Kill The Marriage Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Distortion

The nights in the coastal city were always reluctant to end.

But as a child whose body needed to grow, Mi Li had to go home to sleep.

She had played so happily at the night market that her physical energy was long completely depleted. On the way back, she slept in the car exactly like a little piglet.

Even with sunscreen applied, the fair and clean little swan still showed a tendency to develop into a little black coal briquette. Tan lines precisely marked out the areas of her T-shirt and shorts on her skin.

Mi Tong looked at her daughter, feeling a bit worried. “How did this child get so tanned? She just refuses to apply sunscreen, complaining that it’s sticky and uncomfortable. She doesn’t even rub the sunscreen in properly to form a film; applying it is like not applying it at all.”

“Children have strong restorative abilities. As long as it’s not a sunburn, she’ll whiten back up in a single winter,” Shang Liwei comforted her. “Besides, aren’t all kids like this? They’re still young; they completely don’t care about whether their skin is dark or fair, it’s all about having fun.”

Mi Tong’s worried expression remained undiminished. “You Alphas don’t have to care too much about your looks. But Lili is a Beta girl. If she isn’t fair, if she isn’t pretty enough, her score in the matching system will be very low, and she won’t be able to marry into a good family in the future.”

Although Shang Liwei really wanted to say, “You were fair and beautiful with a high score, but you didn’t match with a good person either.”

But she still held back. Saying that would be too hurtful.

Mi Tong’s life was clearly brutalized and oppressed by the matched marriage system, yet she had unconsciously accepted this set of rules, living within the inertia of this deformed institution.

“If, and I mean ‘if’, what if Lili didn’t have to go through a matched marriage in the future?” Shang Liwei asked her. “What if Lili didn’t have to marry early and become a housewife, but went to study, to work instead?”

Mi Tong froze for a moment.

She lowered her head and looked at the sleeping Mi Li.

In this era, girls who developed early were unfortunate.

At sixteen, Mi Tong’s glands were certified as mature, and she was matched to her Alpha ex-husband. At her high school graduation ceremony, she had to wear very wide, oversized clothes to hide her pregnant belly.

Originally, her grades were excellent, and she could have been admitted to a good university.

Her daughter was prettier, smarter, and stronger than she was, and she was growing fast too.

But so what? Even if Beta girls were slightly later than Omegas, they still had to be matched to Beta men or Alpha men to bear children.

In the end, Mi Tong only said, “Our parents’ generation wasn’t married through matching.”

For a moment, there was no sound in the car.

Many complicated emotions surged in Shang Liwei’s heart. Feeling somewhat irritable, she picked at the steering wheel cover.

She was someone overflowing with empathy who loved to worry. The reason she studied medicine but didn’t go into clinical practice, switching to scientific research instead, was because she couldn’t stop herself from empathizing with every patient.

After getting to know Mi Li, her heart was always pulled by the mother and daughter. Thinking about the past, thinking about the future, she couldn’t see a bright destination for them.

And most of her recent vexation and depression had been single-handedly brought about by her dear, good younger sister, Mai Qi.

In order to instigate her to join the game, Lawyer Mai first made her own person become her childhood friend’s “virtuous wife”, and while obtaining the preferential treatment of a military marriage, dispatched the “virtuous wife” to contact Mi Tong.

Ultimately, these maneuvers created a situation where the people around her were all connected to KFM, bringing about the “good deed” of her passionately joining Lawyer Mai’s command after she was fired.

It had to be said, Shang Liwei had indeed taken it upon herself to treat the affairs of the elder and younger Mi mother and daughter as her own. Involuntarily taking on such a burden, she could no longer put it down.

She didn’t want her scientific research results to be halted and archived for reasons like “inconsistent with policy guidelines”. She didn’t want Mi Tong, Mi Li, and millions of Beta and Omega girls just like them to repeat such a hopeless life.

Ding-ling!

It was Shang Liwei’s phone ringing.

“Tongtong, help me take a look at who the sender is.” Shang Liwei continued picking at the steering wheel cover.

