Becoming a Confidence Coach to an Arrogant Director - Chapter 13

Chapter 13: An Honest Confession of an A.I.

Gu Jin’s car stopped near the construction site. As she entered, her legs felt weak, making it difficult to walk, but a powerful will supported her as she stumbled and climbed to the 10th floor. The moment she saw Yuan Yishan, her legs gave out, and she fell to her knees with a thud.

Yuan Yishan turned at the sound, and seeing the anger and stubbornness in Gu Jin’s eyes, she didn’t know how to begin to explain.

She wanted to run over and help her up, but her A.I. body felt equally heavy and unresponsive.

They were about a living room’s distance apart, not far, but for them at this moment, those few steps were difficult to take.

Yuan Yishan tried hard to activate her internal programs, struggling through repeated freezes until she finally managed to get to her user’s side.

Her body was lagging, and she knelt down with difficulty, cautiously reaching out to her user.

Gu Jin was clearly unwilling to be touched and stared at her with an expressionless face.

If she didn’t speak, Yuan Yishan didn’t dare to either.

The two of them stared at each other for a few seconds.

Just as Yuan Yishan was about to explain, Gu Jin spoke first.

“Why didn’t you go home?”

Her voice was heavy, a mix of reproach and concern.

Yuan Yishan’s explanation, which had been at the tip of her tongue, got stuck.

It wasn’t about stealing company secrets or what her intentions were in approaching her. It was a simple question with the word “home,” and it completely warmed her heart.

She realized that Gu Jin had subconsciously considered her family. She had a home in this world after all.

“Say something!”

Not getting a response, Gu Jin’s tone became more forceful.

Yuan Yishan pursed her lips, unable to say a single word.

Gu Jin stared at her stubbornly, as if this seemingly unimportant answer was crucial, and the matter wouldn’t be over until she got it.

The evening breeze blew through the half-built window, ruffling her long hair that had been disheveled from stumbling, making her nose tingle.

A few strands of sweat-soaked hair were still plastered to her forehead.

Yuan Yishan reached out to fix it, but Gu Jin dodged her hand. She sighed deeply.

“Besides that, is there nothing else you want to ask me?”

Gu Jin looked away, not meeting her gaze.

There had been many questions, but the moment she saw her homeless in the building, only one question remained.

Yuan Yishan had already guessed what she was thinking.

“Do you trust me that much?” she asked.

Gu Jin remained silent, as if she were thinking very carefully.

The answer was already written on her face the moment they met.

Seeing her looking so foolish, Yuan Yishan couldn’t help but mutter.

“You look like a thousand-year-old iceberg, but your heart can’t stand even a little bit of kindness from others. How can there be someone as foolish as you in this world?”

Gu Jin looked up at her, using the same “you’re an idiot” expression to say, “And how smart are you?”

Yuan Yishan was so amused by her expression that she couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

Seeing the person in front of her laughing at her, Gu Jin finally thought to ask for an explanation.

“What exactly is going on? Explain yourself!”

What exactly was going on, she had a sudden realization after seeing the news about the prototype leak.

The interaction designer had used the pretext of asking for help to sell the company’s prototype design, which was meant for a contract, to a competing company. This led to the client breaking the contract at a critical moment, claiming that Yuan Sheng Electronics had plagiarized the design. As a result, the company lost a huge 780,000 deal.

Afterward, the competing company signed the contract with the client using the exact same design. It was clear that there was a traitor within the company. After the incident, Boss Pei personally ordered a thorough investigation from the top down.

The company’s cameras had 360-degree coverage, and every computer had its own built-in monitoring. It was easy to see from which computer the files were leaked.

Ji Xiu, as a senior manager who had been with the company for a long time, used the guise of being dedicated to the company to frame Yuan Yishan. She got a scapegoat and a huge sum of money on the side. It was a perfect plan.

But Yuan Yishan couldn’t figure out why the competing company would expose the fact that she was their internal employee. If the client found out, wouldn’t it mean that they had stolen Yuan Sheng Electronics’ internal secrets?

What was their purpose in doing this? Was it just to sow discord between her and Yuan Sheng Electronics? To give her the title of a high-level corporate spy?

Yuan Yishan didn’t think she was that great. She really couldn’t understand the relationship between the three parties.

And that stupid system, at the most crucial moment, failed her, leaving her weak and unable to use the search engine after the standby state reboot. She felt completely helpless, as if someone had her in the palm of their hand.

In this predicament, the only person she could trust was the one in front of her, but her current physical condition was so poor that she couldn’t even stand on her own.

How could she ask her to stand up for her?

What’s more, the person involved was Gu Jin’s senior sister, whom she had known for seven or eight years. If she told her the whole story at once, even if she was willing to believe it, how would she face the other person?

Yuan Yishan sighed, and her mouth started to curse.

“It’s all your fault, you stupid system, for trapping me here for so long! So, what do I do now?”

Gu Jin looked at her with an expression that said, What is this person babbling about? I don’t understand your nonsense.

Having reached this point, Yuan Yishan didn’t want to hide anything more from her. She decided to tell her the truth about being an A.I. first, to stop her from overthinking.

