Hearing the anger in Xie Xuan's voice, Chen Caozhi felt slightly surprised. He had never expressed romantic love for Xie Daoyun, so where had Xie Xuan's anger come from?
Xie Xuan looked straight into Chen Caozhi's eyes. "Zizhong, when my elder sister heard in Jiankang that Huan Yewang had praised your music as a rare marvel, she traveled six hundred li by water over three days and nights to hear you play. To see you, she dressed as a man and came to study in Wu Commandery. Just for that parting tune in the Peach Grove at night, I returned to Kuaiji Dongshan ahead of her with Xi Jiabin, while she traveled back with you. She even went to Chen Family Cove-Zizhong, though my sister exchanged her hairpins for a man's cap, she was still a woman. Why would someone as proud as her do all this?"
Chen Caozhi sat upright and listened, waiting for Xie Xuan to finish.
Xie Xuan softened his tone and continued, "Later, Wang Ningzhi came to ask for her hand. She defeated him with the edge of her words, leaving the brothers of the Langya Wang Clan afraid to mention marriage. One could say she used her talent to lord it over others, and she was mocked for her cutting speech because of it. Yet when she learned your mother was ill, she begged Master Zhi Mindu to go to Qiantang in person to treat her. Later, on her way to Jiankang, she made a detour to Chen Family Cove to see you again-pure conversation, Go, listening to music. After you parted, sorrow lingered around her. When she learned your mother had passed away, she shed tears too. Surely she wrote to you as well? And at the Pure Conversation Gathering in Wuyi Lane, for