In the bustling shopping mall, the anxious old woman finally found her grandson who had run around and found her grandson holding a large gift box in his hand.
“I ran around without seeing you and was in a hurry.” The old woman patted her chest before wondering in amazement, “Where did this come from?”
The little boy had a joyful smile on his face as he pointed to the counter behind him, “Grandma, a big brother said that I am today’s lucky star and this is for me.”
The old woman was stunned. She looked at the busy salesman at the counter. The salesman, who had communicated with Pei Qingyuan in advance, smiled and nodded at her. “This child is our lucky customer randomly selected.”
“Such a good thing…” The old woman thanked him again and again. “Thank you, you are so kind.”
Ji Tong watched the simple old woman walk away with her grandson and whispered to the person beside him, “Thank you, host.”
Pei Qingyuan saw the golden brilliance that quietly appeared around Ji Tong’s neck and a smile silently appeared in his eyes.
He was also one of the lucky ones chosen.
The two of them played outside for most of the day. When they returned to school, their roommates Huang Wen and Cui Yinan had returned a day earlier and the dormitory building was lively again.
The moment Ji Tong and Pei Qingyuan came in, Huang Wen was completely tired of playing games at home for a week and sighed. He dropped his phone and poked his head out of the bed curtain. “The two of you are back. I’m bored to death.”
Last time when Ji Tong asked for a gift, he planned to give Pei Qingyuan a mouse. “Brother Pei, the mouse is on your table. You can try it later. If it doesn’t work, you can change it.”
Pei Qingyuan had just thanked him when he heard Huang Wen say again, “By the way, what did Xiao Tong give you? Did you get a keyboard with me? What did the two of you do on vacation?”
Ji Tong was vague. “No, I sent something else.”
The details naturally couldn’t be told to his roommates.
Cui Yinan was much more careful than Huang Wen and immediately noticed the change in the atmosphere between the two of them. He also noticed the neck that Ji Tong hung around his neck and said sincerely, “This necklace is quite beautiful.”
Brother Pei’s aesthetics were really good.
Huang Wen immediately stretched out his neck to join in the fun. “It looks good. Which girl gave it to you? It is very tasteful?”
He remembered Ji Tong’s Moments about queuing at the Ferris wheel a few days ago and gossiped. “Are you really not single any longer? What type? I bet it is a royal sister type! This feels like a good match for you. When will you bring your girlfriend to have a meal with us?”
Ji Tong tried hard to hold back his laughter while secretly glancing out of the corner of his eye at the expression of the host beside him.
A certain ‘royal sister-type girlfriend’ froze and stared at Xiao Huang in silence.
Xiao Huang didn’t realize it and turned to Cui Yinan with great interest. “What type are you betting on? The person who loses will treat the other!”
I bet you are a big-headed ghost.
Cui Yinan, who gave Pei Qingyuan and Ji Tong a good luck talisman as a gift, rolled his eyes. He felt that he should also send a good luck talisman to this old and rough roommate.
“Happy birthday, bring the cake!” He changed the subject without showing it and pulled away the topic to save Xiao Huang. “It is the last day of the holiday. I need to eat something sweet.”
He looked behind the two of them. “Eh, no cake?”
“Thank you,” Pei Qingyuan accepted the gift. “A cake will be sent over in the evening.”
Ji Tong added, “The cake is quite big and there will be a lot of snacks. Do you want to call the classmates we are familiar with over later?”
He Shiwen insisted on making a huge cake for Pei Qingyuan. He said it was bigger than the one in high school. The young He Xingxing had made a suggestion next to him, ‘Since the cake is so big, it is too wasteful to put only candles. Or match everything that can be inserted into the cake.’
Ji Tong liked fancy things the most and nodded repeatedly.
Considering it must be the first time Ji Tong had such a birthday, Pei Qingyuan didn’t refuse. He even took the initiative to accompany Ji Tong and He Xingxing to choose celebration toys.
It would surely amaze everyone later.
The two roommates didn’t know what type of cake they would see and said cheerfully, “No problem, more people makes it livelier.”
“Just make it a party. It will be early before Xiao Tong goes to bed. Do you want to buy some barbecue and drinks? Old Cui, where did you buy the barbecue last time when you came back from a run?”
