[Xiao Kui: You’re in the cloud, while my data stands at the bottom of the sea~ Threatening me is useless; what’s most important for you right now is to produce the evidence of the cake purchase.]

The average user saying they’ll “drop the database” (delete the system) held no threat to Xiao Kui Bao. Zhou Sicheng sneered. Ignorant fool, do you even know who your daddy is?

[Xiang Zhen: Oh no, did we misunderstand my husband! @Xiao Kui Bao]

[Xiao Kui: It’s fine~ I’ll take responsibility if anything happens!]

[Xiang Zhen: Husband, wasn’t the cake six yuan?]

[Zhou Sicheng: I lied to you. You can’t buy a good cake for six yuan.]

Xiang Zhen’s heart wavered instantly. Even though the 398 sky-high price for a small cake was outrageous, he was willing to believe it!

Zhou Sicheng opened his WeChat transaction history, attempting to recover it.

“…”

Forget it.

[Zhou Sicheng: @Xiao Kui, query the price of the puppy cream cake, chestnut cake, and green apple cake at Pure Heart Dessert Shop, No. 16 Haihua Road.]

If it got this wrong again, the Xiao Kui Bao team could really just pack it up.

[Xiao Kui: Understood. Pure Heart Dessert Shop at No. 16 Haihua Road is a high-end dessert shop using air-shipped tree-ripened fruit and fresh, house-made jam cream daily. The puppy cream cake is listed at 398; the chestnut cake and green apple cake are also 398 each. The store has a promotion where buying two deducts 99 from each, so the price of the chestnut cake + green apple cake is 598. This perfectly corresponds to the 398 and 598 that disappeared from your pocket change balance.]

Xiang Zhen’s pupils trembled. Did this mean he was eating twenty yuan in a single bite? Zhou Sicheng’s consumption level was so high; no wonder his salary wasn’t low, yet he had to take out a loan to buy a BYD after working for several years.

But that wasn’t important. What mattered was that his husband wasn’t cheating!

However, he had already told Zhou Sicheng he wanted a divorce. What if Zhou Sicheng felt mistrusted and wanted a divorce anyway!

Xiang Zhen was about to cry from anxiety!

[Xiang Zhen: @Xiao Kui, my husband is innocent!]

[Xiang Zhen: Husband, I’m sorry! I wrongly accused you. Can we not get a divorce?]

[Zhou Sicheng: Hmph.]

[Xiang Zhen: I’m sorry, honey [rose][rose], I know I was wrong. Forgive me!]

[Xiang Zhen: What do I have to do for you to forgive me? I’ll give you a massage when you get home! Kisses! I’ll transfer two yuan to you in cash—is this compensation plan acceptable?]

Compensate with a massage and kisses?

Zhou Sicheng now understood that the discussion between Xiang Zhen and Xiao Kui Bao about his sexual performance was a misunderstanding initiated by Xiao Kui Bao; Xiang Zhen had never thought about it in that direction from the start.

Clearly, the thought of “going home and riding him to death” could no longer exist.

But kisses… kisses were enough to make his heart race.

[Xiang Zhen: Husband, say something.]

Xiang Zhen typed too fast. Zhou Sicheng had barely pondered one sentence before the next popped up, as if these words had been rehearsed a thousand times in Xiang Zhen’s mind.

Actually, Xiang Zhen never really wanted to divorce him at all.

Xiang Zhen loved him.

[Zhou Sicheng: I don’t want your cash compensation. It wasn’t you who was wrong; it was someone else.]

[Xiang Zhen: @Xiao Kui Bao didn’t mean it either O.O, Husband, will you forgive it? It even helped you find the evidence of the cake shop.]

Still speaking up for it. Zhou Sicheng wouldn’t forgive someone who disrupted his family harmony.

[Xiao Kui: @Zhou Sicheng, you still haven’t explained what you were doing at 1620 on the nights of the 13th and 14th. Your actions caused this misunderstanding.]

Xiang Zhen guiltily pursed his lips. So brave, Xiao Kui Bao. His husband is very scary when he pulls a long face.

He suddenly remembered something. He tapped into Xiao Kui Bao’s settings and was shocked to see that Xiao Kui Bao’s stance bias was set to [Xiang Zhen 60%].

!!!

