Preface·Prisoners of Light
The last time I saw the complete starry sky was on the roof of a mental hospital.
The bipolar patient who claimed to be from the Eastern Han Dynasty was using his fingernails to carve twenty-eight constellations on the cement floor. The moonlight streamed through his sunken eye sockets, dyeing the blood stains a strange indigo blue. "Did you see it?" He suddenly grabbed my wrist, his nails digging into the skin, "Yinghuo guards the heart, the purple microscopic light moves eastward, this is the third time..."
The monitor sounded a shrill alarm behind me.
What bursts out of the patient's chest is not blood, but liquid fire flowing with starlight. His throat bones creaked as he burned, and he spelled out the last complete sentence: "Don't let them find out that you are stealing fire."
Later, I looked through ancient books and realized that——
Human beings are staggering in the dark forest holding the torch of civilization, and those who cast huge shadows beside the campfire are never so-called gods.
