At the end of April, the spring breeze still lingered, and green buds had unfurled into tender leaves.
Qu Niang rose early and spent an hour bustling about her room before carrying a neatly folded set of robes into the main room.
At the desk in the main room, Wei Nisheng was still reading. Hearing footsteps, he raised his head, then paused when he saw the clothes.
"Qu Niang, these are..."
"Your new clothes, of course, young master. Uncle Wei specifically told me you mustn't wear old clothes to the Feng Residence today."
As she spoke, Qu Niang unfolded the garment: a pale, round-collared, Song-style Student's Long Robe.
The fabric was of the finest quality, the tailoring fitted him perfectly, and faint cloud patterns embroidered in silver thread adorned the collar and cuffs, neither gaudy nor dull.
"Have you been working day and night all this time just to make this robe?"
"Yes. I asked Uncle Wei, so I made it according to your measurements."
"Thank you for your hard work, Qu Niang."
"It's what I ought to do. Please stand up, young master!"
"Mm." Wei Nisheng stood and let her help him change.
Qu Niang stepped around in front of him, straightened his collar, then took two steps back to look him over. Suddenly, she froze.
The boy before her had yet to reach his full height, but his slender frame was already taking shape.
The scholar's robe made his face seem like polished jade. With his composed features set off by the garment, he possessed something of the elegant, untrammeled grace of a scion from a great Wei-Jin clan.
For a moment, standing there, Wei Nisheng looked less like a solitary boy who had just established his own household than a direct-line heir painstakingly raised by some grand