[ it turns out, hong lu thinks, yi sang is as surprised as he is. what a funny thing, the two of them laying there in the living room the size of a small closet, looking back at each other in mirrored surprise. it feels nice, to know that hong lu isn't the only one who's finding out new things all the time. yi sang considers hong lu's question, and hong lu considers his response in turn.

a taxidermied form, hong lu thinks. ]

My grandmother would often taxidermy things so that she can keep it around. She likes to look at the things she keeps. [ hong lu muses. her collection rooms are sacred places, but she does like to look through them often. it had made sense to hong lu. things died very quickly, and they didn't often look presentable when they died. but when you taxidermied something, you take a snapshot of time. they were like that for the rest of their existence. but to hong lu, that had always seemed very boring. ] If you are taxidermied, it means that someone wanted to keep you the way you were, and that you are something I can look at for a long time, right? That's not a bad thing. Ah, but I like it better when you're moving, and can talk to me. Grandmother's collection is a very quiet one.

[ much like how hong lu's rooms were very quiet. they had been large, and filled with silence. this one, in contrast, is small, but filled with life and noise. hong lu likes it.

a sprig of plum blossom, huh... ]

Will we need a bus in this room, then...? [ hong lu looks around again. ] It's too small for Mephistopheles, though.

[ after all, the bus was part of the path they walked? but then again, they didn't exactly walk, since it's a bus. ]