Chapter 4

“This? There was this man whose wife was hospitalized, and he gave a robot to all of the kids so that we would keep our voices down and not disturb his wife.

“Do you like it? If you do, I’ll give it to you!

“Huh, strange. Come to think of it, that man kind of looks like the man in that picture on your phone case…”

Every word she said made me grow more desolate.

When she stopped speaking, I felt as if my strength had been drained and that I could not remain standing. I staggered backward and slumped into the bed with my face deathly pale.

I was more than familiar with the robot. After I started dating Ethan, we dedicated ourselves to inventing a high-sensitivity special-purpose robot.

Developing a high-sensitivity, special-purpose robot had been our shared dream for years.

It was partly influenced by the fact that I carried a rare, hereditary genetic disease. I remembered how Ethan had expressed to me with tears in his eyes, “With my company and your technical knowledge, we’re going to develop a robot that can detect genetic disease. You’re going to live forever.”

After countless attempts over many years, we finally managed to deploy the robot a year ago.

One significant aspect of the robot was that once it was activated, it could never revert to factory settings.

For a while, I had been looking for a suitable chance to test the robots.

Just like that, Ethan had given away the handful of prototypes we had.

When I finally composed myself, I reached for my phone with trembling hands and dialed his number.

After it rang for what seemed like ages, the call finally connected. His voice was very disgruntled, “What is it? Have you finally come to your senses? Are you going to apologize?

“One more thing, did you intentionally not tell me about the green bean poisoning? Because of you, Cecil ended up getting green bean poisoning! It’s all your fault!”

Upon hearing his blatant accusations, a dreadful look surfaced in my eyes. I lamented, “I already told you I caught green bean poisoning. That was why I wanted you to take me to the hospital! Do you remember what you told me then?”

I had been with him for a long time and always submitted myself to his will. My sudden rebuttal must have come across as rather jarring.

After a prolonged pause, he launched into another sermon, “That’s not the same thing! You can hardly compare yourself to Cecil!

“She’s always had health issues, and it could have killed her! You’re as healthy as an ox, so you’ll be fine! Besides, you’re okay now, aren’t you?

“Alright, that’s enough bickering from you. I'm sure you know how busy I am, so if you’re not going to apologize, I'm hanging up!”

I looked at the robot the child was holding and blurted out, “Did you give away my robots?”

“Yeah, what about it? It’s just some robot. You can just make a couple more, can’t you?”

His stark indifference caused all the pent-up emotions inside me to surge quickly. I cried out, “Ethan, you should know how the robot’s features are essentially useless if you activate them mindlessly like this! You just flushed a decade’s worth of effort down the drain!”

“Venice, what’s your problem? Why are you yelling at me over something like this? It’s just a robot. Quit being dramatic!

“And since we’re on that subject, there was something I needed to tell you. The robot development project will be suspended from now on. After Cecil is discharged, you can hand over the project to her.”

“Why?”

Ethan must have sensed how rattled I was and produced a long sigh. Then, he explained with rather patronizing patience, “Cecil is new and could use the opportunity to prove herself. You've been with the company for almost a decade, so you’ll be fine without it.”