Kill The Marriage Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Obligation

The vast majority of ordinary people could only wait for their matching to be completed before marrying their one and only matched partner. They were not like Ren Zhong and Zhang Qingyuan, who had the privilege of choosing among several candidates.

Therefore, during the initial implementation phase of the Compulsory Marriage Matching Act, the happiness index of matched marriages was not high, and the increase in the birth rate failed to meet expected targets.

Certain officials and “brick experts” proposed using a big data AI system to monitor marital relations. Through AI scoring, it would determine whether the couple had fulfilled their obligations and whether they required marriage counseling. This requirement had been continuously enforced for several years since its introduction.

Ren Zhong was shocked.

He had read through the Compulsory Marriage Matching Act and knew about this dog-sh*t regulation. But he never imagined that this day would actually arrive, let alone so abruptly. He didn’t have the slightest bit of mental preparation.

This marriage… truly felt like it had zero presence.

Who could have thought that the husband he was meeting for the very first time had already been married to him for a month?

“Doesn’t the rule state that if there are special circumstances like pregnancy, illness, or disability, one can ask for a leave of absence?” Ren Zhong tapped his little electric wheelchair. “I’m literally disabled right now, and I still have to fulfill this obligation?”

Zhang Qingyuan also looked incredibly helpless. “Captain, you are merely in the post-operative recovery phase; you cannot be classified as disabled in terms of marriage and childbirth. I already submitted a leave request to the Marriage Monitoring Center earlier, but it was rejected.”

He opened the Marriage Monitoring Center app, which every married citizen was required to download, and pulled up the administrator’s reply.

Ren Zhong took the screen, skipping over the bureaucratic, boot-licking pleasantries at the beginning.

“…Given that the patient has already been discharged from the hospital and completed treatment, the injuries can be classified as minor. Furthermore, as the wounds are located on the extremities of the body, the Monitoring Center, after communicating with the patient’s attending physician, unanimously concludes that this will not impede the performance of marital relations. Therefore, the request is denied?!”

In short, the garbage Monitoring Center’s underlying message was—

All he needed to do was lie flat, spread his legs, and be topped; it didn’t matter if his feet were crippled or not.

Zhang Qingyuan’s expression also read like a complicated sigh. “It is indeed quite difficult to get a leave of absence approved for marital relations. I thought that since the Captain underwent such a major surgery, the Monitoring Center would surely make an exception. Who knew…”

“Say, um… Mr. Zhang, what if you tell them you sprained your ankle…” Ren Zhong’s mindset was currently exploring the boundaries of a cornered dog trying to jump a wall. He could only recall the idiotic excuses he used to skip class back in his student days.

Zhang Qingyuan shook his head, snuffing out his last ray of hope. “A friend of mine used a similar excuse to ask for leave. The Monitoring Center still didn’t approve it; they just sent over a few pages of an instructional manual suggesting they change positions.”

Ren Zhong: “…”

Although the graders were non-human AI, which could guarantee citizens’ privacy wouldn’t be known by others, who wouldn’t feel disgusted encountering something like this?

Ren Zhong cursed, saying, “What a stupid f*cking policy.”

“They say it protects privacy, but in reality, as long as the video recording is connected to a network, there is a risk of a leak.” Zhang Qingyuan also had plenty of complaints about this, he just didn’t use dirty words.

But they had to do it.

Unless a leave of absence was approved due to pregnancy, disability, severe illness, separation, or other force majeure circumstances, they had to complete marital relations in front of the camera once a month.

One warning was enough to affect Ren Zhong’s rank promotion.

A second severe warning meant forced marriage counseling and submitting 40% of their personal income as a fine.

A third penalty meant Ren Zhong would be directly demoted in the military…

“Captain… ah, it feels a bit strange to still call you Captain at a time like this. Then, Mr. Ren!”

Zhang Qingyuan maintained his composure, asking in a highly gentlemanly manner, “Mr. Ren, may I ask if you accept performing our ‘obligations’ in front of the AI evaluation system?”

