dharma?

lassitude

“I might not know your name,” Ma said, taking Zhu’s hand. “But I know who you are.”

genuflection,

acerbically

It was good to have him by her side again, and even all this time after their reunion she still felt a twinge, like a stretched muscle releasing, whenever she saw him.

The body became used to exercise, particular sounds and sensations, or even physical pain. But it was strange how shame was something you never became inured to: each time hurt just as much as the first.

“But you know what’s worse than suffering? Not suffering, because you’re not even alive to feel it.”

Fate made the pattern of the world, and Ouyang was nothing more than a thread joining a beginning and an end.