When the library opens at nine in the morning, there are already seven or eight people waiting at the door, all white-haired elders. Unlike the weekend, when many parents will bring their children here to read, today is Monday. On the weekdays, the people coming to the library are usually retired seniors.

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Outside the library, the world is busy. Inside the library, everything is quiet, and the only sounds are of book pages flipping.

By ten o’clock, more and more people are coming to the library.
​
​Tang Mo sits in front of the computer, helping each customer with their account. With his left hand, he enters book classification codes, and with his right hand, he moves the mouse to click ‘confirm’. After doing all this, he raises his head. “You last borrowed a book a month ago. Have you still not finished reading it?”

In front of him is a plainly-dressed middle-aged woman. She shakes her head with a laugh. “No, my son reads slowly. Is there a problem if I don’t return the book within a month?"

Tang Mo:[1] “One month is the free borrowing period. After that, we charge ten cents a day.” After a pause, he adds, “If the book is lost, you’ll have to pay the original price. This book is ¥82[14].”

The woman’s expression changes. “So expensive… Okay, after I get home, I’ll make that little brat finish the book right away,” she says, then turns and leaves.

With no expression on his delicate features, Tang Mo watches the woman quickly walk away and takes the next customer’s library card to help them.

“She still hasn’t finished the book? I think she probably lost it,” the clear voice of a woman says[2].

Tang Mo scans the card. “Maybe so.”

The woman’s voice is full of disdain. “The library card is ¥50[15], that book was ¥82. I don’t think she’ll be coming back anymore.”

“I don’t think so either.” Director Wang, who’s in charge of the front desk, walks over and pats Tang Mo’s shoulder. “Xiao Tang[3], go see what the Weirdo’s doing. I just saw him walk over to that corner. It’s a security camera blind spot, and I don’t want anything to happen.”

Tang Mo nods lightly and heads towards the corner.

The Suzhou City Library is in the middle of downtown and has three floors. The third floor mostly holds books about humanity and history. Tang Mo walks from the service desk to the southeast corner, past more than thirty bookshelves, and searches for a while before finding the Weirdo.

Suzhou in November is already a little bit frosty. Cold wind howls outside, rattling the windows, but the sunlight streaming into the library feels quite warm. Weirdo sits cross-legged on the ground by the window. There are five or six books scattered around him, but he’s not even reading. Instead, his hands are in his hair, making his already-messy hair even messier than before.

Tang Mo purses his lips, dutifully walking over to pick up the books. “Mr. Chen, we have chairs and tables in the library. You can read over there.”

“Reading books… reading books… what’s the point…”

Tang Mo looks at the thick book that he’s just picked up. “The Secret of the Disappearance of the Mayan Civilization?”

Weirdo suddenly raises his head, staring at him with bloodshot eyes and a fearful expression. “You know the secret behind the disappearance of the Mayans?”

Tang Mo’s lips curve up slightly. “I don’t. Do you?”

“I do, of course I do.” Weirdo suddenly gains some energy and gets to his feet. “They offended God’s manifestation[4]. The god they believed in, Kukulkan, was a false god, not God’s manifestation. They offended God, so they all died. God is the only, the eternal! Offenders must die!”

Tang Mo has heard this speech from Weirdo a countless number of times and can’t take it seriously. This is a public library, and he’s seen too many oddities. Even though Weirdo’s definitely odd, he’s not a psycho, just a religious fanatic, and the library can’t kick him out.

Tang Mo humors him. “So where’s the real god?”

Weirdo freezes.

Tang Mo smiles and picks up his pile of books, preparing to leave.

He’s asked Weirdo this question many times before. Weirdo showed up at the library a year ago, reading books and babbling about these things to the point of doing tarot to find the luckiest seat in the library. But once any library worker asks him the question, “who is god?”, he shuts up like a wilted cabbage. Soon afterwards, he’ll dejectedly leave the library.

Holding the books, Tang Mo turns to leave. The moment he turns his back, a low, mysterious voice sounds behind him. “God is there.”

Tang Mo stops in his tracks[5].

Weirdo stands by the window, pointing at the nearby black tower hovering above the city. A weird smile sits on his face. “God is about to come.”

Tang Mo: “.....”

