“Little Zhang, my eldest niece Su Qi is 28 this year. As long as you don't mind the child in her belly, we won't ask for any betrothal gifts for the wedding. We'll even give you an apartment and a BMW X6 as a dowry. What do you think?”

“I was born in the year of the Snake, and she was born in the year of the Tiger. Our zodiac signs clash, so I'm afraid it won't work out.”

“What era is this? You're still being feudal and superstitious. Are you deliberately making excuses because you look down on my eldest niece?” The voice on the phone suddenly rose, becoming shrill.

“You're just a stinky security guard with a salary of 3,500 yuan. You'll be living off a woman for the rest of your life. It's definitely your Zhang family's ancestral graves smoking with good fortune. If it weren't for my grand-niece Su Qi taking a fancy to you, I... hello, hello...”

Zhang Ji hung up the phone.

He pushed open the window. Outside, the fog was heavy, obscuring the sun. The air was cold and eerie.

He lit a cigarette, his face full of worry as he frowned and took a deep drag, only to be choked into a fit of coughing.

“Zhang Ji, aren't you at work today?”

From downstairs, his father Zhang Zhishan's voice drifted up.

He was holding a lunch box and had a set of keys hanging from his waist. “I'm going to the hospital to see your grandfather. I'll be back later tonight.”

“You don't have to worry about your grandfather's surgery fees. I'll figure out a way. At worst, I'll sell the house. Just focus on your work.”

People born in the year of the Tiger are mostly filial, domineering, and have魄力 (po li, courage).

“Cough, cough...”

His throat felt scratchy. He started to spit out phlegm, but suddenly caught sight of his neighbor Aunt Li leaving her house. He immediately plastered on a smile and swallowed the phlegm back down.

“Oh, morning, Cuihua!”

“Old Zhang, we haven't seen you at the plaza dance these past few days. Everyone says you've got great hip action and are waiting for you to lead the dance. You must come tonight!”

Aunt Li gave him a knowing look and went to join her friends in the distance at the park.

Her figure quickly disappeared into the misty street.

Zhang Zhishan grinned broadly, but suddenly turned back to look at the window on the second floor, his face tense.

“I didn't see anything, Dad. Go to the hospital!” Zhang Ji stubbed out his cigarette and stuck it in the potted green ivy next to him.

“Smoke less. Your grandfather smoked his whole life, and now look at him, he got lung cancer. You have to take care of your body. Your mother died early, and I'm counting on you for the rest of my life...”

Zhang Zhishan lectured him before sighing and hurrying down the stairs with the lunch box.

The fog was heavy. He was already a blurred figure after just a few steps.

And out of the fog, a few old women tottered out. They had just returned from the morning market, carrying their grocery baskets and chatting along the way.

“The fog's been getting thicker these past few days!”

“Yeah, there was a car accident on Heping Road.”

“Could something be happening? It's midsummer in June, and we're getting such heavy fog, and it's been going on for days...”

As they spoke, the fog settled on their skin, silently seeping into their flesh and blood.

Zhang Ji closed the window and began to exercise in his room.

He had been retired for three years, but his daily strength training and muscle training were etched in his bones. Day after day, he had never slacked off.

So he still maintained his strong muscles and burly figure.

“198, 199, 200...”

Zhang Ji did handstand push-ups, using the ground as leverage, to train his arm strength.

On the table, an old-fashioned television was on, the screen flickering with static as it played the morning news...

“This is the thirteenth day of heavy fog this month. Visibility continues to decrease. The Meteorological Bureau analyzes that this fog comes from deep within the Taihang Mountains. The specific cause is unknown.”

“Currently, multiple traffic accidents have occurred in Xichuan Town. Starting today, high-speed rail, trains, and buses have been completely suspended.”

“This fog is coming on fiercely. According to experts, this is caused by local climate change in the Taihang Mountains. There is no need to be nervous, but there will be a large-scale fog tide tonight. We hope that all citizens will close their doors and windows to prevent fog and dampness...”

Huff!

Zhang Jian finished 300 handstand push-ups, flipped over, and stood straight. He exhaled a long breath, and was about to take a shower when the phone rang.

