I run a midnight library that takes in the homeless. We offer bread for a dollar and free hot water. Every night at 9 PM, the library opens its doors on time. Anyone who wants to come in and read must leave behind a single strand of hair. 1 The guy called "Melon" was pissed. "Why the hell can't I go in?" The group of middle-aged guys around him started complaining too. "You let us in but not our boss? Are you looking down on Melon?" "Yeah, why can't our boss enter?" "We're just migrant workers looking for jobs in the city. We don't have much money. Heard we could crash here for the night. Why are you blocking us?" Melon was clearly unhappy. I kept a straight face. "Sorry, the rule is you have to leave a strand of hair to enter. This gentleman is bald, so he can't come in." Melon slammed his hand on the counter, cursing, "What kind of bullshit rule is that? What's wrong with being bald? You're discriminating against me!" "Please keep it down." "Keep it down my ass! explain yourself clearly today, or I'm smashing this dump." As soon as he said that, the guys around him got aggressive. "Boss, if you can't go in, none of us are going in. Who cares about reading? We'll just sleep under a bridge." "Yeah! Sleep under a bridge!" "Before we sleep under the bridge, let's trash this place first!" "Yeah! Trash it!" Melon looked at me sideways. "My brothers are loyal. We want to make it big. Staying here tonight is doing you a favor. Apologize to me, and we'll let this slide. I, Melon, mean what I say." Seven pairs of eyes stared at me, waiting for my response. I sighed helplessly. "I didn't make the rules. They were passed down from my ancestors. If you're not afraid of dying here, go right ahead." Hearing this, they all started snickering. Melon said, "Kid, is this a midnight library or a midnight slaughterhouse? A black market inn?" Another one added, "I don't believe it. You dare to kill people in broad daylight?" The guy in the back chimed in, "Boss, he's just bluffing. Slap him twice, and he'll behave." Melon scolded, "We're in the city now, we gotta be civilized. Talk about slapping people again, and I'll slap you." The guy shrank back and shut up. Melon turned to me again. "Kid, don't say Melon didn't give you a chance. You're still green. Go open a private room, bring us some good food and drinks, let us sleep well, and I'll be nice to you tomorrow morning." "Are you sure you want to enter?" Melon said coldly, "I'm definitely staying here tonight." I nodded and told the others, " The rest of you, leave a strand of hair." They burst out laughing. "Are you really putting on a show? A library asking for hair." "I heard hair is used for paternity tests. You're not looking for your daddy, are you? How about I be your daddy? Come on, call me 'Daddy'." "I'll leave you some of this." One guy rubbed a ball of stinky toe jam on the counter. "Hurry up." "Fine." I compromised. "I'll take you in." Laughter echoed through the library. I sighed silently. They were all going to die, yet they were still so cavalier about it. 2 The library was full of people reading. Lying down, sprawling, leaning, curled up. It was incredibly quiet. Most of them were regulars who came almost every day. Compared to the guys behind me, they knew the rules better. They would respectfully pull out a hair in front of me, place it on the counter, and whisper, "I'm going in." Once inside, they wouldn't make a sound. Such customers deserved the name "library." The seven men muttered behind me, constantly discussing everything in the library. The lights were too dim. Not even a bed. What's the use of reading so many books? Of course, Melon's view was the most popular. "This little building would make a great brothel." Agreement all around. In a corner on the third floor, I opened a room. Inside was a long table and a few chairs. Melon told me, "Go get some food, some dumplings. We're migrant workers. Serve us well, and I'll put in a good word for you when I'm on TV." The guy next to him added, "And a case of beer." I said, "The library only provides bread and water, a dollar each." Melon's face darkened. "Bread is fine. Bring us 20. We'll pay later." I grabbed some bread from the storage room and went back to the third floor. I heard them talking inside. "Will the cops find us here?" "Shhh... keep it down. Who would think we're in a library?" "Boss is the best. I admire him." "Why does that guy want our hair? Is he gonna test it?" "You don't know shit about testing. Let me tell you, city folks just love to act pretentious. If they don't pretend for a day, they'll die." I stomped my feet loudly as I approached the door and knocked. "Seven breads, water is self-serve." Melon raged, "Didn't I ask for 20? Are you deaf?" "Limit one per person, $7 total. Cash or card?" "Who pays upfront? Put it on the tab, we'll pay when we leave." I nodded and turned to leave, but Melon grabbed my arm and pinned me to the table. "Kid, we're new here. Don't leave tonight. Stay and tell us about this place." He signaled, and the guy next to him locked the door. "Take my chair." He offered his chair to me and squatted in the corner by the door. "What do you want to know?" I asked. Melon grinned. "I just want to know why you keep people's hair." 3 I was pinned to the chair, surrounded by people. "How should I address you gentlemen?" The guy behind me said, "This is our boss, and we are his brothers." "Then I'll call you Boss to Number Seven." They were hostile, but I had no choice. I slowly began the story of the library. In the 31st year of the Republic of China, 1942, a great drought hit the Central Plains, followed by locust plagues, leading to the horrific Henan Famine. Starving bodies lay everywhere, people resorted to cannibalism, and with the war, it was a living hell. Han Mozhai, a merchant from Southeast Asia, couldn't bear to see his homeland suffer. He returned with money and supplies, built a study hall to serve as a school and shelter, and named it "Cold Boat Cottage," meaning "In the bitter cold river, I wish to be a ferry boat." In 1944, the Japanese army launched the Henan-Hunan-Guangxi campaign with crazy air raids. A bomb landed in the