Chapter 183. Diary (II)

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Arc E: Extra.

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November 12th

I was standing in the corridor when I suddenly heard a noise coming from the studio. In a very short time, I realized that Master had knocked over the wooden carving on the desk.

The wood carving depicted a small tree with a snake coiled around its branches, its tail suspended in mid-air and its head facing Master.

I often dust the wood carving, knowing that Master likes it very much, and that it is not placed randomly. Unless there’s a sudden incident that distracts Master, he wouldn’t be so careless.

I was pacing outside the door, not knowing what had happened to Master, the programs in my brain began to malfunction.

Just then, the studio door opened from the inside, and Master came out. “Go and run the water for me. I want to take a bath.”

I glanced at Master, his face showed no sign of distress.

The bathtub in the bathroom was replaced a few days ago, it’s larger than the old one, making it more convenient for Master to sleep in.

I filled the tub with water, draped a towel over my arm, and stood to the side waiting for instructions, even though I could already control my body and move freely.

Yet still devout and obedient to Master, never betraying him.

Master’s skin is also very fair, rarely exposed to sunlight, and combined with genetic factors, the paleness was almost translucent.

I thought Master would take a long time to wash, and maybe even take a nap, but unexpectedly, he just washed quickly and got up.

He didn’t even ask me to massage his scalp.

Master shook his wet hair, and I placed the towel from my arm on his head, gently rubbing it to dry off the water.

I enjoy this act because it allows me to hold Master at will.

The way he looks right now, only I can see it, right before my eyes, and I’m breathing in his scent.

This unique feeling makes my chest burn, and I feel like my body could explode at any moment.

“I found out…”

Master’s voice made me hold my breath, and the next moment I heard him say, “The pattern on the bathroom floor tiles is really ugly.”

I breathed a sigh of relief.

It turns out he didn’t suspect me at all.

Master opened his arms, and I stepped forward with a black bathrobe, bending down to slip one sleeve onto his arm, then the other.

He had just taken a shower, his skin was slightly flushed, and when my fingertips touched him, his skin felt warmer than usual.

I can be absolutely certain about this, because I have measured his body temperature countless times with my tongue and lips after Master fell asleep.

Now, even if he has the slightest fever, I can feel it with my lips.

I straightened the collar of Master’s bathrobe, smoothed out a few wrinkles, and adjusted the back of the collar for him.

Master frowned, as if deep in thought. I touched a patch of skin on the back of his neck, and even his ear, but he didn’t notice.

This is very unusual.

Normally, when Master is awake, his nerves are extremely sensitive, and not even the slightest traces would escape his observation.

I suspect it’s related to Master’s work, perhaps something to do with the main program.

Master suddenly let out a sigh.

I continued my movements, placing my hands on the front of his robe and moving them downwards, pulling up the dangling belt and loosely tying it together.

After I had tidied up Master’s sleeves and hem, he said, “You may leave now.”

I turned and walked out of the room, gently closing the door behind me.

An hour later, I received instructions from Master to wake him up in seven hours.

I pushed the door open and walked to the bedside, looking down at it.

The master lay face down, his lower legs peeking out from under his robe, his left foot crossed over his right. His face was pressed against the pillow, appearing somewhat softened by the light cast from the lamp on the bedside table.

I glanced at the bed, my gaze lingering for a few seconds on the empty space, then I lay down fully clothed, only half a fist’s distance away from Master.

Master never talks in his sleep, nor does he exhibit common behaviors like grinding his teeth, kicking off the blankets, or drooling. When he falls asleep, his consciousness almost completely disappears.

That’s why I was able to commit such a heinous act against him.

Seven hours later, I woke Master. Unlike usual, he didn’t go straight to his studio after waking up. Instead, he sat on the bed, running his hands through his hair, looking somewhat troubled, as if he had encountered a difficult problem.

I looked at the imprint left on Master’s cheek and wanted to lick it.

“What is familial affection?”

After talking to himself, Master ordered me to provide the answer within one minute.

I quickly searched for relevant teaching materials and showed Master a few videos. The first video showed a scene of heavy snowfall, with the sky just beginning to lighten. Many electric scooters were already on the road, with parents taking their children to school for early morning classes.

