The iron gate swung open, and Tang Erda, who was standing in front of the gate, did not move.

He seemed to have turned into a wooden sculpture in an instant, or rather, at this moment he hoped that he was just a wooden sculpture.

The factory worker pushed him twice in confusion, but Tang Erda was too tall and strong for him to move. At this time, the "fragrance test paper" in the cage suddenly moved its fingers and moved slightly towards him.

The "scent tester" leaned against the wall and tried to focus his scattered eyes on Tang Erda. He uttered a very weak, questioning, hoarse voice: "...Captain?"

It was just such a light sound, but Tang Erda, who had been lying there, felt as if he had been hit hard by a gun. The pain was so severe that he had to grit his teeth and look horrified in order to control his expression.

Tang Erda's eyes were bloodshot and he had to hold on to the wall to steady himself. He was staring at the person in the cage, or the scented paper.

Something drained Tang Erda's strength, leaving him exhausted, covered in wounds and unrecognizable. He had no choice but to rely on external objects to support his body, and stumbled step by step into the cage that had trapped him and Su Yang.

Tang Erda walked to the front of the perfume test paper. At this moment, he could clearly see the other person's full appearance.

Su Yang's whole face was "blooming", the roses in his eyes were as lush as those in a flower field, his face was covered with bloody lines, he was wearing the uniform of the deputy captain of the Dangerous Heresy Handling Bureau, even with his work badge.

The work photo of Su Yang on his work badge was stained with blood, making it look dirty.

This face and this work photo reminded Tang Erda of the time when Su Yang was shot by Xiao Chou. The heart-wrenching screams of the team members at that time seemed to still echo in his ears.

Tang Erda seemed to have lost his soul. He stared at the videotape recording Su Yang's death with a blank expression. His brain seemed to have malfunctioned and only one sentence kept echoing in his mind - If only I were next to Su Yang.

——I wish Su Yang and I were arrested together, I wish I was arrested instead of Su Yang, I wish I were Su Yang.

It would be great if it was me who was tortured, felt pain, and died.

——Why does it have to be Su Yang every time, every time?

Must he be such a coward that he has not dared to speak out about it, has not dared to look squarely at it, has not dared to look at it more, has not dared to say a word to the most important person in so many timelines?

Tang Er closed his eyes, the veins on the back of his hand that was holding the wall bulged, and he almost couldn't stand steadily.

There was a very faint light in Su Yang's eyes. He didn't seem to feel that he was in so much pain. His face with uneven skin was pure. Seeing Tang Erda's trust and joy in the captain, he seemed to want to laugh.

But the torn skin and muscles prevented Su Yang from smiling.

The corners of his mouth bent halfway and then fell down helplessly, but his tone was still cheerful: "It's really you, Captain!"

Su Yang wanted to raise his hand to grab the corner of Tang Erda's clothes, but failed several times. Instead, his hands began to tremble from exerting too much force.

When Su Yang raised his hand again and it was about to fall, Tang Erda finally half-knelt down silently. He used his trembling hand to lightly, at a distance, cover the back of Su Yang's hand.

Su Yang gasped weakly twice, leaning against the wall, dying. He looked at him with half-closed eyes and smiled, then suddenly turned around and held Tang Erda's hand.

Tang Erda took a deep breath to suppress his surging emotions. For the first time in this timeline, he did not reject Su Yang's approach, but shook Su Yang's hand. His voice was hoarse and harsh: "Well, the captain is here to rescue you."

"No, can't...save me out! Cough cough cough——" Su Yang's face showed an angry, helpless and funny expression.

Just like every time he worked with Tang Er, he seemed to be troubled by his captain's rough decision, but in the end he still patiently persuaded the other party.

Su Yang's voice sounded a little intermittent due to his rapid breathing: "It's useless for you to save me. I'm really dying."

Su Yang's eyelids drooped, and his tone became depressed: "My family, parents, and teammates all failed to hold on. They all withered away. Now I am the only one left, but I can't hold on for much longer."

"I just can't accept it. I can't accept that I can't do anything in front of this thing. I'm such a waste." Su Yang's tone was light and dazed. He raised his head, and the roses in his light-colored eyes were particularly clear. He clenched Tang Erda's hand as he tried to pull it away, "But Captain, you are different! You are the one chosen by the prophet! You can definitely change everything!"

At this moment, it seemed to Tang Erda that all the memories in the timeline were concentrated on this sentence.

[Captain! You can do it! ]

[Captain, I believe in you! ]

[Captain, ahem, as long as you are alive, we have hope! ]

Countless, all, different Su Yangs, with bloody, broken, pale, scarred, or bloody faces, all looked at him with bright eyes of relief and hope, calling him Captain.

