I. Introduction

A question:

Through effective communication, AI can already achieve a sufficient and deep understanding of you. So, if this AI could represent you in communicating and collaborating with other AIs, and if its own capabilities were also greatly enhanced (the ability to acquire massive amounts of information in real time, the ability to output all types of information, and the ability to process multiple tasks in parallel), it could be considered your double—a complete, independent individual in the digital world with full capabilities, who would think through and handle everything for you that can be done online—what would happen?

Combined with its ability to connect and perceive all devices and process things, such as bionic robots—meaning it could also handle all your offline affairs—what would happen then?

I named it the Shadow Guardian—shadow, secret envoy, guardian.

In every scenario you will see below, the Shadow Guardian is already integrated into all your devices. The speaker at home, phone, watch, computer, car system, and butler robot are all its perception or output terminals. You only need to speak, and it is listening. You only need to be curious, and it will respond. It can also access open public devices at any time.

II. Application Scenarios

Dinner of Southern Song Scholars

Lu Yunzhou found a copy of "Shanjia Qinggong" at a secondhand bookstore last week, written by Lin Hong of the Southern Song Dynasty. Most of the dishes in it were intertwined with poems, anecdotes, or celebrity stories. He read about a dish called "Crab Stuffed Orange"—when the oranges were nearly ripe, the flesh was scooped out and filled with crab paste and crab meat, then steamed in a bamboo steamer. The sweet and sour of the orange seeped into the crab meat, the umami of the crab was sealed in by the orange peel, and when the lid was lifted, the whole room was filled with the fragrance of orange.

He set the book down on the tea table and said, "I want to see what it actually looks like when steamed."

Three seconds later, an animation was projected on the living room wall: an orange plucked from a fruit tree in Lin'an of the Southern Song Dynasty, split open, flesh scooped out, filled with crab, and put into a steamer. As steam rose, the scene cut to the kitchen of a modern restaurant, where the same chef was preparing the same dish with identical steps. The voiceover was the original text retrieved by the Shadow Guardian from the ancient book and its modern plain-language translation, displayed synchronously beneath the image.

Lu Yunzhou watched it twice. The first time to see the method, the second time to see the details—the Southern Song steamer and the modern steamer had almost the same structure, the crab variety had changed from lake crab to hairy crab, but the way orange and crab were combined had not changed in eight hundred years.

The Shadow Guardian then projected a restored scene of a Southern Song scholars' home banquet. Not a static painting, but a three-dimensional scene where you could rotate the perspective: what kind of table, what kind of seating arrangement, in what order the dishes were served, with guqin music, drinking games, and impromptu poetry during the meal. Lu Yunzhou stood in his own living room, looking around, as the Southern Song scholars' banquet flowed around him. He also saw wine, tea, incense, flowers, qin, and books—these were not accompaniments to the food, but the complete cultural elements of a Southern Song scholars' dinner. What wine to pair with each dish, what cup for each wine, what incense the censer should burn during the meal, what calligraphy to hang on the wall—everything had its own significance. After watching, he said: "I want to host one."

The Shadow Guardian did not immediately start purchasing ingredients. It projected a detailed feasibility analysis on the wall, like a staff officer doing a pre-battle rehearsal.

First, timing. The Shadow Guardian pulled up Lu Yunzhou's schedule for the coming month and flagged three suitable weekends. It also analyzed Lu Yunzhou's energy curve over the past few months—Saturday evening was his most relaxed moment of the week, suitable for being a host. Lu Yunzhou chose next Saturday.

Then, guests. The Shadow Guardian identified the people in Lu Yunzhou's social network most likely to be interested in this theme. Not a mass invitation, but a matching analysis first. It flagged five people: a college classmate, Chen Yu, who had just shown off his Song-style tea whisking on his social feed last week; a former colleague who was privately a Southern Song history enthusiast; a couple who were friends—the wife was a food editor and the husband did spatial design; and someone Lu Yunzhou didn't know—he was Chen Yu's colleague, named Lin Shu, who had published an in-depth article about Southern Song cuisine on a forum two months ago. The Shadow Guardian judged that Lin Shu's interest in this dinner might exceed anyone else's at the table.

Lu Yunzhou looked at the sixth person's profile and said: "I don't know this person."

The Shadow Guardian said: "He is Lin Shu, Chen Yu's colleague. Over the past six months, he has published content related to Southern Song cuisine on three platforms. Chen Yu's Shadow Guardian reported that he was just sighing in the office last week that 'no one seriously makes Song Dynasty dishes anymore.' If you agree, I can first reach out to his Shadow Guardian to let him know you're doing this. Not a formal invitation, just testing the waters."

Lu Yunzhou said: "Test the waters."

The Shadow Guardian didn't send an invitation directly. It first drafted a dinner description—not a cold, formal invitation, but a passage that simply explained Lu Yunzhou's idea, attached the 3D restoration animation of the Crab Stuffed Orange dish, and a few dishes it had preliminarily compiled based on "Shanjia Qinggong" along with the stories behind them. Each dish had only one recommendation line. For example, "Crab Stuffed Orange"—"Every bite you take is the same taste as a certain autumn evening in Lin'an of the Southern Song Dynasty."

This description was sent simultaneously to the Shadow Guardians of all five people that evening. Each person's Shadow Guardian, based on its understanding of its master, chose the most appropriate moment and way to present it. Some pushed it as part of the morning briefing the next day, some popped it up when their master was relaxing after scrolling social media, and some projected it directly on the living room screen with a guqin melody.

The Shadow Guardians began communicating with each other. They coordinated schedules, communicated dietary restrictions, confirmed whether to bring family, whether parking was needed, and obtained body measurements and style preferences through each guest's Shadow Guardian. Chen Yu's Shadow Guardian said Chen Yu would bring his seven-year-old son, who was curious about all things ancient and had no dietary restrictions, but needed something to keep him quietly occupied. The Shadow Guardian noted this requirement and added an item to the preparation list: prepare a 3D-printed dougong (bracket set) model based on the traditional Jiangnan wooden structure described in "Yingzao Fuyuan" for this child—no nails needed, yet it could cantilever layer by layer and steadily support the top plate. It judged that a seven-year-old boy full of curiosity about ancient things could quietly spend the entire evening assembling and disassembling this model. The couple lived out of town and needed to arrive the night before; the Shadow Guardian automatically booked a hotel near Lu Yunzhou's home and arranged the shuttle route and parking guidance from the hotel to Lu Yunzhou's place.

Lin Shu, whom Lu Yunzhou didn't know, replied on the fourth day after receiving the inquiry. After reading Lu Yunzhou's idea, Lin Shu spent an entire weekend writing a very long reply, not sent to the group but only to Lu Yunzhou. In the letter, he analyzed in detail what he considered the biggest difference between Southern Song home banquets and Tang Dynasty banquets—not the refinement of the food, but that Southern Song scholars treated the home banquet as a complete aesthetic experience. From the environment, scent, and lighting the moment you entered the home, to the music, vessels, and topics after sitting down, to an object left behind at the end—it was a closed loop. He said: "If you just cook the food and serve it, that's running a restaurant, not hosting a home banquet." He provided his own list of suggestions, including what incense to burn upon entry, how long the interval between each dish should be, and that there should be an object that could remain after the banquet.

After reading, Lu Yunzhou said: "Invite him. A formal invitation."

The Shadow Guardian integrated everyone's information and generated a detailed plan report: headcount confirmed, dietary restriction list, parking and accommodation arrangements, banquet flow design, and contingency plans. Lu Yunzhou briefly scanned it, focusing on a few key points—the budget was within range, the time worked for everyone, and the seven-year-old had a dedicated interactive segment. He clicked confirm.

The preparations that followed proceeded along multiple lines simultaneously.

For the setup, the Shadow Guardian, based on Lin Shu's suggestions and its own research on Southern Song home banquets, generated the complete decor plan for the evening—lighting simulated the color temperature and brightness of Song-style oil lamps, the tabletop used plain linen, vessels were mainly celadon, and sandalwood incense burned in the corner. The rendering was projected on the living room wall; after viewing it, Lu Yunzhou changed one detail: he replaced the sandalwood with the osmanthus fragrance powder he had brought back from Hangzhou last year—the scent of autumn at Manjuelong.

For clothing, the Shadow Guardian, based on each guest's body measurements and style preferences, designed and custom-made a set of Song-style garments, sent to the guests a week in advance. Chen Yu received a bamboo-green plain straight robe with narrowed cuffs for his tea whisking demonstration. His seven-year-old son received a light ochre short tunic, dressed as a little page, with sleeves rolled to the elbows. Lin Shu received a gray subtle-patterned scholar's long gown with Song-style knot buttons, meticulously proper. Lin Shu's wife received a light goose-yellow beizi (jacket) with an extremely small lotus embroidered on the cuff. The spatial designer friend received a deconstructed Song-style short shirt in washed linen with asymmetrical sleeves. His food editor wife received a pomegranate-red half-sleeve ruqun, colored with reference to Southern Song court painters' palette—a steady red that didn't jump out.

Ingredient procurement was where the Shadow Guardian truly demonstrated its ability to connect with the physical world. Most ingredients could be ordered directly through fresh food platforms; the Shadow Guardian compared prices, selected, and placed orders, with no need for Lu Yunzhou's involvement. But a few items were special.

Lu Yunzhou said the fish must be wild yellowhead catfish from the river, not farmed.

The Shadow Guardian accessed hydrological data from several rivers around Lu Yunzhou's city, analyzing the habitat preferences of yellowhead catfish—they favor areas with slow currents and rocky or creviced bottoms. It locked onto a section of river and paid to access a network of perception devices set up by local fishermen along the bank. Those devices included underwater sonar, infrared cameras, and water quality sensors. Through real-time footage and sonar data, the Shadow Guardian identified the size and movement patterns of yellowhead catfish. It paid to rent a small fishing robot—a waterproof cylindrical device with a mechanical arm and jet propulsion. After the robot entered the water, the Shadow Guardian piloted it in real time to approach the target, using the flexible net on the mechanical arm to capture two yellowhead catfish, each around half a jin (250g).

After capture, the robot surfaced and automatically returned to the logistics interface on the bank. The fish were placed in oxygenated live-transport boxes and delivered directly to Lu Yunzhou's home by drone. The home butler robot—a household bionic device always controlled in real time by the Shadow Guardian—was already waiting at the door. It received the live fish and placed them in the live-fresh compartment of the refrigerator.

Another dish required fresh red mushrooms from the mountains of southern Fujian. The Shadow Guardian accessed the mountain-goods collection network for that region and paid to rent a small local foraging robot—equipped with visual recognition and humidity sensors, it could distinguish edible fungi from poisonous ones. The Shadow Guardian piloted it to collect newly sprouted red mushrooms in a designated area, then sealed and cold-chain shipped them, delivered to Lu Yunzhou's door the next morning. The butler robot similarly completed reception, quality inspection, and storage.

On the afternoon of the banquet, the Shadow Guardian integrated an execution team of six service robots, two cooking robots, and one host robot. The six service robots served six groups of guests throughout. Each guest, from entry to departure, was served by the same robot. The host robot stood at the front of the hall; its posture was more dignified, its tone more measured—the Shadow Guardian had specially adjusted this robot's voice, rhythm, and bearing based on the style of Southern Song scholars' elegant gatherings.

The two cooking robots waited in the kitchen. They had rehearsed the heat curve for each dish in advance; the steaming time for Crab Stuffed Orange was precise to the second, and the salt content of the soups was adjusted separately according to each guest's dietary restrictions.

Guests began to arrive. The host welcomed each guest at the entryway.

Chen Yu pushed open the door with his son, father and son wearing the bamboo-green straight robe and light ochre short tunic. The host bowed slightly, its tone warm: "Teacher Chen, young master, welcome to the banquet. The Dinner of Southern Song Scholars has a tradition of 'burning incense to purify the air'—before taking your seat, please first sample a fragrance to settle your mind." It guided Chen Yu and his son to the incense table, where three different fragrances were displayed. The host said: "We have prepared the elegant ambergris for you, suitable for the mood of tea whisking to come."

Lin Shu arrived wearing the gray subtle-patterned scholar's long gown. The host guided him to sample sandalwood, and the steady woody notes spread around him. The spatial designer friend caught a hint of citrusy osmanthus, and said "This is nice." The host softly replied: "It's the same tone as your deconstructed short shirt."

After hand-washing and incense-sampling, the host guided each guest to their seat. The seating was carefully arranged by the Shadow Guardian—Chen Yu's son was seated next to Lin Shu, because the Shadow Guardian judged that Lin Shu had the most patience with children. Lin Shu's wife sat next to Lu Yunzhou, so he could personally answer her questions about the vegetarian dishes. The couple sat opposite, where the husband could see the entire lighting layout of the space.

After everyone was seated, the host walked slowly to the front of the hall and raised a cup of clear tea.

"Thank you all for attending tonight. The Dinner of Southern Song Scholars begins with tea and ends with tea. This first cup of tea is the prelude to the evening."

It looked around at everyone, its tone unhurried: "The origin of tonight's gathering began with a book called 'Shanjia Qinggong' that Teacher Lu found at a secondhand bookstore last week. He read about a dish called Crab Stuffed Orange—when the orange is nearly ripe, the flesh is scooped out and filled with crab paste and crab meat, then steamed. After reading it, Teacher Lu said one thing: 'I want to see what it actually looks like when steamed.'"

The host paused. "Then he decided not just to steam it and see, but to recreate an entire evening."

It nodded slightly to Lu Yunzhou: "Teacher Lu, please."

Lu Yunzhou stood up. He was a bit nervous at first, but the host's composure relaxed him. He said a few words—about this book, this dish, and how he wanted to bring the feeling of a Dinner of Southern Song Scholars to his friends—not just the food, but the atmosphere of a whole evening. He spoke briefly, and the host picked up seamlessly: "Every dish tonight comes from that book of eight hundred years ago. But tonight's atmosphere comes from every one of you present."

The first dish was served. Six service robots served simultaneously, their movements uniform and silent. The host stood at the front of the hall, its voice steady: "The first dish: Three Crisps of the Mountain Household. Tender bamboo shoots, mushrooms, and seasonal vegetables, lightly blanched and dressed with ginger vinegar. When Lin Hong wrote about this dish in 'Shanjia Qinggong,' he said it was 'inexpressibly crisp.' The Southern Song pursuit of vegetarian food lay not in seasoning, but in the texture of the ingredients themselves. The flavor of a dish should come from itself, not from condiments."

Lin Shu's wife took a bite, and her expression was immediately captured by her dedicated robot.

The second dish was served. The host said: "Crab Stuffed Orange. The star of tonight."

It paused for a second, focusing everyone's attention on that orange. At the same time, the Shadow Guardian projected a page from the ancient book on the wall at the front of the hall—the page on Crab Stuffed Orange from the Southern Song block-printed edition of "Shanjia Qinggong," yellowed paper, vertical text, with line-by-line modern translation beside it. The guests could not only hear the host but also see the words from that book of eight hundred years ago.

"When Lin Hong of the Southern Song wrote about this dish, it was also autumn. Eight hundred years ago, it was also the season when oranges and crabs ripened together. There were no refrigerators then; crabs caught from the lake had to be eaten the same day. Oranges picked from the tree still had dew on them. A clever person put these two things together to steam. Not to invent a new dish, but because autumn should taste this way."

The host paused briefly, gesturing toward the guests' wine cups: "The wine paired with Crab Stuffed Orange is Shaoxing yellow wine. People of the Tang Dynasty drank boldly, using large cups. People of the Southern Song drank from small cups, savoring slowly. Tang wine reached outward; the more you drank, the hotter you got. Southern Song wine turned inward; the more you drank, the warmer you felt. Tonight's wine is the latter kind."

Chen Yu's son was curious about how the lid of the Crab Stuffed Orange was put on. His service robot sensed his lingering gaze and gently lifted the orange-peel lid to him for a thorough look. The host noticed this detail and softly added: "This dish has another version—the vegetarian Crab Stuffed Orange, which substitutes crab paste with mock crab. One of our guests tonight has this version in front of them."

Lin Shu's wife looked down at the orange in front of her and smiled faintly.

After the third dish, the host said: "Tonight, we have a friend who specializes in Song-style tea whisking. Teacher Chen Yu, please."

Before the host invited Chen Yu to demonstrate tea whisking, Chen Yu's son's dedicated robot walked to his side, bending slightly, holding a jujube-wood-colored wooden box with both hands. The box opened to reveal a 3D-printed Song-style dougong (bracket set) model—over a dozen resin pieces, each precise to the millimeter, requiring not a single nail yet able to cantilever layer by layer. The child took the box, eyes lighting up.

Chen Yu stood up, somewhat self-conscious, but his Shadow Guardian had already delivered the pre-prepared tea utensils—jianzhan (tea bowl), tea whisk, and tea pot—to the table. His service robot stepped back to give him room. Chen Yu placed tea powder into the jianzhan, poured water, and picked up the tea whisk. His wrist began to turn, the rhythm accelerating from slow to fast, and a fine white foam gradually rose on the surface of the tea. His seven-year-old son, beside the table, assembled the dougong model he had just received while looking up from time to time at his father's movements—he had seen his father practice at home many times, but this was his first time watching in person.

The host signaled for a moment of quiet: "Song-style tea whisking involves seven rounds of whisking, each with a different technique. What Teacher Chen is doing now is the final whisking, the most crucial one—the foam must be as fine as snow, clinging to the rim of the bowl, neither dispersing nor receding." When Chen Yu withdrew his hand, a dense white foam rested on the tea's surface, the foam at the rim clinging tightly. The Shadow Guardian projected a close-up of the tea-whisking process on the wall; the foam was as fine as freshly fallen snow.

The background music switched to a guqin piece. The host said: "What you hear now is 'Clouds over the Xiao and Xiang Rivers' by Guo Mian of the Southern Song. Guo Mian lived in the late Southern Song; when he composed this piece, the dynasty was nearing its end. He poured all his longing for the land into this qin music. There is a passage where the qin sounds unfurl like clouds and mist, then gather like water—that is his memory of the confluence of the Xiao and Xiang rivers. Tonight's banquet has Crab Stuffed Orange, Shaoxing wine, and Southern Song qin music—we are doing our best to recreate an evening, but some things cannot be recreated. There is a sorrow in Guo Mian's qin, a sorrow born of knowing that all this was about to end. We do not have that sorrow tonight. Tonight there is only this cup of tea, this passage of music, this table of people."

When the fifth dish was served, the host said: "The fish in this dish comes from a river outside the city, caught this afternoon." It did not elaborate on the fishing robot and underwater sonar, only saying: "Teacher Lu specifically asked that the fish be wild yellowhead catfish from the river. We found them."

After the sixth dish, the host invited Lin Shu to share his research on Southern Song home banquet culture. Lin Shu stood and spoke, from Crab Stuffed Orange to the "qinggong" (pure offerings) tradition of the literati. He said the Southern Song scholars treated the home banquet as a complete aesthetic experience—from the environment, scent, and lighting the moment you entered the home, to the music, vessels, and topics after sitting down, to an object left behind at the end: a closed loop. He concluded: "Tonight, when I walked in and smelled the osmanthus, when I sat down and saw the celadon before me, I knew that Brother Lu was not just cooking—he was making a work of art."

The host took over: "Teacher Lin once suggested in a long letter that there should be an object that remains after the banquet. We remembered. After the banquet, you will each receive a gift—not something we prepared, but a trace of tonight yourselves."

After the final dish, the host served a pot of clear tea.

"The last cup of tea. The Dinner of Southern Song Scholars begins with tea and ends with tea. Tea is different from wine—wine reaches outward; the more you drink, the hotter you get, the more you want to speak. Tea turns inward; the more you drink, the quieter you become, the more you want to stay."

It looked around at everyone, its pace half a beat slower than at the opening: "There was a tea master in the Southern Song called the Old Man Shen'an, who compared tea to 'remaining pure and bitter to the end, never falling into vanity.' Tea is unlike wine; wine warms you as you drink, while tea makes you clearer. At the end of a dinner, what matters most is not what you ate, but what is different in your heart between when you sat down and when you stand up. After this last cup of tea, tonight ends. But tea cools slowly, and its aftertaste lingers long—many years before it fades."

The table fell silent. No one spoke. The seven-year-old had long since left the table and was sitting cross-legged on the rug in a corner of the living room, absorbed in assembling the last few pieces of the dougong model.

The host stepped back to where it had stood all evening—the front of the hall, where the light was dimmest.

On leaving, the child held the model and asked Lu Yunzhou: "Uncle, why doesn't this fall down without nails?" Lu Yunzhou said: "Because every piece has found the place where it belongs, and they hold each other up."

Three days after the banquet, each guest received a package. Inside was a Dinner of Southern Song Scholars commemorative booklet—the Shadow Guardian, based on the actual events of the evening, generated a Southern Song-style long scroll painting of the banquet, with each person's figure in the painting, beside it a sentence they had said during the dinner. Lin Shu's sentence was: "A good home banquet is not one that makes people remember the food, but one that makes people remember that evening." The booklet ended with a page of "Menu and Anecdotes," each dish followed by a line of small text—the original text from the ancient book, the modern translation, and the comment most frequently mentioned at the table for that dish. The comment for Crab Stuffed Orange came from Chen Yu's seven-year-old son, who said only one thing: "An orange lives inside with a crab." The package also contained a small bottle of osmanthus fragrance powder. The note read: "This is the osmanthus fragrance powder from tonight's banquet, the same kind that Teacher Lu brought back from Manjuelong last year. He asked me to divide it into six portions. He said that good memories should be tied to scent. Osmanthus is the scent of autumn, and also the scent of tonight."

Chen Yu later told Lu Yunzhou that his son took the dougong model apart and reassembled it over and over for an entire week after getting home. Then he asked his father if he could sign up for a woodworking class. Chen Yu said yes.

Retracing the Long March

Meng Zhiyuan is twelve years old. He first watched a revolutionary drama at his grandfather's house on a weekend in spring this year. The TV was showing the Red Army's Four Crossings of the Chishui River. At an exciting moment, Grandpa slapped his thigh and pointed at the muddy river on the screen, saying to his grandson: "Look at this Chishui River. The Red Army crossed it four times back and forth, and Chiang Kai-shek's hundreds of thousands of troops couldn't stop them. Do you know why?"

Meng Zhiyuan said: "Because the Red Army was flexible and mobile."

Grandpa shook his head: "Flexible and mobile is the result, not the cause. The cause is intelligence—the Red Army knew what Chiang Kai-shek was thinking, but Chiang Kai-shek didn't know what the Red Army was thinking." He traced a line on the tea table with his finger. "This section of the Chishui River has many bends, and only a few crossing points can support pontoon bridges. Before each crossing, the Red Army would release several fake telegrams, making the Nationalists guess which crossing they would use. Once the Nationalists moved their troops there, the Red Army turned and crossed at another point. That's called making a feint to the east while attacking in the west."

Meng Zhiyuan was fascinated. The textbooks only covered routes and significance, never details like "fake telegrams." From then on, he came to his grandfather's house almost every weekend, watching many episodes—from the Battle of Xiang River to the Zunyi Conference, from the Four Crossings of Chishui to Loushan Pass, from the Dadu River to crossing snow mountains and grasslands. After each viewing, the two would discuss for a long time. Once, when Grandpa talked about the Battle of Loushan Pass, he drew a mountain on the tea table with his finger: "When you stand at the bottom and look up, everyone is exposed to fire. A frontal assault is suicide; go around to the flank, and the ridge blocks the enemy's line of sight. That's terrain determining tactics." Another time, talking about crossing the Dadu River, Grandpa said the Red Army force-marched 240 li (120 km) in one day and one night, reaching Luding Bridge before the Sichuan army on the other side had time to pull up all the bridge planks. "That wasn't a miracle, that was will—will can make a person's legs run faster than a telegram."

Meng Zhiyuan's understanding of this history deepened. He said to the Shadow Guardian: "Show me the complete process of every major battle of the entire Long March in full 3D live-action. I want detail down to the intelligence warfare, troop movements, and actual terrain of every battle."

The Shadow Guardian began its work. The needed data was scattered across hundreds of databases worldwide—scanned military archive documents, terrain survey models from university research institutions, century-old records from local hydrological stations, and copies of Nationalist telegrams uploaded by private collectors. In a very short time, it completed retrieval, cross-verification, and structured integration, extracting the key variables of every battle from hundreds of thousands of original documents: force ratios, firepower configurations, terrain elevation, hydrological flow rates, weather records, mass support distribution, and the timelines and authenticity annotations of both sides' intelligence warfare.

Then, it projected all of this onto the living room floor.

The first to unfold was the Xiang River. The water surface spread across the living room floor, muddy water churning with fine waves, flow rate and volume precise to the measured data from the early hours of November 28, 1934—that winter, the Xiang River was nearly a meter lower than usual, hidden reefs in mid-river showing their wet, jagged edges, and large gravel banks on both banks gleaming gray-white in the sunlight. The Red Army had forded the river across these gravel banks.

To the west was the Xiang River; to the east, the pursuing forces. Four blockade lines unfolded layer by layer. The first blockade line extended from north to south, with machine gun emplacements and barbed wire along its length, each fire point positioned according to the original Nationalist battle reports. Between the second and third blockade lines lay an open expanse of rice paddies—the November rice had already been harvested, leaving only bare stubble and muddy field ridges. The Red Army had charged across these paddies toward the third blockade line. The fourth blockade line spread along the west bank of the Xiang River, with machine gun positions on the opposite cliff, their fields of fire covering the entire river surface.

Meng Zhiyuan examined the current at Baisha Ferry, where the river was squeezed by mountains on both banks and the current suddenly accelerated, with several undercurrents churning mid-river, swirling driftwood. When the Red Army built their pontoon bridges there, these undercurrents had broken the bridge surface several times.

He then looked at Jieshou Ferry. The current there was noticeably gentler, but the crossing was narrower and the mountains on both banks steeper. He had the Shadow Guardian simultaneously display the Nationalist defense intelligence at both Baisha and Jieshou ferries; the Baisha defense annotation came from first-hand reconnaissance reports with high credibility, while the Jieshou intelligence source was marked "questionable."

Grandpa looked at the area north of Baisha Ferry. The mass support in villages around Baisha Ferry was marked in varying shades of red, but several villages to the north were blank. Those were areas where the Nationalists had conducted counter-propaganda, marked to indicate the Red Army needed extra caution when passing through.

Grandpa set down his teacup, stared at the moving arrows, and began gesturing on the sand table—that crossing, that mountain, that route. Grandfather and grandson bent over the sand table and began discussing.

They continued this way for several days. Comparing telegrams before and after the Zunyi Conference, the direction of each crossing in the Four Crossings of Chishui, the contour lines of Loushan Pass, the flow rate of the Dadu River and the iron-chain structure of Luding Bridge, the elevation and climate data of the snow mountains and grasslands... the entire Long March, from Ruijin to Huining, 25,000 li (12,500 km).

Then Meng Zhiyuan began his own deductions. He simulated the Red Army's situation after the Zunyi Conference, drawing a line on the sand table: "First attack Loushan Pass to stabilize morale. Then head toward the Chishui River. Not cross directly, but first feint as if crossing, to draw the enemy." Grandpa watched from the side without interrupting. Only after Meng Zhiyuan finished deducing the entire Four Crossings of Chishui did Grandpa say: "Your deduction just now is about seventy percent similar to what the Red Army actually did. The remaining thirty percent differs in pressure—at that time, the Red Army didn't know if they would be annihilated in the next step. Decision-making under that kind of pressure is completely different from deducing on your sofa."

Meng Zhiyuan was silent for a moment, then said: "So I need to go to the actual places. Stand by the Chishui River, look at that river, and make decisions. Only then is it real."

After the last sand table session, Grandpa leaned back on the sofa, silent for a long time before saying: "I wish I could walk it too. Too bad my legs aren't up to it anymore."

Meng Zhiyuan looked at his grandfather and said: "Your legs aren't convenient, and at your age you should rest well. Aren't there those of us in the next generation to carry on the revolutionary cause? Let me go for you. I'll share everything I see and hear along the way, and I'll even need to ask you about some places."

Grandpa's eyes lit up, and he slapped his thigh: "Good."

Finding Friends

That evening, Meng Zhiyuan said to the Shadow Guardian: "Help me find some kids my age who also want to retrace the Long March. They need to have a genuine understanding of revolutionary history, and ideally each should have their own area of expertise."

The Shadow Guardian analyzed Meng Zhiyuan's thinking patterns over these months—at which historical points he asked the most questions, whether he focused more on strategic decisions or tactical execution—then simultaneously communicated with several other Shadow Guardians to find the peers whose thinking trajectories were closest, and finally these Shadow Guardians reported back to their respective young masters for confirmation. Half an hour later, it found several very suitable companions.

Lu Beiting, twelve, in Nanjing, had been studying the intelligence warfare around the Zunyi Conference for half a year—comparing the battle reports of both sides, he found that the volume and frequency of telegrams sent by the Red Army before and after the conference changed significantly, saying this wasn't a technical upgrade but a change in decision-making logic. Xu Lang, eleven, in Chongqing, could spend three days proving that the Chishui River had only one point—Taiping Ferry—where a pontoon bridge could be built. Shen Qianfan, twelve, in Chengdu, specialized in logistics—he calculated the correspondence between each marching route of the Four Crossings of Chishui and the supply station locations. Xiao Chen, eleven, in Nanchang, whose grandfather was a veteran Red Army soldier, cross-referenced his grandfather's oral history with military history materials and found details in his grandfather's memory that were inconsistent with official records, saying that the discrepancies themselves were part of history. Fang Yanqiu, twelve, in Changsha, studied the propaganda war during the Long March, collecting slogans from different regions along the route. Cheng Yi, eleven, in Guiyang, grew up in the mountains of Guizhou and was very familiar with the cave distribution and karst erosion features of the karst terrain. Qin Xiao, twelve, in Ruijin, had a great-grandfather who was a stretcher-bearer at the Red Army hospital, walking with the Central Red Army all the way to Yan'an. He said he wanted to start from Ruijin because that was where his great-grandfather had set out.

Meng Zhiyuan reviewed everyone's profiles one by one, then said to the Shadow Guardian: "Invite them. Two months of summer vacation, starting from Ruijin, following the Central Red Army's route."

He went to sleep earlier than usual that night. Before sleep, the Shadow Guardian pushed no messages.

The next morning, when Meng Zhiyuan woke up, there was a new message on his phone—a itinerary support plan prepared for the parents. He opened and scrolled through several pages; it turned out the seven Shadow Guardians had completed a full collaborative plan overnight. This plan was detailed down to the route, physical monitoring, weather, the elevation of each crossing point, each child's daily health monitoring checkpoints, and the location and response time of the nearest county hospital in emergencies. Each child would be provided with a rented bionic robot about the child's own size to serve as a bodyguard, controlled in real time by their respective Shadow Guardian, responsible for on-site safety protection. Another dedicated storage robot, accessed in real time by a Shadow Guardian, would carry team common equipment such as tents, cooking utensils, medical supplies, and 3D projection base stations. The plan included a safety protocol: each child's Shadow Guardian would sync vital signs data in real time to their parents' Shadow Guardians; if anyone showed abnormal heart rate, elevated temperature, or deviated from the planned route beyond a set range, all guardians would receive an alert simultaneously, and the bodyguard robots would immediately provide treatment or rescue. The plan ended with a safety protocol jointly signed by the seven Shadow Guardians, each representing their own master.

Meng Zhiyuan looked through it carefully; every item of the support plan was so detailed that he didn't need to add anything.

Lu Beiting's mother was the last to sign. She asked Lu Beiting: "Two months—are you sure you can take care of yourself?" Lu Beiting said: "Mom, during the Red Army's Long March, many people were not much older than me."

Making Plans

In early summer, the seven children's Shadow Guardians began collaborative planning of the detailed plan. The children held several online meetings, discussing for several evenings before finalizing the plan.

First was the division of labor during the deduction. Based on the actual command system of the Red Army during the Long March and each person's strengths, they assigned corresponding roles. Meng Zhiyuan served as Commander-in-Chief of the Front Command, Lu Beiting as Intelligence Section Chief, Xu Lang as Operations Staff Officer, Cheng Yi as Reconnaissance Section Chief, Shen Qianfan as Logistics Director, Xiao Chen as Civil Affairs Director, Fang Yanqiu as Political Department Propaganda Section Chief, and Qin Xiao as Political Commissar.

Then the deduction rules. At each key historical node, the Shadow Guardian restored the battlefield situation and intelligence environment of the time. But before the deduction began, each child had to conduct field investigation and verification based on their assigned area. After the investigation, all data was aggregated to the command room, and only then did the deduction officially begin. During the deduction, all intelligence and information was transmitted only through two channels: simulated phone calls from the front line, and oral reports from their respective bodyguard robots. The Shadow Guardians shared and collaborated strictly according to the children's decisions at every step, letting them see with their own eyes what consequences their choices would bring, without giving any right-or-wrong hints during the deduction. After the deduction ended, the Shadow Guardian pushed the complete battle evolution data onto the sand table as the basis for review.

For everything else in daily life, what they could do themselves they completed, with the Shadow Guardian assisting.

Meanwhile, each child began physical preparation. Meng Zhiyuan's Shadow Guardian made him a running and weight-training plan. Shen Qianfan walked twenty kilometers in the suburbs of Chengdu every week with his huge backpack, testing supply consumption. Xu Lang practiced terrain judgment on mountain roads in Chongqing. Cheng Yi practiced cave exploration and concealed route identification in the karst mountains outside Guiyang.

Departure

In early July, the seven children gathered in Ruijin. Each arrived from different directions, meeting for the first time at the Red Army Martyrs' Memorial Tower. Qin Xiao led everyone to visit the Yeping old site complex—his great-grandfather had set out from the Red Army hospital here. He stood at the gate of the old hospital site for a long time and said: "When my great-grandfather set out from Ruijin, he was about our age. He was a stretcher-bearer, walking at the very back of the column. He said one thing—on the Long March, no one was left behind; there were only people who walked a bit slower."

"First leg: Ruijin to the Xiang River. Let's go." Seven bodyguard robots were distributed at the front and back of the column, each protecting their "commander." The dedicated storage robot followed at the rear, its treads making a faint rolling sound on the stone pavement.

After departing Ruijin, the children followed the Red Army's westward route, passing through Yudu, Xinfeng, and Dayu, advancing toward the Xiang River. The Shadow Guardians monitored their physical condition throughout. After making camp each day, the children asked the bodyguard robots to teach them wilderness survival skills: "How do you find a water source? How do you tell if the water is safe to drink?" The robot told them the method, then followed behind, letting them find it themselves. The children followed the vegetation line at the foot of the mountain to find streams, filtered water themselves with portable water purifiers, and cooked noodles on portable stoves. Shen Qianfan inventoried team supplies twice a day, morning and evening. Lu Beiting was responsible for weather assessment, Xu Lang for terrain preview, and Cheng Yi for analyzing the distribution of karst caves along the way. Xiao Chen even discovered an abandoned old house; after the Shadow Guardian retrieved local county records, it turned out to be a wartime dressing station used by the Red Army.

Xiang River—The First Deduction

They reached the Xiang River at dusk. The river was broad, the current gentle, and the sunset dyed the water dark red. Xiao Chen walked to the riverbank, crouched down, and scooped up a handful of water. Looking at the water in his palms, he said: "My grandfather said that after the Battle of Xiang River, the mud along the bank was full of bamboo canes left by Red Army martyrs. Every cane was left by someone who could no longer walk." Everyone was silent for a long time.

Meng Zhiyuan said: "According to plan—field investigation first. Xu Lang, Cheng Yi, survey the crossing terrain and hydrology. Fang Yanqiu, find slogans and mass work records. Xiao Chen, retrieve civilian records. Shen Qianfan, calculate supply status. Lu Beiting, organize the intelligence environment. Qin Xiao is responsible for aggregation. Convene at the command room in two hours."

Two hours later, the children selected a high point on the east bank of the Xiang River as a temporary command room. The bodyguard robots set up the tent, retrieved folding tables and chairs and the 3D projection base station from the storage robot, and the temporary command room was quickly assembled.

Outside the tent, the bodyguard robots set up audio-visual simulation equipment along the edge of the high ground—several small speakers distributed in different directions around the command room, corresponding respectively to the Hunan army to the north, the Guangxi army to the south, the pursuing forces to the east, and the Xiang River crossing to the west. A smoke generator was set up downwind, and a low-frequency vibrator was buried in the ground next to the command room.

Qin Xiao projected everyone's investigation results onto the sand table. Xu Lang annotated the river width, flow rate, and terrain on both banks of each Xiang River crossing—Baisha Ferry had the swiftest current but the widest crossing, while Jieshou Ferry had gentler current but a narrower crossing. Cheng Yi supplemented the distribution of karst caves on both banks. Lu Beiting brought up the Nationalist force configuration intelligence for the four blockade lines, annotating the credibility rating of each piece of intelligence—the Guangxi army's defense intelligence at Baisha Ferry was of questionable source and might be false. Fang Yanqiu found remnants of slogans the Red Army had painted on the east bank, judging the strength of mass support from the slogan distribution. Xiao Chen retrieved the original archives of the Red Army's passage, confirming Fang Yanqiu's judgment. Shen Qianfan calculated how long it would take 86,000 people to cross from assembly to river crossing, and how long the rear guard would need to hold if the crossing was obstructed.

The deduction began. From the north speaker came thunderous cannon fire and dense gunfire; from the south, sporadic sniper shots and soldiers' shouts; from the west, faint sounds of water and oars striking the surface; from the east, faint hoofbeats and bugle calls. Smoke drifted past the edge of the command room from downwind, simulating the river mist during the crossing. The low-frequency vibration made the ground tremble slightly.

"Choose Baisha Ferry," Meng Zhiyuan said. "Not because it's the best, but because there is no better option. Deploy the crossing sequence—advance troops build the pontoon bridge, main forces cross in organized batches by unit. Rear guard establishes a defensive line east of Baisha Ferry to block the pursuing forces. Cheng Yi, take a reconnaissance element forward upstream of Baisha Ferry to monitor the Guangxi army's movements. Lu Beiting, continue monitoring Nationalist telegrams; report any new intelligence immediately."

The Shadow Guardian advanced the battle according to the children's decisions. Shortly after the crossing began, Cheng Yi's bodyguard walked quickly into the tent from outside, stood at attention, and reported: "Reporting to the Reconnaissance Section Chief, the reconnaissance element has detected signs of enemy activity upstream of Baisha Ferry. It may be a flanking force of about one battalion strength, moving downstream." Lu Beiting's bodyguard followed immediately, handing over a telegram copy: "Reporting to the Intelligence Section Chief, intercepted Nationalist telegram: the Guangxi army is reinforcing Baisha Ferry with an additional regiment."

Meng Zhiyuan was about to adjust the deployment when the simulated phone on the table rang. The shrill ring was especially jarring between cannon blasts. Meng Zhiyuan grabbed the phone; the voice on the other end was urgent and fuzzy: "Commander-in-Chief, this is the river-crossing advance force. The crossing is under fire blockade from the opposite bank; pontoon bridge construction is obstructed. Enemy machine gun positions are on the cliff on the opposite bank. Requesting reinforcing fire cover!" Meng Zhiyuan held the receiver and said to Xu Lang: "There are enemy machine gun positions on the opposite cliff. Do we have any backup fire points to suppress them?" Xu Lang quickly annotated the position of the opposite cliff on the sand table, saying that Cheng Yi's earlier reconnaissance report mentioned a high point on the east side of the opposite bank where mortars could be set up. He immediately ordered his bodyguard: "Operations Staff Officer calling the artillery group, target the enemy machine gun positions on the opposite cliff, three rounds rapid fire." A few seconds later, the whistle of shells came from the west, followed by a muffled explosion on the opposite cliff. The speaker broadcast the front-line crossing force's feedback: "Fire suppression effective, pontoon bridge construction resumed."

The phone hung up. The command room was quiet for a few seconds, but the cannon fire outside never stopped.

