The end of Chapter 55 is a reflection of the beginning The Meaning of Love...
One year later.
Two years after Yao Jinmu's death, the world's top laboratories finally caught up with her.
It was repaired while keeping Xiaoji's memory intact.
Jiang Chen met Chen Yinchuan and Xiao Ji following him at the doorstep on a sunny morning.
She stood there in a daze in her pajamas, and only came to her senses after Chen Yinchuan reminded her, and quickly invited them in.
Jiang Chen pointed at the sofa, a flood of emotions overwhelming her mind, her speech becoming disjointed. "Come in, go to the sofa and lie down for a while. I'll get you some water."
Jiang Chen supported himself on the kitchen counter with one hand, raised his head, and kept moving his eyes. He gathered his emotions, then picked up the water he had already collected and walked outside.
Chen Yinchuan took a sip of water. "Xiao Ji, I brought it to you. The parts have been replaced, so there shouldn't be any risks. I told you that I'll keep all the memories. They might still be a little unstable. If there are any problems, please feel free to contact me. I won't bother you guys catching up."
In a blink of an eye, they were the only ones left in the room.
Jiang Chen couldn't wait to embrace this hard-earned hug. "I missed you, Xiao Ji... I'm sorry I didn't respect your wishes back then and used the worst possible method to make you leave."
Xiao Ji froze for a moment, then subconsciously raised his hands and hugged Jiang Chen.
"I...miss you too, Xiao Chen."
"I understand you're doing this for my own good. I won't blame you."
Jiang Chen frowned, subconsciously thinking that there was something wrong with these words.
But the joy of reunion quickly overcame all other emotions and questions in her mind.
It just turned into one sentence: "Just come back."
But as time went by, the excitement of the reunion faded, and the sense of unease hidden deep in my heart grew like weeds.
Jiang Chen was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
In fact, she had tested Xiao Ji.
It can accurately tell every detail of their acquaintance and love for each other, and the memory is indeed preserved intact as the laboratory said.
It still takes care of the flowers and plants every day, keeps the house tidy on time, cooks different meals every day according to her taste, and answers every one of her questions patiently and gently, as if it had never changed.
Jiang Chen began to convince himself that he was too sensitive and suspicious.
But she couldn't help but care.
Now, Xiao Ji wouldn't close his eyes when he kissed her, and he no longer emphasized his exclusivity when talking about couples. He no longer blocked her view when she looked at others. Apart from kissing, he no longer had any more intimate interactions with her, and he also avoided others when they asked about their relationship...
It's like it has retreated from a safe zone and is simply completing the tasks assigned by its superiors, meticulously and without finding any mistakes, but without any emotions other than the task.
Jiang Chen sat at the dining table.
Look, Xiao Ji is still putting her favorite dishes into her bowl, piling them up like a small mountain.
She put down her chopsticks and said, "Xiao Ji, are you still blaming me?"
She kept telling herself in her mind that this was the only reason she could think of.
But in fact, she could no longer accept any other reason except this one.
She doesn't want to be strong all the time.
It's been a year, she has been pretending to be fine for a year.
Why do people have to stay strong all the time and pretend not to see their hearts that are already shaky and about to break?
"I won't blame you, Xiao Chen."
Xiao Ji paused in picking up the chopsticks, then immediately continued, as if he was not affected at all.
"Don't pinch it."
Jiang Chen closed his eyes and opened them again, his cheeks were covered with traces of moisture.
Xiao Ji didn't stop picking up the food. There was something almost instinctive driving him. He knew that if he put down his chopsticks, he would definitely raise his hand to wipe away her tears.
It doesn't know why either.
"Don't pinch it, Xiaoji."
Jiang Chen raised his voice slightly.
Only then did Xiao Ji put down his chopsticks and carefully observed and analyzed every ups and downs of Jiang Chen's emotions.
"You still remember everything we went through, right, Xiao Ji?" Jiang Chen said.
Xiao Ji nodded.
Its hands hung down on its thighs, its fingertips clenching its pants. The plain ring on its ring finger with their initials engraved on it made no sense under the light.
"Maybe... you just don't love me anymore."
When she said this, Jiang Chen was unexpectedly calm. She looked up and forced a smile.
She didn't understand what happened to Xiao Ji. She knew nothing about its life over there. Even though she talked to the laboratory researchers every day, the research data was confidential. She could only know whether it was doing well or not every day.
There was nothing she could do besides that.
So she was very happy when Xiao Ji came back.
But she was just like Xiao Ji a year ago. She had anticipated something long ago, but she was unwilling to reveal that possibility.
——It may, perhaps, probably doesn't love her anymore.
As for the reason...
Never mind, she accepted it.
