Pushed by Chi Xiaoxue, Jiang Yanyi entered the flower shop. Holding his phone, he glanced back at her with a puzzled look, but the robot offered no explanation, simply kept pushing the wheelchair in silence.
He was still speaking with the publishing director and couldn’t ask aloud, so he had to let her push him forward.
Chi Xiaoxue wheeled him all the way to the large cube of ice, her gaze falling on Jiang Yanyi’s hand resting on the wheelchair armrest. After hesitating for two seconds, she directly took his hand and pressed his fingers against the ice where the lollipop was frozen.
Jiang Yanyi understood, a slight smile curling at the corners of his eyes.
Feigning ignorance of her intentions, he let the robot place his hand on the ice, then withdrew it back to the armrest.
After repeating this several times, Chi Xiaoxue planted her hands on her hips, glaring at him indignantly.
“Chapter 72, the issue of certain industries disappearing due to artificial intelligence—I want to revise this part in the second edition. I think we should further discuss the impact of unemployment on the meaning of life. After years of observation and visits, I have some new thoughts I’d like to include in this edition.”
Jiang Yanyi continued speaking into the phone, his eyes smiling as he watched Chi Xiaoxue.
Chi Xiaoxue clasped her hands together and bowed to him a few times, pleading in a small voice, “Please, please.”
While talking on the phone, Jiang Yanyi rubbed the ice with his fingertip. The ice gradually began to melt, cool water soon dampening and softening his hand.
The robot Xiao Hua brought the packaged bouquet over. Jiang Yanyi gestured for her to place it on the table, then offered his index finger to her.
Xiao Hua used iris recognition to scan Jiang Yanyi’s fingerprint and complete the payment, then returned to helping the anniversary couple choose flowers.
Though the flowers were ready, Jiang Yanyi didn’t seem in a hurry to leave. Still on the phone, he continued using his finger’s warmth to melt the ice.
Chi Xiaoxue crouched beside the wheelchair, leaning against the armrest, hugging her legs as she watched Jiang Yanyi’s hand.
At first, she only wanted to observe the melting progress. But as she watched, she suddenly felt an urge to cry.
The man’s beautiful hand, the sparkling giant ice block, and the blue Canterbury bells—the combined image inexplicably brought the word “loneliness” to Chi Xiaoxue’s mind.
She didn’t even know how to write the characters for “loneliness,” yet this loneliness suddenly intruded into her consciousness.
By the time they left the flower shop with the Canterbury bells, Chi Xiaoxue had a cool lollipop tucked into her pocket. She stared at Jiang Yanyi’s slightly reddened fingers from the cold, feeling an indescribable sense of melancholy.
It was similar to the feeling she had that day when leaving the Bai family villa, watching Jiang Yanyi carry Xiao Bai into the sunset.
Chi Xiaoxue couldn’t figure out where this inexplicable sadness came from.
Turning out of the flower shop’s side alley, the family’s black self-driving car had somehow already pulled up by the roadside.
Once they reached the car, Jiang Yanyi stood up from the wheelchair, steadied himself against the door, and got in.
The smart wheelchair automatically folded into a square case the size of a suitcase. Chi Xiaoxue dutifully placed it in the car trunk, then climbed into the car with the flowers.
The car left the community and drove onto an asphalt road lined with tall trees. After an indeterminate amount of time, buildings disappeared from view, replaced by vast stretches of forest along the straight road.
Neither had spoken much since getting in the car. Jiang Yanyi found the atmosphere somewhat heavy and reached over to roll down the window slightly.
Cool, gentle wind blew into the cabin from outside.
Then came a rustling sound. Jiang Yanyi turned to look and saw Moji bent over, unwrapping the lollipop.
She carefully folded the wrapper and tucked it back into her pocket. Licking the lollipop, she savored it for a while, and when the taste faded, she licked it again.
“Moji, I want to ask you something,” Jiang Yanyi suddenly spoke.
“Go ahead,” Chi Xiaoxue replied, enjoying the lollipop and the scenery outside without even turning her head.
“About the time you pressed the candy wrapper inside a book.”
Chi Xiaoxue immediately turned her head, eyeing him cautiously. “Is that not allowed?”
“It is. I just wanted to ask again, who taught you to press candy wrappers inside books?”
This was the second time Jiang Yanyi had asked her this question.
“I don’t know.”
Chi Xiaoxue wasn’t lying. So much time had passed, she’d long forgotten how she’d picked up this habit.
“Moji, you know what? Sometimes, you give me the illusion that you’re actually a real human.”
Chi Xiaoxue’s artificial heart pounded in her chest. The lollipop in her mouth made a muffled humming sound.
But Jiang Yanyi didn’t continue. Instead, he looked up at the holographic screen at the front of the cabin.
Since it was a self-driving car, there was no need to observe the road outside, so the traditional windshield was replaced by a holographic screen.
Currently, the screen displayed a real-time view of the scenery outside. Stretches of forest swept into view like green waves, and in one corner of the green, a small patch of mirror-like, clear blue appeared.
They were nearing the sea.
“Sometimes I wonder, are these quirks of yours real, or are they just my imagination? Is it you who’s strange, or is it me who has a psychological disorder?”
Jiang Yanyi spoke softly, almost to himself.
Chi Xiaoxue swallowed the sweet nutrient liquid, hesitated for a moment, then whispered, “Probably… a psychological disorder. You should make time to see a doctor.”
Feeling somewhat guilty, she turned her head away—and let out a cry. “The sea!”
While they were talking, the scenery outside the window had quietly transformed. The forest receded, replaced by an endless expanse of blue ocean filling her vision.
