Cyberpunk 2074: Shadows of the Past.

Chapter 61 The Past: Chariots (II)

"Good morning, Dad."

"Good morning, Nia." Rui Fan said good morning to his precious daughter while facing the mirror, combing his sparse hair carefully.

"Where's that brat? Driving to work?" Old Rui Fan slowly walked out of the bathroom and came to the dining table, ready to enjoy a delicious breakfast made by his daughter.

"As usual." Nia smiled, showing two lovely dimples.

Perhaps because of the careful care of her husband and father, she does not have the slightest sign of a woman on her body, and she is still like a young girl, having fun all day long without heart or lung.

"That's good..." Old Rui Fan nodded, while eating fresh fried eggs, he opened the electronic newspaper while holding his mobile phone.

This was a habit that old Rui Fan had developed in the past. When eating in the morning, he had to read all kinds of boring or interesting news in the newspaper to get his appetite.

Even now that paper newspapers have died out, old Rui Fan still has no intention of changing this living habit, and continues to stubbornly stick to himself.

He would rather spend most of his time delving into mobile phones with increasingly new functions, just to download a useful news APP.

Old Rui Fan swiped his thumb up and down on the screen while feeding food into his mouth, and didn't stop until he reached a message on a certain side.

"What's wrong?" Nia asked with her head tilted, looking at her old father with a look of petrification in surprise.

Old Rui Fan was awakened by her words, and silently wiped the sweat from his head, but his hand holding the tissue was slightly trembling.

"It's okay, it's okay..." Old Ruifan squeezed a smile at his daughter, lowered his head to eat the half of the fried egg left, and hid all his turbulent emotions under those old wrinkles.

Nia raised her eyebrows, she was no longer surprised by her father's strange behavior from time to time.

"Nia...I..." Old Rui Fan hesitated for a few seconds, opened his mouth wide, but couldn't utter a word.

"Ok?"

"It's okay... I'll clean up and get ready to go to work." Lao Ruifan tried his best to speak in a calm tone, trying not to let his daughter see the flaws.

"Okay, okay, come back early!" Nia didn't get suspicious, stood up, gave the old man a hug, and tied the tie for the old man.

"Okay." Rui Fan responded softly, swallowing many unspoken words mixed with the leftovers of fried eggs into his stomach.

Nia sent the old father to the door as usual, and watched his limping back slowly step out of the threshold until he disappeared.

For some reason, she always had a strange premonition.

Hope you think about it more.

Talking to herself, she closed the door, blocking the rising sun and the cold wind from outside the house.

◎

"Hey, did you hear that?"

"What?" Dila scratched her messy hair and asked impatiently.

"Did you not go to the meeting this morning? I really don't know where you went..." The colleague shook his head helplessly, pulled away the chair next to Dila, and sat down.

"Have a beer! Thanks."

"Two glasses," Dilla said to the waiter who was walking towards them.

It's the same motel, nothing seems to have changed much except the people.

The once mature and charming proprietress has changed from an aunt to an old lady, and no more verbal young drivers invite her to go for a drive in the car.

Since old Rui Fan retired from driving, he seldom came here to eat, drink and have fun, but Dila took over the mantle of the old man and always came here to rest in his spare time.

"I thought you quit drinking. Didn't you say that you planned to prepare for pregnancy with your wife?"

"Business is difficult recently... I don't have money, so I don't have the time to think about it..." Dila sighed and drank cold beer.

In 2073, Dila, a former rookie driver, has long since faded from her youthfulness and has become one of the few good players in the taxi company.

The former ace of the company, Old Rui Fan, was also very satisfied with this kid, so he simply married his precious daughter to him.

"Hey, look at my memory, the topic is off the topic again...Where did I just say it?"

"Morning meeting..." Dila pointed her middle finger at her colleague and reminded angrily.

"Ah, that's it." The colleague slapped his thigh and kept nodding, "You don't know yet, do you? They opened everyone on the store floor!"

"Are they crazy?" Dila frowned, deeply puzzled by the operation of the company's senior management, "If you turn all those old people on, where can you find experienced employees who have received full-time training?"

"Who knows... I heard that all of them are going to be replaced with drones and automated..."

"Automation? Why do they think that AI is better than humans?" Dila yelled, but her voice became smaller and smaller.

No matter how unwilling he is to accept it psychologically, he has to admit that AI is gradually taking their place.

"You look more and more like old Rui Fan..." The colleague sighed softly, "By the way, how is the old man recently? Hasn't he retired and stopped driving? What job is he doing now?"

Dila frowned, and an ominous premonition gripped his heart.

"I didn't ask... He, an old guy, doesn't like others to care about him... Since he retired, he should be working for the company... Isn't it a store job?"

"Then you have to take some time to go home and have a look. Old Rui Fan is so stubborn... If you lose your job, maybe something will happen to you..." The colleague persuaded Dila to go home and take a look at his old man.

"Damn it... I still have a list to run..." Dila murmured and thumped the table hard.

In this period when the salaries of taxi drivers are falling again and again, it is not enough to make a lot of money just by soliciting customers.The main bulk has been transferred to the list of car reservations.

Therefore, every appointment list they take over is very important. The difference between one more and one less may be the question of whether they can have enough food the next day.

In order to support her family, it is impossible for Dila to give up the job at hand.

"At this point, the old guy should have gone to work..." Dila stood up, paced back and forth on the spot, muttering silently, trying to convince herself.

"Hey, don't be so nervous..." The colleague tugged on Dila's sleeve, "Old Ruifan has lived for so long, it is not so easy to commit suicide, just treat yourself like an old brother, I drank too much and said something wrong, don't I'm too worried about it. If you really care about it, just make a phone call."

"Okay... I almost forgot..." Dila sat back on the chair with some dejection, and drank the remaining beer in the glass in one gulp.

"But this company is also the same. It was fine to use AI to assist driving before, but now even these stores are given over to those cold heads?"

"I even wonder if AI has already invaded the company's management... In the future, we can hold meetings directly online." Dila twitched the corner of her mouth and told a not-so-funny joke.

(End of this chapter)