75: Chapter 75 Beyond the Data
Mark's second morning in Xinfeng Town was interrupted by George.
"Get up." George stood at the church entrance, holding a basket of mushrooms. "Follow me."
Mark crawled up, dazed, and rubbed his eyes. The bench was still hard to sleep on, but he had already gotten used to it.
"Where to?"
George didn't answer and turned to walk away.
Mark chased after him, following close behind.
---
The place George took him to was a small hill behind the farm.
It wasn't high, but it was tiring to climb. Mark followed George up, panting the whole way. George walked in front with a steady pace, showing no signs of fatigue.
Reaching the top, George stopped.
Mark stood next to him and looked down.
The entire Xinfeng Town came into view. The church spire, the white farmhouses, the bar's sign, the old locust tree, and those scattered houses. The sunlight had just shone in, making everything sparkle.
George pointed below:
"Do you see it?"
Mark nodded.
George said: "When I first arrived, there was nothing here."
Mark listened.
George continued: "Just that dilapidated restaurant, it's still there. Everything else was built later."
He pointed in the direction of the farm:
"That place, it used to be a mine pit. The place where I dug coal for forty-five years."
Mark looked in that direction. Now it was a patch of white houses, with rows of mushroom shelves; you couldn't tell what it used to be.
George said: "When I first went down the mine, I was eighteen. When I came out, I was sixty-three. A whole lifetime, just like that."
He turned his head and looked at Mark:
"Do you know what that feels like?"
Mark thought for a moment and said:
"I don't."
George laughed.
"It's good that you don't. I don't want you to know, either."
---
On the way down the mountain, Mark asked a question:
"Why did you bring me here?"
George said:
"To let you see."
Mark asked: "See what?"
George said: "See where you came from."
Mark fell silent.
George continued: "People here all know where they come from. From the coal mines, from broken houses, from places no one ever saw. That's why they cherish what they have now."
He looked at Mark:
"Do you know where you came from?"
Mark thought for a moment and said:
"New York. An apartment. A cubicle I worked in for fifteen years."
George nodded:
"That's enough."
--
In the afternoon, Mark was called over by Yuki.
She was sitting on the steps of the church entrance, holding her laptop. The screen was lit up, showing the happiness map.
Mark walked over and squatted beside her.
Yuki turned the laptop around to let him see.
On the screen was a string of data—visits, comment counts, new red dots, user dwell time. Mark understood it at a glance: those curves, those numbers, those changes.
Yuki typed a line on the keyboard:
[You analyze it.]
Mark was stunned for a moment.
He looked at the data, then at Yuki.
Then he lowered his head and began to look.
Fifteen years of data analysis experience allowed him to spot the problem at a glance. The curve was beautiful, the data was growing, and user activity was high. But there was one place that didn't feel right.
He pointed to a point on the screen:
"Here."
Yuki leaned in to look.
Mark said: "The comment count is rising, but the dwell time is dropping. Logically, more comments imply high engagement, so dwell time should also rise. But here, it's the opposite."
Yuki stared at that point for a long time.
Mark continued: "There are two possibilities. One is that there are many new users who are just browsing without leaving comments. The other is that someone is gaming the data."
Yuki nodded.
She typed a line:
[Can you check?]
Mark thought for a moment and said:
"Yes. But I need permission."
Yuki pushed the laptop toward him.
Mark looked at the screen and hesitated for a moment.
At V Company, he faced billions of data points every day, with access high enough to see anyone's information. But that was work, a task.
This, however, was something he chose himself.
He lowered his head and began to write code.
---
After an hour of typing, Mark stopped.
Yuki looked at him.
Mark said: "I found it."
On the screen was a string of IP addresses. Those addresses came from the same place, the same time period, and had the same operation pattern—batch registration, batch commenting, then batch exiting.
Yuki typed:
[Who?]
Mark continued to check.
After another half hour of typing, he raised his head.
"Ohio."
Yuki was stunned.
Mark said: "A place called Millfield."
---
That night, Lin Feng was squatting under the old locust tree, listening to Mark finish telling this story.
Mark stood in front of him, feeling a bit nervous. He didn't know if he had done something wrong.
Lin Feng listened without speaking.
Mark waited for a while and couldn't help but ask:
"Should we deal with it?"
Lin Feng thought for a moment and said:
"No need."
Mark was stunned.
Lin Feng pointed at him:
"You found it; that's enough."
Mark didn't understand.
Lin Feng continued: "Those people gaming the data, what do they want to do?"
Mark said: "They want the data to look good. Or, they want to sabotage it."
Lin Feng asked: "Sabotage what?"
Mark thought for a moment and said:
"Sabotage trust?"
Lin Feng shook his head:
"They can't sabotage that."
He pointed toward the church, the bar, and the farm—those people were still there, still laughing, still singing, still writing letters.
"These things, you can't see them in the data."
Mark fell silent.
Lin Feng said: "You've done data for fifteen years. What do you think data is?"
Mark thought for a moment and said:
"A tool. A tool to help us understand."
Lin Feng nodded:
"Right. A tool. A tool can only see what it can see. The things that can't be seen, you have to look for yourself."
He stood up and patted Mark on the shoulder:
"Tomorrow, you go to Millfield."
---
Mark was stunned.
"Me? Go to Millfield?"
Lin Feng nodded.
