Her hand was cut open, but Chi Xiaoxue felt no pain.
She stared at the wound for a while. So even beneath the synthetic skin, it’s quite complex, she thought. There were many thin blue filaments, shimmering with a faint fluorescent glow—it was actually quite beautiful.
After observing it for a bit, she turned around and tapped her aunt’s shoulder:
“Teacher Zhang, we have a problem.”
Her aunt was bent over washing vegetables at the sink. Looking up, she saw the robot holding up a finger crackling with sparks, staring at her in a daze.
Ten minutes later, her aunt sat cross-legged on a floor cushion, wearing reading glasses, carefully studying the array of bottles and jars placed on the coffee table.
“First, disinfect the wound with sterile fluid. Then, use adhesive to fill the wound smoothly. After the liquid dries, use an electric polishing tool to smooth it out. Finally, apply mucosal and epidermal layer protective liquid.”
Her aunt held the instruction manual far away, squinting as she read the text aloud.
Then, she put the instructions aside and laid out the various tools in preparation.
Once ready, she put on sterile gloves, looked up at Chi Xiaoxue holding her finger, and gestured with her chin toward the nearby rug:
“Sit over here.”
Chi Xiaoxue quickly walked over, squatted down, and proactively extended her hand, resting it on the coffee table in front of her aunt for easy access.
During the repair process, her aunt looked very serious.
When polishing, she didn’t control the pressure well and ground a small pit. So, she filled the pit with more adhesive. She applied too much adhesive, leaving a small raised bump, so she used the polisher again to grind it down.
She kept adding and subtracting, back and forth, and it didn’t seem to be going smoothly.
But her aunt was a teacher, so Chi Xiaoxue trusted her one hundred percent. After all, in a child’s eyes, teachers were omnipotent superheroes.
Half an hour later, Chi Xiaoxue indeed ended up with a frog-like finger.
The injured fingertip was swollen into a round, bulbous shape, as if a mini potato had been skewered onto her finger.
Chi Xiaoxue stared at the potato-ball on her finger in shock. “T-teacher Zhang, is this right?”
“There’s beef cooking in the pot. I’ll go check.” Teacher Zhang braced herself on the coffee table to stand up and walked guiltily into the kitchen.
Chi Xiaoxue immediately followed, thrusting her frog finger in front of her aunt. “Teacher Zhang, this… my hand… it’s just going to stay like this?”
From then on, wherever Teacher Zhang went, the little robot followed, holding up a bamboo-skewered potato ball, glaring at her resentfully.
When Jiang Yanyi called, her aunt breathed a sigh of relief. After answering the phone, she said to Chi Xiaoxue:
“Jiang Yanyi has landed. He’ll fix your hand when he gets back. I have things to do, so I’m leaving now. You and Zhibai watch the house, don’t run off.”
After delivering these instructions, her aunt picked up her small handbag, stepped into her little leather shoes, and clip-clopped away.
Chi Xiaoxue sat on the doorstep steps with Xiao Bai, holding up her hand, staring eagerly down the road, hoping for Jiang Yanyi’s return more than ever.
But a long time passed. Chi Xiaoxue was practically turning into a “longing-for-husband stone,” yet the man still hadn’t returned.
Chi Xiaoxue extended her frog finger in front of Xiao Bai, clutching her wrist with her other hand, painfully scrunching up her face. Using all her lifelong acting skills to portray unbearable agony, she uttered lines she’d read in some novel:
“X-Xiao Bai, I’m not… gonna make it. You… you must live on… live on, carrying… our hope… hope.”
The little curly-haired girl glanced at her calmly. “Mo Ji, injuring a finger won’t kill you. Even cutting off the whole finger won’t kill you. Besides, you’re a robot.”
“Ah, you… heartless… person.”
Suddenly, Chi Xiaoxue’s hands convulsed. She tilted her head, rolled her eyes, stuck out half her tongue, imitating the zombies described in novels, and pretended to lunge at Xiao Bai to bite her.
Xiao Bai giggled, dodging left and right.
Lost in their play, they didn’t notice a black self-driving car silently parking on the road outside the yard. Jiang Yanyi’s face watched them quietly from behind the car window.
Chi Xiaoxue soon noticed Jiang Yanyi’s car. She nudged Xiao Bai, the smile gradually fading from her face. A sense of guilt, hard to explain, crept in. She wondered if Jiang Yanyi had seen the scene earlier and if he would think the robot had gone mad.
“Dad’s back.”
Xiao Bai called out, standing up from the steps. Seeing Jiang Yanyi get out of the car, Xiao Bai immediately pointed at Chi Xiaoxue and said:
“Dad, Mo Ji is injured.”
Jiang Yanyi took a small suitcase from the trunk and strode over, standing below the steps to examine Chi Xiaoxue’s finger.
He was very tall. Even standing on two steps, Chi Xiaoxue was only slightly taller than him.
Jiang Yanyi squeezed the little swollen ball on her fingertip, then turned her hand over, back side up, to check the other side.
“Can you fix it?” He remained silent for a long while, so Chi Xiaoxue asked proactively.
Jiang Yanyi released her hand. “The nail is cut off. It needs to be repaired at the shop.”
Seeing Chi Xiaoxue was still in her nightgown, Jiang Yanyi said, “Go change your clothes first. When you’re done, I’ll take you to the maintenance center.”
Whether it was fatigue from his business trip or not, Chi Xiaoxue sensed he was a bit cold today, not very happy.
When she came out of her room after changing, she happened to see Jiang Yanyi sitting on the living room sofa making a phone call. His back was to her, and he didn’t notice her standing behind him.
