Mulan left once darkness had fully fallen.
Moor stood alone by the window, watching Mr. X step outside and close the door below. This time, he did not see him off, but simply gazed absently as he disappeared down the street.
Apart from their opening conversation, Moor and Mulan had argued fiercely that day. An uninvolved third party might even have thought they were having a quarrel.
Although Moor did not believe he was wrong, he had ultimately failed to refute Mulan. In his eyes, Mr. X had been far more radical and stern than usual that day. Some of his words had not been tactful at all; he had simply declared certain things doomed to failure, which left Moor deeply distressed.
But Mr. X had also stated outright that he understood the upper ranks of the nobility, even those at the very top. He understood capital, the police and other coercive institutions, and the military. He even understood the supernatural world, which ordinary people could not access. As an outsider, Moor had no hope of winning an argument against Mr. X on those subjects.
This left Moor with a slight sense of defeat, and he could not help dwelling on Mr. X's radical words.
"The night will eventually pass, but it is far too long. We need to kindle fires in the darkness, to give light and warmth to those who suffer..."
Moor murmured to himself. Only when he could no longer make out Mr. X's receding figure did he leave the window and return to his desk.
On a fresh sheet of manuscript paper, he wrote the title Mr. X had left him-Let all proletarians and sufferers throughout the world unite.
Mulan did not hail another carriage. Instead, he walked alone along the street, recalling his argument