Riddles (Revised)

The old scholar took Liu Sixteen on a tour of Huaihuang County City. Liu Sixteen had never visited Pearl Cave Heaven, so he felt no sorrow at finding everything changed.

The big man simply felt sad.

This was the place Little Qi had regarded as home, though he had been a stranger in a strange land.

A true scholar could easily look around and feel lost. The hardest thing, on the boundless road of learning, was finding a "hometown" where he could set his heart at ease.

Liu Sixteen regretted his long journey "back to the mountain." He should have waited a little longer. Even if he still could not have changed Pearl Cave Heaven's fate, at least Little Qi would have known that, as he set out alone, a fellow disciple stood behind him and watched him go.

Then he would not have been quite so alone, as though the whole world were his enemy. How could he not have felt lonely? People might even have pitied him, laughed at him, or failed to understand him.

"Big fool, don't be too sad," the old scholar said softly. "When we scholars open a book to learn, we read with care and find friendship among the sages of every age. Once we put those books down, we step forward when duty calls. If not us, who?"

"If not us, who?" the old scholar murmured again.

Liu Sixteen nodded, though his spirits remained low. Keeping his nature and his heart in check had always been one of his strengths.

The years had stretched on and on, tally marks piling up in the sea house. By his true age, none of his fellow disciples came close to him. Neither did his teacher or his dear friend Bai Ye. They were nowhere near as