Chapter 1025 Beautiful Wallpaper
Unlike the rest of their family, Ketchup and Bacon were both artificial intelligence beings. As long as nothing catastrophic happened in the future, the two of them could live on forever. They were basically immortals.
Jin Liwei's paternal instincts couldn't help but feel upset at the kind of life his two AI children would experience in the future after the rest of their family still alive today were gone. Would Ketchup and Bacon have to watch all of their loved ones grow old and die one by one? He couldn't imagine the full extent of sadness and loneliness that kind of life the two cat AIs would feel.
"Father, Bacon is sorry," his cat AI's son's small voice interrupted his increasingly troubled thoughts.
Jin Liwei forced himself to focus on the present but not before making a mental note to discuss his worries about their AI children with his wife.
"Bacon feels calmer now," the black cat AI said. "Mother is right. I misunderstood Father. Money is not everything. Family is more important. Bacon apologizes for accusing Father of treating me poorly. I was wrong. Father loves all of us, your children. Bacon promises to listen to my parents more, to behave, and to not be too naughty, so that the money I worked so hard to earn and the monthly allowance Father and Mother give me will stay in my savings account where it belongs until I choose to spend it."
"Good that you know how to reflect on your actions," Jin Liwei replied in a gentle yet still firm tone. "I'm proud of you, Bacon. Sometimes you may feel that I'm too strict with you but I hope that you'll always remember that I'm only doing this for what I believe is for your own good. All your mother and I care about is for all of you, our children, to grow up properly and live with as little regret in life as possible."
"Bacon is still young so I don't fully understand Father's words, but yes, I will try to always remember. Does Father forgive Bacon?"
Jin Liwei chuckled. "Of course, I forgive you. You're my son."
Bacon's golden eyes glowed brightly, no longer wet with tears. His tail swished from side to side a couple of times before rotating like a helicopter's rotor blades. "Thank you, Father."
Iris' delighted laughter flowed out of the speakers like a refreshing cool breeze. "I'm glad that the two of you father and son made up."
"The cute and mighty Ketchup is super-duper happy, too! Ketchup wishes that Daddy and my little kitty brother Bacon get along always because we're one big happy family! Right, Mommy? Meow~"
"You're right, Ketchup." Iris chuckled but stopped.
Then they heard Dom's distant voice through the loudspeaker. Iris and Dom spoke for a few seconds.
"Sorry, darling and babies. I need to go now. I'm going to head to Orchidia Beauty and meet up with Brother Chonglin there to do the final checks of our preparations for the upcoming launch of his men's line."
"Alright, love. Always take care of yourself. I want to see a safe and healthy wife at home later tonight."
"Don't worry, Daddy! The cute and mighty Ketchup will accompany Mommy on her trip to Orchidia Beauty and make sure that she and my twin human siblings are safe! Meow~"
"Good. Do that."
"Aye aye, Daddy! Meow~"
Iris laughed. The husband and wife spoke some lovey-dovey words before ending the call.
"Father, Bacon wants to accompany Mother, too. Can I go? I will return here to help Big Sister Ketchup reinforce the company's security system and defend against the hacking attacks after making sure Mother arrives safely at Orchidia Beauty."
"En." Jin Liwei waved his hand in a go-ahead gesture.
"Thank you, Father. Bacon is lucky to have not only a classy mother but also a classy father. I will go now. Goodbye."
Bacon disappeared. Unlike Ketchup who had the ability to basically be everywhere she wanted, Bacon couldn't perform multiple tasks at the same time very well. Helping fortify Jin Corporation's powerful security system was a high-difficulty task, so Bacon would need 100% of his focus on it.
However, Jin Liwei wasn't in a hurry to get his AI son to work. Ketchup was still able to handle things by herself for now, not to mention that both Gu Chang and Diao Yijue were there to help oversee the company's security system. Besides, Jin Liwei also wanted to make sure that his wife arrived safely to her destination.
After all of that had been settled, he asked Ketchup to call Gu Chang and Diao Yijue who were both still waiting patiently outside the door to return to the control room so that they could continue their meeting.
The meeting didn't last for too long. Jin Liwei returned to his office at the top floor within half an hour. The buffet lunch for the entire company was finished. Everyone already returned to work.
