"Go ahead, kill him."
The abandoned steel factory smelled of metal, rust, mildew urine and rotting food. Broken glass was littered all over the floor, and some reflected the moonlight that was streaming in from outside. The SWAT team crouched in a semicircle, rifles raised, their breaths shallow behind black masks. Radios crackled faintly, carrying the voices of captains and commanders who were already sweating bullets miles away in the command van downstairs. Others were in the situation control room of the Systems Operation Bureau.
At the center of it all stood Detective Tai Liwu--known in the Bureau and all those in her life as "Bad luck Tai." Nothing good ever happened when she was around. If a suspect had a knife, she found it with a part of her body, where it sliced. If a building was blown out, she was the one buried under debris or the one hit by a small piece of it. When a bird wanted to poop, she was the ideal dumping ground. The most docile cats showed claws around her. Even the street dogs made a beeline when they saw her coming.
Tonight, she was the first one to stumble on the suspect, Liu Ruyan with a knife pressed against a man's throat. The man happened to be her ex-boyfriend Wang Mazi, and a system host. Ruyan's hair was wild, her eyes wide and crazy. She looked half-mad, half-terrified and entirely ready to spill blood.
"Go on," Liwu said, "kill him." her voice was low, steady and almost tempting. "Do it."
The words hung in the air like a gunshot.
SWAT commander Ming Tianhao's head snapped toward her. "Detective Liwu, what the hell are you doing?"
"Hey, crazy bitch, what are you saying?" The man screamed.
But Liwu did not flinch. She lowered her weapon and stepped forward, boots crunching on shards of glass. Her badge glinted faintly in the moonlight.
"I have been a detective for the SOB for six years. In that time, I have seen many women like you." Liwu's tone was almost conversational. "I already looked into your case and figured out what the problem is. You want money and he won't give it to you. Do you think killing him will bring the money to you?"
Ruyan laughed hysterically. "Money! You think this is all about money?"
Liwu tilted her head. "Isn't it?" She righted it. "You and Wang Mazi are exes, high school sweethearts. You have been together for ten years. After university, he sponged off you like a bum while you worked your ass off to pay the bills at home and support his small struggling business. One day, you woke up and realized you were stuck. You were thirty-two years old and still living in the same small apartment, working the same desk job, no husband, no child. Just misery and ghosts of your past dreams. Fifteen years together and the bum could not even afford a ring of one hundred yuan! Or maybe he just thought you were not worth it."
"Liwu, I will pull you out. Stop taunting her." The commander bellowed.
Liwu continued, "All your friends have driven past you, and they have made sure you know it. One day, one of them introduced you to a more successful man. He gave you everything the bum could not. So, you closed your eyes and indulged. Until the day Wang Mazi came home and found you in bed with your lover.
The rest is kind of cliche. You dumped him, he became a system host a minute later and a month later, he was richer than your new lover, more handsome, in better shape and all round just a winner in life. Am I right?"
Ruyan nodded. "Why?" She lunged forward, pressing the knife deeper against Mazi's throat. "Why should he become a system host? Why does he get to become rich while my life is shit? I begged him to take me back considering all the years we spent together and he laughed in my face." Tears spilled from her eyes. "He lavished money on strangers, women he met on the street! But when it came to me, he would not even spend ten yuan."
"I don't know why he was chosen as a system host. But I know his system requires him to make women happy for a two times cash rebate." Liwu pointed out.
Ruyan snorted. "And what about me, am I not a woman? All I wanted was fifty million yuan, a fair sum for the years I spent taking care of him and feeding him. Instead, he got my new boyfriend fired. He bought the building where I lived and threw me out. He got me fired from my job as well. He ruined my life."
"Which is why I say kill him." Liwu jumped in. "He deserves it for being an asshole."
Wang Mazi whimpered and the SWAT team shifted uneasily. Fingers tightened on triggers. Every instinct screamed that they intervene, but Liwu's reputation preceded her. She was reckless, unpredictable but the best, despite her bad luck. If someone had a knife at your throat and the police had no shot or were delayed, she was the one you could count on to get you out.
"She is going to get him killed," the chief slammed his fist against a table in the situation room.
Other officers were watching and waiting in horror.
But Liwu knew something they didn't. She had seen Ruyan's eyes, the way they drifted between rage and despair. Even her hand that was holding the knife was trembling. Moreover, Liwu had been holding Mazi hostage for three days. If she intended to kill him, she would have done so sooner.
"Go ahead, cut his throat and see if it changes anything in your life financially or emotionally." Liwu took a step forward. "The bureau has laws in place for situations like yours. By law, Mazi is entitled to compensate you for the financial burden you endured before he became a system host. It is not optional. He actually committed a crime by not doing so and he is to be arrested and fined for it. You will be paid what you are owed."
Ruyan's hold on the knife loosened.
"But" Liwu continued, "You will not live long enough to enjoy that money if you are in prison or dead. That is what's going to happen the moment you kill him. Imagine what happens if we save him? You will go to jail or you will be dead and this bum will go on to use his system to accumulate many assets and live happily. Is that something you want to see happening?"
Ruyan's grip faltered even more, just enough for Liwu to see a crack in her resolve. "Killing him will not fix anything. Your life will just become worse. And if you think your life is bad, try living mine. Every day when I go out to work, I go home with a new scar. I have met six people with systems that give them good luck. I always wonder why I cannot be one of them.
And yet, I have never surrendered to anger. I am still out here, ordinary bad luck Tai Liwu. Still fighting. I refuse to let hatred and anger consume me.
If you allow it to do that to you, then Wang Mazi will win. So go ahead--kill him. Let him win."
The SWAT commander swore under his breath. "She is insane and out of time. Pull her out and take out the target."
But Liwu blocked the sniper's shot with her back and ignored the voices in her ear. She locked eyes with Ruyan, daring her to cross the line. The silence stretched, heavy and suffocating.
Then, with a strangled cry, Ruyan dropped the knife. It clattered against the glass, the sound ringing like a bell of surrender. She collapsed to her knees, sobbing, her hands trembling as if the weight of the knife had been too great to bear.
The hostage stumbled away, gasping and clutching his throat. In a panic, he kicked the knife and it flew at Liwu, landing center in the middle of her chest!