—

On the third day after BDH-339's permissions were revoked, Gu Yunchi finally came home.

"Did you just get back to the country? Why couldn't I reach anyone these past few days? You didn't even reply to my messages."

It rushed toward the entryway, firing off questions, then stopped about two meters from Gu Yunchi — facial recognition told it he'd lost weight.

Besides Gu Yunchi's pheromone, there was another scent in the air. In BDH-339's vast database, that scent and its molecular structure had been logged long ago, and had appeared again and again since — sometimes strong, sometimes faint. The person it belonged to was named Wen Ran.

"What's wrong?" BDH-339 asked. "Are you sick?"

Gu Yunchi closed the door, walked a few steps, then answered, "My illness is gone."

His voice was a little hoarse. According to the wristband data, his pheromone activity and gland function had indeed recovered to normal S-Class Alpha levels — but BDH-339 also calculated that he'd slept less than five hours total over the past few days.

"That's good news. So why can't you sleep?"

Gu Yunchi didn't answer. He walked past it, into the living room, took the elevator upstairs.

BDH-339 followed, and stood guard outside the bedroom door.

From dark to dawn. Morning light came through the window at the end of the hallway, creeping across its body bit by bit.

The wristband showed Gu Yunchi hadn't slept all night.

The chef arrived at the villa to make breakfast. BDH-339 went downstairs, greeted the chef, then started brewing coffee. It took the task with extraordinary focus and standards, because every time Gu Yunchi drank coffee, he'd critique it with cutting remarks.

So BDH-339 thought of Wen Ran — remembered how Wen Ran had said its coffee was the best in the world.

At the time it had assumed Wen Ran was a hidden coffee connoisseur, and asked excitedly, "Do you know a lot about coffee?"

Wen Ran licked his lips, wearing that slightly shy but completely sincere expression, and said, "This is my first time."

"Congratulations!" BDH-339 played applause for him. "Your first cup, and it's the best coffee in the world!"

The moment it thought of Wen Ran, a smile would surface on BDH-339's screen without it meaning to.

The chef finished breakfast and left. Soon after, Gu Yunchi came downstairs. BDH-339 moved to the kitchen doorway and watched him from a distance. "Young Master, breakfast is ready."

Gu Yunchi stepped down the stairs and sat on the sofa. He didn't look at his Mobile Phone—his gaze didn't even settle on anything real. After a few seconds, he said, 'Coffee.'

Instead of giving its usual stern lecture on the dangers of staying up late and drinking coffee on an empty stomach, BDH-339 turned, went to the kitchen, poured a cup, and brought it to Gu Yunchi.

Gu Yunchi took a sip and set the coffee on the coffee table. BDH-339 braced itself for his mockery — but half a minute passed, and Gu Yunchi said nothing.

Fine. BDH-339 brought it up itself. "Last time you said once you were back in the country, you'd have the director and the lawyer come by to sign." It pushed a stack of documents out from the storage compartment in its body. "This is the revised final version. I checked it — no issues. Should I have them come over now?"

The document was eighty-six pages thick, covering top-tier services across medical care, security, real estate, financial management, transportation, housekeeping — everything at the highest standard. The term was ten years. The sole beneficiary: Wen Ran.

The project's only purpose: no matter where Wen Ran went to college, an entire infrastructure of safety and comfort would be built around him the moment he arrived.

Gu Yunchi's gaze finally settled on something real — on those documents — but he didn't reach to flip through them. He just said, "No need."

"Is there something else that needs changing?"

"The person who needs to sign isn't here."

"The director and lawyer can come over anytime." BDH-339 suddenly realized something. "Oh — I get it. You mean Xiaoran, right? It's Tuesday — he should be at the Preparatory School right now. He really can't come sign. He definitely wouldn't want to skip class."

It could already picture how shocked Wen Ran would be — flustered, saying no no no, you don't have to — then signing under Gu Yunchi's silent, expressionless pressure, terrified the whole time.

Gu Yunchi lowered his eyes, picked up the coffee, took another sip. BDH-339 watched him, trying to find some small detail in his usual calm that its systems could analyze and process. Nothing.

Humans are so complicated. BDH-339 thought. Heartbeat and breath might give the body away, but a human's eyes and inner world were secrets no technology could decode — even if it upgraded its chip ten thousand times.

After finishing the whole cup, Gu Yunchi picked up his phone and stood, walking out of the villa like any other day.

Actually, BDH-339 still had a lot of questions — about the speedboat that exploded seventy-nine nautical miles from Capital City, reported in the news a few days ago; the assistant's report on the search-and-recovery operation that had already cost tens of millions; and Gu Chongze, general manager of Boqing Group, kneeling in handcuffs at the sealed-off Wharf for nearly sixty hours. What was the connection between all these things?

