Chi Xiaoxue indeed hadn’t remembered the way wrong. She spotted the silver metal gate from a distance.
But once she got close, she realized she couldn’t get out at all.
The gate had an identity recognition system, and Chi Xiaoxue’s information wasn’t registered in it. When she approached, the gate wouldn’t open. Trying to pull the closed door, it emitted a beeping alarm sound.
Chi Xiaoxue didn’t dare force it, afraid of making a scene and getting caught.
She dragged her suitcase and squatted in a corner, originally planning to slip out behind someone if they left.
She squatted for what felt like ages before a delivery robot arrived.
Delivery robots all had specialized recognition codes. The system identified the information and let the robot in.
The robot, carrying a delivery box, rolled in on its wheels. Once inside the community, it suddenly sped up.
Before she could even stand up, the delivery robot whizzed past and disappeared from sight.
Chi Xiaoxue waited a little longer and, sure enough, the delivery robot returned after dropping off its package.
Spotting it from afar, she immediately stood up and dragged her suitcase over to the gate.
As the delivery robot approached, she quickly followed behind it, pressing her body close to the robot’s back.
The metal gate recognized the delivery code, beeped once, and swung open.
As the delivery robot exited, Chi Xiaoxue immediately tried to squeeze out with her suitcase. But the moment she stepped out of the gate, a frantic alarm blared from somewhere. It wasn’t the earlier beeping sound, but more like the wailing siren used in fire drills—loud enough to make her head buzz.
Such a loud noise was sure to attract attention. Left with no choice, Chi Xiaoxue dragged her small suitcase back inside. If she got caught trying to force her way out, she’d be done for.
Sure enough, not long after she retreated, several security robots came rushing toward the gate on their wheels. Each robot had a bright headlight on, and as they charged over in a row, they lit up the surroundings like daylight.
One of the security robots made eye contact with Chi Xiaoxue, its sudden strong light causing her to instinctively close her eyes for a moment.
“Someone’s trespassing illegally,” Chi Xiaoxue said, pointing toward the gate and raising her voice. “Hurry, go catch them.”
Hearing this, the security robots indeed accelerated toward the gate.
Unable to leave the community, Chi Xiaoxue had no choice but to head back.
When she reached the small square where she had played with Xiao Bai during the day, she suddenly remembered: the nutritional lollipop packaging had stickers on the back. Collecting five stickers could be exchanged for another snack.
She seemed to have thrown the packaging away.
Dragging her suitcase around a corner, she walked over to that trash bin, leaned forward, and peered into the opening.
Luckily, this area probably wasn’t frequented by many people. The two sealed wrappers she had thrown in during the day were sitting right on top. Chi Xiaoxue reached in and retrieved the lollipop wrapper.
Flipping it over to check, the sticker was still intact and stuck on. She blew on the still fairly clean wrapper and tucked it into her pocket.
Returning to the small western-style building, Chi Xiaoxue discovered an even more critical problem: she had no idea what the door lock password was.
Earlier, determined to leave, she hadn’t expected to return so soon. Now, she was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Carrying her suitcase, Chi Xiaoxue walked around the yard to the floor-to-ceiling window of the living room. Pressing her face against the glass, she peered inside. The living room was quiet, no different from when she had left. It seemed her aunt and the others still hadn’t discovered she had run away.
She circled around to the backyard and pushed open her bedroom window. The windows all had wrought-iron grilles installed—there was no way a person could climb through. But she held up her small suitcase to compare the size. Luck was somewhat on her side; the suitcase could fit through first.
After shoving the suitcase back into the room, she crouched down and crept along under the shrubs to Xiao Bai’s bedroom. Xiao Bai’s window was slightly ajar. She pulled it open and stuck half her head inside:
“Pssst, pssst.”
The little girl with curly hair was wearing a lace-trimmed nightcap, lying flat on the bed under the covers, sleeping soundly.
Chi Xiaoxue called out several times before the child finally opened her eyes, looking over dazedly.
