The Magical Feasibility Report

After returning to her studio, Lu Yuning sat at her design desk, her mind completely occupied by Su Bai’s words at lunch.

“A Sichuan peppercorn-picking robot...”

She bit her red lips, her pale fingers unconsciously twisting a measuring tape.

In her understanding, Su Bai was an all-powerful mysterious tycoon boss. Since he had brought up this idea, and it did sound quite reasonable, maybe she should take it seriously?

After all, if such a robot actually existed, the next time the boss took her to eat spicy hot pot, she wouldn’t have to waste all that time picking out peppercorns.

Thinking this, Lu Yuning nervously picked up her phone, opened WeChat, and found Chen Yusheng’s profile picture.

Feeling a bit tense, she typed and deleted the message several times, carefully weighing each word, before finally sending it with caution.

Lu Yuning: [Sheng Sheng, are you busy right now? 【Rabbit peeking.gif】]

Chen Yusheng replied almost instantly: [Not busy, just got back from the lab, having a drink of water in the living room. What’s up, Yuning?]

Lu Yuning took a deep breath, holding her phone with both hands as she typed: [Well... today at noon, the boss took me to eat spicy hot pot. I’m really sensitive to the numbness, so I kept picking out the Sichuan peppercorns. Then the boss said you could develop a “Sichuan peppercorn-picking robot” in the lab—using visual recognition and high-precision robotic arms to pick out the peppercorns. I just wanted to ask you, is this technically feasible?]

In the living room of the Ascott apartment, Chen Yusheng stared at the message on her phone screen, momentarily stunned.

A Sichuan peppercorn-picking robot?

Her brain, accustomed to handling complex control algorithms and high-dimensional data modeling, took a moment to catch up.

Sitting beside her, Zhou Jialu was eating cherries. She leaned over to glance at the screen and immediately burst out laughing: “Oh my, Yusheng, Su Bai is just messing with Yuning again. Only that naive girl would take his jokes as gospel.”

However, Chen Yusheng didn’t laugh.

As a top computer science student at Jiangda University, her research-obsessed instincts suddenly kicked in.

She didn’t see it as a joke at all. Instead, she began to analyze it with extreme seriousness from an academic and engineering perspective.

Chen Yusheng’s fair fingers flew across the screen, typing out a long string of text:

[Theoretically speaking, this is completely feasible. However, during actual development, there are several core technical challenges that need to be solved.]

[First, target detection and localization. Sichuan peppercorns in spicy hot pot are in a very complex state—they’re often covered in chili oil and sauce, and may even overlap with ingredients like beef or bean curd sheets. Ordinary detection models are easily misled under the interference of oil reflections. This requires us to collect a large number of peppercorn samples under different dishes and lighting conditions for deep learning model training, especially optimizing for tiny object detection algorithms.]

[Second, robotic arm control and force feedback. The ingredients in the hot pot all have different textures—tofu puffs are fragile, wide vermicelli is slippery, and meat slices are tough. If the gripping force of the robotic arm is constant, it could easily crush or fail to pick up certain ingredients. We need to integrate flexible sensors at the end of the robotic arm to achieve millisecond-level force feedback adjustment, ensuring it only picks up the peppercorns without damaging other ingredients.]

Sitting at her design desk, Lu Yuning watched as a long stream of technical jargon popped up on her phone screen. She was completely dumbfounded.

Although she couldn’t understand many of the words, she could feel Chen Yusheng’s seriousness.

Lu Yuning: [Then... if we actually make it, will the cost be very high?]

Chen Yusheng: [If we’re just making a concept prototype in the lab, using off-the-shelf industrial robotic arms and depth cameras, the cost would be around tens of thousands to a hundred thousand yuan. But if we want to commercialize it, shrink it down to fit on a dining table, we’d need custom micro high-precision robotic arms and develop specialized edge computing chips. The overall R&D cost would probably be around five hundred thousand yuan.]

Lu Yuning took a deep breath, her bright eyes sparkling with excitement.

So the boss was telling the truth! This really was a project worth researching!

Suddenly energized, she grabbed her drawing tablet and stylus, and began sketching on her computer.

Lu Yuning: [Sheng Sheng, what if I design the robot’s appearance? I could make it look like a cute little bunny or kitten ornament that sits on the table without taking up space. When the food is served, the robotic arm would extend from inside, so it wouldn’t feel cold and mechanical.]

