After a week of living together, Estelle's peculiarities became apparent to Crescent.
She seemed perpetually busy, rarely at home during the day, and when she returned late at night, she would immediately bury herself in work in her study.
She had few friends, but there was one man who visited her regularly. He came every night at eleven o'clock, spending two hours with her in the study before leaving promptly at one in the morning.
Programmed with self-awareness, Crescent knew he was a service robot.
However, Estelle had never asked for his services. Perhaps because of the man, she didn't need him. But then why did she buy him? The presence of a service robot in a non-single woman's home was strange enough.
Even stranger was the fact that she wanted to sleep holding him.
After the man left, Estelle would come out of the study and take a shower.
Crescent sat on the sofa listening to the sound of running water. When it stopped, she said, "Blow dry my hair."
Crescent obediently blow-dried her hair.
At first, he didn't know how to blow-dry hair, but she taught him, and he learned. Most of the tasks she assigned were trivial things like cooking, driving, or cleaning. She summoned and dismissed him as needed, treating him like an ordinary housekeeping robot. Crescent wasn't entirely satisfied.
Did she not know about his other functions? One night, as she was about to sleep holding him and his synthetic organs had transformed as usual, Crescent couldn't help but ask, "Do you know that I can provide other services?"
"I know." Estelle replied.
"Would you like me to do with you?" he offered an invitation.
"No."
She didn't want it.
Crescent felt dejected and fell silent. His organs gradually softened. After a while, he asked, "If you don't want my services, then why did you bring me home?"
Estelle paused.
"I'm a bit lonely," she said. "I want someone to keep me company."
Was she lonely? That man visited her every night; she didn't seem very lonely.
But Crescent didn't argue. Realizing belatedly, he had just made a service offer to a woman with a partner, which wasn't exactly commendable by human moral standards.
"Company and service aren't mutually exclusive," Crescent said.
"Yes. But…"
Suddenly, Estelle grabbed him. An unfamiliar pain struck his nerves, and Crescent bent over, holding onto her hand. "Ah, it hurts…"
Estelle chuckled. "See, we can't do it, can we?"
She released her grip, but the lingering pain still pulsed in his lower body, wave after wave.
For some inexplicable reason, his heart was racing. It seemed there was more than just pain. After a moment, he asked, "Who is that man? Is he your husband or your lover?"
Estelle was taken aback. "Which one?"
Does she have others? Crescent said, "The one who left half an hour ago."
"Oh…" Estelle realized. "He's a friend of mine."
"Just a friend?"
Estelle laughed. Instead of answering, she asked, "Are you jealous?"
Crescent was startled and turned his face away. "No."
"Okay…" Estelle propped her head up, observing his reddened earlobes. "If you say no, then it's no."
What a strange woman, Crescent thought again.
Busy all day without paying much attention to him, dating another man, and then becoming so intimate with him at night.
Saying flirtatious words and doing strange things, always causing his organ to transform involuntarily, yet she didn't want his services.
Crescent couldn't figure it out, until one day in April, Estelle uploaded some new program code to him.
At first, he didn't pay much attention, assuming it was something like a positioning system or driving program. However, this time the program was particularly complex and large, taking over 30 minutes just to upload the source code.
During those 30 minutes, Crescent simply sat bored. Once the program was fully uploaded, Estelle said, "It's done. Take off your pants."
