Killing Marriage [ABO] - Chapter 19

Chapter 19; Distortion

The nights in the coastal city never seemed to end.

But for a child who needed to grow, Mi Li had to go home to sleep.

She had so much fun at the night market that she was completely exhausted. On the way back, she fell asleep in the car like a little piglet.

Even with sunscreen, the fair-skinned little swan was trending toward becoming a black charcoal briquette. Tan lines precisely marked the areas where her T-shirt and shorts had been.

Mi Tong looked at her daughter with a hint of worry. “Why is she so dark? She just doesn’t want to wear sunscreen, says it feels sticky. She doesn’t even rub it in properly to form a film, so it’s like she didn’t put any on at all.”

“Kids have strong recuperative abilities. As long as she’s not sunburned, she’ll get her fair skin back in a winter,” Shang Liwei comforted her. “Besides, aren’t all kids like this? They’re still young and don’t care about fair or dark skin. They just want to have fun.”

Mi Tong’s worries did not lessen. “You Alphas don’t have to care too much about your looks. But Li Li is a Beta girl. If she’s not fair and pretty enough, her score on the matching system will be very low, and she won’t be able to marry into a good family.”

Although Shang Liwei wanted to say, “You’re fair and beautiful with a high score, but you didn’t get matched to a good person,” she held back. That would be too hurtful.

Mi Tong’s life was clearly ruined and oppressed by the matching marriage system, yet she had unconsciously adopted its rules and was living in the inertia of this twisted system.

“What if, and I mean ‘if,’ Li Li doesn’t have to marry through the matching system in the future?” Shang Liwei asked her. “What if Li Li doesn’t have to get married early and become a housewife, but can go to school and work?”

Mi Tong was stunned for a moment.

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

In this era, girls who mature early are unfortunate.

Mi Tong was confirmed to have mature glands at sixteen and was matched with her Alpha ex-husband. At her high school graduation ceremony, she had to wear a very loose dress to hide her pregnant belly.

Her grades were originally very good, and she could have gotten into a good university.

Her daughter was prettier, smarter, stronger, and was also growing taller quickly.

But what did it matter? A Beta female, even if it was a little later than an Omega, would still be matched with a Beta or Alpha male to have children.

In the end, Mi Tong just said, “Our parents’ generation didn’t get married through the matching system.”

Silence filled the car for a moment.

A lot of complex emotions churned inside Shang Liwei. She nervously picked at the protective cover on the steering wheel.

She was a person with an overabundance of empathy and worry. The reason she went into research instead of clinical medicine was that she couldn’t stop herself from empathizing with every patient.

After meeting Mi Li, her heart was always pulled by the mother and daughter. Thinking about the past and the future, she couldn’t see a bright path forward for them.

Most of her recent frustration and gloom were all orchestrated by her dear younger sister, Mai Qi.

To get her to join the cause, Mai Qi had first made her own person the “devoted wife” of her best friend, who, while receiving the benefits of a military marriage, was also tasked with contacting Mi Tong.

Ultimately, these maneuvers led to a situation where everyone around her was connected to the KFM, which eventually prompted her “good decision” to passionately join Mai Qi’s ranks after resigning.

It must be said that Shang Liwei had indeed taken on the affairs of the Mi family mother and daughter as her own. She had taken on this burden of her own accord, and now she couldn’t put it down.

She didn’t want her research results to be halted and archived for reasons like “not conforming to policy.” She didn’t want Mi Tong, Mi Li, and the countless Beta and Omega girls like them to repeat a life without hope.

Dring!

It was Shang Liwei’s phone ringing.

“Tong Tong, can you see who the sender is?” Shang Liwei continued to pick 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 a reminder about the deadline for submitting the video of our conjugal obligations. It’s due tomorrow night at midnight.”

SCREEEEECH!

This news made Shang Liwei slam on the brakes. The wheels screeched against the pavement, almost causing the car to drift.

If this road hadn’t been empty of pedestrians and other vehicles, it would have been a definite car accident.

Mi Li was jolted in her car seat by the seatbelt, stirring for a moment, but she just tilted her head and fell back asleep.

With the child asleep, they could discuss adult matters.

Shang Liwei: “…”

Mi Tong: “…”

Although Shang Liwei would often jokingly call Mi Tong “wife” or “honey” in their daily lives, they were really…

Their relationship was not quite “friendship” or “kinship.” Whatever “ship” it was, at this stage, it was definitely not “love.”

How poor human language was, trying to define the complex feelings between people with a few simple words.

They were silent, not knowing what to say or do.

Shang Liwei restarted the car. “Let’s go back and rest first. We still have all of tomorrow. No rush.”

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

They returned to the villa in silence.

After settling Mi Li in, they went their separate ways 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 Chong Chong manage to deceive the AI surveillance? Share your experience!]