Chen Yusheng: [That’s a great idea. However, we’ll need to recalculate the degrees of freedom for the robotic arm. If we only use two grippers, it might not cover the entire range of the dish. I suggest adding a rotating mechanism to the base, or installing binocular cameras in the bunny’s eyes for 3D spatial positioning.]

The two girls continued their deep discussion on WeChat for more than an hour.

One was earnestly drawing various appearance sketches, while the other was methodically analyzing algorithms and hardware configurations. They chatted with passion.

...

At 9:30 PM.

Su Bai drove his understated yet luxurious Mercedes-Benz G-Class, slowly entering the underground garage of East Lake Private Club.

After parking, he took the private elevator to the top-floor penthouse.

As soon as he stepped out of the elevator, head butler Zhou Jialu greeted him. She was wearing a tight silk nightgown and soft slippers, and casually took the coat he handed off.

“Mr. Su Da, what exactly did you say to Yuning today?” Zhou Jialu asked with a mix of amusement and teasing in her voice. “That girl came back and went straight into the study, then dragged Yusheng along. They’ve been locked in there for hours, barely touching their dinner, totally distracted.”

Su Bai was taken aback: “They’re still not done?”

“That’s right,” Zhou Jialu sighed, shaking her head with a wry smile. Her full chest gently swayed as she laughed. “You know Yusheng’s personality—once she gets hooked on algorithms and tech, there’s no stopping her. And Yuning is stubborn. Whatever you say, she treats it like a sacred command. Those two have probably almost finished drafting the algorithm architecture by now.”

Su Bai rubbed his nose, feeling a mix of amusement and exasperation.

That little girl was just too innocent and adorable. He’d made a casual joke, and she’d actually taken it seriously.

“I’ll go check on them.”

Su Bai smiled and patted Zhou Jialu on the backside, earning a playful glare from the senior.

Walking softly, Su Bai followed the hallway to the study door.

The door wasn’t fully closed. Soft lighting spilled through the crack, and faintly, he could hear the voices of the two girls discussing inside.

"Sister Yunsheng, what do you think of this appearance design? I made it into a little rabbit shape, with the mechanical arms hidden inside the rabbit's ears. When it's not in use, it's just a table decoration. Once the dishes are served, the rabbit's ears will extend out and turn into two little clips, 'shua shua shua,' picking out the Sichuan peppercorns." It was Lu Yuning's voice, carrying a hint of excitement.

"The appearance design is very beautiful and creative." Chen Yunsheng's voice was as cool as ever, but her tone was dead serious. "However, the degrees of freedom of the mechanical arms need to be recalculated. If you only use two clips, they might not be able to cover the entire range of the dish. I suggest making the base rotatable, or installing binocular cameras in the rabbit's eyes for three-dimensional spatial positioning."

Su Bai stood at the door, a twitch forming at the corner of his mouth as he listened.

He gently pushed the door open a crack and peered inside.

In the study, Chen Yunsheng was sitting in front of the computer, the screen displaying a simple three-dimensional mechanical model. Lu Yuning was leaning over the desk, holding a drawing tablet, looking intently at Chen Yunsheng's demonstration.

The two girls were sitting close together. Chen Yunsheng wore a loose white sweater and tight blue jeans that flaunted the incredible curves of her long legs. Lu Yuning, on the other hand, was dressed in a form-fitting black knit top with a low neckline. From Su Bai's angle, the astonishing curve of her F-cup was slightly compressed against the desk, offering a visually striking impact.

"And, the algorithm's response time must be controlled at the millisecond level," Chen Yunsheng said, pointing at the code on the screen. "If it takes three seconds to pick out one peppercorn, by the time it finishes picking them all from the entire dish, the food will be cold. That's why I wrote a multi-threaded parallel processing algorithm, allowing the camera to scan while the mechanical arm already begins planning the optimal path..."

"Hahahaha!"

Su Bai finally couldn't hold it in. He pushed open the door and burst out laughing, his voice echoing loudly in the empty study.

"You two... you two were actually serious about researching this thing?" Su Bai leaned against the doorframe, laughing so hard tears almost came to his eyes.

The two girls in the room were startled by the sudden sound and turned their heads simultaneously.

Seeing Su Bai clutching his stomach, doubled over with laughter, Lu Yuning was momentarily stunned before she caught on.

"Boss!"

Lu Yuning's pretty face instantly turned beet red, the blush spreading from her cheeks all the way to her fair neck. Her big, watery eyes were filled with shame and annoyance, and she looked on the verge of tears.

