"I have a friend who's developing a nanny robot, and one of its functions is to drive a vehicle. I got the basic code from her; if it's compatible with your system, you'll be able to drive for me in the future."
System decoding and running external programs takes a long time. After Estelle entered the extraction code, she headed towards the bedroom. "I'm going to sleep, you can go into standby mode."
"Goodnight." PWL-000 said.
Estelle paused in her steps and glanced at him.
"Goodnight."
She had a hazy dream and woke up startled in the early morning, unable to fall back asleep.
Estelle sat up in bed, checked the clock—she had only slept for four hours. Outside the window, there was a faint rustling sound, like a gentle breeze. Estelle got up and walked out of the bedroom. In the living room, PWL-000 was sitting on the sofa with his eyes closed.
He heard her voice, exited standby mode, and opened his eyes. "The current time is 4: 26 AM."
"I know."
Estelle walked over to him and lightly touched his arm. Blue text appeared on PWL-000's skin, indicating that the driving program had been decoded.
"Let's go, let's test the car," she said.
Sera's program had strong compatibility and ran smoothly within PWL-000. The city was quiet and empty in the early morning. PWL-000 drove along the road, and a gentle breeze came through the windows.
"It looks fine." Estelle watched his operation. "Drive a little further, go around the artificial lake up ahead, then we'll head home."
PWL-000 nodded, then suddenly added, "The wind is warm."
Estelle was taken aback, finding this comment a bit odd, but still replied, "Yes, it's the south wind. When the south wind blows, spring is coming."
At 5 o'clock in the morning, the lead-gray sky began to show streaks of dawn.
Estelle crossed her arms and leaned against the window, feeling drowsy again. PWL-000 looked at her and slowed down the car. "Get some rest, please."
Estelle smiled with half-closed eyes. "This driving program is quite thoughtful."
PWL-000 didn't say anything, just slowly drove around the lake. Back in the garage, Estelle was already asleep. PWL-000 stopped the car and turned off the engine, making no further move until Estelle woke up again. "The current time is 7: 03 AM."
She felt something covering her body and looked down—it was PWL-000's jacket. Estelle sat up straight and returned the jacket to him. "Why didn't you wake me up?"
PWL-000 replied, "You were asleep."
"Silly, you could have woken me up while I was sleeping."
Estelle opened the door and got out of the car. PWL-000 followed behind her and asked, "Why do you call yourself Estelle?"
Estelle looked at him strangely. "It's my name, there's no particular reason."
"I want a name like that too. I only have a code, can you give me a human name?"
Hearing this, Estelle stopped. The morning sunlight slanted in from the garage entrance as she silently sized him up.
"Users have the right to change a robot's code." She agreed. "What do you want to be called?"
"I don't know. Anything, as long as you choose it."
Estelle smiled.
"You can share my surname, Grey. There aren't any male robots on the market yet, so if you have the same surname, I can introduce you as family when we go out, which will be more convenient. As for the name—" she paused briefly, thinking. "How about Crescent?"
Before she finished speaking, PWL-000 held out his hand, initiating the name-change process.
"Please confirm changing the PWL code to [Crescent Grey]. Please verify the user's palm print…"
Estelle placed her hand over his. "What's the rush?"
"I like this name," PWL-000 said.
User permission was verified, and PWL-000's code was successfully changed. Estelle withdrew her hand, and Crescent asked, "Then what do you want me to call you?"
"You don't need to call me anything," Estelle said. "Just keep calling me by my name like this."
She understood what Crescent meant. According to the system settings, service robots can adjust their titles based on user preferences, such as "honey" or "dear," to enhance the user experience.
But she didn't intend to develop any kind of relationship with Crescent, so this feature wasn't useful to her. Estelle walked out of the garage, momentarily blinded by the contrast between light and shadow. For some reason, she suddenly remembered the THG female robot on Aiden's bed, how she had wrapped her arm around Aiden's neck and called him "Honey."
Afterward, she realized that before users manually change the titles, robots are set to address them by their names, just as PWL-000 had addressed her as Estelle.
After a long pause, Estelle quietly lowered her gaze and smiled faintly.