corner of Cold Boat Cottage and exploded violently. Strangely, all the villagers taking shelter there, some less than 5 meters away, were unharmed. The bomb blasted a 2-meter-wide hole in the corner, bottomless, emitting a stench of sulfur and rot. A few brave villagers went to look. After just two glances into the hole, smoke poured from their orifices, and their bodies exploded. When the bodies were dragged back, the doctor found their internal organs incinerated, but no burns on the surface. The villagers panicked, thinking it was a new Japanese weapon, and fled. Only Han Mozhai remained. Han was terrified too. He knew about weapons but had never seen a bomb like this. Unwilling to abandon the cottage, he convinced some strong villagers to throw construction waste into the hole from a distance to block it. But even after throwing in all the waste, the hole couldn't be filled. Han was certain this hole wasn't caused by a new bomb. It was something unexplainable. Rumors spread that the bomb had opened a gate to hell, and the King of Hell was coming for souls. Seeing the cottage could no longer protect the villagers and his efforts were in vain, Han despaired. He even thought about looking into the hole, willing to die to know what it was. Just as he lost all hope, a small, thin old man named Luo Yansheng visited, demanding to see the hole. Han warned him it was fatal to look, but Luo was fearless. He walked quickly to the hole and started circling it. Seeing he didn't intend to look inside, Han asked what he was doing. Luo said, "Where there are poisonous snakes, there must be an antidote within five steps. Where there is ghost fire, there must be a grave within five steps. This hole is so vicious, the solution must be within five steps." Hope rekindled in Han. He grabbed a hoe and followed Luo. After a few circles, Luo pointed to a spot. "Dig here!" Han was puzzled but obeyed. Being a merchant, he tired quickly. Luo grabbed the hoe and dug himself. Despite his size, he was strong. After a while, he dug a pit half a person deep. Han asked, "How are you sure we'll find something here?" Luo replied without looking up, "How many days has the hole been here?" "Over half a month." "Over half a month, and weeds have grown everywhere around the hole except here. Isn't that strange?" Han realized his oversight. After another while, Luo shouted, "Here it is!" 4 Luo Yansheng pulled out a broken stone tablet, neither jade nor gold, a foot long and half a foot wide. The pit was less than half a meter from the cottage's foundation. The tablet was covered in unintelligible symbols, but Luo studied it with fascination, not sleeping or eating for a day and night. Han Mozhai brought him food and asked what was written on it. Luo said, "This tablet was written by Peng Zu to mourn his mount. So, Brother Han, you built Cold Boat Cottage on top of the Meng Huai's tomb." Han, having lived in Southeast Asia, knew nothing of Peng Zu or Meng Huai. Luo explained. Peng Zu lived over 800 years through several dynasties and was an ancient ancestor. He had a mount named Meng Huai, resembling a badger-boar, covered in red bristles, running like a ball of fire. Though it looked like a pig, Meng Huai could communicate with animals and humans, cast spells, and was fierce and agile—brain and brawn combined, invincible. Later, warriors wove red hair into their armor to symbolize Meng Huai's power. After Meng Huai died, Peng Zu built a tomb and inscribed a tablet. But while its body died, its spirit rampaged underground, carrying the tablet for thousands of years, nearly breaking out of hell several times. Han realized the hole was made by Meng Huai crashing through; the bomb just opened the surface. With the cause found, Han asked for the solution. Luo said there was only one way: The Ten Thousand Threads. Meng Huai's invincibility relied on its bristles—impervious to water, fire, and weapons. Especially after absorbing evil spirits underground for millennia. To defeat Meng Huai, you must first defeat the bristles. To do that, human hair must be thrown into the hole for it to capture. The human body is sacred, the head being the peak of yang energy. Hair is the most yang element. If Meng Huai wraps itself in hair, the bristles will slowly be neutralized by the yang energy. But one person's hair isn't enough. It needs the hair of many, many people. In modern terms, hair is like a virus. The more people contribute, the harder it is for Meng Huai to develop antibodies. As for how many, Luo calculated: three hundred million. At that time, the entire population of China with hair was barely three hundred million. Luo sighed. "The fewer people know, the better. We can't alert the authorities. Three hundred million hairs... only our descendants can achieve this, generation by generation." Han immediately said, "I have a plan. We'll keep the cottage open. Any homeless person can stay if they leave a hair. We'll educate people and collect hair. The authorities won't bother a charity shelter. If we pass this down, one day we'll have enough." So, Luo moved into the cottage, running the school and library with Han. They built a secret room to hide the hole. This continued for over eighty years, until now. I finished the story. The room was silent. After a while, Melon said, "Kid, are you telling a fairy tale? What cottage, what mirror?" Another guy said, "Boss, he means there's a monster underneath that makes people's insides explode." Melon slapped him. "I understood that!" He turned to me. "What happens if we don't leave hair?" I said coldly, "You'll die." He stared at me, then burst into laughter. "I'll die? Hahahaha... I'll die!" The mocking laughter surrounded me for a long time. "You're good, kid. You should be an actor. You're the first person to tell me I'll die." I said, "If you're too loud, you might attract Meng Huai. Maybe it's already under your feet." Melon instinctively looked down at the floor, realized I was scaring him, and got angry. "Let it come eat me then! Or I'll make a sandwich out of you!" Creak... A strange sound came from the floor. Creak creak...
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