The child squatted silently in the corner. It felt like the air around that small area had become heavier with low pressure.
Chi Xiaoxue scratched her face, unsure what she had done to make the child suddenly become so clingy.
She had no choice but to take Xiao Bai and ask her aunt if the two of them could go out together.
Her aunt was lowering her head, kneading dough, and didn’t even look up. “Alright, go ahead. Buy it and come right back. No wandering around outside.”
Chi Xiaoxue opened her mouth in disbelief, feeling her aunt had agreed a bit too casually.
Actually, in this world that coexists with intelligent robots, robots are humanity’s most trusted partners.
The tech giant, Meteorite Technology, once released two advertisements.
One ad showed a robot holding a child’s hand walking on the street. The apocalypse suddenly descends—first an earthquake, then a tsunami, and finally a zombie outbreak.
When the child grows to eighteen, the apocalypse ends. The robot still holds the hand of the child who is now an adult.
The second ad showed a robot and a child sent to the moon together. The robot overcomes all difficulties and begins building a spaceship on the moon.
When the spaceship is completed, the child has grown up, married an alien, and had little alien babies. But the robot still steadfastly sends him back to his home on Earth.
Although the ads were somewhat exaggerated, meticulously designed robots are indeed more reliable than the vast majority of humans.
That’s why her aunt agreed so matter-of-factly to Chi Xiaoxue taking Xiao Bai out alone.
It was just that Chi Xiaoxue herself lacked confidence. At first, she felt a bit anxious walking alone with the child, but she soon got excited by the novel experience.
Walking along the tree-lined path holding the leash of the little curly-top, feeling the long-missed breath of freedom, Chi Xiaoxue soon began to hum a tune as she walked.
Walking along the familiar path of the school,
In the morning,I arrive to study deng deng,
Deng deng deng the sun shines on my face,deng deng deng deng deng deng deng deng deng…
The little curly-top walking ahead suddenly stopped and turned her head to ask, “What are you singing?”
“A so…song.”
“Oh.” Xiao Bai nodded, turned around, looked at the sky speechlessly, then raised her hands and covered her ears.
“I was… the lead singer,” Chi Xiaoxue protested somewhat indignantly upon seeing Xiao Bai cover her ears.
This song was one she learned in kindergarten. She was even selected to be the lead singer. She was so proud back then, which is why she still remembered the melody, though some of the lyrics were a bit fuzzy.
After she stopped singing for a while, Xiao Bai put her hands down.
As they neared the store, Chi Xiaoxue suddenly remembered: she wasn’t the lead singer at all. She used to sing off-key back then. The teacher even told her just to move her mouth and not make a sound.
She only stood in the front row center because she was pretty.
Sigh.
What kind of memory was that?
Recalling the truth dealt a blow to Chi Xiaoxue. With a wooden expression, she led Xiao Bai into the small supermarket.
As soon as she entered, Chi Xiaoxue looked for the robot assistant she saw yesterday to ask where the vinegar was.
But she couldn’t find yesterday’s round-headed, round-bodied metal robot. Sitting behind the cashier counter was a very beautiful woman.
“Aunt—”
Chi Xiaoxue opened her mouth to call her ‘auntie,’ but remembering she now looked like an adult, she cleared her throat twice and asked in a mature tone, “Do you have vinegar?”
The woman looked up. Seeing Chi Xiaoxue, she was momentarily taken aback, then pointed to the very last row of shelves.
“The vinegar is on that row.”
Chi Xiaoxue led Xiao Bai to the seasoning aisle. Looking at the myriad of bottles and jars on the shelves, the two little illiterates were stumped again. They whispered to each other, trying to figure out which one was the vinegar for dipping dumplings.
Given the previous lesson of mistaking adhesive for body wash, neither of them dared to jump to a conclusion. After a long discussion, they still couldn’t decide.
“Need some help?” A slightly husky but pleasant female voice came from behind.
