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41 " You'd better not be tangled up in a love triangle. "
― Xiran Jay Zhao , Iron Widow (Iron Widow, #1)
42 " It was always the village aunties who’d sit around gossiping about which girl hadn’t been married off yet, despite complaining nonstop about their own husbands. And then they’d congratulate new mothers for being “blessed” to have a boy, despite being female themselves. How do you take the fight out of half the population and render them willing slaves? You tell them they’re meant to do nothing but serve from the minute they’re born. You tell them they’re weak. You tell them they’re prey. You tell them over and over, until it’s the only truth they’re capable of living. "
43 " Why does it sound like you're projecting on my life?""Because I am. Duh. "
44 " Infinite possibilities open to me at once. That's right, I'm no longer human. I've been set free from my broken body, that husk of flesh and bone that has been prepared all its existence to be used for the whims and pleasures of men. "
45 " This world does not deserve my respect. It is not worthy of my kindness or compassion. "
46 " This is not true power. True power is when I stood on the Nine-Tailed Fox with Yang Guang's corpse at my feet, playing by my own rules. Victorious by my own standards. Reliant on no one but myself. "
47 " You know what I think?” I say. “I think this whole concept of women being docile and obedient is nothing but wishful thinking. Or why would you put so much effort into lying to us? Into crippling our bodies? Into coercing us with made-up morals you claim are sacred? You insecure men, you’re afraid. You can force us into compliance, but, deep down, you know you can’t force us to truly love and respect you. And without love and respect, there will always be a seed of hatred and resistance. Growing. Festering. Waiting. "
48 " But a mother who has failed me so thoroughly is no mother of mine. "
49 " True love comes from synergy and trust, not merely chemistry. "
50 " Attention, all Gao Enterprise personnel!" Yizhi shouts into his wristlet between ragged breaths. "New bargain: defy us, and all of you and your families will die! Obey us, and you'll keep everything you have and more! "
51 " You can’t shoot me; I’m rich!” Yizhi slips through the opening created. "
52 " People love to ogle pretty girls, but they love to hate them even more. There's no one the masses are more obsessed with railing at than the women who dare to stray from the docile ideal of wives and mothers. "
53 " Is this the real reason she urged me to make up with my family? So they could be used to control me? I can't believe I've done the one thing I've raged at everyone else for doing: underestimating a woman. "
54 " With a head full of fantasies of how I'll flay him alive after he outlives his use, I unzip my pilot coat. "
55 " ...Yes, because love doesn’t solve problems,” I say. “Solving problems solves problems. "
56 " This body of mine is not big enough to contain the scale of emotion coursing through me. How could I feel a rage like this, and not be able to tear the sky open and scorch the earth? "
57 " Female. That label has never done anything for me except dictate what I can or cannot do. No going anywhere without permission. No showing too much skin. No speaking too loudly or unkindly, or at all, if the men are talking. No living my life without being constantly aware of how pleasing I am to the eye. No future except pushing out son after son for a husband "
58 " We spend so much effort living these lives, yet every trace of their substance and meaning can be erased so quickly. So easily. "
59 " And, in the end, isn’t that all dignity is? The boundaries and values you decide for yourself? I know what matters most to me, and it has nothing to do with any semblance of “purity.” I will not make myself small and crumple into a sad creature of fear that lives to please Li Shimin in hopes of earning his mercy. "
60 " [...] But my body is mine and mine alone. I have chosen to use it for murder and vengeance. "