Days rolled forward without incident.

The people Chen Qingwu had hired came onboard, taking over some of the trivial operational matters, allowing her to focus more intently on her creative work.

When she had time, she would go house-hunting with Meng Fuyuan, envisioning their future life together in the empty, unfinished spaces.

When they weren’t busy, the two would eat dinner together, then go out for walks.

Meng Fuyuan no longer attended many midnight movie screenings alone. Chen Qingwu had given him a camera with powerful photography capabilities so he could try capturing some things when he had time, but he was always too busy to deliberately photograph anything.

The only thing steadily accumulating on the memory card were photos of Chen Qingwu—her eating, propping her foot on a fire hydrant to tie her shoelaces, with toothpaste foam not quite wiped clean, fleeing in mock terror from a street sprinkler…

He sent her flowers almost daily, not limited to roses or freesias.

They used up many contraceptives. Occasionally, her mischievous streak would emerge and she’d leave kiss marks on his neck, forcing him to wear suspiciously high-collared shirts in springtime while conducting meetings with his subordinates with perfect seriousness.

She sent him countless WeChat messages about completely trivial things—sunsets, leaves, a burnt cup, newly arrived lipstick… but perhaps these were the most important things of all.

Whenever he saw them, he’d reply instantly. Their conversations occupied a terrifying amount of storage space in WeChat.

This was the best spring of their lives so far.

At the end of April, the second-generation robotic arm from Meng Fuyuan’s company—with all hardware and software fully integrated—underwent its first power-on test.

Zhao Yingfei and Chen Qingwu were invited to observe.

They arrived at the technology park at 2 PM.

Meng Fuyuan’s assistant was already waiting at the reception desk. After swiping a card, she led the two of them directly to the second floor.

Bypassing the central glass exhibition hall, they headed to the research and development center at the back.

A spacious room was already filled with staff from the R&D department standing around the perimeter.

Meng Fuyuan and Pei Shao, along with several other key personnel, stood near the equipment, communicating with other staff members about something.

This battle-ready atmosphere made Chen Qingwu nervous too.

Before long, Meng Fuyuan straightened up, spotted Chen Qingwu and Zhao Yingfei, and signaled with his eyes for the assistant to bring them to the front.

The assistant took out a sealed bag and said to Chen Qingwu and Zhao Yingfei, “Today’s power-on test is an internal test requiring complete confidentiality, so…”

Chen Qingwu and Zhao Yingfei both voluntarily handed over their phones.

The assistant smiled, “I’ll keep the phones in President Meng’s office and bring them down to you both when we’re finished.”

The assistant brought the two of them to Meng Fuyuan and Pei Shao, then left with the sealed bag.

When they entered, Chen Qingwu and Zhao Yingfei had both put on white lab coats prepared for visitors, so they didn’t stand out mixed in the crowd.

From this position, they could take in the entire apparatus at a glance.

Meng Fuyuan lowered his head slightly, introducing the machine’s components to them.

It consisted of three parts: the control console, the bedside robotic arm system, and the imaging system. Five “fingers” were each integrated into the “wrist,” controlled individually. The “fingertip” portions were silver metal with articulated segmented structures that could rotate 360 degrees, equipped with 3D lenses that could provide high-definition panoramic views.

Ninety percent of the entire machine body was white—exceptionally simple and elegant.

Zhao Yingfei pointed at the “fingertip” section and asked, “Is this where the alloy material is used?”

Pei Shao nodded. “That’s right.”

This was thanks to Zhao Yingfei. Back then, when Pei Shao and his team had contacted the University of Tennessee laboratory, they learned of an alloy material that perfectly met their needs. But the price was too high—considering subsequent mass production issues, cost control would become extremely difficult.

Fortunately, Zhao Yingfei had communicated individually with domestic cutting-edge materials laboratories and learned that a certain university’s lab was also preparing the same material. After she made the connection, the company established a cooperative relationship with the laboratory, greatly reducing manufacturing costs.

