Shi Chaosheng has been sleeping poorly lately. The bizarre and terrifying images in her dreams leave her uneasy, so her close friend Yang Lili takes her to a scenic area to unwind.
Shi Chaosheng thinks her luck really is the worst. They run into a landslide, and she and Yang Lili, two unlucky souls, end up buried beneath it.
When she wakes, she finds that she seems to be doing all right. Her friend is fine, too.
The only difference is that there’s a System in her mind calling itself “Cloud,” ordering her to clear the “anomalies” appearing in the world. Shi Chaosheng thinks it’s ridiculous. This has to be a dream... It feels so fake.
But as she clears more and more “anomalies,” Shi Chaosheng uncovers a shocking secret. Perhaps her life was never supposed to follow this path...
What exactly is the System?
How did those alien-source entities appear?
Why does everything in daily life seem so strange?
Is the world I live in still the same one as before?
Yang Lili: On this long journey, I’m so glad I met you.
You’re always encouraging me, but when it comes to encouraging yourself, you lose your nerve.
Shi Chaosheng: The world is small enough to hold a grain of sand; the world is vast enough to hold every moment of our lives.
Though you’ve long since left, your living shadow is everywhere within me.
Yun Jin: Shi Chaosheng? Wow, I love you, and I love your name! Every moment, moving toward life, living on without end.
Zhu Yuman: She told me that, like a vine, I could shatter every hardship and every resentment. She and I will live on, without end.
Really, without end? How am I supposed to answer you?
"Slow Water" is not a particularly passionate book, but after reading it carefully, I always feel that there is sadness in the perfection.