Chapter 36 The Cute Robot She got a coffee-flavored one…
Xu Aida sat in front of the marble bar in the kitchen, staring blankly at Liang Siyu's back, a red mark appearing on his elbow from the effort.
A bowl of yogurt, fruit, and granola is placed in front of me.
She thanked him, absentmindedly scooped up a spoonful, and accidentally choked.
Liang Siyu, who had been keeping a straight face, suddenly stood up and almost lifted her off the bar stool to give her a Heimlich maneuver.
Xu Aida had no idea, but fortunately, she coughed up the small grain of oatmeal that was stuck in her throat in time.
He withdrew his hand, handed her a tissue, silently took away the cereal and threw it away, then brought her a new breakfast: bread, fried eggs, and bacon.
She wanted to say it was okay, but seeing his expression, she could only eat her bread in silence.
Uh, it's a bit dry. She went to get his coffee cup, but was stopped.
"Not today." Liang Siyu glanced at her. "What if your heart isn't feeling well again?"
He finished his coffee in one gulp, as if afraid she would snatch it away, then got some juice and poured two glasses.
"I'm fine." She only felt unwell for a few seconds, nothing serious.
But the words were held in her mouth, barely audible, like a mosquito's hum. She had always been straightforward and generous, and this was the first time she had felt so guilty and flustered.
He swallowed his food and retorted, "I'm MD." He was both angry and in pain, and wanted to say a few more words to her, but he held back.
This morning, she clutched her collar, looked pained, and couldn't speak; she was clearly in a state of stress, causing her heart to race. However, she refused to admit it.
She didn't dare to argue back. She forced herself to eat a few bites, but she felt suffocated. She drank some juice, hesitated for a few seconds, and then grabbed his hand: "Ned, no, we have to talk."
He glanced at her plate and sighed, "Let's go sit in the garden." Before the morning heat became too oppressive, let's get some fresh air.
Behind the house is a very small garden, with neatly trimmed boxwoods as tall as a person separating the street, and climbing roses covering the archway, blooming on their own.
The two sat hand in hand on an outdoor sofa, sinking into the soft memory foam.
Xu Aida inhaled the sweet scent of roses and admitted in a hoarse voice, "I went a little too far just now and hurt your feelings."
When she first woke up, he pressed her to tell him what she had dreamed about and what she was afraid of.
Without thinking, she retorted, "Don't ask anymore, this is my own business, what does it have to do with you?" This immediately brought tears to his eyes.
Liang Siyu also realized that she wasn't ready to share her inner wounds, but the feeling of watching helplessly was too painful for him.
"If you still don't want to talk about it now, Ada, at least tell me what I can do to make you feel better?"
She was stunned and didn't know how to answer.
“Anything, please.” His grip tightened, and it hurt a little.
“Just stay here.” Her voice was like a drop of morning dew rolling down a rose petal.
"Shall we just stay here quietly for a while?" He touched her face, the shadow of the rose reflected on her face. Her eyes were closed, her eyelashes long and delicate, like a figure in a painting.
He gently embraced her and let her lean on his shoulder.
She entrusted some of her weight to him, her breathing gradually slowing down. The sweet scent of roses sank deep into her chest, and even deeper, a voice whispered a wish—stay by my side a little longer, my beloved.
Slowly, the thirst of last night and the hunger of this morning surfaced, but she stubbornly refused to open her eyes, as if she had fallen into a new dream.
With a soft gurgle, he looked down at her. Her eyelashes fluttered, and she squeezed her eyes shut again. He almost laughed; it was exactly the same expression she made when she was lazing in bed.
Glug glug.
He couldn't help but call out to her, "Ada, let's go back to eat. Your stomach is protesting."
"Received, but I closed the notification window." She nuzzled against his shoulder, refusing to open her eyes.
His heart softened like a meadow moistened by morning dew, and he simply picked her up.
"Alright, little robot, let's execute the feeding procedure."
The little robot, which had its eyes closed, was startled and hurriedly opened them, hugging his neck tightly.
He smiled.
