title: no brick in existence thick enough to hold us in
fandom: Guardian
length: ~100 words
contents: a contemplation on the state of Dixing

note: The title comes from Welcome to the Border by Guante and Big Cats. (lyrics)


The first time Zhao Yunlan sees Dixing, he thinks the cloudy sky is merely weather, a single gray day interrupting -- if not sun, then something brighter than twilight.

By his second visit, he knows the roiling clouds are a pallid eternity broken only by lightning, brief jagged flashes that dazzle in the everyday darkness.

No wonder Dixing is a powder-keg of resentment and frustrated ambition, where refugees shove against the cracks of the treaty to burst blindly into the alleys of Haixing.

Zhao Yunlan thought a storm was coming. Now he knows: it has always been here, raging, ready to break.