Like a Dream, the Clear Cave Sky

My name is Yan Xiao, and I am twenty-one years old. This age has nothing to do with time. It is the age I was when my life was determined to be eternal. Time flies and the valley changes. I have existed in this lonely cave for a long time. It has been so long that I feel like I am wandering in an eternal dream, unable to wake up. In the long years, time fell on me, just like it fell on the vast mountains, as if it were still. In this mortal world, everyone I know has died long ago, leaving me alone. Sometimes, I go out into the world to look for the long-lost fireworks. Occasionally, I can meet a few familiar faces, but I understand that they are no longer the old friends I know. This kind of loneliness is terrible, making me wonder if I am just a dead thing like the rocks in the mountains; this kind of loneliness is worth celebrating, because the lonely years can always make the impossible possible, giving me enough time to wait for a lotus that will bloom for me!