, then said with a hint of helplessness, "It should be temporary. It will be fine in a couple of days."

"Temporarily?" Black Tower repeated, his tone revealing an undisguised amusement.

She placed the little doll on her lap and gently poked its face with her fingertip.

Jiang Jiu's brow twitched.

"......what you up to?"

"you guess?"

She poked its lips again.

Jiang Jiu pursed his lips, looking somewhat helpless.

Black Tower laughed out loud.

That was a smile that rarely appeared on her face; it was a smile she gave purely out of amusement.

“Jiang Jiu,” she looked up at him, her eyes filled with an undisguised smile and… something more dangerous, “you know what, this is the best gift I’ve received recently.”

"..."

Jiang Jiu had a bad feeling.

Jiang Jiu took a deep breath: "Black Tower, calm down...!"

"I'm very calm." She blinked innocently, her fingertips slowly sliding down the little doll's chin, across her neck, and stopping at the edge of her collar.

Jiang Jiu's breathing visibly paused for a moment.

"Look, I'm just playing with a little toy." Black Tower smiled slightly, his voice innocent as if discussing the weather. "Didn't you say it was just a malfunction? Then it shouldn't... bother you, right?"

Jiang Jiu closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and when he opened them again, his eyes showed a hint of helplessness and resignation.

“Black Tower,” he took a step closer, looking down at her, his voice lowered, “Have you had enough fun?”

"No."

Her fingers gently unbuttoned the little doll's collar, her fingertips tracing a path down the neckline.

Her actions could be described as audacious, but her gaze was fixed on Jiang Jiu's reaction.

She saw Jiang Jiu turn his head away, his breathing becoming somewhat rapid, but instead, she curled her lips into a smile.

Don't touch there—

Jiang Jiu's voice froze for a moment, and he looked completely flustered.

But the Black Tower doesn't seem to be stopping.

Jiang Jiu looked at her for a few seconds, then suddenly bent down, placed one hand on the back of the chair next to her, and pinched her chin with the other, forcing her to raise her head.

“Alright,” he said, his voice low and dangerously so, “you play with it, I play with you, fair...right?”

Black Tower blinked, and before he could react, a kiss with a hint of punishment landed on his lips.

The little doll slipped from her fingertips and fell onto the balcony floor, where it lay there all alone.

But at this moment, it seems that no one cares about it anymore.

......

Some time later, Heita leaned against Jiang Jiu's chest, his breathing not yet fully calmed, but he still struggled to reach out and touch the little doll on the ground.

She held it up to her eyes and examined it for two seconds.

"It's quite fun," she commented.

Jiang Jiu pulled her closer to him, his voice muffled: "...We'll take it apart and fix it tomorrow."

"No." Hei Ta held Xiao Jiangjiu protectively to his chest. "He's mine now."

"..."

“Besides,” she tilted her head to look at him, a triumphant smile in her eyes, “didn’t you just say it was a fair trade?”

"..."

the next day.

Jiang Jiu thought the matter was over, after all, Hei Ta's personality wasn't bad, and there was a limit to joking, at least in his understanding.

But he was wrong.

In the afternoon, he was debugging a set of data in the laboratory when he suddenly felt a strange sensation coming from his chest.

It felt like something was gently poking him...

His hand paused.

No, that won't happen...

She wouldn't be that bored.

The sensation turned into a gentle kneading, with a touch of curious pressure.

Jiang Jiu took a deep breath, put down what he was holding, and quickly walked towards the rest area.

The moment he pushed open the door, he saw Heita sitting on the sofa, holding the little doll in her hands. Her fingertips were poking at the doll's chest, circling it clockwise.

"..."

Jiang Jiu stood at the door, momentarily at a loss for words.

Hei Ta looked up, saw him, blinked, and then continued what he was doing as if nothing had happened.

"You're back?"

Jiang Jiu felt that strange sensation spreading from his chest, like an electric current running through his skin. He instinctively grabbed the door frame.

"...Black Tower."

"Ok?"

"what are you doing?"

“I’m studying your neuronal connection mechanism,” she replied seriously, but her fingertip slid down the little doll’s chest a little. “I found that this empathy seems to be quite sensitive, and I want to test its threshold.”

As she spoke, she gently stroked the side of the little doll's waist with her fingertips.

Jiang Jiu's waist and abdomen suddenly tensed up, and he almost lost his balance.

“Look,” Heta noted with great interest, “the reaction on the waist is stronger than on the chest, it seems that the nerve distribution is denser here.”

"..."

Jiang Jiu closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and when he opened them again, his eyes held a hint of danger.

"you do this delibrately."

"Of course it was intentional," Black Tower readily admitted, a slight smile playing on his lips. "What else? Did you think I was doing some serious research?"

She flipped the little doll over and slowly slid her fingertips down its spine, inch by inch, as if she wanted to count every single vertebra.

A tingling sensation ran down Jiang Jiu's back, the feeling of being slowly stroked climbing from his tailbone all the way up to the back of his neck. He gritted his teeth, barely managing not to make any strange noises.

“Jiang Jiu,” she said softly, her fingertips tracing the waist of the little doll, “you know what? I’ve always felt that you’re too good at pretending. No matter what you’re thinking, you always have a calm look on your face.”

Her fingertips pressed down gently.

“Now it’s all right,” she laughed, a laugh that was innocent, but the movements of her hands were anything but innocent. “I can finally see your real reaction.”