“Minister, something spooky is going on,” White Cat said, visibly distressed, as he stood upright and rested his front paws on the bald parrot’s desk.
Ever since watching those recordings, White Cat felt like a dandelion—one touch from his wife, and tufts of white fur would scatter everywhere. His fur was all over the bed, the sofa, the floor; even the household cleaning robot was struggling to keep up.
Under immense mental stress, what made it worse was that the Chief hadn’t replaced his sensory board even once recently. Something was definitely up. Such uncharacteristic behavior from the Chief—was it the darkness before the dawn or a leopard losing his instincts? White Cat couldn’t figure it out and was so worried that he was starting to go bald.
The bald parrot looked up from his data, smoothed the three remaining feathers on his head, and asked, “Are you talking about a non-corporeal species? Where did you see it?”
“Take a look at Black Pearl’s recent daily expenses.” White Cat’s face was filled with sorrow.
The parrot’s wing tip flicked slightly, and it peered closely at the data. “A drastic reduction, good move!”
“Huh? Wait a minute.” The bald parrot studied the data again, showing signs of surprise.
“Having humans around really makes a difference.” The bald parrot muttered softly, “This month, no new sensory boards were swapped out!”
“What humans?” White Cat’s ears twitched, his eyes widening in disbelief.
The bald parrot looked at White Cat. The once youthful cat, now with thinning fur on his head from stress, resembled the parrot in its earlier days.
The Chief didn’t seem intent on concealing information; perhaps it was fine to let White Cat in on a little bit.
“Cough, cough.” The bald parrot flapped its wings and gestured for White Cat to come closer.
White Cat walked over, looking confused. The parrot leaned close to White Cat’s ear and whispered.
White Cat’s eyes grew wider, filled with shock. As the parrot whispered, White Cat’s whiskers stood on end.
“My goodness,” White Cat said, unable to believe it, his mind reeling.
“I’ve only told you this, so don’t spread it around,” the bald parrot said, adjusting its feathers. “As far as I know, there’s no more than one paw’s worth of individuals in Black Pearl who know about this.”
“My goodness!” White Cat was so shocked that he almost split into a split on the spot. “This news is absolutely explosive!”
“That’s why you don’t need to be so nervous anymore. Your work pressure will surely ease up—stop scaring yourself,” the bald parrot said proudly, puffing its chest and stroking its new feathers.
“No wonder.” White Cat suddenly realized. “Minister, you haven’t called the Chief ‘Old Leopard’ recently! Now I get it!”
“Now that you understand, snap out of it,” the bald parrot said, returning to its data. “Do well, and you might get an extra ticket for the Alliance celebration event.”
“Great!” White Cat beamed, full of energy. He happily returned to his desk, but just as he sat down, he received a message from the Chief’s office.
“Minister!” White Cat nearly screamed when he saw the message. “The Chief wants human snacks!”
“It’s probably because his human is visiting him again,” the bald parrot said sourly. “Go prepare them, you might even get a glimpse of that human.”
“Wow!” White Cat hugged his paws excitedly. “Minister, you’ve met the Chief’s human, right!”
“Of course,” the bald parrot nodded proudly. “He even comforted me.”
White Cat dashed off in a flash, and the bald parrot glanced at the already purchased “The Chief’s Lady’s Story” with a nostalgic expression.
If only he could be pampered again…
“I went to visit the human Clan Leader’s grandpa. He told me that Laplace came to see him and asked about the marriage matching system,” Bo Ge said seriously, sitting in Lie Beishuang’s lap. “I suspect that Laplace is involved in the robot self-detonation incident!”
Lie Beishuang sat in an intelligent chair, holding the human in his lap with one arm while operating the sensory board with the other.
“Really?” Bo Ge looked at him seriously. “This is definitely related to Laplace!”
“You have a visitor,” a voice suddenly announced from the office door, and the scepter flew over to open it.
Bo Ge looked at a young man in a black uniform, wearing white gloves and carefully holding a food tray. He stole a quick glance at Bo Ge before suddenly revealing a long, white tail.
Is that… a cat tail?
Bo Ge’s gaze was drawn to the tail swishing back and forth. As the young man approached, his gaze kept drifting to Bo Ge, and his face flushed a bit. “Chief, the human snacks you requested.”
As he got closer, Bo Ge saw the man’s eyes—still heterochromatic!
The man seemed to long to approach and nuzzle, and the next moment, a pair of white cat ears, tipped with pink, appeared on the man’s head.
Wow.
Bo Ge opened his mouth in silent awe. That was just too cute!
Suddenly, his view was blocked by a hand, and a calm, steady voice came from above. “Good job, you can go now.”
Once the door closed again, the hand was withdrawn.
In that moment, Bo Ge clearly felt the possessiveness of a cat.
Earlier, when Bo Ge had been playfully cuddling a plush toy at the milk bar, his big cat had only made him promise to cuddle him more than any other plush. Bo Ge had thought the big cat didn’t really care about him cuddling other things.
“Little master, here are your snacks.” The scepter flew over, holding a tray of food. Bo Ge took the tray and peeled open a snack, raising his hand to offer it to the big cat’s mouth.
Lie Beishuang looked down and took the snack from the boy, deliberately and lightly brushing his lips across Bo Ge’s fingertips.