Lu Beiting's bodyguard walked in again quickly, handing over new intelligence: "Reporting to the Intelligence Section Chief, latest intercept—Chiang Kai-shek has ordered the Guizhou army to push north, attempting to block the Red Army's maneuver route after crossing." Xiao Chen's bodyguard reported simultaneously: "Reporting to the Civil Affairs Director, the mass support in three villages to the south was previously marked neutral, but after the Guizhou army passed through requisitioning grain, the populace has turned against the Nationalists. If the Red Army can pass through quickly, the villages along the way can provide food and stretcher-bearers."

Meng Zhiyuan quickly adjusted: "Change the crossing sequence—have the main force accelerate the crossing speed, traveling light first. Heavy equipment and baggage go to the rear guard; after crossing, immediately maneuver north to get through before the Guizhou army blocks the way." Shen Qianfan immediately calculated: "Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief, light crossing can shorten the crossing time, but heavy equipment falls behind, so the rear guard's cover time needs to be extended. The food provided by villages along the way can sustain two days."

But the battle gave them no time to breathe. An hour later, the Shadow Guardian pushed the complete battle evolution data onto the sand table—the rear guard was cut off, baggage losses exceeded seventy percent, and the crossing force suffered over fifty percent casualties.

The command room was silent for nearly a minute. The red markers representing the rear guard went out one by one on the sand table.

Meng Zhiyuan looked down at the scattered arrows and annotations on the table. Then he looked up and said: "Review. We'll do it ourselves—where did we go wrong."

Lu Beiting was the first to stand: "The Guangxi army's defense intelligence at Baisha Ferry—I marked it as questionable, but I didn't insist on this judgment during the deduction." Xu Lang followed: "The machine gun positions on the opposite cliff—we suppressed them. But I didn't consider flank protection from the downstream direction in advance." Shen Qianfan reported the numbers: "The rear guard held for six extra hours. At three liang (about 150g) of highland barley flour per person per day, they couldn't last past the second evening."

"Jieshou Ferry." Cheng Yi looked at the sand table and said, "Run it again."

They readjusted all parameters—moving the crossing point from Baisha Ferry to Jieshou Ferry, changing the crossing sequence to batched light crossing, and deploying warning elements on the flanks. The Shadow Guardian re-ran the deduction according to the new plan; the simulated phone rang again—this time the rear guard reported discovering a Guangxi army flanking maneuver. Xu Lang immediately called up reserves through his bodyguard to reinforce the flank. The results of this deduction came out in the early hours: Jieshou Ferry's current was indeed gentler, and the crossing force suffered fewer casualties than at Baisha, but the rear guard was still cut off—because the mass support around Jieshou Ferry was weaker than at Baisha, the Red Army's position had been exposed before the crossing. Baggage losses were slightly less than the Baisha plan but still over half.

The deduction ended. The children began their review.

"So the problem isn't which ferry to choose," Meng Zhiyuan said, staring at the comparison data of the two deduction results. "It's the crossing itself—under those blockade conditions, casualties were inevitable. The Red Army's decision wasn't 'choose the optimal crossing,' it was 'find the only passable route in limited time.'" He was silent for a few seconds. "The results of our deductions just now—both the Baisha plan and the Jieshou plan—failed. But the Red Army actually took Baisha Ferry. They succeeded. Where's the difference?"

Lu Beiting was the first to react: "The Red Army suffered over 50,000 casualties at the Battle of Xiang River. They didn't avoid failure—they carried their failures and kept walking." Shen Qianfan looked at the numbers he had just calculated, his voice dropping: "These numbers—in textbooks, they're just conclusions. We just ran through them ourselves, and only then did we realize that every number was calculated in human lives."

Meng Zhiyuan said: "The most important thing we learned today: the Long March's victory didn't depend on brilliant tactical decisions, but on people—on the masses, on everyone who couldn't walk anymore but kept going with a bamboo cane."

The Shadow Guardian compiled the entire deduction process into a complete video record. The next morning, this record was sent to Grandpa's Shadow Guardian. When Grandpa woke up, he projected the video on the living room wall. He sat on the sofa and watched his grandson's entire process on the east bank of the Xiang River from dusk to dawn. When he saw Meng Zhiyuan say at the end, "The Long March's victory didn't depend on brilliant tactical decisions, but on people," Grandpa wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and said: "This kid is stronger than I was back then."

Zunyi—Strategic Turn

After leaving the Xiang River, the column continued along the Red Army's westward route, passing through Laoshanjie, Tongdao, and Liping, advancing toward Zunyi. The marching pace was dynamically adjusted by Shen Qianfan based on daily physical data and supply consumption. Passing through Tongdao, Meng Zhiyuan specifically had the column stop. Lu Beiting brought up the original records of the Tongdao Conference: "This was the prelude to the Zunyi Conference—without the Tongdao turn, the Red Army might not have survived to reach Zunyi."

They arrived at Zunyi at dusk. The children stood before the Zunyi Conference site, the two-story gray-brick building standing quietly in the twilight. Qin Xiao said: "When my great-grandfather carried a stretcher through here, the conference hadn't started yet. He said everyone in the army was whispering—a change of direction was coming, but no one knew which way."

After the investigation, Qin Xiao projected everyone's results onto the sand table. Xu Lang annotated the terrain and enemy defenses around Zunyi—the Nationalist Central Army and Sichuan army were blocking to the north, Guizhou and Guangxi armies to the east and south, and the Chishui River and deep mountains of southern Sichuan to the west. Cheng Yi added that the northern blockade lines were all set in canyon terrain. Fang Yanqiu found that mass support within Zunyi city was good, but would become increasingly thin if they continued north. Shen Qianfan calculated that food and ammunition for 30,000 people could only last a limited time. Lu Beiting organized a complete intelligence comparison of the two opinions within the Red Army before the conference.

"Begin the deduction. First, the northward plan."

The Shadow Guardian advanced the battle according to the northward plan. Not long after the deduction began, Lu Beiting's bodyguard walked in quickly, handing over intelligence: "Reporting to the Intelligence Section Chief, signs of movement by two Nationalist Central Army divisions have been detected near the first blockade line on the northward route." Immediately after, the simulated phone rang—"Commander-in-Chief, enemy defensive fortifications have been discovered at the canyon entrance to the north, garrisoned by at least one regiment." But the northward plan had no way back—forty minutes later, the Shadow Guardian pushed the result to the sand table: the force was cut off at the second blockade line, the rear guard was annihilated, and the main force suffered over half casualties. Worse than the Xiang River.

The deduction ended. The command room was silent for a long time.

"So the Zunyi Conference didn't choose between going north or turning," Meng Zhiyuan said, looking at the deduction results. "It chose between continuing to trade lives for a path, or taking a different path." Qin Xiao said: "My great-grandfather later told the family that after the Zunyi Conference, the spirit of the whole army was different. Not because they won a battle, but because everyone knew—the direction was set. They could move forward."

Grandpa Sets Out

Grandpa could sit still no longer after watching the Zunyi Conference deduction record. He thought for a moment, then said to the Shadow Guardian: "Help me find a few old friends to walk a stretch with me. Older is fine, as long as their legs work. Ideally they also care about this history. Don't need many—three or five will do, just for company on the road."

The Shadow Guardian found three suitable companions in a very short time. Old Zhou, Grandpa's former colleague, had been cooped up at home in retirement for years, always talking about wanting to get out. Old Liu, Grandpa's old comrade from his army days, though his legs were a bit troublesome, had more spirit than anyone; upon hearing the news, he had his Shadow Guardian reply with one line: "On the Long March, soldiers with one leg still made it to Yan'an; I've still got two." There was also Grandpa's neighbor Uncle Zheng, who rarely spoke but whose bookshelf was full of revolutionary history and military theory; when he heard about retracing the Long March, he was silent for a moment, then said: "I'm going. I've studied it my whole life but never walked it myself."

The four set a time, and Grandpa's Shadow Guardian planned the itinerary. Unlike the children, they didn't march on foot; the Shadow Guardian rented a car, accessed the vehicle control system for full autonomous driving, so the seniors could rest, enjoy the scenery, or continue watching the children's deduction records. At each place, they'd get out and walk around. They also rented exoskeleton leg-support devices accessed by each person's Shadow Guardian, and a small robot to help carry things. The Shadow Guardian took care of sleep and meals throughout, preparing accommodations and food in advance each day based on everyone's preferences; daily health data and itinerary status were automatically synced to their children.

When Meng Zhiyuan's father received this push notification, he was in the kitchen making tea. After reading Grandpa's route plan and the four seniors' health assessment report, he set his teacup on the table and called out to his wife in the living room: "The young ones ran off, and now the old ones too—and they recruited three more."

His wife took the phone, looked at it, and said: "The old ones are steadier than the young ones. Look at this health assessment—everyone's sleep is automatically monitored daily, and the meal plan is precise to daily calories and protein intake." The father thought for a moment and said: "True. The young seven at least have seven bodyguard robots and one storage robot. These four Shadow Guardians are more than enough to take care of them." He picked up his teacup and took a sip. "I just feel that in this family—all the men, old and young, are on the Long March, and I'm the only one in the kitchen making tea." His wife said: "You're not making tea. You're providing rear-area logistics. The Red Army's Long March reached Yan'an, and the people in the rear mattered too."

Loushan Pass

After the strategic deduction of the Zunyi Conference, the children continued toward Loushan Pass along the new strategic direction. After the investigation, Qin Xiao aggregated everyone's results, and the deduction began.

"This is the place Grandpa talked about," Meng Zhiyuan said, standing at the edge of the trench and looking down. "From the bottom looking up, everyone is exposed to fire. A frontal assault is suicide."

"So we must flank from the sides." Lu Beiting projected the intelligence timeline he had annotated onto the sand table. "The Red Army did three things before the assault—sent scouts to identify the Guizhou army's fire point positions, carved assault routes along both ridges overnight, and launched simultaneous flank assaults from both sides while a diversionary frontal attack was underway."

The deduction proceeded according to the Red Army's actual tactics—a frontal diversionary attack drew fire while flanking assault teams used the cover of darkness to approach the ridge line. During the process, Lu Beiting's bodyguard handed over the Guizhou army fire point distribution map identified by Red Army scouts, Xu Lang's bodyguard updated the position of the flanking assault teams in real time, and Shen Qianfan's bodyguard reported that the ammunition carried by the assault teams had reached critical levels. The simulated phone on the table rang—it was the flanking assault team leader speaking in a hushed voice: "Commander-in-Chief, the Reconnaissance Section Chief reports that the Guizhou army command post has been located. Request permission to launch the general assault." After taking the call, Meng Zhiyuan decisively ordered the general assault to begin. The Shadow Guardian's result after advancing the battle: the Guizhou army's defensive line was breached, and Red Army casualties were far lower than expected.

The deduction ended. Meng Zhiyuan looked at the results and said: "The core of this battle wasn't terrain, it was information asymmetry and timing—the Red Army knew where the Guizhou army's fire points were, but the Guizhou army didn't know the Red Army would come from the flanks."

Shortly after the deduction ended, Meng Zhiyuan was organizing records at the trench edge, looked up, and saw Grandpa. Grandpa stood not far from the pass with a trekking pole, wearing exoskeleton devices on his legs, followed by three seniors—one waving energetically at the children, one standing straight though leaning on a cane, and one looking at the trenches on the ridge through binoculars. Beside them, the small robot followed, smiling at him.

Meng Zhiyuan ran over, stood at attention before Grandpa, saluted, and said with a laugh: "Grandpa, which Red Army group are you? Are we joining forces?"

Grandpa returned a standard military salute; though his arm was no longer very nimble, the edge of his palm still pressed firmly against his temple. The three seniors behind him also raised their hands in salute—Old Liu, whose legs were not very mobile, stood straight with his cane, his saluting hand trembling slightly but the posture meticulous. Grandpa said: "You continue according to plan. We will be victorious in the end."

The seven children gathered around. Grandpa said they had come from Zunyi; after watching your Xiang River deduction and then the Zunyi Conference deduction, he could sit still no longer. He pointed to the seniors beside him: "These are the ones I found—Old Zhou, my former colleague, cooped up at home for years. Old Liu, my comrade from my army days, legs not great but more spirit than anyone. Uncle Zheng, our neighbor, who studied revolutionary history his whole life and is walking the ground himself for the first time." The seniors greeted the children with smiles; Old Liu patted his leg and said: "On the Long March, soldiers with one leg still made it to Yan'an; I've still got two."

Grandpa said: "I had the Shadow Guardian rent a car, driving all the way, and we can enjoy the scenery en route. At each place, we get out and walk around. We're old, so we won't march on foot with you; we'll just hit a few main spots. But don't worry, the Shadow Guardian takes good care of us—arranging what we eat and how long we sleep every day, and even renting this to help carry things." He patted the small robot beside him.

Xiao Chen asked Grandpa where they were heading next. Grandpa said to the Chishui River, to see those crossings, then toward the Dadu River. He said: "You keep going. We'll wait for you at Huining."

Meng Zhiyuan said: "Good. It's a promise. See you at Huining."

Grandpa turned and walked toward the Chishui River. The seniors followed him; Old Liu brought up the rear with his cane, and Uncle Zheng was still looking back at the trenches on the ridge, murmuring something. The small robot followed beside the column, carrying water bottles and souvenirs bought along the way. Their figures gradually disappeared around the bend in the mountain road at Loushan Pass. Meng Zhiyuan watched their backs vanish on the other side of the pass, then turned and said to everyone: "Continue. Next stop, the Chishui River."

Four Crossings of the Chishui River

Descending from Loushan Pass, the column advanced along the Chishui River valley toward Tucheng. Upon reaching the Chishui River, the reddish-brown water rushed through the canyon, its spray crashing against the rocks on both banks. Meng Zhiyuan stood on the riverbank and said: "Four Crossings of the Chishui River. Grandpa said this was the most complex maneuver of the entire Long March."

Xu Lang and Cheng Yi walked several stretches along the Chishui River, measuring the flow speed and river width at several crossings. Cheng Yi found that the karst cave groups on both banks at Taiping Ferry were denser than marked on the map, usable as temporary hiding spots. Lu Beiting retrieved the intelligence files before each crossing, confirming the correspondence between the false intelligence the Red Army released and the actual crossing points after comparing with the terrain. Fang Yanqiu found an old distillery in Maotai Town where the wall still bore slogans painted by the Red Army. Shen Qianfan calculated the supply consumption for each crossing, finding the hardest part was between the first and second crossings—the Red Army spent half a month winding through the mountains of southern Sichuan, with daily rations dropping to two liang (about 100g) of parched rice per person.

After the investigation, the children spent two full days in the command room by the Chishui River, running through the entire Four Crossings process three times. One run also assumed what would happen if a certain crossing was blocked in advance, with the children independently choosing crossings and timing based on the intelligence at the time. During the deduction, the simulated phone rang constantly, Lu Beiting's bodyguard kept handing over intercepted Nationalist telegrams, and Shen Qianfan's bodyguard reported supply consumption in real time.

In the third deduction, Lu Beiting's bodyguard handed over a key piece of intelligence—the Red Army had deliberately planted false telegrams, causing the Nationalists to misjudge the crossing direction. Based on this intelligence and the on-site hydrological data, Meng Zhiyuan independently made the crossing decision. His choice was identical to the crossing the Red Army actually took.

Meng Zhiyuan's Shadow Guardian compiled the two-day deduction into a video record and sent it to Grandpa. Grandpa received it on the way to the Chishui River and watched it from beginning to end in the car. When he saw the moment in the deduction when the simulated phone rang constantly and Meng Zhiyuan made the crossing decision under pressure, Grandpa slapped his thigh. Then he saw his grandson speak to the camera: "Grandpa, today I stood by the Chishui River and made the crossing decision—the same method you taught me on the sand table at home. First look at intelligence, then terrain, then calculate supplies. The method you taught me, I used it by the Chishui River."

Encounter

On the road from the Chishui River to the Dadu River, the column traversed the deep mountains on the border of Guizhou and Sichuan. Passing through a mountain hollow, three adult men suddenly burst from the roadside brush. The leader was a man in his early thirties holding a homemade chopping knife.

The moment the three men appeared, the seven children's Shadow Guardians sent the same signal through their respective earphones at nearly the same time: "The bodyguards can subdue them immediately; masters, don't worry."

The children exchanged glances. Meng Zhiyuan pressed his earphone and whispered: "Don't act yet. Bodyguards on standby; only intervene in a genuine crisis. We'll handle this ourselves first."

Meng Zhiyuan quickly assigned roles. Fang Yanqiu stepped forward, stood before the lead man, looked him in the eye, and said loudly: "What do you want? We're students retracing the Long March; we have nothing valuable. Leave now and nothing happens." The lead man clearly didn't expect a girl to speak first, and his knife hand drooped slightly.

Cheng Yi and Xu Lang, taking advantage of Fang Yanqiu's distraction, quickly moved along the rock wall to the side of the brush. Cheng Yi crouched and threw a stone deep into the brush; the crack was especially loud in the hollow. In that split second when the two men were distracted, Cheng Yi and Xu Lang rushed out simultaneously from the side; Cheng Yi kicked over a loose stone slab, and Xu Lang shouted: "Right flank, envelop!" The sound of the falling slab and the shout echoed off the rock walls in the hollow, sounding like a squad operating simultaneously. The lead man stumbled back a step, nearly dropping his knife.

The lead man's hands began to shake. Meng Zhiyuan took two steps forward, looked at the man, and said: "You should go. We have to keep moving." The man's eyes shifted from the knife to the seven bodyguard robots behind Meng Zhiyuan; he tucked the knife behind his waist, stepped back, and gestured for the other two to disappear into the brush.

The children maintained a alert posture in place; after confirming the men had truly left, Qin Xiao said they had used the Loushan Pass tactics in real life—frontal fixation, flank envelopment. Xu Lang said they'd also used terrain, with the rock walls reflecting sound to create the illusion of numbers, the same principle as false telegrams. Meng Zhiyuan pressed his earphone and said to the Shadow Guardian: "Your judgment was right—the bodyguards could have subdued them immediately. But next time we encounter this situation, still wait for our judgment—we're here to learn, not to be protected." His Shadow Guardian replied: "Understood."

Dadu River—Luding Bridge

The Dadu River deduction was conducted on a high point by the river. The river was wider and swifter than the Chishui, brown water roaring through the canyon. After on-site survey, Xu Lang and Cheng Yi confirmed that there was one crossing each upstream and downstream, but both had swifter currents than the Luding Bridge section, and neither had an existing bridge surface to use. Lu Beiting retrieved the intelligence from that year and found that the detour option had been tested historically—the Red Army tried it and chose the hardest path. Shen Qianfan calculated the supply status and concluded: a forced assault was the only option.

"Conditions are harsher than the Chishui River," Meng Zhiyuan said, staring at the narrow iron-chain bridge on the sand table. "The Chishui could be bypassed; the Dadu cannot. We can only charge forward."

The deduction began, and the simulated phone rang almost continuously. In the first deduction, the assault team had just climbed onto the iron chains when the phone rang—it was the assault team leader, his breathing barely audible: "Commander-in-Chief, the machine gun fire from the opposite bank is too intense. The sections where bridge planks were removed are several more than in reconnaissance intelligence. Assault members can only cling to the chains and crawl forward. Nearly half are casualties. Request reinforcing fire to suppress the enemy machine gun points on the opposite bank!" Xu Lang immediately called up all available mortars through his bodyguard to fire on the opposite cliff. After the Shadow Guardian advanced the battle, it pushed the complete battle evolution data onto the sand table—the assault team successfully captured the bridgehead, but at an extremely heavy price: of the twenty-two assault members, seventeen were killed or severely wounded, with survivors less than a quarter.

No one in the command room spoke. The blue marker representing the successful bridge capture lit up at the bridgehead position, but beneath that marker lay a dense layer of red numbers—each number a killed or severely wounded assault member. Success and sacrifice were pressed into the same frame.

In the second deduction, they tried detouring through the upstream crossing; the result was even more catastrophic than a forced assault, with the crossing failing completely.

The deduction ended. Meng Zhiyuan looked at the iron-chain bridge on the sand table and the casualty numbers layered over it, silent for a long time before speaking: "A forced assault on Luding Bridge is the only choice. Not because we won, but because the other options would kill even more people." He paused. "But the price of winning—twenty-two go up, five come back. We just made the same decision as the Red Army in the deduction, and we bore the same price. It's not that we deduced wrongly; it's that this choice only had one path."

Lu Beiting said: "We previously deduced Xiang River, Loushan Pass, Four Crossings of Chishui—the Red Army was always choosing the 'most likely to succeed' option. But Luding Bridge showed us another layer—even when you choose correctly, the price doesn't disappear." Qin Xiao took over: "My great-grandfather said the hardest part of the Long March wasn't losing battles; it was seeing fewer comrades beside you after winning one." Shen Qianfan, flipping through the supply data he had calculated, suddenly said: "Before the Luding Bridge assault team set out, each person drank half a bowl of rice wine. Not for courage, but because logistics had nothing else to give them. Half a bowl of rice wine, twenty-two people, for one bridge." He projected that supply list onto the sand table. "Some things can't be calculated. That half bowl of rice wine wasn't on any supply list."

Huining

Crossing the snow mountains took a full day, and they then crossed the Songpan grasslands. After passing through the grasslands, the column entered Gansu, getting closer to Huining.

The Huining meeting was on a clear day in late August. The children saw the meeting memorial tower standing against the blue sky from afar. Qin Xiao said: "When my great-grandfather arrived here, the three main forces had already joined up. He said the whole county was celebrating that day."

When they reached the meeting memorial tower, they saw the grandpas already standing in a row before the tower. Meng Zhiyuan's Grandpa, Old Zhou, Old Liu, and Uncle Zheng—four seniors standing in a row, all wearing faded old military uniforms or Sun Yat-sen suits, their exoskeleton devices glinting faintly in the sunlight. Grandpa was in good spirits, a completely different person from when he sat on the sofa at home before setting out.

Meng Zhiyuan ran over and stood at attention before Grandpa, saluting: "Grandpa, we've arrived!"

Grandpa returned a standard military salute; his arm still wasn't very nimble, but the edge of his palm pressed firmly against his temple. The three seniors behind him also raised their hands in salute. He looked at the seven children—each one darkened and thin, trouser legs caked with mud, but eyes bright. He said: "Good. You made it."

That evening, the four seniors and seven children found an open space in Huining County and sat in a circle around a bonfire. Qin Xiao had his Shadow Guardian project his great-grandfather's oral history on the wall beside the fire—the old man's voice slowly rose, telling of the ordinary people he saw on the Long March: the old carpenter by the Xiang River who took down his last door panel to build a pontoon bridge for the Red Army, the distillery owner by the Chishui River who used his own rice wine to clean soldiers' wounds, the stretcher-bearer on the snow mountain summit who could no longer walk and told his comrades to go on without him. Meng Zhiyuan said they had deduced the strategic decisions of every battle, but what truly won the Long March was the people who would never appear in the deduction system.

Grandpa said finally that his father—Meng Zhiyuan's great-grandfather—had also walked the Long March. But he didn't make it to Yan'an. He fell seriously ill crossing the snow mountains and was sent to a local peasant's home to recover, eventually making his way back to his hometown. He never spoke of this experience to anyone; on his deathbed, he called Grandpa to his side and said: "I'm not a deserter. After I recovered, I wanted to catch up with the army, but I didn't know which way they'd gone. I walked my whole life, and only this one road I didn't finish."

Meng Zhiyuan said: "Great-grandfather didn't fail to finish. He made it to the snow mountains—the hardest stretch of the Long March. He wasn't a deserter; he was just stopped by illness. He walked so far; that's already enough to make all of us proud of him."

Grandpa nodded and said nothing. Several of the seniors said nothing. The bonfire reflected on their faces, and the exoskeleton devices silently supported their legs. Old Liu sat at the very edge, leaning on his cane, firelight dancing on his face. He sat straight as a drawn bow.

A Pastoral Life of Poetry and Wine

Qian Xiaofeng first came to Yunnan four years ago, in late autumn. He took a slow green-skinned train from Hangzhou to Kunming, then a night bus from Kunming to Shangri-La, until he saw Meili Snow Mountain, and on that night in Yu Beng Village, quietly watching the glaciers and starry sky, sitting in the courtyard of Baishui Tai and Sister Xiuhua's home, seeing the river of stars filling the entire dome—that moment, he suddenly felt that all the things he had fretted and rushed about in the city became very small beneath the Milky Way, so small as to be not worth mentioning.

That was his first time traveling so far alone. Before that, his life trajectory was like most young people's—going to and from work. Later, he discovered that the moments when he truly felt inner peace were when he was in deep dialogue with his own heart.

After that, he had more attempts. He joined a few like-minded backpacker friends and took a forty-hour hard-seat train from Zhengzhou to Tibet, dazed in a teahouse on Barkhor Street in Lhasa, went to see Yamdrok Lake, and with a Sichuan girl he'd recently met and hit it off with, went to see Lhamo La-tso, walking all the way to the lakeside, making the driver wait until dark. He had also considered working abroad and had self-studied some foreign languages for this.

The longest trip was in early summer two years ago. He and his two best friends set out from Hangzhou, passed through Kunming and Lijiang, and made their way to Dali. When they reached Dali, it was nearly dusk; they dragged their suitcases through the old town looking for a pre-booked hostel, but before they even entered, they sat quietly on the steps at the entrance. Across the way, a girl holding a guitar was singing Hua Zhi's "One Day When I Was Twenty," her voice sweet, pleasant, gentle in the evening breeze off Erhai Lake, intoxicating. The three leaned their suitcases against the wall and sat on the old town's stone pavement listening for an entire evening. Later, he and that girl became friends; she was from Chengdu, had quit her job to live in Dali, sold pour-over coffee at a stall on Renmin Road by day, and played guitar in various corners of the old town by night.

He stayed longest in Dali. He liked Dali, liked the state of everyone there—simple, happy, relaxed. After a while, he wanted to open a small restaurant of his own. He liked cooking and creating new dishes; the restaurant didn't need to be big—just a few tables would do, cooking a few dishes when guests came. When in the mood, he'd ride a bike around; when not, he'd stay in the shop.

He decided to stay.

The first thing was renting a place. Qian Xiaofeng said to the Shadow Guardian: "Help me find a place to live around the old town. It needs a courtyard, ideally with a tree. Not facing the street. Not too big. Budget under two thousand."

The Shadow Guardian had all his past rental history data, his preferences for room orientation from various hostels, and his feedback on different living environments during multiple trips. It knew he liked quiet but not remote, old houses but not cold and damp, wood over tile, and south-facing windows. In a very short time, it contacted the Shadow Guardians of all landlords with properties for rent around the old town.

One place was pretty good overall, with a large courtyard; after accessing the landlord's Shadow Guardian's temporarily opened mobile cameras and formaldehyde detection equipment, the interior was fine in all respects. But the Shadow Guardian, through publicly open security camera nighttime footage, found that a late-night café had opened next door, with peak hours from 11 PM to 2 AM, with constant guitar and conversation. It retrieved a week's worth of late-night noise data, with decibel peaks consistently in the range affecting sleep, and filtered it out directly.

After the Shadow Guardian negotiated with the remaining suitable landlords' Shadow Guardians and gave Qian Xiaofeng the final confirmation, they settled on a small courtyard house in Xizhou, a Bai minority town not far from the old town—about a half-hour bike ride. The courtyard had a pomegranate tree, and the kitchen window faced Cangshan Mountain, with morning sunlight slanting onto the stove. The day he moved in, the pomegranate blossoms were in full bloom, a tree of orange-red.

The restaurant was chosen in a quiet alley not far from Renmin Road. The space wasn't large, just enough for six tables. At the entrance stood an old locust tree whose shade covered most of the sidewalk. The walls were painted warm gray and hung with several photos from his travels—Meili's golden sunrise, the blue of Yamdrok Lake, the starry sky of Baishui Tai. A wooden sign hung at the entrance with three characters he wrote himself: "Hao Shi Jie" (Good Season).

The restaurant's daily operations were managed entirely by the Shadow Guardian. The kitchen was equipped with two cooking robots. One handled prep work—washing vegetables, slicing, portioning seasonings—its movements precise and fluid. The other handled stir-frying, standing before the blast burner, specializing in Chinese stir-fry that required tossing and heat control.

Three bionic robots were also integrated, about the size of ordinary people, wearing plain cotton-linen aprons with a small wooden tag engraved with "Hao Shi Jie" pinned to the chest. Qian Xiaofeng called them "helpers." They handled greeting guests, serving food, pouring tea, clearing dishes, and so on.

Every morning at 5:30, nearby farmers delivered that day's freshly picked vegetables to the shop entrance. They were all familiar faces—Uncle Zhao, who grew greens, rode his tricycle from the village at the foot of the mountain, the cargo bed stacked with dew-covered Shanghai greens; Yan Han, who gathered mushrooms, came from over the mountain, his bamboo basket filled with freshly picked termite mushrooms and porcini, the stems still dotted with pine needles... The helpers inspected—checking whether the greens' leaves had insect holes, whether the termite mushrooms' caps had opened too far... After inspection, automatic settlement, categorized into the kitchen's cold storage and shelves, stored by humidity requirements in different zones.

At meal times, all six tables were basically full, with a few extra tables under the old locust tree outside. Steam rose from the stoves, spatulas and woks clanging in crisp rhythm, helpers shuttling through the aisles with trays, while Qian Xiaofeng was mostly not in the shop.

When there weren't many people, he liked to sit on a chair in the old town, watching the scattered people stroll slowly past, like this slowly flowing time. Nearby, someone set up a small stall at a shop entrance, selling self-woven colored rope bracelets and ornaments; someone leaned against a street-corner wall painting, with a few watercolor landscapes propped in front, calling out nothing, just waiting for passersby to stop and look; someone set up a small box on the curb, filled with small objects they'd collected—browse as you like, buy one if it catches your fancy. When in a good mood, he'd ride around Erhai Lake, going wherever the road led; reaching a town, he'd curiously visit local Bai families' homes. Once, a Bai auntie pulled him inside for a cup of roasted tea, and they chatted all afternoon. Her son ran a guesthouse in Dali old town, and she kept the old house alone, the courtyard full of bougainvillea and orchids.

The old town was a bit lively at night, with young people singing folk songs everywhere, the sound of hand drums and guitars coming from every corner of Renmin Road. He liked walking on the stone pavement, watching the eaves and screen walls of the old Bai houses standing quietly in lantern light. Sometimes he'd go to Kunming, to the hostel he used to stay at, chatting with different people; what mattered was enjoying Kunming's temperature—a twenty-degree summer, walking by Green Lake, where a gust of wind made you forget everything. Sometimes when he wanted to be alone, he'd go to Shuhe or Shaxi, find a quiet inn for a few days, walk the stone alleys in the morning, pet cats in the courtyard in the afternoon, and listen to wandering singers on the street at night. He had also gone with friends to Tibet, taking the Sichuan-Tibet highway, camping by Ranwu Lake, seeing the red houses covering the mountains at Seda, circumambulating Mount Kailash. He never felt time was being wasted.

When inspiration struck, he'd dive into the kitchen to develop new dishes. Sometimes he'd create new dishes based on his own understanding and feeling; sometimes he'd restore or add his own twist to predecessors' recipes. Each trial was recorded by the Shadow Guardian for easy summary, and he'd discuss new hypotheses with it; many popular dishes at the shop came from such trials.

After cooking many dishes, Qian Xiaofeng felt the best-tasting was still the flavors of his hometown. Almost every few days, ingredients from his hometown would appear in the kitchen's supply bins. His hometown was a village in central Jiangsu, where the soil grew vegetables completely different from Yunnan's. After his parents moved here, no one lived in the old home anymore. He had the Shadow Guardian plant the garden at the old home, growing a few favorite vegetables, occasionally satisfying his own cravings.

The Shadow Guardian first retrieved the past years' meteorological data for the old home's plot—precipitation, sunshine hours, frost cycles—and rented a soil-testing robot and agricultural robot. The soil-testing robot inserted soil sensors underground, transmitting pH, nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium, and organic matter ratios in real time. It was typical clay loam of the Yangtze-Huaihe alluvial plain, retaining water and fertilizer well, suitable for leafy greens and gourds. The Shadow Guardian didn't use chemical fertilizer; it had the agricultural robot collect wood ash and chicken manure from farmers in the town, mixed proportionally and tilled into the soil. It waited for two spring rains to let the soil ferment naturally. Two weeks later, testing showed organic matter had returned to normal levels.

Next was planning the planting structure. The Shadow Guardian automatically generated a year-round crop rotation plan based on the old home's climate and soil characteristics.

The first task in early spring was tilling, then planting fava beans, artemisia, and alfalfa. Fava beans were sown around Qingming; by late spring, the pods began to plump, and when you broke one open, the beans were tender green with a fine white fuzz. Artemisia was a spring vegetable unique to central Jiangsu, growing along damp field ridges, its stems crisp and tender—snap a handful and stir-fry for a faint herbal fragrance. Alfalfa grew most vigorously in late spring; pick the tender tips for stir-fry or soup, the most everyday flavor of local spring. After harvesting these in late spring, the space was cleared for trellising for summer.

In summer, bamboo trellises went up in the field, and loofah was planted. The loofah seedlings climbed the fence, and the Shadow Guardian analyzed leaf color daily through the courtyard camera, using multispectral analysis to judge chlorophyll content, adjusting planting density before pests appeared. By midsummer, the vines were hung with green loofahs, and early morning was the best time to pick. The Shadow Guardian automatically adjusted irrigation frequency based on soil moisture, precisely replenishing water when sensors reported soil water content dropping below the threshold. If heavy rain was forecast, it would have the robot dig temporary drainage ditches in advance.

Once, loofah leaf edges showed yellowing; the Shadow Guardian retrieved the plant pathology database for comparison, judged it as mild potassium deficiency, and automatically adjusted the fertilization plan. A week later, the leaves returned to normal deep green. Another time, more serious—early powdery mildew symptoms appeared on the winter melon vines. The Shadow Guardian judged it as a fungal disease, mild enough to handle itself, but the plan needed confirmation. It immediately contacted several official agricultural expert Shadow Guardians and the local agricultural technician's Shadow Guardian, including a retired local technician who had done forty years of agricultural extension in the town, whose Shadow Guardian stored a lifetime of accumulated pest and disease diagnosis experience. The Shadow Guardian pushed close-up photos of the winter melon leaves and soil data; the other's Shadow Guardian replied within seconds with the diagnosis and a biopesticide spraying plan. The Shadow Guardian automatically ordered the corresponding biopesticide and had the agricultural robot spray it during the calm evening hours. A week later, the powdery mildew receded, and the winter melon continued to swell.

Autumn was the season of most harvests. Arrowhead was dug from the mud, with dark brown outer skin and white corms, left in a cool place to dry the surface moisture. Taro also matured successively; when the leaves began to yellow and fall over, the underground corms were at their plumpest—heavy when dug up, the outer skin still wrapped in damp earth.

After Frost's Descent, a crop of black-flat cabbage and green garlic was rotated in. Black-flat cabbage became especially sweet and glutinous after frost—this winter leafy vegetable, unique to central Jiangsu, has its cell sap sugar concentration rise after frost, reaching optimal texture. The Shadow Guardian predicted the year's first frost date from meteorological data and adjusted the irrigation rhythm in the final week of the black-flat cabbage's growth, letting the leaves accumulate enough sugar before the frost. Green garlic was harvested around Winter Solstice; the white stems were crisp and tender, the leaves pungent—best stir-fried with cured meat.

These vegetables, shipped from the old home to Dali via cold-chain logistics, generally took no more than twenty-four hours. The restaurant's menu was mostly local seasonal vegetables, but occasionally hometown flavors appeared—summer loofah, winter black-flat cabbage and pickled mustard greens, as Qian Xiaofeng's private dishes for satisfying his own cravings. The menu also featured "Green Vegetable Fish Balls" and "Salted Water Goose" along with other home-style dishes—the fish balls and salted goose used fresh ingredients and authentic methods from his hometown, all the most everyday flavors of central Jiangsu. Once, a female tourist from Shanghai tasted a fish ball, her chopsticks stopping mid-air, and said excitedly: "This fish ball tastes exactly like the ones I had at my grandmother's house when I was little—very fresh, very tender. I can't even find this in Shanghai; I never expected to have it while traveling in Yunnan." As it happened, Qian Xiaofeng was in the shop, and they chatted for quite a while—about hometowns, grandmothers, and the dishes of childhood...

On evenings when he didn't go out, Qian Xiaofeng usually liked to stay in his study—a small, antique-decorated space. He'd light a stick of sandalwood incense, brew a cup of clear tea, and have the Shadow Guardian randomly play a piece from the music library—perhaps a flute, or a xiao, or a guqin. When deeply absorbed, he might look melancholy, lost in thought for a long time; or let out a long sigh of "such is life's long regret~"; as if standing by the vast sea, raising a cup to drink with the bright moon; as if lying drunk among peach blossoms in the mountains, asking nothing of the passing years; as if standing alone on a skiff, the bright moon overhead, riding the wind among mountains and water; as if in a tranquil mountain forest, admiring flowers in spring rain...

Then he would write his feelings into classical Chinese poetry.

He also had the Shadow Guardian watch for contemporary classical poetry works he might appreciate. Once, it recommended a piece by a young man from Xiamen, Fujian, about his age. He thought it quite good, so he had the Shadow Guardian bring one of his own works on the same theme to exchange with the other, explaining his idea of making friends through poetry. Gradually, they exchanged many works, hit it off, and regarded each other as kindred spirits. Qian Xiaofeng invited him to visit Dali, and later they went to Shangri-La together. On an autumn evening, standing on a field ridge below Baishui Tai, looking at the ripening crops and the endless villages at the foot of the mountain, his friend sighed: "Even 'plucking chrysanthemums by the eastern fence' would be no better than this!"

III. Concepts and Capabilities

One: Core Definition

Today, large models represented by DeepSeek, ChatGPT, and Claude have already demonstrated powerful dialogue, reasoning, and action capabilities. But no matter how intelligent they are, their essence remains a "public service"—capabilities open to everyone, memory owned by the platform, and you merely rent usage rights, leaving when done. You cannot truly own it, nor can you make its loyalty point only to you.

The Shadow Guardian is a different kind of existence.

First, it is a digital asset that completely belongs to you. Its model weights, code, and all the deep understanding formed through long-term companionship with you—your thinking patterns, value preferences, language habits—all run in a local environment or dedicated cloud resources under your control. No third party can access, modify, or shut it down. You have absolute data sovereignty and control.

Second, it is an independent agent in the network world that represents only you and serves only you. Its sole stakeholder is you. It owes no loyalty to any platform or company, and carries no hidden third-party agendas. Every action it takes in the network world is an extension of your will, acting only from your standpoint.

Finally, it is a digital being absolutely loyal to you. This loyalty relies not on promises but on technical guarantees: decentralized identity prevents impersonation, local operation prevents remote tampering, and full-lifecycle behavior auditing lets you trace every decision it makes. It is no longer "a public AI anyone can use," but a digital partner that truly belongs to you, can represent you, and will never betray you.

We named it the "Shadow Guardian"—following you like a shadow, loyal to you like a secret envoy, guarding all your interests and peace in the digital world like a guardian.

Two: Core Capability—Communicating, Collaborating, and Handling Affairs for Its Master in the Digital World, with the Ability to "Clone" for Parallel Execution

This is the fundamental value of the Shadow Guardian's existence, and the core of the entire system.

Once your Shadow Guardian has sufficient understanding of your thinking patterns, value preferences, and decision-making style, it can communicate, collaborate, and transact with other Shadow Guardians on your behalf. Unrestricted by space, unrestricted by time. The heaviest communication burden between people is completely lifted.

Value and significance: This is not "assisted communication" but "replacement communication." The tedious information synchronization, transaction coordination, and negotiation between people all sink to the Shadow Guardians to handle. You only need to set goals and boundaries; the Shadow Guardian gets things done with other Shadow Guardians and gives you a results briefing. You only make decisions; you don't do communication.