Chi Xiaoxue was born and raised by the sea. The ocean was her neighbor and her homesickness. Seeing the familiar blue sea so suddenly now moved her to tears.
“Moji, why are you crying?” After getting out of the car and settling into his wheelchair, Jiang Yanyi noticed the robot was crying again.
He’d brought her out to see the sights just to avoid studying—so why was she crying again?
“I… just drank too much nutrient liquid this morning,” Chi Xiaoxue brushed it off, then turned and ran toward the sea, shouting, “Ah, sea! You’re all water!”
Watching the crazed robot dash away, Jiang Yanyi seriously wondered who really needed to see a psychiatrist.
He sat by the car for a while, then turned and retrieved the bouquet from the car before slowly wheeling himself closer to the sea.
The smart wheelchair had a beach mode, but he didn’t venture onto the sand. Instead, he stopped near a rocky outcrop by the beach and placed the Canterbury bells on it.
Jiang Yanyi had visited this stretch of coastline countless times. Whether happy or sad, sunny or rainy, whenever he had time, he would bring a bunch of Canterbury bells and stay here for a while.
Surveillance footage showed that Bai Yidong’s last known location was near this sea.
He had often wondered if a miracle might happen, if he would reunite with his wife here.
But there were no miracles. Several times, unwilling to give up, he had stayed from sunrise to sunset, yet this remote stretch of coast didn’t even have a single passerby.
Today, however, Jiang Yanyi felt it was so noisy, as if someone had released a hundred ducks onto the beach.
Constant, gleeful laughter echoed in his ears.
“Jiang Yanyi, I found a sand crab building a nest! Aaaaah, come look, quick!”
Just as Jiang Yanyi thought, What’s so special about a sand crab building a nest? he saw a dark figure charging toward him, pushing his wheelchair back onto the sand.
Chi Xiaoxue had taken off her canvas shoes, tied the laces together, and hung them around her neck. The shoes dangling against her chest even held two socks inside.
Barefoot, with her pant legs rolled up high, she crouched beside the wheelchair, wide-eyed, watching the little sand crab build its nest.
The crab, barely larger than a fingernail, used its two tiny claws to quickly scoop up moist sand, building a semicircular wall around itself in layers.
Chi Xiaoxue pointed at the upside-down semicircle and asked, “See? Doesn’t the house it built look like a pineapple bun?”
“It does.” A faint dimple appeared at the corner of Jiang Yanyi’s lips.
Chi Xiaoxue lowered her head again to observe the little crab.
“This crab has it tough—working so hard just to have a home,” she remarked after watching for a while.
Jiang Yanyi nodded. “Surviving is hard for everyone.”
“But at least it doesn’t have to study,” Chi Xiaoxue added.
Jiang Yanyi: “…Everyone has their own struggles.”
Suddenly, Chi Xiaoxue reached out and poked down the wall the crab had just built. “Let it experience how treacherous the world can be.”
Jiang Yanyi: “……”
They stayed a bit longer, watching the crab rebuild its nest, before Chi Xiaoxue pushed Jiang Yanyi away.
As Chi Xiaoxue wheeled him around the beach, Jiang Yanyi realized how lively this stretch of coast actually was. Though no people passed through, it was home to all sorts of little crabs, shrimp, and oddly shaped shells.
Chi Xiaoxue stopped to toss a stranded large fish back into the water.
Her hands touched the fish, so she ran back to Jiang Yanyi. “Smell my hands—do they smell fishy?”
When Jiang Yanyi said yes, she ran back to the shore to wash her hands. After several trips, he finally said there was no smell, and she stopped.
Actually, there was still a faint odor—fish smell isn’t easily washed off with seawater alone—but Jiang Yanyi didn’t want her running back and forth anymore.
Chi Xiaoxue half-leaned against the large rock holding the flowers, hands braced behind her, squinting as she enjoyed the rare seaside view. Suddenly, she turned her head toward Jiang Yanyi:
“Jiang Yanyi, is this where your wife went missing?”
“How did you know?” Jiang Yanyi’s heart skipped a beat. Whenever someone mentioned Bai Yidong, he felt a pang of unease.
“At that villa last time, Shi Lan and the others mentioned your wife was last seen near the Xiao Ling coastline, right? I don’t know if this is Xiao Ling, but you brought flowers here, and the flower language is ‘eternal waiting.’ So I guessed your wife probably went missing here.”
Jiang Yanyi looked up at her. Her eyes, brighter and clearer than a human’s, shone with a glimmer of intelligence.
“You’re clever in everything except studying,” he replied indirectly, tacitly acknowledging it.
“I think you always seem a bit sad.”
Chi Xiaoxue swung her bare feet:
“Don’t be so heartbroken. She just got lost—it’s not like she passed away. Maybe you’ll see her again someday.”
“Actually, compared to how things are now, I’d rather she had passed away.”
Chi Xiaoxue widened her eyes. “Why?”
“If she had died, only I would be sad. I would raise our child steadily, calmly wait to grow old, wait to die, and pray to heaven for a reunion in the next life. But with a disappearance, I don’t know what she’s going through, whether someone might be hurting her, whether she’s suffering. The thought that she might be in pain doesn’t give me a single moment of peace.”
Jiang Yanyi rarely spoke about this with others. He was tired of everyone urging him to move forward.
If everyone moved on, what would happen to Bai Yidong?
Perhaps because he was speaking to a robot now, he let his guard down and voiced his deepest thoughts.
Hearing this, Chi Xiaoxue didn’t try to comfort him as others might.
She gazed at the sea, thinking seriously, then solemnly said, “Next time you go looking for her, I can go with you.”