So the company paid that consulting fee willingly and gladly.

“What’s today’s test content?” Chen Qingwu asked.

Pei Shao said, “Peeling an orange inside a pig’s stomach, then sewing the orange peel back together.”

“…Huh?”

Pei Shao smiled. “Just what it sounds like.”

Sure enough, before long, two staff members carried half a slaughtered and sterilized pig onto the operating table.

Wearing gloves, they used several small wooden sticks to prop up the already emptied stomach portion, placed an orange inside, and marked an X-shape on the outside of the pig’s stomach.

With everything ready, the R&D department supervisor announced they could power on.

The machine started up. A series of self-diagnostic programs continued for several minutes.

The engineer responsible for monitoring diagnostics continuously reported:

Motion control system, normal.

Trajectory planning system, normal.

Safety restriction system, normal.

Except for him and the R&D supervisor, no one spoke.

Everyone was highly tense, all wearing grave expressions.

Finally, the R&D supervisor said, “All systems running normally. We can proceed with operational testing.”

The staff member sitting at the surgical control console: “Received. Test beginning.”

At this moment, the large electronic screen connected to the imaging system began displaying real-time footage from the 3D lens.

The mechanical “finger” slowly moved toward the operating table, paused briefly at the marked section on the outside of the pig’s stomach, then began cutting.

After making an incision less than two centimeters long, the finger entered.

The screen clearly displayed the internal space of the pig’s stomach.

The “finger” slowly moved above the orange, stabilized itself, then elegantly and precisely split the orange open.

Then everyone watched on screen as that mechanical finger, yet gentle as a human hand, removed the orange sections one by one. Throughout the entire process, the flesh remained undamaged—not even a drop of juice splattered out.

After all the flesh was extracted, the finger threaded a suture and began stitching.

The operator wasn’t a professional surgeon, so naturally the suturing could only be considered barely adequate.

Suturing complete, the thread was cut, and the mechanical hand withdrew from the pig’s stomach along its original path.

The entire room immediately erupted in enthusiastic applause.

Chen Qingwu looked back at Meng Fuyuan, who was applauding along with everyone else, and felt genuinely happy for him.

She didn’t fully understand all these systems, but the results of this test were visibly apparent—a success that exceeded expectations.

The staff member operating the robotic arm was drenched in sweat. When he took off his cap and stood up, the R&D supervisor patted his shoulder heavily and laughed, “Everything was great—just that suturing technique was terrible.”

The staff member laughed, “Then I’m applying for paid gaming time from now on to practice finger dexterity.”

At this point, someone said, “President Meng, say a few words!”

Meng Fuyuan smiled. “I won’t speak—let President Pei speak instead.”

Pei Shao unceremoniously cleared his throat and stepped forward.

Just when everyone thought he was about to deliver some inspirational speech, he said, “Everyone worked hard. Rest well over the May Day holiday. After resting, we’ll have President Meng approve the budget and we’ll go on a team-building trip, okay?”

Everyone in unison: “Great!”

Meng Fuyuan smiled. “Have administration compile responses—you all decide where you want to go.”

“Anywhere is fine?”

“Except Antarctica.”

In the room, only Chen Qingwu understood the teasing in that answer and couldn’t help glancing up at Meng Fuyuan… this man was really too prone to jealousy.

Pei Shao moved beside Zhao Yingfei at this moment and smiled, “Dr. Zhao, chatting on DingTalk makes me nervous and sleep-deprived. Given today’s successful test, would you honor me by accepting my friend request?”

Zhao Yingfei finally couldn’t help curving her lips into a smile. “…All right then.”

“Your gracious favor is much appreciated.”

Chen Qingwu listened in stunned amazement—Pei Shao truly was someone capable of getting into Tsinghua or Peking University. Flexible and adaptable, he’d actually managed to continue chatting on DingTalk?

