82: Chapter 82: Global Tears Burst, Doraemon Speaks: I've Returned from the Future!

The moment Doraemon opened its mouth, the world fell silent!

The dome of the convention center was almost blown off by the wave of sound.

Screams, roars, mixed with disbelieving bellows, converged into a mental tsunami that swept through the three thousand people present.

Countless people sprang from their seats, craning their necks desperately. Those faces, usually dressed in suits and maintaining a veneer of decency, now held only raw fanaticism and shock.

Lu Li stood at the center of the storm, but merely picked at his ear, bored.

He turned his head and complained in a low voice to Su Qingxue, whose eyes were red and whose fingertips were trembling with excitement:

"If I had known it would be this noisy, I should have worn noise-canceling headphones..."

"..."

Su Qingxue's surging excitement and pride were almost choked back by his words.

She gave him a look that was both annoyed and amused, yet her heart felt like it had been filled with honey, sweet to the point of cloying.

This was her man.

While the whole world was going crazy over his creation, he only cared about whether it would be too loud for his ears.

Lu Li raised his hand and pressed down slightly toward the stage.

A simple gesture, yet it seemed to carry some kind of magic; the uproarious venue gradually quieted down as if by a miracle.

Everyone stared at him, waiting for the next miracle.

"Don't get too excited, it's just basic operation." Lu Li spoke lazily into the microphone, his tone sounding like he had just woken up. "Did the livestream chat explode? Chen Shuyu."

He cast his gaze precisely toward a corner offstage.

"Chen Shuyu, remember to ask Douyin for some compensation. We're taking a loss on this traffic tonight; we need at least a few more days of homepage recommendations."

Chen Shuyu gripped the back of her chair; her legs, which had gone weak, finally regained their strength.

She looked at the man on stage who was chatting and laughing with such ease, a helpless curve tugging at the corners of her mouth.

This guy.

Even if the sky were to fall, he'd probably still have this attitude.

With current popularity like this, let alone a few days, even ten days on the Douyin homepage would be no problem.

Even the Shanghai Composite Index, specifically the AI sector, would likely hit several daily limit-ups.

Lu Li leaned down and patted Doraemon's round belly, producing a dull "thud, thud" sound.

"It just so happens that my sister is also at the scene."

He waved toward a certain direction in the audience.

"Yaoguang, use your sharp eye, find me the cutest kid in the audience to come up and play with our Blue Fatty."

The spotlight hit the audience instantly. Amidst gazes of envy and jealousy, Lu Yaoguang stood up excitedly, patrolling her territory like a proud queen.

She quickly locked onto a target in the front row: a little girl in a princess dress with pigtails, holding a Doraemon doll, her big eyes filled with longing.

Encouraged by her mother, the little girl was carried onto the stage by staff.

She wasn't shy at all; she curiously walked around Doraemon, reached out her little hand, and carefully poked its blue body.

"Hello there, little one."

Doraemon lowered its head, its LCD screen eyes curving into two gentle crescents. Its voice was a soft, milky child's tone, optimized through AI deep learning to be the most endearing to children.

The little girl's eyes lit up instantly: "Are... are you really Doraemon? Do you have treasures in your pocket?"

"Of course I do." Doraemon replied earnestly, and then the white "four-dimensional pocket" on its belly opened slightly.

Its round hand reached in, fumbled for a long time, and finally... pulled out a strawberry-flavored Alpenliebe lollipop.

"Here, have a treat."

This scene caused the tense nerves in the audience to instantly relax, erupting into a burst of good-natured laughter.

The high-and-mighty black technology was, at this moment, full of childlike wonder and the warmth of everyday life.

The little girl happily took the lollipop, put it in her mouth, and asked in a muffled voice: "Doraemon, my mom said that the stars in the sky blink. Is that true? Why do they blink?"

As soon as the question was asked, the whole venue went quiet again.

This was a simple yet complex question.

Everyone wanted to see how this Robot would answer. Would it recite encyclopedia entries rigidly like a normal AI, or...

Doraemon tilted its head, seemingly in thought.

The next second, the image on its ultra-clear curved screen eyes changed abruptly.

The crescent eyes disappeared, replaced by a deep, vast starry sky!

"Well, that's because the starlight has to pass through a very, very thick atmosphere before it reaches our eyes."

Doraemon's voice was gentle and clear. On its screen, a beam of light shot down from the universe, and as it entered a simulated blue atmosphere, it began to distort and sway irregularly.

"The atmosphere isn't still; it's constantly flowing, and its density changes, so when starlight passes through it, it gets... wobbled around like this. That's why, to us, it looks like the stars are blinking."

On those two small screens, top-tier CG animation demonstrated the complex principle of atmospheric refraction, making it as simple and easy to understand as a fairy tale.

