Jiang Yanyi had actually contacted Yao Tong yesterday afternoon, but Moji’s finger hadn’t been repaired yet at that time. Yao Tong needed additional repair time, so she asked him to come pick up the robot this morning.
However, learning that Jiang Yanyi wanted to take the problematic robot home, Yao Tong was astonished. Out of responsibility for the product, she tried to persuade him over the phone for a long time.
But Jiang Yanyi was firm. Moreover, he came as soon as the company opened to pay the remaining balance in full.
Though she didn’t understand, Yao Tong couldn’t do much about the client’s request and had to respect his wishes.
Looking on the bright side, even though Moji was a substandard, defective product, her emotional value was very high, far exceeding the emotional threshold of androids.
Interacting with such a robot should be quite interesting.
Hands in her pockets, Yao Tong watched Jiang Yanyi’s car drive away before turning to enter the elevator.
The car automatically left the parking garage. It had rained all night, but the morning sun was bright. The streets and buildings outside looked fresh and clean.
With the robot’s secret exposed, Chi Xiaoxue felt somewhat guilty. She deliberately pressed her forehead against the car window, avoiding looking at Jiang Yanyi.
But she could feel Jiang Yanyi’s gaze fixed on her, making her even more afraid to turn around.
After a long while, Jiang Yanyi finally spoke. “Moji, I want to ask you something.”
“Hmm.” Chi Xiaoxue mumbled a reply, still not turning around.
“Do you… know Bai Yidong?”
Asking this, Jiang Yanyi felt a delusion that he had gone mad. But even if mad, he wouldn’t let go of any clue related to his wife.
Chi Xiaoxue looked out the car window, her eyes darting around. She didn’t know any Bai Yidong, but she knew Jiang Yanyi must have a reason for asking.
Perhaps Bai Yidong was the key to Jiang Yanyi changing his mind.
If she answered directly that she didn’t know, Jiang Yanyi might think she had no use and wouldn’t want to keep her anymore.
Should I just say I know?
Just as the thought crossed her mind, she heard Jiang Yanyi behind her, as if seeing through her thoughts, say hoarsely, “If you dare lie, you’re going back to the lab.”
Robots don’t lie, but she wasn’t a proper robot, so Jiang Yanyi remained cautious.
After a moment’s thought, Chi Xiaoxue gave an ambiguous answer: “I don’t know. I… lost some memories.”
That wasn’t entirely a lie. When she first crossed over, there was indeed a system that said she had lost some memories, though she didn’t know what they were about.
“What memories did you lose?” Jiang Yanyi found it increasingly bizarre. He had never heard of someone—especially a robot—losing memories.
Chi Xiaoxue: “I… I’ve lost my memory. How would… I know?”
Jiang Yanyi: “……”
Later, Jiang Yanyi asked various other questions, including why she thought to press candy wrappers inside a book. Chi Xiaoxue either refused to answer or deliberately responded ambiguously.
Apart from academics, Chi Xiaoxue was quite clever in other areas. From a young age, she understood a principle: when talking nonsense, don’t say too much.
The more you say, the easier it is to slip up.
These truths were learned through her parents’ “mixed doubles” discipline.
Under her evasive dodging, Jiang Yanyi only managed to learn that she had lost some memories—nothing else of value.
Now, Jiang Yanyi could only hope she would recover those memories soon.
The car stopped at the house entrance. Her aunt was practicing swordplay in the yard. Seeing Chi Xiaoxue jump out of the car, she looked bewildered.
“Why is Moji back? Wasn’t Moji sent for repairs?”
Early this morning, as soon as it was light, Jiang Yanyi had called her aunt over to look after Xiao Bai, saying he had urgent matters to attend to.
Her aunt thought it was something at the university and rushed over after hanging up.
She hadn’t been there long; Xiao Bai was still asleep when Jiang Yanyi returned and brought back the robot reportedly having major data issues.
“Hello, Teacher Zhang.”
