The gloom brought by the red prawn didn’t last long. Once Chi Xiaoxue arrived at the mall, she inexplicably began to feel excited.
It was her first time seeing such a large mall. Its exterior was a massive semi-glass structure, bright and transparent everywhere. Various forms of robots moved briskly through it with stern expressions, as if entering a huge alien spaceship.
The mall robots were different from her; they didn’t look too human-like. They were all humanoid metal robots, which actually fit Chi Xiaoxue’s impression of robots better.
Jiang Yanyi was using a leash similar to a dog leash to hold the little curly-haired girl. As soon as they entered the mall, the child pointed in another direction and said, “I won’t go shopping. I want to go over there to watch 3D animation.”
“Alright.”
As he said this, Jiang Yanyi called over a robot wearing a mall uniform, scanned the QR code on the robot’s chest with his phone, linked the robot with the child’s smart leash, then said to the robot:
“You accompany her to watch the animated movie. After it ends, come find me. My phone location has already been shared with your system.”
“Yes, Mr. Jiang. Pleased to serve you.”
The humanoid robot gave a professional smile, then led the child away.
Chi Xiaoxue watched this scene in surprise, pointing in the direction they left. “Child.”
Then she glared at Jiang Yiany. “Lost… lost.”
Jiang Yanyi laughed at her. He looked especially gentle when he smiled, his dark, bright eyes curved, with a small dimple at the corner of his lips.
“She won’t get lost. That’s the mall’s security robot. It will stay with Zhibai and bring her back safely after the task is over.”
“Zhibai.” Chi Xiaoxue repeated the child’s name.
Jiang Yanyi gestured for her to follow him and said as they walked, “I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Jiang Yanyi.”
“Jiang Yanyi.” Chi Xiaoxue repeated again.
“The child who just left is my daughter. Her name is Jiang Zhibai.”
“Jiang Zhibai.”
At this point, Jiang Yanyi didn’t continue. Chi Xiaoxue then took the initiative to ask, “Apron… nanny.”
Jiang Yanyi paused for a moment. “You mean the aunt wearing an apron at home?”
“Yes.”
“She’s not a nanny; she’s my aunt.” Jiang Yanyi emphasized, “My biological aunt. Don’t call her a nanny, or she’ll hit your head with a big hammer later.”
Chi Xiaoxue instinctively touched her head, thinking, What’s this? Not even a nanny, and you call this a wealthy family?
As they talked, they reached the third-floor women’s clothing section. Jiang Yanyi said to Chi Xiaoxue, “Moji, you can pick some clothes you like here.”
To increase the human-like quality of bionic androids, certain preference attributes are added during design, such as favorite colors, tastes, styles, etc.
Although these preferences are samples extracted from human preferences based on big data algorithms, they do give users the illusion that bionic androids also have aesthetic awareness.
Moji had excellent body proportions—slim and well-proportioned, with fair and clean skin—so she could probably handle any style of clothing.
Jiang Yanyi considered himself a very open-minded parent. Even though he knew her preferences were just machine algorithms, within reasonable limits, he would allow her to choose things she liked.
Just as he was thinking this, he turned around and found the robot missing.
Jiang Yanyi scanned the area and spotted her in a store selling women’s lingerie.
She had rabbit ears on her head and was holding a strappy dress up against herself. A sales robot next to her was eagerly saying something.
Jiang Yanyi’s mind buzzed. He strode into the lingerie shop. Chi Xiaoxue saw him come in and happily waved the small dress in her hand. “I want…”
Before she could finish her sentence, Jiang Yanyi’s face darkened. “You can’t buy this. Put it back.”
Chi Xiaoxue tightly clutched the little dress to her chest. Jiang Yanyi snatched it from her hands and handed it back to the sales robot. He also took off the rabbit ears she had already put on her head and returned them as well.
Dragged out of the lingerie store by Jiang Yanyi, Chi Xiaoxue looked unhappy. He had clearly said she could pick what she liked, but when she actually did, he refused.
That little rabbit dress was so cute! It had ears and even came with a little tail.
Chi Xiaoxue looked up at Jiang Yanyi, seeing his ears and neck flushed red. She thought, Why is he unhappy? His face is even red with anger.
After walking around the women’s clothing section, Jiang Yanyi truly couldn’t figure out what kind of person’s data her original preferences were extracted from.
Whether it was a liking for lingerie or various exaggerated, flashy matronly dresses, she even wanted to buy a pair of gold Chelsea boots—the kind with tips so sharp they could be used as weapons.
Those gold Chelsea boots had probably been sitting in that store for at least three years. Jiang Yanyi saw them almost every time he came here.
When he dragged Moji away, the store’s sales robot looked a little disappointed, probably thinking the ugly item that hadn’t sold for years was finally going to be taken off their hands.
Although Jiang Yanyi considered himself an open-minded parent, he really couldn’t accept this kind of aesthetic—a fluorescent green strappy dress paired with gold Chelsea boots. So he reclaimed the robot’s autonomy.
He took charge and selected a few simple, everyday outfits for Chi Xiaoxue, along with two sets of pure cotton underwear.
They were all brand-name items, but as they walked down from the women’s clothing section, Chi Xiaoxue looked unhappy. She felt the clothes Jiang Yanyi picked for her were too ordinary, simply unworthy of her noble status as a transmigrated female lead.
After buying the clothes, Xiao Bai was still watching the animated movie. Jiang Yanyi went directly to the first-floor 3D holographic screen to find her.
