Upward, 100 Kilometers

Children's Science Fiction

In the future, humanity's excessive exploitation of the planet has ruined the environment. People have moved into a ten-tiered floating Sky City, with each level connected by glowing graphene pipes, living beneath an artificial sun. Chang Rui'an, an eleven-year-old boy from the lowest, Ground Tier, has a father who works as a pipe repairman. His father mysteriously disappears while on patrol, leaving behind only a scrap of paper covered in strange symbols.

While searching for his father, Chang Rui'an befriends Zihan, who loves researching books, and Zimu, who is good at fixing things. From Grandpa Lan, the tower's guardian, the three learn a secret the upper tiers have kept hidden: the earth has not perished. It is slowly recovering, and the "Gate to the Earth" in Sky Top City is a passage back to their homeland.

The three children embark on a hundred-kilometer journey upward, crossing wildly different levels of the sky, including the Soil Tier, the Forest Tier, and the Mirror Tier. Along the way, they evade pursuit by a mechanical bird called Gray Sparrow, meet kind ordinary people from each level, gather evidence that the earth is awakening, and befriend Yingying, a tiny glowing insect that symbolizes hope.

During their journey, they witness both the splendor and the constraints of Sky City, uncover the reasons Manager Jin has hidden the truth, and finally reach the highest level, Sky Top City, where they find Chang Rui'an's father. Together, they open the Gate to the Earth, and long-missed natural sunlight pours in. In the end, this upward adventure teaches everyone: they climb to remember, but they descend to go home.