Cyberpunk 2074: Shadows of the Past

"Good morning, Dad."

"Good morning, Nia." Ruifan looked in the mirror, carefully combed his sparse hair, and said good morning to his baby daughter.

"Where's that brat? Did you drive to work?" Lao Ruifan slowly walked out of the bathroom and came to the dining table, ready to enjoy a delicious breakfast cooked by his daughter.

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

Perhaps because she was carefully cared for by her husband and father, there was no trace of a woman on her body. She was still like a young girl, mindlessly enjoying herself all day long.

"That's good..." Lao Ruifan nodded, while eating fresh fried eggs, holding his mobile phone and clicking on the electronic newspaper.

This is a habit Lao Ruifan developed in the past. When eating in the morning, he had to read all kinds of boring or interesting news in the newspaper to have an appetite.

Even now that paper newspapers have disappeared, Old Ruifan still has no intention of changing this living habit and continues to stubbornly stick to himself.

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

Old Ruifan moved his thumb up and down on the screen while putting food into his mouth. He didn't stop until he reached a certain page of news.

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

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

"It's okay, it's okay..." Lao Ruifan smiled at his daughter, lowered his head and ate half of the remaining omelette, hiding all his turbulent emotions under those old folds.

Nia raised her eyebrows, already a little surprised by her father's strange behavior from time to time.

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

"Um?"

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

"Okay, okay, come back soon!" Nia stood up without raising any suspicion, gave the old man a gentle hug, and then tied the tie for the old man.

"Okay." Ruifan responded softly, swallowing many unsaid words into his stomach together with the remains of the omelette.

As usual, Nia sent her old father to the door and watched his somewhat limping figure slowly step out of the threshold until he disappeared.

For some reason, she always had a strange premonition.

I hope I am overthinking it.

She muttered to herself and closed the door, blocking out the rising sun and the blowing cold wind.

◎

"Hey, have you heard?"

"What?" Dilla scratched his messy hair and asked slightly impatiently.

"You didn't go to the meeting this morning, did you? I really don't know where you went..." The colleague shook his head helplessly, pulled out the chair next to Dilla, and sat down.

"Have a beer! Thanks."

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

It's still this motel, except for the people, nothing seems to have changed much.

The once mature and charming landlady has changed from an aunt to an old lady, and there is no more talkative young driver inviting her for a ride in the car.

Since old Ruifan retired and stopped driving, he rarely came here to eat, drink and have fun. However, Dilla took over the mantle of the old man and always came here to rest in his free time.

"I thought you had given up drinking. Didn't you say you planned to prepare for pregnancy with your wife?"

"Business has been difficult recently... Without money, there is no time to think about these things..." Dilla sighed and took a sip of cold beer.

In 2073, the former rookie driver Dilla had long since faded away and became one of the few experts in the taxi company.

Old Ruifan, the former company ace, was also very satisfied with this boy and simply married his precious daughter to him.

"Hey, look at my memory, the topic has strayed again... Where did I just say something?"

"There will be a meeting in the morning..." Dilla reminded her colleagues angrily, giving her middle finger.

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

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

"Who knows...I heard that they will all be replaced by drones and automated..."

"Automation? Why do they think AI can be better than humans?" Dilla shouted, but her voice became smaller and smaller.

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

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

Dilla's brows knitted together, and an unknown premonition seized his heart.

"I didn't ask... He's an old guy who doesn't like others to take care of him... Since he retired, he should have let the company arrange the job... It won't be a store job, right?"

"Then you have to take the time to go home and take a look. Old Ruifan is so stubborn... If he loses his job, he might do something bad..." A colleague persuaded Dila and asked him to go home and take a look at his Father-in-law.

"Damn... I have another order to run later..." Dilla murmured and slammed the table hard.

In this era when taxi drivers' salaries are falling again and again, you can't make much money just by soliciting customers. The main focus has been on the car reservation list.

Therefore, every reservation they take is crucial. The difference between one more and one less may mean whether you can have enough food the next day.

In order to support her family, Dilla could not give up the job at hand.

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

"Hey, don't be so nervous..." A colleague tugged on Dilla's sleeve, "Old Ruifan has lived for such a long time and is not so easy to commit suicide. Just treat him like a brother. I drank too much and said the wrong thing. Don't I really care about you. If you really care about me, just give me a call."

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

"But this company is the same. It used to use AI to assist driving. Why are these stores now given over to those cold heads?"

"I even wonder if AI has invaded the company's management... From now on, we can just hold meetings online." Dilla twitched the corner of her mouth and told a not-so-funny joke.