Chapter 1#
Qiming Manufacturing Factory#
“Record a demerit!”
“Record a major demerit!”
In the office, Section Chief Li banged on the table, making a loud thumping sound.
Director Liu had a slow temperament, and he spoke in the same manner: “A demerit must be recorded, but before that, we still have to clarify what happened. I think…”
“Think my ass!” Section Chief Li spat out, standing by the window, saliva flying wildly in the light. “Don’t blame me for getting anxious. Do you know how serious this disciplinary issue is? Did a donkey kick their brains? Fighting in front of the Martyrs’ Monument! It’s simply a great disrespect to the martyrs!”
Director Liu sighed, “Eh”: “It wasn’t in front of the monument; there was some distance. They were at the foot of the mountain and had to turn a few corners to get there.”
Section Chief Li paced back and forth in anger: “Isn’t it all on the same mountain! You still have the face to speak for them!” He held out three fingers, “You only have three apprentices in total. The eldest took the lead in causing trouble, the second dragged the third to add fuel to the fire, all of them got involved. How are they so capable? Do you want me to have someone write a big poster to praise them?”
“Those brats need a whipping.” Director Liu turned and left.
Section Chief Li shouted: “I haven’t finished speaking, where are you going?”
Director Liu put his hands behind his back: “To whittle a bamboo stick.”
Section Chief Li stared: “What are you whittling that for?”
Director Liu rolled up the sleeves of his gray long gown, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes revealing determination: “I have to whittle it. Chief, don’t persuade me. I’m definitely whittling the bamboo stick. I have to whip them until they scream.”
“Who’s persuading you? Corporal punishment is wrong; we must follow the rules.” Section Chief Li picked up his teacup, smacked his lips, took two sips of cold tea, and spat a tea leaf back into the cup. “Write a self-criticism, deduct this month’s bonus.”
Director Liu nodded: “Should be deducted.”
Section Chief Li dragged out his tone: “As for the factory director…”
Director Liu immediately stated: “I’ll go talk to him, you don’t need to come along.”
The patriarch’s attitude was impeccable. Section Chief Li gave him some face, and his tone softened: “Old Liu, although you are an old master with both merit and hard work, and I respect you, the comrades love you, and the factory values you, this matter is indeed your responsibility. As a master, your education was not in place.”
“That’s reasonable.” Director Liu scratched his hair, which was mixed with some white. “Let’s not talk about my three apprentices. The most important thing now is Little Tang. He is the college student our factory has been looking forward to with great difficulty. What did the hospital say?”
“Superficial injuries, let him rest for a day or so.” Section Chief Li put down the teacup. “Fortunately, Xiang Ning lived up to expectations; he made a great contribution.”
At this point, Section Chief Li still had lingering fears. Today was Qingming Festival. The factory organized a visit to sweep the tombs. Each workshop sent a deputy director to lead the team. What a good collective activity, yet the First Workshop and the Fifth Workshop actually started fighting. In the chaos, someone pushed Little Tang down the slope. He fainted. If Xiang Ning hadn’t carried him to the intersection, they would still be looking for him.
If they found him late and delayed, with so many bugs and snakes in the mountains, who knows what accident might happen.
Thinking of this, Section Chief Li grabbed the jacket draped over the back of the chair and hurriedly dragged Director Liu out.
“Where are we going?” Director Liu pulled his arm back to stop him from dragging. “I still have to go to the factory director.”
“Wait until those brats explain the problem clearly, write it down in black and white and hand it in. You figure it out before you go, so you don’t end up knowing nothing when asked.” Section Chief Li walked fast, the flesh on his face trembling, but his waxed side-parted hair remained motionless. “Now come with me to the hospital.”
Director Liu sighed: “Xiang Ning’s head was cracked open; I’m afraid he hasn’t woken up yet.”
“Who said we’re seeing him? We’re going to see Little Tang.”
.