“Okay, I’ll go buy the barbecue later and you buy the drinks.”
“No, why do you keep letting me carry heavy things?”
“I probably hope you will get enlightened earlier.”
This was a mixed dormitory and everyone’s majors and schools are different. However, the other students in the class basically lived on the same floor and they could meet in the building from time to time. The boys from the school of artificial intelligence, led by Ouyang Yu, often came to visit. After a month, they got to know Cui Yinan and Huang Wen quite well.
As he waited for the cake to be delivered, Ji Tong turned on the computer and watched videos intently.
Today, the jelly bean robot was put on the market. It was the result of an old traditional home appliance company’s first foray into the field of intelligence and attracted the attention of many people in the industry. Many evaluation videos had been released. Of course, some of them were those that the marketing company of Deng Shu’s company took the initiative to contact.
In the videos, the first reaction of different bloggers when they saw the jelly bean robot was basically laughter. They thought this appearance was too funny.
Then once it was really tested, the bloggers were amazed.
“This stability and flexibility… combined with this price, it can be called very conscientious.”
“To be honest, it dances more smoothly than many people. The mechanical part is quite strong, so I’ll test the built-in AI. I will start with the accuracy of its speech recognition in different noise environments…”
There were also bloggers who didn’t give serious evaluations and took a funny style.
As a commercial product, the jelly bean robot still followed the two modes designed by Pei Qingyuan in the beginning. There was the one-to-one smart companion mode and the general standby mode. The former had a setting similar to the mobile phone lock screen password. Only the correct call of the robot’s name would allow it to use its full function.
Since the jelly bean robot was positioned as a service robot, it would record a large number of user data and behavior traces to better complete the interaction between it and the user. Under this premise, the one-to-one mode was a very secure setting.
The premise of using these two modes was to name it first. For this naming step, netizens gave full play to their imagination.
“The name I set it is as is Dad. It is a bit awkward when it is called but the overall benefits outweigh the disadvantages.”
The blogger explained solemnly. “When my parents were young, they always loved to flip through my diary and locks were useless. Today, they saw that I bought this and were stunned. But I don’t believe they dare to call a robot Dad.”
There were also bloggers who directly demonstrated their intimate interactions with robots.
On the screen, a young man who was smiling and pretending to be serious called out, “Do you dare to agree if I call you?”
The jelly bean robot called ‘Do You Dare to Agree if I Call You’ quickly raised its robotic arm and beckoned. The oval belly flashed with a colorful light, happily responding, “Hey!”
Ji Tong laughed while watching and Pei Qingyuan also watched with him.
After a while, Huang Wen and Cui Yinan were attracted by the laughter and involuntarily came over.
A group of male college students stared in a silly manner at the computer screen.
“This looks so interesting. I regret it. I shouldn’t have been so reserved when Brother Pei asked me if I wanted it last time.”
“The cold jokes and normal jokes it tells are very new. I haven’t heard of them. I want to buy this to relieve my grandmother’s boredom. It isn’t only for children, right?”
Pei Qingyuan, the only one who didn’t join the silly camp, explained, “No, it can be used for all ages. There is a built-in children’s mode and an elderly mode, but it is relatively more popular with children at present.”
After all, this look might be a bit naive for some adults.
The robot samples brought by Deng Shu were enough. Pei Qingyuan asked Huang Wen and Cui Yinan to choose their favorite color. The two of them immediately picked one and ran back to their beds to study it.
As Ji Tong was watching the videos with relish, a series of notification tones came from his phone.
He glanced at the messages in the RS Cup team group chat.
At first, there were only three people in the group and they were him, Pei Qingyuan and Xie Yuchi. After deciding to make the mahjong robot, they started to gradually absorb other members such as Ouyang Yu, who was in the same class as Ji Tong.
At this time, Xie Yuchi excitedly sent a lot of messages.
[Xie Yuchi: This image is so cool!!!]
[Xie Yuchi: I’m sorry for my ridicule when I first saw the robot.]
[Xie Yuchi: So handsome, so handsome, so handsome! How did you invite you?]
Ji Tong blankly clicked on the picture he sent. It was an artistic graffiti that covered the wall.
