July 28, 2002, early morning. Driving to Linkou Road. Video file: 01320020728.avi.
The video resolution wasn't very high, and the image was a little blurry. Judging by the quality, it hadn't been filmed with a high-definition camera. It was somewhat different from Greenleaf's other videos.
The video showed a road at night. Two rows of streetlights lined the sides, shining brightly enough to illuminate the entire road. The spaces between the lights were only a little dim.
Sidewalks and the walls of a residential community ran along both sides of the road. Old-fashioned propaganda boards hung on the walls. Unlike today's boards, which were designed to look artistic, these featured crude cartoon figures in the style of the little illustrations in old evening newspapers. Their colors were muted, mostly pale watercolor shades. The slogans also seemed to come from a distant era: "Don't spit," "Don't litter," "Don't jaywalk"...
The car rolled along at a slow pace, the camera aimed straight ahead from the center. The propaganda boards gradually slid backward out of view on either side.
The residential buildings were all low-rise. The nearby ones had five floors, while farther off stood seven-story buildings with the same exterior design.
Few residents had their lights on, and there were hardly any streetlights inside the community. It looked pitch-black. The apartment buildings and the greenery within the community seemed like monsters lurking in the shadows.
The only sound in the video was the car moving. No one spoke.
After about five minutes, they reached an intersection. Beyond it, the walls and propaganda boards gave way to small shops along the street.
The shops were things like convenience stores, tobacco shops, and bun shops. There were no chain stores; they all looked like small, privately run businesses. Now, every shop was closed, its