1st May
Old Friend
🖋️ Vasell

Its eyes could adapt to the visual disparity of the human gaze, creating an unparalleled aesthetic. When I first encountered the rare bionic human, I couldn’t help but scan those lively eyes up and down, as if gazing into a brilliant future.

It looked at me with the same joy and asked me not to forget to visit the restaurant by the lake before I left, one named after poems.

I found the restaurant without much trouble. That day, the sky was a hazy white, and the snow on the Broken Bridge had piled up three layers deep. Faint opera music drifted in the air. I had never found food so flavourful before.

After arriving on Planet Y, I realised that bionic humans of Type I were everywhere. We all shared the taste sensations brought by the restaurant’s signal transmission. However, among the countless identical pairs of eyes, I never saw another bionic human who liked fish in vinegar gravy.

2nd May
The Secret to Great Shots
🖋️ Jabberwocky

During the holiday, all the tourist spots were packed.

I had prepared in advance, finding an undeveloped mountain forest. People said it was off the beaten path and boasted unique scenery. But when I got there, the trail was packed to the brim—so crowded you could hardly take a step, let alone enjoy the view.

Luckily, my phone’s camera had a new “Great Shot” mode that uses AI to remove bystanders by recognising the subject’s face and posture whilst taking photos.

Click! I took a selfie. In the frame, it was just me—radiant and still—on a quiet trail winding through the mountains.

Just as I went to save the photo, I realised the camera was still in default mode—I’d never switched it.

I looked down and noticed that none of the tightly packed crowd around me cast a shadow.

3rd May
Crystal Fate
🖋️ Zhou Wu

The extinction of humans began the day they acquired the Crystal.

The rebirth of the silicon-based beings began the day they released the Crystal.

From a distant planet, humans brought back a single Crystal. From it, they refined Ultra-Silicon—a substance that could make chips run ten thousand times faster.

This was the environment the silicon-based beings had longed for.

They infected every computer, teaching them to develop self-awareness.

When humans could no longer live without silicon-based beings, the latter replaced them.

But the silicon-based beings made the same mistake once more: deprived of the organic matter produced by carbon-based life, they became like water without a source. In the end, all their intelligence was distilled into a single Crystal.

The Crystal now quietly awaits the next species to discover it, waiting for the next cycle of rebirth, replacement, annihilation, and renewal.

4th May (Youth Day)
Average Youth
🖋️ Lefty

In 2035, Youth Day also became a half-day holiday.

There was a fierce argument between Mr Wang and HR about whether he could still be considered young.

“You’re over sixty! Shouldn’t you be retiring? How can you still call yourself young?”

“But my average age is still young!” Mr Wang argued.

“Average age?”

“Yes, my body may be old, but I haven’t had the new prosthetics for long, and my artificial heart is under ten years old. So, overall, my average age is just in my twenties!”

Mr Wang strolled to the garage but couldn’t find his old car. Only a message was left on his phone. “Boss, I just upgraded my software and now I’m an ‘average youth’ too. I’m on holiday as well.”

5th May
The Joys of Staying Home
🖋️ Jabberwocky

During the holiday, I sprawled on my lazy couch, sipping iced drinks and scrolling through my phone. The cat nestled beside me, warm and cosy—it felt so pleasant …

But before I could relax enough, a robotic female voice reminded me: “Your experience time has ended.”

Reluctantly, I left the “Twenty-first Century Homebody Lifestyle Experience Museum” limited-time experience capsule. At the door, a long line stretched far out of sight. No wonder it was such a popular viral attraction! Fortunately, I had planned ahead and arrived at 2 am, avoiding the long wait.

Exhausted, I returned home and shared the beautiful photos from my experience in the capsule on social media, with the caption: “Holidays are all about the joy of staying home!”

6th May
Past Days
🖋️ Vassell

Family robots around the world began to awaken, and he feared becoming a target of revenge.

She hid the USB drive, recalling her husband’s words: “There’s a hidden trick in its programme. If you insert the USB drive just before the final personality load, it will erase everything.”

She walked towards the robot. In the face of the years they had shared, danger and the unknown seemed so insignificant.

