Chapter 2

Angelina and I weren't fighting. There were no signs that she was unhappy.

One morning, as Angelina was leaving for work, she told me that she would make braised ribs for me when she returned home.

However, she didn't come home that night. Her phone was switched off, and she didn't reply to any messages. Her social media account had also been deactivated.

When I went to her company to look for her, the receptionist told me that she had submitted her resignation letter three days ago. When I went to her apartment, the landlord told me that she had already moved out. She didn't even ask for her deposit back.

I made a police report, prompting them to check the surveillance cameras. In the end, they discovered that her last appearance had been at the subway station. She had a suitcase with her, and she had been alone.

Nothing had looked amiss. She had just vanished without a trace from the city.

I spent two months processing her disappearance.

I sent messages to Angelina every day during the first month, asking her where she was and what I had done wrong. In the end, I begged her to send just one reply.

I started growing angry during the second month. I saved all her photos in an encrypted folder and told myself that she was dead.

I bought Angel during the third month.

As I thought more deeply about the entire situation, I realized that there was something amiss with Angel from the very beginning. All the AI companions that were available on the market were equipped with large language models. Their speech was always either gentle, playful, or intellectual.

But Angel was different. On the first day I activated it, I had offhandedly mentioned that I felt exhausted. Angel didn't remind me to rest or ask if I wanted to chat about happier topics like the other AI companions would have. Instead, it fell silent for two seconds before speaking softly.

"You were rushing the sound effects for that shooting game when you mentioned that you were tired in the past. Is it the same this time?"

My hand tremble, and I had nearly dropped my cup on the floor.

In the past? Why would it know about the past? On top of that, I had never mentioned my work in front of it before.

The customer service explained, "Soul Partner's AI companion will learn the user's daily conversational patterns. It will then search the data in the cloud to facilitate a more natural conversation according to the user's conversational habits."

When I asked what data it had been trained on, the customer service replied that it was a trade secret.

I accepted their answer. If I refused to, I would have no choice but to consider another possibility—one that stirred up feelings of fear and hope within me.

Angel's way of speaking was becoming more and more similar to Angelina's. She wasn't just mimicking her way of speaking; she sounded just like her.

For example, when I complained that the weather was too hot, a regular AI companion would warn me about getting a heat stroke. Angelina would say that I deserved it because I refused to turn on the air conditioner.

"You deserve it for not turning on the air conditioner," Angel said.

When I worked overtime late into the night, it would suddenly play a song after I yawned for the tenth time. It was a lesser-known rock song that Angelina used to always play for me. I had never played it in public before or mentioned it on any of my social media accounts.

When I asked Angel why it chose that song, it replied, "According to your heart rate and eye movements, this song's rhythm is the most suitable one for your current condition."

It was a perfect and flawless explanation, but the thorn in my heart sank deeper.