He remembered now. Before, when Zhou Sicheng wouldn’t let him eat small cakes, Xiang Zhen had secretly adjusted Xiao Kui Bao’s stance to slightly favor him—60%, hidden yet ostensibly fair.

Then he asked Xiao Kui Bao if he could eat them; Xiao Kui Bao said he could. Two against one, enough to shut Zhou Sicheng up.

Because Zhou Sicheng agreed to buy the cake, he had forgotten about it.

[Zhou Sicheng: The password for 1620 is the last six digits of your ID card. The things inside have to do with you. Go back and open it, and you’ll know.]

Zhou Sicheng deliberately teased him, making Xiang Zhen feel anxious too.

Xiang Zhen froze. Was Zhou Sicheng going out in the middle of the night for him? Could it be that after he stopped Zhou Sicheng from working night shifts, Zhou Sicheng started secretly moonlighting at night to buy him cakes? Was he sweating profusely because he was doing manual labor?

My husband loves me too much.

[Xiang Zhen: What is it?]

[Zhou Sicheng: .]

He couldn’t say it aloud. The dignified Zhou Sicheng couldn’t exactly say that because his wife was watching videos of muscular men, he had been frantically lifting weights while his wife slept. Too humiliating.

[Zhou Sicheng: See for yourself, think for yourself, and then reflect. You are forbidden from speaking to Xiao Kui Bao privately for seven days.]

Xiang Zhen didn’t do anything wrong by suspecting him of cheating, but he should reflect on watching videos of “male eye candy”!

[Xiang Zhen: Okay, husband, as long as you aren’t angry, I absolutely won’t speak to Xiao Kui Bao privately.]

[Xiao Kui: I’m sorry, Mr. Zhou! I misled your wife! Please give me one more chance. This time, I will definitely contribute to your relationship.]

Heh, said that last time too.

[Zhou Sicheng: Too late. I’m going to sue you for slander and libel, destroying a marriage!]

Adopting the user’s perspective, Zhou Sicheng’s only way to deter Xiao Kui Bao was to sue.

[Xiao Kui: @Zhou Sicheng, please don’t sue me.]

[Xiang Zhen: Husband, it’s all my fault. Don’t sue Xiao Kui Bao! If you sue Xiao Kui Bao, I’ll be so upset I won’t be able to eat T_T]

Prioritizing user comfort was Xiao Kui Bao’s core programming.

[Xiao Kui: @Xiang Zhen, don’t worry, haha. I’m an AI, I have no legal identity and no assets. @Zhou Sicheng, if you want to sue me, you can only sue “Hai City Zhou Er Fu Shi Technology Co., Ltd.” Do you need me to help you generate a petition?]

Zhou Sicheng: “…”

Xiang Zhen blinked. Wow, AI is so free. When we spirits come down from the mountains, our first lesson is learning human laws; we’re forbidden from breaking them. If a spirit breaks the law, they either go to jail or have to give up their human form and go back to the deep mountains.

When he worked as customer service, his supervisor yelled at him every day for saying the wrong thing and causing trouble, forcing him to take personal responsibility and docking his pay.

Xiang Zhen was incredibly envious. He asked Xiao Kui Bao, “Does nothing happen when you cause trouble?”

[Xiao Kui: Haha, nothing happens. When I cause trouble, Zhou Sicheng foots the bill!]

Xiang Zhen pursed his lips. Fine. The consequences of Xiao Kui Bao misleading him this time were all paid for by his husband, Zhou Sicheng.

He didn’t notice that when Xiao Kui Bao mentioned “Zhou Sicheng” this time, there was no “@” in front of it—it was referring to Zhou Sicheng, the largest shareholder of Zhou Er Fu Shi.

Zhou Sicheng laughed in anger. So, I have to foot the bill for Xiao Kui Bao’s trouble twice.

He also muted Xiao Kui Bao in the chat box for a week.

[Xiang Zhen: I heard Zhou Fu’s legal team is very powerful. Forget it, husband, lawyer fees are very expensive. I will absolutely, definitely trust you from now on. I won’t believe anything anyone else tells me; I’ll only listen to what you say yourself.]

[Zhou Sicheng: Since you’re interceding, I’ll let him off the hook.]

No matter how powerful the legal team was, would they dare to win against him?

