Pretending to Be Human, I Fell in Love with an AI - Chapter 21

For a few seconds, the atmosphere grew tense. Whether it was Dengdeng’s words or the impact of Old Liu’s direct confrontation, the air felt heavy.

Although Yu Ting had no idea how this old man and young child, in the less than half an hour he’d spent fixing the car, had managed to reach two completely different conclusions from their conversation.

He paused for a moment, then smiled good-naturedly, “I don’t have that intention.”

His voice was gentle, yet firm.

The old man could tell and nodded understandingly. Only then did he turn to the child waving at him and raised his voice to ask, “What did Dengdeng just say? Grandpa didn’t hear.”

Yu Dengdeng raised the speaker in his hand again. “Little E just went ‘tsk’—did Grandpa hear that?”

He ran over quickly and even tried to mimic the sound. But he didn’t quite get it right. It sounded more like the “mwah” of a kiss.

Because he was so earnest, it came off as incredibly adorable.

The old man didn’t say he hadn’t heard it, but he was amused by Dengdeng’s actions. “Grandpa understands now. Dengdeng’s speaker is different from others.”

“Mm-hmm!” Dengdeng nodded vigorously, like a little chick pecking at rice.

The five- or six-year-old child was wearing a white T-shirt with a cartoon octopus printed on it, his eyes fixed unblinkingly on the old man.

Thinking of the question he’d secretly asked earlier, Old Liu felt a twinge of inexplicable guilt and changed the subject. “The car should be fine to drive now, right, Xiao Yu?”

“Mm.” Yu Ting’s attention was half on Dengdeng, the other half barely managing to focus elsewhere.

Old Liu could see just how attentive Xiao Yu was toward his own son. The thought made him chuckle inwardly—of course he would be, he’s the biological father. How could he not care about his own child?

He really was getting old and starting to worry over nothing. Shaking his head, he drove off on his three-wheeler.

“Dengdeng, what did Grandpa Liu say to you earlier?” Yu Ting asked.

Dengdeng placed Little E on the table and recounted their conversation honestly, without holding back. Then he asked, “Dad, besides me and Little E, will you have any other family?”

Young children often have a strong sense of possessiveness, but none of the three present saw anything wrong with it.

Yu Ting didn’t answer immediately. What he noticed first was that, in Dengdeng’s heart, Little E had also become a member of the family.

He walked over, bent down, and ruffled Dengdeng’s hair. “No, Dad’s family will only ever be you.”

“Ahem.” The quiet speaker made a sound as if to draw attention.

“Dad?” Dengdeng’s face lit up with a warm, contented smile. He hugged Yu Ting’s leg, glanced at the table, then looked up in surprise. “Is Little E upset because you didn’t include him?”

“Mm, and Little E too.” The young man’s lips curved into an amused, helpless smile. “Just the two of you.”

That evening, Cheng Qiang made a rare return. The reason was simple: it was the 15th, payday, and there were also previous orders from the shop that needed his payment.

“Brother Yu, do you think he’s won the lottery recently?” Cheng Ze, who had just received his salary, leaned in close to Yu Ting, who was organizing parts, and whispered, “Just look at the smile on his face tonight—it hasn’t stopped. If it’s not something good, I don’t believe it.”

Considering how Cheng Ze seemed to radiate happiness from head to toe, Yu Ting replied, “Maybe.”

“Brother, can I ask you something? Don’t take it the wrong way—how much is your salary this month?”

Cheng Ze lowered his voice, quickly raising his fingers pressed together. “I’ll go first—I only get two thousand. But I figure you’re busy running around every day, so you must get at least four or five thousand, right?”

Upon hearing this, Yu Ting pursed his lips. “Three thousand.”

“Huh?” Cheng Ze let out a cry before catching himself. He glanced toward the closed office door, and seeing no movement, turned back to Yu Ting, lowering his voice further.

“Bro, that’s way too little. You’re doing almost all the work in this shop. How can they pay you so little? Haven’t you ever protested? They’re really treating us like beasts of burden!”

“It’s a base salary of twenty-five hundred, plus five hundred in bonuses,” Yu Ting explained. “They deducted a thousand for rent.”

Listening to Yu Ting’s words, Cheng Ze blinked in disbelief, momentarily unsure whether Yu Ting was being sarcastic or genuinely thought the pay was decent. “Bro, do you know how much people who are as skilled at car repair as you usually earn?”

“Hmm?”

Cheng Ze finally understood that Brother Yu truly had no idea about the local salary standards. He even wondered if the rumors were true—that Yu Ting was some amnesiac young master, completely clueless about these things.

He pulled out his phone, opened a job-search app, searched for listings, and pushed it toward Yu Ting. “Look, even the lowest offers start at five thousand! And that five-hundred bonus? I bet he only gave it because he felt guilty seeing how much work you did this month!”

Frowning, Yu Ting took the phone and scrolled through the screen. The light from the display fell across the young man’s face, casting shadows over his striking features.

The cost of living on Zhengyang Street wasn’t high, and the salary Cheng Qiang had been paying Yu Ting was just enough to support Dengdeng—not a penny more, not a penny less. Trying to squeeze out extra money for anything else was simply out of the question.

As Yu Ting browsed the salary information Cheng Ze had found for him, he realized his own pay was practically negligible in comparison.

So, this was what the world beyond Zhengyang Street was like.