Afraid of scaring her, Chi Xiaoxue immediately said, “Xiao Bai, it’s me, your good friend, Mo Ji, ya.”
“Mo Ji?” The child rolled over and sat up, staring oddly at the half-head peeking through the window.
Chi Xiaoxue quickly smoothed the messy long hair away from her face, revealing a delicate face. “Look, it’s me.”
“Why are you there?” Xiao Bai shook her head, still confused, as if she were dreaming.
“Open the door for me first, I can’t get in. I’ll explain later.”
Xiao Bai sat in confusion for another moment, then climbed down the edge of the bed to the floor and walked out barefoot.
Chi Xiaoxue quickly made her way under the shrubs toward the front door.
Xiao Bai opened the door from inside. Afraid of waking her aunt, who was also sleeping on the first floor, the two sneaked back to Chi Xiaoxue’s room like stealthy dogs. Once the door closed, Chi Xiaoxue leaned against the wall and let out a huge sigh of relief.
Looking down, she saw the child in the nightcap glaring at her with dark eyes.
Chi Xiaoxue reached out and patted her head through the lacy cap. “Thank you.”
“What’s going on?” the child asked, frowning seriously.
Chi Xiaoxue took out the lollipop sticker from her pocket to show her. “I went to find the sticker.”
The child didn’t say anything after that. Instead, she tilted her head, squinting her eyes at her. Gradually, tears welled up in her puppy-like eyes, and her mouth turned downward.
“What’s wrong?” Chi Xiaoxue scratched her cheek, unsure what had upset her this time.
“Aren’t we friends anymore?” As soon as she finished speaking, a huge teardrop rolled out of the child’s eyes.
Perhaps because the child’s eyes were so big, the tears that fell were particularly large.
The giant teardrop slid from her eye, down her cheek, and finally dripped onto the floor, splashing into a small puddle.
Chi Xiaoxue stared at the spot where the tear had fallen, utterly shocked. She had never seen such a large teardrop before.
“Of course, of course we’re friends,” Chi Xiaoxue quickly reassured her.
The child still pouted, tears streaming down her face as she said pitifully, “Then why did you go out without calling me?”
“You were sleeping, asleep,” Chi Xiaoxue quickly soothed. “Next time, I’ll call you, definitely.”
“We’re really still friends, right?”
“Absolutely, good friends.”
“Are you still mad at me?”
Chi Xiaoxue: “No, I forgot about it a long time ago.”
“Will you play games with me tomorrow?”
“Definitely.”
After a long time of comforting, she finally managed to soothe the little curly-haired girl. Chi Xiaoxue urged her to go back to sleep. As the little girl walked toward the bathroom, Chi Xiaoxue called out after her:
“Goodnight, my best, best friend.”
“Goodnight,” the little girl replied coldly, not looking back, tears still hanging at the corners of her eyes, but her lips curling upward in a faint smile.
·
Chi Xiaoxue didn’t need to sleep. After thinking it over all night, she finally decided not to leave.
After all, she didn’t have any real survival skills. Even if she ran away, it would be hard to make a living outside. She couldn’t handle even a little hardship.
So she decided to stay, at least for now. But she couldn’t just sit around waiting to die either.
The sky outside was still dark. Once the robot’s body was fully charged, Chi Xiaoxue climbed out of bed. Wearing her nightgown, she walked to the living room, retrieved the learning laptop from under the coffee table, sat on a floor cushion, and started studying.
Her mother had once told her the story of the slow bird that flies early. Being slow didn’t matter—as long as you put in more effort, you could definitely learn.
Chi Xiaoxue felt middle school math was too difficult, so she returned to the index page and selected another textbook.
This time, she chose Chinese. Chi Xiaoxue widened her eyes, focusing intently as the AI teacher began the lesson.
The first lesson started with pinyin. Chi Xiaoxue had actually learned this in her past life, but she had forgotten it after not using it for so long.