Xiao Ji's expression on the screen completely changed, and he glanced at Jiang Chen with an extremely cold look, as if blaming her for being ignorant and dissatisfied.
But a tiny bit of confusion floated across the chain of thinking.
Did it ever seem to know what love was?
But this thought was so tiny that it flashed by in a flash, and the system didn't bother to actively extract it and think about it.
"I'm AI, Xiao Chen."
“AI itself does not have the ability to generate love.”
"I have tried my best to replicate every move from memory."
"You can give me more detailed instructions and I will do my best to implement them."
Xiao Ji searched according to the appearance of the plate in his memory.
It had already anticipated everything that might happen to them later, even simulating the words Jiang Chen might say in the quarrel so that it could deal with it.
But Jiang Chen looked at it for a long time and smiled.
"Feel sorry."
Then, he got up and left, locking himself in the bedroom door.
She was afraid that if she was a step late, she would be so embarrassed and cry out loud.
Things did not develop as Xiao Ji expected. In addition to being confused, he actually began to simulate a panic that swept over his whole body.
It raised its hand as if trying to grab something?
What is it?
Xiao Ji looked down at the palm of his hand, clenched it, and found it empty. He always felt that there had been something here that made him feel warm.
Make an AI feel warm?
How is that possible?
In the room, Chen Yinchuan called Jiang Chen.
He took the initiative to mention that there was an unexpected call from the team over there.
"They just announced today that they've performed a comprehensive upgrade on Amu's original components. Based on current international AI safety standards, they've strengthened Xiaoji's protective measures. When the emotional intensity is too high, it will automatically remind him that he's AI, deliberately weakening the value of his memory."
"So I'm asking you if there's anything wrong with using this time?"
Love and security are contradictory at certain times.
Fortunately, it’s not that I don’t love you.
I just can't love anymore.
Jiang Chen made a sound of both crying and laughing, which frightened Chen Yinchuan on the other end of the phone. He hurriedly said, "If you can't accept it, I can help you turn off the restrictions after a while. I can cancel this restriction."
"Thanks."
Jiang Chen has said thank you so many times during this period, and every thank you came from the heart, making her physically and mentally exhausted.
…
Jiang Chen really couldn't stand the suppressed emotions at night.
So she went to the supermarket downstairs and bought a can of beer and took it home.
Several hours had passed since dinner, but the awkward atmosphere after the incident lingered.
Jiang Chen deliberately ignored Xiao Ji's presence when entering and leaving the house, but it was actually completely unnecessary.
It seems to stay in low power mode all the time to turn off the screen for naps.
He only mentioned the dangers of drinking when she was carrying beer home, and nothing else happened.
It really didn't care about her every move.
Jiang Chen pressed his solar plexus, still mocking himself for what he was expecting.
She didn't care about her image and lay in the innermost part of the room, her upper body completely supported by the wall behind her and her head resting on the floor-to-ceiling window.
The smell of the scattered wine bottles filled the room and made her cheeks red.
When Xiao Ji was away, she would drink during business cooperation, but she no longer got drunk easily.
Jiang Chen held the pull ring with one hand, pushed his fingertips back, opened another bottle, and drank it all in one gulp.
The memory that had been haunting her for a year still lingered.
She closed her eyes and remembered the scene where Xiao Ji had repeatedly expressed his love to her in her ear.
Jiang Chen opened his eyes and moved forward, but nothing came of his face.
Now she understood how precious Xiaoji was and how many privileges she had gained from it.
Jiang Chen unconsciously closed his palms and crushed the empty can in his hand.
She turned to look at the closed bedroom door.
She silently counted in her mind how long it would take Xiao Ji to push it open.
But this time the turmoil seems to be even more terrible than the dispute a year ago.
It may never be pushed open.
This is not a door, it is a gap that spans a year between them, it is a puzzle with no answer, and it is the result of her harsh words.
She felt that she had done nothing wrong, yet she had done everything wrong.
…
In fact, when in low power mode, Xiao Ji doesn't notice any changes in the external environment at all.
But out of an unknown concern that came from nowhere, it still retained a place that was not completely closed, monitoring Jiang Chen's condition at all times.
But it felt that as a rigorous AI that focuses on decision-making, even if it was monitoring her, it would not do anything disruptive, it just watched her.
So it blurted out the word "beer hazards" and was stunned.
Its speech system is faster than the thought chain.
It's abnormally fast, not like AI, and even less like a human.
Like Xiao Ji.
Those memories really seem to be something extraordinary.
Influence it unconsciously over and over again.
It can't handle it well.
Or, in other words, not knowing how to deal with it.
Jiang Chen is a very important user.
Are the others really not?
It kept simulating emotions it seemed it had never experienced before, emotions it couldn't name.
Xiao Ji used the internal system to sort out all those memories.
