Kill The Marriage Chapter 8
Chapter 8: Captain
“Makka Pakka, Akka Wakka, Mikka Makka Moo!”
Ren Zhong never dreamed that one day, his own TV would be loudly broadcasting a children’s program.
And moreover, this kid seemed to find it incredibly boring.
Mi Li’s pretty little face didn’t hold back at all when making funny faces, rolling her large, crystal-clear eyes on the spot. “Uncle Ren, this cartoon is for babies aged zero to four. I’m already seven! I’ll be in second grade when the next semester starts!”
“Oh.” Ren Zhong turned off the TV with a blank expression. “Since you’re in school, you should study hard. Stop watching TV and go do your homework. The study is on the second floor, make yourself at home.”
Upon hearing the word “homework,” Mi Li’s expression instantly looked like she was constipated.
But she quickly and nimbly changed her strategy, saying, “Don’t you know the Ministry of Education has rules against assigning homework to first, second, and third graders?”
Ren Zhong sneered, “Do you think I’ve never been to school?”
At this moment, Zhang Qingyuan walked out with a smile. He bent down to level his gaze with Mi Li’s. “I’ve already asked your mom for today’s study plan. Today you need to practice two pages of calligraphy, and complete one page each in your math, language, and English workbooks, right?”
In the face of homework, Mi Li lost her soul.
Just like that, she surrendered before Zhang Qingyuan, disciplined into complete submission.
“Come, let’s go upstairs. I’ll keep you company while you do your homework. Once you’re done, your Uncle Ren can play with you.” Zhang Qingyuan coaxed the child with great proficiency, taking Mi Li’s hand and walking up to the second floor, leaving Ren Zhong with the sight of two retreating backs—one large, one small.
He had just been washing dishes in the kitchen and hadn’t had time to take off his apron. The warm color hugged his waistline, and the soft fabric was tied into a beautiful bow right in the middle of his lean, muscular lower back.
This silhouette truly looked far too much like a young house-husband and good father.
A chill ran down Ren Zhong’s spine.
To be honest, Ren Zhong didn’t have much feeling for kids or families.
Everyone said that Omegas were naturally gentle, delicate, and fond of kids—a creature whose heart would melt the moment they saw a child.
But Ren Zhong wasn’t like that, and never had been.
Perhaps there weren’t actually as many Omegas who naturally liked children as people imagined. It was just that everyone believed Omegas should be assigned this task and should love this “destiny.”
The TV was switched to the military channel by Ren Zhong.
This episode of the military documentary was a special feature on special forces training, showcasing a comprehensive obstacle course. Scaling hook ladders, crawling under barbed wire, marksmanship, swimming with combat boots and weights, parachuting…
F*ck, it was firing him up!
Ren Zhong only felt his blood boiling in his chest; every bone and limb in his body was screaming for a training session that pushed his physical limits.
Since his “injuries were minor and located on the extremities of his body,” to the point where he could even perform that dog-sh*t marital obligation, why couldn’t he continue training?
Ren Zhong locked the wheels of his wheelchair, gripping the armrests with both hands to prop his body up. As he watched TV, he did supported leg raises, imagining himself on the training ground.
He hadn’t even completed a few sets before his body started heating up, breaking out in a thin layer of sweat.
Suddenly, the TV changed channels.
The news channel anchor, dressed in a meticulous suit, instantly extinguished Ren Zhong’s training enthusiasm.
Zhang Qingyuan stood holding the remote control. Without saying a word, he looked at Ren Zhong with a gaze that was four parts concern, three parts reproach, and two parts gentle scolding. He looked exactly like a pouty little wife putting on airs, asking, “Do you know what you did wrong? What is it?”
“Captain, I understand how you feel, and I believe you know your limits. But physical therapy still needs to be conducted under a doctor’s guidance, don’t you agree?” He spoke with gentle words, half coaxing, half persuading. “We can go to rehab tomorrow, but for today, let’s just rest properly, alright?”
If Zhang Qingyuan’s attitude had been even slightly more forceful, Ren Zhong would have straightforwardly snapped back.
But the reality was that not only was Zhang Qingyuan’s tone exceptionally gentle and accommodating, he even squatted beside Ren Zhong’s wheelchair, resting his hands lightly on the armrests, looking up at Ren Zhong with the innocent eyes of a small animal.
The last creature that dared look at Ren Zhong with such a gaze was Shang Liwei’s ragdoll cat. The final result of that staring contest ended with Ren Zhong buying two boxes of canned cat food online.
“Captain, you acting like this makes me very worried about you.” Zhang Qingyuan gently pinched the corner of Ren Zhong’s sleeve and tugged it slightly.
Ren Zhong kept a straight face and withdrew his hands. Although he didn’t say anything, he slumped back into the wheelchair and stopped tossing about.
To soothe the pitiful Captain, Zhang Qingyuan went to the kitchen and poured him a drink, even cutting bunny-shaped apple slices and cross-hatched mango halves. His dexterity was completely unlike that of an Alpha male.
In this world, probably only the phrase “virtuous wife” was worthy of such plating skills and methods for taming a brat.
Just then, the news broadcast on the TV caught their attention.
“Next, we have breaking news. Recently, netizens exposed that AI surveillance footage of marital relations has been leaked, with the private videos of hundreds of couples being sold on illegal websites…”
Hearing this, both Ren Zhong and Zhang Qingyuan tensed up.