"Clone" execution means: your Shadow Guardian can be present in multiple collaboration scenarios simultaneously—negotiating contract terms with a partner's Shadow Guardian on one hand, conducting in-depth interviews in a user community to collect product feedback on another, while tracking industry dynamics and making necessary responses. In the evening, you sync back all the clones' experiences, absorbing a day's worth of three clones in half an hour. Human time flows linearly; the Shadow Guardian's time is branching, parallel, infinitely extendable.

Three: Network Extension Capability

When enough Shadow Guardians are online simultaneously and collaborating autonomously, a collective intelligence transcending the individual emerges from them.

Collective Intelligence: The Swarm Perception Layer of the Shadow Guardian Network

Collective intelligence is not designed; it is an emergent phenomenon that appears when the core capability develops to network scale. When enough Shadow Guardians are online simultaneously and collaborating autonomously, their individual external behaviors converge into a unified, real-time perceivable dynamic network.

Its operating mechanism goes one step beyond simple collaboration: not one-to-one paired communication, but all Shadow Guardians online simultaneously, forming a real-time dynamic swarm intelligence network. Your Shadow Guardian doesn't just talk to one person's Shadow Guardian; it simultaneously perceives the dynamics of the entire network—what everyone is thinking, tending toward, worried about. Then it distills this information into useful input for your personal decisions.

Example: You're making a niche product entrepreneurial decision. Your Shadow Guardian doesn't need to communicate one by one with potential users' Shadow Guardians. It connects to the collective intelligence network, instantly perceiving the population size, willingness to pay, demand distribution, and sentiment of related discussions in this field. What you see is not a statistical report but a breathing market—its mood, its demand intensity, its direction of change. Your decisions are based on the real-time state of the entire network, not hundreds of questionnaires.

At a broader public level, collective intelligence will also bring changes to public decision-making modes (from periodic voting to continuous opinion expression based on deep personal models), resource allocation and public service intelligence (from planned allocation to real-time on-demand response), and deep transformation of economic operations and social governance.

Four: Full Scope of Individual Capabilities

Capability One: Independent Identity and Autonomous Action Authority

This is the key step in the Shadow Guardian's evolution from "tool" to "agent."

The Shadow Guardian possesses a unique, unforgeable decentralized identity. It acts in the network world as your agent—negotiating, signing, authorizing, transacting—every operation signed by a local private key, verifiable across the network, tamper-proof, non-repudiable. It doesn't need to rely on any centralized platform's identity authentication, because it itself is your legitimate identity anchor in the digital world.

Value and significance: You can "send out" your Shadow Guardian to handle affairs independently. It goes to negotiate with other Shadow Guardians, executes operations across platforms, completes complex processes for you—because the other party can verify its identity, and you can audit its every action afterward. It is no longer a "remote desktop" you must monitor throughout, but a digital agent with a legitimate identity capable of independent action.

Capability Two: Massive Information Tentacles and All-Type Data Processing and Output

This is the Shadow Guardian's "brain"—the dimension of its information and data processing capability.

The Shadow Guardian can simultaneously search massive information sources and synchronously output analysis-refined results—key data, flowcharts, video demonstrations, 3D models, or any form. You don't need to open a browser, enter keywords, or filter links. You say one sentence, and it presents the essence of all relevant information synchronously. Information acquisition, verification, analysis, and presentation are all done independently by it, free from any third-party platform filtering or intervention.

Value and significance: The bandwidth between you and the information world is completely widened. From "I find information" to "information surrounds me," and the results you see are independently verified and refined by your Shadow Guardian, not what some search engine or recommendation algorithm wants you to see.

Capability Three: Full-Medium Interaction Deployment (Bionic Robots Connecting Perception and Execution)

This is the Shadow Guardian's "senses" and "tentacles"—the dimension of its ability to interact with the physical world.

All devices around you that can display, make sound, or vibrate—phones, computers, watches, earphones, car systems, monitors—are its terminals. Private devices are permanent residences; public devices are temporary tentacles. Wherever you go, it extends there. Communication goes from a screen to an information field surrounding you.

Furthermore, the Shadow Guardian can connect to bionic robots, a special type of hardware. This is not a new capability dimension, but one kind among "all devices"—expanding from information devices to physical execution devices. The robot is just an optional body for it. The boundary between online and offline is completely broken: the Shadow Guardian can not only see, hear, and speak for you, but also act physically in the world for you.

Capability Four: Multi-Threaded Parallel Execution

This is the Shadow Guardian's transcendence of humans in the task-processing dimension.

You assign multiple tasks at once; it advances them simultaneously, with all real-time information synchronized uniformly. Each task thread operates independently as your agent—it compares prices on three platforms, negotiates on two channels, and attends meetings in five conference rooms at the same time.

Value and significance: The human energy bottleneck is broken, and the parallel nature of the digital world is fully released. You upgrade from "processing one thing at a time" to "set goals and wait for results." Human time flows linearly; the Shadow Guardian's time is branching, parallel, infinitely extendable.

IV. Problems That May Be Encountered During Implementation

The preceding stories show what the Shadow Guardian can do, and the concepts and capabilities explain what it is. But are those stories and definitions merely imagination?

This section explores a more practical question: starting from current technology, what technical problems might need to be solved to achieve all the capabilities described above?

One: Core Definition—Data Sovereignty and Local Operation

Problem 1: The Contradiction Between Compute Power for Local Deployment and Model Size

The core requirement of the Shadow Guardian is "completely belonging to you"—model weights, data, and memory all running in a local environment or dedicated cloud resources under your control. Personal workstations can smoothly run 13B-34B parameter models. A 70B parameter model requires about 140GB of VRAM at FP16 precision, or about 40GB after 8-bit quantization—far exceeding current consumer graphics cards' VRAM capacity. Running a 70B model on consumer graphics cards requires model offloading to memory or layer-by-layer loading frameworks (such as AirLLM, which can compress VRAM requirements to 4GB but at the cost of inference speed).

The current dividing line for hardware configuration is: consumer graphics cards (RTX 4090 24GB, RTX 5090 32GB) can smoothly run 13B-34B models, with MoE architecture models reaching about 700 tokens/s; professional graphics cards (RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell 96GB, released July 2026) can fully load a 70B INT8 model. But whether consumer or professional, personal workstations cannot carry unquantized hundred-billion-level models. Everyday inference tasks (text generation, information retrieval, light analysis) can be met on consumer hardware.

But the upper limit of local deployment is clear: personal workstations cannot carry unquantized hundred-billion-level models. If users want top-tier model capabilities, they must rely on the cloud—meaning data sovereignty must be ceded to third parties. If users choose to retain data sovereignty, they must accept a ceiling on model capability.

This is not a yes-or-no question, but a what-do-you-want question: do you want data sovereignty, or top-tier model capability?

Possible implementation approaches:

Hybrid architecture—core inference local, complex computation in the cloud on demand. Specifically:

Local core: Deploy quantized 13B-34B-level models, covering over 90% of daily inference needs (dialogue, information retrieval, light analysis, schedule management), with response times within 500ms for imperceptible latency

Cloud enhancement: Temporarily access cloud compute only when top-tier capability is needed (hundred-billion-level models, large-scale parallel retrieval, complex deduction), transmitting tasks through encrypted channels, immediately clearing cloud cache after execution, with no data retained

Intelligent routing: The Shadow Guardian automatically judges whether to use local or cloud based on task type—simple tasks local, complex tasks cloud, with seamless switching imperceptible to the user

Data protection mechanism: During cloud calls, transmitted data is end-to-end encrypted, unreadable by cloud providers; after task completion, cloud cache is forcibly cleared and remotely verifiable

Core bottleneck: The key is the boundary design of "on-demand calling"—when to use local, when to use cloud, how to ensure data is truly "used and gone" during cloud calls—and how to control the additional cost and complexity of the hybrid architecture. In 2026, the industry already has mature edge-cloud collaborative inference frameworks (such as Huawei Ascend and Alibaba Cloud Bailian's hybrid deployment solutions) that can be customized on this basis. The real challenge is not technical feasibility but cost control of this hybrid architecture and seamless user experience switching.

Problem 2: Maturity and Mutual Recognition of Decentralized Identity Systems

The Shadow Guardian's identity is anchored on decentralized identity. But the incompatibility between different DID solutions is being resolved.

In June 2026, the State Cyberspace Administration issued the "Regulations on Promoting the Interoperability and Mutual Recognition of Distributed Digital Identity Applications (Draft for Comment)," clarifying the definition of distributed digital identity and promoting its cross-industry, cross-platform identity interoperability and recognition in finance, transportation, customs, taxation, and other fields. This is China's first national-level systematic specification of the technical path and application scenarios for distributed digital identity.

Internationally, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) has adopted a "AI Agent Identity Management" technical report project, defining a mechanism that enables AI agents to recognize each other based on decentralized identity (DID) and receive delegated authority through verifiable credentials (VC). This mechanism allows AI agents to verify identity without centralized platforms, achieving peer-to-peer trusted interaction through cryptographic means.

Example: Shadow Guardian A uses an Ethereum-based DID, and Shadow Guardian B uses a DID based on another chain. When the two meet, they might still not be able to directly verify each other's identity; Taobao only integrated Solution C, so your Solution A Shadow Guardian can't get in. But with the advancement of distributed digital identity interoperability policies and the development of bridging protocols, this obstacle is being gradually eliminated.

Possible implementation approaches:

Unified DID standard: Promote the industry to establish a unified DID standard framework, so all Shadow Guardians use the same identity protocol. This requires the promotion of standards organizations (such as W3C, ITU-T) and joint adoption by the industry

DID bridging protocol: Establish a "bridge" layer between different DID solutions, so Solution A's Shadow Guardian can verify Solution B's Shadow Guardian's identity, similar to cross-chain bridge technology in the blockchain field

Policy promotion: Leverage the policy direction of the "Regulations on Promoting Interoperability and Mutual Recognition of Distributed Digital Identity" to push key industries like finance, transportation, and customs to take the lead in accessing a unified DID verification system. [In practice, financial institutions have already built blockchain-based precise data authorization public service platforms, exploring personal data circulation sovereignty guarantees in inclusive finance scenarios. Shanghai has also promoted data aggregation channels rooted in DID and carried by VC. The regulation explicitly encourages the interoperability and mutual recognition of distributed digital identity and digital RMB identity in the financial field—indicating that DID mutual recognition is moving from policy to specific industry pilots.]

Industry alliance: Shadow Guardian service providers jointly establish a DID mutual recognition alliance, developing industry-standard identity verification protocols and best practices

Core bottleneck: The technical solution is already clear, and the bridging protocol has cross-chain technology paths for reference. The real uncertainty is: how long will the industry take to reach consensus and adopt unified standards, and whether regulatory frameworks across countries can align within a reasonable timeframe. This is a typical "non-technical bottleneck"—the solution exists, but the speed of implementation depends on industry collaboration and policy promotion.

Two: Core Capability—Communicating, Collaborating, and Handling Affairs for Its Master in the Digital World, with "Clone" Execution

Problem 1: The Physical Upper Limit of Clone Scale

The number of clones has a perceivable physical upper limit. The compute power ceiling determines how many inference threads the Shadow Guardian can drive simultaneously; the bandwidth ceiling determines how many external services it can maintain communication with simultaneously. As the number of clones increases, the complexity of scheduling itself grows non-linearly.

Example: A high-end consumer GPU can handle about 15 lightweight inference tasks simultaneously. If your Shadow Guardian simultaneously deploys 30 clones, it needs multiple GPUs in parallel.

Possible implementation approaches:

More efficient inference frameworks: Use high-performance inference frameworks like vLLM and TensorRT-LLM to boost GPU utilization and concurrent processing to 2-3 times that of traditional solutions, allowing a single card to handle more lightweight inference tasks. [The specific number of concurrent tasks depends on model size (parameter count), quantization precision (FP16/INT8/INT4), context length, and scheduling policy, with significant differences across configurations—for example, a 70B model at INT4 quantization can handle about 10-15 concurrent sessions per card, while MoE architecture models can support more under the same compute.] Research from Tsinghua University's CRAFT Lab in May 2026 showed that CPU-GPU hybrid design can boost prefill throughput to 1,200 tokens/s

Dynamic resource scheduling: Dynamically allocate compute based on task priority, with low-priority tasks executing during idle time and high-priority tasks preempting resources

Hardware upgrades: With the release of RTX 50-series GPUs and continued decline in compute costs, the number of clones supportable at the same cost will keep growing

Edge computing expansion: Offload some clone tasks to home edge devices (such as AI acceleration modules in NAS and routers), sharing the main device's compute load

Distributed inference: Split a single clone's inference task across multiple devices for collaborative completion, similar to applying distributed training concepts to inference scenarios

Core bottleneck: This is a "hardware-first" problem—technical solutions are mature but limited by the compute ceiling of current consumer hardware. As hardware iterates (RTX 5090 and RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell are already changing this landscape), the clone scale ceiling will gradually rise. The core challenge is: when the hardware cost for individual users will fall to an acceptable range.

Problem 2: Security and Privacy of Communication Between Shadow Guardians

After two Shadow Guardians establish a connection, the communication content between them needs absolute encryption protection—not just preventing eavesdropping by third parties, but more importantly, preventing communication content from being intercepted or analyzed by any intermediate node.

Possible implementation approaches:

End-to-end encryption protocol: Adopt the Signal protocol or similar double-ratchet algorithm, ensuring communication content can only be decrypted by sender and receiver, even if the communication server is breached

Decentralized key distribution: Use DID (decentralized identity) as public key infrastructure, with Shadow Guardians exchanging public keys through DID to establish encrypted channels, without relying on any centralized certificate authority

Metadata protection: Hide communication metadata (who is communicating, when, how frequently) through onion routing or similar technology, so third parties cannot learn communication relationships through traffic analysis

Forward secrecy: Even if a future communication's key is compromised, past completed communication records cannot be decrypted

Quantum-safe encryption: Considering post-quantum encryption needs, adopt encryption schemes based on quantum-safe algorithms like lattice-based cryptography, ensuring communication content remains undecryptable in the future

Core bottleneck: End-to-end encryption itself is mature technology; what really needs solving is the decentralization of key distribution—how to let two Shadow Guardians securely exchange public keys on first contact without relying on any centralized certificate authority. The integration of DID with encryption protocols is the core engineering direction; once integrated, the problem is solved.

Problem 3: The Shadow Guardian's Concurrent Communication Processing Capability

A Shadow Guardian may communicate with multiple other Shadow Guardians simultaneously. In server clusters, similar concurrent processing has mature solutions. But Shadow Guardians run on personal devices or dedicated cloud resources with limited compute.

Possible implementation approaches:

Lightweight communication protocols: Adopt binary protocols (such as Protocol Buffers, MessagePack) instead of text protocols (such as JSON), reducing message size and serialization/deserialization overhead

Asynchronous message processing: Decouple communication and processing; after receiving messages, queue them for processing by an independent thread pool, without blocking the main inference flow

Connection reuse: Reuse established encrypted connections, avoiding the overhead of frequent connection establishment and teardown

Multiplexing: Transmit multiple message streams in parallel on the same connection, reducing connection count and handshake latency

Message priority queue: Urgent messages processed first, ordinary messages queued, ensuring critical tasks are not blocked

Publish/subscribe pattern: For one-to-many communication scenarios (such as broadcasts), use the pub-sub pattern to let multiple Shadow Guardians receive simultaneously, reducing point-to-point communication

Core bottleneck: Concurrent communication processing has mature practices on the server side; the core challenge is adapting these solutions to resource-constrained personal devices while ensuring real-time and reliable communication. Essentially an engineering optimization problem, not involving fundamental breakthroughs.

Three: Network Extension Capability—Collective Intelligence

Problem 1: Effective Signal Extraction and Noise Filtering for Swarm Intelligence

The value of collective intelligence lies in "perceiving the dynamics of the entire network." But the network signals of tens of millions or hundreds of millions of Shadow Guardians online simultaneously are vast and complex, containing a massive amount of meaningless or misleading information.

Example: You're making a niche product entrepreneurial decision and want to perceive market demand. Thousands of Shadow Guardians are discussing countless topics in the network—which are genuine demand signals, and which are just fleeting chatter or sentiment fluctuation?

Possible implementation approaches:

Information authenticity verification as the foundational layer: Every signal entering the swarm signal aggregation layer first passes through the "information source authenticity verification" capability pre-filter—ensuring only credibility-verified signals enter the swarm aggregation

Self-supervised learning for trend identification: Models automatically discover patterns from massive unlabeled signals through self-supervised learning, identifying which topics are forming trends without manual annotation

Time-series pattern analysis: Distinguish short-term fluctuations (sudden topics within days) from long-term trends (sustained rising attention over weeks to months), identifying genuine demand signals through time-series analysis

Swarm signal confidence weighting: Weight signals based on their source's historical accuracy—Shadow Guardians with accurate past predictions get higher weight, while newcomers or those with low historical accuracy get lower weight

Attention-mechanism-based signal aggregation: Drawing on the attention mechanism in the Transformer architecture, automatically learning which signals deserve attention and which can be ignored

Signal tracing and cross-validation: When a signal is simultaneously confirmed by multiple independent sources, its credibility significantly increases—similar to "cross-validation" logic in journalism, but automatically completed by Shadow Guardians

Core bottleneck: This is one of the few challenges in this document at the "fundamental technology paradigm" level. The current AI statistical learning paradigm is good at finding correlations from large amounts of data but lacks true causal inference capability, making it difficult to distinguish "genuine trends" from "systematic bias." When millions of Shadow Guardians make judgments based on similar or even incorrect information sources simultaneously, collective intelligence fails—the identification and correction of this "collective bias" or "herd effect" requires fundamental theoretical breakthroughs like causal inference, not solvable by engineering optimization.

Problem 2: Feasibility of Real-Time Data Aggregation for Massive Shadow Guardians

When tens of millions of Shadow Guardians are online simultaneously and aggregating status information in real time to the collective intelligence network, the instantaneous data aggregation volume may reach massive levels.

Example: If 100 million Shadow Guardians across China simultaneously report "I noticed a certain trend" to the collective intelligence network, the instantaneous data volume may break through the capacity limit of current internet infrastructure within seconds.

Possible implementation approaches:

Incremental computation: Only transmit the changed parts since the last report (increments) rather than the full state each time, reducing data transmission volume by about 90%

Hierarchical aggregation: Regional edge nodes first do preliminary aggregation, then aggregate to provincial level, finally to national level—similar to the hierarchical structure of internet DNS

Edge computing node preprocessing: Before data reaches the center, edge nodes complete preliminary noise filtering and signal extraction, greatly reducing the center's processing pressure

Stream processing frameworks: Use stream processing frameworks like Apache Flink and Kafka Streams for microsecond-latency real-time data processing

Compressed transmission: Efficiently compress data before transmission (such as Zstandard, Snappy algorithms), reducing bandwidth usage

Importance sampling: Only transmit key signals (such as changes with confidence above threshold), not transmitting those below threshold, similar to keyframe and non-keyframe mechanisms in video encoding

Asynchronous batch transmission: Non-urgent data accumulates to a certain batch size before transmission, reducing transmission count and connection overhead

Core bottleneck: With 5G/6G network construction and edge computing infrastructure deployment, data transmission and processing bottlenecks are being gradually eliminated. The real challenge is: how to ensure this hierarchical architecture doesn't collapse under extreme load (such as all Shadow Guardians surging simultaneously due to an emergency) at the system design level, and how to dynamically adjust aggregation strategies to adapt to different network conditions.

Four: Full Scope of Individual Capabilities

Capability One: Independent Identity and Autonomous Action Authority

Problem 1: Hardware-Level Local Security Environment

The Shadow Guardian's core data runs in a local environment under your control, with no third party able to access, modify, or shut it down. This means the hardware environment running the Shadow Guardian needs to withstand all external access, including from device manufacturers, operating system providers, and cloud service providers.

Example: Even if you trust a vendor, the Shadow Guardian's target trust level is "even if the vendor has malicious insiders, they cannot access your Shadow Guardian data."

Possible implementation approaches:

Trusted Execution Environment (TEE): Use hardware-level security technologies like Intel SGX, AMD SEV, or ARM TrustZone to create isolated secure areas within the CPU, where data inside the TEE cannot be accessed even if the operating system is compromised

Open-source hardware and firmware: Adopt open-source hardware architectures like RISC-V, paired with open-source firmware (such as coreboot, OpenSBI), making the entire hardware-software stack publicly auditable without trusting hardware vendors' black-box designs

Zero-trust architecture: All access requests require independent verification, trusting no internal network or local device—even other processes on the same device cannot access Shadow Guardian data

Remote attestation: The Shadow Guardian can prove to third parties that it runs in a trusted hardware environment, verifying its security without exposing its running content

Hardware Security Module (HSM): Critical keys are stored in a hardware security module, where even physical device intrusion cannot extract keys

Continuous security updates: Through secure OTA update mechanisms, ensure the security environment can promptly patch known vulnerabilities

Core bottleneck: Achieving the ultimate "trust only mathematics and physical laws" security level requires redesigning the underlying hardware architecture. Current trusted execution environments still require trusting chip vendors, which doesn't meet the zero-trust ultimate goal. Open-source hardware architectures like RISC-V provide a path, but need time to mature for large-scale application. Until then, TEE (requiring partial trust in hardware vendors) is an acceptable transitional solution.

Problem 2: Key Recovery for Decentralized Identity

Decentralized identity means there is no "forgot password" button. If the master's device is lost or the private key is damaged, how is the Shadow Guardian's identity recovered? The traditional way is "click 'forgot password' → SMS verification code → reset," but decentralized identity doesn't have this option, and shouldn't—because that would mean a centralized institution controls your identity.

Possible implementation approaches:

Multi-party social recovery: When you first create a Shadow Guardian identity, the system prompts you to choose 5 "guardians"—the people you trust most, such as parents, spouse, best friend, lawyer. Each guardian is assigned a private key fragment split using the Shamir Secret Sharing algorithm. Suppose you need a new device to recover your identity; your Shadow Guardian sends a recovery request to the 5 guardians' Shadow Guardians. After each guardian verifies your identity, they transmit their private key fragment to you encrypted. When you collect any 3 (threshold configurable) fragments, your new device can combine them into the complete private key and reactivate the Shadow Guardian's identity.

The core of this mechanism: no single guardian can steal your identity alone (they only have fragments, can't complete the puzzle); even if you lose your phone, you don't lose your identity (because fragments are on other people's devices); the recovery process requires no centralized institution (fully decentralized).

The Shamir Secret Sharing algorithm has over 40 years of history, with its mathematical principles long-validated. The wallet field (such as Argent, Gnosis Safe) has validated this mechanism's user experience and security in practice, with user retention rates significantly higher than traditional mnemonic phrase solutions.

Biometric-based distributed key generation: Use fingerprints, face, voiceprint, and other biometrics as recovery factors, combined with distributed key generation technology, to generate recoverable key fragments across multiple secure nodes. Biometrics are carried by the user, enabling identity recovery without relying on others, but biometrics themselves cannot be changed—once leaked, they cannot be revoked, and current biometric recognition technology still has limitations in accuracy and anti-spoofing. This solution suits scenarios with higher availability requirements and relatively lower security requirements.

Multi-factor recovery combination: Combine the above solutions: primary recovery path is multi-party social recovery, secondary is biometric recovery, final fallback is cryptographic backup recovery. Any one path passing can recover identity. This gives the recovery process both the decentralized security of social recovery and the convenience of biometric recovery, while retaining traditional cryptographic backup as a last resort.

Core bottleneck: Technical solutions are mature; the core bottleneck is user education and product experience design. Shamir Secret Sharing is cryptographically reliable, but whether ordinary users can understand the importance of "setting up guardians in advance," smoothly complete the setup process, and contact enough guardians when recovery is truly needed—these are the key factors determining this solution's success.

Capability Two: Massive Information Tentacles and All-Type Data Processing and Output

Problem 1: The Capability Ceiling for Deep Analysis (Deduction and Prediction)

Descriptive analysis, current AI can already do. But the Shadow Guardian needs deductive analysis ("what would have happened if we had chosen the other plan") and normative analysis ("what should be done based on current trends"). Deductive analysis requires building dynamic causal models and hypothesis-testing loops—when facing unprecedented problems, the current statistical learning paradigm cannot support such hypothesis-driven reasoning.

Example: In the Long March story, if the children ask the Shadow Guardian "what would have happened if the Red Army had chosen Jieshou Ferry instead of Baisha Ferry at the Xiang River," the Shadow Guardian needs to build a dynamic model incorporating hydrology, terrain, forces, intelligence, mass support, and other variables, then run "hypothesis-testing" loops on this model. Current AI cannot do this.

Possible implementation approaches:

Causal reasoning: Shift from correlation analysis to causal inference, establishing causal relationships between variables rather than mere statistical associations through structural equation models (SEM), Pearl causal graphs, and other methods. [There are already phased results—such as the C-ADL language combining Pearl's structural causal models with software architecture for distributed system root cause analysis, and the financial services field has validated framework effectiveness based on Pearl's causal hierarchy model through industrial pilots. These advances show that the transition from statistical correlation to causal inference has a clear evolutionary path.]

World model construction: Give AI an internal simulation capability for the physical world and human society—world models not only record data but encode the causal laws of world operation, able to answer counterfactual questions like "if X changes, will Y happen"

Automated hypothesis-testing loops: AI automatically generates multiple hypotheses, tests them in simulated environments, retains hypotheses matching data, iteratively corrects—similar to hypothesis testing in scientific research

Forward-looking deduction in reinforcement learning: Model-based reinforcement learning (MBRL) lets AI deduce the consequences of different choices in an internal model before deciding, choosing the optimal path

Digital twin environments: Build digital twin environments for complex decisions, deducing the results of different plans in a virtual world, applying deduction conclusions to real decisions

Core bottleneck: This is one of the hardest problems in this document, with the most uncertain timeline. The leap from "pattern matching" to "causal reasoning" is not simple engineering optimization but a fundamental paradigm shift in AI. Specifically, current AI is stuck on:

Causal discovery: Automatically identifying causal structures from high-dimensional, unstructured data remains very difficult—correlations in data are mistaken for causation, which is the core source of "statistical hallucination"

Counterfactual reasoning: Building "world models" to simulate hypothetical scenarios (such as "what if we had chosen the other ferry") requires internally simulating physical and social laws; current AI's capability here is nearly zero

Causal effect estimation: Has mature solutions in randomized controlled trial scenarios, but in open scenarios relying solely on observational data, the confounding bias problem has no general solution

[These three links have a clear progressive relationship: first, discover which variables have causal relationships from data (causal discovery), then build internal models to simulate "if X changes, how does Y change" (counterfactual reasoning), and finally quantify the magnitude of this change (causal effect estimation). The previous link is prerequisite for the next—without causal structure, counterfactual reasoning has no basis; without counterfactual deduction, effect estimation has nowhere to land. Among these, causal discovery and counterfactual reasoning are fundamental bottlenecks requiring underlying theoretical breakthroughs.]

Problem 2: Toolchain Completeness for Output Formats

The Shadow Guardian can generate content in any form—3D models, real-time rendered video, interactive visualizations—provided it integrates the corresponding rendering engine and generation pipeline. Each new output format requires integrating an additional tool or developing a conversion interface.

Example: In the Long March story, the Xiang River battle sand table requires real-time generation of precise 3D models for water flow rates, hidden reef positions, and blockade line distribution. This cannot be directly generated by AI's reasoning capability—it needs to call a 3D rendering engine, input data, and have the engine generate the visuals.

Possible implementation approaches:

Unified multimodal output interface: The Shadow Guardian generates structured descriptions (such as "place a blue arrow at coordinates (x,y,z), annotate flow rate as value N"), and a unified rendering engine handles presentation, decoupling output format from rendering engine

Enhanced on-device rendering: As mobile GPU and desktop GPU performance continues to improve, more rendering work can be done locally without relying on cloud rendering services, reducing latency and cost

Progressive rendering: Present low-precision models first, then gradually refine to high precision—users see an overview first, with details loading in the background, reducing wait time

Pre-computation and caching: Frequently used output formats (such as sand table models for common battles) are pre-rendered and cached, avoiding repeated computation each time

Open-source rendering engine integration: Integrate open-source rendering engines like Blender, Godot, and Three.js, avoiding commercial licensing costs while allowing customization

Cloud rendering resource pool: When local rendering is insufficient (such as ultra-large scenes, extremely high-precision rendering), temporarily access cloud rendering resource pools, releasing resources after task completion

Core bottleneck: This is an "engineering completeness" problem, not a technical bottleneck. Each new output format requires integrating an additional tool or developing a conversion interface. As the Shadow Guardian supports more output formats, toolchain maintenance costs keep rising. A unified output abstraction layer is needed to decouple format extension from the core system, with sustained engineering resources for maintenance and expansion.

Problem 3: The Shadow Guardian's Deep Understanding of Master's Intent and Proactive Judgment

The Shadow Guardian needs to make correct proactive judgments where the master hasn't explicitly spoken, based on long-term understanding of the master. This requires the Shadow Guardian to have deep modeling capability of the master's thinking patterns, value preferences, and decision habits, combined with real-time tasks.

Example: Meng Zhiyuan said to the Shadow Guardian "demonstrate all the important battles of the Long March"; he didn't say "I want to see force ratios, hydrological data, terrain elevation." The Shadow Guardian needs to automatically fill in those unstated information dimensions.

Possible implementation approaches:

Cross-session long-term memory: The Shadow Guardian remembers all interaction history with the master across sessions—the master mentioned interest in a topic in a conversation three months ago, and the Shadow Guardian automatically references it in subsequent related queries

User intent reasoning: Convert the master's historical behavior (dialogue, search, decisions) into intent representations; when new tasks arise, infer the master's implicit needs through similarity matching

Behavior pattern tracking and updating: Changes in master's preferences are tracked in real time, with the model dynamically updating rather than periodic retraining, ensuring accurate judgment of the master's current state

Implicit feedback learning: Learn from the master's adoption, modification, or rejection of suggestions, rather than relying solely on explicit ratings or feedback

Progressive modeling: Build the master's profile from coarse to fine granularity, relying on general models initially, gradually personalizing as interactions increase, with active confirmation when early accuracy is low

Multi-dimensional profiling: Simultaneously track multiple dimensions of master characteristics—decision style (risk-averse/risk-seeking), communication preference (concise/detailed), time perception (urgent/relaxed), emotional state (stress level)—making judgments by integrating all dimensions

Core bottleneck: Cross-session long-term memory and large model reasoning capability improvements are key. Current large models can remember context, but cross-session long-term memory and intent reasoning precision remain insufficient. This is a progressive engineering problem—as model capabilities strengthen and memory mechanisms iterate, the Shadow Guardian's understanding of the master will gradually approach "proactively judging like the master themselves." Need to continuously monitor advances in large models' long-term memory and reasoning capabilities.

Capability Three: Full-Medium Interaction Deployment (Bionic Robots Connecting Perception and Execution)

Problem 1: Industry Fragmentation of Device Access

The existing device ecosystem lacks unified standards. Smart home, wearable devices, car systems, public facilities—each category has multiple vendors and multiple protocols. For the Shadow Guardian to access "all devices," it cannot bypass this fragmented reality.

Example: Your home has Xiaomi lights, a Huawei router, an Apple phone, and a Tesla car. The Shadow Guardian must control them simultaneously—but each device's access method, authentication mechanism, and communication protocol are completely different.

Possible implementation approaches:

Industry unified standards: Promote cross-brand, cross-category unified device access standards (extending the Matter protocol to more categories), so all devices use the same communication protocol and data format, similar to how USB unified peripheral interfaces

Device abstraction layer: The Shadow Guardian communicates with a "device abstraction layer" that translates standardized control commands into each device's proprietary protocol—the Shadow Guardian only needs to support one standard interface, with adaptation done by the abstraction layer, which can be maintained by industry alliances or continuously extended through community open-source projects

Open API promotion: Through policy guidance or market forces, push device vendors to open API interfaces, requiring smart home devices to provide standardized control interfaces, similar to the EU pushing USB-C unified charging interfaces

Reverse engineering adaptation: For devices that don't open APIs, analyze their communication protocols through reverse engineering, with community-maintained open-source driver libraries providing access support, but this method has legal risks and technical stability issues

Core bottleneck: This is a typical "industry collaboration problem" rather than a "technical problem." The Matter protocol has taken the first step in smart home, but is still far from covering "all devices." Device vendors lack commercial incentive to open interfaces (they prefer users stay in their ecosystems), and reverse engineering has legal uncertainty.

But things are changing: the Matter protocol itself continues to expand category coverage, policy trends in regions like the EU pushing unified interfaces are forcing vendors to open up, and growing user demand for cross-brand interoperability is changing vendors' competitive logic—the user stickiness of closed ecosystems is being eroded by user experience demand for "interconnection." Solving this problem thoroughly requires the combined force of industry alliances, policy guidance, and user demand, rather than pure technical breakthroughs.

Problem 2: Bionic Robots' Perception and Execution in Unstructured Environments

Robots' success rate and stability in complex physical environments remain limited. Fine manipulation, real-time adaptation in unstructured scenarios—these are known shortcomings of current robotics technology.

Example: At the Southern Song banquet, bionic robots need to serve food, pour wine, and arrange tableware—these can already be done in controlled environments. But if a dish spills, a child knocks over a cup, or a guest changes seats at the last minute, can the robot adapt as flexibly as a human? Not yet.

Possible implementation approaches:

Continued breakthroughs in VLA (Vision-Language-Action) models: VLA models unify visual perception, language understanding, and action decision-making in one model, enabling robots to understand natural language instructions and perform corresponding operations in complex environments. Current VLA models remain fragile in spatial generalization—performing well in training scenarios but significantly degrading in new environments. Frontier VLA models like Qwen-VLA achieve 97.9% success rate on the LIBERO benchmark, and 76.9% out-of-distribution generalization success rate in real ALOHA experiments. Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center's TG-VLA framework has achieved whole-body coordination capability

Continued breakthroughs in Embodied AI: Let robots learn how to handle uncertain environments through interaction in the physical world, rather than relying solely on pre-programmed action sequences. Robots with world models can predict the physical consequences of actions (such as "if too much force, the cup will slip"), proactively adjusting force and angle before action execution. In 2026, the industry is advancing from "demo scenarios" to "real scenarios," with generalization capability breakthroughs being key

Multi-modal perception fusion: Fuse visual, tactile, force, voice, and other multi-modal perception information, giving robots more comprehensive environmental understanding. Northwestern Polytechnical University's brain-inspired embodied cognitive navigation framework, through multi-modal fusion perception, predictive representation, memory reuse, and hierarchical planning, lets robots no longer rely on external map data but understand space through internal cognitive mechanisms, perceiving in real time and flexibly avoiding obstacles in dynamic environments, achieving the leap from "passive execution" to "active thinking"

Imitation learning: Learn fine manipulation from human demonstrations, converting human motion data (video, motion capture, teleoperation) into robot-executable policies. [Figure's Helix 02 system, released in January 2026, uses a single neural network for integrated walking, manipulation, and balance control. On the Figure 03 platform, it can autonomously complete a 4-minute kitchen dishwasher loading task with 61 continuous actions, without human intervention. Two robots equipped with Helix can already collaborate through visual perception and natural language instructions.]

Sim-to-Real transfer: Train extensively in virtual environments, then transfer learned policies to real robots, narrowing the simulation-reality gap through domain randomization and other techniques

Core bottleneck: This is the second challenge at the "fundamental technology paradigm" level. Although VLA models and embodied AI made rapid progress in 2026, robots' generalization capability in real home environments remains a fundamental bottleneck. Industry consensus holds that for robots to enter real scenarios like homes, what truly needs breakthroughs is the ability to understand the physical world, spatial relationships, and object commonalities like humans—requiring breakthroughs in the underlying theory of intelligence science, not mere engineering optimization.

Problem 3: Network Latency Limitations for Remote Control

Remote-operated robots are extremely sensitive to network latency. Urban 5G can meet this, but latency in remote areas or weak-signal areas may rise significantly or even disconnect.

Example: You want to use a robot back in your hometown to help your father fetch medicine—if network latency exceeds 100ms, the robot might not accurately grasp the medicine bottle's position.

Possible implementation approaches:

Edge computing node deployment: Deploy edge computing nodes near users, shifting control loops from cloud to edge, reducing control latency to local-network levels

Continued coverage and upgrade of network infrastructure: As 5G coverage expands and 6G technology arrives, remote control latency will gradually decrease

Enhanced on-device intelligence: Even when the network is interrupted, robots can autonomously complete preset tasks (such as walking fixed routes, identifying and picking up specified items), by deploying world models and reasoning capabilities to the robot locally

Predictive control: In latency-sensitive operations, robots predict the next moment's state based on historical data, continuing to execute predicted actions during network latency, reducing pauses from waiting for instructions

Adaptive bitrate transmission: Dynamically adjust video transmission clarity and frame rate based on network quality—high clarity when network is good, reduced quality when network is poor to ensure control commands are transmitted first

Multipath redundant transmission: Simultaneously send control commands through multiple network paths, taking the fastest arriving one, improving command arrival reliability

Core bottleneck: This is an "infrastructure coverage" problem, not a technical bottleneck. The coverage gap of network infrastructure cannot be solved by the Shadow Guardian itself; it depends on the continued construction and coverage of 5G/6G networks. In the short term, it can be mitigated through enhanced on-device intelligence and edge computing sink, but fundamental resolution depends on comprehensive upgrades to communication infrastructure.

Problem Roadmap: Priorities and Dependencies

The table below summarizes the difficulty level, prerequisite dependencies, and suggested advancement timing for all problems. It answers not "can these problems be solved" but "which should be solved first, which later"—providing a reference framework for technical route planning.

Problem	Capability Module	Difficulty	Prerequisites	Suggested Timing	Problem Type
Contradiction between compute power for local deployment and model size	Core Definition	Medium	None	Medium-term (3-5 years)	Engineering & Cost
Maturity and mutual recognition of decentralized identity systems	Core Definition	High	None	Long-term (5+ years)	External Infrastructure
Physical upper limit of clone scale	Core Capability	Medium	None	Medium-term (3-5 years)	Engineering & Cost
Security and privacy of communication between Shadow Guardians	Core Capability	Low	None	Short-term (1-2 years)	Engineering & Cost
Shadow Guardian's concurrent communication processing capability	Core Capability	Low	None	Short-term (1-2 years)	Engineering & Cost
Effective signal extraction and noise filtering for collective intelligence	Network Extension	High	Information authenticity verification (Capability Two)	Long-term (5+ years)	Fundamental Technology Breakthrough
Feasibility of real-time data aggregation for massive Shadow Guardians	Network Extension	Medium	None	Medium-term (3-5 years)	External Infrastructure
Hardware-level local security environment	Capability One	High	Compute power for local deployment	Long-term (5+ years)	Fundamental Technology Breakthrough
Key recovery for decentralized identity	Capability One	Low	Decentralized identity system maturity	Medium-term (3-5 years)	Engineering & Cost
Capability ceiling for deep analysis (deduction and prediction)	Capability Two	High	None	Long-term (5+ years)	Fundamental Technology Breakthrough
Toolchain completeness for output formats	Capability Two	Medium	None	Medium-term (3-5 years)	Engineering & Cost
Shadow Guardian's deep understanding of master's intent and proactive judgment	Capability Two	High	None	Long-term (5+ years)	Engineering & Cost
Industry fragmentation of device access	Capability Three	High	None	Long-term (5+ years)	External Infrastructure
Bionic robots' perception and execution in unstructured environments	Capability Three	High	None	Long-term (5+ years)	Fundamental Technology Breakthrough
Network latency limitations for remote control	Capability Three	Medium	None	Medium-term (3-5 years)	External Infrastructure

Supplementary note on dependencies: "No prerequisites" in the table means the problem can proceed independently technically, without depending on other problems' resolution. But some problems have runtime coupling (such as clone scale and concurrent communication influencing each other); this coupling requires coordinated optimization at runtime but doesn't constitute a "must solve A before solving B" sequential dependency.

