The Ninth Special Zone

The Ninth Special Zone is a post-apocalyptic wasteland novel by the Heilongjiang author Wei Jie (real name Sun Jialiang), serialized on 17K.com starting October 15, 2019 and completed in June 2025, totaling roughly six million characters. The story is set more than a decade after a great catastrophe: the land lies in ruins, food is scarce, resources are tight, and order has collapsed. As the old social structure crumbles, a new order built around "zones" is painstakingly rising from the rubble, while the "unplanned zones" outside the system are neglected gray areas. The protagonist, whose background is vague at the outset, walks alone out of an unplanned zone and pays his own way into the Ninth Special Zone to become a rank-and-file police officer; a sudden kidnapping case brings him a few close friends and inadvertently draws him into the sordid turf wars of various factions, and from there he gradually gains a foothold in the chaotic world. The book features no zombies or superpowers and relies on no exaggerated technology; instead it turns its lens on ordinary people in a troubled era: the open and covert struggles of grassroots police, the battles over drug channels and arms, railway contracting, and the power games of the upper echelons. With rigorous logic, humorous Northeastern-flavored language, and solid ensemble characterization, the author tells how little people choose and grow in an age of scarce resources and broken rules, while also expressing themes of rebuilding home and devotion to country. The work was selected for the 2021 "Online Literature Youth List," and its audio drama has surpassed three billion plays on Ximalaya, making it one of the representative post-apocalyptic web novels of recent years.