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Lingpo: What brings you to the Island of Souls?
Chun: There's a soul I'm looking for: the soul of a human boy
Lingpo: What time was it he died?
Chun: It was two days before the wheat harvest.
Lingpo: You need to be sure of the date. Otherwise you're searching for a needle in a haystack. So many die every day.
Chun: I'm sure. It was my birthday.
Lingpo: I know what you're trying to do, girl, and it goes against the laws of nature!
Chun: I don't care. I've got to save him!
Lingpo: The punishment is harsh for those who defy nature, no matter who you are, so you *should* care.
Chun: But I owe him, for saving my life.
Lingpo: How very touching. I've been stuck here for 800 years, and I'm still not done paying penance for my sin!
Chun: But you didn't...!
Lingpo: Don't interrupt! Let me tell you what real tragedy is. Meeting someone you care about so much you forget yourself and make a mistake. So then you go back and try to fix it and make things right again, and then you learn that fixing it's impossible.
[chuckles]
Lingpo: We can never undo the wrongs we've done. This I know.
Chun: You're saying you won't help me?
Lingpo: I'm saying I pity you. Besides, resurrecting someone from the dead doesn't come cheap.
Chun: What would it cost?
Lingpo: No less than a lovely girl's loveliest features: your eyes.
Chun: [winces]
Lingpo: [laughing] Now she's scared.
[chuckles]
Lingpo: Don't want to give up your pretty eyes, eh? All right, I'll take half your life instead.
Chun: If that'll save him, take it.
Guanlin Ji
Extended Reading
