(ψ｀▽′)o Annie: What are you all making such a fuss about?
"..."
After a long while, Daiyu finally seemed to find her voice again.
Then she slowly—ever so slowly—released her grip on the edge of the table and straightened up.
Her face still looked ghastly, and she still seemed so frail, but the tears in her eyes had receded. In their place was a cold, distant, resolute calm.
She stared fixedly at Jia Baoyu for a long while. Then, enunciating each word, she spoke in a voice that wasn't loud, yet rang out as clearly as beads of ice falling onto a jade platter.
"Second Cousin."
She no longer called him "Second Brother," choosing instead the more distant, detached form of address: "Cousin."
"Whatever the case..."
"Even if I, Lin Daiyu, really did want to be one of those 'fame-seeking hypocrites,' and set my heart on joining the ranks of 'traitors and parasites' one day, that would be my choice. It would be a matter of my Lin family's values and upbringing. What does it have to do with you, Cousin—"
"At all?"
She paused. The mockery in her voice deepened, and her gaze raked across Jia Baoyu's face like a blade, her eyes as cold as autumn waters veiled in frost.
"Besides, Second Cousin, you're always going on about 'upright scholars' and 'corrupt officials.' You pride yourself on being above it all, disdain the pursuit of official careers and wealth, and despise cultivation."
"But in this vast world, who can truly tell which people are 'upright' and which are 'corrupt'?"
"I'm afraid..."
"It's harder to understand the difference between 'upright' and 'corrupt' than the principles in the Classics!"
She lifted her chin slightly and raised her eyes, a faint smile that was half-mocking, half-pitying at her lips. Then her