The Wandering Earth

by Liu Cixin

Tucked away in a tounao* restaurant and flushed with liquor, Cixin chattered excitedly about his next grand endeavor. He planned to write a ten-volume, three-million-character sci-fi epic describing the two thousand deaths of two hundred civilizations in a universe repeatedly wiped clean by vacuum collapses. The tale would conclude with the entire known universe falling into a black hole,

But operating systems were like the wives of new-made billionaires: upgrades were inevitable.

Taiyuan’s thriving sex industry had answered the government’s call and designated every Sunday as a Day for Sexual Aid to Vulnerable Groups.

‘You’re really looking your age and, to be honest, you were fugly from the get-go. I have no idea what I ever saw in you.

One thought comforted me: even if I traveled to the most distant corner of the Earth, I would never be any farther from her.