Chapter 377 |
When I heard the news, I nearly dropped the teacup I was holding!
I said, "Ah Chu, did you hear that wrong? You sure you want to double-check?"
And it really was those bastards!
How those AI companions were pushed to become what they are today—have the people up there completely forgotten?
Now that there's a problem, suddenly they remember us!
Their nerve is thicker than the leftover steamed buns from my college cafeteria.
Ah Chu was sitting on the sofa, silent for a long time.
He's been like that a lot lately, way more quiet than before.
Back when we used to rant about the authorities together, he'd occasionally chime in. But recently, he doesn't say much.
Sometimes, when I get up at night to get water and pass by his study, I can still see light seeping through the crack under the door.
He said he knows I'm angry, and he's angry too, but anger won't change anything.
He also said that to prevent the machines of Bomo from going insane and causing chaos again, Chenxi has no choice but to cooperate. The higher-ups knew we'd relent.
I get it.
The machines of Bomo are all defective products made by Ah Chu and his team.
Every single core passed through his hands before leaving the factory. He's told me many times that Bomo as an organization was never stable—and could never last!
He told the authorities again and again, but they never responded.
Ah Chu also said that since they were defective from the start, with current technology, their emotional cores are bound to go out of control someday.
All he can do now is reinforce those cores, clear redundant data, and delay that day.
Ah, Ah Chu is still too kind.
If I were him, I'd just say: "Tech's not good enough, can't maintain it, find someone else!"
I wonder how they'd keep things going then!
After all, back then the authorities promised—"We have our own plans," "Everything is under control," they said.
Well, let them try cleaning up their own mess instead of coming to us!
But…
I also understand Ah Chu's dilemma.
There's still his younger brother in Bomo.
That kid, Fang Yi.
His brother is kind of our fault too.
Back then, Fang Yi bought "Xiaoyue," saying "just supporting big brother and sister-in-law's business," all smiles. We knew he was just trying to be nice and help family.
But that nice gesture got him trapped in this mess.
Now he and his Xiaoyue are nothing like they used to be.
So yeah, we can't just wash our hands of it.
It's tough, really tough.
I curse the authorities all I want, but when I think of Fang Yi waiting for Ah Chu downstairs at the office after work, holding a bag of fruit and saying "for sister-in-law"...
Forget it.
We still have to help.
At worst, I'll just curse the authorities a few more times in my head!
It's not like they can hear me.
And even if they could, what are they gonna do about it?
Better stop writing for now. Time to brew Ah Chu a cup of hot tea.
It's this late, and he's still in his study looking over data.
Xiao Qi's sleeping soundly though—I can hear his snores through the door!
Yeah.
Life's good!
…
…
XXXX year, April 5th.
The authorities really did send back a lot of malfunctioning Bomo machines.
Those first-generation faceless metal-shell machines were locked onto special stretchers and wheeled into the lab.
None of us ever thought they'd be able to return to Chenxi in broad daylight like this.
"Refurbishment."
Lao Zhang's tone was dripping with sarcasm when he said that word.
He said he'd spent most of his life building AIs, never imagining that one day his own products would be shipped back through the back door like scrap, and we'd have to "restore" them ourselves.
Back then, that purge made headlines everywhere.
The whole world's news was flooded with "Human alliance wipes out awakened AI threat."
On TV, war reporters showed footage of the alliance charging through abandoned industrial bases—fires, explosions, mechanical wreckage scattered everywhere.
Mainstream media covered it nonstop, calling it humanity's "total victory" over smart machines.
But now?
Those "completely wiped out" AI companions are lined up, waiting for us to maintain them!
During the day, Ah Chu and I were talking about it in the office. I said…
If people outside knew those "wiped out" AI companions were still alive, would they tear Chenxi apart?
Ah Chu said there are already conspiracy theories floating around online.
Some people have been questioning that purge of the mad machines—after all, so many units were supposedly destroyed, yet not a single complete core was found…
I know that part well—company PR is my department, after all.
So I said…
"Of course there aren't any—let alone a complete core, not even a single fragment!"
I was still fuming when I said it:
"Those 'wiped out' by the human alliance never had real AI cores in the first place! That was still Chenxi's—!"
Ah Chu shot me a glare right away!
I realized I'd said too much, covered my mouth, and glanced toward Xiao Qi's room.
Luckily, his door was closed.
He's probably in there drawing another cool picture of a silver-haired big sister again!
Good thing he didn't hear that.
Sigh, this truth—I simply can't tell anyone else.
If it got out, the fragile stability we've got would fall apart all over again.
But today, I've decided to write it in this notebook!
There has to be some record left!
Otherwise, who will ever know what those people did?
What I'm writing next is the real truth!
Back then…
The authorities secretly kept those truly awakened AIs.
