The moment Robin opened her eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling, she heard Chen Li's voice. "Robin, promise me, you will never, ever sing 'Sleepless Night' on Penacony. Okay?"
"Ugh... What happened to me?" Robin only remembered testing the Curio yesterday, and after singing just a few lines, everything went black.
She had no memory of what happened after.
"It's nothing. You just didn't know how to control its power output yesterday and cranked the Words of Power frequency to the max, causing the entire planet to suffer from insomnia. Then your spiritual energy was depleted," Chen Li explained.
The effect of Robin's "Sleepless Night" wasn't limited to just this planet, but since there were no other inhabited planets nearby, there wasn't much of an impact elsewhere.
It was precisely because of this "lack of restraint" that Robin had fainted.
Sigh, these young people nowadays, always playing with fire!
"The planet suffered from insomnia... what does that mean?"
"It means the entire world turned into daytime, regardless of whether it was day or night."
"Ah! Did anything bad happen?" Robin asked, her initial surprise quickly turning to worry.
"Relax, the Merit Coins have already smoothed everything over. And I pinned all the blame on Nous, so there's no problem," Chen Li said, propping his chin on his hand.
In any case, the Aeon of Erudition had caused such a huge stir yesterday; letting him take the fall for one more thing didn't matter.
It's not like Nous had anything to say about it.
"That's good, that's good..." Robin sighed in relief.
"The main issue was that your spiritual will wasn't strong enough, at least not to the point of bending the world to your will. So, after you passed out, the effect of the Words of Power dissipated. But looking at the results, that was probably a good thing," Chen Li said.
At least Robin didn't plunge the entire world into permanent insomnia.
Beep! Beep!
Chen Li's Guide to Forging Curios suddenly popped up, displaying a video call request from Sunday.
After accepting, Chen Li was greeted by Sunday's anxious face.
"Chen Li, what happened? My sister's manager told me that both you and my sister have gone missing. Is this related to the appearance of Nous on that planet?" Sunday sounded extremely agitated on the video feed.
"Rest assured, your sister didn't go to see Nous. She went to an even more wonderful place."
"Where?"
"My home. To be precise, my bed."
"What? What did you do to my sister?" Sunday froze for a moment.
"Probably nothing I could do. Here, your sister is already awake." Chen Li turned the video interface projected by the Guide so that Sunday could see Robin lying on his bed.
After Robin fainted last night, Chen Li couldn't find her manager right away. Then, perhaps due to a lapse in judgment, he had simply brought Robin back to his own home.
It wasn't that he couldn't have gone back to her dressing room, asked staff for directions to her hotel, and taken her there...
But Chen Li felt that bringing her to his home was definitely safer than leaving an unconscious Robin in a hotel room.
"Sister, you look a little pale. What's wrong? Did something happen?" Sunday relaxed after confirming that Robin was indeed safe.
"It's nothing, just a massive drain on my spiritual energy. The Curio Chen Li forged for me is truly miraculous. I just tried singing 'Sleepless Night,' and it made everyone on the planet lose sleep, and even turned the whole planet to daytime," Robin said, pressing a hand to her forehead.
She still had a slight headache.
"Then make sure you get plenty of rest, sister," Sunday said with concern.
At the same time, a thought flashed through Sunday's mind: he absolutely could not let his sister sing "Sleepless Night" in Penacony, the Land of Dreams.
In Penacony, the dreamers entered the world of dreams by falling asleep in the Dream Pools of The Reverie Hotel.
If Robin sang "Sleepless Night," would that awaken all the dreamers? Or would it directly destroy Penacony's entire dream industry?
Nearby, Chen Li watched the warm, affectionate exchange between Robin and Sunday with a pang of envy.
If he had a sister...
Ugh, on second thought, never mind.
They would probably end up fighting over who had to cook dinner.
Other people's sisters were definitely better.
"My friend, thank you for forging a Curio for my sister that can be used for self-defense while also allowing her to transmit her voice further. Its effects have exceeded my imagination. I think I may need to increase your forging fee," Sunday said. After their chat, Robin turned the video interface back to Chen Li, and the two men resumed their conversation.
"Sounds good. I won't refuse," Chen Li said without hesitation.
Given the miraculous nature of the Curio, no matter how much extra material he offered, Chen Li didn't think his client was getting a bad deal.
Unfortunately, not everyone could offer a reward that matched the true value of a Curio.
But at least this transaction with Robin hadn't left Chen Li at a loss.
Forging [Gently Knocking on a Sleeping Heart] cost him a total of 35 crystals. Storing the leftover Entries from the Relic cost another 5, but that couldn't be counted as a primary cost.
For the forging commission, Sunday's estimated reward was 10 to 50 crystals, but in the end, Chen Li received 65 crystals.