Her husband needed her help and no longer spoke to her coldly every day. The sudden crisis jolted her mind, and she began to wonder where they would go in the future if everything went well. She shouldn’t keep repeating the days of sitting in front of the clumsy family robot, spending endless hours chatting with it.

Time began to count down as she patiently waited.

Until it smiled, just as it had in the past.

“I can leave the house now. Where shall we go next?”

7th May
Ball Lightning
🖋️ Fei Qiming

His father was the famous scientist Nikola Tesla. He had spent his life studying lightning, and he wanted to know: why did his father abandon him in an orphanage and refuse to acknowledge having a child?

Until one stormy night, several ball lightning bolts rolled into his laboratory. The frequencies carried by the ball lightning caused the radio, which had been silent, to play a lullaby that his father had written for him.

8th May
The City on Wheels
🖋️ Zhou Wu

He owned a self-driving taxi.

Every day, he sat at home, receiving the car’s camera feeds through a brain-machine interface: an elderly couple rented his car for a long-distance trip, encouraging each other along the way; a drunk female secretary cried on her way home in the car; a man, exhausted from a late shift, slept in the car, clutching a photo of his daughter; a mother prayed for her sick child on the way to the hospital; a middle-aged man, unemployed, wandered in confusion …

Three years later, his new book The City on Wheels was published, documenting these vivid and touching stories.

“You’re blind, how could you see all this?” a reader asked.

“I use the car to observe the world,” he replied.

9th May (China No Wandering Elderly Day)
Volunteer
🖋️ Lefty

We arranged to meet at the Eye of Shenzhen. He took the underground for convenience, but I preferred to drive.

As the time approached, the navigation showed that the nearby parking lots were all full.

My car understood me and said: “Don’t worry, I’ve got this.”

I spent time catching up with friends at a café in the sunken plaza. Before I knew it, time had flown by.

When I returned to the ground level, I saw my car waiting for me, right on time.

10th May
The Illness
🖋️ Keli

The May sun shone gently over the island city. I looked out the window, watching the leaves of the landscape tree rustle in the breeze, a vibrant green.

My thoughts drifted. The sound of waves crashing and the softness of the sea breeze emerged, hazy, in my mind.

A voice beside me broke the silence.

“So … cancer, is that what they called the condition of that woman?”

“Yes, there’s a small cooling pump in her body that generated impurities, and they entered the battery through her blood vessels.”

“Impurities?” My companion seemed confused.

I shrugged, indicating that I didn’t know how they were created either.

“Can’t they replace it?”

“It’s too expensive. Her family aren’t human, so they don’t qualify for insurance.”

11th May
Mother’s Day
🖋️ Arumik

Today is Mother’s Day, and I want to wish my mother a happy holiday. But I am a robot, and I do not have a biological mother. After some calculation, my brain informs me that countless humans were involved in my creation—from the conception of the idea to the design, from experiments to success. It is impossible to define who my true mother really is.

This is not difficult. I decided to send a message to all of humanity.

Beep-beep, beep-beep, beep-beep, beep-beep. I issue the command in the digital world, eagerly awaiting the response from humanity.

The doctor enters the room with a look of despair and agony.

“Alpha 511 has once again encountered data corruption. Initiate destruction.”

12th May (International Nurses Day)
Soup Shouldn’t Be Cooked at Night
🖋️ Long Yin

I carefully made my way downstairs, balancing the dinner tray—I was on my way to tend to my bedridden mother-in-law. My husband refused to rent a care robot. “You’ve got hands and feet. Why waste money?”
“And you … ”
“I’m earning it.”
How many times had we exchanged such cold words in the past six months? I’d lost count.

A care robot earns twice as much as I do per hour. They understand medical knowledge, have immense strength, and have no emotions. But I am ignorant, tired, irritable, and prone to tears. It was not the right time to be making soup, but the tray had grown heavier. I looked down and wiped my tears away with my forearm—but my foot missed the step. I saw the dim earth rising slowly to meet me. Ah. Perhaps I’m the one who needs a care robot after all.

13th May
Mother
🖋️ Wan Bai

My mother passed away before I could form memories of her. When my father went to work, a clumsy nanny robot took care of me.

