Le Xiaopang ate only one bowl of rice.
With his idol to meet, he had no mind to savor the food. He hurried through his meal, asked for paper and a brush, and began writing to his idol right there in the private room at Heavenly Harmony Tower.
Several cups of tea and three trips to the privy later, he still had not squeezed out half a word.
Yu Yuling could bear it no longer.
"If you have nothing to write, don't force it!"
Le Xiaopang was annoyed at having his literary inspiration interrupted.
"I'm letting it brew!"
"How long have you been brewing it already? Besides, you don't necessarily have to write a letter! Send in your calling card first and see. You might get to meet her right away. Even if you don't, there'll be plenty of chances once we reach Jiankang."
Le Xiaopang shook his head, his expression resolute.
"You don't understand. I could meet her and not say a single word, but I absolutely have to write this letter! I made that vow ages ago! Let me put it this way: I'd rather give up a chance to enter the imperial palace! I'd rather forgo throwing a thousand gold pieces around on the Qinhuai River! I'd rather miss the grand review of the imperial fleet on Xuanwu Lake! But I have to deliver this letter!"
Yu Yuling mercilessly exposed the reality.
"You can't get into the imperial palace anyway, and you don't have a thousand gold pieces to throw around..."
"I can't get in or afford it now, but that might change!"
Wang Yang put down Distinctions in Classical Sayings and said to Yu Yuling,
"Just let him write. Writing a letter is at least much easier than entering the imperial palace or throwing around a