The Night of 14 September 1998: timeline, people and six pieces of evidence
Version: the build of 25 October 2026 and later. This is background, not a chapter-by-chapter answer key; for the full route see the complete walkthrough. Spoilers: the whole 1998 event, the relationships and the seventeenth name. How it was checked: the timeline, people and six pieces of evidence all come from in-game text — the logbook, tide table, transmitter log, master label, listener letter, ferry register and microcassette — each one readable on screen. The eight intercepts and four endings come from in-game writing too. This article carries no puzzle answers; those are in the complete walkthrough.
Two timelines
The same night left two contradictory records.
The official version (Post-Disaster Statement, 1999):
- Typhoon Bailu passed; low-lying areas were evacuated in advance.
- The station went off air at 00:10 due to equipment failure.
- No one was missing.
The master-tape version (logbook, transmitter log, master label):
- 00:10 ordered off air.
- 01:40 carrier restored; ordered to switch to a recording.
- 03:09 host Lin Suyun requested an extension and went live.
- 03:11 the ferry duty room called: “Water to the waist.”
- 03:12 the antenna was turned 180° by hand; carrier lost.
A few hours separate the two timelines. Seventeen people separate them.
Six pieces of evidence
| Evidence | What it preserves | Whose |
|---|---|---|
| Master 17 | Mother reads the list; at the sixteenth name she says “And—” and the tape is cut | Lin Suyun |
| Station logbook | Off at 00:10, restored at 01:40, lost at 03:12 | Zhou Yuanzhou |
| Tide table | 14 September high tide 03:12, 4.7 m; gate “not opened” | Waterworks team |
| Listener letter | “My daughter was at the ferry. Her name is Lin He. You never read her.” | Lin He’s mother |
| Ferry register | “Lin He, sixteen, waiting for boat”; no “boarded” | Chen Shouyi |
| Microcassette | Your sister asks “Did you put my name on the list?” Mother: “You’re number seventeen.” | Lin Suyun, Lin He |
Only one of the six is outside the official archive: the microcassette, hidden in Mother’s locker, left for you.
Four people
Lin Suyun: night host of Night Watch, 1989–1998. The official record turns her into a fill-in who was not on duty; the roster and logbook both say “on duty, did not evacuate.” She is not a hero or a symbol. She is a mother who could put only one name on a list.
Zhou Yuanzhou: duty engineer. He restored the carrier and, at 03:12, turned the antenna away. In the engineering log “cause unknown” is crossed out and replaced with “cause known”; the transmitter log says, “I turned it. Orders from above.” He is the one person still alive who can prove the equipment did not fail on its own.
Chen Shouyi: ferry duty man, the sixteenth name. He called at 03:11 to say the water was at his waist. Later the boat went back and found one girl. What he remembers is not “seventeen people” but a girl holding a reception card.
Lin He: sixteen, at the ferry, waiting for the boat. She is the seventeenth name Mother spoke on air. The paper list never held her; Mother did not dare write it. The boatman turned back only after hearing the name. She never boarded and was never evacuated; she was found, but Mother died not knowing.
Why the official record says no one was missing
The flood was not the secret. The failed tide-gate test was. The gate did not open as planned, and water entered the low village. If the record admitted people were trapped, it would have to explain why the station was ordered off at 00:10, restored at 01:40, and why the antenna was turned at 03:12.
“Equipment failure” explains both the silence and the zero: the equipment broke, so no one broadcast; no one broadcast, so no one was trapped. The master and logbook break that explanation. The equipment did not break; it was switched off and on.
That is also why Zhou Yuanzhou left the station in 1999 instead of “disappearing.” He is not a legendary watchman. He is a man who signed something and later took it back.
What this rewrite changed
Before 25 October 2026, the Project Echo version turned this night into “a sonic vein / memory powers / a watchman who becomes a signal.” It had atmosphere, but it turned specific people into lore: Mother was a “guardian,” Zhou was “the signal,” the flood was “resonance failure.”
This rewrite removes the supernatural layer and keeps only what the evidence can support: a typhoon, a test gate that did not open, an official record that was rewritten, sixteen names read aloud, and one name cut out. The dread no longer comes from a vein; it comes from the few hours between the official record and the master tape.
After reading this
If you have not finished the game, start with the complete walkthrough. If you have, the archive lets you reread:
- the four endings (The Roll Call / Blank Tape / The Names Go Home / The Seventeenth Name)
- the eight night intercepts (listener calls and duty records, 1989–1998)
- REC 701 after all eight: a blank tape exactly twenty-eight years long, on which you finally record your own name
How this is checked
The timeline, people and six pieces of evidence come from the in-game chapter and evidence text; the eight intercepts from the in-game night log; the endings from in-game writing. This article contains no puzzle answers; those are in the complete walkthrough. Both the Chinese and the English run were walked from the entry screen to the hidden ending.