Chapter 162: The Trolley Problem: The Voice in My Head
If it wasn't him this time, but someone else...
Not caring at all about what would happen to her, what about detonating that bomb?
Life is so fragile that it can be taken away by just one accident.
If you don't have a strong enough mind and are always swayed by the emotions of the weak, then... what happened a year ago will definitely happen again.
Jin lowered his head, and his hands hanging at his sides clenched involuntarily.
/Tsk./
The voice in my head started talking again.
I've already said it, she's the kind of kid who only learns from real pain.
What do you want to do by playing these little tricks that look like playing house?
/Look, she has seen through you completely now. What do you think she will say next? /
/ Ask a counter-question – and then convince you, for example, “Why would I do that?”/
"Well, why would I do that?"
Lin Xi walked up to the white-haired man, stared at his white hair, and put the gun back in his hand.
When Lin Xi saw the location of the bomb on the glass device, he knew the real purpose of the person who lured him here.
It's nothing more than wanting her to make a choice - between the trapped girl and herself, if one person must die, will she choose to push others to death and survive herself, or vice versa?
This is a bit like the trolley problem, except that Lin Xi is both the person tied to the track and the person holding the joystick. (Note 1)
When he realized this, Lin Xi even wanted to laugh.
Who on earth is so bored that he would go to so much trouble just to let her answer a multiple-choice question?
She was so curious.
Seeing that Jack the Ripper had obviously received psychological hints, and considering the answer to the last question - white - she actually had a vague guess in her mind.
White can be a white wall, white sunlight, or...
White hair.
A striking feature, isn't it?
Kim Bonnar, the "old friend" who knew Lin Xi, was the real instigator behind Jack the Ripper. He put her on track and gave her the joystick... What answer did he want from her?
She thought about the location Noah had last told her.
"Ms. Lin," the mechanical voice said hesitantly, "the remote control is located... in a nearby neighborhood. That's... the FBI's temporary base."
The location of the remote control is in the FBI.
As an external consultant for the FBI, Kim Bonnar naturally followed the team as they hunted for Jack the Ripper.
Lin Xi sighed, looked at Jin who was indifferent to her question, reached into his windbreaker pocket, and took out a remote control.
She stroked the plastic cover of the remote control. “You know, Jin, even though we were very familiar with each other before and you seemed to know me very well… you still have some misunderstandings about me now.”
"Am I the kind of person who will make a choice obediently?"
The trolley problem has only two options.
A. Kill yourself and let others go;
B. Kill others and keep yourself alive.
Jessie White and Jane Athena were once placed in such a multiple-choice question. In the end, Jessie chose B, and Jane chose A.
But, is there no other solution?
Who took them into the basement, restricted their personal freedom, and forced them to make a choice?
Behind the two girls, the figure of Jack the Ripper appeared.
Behind Jack the Ripper was the instigator Kim Bonnar.
So, in Lin Xi's opinion, there is a third option for this multiple-choice question.
Kill the one who put himself in the choice and live with the other victim.
Maybe this is the solution of killing the person who set the question if you don’t answer it correctly...but why not?
“But you always have to make a choice.”
Jin spoke patiently, trying to persuade Lin Xi: "You will eventually have to face a choice. By then, if you still sympathize with those weak people who can't save themselves like you did today, you will get hurt."
"I don't want you to get hurt again, Lin Xi."
The white-haired man spoke sincerely.
He had put the gun in his pocket and kept the distance between them neither too far nor too close. At this moment, he held one hand on his other arm and stared at Lin Xi seriously.
His tone, coupled with his harmless body language, made his words very convincing.
Even Lin Xi felt for a moment that this person really wanted this - he really didn't want to see her get hurt, so he created such a difficult problem to teach her what the right choice was - this old friend was the one who truly wanted the best for her.
That feeling lasted only a moment, and Lin Xi quickly came back to his senses, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart:
As expected of a master of psychology, he is really good at gaining the trust of others.
However, if he was truly a friend who cared about her own good, he would not use a bomb to force her to make a choice.
"Jin," she called softly, "I will not die, and I will not give up my life for others."
"If anyone makes you think I will die, that I will give up my life, then they are misleading you."
A doctor shouldn't treat himself. Being a psychologist is a dangerous profession. While treating their own patients, they can also be easily influenced by their own patients, leading to various mental illnesses. The same is true for profilers.
When Jin is accustomed to using various psychological cues to make others obey, is he himself also being manipulated without realizing it?
Lin Xi's eyes seemed to see through the gold and look at the darker shadow behind him.
"Tell me, Jin."
