In sequence?
There were only four images, what kind of sequence could there be?
After hanging up the phone, Yi Sa tried to arrange the images. While she was testing different orders, Zong Hang suddenly noticed something: “Hey, Yi Sa, there are page numbers at the bottom of these papers.”
It turned out that the whole document had been edited in Word and printed out, so each page had small sequential page numbers at the bottom.
When she rearranged the papers according to the page numbers, she realized the images were no longer in the order she had seen them before. In the document, the sequence was: eye with long legs, ground vortex, eyes, prostrating worship.
Something clicked in Yi Sa’s mind.
The people at the ancestral hall didn’t understand the full story – when they edited the materials, they probably just listed the images simply without any particular order. But by the time the materials reached her, the page numbers of the images had been rearranged, which meant…
Ding Panling had rearranged them, and after doing so, he had discovered something worrying in the new sequence.
She quickly laid out the images again in the order she had first seen them.
1. Many vortices – traces left after drifting caves appeared
2. Three people prostrating and worshipping a circular opening
3. Countless eyes
4. An eye with legs
Yi Sa asked Zong Hang: “If this were a picture story following this sequence, what kind of story could you tell?”
Picture stories – they used to play that game often when young. Without thinking, Zong Hang fell into his childhood narrative style: “Once upon a time, there was a drifting cave that often ‘opened ground doors.’ Each time it opened and closed, it left these vortices on the ground.”
“One day, when it opened, three people happened to pass by, saw it, and were so frightened they fell to their knees and kowtowed…”
It was a very straightforward description – Zong Hang’s childhood compositions probably weren’t very impressive.
Yi Sa only focused on the problematic sentence: “They just happened to pass by? Could there be other possibilities?”
“They might have come looking for it deliberately, like how ancient people worshipped the sun, wind, and thunder – they worshipped this frightening unknown phenomenon. Or maybe…”
Zong Hang’s heart jumped: “Or maybe they were the ones who crawled out after a ‘ground door’ opened.”
Yi Sa continued his train of thought: “And these three people might well have been the founding ancestors of the three families.”
But how to connect the second and third images?
Zong Hang stared at the pictures, muttering: “After the ancestors came out of the drifting cave, many eyes appeared… This suggests they didn’t come out empty-handed, those eyes might have been something they brought out, and then those eyes grew legs and ran everywhere…”
Although it felt a bit far-fetched, he pressed on with his theory: “Could it be that they brought out some eye-like creatures? These creatures scattered to different places…”
A terrifying thought was gradually taking shape in Yi Sa’s mind, but she held it back for now: “What were these creatures for?”
“Well, eyes are for seeing things,” Zong Hang suddenly had a flash of insight. “Those beings lived in caves underground – it’s dark underground, so having eyes wouldn’t be useful, right? In biology class, they taught us about use and disuse – many underground creatures are blind or don’t have eyes because they don’t need them. So maybe they sent the eyes out, scattered them in all directions, to experience more things…”
He grew more confident as he spoke: “Also, the reason it could make up that story about the previous cycle of humans and AI is that it learned about our society through these ‘eyes,’ understood what problems we face now, so it could create that story.”
“Then where did these eye creatures go? If the three families’ ancestors brought them out, why hasn’t anyone in the three families mentioned anything about eyes all these years?”
Zong Hang thought for a moment: “Maybe they were hidden away, hidden so secretly that no one knew?”
Yi Sa shook her head: “If they were brought out by the three families’ ancestors, they wouldn’t have kept it from their descendants. They might have needed their descendants’ help to maintain them.”
What could it be? Zong Hang ran his fingers through his hair, pressing hard on his scalp as if that might make him smarter.
After a while with no results, he looked up to see Yi Sa staring blankly at the windshield wipers sweeping away the rain: those chaotic water trails, coming from all directions, swept away in an instant, only to return seconds later.
Zong Hang felt a bit nervous: “Yi Sa?”
Yi Sa strangely repeated her earlier words: “Ancient people didn’t draw things realistically, they preferred symbolic expression – this drawing style might have been meant to emphasize function and purpose rather than true appearance.”
Zong Hang turned this over in his mind a couple of times.
He understood – she meant that these eye-like creatures didn’t necessarily look like eyeballs. The key was their function – they helped the beings in the cave observe this world. In other words, they could look like anything: a bird, a stone, a tree, or even… a person…
Holy shit! A person?
Zong Hang opened his mouth, but perhaps due to excessive shock, couldn’t organize the words he wanted to say.
Yi Sa didn’t speak either, just slowly nodded.
The third image could be interpreted as the ancestors bringing many, many eyes out of the drifting cave.
Or it could be interpreted as after the ancestors came out of the drifting cave, many, many eyes appeared.
What if “eyes” referred to people?
The three families’ origins began with just three people, but later the families multiplied, constantly expanding – more and more people, or in other words, more and more eyes.
