Volume Five: "Wine-flushed, I draw my sword and strike the earth in song" - Wine at the railing, idle talk of this fleeting life

That afternoon, Xing Yan and Qiong Rong saw someone approaching Thousand Birds Cliff from far away along the tree-lined path that wound up the mountain before the cliff.

"Strange. Who would come to Four Seas Hall in this heat? Chen Ziping? But that doesn't look like his walk."

The visitor was still too far away for Xing Yan to make out who he was.

A little later, when the visitor came closer, Xing Yan finally saw that the guest at Thousand Birds Cliff was none other than Hua Piaochen, Du Ziheng's close companion and the eldest disciple of Master Qingming of the Dharma Propagation Hall!

Huh? What's he here for?

Secretly on his guard, Xing Yan quietly warned Qiong Rong.

But once Hua Piaochen reached the stone terrace and explained his purpose to them, Xing Yan realized that his worries had been entirely unnecessary.

The eldest disciple of the Dharma Propagation Hall had brought a basket of wine and food to apologize to Xing Yan on behalf of his junior sister Ziheng!

His plain robes as spotless as ever, Hua Piaochen stood in the Cloud-Sleeve Pavilion, setting little dishes of peanuts, seasoned beans, and other drinking snacks on the stone table as he explained with a smile:

"You may not know this, Hall Master Zhang, but after Junior Sister Ziheng returned that day, I talked things over with her, and she came to regret what she'd done. But girls have thin skins. Though she knew she'd acted improperly, she was too embarrassed to come admit it herself. These past few days, the more she thought about it, the more rash she felt she'd been-so she asked me to come offer Hall Master Zhang an apology."

"Ha! There's no need for such ceremony-I never took it to heart!"

Xing Yan laughed