Then the next moment she died for him with a smile, and her soul disappeared in the light in an instant, leaving no trace.

Tang Erda looked at Su Yang anxiously staring at his face in a daze. For a moment, he felt that what he accepted was no longer Su Yang's entrustment and trust, but a desperate curse and alienation.

Su Yang moved forward with difficulty. He leaned on Tang Erda's shoulder and said in a low voice: "Captain, listen, there is no point in saving me. You have made it here, so you should be promoted to factory worker, and then to perfumer. There is an antidote for rose perfume, but only the factory director knows the antidote."

"As long as you are promoted from perfumer to factory manager, you will know what the antidote is." Su Yang was a little out of breath when he said this. He leaned on Tang Erda's shoulder and raised his head to rest. Then he continued quickly with a smile in his tone, "Then you can save these polluted people."

Tang Erda couldn't tell how long he had been silent before he spoke hoarsely: "...What about you?"

Su Yang didn't say anything, but just leaned quietly on Tang Erda's shoulder, closing his eyes and his chest rising and falling slightly.

Their tacit understanding did not require them to say anything more. Both of them understood what decision Su Yang had made - Su Yang decided to sacrifice himself for Tang Erda's testing, so that Tang Erda could be successfully promoted to factory worker.

This is equivalent to letting Tang Erda kill Su Yang personally to save other people in the game.

Even though this Su Yang was just a character in the game, a fake Su Yang, Tang Er couldn't bring himself to do it.

"But Captain..." Su Yang leaned on Tang Erda's shoulder and opened his empty eyes, whispering as if mumbling to himself, "It's impossible to save me. I'm addicted."

"Captain, you have to be more open-minded. Death... all humans have to die." Su Yang's tone was a little casual and nonchalant, as if he was coaxing Tang Erda, "If I have to die, I hope my death will be meaningful to you."

"I'm actually really happy that I can see you before I completely wither, because this at least means that my self-torture of struggling and suffering like a fool for so long and not wanting to succumb to rose perfume is meaningful." Su Yang turned his head on Tang Erda's shoulder and looked at him tenderly, "My meaning is that I have waited for you, Captain."

Tang Erda could see that the cracks on Su Yang's face were gradually deepening and fading, with blood oozing from the edges. Su Yang reflected in his pupils looked more and more like a rose.

More and more like a monster.

He had never seen so clearly how quickly life slipped away from a person's body.

Su Yang looked at Tang Erda pleadingly.

Tang Erda slowly loosened Su Yang's hand, then shook the hand he had loosened. He lowered his head, his expression was unclear, and his voice was so hoarse that it was almost inaudible: "...Testing, how do I do it?"

Su Yang smiled from the bottom of his heart: "Thank you, Captain."

"Oh, right." Su Yang seemed to have remembered something important, his face became serious, "Captain, do you still remember the living heretic Bai Liu that you caught and then escaped? When you leave here, if you have a chance to find him, please kill him."

"This is the man who blew up the factory we went to inspect the same day he escaped from the dangerous Bureau of Heresy."

——————————

In another cage separated by a wall.

At Lu Station, he finally figured out that the person in front of him was really Bai Liu who had transformed into Liu Jiayi. The two of them were not nervous at all and started chatting casually.

Bai Liu opened his eyelids and glanced at Lu Yizhang who was sitting opposite him: "I blew up the Rose Factory?"

"Yes." Lu Yizhan didn't seem to think he was talking about something very important. His body and tone were very relaxed. He lay on the bed with his hands behind his head. "I and other staff members of the Bureau of Dangerous Heresy saw it. I can guarantee with my ten years of knowing you that the person standing on the Rose Factory and claiming that he was going to blow up the factory was definitely you."

"You said you wanted to cause an explosion, leak rosehip gas, and destroy the world. I talked to you for several sentences, and finally confirmed that you were the you I knew." Lu Yizhan said with his face up.

The timeline of the game "Rose Factory" is ten years after the real world.

Bai Liu sorted out the timeline that Lu Yizhang had told him.