The girl flipped her hand, and a small and exquisite object that emitted a beautiful pink-blue fluorescence in the night appeared in Kim Bonnar's eyes.
Jin was slightly stunned.
Wasn't this bomb already detonated in the basement?
"Who gave you this bomb?"
At some point, the girl's voice also became lower.
Mixed with moonlight and night wind, the sound climbed up Kim Bonnar's spine and drilled into his ears.
Overlapping with the malicious voice in his head.
/Yeah, who gave you this bomb, Jin? /
In an instant, the fog of memories was blown away by the sudden wind, and a thunder exploded in Kim Bonnar's memory.
This bomb... this bomb...
It suddenly appeared on his desk one morning a few days ago.
He easily accepted this fact and immediately thought about using this bomb in the case he had planned.
"you……"
He questioned in his mind, "What have you done with my body?"
"You clearly promised me..."
/Oh? What did I promise you? /
The voice was filled with laughter, "I only promised not to hurt her with your body."
/But you also saw how naughty she is...If you don't educate her seriously, she won't listen to you, right? /
"You..."
/Me what? Me, a jerk? Hahahahahahaha…/
/Kim Bonnar, don't forget, you were planning this crime in the first place, and it was you who planted the bomb there, not me. /
/We are accomplices—you are involved, aren't you?/
Jin's words were stuck.
His expression twisted.
/What's wrong, Jin? /The voice in my heart kept saying, /I did what I promised, okay? Look at her now, she's no longer as scarred as before. /
/You have to do what you promised, right? Come on, let's... /
/Let her abandon those useless feelings and become someone who will never be hurt again? /
My head hurts.
Every time that person spoke, Jin's head would ache slightly.
He thought he was used to it.
But this time, perhaps because he was too emotional, the man's words echoed in his mind, causing more pain than usual.
"gold?"
Lin Xi looked at the person in front of him whose expression kept changing and whose teeth suddenly clenched after seeing the bomb, and realized that something was wrong.
Her hand quickly touched Jin's forehead and felt a hand full of cold sweat.
She looked at the expressionless face that the man was still trying to maintain, and she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "What happened? As expected, you don't even know who gave you the bomb, right?"
"Hey, don't be so stubborn. I didn't expect you to meet Jess in a place like this. We should sit somewhere warm and talk instead of being in the cold wind in a dark alley."
The white-haired man pursed his lips and slowly smiled: "Next time, I will."
Lin Xi: “?”
"What can you do?"
Jin: "Uh, let's meet you somewhere warm."
Lin Xi: “…”
"I say..."
Jin: “Hmm?”
Lin Xi was helpless: "If you really feel uncomfortable, you don't have to smile."
The expression of suppressing pain and smiling, coupled with his face with heavy dark circles and thin cheeks, was really weird.
Jin obediently suppressed his smile.
"What happened?" Lin Xi asked again, "Can you let me know?"
"I just wanted to help you."
The hand that was stroking his forehead moved from his forehead to the side of his face, loosely holding Jin's face.
Jin suddenly realized that the girl had used the same technique of gaining trust that he had used on her a few minutes ago on him.
However, even though he knew it was just a technique, he still relaxed.
"sorry."
He said, holding Lin Xi's hand, ignoring the noisy voice in his head again, "I wanted to keep you from getting hurt, but I ended up being the one who got you hurt."
His eyes were sincere, but his rejection was also obvious.
He didn't want to tell Lin Xi what had just happened.
Even so, he was obviously unable to control the pain, and even his hand that was holding Lin Xi was shaking.
Lin Xi was a little stunned.
After a while, she sighed, pulled her hand away, and then reached out to put the bomb remote control that she had just taken out of Jin's pocket back into the man's hand.
Then, holding the pink and blue bomb in one hand and wrapping the man's palm with the other, he pressed the bomb button.
etc!
Jin opened his mouth, but no words came out.
In the pink-blue bomb, fluorescent liquid flowed peacefully without any movement.
Amidst the sound of his heartbeat like a drum, he saw the girl shrug at him.
"Look, even if you have what you think is the murder weapon, it's useless to me."
"Since you can't hurt me, why don't you tell me everything you've been hiding and let me help you solve it, okay?"
————
(Note 1: The "Trolley Problem" is one of the most famous thought experiments in the field of ethics. Its content is roughly as follows: a madman tied five innocent people to the trolley tracks. An out-of-control trolley is coming towards them and will run over them in a moment. Fortunately, you can pull a lever to make the trolley go to another track. However, the problem is that the madman also tied a person to the other trolley track. Considering the above situation, should you pull the lever?
—Source: Baidu Encyclopedia.)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
