Chapter 114
After a few slow "beeps", a familiar voice came from the receiver.
"God Pei?"
Pei Zhao hummed softly.
"It's really you! You're back?" Zhou Ran's voice sounded full of excitement: "I called you so many times before, but no one answered! I thought you were going on an adventure in another world again!"
"We went to another world." Pei Zhao paused for a moment, without explaining that this time they were not going on an adventure, but were nearly losing their lives. "What have you been doing recently?"
"I'm busy celebrating the New Year," Zhou Ran said with a hint of happiness and worry in his voice. "You know my family's situation. I have to entertain guests with my dad during every festival. This year, because I'm going to college, I have to attend some industry dinners. People who don't know me would think I'm some industry boss."
Zhou Ran's family is well-off. Not only are his parents prominent figures, but they also have many people who come to them to ask for favors. The things that are lacking at home are tangible and visible, and cannot be used casually to build relationships, but the circle of contacts, which seems virtual, whoever can provide them will be a benefactor.
Once you really help, it's a big favor. So one by one, everyone came to please Zhou Ran.
After all, Zhou Ran is considered a rich second-generation. Although he hangs out with Pei Zhao and the others at school, he still has to act like a young master when he gets home.
"Well, have you met any strange people?" Pei Zhao called, of course not because he was curious about how many customers Young Master Zhou had received this year, but for other reasons.
"How strange..." Zhou Ran scratched his head on the other end of the phone, "I haven't encountered any. They are just ordinary people who come to visit for business or to establish connections. There are no strange people like you said."
"Okay. Has your number been leaked recently?" After thinking about it, Pei Zhao confirmed it.
"I think... no?" Zhou Ran said, "I changed this number when I got home. They didn't let me order takeout. Basically, it's just family and stuff like that."
After getting a definite answer, Pei Zhao roughly understood it and was about to hang up the phone when he heard Zhou Ran ask again.
"Master Pei, has something happened over there?" Although it was a question, it was asked in an affirmative tone.
"It's not a big deal," Pei Zhao read the text message he had just received, his frown slightly loosening, "I just received a message from someone claiming to be my high school classmate, with the same name as yours."
…
After hanging up the phone, Pei Zhao rubbed his temples.
Zhou Ran was told on the phone to be careful and to take a detour if he met anyone strange. He also briefly mentioned the drastic changes in the world. In short, it could be summed up in four words: be careful.
After sending Yu a final message, Pei Zhao turned off his phone and leaned back.
Zhou Yuli had already gone to bed to read. Usually at this time, Pei Zhao was lying in Zhou Yuli's arms.
But things involving Zhou Ran made him deeply uneasy, so Pei Zhao sat on a chair beside the bed to stay awake.
Seeing Pei Zhao hung up the phone, Zhou Yuli sat down from the bed, inserted a bookmark in the middle of the page, and placed it next to the pillow.
"Not Zhou Ran?"
"No, he's busy entertaining guests at home, so I don't think it's him." Pei Zhao felt Zhou Yuli pressing his solar plexus, gently relaxing him, "What do you think of this Yu? I really don't understand."
"Maybe he doesn't know about your relationship with Sudi, so he's testing you?"
“Then he chose Zhou Ran’s identity.” Pei Zhao sneered, “There are so many people in our high school. If he had chosen someone I didn’t know well, I might have believed him because we had lost contact. But he chose Zhou Ran. He is the only one I have known in these years.”
Zhou Yuli looked at Pei Zhao's furrowed brows and couldn't help but raise his hand to smooth them down for him. He knew that Pei Zhao was anxious not because Yu had just made up an identity, but because he was worried about what impact Yu's choice of Zhou Ran's identity would have on Zhou Ran.
After all, this world is no longer traditional materialism. In order to maintain order and prevent collapse, the universe may take action at any time, resulting in the situation where two people were present and one disappeared.