In front of the silver-gray sci-fi background, a dark black hat dimly reflected the appearance of the future world, like a complex fabric shading or like a condensed cobweb. The long, mechanical limbs below shimmered with a cold and inorganic luster.
In the center of the gloomy limbs, the robot’s huge oval body reflected the hazy brilliance of the old world. The originally slightly childish and eccentric temperament suddenly seemed appropriate. There was a sense of intertwining the past and the future that emerged vividly.
Ji Tong was shocked and amazed.
[Ji Tong: Really handsome!!! Who drew it?]
[Xie Yuchi: ??? Don’t you know? This graffiti is now very popular on the Internet. Many foreigners don’t know that it is a robot product that has just been listed. I thought Mr Deng’s company specially arranged it to promote it.]
[Xie Yuchi: It is the work of a domestic artist living overseas. The person is very mysterious and the style is arbitrary. I don’t think they have ever advertised a brand.]
Xie Yuchi might have a cold and world-weary iceberg face, but he was actually very fashionable and lively. He was keen to chase various trends, as could be seen from the exaggerated comic strip sweatshirt on their first meeting.
Ji Tong noticed that the host was also looking at his phone and immediately leaned in, “Did you see the group chat? Isn’t the jelly bean in that painting particularly handsome?”
Pei Qingyuan’s expression became a bit strange after seeing this picture.
“Yes.” He answered simply, his finger sliding across the screen with slight hesitation.
Ji Tong wasn’t satisfied with the host’s bland reaction. After all, the jelly bean image was designed by him. He was naturally very excited to see such an excellent derivative work.
He emphasized, “This artist painted the jelly bean so cool. I want to print it out and stick it on the wall. Did they get in touch with Uncle Deng? It is really amazing.”
Thus, Pei Qingyuan’s expression became even more subtle.
“That isn’t it.” He paused before saying frankly, “I know him.”
Just like the mouse given by Huang Wen and the lucky talisman given by Cui Yinan, this was also a birthday gift for him.
As Ji Tong and Xie Yuchi were admiring the graffiti in the group chat, Pei Qingyuan had seen the messages from the artist.
[Pei Siyou: Happy birthday, I gave you a small gift. Isn’t it cool?]
[Pei Siyou: I am returning to China next week because I have something to do. See you then.]
There were only a few words on the screen. There was no mention of the turmoil of his life experience last year, as if nothing had happened. The memories of many years ago hadn’t been completely erased because of the disappearance of their blood relationship.
When Pei Qingyuan lived in the Pei family, the one he had the best relationship with apart from his grandfather Pei Huaishan was Pei Huaishan’s younger son, Pei Siyou, who was his uncle at the time.
Compared with his career-obsessed ‘father’ and his controlling ‘mother’, he was closer to his uncle Pei Siyou in his childhood.
Pei Qingyuan had been reticent since he was a child. Pei Siyou, who had a diametrically opposite personality to him, liked to tease him. The way of teasing him was close to Ji Tong, who liked to see him wear a dinosaur sweater.
In this childhood filled with heavy studies and various special training, it became one of the few times that Pei Qingyuan could get a moment of respite.
Later, the relationship between Pei Siyou and his brother deteriorated. One person was free and arbitrary and the other chased fame and profit. However, the former was always suspected by the latter.
In order to avoid more disputes, Pei Siyou went abroad to engage in art. He occasionally brought over his father for a relaxing vacation but his relationship with his brother’s family was estranged. He only exchanged a few words with his nephew Pei Qingyuan every New Year’s holiday.
Over time, Pei Qingyuan’s impression of this uncle gradually blurred. What he remembered most was the other person’s cynical personality and outstanding artistic talent.
…As well as some important features that he suddenly realized today.
He had the novel protagonist’s name similar to Ji Yanxing’s style, drew the robot in a very cool manner that was deeply loved by Ji Tong and his social media profile picture was him wearing a suit and looking handsome.
The real elements were full.
Ji Tong’s eyes lit up when he heard the host say he knew the artist and he asked curiously, “Really? Who is it?”
Pei Qingyuan thought for a while before answering him.
“He is my uncle.” He weighed his words carefully and his tone was cautious. “He is also your uncle.”