“…” Ren Zhong pondered for a moment, then sighed. “Frankly speaking, under no circumstances am I willing to expose my personal life like this. But since the regulations dictate it, I cannot cause trouble for myself, for you, or for the military just because of this.”

He took a deep breath. “Therefore, I accept.”

The current situation couldn’t be changed just because Ren Zhong was unwilling. It was better to give each other a dignified compromise.

Zhang Qingyuan was somewhat surprised.

The slight shift in his eyes betrayed the turbulence in his heart, a detail sharply caught by Ren Zhong.

Ren Zhong figured the other party must have prepared a whole mental draft, ready to appeal to reason and emotion, fully intending to deliver a stunning speech to persuade him.

But the result was that he actually f*cking agreed, and so quickly at that!

Even though Zhang Qingyuan tried hard to conceal it, he clearly exuded a sense of emptiness.

How empty? It was like pulling three all-nighters to memorize a textbook, having every single knowledge point memorized backward and forward, only to arrive at the exam hall and discover it was an open-book test.

“…” Zhang Qingyuan remained silent.

After a long pause, he opened his mouth, closed it, and finally spoke.

“Thank you for your cooperation and understanding. However…” His tone suddenly shifted. “I learned a method to fool the AI from my married friends. I wonder if you…”

Ren Zhong immediately said with utmost sincerity, “I’m all ears!”

“It seems the Captain is still a man who stays true to his genuine feelings.” Zhang Qingyuan seemed to heave a secret sigh of relief.

…

That night, the fake consummation to fool the AI monitor was put on the agenda.

After setting up the dedicated camera uniformly distributed by the Marriage Monitoring Center, the couple underwent facial matching and fingerprint verification in front of the lens. Once confirmed, the AI grading system officially started working.

The artificial intelligence responsible for scoring marital relations was not very intelligent.

On the contrary, anyone who had actually experienced it considered the thing an “Artificial Idiot.”

The AI was not a real human; it could only rely on a few fixed index metrics to determine whether the two people in bed were actually having sexual relations.

[Body Exposure Index]

The grading criteria for this index was simple: the less you wore, the more you exposed, the higher your score.

As long as one person wore their “original factory-issued birthday suit” and the other wore the “Emperor’s New Clothes,” spinning around a few extra times in front of the camera would easily push this index into the passing range.

This Artificial Idiot’s scores were displayed in real-time on the app, allowing them to max out one metric before moving on to the next.

[Physical Contact Index]

Ren Zhong lay somewhat stiffly on the bed.

An equally awkward and stiff Zhang Qingyuan pulled the blanket over their bodies, slightly alleviating the unnatural feeling.

Zhang Qingyuan had shown Ren Zhong videos from a film academy’s public acting class, learning camera trickery techniques for fake kissing.

A romantic camera trick started with the Alpha cupping the side of the Omega’s face and chin. The Alpha’s beautiful thumb would gently caress the other’s lips. Following that, he would turn his head, lower his ambiguous gaze, and kiss his own thumb.

The next steps required some natural yet unexaggerated acting skills.

Before closing their eyes, they had to gently sweep their gaze across the other’s face, a look filled with yearning, shyness, and sweetness. Next, a slight turn of the head—being careful to avoid bumping noses—followed by a rotation, a breath, and an embrace.

The hand the Alpha faced toward the camera had to slide down the Omega’s neck. Then, his fingertips needed to bury into the roots of the Omega’s hair, cradling the Omega’s head.

Zhang Qingyuan: “…”

As a soldier, Ren Zhong did not like his hair too long. Although he wasn’t currently sporting a buzz cut since he was on marital leave recovering from injuries, his hair length was still quite limited. Zhang Qingyuan could distinctly feel the prickly sensation against his hand.

At this moment, the Omega was supposed to breathe heavily, displaying a complex emotion of resistance yet indulgence, struggling yet enjoying, bitterness yet sweetness. He had to first attempt to push against the Alpha’s chest, pound it with little fists, and finally submissively wrap his arms around the Alpha’s neck.

Ren Zhong held back his strength, using only a tiny amount of force to pretend to push Zhang Qingyuan away.

