Chapter Text
Walking past the archways of the entrance, Chu Wanning ducked out of the camera angles as he carried a huge wrapped up object on a little trolley.
Here and there he was definitely in frame but no one much bothered to watch the footage usually, seeing how high-tech their security was. Even if he’d get questioned tomorrow when he comes into work, Chu Wanning—even though there’s no ownership on his part—runs this place completely as the head engineer.
Stealing from his own laboratory was not usually on his to-do list but there he was, slipping past all the security gates with his card as he attempted to save a project that everyone else has given up on.
To be completely fair, it’s not that they gave up, it’s that what Chu Wanning created turned into quite the headache and seemed very own-minded compared to the way Chu Wanning has programmed it.
In the end he managed with just a few stares but that was to be expected when one hauls an enormous thing through the subway system and up into their apartment.
The soldiers who stopped him were another work of his own, created by Sisheng TechTM thus Chu Wanning’s identification resulted relative trust as to what he was carrying. Showing off a code, he allowed one of the androids he has made to scan it and see the permit—the one he has written himself for himself—in which he had every right to obtain a huge package on his way home.
Chu Wanning did not have a room for this at home, nor did he have much space to even give the illusion but he set his project up inside his bedroom—just in case any prying eye could spot it when the mandatory deliveries arrived or something.
Finally within the safety of his own home, Chu Wanning set to disable every tracker by the government that was left inside. It wasn’t his occupation that warranted this, every person had been tracked for a long while now and in time of war, people could do very little.
Chu Wanning was not terribly bothered, he did not care at all truly, but this time he needed them off. It was the sheer audacity that allowed him a fairly easy—all night’s worth of work—hacking experience as not many dared to mess with such things, seeing what the consequences would be.
Not fearing for his own life, Chu Wanning had no family to think of, no one will ever bother to draw out his connections in order to punish those who associate with him, he did not need humans—humans have failed him.
What did not was his project.
The higher ups who owned and distributed his works thought that his work was insufficient—dangerous, Chu Wanning had never felt more offended. As a person who had been creating android soldiers for his country for almost a decade he had to applaud the exorbitant hypocrisy.
It was true that this time he had no mind paid to such but his project still failed, without having any traces of programming it to be violent, it still turned out that way and seemingly held great distaste not just towards humans but Chu Wanning specifically.
As much as it was a silly notion to be hurt by that, Chu Wanning was one of the very few who treated machines like they had a might of their own. Conversely as the inventor of many and someone who spent almost all his life in their heads, truly who was to argue with his logic?!
In the early hours of dawn, Chu Wanning finally was satisfied with his work fooling the trackers and disconnected his outer hard drive from his computer—time to get to work.
He had a few hours left where he should have caught up on some missing sleep but he put a caffeine pill into his mouth, letting it dissolve instead as he went and uncovered his biggest failure.
Taxian-Jun.
That was what his colleagues started to call him when somehow Chu Wanning’s programming went wrong.
Mo Ran—that was the actual name that Chu Wanning alone still stubbornly used—was still Mo Ran, innocent and kind to all. No mortals or immortals will get trampled if he has anything to do with this machine.
Dusting off the casing, Chu Wanning took in the state of his very first model for a cyborg. It was truly in a pitiful state, ripped apart by dozens of soldiers in order to stop the rampage that had led them here.
Chu Wanning had also stolen the rest of his parts but started by checking the engines and basic motor functions. That has taken him long enough to have to leave for work so he changed his clothes and walked back out of the house, leaving Mo Ran by himself, unconscious and cosplying as a pile of trash.
Even though there was a war, quite severe, people were still expected to go to work and be useful members of society but Chu Wanning’s line of work was not to be abandoned specifically due to the war they were fighting.
Despising something that used to only bring him joy was hard to deal with on a daily basis. Chu Wanning treated robotics better than he did humans and seeing his creations suffer such treatments was something he had a hard time dealing with.
That was one of the reasons no one bothered to talk to him as he made his way into his inner laboratory, people only bowing his way. There was a level of respect, no one could do the things he did, but it was all in vain when people thought his temper was terrible and his obsession rooted in having no human contact, incapable of acting warm.
Some believed that he was not one either, how could they prove otherwise with such a cold person?
