Jiang Li believed he was a noble bionic robot, getting sick simply wasn’t something that could happen to him. At most, he’d need parts replaced. So there could only be one possibility.
The doctor had discovered he wasn’t human.
Those strange machines scanning him really had found something wrong, had they discovered he wasn’t human after all?
Help! Someone save this weak, pitiful, helpless robot.
Jiang Li heard his own heart stop for an instant, refusing to move an inch in his chair, as if glued to it.
Duan Zhihan took in the boy’s reaction fully. “So scared of seeing the doctor?”
Although Duan Zhihan was stating a fact, Jiang Li clearly wasn’t willing to admit it. He stood up coldly. “If you’re scared, don’t assume everyone else is too!”
The boy walked into the examination room, head held high, chest out, insisting he wasn’t afraid at all, but Duan Zhihan noticed his legs were trembling.
He watched thoughtfully for a moment. He’d originally assumed Jiang Li avoided the hospital because he was busy, he didn’t expect it was because he was afraid.
This was the first time Jiang Li had ever set foot in a doctor’s office, a novel experience for him. Half afraid, half curious, he studied the banner hanging on the wall.
The banner read: “Thank you, doctor, for saving my dog’s life.”
Clearly not sent by someone respectable.
Jiang Li turned to examine the sprouting potted plant on the desk, tempted to pluck it, perhaps his gaze was too obvious.
The doctor at the desk spoke up hurriedly. “You’re Jiang Li, right? There’s a mass about five centimeters in diameter on your right liver lobe.”
The doctor realized right after speaking how blunt he’d been, telling a nineteen-year-old that he had liver cancer, just like that, was too cruel. Even a fifty-year-old would break down emotionally upon hearing such news.
But the boy just turned his head away, expression cold, as if listening to news about a stranger’s condition, not the reaction one would expect from someone his age.
“This is already quite advanced.” The doctor sighed. “Why didn’t you come in sooner? I’m not sure if surgery is even still viable once you’re admitted, I’ll write up the admission form first.”
Jiang Li was relieved the hospital hadn’t discovered his robot identity, completely tuning out everything the doctor said.
He watched Duan Zhihan go quiet, then, after a long pause, walk over to the doctor’s computer to check the scan results.
The doctor pointed at the image on the screen. “A mass over five centimeters in diameter is classified as bulky-type liver cancer, which is usually difficult to cure surgically. We’ll do a thorough evaluation once he’s admitted.”
Duan Zhihan suddenly asked calmly, “Isn’t the name on this scan Li, not Jiang?”
“That can’t be right.” The doctor put on his glasses.
After looking closely at the name on the report, the doctor slapped his forehead. “Sorry, wrong file, that patient is a sixty-year-old man. This one here is his actual report.”
“His issue is much smaller, just a small nodule on the liver. Make sure to get an annual checkup to monitor the size, or it could turn cancerous before you notice.”
Duan Zhihan glanced at the report and quietly let out a breath of relief in his heart. He’d feared Jiang Li would die young again, just like in his past life, thankfully it was only a nodule.
Jiang Li, meanwhile, was thoroughly unimpressed by the doctor’s instructions, thinking to himself that this hospital’s technology was truly terrible if it couldn’t even detect a robot.
He started looking down at his phone game while Duan Zhihan asked the doctor, “Thank you, anything else we should watch for?”
“You really care about your partner.” The doctor praised him. “Not many people like you left these days. It’s really just a minor issue, less stress, healthy routine, light diet, and there won’t be any problems.”
Jiang Li didn’t understand why Duan Zhihan was asking about his condition in such detail, was he afraid he’d use the illness as an excuse to cling to him? He’d never do something like that.
He walked out of the exam room halfway through.
His feelings coming out were complicated, relieved that his identity hadn’t been discovered, but also worried about humanity’s primitive technology. Could he really fix his spaceship on Earth?
He waited outside the exam room for a long while before Duan Zhihan came out.
