When Yuan Chu arrived in this world, she found dozens of the Children of Fate and ultimately chose Fei Xiu.
He was young, talented, and had achieved great success before turning 23, but after being injured and retiring, he found himself at a crossroads: Ahead lay boundless opportunities, while retreat meant a deep abyss.
He left the battlefield with regret and reluctance, hiding in this remote town and refusing to communicate with anyone.
Yuan Chu found it extremely difficult to approach him and establish a connection.
After much consideration, she decided to temporarily disguise herself as a robot to gain his trust and then guide him step by step to create a new future.
However, without establishing a connection with the Child of Fate, Yuan Chu was constantly harmed by the power of laws in this small world.
The robot she turned into was also a defective model.
Although it successfully attracted Fei Xiu's attention, it couldn’t convince him to take her home and instead, she encountered a patrolling mechanical dog.
Yuan Chu knew that Fei Xiu was hiding in the shadows, but he had no intention of intervening.
She could only save herself, using her remaining mechanical arm to swat the mechanical dog away.
However, the force of the blow was not enough to subdue the mechanical dog.
As it turned and lunged at her again, Yuan Chu, lying in the trash, used her circular base, which suddenly split into two mechanical legs, to clamp onto the mechanical dog's neck.
Fei Xiu, hidden in the shadows, had expected to witness the robot being torn apart.
However, unexpectedly, her base was actually a complex mobile device that transformed mode in a critical moment, executing a scissor leg maneuver.
The mechanical dog twisted and thrashed, trying to shake off the robot clinging to its neck, but it was stuck tight, unable to be dislodged.
Soon, the mechanical dog’s eyes lit up with a red glow, and two lasers shot toward the robot hanging from its neck.
With sizzling sounds, the robot’s chest armor emitted green smoke and left two melted marks.
The mechanical dog’s attack wasn’t very strong, but it was more than enough to deal with a damaged, outdated assistant robot.
The lasers pierced through her already incomplete body, creating numerous holes and damaging the metal parts she had replaced over the past few days.
Large amounts of smoke billowed from her, but she never released her grip on the dog.
One minute, two minutes… five minutes. The robot’s eyes flickered intermittently.
Just when Fei Xiu thought she would lose any second, the light would come back on, and she would bravely continue to fight the enemy many times stronger than herself.
Fei Xiu, in a daze, saw a fierce will to survive in the robot.
The battle, which should have lasted at most three minutes, was extended to seven minutes due to the robot’s stubborn resistance, resulting in nearly 70% body damage and exhausting the mechanical dog’s energy.
They both collapsed, letting the rain pour over them, creating a pattering sound.
Fei Xiu slowly emerged from the shadows and approached the two fallen mechanical beings, observing the robot’s battered body, which had lost all its luster and looked like a cold metal corpse.
He watched the robot for ten days, observing her as she slowly repaired herself, replaced parts, and pieced together her frame in the ruins, struggling to survive like an ant.
But no matter how hard you try, what’s the point? In the end, she became nothing more than a pile of junk. A low-level mechanical dog could easily destroy her, rendering all her efforts in vain.
A trace of self-mockery flashed in Fei Xiu’s eyes as the rain slid down his face, his wet hair hanging limply, and he emitted an aura of dejection and gloom.
After pausing for a moment, he moved his feet, turned to leave, but just as he was about to step away, he felt a faint tug on his boot, stopping him in his tracks.
Fei Xiu looked down and saw a mechanical leg resting on his foot, seemingly trying to grasp his ankle, but lacking the strength to do so, repeatedly lifting and dropping.
Following the mechanical leg, Fei Xiu looked at its owner—the robot that should have been lifeless.
Her eyes had only a faint, almost imperceptible glow, her damaged body pinned down by the mechanical dog.
Without arms, she could only wriggle slowly like a caterpillar, struggling pitifully and absurdly in the mud and water.
"Your body can no longer be repaired, and your energy is nearly depleted," Fei Xiu said coldly.
"After soaking in the rain for a while, your functions will soon fail, and you'll become just another piece of junk."
The robot seemed to understand, her mechanical leg falling weakly, splashing mud.
"No matter how excellent you once were, once you lose your abilities, you become worthless." With this final remark, he turned and left.
Fei Xiu found himself laughable, having sought comfort in a robot, foolishly following her, observing her repair herself day after day, only to see her efforts turn to metal scraps again under an attack from a mechanical dog.
Running back to the mansion, Fei Xiu rushed into the bathroom, cleaned himself thoroughly with warm water, then returned to his bedroom and collapsed into bed.
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The next day, after the rain had cleared, Fei Xiu woke up to the sound of birds. He got up, washed, changed into casual clothes, ate a piece of compressed biscuit, put on his running shoes, and prepared for a morning run.
