When my eighteen-year-old father was taken away for investigation, the beasts in the courtyard teamed up to drive me out of the house and froze me in the alley. Uncle Guo from No. 96 Courtyard next door dragged me into the house and stuffed me with a bowl of hot porridge. Only then did I remember that in the original novel, all the people living here were honest people. The sign-in system dinged—since this compound won't accept me, I'll start over from next door.