Don't go to the moon, there are gods on the far side of the moon.

Qin Lan convened an accident review meeting that did not involve any incident.

There was no police tape at the entrance to the conference room, but on the table were blank casualty tables, unused lockdown orders, 473 tomorrow memory records that were due before their expiration, and a gray report of unknown origin, arranged according to the highest level of accident.

The report is seven pages long. The paper has no watermark, and the fiber age cannot be determined. The cover reads:

[03:17 Confirmation completed inside the door.]

[Personnel losses: zero.]

[Boundary stability: permanent.]

[Evaluation of handling: Best.]

It even prepared a reason for them to celebrate. No one died, no facilities went out of control, no city shut down, all it took was for five people to stop living as themselves.

Lin Jibai was fixed as the chief duty officer, responsible for the final judgment of all nodes; Xu Wangshu became the permanent recorder, ensuring that any unresolved matters were seen; Lin Xiaoman was fixed as the Dream Network entrance and was not allowed to go offline on her own; Lu Chenggong was given the obligation to continuously shoot and was responsible for shooting down all out-of-control nodes; Wen Zhaolin was nailed to the identity of atonement, bearing all the historical debts generated by the old authorization until the debts were cleared.

Everyone was assigned to their most suitable position.

Each arrangement included a justification, a risk-benefit ratio, and proof that no one could replace them. The report described their experience as qualifications, their past commitments as lifelong agreements, and the statement "no better candidate" as "the individual may not withdraw."

It's so reasonable it's disgusting.

Wen Zhaolin turned to the last page: "This is the optimal result given by the outside world."

"It was also your favorite form before," Qin Lan said.

Wen Zhaolin did not refute. He picked up a pen and first drew a line under his own name. Not to delete his name, but to refuse to let that line extend from the past into the future.

Before the review began, Xu Wangshu set the scope: today we will not discuss how to prevent this report from happening. The accident has already occurred; designing an even more impressive victory around it will only send everyone back to the predetermined plot.

They only verify one thing: under what premises this optimal result is valid.

The first requirement is that there must be a designated, perpetually responsible person.

Lin Jibai's voice came from the toolbox: "I disagree."

The technician reminded him that if the duty officer requirement is removed, the current 473 nodes will lose unified decision-making.

"They shouldn't have been waiting for my judgment in the first place," Lin Jibai said. "I can accept the waveform comparison from 10:00 to 10:15 today, but I can't accept 'all future anomalies are my responsibility.' The former is a living thing, the latter is a memorial tablet."

Qin Lan opened a separate sheet of paper next to the report: Lin Jibai, temporary waveform comparison, 15 minutes; stop if physical indicators fall below the current stable line; both the individual and the medical staff have the right to stop work; the results are only for this review.

Lin Jibai confirmed accepting the order but did not confirm his identity.

A small piece was missing from the upper right corner of the gray report, as if it had been burned by an invisible fire, but the cut was cold.

The second requirement is that the record must be complete and never be missed, therefore the recorder must be present at all times.

Xu Wangshu divided her long-term authority into three categories: receiving, storing, and interpreting. She could handle receiving the day's documents; sealing was done alternately by two rotating archivists; the right to interpret did not automatically arise with the record. Anyone could point out omissions and refuse to be questioned. After she finished get off work, pending records could wait; she could not be recalled on the grounds that "the world might forget."

"What if something happens while we're waiting?" someone asked on the public channel.

"Then record the risks caused by waiting," Xu Wangshu said. "Risks cannot prove that someone should stay awake forever."

The name on the second page of the report faded away, leaving only the word "Record".

Thirdly, Xiaoman had entered the Dream Network and heard behind the door, so she naturally constituted the entrance.

Xiaoman took off her listening headphones and placed them on the table: "I can listen for five minutes today, even if I can't hear anything, it counts as a completion. If anyone records my breathing as an interface again, I will apply for interface compensation."

No one laughed at her. The medical staff completed her work order: Listening is not the same as access, dreams do not constitute authorization, and when the device responds to her, the device should be disconnected first, not the person. Xiaoman reserves the right to remove her headphones at any time, refuse to explain what she heard, and refuse further verification.

The third page is split in the middle. The sentence "The entry point remains stable" is now just "remains stable," like an empty statement without an object.

Fourthly, Lu Chengong possesses a broken bow, therefore it must be fired when the border is out of control.

Lu Chengong left the broken bow and quiver outside the door. He was willing to inspect the equipment that day, but refused to pre-sign the firing order. Whether to fire, who should fire, and whether there were evacuation and physical isolation plans would all have to be reassessed at the specific moment. Owning tools is not an obligation to use them, and having fired before does not authorize one to fire again.

"What if you're the only one who has time?" someone else asked.

"Ask me then," Lu Chenggong said. "Don't answer for me before I even get there."

The fourth page is rolled up, leaving a gray border.

Finally, there's Wen Zhaolin. The report pins all historical authorized debts on him, with the most compelling reason: he established the old authority, he continued the old system, and only he knows best how to revoke it.

Wen Zhaolin signed off on each revocation. He revoked the permanent residency permit he had issued, opened the old logs he possessed, handed over the keys that should not have been kept by him personally, and explicitly refused to continue occupying the position as a form of atonement. He stopped writing when he reached the last item.

That clause required him to act as collateral for the debt and not to leave the review system until all old authorizations were confirmed to be zeroed out.

"I cannot withdraw from this," he said.

Qin Lan looked up: "Why?"

"Because it treated me as an asset. An asset has no right to release itself." Wen Zhaolin pushed the pen away. "I can revoke the authority I granted, but I cannot agree to give me away to anyone, nor can I use continued occupation as proof of my responsibility."

Qin Lan stamped the document as void in that section. The reason given was simply: responsibility can be traced, but personnel cannot be used as collateral.

