Tan Ting: [...]
He had grown this old, and ever since he could remember, this was the first time anyone had told him with such certainty that he had always been perfectly normal and whole!
It wasn't his fault that he was different. The fault lay with "everyone else."
For a moment, ripples stirred in Tan Ting's heart.
His eyes, too, seemed like ice and snow meeting spring, melting bit by bit into a pool of spring water. He heard himself say, [Lord Shen, kindred spirits are rare in this world. What should one do when one searches everywhere and finds none, and one's heart sinks into bewilderment?]
Shen Tang hadn't noticed the change in his emotions. She simply replied with easygoing candor, [What should you do? That's simple. In my view, everything in this world can be summed up in two lines: A sudden breeze ripples a pool of spring water. What's it to you? What's it to me?]
[There's something wrong with the very idea of "fitting in."]
[Why should fitting in be the measure of normal?]
[Only the mediocre need to fit in.]
[Once you firmly believe that you're the normal one, then when you look up at the men and women of this world, every one of them will seem incomplete.] Shen Tang had no idea how many years Tan Ting had spent wrestling with this problem. As an outsider and an observer, she had the relaxed air of someone who could talk so easily because she wasn't the one suffering. [See your nature clearly and understand your heart; glimpse your true self.]
If he stood firm in his own convictions, he would naturally find kindred spirits. He shouldn't pin his hopes on walking alongside kindred spirits and drawing strength from them to stand firm in