Why did Luo Bai want to get married?
Qiu Wu truly could not think of a reason.
The Luo family was not the Qiu family, and Luo Bai was not her. Judging by the other person’s speech and demeanor, the possibility of being forced into marriage did not exist.
However, Luo Bai also did not seem like the type to reach a certain age and suddenly want to find someone to experience the warmth of family.
“This is a requirement in my mother’s will,” Luo Bai explained, tapping her screen once more. “My primary research direction is mecha development. Recently, my work has hit a bottleneck. The various functions of current robots are improving, but only the cognitive system has stagnated, which is already hindering the progress of mechas.”
“I remember your mother was an expert in this field?” Qiu Wu recalled the content from her textbooks, noting that Luo Hua was a pioneer in artificial intelligence research.
“Yes,” Luo Bai nodded. “After her passing, all of her research achievements were incorporated into Weike’s Research Institute, except for one thing she had sealed away.”
“Which just happens to be what you want?”
“Yes.”
“What is it?”
“A method to optimize the cognitive system. If her experimental reports were not falsified, combining them with the advancements in the mecha field over the years might allow robots to think just like humans.”
Qiu Wu drew in a slight breath. She remembered when she was a sophomore, she had followed a club to visit a robot scrapping facility. In the giant disposal pit were the severed limbs and broken arms of countless humanoid machines, occasionally revealing hollow skulls with missing facial features.
They lacked flesh and blood, but remained terrifying.
They were first stripped of components that could still be used, then cut apart, and finally poured into scorching flames to be melted into new materials.
If those machines could think like humans, wouldn’t treating them that way be tantamount to murder?
Research achievements capable of triggering such severe ethical crises deserved to be sealed away.
Yet Luo Bai did not seem to understand this.
“I attempted to lift my mother’s seal, and this is the will I received as a result.” Luo Bai opened a video.
“Xiaobai? You are the only one who would want to open this Pandora’s box.” The woman in the video looked five parts similar to Luo Bai, but her temperament was almost entirely opposite. Resting her chin on one hand, her gaze shifted with an alluring and flirtatious charm. “Oh well, do as you please. Anyway, those fools do nothing but spout benevolence and righteousness while committing heinous deeds, so causing them some trouble might be fun after all. However, I do have one condition.”
The woman in the video revealed a smile like someone who had successfully pulled off a prank. “If you want this technology, go find someone pleasing to the eye and get married. Given your personality, you would not look for loopholes to trick Mom, right? If you still haven’t changed your mind after one year of marriage, my lawyer will tell you how to break the seal.”
The video ended there.
Luo Bai closed the screen and looked at Qiu Wu. “That is the situation.”
Qiu Wu: “You want to marry someone just because of this kind of thing?”
Luo Bai: “Yes. I do not quite understand why my mother thought marriage would change my mind.”
Are the two of you really mother and daughter?
Because there had been too many inexplicable occurrences today, Qiu Wu accepted this absurd reason with relative calm.
“You came to me because you find me pleasing to the eye?”
She also zeroed in on another key point.
“Yes.” Luo Bai looked at her without concealment. “I looked at the photos of all the candidates, and you fit this criterion best.”
Qiu Wu: “Thank you.”
Her earlobes burned. Had she not initially understood Luo Bai’s character, she would have assumed the woman was flirting with her.
She was quite fond of this style.
The two added each other on WeChat. Qiu Wu’s profile picture was a photo of a wheat field her younger sister had previously sent her, the golden wheat sparkling exceptionally pleasingly under the sunlight. Luo Bai’s profile picture was a silver bearing, shining with a cold light against a dark background.
Qiu Wu watched with her own eyes as Luo Bai set her display name remark to Qiu Wu (Girlfriend).
To reciprocate in kind, Qiu Wu could only add a remark for Luo Bai as Luo Bai (Girlfriend).
She had never witnessed such a straightforward and simplistic couple-status confirmation ritual.
The two walked out of the private dining room one after the other, heading downstairs.
Should I be more proactive right now?
Qiu Wu gazed at Luo Bai’s hand swaying slightly with her pace.
A thin, opaque white glove snugly wrapped around a slender and well-proportioned palm.
It looked very easy to hold.
According to dating rules, she needed to ask for permission first.
Ms. Luo, may I hold your hand?
No, you have not provided a reliable medical examination report yet.
She engaged in an internal Q&A while her mouth twitched uncontrollably.
How unhinged.
“Ah!”
As soon as they reached downstairs, a scream rang out. Qiu Wu followed the sound and saw a robot waiter convulsing violently, spilling an entire tray of hot food directly onto a guest.
The guest shrieked and jumped up, while the waiter continued to shake uncontrollably on the spot, its limbs flailing, its mouth opening and closing as it repeated a lagging mechanical voice: “Command error! Please calibrate! Command error! Please calibrate!”
All the guests in the lobby stood up. Some were frightened, some nervous, but no one stepped forward. The restaurant manager, who was also the only human service staff member in the shop, held a remote control and frantically pressed buttons at the robot.
“What is going on? It is not working!” She was covered in cold sweat.
“Wait a moment, I will handle it,” Luo Bai said, looking back at Qiu Wu.
Before Qiu Wu could reply, Luo Bai walked briskly to the robot’s side, grabbed its flailing arm with one hand, and forcefully shoved its head down onto the table with a loud clank.
Including Qiu Wu, every living person in the entire lobby jumped in shock.
The black-haired, black-eyed woman wore a placid expression. One hand firmly controlled the constantly struggling robot, while the other hand pulled a key-like slender tool from the utility pouch strapped around her waist, accurately stabbing it into the back of the robot’s neck.