“Zhang-ge, the train station is closed. My wife can't come back from her hometown. I have to take my child to school today. Can you cover my shift this morning?” It was a call from his colleague, Zhao Zigang.

He and Zhang Ji were on good terms and were both security guards, often drinking together.

Zhang Ji wiped the sweat from his face and said, “Then you hurry up and go. I'll come over now.”

After hanging up the phone, he ended his day off and hurried to the company.

On the road, the fog was thicker than the previous days. Visibility was very low. It was a blur beyond several tens of meters. The usual tall buildings were now invisible, a vast expanse of white.

The traffic lanes were jammed with cars and people, chaotic. There had been a car accident, but the ambulance couldn't get through. The fog had paralyzed traffic, and there weren't enough backup measures, causing a complete mess.

Someone was crying, and others were frantically shouting and pounding on car windows. People in front didn't know what was going on and turned back to curse, creating a cacophony.

Traffic police were maintaining order, and many volunteers were also busy.

The fog hung in the air, and, through their clothes, quietly seeped into everyone's body.

The air was cold and eerie.

It was clearly midsummer in June, but it felt like late autumn. When the fog touched the body, it chilled the skin and bones.

Zhang Ji felt something burrowing into his body. It was very cold. He hurriedly wrapped his clothes tighter, weaved through the crowd, and ran quickly to the company.

The company was not far from his home. In about ten minutes, Zhang Ji arrived downstairs at the company.

Huatian Mansion.

A tall, thin man was waiting anxiously at the entrance, his skin dark and his eyes large.

It was Zhao Zigang, Zhang Ji's colleague and fellow security guard at Huatian Mansion.

When he saw Zhang Ji, Zhao Zigang immediately smiled gratefully and said, “Zhang-ge, thank you for helping me out today. I'll treat you to a drink later and have my wife make your favorite dapanji (big plate chicken) .”

Zhang Ji loved chicken, and he always ordered a plate of chicken at every gathering.

“Okay, I'll hold you to it!” Zhang Ji patted him on the shoulder and smiled. “Hurry up and go. Your house isn't far, so just run home. Don't drive.”

Zhao Zigang nodded and ran off quickly, but after only a few steps, he returned and took off his coat, draping it over Zhang Ji's shoulders.

The coat still held his warmth.

“The weather is terribly cold. If you catch a cold, who will cover my shift?”

With those words, he turned and left, wearing only a thin shirt. Zhang Ji called out a few times, but he had already run off and disappeared into the fog.

“Are people born in the year of the Monkey always so impulsive?”

Zhang Ji tightened the coat around himself, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. He entered the mansion and said to a plump woman in the office inside:

“Supervisor Gao, I'm covering Zhao Zigang's shift today. Don't deliberately mark him absent again like last time and deduct his wages.”

Supervisor Gao was playing on her phone, her fat body overflowing the chair. Hearing Zhang Ji's voice, she slammed the table and looked up angrily. “What did you say?”

“Do you know that you're supposed to knock before entering a leader's office?! Get out!”

Her voice was very impatient. Her face was tense with anger, her small eyes like rat's eyes, filled with rage.

In fact, she was born in the year of the Rat.

Zhang Ji raised an eyebrow, suppressed his anger, and retreated from the office, only to see a fat security guard approaching.

He was the captain of the security team, He Jun, born in the year of the Dragon.

Zhang Ji's direct superior.

He was not tall, and was covered in fat.

Through the glass door, Supervisor Gao flashed what she thought was a sweet smile at He Jun.

There was even a hint of shyness.

He Jun winked back at Supervisor Gao, his face full of ambiguous smiles, and walked into Supervisor Gao's office, closing the door and drawing the curtains.

The two of them had long been having an affair. Zhang Ji and the surrounding security guards were used to it.

“Zhang Ji!” A woman's voice suddenly sounded from behind him.

It was very cold and aloof.

Zhang Ji didn't need to turn around to know that it was Su Qi, the one hell-bent on making him her Mr. Right.

The deputy general manager of Huaxia Mansion.

Su Qi was wearing black high-heeled boots, her straight, long legs sheathed in black silk, making her even more eye-catching. She wore a red leather jacket that showed her navel and sunglasses, her long hair flowing, giving off a powerful aura.

