A Floating Life in a Fantasy World

A drop in the vast ocean, leaving no trace in time. Life is like an ant, like a passing cloud. We come into the world naked and leave without a sound, bringing no drop of dew and taking away not a wisp of cloud. Who ever knew? Who ever remembered?

I only remember that I was once here, and I know that I will one day leave. But I don't know, nor do I remember, why my life began or why it must end.

That year, that month, I had only just begun to form memories when I was sent, bewildered and confused, to settle in a remote village on the Jianghan Plain. Little did I know that I had stumbled into an otherworldly land of lakes and marshes. And, just as unwittingly, I became entangled in romance and heartache. Every village girl was as lovely as a cherry-red mouth and a willow-slim waist, with skin like jade and a face like a peach blossom. Some were as tender as water, others as passionate as fire. My life was helplessly consumed and drowned by these enchanting women, until I became a wisp of smoke, forever drifting above this watery plain.

A mound of yellow earth covers the dust of so much history. A heap of barren graves buries so much of the world's sorrow. Beautiful women have been fated to short lives since ancient times, but why does Heaven envy their beauty?

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.