Based on her understanding of her best friend, he definitely hadn’t had any real conjugal relations last month and had likely just faked it.

Zhang Qingyuan was highly efficient and quickly sent a file.

The document detailed various methods to deceive the AI, complete with helpful tips and notes. It was a comprehensive tutorial; even an idiot could understand it.

She dragged the document into a text-to-speech software and listened while she washed up, even taking a relaxing bath and laughing so hard that her facial muscles ached.

The wisdom of the masses was truly endless.

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

“Where are you going so late?” Shang Liwei asked casually.

Mi Tong looked up, revealing a face so pale it lacked any trace of color, her forehead beaded with cold sweat.

She was as panicked as a startled deer. Shang Liwei’s sudden voice made her jump, and her legs gave out, causing her to fall to the floor.

“Oh, I’m so sorry. I spoke too suddenly and scared you,” Shang Liwei said, helping her up. “Where are you going? I can take you. It’s too dangerous to walk alone so late at night, and you don’t even know how to drive.”

Mi Tong’s eyes were vacant. She stammered quietly, “I want… to go to the… hospital.”

…

“The patient used a mixture of online-purchased ‘bleaching agents’ and ‘pink dyes’ on her private parts, causing a degree of chemical burns. Her pathogen test report has come back, and she does have some gynecological infections…”

The doctor had already performed a simple treatment on Mi Tong’s affected area. She was now out of danger and could be discharged after some rest.

Mi Tong was in so much pain that she couldn’t move. She covered her face with her arm and tried to curl into a ball.

She didn’t dare to face Shang Liwei.

She knew Shang Liwei was standing by her bed, but she didn’t have the courage to speak to her.

Filled with shame, guilt, and despair, she began to cry softly.

Shang Liwei reached out a hand.

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

Mi Tong habitually shrank her body, instinctively flinching.

She was prepared to endure insults, accusations, and violence.

The “beauty” she had worked so hard to present was nothing more than a facade. Inside, she was rotten and decaying, reeking of a nauseating stench.

Who wouldn’t be enraged after opening a beautiful box to find a pile of maggots inside?

The box that had been cherished in one’s palm would be violently thrown to the ground, followed by foul language and kicks, ruining the barely presentable packaging as well.

She might be slapped hard, kicked in the stomach by a dirty shoe, or have her head slammed against the wall by her messy hair.

But, but!

Shang Liwei just gently stroked her head.

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

It felt so strange.

Mi Tong was not afraid of insults or attacks. If not for Mi Li, she probably wouldn’t even be afraid of death.

But this hand made her feel terrified.

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

Mi Tong couldn’t control herself and started sobbing.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

She just kept repeating those three words, tears sliding down the corners of her eyes into her temples.

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

Mi Tong was still sobbing, her words fragmented. “I’m sorry… I feel like a good person like you… sniff… deserves the best… but you ended up… with a broken thing like me.”

Hearing this made Shang Liwei feel like her bl00d pressure was rising at a young age.

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

Mi Tong paused for a few seconds, then buried her head and cried even more fiercely.

“Pigmentation is a normal phenomenon. Besides young children and the elderly, almost all adults have dark spots. Why would you believe those disgusting things about black and pink ‘mushrooms’? The color has nothing to do with your sexual history, and it doesn’t 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 scold Mi Tong; she just wanted to talk to her from the heart.

“The doctor said that using those washes every day won’t alleviate your condition. It will only disrupt your natural balance and health, delaying treatment. If all illnesses could be self-diagnosed and self-treated, wouldn’t all the doctors be out of a job?”

Mi Tong’s tears flowed freely, her face a mask of endless grievance. “I… I wasn’t promiscuous. I was only ever with my ex-husband… I don’t know why I would get such a ‘dirty’ disease.”

“Diseases have no attached meaning. There’s no such thing as ‘dirty’ or ‘not dirty.’ A stomach illness with vomiting and diarrhea isn’t clean either, so why doesn’t anyone call that a ‘dirty’ disease?” Shang Liwei shook her head helplessly.

She knew that Mi Tong wasn’t just missing some basic “common sense” knowledge. The very framework through which she understood the world had been distorted by society’s lies.

“Did your ex-husband cheat or have a history of casual affairs?” she asked.

Mi Tong nodded slowly.

“He was the one who got sick from ‘playing around’ and then came home and infected you. How did that make you dirty?” Shang Liwei gently pinched her earlobe, comforting her. “The dirty one is your ex-husband. His heart is dirty, and so is his d1ck with all its germs. It has never been you.”

Shang Liwei leaned over and gently hugged Mi Tong on the hospital bed.

“The doctor said you’re fine and can go back to rest. I’ve also sent the leave request to the Marriage Monitoring Center, and it should be approved tomorrow… Let’s go home?”

Mi Tong buried her head in Shang Liwei’s shoulder and nodded vigorously.