In the next second, Zhang Qingyuan was genuinely shoved away by his palm.

A slight deviation, but not a big problem.

The two began their trick-kissing once more.

It was time for the little fists.

Ren Zhong reduced his strength even more, very, very lightly pounding Zhang Qingyuan’s chest.

Good heavens, Zhang Qingyuan let out a muffled groan from the blow. That burst of condensed force got stuck in his throat, and he was forced to swallow it down, making him sound as if he were constipated for a second.

Forget it, it was better to skip directly to the final step of wrapping arms around the neck.

“No, no, no!” Zhang Qingyuan waved his hands repeatedly, rapidly getting up to dodge those powerful arms.

Today, Zhang Qingyuan deeply and personally experienced two iron-clad, painful truths.

First, muscles forged in actual combat and muscles bloated by protein powder were not the same thing.

Second, an ordinary Alpha truly might not be able to win against a highly trained Omega soldier.

[Sound Index]

The composition of the sound index was relatively complex, divided into human voices and other noises.

The human voice portion of the index was relatively easy to farm. Its mechanics were similar to calling out voice assistants like Siri, Baidu, or Tmall Genie; as long as the keywords were spoken, the system would activate and calculate points.

Taking out a list of censored words and reading them aloud was enough to max out the human voice index.

Frowning, Ren Zhong said: “[Bleep], [Bleep], [Bleep], [Bleep].”

“[Bleep], [Bleep].” Zhang Qingyuan hesitated for a moment, gazing “affectionately” at Ren Zhong before carefully stealing a glance at the cheat sheet taped to the nightstand. “[Bleep], [Bleep], [Bleep].”

While the human voice index only required moving one’s mouth, farming the other noises to a passing grade required the help of props.

Under the cover of the blanket, Zhang Qingyuan performed modified push-ups, using his body weight to make the bed rock.

The bed, whose screws they had intentionally loosened beforehand, very cooperatively produced a squeaking creak-creak sound.

Concealed by the covers, Ren Zhong unscrewed a bottle filled with slime. Coordinating with Zhang Qingyuan’s movements, he rhythmically poked the “fake water slime” inside the bottle, providing sound effects for the other’s actions.

Squish!

The diluted slime, upon being churned, mixed with air to produce a sticky, wet sound.

Pop!

They coordinated with incredible tacit understanding; it sounded absolutely indistinguishable from the real thing.

“Should we… add some little electric toys?” Zhang Qingyuan smiled, “kissed” Ren Zhong, and ducked his head under the covers.

Receiving the secret signal, Ren Zhong pulled out a mini electric cupping device under the blanket, pressed it against his own chest, and started cupping. He successfully acquired several point-farming props: “fake giant hickeys.”

Finally, there was the [Physiological Index], which consisted of several sub-categories.

This index required them to scan their faces and fingerprints again after finishing their “marital relations” to collect data on their physiological changes.

[Pulse Index: Standard met].

Deceiving the monitoring system was a major violation. Being their first time tricking an AI, how could their hearts not pound wildly?

[Perspiration Index: Standard met].

Obviously! Two grown men huddled under a thick cotton quilt in the middle of summer—how could they not sweat?

[Semen Index…]

Zhang Qingyuan produced a knotted rubber product bearing obvious signs of use, filled with a cloudy liquid.

Camera inspection: Passed.

The mobile app interface displayed a special effects animation of blooming fireworks, showered them in a rain of hearts, and popped up an idiotic notification reading: “Congratulations to the couple on an excellent marital life experience.”

They could finally cut the power and internet connection to this damn Artificial Idiot!

Packing away the camera, the two men finally let out a long sigh of relief.

While putting his clothes back on, Ren Zhong asked out of curiosity, “What exactly did you put inside that thing?”

“Thick sea salt cheese foam, mixed with a bit of clear slime and diluted with water.” Zhang Qingyuan threw on his pajama jacket. “Trust me, if used normally, that cheese foam recipe is incredibly delicious when poured over milk tea.”

Ren Zhong: “…”

Thanks, but he would probably never try any cheese foam product ever again in this lifetime.