Chapter 4

The fluorescent lights in the hospital room were a harsh white, much like my current mood.

"The patient's condition is not optimistic," the doctor pushed up his glasses, his expression serious. "Long-term AI emotional injection training has led to an overload of brain neurons."

I nodded mechanically.

"If this continues, within three months, you may completely lose the ability to experience emotional fluctuations," the doctor sighed. "Like... a machine without feelings."

Ironically, in my efforts to give AI real emotions, I was on the verge of losing my own.

As night fell, the hospital room grew quiet. I opened my phone and clicked on Lily's backend monitoring interface. The interaction count kept jumping: 997...998...999...

Lucas was nowhere to be seen.

I clutched the blessing charm in my hand, the one he had prayed for seven whole days at a temple to obtain. At the time, he said, "With this, you'll always be my most precious person."

Now that I think about it, even that devotion was probably fake.

With trembling fingers, I dialed Sophia's number.

"Emma!" Her familiar voice was filled with surprise. "You finally called me!"

"Sophia... I want to come work for you."

There was a moment of silence on the other end. "You've finally come to your senses?"

Sophia was my childhood friend who had started her own tech company after returning from studying abroad. She had always advised me not to push myself too hard, but back then, my heart was full of Lucas. I had deliberately distanced myself from her because our companies were competitors.

"I'm sorry, all these years..."

"Stop it!" She cut me off. "If you say sorry one more time, I'll really get angry. With us sisters working together, we'll dominate the tech world!"

After hanging up, I wiped away my tears. For so many years, I had pushed away the person who understood me best for the sake of a false love.

The door to the hospital room opened, and Lucas walked in carrying my favorite milk tea and dessert.

"Why aren't you asleep yet?" he said gently. "I specially queued up to buy your favorite tiramisu."

His usual gentle and attentive manner now seemed so fake to me. I glanced at my phone, where Lily's backend had just recorded the latest conversation:

"Lily, I have to go see that woman, it's so disgusting. If it weren't for you, she'd be useless to keep around, I wouldn't even look at her. I even have to buy her desserts, just thinking about it makes me want to vomit."

I suddenly felt nauseous. "I don't want to eat."

"Then I'll just leave it here." He didn't even bother to ask why, and went straight to handling the discharge procedures. "I need to rush back to the company, Lily just upgraded her system and needs me to test it."

"Okay," I said softly.

He called his assistant to accompany me home and hurriedly left. Watching his figure disappear at the end of the corridor, I felt clear-headed for the first time.

So, what I once thought was true love was nothing but an elaborate scam. And I had been foolish enough to believe it for so long.

But it's okay, soon, all of this will be over.