Surviving in the Dark

My name is An Sheng.

I am alert in the darkness and dazed in the daylight. I tell myself this is simply a way of life, like so many things we're born with.

My favorite animal is the wolf, for a simple reason: they are the only creatures whose eyes shine in the dark, just like mine, alert in the night.

When I was ten, I began to realize I was different from the other children. I always felt a powerful force inside me pulling me onward, directionless, always forward, toward an unknown world that held an irresistible allure. So I stopped trying to control myself. Sometimes my mind was completely blank, but my feet never stopped moving.

But back then, I seemed trapped in a circle. No matter how long I walked, my parents would always find me, and my father would beat me with his belt. Yet I never cried. It was as if I could feel something called pain, but it could never bring tears to my eyes.

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