The Ferryman: A Childlike Heart Endures

Lin Mengfan was sent by her father from the city to the countryside. From that day on, she became a left-behind child. She was seven years old then, and had no idea what that would mean for her life. Lin Mengfan only knew that her childhood would be without her parents. She often stood on the blue-stone bridge in her hometown, holding the wooden puppet her mother had given her. Beneath the bridge were three stone arches, and the river flowed through them. Whenever evening fell, Lin Mengfan seemed to see herself sitting in a boat with no sail. A wooden puppet aboard the boat would come to life, turning into a little boy who could speak. At night, beneath the bridge where the water flowed, as the boat passed through one of the arches, the boy said to Lin Mengfan, “I can ferry travelers, and I can ferry dreams, too.”