Cheng Sheng

"Swish, swish, swish-"

During Wuda Island's rainy season, the sky could go from the beautiful orange of a freshly peeled tangerine to pitch-black in less than ten minutes.

It was as though someone were pouring basin after basin of water down from the sky, dissolving the whole world into a gray haze of rain.

Cheng Sheng pulled his raincoat tight around him and raced through the residential complex.

The rain was so heavy that he could no longer tell whether his next step would land in a pothole or on level ground.

An electric scooter draped in a blue rain cover nimbly passed him, vanishing into the curtain of rain in the blink of an eye.

About ten meters away, a figure stood in the rain, a broken transparent plastic umbrella lying at their feet. He couldn't tell whether the person was a man or a woman, but they looked bedraggled and helpless...

Cheng Sheng hesitated, but ultimately left the person alone and turned into the nearest apartment building.

Sheltered by the building, he could finally catch his breath beneath the force of the downpour.

Cheng Sheng peeled off his raincoat and looked back, only to find that the figure in the rain was already out of sight. He turned and headed upstairs.

The motion-activated lights in the stairwell were old and in disrepair, leaving it as dark as night. The air was thick with the smell of rust, mold, and damp.

Cheng Sheng slowly climbed the stairs, counting the steps.

"One, two, three..."

After climbing three flights, Cheng Sheng stopped at a security door to the right of the landing. He took a key from his pocket and slid it into the lock.

"Click-"

The iron door opened.

"I'm back."

No one answered.

The apartment was silent and pitch-black. The lights were off, and the curtains were drawn.

Cheng Sheng tossed his dripping raincoat into a corner of the entryway, reached for the switch on the wall, and pressed it twice. Nothing happened.

He frowned, then took off his shoes and slowly made his way into the apartment.

Both legs of his pants were soaked, and the floor felt cold and slick beneath his bare feet.

"I couldn't get out..."

As Cheng Sheng walked, he said, "The city just activated a level-two Black Tide defense response. Both gates to the complex have been sealed, and the security guards won't let anyone out..."

The apartment wasn't large, and by the time he reached the living room, there was some light.

The living room TV was on. A girl with shoulder-length hair sat cross-legged on the sofa with her back to him, engrossed in a celebrity variety show.

In the quiet apartment, the bursts of exaggerated laughter from the TV sounded especially grating.

"When did the living room light break?"

Cheng Sheng spoke from behind the girl.

The girl didn't react. She kept staring at the TV screen, as though she couldn't hear him at all.

Cheng Sheng stood quietly for a while. After a moment's thought, he spoke again. "Cheng Yue, did you make the call I asked you to make earlier?"

The girl didn't move.

Cheng Sheng frowned slightly. "This Black Tide came out of nowhere. Mom and Dad are out leading tour groups today, and now we can't reach them. Aren't you worried?"

"Worried about what?"

The girl finally spoke, her tone flat and her eyes never leaving the TV.

"It's not the first time we haven't been able to reach them."

"This time is different."

"How is it different?"

The girl picked up the remote beside her and turned the TV up a little. "If you're that worried, either call them yourself or go beg the security guards at the gate to let you out and find them yourself.

"Just stop bothering me, okay?"

"Cheng Yue!"

Cheng Sheng frowned and couldn't help speaking a little more sharply. "You-"

"I said, don't call me! Don't call me!!"

The girl suddenly flung the remote in her hand hard onto the sofa and flew into a frenzy, startling Cheng Sheng into taking half a step back.

"Do you have any idea how exhausting studying is for me every day? For once I don't have extra classes today, and I just want to watch TV in peace!"

The girl jerked her head around, half her face washed pale by the light from the TV screen.

"You think everyone can be like you, spending the family's money without a care and then scoring just over two hundred points on the big exam?

"And they still told me to be more considerate of your feelings lately. Seriously, who's going to be considerate of mine?!!"

With that, she got up from the sofa, strode into the room next door, and slammed the door shut.

Cheng Sheng stood rooted to the spot in the empty living room, staring toward the girl's room, his face full of astonishment.

"What... got her wires crossed?"

A moment later, his face filled with helpless exasperation.

"Strictly speaking, they're not even my real parents. I was worried about them for your sake, and you turn around and yell at me?"

Yes, Cheng Sheng had transmigrated only a few days ago.

In his previous life, he'd been thirty-five, single, living alone, playing games, and then died suddenly...

After a brief initial period of shock, doubt, disbelief, and other emotional upheavals, he had very quickly taken the initiative to accept everything that came with his new body.

After all, he had another chance at life, a wonderful, vibrant life once more. What was there to be dissatisfied with?

He had gone out in the downpour and "kindly" reminded Cheng Yue entirely out of his responsibility as a son and an older brother. He simply hadn't expected the relationship between the siblings to be so bad.

Perhaps it was because Cheng Yue, the younger sister, had long resented how his predecessor could do nothing yet enjoy the vast majority of the family's resources, and how, despite being inferior to her in every respect, he was somehow more favored by their parents.

And that resentment, which had built up for more than a decade, had finally ceased to be hidden and erupted completely after "he," her "useless, incompetent" older brother, unsurprisingly failed the most important exam of his life...

"So this is what happens when parents of twins can't keep the water level in both bowls... Good thing I'm the one they favored."

Cheng Sheng couldn't help shaking his head. He paused, then lowered his eyes.

"Besides, is the big exam in this world... really that important?"

He seemed to have thought of something because of this, but nothing showed on his face. He merely picked up the remote from the floor, switched off the TV, and silently headed for his bedroom.

As he neared the door, his pants pocket suddenly vibrated slightly, followed by a pleasant text notification.

Cheng Sheng quickly pulled his phone from his pocket.

The phone looked quite new, but its flip-phone design was practically an "antique."

He flipped it open, and when he saw that the sender was listed as [Mom], his eyes immediately relaxed, and he let out a long breath inwardly.

This body's parents ran a small travel agency in Qingsha City, catering to tourists who came to Wuda Island from elsewhere in Nantu and from Dongyue. The two were both the owners and the tour guides.

Today, each of them had taken a tour group out, only for the Black Tide to arrive suddenly that afternoon.

Cheng Sheng had been unable to get through to either of them, which was why he had worried that something might have happened to them.

There were also several missed calls on his phone. The rain had probably been too loud for him to hear them while he was out, so his mom, Wu Li, had sent a text instead.

In the text, Wu Li carefully reminded Cheng Sheng to stay home and behave, not run around, and take good care of his younger sister, Cheng Yue. If he was hungry, he could take out the fried rice and sausages left over from the morning and heat them up...

In a text of fewer than a hundred Chinese characters, one term had been mentioned four times, and each time it appeared, Wu Li's words carried a deeply serious tone.

"Black Tide."

That was why Cheng Sheng hadn't thought failing the big exam was such a serious matter.

Because in this world, there were things worse than failing the big exam...

Many of them.

"So then..."

Cheng Sheng lowered his phone, pushed open the door before him, and slowly walked inside.

"What exactly is the Black Tide?"