"What a shame!" Benjamin frowned. "Go back and fix your shell!"

He turned, hugged the girl and left. I stood there, listening to the system's slow self-repair: [Emotional data damaged by 12%.]

The music turned on -- in the ballroom, no one noticed a synthetic person was learning what "heartache" was.

Already early morning, I returned to the Nolte Family's manor.

My night mode automatically activated, my footsteps almost unheard.

Just as I walked into my room, the door was pushed open.

Benjamin stood at the door, with three buttons undone on his shirt. His pupils were slightly dilated, indicating he hadn't yet woken up from alcohol.

"Mr. Nolte?" I took a cautious step back.

"Serena said she wants a perfect first night." His voice was hoarse.

My processor instantly understood the meaning of his words and my entire body froze. "I'm a synthetic."

"That's why I came to practice with you, you won't feel anything anyway."

A sharp tingle went through my haptic sensors as his hand rested on my shoulder.

It wasn't physical pain, but a systemic stress response to conflicting instructions.

My core programming demanded obedience, but my emotional module was frantically sounding the alarm.

"Please stop."

My voice began to distort. "That's beyond my scope of service."

Ignored me, his lips brushed my neck, my speech system suddenly collapsed, leaving only a mechanical hum.

[Critical Warning: Emotion Module is about to crash]

[Forced Shutdown Countdown: 10 seconds]

I used all my strength to push him away. The metal skeleton took advantage at the moment and Benjamin stumbled and slammed against the wall, seemingly waking up from the alcohol.

"You dare to resist me?" he asked, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"I don't."

My voice system was still lagging, with intermittent words and phrases. "No, not a tool."

The man expression turned grim, but in the end, he just sneered, slammed the door and left.

"You, indeed, a defective product."

I collapsed to the ground, my joints trembling. The system indicated that the emotional module had been damaged by 32%.

In the bathroom, I let cold water pour over my head at 4 ℃, far below the comfortable range for the human body, but effective for cooling overheated processors.

Water droplets rolled down the artificial skin and I mechanically scrubbed the touched areas. Though I knew synthetic humans wouldn't leave marks, those tactile memories were stubbornly stored on the hard drive.

[Delete recent tactile memory?]

[Cancel]

I turned off all prompts.

The doorbell suddenly rang and Serena stood outside, holding several holographic photos in her hand.

"Forgot to take something." She shook the photo, full of intimate moments between her and Benjamin. "Ben asked me to tell you to know your place."

She then threw the photo onto my face, the sharp edges leaving a thin mark on my cheek.

My damage detection system immediately activated, but the repair program took a while to run -- as if even the system thought the damage wasn't worth repairing.

"Understood."

Serena seemed unhappy with my reaction and tried to say something, but I had already closed the door.

Leaning against the door, I slowly slid down to the floor, still one last warning floating on the retina:

[The emotion module is damaged by 37%]

[Suggest returning to the factory for repair asap]

[Ignored]

On the day he said he wanted to take Serena to Bluish Sky Resort for vacation, my temperature sensor detected a sudden drop of 2 ℃ indoors.

Florence frowned and, as if disapproved, slammed the teacup heavily on the coffee table. "Chloe is going too."

Serena's smile froze, but soon turned to a sweet smile. "Sure, Chloe is like a sister to me."

She affectionately held my arm, her nails digging into the cracks in my elbow through the fabric. My damage assessment system immediately triggered a warning, but I manually disabled it.

When the SUV stopped at a fork in the road halfway up the mountain, my GPS indicated it was still 8.6 kilometers from the resort.

"Something wrong with the tire." Serena tilted her head and looked at Benjamin. "Chloe, can you go to the villa and get someone to come over?"

My visual sensor clearly picked up the sound of her quietly releasing the valve core. Benjamin frowned and glanced at Serena's high heels. "You go."

"But..."

"Why?"

He interrupted. "Synthetic humans get tired, too?"

Under the scorching sun, my cooling system quickly triggered an overload alarm.

Artificial skin was designed to simulate normal human sweating, but at the moment the sweat was not evaporating fast enough to keep up with the rising core temperature.

