Pretending to Be Human, I Fell in Love with an AI - Chapter 10

A soft thud sounded.

Yu Ting opened his eyes. The ceiling, once white but now faded to yellow, came into view, and the calls of vendors from downstairs were clearly audible in his ears.

His lowered lashes veiled his gaze as he looked at a chubby little hand resting on his chest. Following the hand upward—clearly that of a child no more than five or six years old—he saw a soft face.

Black hair and plump cheeks were pressed against one side of the pillow. As if mumbling something in a dream, the child’s lips pursed twice.

Yu Ting raised his hand and touched the child’s forehead. Feeling no fever today, he gently lowered the small arm back down.

The child wasn’t disturbed, still muttering something in sleep.

But unlike usual, Yu Ting didn’t get up to go downstairs. He remained lying in place, holding his breath instinctively, yet still unable to make out what Dengdeng was saying in his dream.

What kind of dreams would a five- or six-year-old have? Probably more interesting than his own.

After staring boredly at the ceiling for two minutes, he searched online for posts about “aliens,” but still didn’t find the answers he was looking for. Yu Ting got up and felt the clothes washed the night before—they were already dry.

He brought the clothes inside, putting most of them in the wardrobe. The octopus-printed T-shirt and black shorts were placed beside Yu Dengdeng’s pillow.

Yu Ting watched Dengdeng for a while longer, confirming the child was still sound asleep with no sign of waking, before standing up. His gaze then fell on the white speaker on the table, reminding him of what Dengdeng had said the night before.

“Daddy, maybe Xiao E doesn’t like the name you gave him?”

He was momentarily speechless, his eyes lingering on the speaker for a few seconds.

This speaker might be defective—perhaps some program was misconfigured during factory setup.

Yu Ting unplugged the speaker and took it downstairs, just as he received a message from Cheng Ze.

He placed the speaker beside his work desk, opened the shop door, and looked up at the haggard young man in front of him, the bright red plastic sheet behind him, and the blue sky dotted with white clouds.

Cheng Ze looked as if he hadn’t slept in a long time. His white shirt was wrinkled from sitting too long, and his hair was tousled and fluffy.

The most striking features were his eyes—bright despite the long night—and the pronounced dark circles beneath them.

The moment the door opened, Cheng Ze suddenly understood why people said handsome faces were easy on the eyes.

After staying up all night, seeing such a handsome face made him feel more awake.

So he grinned, holding up a plastic bag. “Brother Yu, haven’t had breakfast yet, right? I bought you a portion too.”

“Up all night?” Yu Ting glanced at the bag, his gaze still fixed on the young man.

Even though Cheng Qiang was his boss and supervisor, Cheng Ze wasn’t really afraid of him. What he feared most was Yu Ting.

Sometimes, the way Brother Yu looked at him was genuinely unsettling, giving him the tense feeling of being aimed at by a gun.

“Just played games too long yesterday,” Cheng Ze scratched his head awkwardly, explaining. “Let’s talk inside, it’s not good to attract attention. Hey, where’s Dengdeng? Still asleep?”

He glanced around downstairs but didn’t see the child.

Had the parents found him, or…

Noticing the young man’s obvious and clumsy attempt to change the subject, Yu Ting sighed. “Still sleeping.”

“Let’s eat first.” Cheng Ze casually placed the plastic bag on the table, pointing at the items for Yu Ting to count. “Fried dough sticks, eggs, soy milk—I got them all. Brother, see what you and Dengdeng want to eat. Oh, but this bowl of tofu pudding is mine.”

“You go ahead,” Yu Ting replied. “I’ll just have the fried dough sticks. For Dengdeng, we’ll decide after he wakes up.”

“Alright.” Cheng Ze fetched a bowl from the nearby sink, placed the tofu pudding from the plastic bag into it, and began slurping it down noisily. Between mouthfuls, he asked, “Brother Yu, did the boss come by yesterday?”

“He did.”

“Did he ask for me?!”

