Ling Xiuxi: Citizen Constellation Series

Author: Liao Jianbin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-12-01
Features: Last night, I had a strange dream. I dreamed a hideous monster grabbed my ears and demanded, "Chen She, do you know your past life?" I trembled and couldn't answer. He then sneered cruelly, "You are the reincarnation of Chen Shimei, the consort of the previous dynasty, and Chen Chao She. In this life, you are destined to be blinded by greed, indulge in debauchery, lose focus on your goals, and meet a tragic end. This is the time, the fate, and the destiny." Meeting Lü Qiu was fate, losing Lü Qiu was destiny. One cannot fight fate! My heart ached, so much that it felt numb. It took a long time before I slowly came back to my senses, but a faint pain lingered. I was only heartbroken—I hadn’t broken my heart. How could I not have broken my heart? Everything felt like a dream. Lü Qiu hurriedly walked away in my dream. That night, when I drank with Zhao Jun, I said that a man should be able to take things and let go, but at that moment, traitorous tears couldn’t help but flow. I hate others' pity, yet I couldn’t suppress the inner sorrow. If this desire continues, there must be an endless source of corruption. It is necessary to use sharp honesty to probe the deeply crumbling spiritual world of contemporary youth, who are drowning in desire, reaching the core, and being shocking. Countless men and women have lost their ultimate spiritual pursuit, bending to money, indulging in lust at the sight of beauty. They are restless, weak, fawning, frivolous, opportunistic, and indulgent, terrifyingly empty. The male protagonist desperately seeks pure art, romantic love, and a prosperous career, yet falls into cruel disillusionment. The female protagonist is talented and beautiful, yearning to bear the weight of family and love on her slender shoulders, yet is forced to sell her body and loses herself in the all-pervading temptation and traps of those who manipulate power, emotions, and desires, until desire and emotion become tangled, and the soul and body are separated. The muddled rich, officials, prostitutes, and mistresses—some good at reveling in luxury, some good at being treacherous, some good at being lecherous—still pretend to be elegant, pure, noble, classical, and public servants. They reach the extreme and never return. Morality collapses, personality disintegrates, and the spirit decays. In this waking dream, the towering and swaying monuments of virtue are about to crumble. In the seemingly calm, elegant, and sharp prose of the work, there is not only a profound and delicate touch on the spirit, behavior, and love, but also a natural and expressive penetration of compassion, insight, and deep pain that cannot be understood. Reading it brings a flood of emotions, stirring the soul.