It was probably due to the material—the paper was a bit thick, and from some of the creases, it was clear they hadn’t been pressed down firmly.

Strictly speaking, this wasn’t a perfectly folded paper crane.

In fact, because the creases weren’t neat, it looked a little silly.

But the head of the maintenance department absolutely didn’t dare to say that the paper crane on his superior’s desk looked a bit silly.

He couldn’t quite tell what the additional emotion in his superior’s voice was.

If he had to say it was happiness, it didn’t seem like it was simply that either.

In that brief moment, countless emotions flashed through his mind, eventually settling on one he didn’t even dare believe himself.

Just now… was the Marshal showing off?

But before the slightly dazed head of the department could fully process it, the young Marshal expressionlessly pushed the paper crane to a spot where it couldn’t be seen, then looked at him with those deep black eyes, his tone returning to its usual indifference.

“Any other reports?”

Person in charge: “…No.”

The Marshal gave a quiet “Mm,” and said coldly, “Next.”

Meanwhile, in the study room, Yu Bai had no idea that his little paper crane had caused a small incident at a military department meeting.

Knowing that Huo Si was going to teach him, he was currently listening to the robot read a story.

“Once upon a time…”

Huo Si was very patient. His speech was slow. He extended a finger and pointed to each word as he read it aloud, helping the little mermaid remember the pronunciation.

“…in a faraway place, there was a vast, boundless ocean.”

Yu Bai could only understand a few scattered words, but because the storybook had illustrations, it didn’t stop him from grasping what Huo Si was reading.

Ah, the ocean.

His home.

The little mermaid gently pursed his lips in thought.

He kind of missed the feeling of blowing bubbles in the water.

“…deep in the ocean, there was a kingdom…”

Hm? Big houses in the sea?

Yu Bai’s attention was instantly captured.

Huo Si gently flipped the page and continued: “The king of the sea had six beautiful daughters…”

Yu Bai: !!!

He stopped Huo Si’s hand from turning the page again and looked carefully at the colorful tails of the mermaids in the illustration.

…That big liar might not have completely tricked him.

Humans… might really know about the existence of mermaids.

Huo Si didn’t know that Yu Bai was taking the fairytale as reality. Seeing him stop the page, he asked, “Is there something you didn’t understand?”

Yu Bai stared at the mermaid tail in the illustration for a few seconds, then pointed at the one wearing the crown.

Who’s that?

Huo Si pointed to the two characters at the top of the illustration: “That says ‘king’.”

The little mermaid opened his mouth and tried to mimic Huo Si’s pronunciation: 

“Guo… wang?”

Huo Si patiently repeated, “Guó, wáng.”

“…Ou… ang?”

The robot thought for a moment and brought up a video on its screen.

It was a teacher facing the camera, reading clearly: “Guó wáng.”

After the teacher repeated the pronunciation twice, Huo Si paused the video and pointed at her lips: “Can you imitate how she says it?”

Watching the mouth movement directly was indeed easier than just listening to a robot’s voice.

Yu Bai followed along with the video and practiced twice. This time, the pronunciation was much more accurate.

“Guó, wáng?”

“Yes!” Huo Si’s screen first showed a green circle, then a warm orange smiley face.

It pointed at the crown on the sea king’s head and explained: “That’s the king.”

Yu Bai gave a small “Oh,” and mentally noted that the mermaid with the shiny jewel crown was called the king.

Then he pointed at the small mermaid next to the king.

This time, Huo Si directly brought up another pronunciation video for Yu Bai.

“Princess.”

And this time, the little mermaid imitated it very well: “Gōng, zhǔ?”

Ah, so they’re called princesses.

“That’s right!” Huo Si clapped its hands. “You’re doing great!”

It continued telling the story.

“One day, the youngest princess, who had always been very curious about the world above the sea, finally turned fifteen.”

“She waited and waited, and finally was allowed to rise to the surface.”

“She saw the blue sky and white clouds, and was very happy.”

“At that moment, a large ship sailed close to her.”

“Onboard were many lavishly dressed people singing and dancing. The little princess swam close to the ship and saw that they were celebrating the prince’s birthday…”

Yu Bai looked at the big ship in the picture and was confused again.

He poked Huo Si and pointed to the prince, who was also wearing a crown, and asked, “Guó wáng?”

Huo Si corrected him: “That’s the prince.”

As he spoke, he brought up another pronunciation video.

Hmm…

Yu Bai repeated the word while thinking.

So, the one with the big gem on the head is called the king, and the one with the small gem is called the prince.

He remembered that.

Only after confirming that Yu Bai had mastered the pronunciation of “prince” did Huo Si continue reading.

Just like that, since he had to pause from time to time to explain the meanings and pronunciations of words, by the time the period set for language class ended, Huo Si had only gotten halfway through *The Little Mermaid*.

“Alright, that’s all for pronunciation practice today.” Huo Si closed the storybook, then took another textbook from the shelf.

“Take a short break. Next, we’ll learn math.”

Compared to character recognition and pronunciation, the little mermaid seemed more sensitive to numbers.

He completed all the calculation tasks Huo Si gave him with ease, so much so that the first day of lessons ended more than an hour earlier than scheduled.

After thinking for a moment, Huo Si said, “The new room downstairs should be fully renovated. Would you like to go take a look?”

…

After the routine meeting, Fu Linyuan rubbed his brow. After a moment, he looked toward another screen.

The little mermaid was no longer in the study room.