As long as you’re happy.

---[6]

The bus that Tang Mo takes every day to get home passes right through downtown. He sits in a window seat and puts in his earbuds to listen to music. It’s right when a song ends that a conversation between two high school girls catches his attention.

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“The Black Tower! Let me take a picture.”

“Why are you still taking pictures of it? There’s nothing interesting about that thing, and no one even wants to see it nowadays.”

“Come on, it’s just for fun and social media. I’ll title it ‘A Day At The Black Tower.’”

“No one’s going to like it. Hey, the guy sitting near the window is so handsome, why don’t you take a picture of him instead? You’ll definitely get a lot of likes and maybe even go viral. The title… ‘Bus Guy’! Hurry up, take a picture.”

The next song starts and Tang Mo subtly raises his right hand to block his face. He looks out the window, ignoring the two girls, and raises his line of sight a little bit, looking at the huge black tower hovering above Suzhou.

Between the high-rise buildings of the city, there is a giant black tower[7] standing upright in the sky. The tower appears as a square pyramid, like the Great Pyramids of Giza, but black instead of gold. Its lower face spans the entirety of Downtown Suzhou, almost covering the entire city. But cold moonlight passes through the body of the tower and shines on the ground without any interference.

Half a year ago, this tower suddenly appeared over Downtown Suzhou. At the time, Tang Mo had just started working at the library, and that morning, he was hurrying so much that he didn’t have time to watch the news on TV. But as soon as he stepped into the street, he found the entirety of Suzhou in chaos.

The buses were all gone, and he couldn’t even get a taxi.

All the cars were frantically driving towards downtown. Tang Mo was still a little sleepy and couldn’t understand the situation, but as soon as he looked up, he saw that huge black tower.

Suddenly, he was no longer sleepy.

Tang Mo almost thought that it was 2012 and the world was about to end.

How can there be anything that big!

He didn’t see it last night after he clocked out of work, so how did it suddenly appear?

At first, Tang Mo thought that it might be some structure built by the country. Around that time, the internet often bragged about how China’s construction teams were so awesome that they could build an overpass in one night, making foreigners jealous[8]. It was only when he caught a cab with difficulty and stood amongst the crowd in Downtown that he realized: this tower completely floats in midair!

Completely floating! At least 100 meters from the ground!

How could humans build a floating building?

The LED screen in the middle of the town plaza was just broadcasting the news. “This morning at 8 AM Standard Beijing Time, 1021 odd black towers appeared in our country above large cities and the ocean. It is reported that, at the same time, the Black Towers appeared in large numbers across the globe. Please do not panic, the government has already established a corresponding department to investigate the matter of the Black Towers. We have invited Professor Luo of the Beijing University Department of Physics to help answer questions regarding the black towers. We are now connecting to Professor Luo…”

End! Of! The! World!

Everyone began to panic. Tang Mo couldn’t even go to work for two days, and countless people drove to the countryside to escape, getting as far away from that black tower as possible. Of course, the country kept society running very smoothly, and three days later, Tang Mo received a notice that he could come back to work. A week later, many people returned to the city after the tower remained dormant.

Today, half a year later, these black towers have ended up becoming some sort of tourist attraction.

The first few months[9], researchers in white lab coats would come to the tower every day with heavy equipment, measuring some sort of data. Nowadays, they only come about every three days, and the businesses near the Black Tower have reopened as well.

Tang Mo props his chin up on one hand, gazing calmly at the black tower. Then the bus turns, leaving the tower behind and out of sight.

After eating a casual dinner, Tang Mo turns on his computer and logs into QQ. A chat message pops up.

[Victor: Apologies, I’m a little busy recently and might not have time to play.]

Tang Mo looks at their chat history. He last messaged a week ago and Victor replied today. He must really be busy.

[Mo Tang[10]: No problem, we can play when you’re free.]

After replying, Tang Mo opens the bridge software. Turns out that Victor is actually online today and replies quickly.

[Victor: Want to play a round? I have a bit of time right now.]

[Mo Tang: Sure (smile)]

Tang Mo invites Victor into the game and quickly begins.