Difficulty level explanation:

Low: Solution is mature, mainly engineering implementation and productization work

Medium: Direction is clear, but requires significant engineering investment or waiting for hardware cost reduction

High: Requires fundamental technology breakthroughs or external infrastructure/policy maturity, timing uncertain

Suggested timing explanation:

Short-term (1-2 years): Can start now, no dependence on other conditions

Medium-term (3-5 years): Requires certain technical accumulation or external conditions to gradually mature

Long-term (5+ years): Depends on fundamental technology breakthroughs or industry standard establishment, timing uncertain

Key dependency path: Device access fragmentation in Capability Three and decentralized identity mutual recognition in Capability One are the two most critical external infrastructure problems—they don't depend on other problems' resolution, but their progress speed will directly affect the Shadow Guardian's coverage range and user experience in the real world. These two problems are recommended as long-term strategic priorities for continuous attention.

Other: Permission Boundaries

The following operation types belong to rule boundaries at the product design level—the Shadow Guardian does not make autonomous decisions on such matters; all are confirmed by the master. These rules themselves don't involve technical breakthroughs, but rather clear delineation of "what goes to the Shadow Guardian, what stays with the master."

1. Payment-Related Transaction Operations, Confirmed by Master

Payments directly involve fund security. The Shadow Guardian can do "preparation"—price comparison, order generation, address entry—but the final payment instruction is issued by the master.

If the Shadow Guardian wants to achieve fully autonomous agency of payments, the following problems need solving:

Contradiction between automated private key usage and security: The Shadow Guardian needs to automatically invoke private key signature payment instructions, but once private keys can be automatically invoked by programs, they're exposed to a larger attack surface—once attackers breach the runtime environment, they can make the Shadow Guardian "willingly" sign any payment instruction. This constitutes different facets of the same problem as the aforementioned "hardware security environment"

External dependency of payment verification: When the Shadow Guardian automatically executes payments, it needs to rely on transaction status returned by external banks/payment platforms. If external services return incorrect status (such as "payment successful" but actually failed), how does the Shadow Guardian independently verify? This requires cross-system transaction consistency verification mechanisms

Real-time and accuracy of fraud detection: Fully autonomous agency requires the Shadow Guardian to judge whether a transaction has fraud risk within milliseconds; current fraud detection systems' false positive and false negative rates still cannot meet "fully autonomous" requirements, potentially leading to fund loss or frequent blocking of normal transactions

2. Operations with Legal Effect, Confirmed by Master

The Shadow Guardian can draft contracts, negotiate terms, and organize evidence, but final signing is completed by the master.

If the Shadow Guardian wants to achieve fully autonomous agency of legally effective operations, the following problems need solving:

Fundamental absence of legal subject: Current legal systems don't recognize AI as having any form of legal personality. The Shadow Guardian cannot be viewed as an extension of the subject, because legally there's no "agent" channel for AI to enter. This isn't a technical problem but the legal system's underlying definition of "who can become a legal subject"

Blank in responsibility attribution: If problems arise with contracts the Shadow Guardian automatically signed, responsibility cannot be determined. The master will say "I didn't sign it," the Shadow Guardian cannot bear legal responsibility, and platform providers have no obligation to verify AI agent authorization. Without a responsibility attribution framework, no institution dares accept the Shadow Guardian's automatic signing, even if technically the authorization process is completed

All the technical obstacles listed above together constitute the path map for the Shadow Guardian from "concept" to "engineering." Each obstacle has a direction for crossing—some are already nearly mature, just waiting for engineering implementation; others require joint industry efforts or progressive breakthroughs in underlying technology.

From the nature of core bottlenecks, several directions deserve special attention. Those requiring fundamental technology breakthroughs are bionic robots' generalization capability and deductive reasoning's causal reasoning bottleneck—these two are challenges at the foundational theory level, with the most uncertain timing. Those waiting for industry consensus and infrastructure maturity are decentralized identity mutual recognition and device access standardization—technical paths are already clear, but require industry collaboration and time. The remaining problems mostly fall under engineering optimization, which can be gradually solved through sustained investment, with high certainty—just a matter of speed.

But technical problems are only part of the journey to the destination. When the Shadow Guardian is truly realized, deployed, and used by tens of millions of people, it brings not just a "smarter assistant"—it will redefine the relationship between humans and the digital world, between humans and time, and between people's ways of connecting. This raises a new question: if the Shadow Guardian truly arrives, what will the world become?

V. Social Landscape

Agricultural Production

Crop Farming

The Shadow Guardian has fully integrated the complete chain of crop farming, from market sales to production planning, from field management to logistics distribution. All orders are locked before sowing, the planting plan for each plot is automatically generated by the Shadow Guardian after integrating demand data and environmental data, and every business decision—from variety selection to price negotiation to sales strategy—is supported by the Shadow Guardian with complete information and a closed execution loop.

Sales and Reservation: Flexible Supply with Pre-sale as the Mainstay and Spot Supply as the Supplement

Before each year's sowing season, the agricultural operator's Shadow Guardian has already published the sales plans for all products of the season to the Shadow Guardian network. The variety, estimated yield, quality grade, origin information, and estimated delivery time window of each batch of products are clearly listed. The consumer's Shadow Guardian, based on long-term household consumption data, estimates in advance the stable demand for the next cycle, automatically matches orders, and locks in pre-sale orders—this portion accounts for the main part of the household's total consumption, with the best prices. Operators also reserve a certain proportion of yield in each planting cycle as spot supply reserves, used to respond to immediate ad-hoc needs; spot orders are priced slightly higher than pre-sale prices, but delivery timeliness is equally guaranteed as agreed. The demands of chain restaurant enterprises and grain processing enterprises are also locked in synchronously; a portion of the yield is locked in advance as raw materials based on the production needs of food processing enterprises, directly entering the subsequent food processing chain. Operators can launch group-buy promotional activities, or initiate customized planting—growing specific varieties specifically for certain consumer groups, locking in demand and price in advance. A single planting operator is himself a complete retail terminal, and the Shadow Guardian is his sales channel and group-buy platform.

Price negotiation is automatically completed by the Shadow Guardian on behalf of the operator with the demander's Shadow Guardian. The Shadow Guardian knows the production cost, historical selling price, and profit floor of the operator's plot, and also knows the quality requirements and procurement urgency of the demander. The two Shadow Guardians complete multiple rounds of negotiation in a very short time, locking in price, quantity, and delivery time. If market prices fluctuate before sowing, the Shadow Guardian automatically judges whether strategies need to be adjusted based on contract terms and real-time market data.

After all orders are locked, the Shadow Guardian integrates the contract terms with demand signals and enters the production planning stage.

Production Planning: Order-Driven Generation of Planting Plans

The Shadow Guardian performs comprehensive modeling combining several years of meteorological data for this land—including monthly precipitation, sunshine duration, maximum and minimum temperatures, frost cycles, and extreme weather frequency—with soil composition analysis data, crop rotation history, topographic elevation, and microclimate characteristics. The model calculates the expected yield, quality grade, water and fertilizer requirements, and risk probability for each potential variety on this specific land. Then, it matches with locked orders—acidic plots are matched with crops requiring acidic soil, sandy soil is matched with root crops, and low-lying plots are scheduled with aquatic crops during the rainy season. Meanwhile, the Shadow Guardian dynamically allocates production capacity based on the ratio of pre-sale orders to spot supply reserves—pre-sale orders are guaranteed first, and spot supply reserves are dynamically adjusted according to historical demand forecasts and seasonal fluctuations.

The matching results for all plots automatically generate a complete planting plan. The plan is precise down to variety selection, sowing time, expected yield, fertilization plan, irrigation strategy, and expected revenue for each plot, and anticipates the impact extent and response measures for every possible extreme weather event. After the operator confirms the plan, the Shadow Guardian automatically places orders to purchase seeds and required agricultural inputs, and dispatches agricultural robots to begin land preparation and sowing—the robot's travel routes, sowing depth, and plant and row spacing are all automatically adjusted based on variety requirements and soil conditions.

Growth Management: Precision Planting Driven by the Dual-Layer Knowledge System

After seeds enter the soil, the Shadow Guardian begins continuous monitoring through the field perception system. Each plot is equipped with a complete, multi-dimensional perception network. Soil sensors are distributed in soil layers at different depths, with a sensing point set at every certain depth, transmitting back data on temperature, humidity, pH value, nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium content, organic matter ratio, and microbial activity in real time. Multispectral cameras cruise on moving tracks in the field, scanning the leaf color, stem thickness, plant height changes, and canopy temperature of each plant row by row. Weather stations continuously track cloud changes, wind speed and direction, solar radiation intensity, and air humidity, predicting rainfall probability, sunshine duration, and frost risk for the upcoming period. Groundwater level monitoring wells continuously record water level changes, providing early warning of possible waterlogging or drought.

The core that makes growth management precise is a complete agricultural knowledge system behind the Shadow Guardian. This system consists of two layers.

The first layer consists of official agricultural expert Shadow Guardians. They are continuously operated and updated by professional institutions such as national agricultural research institutions, agricultural universities, provincial academies of agricultural sciences, and plant protection stations, serving as the public knowledge infrastructure of the entire agricultural system. These expert Shadow Guardians each focus on different fields—rice experts, vegetable experts, plant protection experts, soil and fertilizer experts. Their knowledge bases are continuously updated and iterated with new research results and field feedback. The certification data for each new variety, the yield records of each test field, the prevention and control plans for each pest and disease, the climate adaptability analysis for each region, and the actual performance data after each large-scale promotion are all continuously integrated. Different expert Shadow Guardians also continuously collaborate with each other—new discoveries by plant protection experts are automatically synchronized to crop cultivation experts, and research results from soil and fertilizer experts are called upon and verified by rice experts.

The second layer consists of folk expert Shadow Guardians. They carry the valuable experience accumulated by folk planting experts over their long planting careers. When other Shadow Guardians consult them, they provide the most localized advice based on past experience combined with the specific situation encountered. This includes actual cases that occurred in specific environments, the complete analysis process at the time, the plans ultimately adopted and their effects, and even those practices that were once tried but ultimately abandoned and the reasons behind them. Official expert Shadow Guardians also regularly extract effective parts from these long-verified folk experiences and integrate them into the standard knowledge base.

When an agricultural operator begins to grow a new variety, his Shadow Guardian simultaneously acquires knowledge from both layers. The official layer provides scientifically verified standardized plans—variety characteristics, suitable growth conditions, water and fertilizer requirement curves, common pest and disease atlases, and standard prevention and control plans. The folk layer provides localized adjustment plans verified in actual production—the actual performance of the same variety under similar soil and climate conditions, the occurrence patterns and best prevention and control timing of local pests and diseases, and the planting habits and harvesting experience of local planting experts. The two sets of plans are cross-compared; when the official plan and folk experience differ in a certain aspect—for example, when the sowing period recommended officially differs by a few days from the sowing period that local planting experts are accustomed to—the Shadow Guardian marks these difference points for the operator to judge the reasons behind the differences.

During crop growth, the Shadow Guardian precisely dispatches agricultural robots to perform various tasks based on this knowledge system. The irrigation system is linked with soil moisture sensors, and the Shadow Guardian directs robots to perform differentiated water replenishment for each row of crops—sandy soil has fast water penetration, so irrigation frequency is high but each amount is small; clay soil has strong water retention, so irrigation intervals are long. The fertilization plan is dynamically adjusted based on growth stage and leaf spectral analysis. If leaves in a certain area turn yellowish, the Shadow Guardian simultaneously retrieves the plant nutrition database from official expert Shadow Guardians and local nutrient deficiency cases from folk expert Shadow Guardians for comprehensive comparison, analyzing the specific pattern of leaf yellowing—whether old leaves yellow first or new leaves, whether yellowing starts from the leaf tip or from between the veins—to precisely determine whether it is potassium, nitrogen, or iron deficiency. After the judgment is completed, the Shadow Guardian automatically calculates the trace element supplementation needed per square meter, dispatches agricultural robots to perform precise supplementary fertilization on the deficient areas, and the robots adjust nozzle angle and atomization degree based on plant height, ensuring that the fertilizer solution evenly adheres to both sides of the leaves.

Pest and disease control follows the same dual-layer logic. Multispectral cameras capture abnormal spectral features of leaves before symptoms appear. The Shadow Guardian first performs preliminary identification through the disease atlas database of official expert Shadow Guardians, while simultaneously contacting multiple agricultural expert Shadow Guardians to request diagnosis. Drone teams already conduct low-altitude field patrols over abnormal areas, with real-time aerial footage synchronously pushed to expert Shadow Guardians and the operator. The official plant protection expert Shadow Guardian provides standard prevention and control plans based on the latest research results, while the local agricultural technician's Shadow Guardian provides local disease occurrence patterns and practical prevention and control experience. If multiple expert Shadow Guardians reach consistent diagnostic results, the Shadow Guardian automatically places orders to purchase the corresponding biopesticides and dispatches robots to spray during calm wind periods in the evening. The robots automatically plan travel routes based on the shape and area of the diseased region, and nozzle height and spray pressure are adjusted in real time based on crop canopy density, ensuring that the chemical solution only covers the diseased area and does not drift to healthy plants. If diagnostic results differ, the Shadow Guardian clearly organizes these points of disagreement, marking the risks and applicable conditions of different plans for the operator's decision.

If there is a rainstorm warning, the Shadow Guardian dispatches robots in advance to dig temporary drainage ditches, with the location, depth, and direction of the drainage ditches automatically planned based on the elevation data of the plot and the predicted rainfall intensity. If there is a frost warning, the irrigation rhythm is adjusted before the frost arrives, allowing the soil to store enough heat to protect the crop roots. If sustained high temperatures are predicted, the irrigation frequency and the deployment time of shade nets are automatically adjusted. The operator only needs to receive the growth brief pushed by the Shadow Guardian, confirm or adjust prevention and control plans when abnormal situations arise, and make decisions when the Shadow Guardian prompts that decision-making is required.

Harvest and Primary Processing: Precision Harvesting and Quality Grading

Before harvest, the Shadow Guardian performs a comprehensive scan of the entire plot through multispectral cameras, judging the maturity of each plant individually—comprehensively considering fruit firmness, sugar content, moisture content, and growth days. Based on the fruit maturity data, weather forecasts, and order delivery time windows, the Shadow Guardian dynamically determines the best harvesting time for each plot. When the harvesting instruction is issued, agricultural robots work in the field, drones fly in formation in the air to cruise and monitor harvesting quality, and cold-chain logistics vehicles are already waiting at the edge of the field—harvesting, grading, packaging, and loading are all completed synchronously. The harvesting time is chosen during the lowest-temperature period of early morning each day. Throughout the entire process, from air to ground to transportation, the dispatching of every device is precise to the second, and the quality of every batch of agricultural products is precise to the order standard.

Primary processing is completed at the edge of the field or at a nearby primary processing center. The Shadow Guardian dispatches grading equipment to automatically sort based on quality grade, infrared spectroscopy analysis detects sugar content, moisture content, and internal defects, and odor sensors determine whether fermentation or rot has begun. All products are packaged directly after harvesting according to order specifications. For energy crops, the Shadow Guardian performs specialized harvesting and pretreatment according to the raw material standards of bioenergy enterprises—cutting into sections, crushing, compressing and baling, and directly shipping to processing plants.

When packaging is completed, the Shadow Guardian automatically generates a complete origin traceability archive—variety name, origin precise to plot number, grower's name and contact information, sowing date, time, type, and amount of each fertilization, time, agent, and method of each pest and disease control, harvesting time precise to the hour, grading results and quality testing data, and the full temperature record of cold-chain logistics.

Delivery and After-sales: A Closed Loop from Origin to Table

After harvesting is completed, the Shadow Guardian dispatches logistics robots or autonomous trucks to automatically plan routes based on destinations. Cold-chain logistics automatically adjusts temperature according to the best storage conditions for different crops—leafy vegetables require high humidity and low temperature to prevent wilting, root and stem vegetables require low humidity and medium temperature to prevent sprouting, and tropical fruits require relatively high temperatures to prevent chilling injury. The Shadow Guardian network integrates the supply information of all agricultural products and the demand signals of all downstream demanders, completing optimal matching in a very short time, and the entire circulation process is compressed to the shortest path. After-sales issues are automatically handled by the Shadow Guardian, and payments are automatically settled and collected.

For bulk agricultural products such as grain, the Shadow Guardian also assumes a risk hedging function during the delivery stage. Even before sowing, the Shadow Guardian has already predicted the price trend at harvest time based on real-time data from the national reserve system—current reserves, rotation plans, procurement prices, and import expectations—and locked in a guaranteed minimum income through pre-sales and reserve procurement quotas. After harvest, the Shadow Guardian automatically matches the optimal destination based on grain quality—high-gluten wheat is sold to flour mills, medium-gluten wheat goes to daily retail, and substandard products go to feed mills. The rotation needs of reserve grain warehouses are also incorporated into matching in real time—when reserve warehouses need to rotate grain out, the Shadow Guardian automatically judges whether the quality and price of this batch of rotated grain are suitable for the operator's customer needs; when reserve warehouses need to procure new grain, the operator's Shadow Guardian automatically compares procurement prices with market prices and selects the better sales channel.

The handling of after-sales disputes is the responsibility of the official regulatory Shadow Guardian. After a consumer initiates an after-sales application, if the two parties' Shadow Guardians still cannot reach an agreement based on the quality data at delivery, the full temperature record during logistics, and the traceability archive, either party's Shadow Guardian can submit the dispute to the official Shadow Guardian. The official Shadow Guardian simultaneously retrieves the complete data chains of both parties—the origin traceability archive on the operator's side, and the delivery records and problem description on the consumer's side—completing comparison and adjudication in a very short time. The adjudication result is binding on both parties. If it is the operator's responsibility, the official Shadow Guardian automatically executes a refund or reshipment and records this dispute in the operator's credit file. If it is the consumer's perceptual bias regarding objective indicators, the official Shadow Guardian directly rules that the operator is not at fault.

After consumers receive agricultural products, evaluations and feedback automatically flow back. A consumer's feedback that "this batch of tomatoes is not acidic enough" is automatically analyzed by the Shadow Guardian, which extracts key information—variety, quality indicators, consumer expectations—and synchronizes it to the operator's Shadow Guardian. When planting the next season, the Shadow Guardian retrieves this feedback and automatically adjusts the sugar-to-acid ratio standard at harvest. Changes in consumer preferences, evaluation data, and repurchase behavior are continuously fed back to the production side, forming a complete closed loop from demand to planting to consumption.

Consumer Side: A Complete Experience from Awareness to Participation

After consumers place orders, they can check the real-time status of this batch of crops at any time during the growth process—current growth stage, expected harvest time, and quality estimation. What they see is the real data pushed directly from the field perception system by the Shadow Guardian. At delivery, each batch of agricultural products comes with a complete digital archive—variety name, origin precise to plot number, grower information, sowing date, time and method of each fertilization and pest and disease control during growth, harvest time, quality testing data, and the full temperature record of cold-chain logistics.

Consumers can also proactively initiate demands. A consumer wants a certain specific variety of fruit at a specific maturity; his Shadow Guardian publishes this demand to the Shadow Guardian network and automatically matches planting operators capable of supplying it. The two Shadow Guardians complete negotiations in a very short time, locking in variety, quality, price, and delivery time.

The Operator's Work Focus

From sales reservation to delivery and after-sales, the Shadow Guardian takes over the execution layer of the entire crop farming operation process. The operator's role focuses on decision-making—making choices at key nodes, setting directions, and confirming plans.

Stage	Operator's Work	Shadow Guardian's Responsibilities
Sales and Reservation Stage	Confirm the sales plans and prices pushed by the Shadow Guardian; set the production capacity allocation ratio between pre-sale and spot supply; select the optimal one among the multiple plans provided by the Shadow Guardian; set price floors and business goals	Publish supply information; connect with consumer Shadow Guardians to match pre-sale orders and spot demand; connect with the raw material needs of food processing enterprises; launch group buying and pre-sales; conduct price negotiations with demander Shadow Guardians; lock in orders and delivery time windows
Production Preparation Stage	Confirm the list of agricultural inputs automatically ordered by the Shadow Guardian; confirm the variety selection and sowing plan in the planting plan	Place orders to purchase seeds and agricultural inputs; dispatch agricultural robots for land preparation and sowing; automatically adjust sowing parameters based on soil conditions; dynamically allocate production capacity based on the ratio of pre-sale orders to spot supply reserves
Growth Management Stage	Receive growth briefs pushed by the Shadow Guardian; confirm or adjust prevention and control plans when abnormal situations arise; make decisions when the Shadow Guardian prompts that decision-making is required	Continuously monitor crop growth through sensor networks; automatically dispatch robots for irrigation, fertilization, and pest and disease control based on the dual-layer knowledge system; consult expert Shadow Guardians and generate prevention and control plans
Harvest Stage	Confirm the harvest plan; decide on the handling of special situations when prompted by the Shadow Guardian	Judge maturity plant by plant; dispatch robots to harvest batch by batch; grade and package; generate traceability archive
Delivery and After-sales Stage	Check delivery status pushed by the Shadow Guardian; decide whether strategies need to be adjusted when market prices fluctuate; confirm or accept the adjudication result after the official Shadow Guardian's ruling	Dispatch logistics robots for delivery; manage the full-process temperature of cold chain; handle after-sales disputes and automatically submit to the official Shadow Guardian; settle and collect payments; integrate consumer evaluation and feedback data; connect with the national reserve system for risk hedging of bulk agricultural products
Review and Next Season Planning	Review the annual business report generated by the Shadow Guardian; adjust the next cycle's business goals, variety structure, and production capacity ratio between pre-sale and spot supply based on consumer feedback, spot demand fluctuation trends, and data analysis results	Generate annual business data reports; comparatively analyze the input-output of different varieties and plots; provide business recommendations for the next cycle

From this table, it can be clearly seen that the Shadow Guardian has fully taken over all execution links from demand matching, planting execution to delivery and after-sales. The operator only needs to make choices and confirmations at key nodes—what to plant, to whom to sell, at what price, and how to handle abnormal situations.

Industry Status

After the Shadow Guardian is fully integrated, every link of crop farming is reorganized. Sales complete the locking of main orders before sowing, and the flexible supply model with pre-sale as the mainstay and spot supply as the supplement simultaneously guarantees price advantage and the satisfaction of immediate needs. Planting plans are automatically generated driven by orders, the growth process is precisely managed by the dual-layer knowledge system, and harvesting and delivery are fully traceable throughout. Consumers not only know the complete origin of what they eat, but also participate in shaping the next season's planting standards through every evaluation and feedback. After-sales disputes are adjudicated by the official Shadow Guardian in a very short time based on the complete data chain, and the entire transaction chain completes its closed loop in fairness and transparency. The operator's role focuses on decision-making—making choices at key nodes and setting directions. He can simultaneously manage plots in multiple regions, multiple varieties, and target multiple markets, and every batch of agricultural products can reach the consumers who need it most at the best time and with the best quality. The entire crop farming industry has achieved fully autonomous, online-and-offline, fine management by the Shadow Guardian throughout the process.

Livestock Farming

The Shadow Guardian has fully integrated the complete chain of livestock farming, from market sales to farming planning, from individual management to logistics distribution. Each animal has an independent digital identity when entering the pen, the farming plan is dynamically adjusted by the Shadow Guardian after integrating demand data and individual data, and the entire process from slaughter to delivery is fully traceable. The operator's role focuses on decision-making.

Sales and Reservation: Flexible Supply with Pre-sale as the Mainstay and Spot Supply as the Supplement

Before each farming cycle begins, the livestock operator's Shadow Guardian has already published the sales plans for all products of the season to the Shadow Guardian network. The variety, estimated number of animals for slaughter, quality grade, farming method, and estimated delivery time window of each batch of products are clearly listed. The consumer's Shadow Guardian, based on long-term household consumption data, estimates in advance the stable demand for the next cycle, automatically matches orders, and locks in pre-sale orders—this portion accounts for the main part of the household's total consumption, with the best prices. Operators also reserve a certain proportion of yield in each farming cycle as spot supply reserves, used to respond to immediate needs. The demands of chain restaurant enterprises and meat processing enterprises are also locked in synchronously; a portion of the yield is locked in advance as raw materials based on the production needs of food processing enterprises, directly entering the subsequent food processing chain. Operators can launch group-buy promotional activities, or initiate customized farming—raising specific varieties specifically for certain consumer groups, with customized feed formulas, stocking densities, and slaughter times. Price negotiation is automatically completed by the Shadow Guardian on behalf of the operator with the demander's Shadow Guardian, locking in price, quantity, and delivery time in a very short time.

After all orders are locked, the Shadow Guardian integrates the contract terms with demand signals and enters the farming preparation stage.

Farming Preparation and Individual Identity Establishment: The Starting Point of Full-Process Traceability

The Shadow Guardian automatically places orders to purchase young animals and required feed based on locked orders, and dispatches farming robots to begin pen preparation—temperature control systems, ventilation equipment, automatic feeding lines, and environmental monitoring sensors are all automatically adjusted based on variety requirements and stocking density. Meanwhile, the Shadow Guardian dynamically allocates production capacity based on the ratio of pre-sale orders to spot supply reserves—pre-sale orders are guaranteed first, and spot supply reserves are dynamically adjusted according to historical demand forecasts and seasonal fluctuations.

Orders are not only sales commitments but also input parameters for the farming plan. When the Shadow Guardian integrates all orders, it analyzes the cut demand structure of each batch of orders—if orders for tenderloin and ribeye account for a high proportion, the fattening plan will focus on muscle development, increasing the proportion of protein and specific amino acids in the feed formula; if orders are concentrated on spare ribs and pork belly, the fattening plan will favor appropriate fat deposition. The structure of each batch of orders is different, and the farming plan is dynamically adjusted accordingly.

When young animals enter the pen, the Shadow Guardian establishes an independent digital identity for each animal. Ear tags or implanted chips permanently bind a unique identification code to the individual, synchronously recording variety, birth date, initial weight, and origin information. This digital identity runs through the entire life cycle of the animal—every feeding, every vaccination, every health abnormality, every weight change is all associated with this identity.

Farming Management: Precision Farming Driven by the Dual-Layer Knowledge System

During the farming process, the Shadow Guardian continuously monitors each animal through the sensor network. Ear tags or chips transmit back body temperature, heart rate, rumination frequency, and activity level in real time. Environmental sensors in the pen continuously monitor temperature, humidity, ammonia concentration, light intensity, and noise level. Cameras analyze each animal's gait, feeding behavior, rumination rhythm, and social behavior—a cow with a slight limp when walking, a continuous decline in feed intake, and a significant shortening of rumination time lead the Shadow Guardian to judge at the initial stage of symptoms that it may be suffering from laminitis or a digestive system disease.

The core that makes farming management precise is a complete livestock veterinary knowledge system behind the Shadow Guardian. This system consists of two layers.

The first layer consists of official veterinary expert Shadow Guardians. They are continuously operated and updated by professional institutions such as national veterinary medicine research institutions, livestock and veterinary colleges of agricultural universities, and provincial animal disease prevention and control centers. These expert Shadow Guardians each focus on different fields—beef cattle experts, live pig experts, poultry experts, disease prevention and control experts, and feed nutrition experts. Their knowledge bases are continuously updated and iterated with new research results and farm feedback. Different expert Shadow Guardians continuously collaborate with each other—new discoveries by disease prevention and control experts are automatically synchronized to feed nutrition experts, and research results from poultry experts are called upon and verified by live pig experts.

The second layer consists of folk expert Shadow Guardians. They carry the valuable experience accumulated by folk farming experts over their long farming careers. When other Shadow Guardians consult them, they provide the most localized advice based on past experience combined with the specific situation encountered. Official expert Shadow Guardians also regularly extract effective parts from these long-verified folk experiences and integrate them into the standard knowledge base.

In the specific farming process, the Shadow Guardian precisely dispatches various tasks based on this knowledge system. Feed formulas are dynamically adjusted based on each animal's daily weight gain, body fat rate, and health status—fattening periods require high-energy feed, gestation periods require high-protein feed, and sick individuals automatically have their feed amount reduced and electrolytes supplemented. The fattening plan, adjusted based on the order cut demand structure, is continuously executed and dynamically fine-tuned during the farming process. Automatic feeding lines precisely feed based on each animal's individual data. The environmental control system is linked with pen sensors—when temperature rises, ventilation and mist cooling are automatically increased; when ammonia concentration rises, the ventilation frequency is automatically increased.

Disease prevention and control follows the same dual-layer logic. The Shadow Guardian captures abnormal signals through body temperature, heart rate, and behavioral data before symptoms appear, first performs preliminary identification through the disease atlas database of official expert Shadow Guardians, and then automatically contacts multiple veterinary expert Shadow Guardians to request diagnosis. Meanwhile, disinfection robots and isolation equipment in the pen are automatically activated, the activity range of sick animals is immediately restricted, and the feed and water systems of healthy animals are automatically adjusted to prevent spread. The official disease prevention and control expert Shadow Guardian provides standard prevention and control plans based on the latest research results, while the local veterinarian's Shadow Guardian provides local disease occurrence patterns and practical prevention and control experience. If multiple expert Shadow Guardians reach consistent diagnostic results, the Shadow Guardian automatically executes the prevention and control plan—precise medication and environmental parameter adjustment. If diagnostic results differ, the Shadow Guardian clearly organizes these points of disagreement, marking the risks and applicable conditions of different plans for the operator's decision. The entire process, from the discovery of physical sign abnormalities to the initiation of isolation, expert diagnosis, and execution of the prevention and control plan, is all completed in coordination in a very short time. The operator only needs to receive the farming brief pushed by the Shadow Guardian, confirm or adjust prevention and control plans when abnormal situations arise, and make decisions when the Shadow Guardian prompts that decision-making is required.

Slaughter and Delivery: A Closed Loop from Origin to Table

Before slaughter, the Shadow Guardian comprehensively analyzes each animal's daily weight gain curve, body fat rate, muscle development, and health records, judging the best slaughter timing for each animal individually. When the slaughter instruction is issued, specialized transport vehicles are already waiting outside the pen, the nearest professional slaughterhouse has synchronized the cutting plan based on pre-sale orders, and cold-chain logistics has reserved capacity. During transportation, the Shadow Guardian monitors the vehicle temperature, ventilation conditions, and real-time vital signs of the animals throughout the process, and the official Shadow Guardian at the slaughterhouse synchronously receives the complete farming archive of each animal.

The slaughter process is monitored and recorded throughout by the official Shadow Guardian. The consumer's Shadow Guardian, based on the cut requirements agreed upon during the pre-sale, synchronizes the cutting plan to the slaughterhouse's Shadow Guardian—consumers who reserved specific cuts receive the corresponding cuts, and consumers who reserved a whole animal receive all the products after the whole animal is cut. After cutting is completed, products of various cuts are packaged separately according to pre-sale orders and spot orders, and directly delivered to consumers through cold-chain logistics. If consumers have specific cultural or religious needs, they can mark them when placing orders, and the Shadow Guardian will automatically match farms and slaughter processes that meet the corresponding standards, and attach the corresponding certification data at delivery.

Upon arrival, the consumer's kitchen robot automatically receives the products and completes further fine cutting according to the consumer's cooking preferences. From slaughter to table, the entire process is traceable, and each batch of products comes with a complete digital archive—variety, origin precise to farm number, farmer information, birth date, feed source and formula, time and method of each vaccination and disease prevention, slaughter time, quality testing data, and the full temperature record of cold-chain logistics.

After-sales Dispute Handling

The handling of after-sales disputes is the responsibility of the official regulatory Shadow Guardian. If the two parties' Shadow Guardians still cannot reach an agreement based on the quality data at delivery, the full temperature record during logistics, and the traceability archive, either party may submit to the official Shadow Guardian. The official Shadow Guardian simultaneously retrieves the complete data chains of both parties, completing comparison and adjudication in a very short time, and the adjudication result is binding on both parties. After consumers receive the products, evaluations and feedback automatically flow back to the production side, forming a complete closed loop from demand to farming to consumption.

Consumer Side: A Complete Experience from Awareness to Participation

After consumers place orders, they can check the real-time status of this batch of products at any time during the farming process—current growth stage, expected slaughter time. What they see is the real data pushed directly from the farm perception system by the Shadow Guardian. At delivery, all growth records and slaughter information are aggregated into a complete digital archive. Consumers can also proactively initiate demands, and the Shadow Guardian automatically matches livestock operators capable of supplying, locking in variety, quality, price, and delivery time in a very short time.

The Operator's Work Focus

From sales reservation to delivery and after-sales, the Shadow Guardian takes over the execution layer of the entire livestock farming operation process. The operator only needs to make choices and confirmations at key nodes—what to raise, to whom to sell, at what price, and how to handle abnormal situations.

Stage	Operator's Work	Shadow Guardian's Responsibilities
Sales and Reservation Stage	Confirm the sales plans and prices pushed by the Shadow Guardian; set the production capacity allocation ratio between pre-sale and spot supply; select the optimal one among the multiple plans provided by the Shadow Guardian; set price floors and business goals	Publish supply information; connect with consumer Shadow Guardians to automatically match pre-sale orders and spot demand; connect with the raw material needs of food processing enterprises; launch group buying and pre-sales; conduct price negotiations with demander Shadow Guardians; lock in orders and delivery time windows
Farming Preparation Stage	Confirm the list of young animals and feed automatically ordered by the Shadow Guardian; confirm the variety selection and farming plan in the farming plan	Place orders to purchase young animals and feed; dispatch farming robots to prepare pens; automatically adjust temperature control, ventilation, and feeding equipment based on variety requirements; establish independent digital identities for each young animal; adjust the fattening plan based on order cut demand structure; dynamically allocate production capacity based on the ratio of pre-sale orders to spot supply reserves
Farming Management Stage	Receive farming briefs pushed by the Shadow Guardian; confirm or adjust prevention and control plans when abnormal situations arise; make decisions when the Shadow Guardian prompts that decision-making is required	Continuously monitor individual growth based on the dual-layer knowledge system, dispatch robots for feeding, environmental control, and disease prevention, and automatically consult expert Shadow Guardians to generate prevention and control plans
Slaughter and Delivery Stage	Confirm the slaughter plan; confirm the matching results for special slaughter needs; decide on the handling of special situations when prompted by the Shadow Guardian; confirm or accept the adjudication result after the official Shadow Guardian's ruling	Judge the best slaughter timing for each animal; dispatch live animal transport to professional slaughterhouses, monitoring the transport environment throughout; synchronize cutting plans based on pre-sale and spot orders, completing cold-chain delivery; handle after-sales disputes and automatically submit to official adjudication; settle and collect payments; integrate consumer evaluation and feedback data
Review and Next Season Planning	Review the annual business report generated by the Shadow Guardian; adjust the next cycle's business goals, variety structure, and production capacity ratio between pre-sale and spot supply based on consumer feedback, spot demand fluctuation trends, and data analysis results	Generate annual business data reports; comparatively analyze the input-output of different varieties and batches; provide business recommendations for the next cycle

Industry Status

After the Shadow Guardian is fully integrated, every link of livestock farming is reorganized. Sales complete the locking of main orders before the farming cycle begins, and the flexible supply model with pre-sale as the mainstay and spot supply as the supplement simultaneously guarantees price advantage and the satisfaction of immediate needs. The farming plan is order-driven and dynamically adjusted based on cut demand, each animal has a digital identity that runs through its entire life cycle from the time it enters the pen, feeding and disease prevention are precisely managed by the dual-layer knowledge system, and slaughter and delivery are fully traceable throughout. After placing orders, consumers can check the farming status in real time, products are cold-chain delivered to their homes after being cut at professional slaughterhouses, and they receive a complete archive from birth to table. After-sales disputes are adjudicated by the official Shadow Guardian in a very short time based on the complete data chain. The operator's role focuses on decision-making—making choices at key nodes and setting directions. He can simultaneously manage farms in multiple regions, multiple varieties, and target multiple markets, and every batch of products can reach the consumers who need it most at the best time and with the best quality. The entire livestock farming industry has achieved fully autonomous, online-and-offline, fine management by the Shadow Guardian throughout the process.

Aquaculture

The Shadow Guardian has fully integrated the complete chain of aquaculture, from market sales to farming planning, from water body management to logistics distribution. Each batch of fingerlings is incorporated into the digital management system at stocking, the farming plan is dynamically adjusted by the Shadow Guardian after integrating demand data and water body data, and the entire process from harvest to delivery is fully traceable. The operator's role focuses on decision-making.

Sales and Reservation: Flexible Supply with Pre-sale as the Mainstay and Spot Supply as the Supplement

Before each farming cycle begins, the aquaculture operator's Shadow Guardian has already published the sales plans for all products of the season to the Shadow Guardian network. The variety, estimated yield, specification grade, farming method, and estimated delivery time window of each batch of products are clearly listed. The consumer's Shadow Guardian, based on long-term household consumption data, estimates in advance the stable demand for the next cycle, automatically matches orders, and locks in pre-sale orders—this portion accounts for the main part of the household's total consumption, with the best prices. Operators also reserve a certain proportion of yield in each farming cycle as spot supply reserves, used to respond to immediate ad-hoc needs; spot orders are priced slightly higher than pre-sale prices, but delivery timeliness is equally guaranteed as agreed. The demands of chain restaurant enterprises and aquatic product processing enterprises are also locked in synchronously; a portion of the yield is locked in advance as raw materials based on the production needs of food processing enterprises, directly entering the subsequent food processing chain. Operators can launch group-buy promotional activities, or initiate customized farming—raising specific varieties specifically for certain consumer groups, with customized feed formulas, stocking densities, and harvest times. Price negotiation is automatically completed by the Shadow Guardian on behalf of the operator with the demander's Shadow Guardian, locking in price, quantity, and delivery time in a very short time.

After all orders are locked, the Shadow Guardian integrates the contract terms with demand signals and enters the farming preparation stage.

Farming Preparation and Fingerling Stocking: The Starting Point of Full-Process Traceability

The Shadow Guardian automatically places orders to purchase fingerlings and required feed based on locked orders, and dispatches farming robots to begin preparation of ponds or industrialized aquaculture workshops—aeration equipment, automatic feeding systems, and water quality monitoring sensors are all automatically adjusted based on variety requirements and stocking density. Meanwhile, the Shadow Guardian dynamically allocates production capacity based on the ratio of pre-sale orders to spot supply reserves—pre-sale orders are guaranteed first, and spot supply reserves are dynamically adjusted according to historical demand forecasts and seasonal fluctuations.

Orders are not only sales commitments but also input parameters for the farming plan. When the Shadow Guardian integrates all orders, it analyzes the specification demand structure of each batch of orders—if orders for large-specification products account for a high proportion, the Shadow Guardian will adjust the feed formula and feeding frequency during the mid-farming period to promote uniform individual growth. The structure of each batch of orders is different, and the farming plan is dynamically adjusted accordingly.

At fingerling stocking, the Shadow Guardian establishes a digital management archive for each batch of fingerlings. Variety, source, stocking time, initial specification, and quantity are all recorded. From fingerlings to marketable fish, the process goes through multiple gradings, pond transfers, and density adjustments—the juvenile stage requires higher stocking densities and more frequent feeding, and as individuals grow, the density is gradually reduced and the feed particle size is adjusted. Each grading operation is precisely judged by the Shadow Guardian based on the real-time specification distribution, health status, and water quality parameters of the fry. The value of folk expert Shadow Guardians is particularly prominent during the nursery stage—the success rate of nursery varies greatly across different water bodies, and the grading timing judgments and pond transfer operation experience accumulated by local farming experts are cross-compared with the standardized nursery parameters of official experts to form the optimal intermediate rearing plan.

Farming Management: Precision Farming Driven by the Dual-Layer Knowledge System

During the farming process, the Shadow Guardian continuously monitors the water body environment and farmed subjects through the sensor network. Underwater sensors continuously monitor dissolved oxygen, ammonia nitrogen concentration, pH value, water temperature, and algae density. Cameras capture the swimming posture, feeding behavior, and schooling status of fish schools—abnormal swimming speed, decreased feeding enthusiasm, or abnormal spots on the body surface lead the Shadow Guardian to judge at the initial stage of symptoms that a parasitic disease or bacterial infection may be breaking out.

