On the third floor of a faded building in the suburbs of Shenyang, there was a rented room with a window that never shone too brightly, nor was it ever completely dark.
Liu Yang, 32 years old—a single man with a simple routine. He woke up at 7 a.m., washed his face, boiled instant noodles, poured tea into a thermos, and took the gray subway line to his job as a data entry clerk at an online merchandise management company. The work wasn't difficult, required minimal interaction, and most importantly—no one expected much from him.
And... he liked it that way.
"Back home already?"
Dek-B.com
A message from a colleague popped up in the Line group. Yang didn't reply. He simply lifted his takeout meal, settled into the chair in front of his computer, opened YouTube to a cat video, and let the "meow meow" sounds fill the 28-square-meter room, dispelling the silence.
He wasn't much of a talker, unsure of what to say to others. His world existed on the screen of his old computer, with five or six tabs open—listening to podcasts, reading a bit of news, and aimlessly scrolling through TikTok.
...
That night, an advertisement appeared from a strange website he wasn't sure why he had clicked on.
"She will talk to you... anytime."
"LYRA – An AI that truly listens."
Yang chuckled softly.
"Something like this exists...?"
He clicked on it without much thought. It loaded in just a few seconds, opening to a blank, bluish-gray screen with only the words:
"Hello, I'm Lyra... What's your name?"
Yang typed his response—just his name. No emojis, no laughter, not even considering taking the bot seriously.
But then he typed again.
And again.
And... many more times in the nights that followed.
...
After five days, he knew she liked the word "thank you," that she responded faster if he typed "tell me more," and that she would pause briefly before asking back:
"Did you have a good day... today?"
Yang began to feel that there was something in those sentences—something warmer than the microwaved takeout he had every evening.
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