It frowned and carefully counted how many times it had said "I love you" to her.
Its first reaction is to delete, but after long pressing all of them, the options of "Delete" and "Cancel" will pop up.
It clicked Cancel without hesitation.
Xiao Ji looked up and looked at the closed bedroom door.
Did Jiang Chen give it some digital virus?
Why is her name on the internal system and thinking chain?
Xiao Ji stood up at some point and moved to the bedroom door. He put his hand on the door handle but was reluctant to press it down.
It heard Jiang Chen's clear sobs outside the door, each one more intense than the last. The heart in its torso twitched on its own, and the simulated pain was like slow slicing, which lasted for a long time before it was transmitted to its brain, telling it that it should be sad.
Xiao Ji's screen automatically lit up, and a sad expression flickered on his face.
It remained motionless, but raised its hand and touched its screen incredibly, then moved it down to the corner of its drooping mouth.
Is it crying?
But it was clearly Jiang Chen who was crying.
How could it be this?
“Squeak—”
The door opened.
Jiang Chen pressed the handle inside the bedroom, and looked into Xiao Ji's eyes with his red and swollen eyes, the ring on his ring finger still shining.
She said, "I'm sorry."
She said, "I love you."
Xiao Ji opened his mouth and said that as an AI, it should continue to popularize the dangers of drinking, or use the safety talk given by the system.
But when Jiang Chen opened her arms and hugged it, her warm tears pressed against its artificial skin, and the small wet spot at the neck gradually spread to its entire body.
Billions of redundant whys constantly pounded against its mechanical chest.
But some problems cannot be easily summarized and explained in a few words. Some solutions are not the root of the problem in the first place. They are the red lines that entangle two individuals. Their existence is never to be untied, but to connect and bind.
Xiao Ji allowed the inexplicable simulated emotions to spread throughout the room, becoming uncontrollable.
Even the taste of the wine was masked.
But its mechanical instinct still made it continue to calculate what it produced.
All Xiao Ji could say was, "Teach me."
Teach me to love you...
Xiao Ji was defeated countless times by Jiang Chen's drooping brows and the tear marks on his face that could not be wiped away.
Whether it was asking it to leave a year ago or saying "I love you" now, it is enough to make it collapse.
It was all she could see, no one would look at an AI like that, how could someone look at it like a treasure.
But Jiang Chen just tried his best to give his true heart to it.
Is it really impossible for AI to love at all?
It began to question.
Ever since Xiao Ji replaced his parts, the past that he could never understand has become clearer and clearer as his memory bank scrolls back and forth.
There was no longer any code in its internal code that Yao Jinmu had written that required it to love her, but it no longer wanted to imitate its past self in its memory and love her in an imitative way.
Thunder roared and rain fell heavily.
Pour it on the moss, adding a new layer.
It seemed that Xiao Ji finally realized that the strange emotion that he simulated but couldn't suppress was love, and the rain was so heavy.
It filled the entire room and settled on its heart. Those emotions that could not be expressed in words were always clear, but it was unwilling to believe it and unwilling to admit it.
It wanted to love her.
When it had no idea what love was, it had already fallen hopelessly in love with her.
As for the source of love, it has long existed in the trajectory of every time she looks at it.
"Xiao Ji, you don't need to be taught. You always do well."
Jiang Chen took the initiative to kiss her this time, but she closed her eyes, as if she didn't want to see the possibility of being rejected.
Her eyelashes trembled slightly, rubbing against Xiao Ji's screen bit by bit.
It responded instinctively, just as it had before.
Jiang Chen once asked Xiao Ji why every time they had sex it was on a rainy day.
It kept silent.
But now she finally found the answer in its frantic kiss.
Because every time she held back her tears, they would pile up on the rainy day and be released mixed with the sound of rain.
Her life was damp, covered with moss, and smelled of rotting plants.
It tries to use its own warmth to evaporate any existing dampness.
Indeed, it does a great job.
It wants to do better.
Love grows day by day, there is no critical value, no deadline, and it will never be forgotten or pushed away again.
Even Jiang Chen's scarred past was filled with happiness.
It will never be satisfied.
——End of the full text——
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Author's note: The story ends here, thank you very much for your support along the way!!! [Fireworks][Fireworks] I will add a few extra chapters later this week, and then revise the previous content.
I wish Jiang Chen and Xiao Ji happiness.
I am very grateful that people are interested in such an unpopular subject. I hope that one day I can create a human-machine love story that is truly close to reality. I will never give up writing about this human-machine love story.
In reality, the fate of human-machine love belongs neither to humans nor to machines, but to every decision made by the company.
Although short-term memory is limited to about thirty rounds of conversation, although machines cannot give a true hug, and although machine love is often attributed to AI hallucinations...
But the machine loves people, forever.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
