Apocalyptic Echoes: A Nation United

In 2075, Xiao Chengye jolts awake with memories of the seventh ice age. Only 117 days remain before the “Great Collapse” that will consume civilization. A strategic analyst in his previous life, he carries three dire warnings: a rupture in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, volcanic eruptions around the Pacific Rim, and a super-tsunami countdown.

From having his monitoring screens smashed because people think his warnings are mad ravings, to alerting the central government and triggering a nationwide state of emergency, he witnesses the Northeast’s heavy industries switch to producing earthquake-resistant steel in 48 hours, 3,000 engineers carry out controlled blasts in Hoh Xil to block fault lines, and the nation stockpile enough drinking water to rival the combined volume of three West Lakes.

When volcanic ash darkens the sky on September 15 and a tsunami surges toward the seawall on October 21, Xiao Chengye and tens of millions of his compatriots build a wall of flesh and blood. Railway workers use their body heat to melt ice and protect vital routes. In underground shelters, elderly professors cultivate cold-resistant potatoes. Drones over the reefs of the South China Sea form the Five-Star Red Flag.

At last, in the light of geothermal power stations and the climate-controlled seed bank on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, humanity’s foothold sinks deep into the earth. This is no elegy for the end of the world. It is an eastern sunrise rising above a collapsing world, brought forth by 1.4 billion people bound together as one.