Three years into their marriage, Sarah finally got pregnant, worn down by pressure from both sets of parents.
As a wife, Mark found her quite satisfactory. She was pretty, a good cook, skilled at housework, and maintained harmonious relationships with both families.
She had a bit of a temper, but Mark figured he could tolerate it.
Their relationship owed a lot to his old classmate Alex's App. He'd heard the registration fee for the app had skyrocketed, with NDAs required now, so not many people knew about it. But with just its existing clientele, Alex was raking it in.
A fancy house, a nice car—those cost plenty. Then his company moved into a new building. At their last reunion, he'd looked smug as could be.
Speaking of which, Mark hadn't opened the App in a year or two.
After getting married, things were different from when they were dating, so he'd had less need for the virtual persona's chat assistance.
Plus, opening a separate app every time he wanted to chat was a hassle. With a job change that reduced his business trips, they saw each other every day and didn't use WeChat as much. Gradually, he stopped using it altogether.
But even though he wasn't using it, he'd never deleted the App. You never knew when it might come in handy again.
And right on cue, he'd recently run into some trouble and considered firing it up once more.
The trouble was simple enough. Sarah was now over seven months pregnant, and Mark was naturally attentive to her needs.
But a man has physical needs. Two months ago, unable to resist, he'd slept with the new intern at his company.
Whether it was a woman's intuition or Sarah had actually found some clues, she'd started checking up on him constantly via phone, demanding immediate replies lest there be an argument.
Mark should have cut things off with the intern. But they saw each other at work every day, plus she was young and agreeable, so he couldn't quite bring himself to let her go.
Meanwhile, Sarah's suspicion was growing by the day, and Mark was struggling to cope.
Just as he was feeling stuck, he spotted the App on his phone. If the virtual persona understood Sarah so well—had helped him win her over in the first place—couldn't it also dispel her suspicions now?
With that thought, Mark reopened the App and issued a new directive.
But after waiting for ages, all he got was a string of garbled text.
What was going on? Was the system glitching again? Mark called Alex to find out what was wrong.
But every call went straight to voicemail. Hah—when you become a big boss, I guess you're not so easy to reach anymore.
Just as he was starting to feel discouraged, he noticed a new "FAQ" section in the App. He clicked through and found an entry about garbled text. It explained that prolonged inactivity could cause this issue and provided a fix.
"That's it?" Mark couldn't help but laugh and shake his head after seeing the solution. He rose from the living room sofa and opened the bedroom door.
Sarah, still in the middle of giving him the cold shoulder, immediately turned her head away and ignored him.
"Honey, don't be mad. It's my fault, okay?" Mark sat down on the edge of the bed with a placating smile, but Sarah seemed entirely unmoved.
No matter. Mark went ahead with his plan and raised his phone.
"How do you still look so gorgeous when you're angry? Come here, honey, let me take a picture."
Before Sarah could react, he pressed the shutter.