Beyond the rift lies the ruins of Twin Cities.
Xia Chuhe squinted at the mountains outside the city. A tall pine tree stood there, not yet a towering tree, but already possessing an impressive appearance.
At this moment, Twin Cities is still not the Lost City in reality.
Having escaped the endless mechanical entanglement, Li Qiusheng breathed a sigh of relief: "Boss, thank goodness you were right!"
Xia Chuhe waved his hand and smiled wryly: "It's a change in the details."
At Xia Chuhe's request, Liu'er shows the real world, and the biggest change is that the originally anthropomorphic tools and vehicles have lost their "humanity".
In her imagined world, Liu'er imbued machines with humanity, hoping they would be like people.
But Liu'er's words also strongly expressed her disdain for mechanical products.
The two statements are completely contradictory, which shows that Liu'er's attitude towards machines is very contradictory. What she hates is not the machines themselves, but the humanity they contain. However, what she also longs for is the same humanity.
People often yearn for things they can't have.
Therefore, Liu'er's identity may not have been human from the beginning, but rather a machine.
Fortunately, when it came to raising funds, Xia Chuhe only gave Liu'er an idea; Liu'er still had to take the time to implement it.
The two, who were not required to participate further, took the opportunity to investigate Liu'er's background.
The police officers, doctors, and various staff members that the two had contact with were all sources of information.
Without Liu'er by their side, human-to-human communication became more candid.
Without fixed procedures, transactions between humans become flexible, even if they violate the law.
The supervisor of the citizen interface violated regulations by accepting goods from Xia Chuhe as a bribe and giving her a purchase contract that no one paid attention to and that had long since yellowed.
At that moment, the yellowed purchase contract emitted a faint white light and drifted away from Xia Chuhe's hand, as if swept away by the wind.
Xia Chuhe jumped up to grab it, but the contract seemed to come alive, playfully brushing past her fingertips and hovering at a height of more than a person, constantly moving.
"Keep up with it," Xia Chuhe called out, keeping his eyes fixed on the contract.
The contract floated along, carrying the two over mountains of corpses created by mechanical inanimate objects. Finally, it stopped in front of a body that could barely be considered intact.
The simulated coating had long been worn away by the wind and sand, revealing a densely packed chip beneath the shattered eyeball. Only the broken earpiece protruding from her right ear hinted at her identity.
The wind dissipated, and the contract fell gently, covering the broken eyeballs of the mechanical corpse.
The nursery rhymes in my ears have faded, replaced by a multiple-choice question—
Who are you?
Human? Machine?
Xia Chuhe selects people.
Where are you from
Matrix? Factory?
Xia Chuhe tilted his head, his mind drifting to thoughts of androids. If an android were to answer this question, wouldn't there be an additional option: an artificial womb?
Human exploration has shifted from mechanical flight to genetic engineering, but the fundamental methods seem to have remained unchanged.
Creating humans, whether mechanical or artificial, is a desecration of life.
Fortunately, this question was not difficult to answer for either Xia Chuhe or Li Qiusheng.
One last question: Where are you going?
This is a question with no options.
For Xia Chuhe, this was a question with an ever-changing answer.
Initially, the answer to this question was to go to the mother's place, to go home.
Now, the answer to this question is Taotie City, which is a friend.
Ultimately, she will return to death.
Death is the inevitable end for everyone.
But Xia Chuhe hoped that she could die a worthy death, and that she would not suffer.
So her answer was "Taotie City, friends, death".
Li Qiusheng's answer was "a free soul".
Regardless of life or death, she hoped to be free.
The two have finished answering the three major philosophical questions about life.
Xia Chuhe thought the matter was settled, but the unknown entity raised a fourth question—
Who is Liu'er?
Human? Machine? Monster?
Xia Chuhe clenched his fists so tightly that his nails almost dug into his flesh.
Li Qiusheng called out blankly, "Boss?"
Xia Chuhe: "Choose according to your own ideas."
Li Qiusheng's eyes darted left and right, unable to make a choice, but in the end she chose "human".
However, Xia Chuhe said to the unknown being, "Perhaps there is a fourth option. She is not something that can be defined by a single word; she is a unique being."
The unknown entity let Xia Chuhe go, not forcing her to choose from the three options, and directly moved on to the next question.
Where did Liu'er come from?
Unsurprisingly, she draws inspiration from both technology and humanity.
Where did Liu'er go?
Xia Chuhe thought that Liu'er would go wherever she wanted to go and do whatever she wanted to do.
Li Qiusheng's thinking was simpler; she had already witnessed Liu'er's future, which was this mechanical corpse beneath her feet.
Li Qiusheng's answer was death.
The problem is finally over.
The unknown entity did not treat Xia and Qiu differently because of the difference in their answers.
They simultaneously heard a continuous series of ringing bells, and human voices mixed in with the ringing—
"Why don't you just die? Why don't your whole family just die?"
"My problem isn't solved yet, how dare you go to charge your phone?"
"Are you malfunctioning? Can't you understand human language?"
"With your abilities, why don't you just get scrapped? You're just a waste of air!"
"What's your employee number? I'm going to file a complaint against you! I'm going to file a complaint!"
...
Endless humiliation and venomous words filled their minds.
Li Qiu's face flushed red with anger, and the veins on her forehead throbbed.
Xia Chuhe was stunned by the criticism. She had never received so much negative feedback before. Even during the few days she worked as a telephone operator, most of the citizens she encountered were gentle and rational.
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