“I want to make money! I want a fat savings account!”
With his daily mantra complete, Xi Yan threw himself into work as though someone had given him a shot of adrenaline.
His colleague across the way chanted “The New Law above all” three times, then came over and knocked on his desk three times.
It was the man's customary little ritual before delivering news or ordering someone about.
But Xi Yan was neither his friend nor someone who needed to speak to him, and the man had no authority over him. So Xi Yan ignored him.
Unbothered, his colleague leaned against the desk, sounding positively delighted by the entertainment to come. “You won't be getting Outstanding Employee this year.”
Xi Yan had won that title three years running. Last year, he had even received a commendation as an Outstanding Citizen. His performance this year had been consistently good. There was no reason he shouldn't qualify.
Before he could make sense of it, the man added, “If I'm not mistaken, you didn't get paid yesterday, did you?”
“What do you mean?” Regulations required every company to pay its employees on the designated date. When his wages hadn't arrived yesterday, he had assumed there was a system error.
“Just a friendly reminder. Your name's red now.”
Xi Yan's mind went blank for a moment. He instinctively reached for his phone. Before he could even unlock it, it began to vibrate. The vibration lasted for about a minute, after which the screen inexplicably went black.
Phone in hand, Xi Yan immediately left the room and turned left. He passed down a corridor hung with a red banner bearing the gold-lettered slogan THE NEW LAW ABOVE ALL and knocked on his boss's door.
His boss seemed to have been expecting him. Pointing at the computer, he smiled without any warmth in his eyes. “All your information has been locked. Regulations say we can't pay you until your red-name status is cleared. No exceptions.”
“Me?” Xi Yan couldn't understand it. But he had waited an entire month for this. He simply could not accept being denied his precious money!
“I've always paid my taxes on time. How could my name be red? Maybe there's a system error. Can't you pay me first?”
“If you go to Central Square now, you can still make this round of rehabilitation. Do well, and you might get next month's wages as usual. Good luck. We look forward to having you back. Remember, don't let this affect the company's annual assessment.”
The sun blazed overhead. Standing outside the office building, Xi Yan kept turning his boss's words over in his head, sweating with worry.
His phone was working again now. He brought up his tax records and scrolled down. According to the payment history, this month's tax had arrived a full half hour after the deadline! One minute meant one round of rehabilitation. Thirty minutes meant...
Thirty whole minutes.
His name really was red now!
Red!
Unless he successfully completed rehabilitation, that red name would follow him for the rest of his life. He wouldn't be able to work or travel far from home. Even his rent would cost twice what everyone else paid. This... this was practically a death sentence.
It was 9:25 a.m. Regulations prohibited all vehicles from using the roads between 9:30 a.m. and noon, while rehabilitation, held once every three days, began at ten.
Central Square was three kilometers from the office as the crow flew. If he walked there now, he wouldn't make it.
Wait another three days? But he wouldn't be able to do anything in those three days.
Xi Yan glanced around, then dashed across the street into an alley. After two turns, he reached an old apartment complex. According to the map, cutting through the complex and running another street would bring him to his destination, saving fifteen minutes compared with the main road.
He backed up a few steps, ready to take a running leap over the wall, when a small gate covered in green vines creaked open from inside. An elderly woman with graying hair slowly emerged, hunched over her walking stick.
It was his landlady, Grandma Feng.
Grandma Feng managed to straighten a little, her face full of smiles. “Oh, it's you, Yan. Aren't you at work today? You've kept a perfect attendance record for more than half the year. Has something happened?”
Xi Yan slipped through before the gate could close. “Something I need to take care of. Where are you going, Grandma Feng?”
She raised a thin, withered hand and pointed shakily ahead, then stooped over again. “They've changed the venue for this month's recitation of the law. It's just up there. I'd better get going, or there won't be any seats left. Off you go, Yan.”
“Take it slowly, Grandma Feng. See you!”
Xi Yan ran flat out all the way to Central Square.
The time: 9:58.
The enormous square was packed with people in several long queues. Everyone was gesturing wildly at thin air. Some were red-faced; others looked utterly miserable.
At the very back, Xi Yan craned his neck toward the enormous screen up front. Countless red names filled it in a dense grid. He scanned them row by row and, sure enough, found his own in the twenty-seventh column of the fifty-sixth row.
With a red-name offense on his record, Outstanding Employee was out of the question this year. If he did badly in rehabilitation, he could even reduce the number of award slots allocated to his company.
Xi Yan pulled up the document on his optical computer. After rereading the detailed provisions of the New Law several times, he picked a queue at random.
The instant he joined it, a beam of light swept over him. A pink bubble appeared out of thin air before his eyes. Looking again, he noticed all sorts of strange objects floating beside the people ahead of him.
He had heard of people being bound to monitors after failing to pay the singles tax for various reasons. He just hadn't expected the things to be custom-made.
Xi Yan poked the pink bubble. It was remarkably springy and didn't pop. He immediately pulled his hand back. “Couldn't you make an exception? I'm a good person. A really good person, honestly! Check my records if you don't believe me. I've always paid on time. This time, a system error made it half an hour late. That wasn't my doing, so you can't count it as my fault. I recite the New Law every day. I'm an Outstanding Employee. I have the right attitude. I don't need rehabilitation. Really!”
The pink bubble bounced a few times and spoke in a voice like a little girl's.
[Records indicate that 87,562 rehabilitation participants have already used this argument.]
[Participant 95627, please acknowledge your wrongdoing.]
“...Fine, fine.”
Xi Yan glanced up at the time displayed overhead.
Ten o'clock sharp.
The red names on the enormous screen flashed three times and vanished. The screen itself transformed into a gigantic gateway of light, divided into multiple passageways that lined up with the queues in the square.
The lines began to move. When Xi Yan reached the front, the staff member in charge barely glanced at him before making a check mark. “Xi Yan. Meets the requirements for this round of rehabilitation.”
Xi Yan tried one last time, pressing his palms together and rubbing them pleadingly. “They announced a major power outage in the city a couple of days ago, but nobody said it would affect tax payments. My payment was late through no fault of my own. The New Law doesn't cover this situation. Give me another chance? I'll definitely pay early from now on!”
The staff member closed the register. Like a dutiful but utterly cold robot, they pronounced every word. “In New Calendar year 350, the New Law was enacted. Being single became illegal. Any late payment, missed payment, or tax evasion shows contempt for the authority of the law. I've seen far too many people like you—past marriageable age, still unmarried, and making excuses not to pay taxes. Besides, the payment window was open for three full days. That was plenty of time.”
“Yes, yes. The New Law above all. We must never defy the authority of the law. I understand all that, it's just—hey—”
Before Xi Yan could finish, a shove sent him straight through the gateway.
The world spun. Then he was standing somewhere new—a virtual world developed for rehabilitation participants.
The earth beneath his feet was scorched black. The sky overhead was shrouded in mist. Massive mercury-colored city walls stretched for a thousand miles, their end nowhere in sight. A dry smell, mingled with several things he couldn't begin to describe, forced its way into his nostrils.
The monitor floated before him.
[Participant 95627, welcome to the World of the Myriad Races Invasion.]
[Your mission is to enter a romantic relationship and survive here for one full month.]