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墨書 Inktalez
Life is merely a fleeting hundred years. Within this time, what can we accomplish? Different people surely have different answers. Wang Chao has already lived a quarter of his life, and if he were to answer this question, he would find himself at a loss. His life can be considered tragic; from the moment he was born, he has never seen his biological parents.
In the orphanage, there was only an Auntie who ran the place and some women who merely existed day by day. Most of them were in their thirties or forties, taking advantage of government funding, wandering aimlessly. They discovered Wang Chao on the wall of the backyard, and from that point on, he was the only orphan taken in; no other children were ever welcomed. Wang Chao grew up in such an environment, and by the time he was adopted by an old man in his teens, he had already learned a way to get by from the others in the orphanage.
He became adept at being two-faced, knowing how to present himself differently depending on the situation.
Yet Wang Chao was fortunate. During those years with the old man, he experienced some of his few happy days. To fulfill the old man's dying wish, despite scoring only twenty points in mathematics, Wang Chao managed to get into a prestigious university. After that, his life was not much different from many others: graduation, job hunting, unemployment. Fortunately for him, he was someone who could get by on little; after six months, he still managed to earn some money doing odd jobs.
He found a girlfriend but faced rejection from her parents, who wouldn’t even allow them to meet.
Wang Chao thought his life would be like this forever—living an ordinary existence like most people. Perhaps in his thirties, he would marry a girl from the countryside and hold a regular job. He believed this was a reflection of his future. Since fulfilling the old man's wish, he felt like a walking corpse.
That was until he met Yang Mengying. Yang Mengying was entirely different from him; both her parents were academicians at a hospital and they possessed immense wealth. Yet she rejected her family's plans and ventured out on her own to strive for success without taking a dime from them. Sometimes Wang Chao wondered if he had such a wealthy background, would Liu Xiaoxiao's parents still look at him with disdain?
The money Wang Chao had earned during his time at the orphanage came from selling plastic bottles one by one.
So why did he continue to live?
Wang Chao recalled the old man's last words before he passed away: "Kid, cough cough, today I'm going to another world. You always look so troubled at such a young age; what do you have to worry about? Don’t look at me now—old and alone—but when I was young, I was much more carefree than you are now. Life shouldn’t be so heavy; love if you want to love, hate if you want to hate. I don’t ask for you to achieve great success; just live freely and passionately."
"I don’t have much to leave you except enough money for you to finish college. But I can tell you one thing: life is as splendid as summer flowers and death is as serene as autumn leaves." With that, the old man took his last breath.
Wang Chao didn’t cry; he simply began to tidy up the old man's body while subconsciously muttering, "Where on earth did you learn that line?" Yet those words remained etched in his heart. Today, as he touched the door handle once more, they resurfaced in his mind: life is as splendid as summer flowers and death is as serene as autumn leaves.
As Wang Chao recalled this moment, his mind drifted back to when he was ten years old, during a conversation with Auntie, the head of the orphanage.
At that time, Wang Chao was sitting atop a rockery in the backyard, gazing at the overgrown playground around him. The sun was slowly setting, casting its last rays onto the earth and onto him as well. Auntie was not napping in her office as usual; instead, she had come to the backyard, watching the sunset. She said to Wang Chao, "Kid, you don't need to fix the rockery if you break it."
Wang Chao, at ten years old, scoffed at this. Without turning around, he replied, "The back wall has collapsed, and I haven't seen you fix that either. Why aren't you hiding in your office sleeping today?"
"A woman needs to exercise occasionally, doesn't she?" Auntie responded. "What about you? Haven't you been fighting with those kids outside lately?"
Wang Chao sighed helplessly and said, "They have numbers on their side. I'm all alone in the orphanage; if I go out, I'll just get beaten up. It's better to stay here and soak up some sun!"
Auntie remarked, "Oh? I didn't expect you to have such a laid-back day. Didn't you just stir up trouble for over a week? Your wounds still haven't healed."
Wang Chao turned to look at Auntie, who had a round face and chubby cheeks. He said, "No more stirring up trouble; in the end, it's always me who gets hurt. Who's foolish enough to keep going? I'm not that stupid—let them do what they want."
Auntie then said something that Wang Chao didn't quite understand at the time: "Stirring up trouble is part of living. For over a decade, you've been the only child in this orphanage. It's time I taught you properly—if you can't win, run away. After running away, come back and fight again. How can you give up just because you've been beaten a few times?"
"Come on, it's not you getting hit," Wang Chao muttered. "You don't feel any pain."
"I'd rather you be remembered as a corrupt official than live an insignificant life," Auntie shook her head and said. "By the way, kid, someone will be coming to adopt you in a few days."
"A beautiful lady?" Wang Chao asked eagerly.
"An old man," Auntie replied before turning to leave. As Wang Chao watched her retreating figure, he felt that something about her seemed different from usual.
Love as you wish, hate as you will.
To live is to stir things up.
Wang Chao suddenly understood something. He slowly withdrew his hand from the door and turned around. A madman had already rushed in front of him, yet Wang Chao did not flinch or evade. Indeed, to live is to be spontaneous; why worry about so many things? To face death alongside the one you love—what could be a greater joy in life?
"Damn it," Wang Chao finally returned to his carefree nature. He laughed and cursed, "It's been a while since I fought. Living is all about stirring things up."
With that, Wang Chao charged towards the group of madmen. These lunatics were incredibly strong and numerous, and at Wang Chao's level, he was no match for them. Before long, he was covered in various wounds from their bites and scratches. Yet, there was not a trace of fear in him. What joy is there in life, and what fear in death? Wang Chao was unaware of how many madmen had already clung to him.
Suddenly, clarity flooded Wang Chao's mind.
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