276 The Eleventh Store
◎I kind of miss the owner.◎
The Dream-Fulfilling System paused for a moment, waiting for Lu Yao to speak.
Lu Yao tilted his head slightly and looked out the window: "What is the structure of families in this world?"
Her star ring is the same as the prisoner's, and its scope of use is limited to Guandao.
The authority is very low, and there are inaccessible areas everywhere.
Lu Yao has almost no understanding of the means outside Guandao, and starting from the prisoner's experience is a good entry point.
She originally expected that in such a world, kinship should be much weaker than she knew, but she didn't expect it to be so extreme.
The Dream-Fulfilling System thought that Lu Yao would be very interested in the prisoner's affairs. This problem was different from what it expected, and it had never understood it.
Dream Fulfillment System: "...I'll investigate again."
Lu Yao: "Try to be careful and don't let anyone know. I just want to learn as much as possible about this world." They all
left in dismay.
——Zhu
Wei had already turned over more than a hundred pages of the book in her hand, and she was becoming more and more irritated.
When she first opened the book, she had a strong sense of the falsehood of the world in the book.
There was a description in the book:
[In those days, the pace of life was very slow. People walked leisurely through the square and wandered in and out of the surrounding shops. Nothing was too fast or too slow. The days were long, and it seemed that a day was more than twenty-four hours (1). 】
Twenty-four hours?
Of course a day is more than that. A day in the normal world is one hundred and twenty hours.
This is just the beginning. The protagonist has an older brother who is about four years older than her. Their mother died, and they lived with their father.
At the beginning of the story, the protagonist Scout described their father like this:
"He played with us, read to us, and was always kind and impartial to both of us (2)."
The background of "To Kill a Mockingbird" is very bizarre. For people of this era, it is an extremely absurd imagination, but Takeuchi once lived in such absurdity.
She was more adaptable than ordinary robots.
Before Takeuchi was imprisoned, she lived in a gathering area of native humans for fifteen years. There
were 20,000 native people living in that area, and all residents in the community lived according to an ancient system - a man and a woman lived together and raised their children together.
There are dozens of families and fathers on the same street, but she has never seen one who looks like Atticus in the book.
Two years ago, Zhu Wei fled from home in a panic.
She saw flying ships and airships all over the world, flexible and strong mechanical bodies, and all kinds of new things.
The world outside is so different. Men and women who want a child with some of their own genes can apply to the hospital after basic mental values and physical examinations, and then pay enough star coins. After twenty months, they can get a baby that is 99% "customized" according to their wishes.
About a year ago, Zhu Wei decided to abandon her body, load her consciousness into an electronic computer, and then "live" in a mechanical body.
In the following months, she traveled to many star cities and met all kinds of men and women, including robots who had children through genetic technology, but she had never seen a father or mother like Atticus.
Because mechanical bodies are becoming more and more popular, many humans with high spiritual values have abandoned their bodies. Even if you suddenly want a child one day, you cannot extract the father's or mother's cells. The birth rate of native people has continued to decline in recent years.
If you just want a child, whether he has a physical connection with you or not, you can also apply to the hospital.
This policy was well received when it was first introduced, but at the end of the first decade of its implementation, things began to become tricky.
For unknown reasons, the robots who took the initiative to apply to the hospital suddenly abandoned their children on a large scale a few years after the birth of their children.
There are many street kids in the underground area of Star City, and when they grow up, almost all of them become criminals with high intelligence and high mental values.
Zhu Wei thought of herself and smiled miserably.
In fact, children may not grow up well with their parents.
Before being formally arrested by the interstellar police, Zhu Wei actually didn't want to escape anymore.
In her eyes, the world was all gray.
It didn't matter where she went.
After the trial of the case, she was transferred to the famous robot prison Guandao to serve her sentence for a hundred years.
Just when Zhu Wei began to feel that "life" was a burden, her spiritual body signal gradually weakened, and she lost interest in everything.
Until he was forced to come to this store by the prison guards and was stuffed with such a book by the store owner, some emotions that faded away with time seemed to be rekindled in Zhu Wei's heart, and there was even a trace of anger.
There can't be a father like Atticus in the world!
Zhu Wei thought angrily, and turned another page.
Atticus told his son Jim Dubose that Mrs. Dubose had passed away and handed him a candy box.
Atticus said to his son, "I want you to see what true courage is, not the mistaken idea that courage is just holding a gun in one's hand. Courage is when you know before you even start that you are doomed to lose, but you still go ahead and persevere no matter what happens. A person rarely wins, but sometimes... (3)" ...
Some
small inhalations came from behind the bookshelf, interrupting 0496's interest. She suddenly remembered that now was not the time to read leisurely, as the time for exercise had long passed.
0496 lowered her eyes to memorize the page number, closed the book, stood up, walked across the aisle, and saw Zhu Wei curled up on the floor. She was shocked and strode over to grab the prisoner's arm: "What's wrong with you?"
Zhu Wei shook off her hand and stood up indifferently without explaining.
After confirming that the prisoner was not about to die, 0496 calmed down: "The exercise time is over, I will go back if I have nothing to do."
Zhu Wei left empty-handed, without buying any books.
She actually secretly looked at the price on the back. She had only been in Guandao for a few months and had been frequently interrogated. She rarely went to the Ninth District. There was not that much money in the Star Ring.
0496 had a strong desire to buy books. She was already deeply fascinated by Scarlett's world and couldn't wait to finish reading the sequel.
Unfortunately, it was during working hours and she couldn't buy anything in front of the prisoners in charge.
