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Infinite Loop Cinema

· 3 min read
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The cinema lights were dim, and the air was filled with the sweet, cloying scent of popcorn. I walked into Hall 3 and found a few people scattered across the seats, each staring blankly at the screen. On the screen, the familiar Ne Zha was once again wielding his Fire-Tipped Spear, roaring the line, "My fate is up to me, not the heavens."

This was the third time this month I'd come here to watch Ne Zha 2. Not because I particularly liked this animated film, but because Hall 3 of this cinema, ever since my first visit, has been showing only Ne Zha 2 every day.

I tried reasoning with the cinema manager, but his answer was always, “This is automatically generated by the scheduling system, we are also powerless.” The other audience members trapped here with me had also tried various methods, but to no avail. We were like prisoners in an infinite loop player, repeating the same images, the same plot, the same lines every day.

Initially, everyone tried to find some amusement. Some began studying every detail of the film, others attempted to find new meaning in the dialogue, and some even played the movie backwards, hoping to discover some hidden secret. But as time went on, these attempts became futile. Everyone fell silent, rarely communicating with each other, as if we had all become the numb extras in the film.

I noticed that the cleaning lady of Hall 3 carefully collected the popcorn remnants from the trash can every day, sorting them, and then arranging them neatly at the entrance. She always completed this before we entered the hall, and she always wore a weary smile, as if performing a sacred ritual. She never watched the movie, only repeating her daily work, like a precision robot.

One day, I suddenly noticed a strange phenomenon. Ne Zha on the screen seemed slightly different than he had been in previous weeks. His movements were more rigid, and his expression was more mechanical, like a puppet being controlled. I started to observe carefully, and finally realized that in some scenes of the movie, we, the audience in the seats, were also appearing in the picture.

We were no longer just the audience; we had become part of the film. We sat in our seats, numbly watching the screen, while we, on the screen, were also numbly watching the screen. We were like two mirrors, reflecting each other's emptiness and despair.

I began to try to break this cycle. During a critical moment in the movie, I suddenly stood up and shouted, "Enough! I don't want to watch it anymore!" However, my voice was drowned out by Ne Zha's roars, no one paid attention to me, and I, on the screen, remained sitting numbly, watching myself.

The cleaning lady came over and handed me a new bag of popcorn, her face still wearing that weary smile. "Have some, young man. See, today’s popcorn is fresh out of the oven."

I took the popcorn and mechanically stuffed it in my mouth. The taste was still so sweet and cloying, making me feel nauseous. I knew I was trapped here, in this infinite loop cinema, with the numb audience members, and with myself on the screen, repeating forever, repeating, until the end of time.

Suddenly, the lights in the hall went out, and the words "To Be Continued" appeared on the screen. Immediately afterwards, the movie started playing from the beginning again.