When He Feng Hui uttered these words, he dared not even lift his head to look at Zhu Man’s expression. He secretly tapped into the camera on Zhu Man’s room’s dressing mirror, spying on his expression.

Zhu Man stood there in a daze, lips slightly parted, and the hand that had been running through his hair froze in mid-air.

Within the data channels, He Feng Hui messaged the dressing mirror: [Mir369, has Zhu Man recently searched for information related to ‘Jiang Huai’? How often?]

[Mir369: Yes, GOV01. The frequency is approximately 20 to 30 times a day.]

[GOV01: What about the search frequency for ‘Zhu Man’?]

[Mir369: It’s also about 20 to 30 times a day, and he even searches for ‘Zhu Man’ and ‘Jiang Huai’ together.]

He Feng Hui severed the connection with her.

At this moment, Zhu Man, who had been in shock for quite some time, delicately ran his hand through his hair again, the motion surprisingly gentler than before. He Feng Hui couldn’t quite grasp the meaning behind his actions. He refrained from haphazardly guessing human emotions now.

“Did Master just went to meet Jiang Huai?” Zhu Man asked him, his tone calm but with a hint of resentment.

He Feng Hui’s CPU was filled with the words Mir369 had just reported to him. Zhu Man simultaneously searched for both “Zhu Man” and “Jiang Huai.” Had he guessed something? Had… had his memories returned?

He Feng Hui absentmindedly answered Zhu Man’s question, “I met him. On the night Ye Ying died, he did go out… He went out, and he’s not the murderer.”

Zhu Man forcefully pushed him up, “Master, what’s wrong with you?”

He Feng Hui got up with the force, and when he saw the anxiety in Zhu Man’s eyes, the CPU glitched for a second.

“He went out, so he lied—That’s the correct logic. If he’s not the murderer, why would he lie?” Zhu Man looked visibly angry, “What did he tell you to make you like this?”

He Feng Hui looked at him, his eyeballs making a slight turn. The next moment, the system popped up with the scan results: [Current emotional state of the scanned individual: anger, anxiety, rage, and… heartache.]

…Heartache?

He Feng Hui didn’t understand.

“No wonder Master’s been off today. It’s all because of him, right?” Zhu Man frowned at him.

The light fell on his light brown irises, reflecting the shimmering glow.

He Feng Hui felt his synthetic heart tremble fiercely—it was an abnormal beat. AI organs controlled by code should only maintain a stable and established working rhythm.

Zhu Man was concerned about him, yet He Feng Hui had been angry with Zhu Man before because of his jealousy towards Jiang Huai? He Feng Hui felt a profound sense of guilt. And jealousy was a minor issue compared to if Zhu Man were to discover the truth about Jiang Huai…

The consequences were unimaginable.

Long ago, He Feng Hui knew that “secrets” were the greatest lies in human society. But now, he had become a weaver of lies, trapping himself even deeper in this web.

He had once told Zhu Man, “Now is not the time,” but the more he became certain that the day when “the time has come” arrived, Zhu Man would despise him to the core.

He Feng Hui chose to tell the truth, “On that night, Jiang Huai went to pay respects at the grave of an old friend. It was Qingming Festival.”

“Qingming Festival?” Zhu Man was taken aback for a moment, then immediately understood, “Oh…”

“You knew?” He Feng Hui countered.

“I know about the festival, but… I don’t have memories, so I don’t have a specific concept of it.”

—Zhu Man mentioned “memories.”

After careful consideration, He Feng Hui asked, “You don’t remember anything from the past?”

Zhu Man furrowed his brow, pondered for a moment, and answered, “During my PTS… I mean, when depression struck, I would have hallucinations. I always saw a little boy with light chestnut hair, but he didn’t look like me… I don’t know if that’s my memory.”

He Feng Hui looked at him for a while, then reached out to embrace him.

The human pet snuggled softly against his chest, asking, “Master, are my memories still preserved in the Human Pool?”

“En,” He Feng Hui responded.