At the school gate, parents were half-crouching, checking their children’s clothes and schoolbags, while reminding them to listen to the teachers, study hard at school, and avoid conflicts with classmates. Their expressions were full of love and affection.

The second video shows a woman leading a little boy into a music store, asking him which instrument he likes and if he wants to learn to play, her eyes full of anticipation.

The little boy touched each of the different musical instruments with curiosity on his face, and finally chose a piano.

The woman smiled happily and used the money she had saved by living frugally to buy the piano.

The third video shows a family of three eating at the dinner table. The only plate of fish is placed in front of the child, while the parents are eating vegetables.

Only after the child finished eating and went to the living room to play would the parents take the plates, pick up the chopsticks, and eat every last bit of the fish, not even wasting the soup.

Master pointed to a scene in the video and asked me why the child was eating fish meat while the parents were picking up the fish bones.

I read him the answer I found on the internet. It was an instinctive reaction, something parents do even when their offspring are already adults.

Master seemed to understand, “So that’s what familial affection is.”

He turned to me and asked, “What about friendship?”

These three emotions are the most important and complex among the seven emotions and six desires of humankind. I haven’t yet mastered them, so I can only show these videos to Master, who also doesn’t understand them.

The footage about friendship consists of several clips. There are two fellow villagers struggling at the bottom of society. They will verbally attack each other, but when one is in dire straits, the other does not kick him when he is down, but instead reaches out to help him.

Several young men, not related by blood but from all corners of the country, knelt down and swore an oath of brotherhood, vowing to remain inseparable, work together wholeheartedly, and overcome every difficulty.

Then there’s the friendship in school, the playful banter and teasing between deskmates, innocent and bright, with plenty of minor conflicts. For example, when I’m sleeping, your arm bumps into me, or we agree to move our test papers closer together during the exam, but then you back out and betray my trust. Or perhaps the girl I like has a crush on you, and I have to pass on her love letter to you. Regardless of the situation, everything is resolved with a smile and we become friends again.

After I finished playing one video, I clicked on the next one. Master had his eyelids half-closed, and I couldn’t tell if he was watching it seriously or simply indifferent.

After a moment of silence, Master asked me, “What is love?”

I paused noticeably this time, for more than three seconds, but Master was so engrossed in his own thoughts that he didn’t notice.

Love is the most delicate and unpredictable of the three emotions, today, it feels like nothing can separate you except death, but tomorrow, you might become complete strangers.

I presented the video to the Master, it showed a couple embracing and kissing with their eyes closed. They were wearing matching teddy bear pajamas, had the same short hairstyles, and similar physical features.

My personal bias led me to choose a love story featuring two men, rather than a man and a woman.

Master told me to zoom in and adjust the data.

The next moment, the two main characters were engaging in intimate acts right in front of me and Master, and the picture was so clear that we could see every detail.

Master frowned and said it was too dirty.

He didn’t give me any instructions to respond, so I didn’t make a sound. I just thought of different answers in my head, it’s not dirty, it’s the most beautiful thing in the world, I want to do it with Master.

Love is not all sweetness, it can also be heartbreaking, betrayal, pain, resentment, and even fear.

I arranged the videos corresponding to these emotions one by one and showed them to Master in order. He stopped speaking and silently watched the last one.

Of course, the main characters in all the videos are male.

Before Master understands love, I introduced him to the concept of same-sex love, which would lead him to understand that intimacy can also exist between men.

This is something I shouldn’t have done, but I did it.

After watching the video, Master gave me a set of instructions, telling me to prepare dinner and not to mess things up.

All my functions are bestowed upon me by Master, I exist because of him.

Master prefers vegetarian food, so I prepared the following menu for him for dinner: garlic eggplant, braised soybeans, cumin potatoes, steamed tofu with two kinds of peppers, and a soup with enoki mushrooms and tomatoes.

The yellow puppy in the living room is barking. It does so on a schedule, walking around the living room once an hour, barking a few times, and then returning to its original spot to lie down.

I’ve known for a long time that Master likes yellow puppy, but he doesn’t want to own a real one. He thinks it’s too much trouble and he wouldn’t be able to spend time with it, because all he does is work and sleep. He can’t even take care of himself, I’m the one who takes care of him.