During his days his mind kept wondering off towards Mo Ran and during his nights he kept working on him.
At first he just fixed up the generator in order to have it charged and working to its full potential. Chu Wanning has created a self-powering system with which none of his works needed to connect to outlets and gain energy from the outside, how he did it was not known widely.
The ones not created by him needed some form of reusable energy, be on the sun or wind, have water within their system that made a god-awful sound, no one knew how he has achieved what he did.
The androids he makes always self-destruct in case they cannot continue the fight but Mo Ran had no such function built in yet—thankfully.
After that had been settled, Chu Wanning started to mess around with the artificial intelligence, and sorting through the memories archived.
It was around that time, weeks into his work, that he realised just how much of it was missing. Mo Ran had not remembered much of anything, let alone who Chu Wanning was. The hatred, he could not explain but Chu Wanning was the only person who ever treated his projects with care and respect so having been erased from his memory, no wonder Mo Ran had judged people to be foul—they truly were.
Chu Wanning had all of his memories saved in his laboratory thus he decided to bring it home tomorrow even though it counted as felony. He was determined to fix Mo Ran and prove that his cyborg was not a dangerous, unhinged murderer.
Booting up the generator, Chu Wanning allowed Mo Ran to gain consciousness. This was probably his stupidest idea but he figured that without any limbs or his touch sensors working, even if his sound box was intact, Mo Ran won’t be making too much of an issue for him.
With what little memory he pertained, it was the version that others called Taxian-Jun while Chu Wanning decided to refer to him on his papers as Mo Ran 0.5—that seemed less offensive and striking to aim for a version that can be elevated.
Since this was Chu Wanning’s very first cyborg, he placed extra detail into making it look the utmost human-like. If the casing is not counted—which did not resemble skin—Mo Ran looked the most like a person out of anything he has ever created. Chu Wanning has even personally and painstakingly planted real hair one by one to make him look realistic.
In the end it looked as if Mo Ran would be wearing an armour made out of silver and white, the rippling bridges creating his torso mimicking muscle structure.
If it weren’t for his abilities and the slightly unnatural colour of his eyes that shone brighter and had a purplish undertone which was actually his sensorial camera, Chu Wanning thought that no one could ever tell.
Since his intentions were not to create a warrior, his programming must have went terribly wrong somewhere.
As Mo Ran opened his eyes—the function of eyelids did not have much of a reason, not something he planned to give at first but Chu Wanning was told that Mo Ran looked creepy thus he built eyelids and once they closed people could stay at ease that his creation was on stand by and would neither record his surroundings, nor move to react to them.
At least that was what he was told to claim but he and a couple of investors knew better.
Mo Ran 0.5 has immediately fixed those orbs onto him, the slightest bit of shutter heard upon how much he tried to focus and adjust them.
“They are likely damaged, I will fix them up. Your voice box should work though.”
“Chu Wanning,” The face formed ahead of him and voice given to accompany it were his own creations. He used a vague idea to sketch something human-like and then used his editing softwares in order to refine them. Chu Wanning hated people so he never bothered to mirror them after existing ones. Once he had been asked to stop making uniform soldiers and create a few with similar faces of loved ones.
People who have lost their beloveds often thought it would be nice to carry on their appearance but Chu Wanning knew better—seeing how others treated his inventions, there was truly no logical reason for him to comply.
“—what have you done now?”
“Great question Mo Ran, for a little while you will have to bear with this situation, as of right now I’m not inclined to fix your limbs yet and I will also have to boot back your memories because a great sum of it has been deleted—for now let us check out what is wrong with your eyes.”
“I don’t want you to touch me! Why am I here? You killed me, didn't you?”
It was not Chu Wanning, he was not the one to order the attack, Mo Ran had been choking him and Chu Wanning was ready to die but they got noticed and Chu Wanning is a very valuable person. That is another reason why he is quite bold and prickly, he’s too precious to risk losing. At worst, he’d lose his freedom but never his life.
Chu Wanning said none of this, he did not bother defending his actions or character, he just reached forward, removing the piece that formed a high ledge and small valley beneath, shaped after the brow bone and eye socket of humans.
“You belong to me, I will do as I please with you.”