Sitting in his chair, Jiang Li ground his teeth, closed his phone, and said to Duan Zhihan, “Let’s go get divorced. Now.”
The man nodded lazily and reached out to touch his face, as if his whole body had suddenly relaxed.
Afraid of the contact, Jiang Li stood up immediately, stiffly reprimanding him. “Divorced people can’t have intimate contact.”
“We’re not divorced yet, are we?”
Duan Zhihan raised an eyebrow.
Jiang Li hated the way Duan Zhihan behaved, it gave him the illusion that the man liked him.
Before, too, he’d touch his face just as gently, and just when Jiang Li thought he was being cherished, the man would coldly bring up divorce.
But he had no way to argue against Duan Zhihan’s point, they were, after all, still legally married. In the end, the little robot let Duan Zhihan touch him, though only for a brief moment.
He really wanted to hurry up and get divorced.
That afternoon, the two went to the civil affairs bureau. It was later than Jiang Li had planned, mostly because Duan Zhihan had dawdled the whole way, but they finally made it.
He stepped through the doors of the district civil affairs bureau, a place he’d visited over a year ago, his Earth life observation report still had records on it.
“The civil affairs bureau is a white building. The staff inside, who wear blue uniforms, are refreshed periodically. They’re responsible for managing human reproduction affairs. Entering makes people happy.”
Jiang Li thought that entry needed updating, because this time entering did not make him happy.
To update his database, he analyzed the bureau from left to right, the chairs had changed from ordinary chairs to swivel chairs, and a bulletin board had been added by the entrance.
“Not even blinking.” Duan Zhihan suddenly stopped. “What are you looking at?”
Jiang Li almost said “scanning the image,” but he couldn’t reveal that answer to a human. After a moment’s thought, he said, “None of your business.”
Duan Zhihan said, “Oh.”
Jiang Li felt that “oh” carried some deeper meaning, but he pushed the thought down and walked to the service window.
Since Duan Zhihan had already made arrangements, they didn’t need to take a number and could complete the process quickly.
He placed the documents needed for the divorce on the counter, besides their IDs, there was the divorce agreement.
Their assets had always been clearly divided, so this agreement was mostly a formality, showing at most how much property they each had.
The staff member reviewed their documents and handed over two applications for divorce registration.
Jiang Li opened the pen on the desk, ready to sign the statement, but he didn’t expect there to be a mediation step.
The neighborhood committee aunties earnestly urged them: “It’s normal for young couples to fight, there’s no need to divorce over every little disagreement.”
“What’s the reason for divorcing? You’re so young, think it over again. What if you regret it?”
Calling it “urging” would be an understatement, it was more like a constant barrage in his ears. Jiang Li regretted not bringing soundproof parts.
Although robots had no tradition of respecting the elderly, he still went along with Earth customs, turning his head away as if he hadn’t heard anything.
Turning away, he discovered the aunties had all crowded around his side, probably because his face was clearly written with reluctance about the divorce.
Meanwhile, hardly anyone was around Duan Zhihan, just one staff member trying to persuade him.
“Young partners can be a handful, it’s normal for them to throw tantrums. Just be patient, once he grows up he’ll be fine.”
“I certainly wish I could be.” Duan Zhihan’s gaze drifted toward Jiang Li. “But mine won’t give me the chance.”
That sounded exactly like he’d been abandoned.
A lump formed in Jiang Li’s chest, and the aunties, feeling deep sympathy for Duan Zhihan, doubled down on their persuasion: “You’ll understand the benefits of marriage later on, someone to take care of you when you’re old.”
Finally he snapped back impatiently, “If marriage is so great, why don’t you all get married again?”
The aunties surrounding him immediately stopped their persuading, looking at him with utter disappointment. He felt the peace around his ears return and shut his mouth, satisfied.
Jiang Li decided he needed to add a note to his report: staff members talk too much, recommend replacing them with work robots, since nanny robots also talk too much.
Having gotten through the tedious mediation step, they could finally sign the statement.
