At the hour of the dragon on the twenty-second day of the first summer month in the third year of Shengping, Chen Caozhi and his two servants left the Xu Clan Thatched Cottage below Lion Mountain and set out for home. Master Xu Zao specially suspended lessons for half a day and brought his son Xu Miao to see Chen Caozhi off. The school's twenty-odd students of humble birth also came to bid him farewell. Learned and talented, gentle and reserved, Chen Caozhi was well liked at the school.
As for the students from aristocratic families, none had been particularly close to Chen Caozhi apart from Ding Chunqiu and the brothers Zhu Yingtai and Zhu Yingting. Ding Chunqiu and Zhu Yingting had already gone home, but for some reason Zhu Yingtai was nowhere to be seen. That day at the post pavilion south of the city, Zhu Yingtai had said she would see Chen Caozhi off. In her everyday conduct, she had shown pride only in her learning, never in her family standing. Moreover, in the two months and more since the Zhu brothers had come to the Xu Clan School, they had associated with Chen Caozhi, Xu Miao, and the other students of humble birth, while ignoring the aristocratic students altogether. Chen Caozhi therefore found it very strange that Zhu Yingtai had not come to see him off. He sent Ran Sheng to the farmhouse she rented to have a look-surely nothing had happened to her!
Long-legged and sturdy, Ran Sheng ran as though flying. Before long, he returned to report that Master Zhu had already moved out, early that morning.
Chen Caozhi was utterly astonished. However rude Zhu Yingtai might be, she could hardly leave Wu Commandery without taking her leave of Master Xu. Even Zhu Yingting, who