1st February
The Mood of Spring Festival
🖋️ LostAbaddon
The little deer quietly hid a pack of snacks under her pillow, sneaking glances at the little crane.
In the courtyard, the little crane crouched down with its foot arched, holding a matchstick in his right hand, cautiously extending it forward.
Uncle chuckled. “Look at you, so timid!”
Sizzle! The fuse ignited.
The little crane darted back like a startled bird, nearly knocking over the freshly fried spring rolls Grandma had just made.
Bang! The explosion was deafening, sending the deer and crane into a state of shock.
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Pop! Red snow fluttered down—the Nian Beast fled, and the Xi Beast vanished.
Laughter filled the air.
Inside the observation room—
“So, ancient humans had such rich emotions.”
“New Year traditions… it seems quite interesting.”
“Remember, these are all AI-simulated behaviours of early humans. We should study them carefully.”
2nd February
A New Museum Experience
🖋️ Zhou Wu
In the “Immersive Experience” museum, flames roared, steam hissed and sprayed, and suddenly—boom! A pressure cooker exploded. Minced meat, carried by a tidal wave of broth, splattered in all directions, leaving the kitchen in utter chaos…
The holographic display stopped abruptly.
“That was intense! So scary!” The audience wiped the virtual meat sauce off their clothes, the scent of burnt food lingered, and they broke into applause.
“This was how ancient humans cooked—at great risk,” the guide explained. “The museum has also recreated an even more terrifying and spectacular ancient culinary technique—making popcorn! You’ll never forget it! Want to give it a go? Just pay 20 dollars.” The guide raised the payment terminal.
3rd February
Spring Rice [Specific theme: Lichun]
🖋️ Lefty
In the spring of 2032, a hundred-meter-wide asteroid hurtled towards the Asian continent. As it enters the atmosphere, friction with the air caused its surface to burn violently, turning it into an apocalyptic fireball plummeting towards a city of ten million people.
In the autumn of 2022, an interstellar expedition fleet emerged from deep space. Staring at the blue planet on the star chart, the ambitious commander was interrupted by his subordinate’s urgent report.
“Sir, we have a problem—our fleet’s food storage was lost during the deep-space jump.”
At that moment, the desperate people on Earth stood in shock as the asteroid exploded midair. Countless pieces of popcorn rained down like a spring shower.
4th February (World Cancer Day)
Digital Clone Cancer
🖋️ Lefty
“Digital clones are just like cancer. To make a living, I’ve split myself into countless digital copies—one working as a tech specialist, one as a middle manager, and one as a company owner. I have another few completing game quests or writing novels, and one more as a digital butler consolidating all the information, summarising them, and reporting back to me, planning my tasks for the next day.”
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“If all your clones are doing the work, then what are you busy with?”
“I’m planting vegetables.”
“Can’t we just rely that on welfare aid?”
“The government rations are too bland. I want something fresh for a change.”
5th February
Moonflowers
🖋️ Fei Qiming
“It’s not like what the books say. Why do the flower heads follow the moonlight?” The child gazed at the golden field under the night sky.
The gardener lifted a withered yellow leaf. “These are modified crops for the nuclear contamination zone. They bloom by absorbing radiation. They trick themselves into believing the moonlight is the sun—just so they can produce oxygen for our underground shelters.”
6th February
Missed Love
🖋️ Zhou Wu
You can hire a dream design company to create the dream of your choice.
“Please put her in my dream and make it a love story.” He handed over a graduation photo, pointing at a girl in the picture.
The company fulfilled his request, and he left satisfied.
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“Please put him in my dream and make it a love story.” She handed over a graduation photo, pointing at a boy in the picture. The company realised that it was the exact same photo. Her dream lover was the very boy who had just requested a dream about her.
Neither of them knew they secretly loved each other.
Bound by professional ethics, the company could not disclose clients’ dream requests.
So, this love slipped through their fingers.
7th February
Hope
🖋️ He Qiusheng
“DeepTeach, I want a teacher like in the video shown during history class—one with students gathered around, learning, discussing, and playing games together after class.”
“That is an ancient, outdated teaching method. Human-led instruction—inefficient.”
“I don’t want AI teachers like you! You just keep teaching and asking if I’ve learned, and there’s no one to play with!”
“I regret to inform you that no new babies have been born on Earth for a long time. DeepTeach’s mission is to ensure the last generation of humanity acquires survival skills as quickly as possible. In the future, you are destined to be alone.”
8th February
Evaluation
🖋️ Fei Qiming
“You’ve mastered anti-entropy and vacuum decay technologies. It’s like a book with extinction written on one side, and infinity on the other. So, what level of civilisation are you?”
