Chapter 275: Elder‑care Revolution·Popularizing Intelligent Robots

Sha Zhu lifted the last robot shell off the truck, jumped down, and brushed dust off his hands. He turned and shouted into the house: "Everyone here? Today is the first official shift for our Sha Zhu People's Livelihood Technology—don't mess up!"

Zhao Xing crouched at the Courtyard Gate adjusting the wiring, hearing the sound without raising his head: "The power's connected; once you install the last unit, we can turn on the electricity."

Zhao Chen sat in his wheelchair, tablet on his lap, fingers flying. After reviewing a set of data, he looked up: "The voice module still needs tuning—during testing it heard 'drink water' as 'dance'. If we give this to elders like that, trouble will ensue."

Zhao Yang stood nearby, holding a mic‑shaped device, testing the volume: "I've added a speech‑speed buffer; now it recognizes slow dialects. Let the robots learn a few more common greetings and basic communication will be fine."

"All right!" Sha Zhu slapped his thigh, "I'm putting the first batch of 'employees' online now!"

Soon, five elder‑care robots stood in a line in the Courtyard. Their shells were light gray, heads round, eyes two blue display panels, a speaker on the chest, arms dexterous—able to hold bowls, hand out medicine, and help people rise.

"Activate!" Zhao Chen pressed the confirm key.

The robots lit up their screens simultaneously, emitting a soft voice: "Hello, I am the elder‑care service assistant. How may I help you?"

The few onlooking elders exchanged glances, one muttering quietly: "Is this thing reliable? If it jams halfway, we'll still have to tend to it."

Grandfather Zhang walked over with a cane, squinting as he sized them up: "I heard it can warm my meals and read the news—I ought to give it a try."

Zhao Yang immediately brought a robot to his side: "Grandfather Zhang, tell me what you'd like to eat, and it will remember to prepare it automatically next time."

"I'd like congee," Grandfather Zhang said tentatively.

"Recorded," the robot replied, "I will heat your millet congee every morning at 7 a. m., set to warm, to avoid scalding."

"Hey, pretty thorough," Grandfather Zhang laughed, "better than my grandson—he only knows how to order takeout, can't even light a stove."

Those nearby all laughed.

The robots went to work. One pushed a cart to deliver tea to the elders, another knelt to help Wang Nainai tie her shoes, and a third stood behind Grandfather Li, gently patting his back with just the right force.

Zhao Xing walked around, noticed the joints were a bit stiff, casually opened the side panel, and swapped in a cushion pad. After another try, the movements became much smoother.

"All good," he said, "response is faster now."

Zhao Chen stared at the tablet; the backend data stream was stable, and voice‑recognition accuracy rose to ninety‑six percent.

"We can expand the service area," he said, "add three more units to the East Area Corridor."

"Wait!" Zhao Yang suddenly spoke.

His emotion‑feedback device flashed red—a gadget he made himself that senses nearby people's emotional fluctuations; red indicates mild anxiety.

"Who's nervous?" he asked.

Several pairs of eyes swept over—it turned out to be Grandma Liu sitting in the corner, gripping the chair's armrest, watching the robot approach with a bowl of soup, her body leaning back slightly.

"I don't need it… I'm not hungry," she waved her hand.

Zhao Yang walked over and spoke softly: "Auntie, it won't touch you; it only does what you tell it to. Don't believe me? Give it an order to stop."

Grandma Liu hesitated: "You… you stop."

The robot immediately stood still, hands still holding the bowl, but stopped moving forward.

"Now make it turn around."

"Turn around."

The robot slowly turned in a circle.

"Good little helper," Grandma Liu widened her eyes, "truly obedient."

She gradually relaxed, took the soup bowl, lowered her head and sipped, a smile creasing the corners of her eyes.

"Warm, just right."

Applause rose from the crowd.

Sha Zhu grinned ear to ear: "Done! Our robots really get the job done!"

Just then, Zhao Chen's tablet suddenly vibrated.

The screen popped up a red warning:

【Metaverse Siheyuan Platform detected anomalous data packet injection】

【The attack source is attempting to tamper with user memory blocks】

【Security level: Emergency】

The three exchanged a glance.

"It's that code," Zhao Chen lowered his voice, "the one we planted earlier—now it's activated."

Zhao Xing immediately opened his portable terminal, pulled up the firewall model: "I'll seal the main channel."

Zhao Yang picked up the voice analyzer: "I'll try to crack its encryption protocol to see if we can trace it backward."

Zhao Chen's fingers flew as he released the nanometer anti‑virus program, crawling upstream along the data stream.

