She was a little girl whose mother had died and who had no father's love.
Ever since she was young, she had never seen her father smile. She had never felt any love from him. From the moment she could remember, she had to cover herself with a blanket at night. During the day, she had to be careful to avoid her father's house, because if she ran into him, she would see his cold gaze.
The coldness in that gaze seemed to be blaming her for not dying. Even though she was still a child, she understood …
She had no friends. She only had the teacher's son, whom she had grown up with. He was her childhood friend. If there was another person, it would probably be that teacher. He had taught her to do good deeds and to study. He had taken on everything that her father should have done.
As she grew up, she stopped crying at night. That was because she knew why her father did not like her. She had caused her mother's death. She was the cause of all of this.
She rarely left her courtyard. She didn't want to go out, because every time she did, her father would look at her with a venomous gaze. That venomous gaze seemed to be questioning why she came back. Why... didn't she die outside!?
Having lived in such an environment since she was young, she was very afraid. She was very timid. But today, she decided to go out. Yesterday, in the teacher's class, she had heard that saving a life was an act of kindness. She wanted to be like her childhood friend. She wanted to go to the fisherman and beg him to let the fish go.
That was why, even though the sky was covered with dark clouds and it seemed that there would be days of heavy rain later, she still sneaked out. She went to the fish platform by the lake and saw the fisherman sitting there. There was a fishing net hanging from the pillar next to him, and a large fish was struggling in the lake.
"Grandpa, can you give me that fish?"
The little girl asked softly to the fisherman, who had his back to her.
"It's so pitiful. Don't eat it. Please give it to me. Let me let it go home …" the little girl begged.
The fisherman turned around. He was an old man, an old man with a kind face. He looked at the little girl and smiled.
"You bunch of kids, a few days ago, there was a little guy who came begging to let the fish go. Today, you're here as well. But if the fish is let go, I still have to live." The old fisherman smiled as he retrieved his fishing rod. After placing the bait on it, he cast it into the lake.
"Grandpa, the one you're talking about is my brother. You told him to let the fish go before, so promise me today. It's very pitiful, and its parents must be very worried …" The little girl took a few steps forward and looked down at the fish in the net beside the pillar.
"Who said I let him go? When the little kid saw that I didn't agree, he ran away," the fisherman said with a smile.
The little girl was stunned, but determination appeared on her face. Behind the fisherman, she lifted her little hand and knocked on his back, looking very cute.
"Grandpa, I beg you."
Time passed slowly. The little girl's begging lasted for more than two hours. The fisherman smiled and shook his head with a helpless expression. He got up and walked to the pillar where the fishing net was hung. He opened the fishing net and swung it. Immediately, the fish swam into the lake. With a flash, they dove into the water and disappeared without a trace.
"Alright, let it go. That should be enough, right?" The fisherman smiled and patted the little girl's head. As the little girl beamed with joy, he turned around and continued to fish.
A happy smile appeared on the little girl's face. With a tinkling laugh, she ran away.
She was so young, so she didn't know that when she left, the fisherman suddenly raised his fishing rod. She didn't know if it was the fish that had just been released, or if it was another one, but in any case, another big fish was caught and placed in the same net before hanging on the pole again.
The little girl ran back to the county excitedly. When she passed by a noodle stall, she did not notice that there was an old man sitting on a boulder there. He was watching the little girl leave with a complicated look in his eyes. He gently tapped his pipe on the ground.
With that tap, the little girl, who had already run away, suddenly stopped. She saw the world before her eyes shatter and turn into a vortex that fused with her body. After an unknown amount of time, when the fragments in the vortex gathered together again, it became a deep lake.
The fish swam in the lake. The lake was very deep, and no one knew where it led to. The fish swayed in the water and swam back and forth as if it had no consciousness.
It was a fish that had lived in the lake for who knew how many years. It did not have too many memories. If it did have any, then perhaps it would only be the span of seven breaths.
It only remembered what happened in the span of seven breaths. Everything else was a blank.
Day after day, year after year, it swam in the lake. Sometimes, it would come out of the water and look at the wind, flowers, snow, and moon outside, watching the passing of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. There were times when it wanted to rush out of the water and look at the sky and the earth outside. However, the moment this thought appeared, before it could act, it would already become a memory. After more than seven breaths, it … forgot about it.
