One Night

Waking up, finding the clock showing 11:00am exactly.
Again had the night replace the day. That kind of reversal, gradually became a habit.

In the crowded hotpot restaurant, gathering together with a few friends, we didn’t eat much, but just kept drinking beer, one after another, chatting, from Columbia to Deng xiao ping, from Guinness to Buddwiser, The company’s familiar faces flowing and hiding in the hot air saturated with smell of mutton and spice , seemed blur and distant, in a second I forgot where I was, whom I was with.

Being the last remaining customers, we finally walked out in tipsy steps when the waitresses all started to give us dirty looks. It was raining outside again, thickly but gently. Not big enough for umbrella, but undoubtly can wet you through. Face toward the dark sky, eyes closed, I let the rain run along the hot skin, washing off the lingering food smell, pulling me back from the illusion. When I opened my eyes, people around looked close and true again. The trance and distance, was just delusion in a flash.

Taxing from Pudong to Puxi, shuttling at midnight across the sleepless city, waving skyscrapers reaching into the deepest darkness like desperate ghosts, neon eyes glaring and bewildering, I could hear their harsh laughter. They were looking at people blindly hovering, commuting, aimlessly from one place to another, without realizing no matter how they transfer, where they go, they can never go beyond the doomed dark trap, no escape, no exception.

Those who won’t go home during the late night, initially only wanting to run away from the “day”, rushed into the “night” that was even darker and more overwhelming, disguised with splendid neon, colorful liquor, fragrant perfume and inebriating merriness, only to find themselves lonely spirits hovering in the dark circle, sinking deeper and deeper.