Cloud reading·《Tiny Dust》

Book Review of "Tiny Dust" by Chen Nianxi:

I recently fell in love with a book, "Tiny Dust" by Chen Nianxi. The author's simple language conveys the themes of life and death, like describing everyday meals, but I read it with a thrilling feeling, as if these meals contain both the beauty and poison of life.

The book is magical, like a martial arts secret book, with every word containing power. As you read on, the power between the lines enters your body like a fragrant scent, awakening your sleeping strength and merging with it, becoming your own strength.

If you need a powerful force that can inspire the deep-seated desire for life and cherish life, then you must read this book.

01 To be alive is in itself a combination of luck and luxury.

Chen Nianxi was a demolition worker who had faced numerous accidents during his work, such as being killed in explosions, crushed by stones, or slowly poisoned while extracting gold.

Reading this book, my heart was always hanging high because I feared to see those vivid lives suddenly extinguished. At the same time, I felt grateful that Chen Nianxi survived and recorded his experience in "Tiny Dust."

I am grateful that I have lived to this day in safety, and that my spouse and son have been with me all along. I am thankful that my parents are healthy, and that my few good friends are living peacefully as well.

Sometimes, we feel like we are living a miserable life, and that everyone around us seems to be doing better than us. But in some corner of the world, there is always a group of people who struggle to survive every day. Maybe we don't have a lot of money, or a big house or a fancy car, or our children aren't attending the best schools in town. But does it really matter? At least we are still alive and safe, right?

As long as we are alive, anything is possible!

Realizing this, my desires, which used to inflate like a balloon, suddenly began to shrink slowly.

Being alive itself is a combination of luck and luxury, and all we can do is cherish and not waste it. Cherish life and don't squander the fortune of being alive.

02 Life is cruel, and we should be strong

To some extent, Chen Nianxi's demolition worker career was a life of losing colleagues and friends one by one. After experiencing so many life and death situations, he and his coworkers did not fall, despair, or retreat.

After a colleague was blown to pieces, and his funeral affairs were taken care of, the remaining workers risked being killed in an explosion and continued with the unfinished tasks left by their deceased coworker.

In my opinion, they are not just demolition workers，but soldiers charging forward on the battlefield, with one group falling and another bravely charging ahead. They fearlessly charge forward to protect their country and families.

Chen Nianxi and his coworkers were no exception. They risked their lives because they had families waiting for them at home, including hungry infants, elderly parents, and hardworking wives. The mines were their battlefield, and they are the warriors defending and safeguarding their own families, so they possess the bravery, fearlessness, and perseverance of a warrior.

Life is fragile but persistent, as Lady Diana said: "Those who do not fear pain are strong, and those who do not fear death are even stronger."

Because of their responsibilities and fate, Chen Nianxi and his coworkers were fearless and had iron-like perseverance. Their lives were fragile in the face of accidents, but their calmness and fearlessness toward life made their vitality incredibly tenacious.

As Marx said, "Life is like the ocean, only those with a strong will can reach the other shore."

If you feel that life is difficult, tiring, and painful, don't sigh or be afraid. We should fight it like a soldier, and through the struggle, we will forge an iron will. At that time, the small difficulties in life will be like seasonings in cooking, only serving to make our lives richer, more exciting, and interesting.

03 Only by remembering our original intention can we surely achieve success in the end. only by keeping our faith in mind constantly can we eventually reap the rewards.

Through reading "Tiny Dust," I can truly feel Chen Nianxi's profound cultural background. This undoubtedly comes from two points: reading thousands of books and traveling thousands of miles.

During his years as a demolition worker, Chen Nianxi left footprints in many deserted places. At the same time, he has been constantly reading.

Chen Nianxi's mother once consulted a fortuneteller to read his fortune that he would have a life reversal at the age of 40. In "Tiny Dust," Chen Nianxi said that his life reversal actually happened at the age of 45, five years later than what the fortuneteller predicted.

Even though it was five years late, he eventually achieved a reversal, relying on his heart that never forgot his original aspiration. Because of this heart, no matter how harsh and difficult the working conditions were, he persisted in reading. From being a demolition worker at less than 20 years old to becoming a writer at 45, it took him 25 years.

I always believe that everyone has dreams. If someone does not have a dream, it must be because they have forgotten it, the dream that may have been born in their childhood, because people around them have ridiculed their dreams as absurd and childish many times. Day after day, even they themselves think that the so-called dream is just a dream.

How many people seem to have lived to eighty or ninety years old, but their real life has stagnated at thirty, forty, or fifty?

How many people give up after two or three failures when doing something, or even just walk away?

How many people always remember their dreams in their hearts and work hard for them for one, two, three, five, ten, twenty years?

Chen Nianxi really worked hard for more than 25 years before he became a writer from a demolition worker.

What about us? How long have we worked hard for our dreams? How long have we persisted? How long can we continue?

I have always liked a sentence: "Only by remembering our original intention can we surely achieve success in the end. only by keeping our faith in mind constantly can we eventually reap the rewards."

Because of "Tiny Dust," I fell in love with Chen Nianxi.

Because of Chen Nianxi, I am more determined to courageously pursue my dreams.

I think this is the strongest power that reading Chen Nianxi's "Tiny Dust" has brought me.

Thank you, words, for letting me know that there are still such people struggling between despair and hope, pain, and suffering. I cannot fully empathize, but I can savor the various states of life.

The story fades away, like flowing water fading away, with little waves and little traces. However, the road of life is still long. When regularity is achieved, there is calm; when calm is achieved, there is clarity; when clarity is achieved, there is emptiness; when emptiness is achieved, there is action without effort. emptiness is the state of doing without doing.

By being empty and not being reckless or wanton can achieve the goal.I am also a speck of dust.