Xiaohui Liu, Happier

Happier

Xiaohui Liu

The glasshouse, covered with colorful glazed tiles, was sitting in the midst of the wood like a beautiful prop from a Chinese shadow play. The summer wind brought the scent of freshly cut grass and lilac to the living room, where Captain was checking her equipment as usual. She was a young, tall police officer with short hair and eyes like amber glimmering in the darkness. Her fingers went through every detail of the gun, as she imagined aiming, pulling the trigger, and hearing the delightful noise made when the bullet hit the target

“Today’s highest temperature is 25 C. ” NeuroGreen reminded her in her head, “Your health code is green. Your mental health score is 98, or 99th percentile.” Her score was always in the 99th percentile. It was one of the reasons she made it to her current position at such a young age. NeuroGreen made another beep in her head, this time much more loud and urgent.

She drove her car straight to an abandoned office building. The area was already evacuated. Today’s target was totally her type: a former mayor in his late 50s. She loved hunting down powerful people because they were more self-delusional and thus always resisted the most. But not today though. It was a fairly new team and she wanted to see how her officers performed.

They located the target easily near the third-floor entrance, hiding underneath a big pile of chairs and tables. The target vigilantly stuck his head out, and a yellow health code glowed above him like a strange halo. Apparently, he thought that the chairs would somehow protect him, and they did. Before they knew it, he quickly found an exit in this bizarre labyrinth and started running.

To their surprise, he was remarkably fast. He was still wearing a black suit from work and was leaping forward with two skinny legs like a bald chicken. The officers tried to follow, but there were so many chairs and cubicles around forming a barricade. Everyone was stuck behind with some kind of furniture, apart from a short, red-haired girl who swiftly passed through the gaps and got near the man. Captain saw the man already got to the edge of the platform. He was climbing over the railings.

“Now!” she shouted.

The red-haired girl pulled out the gun and aimed at the target. But nothing happened and the man just kept climbing. What was she waiting for?

But it was already too late and the man jumped off the edge.

When Captain got to the edge, she looked down and saw the man twitching in pain, blood all over the ground. Bad fall. She sighed. Without emergency care, he would probably die in half an hour. But that was not the most important thing right now.

“You.” She turned around and found the red-haired girl, who was looking at the man with a petrified look. “Why didn’t you pull the trigger?” In her head, she ordered NeuroGreen to look up the girl’s mental health score. It had major fluctuations.

“I— I froze,” the girl said. “He was just really fast. I’m sorry.”

“That’s not true,” Captain said coldly, “He spent six seconds climbing over that thing before he jumped. It was more than enough time to react.” “I’m not lying,” the girl said. “I hesitated. And I hesitated because his health code was yellow, and I thought— I thought with proper medical treatment, he might be cured. But if I shot him, he’d just be dead.”

Captain sighed. “Did you read that man’s profile?”

“I got here as soon as I got the call—”

“The guy was a pedophile,” Captain said. “He managed to block the signal of NeuroGreen for three days and raped three kids. One of them was his own child. A four-year-old.”

The girl’s face blushed, “I’m sorry, Captain.”

“It didn’t matter whether his color was yellow or red. NeoGreen indicated there was a great chance for him to harm himself and other people, so by law you are obligated to do your duty. Your actions put yourself, colleges, and citizens in danger,” she said. “You just got yourself a secondary sanction.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the girl said.

“Also,” Captain turned to the vice-captain. “Don’t send the report yet. We are not done.”

Vice-Captain gave her an “are-you-sure-you-wanna-do-this” look and the red-haired girl looked like she was about to cry. She ignored them both and went downstairs.

She asked the officers to form a circle around the man. The man was barely alive, throbbing in a big pile of blood, making a weak, animal sound. Captain handed her gun over to the red-haired girl. “This man is dying. He is in great pain.” She looked straight into the girl’s eyes, “Even if he makes it to the hospital, he will have to stay in a facility for the rest of his life. What you are about to do is not an act of cruelty. It’s mercy that he doesn’t deserve. ”

The girl, though still shivering, nodded quietly. She aimed at the man, shot, and looked away. The man stopped twitching.

“Good. The rest of you may leave,” Captain said. The girl still looked concerned, like a child waiting to receive reprimands from her parents. To her surprise, Captain took out a pack of “Lotus-Eater” cigarettes, picked out the rosy one, and handed it to her. This flavor, called “Sukha”, was one of the rarest on the antidepressant market. As the rosy fog dispersed through the air, the girl smiled unconsciously. She remembered the fragrance of fresh roses, the fleeting shadows of birds when they flew over a lake, and the days she spent with her mom in a little cabin.

“Feeling better?” Captain asked gently.

“Yes,” the girl said, still dwelling in a peaceful fuzziness, “Thank you.”

“Good kid,” Captain said. “Now go.”

Captain got herself a regular cigarette and leaned against the wall. She knew she was pretty harsh, but it was necessary. She would do everything she could to protect her team. Police officers dealt with all kinds of abnormal minds on a daily basis, and one moment of hesitation could be fatal.

More than twenty years ago, there was a serious mental health crisis across the globe. Depression, anxiety, and madness were spreading between countries like a pandemic. The birth rate dropped, and suicide became the primary cause of death. Parents jumped off buildings with their young children, teenagers joined extremist groups, and planes were crashing down with passengers into Olympic stadiums. The level of production and consumption dropped to unprecedentedly low points. For most people, it was hell.

Fortunately, scientists invented an algorithm called NeuroGreen. Brain implants were already invented and widely used in the general population, and what was special about NeuroGreen was that it could evaluate the mental state of the user, and allow them to receive medical treatments in time. NeuroGreen was initially implemented in high-risk groups, but quickly became mandatory for the entire population. There were three colors: Green meant normal, Yellow meant immediate medical attention required, and if a patient stayed Red for a long time, the doctors had the authority to implement euthanasia.