“Listen, I understand that your research requires standardized procedures, but that doesn’t mean you have to be inflexible like a robot, right?”
Their research consultant, occupational therapist Dan, leaned forward and spoke slightly faster.
“Every patient’s situation is different, so we need to motivate them.”
Xu Aida almost laughed; she'd been called a "robot" for two days in a row. She noticed Liang Siyu's lips move slightly, and gently pressed his hand down.
"How about taking a break?" She glanced back at the coffee machine. "I think even a robot couldn't resist a cup of coffee."
Liang Siyu understood, smiled and shook his head, got up to make coffee, and handed one to Danny first.
Xu Aida left the conference room with peace of mind and went to the restroom.
Danny took a few sips of coffee and caught his breath: "To be honest, your proposal is pretty good, much better than a project I worked on during my internship a few years ago."
They prepared specialized ergonomic chairs and stump support frames, set ample rest time, considered the impact of scarring, and had multiple electrode placement options.
All these details show that these two are pragmatists, not the kind of theorists who just wave papers and spout nonsense.
“Thank you, that’s because you haven’t seen our first version,” Liang Siyu said with a smile. “That version tormented a senior physical therapist, and he gave us a real lesson.”
Danny laughed too, and he joked, "I don't believe anyone is more serious than our lead therapist, Ted."
Liang Siyu's expression suddenly became complicated. Yes, it was Uncle Ted who had given him a lecture.
Danny immediately realized this, his gaze shifting to sympathy, and patted him on the shoulder: "Hey, it's nothing serious, he just looks serious, but he's actually a very kind person."
“Of course, I could tell during that online consultation.” Liang Siyu changed the subject. “By the way, I heard you just transferred from the Long Island branch? Isn’t the environment there better?”
“Hey, I’m not even thirty yet.” Danny began listing some reasons why he preferred the city.
Liang Siyu listened silently and offered a few words of agreement.
To avoid potential pressure, and to ensure that the on-site consultant, Danny, remained neutral during the research, unaware that he was the chairman's son, he even used the pseudonym "Ned Lee".
When Xu Aida returned from the restroom, he saw them chatting happily. He smiled and picked up the coffee in front of his seat, but frowned after taking a sip. This tasted like decaf.
She went up to the fully automatic coffee machine and looked at the instructions on the label. She then discovered that the coffee beans in pod B were indeed "decaffeinated coffee beans." As expected of a rehabilitation center, even their coffee machines are so "safe."
But she only felt slightly uncomfortable for three or four seconds yesterday, so why can't she drink normal coffee today?
Out of the corner of her eye, Liang Siyu noticed her studying the coffee machine and decided to take the initiative: "Ada, let's go back and discuss this. The design of the action instructions is quite important."
Xu Aida glared at him and snorted, "Mind your own business like that, then don't blame me for going all out next."
She smiled and nodded: "Sure, I actually think Danny's suggestion is excellent, and the personalized guidance sounds great."
Liang Siyu stared at her in disbelief. Was his strong opposition just for his own sake?
The same instruction to grip force can result in vastly different signal characteristics from surface electromyography (SEMG) depending on whether the patient imagines gripping a coffee cup or a tennis ball, exponentially increasing the difficulty of algorithm recognition.
Danny was unaware of the subtle tension between them; he was simply pleased that he had finally convinced someone to support him.
He patted Liang Siyu on the shoulder happily and joked, "Now the situation has reversed, buddy, I'm leading 2-1."
They sat down again at the conference table, and Liang Siyu insisted on holding his ground.
“Listen, Danny, you’re right. An action needs to have specific meaning in the patient’s life for them to be more likely to imagine it and be more proactive.”
“We will eliminate overly abstract instructions, such as ‘Please make a steady grip’ motion.”
"However, I still believe that we should try to choose uniform guidelines in order to avoid interference, obtain clean data, and benefit the algorithm in recognizing and interpreting signals."
Xu Aida interjected, "Actually, I can accept personalized instructions, as long as a label is added. I just thought about it, we can make minor adjustments to each patient based on the general model."
