This Lifetime

"She must have loved you very much, right?" Shao Lan asked the man. "There are only two outfits of hers in the wardrobe, both washed pale and patched, but all your clothes are new and presentable. It looks like she always scrimped on herself so she could spend the money on you."

"If I'm not mistaken, she was taking those herbal medicines because of you too, wasn't she?" Shao Lan said. "Unless she loved you deeply, I can't think of a reason she would have wanted a child so badly."

"Then... did she kill people because of you too?"

At Shao Lan's final question, the man, who had kept his head lowered as though he were dead, suddenly shuddered.

Jiang Mingran instinctively tightened his grip, but the man did not struggle.

He merely looked ahead at the woman in the bathroom.

"Su Xia," he said softly.

The woman stood there, blinking her gray-white eyes. Her mouth formed a muffled syllable: "Yuan."

Shao Lan asked quietly, "Are you husband and wife?"

The man closed his eyes briefly and murmured an assent.

"Is this your home?"

"Yes."

The rain outside seemed to grow heavier, pattering against the glass.

The man suddenly looked at Shao Lan. "You called the Special Investigation Team. Once the police get here, it'll all be over. Before that happens, could you grant me one request?"

"Go ahead," Shao Lan said.

Jiang Mingran grew anxious. "Shao Lan, don't listen to him. He could be trying to trick us. This woman is a monster. Even the police might not be able to stop her."

Shao Lan lowered his eyes. "The police will be able to help."

"How do you know..."

"Because this is the only solution the [game] has offered so far. If it doesn't work, then this is an unwinnable game, and the four loops were completely pointless. We'd have no choice but to wait for death."

Shao Lan looked at the man. "Of course, he might really be trying to trick me, but at least hearing him out won't hurt."

The man had been staring absently in the woman's direction. Only when Shao Lan reminded him that he could speak did he lower his head and smile to himself.

"Could you let me hug her?" he said. "Ever since she became like this, I haven't held her in a very, very long time."

"No!" Jiang Mingran blurted out. "You're our hostage. There's no way we're letting you go before the police arrive!"

The man bent down, and a pocket watch fell from his jacket pocket.

"I can give you this in exchange." He looked at Shao Lan. "It's the most valuable thing in our home. I bought it when Su Xia and I got married."

"Please." The man closed his eyes briefly. In the dim light, his expression looked almost relieved. "I just want to say goodbye."

Shao Lan picked up the pocket watch and opened it. Inside was a yellowed wedding photograph.

In the photograph, the man was a few years younger than he was now. Wearing glasses, he looked refined and scholarly.

The woman beside him had plain features, but her smile was shy and gentle. She looked nothing like the monster standing a short distance away.

A line of small lettering was engraved on the pocket watch: "Li Chengyuan and Wu Suxia. May your marriage last a hundred years."

Shao Lan looked toward the floor beside the sofa.

The final inscription was there on the floor, but unlike the long sentences before it, this rule consisted of only four Chinese characters.

"Rule: goodbye, Su Xia."

Shao Lan steadied himself against the sofa. For the first time, he felt deeply torn.

Sirens sounded. The police had already arrived downstairs.

As long as they maintained this standoff until the police arrived, they would be safe.

There was no need to complicate things now. He had no savior complex, and even if he did, he would not indulge it by granting a killer's wish.

But his instincts told him that not a single rule in this game was useless.

"Jiang Mingran." Shao Lan opened his eyes. "Let him go."

Jiang Mingran thought he must have misheard. "Shao Lan, no! Absolutely not!"

No matter how expensive this pocket watch is, how much could it possibly be worth? Enough to buy all three of our lives?

Shao Lan looked at the man.

"Go on. Go and hold her," Shao Lan said. "You must know that everyone has to say goodbye someday. It's time to tell her [goodbye]."

Shao Lan led Jiang Mingran and Pancake Uncle back into the hallway, then told Jiang Mingran to release the man.

"Shao Lan, we really can't let him go..." Jiang Mingran said.

"There's no time left, Mingran. Do as I say."

Jiang Mingran gritted his teeth. He knew that he and Pancake Uncle had only survived this long because of Shao Lan.

He shoved the man hard. "I'm warning you, don't try anything!"

The shove sent the man stumbling a step into the room.

He raised his head and studied the woman before him in the dim light.

"I gave them the apartment number when I called. The police will be up here soon," Shao Lan said. "You probably have about a minute left."

The man stood up and walked toward the monster, who had remained where she was. He opened his arms and softly called her name. "Su Xia."

"Su Xia."

"My Su Xia..."

As the man called softly to her, the eye hidden beneath the monster's tangled hair blinked, and her expression gradually softened.

She stepped forward and bent down.

He held her and gently stroked her hair.

"Su Xia," the man said softly. "Thank you. You've suffered so much in this lifetime."

As he spoke, a sharp knife sank into the monster's body. Its blood-covered blade emerged from her back, through her heart.

The man had actually been hiding another knife in his jacket.

[Su Xia] let out a shrill cry. Bloody tears flowed from her pale eyes, but she did not struggle.

As blood poured out, her towering figure gradually shrank, until she became a woman with plain features who looked gentle and quiet.

She rested in the man's arms, as light as a sheet of paper.

The man pulled out the knife, turned it around, and plunged it into his own body.

"Wait! What are you doing?"

Jiang Mingran shouted and tried to rush forward.

But suddenly, the rain outside stopped. Blinding sunlight poured into the room, turning the entire interior a dazzling white.

Within the radiance, everyone seemed to see everything that had once happened in this room.