The robot ceased all movement. Luo Bai reversed her grip, pulled out a small knife from the pouch, pried open the skin on the back of its neck, and exposed the hidden processor within.
She connected the processor to her portable computer, her fingers flying across the keys. One minute later, she closed the computer, restored the robot to its original state, and turned to face the restaurant manager. “There was a conflict between the old system and the newly imported commands. I updated its system for you. It will automatically reboot in three minutes and return to normal.”
“Thank you, thank you so much.” The manager wiped her sweat and bowed continuously in gratitude.
“No need. However, your company failed to update the system for the Type 5 humanoid mecha on time according to the instruction manual, which violates the contract signed at the time of purchase. Weike’s legal department will contact you later.” Following that, she turned toward the visibly unsettled guests. The vast majority of them were wearing the same work uniform as Luo Bai. Luo Bai’s voice was not loud, but it was very clear. “Weike researchers must proactively step forward to handle issues when company products malfunction, provided life is not in danger. Everyone, please submit a written review of this incident to the head of your respective research institute within three days.”
Not a single person dared to object, and even the restaurant manager, who had wanted to plead for leniency, prudently kept her mouth shut.
The Weike researchers quickly and silently filed out of the restaurant.
Qiu Wu noticed that many of them were stealing glances at the embroidery on Luo Bai’s left arm.
It was a Seven woven in golden thread.
Other researchers had numbers one through six on their left arms, but none had seven.
It seemed the Seventh Research Institute held a higher status than the others.
Humans truly were sensory creatures.
Qiu Wu pressed a hand to her forehead.
Just like her right now, worrying about getting caught in the crossfire while simultaneously thinking Luo Bai looked rather cool.
“It is handled. Let us go.” Luo Bai’s expression remained completely calm from beginning to end.
The two arrived at the underground parking lot.
“Do you need me to drop you off?” Luo Bai asked.
“No, no need. There is a car waiting for me.” Qiu Wu did not dare to trouble her, hurriedly pointing toward the direction of the Qiu family vehicle.
“Alright, then I am heading back to work. Goodbye.” Luo Bai nodded politely to her and got into her own car.
The white sports car let out a faint whine and sped away without a trace of lingering attachment.
Qiu Wu slumped like a deflated balloon. The amount of information over the past hour was simply too massive; she felt entirely exhausted just trying to digest it all.
As soon as she climbed into the car, the driver handed her a phone.
On the other end of the line was Qiu Qi’s voice, trying desperately to feign composure: “How did it go?”
Such genuine concern.
Qiu Wu gave a bitter smile. “Luo Bai said we should date first, and if things go smoothly, consider marriage later.”
“Well done. Come back and rest early.” Qiu Qi sounded immensely relieved on the other end.
Qiu Wu: “No need, have Sister Wang drive me back to school instead. Tomorrow is Monday, and I have classes in the morning.”
“Mhm. Let the family know if you need anything, get along well with her, and do not mess things up.”
“Mhm, I know.”
She supposed this also counted as experiencing treatment fit for a biological daughter.
Qiu Wu covered her head and handed the phone back to Sister Wang, then pulled out her own phone to send a message to her girlfriend.
Qiu Wu: If the Qiu family asks about our situation, could you please not tell them that I was the one who asked to date first? Please, please.
If Qiu Qi found out that she and Luo Bai could have married directly, but she was the one who refused, her status as the current favored biological daughter would instantly downgrade to a dead daughter.
It was not until six o’clock in the afternoon that Qiu Wu received a reply from Luo Bai.
Luo Bai: Just got off work. Understood.
A mere five words, yet they imparted a full sense of security.
She did not even ask why. In Luo Bai’s eyes, this probably also fell under Qiu Wu’s rights.
Having dozed off briefly against the car window, Qiu Wu was now in high spirits. She lifted her hand to snap a photo of the evening dusk outside the window and sent it to Luo Bai.
The clouds were dyed a tangerine red by the setting sun, piling up between the rows of towering skyscrapers.
Luo Bai: ?
Qiu Wu: Isn’t sharing daily life routines a normal thing for lovers to do? But it does not seem to be written in your dating rules. Should we add it in?
Luo Bai did not reply for a full minute, leaving Qiu Wu, who had acted on a whim, feeling slightly anxious.
Was she going to be mad?
Luo Bai: Photo.
Luo Bai: What you said makes sense. I will add it later.
Attached to the message was a photo of a simple dinner: a glass of milk and a sandwich.
Qiu Wu: Are you just eating these for dinner?
Luo Bai: Yes, the energy is already sufficient.
Qiu Wu: Phrasing it like that sounds a bit like a robot.
Luo Bai: ? Then I should say the battery level is already sufficient.
Qiu Wu could not help laughing out loud, causing Sister Wang in the front row to cast a sideways glance.
She genuinely liked Luo Bai a little bit now, even though it had nothing to do with romance.
Luo Bai lacked emotions, did not care about other people’s moods, and was someone cold on the outside and even colder on the inside.
Yet these traits also made her exceptionally stable, as she would not discriminate, would not mock, would not vent misplaced anger, would not be fickle, and would not hurt you based on her own whims, even though she could crush you like a bug at a moment’s notice.
As long as you did not cross her principles, she was absolutely safe and completely trustworthy.
She was easily one of the best-tempered people Qiu Wu had encountered since being brought to Luo Dong.
Qiu Wu put down her phone, the corners of her mouth curling up slightly.
She guessed she had her moments of good luck after all.