“General Manager Su!”

Zhang Ji hurriedly greeted her, while also glancing at her belly. Her slender waist could be encircled with a single hand, showing no signs of pregnancy.

“Is it good looking?” Su Qi asked, raising her chin. Without waiting for Zhang Ji to answer, she sneered. “I didn't expect you to be into this kind of thing! All you stinky men are the same!”

With that, she stomped into Supervisor Gao's office in her high-heeled boots. A scream came from inside.

Then they heard Su Qi shouting loudly, followed by several slaps. Supervisor Gao screamed and begged for mercy, and He Jun also pleaded in a trembling voice.

“If you dare to rely on your cousin's influence and deduct employees' wages again, then get the hell out of here!”

Su Qi's voice was very loud, and she slammed the door as she left the office.

As she passed Zhang Ji, her high-heeled boots paused slightly.

“If you don't want to be with me, just say so. It's not like I, Su Qi, can't marry anyone else. Don't say anything about incompatible zodiac signs in the future. I, Su Qi, am born in the year of the Tiger, but would I eat you?!” Her voice was cold as she stuffed a card into Zhang Ji's pocket.

“There's a million yuan inside. The password is your birthday. Take it to get your grandfather treated. Tell your dad not to sell the house, so you don't have nowhere to live and come mooching off my Huatian Mansion's electricity and water again.”

“Doesn't water and electricity cost money?”

With those words, she left.

But because she was walking too fast, she stumbled and almost twisted her ankle. She glanced back at Zhang Ji and, seeing that he hadn't noticed, she patted her chest, revealing a "that was close, almost embarrassed myself" expression.

She hurriedly straightened her chest again, glared at the security guards who were peeking at her, tossed her hair, and walked away.

Zhang Ji looked at the card in his pocket, his heart filled with complex emotions.

The surrounding security guards gathered around, each with a look of envy on their faces.

Captain He Jun walked out of the office and shouted at the security guards, “What are you all gathered around for? Everyone stay and work overtime tonight!”

Then he pointed menacingly at Zhang Ji several times and sneered. “You just wait!”

Supervisor Gao also came out, her face already swollen, making her look even more fat and ugly. She glared fiercely at Zhang Ji and waved her fat fist angrily before turning and heading to the pharmacy outside.

They mistakenly believed that Zhang Ji had reported their misdeeds to Su Qi.

Zhang Ji narrowed his eyes, staring at the backs of He Jun and Supervisor Gao, and licked his lips.

Time passed.

A day had gone by. The sun was not visible, and the fog outside was even heavier. The world was a vast expanse of white, and the surrounding skyscrapers were invisible.

Only endless fog churned, engulfing everything.

Zhang Ji reached out his hand, and the fog settled on his skin, seeping into his flesh and blood, chilling him to the bone.

“What time is it?”

Zhang Ji asked, smelling the fog on his hand. It actually had a foul odor, causing him to frown.

This fog was too abnormal, as if it had been polluted.

The security guard Wu Baoguo, who was next to him, checked his watch. “Almost six o'clock. The people in the building will be getting off work soon.”

After speaking, he muttered a curse at Supervisor Gao and He Jun. Thanks to them, everyone had to work overtime tonight. It served them right for being beaten up.

He felt somewhat gleeful.

Through the glass, they could see Gao and He rubbing medicine on each other in the office. They had been bruised and limping when they came back from eating out at noon, a miserable sight, clearly having been attacked by someone.

Zhang Ji rotated his wrist, saying nothing.

Soon, people began to leave work downstairs.

But affected by the heavy fog, traffic had not yet returned to normal. Night fell quickly. People who lived close by walked home, while those who lived farther away were stranded in the lobby of Huatian Mansion, creating a chaotic scene.

Zhang Ji, as the deputy captain, led the team to maintain order and prevent accidents.

But as time passed, it became more and more chaotic.

Several leaders of Huatian Mansion came out to help maintain order, and Su Qi was also busy. Zhang Ji handed her a glass of water, but she turned and gave it to an aunt who needed water to take her medicine.

Time quietly approached seven o'clock.

The lobby was brightly lit, but outside it was pitch black. All that could be heard were the sounds of car horns, shouting, and people calling out for each other.