What Ding Panling worried about was: that every single person in the three families might be an “eye” scattered from the beings in the cave.
The water ghost three families might not be some naturally gifted secret families – their essential nature might be that they were outposts, watchtowers, and observation posts deliberately cultivated by something.
Everything their eyes took in, which they thought were private experiences, actually had someone behind them – eyes behind their eyes.
The big gathering at the gas station was the last rest stop before departure. Many people were busy using the restroom, going into the convenience store to buy cigarettes or energy drinks, their noisy chatter mixing with the sound of rain in a general commotion.
Yi Sa walked through this wave of sound to find Ding Panling.
Ding Panling wasn’t buying anything but still went with the flow with interest, walking back and forth between the convenience store shelves, casually picking things up to read their labels, then putting them back neatly.
Seeing Yi Sa’s approach, he asked: “Did you understand?”
Yi Sa nodded, curling a finger to point around her eye area: “Us?”
Ding Panling gestured toward the three families’ people in the convenience store: “Probably all of us.”
Although she was mentally prepared, having this speculation confirmed by Ding Panling still made Yi Sa’s heart race: “Everything we see and read, it can see too?”
Ding Panling said: “Probably. Just imagine everyone as human-shaped cameras…”
As he said this, his head turned strangely toward the shelves, like an electronic eye scanning from one end to the other: “New products, new promotions, new celebrity endorsements – it can see it all.”
The hair on Yi Sa’s arms stood up, and her voice lowered: “What about our thoughts? Can it control what we think?”
Ding Panling smiled: “Don’t be too paranoid. It probably can’t do that yet. If it could control our actions, why would it need to set up so many schemes? It probably just watches, sees through your eyes.”
That was still unsettling.
Yi Sa uncomfortably looked around: On this trip, there were at least several dozen people from the three families. If this speculation was correct, it meant several dozen cameras were mounted around them – whatever they said or did, there was no privacy at all.
Ding Panling glanced at her: “This feeling makes you very uncomfortable, doesn’t it?”
Yi Sa nodded.
Ding Panling pressed his lips together, two nasolabial folds trailing like ravines past the corners of his mouth. After a long while, he finally said: “Me too.”
The journey from Taiyuan to Xining, over a thousand kilometers, took two days even with their hurried pace.
The worries about the “eyes” didn’t trouble Zong Hang for long. With a “dead pig fears not boiling water” attitude, he consoled Yi Sa: “We’ve already died and come back to life – what’s the big deal about lending an eye to watch things?”
They were already covered in bumps, one more wouldn’t make a difference.
He’d even learned to look at things from a different perspective: “Before, Ding Changsheng and the others kept watching me, thinking I was different. Now it’s fine – they’re not so normal themselves. Everyone has their strangeness, I feel much more balanced about it.”
…
By the evening of the second day, the convoy entered Xining. After several turns through the city, they stopped in front of a magnificent grand hotel.
After sitting in cars for so long, many people’s limbs were stiff. Upon getting out, instead of rushing to check in, they stretched and twisted their bodies right there. While Yi Sa was rubbing her neck, Ding Changsheng came over in good spirits and called out: “Sa Sa, do you remember this place?”
Yi Sa was puzzled. Expecting she wouldn’t remember, Ding Changsheng pointed up at the sign: “Look there!”
Following his gesture, she saw five gilded characters: Jiang He Grand Hotel.
Yi Sa cried out in surprise: “Is this… the Jiang He Guesthouse?”
Ding Changsheng smiled cheerfully, clearly in a good mood revisiting this old place: “That’s right, surprising, isn’t it? It’s the three families’ property. They didn’t even change locations, just demolished and rebuilt the original site. Sa Sa, back then, you were only this tall…”
He gestured a height with his hand: “Running around everywhere, such a mischievous child…”
Just then, someone came out to greet them, probably an old acquaintance. Ding Changsheng happily went over.
So this was the Jiang He Guesthouse.
Yi Sa stood there for a while, looking around somewhat dazedly.
She couldn’t recognize it anymore, truly couldn’t. Everything had changed.
She remembered that the old Jiang He Guesthouse had been converted from an elementary school. It was very basic – each classroom was divided into two guest rooms by partitions, with shared public bathrooms. There were no tall buildings around, just low houses, and the shops had no signs, just “Shop” painted in red on the walls. To show off that she could read, she would point from far away and shout: “Li Guang! Li Guang!”
Zong Hang watched her from the side, having heard Ding Changsheng’s words: “Yi Sa, you came here when you were little, right?”
Yi Sa nodded.
She pointed things out to Zong Hang: “It wasn’t like this before. There was just one building and a playground with a swing where I used to play…”
“And over here, turning left out the door, was a shop that sold toys. One day, my sister went on a date with Jiang Jun. I didn’t know what a date was then, thought they were just going out to play, and cried and fussed about wanting to go along. Usually, my sister would have pushed me away and twisted my ear…”
“But at that time, Jiang Jun was right there, and in front of Little Brother Jiang, she had to act gentle. She spoke to me softly, saying ‘Darling, be good and play by yourself, sister will buy you a toy.’ Then she took my hand into the shop and bought me a toy fishing game.”
