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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Chloe Gong
Read between
March 4 - March 18, 2024
These violent delights have violent ends And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, Which, as they kiss, consume. —Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
As the West throws its arms up in unending party, as the rest of the Middle Kingdom remains splintered among aging warlords and the remnants of imperial rule, Shanghai sits in its own little bubble of power: the Paris of the East, the New York of the West.
Straight-faced, Juliette replied, “You know me. Running around. Living life. Committing arson.”
After four years away, Juliette’s memories of the people she had left behind no longer aligned with who they had become. Nothing of her memory had withstood the test of time.
“Misfortunes tend to come all at once,”
“Well, not quite excellent for the dead victim, but excellent!
We could have fought them. Now I’m soggy in places no man should be soggy.”
Roma was not afraid. He only feared the power of others. Monsters and things that walked the night were strong, but they were not powerful. There was a difference.
The ugly toad wants a bite of swan meat.
Juliette Cai feared disapproval more than she feared grime on her soul.
This is too real
“Shall I compare him to a winter’s night?”
“More breathtaking and more rugged: tempest breezes do tremble with less might—”
“With eyes like deadly nightshade, lips like fresh fruit. A freckle atop his left cheek
This is why we shall not love more than we need to. Death will come for everyone in the end—
This madness—it could be contagious.
When the madness comes through these columns,
the people here won’t know what hit them.
There’s a monster spreading madness on the streets of Shanghai.
“These days, Juliette,” he said, low and warily, “the most dangerous people are the powerful white men who feel as if they have been slighted.”
The fact that this is still applicable today...
You give your word. But you have always been a liar.
A temporary thing for a temporary place, but now the temporary thing is burrowed in so deep it cannot be removed.”
Was the line between enemy and friend horizontal or vertical? Was it a great plain to lumber across or was it a high, high wall—either to be scaled or kicked down in one big blow?
“A study of power,”
“and the madness that comes with it. A study of the powerful, and those who are scared of him.”
“The uncovering of the...
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“Power is something achievable by few.”
“Anyone can be the master to a monster should their heart be wicked enough.”
We do not have the luxury of mercy, Juliette.
This is the first time I’ve actually had to run from a crime I’ve committed.”
“If we kill the monster, we kill each and every one of these peculiar insects in Shanghai. If we kill the monster, we stop the madness.”
He had always known that sitting at the top came with its prickles and thorns. But in this city, void of any alternative path, at least this was better than not being heir at all.
September sun, losing some of its heat if not its brilliance…”
“They’re one and the same,”
“The monster. The madness. If we find the monster, we stop the madness.”
“It is never as simple as one truth,”
“Nothing ever is.”
“Tā mā de, Juliette,”
“Traitor.”
Oh shit
“I hate that the blood feud forced my hand, but I can’t—I did what I had to do and you may think me monstrous for it. The feud keeps taking and hurting and killing and still I couldn’t stop loving you even when I thought I hated you.”
In that moment, all Juliette could think was: Please, please, please. Please don’t break me again.
“I love you. I have always loved you.”
The land of dreams. Where men and women in white hoods roam the streets to murder Black folks. Where written laws prohibit the Chinese from stepping upon its shores. Where immigrant children are separated from immigrant mothers on Ellis Island, never to be seen again.
Shanghai knows. It has always known. This whole damn place is about to fall apart.
Roma’s hands launched to his throat.
The lover and the liar, the liar and the lover. They switched those roles between themselves like it was a game.
Only Juliette remained, settling her hand on a cooling body. Only Juliette remained, living with the weight of her sins.
In the event of my death, release them all.