Mark asked: "What for?"
Lin Feng said:
"Go see those people who are gaming the data."
Mark opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but nothing came out.
Lin Feng had already walked away.
---
Mark stood there, a bit dazed.
Yuki walked over and squatted beside him.
Mark looked down at her.
Yuki handed him a note.
Mark took it and read it; there was only one line on the note:
[I'll go with you.]
--
The next morning, Mark and Yuki set off.
The car was the white one Mark had driven, and Yuki sat in the passenger seat, holding her laptop.
After a three-hour drive, they arrived in Millfield.
The road sign at the entrance of the town read:
[Millfield, population 412]
Below it was another line of small text, added later:
[Home of Mushrooms]
Mark parked the car on the side of the road and walked into the town with Yuki.
The main street was a bit longer than Xinfeng Town's, with shops open on both sides. People were walking around, some were sunning themselves by the roadside, and some were chatting.
It looked quite normal.
Yuki held her laptop, checking as she walked. Those IP addresses were concentrated in a house on the east side of town.
They found that house.
It was an ordinary two-story building, with a few cars parked at the entrance. The curtains were drawn, and you couldn't see inside.
Mark stood at the door, not knowing what to do.
Yuki knocked on the door.
No one answered.
She knocked again.
The door opened.
A young man stood at the door, in his early twenties, wearing glasses, looking like a college student. He looked at Mark and Yuki, his eyes a bit guarded.
"Who are you looking for?"
Mark said: "You."
The young man was stunned.
Yuki turned the laptop around to show him the data.
The young man's face changed.
---
They were invited into the house.
There were three other people in the room, all young people in their early twenties. They were sitting around a table with a few computers, the screens filled with data.
Mark understood at a glance—those were the IPs he had found, those were the comment records, those were the operation logs.
The young man leading them was named Eric. He lowered his head, not daring to look at Mark.
"How did you find us?" he asked.
Mark said: "I've done data analysis for fifteen years."
Eric looked up at him.
Mark continued: "Your methods were too crude."
Eric fell silent.
Mark asked: "Why?"
Eric didn't speak.
A girl next to him spoke up, her voice very soft:
"We wanted to help Millfield."
Mark looked at her.
The girl continued: "The people in Millfield were very good to us. They taught us how to grow mushrooms, gave us a place to stay, and gave us something to do. We wanted to... wanted to make them more famous."
Mark listened.
The girl said: "Those comments were written by us. They were all true. We didn't make up lies. We just... wanted there to be more of them."
She picked up a stack of papers from the table and handed them to Mark.
Mark took them and looked.
Those papers were full of handwritten comments. Each one was long and written very earnestly. Some wrote about their own stories, some wrote about their gratitude toward Millfield, and some wrote about how delicious the mushrooms were.
Mark looked for a long time.
Then he raised his head and looked at those young people.
"Why didn't you post these?"
Eric said: "We did. No one saw them."
Mark was stunned.
Eric continued: "We wrote over thirty of them and posted them on the happiness map. A day passed, and there were only three replies. We thought... we thought if there were more, they would be seen."
He lowered his head:
"We were wrong."
---
When Mark and Yuki returned to Xinfeng Town, it was already dark.
Lin Feng was still squatting under the old locust tree.
Mark walked over and squatted beside him.
Lin Feng didn't speak.
Mark was silent for a long time, then he spoke:
"They aren't bad people."
Lin Feng nodded.
Mark continued: "They just wanted to be seen."
Lin Feng nodded again.
Mark said: "I read all their comments. They were true."
Lin Feng looked at him:
"And then?"
Mark thought for a moment and said:
"I had them rewrite them. Transcribe those handwritten ones into digital text. One by one, and post them."
Lin Feng asked: "Did you post them?"
Mark nodded.
"Posted. Thirty-seven of them."
Lin Feng didn't speak.
Mark looked at the people in the distance—the church lights were on, Sam's piano music drifted from the bar, and the farm lights were on too.
He said softly:
"Data can lie. But those letters won't."
Lin Feng turned to look at him.
Mark said: "You sent me there just so I could see this?"
Lin Feng thought for a moment and said:
"To let you see for yourself."
---
That night, Mark sat at the church entrance, reading those handwritten comments one by one.
Yuki sat beside him, holding her laptop.
As he read, Mark stopped.
He looked at one of the letters for a long time.
That letter was very short, only a few lines:
[My name is Eric. Twenty-three years old. I didn't graduate from college. I don't know what I can do. The people in Millfield said, you can grow mushrooms. I grew them. The mushrooms grew very well.]
Below it was another line:
[Thank you for someone seeing this.]
Mark folded the letter and put it in his pocket.
Yuki looked at him.
Mark said: "I'm keeping it."
Yuki nodded.
---
Late at night, Mark was sitting under the old locust tree again.
Lin Feng was still squatting there.
Mark walked over and squatted beside him.
"Lin Feng."
Lin Feng turned to look at him.
Mark said: "I think I sort of understand now."
Lin Feng didn't speak.
Mark continued: "Beyond data, there is something else."
Lin Feng asked: "What something?"
Mark thought for a moment and said:
"Those things that can't be seen."
Lin Feng nodded.
Mark looked at the stars in the distance and said softly:
"I will keep looking."
The corner of Lin Feng's mouth curled up slightly.
[Chapter 75 End]