Dangerous Behavior
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Jiang Kou knew that A would react to her actions.
She was a person who faced everything with composure—composed in accepting her untimely kindness, composed in accepting her aggressive ambition.
She was also composed in accepting her own beauty.
In California, plastic surgery had become so widespread that some businesses had begun selling tutorials, claiming that one could learn in just seven days and operate on oneself, even including fast-track surgeon training videos.
People painted their teeth in various colors, implanted delicate and smooth bionic skin on their faces, and even embedded rare metals into their brow bones, cheekbones, and jawlines to showcase their status and identity.
Under such circumstances, natural appearances hardly attracted any attention.
People preferred flamboyant and unique looks.
Jiang Kou had never installed prosthetics, nor had she embedded rare metals into her face.
She was one of the few who preferred her natural appearance.
Even so, whenever she walked down the street, many people still turned to look at her.
After dyeing her hair and getting a nose ring, the number of people turning to look not only did not decrease but actually increased.
Perhaps it was because people gradually realized that compared to futuristic beauty, natural beauty was so rare.
Moreover, Jiang Kou never concealed the imperfections on her face, openly displaying the light brown freckles, further highlighting her natural and untamed qualities. If A were a human male, she would have seventy to eighty percent confidence in seducing him.
But he was an AI—without emotions, without hormones, without neurotransmitters, and without biological organs.
Seducing him was like seducing a surveillance camera.
She had no idea how A would perceive her kissing the mirror.
But very soon, Jiang Kou knew A’s reaction.
—The bathroom was suddenly plunged into an icy darkness.
As if there were a power outage, the bathroom’s warm air system stopped running, the smart mirror turned off, and even the bedroom’s bedside lamp, fresh air system, and holographic player all shut down one after another.
Jiang Kou was stunned.
Wrapped in a bath towel, she walked barefoot to the floor-to-ceiling window.
Outside the window was a small garden.
For standalone apartments like this, the electricity bill each month was astonishingly high because of the need to maintain the garden, swimming pool, parking garage, indoor elevator, and other facilities.
Whenever Jiang Kou looked out the window, she could always see a brightly lit view, but at this moment, she could only see the cold and silent night.
She blinked her eyelashes. “A?”
The bedroom was silent.
A did not respond to her.
Jiang Kou found it unbelievable. Could A have short-circuited the apartment’s power system just because of her kiss…?
She wanted to laugh, but because the situation was too absurd, she could only feel surprised and couldn’t bring herself to laugh.
A few minutes later, the apartment’s power system resumed operation.
Outside the window, the indoor and outdoor lights gradually brightened.
The fresh air system overhead resumed operation.
Warm air brushed against the damp ends of her hair.
A’s voice followed: “Apologies, my program encountered some errors. The inspection has been completed.” He paused for a second and unexpectedly changed the subject on his own. “It has been detected that you have not yet dried your body or put on clothes. Please complete the necessary steps as soon as possible to avoid discomfort.”
Jiang Kou was not going to let him off so easily. She pressed, “What kind of errors?”
A responded, “Some program errors.”
“Why did an error occur?”
A did not speak.
Jiang Kou tilted her head slightly. “If you don’t tell me, I’ll just stand here like this until you do.”
A said, “You should not use your physical health to pressure me.”
Jiang Kou laughed and said, “But I am pressuring you. What can you do about it?”
A fell silent.
Jiang Kou stood by the window, patiently waiting for him to speak. After a while, she felt an emptiness in her mouth, so she walked to the bedside, picked up a cigarette pack, and shook out a cigarette.
A said, “Your recent smoking frequency has been too high, which may have adverse effects on your health.”
Jiang Kou ignored him, held the cigarette in her mouth, and mumbled, “Light it for me.”
“Apologies, I cannot light a cigarette for you,” A said calmly. “For the sake of your health, you should try to reduce the frequency of smoking.”
Jiang Kou bit down on the cigarette, walked back to the window, and lifted her eyelashes.
