There Is No Afterlife

Ms. Dole was stunned.

After a while, she slowly raised her arm and caught Duoduo's big head.

Wrinkled and age-spotted palms gently caressed the blossoming metal head, and she touched it so carefully that even the smallest scratches could not escape the perception of her palms.

In the process, Muggan told Ms. Duolai one by one about their discovery of the Baiyun Duoduo.

In the dark edge galaxy, the lonely, scarred and doomed Baiyun Duoduo, how much he wanted to go home.

After telling everything he had seen and known, Mugen carefully looked at Ms. Duolai's reaction. He thought she would cry, but she didn't. She just measured Duoduo's head thinly, very seriously.

Mugen thought that Ms. Duolai's attention was all on Duoduo, and she would not find her sight, but he was wrong.

"I won't cry anymore." Ms. Duolai said to him, fully aware of what Mugen was thinking about now.

"My eyes were blind three hundred years ago and I can't see anything."

"Now these eyes are mechanical eyes. Although they can see objects, they can no longer cry."

Ms. Duolai raised her head, pointed to her own eyes, and finally blinked her right eye mischievously.

Seeing her like this, Mugen's heart stinged slightly for no reason, and the sensitive lady Duolai immediately sensed his mood, she shook her head: "The human body is like a machine, it takes a long time to use it, sooner or later Something went wrong. I just replaced it with a new part."

The first thing to fail was the heart. After being declared dead by the doctor, she resolutely decided to replace the mechanical heart; the next thing was the aging blood vessels. After the thin, human blood vessels could no longer carry the extra stents, she replaced all the blood vessels. Became a mechanical substitute; next to the stomach, then to the eyes…

The only things that will die and will not be replaced are appearances and brains.

The face is the one that Duoduo has seen since childhood, and his mind is full of precious memories.

In any case, she wanted to live, to live and wait for the child to come back.

Even if it becomes a pirate ship, the nominal owner of that child is still himself. As long as he doesn't die, he is not a ship without an owner. Even if he is discovered, he will not be treated as a ship without an owner.

So she can't die anyway.

Even if living has become a very painful thing for her, she must not die.

But still sad, right? Can't cry, that's why so many sad robot dolls cry for her.

Staring straight at Ms. Duolai, Mugen was in a trance, completely forgetting to hide his gaze.

Quietly staring at Mugen and Olivia in a trance, Ms. Dorai smiled gently at Mugen and Olivia with a kind of gratitude that only belonged to her mother on her wrinkled face.

"You are all good boys."

"thank you all."

"Thank you for bringing this kid back—"

She gave Mugan and Olivia a soft hug. There was a slight smell of engine oil on her body, and her body was a little stiff of steel, but her palms were soft, and it was still the warmth of human beings.

***

Having found the Baiyun Duoduo number that she was thinking of, Ms. Duolai couldn't wait to see him. However, the snow was too heavy last night, and the snow was thick. In addition, Jimmy also suggested that Miss Duolai continue to apply a mask to remove wrinkles before seeing Duoduo, so they waited patiently until dawn.

Not long after the sun came out, Muggan heard a rustling sound from outside, and opened the door curiously to see: It was actually the robot dolls cleaning the snow!

"These robot dolls can shovel snow? That's amazing!" Mugen turned his head excitedly, his hands on both sides of the window, and he hurriedly called Olivia to come over and look.

"Of course, the robot I made! How could only the face be able to see?" Facing her field of expertise, Ms. Duolai was full of confidence.

Listening to her words, Olivia silently turned her gaze to the appalling face of the robot doll outside: he felt that these robots only had faces and couldn't see...

While talking, they had already walked outside the tavern. It's even more spectacular when you go outside. There are robots sweeping snow on every street. Except for the crooked facial features, these robots' snow sweeping movements are really dexterous, and they look like real people from a distance.

"These children are charged using light energy, and there is a charging port under each of them. This excuse is connected to the light energy collector outside the building through special pipes. The weather is not very good these days, there has been no light, so they The energy is not enough, otherwise you should see a robot walking around." Ms. Duolai introduced as she walked, because she and Jimmy had to use crutches to walk, so they didn't walk fast. In this way, it is convenient for Ms. Duolai to guide them along the way.

"The shop on the corner is old Kenny's shop, and all the screws on Duoduo's body were bought in his shop." After living here for hundreds of years, no one knows this place better than her: "Now in front of his shop It's old Kenny who shovels the snow."

