The Whole City Is Sweltering

As temperatures in the city kept rising, the school suddenly issued an emergency notice announcing an unexplained, vaguely worded closure. Ji Xinzhe and his companions sensed that something was seriously wrong. Without warning, their dormitory building plunged into darkness. The unsettling silence made their unease even worse, and what truly terrified them was that someone had collapsed from the heat in the bathhouse.

Their instincts told them that the city they had lived in for years might be hiding an enormous danger. So, the moment the closure notice was issued, Ji Xinzhe and his roommates resolutely packed their most essential belongings and set out to escape the city.

But they soon discovered that escape was far more hopeless than they had imagined. The city's high-speed rail station and airport were deserted, with empty waiting halls and frozen departure boards. Every form of transportation out of the city had ground to a halt. On the expressway, car engines gave out in the scorching heat, leaving traffic backed up for miles. Countless vehicles and desperate people were trapped inside their ovens of cars. The entire city had become a vast glass dome, growing hotter by the minute and trapping everyone inside.

The city's temperature continued to soar at a terrifying rate. Asphalt roads began to melt, and the air reeked of burning and decay. As Ji Xinzhe and his roommates gazed at the endless, heat-distorted landscape behind them, they felt truly helpless for the first time. Where could they go? In this prison about to be roasted alive, could they find even the smallest chance of survival?