"What tune would you like to hear, young master?" the girl asked again, gently stroking the Jade Zither.
"Oh..." Fan Dazhi finally came to his senses. "'Phoenix Seeks the Phoenix'..." No sooner had the words left his mouth than he felt he had been too forward, and hurriedly corrected himself. "Would 'High Mountains and Flowing Water' do?"
The girl's earrings swayed as she raised her sleeve to cover her smiling lips.
That smile was like spring returning to the earth, a hundred flowers bursting into bloom. Fan Dazhi gazed at her, his heart and soul swept away. In his fluster, he knocked over the Green Jade Wine Pot. Du Kang wine spilled over the shad, mingling with the ham slices in its belly and gleaming dazzlingly.
The girl's pale, slender fingertips brushed the strings, but the tune she played was "Autumn Moon over the Han Palace."
Before the woman who had captured his heart, the habitually roguish and indolent Fan Dazhi became tongue-tied and uneasy, utterly at a loss for words. Perhaps this was what people called love at first sight.
As she raised her hand to pluck the strings, the silver bells at her wrist struck them, tinkling like shattered jade. Just then, lamplight climbed her profile, making the mole beside her lips flicker between light and shadow. The floral ornament on her forehead was a sprig of plum blossoms fashioned from gold leaf, yet now it resembled snow melted by a warm breath, winding into an enchanting trace of spring.
"Wonderful... your skill on the zither is truly without equal!"
When the tune ended, Fan Dazhi clapped his hands and offered a thoroughly unoriginal compliment.
"My name is Linu..." the girl said softly. "Since you enjoyed it, young master, I shall sing another song for you. Consider it