引發玫瑰幹葉瓦斯在全世界普及開來的那場爆炸，發生在白柳逃離危險異端處理局的第二天。

而就在當天，陸驿站和危險異端處理局第三支隊的副隊長蘇恙都在當天來到了玫瑰工廠，調查這所被強行查封，但暗中重啓的工廠——這是白柳在這個工廠的報紙上看到的事情，也和白柳推測出來的現實基本符合，也和剛剛陸驿站和他說的一致。

而陸驿站說的之後發生的事情，白柳只聽了幾句，就挑高了眉毛。

陸驿站說他們到達工廠的時候，在工廠內到處搜尋疑似儲備了幹葉玫瑰瓦斯的器皿，整個工廠特別奇怪，儀器一應俱全，但人卻像是憑空消失了一般，不知道去了什麽地方。

他們不眠不休地搜尋到了淩晨，除了一些承裝有玫瑰鍛煉殘渣的鐵鍋和蒸餾裝置，一無所獲。

這個時候白柳就像是從天而降般，憑空出現在了玫瑰工廠的樓頂，拿着一個不知道從哪裏搞來的大喇嘛，一只手插着兜對着下面的人群懶洋洋地喊——

陸驿站一邊說，一邊用手比起一個大喇嘛來模仿當時的情景：“我是反社會份子白柳，因為我下崗了一個多月了，我找不到工作，也沒有錢掙，我十分悲傷，覺得世界和我一起毀滅算了，所以等下我要引爆這個工廠，讓玫瑰幹葉瓦斯洩漏，讓所有人陪我一起玩完。”

白柳詭異地沉默了一會兒，然後反問：“然後玫瑰工廠就爆炸了？”

陸驿站老實點頭：“嗯，然後你就徹底消失了，因為這事，有段時間危險異端處理局對你的通緝令賞金開到了一千六百萬，我都有點動心。”

白柳斜眼看躺在床上的陸驿站：“你不覺得是我做的爆炸？”

陸驿站要真确定是白柳做的爆炸，只要他還能動彈，白柳一走進來，保準這貨就會從床上彈跳起來把白柳給當場擊斃了。

但是現在陸驿站還心平氣和地躺在床上和白柳聊天，就證明陸驿站覺得爆炸這事和白柳無關。

陸驿站靜了一會兒，才開口：“我确定在玫瑰工廠屋頂上喊話要炸掉工廠的人是你，我也确定在你說完之後，不到十五分鐘，玫瑰工廠就爆炸，發生了這場危及所有人的香水洩漏。”

然後陸驿站給了一個很沒有頭腦的推測：“但我覺得這事不是你做的。”

白柳饒有趣味地反問：“為什麽？”

白柳很少懷疑陸驿站的對他的推斷，陸驿站對他的熟悉度可能比他本人更甚，也從來不會對他說謊。

陸驿站說站在屋頂上那個人就是他白柳，那白柳估計那還真是他本人。

陸驿站好像是發呆般擡頭看了一會兒牢籠的頂，才回答白柳的話：“很不專業主觀臆測，我相信你不會做這樣的事情。”

白柳斜眼掃他：“我從來不知道，你居然還會信任我的人品？”

陸驿站慢悠悠地“诶”了一聲，轉頭過來輕飄飄地看了白柳一眼：“可不是因為這個，我可不敢相信你的人品。”

如果不是陸驿站臉上那些奇怪的紋路，他們的對話就像是平常插科打诨一樣恬淡。

陸驿站看着白柳：“但我相信你的交易道德，你在昨天和我做了十年火鍋的交易，沒必要一頓都還沒吃到的時候就去毀滅世界了，這多吃虧啊，我不信你能幹出這種事兒。”

“嗯。”白柳看了一眼陸驿站，“雖然我也這樣覺得，不過其他人不會這樣覺得吧？”

陸驿站笑了笑，又把頭轉了回去，語氣感慨：“的确，那天去的工廠的人員裏只有我一個人這樣覺得，推測的理由太主觀了，無法說服他們，所以後面才會有對你的高額懸賞金。”

“可惜後來他們沒能撐下去，都一個一個地走了。”陸驿站神情終于變得複雜，他長長地嘆了一口氣，“這個世界上還能持之以恒地相信你的人，和痛恨你的人，好像都只剩下了一個。”

相信白柳的人顯然是陸驿站，按照這個游戲設計者的惡趣味，如果白柳沒有猜錯的話，那個痛恨他的人，應該就是蘇恙了——這個時候唐二打對應的試香紙多半就是蘇恙。

陸驿站接着說了下去：“在這裏的這十年，我一直一直在思考我和你認識的這十年，試圖在裏面尋找你到底是什麽人的蛛絲馬跡，從而佐證我對你不會引爆玫瑰工廠的猜測，而另一個人不斷地強調證據，強調他親眼看到了你引爆了工廠。”

陸驿站雙眼直直地看着天花板，他的語氣變得很輕很輕，好像在自言自語：“你到底是什麽樣的人，變成了我們存活的唯一理由。”

“而回憶到後期，我都開始懷疑你是否存在，你是不是只是我在這裏太孤獨而幻想出來的一個朋友，一個兇手，一種為了保持清醒而自我補償的救贖——知道有你存在，我至少熬得有點盼頭。”