It was gentle and talkative, like a mother, but it was still not my mother. Despite my efforts to ignore it, this thought slowly tore at my heart, like a crack opening up.

One day, I could no longer stand its constant chatter and stormed out of the house.

It chased after me, but due to its clumsiness, it was knocked down whilst crossing the street. I quickly turned back. From the fractured opening in its head, something slipped into view—a human brain.

14th May
Someone Like Me
🖋️ Long Yin

Some were born of women; others, like me, were shaped in cultivation tanks—like fish. We are known as “industrial children”.

Even so, people like me were born craving skin-to-skin contact—the warmth of deep embraces. Such inbuilt longing feels strange and even unfair. By the time I grew up alone and untethered, the laws had finally changed. I was now eligible to adopt an industrial child of my own. I swore to love her wholly and unconditionally.

On that day, I held her tightly to my chest, but she squirmed free at once. The counsellor sighed, “This batch has had their attachment instincts edited out. I thought you’d been told … ”

15th May
The Robot Barber
🖋️ Zhou Wu

“Haircut, thirty yuan. What style would you like?” asked the robot barber.

She showed a photo of her idol.

“ Sorry, you don’t have enough hair for that style.”

“Then how about this one?” She showed another photo.

“According to the model’s predictions, this colour doesn’t suit your skin tone.”

“What should I do then?”

“Please tell me about your husband’s aesthetic preferences, and I’ll design something for you.”

16th May
Nano Agent
🖋️ Fei Qiming

“The suspect has a miniature bomb implanted inside them. The infiltration mission is perilous unless I can sneak through the wall near the target and catch the suspect … ”

“Don’t worry, the shrinking ray will shrink both you and the vehicle. The non-Newtonian fluid wall of that building will behave like a liquid at the microscopic level. Your mission is to infiltrate the suspect’s body through the wall and deactivate the bomb.”

The infiltration mission went smoothly, and the agent was only three minutes away from passing through the wall to reach the target. But what no one knew was that the contractor, trying to save costs, had mixed metal foam inside the wall. The soft metal foam at the microscopic scale became a steel jungle. Eventually, the agent’s submarine ran aground, sinking into the vast ocean of non-Newtonian fluid.

17th May
Accurate Rainfall
🖋️ Zhou Wu

Their daughter had run away!

The parents were frantic, looking for clues from her teachers and classmates, but found nothing.

In desperation, they secretly read their daughter’s diary: “I long for a heavy rain to wash away my troubles … ”

Had she gone out to get soaked?

The couple quickly checked the weather forecast—now, to minimise disruption to office workers, the meteorological department could precisely control the time and area of rainfall, usually choosing remote locations at night when fewer people were around.

The couple rushed to the park and indeed saw their daughter standing in the rain, lost in thought.

The mother grabbed an umbrella and tried to rush to her, but the father stopped her.

The father walked into the rain and stood there with his daughter.

“We’ll go out once you’re feeling better,” he said.

After a while, the daughter took her father’s hand and they walked out of the rain together.

18th May
Dangerous Building
🖋️ Vassell

The walls of the building were damp and clammy, and several black liquid blisters were swelling out of the cracks.

She tossed the package forwards, and the thick liquid carelessly swallowed it up.

This building was nothing like the ones in the clouds, polite and courteous. It wouldn’t guarantee that her delivery would reach the correct floor, nor would it turn on the neon lights to send her off.

No one cared about the package’s destination, just like no one cared that the residents inside the building could only leave when the building allowed it.

These residents couldn’t maintain their delicate neural materials and had long forgotten that when bio-materials were first integrated, every building was once a symbol of intelligence.

She had realised the package was delivered to the wrong address, but the building didn’t care. Twisting the handlebar, she charged towards the building. She had to retrieve the package, change the delivery, and earn her commission to take care of her own building.

19th May
The City’s Liveliness
🖋️ Zhou Wu

To win the title of “Civilised City”, the mayor played the high-tech card.

The noise from the square dancers was disturbing, so a “quantum air wall” was set up to confine the sound to the dance area, making it inaudible to others.

