As a result, insect repellents and pest control products on the market are selling like hotcakes. Yu Heng even went so far as to buy a whole case of insecticide at wholesale, spraying it outside his windows every so often. Within four or five days, the scent of repellent and pesticide hung heavy everywhere. During this time, Yu Heng’s classmate contacted him, saying that the cluster of flowers was a newly emerged species; because of its peculiar biological link with those little mice, it had drawn the attention of several biological experts. He specifically sent Yu Heng a “Red Envelope” as a reward for the lead.

During a lunch break, Yu Heng saw a group of colleagues huddled around a computer and leaned in to look. It was a video showcasing those very flowers.

“Gah! They really do eat mice?”

“They’re calling it a new species. It has a mysterious symbiotic relationship with this type of mouse. The flowers’ fragrance attracts mice during their breeding season; eating the flowers reportedly increases their reproduction rate. In return, the flowers eat the mice, which shortens their growth cycle!”

“What kind of mice are those? They’re tiny!”

“The news says they’re a new species too! How are there so many new species all of a sudden…”

Yu Heng wondered the same thing. Why so many?

The world was changing every second—in subtle ways, in remote corners. People in their hurried lives didn’t notice, or if they did, they didn’t take it to heart. As for those who did care, the speed of their research simply couldn’t keep pace with the rate of change.

A week later, Yu Heng’s parents had fully recovered. The couple began going out together for exercise, and Yu Heng had been back at his desk for five days, buried under a mountain of invoices and vouchers. The family’s days were full, and they slept soundly at night.

…

On this night, Yu Heng was once again jolted awake by the heat. He got up to find that the power was out. He checked on his parents; they had been woken by the heat as well and looked exhausted. He quickly found fans to fan them. “Go wash your faces, Dad, Mom.”

It was too hot to sleep. He checked the time; it was only a bit past 3:00 AM. The family moved to the living room to lay out straw mats, fanning themselves and squinting through the heat until the sky began to gray with dawn.

“Brush your teeth and get to work,” Yu Aiguo nudged Yu Heng awake. “It’s five o’clock.”

The moment Yu Heng opened the front door, he sensed the air was different. For a while now, the air had been stifling and reeked of pesticides, but now it was incredibly fresh—even carrying a crisp, botanical fragrance that felt wonderful to breathe. He walked through the stairwell; at 6:00 AM it was still dark and the stairs were dim. He felt something slippery underfoot and pulled out his phone to turn on the flashlight. He jumped back in shock—the steps were covered in lush green moss. When he stepped outside, his jaw dropped.

Several towering trees stood tall by the entrance, their gnarled roots protruding from the ground at varying heights. Many other unidentifiable plants were interspersed between them. Strange little animals hopped and scurried about. Following a few sharp flaps of wings, a snow-white bird flew out from high above. Its wingspan was nearly two meters wide; it flapped a few times, swooped to the ground to peck at a tuft of grass, and took to the sky again.

Yu Heng stood dazed. After a moment, he stepped forward and picked up a feather the bird had dropped. The feather was larger than his palm and hard as stone, the quill tapering like an iron awl.

He walked out and quickly followed his memory toward the community’s main gate. The gate was completely blocked; three massive trees had squeezed into the gateway, deforming the walls. He managed to scramble up the perimeter wall. Sitting atop it, he looked out: as far as the eye could see were endless, rolling giant trees and interlocking vines. Familiar buildings were hidden among them—some had been completely crushed, with masonry, concrete, and rebar collapsed into a scattered mess.

“I must still be dreaming, right?” His hand reflexively tightened, followed by a sharp sting of pain; the feather had punctured his skin. Yu Heng tried to call home, but there was absolutely no signal. He turned and sprinted back. During the short distance, his pant legs were soaked by morning dew and sliced by unknown plants. He pounded on the door. Yu Aiguo opened it, surprised. “Why are you back? What did you forget? You have your keys, why…”

“Dad!” Yu Heng looked utterly traumatized. “Look outside, look outside…”

“What’s there to see… This—” Yu Aiguo looked out from the balcony and was equally dumbstruck.

Screams suddenly erupted from outside like a flipped switch. After a night of silence where such earth-shattering changes had gone unnoticed, humanity finally seemed to wake up.

Mrs. Yu was still asleep. Yu Heng and his father fiddled with the TV, computer, phone, and radio—none of them worked. It was as if the magnetic field had completely changed overnight.

“I think we were invaded overnight.” Cui Nan had come over, his expression grim. “No, I should say there were warnings. There have been too many oddities lately, but the world is big and there are so many unsolved mysteries—who would have thought much of them?”

No one expected the world to turn upside down in a single evening. Had Earth been invaded by a primordial forest?

“I’m going to the county government office to check the situation,” Yu Aiguo said. The office wasn’t far—usually a five-minute drive—but the roads were impassable now. It would take thirty minutes on foot. Yu Aiguo’s mindset matched the public’s: if there’s trouble, find the government.

Cui Nan shook his head. “Uncle, we don’t know the situation out there. The animals, the plants… we don’t understand any of it. If this is a forest, it certainly isn’t harmless. The government office is too far; don’t go.”

“Right, they probably haven’t even started work yet,” Yu Heng added in opposition.

Cui Nan gave a helpless smile at that—who would be going to work now?

“Uncle, if you trust me, Yu Heng and I will go out now to bring back some food. It’s still early. By the time everyone else reacts, things will definitely get chaotic. We must secure some life-saving food first.”

