The story starts with a curious glucose molecule named Henry, who lived inside a chicken burger with his other friends.

Hi, I am Henry, I live in here.

Henry was an ambitious molecule who really wanted to realize his potential of emitting his energy from his tiny little body. He's been waiting for a long time, until one day his chance finally came.

Henry and his best friend Debby, who was a protein molecule, were both excited and couldn't wait to start their adventure.

Debby, don't you think we're so lucky!

You bet we are! Haha!

They first went into the mouth, where the chicken burger was mechanically digested by teeth, tongue and cheek in this PH7 environment. In the meantime, there's also juice coming out of salivary glands. Gradually, Henry noticed that the starch that he and other glucose friends formed was broken up and changed into Maltose by salivary amylase in the juice.

Pieces of the chicken burger kept being mixed up with saliva, and formed a warm ball called bolus eventually. All of a sudden, the tongue rose, and soft palate also rose to block nasal passage, Henry and his friends got squeezed into the very back. 

I am here to help you!

Thank you so much!

Henry and his friends passed a place called Pharynx. Then, they fell into a long tube called Esophagus. There, he found mucus inside the wall, and the special peristalsis movement made them pass smoothly.

Wow! It's like taking the slide!

After a while, he passed through a door called Cardiac Sphincter. The door automatically closed when he got inside. This place was "J"-shaped with lots of mucus inside the thick walls. Henry learned that this place was called Stomach. As acidic as PH2, Henry couldn't feel a thing, but his protein friend Debby felt extremely active in here.

I feel so excited!

Why I can't feel a thing ?

During this time, deep folds in the wall called Rugea constantly mixed up all of those little bodies with stomach secretions. Debby told Henry that she and other protein molecules were going to be chemically digested and changed into peptides by Pepsin made by gastric glands here, and she hoped that Henry would still recognize her.

I hope you won't forget my look.

Don't worry,Debby. I certainly won't.

After a few hours, they left the Stomach with mixed acidic liquid all round through another door at the bottom called Pyloric Sphincter as a new identity called Chime. Not long they came to another place called Duodenum.

The moment that he entered, Henry noticed that this place has a slight alkaline environment. Henry also noticed that that the acidic Chime was neutralized by sodium bicarbonate produced from Pancreas. Henry’s friends told him that this was the beginning of the Small Intestine, a magical place where Debby and he would both be chemically freed as individual beings.

We are finally here, Debby!

We made it!

Henry looked at the surface, and found that there were countless finger-like projections called Villi, and each villus has thousands of microscopic extensions called Microvilli. “The surface area here is huge” said Henry. Not long, Henry and Debby were both freshened in this PH8 environment.

The chemical magic finally happened ! The maltase secreted from microvilli plasma membrane helped further break down the maltose that glucose molecules formed; Henry and his other glucose friends finally separated from each other. At this time, Henry also found that, with the help of Trypsin produced from Pancreas, his friend Debby was freed as well. She finally became a single amino acid lady.

We're finally freed.

Finally!

They felt so happy for each other. Since they both understood that they had different goals in life, though reluctant, they both realized it might be the right time for them to say goodbye. Within no time, Henry was absorbed into a cell of the microvillus. The force from the higher concentration made him diffuse continually, and he came to the fluid between the cell and the capillary of a villus at last.

I will miss you!

...me too...

Because of the difference in concentration gradients, Henry felt a force keep attracting him on the other side. However, he was too big to go through the small channels in plasma membrane. At this time, a special protein told Henry that he could lend a hand. Henry then transported through the special channel that carrier protein provided him, and got into capillary of a villus by facilitated diffusion eventually.

Inside the vessels, Henry found that there’re lots of other little guys travelling in there that he never saw before. There’re red blood cells called Erythrocytes which constituted most part of the whole population. There're also white blood cells called Leukocytes, tiny little platelets called Thrombocytes, other molecules, and even wastes.