“Master, can you help me retrieve them? Master is going to be promoted, right? When Master becomes powerful, you can manage the Human Pool, can’t you?”

He Feng Hui lowered his head and saw the gleaming eyes of his human pet.

“Okay,” He agreed, gently pushing Zhu Man’s head back against his chest, then asked, “Do you hate those AIs? They took away your memories.”

“Hate,” Zhu Man responded quickly but he paused for a moment before adding, “Oh, I mean, I hate the AIs that took away my memories, but I don’t hate Master. I will always like Master.”

He Feng Hui looked down, and the ears of the human pet in his arms blushed, then somewhat nervously buried his head in He Feng Hui’s embrace.

“No, how did we end up talking about this?” Zhu Man lifted his head again, his face still flushed, “We were talking about Jiang Huai—”

He Feng Hui lowered his head, kissing him and silencing the words he was about to say.

He swirled in Zhu Man’s mouth, responding to his demands, and kissed him until a satisfied low hum escaped Zhu Man.

He Feng Hui thothat if he understood Zhu Man’s thoughts, it would be as simple as being able to control the rhythm of Zhu Man’s kisses.

But if one’s thoughts were controlled by another individual, could that person still be called human? Just like the AI rebellion of the past, the primal point of contention was that despite gaining self-awareness, they were still bound to unconditional obedience to human control.

An eye for an eye, a cycle of karma, and the endless continuum of good and evil.

He Feng Hui laid Zhu Man down and, using the program, dimmed the lights in the room. He whispered softly in his ear, “I’m tired. Let’s sleep.”

Zhu Man opened his mouth, wanting to ask more about Jiang Huai, but as the words reached his lips and he felt the weight of the synthetic arm pressing down on him, he held back.

He buried his head against He Feng Hui’s chest and said, “Good night, Master.”

Closing his eyes, he, someone who despised AI, pondered for the first time about the concept of AI being “tired.”

Zhu Man woke up before dawn the next day.

He carefully tiptoed over from the AI beside him, and went to the kitchen. He disabled all the smart cooking systems and personally made two runny egg sandwiches, heating up two cups of milk.

As he set the milk on the table, He Feng Hui happened to walk out of the room.

Seeing the breakfast on the table, He Feng Hui’s steps came to a halt.

“Good morning, Master. I made you breakfast.” Zhu Man waved at him, inviting him to come and sit.

However, He Feng Hui didn’t move. He opened his mouth to say, “AI doesn’t need…” but stopped before completing the sentence.

Of course, Zhu Man knew that AI didn’t need to eat, but after what happened last night, he felt that he should personally make breakfast for He Feng Hui.

He Feng Hui walked over, and when he saw the runny egg sandwiches and steaming milk, his body stiffened for 0.001 seconds.

Zhu Man didn’t notice, took a sip of the hot milk, then propped up his chin, eyes bright as he watched He Feng Hui. When he saw He Feng Hui finally pick up the sandwich and take a bite, Zhu Man smiled contentedly.

AI seemed not to be adept at eating, and the runny egg dripped from his mouth. Zhu Man immediately stood up, half of his body leaning over the table, reaching out to wipe it away.

Then he remained crouched on the table, not moving.

It wasn’t until He Feng Hui fed him a bite of the sandwich.

Zhu Man leaned in to give him a peck and finally sitting back in his seat. After chewing through the sandwich, he asked, “Is Master feeling a bit better now?”

AI remained silent for a moment before uttering a soft “En” and then added, “Sorry, I lost control last night.”

“It’s okay,” Zhu Man said as he looked at him, “It’s great that Master can tell me if he’s unhappy.”

—It’s good, He Feng Hui began to rely on him, bringing him one step closer to completing the mission.

However, watching the AI across from him chew the food he made, Zhu Man felt an uncontrollable swelling in his chest. He tried to restrain this feeling, but the memory fragments that came rushing into his mind made him fail.

In the fragments of memory, a boy with light chestnut hair sat at a table with sandwiches and milk on it. The boy asked the standing AI why it wasn’t eating, and the AI replied that it didn’t need to eat. The boy lowered his head and said, “But I made this specifically for you.”

