The old lady’s cell phone ringtone is instrumental music, an old tune that was popular fifty or sixty years ago.
Sometimes it sounds like the sound of tireless water flowing in the deep mountains and forests, and sometimes it sounds like the sound of dripping water in an old cave. It is difficult for young people to like this kind of music.
If one day they like it, it just means that they like and miss the way they were when they were young.
The old lady did not deliberately avoid Thirteen's call. She picked up the phone and went to the living room next door to talk.
The living room is very spacious, with a dome-like ceiling. When the lights are turned on at night, it seems like a starry sky that is dozens of times clearer.
The night sky in Yanjiao is not particularly clear.
Because the lights of the entire city in the sky dyed half the sky red, and the stars retreated.
Thirteen and Twelve never had a quarrel when they lived here.
Unlike the Liu sisters who grew up together and have been fighting for more than ten years.
Finally, when we grew up and became sensible, we stopped fighting, but we still quarreled endlessly, year after year, until now.
At the dining table, Aunt Thirteen called the kitchen intelligent robot over and stuffed the unused bowls and plates into its belly.
There are robots that clean the house, robots that wash dishes, and even robots that walk around the twelve cities - commonly known as patrol robots.
These intelligent robots are top-notch must-haves for every home.
Thirteen decided to take it back.
Twelve is gone, but life must go on.
In the future, most of the housework such as washing dishes and mopping the floor at home can be left to these cute robots.
It's so cute, it would be a shame not to use it for work.
"Dingdang, do you want to leave here with us and go to Twelve's hometown?" Aunt Thirteen asked the robot in the kitchen who was filling itself with water to wash dishes.
Compared with other robots, Dingdang looks bloated, like a mobile washing machine.
It was not in human form, and had no human appearance, but it could speak. Its voice was very childish, and it asked, "Will Sister Twelve go back?"
"She has been back there with me for four years." Aunt Thirteen said.
"Why do you humans always return to your hometown in the end?" Dingdang asked curiously.
"I don't know either. It may be because my wisdom is limited and I can't explain it. But there is someone in Guoguo's and my family who may be able to give you an answer." Aunt Thirteen said.
She had seen a true story called "Fallen Leaves Return to Their Roots" on the Internet.
There was a farmer named Lao Li who was in his sixties and often worked outside. While resting in his hometown, he learned that a construction site thousands of miles away needed a number of workers and the salary was good, so he rushed there excitedly with his friend Lao Zuo from the same village.
When I arrived at the construction site, the conditions were not as good as they had been told during the recruitment process. On the contrary, the work was extremely hard and the pay was very low.
Although the farmer felt a little regretful, he still insisted on doing it.
The Spring Festival came in a blink of an eye, and the construction site boss gave some bulk liquor to the workers who did not go home for the New Year.
That night, the workers drank a lot until late at night.
Lao Zuo was drinking when he suddenly fainted.
The workers rushed Lao Zuo to a nearby hospital, where the doctor diagnosed him with cerebral palsy and said he needed to be hospitalized for treatment immediately, otherwise…
A few days later, when the hospital asked Lao Li and others to pay the hospitalization fees, Lao Li was in a dilemma because the construction site boss was unwilling to pay the fee, and his co-workers had already paid what they could and could no longer raise the tens of thousands of yuan in hospitalization medical expenses.
When the doctor asked Lao Li again whether he wanted to continue treatment, Lao Li shook his head helplessly.
When the doctor pulled out Lao Zuo's infusion needle, Lao Li cried for a long time.
Lao Li felt very guilty towards Lao Zuo and his family. If they came out together, they must go back together. He wanted to see them alive or their bodies.
So, Lao Li wrapped Lao Zuo's body in a quilt, pretended to be a seriously ill patient and went to take a bus. He went to many stations along the way, and whenever he had to walk, Lao Li carried Lao Zuo on his back.
When it came time to buy train tickets, Mr. Li was in a dilemma because he only had enough money to buy one ticket.
Although Lao Li had several thousand yuan in his pocket, that was given to Lao Zuo by the construction site and he was absolutely not allowed to use that money.
Finally, Lao Li thought of a solution. He bought a big luggage bag and put Lao Zuo in it so that they could go home together again.
But eventually, the matter was discovered by the police at the railway station.
Finally, with the help of the local government, Lao Zuo was cremated at the funeral home.
When the reporter interviewed Lao Li again two years later, the old man still couldn't control his emotions and burst into tears when he mentioned Lao Zuo.
He said that he felt sorry for Lao Zuo and Lao Zuo's relatives. He went out with a living person, but when he came back he couldn't even bring back a corpse. He felt very bad.