Both heads turned in unison to see the female shopkeeper from behind the counter walking over.
Her skin was very fair. Standing there in a dark red dress, she reminded Chi Xiaoxue of the table lamp at her old home with the red velvet cloth covering.
“We don’t know which one is the vinegar for dipping dumplings,” Xiao Bai volunteered.
The shopkeeper glanced at the shelf and pointed to a particular bottle of vinegar. “This one usually sells quite well.”
“This…one then.” Chi Xiaoxue nodded, pretending to be knowledgeable.
The aromatic vinegar was 7 yuan a bottle. Chi Xiaoxue’s aunt had given her 10 yuan, so she got 3 yuan in change.
Chi Xiaoxue took the vinegar and the change, leading Xiao Bai out. Just as they stepped out of the store, she turned back, her eyes fixed on a small display rack in front of the cashier.
The rack held some small snacks. Although Chi Xiaoxue couldn’t read anymore, she recognized the logo on the packaging of those snacks. The design was the same as the one on the nutritional jelly cups she ate.
“Are these robot snacks?” Chi Xiaoxue pointed at the snacks and looked up at the shopkeeper.
“Yes.”
The shopkeeper leaned her elbows on the counter, looking at her with interest:
“Snacks on this rack are 5 yuan each.Buy one and get a sticker. Collect 5 stickers, and you can exchange them for a free snack. Are you buying for yourself or for someone else?”
“F…for myself.” Chi Xiaoxue, after all, was still young and didn’t understand the trick in adult conversation, answering honestly.
“You’re a robot?”
The shopkeeper was surprised. It was her first time seeing a robot like Chi Xiaoxue. Apart from her somewhat strange way of speaking and walking, her appearance was almost indistinguishable from a real human.
No wonder she had felt something was off about Chi Xiaoxue earlier.
Chi Xiaoxue corrected her seriously:
“It’s…hyper-realistic humanoid bionic. Bio… biological.”
This was the first time Chi Xiaoxue had spoken such a long sentence since transmigrating. After finishing, she proudly winked at Xiao Bai.
Xiao Bai was also very supportive, immediately tilting her head up and smiling at her.
The supermarket owner nodded thoughtfully. She had previously seen online reports about Meteorite Technology’s hyper-realistic humanoid bionics—the highest level of intelligent robots currently available. Not only were they extremely lifelike in appearance, but they could also mimic human emotions, practically reaching the level of being indistinguishable from real humans.
To be honest, such robots were hard not to be fascinated by, but ultimately, the price was a deterrent. Robots costing tens of millions were truly not something ordinary people could afford.
She hadn’t expected to see one in person today.
Seeing the shopkeeper still studying her, Chi Xiaoxue also looked up and met her gaze. After staring at each other for a moment, Chi Xiaoxue placed the crumpled, wrinkled bills in her hand on the counter and pointed at the snack rack again:
“I want to buy…one.”
“Can’t buy it.”The shopkeeper shook her head with a smile. “5 yuan each. You only have 3 yuan here. Not enough.”
As she spoke, her smile widened. “The most advanced bionic can’t do such simple math?”
Chi Xiaoxue felt a bit embarrassed—that same feeling of anger and awkwardness she used to get as a kid when adults teased her. She grabbed the money, took Xiao Bai’s hand, and turned to leave.
The shopkeeper laughed from behind, “Hey, I’ll give you a snack.”
Chi Xiaoxue heard her but ignored her, even urging Xiao Bai in a low voice, “Hurry. That person… has issues. Deceives kids.”
They didn’t linger on the way back and soon arrived home. Her aunt looked at the vinegar they brought back and seemed quite satisfied. “Good, this vinegar smells nice.”
Then she asked Chi Xiaoxue, “Where’s the 3 yuan in change?”
Chi Xiaoxue pulled the crumpled bills from her pocket and handed them to her aunt.