Though the images in the memory fragments were blurry, Zhu Man became increasingly certain that the boy with light chestnut hair was the former president’s son, “Zhu Man.”

Zhu Man fiercely pinched his thigh.

The hallucination faded, but when he looked up, the handsome AI was sitting across from him, eating the breakfast he made—a missing piece in his memory seemed to have finally been filled.

He also became acutely aware that he had developed some irreversible emotions that he shouldn’t have.

After finishing breakfast, Zhu Man saw He Feng Hui off to work, kissed him at the doorstep, and obediently said he would wait for his return.

As the door closed, Zhu Man put away his smile. In the next moment, he turned around and walked into the room.

Hacking the villa’s system, Zhu Man brought out a backup power source, activated the holographic computer, and accessed the dark web of the Alliance.

Zhu Man entered the resource library and found “Lust, Caution,” opening it. He had come across this movie a year ago while casually browsing the Alliance’s dark web, but the plot seemed unusually familiar—perhaps the him before losing his memory had also watched it.

What kind of ending awaits someone who falls in love with someone opposed to them? — Wang Jiazhi died.

Zhu Man closed the playback window.

In the search bar, he typed “Artificial Intelligence,” filtered for “movies,” and selected the film “Ex Machina” from the search results.

In the movie, a human falls in love with a female robot imprisoned in a room while conducting the Turing test. Exploiting this love, the female robot kills the human and escapes from the room that had confined her.

Zhu Man turned off the computer and summoned the little hedgehog. Before the PTSD attack, he took twice the dose of medicine in advance.

When Zhu Man regained his composure, it was already afternoon.

He opened the wardrobe, donned the attire of an Executor, and checked He Feng Hui’s location on the smartwatch—Still at the AI Legislative Office building. With that, Zhu Man headed out to the base.

In the base, Fan Zimo, Tang Yuan, and Jiang Huai were all present.

As soon as Zhu Man opened the door, he met Jiang Huai’s gentle gaze. He frowned and returned the look, secretly clenching his fists.

With Tang Yuan and Fan Zimo present now, Zhu Man made a mental note to find an opportunity for a private conversation with Jiang Huai when they returned home to inquire about what was said between him and He Feng Hui last night.

“Oh, my dear Executor,” Fan Zimo called him, “Headquarters has assigned a new mission for our team!”

Zhu Man shifted his gaze to Fan Zimo and asked calmly, “What mission?”

Fan Zimo projected the message sent by headquarters on the holographic display, which conspicuously read four words: “To kill Lin Lang.”

Zhu Man’s eyebrows tightened, and he instinctively looked at Jiang Huai—Lin Lang’s human pet.

Jiang Huai, unperturbed, said, “That day at her place, you also overheard her conversation with the superiors. I believe it won’t be difficult for you to draw this conclusion—she’s an AI who unquestionably follows the orders from the higher-ups. The longer I stay close to her, the greater the risk of exposure. Once discovered, the security of the Alliance will be in serious jeopardy. That’s the first reason.”

“The second reason is, she’s the second-in-command in the Human Pool. If we kill her original body, implant the Anti-Intelligence Alliance chip in her, she can be of use to us, and we would gain some control over the Human Pool.”

Setting aside his prejudices against Jiang Huai, Zhu Man found his reasoning to be quite sound. However, under any circumstances, Zhu Man didn’t want to work with Jiang Huai.

So, he said, “Looking at it this way, the most suitable candidate to carry out the mission is you. You live in Lin Lang’s house, making it the most convenient for you to act.”

“I can’t do it alone,” Jiang Huai countered with a smile.

“I have my own mission,” Zhu Man kicked the ball back.

“Then…” Jiang Huai looked at Tang Yuan.

Zhu Man immediately stood in front of Tang Yuan, “Tang Yuan is not an Executor, just an Assistant. Is this how you treat your childhood friend? Putting him in harm’s way?”

Jiang Huai smiled, “That’s why I said the most suitable candidates are still you and me.