Chapter 1

◎Previous Life◎

In the height of summer, the streets of Z city were deserted. The asphalt road emitted a pungent chemical smell under the scorching sun, the leaves of the roadside trees were curled up, and occasionally a hoarse cicada chirped from the trees.

In the residential complex where Tong Shu lives, water from the air conditioners drips down the exterior walls of the buildings, and the humming of the outdoor units echoes throughout the building.

Tong Shu gulped down her iced cola, put down her game console, and after playing for two days straight, the console was burning hot. Worried that the game cartridge might burn out, Tong Shu pulled it out and touched it; sure enough, it was scalding hot to the touch.

"Mom!" Tong Shu poked her head out of the room. "Has Dad not come back yet?"

"No!" Tong's mother responded loudly from the kitchen. "Your uncle's air conditioner has been working on and off for the past two weeks. It's not going to be fixed so quickly. I guess your dad will have to stay there for dinner."

"It's so hot, I hope he doesn't get heatstroke." Tong Shu thought worriedly as she blew on the game card to cool it down.

The temperature this year has been very strange since the beginning of the year. Normally, even in Z City, which is located in the south, the temperature would not warm up until March or April at the earliest. However, the temperature in Z City in January this year had already soared to 20℃, and then gradually increased by 5-10℃ every month. Currently in July, the temperature in Z City has reached 50℃, which is a high temperature that has never been seen before.

Experts explained that this was caused by a special climate phenomenon that occurs once every 100 years, and that the public need not worry, as the climate will return to normal after this year.

People were skeptical, but they had no choice but to continue working and living normally.

However, the weather was just too hot. In May, news of outdoor workers dying from heatstroke began to appear frequently across the country, forcing many construction sites and outdoor projects to come to a standstill. Workers returned home and waited for the temperature to return to normal before going back to work.

Tong Shu's father is a senior engineer. Since Tong Shu can remember, her father has been busy with projects all over the country. Tong Shu's mother was worried that her father would not be able to take good care of himself while he was away, so she entrusted little Tong Shu to her grandparents and traveled with her father everywhere.

Because of this unusually high temperature, Tong Shu's family was fortunate in a way, and began a life of family reunion.

But Tong Shu is not optimistic about this.

Tong Shu is a junior editor who usually works from home and rarely goes out.

As a seasoned homebody, Tong Shu can have a great time at home by herself. She has many hobbies, but most of them are only interesting for a short time; once she's mastered them, she loses interest. The only thing that has kept her playing for over five years is a single-player farming game.

Three months ago, Tong Shu's game had just unlocked the divination function. A masked NPC, a little fox, placed its hands on a crystal ball, interpreting the rising black smoke within it for Tong Shu.

"It's so hot! It's so hot! It's almost cooked! It's almost cooked!"

After saying that, the little fox stuck out its tiny tongue, panting as it ran around in circles in the room.

"What is that?" Tong Shu scratched her head, puzzled, and continued with the main quest.

In the days that followed, whenever she saw news of someone being rescued or dying from the high temperature, the image of the little fox running wildly with its tongue sticking out would flash through Tong Shu's mind. As this happened more and more often, Tong Shu gradually felt uneasy. Although she didn't know what the high temperature meant, she subconsciously stopped her parents from going out and started calling frequently to ask her grandparents to come and stay with her.

"Oh, Shushu, your grandpa and I are doing great." Grandma fanned herself with a palm leaf fan on the other end of the video call, revealing Grandpa drinking an iced beverage behind her. "The experts said things will be better by the end of the year, right? Even though we live in the countryside, we have air conditioning and a refrigerator, so don't worry about us..."

Grandma said, seemingly a little puzzled, "Old man, did you turn off the air conditioner? Why is it so hot all of a sudden?"

Grandpa put down his bowl, wiping the sweat from his forehead in confusion. "No..."

wrong.

That's not right.

As her grandmother asked questions, Tong Shu felt the temperature around her suddenly rise.

"Shushu, this air conditioner..." Tong's mother also came out of the kitchen, wiping away her sweat.

Although Tong Shu's home is not far from her grandmother's home, it is still several dozen kilometers away. During the call, Tong Shu could clearly hear the sound of the TV playing in her grandmother's home, and the range hood in her home was also working normally. There was no power outage at all!

In that brief moment of hesitation, neighbors from the same building also came out of their homes, asking each other about their situations.

Tong Shu's heart pounded. She stuffed the game card in her hand into her breast pocket, grabbed the car keys from the front door, and headed out. As she walked, she told her mother, "Mom, quickly pack some things and hide in the basement! I'm going to call Dad back and pick up Grandpa and Grandma while I'm at it."

Hearing the commotion outside the door, Tong's mother realized something was wrong and nodded subconsciously, "Be careful, pick up Grandpa and Grandma and go home."

Tong Shu hurriedly agreed, not daring to take the elevator, and ran all the way down the emergency exit to the underground parking garage, where she encountered her father, who was drenched in sweat.

Tong's father looked flustered and pushed Tong Shu, urging her to go home quickly.

"Everyone walking outside collapsed all at once..." Dad's hands trembled. "They were all dried out..."

Tong Shu felt a chill run down her spine, but she quickly regained her composure, took her father's hand, and said, "Dad, go find Mom quickly, I'll go get Grandpa and Grandma!"

Before Tong's father could react, Tong Shu had already driven away at high speed.

In the car, Tong Shu turned the air conditioning up to the maximum and drove towards her destination without a care in the world.

On the sidewalks on both sides of the road, people could be seen lying on the ground from time to time, struggling or already withered and scorched. The tragic scene made Tong Shu not dare to look closely.

As they passed through the city center, the car began to shake violently, the tire pressure warning light flashed wildly, and Tong Shu found the steering wheel extremely difficult to control.

"Tsk! A tire blew out! What's the temperature outside?!"

Just as Tong Shu was still struggling to change direction, a scene she caught in the corner of her eye made her pupils suddenly contract—

A massive fissure in the ground rapidly expanded from a great distance.

Along the roadside, countless tall buildings and bungalows collapsed into the cracks.

Before Tong Shu could react, the huge crack had already extended rapidly. The intense feeling of weightlessness, accompanied by the falling rocks constantly hitting the car, made Tong Shu close her eyes in despair.

Just as the car was swallowed by the crevice, Tong Shu tightly gripped the clothes on her chest, turned around in the endless darkness to look back in the direction of home, and amidst the huge explosion, a single tear shed by Tong Shu was quickly evaporated.

Why, why now?

I haven't had a proper reunion with my parents yet.

I haven't had a proper chance to say goodbye to my grandparents yet...

If... if I could do it all over again...