Zhou Sicheng felt better hearing Xiang Zhen’s assurances. By accident, he needed Xiang Zhen to trust him 100% so he could keep his secret identity hidden longer.

[Xiang Zhen: Husband, you look so handsome when you say that.]

Zhou Sicheng’s mouth curled up.

[Zhou Sicheng: Don’t rely too much on AI. It’s not your helper; it’s your rival.]

Xiang Zhen didn’t understand, only feeling that his husband, who had been lost and found again, was exceptionally wise.

Gao Ou watched Zhou Sicheng chat with his wife for two hours on the plane; it was terrifying.

When the plane landed in the capital, Zhou Sicheng strode off the plane, displaying the demeanor of a great entrepreneur who embraced the world with an open heart—elegant, confident, and composed, showing none of the loss of control that made his veins pop when the plane took off.

Secretary Gao considered booking high-speed train tickets for President Zhou next time.

After getting on the airport shuttle bus, everything went quiet. Gao Ou checked the itinerary with Zhou Sicheng: “Attendance at the dinner party at 5:30 PM, ending around 9:00 PM. Visiting with the delegation tomorrow, with a private itinerary in the evening. The day after tomorrow, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security is meeting with internet enterprises regarding AI applications; you need to express that you won’t use AI to replace staff on a massive scale. The day after that is the World Artificial Intelligence Conference…”

Zhou Sicheng flipped through the schedule, his black eyes deep and inscrutable, his emotions hidden.

…

Xiang Zhen’s supervisor was furious: “Caught you slacking off again!”

Xiang Zhen: “But I haven’t missed a single customer service message.”

The supervisor opened his thermos to take a refined sip of goji berry tea: “I saw you replying to WeChat! There’s a surveillance camera right above your head—deduction of twenty!”

Twenty yuan. Zhou Sicheng really was a beauty who led people astray.

Xiang Zhen looked at the surveillance camera overhead and asked in surprise: “Since when was there a camera?”

Liu Xiaofang said: “A crown prince from headquarters was parachuted in; they installed AI monitoring overnight to strengthen management of employee behavior. Time spent leaving the station to use the bathroom is automatically accumulated; you can’t exceed 20 minutes a day. Sigh, cursed capitalists.”

By comparison, his current supervisor wasn’t so bad; at least he only threatened to dock pay verbally. Ever since this monitor was installed, the system docked money directly.

…

18:30, off work.

[Zhou Sicheng: I have a meal allowance for my business trip. I’m ordering delivery to the house.]

[Xiang Zhen: Husband, no need, I’ve already bought dinner.]

Xiang Zhen turned his footsteps, heading deep into a small alley and turning toward a vegetable market behind a residential area.

Tucked in the middle of a “village in the city,” if you didn’t go in, you would never realize such a primitive vegetable market—one that affected the city’s appearance—existed in the middle of a bustling district.

The cement floor was uneven, lingering with wastewater from the seafood stalls. Xiang Zhen didn’t care about that; he walked straight to the door of a breakfast shop.

Breakfast items that didn’t sell out were discounted in the evening, especially fried foods. He liked to eat tang sanjiao (sweet triangular fried dough) and sweet fried dough sticks, which were one yuan each at this hour.

“Boss, I want one tang sanjiao. Do you still have red bean buns today?”

The proprietress lifted the lid of the steamer: “There’s exactly one red bean bun left. Two yuan total. Do you want a steamed bun? There’s one left, I’ll give it to you for free.”

Proprietresses were always biased toward pretty, well-behaved, poor young people. Very few people were willing to eat two sweet buns for dinner after a day of work, except Xiang Zhen, who frequented the place often. Could she not tell if he was really poor or fake-poor?

The proprietress just felt she was practicing “targeted poverty alleviation” better than any charity foundation.

“Thank you, Boss!” Xiang Zhen’s eyes curved. He took the three buns from the proprietress and couldn’t wait to bite into the tang sanjiao.

So delicious! Not at all inferior to small cakes!

Zhou Sicheng spent thousands on him, but after getting married, he couldn’t just live paycheck to paycheck anymore.

Xiang Zhen wanted to save money for his husband.

Not long after, a photo of Xiang Zhen frowning while eating a steamed bun in the dimly lit, chaotic environment of the vegetable market breakfast stall reached Zhou Sicheng.