Having added her as a friend, Pei Shao happily began editing Zhao Yingfei’s contact name while saying, “Our trip has spots for friends and family—hotels and airfare are all half price. Dr. Zhao, are you interested…”

“Now you’re pushing your luck.”

Pei Shao said “Oh,” then “…All right. I’ve overstepped.”

Chen Qingwu couldn’t help laughing.

Since Meng Fuyuan and Pei Shao still needed to stay and communicate with the R&D team, Chen Qingwu and Zhao Yingfei left first, going upstairs to the tea room.

The assistant came to return their phones and brewed tea for them.

A set of gray-blue porcelain, the color of mountains shrouded in mist.

Zhao Yingfei held her cup, looking at the maker’s mark on the bottom—”Wuli Qing”: “I thought so—this just screams your aesthetic.”

Chen Qingwu held the “Wuli Qing” cup while drinking Wuli Qing tea, merely smiling.

After sitting a while, Meng Fuyuan and Pei Shao came up.

By now it was nearly quitting time, so Meng Fuyuan suggested going out to eat together.

As a consultant, Zhao Yingfei had also participated in this project. With the test successful, she was naturally happy and readily agreed.

A party of eight, including Maggie, the R&D supervisor, and two other senior managers.

At a restaurant-bar in the nearby CBD, everyone ate while chatting, reminiscing about the company’s difficult early days:

The floor space was limited, each department lacked independent space, all crammed into the same large office.

Back then, the founding members worked overtime almost every day—going home after midnight was the norm.

There were no benefits to speak of. The most lavish meal was just a seafood buffet that Meng Fuyuan paid for out of his own pocket on the company’s first anniversary.

Before securing their first investment, everyone felt they might disband at any moment.

The Meng Fuyuan of those days wasn’t as strategically composed as now. Coming from a science and engineering background, he participated more in algorithm work during the startup phase. Business negotiations weren’t his forte at all, but to secure financing, he could only step forward and meet with investors again and again. In that process, who knows how many times he was turned away.

Later came round after round of financing, the first-generation robotic arm received purchase orders from several hospitals, then they moved to a new office building, research on the second-generation product began, started up, hit bottlenecks, broke through… until today, with a successful power-on test.

Chen Qingwu listened very attentively.

So Meng Fuyuan’s success was also built step by step.

He’d once said he wasn’t a genius, just more diligent than others. That statement was absolutely true.

Zhao Yingfei said, “From what I understand, foreign medical robots still have the advantage, right?”

Pei Shao said, “We’re not trying to become fat in one bite—we can’t possibly break foreign monopolies the moment we debut. We’ll take it step by step. If we can add even a fraction of competitiveness to domestic products, we’ll be satisfied.”

Zhao Yingfei said very sincerely, “You all do have genuine ideals.”

“Ideals”—an overused word that sometimes even carried a hint of deprecation.

Pei Shao said, “We don’t think that much about it. I’m purely technical—if I can build something, I’m happy.”

When dinner ended, Pei Shao proposed driving Zhao Yingfei back to campus. The two had just been discussing an academic question and hadn’t reached a conclusion yet. Zhao Yingfei wanted to continue the discussion, so she accepted his offer.

Meng Fuyuan and Chen Qingwu returned to the apartment.

After both showered, perhaps influenced by the day’s joyful atmosphere, they opened another bottle of red wine and leisurely drank two glasses.

Meng Fuyuan grasped Chen Qingwu’s wrist and walked toward the study, saying he wanted to show her something.

Chen Qingwu was still holding her wine glass. As she walked, she asked, “What?”

Reaching the desk, Meng Fuyuan pressed Chen Qingwu into the chair, glanced at her, then said, “Frankenstein.”

The mechanical robot powered on with clanking sounds.

“Execute command one.”

The robot wobbled forward, taking steps.

Who knew that halfway there, it would suddenly die.

Meng Fuyuan was somewhat speechless. After checking for a while, he preliminarily determined it was a hardware problem.

