Pretending to Be Human, I Fell in Love with an AI - Chapter 2

The late spring rain carried a sense of urgency, growing heavier with the muffled thunder before gradually easing. Raindrops fell onto the splash guard and then dripped in front of the shop, forming small puddles here and there.

Business was slow on rainy days. The boss was nowhere to be found, and Brother Yu’s mental illness had flared up again. Cheng Ze thought for a moment, then moved a stool to sit by the doorway, idly scrolling through Douyin.

The sound of rain gradually softened. Thankfully, Brother Yu had taken an umbrella when he went to the landfill.

Almost half an hour had passed. Usually, Yu Ting wouldn’t return in less than an hour.

What was so interesting about that landfill anyway?

Cheng Ze pondered, then turned off his phone. The black screen reflected a young, ordinary face.

He raised the phone, studying his own reflection, but the image that surfaced in his mind was that cold, imposing face impossible to ignore. “Could it be that staring at garbage makes you handsome?”

“Cheng Ze?” A questioning voice rang out.

Cheng Ze quickly lowered his phone and saw the very person he had just been curious about standing before him, holding an umbrella in one hand and cradling a large, dark object in the other.

Cheng Ze stood up, his gaze shifting to realize that the unknown object Yu Ting was holding was actually a person.

“Brother, where… where did this child come from?” Cheng Ze’s voice instinctively rose in alarm.

If he remembered correctly, Yu Ting had only taken an umbrella when he left. So where had this child come from?

Yu Ting tilted his head to look at the boy in his arms. Sensing the movement, the child slowly lifted his head, his gaze meeting Yu Ting’s.

They were dark, bright eyes, trembling slightly as they looked at him—fearful yet unable to conceal a flicker of curiosity.

He handed the umbrella to Cheng Ze. Though his voice still carried its usual chill, it had softened considerably. “I’ll take you to dry your hair.”

The child’s eyes fixed intently on Yu Ting and his brown irises. Realizing Yu Ting was speaking to him, he slowly shook his head. His slightly yellowish, curly hair clung to his scalp, while some of the drier strands swayed gently in the air with the movement.

A faint smile touched Yu Ting’s lips as he headed upstairs.

The child nestled against his shoulder, continuously observing the surroundings, his gaze finally settling on the young man carrying him, though he could only see the man’s chin.

The boy was completely drenched. By carrying him back, Yu Ting’s clothes were now half-soaked as well.

He pushed open the door to his room, intending to place the boy on a stool. But as he leaned forward slightly, the child’s arms wrapped around his neck.

Yu Ting’s brows furrowed slightly. Recalling how the child hadn’t spoken a word since being brought back yet remained constantly vigilant of his surroundings, he adjusted his hold and carried the boy to the bathroom to fetch an unused towel.

They returned to the bedroom.

His bed was pressed against the window. Outside, the rain pattered against the glass, lending the enclosed room a quiet, damp atmosphere.

“Dry your hair, or you might catch a cold.”

Only after Yu Ting spoke did the arms around his neck loosen slightly, slowly lowering to rest on his shoulders.

He unfolded the towel. The child watched his every move without blinking, like a wary little kitten.

Yu Ting was an orphan, and even before coming to Earth, he had always been alone, with zero parenting experience. However, during his free time, he had listened to his deputy share some parenting tips.

The deputy once said that the most important thing in parenting was patience.

A soft yet unmistakable “drip” sound—a raindrop from the boy fell onto the pristine white bedsheet.

Both of them looked down simultaneously, noticing the droplet.

As if caught off guard, Yu Ting stared at it for a few seconds before raising his gaze to the boy. With a gentle yet firm touch, he quickly wiped the boy’s head.

The child’s hair was soft and jet-black, resembling a clump of seaweed wrapped in the towel.

“What’s your name?” he asked, looking down.

The boy tilted his head slightly, his lips parting as if about to speak, but his brows furrowed in hesitation—or perhaps he didn’t know how to speak.

Yet, his chubby cheeks were unmistakable; even when frowning, he didn’t appear troubled but rather incredibly adorable.

After three seconds of silence, he shook his head, pointed at the young man before him, and glanced over with a trembling gaze.

Unable to speak, or…?

But Yu Ting inexplicably sensed the child’s thoughts. “Do you want me to give you a name?”

He didn’t know why such an idea popped into his head, but when he met the boy’s dark eyes, it just emerged.

The boy froze for a moment, then nodded vigorously like a pecking chick.

Naming, huh.

Yu Ting instinctively looked up, pondering for a second.

Naming wasn’t too difficult for him. The two fleets he commanded had been named by him personally, and their names were later engraved on the ships.

One was “Galactic Voyage,” the other “Strongest in the Universe.”

Outside, the rain gradually stopped, and the twiDengdeng cast a halo over the wrinkled bedsheet. The little boy looked up at him expectantly.

Yu Ting thought for a moment, recalling the scene when he had just brought the boy back. “How about I call you ‘Big Lamp’?”

Never expecting such a name, “Big Lamp” momentarily forgot his wariness. He stared at Yu Ting in stunned silence for a few seconds before shaking his head firmly, expressing his strong aversion to the name.

