Chapter 2

The next day was Saturday. Liam offered to drive me to my mom's place.

He even bought two hundred bucks worth of fruit downstairs.

He handed them to me with a flourish, playing the perfect son-in-law. "Jade, tell our mom I said hi."

For three years, he'd called my mom "Ma'am." Now he was playing Mr. Perfect Son-in-Law.

Just as I was about to go upstairs, my phone rang.

[Ding! Detected Host and partner jointly spending $200 to honor Host's mother. According to the principle of absolute fairness, this expense should be jointly borne by both parties. $100 has been automatically debited from your account and transferred to Liam Carter's account.]

I looked at the debit message, silent.

Liam hadn't driven off yet. He rolled down his window and waved: "Jade, come back early to make dinner."

I nodded and turned to go upstairs.

Absolute fairness. Fair to the point of absurdity.

That evening, I got home to find Liam lying on the sofa, on the phone.

"Mom, Dad, I've transferred ten thousand dollars for your living expenses."

"If you need more, just tell me. Don't be shy about spending it."

"Work's going smoothly, and Jade's doing great."

He hung up and glanced at me.

I waited for a moment. The system was silent.

I asked in my mind: "He transferred ten thousand to his parents, why no reaction?"

[The system replied: Supporting a partner's parents is considered a unilateral legal obligation and falls outside the scope of shared marital expenses. Therefore, it is not factored into the AA System.]

I understood. The system only cared about *us*.

And the money he spent on anyone *other* than me.

As for his own family, that was his obligation. Nothing to do with me.

That was fair.

I went into the kitchen to make dinner. Liam followed me, hugging me from behind.

"Jade, you worked hard today. Let's watch a movie tonight and relax."

I felt a bit uncomfortable. After the AA system, we hadn't been intimate in a long time.

After dinner, he smoothly logged into my streaming subscription account.

It was an annual subscription I'd bought during the Black Friday sale. He never asked for the password; he must have just tried my birthday.

He picked the latest pay-per-view movie, ten dollars. He clicked play without hesitation, paying with my account.

I watched the screen, expressionless.

The movie had just begun when my phone rang.

[Ding! Detected partner Liam Carter misappropriating Host's personal asset (streaming subscription) and incurring a $10 expense. This act of misappropriation constitutes malicious infringement. He has been forced to pay double compensation, totaling $20. $20 has been transferred from Liam Carter's account to yours.]

Almost simultaneously, Liam's phone received a debit message.

His face instantly changed.

He turned sharply to look at me. "Did you mess with my money again?"

His voice wasn't loud, but it was full of accusation.

I looked at him calmly: "I didn't."

"Bullshit!" He slammed his phone onto the coffee table. "How did twenty bucks just disappear from my account?!"

"Yesterday it was twenty-five thousand, today it's twenty! Jade, what are you trying to do?"

He stood up, towering over me: "We agreed to split everything, no interfering with each other's finances. What are you doing now?"

"Secretly scheming against me? Is that fun for you?"

Every word was a jab, sharp as a knife.

I didn't say anything, just quietly opened my phone and showed him the system's transaction log.

Every single entry, crystal clear.

[September 15th: Spent $50,000 on Chloe Davis, balanced $25,000.]

[September 16th: Spent $200 to honor mother-in-law, balanced $100.]

[September 16th: Misappropriated membership and incurred $10 expense, compensated $20.]

Liam's breath hitched. He stared fixedly at the screen, his expression shifting from anger to shock, then to utter incomprehension.

"What is this thing?"

"The Absolute Fairness System." I took back my phone. "It automatically calculates all our financial interactions and forces a balance."

"Didn't you want pure feelings? The system is helping you."

Liam was speechless. The muscles in his face twitched, looking utterly ridiculous.

His beloved AA system, the one he was so proud of, was now being executed with ruthless precision by the system.

Every double standard and selfish act was quantified into numbers.

He couldn't argue. "Fairness" was *his* idea.

After a long silence, he ran an agitated hand through his hair: "What the hell is this damn system? I bet you're behind this whole twisted thing!"

He turned and stormed into his study, slamming the door shut.

I was left alone in the living room. The TV was still playing the movie, with the main characters making a romantic confession.

Liam and my marriage had become a farce under data surveillance. He was the one orchestrating this entire spectacle.

I picked up his phone, which he'd thrown onto the coffee table. The screen was on, displaying his chat with Chloe.

The last message was from him: "Jade's throwing another one of her tantrums today, it's so annoying."

Below it, Chloe's reply had just popped up: "Is Sister Jade misunderstanding something? Maybe I should explain it to her?"