As he stepped out the door, he suddenly felt something underfoot and looked down, his pupils narrowing in shock.
A few morning rays illuminated the steps outside, casting mottled shadows of trees.
A battered robot was leaning against the wall, its silver-gray metal shell covered in scratches.
Its two mechanical legs were curled up, and a trail of footprints with half-dried mud extended from her feet to beyond the yard.
She… followed him back?
How did she manage to cover such a distance in her condition?
Fei Xiu’s fingers tightened, and a wave of indescribable emotion surged in his heart.
She struggled to repair herself in the trash, he didn’t help; she was attacked by a mechanical dog, he didn’t help; she fought desperately, he didn’t help.
Now, she had exhausted her last ounce of strength and stumbled to his mansion.
Was he really going to continue observing coldly?
Fei Xiu closed his eyes, and finally, with a gentle motion he hadn’t realized he was capable of, he cradled the robot and brought it back to his home.
Fei Xiu had no formal training in mechanical repairs, but his years in the military had given him a basic understanding of mechanical structures.
He first checked the robot’s core, finding that it had only 1% energy left, insufficient to even power it on. He couldn’t fathom how she had managed to make it here.
After removing the outer shell, the robot’s internal structure was exposed, and Fei Xiu was shocked once again.
The internal parts were a mix of new and old, appearing chaotic, yet this disarray somehow maintained the robot’s normal function—an almost unbelievable feat.
Which factory made this robot? Its performance is astonishing!
Fei Xiu searched carefully but couldn’t find any manufacturer’s markings, only two blurred characters on the edge of the core.
"…Chu?" Fei Xiu could only recognize one of the characters.
"Is that your name? Chu…"
He dried her thoroughly, wiped off the dirt, and made some basic repairs to ensure she wouldn’t fall apart before charging her.
He planned to see if she could still be activated. If so, he would find a mechanic to help her get a new model body.
Her current body was too damaged, making repairs time-consuming and laborious, no longer of practical use.
An hour later, with the energy at 10%, Fei Xiu was about to attempt powering her on when the robot’s eyes suddenly lit up, with blue light flickering, and she stared at him quietly.
Fei Xiu: "…You’re awake."
Yuan Chu’s eyes flickered a few times, her mood improving. She realized that, even in her deactivated state, she had successfully established a connection with this Child of Fate, temporarily escaping the crisis of being rejected by the laws.
She willed her mechanical legs to fold slowly, but due to damaged parts, they got stuck halfway, resembling a crab.
Yuan Chu: "……"
Fei Xiu: "……"
"Your body is too damaged; many functions are unusable," Fei Xiu said.
"I’ll find a mechanic in a few days to get you a new body."
“Zzz…,” Yuan Chu adjusted her voice system and emitted a cold, mechanical tone.
“Could you first help me reattach my arms?”
Fei Xiu was astonished: “You can still speak???”
Yuan Chu: “I have a comprehensive voice database that stores 42 common languages.”
“But you’re just an assistant robot,” Fei Xiu pointed out.
“How could you engage in complex communication with humans?”
“I am the first-generation smart assistant robot developed by Kaimer Company in 3711. My intelligence level is 5.7 times higher than that of ordinary robots.”
Fei Xiu: “…Do you know what year it is now?”
Yuan Chu: “I was just manufactured a year ago, used for less than six months. It is now 3713, with an error of about 2 to 3 months.”
Fei Xiu: “…No, it’s actually 3724.”
Yuan Chu: “…”
“And,” Fei Xiu added, “Kaimer Company went bankrupt over a decade ago due to illegal smart robot research. You might be one of those robots that were destroyed back then.”
Yuan Chu was aware of this, which is why she chose this identity—a smart robot that survived the destruction crisis.
“I initially thought you were a mutated robot, but it turns out you’re a smart robot.”
After the human-robot wars, smart robots were restricted in development. Nowadays, general-purpose home robots only retain basic assistive functions.
This robot was probably sent for destruction shortly after manufacture but wasn’t completely destroyed.
By some twist of fate, she powered on by herself and survived alone in the trash heap.
With the intelligence she displayed, she should have been the focus of the world, but instead, she was discarded right after birth, thrown into the trash, and remained dormant until now.
Fei Xiu felt she was very similar to him—exceptionally talented but with an unfortunate fate, falling from a rising star to mere dust on the ground, left with no chance to pursue dreams and relegated to a life among the garbage.
“If you don’t want to be destroyed again, don’t stand out too much in front of anyone other than me. I’ll input the basic data of current assistant robots into your chip. You need to learn to be a qualified, albeit somewhat silly, assistant robot.”
As for finding a mechanic, he decided to postpone that to avoid drawing unwanted attention.
Yuan Chu: “…Okay.”
Qualified is no problem, but being silly, that’s another matter.
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