The room was quiet. The Bronze Ox Lamp on the nanmu desk cast a soft, yellow glow. Zongzhi and Run'er knelt side by side before the desk, wholly absorbed in copying Zixia's "Great Preface to the Book of Songs." Chen Caozhi sat to the left and Ding Youwei to the right, while Xiao Chan, Rain Swallow, and A Xiu stood in attendance.
Zongzhi and Run'er both sat straight-backed, heads upright and shoulders level, fingers firm around their brushes and palms hollow, wrists raised as they wrote. Both siblings were practicing the clerical script of the Stele of the Western Peak Huashan Temple. Zongzhi had originally studied the Zhang Qian Stele, while Run'er had studied the Cao Quan Stele. Before leaving Qiantang early that year, Chen Caozhi had advised the young siblings not to practice a single model for too long, lest it constrain them and wear away their natural spark. Thus, Zongzhi and Run'er had switched to the Huashan Stele-
Watching her two children write so intently, Ding Youwei turned her head to glance at her young brother-in-law. He was watching Zongzhi and Run'er with a smile. At that moment, Ding Youwei felt warmth and quiet certainty.
The "Great Preface to the Book of Songs" was not short, so Chen Caozhi had only asked Zongzhi and Run'er to copy the first section: "Poetry is where one's aspirations go. Within the heart, they are aspirations; expressed in words, they are poetry. Feelings stir within and take form in words. When words do not suffice, one sighs; when sighs do not suffice, one sings at length; when singing at length does not suffice, one's hands dance and one's feet stamp without one's knowing."
Zongzhi finished first, but did not immediately present his work to Uncle Chou. Instead, he waited until Run'er had