She never expected that the "major project" she had been earnestly discussing for half an hour was nothing but a joke in Su Bai's eyes.

"You... you did that on purpose, didn't you?" Lu Yuning stomped her foot in embarrassment, her magnificent chest heaving, causing a distracting, swaying motion.

Since she was already socially anxious, being caught in the act by Su Bai only made her feel like she was going up in flames.

"I'm not talking to either of you anymore!"

With a yelp, Lu Yuning covered her flushed cheeks, like a startled ostrich, bowed her head, and squeezed past Su Bai, leaving a faint scent of gardenia blossoms behind her. She dashed all the way to her bedroom and slammed the door shut with a bang.

Only Su Bai and Chen Yunsheng remained in the study.

Chen Yunsheng looked at the closed door and then turned her gaze to Su Bai, who was still laughing, and let out a helpless sigh.

"You really are a bad guy," Chen Yunsheng said, standing up and walking over to Su Bai. She jabbed his chest with her finger in mock annoyance. "Yuning is so naive. It's one thing to tease her for fun, but you also made me spend all afternoon looking up visual recognition papers."

Su Bai grabbed her hand, pulled her into his arms with a gentle tug, wrapped his arms around her slender waist, and laughed. "I was just kidding at the time. Who would have thought that little girl would be so earnest? After dinner, she actually came to you for academic discussion. But seriously, Sheng, the way you seriously analyzed how to use edge computing chips to pick out peppercorns just now was really adorable."

"Adorable? I was almost furious with you," Chen Yunsheng said, leaning against Su Bai's chest. While her words complained, her body obediently pressed closer, her arms wrapping around his neck.

She wasn't wearing her glasses today, and her clear, sparkling eyes reflected Su Bai's image.

"Since you're so bored, you have to accept your punishment today," Chen Yunsheng said, tilting her head slightly. Her cool voice carried an indescribable mix of playfulness and allure.

"Oh? Punishment?" Su Bai raised an eyebrow, letting his hand on her waist slide down casually to squeeze her firm, pert rear. "Let's hear it. What punishment? I promise to cooperate."

Chen Yunsheng's body went a little soft at his touch, a blush staining her cheeks. She bit her lip lightly, broke free from Su Bai's embrace, and stepped back two paces.

"Stay put in the study. Don't follow me, don't peek," Chen Yunsheng said, extending her fair finger to point at Su Bai, her tone carrying a commanding edge.

"Fine, I'll wait," Su Bai said, settling comfortably into the leather sofa nearby, curious to see what trick the girl had up her sleeve.

Chen Yunsheng turned and walked out of the study, closing the door behind her.

The study fell silent.

Su Bai leaned back into the sofa, his mind still replaying the image of Lu Yuning's shy, embarrassed expression, and couldn't help but chuckle again. These two girls, each with their own charm, were endlessly entertaining.

About fifteen minutes passed.

The lock on the study door let out a soft click.

Su Bai raised his eyes and looked up.

The door slowly pushed open, and a tall, slender figure stepped in.

When he got a clear look at Chen Yunsheng's current attire, Su Bai's breath caught in his throat.

Chen Yunsheng had peeled off her loose white sweater and jeans.

Now, she was wearing only a black silk camisole nightgown.

The hem was very short, just barely covering the top of her thighs. The thin straps rested on her delicate collarbone, accentuating the vast expanse of her snowy-white, flawless skin, as smooth and warm as fine jade.

And what was most eye-catching was the black garter belt and stockings she wore.

Her extraordinarily long legs, thanks to her 173 cm height, looked even more straight and slender under the sheer black stockings, exuding an irresistible allure.

The metal clasps of the garter belt rested on her fair thigh skin, pressing into enticing, slightly sunken curves.

Chen Yunsheng's usual cool, innocent expression, combined with this incredibly seductive and sexy outfit, created a bizarre, electrifying contrast that sent a shiver down the spine.

She stepped in a pair of black stiletto heels, walking slowly toward Su Bai, the tips of her stocking-clad feet glistening temptingly under the light.

"This... this is your punishment."

Chen Yunsheng stopped in front of Su Bai, looking down at him from her height, her cool voice trembling with a hint of shyness, yet her captivating eyes locked onto Su Bai, filled with a complex mix of challenge and submission.

Garter stockings... Su Bai thought to himself, they had rarely tried that before. He wondered what it would feel like later.