In the bustling shopping mall, the anxious old woman finally found her grandson who had run around and found her grandson holding a large gift box in his hand.
“I ran around without seeing you and was in a hurry.” The old woman patted her chest before wondering in amazement, “Where did this come from?”
The little boy had a joyful smile on his face as he pointed to the counter behind him, “Grandma, a big brother said that I am today’s lucky star and this is for me.”
The old woman was stunned. She looked at the busy salesman at the counter. The salesman, who had communicated with Pei Qingyuan in advance, smiled and nodded at her. “This child is our lucky customer randomly selected.”
“Such a good thing…” The old woman thanked him again and again. “Thank you, you are so kind.”
Ji Tong watched the simple old woman walk away with her grandson and whispered to the person beside him, “Thank you, host.”
Pei Qingyuan saw the golden brilliance that quietly appeared around Ji Tong’s neck and a smile silently appeared in his eyes.
He was also one of the lucky ones chosen.
The two of them played outside for most of the day. When they returned to school, their roommates Huang Wen and Cui Yinan had returned a day earlier and the dormitory building was lively again.
The moment Ji Tong and Pei Qingyuan came in, Huang Wen was completely tired of playing games at home for a week and sighed. He dropped his phone and poked his head out of the bed curtain. “The two of you are back. I’m bored to death.”
Last time when Ji Tong asked for a gift, he planned to give Pei Qingyuan a mouse. “Brother Pei, the mouse is on your table. You can try it later. If it doesn’t work, you can change it.”
Pei Qingyuan had just thanked him when he heard Huang Wen say again, “By the way, what did Xiao Tong give you? Did you get a keyboard with me? What did the two of you do on vacation?”
Ji Tong was vague. “No, I sent something else.”
The details naturally couldn’t be told to his roommates.
Cui Yinan was much more careful than Huang Wen and immediately noticed the change in the atmosphere between the two of them. He also noticed the neck that Ji Tong hung around his neck and said sincerely, “This necklace is quite beautiful.”
Brother Pei’s aesthetics were really good.
Huang Wen immediately stretched out his neck to join in the fun. “It looks good. Which girl gave it to you? It is very tasteful?”
He remembered Ji Tong’s Moments about queuing at the Ferris wheel a few days ago and gossiped. “Are you really not single any longer? What type? I bet it is a royal sister type! This feels like a good match for you. When will you bring your girlfriend to have a meal with us?”
Ji Tong tried hard to hold back his laughter while secretly glancing out of the corner of his eye at the expression of the host beside him.
A certain ‘royal sister-type girlfriend’ froze and stared at Xiao Huang in silence.
Xiao Huang didn’t realize it and turned to Cui Yinan with great interest. “What type are you betting on? The person who loses will treat the other!”
I bet you are a big-headed ghost.
Cui Yinan, who gave Pei Qingyuan and Ji Tong a good luck talisman as a gift, rolled his eyes. He felt that he should also send a good luck talisman to this old and rough roommate.
“Happy birthday, bring the cake!” He changed the subject without showing it and pulled away the topic to save Xiao Huang. “It is the last day of the holiday. I need to eat something sweet.”
He looked behind the two of them. “Eh, no cake?”
“Thank you,” Pei Qingyuan accepted the gift. “A cake will be sent over in the evening.”
Ji Tong added, “The cake is quite big and there will be a lot of snacks. Do you want to call the classmates we are familiar with over later?”
He Shiwen insisted on making a huge cake for Pei Qingyuan. He said it was bigger than the one in high school. The young He Xingxing had made a suggestion next to him, ‘Since the cake is so big, it is too wasteful to put only candles. Or match everything that can be inserted into the cake.’
Ji Tong liked fancy things the most and nodded repeatedly.
Considering it must be the first time Ji Tong had such a birthday, Pei Qingyuan didn’t refuse. He even took the initiative to accompany Ji Tong and He Xingxing to choose celebration toys.
It would surely amaze everyone later.
The two roommates didn’t know what type of cake they would see and said cheerfully, “No problem, more people makes it livelier.”
“Just make it a party. It will be early before Xiao Tong goes to bed. Do you want to buy some barbecue and drinks? Old Cui, where did you buy the barbecue last time when you came back from a run?”
