On Humanity

"...You asked me what my bottom line was?"

Wu Pifu smiled, but answered seriously nonetheless. "Your bottom line is your family—your mother, your father, and perhaps some of the people in Rongguo Mansion as well. That is only natural. After all, you were raised in the inner chambers from childhood."

Lin Daiyu's face began to flush again.

In the past, being raised in the inner chambers had simply been a fact, and the proper path for a young lady of a respectable family.

What decent family's daughter would show her face in public?

Yet now, Lin Daiyu felt ashamed over the words "raised in the inner chambers." This was a transformation as vast as heaven and earth.

Wu Pifu paid it no mind and continued, "In any case, it is good that you have a bottom line. A person must have one. Anything above that line can be discussed—deception, ambiguity, personal favors, worldly conventions. All of it can be negotiated, and there is no harm in yielding again and again. But once that bottom line is crossed, there is no room left for compromise. Either you die or I perish. Someone must pay in blood. If it is not the enemy, then it has to be us. Do you understand?"

Lin Daiyu nodded seriously.

Looking out over the snowy plains ahead, Wu Pifu continued, "My bottom line is people."

"People?" Lin Daiyu asked curiously.

"Yes. People."

As he walked, Wu Pifu said, "I want to be a person—a person who does not violate humanity's bottom line. At the same time, I must treat others as people. I cannot bully them, kill them, or refuse to regard them as human just because I have become stronger than them. And when necessary, when I can ensure my own safety, I am willing