Infinite Abyss

Miao Xingzhou watched as he began to be cyberbullied.

She watched in anguish as her income plummeted, leaving her with no money left to buy her own medicine.

She gradually fell asleep, watching her high-tech parents.

Mom: "You can't even handle this?"

Miao Xingzhou: "I really can't take it anymore."

Dad: "You have to be patient in everything you do."

Sister: "Mmm."

Brother: "Are you feeling better now?"

Miao Xingzhou: "Hmm."

Brother: "If that's the case, isn't it much better now?"

Miao Xingzhou: "I understand."

They began to slowly embrace Miao Xingzhou.

Miao Xingzhou slowly woke up from his dream and suddenly discovered the vicious comments from his fans.

I rewrote the parts that were criticized by netizens.

Looking at him, his mother said, "Miao Xingzhou, don't force yourself now. If you don't write well, go and get a job."

Miao Xingzhou: "I've been writing for twenty years, and now I can't do it if I go to work."

She turned off comments.

Seeing income continuously decreasing.

She gradually became a little annoyed, but a thousand was enough to live on.

It's good to be content with what you have.

My sister called, "Why did you turn off comment mode?"

Miao Xingzhou: "It's nothing."

Sister: "What did they say to you?"

Miao Xingzhou: "I don't want to talk about it."

Sister: "Let me guess, I'm going to scold you..."

Miao Xingzhou stared intently at her sister. After a long pause, her sister finally uttered a single word: "good-for-nothing."

Miao Xingzhou laughed. "Just because you've been called a good-for-nothing once, does that mean you can call everyone else a good-for-nothing?"

Sister: "Then what did I say to you?"

"I don't want to say that I'm writing novels now."

Sister: "Mmm."

He hung up the phone.

Looking at the computer screen, I realized how terrible my writing was. Why should I keep writing?

Countless doubts and disappointments surged forth.

She stopped writing her novel for two days and watched videos instead.

Mom said, "You're giving up?"

Miao Xingzhou: "No."

She entered a dream.

A machine appeared beside me.

High-tech mom: "Can you now go back to how you used to be?"

"Um."

He crawled inside.

It started looking like a slideshow.

Mom said, "Now click on the photos in the slideshow."

I clicked on a birthday photo.

Mom: "Today is your twenty-sixth birthday!"

Miao Xingzhou: "I want to make a wish."

Mom: "Mmm."

Brother: "I definitely have to make a wish."

The older sister began watching as Miao Xingzhou blew out the candles.

They divided the cake.

The older brother said, "The biggest one is for Miao Xingzhou."

Miao Xingzhou: "I don't want the biggest one."

Brother: "If you don't want the biggest one, do you want the strawberry one?"

Miao Xingzhou: "Okay."

After they finished eating, their mother asked, "What did you wish for?"

Miao Xingzhou: "I can't say."

I wish it could come true.

They sat down together.

The older brother said, "Time really flies these days."

Sister: "Mmm."

Sister-in-law: "Everything is better now, and my sister hasn't had an attack in a long time."

Miao Xingzhou: "Hmm."

Mom and Dad went out to play.

On each and every birthday.

I gradually came to understand that not all dreams have to be realized.

After a series of dreams, what I wake up to is a poignant reminder of life.

Her older sister looked at her and said with a smile, "You're still so childish."

Miao Xingzhou: "I'm already thirty, am I still not grown up?"

Sister: "Time flies."

"Um."

The older brother and sister-in-law said, "It's so good now, our family is happy and harmonious."

They sat around the table and chatted.

Brother: "What do you want to say to your past selves now?"

Miao Xingzhou looked at her sister, and her sister looked back at her with a smile.

The older brother smiled and said, "I'll go first."

"I'm so glad you've managed to stick to reading every day..."

Sister-in-law: "Anything else?"

Miao Xingzhou: "Hmm."

Brother: "Also, God allowed me to meet the person I'm going to spend my life with."

The sister-in-law threw herself into her brother's arms.

Neither the older sister nor Miao Xingzhou spoke.

The older brother said to his sister-in-law, "And you?"

Sister-in-law: "Of course I'm also happy that God gave your brother such a husband!"

Everyone laughed.

My older sister began by saying, "I'm very happy to be alive now!"

Everyone was stunned.

When it came to Miao Xingzhou, he said, "I hope I won't have any more troubles."

Brother: "Your ordeal is over now, and your future will be smooth sailing."

The older sister nodded.

Sister-in-law: "What your brother said will definitely come true."

The older brother said with a hint of pride, "Your sister-in-law said to believe in yourself."

Families spend less time together now. Unlike when we were children, we don't have as much time to spend together.

Watching my older brother and sister go out to work.

Brother: "You stay home and take good care of Mom and Dad."

He glanced at Miao Xingzhou and said, "Mom and Dad, keep an eye on her in case she has a relapse."

Dad: "Definitely."

Mom: "Take these pieces of cured meat away."

The older sister said, "I don't want to."

Mom: "You don't want to, you won't be able to buy it there even if you want to."

Brother: "Take what Mom gives you."

Sister: "I don't like eating cured meat."

Miao Xingzhou: "Just take a piece and try the taste."

Brother: "Mm."

Sister: "I don't carry cured meat in my bag."