The venue was dead silent.

If the previous walking and talking were miracles of engineering, then this was a dimensionality-reduction strike of artificial intelligence and content ecosystem!

In the first row, Lei Jun felt his throat being gripped by an invisible hand.

It's over...

Only these two words remained in his mind.

This wasn't just some Robot; this was a super early-education machine integrated with top-tier AI, elite educational resources, and the strongest interactive capabilities!

His own company's pride and joy, Xiao Ai, couldn't even be considered a repeater in front of this—at best, it was an... electronic urn.

He felt as if he could already see his company's stock price plummeting thousands of feet at the opening tomorrow.

In the corner, the representative of the Fujiko production company, the middle-aged Ms. Fujimoto Masami, covered her mouth tightly, but tears streamed uncontrollably from between her fingers.

Her father, Fujiko F. Fujio, had spent his whole life using manga to popularize knowledge and inspire dreams for children.

And today, a technology company from the East had perfectly inherited and elevated this legacy in a way her father couldn't have even imagined.

Just then, a sudden change occurred!

Behind the side of the stage, a staff member responsible for equipment maintenance—an elderly man—suddenly slipped while carrying cables and fell straight backward!

"Bang!"

With a dull thud, the old man fell to the ground, motionless, his face turning pale instantly.

The whole venue was shocked!

Su Qingxue and Chen Shuyu's hearts instantly leaped into their throats!

An accident at the press conference?!

However, faster than the on-site security, it was Doraemon that reacted!

Almost within 0.1 seconds of the man falling, its internal visual sensors and vital sign monitoring system judged it a "Level 1 Emergency."

"Human fall detected, heart rate abnormal, suspected sudden cardiac arrest!"

The cold electronic voice rang out. Doraemon was no longer that cute, chubby Blue Fatty; it turned suddenly and rushed over with a speed completely inconsistent with its size.

At the same time, a clear, automated emergency call came from the speaker in its chest.

"Beep... Hello, is this the 120 Emergency Center? At the Guanghui Technology press conference, left side of the stage in Area A, an adult male has suddenly collapsed and lost consciousness. Preliminary diagnosis is cardiac arrest. Current coordinates: 121.4 degrees East Longitude, 31.2 degrees North Latitude. Please send an ambulance immediately!"

Precise! Calm! Efficient!

While the whole venue was still in shock and chaos, it had already completed the entire process of location, alarm, and symptom description!

It rushed to the side of the "old man," knelt halfway, and pressed its round hands onto his chest. Its internal pressure sensors began to rapidly calculate the force and depth of the compressions.

"Cardiopulmonary resuscitation starting now!"

Just as it was about to press down, the "fallen" old man did a kip-up, jumped up from the ground himself, and even dusted himself off.

"Drill over! Doraemon's reaction time: 0.8 seconds. Processing flow: Perfect!"

Venue: "..."

Livestream: "???"

So it was an actor!

After a brief silence, applause more intense than any before erupted!

This was no longer a toy!

This was a guardian deity that could save lives at critical moments!

Lu Li looked at the audience members who were so excited they were incoherent, the curve of his mouth deepening.

His gaze finally fell on Ms. Fujimoto Masami, who was raising her hand continuously, her face covered in tear tracks.

He took a deep breath and spoke slowly into the microphone:

"Next, I would like to invite a special guest."

Under the spotlight, with the help of staff, Fujimoto Masami walked onto the stage step by step. Her hands were trembling, and her eyes never left that blue figure.

She walked up to Doraemon.

Doraemon looked at her quietly, and the image in its eyes, which had been displaying the vast starry sky, changed once again.

This time, what appeared on the screen was a yellowed, wrinkled black-and-white photo.

In the photo, a man wearing a beret with a gentle smile was sitting at a drawing desk, looking down and sketching something.

It was Fujiko F. Fujio.

Doraemon bowed slowly and deeply toward Fujimoto Masami.

Then, it raised its head and, using that most classic, honest, and time-traveling-like voice, said softly:

"Ms. Fujimoto, nice to meet you."

"I have waited for this day for forty-eight years."

"Thank you to your father for drawing me."

"I've kept him waiting for a long time. I... have finally returned from the future."

Boom!

Fujimoto Masami could no longer hold it back, she burst into tears and hugged that round, blue body.

In the audience, Lei Jun, that iron-willed man, suddenly took off his glasses and wiped his eyes fiercely with the back of his hand.

Countless people from the 70s, 80s, and 90s who grew up watching Doraemon, at this moment, no matter where they were or what their status was, all had red-rimmed eyes.

That was not a Robot.

That was the childhood we could never return to.

That was the dream we had lost.

Today.

He has returned.