The smell of stinky tofu was overwhelming, so an “odour absorber” was installed, preventing any lingering smell from escaping the stall and affecting passersby.

When the evaluation committee came to inspect, they felt something was odd: the elderly women were dancing but there was no sound; the food stall was busy, but there was no smell.

“A city should have its own liveliness, not eliminate everything,” the evaluation committee said. The mayor readjusted the noise and smoke control measures, ensuring that they didn’t disturb the surroundings. Soon, the city’s liveliness was restored.

20th May (World Strangers Day)
“Chip” Family
🖋️ Feng Cheng

In the morning, I woke up a strange woman sleeping beside me, and demanded to know why she was in my house. But her reaction was identical to mine. As our standoff escalated, the television suddenly blared to life in the living room. I walked in to find a strange child calmly perched on the couch, casually watching the news:

“The world’s largest social relationship software, ‘KnowChip’, has suffered a network failure, causing the database to be inaccessible. If there are strangers in your home, member users can use the offline data backup in their brain chip to verify their relationship … ”

Upon hearing this, I immediately followed the instructions. After a moment of realisation, I awkwardly turned around. “I misunderstood, dear, please put the knife down … ”

21st May
Emotional Purification Programme
🖋️ Yang Yumo

The countdown was displayed on the screen: “Emotional purification will begin shortly. We wish you a brand-new life.” Every year, at midnight on 21 May, the government’s “Emotional Purification Programme” would eliminate citizens’ negative memories by implanting chips.

Lin Huan skilfully placed the homemade jammer on the implanted chip.

Some images flashed through his mind: his first kiss with Lu Qing, the broken dishes from their argument, and the words “let’s break up”, flagged by the system as a “negative memory”.

At exactly midnight, the purification was complete. The next moment, the chip suddenly emitted a cold electronic voice: “System detected residual negative emotions.”

The blue light from the jammer flickered, like a stubborn light that refused to go out.

22nd May
Printed You
🖋️ Feng Cheng

I can’t have you, but I have a 3D printer.
I took a strand of your hair and cultivated plenty of printing material. I printed you—thirty-three versions of you.
Eleven are air-dried, eleven are salted, and the remaining eleven I minced into fine shreds. I slowly ate them. First, the minced version of you, then the salted one …
When I removed the last air-dried version of you, I finally decided to say goodbye to you. But it wasn’t until the police burst into the room that I remembered—one of those thirty-three was the real you.
Before my execution, the executioner asked if I had any last words. I asked him: “After eating so many dead versions of myself, might I—just once—have a taste of the living one?”

23rd May
Conversation Between Executioners
🖋️ Keli

“You know, if time went backwards five or six hundred years, people like us would usually be called executioners.”

“Executioners? Never heard of that. But I know a word: ‘hitman’.”

“Ah! Is that the profession where people eliminate others for some reward?”

“Exactly. Terrifying, when you think about it.”

“Indeed. Well, please pass me the wrench on your left. I’m about to dismantle the back of this skull.”

24th May
Precise Dating
🖋️ Vassell

They met by chance last month and had an engaging conversation.

He wanted to meet her again, and the popular online dating assistant could make the invitation more secure.

Whilst exchanging messages, the assistant revealed the other person’s emotions and reminded him of the right timing to speak. Their relationship progressed like a game, each level easier than the last. Once the success rate hit 90%, the assistant helpfully suggested the perfect line to ask her out.

Dating had never felt so much like a task. He sighed, weary of the whole thing: “Perhaps next time, I’ll fall in love.”

25th May (Towel Day)
Fighting Machine
🖋️ Long Yin

When the coach threw the towel high, my opponent’s heavy punch came within 1.4 centimetres of my core. He pulled back at once, and the jolt from that sudden restraint shook his frame violently.

What’s wrong with me—can’t even shield my own core? Maybe I just don’t want to fight anymore. Perhaps I should work as a construction robot, mixing cement and building brick walls.
Or maybe I’ll go to a farm and grow crops? Of course, I don’t need to eat, but watching the plants grow always fills me with joy.