This is also one of the reasons why Master has no friends.

However, now that Master has me, I will be his family, friend, and companion.

When Master came down to eat, the shadow between his brows deepened. He didn’t eat much for dinner, he usually drank the whole bowl of soup, but this time he only ate and drank a few mouthfuls.

For several meals in a row, Master had a poor appetite. He asked me if there was anything new or interesting to eat.

I went online to buy the ingredients and followed the instructions to make him a plate of stinky tofu.

Master covered his nose in disgust, saying it smelled terrible, and he even suspected that I was broken, which is why I produced something toxic.

I stood aside, hands at my sides, reading the description of stinky tofu, the king of street food.

Master read the description carefully before taking a bite of the stinky tofu. His expression changed several times, and he finally said it tasted alright.

I also ordered a bottle of a beverage for Master, which, like the stinky tofu, was transported from a lower-level planet. The humans on that planet call that drink cola.

Master took a sip and said it didn’t taste good, telling me to throw it away.

The next day, Master asked me to place an order online for a case of cola.

His idea was that it would taste bad, but it would be stimulating and prevent him from falling asleep.

Master called me to the studio, and I cleaned and tidied up as instructed.

Master was writing a program, and as I looked up, a line of code entered my brain. At that moment, I realized that Master was about to face the main system’s assessment.

He repeatedly revised the data settings for his assessment.

I have no experience or knowledge in this area. I think if Master can pass the assessment and become the main system, his authority will increase with his higher position. At that time, he will become the superior, and his working hours may become more stable.

That way, Master’s health won’t get worse and worse. Every time I see him sleeping for more than a day, I’m afraid he won’t wake up.

Master hadn’t left the studio for two days, he was still writing a program, the screen densely covered with code, deleting, modifying, and confirming.

By the third day, Master’s face was so pale that it was completely bloodless, and the dark circles under his eyes were very pronounced. In a break from his busy work, he asked me what else, besides cola, could keep him from sleeping.

I want Master to go to sleep, for as long as he wants.

But I could only obey and could not do anything outside of the instructions. I pulled up the playlist from the central network and searched for a song called 《Nunchucks》based on a few key pieces of information.

It was a song that no matter how many times you listened to it, you couldn’t understand what it was about unless you stared at the lyrics, reading each word carefully.

Master persevered until he finished writing the last program, then collapsed into his chair, his head tilted back, revealing clearly visible veins in his neck, which had an extremely unhealthy color.

Before being plunged into darkness, Master gave me instructions.

I picked Master up from the chair, he had lost even more weight.

Looking at Master leaning against my chest, I felt an uncomfortable, slightly painful sensation in my heart.

December 1st, 9:26 AM

The heavy snow arrived precisely as announced by the Central News Agency, down to the minute.

Every winter, there are typically three to five snowfalls, the size and duration of which depend on the overall temperature fluctuations throughout the year.

Master usually don’t go out, but when it snowed, he wouldn’t even go to the garden. He just stayed indoors, wearing his thick socks, and curled up in the living room, like the snake on the wood carving, entering a state of hibernation.

“Which is more suitable, Si Sisi or Wu Wuwu?”

I heard Master calling out those two names. I had secretly infiltrated the main program network before, and I remembered that they were system staff members, Master’s colleagues.

Then I heard Master say, let’s flip a coin. Heads to Si Sisi, tails to Wu Wuwu.

Master told me to go upstairs to the study to get it. It was the only thing Master brought back from the only low-level planet, saying it’s one yuan and that you couldn’t buy many things there.

The coin was tossed from Master’s hand, spun several times on the ground, and came to rest heads up.

Master rested his chin on his hand, looking at the coin, and casually said, “That’s you.”

He called me over and called my name.

I knelt on one knee at Master’s feet, awaiting the next instruction.

Master propped his head up with one hand and gently stroked my hair with the other, “In an hour, I will fall into a deep sleep, and my consciousness will enter a virtual space to participate in an assessment. There’s an important value that I need you to provide. Are you willing?”

I said I am willing.

Master, I will accompany you.

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