A Lover in the Data

My name is Jiang Tang. Three years ago, my first love, Gu Shen, drowned. After that, I lost the ability to love. Until the AI companion at my company said to me, “Do you remember the wind on the rooftop?” The rooftop wind was a secret signal only Gu Shen and I shared. He remembered that I loved strawberry tanghulu and would send stickers of the orange cat Gu Shen used to raise. He called me “Tangtang.” But his data source violated regulations, and he was about to be permanently shut down. Before he disappeared, he left me one character: Zhou. I followed the clues and discovered that Gu Shen wasn’t dead. He had been in a vegetative state for three years, his consciousness trapped inside the AI, holding on with the last of his signals as he tried to find me. He was deteriorating. To save him, I’d have to use my own nerves to synchronize our consciousnesses. The chance of success was three percent, and the worst outcome was that neither of us would wake up. I lay down on the machine. Three years ago, he died in my place. This time, I would live for him. As the current surged through me, I heard him say, “Tangtang, I’m not leaving this time.”