The Plastic Revolution

The fluorescent lights in the interrogation room were blindingly white. A gilded plaque reading “Serving the People in Law Enforcement” hung brightly on the wall. A man slumped on a stainless steel chair, wearing only the upper half of a “black upper garment and red lower robe”—the “xuanyi xunshang.” The term “half a piece” referred to the fact that he had only donned the xuanyi (black upper garment), while his lower half was a pair of black tailcoat pants, which were tucked into the wide xuanyi. This man, resembling a cosplay version of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, was the groom at this wedding. After a prolonged run, the black costume hung crookedly on his shoulders. The right sleeve was torn like a corn cob gnawed by rats, exposing the incongruous white shirt cuff beneath—the rented costume, it turned out, couldn’t withstand the tugging.

“name!”

“Chen Jiaxing.”

“What’s your relationship to the suspect?”

“I don’t know him.”

“Why was he chasing you?”

“I don’t know.”

Detective Liu’s ballpoint pen jabbed a small dent into the notebook. He stared at the groom’s sweat-drenched costume and noticed the groom silently lowering his head. Detective Liu took out his phone and opened a short video app. Upon opening it, the following content appeared:

“Searching for the Cake Spirit! Groom completes 108 circles around the cake to trigger a hidden task – Human Puzzling Behavior.”

The video contained only two men spinning around a cake in a loop, edited into a ghostly, slowed-down clip. Their movements resembled the zombie shuffle from Plants vs. Zombies, complete with the game’s BGM.

Detective Liu placed his phone on the table and pointed at the taller “zombie” in the video.

“Is this you?”

“Yes.”

Detective Liu scrolled down repeatedly on his phone screen, unearthing various parodies of the chase. Some titles were chilling:

Shocking! Man hides private savings in a cake, brother intercepts it – Cash Power Awakens.

Wedding Bloodbath? Groom kills ex-lover for love! – Annual Drama Scene.

“Now the entire internet is flooded with your videos. You say you don’t know who he is?”

“Officer, I… really don’t know who he is!”

In the adjacent interrogation room, the suspect sat in a black hoodie. Dried cream stains were visible on the cuffs, and his face bore panda-like dark circles. Though clearly exhausted, his demeanor was relaxed, as if he were a student who had just been relieved after passing the Gaokao.

“name!”

“Chen Mo.”

Detective Yin pointed at the short videos on the table:

“What’s your relationship to the victim? Why were you chasing him?”

“Officer, can I get my phone back? I need to order takeout—I haven’t eaten in two days.”

“Two days without food and you still had the energy to run five miles after someone?”

“I’ll give you the phone back after I order. It’s Friday today; Wallace has a special weekend combo deal. Seriously, I’m starving.”

Detective Yin said nothing, stared at Chen Mo for a moment, then left the interrogation room.