For the people who think the Black Towers are a joke, they will always treat it as a joke[1]. They believe that it’s some result of government research and can’t possibly harm anyone. The government wouldn’t purposely harm anyone, right? Even if something did happen, well, there’s always the government officials[2]. The sky could fall down and the government would still hold it up. It’s got nothing to do with the normal people trying to live their lives; it’s not like they can do anything about it.

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But for those who believe in the Black Towers, on the third day, they are terrified to an extreme.

“What’s a game? What’s elimination? Tell us something!”

“Tell us! Explain!”

“What is this thing? You have to give us an explanation!”

More and more people join the protest, blocking the entirety of Downtown Suzhou. There are also shameless people amongst the crowd, seeking to gain some advantage from this protest. The armed police try to disperse the crowd, but there are too many people for them to handle. The protest surrounds the entire white wall, and it looks like the barrier might even break.

This kind of thing is happening all over the world.

The situation in China is not actually that bad. Before the Black Tower Incident, the country was fairly stable, and the government was in control. In some poorer or weaker countries, however, especially countries with no governmental control, the ‘Anti-Black Tower’[3] groups have long-since taken over the government.

“The Black Tower is god and It will lead us to a new era! The era of Black Towers is coming! O Mighty One, please bestow upon us the power of rebirth!”

“Bestow upon us power!”

Millions of people kneel in front of the tower, praying for a better era.

Tang Mo, on the other hand, doesn’t know about any of these things.

He holds the police baton tightly in his hand. Even though he’s wearing thin clothes, sweat gathers on his forehead. When that eerie child’s voice finishes singing the lullaby, the clear, ethereal sound echoes in the empty library for a long time.

“Did you hear that?” Tang Mo grits out from between tightly-clenched teeth.

Weirdo’s already collapsed on the floor, messy hair covering his eyes. When Tang Mo looks at him, he can only see a pair of eyes trembling in fear. Weirdo’s so scared he can’t even talk, crawling backwards until he hits the wall. He holds his head in his hands, shaking. “What was that thing… what was that….”

How would Tang Mo know?

After the lullaby fades away, there is no more sound in the library.

Gradually, Tang Mo calms down.

Some people, when faced with a stressful event, will panic and be at a loss for what to do. Tang Mo is the exact opposite.

By nature, Tang Mo is an extremely logical person. Five years ago, right after he started college, his parents passed away in a car accident. If it was anyone else, they might have broken down, but Tang Mo methodically dealt with their funerals. When everything was over, he finally cried in secret, and then began to consider his future.

And, ever since two days ago, when his heartbeat increased and he began to feel anxious[4], he found that he became even calmer.

Tang Mo holds the police baton in his right hand, taking out a large, thick book from the G shelf to use as a shield, and walks to the window.

Outside the window is endless white.

This is a window on the east side of the library. Normally, this window would face Suzhou’s main street, as well as a few famous gardens[5].

Tang Mo tightens his grip on the police baton. He seems calm, but he’s alertly monitoring the movements beside him, ready to strike whenever he walks past a bookshelf.

He checks every window on the third floor of the library and returns.

“We’re not in Suzhou anymore.”

Weirdo sits in the corner, looking at Tang Mo frightfully.

Tang Mo really doesn’t want to say it, but he says it anyway. “Right now, there’s only whiteness around us, but this also definitely is the library. It’s like the library has been moved into a large empty space. I’ve worked here for a year, and when I passed the service desk, my coworker’s water bottle was still on the desk, just like it was before.”

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In the end, at least they still have each other. After hearing Tang Mo’s words. Weirdo summons the courage to stand up. He looks around and suddenly says, “Ah, this is the book that I secretly put here last week!”

Tang Mo looks in the direction he’s pointing.

“I was afraid someone would borrow the book, so I hid it in the gap between two bookshelves.”

Tang Mo: “...”

So that was your doing!

Tang Mo is a librarian, and Weirdo is a frequent visitor. If both of them have confirmed that this is the library, then they can’t both be wrong.

Tang Mo gives Weirdo another police baton from the security guard’s locker. Right now, everything is unknown, so on one hand, giving Weirdo a police baton means he’ll be able to protect himself. On the other hand, if they come into any danger, they can fight it off together[6].

When they reach the service desk, the sound of footsteps suddenly appears near the bookshelves.

Weirdo’s eyes are open wide in shock, and Tang Mo’s also sweating in fear.

He just looked over there, and there was no one! What’s with the footsteps?

