We only live for a few decades, and we all want to make a little big news. Looking back on the hurried past, I have always loved books and the sorrows they stir up. My heart is full of strange thoughts and insights, and it would be a shame to let them vanish without expressing them. I also feel that after entering the world and doing all kinds of things, meeting all kinds of people, I could never accept ending up on just any old path. It really is madness, or foolishness. But even a stubborn fool has a few interesting qualities. I have gathered them together and woven them into ramblings for idle readers, partly in the hope of finding kindred spirits, but mostly to earn a living.
The inspiration for this story came from an interesting experience. When I was young and working at a livestock farm, one day I was driving a nearly thousand-pound, nonproducing dairy cow to be slaughtered. Our eyes met for a moment. The sight of her wide eyes and the sound of her bellow made my heart clench. Ever since, I have often pondered the difference between humans and beasts, whether intelligence or strength is superior, and what makes morality and nature endure. That is the source of this story. And because young people are often keen on the usual notions of the supernatural, evolving powers, cultivation, magic, and so on, I mashed a bunch of ideas together, and this story came to be.
