The snow flowers have bloomed again, as you said they would. You once told me that you had no taste for violence, and I called you a fool, certain that violence would find you regardless of your inclinations. But now I see that I was the fool, for not daring to believe in a world beyond our kingdom’s ceaseless wars. Wherever you are now, I hope you have found that place. —Tong Peilun, in a private missive to Liu Winter, undated
