The third time.
I stood in the center of the scoring square. On the giant projection screen above my head, the number next to my name kept beating, like a dying electrocardiogram. Hundreds of people around raised their necks, their eyes shining with the kind of light that was not too big a deal to watch the excitement.
"Rating target: Jiang Ci, age 24, social status: unemployed."
The mechanical female voice came from the speakers around the square, as clear as a knife scraping against the eardrums.
I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my flesh. The crowd around me began to commotion, some were laughing, some were shaking their heads, and some were pointing their body recorders at me, as if I were some rare animal.
"The third scoring result——"
The numbers on the screen stopped.
-7 Points.
The whole square was quiet for about two seconds, and then exploded.
"Fuck, negative? Is this a fucking negative score?"
"This is the first time in my thirty years of life that I have seen someone with a negative score..."
"Have you heard? He failed the last interview again, seventeen times in a row, seventeen times!"
"My dad said that people with low scores are mentally ill. I think he does seem to be ill. The look in his eyes is like a dead person."
My brain was buzzing like dozens of bees buzzing inside my skull.
But I didn't move.
