Dragon Palace Home #10.
Later that night, Iris sat on the chaise longue in the bedroom with her arms crossed over her chest and a stern expression on her face, waiting for Jin Liwei's full explanation. He stood by the bed, his tall stature giving the illusion that the huge bed was smaller than it actually was.
There was only the two of them in the room. Ketchup was told to stay away because Mommy and Daddy had something important to talk about.
Jin Liwei originally wanted to sit beside his baby girl but she told him to keep a distance because she didn't want him distracting him from their important talk with his kisses and hugs. It seemed that she had already seen through his plans. He was wearing a black satin sleeping robe with nothing underneath. The robe was open on top, revealing his muscled chest for his baby girl to see. Her eyes flashed with unmistakable desire but unfortunately, it only lasted for a few seconds before she moved her eyesight upwards, not straying to anything below his neck.
"It's almost midnight now, Liwei. You and I are both tired. Hurry up and explain," she told him.
Sighing at his failed attempt at distracting her through seduction, he nodded and sat down on the bed before explaining. He didn't notice that he went into professional businessman mode as he presented Iris various advantages of allowing Ketchup to run her own business.
Long story short, the main point was to give the cat AI a productive outlet for her boundless energy, curiosity, impulsiveness and desire to learn more.
"I only gave Ketchup 8,000 RMB to force her to start small. This way, it would be easier for us to monitor what she can and can't do when running whatever business she wants to start," he told his baby girl. "I spend a lot of time with her every day while she assists me at work, so I notice a lot of things about her. Love, Ketchup is growing at a fast rate. But it's not only her abilities that are growing quickly. She's also developing more and more human-like characteristics that I'm often left dumbfounded. I'm sure you've noticed it, too."
A furrow formed between Iris' brows but she still nodded. Indeed, she had already long noticed it, especially since she performed regular checks on Ketchup's system. After removing the corrupted part which made Ketchup lose control during the bomb incident back then, Iris was sure that the cat AI's system was running smoothly and there was nothing wrong with it. As for the reason why Ketchup was developing more and more human-like characteristics, Iris also felt dumbfounded like Jin Liwei, and of course, proud because she was the one who created the cat AI. There were still many things that Iris needed to study and observe regarding Ketchup and her extremely powerful self-learning function despite being the cat AI's creator.
"Ketchup has become more obedient after you fixed her, but we can't grow lax just because of that," Jin Liwei continued saying. "I'm afraid that with her increasingly human-like characteristics, she'll one day rebel if we try restricting her freedom too much. Even if she doesn't rebel, she might start developing feelings of resentment against us. And if that happens, who knows what she'll end up doing in the future?"
Iris froze when she heard his words. Her eyes and hands trembled but Jin Liwei didn't notice.
"I know that Ketchup's existence is very special and we need to keep her a secret because it's too dangerous, not only for her but for all of us as well. But love, Ketchup isn't just an AI. She's our child! I don't know how you did it, but I really do feel like she's…real. She's my daughter and I'm her father. And as a parent, I don't feel comfortable caging my child forever and ignoring her aspirations. Unless we shut her down completely, which I'll never want to do because it'll feel like we're killing our own child, we can no longer stop her from developing her own aspirations. All we can do is guide her into the right path so she won't be in any trouble or danger."
That did it.
Iris burst into tears, shocking Jin Liwei. She bit her lower lip hard to try to stop herself from sobbing out loud.
"What happened? What's wrong?" Jin Liwei hurried towards her and pulled her into his arms. He wiped her tears but they wouldn't stop flowing, making him panic a little. "Don't cry."
She grabbed the lapels of his robe and cried on his chest. Jin Liwei heard her say something but couldn't hear it clearly.
"What did you say, love?"
"I'm…I'm a…hypo…crite."
"A what?"
"No, you're not. What are you talking about?"
He didn't understand why she was acting like this, making him feel confusedand also worried because she still wouldn't stop crying. Did he say something that made her cry?
"Tell me what's wrong, love," he encouraged her but she shook her head. He could only sigh and continue comforting her in his arms.
Inside Iris' mind, images of her past life as Evelina began flashing. This was the first time in a long while that she remembered her past life's memories so vividly, as if they only happened yesterday.
Her father always used to tell her, "I know that you resent us because we're not allowing you to do many things that you want to do. But I can't stress this enough, my princess. The world outside is an extremely dangerous place for us Vetrovs, especially for you, my daughter. We're only doing this to protect you, my dear Evelinochka, so be a good girl and stay inside the estate."
Hearing Jin Liwei talk about not wanting to restrict Ketchup's freedom and block her aspirations felt like a brutal arrow was shot and pierced Iris' heart.
She wanted to protect Ketchup from danger but wasn't that also the exact reason why the Vetrovs caged her in her past life?