When a mystery novelist and the "perfect victim" she created are forced into a bond, they compete to out-act each other in an endless series of instances. He plays the devoted lover; she plays the trusting partner. It isn't until their pretend romance becomes real that they discover the entire space is a "write your next chapter" trap tailored just for her.
Jiang Lie, a mystery novelist, is at a career dead end.
She once profiled a serial killer in her fiction and even "predicted" the perfect crime. Now, desperate to find her lost inspiration, she has been lured by a contract promising an "immersive escape room."
The instant the contract takes effect, her editor, Yan Shu, grabs her wrist.
System notification: [Life-and-death pact successfully bound.]
The man who in real life gently rejected her work and smiled as he urged her to meet her deadlines now stands in front of her, snapping the neck of the shadow lunging at them.
"Teacher Jiang," he says as he turns back, smiling as if they're discussing next week's pitch. "It's a pleasure working with you."
Only later does she learn:
Yan Shu's younger sister vanished under mysterious circumstances three years ago. The last call she made was to him.
And every one of Jiang Lie's novels has landed precisely on a test point for the "Infinite Judgment Space."
The space tempts her coldly:
[ Betray him. You will gain endless inspiration and ascend to the pinnacle.]
She watches Yan Shu fall, still trying to give her that "don't be afraid" smile.
Then she tears up the pages the space has offered her, covered in "perfect tragedy."
"Listen," she says to the void, and to Yan Shu,
"If we have to write an ending, "
"Then I want us both to walk out of here alive."
[Reading Guide]
Rational, icy heroine x gentle, unhinged hero: she calculates their romantic compatibility in percentages; he risks his life to protect the focused profile she makes while calculating.
The instances are more than terrifying. They're tests of human nature: In a city where everyone lies, what is one truth worth? In a mansion trapped in a seven-day loop, how do you judge "inevitable evil"?
Their romance grows wildly at the edge of life and death: from "using each other" to "trusting each other with their backs," and then, "I may have fallen in love with you beyond the bounds of reason."
The ultimate question: When the creator offers her a pen and says, "Write his death, and you'll become immortal," she grips her lover's hand. "We'll write it ourselves. A happy ending."
Theme: True judgment means tearing up the fate others have written for you and taking up the pen yourself.