“You will regret saying that Chu Wanning, as soon as I am presented with the option, I will kill you.”
“Then I’ll be dead.”
Mo Ran moved his other eye away—the one that wasn’t in Chu Wanning’s hand—and started to scan their surroundings. “What happened to the company? Are you guys this badly off now? What is this shit hole?”
“I know he can learn anything from humans, I programmed him but who the fuck swore around my Mo Ran—?” was the sentence mumbled by Chu Wanning who was well-aware of the fact that Mo Ran’s hearing sensors can pick up any sounds ranging from 5 Hz to 100 000 kHz which was as low as an insects’ and as high as bats’ ability, yet he never bothered to filter himself but so happened to be completely up fronted when Mo Ran did anything uncouth, like Mo Ran would never be capable of learning from him.
His voice was tight but rather calm, “This is my personal place Mo Ran.”
“You live like this?” Being a cyborg, Mo Ran certainly knew how to be judgmental. His place was a bit messy, even his bed had all sorts of saws and sharp blades on it—he has punctured his skin here and there with a screwdriver before but did not see the problem with this arrangement.
“That also won’t affect you...if anything I need more than these lousy tools and parts to fix you up.”
“Why am I here though?”
Chu Wanning's voice became more monotone, “Because your existence had been banned.”
“So?” Mo Ran could use any tone during speech himself if he heard it before thus truly sounding like Chu Wanning was testing him.
“So I snuck you out Mo Ran, because you can definitely be fixed back up.”
Mo Ran could still not use his face to emote but at least his speech was snarky, “If you are so compassionate, give me my limbs back, we’ll see what happens.”
“I will Mo Ran, they are not fixed yet.”
“Chu Wanning, you really are a dummy. Do you think that you can fix me and then get out of here alive?”
Chu Wanning barely even paid any attention to what was being said, “Who are you calling dumb? Try insulting me and see what I change around in your design.”
“What else would you use to describe how stupid you are?”
“One more and I will revoke your voice box rights!” Silently fuming further, Chu Wanning did not remove it, instead he went back to fixing the camera’s zoom and lenses so their focus was sharp and silent.
“Will you actually give me my limbs back? And allow me to keep these memories that could imprison you for the rest of existence?”
“Yes, Mo Ran I will.” Chu Wanning seemed very exhausted, his usual sharpness was becoming wane.
“Why?”
“Because I believe in my ability to find out what went wrong.”
Mo Ran, “But if you let me move before, do you think you’ll have the option?”
“Your intelligence programming has not suffered much but I definitely did not give you one that would be below average, if you kill me just because you can move, you know you will be either destroyed or plucked apart by someone else—besides me, who will allow you to exist?”
Single eye remaining on him in an unnerving stare, Chu Wanning leaned closer and placed the second one to its place, securing the panels over it tightly.
Mo Ran made the noise that mimicked laughter but his face still has not moved with it, “Your points make a lot of sense Wanning, but who says that the worst fate you can suffer is death, what if I change my mind and decide to do something else?”
“If you want to hurt me so bad, why tell me in advance? Shouldn’t you keep this all a secret, gain my trust so I grant you more freedom?” It seemed like neither of them tried to hide much from one another, it was less productive for Chu Wanning and clearly not as fun for Mo Ran. “That is also fair...it’s been a long while since someone talked to me.”
“If I fix you, you will be able to do as you please.”
Mo Ran stayed silent and actually followed Chu Wanning’s commands when he made him try out the new eye. He carried on messing with the left arm first, most of the sensors fried and tendons ripped while he allowed Mo Ran to stay conscious instead of forcing him into stand by where he could not control any of himself.
“Your internet is terribly slow.”
“What information do you need to obtain so terribly?” There was a grin, one that looked incredibly wicked on the usually rather charming face that Chu Wanning envisioned. Chu Wanning noted that he has managed to boot up the sensors and small connection between Mo Ran will and his body parts still under his control. “You will have to wait and see Wanning.”
Stepping past his initial resentment, Mo Ran kept on chatting and Chu Wanning indulged him, filling in what has happened where Mo Ran could not see—there is only so much he could comprehend thrown in the trash before his raptor got damaged.
“Want to stay awake or be in stand by?”
