Chapter 154: The Trolley Problem This involves AI's personal privacy, please forgive me...
Jess: “With whom?”
Lin Xi smiled and covered her lips with her finger: "A secret makes a woman woman." (Note 1)
Jie Qian looked at her warily: "Are you sent by the police?"
Lin Xi: "No, no, no. I'm the villain, the big bad guy."
Jessie:?
This guy certainly doesn't act like a police officer.
"Well, no matter who you are, we're all going to drown soon anyway," said Jessie.
Her head dropped again.
Then I saw a strand of black hair hanging down in my field of vision.
"So do you want to be drowned or not?" Lin Xi squatted down, looked at Jie Qian straight in the eye, and asked with interest.
"...Who wants to be drowned?" Jessie turned her eyes away, not looking at the person in front of her. "If they can survive, who wants to be drowned here?"
When Jack pressed her into the pool, the same thought came to her mind - if she could live, even for one more day, one more hour, one more second, who would be willing to drown in this small, dirty pool?
"That's easy." Lin Xi snapped his fingers. "Then just stay alive, stay with me. Don't worry, we still have a lot of time. Even if this device is filled with water, it won't be full all at once. It should take a few minutes-"
"—six minutes." Jess said softly.
"Um?"
"Six minutes," Jess repeated. "From the time it starts filling up, it takes six minutes to be full."
She would count the seconds. After the last girl was brought into the "kitchen" by Jack, the sound of water started and stopped, a total of six minutes.
After six minutes, how long did the girl struggle?
She doesn't know.
She can't remember.
She only remembered that when she saw the girl again, she was already a pale corpse.
"That's quite a long time." Lin Xi breathed a sigh of relief. "The time it takes for the water to come up is enough for us to have a good chat."
"You..." Jie Qian was speechless, "Aren't you afraid at all?"
"No." Lin Xi shook her head. "If I get scared when I encounter such a small danger, how much more worried will those who trust me be?"
"So I usually don't show my fear. If I pretend long enough, the fake becomes real - no matter how scared I am, I still feel fearless."
“…”
Jess was silent.
Noah on the communicator also fell silent.
Jessie felt that her impression of the girl had changed again.
When I first met her, I thought she was beautiful and stupid; later I thought she was unfathomable...
Now I think she has a mental illness.
How could a normal person maintain confidence in this situation? Furthermore, Jie Qian couldn't tell which of Lin Xi's words were a joke and which were serious.
Every word was spoken in a very frivolous tone, but the expression was very serious.
Jess couldn't tell the difference, she really couldn't.
"Little Jie Xi~ How did you get caught?"
The girl was still asking her.
She pursed her lips. "Don't call me that... I just ran into... someone drunk on my way home from get off work. I wanted to help. But after I got her to safety, I was already too far away to go home. And then... I met Mr. Jack."
"Did he knock you out with the anesthetic?" Lin Xi gently placed her hand on Jie Qian's face and made a gesture of covering her mouth. "Like this?"
Jessie was silent for a moment and nodded.
Lin Xi patted her head and said, "It's not a big deal. Take a good shower and have a good sleep when you get home. It will be a brand new day when you wake up."
"As for the few days here, well, time will always dilute those bad memories."
After hearing Lin Xi's words, Jie Qian remained unmoved and still a little depressed: "Since you are not a police officer, why are you saying this to me?"
"We're going to die in just over six minutes, and yet you're saying everything will be fine tomorrow."
"He's a guy who can't even control his own destiny, yet he pretends to be so confident."
Tears rolled down Jess's eyes.
She sniffed and buried her head in her arms, trying not to let her voice reveal too much.
Although Jie Qian couldn't see, Lin Xi still shrugged: "Let's drink today and worry about tomorrow tomorrow... I'm going!"
Water began to flow into the tube connected to the glass device.
The cold water poured in, and the splashing water wet the hem of Lin Xi's skirt.
She quickly gathered her skirt and hid aside.
Compared to Lin Xi, Jie Qian's reaction was relatively calm. She just stood up from the ground and said, "Mr. Jack has started to release the water."
At the same time, Noah told Lin Xi on the communicator, "Ms. Lin, it's estimated to take another nine minutes to locate the remote control. If... after nine minutes, we still haven't successfully located the remote control, I will prioritize your safety and terminate the explosion sequence."
Lin Xi sighed: "It's okay... I'll be fine."
Noah: "Yes, Ms. Lin, we all believe this. However, my underlying logic is to prioritize your safety. Terminating the detonation sequence is part of my programming and cannot be changed."
Lin Xi was horrified: "When did this underlying logic come about? How come I don't know about it?"
“Don’t carve everything into the underlying logic!”
Noah: “…”
"...Anyway, that's it, Ms. Lin."
