Lu Weiwei was copying the Huashan Stele when she learned that Chen Caozhi had been abducted to Hebei by the Xianbei. Her hand trembled, and the Purple-Hare Brush paused against the paper, turning the dot beneath the roof radical of "vault" in "Lofty stands the Western Peak, towering to the vault of heaven" into a blot of ink-
Lu Weiwei set down her brush and forced herself to remain calm. "Who spread this news?"
Fine sweat beaded Duan Chu's temples as she looked nervously at Little Lady Weiwei and answered, "They say Master Gu brought the news from Gushu."
Lu Weiwei's heart sank. News brought by Gu Kaizhi ought not to be mistaken, but why had A-Tong not come to tell her? Why had it spread through the streets first?
As she was thinking this, a serving woman announced that Little Lady Zhang Tongyun had arrived. At that, Lu Weiwei's heart sank to the very bottom. A-Tong must have come to tell her about this!
At her first sight of Zhang Tongyun, Lu Weiwei finally knew for certain that Chen Caozhi had been abducted. Unable to hold back her tears any longer, she wept so quietly and brokenly that she could not speak. Zhang Tongyun hurried to comfort her, though there was little she could say beyond assuring her that Heaven protected good men like Master Chen and that he would surely return safely-
Lu Weiwei's tears fell in strings onto the half-folded purple bamboo fan in her hand, blurring the small regular-script characters on its fine silk surface. Suddenly noticing, she hurriedly wiped it with her sleeve, but the ink had already spread everywhere. The words "Would that I were the sash upon your skirts, clasping your graceful, slender form" had all grown indistinct. This was the one-of-a-kind little