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. 2nd FebruaryA 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 FebruarySpring 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.” 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. 7th FebruaryHope🖋️ 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 FebruaryEvaluation🖋️ 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 FebruaryNew 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!” 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. 12th FebruaryOriginality [Special Theme: Lantern Festival]🖋️

1st January (New Year’s Day)The Forgotten Starry Sky🖋️ Jabberwocky To catch the New Year’s star show, I waited by the spaceship window ahead of time. When the clock struck midnight, the distant galaxy flickered and shifted under the control of radiation waves, forming various languages that spelled out “Happy New Year.” “How beautiful!” I exclaimed excitedly, still lost in the moment, unintentionally waking my sleeping grandma. She said, “When I was a child, humans still lived on Earth. The stars didn’t need artificial control. When their light passed through the atmosphere, they would twinkle, and every night, the stars would blink.” 2nd JanuarySmart Home🖋️ Vassell “You seem very uncomfortable. Let’s pick an appointment,” I projected the doctor’s holographic image before the bed. “Just do more exercise. Our relative is bringing a potential partner to introduce you later, don’t make things awkward on Chinese New Year.” A voice spoke from outside. She sighed and turned off the projection. “I’m fine. I’m just really tired.” I turned on all the soundproof panels in the room and lowered the pendant light to her eye level, then selected a novel for her. 3rd JanuaryThe Rebirth Gift [Specific theme: Rebirth]🖋️ Xi Yu When the smoke cleared, the spotless laboratory appeared before her eyes. The surroundings were the same as when she fell asleep, except for the unfamiliar faces of the doctors around. The one leading the group walked up enthusiastically and said, “Welcome back! How do you feel?” “Great! I can’t believe you really cured cancer,” she said happily, but then froze when she saw her young, white hands. “Did you clone me?” “No, we simply rewrote your genes,” the doctor smiled. “Youth is our gift to you.” 4th January (Lunar Calendar: Welcoming Kitchen God)The Humble Kitchen God🖋️ Jabberwocky “Dad, why are we putting out fruits?” “It’s an offering to thank the Kitchen God.” “Why thank the Kitchen God?” “Gratitude is part of our tradition. The Kitchen God watches over our meals every day, so we must honour and thank him.” “What does the Kitchen God look like? What’s his name…?” “Why do you have so many questions? How annoying, I’m tired! Go ask the nanny robot!” He shooed the child away and lay down in the massage chamber, falling asleep comfortably. 5th January (World Radiography Day)Flesh-and-Blood Technology🖋️ Xi Yu I’ve finally made it to the future, but I broke my leg when I landed. On my way to find a hospital, I saw many incredible things. Giant dragons soared in the sky and towering trees bore massive fruits… I grabbed a passerby in panic and asked, “What’s going on? Where are the cars and houses?” “They’re right in front of you,” the passerby shrugged. “After Moore’s Law reached its limits, we found that developing flesh-and-blood technology was the true path forward… Oh, did you get hurt?” I nodded. “Yes, do you know where the hospital is?” “There’s no hospital. Just go to the repair shop,” the passerby pointed to a giant fruit. “Everything can be fixed—after all, it’s all flesh and blood.” 6th January (Lunar Calendar: Seeing Off the Poor God)Decluttering🖋️ Jabberwocky On the sixth day of Chinese New Year, I threw out all the junk left by my great-grandfather. My great-grandfather was a painter, but his art had long been replaced by AI and this field had been rendered obsolete. Still, he stubbornly clung to it, living a life of poverty. My grandfather and father were no different, they refused to keep up with the times, filling our space with useless clutter. I tossed out the old, space-consuming easels and dried-up paints. Finally, the cramped living space was a little roomier. I hoped that my poor fate can be thrown away too, and I can have good fortune from now on. I watched the news: “Look at this blue and yellow stones, when mixed with water, turns green! This beautiful miracle is called pigment, a product of traditional culture, and now it’s rare. It’s worth a fortune…” 7th January (Lunar Calendar: Human Day)Misreading🖋️ Jabberwocky She had been working non-stop for seven days. The Western artist next door had went on holiday with a glass of grape juice, while she stayed behind and continued carving mud sculptures. On the first day, she drafted nearly ten thousand designs, making models of every feather and carefully coloured the clay. But when she published her work, it was blocked due to a misunderstanding of sexual innuendos. The second day, she sculpted a powerful and loyal figure, but it was maliciously misinterpreted. On the third day, her creation was criticised as ugly, and was mocked… 8th JanuaryInstinct of Vision🖋️ Paul “The research topic is ‘The Human Instinct to Search for Eyes.’ Hey, can I take a look your monster toy?” Afterward, I designed an entire series of monsters based on my brother’s toy, each one covered with eyes. Some eyes were more realistic. While some were more cartoonish with different colours—blood red, deep blue, pitch black, honey gold… I installed cameras in them, and the subjects of the experiment would retell their observation. We compared them with the footage. When leaving the lab, I noticed that everyone looked into the depths of the sky’s bionic eyes, before moving on… 9th JanuaryHomecoming [Specific theme: Homecoming]🖋️ He Qiusheng Dear son, your spaceship has been traveling the stars for 200 years, and we’ve been fighting against the collapsing environment for 200 years. You and your young colleagues are full of ambition, determined to find a new home for humanity in the vast cosmos. Mom and dad have chosen to stay behind. We were born here, we grew up here, and we raised our children here. This place has our blood, our flesh, and our soul. Before you left, you asked us, “What about your home, mom and dad?” I think I can answer you now. When you return, weary from your journey, we’ll have made Earth a better place for you. A warm home—that is our home. 10th January The