She giggled, though her vision grew blurry: “I stood in the shop holding that toy fishing game, thunderstruck – I didn’t even notice when my sister and Jiang Jun left. Because she had never been so nice to me, you know? Buying me a toy, something that had never happened before. Women can be so fake, right? I benefited from Little Brother Jiang’s presence…”
Zong Hang looked at her with concern: “Yi Sa, are you okay?”
Yi Sa snapped back to reality, saying loudly: “I’m fine, of course I’m fine.”
She glared at Zong Hang: “Don’t look at me like that, like I’m so pitiful and miserable. I’m telling you, it’s nothing, doesn’t matter at all.”
She explained: “Really, I was too young then. When things happened to our family, I had no concept of what it meant. Later when I grew up, I got used to it, and that was that. Aunt Yun Qiao and the others would always sigh, saying how pitiful Sa Sa was – what’s so pitiful? They’re just poking their noses where they don’t belong… Let’s go.”
Though the hotel had plenty of rooms and was practically closed to outside guests due to their group’s arrival, Yi Sa still habitually requested a double room.
Dusty from travel, her priority was to shower. Just as she turned on the shower head, Zong Hang called from outside: “Yi Sa, I’m going out for a walk!”
So restless, still wanting to go sightseeing, as if they were here for tourism. Yi Sa turned the water to full blast and plunged into the hot streams.
She showered for a very long time.
Because she couldn’t help remembering things that happened years ago, some long-forgotten scenes playing before her eyes like movies.
This was the Jiang He Guesthouse, the very same location.
—Here she had dropped Yi Xiao’s lipstick, then came up with the “brilliant” idea of fixing it with paste.
—She ate all kinds of canned fruits every day because she was pretty, adorable, and sweet-talking. She fully utilized these advantages to get countless treats, while Ding Xi could only watch enviously from the side.
—Her father Yi Jiuge held her hand as they walked the streets, buying local yogurt for her to try. She took one bite and spat it all out from the sourness, her little face wrinkled like a dried orange. The Tibetan grandmother selling yogurt laughed heartily and pushed the white sugar jar into her hands. Only then did she learn that the local yogurt needed generous amounts of sugar added…
Yi Sa wiped her eyes under the running water.
She thought she had forgotten it all.
After showering, she came out toweling her hair.
Zong Hang had returned, lying prone on the bed fiddling with something. Yi Sa urged him: “Your turn, hurry and shower so we can sleep early.”
Zong Hang looked up, his face full of joy: “Yi Sa, look, they still sell these here!”
Only then did Yi Sa notice the plastic packaging box by the bed, and on the bed was assembled…
Toy fishing game?
It was plastic, a new version – no wind-up key, rechargeable, and could also use batteries. Though new packaging for old wine, it was still the same game: a large pool board for multiple players, many small fish in the pond, with magnetic fishing rods at the four corners.
Yi Sa said: “Why did you buy this?”
“To play! When you mentioned it earlier, I remembered how much I loved playing with these as a kid.”
“Are you three years old? How old are you to still play with this?”
Zong Hang replied curiously: “Why can’t I play? I ate food when I was three, and I still eat food now, don’t I? If you want to play, I can let you borrow it.”
Yi Sa sneered: “You think I’m like you?”
Won’t play?
Zong Hang turned it on himself and enthusiastically fished for a while, secretly glancing at her: Yi Sa kept rubbing her hair with the towel, not even looking his way.
Really won’t play?
Zong Hang moved the fishing game to the center of his bed dejectedly as he went to shower: “Don’t touch it, okay?”
Yi Sa snorted to show her disinterest.
Zong Hang said: “I remember where I put it. You said you won’t play, so don’t move it, or I’ll have to settle accounts with you.”
Look who’s talking – he’d been on her tab the whole way and now dared to settle accounts with her.
Yi Sa almost threw the wet towel at him.
The sound of running water came from the bathroom.
Yi Sa blow-dried her hair for a while, then watched some TV, but didn’t like any of the programs and turned it off.
After sitting idly on the bed for a while, she found herself inexplicably turning to look at Zong Hang’s bed.
This fishing game was much bigger than her old one, though the quality seemed poorer, looking quite flimsy.
Yi Sa got up on her knees and reached out her arm to grab it.
Don’t touch? Don’t move?
As if – she wasn’t afraid of him.
…
Halfway through his shower, Zong Hang turned up the water, wrapped a towel around his waist, and tiptoed to the door, quietly opening it a crack.
He saw Yi Sa curled up on her side on the bed, holding the thin fishing rod, catching one fish after another to the humming sound of the toy.
Zong Hang watched for a while, then quietly closed the door.
Said she wouldn’t play – such a liar.