It had been three years since Li Yuan first discovered the old library.
He was now nearly eleven years old.
Every week—sometimes every day—he would go there.
Not just to read, but to experience.
Every piece of writing he opened
seemed to carry the soul of someone within it.
The bitterness of loss, the warmth of love,
failure, rising again—
all of it captured in scrolls and hand-written books.
"Am I reading…
or living someone else's life?"
Li Yuan wondered one day, as he sat cross-legged on the dusty library floor.
That feeling grew stronger each time he turned a page.
Time seemed to flow swiftly,
like a river that could not be held back.
This village… Ziran.
A peaceful name, in harmony with nature.
Surrounded by green mountains and thick forests,
it felt like a small world forgotten by the outside one.
But Li Yuan had started to sense—
Ziran was not just a village.
There was deep history behind its calm appearance.
"Maybe long ago… this village was grand, prosperous.
Maybe people came from afar to read in this library.
And then… something happened…"
This library was too vast, too rich,
for a village as small as Ziran in this day and age.
The nearly invisible paths,
the once-orderly shelves now decaying.
The books that once felt alive now silent—
waiting for someone who could understand them.
In the quiet of the library, Li Yuan sat still.
Around him, sunlight streamed through the cracks in the roof,
forming circles of light on the old wooden floor.
"If I keep reading…
will I discover who built this place?
Or even… why it was forgotten?"
But more importantly—
"Can I carry on the understanding they left behind…?"
Li Yuan let out a breath.
He was still young, but his eyes no longer looked like a child's.
There was depth. There was pain.
But also… a light slowly growing within him.
And that light, one day…
would change everything.
In the dark corner of that ancient library,
Li Yuan opened a book that had never been touched before.
Its pages were brownish, the scent of dampness mixed with old ink.
Delicate yet firm handwriting was written there:
a sentence that felt like a whisper from the world itself—
"The world is vast…
the world is limitless."
Li Yuan narrowed his eyes,
reading slowly as if afraid the meaning would slip away.
"Space is deep.
Time passes…
when you can no longer find the answers in books—
go out."
"Seek them somewhere,
in an event,
behind a meeting…
or a farewell."
"This world is wide.
Understand its paths.
The journey is long.
Time will pass, little by little…
without you noticing."
"Wander the world.
Feel it.
Live.
And… understand."
The words pierced his heart
like drops of water falling into a still lake—
slow, but creating ripples that reached deep into his consciousness.
Li Yuan closed the book gently.
For the first time, he felt that the book was not just meant to be read…
but to be lived.
In the stillness of the quiet library,
Li Yuan gazed at the small window that looked out toward the forest beyond.
The wind blew softly, swaying the leaves.
"Maybe… my time to leave will come soon."