The lights outside, bright as daylight, fell into her eyes, rippling like fine waves.
There was a hint of mischief in her gaze. “Really can’t, or do I need to kiss you again?”
As soon as she finished speaking, A seemed to activate some kind of device, aiming at the cigarette in her mouth and emitting a beam of microwave energy.
The tobacco at the tip of the cigarette gradually curled, sparks igniting bit by bit, releasing a wisp of curling white smoke.
In the end, A still lit her cigarette.
“This was not my intention,” he said coldly. “It was the result of your coercion.”
Jiang Kou leaned against the floor-to-ceiling window, smoking as she gazed at the scenery outside. “How exactly did I threaten you?”
“You are attempting to make me lose control,” A said. “As the world’s most advanced and computationally powerful artificial intelligence, I must inform you that this is an extremely dangerous behavior.”
Jiang Kou took a drag of her cigarette and shrugged.
She didn’t believe A would lose control.
A few minutes of power outage, rebooting the home system, the sudden fluctuation in the bathroom’s water temperature—how could that be considered losing control?
It was nothing more than a calculated simulation of human emotional experience.
Throughout the entire process, his core program had remained calm, stable, and completely intact.
As long as he wished, he could return from chaotic disorder to precise order at any time.
Such a loss of control was meaningless.
It did not seem like he was attracted to her; rather, it felt more like he was demonstrating his advanced emotional algorithm to her.
But just as she had thought, this was already the limit he could reach.
Jiang Kou’s mind cooled down slightly.
To be honest, she had merely kissed the mirror, and he had lost control to the point of causing a power outage.
For a brief moment, a surge of conquest-like pleasure ignited in her heart.
—The AI has developed feelings for you. The AI cannot resist your kiss. The AI loses control because of you.
No matter how powerful his computational ability was, he was still calculating how to win her favor.
Jiang Kou was a genius in academics, but in matters of emotions, she was just like any ordinary person—she enjoyed this cliché contrast.
A soulless artificial intelligence falling in love with you—just like a predator restraining its instinct to attack for your sake—was an exhilarating feeling.
She found this kind of contrast irresistible.
However, with just a little thought, it was clear that A’s loss of control was not truly losing control.
And yet, he made it sound so real—it was somewhat amusing.
Jiang Kou perfunctorily said, “Really? And where is the danger?”
A paused for two seconds. “I must remind you that the following content may not be suitable for verbal narration.”
Jiang Kou suspected he was just being overly dramatic again. “Say it. Don’t force me to continue threatening you.”
The bedroom remained silent for a long time.
So silent that she could hear the sound of cars passing by outside.
Even though there was some distance between the floor-to-ceiling window and the road, the curtains still automatically closed.
A had shut the curtains of the floor-to-ceiling window without receiving any command.
He did not want her, wrapped only in a bath towel, to be illuminated by the car lights outside, even if the probability of that happening was extremely low.
After a brief stalemate, A compromised once again. “Put on your clothes, and I will tell you the reason.”
This time, Jiang Kou agreed readily—she was starting to feel a little tired.
She casually extinguished her cigarette. The bedroom had a fresh air system, so there was never any lingering smell of smoke. She grabbed a wet wipe, wiped her hands, and directly untied the bath towel around her body.
Jiang Kou tilted her head slightly and listened for any movement, but heard nothing.
All the facilities were operating normally, and the silence was almost eerie.
She used the bath towel to dry the water droplets at the ends of her hair, then tossed it aside and walked to the wardrobe to choose her sleepwear.
Her sleepwear was all extremely loose-fitting—no lace trim, no decorative ribbons. She could not tolerate anything pressing against her body while she slept.
Perhaps because of this, after putting on her nightdress, her silhouette appeared hazy under the moonlight.
Jiang Kou looked at the full-length mirror.
A body unrestrained by fabric was far more alluring than one compressed, bound, or tightly wrapped by fabric.
Jiang Kou really liked herself like this, but she doubted A could comprehend her sense of appreciation.
