Fu Nianhua

Biologist Lin Xiao inherits the interstellar symbiotic plant "King of Water Shield" that her mother studied, only to be swept into an international struggle for control. Twenty years later, when her son steals the parent plant and triggers a crisis, she uncovers the truth behind her mother's faked death: the King of Water Shield is an extraterrestrial intelligence driving human evolution. With the world's powerful figures under its control and humanity on the brink, Lin Xiao must make a choice before the parent plant in Antarctica: force all of humanity to evolve, or seek a balance between symbiosis and freedom. This hard sci-fi novel explores technological ethics and interstellar civilizations. If immortality means giving up our humanity, would we dare accept the gift of the stars?