After the disbursement, Pangu called Shanjue and Qianhui to the Sanctum.
Wanquan followed behind him.
——
"Dad, for the worlds the Creditor left behind, have all the shortfalls been listed?" Shanjue asked.
"They have. How much each place still owes is all in the register."
Qianhui opened the register.
"At least this time the shortfalls aren't hidden."
She marked a few entries.
"But they still need checking. Books that balance don't mean people can get by."
——
The Sanctum was quiet for a while.
——
Qianhui spoke again.
"Father."
"When you go down to the Mortal Realm, why do you use a mortal body?"
"You could use your divine body. Or go as just a soul."
"Why choose one that can hurt?"
——
Pangu looked at her.
For a long time.
——
"If I went down in my divine body, I'd be gone half a year, or several years."
"A divine body doesn't need food or drink, doesn't need sleep, has no body clock. It doesn't get cold, doesn't get hot, doesn't hurt, doesn't get hungry."
"Unless the wound is fatal, it heals itself instantly, without even leaving a scar."
"If I used a body like that all the time, I'd easily forget that for them, even waiting a little longer costs effort."
——
"They get cold, get hungry, get tired, get hurt, wait their whole lives."
"My divine body doesn't know your legs ache after waiting a long time."
"It doesn't know how your fingers go stiff with cold until even peeling a chestnut is hard work."
——
"So I chose a mortal body."
"It gets hungry, so I know people who wait need to eat."
"It gets cold, so I know people keeping watch in the wind need shelter."
"It hurts, so I know some things can't be gotten through just by being told to endure."
"It gets tired, so I know sometimes what people need is just to sit down and rest awhile."
——
He paused.
"In the end, I want to know what the world I created feels like when it's alive."
——
Qianhui didn't speak.
She thought of someone.
Married at twenty-seven. A child at thirty-one. Gone at sixty-eight.
She had watched all of it.
Not once had she appeared in front of him.
She remembered which year he married and which year he grew thin, but she didn't know how tired he was coming home each day.
So watching someone's whole life, it turned out, wasn't the same as spending a single day with him.
She turned the register back to the few places she had just marked. Once the books were checked, she wanted to go down and live there for a while too.
——
"The people who wait," Pangu said, "don't know I'm beside them."
"I never let them know."
"But I'm there."
——
Qianhui lowered her head.
Pangu saw it.
He didn't ask.