Chen Ronghua's near-future science fiction novel, Emotional Hunter Lin Ke, centers on an "emotional plague" and builds a cyberpunk world called Mirror City. The city is controlled by the Heart Image Group, which defines extreme emotions as disasters. Emotional hunters use "Predator" devices to harvest runaway emotions and maintain a false peace, while actually supplying energy to the Group's "Ether Dream" System.
The protagonist, Lin Ke, becomes a hunter to uncover the truth behind his fiancée Xiaoya's disappearance. But strange things happen during his missions: incidents involving high-purity "sorrow" becoming liquid grow more frequent, "anger" zones emerge, and he encounters a mysterious girl called Zero, who is unaffected by emotions. As his investigation deepens, he discovers that "harmless decomposition" is a lie, that hunters are actually "nutrient collectors," and makes contact with the resistance group known as the Liberators.
The story explores the nature of emotion, illusion and reality, and free will, with one mystery after another. But the ending overturns everything readers believe: the resistance of Lin Ke and the others is merely part of a massive experiment conducted by a professor, and everyone is a "specimen." With its fresh premise and profound philosophical depth, the novel uses science fiction to probe humanity and civilization, while its tragic ending makes the glimmer of human kindness all the more precious.
