Eye of the Abyss: Who the Nineteen Names Are
This piece stays inside Hechuan. The old draft’s lighthouse in Lan City, Pacific coral island and Tide Protocol belonged to a retired cross-title setting; the 2026-10-26 rewrite no longer uses them.
Five people
Zhou Ning: night nurse, Lin Mo’s mother
She worked nights at the Hechuan Workers’ Sanatorium from 1986 to 2003. She brought food, kept records, applied restraints, and wrote “family does not consent” on the back of nursing notes. At 23:42 on 17 November 2003 she carried Chen Xiaoman to the ground floor and handed her to twenty-one-year-old Shen Yuan; at 23:44 she went back into B-3 for nineteen tapes and did not come out.
The official fire list records her only as “one duty nurse.” Her duplicate log was tucked inside Gu Weian’s 1987 paper offprint; the last page was torn out, but the carbon paper survived.
Shen Yuan: the patient, and Lin Mo’s 2024 client
Born 1985, son of Shen Jianguo. He joined Heshan Smelting as a counsellor in 2010. In 2020 he learned that his father had not “left and not returned” but had been kept in B-3 for eighteen years; page two of his resignation letter demanded an air test and was removed. In 2024 he came to Lin Mo’s clinic as “Zhou Mo,” had twelve sessions, and disappeared. On 28 April 2026 he wrote to her.
His “other self” is not a parasite. It is a second narrator assembled from sleep deprivation, his father’s voice in old files, and dissociation. The 3 a.m. posts, the two opposite articles and the half-beat-behind shadow on camera all resolve to his own handwriting and the one-way mirror in B-3.
Shen Jianguo: number 11, “patient zero”
Born 1955, engineer at Heshan Smelting. In October 1985 he signed off on the switch to trichloroethylene; on 2 November he received an air sample reading 4.1 times the limit; on 4 November he asked for a shutdown, and on 5 November Gu Weian wrote “defer.” On 9 December he was sent into B-3 as number 11.
He stayed in B-3 for eighteen years while Gu Weian collected his wages in 216 payments. He died in the fire on 17 November 2003. The death certificate says “accidental asphyxiation”; occupation, “unemployed.”
Chen Xiaoman: the nineteenth name
Born 1992, eleven years old in 2003. The nineteenth slot on the list. Zhou Ning carried her out of B-3 on 17 November 2003. She later built the Eye of the Abyss site on the old intranet server and wrote “you finally came” on the front page by hand. She is not an administrator; she is the last child carried out.
Gu Weian: the signature
Former director of the Hechuan Workers’ Sanatorium, author of the S.P.S. criteria, archivist of the list of nineteen, and approver of the 2003 fire report. He retired in 2019, joined the provincial occupational-disease expert panel in 2021, and on 15 May 2026 is due to receive a lifetime-achievement award. The hearing is on the same day, on the same floor.
The nineteen
Eleven degreasing-shop workers, seven workers’ children, one pupil from a nearby school.
- Died in the 2003 fire: six (Shen Jianguo, Li Changshun, Zhao Chunmei, Wang Defu, Liu Xiaojun, Chen Guohua).
- Died earlier: three, none autopsied.
- Survived: ten, of whom nine still take medication and four have left Hechuan.
- Total fire deaths: seven (six subjects plus the duty nurse, Zhou Ning).
Chen Xiaoman is not on the death list. Her entry in the missing-person system is wrong.
Timeline
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1953 | The Hechuan Workers’ Sanatorium opens; the boundary stone says it was donated by all workers |
| 1983 | The north-block basement is renamed the “observation area” |
| Oct 1985 | The degreasing shop switches to trichloroethylene |
| Nov 1985 | Air sampling at 4.1 times the limit; Gu Weian writes “defer” |
| Dec 1985 | Shen Jianguo enters B-3 as number 11 |
| 1986 | The S.P.S. project is established; the observation protocol is written; the nineteen are enrolled |
| 1986–2003 | Nineteen observed; six die before or in the fire; Gu Weian collects the wages |
| 17 Nov 2003 | Fire; Zhou Ning carries Chen Xiaoman out, goes back for the tapes, and dies |
| 18 Nov 2003 | Gu Weian signs “project termination and archive sealing” and orders the tapes destroyed |
| 2015 | Municipal investigation; page 4 of the report is removed |
| 2020 | Shen Yuan resigns; page two of his letter is removed |
| 20 Jun 2024 | Shen Yuan disappears after his last session |
| 15 May 2026 | Hearing and Gu Weian’s award fall on the same day |
| Jun 2026 | Demolition is scheduled; the extractor is still powered |
Three death records that are easy to misread
- Shen Jianguo: the household record says “missing, 1985,” the casualty list says fire, 2003, and the death certificate says “unemployed.” None of the three agrees.
- Zhou Ning: the official list says only “one duty nurse,” with no name; the death certificate says “accident during duty.”
- Chen Xiaoman: she is in the missing-person system, but she is alive. The record was never corrected after the fire.
The short version
This is not an abyss choosing nineteen people. It is nineteen people under one shop, one fan and one shared vent, filed as “missing” by one diagnostic label and one chain of signatures.