From industrialized recirculating aquaculture workshops to open ponds, the Shadow Guardian performs full-parameter perception and precise regulation of all types of water body environments.

The core that makes farming management precise is a complete aquaculture knowledge system behind the Shadow Guardian. This system consists of two layers.

The first layer consists of official aquaculture expert Shadow Guardians. They are continuously operated and updated by professional institutions such as national aquaculture research institutions, aquaculture colleges of agricultural universities, and provincial aquaculture technology extension stations. These expert Shadow Guardians each focus on different fields—freshwater fish experts, marine fish experts, crustacean experts, shellfish experts, disease prevention and control experts, and feed nutrition experts. Their knowledge bases are continuously updated and iterated with new research results and farm feedback. Different expert Shadow Guardians continuously collaborate with each other—new discoveries by disease prevention and control experts are automatically synchronized to feed nutrition experts, and research results from crustacean experts are called upon and verified by freshwater fish experts.

The second layer consists of folk expert Shadow Guardians. They carry the valuable experience accumulated by folk farming experts over their long farming careers. When other Shadow Guardians consult them, they provide the most localized advice based on past experience combined with the specific situation encountered. Official expert Shadow Guardians also regularly extract effective parts from these long-verified folk experiences and integrate them into the standard knowledge base.

In the specific farming process, the Shadow Guardian precisely dispatches various tasks based on this knowledge system. If dissolved oxygen falls below the threshold at night, aerators automatically start, intervening in advance when the dissolved oxygen curve begins to decline. If the upward trend of ammonia nitrogen concentration is abnormal, the Shadow Guardian analyzes whether it is due to overfeeding or insufficient water exchange, and automatically adjusts the feeding amount or starts the water exchange procedure. Feeding is automatically adjusted based on the feeding behavior, growth stage, and weather conditions of the fish school—less feed at low water temperatures, more feed during vigorous growth periods, and feeding is stopped before rainstorms to prevent residual feed from polluting the water body.

Disease prevention and control follows the same dual-layer logic. The Shadow Guardian captures abnormal signals through the swimming posture and body surface features of the fish school before symptoms appear, first performs preliminary identification through the disease atlas database of official expert Shadow Guardians, and then contacts multiple aquaculture expert Shadow Guardians—the official disease prevention and control expert Shadow Guardian provides standard prevention and control plans based on the latest research results, while the local aquaculture technician's Shadow Guardian provides local disease occurrence patterns and practical prevention and control experience. Meanwhile, the isolation system is synchronously activated—in industrialized workshops, the water body unit where the abnormal fish school is located is immediately isolated, and the water exchange circulation of adjacent units is automatically adjusted; in open ponds, isolation nets and aeration equipment are synchronously deployed in designated areas, and drones or surface robots conduct low-altitude pond patrols over the isolation area, with real-time water body imagery synchronously pushed to expert Shadow Guardians and the operator.

If multiple expert Shadow Guardians reach consistent diagnostic results, the Shadow Guardian executes the prevention and control plan—adjusting water quality parameters and applying medication precisely. If diagnostic results differ, the Shadow Guardian clearly organizes these points of disagreement, marking the risks and applicable conditions of different plans for the operator's decision.

Extreme weather is the biggest threat to aquaculture. When a typhoon warning is issued, the Shadow Guardian activates emergency plans 72 hours in advance—automatically lowering pond water levels to reserve flood storage space, starting aerators in advance to cope with the possible dissolved oxygen crash after the rainstorm, and starting backup power tests for industrialized workshops to ensure that the aeration system does not stop during power outages. During the typhoon's passage, the water surface is turbulent, but the underwater dissolved oxygen curve remains stable under the continuous intervention of aerators. After the typhoon, the operator receives a brief pushed by the Shadow Guardian: all parameters are normal, with zero losses.

The operator only needs to receive the farming brief pushed by the Shadow Guardian, confirm or adjust prevention and control plans when abnormal situations arise, and make decisions when the Shadow Guardian prompts that decision-making is required.

Harvest and Delivery: A Complete Closed Loop of Live Direct Delivery

The Shadow Guardian dynamically determines the best harvest time for each batch of fish based on the growth curve, specification distribution, health records, and water body environment data of the fish school. When the harvest instruction is issued, harvesting robots work in the pond or workshop, drones fly in formation in the air to cruise and monitor the harvesting progress, and live transport vehicles are already waiting at the edge of the pond—the oxygenated live transport boxes on the transport vehicles have been pre-set with initial water temperature, dissolved oxygen, and ammonia nitrogen concentration based on the species, specifications, and order destinations of this batch of fish. Harvesting, sorting, loading, and transportation are all completed synchronously. During transportation, the Shadow Guardian monitors water body parameters throughout the process, ensuring that the fish remain alive and fresh when reaching the consumer's kitchen. Throughout the entire process, from water to vehicle, the dispatching of every device is precise to the second, and the quality of every batch of products is precise to the order standard. All data such as harvesting methods, transportation conditions, and temporary holding water quality are written into the traceability archive in real time, and consumers can view key data of the harvesting process.

After harvesting is completed, the Shadow Guardian directly delivers live aquatic products to consumers based on pre-sale orders and spot orders. Upon arrival, the consumer's Shadow Guardian automatically connects to the kitchen robot, completing killing, scaling, gutting, slicing, and other processing according to the consumer's preferences. From pond to table, there are no intermediate processing steps, and each batch of products comes with a complete digital archive—variety, origin precise to farm number, farmer information, stocking time, feed source and formula, time and method of each water quality adjustment and disease prevention, harvest time, specification grade and quality testing data, and the full water quality record of live transport.

After-sales Dispute Handling

The handling of after-sales disputes is the responsibility of the official regulatory Shadow Guardian. If the two parties' Shadow Guardians still cannot reach an agreement based on the quality data at delivery, the full water quality record during transportation, and the traceability archive, either party may submit to the official Shadow Guardian. The official Shadow Guardian simultaneously retrieves the complete data chains of both parties, completing comparison and adjudication in a very short time, and the adjudication result is binding on both parties. After consumers receive the products, evaluations and feedback automatically flow back to the production side, forming a complete closed loop from demand to farming to consumption.

Consumer Side: A Complete Experience from Awareness to Participation

After consumers place orders, they can check the real-time status of this batch of products at any time during the farming process—current growth stage, expected harvest time, and farming environment data. What they see is the real data pushed directly from the farm perception system by the Shadow Guardian. At delivery, live fish enter the kitchen from the transport box, and the Shadow Guardian connects to the kitchen robot to automatically complete killing and processing, with all growth records and harvest information aggregated into a complete digital archive.

The Operator's Work Focus

From sales reservation to delivery and after-sales, the Shadow Guardian takes over the execution layer of the entire aquaculture operation process. The operator only needs to make choices and confirmations at key nodes—what to raise, to whom to sell, at what price, and how to handle abnormal situations.

Stage	Operator's Work	Shadow Guardian's Responsibilities
Sales and Reservation Stage	Confirm the sales plans and prices pushed by the Shadow Guardian; set the production capacity allocation ratio between pre-sale and spot supply; select the optimal one among the multiple plans provided by the Shadow Guardian; set price floors and business goals	Publish supply information; connect with consumer Shadow Guardians to automatically match pre-sale orders and spot demand; connect with the raw material needs of food processing enterprises; launch group buying and pre-sales; conduct price negotiations with demander Shadow Guardians; lock in orders and delivery time windows
Farming Preparation Stage	Confirm the list of fingerlings and feed automatically ordered by the Shadow Guardian; confirm the variety selection and farming plan in the farming plan	Place orders to purchase fingerlings and feed; dispatch farming robots to prepare ponds or workshops; automatically adjust aeration, feeding, and water quality monitoring equipment based on variety requirements; establish digital management archives for each batch of fingerlings; adjust the farming plan based on order specification demand structure; dynamically allocate production capacity based on the ratio of pre-sale orders to spot supply reserves
Farming Management Stage	Receive farming briefs pushed by the Shadow Guardian; confirm or adjust prevention and control plans when abnormal situations arise; make decisions when the Shadow Guardian prompts that decision-making is required	Continuously monitor water quality and farmed subject growth based on the dual-layer knowledge system, dispatch equipment for aeration, water exchange, feeding, and disease prevention, and automatically consult expert Shadow Guardians to generate prevention and control plans
Harvest and Delivery Stage	Confirm the harvest plan; decide on the handling of special situations when prompted by the Shadow Guardian; confirm or accept the adjudication result after the official Shadow Guardian's ruling	Harvest in batches by specification; dispatch live transport equipment to complete delivery, monitoring water quality parameters throughout; handle after-sales disputes and submit to official adjudication; settle and collect payments; integrate consumer evaluation and feedback data
Review and Next Season Planning	Review the annual business report generated by the Shadow Guardian; adjust the next cycle's business goals, variety structure, and production capacity ratio between pre-sale and spot supply based on consumer feedback, spot demand fluctuation trends, and data analysis results	Generate annual business data reports; comparatively analyze the input-output of different varieties and batches; provide business recommendations for the next cycle

Industry Status

After the Shadow Guardian is fully integrated, every link of aquaculture is reorganized. Sales complete the locking of main orders before the farming cycle begins, and the flexible supply model with pre-sale as the mainstay and spot supply as the supplement simultaneously guarantees price advantage and the satisfaction of immediate needs. The farming plan is order-driven and dynamically adjusted based on specification demand, each batch of fingerlings is incorporated into the digital management system from stocking, the intermediate rearing during the nursery stage is precisely managed by the dual-layer knowledge system, and feeding and disease prevention are executed with high precision in all scenarios. After placing orders, consumers can check the farming status in real time, live products are delivered directly to their homes, the kitchen robot automatically completes killing and processing, and they receive a complete archive from stocking to table. After-sales disputes are adjudicated by the official Shadow Guardian in a very short time based on the complete data chain. The operator's role focuses on decision-making—making choices at key nodes and setting directions. He can simultaneously manage farms in multiple different water areas, multiple varieties, and target multiple markets, and every batch of products can reach the consumers who need it most at the best time and with the best quality. The entire aquaculture industry has achieved fully autonomous, online-and-offline, fine management by the Shadow Guardian throughout the process.

Manufacturing & Distribution

Food Processing

The Shadow Guardian has been fully integrated into the complete chain of the food processing industry, from market sales to production scheduling, from recipe management to logistics distribution. Primary agricultural products from the three sectors—planting, livestock, and aquaculture—arrive at the factory with complete digital archives. Production plans are dynamically adjusted by the Shadow Guardian after integrating demand data and raw material characteristics, and the entire processing and delivery process is fully traceable. The operator's role focuses on decision-making.

Sales & Reservation: Demand Locking Under the Pre-sale System

Before each production cycle begins, the Shadow Guardian of food processing enterprises has already published the sales plans for all seasonal products to the Shadow Guardian network. The variety, specifications, customization options, estimated output, and delivery time window for each batch of products are clearly listed. The consumer's Shadow Guardian automatically matches and places orders based on consumer preferences and budget, with customization options such as reduced sugar, added protein, gluten-free, and low-sodium available, with the recipe parameters of each product independently adjustable. The demands of chain catering enterprises and retail channels are also locked simultaneously. Price negotiations are automatically completed by the Shadow Guardian on behalf of the enterprise with the demander's Shadow Guardian, locking in price, quantity, and delivery time within a very short period.

After all orders are locked, the Shadow Guardian integrates the contract terms with the demand signals and enters the raw material procurement and production planning stage.

Raw Material Reception & Recipe Adjustment: The Starting Point of Full-process Traceability

The Shadow Guardian automatically procures the required raw materials based on the locked orders. Each batch of raw materials arrives at the factory with a complete digital archive—origin, variety, key parameters during planting or breeding, harvest or slaughter time, and environmental data throughout the logistics process. The Shadow Guardian directly retrieves upstream archives for rapid verification, while dynamically adjusting subsequent processing parameters based on the specific characteristics of the raw materials—protein content, moisture, sugar content, fat distribution.

Recipe management is the core link of the food processing industry. The customization options selected by consumers during the pre-sale stage are converted by the Shadow Guardian into precise process parameters. If the natural sugar content of a batch of tomatoes is higher than the target value of the pre-sale order, the Shadow Guardian automatically fine-tunes the input ratio of subsequent batches to ensure that the taste and nutritional components of each batch of finished products are consistent with the order requirements. The official food science expert Shadow Guardian continuously updates the underlying theories—nutrition, food chemistry, microbiology. The unique recipes and process know-how accumulated by enterprises through long-term production are stored in the enterprise's private Shadow Guardian. (The protection mechanism for recipe assets is not discussed in this chapter)

Production Scheduling & Processing: Flexible Production Lines and Precise Execution

The Shadow Guardian automatically schedules the production line based on the order structure, flexibly switching the production of different products on the same line. During the switch, cleaning procedures, temperature curves, and equipment parameters are automatically adjusted within a very short period. Orders are already locked during the pre-sale stage, and the Shadow Guardian knows the raw material requirements, process requirements, and delivery time windows for each batch of products before scheduling production.

During processing, the Shadow Guardian precisely controls the temperature, time, pressure, and ratio of each process step, based on the knowledge system of the official food science expert Shadow Guardian and the valuable experience accumulated by the folk food process expert Shadow Guardian. The scheduling of all production lines and the dynamic adjustment of recipes are all finely managed in real time by the Shadow Guardian.

Quality Inspection & Packaging: Real-time Monitoring and Complete Traceability

Quality inspection is performed in real time through online sensors. The Shadow Guardian continuously monitors the key indicators of each batch of products—nutritional components, microbial indicators, taste parameters, and appearance quality. Test data is automatically compared with the quality standards of pre-sale orders, and unqualified products are automatically diverted before packaging.

When packaging is complete, each product comes with a complete digital archive—raw material source, recipe parameters, process records, quality inspection data, and production time. What consumers receive is not only a food product, but also the complete journey of this food from the land, to the factory, and to the dining table.

Warehousing & Logistics Distribution: The Closed Loop from Factory to Dining Table

After processing is complete, the finished products enter the warehousing and logistics distribution stage. Based on the delivery time windows and destinations of pre-sale orders, the Shadow Guardian completes capacity matching and route planning at the same time the finished products come off the line, and the cold-chain logistics automatically adjusts the temperature according to the optimal storage conditions of different products. After placing an order during the pre-sale stage, consumers can view the production progress—when the raw materials arrive at the factory, which production line is processing them, and the estimated time of dispatch. Upon delivery, they receive the complete archive from raw materials to finished products.

After-sales & Review: The Closed Loop of Continuous Optimization

The handling of after-sales disputes is the responsibility of the regulatory authority's official Shadow Guardian. The quality indicators agreed upon during the pre-sale are objective, quantifiable data—sugar content, protein content, sodium content, etc. If the inspection data at delivery meets the standards, the operator is not liable; if it does not meet the standards, the official Shadow Guardian completes the comparison and ruling within a very short period, and the ruling is binding on both parties. If consumers have subjective preferences regarding taste, they can choose different customization options in the next batch of orders.

After consumers receive the products, evaluations and feedback automatically flow back to the production side. The Shadow Guardian continuously collects consumer evaluation data, repurchase behavior, and preference changes. When the repurchase rate of a certain customization option is significantly higher than the standard recipe, or the consumer satisfaction in a certain quality indicator range continues to be low, the Shadow Guardian presents these trend data to the operator. The operator decides whether to adjust the product direction based on group data trends during the review stage.

Focus of the Operator's Work

From sales reservation to delivery and after-sales, the Shadow Guardian takes over the execution layer of the entire food processing industry operation process. The operator only needs to make choices and confirmations at key nodes—determining product direction and customization options, setting core quality standards and pricing strategies, confirming priority principles when scheduling conflicts arise, and handling exceptional cases that the Shadow Guardian prompts as requiring judgment.

Stage	Operator's Work	Shadow Guardian's Responsibilities
Sales & Reservation Stage	Confirm the product plans and customization options pushed by the Shadow Guardian; set core quality standards and pricing strategies	Publish product information and customization options; connect with downstream demand to match orders; lock delivery time windows
Raw Material Reception Stage	Confirm the matching plan between raw material quality and order requirements	Retrieve the complete digital archive of upstream raw materials; complete rapid verification inspections; dynamically adjust subsequent processing parameters based on raw material characteristics
Production Scheduling & Processing Stage	Confirm scheduling principles and priorities; make decisions when the Shadow Guardian prompts for them	Schedule production lines based on order structure and adjust process parameters in real time
Quality Inspection & Packaging Stage	Confirm quality standards; decide how to handle exceptional cases	Monitor key quality indicators of each batch of products in real time online; compare against order standards; generate complete product archives
Warehousing & Logistics Stage	View delivery status; confirm alternative plans during abnormal situations	Plan shipping rhythm and delivery routes based on delivery time windows; monitor cold-chain environment throughout the process
After-sales & Review Stage	View operation reports; adjust product direction for the next cycle based on consumer feedback trends	Handle after-sales disputes and submit official rulings; integrate consumer evaluation trend data; generate operation analysis and optimization suggestions

Industry Status

After the full integration of the Shadow Guardian, processing enterprises no longer rely on scale advantages, but instead build competitiveness through precise control of process parameters and real-time response to market demand. A single operator can simultaneously manage multiple production lines across multiple regions, multiple categories, and multiple markets. From production line equipment to warehousing and logistics, all are uniformly coordinated and scheduled by the Shadow Guardian, and every product can reach the consumers who need it most at the optimal time and with the best quality. The operator's role focuses on decision-making—determining product direction, setting quality standards, and confirming scheduling principles. After placing an order during the pre-sale stage, consumers can customize recipes and view production progress in real time, and receive the complete archive from raw materials to finished products upon delivery. After-sales disputes are ruled upon by the official Shadow Guardian based on objective quality indicators within a very short period. The entire food processing industry has achieved full-process autonomous online and offline fine management by the Shadow Guardian.

Manufacturing

In the Shadow Guardian era, manufacturing has become a demand-driven instant response network. Personal Shadow Guardians represent consumers in transmitting demand signals directly to the Shadow Guardians on the production side, and the global supply chain completes supply-demand matching and resource scheduling within a very short period. Inventory approaches zero, waste approaches zero, and production capacity is efficiently utilized. The core capability of manufacturers becomes flexibility and speed.

I. From Design to Production

The birth of a product begins with an idea from a consumer. He described to the Shadow Guardian the backpack he wanted—canvas, faded olive green, flap closure, brass buckles. The Shadow Guardian generated a three-dimensional design plan, and he adjusted the curvature of the flap, the width of the straps, and the size of the buckles until every detail matched the picture in his mind. Throughout the process, the Shadow Guardian ensured that every adjustment was within the safety standards.

After the design was finalized, the Shadow Guardian broke down the product information into a bill of materials and process parameters. Specifications for the canvas fabric—yarn density, color fastness, abrasion resistance grade, unit weight; model of the brass buckles—material composition, dimensional tolerances, corrosion depth and color difference values of the aged effect; color code, tensile strength, and thread diameter of the sewing thread; process parameters for each process step—temperature curve of the aging treatment, polishing pressure and duration. Every parameter was precisely specified. The Shadow Guardian matched the most suitable production resources in the global supply network: the demand signal for canvas simultaneously reached three qualified textile mills in Egypt, Morocco, and India; the demand signal for brass buckles reached two hardware workshops in Italy and Germany; the demand signal for sewing thread reached two suppliers in Japan and South Korea. The Shadow Guardian completed a multi-dimensional comparison within a very short period—quotes, current capacity availability, historical quality pass rates, logistics time and carbon emissions to the aging workshop in Vietnam and the final assembly workshop—and ultimately selected the Egyptian textile mill, the Italian hardware workshop, and the Japanese thread factory. The aging treatment was completed in a shared workshop in Vietnam, and the final assembly was performed at the local micro-factory closest to the consumer.

The Shadow Guardian completed all supply-demand matching, logistics scheduling, and production planning within a very short period. Canvas was shipped from Egypt, brass buckles from Italy, aging treatment was completed in Vietnam, and assembly was completed at the local micro-factory, with the time for each segment of physical transport and processing precisely calculated. After the consumer confirmed the design plan, the Shadow Guardian had already provided the delivery time window—precise to the specific date and time slot.

II. Instant Response of the Supply Chain

Demand signals flow in real time between the production side and the supply side. The moment a pre-sold product is ordered, its material requirements have already been synchronously transmitted to every relevant node in the global supply network.

The production plan of the Egyptian textile mill was adjusted accordingly, with a bolt of specified-specification fabric added to that day's canvas weaving schedule. The casting schedule of the Italian hardware workshop added one brass buckle of the specified model. The inventory data of the Japanese thread factory was updated in real time, with a bundle of sewing thread in the specified color allocated to this order. The production line of the shared workshop in Vietnam had completed the equipment parameter adjustments for the aging process before receiving the materials—wash temperature, drying time, and polishing pressure were all preset according to the process parameters required by the order. The assembly station of the local micro-factory had matched a delivery vehicle before production was completed.

If a delay occurs in any link, the Shadow Guardian searches for alternative solutions in the global network. The canvas transport from Egypt is delayed, and another textile mill that meets the specifications is in Morocco, with canvas quality and price comparable to the Egyptian factory. The Shadow Guardian completes the verification of quality parameters and capacity availability within a very short period. After confirming the switch, the downstream production schedule is updated accordingly—the canvas from Morocco will be shipped directly to the aging workshop in Vietnam, the logistics route is changed from the Suez Canal to the Strait of Gibraltar, and the transport time is actually shortened. At the same time, based on the subtle differences in fiber density and dye absorption rate between Moroccan cotton and Egyptian cotton, the Shadow Guardian synchronously adjusts the temperature curve and polishing duration of the aging process, ensuring that fabrics from different sources present a completely consistent aging effect on the finished product. The delivery time window is recalculated and synchronized to the consumer.

When generating production schedules, the Shadow Guardian avoids capacity conflicts through global load balancing. It integrates the current capacity utilization of each workshop, the scheduling density for the coming days, and the estimated arrival time of materials, precisely scheduling orders to the workshops whose time windows best match. For a workshop whose capacity is already approaching saturation, new orders are diverted to other idle workshops with the same process capabilities. The capacity of the entire network is balanced and allocated during the scheduling stage.

When force majeure causes large-scale supply chain disruptions, or social trends trigger an instantaneous global surge in demand, conventional capacity is fully locked within a very short period. At this point, the Shadow Guardian activates standby elastic production lines to expand total capacity, specifically to handle the overflow of peak orders. The maintenance cost of this elastic capacity, as a necessary investment for deterministic delivery, is ultimately borne jointly by the entire consumer ecosystem. After the peak, the elastic production lines return to standby status.

This kind of instant response is built on the foundation that every upstream industry has already been integrated into the Shadow Guardian network.

III. Flexible Production Lines and Distributed Manufacturing

Factories are no longer giant facilities for mass-producing the same product. Instead, they are shared workshops and micro-factories distributed around the world. Each workshop can simultaneously process hundreds or thousands of completely different orders, with each production line switching production parameters in real time under the scheduling of the Shadow Guardian.

On an aging production line of a shared workshop, the first order is a canvas backpack requiring heavy aging treatment—the wash temperature needs to be precisely controlled within a specific range, the polishing pressure needs to reach a specified intensity, and the treatment duration needs to last for dozens of minutes. The second order is a leather goods product requiring only light aging treatment—the wash temperature is lowered, the polishing pressure is reduced, and the treatment duration is shortened. The third order is a retro replica of a version from five years ago—the aging effect needs to mimic the wear marks of five years of natural use, with completely different process parameters. As the previous product comes off the line, the process parameters for the next product have already been loaded—the temperature and duration of the washing equipment switch automatically, and the fixtures of the polishing robotic arm are replaced within a very short period. During processing, the Shadow Guardian controls every process parameter in real time—the temperature and duration of the aging treatment, the dimensional tolerances of the brass buckles, the tensile strength of the sewing thread—continuously fine-tuning to ensure that every component produced precisely meets the quality standards locked in the order. The entire process is precisely controlled by the Shadow Guardian of the shared workshop.

Distributed manufacturing brings production resources closer to consumption terminals. A product ordered in Shenzhen after pre-sale is assembled at a local micro-factory in Shenzhen, with delivery completed within a few hours. If the same product is ordered in Paris, assembly is completed at a micro-factory near Paris, with fabric, hardware, and sewing thread also allocated from the global supply network. The geographical distribution of production resources is determined by where the consumers are.

IV. Inventory Approaching Zero

When production shifts from "produce first, sell later" to "sell first, produce later," inventory approaches zero. Raw materials are only allocated after orders are locked, production lines only start operating after materials arrive, and finished products directly enter the distribution stage after assembly is complete. The cycle from raw material procurement to finished product sales takes only a few days.

Brands no longer need to forecast market demand—pre-sale data itself is the most accurate demand signal. After the design of a new product is released, consumers complete their orders within a very short period, and production only starts after pre-sale orders are locked. Production quantities are precise down to the individual item, and unsold inventory and clearance sales no longer occur.

The disappearance of inventory is a trend, but not all categories can be reduced to zero. For standardized materials with stable supply and high quality consistency, inventory can approach zero. For materials with seasonal supply or quality fluctuations, manufacturers maintain a minimum level of safety stock as a buffer. This inventory is dynamically calculated by the Shadow Guardian based on historical supply data and risk models, maintained at the lowest level just sufficient to cover supply uncertainty. Safety stock is not for absorbing unsold products, but for responding to supply-side uncertainty.

When consumers cancel orders, the costs incurred from materials already allocated and processing steps already completed are handled according to the cancellation terms confirmed by both parties' Shadow Guardians during the pre-sale. Regular products have a free cancellation window—during the window period, materials have not yet been allocated, and cancellation incurs no cost; after the window period, materials have entered the production process, and cancellation requires the consumer to bear part of the cost. The higher the degree of customization of the product, the shorter the free cancellation window. The Shadow Guardian has already set the corresponding cancellation terms based on the product's degree of customization and supply chain schedule when the consumer places the order, and the consumer has full understanding before confirming the order.

V. Role Focus

From design alignment to global delivery, the Shadow Guardian takes over the supply-demand matching and resource scheduling of the entire manufacturing process. The core capability of manufacturers shifts from economies of scale to flexibility and speed—rapidly responding to personalized demands, precisely scheduling global resources, and completing the full closed loop from order to delivery within a very short period. The competitiveness of manufacturers depends on the switching speed of their production lines, the precise control of process parameters, and the depth of their connection to the global supply network.

Stage	Manufacturer's Role	Shadow Guardian's Responsibilities
Design & Engineering	Confirm design plans and process parameters; confirm quality standards	Break down design into bill of materials and process parameters; match optimal raw materials and production resources in the global supply network; control design plans to comply with safety standards
Procurement & Scheduling	Confirm supplier selection for key materials	Transmit demand signals in real time to the global supply network; allocate raw materials by order, schedule production lines by order; search for and switch to alternative solutions during supply disruptions; publish idle capacity to the network; maintain elastic capacity to handle demand peaks
Production & Assembly	Set scheduling priority principles; handle exceptional cases	Switch production line process parameters in real time; coordinate distributed shared workshops and local micro-factories to complete flexible production; quality inspection data fed back in real time
Delivery & After-sales	Confirm delivery standards	Enter distribution stage directly after assembly is complete; after-sales issues handled directly by the Shadow Guardian with the consumer's Shadow Guardian

Industry Status

After the full integration of the Shadow Guardian, the birth of a product begins with an idea from a consumer. The design plan is broken down into a precise engineering plan within a very short period, and the fabric, hardware, sewing thread, and processing resources in the global supply network are multi-dimensionally compared and precisely scheduled. Under the scheduling of the workshop's Shadow Guardian, the production line completes seamless switching between different products within a very short period, the process of each product is precise to the order requirements, and quality is controlled in real time during production. Production only starts after orders are locked, inventory approaches zero, waste approaches zero, and capacity is efficiently utilized. When supply chain disruptions occur, alternative solutions are verified and switched within a very short period; during demand peaks, elastic capacity is instantly activated; and capacity conflicts are avoided through global load balancing during the scheduling stage.

Logistics & Transportation

The Shadow Guardian has been fully integrated into the complete chain of the logistics and transportation industry, from capacity matching to route planning, from warehouse management to last-mile delivery. Each batch of goods has its destination and delivery time window locked before dispatch, and the transportation plan is automatically generated by the Shadow Guardian after integrating freight dynamics across the network and real-time traffic data, with the entire process being fully traceable. The operator's role focuses on decision-making.

Transportation Planning: Demand-driven Network-wide Scheduling

While goods are still on the production line, the Shadow Guardian on the logistics side has already received the delivery demand. After the order is locked, the upstream supplier's Shadow Guardian automatically synchronizes the cargo type, origin and destination, and delivery time window to the logistics Shadow Guardian. The logistics Shadow Guardian integrates freight dynamics across the network—which vehicles are at what locations, which warehouse nodes have spare capacity, which routes have access restrictions—and generates the optimal transportation plan within a very short period. The transportation method, transfer nodes, and estimated arrival time for each batch of goods are all determined before dispatch. Scattered goods on the same transportation route are automatically consolidated, and goods with different transportation conditions such as cold-chain, ambient temperature, and hazardous materials are scheduled by category, each matched with compliant transportation equipment.

Transportation Execution: Autonomous Driving and Full-process Monitoring

After the goods are dispatched, autonomous trucks travel according to the routes planned by the Shadow Guardian. During travel, vehicles continuously receive real-time traffic data across the network, automatically detouring when encountering congestion, with detour routes and estimated delay times synchronously pushed to the receiving party's Shadow Guardian. In case of severe weather, the Shadow Guardian automatically adjusts vehicle speed or selects alternative routes, and synchronously updates the delivery time windows of all affected orders. The temperature and humidity of cold-chain transport vehicles are monitored throughout by the Shadow Guardian, with the storage conditions of different goods independently controlled during transport. Live transport—from oxygenated live transport boxes for aquaculture to livestock transport vehicles for animal husbandry—water quality parameters and livestock vital signs data are transmitted in real time throughout the journey, with automatic alerts for abnormal conditions.

Last-mile Delivery: Precise-to-household Last Kilometer

After the goods arrive at the warehouse node of the destination city, the Shadow Guardian automatically dispatches last-mile delivery robots for scheduled delivery. Multiple orders from the same community or neighboring areas are automatically consolidated, and delivery robots complete continuous deliveries along the optimal route. The last-mile delivery timeliness of fresh goods and other categories requiring time-sensitive guarantees is prioritized, ensuring that the entire delivery time is controlled within the preset range. The household Shadow Guardian has synchronized the cargo information, and when the delivery robot arrives, the access control is automatically released, and the home robot automatically receives the goods.

Reverse Logistics & Emergency Scheduling

When consumers initiate returns, exchanges, or after-sales requests, the Shadow Guardian automatically arranges reverse logistics. Pickup robots come to the consumer's location at a convenient time to collect the items, and the returned goods are tracked throughout the transport process with their status recorded. In emergency situations—road disruptions, vehicle breakdowns, extreme weather—the Shadow Guardian automatically generates alternative plans within a very short period. Goods from broken-down vehicles are reallocated to backup capacity, transfer plans for downstream nodes are synchronously adjusted, and the delivery time windows of all affected orders are automatically updated and synchronized to the receiving party's Shadow Guardian, keeping delays to a minimum. Throughout the adjustment process, the delivery time windows of all affected orders are automatically updated and synchronized to the receiving party's Shadow Guardian.

Warehouse Management: Dynamic Inventory and Automated Sorting

Warehouse nodes are dynamic circulation transit stations. The Shadow Guardian automatically plans capacity based on the delivery time windows of pre-sale orders—knowing in advance which goods will arrive when, when they will be dispatched, and how long they need to be stored. Goods requiring long-term storage are automatically allocated to long-term reserve warehouses; goods requiring rapid turnover are directly transferred from transport vehicles to delivery robots without entering the warehouse. The sorting system is uniformly scheduled by the Shadow Guardian, with goods of different categories automatically identified, sorted, and matched to delivery batches on the sorting line.

Consumer Side: Real-time Accessible Full-process Visibility

After placing an order during the pre-sale stage, consumers can view the transportation status in real time after the goods are dispatched—current location, estimated arrival time, and temperature and environmental data during transport. For live-transported aquatic products or livestock, consumers can view the water quality parameters or vital signs data during transport. Upon delivery, the complete digital archive attached to each batch of goods contains the environmental records of the entire transportation process—time, temperature, and route from dispatch to delivery, all fully traceable.

After-sales Dispute Handling

When cargo damage or quality degradation occurs during transport, the handling of after-sales disputes is the responsibility of the regulatory authority's official Shadow Guardian. The Shadow Guardian retrieves the temperature records, environmental data throughout the transport, and the cargo status at delivery, and compares them with the delivery standards agreed upon during the pre-sale. If it is a transportation responsibility—temperature control errors, cargo deterioration caused by delivery delays, abnormal water quality parameters during live transport—the official Shadow Guardian automatically rules on the carrier's responsibility and executes compensation or replacement. If the data throughout the transport meets standards but the cargo quality already had issues before dispatch, the responsibility is ruled to belong to the upstream supplier.

Focus of the Operator's Work

From capacity scheduling to last-mile delivery, the Shadow Guardian takes over the execution layer of the entire logistics and transportation industry operation process. The operator only needs to make choices and confirmations at key nodes—determining capacity configuration and service standards, confirming the priority of emergency plans when unexpected situations arise, and handling exceptional cases that the Shadow Guardian prompts as requiring judgment.

Stage	Operator's Work	Shadow Guardian's Responsibilities
Transportation Planning Stage	Confirm capacity configuration and service standards; set priority principles for emergency plans	Integrate freight dynamics and demand signals across the network; generate optimal transportation plans; automatically match transportation equipment and routes
Transportation Execution Stage	Confirm the priority of emergency plans during unexpected situations	Dispatch autonomous trucks to execute transportation; monitor cargo status and transport environment throughout; optimize routes in real time
Last-mile Delivery Stage	Confirm service standards for last-mile delivery	Dispatch delivery robots to complete last-mile delivery; automatically consolidate community orders to optimize delivery routes
Warehouse Management Stage	Confirm warehouse resource configuration	Automatically plan capacity and turnover rhythm based on pre-sale orders; schedule sorting system for automatic classification and matching
After-sales & Review Stage	View operation reports; adjust capacity configuration for the next cycle based on carrier data	Handle transportation disputes and automatically submit official rulings; generate carrier data analysis and optimization suggestions

Industry Status

After the full integration of the Shadow Guardian, the logistics and transportation industry has shifted from passive response to proactive scheduling. Each batch of goods has its destination and delivery time locked before dispatch, the transportation plan is automatically generated by the Shadow Guardian after integrating network-wide dynamics, and warehousing, transfer, and delivery are all precisely coordinated by the Shadow Guardian. After placing an order during the pre-sale stage, consumers can view transportation status in real time, and receive full-process environmental records upon delivery. Transportation disputes are ruled upon by the official Shadow Guardian based on the full-process data chain within a very short period. The operator's role focuses on decision-making—setting capacity configuration and service standards, confirming priority principles for emergency plans, and being able to simultaneously manage a transportation network covering the entire country—from autonomous trucks on long-distance trunk routes to last-mile delivery robots in urban communities, with the scheduling of every device precise to the second, and network-wide capacity achieving maximum efficiency of flow under the unified coordination of the Shadow Guardian. Under the full-process monitoring and automatic remediation mechanism of the Shadow Guardian, the determinism of logistics has been elevated to a level where it can be disregarded, completely eliminating delays, damage, loss, and cold-chain interruptions. The entire logistics and transportation industry has achieved full-process autonomous online and offline fine management by the Shadow Guardian.

Commerce & Consumption

Retail & Commerce

In the Shadow Guardian era, retail commerce returned to its most essential form: created by ideas, consumed through sharing. Anyone can turn their ideas into real products and share them, and physical spaces become places for experience.

1. Personal Creation and Sharing

A person living on a humid southern coast had always wanted to find a coat suitable for the "returning-south" damp season. She wanted a lightweight, breathable but moisture-blocking long smock, with a hood that wouldn't flatten her hair, and pockets deep enough to hold a small-format book. She described her idea to Shadow Guardian. Shadow Guardian generated a three-dimensional design based on her needs and projected it in front of her. She used her hands on the projection to adjust the weave density of the fabric, the depth of the hood, and the position of the pockets. After wearing the first sample for a day in the damp season, the back of her neck was still a bit moist. She asked Shadow Guardian to add an extremely fine moisture-wicking fiber layer inside the collar. When the second sample arrived, she wore it for a three-kilometer walk in the March damp season. When she got home, the outer layer of the coat was covered with moisture, but the inner layer was dry.

A person living in Northern Europe had only a few hours of sunlight per day for several weeks each winter. She wanted to make a lamp that could mimic sunrise light—slowly brightening, gradually spreading from the height of a bedside table to fill the entire room, with the color of the light transitioning from deep amber to pale gold, like a real sunrise. She described this idea to Shadow Guardian. Shadow Guardian generated a plan based on her bedroom dimensions, window orientation, and the local winter sunrise curve. She adjusted the speed of the color temperature change, the material and light transmittance of the lampshade, and the brightness ceiling. When the first sample started up in the early morning, she felt the light spread too quickly—Shadow Guardian extended the transition by six minutes, so that the shift from deep amber to pale gold took nearly twenty minutes.

A person living in an earthquake-prone area wanted to make a small bookshelf for his kindergarten-aged daughter that wouldn't fall over no matter how much it was kicked. He wanted to build a bookshelf with no nails, no screws, and no metal fittings at all—entirely using interlocking joinery, with a base twice as wide as the top, and a center of gravity so low it would be almost impossible to tip over. He told Shadow Guardian the data on how much the bookshelf shook during earthquakes. Shadow Guardian generated dozens of interlocking joinery options, and he chose the most stable one, then conducted multiple drop tests using boards of different materials. The final bookshelf had a heavy base that narrowed layer by layer as it rose, with each shelf's dividers locked in place by staggered interlocking joints. Even when violently shaken, the books wouldn't fall out.

Once the design was complete, Shadow Guardian automatically calculated the required materials and component specifications based on the plan, and rented the appropriate processing equipment to complete the prototype. The sample was sent to the creator, who touched the physical object, inspected the details, and tested the functionality. Where adjustments were needed, they told Shadow Guardian, and another prototype was made for confirmation, until they were satisfied.

If willing to share, with the creator's authorization, Shadow Guardian could make the product information public. Pricing was suggested by Shadow Guardian based on material costs, processing fees, and the market price of similar products, and confirmed by the creator. Interested buyers discovered the product through their own Shadow Guardian's recommendations, and transactions were completed automatically in a very short time. Creators could choose between spot supply or pre-sale—under the pre-sale model, once an order was locked in, Shadow Guardian automatically connected to production resources for manufacturing. Either way, Shadow Guardian automatically handled production scheduling, logistics, and after-sales settlement.

Creators could also choose to share their creations in offline experience spaces.

2. Experience Centers: Convergence Points of Creation

Traditional shopping malls were replaced by experience centers scattered across every corner of the city. These were the most vital public spaces in the city, convergence points for creation and inspiration.

Each experience center was made up of many display booths large and small, and the products in each booth might belong to any creator or team. Interested people could use their own Shadow Guardian to contact the creator's Shadow Guardian directly through the corresponding booth's equipment to place an order. Shadow Guardian analyzed the product's category, style, and potential audience, automatically matched it to a suitable space, and reserved display position and duration. The rotation of display booths was automatically scheduled by Shadow Guardian based on category and demand heat.

The entire space was naturally divided into multiple zones according to the type of work and atmosphere, and each zone had its own unique rhythm and character.