“Okay, I’ll go buy the barbecue later and you buy the drinks.”
“No, why do you keep letting me carry heavy things?”
“I probably hope you will get enlightened earlier.”
This was a mixed dormitory and everyone’s majors and schools are different. However, the other students in the class basically lived on the same floor and they could meet in the building from time to time. The boys from the school of artificial intelligence, led by Ouyang Yu, often came to visit. After a month, they got to know Cui Yinan and Huang Wen quite well.
As he waited for the cake to be delivered, Ji Tong turned on the computer and watched videos intently.
Today, the jelly bean robot was put on the market. It was the result of an old traditional home appliance company’s first foray into the field of intelligence and attracted the attention of many people in the industry. Many evaluation videos had been released. Of course, some of them were those that the marketing company of Deng Shu’s company took the initiative to contact.
In the videos, the first reaction of different bloggers when they saw the jelly bean robot was basically laughter. They thought this appearance was too funny.
Then once it was really tested, the bloggers were amazed.
“This stability and flexibility… combined with this price, it can be called very conscientious.”
“To be honest, it dances more smoothly than many people. The mechanical part is quite strong, so I’ll test the built-in AI. I will start with the accuracy of its speech recognition in different noise environments…”
There were also bloggers who didn’t give serious evaluations and took a funny style.
As a commercial product, the jelly bean robot still followed the two modes designed by Pei Qingyuan in the beginning. There was the one-to-one smart companion mode and the general standby mode. The former had a setting similar to the mobile phone lock screen password. Only the correct call of the robot’s name would allow it to use its full function.
Since the jelly bean robot was positioned as a service robot, it would record a large number of user data and behavior traces to better complete the interaction between it and the user. Under this premise, the one-to-one mode was a very secure setting.
The premise of using these two modes was to name it first. For this naming step, netizens gave full play to their imagination.
“The name I set it is as is Dad. It is a bit awkward when it is called but the overall benefits outweigh the disadvantages.”
The blogger explained solemnly. “When my parents were young, they always loved to flip through my diary and locks were useless. Today, they saw that I bought this and were stunned. But I don’t believe they dare to call a robot Dad.”
There were also bloggers who directly demonstrated their intimate interactions with robots.
On the screen, a young man who was smiling and pretending to be serious called out, “Do you dare to agree if I call you?”
The jelly bean robot called ‘Do You Dare to Agree if I Call You’ quickly raised its robotic arm and beckoned. The oval belly flashed with a colorful light, happily responding, “Hey!”
Ji Tong laughed while watching and Pei Qingyuan also watched with him.
After a while, Huang Wen and Cui Yinan were attracted by the laughter and involuntarily came over.
A group of male college students stared in a silly manner at the computer screen.
“This looks so interesting. I regret it. I shouldn’t have been so reserved when Brother Pei asked me if I wanted it last time.”
“The cold jokes and normal jokes it tells are very new. I haven’t heard of them. I want to buy this to relieve my grandmother’s boredom. It isn’t only for children, right?”
Pei Qingyuan, the only one who didn’t join the silly camp, explained, “No, it can be used for all ages. There is a built-in children’s mode and an elderly mode, but it is relatively more popular with children at present.”
After all, this look might be a bit naive for some adults.
The robot samples brought by Deng Shu were enough. Pei Qingyuan asked Huang Wen and Cui Yinan to choose their favorite color. The two of them immediately picked one and ran back to their beds to study it.
As Ji Tong was watching the videos with relish, a series of notification tones came from his phone.
He glanced at the messages in the RS Cup team group chat.
At first, there were only three people in the group and they were him, Pei Qingyuan and Xie Yuchi. After deciding to make the mahjong robot, they started to gradually absorb other members such as Ouyang Yu, who was in the same class as Ji Tong.
At this time, Xie Yuchi excitedly sent a lot of messages.
[Xie Yuchi: This image is so cool!!!]
[Xie Yuchi: I’m sorry for my ridicule when I first saw the robot.]
[Xie Yuchi: So handsome, so handsome, so handsome! How did you invite you?]
Ji Tong blankly clicked on the picture he sent. It was an artistic graffiti that covered the wall.
