Flight N-177 decelerated successfully.
The patrol ship of the Pan-Asian First Fleet had set off 11 hours ago and was expected to catch up with them in 48 hours.
When the time arrived, professional pilots would come to take over the flight, and professional equipment would replenish the flight and take them home.
On the other hand, the remaining passengers and the 6 flight attendants on the flight formed a temporary rescue group to maintain order on the flight. They distributed food and water for the elderly, children, and other passengers.
When Lu Zhou returned to the cabin again, many people gave him hugs and thanks.
Some people hoped to exchange virtual community contact information with him. However, Lu Zhou, who was from the 21st century, was completely confused about the virtual communities and the likes. In the end, he gave out his outdated email address, leaving people at a loss.
After eating lunch, Lu Zhou left his seat and got up. He went to the corridor outside the cabin.
The bodies of the two hijackers had been removed. The volunteers composed of passengers dragged them into the already empty robot storage area.
As for the piles of robot remains on the ground, no one moved them. It seemed that they were intended to be handled by their owners and the Pan-Asian authorities.
Lu Zhou quickly found the rusty old-fashioned robot.
In the previous battle, the hijacker wearing the exoskeleton armor had completely destroyed it in a violent manner, so what was lying there was just a pile of metal wreckage.
However, even so, Lu Zhou still wanted to thank it.
“Thank you.”
Lu Zhou looked at the lifeless robot and mourned for a while.
Although they didn’t spend much time together, and there was no conversation, in these short days, it had saved Lu Zhou’s life twice.
Perhaps it was because he had been with Xiao Ai for too long, or because the robots were particularly human-like, he always felt that he couldn’t completely treat them as machines.
It was almost like the robot was Lu Zhou’s friend.
On the way back to the cabin, Lu Zhou saw a little girl with a cute ponytail, about seven or eight years old, wiping her tears with her small hands, sobbing quietly.
Lu Zhou walked forward and squatted down in front of her. He asked in a comforting tone, “Where are your parents?”
“My tail… she… she broke.”
“… Tail?”
The girl looked up at Lu Zhou. She nodded with tears in her eyes and opened her right fist, revealing the thing that looked like a memory card in her palm.
“Tail… She’s Lili’s good friend. Every time I am sad, she sings to me.”
The girl’s voice became even sadder.
She sniffed and looked down at the memory card in her hand as she spoke.
“Don’t worry. When Lili returns to Earth, she will fix you with her pocket money. Then, I will buy you a pretty…”
Lu Zhou: “…”
So the “Tail” is a robot…
When he realized that, in order to save him, the robot Xiao Ai had sent had activated every robot on the ship, he couldn’t help but feel a little ashamed.
If only I had money on me.
If I had money, I would definitely buy her the most expensive robot.
Unfortunately, the only money he had was borrowed from the Englishman. And even after he arrived on Earth, he didn’t know how much of his own wealth he could inherit.
“If Tail knows that you are so sad because of her, she will be very sad too…” Lu Zhou touched the little girl’s head and smiled. “Go find your parents, they are worried about you.”
“Ok…”
Perhaps she was touched by the sunny and handsome smile, the little girl nodded. Although there were still tears in her eyes, she felt much better than before.
She stood up and patted the corner of her skirt. She politely bowed her head to Lu Zhou and said thank you, then ran away in the direction of the cabin.
Lu Zhou thought for a while before returning to the previous pile of machine wreckage.
After groping for a while, he pulled out a black cuboid about the size of a harmonica from the broken robot.
“Is this the memory card?”
It looked much heavier than the one in the little girl’s hand, but the connection port and shape were similar.
Is it because this robot is too old?
“When we return to Earth, I will also give you a new body.”
At least one that can talk.
Of course, if I have enough money…
Lu Zhou stood in the corridor for a while. He had nothing else to do. He looked at the scenery outside the window for a while, then turned and returned to the cabin.
When he returned to the cabin again, people finally stopped cheering at him, and they also stopped doing other things that bothered him.
Lu Zhou returned to his seat and sat down. He took out the brain-computer neural interface from the seat and was about to connect to the database on the spacecraft to continue enhancing his knowledge.
However, not far from his seat, a woman with a pretty face and a mature figure put down the baby, got up from her seat, and walked toward him.
“I just wanted to say thank you.”
Lu Zhou looked up at her and recognized this lady as the mother he had saved earlier.
“You’re welcome.” Lu Zhou looked at her and nodded. He asked casually, “Speaking of which, where is your husband?”
“I don’t have a husband.”
“Sorry, I was insensitive.”
“No, it’s not what you think.” The mature lady smiled and asked, “Speaking of which, sir, you were dormant?”
Professor Leonard frantically looked at him. Lu Zhou didn’t know what he wanted to express, but after some thought, he gave an ambiguous answer.
“Why do you say that?”
“Many dormant people who have been frozen for a long time are confused about the moral values of the current society after they wake up, especially in regard to marriage and family.”
“Like what?”
“For example, in this era, there isn’t the traditional concept of family from a century ago. Although some people still get married, most people still prefer to live alone. As for love, there are many similar substitutes in the virtual world.”
Lu Zhou looked at Professor Leonard and cast an unexpected look at him.
Professor Leonard shrugged and said, “She’s right. The old-fashioned style of marriage was retired about half a century ago. My father was fifty when I was born, through artificial organs and scientific methods. I don’t have a mother. I know that my egg donor is a female of Italian descent, but I have never seen her.”
Lu Zhou looked at Professor Leonard in amazement. He opened his mouth, unsure of what to say.
“This is…”
“If you want to feel pity for me, forget about it. I think this is actually quite good. Everyone is like this. Two-parent families are rare.”
Lu Zhou opened his mouth, still unable to understand this strange concept.
He believed that his viewpoints were already relatively liberal, and he accepted that marriages might not necessarily last for a lifetime. He also believed that there was no need to marry a person for the sake of getting married. But he still couldn’t accept this concept of family.
Can a child without a father or mother really have a healthy and complete childhood?
I always feel that if you don’t want to raise the child together, you shouldn’t have a child at all.
This is out of respect for the child.
However, in this era, this concept he couldn’t understand seemed to have become commonplace.
His instinct told him that this was not good, but philosophy was beyond his professional scope.
“Of course, nothing is absolute. There are also many couples who will enter the palace of marriage, but today’s society is more tolerant and does not exclude or persecute dissidents.”
The lady turned her head and threw a smile at Lu Zhou.
“And, after seeing you, I feel like I believe in love again.”
Is she…
Hitting on me?
Lu Zhou hesitated slightly and said with a confused look, “But you don’t even know my name…”
“A name is just a word. What I value more is your maturity, stability, reliability, and… well, your masculinity? Anyway, you’re not like the scaredy-cat next to you.”
Professor Leonard suddenly became unhappy. He interjected, “What do you mean scaredy-cat?”
The woman ignored Professor Leonard. She took a step closer with a smile and spoke to Lu Zhou.
“Only you bravely stood up and saved me and my child, if you want—”
“Sorry, I already have someone else.”
Although, like everyone else, she has become a memory of the past…
The woman was surprised by Lu Zhou’s answer.
But soon, the surprised expression turned into a smile as she continued, “If you feel that your past is too much of a burden, I don’t mind developing another kind of relationship with you.”
Lu Zhou: “Sorry, I do mind.”
Woman: “…”
