The year draws to a close. The winter solstice arrives.
The days are fleeting, the nights endless; the winter solstice is arguably the darkest time of the year.
This year's winter solstice is particularly cold; even the sun seems afraid of the approaching long night, refusing to show its face.
Dark clouds gather, the north wind howls, and by just past five o'clock, the night sky is already painted as thick as ink.
Twilight brings a deeper chill to the earth; there are no stars, no moon.
It's as if today no longer belongs to the human world, but to another world within the darkness.
The earth appears exceptionally gloomy; even the asphalt road outside the window seems shrouded in a hazy gray-black.
Fu Rui stands quietly by the window, lights a cigarette, takes a deep drag, and slowly exhales a thick cloud of smoke.
His gaze pierces through the swirling smoke, fixed on the dark night outside the window.
His heart seems to be swallowed by this boundless darkness, unable to see a glimmer of light.
Just over a year ago, he was an enviable success story. His booming business fueled his extreme confidence, even arrogance. Every night, he frequented various banquets and nightclubs throughout the city.
Each night of clinking glasses, each flattering word, each tender whisper immersing him in a state of exuberant self-indulgence.
However, as his ego grew increasingly inflated, he began recklessly expanding his business, increasing the variety of goods and inventory, and taking out massive bank loans…
Even as the economic climate began to subtly worsen, he remained completely oblivious.
Until his stockpiled coal, iron ore, and even wine began to stagnate, and his cash flow became increasingly strained.
Finally, the day of reckoning arrived. A default on a mere three million yuan loan triggered a massive chain reaction. His cash flow collapsed like dominoes, and the banks that had once begged him for loans during his heyday turned their backs on him, demanding immediate repayment.
Tolstoy wrote in the opening of *Anna Karenina*, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." However, Fu Rui drew a contrasting conclusion from his own experience: while people may have their own unique brilliance when they are successful, their circumstances and experiences after falling on hard times are strikingly similar.
Like all those who fail in business, he first mortgaged goods at low prices, then sold his house, his car… sold everything he could to get money, and finally borrowed money from relatives, classmates, and friends to fill what seemed like an insurmountable bottomless pit.
In less than two months, Fu Rui went from being known as "Boss Fu" to "Boss Debtor."
His life roles began to shift relentlessly: deliveryman, food deliveryman, chauffeur, ride-hailing driver…
Even though he desperately adapted to these new roles and worked tirelessly, he still had nearly ten million yuan in debt to pay off. Even worse, the bank, as the debtor, continued to accrue interest.
It all happened so fast, so fast that Fu Rui didn't even have time to feel, lament, or even reflect…
Meanwhile, his marriage also fell into crisis.
Fu Rui's wife had once been his strong support, always silently supporting him through the ups and downs of his business career. However, this time was different. Faced with immense financial pressure, their once happy family was now shattered, and their current situation offered no hope whatsoever, especially since they had a child…
So, after a rational analysis, Fu Rui decided to divorce, separating his wife and child from the debt, and sending her to live with her mother, who had immigrated overseas many years ago.
That day, his wife, who had arrived on the other side of the ocean, cried uncontrollably on the phone. Her last words haunted Fu Rui: "Our relationship is fine, it's just a lack of money! I'm willing to suffer with you, but the children are too pitiful. We can't let them suffer with us!" After hanging up, Fu Rui remained calm, simply sitting blankly on the cement floor of his subsidized, unfinished apartment, smoking all night. In the morning, after rubbing his smoky eyes, he went out to continue driving for a ride-hailing service.
When salt is rubbed into a wound, even more rubbing won't necessarily increase the pain.
Because the pain had already pierced his heart!
…Looking at the heavy shadows outside the window, he took a deep breath of the cold air, as if trying to suppress the chill within his heart.
Tomorrow he wouldn't even be able to drive for a ride-hailing service anymore. The court's enforcement bureau had come that afternoon, presented an enforcement notice, and took his car away.
Having quit smoking for several months, he went downstairs and used his only hundred yuan to buy a pack of cigarettes and a case of beer. "To hell with tomorrow! I don't care if I live or die, I've had enough!" Fu Rui tossed his cigarette butt onto the unfinished floor of the apartment, stomped it out, sat down, tore open a beer crate, and pulled out two cans.
With the crisp sound of the pull tabs being ripped off, he began gulping down the beer.
In the past, Fu Rui had always disliked canned beer, but today, he found it unusually refreshing, as if it could stimulate his numb nerves.
He drank quickly, the bitter beer flowing over his tongue and down his throat, some even running down his chest. The beer inside and outside his chest seemed to have merged into one, enveloping Fu Rui entirely.
As the sound of pull tabs continued, eight empty cans quickly piled up on the floor. Each empty can was like a symbol of the loss and despair in his heart.