Lin Xi: "Okay, okay... Excuse me, what else do you have in your underlying logic?"
Noah: "This involves AI's personal privacy, I'm sorry I can't tell you."
Lin Xi was amused: "Okay, Mr. Noah, I respect your privacy. I hope that if there is a chance in the future, you can tell me if you are willing."
Noah hummed, and the communicator fell silent.
All that was left was the sound of splashing water and Jess's faint question: "Are you talking to your friends again?"
"No, I was just talking to myself."
The space inside the glass device was not large to begin with, so Lin Xi stood closer to Jie Qian. "Actually, I have schizophrenia and I always have hallucinations. I just saw one of my AI friends talking to me."
Jessie:?
"Don't frame me...it's already this time."
"Really?" Lin Xi brushed her hand across her ear, and silently took the communicator into her left hand. She then passed it from her left hand to her right hand, leaning over and saying to Jie Qian, "Look, there's nothing in my ear, okay?"
Jie Qian looked at her ear doubtfully, and even looked around to the left and right. Lin Xi cooperated by turning her head and showing Jie Qian the empty cochlea.
"Is it in your hand...?" Jessie pried open Lin Xi's left hand, but didn't see anything. While her attention was on Lin Xi's left hand, Lin Xi's right hand had already put the communicator into his right ear.
Noah, listening to their conversation: ...
Ms. Lin really enjoys teasing others... no matter what the circumstances.
"No." Lin Xi said with a smile, "Little Jie Xi, do you want to know how I did it?"
Jie Qian's ears were filled with the sound of running water and Lin Xi's smiling voice. She was actually infected by her relaxed attitude and became more lively. She asked cooperatively, "How did you do that?"
"Hey, you know the rules. One question for another." Lin Xi stretched out his index finger and shook it. "You have to let me ask a question before I can answer you. That's fair, right?"
Jessie: "What do you want to ask me?"
This person is really childish.
Even though she knew she was teasing her, Jess couldn't help but play along.
Lin Xi touched his chin: "Little Jie Xi..."
"Tell me, why did Jane Athena die before you?"
When Jie Qian heard Lin Xi's question, her body stiffened instantly.
Lin Xi's gaze was still on her, without any aggression, but it made Jie Qian feel ashamed. She wanted to find a hole in the ground to crawl into and disappear under this gaze.
Jane Athena...
This was the name of the last person who died.
The international student disappeared two days ago and was killed by Jack last night. His body was found on the female saint elephant at the back of the supermarket.
And Jessie White disappeared three days ago, earlier than Jane Athena, but lived longer than Jane Athena.
The longer the girls stayed there, the less they looked like they were when they were captured—bright, lively, and bright—and the less they looked like what Jack needed to complete the ritual.
So, why wasn't it Jess who died the night before?
Lin Xi looked at the girl in front of him.
Except for a very small number of people, in Lin Xi's view, the emotions and malice of most people are like fireflies at night, extremely obvious and nowhere to hide.
This small group does not include Jessie White.
Just now, outside the basement, Jessie White had shown clear malice towards her for a moment.
But she did nothing.
She just stood in front of her.
The atmosphere was stagnant. In silence, the water gradually reached the calves of the two men.
"Jane Athena's body was hung on a statue of a saint, her stomach cut open, and her entrails placed at the feet of the statue."
"Blood was everywhere."
"It flowed into the grass and the cracks between the bricks, staining everything with the smell of blood—"
"It will take quite a while to clean up that area."
"Her parents flew to the United States overnight. She is an only child and has excellent academic performance. This is her first year studying abroad."
"Her obituary came out today at the university she attended."
"Her teachers and classmates are mourning her."
Every time Lin Xi spoke, Jie Qian lowered her head a little.
In the end, her head had completely drooped and she stared at her shoes in a daze.
Seeing her like this, Lin Xi did not let her go and continued:
"Jane Athena is very popular on campus. She is beautiful, has a good personality, is helpful and considerate. Both teachers and students have a high opinion of her—"
“—Stop talking.”
Tears streamed down Jessie's cheeks again. This time she couldn't control her trembling voice:
"It's not like I killed her."
"I know what you're thinking! It's me standing here now, not her. You must think, think that I killed her, right? You think I said or did something in front of Mr. Jack that caused her death!"
"But, but...what difference does it make?"
Jess's suppressed emotions seemed to burst out completely. She was extremely excited, her voice getting louder and louder, and even her body began to tremble slightly: "—We're all going to die sooner or later anyway!"
"She and I will both be killed! So, if that's the case, what difference does it make if we die a day earlier or later?"
“I, I…”
"I just want to... live a little longer, even if... it's just for one day."
————
(Note 1: Famous quote from Miss Bayonet)
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