Passing by the aisle by the window, Zhu Wei and 0496 were inexplicably nervous and didn't dare to look at the owner's face.
Lu Yao suddenly stood up, and Zhu Wei and 0496 froze almost at the same time.
Lu Yao looked up and saw them, smiled slightly, and explained: "I seem to hear the rest bell. Are you leaving?"
Districts 7 and 9 do have timer bells, but is the hearing of native humans so good?
0496 couldn't help but look up at Lu Yao, and once again met those gentle eyes that seemed to see through the world. 0496's heart sank, and he was very stiff: "I'll send her back to the cell first."
Lu Yao nodded: "Welcome to come and relax next time."
0496 didn't react.
Zhu Wei paused for a moment and walked forward again.
When the Dream Fulfilling System returned to Lu Yao, prisoners came from the direction of the Ninth District.
Dream Fulfilling System: "That prison guard and the prisoner didn't buy any books?"
Lu Yao sorted out the bookshelf, got up and walked to the cashier.
"Yeah."
Dream-fulfilling system: "Didn't you say that they were all attacked, and it would be a shame if we didn't let their wallets get hurt?"
Lu Yao: "Everyone has their own pace. Planting a seed doesn't mean it will grow into a tree immediately. Don't be anxious."
Dream-fulfilling system has never won a few arguments with the store owner, and it skillfully changed the subject: "I found some information, do you want to see it now?"
The glass sensor door opened, and tall robots in prison uniforms came in one after another.
Lu Yao: "Wait a minute, remind me when you take a break."
The customers who came to the store at this time were basically regular customers who saw the new balloon banners in the morning and were attracted by the new books.
Lu Yao took a quick look and saw several familiar robots.
Prison guards are more reserved than prisoners, and they usually come during lunch break.
The steely muscular guest who almost emptied the bookshelves yesterday did not come, and Lu Yao was a little surprised.
-
District 9, the solitary confinement cell.
0666 stood at the door, receiving several prisoners who had just come out of the solitary confinement cell.
The twin brothers and the 597 team walked out "honestly".
In less than two days, both sides seemed to have reflected deeply.
0666 took them back to the vegetable base and returned to the labor reform activities, and then sent them back to the cell together at night.
They came out at a coincidence, which was the rest time.
The prison guards had just left, and the twin brothers and the 597 team found a corner to prepare for another fight, but a few prisoners next to them were talking about the bookstore in District 8, and they couldn't help but eavesdrop.
"The bookstore has new books. Someone just came back and said that all the books for trial reading were taken. I didn't see any."
"Books are too expensive, and new books are added every day. I can't afford them at all."
"I heard that the new books are better than the previous ones. I still want to buy them if I have money."
"I don't know if that person will buy them. I will rent them from him when the time comes. It's only a few thousand star coins a night, which is cheaper than buying a book."
"It makes me want to operate a sewing machine and make clothes to make money."
...
The people who were fighting stopped, looked down on each other, and turned away.
The books I bought last time were almost torn in the confinement room. Even if I wanted to fight again, I had to buy a few new books first to have the confidence.
Yuan and Xi came across a team of prisoners, pushing several carts of freshly picked vegetables and fruits.
Those were goods to be shipped to outer islands for sale. Because the carts had to be pushed to the exit of Guandao, one could briefly feel a real breeze at the door or see a real cloud. This was a popular job among the prisoners, and only the best performing prisoners had the opportunity to do it.
The cart passed in front of the two brothers, and Yuan stopped and looked back.
Xi: "You want to push the cart?"
Yuan shook his head.
Xi: "Then why are you looking at them with envy?"
Yuan reached out and touched the book in his arms. Perhaps because he had read too many cookbooks, he suddenly saw the fresh ingredients, and the recipes of several dishes automatically emerged in his mind.
"Where do you see envy?"
Xi: "In the eyes."
Yuan: "In the eyes of a machine?"
Xi also knew that a machine face could not show emotions, but at that moment, Yuan's posture was indeed a little different from usual, and a kind of desire-like emotion did come out of those cold eyes.
Xi waved her hands: "Forget it. Let's go find Del first. I can't wait to know what new books the store has put up in the past two days. I even miss the owner a little bit."
-
District 7, entrance of the Mental Value Research Center.
0496 just took Zhu Wei to have a mental value test.
Not long ago, the two left District 8. Zhu Wei asked her on the airship how to make money in prison. 0496 suddenly notified the airship to turn around and return to District 7.
She wanted to see the changes in Zhu Wei's mental values and the activity of her spiritual body.
Two hours later, 0496 got Zhu Wei's examination report and returned to the psychiatric interrogation department.
The executive prison guard looked at the data on the light screen that was completely different from a few hours ago, and was unbelievable: "The activity of the spiritual body increased by 23%, the mental value increased by 43 points, and the brain signal was enhanced. Just reading a book is so amazing?"
0496 also read books in the bookstore and was very sure of this: "I may have been a little biased before. Books are different from ordinary commodities. But I didn't expect her spiritual body activity to fluctuate so much. When she came out of the bookstore, she seemed unhappy. I felt that she seemed to cry when she was reading."
But the cold and hard mechanical body could not bleed or shed tears.
Zhu Wei curled up under the bookshelf, the steel frame supporting an empty body, the mechanical sound was like crying, that was her soul struggling and twitching.
0496 Suddenly, I became curious about what was hurting Zhu Wei in the book she saw.
【Author’s Comment】
Notes (1), (2), (3): The original sentence is quoted from Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”.
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