Golden Judgement

Li Mei stared at the bright red numbers on her phone screen: 2000.00. Not a loss, but a profit. On her very first day of trading gold, she had made two thousand yuan. This should have been a moment of celebration, but instead, a secret fear, like a vine, wrapped itself around her heart.

She remembered Old Zhang's warning from work: "Nothing good comes for free. Money that comes this easily is probably dirty." Old Zhang was known at work as a "stick-in-the-mud," always clutching a yellowed copy of Das Kapital and skeptical of everything new. Li Mei had initially scoffed at his words, but now they felt like needles, pricking her with anxiety.

The money felt like a hot potato, neither to be held nor discarded. Li Mei started losing sleep, her dreams filled with glittering gold bars, like writhing snakes, coiling around her, suffocating her. She began to doubt the source of the money, wondering if she had become entangled in a vast conspiracy, if she had unknowingly become a tool for money laundering.

She decided to call the police.

At the police station, Li Mei sat on a cold chair, facing an expressionless face. She stammered out her "crime," trying to explain the "unclear origin" of the money. The police officer mechanically took notes, occasionally looking up with the expression one might reserve for a mental patient.

"So, you're reporting yourself to the police because you made too much money?" The officer's voice held a trace of barely perceptible sarcasm.

Li Mei nodded, then shook her head. She couldn't explain it herself; she just felt that the money was like a black hole, devouring her reason and conscience.

The following days, Li Mei was trapped in an absurd cycle. She was asked to provide various proofs: bank statements, transaction records, identification... Each department was like a giant, cold, indifferent cog in a machine, yet none could provide a clear answer. She felt like a ball being kicked around, shuttled between different offices, facing one numb face after another, repeating the same words.

"Is this money yours?"

"It's mine, but..."

"But what? Do you have any evidence to prove this money isn't yours?"

Li Mei felt trapped in a giant maze, where every path led to a dead end. She started to wonder if she really was going crazy, if she really had committed some unforgivable crime.

A month later, Li Mei received a summons, stating "suspicion of illegal gains." She was taken to a dimly lit room, furnished only with a table, a chair, and a dim lamp.

"Do you admit to illegal gains?" A voice came from the darkness, like an echo from the depths of hell.

Li Mei opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She wanted to say she was innocent, but the very existence of the money was evidence of guilt. She wanted to say she was a victim, but in this absurd world, who was the real victim?

"Silence is consent," the voice in the darkness spoke again. "Now, I sentence you..."

The voice stopped abruptly, and Li Mei's vision went blank. She felt herself falling into a bottomless abyss, surrounded by endless darkness and cold. She seemed to see a giant maze constructed from gold bars, at the center of which was a judgment platform shimmering with golden light. And she, she was standing at the center of that platform, awaiting the judgment of fate.

The shape of the judgment platform was that of a pyramid. Li Mei's consciousness was stretched infinitely, like the reflection of this pyramid, the end of the reflection being a void, a golden void.