"We... if we aren't ourselves, who else could we be?" Princess Pingle thought for a moment, confusion appearing in her eyes.
She could not understand why Min'an had suddenly begun thinking this way.
"But I always have this feeling that we're more than just ourselves..." Min'an sat down beside the fishpond and gazed at the boundless heavens, his eyes filled with bewilderment.
Pingle sat down beside Min'an at the fishpond, watching the fish swim through the water. Now and then, schools of fish and shrimp frolicked, and occasionally a fish leaped above the surface...
"There seems to be some meaning to my coming into this world..."
The sun sank amid water and clouds; the moon rose above the willow tips.
The two of them, one in red and one in white, sat beside the fishpond for an entire day.
Min'an gazed up at the stars emerging across the sky and remained silent for a long time.
"Have you figured it out?" Pingle turned to look at Min'an's delicate features and asked softly.
Min'an slowly shook his head. The stars lighting up the sky were like his thoughts...
Distant, profound, beyond his reach...
"I often feel a sense of familiarity with the things I encounter, but when I think back carefully, I can't grasp the reason... as though they already happened at some moment hidden in the unseen!"
"It's just... I've forgotten them!"
A cool breeze swept over the pond, its refreshing autumn surface rippling with waves, as though the shattered reflection of the moon were telling Min'an something.
Pingle propped herself up, thought for a moment, and asked, "Such as?"
"Such as the courtesy name Imperial Father gave me today, such as spring blossoms and the autumn moon, such as these white robes..."
Pingle sighed and said slowly, "Spring blossoms