It Was More Than Just a Dream

This is a classic reimagining of a daydream, but perhaps it is more than just a dream. Is it the departed longing to remain among the living, or the subconscious echoing the future? It is all contained in these few lines:

A dream of millet, a glimpse of the future, decades wasted in a life of idleness.

Too late for regret, left with remorse; waking from the dream, a young man rises to strive.

Read in the morning, cultivate oneself by night; since ancient times, the virtuous have loved literature.

Guard love by day, pine for it by night; even in troubled times, a lover’s heart remains true.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.