The moonlight was pale blue-white, like mist, like mountain haze. The two Double-Corridor Towers, east and west, were silent as the grave, as though shrouded in clouds of sorrow-
When Xie Daoyun and Lu Weiwei learned that Chen Caozhi had gone sighing to rest in the Library Tower, both felt uneasy. Even the composed Lu Weiwei felt as though she were sitting on pins and needles, regretting that she had used the Nine Linked Rings to make things difficult for Chen Caozhi. She was the Left Wife; it would have been perfectly reasonable to let Master Chen come to the West Tower tonight. Yet she had insisted on showing her generosity, never expecting Sister Daoyun to refuse her goodwill. Now Master Chen could ascend neither the West Tower nor the East Tower. How embarrassed he must have been!
Lu Weiwei knitted her brows and twisted her fingers, her troubled heart tied in a hundred knots. Duan Chu, Zanhua, and the others exchanged looks, silent as cicadas in winter, standing dumbly to one side without daring to move-
Xie Daoyun paced back and forth along the East Tower corridor. She seldom regretted what she did, but now her regret came too late. She felt that she was too proud by nature. Pride was for dealing with others; why show such arrogance toward her own husband? Sister Wei Rui must have yielded the chance to consummate the marriage first out of respect for her being a year older. It had been a kind gesture. Why had she been so desperate to save face that she refused it? Now her husband had met a wall on either side and withdrawn unhappily. Since leaving Qiantang, surely he had never suffered such a great setback. How could he have expected that those making things difficult