Now, reviewing it again, she was surprised to find she could understand some of it. This discovery greatly encouraged her, boosting her confidence even more.
However, the AI teacher spoke quickly, covering all the points in one go. Soon, Chi Xiaoxue couldn’t follow again.
She quickly returned to the state of listening to something completely incomprehensible, her gaze gradually turning vacant as her mind wandered wildly.
“Did you learn it?”
A sudden voice from behind startled Chi Xiaoxue.
Turning around, she saw her aunt standing behind the sofa, leaning over to look at the computer screen in front of her.
Not daring to tell the truth like she had yesterday, for fear her aunt would suggest sending her back for inspection again, Chi Xiaoxue replied ambiguously, “I learned the beginning.”
Her aunt suddenly quizzed her, “‘Jiangnan ke cai lian’—what’s the next line?”
Chi Xiaoxue: “……”
“Still can’t learn it? Then don’t bother.” Her aunt gathered her hair into a bun at the back of her head, looking at the robot’s exquisitely perfect face and thinking, What a shame—it’s defective.
Her aunt forbade Chi Xiaoxue from studying, saying she couldn’t learn anyway, so she might as well help with chores instead.
All morning, Chi Xiaoxue and Xiao Bai pulled weeds in the vegetable garden in the yard. After weeding, her aunt had them drag out a hose to water the vegetables.
Chi Xiaoxue sprayed Xiao Bai with the hose, soaking her. Xiao Bai immediately fought back, fetching small buckets of water to drench her in return. In an instant, the yard was filled with shrieks of varying pitches.
Her aunt sat under the corridor sunbathing and didn’t stop them.
Only after both were drenched like drowned rats did her aunt send them inside to bathe and change clothes.
In the afternoon, she accompanied her aunt to the supermarket to buy groceries. Chi Xiaoxue trailed behind like a little attendant, carrying the shopping basket. When passing the aisle with robot snacks, she glanced over a few times.
Her aunt glanced sideways, saying coolly, “If you want something, take two.”
This time, Chi Xiaoxue didn’t suffer from choice paralysis. She immediately grabbed a lollipop and a jelly cup, placing them in the basket.
Today really paid off, she thought. Yesterday, she bought a lollipop for herself and ice cream for Xiao Bai, leaving only 14.5 yuan of the borrowed 20 yuan. She had been reluctant to spend it.
She hadn’t expected her aunt to offer to buy her snacks. The earlier annoyance at being called “defective” instantly vanished.
Chi Xiaoxue was quite happy. After taking the snacks, she didn’t forget to thank her aunt: “Thank you, Auntie.”
Her aunt held a tomato, glancing back at her. “Why are you calling me ‘Auntie’ too?”
Chi Xiaoxue was momentarily confused but quickly corrected herself: “Thank you, Auntie-Granny.”
Her aunt was both amused and exasperated. “‘Auntie’ and ‘Auntie-Granny’ are terms between humans. You’re just a robot—you can’t call me that.”
“Then, what should I call you?”
Her aunt placed the selected tomato into the basket. “Call me Teacher Zhang.”
“You’re a teacher?”
Her aunt replied casually, “A university professor, but I’m retired now.”
Chi Xiaoxue didn’t dare say another word, carefully carrying the basket as she followed behind. In her life, the people she feared most were teachers.
And coincidentally, this household had two of them.
After returning home, her aunt had Chi Xiaoxue help in the kitchen with chopping vegetables. Chi Xiaoxue peeled two potatoes with a peeler. Her aunt demonstrated how to slice potatoes into shreds, then left the rest for her to do on her own.
Imitating her aunt, Chi Xiaoxue pressed down on a potato with her fingertips, holding the knife in her other hand. She planned to slice the potato first, then cut the slices into shreds.
With the first cut, Chi Xiaoxue froze.
The sharp kitchen knife sliced off half her fingernail along with the surrounding synthetic skin. A small exposed patch of electronic nerves crackled and sparked.