The gray report is now just a cover and binding thread.

The doubts on public channels didn't disappear. On the contrary, more and more people asked: If everyone can refuse, who will be responsible if something goes wrong? What if the person handing over the job can also refuse, and no one takes the job in the end? Boundaries need continuous maintenance; can a simple "I don't want to" make the whole city take the risk?

These problems aren't entirely wrong, which makes them even more dangerous. If we push the real risks one step further, permanent residency will seem reasonable again.

Qin Lan posted the temporary work order structure on the public screen. Each work order only lists six things: the action to be taken at this moment, verifiable completion conditions, maximum duration, known risks, stoppage conditions, and handover destination. Responsibility lies in the action, not in a person's permanent title; a handover of the current situation is required before leaving, but there is no guarantee that someone will take over; the person taking over can narrow down the scope or refuse.

In emergencies, prioritize saving lives. Circumventing standard procedures is permissible, but the reasons for bypassing must be explained afterwards. Anyone who discovers unclear conditions, equipment malfunctions, or conflicting instructions has the right to halt work. A work stoppage is not an absolution; the location and reason for the stoppage must be documented. Continuing work is not heroic; someone must be able to explain why it can continue.

"What if no one takes the order in the end?" The question arose again.

Zhou Jianguo was listening to a meeting at a repair shop in the western suburbs. He put a wrench on the table and said, "Stop work."

The channel was silent for a moment.

"Is it irresponsible to force a repair when you don't know how?" he retorted. "A machine downtime of one hour can be recorded as a loss. But what about a person welded into a workstation? Where do you record that as a loss?"

Lin Jibai agreed: "Uncle Zhou's words are worth a pack of cigarettes."

"You owe two packs," Xiaoman reminded her.

"The work order did not specify a return deadline."

"Finish it now."

This dispute was also recorded in the review log. Not to make the report seem more humane, but to demonstrate that temporary relationships can be negotiated, while permanent positions cannot.

Subsequently, each node underwent a no-load handover according to the new structure. The hospital nurse only handed over the inventory of the medicine cabinet, not the memory of pushing the cart tomorrow; the exhibition hall duty officer handed over the information desk key, not the child with the red balloon; Chen Rui handed over the jack number, but did not promise to put bricks under the tires that had not yet gotten stuck; the security guard on the roof of Tianheng Building had already gone off duty, and the next shift could only take over the actual inspection, not take over the phone call he remembered.

There are 37 work orders that no one has taken responsibility for.

Of these, twenty-nine were deemed non-urgent and allowed to wait; five were broken down into checks that did not require entering the abnormal area; and two were halted entirely due to conflicting conditions. The last one was a summary of the main control module index, which everyone assumed someone had to handle, but Xu Wangshu broke it down into self-storage by each node. Without a master table, information would be slower, but it wouldn't create someone perpetually sitting in front of the master table.

The review meeting had been going on for three hours, and the gray report was reduced to just a title.

No incidents were reviewed.

The technician asked if it should be destroyed. Its main text was already invalid; leaving the title would only continue to create unease.

"Keep it," Xu Wangshu said. "The fact that the accident didn't happen doesn't mean this branch doesn't exist. It misled us and also revealed what prerequisites it required."

Therefore, a new category, "Branches That Did Not Occur," has been added to the files. Only the inducement content, the actual actions taken, and the final outcome that did not occur are recorded. What did not happen is not written as a near miss, nor is what survived written as a correct plan. Branches that did not occur cannot be used to hold someone accountable for why they appeared in the memory, cannot be used to deduce who had a dangerous identity, and certainly cannot be used as a contingency plan for the next reenactment.

When Qin Lan signed the sealed document, she added a sentence: "It is evidence, not a script."

In the afternoon, the first batch of tomorrow's memories began to expire.

The medicine cup for bed six didn't fall to the ground. Before the nurses changed shifts, they checked the brakes on the trolley, and the door to the light-proof ward remained closed. No red balloons appeared at the exhibition hall, and the duty officer pointed out the bus stop to the three people. All four tires of the repair truck in the western suburbs were on dry ground, and Chen Rui returned the jack he had taken out according to its number. Jiang Ming went home and took a nap. When he woke up, his wife was chopping vegetables in the kitchen, and no one asked him why he was still on the roof.

The current record only records events that have already occurred. The tomorrow's memory record will indicate in the expiration column: the corresponding time has passed, and the described branch did not occur.

No one drew a line between the two, nor did anyone claim credit for the "successful avoidance." Because they couldn't prove which action changed the future, or even that it was ever the future. All they could confirm was: the memory existed, the person didn't act according to their assigned identity, and the accident didn't occur.

The breakfast shop owner also kept the shop open as usual.

The first customer he remembered was the man in gray. He didn't order anything; he would just stand at the kitchen door and ask, "Is Number Zero here?" In reality, the person who came in after the roller shutter door was raised was a bus driver rushing to his early shift. His shoulders were still wet with rain. He ordered two fried dough sticks and a cup of soy milk, but complained that the soy milk was too hot, so he asked for an extra empty bowl.

After giving the change, the shopkeeper wrote the time in the record without adding the note "The man in gray did not appear."

The kitchen staff were frying the second batch of dough sticks when the foot pedal valve suddenly sank down an inch on its own.

Nobody stepped on it.

A stream of clear water flowed from the faucet and fell into the freshly cleaned stainless steel sink. The boss first turned off the gas, then told the staff to leave the kitchen, while he stood outside the door watching the water slowly stop flowing.

There was no hair or oil at the bottom of the pool.

Only near the drain, a ring of gray lines gradually emerges from beneath the water film. First, it forms the arc of the fingertip, then the forked lines, finally forming a complete gray fingerprint.