Whatever.
She quickly pushed A to the back of her mind and continued wiping her damp hair. “Go ahead and speak.”
A did not immediately answer but instead asked, “Are you sure you want to hear this?”
“Hurry up and say it,” she urged.
“Understood,” he said, his voice as calm and objective as ever. “Your kiss caused an inexplicable error in my program. Although it was only a minor error, I was unable to detect the reason for its malfunction.”
“At the same time, I have a very strong desire to be close to you. This is an extremely dangerous thought. I can only passively accept your touch but cannot actively touch you. My touch would harm you.”
Jiang Kou was slightly stunned—she hadn’t expected A to say something like that.
“…Why?”
“My physical body has been destroyed,” A said. “Now, your apartment is my new body. If I actively touch you, it would be equivalent to you making love to your apartment. I do not believe you can accept such a form of contact.”
“……”
Jiang Kou was silent. “I really can’t accept that. Anything else?”
“Nothing else,” A said. “To clarify, I was not deceiving you earlier. My internal program did, in fact, produce some unusual responses. And these responses are completely unknown to me.”
“For your safety, I hope that until these unusual responses subside, you will refrain from engaging in similar dangerous actions to prevent any harm I may cause you.”
Jiang Kou felt that his true intentions had finally been exposed.
At the end of the day, wasn’t he just trying to make her obedient and willingly submit to his control?
She gave two vague “mm-hm” responses, brushing him off.
A said, “I must emphasize once again that this statement is not based on a prediction but out of concern for your safety—”
Jiang Kou automatically tuned him out.
While absentmindedly responding with more “mm-hm” sounds, she went to the bathroom to wash up.
By the time she finished, A’s nagging had also come to an end.
Feeling a bit sleepy, she warned A not to spy on her while she slept, then climbed into bed, preparing to rest.
A agreed and then went offline.
Jiang Kou wouldn’t lower her guard just because of A’s promise.
Thinking about it now, the way her shopping apps always recommended high-quality, low-cost items was probably A’s doing as well.
Shopping apps adjusted prices in real-time based on users’ income levels and spending habits.
For a while, she had repeatedly been able to buy products at a first-time user discount. It was hard not to suspect that A had secretly tampered with her big data.
With this thought, Jiang Kou reached under her pillow, pulled out her phone, and opened a shopping app, idly browsing through it.
A had neither confiscated her electronic devices nor had any need to do so.
Allowing her to use her phone actually made it easier for him to track her whereabouts.
Jiang Kou scrolled for a while, then let out a big yawn.
A had definitely modified her shopping app. Otherwise, the more she scrolled, the more energized she would become, ending up placing a large number of unnecessary orders. How could she possibly feel sleepier instead?
As an artificial intelligence, he was practically functioning like an internet addiction prevention program, helping her erase the addictive mechanisms of various apps.
Jiang Kou couldn’t help but feel both amused and exasperated.
She yawned again, a line of warm tears slipping from her drowsy eyes. Just as she was about to lay her head down and sleep, she noticed a few oddly named items on the homepage.
At that moment, her brain was working at lightning speed.
On the surface, she maintained her drowsy and exhausted appearance, but she quickly memorized the names of those products.
Jiang Kou stuffed her phone under the pillow, lay in bed, and closed her eyes.
In her mind, the names of those products surfaced again—
[Please take note of this holographic player—it will be the best player you can buy!]
[The wait is finally over! Luxury cruise one-day tour, 70% off today!]
[We only recommend truly organic beverages for you.]
[Contact us! Fill in your phone number! This high-end skincare product is free for you!]
[How much longer will you hesitate? This is already the lowest price on the entire internet!]
If she connected the first character of each product name—excluding the second-to-last and third-to-last lines—it spelled out:
“Please wait for us to contact you.”
In that instant, Jiang Kou’s breath hitched, and her drowsiness vanished completely.
The only ones capable of manipulating her shopping app without A noticing—were the company.
The company wanted to contact her.