"Chueh-hui was almost choking with rage. He had a lot more to say but he couldn't get the words out. What was infuriating him, in fact, was not his eldest brother's fate, but that of the girl whose expression was so docile. He felt he was being cut off from her by an invisible high wall, and this wall was his gentry family. It prevented him from attaining the object of his desire; therefore he hated it." Page 13

"Lying in their beds, stripped of the masks they had worn all day, people took stock of themselves. They opened their hearts and examined their innermost secrets, peering into the recesses of their souls. Stricken with remorse and anger, they wept over the waste, the losses, the bitterness of the day gone by. Of course there were a few pleased individuals among them, but these were already wrapped in satisfied...