You are listening to a Clarks World magazine podcast with your host, but not narrator this time, Kate Baker.

Our story is titled Ether, and it is by Jang Ran.

This piece has been translated by Carmen Yling Jan and Ken Liu.

Born in 1981,

Schengran graduated from Beijing-Gyotong University in 2004

with a degree in computer science. After a stint in the IT industry,

Mr. Scheng, became a reporter and news analyst with Economic Daily and China Economic Net, during which time his news commentary won a China News

Award. In 2011, Mr. Jiang quit his job and moved to Southern China to become an independent writer.

He began publishing science fiction in 2012 with his debut story, Ether, winning the

Yin He Galaxy Award, as well as the Gold Jingyun Nebula Award.

His novella, Rising One City, also won the Yinihy Award and a silver Jingyun Award.

Our narrator is one of my favorites in the business.

Alice Dare Stewart. You might have heard him back in November when he read for us as well.

He's back and he does a hell of a job with this story.

Alistair can be found on Twitter at Alistair Stewart and that's a-L-A-S-D-I-R-S-T-U-S-T-U-S-T-U-r, S-U-A-R-S-T-U-A-T, he can also be heard over at Pseudopod.

So I really hope that you can take the time

and go check out his work over there.

Thanks again for reading this for us, Alistair. You did a wonderful job.

So without further ado, I'd like to invite you to let Alice dare tell you a story.

All of a sudden I'm thinking about an evening from the winter when I was 22.

A pair of pretty twin sisters sat to my right chattering away.

At my left sat a fat boy clutching a soft drink that he kept refilling.

...