The two hold their police batons, pressing their backs against the wall, and carefully watch. The sound, rhythmic like a child skipping rope, gets closer and closer[7]. Thirty seconds later, a small shadow emerges from amongst the bookshelves. It’s a little girl with pigtails, wearing a red dress even in November, with a pair of shiny red shoes on her feet.

The sound from before was the sound of her shoes stepping on the floor.

“Gh-ghost! It’s a ghost!”

Weirdo ducks behind Tang Mo in fear.

But Tang Mo’s scared too!

…This isn’t even a problem about staying calm. What the heck’s up with the pixelation?

From her height, the little girl looks to be about seven or eight years old. She’s wearing a pretty dress, shoes, and even her backpack is pink with Minnie Mouse on it. She looks just like a normal person, except her face is covered in a heavy layer of pixelation.

No eyebrows, no eyes, no nose, no mouth.

Only pixelation.

Tang Mo grits his teeth and suppresses his urge to smash this little girl’s head in.

“Gege[8], have you seen my book?”

No matter how crisp and clear the little girl’s voice is, Tang Mo can only feel terror[9].

He only looks at the girl coldly and does not answer.

The little girl asks again. “Gege, have you seen my book?”

Even though this girl looks weak and Tang Mo could probably easily beat her, he can’t make any rash decisions. This place is much too creepy, and the pixelated girl is clearly not a normal person. He purses his lips and after a moment, tries to smile kindly. “Kiddo[10], what book did you lose?”

“Gege, your smile is so ugly.”

Tang Mo: “...”

Little girl: “I can’t find my book. Gege, can you help me find it? Mama is so annoying, I hate reading but she bought me so many books, and I hate them, but if I lose them then Mama will be mad. If I can’t find the book, Mama will kill me. Gege, can you help me find the book?”

Tang Mo drops the fake smile. “Who’s Mama?”

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“Mama is just Mama, gege, you’re so weird.”

Weirdo’s trembling voice comes from behind Tang Mo. “If you can’t find your book, Mama… Mama will kill you?”

“Right, Mama will be very mad. When Mama is mad, she’s really scary.”

Weirdo says, “But not to the point of killing people, right?”

The little girl cocks her head. Her right pigtail falls onto her pixelated face. For some reason, Tang Mo feels that, if the pixelation didn’t exist, the little girl would be smiling right now. She looks at him and Weirdo with dark eyes and says, “Heehee, but if gege doesn’t help me find my book, I’ll kill gege too.”

Fear washes over him like a bucket of ice water dumped on his head[11]. Tang Mo purses his lips and glares at the pixelated girl.

After a moment, he asks calmly, “Do you remember what book it was? I’ll help you look.”

“Hmm…” The little girl shakes her head around, pigtails swinging. She seems to be thinking hard. “I can’t remember!”

Tang Mo had already guessed that this would be the answer.

Suddenly, the little girl says hurriedly, “Ah, I have to go to school. If I’m late, my teacher will kill me. I’ll go then, gege. You have to help me find the book.” She puts on her backpack and runs back into the cluster of bookshelves.

The little girl’s gone, but this creepy game has just started.

All this time, Tang Mo and Weirdo were hiding behind the service desk and didn’t go out to interact with the little girl. The moment she vanishes, however, the computer at the service desk that belongs to Tang Mo suddenly lights up[12]. 

A line of text—a diary—appears on the blue background.

Tang Mo reads it out loud. “November 15th, sunny. I lost the book that Mama bought! Mama will kill me!”

Weirdo: “It changed! The words changed! November 16th, cloudy. I hid it from Mama, she doesn’t know that the book’s gone. Where’s the book, where’s the book? Mama really will kill me!”

The text on the screen changes again.

Tang Mo reads: “November 17th, cloudy. I think Mama found out. She’s found out, hasn’t she?” The text changes, and he continues reading: “November 18th, rainy. Heehee… Mama really killed me.”

Tang Mo and Weirdo both fall silent.

“…will we really die?” Weirdo says to himself.

Tang Mo looks at him.

Working at the library is a boring job, but the librarians see all sorts of people. When the employees are on break, they’ll sometimes talk about all the odd people they’ve met. Weirdo is the oddest of the odd. He doesn’t seem to have a job since he comes every day to read and talk about weird things. Xiao Zhao guesses that Weirdo’s like this because he was dumped by his girlfriend and his mental state deteriorated.