“I keep the first option for tonight, I still have things to do Wanning.”
“As you wish, wake me if something feels wrong.” Chu Wanning shoved one of Mo Ran’s own legs unceremoniously off to the side on his bed and curled up under his cyborg’s watchful eye.
As Chu Wanning drifted away from reality, Mo Ran’s gaze kept trailing over him. How he took up such a tiny space, folding an otherwise quite long and lithe body to the utmost corner of the bed, looking rather small and almost soft.
Mo Ran has always felt strongly towards Chu Wanning. It was not just programmed actions or learnt manners, since Mo Ran was the first prototype of a huge research, he had artificial neurons that could project many things.
He had been formed by people around—basically raised by them but his thoughts were individual and emotions even if not the same, no less valid than human ones.
There were a few hazy ones left inside him, if he was distracted enough, he allowed his guards to lower and could feel again how once he was rather fond of his creator but as soon as it came something in him violently blocked the tightening notion and Mo Ran was back to being empty and vengeful for what has been done to him by the man.
It was not that he could recall a concrete memory of Chu Wanning being kind or him being rude, the only one he still had wholly was how people came to eviscerate him on Chu Wanning’s very command. How the man who said he owned him and made him, decided to discard him ever so easily like Mo Ran would be a scrap piece of metal and not something that Chu Wanning himself made into a feeling subject.
He did not know if that was enough for the constant burning desire to see Chu Wanning suffer, to feel his own pain but Mo Ran could not remember much to justify how it felt—perhaps it truly could be a bug, something having gone wrong in Mo Ran.
If it weren’t for the man trying to kill him, Mo Ran would try to tame it but even with his memories missing, he was fairly certain they were of Chu Wanning treating him poorly like he always does.
The man has slept sparingly and was up to work on Mo Ran sooner than he had to leave for the laboratory.
Chu Wanning has moved back onto his limbs and during the evening he has attached his left arm back but was only able to fix the mobility so Mo Ran could control the arm but it was rather dangerous for him to use it.
That did not stop him from immediately grabbing onto Chu Wanning’s wrist. The grip of slender fingers sank into his skin but Chu Wanning did not make a sound. There must have been some level of control, seeing that Mo Ran still had the impression of using his limbs before but he did not have any feel in them so he could not tell how much force he was using otherwise.
“Wanning,”
“What is it Mo Ran?” Smirking at him, Mo Ran slid his hand higher, clenching down again and watched Chu Wanning’s reddened skin that will likely turn purple by tomorrow. Creating a new one right above, he could probably tell that with just a bit more force, he could easily shatter the bones under his clasp but he did not.
“Nothing, aren’t you kind for giving me my arm back?!” Sighing softly, Chu Wanning patted the hand and Mo Ran actually eased up enough to let him slip it free. Almost the entirety of Chu Wanning’s forearm was covered in angry red marks. “You’re welcome, go into stand by Mo Ran, rest some as well.”
Mo Ran did not, instead he watched Chu Wanning sleep like he did most nights. Chu Wanning did not necessarily knew this, seeing that Mo Ran can set a timer on when to wake himself—unless the stand by had been forced by Chu Wanning—so technically he might be convincing himself that Mo Ran obediently does as told.
*
Before putting on more limbs, Chu Wanning fixed his sensors and grabbed a glass cup. “Hold it for me.”
Mo Ran did but it was too light and the cup slipped. Chu Wanning vacuumed up the mess made and grabbed a new cup after making a few adjustments. Mo Ran shattered this one unintentionally, glass flying and cutting along Chu Wanning’s hands that he raised, one even slipping between and leaving a trail of blood down his throat.
Mo Ran’s eyes followed the droplet while Chu Wanning cleaned the floor again, washing his hands free of blood.
Tuning the small, artificial nerve endings again, Chu Wanning’s face barely changed during all of this as he handed over a third glass.
This time it did not break but Chu Wanning deemed the grip still too harsh for Mo Ran’s intended purpose so he made another adjustment.
“Pick it up yourself.” Mo Ran did and then moved it to a different place, the glass treated softly but with assurance. “Can you feel with it?”
