The Eve

The Eve is an apocalyptic novel by Baiyin Zhitong, serialized on Chuangshi Chinese Network starting June 6, 2013. About 1.24 million characters long, tagged "passionate zombie fiction," it is complete. The story begins plainly and absurdly: twenty-eight-year-old Li Jie runs an unlicensed psychological clinic, getting by on listening and chatting, with his only nurse Mino handling everything and his policeman friend Lin Ye often dropping by for beer. One day an old man claiming to be a professor comes for treatment and rambles about "the world will be annihilated" and "most people will become walking corpses," leaving behind a cloth bag containing a pistol, a dagger, and a lighter. Li Jie half disbelieves but actually goes to the supermarket and hauls a large stock of supplies back to his home. Disaster does come. Old class divisions lose meaning overnight; officials, the wealthy, elites, and the struggling masses all fall into the same situation; surviving does not mean being able to live. Li Jie forms a small group with Mino, Lin Ye, and others, struggling to survive in a city overrun by zombies, searching for clues to the outbreak while maneuvering among various factions. The work has no superpowers and no black technology; the most dangerous thing is often not the zombies but other people; the more carefully a character is crafted, the more likely they are to die at any moment. The book centers on "human desire destroyed humanity," presenting collisions between morality and interest, justice and self-interest, love and hate, despair and hope in the apocalypse. The final chapter, in an almost tragic tone, depicts the eve of civilization's annihilation; the protagonist, after death, returns to before the disaster, leaving an echo for the words "the eve."