When I woke up, I was a cockroach.
The oily black carapace, six segmented legs, and two tentacles sweeping uncontrollably - I am not even qualified to vomit, because cockroaches do not have the ability to vomit.
Before I could collapse, a giant dragonfly flew over my head, its mouthparts opened, and the wind from its wings could knock over grass stems.
I hid in a crevice in the wood, folded my six legs, and held my tentacles close to the carapace, motionless.
At that moment, I accepted my fate: In this world where insects and beasts are rampant and the weak eat the strong, I am the insect at the bottom of the food chain.
Until an oil-brown male cockroach squatted at the entrance of my cave and carefully put down a leaf.
On the leaves were three clean insect corpses.
He squatted at the junction of light and darkness, looking at me with his amber eyes, his fingers resting on the edge of the hole, not daring to poke an inch in.
"Lan Lan," he called softly, "are you hungry?"
Later I found out that he was a male that crawled out of the same egg as me.
Later I learned that a shapeless, small, dark-colored female insect like me was the weakest waste in the entire tribe, and was selected to be married to the tiger tribe - it is said that eight out of ten female insects who were married died on the bed.
Later, the entire animal world knew: the weakest female insect used her "brain" to defeat the strongest opponent in the arena; she awakened dual abilities in the snake tribe's territory; she found the secret of human beings in the forbidden land.
And that silly male was still squatting at the entrance of my cave, waiting for me to come home.
They all say I am a miracle.
Only I know that I am just a human being who does not want to accept my fate.
With someone who, from day one, was willing to give me his life