Liang Siyu countered, "In the first round of measurements, each participant had about 30-40 minutes of data, and most participants had scar tissue, making it impossible to attach electrodes in the standard positions."
"With such a small sample size and such a large internal variance, how do you train the algorithm? Can you consider the physiological constraints?"
That's because you only know those "unintelligent classifiers" now, which are no match for my later neural network algorithms.
She got angry too: "If we're going to do aggressive data augmentation, this amount of data is enough. You don't need to worry about the mathematical principles; I just estimated it."
She needs to work overtime to finish writing the LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory) algorithm as soon as possible; she had only just started writing it during her vacation.
She had originally planned to gradually develop the new algorithm after completing the first round of testing, which would have seemed more natural. But now, she wanted to prove herself.
Liang Siyu was speechless. Did she even know who he was thinking of? Was he opposing it for his own sake?
His signal interpretation is merely explanatory work after the fact, and its difficulty is not even on the same level as that of real-time algorithm prediction.
Danny was initially happy that Ada had sided with him, but when the two of them suddenly started arguing like this, even he, in his naiveté, could tell something was wrong.
"Hey, you two, calm down. How about a 50/50 split? Half of the attempts will use the standard instructions, and the other half will use personalized instructions?"
Liang Siyu took a sip of coffee to calm himself down: "Agreed, the signal interpretation is fine."
Xu Aida stared at his coffee cup: "My algorithm is fine too."
"It's settled then. See, the matter is resolved, isn't that great!"
Danny clasped his hands together, trying to create a positive atmosphere, but the two people opposite him remained stiff like robots.
Liang Siyu finished his coffee with his head down and quickly pointed out: "Even if it is a personalized instruction, I suggest that a standard procedure should be used for screening."
"For example, when it comes to gripping, first ask the participants to talk about the three gripping actions they most want to complete. Then test it to see which action's signal is activated the most, and use that in the participant's personalized instructions. How about that?"
Xu Aida nodded: "It's good, very reasonable." He is usually quite rigorous in experimental design.
As her reason returned, she suddenly felt a little guilty. Why did she suddenly want to argue with him? Was it unnecessary?
She lowered her head and took a sip of coffee, then couldn't help but feel annoyed again—ugh, this tastes awful.
It wasn't her who started this today; he deserved it. He wouldn't even give her a normal cup of coffee. That wicked medical student.
The next morning, Liang Siyu saw Xu Aida get up early and grind beans in the kitchen to make pour-over coffee before she realized what was happening.
"Ada, you argued with me yesterday over a cup of coffee?"
This is so unlike "Xu Aida"; she is always rational and rarely changes her mind because of emotions.
He even began to wonder if she was possessed by some alien.
With his back to him, Hsu Ai-ta slowly picked up the pour-over coffee, took a big gulp, and thought to himself, "This is what coffee should be like."
She turned around and said, "I'm not that naive. I've been thinking about this new algorithm for a while. Just you wait and see, it will absolutely blow your mind."
She smiled confidently and brightly, as if the pale, sweaty little snowman on the plane didn't exist, but only a powerful ice queen.
But he knew it wasn't like that. He moved closer and gently took her coffee cup: "This coffee smells so good, share half with me."
Before she could react, he had already drunk the remaining half of the glass.
“Ned!” Xu Aida’s eyes widened in disbelief. She had tried so hard to get up early and break the coffee ban, yet she still had half a cup stolen from her.
"It tastes even better when you make it yourself." He smiled at her.
That's outrageous, absolutely outrageous!
She flew into a rage, slammed the cup down, and poked his chest with her finger: "Give me back my coffee!"
She received a coffee-flavored kiss.
-----------------------
Author's note: A short anecdote: "The little things after a kiss."
Ada: Homemade coffee just tastes so good.
Ned: So it was the coffee? (crying face)
Ada: Oh, don't cry, don't cry. You're cute even without coffee.
Ned: Really? Let's try it now. Isn't this cute? What about this one?
What about this one? ...
Okay, I can't write anymore.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