Old Li never got married and had no relatives. He usually stayed with Old Zuo.
Because Lao Zuo is very honest, doesn't talk much, and has never been to school, he always follows Lao Li when he goes out to work and trusts him very much.
Unexpectedly, in the end, Lao Zuo Ke died in a foreign land because of Lao Li.
"Sister Thirteen, who is the person in your family who can give me the answer?" Dingdang asked.
"My boyfriend, also Guoguo's father." Aunt Thirteen replied.
"Oh, Sister Thirteen has a boyfriend. Is her boyfriend fun?" Dingdang asked.
Aunt Thirteen smiled and said, "Yeah, it's fun. I want to play with him every day."
"So amazing." Dingdang exclaimed: "After playing with Digua for a few days, I find it boring and go to recharge and rest. It takes several days before I want to continue playing with them."
"Will you come back to my hometown with me?" Aunt Thirteen coaxed Dingdang like a child.
There was a faint sound of plates colliding in Dingdang's stomach. As it worked, it said, "Of course I'm going to go with Sister Twelve. Sister Thirteen, please take me with you. In addition to washing dishes, I have learned other skills from Winter Melon and the others. I'm very useful."
"Okay, but you have to help me coax the other children and let them go back with me, okay?" Aunt Thirteen said.
"No problem, leave it to me. The loofahs are very bored. They have no jobs and spend every day and night in a daze. They even discussed whether they should leave the Twelve Cities and go out to find the meaning of life." Dingdang said.
"You can't get out and you don't have a navigation system. No matter which way you go, you will always return to the city." Aunt Thirteen was not worried at all.
The smart elves in the home can generate wisdom, but they cannot have the same emotions as humans.
It may take hundreds of years for the robot Wall-E, as Yang Fan said, to develop emotions.
A few years is too short. They still have a long way to go, just like their embryonic stage.
In the living room.
After the old lady finished her phone call, she stood in front of the large LCD screen.
On the screen, Yang Fan’s original work in Hongdu appeared.
He can write songs and scripts, and he had left his words in Daiyue before. The old lady had no doubt that Yang Fan would be able to leave his words in Hongdu this time.
As for the content of the words, you will know after reading them.
But the old lady didn't expect that the number of words Yang Fan left this time was so many that she was a little confused for a moment.
The original work is filled with words.
At first glance, the old lady also thought it was very ordinary and nothing particularly eye-catching.
When she saw "The stars are divided into Yi and Zhen, and the land is connected to Heng and Lu. It embraces three rivers and five lakes, controls the barbarians and leads to Ou and Yue", the old lady's face began to become solemn.
So gorgeous, so memorable, so pleasing to the eye.
"The natural world is rich and beautiful, and the dragon's light shines on the ruins of Niudou; the people are outstanding and the land is blessed, and Xu Ru sleeps on Chen Fan's couch. The heroic state is shrouded in mist, and the outstanding people are as bright as stars."
Seeing this, the old lady’s expression changed slightly and her words became more eloquent.
If the previous sentences were just the ordinary taxiing of the plane before takeoff, slowly sliding towards the take-off runway.
Now, the plane has a tendency to slide onto the take-off runway.
Next, the plane rushed at high speed, with great momentum, and soared into the sky.
"Looking through the embroidered door and down the withered eaves, the mountains and plains are vast and the rivers and lakes are winding. The houses are full of bells and drums, and the food is served on the tripods. The boats are full of boats, and the bows are like green birds and yellow dragons. The clouds are gone and the rain has stopped, and the sky is bright. The setting sun and the lone wild goose fly together, and the autumn water and the sky are the same color. The fishermen sing in the evening, and the sound reaches the shore of Pengli; the geese are startled by the cold, and their cries stop at Hengyang Port."
The old lady found that her palms, which had not sweated for many years, suddenly felt nervous as if she was riding on a plane for the first time and started sweating.
She marveled at the word formation in the text, felt ashamed of the beauty of the language, and was impressed by the ingenuity of the writing.
She even saw her own ignorance and superficiality as if she was looking in a mirror.
Without a certain level of literary foundation, you will not be able to understand some of the famous quotes and will find them specious.
"This must be eternal life." After reading the entire article, the old lady realized that she had been standing for too long, her legs and feet were sore and numb, and it was because of her old age.
Guoguo had finished her meal and was playing along the grassy lake, following a humanoid robot named Pumpkin.
Although it is said to be in human form, it actually has no legs and its chassis is wheels.
"Isn't the pumpkin edible? You can't eat it, so who gave you this name?" Walking on the grass, Guoguo held the pumpkin's mechanical arm.
