The Invasion Day – Chapter 1

Novel introduction & Translation masterpost
Character Guide
Original novel written by Nan Gua Lao Yao (南瓜老妖)
Translator: Michelle N.

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Chapter 1

When that moment came, Fu Shiwu was sleeping.

Anyone who had worked overtime for three consecutive days would definitely sleep like a log when he got home. He wasn’t the type who woke up easily, unless it was some kind of life-threatening danger. The biological system of humans would respond automatically under such situations, and that was also what we knew as ‘primal instinct’.

Fu Shiwu was startled to find himself suddenly awake. But after only a few seconds of staring blurrily into space, he quickly grabbed the glasses on the nightstand and put them on. In a blink, his gullible, honest expression turned into that of a smart young man, his eyes sharp and bright.

As his eyesight was regained, his pupils shrank at the crimson sky outside the window. Fu Shiwu felt all his hairs standing on their ends, himself almost jumping out of his own skin.

He quickly stood up and paid no attention to his usual principle of having to first take off his summer pyjamas then put on a short-sleeved shirt before heading out. Jumping into a pair of slippers, Fu Shiwu rushed out of his apartment and knocked on the door across the corridor.

The opposite apartment housed Mr. Wen, a single man just like him. But because of Mr. Wen’s disability, Fu Shiwu didn’t expect to hear the door open so quickly, so he shouted loudly: “There’s a fire!!!” Then he ran to the next apartment.

After hammering on the doors of several other apartments on the same floor, one after another, what Fu Shiwu got in return wasn’t any deep gratitude, but loud curses.

Some cursed him for disturbing their peaceful dreams while some even sent his family ‘greetings’.

Having his kindness treated as bad intention, Fu Shiwu decided to suffer no further. After all, he wasn’t a saint, just a mere human trying to help his neighbours. As he turned around to head downstairs via the emergency exit, the door of the last apartment at the end of the corridor opened.

A man wearing a pair of beach pants and a singlet walked out, glancing across the corridor in vigilance. Seeing Fu Shiwu, his eyebrows furrowed, then his pressed lips relaxed and arced into a mocking smile, as though it was a conditioned reflex.

Fu Shiwu felt his legs frozen like a small animal being watched by its enemy, completed with its defenseless fur standing upright and its eyebrows raising in alarm.

Tang Xuhai leaned against the door frame and yawned lazily. As he opened his mouth, his muscular chest rose and fell along with the movements of his lungs.

“It’s the middle of the night, you aren’t sleeping and playing around? Don’t you know it’s against the law to disturb people?” He stung Fu Shiwu with his venomous mouth while hugging his arms, a thirst for drama totally exposed on his face.

Even Fu Shiwu, the one who was always composed and conscious of their subpar relationship, got enraged and said angrily: “How are you still here being all calm, haven’t you seen the fire? If you don’t want to die, hurry up and run.”

The place they lived, Heavenly Gardens, was a high-rise building of 32 floors. Fu Shiwu’s apartment was on the 18th floor. Considering that the fire was already burning right outside his window, it would soon spread to here. The floor they lived in was in the middle of the land and the sky, exactly the least conducive place to escape from.

Fu Shiwu only knew that in the event of a fire, one should never take the elevator, so he planned to run down the stairs.

Tang Xuhai gave him a strange look and suddenly let out a sneer: “Pfft!” 

Annoyed by this sneer, Fu Shiwu decided that he would just walk past Tang Xuhai’s apartment and went ahead.

Tang Xuhai looked at his stern face, then said with a smile: “Don’t be stupid. If it’s a fire, you should be able to smell or see the smoke. Also, if there’s a fire in this building, have you heard any alarm at all?”

Fu Shiwu stopped. After Tang Xuhai’s words faded, the entire corridor became quiet and the chaos that Fu Shiwu had created himself seemed to simply die down.

He had neither heard the fire alarm nor smelt any smoke.

“But I clearly saw the red glow of a fire outside the window.” Fu Shiwu argued.

“Did you sleep until your IQ dropped?” Tang Xuhai shot him a contemptuous look and said: “You didn’t watch the news tonight, did you? Experts say that it’s a wonder of the universe, a natural phenomenon. It won’t cause any harm to people.”

Fu Shiwu was truly flabbergasted, his face slowly turning into a shade of red.

He did feel that the reactions of his neighbours were a bit weird. Perhaps it wasn’t a fire but a natural phenomenon, just like how this annoying bastard had explained.

Fu Shiwu felt embarrassed to have stirred up such a scene, and even worse, he got ridiculed by the guy whom he couldn’t get along with. He just wished there was a crack on the ground for him to instantly disappear into.

“You panic easily just like a usual know-it-all, huh?” Tang Xuhai shook his head, sighed and stung Fu Shiwu for one last time.

Fu Shiwu immediately fled while covering his face, running back to his apartment.

When he was stepping inside, the door on the opposite side opened.

Mr. Wen sat in the electric wheelchair with a calm expression and looked at him questioningly.

“I’m sorry for waking you up. I was too tired so I went to sleep after getting off work and didn’t watch the news. The sky outside the window was so red I thought there was a fire.” Fu Shiwu pushed the sliding glass and explained to Mr.  Wen with shame.

Mr. Wen, however, wasn’t angry. He nodded lightly to express his understanding and closed the door.