Chen Qingwu: “What’s command one?”

“…You’ll find out next time.” Meng Fuyuan’s tone carried some frustration.

Chen Qingwu laughed. “I’ve been wanting to say—it looks like it was assembled from parts scavenged from a junk pile.”

“Its electronic control system uses electronic components from the first batch of computer equipment our company discarded. Saying it’s assembled from junk isn’t wrong.” Meng Fuyuan checked again, confirming that a sensor had likely malfunctioned. He couldn’t fix it quickly—could only replace it directly.

With mechanical things, they always break down at critical moments, especially something pieced together like “Frankenstein.”

Sometimes, some things really couldn’t rely on artificial intelligence after all.

Chen Qingwu took a sip of red wine and suddenly asked, “By the way, how did it control the study’s overhead light last time?”

“You can think of it as a voice-controlled remote control.”

Chen Qingwu nodded, set down her wine glass, and suddenly said, “Frankenstein, turn off the lights.”

The study’s overhead light switched off on command.

The door was half-closed. White light from the living room cut through the doorway, illuminating only that small area.

In the dim haziness, Meng Fuyuan felt Chen Qingwu stand up and move close to him.

Just when he thought she was about to kiss him, she suddenly reached out, grasped his arm, and pushed him toward the chair.

Meng Fuyuan’s back pressed against the leather chair’s backrest. Between breaths, he caught the scent of red wine on her.

Her fingers traced over the pajama ties, continuing downward. “I was thinking, in your office you definitely wouldn’t allow…”

“How do you know I wouldn’t allow it?” Meng Fuyuan chuckled softly.

Sensing Chen Qingwu’s movements pause, he pulled her up to kneel between his legs, leaned close to her ear, and said in a low voice, “You practice first. I’ll decide whether to allow it based on your performance.”

Chen Qingwu’s breathing became rapid.

In this game, he seemed to have completely taken control, knowing how to ignite her with just one sentence.

The chair’s space was still too cramped after all. Before long, Meng Fuyuan scooped her up and placed her on the desk.

He remained seated in the chair, rolling the wheeled leather chair forward, approaching and lowering his head.

Chen Qingwu’s arms supported her on the desktop. She restrained herself from embracing Meng Fuyuan’s head, but then he suddenly caught both her feet, draping her knees directly over his shoulders.

“Meng Fuyuan…”

“Mm?”

Chen Qingwu’s voice trembled. “Not like this…”

“Yes, like this.” Meng Fuyuan’s voice was muffled amid watery sounds.

Chen Qingwu breathed heavily, drowning so quickly—unimaginable.

Meng Fuyuan came to hold her, brushing away the beads of sweat on her forehead. His voice carried laughter, still teasing her lack of endurance. “This is just the study at home—if we really went to the office, could you handle it?”

After she had settled down somewhat, he reclaimed control of the remaining battle.

Chen Qingwu lay prone on the desk, her bones occasionally creating slight pain from the impacts, quickly dissolving.

At a certain moment, Meng Fuyuan’s hand reached around from behind, gently pinching her mouth shut, sliding his index finger between her teeth. She became incoherent and speechless, saliva soaking Meng Fuyuan’s jade-like finger completely wet.

“Call me Brother Yuan.”

“…Brother Yuan.”

“Good girl.”

Meng Fuyuan pressed a kiss to her ear. In an instant, fireworks exploded—after the blinding light, the night sky fell into darkness and silence.

Chen Qingwu listened to his breathing, sometimes heavy, sometimes light. Like a white cloud filled with water, she willingly collapsed into his embrace.

A long while later, Chen Qingwu brought up the old topic again: “So what exactly is command one?”

“…To perform a hand-kissing gesture for you.”

“Really?!” Chen Qingwu laughed. “It’s so adorable.”

Meng Fuyuan only hummed in acknowledgment, his chin resting on her shoulder, his voice still clearly frustrated.