After receiving an IV drip and taking medication, Jiang Yanyi drifted into a dazed sleep. When he woke up, it was already noon.
The hospital bed was a meter and a half wide—more than enough space for a grown man to sleep comfortably. Yet, Jiang Yanyi found himself pressed against the edge of the bed, one slight move away from falling off.
Meanwhile, his family companion robot was lying flat on its back beside him, occupying half the bed. A charging cable was connected to its waist, and it stared idly at the ceiling, seemingly bored.
Chi Xiaoxue sensed someone looking at her and turned her head, meeting Jiang Yanyi’s dark, heavy gaze.
“You’re awake?” Chi Xiaoxue sat up calmly, smoothing down her long hair.
“Are you hungry? The nursing assistant robot said the hospital cafeteria has patient meals. Should I ask it to bring something?”
She glanced at the charging indicator light on the inside of her wrist. The green light was on, showing that the battery was fully charged. She casually unplugged the charging cable.
Still groggy from the illness, Jiang Yanyi was momentarily distracted by her question and forgot what he had been about to say.
“Just something light,” he replied. Having eaten nothing in the morning, he did feel a bit hungry.
Chi Xiaoxue pressed the red call button on the bedside table. “Kangkang, go to the cafeteria and get a light meal, and bring a pack of nutrient jelly as well.”
Who was Kangkang?
And who mentioned jelly?
Never mind.
Jiang Yanyi closed his eyes, too exhausted to think about it.
Shortly after the instruction was given, the nursing assistant robot named Kangkang entered the room, pushing a small cart. It unfolded the bedside tray table and placed the food from the cart onto it, arranging the containers one by one.
“The patient meal looks pretty good,” Chi Xiaoxue remarked, sitting back in the chair beside the bed with her arms crossed, commenting on the food.
She then picked up her jelly pack from the cart, tore it open, and took a sip of the sweet-and-sour flavored artificial liquid.
After a small sip, she suddenly remembered something and looked up.
“Jiang Yanyi, do you have Teacher Yue’s phone number?”
“Yes.” Jiang Yanyi had just lifted a spoonful of vegetable porridge to his mouth but set it back down upon hearing her speak.
“Then give the teacher a call and let Xiao Bai know. This morning, she… was worried about you,” Chi Xiaoxue said between bites of jelly, speaking in fragments.
Jiang Yanyi had been overwhelmed by the pain earlier, but her reminder brought his daughter back to mind.
In a situation like this morning, he couldn’t imagine how uneasy the child must have felt.
Instantly losing his appetite, he picked up his phone, dialed Teacher Yue’s number, explained the situation, and asked if it would be possible to speak with Jiang Zhibai.
“Zhibai, it’s me, Dad. Yeah, I’m okay now, at the hospital. What did you have for lunch? Are you settling in at school? Focus on your studies. I’ll see you after school.”
After finishing the call with Zhibai, Jiang Yanyi put down his phone and picked up the spoon again to resume his meal.
After a few sips of porridge, he noticed Chi Xiaoxue occasionally glancing at him while eating her jelly, as if she had something to say.
Jiang Yanyi set down his spoon once more and looked at her. “Moji, is there something on your mind?”
“Nothing,” Chi Xiaoxue replied, lowering her head to continue eating her jelly.
Finishing one pack, she casually asked, as if it were just a passing thought, “She didn’t ask about me?”
“Huh?” Jiang Yanyi looked up.
“Zhibai, on the phone… didn’t she ask about me?”
When Jiang Yanyi called, the child was taking a nap and had to be woken up by the teacher to answer the phone. Still half-asleep, she simply responded to Jiang Yanyi’s questions one by one, and indeed hadn’t thought about Chi Xiaoxue.
The word “no” was on the tip of Jiang Yanyi’s tongue, but when he saw Moji staring at him with hopeful eyes, he changed his response:
“She did. She said she misses you.”
