Chen Caozhi had Huang Xiaotong present the Jiaowei Qin. Xie Daoyun was delighted and said, "In a couple of days, once I have strung and tuned it, I will invite you to hear me play, Zizhong."
Xie Daoyun had grown accustomed to calling him Zizhong, and Chen Caozhi no longer corrected her. Smiling, he said, "In a couple of days, you should be playing in our Chen Clan's Eastern Garden, shouldn't you?"
Xie Daoyun blushed. Lowering her eyes to the hem of Chen Caozhi's unlined white silk jacket, she smiled and murmured, "That is still a long way off-"
Chen Caozhi said, "Does it feel like three autumns?"
The setting sun slanted across the small pond outside the corridor. Light shimmered on the water, the lotus leaves were green and yellow, and weeping willows stirred gently along the bank. As the two strolled and talked along the Listening to the Rain Long Corridor, Xie Daoyun told Chen Caozhi that after his wedding on the ninth day of the third month, Xie Xuan had returned to Jingzhou with his wife, a daughter of the Huan Clan. A letter had arrived last month saying he would certainly return by the beginning of the eighth month-
Before they knew it, dusk had fallen. Xie Shao came to invite Chen Caozhi to dinner, but Chen Caozhi declined, saying that his Fourth Uncle was still waiting for him to return for the meal. He took Huang Xiaotong back to the Chen Residence beside the Qinhuai River, only to find Gu Kaizhi, Liu Shangzhi, and Kong Wang already waiting in the hall, where they had been for some time. They promptly began an evening feast with wine. The elderly clan chief, Chen Xian, could not bear sitting for long. After two small cups of Jingkou wine,