“He just inquired briefly and left.” Yu Ting didn’t have much of an appetite at the moment and wasn’t eating anything. Instead, he was examining the speaker on the table.

“That’s good.” Cheng Ze sighed in relief and finally focused on enjoying his tofu pudding.

Yu Ting looked at the smart speaker in his hand. There weren’t many detachable parts—only a spot for unscrewing.

He had initially wanted to open it up and check the internal components, but considering his unfamiliarity with Earth’s artificial intelligence, he decided against it.

Listening to Cheng Ze’s loud eating sounds beside him, he absentmindedly plugged the speaker into the socket. The air filled with the cheerful startup sound of the system.

“This is a smart speaker,” Cheng Ze remarked without much curiosity, glancing at the device in front of Yu Ting.

He had seen this kind of smart speaker many times before. Many elderly people used them to listen to opera, and his own mother used one to play music for square dancing.

It was probably bought for Dengdeng.

“Mhm.” Yu Ting sat by the table, one hand resting on the edge, his fair, slender fingers slightly curled as he tapped lightly on the surface. He cleared his throat softly. “Little E.”

The young man’s voice was low and cool, almost detached, making the childlike name sound particularly incongruous.

“…”

“…”

“Brother Yu, you have to call it a few more times, or it won’t respond.” Cheng Ze, scrolling through Douyin nearby, added, “These kinds of speakers are always really slow to react.”

“Little E… Little E, Little E.” Yu Ting tried again.

“…”

Just as Yu Ting began to suspect the speaker was broken and was already planning to buy another one before Yu Dengdeng woke up, the same voice from last night finally spoke again.

“Good morning. What can I do for you?”

Yu Ting propped his chin on one hand, staring at the speaker that sounded rather unenthusiastic. “Inquire about today’s weather conditions.”

“This service has not been activated yet.”

Puzzled, Yu Ting asked again, “Inquire about today’s date.”

“This service has not been activated yet.”

Seriously? Could this smart speaker really only play music—and the same kind of irrelevant songs from last night?

Cheng Ze glanced curiously at the speaker, looking utterly baffled. “Brother Yu, where did you buy this? It’s so useless it can’t even report the weather?”

He then demonstrated to Yu Ting how he summoned his own phone assistant and how perfectly it responded to his queries.

“See, this is how it’s supposed to work. Are you sure the boss didn’t trick you with this?”

Listening to the smooth back-and-forth exchange, Yu Ting hesitated as he looked at the now-silent Little E.

If he took it apart and tried to fix it, would he succeed?

Just then, the voice suddenly spoke again.

“Playing a children’s song for you—’Can’t Stand the Hurt.'” Immediately after, the same female voice from last night began to sing.

With a soft click, Yu Ting’s finger remained pressed on the speaker’s power button.

This speaker is definitely faulty.

“Can’t Afford to Get Hurt,” a children’s song??

After Cheng Ze processed this, he exclaimed, “Damn, I had no idea ‘Can’t Afford to Get Hurt’ was a children’s song!”

Yu Ting: “…”

He sighed, his fingers just having left the speaker that was only a step away from being dismantled. The next second, hearing movement from upstairs, he quickly climbed the stairs and disappeared from Cheng Ze’s sight.

“Did something happen?”

Cheng Ze instinctively looked up at the ceiling. Not hearing any sound, he went back to scrolling through videos while eating his breakfast.

When Yu Ting entered the room, the child’s voice that had been calling his name in a high pitch hung in the air before fading away.

The little one, Dengdeng, who had been sleeping soundly when Yu Ting left, was already awake. His upper body was tangled in the T-shirt Yu Ting had left by the bed, clearly unable to find the sleeves or the neckline.

Yu Ting let out an almost imperceptible sigh of relief. He quickly approached, straightened out the clothes, and the child’s dark, bright eyes were revealed.

“I wanted to dress myself,” Yu Dengdeng explained, his cheeks flushed whether from just waking up or from embarrassment, it was hard to tell.

When he woke up, he saw the octopus-patterned shirt Yu Ting had left for him by the bed. Yu Ting usually just slipped clothes on him casually, so who would have thought he’d end up tangled in the shirt this time?

