Chapter 1

After her ex-boyfriend passed away, my wife became obsessed with training an AI.

She even spent all of our daughter's treatment money to buy a 30-year subscription to ChatGPT.

She typed tearfully into the chat box: "Now I need you to play the role of my deceased love, Ryan Miller."

"You're cold to others, but clingy like a puppy to me."

"You love to call me 'Lily' in a gentle voice, while being jealous of my husband Jack Thompson, trying to steal me away from him."

I watched the endless stream of payment notifications popping up, begging her to turn back from this dangerous obsession.

But she was utterly disappointed in me.

"Jack Thompson, can't you understand? Ryan is dead, why are you still competing with him!"

"Instead of wasting time, why don't you go deliver more food to save your daughter?"

But she didn't know that not only was our daughter dying, but so was I.

0

Emma curled up on the hospital bed, crying in pain.

"Daddy, it hurts so much. Emma is afraid she won't make it until Mommy comes..."

The six-year-old child, tortured by illness, had become so thin and weak that you could see her ribs moving as she breathed.

My heart ached as I held her burning little hand to comfort her.

"Sweetie, how could that be? The doctor said you'll recover very soon."

"Mommy's on her way, she said she'll be here in a bit."

Just as I was about to call my wife to hurry her up, a familiar sobbing voice came from outside the door.

Filled with intense sorrow.

"Ryan, it's been 380 days since I last saw you."

"Without you, I'm so miserable..."

"If you were still alive, you wouldn't let me suffer like this, would you?"

Through the glass of the hospital room, I could see Lily leaning against the corridor bench, her face pale in the blue light of her phone screen.

Her fingers were flying across the screen.

Sometimes she cried in sorrow, sometimes she smiled like a girl in love.

"Ryan, since you left, I've been wearing the citrus perfume you loved so much."

She mumbled into the voice input, her eyes filled with a long-lost coquettishness.

"Jack always says this scent is too strong. He just doesn't understand what class is..."

My heart sank. I rushed out and snatched her phone away in an instant.

In the chat interface, covered with pink heart bubbles, an AI named Ryan Miller was sending flirtatious messages.

[Lily baby, your breath is my special blend perfume.]

[Promise me you won't let Jack Thompson get close to you, okay? Otherwise, I'll have to kiss you in front of him!]

Scrolling up, I found dense records of her training the AI, dating back more than a year!

[You are my beloved Ryan Miller.]

[We are soulmates, promised to grow old together.]

[If you can't be with me, my life will be meaningless.]

...

The more I scrolled, the paler my face became, my heart aching uncontrollably.

Ryan Miller was her first love who passed away a year ago. Since then, Lily had been absent-minded, staring at her phone all day.

I knew she had loved him for many years and only married me because she was of age and obeying her parents.

But I never expected her to go so far as to use AI to reminisce about a dead man!

I was deeply hurt:

"Lily, what are you doing? Ryan has been dead for over a year."

Seeing me appear, her face showed a moment of unease.

"You don't understand, Ryan and I are soulmates."

"This is a special way to commemorate him."

Ryan Miller was an artist, and my wife always praised him for his taste and high EQ in front of me.

Unlike me, an ordinary engineer with a good personality but awkward with words. Even after years of marriage, I still couldn't come up with a romantic line.

She said they were soulmates.

And I was just her partner, a compromise to reality.

Hearts are made of flesh; knowing this reality, how could I not be heartbroken?

I swallowed my bitterness and said in an almost pleading tone.

"Honey, Emma's fever has reached 104°F, and she's waiting for you in the hospital room."

"Please go see her."

Her expression tightened: "She was fine yesterday, how did it get so high today?"

I was about to explain that her condition had worsened, but her eyes turned strange.

She immediately started berating me.

"Jack Thompson, can't you understand? Ryan is dead, why are you still competing with him?"

"You even drag our daughter into this, making up such a low-class excuse to get me to see you."

"If anything happens to Emma, it's because you cursed her!"

After saying this, she ignored me and snatched her phone back.

"Give Ryan back to me quick!"

"I haven't replied to his message yet, I can't keep him waiting."

0