The Emerald Files

A supervolcano that had slumbered for ten thousand years erupted, and the volcanic ash that shot skyward settled in the stratosphere and lingered for a long time, completely blotting out the sunlight from the land. The world plunged into eternal night and year-round bitter winter, and humanity struggled to survive in the boundless darkness. A hundred years later, an experiment called "Sprouting Technology" was implemented and promoted by the Sprout Institute: turning the dying into plants so as to continuously produce oxygen and sustain human survival under the eternal night. Over the following decades, this technology also led to a string of bizarre murder cases, known to the world as the "Emerald" incidents. In the ash-shrouded city of Beiluo, Zhang Zhisheng and Ye Jiaqi are deeply entangled in case after case of mutation. They witness ordinary people struggling in agony through their aberrant transformations, encounter a pianist trapped in obsession, and are drawn into one monstrous tragedy after another. As the investigation deepens, the truth hidden by the Sprout Institute and the secrets behind the monsters slowly reveal a corner of themselves before the two. When green sprouts break through human bodies and grow, the boundary of life no longer exists—how then shall the faint glimmer that humanity has struggled to hold on to be carried on? — Description from novelcodex.orgFull novel: The Emerald Files — read the rest free on N​o⁠v​e⁠l​C⁠o​d⁠e​x⁠.​o⁠r​g⁠