Metamorphosis: The Age of Jingzhe

One morning, Yang Yunzhao wakes from a restless sleep to find himself transformed into a colossal insect. Lying on his back with an iron-hard carapace pressed against the mattress, he lifts his head slightly to see his segmented abdomen, the blankets barely concealing his new form. Yet this is no Kafkaesque nightmare; it is simply an ordinary morning following an exhausting night. He rises, brews two cups of double espresso, and gently strokes the bare shoulder of the woman beside him. She smiles in her sleep and wraps her arms around his, as sunlight filters through the curtains to cast a lustrous glow upon the leathery wings spanning her back. Twenty years earlier, when Yang Yunzhao was still in high school, he had no way of knowing that a vast, hidden plan had already been set in motion—one that would irrevocably redirect his life, the people around him, and the entire world toward an unknown destiny.