"Who said I let the fish go? When that lad saw that I didn't agree, he ran off, discouraged," the old man said with a smile.

The little girl was momentarily stunned, but determination soon appeared on her face. She went behind the fisherman and raised her little hands to tap his back, giving him a ma.s.sage. She looked incredibly adorable.

"Grandpa, come on, please?"

Time trickled by. The little girl's pleas lasted for more than two hours. The fisherman smiled and shook his head, looking resigned. He got up and moved to the pillar where the net was, then opened it. The fish instantly swam into the lake, diving into the depths, and disappeared without a trace.

"Alright, I released it. This should be enough, right?" The fisherman smiled and patted the girl's head. As she beamed at him, he turned around and continued fis.h.i.+ng.

A happy smile appeared on the girl's face. With a tinkling laughter, she ran away.

The young girl did not know that when she left, the fisherman raised his fis.h.i.+ng rod, and a big fish was caught. No one could say whether it was the one which he had released moments earlier or whether it was another one. In the end, the fact was that the fisherman caught another fish. He put it in the net and hung it on the pillar again.

With excitement on her face, the little girl ran back to the county town. On her way, she pa.s.sed by the noodle stall without noticing an old man sitting on the large rock. With a complicated gaze, he stared at the little girl leaving into the distance while tapping the tobacco pipe gently against the ground.

When he tapped the ground, the little girl who had already ran into the distance suddenly came to a stop. She saw the world in front of her suddenly shatter before they were swept up to form a vortex. It pulled her in, and after an unknown amount of time pa.s.sed, the fragments regrouped, forming a deep lake.

Fish swam within its depths, and no one could say where it came from. One particular fish moved in the water and seemed to swim about without any sentience.

It was a fish which had lived for an unknown number of years in the lake, but it did not have many memories. Whatever it could remember only lasted for seven breaths. Everything else was a blank slate.

The days repeated themselves, and every year pa.s.sed by in the same manner. The fish swam in the lake, occasionally surfacing to stare at the scenery beyond. It watched the pa.s.sing of seasons. There were times in the past where it wanted to rush out of the water and take a look at the sky and earth, but the moment this thought appeared in its head and it could take action, it had already lost that thought. This was because that thought had come from surpa.s.sed the span of seven breaths… and because of it, the fish forgot it.

However, with only the memories worth the time of seven breaths, the fish did not know grief, and neither did it know joy. Seven breaths were too short, so short that even its grief would only last for at most seven breath. Then, it would forget why it had been sad.

Its joy would last for at most seven breaths as well, since it would forget why it was happy.

With its memory like that, the fish's mind was blank most of the time. It had no memories and thoughts. It would only swim about in the lake based on its instinct. It would stare at its companions, at the darkness, and the distance where no future existed.

One day, when a fish bait sank into the lake, it entered the fish's line of vision.

It knew what it was, but it still went up to bite it. When it was pulled up by the fish hook and flung onto the platform, it saw the blue sky and the world beyond the water, but a pity… it only had seven breaths worth of memories. When it was placed in a net and the net was hung beside a pillar, it could only struggle against the net. During that time, it would only struggle for seven breaths… because after that time, it would have forgotten that it had been caught by someone…

It also forgot that the lake where it was should not be this small and that it should not have a net which it could not leave. Because of that, it would swim about in the net in a carefree manner.

When the net was lifted out of the water and the fish struggled with the pain of suffocation, it saw a little girl. That girl had raised the net, bringing it such great agony.

The fish glared at the little girl, and as it continued struggling, several breaths pa.s.sed. It forgot why the little girl had lifted the net. The fish only remembered that the girl was the one who had caused it great pain.

Its memories only lasted for seven breaths, so when it struggled free through a gap that had suddenly opened up in the net, it forgot that it had once been caught and brought out of the lake by someone. It forgot that it had been placed in a net, and it forgot that the net was not its home. It only remembered that during the first breath of its memories, the girl had brought it pain. Because of that, when it returned to the water, it leaped up again. It did not know why its body would instantly turn big, but with a single bite, it dragged the little girl into the lake…

Time seemed to continue trickling by. The fish could never know how much of it had pa.s.sed. Perhaps it had just been seven breaths, but… at that instant, it saw another hook falling into the lake.

It had already forgotten about the dangers of the hook, yet it seemed to know what that hook was. Once it bit it again, it was brought out of the water again, and it was put into a net again before being placed into the water with only a limited area of movement. Then, just like before, it forgot the start of the story and only remembered the ending.

This time, the fish did not see the girl. Instead, after an unknown amount of time pa.s.sed, the net was opened and it swam out to return to the lake. Upon being freed, it cast the fis.h.i.+ng platform a glance. On it stood an old man, and by his side was a little girl who seemed to be staring at it…

When seven breaths pa.s.sed, the fish started swimming about in the lake, but this time, it seemed to be trying hard to think of something, and it continued thinking even when it bit down on another fish hook and was brought out of the water…

It still continued thinking when night fell and it was taken out of the lake the second time. It had already forgotten the start and the ending. The fisherman took it and sent it to the noodle stall where it opened its eyes to see an old man holding a tobacco pipe through the net. He was using gra.s.s to weave gra.s.s puppets while staring at it.

"You are my sixth reincarnation…" he said.

There was an ancient air to his words, and the one sentence was spoken so slowly that he spent a total of seven breaths to finish speaking it. This allowed the fish to hear the full sentence, thereby allowing it to be recorded in its memories for all time.

It turned into a loud rumble, and the fish seemed to have remembered something. As its world crumbled, the fragments of the shattered world turned into a vortex. With a howl, it took away the final shred of thought in the fish's mind. It could not see the fragments regrouping, and it could not see another world appearing before its eyes.

Zhang Wen Zhang [1] was his name. It was a name that looked very common, but in truth held a hint of a poetic flair. His father had given him that name, and as the son of a teacher, Zhang Wen Zhang thought that this was quite a good name.

At the very least, based on the name alone, the others would know that he was an educated person.

Yet in reality, he did not like studying. He liked personally cooking good food, such as brewing soup or making noodles. Perhaps it was due to this hobby that as he gradually grew up, he was no longer as gentle and frail as his name suggested, which meant that he was an article written in a book. Instead, he turned into a young man who leaned slightly on the plump side.

His round face looked rather honest, but the light occasionally s.h.i.+ning in his eyes would allow other people to tell that he was rather cunning. Yet that was all that they could see. After all, the cunning that others could see was usually something intentionally shown, and it was all due to a person's ego of not wanting other people to think that they were not smart.

Translato's Note:

Zhang Wen Zhang: Zhang is a family name, while Wen Zhang means essay. A long time ago in China, only the rich can study, and the poor did grunt work or hard labor. So, the rich do not need to do hard work, which means they easily get sick compared to the boys who learn martial arts or do hard work, which means they are frail and gentle. Since essay is a.s.sociated with studies, that's why we have frail and gentle.