Slender, slender fingers; ink scented the inkstone on the desk.
Furrowed, furrowed brows; beneath her wrist, words formed into rows.
A clear breeze softly brushed her gauze sleeves; sunlight gently shifted across the amber window.
Long were the summer days in Jingzhou.
Xiao Baoyue finished writing and reluctantly handed it to Wang Yang. "Now let's talk..."
Wang Yang lowered his eyes to inspect it.
"No hurry. Let me look first."
Xiao Baoyue curled her lip disdainfully.
"I wrote everything exactly as you asked. It's not an essay. Do you expect to find flowers blooming in it? A grown man, and you can't do anything briskly..."
Wang Yang looked at Xiao Baoyue.
"I'm brisk with people who are straightforward. With you, forget it. No flowers, but there is a pitfall."
Xiao Baoyue looked puzzled. "What pitfall?"
Wang Yang laid the paper on the table and tapped it.
"Read the first character of each of the first four lines together: 'Coerced by another.'"
He leaned forward slightly, staring at Xiao Baoyue, and asked with a half-smile:
"Lady Xiao, who coerced you?"
Damn it!
Exposed to her face, Xiao Baoyue struggled to save face and brazened it out.
"Really? I wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't said anything. It's just a coincidence."
Wang Yang leaned back rather lazily.
"Fine. Sorry for the trouble, Lady Xiao, but please write another copy. This time, though, let's have no more 'coincidences.'"
A flash of anger crossed Xiao Baoyue's eyes. She snatched up the brush, jabbed its tip into the inkstone, and wrote another sheet, much faster this time. Then she flung it before Wang Yang irritably.
"Will this do?"
Wang Yang examined it carefully. "Yes. Sign and seal it."
Xiao Baoyue signed with an icy expression. Wang Yang glanced at it and reminded her:
"There are