"Knock knock knock—"

Late at night, there was a knock on the dormitory door. The regular, muffled knocking sounded like a death knell in the silent night.

Xia Chuhe immediately opened his eyes, his gaze clear and bright.

She glanced at Li Qiusheng, who was equally on high alert, and felt slightly relieved.

"Who?" Xia Chuhe asked loudly.

"It's me, Liu'er, I need to talk to you."

Xia Chuhe signaled to Li Qiusheng to be on guard and prepare to escape. He slowly walked to the door and opened it a crack.

A microphone, Liu'er's signature style, peeked out from under the door: "Hi~"

"I...I picked up...the cooked rice that you humans eat, could you give me some?"

"Sure, wait a minute." Xia Chuhe pretended to go back to his room to get something, but actually took out cooked food, boiled eggs and other food that didn't need to be cooked directly from the farm.

She handed the food to Liu'er: "Can you eat this?"

Liu'er hesitated and avoided answering, saying, "Thanks, I'm leaving now, see you tomorrow~"

The door closed, and a few seconds later there was another knock. It was Liu'er again: "I forgot to ask, do humans lose fur if they eat bad food or eat strange things?"

Xia Chuhe automatically translated "shedding hair" as "hair loss," and that malnutrition in humans can cause hair loss.

Xia Chuhe: "Yes."

Liu'er asked again, "And another thing, do we need to plug the holes in a human's stomach? Won't air leak out if we don't plug them?"

Xia Chuhe grinned, then quickly withdrew his smile and said seriously, "...Yes, you must cover it up. Especially when you're sleeping, no matter how high the temperature is, even if you're not wearing clothes, you must cover the hole in your stomach."

"Hahaha..." Li Qiusheng, who was craning his neck to eavesdrop, couldn't help but burst into laughter.

Liu'er greeted Li Qiusheng: "Hey, Xiao Qiu is awake too? Sorry, did I wake you up?"

"It's okay, it's okay. Lift up your clothes and let me see your stomach, and I'll forgive you." Li Qiusheng said, half out of curiosity and half out of joke.

“(⊙o⊙)…”

Although Liu'er found Xiao Qiu's request strange, she still lifted her clothes to show her.

Her white, flat abdomen was straight and lacked definition, appearing somewhat soft, but... she had no navel.

Li Qiusheng grinned and covered his eyes: "Okay, okay, I forgive you!"

I've heard of people without an anus, but this is the first time I've seen someone without a belly button. It feels strange and a bit eerie.

"Liu'er!" Xia Chuhe suddenly opened the door and called out to Liu'er, who had walked some distance away. "We've known each other for several days now, but I forgot to ask you, are you a human who participated in mechanical ascension?"

Liu'er smiled brightly: "Of course, I used to be a biological person too! I have urgent business to attend to at home, I'll tell you the details tomorrow."

Li Qiusheng approached the doorway, gazing thoughtfully at Liu'er's retreating figure.

Based on the analysis from the afternoon, she made a guess: "Did Liu'er pick up a human?"

Xia Chuhe laughed and said, "Perhaps, maybe we picked up a child."

It's the kind of hair loss...

Looking back now, it's highly likely that the child Liu'er found was losing hair due to illness, and the child in that family of three fit the description perfectly.

Xia Chuhe took out the headset and communicator issued by the company: "I can find out by asking."

"Hey, why did you bring your work stuff back?"

"The company is my home, so the company's things are my home's things!"

Li Qiusheng agreed: "That makes sense!"

Xia Chuhe found the number of the citizen seeking help and dialed it.

Li Qiusheng glanced at the time; it was three in the morning. She pressed her ear tightly against the outside of the headset and muttered softly, "In the middle of the night, will anyone answer?"

"Don't forget, the other side is a robot."

As soon as Xia Chuhe finished speaking, the call was answered on the other end: "Hello, do you work at night too? Your company seems to be violating the labor law."

"I'm sorry to bother you, but our company operates on a rotating shift system, and this isn't a work-related matter. I have some personal questions for you."

"I don't want to have anything to do with your personal matters," the other person said, and quickly hung up the phone.

Xia Chuhe and Li Qiusheng were both speechless.

Disturbed by Liu'er's unexpected visit and the mechanical citizen's indifferent response, the two lost their sleepiness.

Recalling Xia Chuhe and Liu'er's last conversation, Li Qiusheng couldn't help but wonder, "Is she really human? How could she possibly be human?"

How could a human possibly mistake their belly button for a hole?

"Go to sleep. You'll know when you see her tomorrow."

Li Qiusheng couldn't fall asleep, but it soon dawned, and it was eight o'clock in the morning.

Five hours felt like they passed in the blink of an eye.

Fourth day on the job.

Liu'er, who always arrives early, was just in time to enter the office today.

Just as Xia Chuhe was about to ask Liu'er about her years as a human being, the phone rang.

A red light flashed on the outside of the headphones as the supervisor made his rounds in the office.

Xia Chuhe sighed and resignedly answered the phone.

The caller was the same person who asked for help yesterday, and also the one who hung up the phone in the middle of the night.

"Hello, this is the citizen interface. How can I help you?"

"Hello, have you thought of any way to stop my friend from committing suicide? Her condition seems to be deteriorating. Last night, her partner's condition suddenly worsened, and while she was taking care of him, the child ran away from the hospital. This morning when she went to look for the child, her partner slashed his neck with a hidden razor blade, and he couldn't be saved."

Xia Chuhe: "Okay, so does your friend still want to commit suicide?"

The person seeking help paused, seemingly taken aback by the question: "No, I don't want to think about it anymore. She wants to find her child now. Please help her find her child."

"OK."

Task updated.

Xia Chuhe hung up the phone and instead of contacting other official departments, he asked about Liu'er's past.

Liu'er thought for a while before saying, "I should be one of the first batch of robots. I was manufactured more than 80 years ago. After my consciousness was transferred, I can't remember many things from my childhood."

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