Hospital
Tang Xiaoguang had just sent away a group of comrades and had a moment of peace when Section Chief Li and Director Liu arrived carrying fruits and canned food, followed by other leaders.
Compared to the liveliness at Tang Xiaoguang’s place, the other ward downstairs was much more deserted.
Of the two hospital beds, one was empty. On the other lay a young man, his head wrapped in gauze. He wore a blue jacket open over a white tank top. There was a large mud stain on the collar of the tank top. Part of the hem was exposed, and part was tucked into the dirty blue trousers. His eyes were closed tight, and there was a circle of dried blood on his mouth. With black hair and a pointed chin, it was a face where you couldn’t find fault, but couldn’t find anything good either.
[Ding]
[Mission world data verified, host transmission correct.]
Immediately following was a string of electronic sounds.
[Host: Chen Ziqing, from Earth in 2017, Gender: Male, Age: 20, Code: 11135]
[Profile: Parents died when he was six, lived with family elders. Elders passed away when he was eleven, dropped out of school then. Low education level, worked multiple manual labor jobs. Saved up for travel, encountered a car accident on the day of departure, currently in a vegetative state.]
[Account logged in]
[Your total failed login attempts: 1]
[Your total successful login attempts: 1]
[Your successful login time this session: 1982-4-4 10:47:43]
[Your successful login address this session: Huanghong Province, Dahe City, Ling County, Qiming Manufacturing Factory, Staff Hospital 1st Floor, Room 103]
The ward’s windows were wood-framed glass windows, located at the head of each bed. Pale yellow cloth curtains were piled on the wide wooden windowsill, next to a white enamel cup.
The eyelids of the young man on the bed twitched slightly, and he slowly opened his eyes. What came into view was a yellowed concrete ceiling. His eyes turned downward slightly, and in his field of vision was a closed white tin door. Beside the door was a cabinet of the same material and color, on which stood a pair of thermos bottles and a pair of stacked yellow porcelain basins.
The electronic voice in his head didn’t stop; it was reporting the account property details.
Newbie gift pack opened, current assets are as follows:
Fly Cabinet: 1
Dead Fish Eyes: 1
Points: -100000
Before Chen Ziqing could catch his breath, a screen appeared out of thin air in front of him.
In the center of the screen was a plain, monotonous black frame containing five small characters: Mission Board.
The line at the bottom of the black frame was thicker than the other three, with a small black dot at each end, as if something was tied to it.
Chen Ziqing speculated without thinking. Unexpectedly, as soon as the thought arose, the line unrolled a white scroll downwards.
The following are answers to questions frequently asked by previous hosts—
1: Our company regularly deploys search boxes to detect host candidates. After passing various data assessments, an account will be opened for them and missions will be arranged.
2: The host is located in the architectural setting of the mission background.
3: Unless there are special circumstances, the host will leave the set world upon submitting the answer. Failure in the mission will result in corresponding punishment, while success will earn points based on superior assessment. Points can be exchanged for money, life, ideals, or anything else.
! Friendly Reminder
——The host can modify the original character’s personal setting plot according to their own situation, except for the marked parts.
——Modifying marked parts will result in a warning. Accumulating four warnings will result in immediate mission failure.
After about three or four seconds, the scroll retracted, but the screen remained.
Chen Ziqing’s consciousness sank, but was forcibly dragged up again by the electronic sound ringing out once more.
[Ding, Host Chen Ziqing, your monitoring system is checking your account]
[Ding, monitoring system check complete]
System: “Host Chen, I am the administrator of this district, responsible for issuing missions. Nice to meet you.”
Clearly it was all mechanical electronic sound, no different, but it sounded a bit more oppressive, cold, and solemn.
Chen Ziqing’s weak nerve endings barely tightened a little.
System: “Sending mission now, please pay attention Host Chen, it will be retracted in 30 seconds.”
Silent dialogue appeared stroke by stroke in the white black-framed box on the screen.
