Kou Tong hesitated, sighed, then gently raised his hands and put them on Huang Jinchen’s back. 

In this place of mingled reality and illusion, in this place where everyone is lost in their own mind, Kou Tong asked himself, who is willing to wake from the beautiful dream? Who is willing to open their eyes and face a whole world of icy cold that has nothing to do with them? When everyone is sleepwalking, why must I be wide awake? 

But…there was nothing to be done about this. 

Kou Tong took a deep breath, rather self-mockingly thinking, here there was a troublesome handsome man voluntarily throwing himself into his arms, a not elderly beautiful woman “offering her bed,” a little thing like a human computer to regularly cause some strife, but…

Knowing full well that it was an illusion, how could a person still lose himself in nothingness? 

If a person couldn’t face his own true past, what difference was there between that and rejecting himself? 

If even your genes had other people’s things mixed into them, if you then also denied your memories, even denied your soul, denied your whole world of past experiences, then what difference was there between that and an ostrich sticking its butt into the air and burying its head in the sand? 

If, when the darkness revealed a pair of grim eyes and a mouth full of sharp teeth, the main character could give a cry and cover himself with a blanket from head to foot, pretend not to see it, turn a blind eye, then day could still dawn and everyone could live as normal—then what the hell was the point of those horror movies that did everything they could to scare people? 

Kou Tong’s fingers stroked comfortingly again and again over Huang Jinchen’s spine, as if petting the fur of some big wounded animal—they were only borrowing each other’s warmth, licking shockingly similar wounds; soon it would be all right. 

Faced with this rotten world, you could only survive by being more rotten than the world, on the strength of the invincibility of baseness. Both of them understood this reasoning very well. 

Just then, all of a sudden, there was a crackle. The lamp on Kou Tong’s desk flickered and went out. 

The faint sounds of the TV coming from the living room also vanished. There was a light knock on the study door. The person knocking wasn’t very strong. It was like a little cat scratching at the door. Kou Tong slightly pushed Huang Jinchen away and opened the door to find Manman standing there hugging her new flame, the little bear. With her head tipped back she said, “The power’s out.” 

Kou Tong put a hand on her little head. “Oh, the fuse may have burned out. I’ll go take a look.” 

Manman nodded obediently. Then her gaze shifted to Huang Jinchen behind him. The perplexed expression hadn’t yet left Huang Jinchen’s face. The rims of his eyes were slightly red. Manman looked him over, then suddenly very calmly said, “Hey, in life, the most important thing is to be happy.” 

Kou Tong tripped over a little stool on the ground, nearly prostrating himself. 

Huang Jinchen’s expression became increasingly complex, almost contorted. He held back for a long time, then said, “If I’m unhappy, are you telling me you’re going to make me a bowl of noodles?” 

Manman happily ran over, took a package of instant noodles from a cabinet, and held it up high in front of Huang Jinchen. 

Huang Jinchen: “…” 

Kou Tong looked at the apartment’s electrical circuit and found that the fuse appeared to be doing fine and the circuit hadn’t tripped. He wanted to go out to ask the neighbors, see if the power was out in the whole neighborhood, then found that there was a shadow covering the whole sky. 

Kou Tong tilted his head and carefully looked outwards. He found that flying by weren’t ordinary dark clouds but an enormous black curtain. Looking closely, what was making the sky go dark turned out to be countless densely-packed crows. 

Kou Tong didn’t announce this. He silently went to the window, stuck a hand in his pocket, and observed, frowning. 

He saw the city lights light up bit by bit. For a moment, the lights of the human world blanketed the whole earth, as if night had come. Then the lights went out one by one, like frail sparks that could be put out with a twist of the fingers. 

What followed was boundless darkness. 

And the frightening thing was that as these birds flew by, covering the sky and blocking out the sun, they didn’t make a single bird call. 

“What’s wrong?” Huang Jinchen came from behind him, leading Manman by the hand. 

“Shh.” Kou Tong lifted his finger and gestured, still looking out the window. “Don’t alert the others—look.” 

He pointed. Traffic was still moving in the street, everyone going their own way. The stoplights were off, and many cars were stuck on the road. People cursed each other, got angry, made phone calls, or simply went to the side of the road to buy something to eat. It was all very normal, as if they hadn’t noticed at all that there was something unusual in the sky. 

“The crows?” Huang Jinchen raised his eyebrows. 

“Only certain people can see the crows,” Kou Tong said softly. 

Just then, the door of Yao Shuo’s room opened. The middle-aged man walked out looking grave. “What’s going on? What are those things outside?” 

He Xiaozhi also came out—though he was still listless, not saying a word. 

“It’s the magician,” Manman said. 

“Enough, child. Starting today, don’t watch any more TV shows or cartoons.” Huang Jinchen sighed. “Watch the news and weather forecast every day, and the only newspaper you can read is the People’s Daily, for the sake of protecting the purity of your easily polluted little heart.” 

“The dark magician who can control the crows and rats,” Manman said. In a room full of grown-ups, she always had to look up when she spoke. Perhaps because of the lighting, there seemed to be some mist over her eyes, making it seem a little as though she was in a reverie. “He comes from over there, the nameless island.” 

She pointed in a direction. 

Kou Tong squatted down. “How do you know it’s nameless?” 

“It’s written on the map,” Manman said. “I looked at the map when you bought it.” 

“Where did you hear about the magician?” Kou Tong asked. 

