The Night the System Broke Protocol

A text message from an unknown number.
But when he opened it, there were no words at all.

Su Lai frowned at the blank screen.
In this day and age, aside from verification codes and e-commerce promotions, who still sent text messages?

He usually made a habit of clearing read messages.
But this time, for some inexplicable reason, he didn’t delete this blank text.

『Who are you?』
Su Lai typed three characters.

Despite having no signal, the message sent successfully.
He waited a moment, but his query received no response.

『Do you know Wang Xiaosi?』

It was rare to be able to send messages.
Even though he had no idea where these texts were being sent, sending a few more couldn’t hurt.
What if?

『Can you call the police?
A group of us are trapped here』
『My current location is: 444, Fourteenth Lane, Spring Breeze Village, City G』

His probing still received no reply.

『Hey, then would you like to place a delivery order?』
『For inquiries, contact: 0444—3876541』

This was the landline number at Wang Chunying’s house.

Su Lai stared thoughtfully at the now-dark screen.
The words he’d sent out had caused not even a ripple.
He put his phone away, bored with the game, and began to explore the bedroom.

The room was too narrow for a bookshelf.
Wang Xiaosi’s textbooks and notebooks were stacked on the desk and floor.
Among the pile of books was also an old-fashioned ink cartridge printer.
He didn’t find anything like a diary, that common information-gathering prop in infinite flow stories.

Beside the desk stood a globe.
Because the urban village was perpetually damp, the metal tracks were covered in rust, preventing the sphere from rotating smoothly.

Su Lai flipped through the stacked books.
Mixed in with the textbooks were some comic books.
The characters in the illustrations had all been penciled into snake-faced monsters.
Some areas showed signs of wear from repeated erasure and redrawing.
The original figures were long unrecognizable.

Besides defacing the human figures, Xiao Si’s textbooks were filled with all sorts of strange doodles and fragmented writing.

Rather than keeping a diary, Wang Xiaosi preferred to write inexplicable phrases in his textbooks.
Words like 『coriander』 and 『sand ginger』 were circled and labeled with “hate.”
『ice cream』 and 『barbecue』 were circled in red and marked with “love.”
The characters for 『eyes』 scattered throughout the text were also scribbled out with colored markers, annotated with: fear.

Even though he clearly labeled eyes as “fear,” eyes were the most frequent subject of Wang Xiaosi’s doodles.

Wang Xiaosi was truly a child of contradictions.

The doodles were chaotic.
Wang Xiaosi had some artistic talent, however twisted.
Distorted, multicolored eyes seeped through the textbook pages, giving off a vague, indescribable sense of being watched.

Hanging on the door was an old-fashioned calendar.
The date was perpetually stuck on September 10th, over a decade ago.
Gui You month, Ding Chou day. All other matters not to be undertaken. Avoid travel, praying for children, visiting friends and relatives.

This was likely the day Wang Xiaosi disappeared from this home.

The green paint on the wardrobe against the wall was peeling.
A lock hung on the cabinet door.
Su Lai tried several times with a piece of wire but couldn’t open it.

On the wall beside the wardrobe were several height marks drawn in pencil.
Su Lai measured himself against them.
The tallest mark only reached his waist.

Wang Xiaosi didn’t like writing diaries.
Wang Xiaosi disappeared on September 10th.
Wang Xiaosi hated coriander and sand ginger.
Wang Xiaosi loved ice cream and barbecue.
Wang Xiaosi feared eyes, but Wang Xiaosi loved doodling various eyes in his textbooks.

—Eyes.

Running the collected information through his mind, Su Lai lay down on the freshly made bed and closed his eyes.
The bedsheets and quilt cover smelled of dried sunlight, a rare luxury in the damp, cramped urban village.

As his vision shut down, the surrounding chaotic, muddled sounds became clearer.

Su Lai had volunteered for a nap, firstly to quickly examine the newly unlocked Wang Xiaosi room for clues;
secondly, to eavesdrop again, hoping for new information;
and thirdly, he really was tired from being scammed and wanted to rest his eyes.

Noon was different from night.
The clatter of pots and pans was amplified.
Choking cooking oil fumes and the whoosh of exhaust fans dominated the senses.

In these cramped living spaces, the contents of each meal were practically public knowledge.
What was cooked today, the neighbors next door could smell clearly.
They might even chew over a bit of gossip along with their food.

“What’s with Wang Chunying’s house today? Three dishes already cooked.
Smells like braised pork with all those spices.
What’s the occasion for such a feast?”
“Isn’t it because her Wang Xiaosi came back?
Heard he ran into Grandma Xu right after returning, and Wang Chunying even threatened the old woman with her cleaver.”
“Wang Xiaosi? Missing all these years, suddenly back now.
Who’s to say it’s even really him?”

Countless invisible eyes were hidden within the densely packed handshake buildings.
They observed in secret, stripping bare the secrets of neighbors and people in the neighborhood.
There were no secrets between people.

Su Lai, lying on the bed, frowned.
He curled his finger and knocked on the wall.
A reminder for these gossiping neighbors to watch their mouths.

Thump, thump, thump.
The other side of the wall went silent.

But in less than half a minute, the murmuring resumed.
It was as if they’d switched channels, shifting their gossip topic—

“That Wang Chunying is something else.
Her child goes missing, and she’s still got the mind to play around.”
“Zhang San leaving was just an excuse.
She and Old Wang probably had their eyes on each other long before.”
“This woman has no shame.
Her kid’s only been gone a short while, and she’s already rushing to shack up with the man next door.”
“If you ask me, why did Wang Xiaosi even bother coming back?
“Just ruins his mother’s new family and makes himself miserable.”
“I don’t know what Old Wang sees in her.
Always running around crazy with those two cleavers.
I get nervous just walking past her house.
Crazy old bat.”
“Old Wang likes her big butt.
Good for bearing children, you know.”

