[ hong lu beams. he has always liked hearing yi sang's thought process. there is so little in the world that he truly knows, and he hardly knows how anyone knows about anything. the other sinners are not as patient with their explanations, and vergilius is likely to kill him if he no longer wants to speak. he doesn't mind it, in truth. death at vergilius' hands must be interesting as well. but hong lu hardly learns when he is dead. yi sang lays out his thought process, and hong lu enjoys it, listening to another person's thoughts as they come.

thought after thought. yi sang is not wrong. of course he wouldn't be. yi sang is one fo the smartest people he knows. hong lu thinks - yi sang might be smarter than the elders at the estate, even though they know so much more than hong lu does. but he wouldn't like for them to meet yi sang. they would take him the way they take butterflies, to pin them to the board and keep them there. nothing that enters that estate comes back out alive. hong lu would know.

and so hong lu says: ]

Correct~ Yi Sang, you know me really well. I only know a little Bian Lian, and a little bit of opera. My tutors never liked my progress. [ hong lu smiles. ] But I like the rain, and I like the journey. Don't you like being on the bus with everyone else? You never know what's going to happen every day.

Hey, Yi Sang, have you ever danced in the rain before?