The old men and women surrounding Qin Minghui did not hear the mental communication between 01 and his little lady. They only saw the child suddenly froze and then went into the robot's control room and did not come out for a long time.
The old men and women looked at each other and began to accuse each other:
"Look at you, did you scare the kid by talking too harshly?"
"What's wrong with me? I didn't say anything. You're the scarier one anyway, with your old face full of wrinkles all the way down to your chin, and you're wearing weird clothes."
"Alright, alright, stop arguing. Hurry up and get the child out. You can't keep him hiding."
Grandma Hui came over with a big basket of fruit, glanced at the group of people and said, "What are you all looking at here?"
Grandpa Yong: "The child hid in her little robot and won't come out."
Grandma Hui frowned, threw down the basket of fruit, glanced at the group of old brothers and sisters, stepped on the ground, and air sprayed out of her shoes, sending her directly to the robot's chest.
Qin Minghui was checking 01's new module when she was reminded by 01. She turned her head and saw Grandma Hui standing outside, like the head teacher who suddenly appeared in the classroom window and peeked in during class.
Forced to interrupt the brief inspection, Qin Minghui was surrounded by elderly people and came to the center of the group of strange-shaped buildings.
This is a tree-like structure, with layers of white treetops that look like windmill blades stacked up. Sunlight can largely shine through the white tops, making the interior of the building very bright. At the same time, the temperature inside is very suitable, warmer than outside.
As soon as Qin Minghui entered, she saw a large dining table and chairs, as well as activity spaces for various purposes... In short, this place looked like a luxury version of some kind of senior citizen activity center.
"Oh, everyone is here, come and sit down, I have prepared the food." A very elegant grandma stood by the cooking table, directing the mechanical arms beside her to bring the dishes to the counter and send them outside, while at the same time asking them to clean the cooking table.
Finally, she brought a bowl of mushy food to Qin Minghui and said softly, "You are still sick. If you eat other things, the pain will get worse after the painkillers wear off. Eat this first."
Qin Minghui smelled a sweet scent: "Thank you, grandma."
The elegant old lady said: "I am Grandma Li Ze."
Qin Minghui remembered that other people had just mentioned Grandma Li Ze, and it was said that she liked to make robots with humanoid appearance.
There were eleven elderly people sitting here at this time, six women and five men, that was the total number of people here. Everyone gathered around a large table to eat a buffet, and the topic was still around Qin Minghui. On her left sat Grandma Li Ze, and on her right sat Grandma Hui.
“The Kingdom of Machinery?” When Grandma Hui heard Qin Minghui mention this name, she snorted, “The Kingdom of Machinery no longer exists. There are only a few people left. In two years, they will all be gone.”
Grandma Li Ze was more patient and careful. She wiped her mouth, put down her napkin, and explained to her in detail: "This period of history may not be known outside. Our homeland is called Mo, famous for its machinery manufacturing. A long time ago, before the bloodworms came to this world, our Mo was one of the most powerful countries on the continent. Later, Mo was almost destroyed by the joint invasion of other countries, and only a small number of people were left to hide in remote mountains and forests."
She spoke slowly and unhurriedly: "Bloodworms came to this war-torn world and set off a bloody storm again. Many people died outside, and the place where the survivors were hiding was also ravaged by schistosomiasis. There were less than a hundred people left, and later they moved here... As you can see, child, there are only a few of us left now."
"The Mechanical Kingdom has long become history."
Hearing these words, it seemed that she should express some regret and sadness, but Qin Minghui saw that the old people were in a calm and composed state, eating or drinking, looking happy and leisurely, and there was really no sad atmosphere that could be created.
Grandma Hui next to her even warned her in a motherly tone: "Don't just talk, eat quickly. Look at how little you eat, how can your illness be cured? Eat this bowl of rice, and you still have medicine to take after you finish it."
Qin Minghui lowered her head and mumbled something.
After the meal, everyone moved to the nearby leisure area to continue chatting. Qin Minghui was still sandwiched between Grandma Hui and Grandma Lize. Grandma Hui took down her mechanical arm for maintenance, just like an old person brushing her dentures after a meal.
Qin Minghui didn't realize she had a fake arm until she saw her remove it. The hand was so lifelike.
“This hand…?” Qin Minghui asked.
Grandma Hui: "Robotic hand, the previous hand was bitten off by a bloodworm."
Just this one sentence was enough for Qin Minghui to imagine many plots.
Grandma Li Ze, who started knitting, said, "She wrote the program system herself, and I made the outer shell for her. I made a lot of simulation robots, Ming Hui, do you want to go and see them? If you like any of them, I can give them to you to play with."
Qin Minghui was still interested in the lifelike robot. She said, "Okay, I want to go and see it, but I don't need it if you send it to me. I already have 01."
Grandma Li Ze smiled and glanced at the huge robot 01 outside. Ever since Qin Minghui entered the room, he had been squatting outside waiting obediently.
