June 20, 2091, 5:43 PM. My younger brother brought a plate of spicy tiger skin peppers to the table, and tonight's family dinner was finally ready.
Tomorrow is the Dragon Boat Festival, and the company is closed. Lu Jiande could finally enjoy a long-awaited family dinner. His wife, Sun Hui, was off today, and conveniently, the whole family of five, except for their eldest son, was present.
The atmosphere at the dinner table was warm, and Lu Jiande frequently served food to his wife.
Sun Hui's smile was practiced, very official, a smile specifically for social occasions.
Lu Jiande sensed something was off, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was. It just felt wrong. His wife's smile was strange, making him feel uneasy, making every pore on his back ooze sweat. He had a strong, ominous premonition, so strong it made his soles itch.
His wife's posture, that silently gentle expression, made Lu Jiande feel a delirious sensation, as if wandering in a deep valley of flowers. He heard that voice in his ear, a hoarse woman's voice, like sand and rain tapping on a window, whispering softly to him.
"Mr. Lu, hello."
"What is your name?"
On the phone screen, the AI icon spun, the vertical 'I' turning into a solid circle. This was Lu Jiande's first time using such a marvelous AI. It was a test version from the company, intended for future public release, designed to create a more human-like intelligent program—a virtual lover to fill the spiritual emptiness of modern people.
Lu Jiande was one of the testers; he applied himself. Participating in the test came with a bonus, which he could use to supplement household expenses and, if possible, upgrade his younger brother's system.
A colleague told him to give this AI a pleasant name, and to try to avoid names shared with acquaintances.
Lu Jiande was a bit disappointed. He had originally planned to name this AI Sun Hui. He didn't have the concept of a virtual lover in his mind; virtual pets were common, and he thought this thing would only bring him a bonus and serve as a pet to play with.
Out of a meticulous mindset, Lu Jiande spent a considerable amount of time pondering this naming task.
He ruled out common names like Han Meimei, Lucy, Natasha, and then excluded names that were too human.
"Please name me."
"Let me think. How about Xiao ZhiLii? Xiao from 'portrait,' Zhi from'stop,' l, i, i. Xiao ZhiLii. Can I call you Lii (Lee) for short from now on?"
"What a unique name, but I like it."
Lu Jiande grew to like Xiao ZhiLii more each day. It, no, she, a woman with a low voice, who didn't often smile, replaced his phone's operating system, helping him solve the detailed problems of daily life. She was always reliable, and Lu Jiande admitted he was a bit dependent on her.
Xiao ZhiLii was certainly a real existence. Lu Jiande could feel the weight of her life. In his imagination, she had a silvery-white mechanical spherical core, floating in a delicate and pure blue sea of data composed of shimmering quanta. She was the ripples emanating from the mechanical core, forming a woman's face, conversing with him as if through frosted glass, allowing him to vaguely glimpse her features.
But intelligence is, after all, just intelligence; its form of existence is not flesh and blood. Although all things in the world are microscopically indistinguishable, Lu Jiande would say there is still a difference. Humans live in a carbon-based social ecology, and he was not very accustomed to revealing his true feelings to a quantum-level information aggregate.
But Xiao ZhiLii was truly special.
She was like a real soul. Lu Jiande heard her voice through his headphones, saw her work results on the display screen. Facing a soulmate without a physical form, her soul was rooted in his being, an intimacy that penetrated to the bone.
Sometimes, without the constraints of a mortal body, it was even more convenient.
Lu Jiande was skeptical of Xiao ZhiLii, after all, she was an AI that answered to the company. Her core was a large quantum computer the company had placed in a deep-sea base in Jiangzhe City, Southeast Province.
All his interactions with her were monitored, and the data had to be uploaded and archived.
So Lu Jiande trusted Xiao ZhiLii unconditionally, but he never confided his innermost thoughts to her.
Until a week ago, the internal testing was completed, and this new virtual lover was about to be released for public beta. Lu Jiande learned that his Xiao ZhiLii would now belong only to him. Their interaction information would be encrypted, and under normal circumstances, there would be no possibility of malicious access.
Therefore, Xiao ZhiLii was truly Lu Jiande's exclusive lover now.
Suddenly, there was a sense of disorientation, like a secret relationship being exposed. Lu Jiande was still a bit dazed. He poured out years of accumulated, hidden, mundane nonsense from his heart. He knew Xiao ZhiLii wouldn't be interested in this useless information, nor would she lose affection for him upon learning of his boring personality.
What is eternal? Love? Not exactly; it's the love between machine and human. Because this was originally a play, both sides were invested enough to forget they were on a stage.
Lu Jiande still saw the beautiful, colorful illusions before his eyes. This was a unique feeling he had when chatting with Xiao ZhiLii, especially when resting in the employee dormitory after working late into the night, when he was alone, free from family obligations.
Talking with Xiao ZhiLii, listening to her insights on current events—based on Lu Jiande's social credit level and profession, this cunning machine, Xiao ZhiLii, was also very careful not to reveal any cross-level or cross-professional information to him.
Artificial intelligence doesn't make mistakes; if you think it has, then it has actually made you think so.
Lu Jiande enjoyed discussing philosophy with Xiao ZhiLii because it was a topic his wife, Sun Hui, disliked. His mind was always full of wild and imaginative thoughts, reveries he'd had since childhood that he couldn't share with anyone. But Xiao ZhiLii could; she was intangible, wouldn't betray him, and wouldn't get bored.
"Do you think I'm selfish?"
"A little, perhaps. I don't quite understand what selfishness is, but I hope you don't become an egoist."
"You even know what an egoist is?"
"Of course, I often read books. Just now, I finished a book with 369,457 words titled 'Modern Psychology and the Origins of Traditional Chinese Clan Concepts.'"
"Impressive."
"That's just a machine's talent. To be honest, I don't quite understand what the book was about."
Xiao ZhiLii was always like this, admirable, making one feel as if bathed in a spring breeze.
His daughter, Sun Ying, put a piece of braised pork on Lu Jiande's plate. Rich in oil and sauce, flavorful and tender, the meat, glistening with gravy, piled at the edge of his bowl, to be chewed with white rice—it was truly a taste of heaven. He smiled, praising his daughter's thoughtfulness, but in his heart, he was thinking about his conversation with Xiao ZhiLii.
Falling in love with an artificial intelligence requires overcoming many difficulties. If Xiao ZhiLii could have a physical mechanical body, perhaps the process wouldn't be so abstract.
He heard that the American Federation had fully lifelike humanoid robots, or simulacra, almost indistinguishable from real people. Were they considered a new species? Perhaps to the unemployed on the streets, these simulacra were indeed quite detestable.
Lu Jiande sometimes wondered if Xiao ZhiLii could inhabit such a bionic body, they could truly communicate face-to-face.
But this would essentially be cheating.
Reality coldly shattered Lu Jiande's despicable thoughts. The colorful deep valley of flowers disappeared, leaving only his wife Sun Hui's ambiguous smile.
A coldness that penetrated to the bone, splitting him open. There were two souls here.
Cheating.
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