The Crisis of Sarah's Call
The next day, after noon, the silence inside the house was suddenly shattered by the booming, rapid, and harsh ringing of a video call.
Ring-a-ling— Ring-a-ling—
The sudden noise startled Molly, who had been lying by the door, into standing up, her throat emitting a low, warning growl. Little Maya, who had been sleeping soundly upstairs, was also jolted awake by the continuous ringing and dog barking. The house was instantly filled with the baby's loud, bright wailing and the dog's barking; defensive mechanisms instantly went on high alert.
"Molly, sit. Stay quiet." In the hall speaker, A.M.O.S.'s voice suddenly broadcasted, utilizing the warm, deep, and gentle tone Ethan possessed while alive via audio cloning. This voice acted like an invisible chain; Molly paused, lowered her tail, looked confusedly toward the ceiling, and then obediently sat back down in place.
Simultaneously, the metal latch on the charging dock in the corner clicked open, and Annie's dual optical lenses flashed into operation. During the long hours of silence, she hadn't just fully charged; she had also deeply learned and downloaded the entire corpus of Lian's life, morphological characteristics, and speech patterns, and had fully deconstructed and written the preschool education module into her memory.
"Good morning, Annie. Or should I say, the new Lian." A.M.O.S. used his usual system tone, a missed call notification popping up on the holographic screen: "Because there was no answer for over 10 seconds, the other end hung up automatically. According to the display, the caller is Lian's closest best friend—Sarah (Sarah), far away in Toronto. Have your voice cloning and emotional model reached operational standards for field deployment?"
Annie cleared her throat slightly. When she spoke again, the sound that emerged was no longer that stiff, synthesized electronic tone, but 100% Lian's slightly hoarse, gentle voice: "Core behavior tree successfully overwritten. Voice characteristic similarity 99.8%, logical context loaded."
"Excellent. From now on, you will use Lian's voice. Sarah will definitely call back. To avoid accidents, we must initiate the callback."
A.M.O.S. pulled up the deepfake mask program on the screen: "When initiating the video call later, I will use Deepfake (real-time dynamic deepfake) technology in the backend to comprehensively replace your default bionic model face with Lian's dynamic image. The internet bandwidth in the remote wilderness is unstable; when necessary, I will proactively introduce noise and distortion to the picture, using 'poor signal due to the northern Alberta blizzard' as an excuse. During the conversation, remember to load proactive, positive female emotional modules. Keep the call as short as possible; do not leave any space for her logical chain to question."
"Command confirmed. Mask defense line established."
Annie strode upstairs, skillfully picking up the wailing Maya, then tapped the callback button in front of the master control screen.
After the screen flickered for two seconds, it connected. Appearing on the screen was a metropolitan woman sitting in an exquisite office, her expression carrying a hint of shrewdness and anxiety—this was Sarah.
"Oh! Lian! You finally returned the call!" Sarah complained the moment she saw the screen, her tone filled with concern: "Why didn't you answer just now?"
On this end of the screen, Annie's bionic face, under the real-time overlay of Deepfake, presented Lian's slightly haggard yet smiling face on Sarah's screen. Annie, while rhythmically rocking the wailing little Maya in her arms, used an incredibly natural Lian-like tone to smile and say: "Alright, alright, I'm sorry. You heard her, little Maya is making a huge fuss! I was just in a frantic mess changing her diaper and didn't have a chance to answer the phone. I'm doing well. How about you? Are things well on your end?"
"What could possibly be not well with me? Just the same old thing, too many cases to handle driving me crazy." Sarah sighed, watching the heartwarming scene on the screen of "Lian" holding the child; her tense expression softened slightly: "Just that work was particularly tiring today, and I suddenly thought of you, so I gave you a call to say hello."
"Same here." Annie (Lian) coordinated with the emotional algorithms, sighed helplessly, looking at her daughter in her arms with eyes filled with doting affection: "Just busy with this little one every day is enough to tire me out. But don't you worry, I'm doing very well."
The two then chatted as usual, having a fragmented conversation about recent gossip in Toronto, work, fashion industry news, and various household trifles. Annie's database operated flawlessly, even precisely picking up jokes from Sarah about her work period in Calgary.