Amid the dead silence, Fu Shiwu listened to the buzzing sound of the electric wheelchair through the anti-theft door. As the sound gradually became lighter, Fu Shiwu got even more frustrated.

Look at these stupid things I’ve done! I must have been very sleepy.

Fu Shiwu plunged his head into the pillow on the sofa in an attempt to suffocate himself but completely failed, then he sat up, his hair an unruly mess.

He thought of Tang Xuhai’s contemptuous expression and his cheeks bulged with discontent. He wanted to get angry but eventually didn’t.

He lowered his head and pulled open the collar of his pyjamas to look at his chest. Although it wasn’t flat, it was all soft meat compared to the solid muscles of the bastard.

He raised his arm and clenched his fist. Even the tiny biceps seemed to laugh at him.

“Haiz —” Fu Shiwu once again lost because of this extreme contrast, and could only comfort himself that the bastard must be all brawn and no brain. At least he won in terms of IQ.

It should be clarified that although he and Tang Xuhai, who lived on the same floor, had no deep hatred, they disliked each other from the very start.

Because whatever they lacked, they saw the other person have it in abundance.

It was said that Tang Xuhai joined the army before he even finished high school. To Fu Shiwu, who had both a bachelor degree and a doctoral degree, it wasn’t something he would sneer at, but he wouldn’t like the idea of it either.

Tang Xuhai was loud and carefree. Although Fu Shiwu wasn’t as mellow as a turtle, he was graceful and gentle.

In one sentence, their auras didn’t match.

Done with these wandering thoughts, Fu Shiwu looked up at the red sky outside. He quickly stood up and walked into his study to turn on the computer and read the news he had missed.

On the other side of the corridor, after watching Fu Shiwu enter his apartment, Tang Xuhai also closed the door.

He walked into the room but didn’t go to sleep. Instead, he sat on the window sill, looking solemnly at the red clouds on the horizon. The sky on this side was still black, but atop the darkness of the night, the red clouds had cast a spooky red glow on the city.

Looking at its ominous appearance, Tang Xuhai snorted coldly. He didn’t believe the words of the experts and scholars who were sitting in front of the TV and trying to calm everyone down.

He bowed his head, clenched his fist and punched his right leg, then he let out a helpless sigh.

So what if I don’t believe them? He no longer had the means and channels to get the most trustworthy information.

After a while, he thought of Fu Shiwu again. It was the first time he saw the brat’s at-home appearance after being neighbours for almost two years. He was wearing silk summer pyjamas with his sleeping hair poking upward.

With a chuckle, Tang Xuhai visualised his neighbour who only wore buttoned clothes, and every single button must be properly fastened. If it weren’t for the extreme panic, he would have been so angry and embarrassed that his image had been lost.

It’s a pity I didn’t take a photo with my phone just now, then I can use it to laugh at him later. He thought with regret.

Fu Shiwu of course wouldn’t know of his neighbour’s wickedness. He was browsing news and videos about the red clouds on his computer.

This red glow started appearing one hour after dark, which was just after 9 o’clock.

At that time, Fu Shiwu was sleeping, so obviously he missed such a thrilling moment.

But now the news was spreading fast on the Internet. With a simple search, heaps of video and photos popped up on his screen.

Fu Shiwu was lost for words as he clicked on the video with the most views.

This video was shot with a mobile phone and the scenes were shaking badly. No one knew if the person was scared or excited, and there were even the sounds of a few people yelling “What’s going?”, “Is it on fire?” and “Call the police!”. The most intriguing thing was that someone shouted “Look! UFO!!!”.

Then the lens stabilised and a strip of red glared brightly on the horizon.

The red strip slowly expanded. Because the transformation was really long, Fu Shiwu had to pull the progress bar with his mouse to speed up the shots. By the end of the video, apart from various disputes popping up on top1Unlike Youtube where comments are strictly placed below a video, on Chinese video platforms, you can watch a video with live comments popping up on top of the video. This function could also be turned off., the red strip steadily became red clouds.

After watching this, Fu Shiwu clicked on other videos to find that they were all similar except for the different angles.

The comments below showed all sorts of speculations. At first, some people thought it was a prank, but in the end, more videos with the same content and different angles turned up, so those who thought it was a lie gradually shut up.

Fu Shiwu then turned to the TV to see what the news had to say.

What Fu Shiwu watched was a live broadcast. By now, the chaotic stage had passed and in the TV station, the experts were blabbering all kinds of astronomical terms that the laymen wouldn’t understand.

Fu Shiwu was completely stupefied by his talking. So in the end, he meant that these red clouds were a reflection phenomenon like aurora… Right?

Excitement-seeking people had all gone down to the streets to look at the scene, while the remaining people were simply at ease with the explanation of experts. After all, they were people who had to go to work and school the next day as usual.

Fu Shiwu, the one who had to go to work the next day, turned off the computer and climbed into bed after being dazed by all the gossips. He took one last look at the red glow on the window, then turned over to sleep.

In any case, even if the sky fell, someone better than him would take care of it.

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The author has something to say: Our shou isn’t strong at the beginning. Please stay tuned till chapter 16, then decide if you would like to continue ^^.

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The translator also has something to say: Hi there, thank you for checking out the 1st chapter of this novel ଘ(੭ˊᵕˋ)੭ Please note that though this novel’s length is indicated as 143 chapters on JJWXC, the EN translation will consist of 233 chapters. This is because the EN chapter has been adjusted in length since the original chapter is very long (usually >6000 words).