The Tricks of the People in the Building

A record-breaking rainstorm sparked a fire on Qinghe City's Antique Street. Like the hand of fate, it stirred up a group of small-time characters with "special skills" and ultimately drove them to the dilapidated, perpetually leaking "problem building" in Hongguang Community. Mockingly nicknamed the "Show-Off Tower," the building became their makeshift refuge and brand-new stage overnight.

The leaking old building became an arena for them to perform their "tricks." A fake master livestreamed sutra recitations and hawked products beneath a dripping ceiling. A "miracle doctor" branched out into feng shui rituals. A bureaucratic director used stock phrases to deal with the raging public. A judge turned neighborhood disputes into a machine for collecting red envelopes. The security guard blamed everything on "not paying enough fees," while the village chief quietly set his sights on the building's crumbling foundations with his hoe. A scammer lay in wait to stage a "freak accident." A fake beggar parked his luxury car outside and played the role of a "filial son fallen on hard times." The corner store became a breeding ground for rumors and an offline outlet for shoddy "blessed" goods. Each person did what they could to preserve the illusory prestige and web of profits on which they depended, in the slippery cracks of survival. They schemed against one another, yet relied on one another.

But when the relentless rain finally washed away the building's fragile structure, clues to cultural relics surfaced in the cracks of its foundation. Like a mirror that reveals demons for what they are, they sent these carefully constructed "tricks" crumbling. This modern-day scroll of human folly, dealing with fraud, responsibility, greed, and absurdity, ultimately gave rise to a bitter, sorrowful sigh amid the roar of the Show-Off Tower's collapse and the miserable chaos strewn across the ground. The Tricks of the People in the Building is a work that uses absurdity as a mirror to reveal a portrait of human nature hidden in the folds of the times: bizarre and dazzling, yet all too real.