She pointed at 01 outside and said, "Your robot is too big. It's not convenient for it to play with you. Why don't you get a smaller robot that can follow you wherever you go and help you with work?"
"Yes, we are mechanical balls that can fly in the sky and roll on the ground. I will give you a few of them. They can attack when in danger, monitor the body's condition, and provide first aid."
"My little cat robot is also good. It can play with you and give you gifts."
[Miss, 01 has all these functions. I am not yet proficient in first aid, but I have started to learn.]
Qin Minghui felt strange when listening to 01's words in her mind.
[01, Although you have opened the learning module, how do you learn things that are not in your materials?]
She remembered that there was no knowledge about emergency medical treatment in his database.
[01After arriving here, I started to study on my own. There is a private network here, which contains a lot of knowledge and a huge database.]
When the young lady was sleeping or eating, he would stay alone and study online.
Qin Minghui suddenly had a bad feeling, and then heard 01 say:
[Don't worry, little miss. 01 has seen the manufacturing of the mechanical ball and the kitten robot. 01 can make it for you. 01 also found the humanoid robot warehouse and scanned the robots inside. They look exquisite, but their brain structures are very crude and cannot compare to 01.]
Feeling the change after opening the new module 01, he would not speak so long in one breath before. Qin Minghui thought to himself and listened to 01 say:
[If Miss likes this type of robot appearance, 01 can help Miss make a better one.]
Qin Minghui: [01, how long have you been here? Are you learning too fast?]
[Miss, as a robot, a lot of knowledge is learned by transmitting data. During this period of time, 01 has expanded its database many times.]
Qin Minghui's expression was not right. The grandparents present were surprised to see that she suddenly stopped talking: "Why are you silent? Don't you like these?"
Qin Minghui felt a little guilty: "Nothing."
The main thing is that 01 has almost emptied the database of grandparents, but they don't seem to have noticed it yet. Can this database be taken out at will? How did 01 break into the database
"I'm thinking about a question." Qin Minghui tried to ask, "Grandpas and grandmas all said that there are many robots here. Are there any robots that are like humans? I mean, can they learn independently and have the same emotions as humans?"
Sudden silence.
Then Grandpa Yong coughed and said, "This is a ban handed down from our homeland. It is not allowed to give machines emotions. We are still human beings. If we want to turn dead things into living things, wouldn't that mean we are the gods who created humans?"
"This is not going to end well."
Qin Minghui shut up.
Grandma Hui had a blank expression on her face. Suddenly, she said, "Qin Boyi wanted to do this at the beginning. He said he wanted to make a robot that was like a human. He left because I didn't allow him to. Now it seems that he hasn't given up."
As she spoke, her eyes turned from Qin Minghui to 01 outside, sizing him up sharply, as if she wanted to scan him thoroughly: "He did it? The robot he made has feelings and autonomous consciousness?"
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone looked at 01 outside.
Qin Minghui was a little nervous. She didn't know there was such a ban in this mechanical country! She reminded herself in her mind:
[01, Don't let yourself be discovered! Just play dumb, okay?]
[Please rest assured that only Miss Xiao has the authority to check my system. No one else can parse my system.]
"That being said." Grandma Li Ze put down the wool in her hand, pressed Qin Minghui's hand, and said softly, "It's been so long, even the country is gone, why are you still abiding by these so-called bans. Boyi has been a genius since he was a child. I wouldn't be surprised if he could make a robot that understands emotions. Isn't that great?"
The others looked at her, and a grandfather shouted, "No, that's not allowed. This is the rule. You are never allowed to..."
Grandma Liz: “Shut up.”
Grandpa shut up, picked up the tea and took a sip as if nothing had happened.
The atmosphere was still a bit weird at the end. Grandma Li Ze pulled Qin Minghui and said she wanted to take her to see her human-like robots, and they left that delicate environment.
Grandma Li Ze’s house is a small but warm and exquisite house, but next to it there is a large tower, which is her studio.
As soon as Qin Minghui entered the building, she was stunned by the scene inside. She went up the automatic stairs layer by layer, and on each floor of the nine-story tower, there were countless glass covers, and each cover was filled with robots.
They are lifelike and almost exactly like humans, making various postures, having different expressions, and wearing beautiful clothes.
At a glance, thousands of people are frozen here.
“These are all my works.”
Grandma Li Ze took Qin Minghui up the spiral staircase. On one side was a glass cover where the robot was placed.
"Rather than calling them robots, they are more like dolls with mechanical cores. In ancient times, there was said to be a mechanical riot in Mo, which caused many tragedies. After that, the Chinese were not allowed to study machines with autonomous consciousness. This ban lasted for hundreds of years, and it is still a taboo in our last generation. Like Boyi, I have always wanted to create robots like humans since I was a child."
"But Boyi is bolder than me. If Hui doesn't allow him to do it, he would rather leave here and do it. But I don't dare, so I just make the appearance of these machines more and more like humans, but I don't dare to transform their brain systems and give them more life. It seems that if I don't allow them to have emotions, I will not regard them as human beings, and other people will not stop me from doing this."