Chapter 2

He draped his rain-soaked coat over my shoulders and whispered, "Don't be afraid. I'll go with you to find the teacher."

In that moment, he was like a light in the darkness, illuminating my world.

In the days that followed, whenever I was bullied, he would always appear just in time.

He would help me tidy up my ransacked backpack, accompany me to the nurse's office to treat my wounds, and even voluntarily became my desk mate.

Gradually, the bullying stopped.

"You don't have to be scared," he would always tell me. "I'll always be by your side."

When we met again ten years later, I had slimmed down but was still plain and ordinary.

He, however, had become even more outstanding, dressed in a suit and tie, exuding an aura of success in every gesture.

I only dared to watch him from afar, but I never expected him to approach me.

"Do you remember me?" he asked. "I've been looking for you all this time."

His career was thriving, yet he never made me feel inferior.

Whenever my mother-in-law belittled me for my humble background, he was always the first to stand up and speak for me.

"Mom, Flora has worked very hard," he would say. "She's my wife. We're family."

Back then, I naively believed that this happiness would last forever.Until he became obsessed with developing AI, the tenderness in his eyes gradually disappeared, replaced by an infatuation with "AI assistant."

A year ago, he held my hand and said, "Once the AI is successfully developed, I'll give you a grand wedding."

I believed him. I worked tirelessly, day and night.

I silently endured two miscarriages, afraid of hindering his research.

I lost nearly ninety pounds, gritting my teeth through it all.

But now, he has shattered all my fantasies with his own hands by naming it "AI assistant."

Drip, drip — the crisp sound of water interrupted my thoughts.

I raised my hand to touch my cheek, realizing I had unknowingly been crying.

The fluorescent lights in the hospital room were a harsh, cold white, much like my current state of mind.

"The patient's condition isn't looking good," the doctor pushed up his glasses, his expression grave. "Long-term AI emotional injection training has led to an overload of brain neurons."

I nodded mechanically.

"If this continues, within three months, you may completely lose the ability to experience emotional fluctuations," the doctor sighed. "You'll be like... a machine without feelings."

Ironically, in my quest to give AI genuine emotions, I was paying the price of losing my own.The night deepened, and the hospital room fell silent.

I opened my phone and clicked on the AI assistant's background monitoring interface.

The interaction count continued to jump: 997... 998... 999...

Dane's figure was still nowhere to be seen.

I clutched the lucky charm in my hand, the one he had begged the temple priest for seven whole days to obtain.

At the time, he had said, "With this, you'll always be my most precious person."

Now that I think about it, even that devotion was probably fake.

With trembling fingers, I dialed Melody's number.

"Jenny!" The familiar voice was filled with delight. "You finally decided to call me!"

"Melody... I want to come work for you."

There was a moment of silence on the other end. "You've finally come around?"

Melody was my childhood friend. After returning from studying abroad, she had founded her own tech company.

She had always advised me not to push myself too hard, but back then, my heart was full of Dane. Because our companies were competitors, I had deliberately distanced myself from her.