3 posts tagged with "loneliness"

Zhao Xunjin, a name that dissipates in the wind like a musical note.

Taishan and the Cat

I began accompanying people climbing Mount Tai on a foggy morning. To be precise, it wasn't "accompanying," it was "being accompanied." I stood at the exit of the Nantianmen cable car station, like a forgotten piece of luggage, waiting for the next lonely soul.

Old Wang's greatest joy after retirement was organizing his "legacy list." This wasn't a traditional will, but a detailed list of every small item in his life: a tea set used for thirty years, each cup with a different chip, like the irreparable regrets in his life; a pile of expired newspapers, recording the boring news of each day, like his monotonous life day after day; and a box of matchboxes he collected in his youth, the patterns on which always reminded him of those blurred past events.

He lived in a small bachelor apartment, the walls a mottled yellow, the window looking out at towering skyscrapers. Old Wang always sat by the window, sipping his strong tea, staring at his list in a daze. The list had been updated dozens of times, the writing becoming denser and denser, like his life, increasingly complicated yet increasingly empty.