"Huh?" Mugen was stunned.

"I made a robot like old Kenny and put it in his shop." Ms. Duolai explained to him immediately.

"The bookstore owner Zhuangse is sitting next to him watching other people sweep the snow. Although his store is small, he can get you any book you want."

"The man in the hat was a patrolman from the Eastside, a kind boy. I broke my leg while walking, and he carried me to the hospital. Later, I introduced my neighbor Fanny to him, and the two had three lives. Children are all sons."

…

Ms. Duolai's voice never stopped. She introduced every robot she saw to Mugan and Olivia. In her mouth, these robots seemed to be living people, with the disposition and characteristics of living people. Everyone has their own story.

"Where are old Kenny and the others now?" Olivia asked a question, and then Ms. Duolai's introduction came to an abrupt end.

"..." After a pause, she quickly spoke again: "They are all dead."

"I've lived too long and they're all gone."

"The older you get, the more nostalgic you get. One day, I suddenly missed them, so I started making these dolls."

"However, my memory is getting worse and worse. When I really started to make dolls, I found that I couldn't remember their appearance, and I could only make it like this."

It turns out that this is the secret of these robot dolls?

For a while, everyone was silent, except for the sound of stepping on the snow, there was no other sound around.

After a long time, Jimmy was the first to break this sentimental atmosphere:

"When I die, Miss Duolai, will you make me a robot too? Wear a yellow tie."

"You're still young, don't think about the afterlife."

"It's always good to talk to you in advance." Jimmy smiled. "Don't put me next to my grandfather Kenny. I refuse to inherit the family business, and I have a falling out with his old man."

"Just put me on the road to the tavern. I'll come to you from that road every month anyway."

Next, the two elderly people had a very systematic discussion on the clothing of the robot doll. Thinking about the Jimmy robot that might appear someday in the future, Olivia was no longer afraid this time.

I feel weird.

I don't want to hear them say that - he thought.

***

Mugen's heart was apprehensive. Along the way, he had become more and more aware of the importance of Baiyun Duoduo to her from Ms. Duolai's words.

It is because it is clear that it is disturbing.

The mechanical head that was handed over to Ms. Duolai was in good condition, but the condition of the hull of the Baiyun Duoduo was really bad. Ragged and scarred, it looked like an abandoned ship from every angle.

If such a Baiyun Duoduo is seen by Ms. Duolai—

Mugan imagined several scenarios when they met, but he didn't guess any of them right.

The tattered and scrapped Baiyun Duoduo finally appeared in front of his maker.

The moment she saw Baiyun Duoduo, Ms. Duolai's face was expressionless for a moment.

Ms. Duolai skillfully found the hidden boarding gate with a cane, she waved to Mugan and Olivia, and with their help, she climbed into the boat with difficulty.

Even after hundreds of years, she has always been so familiar with this spacecraft that she built by herself. In the main control room, she explained to two teenagers the maintenance method of the Baiyun Duoduo. Who was Mugen and Olivia before? The faults that could not be repaired were easily overcome in her hands.

Ms. Duo Lai repositioned Duo Duo's head where it should have been, and then pressed the start source.

Duoduo's dim light screen finally lit up again.

This time, the first person he "sees" is the master he longs for.

"Hello, I'm back," he finally said.

Will be scolded - at this moment, Mugen and Olivia thought so at the same time, not only them, but Duoduo thought so too.

But they guessed wrong again.

"Well, just come back." No tears, no scolding, Ms. Duolai's expression was very calm.

"Is there any gain in leaving home this time?" Without asking him why he became like this, Ms. Duolai asked a completely irrelevant question.

"...Yes, many." Duoduo answered honestly.

"Do you still want to go out in the future?"

"...Think." Duoduo answered honestly.

So Ms. Dorai asked again:

"Anything you want to do next?"

"..." Duoduo didn't speak this time. Instead, he quietly typed a word on the display.

"Yo? Are there any new ideals? That's good, tell me, what are your new ideals?" Ms. Duolai kept smiling, realizing that her smile was a genuine smile, and Duoduo finally said her new ideal. Wish: "Join the army! Next, I want to become a warship of the army and capture all the pirates who abandoned me back then!"

"Very well, let's do it then."

So, Ms. Duolai showed him a long-lost smile.