Chi Xiaoxue pursed her lips and hummed softly in acknowledgment.
After all, she was just a small robot, incapable of hiding her emotions. Her mood visibly brightened, and soon after, she began humming a tune quietly.
Jiang Yanyi, already uncomfortable from his illness, now had to endure such off-key singing. He was starting to regret what he’d said.
·
As it neared Xiao Bai’s dismissal time, Jiang Yanyi had already returned home from the hospital.
For someone in his condition, the doctor said it would take about a week to see significant improvement. Even after being discharged, a doctor would visit daily for follow-ups, and he would still need IV drips for several more days.
He had rented a wheelchair from the hospital, but bending his legs was painful. Chi Xiaoxue placed several cushions on the coffee table to prop his legs up straight.
When the school bus was nearing home, the teacher called Jiang Yanyi, asking the parent to come to the entrance to meet the child ahead of time.
Despite his mobility issues, Jiang Yanyi insisted on going to the entrance to pick up his daughter. After all, it was her first day of school, and seeing her father standing—well, sitting—there when she got off the bus would surely make her happy.
He maneuvered the wheelchair outside, passing through the gate and facing a short flight of four steps.
Seeing this, Chi Xiaoxue hurriedly called out, “Wait for me—”
Just then, the intelligent gear blocks on the wheelchair’s wheels detected the steps ahead. The flexible structure on the tire surface deformed, molding like soft gel to fit the curvature of the steps, steadily lowering the wheelchair to the ground below.
Sitting at the bottom of the steps, Jiang Yanyi turned back to look at the running robot. “What’s wrong?”
Chi Xiaoxue had been about to say she would help move the wheelchair down, but now that she saw it had managed on its own, she shook her head. “Nothing.”
She then ran back inside to carry the quilt she had just brought downstairs back up to the bedroom on the second floor.
She had initially thought Jiang Yanyi might have trouble going up and down the stairs, so she brought the quilt down, planning for him to sleep on the sofa that night.
Who knew wheelchairs in this world were so smart too?
After returning the quilt and clattering back downstairs, Chi Xiaoxue ran outside. The school bus had already stopped in front of the house.
Xiao Bai held the teacher’s hand as she jumped off the bus.
In front, she wore a small backpack; behind, she carried a rolled-up bundle of bedding. Hanging from her backpack were a jumble of items—a water bottle, a small bowl, a milk bottle, and more.
“Did she just return from a training exercise?” The thought instantly crossed Chi Xiaoxue’s mind at the sight of Xiao Bai’s getup.
The teacher, with a round face and a friendly demeanor, stood inside the bus door, smiling and waving at Xiao Bai:
“Goodbye, Jiang Zhibai. Don’t forget to bring these things back to school tomorrow.”
The family of three stood at the entrance of the villa until the bright yellow school bus disappeared from view. Jiang Yanyi then turned to Xiao Bai. “Zhibai, why did you bring all this stuff back?”
“The teacher said these are my personal belongings, bought and paid for by you, Dad.”
Xiao Bai placed a hand on the wheelchair armrest:
“Dad, did your legs break? Why are you in a wheelchair?”
“My legs are fine. I’m just using the wheelchair temporarily for a few days.”
Jiang Yanyi continued, “It’s true these are your personal belongings, but you’ll need them at school when you go back.”
“I’m not going back to school anymore,” the child declared matter-of-factly.
“Why?”
“I’ve already experienced school. Didn’t you say, Dad, that you have to try things yourself to know if they suit you? Well, I think school just doesn’t suit me.”
Xiao Bai set down the equipment she had brought back in the entryway, switched into her cotton slippers, and pattered into the living room.
Jiang Yanyi, enduring the physical pain, rested his head in his hand and followed in his wheelchair.
When they entered, Xiao Bai was standing by the coffee table, trying to poke the straw into her yogurt. After a few unsuccessful attempts, she suddenly grew angry and began violently smacking the yogurt container.
