Do you know what it's like at night in China, asked one of the smartest, a kid who came on vacation, to his grandparents, eager to make friends with the older ones as well. Nnn-noo, he answered, still red, after a pause in which his mind plunged into an endless search for an answer. Come on, I'll let you think for a bit, replied the tall guy, needlessly prolonging the wait. Look, that's it, my dear, then burst out the tall one again, pulling the hat on the face of the wanderer, in a cascade of laughter that deepened the Chinese darkness even more.
(Translated by Andreea Denisa Dinu / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)Real Fiction is a collective project started in 2013 by Florin Piersic Jr. The concept of Real Fiction continued to exist as a Facebook group, after a volume of stories was published at Humanitas Publishing House. (In April 2023, the group has 11,000 members.) The authors write ultra-short stories, with the texts limited to 500 characters (in Romanian, so the length of the English translation might be a little different) - a flash-fiction exercise on a topic that changes every few days. The group's coordinators are Florin Piersic Jr., Gabriel Molnar, Răzvan Penescu, Luchian Abel, and Vlad Mușat. (Drawing by Adrian T. Roman)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale. 
