Storm

“There was an election for governor when I was a kid, a Democratic primary between a liberal candidate and a conservative candidate back when the Democrats actually had conservatives. To everyone's surprise, the conservative candidate won. And later, one of his campaign consultants said the key to victory was taking all of the hate groups and stirring them into one pot.”
― James Patterson, Cross Down

“Xie Lian shook his head and opened the pot cover, and the fragrance wafted ten miles around. Now he'd done it - the brawl instantly stopped, and everyone started howling.
“What the fuck ... ? What's that smell? ”
“Who's cooking shit?!”
“Not just shit - shit that smells like pot bottoms!”
“What?! This is a hidden, treasured royal recipe - ” Xie lian began to argue back.
The foreman approached with his hand covering his nose, his face green, and he exclaimed in anger, “Bullshit! What hidden, treasured recipe? Who's royalty - you?! Get the hell outta here! That's disgusting!”
― Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù, Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Novel) Vol. 7

“You were determined to have him, no matter what I observed. He wasn't like that in the beginning, but with the unnecessary input from that wench and those hooligans, he became selfish from the moment you walked down the aisle. Every time you let him chip away at anything you wanted, you became more a part of him and less of you. Evidently it kept going until there were no mo more of you to give. It's been painful to watch you sacrifice so much and receive so little; all because you believe that your entire life should be wrapped up in him, trying to prove something you didn't need to prove.”
― Naleighna Kai, Sugar Ain't So Sweet

“Bright Blue Water seemed to surround us, absolving us. And if I felt any sorrow, it was only for the years we had wasted in hating each. The great things we might have done, the adventures we could have had. We might have been anything, and gone anywhere. For in that moment it seemed we were both Dancers, both Pirates, both Duchesses and Knights. Clara had forgiven me, and I had forgiven her. And so at last we were together, both of us at the end, just as we were at the beginning. Free of the Queen's terrible country, As though we had never been divided. As though we'd passed through all of it, this wild theatrical of life and somehow come out whole on the other side. Silence set around us, soft and welcoming as a velvet curtain, and then all was still.”
― Erika Johansen, The Kingdom of Sweets