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"No, no. Embrace who you are! Embrace your limitations."
"But why? When I don't have to?"
"I see all this science shit you have here in Meiguo. We not have science everywhere in China like you do. Oh, Beijing, Hong Kong, Guangdong, Fuzhou, sure, sure--we got mostly everything you got, a little behind, thank you, Chairman Mao, but we got computers, we got Internet, we got missiles--yeah, sometime they blow up but usually they go in space okay. But doctors, they not use so much science. They put us back in harmony. In China, doctors not gods."
"We have a different view here."
"Yeah, yeah," Li scoffed. "Doctors make you look younger. Give you hair. Give women bigger xiong, you know--" He pointed to his chest. "We not understand that. That not in harmony."
"You think I'm in harmony like this?" Rhyme asked with an exasperated laugh.
"Fate make you this way, Loaban. And make you this way for purpose. Maybe you best detective you can be because of what happen. Your life balanced now, I'm saying."
Rhyme had to laugh. "I can't walk, I can't pick up evidence . . . How the hell is that better?"
"Maybe your brain, it work better now, I'm saying. Maybe you have stronger will. Your jizhong, your focus, maybe is better."
"Sorry, Sonny, I don't buy it."
But, as he'd learned, once Sonny Li took a position on an issue, he didn't let go. "Let me explain you, Loaban. You remembering John Sung? Has that good-luck stone of Monkey King?"
"I remember."
"You are Monkey."
"I'm what?"
"You are like Monkey, I'm saying. Monkey do miracle things, magic, smart, tough--had temper too, I'm saying. Like you. But he ignore nature--look for ways to cheat gods and stay alive forever. He steal peaches of immortality, got names erased from Register of Living and Dead. That when he got in trouble. Got burned and beat up and buried under mountain. Finally Monkey give up wanting to live forever. Found some friends and they all make pilgrimage to holy land in the west. He was happy. In harmony, I'm saying."
"I want to walk again," Rhyme whispered adamantly, wondering why he was baring his soul to this strange little man. "That's not too much to ask."
"But maybe is too much ask," Li responded. "Listen, Loaban, look at me. I could wish to be tall and look like Chow Yun-Fat, have all girls chase me. Could wish to run big commune and have hundreds productivity awards so everybody respect me. Could wish to be Hong Kong banker. But not my nature. My nature is being fuck good cop. Maybe you start walking again, you lose some other else--something more important. Why you drink this crap?" He nodded at the scotch.
"It's my favorite baijiu."
"Yeah? How much it cost?"
"About seventy dollars a bottle."
Li made a sour face. Still he downed the glass and poured another. "Listen, Loaban, you know the Tao?"
"Me? That New Age crap? You're talking to the wrong person."
"Okay, I am telling you something. In China we got two big philosophs. Confucius and Lao-tzu. Confucius think what is best is for people to obey superiors, follow orders, kow tow to betters, keep quiet. But Lao-tzu, he say opposite. What is best is for each person follow the way of life on his own. Find harmony and nature. English name of Tao is Way of Life. He write something I try to say. It all about you, Loaban."
"About me?" Rhyme asked, reminding himself that his interest in the man's words must've had its source in the well of alcohol within him at the moment.
Li squinted as he translated, "In Tao, Lao-tzu say, 'There no need to leave house for better seeing. No need to peer from window. Instead, live in the center of your being. The way to do is to be.' "
"Does everybody in China have a goddamn saying for everything?" Rhyme snapped.
"We got lots sayings, true. You should have Thom write that down and put up on wall, next to altar to Guan Di."
The men fell silent for a minute. There is no need to leave house for better seeing. No need to peer from window . . . .
Finally the conversation resumed and Li talked at length about life in China.
Rhyme asked, "And what's your house like?"
