Death

"At night, the man indeed had the same dream again," Lin Jiao continued. "He hurriedly wrote down the truth from his dream, then went to sleep satisfied... The next morning, he eagerly unfolded the sheet of paper. Guess what was written on it?"

"What?"

"The bigger the banana, the bigger the banana peel."

"..."

Amid Lin Jiao's laughter, Hesta puzzled over the final punchline.

"Why is that a joke... It's too absurd," Hesta said softly. "Is it funny?"

"How is that not funny? I laugh every time I hear it," Lin Jiao said as she recovered from her laughter. "You really don't know how to appreciate things... It's funny because it's absurd. Just as absurd as you talking at length about menstrual shame in some old man's class."

Hesta stopped walking.

"Ah... don't look at me like that. I wasn't making fun of you," Lin Jiao said, schooling her expression. "I'm describing a fact. When something is excessively absurd, people laugh. It's a normal physiological reaction. If I'd been there, I would've laughed too."

"Then... how could I make it less funny?"

Lin Jiao burst out laughing again—Hesta's grave expression had once more triggered whatever switch in her was tied to laughter. Shaking her head as she laughed, Lin Jiao looked as though she were begging for mercy.

"What are you laughing at now?" Hesta's brows twisted into knots. "Did I say something absurd again?"

"Thanks for thinking so highly of me," Lin Jiao said, planting her hands on her hips and tilting back her head as she tried to stop laughing. "Asking me such a difficult question..."

"You don't know the answer either?"

"Mm... I think," Lin Jiao said, looking at her, "that saying more in a place where people laugh is pointless, because nobody in the audience is