act49side

Visitors come with interest, but it always wanes with time... It's not proper to force this enthusiasm to endure.

So let's just relax and wait here, and protect this garden...

This beautiful place is honestly quite difficult to abandon.

<p=2>???</>

What a bother. I'm getting a sore throat repeating the same argument over and over.

We're back to square one, no? Thousands of years we've debated, and it seems nothing's getting through that thick head of yours.

You're the stubborn one. Whatever scholarly talents you have are negated by your expertise in nonsensical argumentation.

The truth is simple—there is no order without rules. To live in this realm, one must be able to tell right from wrong.

If it really is as you say, for everyone to blur boundaries and confuse right and wrong, what sort of chaos will befall this realm?

Preposterous... Your insistence on adherence to rules is nothing more than locking yourself in a prison of your own making.

Let me ask you then. To build a room, a house, a city, a moat—there are rules to follow, yes.

But when we measure merits and errors made in history, or the hearts of the masses—what rules or metrics are we to abide by?

Of course, rules are made to fit the situation, and for mortal benefit.

When have I ever said rules should be set for the sake of having them?

Where... are we?

...And who are you?

Fine, fine... then let me ask you this.

You say we must have rules, but then who should set them in the first place?

The virtuous, of course—only they can convince the masses, and rules can only stand when accepted by all.

Don't you see the problem with that?

We have to first find virtuous people to set rules, but what deems one virtuous? Doesn't it mean we have to lay down some rules to find these people?

Ju, the ten thousand years of your life have been a waste, if you can't even decide if the fowlbeast or egg came first.

Hah! You're just unreasonably putting the cart before the burdenbeast to suit your fallacy.

We already have rules called 'righteousness'. You think they just appeared from thin air?

What...?

What are you talking about...?

Oh, look. This one's about to wake up too.

Awake? Or dreaming?

Do you even have to ask? Just look at her, all lost. Obviously, she's dreaming.

Awake in a dream, yet not truly woken. The girl is suffering from a headache over the dilemma she faces.

If you're stubborn and refuse to see sense, you'll surely run up against barriers, both physical and mental.

You're right about that... her knowing and doing don't match. She's contradicting herself—wants non-action, yet also wants to act.

Now, she seeks a tangible form of 'justice', and even wants to pocket it and take it away. I think she's far more obsessed than that good-for-nothing disciple of mine.

Yes, how could she enjoy such a delusional dream if she weren't the most obsessed person walking this realm?

No need to be so harsh, Ju. Plenty of people out there climb trees to catch fins or strike ice to make fire. What can we even do?

But you're right about one thing...

Is this girl an obsessed one, or what...?

Who—

What's the matter with you?

Nothing...

Did you not hear any of that?

You're so weird. You've been staring into blank space for a while now.

Did those geists give you a concussion? Don't suppose there's anything I can do about that.

Thanks. I'm not quite—

I just feel like...

I've been here before...

Yes, Father didn't tell anyone when he left—No, maybe I was the only one he didn't tell. I don't know.

I can barely remember anymore. Mother had just passed away at the time too.

Mother... She never liked Father, or me. And in the end, Tal as well...

Father left much less of an impression on me compared to Mother. Once, when I was confronting Wei Yenwu, I said Father was a weak man. My opinion still stands.

But he... he really did try to love me and Tal.

When I was young, I was scared when Wei Yenwu came to our house to find Mother, so he took me outside. Ever since that day, he would drown his sorrows, needing more booze every time, though he never drank in front of me.

Tal didn't like him either at first. He spent a lot of time with her, even learning Victorian alongside her, though he had never heard the language before in his life.

When Mother was at her most agitated, he would tell us to go outside, and face Mother's madness alone...

<p=1>Early winter, 1102</>

Thank you, Hui-chieh. I think... that is enough.

You know, before your father married, he was not completely like this.

I can see it.

So now we use the writing knife to correct the mistakes in the family history you compiled?

No, it's simply a family chronicle. It won't even be published. It's not worth using something as precious as that knife on it—

Despite Ch'en Chao-ch'ien's repeated declining, Hui-chieh still takes the knife off her hip and presses it into Chao-ch'ien's hand.

Jie, and Jun, had hoped this knife would be able to correct the mistakes that happen when we whitewash or forget the past.

Even though these errors only involve one fallen family, instead of all Yan, I think they would still want them corrected.

...Alright.

Ch'en Chao-ch'ien fiddles with the knife, feeling its weight and balance in her hand, but she makes no move to use it.

Hui-chieh, Jie, she... will she really come back?

Honestly, I don't know.

That thing from the Garden of Grotesqueries settled itself down quite nicely in that office on the top floor.

But if you're asking me if that's the Jie who walked with Yan through the centuries... I really don't know.

(Near-inaudible sigh)

I do not know when it happened, but it seems some of our prior generations took this overly-reliable, seemingly-immortal woman for granted.

So once she passed, a few weak people like me lost the pillar propping them up. It appears all that was left after the fading of that omnipotent goddess were the words of everyone else.

It's true that historians should have confidence in their statements, but when that confidence loses the backing of someone who is 'eternally correct', it is easy to give up.

If that's what you're saying, you guys should invite her back once she's revived.

No. On the contrary, what we should do is leave the cradle of having the right answer fed to us, and take on the prospect of making a mistake with cool heads.

Ch'en Chao-ch'ien uses her free hand to pick up the chronicle, throwing it onto the table.

What page did it open on? Take a guess.

Based on the thickness... around page thirty?

I would say about the same, but...

She picks up the book daintily, and without looking at the page number, tidies it up once more.

We have made one of... 'history's unsolved questions', one just for you and me.

In this land, whether because nobody had witnessed them, or because too many people had witnessed them... How many of these unsolved questions do you think there are?

A lot of them.

Indeed. A <i>lot</i> of them.

Personally speaking, what I want the most right now is the courage to be responsible for writing down history, even though I know such unsolved questions will never have answers.

Alright, I will leave the knife to you. Help me correct the pages I show you.

It really does leave no mark.

When you use it normally, it's just a crazy-good eraser.

Eraser...?

Those two women certainly entrusted this writing knife to the right person.

Oh, right, is Mr. Liang still with the Pavilion? Where is he?

Mr. Liang? He's on leave today—

Then you're meeting someone else?

Miss Ning, as it were.

Oh, I don't mean <i>that</i> Miss Ning, mind you, I mean—

Hello, Chao-ch'ien. Is this Miss Ch'en Hui-chieh?

...M-Miss Ning, I presume?

Who else? Ciqiu wouldn't have to go to the Ministry of Rites early in the morning to ask for leave to come here.

I see, I see.

A pleasure to meet you. I am Ning Yin.