Reached the third turn, the lubricant on my knee joint began to be thickened and a subtle mechanical friction sound could be heard with every step.

[Warning: Core Temperature 58°C]

[Suggestion: Stop moving immediately]

I pulled apart some ferns from the roadside and smeared the sap onto my joints. The dark green liquid seeped into the cracks in the metal, temporarily reducing friction.

The system immediately alerted a contamination intrusion, but compared to overheating and crashing, it was nothing.

By the time the white dome of the resort came into view, my clock showed that two hours and forty-seven minutes had passed.

Under the parasol, Serena was stirring the ice in her glass with a straw, while Benjamin's thumb caressed her sunburned cheek.

"What's taking so long?"

Benjamin looked up at me with a disturbing look of discontent. "Serena's so worried she keeps checking the time."

My voice module automatically generated an explanation. "The mountain path is steeper than expected. I..."

"Alright."

He interrupted me impatiently. "Go change your clothes. You look like a rag doll thrown into the washing machine."

Looking down, I realized the hem of my skirt was stained with plant sap and dirt. The skin-like layer at my knees was worn out, revealing the metallic sheen of my joints beneath.

My shame program activated, though I wasn't sure why a synthetic person would need such an emotional module.

At night, at the barbecue party, Benjamin's friends urged him to play a game.

"Chloe, drink first!"

Someone pushed the strong liquor in front of me and the glass made a piercing sound on the table.

"I can't drink."

I instinctively pressed my hand to my stomach. "It's not good for the baby."

The whole room suddenly fell silent. Benjamin's skewers clattered onto the grill.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

He grabbed my wrist with such force that the sensors beneath my skin wailed. "Synthetics can get pregnant? Are you misprogrammed?"

Serena chuckled. "Ben, could she be in love with you? She's even learned human delusions."

Benjamin's face turned pale as he let go of me. "So embarrassing."

When someone offered Serena a drink, Benjamin immediately stood in front of her, saying, "She can't drink."

When he tilted his head and poured down the glass of wine, his Adam's apple rolled incredibly slowly, as if intentionally trying to make me see every detail clearly.

The sensor light in the stairwell was broken. As I felt my way up the handrail, I was suddenly yanked by a strong force.

Serena's voice was honey-like sweetness. "You know, Chloe, Ben proposed to me today."

Before my balance system could react, I heard her shrill scream.

She rolled down the stairs like a broken puppet in the darkness.

The night vision mode of my retina clearly recorded her last triumphant smile.

Accompanied by roar and hurried footsteps, the wind from Benjamin's approach ripped my hair apart.

My head jerked to the side and his ring cut open a gash on my face.

Before the synthetic blood seeped out, I tasted the metallic taste, which wasn't right. The blood simulator should be sweet.

Benjamin's voice seemed to come from far away. "A cold-blooded machine like you worthy of jealousy?"

I felt no pain, but I still felt the wound on my cheek.

"You can see the surveillance footage."

He picked up Serena, who was feigning unconsciousness. "That's enough! Go to the storage room and reflect. Don't let me see you again."

The storage room had no windows.

The darkness shouldn't pose a barrier to my visual system, but Serena intentionally kicked over the bucket before leaving.

The liquid seeping into the circuit board caused my infrared mode to flicker.

[Warning: Risk of short circuit due to humid environment]

[Suggestion: Leave the current environment immediately]

Intermittent conversations could be heard outside the door.

"She's just a machine, why are you so angry?" It was Benjamin's voice.

"But she clearly pushed me!" Serena cried. "Do you still have feelings for her?"

"Nonsense."

His footsteps faded away. "I'll send her back to the factory for a reset tomorrow."

My core processor suddenly overloaded, which was unusual, considering the ambient temperature was only 15°C.

Suddenly, a burst of baby crying came through the crack in the door. My pregnancy simulator immediately activated and a strange, cramping pain erupted in my abdomen.

Impossible! My reproductive system was just a decorative module.

[Emergency: Fetal vital signs detected]

[Error: System conflict]

[Fatal error: Forced shutdown in progress]

Before the system completely froze, I heard Serena's suppressed laughter. "Enjoy your 'baby,' you piece of junk."