I came across this short story and
it reminded me that I actually have a blog! So, what better way to commemorate
this humiliating realization than to give credit to the Fish of Lijiang! (by
author Chen QiuFan)
The fishes only appear in two scenarios in the story, first when the main character met a ‘friend’ and second when he was alone, yet it beautifully sums up what all this world building is about.
By the way, the fishes are holographic, a clever technology to imitate nature and capitalize the historical landmark being swallowed by consumerism. At least that’s my interpretation of it.
My commentary isn’t doing this any
justice, and I thought of just quoting directly from the passage, but somehow
not one phrase or sentence screams importance? It feels like it’s meant to be
taken in whole, because there’s so many plot holes in that time dilation and
time compression theory and too many unanswered questions that doesn’t come to
any core conclusion, thoughts like how far can we stretch our time if we’re
given the choice to, is it worth the endurance to believe your absence would
render the world in chaos, and is it even your choice to make?