Chi Xiaoxue stood at the yard gate, hands clasped over her abdomen, bowing respectfully. After greeting, seeing her aunt’s unfriendly expression, she lowered her head and quickly slipped inside.
Jiang Yanyi tried to follow, but her aunt blocked him with her sword. “What’s going on?”
“It’s not convenient to explain too much, but I have my reasons for doing this.”
Those speculations about a connection between Moji and Bai Yidong—Jiang Yanyi would absolutely not tell her aunt. She strongly disliked him dwelling on the past.
If she knew his current thoughts were so wild, who knows what extreme things she might do.
“Jiang Yanyi, you sure have your own ideas now,” her aunt sneered, sword still held horizontally before Jiang Yanyi.
“Teacher Zhang, I’m thirty this year. I can make my own decisions about these things.”
“Hah, you’re so capable. Don’t ever ask for my help again.”
Jiang Yanyi: “Auntie, what are you saying? We’re family. Of course, you should help when needed…”
Chi Xiaoxue ran into the kitchen, took a nutritional jelly from the fridge, opened it, took a sip of the intensely flavored jelly water, and stood behind the window, watching their argument with interest.
Jiang Yanyi was being scolded by his aunt like a grandson.
After watching for a while, Jiang Yanyi noticed Chi Xiaoxue. He shot her a cold glance, startling her into quickly pulling the curtains shut.
After finishing the jelly, Chi Xiaoxue went to find Xiao Bai.
Xiao Bai was wearing her lace-trimmed nightcap, lying flat on her small bed under a little blanket. Chi Xiaoxue crouched by the bed, plucked a strand of hair, and tickled the child’s face.
The child opened her eyes dazedly, weakly saying, “Mo Ji, stop it,” then closed her eyes and instantly fell back asleep.
Soon, she opened her eyes again, exclaiming joyfully, “Mo Ji, you’re back?”
“It’s me, your good friend,” Chi Xiaoxue said, grinning at the curly-haired girl.
After the morning argument between her aunt and Jiang Yanyi, the two started a cold war, ignoring each other. Though they were in the same house, if they needed to say something, they had to ask Chi Xiaoxue or Xiao Bai to relay messages.
But the adults’ cold war didn’t affect the two good friends catching up. Xiao Bai took out The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, flipping to the pages with the flattened candy wrappers to show her:
“Look, I tidied these up for you.”
Chi Xiaoxue pinched Xiao Bai’s soft cheek. “Thank you, sweetie. You’re the best child.”
Xiao Bai blushed to the tips of her ears, stammering as she boasted, “And one more thing—we can still go to the Shell Restaurant.”
“Shell Restaurant? Where’s that?” Chi Xiaoxue put away The Almanack of Naval Ravikant in the desk drawer.
“It’s where there are whales. It’s really beautiful,” Xiao Bai answered seriously. “I waited for you to come back so we could go together.”
After saying this, Xiao Bai looked at Chi Xiaoxue like a little dog waiting for its owner’s praise, blinking her big puppy-dog eyes with anticipation.
Chi Xiaoxue ruffled her curly hair, using an overly sweet, syrupy voice. “You little sweetie~”
“You’re so cheesy,” the child hunched her shoulders, but her curled-up smile was impossible to suppress.
·
Chi Xiaoxue initially thought she wouldn’t have to study after returning this time. But Professor Jiang’s dedication to teaching remained unchanged. He downloaded a new set of beginner-level teaching materials for Chi Xiaoxue.
This time, it wasn’t as difficult as before. It started with the basics, progressed step by step, lowered the difficulty significantly, and explained each concept slowly and thoroughly. Chi Xiaoxue no longer felt like she was listening to a foreign language and gradually began to grasp some of it.
Besides completing daily study tasks, Chi Xiaoxue had a fixed duty: walking the kid.
Every day, she would take Xiao Bai out for a stroll using a leash, sometimes also running errands for Teacher Zhang.
