"Once upon a time, there was a beautiful girl who had an incredible talent for cooking. She had a kind heart and loved to help those in need..." Mia spoke in a gentle and soothing tone, immersing Roxy in the story. "And then, did she defeat the bad guys?" Roxy listened with growing excitement, her eyes shining. It seemed like Mia's bedtime story was having the opposite effect of putting her to sleep.
As the night grew darker, Mia decided to wrap up the story. "She used her intelligence to defeat the bad guys and eventually ascended to become a fairy, living happily in the jungle."
"Ah..," Roxy sounded a bit disappointed, and her voice trailed off. It was clear that she wasn't satisfied with the hasty ending of the story. Mia decided to add an extra bit, "She became a culinary fairy and, one day, she came to the mortal world and saw a child who refused to sleep at night."
"The culinary fairy told her, 'Little one, if you don't sleep now, you won't get to enjoy delicious xiaolongbao tomorrow morning.'"
Roxy burst into laughter, covering her mouth. She then gave Mia a serious look and said, "The rest of the story is definitely not a story, right?"
Mia teased her, "How do you know I wasn't telling a story?"
"Because I'm sure the rest is going to come true!" Roxy quickly snuggled herself under the blanket, closed her eyes, and obediently said, "Goodnight, Mia. I am going to sleep now, or there won't be any xiaolongbao for breakfast tomorrow!"
In no time, the sound of her gentle snoring filled the room.
After a simple cleanup, Mia went to sleep. The next morning, at 4 a.m., when it was still dark outside, the entire kindergarten was quiet. Mia put on a coat over her pajamas and stepped out of her room. The surveillance cameras in the hallway obediently transmitted the footage to the mainframe.
According to the established procedures, the kindergarten should take measures when suspicious individuals appear. Even though Mia had been granted special access by Rao, System 001 remained skeptical of this woman from the slums. According to its database, Mia had grown up in the slums and had been working odd jobs to make a living. She had no chance of awakening any supernatural abilities, let alone acquiring ancient Earth recipes. Although it was unclear why this woman had come to the kindergarten, 001 was almost certain that this "Mia" had a 99.99% chance of not being the real Mia.
At 4 a.m., in the silence of the deep night, Mia's behavior seemed suspicious from the very first day, indicating she was not a qualified undercover agent. While 001 ridiculed her internally, it also triggered all the alarms in Rao's room.
"Warning, suspicious individual detected!" The warnings repeated.
Rao got up and his cold expression was filled with irritation. "001, I've barely been asleep for less than an hour. You should be able to handle these intrusions on your own..."
"And also..." Rao glanced at the screen. "Isn't that Mia? No need to alert me when it's our people. "
"Middle of the night, sneaky behavior, she must be feeling guilty of something. Let's catch her quickly!"
"Are you sure?" Rao looked at 001, then back at the screen. After recovering from the shock that temporarily disrupted its code, 001 re-established the connection with the surveillance. What it saw was not the undercover operation it had assumed; Mia was playing with flour in the kitchen?
Stunned, 001's display was flooded with lines of code, as it tried to compute Mia's intent. "Hey, stop that! Your CPU is about to explode." The CPU was running at a high speed, and Rao held 001 as if he was holding a red-hot iron.
"Perhaps we should just reboot." If the CPU kept overheating, the mainframe would explode. Rao decisively pressed the power button.
"Beep! Restart complete in three seconds," and the revived 001 chimed in.
"Thank you." 001 expressed gratitude in a gentlemanly manner, and to redeem itself, it immediately searched for data to analyze Mia's actions. "According to 'Ancient Earth Scrolls - Culinary Section,' page 47, line 38, what Mia is currently doing should be the long-lost technique of 'kneading dough.'
Kneading is the process of mixing or working a liquid into a powdered substance to create a sticky consistency. Kneading is the method for making foods such as dumplings and steamed buns, according to ancient texts." 001 recited encyclopedia content in its cold, mechanical tone, with precision.
"Alright,”Rao yawned. He sighed deeply and added, "It's fine, go ahead and have fun. I'll call you when it's time to eat xiaolongbao in the morning."
001 silently moved behind Mia. Kneading dough was not a complicated task. Mixed the flour with water and yeast to create the dough, allowing it to ferment. After completing the task, Mia planned to head back to her room for some additional rest. It was quite chilly to be up in the middle of the night.
Mia turned around suddenly and found herself face to face with an unknown entity behind her. She didn't have time to react, but her body acted swiftly, delivering a kick that sent the unidentified object flying. She wasn't sure where it landed, but it created a spark when it hit the charging port of the robot inhabited by 001.
A short-circuiting sound echoed, indicating some damage had occurred. Mia turned on all the lights in the cafeteria, revealing the true identity of the unknown object: a nanny robot. However, this robot had been mistreated quite severely. Its metallic body was dressed in a pink maid outfit, and it wore a shabby wig. Its face was covered with strange blush, and it had an exaggerated, bright red mouth.
This appearance, especially when appearing in the middle of the night, would terrify anyone.
Mia felt innocent in her actions and saw it as self-defense. But how did this robot sneak out? Weren't they usually charging in their designated spots at night? Mia examined the situation more closely and realized the robot hadn't moved from its position. Could it be malfunctioning?
Damaging company property on her very first day of work was a big problem, and Mia felt unsure about how to proceed.
