Falsehoods Make the World a Better Place

And so, Lin Li and Galina were married after knowing each other for only three days. Emerging from the Manhattan Municipal Building, the Latina girl beside Lin Li still felt a bit dizzy; she felt as if these past three days had been a dream, leaving her with a persistent sense of unreality.

She asked Lin Li, who was walking forward in silence, "Are we really legally married now? Where are we going next?"

"To meet your family and prepare for the wedding. But before that, we need to change our clothes."

At six in the evening, in an ordinary residential area in Queens—compared to the high-end residential district where Lin Li lived, the environment here was more chaotic, with unemployed drifters occasionally wandering about.

The two pushed open the door and entered Galina's home side by side. Her mother had been waiting for a long time, and a little girl with a bowl cut was sitting on the sofa nearby, wearing virtual reality glasses and waving her hands, seemingly engaged in a fierce battle with someone.

Galina's mother wore her hair in wavy curls and sat on the sofa dressed in professional attire; she worked as a math teacher at a local middle school and had raised her two daughters alone.

The high cost of living in New York meant her salary was often insufficient, so she occasionally took on extra work to earn income, such as helping wealthy families look after their children or providing one-on-one tutoring.

Today, she was supposed to work at an employer's home in Manhattan, but upon hearing that her eldest daughter had married an Asian man she had known for less than three days, she had been forced to set that work aside to wait for them at home.

The middle-aged woman looked at Lin Li, who was standing beside her eldest daughter, with sharp eyes. She had assumed this was just another piece of human trash her daughter had picked up at a bar, but looking at his high-end, handmade clothing, the words she had intended to say involuntarily shifted into another: "Hello, I am Galina's mother. You can call me Perini."

In this era of intelligent industry, all handmade products implied high labor costs, especially those produced by masters.

Although she did not purchase such expensive clothing herself, some of the wealthy parents of the children she tutored would wear these seemingly ordinary items that were actually luxury goods priced in the tens of thousands of dollars; the cost of this single outfit might exceed her entire year's income.

However, the possibility that it was rented could not be ruled out, and she now needed to properly probe for information about this man.

"Hello, I am Lin Li."

Lin Li greeted the middle-aged woman naturally. As time passed, Abu had completely integrated with him; he now appeared no different from an ordinary person on the outside, even though his internal structure had further progressed toward the non-human.

Galina sat to the side, watching Lin Li converse harmoniously and pleasantly with her mother. Her mother was completely different from the serious image she held in her memory, which made her feel a sense of novelty.

She was born to her mother, Perini, and her ex-husband. Her biological father had died in a bombing attack over a decade ago, after which her mother remarried and had her younger sister with her stepfather.

However, this reconstituted marriage did not last long; her stepfather was arrested for intentional assault a few years later, and the marriage subsequently fell apart. Since then, Perini's reputation had become quite poor, and she and her sister were often subjected to discrimination by classmates and neighbors.

For these reasons, Galina had become disinclined to attend school. In her rebellious phase, she often skipped classes to hang out in bars and nightclubs, constantly changing boyfriends, while her mother did not really discipline her, merely providing her with the necessary living expenses.

The more Perini talked with Lin Li, the happier she became. She discovered that the man before her was nothing like her daughter's previous boyfriends—he was well-educated, spoke naturally and appropriately, and most importantly, was quite wealthy.

She had already secretly looked up Lin Li's information: a lead game designer. This Infinite Game Company was the largest virtual game company in the Commercial Alliance, with military backing and collaborations with many large enterprises and government departments. As an important figure within it, Lin Li's annual income was dozens of times her own.

Perini said with a soft smile, "Since you two have already registered your marriage, the wedding should naturally be held properly. However, you know the situation of our family, so..."

Lin Li replied naturally, "It doesn't matter. I will cover all the expenses. You won't need to be as busy as you were before; Galina and I will do our best to help. Her family is my family."

As a general equivalent, money represents an individual's ability to realize their own desires. In many cases, once there is enough money, most problems cease to be problems.

If Lin Li were a pauper, this lady would not have such a favorable attitude toward him. But the vast amount of money and his social status caused Lin Li's value in Perini's eyes to soar; all her potential objections dissolved into approval, and the conversation proceeded incredibly smoothly.

The two soon agreed on a date for the wedding, and Perini began contacting relatives and colleagues, while Lin Li made similar preparations.

Two weeks later, Lin Li and Galina stepped into the wedding hall. In a church in Brooklyn, the two took vows of loyalty to each other in the presence of friends and family, and everyone, regardless of gender, smiled and blessed them.

