[ ] Trust arises from choice. Love arises from trust. There can be no perfect safety, save in death. For love or trust to exist, so must the chance of heartbreak and betrayal.
There's maybe an interesting echo or refrain to this; that is, that heartbreak and betrayal is not necessarily the
end of love and trust.
It states that you need to have the potential for heartbreak and betrayal to have trust and love, and this implies that if you
do suffer heartbreak and betrayal, then that could be the
end of love or trust...
... But both Ling Qi and Hanyi and their mothers experienced love and betrayal and heartbreak and endings. Ling Qi fled her mother, feeling abandoned and betrayed ((and her mother felt abandoned by her child too, in turn)) -- but that was not necessarily the ending of things, because Ling Qi and her mother reconnected.
Hanyi and
her family though... her father tried to betray his wife. And then Hanyi's mother... kept Hanyi as a child for a long long time, unable to let her go, and lingering herself. And Ling Qi had to
steal Hanyi away; both for Hanyi's own good, and Zeqing's own even, even if it led to her (temporary? reincarnating?) passing on.
... I suppose
another mirror or counterpart to this insight would be:
Only true family, or true friends, can
really deeply hurt you.
So if something hurt so much, maybe it's
because you're family or friends or loved ones. Being betrayed by a stranger is harder, unless they fool you or lie to you for long enough to make you think they care, or the relationship was onesided or imagined in some way.
