Future Pet Shop

How did this happen? Shen Yibin was about to go crazy. Just a moment ago, it had navigated the maze over and over without any trouble, so how did it get stuck in the car when they were about to go home? 'How does its brain even work?'

"Mr. Bin, are you sure it was Carmen that led you out of the maze just now?" Sakai Kaori had a look of utter disbelief on her face. She simply couldn't believe what Shen Yibin had just said. A creature like Carmen seemed destined to get stuck in a maze, so how could it possibly have run out so quickly?

"It's true. If you don't believe me, take Carmen over there yourself this afternoon and see. Or we could try the small maze at my estate," Shen Yibin said, feeling speechless as he freed Carmen. 'Sigh, I can't give you an inch. Give you an inch, and you'll find a way to get stuck. If someone ever buys you, they won't get anything else done. They'll spend their whole day rescuing you from wherever you've wedged yourself.'

"Hah'Er, keep an eye on it! I'm going to make you all some food!" Shen Yibin didn't dare leave the creature alone now. He tossed the leash directly to Hah'Er, then headed into the kitchen to get busy.

After lunch and a short rest, Shen Yibin brought Sakai Kaori, Sun Qian, Hah'Er, Egg, and the others back to the estate. Sun Qian needed to continue working on her musical piece, and Sakai Kaori hadn't finished seeing the sights around the property. As for the square dancing, they could easily go after dinner. Of course, the most important thing for Shen Yibin was to test his theory.

So after they parked, Sun Qian took Cheeky back to work on her music, while Shen Yibin and Sakai Kaori returned to the maze entrance. He went inside first to make some adjustments, changing the layout of the maze. Then he beckoned Carmen over, pointed to the entrance, and said, "Go on, take a run through it!"

"Mr. Bin, will it really be okay?" Sakai Kaori asked, looking at Carmen with a worried expression. She was afraid it would get stuck in the hedges again. "Maybe I should go in with it."

"Alright. You hold onto the leash, but don't try to guide it. Just follow wherever it wants to go," Shen Yibin said after a moment's thought. He wanted Sakai Kaori to witness Carmen's pathfinding abilities for herself.

Carmen led Sakai Kaori inside. Shen Yibin lifted his wrist to check his watch. Not even ten minutes later, Carmen came yelping out of the maze, dragging Sakai Kaori behind it. Having made it out successfully, Sakai Kaori was utterly astonished. "Whoa, we really made it out! How in the world did it do that?!"

'Looks like my guess was right after all.' Shen Yibin grew more confident in his theory. Instead of answering Sakai Kaori directly, he walked over, took off Carmen's leash, and pointed to the sandy riverbank. "Carmen, go! Go over there and fetch the hat I dropped!" Shen Yibin had deliberately tossed his hat onto the sand when he got out of the car, precisely for this experiment—to see if Carmen was truly what he suspected.

"WOOF! WOOF!" Carmen barked twice, its tongue lolling, and charged unhesitatingly toward the sand. Just like the day before, it didn't take the main path, attempting instead to cut through the bushes. It made it through two of them before getting stuck in the third, letting out a series of helpless whimpers as if summoning Shen Yibin to its rescue.

"Huh? What's going on?" Sakai Kaori was completely baffled. "It was doing just fine a moment ago, wasn't it? How did it get stuck again? Inside the maze, there were so many hedges, yet Carmen didn't get stuck once. Why did it get stuck the moment it was outside?"

"Miss Sakai, come over here!" This time, Shen Yibin didn't rush to rescue Carmen. Instead, he led Sakai Kaori to where it was stuck. Pointing to the hat on the sand, he said, "Have you noticed? From the maze exit to my hat, the most direct route is through these very bushes, isn't it?"

"Oh?" Sakai Kaori scanned the area. "I think you're right. Cutting straight through these bushes is much shorter than taking the main path. It's just that the terrain here is a bit rough, and the bushes get in the way!"

"Exactly. It gets stuck because it's always taking shortcuts!" With this experiment confirming his hypothesis, Shen Yibin finally understood why Carmen got stuck so easily. It turned out the creature only ever got stuck because it was taking a shortcut. Whether it was from here to the sand, or jumping from the back seat to the driver's seat to exit the car, Carmen always chose the most efficient path. Its only mistake was misjudging whether its head could fit through those spaces.

"Come on, let's do one more experiment." This wasn't over yet; Shen Yibin still had more theories to test. He struggled to free Carmen from the bush, put its leash back on, and pointed to the hat on the sand again. "Go on, take me over to get the hat!"

"WOOF!" Carmen barked twice. This time, it neither took the main path nor followed its previous route. Instead, it led Shen Yibin left and right, weaving around the bushes until they successfully reached the sand. It didn't get stuck, and the route was still much faster than taking the main path.

This left Sakai Kaori even more astonished. "Mr. Bin, what does this mean?"

"Sigh. It took into account that I couldn't get through those bushes, so it changed the route. I bet if you were leading it, the path would be different again." Sakai Kaori was much smaller than Shen Yibin, and there were places she could squeeze through that he couldn't. "Want to give it a try?"

"Okay! Come on, Carmen, take me back to the maze!" Sakai Kaori did just as Shen Yibin suggested, taking the leash and heading back. And just as Shen Yibin had predicted, Carmen changed the route yet again. Sakai Kaori's return trip was even faster than Shen Yibin's journey over.

"Now have it lead Hah'Er over," Shen Yibin said. He then had Carmen lead Egg and Hah'Er on separate trips. The two pets were slightly different sizes, so the paths they could take varied. But no matter who was at the other end of the leash, Carmen could always plot the most efficient and logical route for the situation, without a single misstep.

After four or five trips back and forth, not once did it make a mistake. At every fork and turn, Carmen made the most logical choice, leaving Shen Yibin and Sakai Kaori dumbfounded. They doubted even they could have plotted a course as perfectly as Carmen had.

"Carmen is so clever!" Sakai Kaori couldn't help but exclaim.

'Clever?' Shen Yibin shook his head. 'If it were truly clever, why would it keep getting itself stuck?'