They did not coerce.

Watching the bus drive away.

Miao Xingzhou continued to sit at his computer and write his novel.

Mom: "Luckily, you're still here with me."

Miao Xingzhou: "Isn't there still Dad?"

Dad stroked his beard and smiled.

Miao Xingzhou said, "Shall we cook together now?"

Mom: "Mmm."

She temporarily turned off her computer screen.

After finishing that, I started writing again.

Mom said, "Now you're glued to the computer all day long."

Miao Xingzhou: "I make a living using computers."

I'm home alone most of the time, while my parents go out to play.

My older brother and sister-in-law, and my older sister went out to work.

Looking at the data, I'm dizzy...

In the dream, a person who looked remarkably like me asked, "Are you satisfied now?"

Miao Xingzhou: "Why did you say that?"

"If you're satisfied now, come over here."

She slowly walked over, and suddenly countless souls wrapped around her.

She slowly felt her soul being devoured, and her heart ached.

I suddenly woke up from a dream and looked at the computer.

I rarely have nightmares. Based on my own experience, this dream shouldn't be considered a nightmare. I only had nightmares when I was very young.

I suddenly realized I'm old, seventy years old.

She was looking at the computer screen, wearing reading glasses.

Looking at the novel on the screen.

Mom and Dad are no longer here.

She lives alone.

Suddenly a child came in and said, "Grandma, this is something my mom asked me to bring you."

Miao Xingzhou looked at the zongzi and said, "Hey, I have an ice pop here, you can have it, I can't eat it."

The child took three popsicles and started to leave.

She held the steaming hot, freshly made zongzi and began to eat.

My teeth are already in bad shape, so I eat very slowly.

She slowly looked at the computer screen and realized that what she was writing was no longer suitable for online novels; it was a literary novel.

After she finished writing, she went outside to sunbathe.

The village hasn't changed much.

Perhaps only a few new houses.

The sunlight felt warm and cozy on my skin.

The sun-baked bones felt incredibly comfortable, and I slowly drifted off to sleep.

Suddenly, a child's voice came from inside, "Grandma, are you asleep now?"

Miao Xingzhou: "Hmm."

Child: "We want to go inside and play."

Miao Xingzhou: "I can't play in my room, and I can't find my things. That's not good."

The child left hesitantly.

Miao Xingzhou went back to sleep.

When I woke up again, I found myself in front of my 22-year-old computer.

Mom said, "Are you really going to work with us?"

Miao Xingzhou: "Hmm."

Mom: "You're not better yet, how can you go to work?"

Miao Xingzhou: "I'm feeling much better now."

Mom: "Let's stay another year and see."

"Can we try it? If it doesn't work, we can go home."

Mom didn't say anything.

They each did their own thing.

She looked forward to the days to come, realizing that while pursuing her dreams, she should first secure her livelihood and medicine.

She started smiling and said, "I finally have a job. Life is back on track."

"Miao Xingzhou really has some skills now," Mom said.

Miao Xingzhou: "Of course."

She returned home when she was very tired.

I lay down in bed and fell asleep.

Sister: "You haven't taken a shower yet!"

Mom: "She's tired. Wait a few minutes before waking her up to take a bath."

Miao Xingzhou: "Hmm."

My sister and mother both laughed.

The older sister said, "Do people with mental illness get sleepy after doing a few times?"

Mom: "When you first started working, weren't you always tired too?"

Sister: "I'm different from her."

Mom: "What's different?"

Sister: "I..."

Mom: "Go take a shower first."

Miao Xingzhou was then woken up.

Mom: "Go take a shower first."

Miao Xingzhou: "Hmm."

Sister: "Sleeping so soundly, like a pig."

Miao Xingzhou frowned, then went to the mountain to take a bath.

Mom said, "No one should stay up late tonight."

My older sister doesn't go to sleep until 11 o'clock, and neither does my mother.

Miao Xingzhou was fast asleep when he suddenly woke up in the middle of the night, wide awake and restless.

Mom mumbled sleepily, "Don't move around. Even if you can't sleep, go to sleep!"

He endured until morning and happily got out of bed.

After buying three steamed buns, I started eating them on my way to work.

After eating, we went into the factory.

They did the exact same work.

She was making up stories while she was working.

This way, Hui Ran's time will pass faster.

With each passing year bringing improvement, and through perseverance... have I finally grown old?

She looked at herself and realized that although she had some savings at the age of forty, it wasn't much.

All I want is to live a good life.

My sister said, "Aren't you working anymore?"

Miao Xingzhou: "You still have to support the children, but I don't, so I don't need to work anymore."

Sister: "What will you do when you get old?"

They didn't speak.

If she hadn't gotten sick, she probably would have chosen to get married too.

But I've already gotten used to being alone.

In my dream.

Those blurry figures gradually appeared.

Who are you?!

"We are—you."

"Come play with us."

"Miao Xingzhou!"

She started hopping and running towards the plain, but when she reached the edge of the plain, she suddenly lost her footing and fell into an endless abyss.

A bottomless hole, an intense feeling of weightlessness.

Why would I have such a dream?

She was reading a novel and had reduced the number of books she had saved from her favorites today.

She wasn't surprised; she was already used to it.

Suddenly my sister called, "There's a major economic crisis right now."