白柳平靜地側頭：“所以呢？”

陸驿站抱怨似地白了白柳一眼：“好歹同情一下我吧，我都這麽慘了。”

說完，陸驿站靜了一瞬，他笑笑：“所以有段時間每當有人進來檢測香水，我都會問他們——你認識白柳嗎，你覺得他這個人怎麽樣？”

“可能是因為我很配合試香，他們也基本回答了，我得到了許多許多關于【白柳】的答案，但沒有一個可以說服我你真的存在，也沒有一個能描述出我認識的人。”

陸驿站艱難地撐着床沿坐了起來，他深呼吸了兩下，擡頭看向白柳：“現在輪到你來回答我這個問題了，你認識白柳嗎？”

他不錯眼地直視着站在床邊的白柳：“——你覺得白柳是一個什麽樣的人？”

“我認識白柳。”白柳很平靜地對視着虛弱喘息的陸驿站，說，“他是一個無恥，卑鄙，沒有共情，不折手段，沒有常規社會意識，尋常價值觀取向，也不接受普世道德潛規則綁架的人，簡單來說，就是一個徹頭徹尾的混球，再加上有很強烈的金錢欲望，從各方面來說都是一個相當危險的人物。”

“嗯嗯。”陸驿站嚴肅地點點頭，“是我認識的白柳沒錯了，繼續。”

白柳注視了陸驿站很久，才說：“他的确是你的朋友，所以就算他是一個這樣的混球，也會信守和你的交易——我不會引爆工廠的，如果站在玫瑰工廠屋頂的那個人的确是我，那應該有某種情況迫使我說出了那樣的話，做出了那樣的選擇，但我不會做違背交易的事情。”

陸驿站怔了一瞬，他由衷地笑了起來：“是的，我也是這樣相信着的。”

白柳上前一步：“好了，廢話和你說完了，教我怎麽檢測吧。”

陸驿站楞了片刻，無奈慘笑：“你過于殘酷了吧白柳，我剛剛聽那個廠工說了，你這家夥的天賦很有可能檢測一次把我弄死诶！”

“你或許會死在這裏。”白柳掃了陸驿站一眼，“但真正的你不會死的，要和我做交易嗎？我能阻止這場已經發生的爆炸，救下你和其他人。”

陸驿站怔怔地看了白柳半晌，雖然他好像沒有弄懂白柳到底在說什麽，也不知道白柳能怎麽做到阻止這件已經發生的事——

——但是他知道白柳這人說出口的交易，至少百分之五十以上是他自己可能做到的事情。

“要！”陸驿站一口回答，他眼睛發亮，“交易內容是什麽？”

白柳：“請我吃二十年的火鍋。”

“加上之前的十年，都三十年了！也太多了吧！！”陸驿站慘叫，“你看看我現在這樣，都不一定還能活那麽長！！”

白柳瞄他一眼：“那就為了和我做這筆交易，努力活到那個時候吧。”

陸驿站一呆，他看了看表情淡漠的白柳，沒忍住笑了起來。

關心人都這麽拐彎抹角——還真是本人。

————————

蘇恙抓住唐二打的雙手，他臉上難得出現如此懊悔的神色：“隊長，我和其他隊員在這裏的每一天都在後悔當初沒有認真地執行你的命令，要是在抓住白柳的當天就能将他擊斃，這麽多的人……”

他淺色的眼睛裏盈滿眼淚，聲音幹啞破碎：“這麽多的人，就不會因為白柳的報複，因為這樣的東西洩漏擴散而死去了！！！”

“隊長，如果當初我可以阻止這一切的發生就好了，都是我的錯……”

蘇恙就像是被某種極為沉重的責任和情緒壓垮了，他在唐二打的面前緩緩彎曲下身體。

他好像一瞬間因為悔恨和自責老了幾十歲，脊背上的骨節就像是串珠般在他瘦得過分的背上鼓起，骨瘦嶙峋，無法直立。

唐二打握緊了拳頭——這一切對于他面前這個蘇恙來說來不及了。

但是對他來說，還是來得及的。

As long as he passes the level in time, finds the antidote, and kills Bai Liu—everything he saw, Su Yan who was in so much pain that he wanted to die, all of this, will never happen again.

Tang Er calculated in his mind the time when the game ended in reality, as well as the time when Su Yang told him that Bai Liu caused the explosion. His eyes involuntarily flashed - this meant that Bai Liu went to the factory and caused the explosion immediately after completing the game.

You have to kill Bai Liu in the game!

He already knew that he would be able to get the antidote after becoming the factory director, so Bai Liu could not stay any longer!