Tang Mo has played bridge for about five years now. During his first year of college, one of his roommates was obsessed with bridge, claiming that it was a compelling game that tested your brains, and dragged Tang Mo into it. Not even a month later, that roommate became obsessed with other things, but Tang Mo kept quietly playing for five years.

During the middle of the game, Tang Mo realizes a way to fulfill the contract and win. His eyes flash, but before he can put down a card, Victor puts down the King of Clubs. Tang Mo is taken aback. By playing this card, Victor has totally quashed their chance to fulfill the contract.

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Victor made a mistake?

Bridge is a 2v2 game. Tang Mo met Victor online about a year ago, and they play well together. Victor’s even a little bit better than Tang Mo, but during the past half-year, Victor’s been very busy, and these last two months, he hasn’t even played, so it’s not impossible that he’s lost his touch.

Tang Mo looks at the tricks on the table again and suddenly realizes. “He wants to grand slam?”

With a slight smile on his lips, Tang Mo calmly puts down a card.

Half an hour later, the game ends, and Tang Mo opens QQ.

[Mo Tang: GJ[11], you’re still as good as ever.]

[Victor: GJ.]

[Mo Tang: (smile)]

Victor doesn’t respond for a while, and Tang Mo guesses that he must be working on other things, so he stops messaging and starts a new game alone. After he finishes and comes back, Victor’s sent another message: [I remember you said before that there’s a black tower near your workplace?]

[Mo Tang: Uh-huh, about 200m away. Why?]

[Victor: Try not to go there recently, something might be wrong.]

When he sees these words, Tang Mo suddenly remembers this morning when Weirdo pointed at the black tower with a funny expression, saying very seriously that ‘God is coming’. Victor and Weirdo...

Tang Mo can’t hold back a laugh. He laughs for a long time before reining himself back in to reply: [I didn’t think you were also ‘Anti-Black Tower’[12]? But I work near there, so I can’t not go.]

Victor doesn’t press. They chat a little bit more, but Victor suddenly has to leave[13], so they both log off.

The next day, Weirdo doesn’t show up. Director Wang asks Tang Mo in surprise, “That weirdo didn’t come today? He shows up even more diligently than me. Nothing happened, right?”

Tang Mo: “Maybe he has some situation to deal with at home.”

Director Wang waves a hand. “Yeah, why do we even care about him? It’s better that he doesn’t come, otherwise we’d have to look after him. Xiao Tang, Xiao Zhao, you’ll have to work a little more today, organize the G-type books at some point.”

Organizing books is something that a librarian must do every day. This job isn’t as easy and relaxing as outsiders might think. Xiao Zhao has a date tonight and looks at Tang Mo with a pleading face. Tang Mo says, “Go ahead, I can do it alone.”

Xiao Zhao says gratefully, “Thanks, Tang Mo. I’ll cover your shift next time.”

Tang Mo nods lightly but doesn’t say anything.

After working overtime until 10pm, Tang Mo leaves the library and gets on the last bus home.

There are very few people on the last bus. Aside from the driver, there’s only Tang Mo and a middle-aged man. The man is snoring in his seat, and Tang Mo’s phone is dead, so he can only prop his chin up in his hands and look out the window.

At this time in downtown, many shops have already closed. November nights are extremely cold, and there are very few people out on the streets. Moonlight coldly spills down from the sky. Tang Mo looks at all the brightly-flashing rainbow-colored neon signs, and then the bus turns and the huge black tower comes into view.

He’s looked at it for half a year already. Like many others, Tang Mo is no longer interested in the tower and only looks at it calmly.

Suddenly, he sees a small bug. Maybe it’s a bird, but it’s so far away that he can’t tell. Underneath the moonlight, the small dark thing zips through the sky and flies towards the black tower. Tang Mo looks on absently, watching the little thing fly to the tower and stupidly continue on, diving towards it.

Then, as if it hit something, it suddenly drops to the ground.

Tang Mo only looks. The bus turns again, and the black tower disappears behind them.

An announcement about the next stop rings through the bus. Tang Mo’s left hand rests on the window, and he listlessly thinks about what he wants to eat tonight. Suddenly, he opens his eyes wide and turns his head quickly, pressing himself against the window to try to see the Black Tower again. But the bus has driven far, and he can no longer see the tower at this distance.

