Chapter 2 Chapter two

Underhill didn't trust the voice, so he didn't answer. He walked along the new sidewalk with a high-handed look, and stopped at the corner to calm down.Amid all his shocking and confused impressions, there was one fact that stood out most clearly—the prospects for his company were bleak and bleak. He cast a dismal glance back at the haughty, resplendent new building.It was an ordinary building of brick and stone; the invisible windows were not glass; and he knew very well that there was not even a shadow of the building that day when Aurora drove. He walked around the building along the newly built sidewalk, and in a short while came to the rear gate. A truck was parked not far from the rear gate. Unload the huge metal crates.

He stopped and looked at the box, which was marked with "Interstellar Shipment", and the shipping company was the Intelligent Robot Research Institute on Wing Star No. 4.No. 4 Wing Star is exactly where, but it can't be seen from the above logo, the outer packaging must be much larger, and the specific location must be clearly written. There was a warehouse on the other side of the truck, and the warehouse was dim and dark. He could only vaguely see those black robots opening the boxes.One by one, the robots came to life, climbed out of the box, and jumped gracefully to the ground.They were all identical in appearance, all black and shiny, with a bronze glint.

One of the robots walked around the truck and onto the sidewalk, staring hard at its blind eyes, and said to him in its melodious voice like a brass bell: "Happy to be of your service, Mr. Underhill." He turned around and ran, a robot that had just popped out of a box transported here from a distant planet could call out his name right away!It's unbelievable. He ran two streets, saw the sign for a bar, and went in dejectedly.He had set a rule for himself: not to drink before dinner, and his wife Aurora hated him drinking.However, he feels that today's situation is different. It can be said that it is an unusual day to meet such robots.

Unfortunately, however, drinking didn't make him optimistic about the company's prospects either.When he emerged from the bar an hour later, he looked back hopefully, hoping to see the gleaming new building disappear as suddenly and magically as it had appeared.However, the building is still there.He shook his head dejectedly, and staggered home. The fresh air cleared his mind a little, but before he returned to his neat little white bungalow in the suburbs, the feeling of unhappiness returned to his mind: after all, the fresh air could not solve his business problems. problem.He realized with discomfiture that he might not be home in time for dinner.

However, dinner at home was delayed.His freckled 10-year-old son, Frank, still plays football on the quiet street in front of his house.His adorable daughter, a stubby-haired 11-year-old Guy, runs along the lawn sidewalk to meet him. "Daddy, you'd never guess!" Guy would be a great musician someday, and no doubt she would get her due, but at this moment she was flushed and out of breath.She let him lift and swing, let his body swing high off the sidewalk, and she didn't care about the smell of alcohol in his mouth after drinking in the bar.What she asked him to guess, of course he couldn't guess, so she told him eagerly:

"Mom has a new tenant!" Underhill had foreseen a painful interrogation, for Aurora was worried about money: the bank pressed for repayment, payment for new arrivals, and little Guy's school fees. However, the new lodger saved him from this questioning.The fully automatic housekeeping robot was setting the table with an earth-shattering clang of dishes, but there was no one in the tiny house.Aurora went to the back garden to deliver quilts and towels to the new tenants. When he got married, Aurora was as lovely as the little girl she is now.If things were a little better in his company, he thought she might still be lovely.However, when the company's increasing pressure gradually crushed his self-confidence, those little difficulties made her become overly domineering.

Of course he still loves her.Her red hair was still very attractive, and she was very loyal to him, but the thwarted and unrealized ideal made her character sharp and her words sharp.Although they never argued, it was not much better than arguing. Above the garage was a small set of rooms--it was intended for the servants, but the servants could never afford them.The house was too small and shabby for any reliable tenant, but Underhill preferred to leave it vacant.It was too much for his pride to see her make beds and clean rooms for strangers. However, Aurora had rented it out before, either because she needed money for Guy's music tutoring fees, or because some unfortunate person touched her sympathy, and it seemed to Underhill that her tenants were all Some thieves or bad elements.

