Three times

Ji Tan wanted to stop talking about wood ear mushrooms, so he quickly changed the subject. "Sis, I just got paid, and I want to take my brother to a better doctor. Do you know which hospital is best for mental problems?"

Being called "Sis" made the woman beam. She waved her hands repeatedly. "Oh, just call me Sister Xu. You're embarrassing me."

Ji Tan kept his youthful gaze clear and innocent, looking at Sister Xu curiously as he waited for her answer.

He had known his advantage since childhood-he was cute. He could do things other little boys couldn't get away with. He could roll around and throw tantrums without getting beaten, and act cute to get things from older boys and girls.

So whenever he went out to handle something and lacked local information, Ji Tan liked asking older women and men. It worked every time.

Sure enough, Sister Xu didn't disappoint. She told him everything. Within a few exchanges, Ji Tan had a rough understanding of the area.

It was a little like an old twentieth-century neighborhood, where neighbors knew one another. Because life was hard, people helped each other out, but conflicts broke out easily too, and neighborhood disputes were common. Sister Xu was the street's peacemaker and got along well with many people, so she often went to mediate disputes.

Only after finishing talking about her son, who had just gotten into a well-known secondary school, did Sister Xu return to Ji Tan's question. She craned her neck to look through the Ji family's kitchen window and sighed. "Your brother's Sanity has dropped. Ordinary clinics really can't treat that. You need a very expensive hospital. How could poor people like us afford it? I'd advise you not to bother. Praying to the gods more often works better than medicine."

With that, Sister Xu mysteriously took out a small card and slipped it into Ji Tan's hand.

Ji Tan lowered his head to look, but she clamped her hand tightly around both his hand and the card.

Sister Xu leaned close to his ear, lowering her voice until it was almost nothing but a hoarse whisper. "I'll tell you a secret. The great Argus truly exists. Bring your brother to the old warehouse at the end of the street this evening. You might get a chance to become an Orderly."

Ji Tan's fist abruptly tightened around the card. He neither nodded nor shook his head, and even the curve of his smile stayed unchanged. He simply asked calmly, "Do they hand out eggs?"

This sounded exactly like the "cult" gatherings Xie Zhi had mentioned, the kind found in chaotic neighborhoods. As Ji Tan remembered it, groups like these always handed out eggs during the first few days to recruit people. Some even offered free lunches.

Sister Xu froze for a moment, then gave Ji Tan's hand a hard shake and warned him quite seriously, "Don't talk nonsense. Once you get there, follow my instructions. This isn't a joke."

Ji Tan still neither nodded nor shook his head as he watched her leave, muttering to herself. He put the empty plate in the sink to rinse it and glanced at the card.

The front bore a baffling advertisement that seemed to be selling rat poison:

[Eat without fear, die without decay. Amid the ultimate frenzy, within the whispers of darkness, pass into the next life.]

The back of the card was covered in chaotic drawings. The most conspicuous was an eye without eyelashes.

Ji Tan's breath caught. He had seen this eye in Ji Sinan's drawer yesterday. Sneaking a glance at his brother, who was buttoning his buttons for the sixth time, Ji Tan tucked the card into his jacket pocket and zipped it shut.

Having failed to get the information from a neighbor, he could only search online.

But there was no "Niche Reviews" here, no "Low Virtue Maps," not even a search engine running shady little ads. Ji Tan couldn't help marveling at the limitless business opportunities here. Once he had time, he would try making an app and let the inexperienced citizens of City A live like modern people.

Then he would be Ji Huateng of the west district, Ji Musk of the north district. Becoming City A's richest man would be just around the corner.

"What are you smiling about? You're drooling." Ji Sinan's voice drifted eerily from behind him.

"Ahem. We're seeing a doctor today. Remember to ask your boss for leave." Ji Tan hastily wiped the corner of his mouth. There was no drool at all! Even a mentally ill person could make jokes!

Unable to find any information, Ji Tan could only post on social media:

[Just moved to Xili District. I can't believe there aren't any good hospitals here. It really doesn't compare to our Beichen District.]

The moment he hit send, countless new notifications popped up with a string of dings.

[You despicable outsider, what kind of bullshit is that?! Xili District has the most advanced medical care!!!]

[You're right. All the big-name doctors are in our Beichen District. Xili District is just a slum.]

[Beichen District rich boys, tone down the stink of wealth. It's getting up my latest-model mechanical nose.]

Amid the flying insults, Ji Tan found the answer he wanted. Xili District's best hospitals were Eternal Day Medical and the Chengming Life Center.

Eternal Day Medical specialized mainly in mechanical organ transplants and other difficult medical conditions. It was named Eternal Day because it operated around the clock.

The Chengming Life Center, meanwhile, leaned toward pharmaceutical research and psychiatric treatment. According to the commenters, one visit left your whole being clear and bright.

Ji Tan had a plan now. He had already gotten the details from Sister Xu: to take the subway from the slum neighborhoods, they had to go to Fist Plaza, which required a bus ride first.

After putting away the dishes and locking the doors and windows, Ji Tan took his brother by the hand and headed out.

