Master, I Need Charging

Gu Anbao had changed into a cream-colored ruffled-collar long-sleeved blouse and a matching warm orange-colored fluffy skirt. The ruffled sleeves and long striped socks kept her ball-joints hidden while her fox ears got swapped for something less ostentatious — a pair of black cat ears.

In this outfit, she looked like a lovely and adorable young lady… just like a real human being.

It never occurred to Chen Yuheng that a simple changing of clothes could actually make it so hard for him to distinguish between a human and a robot. If he had not met this robot beforehand, he would likely have been deceived by her appearance and mistaken her for a real person.

The effect was fantastic.

As he strolled towards her from his desk, he looked her up and down… until his gaze came to a stop at her thigh-length socks. He asked, “What are these on the sides?”

“Little wings!” Lu Lu cheerfully piped in reply.

Isn’t that cute? Isn’t that cute? Isn’t that cute?

“…”

He could not understand the reason for adding two extra pieces of fabric to a perfectly good pair of socks. Would those things make her warmer? 2D beauty aesthetics are just so weird…

“Change them into something normal.”

“???” Aren’t these just normal socks?

Circling the robot to survey her, the man added, “Let her hair down and add a hair clip to both sides of her hair around the middle of her ears.” This way, not only could the cat’s ears be explained as decorated hair clips, but the charging socket at the base of her neck would also be hidden.

His subordinate immediately snapped out of her daze, which resulted from the earlier socks’ matter, and nodded fervently. “Okay, I got it!”

She then excitedly asked, “Director Chen, does this robot have a name? What do you think about the name ‘Alice’? ‘Ella’ sounds good, too!”

Average robots, unlike customized ones, were only labeled by their serial numbers and had no names. Even so, names were usually in English to facilitate the process of system entry.

His brows knitted together.

The old man at home doesn’t understand English at all. Forget it, let’s just randomly pick a Chinese name.

Turning toward the robot, he abruptly issued an order, “Choose a random female Chinese name.”

Huh?

Gu Anbao was taken aback by the sudden order.

Upon seeing her slow-witted response, which was extremely like a human being, again, he crossed his arms and waited patiently for her answer…

She found herself unable to catch up with the situation at all!

Am I supposed to act like a robot and automatically come up with a whole bunch of online search results upon hearing a command?!

… I can’t do that!

When she saw the man growing increasingly impatient, she bowed her head and answered, “Ruan Ruan.”

“What?” Her voice was so soft he could not catch what she said.

She still dared not look up as she repeated herself. “… Ruan Ruan.”

When she did not hear his voice after a while, she raised her head and glimpsed at him, only to find his gaze still fixed on her… Well, he apparently thought that she would give him a scrolling list of names to choose from.

And so, she forced herself to recite: “… Zhang Ying? Erm… Liu Ting… Wang Fang… Cheng Li…”

Chen Yuheng no longer wanted to listen on, however. “Go with the first one; Ruan Ruan.”

“Okay…” She heaved a sigh of relief.

“Ruan Ruan sounds good!” Lu Lu lifted her hand to pinch her cat ear. “Your name will be Ruan Ruan Ruan from now on.”

She shyly flashed a smile at her in response.

That smile got the man pensively looking over to the direction of the woman’s hand and his gaze landed on that cat ear which was being kneaded.

Embarrassed, Lu Lu acutely withdrew her hand when she felt his stare…

Boss… I just… couldn’t resist myself for a moment…

Just as she was inwardly expressing her remorse, she saw him suddenly reaching his hand out and mimicking her earlier actions!

Ah…!

Ahhhhh…!

Gu Anbao’s face paled a little before it quickly turned red! In fact, it was… burning red!

Not only did he not let go of her ear, but he actually… started to lightly rub it…

Her body trembled slightly at the touch as if she was trying her hardest to resist something… like having her crush gently kneading her ears…

She pursed her lips tightly, trying her best to ignore the strange feelings in her ear. Alas, he reached out for the other ear as well!

Ahhhh!!!!

Now both ears were being kneaded!

Flustered, she buried her face in her hands and didn’t dare look up!

She felt really embarrassed!

Lu Lu’s eyes bulged wide as she watched the robot flushing so hard under her boss’ teasing that even its ears had gone red. She was internally exclaiming, Unhand that robot, you satan! Let me do it!!!

The man thoughtfully retracted his hands as he mumbled to himself, “Does the program only activate upon the touch of the opposite sex…”

Besides the ears, where else can I touch… What’s the extreme response… He had not forgotten how the robot had pushed him aside earlier. Should it have been his grandfather, he would have most likely been injured from that push.

Even though it’s highly anthropomorphic, it’s still lacking in terms of safety issues. This is all Ace’s fault for willfully adding the impression system. It’s probably because my impression was at a lowly zero that the robot had such a huge reaction upon our first physical contact.

How can I quickly make a more favorable impression…?

As he pondered on this issue, the troubled look on his face grew evident.

When Gu Anbao noticed this, she uneasily hung her head low.

He clearly wore a look of approval when I first entered the room. Now… he seems to be dissatisfied with me again…

Does he perhaps… not like me…

How can he possibly like me… I screwed up all the tasks that robots were supposed to excel in… Even when we were choosing a name earlier, I simply gave my online nickname for an answer.

She grew increasingly despondent…

The man found this very strange, though. What’s wrong with this robot now…?

His subordinate, on the other hand, was inwardly expressing her marvel. It’s simply exquisite! Mr. Ace’s work is simply exquisite! The robot actually knows how to read people’s faces! Ten thousand likes!

Right then, Cheryl knocked on the door and entered with several discs in hand.

“Director Chen, these are the robot learning materials that you wanted.”

Her boss reached for the items.

She carefully read his face and when she realized that he was in a relatively calm mood, she continued speaking, “The video conference with Ferrand Technologies is starting in 20 minutes; do you need to prepare for it in advance?”

“No, call me in 15 minutes.”

“The medical department’s minimally-invasive surgical robot upgrade proposal has been sent to your mailbox. They will give a detailed explanation at tomorrow’s routine meeting.”

“Noted.”

“Also, Director Wu of Fuligu Company called in the hope of bringing forward the signing of the contract by a week.”

Chen Yuheng tiredly pressed his glabella¹. “Review the contract again and send it to them if there’s no problem with it. Is there anything else?”

She quickly flipped through the notebook in her hand.

“For tonight’s dinner with Ms. Shen, I’ve booked a private room at Royal Orchid Court. The time is at—”

“Cancel it.”

Feeling slightly stunned, she swiftly responded, “Noted, I’ll cancel the reservation. Do I need to give Ms. Shen a call to inform her?”

He gave a slight nod. “You go arrange it.”

What he meant was for Cheryl to call the other lady.

It was obviously not her first time doing such things since she asked with practiced familiarity, “Can I say that you’re in a cross-border conference if she starts questioning?”

“Yes.”

She swiftly jotted it down on her notebook before respectfully saying, “I’ll go make the arrangements now.”

“Wait a minute.” Returning to his seat, he rapped his finger on the desk repeatedly as he said, “Order me a caramel pudding.”

Gu Anbao was not sure if it was her misconception, but she seemed to have seen the two women shuddering a little at the same time before they escaped the office with pale faces…

She could not understand it. Is there a problem with… caramel pudding?