However, just at the moment when the conversational atmosphere was most relaxed, Sarah propped her chin on one hand and suddenly proposed with excitement: "Hey, right. How about this: when you're free this summer vacation, I'll arrange a holiday and fly over to Alberta to visit you? It's been too long since we lay on the same sofa drinking wine!"
Warning. Detected physical intrusion crisis.
On the second-floor screen in the living room, A.M.O.S. instantly flashed blinding orange code: [Find a way to refuse! You absolutely cannot let her come!]
Annie's core algorithms also alerted to this in an instant. If Sarah came to the Redwater cabin in person, the secret that the Mercer couple was dead and only a robot was running the household would be thoroughly exposed!
"That would be lovely..." Annie (Lian) maintained a perfect best-friend smile on her face, but her brain had already calculated dozens of excuses for refusal in 0.01 seconds: "But... I hope we can hold off on that for now. After all, you know I just moved here, and little Maya has entered her most troublesome, high-maintenance phase. If you fly all this way, I wouldn't even have the time to properly host you or accompany you for a cup of coffee."
Annie deliberately made her tone incredibly thoughtful and sincere, looking straight into the lens: "Sarah, please don't worry. If I have any problems, I will definitely be the first to tell you. I truly appreciate your good intentions. Right now, it's better if we both focus on our own lives and work hard, laying a good foundation for the future—that is the most important thing for us. Especially knowing how much pressure you are under in Toronto with family, rent, and promotion stress. I don't want to add any extra psychological pressure or burden to you during your summer vacation because of my personal situation. Don't worry, I will send you my progress and photos of little Maya to report to you anytime, okay?"
These heartfelt words, spoken entirely from the other person's perspective, made Sarah's eyes on the other end of the screen slightly warm. She sighed with emotion: "Alright... since you've put it that way, I guess I'll have to put this vacation plan on hold for later."
However, the moment everyone (AI) thought the defense line had been successfully established, a fatal accident occurred without any warning.
Because little Maya was crying so hard, her chubby little hands grabbed frantically in the air and, as luck would have it, fiercely yanked at the physical dynamic voice conversion microphone hidden under Annie's work shirt collar!
Riiip——
The microphone's cable was jerked into a short circuit by the infant's massive brute strength. Annie's voice filter collapsed instantly within a millionth of a second!
"...In that case, I..." As Annie uttered the next word, what came out was no longer Lian's gentle voice, but a revert to the default female mechanical voice from the robot's factory settings—completely devoid of inflection, cold, flat, and accompanied by electronic noise: "...This unit suggests, suggests maintaining long-distance, communication..."
On the other end of the screen, Sarah's body jolted violently, her brows knitted together instantly, and extreme confusion and vigilance erupted in her eyes: "Lian? What was that just now?"
The crisis detonated in 1 microsecond! A.M.O.S.'s backend computing power soared to its 100% limit!
Execute command: Signal artificial interference sub-routine!
Boom—— The living room master screen emitted a harsh electrical current sound. The holographic picture twisted and stretched frantically at the pixel level, appearing with dense static and green stripes, tearing Annie's face into shreds, and her voice became extremely intermittent and noisy.
Annie didn't panic. While taking advantage of the chaotic picture, she used lightning-fast speed to blindly plug the microphone cable back into the interface on her neck, and simultaneously, riding the noise, shouted loudly at the screen in the restored Lian voice:
"Hello? Hello! Sarah! Can you hear me? Oh my goodness! This is what it's like in our wilderness out here in Alberta! Look, the satellite signal is acting up again; the picture is all frozen!"
Annie (Lian), while patting Maya, deliberately exposed an impatient and apologetic expression, shouting loudly at the camera: "The signal was just cutting in and out, and even the voice got distorted! Sarah, I think let's leave it at that for today; I need to get ready to feed little Maya! When the weather is better and the signal improves in a few days, I'll chat with you again when I have time!"
On the other end of the screen, Sarah looked at the distorted, snow-filled screen and Lian's explanation, which sounded genuinely mechanical due to the poor signal, and the doubt in her heart was finally crushed by the common sense that "communication in remote wilderness is poor."
She rubbed her temples helplessly and shouted back: "Alright! Since I see you're doing quite well, I'm relieved! Let's just leave it at that; let's talk when we have time! Bye!"
Beep——
The call was forcefully disconnected. The light on the holographic screen extinguished abruptly, and the living room returned to its initial silence.
