Lin An Tai is a former family residence in Taipei whose intricate gardens become the setting for a private turning point between Rick and Ever. Rick brings Ever to a place he has visited since childhood to think; as they move through its courtyards, the quiet closeness between them gives way to a conversation about Sophie, Xavier, and Rick’s relationship with Jenna. The site’s beauty is not mere backdrop: its secluded paths and layered enclosures make space for what Rick has withheld and what he is beginning to acknowledge.

Setting and Historical Character

Lin An Tai is identified as the former residence of the Lin family, dating to the 1700s. Rick first came there as a child and describes it as a place that felt like falling into a Chinese Narnia. He has returned to think, making the historic residence a personal refuge as well as a public place where families stroll.

The entrance is marked by a Taiwanese-style gate of dark wooden beams hung with red paper globes. Its roof corners rise in the traditional swallowtail form, and its muted dark-brown and cream colors introduce a carefully composed landscape beyond the threshold. Ever enters without knowing the site is there, and the revelation of its grounds changes the pace of their encounter from a walk through city traffic to an unhurried passage through a place associated with Rick’s memories.

Gardens and Architecture

Inside, carved wooden doors open onto grounds organized around striking contrasts of shape and material. A jagged rock labyrinth, red-brick arched bridges layered over gray stone, and curving white walls create a landscape that feels both enclosed and exploratory. The walls’ glassless openings take forms including flowers, pomegranates, clouds, and butterflies. A long, low brick mansion faces the courtyard, with smaller buildings to one side; families move across a grassy knoll nearby.

Rick and Ever follow brick walkways through circular arches to a pond dotted with white flowers and lily pads. Orange carp swim beneath its surface, while two pavilions with rusty-brown pagoda roofs stand on neighboring banks. They enter one pavilion and lean against its wooden railing. Their elbows touch, and neither draws away. The small physical contact registers a growing ease between them before either has resolved the questions separating them.

The conversation continues beyond the pond. Rick leads Ever from the pavilion to a Qing-style mansion and through sliding paneled doors into an inner courtyard. Sunlight falls over scalloped eaves and a square dirt floor; doors opening on three sides reveal bedrooms furnished with historical Chinese furniture. This succession of thresholds carries the pair from the open garden into a more enclosed, intimate space, while the peaceful surroundings stand in contrast to Ever’s busy thoughts and Rick’s difficult disclosures.

Rick’s Refuge and the Conversation

The visit begins after Rick pulls Ever out of the path of an oncoming scooter. He speaks of marriages in his family broken by infidelity or violence, including those of his parents and Sophie’s parents, and wonders whether that history helps explain how he and Sophie have ended up as they have. When Ever asks what he means, he postpones his answer until they reach their destination. At the gate, he thanks Ever for taking care of Sophie and says he is glad that she and Xavier were there. Hearing Xavier’s name unsettles Ever; she steps into the complex rather than responding to Rick’s pause.

At the pond, Ever asks why Rick was fighting with Xavier. Rick drops one pebble into the water, then another and another. The ripples spread toward the lily pads as Ever senses the things he is still deciding not to say. The gesture gives the conversation a visible measure of delay: the place offers calm and privacy, but Rick does not move straight from concern for Sophie to an explanation of his conflict with Xavier.

In the pavilion, Rick tells Ever that standing up for her helped him see what he had failed to do for Jenna and what he had not been willing to do for her. He recognizes that this was wrong. When Ever asks what happened in Hong Kong, Rick leaves the pavilion and leads her farther into the residence. Seated beside her on a bench in the inner courtyard, he admits that for years he has imposed his wishes on Jenna, that they have done what he wanted, and that they have not done what she wanted. Ever’s earlier impression of Rick as Boy Wonder makes his admission especially revealing: the conversation exposes a gap between the confident image she had expected and Rick’s acknowledgment of how he treated Jenna.

Narrative Significance

Lin An Tai connects Rick’s private past to a conversation in which he begins to account for his choices. Its status as both a historic residence and his personal thinking place brings memory into the scene without turning the location into a simple emblem: the detailed gardens, ponds, doors, and courtyards are the actual route along which the pair’s talk develops. Each move deeper into the complex accompanies a move toward more difficult material, from Rick’s concern for Sophie to his recognition of his failures with Jenna.

The encounter also shifts the emotional balance between Rick and Ever. Their joined elbows and shared passage through the gardens establish a quiet physical closeness, while Rick’s delayed answers and pebble-dropping show that intimacy does not immediately erase uncertainty. By the time he names the pattern of putting his own wishes first, the conversation has made Lin An Tai more than a beautiful place he remembers from childhood: it is where a private refuge becomes the setting for an honest reckoning, witnessed by Ever.