Chapter 388 - 314, Flip the table
A day within the palace restrictions seems longer than outside.
The people within the red walls and grey tiles start hoping for noon as soon as they wake up in the morning, and start hoping for the evening after noon.
The children outside the palace kick football on the streets, losing track of time until it’s suddenly dark; while those inside the palace watch the sunset fall bit by bit, surprisingly slow.
The eight hundred drum beats of the bell and drum tower cease, the Imperial City gate is locked, and night falls.
All the Daoist nuns return to the rear hall; some sit in a daze on the shared bed, lost in thought, while others mend their own clothes, handing back the needle and thread to Xuan Su afterwards, pieces not missing.
Bai Li and Zhu Lingyun sit at the edge of the shared bed, whispering about something unknown.
Xuan Su sits on the shared bed, her gaze wandering between Bai Li and Zhu Lingyun, then calmly says: "Bai Li, bring me a basin of foot-washing water."
Zhu Lingyun glares: "Don’t you have hands and feet? Can’t you go yourself?"
Xuan Su smiles, pulling out a ruler from under her pillow: "Then let’s check Bai Li’s homework for today. The Master taught forty-nine sentences today—if you can recite them, she won’t be punished."
Zhu Lingyun is taken aback, turning to look at Bai Li worriedly.
Bai Li shows no joy or sorrow, and softly begins: "The Dao that can be said is not the eternal Dao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth; the named is the mother of all things. Hence, constant non-being gives one insight into its wonders; constant being gives one insight into its manifestations. These two emerge from the same source yet differ in name; both are called mysteries. The mystery of mysteries, the gate to all wonders..."