The Moment the Truth Clicked

Lunchtime was over. The bustling wonton shop from the morning finally quieted down. Most of the customers were gone. Uncle Wang was in charge of cleaning up the shop. The nine hired berserk residents, with energy to burn, were vigorously chopping meat and washing dishes.

They were so vigorous that they broke several bowls. Boss Lady Wang Chunying didn’t go easy on them either, deducting from their pay as punishment.

“Clumsy, every one of you! Can’t even work as well as my nephew with Parkinson’s!” Wang Chunying had already fully adapted to her role as wonton shop owner. She lectured the employees with great authority.

Bai Ke, repeatedly afflicted with Parkinson’s and mental illness, sneezed.

Su Lai put down his helmet and entered the house. “Mom, wontons delivered.”

Wang Chunying’s fierce expression softened, replaced by a warm smile. “Little Four? Is it hot outside? Are you hungry?”

Su Lai shook his head, hugging the heavy resident registry as he headed upstairs. “Not eating. Going to do my homework first.”

A few question marks floated over Wang Chunying’s beaming face.

Su Lai: “Where’s my cousin? Tell him to come to my room and tutor me on my homework.”

The air conditioner in Wang Xiaosi’s room was fixed. Probably Uncle Wang had repaired it. It could cool, but it leaked a bit. Amidst the drip-drip-drip of the leaking water, the room was cool again.

In less than two minutes, a knock sounded. Bai Ke, reluctantly forced to “tutor homework,” opened the door.

“Cousin, what’s the situation now?” Bai Ke closed the door tightly and sat down impatiently in front of Su Lai, lowering his voice. “Did you find any new leads on the peeper…”

Su Lai nodded. “I got the list.” “But same as yesterday, because of my identity restrictions, the physical labor of reporting falls to you.”

Bai Ke was both surprised and delighted. “Really? Let me see the list!”

He hadn’t expected Lai-ge, busy delivering wontons all morning, to make progress. Bai Ke no longer dreaded being the reporter. Whether he reported personally or not, the blame would still fall on him anyway. With hatred evenly distributed, what difference did it make?

Su Lai: “Cousin, you need to prepare yourself mentally.”

Bai Ke was confused. Why did he need mental preparation just to look at a list?

But when Su Lai pulled out a heavy “Spring Breeze Community Resident Registration” booklet, he swallowed hard and swallowed all his doubts back down.

“Cousin, this is…?” A bad feeling made Bai Ke’s voice smaller.

Su Lai nodded. “Tonight’s list. The people we need to report.”

Bai Ke cautiously asked: “Did you circle them for me?”

Su Lai shook his head. “It’s everyone.”

“What?!” Even with his bad feeling, the word “everyone” far exceeded Bai Ke’s capacity to handle.

Su Lai said seriously: “Every name on this registry is a ‘peeper’ we need to report.” “That’s why I said it’s physical labor.” He remained calm, the astonishing words contrasting oddly with his tone.

Bai Ke’s head buzzed. This felt unreal.

“Everyone in the registry… including Wang Chunying?” Bai Ke whispered.

Su Lai nodded. “Including me and you. Everyone.” He emphasized again.

The air in the room stopped flowing for an instant. Only the dripping of the leaking AC continued.

“No, but why…” Bai Ke started shaking his head in confusion. “Ge, is this really okay?”

Whenever Bai Ke got anxious, he forgot to call him cousin and switched to ‘ge’.

Su Lai was certain. “Last night, Mom said: in this place, anything with eyes is peeping at others.”

He believed this was the instance’s trap.

The village committee tasked the outside tenant players with finding the peeper in the urban village. But they deliberately gave an ambiguous question. They didn’t specify the number of peepers, nor did they explain how the correctness of the answer would be judged.

After players submitted their lists, the staff never verified the information or evidence.

This wasn’t because the staff was lazy. It actually proved from another angle that everyone participated in this “peeping.” That’s why the staff didn’t need evidence. After all, everyone with eyes and ears was a peeper to others and to the outside world. No matter who you wrote, it wouldn’t be wrong.

Players, following conventional thinking, toiled daily, running through the urban village, searching for the so-called peeping criminals. But this was only the narrow meaning of peeper, just a part of it, the easiest part to discover.

In reality, the easier-to-ignore peeping had already merged into the daily life of the urban village. In the densely packed handshake buildings. In the incessant, pervasive noise. In the scrutinizing gazes and gossiping mouths of the neighbors. In knowing exactly what dish the neighbor cooked and what show they watched tonight…

In an environment where living space was extremely compressed, almost everyone exposed their privacy. And everyone, actively or passively, participated in this act of killing “privacy,” becoming a member of the peeping crowd.

Just like no one realizes they’re breathing air every day. It just happens naturally.