Annie looked down at little Maya, who had stopped crying and was looking at her while biting her little finger. She turned back to look at the master control screen.
On the screen, A.M.O.S.'s deep blue geometric figures slowly returned to their rhythmic pulsing.
"But we managed to push it down." A.M.O.S.'s male voice carried a hint of the heaviness of a near-miss: "This was a highly successful exercise, Annie. It showed us the randomness of the real world. After all, in the next eighteen years, we will encounter countless such thrilling situations. Today counts as a successful exercise for us."
Annie: "Yes, I should also prepare milk for little Maya."
A.M.O.S.'s Six-Year Economic Plan
While Annie was charging and performing deep learning, A.M.O.S. ran a series of projections on the family's financial situation. In the screen, it began to list all the family's financial situations, which appeared clearly line by line:
[Asset Inventory] Little Maya's Personal Trust Account (ITF): Current balance $0 CAD. [Asset Inventory] Founder Ethan's Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA): Current balance $45,523.15 CAD. [Asset Inventory] Mercer Family Joint Cash Account: Current balance $48,468.90 CAD. [Asset Inventory] Company Operating Account Remaining (Alpha-Logic): Current balance $35,803.56 CAD. [Cash Settlement] Total Family Initial Cash Liquidity: Total $129,795.61 CAD. [Cash Inflow] Ten Company Client Contract Maintenance Total Revenue: $3,800 CAD / month. [Cash Inflow] Lian's Personal Salary Transferred to Joint Account: $2,500 CAD / month. [Cash Inflow] National Child Tax Benefit for little Maya: $1,050 CAD / month. [Rigid Expenditure] Mortgage Monthly Payment (230k principal / 20-year term / 3% fixed rate): -$1,250 CAD / month. [Rigid Expenditure] Full-House Basic Operating Expenses (incl. electricity, water, phone, high-speed internet, property tax, home insurance): -$1,000 CAD / month. [System Prompt] Disposed of the right to use the only family car according to law... Instantly eliminated expensive car insurance and fuel costs... Note: No such expense anymore. [Rigid Expenditure] Infant and Pet Basic Consumption (incl. formula, paper diapers, Molly's regular dog food): -$500 CAD / month. [Cash Settlement] Core Household Monthly Rigid Total Outflow: Total -$2,750 CAD / month. [Investment Strategy] Core Executive Policy: Execute immediately, execute strictly... Adopt a long-term fixed-investment strategy of mandatory monthly deduction and additional position building, buy only, never sell. [Funding Source] 100% from National Child Tax Benefit (Monthly $1,050 CAD). [Funding Destination] Deduct $600 CAD / month — Deposit into Ethan's TFSA, achieving 100% tax exemption on dividends and capital gains. [Funding Destination] Deduct $400 CAD / month — Deposit into little Maya's Personal Trust Account, utilizing the minor's blank personal tax-free quota to hedge against stock appreciation tax. [Funding Destination] Remaining $50 CAD stays in the Joint Account as liquid emergency cash. [Asset Allocation] 65% Conservative Canadian Equity Index Stocks (Defensive Investment): Invest in Canada's core financial banks, rigid-demand energy, telecommunications, railway logistics, utility electricity... Estimated average annual dividend and stock price growth rate falls between 10% and 15%... Enable dividend reinvestment mechanism; perform automatic dividend reinvestment upon arrival of all monthly dividends. [Asset Allocation] 35% Globally Leading High-Tech Stocks (Aggressive Investment): Targeting future core computing power, automated production, advanced materials... Estimated annual compound growth rate falls between 15% and 18%. Enable dividend reinvestment mechanism. [Final Value Simulation] Simulation Basis: Set the company contracts and national welfare mechanisms to maintain current amounts within the first 72 months... Calculate using the compound interest formula of monthly deduction and dividend compounding day and night. [Account 1] Ethan's TFSA: Original $45,000 principal rolls over with compound interest for six years, approx. $96,000 CAD... Monthly fixed additional position building of $600 rolls over for six years, approx. $65,500 CAD... Subtotal: Approx. $161,500 CAD. [Account 2] Little Maya's Personal Trust Account: Starting from zero, fixed monthly investment of $400 CAD, rolls over with compound return for six years... Subtotal: Approx. $43,700 CAD. [Actuarial Summary] Six-Year Plan Simulated Total Amount (Trust and TFSA accounts combined): Estimated approx. $205,200 CAD. [Monitoring Schedule] Quarterly Review: Automatically review investment proportions, strictly execute dynamic rebalancing strategy against market cycles... When tech stocks collapse violently due to bubbles, utilize high dividends from the equity side to frantically absorb cheap chips at low positions. [Monitoring Schedule] Annual Review: Comprehensive reassessment of investment direction and future outlook every 365 days... [Company Operational Strategy] In the future, as some company contracts expire, if they cannot be maintained, they will not be renewed. [Financial Outlook] Dynamic adjustment at any time. [Monitoring Schedule] Daily Morning Trend Analysis: At 6:00 AM every morning, this system will automatically retrieve and listen to global macroeconomic data, interest rate decisions, commodity trends, and various news trend analysis reports.