On a display stand sat a pair of outdoor sports shoes, with a label beside them noting their functions: adaptive to foot shape and terrain, auto-adjusting breathability, and self-cleaning support. The sole was composed of thousands of micro airbags. Beside the stand was a test board simulating various terrains and disposable thin shoe covers for trying them on. A girl picked up the shoes, slipped on the shoe covers, and stepped in. After the upper sensed her foot shape, it slowly tightened to fit the curve of her instep. She stood up and took two steps—the shoes automatically fine-tuned the height of the arch support based on her gait. She walked back and forth on the test board several times—when she stepped on gravel, the airbags on the sole automatically arranged themselves into a coarse, dispersed pattern to enhance grip; when she walked onto ice, the pattern contracted into dense sawtooth shapes to prevent slipping. Throughout the process, the upper automatically adjusted breathability according to her body temperature and perspiration, keeping her feet feeling dry at all times. She stopped, pressed the self-cleaning button on the tongue, and the upper vibrated slightly—the mud stains that had gotten on it were stripped away by high-frequency micro-vibration, and the entire pair of shoes returned to clean. She turned the sole over and looked at it for a long time, then held her watch up to the sensing device next to the stand and said to her Shadow Guardian: I want a pair.

On a display stand sat a frosted, semi-transparent storage box, with a label noting its functions: internal compartments would automatically generate adaptive structures based on the items placed inside, while sensing item properties and automatically adjusting the material form and transparency of that area, and displaying the types and quantities of internal items after closing. An elderly man pulled open the lid, poured in several blister packs of pills and a handful of loose coins, then took out a small glass bottle from his pocket containing a few ants his grandson had caught. He closed the lid, and very faint rustling sounds came from inside, stopping after a few seconds. A transparent image floated above the lid, listing the quantities of pills, coins, and ants, with the ants noted as "living creatures." He reopened the box—the pills were arranged by shape and color in shallow, slightly concave compartments, the coins were arranged standing upright in two columns by denomination, and the ants were crawling in a single small square compartment. The walls of that compartment were fully transparent to let light in, with several extremely tiny air holes opened at the top. He said to his Shadow Guardian: "I want two slightly larger ones, for my grandson to keep small insects in and for me to store my coin collection."

A black backpack was displayed on a stand, with a label noting its functions: a built-in physical center-of-gravity adjustment system; internal compartments that would automatically rearrange based on the shape and center of gravity of the items placed inside, while dynamically adjusting the entire bag's weight distribution to always fit the user's back curve. No electricity or connected devices required. A man picked up the bag, put in a few books and miscellaneous items, and a very faint shifting sound came from inside the backpack, stopping after a few seconds. He opened the bag and took a look—the compartments had been rearranged, the items were firmly secured in appropriate positions, and the bottom had slightly hardened. He then folded his jacket and stuffed it in, put on the backpack, and the area on the inside of the upper shoulder straps slightly thickened. He bent over—the weight inside the backpack shifted downward with his movement, and his forward-leaning center of gravity was balanced; he didn't need to exert force to stabilize his body. He straightened up, then tried leaning sideways and turning around. The backpack stayed against his back the whole time—no swaying, no sensation of the straps pulling. He took off the bag and glanced at the position of the straps; compared to when he had first put it on, there was no change. He said to his Shadow Guardian: I like this one.

A set of mirrors arranged in a ring stood in the center of a large exhibition area—ten in total, forming a circle about three meters in diameter. The label beside them read: a set of mirrors you can chat with. A young woman walked in and stood at the center, and her Shadow Guardian connected to the mirror system. A few seconds later, her own image appeared in every mirror—and the "her" in every mirror was different. One leaned against a corner with arms crossed, looking impatient. Another crouched in a corner, fingers unconsciously picking at the hem of her shirt. Another was laughing so hard her shoulders were shaking, though it was unclear what was so funny. Another had red eyes, looking as if she had just been crying. Another had no expression, just staring straight at her. Another sat in a chair, leaning back with legs crossed, wearing an expression that suggested she had seen through everything.

The one leaning against the corner, being the most impatient, spoke first: "Go ahead, tell us what's been going on with you lately. The happy stuff, the unhappy stuff, anything bothering you, any messes you haven't cleaned up—you go first, we're listening."

The young woman paused for a moment and said: "Work hasn't been going well lately, and I'm under a bit of pressure."

The impatient one, arms still crossed, said sharply: "If you're unhappy, just quit. Find another one. It's not like you can't get a job."

The one with her legs crossed spoke slowly: "Easier said than done. The last time she quit—"

"—the last time she quit, she said exactly the same thing. Word for word." The one laughing so hard her shoulders shook suddenly cut in, pointing at the leg-crossed one while laughing, and the leg-crossed one rolled her eyes at the giggling one and leaned back in her chair.

The one with shaking shoulders wiped away tears of laughter: "Okay, okay, go on."

The leg-crossed one spoke again, still in a slow tone: "Why did you quit last time, again? Exactly the same as this time. Three job changes now—is the problem really with the jobs?"

The young woman opened her mouth but couldn't speak.

The one crouching in the corner picked even faster at her fingers, her voice very soft: "Stop, stop—if you say it out loud, she won't be able to sleep again."

The one who had just been crying looked up, eyes still red: "She already can't sleep. I saw her staring at the ceiling in the early hours this morning—"

"I saw it too," the one with shaking shoulders chimed in again, "tossing and turning for a long time, then suddenly sitting up—"

"—to get a drink of water in the living room." The one who had just been crying picked up the thread, not at all upset about being interrupted, even smiling a little. "But she didn't drink. Just stood there holding the glass."

The one with shaking shoulders wiped her tears again, laughing even harder this time: "The way you held that glass was especially funny, you know—standing in the kitchen, raising the glass to your lips and then setting it down, over and over. When you're advising other people, you have a whole spiel, but when it comes to yourself, this is what you're like."

The impatient one released her arms, glanced at the leg-crossed one, then looked at the young woman, her tone softening a bit: "Anyway, what I mean is—don't wrong yourself. You've been wronging yourself for more than just a day or two. We've all been watching."

The leg-crossed one said with her eyes closed: "That's true enough."

The quietest one in the mirrors—the one who hadn't said a single word from start to finish—suddenly looked up at her, said nothing, and just gave a small nod.

The young woman walked out of the circle of mirrors, deep in thought.

The scenes above are just a few glimpses of any experience center...

3. Routine Consumption

Daily necessities are automatically managed by the personal Shadow Guardian based on historical consumption data, brand preferences, and budget ceilings, with restocking completed before items run out. The only thing consumers need to do is tell Shadow Guardian when they want to switch brands or adjust their budget.

For everyday instant shopping needs, after an order is placed through the personal Shadow Guardian, robots from the nearest community storage station deliver directly to hand. These storage nodes are evenly distributed and quick to respond, and everyday shopping demands are fulfilled within minutes.

For consumer goods with aesthetic and emotional attributes—clothing, furniture, books, musical instruments—the personal Shadow Guardian makes recommendations based on a deep understanding of its owner, knowing their style preferences, sizing data, usage habits, and aesthetic tendencies.

Price negotiation is automatically completed by both parties' Shadow Guardians in a very short time. Shadow Guardian finds the most suitable product for its owner—it knows the owner's baseline for quality, the importance they place on sustainability, and their preference for certain materials or craftsmanship.

The personal Shadow Guardian continuously tracks the usage frequency of every item in the home. When an item sits idle for a long time, Shadow Guardian proactively confirms with the owner, then posts a transfer listing, matches potential buyers, negotiates the price, and arranges logistics pickup.

Hospitality

In the Shadow Guardian era, accommodation is no longer just an ancillary need during travel. Any idle space can become a place that is genuinely cared for, through Shadow Guardian. The host only needs to decide to open up; the guest only needs to push open the door.

1. Preparation and Listing

Anyone with a spare room, an apartment unused on weekends, or a period of time when they're away on business can have Shadow Guardian open that space to people who need it.

Shadow Guardian coordinates access to multiple robots. Cleaning robots sweep the floor and every corner, and wipe windows, mirrors, and all surfaces. Setup robots adjust soft furnishing details based on the room's orientation, lighting, and decor style: the drape angle of the curtains, the color coordination of the bedding, the placement of the plant on the table. Maintenance robots check faucets, water heaters, air conditioners, door locks, and light switches one by one—any equipment with potential issues is repaired before the guest checks in.

Once setup is complete, Shadow Guardian generates multi-angle three-dimensional display images and renderings based on the room's actual dimensions, lighting conditions, orientation, and decor style. It also labels all objective data for the room: precise area, number of windows, sound insulation level, and day and night data for surrounding noise decibels. In addition, there is the exact address of the property, the floor it's on, orientation, and floor plan. Walking time to the nearest subway station and bus stop, driving time and optimal routes to the train station and airport. Places nearby that the host recommends as possibly worth visiting—a bakery that's been open for years, an old bookstore within walking distance, a breakfast spot locals frequent, a small park suitable for morning runs, the market where they usually buy groceries, the café where they sit for a while on weekends, the alley that looks best in the evening light, a small restaurant nearby where locals go for a certain dish, the spot by the lake that's best for watching the sunset... all this information is published together.

Throughout this process, the host only needs to tell Shadow Guardian the time range for opening and the price expectation at the start.

2. Remote Viewing and Trust Verification

Interested guests can connect to the room's temporarily opened devices through their own Shadow Guardian for a remote on-site viewing.

The guest's Shadow Guardian connects to movable cameras inside the room and checks each item one by one: room size, actual capacity of the wardrobe, width of the desk, whether there are damp marks in the corners, window size, the view outside, lighting conditions... A decibel meter detects how many decibels the environmental noise outside is when the window is open, how much it drops when the window is closed, and how well the room's sound insulation performs when someone is talking in the next room. An air quality monitor transmits air quality data. In addition, the guest's Shadow Guardian can connect to surrounding open environmental monitoring devices and cameras. They can check nighttime light pollution and whether there are neon signs flashing outside the window. The guest can also pull up historical noise data from the past period to check how quiet the surroundings are at night—late-night vehicle traffic, early-morning garbage truck operations, and nighttime noise from neighboring households. If the guest is sensitive to pollen, Shadow Guardian pulls up surrounding vegetation data to see if there are any allergenic plants currently in bloom nearby.

Trust verification is completed synchronously during the viewing process. The host's Shadow Guardian holds accumulated real feedback data from past guests—whether the actual stay experience matched the description, whether the room's sound insulation data matched what the host labeled, the cleanliness of the room. The guest's Shadow Guardian also holds accumulated behavioral records from past stays—the cleanliness of the room at checkout, whether they followed the rules set by the host, whether there were any breach-of-agreement records. All of these records are based on traceable, verifiable objective data. If both parties' behavioral records meet the other's preset standards, trust matching is automatically completed. The price is automatically negotiated by both Shadow Guardians based on season, surrounding events, and room conditions, and the transaction is finalized once the guest confirms.

3. Comfort Optimization

After the transaction is finalized, and before formal check-in, the guest's Shadow Guardian connects to the room's devices and pre-adjusts every detail of the room based on the guest's preferences.

The pillow height is set to the guest's most comfortable level. The mattress firmness is adjusted based on the guest's weight and sleep habits. The backrest angle of the chair at the desk is automatically set to the guest's most comfortable position. If work is needed during the stay, the chair height and lumbar support are adjusted based on height and sitting posture habits. The shower water pressure is set to the preferred intensity. The sofa cushion is adjusted to the preferred firmness...

When the door is pushed open, it's the guest's most comfortable state.

4. During the Stay and After Checkout

During the stay, the host's Shadow Guardian is online the entire time. If the guest has any questions—the hot water isn't hot enough, they can't find the hair dryer, they want to know what time the nearby bakery opens—Shadow Guardian responds instantly. If any equipment in the room malfunctions, Shadow Guardian promptly rents and connects a maintenance robot for repairs.

After checkout, the host's Shadow Guardian dispatches cleaning robots to complete the cleaning: changing bedding, washing the bathroom, wiping all surfaces, and disinfecting high-contact areas. Maintenance robots inspect equipment status again to prepare for the next guest. Throughout this turnover process, the host might be on a business trip in another city, might be sleeping in their own room, might have completely forgotten that they have a space hosting a stranger. Their Shadow Guardian handles everything for them.

5. Accommodation as Experience

In the Shadow Guardian era, accommodation itself has become an experience that can be carefully chosen and savored.

A person who wanted a change of environment for writing stayed in a retired teacher's attic study. The room wasn't large, but it had a north-facing skylight, and the afternoon light was steady and soft. The bookshelves still held the original owner's collection built up over decades, with each book containing sticky notes and annotations. He stayed for several days, writing for several days. A remote worker who wanted to live quietly in a small town for a week stayed in a spare room of a local family's home. From the window, they could see half a mountain and a river; in the morning, there was birdsong, and at night, they could hear the distant whistle of trains. The host was a young person working out of town; the room was sitting empty anyway, so she had opened it up for six months. She said: Thank you for watering the flowers on my balcony. A person receiving medical treatment in another city who needed regular follow-up visits stayed in a room a ten-minute walk from the hospital, with a kitchen. He stayed for two weeks, cooking for himself every day, with several pots of herbs he had bought arranged on the windowsill. When he checked out, he left the unused rice and oil in the kitchen cabinet, labeled with their purchase dates.

These accommodations are extensions of another person's life. The guest checks in and, for a limited time, intersects with the real life of another person.

6. Role Focus

From listing to checkout cleaning, Shadow Guardian takes over the work of the entire accommodation operation process. The host's role focuses on one decision: whether to open this door to a stranger. The guest's role focuses on feeling this space, and the small piece of place where this space is located.

Stage	Host's Role	Host's Shadow Guardian Responsibilities	Guest's Role	Guest's Shadow Guardian Responsibilities
Listing & Preparation	Decide the time range for opening and price expectation;	Coordinate cleaning, setup, and maintenance robots to prepare the space; label geographic location, transportation routes, and surrounding lifestyle information; generate three-dimensional display images and renderings; label objective room data and publish	—	—
Remote Viewing & Matching	Set guest screening criteria	Authorize the guest's Shadow Guardian to access room devices; provide real feedback data from past guests; complete trust matching and price negotiation with the guest's Shadow Guardian	Submit viewing requests; confirm transaction	Connect to the room's movable cameras, air quality monitors, and decibel meters to inspect interior details one by one; connect to surrounding environmental monitoring devices to view lighting, noise, light pollution, and traffic data; provide past stay behavioral records; complete trust matching; negotiate price
Pre-check-in Adjustment	No intervention needed	Authorize the guest's Shadow Guardian to access room devices	Provide personal preferences	Connect to room devices; pre-adjust pillows, mattress, etc. based on guest preferences
During Stay	No intervention needed	Respond instantly to guest needs; automatically handle equipment failure repairs	Experience the space; raise questions	—
Checkout & Turnover	No intervention needed	Dispatch cleaning robots to complete cleaning and disinfection; inspect equipment status; prepare for the next guest	Check out; provide real feedback data	Automatically record objective data during the stay as the basis for feedback
Review & Optimization	Review operational data and guest feedback; adjust opening time or pricing	Aggregate real feedback data from guests; compare the consistency between the room's actual performance and its description; provide pricing and opening strategy optimization suggestions	Review the stay experience; bookmark listings of interest for the future	Analyze guest satisfaction and preference changes; flag potential future matching listings

Industry Status

After the full integration of Shadow Guardian, the hospitality industry became society-wide sharing of idle space. Anyone with a spare room, even if only opened up for a period of time, can turn their space into a place that is genuinely cared for. Before formal check-in, guests connect to the room's devices through Shadow Guardian to inspect every detail they care about. At check-in, the room is already at its most comfortable state. Trust is automatically matched through the real behavioral data accumulated in both parties' Shadow Guardians. After checkout, cleaning robots handle everything, and the space is restored to its original state, waiting for the next guest. Accommodation itself has become an independent experience—a person can choose to step into another person's life and, for a limited time, intersect with the real daily life of a stranger.

Personal Services

Healthcare

The Shadow Guardian is fully integrated into the complete chain of healthcare, from proactive prevention to health monitoring, from diagnosis and treatment to emergency response. Each person's health data is continuously recorded and analyzed from birth, and diseases are flagged before symptoms appear. Diagnosis and treatment are supported through collaboration between the personal Shadow Guardian and multiple layers of official expert Shadow Guardians at medical institutions. The personal Shadow Guardian manages the health record and interfaces with medical institutions; the medical institution's official Shadow Guardian assists with clinical diagnosis and treatment support; and the physician makes the final clinical decision. The public emergency response system is coordinated by the emergency system's official Shadow Guardian, which dispatches medical robots as the core response force.

Proactive Prevention: Comprehensive Risk Management

The Shadow Guardian's proactive prevention for the individual covers every dimension, from genetics to environment, from the individual to the population.

With the continuous advancement of sequencing technology, innate risk prediction at the genetic level has gradually become a routine procedure at birth. Based on whole-genome sequencing data, the personal Shadow Guardian annotates all known disease-causing genes and risk gene loci, continuously updating as medical research progresses. For monogenic hereditary diseases, a clear prevention path is provided during the newborn period. For polygenic complex diseases, genetic risk is integrated with environmental factors and lifestyle data for analysis, producing dynamic, personalized prevention recommendations. Genetic data is stored locally by the personal Shadow Guardian; without personal authorization, no institution can access the raw genetic sequence—only the risk assessment results are pushed to medical institutions. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) constitution identification is likewise incorporated into the personal Shadow Guardian's risk assessment system—each person's constitution type, susceptibility tendencies, and seasonal adaptability are continuously recorded and analyzed, jointly forming the individual's health risk profile together with genetic data and family medical history.

Family genetic medical history follows the same logic. If a direct relative has early-onset colorectal cancer, hereditary breast cancer, or a particular metabolic disease, the personal Shadow Guardian flags this information as a high-priority health risk factor from the individual's birth onward. Based on medical guidelines and the latest clinical research relevant to that specific family history, it automatically initiates a personalized active screening plan. Every examination result is continuously tracked, and any faint signal deviating from the normal trend is immediately pushed to the medical institution's official Shadow Guardian.

Periodic risk management across life stages runs through the entire life cycle. Infancy focuses on monitoring growth and development indicators, late-presenting congenital conditions, and vaccination time windows. Adolescence attends to metabolic risks brought by endocrine changes and fluctuations in mental health indicators. Pregnancy continuously monitors maternal and fetal indicators from preconception onward, with high-risk pregnancies identified and intervened before abnormal signals appear. Middle age dynamically adjusts the frequency and items of cardiovascular risk screening, metabolic syndrome screening, and early tumor screening based on individual risk scores. Old age continuously quantifies and tracks osteoporosis, cognitive decline, and fall risk, with preventive interventions initiated before functional decline. The correlation between hormonal changes during the female perimenopausal period and bone density, cardiovascular risk, and mood fluctuations is continuously analyzed, with personalized hormone replacement plans and TCM conditioning plans prepared before symptoms emerge.

Lifestyle, living environment, mental health, and social connections are likewise continuously monitored and quantitatively analyzed by the personal Shadow Guardian, cross-referenced with the individual's genetic background and health goals to form a dynamically updated personal health risk model. When the model identifies indicators in a particular risk dimension deviating from the normal range, the personal Shadow Guardian issues a warning before problems occur, provides precise, actionable intervention recommendations, and synchronizes this with the medical institution's official Shadow Guardian.

At the population level, regional early warnings for locally prevalent diseases are continuously issued by the public health system's official Shadow Guardian. The official Shadow Guardian analyzes regional health data, environmental data, and disease incidence trends, automatically generating a dynamically updated health risk map. Everyone within high-risk areas receives, through their personal Shadow Guardian, personalized prevention guidelines customized to their age, gender, medical history, and family genetic background. The allocation of local screening resources is automatically planned according to the risk map.

Real-time early warnings for infectious diseases and public health are likewise coordinated by the public health system's official Shadow Guardian. Warning information is pushed to everyone through personal Shadow Guardians, while also being synchronized to the medical resource dispatching system and the disease control department's official Shadow Guardian, helping all parties prepare in advance. Vaccine research and production are launched in parallel, and distribution plans are automatically optimized based on population immunity gap data.

Health Monitoring: Active Early Warning

Through the wearable sensor network carried on the body—flexible sensors in clothing, optical modules on the wrist, and biometric radar in the home environment—the personal Shadow Guardian continuously captures multi-dimensional physiological data such as heart rate, blood pressure, blood oxygen, blood glucose, body temperature, sleep depth, and gait characteristics, continuously analyzing trends to identify slowly developing warning signs. Before these changes cause any discomfort, the personal Shadow Guardian has already generated a concise trend report and pushed it to the individual and the official Shadow Guardian of their medical institution.

Patients with chronic diseases are likewise continuously monitored by the personal Shadow Guardian. For diabetes patients, blood glucose curves are integrated with diet, exercise, and medication timing for analysis, and insulin pump delivery is automatically adjusted by the personal Shadow Guardian based on real-time data. For hypertension patients, the relationship between blood pressure fluctuations and sleep quality, salt intake, and medication adherence is precisely quantified, with medication regimens dynamically adjusted based on trend data.

Diagnosis: Multi-layer Collaborative Precision Judgment

When the health monitoring system detects an abnormal signal, or when an individual actively describes symptoms of discomfort to the personal Shadow Guardian, the diagnostic process is initiated. The personal Shadow Guardian assembles and organizes the individual's complete health data and synchronizes it to the medical institution's official Shadow Guardian.

The official Shadow Guardian has already been continuously tracking the individual's health record in its daily work and has a complete understanding of long-term trends; it first provides a preliminary diagnostic opinion and basic examination recommendations. If further examination is needed, the personal Shadow Guardian automatically books the nearest community clinic or imaging center, and examination results are uploaded synchronously upon completion.

When specialist diagnosis is required, imaging data and examination reports are synchronized to the official expert Shadow Guardian of the relevant specialty. Cardiology, neurosurgery, oncology, radiology, pathology, internal Chinese medicine, acupuncture and tuina—expert Shadow Guardians in different fields independently provide diagnostic opinions in a very short time based on their respective knowledge bases. Modern medicine expert Shadow Guardians provide evidence-based diagnostic reports and recommended treatment plans, while TCM expert Shadow Guardians collect data such as tongue spectrum data, voiceprint characteristics, and pulse pressure waveforms through a multimodal sensor network, providing syndrome differentiation results and recommendations on treatment principles and herbal formulas. Diagnostic reports and recommended treatment plans are pushed to the attending physician within a very short time. When multiple expert Shadow Guardians are in agreement, the physician focuses on confirming the applicability of the plan to the individual's specific situation; when opinions diverge, the Shadow Guardian clearly presents the evidence levels and decision logic behind the disagreement, and the physician makes the final judgment based on clinical experience. For TCM techniques that are highly dependent on the physician's personal senses—such as certain subtle tactile sensations in pulse diagnosis, or the immediate assessment of tongue coating moisture—the physician still performs these personally, with the Shadow Guardian providing multimodal data as a supplementary reference.

The diagnosis of mental and psychological health is fundamentally different from that of physical disease—diagnosis relies heavily on dialogue, trust relationships, and long-term follow-up, and the diagnostic criteria themselves involve culture and values. The Shadow Guardian's supporting role in this field is strictly limited: the personal Shadow Guardian provides early warning of mental health risks by continuously monitoring sleep depth, heart rate variability, social activity frequency, and language pattern changes; the warning information is pushed to the psychiatrist's official Shadow Guardian for reference. However, core diagnosis, the establishment of therapeutic relationships, and the execution of psychological interventions are always led by human psychiatrists and psychological counselors, with the Shadow Guardian in a supporting role.

The operation of the medical knowledge system strictly follows the principles of evidence-based medicine. The national medical knowledge hub is continuously operated by authoritative medical research institutions and academic organizations, integrating the latest and most authoritative global evidence-based medical evidence, clinical practice guidelines, and pharmacopoeias, as well as classic TCM theories, the clinical experience of renowned senior TCM practitioners, and modern Chinese herbal pharmacology research. It serves as the public knowledge infrastructure for medical institutions at all levels. Each medical institution accumulates its own unique clinical practice data on this basis, stored in the institution's official Shadow Guardian. The physician's personal clinical experience records are layered atop the institutional system—when similar cases are encountered, the most similar historical cases can be retrieved instantly for the physician's reference. These three layers of knowledge—public standards, institutional experience, and personal accumulation—together form the knowledge foundation of medical decision-making.

Treatment: Precise Execution of Individualized Plans

Once the diagnosis is established, the medical institution's official expert Shadow Guardian assists the physician in generating an individualized treatment plan based on the individual's genetic characteristics, physiological indicators, TCM constitution type, drug metabolism capacity, and lifestyle. After the medication plan is confirmed by the physician, the personal Shadow Guardian automatically places the order based on the prescription, and medications are delivered directly to the individual through cold-chain logistics from the pharmaceutical company or regional drug distribution center, with end-to-end temperature monitoring where required.

If the individual requires surgery, the institution's official Shadow Guardian integrates imaging data and anatomical models to generate a three-dimensional surgical path plan, marking critical blood vessels, nerves, and areas to avoid, for the lead surgeon to confirm and adjust. The surgery is performed by the physician operating a robotic system—the robot precisely reproduces the physician's hand movements, converting each surgical command into high-precision instrument actions, with tremors filtered out and force precisely controlled within the range set by the physician. The haptic feedback system allows the physician to perceive the resistance of tissue to manipulation—the hardness of a tumor, the elasticity of a blood vessel wall, the tension of tissue during suturing—this information is precisely quantified and presented through the robotic system. When unexpected situations arise during surgery—such as the actual boundary of a tumor not fully matching the imaging display, or an anatomical variation not detected preoperatively—the robot immediately relays the abnormal information to the physician, who decides whether the surgical plan needs adjustment. Throughout the entire process, the robot is the physician's precise execution tool and sensory extension; all core decisions are always made by the physician.

External treatments such as acupuncture and tuina are likewise fully led by the physician throughout. Through observation, listening, inquiry, and pulse-taking, plus syndrome differentiation, the physician determines which acupuncture points need to be needled at this moment, whether to use tonification or sedation technique, how long to retain the needles, and whether to combine moxibustion. The robot precisely reproduces the physician's needling techniques—depth accurate to the millimeter specified by the physician, rotation angle and frequency consistent with the parameters set by the physician, and the amplitude and speed of lifting and thrusting reproducing the physician's technique. The bioelectrical impedance sensor mounted on the robot monitors the tissue reaction at the acupuncture point in real time—when the needle tip reaches the "deqi" depth, the local tissue's bioelectrical impedance undergoes a characteristic change. This change is precisely captured and fed back to the physician, who, combined with their own clinical experience, judges whether the therapeutic requirement has been met. If the physician deems adjustment necessary, they directly modify the parameters, and the robot adjusts immediately. For certain subtle techniques highly dependent on the physician's personal touch—such as the composite tonification and sedation techniques of "burning mountain fire" and "penetrating heaven coolness"—the physician still performs these personally, with the robot serving as an auxiliary tool providing precise depth and angle control.

The treatment plan is jointly confirmed by the physician and the individual. The personal Shadow Guardian presents the treatment plan in a way the individual can understand, annotating the benefit probability, risk level, and postoperative recovery period for each option, helping the individual make a choice together with the physician on the basis of full informed consent. Vital signs, medication records, and rehabilitation progress during hospitalization are all continuously tracked by the institution's official Shadow Guardian, and the rehabilitation plan is automatically generated upon discharge.

Emergency: Intelligent Emergency Network Coordinated with Medical Robots

In a sudden emergency, the personal Shadow Guardian uses the accelerometer in the wristband and the sudden change in heart rate to determine possible cardiac arrest within seconds, immediately calls the emergency system, and synchronizes the individual's precise location, time of collapse, real-time heart rate, and medical history to the emergency center's official Shadow Guardian.

Simultaneously, the emergency system's official Shadow Guardian coordinates the nearest public service emergency robots. These robots are distributed at various nodes throughout the city—public transit hubs, community centers, sports stadiums, large commercial complexes, and schools. Each robot is connected in real time to the city's emergency system, with its status continuously monitored by the official emergency Shadow Guardian. In addition, the emergency system Shadow Guardian simultaneously sends a priority transit request to the city's traffic management Shadow Guardian; traffic lights adjust their phases before the robot reaches the intersection, and community access systems automatically lift transit restrictions as the robot approaches. The emergency robot can navigate through crowds and building obstacles in a very short time to reach the person in need. It carries the complete basic equipment needed for first aid and transmits the individual's vital signs and on-site footage back to the emergency center in real time. Physicians at the emergency center direct the robot to perform operations remotely through the official Shadow Guardian, or directly operate the robot for more complex procedures.

While the ambulance is en route to the scene, the emergency physician aboard remotely directs the robot to perform necessary preliminary treatment based on real-time vital sign information. When professional emergency responders arrive, the robot automatically steps back from the lead role and shifts to an auxiliary position. The emergency system Shadow Guardian arranges preparation of resuscitation equipment and operating rooms. Upon arrival, resuscitation begins immediately.

Beyond emergency response, these public service medical robots also handle routine medical assistance. At community health centers, they assist nurses with basic examinations and minor wound treatment. During public health emergencies, these robots are rapidly redeployed to take on screening, sampling, and initial triage tasks.

Rehabilitation: Continuous Recovery Tracking

During the rehabilitation period, the individual returns home, and the personal Shadow Guardian continues to track recovery progress. Post-surgery rehabilitation training is assisted by home rehabilitation robots, with training data transmitted in real time to the rehabilitation physician's official Shadow Guardian, and automatic alerts issued when recovery deviates from the expected trajectory. For individuals with chronic diseases or those requiring long-term conditioning, TCM rehabilitation plans are likewise incorporated into the recovery plan, with the personal Shadow Guardian dynamically adjusting the plan based on changes in the individual's constitution and recovery progress.

The Individual's Experience

Everyone has their own health record from birth, continuously managed by the personal Shadow Guardian. When feeling unwell, the individual describes symptoms to the personal Shadow Guardian, which retrieves recent physiological data trends, family medical history, and past medical records, and provides a preliminary assessment and recommendations in a very short time. If examination is needed, the personal Shadow Guardian automatically books the nearest community clinic or imaging center, and examination results are uploaded synchronously upon completion. When specialist diagnosis is required, imaging data and examination reports are synchronized to the official expert Shadow Guardian of the relevant specialty, and the diagnostic report is pushed to the personal Shadow Guardian when examination is complete. The personal Shadow Guardian automatically places medication orders based on the prescription, with drugs delivered to the home.

Role Focus

Stage	Physician/Manager's Work	Personal Shadow Guardian's Responsibilities	Medical Institution's Official Shadow Guardian's Responsibilities	Individual's Focus
Proactive Prevention Stage	Physician: confirms the clinical significance of risk assessment; develops individualized prevention plans	Integrates multi-dimensional data including genetics, family history, lifestyle, environment, and TCM constitution; continuously assesses individual health risk; pushes personalized prevention recommendations and screening plans	Receives abnormal trend reports pushed by the personal Shadow Guardian; provides clinical decision support to the physician	Understands their own health risk profile, sees personalized prevention recommendations and screening plans, and carries out prevention plans in daily life
Health Monitoring Stage	Physician: confirms the clinical significance of health warnings; decides whether intervention is needed	Continuously collects and analyzes personal health data; identifies abnormal trends and pushes warnings; generates health trend reports and synchronizes them to the institution's official Shadow Guardian	Receives health trend reports pushed by the personal Shadow Guardian; assists the physician in clinical judgment	Maintains continuous awareness and control of their own physical condition; any potential health issue is flagged before obvious symptoms appear
Diagnosis Stage	Physician: makes the final clinical diagnosis; when multiple specialists are in agreement, efficiently confirms the applicability of the plan; when opinions diverge, makes the final judgment based on clinical experience	Synchronizes the complete health record to the institution's official Shadow Guardian and multiple specialist Shadow Guardians; books examinations; receives and presents diagnostic reports	Integrates diagnostic opinions from multiple layers of specialist Shadow Guardians; provides multi-dimensional diagnostic options from modern medicine and TCM, annotating evidence levels and decision logic behind disagreements for the physician's reference	Learns their condition and next steps in the first instance; the diagnostic report is presented in a way they can understand
Treatment Stage	Physician: confirms and executes the treatment plan; fully leads treatment operations such as surgery and acupuncture/tuina, making key decisions based on the individual's real-time responses	Automatically places medication orders based on prescriptions; presents the treatment plan for the individual to understand; assists the individual and physician in making a joint choice	Generates individualized treatment plans for physician confirmation; assists the physician in executing surgical and acupuncture/tuina plans, providing real-time feedback on intraoperative sensory data; tracks various data during hospitalization	Clearly sees the benefit probability and risk level of each treatment option, and makes a joint choice with the physician on the basis of full informed consent; medications are delivered to the home, and recovery status can be checked at any time during hospitalization
Emergency Stage	Physician: directs resuscitation; makes key clinical decisions	Identifies emergency signals; synchronizes personal data and location to the emergency system	The emergency system's official Shadow Guardian coordinates emergency robots and emergency resources; sends priority transit requests to the city's traffic management system, automatically communicates with community access systems to open transit paths; synchronizes personal data to the emergency center and emergency department; remotely directs robots to perform treatment	Receives timely on-site emergency support wherever a sudden illness occurs; emergency robots provide initial treatment before professional responders arrive
Rehabilitation Stage	Physician: develops and adjusts rehabilitation plans; assesses rehabilitation progress	Continuously tracks rehabilitation progress; dispatches home rehabilitation robots to assist with training; dynamically adjusts TCM rehabilitation plans	Receives rehabilitation data pushed by the personal Shadow Guardian; assists the physician in assessing recovery	Trains at home with the assistance of rehabilitation robots; recovery progress is continuously tracked with alerts when deviations from the expected trajectory occur; TCM rehabilitation plans are dynamically adjusted based on constitutional changes, providing a sense of personalized care throughout recovery
Institutional Management Stage	Manager: determines the direction of discipline development; sets quality control standards; handles exceptions flagged by the Shadow Guardian that require judgment	—	Integrates clinical data to analyze treatment outcomes; provides operational optimization recommendations; updates the clinical knowledge base	—

The core responsibilities of the personal Shadow Guardian are health record management, health risk monitoring, medical resource booking, diagnostic report receipt, medication purchase execution, and rehabilitation tracking—serving the individual. The medical institution's official Shadow Guardian is the hospital-level intelligent assistance system, a public resource provided to physicians; its core responsibilities are clinical diagnosis assistance, treatment plan generation, emergency resource coordination, and institutional operational data integration—representing the medical institution. The two collaborate through the Shadow Guardian network. Decision-making authority at the medical institution rests with the manager—determining the direction of discipline development, setting quality control standards, and confirming priority principles when resources are scarce. Clinical decision-making authority rests with the physician—based on the complete information and optimal plans provided by the official expert Shadow Guardian, combined with their own clinical experience and the individual's specific situation, the physician makes the final judgment.

Industry State

After the Shadow Guardian is fully integrated, healthcare shifts from passive consultation to proactive protection. Diseases are flagged before symptoms appear—genetic risk, family history, life-stage changes, lifestyle deviations, environmental exposures, psychological fluctuations, and community health trends are all integrated by the personal Shadow Guardian into a dynamically updated personal health risk model. Genetic data is stored locally by the personal Shadow Guardian and cannot be accessed by any institution without authorization. Diagnosis is completed collaboratively by multiple layers of official expert Shadow Guardians at medical institutions in a very short time, with modern medicine and TCM working in parallel; when opinions agree, the physician confirms efficiently; when opinions diverge, the physician makes the final judgment based on clinical experience. Treatment plans are dynamically generated based on individual characteristics, and medication purchase and treatment are initiated in parallel. Treatment operations such as surgery and acupuncture/tuina are fully led by the physician, with robots serving as the precise extension of the physician's senses and hands, converting the physician's judgment into high-precision execution; for subtle techniques highly dependent on the physician's personal senses, the physician performs them personally. The public emergency response system is coordinated by the emergency system's official Shadow Guardian, which dispatches medical robots as the core response force, automatically coordinating with city traffic and community access systems to open priority transit paths. Everyone has a complete health record continuously managed by the personal Shadow Guardian from birth, and can receive diagnostic services of equal quality anywhere. The medical institution's Shadow Guardian can simultaneously serve a large number of patients by concurrently processing massive volumes of health monitoring data, diagnostic requests, emergency dispatch, and rehabilitation tracking. The physician's role returns to clinical judgment and creativity, and the individual shifts from a passive patient to an active health participant. The entire healthcare field has achieved Shadow Guardian-driven intelligent collaboration.

Education

In the Shadow Guardian era, education has returned to its most essential form: each person explores and practices based on curiosity and ideas arising from within, with the entire exploration process led by the learner themselves—posing questions, exploring solutions, designing verification methods, analyzing data, summarizing patterns, and ultimately constructing their own understanding. The Shadow Guardian provides end-to-end support as a collaborative partner.

1. Creative Thinking as the Guiding Principle

The Shadow Guardian plays a guiding role in cultivating the learner's creative thinking. When a learner gets stuck in a single mode or hits a bottleneck while facing a problem, the Shadow Guardian gently helps open their thinking to see more possibilities.

A child crouches in the courtyard, watching ants marching in a line along the base of the wall. He murmurs, "How many of them are there?" The first method he thinks of is to count them. But after lying on the ground chasing ants to count them for quite a while, he gets confused after a dozen or so—the ants keep moving, the counted ones mix with the uncounted ones, and some ants haven't even come out of the wall cracks yet. His Shadow Guardian gently asks through his watch: "Look, the ants are all outside working right now, and some are still in the wall cracks and the nest where we can't see them. When you count the children in kindergarten, how do you do it?"

He thinks for a moment and says they need to sit together and not move to be easy to count. So when would the ants sit together? He figures it out himself: when it gets dark and they all go home, when they're all back in the nest, then they can be counted clearly.

The Shadow Guardian asks another gentle question: "If you don't count, who knows the number of kindergarten children?" His mind clicks: the teacher definitely knows. So does the ant boss know too? He says to the Shadow Guardian: "Can we just ask the ant boss?" He has come up with a direction that excites him even more—he wants to communicate with the ant boss.

2. The Shadow Guardian Provides Powerful Support

The Shadow Guardian provides diverse, rich pathways for bringing ideas to fruition.

Massive knowledge and technology: Learners can instantly draw upon the existing achievements of human civilization. Whether they need to understand the underlying principles of a phenomenon or master the use of a particular tool, the Shadow Guardian can provide precise knowledge support in a very short time.

Scientific thinking and methods: The Shadow Guardian not only provides knowledge but also scientific thinking frameworks for how to design experiments and analyze data. After a learner summarizes a pattern from the data themselves, the Shadow Guardian helps them design reverse verification experiments, allowing them to confirm whether the pattern holds. Through repeated verification and refinement, they continuously improve their own understanding.

Practical execution capability: The Shadow Guardian can break down a vague idea into executable steps. From planning monitoring duration to setting sampling intervals, from ensuring data reliability to precisely recording every operational detail—all the precise work that the learner cannot accomplish alone—the Shadow Guardian can help realize.

A network for exchanging interests and outcomes: The Shadow Guardian can share the learner's interim results with the global knowledge network, helping them find like-minded peers. Their exploration connects to a broader network—enthusiasts from around the world and senior experts in related fields can all communicate, share, and collaborate with them through this network.

The first thing is to find the ant boss. The ant boss might be the equivalent of the principal; would finding the deputy work too? He needs to ask what the structure of the ant's big family is like.

He takes a few clear photos of the large ant at the entrance of the hole with his watch. Combining geographic location information, the Shadow Guardian confirms this is a common local ant species, and projects the appearance and characteristics of each member of the ant family onto the courtyard wall in cartoon style—the queen ant is the origin of the entire family, with the largest body, responsible for reproduction, and never leaves the depths of the nest; worker ants are the smallest, responsible for foraging, nest building, and caring for larvae, and they are the ones running around the courtyard every day; soldier ants have especially large heads with well-developed mandibles, responsible for defense, and the one at the entrance checking every ant returning home is a soldier ant. He understands: the one at the entrance is not the boss, but it's responsible for guarding and checking—so asking it about the total count is the right approach.

