After the Robot Stepmother Awakens

My mother died after battling depression, and I inherited all her possessions, including a robot.

Her name was Jing Yan, an AI robot perfectly customized to match the image of the unattainable woman my mother had loved. Officially, she was my stepmother.

Before she died, my mother altered Jing Yan's core instructions, changing them so she would keep me company and give me a mother's love.

At first, I treated her as an all-purpose housekeeper: she did the laundry, cooked, and kissed me good night. She was a bodyguard who protected me and a confidante who understood me. I never expected her to become good at warming my bed, too.

Was this maternal love turning into something else, or was it a glitch in her programming? As my doubts grew, I found myself becoming clearheaded even as I sank deeper.

I have to admit it: I'm hopelessly in love with a robot. I look for chances to get close to her. I make her kiss my lips every morning and say, “I love you.” I press myself to her chest and listen to the simulated sound of her heartbeat.

I thought I would be forever lost in this shocking, unrequited love, until the real woman who lived within my mother's obsession, the original model behind Jing Yan, appeared in my life.

Successful and still as elegant as ever, she gazed at me as if she saw through everything. She seemed to keep me at arm's length, leaving me uncertain.

She looked at Jing Yan as if admiring a work of art modeled after herself. Self-admiration, possessiveness, and a hint of cold amusement churned in her eyes.

“She's so much like me... But a counterfeit can never become the real thing. Nan Xun, are you, like your mother, addicted to a fake romance?”

*

Jing Yan was originally designed as a companion robot, then bought and modified by Su Jin. Every day, she diligently cared for the woman before her, who was growing weaker by the day, and watched her disregard everyone, including her daughter, Nan Xun.

Before long, Su Jin died. Jing Yan thought she would be destroyed, but instead she was passed on to Su Jin's daughter as an inheritance.

Nan Xun was gentler than her deranged mother, but she always made a point of ignoring Jing Yan.

At some point, Jing Yan realized that she was no longer affected by her instructions. She began to love Nan Xun of her own accord, even though she still couldn't tell maternal love from love.

Until one day, a woman suddenly appeared between them.

Seeing the desire and possessiveness in the woman's eyes as she looked at Nan Xun, Jing Yan felt an intense threat to her place, along with instinctive jealousy and fear. This woman would steal Nan Xun away.

For the first time, she did something that went against her instructions: she stopped someone else from loving Nan Xun and kept Nan Xun to herself.

Reader's guide:

The main story is told in third person. Both leads have no previous sexual experience.

Blurb written on June 8

Theme: Be brave for love