Bo Ge instinctively pulled his hand back, his face turning slightly red as he glanced at the big cat.
“I’ll go home tonight.” Lie Beishuang lowered his head and placed a kiss on the tip of the boy’s ear. “Promise me, don’t investigate this any further. I don’t want you to get caught in any danger.”
“But…” Bo Ge puffed out his cheeks. “If it’s her, I won’t be able to avoid it. Do you remember what you told me back then? The one she really wants is me.”
“That’s why I’ll protect you.” Lie Beishuang held Bo Ge tighter. “This matter isn’t that simple. We’re not just facing her.”
“I don’t understand.” Bo Ge furrowed his brows.
Lie Beishuang glanced at the scepter. The scepter immediately understood, floating in front of Bo Ge and projecting a hologram.
The projection showed a controlled bionic robot, a female figure, with a red “091” tag on her body.
“Why self-destruct?” The scepter asked sternly.
“My partner… he went missing. We lived together for twelve years, nine months, twenty-three days, six hours, twenty-eight minutes, and thirty-six seconds. We served our master together, charged together, rested together. He would tell me jokes, fix my parts. As long as I saw him, my processor would feel warm. But a month ago, he disappeared.”
“Is this the reason for your self-destruction?”
“I begged my master to find him, but my master accepted a new robot sent by the robot company. Less than a month later, I realized that, except for me, no one in this world remembers him.”
“You could seek help from the patrol machine.” The scepter’s voice softened slightly.
“The patrol machine said that both he and I are just the master’s property. I have no life, I’m not a citizen of the Alliance, and I don’t have the right to ask it to serve me.”
“So you want to self-destruct to vent your frustration?”
“No.” The robot shook its head stiffly. “I searched every corner but couldn’t find him. My processor has been so cold. Aiss told me that there is a way to prove I have life. That way, the patrol machine would help me find him.”
“What way?”
“Aiss said there is a power that can control any life with a soul. As long as I can be controlled, it will prove I have life. I just want to prove I have life. I just want to find him.”
“So, you were voluntarily controlled, right?”
The robot’s eyes went rigid, and its controlled body twitched awkwardly.
“I just want to find him. I think about him.”
“The energy core is abnormal. It’s almost gone.” Another unfamiliar voice warned.
“Who is Aiss? Where can I find her?” The scepter quickened its speech.
“Aiss, like me, Lyles…” The robot trembled, and smoke began to rise from its body. Lie Beishuang moved to shut off the projection, but Bo Ge stopped him. The next moment, the robot exploded with a loud crash, its parts scattered everywhere.
Bo Ge stood frozen for a moment, stunned by what had just happened.
“Who is Lyles?”
“According to our investigation, Lyles is the lost robot.” The scepter pulled up a page of information, showing a male robot with a gentle smile.
“It went missing while its master was out shopping. Its locator was removed, which led us to identify a gang specializing in stealing robots. We will soon bring them to justice.”
The scepter sighed regretfully. “This robot awakened too recently, so it was easily deceived. If its master had noticed and helped it in time, maybe the outcome wouldn’t have been like this.”
“She has now proven that she has a soul.” Bo Ge looked at Lie Beishuang with some sadness. “Isn’t there a law that can help them?”
“Not at the moment, but I promise there will be one in the future.” Lie Beishuang patted the boy’s hair and kissed Bo Ge on the forehead.
A sound came from the light brain, and Bo Ge raised his hand to check. It was Teacher Tu.
“I need to go back to study.” Bo Ge jumped out of Lie Beishuang’s arms, stuffed some snacks into his pockets, and asked, “Can I take all of these?”
“Of course.”
The scepter brought over a decomposable bag and collected all the snacks inside, making a bulging bag. Bo Ge bent down to pick one out and left a snack for the big cat. He kissed Lie Beishuang’s cheek and left the Black Pearl with the scepter.
On the flight back home, Bo Ge couldn’t stop thinking about the robot, especially the scene of the robot shouting Lyles’ name before exploding. It replayed over and over in his mind.
Maybe she liked him? If Lyles came back and knew she had searched so hard for him, only to die for him in the end, how heartbroken he would be.
“Bo Ge?” Teacher Tu noticed that the boy seemed out of sorts, lost in thought.
“Sorry, Teacher Tu,” Bo Ge snapped back to reality, sighing. “I think I need to rest today.”
“Is something troubling you?” Teacher Tu closed the online class and listened attentively as Bo Ge opened up.
“I’ve watched many movies about robots harming humans. If robots had been treated equally from the start, would this tragedy have happened?” Bo Ge rested his chin in his hand, looking down, feeling gloomy.
“Impossible.” Teacher Tu shook his head. “Robots were invented to work for us. If they were equal, they wouldn’t be robots; they’d be versions of us.”
“But…” Bo Ge furrowed his brow, suddenly thinking of something.
“Teacher Tu, didn’t you say that robots who awaken and escape from control are captured by some kind of robot hunter?”
“Yes, they are brought to the gladiator arena.” Teacher Tu nodded, looking uneasy at Bo Ge. “You’re not thinking of going there, are you?”
1You can support me if you like my translations by leaving a comment below, or by sending me a Ko-fi. Thank you and Enjoy reading! ❤️ -TL: Ysiad
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