Life was actually quite decent—much more comfortable than being a vegetable in bed. The only issue was that Teacher Zhang didn’t like her much and often argued with Jiang Yanyi because of her.
This morning, Teacher Zhang argued with Jiang Yanyi again. She called him a fool, spending millions on a defective product, not knowing what he was thinking.
Chi Xiaoxue, feeling guilty, didn’t dare stay at home. She quickly charged herself a bit with fast-charging, quietly took the leash, and went out to walk the kid.
Along the way, Xiao Bai seemed a bit down. Chi Xiaoxue deliberately stepped on her shadow as usual to tease her, but Xiao Bai wasn’t in the mood.
Chi Xiaoxue gently patted her head, mimicking a child’s way of speaking: “What’s… wrong?”
Xiao Bai put her hands in the side pockets of her overalls, sighed, and said with a frown, “I think… we should still talk to Auntie-Granny.”
“Talk about what?”
“Just ask her not to always talk about you like that. It’s very impolite.”
Chi Xiaoxue scratched her cheek. “What she says… isn’t wrong.”
Indeed, if she were a normal robot, she would be able to cook and take care of the child, and Teacher Zhang wouldn’t need to come help every day.
Besides, Jiang Yanyi had been scolded like a grandson defending her. With that, who would dare try to persuade anyone?
“Then, are you angry? Sad?” Xiao Bai looked up and asked.
“Not sad,” Chi Xiaoxue said, ruffling the child’s curly hair again. “Ah, you’re just a kid; don’t worry about these things. I have… my own ways.”
As they talked, they strolled to the small park. Today, the park was different from usual—it was crowded with many people, bustling like a market.
At first, Xiao Bai thought Chi Xiaoxue was just putting on a brave face. But seeing so many people, Chi Xiaoxue let out an excited “Whoop!” and rushed over to join the excitement.
Then Xiao Bai knew—this robot really had a big heart.
Chi Xiaoxue walked through the crowd with the child and quickly figured out the situation.
It turned out the people setting up stalls in the community were from kindergarten admissions offices.
Chi Xiaoxue could barely read. There were introductions written at each stall, but she couldn’t understand them. So, she grabbed a kind-looking auntie to ask.
It turned out these stalls were affiliated kindergartens of various institutions like the Agricultural Sciences Academy, University of Science and Technology, Arts College, Polytechnic Institute, etc. Nowadays, major institutions with resources basically had their own affiliated kindergartens, elementary schools, and middle schools, cultivating industry talents from a young age.
Plus, since there weren’t many children in society, the major institutions competed fiercely for students—almost insanely.
The auntie told Chi Xiaoxue that as long as there was a preschool-aged child at home, they could go to the stalls to collect registration forms and free gift packs.
Hearing there were free things to get, how could Chi Xiaoxue miss a zero-pay shopping opportunity? She immediately dragged Xiao Bai into a stall queue.
Standing on tiptoe, craning her neck, she saw the people ahead had received various beautiful stones. She was also full of anticipation.
When it was their turn, Chi Xiaoxue listened to the teacher behind the stall introduce it—this was the stall of the Geology Institute.
After listening to some institute promotion, the teacher asked about Xiao Bai’s basic information, registered it on an electronic notepad, and then asked for parent contact details.
Chi Xiaoxue stumbled. But Xiao Bai, hands on the table edge, chin resting on the surface, seriously recited Jiang Yanyi’s phone number.
After registering, they successfully received a tote bag.
Chi Xiaoxue and Xiao Bai squeezed out of the crowd, found a less crowded spot, squatted down, and opened the gift box. Inside was a delicate pearl necklace and some paper items.
Neither of them could understand what was written on the papers. They looked at the pictures—some rocks and school classrooms.
Chi Xiaoxue held up the necklace and asked Xiao Bai, “This… do you want it?”
Xiao Bai shook her head.
So Chi Xiaoxue put the pearl necklace around her own neck, crumpled the papers from the gift box into a ball, threw them in the trash, took Xiao Bai’s hand, and went to queue at the next stall.