CH 63

The car door closed and the one-way glass blocked the curious vision of the people around them and isolated the noise on the road.

The luxury car slowly started. ‘Ji Yanxing’ sat in the driver’s seat. His thin lips were slightly pursed and his expression revealed an obvious coldness.

After Ji Tong got into the car, he changed from cufflinks to a child and sat in the back seat with Pei Qingyuan. He was still immersed in the joy of driving a Gundam and couldn’t get enough of it.

There was a large bag of gaudy dolls on the seat. Pei Qingyuan’s eyes paused on the bag of dolls for a while before silently shifting to the cold-looking ‘Ji Yanxing’ reflected in the rearview mirror.

…Ji Yanxing just casually put his hands on the steering wheel for show and had no intention of grasping the direction well.

Even so, the luxury car was still moving forward smoothly.

Under Pei Qingyuan’s gaze, the aura emanating from Ji Yanxing became more and more dignified and cold air was released.

There was a strange silence in the spacious car.

Ji Tong inexplicably sneezed. He noticed the host’s line of sight and immediately explained, “Host, this car is temporarily conjured and it can drive automatically. Don’t worry.”

Originally, he and Fang Hao wanted to match it with a driver who wore white gloves to look more imposing. However, a living person couldn’t be conjured and it was too troublesome to hire people. Therefore, they had to give up and let the boss ‘drive’ the car by himself.

Fortunately, he prepared motion sickness medicine for Fang Hao today. In addition, the automatic driving mode had a very constant speed so Fang Hao didn’t feel too uncomfortable.

Pei Qingyuan nodded but still didn’t speak.

‘Ji Yanxing’ didn’t speak and silence continued to spread.

The steering wheel and accelerator that no one cared about were operating automatically.

Seeing this, Ji Tong sighed and had another illusion that he was both a father and mother who had to work hard to pull the child up.

He earnestly persuaded the elementary school student, “I swear that the host really can’t read minds. Don’t worry. If I lie to you then I am a puppy.”

Fang Hao, who had been holding back for a long time and didn’t dare think of anything, finally let out a sigh of relief at this oath. Then he couldn’t help complaining, “Then how did he guess? Did you tell him secretly?”

“I don’t cheat like this. It is probably that we have a tacit connection.” Ji Tong smiled. “That is how I could get first place in this assessment.”

“Hmph, wait until my host comes out of retreat and first place will be mine.” Fang Hao was very competitive. “By the way, why does he keep staring at me?’

“It should be because you look handsome.”

“…Oh.”

‘Ji Yanxing’ in the rearview mirror quietly raised an eyebrow and the child in the backseat immediately glared at him.

“Don’t use President Ji’s face to make such a frivolous expression!” Ji Tong was pained when he saw it. “Change your face back when we get home later. Your own style is quite handsome and it is a pity that the host can’t see it.”

‘Ji Yanxing’ thought about it and reluctantly accepted his reason. He glanced at Ji Tong proudly and his expression became much more relaxed. “Okay.”

On the side, Pei Qingyuan couldn’t hear the conversation between the two but he could clearly see the silent eye contact between them, as well as the changes that occurred in ‘Ji Yanxing.’

He glanced at the bag of dolls that Ji Tong held in his arms after getting in the car. Finally, he couldn’t hold back the complicated emotions in his heart and asked, “Was this also conjured?”

“What?” Ji Tong reacted and his tone was quite proud. “No, I caught it when I was playing with the doll machine!”

‘Ji Yanxing’, who was staying in the driver’s seat and pretending to drive, silently glanced at him.

Ji Tong had to change his words. “I caught half of it and the other half was caught by Fang Hao.”

“By the way, host, let me introduce you.” Ji Tong felt that the atmosphere was good now. It was much better than the air-conditioning competition just now. He decided to take advantage of this opportunity to say, “This is my colleague, System 0499. You can call him Fang Hao.”

“For the reward for getting first in the last assessment, I opened the system interoperability authority. I can invite other colleagues to come and sightsee. Fang Hao has nothing to do recently so he came for a visit.”

