881 Play Time

The AI siblings, Ketchup and Bacon, excused themselves and said goodbyes to their parents before joining the Slippers Army to defend their Uncle Lin Lin's reputation online. With the two leading the notorious online troll group, the Slippers Army would surely become swifter, more ruthless, and utterly despicable. 

It wasn't like Jin Chonglin needed the Slippers Army to defend him. He already had a massive army of loyal fans across the world, especially in Asia, as his first layer of defence against critics. With their numbers alone, they were already a force to be reckoned with. 

Nevertheless, it wouldn't hurt to have the Slippers Army's support. The members of the notorious troll group were like mutated cockroaches who would swarm like a merciless plague towards their targets. 

Iris and Jin Liwei allowed their AI children to have fun trolling with the Slippers Army. They considered it as giving their kids some appropriate play time. Since Ketchup and Bacon were AI children, their needs were different from regular human or even animal children. At least with the Slippers Army, the two could let off some steam and relax a little, especially Bacon who had strong destructive instincts. 

Although the two AI children technically "left", their virtual images still remained on the TV screen. A ball of yarn appeared on Ketchup's fluffy paws and she began playing with it. This was her default rest-mode plus the other one which was chasing virtual butterflies. On the other hand, Bacon became frozen while sitting on his haunches. His glowing golden eyes dimmed.

This was one of the differences between the two of them. Ketchup was an excellent multitasker. She could operate several tasks all at once without any problems, as long as the tasks weren't too difficult or her emotions wouldn't get the better of her. 

Bacon was also capable of multitasking but not as well as Ketchup. In contrast, he excelled in more specialized tasks and did them with more efficiency than his sister. In this sense, he was really an excellent fit for his uncle's Shadow Winds, not to mention that his personality was also suitable for the type of work the group did. He would tackle the most difficult tasks while the group's hacker team, collectively known as ShaWn, took care of the other more minor tasks to make it easier for Bacon to complete his assigned work. 

Iris wasn't focused too much on their glaring differences. For her, these differences were just natural and nothing to be disappointed about because the two children were individuals with their own distinct personalities and specialties. Her main priority regarding her AI children was guiding them to develop into the best versions of themselves as safely as possible. 

Though truth be told, she was more worried about Bacon than Ketchup, not only because of his personality which was so much like her big brother's and his natural destructive instincts due to his origin as a corruption taken from Ketchup, but also because he was now part of Shadow Winds. His official job title was freelance hacker but his uncle was giving him extremely important and highly sensitive tasks. Iris wouldn't be surprised if her big brother would soon treat Bacon as his right-hand man because Nikolai never really trusted anyone, except for her. Since she wasn't involved in Shadow Winds, the next best candidate after her was her AI son, Bacon. 

Her worry about her AI son must have shown on her face because she felt Jin Liwei giving her hand a gentle squeeze. 

He told her, "Bacon will be fine. Didn't he already promise us that safety will be his number one priority? He'll refuse his uncle's order if he deemed it too dangerous and will immediately notify us. Of course, I also already informed your brother about this."

She tilted her head to the side. "When did you and Big Brother talk about this? How come I don't know?"

"We talked when you ladies kicked us out so that you could all enjoy your girls' day with your friends. Your brother and I talked about a lot of things, Evelina."

"May I know what you the two of you talked about?"

"Of course, love. But how about we focus first on your strategy regarding leaving Bright Summit with my brother?"

"Oh, right." Iris blew out an annoyed breath. "This is so annoying. I feel so easily distracted lately."

He reached over and tucked a stray lock of her hair behind her ear. "Don't stress over it. Your doctor says that quite a lot of pregnant women experience this, so there's nothing wrong with you. It's normal."

She nodded and immediately felt better. Then she forced herself into business mode and resumed consulting her strategy with him. 

Afterwards, they called JJ and Enrique Valdez separately for additional advice. The two became interested in her plan of creating her own independent entertainment and talent management company with Jin Chonglin that they even offered to give her whatever assistance she might need from them. Ever the student of the shameless Grandpa Lu, she accepted their offers without second thoughts, even though she hadn't decided yet what to ask from them.

Finally, the couple saved the best for last. They called Grandpa Lu and the business discussion soon turned into a hilarious catching up with each other.

"When are the two of you going to marry? I want to know!"

Iris looked at Jin Liwei who calmly answered the old man, "Soon, Grandpa Lu. Very soon."