The Newborn Inn

Ping An felt that the city he lived in had suddenly become a little “off.” His school had been replaced by a circus, the hospital had become a pigsty tenement, and an unfamiliar alley had appeared near his home. Taking shelter from the rain in a phone booth sent his imagination running wild, while clear laughter suddenly came from behind the door at home that he could never open. Then he realized that he and his home had become strange too, as if they were hiding all sorts of secrets he had never noticed. Every time he opened that door, he seemed to find himself in a different world: worlds that had been destroyed, twisted, and corrupted, or places where people had strayed down the “wrong path.” Ping An wanted to go home, but his abundant sense of justice and his “I’m already here, so I might as well” attitude meant that once he entered those worlds, he wanted to save them too. Or at least bring back their survivors, so they could live safely and happily in this little haven and start anew. His first customer was Nezha.