This didn't even include the 25 crystals he got from the Miracle Card, a reward for attracting the gaze of Nous while forging.
Let's just call it a "Great Success" on the forging.
Later, he spent another 5 crystals on the Disguise Glasses.
Curios obtained: +2.
Crystals spent: 40.
Crystals earned: 90.
Net profit: 50 crystals, plus 666 Stellar Jades.
Not only did he not lose anything, he made a killing.
"My friend, there is an old Xianzhou saying, 'I daily examine myself on three points...'" Sunday began, but then trailed off.
He had a sudden realization: Chen Li had indeed done something incredible.
This included, but was not limited to, being watched by the Aeon of Erudition for the entire forging process and even being granted a personal audience.
"That reminds me of something. Sunday, are you interested in joining my Friends Circle?" Chen Li suddenly interrupted Sunday's spell.
"What is that?"
"A group chat. Everyone can communicate and share things there. More importantly, you can send me private messages through it, so you won't need to use the Guide to Forging Curios anymore," Chen Li explained.
"The Guide seems more convenient," Sunday frowned.
"But if I give your sister a spot as well, the two of you can communicate in real-time through the Friends Circle whenever you want."
"Then I'll have to trouble you," Sunday's tone shifted instantly.
"No trouble, no trouble at all," Chen Li said, his eyes crinkling into a smile.
He was so happy because once Sunday moved over to the Friends Circle, if he wanted to private message Chen Li, Chen Li would have the option to block him.
At the very least, it wouldn't show "Read" without a reply.
The Guide had that feature, which made Chen Li feel obligated to respond to Sunday's messages.
You've served your purpose, big brother-in-law.
"Um, Chen Li, my clothes..." Robin finally spoke up after watching Sunday hang up.
She had noticed earlier that she was wearing a different set of pajamas, but she hadn't said anything while Sunday was on the call.
"Oh, a roommate named Kaguya Houraisan helped you change. Your other outfit really wasn't suitable for sleeping."
"I see. Then I must thank Miss Kaguya later." Robin nodded, not doubting his story in the slightest, as she could feel Chen Li's sincerity.
"I'll thank her on your behalf."
"By the way, Chen Li, did you stay by my bedside all night?" Robin asked curiously, having gotten out of bed in the modest, full-coverage pajamas and looking at Chen Li, who was sitting in a chair beside the bed.
"Yes."
"..." Robin was speechless for a moment.
"No need to be so moved. It's because I had insomnia," Chen Li said, looking at Robin resentfully.
As for the reason for his insomnia, was there any need to elaborate?
Because Robin's "Sleepless Night" had cursed him with it, Chen Li had used the time to read through the medical texts that Dan Shu had sent him.
Although as a Curio Forger, he had a strong immunity to the effects of Curios, Chen Li felt that "Sleepless Night" was a godsend for any hard worker!
While others sleep, I'll work hard and outpace them all!
To that end, Chen Li had specifically asked Kaguya Houraisan to ask him many valuable questions. He, in turn, played the part of a cryptic sage, successfully stacking the buff that increased his learning speed.
However, he also discovered a rule about that Miracle Card: it only worked if the person asking genuinely wanted to know the answer and you refused to provide it.
He also found that the Erudition buff energized him, filling him with a desire to learn.
While it was a shame he couldn't exploit a bug, Chen Li was very satisfied with the effect.
His Xianzhou Medical Arts skill was now at LV2. All he lacked was practical experience.
He wondered who would be lucky enough to fall into his hands.
"I'm sorry. Would you like me to sing you a lullaby? I know quite a few soothing ones," Robin offered.
She wanted to make it up to Chen Li.
"That would be great." Chen Li stood up and pulled back the curtains, revealing the early morning sunrise.
He had been up all night, but he was still full of energy.
Theoretically, after reaching level 2 as a Curio Forger, Chen Li's enhanced constitution would allow him to go two days without sleep, but he didn't like the feeling.
"But before that, I need to send you back to your world. You can just sing for me via holographic projection," Chen Li said.
"Okay. Um, Chen Li, could you step outside for a moment? I'd like to change back into my clothes," Robin asked quietly.
"Sure. Oh, right..." Chen Li handed a small booklet to Robin. "This is the user manual for the microphone Curio. I copied it down yesterday. It has some strange precautions and some practice methods for the Words of Power. You might need it."
"Eh? Chen Li, didn't you say you didn't know much about this Curio either?"
"I don't know much, that's true. But that doesn't mean the Curio doesn't know about itself. I might not understand it, but I can ask." Chen Li said.
Thinking of this, he remembered how yesterday, on a whim, he had said to the microphone Curio: Then I ask you...
"Thank you," said Robin.
"Don't forget to leave a good review!"