Fu Rui had always had a good tolerance for alcohol, and years of social life had kept his body's alcohol-degrading enzymes highly active.
But tonight, the combined assault of sorrow and an empty stomach made even eight cans of beer make him feel dizzy.
He burped, gas rising from his stomach and bloating, as if the pent-up bitterness and despair in his heart were about to burst forth.
The helplessness and loneliness within him converged into an abyss, plunging him into endless darkness, where he could find no light. At this moment, he longed for a friend by his side, someone to listen to his pain and misery of these past days.
Unfortunately, when you're destitute, not even ghosts will avoid you, let alone people.
Just as he reached for the ninth can, a rapid ringtone suddenly sounded.
Fu Rui felt a little dizzy, but after pressing the answer button, he immediately recognized the caller as his old classmate, Hou Jie.
Upon hearing Hou Jie's voice, Fu Rui felt a surge of warmth. During his time of hardship, the only solace he had received was from his few friends. Although most of his so-called "friends" had disappeared after his incident, his childhood friends remained steadfast, generously offering financial assistance.
It was thanks to their support that Fu Rui had barely managed to survive. Even the car the enforcement judge had driven away that afternoon was a gift from Hou Jie after he sold his luxury car.
Therefore, Fu Rui felt Hou Jie's call was timely, and he wanted to chat with him.
He slurred, "Brother Hou? Where are you? Want to come have a drink with me?"
But Hou Jie on the other end of the line seemed unusual, remaining silent for a long time.
This unusual behavior puzzled Fu Rui. Adding to his confusion, the court's enforcement that afternoon had also taken Hou Jie's car, leaving him unsure of what to say.
The two remained silent for over half a minute before Hou Jie slowly spoke.
"I'm in the capital right now, on my way back. Wait for me for a few hours. My girlfriend needs your help."
"She needs my help?" Fu Rui's drunkenness subsided somewhat. He knew Hou Jie's girlfriend, Meng Dong, worked at Tianshu Group, one of the world's leading tech giants, and held a high-ranking position. Considering his own current situation, what could Meng Dong possibly need his help with?
But he could tell Hou Jie wasn't joking, and his tone was serious. Without hesitation, he said, "If I can help, just say so."
"It's not convenient to talk on the phone!" Hou Jie's tone became even more serious. "Meng Dong said it's very serious and I should be prepared. We'll talk when we meet."
As his drunkenness subsided, Fu Rui's thinking returned somewhat. He realized from Hou Jie's unusual tone that something serious was definitely going on.
Hou Jie was always calm and capable, and had weathered many storms. He wouldn't speak like this unless it was something extremely serious.
"Okay, I'll talk to you when you get here." Just as Fu Rui was about to hang up, Hou Jie suddenly shouted nervously, "Don't hang up!"
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing… Meng Dong asked me to remind you." Hou Jie took a few heavy breaths on the phone, seemingly trying to calm himself: "Do you remember the VR device I gave you?"
Fu Rui frowned, thinking for a long time before finally remembering that there was indeed such a thing.
"I remember, why?"
"Meng Dong told you absolutely not to touch that device again, and especially not to play the games on it! It's dangerous! Wait for me!"
Before Fu Rui could ask any more questions, Hou Jie hung up.
These last few sentences completely confused Fu Rui; under the influence of alcohol, his brain began to malfunction again.
He lit another cigarette, pressing his temples hard, trying hard to recall the game Hou Jie had mentioned.
It was the day before his loan default went wrong. Hou Jie came to see him with his girlfriend, Meng Dong, and gave him a VR device, saying it was the latest experimental product from Tianshu Group, pre-installed with a game called "Enlightenment," currently in closed beta.
Video games had always been one of Fu Rui's hobbies, especially those visually stunning AAA titles. Although he had been too busy with other things in recent years, his passion for games had never waned, so this high-tech device naturally piqued his interest greatly.
The VR device looked like a lightweight combat helmet, with a thin, almost translucent carbon fiber headband covered with densely packed metal contact sensors. Almost every detail showcased Tianshu Group's outstanding design and manufacturing capabilities.
Meng Dong explained to him that the helmet could rapidly analyze and react to the user's brain activity and eye movements. A 2nm chip controlled 32 sensors, ensuring extremely low power consumption while quickly extracting and analyzing 70% of the brain's neuronal activity. This enabled closed-loop control of whole-brain neuronal cluster activity, allowing for the decoding of any selected neuronal cluster activity, achieving bidirectional fusion between the helmet and the user.
Simultaneously, eight built-in cameras and advanced eye-tracking technology projected the synthesized information onto a high-resolution internal screen with extremely low latency, allowing the user to be completely immersed in the virtual world.
