Chapter 423 — I'm an Infinite Regressor, But I've Got Stories to Tell

Chapter 423

The chapter recounts the final days of Yu Yeong-hee, a sixty-three-year-old philosophy professor suffering from dementia, through a series of fragmented, looping memories and present moments. Initially, the narrative establishes her professional frustration, noting that despite her international citations and academic rigor, she failed to secure a full professorship in South Korea's rigid hierarchy, remaining a part-time lecturer. The scene shifts to a memory of her past self discussing Nietzsche and Kant with a colleague, only for the narrative to snap to the present, where she confuses her colleague with a paper she wrote during her doctoral studies, revealing her cognitive decline. Her domestic life is depicted as chaotic; her adopted son and his spouse fight violently, while her grandson, Jo Yeong-su (referred to as Mr. Matiz in the registry but named Yeong-su in text), is largely absent or unmentioned in her confused state. Yeong-hee’s dementia causes her time perception to stagnate. She forgets she was fired four years prior and believes she must rush to a Kant lecture. When searching for her red bicycle, which she associates with her childhood and grandfather, she cannot find it. Her granddaughter, Yu Ji-won, appears. Although Ji-won claims to be an only child, Yeong-hee insists her sister, So-won, exists, fearing the parents had abandoned her. Despite Ji-won’s calm, emotionless demeanor, Yeong-hee interprets her granddaughter’s logic and escort as signs of familial affection and academic promise, confusing Ji-won with her own younger self or her late husband’s lineage. At the lecture hall, a male teaching assistant (identified as Mr. Matiz in registry, but contextually distinct) interacts with them. Yeong-hee lectures on eternal recurrence, circular time, and the intersection of Kant, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche. She confuses the assistant with her husband, Jo Yeong-su, reminiscing about their romance and how she stopped smoking to avoid needing his light. After class, she feels renewed purpose. Days later, she dresses to meet Yeong-su, expecting a proposal, and falls but remains happy. In the alley, she encounters Yu So-won, whom she believes is her missing second granddaughter. They embrace warmly. So-won joins Yeong-hee to audit the lecture. Upon arrival, Yeong-hee notices a mutual attraction between the teaching assistant and her granddaughters, Ji-won and So-won. Feeling a strange sense of betrayal yet acceptance, she concludes her lecture on determinism and free will. The chapter ends with Yeong-hee accepting her stagnant time, finding joy in her love for her family and her profession, despite the tragic reality of her condition and abandonment.

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aajcp80ba9

Chapter number

423

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19:45

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