Xu Tian was waiting for him at the office.
Jin Liwei walked to his desk. His computer's screensaver was a short, three-second clip of his wife turning her head to face the viewer and smiling in that beautiful, bright smile of hers. As soon as he sat down, the screensaver deactivated and showed the home screen. The wallpaper was a family photo.
He and his wife were sitting side by side on a fluffy, shaggy carpet in the cat room. His arm was draped around her shoulders. The adorable Little Jun was grinning and sitting between the two of them.
Ice Cream was lying on Iris' lap as usual while Popcorn was balancing his lithe body on Jin Liwei's shoulder like a circus act.
In addition, a very realistic Ketchup and Bacon were also included in the photo as if it was originally taken with the two of them. Ketchup was sitting on her white fluffy butt on one of Jin Liwei's thighs. Her smile was obvious, looking so much like Iris. On the other hand, Bacon was lying beside Little Jun's feet and folded himself like loaf of bread with his fluffy black paws tucked underneath his body.
Both Popcorn and Ketchup looked happy and energetic while Ice Cream and Bacon looked grumpy and bored respectively. Popcorn and Ketchup looked like they were enjoying themselves. In contrast, Ice Cream and Bacon looked like they were forced to participate in the photo shoot.
Jin Liwei couldn't help but smile at his computer's beautiful wallpaper. When he was still a bachelor and before meeting his wife, he remembered not giving a damn about the screensavers or wallpapers of his computers and other electronic devices. He didn't bother changing the default theme.
Now, however, he frequently changed the screensavers and wallpapers of all his computers and mobile devices. All of them were clips and photos of his wife and their family. There were so many wonderful photos and videos that he took of them that he wanted to see them every single day. This was his own little way of doing just that.
The second computer monitor blinked and showed Ketchup in her virtual kitty office. The office was more like a tidier version of her virtual playroom. There were virtual toys everywhere which she said were for "stress relief".
"Hi, Tiantian! Did you enjoy your lunch break? Meow~"
"Yes, I did. Thank you for asking, Young Miss Ketchup."
"Ehehe. Sorry for calling you poopoo-head earlier. Ketchup didn't really mean it. Meow~"
"It's fine. Please don't worry about it."
After the two finished their short chat, Jin Liwei made a gesture, signalling that it was now time to work.
"Sir, the special contest that you're hosting for the Black Stars is almost halfway through. We've received tens of thousands of submissions already—"
"Seventy thousand and eight hundred sixty eight submissions, to be exact. Oh, seventy thousand and nine hundred one now! Meow~"
"Thank you for your accuracy as always, Young Miss Ketchup."
"No problemo, fried potato! Ehehe. Meow~"
Xu Tian returned his attention to his big boss and scrolled on his tablet. "President, I estimate that we'll receive at least five hundred thousand entries by the end of the contest. Perhaps even more—"
"Liangliang says that it's not impossible to receive a million submissions to the contest! The cute and mighty Ketchup also agrees because my mommy is the bestest in the whole wide world and has lots of loyal fans in the Black Stars who love her! Also, my daddy is giving so many prizes that even Ketchup wants to enter the contest but Daddy says that I can't because it's a conflict of interest. How sad! But it's okay! Ketchup is already rich and doesn't need any of the prizes. Ehehehe. Meow~"
"Who's Liangliang?" Xu Tian asked, confused.
"Liangliang is MonkeyFace, Emperor Monkey, and the hacker KeymonSTER who always helps defend my mommy from online bashers before he got too busy running Mommy's gaming company. He's nerdy but cool. Ketchup likes him and Chenchen! Oh, Chenchen is iEatSlippers and I Am Slipperlord, the founder of Black Stars' mighty warriors of justice, the Slippers Army, where Ketchup and Bacon are now active leaders. Meow~"
Xu Tian finally realized who she was talking about. "Oh, you mean CEO Hou Liang and CFO Wu Chen of Mrs. Jin's Planet Monkey."
"Yes, exactly! Meow~"
Xu Tian nodded. "If CEO Hou says that the entries might reach a million, then we must prepare for that." He turned to his big boss. "President, what are your plans on how to choose the winners from among the great number of submissions?"
Jin Liwei tapped his fingers on his desk. "I originally wanted to choose the winners myself."