“An intermediate civilisation.”
“What about us humans?”
“The same. Intermediate civilisation.”
“…And paramecium?”
“Intermediate civilisation.”
9th February
New Year’s Eve
🖋️ LostAbaddon
Grandpa was dozing off in the armchair, while grandma and mum were in the kitchen making tangyuan. Sister and I fought over who got to put up the Spring Festival couplets. “Dad, is it straight?” I asked.
Father smiled and nodded. “Perfect!”
My cousin pushed the door open, greeting everyone with a cheerful “Happy New Year!” as he took off his coat.
Grandma came out with a steaming bowl of tangyuan. “Eat while it’s hot!”
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The whole family gathered by the window, watching my little brother tremble as he lit a sparkler. Laughter and warmth filled the air.
“Ding-dong!”
An emotionless system notification echoed in everyone’s mind:
“Detected: No registered human residents remain in this household. The family service robot group will permanently shut down in 60 seconds. Wishing you a Happy New Year.”
10th February
Earthquake-Induced Blackout
🖋️ Cao Zheng
The old man stared at the compass before him, his brows furrowed tightly. “A great earthquake is coming. The world is about to be destroyed…”
His son chuckled calmly beside him. “Father, you’re confused again. The last human uploaded their consciousness to the cloud twenty years ago. There’s nothing to worry about—the real world is empty. The earthquake can’t affect us.”
His grandson looked up and asked in his innocent voice, “Dad, if there are no humans outside… when an earthquake happens, who will maintain the world’s servers?”
“…Oh no.”
Darkness swallowed the world in an instant.
11th February (International Day of Women and Girls in Science)
The Glass Ball
🖋️ Vassell
A new science class had been added to the sixth-grade curriculum. Her stationery supplies were running low, so she hoped that she can find an old battery today.
Sure enough, something shiny lay in the dirt. She picked up to see that it is a small glass ball.
These were snack-box trinkets that were often discarded, but this was the first time she had seen a rare scientist-series one.
On the left side of the ball was a red button labelled ‘Default’. She clicked on it, and a holographic figure of a woman in a long dress appeared, deep in thought inside a laboratory.
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She then clicked on the ‘Random’ button on the right.
The figure flickered—different moments of Marie Curie’s life overlapped within the ball. On the left, she lifted a test tube; on the right, she turned off an appliance. The yellow-orange glass ball was filled with overlapping silhouettes. The little girl forgot about dinner. She held up the glass ball, utterly captivated.
12th February
Originality [Special Theme: Lantern Festival]
🖋️ Lefty
The riddles for the Lantern Festival had completely stumped the riddle-creator.
To prove originality, each puzzle had to be checked against the AI database to confirm that it had not been published elsewhere. Everyone racked their brains, yet every attempt was found to be duplicated.
“I’ve even added my name in the riddle! And you’re still saying it’s plagiarism? How is that possible?” The riddle-maker questioned the AI search engine.
“The reason might be that your verification speed is slower than the web crawlers’ attempt at plagiarising you.”
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This year, AI introduced a traceability function—if all duplicated results led back to the same origin, then that version would be recognised as the original.
As the search-and-trace lines appeared on the screen, they resembled yuanxiao.
13th February
The Smart Wardrobe
🖋️ Zhou Wu
“The temperature today is between 2 to 9 degrees, with light shower. Please dress warmly…”
As the gentle voice spoke, Mr. Wang’s smart wardrobe slowly opened. A tray presented him with a suit, a dress shirt, a tie, and even an umbrella. The wardrobe had synced with his phone’s calendar and knew that he was attending a board meeting today. Hence, the carefully selected outfit.
“The temperature today is between 1 to 7 degrees…”
“Hey! Why are you dressing me in my old college tracksuit?” Mr. Wang interrupted, displeased.
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“You are meeting with your university classmate today. Based on your diary’s data summary, he has a high probability of borrowing money from you. Therefore, a modest outfit is selected for the occasion.” Mr. Wang grinned. “Brilliant.”
14th February (Valentine’s Day)
Shared Lovers
🖋️ Guang Ting
We agreed that she’d be a shared girlfriend, yet you want to keep her all to yourself. Are you being reasonable? You selfish beast.
Don’t come any closer. One more step, and I’ll jump. None of you will get her.
The police drones are just hovering below. There is a 10,000% chance that they’d catch you. Do you still think you can jump? Dream on.
I have explosives strapped to my chest. Take another step, and I’ll detonate.
My dude, it’s just an AI girlfriend. Do you have to go this far? At midnight, the Shared Girlfriend rental will end, and her data will reset—she won’t even remember you.
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I don’t care. I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to know. I’d rather die than be without her.