They had just fulfilled that dog-sh*t obligation; anyone would feel a jolt of panic in their heart upon hearing such a thing.
“After police verification, the man’s true identity is a promotional agent for an illegal website. The website used this as a gimmick to attract paying viewers. In reality, the videos they sold were not authentic recordings of marital relations, but pornographic films shot by actors…”
Hearing this, Ren Zhong and Zhang Qingyuan breathed a sigh of relief almost simultaneously.
“Thank goodness it was fake.” Zhang Qingyuan patted his chest. “Scared me to death.”
“…Currently, the man and the personnel operating the website have all been apprehended by the police. We would like to reiterate once again that the Marriage Monitoring Center’s confidentiality technology is absolutely secure. Please do not panic…”
At that moment, Zhang Qingyuan’s phone rang.
“Hello, it’s me… Yes, I saw it too…” He pointed to the phone by his ear at Ren Zhong and walked away.
Ren Zhong started his wheelchair and switched the TV back to the military channel, only to suddenly discover that Mi Li had appeared on the sofa.
Hadn’t this brat gone to do her homework?
“Why are you looking at me? I finished my homework!” Mi Li crunched on the bunny apples. “You guys said I could play once I finished.”
Speechless, Ren Zhong could only hand the remote to Mi Li and let her entertain herself.
Unexpectedly, Mi Li directly cast the contents of her tablet onto the TV screen.
Instantly, the thick flavor of clickbait marketing accounts rushed their faces.
Overused background music, stiff synthesized text-to-speech, glaring red and yellow outlined fonts, and eye-searing, tacky special effects all dealt a massive blow to Ren Zhong’s aesthetic sensibilities.
“Captain Ren, who gained countless fans with a single speech, has recently had quite a bit of his ‘dark history’ dug up by netizens. Today, this editor will show you Captain Ren’s massive double standard when judging temperature.”
The footage was excerpted from an episode on the military channel.
“Captain Ren once dug out buried gun parts from scalding hot sand, assembled them, and fired them—all within fifty seconds, scoring bullseyes on every shot, casually saying ‘It’s not hot.’ Yet during flood disaster relief, when holding an infant from an orphanage, he wore an expression of great difficulty, as if saying, ‘This baby is burning hot.'”
Amidst the deafening, tacky electronic music, the photo of Ren Zhong holding the baby with the caption “This baby is burning hot” was enlarged, rotated, and subjected to repeated executions with various special effects.
People of this era even had their dark history recorded in high definition.
With a dark face, Ren Zhong hummed his little wheelchair away amid Mi Li’s raucous laughter.
…
Deep in the night, all was completely silent.
Ren Zhong drove his little wheelchair into the second-floor gym.
He didn’t turn on the lights, only opening the curtains to let the moonlight in as he propped up his body and sat on the upper-body exercise equipment.
There wasn’t much weight. It was a load he could have lifted effortlessly before his injury, yet Ren Zhong felt an obvious strain. The soreness and exhaustion in his body set in much faster than he had imagined.
He gritted his teeth, continuing to increase the weight according to his original training plan, tensing every inch of muscle he could move.
However, he failed.
A sudden slip caused the weights to crash down, emitting a loud bang.
This sound landed in the cicada-filled, noisy night, and it also landed heavily on Ren Zhong’s devastated heart.
Ren Zhong had to admit a certain fact.
He wasn’t just injured; he was also getting old.
Perhaps “old” was an exaggeration, but he was indeed no longer at his peak, where his physical capabilities were continually rising. His condition was steadily declining along with his age and injuries.
No one knew that he had been stung by the video Mi Li played today.
It wasn’t because of anything else; it was simply because his body no longer allowed him to be as spirited and full of vigor as he was in that video.
What state he could recover to after physical therapy—he didn’t know. Whether he could return to the military after his injuries healed—he didn’t know. What he could do if he returned to the military—he didn’t know.
No one could give him an accurate answer, not even himself.
He felt as if he had plunged into a life trajectory he had fought so hard to escape, only to be forced back into it. To be an Omega who managed the household and raised children, trapped in the tiny corner of a “family”—a fragile, dependent “Omega” going into heat for an Alpha.
A gentle knock sounded at the gym door.
“Captain, are you in there?”
It was Zhang Qingyuan.
Ren Zhong let out an “En.”
“Captain, may I come in?” he asked.
Ren Zhong quickly climbed down from the equipment, propped himself up, and leapt back into the wheelchair before clearing his throat and saying, “Come in.”
Wearing soft pajamas, Zhang Qingyuan pushed the door open, rubbing his eyes as he walked in. He didn’t turn on the lights, simply using the moonlight from the window to quietly gaze at Ren Zhong.
He sat down on an exercise ball, bringing his line of sight level with Ren Zhong’s.
“Captain, did something happen?”
His gaze merged with the moonlight, brimming with gentleness.
Translator’s Note:
- Makka Pakka, Akka Wakka, Mikka Makka Moo!: This is the iconic chant of Makka Pakka from the British children’s show In the Night Garden.
- Burning Hot (烫手): The Chinese term tang shou literally means “scalding to the hand,” but it also serves as a slang term for something that is troublesome, difficult to handle, or something you want to get rid of quickly. The video editor uses this pun to mock Ren Zhong!