“Yeah, it’s best to do a comprehensive system check. She is indeed very abnormal. I can’t connect to her built-in communication program via my phone. My family says her learning ability is also very poor, nowhere near the level of an android.”
She didn’t hear what the other party said, but Jiang Yanyi raised his voice: “Have you ever seen a robot who’s an academic underachiever?”
A robot academic underachiever?
Chi Xiaoxue felt utterly ashamed.
“In short, there is definitely a major problem with her. If it can’t be fixed, then I demand a refund.”
“The no-return policy for custom orders is based on the product having no quality issues. Now, she has serious quality problems. If you continue with this attitude, I will file a complaint with the Consumer Association.”
Jiang Yanyi seemed on the verge of arguing with the other party. Chi Xiaoxue silently retreated to her room, sat on the bed, pulled out the jelly cup and lollipop her aunt had bought her today from her pocket, and ate the snacks while worrying about her future.
If I don’t eat them now, I might not get another chance later.
A few knocks sounded at the bathroom door. Chi Xiaoxue said, “Come in.”
Xiao Bai pushed the door open and walked in.
Chi Xiaoxue and Xiao Bai’s bedrooms shared a bathroom. Sometimes when Xiao Bai came to find Chi Xiaoxue, she would come straight through the bathroom.
“Mo Ji, we can leave now.” Xiao Bai stood in front of her with her small backpack, head tilted, wearing a brightly colored T-shirt and shorts, cute as a little figurine.
Chi Xiaoxue couldn’t resist pinching her cheek.
“Wait a moment, I have something… to give you,” Chi Xiaoxue said.
Then she opened a copy of The Almanack of Naval Ravikant on the desk. Jiang Yanyi had left the book on the living room coffee table a few days ago.
Needing a book to flatten the stickers she was collecting, Chi Xiaoxue had quietly taken it.
Opening the book, she took out the flattened lollipop wrapper and the two stickers from this time—three in total.
These stickers were essentially Chi Xiaoxue’s entire fortune.
She placed the three stickers into Xiao Bai’s small backpack and patted the fluffy panda head on the bag:
“Here, for you… as a memento.”
Xiao Bai stared with her large puppy-dog eyes, about to ask Mo Ji what was wrong, when they heard Jiang Yanyi knock on the bedroom door outside, urging them to leave.
Settling into the car as they drove away, Chi Xiaoxue held up her frog finger, resting her forehead against the car window, watching the little white-walled, red-roofed western-style house grow farther and farther away.
After the car turned a corner, this place she had temporarily called “home” completely disappeared from sight.
Chi Xiaoxue felt reluctant—unwilling to leave the little curly-haired girl, her aunt… Teacher Zhang, and the unfinished nutritional jelly in the fridge.
Mostly, though, it was worry about her own future. Am I really going to be sent for experiments?
Given her previous life experience—having only actually lived to seven years old—Chi Xiaoxue truly couldn’t handle such a complex situation now.
Scented tears silently slid from the corners of her eyes. When they reached the corners of her mouth, she extended her tongue to lick them away.
But she couldn’t lick away the unease in her heart.
When the car arrived at the tech company, several people were already waiting for them at the building entrance. Besides the after-sales manager, there was also the engineer Yao Tong, whom she had met before, and her two assistants.
After a brief exchange of greetings, everyone quickly walked into the building. Chi Xiaoxue was very nervous but hurriedly followed, holding up her hand.
Xiao Bai’s legs were short and she couldn’t keep up. After a few steps, Jiang Yanyi simply picked her up.
The expressions of the people were quite serious, especially Yao Tong’s. She pursed her lips tightly, quickly following everyone into the lobby while rapidly confirming Moji’s situation with Jiang Yanyi.
“Professor Jiang, I heard about the situation from the after-sales manager earlier. Are you saying Moji has no learning ability and her built-in communicator is unusable?”
Jiang Yanyi, holding Xiao Bai in his arms, stepped into the elevator. “To be precise, she has some learning ability, but it’s extremely slow, and she can only grasp very superficial knowledge. I was on a business trip the past few days. When I tried to contact her built-in communication program, it kept showing a program error and couldn’t connect.”
He recalled the scene he saw just after getting out of the car earlier—Moji and Xiao Bai sitting on the steps, fooling around together.
That was definitely not robot behavior.
His aunt was right on the phone—Moji was likely defective.
“This is the first time we’ve encountered such a situation, Professor Jiang. Please don’t worry, I will immediately arrange a re-examination for Moji,” Yao Tong said seriously.
As they spoke, the group entered Yao Tong’s office.
The office was divided into two parts. The front was like a reception area, with a circle of leather sofas. In front of the sofas was a full-glass partition wall. Behind the wall was a large laboratory, where various electronic instruments flickered with red or green fluorescent lights.
“Moji, come with me.” Once inside the office, Assistant Xiao Du turned and said to Chi Xiaoxue.
Chi Xiaoxue was terrified by this setup. Her mind went blank, and holding up her finger, she followed dazedly into the laboratory.
As they entered the lab, the previously transparent glass wall transformed into a holographic screen.
Yao Tong stood to the side with her arms crossed, turning her head toward Jiang Yanyi. “Professor Jiang, Moji’s test data will appear on this screen shortly. If there’s anything you don’t understand, you can ask me directly.”
Jiang Yanyi sat on the sofa, his gaze calmly fixed on the holographic screen. “No need to explain. I can probably understand.”
Yao Tong followed his gaze upward, and her expression froze.
She had never seen data like this before. Almost every individual data point was marked with a large red “X.”
In over ten years in the industry, Yao Tong had never encountered such bizarre test results.
To put it bluntly, even if you sent a monkey in for testing, the results wouldn’t be more absurd than this.