Chaos and Hope Before Dawn

"Bang--!!!"

The loud bang was like a giant iron pot being smashed right next to A Bin's ear, jolting him awake from his semi-conscious state. His heart skipped several beats, and all that could be heard in his ears was a sharp buzzing.

In the dormitory, the sounds of snoring, sleep talking, and teeth grinding that had been rising and falling were suddenly silenced by the loud noise, followed by an even louder, chaotic, panicked uproar.

"Thunder?!"

"No! It's an explosion! There's been an explosion downstairs!"

"War has broken out! It must be war!"

It was pitch black, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. A Bin couldn't see anything, only felt the bed frame vibrating slightly beneath him, and dust falling softly from the ceiling.

He gripped the hard, thin blanket beneath him tightly, his nails digging into the rough cotton wadding. His whole body trembled uncontrollably, his teeth chattering. His mind was blank, filled with only one thought: It's over, it's really over, they've broken in, I'm going to die...

The dormitory door was kicked open with a bang, and a blinding beam of flashlight beam swept in haphazardly, accompanied by a rough shout, "Everyone! Get up! Get out here! Assemble in the open space! Quick! Hands behind your head! Anyone who's a step slower will have their legs broken!"

It was the voice of the security guard, but it sounded more furious than usual, even carrying a hint of barely concealed panic.

A Bin scrambled off the bed, bumping into someone in the darkness, eliciting a cry of pain and a curse. He didn't care, frantically groping to put on his shoes (without even realizing they were on backwards), and stumbled towards the door with the other figures, who were like headless flies. At the door, several security guards were waving rubber batons, randomly striking the people crowding the entrance, hurling insults and driving them away.

The corridor was even more chaotic. People from other dormitories poured out, crowding together, with cries, shouts, and the reprimands of security guards all mixed together.

The air was thick with the stench of sweat, feet, and dust, along with an increasingly intense and unsettling sense of panic. Swept along by the crowd, A Bin mechanically moved forward, his hands instinctively covering his head. His eyes were blurred by the flashlight beam, and he could only see the dirty backs of the people in front of him and the swaying heads.

He didn't know what was happening or where he was going; he just instinctively followed the crowd, like a flock of terrified sheep being herded by sheepdogs. He could hear sporadic, muffled "thuds" in the distance, not as loud as the gunshots he usually heard, but still frightening enough. He could also vaguely hear intermittent, static-filled shouts coming from a walkie-talkie, but he couldn't make out the content.

Finally, he was driven outside. A cold night wind blew, A Bin shivered, becoming slightly more awake. He looked up to see what was happening, but was stunned by the scene before him.

Most of the park was dark, with only a few dim, flickering lights shining from the main building in the distance, like will-o'-the-wisps.

But the huge concrete open space in the center of the park was shrouded in a stark white light by the headlights of several pickup trucks and dozens of flashlights. A large group of people were already squatting there, all of them "piglets" like them, with their hands covering their heads, completely silent, with only suppressed breathing and occasional uncontrollable sobs.

The people driving them away and guarding them were no longer the usual fierce-looking security guards carrying rubber batons or stun guns. Instead, they were people dressed in miscellaneous clothes, but who moved with unusual agility and had cold eyes.

They were holding real guns! Not the rubber batons that security guards usually use to scare people! A Bin saw that one of the men, wearing a dirty work jacket but with his back ramrod straight, was holding a short gun with a long magazine that he had only seen on TV before, and his eyes were scanning the crowd like an eagle.

Not far away, a burly man who looked like a cook, wearing a greasy apron, was also carrying a rifle, his expression serious.

Where are those usually arrogant security guards? A Bin rolled his eyes in horror. In the edge of the pale light, he saw several figures with their hands tied behind their backs with plastic zip ties, their mouths stuffed, huddled in the corner. Judging from their clothes, they were indeed security guards, and it seemed that... Brother Bo was among them? That head of the security guards, Brother Bo? He was slumped there, motionless, and there seemed to be a dark liquid spreading beneath him.

A Bin's heart sank to the bottom, then pounded wildly at some unbelievable guess. The security guard... was he subdued? By these people who suddenly appeared? What about the general? The main building seems quiet too...

He and the growing number of "piglets" who were later driven out were herded to the center of an open space, where, like everyone else, they were forced to squat down with their hands behind their heads. The concrete ground was icy cold, but no one dared to move.

A deathly silence reigned, broken only by the whistling of the night wind through the barbed wire fence and the occasional, inexplicable, short, sharp noises from afar. A faint smell of gunpowder mingled with dust and... the stench of blood?

Squatting next to A Bin was a boy even younger than him, who looked to be under twenty. He was so thin he was practically skin and bones, and at that moment he had his face buried in his knees, his shoulders trembling as he silently shed tears.

On the other side was a middle-aged man with a scar on his face, staring blankly at the ground, muttering to himself, the words unintelligible. Thousands of people were squatting together, yet eerily quiet, with only the heavy, uneven breathing creating a dull, suffocating background sound.

Fear, confusion, despair, and a numbness etched on everyone's faces, a result of being stunned by the sudden upheaval and the heavy guards around them.

A Bin's heart was pounding like a drum, his mind a complete mess. Was it the government army attacking? Or some other armed force? What would they do to us? Would they kill us along with the fraudsters? Or... He dared not think any further, and could only bury his head even lower, praying that misfortune would not befall him.