Lecherous laughter seeped through the wall.
The more Su Lai listened, the tighter his brow became.
He simply grabbed his flip-flop from the floor and smacked it hard against the wall.

“Hey, next door.”
“Before you discuss someone else’s rear end, think about whether your own mouths are full of enema fluid, spraying nonstop during mealtime.”

Su Lai’s voice was neither loud nor low.
The walls of the self-built houses were thin.
He knew they could hear him loud and clear.

Sure enough, the laughter-laced chatter abruptly ceased.

Su Lai enunciated clearly at the wall.
“This is Wang Xiaosi.
I’m happy to be home.
It feels great.”

Poor sound insulation had its advantages.
Confronting neighbors through the wall was particularly satisfying.
And the people downstairs—Wang Chunying and Uncle Wang—could hear it too.

Just then, his phone screen lit up again.

The unknown number had finally replied—

[Please be advised: offending neighbors may trigger the neighborhood’s “Pointing and Whispering” status.]

Su Lai paused.
Had the system connected with him? Through a phone with no signal?

In the guidelines given by the village committee, rules 4, 7, and 8 respectively mentioned: “Do not act in ways that offend your neighbors, otherwise you may trigger the neighbor’s Pointing and Whispering status” and “When the Pointing and Whispering status is triggered, your family may come to harm.”

“May come to harm”—
Meaning it wasn’t certain.

Rules always loved playing these word games.

Su Lai immediately replied.
“Isn’t this rule targeted at outsiders?”

After a brief pause, the other side responded:
[Others are hell.]
[Hell makes no distinction between original residents and outsiders.]

Well said.
But rules weren’t just meant to be followed; they were meant to be tested.

In that case—

“Mom, the neighbors are too noisy.”
Su Lai lay on the bed and called out loudly downstairs.
“The neighbors next door are bullying me, disturbing my sleep.”

His shout made all surrounding sounds cease.

Three seconds later, a door slammed BANG, the self-built house vibrating slightly.

“Little Four, give Mom three minutes.
I’ll deal with them for you.”

Su Lai pressed closer to the wall.
Three minutes. Start the timer. Listen intently.

The gossiping group next door erupted into chaos.
The sound of Wang Chunying hacking her cleaver against the wall was exceptionally crisp and pleasant.

First minute: cursing and grumbling.
Second minute: shrieking and yelling.
Third minute: pitiful pleas for mercy.

Time’s up. Silence returned.

Wang Chunying, returning with her cleaver, gently closed the door.
She tied her apron and went back to the kitchen to continue prepping and cooking.

Su Lai discovered that the neighbors in this instance were all quite cowardly.
Meeting violence with violence could nip [Pointing and Whispering] in the bud and greatly improve one’s mental state.
No [Pointing and Whispering] could harm a solid mother-son relationship.

Besides, he trusted Wang Chunying’s characterization and combat prowess.

Su Lai connected his earphones to his phone, plugged them in, and closed his eyes to rest.

In the rare quiet, drowsiness washed over him.

Faint daylight filtered through the curtains into the room.
The room was on mute.
The wall became a giant display screen, snow-like static flickering in time with his breathing.

The entire room was fading.
The calendar, the desk, the daylight, the reflection of the urban village behind the curtain.
Finally, they were all swallowed by murky black and white.

Static spread like dense fog.
Su Lai stood at the center of the static, unable to see anything.

Like the last dream, he felt someone covering his eyes.

“Ah Lai, remember to come find me.”

It was Xiao Chang.
Xiao Chang’s hands were always cold.
His tone was still unhinged.

Su Lai opened his eyes between the other’s fingers.
Through the gaps, he saw the outside world had already been invaded by static.

“Where do I find you?” Su Lai asked.

The other gave a soft laugh.
But before he could answer, Su Lai’s phone suddenly rang.

He snapped his eyes open.
The mold-spotted ceiling greeted him.

The incoming call showed no number.
Su Lai answered.
“Hello?”

Silence.
His surroundings were utterly quiet.
Su Lai held the phone, waiting.
He could hear his own uneven breathing, still unsettled from the dream.

Half a minute passed.
Still no response.
But the other party hadn’t hung up either.

“Is that Xiao Chang?” Su Lai asked.
“You haven’t answered my question yet.”

Su Lai’s expression was blank.
“Where do I find you?”

The crackling static grew louder and more chaotic.
These earphones were broken; the sound they transmitted was never clean.

“The entrance to the labyrinth.”
Finally, amid the chaotic static, the voice on the other end answered Su Lai’s question.

“Labyrinth?”

“Ah Lai, you’ll find the entrance.”
“They can’t contaminate you.”
The other’s tone was unhurried, as if joking.
“Help me get rid of them.”

“Them. Who are they?”

The static expanded like snow noise, invading his senses.

A long time passed. Or perhaps not so long.
His perception of time had skewed.

The voice on the other end carried a hint of playfulness.
“Guess.”

BAM BAM BAM—
A violent pounding on the door shattered the stillness.

The omnipresent static instantly collapsed, dissolved.
Along with the person he was speaking to, it vanished without a trace.

This time, Su Lai truly opened his eyes.
The mold spots on the ceiling were no longer shifting.
The unreal but familiar sense of gloom had also disappeared.

BAM BAM BAM.
The pounding on the door continued, growing more intense—