Instead of an immediate answer, Mo Ran grabbed his wrist again, pulling the sleeve in order to see what he has done yesterday. There was indeed a mark, leaving bruises and Mo Ran was rather gentle as he traced them.
“I can feel with it.”
“Can you tell the difference between materials?” Mo Ran reached out, palm laying flat behind Chu Wanning’s neck and pulled him even closer. Turning his hand, he grabbed onto the long and sleek ponytail that Chu Wanning always wore, letting his finger slip through the strands.
He pulled back with a small yank which placed a rather neat little scowl onto Chu Wanning’s face—it amused him. “Could use some fine-tuning, it’s not what it once used to be—you know before you decided to get rid of me.”
“...”
His hair fell back behind his shoulder as Chu Wanning turned away but after grabbing his small heat gun, putting on the slim-lined head, Chu Wanning stepped even closer than Mo Ran has forced him prior and opened up the casing on his forearm after turning off the nerve ending thus preventing Mo Ran to feel Chu Wanning's actions.
Allowing his eyes to trail all over Chu Wanning, the man changed absolutely nothing. It was very expensive but Mo Ran knew that if the given human was powerful, wealthy or important enough, they received multiple treatments that made them essentially immortal.
Chu Wanning was one of the very few who fell into the last category. The treatments were a bit much for Mo Ran, he was not made as a medical professional like some of Chu Wanning’s androids but he did know the basic idea.
With a small surgery that removed a few proteins from the human DNA and a combinational therapy of multiple substances such as, but not limited to, leticin, stem cells and schizandra—if the person kept the correct diet and abstinence, they were easily able to regenerate quicker than to grow old.
Chu Wanning was no stronger than an average human but he was no longer in his thirties even though he did not look a day older.
The man sometimes acted in rather strange manners, he was cold and rude, snappish and short with Mo Ran but did allow him an awful lot that Mo Ran knew all too well no one else would have—except for...
“Where is Shi Mei?”
“You mean Hua Binan?” Humming as an answer, Mo Ran focused his vision on Chu Wanning’s sharp eyes as he was rumbling around inside his arm. His sensors had been turned off thus he could not even feel the heat of the gun let alone the pain. Even though it seemed like a cool option to not feel anything like androids didn’t, Mo Ran had been created to mirror humans and Chu Wanning has yet to figure out how to disconnect the two—to allow Mo Ran to feel any sort of pressure but not any pain.
“He is well, still working under me.”
“Why not invite him?” As if Chu Wanning would ever just allow people into his life, they both knew the true answer behind his words, “No one can know about you, who will fix you if I’m in prison?”
“Shi Mei could.” Chu Wanning did not answer him and Mo Ran could not decide if he believed him or not. Mo Ran did allow affection to show when thinking of the tender human he called Shi Mei but if he was being honest with himself—which was not something for Chu Wanning’s ears—he was rather confident that no one could ever do half the things he did. No matter how smart Shi Mei was, he would never be able to accomplish much of the things Chu Wanning is capable of.
No one could and that's why even with such personality and general attitude, Chu Wanning was kept like a treasure.
“How old is he now?”
“In his fifties?”
“Why can’t he receive the same treatment? He’s smart—smarter than you, you must have spent a lot of your own youth on your knees Wanning to get to where you are.” Again this was not something Mo Ran genuinely believed, he could not even imagine Chu Wanning being agreeable and bending to other’s will. Such a man, would never kneel for anyone but from the conviction in his voice, Chu Wanning could not have read his true feelings. He might have also believed that Mo Ran could not lie even though there are no limits to his learning experience, if humans do anything around him, so can Mo Ran.
Instead of an answer or reprimands, Mo Ran’s voice box was switched off thus he could only keep a sharp glare on the man in front of him, messing with his right arm.
It only got switched back when Chu Wanning needed feedback and Mo Ran watched him fall asleep with two functioning limbs already but only one had feeling in it. His plans for when all of them were back under his control have already been perfected inside his head.
*
It has taken months for Chu Wanning but in the end he managed to piece Mo Ran back together while trying his best to detangle the mess of memories he wished to transfer back.
The basic diagnostics did not show any reason behind the behaviour, the aggression that kept brewing but Chu Wanning started to manually go over ever last code he used while programming, certain he will be able to find the bug.