waters of the yellow river flow from heaven divine, with fish
White shirt, black slacks, leather sandals, like that night when he picked them up in Macau, Xu Wenwu looks more like a retired accountant than the leader of the most fearsome army in the world walking into Katy’s living room.
“Sis,” Ruihua whispers to Katy, “I’m really convinced now that you just made up all that shit about what went down in Macau.”
Looking at the unassuming-looking man in front of her, if Katy hasn’t seen him attempt to murder both his children about with his magic Ten Rings, and then later, rescue those same children from the Dweller-in-Darkness by making the Rings choke the very lifeforce out of it, she probably would think she has been making shit up too.
Waipo gets on with Xu Wenwu like a house on fire; Katy has never seen anything so bizarre in her entire life: if she doesn’t know any better, she’d say Waipo is flirting???? with Xu Wenwu, who is also…almost flirting back??????
Or at least, they seem so lost in sharing memories of the village where Waipo came from, where Xu Wenwu apparently also spent many years (and for him to say many, it must be at least a hundred, Katy thinks), that they are ignoring the rest of the table and oblivious to everyone else staring at them with expressions ranging from confusion to what-the-fuckery-is-this.
He’s literally nine hundred years – give or take – older than her! Katy thinks, before she forces herself to also remember that, really, Waipo can take care of herself, anyway.
“In my youth, I identified greatly with the words of my friend Taibai, that 天生我材必有用﹐千金散尽还复来 (each of us was given talents, and ne'er born in vain, spend a thousand gold coins, and they would turn up again),” Xu Wenwu says. “But these days, I cannot help but feel more weight in the words of a man of a prior generation, 前不见古人 / 后不见来者 / 念天地之悠悠 / 独怆然而涕下(Ahead, I see no ancient sages / Nor behind, those sages yet unborn / While, on and on, heaven and earth shall roll / Alone I stand, tears a-falling, forlorn).”
“When he says Li Bai was his friend, he means that literally,” Shaun adds helpfully, and still an extended silence ensues, during which time Katy is sure no one else around the table quite know what they can possibly say to relate to this singular sentiment.
“waters of the yellow river flow from heaven divine” is the first line of the first poem that Wenwu quotes. Fish is always served at Spring Festival as in Chinese it is a homophone for “surplus” (as in money).
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waters of the yellow river flow from heaven divine, with fish
White shirt, black slacks, leather sandals, like that night when he picked them up in Macau, Xu Wenwu looks more like a retired accountant than the leader of the most fearsome army in the world walking into Katy’s living room.
“Sis,” Ruihua whispers to Katy, “I’m really convinced now that you just made up all that shit about what went down in Macau.”
Looking at the unassuming-looking man in front of her, if Katy hasn’t seen him attempt to murder both his children about with his magic Ten Rings, and then later, rescue those same children from the Dweller-in-Darkness by making the Rings choke the very lifeforce out of it, she probably would think she has been making shit up too.
Waipo gets on with Xu Wenwu like a house on fire; Katy has never seen anything so bizarre in her entire life: if she doesn’t know any better, she’d say Waipo is flirting???? with Xu Wenwu, who is also…almost flirting back??????
Or at least, they seem so lost in sharing memories of the village where Waipo came from, where Xu Wenwu apparently also spent many years (and for him to say many, it must be at least a hundred, Katy thinks), that they are ignoring the rest of the table and oblivious to everyone else staring at them with expressions ranging from confusion to what-the-fuckery-is-this.
He’s literally nine hundred years – give or take – older than her! Katy thinks, before she forces herself to also remember that, really, Waipo can take care of herself, anyway.
“In my youth, I identified greatly with the words of my friend Taibai, that 天生我材必有用﹐千金散尽还复来 (each of us was given talents, and ne'er born in vain, spend a thousand gold coins, and they would turn up again),” Xu Wenwu says. “But these days, I cannot help but feel more weight in the words of a man of a prior generation, 前不见古人 / 后不见来者 / 念天地之悠悠 / 独怆然而涕下 (Ahead, I see no ancient sages / Nor behind, those sages yet unborn / While, on and on, heaven and earth shall roll / Alone I stand, tears a-falling, forlorn).”
“When he says Li Bai was his friend, he means that literally,” Shaun adds helpfully, and still an extended silence ensues, during which time Katy is sure no one else around the table quite know what they can possibly say to relate to this singular sentiment.
“waters of the yellow river flow from heaven divine” is the first line of the first poem that Wenwu quotes. Fish is always served at Spring Festival as in Chinese it is a homophone for “surplus” (as in money).