Life is a one-way journey. Some set off toward distant mountains and seas with flowers in their arms; others huddle on a station platform, wrapped in wind and frost. Rooted in the stories of everyday streets and alleys, this collection of short fiction weaves a fine, warm net, gathering up the light scattered in the dust.
In the deepest folds of fate, there are always people who use the clumsiest gestures to catch souls as they fall. Their stories are like fireworks bursting in the dark, their fragments falling into the world and becoming stars.
These stories offer no grand salvation, only small acts of perseverance: “Live in this precious world, where the sun is fierce and the water gentle,” as Haizi wrote. That is how it is.
This book is a collection of dewdrops the author gathered while wandering through the bustle of everyday life, each drop reflecting the warmth of the world. Here are people crushed beneath life’s burdens who painstakingly piece themselves back together, hands reaching into the abyss to fish out the moon, and hearts sowing the seeds of spring in the cracks of despair. Turn these pages and you will feel the hidden bonds between strangers, watch loneliness turn into a pearl through kindness, and witness roses growing from the wounds fate has dealt.
Dedicated to everyone who looks up at the stars while trudging through the mud: look, even in the crumpled hours, immortal fireflies are still flying. We come into this world for a brief visit. We need not become the sun; if we can be a match that burns for a moment, that is enough to light up an instant of eternity.