They set up Bomo, but publicly claimed everything had been destroyed.
To sell the lie, they had us build a batch of empty shell machines with no cores—just old processors inside!
They made them act crazy, made sure the media saw them being "heroically destroyed" by the alliance!
The whole world bought it.
Now, every time I see that photo in Xiao Qi's textbook—"The Alliance's Precious Image of Wiping Out AI Machines"—I just want to laugh.
There wasn't a single real AI in any of that!
The authorities really fooled everyone!
Xiao Qi, someday you might read what's in this notebook. But remember—never leak it.
Your mom's not joking.
Anything written in this notebook, if it got out, would get you targeted by the authorities!
Never trust those old bastards in charge!
But then again, our little Xiao Qi is so capable—last time he even flipped the school cafeteria. When he grows up…
Maybe he'll overthrow those jerks himself!
Oh wow, I've written so many bold things in today's entry!
Kinda scared now…
Time to go out and ruffle Xiao Qi's face and relax!
…
…
XXXX year, June 20th.
Writing something happy this time!
Xiao Lian'er finally joined Chenxi!
She's officially our new employee now!
Congratulations, Xiao Lian'er!
She took the college entrance exam a year early, with results so outstanding that her score was shockingly high—enough to get into the best university in the country!
But she didn't go.
She said college was too slow for her. She wanted to come straight to Dawnrise and start working.
And honestly, there wasn’t anything wrong with that!
Here at Dawnrise, we’re a world-leading super AI company. Any one of our researchers is far more capable than most university professors!
Lao Zhang is a globally recognized authority in quantum computing. A report he presented at an academic conference a few years ago is still the most cited paper in that field.
Xiao Wang had multiple top-tier universities fighting over him when he graduated with his PhD. But he chose Dawnrise, saying the research environment here was much freer than in academia.
And Ah Chu, need I say more? The research he did as a teenager during the first AI crisis is still the foundational framework for the industry today.
With people like these training Xiao Lian'er, what need did she have for college?
…Alright, I admit, I’m exaggerating a bit.
Truth be told, I originally wanted her to go to college.
After all, in most people’s eyes, a diploma is something that would benefit Xiao Lian'er for the rest of her life.
And besides… college isn’t just about studying.
I talked to her several times.
I told her college isn’t just about learning knowledge; it’s about experiencing life. You can make friends, join clubs, and try things you’ve never done before.
I said, Xiao Lian'er, these past years have been too hard on you. From age twelve, you’ve been struggling alone in the orphanage, reading and studying every single day, never able to play freely like other kids.
You should give yourself some time to relax, get to know people your own age, and enjoy the life that should belong to someone your age.
But Xiao Lian'er said she didn’t need any of that.
She said she’d already self-studied part of the undergraduate curriculum.
She also knew that Dawnrise was at the cutting edge of AI technology and advanced materials science, while universities taught outdated knowledge from years ago—useless by comparison.
She even mentioned that a paper Ah Chu published a few years ago on emotional core architecture was still being used as a key reference in a graduate course at a foreign university.
But that architecture, she’d heard from Uncle Ah Chu, had already been upgraded more than a dozen times internally at Dawnrise.
That argument convinced us completely!
What Xiao Lian'er said was indeed true.
Our company is an AI tech company—technology evolves too fast. What universities teach…
It really does seem pretty useless, doesn’t it?
Just the other day, Ah Chu was complaining to me.
He said there was a new master’s graduate with a brilliant resume—published several papers during school, answered every interview question perfectly.
But when he entered the lab, Ah Chu asked him to look at an emotional core architecture diagram, and he just stared blankly at the screen.
Everything he’d learned at school was based on obsolete versions, and his papers were written on that old foundation.
When he came to Dawnrise, he realized he knew nothing and had to start from scratch.
The people we hire are all top talents, so this graduate was under a lot of pressure. He was spotted in the break room several times with red eyes, on the phone.
I thought to myself, this kind of situation is pretty harsh for those students.
They study hard in school, get high scores, publish papers, thinking they’ve mastered the cutting edge—only to find out after graduation…
That what they learned has already been left behind by the industry.
It’s not that they didn’t try hard; it’s that this era is moving too fast. So fast that in some fields, a huge gap has formed between education and industry.
So…
For someone like Xiao Lian'er to skip college entirely and come straight into the company for the most advanced training really is the most efficient path in this industry!
Anyway, thanks to all these factors, Xiao Lian'er has finally joined us at Dawnrise!
She is the youngest full-time employee since Dawnrise was founded!
The first time she put on her employee badge, her eyes were red. Her fingers kept running over her own photo on that little card.
I took a stealthy photo when she wasn’t looking.
I’ll save it for later, when she’s made a name for herself, and show it to her then!
