“Click!”

The sound of a door locking echoed.

Wang Qingsong felt sticky all over because it was too hot inside the room.

“Why is it so hot in here?”

He completely failed to notice the air conditioner hanging on the wall.

Even if he had seen it, he wouldn’t have recognized it.

After waiting for a while, the door opened, and he saw Zhou Ying peeking out through the door.

Seeing that he was still sitting on the floor, she finally relaxed and stepped out.

By now, she had changed into a set of flannel pajamas.

However, she didn’t come close but stood by the doorway, just in case something unexpected happened.

Wang Qingsong secretly glanced at her and thought to himself, “Her clothes are so nice.”

He had heard that the wives of officials in the city, as well as those big capitalists, wore such beautiful clothes.

But he didn’t want to dwell on that right now.

All he wanted to know was where he was.

Just as he was about to speak, there was a knock at the door.

Hearing the sound, Zhou Ying breathed a sigh of relief, put on a mask, and hurried to the entrance.

When the door opened, two volunteers in white coats were standing there.

“What’s going on?” one of them asked.

“Hello, there’s a stranger in my house. Please take him away quickly,” Zhou Ying anxiously explained.

But the volunteers didn’t step inside. Instead, one of them said, “We can’t handle this. Your building is under lockdown. No one is allowed in or out. It doesn’t matter who it is.”

“Hey, how can you be like this? I don’t even know him.”

“We don’t have the authority to decide. If someone gets infected, no one can bear that risk. We’re just volunteers. Call the community office.”

With that, they turned to leave.

“Wait, hold on. I’ll call right now,” Zhou Ying quickly stopped them and dialed a number.

“Hello, Secretary? This is Unit 301, Building 5. I’m the one who called earlier… Yes… I don’t know this person. You need to handle this!”

As she spoke, her voice grew louder and angrier: “How can you be like this? You’re not going to do anything about it? Oh, I see.”

After a moment, she hung up and said to the volunteers, “Your secretary said the neighborhood and the building are under lockdown, so he must be from this building. Take him away. I can’t have him staying in my house.”

Then she glanced at Wang Qingsong and whispered, “I think there’s something wrong with him.”

As she spoke, she pointed to her head, looking mysterious.

Although Wang Qingsong’s clothes were old, apart from some dirt on his back, he looked relatively clean. Upon reflection, he didn’t seem like a homeless person.

Hearing this, the volunteers grew impatient.

One of them shouted at Wang Qingsong, “Come out, go back to your own home. Hurry up, don’t stay here.”

By now, the glucose powder had started to take effect.

Wang Qingsong had regained some strength, and his face wasn’t as pale as before.

He struggled to his feet and walked out, looking utterly confused.

“I… I don’t know where I am! My home isn’t here. My home is in Xinlin Commune, First Production Brigade, Sixth Team.”

Even he knew this couldn’t possibly be the commune.

One of the volunteers chuckled, “Commune? Production brigade? At your age, your grandfather might have been around during the commune era. Alright, go home.”

Then he turned to Zhou Ying and said, “By the way, take a photo of him and ask in the group chat whose family he belongs to. We have to do nucleic acid tests in half an hour. We don’t have time to waste here.”

He also thought Wang Qingsong might have something wrong with his mind.

Hearing this, Zhou Ying took a photo of him, handed him a mask, and quickly closed the door.

The two volunteers didn’t bother with him any further and left, heading downstairs with their phones.

Wang Qingsong was left standing there, utterly bewildered.

“Where… where is this? Am I even alive?”

He muttered to himself, feeling uneasy. He sat down on the stairs, unsure of what to do.

“Ouch… I’m not dead?”

He pinched himself hard, and the sharp pain convinced him this wasn’t a dream. He must still be alive.

But where was he?

After sitting in confusion for a while, he walked downstairs.

Is this a building?

He had only seen buildings like this in the county town or when he went to the city.

Is this the city?

How did he end up in the city? Had he been unconscious for a whole day?

It was a long way from his home to the city.

Setting that aside, he started worrying about something else: he had promised to take his younger sister to the city tomorrow morning.

What should he do now?

He needed to get back quickly.

But when he reached the entrance, the two volunteers stopped him.

One of them pointed at his mouth and asked, “Hey, why aren’t you wearing a mask? Put it on right now.”

The man was slightly overweight, noticeably more so than the other volunteer.

