Everyone at the scene was looking wide-eyed. Hao Ren could not wrap his brain around what she meant by that.
"Lil Pea thinks that she came out from that pot." Nangong Wuyue looked damned serious. "Yes, you're right, it's that pot Lily used to boil egg. But I really have no idea what went wrong; when this little thing learned that you weren't her mom, she was dead set into believing that the pot was her mom. She believed that you discovered the pot and then the pot and you together made her..."
"That's a hell of a mess!" Hao Ren stamped his feet. That scared the hell out of the little mermaid. He immediately poked Lil Pea's tummy comforting her while shooting an angry eyeshot at Nangong Wuyue. "What did you say to her?"
"I've done my best," the resentment on the siren's face wasn't any lesser. "let me tell you, her brain's a mess. Basically we were just communicating on the edge of logic, you can't possibly expect a newborn understand so many things, I'd be surprised if she could even understand what's dad and what's mom."
Hao Ren almost cried. "But you can't just let her think that her mom's a pot, especially when she thought I'm her dad! How would you correct her worldview when she grew up?"
Nangong Wuyue sighed. She turned and looked at Lily. "Keep your f*cking eyes open."
"Like this?" Lily's eyes were as big as tennis balls.
Nangong Wuyue then turned to Hao Ren. "Now you see? Worldview isn't something that's explainable..."
Hao Ren: "....."
Lily stood by and looked on but she could wrap her brain around what was happening. She packed up and left the house.
Hao Ren and Nangong Wuyue tried to make thing right, but after a long day they gave up: Lil Pea was dead set believing that she was born from that damned bot, and showing unusual affection towards it—just the way she was with Hao Ren. Vivian realised she had to buy a new, the old one belonged to the little mermaid now.
After Nangong Wuyue filled the pot up with water, Hao Ren carefully placed Lil Pea inside it. The little thing seemed to enjoy swimming in the pot now unlike her cautious and anxious manners earlier, the pot had given her a familiar sense of security. She hatched in the pot so she was right to feel secure in it.
The little one swam for a while before crying for food. It was easy to tell her intention: a series of messy grunt followed by her tail beating the water to lift her stood upright in the water. Hao Ren quietly recorded her every behavior and expression as well as the time, he then went into the kitchen and walked back out with a chopstick.
Chopstick was the only thing the little mermaid ate and he needed time to verify other recipes.
Maybe she could eat vegetables? After all, this little mermaid ate plant fibre, and vegetables were full of fibre.
Hao Ren thought it might be a good idea. He dashed into the kitchen, pinched some celery and radish into small lumps and threw them into the water—he felt like he wasn't feeding a child but a fish. The little mermaid wasn't interested in these debris: the veggie lumps gave off a funny smell, the little mermaid threw the debris back out of the water and splashed the water on Hao Ren's face.
Looked like this was another veggie-hater.
"These dad and child was having fun time." The MDT hovered in mid air, looking on. It then jabbed Hao Ren's forehead and said, "Enough of family time. Let's back to work. According to the schedule Ma'am Raven had given you, it's now time to learn the basic of navigation and flight control. It's now time to start if you would like to feel how it's like to sit in the cockpit."
Hao Ren was watching with amusement Lil Pea's ingenuous table manners. He was startled when he heard what the MDT told him. "Wait a minute, when did I get a new schedule?"
"Last night. Didn't I tell you?" The MDT pulled up in front of him, projected a hologram which displayed a ton of learning materials. "Maybe you didn't really hear, you were busy with your six-inch daughter. Listen, these are the additional materials while Ma'am Raven have given you the basics. If you could get a pass you would be able to control Petrachelys, when you get your class two licence you would be able to fly solo. So, where would you like to start?"
Hao Ren stared at the row and row of learning material in the hologram in a daze; the theory of spacecraft control, basics of navigation, the theory of energy, basics of star chart, artillery overview and all the jargon which he barely knew what they were, and these were just a table of content!
"I...I've to learn all these stuff?" Hao Ren was wide-eyed. He had heard that flying a spacecraft required some learning but never he expected there were so many materials and topics. It was nothing like what he had imagined from what he had read from sci-fi novels. "Can I even understand these? I'd been to university...."
"Of course you can. Your brain has been enhanced to a certain extent and it's got a high-speed read and write memory. Your subconscious has an implant that's capable of processing these data. If you're not retarded, learning these stuff isn't difficult. These materials are specifically tailored to your worldview and level of understanding. We shall start from the Grand unified Theory." The MDT sounded flat and dead serious; when it came to business, more or less it looked like a proper personal digital assistant. "And to be frank, you're not required to go through the basics, all you need to know is what order to give in what circumstance, and the reason for why the order's given. Simply say, a qualified captain of a spacecraft it's like between a caveman who only know to press buttons and a mechanic who are expert in his field."
Hao Ren thought for a while, then said with a hopeful voice, "Wait a second, didn't you have a high-tech way of doing it, like program implant where I can skip the learning process? Sort of the XX system add-on in the brain like in the novels."
The MDT looked disdained. "We've the technology, but it's not appropriate for your application. The injection-learning device is for logical, data, and reflective learning, widely used in new minion-army barracks where part of the course would be injected without any dangerous side effects. But it's not applicable for spacecraft captain, it'd only reduce your learning aptitude and brain autonomy; it's not a sequelae per se but it's the nature of this 'learning' method—it writes codes into your brain as if you're a machine. Though it's highly effective, you'd end up useless."
Hao Ren barely understand what he had heard. The MDT continued leisurely. "There are some loosely-controlled autonomous universes where brain implants could be found in the back market. It's used by some syndicates and individuals with the ulterior intention of creating 'digital slaves'. Their implantable system would dismantle the safety lock, and swap out a large part of the host's cognitive abilities—start from the arithmetic ability and memory to thinking ability, and lastly—you yourself."
Vivian listened attentively by the side. She now curiously asked, "So one would end up a retard?"
"No, actually the opposite is true. The implantable system would make the host extremely intelligent, with high reflexes, long-lasting stamina, super memory, and precision thinking ability. It turns people into a superman—but the superman isn't you. A highly assimilated individual wouldn't be aware of the fact that he or she has been displaced, the subject would still think that everything he or she does is out of free will—that's the perfect kind of brainwash.
Hao Ren was in cold sweats!
"You could have direct knowledge, skill, logical thinking, and memory implants but you'd end up living on conditional reflex and brain insertion alone, you wouldn't realize that every single part of yourself has been swapped out and replaced by a bunch of zeros and ones. This thing has been happening and sometimes other agents are called to clean up the mess." The MDT jabbed Hao Ren's forehead and continued. "So it's better to learn the hard way. Different skills require different learning methods, and different life forms have their own ways of learning. Let's begin with Introduction to Warp Drive..."
Hao Ren: "....."