In the eyes of the librarians, Weirdo is just a weird guy, funny but pitiful.

Now, with the way he’s looking at Tang Mo, he really is pitiful.

Tang Mo can tell that he’s scared. Actually, Tang Mo is scared too, but they can’t afford to be scared right now. Tang Mo thinks for a bit, then answers honestly. “Maybe we really will.”

Weirdo’s eyes widen in despair.

“Wait, the text changed again. Because she’s a good and obedient[13] little girl, Pixels…” Tang Mo’s expression twists a bit, but he continues to read. “Pixels only has one flaw, which is that she doesn’t like to read. Mama hates little girls who don’t like to read, especially little girls who throw books away and lie that they’ve been stolen. But Mama doesn’t know that Pixels wasn’t lying. She didn’t throw away the book. A demon stole it.”

As he looks at the word ‘demon’, Tang Mo’s eyebrows furrow.

“Demons hate books. All demons are illiterate. Why would anyone read? Only those bird-people with wings read books, okay? When the unlucky demon was stealing the book, he was caught by an angel, so he didn’t burn that disgusting book. Instead, he hid it in a library. But the bookshelves in the library look exactly the same, so when the angel left, the demon could only stare. He let out an enraged bellow——”

“These damn books!”

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When Tang Mo finishes reading this paragraph, a clear child’s voice appears in the library.

“Ding dong! Confrontation game ‘So Who Really Stole My Book’ officially begins. During the game——”

“Number one. Violence is banned.”

“Number two. During the day, the angel can receive a hint about the book.”

“Number three. At night, the demon can burn any one bookshelf.”

“Oh, kind and intelligent Angel, three days later, Pixels will be killed by the furious Mama. Could you bear to see such a cute little girl die?”

Tang Mo: “...”

‘Cute’ my ass!!!!

Notes

[1]	Original text: 'The ones who don't believe in the black towers are, from beginning to end, only keeping up with the excitement.' The term 热闹/'excitement' can't be translated exactly so I just translated a more implied meaning of the sentence.

[2]	Original text: 'Even if something happened, the [government] leaders are people too.' This means that the government officials, being people as well, wouldn't let anything happen to themselves. In setting up countermeasures for maybe-selfish reasons, they'd be protecting the people as well.

[3]

If you'll remember from last time, I chose to translate 'The Black Tower is Dangerous Group/Party' as 'Anti-Black Tower group/party'. That's why the next few lines, while exalting the Black Towers, are still from the perspective of 'Anti-Black Tower' party. As a side note, the opposite of them, the 'Pro-Black Tower group' is literally 'Black Tower Optimist group/party' which basically means they don't think the Black Tower is dangerous. Those are usually the people who think it's a joke or just some weird structure.

[4]	In the previous chapter, Tang Mo seemed more frustrated and irritable than anxious, but here they used the phrase for anxious so I went with that.

[5]	Original text: 'Normally from here [you/people] would be able to see Suzhou's main street, as well as a few famous ancient gardens'. Sometimes in Chinese pronouns are implied, as they are here. Sometimes those pronouns are not actually 'she/he/you', but instead 'people' as in generally anyone.

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[6]	Original text: 'On the other hand, if they came across anything dangerous, [Tang Mo] would have a helper.' I'm not sure why I didn't try to manipulate this sentence around, but I think it's because it sounds a bit weird in English.

[7]	Original text: 'The sound comes closer and closer, and it's very irregular, like a child jumping and hopping on the floor.' It was too much to try to change literally, so I went with a different interpretation of '一蹦一跳' and ‘不规律'.

[8]	'Gege' means older brother in Chinese.

[9]	Original text: 'No matter how [...], looking at this face, Tang Mo's hair stands on end.' The phrase 毛骨悚然 translates to 'creepy' but I didn't think that got the point across. It's really a phrase to use when you're SUPER creeped out.

[10]	小朋友 literally translates to 'little friend', but it's used as a friendly way to call a kid if you don't know their name. There's not really a way to translate it so I tried lol.

[11]	Original text: 'A bucket of water pouring from head to toe.' It wasn't a full sentence to begin with, and it didn't give any context for the fear part (though it's implied), but yeah I tried.

[12]	After 'the computer lights up', the original text had 'and they walk over' but that didn't do much for the story so I took it out.

[13]	听话懂事 translates to 'obedient and sensible' as in the child listens to their parents and does what is told. But that's a very literal translation and loses context so I put 'good and obedient', which still isn't great but it's slightly better lol.

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