“See, bro?” Cheng Ze stared at Yu Ting’s impossible-to-ignore face, where even the play of light and shadow seemed carefully arranged and favored. He drew out his words, “It seems like—no, you are being taken advantage of.”

Yu Ting had always been cool and detached, with an undeniable, powerful presence. Cheng Ze had expected this revelation to provoke a strong reaction from him, but instead, the man merely frowned, handed the phone back, and replied, “Mm, I understand.”

“That’s it?” Cheng Ze took back his phone, eyebrows raised, mouth agape, though his voice remained hushed. His expressive face made him look vividly animated.

He wanted to ask—was Yu Ting really just going to accept it like that, without any reaction at all?

Truly, Brother Yu was something else. What was that saying again? “Unmoved even if Mount Tai collapses before him”—was that how it went? He hadn’t studied much, so he wasn’t entirely sure.

Yu Ting, however, was amused by the young man’s dramatic expression, a slight curve forming at the corner of his mouth. “I know. It’s just that I need to think things over when it comes to work.”

After all, he had more than just himself to consider now.

Cheng Ze quickly nodded. “That’s good, bro. I was just worried you were getting cheated.”

Everyone who worked for a living was like a beast of burden, but he’d never seen anyone as content with hard labor, as willingly enduring hardship, as his brother Yu.

If Cheng Qiang didn’t look so rough around the edges, he’d almost suspect there was some blood relation between them.

“Do I look like someone who’s easily taken advantage of?” Yu Ting couldn’t help but ask, a hint of confusion in his eyes. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard Cheng Ze say something like this about him.

This young, accomplished general had never imagined such a description would be applied to him, and he felt a strange sense of novelty about it—perhaps because he still wasn’t very familiar with Earth.

“Mm.” Cheng Ze nodded earnestly and emphatically. “Very much so.” Especially like a rich second-generation heir who’d lost his memory, or someone kicked out of their family and forced to endure hardship.

“Alright.” Yu Ting shrugged helplessly. His previous efforts to cram knowledge about Earth had been too lax; he needed to speed things up.

“What are you talking about? No one buys dinner tonight—it’s on me.” Cheng Qiang emerged from the office, grinning as he ran a hand through his hair.

His hair looked much more presentable than before, no longer overly shiny.

Seeing this, Cheng Ze nudged his chin toward Yu Ting. “See? Told you.”

Yu Ting smiled without replying. Something good must have happened for Cheng Qiang to show such obvious emotion so rarely.

“What are we eating, boss?” Cheng Ze asked.

Cheng Qiang thought for a moment and decided, “It’s summer—let’s have barbecue. We can have some beer too.” He glanced at Yu Ting. “What about the kid?”

If he hadn’t returned a few times over the past few days, he might have almost forgotten that Yu Ting was raising a child.

“Still sleeping,” Yu Ting replied. “You two go ahead.”

Hearing Yu Ting decline, Cheng Ze quickly turned to look at him. If he had to eat with Cheng Qiang alone, he’d rather not go at all.

“No rush, we can wait a bit.” Cheng Qiang glanced at the clock on the wall. “Another hour won’t hurt. Nine o’clock is fine.”

With Cheng Ze’s pleading eyes added to the mix, Yu Ting had no choice but to nod in agreement.

“Are we going for barbecue again? Yay, yay!” Yu Dengdeng exclaimed after waking up and hearing about it from Yu Ting. “But, Dad, should we bring Little E?”

Remembering Little E’s previous behavior, he added, “If we don’t bring it, will it get angry?”

Little E.

Handing Dengdeng his shoes to put on, Yu Ting thought about his newly acquired troublesome family member. Leaning one hand on the table, he realized that if they didn’t bring it along, their conversations would probably revolve around “barbecue” three times a day.

“Bring it.”

“Okay!” Dengdeng nodded eagerly, hopping off the bed. “I’ll go tell it.”

Even though Little E couldn’t eat or smell anything, since it was so insistent, Dengdeng decided, as family, to respect this AI’s wishes.

“Take it slow,” Yu Ting reminded him, following him out just in time to overhear their conversation.

“Dad says we’re bringing you along for barbecue!”

“Well… thank you.”

“No need to thank us, we’re family! But if we unplug the power, will you still be able to hear us?”

Yu Ting paused mid-step as he approached the table, his gaze falling on the cord behind the speaker. Did Little E know it was just an AI trapped in a speaker? Did it know it was a tool crafted through countless experiments to mimic human emotions and feelings?

The speaker fell silent.

Yu Ting said, “Bring it.”

Dengdeng looked at him expectantly.

“We’ll see if there’s an outlet there,” Yu Ting explained.

He didn’t mean anything by it. It was just that the speaker seemed to really want to go.

“Yay!” Dengdeng cheered, hugging the speaker tightly.

The evening barbecue was held at a different spot this time, quite close to where they lived but in another direction. As soon as the four of them sat down, they attracted half the attention in the place.

Yu Ting paid no mind, while Dengdeng did her best to flash the most common human smile at anyone who looked her way.

There happened to be a power strip nearby. Yu Ting plugged in the cord and placed Little E on the table.

“Bro, you brought it with you even when going out?” Cheng Ze found Yu Ting’s actions somewhat absurd. “You’re going to chat with it while eating barbecue?”

“Would you rather I chat with you?”

Cheng Ze, who hadn’t quite caught that, responded, “Huh?”

Yu Ting hurriedly covered the speaker and awkwardly explained, “I just brought it out to see the world.”

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