A woman knelt before a statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva in the hallway, her face filled with devotion. She raised incense to her forehead with both hands and closed her eyes, making a wish: "Great Merciful and Compassionate Guanyin Bodhisattva, I have been fasting for two years. Please protect Wang Chong from those insects." She bowed respectfully three times.
For two years, she had repeated this ritual ten times daily. The entire house was filled with incense ash and thick smoke until her newborn daughter developed a respiratory infection, forcing her to move the statue to the hallway.
Her husband, Wang Chong, was a member of the Insect Extermination Unit, fighting those creatures. In six months, he would complete his service and return home, alleviating their financial struggles.
Lost in thought, the woman heard her daughter crying inside. As she rose to return to the room, bold letters on the television caught her attention.
"Breaking News."
The same image appeared on every internet-connected device and television screen across Chinese cities.
Blood-red letters proclaimed: "Level 4 Insect Swarm Outbreak."
"Reports from the front lines indicate simultaneous Level 4 insect swarm outbreaks. The Insect Extermination Unit has suffered heavy losses, with 2,342 personnel missing and 5 confirmed dead. Additionally, traces of queen insects have been detected in Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture."
"The Insect Extermination Unit has issued a red alert, deploying 400,000 troops to the area. Additional weapons and supplies are being prepared."
"The United Nations Insect Extermination Unit has issued a secondary red alert, with 50,000 troops en route. Further plans are being urgently discussed."
The child's cries continued, but the woman's attention remained fixed on the television. Her hands clenched her clothes tightly, knuckles white. Ignoring her child's wails, she rushed out to the hallway and fell to her knees before the Guanyin statue, frantically kowtowing.
News of the insect disaster instantly exploded across the internet. Those with relatives and friends near the border began making frantic phone calls.
"A Level 4 swarm! Damn it! How many tens of thousands will die this time?!"
"It shouldn't be that bad. Villages and cities near the forests have been evacuating on a large scale for years. There aren't many people left near the forests now."
"Level 4... that means at least five queen insects have been confirmed! Each queen can decimate thousands of troops..."
"My nephew is in the army. This is heartbreaking..."
The phone rang inside the house, its shrill tone mixing with the child's cries.
The woman, sensing something ominous, slowly turned her head towards the room. Step by step, she approached the phone. Seeing the special area code she had been waiting for day and night, tears streamed down her face. With trembling hands, she answered.
"Mrs. Zhao Lei, we regret to inform you that your husband, Wang Chong, went missing during yesterday's insect swarm. The country thanks him for his service. He was an exemplary soldier!"
The phone slipped from the woman's hand as she collapsed to her knees, covering her face.
In the war against the insect horde, "missing" meant no remains would ever be found.
In a dark cave, a fat, white insect gorged itself on a pile of white food.
Time passed imperceptibly in the cave. After an unknown period, the plump white insect often fell into a daze. Tilting its head, it seemed to see a shimmering light before it. Moving forward a few steps, the light slowly faded. Unable to comprehend what it was, the insect resumed eating. After all, it seemed that eating was all it needed to do in this life.
Perhaps due to overeating, it began to think more. Sometimes it saw a swarm of terrifying insects rushing by, instinctively retreating a few steps.
Later, it often saw itself encased in something awkward, repeatedly trying to remove this strange covering. It seemed to be... an anti-insect suit?
After more time passed, it recalled that it should have a name. What was that name? What even was a name?
Finally, one day, the fat white insect huddled in a corner of the cave, a panicked thought flashing through its mind:
I... am Wang Chong.
The thought vanished as quickly as it came. It... he looked around in confusion, found his favorite pile of white food, and slowly dragged his heavy body towards it.
The more he ate, the more he thought.
He frequently paused, lost in memories, instinctively feeding while recalling many past events.
"Why didn't I die?" Wang Chong wondered. "Reincarnation?"
Wang Chong rarely read novels, but he knew of such concepts. As a staunch atheist, he couldn't accept this explanation.
He tried to see his current form, but his body had no neck to turn, and he was too fat to bend and see his tail. He could only vaguely sense that he was some kind of insect.
"An insect? Am I a queen insect?" He had planned to spend the latter half of his life exterminating queen insects. Surely fate wouldn't play such a cruel joke on him?
"No, that's not right," Wang Chong shook his head. The queen insects he had seen were the epitome of ferocity, their entire bodies evolved for combat in various grotesque ways.
So what was he now?
Wang Chong surveyed the dark cave, noticing an endless expanse of... insect eggs?
His heart raced. The cave was too dark to see far, but the sheer number of eggs visible was astounding.
The eggs were white, slightly transparent, and shaped like polished hexagons. They were arranged tightly like a honeycomb, with a layer of sticky fluid between them.
Wang Chong decided to explore his surroundings, slowly inching his bulky body forward.
He had no idea about his current body structure, but if his pulse was anything like a human's, he had been moving for about a quarter of an hour.
His instincts constantly urged him to return and eat, but Wang Chong resisted, focusing on moving forward.
Suddenly, he froze.
He saw a fat, white insect.
Very fat, very white! Like a white sausage.
Wang Chong was stunned, suddenly realizing what he looked like! A wave of nausea swept over him. Even as an atheist, he couldn't help but curse the heavens for this cruel fate!
Utterly dejected, Wang Chong watched the fat insect busily at work.
The insect moved to the edge of the egg cluster, removing eggs as if unloading bricks, then rearranging them with larger gaps between them. Finally, it secreted a sticky fluid to hold them in place.
Despite its bulky, clumsy body, the insect's small row of short legs underneath were incredibly agile, moving with machine-like precision and speed.
The fat insect clearly noticed Wang Chong but showed no surprise or curiosity, evidently lacking any intelligence.
Seeing this, Wang Chong felt deeply resigned. The urge to feed grew stronger, forcing him to drag his body back to his nest.
He didn't know how large his bulky body was, lacking any frame of reference, but he guessed it was probably no larger than a ping-pong ball.
Finally back at his nest, Wang Chong plunged into the pile of white food, eating his fill.
After a short while, instinct drove him towards the insect eggs. As if controlled by an unseen force, Wang Chong involuntarily began removing the eggs, rearranging them, and secreting fluid to hold them in place.
Wasn't this exactly what the other insect had been doing earlier?
Wang Chong resigned himself to his fate, pondering the bizarre evolution of the insect horde. As for his own kind... Wang Chong thought for a moment and decided to call them nurse insects, clearly meant to care for the insect babies.
The nurse insect's fat, large body seemed illogical. Wouldn't a smaller, more agile form be better?
Once again, instinct urged Wang Chong to eat. He internally raged, "Eat what? I'm already this fat!"
Helpless, he settled onto the pile of white food once more.
Suddenly, Wang Chong froze.
Due to his unique profession, Wang Chong had encountered countless shocking events in his life. But at this moment, he felt that all those shocks combined couldn't compare to what he now saw!
Among the food was a small, comma-shaped metal fragment. Wang Chong recognized it instantly – it was a bullet fragment that had lodged in his brain five years ago!
Which meant... this pile of white food he had been eating... was his own brain!!
Shock? Disgust? Horror? A complex mix of emotions surged through him. Wang Chong retched, finally understanding why he had been "reborn"!
He stood there, dumbfounded, feeling like crying and laughing simultaneously. Suddenly, in a fit of madness, he plunged into the pile of brain matter, devouring it frantically.
Was it because he ate his brain that he regained its information? The thought of his corpse being dismembered, his brain extracted and discarded here, made Wang Chong want to explode with rage!
"Queen insects! I'll kill you all!" Wang Chong roared internally.