He called Huo Si through the terminal. “…Huo Si?”

Within a few seconds, Huo Si’s voice came from the terminal. “Sir? I’m preparing dinner right now. It should be ready in fifteen minutes.”

After Huo Si broke down due to water damage, Fu Linyuan contacted the manufacturer and had Huo Si’s chip installed into a new companion robot.

After a day of adjustments, the updated version of Butler Huo Si officially went online.

“Where’s Yu Bai?”

“Mr. Yu should still be playing in the new indoor swimming pool,” Huo Si replied. “He seems to really like the facility.”

“Mm.” Fu Linyuan got up and walked downstairs. “How is his learning progress?”

“Just as you guessed,” said Huo Si. “Mr. Yu is very sensitive to numbers and has excellent memory. He can remember almost every pronunciation after hearing it just once. However… Mr. Yu is still somewhat different.”

“Sometimes, he can’t mimic certain syllables just by listening. He has to observe the other person’s mouth movements.”

The robot paused and added, “I think maybe if you personally taught him language, the learning efficiency would be even higher.”

“…Got it.”

As they spoke, Fu Linyuan had already arrived outside the newly renovated room downstairs.

Since the outer wall had been replaced with glass, he didn’t need to enter to see what was happening inside.

The room was large, with over half of its area dug deep downward, forming a huge rectangular pool.

From where Fu Linyuan stood, he could see the pool filled with water, the surface rippling gently.

The next moment, a figure broke through the surface, a silver fishtail tracing a graceful arc through the air before silently diving back into the water.

Then came the repeated leaps and dives.

When diving, the silver fishtail looked like a treasure falling into the water—especially dazzling and eye-catching.

Even from a distance, Fu Linyuan could feel Yu Bai’s joy.

He really seemed to love water.

A sense of déjà vu rose in his heart.

But that feeling disappeared almost instantly, slipping away before the man could fully grasp it.

He paused, then pushed open the glass door.

“Yu Bai.”

He said.

“Come up, it’s time for dinner.”

When Duke and Shen Zhichu returned to the military base, it was already evening.

“Ah—never expected the hospital to be that crowded!” Duke said as he dragged Shen Zhichu straight to the cafeteria. “I’m starving! Let’s go eat, let’s go eat!”

Shen Zhichu was pulled along by him. Though a bit speechless, he wasn’t angry. 

“…The cafeteria’s not going to grow legs and run away.”

Duke: “But if we’re late, there won’t be any spare ribs left!”

Shen Zhichu: “…”

Thanks to Duke’s enthusiasm, the two quickly reached the cafeteria and managed to snag the last two servings of spare ribs.

“See? I told you it was a good idea.” Duke mumbled with a mouth full of ribs, “The early bird gets the worm.”

Shen Zhichu didn’t start eating right away. Instead, he opened his terminal and began checking the official duties he’d missed that afternoon.

The first unread message was from the maintenance department.

It stated that the marshal would be able to pick up his mecha as early as next Monday—three days earlier than the original estimate. Following that was a long string of maintenance data.

It seemed like a very normal report. Shen Zhichu skimmed through it quickly—until he reached the end.

His gaze stopped.

“Duke,” he looked up at the man feasting across from him, “Did the marshal ever mention adding new attachments to A-001?”

“Huh?” Duke was caught off guard. “The boss didn’t say anything about that. Why?”

“But the maintenance report says…” Shen Zhichu handed over his terminal, “…that during the meeting, the marshal had a new model on his desk and seemed to be researching new components.”

“Huh?” Duke took the terminal while shoveling another big spoonful of food into his mouth.

What component? Why hadn’t the boss said anything to him?

Thinking this, Duke scrolled down the report as he ate.

Perhaps to help Deputy Officer Shen—who hadn’t attended the meeting—better understand the new component, the maintenance department had even kindly attached a photo.

Duke: “Wait, isn’t this…”

Isn’t this the paper crane that Little mermaid has been playing with?

But the words got stuck in his throat.

…The boss had told him to keep Little mermaid’s identity a secret.

Even though the confidentiality level hadn’t been explicitly stated, from what Duke had observed during this time, among all the military personnel involved in the Tarl mission, only he—being constantly by the boss’s side—knew Little mermaid’s identity.

Shen Zhichu didn’t know either.

Ah, this is…

The words jammed in his throat, and when Duke instinctively tried to take a breath, he accidentally choked on a grain of rice.

So the unfinished second half of his sentence turned into a world-shaking, ghost-weeping fit of coughing: “Cough cough cough cough cough—!!!”

Shen Zhichu: “……”

He silently took back his terminal. “…Slow down, no one’s fighting you for it.”

As he spoke, he also noticed the image sent by the maintenance department.

Shen Zhichu: “…Isn’t this a paper crane that kids play with?”

Still trying to catch his breath, Duke quickly took a sip of water and seized the opportunity to dodge: “Yeah, maybe… the boss was just folding it to kill time?”

Shen Zhichu: “…Do you think the Marshal looks like someone who folds origami to pass the time?”

Duke choked, thought about it, and said: “…Not really.”

He started to get nervous. Shen Zhichu was always sharp—had he picked up on something?

…But it wasn’t his fault for keeping it secret, was it? The boss had told him to.

Just as Duke was feeling guilty, he heard Shen Zhichu ask from across the table again: “Hey, didn’t you mention before that there was someone new around the Marshal? Someone named… something Bai?”

Duke: “……”