Pei Zhao didn't plan to worry for too long. It was really late. Pei Zhao shook his head and said, "I don't want to worry about it during the New Year. I have to have a good New Year." Pei Zhao climbed onto the bed and noticed the book Zhou Yuli had placed next to his pillow. When he turned off the light, he asked casually, "What book are you reading?"
Zhou Yuli replied: "Artificial intelligence algorithms."
Pei Zhao raised his eyebrows: "Artificial intelligence? Isn't it similar to those systems?"
Zhou Yuli nodded: "Yes, a system like Xiaorui is one of them. There are also some more common ones, such as robots that can automatically reply, which are used for conversations, consultations, and meeting some simple needs of users."
"Dialogue, consultation, meeting needs..."
As Zhou Yuli was speaking, he noticed that Pei Zhao's expression changed.
"What's wrong?"
Pei Zhao looked at him with his eyes wide open: "Zhou Yuli, dialogue, consultation, meeting needs, don't you think it's a bit like Yu?"
"Ah?" This was something Zhou Yuli had never thought of, but he quickly understood Pei Zhao's meaning. His eyes fell on the book, and Zhou Yuli was thinking, "Do you think Yu is an artificial intelligence?"
After he finished speaking, he shook his head again, as if to quickly deny this idea: "This is unlikely, Sudi talked to him for such a long time, how could he have no feelings at all?"
Pei Zhao sighed: "It's just a guess from this book. After thinking about it carefully, I think it's impossible."
But what's going on with Yu's inconsistent attitude? Is it just that you don’t want to exclude Sudi?
Pei Zhao fell into a deep sleep with something on his mind.
Maybe because he had too many guesses before going to bed, Pei Zhao had dreams all night. He dreamed that an artificial intelligence that wanted to destroy the world was hiding in the crowd, and they tried every means to find out the artificial intelligence.
The next day, when Pei Zhao opened his eyes in bed, a little dazed, he heard a noisy noise outside the house.
When I went out in slippers, I saw Sudi wearing a bright red sweater and holding four or five oversized branded paper bags in her hands.
Seeing him in pajamas, Sudi looked sarcastic.
"Oh, you just woke up. It's you who woke up at this time on New Year's Day." Su Di pretended to be a relative visiting and commenting on things, and he captured Pei Zhao's feelings of the real New Year.
Pei Zhao took a step back unconsciously. He felt that he was still asleep and asked in a daze, "What time is it?"
A person came out of the kitchen. It was Zhou Yuli, who was carrying out the fruit after washing it. He stuffed a dark red cherry into Pei Zhao's mouth and answered him, "It's half past seven."
"It's only half past seven?" Pei Zhao bit off a cherry, the sweet and sour juice bursting in his mouth, his eyes unconsciously swept across another closed door, "No wonder they haven't woken up yet."
"Bai Zhou and Lan Ji went out to buy something," Zhou Yuli put the fruit on the table in the living room after hearing Pei Zhao's words, and turned around with a helpless look on his face. "I don't know what New Year's guide they saw on the Internet last night. They went out at around five o'clock today, saying they wanted to buy some Internet celebrity products..."
"Five o'clock?!" Pei Zhao was really shocked. Is everyone so enthusiastic about the New Year?
Sudi snorted coldly, put a few packaging bags on the ground next to the sofa, straightened his clothes and sat on the double sofa in the middle. He put his hands in his pockets, put on a proud attitude, and raised his chin to Pei Zhao, "What are you still standing there for? Go wash up quickly, you have to eat your first meal in the morning, and you have to set off firecrackers before eating!"
Pei Zhao was overwhelmed: "This is an urban area, and firecrackers are not allowed. Where did you guys read the strategy guide..."
Isn’t it time to have a good New Year? How do I start the New Year process?
Could it be that Sudi saw this picture of the Chinese New Year process in the last century on Baidu Encyclopedia?
Sudi glared: "This is a tradition, we can't lose it!"
Pei Zhao was helpless. Sudi was really... a very traditional person in every aspect.
Pei Zhao went into the bathroom to wash up, his mind still thinking about his guess before going to bed last night.