Wang Qingsong nodded and quickly put on the mask. He had seen Zhou Ying wearing one earlier, so he knew how to do it.

Once it was on, he hurriedly asked, “Comrade, I need to leave. I have to go home.”

“The building is under lockdown. No one is allowed in or out. Go back,” the volunteer said impatiently, shooing him away.

Wang Qingsong grew anxious. “No, I need to go back. I need to go home.”

The heavier volunteer snapped, “How many times do I have to tell you? The neighborhood is under lockdown. Don’t you get it? If you keep causing trouble, I’ll call the police and have you arrested.”

“Alright, alright, he’s probably not all there,” the other volunteer said, pulling his colleague aside.

Hearing that he might be arrested, Wang Qingsong was terrified.

Had he stumbled into some military compound in the city?

Only those military compounds in the city had such tight security, and only there could you find such beautiful houses and furniture. How had he ended up here?

Could they have mistaken him for a spy?

After a moment of thought, he swallowed hard and asked, “Where’s your commanding officer? Can I see him? I really don’t know how I got here.”

By now, he was on the verge of tears.

“Hey, what commanding officer? I’m telling you…” the heavier volunteer began, ready to scold him.

But the other volunteer stopped him. “Hey, don’t be so harsh. I’ve got an idea.”

He turned to Wang Qingsong and said sternly, “Comrade, we’re under lockdown right now. No suspicious individuals are allowed in or out. We’ll notify you when the lockdown is lifted. Go back now. Otherwise, we’ll have to arrest you as a spy.”

Hearing this, Wang Qingsong was terrified.

A spy?

Good heavens, how could he be a spy?

He was genuinely red and revolutionary!

“Comrade, I’m not a spy. I’m really not. My family has been poor farmers for generations.”

“Whether you are or not, we’ll investigate. Go back now, or we’ll really have to arrest you,” the volunteer said sternly.

With no other choice, Wang Qingsong turned and walked back.

But where was he supposed to go?

This wasn’t his home.

After he left, the thinner volunteer smirked at the heavier one. “See? That worked, didn’t it?”

“Heh, it really did. Where’d you learn that? You sounded so convincing.”

“Eh, just from novels. That guy seems a bit mentally off. Remember those reports we read about veterans who get confused and only remember important things from the past? This method works best with them.”

“Oh, I see,” the heavier volunteer said, looking at Wang Qingsong’s retreating figure with pity. “Poor kid. He’s so young, and he’s already got mental issues. His family must be having a hard time.”

Then they stopped paying attention.

……

Wang Qingsong frowned.

Something felt off, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

He went upstairs and searched for a while before suddenly realizing he couldn’t remember which room he had come out of.

He ran up and down the stairs several times but couldn’t recall which door it was.

There were six floors, with two units on each floor.

After searching everywhere, he still couldn’t figure out where he had come from.

Finally, he gave up and sat down on a step, feeling utterly defeated.

He sat there in a daze.

About half an hour later, a loudspeaker sounded from downstairs.

“Residents of Building 5, come down for nucleic acid testing now…”

Hearing the noise, Wang Qingsong suddenly sat up. It was the sound of a loudspeaker, but what was this “nucleic acid testing”? Some kind of inspection?

At the same time, people started coming down the stairs.

They were dressed in all sorts of strange outfits.

When they saw Wang Qingsong, they gave him curious looks but didn’t say anything.

Suddenly, a door next to him opened, and someone stepped out.

It was Zhou Ying.

Seeing him, she looked puzzled. “You haven’t gone home? Come down for the nucleic acid test. Did you bring your phone?”

Wang Qingsong shook his head blankly. “What’s nucleic acid? A phone? What kind of chicken?”

Hearing this, Zhou Ying shook her head, remembering that the guy had something wrong with his mind.

Then she walked straight downstairs, leaving Wang Qingsong behind, still confused.

Now he was both bewildered and anxious. How was he supposed to get home?

His younger sister, Xiaomai, was staying with the team leader for now, which was fine in the short term, but if this dragged on, she might end up being sent back to Sun Xiuhe.

But there was nothing he could do at the moment.

He would just have to wait for this “lockdown” to be lifted.

Remembering the unit number, he followed the others downstairs and stood by the stairwell, watching the long line of people.

“Is… is this some kind of inspection? Are all these people problematic?”

Wang Qingsong muttered to himself as he looked at the long queue.

No one called him, so he probably didn’t need to go. After all, he was genuinely red and revolutionary!