“Zhibai, let Dad help you with that.”
Jiang Yanyi reached out toward her. The child huffed and threw the yogurt onto the coffee table, crossing her arms and turning her face away in a sulk.
“Are you thirsty?” Jiang Yanyi leaned forward, picked up the yogurt from the floor, inserted the straw, and handed it back to the child.
The inexplicably furious child kept her arms crossed, refusing to take the yogurt from her father.
Jiang Yanyi placed the yogurt on the coffee table in front of her and continued patiently, “Are you feeling unwell somewhere? Did you argue with another kid at school? Or did you not sleep well during nap time and are still feeling grumpy?”
He asked several questions in a row, but the little curly-haired girl just pouted silently, her head sinking lower and lower until, like a little ostrich, it was completely buried against her belly.
Jiang Yanyi had no choice but to call the teacher, hoping to ask if something unpleasant had happened at school.
The response, however, was that Jiang Zhibai had been very well-behaved at school—following rules, staying emotionally stable, cooperating with meals and naps, and even earning a “Good Child” red flag.
The only anomaly was Jiang Zhibai’s request to bring her personal belongings home. Since it was her first day of school, the teacher, concerned about upsetting her, had agreed to let her take them home temporarily.
In short, up until she got off the school bus, Teacher Yue had noticed nothing unusual about the child.
After hanging up the call, Jiang Yanyi looked at the child curled up in the corner of the sofa, head buried against her belly, and felt at a loss.
He had no idea what was wrong with the child—this had never happened before.
But he couldn’t ignore her emotions either.
Clearing his throat and about to offer some comfort, he suddenly saw an arm appear beside his knee, followed by a fluffy head popping up.
“I have something to say.”
He hadn’t noticed when Moji had squatted down next to the wheelchair, and her sudden appearance startled him.
Chi Xiaoxue waved her hand. “Professor Jiang, I request permission to speak.”
“Go ahead.” Jiang Yanyi was puzzled by her behavior.
“I know what’s going on with her. Jiang Zhibai—she has After-School Bastard Syndrome.”
“After-School Bastard Syndrome?” Jiang Yanyi repeated in surprise. “What does that mean?”
Chi Xiaoxue stood up from beside the wheelchair. “I… heard it’s also called ‘a bully at home.’”
She nearly blurted out that her mom called it “a bully at home,” but fortunately, she caught herself in time.
Back when she was in school, her reactions had been almost identical to Jiang Zhibai’s—well-behaved at school, following rules, friendly with classmates.
But as soon as she got home, she couldn’t control her temper and would lose it, only to get a good scolding from her mom each time.
It wasn’t until later, when she heard from a neighbor who was a retired elementary school teacher, that she learned this was called After-School Bastard Syndrome. Essentially, it meant suppressing one’s true nature at school and then releasing those pent-up emotions in front of familiar family members.
“Lots of kids are like this,” the teacher-grandma had said with a smile, advising Ms. Ningxia. “Put the slipper down first and talk to the child properly.”
“She’s just a bully at home, venting at home whatever frustrations she faces outside,” Ms. Ningxia had grumbled, though she gave the teacher-grandma face by putting the slipper back on her foot.
Chi Xiaoxue’s insights came from personal experience—truths gleaned under the threat of a slipper.
But Jiang Yanyi didn’t believe her. He pulled out his phone and started searching: what psychological mechanism explained a child throwing a tantrum for no reason after school?
The results he found were indeed similar to what the robot had said, and there really was such a common childhood behavioral phenomenon as “After-School Bastard Syndrome.”
“How did you know about this?” Jiang Yanyi was puzzled. She was an illiterate robot who couldn’t read, couldn’t go online, and had no one around to tell her these things.
Chi Xiaoxue found herself in a difficult spot again. She couldn’t tell Jiang Yanyi that she had gone through it herself, so she just patted his thigh and said, “Don’t ask too many questions about robots’ business.”