A mask?

It was dark.

So dark that the night without stars or the moon would be considered brightly illuminated.

It was darker than one's darkest nightmares.

Darkness was overwhelming every existence as if it didn't know the meaning of anything apart from the blackness itself.

Amidst this darkness, there was a sudden emergence of some light. In this scanty light, one could see a boy of 3-4 years old lying on a rock with eyes closed in a a cave of some sort. One normally expects a small child of his age to be cute. But, his facial structure was nothing to be elaborated about. His face was so inconspicuous that he would never stand out in the crowd. His eyes were small, his nose a bit curved and his face had a smile as if he was having a sweet dream. His skin was white with a hue of brown looking slightly yellowish. His upper body had a tattered T-shirt on and he was wearing a pant torn down from the knee.

The only distinguishing feature of him was that he had a star engraved on his forehead. It looked somewhat like a birthmark because the star looked so natural on his face. It was as if the star wouldn't exist without the boy.

Near the boy laid a broken mask. It was broken from nose downwards. The mask coincidentally had same colour as that of the skin of the sleeping boy. If not for the dark circle near its top, it looked just like it had been peeled up from the boy's skin. In this setting with sparse light, this sight would have lead anyone to have a chill down their spine.

All of a sudden, the mask started absorbing the light from the surroundings. It's speed of absorption increased slowly and it constantly tried to demolish the presence of any light from its immediate environment. Conscequently, darkness reigned over the area near the mask and it gradually spread towards the peacefully smiling - yet sleeping boy. It reached the tip of the fingers of his right hand slowly spreading over his palm, extended towards his elbow and engulfed his whole right arm. Then the darkness progressively covered his whole torso and his other limbs. It was like a monster slowly crawling to eat up the innocent boy's whole body.

Ultimately, it unhurriedly covered the head of the smiling boy. The mask and the boy were no longer visible and darkness enveloped the whole cave. It went on for 15 minutes and then everything went back to normal. The somewhat blurry light came from outside and darkness receded from the cave. The scene was exactly the same as that of 15 minutes before, the only difference being the broken mask which was lying on the ground, was now on the sleeping boy's face. The boy was still sleeping with a smile having no change in expression whatsoever.

2 hours went by in such a way. There was no change in either the mask or the boy. The atmosphere was oddly calm with no movement inside the cave. Finally, when it felt that ages had gone by, the sleeping boy opened his eyes. Smile was still plastered on his lips. He opened his mouth but no sound came out.Then, he looked towards his surroundings curiously. Slowly, he tried to stand up using the rock he was sleeping on, as a support. However, owing to his slightly wobbly legs, he couldn't stand properly and he fell down on his knees.

Pak!

Again he tried to stand using his hands as support, but he failed still.

Pak!Pak!Pak!

Continuous falling sounds of the small boy echoed in the small cave. Yet he kept on trying to stand up as if it was the only thing in the world he was meant to do. How difficult could it be for a 3-4 year kid to stand on his legs?

Alas..for this boy, it was nigh impossible. Contrary to one rational person might assume, the smile on his face hadn't diminished even a tiny bit from the start of his "rise and fall" saga. And apparently, he also hadn't noticed the broken mask on his face.

Unable to bear the supposedly nonchalant attitude of the smiling boy, finally there was some sound from the mask.

"I think we should name him Su Hao guys, he must have some useless modelling abilities which is weak in the beginning but will be super powerful in the end...Errr that's why I guess he can't stand up..."

It was someone speaking in a squeaky voice after being tired of watching the monotonous actions of the boy.

"F*ck !! Couldn't you be a little more patient ...You Ugly Beaver!!...Always spoiling the atmosphere at the most crucial moment...I just thought he was going to succeed in standing up... then we all could have witnessed his unparalleled and unprecedented Godly skills...." Said someone else in a bellowing voice inside the mask.

Hearing these voices from the mask, the smiling boy was stunned for a little. He touched his face feeling the existence of the foreign object on its surface. He slid his small fingers over his whole face little by little feeling the whole mask. Then he resumed his task of trying to stand up, upholding the smile on his face.

Seeing his attitude, the voices within the mask were stupefied for a little while. Again the squeaky voice broke the silence- "Maybe he has transmigrated and has not recovered his memories.... that's why he is acting a little stupid..."

"But how come he doesn't respond to our voices...Atleast he should be curious or afraid... right?... Even if he can't understand our dialect, he should speak or ask something in his own language....right? What's up with this non-responsive face of his?" Another annoyed voice chimed in from within the mask.

"Maybe he is dumb..... But the good news is atleast he is not deaf, which one can say from the way that he was stunned upon hearing the beaver's and mammoth's voice.....hehe..... We should name him after some music cultivation genius then...how about Ye Qingxuan?" Another brother inside the mask analyzed the situation gingerly and shared his noble thoughts.