Now with the clean sheet slung over her arm, she turned to greet him. "It's no use objecting, my dear," she said firmly. "Mr. Sledge is a most wonderful old gentleman, and he'll stay here as long as he wants." "It's all right, dear." He never wanted to argue with his wife, and it was too late for him to think about the company's plight. "I'm afraid we'll need money and ask him to pay in advance." "But now he can't afford it!" Her voice trembled with sympathy. "He says he's already made an invention, and there will be a handsome royalties, and he'll be able to pay the rent in a few days."

Underhill shrugged; he'd heard similar excuses before. "Mr. Sledge is unusual, my dear," she insisted. "He's a traveler, and a scientist. It's rare that we meet anyone of sorts in this dreary little town." "The tenants you pick are unusual," he said sarcastically. "Don't speak harshly, my dear," she reprimanded gently, "you haven't met him yet, you don't know how great he is." Her voice also became more melodious, "you have ten yuan Money, dear?" He stiffened. "What's the use?" "Mr. Sledge is ill." Her voice was urgent. "I saw him fall down the street in the business district. The police tried to take him to the city hospital, but he didn't want to. He looked So noble, so kind, so noble. So I told the policeman that I would take care of him, and I put him in the car and sent him to old Dr. Winter. He has a bad heart and needs money for medicine."

Of course Underhill asked, "Why doesn't he want to go to the hospital?" "He's got a job to do," she said, "important scientific work—and he's such a marvelous and pitiful one. Please, my dear, do you have ten dollars around?" Underhill had a lot to say.These new robots will greatly increase his troubles.It's not wise to take home a homeless man who gets free treatment in the hospital.Aurora's tenants always paid the rent with "promises" and always messed up the room before leaving and stole the neighbors' things. However, he didn't say a word of these words, and he had learned to compromise.He silently took out two five-yuan notes from his thin wallet and placed them in her hand.She smiled and kissed him passionately—he almost forgot to hold his breath just in time, lest she smell the alcohol on his mouth.

With her regular diet and weight loss method, she is still in good shape.He was proud of her lustrous red hair.A surge of passion brought tears to his eyes.If the company unfortunately goes bankrupt, I don't know what to do with her and the children. "Thank you, dear," she said in a low voice. "If he can come downstairs, I'll ask him to come down to dinner, and you'll see him. I hope you don't mind the delay." He wouldn't mind tonight.Infected by the love of family life, he impulsively fetched a hammer and nails from the basement toolbox and nailed a neat diagonal bar to the sloping kitchen door. Dexterous and hands-on, he dreamed of becoming a builder of nuclear power plants as a child.He had studied engineering—before he married Aurora, and before he had taken over the failing company from his lazy, alcoholic father.After fixing the kitchen door, he whistled happily. When he walked through the kitchen door and wanted to put the tools back in the basement, he found that the fully automatic robot in charge of housework was busy cleaning up the untouched meals on the table-automatic robots are very helpful to those routine, no-brainer general housework. Well done, but by no means capable of learning what it takes to cope with human contingencies. "Stop! Stop!" Slowly repeating his instructions with an appropriate volume and rhythm will make the robot stop; then he said cautiously: "Set the table; - good - table - table." The gigantic robot obediently returns a stack of plates to the table.Thinking of the difference between these autonomous robots and the new intelligent ones, he was suddenly shocked, sighed, and looked helpless: the company's prospects did not look good. Aurora ushered her new tenant into the dining room through the kitchen door, and Underhill nodded to himself.The haggard stranger, with his tousled black hair, emaciated face, and ragged clothes, looked just like the funny bum who would always strike a chord with Aurora.After introducing them to each other, she went to call the children to dinner, and they sat in the anteroom and waited. To Underhill the old tramp did not look very ill, and perhaps his broad shoulders had sagged from weariness, but his gaunt figure was still very tall and powerful; Wrinkles are all over the face, but the deep-set eyes are still piercing.