The Prisoner's Dilemma

"Come?" Gaoyang panicked. "Come what?"

Qingling bent her legs, pressing down on Gaoyang's body. The moonlight highlighted her collarbones, flashing and glittering, devastatingly beautiful.

She sneered with disdain. "What else could it be? Don't act innocent."

Gaoyang was dumbfounded.

Qingling wasted no words. She tossed her hair back and leaned toward Gaoyang's face.

"Wait a minute!"

Gaoyang shouted. He was not a traditional person and had watched his fair share of adult films in the past. But the speed of this development right now was simply too fast, so fast that it looked like a conspiracy no matter how he saw it.

"What?"

"If I'm guilty, the law will punish me. Don't torture me like this..."

"You've got quite a strong guard," Qingling said.

Isn't this a normal person's reaction? Gaoyang thought to himself.

Three hours ago, he almost had his head crushed by his most trusted childhood sweetheart. Now, a completely unfamiliar beauty was suddenly throwing herself at him. He had every reason to suspect that the other party wanted to torture and kill him.

"Relax." Qingling's voice turned soft.

"..."

"If you really hate me, you can substitute someone else's face." Qingling placed her hand on Gaoyang's chest, slowly moving it down.

"Or... better not. Why don't we start as friends first..."

Suddenly, Qingling stopped.

Gaoyang was covered in sweat, not daring to take a deep breath.

Qingling got up, stepped off the bed, and put her clothes back on. "That's it."

Gaoyang wore a bewildered expression. He sat up from the bed and suddenly discovered that a small, sharp dagger was actually hidden underneath his pillow.

Having dressed, Qingling gave a light flick of her hand, and the dagger flew back into her palm. Qingling twirled her slender fingers, and the dagger vanished in the blink of an eye.

"Just now... were you trying to kill me?" Gaoyang felt a lingering fear.

"That depends on you," Qingling said.

"What do you mean? If I couldn't resist the temptation and harbored evil thoughts toward you, you would kill me?" Gaoyang reasonably deduced. "So this was a test, and by passing it, I gained your trust."

"Completely wrong." Qingling turned her back to Gaoyang and retied her ponytail. "I would have killed you if you hadn't reacted."

"Why?"

"Beasts don't have true reproductive systems."

Gaoyang instantly had a sudden flash of insight. All this time, you were verifying my identity!

"The one you encountered today was a Wrath Beast."

"A Wrath Beast?"

"There are many kinds of beasts, and the Wrath Beast is one of them. In short, they are all very cunning, skilled at camouflage, and able to pass themselves off as the real thing," Qingling said. "If you want to survive in this world, don't trust anyone."

"Then how am I supposed to believe you're a human?" Gaoyang retorted.

"Not bad, you learn fast." Qingling's expression was blank. "Confirming whether a female is a beast is much more troublesome; you actually have to do it."

"Uh..."

Qingling tossed over a small bottle. "This is a special medicine. Remember to dispose of it when you're done, and don't let anyone see it."

Gaoyang caught the small medicine vial and examined it closely. It looked like an ordinary bottle of blue potion, nothing special.

He hid the medicine inside the quilt. Right now, he still had many questions to ask Qingling.

What on earth were beasts?

Why did they kill people?

What was his current situation?

What was Qingling's talent? It looked much stronger than his own.

How was he supposed to get stronger?

"Bang!"

The door was suddenly kicked open, and his younger sister rushed in.

Gaoyang jumped in fright, standing up bare-chested. "No! It's not what you're seeing..."

"What is it?" His sister looked puzzled.

Gaoyang turned his head back, but Qingling was gone. There were only swaying curtains and a patch of bright, clean moonlight shining into the room.

No, this movement was way too fast, wasn't it?! She really did come and go like the wind...

"So suspicious," his sister said, looking Gaoyang up and down before suddenly breaking into a mischievous grin. "Bro, you weren't doing that, were you?"

"I wasn't! I didn't! Stop talking nonsense!" Gaoyang felt like crying without tears. "And next time you come in, can you knock first?"

"Got it!" The younger sister suddenly walked over with an ingratiating smile, grabbing Gaoyang's arm. "Bro, let's talk business."

"Spit it out."

The younger sister immediately whipped out her phone. "Look... isn't this lolita dress pretty?"

"Pretty..." Gaoyang came to his senses. "What are you trying to pull?"

"It's only 498! Super cheap! If you buy it now, you save 198."

"If you don't buy it, you save 498 right off the bat."

"My birthday is in eleven months!" The younger sister pouted. "Can't you just treat it as my birthday present?"

"I'm going to kick the bucket in seventy years, can't you just pretend I'm already dead?"

"You don't care about me! You don't love me! A guy like you doesn't deserve to be a brother at all!" The younger sister yelled at the top of her lungs. "I'm going to tell Mom and Dad that you were out whoring around tonight and came back with your face covered in blood!"

"Fine, fine, fine!" Gaoyang instantly panicked, picking up his phone to transfer a few hundred bucks to his younger sister out of next month's living expenses. Compared to the heartache of losing money, his top priority right now was to keep the peace.

"You're the best, big bro! Mwah~ I love you most, big bro!"

The younger sister cheerfully ran off with her phone.

Gaoyang watched as she happily closed the door, letting out a sigh of relief.

The specialized medicine Qingling provided worked wonders, and when he woke up the next day, the wounds had healed almost entirely, leaving only some reddish marks that looked like scratch wounds from mosquito bites.

Gaoyang ate breakfast and arrived at school.

Li Weiwei's seat in the classroom was empty.