Artificial intelligence... If it is an artificial intelligence like Xiaorui, it can hide in the crowd without any problem as long as it changes its outer clothes to cover up the mechanical skeleton.
Even if I don't hide it, I might just be mistaken for cosplay like last time at school.
People have inherent cognition about the environment in which they live, and it is difficult for them to break away from it and identify whether the people around them are people or machines.
Brush your teeth, rinse your mouth, and wash your face.
After finishing everything, Pei Zhao came out of the bathroom and Zhou Yuli had already brought breakfast to the dining table.
Unexpectedly, there were a few fried dumplings.
Pei Zhao narrowed his eyes and looked at Zhou Yuli: "You also checked the strategy guide?"
Zhou Yuli said innocently: "I was also celebrating the New Year..."
Oh yes, I almost forgot, Zhou Yuli also celebrated the New Year normally.
After breakfast, Bai Zhou and Lan Ji had not returned yet. As the three of them sat on the sofa and chatted, Pei Zhao suddenly thought, "What about that?"
"He went out with Bai Zhou and the others." Zhou Yuli said, lowering his head and continuing to flip through the book in his hand.
Pei Zhao took a look and found it was the same book on artificial intelligence algorithms from last night.
Pei Zhao turned to Sudi and asked, "I have a guess, which may sound a bit outrageous."
Sudi stretched out his hand and pushed it forward gracefully: "You say."
"I suspect that Yu is artificial intelligence."
Sudi stroked his chin and said, "Artificial intelligence... it's not impossible."
To Pei Zhao and Zhou Yuli's surprise, Sudi didn't seem surprised by this guess.
"Hasn't China also launched several new AIs? I tried it out of curiosity. It feels different from Yu, but it's very similar in one respect."
Pei Zhao immediately asked: "What?"
"Response time." Speaking of this, Sudi seemed to have a lot of thoughts. "Yu is very reliable. He replies almost every moment, and then disappears completely at a certain time. At that time, I felt that he was very busy, but now I think it's a little strange that Yu never replies to the content I sent during the time he disappeared."
Pei Zhao and Su Di looked at each other.
Although it seemed like evidence for further inference, Pei Zhao still said: "Of course it's just a guess. Maybe I just want to give him a reason to pretend to be Zhou Ran."
"He pretended to be Zhou Ran?" Sudi laughed this time. "So, I don't know if he is AI, but he is definitely not my old classmate."
Pei Zhao shrugged. At this moment, there was a commotion at the door. The door was opened and a small bat flew in. It rushed towards Pei Zhao's arms, but halfway through the flight, it saw the person sitting next to Pei Zhao and braked suddenly. It turned into a human form halfway and almost hit the coffee table.
"Brother..." Miu Yi pouted.
Pei Zhao waved his hand, motioning him to sit next to him, and picked a larger strawberry for him to hold and eat.
The little bat has grown a bit recently, and his hair looks a bit longer.
Pei Zhao rubbed his hair: "Do you vampires have the habit of growing long hair?"
Miu Yi looked at him and shook his head: "No."
"Do you want to get a haircut?" Pei Zhao asked, "It looks a bit long."
Bai Zhou and Lan Ji had just walked in, holding a large square box in their hands. Upon hearing this, they simply waved to Zhou Yuli, "Put it in the refrigerator. If he wants a haircut, we two will take him there."
Miu Yi looked at Pei Zhao, who smiled, stuffed two more strawberries into his hand, and patted him on the back: "Go get them cut, cut them into something nice."
The three people who had just entered the house were packed up and sent out again.
Zhou Yuli took a look at the box and it looked like an ice cream cake. Just put it in the freezer.
When they came back from the kitchen, Su Di and Pei Zhao each held a cell phone and lowered their heads to send messages in unison.
Zhou Yuli walked over to Pei Zhao and sat down. He looked at his screen and saw Pei Zhao with his hand on a dialog box, clicking "Paste", "Send", "Paste", "Send" frantically...
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