Part One: Xiao Sang and Her Friends and Parents
The novel opens with Xiao Sang, a reflective young woman, immersed in her diary. She muses about returning to “that time,” a mysterious inner realm where choices might reveal themselves. This sets the stage for the novel’s mixture of reality and dreamlike imagination. Her life revolves around reading novels, which she experiences not as passive entertainment but as a parallel existence. Books are companions, extensions of her own thoughts, and portals to other worlds.
One of her closest friends is Xiao Ma, several years younger, exuberant and impressionable. Xiao Sang serves as a mentor to her, affirming her discoveries about books. When Xiao Ma discovers a novel that stirs her soul, she rushes to tell Xiao Sang, seeking validation. Xiao Sang remembers reading the same novel years earlier, smiling at Xiao Ma’s youthful excitement. Their bond is strengthened through literature, but also contrasted: Xiao Ma is fiery and impulsive, while Xiao Sang’s maturity lends her a calm steadiness.
Their lives expand outward into the city, where novels seem to bleed into everyday reality. A coffee shop becomes a liminal space, filled with velvet curtains, dim candles, and even the apparition of a gentle leopard who kisses Xiao Ma. The surreal is accepted without surprise: the line between fiction and life collapses. Books give Xiao Ma hope, while Xiao Sang reflects on fortune and maturity. Their conversations reveal that reading itself is a form of love — of longing, elevation, and intimacy.
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