Entretenimento Chinês: Começando pela Escola de Artes

Chapter 1: Wanting to Return to the Past, to Try and Let the Story Continue

There is a renowned tale from ancient times called “Zhuang Zhou’s Butterfly Dream.” It tells of the philosopher Zhuang Zhou, who once dreamt that he was a butterfly. Yet upon waking, he wondered: What if I am truly a butterfly, only dreaming that I am a man named Zhuang Zhou?

In October 2003, Li Jingkun, then a second-year middle school student, awoke at his desk with a similar sensation of waking from a long dream.

Suddenly, his mind was flooded with memories, as if scenes from a film had been etched onto his brain, ready to be replayed at will. The books he had read, the music he had listened to, the films he had watched—all could be recalled with vivid clarity. The people he had met, the things he had experienced, both joyful and sorrowful, none were forgotten.

Within these memories, he was already a grown man: in his thirties, with a modest business and a small fortune to his name. Yet, inexplicably, one day as he was plugging a 1TB external hard drive into his computer, he was struck by a sudden jolt of electricity and lost consciousness—only to awaken as a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old boy again.

Was it all just a dream? Or had he truly lived through these years, only to be reborn by some mysterious twist of fate? Or perhaps, even now, was he still lost in a dream?

“What’s up? Daydreaming about some pretty girl?” His deskmate Xiaojun waved a hand in front of his eyes.

Xiaojun had been his tablemate in the second year of middle school, and the two w