The old man, who had lived a life of detachment from fame and wealth and absolute integrity, now saw only endless sorrow in his eyes.
He inexplicably thought of the lines: *Watch them build a towering mansion, watch them feast their guests, watch their mansion collapse.*
These words, from the closing suite "Lament for the South" in the Qing dynasty playwright Kong Shangren's *The Peach Blossom Fan*, stirred a profound sense of tragic decline within Zhang Weimin—the sorrow of heroes growing old, or perhaps of heroes at the end of their road.
Chapter 450