Embers: Beneath the Red Rain

The rain fell on a late July afternoon, staining the entire city the color of rust. The weather bureau called it a sandstorm, social media turned it into a meme, and no one knew it was the sound of death knocking at the door. Zhao Chenyang was the first to realize something was wrong. He was not a hero, not a soldier, but an ordinary strategic consultant—someone accustomed to making the most likely survival choices with incomplete information. Twelve hours after the red rain fell, he grabbed a fire axe and half a box of compressed biscuits, driving into the collapsing city. He didn't know how far he could go. He only knew that walking alone meant death. He met a nineteen-year-old girl who had just lost her mother, an art teacher who no longer wanted to live, a medical student desperate to return and save his sister, and a female truck driver with nowhere to go. They met amidst the ruins and built a temporary home in an abandoned elementary school. Later, they would meet more people—an arrogant martial arts champion, a volunteer who believed in kindness, a proud female CEO, a professor who valued dignity above all, a speculator who lived only for himself, a kindergarten teacher who believed everyone was good, and a dancer who feared pain more than anything. — Description from novelcodex.org