I find it difficult to accept those who believe they have dominion over death.
[ A tight pause. ]
... But my measure of him would make it difficult to begrudge him, with or without your word, Master Lan.
[ Another pause, and then, unprompted: ]
He reads to me more of the scholar or the doctor than he does the manipulating councilor or blood-thirsty general. [ Little does he know. ] But such knowledge is easily twisted by those who would use it to oppress those beneath them. However well meaning the gathering of that knowledge is.
[ do you really think he's gonna be able to badmouth your wife in front of you lan wangji
oh wait yeah he probably wouldn't hold back because he has zero fucks left anymore, but: ]
I know some who would call it naivety. [ A pause. ] But he is... yes. There is an idealism in him.
[ Purity, though... Lee Chang has long since stopped believing that anyone was truly 'pure'. Even the most loyal, the most steadfast, the closest friend--
No. Enough. Let such thoughts lie, left in the world where they came from. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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You have my word.
I would ask you to do the same.
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Yes. I see no gain in burying ash, no procession to my grave. No mound will be erected in my honour here.
And yours?
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You have my word.
[ There's another pause, and then: ]
Why ask this of me, and not your compatriots? Will they not wish to attend to your funerary rights?
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I understand.
[ His voice is grave, and there's almost a hint of something like righteous anger to it - not towards Wangji, but on his behalf. ]
We will keep this pact ourselves.
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[ A tight pause. ]
... But my measure of him would make it difficult to begrudge him, with or without your word, Master Lan.
[ Another pause, and then, unprompted: ]
He reads to me more of the scholar or the doctor than he does the manipulating councilor or blood-thirsty general. [ Little does he know. ] But such knowledge is easily twisted by those who would use it to oppress those beneath them. However well meaning the gathering of that knowledge is.
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He will survive the following question. Must. )
There is purity in him. Do you see it?
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oh wait yeah he probably wouldn't hold back because he has zero fucks left anymore, but: ]
I know some who would call it naivety. [ A pause. ] But he is... yes. There is an idealism in him.
[ Purity, though... Lee Chang has long since stopped believing that anyone was truly 'pure'. Even the most loyal, the most steadfast, the closest friend--
No. Enough. Let such thoughts lie, left in the world where they came from. ]
I just hope it doesn't come to backfire upon him.
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... I will do my best, of course.
Though I hope more to empower you to do so.
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Have you wedded? Fathered? Widowed?
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It would have had weight, once. It would no longer.
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Only, chance.
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The concept of marriage or fatherhood being something other than an exercise of power was a foreign one. ]
What I mean to say is that it was not a matter of chance, for me. They were not my choices to make.
But perhaps, now, you are right.
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[ Well, when put that way— ]
Ah. No. [ Pretty sure Mingyu would have something to say about that. ]
I mean more that my future is… more mine to make.
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[ A pause. ]
Forgive me. I am mulling about things long past, and hardly relevant now. But no, I have no such family to call my own. I take it he is yours?
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I choose him.
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I understand. I wish you both well.