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Chapter 1: Home
Li Xingyuan had expected to dream frequently after returning to Jiangcheng.
But he didn’t. Not even the faintest ripple of a dream disturbed his sleep. When he woke up in bed, it felt as though he hadn’t slept at all.
Yet panic still gripped him every morning. Why was he here? In this clean, tidy, safe bed? Shouldn’t he be on that perpetually swaying, jolting vehicle? Shouldn’t he still be following Old Liu, following Lin Song, traversing those shadowy, tree-lined paths? Shouldn’t he remain vigilant, wary of the unknown and terrifying dangers lurking in a land that now felt wholly alien?
It took him several minutes each day to convince himself that he really was home.
Li Xingyuan lived alone.
Before the disaster, Li Xingyuan might have been considered somewhat solitary by others. He didn’t have many friends whose lives intersected deeply with his own—not because he didn’t know people. As a reasonably competent journalist, he was acquainted with countless individuals across society. But very few could truly be called friends. It wasn’t that Li Xingyuan lacked social skills or was often overlooked; rather, he had an uncanny way of making people feel uneasy. Even when he smiled and spoke warmly, there was something about his eyes—something faintly intrusive, like stumbling uninvited into a private gathering.
The last woman who had lain in this bed left precisely because of that unsettling sensation, departing from Li Xingyuan’s life without looking back. But Li Xingyuan hadn’t grieved much over her departure. Occasionally, he would recall the pale, lotus-root-like calves beneath her skirt—but only occasionally.
Li Xingyuan turned his gaze toward the window. Autumn had settled over Jiangcheng, yet the city bore no trace of crisp, refreshing air. Heavy gray clouds hung low, cloaking everything in a suffocating dimness. The traffic lights at the crossroads blinked through the fog, their glow sometimes seeming close, other times impossibly distant—as if emanating from another world. In today’s Jiangcheng, such perceptions might not even qualify as hallucinations.
Everywhere in the haze, doors appeared—only visible to him—and figures moved through them ceaselessly. Li Xingyuan harbored a peculiar sense that if he were to attempt opening one of these illusory portals, it might not refuse him.
But he had never tried, nor should he.
Jiangcheng was no longer the Jiangcheng he had left behind. While he had been grappling with bizarre events elsewhere, the city itself had undergone profound changes. It was no longer a stable, human-centric metropolis but had transformed into something alive, growing, twisting, distorting. Its spacetime framework was warped and fractured, and its inhabitants were no longer limited to humans and their pets. Creatures from Earth’s darkest recesses now thronged its streets.
Li Xingyuan switched on the living room television. With internet signals still down, they relied on the primitive method of receiving LNB satellite signals via a dish. Though most satellites had been destroyed by the arrival of the Black Tide, a handful clung stubbornly to their orbits. Plans for launching new satellites were reportedly underway, but doing so had become far more difficult. The sky was thickening, growing viscous, filled with an unidentifiable gas that caused what we once called “the heavens” to sink lower, making it increasingly hard for aircraft to breach the atmosphere.
Even the military helicopter that had brought them back from Fengyuan Town now dared only fly low—stable, low-altitude flights devoid of turbulence. And even then, such maneuvers were perilous ventures.
Lin Song and the remaining sane staff from the town had managed to locate the relief forces sent by the army. They rescued Li Xingyuan and Old Liu from Fengyuan Town and ferried them back to Jiangcheng aboard that same helicopter. That was how things had unfolded.
Sometimes the TV picked up numerous channels, sometimes fewer. Occasionally foreign broadcasts came through, and at other times… the signals seemed to originate from places far beyond Earth itself.
But today, at least, the signal was correct. Li Xingyuan listened as the announcer’s voice, stretched thin and distorted, began relaying the day’s news.
“Rescue operations for cities along the southeastern coast are proceeding actively… The Great Wall Plan is underway…”
As the news droned on, Li Xingyuan shaved his beard.
The coastline was steadily advancing inland—a merciless assault. Each day, the sea rose higher, swallowing more cities. Refugees fleeing the coast claimed to have seen humanoid beings emerging alongside the black waves—creatures bearing traits of fish or marine life, marching resolutely toward the interior.
Human armies had yet to engage these monsters in large-scale battles, save for a few sporadic skirmishes. But what did it matter if cannons and tanks could defeat them? The ocean’s advance was inexorable and resolute.
Coastal populations fled further inland, stretching the hinterlands thin.
Strange landscapes unfamiliar to humanity—once concealed by some incomprehensible power—were surfacing bit by bit as the Black Tide drew nearer. Earth was far larger than humans had ever imagined. Pondering how such a massive planet avoided being pulled into an uninhabitable orbit by stellar gravity was meaningless now. How did gravity even work anymore? Humanity no longer had answers.
After finishing his grooming routine, Li Xingyuan donned the pair of plain-lensed glasses he hadn’t worn in ages during their journey.
He had grown accustomed to wearing them to mask the discomforting intrusion in his eyes. Now, however, the glasses served a new purpose: they made the keyhole in his irises less conspicuous.
Moreover—the solid black frames resting at the edges of his vision provided a rare, grounding stability. Like a rivet anchoring his identity, they helped keep him from losing himself entirely.
Finally, he smoothed his hair, ensuring his appearance wasn’t disheveled, and stepped out of his home.
Lin Song was confined to the First People’s Hospital of Jiangcheng. Li Xingyuan intended to visit him.
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