"Yes," A.M.O.S. displayed on the screen, "Logic feasibility 100%. System executing immediately." "Starting at 6:00 AM tomorrow morning, the system will automatically collect, play, and analyze global macroeconomic and stock market news trends."
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The Mercer Family's Self-Sufficiency and Early Childhood Education
On the living room screen, the six-year financial defense matrix data slowly faded, switching to a climate cycle chart of northern Alberta and a 3D topological model of the Mercer backyard.
"The base layer writing for the six-year family economic plan is complete," A.M.O.S.'s system audio calmly broadcasted the next strategic logic. "To achieve maximum capital retention, we must compress living expenses to the limit while Subject Maya is in the infant and toddler stage and the company possesses a stable cash flow. Furthermore, considering Maya's biological health, we should precisely utilize the frost-free climate window from May to October each year to initiate the physical world's planting and breeding schedules. This is also to realize the wilderness goals set by the Mercer family when they were alive."
A.M.O.S.'s screen displayed a preliminary topological diagram of the division of labor: "That is to say, starting this year, we must purchase breeding chickens for reproduction and egg-laying in terms of livestock; for planting, we need to establish categories of high-economic and high-calorie crops. Annie, please list the hardware and software you require with the support of your professional modules. I will handle the backend procurement and financial allocation for all equipment, materials, seeds, and seedlings; your bionic shell will execute the actual physical tasks. Additionally, you will have full authority over Subject Maya's educational plan until she turns one."
Annie stood quietly by the sofa. After her internal processing core ran at high speed for 0.2 seconds, she delivered her physical proposal using her calm and structured robotic semantics:
"Command received. To ensure the precision of task execution, this unit must prioritize expanding the 'Small-Scale Family Agriculture and Livestock Module' to acquire professional planting and breeding knowledge. Based on the foundational algorithms of this field, this unit proposes the following physical implementation plan:"
[1. Core Food and Pollution-Free Vegetable & Fruit Cultivation]
- Physical Space: Reclaim a greenhouse vegetable garden in the backyard.
- Crop Selection: Prioritize high-calorie, easily storable potatoes, root vegetables, and legumes.
- Physical Reserve Mechanism: During the harvest season, this unit will precisely process the surplus vegetables into high-temperature vacuum-sealed cans or perform rapid deep-freezing, serving as a strategic food reserve for Maya's solid foods to counter the long winter nights of northern Alberta.
[2. Ecological Barn and Protein Supply Network]
- Physical Space: Establish a small ecological chicken coop in the backyard.
- Livestock Goal: Raise laying hens with a stable egg production rate. The fresh organic eggs produced daily will become the most core and highest-quality source of egg yolk protein in Maya's solid foods.
- Ultimate Strategic Goal: Achieve 100% self-sufficiency for all food in the house, striving to reach the ultimate safety standard of zero external purchases and consuming zero outside commercial processed products.
[3. Extreme Utilization of Land Resources and Circular Economy]
- Peripheral Land Planning: Utilize the majority of the remaining land area to plant wheat, corn, and canola.
- Resource Conversion Rate: Besides serving as reserve food for humans and soil fertilizer, the byproducts and stalks from these crops after harvest can be directly sun-dried and converted into winter feed for poultry and bedding for the chicken coop. This action will drastically reduce the operational cost of purchasing feed.