People could not be seen, nor could light.

“The night is a little too dark tonight!”

The security guard Wu Baoguo said, handing Zhang Ji a cigarette at the entrance of the lobby.

“It's not that the night is dark, but that the fog is heavier. Maybe the fog tide is coming!”

Zhang Ji, wearing a coat, took the cigarette but, remembering that he was on duty, sniffed it instead of smoking it, and then put it down.

He stared worriedly at the darkness outside, feeling uneasy and inexplicably oppressed and afraid.

It was as if something was lurking in the darkness.

The security guard colleagues around him were also frowning and worrying. So many people were stranded in the lobby, and they didn't know what to do next.

Su Qi and several senior managers were having a meeting in the office, and it seemed like there was an argument going on, with constant table-slamming.

Outside the front desk, a young man in a baseball cap was trying to coax his girlfriend, making funny faces and meowing like a cat.

Supervisor Gao and He Jun sat in the office, rubbing medicine on each other, but their actions were ambiguous.

The hands of the clock on the wall of the lobby were moving.

"Snap~"

The hands finally landed on the seven o'clock position.

"Whoosh~"

Outside the lobby, a wind suddenly rose, cold and eerie, sweeping the fog into the lobby, instantly blurring the vision and dimming the lights.

The fog engulfed everything.

People's figures could not be seen, only the sound of "suss suss shila" could be heard.

Very strange, like clothes being torn apart.

"Roar—"

"Awoo—"

"Moo—"

The roar of tigers, the roar of wild beasts, and the sound of cattle suddenly rang out in the fog, rising and falling one after another.

At the entrance of the lobby.

Zhang Ji felt something was wrong and was about to investigate when he suddenly felt numb and painful all over his body, as if something was about to burst out of his throat.

He fell to the ground with a thud.

He wanted to scream, but made a "hiss hiss hiss" sound. It turned out that his mouth had turned into a snake's mouth, with a scarlet snake's tongue flicking between its white fangs.

It was terrifying.

Looking down at his body, it had turned into a snake's body.

It was more than ten meters long, and its snake body burst through his coat and pants. Its back was dark brown, with more than a dozen yellowish-white cross-band scales, shimmering with a cold luster.

Its tail was twisting unconsciously, smashing the glass in the lobby, full of power.

His reflection in the glass showed his appearance: an oval head with white spectacle-like markings on the back of his neck, expanding to form a hood.

It was actually a cobra.

Raising its noble head, it was full of ferocity.

Zhang Ji was shocked and trembled with fear.

"How did I turn into a snake?!"

Looking around, he found that the security guards around him were gone, replaced by various wild beasts, some still wearing their half-torn clothes.

Everyone had turned into wild beasts.

They were all rising from the ground with violent and blood-red eyes, and suddenly pounced on each other.

In the office in the distance, the medicine-rubbing Supervisor Gao and He Jun were gone. All that could be seen was a black scaled dragon several meters long chasing a fat, ball-like rat, knocking over computer desks and chairs.

Near Zhang Ji, Wu Baoguo, born in the year of the Rabbit, had turned into a rabbit with fangs, more than a meter tall, still wearing a security guard's uniform, but turned and pounced on Zhang Ji.

Zhang Ji was startled. It was the first time he had seen such a ferocious rabbit.

But the snake's body instinctively defended itself. He turned his neck nimbly and bit down. The rabbit didn't enter his mouth, and blood swirled in his mouth, the stench extremely heavy.

Zhang Ji thought he would vomit, but he didn't expect his body to crave it. He wasn't disgusted by the taste at all, and even felt a hint of joy.

As the rabbit entered his stomach, a metallic voice sounded in his mind.

"Evolution points +70"

Zhang Ji was stunned, thinking he was hallucinating.

"Squeak squeak squeak~"

At this time, the fat rat from Supervisor Gao's office scurried out, the size of a palm, rolling like a fat ball, its eyes red.

"Whoosh~"

Zhang Ji turned his head and bit down, snake devouring rat.

In his mind, the cold metallic sound rang out again instantly...

"Evolution points +30."

"Accumulated evolution points 100/100, reaching evolution conditions, do you want to evolve into a 'King Cobra'?"