Gaoyang's chest felt hollow, sending dull throbs of pain in waves as if a chunk had been scooped out.

He thought of the bit-by-bit moments with Li Weiwei over the past twelve years: walking to and on the way back from school together, eating together, doing homework together, setting off fireworks together a few New Year's Eves, seeing her smile for the first time, seeing her cry, seeing her get angry... All of this familiar, beautiful existence had been torn to shreds by that "beast" last night.

Gaoyang wished so badly that he was facing two separate entities-one a pure, wonderful human girl, and the other an evil, unknown, fierce monster-yet the two were one and the same.

Gaoyang couldn't accept it.

Her seat remained empty all the way through the end of morning self-study. A few girls in the class began whispering, presumably already aware that something had happened to Li Weiwei.

Gaoyang hadn't slept much all night, and he had far too many questions to ask Qingling.

To his surprise, as soon as morning self-study ended, Qingling took the initiative to walk over, loudly interrogating him right in front of the other classmates. "Gaoyang, where is Li Weiwei?"

Gaoyang froze. What is this, are we acting?

"I don't know," Gaoyang replied.

"You don't know?! Wasn't she with you yesterday?"

"Yeah, we each went home at night..."

"What the hell is going on? She won't answer her phone, she won't reply on WeChat, and she isn't coming to class." Qingling frowned deeply, looking somewhat irritated, and tossed her head to leave when she couldn't get any answers out of him.

The first period was math class, and the math teacher was also their head teacher.

The head teacher walked in with a heavy expression, placed his textbook on the podium, and pushed up the thick-myopia glasses resting on his collapsed bridge of nose.

"Classmates, before we start the lesson, I need to tell you all something."

"Our classmate Li Weiwei fell victim to a crime last night..."

An uproar broke out across the entire classroom.

"What?!" Qingling stood up, agitated.

Gaoyang was stunned, suddenly feeling a surge of admiration: Life is a stage, and it's all about acting.

Qingling and Li Weiwei practically spent every day together and were extremely close, so this reaction was entirely normal. It also served as a reminder to Gaoyang that, as her childhood friend, his own reaction was far too abnormal.

Gaoyang hurriedly stood up, putting on an expression of shock and disbelief. "No way! I saw her yesterday afternoon!"

"She was targeted while heading home late at night; it's been preliminarily determined to be a robbery. She was stabbed in the chest and died on the spot..." The head teacher sighed. "That's all the teacher knows."

"Oh god! How could this happen?"

"So pitiful, I never expected something like this to happen to her."

"The killer needs to get the death penalty once they're caught!"

"Sob, sob, sob..."

The boys who had a crush on Li Weiwei burned with rage, shouting excitedly, while several girls who were close to her turned their eyes red on the spot and wept quietly.

"Students, the teacher is just as saddened and angered by Li Weiwei's matter."

"The police are already conducting a full-scale manhunt and will definitely bring the murderer to justice!"

"Students who want to say their final goodbyes to Li Weiwei's remains can go with the teacher to the funeral parlor tonight..."

"Now, let's gather our emotions and continue with class."

The math teacher opened the textbook, then seemed to recall something. "Qingling, Gaoyang, the two of you come to my office."

Gaoyang grew vigilant. Is something wrong, Teacher?

"The police are coming, you two just cooperate with them and answer a few questions."

Qingling's eyes reddened as she rushed out of the classroom first, looking as though she couldn't wait to see the police, and Gaoyang followed her out.

The two walked one after the other down the corridor, and Gaoyang, walking in the rear, made sure no one was around before he quickly caught up to Qingling. "Let's get our stories straight first."

"What story?" Qingling turned her head, her gaze both sorrowful and angry.

"About Li Weiwei."

Qingling was stunned at first, then grabbed Gaoyang by the collar. "You really do know something! Did you kill her?"

"Huh?" Gaoyang was dumbfounded.

What act was this again? Were they addicted to playing pretend?

"What time is it, stop acting!" Gaoyang said.

"Who's acting with you!" Qingling's expression was serious. "You really are suspicious. Why didn't you walk Li Weiwei home last night? Why did Li Weiwei end up murdered? I reckon you're eighty percent to blame!"

No! This wasn't how it was supposed to go!

What in the world was this Qingling playing at?

"Speak! Haven't you always wanted to pursue Li Weiwei? Li Weiwei didn't like you and didn't agree to date you, so you harbored resentment and killed her, right?" Qingling pressed aggressively.

Gaoyang's brain raced. There were only two possibilities now:

First, the Qingling before him was not last night's Qingling, which had an extremely low probability.

Second, Qingling was still acting, and she had decided to sell him out to save herself; she had said yesterday not to trust anyone.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Gaoyang lowered his head and bypassed Qingling. Saying too much leads to mistakes, so he decided to shut his mouth.

"Don't play dumb! I'll have the police thoroughly investigate you! If you killed her, I'll never let you off!" Qingling angrily rushed into the office.

Just as Gaoyang was about to follow her inside, a tall figure reached out to block him.

Gaoyang raised his head to see a man in a police uniform, around thirty-something, with a clean buzz cut, a wide jaw, well-defined facial features, and an experienced, sharp gaze.

"You're... Officer Huang?"

"Heh, we meet again." Officer Huang smiled, though there was no warmth in his eyes.

Late at night three days ago, the police officer who shot and killed the "mental patient" and "saved" Gaoyang was precisely him, Huang Qi, Officer Huang.

Officer Huang patted Gaoyang's shoulder. "Come with me to another office."

Gaoyang's heart skipped a beat: It's over, the prisoner's dilemma.