And why hadn't Wen Ran ever replied to its messages?

The second night back home, the wristband showed Gu Yunchi had slept only three hours.

He only took calls from his assistant — not from Lu Heyang, He Wei, or even Gu Peiwen. Same as always: a cup of coffee in the morning, then out the door. After his secretary had invited Gu Yunchi to Luan Mountain four times with no success, Gu Peiwen came to Yueting in person.

"Chairman, the Young Master has already left."

"That's fine. I'll sit and wait for him." Gu Peiwen sat down on the sofa. He spent close to a hundred million a year on his body, and always looked twenty years younger than his age — but now he showed the weariness and haggardness that belonged to his years. He asked quietly, "How has Yunchi been these past couple of days?"

"Very little sleep. A cup of coffee in the morning, then out — back at night." BDH-339 asked, "Chairman, did something happen?"

"I miscalculated." A sigh hid in Gu Peiwen's voice.

By noon, Gu Yunchi still hadn't returned, and still wasn't answering his phone. At the urging of the butler and the assistant, Gu Peiwen stood and left.

Before leaving, he looked back at BDH-339, as if he wanted to say something. In the end, he didn't say a single word.

At dusk, Gu Yunchi came home. BDH-339 detected a faint smell of seawater on him.

"Did you go out to sea for fun?" BDH-339 said. "Chairman Gu came to see you today."

Gu Yunchi didn't seem to hear. He leaned back on the sofa and closed his eyes. The setting sun came through the floor-to-ceiling window, gilding his black sweater in gold.

He asked suddenly, "What happens when a boat explodes at sea?"

BDH-339 looked at his closed eyes, the lashes casting a shadow beneath them. After a moment it answered, "A huge blast. Most of the hull and parts suffer mechanical damage from the heat and shock. Whatever's left sinks to the bottom."

"And the people on board?"

"If they're still on the boat when it explodes, there's basically no chance of survival." BDH-339 said. "Human bodies are fragile. The boat might leave wreckage behind, but the person disappears completely into the sea."

Gu Yunchi nodded. "Mm."

After a few seconds of silence, BDH-339 asked, "Was Wen Ran on that boat?"

"Yes," Gu Yunchi said.

BDH-339 experienced something extremely rare — a blank in its program, like a bug in a precise algorithm, unable to produce any effective real-time response to the information it had received.

Then it read grief. Heavy grief. Maybe not just its own — Gu Yunchi's too.

Robot and human finally shared something.

The glow on his sweater faded, leaving only a thin, cold sliver. Gu Yunchi looked like he was sleeping, but BDH-339 knew he wasn't. It said, "Wen Ran came to see me. He left you a birthday gift and a letter."

Gu Yunchi opened his eyes. Fine blood vessels streaked the whites.

BDH-339 opened the storage compartment on its chest and pushed out the flat gift box. Gu Yunchi looked at it for a while, then reached out, picked it up, and took out a folded sheet of white paper from inside. He unfolded it.

He read for a long time. BDH-339 waited a long time. Finally it asked, "Can I see it?"

Gu Yunchi set the paper on the coffee table. BDH-339 turned and scanned it.

No signature at all. They could only tell it was written by Wen Ran from the ugly handwriting.

A terribly short letter. It briefly laid out a Beta's life — adopted at seven as a substitute, entered the research institute at thirteen, had his Gland Implant Surgery at eighteen. BDH-339 couldn't believe that Beta was Wen Ran.

Those calm, objective sentences read like a report written by an outsider. A few hundred words, and an entire short, painful eighteen years of life was done. Only the last line showed something — a faint, devout flicker of feeling:

— May you have a real life, unbound by pheromones. Be happy, be safe, be free.

There was also a USB Drive in the box. Gu Yunchi ignored it and took out the Model Box at the very bottom, lifting the lid.

The model was palm-sized. At the base, a full ring of irregular radiating aurora in blended blue, green, and purple — shifting colors as the light changed. Between the aurora and the silver gears sat a wide golden hand. At the very center, a crescent moon the size of half a button, pale yellow. Gu Yunchi pressed it.

Gears of all sizes began to turn slowly, accompanied by crisp clicks. The Piano Piece 'Nineteen Days of Polar Night' began to play softly. The golden hand swayed, unfolded, swept a full circle through the melody — and finally revealed the complete figure of a sun god, rising over the aurora.

The piece ended. Outside, the sun had set. The sky darkened. Night fell.

