Dreamland Is Not a Land

I am Long Yi, a novelist. Day and night are reversed, trapped between writing and dreaming. My hometown has changed, and the small town in my memory has been replaced by high-rise buildings. I couldn't tell the difference between dreams and reality, and hunger and loneliness followed me closely. In the dream, corpses, bloody bricks, and the giant python entrenched at the east end of the street appeared. The death of my cousin, the funeral that I didn't return for, guilt gnawing at my heart. It wasn't until I returned to my hometown and placed a red brick in front of my cousin's grave that I invited him to eat fried noodles that I realized: my hometown is not in the streets, but in my heart. The dreamland is not the hometown, and peace of mind is the place to return.