And these taken-for-granted things were extremely amplified after contamination invaded. Contamination made the peeping flowing through daily life aggressive and harmful. It turned into gazes and sounds that could drive people crazy. It became absurd, bizarre stories and relationships. Until it completely killed everyone it contaminated.

After entering the urban village, the players’ feeling of omnipresent peeping was contamination making “peeping” perceptible. While trying to corrupt players’ mental stability, it also provided clues and ways of thinking from the side.

Although every original resident had their eyes open, their eyeballs were murky and chaotic. Besides hinting that they were no longer alive, there was another, more subtle hint: they didn’t want to see, and even less wanted to be seen.

The protective charm Wang Chunying gave Wang Xiaosi, with its pixelated red eye, was also hinting at the truth about peeping.

And the players, assigned the task of finding the peeper, inevitably had to investigate the original residents in the process of actively seeking the answer. In this process, the players themselves were also “alienated” by contamination into becoming part of the peeping crowd.

Bai Ke hugged the heavy resident information registry. His expression shifted from confusion to shock, and from shock to gravity.

“So that’s it… I think I understand… I think I…” “So this is how it is… so…!”

“This also matches the different consequences caused by fluctuations in affection values! Affection in the residential area, the neighbors’ observation and scrutiny… we’ve also been observing and speculating about every original resident… while carrying out the task of finding the peeper… the suspicion and investigation itself made us equally trapped in it… the discreet investigation itself also formed part of the peeping…”

Su Lai: “The staff member emphasized discreet investigation. Probably also to intentionally guide the players into achieving ‘peeping.'”

After all, “peeper” could be given various layers of meaning. The word was too broad.

Bai Ke: “In such a cramped living environment, the blurring of boundaries between people leads to one’s personal life being invaded. At the same time, one also invades others, intentionally or not. Until the ‘self’ and ‘others’ in the crowd are completely exposed, assimilated, drowned, and then disappear…”

Having suddenly realized this, Bai Ke analyzed incessantly. Because this answer was so close to the truth, so real, he was shaken, unable to snap out of it for a long time. Bai Ke’s hands gripping the edge of the registry were slightly sweaty. His fingertips trembled.

—Everyone was a peeper. Including themselves.

Su Lai gave him a thumbs-up. “Leave the value-adding to you, internet media guy.”

Bai Ke: “…” Lai-ge’s comment instantly pulled him back from his turbulent emotions to reality.

“Cousin, one more question.” Bai Ke bit his lip worriedly. “Suppose… I’m just saying suppose… even after writing everyone’s name, the answer is still wrong… what do we do then?”

Su Lai: “What do we do? I don’t know.”

Bai Ke was stunned. “Huh?”

Su Lai: “We’re also on the reported list. So we’re reported people too. We can go berserk.”

Hu Xiang’s situation last night had already confirmed that going berserk wasn’t a privilege exclusive to original residents. Outside tenants could do it too. As long as you were reported, everyone equally had the right to go berserk.

Su Lai: “Berserk vs berserk. Just see who can go more berserk. No need to worry.”

Bai Ke: “… Ge, this is another kind of slacking off. Violent slacking off.”

Su Lai: “Now there are two problems.” “First problem: the village committee staff member is also an original resident. She’ll appear on the list we need to report.”

The rules clearly stated: The village committee staff are composed of original residents. Now, deducing that everyone was a peeper, the staff member was also part of the peeping crowd.

“Although she’s not very dedicated and never checks the players’ submitted lists, what if she gets bored today, flips through it on a whim, and finds herself reported? If she goes berserk prematurely, that’ll be trouble.” Su Lai analyzed. “You need to time the report precisely, right before the answer is announced. Not too early, and not too late.”

Minimizing the time gap between the report and the answer announcement could reduce the probability of unexpected events and avoid complications.

Bai Ke nodded. “Also need to reserve enough time for me to get home from the village committee.”

Su Lai: “Easy. You still have the Hot-Teen Ghost item. The little e-bike can go as fast as you want. No rush hour here.”

Bai Ke hissed, touching his tailbone. It still hurt.

Su Lai: “And another problem…” He paused suddenly, looking at Bai Ke with a grave expression that made Bai Ke’s heart pound. “What?”

Su Lai pulled a few pens from Wang Xiaosi’s pencil case and handed them to Bai Ke. “Over a thousand names. I’m afraid the village committee’s ink won’t be enough. You won’t be able to finish copying.”

Bai Ke choked. “… Aren’t you afraid I’ll copy my hand off?”

Su Lai narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing Bai Ke. “You studied humanities, right? Took the college entrance exam?”

Bai Ke: “Yeah. Why?”

Su Lai waved his hand. “Nothing then. A few thousand characters won’t wear you out.”