My Friend Chen Daoyou

That snowy night when Lu Chen visited Furong Mountain, he sat on a bamboo chair outside the door, quietly watching the snow. Beneath the eaves of the thatched cottage lay an old dog, a prostrate "Lu Chen" who occasionally raised his head to glance at the seated Lu Chen.

Lu Chen glanced at the old dog and joked, "Don't tell me Zou Zi is watching me again?"

The guest had overshadowed his host. Lu Tai, the actual master of the place, had gone up to the Viewing Platform on the mountaintop. From his Inch Object, he took out a white jade couch. In one hand he held White Conch, an immortal wine cup as famous as the Wine Spring Cup; in the other, a snow-white horsetail whisk with a long golden handle. He drank as he gently brushed away the snow.

Reclining on the white jade couch, elbow propped against a white porcelain pillow: a Banished Immortal was here, yet no one shared his White Conch cup.

Eyes hazy with drink, Lu Tai scattered countless goose-feather snowflakes with his whisk, raised his cup, and declared, "There are men like Da Dian, whose great talent can move others."

His voice softened. Lu Tai set down the whisk and cup, sat cross-legged with his hands tucked into his sleeves, and murmured, "No one shares it with me."

Three of his Direct Disciples had already entertained the honored guest on Furong Mountain. There was also a Final Disciple still traveling the jianghu. Lu Tai had entered the boy in the sect register under the name "Jinzhi," with no surname.

Lu Tai had given the child a bamboo sword, carving the two tiny Small Regular Script characters "Xiadui" into it with a knife.

The first time the child held the sword, Lu Tai had