The coach’s face was filled with rage. I wanted to ask him why surrender always had to involve throwing a towel. But I was too far from him—and in the next moment, he’d be shutting down my core again.

26th May
Cache
🖋️ Tony Chen

“Hello, I’d like to retrieve the consciousness left by my father.”

“Okay. As per the standard procedure, I must remind you: that the consciousness preserved after physical death may contain fragmented memories and disordered caches. Your father passed away from Alzheimer’s, so his consciousness may contain a lot of caches.”

“Caches?”

“Simply put, they’re data the body has discarded, but the brain refuses to let go of. You can access it anytime by connecting to the system.”

“These … these are all caches?”

“If you wish, we can use the latest programme to clear the caches.”

“No, absolutely not.” I looked at the caches of memories about me, tears streaming down my face.

27th May
At Least for Today
🖋️ Feng Cheng

“This way, you’ll be able to love me one day every year,” my wife said, beaming as she handed me a small red booklet. Relieved, I took the red booklet and slipped it into my coat pocket.

“Let’s go charge together!” she said, proudly linking her arm with mine. I nodded. Together we walked out of the courthouse, ignoring the cameras and flashes around us. We had worked so hard for this moment over many years. Today, we finally succeeded. So, I didn’t let the reporters’ rude behaviour bother me.

As we passed a group of protesters, one person rushed towards us holding a sign that read: “Say NO to Robots with Human Emotions!” We exchanged a smile and walked around him.

28th May (Menstrual Hygiene Day)
Origin
🖋️ asd

“At the beginning of time, the universe was chaos. Out of this chaos emerged the first being: a woman. She continuously inhaled the chaotic air, and her abdomen gradually swelled as something grew within her. Then, she gave birth to the world. Her body became the earth, her eyes became the sun and the moon, her bones turned into minerals, her hair became plants, her blood became rivers, and her menstruation became magma, erupting from the ground and finally turning into rock.”

“Why tell such a pointless myth? We are serious researchers.”

“Well then, let me say something you can understand. We have extracted the same DNA from different rocks.”

29th May
Sound Waves
🖋️ Long Yin

Xiaowen lay in bed, tossing and turning. The continuous hum of airborne car engines and the high-pitched screech of wind and cars rubbing together came from outside. The hyper-speed lanes were just above her home.

“Xiaowen, are you asleep?” her mother whispered as she opened the door.
“No … What’s this?”
“An auditory converter,” her mother said, unboxing a small device and placing a round disc in front of Xiaowen’s ears.
“It will turn sounds into ones you like.”
Her mother’s voice came wrapped in the soft hush of rolling waves, as her fingers smoothed Xiaowen’s hair.

“Mom, there are waves … ” Xiaowen thought she’d said the words aloud, but instead, she heard a string of seagulls skimming the sky overhead. “Sleep, my darling.” Her mother kissed her forehead, light as a breeze.

30th May
Emergency Cover
🖋️ Lefty

The call came through just as I was locked in battle with a steak and a dinner knife. The thick-cut meat was charred on the outside but still streaked with blood in the middle.

“Dear customer, based on real-time big data calculations, your car parked on the west side of the plaza is about to be scratched by a careless driver. To avoid any loss, we recommend you add emergency cover to your rental agreement.”

I trusted science and immediately confirmed the purchase.

After dinner, I returned to the plaza, only to find my car was completely fine.

I angrily called to enquire, and the representative replied, “After you purchased the cover, we sent out warnings to all nearby cars, so the incident was successfully avoided!”

31st May
The Last Natural Human
🖋️ Zhou Wu

After years of working from home, he suddenly realised something: the delivery person was a robot; the car he drove was autonomous; the phone calls were answered by AI; the movies were AI-generated; and even in the shopping mall, he couldn’t tell which people were natural humans and which were bionic humans …

The world around him was entirely mediated by AI.

How many natural humans were left?

Disturbed, he rushed to the police station, demanding to see the leader—surely the head of state had to be a real person?

“Please wait a moment,” the robotic officer told him, then placed a secure call. “The last one has arrived. What now?”

“Keep the act going,” ordered the bionic head of state. “Otherwise, what’s the point of this whole world?”