There Is No Afterlife

Miss Dolly froze.

After a while, she slowly raised her arms and caught Duo Duo's big head.

The wrinkled and age spot-covered palm lightly stroked Duo Duo's metal head. She touched it so carefully that even the slightest scratch could not escape the perception of her palm.

During this process, Mu Gen told Ms. Duolai one by one how they discovered the Baiyun Duoduo.

In the dark fringe galaxy, the lonely, scarred and doomed to be hidden from the white cloud, how much he wanted to go home.

After telling everything he saw and knew, Mu Gen carefully watched Ms. Duolai's reaction.He thought she would cry, but she didn't.She just measured Duo Duo's head carefully, very seriously.

Mu Gen thought that Ms. Duo Lai's attention was all on Duo Duo, and she would not notice her gaze, but he was wrong.

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

"My eyes were blinded 300 years ago and I can't see anything anymore."

"Now these eyes are mechanical eyes. Although they can still see things, they can no longer shed tears."

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

Seeing her like this, Mu Gen felt a slight pain in his heart for no reason, and the sensitive Ms. Duo Lai immediately noticed his mood, she shook her head: "The human body is like a machine, after a long time of use, it will sooner or later Something went wrong. I just got 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 to age was the blood vessels. After the thin, human blood vessels could no longer bear the extra stents, she replaced all the blood vessels. Became a mechanical substitute; next came the stomach, then the eyes...

The only thing that is unwilling to change is the appearance and the brain.

The face is the one Duoduo has seen since she was a child, and her mind is full of precious memories.

Anyway, she wanted to live, wanted to live and wait for the child to come back.

Even if it becomes a pirate ship, the child's nominal owner is still himself. As long as he does not die, he is not an unowned spaceship. Even if he is discovered, he will not be treated as an unowned spaceship.

So she can't die no matter what.

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

However, it is still sad, right?Can't cry, that's why there are so many sad robot dolls crying for her.

Looking straight at Ms. Duolai, Mu Gen was so lost in thought that he completely forgot to hide his gaze.

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

"You are all good boys."

"thank you all."

"Thank you for bringing this kid back—"

She gently hugged Mugen and Olivia.Her body smelled slightly of machine oil, and her body was a bit stiff like steel, but her palms were soft, and still had the warmth of a human being.

***

After finding the Baiyun Duoduo number that she had been longing for, 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 Duo Lai continue to apply a facial mask for wrinkle removal before meeting Duo Duo, so they waited patiently until dawn.

Not long after the sun came out, Mu Gen heard rustling noises from outside, and opened the door curiously: it was the robot dolls sweeping the snow!

"These robot dolls can also shovel snow? It's amazing!" Mu Gen turned his head excitedly, with his hands resting on both sides of the window, he hurriedly called Olivia over to have a look.

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

Listening to her words, Olivia silently looked at the appalling faces of the robot dolls outside: He felt that these robots could only see their faces...

While talking, they had already walked outside the tavern.Going outside is even more spectacular. There are robots sweeping snow on every street. Except for the crooked facial features, these robots are really dexterous in their snow sweeping movements, and they look like real people from a distance.

"These children are charged with light energy. Each of them has a charging port under their feet. This excuse is connected to the light energy collector outside the building through a special pipe. The weather has not been very good these days and there has been no light, so they Otherwise, what you will see is a robot walking around." Ms. Duo Lai introduced as she walked, because she and Jimmy had to use crutches to walk, so they did not walk fast.In this way, it was convenient for Ms. Duo Lai to guide them along the way.

"The shop on the corner is old Kenny's shop, and the screws on Dodo's body are all bought from his shop." Having lived here for hundreds of years, no one knows this place better than her: "Now at the door of his shop It's old Kenny who sweeps the snow."

"Huh?" Mu Gen was taken aback.

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

"It's Zhuang Se, the owner of the bookstore, who is sitting next to him and watching other people sweep the snow. Although his store is small, he can get you any book you want."

"The man in the hat is the Patrolman of the East End, a kind lad who carried me to the hospital when I broke my leg walking on the road. Then I introduced my neighbor, Fanny, to him, and the two had three children. Children are sons."

……

Ms. Duo Lai's voice never stopped. She introduced each robot she saw to Mugen and Olivia. In her mouth, these robots seemed to be living people, with the disposition and characteristics of living people. Everyone has his own story.

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

"..." Her footsteps paused, and she quickly spoke again: "They are all dead."

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

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

"But the memory is getting worse and worse after all. When I really started making dolls, I realized that I can't remember their looks, so I can only make them like this."

So, is this 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 the sentimental atmosphere:

"When I'm dead, Miss Dolly, can you make me a robot too? The one with a yellow tie."

"You are still young, don't think about things after death."

"It's always good to make an agreement with you in advance." Jimmy smiled: "Don't put me next to old grandfather Kenny, I don't want to inherit the family business, I have fallen out with his old man long ago."

"Just put me on the road leading to the tavern, anyway, I will come to find you on that road every month."

Next, the two elderly people had a very systematic discussion on the costumes of the robot dolls. Thinking of the Jimmy robot that might appear someday, Olivia no longer felt scared this time.

I feel weird.

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

***

Mu Gen felt anxious. Along the way, he had become more and more aware of the importance of the White Cloud Duo Duo to her from Ms. Duo Lai's speech.

It is because it is clear that it is uneasy.

The mechanical head handed over to Ms. Duolai was in good condition, but the hull of the Baiyun Duoduo was in really bad condition.It was tattered and covered with scars, no matter from which angle it looked like an abandoned spaceship that could be discarded.

If such a white cloud blossoming number is seen by Ms. Duolai——

Mu Gen imagined several scenarios in his mind when they met, but none of them were guessed right.

The Baiyun Duoduo, which was in tatters and was about to be scrapped, finally appeared in front of its maker.

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

Ms. Duolai skillfully found the hidden boarding entrance with crutches, and she waved to Mugen and Olivia. With their help, she climbed into the boat with difficulty.

Even after hundreds of years, she is still so familiar with the spaceship she built by herself. In the main control room, she explained the maintenance method of Baiyun Duoduo to two teenagers. The fault that could not be repaired was easily overcome in her hands.

Ms. Duo Lai re-installed Duo Duo's head in the position where it should have been placed, and then pressed the start source.

Duoduo's Youguang screen finally lit up again.

This time, the first person he "saw" was the master he was thinking of.

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

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

But they guessed wrong again.

"Well, it's good to be back." There were no tears, no scolding, Ms. Duo Lai's expression was very calm.

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

"... Yes, a lot." Dodo replied honestly.

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

"...Think." Dodo replied honestly.

Then Lady Dolly asked again:

"Is there anything you want to do next?"

"..." Dodo didn't make a sound this time, instead, he quietly entered a word on the screen.

"Yo? Do you have any new ideals? That's very good. Tell me, what is your new ideal?" Ms. Duo Lai kept smiling, and realizing that her smile was a sincere smile, Dodo finally expressed her new ideal. Wish: "Join the army! Next, I want to become a warship of the army and catch all the pirates who abandoned me back then!"

"Very well, let's do it."

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