"Found it," he whispered, "disguised as a 'childhood pretend‑play' video file, but inside lies an instruction set that, once played, overwrites the user's real memories."

"Delete it," Zhao Xing said.

"Can't just delete it," Zhao Chen shook his head, "it's bound to normal user data; wiping it would damage the genuine records."

"Then isolate it," Zhao Yang interjected, "lock it in the Virtual Warehouse with triple verification—no one can open it."

"All right," Zhao Chen nodded, "execute."

Ten minutes later, the red alert vanished.

The screen displayed a golden prompt:

【Successfully defended against network attack】

【Reward: Network Security Specialist】

The three let out a breath of relief.

Zhao Chen closed the backend interface, the tablet returned to normal. He glanced at the still‑working robots, then looked up at the sky.

The clouds were thin, sunlight poured down.

But he always felt something was watching from outside.

Grandfather Zhang finished his meal, patted the robot's shoulder: "Little guy, will you come again tomorrow morning?"

"According to your dietary habits, breakfast service will be provided promptly at 7 a. m. tomorrow." The robot replied.

"But what if I don't get up one day?"

"I will enter the room and gently wake you, and if necessary, contact the community duty staff."

"Oh dear, you worry more than my son does." Zhang Yeye laughed heartily, "All right, I'll take you as my adopted grandson!"

The surroundings burst into laughter.

Sha Zhu put his hands on his hips proudly: "See? This is our domestic smart tech—thoughtful and reliable!"

Zhao Xing finished checking the last robot's joint mobility and put away his tools.

"Basic operation is fine." He said, "But we still need to observe for two days; if there's any delayed response, we must handle it immediately."

Zhao Chen nodded: "I've already set up an automatic alert mechanism; any data anomaly will be pushed directly to us."

Zhao Yang squatted beside Zhang Yeye, teaching him how to use gestures to pause or repeat the robot's commands.

"That'll do." Zhang Yeye made an OK gesture, "Simple, not tiring."

"Just make sure not to let it stay in the Kitchen too long." Zhao Yang reminded, "Although the fire prevention system is online, if the oil pot splatters it's still dangerous."

"Understood." Zhang Yeye nodded, "I'm not stupid—how could I let a lump of iron cook? At most I'd let it watch the fire so it doesn't go out."

Everyone laughed again.

The sun moved overhead, and the temperature rose.

The robots returned to the charging station in turn, lined up neatly, their screens went dark, and they entered standby mode.

Zhao Chen placed the Tablet on his knee and continued to browse the log.

Suddenly, his finger stopped.

In the recently cleared attack log, a small fragment of undecoded information remained. It was neither text nor image, but a string of oddly rhythmic audio signals.

He put on headphones and listened for two seconds, then frowned.

"Listen to this." He played the audio aloud.

The sound was intermittent, like some kind of tapping.

Beep, beep-beep, beep…

Pause.

Beep-beep-beep, beep, beep-beep…

Zhao Yang was the first to react: "Is this Morse code?"

Zhao Xing leaned in to listen: "It doesn't resemble standard coding; the rhythm is off."

Zhao Chen quickly pulled up the analysis program and input the Waveform Diagram.

A few seconds later, a line of text appeared on the Screen:

【They remember you】

The air fell silent all at once.

Zhao Xing looked at Zhao Chen: "Who remembers?"

Zhao Chen said nothing, just stared at that line of text.

Zhao Yang reached out to turn off the audio: "Don't play it anymore."

Zhao Xing looked around. In the Courtyard, the elders were still chatting, Sha Zhu was inventorying the equipment list, the robots stood silently, and sunlight shone on their smooth casings, reflecting a faint glow.

"We can't tell anyone about this." Zhao Chen finally said, "At least not for now."

"But what does this mean…" Zhao Yang paused, "Someone's inside, and they know us?"

"It doesn't have to be us." Zhao Chen said, "It could be traces left by former occupants in the system."

"So should we investigate?" Zhao Xing asked.

Zhao Chen's finger hovered over the delete key, but he didn't press it.

He knew that if he deleted it, nothing would remain.

But keeping it, who knows what might be drawn in.

He lifted his head and looked at the nearest robot.

Its blue screen was dark, as if its eyes were closed.

His finger left the key.

Instead, he opened the contact list and created a new group.

"We need to make an internal monitoring program." He said, "Specifically to watch for such abnormal signals."

"What should we call it?" Zhao Yang asked.

"Let's not name it for now." Zhao Chen said, "We'll decide after it actually catches something."

He hit send.

The moment the message was sent, a standby robot in the distance suddenly emitted an extremely short "beep" from its chest speaker.