[A: “Comrade, what did you say! The corridor light is broken again?”
B: “Yeah, it must be that guy from before, he pulled our corridor wire apart again!”
A: “It seems the factory’s ideological education isn’t thorough enough, some people just have low awareness.”
B: “We must find a way to drag this guy who destroys the wires out of the dormitory building!”
A: “That’s right! When the time comes, we’ll drag him onto the stage, in front of everyone in the factory, and see if he’s ashamed!”]
Below the dialogue was a horizontal line, a place to fill in the answer.
Thirty seconds up, the screen disappeared.
Before Chen Ziqing could recover, strange memories unfolded before him page by page like a slideshow.
Xiang Ning, the name of this body. He entered Qiming Manufacturing Factory by drawing lots among several villages for that precious recruitment quota. He got lucky. Since then, his whole family held their heads high in the village, and even the village chief had to weigh their words.
This year Xiang Ning is twenty-six years old, with seven years of seniority, serving as the team leader of the Glory Group in the First Workshop.
Xiang Ning admired people with high education. He read poetry, went to the broadcasting station every morning to read a poem to the workers, and would go behind the disused factory building during lunch break to write one, rain or shine.
Emotionally, he hoped to find someone he liked in the factory, give them his handwritten collection of poems, get a response, be a couple for a lifetime, and never leave each other until their hair turned white.
As an employee, Xiang Ning was diligent at work, helpful, and encouraged his fellow workers. His group’s production was always far ahead. He was a model for the factory, an example in the hearts of the workers. Every year at the year-end commendation meeting, he would go up to receive an award, wearing one big red flower after another.
He signed up for all activities organized by the factory and achieved excellent results, never slacking off or just making up the numbers.
Xiang Ning also had a shady side. He often sneaked into Section Chief Li’s office to act as an informant and make petty reports. Section Chief Li told him to especially monitor every move of Director Liu’s second apprentice, Sun Chengzhi, to strictly prevent the other party from causing sabotage and affecting organizational unity.
Xiang Ning had great ambitions. This year he set his sights on the position of deputy director. He also believed that as long as there was an opportunity, with his ability and reputation, plus his relationship with Section Chief Li, he would definitely become deputy director.
Tang Xiaoguang’s arrival caused quite a stir in the factory. Xiang Ning enthusiastically took care of his daily trifles. When he had the accident this time, Xiang Ning found him before anyone else and carried him out of the bushes, wanting to build a relationship with him.
Xiang Ning originally wanted to take Tang Xiaoguang to the hospital to further close the relationship, but unexpectedly Sun Chengzhi and a group of people found them. His plan failed and he was in a bad mood, so he left the person at the intersection and walked away himself.
Who knew that halfway there he bumped into something, leaned back, hit his head on a stone, and died.
His grand ambitions had no place to be displayed.
The image that frightened Xiang Ning was missing; it probably involved the mission and couldn’t be known to the host.
In these memory contents, there were a total of five red markings.
1: Often sneaks into Section Chief Li’s office to act as an informant and make petty reports for Section Chief Li.
2: Become deputy director.
3: He signs up for all activities organized by the factory and achieves excellent results, never slacking off or just making up the numbers.
4: Every morning he goes to the broadcasting station to read a poem to the workers, and during lunch break he goes behind the disused factory building to write one, rain or shine.
5: Find someone he likes in the factory, give them his handwritten collection of poems, and get a response.
Chen Ziqing wasn’t a fool; by now he knew what had happened to him.
He came to the so-called mission world, became the worker Xiang Ning, had to do the mission and submit the answer. Wrong meant failure, right meant success, and being right meant it was over.
The matter wasn’t complex, easy to sort out, but…
This was too bizarre, really too bizarre.
Chen Ziqing murmured: “Why was I chosen? In what aspect could I pass the assessment? It seems there isn’t any.”
Couldn’t figure it out.