Tang Mo’s heart beats rapidly, thumping like it wants to jump out from his throat. After a long while, he finally calms down.

“.....I must have seen wrong. The Black Tower is a shadow formed from light pollution. It’s not a physical object.”

This is the socially-accepted explanation. Many people don’t believe it, but it’s true that the towers have no physical form. It’s visible but unable to be touched.

Tang Mo closes his eyes, trying to forget what he just saw, but the scene replays in his head over and over. He can see it even when he’s trying to sleep, which causes him to stay awake until way after midnight.

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When he wakes up the next morning, it’s already 7:30am. Tang Mo quickly gets up and brushes his teeth, rushing to catch his 8am bus. He dresses quickly and grabs his bag, but the moment his hand touches the doorknob, a melodious tune sounds by his ear.

“Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way…”

Surprised, Tang Mo turns around. He can’t find the source of the sound in his room, but Jingle Bells keeps playing. There are no lyrics, but everyone knows this song.

Tang Mo carefully listens and finds that he can’t possibly find the source of music. It seems to come at him from every direction.

The next moment, Tang Mo freezes, and he rushes to the window to look at the black tower in the middle of Downtown Suzhou. The tower flashes in every color of the rainbow, changing colors along with the tune of this children’s song. When the last note fades away, the rainbow light disappears and everything becomes dark again.

A clear voice rings out, with the unique pitch and crispness of a child.

“Ding-dong! November 15th, 2017, the Earth is online.”

Notes:

[1]	I've noticed that a lot of Chinese webnovels like to use ':' as a way to replace dialogue tags. I'm not sure if this is the norm with Chinese books in general, so I've chosen to keep them in cases where it makes sense.

[14]	¥82 = $12.74 (rates as of May 16, 2021)

[2]	I couldn't manipulate the original text, "一个清脆的女声响起", into this sentence very well. It literally says 'a clear and crisp woman's voice sounds up', but again, that sounds really awkward in text lol.

[15]	¥50 = $7.77 (rates as of May 16, 2021)

[3]	'Xiao' here is the character 小, which means 'small' or 'little'. It's not a part of his name but more a nickname. A lot of the times, older people will call younger people 'Xiao [family name]' since calling them by their given names can be a little awkward.

[4]

The original text is "上帝之显示者" which is literally 'The Manifestor of God' or 'The Appearer of God'. The basic meaning is that 上帝之显示者 is basically the God's messenger, but given the context, I felt like 'manifestation' worked a little better. Also, a side note about God: Weirdo sort of switches between saying 上帝 'God' (as in the biblical god) and 神 'deity' (as in any random god). He does use 'deity' more but I will show that as 'god' without capitalization.

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Here I chose to delete a line. The original text had, after this line, put "he turns to look" but I thought that was unnecessary and didn't impact the story in any way, so I did not include it.

[6]	There was not a section break in the original text, but I thought it would look and feel better.

[7]

The original text refers to the black towers as 黑塔 'the Black Tower' (as in The Black Tower that Tang Mo sees) or 那些黑塔/巨大的黑塔 'those black towers/the huge black towers'. There's not a difference in Chinese, but I will capitalize 'Black Tower' if they refer to a single specific tower, and I will not capitalize 'black tower' if they're just talking about a black tower in general.

[8]	The original text was "羡慕得老外眼睛都红了" which means "the foreigners were so jealous that their eyes were red" but I didn't think it would work well in-text.

[9]	The original text was a little bit ambiguous here. Given the context of the last line, "前几个月" could mean 'the past few months (in relation to the present)', but I chose to interpret it as 'the first few months (in relation to when the towers appeared)'.

[10]	Here, Tang Mo's online name is 磨糖, which literally manes Grinding Sugar, but it would have ruined the joke so I just did it phonetically. The joke here is that his online name is just his real name reversed (with different characters, of course).

[11]	GJ means 'good job'.

[12]	In the original text he says ‘黑塔危险派' which means 'The Black Tower is Dangerous Party', but that's a lot lol so I just said it was 'Anti Black Tower', which it is.

[13]	The original text was ‘[Victor]突然说有事要忙', which means 'Victor suddenly said he had things to do', but that didn't translate well in the sentence.

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