Ren Xiaoping would never understand Zheng Ran. Many children were fools, but Zheng Ran wasn't a fool. She was …
Ren Xiaoping would never understand Zheng Ran. Many children were fools, but Zheng Ran wasn't a fool. She was something stranger than a fool.
That day, another fool asked a stupid question: "We can see trees and rivers, but blind people only see darkness, so what do they actually see?"
Ren Xiaoping glanced at the child who asked, then at Zheng Ran. What an idiotic question.
"You mean blind kids? They see nothing, obviously."
"I can see!"
"Blind kid lies! What could you possibly see?"
"I... I can see... I can see—"
"Dreams!"
"When everyone sleeps, they close their eyes and dream. I asked before, and when that happens, people see darkness too, but they're just... dreaming."
Ren Xiaoping froze, unable to make sense of this logic, but that didn't stop him from bursting into laughter. "Blind kid says she sees dreams! Blind kid..." Before he could finish, his mother's palm smacked his back, lifting him like a chick by the scruff. Zheng Ran heard his "Help!" from a much higher position than before.
Ren Xiaoping's mother carried her son in one hand and held Zheng Ran's hand in the other, leading them home. The woman briskly asked what they'd been arguing about. Ren Xiaoping babbled an explanation—who knew if she understood? But as always, she delivered her verdict: "Ran is right. When she closes her eyes, she sees dreams."
"Dreams!"
"Yes, yes, Ran can see dreams." And so, Ran would live in dreams her whole life.
So what?
As long as she could live in beautiful dreams forever,
as long as someone was willing to let her live in beautiful dreams forever, then this world ought to have people who dwell in beautiful dreams.
And Ran was a good child. Ran deserved to live in beautiful dreams.
But Ran had one dream of her own. She didn't want to watch the people on this street disappear one by one. When she grew up, she wanted to stand in front of everyone she loved.
Only... the fortune telling Daoists said dreams were always the opposite of reality.
But it didn't matter, Ran. If the world is a story that cycles endlessly, then perhaps dreams and reality share the same ending.