Chen Ziqing raised his hand to touch the gauze on his head. Huanghong Province was a fictional province that didn’t exist. The 1982 here should be slightly different from the 1982 in his world, although he hadn’t experienced it and didn’t understand it, so he couldn’t compare. He looked around the old-fashioned ward. Although as a modern person he couldn’t blend in immediately, it was better than being in ancient times or a wild fantasy background.
The road is dead, people are alive. Soldiers come and the general blocks them, water comes and the earth covers it. Just keep going for now.
Chen Ziqing plucked up the courage to communicate with the monitoring system in his mind: “System, how should I address you?”
System: “Work ID 666.”
Chen Ziqing was stunned by this auspicious number: “Then should I call you…”
System: “Lu.”
Chen Ziqing followed good advice: “System Lu, hello.”
No response.
Chen Ziqing persisted: “System Lu, are you a robot?”
Ignored completely.
Then maybe not a robot, but a living person.
Chen Ziqing once saw a post on Tianya. He could still recall some of the content. It talked about high-dimensional space, alien civilizations controlling systems to monitor and use other low-dimensional creatures, collecting their various consciousness and emotional data to program into robots and create new humans.
Too avant-garde. The post was quite popular, floating on the homepage for a while before sinking.
The civilization of the planet where the system lived and the definition of the host’s existence were too profound and advanced, not his area of concern.
The urgent task was to complete the mission.
Chen Ziqing wanted to drink water. There was no one in the ward. He couldn’t get up and didn’t have the strength to shout, so he could only endure.
Enduring and enduring, he fell into a deep sleep.
.
“Brother? Brother? Brother, wake up.”
“Still breathing, right? Breathing, breathing, scared me to death.”
“Brother!”
Chen Ziqing was dreaming of completing the mission and going back, waking up from the vegetative state, and traveling around with a backpack full of energy, when the chatter in his ear pulled him back to reality.
The person lying by his bed wore blue work clothes, with a round face and round eyes. Ma Qiangqiang, the original owner’s little follower, with guts smaller than a sesame seed.
Chen Ziqing’s voice was hoarse: “Pour me some water.”
Ma Qiangqiang immediately took the enamel cup from the windowsill to the cabinet by the door, lifted the thermos bottle, opened the wooden cork, poured some hot water into the enamel cup, shook it, and splashed it on the ground.
“The water burns the throat, what to do?” Ma Qiangqiang was so anxious he spun around holding the enamel cup. “Open the window to let the wind in… no, can’t blow wind on a head injury. Brother, I’ll go to the corridor to cool it for you.”
“Wait for me!”
The tail sound was still in the air, but the person was already gone.
Chen Ziqing turned his head to look at the sunlight on the glass window, the tip of his tongue licking the bloody taste on his mouth. He had to quickly find the person who pulled the wire apart and finish the mission.
He absolutely couldn’t stay here for long, because if he stayed too long, he wouldn’t be able to escape any of those marked items.
And later, as the plot develops and information is supplemented, there might be more markings.
So after drinking a few mouthfuls of water, he wanted to be discharged.
Ma Qiangqiang was confused: “Brother, are you kidding me? You just woke up, how can you be discharged? You can’t even get out of bed.”
“I can get down.”
Chen Ziqing propped himself up on the sky-blue checkered sheet. He put both legs on the ground but before he could stand up, he got dizzy and fell back onto the bed, and even vomited.
Thin, bloody vomit flowed down his face into his ears. The scene was terrifying.
Ma Qiangqiang retreated a few steps, bumped into the adjacent hospital bed, couldn’t stand, and sat down, his eyes dazed. A few seconds later, he scrambled up on all fours and rushed out.
The corridor was in chaos. A nurse picked up the clipboard and medical record book he had knocked over: “What are you running blindly for?”
“It’s bad, it’s bad! My brother is vomiting blood! He’s dying! I’m going to call the factory director—”