"It was our twelfth sister who named us that. She said we were so cute that she wanted to eat us, so she gave us food names." The pumpkin is not round at all. On the contrary, it is very slender. Its head is an LCD screen, which is different from a human head.
"Who is the twelfth sister?" Guoguo asked.
"It's your mother, not your current mother, but your previous mother. Your current mother is your stepmother." Pumpkin said.
"I still have a mother?" Guoguo was so happy. She had wanted to change her mother for a long time.
If you can’t change it, then just have another one.
"Yes, your mother and stepmother have said before that they would take you to marry the same man." Pumpkin said.
"Where is my mother? I want to see her." Guoguo stopped and didn't move.
Pumpkin's expression was fully displayed on the screen, and he said sadly, "Sister Twelve hasn't been back for a long time. We can only see her image occasionally and talk to us. She said she went on a long trip to a very far place and can't come back for the time being."
"That's such a pity." Guoguo was depressed. Without a mother, stepmother was her mother.
She was still thinking about her mother coming back, and then she wouldn't want her stepmother anymore.
"We can wait for Sister Twelve to come back. Anyway, we have a long life to wait. No matter how long it takes, we in the Twelve Cities can wait." Pumpkin had a determined expression on his face.
It doesn't know yet that all waiting has an end, and the longer it waits, the closer it gets.
But death seems to be getting further and further away.
"Is ten thousand years enough?" Guoguo continued to walk on the green grass with Pumpkin.
Butterflies are allowed to enter the Twelve Cities because of their good looks, so there are butterflies dancing on the grass and flying back and forth.
"I don't know." Pumpkin was not sure and said, "It doesn't matter. Ten thousand years is not enough. Let's keep waiting."
Guoguo looked worried: "But it seems that I can only live for 10,000 years."
"Why can you only live for ten thousand years?" Pumpkin asked curiously.
Guoguo suddenly became happy again: "Because I want to love my father for ten thousand years. I can't die before ten thousand years."
"You can continue to live ten thousand years later if you want," said the pumpkin.
Guoguo shook her head: "No, Dad said that by then, he had been dead for more than 9,900 years. I can go find him now."
"Then don't you love your mother?" The pumpkin's wheel ran over an ant.
The ant screamed, then got up and cursed. Fortunately, this was grass.
It turns out that if you want to live a decent life, you have to have some green on your head.
The pumpkin knew that it had crushed an ant, but it had no choice because it had to walk and had a mission to accomplish.
Mission comes first.
Under normal circumstances, it would stop and observe the ants.
Ants do not have vocal cords. They make sounds through the friction sounds produced by the sound plates on the surface of their abdomen. The frequency is very high and cannot be heard by human ears.
Ants don't "listen" either; they use detectors on their feet to pick up soil vibrations caused by sound waves.
The ant that was crushed was a worker ant. Its main duties in the ant colony are to build and expand the nest, collect food, feed larvae and the queen ant, etc.
In order to hibernate, ants eat a lot of food in the fall to store fat in their bodies, and then they do not eat for the entire winter.
Because of this, the worker ants in the ant colony are looking for food almost every day to ensure that every member of the colony can eat enough food to resist the cold in winter.
In the house.
"Thirteen, come here." The old lady called to Aunt Thirteen who was about to go out to look for Guoguo.
Aunt Thirteen glanced at Guoguo in the distance outside the French door and turned back to the house.
In the Twelve Cities, if Guoguo was left alone for a few days, she would not starve to death.
Not to mention security, the three treasures are enough, not to mention in the twelve intelligent cities.
When an animal that looks unfriendly comes in, the pumpkins, sweet potatoes, and potatoes will ask about it. If they don't get a response, it means they have bad intentions and will be prohibited from entering and thrown out.
"Take a walk after meals to help digestion. You should walk more often now that you are older." Aunt Thirteen returned to the living room and said to the old lady who had already sat back on the sofa.
"Let's take a walk later. I won't go back to the city tonight, so I have plenty of time." The old lady was in a good mood, pounding her sore legs and feet.
"Is there anything else you want to tell me?" Aunt Thirteen sat down on the sofa and asked the intelligent robot on standby in the living room to bring two glasses of juice.
"This is the calligraphy Xiaofan wrote in Hongdu." The old lady pointed at the big screen more than ten meters away, the surprise and admiration on her face had not yet faded.
Only then did Aunt Thirteen look over.
The original work was neat and beautiful overall, but the crosses out in about ten places almost made Aunt Thirteen want to laugh.
It’s very much like her Xiaofan’s style, very casual. Even when she’s serious, she can’t hold back her seriousness from time to time.