Just as he was about to write his name, Duan Zhihan suddenly asked seriously, “What if you regret this?”
Jiang Li found the concept of regret hard to understand. Their species did not regret, all decisions came from programming, analyzing the environment for the optimal solution.
At nineteen, Jiang Li believed he would never regret anything. And even if he did, as a fully grown robot, he would take responsibility for himself, no need for Duan Zhihan to mock him over it.
With that thought, he signed his name in the blank space without hesitation. Once the signatures were done, the two of them would have no relationship left, and he wouldn’t have to listen to Duan Zhihan’s cold remarks anymore.
Their nearly two-year marriage had never won him Duan Zhihan’s favor, and he’d never once looked down on Duan Zhihan for being human.
Jiang Li didn’t take the divorce to heart at all, but strangely, after finishing the last stroke of his signature, his heart ached a little.
As they left the civil affairs bureau after finishing the divorce, Jiang Li kept his head down and bumped into Duan Zhihan’s back in front of him, pulling away instantly.
Duan Zhihan stood in place, reading the marriage registration process posted on the bulletin board, word by word.
The divorce had been to coax the boy into going for a checkup. Now that they were divorced, it was time to think about remarrying.
The curious little robot, itching with curiosity, stepped forward to ask, “What are you looking at?”
Jiang Li didn’t see anything worth looking at on that bulletin board, it was mostly just business process introductions.
But the man just looked at him steadily for two seconds, then slowly threw his own words back at him: “None of your business.”
Jiang Li: …how petty this human is.
He didn’t need to know that badly. He turned to walk forward, and Duan Zhihan’s voice came from behind him.
“I’m looking at how to remarry next time. Wouldn’t want to make a wasted trip if we forget some documents.”
Jiang Li’s breath caught at the word “remarry,” and that little ache disappeared, replaced by the thought that divorcing had truly been the wise choice.
The moment he got his divorce certificate, the man was already thinking of marrying someone else, he probably wanted the divorce so he could find someone else all along. Humans really were a fickle species.
He quickened his pace toward the exit, and just as he was about to step outside, a hand landed on his waist.
He noticed Duan Zhihan’s movement. “You said we weren’t divorced yet before, now we are, so why is there still intimate contact?”
Before his sentence had fully ended, Duan Zhihan wrapped an arm around his waist, pulling him into an embrace, the pleasant scent of aged wood clinging to his skin as the man spoke low against his ear.
“Consider it a divorce gift.”
Jiang Li instinctively tried to struggle, but Duan Zhihan easily caught his wrist, then peeled his fingers open one by one, stuffing something into his hand.
Under the barrage of intimate gestures, the little robot was completely stunned.
By the time he came to his senses, Duan Zhihan had already left ahead of him. He looked down at the thing in his hand.
He opened his palm.
In it was a piece of paper, carefully written with the doctor’s instructions, the handwriting sharp, even the daily meal plan laid out.
Jiang Li stared at the paper for a long time, unable to understand why the man was so concerned about something like this after the divorce, though it didn’t matter anyway, since they’d never see each other again.
As he walked out of the civil affairs bureau holding his divorce certificate, he felt completely free, the invisible pressure suddenly gone. Only then did he feel the joy of divorce.
He no longer had to disguise his identity, no longer had to hide the spaceship model under his bed, no longer had to worry about the other man’s gaze. He could do whatever he wanted.
He pulled his mask down a little, letting his head peek out from his thickly wrapped clothes.
At nineteen, Jiang Li was carefree and proud, believing his future was bound to be bright, with no shadows in sight, so much so that he failed to notice a reporter nearby, mouth agape.
Reporter Zhou hadn’t originally noticed Jiang Li, but Jiang Li was wrapped so thick, standing out sharply in the crowd, how could anyone overlook a round, fuzzy ball?
But the fuzzy ball wasn’t the point—
The point was: a top celebrity walking out of the civil affairs bureau holding a little booklet. And whatever that certificate was, the man’s expression was so happy, if that wasn’t a marriage certificate, what was it!