A.I. ~ Learning to Live Again

Chapter 4

The corner of Shen Wei's mouth lifted slightly in a smirk as he often did when he was being sarcastic. The program apparently had incorporated his basic personality and issued the proper response accordingly. However, the usual twinkling in his eyes was absent. This was going to be interesting, Zhao Yunlan thought.

Zhao Yunlan followed Shen Wei into a white, sterile-looking laboratory room, where a man with crazy hair ran up to him.

"Shen Wei! Where have you been? Didn't you hear me calling? Did it malfunction?" rambled the man, while he looked at the injured area on the side of Shen Wei's head, then turned his head this way and that.

"I am sorry I worried you by disappearing the way I did, but I really wanted to see Chief Zhao. Chief Zhao, this is Lin Jing. Lin Jing, I would like to entrust the second access code to my A.I. to Zhao Yunlan." Shen Wei said, matter-of-factly, with no sign of an apology on his face.

"When you say, 'I'm sorry,' you're supposed to LOOK apologetic, otherwise, it's not sincere," Lin Jing said absentmindedly, as though he had repeated it many times before.

"I know, and I am not really sorry. That is called, 'lip service,' I believe?" Shen Wei said with a slight grin.

"The grin was good," Lin Jing nodded. "You're learning very well."

"I know I was not equipped to be out without your supervision until now. But I made it to Zhao Xin Chin's restaurant with only a few people looking at me, and I think it was because of the blinking red light here," he pointed to the side of his head.

"Your hair is growing out and should cover it up soon. I should've given you a cap to wear," Lin Jing scribbled something onto a memo pad covered with more scribbles, then punched something into his computer.

"I would also like to learn more about human emotions, and not from someone who spends all his time with machines."

"Machines don't talk back," Lin Jing grunted.

"And I am not a machine."

"No, you certainly aren't. You've made such great progress in the short time we've worked together."

Lin Jing sighed, then turned to face Zhao Yunlan.

"Since you are here, I assume you are agreeing to be Shen Wei's other guardian."

"Uh, I'd like to, but all this," Zhao Yunlan gestured to all the technology around him, "is beyond me."

"I've studied the footage that Shen Wei had recorded, and you are good at reading the emotions of others. You can see through lies, both good and bad, and you are a good judge of character. You genuinely care about him, and he obviously 'trusts' you, or at least has come to conclusion that you would be the best to coach him in this area. He did override my command to stay in this laboratory, so he obviously really 'wanted' to see you." Lin Jing rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "That's the first time he's rebelled, so to speak."

"Where is that red light that everyone was staring at?" Zhao Yunlan walked over to the other side of Shen Wei.

"Right here, see? We had to shave the area when we injected the A.I." Lin Jing probed the area.

"How did you manage to keep his personality? Can you do something about his sarcasm? Or his stubbornness?" Zhao Yunlan smirked as he noticed Shen Wei's eyes narrow slightly.

"Excuse me, I can hear the both of you." Was that a bit of tension in Shen Wei's voice?

"Was he always like this?" Lin Jing asked.