Chapter 213 — The Startled Snake
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 4 of 4
"Yes!" Having failed to accomplish even such a simple task, Tao Jun felt rather ashamed, as though he had no face to meet the elders of his native place, and said in a low voice, "Guiyuan has sent men to find out what happened. Word should come back within a couple of days."
"Make it quick!" Song Cen's face was dark. "I fear this is not so simple as it seems!"
Tao Jun lowered his head and assented with a complicated heart.
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In the side chamber allotted to Song Yan at the summer palace, Gu Yu lay on the large kang by the window, munching an apple and surveying the furnishings of the room. Clicking his tongue in admiration, he said, "It looks like the Emperor really does intend to take you as his son-in-law. Look at this chamber of yours, facing south with a northern exposure, spacious and bright. I doubt even Yao Shizhong lives as well as you."
The Emperor was at the summer palace; the Grand Secretary Liang Jifang had been ordered to assist the Crown Prince in overseeing the realm, while Yao Shizhong, Minister of Revenue and Grand Secretary of the Jinshen Hall, accompanied the Emperor at the summer palace to handle state affairs.
Song Ji, seated at the writing desk practicing calligraphy, smiled.
His writing could not, of course, compare with that of the Grand Secretaries who had passed the highest examinations, yet it excelled in its open, upright layout and its vigorous, handsome momentum, and the Emperor liked it very much. These days he was often summoned to copy sutras or travel accounts, and in his spare time he practiced calligraphy in his room.
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Sisters, brothers, I beg for pink votes!
o(n_n)o~
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