Chapter 22
Chapter 22
Lu Qian herself was naturally stunned senseless. In an instant, the young couple seemed to turn to stone.
Several seconds later, Lv Chao roared, “How is that possible? How can there be such a coincidence? I won, and the person selected just happens to be my wife!”
He glared at Tina. She looked somewhat surprised herself and faltered before replying.
“I don’t know either… The computer chose at random. It should just be a coincidence.”
The others could breathe easy for the moment, but even they had never expected a result like this. The husband had won the first contest, yet the wife who had spent the entire game devising strategies for him and even risked her life on his behalf had been chosen for random elimination. The cruelty of it stirred everyone’s sympathy.
“Tina, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask,” Chen Nuo said. “You told us that the game will end immediately if the Mastermind dies. That’s the Final Objective, correct?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Tina said.
“Then what happens if the Mastermind is selected for random elimination? Wouldn’t the game end? In the most extreme case, the Mastermind could be selected in the very first round. Would the elaborate game you’ve built simply end after one round?”
“The organizers have considered that, of course,” Tina said. “That’s why there’s a hidden rule: the Mastermind can never be selected for random elimination.”
“You mean the organizers manipulate the program through the back end to ensure the Mastermind is never selected, right?”
“Yes.”
“Just as I thought. So the so-called random selection can, in fact, be manipulated from the back end. The organizers can program it to select anyone they want dead.”
“Well… perhaps. But under normal circumstances, the organizers won’t interfere with the random-selection system. They only use the back end to protect the Mastermind, preventing their random elimination from ending the game too soon,” Tina said.
So whoever gets selected can never be the Mastermind, Chen Nuo thought.
“Are you saying my wife’s selection really was a coincidence? That the K Organization didn’t do it deliberately because they wanted a good show?” Lv Chao demanded.
“Mr. Lv Chao, I truly can’t answer that question. I can only say there are two possibilities. First, it really was a coincidence. Second, perhaps the organizers decided to issue a warning and punishment because Miss Lu Qian pulled a fruit knife during the game and stopped the other players from touching you. She exploited a loophole in the rules, but the organizers may believe she completely failed in her duty as a Cat and sided with the Mouse throughout the game, which could count as a form of cheating. That’s only my guess, though. It may not reflect the organizers’ intentions at all. It might truly have been a coincidence. But whatever the case, Miss Lu Qian was selected, so she must be eliminated.” Tina looked regretful as she spoke.
Lv Chao held his wife tightly. They gazed into each other’s eyes, Lu Qian’s brimming with tears, fear, and reluctance to part. Tears spilled from Lv Chao’s eyes as well.
“My wife… what will happen to her? Will her head explode, like Zhao Bo’s did?”
“We won’t be that cruel. Each time someone is eliminated, we handle it humanely. A server will take them to a small room on the first floor, where they will be euthanized. There won’t be any pain. Everyone dies eventually, after all. Dying this way isn’t necessarily such a bad thing. As far as I know, terminally ill patients in many countries want hospitals to provide euthanasia, but the laws of their countries don’t even allow it,” Tina said consolingly.
“But we aren’t terminally ill. We’re only in our twenties, and we just got married…” Tears streamed down Lv Chao’s face. “My wife shouldn’t die now!”
“Chao… I don’t want to die. I don’t want to leave you…” Lu Qian clung to her husband, sobbing as her body shook uncontrollably.
“This really is a predicament.” Tina scratched her head. “I never expected the very first random elimination to create such a difficult situation. Then again, if you don’t want Miss Lu Qian to be eliminated, there is another option.”
“What?” The young couple looked up at Tina together. Lv Chao immediately asked, “You can save my wife?”
“Yes.” Tina nodded solemnly. “Mr. Lv Chao, all you have to do is concede voluntarily and declare that you lost the first contest. Then no one else will have to face random elimination, and Miss Lu Qian will be saved!”
Lv Chao and Lu Qian froze at the same time. So did everyone else. Silence engulfed the first-floor lobby as if all the air had been sucked out.
After a long while, Lv Chao asked in a trembling voice, “Then… I’ll be the one who dies, won’t I?”
“Yes. Under the rules, at least one person must be eliminated in every contest. If you agree to be eliminated voluntarily, Miss Lu Qian will be saved. It all depends on whether you’re willing to trade your life for your new wife’s,” Tina said.
Lv Chao looked at the wife pressed tightly to his chest. Their eyes met, and time seemed to stop.
About half a minute later, Lu Qian felt her husband’s tight embrace loosen. His face slowly turned away as he murmured,
“But… it was so hard for me to win…”
The words struck Lu Qian’s heart like a heavy blow. Tears spilled from her eyes once more, but this time, they came not from fear but from sorrow rising from the depths of her heart.
“So, Mr. Lv Chao, you aren’t willing to give up your victory?” Tina asked.
Lv Chao said nothing. He resembled a listless statue that had shut off every sense.
“I understand. Then, regrettably, Miss Lu Qian will still be eliminated,” Tina said. “Miss Lu Qian, I can have a server escort you to that room on the first floor. All you need to do is go inside. We have specialists who will see you on your way.”
Even as she spoke, a handsome male server had already approached Lu Qian. “This way, please, Miss Lu Qian,” he said politely.
Lu Qian looked pitifully at her husband, tears streaming down her face. Lv Chao bowed his head, unable to meet her gaze.
Shu Yanjun could not bear to watch any longer. “You call yourself a man? If it were me, I’d choose to die so my family could live.”
“Honey…” Torn by conflicting emotions, Xiang Meiling gripped her husband’s hand. Shu Ke was moved too.
“Do you really mean that?” Che Dongming asked Shu Yanjun.
“Yes, and I’ll say it in front of everyone. If I won my contest and my wife or son was selected, I would concede without hesitation and let them live,” Shu Yanjun said firmly.
“Mr. Shu, please don’t put psychological pressure on my husband.” Lu Qian seemed to have come to terms with her fate. She was no longer sorrowful or lost. “He’s right. We spent so long planning and fought with everything we had to win this contest. Of course he can’t concede now. I was selected because my luck was terrible. How could I ask my husband to die in my place?”
Then she turned to the male server. “Please take me to the room.”
The server gestured for her to follow and led Lu Qian toward the left side of the lobby. Chen Nuo remembered that there was indeed a small room of perhaps fifteen square meters on the left. It seemed to contain nothing but a bed for resting. It had never occurred to him that the room was meant for euthanasia.
After taking a few steps, Lu Qian stopped and turned back to Lv Chao.
“Honey, do you remember what you said the first time we met?”
Lv Chao slowly raised his head. He gazed at her sorrowfully, his expression seeming to ask, What did I say?
“You said, ‘Don’t worry. I promise I’ll keep you safe.’ You looked so handsome when you said it. I fell in love with you at that very moment, and I still love you now. Later, I decided that when danger came, I would protect you too. And I really did it. I don’t regret a thing. Honey, I love you. Don’t carry this burden with you. You have to become the final winner and keep living!”
Lu Qian spoke with all the love in her heart, then turned resolutely and walked toward the small room on the first floor. Before turning away, she wore a peaceful smile, saving her tear-streaked face for herself.
Lv Chao’s heart felt carved apart. Tears blurred his vision, turning his wife’s petite figure into an abstract painting that receded farther and farther until it vanished. His lips moved and his throat worked as if he wanted to call something out to her.
But in the end, he could not make a sound. Several minutes later, he crumpled to the floor like a marionette with its strings cut.