Tianshu Group internally called it "the most advanced simulated reality device ever made by humankind." If this device could become as widespread as a smartphone, combined with Tianshu Group's brain-computer interface system, human behavior could undergo a revolutionary change.
To this end, Tianshu Group spared no expense in developing a custom virtual reality game, "Enlightenment," for it. Simply by wearing the device, without the need for traditional controllers, and with the cooperation of the brain and sensors, users could achieve realistic body movements and immersive interaction.
Currently, *Qiming* has begun a small-scale closed beta test. Most of the initial participants are relatives or friends of employees within the Tianshu Group. Meng Dong originally intended for Hou Jie to try it out, but since Hou Jie wasn't interested in video games, it was given to Fu Rui instead.
Fu Rui was indeed very interested. That evening, he and his wife tried the device together. After creating accounts, both were amazed by the realism of the game scenes, especially the novel experience of directly controlling their characters through brain activity, which was incredibly addictive.
Unfortunately, due to access restrictions, they were disconnected from the server before even leaving the starting area and had to give up. Fu Rui planned to try to reconnect the next day, but the following day he suffered a loan default, and his situation deteriorated rapidly. He had no interest in playing games anymore, and eventually, the helmet was relegated to a box to gather dust.
Yes, the box!
Fu Rui remembered that when he moved here from his mansion, most of his digital entertainment equipment was packed in a suitcase. Since moving here, he had been under immense pressure to make a living and hadn't opened the suitcase at all.
The unfurnished room he rented was only about thirty square meters. Besides a bed, it contained only simple furniture and belongings. It didn't take long for Fu Rui to pull the suitcase out from under the bed.
He opened the suitcase, rummaged through a pile of cables and equipment, and quickly found the helmet.
The helmet was made of the glass and titanium alloy that Tianshu Company consistently favored, combined with skin-friendly fabric. The visor at the front of the helmet even had a convenient magnetic attachment for easy replacement.
But now, under the pale, dim light of the unfurnished room, the cold and damp environment seemed incongruous with the helmet's high-tech feel.
"Is it really that mysterious? All this secrecy!" Fu Rui muttered, his eyes growing increasingly blurry, as he pulled the helmet's power adapter from the suitcase.
He had always been someone who didn't easily listen to others' opinions. When he was successful, people said that Mr. Fu's success was due to his strong will; but now that he was poor and down on his luck, people only talked about his character, saying that his failure was entirely due to his stubbornness.
Whether it was stubbornness or indecisiveness, he was still Fu Rui.
Of course, he was definitely not a reckless person. Normally, he would have waited for Hou Jie to arrive and ask about the situation.
But today he had drunk quite a bit, and more importantly, he felt that living was a heavy burden. His deep-seated escapism from reality and uncertainty about the future made him want to find some relief in that virtual world, even if only temporarily.
As for the danger Hou Jie mentioned, his mind was a mess; he didn't think about it, nor did he want to.
He drank another can of beer, went to the bathroom, and then threw himself onto the hard wooden bed, adjusting to a relatively comfortable position.
"Anyway, Hou Jie has the key to this place. If there's any danger, it shouldn't be a big problem."
Thinking this, Fu Rui glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table, then put on his helmet.
The black screen of the electronic alarm clock displayed bright red numbers:
6:39 PM.
As the boot screen lit up, the surrounding real-world scenery began to disappear, and the Tianshu Group logo appeared on the screen. The game program began loading his cloud save from before the last disconnection.
But after waiting for a long time, the screen remained completely black; even the opening animation that had appeared before was missing.
"Damn it, this network is terrible!" Fu Rui muttered. He suddenly remembered that he hadn't been able to continue playing because of network problems. It seemed he would have to wait for Hou Jie to arrive.
A wry smile appeared on his lips as he reached out to remove the helmet.
"Buzz!" A loud bang suddenly rang in his ears, like a thunderclap. Fu Rui, who had just sat up, was jolted back onto the bed by the sudden noise.
The loud sound made his head buzz uncontrollably. His already hazy consciousness became even more blurred, and the sound continued, growing increasingly shrill, so shrill that he couldn't even tell where it was coming from.
Was it the helmet's built-in speakers? Or was it an external sound? Or was it directly in his mind?
He tried to pull off his helmet, but his limbs felt stiff, limp and powerless.
Finally, Fu Rui couldn't hold on any longer; his consciousness began to fade, and he could no longer muster any thought.
In a daze, the surroundings seemed to transform into countless enormous mirrors, each reflecting a version of himself.
But as he strained his eyes to see, the figures in the mirrors grew increasingly blurry and unfamiliar, as if they had become other people.
With a series of sharp pains in his brain, cracks rapidly spread through the space, and those ambiguous versions of himself shattered in the mirrors—shattered faces, shattered people, shattered memories…
And his shattered life.
…