He claimed that only relief remained, but Liu Acheng still waited for the documents to dry, then sealed them in a cowhide pouch with his own hands. He handed them back to the leader of the Wang Family's Slave Retainers, explained their importance, and told him to take them straight back to the Wang Residence, preferably delivering them to Lady Xi first.
Only then did he belatedly enter the covered walkway, its entrance screened by a stand of slender bamboo.
After the morning's events, especially the little episode that had just occurred, most of the distinguished gentlemen present already knew Liu Acheng. Thus, the moment the boy sat down opposite Xi Chao and his father, beside the two young masters of the Wang Family, Sun Chuo began making things difficult for him without even waiting for Elder Gao to call him over:
"You there, boy from the Northern Migrants, our newly arrived Zhou Gongjin of the South of the Yangtze! Since you're late, you must accept a penalty... Can you write poetry? Let's hear one first!"
In truth, this was hardly making things difficult. Given the atmosphere and the gulf between their standings, this was an honor.
Liu Acheng responded very briskly. He took a wine jug and a large cup from the raised platform prepared behind him in the walkway, filled the cup to the brim, then stood and drained it before everyone. Wiping his mouth, he sat back down.
This amounted to accepting the penalty outright under the rules of Floating Cups Along the Winding Stream.
Seeing this, Sun Chuo waved a hand impatiently. "I knew there wasn't a drop of ink in your belly."
Liu Acheng merely kept saluting with cupped hands. There really wasn't a drop of literary ink in his chest, after all.
Everyone laughed