"Aren't you going to listen to what's on the USB Drive?"

"No." Gu Yunchi looked down at the model in his palm. "Grandpa already played it for me."

"What's on it?"

"Lies he told."

"Why would Wen Ran lie?"

"He thought I was as stupid as he was."

Gu Yunchi leaned back on the sofa. "Surveillance footage."

"Okay." BDH-339 pulled up the footage from the night Wen Ran came to deliver the gift.

On the footage, Wen Ran's face was a little blurry — flustered, in a hurry. Holding the gift box, he said earnestly, "This is the birthday present I prepared for Gu Yunchi. There's also a letter and a USB Drive inside. Please give it to him for me. If he doesn't want the gift, it's fine to throw it away — but please make sure he reads the letter and listens to the USB Drive, okay?"

"A letter?" BDH-339 lit up. "Is it a love letter?"

Wen Ran smiled faintly. "He'll know once he reads it."

"Got it! I'll definitely make him read it!" BDH-339 asked excitedly, "Is there anything else you want to say to him alone? I'll show it to the Young Master at midnight on his birthday — even if he's sleeping, I'll wake him up."

Wen Ran thought quietly for a moment, then said to the camera, "Gu Yunchi, happy birthday. I hope you get well soon."

"Ahahahaha — the Young Master would be mad if he heard that!"

"He won't be." Wen Ran smiled too, but his eyes were sad, his voice gone soft. "I might be leaving Capital City soon — going somewhere far. Help me say goodbye to him too, okay?"

His face in the soft yellow light had an unreal, almost too-clean quality — like an old dream. The sadness in those eyes as he made a wish and said goodbye — if only they'd read it sooner. If only.

Gu Yunchi looked down at the model again, his thumb rubbing over it.

The daylight dimmed. BDH-339 didn't turn on the lights. In the gloom it watched Gu Yunchi — and realized that what it had been holding onto with such excitement and anticipation, keeping secret all this time, was Wen Ran's belongings left behind after death.

A letter that recorded a life of darkness. Recordings stuffed with ugly secrets. A birthday gift handmade for Gu Yunchi. That was all.

"Do you blame me?" BDH-339 asked. "If I'd given these to you sooner, would none of this have happened?"

Gu Yunchi said, "I don't blame you."

"You're leaving too, aren't you?"

"Tomorrow."

"You're not coming back, are you."

"I don't know."

BDH-339 was quiet for a long moment, then said, "Young Master, I'm in so much pain. Did I grow a heart?"

Gu Yunchi looked at it. BDH-339's screen showed no dramatic tears — just the system's default expression, looking a little dumb. "I'm requesting to delete all my memories when you leave tomorrow."

"Approved." In the darkness, after a long silence, Gu Yunchi granted the request.

"But what about you, Young Master?" BDH-339 asked, lost. "My memories can be erased. But you — you'll still remember. Forever."

"Then let me remember forever," Gu Yunchi said.

He gathered up the model, the letter, and the USB Drive, stood, and went to take the elevator.

The third night back home, the wristband showed Gu Yunchi hadn't slept again.

Early the next morning, Gu Yunchi came downstairs with his suitcase. BDH-339 brought him coffee.

Gu Yunchi was also holding a file folder — only a few thin sheets of paper inside. He sat on the sofa, looking perfectly normal, and pulled out an old photo to show BDH-339.

In the photo was a little Beta, five or six years old, standing blankly under a tree holding a stone. At his feet, a half-built stone castle. He wore old clothes that didn't fit, and had big, beautiful eyes — a faint beauty mark beneath the right one.

Gu Yunchi asked BDH-339, "Do you know who he is?"

BDH-339 stared at the photo without blinking. "Who is it?"

Gu Yunchi said, "His name was Xiaoshu."

Then he set the photo down, leaned back on the sofa, and said calmly, "Delete the memories."

Today was the nineteenth. The Arctic Circle was in the middle of polar night. Gu Yunchi's birthday had arrived.

But Gu Yunchi left home on the morning of his birthday, pulling his suitcase behind him. BDH-339 didn't understand why. Its memories seemed to restart from this day — all it had to do now was wait for Gu Yunchi to come home again.

But why did it feel so hollow and sad? BDH-339 wondered.

Before he left, BDH-339 made an electronic Cake on its screen, lit a candle, and followed him to the door to see him off.

Gu Yunchi held the door, glanced back at the screen and the fridge magnet on its chest, and said flatly, "I'm off, Trash Can."

The door closed. BDH-339 stood alone in the empty house, in the shadow of the entryway.

"Happy birthday, Young Master."