Chapter 244: Xu Da Mao's Robot Sanitation Shows Its Might in Garbage Sorting

Zhao Jianguo went early the next morning to the small room beside the boiler room. The door was ajar; he pushed it and it opened. Xu Da Mao was squatting on the ground checking a machine's wheel; hearing the movement, he looked up and glanced at him.

"Here."

"Hmm. Is the robot ready?"

"Just finished the final test at three last night." Xu Da Mao stood up, brushed off the dust on his pants, "This time there won't be any problems."

Zhao Jianguo said nothing, walked up to the machine and took a look. The shell was silver-gray, with a device resembling a camera in front, two wheels underneath, and a small openable box at the back for holding sorted trash.

"Can it really sort three hundred types?"

"It's not me saying it; it's what the system detection report wrote." Xu Da Mao picked up a sheet from the desk and handed it over, "Each type of trash has a number: plastics are 001 to 087, paper 088 to 165, kitchen waste 166 to 240, metals and other recyclables come after. It judges by image and weight, with an error no more than 0.3 percent."

Zhao Jianguo returned the paper to him. "At six this morning, officially on duty. San Daye will bring a few old residents to watch; you need to demonstrate it in person."

Xu Da Mao nodded. "I know."

Dawn had just broken; outside the Siheyuan, several people had gathered on the street. San Daye wore a thick coat, holding a small notebook, while Old Zhang of the sanitation team stood beside him. Some people knew each other, some didn't, all staring at the robot parked by the roadside.

"Is this the new gadget Xu Da Mao came up with?" Old Zhang crossed his arms, "I think it's just a broom with an extra eye."

"Don't rush." San Daye said, "Let's see how it moves first."

At six sharp, Xu Da Mao pressed the green button on the handheld remote. The robot emitted a soft sound, its wheels slowly turned, and it began moving along the sidewalk. The camera swept left and right, stopping in front of a trash can. The mechanical arm extended, opened the lid, grabbed the trash inside, and laid it out piece by piece.

"Plastic bottles, paper boxes, fruit peels, wet wipes..." San Daye muttered, lowering his head, "It sorts them quite finely."

Old Zhang walked a few steps forward, suddenly pulled a crumpled oil paper bag from his pocket and tossed it into the nearby trash can. "I'm adding something extra, let's see if it recognizes it."

The robot quickly moved to that bin, clamped the oil paper bag, hovered in the air for a moment, then placed it into the "other trash" compartment.

"Exactly!" San Daye slapped his thigh, "This thing really works!"

Old Zhang said nothing, then picked up a muddy vegetable leaf from the ground and mixed it into a pile of waste paper. The robot processed it as usual: the leaf went to kitchen waste, the paper to recyclables.

"All right." Old Zhang finally laughed, "More obedient than my son."

Someone in the crowd laughed out loud. Xu Da Mao stood in the back, still gripping the remote, his knuckles whitening. He didn't move or speak, just watched the robot walk away step by step.

Zhao Jianguo walked over and stood beside him. "Everyone saw that. Next, let it run the whole route on its own, without the remote."

"But what if..."

"Do you trust it?"

Xu Da Mao hesitated. "I've made so many versions, revising and testing every day. I don't care if others believe it; I have to believe in myself."

"Then let it go on its own."

Xu Da Mao pressed the button, cutting off the remote connection. The robot continued forward without stopping or deviating from the line. It passed every trash can, completed cleaning and sorting, then automatically drove onto the next street segment.

San Daye noted the time in his notebook. "The whole route took thirty-seven minutes; manual work would take over an hour. The time saved is enough for two cups of tea."

Old Zhang nodded. "The key is cleanliness. Before, we sorted and our eyes got blurry; now it recognizes at a glance."

Someone asked, "Will this robot come every day from now on?"

Zhao Jianguo said, "As long as it runs stably, it will depart at six every morning. Public areas are fully covered, including the hutong entrance, the back alleys of the vegetable market, and outside the public toilets."

"So does that mean we're relieved?"

"It's easier, but the work remains. The robot only sweeps and sorts; transport, hauling, and equipment maintenance still need people. If you're willing, you can train operators, keep their wages, and learn new skills."

Old Zhang thought. "Then I want to learn how to fix it."

"I'll teach you." Xu Da Mao took over, "I've written a manual and made video tutorials. Whoever wants to learn, I'll teach for free."

"Hey, Xu Da Mao, you're pretty generous!" someone joked.

"I'm not being generous; I'm afraid it'll break and no one will fix it." He chuckled, "This is my creation; if it collapses on the road, I have to be the first to rush to it."

Everyone laughed again.

That afternoon, Zhao Jianguo received a system prompt: 【Social contribution +8%, reward "Practical Technology Conversion Manual" stored in the database】.

He glanced at it, didn't say much, turned and went to the boiler room.

Xu Da Mao wasn't in the room. He sat at the small table in the corner, the computer screen lit, showing the robot's real-time feed. The sunlight on the street was just right, the robot was turning.

"Three days in, no accidents." Zhao Jianguo said.

"Last night was close." Xu Da Mao pointed at a corner of the screen, "The signal cut out for five seconds. I thought the program had crashed; after searching for half an hour I found it was the neighboring construction site starting up, causing radio interference."

"Solved?"

"Added an anti-interference module; it's stable now. I also updated the algorithm, boosting sorting speed by fifteen percent."

Zhao Jianguo walked over and flipped through the notebook on his desk. Every page was handwritten notes, starting from three months ago, with entries every day. Failure causes, revision plans, test results—each listed clearly.

"Upload data at three a. m." Zhao Jianguo quoted a line, "Have you been sleeping at this hour all this time?"

"I'm used to it." Xu Da Mao kept his head down, "If I can't sleep, I get up and tweak the code. Anyway, before no one believed what I said; now at least the robot can speak for me: I'm not fooling anyone."

Zhao Jianguo looked at him. "You're not just building a robot; you're reforging yourself."

Xu Da Mao lifted his eyes to him, neither smiling nor arguing. After a few seconds, he gave a slight nod.

Past nine at night, Old Zhang alone wandered to the garbage transfer station. The robot had just finished its last run, parked at the charging spot. He walked around it once, reaching out to touch its shell.

"Hey, little guy." He patted it, "See you tomorrow."

He turned to leave, suddenly hearing the machine emit a short prompt tone. A line lit up on the screen:

【Task completed today. Battery remaining 87%. Tomorrow's schedule loaded.】

Old Zhang turned back, glanced, and grinned. "It's even saying hello to me."

The next morning, the robot set out again. As it passed the Siheyuan gate, San Daye was holding a watering can to water the flowers. Seeing the robot approach, he voluntarily pushed the two bins at the gate to the side of the road.

"Come on, I'll make room for you."

The robot stopped, its camera turned toward him, as if confirming the position, then began work.

San Daye watched and muttered, "Three plastic bottles, one paper box, a bowl of leftover rice, two cigarette butts… sorted clearly and distinctly."

He turned and shouted, "Xu Da Mao! Come out and have a look!"

No movement from inside the house.

Actually Xu Da Mao was there. He sat in the workshop, staring at the remote monitoring screen. On the Screen, the robot smoothly completed classification, wheels turned, and continued forward.

He opened the System Backend, logged into his account. At the bottom of the interface a line of small text quietly displayed:

Designer: Xu Da Mao revised version

He stared at that line of text for a long time without moving. Then he raised his hand and slowly wiped the Screen with his sleeve.

Outside the window, the sun rose.

The yellowed copy of Mechanical Principle Lesson at the corner of the desk was blown open a page by the wind, and there was a line of pencil-written note on it:

"If you change, you must change all the way."