“I saw him,” Manman said quietly. “A man in a robe who looks like he came out of a piece of paper, with a China rose embroidered on his clothes, holding a very sweet-scented white flower in his hand.” 

“How did you see him?” 

“I don’t know.” Manman tilted her head and thought about it. Then she turned to look at Huang Jinchen and said, “I can also see him crying. He’s changed into a child about the same age as me, holding a round…” 

“OK, I’ve got it.” Kou Tong was afraid that she would say the word “seed,” and Master Huang would kill the witness. 

Yao Shuo gave Huang Jinchen a strange look. Huang Jinchen stared sharply at Manman, seeming as if he really did somewhat want to kill the witness. 

Then, without a word, he went around Manman and returned to his own room. After a moment, he came out with a bag over his shoulder—given the thing’s length, Kou Tong judged that it held a weapon that could burst a person’s head. 

“Come on,” Huang Jinchen said to Kou Tong without turning his head, with the air of a bandit. “We’re going to take that flower-covered guy down, show him that romantics need to have principles, too.” 

Kou Tong remembered that birds had a very bad habit—they liked to shit everywhere. He raised his head to look at the sky, saw the black, densely crowded army of crows, like workers rushing to the cities to get jobs, and felt his scalp itch. Huang Jinchen stood nearby and looked at him with a ferocious gaze that meant—What are you still dawdling for? Hurry up! 

Kou Tong had to fish up car keys from the living room. “Mom, I’m taking your car out.” 

Kou Tong’s mom, fearless in her ignorance, said, “Oh, then get some groceries. Get another three pounds of ground meat. We’ll have dumplings for lunch.” 

Kou Tong: “…” 

Kou Tong’s mom remembered something and added, “Oh, right, I’m out of cleansing lotion. Bring me back a tube.” 

Kou Tong looked at her eternally young, abnormal face and very feebly said, “Do you also need a package of sanitary napkins?” 

Without any hesitation, Kou Tong’s mom said, “Yes!” 

Kou Tong dejectedly picked up the car keys and left. 

The two of them drove in the direction of the nameless island. Kou Tong detoured skillfully through the streets and alleys, avoiding the deadlocked main roads. Huang Jinchen sat in the passenger’s seat with the map he had grabbed from the study on his knees. All of a sudden, he pointed to a spot on it and said, “Go to that TV tower.” 

Kou Tong turned his head to give him a look. 

Huang Jinchen said, “This is the highest point near the nameless island. I like heights. It’ll make it easier to judge where the person putting on the show is.” 

Kou Tong asked, “And if that person also likes heights?” 

Huang Jinchen licked his lips and laughed softly. “There can only be one tiger on the mountain.” 

Kou Tong nodded. “Very good. I’ll be responsible for taking you to the TV tower. When you’re done, you can call me to come pick you up.” 

Huang Jinchen turned his head to look at him. “Partner, though you aren’t female, I still wouldn’t mind you being on my mountain.” 

Kou Tong calmly said, “Very good, together through thick and thin—though I need to go buy sanitary napkins for my lady mother.” 

Huang Jinchen was silent for a while. “Your lady mother is defying the natural order. You’ll be taken for a pervert, handsome.” 

“Don’t worry,” Kou Tong said, finding joy in sorrow, “those things actually make good insoles—they’re soft and absorb sweat.” 

Huang Jinchen: “…” 

Suddenly, Kou Tong turned the steering wheel, dodging a crow coming towards the front windshield like an artillery shell. The animal whizzed by. Kou Tong seemed to hear the wind of its flapping wings. 

“Crap. How did they spot us?” Kou Tong said. Then, in accordance with his words, three suicidal avian bodies in a row rushed towards them. The air raid had begun. 

A pile of bird corpses, feathers, and unknown liquids immediately appeared on the front windshield. The windshield wipers were broken. In the blink of an eye, signs of damage appeared on the glass; soon there were cracks like a spider’s web on it. Huang Jinchen took a small handgun from his pocket. 

The moment the glass shattered, Kou Tong ducked. Huang Jinchen quickly pulled the trigger. A crow took a bullet and fell dead onto the ground, where it turned into a small piece of black paper. 

“I hate these remnants of feudal society.” Huang Jinchen dropped the handgun, took a machine gun from his big bag and rolled down the window on his side. He braced the gun against his shoulder and fired out the window. 

“Fuck! Huang Er-Pang¹! We’re in the city! No one else can see the crows, can you be a little quieter with your massacre?!” Kou Tong’s shouts mixed with the sound of gunfire. “How do you expect me to explain this to the police? Tell them someone stuck a string of firecrackers into the exhaust pipe?!” 

Huang Jinchen laughed loudly. “Expert Kou, the most enchanting thing about you is that when the going gets tough, you can still come up with endless original ideas!” 

Kou Tong reached up and wrung the neck of a crow barging into the car. After it turned into a piece of paper, he cursed quietly, then took a lighter from his pocket. “What’s the point of shooting them down? Follow along!” 

He slammed on the gas pedal, then spun the steering wheel, throwing aside a pile of birds. Then he raised his hand and tossed the lighter out through the windshield that had been broken to pieces. 

Huang Jinchen understood at once, shooting it dead on. Kou Tong drove at a horrifying speed, getting out from underneath before the flames had completely erupted. After the small explosion, a big fire began to burn—because the advancing waves of paper birds had all become fuel. 

But for some reason, they still threw themselves forward like moths, down from overhead, turning into a smoking, flaming black tornado.