Because of the nature of this job, Captain was able to afford her fancy glasshouse and got invited to cocktail tasting parties hosted by important people. But what she loved the most about being a police officer was the deep sense of fulfillment she felt every morning when she woke up, knowing that what she would do for the day was important to the wellbeing of many people and the construction of the happiest nation in the world. A feeling better than any anti-depressant. Maybe that was why her mental health score was always so high.

NeuroGreen reminded her that she had a lunch reservation. As she got out of the car, she saw her boyfriend was already there, a 6’3” bearded guy sitting in a little pink chair on the emerald-green lawn. He was staring at the menu with a solemn face, humming as his legs vibrated, revealing his socks: one green and one red, like traffic lights. Then he suddenly looked up and spotted her.

“Honey!” He shouted, waving at her cheerfully, “They have mousse au chocolat!” He suddenly stood up, scaring an old couple, and walked all the way over to give her a giant hug. “Je t’aime—et tu, me, me manques aussi.”

“Your pronunciation is horrible,” she said. “And we literally just had dinner last night.” But she couldn’t help smiling. He was always happy to see her.

“Come on, it’s our anniversary,” her boyfriend complained. “I got you a gift.” He took out a jewelry box. Inside was a necklace, but instead of a locket, there was a tiny, oval-shaped bottle attached to it. The bottle contained soil, a tiny herb, and an even smaller dead spider pinned on top of it.

“A rare species, part of the Theraphosidae family,” he said. “It was just discovered last month in the rainforest of Xishuangbanna. I asked my biologist friend to get it because it reminded me of you.”

“That’s really thoughtful of you,” she said, deciding not to ask why, “Thank you. I love it.” He seemed content and went back to studying the menu. He was a mathematician so he examined everything carefully.

Captain genuinely liked him, even though sometimes his jokes confused her. NeuroGreen paired them up exactly a year ago, and just as big data predicted, in many ways, they were perfect for each other. His sweet, easygoing, golden-retriever-like nature was a great balance with her determined, ambitious, and somewhat aloof personality. From a eugenics perspective, they would certainly produce high-quality children. In her mind, she asked NeuroGreen to remind her to look into surrogacy agencies. It might take years or decades for her to have children, and maybe not with him, but there was no harm in planning ahead.

She put the jewelry box into the right pocket of her pants, and then realized something was already in there. It was a black envelope.

“Could you excuse me for one second?” she asked. Her boyfriend nodded and still seemed fascinated by the food. She walked over to a quiet corner and opened it cautiously.

XiaoAi Gu died.

She didn’t know any XiaoAi, or in fact anyone with the last name Gu. What was even more disturbing was that the handwriting was very similar to her own.

She carefully put it back in the envelope and decided to examine it later.

“Everything okay?” Her boyfriend asked, finally looking up from his food.

“Yes. You were saying?”

“I can’t believe I’ve never asked you this, but why did you move here two years ago?”

“Well,” she said. “Woke up one morning, and the department just told me I need to move here as soon as possible. They even arranged for people to pack my stuff for me, can you believe it? They said they needed hands badly, like it was some sort of emergency.”

“Wherever you go, I’ll go with you,” he said, holding her hand. She smiled, slightly distracted.

It was a gorgeous day outside. There was a big, wide blue sky without clouds, and not far away was a beautiful park where families were having picnics under the Locust trees. A little girl was flying a kite, leaping

between the shadows of the leaves. It all looked peaceful and delightful, like any ordinary summer afternoon. But something was off, like a pixel flashing in this virtual screenshot of happiness. Something was making her very, very uncomfortable.

“Your beef bourguignon looks so good,” her boyfriend said. She frowned, staring blankly into the pot. But I’m vegan, she thought, and he knows. She wanted to throw up.

The wind was getting stronger, but the little girl was still flying her kite. It was the old-fashioned type, a peach-red swallow made of paper, flying higher and higher into the air, becoming a dot. She could hear the unpleasant sound of the elevator moving up and down. It definitely needed maintenance, but other people didn’t seem to notice. Di, are you sure you wanna do this?

“Honey, what’s wrong?” he asked, “You don’t like your food?”

The elevator sound was getting more jarring and almost unbearable. There was also a smell of cheap perfume fermented with rotten meat.

“I’m okay.” She could barely hear herself. Suddenly, the little girl’s kite line broke.

That’s when she saw the man. The same man they had killed this morning, whose blood already dried on the sidewalk, was running in the shadows of the woods, and a red health code was hovering above him like a curse. She immediately pulled out her gun, ran through the terrified crowd, and followed him on the endless lawn.

She shouted out a warning. The man in the black suit turned around.

What should have been his face was replaced by a white rabbit mask. The surface of the mask was very smooth, like it was made of resin or ceramics. The two red eyes squinted into a twisted smile, mocking her.

Captain fired at the rabbit face without hesitation. One shot after another, the blood kept pouring out, but the surface of the rabbit mask remained smooth and flawless. The man fell, and she rushed up to him to feel his face very carefully. The mask and the back of his head blended together perfectly, without any gap.

She looked up and turned around. Her boyfriend, the crowd on the street, and the cereal girl on the billboard. Everyone had a rabbit face.

For a few seconds, she was confused. Then it dawned on her, and the epiphany made her laugh hysterically.

“Call another ambulance," she said, still laughing.

'What?" Her boyfriend uttered in shock, his tiny mouth opening and closing in a comical manner.

Just then, a red health code appeared above Captain’s head.

She was insane.

(The second part will be Captain receiving psychotherapy through NeuroGreen in the form of dreams)