Lin Li walked past them with a smile, holding his wife's hand, while ten transparent tentacles continuously connected to different people, reading their thoughts.

Galina's younger sister, the eleven-year-old girl, was wearing an exquisite little dress, clapping her hands with a beaming smile and speaking words of blessing, while her inner thoughts were: I never expected this stupid, ugly, trashy sister of mine to find such a good man. What a stroke of luck. But at least I'll be able to ask my brother-in-law for money later. Heh heh, not bad.

Galina's classmate, a white girl wearing glasses, held Galina's hand and kept complimenting Lin Li, while her inner thoughts were: She's clearly a piece of trash, yet she managed to hook such a good man at a nightclub. This man is also an idiot for marrying such a woman. What a waste of that good skin.

Perini's colleague, a middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses, looked at the newlyweds with a polite and kind smile, while his inner thoughts were: If I hadn't listened to those rumors and married Perini back then, I could have had a wealthy son-in-law. I wouldn't have to work so hard like I do now.

Perini, smiling broadly as she thanked people for their blessings, had these thoughts: You all think I'm a jinx and avoid me one by one. Do you dare look down on me now?

Galina, held by the hand by Lin Li, wore a happy smile on her face; her exquisite makeup made her otherwise unremarkable features look beautiful. Looking at these friends and relatives who had once looked down on her from the bottom of their hearts, her thoughts were: Although I'm uneducated and unskilled, I'm just lucky. I found a rich man, and I'm going to make you all so angry, hahaha.

From an ordinary girl hanging out in nightclubs to a member of high society, the shock and jealousy brought about by this contrast were buried deep in the hearts of the guests, and the smiles on everyone's faces appeared incredibly sincere.

Of course, besides those filled with envy and jealousy, there were naturally those who offered genuine blessings, such as Lin Li's colleagues, whose good disguise in his past work life meant there was almost no conflict of interest between them.

However, their thoughts were: I didn't expect Lin Li to find a woman like this. It's such a loss; he would have been better off with Aierxue. At least she's much prettier.

Beyond that, there were those who were indifferent, such as the priest presiding over the wedding. His aged face wore a wrinkled smile, while his thoughts were: Hurry up and finish. My old legs are starting to hurt again. I really want to get off work and go home to play games.

Fortunately, only Lin Li had the ability to read minds. If everyone here expressed their inner thoughts without restraint, the warm atmosphere of this wedding would likely be shattered in an instant.

Continuously sensing everyone's thoughts, Lin Li said to Abu in his mind, "Everyone has infinite malice in their hearts. It is bound under a hypocritical mask, which is why society can maintain the appearance of harmony. Just as I need to disguise my own ruthlessness to blend into the crowd, one can only survive better by wearing a mask."

Abu had by now become a segment of bone in his cervical spine, becoming a complete part of his body. Its original abilities had almost entirely transformed into Lin Li's abilities, and it had now become a genuine mascot.

Abu said, "I get it, I get it. For example, the malice I encounter when playing games is much more than in reality, because people are no longer in their own real-life circles. The internet itself is like wearing a mask; you don't have to suppress your true nature."

Lin Li looked at the guests in the church, each with a smiling face and clapping hands in blessing, and looked at his radiant wife beside him. Only he could see the true faces hidden by everyone, yet the real world was not so beautiful.

The soil of malice only grows flowers of malice; destruction is always easier than creation. A single piece of malice can destroy all goodwill.

If all thoughts were spoken aloud, the malice in each individual's heart would become spikes wrapping around everyone. People would be separated from one another; there would be no more cooperation, no more families, no more communication.

Parents and children might turn against each other over trifles; glamorous celebrities would display their own ugliness before everyone; high-ranking officials and dignitaries would expose their own high-sounding lies and clearly tell everyone the desires deep within their hearts.

All disguised contradictions would be placed under the sun, and people would hurt each other by releasing the malice within their hearts, causing the order of civilization to disintegrate in chaos.

Lin Li had understood this truth long ago. From the moment he learned to disguise himself, he was the person wearing the thickest mask among the human population.

Therefore, even though he now began to have his own emotions and could feel the malice in everyone's hearts, he still wore a mask just as he had before, maintaining a fake, beautiful world together with everyone else.

Whether due to the instinct of individual biological survival or to maintain the orderly development of civilization, this barrier separating human hearts is necessary. Only a hypocritical mask can block the endless malice deep within the human heart.