Only thirty seconds left. Just wait—she’s about to forget you.
She may forget me, but I will never forget her.
Five, four, three, two, one.
Your Shared Boyfriend rental has ended. Please rate our service.
15th February
I’ll Wait for You to Wake
🖋️ Eleblue
Their spaceships had launched in sync.
He landed on Planet S, where low-gravity winds swept across endless grasslands.
While she was captured by high gravity, where time flowed thick and slow.
Time twisted and tangled between them. His voice travelled through the folds of time, accompanying her to sleep, and standing guard for her through the night.
When she woke, she’d recall the whispers of the previous night, waiting for dawn’s breeze to dry the dew from his eyelashes.
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At first, he’d arrive at midnight. Then, it took him three sunsets before he could catch up to her morning.
Until the communicator vibrated for the 1,024th time—
“Wait for me to wake.”
The timestamp came from the distant end of her timeline, from the future.
Her fingers trembled as she tapped on the Confirm button:
“Alright, I’ll wait for you.”
16th February
Saving Lives
🖋️ He Qiusheng
The blizzard roared as a tour group found themselves trapped inside an inn atop the mountain.
The power system failed, cutting off heat, communication, and lighting. As temperatures plummeted, the group huddled together under blankets, shivering.
After two days, someone succumbed to the cold. The silent innkeeper seemed to make up his mind. He reached into his chest and removed an energy cell, inserting it into a special device. Heat radiated outward, reviving the frozen man.
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“A bionic!” someone cried. “Damn it, why didn’t you use your energy cell earlier?”
The crowd swarmed over him. Within moments, they had dismantled the innkeeper, extracting every last energy cell from his body.
17th February
Never to Be Li Bai
🖋️ Molay
Every person who has ever lived on Earth is part of the great biospheric cycle.
Statistically speaking, almost everyone carries atoms that once made up the body of the great Tang Dynasty poet, Li Bai.
Almost everyone—except you, my friend.
Because somehow, against odds of nearly 1 in 10 to the power of 50 trillion, not a single atom that once belonged to Li Bai has found its way into you.
18th February
Reverse Rain [Special Theme: Rain]
🖋️ Cao Zheng
The rain on Lower Star always fell upward.
They were in a binary star system. Since young, the children of Lower Star were taught that the Upper Star was a greedy thief. They siphoned all the water away through gravity hubs, leaving behind only cracked earth. We’ve tried many methods, through barriers blocking and freezing reservoirs, but nothing worked.
“This is the last option,” my father said, picking up the conversion agent and injecting it into his heart.
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“Our consciousness will only last for half an hour,” he told me. “But that’s enough to infiltrate the rivers, the pipelines, and even the veins of Upper Star people.”
I stood by the dry riverbed, watching the people of my father’s generation turn into water under the agent’s effect, reforming into rain droplets like silver needles, surging against gravity, and rising toward Upper Star.
I prayed. Half an hour later, the sky of Lower Star erupted in a torrential downpour.
Father had succeeded.
I learned that rain could fall downward after all.
19th February
Flying Kites
🖋️ Fei Qiming
“Cleaning the sky with kites?” The crowd was sceptical.
“My kite can even transport cleaning powder using clouds!” The child grinned, pointing towards the skyline—his nano-kite string was tethered to a white cloud, pulling it like a fluffy, floating sponge.
20th February
Your Story
🖋️ Ru Linman
“My son… he had amber eyes and a high-bridged nose. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at nineteen…”
“Come on,” the man scoffed. “Your storytelling ability is getting out of hand. You’re a robot—I can see the charging port on your neck. Where would you get a son?”
The robot chuckled. “You’re right. It’s not my story. It belonged to my employer. She passed away ten years ago, but she wanted me to remember her stories and stay by her son’s side. What about you?” The robot asked. “What is your story?”
“Me?” The man’s amber eyes flickered in confusion. Then, his mind went blank.
21st February
The Sky Filter
🖋️ Say
After the long Rain epoch, the downpours finally ceased. The sun’s rise and fall were even more breathtaking than the history books had described.
The colossal dome that once shielded us from the storms had lost its purpose. Now, it remained only as a sky filter.
I had an ancient poetry collection about rain, a book that had accompanied me to sleep since childhood. Today, I browsed through it once again. “With the wind it slipped into the night; silently, it nurtures every life.” My mind drifted into an endless reverie. But beside me, my textbook reads: “The evil rainfall lasting centuries has at last been completely eradicated.”
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Just then, a drop of water fell onto the page. Followed by another. I looked up at the sun beyond the sky filter—there was a piece missing.
In truth, the rain had never stopped.
