A Single Swallow

by Zhang Ling

possessed the skills of a great mathematician and was thus always able to reduce life’s complex details to their

simplest, most uncomplicated form, getting to the root of things in just one shot.

The living can’t control their own days, but the dead are not thus bound. After

death, the soul is no longer limited by time, space, or unexpected events. The soul’s world has no boundaries. To the soul, the entire universe and all eternity are just a thought away.

You not only aimed well but also understood the principle of lead time.

We feared crushing the tender pieces of old memories buried beneath the changes.

However, there was a limit to your endurance. The rubber band in your mind was elastic, but there was a time it broke.

These girls had yet to go through life’s kneading, so their voices didn’t carry any wrinkles or blemishes. They were as crisp as wind chimes.

Hate that can find expression is not hate. Hate must come to the end of its own rope before being forgotten.

War is one world, and peace another. Each world has its own door, and they are not connected in any way.

My mother’s words were as effective as trying to scratch lice through a cotton-padded jacket, not relieving the itch or pain.

Putting on my father’s clothes was like putting on his courage. I had my father’s and my own courage,

Facing death is a form of bravery, but so is facing life.

April is the cruelest month, breeding Lilacs out of dead land . . .

She possessed the three basic qualities a doctor needed: compassion, intuition, and calmness under stress.

There can be many reasons for one person’s fondness or hatred of another, and sometimes there’s no reason at all. Explaining interpersonal relationships is easier in the animal kingdom. When it came down to it, the captain and I were just two dogs with different scents.

When examined under a microscope, one will see the pores even in the skin of an angel.

“That was when it dawned on me that even in the animal world, strength doesn’t guarantee victory. Strength and dexterity can each be used to restrain the other.”

“In fighting, the time it takes to complete a kick or a punch is proportionate to one’s height and weight. For someone with a good understanding of math, this is not hard to understand, right?”

When you fight, your eyes must hold your opponent like an iron vise. Your expression is especially important. A famous military scientist once said that psychology is a secret weapon in modern warfare that does not consume huge expenses. There’s some logic to this.

Diligence clips the wings of cleverness, allowing it to stay firmly on the ground. Persistence grinds away the sharp edges of cleverness, not allowing it to take shortcuts through things. Cleverness thus clipped can more fully penetrate the nature of things.

you were using these defeats to fool your opponent into believing that the opening drum was the battle itself.

It had just been mindless chatter around the table, originating in the crotch and going straight out of the mouth without passing through the brain at all.

They knew how to conserve their resources. They broke their energy into smaller units, using it sparingly, exactly the same way they managed their silver coins. They never used their energy on emotions like anxiety, excitement, depression, or despair.

It was the same path I’d walked when bringing Stella to Yuehu years earlier. Their departing footprints passed over those coming in, and in the future, there would be more incoming footprints

passing over these. Life is nothing but a series of such overlaps and interminglings.

To the person who is leaving, the attraction of what lies ahead is greater than what lies behind. Recollection is something that is left for later.

Conscience was the most vicious mosquito in the world, biting her all the time, day and night, giving her no peace.

It was like a bomb with a long fuse. All anyone saw was the explosion, completely missing the long process of detonation.

Time would be sandpaper that would slowly smooth away all the scars.