It only had memories of the span of seven breaths, so it did not know what sorrow was, nor did it know what happiness was. Seven breaths was too short, so short that even if it was sad, it would only last for seven breaths at most before it forgot why it was sad.
Even if it was fast, it would only last for seven breaths at most before it forgot why it was happy.
Therefore, most of the time, its mind was blank. It had no memories, no thoughts. It only instinctively swam in the lake, looked at its companions, looked at the darkness, and looked into the distance where there was no future.
Then, one day, it saw a fish bait sinking into the lake.
It knew what it was, but it still went forward and bit it. When its body was caught by the hook and flung up, it saw the blue sky and the world outside the lake. Unfortunately … its memories only lasted for seven breaths. When it was caught in a net and hung on a pillar, it could only struggle in the water, but it could only struggle for seven breaths at most, because … it forgot that it was being fished up by someone else …
It also forgot that the lake it was in should not be the size of a square inch, and that there should not be a net that it could not escape from. That was why it swam leisurely in the net.
When the net was lifted off the surface of the water, it continued to struggle and suffocate. Then, it saw a little girl. That little girl was lifting the net, and she was the culprit behind the discomfort it felt.
It glared at the little girl fiercely. As it continued to struggle, and as time passed, it forgot why the little girl had lifted the net it was on. It only remembered that the little girl was the one who had caused it to feel so uncomfortable.
This memory might only last for seven breaths, but when it broke free from the hole in the net, it forgot that it had been fished out of the lake by someone. It forgot that it had been caught in a net, and it forgot that the net was not its home. It only remembered the pain the little girl had brought it during the first breath of its memory. That was why, when it returned to the water, it leaped up again. It did not know why its body could instantly grow bigger, and it dragged the little girl into the lake with one bite …
Time seemed to pass slowly again. It would never know how much time had passed. Perhaps it was only the span of seven breaths, but in any case … at that moment, it saw the fish hook hanging down from the lake again.
It forgot about the danger of the fish hook, but it also seemed to know what it was. When it bit down on it again, it was fished out of the water again, and it was thrown into the net once more. When it was released into the limited amount of water in the lake, just like before, it forgot the beginning of the story, and only remembered the ending.
This time, it did not see the little girl. Instead, after an unknown amount of time, at the moment the net was opened, it swam out of the net and returned to the surface of the lake. It looked at the old man standing on the fish platform, and beside him, the little girl who seemed to be looking at it …
It watched the girl disappear into the distance. After seven breaths of time had passed, it began to swim about in the lake. However, this time, it seemed to be trying very hard to think of something. Eventually, it bit down on the hook, and was pulled out again …. Moonlight fell, and it left the surface of the water. It forgot how it had started, and forgot how it ended. It was carried by the fisherman to a noodle stall. It was at this point that it opened its eyes. Looking through the net, it saw an old man holding a tobacco pipe and weaving a grass puppet out of leaves. The old man was looking at it.
"You are the sixth version of myself that I see …" Those were the old man's words. There was an ancient tone to his words, and he spoke them slowly. He spoke them slowly for a total of seven breaths, allowing the fish to hear them in their entirety. His words became an eternal memory in its memory, and they turned into a bang, as if it had remembered something. Then, the entire world in the fish's eyes crumbled. The crumbling fragments turned into a vortex, and as it charged forward, it took away the last of the fish's consciousness. It could not see the fragments reassembling themselves, and it could not see a world appearing before its eyes again.
Zhang Wenzhang was his name. It might seem very vulgar, but in truth, there was a hint of charm to it. It was a name his father had given him, and as the son of a teacher, Zhang Wenzhang felt that it was not a bad name.
At the very least, from the name alone, it was clear that he was a scholar.
But in truth, he did not really like reading. What he liked was to make delicious food with his own hands, such as boiling soup or making noodles. Perhaps it was because of this hobby that as he gradually grew up, he no longer looked as weak as his name suggested. Instead, he became a slightly plump young man.
His round face looked rather simple and honest, but the light that would occasionally shine in his eyes would allow others to see that he was a little clever, but that was all. After all, the cleverness that could be seen by others was usually shown on purpose. It was a form of pride that did not want others to think that he was not clever. (To be continued. If you like this work, please come to Qidian.Com and vote for me. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
