My Hamster Escaped, Returned Wild at Midnight: Is It Still Mine?

How did it spent that month? Hiding in the shadows, moving about in the dead of night. It lived among flies and mice, subsisting on scraps of paper and garbage. Once, it lived in luxury, residing in a palace without ever stepping out; now, it has become a rogue, wandering and warring in all corners. Do you know the dreams of a hamster? Do you know the world it imagines in its heart? Do you know its past life stories? No, you don’t. You merely spent a few coins to buy its freedom, yet you naively thought you could cage it forever. Its life is so short, only two or three years. To you, it’s just a fleeting moment. In its eyes, you possess endless life, immortal, a god-like being. “Hamster god, standing on two legs, grants me grains and controls my lifespan.” You gave it a splendid palace, a soft bed, delicious food, and an eternal spring. But it was not happy.

“If I had not seen the sun, I could have endured the darkness.” Life was once tough, with a mother who raised dozens of siblings, often underfed and poorly clothed, many starved, frozen, or even eaten by their own mother. It was the strongest of its siblings, lucky enough not to be devoured and to survive. Then, in just two months, it grew from a pup into a young adult, leaving its mother to roam the world. It saw blue skies and white clouds, smelled the intoxicating fragrance of flowers, pondered its life in green meadows, and was once infatuated with a female hamster. It thought life was long, that it could see the entire world. Until it met a dying old hamster, who told it that a hamster’s lifespan is merely two or three years.

“How old are you, sir?” it asked cautiously.

“I am two years and five months old,” the old hamster replied weakly. Its eyes welled up. Turning away, it left, and behind it, the old hamster collapsed and breathed its last breath. It didn’t look back.

Once, it thought the world was vast and life was long. Now it understood, the world is bigger than it imagined, but life is far shorter. It wanted to journey with a sword, care for the world, achieve great deeds. But fate was unfair, its destiny, or what you might call its genes, decreed that it was merely a hamster with a lifespan of two or three years. A mushroom does not know of dusk or dawn, a cicada does not know of spring or autumn, such is a short life. It was nothing more than a frog in a well. No, even a frog’s life is longer. It realized it would never see the whole world in its lifetime.

If it had lived among hamsters all its life, living and dying like all hamsters, it might have accepted it. But you bought it, took it from the hamster world, and it couldn’t tell if it was in heaven or hell. That day, a net fell from the sky, trapping it, and no matter how it struggled, it couldn’t escape. The world spun, and after a long, bumpy journey, it arrived at a strange place. This was a splendid palace, with warm wood shavings everywhere, and fragrant food before it. Exhausted, it rushed forward to devour it, oblivious to the deep black eyes above, watching it with joy.

It knew gods existed, but meeting a god made it realize how terrified it was, trembling with fear. The god’s voice was deafening, its body immense. Its mouth was like the maw of a beast, its eyes like a black abyss. It could lift it high off the ground effortlessly, could kill it with a mere thought. And it quickly understood it could never escape the god’s grasp again. This splendid palace, exquisite food, all were gifts from the god, in exchange for its freedom. It would never see blue skies and white clouds again, never see the female hamster it yearned for. Its world was forever confined to a 40cm by 40cm square, surrounded by towering walls inscribed with the words “Hamster Home,” though it couldn’t read. But it knew the world was vast and round. It lost its freedom and its personal space.

It would be grabbed and played with by the god randomly, even its bathroom breaks were monitored. Once, it couldn’t hold it and urinated on the god’s hand, and for two days, it was starved, nearly dying of hunger. To survive, it had to give up resistance. It slowly went from trembling with fear to becoming numb, enduring the giant hand’s caresses, even in its private parts, over every inch of its skin. The black abyssal eyes were so big, a hundred times larger than its tiny green eyes, always staring at it, making it shiver and become mentally disoriented. It started losing sleep every night. In the dead of night, it would remember the old hamster’s words: life is only two or three years. The god seemed to have endless life, but it couldn’t even have three years of freedom?

When the god grabbed it, it always thought of its mother. The mother who once wanted to eat it was now the one it missed the most. The mother didn’t teach it much, but it remembered one thing: “No matter what difficulties or obstacles you face, bite it!” It looked at the towering wall in front of it, pondering its mother’s words. “Why am I unhappy?” “Because I lost my freedom.” “What is freedom?” “It’s going wherever you want, doing whatever you want.” “How can I regain freedom?” “Climb over this wall.” “But it’s too high, I’ve tried countless times and couldn’t get over it.” “If you can’t climb over it, why not bite through it!” It suddenly understood! Bite it!

When a hamster has an epiphany, success is just a night away. It quickly gnawed through the wall with its teeth, the gnawing sounds lasted all night, but the god didn’t wake up. It turned out the god also had limits, and a hamster with dreams could defeat the god! Ecstatic, it rushed out. This vast world should belong to a free soul! No unfair fate could cage a brave heart! Even if everything was fleeting, even if it was caught again in a month, it only wanted a life of freedom, not caring about the future or the past!

It ran out and disappeared into the corner. That month was its golden age. It met many new friends: cockroaches, spiders, mice, centipedes, and many strange creatures, some trying to eat it, others it ate. It fought countless battles, got injured, got poisoned, lost its way, stumbled. But it never regretted it, discovering new things every day, facing new challenges. The thrill of adrenaline surged, and exciting hormones returned. It found true love, got married, had children, then abandoned them for new loves. In the hamster world, there is no moral code; it just did what it wanted. Freedom! It cried out in hamster language!

It killed a family of cockroaches blocking its way, a one-against-a-thousand battle, and it won. It befriended a pair of mice, then stole their winter food, chased to the ends of the earth, but it was just a moment of confusion. It gnawed through one mountain after another, some filled with treasures, others with delicious food, but it never lingered, taking a few bites and moving on. It traveled from south to north, from day to night, always pursuing true love and freedom.

One day, it arrived at a place. It was incredibly vast, with white marble everywhere, soft light emanating from all around, carved pillars reaching the sky, solemn and sacred, with a gentle breeze and the sound of water. The air was filled with the scent of food and wine. It marveled, is this paradise? It looked around. Suddenly, a loud scream pierced the air, like an arrow through the sky. It looked up and met familiar black abyssal eyes.

“Where have you been? How did you end up like this?!” You shouted from the toilet. It didn’t understand, only feeling the voice was overwhelming, like the weight of destiny pressing down on its heart again.Content is blocked