Puzzle Madness

Chapter 5 Empty Talk —
Over the past few years, Doudou's former neighbors have gradually moved away from the residential complex called Tianhu Community:

There are many reasons for this, including the declining profitability of the tape factory near Tianhu Community, or the development of other cities in Jiaozhi Autonomous Prefecture; but the most important factor is the gas explosion that occurred a few years ago.
After that, all sorts of strange things happened in Tianhu Community: a neighbor disappeared without a trace in his bedroom, a neighbor vomited so much that the entire building's sewer was blocked, and another neighbor was found with his head embedded in the floor.

Although these three unlucky men and women were finally discovered to have run away from home through the window/vomited too much fat after taking the wrong diet pills/drank a pound of white wine and had to kowtow at home, etc., the reasons were simple and prankish.

But in a few years, this community may become a new tourist attraction in Mong Cai City with the name of haunted house.

But not all furniture left with the neighbors.

There were no valuable home appliances, of course, but those old, worn-out things were often piled up in front of the large-scale scrap recycling station outside the community. Doudou picked up quite a few of them--
Several sets of bright red plastic chairs were stacked together, and fishing chairs whose backs and bases were discolored by sweat stains; my favorite was a set of radio peripherals, but the radio station that corresponded to it had long since stopped operating, and now it was just a few uniquely shaped decorations.

The apartment, which had been repainted long ago after the explosion, was almost empty, except for the homework papers filled with words that made it seem full.

But even if you add in these picked-up things that are somewhere between garbage and scrap, there is not much furniture: this 83-square-meter space once housed a family of three; but now Doudou lives alone.

He picked out a blank tape from the drawer, put some tape on it, wrote his name on the tape with a pen, and then inserted it into the tape recorder embedded in the wall.

DouDou pressed the round button on the tape recorder, then sat down on the folding chair in the middle of the living room and cleared her throat.

The tape creaked into motion: the recording had begun—before continuing his little adventure tonight, he had to prepare the application materials for the "Parapsychological Exploration" enthusiasts' exchange meeting.

Doudou glanced around, his eyes sweeping over the stools, round chairs, and beanbags that formed a circle. He then looked down at the homework paper on his lap, covered in traces of corrections and rewrites, and the application form he had just cut out from the "Paranormal Psychology" magazine.

"Hello everyone, my name is Doudou."

"I'm still in school and live in Mong Cai. It's a small town in Jiaozhi Autonomous Prefecture with a small population. But I heard it's going to become a free trade zone soon. By then, more people will probably move in. I've been buying 'Parapsychological Exploration' for over two years."

Doudou lowered his head and used the tip of his fountain pen to tick the "Self-introduction" box in the first column of the "Instructions" section of the attached page:

"I wanted to join the discussion board and fan exchange meeting because I had a lot of questions, but I didn't know how to talk to others. So after I found this reader discussion board on Parapsychological Exploration, I wanted to give it a try."

After a brief pause, Doudou added another sentence, then checked the "Reason for joining" column:
"Yeah, yeah. The reason I subscribed to Parapsychology is because I want to understand the difference between monsters and humans. I also bought Monster Demystified, but it only talks about ancient legends and dinosaurs. However, the material in Parapsychology is all recent, things happening around us."

"Ah-ah, I'd like to add one more thing about this—if it's not good, the administrator can delete it for me—which is that I'm very troubled. Why did Parapsychological Exploration publish my story in the magazine? And it was published several times. I've read it many times in the past few years."

"Editor, are you saying I'm one of the monsters? That's not nice. Oh, sorry. I just saw the instructions saying [suggestions and corrections] should be recorded last. I'll talk about that later."

The stools, round chairs and lazy sofas were motionless and silent, and no response came; the faint noise outside the community was as disturbing as the buzz of mosquitoes.

Doudou rubbed his nose, feeling a little embarrassed:
"I think that in this world, the Earth we live on can be divided into monsters and humans, right? The Pleiades mantis, the Loch Ness Monster, aliens in UFOs, and so on are monsters, so the rest should be considered humans? You can think of it that way, right?" "Because I've seen a lot of monsters that can disguise themselves as humans in 'Psychological Exploration'; but I'm not an animal either. I'm not a cat, a dog, a bat, a mosquito, or anything like that, nor am I a plant like flowers or trees."

"So I was thinking, if I think in this direction; if they look the same, but they're not monsters, then they must be human? That's what I think, but I'm not sure. I checked it on the mainframe computer at the city library."

Doudou picked up his schoolbag, pulled out his tattered notebook, and traced the excerpts line by line with his finger:

"[In biology, human beings usually refer to Homo sapiens, but are occasionally used to refer to prehistoric species of the genus Homo, part of the order Primates and family Hominidae. Members of the genus Homo generally evolved from apes/Australopithecus.] I copied this. We have mirrors at school, so I look like everyone else, I can confirm that."

He turned the page again and continued reading:

"[Humans are defined as organisms capable of language, writing, complex social organization, and technological development, especially their ability to form groups and institutions for mutual support and assistance]."

"That's pretty clear. But the [Perseus] in the July 1995 issue seems to be the same; they don't seem that different from humans."

"So I'm looking for a way to distinguish between humans and monsters: or a way to directly determine whether I'm human or not, or a more easily verifiable definition of human, etc., would be great too!"

"Yeah, I hope the discussion forum can help me. I've been worried about this for years. If there's no answer, I'll record a new thread and send it over. The instructions don't say whether this one counts as a thread, so maybe only the administrators can hear it?"

Doudou paused. Of course, no response came from the surroundings:
"Well, besides what I mentioned earlier, I hope the editor won't publish me in the magazine anymore. I feel like there's a lot of better material in Mong Cai City recently! If I have the chance, I will do my best to submit it."

Doudou flipped to the bottom of the [Instructions] and found the last note: "Polite thanks, maintain order in the discussion group":
"That's about it; I hope my application will be approved. Thank you to the administrators for reviewing it, and thank you to the other readers of the discussion board. Goodbye!"

Click.

Doudou stopped the recorder and nodded to the empty seats around him.
After thinking for a moment, he stood up again and bowed.
-
A tape with a self-introduction, membership requirements to be filled out and checked, and a ten-yuan bill - as annual membership dues.

Doudou carefully stuffed these into the envelope and sealed the opening. The envelope became bulging, so he tore off the transparent tape and wrapped the envelope horizontally in several layers. Then he used a paste brush to stick on a fifty-cent stamp:
The editorial office of Parapsychology Exploration is in Mong Cai City, but to be safe, Doudou still put a more expensive stamp on it. Doudou opened the iron door and the screen door for ventilation; he carefully stuffed the envelope into the opening of the mailing channel at the door.

In the evening, the Asia-Europe Post deliverymen would collect mail from the pipeline outlet at the entrance of the residential complex. I heard that in larger cities, where pipelines directly connected to the distribution stations in the city center, the deliverymen's work was much easier.
But Doudou hasn’t seen it yet: he and his parents moved away from Kuala Lumpur and Singapore before plumbing became commonplace.

It was afternoon, and Mong Cai had become a scorching steamer, releasing heat to more than one million balls of fillings - if glue was used to stick the envelopes together, it would have melted by now; as for the smaller stamps, it didn't have much of an impact.

Squeak--
With the sound of something hard sliding down the pipe, the envelope disappeared through the opening: it should arrive soon.

(End of this chapter)