In front of the silver-gray sci-fi background, a dark black hat dimly reflected the appearance of the future world, like a complex fabric shading or like a condensed cobweb. The long, mechanical limbs below shimmered with a cold and inorganic luster.
In the center of the gloomy limbs, the robot’s huge oval body reflected the hazy brilliance of the old world. The originally slightly childish and eccentric temperament suddenly seemed appropriate. There was a sense of intertwining the past and the future that emerged vividly.
Ji Tong was shocked and amazed.
[Ji Tong: Really handsome!!! Who drew it?]
[Xie Yuchi: ??? Don’t you know? This graffiti is now very popular on the Internet. Many foreigners don’t know that it is a robot product that has just been listed. I thought Mr Deng’s company specially arranged it to promote it.]
[Xie Yuchi: It is the work of a domestic artist living overseas. The person is very mysterious and the style is arbitrary. I don’t think they have ever advertised a brand.]
Xie Yuchi might have a cold and world-weary iceberg face, but he was actually very fashionable and lively. He was keen to chase various trends, as could be seen from the exaggerated comic strip sweatshirt on their first meeting.
Ji Tong noticed that the host was also looking at his phone and immediately leaned in, “Did you see the group chat? Isn’t the jelly bean in that painting particularly handsome?”
Pei Qingyuan’s expression became a bit strange after seeing this picture.
“Yes.” He answered simply, his finger sliding across the screen with slight hesitation.
Ji Tong wasn’t satisfied with the host’s bland reaction. After all, the jelly bean image was designed by him. He was naturally very excited to see such an excellent derivative work.
He emphasized, “This artist painted the jelly bean so cool. I want to print it out and stick it on the wall. Did they get in touch with Uncle Deng? It is really amazing.”
Thus, Pei Qingyuan’s expression became even more subtle.
“That isn’t it.” He paused before saying frankly, “I know him.”
Just like the mouse given by Huang Wen and the lucky talisman given by Cui Yinan, this was also a birthday gift for him.
As Ji Tong and Xie Yuchi were admiring the graffiti in the group chat, Pei Qingyuan had seen the messages from the artist.
[Pei Siyou: Happy birthday, I gave you a small gift. Isn’t it cool?]
[Pei Siyou: I am returning to China next week because I have something to do. See you then.]
There were only a few words on the screen. There was no mention of the turmoil of his life experience last year, as if nothing had happened. The memories of many years ago hadn’t been completely erased because of the disappearance of their blood relationship.
When Pei Qingyuan lived in the Pei family, the one he had the best relationship with apart from his grandfather Pei Huaishan was Pei Huaishan’s younger son, Pei Siyou, who was his uncle at the time.
Compared with his career-obsessed ‘father’ and his controlling ‘mother’, he was closer to his uncle Pei Siyou in his childhood.
Pei Qingyuan had been reticent since he was a child. Pei Siyou, who had a diametrically opposite personality to him, liked to tease him. The way of teasing him was close to Ji Tong, who liked to see him wear a dinosaur sweater.
In this childhood filled with heavy studies and various special training, it became one of the few times that Pei Qingyuan could get a moment of respite.
Later, the relationship between Pei Siyou and his brother deteriorated. One person was free and arbitrary and the other chased fame and profit. However, the former was always suspected by the latter.
In order to avoid more disputes, Pei Siyou went abroad to engage in art. He occasionally brought over his father for a relaxing vacation but his relationship with his brother’s family was estranged. He only exchanged a few words with his nephew Pei Qingyuan every New Year’s holiday.
Over time, Pei Qingyuan’s impression of this uncle gradually blurred. What he remembered most was the other person’s cynical personality and outstanding artistic talent.
…As well as some important features that he suddenly realized today.
He had the novel protagonist’s name similar to Ji Yanxing’s style, drew the robot in a very cool manner that was deeply loved by Ji Tong and his social media profile picture was him wearing a suit and looking handsome.
The real elements were full.
Ji Tong’s eyes lit up when he heard the host say he knew the artist and he asked curiously, “Really? Who is it?”
Pei Qingyuan thought for a while before answering him.
“He is my uncle.” He weighed his words carefully and his tone was cautious. “He is also your uncle.”