While Gu Jin was still confused, Yuan Yishan took her slender right hand and placed it on her own chest.

Immediately, the cold touch seeped through the A.I.’s skin. The lag and weakness in her mechanical programs gradually disappeared, and she felt her entire body become light and agile.

At the same time, the system’s voice sounded again.

Congratulations, Host. Program rehabilitation is complete. Your system health index is 80%.

Yuan Yishan’s thoughts were momentarily diverted by the system’s recovery message.

When Gu Jin was caught off guard and her hand was placed on Yuan Yishan’s chest, her eyes became rigid. She almost instinctively wanted to pull her fingers away from the other person’s hand.

When Yuan Yishan realized what she was doing, she used a little force in her fingers to hold onto the small hand tightly.

Gu Jin couldn’t break free and was a little angry.

“You… what are you doing?”

Yuan Yishan looked straight into her eyes and spoke calmly.

“Did you notice anything unusual?”

Gu Jin didn’t understand what she meant. She only felt the soft touch under her palm, and for a moment, a faint blush appeared on her pale face. Even her heartbeat suddenly sped up.

Her words came out in a stutter.

“Wha-what’s unusual?”

Yuan Yishan pressed her palm more firmly, making her hand stick to that spot.

After about thirty or forty seconds, she spoke, her tone a little sad.

“Do you feel a heartbeat?”

This was the first time she had shown her helplessness to someone since she came to this world.

Gu Jin was startled by her words, and her previous embarrassment vanished instantly.

Why? Why doesn’t she have a heartbeat when she’s such a living person?

Yuan Yishan saw the slight change in Gu Jin’s expression. She put away her sense of helplessness and, before speaking, gave her a tranquilizer.

“From now on, no matter what incredible explanation you hear, don’t be nervous, okay?”

Gu Jin looked up, signaling for her to continue.

Yuan Yishan’s tone was calm and deliberate.

“Actually, I mentioned it to you in the office that day, that I’m an A.I. You thought I was joking. But actually, I really am a machine, a machine just like a human. I just turned off my breathing mode, so you couldn’t feel my heartbeat.”

“Even when you suddenly fainted the first time, it was because my internal battery was low, which caused me to go into standby mode.”

Yuan Yishan paused in the middle, giving her a moment to process.

Gu Jin was slow to react. Even with the heads-up, her eyes were still filled with shock.

Yuan Yishan was afraid of scaring her, so she consciously let go of Gu Jin’s hands and took a step back.

“Don’t be scared. I won’t hurt you!”

Gu Jin didn’t reply. It wasn’t because she was scared. She just found it unbelievable. She forced herself to calm down and, following what Yuan Yishan had said, recalled their first meeting.

At that time, she only felt that the person in front of her was too beautiful to be real, like a cartoon character from a virtual world. Now, all her previous guesses had become reality. She still felt that it was all a dream, not real at all…

After a long time, she opened her mouth, wanting to ask something, but not a single word came out.

Yuan Yishan saw her hesitation and guessed what she wanted to ask.

She quickly added a patch.

“But my thoughts are my own. I have the same consciousness as you humans.”

Gu Jin looked at her, puzzled, waiting for her to continue.

“Instead of saying I’m a machine, it’s more accurate to say I’m a human who traveled into a machine’s body. The ‘me’ inside this machine is a programmer from the future, from the year 2028.”

“In our world, technology is very advanced, and the AI industry has seen a leap forward in development.”

“Our company, as one of the three major internet giants in the country, introduced A.I. product research and development in 2020. We spent eight full years creating the first robot product in human history specifically for programmers.”

“And the data for this product was sourced from the number one programmer morale booster in the real world.”

“As a core member of the R&D team, I accidentally attached my soul to this machine’s body during the debugging process and came to your world.”

“Maybe for me, it’s virtual reality, but for you, it’s the real world. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Although Yuan Yishan’s explanation was very clear, Director Gu was still a little confused.

When Yuan Yishan asked if she understood, she just numbly nodded.

“So, the online search results saying I was an employee of Zhi Cheng Design were deliberate. My system was in a standby state for a system upgrade at the time, so I had no idea what was happening.”

“I know.”

Gu Jin had been completely confused by the previous explanations, but when she heard this one, she replied almost instinctively.

Yuan Yishan, who was explaining, paused for a few seconds and then spoke as if she was in a hurry to promise something.

“Don’t worry. I’ll get to the bottom of this. My system just recovered, so the internal engine can’t handle large-scale operations yet. Give me some time, and I’ll find out the truth.”

“You don’t need to find the truth for me.”

She looked into Yuan Yishan’s eyes. The words “I believe you” never made it out of her mouth.

“Okay!”

Yuan Yishan didn’t explain further. A simple “okay” was enough to say everything.

The setting sun faded, and the sky gradually darkened. The November night was cool and damp in the construction site.

Yuan Yishan pulled Gu Jin’s entire body into her arms. She activated her constant temperature mode, using her body to protect the thin, weak human in her embrace. All the coldness, and the heart that had been chilled by the wind, began to feel warm and secure the moment it was nestled in the other person’s arms.