Translator: Myuu Editor: Kelaude
Smoke from chimneys, old trees, crows in the dusk…
Mountain village, small temple, a faraway place…
When Yan Liqiang came out from the temple, he felt as though he had an empty void in his heart. Despite the hurdles and countless attempts he made over these seven to eight months, he could still only wander around everywhere like a lonely, homeless ghost. He couldn’t feel coldness or hunger, and he did not need to eat or sleep. He wasn’t dead, and yet he wasn’t alive. Under such circumstances, even the mentally strongest person would inevitably feel the despair and hopelessness of the situation…
Yan Liqiang had no idea where he currently was. In any case, this place was already very, very far from Gan Province of the Great Han Empire.
The small temple on the hill of this mountain was named the Temple of Purity. There was only an old temple attendant who didn’t seem like a real monk in the temple. When Yan Liqiang left, the old temple attendant with graying hair was dozing off on the recliner by the door. He was drooling and seemed to be uncomfortably asleep. Hanging above the old temple attendant’s head was the Temple of Purity’s signboard which had been discolored since long ago. On both sides of the temple door were two lines of a Buddhist quote with peeling paint.
—Void the self of greed and be purified,
Free the self and turn from foolishness.
Looking at the two lines of Buddhist quote by the entrance of the temple, Yan Liqiang smiled wryly.
Yan Liqiang wasn’t a devoted believer of materialism [1] in his previous life, much less in this life. Therefore, since two months ago, Yan Liqiang couldn’t help but go inside any Daoist temple or shrine he came across on his journey to pray to the Gods and Buddha for another chance at reincarnation.
Although drifting around like this every day seemed to be fun, Yan Liqiang felt a suffocating fear as time went on. He was afraid that he would stay like this forever, as a mere floating spectator of the world who was drowning in loneliness despite being in the midst of ten million people.
There was a village at the foot of the mountain where the small temple was. The glow of the sunset filled the sky. This was the time when every family was preparing for dinner. Smoke could be seen rising from chimneys everywhere in the village, and it was a rather tranquil sight to behold.
Yan Liqiang glanced down the mountain but didn’t descend the mountain. A few months ago, he still enjoyed poking his nose into different households in the village to observe people’s everyday lives. But now, watching those people live on as a spectator had become torture to Yan Liqiang because it made him even more aware of the fact that he was a lonely homeless ghost that had been abandoned by the entire world.
Following the small mountain path behind the small temple, Yan Liqiang arrived at the summit before long. He sat alone on a boulder beneath a pine tree on the summit and he silently watched the sun set in the west as the dusking sky turned into nightfall.
He didn’t want to walk, make any attempts, or run today. All he wanted to do was just stay a night here all alone on this nameless, small mountain. Over these past few months, his body felt like the wind and he seemed to never feel any exhaustion. Yet, his heart had long worn out.
When the sun had set completely, Yan Liqiang extended his hands under the starry skies. He stared at his shadowless arms under the moonlight and shook his head helplessly before he shut his eyes.
As soon as Yan Liqiang shut his eyes, the familiar yet strange huge rock appeared before him again.
Even when watching a movie, no one would enjoy staring at the same scene forever. For the past seven or eight months, the longest amount of time Yan Liqiang spent staring at this strange rock with his eyes shut was more than ten hours. He even tried using different methods to interact with this stone but they were to no avail. However, after shutting his eyes today, he stared at that strange rock downheartedly and never opened his eyes after that. He also stopped himself from drifting everywhere.
An hour passed… then five… then ten… then twenty-four…
When the sun set and the starry skies emerged once again, Yan Liqiang, who had been staring at that rock for more than twenty-four hours, sensed that the strange, huge rock was suddenly shining with boundless radiance and it assumed a form he had never seen before. Just when Yan Liqiang was in shock, the huge rock emitted a brilliant, rainbow-like ray of light and it shined on Yan Liqiang’s body. Before Yan Liqiang could react, he felt that the strange, huge rock seemed to have suddenly turned into a huge magnet. It was producing a powerful, attractive force that was hard to resist. His entire body and consciousness turned into a ray of light in an instant and merged with that huge rock.
—Could this be reincarnation? Hehe, how he wished he could look a bit handsomer in his next life…
That was the last self-deprecating thought in Yan Liqiang’s mind before he lost his consciousness.
In the wake of that, Yan Liqiang felt as though he had a long, sweet dream.
…
“ACHOO!!” Feeling the itch on his nose, Yan Liqiang uncontrollably let out a sneeze. Then opened his eyes and woke up.
What came into Yan Liqiang’s line of sight was the first glimmer of light and a few remaining stars in the sky, along with the pine tree hanging above his head. His face was right next to some grass with dewdrops hanging from its tips. His single sneeze had caused the dewdrops to splash onto his face and he could feel the coolness.
Yan Liqiang blinked his eyes. Was he dreaming?
He raised his hands in a daze and put them before his eyes. It was a young pair of hands full of vigor. The luster of his skin was as shiny as ivory and his fingers were long and slender. They were brimming with an amazing yet somewhat strange aesthetic.
Looking at his hands, Yan Liqiang’s mind was blocked for a few seconds, unable to process what had just happened. His eyes widened like saucers after a few seconds had passed and leaped up from the floor as though he had been electrocuted.
Only after leaping up did Yan Liqiang realize that he was still currently on the summit of that same familiar nameless small mountain.
The pine tree was still the very same one from last night, as well as the boulder beside it. He looked down from the summit and spotted that the Temple of Purity wasn’t too far away.
What was going on? Wasn’t he reincarnating? Why was he still here? Was that all a dream…?
The mountain wind blew and Yan Liqiang couldn’t help but sneeze due to the coldness. “ACHOO!!!”
Then, he finally realized that he was completely butt-naked. He lowered his head to assess his body. It seemed like it was slightly different now but fortunately, it still had the same junk down there…
Yan Liqiang couldn’t restrain himself from yelling in excitement on the summit, causing a few birds in the forest nearby to fly away in shock. He then abruptly went silent.
After getting excited, he took another look at himself. Yan Liqiang suppressed the excitement in his heart and cautiously descended the mountain while grasping his way through the dark along the mountain path.
The mountain path was rough to walk as it was paved with some crushed rocks, dried up branches, and dead leaves. This was extremely uncomfortable and it was quite painful to walk barefooted on it. Before Yan Liqiang could make it far, the skin on the soles of his feet had already been torn by the dead branches and crushed rocks on the ground — they stung.
However, he wasn’t bothered by it. At this moment, the ability to feel bodily pain once again was simply a blessing to Yan Liqiang.
Yan Liqiang, who was naked, made it to the Temple of Purity with the quickest speed possible. He flipped himself over the walls and entered the monastery. It turned out that there was no one in this temple at night, including the old temple attendant. Yan Liqiang immediately found some old clothes that barely fit him in one of the storage rooms and he put on a pair of old shoes.
—For the clothes I borrowed today, I’ll repay in hundreds of folds someday!
After leaving his words on the wall of the storage room, Yan Liqiang left the Temple of Purity dressed in the old clothes.
When he arrived at the main street at the foot of the mountain, Yan Liqiang finally couldn’t hold it in anymore and howled wildly while he basked in the first glimmer of dawn. “I’M ALIVE, I’M ALIVE…!!”