Time ticked by, each second feeling like an eternity. The first hint of dawn appeared slightly wider on the horizon, but the night remained thick. Just as A Bin felt he was being driven mad by the deathly silence and fear—

"Everyone, listen up!"

A voice, transmitted through a noisy megaphone found somewhere, rang out in the open space. The sound wasn't loud, but it was exceptionally clear, with a metallic, undeniable quality that pierced through the oppressive silence.

Like everyone else, A Bin instinctively looked up in the direction the sound came from. It was at the edge of the open space, next to the pickup truck with its headlights on. A man was standing on the truck bed.

He looked to be around forty years old, with dark skin, wearing an ordinary dark jacket, but he stood ramrod straight, like a pine tree in the wind and snow. Even from a distance, A Bin could feel his eyes, sharp as knives, slowly sweeping across the dark mass of people.

It was that "electrician," A Mu! A Bin recognized him, and his heart skipped a beat. The taciturn, head-down electrician of the day seemed like a completely different person now.

You are free.

Through the loudspeaker, the man's voice calmly uttered five words.

Free?

A Bin was jolted, wondering if he had misheard. The crying boy next to him stopped sobbing and looked up blankly. The surrounding crowd seemed to be paused, a brief, eerie silence falling over them. Thousands of faces were frozen in disbelief.

The man (Bai Shan) continued without pausing, his speech steady, each word striking a chord deep within:

"This telecom fraud industrial park has been destroyed. The armed men who controlled you have been eliminated."

The crowd stirred slightly, like ripples spreading across a calm lake after a pebble has been thrown in. Some stared wide-eyed, some gaped in astonishment, and for many more, the stagnant numbness in their eyes began to shatter, revealing a faint light beneath.

"Now," Bai Shan raised his voice, which echoed in the morning air, "Everyone, line up in ten rows and register over here!"

He pointed to one side of the open space, where several broken tables that had been temporarily moved from the "office area" had been set up. Several people were sitting behind them, with notebooks and pens in front of them. Next to the tables, there were some things wrapped in brown paper envelopes.

"State your name, place of origin, and how you were tricked here! After registration," Bai Shan paused, his gaze sweeping over the faces that were gradually coming to life, "You will be given a small amount of travel expenses and guidance to leave this place and return to the border or a safe area!"

"If you're injured, go to the makeshift medical station over there!" He pointed in another direction, where several people who looked to know a little about bandaging were preparing basic medicines and bandages.

"Repeat," Bai Shan said finally, his voice firm and resolute, "You are free! Now, line up and register!"

The words had barely left his mouth.

The open space fell into a deeper silence, but it was no longer a deathly silence; rather, it was a suffocating silence gripped by a tremendous, sudden shock and ecstasy.

Thousands of people, as if frozen in place, squatted there motionless, only their chests heaving violently, their eyes fixed on the figure in the truck bed, then on the registration tables, on the pile of envelopes that might contain "travel expenses," and on the road that seemed to lead "outside," still shrouded in the faint light of dawn.

Free?

Really... free?

A Bin felt his eyes instantly burn; scalding tears welled up unexpectedly, blurring his vision. He blinked hard, his throat feeling like it was blocked by something, unable to utter a sound.

The boy next to him burst into tears, sobbing uncontrollably, his cries filled with the devastation and catharsis of surviving a catastrophe. In another direction, a gray-haired man, who had endured countless years of hardship here, covered his face with his hands, his shoulders heaving violently, emitting suppressed sobs like a wounded wild animal.

Then, as if a dam had finally been breached, a tremendous roar erupted!

"We're free! We're free!"

"Dad! Mom! I can go home! I can go home! Waaah..."

"Heaven has eyes! Heaven has eyes!"

Thank you! Thank you all!

Cries, shouts, wails, and incoherent expressions of gratitude... instantly filled the open space! Thousands of people, some squatting, some collapsed to the ground, some suddenly stood up waving their arms, some tightly hugged the people next to them, regardless of whether they knew them or not, and just wailed loudly.

Long-suppressed fear, despair, humiliation, and homesickness erupted like a volcano, unleashing their most primal emotions. The scene briefly spiraled out of control as people jostled to reach the registration table, and the queue instantly became chaotic.

"Quiet! Line up! Come in order! Don't push!" The armed guards immediately shouted, using their bodies and gestures to maintain order.

Their reprimands carried authority, and the chaotic crowd was gradually brought under control, beginning to stagger back into a line. But everyone's face was etched with tears, laughter, and a kind of unreal, dizzying ecstasy as they stumbled toward the registration table.

A Bin was also swept up in the crowd, slowly moving forward with the group. He still felt like he was dreaming, his steps unsteady. He looked around at his fellow workers, who had once been numb like walking corpses but were now alive and well, at the security guards tied up and paralyzed in the corner in the distance, at the deathly darkness over the main building, and then at the increasingly clear dawn on the horizon.

You are free.

The word rolled over and over on his tongue, carrying both the metallic taste of blood and the fresh, almost untouchable hope of morning dew.

He raised his hand, vigorously rubbed his blurry eyes, and took a deep breath of the cold, fresh morning air.

It's almost dawn.