Mi Tong lifted the phone to check the lock screen notification. “It’s a notification from the Marriage Monitoring Center. It’s… reminding us that the deadline for submitting the marital relations obligation video is tomorrow night at midnight.”

Screech!

These words scared Shang Liwei into slamming on the brakes immediately. The tires rubbed against the ground, almost causing a drift.

If it hadn’t been for this stretch of road having no pedestrians or vehicles, it would have been a straight-up traffic accident scene.

Strapped into her child car seat by the seatbelt, Mi Li was tossed forward a bit. She dazedly stirred to wake up, but tilted her head and went back to sleep again.

The child was asleep, so some adult matters could be discussed.

Shang Liwei: “…”

Mi Tong: “…”

Although in their daily lives, Shang Liwei often joked around, calling Mi Tong “wifey” or “the missus” with every breath, the two of them were truly, purely…

To call their relationship “friendship” wasn’t quite right; to call it “family ties” wasn’t accurate either. Whatever pure “emotion” it was, in short, at this current stage, it was absolutely not “romantic love” between them.

How pitifully barren human language is, attempting to define the complex feelings between people with just a few simple words.

They remained silent, neither knowing what to say or do.

Shang Liwei restarted the car. “Let’s head back and rest first. We still have the whole day tomorrow anyway, no rush.”

“Mm.” Mi Tong nodded obediently, mechanically repeating Shang Liwei’s words. “No rush.”

They quietly returned to the villa.

After settling Mi Li down, the two of them split up to wash up.

Shang Liwei first thought of messaging Ren Zhong. But after typing a few words, she deleted them and contacted Zhang Qingyuan instead.

[How did you and Zhongzhong trick the AI monitoring? Begging for your shared experience!]

Based on her understanding of her childhood friend, he definitely hadn’t used live ammunition and fought for real last month. He had most likely just half-assed his way through it.

Zhang Qingyuan was highly efficient; he quickly tossed over a file.

The file detailed various methods on how to fool the Artificial Idiot, complete with many tips and notes. It was basically a nanny-level tutorial; even a shoehorn could learn from it.

She dragged the document into a text-to-speech software, listening to it while washing up. She even took a bath along the way, laughing in the tub until her facial muscles ached.

The wisdom of the masses was indeed infinite.

She put on her loungewear and, on her way back to the bedroom, bumped into Mi Tong, who was just about to head out.

“It’s so late, where are you going?” Shang Liwei casually asked her.

Mi Tong looked up, revealing a pale face utterly devoid of any blood color, cold sweat crawling all over her forehead.

She panicked like a startled fawn. Frightened by Shang Liwei’s sudden voice, her entire body jolted, her legs gave out, and she fell to the floor.

“Sorry, sorry, it was me speaking suddenly that scared you.” Shang Liwei went to help her up. “Where are you going? How about I drop you off? It’s so late; walking alone at night is too dangerous, and you don’t know how to drive either.”

Mi Tong’s eyes were vacant. She trembled as she whispered, “I want… to go… to the hospital.”

…

“The patient used a mixture of online-purchased private area ‘bleach’ and ‘pink dye’, causing a certain degree of chemical burns to her private parts. Her pathogen test report has also come out; she indeed has an infection from certain gynecological diseases…”

The doctor had already performed simple treatment on Mi Tong’s affected areas. It was nothing serious now; she could be discharged after resting for a bit.

Mi Tong was in so much pain she couldn’t move, but she still used her arms to cover her face, trying hard to curl herself into a ball.

She didn’t dare to face Shang Liwei.

She knew Shang Liwei was standing right by her hospital bed, but she lacked the courage to speak to her.

Amidst shame, guilt, and despair, she cried softly.

Shang Liwei reached out a hand.

That slender hand blocked the cold white light spilling from the hospital’s ceiling, casting a shadow over Mi Tong’s head.

Mi Tong habitually shrank her body, dodging instinctively.

She was already prepared to endure abuse, accusations, and violence.

The “beauty” she had tried with all her might to display was, in the end, merely a whitewashed illusion. Her insides had long been rotten and decaying, permeating a nauseating stench and fishy smell.