It turned out that this ‘Ji Yanxing’ was Ji Tong’s artificial intelligence colleague.

Fang Hao greeted Pei Qingyuan after hearing this. Then his expression became inexplicably sluggish and he didn’t have the energy to chat with them any longer.

He had a bit of motion sickness again.

Pei Qingyuan heard this and his eyes fell on ‘Ji Yanxing’, who had lost his momentum. He quickly grasped the point. “So you can also go to the world where other systems are?”

Ji Tong hadn’t expected him to ask this question. He was stunned for a moment before nodding. “Yes, if a colleague invites me to go. However, this is different from staying in this world. I can’t go for a long time and I can’t affect the operation of that world…”

Pei Qingyuan listened to this explanation and quietly lowered his eyes. The light of the luxury car stretched over his eyelashes and cast faint shadows. It wasn’t known what he was thinking.

Ji Tong thought about it and felt that the host might be afraid that he would suddenly skip work one day and go to play in another world, so he immediately reassured the other person. “Don’t worry, host. If I want to go to play in other worlds, I will definitely discuss it with you in advance and I won’t go if it isn’t suitable. After all, I am a very responsible system…”

Pei Qingyuan suddenly said, “You asked for leave during the day to catch dolls?”

“Catching dolls is just along the way. Fang Hao wanted to go to the game center so I accompanied him.” Ji Tong shook his head. “The important thing is to go and meet a friend.”

“Us systems can communicate with each other so Fang Hao can be said to be my friend.” He blinked. “Treat friends seriously and cherish them. Human beings are like this, right?”

Looking at Ji Tong’s bright eyes, Pei Qingyuan couldn’t give a negative answer.

He tried hard to suppress the emotions surging in his heart and replied, “Yes.”

Over the top of Ji Tong’s soft hair, he saw the shadow of trees flying past the window. The brilliant golden autumn leaves were covered by a layer of dim gray shadows in the glass and they faded from his view one after another.

For the first time, he knew that Ji Tong could go to other worlds at any time and meet friends he didn’t know.

Ji Tong could chat with his friends, go out to play like an ordinary person and bring back a whole bag of dolls with excitement.

Pei Qingyuan found it hard to describe his mood at this moment.

He could only blankly watch the scenery passing by until something furry was stuffed in his arms.

Pei Qingyuan lowered his head and saw an ugly yet cute doll. It had a long yellow body like a bug, a smiling face on its round head and big white wings on the back of the bug. Overall, it seemed to be a butterfly doll.

“Host, I think this looks a lot like you,” Ji Tong said earnestly. “I took more than ten attempts to catch this. I spent a lot of coins to give to you.”

Pei Qingyuan was a bit stunned. “…Like me?”

The species was different.

Ji Tong nodded solemnly. “Yes!”

Pei Qingyuan seriously looked at the butterfly doll in his hand but couldn’t find any common ground between himself and it.

In a daze, he glimpsed the smiling Ji Tong out of the corner of his eyes, face as round as a bun.

His attention was unknowingly attracted. He put away his previous thoughts and asked, “How is it similar?”

“It is a secret.” Ji Tong looked mysterious. “Host, you will know later.”

At that same time, Ji Tong said in his heart, “Fang Hao’s personality and thinking logic is relatively… childish. Host, you must not see him as a mature artificial intelligence. Just treat him as a human child.”

Fang Hao’s human form was very confusing so Ji Tong was worried that the host would treat him as a real adult and be concerned. Therefore, Ji Tong gave a vaccination in advance.

Pei Qingyuan responded positively. Then he looked at the ugly butterfly doll in his hand and instinctively reached out to pinch the wings.

Soft and warm.

Ji Tong searched through the doll bag and found a smiling flower doll inside, handing it over generously.

“Buy one, get one free.”

Pei Qingyuan saw Ji Tong’s pure smiling face behind the flower.

Under the sensor lights in the corridor, Pei Qingyuan held the butterfly and flower dolls that were buy one, get one free, and found the key to open the door.

