Rebuilding Civilization

Under the battered eaves of a ruined house in the small town, Xie Han, who had lain as motionless as a corpse, suddenly opened his eyes. Before him was chaos. Yellow scraps of paper, caught by the breeze, danced into the air and twisted gently as they fell. The dilapidated buildings were surrounded by broken wells and crumbling walls; shattered layers of concrete were scattered across the ground. An eerie silence hung in the air—where once there had been bustling prosperity, now only the sound of wind stirring the trees remained.

Xie Han’s mind was slow to comprehend his predicament. He could not fathom how he had gone from the bustling city of Chaoyang to awakening in such a strange place. The surroundings resembled the aftermath of the apocalypse; not a sign nor sound of human life could be detected. In panic, Xie Han sprang to his feet, surprised to find himself instinctively supporting his weight with one hand and flipping upright with agility, landing lightly on his feet.

“What…what on earth is happening?” Xie Han questioned himself. In his memory, he was merely an ordinary citizen of Chaoyang, fortunate enough, thanks to relatives, to secure a position in the Statistics Bureau in 2009—a typical government job. The daily routine consisted of arriving late by half an hour, brewing tea, and then surfing the internet. If a superior appeared, he would bury his head in the day’s newspaper, which was enough to satisfy any leader. In just two years, at twenty-four, Xie Han's body had grown frail from lack of exercise.

Previously, at his height of one