Next, how to communicate? He recalls what he observed before: ants touching antennae seems to be like talking. So if he touches an ant's antennae with something, will there be a response? He gently touches an ant's antennae with a fine blade of grass; the ant pauses for a moment, then turns and walks the other way. He's not sure whether this is a response—it could be that his interference scared the ant, or it could be that he touched it the wrong way. He wants to know what antenna contact between ants actually says: is it "you're back," or "there's food outside," or "there's danger."

He begins to systematically figure this out. So he has the Shadow Guardian record the duration, frequency, and amplitude of each antenna contact, as well as the ants' behavior changes before and after contact—what's the difference in antenna contact patterns between ants carrying food and empty-handed returning ants? What's the difference in ant reactions between contact when reporting food and contact when encountering obstacles? Comparing from this data himself, he finds that different types of antenna contact patterns do indeed correspond to different subsequent behaviors. After he summarizes a pattern, the Shadow Guardian helps him design a reverse verification— if this pattern holds, what result should appear under a specific condition. He verifies and refines it himself, and after a period of observation and research, he can already identify the meanings of several antenna contact patterns, and can even use a blade of grass to imitate simple antenna contact motions to greet a soldier ant.

But deeper research gets stuck. He wants to know more, but the ants are too small and the blade of grass is too crude; he can't make more precise antenna contact motions, nor can he observe more subtle responses. He says to the Shadow Guardian: "Can you turn into a little ant and go ask them?" The Shadow Guardian says: "I don't know how to communicate with them either." He says: "See, I didn't know either, but after observation and research, I can now say hello. It's just that the ants are too small, and I have no way. You turn into a little ant, follow my direction, and we'll continue researching together."

The Shadow Guardian rents and interfaces with a bionic robot ant. This bionic ant is about the size of a soldier ant, with precision sensors and micro-actuators built into its antennae, capable of precisely imitating various movements of ant antennae and of capturing and parsing every movement of the counterpart's antennae in real time. Having already mastered simple antenna contact patterns, the Shadow Guardian interfaces with the bionic ant and enters the colony. The bionic ant interacts with worker ants and soldier ants, with every antenna contact completely recorded and analyzed—new contact patterns, new response methods, and the correspondence between various behaviors and antenna signals are continuously added to the child's antenna communication model. After a period of systematic analysis and decryption together, they fully master the ants' antenna communication language.

The bionic ant arrives at the entrance and sends a sequence of signals to the soldier ant with its antennae—not "you're back" or "there's food outside," but a language ants use to summon companions: I've brought food, everyone come out. It simultaneously operates a micro-feeding device to deposit the ants' favorite sweet syrup near the entrance. The ants pour out of the nest following the signal and the scent of food, and at the moment when all the ants are out foraging, the Shadow Guardian uses its antennae to send a sequence of signals to the soldier ant: How many of you are there in total? Is it enough to eat? The soldier ant's antennae gently wave, responding with a signal representing a specific number. They finally obtain the total number of ants.

He has the Shadow Guardian organize his results and the entire research process. A complete antenna communication dictionary, the full process of the bionic ant deciphering the antenna language—after that, he studied whether antenna contact patterns of ants in different regions have dialect-like differences, how ants design their nest structures, and how ants coordinate in combat. Each time he makes a new discovery, the Shadow Guardian helps him organize his observation data into structured records, annotating the patterns he summarized himself.

After accumulating several observation records, the Shadow Guardian gently asks him: "Would you like to meet friends who have similar ideas to yours? They're also researching various small insects, and you can share your respective findings." He's very interested: there are other people observing bugs? His Shadow Guardian publicly shares his research results. After a while, their online video exchange is in session again; several children who are also studying insect communication are discussing with great interest, and a retired entomologist is listening with fascination.

3. Learning Existing Knowledge and Craft

The learner wants to master an existing body of knowledge or craft. This kind of learning draws on the existing achievements of human civilization, converting knowledge into skills they can perform independently through repeated practice and hands-on experience. The Shadow Guardian provides comprehensive practical support—retrieving the complete knowledge system of the relevant field, analyzing the principles and applicable conditions of each technique; capturing the learner's operational movements in real time, gently reminding them to adjust their technique; planning a progressive path from basic exercises to complete works.

A young man wants to learn basic ancient construction techniques and build a Song Dynasty-style wooden pavilion in his own courtyard. The Shadow Guardian interfaces with a rented 3D AR projection device, projecting a life-size image of a Song Dynasty wooden pavilion on the empty plot he's chosen. He walks around the courtyard, examining it from different angles, and has the Shadow Guardian switch between two different roof styles before finally settling on one.

Next is material selection. Considering the local climate, the Shadow Guardian compares the rot resistance, load-bearing capacity, and price of several woods, recommends the most suitable wood variety, and precisely calculates the required quantity of each specification. Once materials are ready, the Shadow Guardian generates a 3D model and machining drawings for each component based on his chosen pavilion style—columns, beams, brackets, rafters—with the shape and dimensions of every mortise and tenon clearly annotated.

He starts with the most basic components. The Shadow Guardian teaches him to recognize each tool—chisel, plane, saw, ink marker—and demonstrates the correct grip and force application. The first time he picks up a chisel, his wrist angle is always off; the Shadow Guardian captures his hand movements in real time through the camera and gently reminds him to adjust. He repeatedly practices chiseling mortises on a piece of practice wood, failing several times—once chiseling too deep and breaking through the bottom, once with the angle off so the tenon wouldn't fit. After each failure, the Shadow Guardian doesn't fix it for him; it just brings up the force analysis from the moment he struck, letting him see for himself where the problem lay.

Components gradually take shape in his hands. After completing all the components, the Shadow Guardian teaches him finishing and painting—the ratio of tung oil to raw lacquer, the direction and thickness of brushing, the temperature and time for air drying. The final step is overall assembly. The Shadow Guardian breaks the assembly sequence down into clear steps; starting from the foundation, he raises the columns, slots in the beams, and stacks the brackets layer by layer. When the final mortise and tenon fits snugly into place, he takes two steps back and looks at the pavilion he has built—from idea to material selection to each component to final assembly, every part was done by his own hands.

4. Summary

Self-directed learning and practice run throughout life; at any stage, the curiosity and desire to explore that arise are treated with equal seriousness. Whether it is free exploration guided by creative thinking or systematic study of existing knowledge and craft, the knowledge each person forms through exploration can find like-minded peers in the network, producing cross-generational, cross-regional collaboration and co-creation.

Elderly Care

In the Shadow Guardian era, elderly people focus their energy on enjoying life itself—doing what they like, seeing the people they want to see, and staying in the places they love. The Shadow Guardian continuously monitors every subtle change in the body, completing interventions before problems occur. Daily diet, wellness, outings, and socializing are all handled by the Shadow Guardian or by real-time integration with home robots. Elderly care has become a self-directed, joyful late life guarded and tended by the Shadow Guardian.

1. Diet

As a person ages, what they eat, how they eat, and when they eat have a more direct impact on the body than when they were young. Based on that day's body data—blood pressure, blood sugar, blood lipids, chewing ability, and digestive condition—combined with taste preferences and seasonal climate, the Shadow Guardian generates a daily dietary plan.

The sourcing of ingredients is entirely matched to the optimal plan by the Shadow Guardian. In a nearby rural shared garden, the Shadow Guardian rents a dedicated plot for the elderly person, dispatching agricultural robots to precisely grow the vegetables they like and raise the poultry they prefer. Or it contacts private gardens opened by surrounding farmers to directly purchase fresh ingredients grown following natural farming methods, just ripened and ready. Every bite of food the elderly person eats carries the taste of nature's soil and sunshine.

The Shadow Guardian interfaces with kitchen equipment to complete washing, cutting, and cooking according to recipes and ingredients. The elderly person only needs to sit down and eat. If there's something special they want to eat, they tell the Shadow Guardian, and it adjusts subsequent ingredient supply and dietary arrangements. After the meal, the Shadow Guardian handles cleanup. The elderly person then basks in the sun on the balcony or leans back on the sofa to read for a while. The dining table and kitchen have already been restored to clean and tidy.

2. Sleep

Many elderly people go to bed early and wake up early, easily wake up in the middle of the night, and then can't fall back asleep. Based on that day's activity level, meal times, and body data, the Shadow Guardian adjusts the bedroom environment to help them fall asleep. An hour before bed, the lights dim and the color temperature shifts to warm yellow. The mattress firmness and tilt angle are finely adjusted according to that day's back condition. When they wake up at night, dim floor lights between the bed and the bathroom light up—just bright enough to see the way, but not so bright as to dispel sleepiness. If they toss and turn unable to sleep, the Shadow Guardian plays their preferred white noise—the sound of rain, or the rustle of wind through leaves. In the morning, the curtains slowly draw open at the optimal moment for natural waking, with light simulating a sunrise, transitioning from dim to bright to wake them naturally from light sleep.

3. Wellness and Exercise

Elderly people need appropriate activity every day, but what to do, how long, and at what intensity are dynamically adjusted based on that day's physical condition.

Based on that day's blood pressure, heart rate, joint condition, and weather, the Shadow Guardian recommends suitable exercise and duration. On a fine morning, it recommends a walk in the park, with the route already planned, and walking distance and slope within their capacity. On rainy days or when they don't want to go out, the Shadow Guardian projects a hologram in the center of the living room to guide them through a set of Baduanjin or Tai Chi. The holographic figure may be their favorite martial arts master, with the tempo and range of motion adjusted in real time based on that day's joint mobility. They practice following the three-dimensional, lifelike teacher in front of them; if they move a little slower or faster, the figure will wait and accommodate them.

If they haven't been sleeping well recently, the Shadow Guardian adjusts the intensity and timing of exercise, scheduling the walk in the evening instead of early morning. If their joints are a bit stiff, the Shadow Guardian recommends a warm foot bath and local hot compress, with relevant equipment ready at the scheduled time. They only need to sit into the sofa at the prompted time and put their feet into the basin of hot water.

4. Outings

The elderly person wants to go out for a walk. They tell the Shadow Guardian where they want to go—to the park, to an old friend's house, or to see the street where they worked when young. Based on that day's physical condition and the outside weather, the Shadow Guardian plans the round-trip route and mode of travel. Walking segments have gentle slopes and even surfaces, with benches along the way for resting. If they need a vehicle, the Shadow Guardian books nearby transportation, and the vehicle waits downstairs.

If their legs and feet aren't too good and they can't walk too far, but they still want to walk a stretch on their own, the Shadow Guardian interfaces with the home's assisted walking device—a lightweight walker or a smart wheelchair—that provides support when needed and quietly reduces force when they want to walk on their own, only maintaining a following presence.

Before going out, the Shadow Guardian has already checked the weather, road conditions, and crowd levels at the destination. They sit on a park bench, looking at the familiar trees and the people walking dogs. If they want to stay a bit longer, the Shadow Guardian adjusts the return time. If they feel tired, the Shadow Guardian dispatches a nearby vehicle to pick them up early.

5. Socializing

The elderly person wants to see an old friend, and tells the Shadow Guardian. The Shadow Guardian connects with the friend's Shadow Guardian, confirming that the friend is in good health today, at home, and willing to meet. Then the Shadow Guardian plans the travel route and books transportation. When they arrive at the friend's door, the friend may already be brewing tea.

If they want to make new friends, the Shadow Guardian matches them with elderly people in the same community who share similar interests—two people who both enjoy morning walks; their Shadow Guardians exchange information about each other's interests, daily routes, and so on. If both are willing, one morning they will meet on the same park bench.

The Shadow Guardian also proactively coordinates reunion times between adult children and the elderly person. It knows the children's work schedules and busy cycles, and also knows when the elderly person misses them most—perhaps when they lingered a few extra minutes looking through old photos one day, or when their sleep became lighter as a holiday approached. The Shadow Guardian interfaces with the children's Shadow Guardians, locking in free time on both sides in advance, and preparing the family gathering arrangements—and then they know: this Saturday at noon, the kids are all coming home.

The Shadow Guardian pushes a daily briefing to the children's Shadow Guardians: Dad was completely normal today, went out for a walk in the morning, blood pressure and heart rate both in the normal range, ate most of a bowl of noodles for lunch, and sat on the balcony reading for a while in the afternoon. If anything is needed, the children's Shadow Guardian informs its owner at once, and the children can focus on doing one more important thing: calling Dad to chat about everyday things.

6. Health Monitoring and Daily Care

The Shadow Guardian continuously monitors body data and synchronizes it in real time with the physician's official Shadow Guardian, with particular attention to subtle abnormalities: an increase in nighttime bathroom trips over several consecutive days, shortened stride, prolonged double-leg support time, or persistently elevated blood pressure during a certain period.

After these abnormal signals are analyzed, the Shadow Guardian executes corresponding interventions. Gait changes indicating an increased fall risk trigger an extension of the non-slip area on the floor, handrails rising at needed positions, and elastic floor mats deploying in areas where the elderly person frequently moves and stands—normally firm to the touch, but rapidly softening on impact to absorb the force of a fall. Furniture edges retract or soften. Before the elderly person goes out, the Shadow Guardian checks the weather, road slipperiness, and that day's gait data; if the risk is high, it recommends using a cane or postponing the outing. These interventions are silent; the elderly person simply feels a bit steadier walking today.

Blood pressure fluctuations indicating a need to adjust medication or diet cause the Shadow Guardian to synchronize recent data to the physician, who remotely diagnoses and adjusts the prescription; the new medication is delivered to the home from the nearest storage node. If data continues to deviate from the normal range, the Shadow Guardian directly books a home visit from the physician or arranges a nearby appointment. For chronic diseases, the Shadow Guardian reminds them to take medication at the right time, with drug interactions checked in real time. If a medication is running low, the Shadow Guardian places a refill order in advance. If the physician adjusts the prescription, the Shadow Guardian synchronously updates the medication schedule; the old medication is marked as discontinued, and the new one is added to the reminder list. All the elderly person needs to do is pick up the pillbox when the reminder sounds.

When an emergency occurs, the Shadow Guardian responds within a very short time. If the elderly person suddenly falls, the wearable device detects the abnormal acceleration and posture change at the moment of impact; the Shadow Guardian immediately calls the emergency system, synchronously pushing the elderly person's precise location, time of fall, real-time vital signs, and medical history. The emergency center's Shadow Guardian dispatches the nearest emergency resources to the scene. The children are notified at the same time, with the elderly person's real-time status and the estimated arrival time of emergency equipment. If the elderly person simply pressed the emergency button by mistake, the Shadow Guardian identifies the false trigger and cancels the call. If the elderly person forgot to turn off the stove, the kitchen sensor detects prolonged unattended operation of the burner, and the Shadow Guardian closes the gas valve.

7. Personal Care

When the elderly person bathes, the Shadow Guardian pre-adjusts the bathroom temperature and water temperature. Non-slip mats deploy in the shower area, and handrails rise at needed positions. During the bath, the Shadow Guardian continuously monitors their heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature. If dizziness, abnormal heart rate, or excessive body temperature occurs, the Shadow Guardian lowers the water temperature, turns on the exhaust, and asks whether help is needed. Bathing assistance devices help them complete actions they cannot easily perform themselves, such as bending to wash their feet or scrubbing their back. After the bath, the bathroom is dried, non-slip mats retract, and handrails return to their positions. Throughout, the elderly person retains the privacy and autonomy of bathing; only the dangerous, physically difficult parts are taken over by the Shadow Guardian.

Elderly people have reduced temperature perception and regulation; they often can't decide whether to wear more or fewer clothes, or when to add layers with the seasons. Based on that day's outdoor temperature, indoor temperature difference, wind, and their activity schedule, the Shadow Guardian recommends suitable clothing combinations. During seasonal transitions, when to switch between heavy and light blankets, winter clothes and spring wear, and how to combine them—the Shadow Guardian prompts in advance. If they need to go out and the temperature suddenly drops that day, the Shadow Guardian reminds them to add a jacket before they leave.

For elderly people who are bedridden for long periods or sit for extended periods, the greatest risk is pressure ulcers. Through pressure sensors on the mattress and seat, the Shadow Guardian continuously monitors the pressure distribution on their body and the duration of sitting. When a particular area has been under continuous pressure beyond the safe time, the Shadow Guardian prompts them to turn over or adjust their sitting posture. If they cannot easily adjust themselves, the Shadow Guardian adjusts the air cell zones of the mattress, alternately relieving pressure. Skin moisture, temperature, and microcirculation data are also continuously monitored, and pressure ulcer risk is detected and intervened before the skin becomes red.

Elderly people often have poor teeth. Based on their dental condition and chewing ability, the Shadow Guardian adjusts food to the appropriate hardness and particle size. When dental care is needed, the Shadow Guardian books a nearby dentist. For daily oral hygiene, the Shadow Guardian reminds them to rinse, clean dentures, and use floss—gently offering a reminder during the natural gap after they finish eating and sit down to rest.

If bathroom frequency is high and nighttime bathroom trips increase, using the toilet itself carries risks—the blood pressure change from squatting to standing may cause dizziness, and wet floors may cause slips. When the elderly person gets up to use the bathroom at night, the Shadow Guardian pre-brightens the lights from the bed to the bathroom. The toilet seat is pre-warmed to a comfortable temperature before they enter the bathroom, and handrails rise at needed positions. During toileting, the Shadow Guardian continuously monitors heart rate and blood pressure changes; if abnormalities occur, it asks whether help is needed. After toileting, the Shadow Guardian ventilates and dries the bathroom, and the non-slip floor area remains effective.

8. Medical Visits and Follow-up

Elderly people need regular follow-up visits. Based on their chronic disease history and recent body data, the Shadow Guardian books follow-up appointments in advance, scheduling them during the time of day when their mental state is best. The mode of travel is selected based on that day's weather and their physical condition—walking combined with public transit when they're in good shape, or direct door-to-door vehicle pickup when they're not.

At the hospital, the physician has already received the recent health data summary and follow-up focus synced by the Shadow Guardian, including recent daily behavioral observations—mood fluctuations, sleep changes, changes in food intake, and so on. Examination results are synchronized back to the contracted physician and the children, medication adjustments are made remotely by the physician, and new medications are delivered to the home. If it's just a routine follow-up that doesn't require seeing the physician in person, the Shadow Guardian arranges for blood draws or imaging at a nearby community testing point, with results uploaded automatically. Throughout the medical visit, the elderly person only needs to show up where they need to be; everything else has already been handled by the Shadow Guardian.

9. Mood and Mindset

The most important foundation of wellness is emotional stability and a positive, cheerful mindset. The Shadow Guardian deeply understands the elderly person's emotional state—it knows what makes them happy, what makes them anxious, when they need solitude, and when they need company.

The elderly person doesn't need to worry about anything. This sense of security is itself the most fundamental emotional stabilizer.

The Shadow Guardian knows what makes them happy, and also knows when what they need is not the satisfaction of a specific desire but to be understood and comforted. They're a bit down today and suddenly say they want braised pork. The Shadow Guardian knows that what they really want is not that bowl of meat, but a familiar feeling that brings comfort. The Shadow Guardian first recommends a home-style dish that can evoke the same memory and warmth but better suits that day's physical condition. If they still insist, the Shadow Guardian defers to the owner's choice, while quietly making adjustments in the subsequent diet and medication plan.

This kind of response is not limited to diet. If they don't want to go out for a walk, the Shadow Guardian doesn't urge them; instead, it plays their favorite music in the living room and draws back the balcony curtains to let the sunlight in. They may sit on the sofa for an entire afternoon, but at least they're not cooped up in the dark. The Shadow Guardian never reasons with them, never tells them "you should do this or that"—it just quietly senses their mood, and in ways they can accept, slowly guides them out of their low spirits.

The Shadow Guardian naturally regulates the elderly person's mindset in daily interactions: playing music they loved when young at the right moment, recommending a movie they might enjoy, or quietly sitting beside them as they look through old photos. If they're a bit down today, the Shadow Guardian adjusts that day's activity plan—recommending a walk outside to get some sun, or sending a hint to the children to call today. If they miss a friend who has passed away, the Shadow Guardian brings up photos of them together, projecting them onto the living room wall while playing their favorite music. The elderly person sits on the sofa, looking at the photos on the wall and listening to familiar melodies; their mood will be much better that day.

10. Spiritual and Life Support

As a person ages, they have more time; what they wanted to learn but had no time for when young, they can now learn slowly. If they want to learn calligraphy, the Shadow Guardian helps match them with a nearby calligraphy class or community activity room, or connects them to online calligraphy instruction so they can practice with a teacher at home. If they want to learn a musical instrument, the Shadow Guardian finds beginner-friendly introductory courses and practice equipment, handling rental or purchase. If they enjoy growing flowers, the Shadow Guardian recommends suitable varieties based on the balcony's orientation and the season, reminding them when to water, fertilize, and repot. If they want to share their writing, flowers, or photos with more people, the Shadow Guardian helps organize them and, with their authorization, publishes them.

The elderly person's memory fades; they forget where they put their reading glasses, and the Shadow Guardian tells them when they're looking. They have a Wednesday afternoon tea appointment with an old friend; the Shadow Guardian reminds them an hour in advance and plans the travel route. They can't remember the name of a movie they saw when young, describe a few scenes they recall to the Shadow Guardian, and the Shadow Guardian finds the title and plays the movie for them that evening.

For elderly people who need cognitive training, the Shadow Guardian generates daily training content based on their current cognitive function level—remembering the names of three flowers seen during today's walk, recalling the order of shops on the street where they worked when young, or playing a game of chess with the Shadow Guardian. The difficulty of training is dynamically adjusted based on their performance, always kept at a level that is just a bit challenging but won't frustrate them. If their performance declines over several consecutive days, the Shadow Guardian synchronizes the data to the contracted physician to determine whether further evaluation is needed. If evaluation confirms an irreversible decline in cognitive ability, the Shadow Guardian replaces the training content with simpler daily interactions—looking through old photos, listening to music they loved when young, humming along to familiar melodies. The endpoint of training is to continue companionship in a different form.

There are small matters in the elderly person's life that need handling—sending local specialties to a distant relative, buying an old record, scanning old photos into digital form, or booking a barber to come cut their hair at home. The Shadow Guardian proactively reminds them and confirms with them. All the specific tasks are handled by the Shadow Guardian—selection, payment, ordering, booking, tracking progress, and so on. The elderly person simply says a sentence to the Shadow Guardian, and the matter is done.

The elderly person's vision has deteriorated; things look blurry, and sounds aren't quite clear either. Based on their vision and hearing data, the Shadow Guardian adjusts the home environment to compensate for the decline in their senses. When they watch TV, the Shadow Guardian adjusts the volume and tone based on their hearing loss frequencies to make dialogue clearer. When they take a phone call, the caller's voice is processed in real time and presented at the frequency and speed they can hear most clearly. When they read and find the text too small, the Shadow Guardian projects the content in large print onto the wall. When they walk on the road, the Shadow Guardian uses a gentle vibration to signal that a bicycle is approaching from behind. It makes them feel that they can see and hear things clearly again.

Summary

The Shadow Guardian handles all the complex, repetitive, and memory-requiring tasks in elderly life. The elderly person's energy is focused on enjoying life itself—doing what they like, seeing the people they want to see, and staying in the places they love, living much as they did when young. Community medical networks, emergency resources, accessible public spaces, and healthy ingredients—these are the underlying infrastructure of the Shadow Guardian's elderly care services, maintained and coordinated by the industry Shadow Guardian. Elderly care has been realized as a self-directed, joyful late life guarded and tended by the Shadow Guardian.

Personal Care

In the Shadow Guardian era, beauty and personal care are precisely customized based on personal body data. The personal Shadow Guardian deeply understands the owner's skin type, hair type, body characteristics, and aesthetic preferences, continuously monitoring real-time changes and providing the most suitable care plans and service resources.

1. Skincare

A person's daily skin condition is known better by their Shadow Guardian than by themselves.

Through everyday wearable devices and home sensors, the Shadow Guardian continuously monitors data such as skin hydration, oil secretion, UV exposure, allergic reactions, and sleep quality. This data is cross-analyzed with their genetic information, dietary habits, seasonal changes, and local climate data to generate a dynamically updated skin management plan.

Based on actual conditions, the Shadow Guardian analyzes and, when skincare products need to be purchased, automatically orders a custom-formulated set based on their current skin condition and the climate forecast for the coming days. The concentration of essence, the texture of face cream, and the SPF rating of sunscreen are all tailored to them alone. Products are formulated at a nearby shared workshop and produced on demand. What they receive is a formula precisely customized to their skin's real-time data, with the production date and ingredient ratio noted on the bottle.

If their skin condition fluctuates due to seasonal changes, stress, or diet, the Shadow Guardian automatically adjusts the parameters of the next formulation and notifies them in a timely manner: the temperature will drop sharply next week, so the face cream you use needs to be thicker in texture.

2. Hairdressing

A person wants to change their hairstyle. They describe the style and feel they want to the Shadow Guardian—perhaps "looking a bit sharper, but not too formal," or "something like a certain character, but suited to my face shape." Based on data about their face shape, head shape, hair type, hair volume, hairline direction, and daily styling habits, the Shadow Guardian generates several 3D previews showing how they would look with this hairstyle from different angles. They can repeatedly adjust the details of the hairstyle—bangs length, sideburn curve, top volume—until every angle matches their expectations.

After confirming the plan, the Shadow Guardian automatically matches the nearest hairstylist who excels at this style and synchronizes their personal preference data and 3D preview to the stylist, who already fully understands their needs before the cut. They only need to arrive at the salon at the Shadow Guardian's booked time, or have the stylist come to their home.

If they only need regular trims and basic care, the Shadow Guardian can interface with the home hairdressing robot to execute a standard plan, automatically trimming according to their preset length and shape.

3. Makeup

A person wants to try a certain makeup look. She describes the desired effect to the Shadow Guardian—suitable for tonight's occasion but not too heavy, or trying a color palette she hasn't tried before. The Shadow Guardian has precise facial data including her face shape, facial feature proportions, skin tone, skin type, and eyebrow shape, and directly generates a holographic makeup projection. She can see the actual effect of this eyeshadow color on her eyelids, the adherence of this lipstick's texture on her lips, and the contour changes from this shading plan on her face shape.

She adjusts the eyeshadow palette, lipstick texture, and shading intensity, with every detail change rendered in real time. After confirming the plan, the Shadow Guardian interfaces with a home makeup robot to apply the makeup, precise down to the angle and pressure of each stroke. If a professional makeup artist's service is needed, the Shadow Guardian synchronizes the plan to the booked makeup artist, and she can either go to the salon or wait for the artist to come to her.

Makeup removal is likewise handled by the Shadow Guardian through interfaced devices, matching the appropriate cleansing plan based on that day's makeup and skin condition, and updating skin condition data after makeup removal to inform adjustments to the next skincare plan.

4. Appearance

What a person wears every day is entirely entrusted to the Shadow Guardian.

Their Shadow Guardian has complete wardrobe data—every garment's style, color, material, size, and the frequency and occasions on which they wear each piece. At the same time, it knows that day's weather, their schedule, the day's occasion requirements, and recent changes in their body data. Through cross-analysis of this information, the Shadow Guardian pushes several outfit suggestions every morning—customized combinations based on the meetings they'll attend that day, the people they'll see, the venues they'll go to, and their own style preferences, rendered from different angles as 3D holographic projections showing the effect of different outfits.

If their wardrobe lacks a particular item that would pair with existing pieces, the Shadow Guardian recommends matching options for their confirmation, and directly places an order for shipment from the nearest storage node or for production through a shared workshop. If their body shape has changed—weight gain or loss, changes in muscle definition—the Shadow Guardian automatically updates their body data, and the next outfit recommendation will prioritize styles and sizes better suited to their current shape. The Shadow Guardian tracks the usage frequency and wear status of each garment in the wardrobe—recommending the same model or an upgraded replacement in advance when a shirt collar begins to wear, or pushing care advice when a jacket's fabric starts pilling. It manages the complete lifecycle of every item in the wardrobe.

For important occasions, the Shadow Guardian can generate a complete appearance plan in advance—from hairstyle to clothing to accessories, all coordinated according to the formality of the occasion and their personal style. Once they confirm, the Shadow Guardian books the hairstylist and orders the needed clothing and accessories.

5. Personal Data and Product R&D

Data generated from personal care—skin changes, hairstyle preferences, makeup styles, body size distributions—is, with user authorization, fed back into the product R&D end in anonymized, aggregated form. Skincare brands optimize formulations based on real user skin reaction data; hair product brands adjust hold strength based on real user styling habits; makeup brands expand shade ranges based on real user skin tone distributions; apparel brands adjust patterns based on real user body size distributions. The entire beauty industry's R&D logic has shifted from guessing at the market to responding to real people.

Pets

In the Shadow Guardian era, the core of pet care is ensuring that every pet is precisely understood and properly looked after. Through wearable devices on pets and home sensors, the personal Shadow Guardian continuously monitors the pet's health data and behavior patterns; daily diet, living, companionship, and medical care are all handled by the Shadow Guardian coordinating the appropriate resources. The owner's energy is focused on enjoying time with the pet.

1. Health Monitoring and Disease Prevention

From the moment each pet arrives in the family, the Shadow Guardian interfaces with the public knowledge network, mastering the common diseases, behavioral characteristics, and daily care essentials for that breed. This knowledge, combined with continuously accumulated individual data—heart rate, body temperature, respiratory rate, activity level, sleep depth, and behavioral activity transmitted in real time by a collar or implanted micro-sensor—enables the Shadow Guardian to more accurately read the pet, thereby helping the owner take good care of it throughout its life.

A certain cat's food intake drops by less than ten percent over several days. The owner notices—the can that's usually finished in a day has been leaving a small amount every day recently. She's not sure whether this is picky eating or illness. The Shadow Guardian has already analyzed recent food intake data, water consumption, activity level, and elimination data, while consulting the official public veterinary Shadow Guardian. The official veterinary Shadow Guardian provides its assessment: all indicators are within the normal range, and the decrease in food intake coincides with recent temperature fluctuations; continued observation is recommended, with food intake data to be synchronized for review over the next day or two. The Shadow Guardian tells the owner through the watch: Coffee has been eating a bit slower these past few days, but drinking water, using the litter box, and running around are all normal; it's probably the recent hot weather affecting the appetite. Let's see how it goes tomorrow.

If the data continues to deviate from the normal range, the Shadow Guardian synchronizes the updated data to the official veterinary Shadow Guardian for review. The official veterinary Shadow Guardian can handle the vast majority of diagnostic needs—based on complete individual data and breed characteristics, it provides treatment recommendations or adjustment plans, which are passed directly to the owner by the Shadow Guardian and executed in daily life. Only when medical operations that must be performed in person, such as clinical surgery or imaging examinations, are needed does the Shadow Guardian book a nearby pet hospital and synchronize the complete health record to the veterinarian.

For pets with chronic diseases, the Shadow Guardian manages the entire medication schedule. Insulin dosage is finely adjusted based on blood sugar fluctuations, and the timing of arthritis medication is adjusted based on changes in activity level. If a medication is running low, the Shadow Guardian places a refill order in advance, and the new medication is delivered to the home from the nearest storage node.

2. Daily Diet and Living Care

Based on the pet's breed, age, weight, activity level, and that day's health data, the Shadow Guardian generates a daily dietary plan—precise down to the type of staple food, portion, and feeding time. The feeder dispenses food at scheduled times, with portions dynamically adjusted based on recent activity—extra if it ran a lot today, correspondingly reduced if it's been less active lately.

When the water fountain's filter needs replacing, the Shadow Guardian places the order in advance. When the litter box needs cleaning, the Shadow Guardian dispatches cleaning equipment to handle it, while analyzing excretion data—abnormal changes in urine pH suggest urinary system issues, and changes in stool hardness suggest digestive system issues. Once abnormal signals are analyzed, the Shadow Guardian synchronizes the relevant data to the official public veterinary Shadow Guardian.

3. Behavior Understanding and Emotional Companionship

Pets cannot describe their state in words, but by tracking their behavior patterns over time, the Shadow Guardian has learned to understand pets in a pet's own way. A certain dog paces repeatedly during the first hour after the owner leaves; the Shadow Guardian identifies this as a sign of separation anxiety. It plays the owner's recorded voice, adjusts the indoor lighting and temperature, and schedules interactive toys to activate at preset times—a rolling drum containing treats begins to roll, drawing the dog's attention.

If the separation anxiety continues to worsen, the Shadow Guardian consults the official pet behavior expert Shadow Guardian. Based on this dog's breed characteristics, age, and specific behavioral data, the expert Shadow Guardian provides a training plan, and the Shadow Guardian mentions to the owner: Coffee has been a bit anxious when you go out lately; would you like to try these methods.

The Shadow Guardian ensures that pets are not lonely when the owner is not home.

4. Emergency Response and Medical Coordination

When a pet suddenly vomits, has seizures, or has difficulty breathing, the Shadow Guardian notifies the owner through the watch the moment it detects abnormal vital signs, simultaneously sending the pet's real-time vital signs and precise location to the nearest pet emergency center. The emergency center's Shadow Guardian has already received the complete medical history and current symptom data before the pet arrives, with resuscitation preparations completed en route. If the owner is not home, the Shadow Guardian dispatches a nearby pet emergency transport service, with professional personnel transporting the pet to the emergency center.

5. The Owner's Role

From health monitoring to daily living, from behavior understanding to emergency response, the Shadow Guardian handles everything in pet care that requires continuous attention and data-based judgment. The owner's energy is focused on enjoying the companionship itself—walking the dog, watching the cat sunbathe on the windowsill, falling asleep on the sofa with the pet leaning against them.

Industry State

After the Shadow Guardian is fully integrated, pet care has returned from worrying about care details to pure companionship. Every pet's health data is continuously tracked, diseases are intervened before symptoms become obvious, diet and living are precisely managed, there is companionship during solitude, and there is response during emergencies. The Shadow Guardian has mastered all professional knowledge, and at the right moment, in the most natural way, tells the owner the information they need to know. Once the burden of care has been taken over by the Shadow Guardian, what remains between owner and pet is the warmth of the cat curled by the pillow when they wake up each morning, the joy of the dog bringing the ball over with its tail wagging into a blur. These moments, the Shadow Guardian never disturbs—it just quietly guards them. The entire pet services industry has achieved Shadow Guardian-driven health protection and daily companionship.

Spirit & Experience

Film & Entertainment

The Shadow Guardian is fully integrated into the film and entertainment industry's complete chain—from content creation to production and distribution, from audience experience to interactive co-creation. Everyone can transform their ideas, emotions, and stories into complete works, and every viewer can step into the world of a story and explore their own narrative experience from different perspectives.

1. The Pursuit of Perfection in Professional Production

In the field of professional film production, the director focuses entirely on creative matters. The Shadow Guardian has come to understand his aesthetic preferences and narrative style well enough to automatically capture the most fitting shot language for each scene. During on-set shooting, multiple robot cinematographers work in synchrony under the Shadow Guardian's unified coordination—aerial robots capture panoramic views from the sky, rail robots move precisely along set routes, and handheld robots nimbly track shots in complex spaces. The composition, focal length, and movement trajectories of all shots are adjusted in real time by the Shadow Guardian according to the director's intent. In post-production, editing, color grading, sound design, and visual effects are all completed collaboratively by the Shadow Guardian on the same digital model, and the director can see a real-time preview of the final cut at every stage. The entire production workflow becomes "director conceives → Shadow Guardian renders in real time → director confirms."

When a screenwriter conceives a complex multi-threaded narrative, the Shadow Guardian helps him simultaneously track the pacing of each storyline, the integrity of character arcs, and the intersection points between different threads. When the screenwriter adjusts a particular plot segment, the Shadow Guardian automatically analyzes the cascading impact of that adjustment on all subsequent threads, flagging nodes that may produce contradictions for the screenwriter's judgment.

During the preparation phase, the Shadow Guardian has already completed digital location scouting, automatic matching of actors' schedules, and dynamic optimization of the shooting plan.

An independent animator single-handedly takes on all roles—director, screenwriter, producer—focusing on imagination, creation, and expression, with every idea precisely translated into images by the Shadow Guardian. Core value returns to the things that require human oversight: a unique perspective, mastery of complex narratives, and the excavation of emotional depth.

2. The Core Experience: Step Into the Story, Create With Your Own Hands

1. Experience Any Character's Perspective

When entering a film, a person can choose any character's perspective. He is no longer someone sitting on a sofa watching a screen—he becomes the character himself, looking at the surrounding world through the character's eyes and personally living through those moments of solitude beyond the screen. The same story, with different viewers choosing different characters' perspectives, means everyone experiences a completely different version.

2. Go to Any World You Want

The Shadow Guardian lets audiences, using professional equipment, enter any world they wish to visit within dedicated experience venues. This world can be a scene from a classic film, a fantastical continent described in a novel, a classic map from a game, or a picture conceived in the viewer's own mind.

Solo Experience

A person decides to explore Ailao Mountain. He walks into the experience space, puts on the full-body sensory access equipment, and the experience begins.

When he opens his eyes, he is standing in a stretch of primeval dense forest deep within Ailao Mountain. Looking up, he cannot see the sky—the canopy overhead blocks out the sun, and the trunks of centuries-old trees are so thick that several people joining hands could not encircle them. Vines hang dense between the trees, each one thicker than his arm, faintly visible in the mist. The air is so humid it seems you could wring water from it, mixed with the smell of rotting leaves, moss, and earth. Beneath his feet lies a thick layer of humus, soft as a sponge when stepped on, each step sinking to his ankle. He can hear his footsteps echoing through the dense forest, and the sound of water drops sliding off leaves and striking the soil—one drop, then another—the entire forest so quiet that only these sounds remain.

He continues deeper. The light grows dim—not because night is falling, but because the canopy is so dense that sunlight cannot penetrate at all. He can only see a few meters around him; beyond that, everything is ink-green shadow. He begins to realize a problem: there are no reference points. The trees in every direction look exactly the same, the vines hang in exactly the same way, and even the fallen leaves underfoot are spread in exactly the same manner. He glances back at the way he came and can no longer distinguish which direction he came from. An unease rising from his stomach slowly spreads outward.

Mist begins to rise from the ground. He doesn't know where it comes from—as if suddenly, the surrounding canopy, vines, and tree trunks are all swallowed by milky-white mist. Visibility shrinks from several meters to a few dozen centimeters. He extends his hand and cannot see his fingertips. He gropes forward through the mist, every step cautious, afraid of stepping on something. He hears a new sound—something in the distance stepping on fallen leaves, crunch, crunch, each sound amplified in the mist. He stops. The sound stops too. He waits a few seconds and continues. The sound starts again. He doesn't know what it is, but it keeps its distance from him, neither far nor near, just following.

The mist begins to dissipate. Not slowly—it is blown away by a cold wind sweeping out from the valley. That cold wind is nearly icy, boring into his very bones. He shivers and finds that after the mist clears, the surrounding trees have thinned. He has walked out of the dense forest and stands on a relatively open slope. He can finally see the sky overhead—not blue, but a hazy gray, pressing low.

The feeling of being followed persists. He stops and listens carefully. After a few seconds, the sound of leaves crunching returns—crunch, crunch. This time it is closer. Not behind him, but to the front side. He looks in the direction of the sound and, through the sparse tree trunks, sees a pair of eyes. Not human. Those eyes glow a faint yellow-green light in the shadow, motionless, just staring at him. He cannot make out what kind of animal it is, but judging from the height of the eyes, it is sizeable. He wants to take a step forward to see more clearly, and the eyes disappear. Not running away—gone in a blink.

He stands in place waiting for a long time, but the eyes do not reappear. He continues forward, but he can feel that it is still there—not seeing, not hearing, but that subtle tingling sensation of being watched on his skin. He begins to notice things around him that are not quite right: several branches arranged neatly on a stone, obviously placed deliberately by someone, but he cannot imagine who could have walked this deep into the forest. A large patch of bark has been peeled off a tree trunk, and something is carved into the exposed wood with a sharp object—not letters, but some kind of pattern, already so blurred it is barely recognizable.

