"Thinking about it, it's quite funny, isn't it?"
"I was constantly looking for you in the audience," Ling said. "Always looking."
"I saw you turn and leave. At that time, I still held on to a sliver of naivety, thinking you were just going to earn some money and would return soon to redeem me."
"I waited day after day, year after year, my value kept plummeting, from being a star courtesan to a prostitute no one wanted even if I paid them, from a young and beautiful girl to an old and haggard woman."
"Watching through the window as time passed, from spring to summer, and then to winter."
"It wasn't until I fell seriously ill recently that I truly gave up."
"But..."
Tears welled up in the woman's eyes:
"At that time, you came, but now I cannot leave."
"Why..."
"Couldn't you have come a little earlier?"
