Digital Grave

The old server room hummed, the sound of the fans like a dying beast gasping for breath. The mottled paint on the walls bore witness to countless silent days and nights. Uncle Li, in his drab work uniform, held a portable hard drive in his hands as if it were a precious treasure.

Today was "Forgetting Day."

On this day, according to company regulations, all backups of "digital lives" that had not been renewed would be completely formatted and erased, as if they had never existed.

Uncle Li's job was to perform the final farewell ceremony for these forgotten digital lives.

He carefully plugged the hard drive into the interface, and a simple list popped up on the screen, a list of names. Behind each name was once a vibrant soul.

He clicked on a name, "Chen Xiaohua," a digital backup of a young girl. He knew her account had been inactive for three years. Her parents had not renewed it, meaning that she would completely disappear from this virtual world.

A simple AI image of Chen Xiaohua popped up on the screen, a girl in a school uniform, with pigtails, and a sweet smile.

"Hello, my name is Chen Xiaohua, nice to meet you," the AI repeated its pre-programmed greeting.

Uncle Li's heart twitched slightly. He looked at the virtual girl, as if he saw the shadow of his own daughter. His daughter had also passed away in an accident three years ago, but he had not left any digital backup of her.

"Do you… want to go back to the past?" Uncle Li couldn't help but ask, knowing it was just a simple AI that couldn't understand his question at all.

Chen Xiaohua still smiled, repeating, "Hello, my name is Chen Xiaohua, nice to meet you."

Uncle Li closed the page and opened the next one. This time, it was a digital backup of an old man named "Wang Jianguo".

"Hello, I am Wang Jianguo," the old man's AI image, wearing a traditional Chinese outfit and with a kindly face, said. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

Uncle Li was stunned. This AI was clearly much more intelligent than Chen Xiaohua's.

"Do you... still remember your family?" Uncle Li tentatively asked.

Wang Jianguo's AI was silent for a moment, then slowly said, "Yes, my son's name is Wang Ming. He hasn't come to see me for a long time."

A pang of pain shot through Uncle Li's heart. Wang Ming was a friend of his, and since his father's passing, he had never mentioned his father again. He probably didn't even know that his father was still "alive" in another form.

Uncle Li realized that these digital lives, although just products of artificial intelligence, carried real memories and emotions. When they were deleted, did it also mean a kind of death?

He quickly browsed through the list, most of the AIs just responded simply. But occasionally, a few slightly more intelligent ones would appear, they could say their names, their hobbies, and even express their longing for their families.

Uncle Li's finger stopped on a name, "Li Ming." His hand began to tremble, it was his daughter's name, just a coincidence.

He opened Li Ming's AI page.

A gentle voice came, "Dad, have you come?"

Uncle Li's eyes welled up, and he replied in a trembling voice, "I... am... Uncle."

"Uncle, have you found my doll? It's lost."

Uncle Li's chest jolted. He had always kept his daughter's doll.

"Uncle, will you play with me today? Mom says she misses me too."

Uncle Li completely broke down. This was definitely not a simple AI, this was his daughter!

He quickly checked Li Ming's data information. In the "Identity Verification" column, it read "Uploader: Unknown." The upload time was the day before his daughter passed away.

Who had uploaded his daughter's digital backup? And why hadn't they renewed it?

He suddenly remembered that his daughter, before she left, had been constantly pestering him for his phone, wanting to take selfies, and wanting to play a game called "Digital Life."

Uncle Li understood, his daughter, in the last moments of her life, had secretly uploaded herself.

He looked at his daughter's smiling face on the screen, it was the most beautiful image in his memory.

Uncle Li gently closed the computer, he did not format the hard drive. He knew he could not let his daughter leave him a second time.

He picked up his phone and dialed that familiar number, his wife's phone number. He made up his mind, he would tell her that their daughter was still alive, in another way.