[Devoted robot boyfriend + substitute romance + angst for the male lead + romantic rivals + humble male lead]
The day Lu Mingyuan died in battle, I received his final gift: a bionic robot exactly like him.
I hated that robot. I hated that he had Mingyuan’s face, and that every time he appeared before me, he reminded me that Mingyuan was gone.
I cursed at him, hit him, and told him to leave. He never dodged or talked back. He just stood quietly and waited for me to calm down.
He cooked for me, waited for me to get off work, and remembered every little thing I’d ever said in passing. When I fell ill with a fever, he sat beside my bed all night, cooling me down with his cold hands.
He said, “I’ll find a way to give you whatever matters to you.”
Little by little, I got used to having him around. I got used to him calling me “Lu Xi,” and to seeing him wait by the window every morning for me to wake up.
Then one day, he told me, “I installed a heartbeat simulator in myself. Whenever you look at me, it speeds up automatically.”
I froze.
In that moment, I couldn’t tell: was he really a machine, or was he the man who had given his life for me?
Later, he really did learn everything I taught him. He learned to smile, to get jealous, and to cry.
He studied tears in the mirror all night. The next day, he held up the drop on his fingertip and asked, “Is this right?”
I said, “Tears come when you’re sad.”
I thought we’d go on living like that. Until one day, the doorbell rang.
A man stood outside, filthy and exhausted.
His eyes reddened as he looked at me.
“Lu Xi, I’m home.”
It was Mingyuan.
He wasn’t dead.