From the time he was brought back from the dump until now, this was the first time Yu Ting had seen such a strong reaction from the child.

Back when he named the fleets, it had always been unanimously approved. Feeling slightly disheartened, Yu Ting pursed his lips, his fair face showing a hint of discomfort. He cleared his throat softly. “How about ‘Lamp’?”

Lamp?

This time, the boy pursed his lips and nodded, accepting the name.

“My name is Yu Ting. I’m a mechanic staying here temporarily for work.” He almost blurted out “Galactic Voyage” out of habit. “Can you speak? Why were you there?”

Now bearing a human name, Dengdeng gazed at the young man called “Yu Ting.”

The man was tall; even when bending down, Dengdeng had to look up at him.

This was a feeling he had never experienced since his birth as the most beloved little prince of the Octopus Empire.

Yes, he wasn’t from this planet. He had landed here only after passing through a black hole during an adventure.

He pinched his hand, where the sensation of tentacles was gone, replaced by the warmth of flesh and blood.

He wasn’t without the thought of speaking his own planet’s language, but the moment he opened his mouth, it felt as if something was blocking it, causing the words to vanish into thin air.

Yet, the moment Yu Ting uttered the words “big light,” a sudden clarity flashed through his mind like a beam of light.

“Dengdeng.” Both the boy and Yu Ting heard that tender, childish voice emerge from the little octopus’s mouth, its tone slightly strange, as if it hadn’t spoken in a long time. Then it repeated, “Dengdeng.”

He could really speak!

Dengdeng looked up at Yu Ting, only to see Yu Ting staring back in surprise, as if he hadn’t expected him to speak.

Before the two could say anything, the door was pushed open.

Cheng Ze, having set down his umbrella, had rushed upstairs upon realizing that Brother Yu had actually picked up a child. But the moment he opened the door, he saw Yu Ting standing on the floor and the child standing on the bed, both turning to look at him at the sound of the door opening.

When Yu Ting had brought the child upstairs earlier, his face had been covered the whole time. Only now did Cheng Ze get a clear look at what the child actually looked like.

To be honest, Cheng Ze felt for the first time that a sight could be so strikingly refreshing.

This child was just too adorable!

It was just that his expression seemed a bit hard to approach.

Cheng Ze’s eyes shifted between Yu Ting and the child a couple more times, confirming that they didn’t seem to share any blood relation, before asking, “Brother Yu, who is this child?”

“His name is Dengdeng,” Yu Ting replied.

“Dengdeng,” Dengdeng echoed.

“Oh, okay, Dengdeng,” Cheng Ze nodded hurriedly, then asked quite naturally, “Shouldn’t we take him to the police station to report this first?”

Report to the police?

A rare blankness appeared on Yu Ting’s somewhat indifferent face. He suddenly realized he had forgotten that this planet was Earth, not Darkwater Star.

Here, public security was good. An orphan didn’t need to scavenge for food in the garbage dump every day, and a lost child could find their parents by going to the police station.

Report to the police?

Dengdeng, who had just acquired a human name, quickly grabbed Yu Ting’s hand, which hadn’t yet been withdrawn, his eyes lowered as he warily watched the human who had made the suggestion.

Though still young, as a prince, Dengdeng was well aware that he had arrived on another planet, and it was even possible… that he might never return.

At this thought, Dengdeng’s mouth turned down, and he clung even tighter to the hand he was holding, looking at Yu Ting as if pleading for help.

The child’s grip wasn’t strong; Yu Ting could easily break free with a twist of his wrist. But he made no move to do so, instead asking Cheng Ze, “What would happen if we didn’t report it?”

“Not report it? Huh?” Stunned by Yu Ting’s question, Cheng Ze suddenly felt that, even though he had dropped out of school in his teens, he at least knew a bit about the law. A strange sense of superiority rose within him, and he coughed a few times. “Brother Yu, we’d first need to know why this child…”

“Dengdeng,” Dengdeng tightened his grip on Yu Ting’s hand.

“Right, that… Dengdeng. First, we need to know why Brother Yu found you, and then we’d definitely need to report it to the police station.”

Cheng Ze looked at the two people across from him, who were staring at him intently, and inexplicably felt as if he were trying to separate a father and son. He didn’t say it outright, but added, “We need to know if Dengdeng has parents or not.”

Yu Ting looked down at the child still clutching his wrist. Indeed, he had jumped to conclusions, even assuming that Dengdeng was an orphan just like him.

The scene was far too reminiscent of the environment in which he had been abandoned all those years ago, robbing him of even his usual capacity for thought.

He nodded.

“I don’t have…” Seeing the wavering expression on the face of the human who exuded a scent that made him instinctively want to draw closer, Dengdeng tightened his grip on Yu Ting’s hand and leaned forward anxiously. “…parents.”

Yu Ting: “”

“I don’t have parents.” Dengdeng, who had suddenly become a human child, nodded again for emphasis.

Of course, that was only on this planet.

His octopus father would understand, right?

He definitely would.