Who wouldn’t fly into a rage when, after tearing open an exquisite outer shell, they see a mass of maggots inside?

The box originally held lovingly in the palm would be ruthlessly smashed onto the ground. Foul language, punches, and kicks would follow in succession, making the barely presentable packaging rot together with it.

She might be slapped with a resounding backhand, kicked in the stomach by dirty shoe soles, or grabbed by her messy hair to have her head smashed against the wall.

But, but!

Shang Liwei merely gently stroked her head.

“Silly girl.” Shang Liwei’s voice was low, deep, and warm.

So strange.

Mi Tong wasn’t afraid of insults and attacks. If it weren’t for Mi Li, she probably wouldn’t even be afraid of dying.

Yet this hand made her feel overwhelming trepidation.

If there was such a hand, gently stroking your head, lightly rubbing your shoulders, slowly patting your back… you would no longer have the strength to push it away.

Mi Tong couldn’t control herself; she began crying aloud.

“I’m sorry.” She was apologizing. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

She simply kept repeating those three words endlessly, tears sliding from the corners of her eyes into her temples.

“Silly girl, why are you… sigh!” Shang Liwei sighed. “Why would you hurt yourself?”

Mi Tong sobbed, unable to even complete a sentence. “I’m sorry… I feel like such a good person like you… boo hoo… should have, the best… But, of all things… you met a piece of damaged goods like me.”

Hearing this made Shang Liwei feel as if she had developed high blood pressure at a young age.

“Tongtong, you’re a human being! How can you talk about yourself like that?” Shang Liwei gently shook her shoulders.

Mi Tong paused for a few seconds before burying her head and crying even harder.

“Hyperpigmentation is a normal phenomenon. Aside from prepubescent children and elderly people, adults are almost all dark. You actually believe that disgusting talk about ‘black or pink ears’? The color has absolutely nothing to do with your sexual experience, nor does it determine your worth.”

Shang Liwei felt a headache coming on.

“You were sick, why didn’t you go to the hospital?”

She didn’t want to reprimand Mi Tong; she just wanted to have a heart-to-heart talk with her.

“The doctor also said that using those washes every day won’t alleviate your condition; it will only destroy your natural balance and health, delaying treatment. If everyone could prescribe their own medicine and cure themselves of every illness, wouldn’t all the doctors be out of a job?”

Mi Tong’s tears flowed profusely, her face full of endless grievances. “I… I wasn’t sleeping around. I’ve only ever been with my ex-husband… I don’t know why I would get that kind of dirty disease either.”

“Diseases themselves carry no additional meaning. There’s no distinction between ‘dirty’ or ‘not dirty’. A gastrointestinal illness causing vomiting and diarrhea isn’t clean either; why does no one call that a ‘dirty disease’?” Shang Liwei shook her head helplessly.

She knew deeply that Mi Tong hadn’t just missed out on some knowledge points that could be called “common sense”; rather, the very framework through which she understood the world had been distorted by societal lies.

“Did your ex-husband cheat on you, or does he have a history of visiting prostitutes?” she asked.

Mi Tong nodded slowly.

“He’s the one who went out to ‘play’, caught a disease, and brought it home to infect you. How did it become you being dirty?” Shang Liwei pinched the other’s earlobe, comforting her. “The dirty one is your ex-husband. His heart is dirty, and his disease-carrying dick is dirty. It was never you.”

Shang Liwei leaned down, gently embracing Mi Tong on the hospital bed.

“The doctor said you’re fine and can go back to rest. The leave application has already been sent to the Marriage Monitoring Center; it’ll be approved tomorrow… Let’s go home, okay?”

Mi Tong buried her head in her shoulder curve and nodded vigorously.

Translator’s Note: Poor Mi Tong! She has been so deeply brainwashed by a misogynistic society that she truly believed her worth was tied to her body. Shang Liwei directly addresses the toxicity of “pink/black ears” (a crude internet slang in Chinese used to shame women for their sexual history based on biology/pigmentation). What a supportive relationship they are building!