Na Ke Xia sat on the interstellar train, his face pale, his eyes staring out the window with lifeless eyes. Outside the window, the stars flashed by like quicksand, hurriedly, but always stayed in the same blank black curtain. He didn’t remember how he came here, as if he was suddenly brought to this train that never stops one day. At first, he didn’t know what he was going to do, or even where his destination was. Now, he didn’t even dare to ask himself why he had to continue walking on this endless journey.
Everyone will tell you that the meaning of life lies in pursuit. And Na Ke Xia, already tired of this repetitive proposition, even began to doubt whether the so-called pursuit has an end.
1. Those untouchable light cones and unanswerable loneliness
The air in the train was a little depressing, and the people around him seemed unusually quiet, as if there was some kind of insurmountable distance between them. He once heard such a sentence: “All encounters are the beginning of loneliness.” So, what about all the pursuits? Is it the same, destined to be lonely from the beginning?
The cone of light, like that unreachable dream, hangs in front of him, emitting a faint light, but no matter how hard he tries, he can’t touch it. Every approach seems to only make him more disappointed. Perhaps, in the process of chasing the cone of light, he gradually becomes numb. He can no longer tell why he keeps moving forward. Is it for that elusive goal, or just to escape the emptiness in his heart?
Sometimes he wonders, what is the meaning of chasing the cone of light? It is like a floating star, emitting a faint light in the distance, guiding him in the direction of progress. However, this star is destined to be just a symbol of nothingness, a beautiful ideal that humans can never reach.
That moment Xia began to understand a fact: people always look for meaning in their loneliness, and the core of meaning may not exist at all. The process of pursuit is the most important, and no matter what the result is, you can only return to your original point in the end. That cone of light will never be reached.
2. The impermanence of trains and life: the trajectory of fate and the emptiness of choice
That moment Xia recalled the situation when he first stepped on this train. He remembered that he did not take this road for any special reason, but was pushed by an irresistible force. Fate is like the track of this interstellar train. Everyone is traveling on it, unable to stop or resist.
He suddenly realized that his fate was just the result of countless collisions on a certain track. Just as the train always runs along the established route, fate has no choice, or in other words, from the beginning, he was not given the opportunity to make a choice.
He had thought countless times that if he could stop at a certain intersection and take another road, would his life be different? However, he knew clearly that those thoughts were just fantasies. Just like everyone always imagines a world of “if” when thinking alone at night, but all this is just fantasy after all.
3. That moment Xia’s entanglement with the light cone: lost in himself
The train seems to have no end, the stars are shining, the night is deep, and as time goes by, all the scenes become blurred. Na Kexia turned his head slightly, his eyes resting on the light cone in his hand. How many light cones has he collected? He can’t remember. Every time he gets a new light cone, he always feels a brief satisfaction, but soon, he will fall into a deeper emptiness. The existence of light cones is no longer a desire for him, but a dependence, an inevitable and inescapable dependence.
Perhaps this is his fate all along – always walking on a seemingly goal-oriented track, but never reaching the end. And every new light cone seems to bring a short-lived hope, but this hope has never changed anything.
Na Kexia couldn’t help but smile ironically. People always think that life will be different if they have something. So, they keep pursuing and collecting until they find that all the gains are empty. In any case, he still stays on this train with no end, and continues to chase those illusory lights.
4. The symbol of the light cone: the constant pursuit and the unfillable emptiness in life
Zhang Ailing once said: “Life is like a silk thread, passing through countless needle holes, each needle and each thread is waiting for an encounter, and these encounters are never certain.” That moment Xia suddenly realized that his relationship with these light cones might be just like this – they are just needle holes, passing through the thread of time, and each encounter is just a destined part of life.
That moment Xia looked at the stars outside the window, and an inexplicable touch surged in his heart. It turns out that every pursuit in life is an unavoidable loneliness. Perhaps in the pursuit of the light cone, he will eventually understand that this loneliness is the meaning of his existence.
He closed his eyes slightly, as if he heard the sound of the train going farther and farther, and gradually, he no longer felt that it was so important. Does the light cone exist? Can the train reach the end? These questions gradually blurred.
And he just sat quietly, letting fate and time take him to the next unknown direction.
5. Conclusion: Crossing the endless night, heading towards the unknown destination
At that moment, Xia knew that he could not turn back, and could not stop. His life was like this train that never stopped. No matter how much he wanted to rest, he had to keep moving forward. And Guangchui was always the light in his heart that could not be crossed. He was always pursuing and moving forward.
People often say that life is a pursuit, and the ultimate meaning lies in the pursuit itself. Perhaps this is the true meaning of life.