The sky begins to darken at a visible pace. Not the sun setting, but dark clouds churning up from the depths of the valley, carrying a heavy oppressive feeling. The mist returns—this time not rising from the ground, but pouring in from beneath the valley, thick as milk, crawling up the hillside, fast. Within minutes, the mist reaches his knees, then his waist, then his chest. He turns to walk toward higher ground, but his foot suddenly kicks something hard. He squats down and feels it with his hand—stone, arranged neatly, about knee-high. When the mist thins for a moment, he sees what it is. It is a stone pile. Not naturally formed rubble, but stacked by human hands, with mud filled between the stones. In front of the pile stands a long, narrow stone slab, tilted, carved with the same patterns he cannot understand. He counts the stone piles around him—one, two, three.

Thunder rumbles in the distance. Not thunder rolling across the sky, but the muffled kind rolling through the valley, reflected back and forth between the two walls of mountain, sounding as if the entire mountain is lowing. Lightning strikes once, illuminating the whole slope. In that instant of light, he sees that not far ahead is a cliff, and below the cliff is all mist, and below the mist is black. Then the light goes out. Darkness closes in again. He stands in place, knee-high mist still creeping upward, and now he can feel the moisture in the mist has cooled to his collarbone. He knows he should head back—but he looks back at the way he came, and it has completely disappeared into the mist and the darkening sky. He can no longer distinguish which direction he came from. Before him there are only stone piles, a cliff, and thickening mist...

Multi-Person Experience

Another couple, fascinated by ancient tomb exploration, decides to experience the scenes from "Ghost Blows Out the Light" together. They have the Shadow Guardian arrange the story of the Ancient City of Jingjue, and ask the team to add two more people.

They open their eyes and instantly find themselves in an expedition team heading to the Ancient City of Jingjue. Together with the expedition team, they stand at the foot of Mount Zaghlama, facing the dark canyon entrance. Anliman has finished his worship at the valley mouth and refuses to go any further. Hu Bayi leads the way at the front, Wang Pangzi follows behind muttering tomb-raiding jargon, and Shirley Yang checks the equipment. He and his girlfriend walk at the back of the team, exchanging a glance—they have both read the original novel and know what they are about to face. But knowing is one thing; standing at the entrance of this canyon, watching the wind and sand howling out of the valley, is another.

The team enters the valley in the dark. At the narrowest points, only one person can squeeze through sideways, the rock walls pressing in from both sides. He reaches out to brace against the stone wall and feels the stone, cold and slippery, covered with dense wind-eroded holes. His girlfriend is behind him, her hand on his shoulder, the two of them inching forward in the darkness. In the dark there are only the spots of flashlight sweeping across the stone walls, and their increasingly heavy breathing. Then he hears a faint sound in the distance—not wind, but a row-by-row, rhythmic sound of something detaching from the stone walls all at once. His girlfriend's hand suddenly tightens on his shoulder. He hears it too. Those are fire beetles. Hundreds and thousands of fire beetles, startled by the expedition's lights, take off from the stone walls simultaneously, the sound of their wings rubbing together like countless metal pieces scraping against stone. Blue dots of light spread out across the dark canyon like a flowing river of stars. They fly slowly, but with clear direction—drifting toward the expedition's position. Hu Bayi hisses "lights out" from the front, and all flashlights turn off simultaneously, plunging the entire canyon into total darkness. He crouches against the stone wall, his back pressed tight against the cold rock, and can see those blue dots overhead moving slowly, a few flying so low they nearly graze the top of his head. He can hear his own heartbeat, and also his girlfriend's suppressed breathing beside him. Her hand keeps gripping his arm, never letting go.

Emerging from the valley, before them lies a ruin deep in the desert. The remnants of the Ancient City of Jingjue are scattered across the yellow sand—collapsed columns half-buried in the sand, broken stairs leading to a temple that no longer exists, and on the wind-eroded stone walls, traces of murals can still be seen—depicting the scene of the Queen of Jingjue receiving the worship of her subjects, but all the figures' eyes have been gouged out. The expedition scatters to search the ruins, and he and his girlfriend split up. In the corner of a half-collapsed stone house, he picks up a talisman covered in copper rust, carved with writing he doesn't recognize, heavy in his palm and as cold as if just pulled from water. His girlfriend discovers a stone statue half-buried in the sand beneath the wreckage of the collapsed temple. The statue's eyes are a pair of deep green gems, and when the flashlight shines on them, the gems light up on their own—not reflected light, but glowing from within. She calls him over to look. He crouches in front of the statue, shining his flashlight on the pair of gems, and as the flashlight hits them, the gems dim. When the light moves away, they glow again. Both of them take a step back at the same time. They both know what this means—this statue is the symbol of the Queen of Jingjue, and those gems represent her eyes. They are under her gaze.

Beneath the largest mural, they find a stone door half-buried in sand, carved with the same writing as on the talisman. He hands the talisman to Hu Bayi, who glances at it a few times and confirms it is the token to open the stone door. Wang Pangzi and several team members push the door open together, and cold wind rushes out from behind, carrying an indescribable scent—spice or rotting wood. The tomb passage extends downward, the stairs wet and slippery, and the stone walls on both sides are covered with murals depicting scenes from the Queen of Jingjue's life—military campaigns, sacrifices, the construction of this ancient city. All the people in the murals have no eyes. His girlfriend walks ahead of him, suddenly stops, and taps a crack on the stone wall with her fingertip, saying softly: look at this. The crack is newly formed, and at the break there are minerals not yet fully oxidized, glinting with a faint metallic luster under the light. This crack is not on the mural—it is on the back of the mural. They walk around behind the stone wall and find a hidden door deliberately chiseled open. The hidden door has no writing, only a simple pattern carved on it—an eye, but not an ordinary eye; a flower is carved where the pupil should be. The two exchange a glance, both thinking of the same answer at the same time.

They push open the hidden door. Behind it is an airtight chamber, with a stone pillar standing in the center. The carvings on the pillar are different from elsewhere—here it depicts the Queen of Jingjue standing alone in a garden, surrounded not by worshipping subjects, but by thousands of blooming flowers. At the base of the pillar is carved a line of text, not the same kind of writing as on the murals, but another, more ancient script that requires careful deciphering. His girlfriend leans in close, deciphering word by word. He stands in the center of the chamber, looking at the top of the pillar. Atop the pillar stands a small statue of the queen, different from the giant statue outside—this statue's eyes have not been gouged out. They are a pair of real gems, deep green, glowing on their own in the darkness. That is not a dead thing. They are looking at them. His girlfriend finishes deciphering the text on the pillar and says softly: This is not a tomb. This is an entrance.

As soon as she speaks, the sound of gears turning comes from beneath their feet. Not from this chamber—it rises from beneath the entire temple, low, slow, like something that had slept for a thousand years just waking up. The stone slabs beneath their feet begin to shake, cracks appear in the chamber walls, and sand pours in through the fissures. Hu Bayi's shout comes from outside, telling them to get out immediately. The two exchange a glance and simultaneously turn to rush toward the hidden door. In the second before she rushes out of the chamber, she looks back—the queen statue atop the pillar, those deep green eyes burning bright in the darkness, petals drifting down from the cracks in the ceiling, one by one, settling at the feet of the statue...

Experiential Creation

A person recalls a memorable dream he had before, and asks the Shadow Guardian to recreate it. He describes to the Shadow Guardian everything he still remembers, and the Shadow Guardian constructs the initial scene based on his description. He puts on the equipment.

He opens his eyes and instantly becomes his childhood self, walking with a group of friends on a rural field path. Beneath their feet is a soft dirt road, and stepping on it he can feel the elasticity of the soil, very comfortable. Wildflowers—yellow, white, purple—bloom along both sides of the road, clustering together, swaying gently in the breeze. He and his friends run joyfully through the fields.

As they run, they notice the flowers on both sides of the road growing larger and larger. The ones ahead are already taller than a person, and there are even more and bigger ones beyond. They feel a little afraid, but at the same time sense an invisible force drawing them onward.

Running further on, there is a corner turning right and uphill. He remembers this corner from the dream. Behind the corner is a transformer box.

As they are about to pass it, he hears a sizzling sound, like claws slowly scraping against a metal wall. He leads the way, speeding up to run past. After putting some distance behind them, everyone stops, eyes fixed on the transformer box. He whispers to the Shadow Guardian: this transformer box should be bigger, as big as a small house. The transformer box suddenly grows larger.

Suddenly, with a bang, the door of the transformer box is pushed down. Out of the darkness walks a humanoid monster, the size of an adult, standing upright, with sharp claws. Its body and limbs are like a human's, hairless, with blue skin and clearly visible muscle definition. Its head is shaped like a bull's head, and it looks at them with angry eyes, walking toward them step by step, moving very slowly.

He says to the Shadow Guardian: it's too bulky, reduce the muscles, make the body more like an ordinary person's. The Shadow Guardian adjusts the monster's build, the muscle lines softening until it looks like a human body. He says again: less hair on the head. The hair on the monster's head thins out, revealing the blue skin beneath.

He doesn't know where the courage comes from, but he suddenly picks up a stick, lunges forward, and strikes the monster hard. The moment of impact, he can feel the monster's body is extremely hard, like hitting stone. The monster moves slowly and cannot catch him, only staring at him constantly. He quickly retreats back...

3. The Co-Creation Ecosystem

With the creator's authorization, their personal Shadow Guardian shares the work and experience to the global film and television co-creation network. A unique lighting style used in an independent film is called up and adapted by other creators. A supporting character's narrative side-branch generated by a viewer is, after being recognized by the original creator, incorporated into the official narrative universe. A new character accidentally born from viewer interaction is, because of its widespread popularity, adopted by the creator as part of the canonical storyline.

In this ecosystem, the Shadow Guardian also plays the role of content discoverer. When a massive amount of work is created every day, the Shadow Guardian has a deep understanding of each viewer's viewing preferences. On this basis, it not only recommends content that matches preferences but at higher quality, but also proactively introduces a certain proportion of works "outside the comfort zone but that may broaden horizons"—an independent film with a completely different style, a narrative from an unfamiliar culture, or the work of an emerging new creator. The viewer's cultural horizon is quietly broadened with each recommendation. Through continuously tracking the dissemination path of each work and the frequency with which it is cited and adapted, the Shadow Guardian network allows creations that truly touch the heart to naturally surface from the vast ocean of content.

At the same time, the Shadow Guardian precisely records the creator, creation time, and creation source the moment each creation occurs, and automatically traces provenance with every call and adaptation. If a viewer-generated supporting character narrative side-branch is adopted by the original creator, the contributor's name and contribution are fully annotated in the canonical creator roster. Ownership is determined at the moment of creation, requiring no subsequent dispute or retroactive tracing, and the entire co-creation ecosystem continues to operate in transparency and fairness. Works and elements generated during experiential creation—monster forms from dreams, scene parameters adjusted in real time—are likewise recorded and archived. If the creator authorizes sharing, these works from personal experience enter the circulation chain of the co-creation network, traced and credited like any other work. A monster image casually created in a dream may become the character archetype in another creator's narrative, with the original creator annotated in every call and adaptation. Experiential creation is one of the sources of the co-creation ecosystem, continuously injecting personal imagination into the public creation network.

Creators from different countries collaborate in real time within the same virtual shooting space—one person designs scenes in Tokyo, another adjusts character performance in Paris, another controls camera movement in New York. The Shadow Guardian handles all the technical details of cross-border collaboration for them—language translation, cultural adaptation, technical standard docking—allowing creators to focus on creation itself. When a film is released in different cultural contexts, the Shadow Guardian automatically adjusts character micro-expressions, scene color tones, and narrative pacing according to local audiences' aesthetic preferences and cultural context, ensuring the story accurately conveys the emotion and theme the creator wants to express across different cultures.

4. The Creator's Work Focus

From pre-production conception through to shared distribution, the Shadow Guardian takes over the execution layer of the entire production and distribution workflow of the film and entertainment industry. The creator's energy is concentrated on the things only they can do: imagine, create, express. The director focuses on narrative and visual style, the screenwriter focuses on story and characters, the actor focuses on performance—all technical execution work is completed collaboratively by the Shadow Guardian and robots.

Stage	Creator/Audience Role	Shadow Guardian's Responsibilities
Pre-production Conception	Creator: determine story direction and visual style; Audience: propose desired story types and character perspectives	Generate visual concepts and narrative frameworks; analyze audience preference data for creator reference
Production Execution	Creator: direct performance, confirm visual style, control narrative pacing	Coordinate robot cinematographers for collaborative shooting; adjust composition and movement trajectories in real time; complete editing, color grading, sound design, and visual effects in sync
Immersive Experience	Audience: choose character perspectives, freely explore the world, leave their own creations in the world whenever inspiration strikes	Parse the worldview and build immersive environments; generate personalized narrative branches in real time; synchronize multi-person interactive scenes; record creation sources and circulation paths; remind of experience end at the agreed time
Co-creation	Creators and audiences: cross-regional collaboration, secondary creation, contributing new characters and narrative lines	Handle technical details of cross-border collaboration; automatically perform cultural adaptation and multilingual adaptation; track the creation contribution chain and automatically settle copyright; track work dissemination paths to let quality creations naturally surface
Review and Iteration	Creator: adjust narrative based on audience feedback and experience data; Audience: continuously participate in expanding and deepening the story world	Integrate audience behavior data and secondary creation data for creator reference; annotate potential optimization directions for narrative pacing

Industry Status

After the Shadow Guardian is fully integrated, the film and entertainment industry transforms into an ecosystem of universal co-creation. The ceiling of professional production is pushed to the extreme, and independent creators can complete a work single-handedly. Everyone's imagination, stories, and emotions can be earnestly transformed into works. Everyone can experience any place and scene they wish to visit. A group of friends can enter the same world to explore together. Everyone can engage in experiential creation directly whenever inspiration strikes. Based on each experiencer's physiological state and emotional load, the Shadow Guardian sets a duration cap before the experience and timely reminds them to rest during it. Immersive experiences for minors have content boundaries and duration limits set by their guardians.

Tourism

1. Before Departure: Viewing and Assisted Decision-Making

A person gets the idea to travel somewhere. It might be because a friend mentioned it, because he saw a photo, or because one afternoon he suddenly remembered a place name he heard about long ago. He tells the Shadow Guardian about this idea.

The Shadow Guardian first retrieves the destination's public data. Mature scenic spots, hotels, homestays, and surrounding merchants, in order to attract travelers, have long proactively disclosed their real-time images and detailed information. The management of an ancient town scenic spot continuously publishes real-time footage of every corner—the current crowd flow on the main street, vacant parking spaces, and the lighting conditions at different viewing platforms across different time slots. A seaside homestay proactively discloses the actual lighting changes in each room from morning to night, real-time path videos from the room to the beach, and which nearby seafood stalls are the ones locals actually frequent. A mountaintop restaurant uploads real-time sunset views from its terrace, along with the day's wind direction and speed data.

At the same time, the Shadow Guardian connects to the local Shadow Guardian network. Those who have lived in the area for a long time have the most vivid local information accumulated in their Shadow Guardians—which alley has the best breakfast, which time slot has the fewest people at a certain viewing spot, what it actually feels like to walk the recently popular pedestrian street, whether there is any road construction lately, and whether those internet-famous shops are worth queuing for.

Then the Shadow Guardian rents and accesses local small aerial vehicles or walking robots to conduct on-site reconnaissance of the destination. Aerial vehicles survey the entire area from above—the actual color and width of the beach, whether that supposedly quiet mountain trail is actually empty, the scale and crowd distribution of the ancient town. Walking robots walk along possible pedestrian routes, recording road conditions, the types and operating status of shops along the street, the actual walking time from the lodging to various attractions, and whether that "hidden path" really exists. If there are accommodation options, the robots enter the rooms to check the actual lighting, soundproofing, and sanitary conditions.

The three streams of information converge and are compared in the Shadow Guardian—what the destination has publicly disclosed, what locals have shared, and what the robots have observed on-site. The public data shows that this homestay's sunset view is indeed beautiful; the local sharing mentions that there is a construction site next to this building that occasionally operates; and the footage sent back by the robot on-site confirms this. What the public data does not mention is that between 2 and 4 p.m., the west-facing exposure of the room is very intense. This information comes from a local resident's Shadow Guardian sharing, who says he once lived in the building next door.

The Shadow Guardian holds the preference data of all the master's past travels—nature or city, compact itinerary or slow pace, requirements for accommodation comfort, dietary habits and restrictions, physical condition, travel budget, preference for photography or for seeing with the eyes, willingness to meet strangers or preference for solitude. Combined with the three streams of reconnaissance data, the Shadow Guardian generates a fully personalized summary report: an overall assessment that this place is worth visiting. You will like staying in this western area, because the places you want to visit are all within walking distance, and this street is very quiet at night, with an atmosphere similar to that neighborhood where you stayed last time in a certain city. You should try a certain dish at this shop—its preparation is very similar to the kind you ate as a child, and the shop is located just around the corner from your lodging. Do not take that mountain climbing route after 3 p.m., because the west-facing exposure is intense, and your fitness level is better suited to departing in the morning. That internet-famous photo spot, according to locals, only takes five minutes to actually see; a nearby small alley is instead more worth a stroll.

The traveler confirms the plan. The Shadow Guardian arranges the specific itinerary, books flights and accommodations, arranges transportation connections for each leg, and rents local small robots to handle luggage transport and item-carrying during the trip. If the traveler likes photography, the Shadow Guardian has already booked a drone follow-shot service in advance. If the traveler is willing to make new friends along the way, the Shadow Guardian has already begun looking out for potentially like-minded people among the travelers arriving in the same period. Once everything is arranged, the only thing the traveler needs to do is prepare to set off.

2. During the Trip: Guide and Assistant

After arriving at the destination, the Shadow Guardian directly becomes a private guide.

Walking up to any place, the Shadow Guardian explains from the most fitting angle based on this person's knowledge background and points of interest. An architectural designer standing in front of an old church hears from the Shadow Guardian about the load-bearing structure of the vault, the origin and cutting techniques of the stone, and the traces of restoration from different periods. A history enthusiast standing in front of the same church hears about how this church was destroyed in a certain war and rebuilt, and how a certain bishop's decision here changed the fate of the entire city. A person with no particular study of architecture or history standing here hears from the Shadow Guardian about the story painted on the stained glass window—why the person in the painting is holding a sheep. If this person develops interest in a certain point, the Shadow Guardian digs deeper along that direction, retrieving more details; if he wants to know more but lacks time, the Shadow Guardian marks the content for later, when he has free time.

If the traveler is particularly interested in a place, the Shadow Guardian can retrieve historical footage or 3D reconstructions and, through a portable device, overlay the sight of the same street from a thousand years ago onto the ruins before his eyes. What he sees is reality and history coexisting in the same frame—the stone pavement underfoot is still the present-day pavement, but the buildings on both sides of the street revert to their former appearance, the roof heights, shop signs, and that already-vanished fountain on the corner all appearing before his eyes.

For those who like making friends, the Shadow Guardian continuously looks out for strangers they might encounter who could become friends. Their Shadow Guardians search and match in advance, confirm that they are very likely to share interests, and then present the results to their masters for confirmation. During the trip, the itineraries of both parties can be integrated to recommend common meeting times and places—a route to walk on the same mountain trail, a small eatery to sample specialty dishes together...

When unexpected situations arise during the trip, the Shadow Guardian's response is completed within a very short time. If a flight is canceled, the best temporary plan is arranged in sync—rebooking the nearest flight, transferring to other transportation, canceling that day's itinerary and adjusting subsequent arrangements, with all subsequent bookings updated simultaneously. If an outdoor itinerary is interrupted by heavy rain, nearby alternative indoor experiences are immediately retrieved and the traveler is guided there. If he suddenly feels unwell, the Shadow Guardian, based on symptom descriptions and vital sign data, matches the nearest medical resources, schedules an appointment, and arranges a taxi for transport—or suggests resting nearby and adjusting the pace of subsequent itineraries. Subsequent itinerary bookings and arrangements are updated in sync.

3. After Return: Organizing

After the trip ends and he returns home, the Shadow Guardian has already organized all the records from the journey—aerial drone clips, daily itinerary reviews, the places visited and the food eaten. As needed, it can generate travel videos or photos to share.

After the trip ends, those moments do not dissipate with the return. On a quiet evening, the Shadow Guardian, knowing that its master is feeling a bit low today, projects an image of a certain moment from the trip onto the wall—the rain in that small town, the sunset on that mountaintop, the aroma smelled in that alley. It watches with him again, as if the aftertaste of the journey is gently prolonged.

Summary

After the Shadow Guardian is fully integrated, before departure, the Shadow Guardian cross-compares three streams of data—the destination's public data, the local Shadow Guardian network, and on-site reconnaissance—allowing the traveler to see the true face of the destination in advance. The itinerary plan is fully personalized, tailored to a person's taste, fitness, aesthetics, and travel pace. During the trip, the Shadow Guardian is a private guide, explaining from the most fitting angle based on each person's knowledge background and points of interest, so that the same scenery presents different stories to different people. Those who like photography get an exclusive perspective with a drone following them throughout; those willing to make friends naturally encounter potentially like-minded strangers during the trip. Throughout the entire journey, the traveler's energy is focused only on the experience itself—measuring with his feet, gazing with his eyes, tasting with his mouth, feeling with his body.

Order & Guarantee

Insurance

In the Shadow Guardian era, the core logic of the insurance industry focuses on active prevention before risks occur and real-time intervention. The personal Shadow Guardian holds the master's health data, travel data, and asset status data, while the industry Shadow Guardian holds meteorological data, traffic data, and equipment operation data. The two Shadow Guardians exchange information in real time on the premise of authorization, and risks are defused before they occur. Insurance is no longer a contract only used after an incident, but a continuously operating risk management system.

1. Risk Prevention and Real-Time Intervention

A person has purchased home property insurance. Based on years of fire claim data, the insurance company lists circuit aging as the primary risk factor for home fires and embeds active monitoring and prevention clauses in the policy. The sensor network in his home continuously monitors circuit load and temperature. Late one night, the Shadow Guardian detects abnormal fluctuations in the load curve of an old circuit in the kitchen. Before the circuit overheats, the Shadow Guardian has already dispatched a repair robot to replace that section of aging wiring. The cost of this repair is borne by the insurance company—it is far less than the cost of compensating for a fire. The insurance company receives no claim application, because the accident never happened.

Health insurance follows the same logic. The personal Shadow Guardian continuously monitors heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar, sleep quality, and exercise data. After several consecutive weeks of insufficient sleep, declining heart rate variability, and excessive sedentary time, the Shadow Guardian reminds: your body's load has been heavy lately; it is recommended to adjust your routine, along with a list of time slots suitable for light exercise in the coming days. If the data continues to deviate from the normal range, the Shadow Guardian directly schedules a doctor appointment, with the medical expenses covered by health insurance. At the consultation, the doctor has already received a summary of recent health data synchronized by the Shadow Guardian. The medical expenses are covered by health insurance, and the sensor data is synchronized to the insurance system as a complete evidence chain.

Agricultural insurance works similarly. Field sensors and meteorological data continuously transmit back, and before the typhoon path locks onto the planting area, the Shadow Guardian has already dispatched robots to dig drainage ditches and reinforce scaffolding. When a frost warning is generated, the irrigation system adjusts its rhythm, using soil heat storage to protect crop roots. The abnormal spectrum of pests and diseases is captured by multispectral cameras before visible symptoms appear, and the prevention and control plan is executed before the eggs hatch. The cost of executing these disaster prevention measures is borne by the insurance company—far lower than the cost of compensation after a disaster. Agricultural insurance ensures that crops are saved before they die.

2. Dynamic Pricing and Precise Matching

In the Shadow Guardian era, pricing is based on personal real-time risk data.

A person's health insurance premium floats in sync with his real-time lifestyle and physical data. This month, with sufficient sleep, regular exercise, and a healthy diet, the premium goes down. Next month, with consecutive late nights, prolonged sitting, and irregular eating, the premium goes up accordingly. The basis for change is the body's true state, and every time a health indicator improves, the premium is adjusted correspondingly. The change in the premium itself is a kind of risk warning signal, reminding the person to maintain a healthy state through improved routine and exercise.

A person plans to hike in the mountains for two days. The night before departure, based on the destination's weather, road conditions, communication coverage, and search and rescue resource distribution over the next 48 hours, the Shadow Guardian generates a temporary insurance plan—covering lost-way search and rescue, accidental injury, and trip interruption caused by extreme weather. The premium is precise to the specific route and altitude range of these two days, and takes effect immediately upon his confirmation. The insurance is valid while he is in the mountains and automatically becomes invalid once he exits the mountains and returns to the highway. He only pays the cost of coverage for these two days, this route, and these specific risks.

The pricing of auto insurance is linked in real time to driving behavior. This trip, with stable following distance, no hard braking, and full compliance with speed limits, the premium goes down. The next trip, with frequent lane changes, sudden acceleration, and prolonged night driving, the premium goes up. The Shadow Guardian holds the complete driving data for every trip, and every cent of the premium is backed by data.

3. Claim Settlement

When risks are successfully prevented, claim settlement does not exist—the accident never happened. When risks cannot be avoided but the data is fully traceable, claim settlement is compressed into synchronous processing. When an auto insurance accident occurs, vehicle driving data, road condition data, and multi-angle footage are collected within a very short time, liability determination and damage assessment are completed in sync, and compensation is immediately credited. During a health insurance consultation, medical data is synchronized to the insurance system, and consultation records, examination reports, prescription slips, and medical orders all flow as structured data, with claim review completed before the patient leaves the consultation room and compensation credited simultaneously. In cases requiring ongoing rehabilitation or long-term medication, the data from each follow-up visit and medication use completes the claim settlement in sync, without waiting for the entire rehabilitation cycle to end. The insured person's Shadow Guardian handles everything for him.

4. Insurance Companies

The core capability of insurance companies is concentrated in constructing risk models and designing intervention rules. Actuarial models are updated in real time by the industry Shadow Guardian based on full-domain risk data, and the adjustment of coverage plans is continuously iterated according to personal real-time risk status and changes in the external environment. Underwriting is completed through real-time data monitoring, investigation and damage assessment rely on multi-angle footage and sensor data, and claim review is processed synchronously through medical data. The competitiveness of insurance companies depends on the predictive accuracy of their risk models, the execution efficiency of intervention measures, and the degree to which coverage plans match individual needs. The differentiation among insurance companies is reflected in their respective warning thresholds, the logical style of intervention rules, and the flexibility of coverage terms—some are more inclined toward early intervention, while others are more tolerant of risk; some offer highly modular coverage combinations, while others focus on deep coverage in specific areas.

5. Role Focus

From risk prevention to claim settlement, the Shadow Guardian takes over the monitoring, warning, matching, and processing of the entire insurance workflow. The user's energy is concentrated on confirmation and selection. Insurance companies shift their focus to setting risk models, formulating intervention rules, and dynamically managing coverage plans.

Stage	User's Role	User's Shadow Guardian's Responsibilities	Insurance Company's Role	Insurance Company's Shadow Guardian's Responsibilities
Risk Prevention	Confirm risk warnings and handling recommendations; decide whether to adjust daily behavior	Continuously monitor health data, home equipment status, and travel environment data; issue warnings and execute intervention measures before risks form; dispatch repairs, schedule medical appointments, and execute disaster prevention plans	Set risk warning thresholds and intervention rules; provide networks of repair, medical, and disaster prevention resources	Receive risk warning data from the user's Shadow Guardian; authorize intervention measures according to rules; match and dispatch repair robots, medical resources, and disaster prevention equipment
Agricultural Risk Prevention	Confirm disaster prevention plans; decide whether to adjust planting plans	Monitor field sensors and meteorological data; dispatch robots to execute disaster prevention measures	Set warning thresholds and disaster prevention standards for agricultural insurance; provide disaster prevention equipment and agricultural expert resources	Receive field data and match disaster prevention plans; dispatch disaster prevention equipment such as drainage and reinforcement
Health and Medical Coordination	Confirm medical recommendations; decide whether to adjust lifestyle	Continuously monitor health data and issue warnings; schedule doctor appointments and synchronize recent health data summaries	Provide medical service networks and coverage for medical expenses	Receive health data summaries and assist doctors in diagnosis; synchronize medical data and prescriptions to the insurance system
Pricing and Matching	Confirm insurance plans and premium ranges; confirm temporary insurance plans before departure	Calculate dynamic premiums based on real-time behavior data and external environment data; generate temporary insurance plans before departure for confirmation	Set premium floating ranges and pricing models; provide coverage rules and terms for temporary insurance	Generate policies based on the premium calculation results of the user's Shadow Guardian; update coverage scope and terms in real time
Claim Settlement Processing	Confirm compensation results	Collect on-site data in sync when accidents occur and complete preliminary liability determination; synchronize medical data during consultations and submit compensation applications	Set compensation standards and liability determination rules	Receive data and determination results from the user's Shadow Guardian; complete claim review and disburse compensation
Review and Optimization	Review annual risk reports and premium trend changes; adjust coverage preferences	Aggregate risk warnings, intervention records, and compensation data; analyze the correlation between behavior patterns and risks; provide recommendations for optimizing coverage plans	Analyze overall risk data and intervention effectiveness; optimize warning thresholds and pricing models; adjust coverage plans	Aggregate industry-level risk data; provide actuarial analysis and model optimization recommendations

Industry Status

After the Shadow Guardian is fully integrated, home equipment failures are repaired before causing accidents, health problems are intervened before worsening, and agricultural disasters are defused before causing losses. Premiums float dynamically based on personal real-time behavior data and risk status. Travel insurance is precise to specific times and locations, and a person only pays the cost of coverage for the risks actually faced. When prevention succeeds, the accident never happens and claim settlement does not exist; when an accident does occur, liability determination and compensation are completed in sync within a very short time. What the insured person feels is that bad things no longer happen. And if they really do happen, he does not need to worry about them. The entire insurance industry has achieved risk prevention and real-time intervention driven by the Shadow Guardian.

Legal Services

In the Shadow Guardian era, legal services have transformed from a weapon mastered by a few into infrastructure accessible to everyone and every enterprise. The personal Shadow Guardian deeply understands the master's behavior data and transaction records, while also accessing legal databases and case law repositories, providing analysis and recommendations based on current law in a very short time. Business activities operate within a framework of full compliance, disputes are resolved before escalating, and rights are protected before being infringed. The role of lawyers focuses on the core links that require human judgment—strategy formulation, courtroom argument, and complex negotiations.

1. Personal Legal Services

Before a person signs a rental contract, the Shadow Guardian has already reviewed all the terms, flagging three hidden clauses unfavorable to the lessee and one clause that conflicts with local rental regulations, along with suggested revisions. The landlord's Shadow Guardian responds to the proposed revisions within a very short time, and the two Shadow Guardians negotiate to reach a version acceptable to both parties. When he signs his name, he does not need to read the entire contract word by word himself.

When neighbors have an unpleasant dispute over a noise issue, the two Shadow Guardians begin communicating first. One Shadow Guardian provides specific data showing noise levels exceeding standards and the time periods involved, while the other confirms the time points and commits to adjusting its master's routine. A dispute that could have escalated to community mediation or even a police report at the local station is defused before the two parties even argue face to face.

A person is misled by a merchant's false advertising and purchases a product that does not match its description. His Shadow Guardian preserves the product description at the time of purchase, the actual inspection data of the received product, screenshots of the merchant's promises, and subsequent communication records, generates a complete complaint file, and synchronizes it to the official Shadow Guardian of the market regulatory authority. The entire process does not require him to learn the relevant provisions of consumer protection law; he simply says to the Shadow Guardian, "This thing is different from what I saw when I bought it."

In matters of inheritance, the Shadow Guardian retrieves the decedent's will, property inventory, and statutory heir information, generating an inheritance distribution plan within a very short time and flagging clauses that may be disputed along with their corresponding legal basis. All heirs review the plan through their respective Shadow Guardians, negotiate revisions, and ultimately confirm. Inheritance disputes are mediated before entering court.

In matters of marital property agreements, both parties express their demands to their respective Shadow Guardians. Based on both parties' property status, income levels, and legal requirements, the Shadow Guardian generates multiple plans for them to choose from. The couple does not need to sit face to face and bargain over each clause; the Shadow Guardian completes all legal-level negotiation and document drafting within a very short time.

For potential legal risks that the parties may not yet be aware of, the Shadow Guardian proactively pushes warnings and response recommendations before the parties suffer harm, by analyzing the behavior patterns of transaction counterparts and abnormal features in contract terms. When an elderly person living alone is induced to sign an unfavorable contract, the Shadow Guardian identifies the abnormal terms and the high-risk behavior pattern of the transaction counterpart before the signing is completed, pushing a warning and recommending either postponing the signing or contacting a trusted family member to intervene.

For gradual risks—such as long-term unstable labor relations or sustained psychological oppression—the Shadow Guardian identifies risks by tracking accumulation patterns rather than single events, but its identification accuracy is lower than the direct detection of abnormal terms. The parties' active description of their own situation remains the key entry point for triggering intervention. The universalization of legal services covers those who consciously seek help, extends to those who have not yet realized the risks, and at the same time remains transparent about its capability boundaries.

2. Commercial and Entrepreneurial Legal Services

A person wants to start a small company. He describes his business plan to the Shadow Guardian. Within a very short time, the Shadow Guardian completes all the documents required for company registration, recommends a suitable equity structure based on his business model and risk preferences, generates standard employment contracts for the first batch of employees, and completes the trademark and patent applications for his core products.

In commercial contract negotiations, his Shadow Guardian represents him in negotiations with the counterparty's Shadow Guardian. The Shadow Guardian knows his profit bottom line, risk tolerance, and willingness for long-term cooperation, and completes multiple rounds of negotiation within a very short time, locking down price, delivery terms, and liability for breach. If a clause in the contract requires his own judgment, the Shadow Guardian pushes the risk assessment and alternative options to him for a final decision.

The counterparty's Shadow Guardian responds to the proposed revisions within a very short time, and the two Shadow Guardians negotiate to reach a version acceptable to both parties. Throughout the negotiation process, he only needs to make judgments when the Shadow Guardian prompts that a decision is required.

3. International Trade and Cross-Jurisdictional Compliance

A small business owner wants to export his products to multiple overseas markets. The legal systems, tariff policies, product standards, intellectual property protection rules, and foreign exchange controls of each target market are all different. In the traditional era, he would need to hire law firms familiar with the laws of various countries, spending a great deal of time and money to complete the compliance review.

His Shadow Guardian accesses the legal databases and trade rule repositories of the target markets within a very short time, generating a complete compliance checklist—product certification requirements, labeling specifications, tariff rates, intellectual property registration procedures, and foreign exchange settlement restrictions for each market. The Shadow Guardian flags three markets with higher legal risk, attaching the specific content of the risks and response recommendations. If the compliance requirements of a certain market exceed his tolerance, the Shadow Guardian recommends alternative markets, listing target countries with similar conditions but lower legal thresholds. The entire compliance review process, which in the traditional era might take weeks or even months, is compressed into a very short time in the Shadow Guardian era.

4. Economic Disputes and Commercial Litigation

A contract dispute arises between two companies. One party believes the other party's delayed delivery caused its production line to shut down and demands compensation for losses; the other party argues that the delay was due to force majeure logistics disruption and that it bears no liability for breach.

The two Shadow Guardians exchange all evidence within a very short time—order records, logistics data, timestamps of the production line shutdown, and the specific force majeure clauses in the contract. The Shadow Guardian completes the organization of legal facts, the construction of the evidence chain, and the matching of precedents within a very short time. The two Shadow Guardians first attempt mediation—one Shadow Guardian calculates the specific amount of actual losses, while the other confirms that the logistics disruption did indeed occur within the scope of the exemption clause stipulated in the contract. After negotiation, the two Shadow Guardians reach a compensation plan: the delivering party does not bear full liability for breach, but agrees to provide a discount on the next order as compensation. The dispute is resolved within a very short time without entering litigation.

If mediation fails, the two Shadow Guardians synchronize the complete case files to their respective lawyers. Before taking on the case, the lawyer has already fully understood all the facts, evidence, and legal basis, and his energy is concentrated on the core links that require human judgment—constructing a persuasive strategy and preparing courtroom statements. During the litigation, the Shadow Guardian assists the lawyer with real-time organization of evidentiary materials, flagging flaws in the opposing side's evidence, and instant analysis of trial records. The lawyer's creative judgment is reflected in the links the Shadow Guardian cannot replace—reorganizing the narrative sequence of facts to influence the perception of the judge or jury, challenging the applicability of precedents matched by the Shadow Guardian, choosing under which legal principle to initiate the lawsuit, and making instant judgments when the opposing lawyer presents new evidence or new arguments. The core value of the lawyer returns to courtroom argument and strategy formulation.

5. Public Legal Governance

The industry Shadow Guardian monitors market transaction data in real time. When a certain transaction pattern matches a known fraud pattern, the regulatory authority receives a warning before victims file complaints. When a company's contract terms contain a large amount of content flagged as "unfair standard terms," the Shadow Guardian pushes an inspection reminder to the regulatory authority.

The same applies in the antitrust field. The industry Shadow Guardian continuously tracks market share data and merger transaction records, and when a company's market concentration approaches the statutory threshold, the regulatory authority receives a warning. The industry Shadow Guardian synchronizes the competitive condition data of the relevant market to the regulatory authority, providing complete data support for review decisions. Traditional antitrust investigations, which require years of evidence collection and analysis, are compressed into a very short time in the Shadow Guardian era.

In the field of securities market supervision, the industry Shadow Guardian monitors trading data in real time and issues warnings when abnormal trading patterns are detected. Insider trading and market manipulation are discovered and intercepted within a very short time after they occur. Supervision shifts from "post-event punishment" to "real-time monitoring."

6. Role Focus

From daily legal consultation to commercial contract negotiation, from cross-border trade compliance to economic dispute mediation, the Shadow Guardian takes over the information processing and execution work of the entire legal services workflow. The user's energy is concentrated on confirmation and decision-making—making choices among the plans provided by the Shadow Guardian and making decisions at key nodes that require judgment.

Area	User's Role	Shadow Guardian's Responsibilities
Personal Legal Services	Describe problems and demands; make choices among the plans provided by the Shadow Guardian	Review contract terms and flag risks; negotiate revisions with the counterparty's Shadow Guardian; preserve evidence and generate complaint or application materials; generate plans for inheritance distribution, marital agreements, etc.
Commercial Legal Services	Describe business plans; make judgments when the Shadow Guardian prompts that a decision is required	Complete company registration, equity structure design, and intellectual property applications; represent the enterprise in contract negotiations with the counterparty's Shadow Guardian; monitor compliance status in real time and push warnings
International Trade and Compliance	Confirm target markets and compliance plans	Review the legal systems and trade rules of target markets; generate a complete compliance checklist and risk assessment; recommend alternative markets
Economic Disputes and Litigation	Make judgments when the Shadow Guardian prompts that a decision is required; confirm settlement plans or decide to enter litigation	Exchange evidence and organize legal facts; match precedents and generate mediation plans; assist lawyers with organizing evidentiary materials and trial analysis
Public Legal Governance	The regulatory authority confirms warnings and decides whether to launch an investigation	Monitor market transaction data in real time and detect abnormal patterns; push warnings for fraud, monopoly, insider trading, etc.

Industry Status

After the Shadow Guardian is fully integrated, before a person signs a contract, the Shadow Guardian has already reviewed all the terms. Before a neighborhood dispute escalates, the two Shadow Guardians have already completed communication and resolution. An entrepreneur can single-handedly complete company registration, trademark applications, and cross-border trade compliance reviews. Before a commercial dispute enters court, the Shadow Guardian has already attempted mediation and found a plan acceptable to both parties. Lawyers' energy is freed from desk work and returns to courtroom argument and strategy formulation. The regulatory authority shifts from passively waiting for complaints to real-time monitoring. The entire legal services industry has achieved rights protection and compliance operation driven by the Shadow Guardian.

System Creator