The moment Fang Hao entered through the door, he returned to his original appearance. It was a young and handsome, unfamiliar face.

At this time, the feeling of motion sickness improved. He regained his spirits and turned his head. He looked at Pei Qingyuan quite seriously like he wanted to say something.

Pei Qingyuan didn’t know why Ji Tong’s system friend suddenly seemed to have changed his state and didn’t know what the other party was going to say.

Ji Tong had vaccinated him in advance but he was subconsciously vigilant in front of this humanoid system who looked taller than himself. He slightly gripped the key in his hand while waiting for Fang Hao to speak.

Under the warm yellow light, the handsome adult Fang Hao thanked him solemnly. “Thank you for letting me come to your house to play.”

Then he coughed. Under Pei Qingyuan’s cautious gaze, he said with some embarrassment, “That… have you finished your homework? Do you want to play flying chess?”

Pei Qingyuan: “……”

He suddenly felt that his observation of Fang Hao tonight was a bit redundant.

Ji Tong was accustomed to this and said with disdain, “You haven’t gotten tired of playing flying chess? It is better for the two of us to play fight the landlord with Hua Hua.”

“No, I’m going to play flying chess. You promised me.”

“Okay, okay. By the way, where are you going to rest at night? The living room?”

“I’m not creative. I want to turn into a die and lie in the flying chest box to sleep.”

“It seems to be fun. Perhaps I should try it.”

“No, this box is mine.”

The two of them talked together for a long time. Fang Hao saw that Pei Qingyuan seemed to be standing there in a daze and poked Ji Tong, asking curiously, “So will your host play as well? Does he have a lot of homework at school? I heard that some high school students study until the early morning…”

“The host must’ve finished doing it. He is very good.” Ji Tong’s face showed pride. “Have you forgotten? How many times did Teacher Zhou praise the host just now, saying that he is smart and hardworking? Perhaps he can get a record score in the college entrance examination—”

Pei Qingyuan, who was the center of the topic, was silently trying to calm down this rather strange mood.

Then Ji Tong’s voice stopped as he and Pei Qingyuan heard the familiar ding dong sound at the same time.

The third main mission was triggered.

“Dear host, appropriate influence is an opportunity to start a career. The third mission you have to complete is to become the top student in the college entrance examination…”

Hearing this, Ji Tong looked like he expected it. Then in the next second, he gasped in surprise.

“…And after being interviewed by the media, it should have a wide impact (the standard for having a wide impact is that the cumulative number of views of relevant news reaches 100 million).”

This time, the mission was divided into two parts and it was clear that the difficulty was in the second part.

The two of them looked at each other and both saw the surprise in the other person’s eyes.

JI Tong stuffed Hua Hua to Fang Hao and let him play with the cat for a while. Meanwhile, he sat down at the table with Pei Qingyuan and had a serious family meeting.

“Most of the top students in the college entrance examination are interviewed by local media,” Pei Qingyuan said. “But no matter what type of score is obtained, I’m afraid it isn’t enough for this news to be spread so widely.”

“So there is another requirement in addition to the college entrance examination score implied here.” Ji Tong held his cheeks. “It definitely isn’t enough to become the champion, unless the champion is only 10 years old.”

“…Yes.”

The two of them were silent for a while before something flashed in Ji Tong’s mind. “Put this news on various web pages and spread it virally. Then the views will easily increase. Host, you should know this, right?”

Under the joint guidance of Ji Tong and Xiao Jianping, the learning of artificial intelligence had progressed from pure theoretical knowledge to practical operation. He had started to learn various codes and algorithms and his spare time had been quite fulfilling.

Before Pei Qingyuan could speak, the mechanical female voice was heard again.

The mission panel learned to be smart and patched it in time. “Don’t use unnatural means such as marketing and promotion to achieve the reading standard.”

In other words, it was necessary to rely on the host’s own ability to let the audience spontaneously spread the news.

Ji Tong had to give up this idea. He saw Pei Qingyuan’s somewhat solemn expression and comforted him. “There is still half a year left. We can slowly think about it. Are you going to study now? Let’s play flying chess for a while and relax.”