“You did great,” Yu Ting said with a smile, gently touching the child’s forehead to make sure he wasn’t running a fever before relaxing. “Cheng Ze bought breakfast. Do you want some?”

Cheng Ze?

Yu Dengdeng sat on the bed, watching as Yu Ting knelt to help him put on his shoes. He remembered who Cheng Ze was—the one who had abandoned Yu Ting to go out and have fun by himself!

“Yes!”

Of course, yes!

He had to eat as much as he could!

Yu Ting helped the child off the bed. “Let’s go see what you’d like to eat.”

“Wait, what about Little E?” Remembering the smart speaker Yu Ting had won back last night, though it was a bit strange, Yu Dengdeng clearly hadn’t forgotten about it. But when he turned to look at the table, it was empty.

“I took it downstairs,” Yu Ting replied, thinking about the odd speaker. “It seems to have some issues.”

“Huh?” Yu Dengdeng widened his eyes and looked at Yu Ting. “Is it broken?”

Recalling the two times it had given irrelevant answers, Yu Ting frowned slightly. “Don’t worry, I’ll try to fix it.”

Hopefully.

Though he didn’t hold out much hope.

…

“Good morning, Dengdeng. I remembered your name this time, right?”

Seeing the two coming down the stairs, Cheng Ze lazily waved his hand. “There are eggs and fried dough sticks here. See what you’d like, and let Yu-ge help you get it.”

The child stood quietly beside Yu Ting, observing him. Unlike when Yu-ge had first brought him back, Cheng Ze could clearly sense that this child in the octopus-patterned T-shirt looked much more refined now.

Most importantly, even though he still felt Yu Ting and Dengdeng didn’t look very much alike, there was an inexplicable similarity in their demeanor. He couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was.

Yu Ting cracked an egg, peeled it smoothly, and handed it to Dengdeng, who was sitting obediently beside him. “Have an egg first?”

Following the child’s gaze, he noticed Dengdeng had glanced at Cheng Ze a couple of times. “Do you still remember him?”

Cheng Ze thought the question was absurd. Even if a child’s memory wasn’t great, they shouldn’t have forgotten what happened yesterday.

Before he could even voice his complaint, he noticed that the kid, who in his eyes had a pretty good memory, was staring at him again before shaking his head.

Cheng Ze: “…”

“I remember,” Yu Dengdeng said crisply, taking a bite of her egg as she looked at Cheng Ze’s raised eyebrows.

Human food is surprisingly tasty.

Completely unaware that he had just been led in circles, Cheng Ze scratched his head and smiled earnestly. “Just call me Brother Cheng Ze, or even just Cheng Ze. We’re not that far apart in age anyway.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard the kid call Yu Ge “Dad” and ask him to pass the soy milk.

Remembering the generational relationship, Cheng Ze quickly corrected himself, “Better call me Brother.”

He wasn’t ready to call Yu Ge “Uncle” just yet.

After finishing breakfast, Cheng Ze went to his room to sleep.

Yu Ting also felt that if Cheng Ze kept pushing himself like this, he was only getting closer to sudden death. Besides, there wasn’t any work that required Cheng Ze’s “helpful” interference, so he let him go.

While eating, Dengdeng noticed the speaker that Yu Ting had brought downstairs and started fiddling with it. Meanwhile, Yu Ting was checking the auto repair orders while listening to Dengdeng’s idle chatter.

-“Little E, are you a boy or a girl?”

-“Are you a boy or a girl?”

-“Little E, what did you have for breakfast?”

-“Electricity.”

Yu Ting: “…”

-“Little E, does Daddy love me?”

-“I am not your father and cannot answer that question.”

Distracted by the AI’s responses, Yu Ting stopped organizing the orders. Glancing down, he saw Dengdeng hugging the speaker and asking another question.

-“Little E, do you like the name Yu Xiao E?”

“…”

A moment of silence, followed by a resolute answer.

-“No.”

Support