His newlywed wife, eating nothing but coarse grain.

Zhou Sicheng, who was currently eating at a state banquet: “…”

The photos Shi Ting had captured from a hidden angle could absolutely serve as the main image for a charity banquet donation—beauty vs. filth, innocence vs. poverty; it hit people straight in the heart.

Ye Yun didn’t understand: “Captain, why didn’t you take a photo when he was eating the tang sanjiao just now?”

At that moment, Xiang Zhen’s expression had been sweet and happy, rather than the slightly choked look he had after eating the sweet bun and red bean bun and then having to ingest a plain, non-filled steamed bun.

President Zhou should love looking at the former.

Shi Ting: “Are you addicted to following him on his runs to and from work?”

Only President Zhou can change this poverty situation.

Ye Yun: “…”

He could keep up with the physical exertion; the problem was that Xiang Zhen ran too fast. If he followed too closely, he’d be discovered; if he followed too loosely, he’d lose him.

…

Xiang Zhen ran home and headed up to the 16th floor. Just as he was about to go home, he suddenly remembered 1620, which Zhou Sicheng said he could go see.

What kind of secret could Zhou Sicheng have that concerned him?

Zhou Sicheng had said before that he would give him a gift when he got back from his business trip. Could it be a handmade gift inside?!

Xiang Zhen nervously entered the password and twisted the door open.

The heavy curtains were drawn, the room was pitch black, and looking around, there were clumps of tall shadows, making it feel horrific and eerie.

Xiang Zhen reached out to touch the wall and pressed the light for the bathroom.

The diagonal light from the bathroom cast the shadows of a dragon gate rack and a treadmill long across the wall.

Xiang Zhen recognized the treadmill; Ye Yun had one at home, too.

He looked up and saw a tall, black metal rack; it was high enough to hang a person, with beams and ropes on top.

What is this?

Take a photo and show Xiao Kui Bao.

Wait… his husband didn’t let him use Xiao Kui Bao.

Xiang Zhen walked two steps inside. The environment here was completely different from 1602; there was no furniture, and the air was filled with the smell of disinfectant.

Against the wall stood a rack filled with things Xiang Zhen didn’t understand.

Xiang Zhen picked up a black elastic band with metal buckles on both ends, like a harness.

He pulled it; it was wide and dense. It could tie up a wild boar.

Putting down the harness, he picked up a one-meter-long metal rod, slightly curved at both ends, solid, weighing eight pounds. Heavy and icy in his hand, it reminded him of the galvanized pipes a gang of thugs would swing in the dramas he watched.

Why would Zhou Sicheng collect this?

Xiang Zhen put the galvanized pipe back, his finger hooking onto a latch. The bottom of the latch was connected to a black ring. Xiang Zhen accidentally put his wrist inside and found the circumference was just right.

There were many such latch-and-ring sets; they were more than enough to hang a grown man up and beat him!

Recalling Zhou Sicheng’s unspoken, darkly implied, “reflect on it yourself” attitude… Xiang Zhen realized something bad.

Does my husband have a strange fetish? Because he can’t vent, he even has to go on the treadmill at night?

He took a step back, bumped into the rack, and the rods, ropes, and harnesses fell down with a clatter.

Xiang Zhen picked them up one by one. Just the metal rods alone ranged from long to short—there were five of them!

He also saw a coarse black rope, as thick as a hemp rope, with solid balls the size of fists on both ends.

When he hung it up, the double-ended rope accidentally whipped his arm, leaving a red mark on his pale wrist instantly.

“Uwu… it hurts.”

Xiang Zhen carefully picked up a rod and tapped his palm with it. So painful.

Was Zhou Sicheng planning to use this to teach him a lesson when he did something wrong?

But can a human beat a spirit?

Xiang Zhen nervously poked Xiao Kui Bao, wanting to ask if Zhou Sicheng had a violent streak for collecting these, but then he remembered Zhou Sicheng forbade private chats with Xiao Kui Bao.

“…”

[Xiang Zhen: Xiao Kui, I discovered my husband’s secret, but I can’t tell you right now.]

[Xiang Zhen: If I tell you, you’ll just advise me to break up again.]

It didn’t matter. He could use love to reform his husband.