The little curly-haired girl was squatting in front of the big screen watching the animation, not blinking her eyes. Behind her, the robot holding the leash stood upright.
Jiang Yanyi walked over. When the child saw him, she got up and came over. “Are we going home?” she asked.
Jiang Yanyi: “Don’t you want to buy anything?”
Jiang Zhibai thought for a moment, then shook her head. “No, Grandma bought me new clothes and shoes last week, and they all fit well.”
“We still need to go to the underground supermarket,” Jiang Yanyi said.
Jiang Zhibai glanced back at the animated movie playing on the big screen. It seemed she wanted to stay and continue watching, but she knew that after going to the supermarket, they would directly get in the car and leave, not return here. So she obediently followed to the supermarket.
Jiang Yanyi selected items in front, while Chi Xiaoxue pushed the shopping cart behind him. Xiao Bai sat in the child seat at the front of the shopping cart. When she saw the cake she liked to eat, she pointed and said:
“Daddy, buy that filled cake.”
Jiang Yanyi picked up that cake and carefully examined the ingredient list, then picked up a similar cake next to it and looked at it. He then said to the child:
“Zhibai, Daddy suggests you buy the one next to it. The sugar content in the one you picked is too high; it’s not good for your health.”
“But that one tastes better.”
“Exactly because it has more sugar, it tastes better. But eating too much sugar isn’t healthy.”
Jiang Zhibai hesitated only briefly before nodding in agreement. “Okay, then this one.”
Chi Xiaoxue stood beside them pushing the shopping cart. After Jiang Yanyi put the cake into the cart, she continued pushing it forward.
After restocking the household’s regular food supplies, Jiang Yanyi specifically went to the robot food section.
The robot food section also had a wide variety. At a glance, there were common snacks like drinks, cakes, jellies, and so on.
Actually, the essence of these snacks was a kind of lubricating nutrient solution, used to maintain the robot’s joint lubrication and keep its mucous membranes moist.
Robots with tear glands, when crying, also produce nutrient solution from their eyes to simulate tears.
Capitalists take the same substance and shape it into various forms, resulting in price differences of dozens of times.
Jiang Yanyi actually just wanted to buy some of the cheapest bottled nutrient solution; after all, the ingredients were the same stuff.
But there was a tasting event here. Several robots were lined up to try samples. Before he realized it, his own robot was already holding a toothpick with a small piece of jelly, eating it.
Seeing Jiang Yanyi looking at her, the robot immediately waved at him. “Delicious, sour… sour, sweet.”
Bio-bionic androids like Moji do indeed have “taste,” but unlike humans’ subjective taste experience, her taste mainly comes from an array of sensors in her oral cavity detecting scents, which are then transmitted to the intelligent brain for AI analysis. Finally, the corresponding flavor is extracted from the database.
If it were a professional food analysis robot, it could basically recognize the five basic tastes—sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and spicy—as well as the countless flavors derived from these five, much like a human.
But Moji was just an ordinary family companion robot. She didn’t have such professional taste buds; she could only roughly recognize the five scents of sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and spicy. The more concentrated the scent, the more accurately she could identify it.
Capitalists took advantage of this characteristic of robots and manipulated these robot foods. The more expensive the food, the more concentrated flavorings were added. Robots would show particular favor toward these concentrated scents, and owners would be happy to pay for them.
Actually, this phenomenon extends to pet food as well. Many foods for cats and dogs have appetite stimulants added. The more stimulants, the more pets love to eat them, and the more owners are willing to spend money.
But these flavorings and appetite stimulants are essentially cheap, artificially synthesized foods that aren’t worth that much money at all.
Jiang Yanyi earned a decent income, but he always valued cost-effectiveness. It wasn’t that expensive things couldn’t be bought, but the spending had to be worthwhile.
He looked at the price of the jelly: 58 yuan for 8 small jellies. For the same functional bottled nutrient solution, 58 yuan could buy 29 bottles.
While Jiang Yanyi was looking at the price, Chi Xiaoxue already had a pack of nutrient solution jelly shoved into her hands by a sales robot.
She hugged that pack of jelly, unwilling to let go. Jiang Yanyi tried to coax her, “Don’t buy this. I’ll buy you nutrient solution drinks. They taste just as good, sour and sweet.”
Hearing it was the same flavor, Chi Xiaoxue prepared to put the jelly back.
But the quick-eyed sales robot next to them had already swiftly poured half a small paper cup of nutrient solution and handed it to Chi Xiaoxue, cheekily saying:
“This is the nutrient solution drink he mentioned. It’s not sour and sweet at all.”
Chi Xiaoxue hesitantly took a sip. It really wasn’t sour and sweet at all—just a bland, watery taste.
The flavor was even blander than what she ate when she was a vegetative patient.
Holding the small paper cup, biting her lower lip, she looked up at Jiang Yanyi from below. She didn’t say a word, but her mournful eyes said it all.
Under her mournful gaze, Jiang Yanyi gradually gave in. Unable to hold out, he said, “Just one pack.”
The sales robot chimed in, “Buy two, get one free! Today, if you buy two packs, you get one free pack. Three big packs in total! And the three packs are different flavors!”
If this salesperson were human, they probably would’ve been punched by now. But they were just a robot. Scolding them wouldn’t be understood; hitting them wouldn’t hurt.
Jiang Yanyi directly ignored what the robot said, picked up one pack of jelly, put it in the shopping cart, and turned to leave. After walking a few steps, he came back, grabbed a case of nutrient solution drinks, and put it in the cart as well.