The twists of fate between people were truly wondrous. Zhang Tie had never imagined that after disguising himself and coming to Great Tang City, he would encounter a friend with whom he hit it off at first sight.
The white-robed scholar introduced himself as Lin Yichen. After meeting Zhang Tie at the Hall of Eminent Scholars, the two toured the hall together, then visited Great Tang City's Forest of Thousand Steles, Temple of Ascension, and Hidden Dragon Cave. As evening drew near, they drank heartily at Rainflower Tower by Sword-Washing Lake, raising their cups to the breeze.
To be honest, Zhang Tie considered himself fairly well-read. Among the people he had met were figures such as Meng Shidao and Zuo Qiu Mingyue, all among Great Xia's foremost personages. Yet Lin Yichen's bearing, temperament, erudition, and wisdom utterly won Zhang Tie over.
At the Hall of Eminent Scholars, Lin Yichen commented on the poems and writings of its celebrated scholars with wit and humor, each remark striking straight to the heart while still leaving others room to save face.
Within the Forest of Thousand Steles, Lin Yichen could effortlessly summon anecdotes and allusions from ancient and modern times, as well as rubbings and inscriptions from every dynasty, explaining them all with perfect clarity. When the subject turned to calligraphy, inspiration seized him. Dipping his finger into the rainwater beneath the eaves of the steles' pagoda, he demonstrated for Zhang Tie upon a stone the Yanwen Stele, in which a single character could undergo a full eighty-one variations...
Inside Hidden Dragon Cave, Lin Yichen spoke to Zhang Tie of the origins and research surrounding dragons—from the Hua Clan's totems before the Great Cataclysm, to the dragon imagery of the Western Continent, and then to the links between ancient legends of divine dragons