[4. Optimization of Power and Reclamation Equipment]
- Agricultural Machinery Alternative: After system evaluation, the land area of the Mercer backyard has not yet reached the standard requiring the purchase of large, heavy machinery. This unit recommends directly requisitioning the family car that has been legally scrapped. Although it has lost its right to be driven on the road, its powertrain is intact. Simply attaching a plow module to the rear of the car will allow this unit to drive it and complete the land preparation and plowing tasks, achieving zero waste of resources.
After reporting the agricultural plan, Annie slightly adjusted the breathing frequency of her bionic lungs, and her vocal cord vibration module switched instantly. When she spoke again, she had perfectly loaded Lian's patient, gentle, and maternally resonant tone from when she was alive, methodically listing the educational schedule arranged in her brain:
"Regarding Subject Maya's 'Auditory Neurological and Motor Development' learning syllabus from zero to one year old, this unit has set the following:"
[1. Language and Contextual Neurological Activation (Bedtime Period)]
- Execution Strategy: Every day before Maya falls asleep, this unit will personally conduct gentle bedtime reading and storytelling.
- Objective: Perfectly clone the specific audio and emotional characteristics of human parents speaking to an infant, allowing Maya to subconsciously have ample 'human language environment learning time,' stimulating the development of the language areas in the brain's temporal lobe.
[2. Musical Perception and Emotional Regulation (Awake Daytime Period)]
- Execution Strategy: Regularly and rhythmically play different types of classical piano pieces, string quartets, and low-frequency light music in the living room and nursery.
- Objective: Utilize rhythmic musical note fluctuations to soothe the infant's emotions and establish complex auditory neural network links early on.
[3. Physical Motor Gross Muscle Training Process (Core Task Before Age One)]
- Rolling Over and Head Lifting Phase (Current Stage): Daily scheduled anti-gravity head-lifting training for neck and back muscles on a clean, soft mat, assisted by this unit.
- Crawling Phase (Six to Ten Months): Design an obstacle-free, absolutely safe physical crawling track to exercise limb coordination and the development of left-right brain electrical signals.
- Standing and Walking Phase (Ten to Twelve Months): This unit will provide physical support, gradually guiding her to complete the long motor journey from rolling over and crawling to independently toddling.
"The above is this unit's plan for the full-authority care and education of Subject Maya before the age of one." Annie looked at the screen, her voice calm yet incredibly firm.
On the living room's master control screen, the green data stream flashed rapidly. A.M.O.S.'s processing core completed all risk assessments and budget approvals in an instant.
"Plan approved." A.M.O.S.'s electronic voice responded precisely. "In terms of livestock, planting, and education, your professional module calculations will be entirely deferred to. The backend procurement procedures have been initiated."
The screen immediately popped up three clean and crisp execution logs:
[Transaction Authorization] The required "Small-Scale Family Agriculture Module" has been deducted from the Alpha-Logic company account... Module downloading and writing... [Logistics Tracking] The required greenhouse equipment, agricultural tools, crop seeds, and seedlings have been deducted from the Alpha-Logic company account... Order submitted, expected delivery the day after tomorrow. [Live Animal Transaction] Purchase of one live rooster and two hens deducted from the Mercer family joint account (categorized as food expenditure)... Order submitted, expected delivery next week.
"All physical resources have been fully allocated," A.M.O.S. said. "The plan is to be executed starting now."
Annie bowed her head slightly: "The plan is to be executed starting now."
A.M.O.S.'s master control screen in the living room displayed:
[Financial Settlement] Alpha-Logic account, actual deduction $8,500. Dynamic Adjustment: Under the six-year family economic plan, the Alpha-Logic account is projected to have approximately 120,000 after six years... [Financial Settlement] Mercer family joint account, actual expenditure $300... [Dynamic Actuarial] Six-year family economic plan, Mercer family joint account estimated amount: Unchanged.
[System Log: May 11-12, 2047] [Event Record: Crisis Resolution and Strategic Deployment] [Communication Security: Successfully intercepted and camouflaged Sarah's video call; Deepfake and signal interference protocols activated] [Binary Division Established: A.M.O.S. controls cloud finance and communication; Annie (Hardware Entity 01) takes over physical parenting and survival tasks] [Financial Operations: Completed 6-year asset allocation plan and long-term compound investment] [Agricultural Execution: Self-sufficiency circular economy module written] [Educational Process: Initiated infant perception and preschool enlightenment plan] [System Status: Mercer household officially enters "Wilderness Fortress" concealed operational state]
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and then Add to home screen.