Yu Aiguo was in a state of mental chaos, but he knew Cui Nan was right. People need to eat; food was a necessity.

“…Go then. Be careful.”

Yu Heng quickly changed into an old tracksuit from his school days and put on a backpack that was half as tall as he was. Cui Nan was meticulous, tying off his sleeves and pant legs; seeing this, Yu Heng quickly followed suit.

“Bring a cleaver,” Cui Nan said.

“Dad, lock the doors and windows. Wait for us to get back.”

“Right! Come back soon!”

…

At 7:00 AM, the two headed out.

The concrete ground had been heaved up. The waist-high grass made movement difficult, and flying insects swarmed within the brush. Luckily, they had tied their pant legs, but the insects bit painfully at their faces. Cui Nan took out some repellent and sprayed a few bursts; the bugs stopped approaching them.

Many buildings had collapsed. As they passed the building Yu Heng had seen that morning, they saw something resembling a mountain goat emerging from a collapsed wall, clutching a human arm in its mouth before lowering its head to feed.

“Come here.” Cui Nan pulled Yu Heng behind a tree. They waited for five minutes until the goat let out a cry and leisurely leaped into the shadows of the trees. Yu Heng was a bit distracted and nearly twisted his ankle.

“Focus!” Cui Nan grabbed his hand and gave it a sharp pinch. Yu Heng snapped back to attention instantly.

They successfully reached the nearest 24-hour convenience store. The glass door opened with a light push; the inside was a mess, and no one was there. They swept up the remaining Snickers, chocolates, instant noodles, and biscuits from the counters. Each of them packed about twenty cartons of milk and a dozen bottles of mineral water. The weight of the backpacks began to mount. Perishables like sandwiches, lunch boxes, and yogurt had already spoiled. The warehouse door was open, but it was empty. Either someone had arrived before them, or the staff had taken the stock.

“Let’s get this back first.”

Yu Heng: “Okay.”

The two were hugging the base of a wall on their way back when someone above called out softly, “Hey!”

Cui Nan looked up warily. A young man poked his head halfway out, his eyes lighting up at the sight of their backpacks. “Can you sell me some food? I have money. I want yogurt, not water, and steamed buns, not bread—hey, don’t leave!”

Yu Heng muttered “nutcase” under his breath and took the lead in pulling Cui Nan away.

Suddenly, there was movement in the air. Just as Yu Heng looked up, his backpack was snatched. A troop of monkeys had swung over, and the lead one had grabbed his bag. Cui Nan reacted fast, grabbing Yu Heng’s waist and narrowly pulling him back down.

“The monkey’s strength is too much—drop the bag!”

Yu Heng didn’t want to; this was a full bag of food. For a family of three, how could he possibly have enough? He gritted his teeth and tried to reach for the cleaver, but he couldn’t get a grip on it. Feeling his pocket, he pulled out that hard feather he’d found that morning. He gripped the feather and slashed hard at the arm on his shoulder.

“Screech, screech, screech!” The monkey let out a shrill cry and let go.

Yu Heng and Cui Nan tumbled across the ground several times, only stopping when they hit a tree.

“Screech!”

“Screech, screech!!”

The monkeys leaped down, surrounding them and shrieking. The leader hopped about in a rage, clutching its hand.

“Don’t come any closer. If this hits you, don’t blame me for broken limbs.” Yu Heng pulled out the cleaver and swung it in front of him. Perhaps sensing this person wasn’t easy to provoke, the mischievous monkeys screeched for a while before leaping back into the trees and vanishing.

“Cui Nan, are you okay?”

Cui Nan, face pale, shook his head. Yu Heng thought he’d been hit hard—after all, he’d been the one to cushion the impact against the tree. Feeling increasingly guilty, he reached out carefully to help him up.

“Don’t touch me. Give me the knife.”

Cui Nan took the knife, quickly untied his pant leg, and pulled it up to reveal a calf with two teeth marks. The wound was dark purple and swollen.

“This—you were bitten by a snake?!”

“Yeah.” Compared to Yu Heng’s panic, Cui Nan remained very calm. He sliced a strip of cloth from his clothes, tied it above the wound, then used the knife to cut a cross over the bite, forcefully squeezing out dark, reddish-black blood. His face turned another shade paler.

“Let’s get home. I’ll take you to the hospital!” Yu Heng knew Cui Nan was performing emergency treatment and realized he shouldn’t move, or the venom would spread faster through his body.

But Cui Nan felt as though his entire circulatory system was on fire, rolling like magma. His consciousness began to fade, and his vision turned to a blur of white. He had seen the snake that bit him—it was a solid, vibrant crimson and had vanished into the grass in a flash. Truly toxic… he thought, and then he passed out.

Stuffing one backpack into the bushes, Yu Heng carried Cui Nan and raced toward home.

His strength had never felt so abundant; it was as if there were no weight or pressure, and he felt no fatigue. In one burst of energy, he carried the man back to the community entrance. Looking at the blocked gate, he remembered the car couldn’t get out. He turned to look around; the road looked like a forest path—lush, green, and filled with “swords of trees and mountains of knives.”

He suddenly burst into tears.

The sky was fully bright now, the sunlight like fire. Shielded by the towering trees, Yu Heng couldn’t see the sun that seemed almost close enough to touch. Even if he had, he was in no mood to care. He wiped his face, strapped Cui Nan to his back, heaved the remaining backpack over the wall, and grabbed onto branches and vines, struggling with all his might to climb up.