Today’s errand yielded no perks. Back when she ran errands for her parents, she could always pocket something, especially from her dad who was careless with money. Chi Xiaoxue could skim ten or twenty yuan while running errands for him, and he wouldn’t notice.
But at least she had completed the task successfully. She soon cheered up again.
Chi Xiaoxue sat down on the cushion in front of the coffee table, thinking that no matter what, she had to start studying now.
Staring at the AI teacher on the tablet for a while, Chi Xiaoxue only saw the teacher’s mouth opening and closing. Her brain felt like it was filled with a bowl of paste, and her eyes gradually glazed over.
In the tablet, the AI teacher had already progressed to middle school mathematics. For someone like Chi Xiaoxue who couldn’t even do basic addition and subtraction, listening to this was indeed a bit beyond her level.
Because she couldn’t understand, she quickly started daydreaming intensely.
She didn’t even notice when Xiao Bai slipped into the bedroom and soon returned, hunched over, hands over her stomach, quietly padding back like a kitten.
“Moji.”
Xiao Bai knelt on one knee on the carpet, pulled a red envelope from her belly (clothing), and showed it to her:
“I have money.I’ll buy you that robot snack.”
Chi Xiaoxue seemed to snap back from her daydreaming state. Looking down in a daze, she saw Xiao Bai pulling out several bills from the envelope to show her.
Chi Xiaoxue might have forgotten what one plus one equals, but she hadn’t forgotten what banknotes looked like. She quickly recognized that Xiao Bai was holding several hundred-yuan bills, along with fifty and twenty-yuan notes.
“Wow.” Chi Xiaoxue exclaimed in awe. This was serious money.
Xiao Bai pulled out a hundred-yuan bill and handed it over, looking up at her with her big puppy-dog eyes. “For you.”
“No,no. I can’t… spend… a child’s… money.” Chi Xiaoxue put on a show of polite refusal.
“Oh,I see.” But Xiao Bai looked regretful, carefully putting the bill away, standing up, and preparing to leave.
“Hey,hey.” Chi Xiaoxue hurriedly called her back. “Count… count it as me borrowing from you.”
Chi Xiaoxue had never handled large sums of money before. In the past, the hundred-yuan bills from her New Year’s money were taken by her mom, who said she was saving them for her university. Chi Xiaoxue suspected that money had probably been spent during her illness.
Usually, the largest bill she spent was a twenty-yuan note. Anything more than that felt beyond her control.
Besides, since she was borrowing from a child now, she felt too embarrassed to ask for a huge amount. So, Chi Xiaoxue borrowed two ten-yuan bills.
With money in her pocket, Chi Xiaoxue grew even more restless. Her eyes were fixed on the learning computer, but her mind had long flown to the store, scheming about how to find an opportunity to sneak out and buy something.
As she was scheming, she ended up waiting for Jiang Yanyi to return first. He put down his bag, washed his hands, then rolled up his shirt sleeves and walked straight over to Chi Xiaoxue.
Feeling him getting closer, the hair on Chi Xiaoxue’s back stood on end.
She didn’t dare look back. Her artificial heart pounded loudly, just like the feeling in childhood when she hadn’t been paying attention in class, and the teacher was about to call someone to the blackboard to solve a problem, and suddenly their gaze landed on her face.
Usually, in such moments, you shouldn’t easily make eye contact with the teacher. Once eye contact is made, nine times out of ten, you’re the one.
So, with experience, Chi Xiaoxue kept her eyes fixed on the computer, pretending to still be studying diligently. She held her breath, silently chanting in her heart: Demons and monsters, go away.
Jiang Yanyi rolled his shirt sleeves up to his forearms, leaned over to look at the tablet screen, and saw the AI teacher explaining a math problem:
Given X+y=1, find the maximum value of (X+1)(5y+2).
Out of a teacher’s professional habit, he naturally extended his index finger and tapped the screen in the air: “Moji, solve this problem.”