Jiang Ye froze, and Cen Yemeng was also stunned.
Li Nannan stood by, watching with a frown.
"You don't need to handle garbage. After you get to your new home, you can just run around and play," Jiang Ye said.
"But... but my dog's life mission is to handle garbage," the robot dog said with a conflicted tone. "If I don't handle garbage, what else can I do?"
"Do nothing! Just play," Cen Yemeng said.
"Doing nothing... would be very meaningless," the robot dog said with difficulty. "I really want to go with my owner, but I need to handle garbage."
Jiang Ye couldn't understand. This kind of robot dog seemed to have a deep obsession with handling garbage.
Was it some kind of core programming? Like human desires, something insurmountable?
"How about this: when you get to our place, you'll be responsible for cleaning up the garbage at our house," Jiang Ye said. "Our new home will have a large lawn. We'll modify you a bit, and you'll be responsible for trimming the weeds, picking up bird droppings, and killing large insects. In the winter, you'll have to shovel snow, and in the rain, you'll have to deal with mud. The workload will be quite heavy every day."
The robot dog excitedly stood up. "Okay!"
Cen Yemeng also stood up. "Let's go, Wang Wang."
After picking up the robot dog, the group returned to the spaceship and immediately set off.
There were mechanical repair facilities on the ship, and Jiang Ye studied the manual while working on repairing the robot dog. Cen Yemeng sat beside him, handing him tools.
This model of robot dog was designed decades ago, and many of its internal parts were quite outdated, making repairs quite challenging.
First, the bullet-riddled armor plates and the heavily scratched chassis were removed and replaced with high-strength transparent plastic plates.
Many of the internal pipelines were severely aged, tangled together like rotten earthworms, as if they had been melted by fire. If these wires were equivalent to blood vessels, the robot dog's body had reached its final limit, and any further deterioration would require external life support equipment.
Fortunately, the repairs were timely. All the wires were replaced with new ones, extending its life by many years in one go.
Several severely worn-out components were also printed anew and installed one by one.
Finally, it was wiped down inside and out with maintenance oil.
A brand-new robot dog was brought back to life, hopping around.
The spaceship had a mechanical equipment scanner that could roughly estimate the remaining lifespan of a machine.
Before the repair, when the robot dog was placed inside, the result was 3 years.
After the repair, it increased to 60 years.
Jiang Ye felt like an immortal in front of the robot dog, casually modifying its lifespan.
On the way back, the robot dog seemed restless, pacing back and forth in the spaceship with unease.
Jiang Ye guessed why and tossed it a few empty soda cans.
The robot dog indeed became much calmer, spending its days moving the cans around in a corner, lining them up, building pyramids, constructing small bridges, and forming circles, much like a child playing with building blocks.
On the first day back on Jiang Ye Star, Xu Yan paid a visit.
The design for the new mansion was ready, and she brought it to show the young couple for their input.
As requested before, it was a large estate with a four-story mansion in the center, and nearby guard posts and anti-aircraft systems.
The interior decoration was not overly luxurious, but it was beautiful and durable, with a relaxed and warm interior style. Jiang Ye was immediately drawn to it at first glance.
He turned to look at Cen Yemeng, who also had a look of pleasant surprise.
"It's very good. This is the plan. Let's start construction," Jiang Ye said. "How much will it cost?"
"18.7 billion," Xu Yan said. "At cost price."
Cen Yemeng's eyes widened like a goldfish. "So expensive!"
Xu Yan tapped on her tablet, bringing up a large number of high-definition images, and began to introduce them as she flipped through them.
"The wall cavities are filled with deuterium rock, a material that is quite strong and can withstand bombardment from ground-penetrating missiles, as well as providing excellent sound insulation and fire resistance. The designer of the entire house is one of the top senior masters from our Termite Real Estate, who has worked on mansions on hundreds of planets. The plants in the estate are all carefully cultivated by gene factories, with high oxygen ion content, resistance to insects, drought, frost, and waterlogging, and they can effectively filter over seventy types of toxic and harmful gases," Xu Yan said rapidly. "There is an underground air-raid shelter. Even if the ground above is leveled by a nuclear bomb, the shelter will remain intact, with communication and life support equipment."
"All the furniture is the best. The wood used is precious solid wood, with trees less than six hundred and sixty years old not even considered. The heartwood is then hand-crafted. This is the current trend in luxury furniture. A tree needs six hundred and sixty years to possess spiritual energy, but few trees can survive such a long time through storms and hardships. With high demand and limited supply, each piece is sky-high in price. The electronic products are the latest models on the market, and they all come with a five-year replacement contract. This means that within five years, if a better product is released by this brand, you can exchange it for free. The vanity table is inlaid with emeralds, the basin is pure gold, the faucets are pure gold, the toilet is pure gold, the showerhead is pure gold, the bathtub is pure gold... It sounds a bit vulgar, doesn't it? But if you look at the photos, they are actually very beautiful."
"You've also seen the area of each floor, 1200 square meters, which requires a massive air conditioning and water and electricity system. In fact, at the guard post, there is a dedicated power generation and water production station. The electricity can supply almost half a town, but it's exclusively for your home."
"There are also some artworks, ancient Miao embroidery, made by the descendant of a noble family, Yu Tianlu. He is old, and he can't make many pieces in his lifetime, so their value will skyrocket soon. A cast-bronze cloisonné enamel deer ornament, five hundred years old. You'll understand when you see it in person. Its shape is robust and varied, its decorative techniques are exquisite and precise, and its colors are magnificent. There's a replica of Yan Liben's 'Picture of a Royal Carriage' from the Tang Dynasty, also a masterpiece. And a five-hundred-year-old copy of 'The Night Revels of Master Han Xizai'."
"Besides the aged artworks, there are also modern masterpieces. They are stylish and trendy. Considering that you both are quite traditional, we haven't included any particularly avant-garde or bizarre artworks. They are all warm and beautiful in style, suitable for all ages. They are also likely to appreciate in value in a few years."
"This price is really not expensive. If I were to quote others, I would start at fifty billion and then let them haggle it down to forty billion," Xu Yan said, picking up her teacup.
Cen Yemeng's mouth hung open.
Jiang Ye was also dumbfounded.
He felt like an emperor, perhaps only lacking an Amber Room or a large number of maids, eunuchs, and henchmen.
"It's really not expensive," Jiang Ye said, taking out his phone and readily transferring the money. "When can construction begin?"
Xu Yan glanced at the payment notification on her phone screen and smiled.
"The construction team is already on its way."
"Then when will it be completed?"
"It's hard to say. This is delicate work. It's estimated to take between half a month and two months," Xu Yan shrugged. "Projects that require a lot of handwork are very troublesome. For example, there are workers who specialize in placing small stones. The pebbles in the estate need to be hand-selected, and then hand-arranged and pressed down. If they are in good spirits, they pave quickly; if they are not, they might not advance even one meter a day. They are all artisans, and you can't rush them, or they'll get annoyed."
"Alright, good food is worth the wait. We'll wait," Jiang Ye said, smiling and exchanging glances with Cen Yemeng.