When Fang Rui woke up, he saw Mu Mian sitting across from him, her hands and feet bound, with a black electrode cap on her head.
As his consciousness gradually cleared, he realized he was similarly restrained, likely wearing the same strange device on his head.
Those black wires were connected to electroencephalogram equipment.
They were confined in a warehouse made of sheet metal, dimly lit, with sunlight filtering through high windows indicating it was now morning.
Fang Rui noticed a table to his left with a laptop on it, the screen displaying Zhou Junwei's cold face.
"Detective Fang, you're finally awake?" Zhou Junwei revealed an eerie smile, "I've been waiting for you for quite a while."
"What do you want?"
"Isn't it obvious? I want you to play a game. Because I want to know what love is like for people with autism. I hope you can satisfy my curiosity, otherwise your fate might be rather tragic."
Fang Rui understood that Zhou Junwei must have mistakenly assumed he and Mu Mian were a couple.
"Dr. Mu, are you still pretending to be asleep?" Zhou Junwei looked at Mu Mian, "We gave you a much smaller dose of anesthetic compared to Detective Fang. He's already awake, so you must have been awake for a while, right? Or do you need me to wake you up with an electric shock?"
"That won't be necessary. I'm already awake," Mu Mian quickly replied. She had originally intended to feign sleep to buy some time, but her ruse had been discovered.
"You already know the purpose of your invitation here. Now, let me explain the rules of the game. It's a very simple game. There's a red button beside each of you. The game consists of four rounds. In each round, the person who presses the button first gets to make a choice: shock yourself or shock your lover. If neither of you presses the button or if you press it simultaneously, both of you will receive the shock for that round.
The voltage intensity for each round is randomly determined. I've set up six voltage levels: 30V, 36V, 40V, 220V, 300V, and 450V. They will appear randomly in each round of the game."
After hearing the rules, Fang Rui suddenly realized that this game could only end with one person surviving or both dying.
"You should understand the rules now. Let's start the game," Zhou Junwei announced. "This is the first round. You have one minute to press the button and make your choice. You have plenty of time, so think it through."
As soon as Zhou Junwei finished speaking, Fang Rui resolutely pressed the button.
"Detective Fang, you didn't even take a moment to think?" Zhou Junwei was a bit surprised. "In this game, other participants usually hesitate and struggle for a while before the cold-hearted one makes the selfish choice first."
Mu Mian stared at Fang Rui in shock. She knew what the optimal solution to this game was, and she also knew what Fang Rui intended to do.
Fang Rui said, "I choose to shock myself."
The countdown on the screen disappeared, replaced by the voltage value: 30V.
"Detective Fang, you're very lucky. In the first round, you've drawn the lowest voltage. You won't be harmed this time."
The second round began, with the countdown for pressing the button and making a choice reduced to 20 seconds.
Fang Rui had his hand practically on the button, so he was again quicker to press it.
"I still choose to shock myself."
This time, the screen displayed a voltage of 40V. Simultaneously, Fang Rui's body began to tremble slightly, his face contorting in pain, which he struggled to suppress.
"Detective Fang, did you feel the pain of the electric shock? I hope you won't make such a hasty decision in the next round."
"Fang Rui, why do you keep choosing to shock yourself?" Mu Mian asked.
"Mu Mian, if only one of us can survive, I want it to be you," Fang Rui smiled at her.
"But why? Fang Rui, you're so young, you surely don't want to die. Why are you giving me the chance to live?" Mu Mian couldn't understand.
Why indeed? Fang Rui thought it might be because he had fallen in love with Mu Mian.
When did he fall for her?
Fang Rui wasn't sure. At first, he thought Mu Mian was a genius, and he was kind to her to help solve cases more effectively.
But later, his feelings changed.
Perhaps it was when he repeatedly saw Mu Mian carefully disguising herself, thinking she was doing a good job, that he found her both amusing and pitiful, unable to resist the urge to indulge her true self.
Maybe it was when Mu Mian was racking her brains trying to obtain his corpse. Sometimes he couldn't help but think, why not just agree? But then he felt he couldn't, because if he did, he would no longer be important to her.
Or perhaps it was when he gave her that skeleton bride. That day, Mu Mian said she liked him very, very, very much. At that moment, he felt an uncontrollable happiness, even though he knew Mu Mian's "like" was no different from her fondness for the skeleton bride.
"The third round is starting," Zhou Junwei reminded them.
"Mu Mian, don't press that button," Fang Rui said to her. "I promised I would protect you."
"No!"
But Fang Rui was still faster in pressing the button.
This round's voltage was 300V. Fang Rui convulsed violently for a while, nearly losing consciousness.
Zhou Junwei's tone became a bit excited: "The fourth round is about to begin. This time you only have five seconds to make your choice."
Before the game even started, Mu Mian had her hand pressed firmly on the button.
The optimal solution to this game was for only one person to survive, and now the best outcome would be for Fang Rui to endure the last shock, with Mu Mian being the one to live.
But Mu Mian couldn't think rationally now. She felt she had to do something, even if it meant she would die.
Mu Mian silently apologized to her sister. She had promised her sister she would always be there for her, but now she might not be able to keep that promise.
The screen displayed the voltage: 30V.
The expected shock didn't come.
"Dr. Mu, congratulations on winning this game. You've survived," Zhou Junwei said, sighing as he looked at the unconscious Fang Rui. "Unfortunately, you've lost your lover."
Mu Mian didn't respond to Zhou Junwei.
She stared blankly at the motionless Fang Rui.
Rationally, Mu Mian knew she should be happy because she had finally obtained Fang Rui's body—he had died in a homicide, and as a forensic pathologist, she could follow the procedure to autopsy his corpse.
But grief washed over her like a tidal wave, drowning her. She felt as if she were suffocating, unable to breathe.
Mu Mian's mind went blank, feeling detached from reality, with one message screaming in her ears: Fang Rui was dead.
There would be no one to tell her she could be her true self anymore; no one who happened to like the foods she disliked and was willing to eat them; no one to give her rides to and from work... Without Fang Rui, a large part of her life was missing.
She had obtained Fang Rui's body, but lost a piece of her life's puzzle that could never be replaced.
With a clang, the iron door opened from the outside. Bright sunlight shone into Mu Mian's eyes, giving her a sense of disorientation.
Zhou Junwei and Zhang Ming walked in.
