At the Hour of the Rat, all was silent.
Yang Ge, neatly dressed, sat in the upper room of the inn, slowly perusing a Confucian classic "Great Learning" by the flickering light of a dim lamp.
People with Chinese heritage often awoke to a unique gift as they reached a certain age, a gift that allowed them to understand classical Chinese and ancient poetry without the need for formal instruction.
And this understanding was quite miraculous.
It meant you could grasp their meanings, yet to translate it into plain language required you to pause and contemplate carefully, organize your words thoroughly, and still, it always seemed like the words fell short of conveying your true feelings.
This awkwardness made it seem as if decades of speaking vernacular were less precise and succinct than the obscure classical texts.
