Jade Flute lowered his head. Only after a long while did he continue.
"Later, Master told me to bring over everything from before, and changed the name of the Child-Removing Cave."
"He renamed it the Immortals-Gathering Convent."
Bajie shook his head. "Ah, what an ill-fated bond!"
Jade Flute nodded, his expression complicated.
"I asked Master back then why he still wanted to use that name, but he didn't answer."
"Later, I thought about it myself. Perhaps, from that moment on, he already knew something was wrong with Pipa."
"He just refused to admit it."
"As the days passed, Master changed too. He became less and less like himself."
"He'd never been easy to talk to, even before."
"But now he would fly into a rage over the smallest things. That spring became his very lifeblood, and he wouldn't let anyone near it."
"I couldn't tell whether Master was like that because he'd dispersed his true yang, or because he couldn't bear living that way. Perhaps it was both."
"I told him not to spend so much time sitting by the well, but he wouldn't listen."
"Later still, I began to notice that Master seemed unable to remember certain things."
"Sometimes I'd just told him something, and a little while later, he would ask about it again. Sometimes I had to call him several times before he suddenly came back to his senses."
"But as long as it had anything to do with Pipa, he remembered everything."
"He remembered every word she'd said before leaving, every message she'd brought, as clear as day."
Jade Flute paused.
"Once, I simply couldn't stand it anymore. I asked Master outright, 'Do you really not know that she isn't Pipa anymore?'"
"To my surprise, Master didn't lose his temper that time."
"He was silent for