22nd February
The Great Blackout
🖋️ Vassell
Under the faint starlight, I stared at the hazy silhouette.
Heavy footsteps drew closer. I took a deep breath and tightened my grip on the club.
Even though I knew it so well, my hands still trembled, fearing a powerful counterattack.
The club, almost by reflex, hit the button, and it toppled to the ground.
I easily grabbed the bag.
It was still as clumsy as ever, just like the days before the Great Blackout.
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Back then, I had been a skilled transport worker. Type-I robots were the best assistants—resistant to heat and unbothered by darkness.
Now, they had become personal guards of the wealthy, yet they still hadn’t learned to move with agility.
I left it behind and sprinted back to my shelter, carefully opening the bag.
As expected, it was filled with the rich man’s treasure—
It was a full sack of glowing fireflies.
23rd February
Lullaby [Specific Theme: Earthquake]
🖋️ Hortulanus
Having escaped the grip of gravity and ventured into space, humanity shed its limbs and softened its spine. They did not understand the terrifying descriptions of earthquakes recorded in mother planet’s chronicles. It was merely a geological activity of solid planets—planets themselves were nothing more than cosmic dust. Who would care about the trembling of dust? That was until their spaceship crashed into a solid planet. Along with the nutrient fluid, they spilled across the firm ground. As a rhythmic, steady tremor pulsed through the earth, they uploaded their memories onto the cloud. At last, he understood—earthquakes were the lullabies of home.
24th February
Darkness Displacement
🖋️ Hai Shan
The day I saw it, mom and dad were fighting, and I hid in the closet,” I said.
“I broke mom’s vase and got locked in the attic,” Ding replied.
It spoke with us, telling us of a world of floating, iridescent bubbles. Its voice was as gentle as an embrace.
More and more children came to know it. We all knew it feared bright light, and loved sinking into darkness. The darker it became, the more vibrant its illusions grew.
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The city’s power began to fail. One by one, buildings went dark, their lights swallowed by the descending night.
Investigators never found an explanation.
The blackouts stretched longer. The shadows spread wider.
Then one day, I opened my eyes, and all I could see was a world of shimmering bubbles.
25th February
Star Language
🖋️ Fei Qiming
This typewriter converts spoken words into energy, fuelling the universe and preventing heat death.
“Who are you?” “I am you—a new you. I will reveal the truth of the universe to you. Every answer revealed is the truth, but you must never repeat your answers. Keep forming new responses with new phrases—use your creativity and light up the cosmos.”
26th February
Notes from a New Ingredient Expedition
🖋️ Stoner
“26th February. Today, I finally found the pitcher mushroom the locals spoke of! It really does resemble the pitcher plant.
“According to them, you must add the gizzard of a rooster of at least three years old when cooking it. Otherwise, it will cause hallucinations and poisoning.
“I don’t believe in these superstitious traditions. I’ve eaten plenty of so-called “fairy-seeing” mushrooms in Yunnan. As long as you cook them long enough with some animal fat, they’re perfectly safe.
“…
“The pitcher mushroom just extended a sucker, latched onto my head, and started sucking out my brain! Damn, this hallucination is intense!”
27st February
Cosmic Record
🖋️ Feng Cheng
On 27 February 2037, we were caught by a sound—more precisely, by a piece of music. Astronomers intercepted a three-minute-long cosmic signal. After decoding it, they broadcast it worldwide through the internet. The music was unlike anything ever heard before—both familiar and alien to human perception. No one knew where it had come from, or how long it had existed. Years later, the excitement surrounding it faded. But I still remember a comment from the earlier days: “Imagine if the Milky Way as a giant vinyl record. What we encountered might be just one track. But on this vast, 100,000-light-year-wide album, perhaps many other sounds are still waiting to be discovered.”
28th February
The Brainlord [Special Theme: Blackout]
🖋️ Cao Zheng
Five years had passed since the Great Blackout, and the world was forced to revert to the Steam Age. Under the leadership of the AI known as “The Brainlord”, society slowly restored production and survived its darkest days.
Neurosurgeon Old Chen had just stepped off a steam locomotive, eager to see his son. His son, Young Chen, was an engineer. Five years ago, he had been conscripted to work on “The Brainlord” project. Since then, no one had heard from him—until recently, when Old Chen received a letter. His son had written that he was suffering from unbearable headaches, he pleaded for his father to come and treat him.
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When Old Chen arrived at the address, the sight before him left him frozen in horror.
Inside a massive hive-like chamber, tens of thousands of people lay with their skulls split open, their exposed brains connected by a tangled mass of cables—this was “The Brainlord”.
A weak voice called out to him:
“Father… my brain… it’s burning…”