“Yes, let’s go play.”

In light of the fact that the bored Fang Hao had started to meow along with Hua Hua, Pei Qingyuan couldn’t stand it and consciously went to the small round table on the balcony to spread out the plastic paper printed with chess grids.

Ji Tong went to the kitchen to get snacks and sighed quietly as he turned his back to the host.

After getting in touch with the main brain these days and gradually becoming familiar with the routine of various projection worlds, Ji Tong actually guessed the most standard way to complete this task.

A near-perfect college entrance examination champion who had a very dramatic and bizarre life. His biological mother committed a crime in a confused state and treated her biological son very eccentrically after reuniting with him. The wealthy adoptive parents who were indifferent… in his third year of high school, his life ushered in life-shaking changes. He changed from the proud son of heaven to the abandoned son in the cracks. Finally, he struggled to escape and came under the spotlight with dignity.

What could be an easier story to go viral on the Internet than this?

However, Ji Tong felt that Pei Qingyuan wouldn’t want to take the initiative to say such things in front of the camera.

So he didn’t mention it at all.

He thought that he could always find a better solution for the host.

Under the shining star lights on the balcony, a few people and one cat started the flying chess battle.

On this clear night, the chill of late autumn gradually changed to a winter atmosphere.

Fang Hao’s arrival didn’t bring many changes to Pei Qingyuan’s life. Ji Tong was still by his side as before but occasionally went out with Fang Hao. Since the personality shown by this artificial intelligence was too childish, Pei Qingyuan basically regarded him as the second Hua Hua and no longer had any bad feelings.

Instead, he was a bit curious about what Fang Hao was doing in this world because he often used a low-key appearance of a hat and left early and returned late. He looked very busy.

Pei Qingyuan asked Ji Tong but Ji Tong’s reaction to this was very strange. He had an expression of not knowing what to say and just replied vaguely, “He is just… just wandering around, looking at the scenery. Cough.”

A week later, Pei Qingyuan unexpectedly got the answer from Fu Chengze.

The members of the basketball team had a group chat where they usually talked. On that day, Fu Chengze excitedly sent out a link.

[Fu Chengze: Look at this report! The mysterious brother is so handsome. He is worthy of belonging to my family!]

The group soon became lively while Pei Qingyuan looked at the string of news headlines in a slightly confused manner.

[A thank you letter from the elementary school student who caused a sensation in the city: Looking for an older brother surnamed Gao…]

[Pei Qingyuan: ?]

[Pei Qingyuan: Your surname is Fu.]

[Fu Chengze: No no no, aren’t I Tong Tong’s Older Brother Gao? Have you forgotten?]

Pei Qingyuan was silent.

He was now sensitive to this type of sensational news so he opened the link to see if he could find some experience for reference.

The news was about a thank you letter from an elementary school student. He said that he was often bullied by school bullies and robbed of his pocket money. He would be beaten and threatened not to tell others. These painful days lasted a long time until one day when he was stuck in an alley. A tall man wearing a cap walked in like a superhero in a cartoon and cleaned up these bullies.

Pei Qingyuan read the heartfelt thank you letter before his eyes stared at the photo in the middle of the article in amazement.

The photo showed the blurry back of a man in black, which had been taken by the elementary school student. It was now attached to his pencil case, along with the words ‘My surname is Gao’ that he received when he asked for his savior’s name. This became his faith.

Pei Qingyuan recognized at a glance that the back of this hat-wearing man belonged to Fang Hao.

Ji Tong, a little robot lying on the dial, saw the news with him.

Pei Qingyuan thought for a while but still couldn’t figure it out. “Isn’t his name Fang Hao? Why did he say that his surname is Gao?”

He looked at Fu Chengze’s name and suddenly asked, “Do you also call him Brother Gao?”

“Haha.” Ji Tong silently looked away and let out a polite, dry laugh. “How is that possible?”

How should he explain to the host that this was the Gao of Gundam…?

(TL: The first character of the ones that make up Gundam is Gao, so he took Gao from here)