Thank you for that thoughtful comment, Calluna. This "ending" was easy for me to visualize (of course, finding the words to express the sentiment not so easy). I've reached a certain age where reflection is not only natural but inevitable. I don't know about a Book of Life, but there is a record of my misdeeds and omissions in my own head. When I try to sleep at night, it's not lost opportunity that keeps me awake--it's those misdeeds and omissions that I can never change. All of those weigh on me sometimes like Liu's corpse. So, when I read Marco's beginning, the end followed naturally.