Chapter 25: Simba at the Rainbow Police Station

As Xi Zhijie traversed his luxurious villa on Sentosa Island, eight miles away in the alleys of Geylang, Ronan emerged from the kitchen and handed the third glass of homemade iced kopi to Zhou Yongtai.

The latter raised his eyes, looking at the man he had known for only four or five days, yet who had boldly taken them in.

That morning, the moment he realized Ada was missing, Zhou Yongtai—an adult who lacked any real-world experience in dealing with human society—had spilled the entire story of his and Ada’s origins to Ronan, overwhelmed by a storm of paralyzing fear.

Of course, because his command of Chinese was sufficient to describe the harrowing scenes, the young and panicked traveler had also described the unrecognizable world of fifty years in the future. He told Ronan that while he was a human and Ada was a mechanical servant, both of them existed in a state of painful suspicion and distrust toward everyone, whether living humans or AI.

Therefore, he did not want to call the police, and not just because they lacked legal identities in this world.

He was still clinging to a sliver of hope.

Perhaps Ada had merely been driven away by an overly zealous yet timid neighbor who, fearing the escalating danger in the alley, had taken her to a safer distance and would return once things had settled down.

Ronan did not respond with a look of confusion or judgment. Instead, after taking photos of the surroundings of the old house, he walked back to the apartment in silence, with Zhou Yongtai following close behind.

Zhou Yongtai clutched the blanket Ada had used to disguise herself as a living person, curled up on the sofa where she had slept for the past few days, staring at his phone screen in anticipation of her call.

Ronan stood behind the curtains on the balcony, pulling them open just a crack to overlook the alley.

Men were emerging from the nightclub, carrying the dismantled "princess" robots into the lobby. These men were all well-built, yet none of them had stepped forward to support their boss when the incident occurred earlier.

Connecting this to what Ah Hua the plumber had said—that he had never seen the woman who led the disruption—Ronan became increasingly convinced that this was a trap specifically set for Zhou Yongtai and Ada.

Ronan looked back at the sofa. Zhou Yongtai looked like a stray kitten whose mother had been snatched away. As he had confessed, Ada was no mere mechanical servant; she was clearly his mother figure in this post-apocalyptic reality.

Ronan sat down in front of the half-finished portrait of Ada he had started the night before, crossing his arms and assuming a posture of waiting alongside Zhou Yongtai.

He did not initiate conversation, but if the "stray kitten" on the sofa occasionally spoke of the horrors of robots hunting humans, Ronan would immediately turn his gaze toward him, signaling that he was a willing listener.

Finally, as the wall clock neared noon, Zhou Yongtai suddenly stood up and asked, "Mr. Ronan, what should we do now?"

"Ah Tai, do you think I might have betrayed you? After all, I was the one who approached you that day."

"Huh?" Zhou Yongtai blinked, startled. Even this delay in processing the question was a trait he had picked up from Ada.

"It wouldn't be you," Zhou Yongtai said. "You did approach us to sell your paintings, but we had only been in this world for half a day, and choosing that lottery station was random. Besides, if you were an accomplice, they could have acted on the very first night. However..."

"However what?"

"However, if the people who took Ada didn't care about leaving you and me out here, why is that?"

Ronan replied candidly, "I can only guess that you were discovered while repairing cleaning robots at the food court or buying Toto at the lottery station; I can't think of anything else. But Ah Tai, since you trust me, shall I take you to see a friend now?"

"Won't we be followed? A woman followed us all day before."

"Ah Tai, if I were still an oblivious, well-meaning person, taking you to the police station right now would actually seem the most normal thing to do. Think about it, right?"

"Uh, still going to the police station? I don't have a legal identity."

"We're going to the station, but we aren't really reporting it to the police."

...

Half an hour later, Ronan and Zhou Yongtai stepped out of a Grab car.

Before them stood a piece of classical architecture. The six-story building, supported by white Roman columns, featured nearly a thousand arched and rectangular shutters, painted in regional sections of red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and violet. Against the bright tropical blue sky, it looked as beautiful as a postcard.

"This is... a police station?" Zhou Yongtai asked in surprise. In the Grimsom novels he had read, the police stations in the illustrations were never this beautiful.

While keeping an eye on the surroundings, Ronan replied, "This is the Old Hill Street Police Station. It was a police station when the British colonized Singapore, and later it became a cultural center. But in 2030, it was converted back."

They walked into the ground-floor reception hall. In the spacious area, besides a few living people waiting for their numbers, there was only one human officer on duty; everyone else bustling about were mechanical servants.

Ronan walked up to a mechanical servant: "Reporting a crime. Missing person."

The mechanical servant registered Ronan’s permit information and handed him a number.

Zhou Yongtai sat down in the front row of the waiting area with Ronan, staring at the only human officer who was currently assisting a reporter.

The officer had a very standard Indian face, yet his Chinese was extremely fluent.

"Little one, my name isn't Simba; it's Singh," he said with a smile to the young boy in front of him, revealing teeth that looked even whiter against his dark skin. "But calling me Simba is fine, too, because 'Singh' also means 'lion'."

The young boy was effectively comforted by the gentle "lion" officer and stopped tearing up. He was a tourist from China who had been separated from his parents near the art gallery and had been brought to the nearest police station by a kind stranger.

Singh gave the boy a candy and a small Merlion badge, and in the relaxed atmosphere, he finally helped the boy recall his parents' phone number.

After Singh connected with the distraught parents on the other end, he asked the kind stranger who had brought the boy in to wait with him to the side.

As he pressed the button for the next number, Singh's gaze locked onto Ronan.

After Ronan and Zhou Yongtai sat down, the first thing Singh said was: "Let me guess, Mr. Ronan, are you behind on your rent again?" He spoke without any concern for the presence of the stranger, Zhou Yongtai.

"Please give me a piece of paper, Officer, not a case registration form," Ronan said.

Singh's playful expression faded, and he cast a suspicious glance at Zhou Yongtai.

Ronan wrote in Malay on the paper: "Help me contact Jiayi. I have shocking news to tell her, related to her research project. I may be being hunted."