Of course, he didn't wear the Afanti coat Xie Zhi had bought him. He changed into old clothes the original owner had left at home: perfectly ordinary casual wear with a somewhat student-like air.

After putting his ID and bank card into his pockets, Ji Tan glanced at the proposal on the table. It was his cheat, and although it hadn't activated yet, leaving it at home felt unsafe. He could only dig out a crossbody bag buried at the bottom of the cabinet and put the thick proposal inside.

He would have to ask Xie Zhi later how he had turned the proposal into golden butterflies on the rooftop. It would be great if this thing could keep flying along after him.

An exhausted corporate drone really didn't want to carry any extra heavy objects on his commute.

Seeing him put on a bag, Ji Sinan's eyes lit up. He produced a squat insulated cup from somewhere, filled it with warm water, and stuffed it into Ji Tan's bag.

"They sell water outside." Ji Tan tried to resist.

"You can't just drink water from outside."

His brother suppressed the resistance. It was futile.

The two first went to the clinic to ask for leave.

The clinic where Ji Sinan worked was in neighboring Tinplate Alley, which was also part of the Disconnected District. Named Quickblade, it had a glow-in-the-dark spine hanging out front as its sign. Its owner was a fat man with a mechanical arm who called himself "Quickblade Li."

Business at the clinic looked fairly slow. When they arrived, Quickblade Li was idly transforming his mechanical fingers, turning his index finger into a scalpel and then back again.

"Boss, my little brother's back. I need a day off." Ji Sinan dispensed with pleasantries and went straight to the point.

Old Li looked up and glanced at them. "Go on, go on. Not much business today anyway."

"Boss, my little brother's back. I need a day off," Ji Sinan repeated.

The fat owner scratched his head, then yelped, "Ow!" He had forgotten to change his little finger back from a screwdriver and had scratched his scalp open.

"Boss, my little brother's back. I need a day off," Ji Sinan said for the third time.

Holding his head, Old Li went to bandage himself. He paid Ji Sinan no attention at all, let alone tried to have this doctor apply medicine for him.

After finishing, Ji Sinan let out a breath and led Ji Tan away. Watching how the two interacted, Ji Tan silently worked out the patterns.

From his observations, his brother needed to repeat actions seven times; when speaking to anyone other than him, including talking to himself, he needed to repeat things three times. But things involving Ji Tan were a little better. For instance, when tugging his ears, he only needed to make it symmetrical.

They boarded the bus together. Ji Tan stepped up first and apologized to the driver, explaining that his brother needed to step on the footboard seven times before he could board.

The bus driver waved a hand, apparently used to it. "It's fine. Just a nutcase, right? This neighborhood's full of them."

Ji Tan: "..." Not knowing what to say, he could only stand beside the driver to keep him from suddenly stepping on the gas and throwing his brother off.

When they finally reached Fist Plaza, Ji Tan let out a breath and looked around.

The plaza had been around for some years. Its public facilities were aging, the tiles at the subway entrance were uneven, and the rain-shielding glass was missing here and there. There was no tactile paving and no staff, only dazzling lights that kept flashing even in broad daylight, setting the mood in the gloomy depths underground.

A noisy crowd had gathered in the plaza, though he had no idea what they were doing.

Ji Tan asked an old man selling grilled sausages. The old man told him that three burly men had been lying bare-assed in the plaza that morning and had been taken away by the Public Security Bureau. Everyone was checking in at that spot and posting on social media.

"Who's so uncivilized they'd lie bare-assed in a plaza?" Ji Tan muttered. Those words sounded a little familiar. Feeling there was something wrong with the local customs, he hurriedly pulled his brother away.

The subway train was quite new, though, coated in dazzling purple enamel. It shot out of the darkness like an enormous fluorescent eggplant. The brothers boarded the eggplant, and Ji Tan held the rail, happily watching his brother sit down and stand up over and over. "It's so good to see you again," he said softly.

Back when he was in school, he had visited the city where his brother attended university. On his first subway ride, his brother had braced himself against the handrail just like this, shielding him in the corner of the seat so no one would crowd him.

Ji Sinan finally finished standing and sitting seven times and sighed. "As long as you don't mind me."

Ji Tan twitched his stinging nose. "I wouldn't mind anything you did. Aren't you the same?"

Ji Sinan gave it serious thought, then shook his head. "When you peed in my bed as a kid, I minded quite a bit."

The people around them glanced over.

Ji Tan's face instantly turned red. Although he didn't know which memories Ji Sinan was recalling, he really had done that as a child, and his brother had teased him about it for years.

He nudged Ji Sinan's calf with his foot, signaling him to stop talking.

But the crowd's attention seemed to make Ji Sinan a little nervous. Words he normally needed to say only once to Ji Tan began repeating beyond his control.

"When you peed in my bed as a kid, I minded quite a bit."

Ji Tan tried covering his mouth, but it was no use.

With his mouth covered, his brother persisted in mumbling it a third time.

A middle-aged man beside them cackled. "Young man, looks like your brother really does care about that."

Ji Tan: "..."

How about you pee in my bed too and forget about this? Please.