Status Updates From Night Train

"I’m afraid to stay at home alone. There’s no one there, I don’t know what I’d do in an empty apartment. When you get old, the hardest thing to face is yourself."

"Is that bad, not being normal? That just means you’re different from other people. How do you accomplish anything without being different?"

“This is the ideal night train ride, drifting alone through a borderless landscape. The world is a flat, black surface, sliced apart by the even darker train, the wound healing instantly as the world settles back into tranquility.”

"You’re adrift. If you didn’t focus your energy on one book or one essay at a time, you’d have lost your sense of direction long ago."
　"Why can’t I just read and think? Why can’t knowledge be a goal in itself?"
　“But what is it for?"

“What is anyone doing with their lives except constantly rearranging things?”

“You could never find such serenity and introspection during the day. When the sun shines on the world, I find it unbelievably chaotic. [...] You can’t even find a piece of ground to sit on peacefully. Why are we all so busy? Why can’t we sit quietly and allow the world to grow large around us? We won’t stop. Each of us wants to run faster than the next.”

"When I was younger, I thought I’d be bored of I didn’t smoke or drink. Now when I feel blue, I just chew on a twig and that’s as good as any cigarette. Drinking DDT doesn’t solve anything—if it does then you don’t have real problems. Isn’t that right? That’s the human condition, there are fewer ways of attaining enlightenment than you imagine."

“The less money I have, the more books I buy.”

now THIS is the type of poetic writing I love.

Munian ended up getting his degree, Mr Xu dies, Xiaoji dies (van gogh possessed him). Who would have guessed munian did ended up killing wei ming (shouldnt have literally raped Qin Ke)

Munian is excited about a train coming to their town. Old Chen unfortunately got his trishaw compounded but that was an excuse to visit Munian and Qin Ke. Munian’s mother want Munian to marry Qin Ke, though he doesn’t seem to be interested.

‘Four-Eyes was always bringing up her grandpa, whom he said had brought down their entire clan. He made her family sound like they’d plummeted to depths from which they could never be rescued, and she hated how he was always going on about landlords this and landlords that, just like everyone else. One by one the Educated Youths departed. Expert might only have lost one finger, but he felt ashamed of his disability—’