Zhou Shaojin immediately agreed.
Uncle Chi had important business with Old Master Song. His household had no female relatives managing domestic affairs. As his niece, naturally she should help Uncle Chi entertain guests.
Cheng Chi smiled at her and said gently, “Go on.”
Hearing this, Zhou Shaojin felt puzzled.
Why did Uncle Chi’s tone sound so sorrowful… as if it were a farewell between life and death…
But Song Mu had already thanked Zhou Shaojin quietly and stood aside waiting for her to lead the way.
She could only suppress the puzzlement in her heart and walked out with Song Mu.
In the mid-spring courtyard, the vegetation was lush and verdant with greenery.
Zhou Shaojin smiled graciously and said, “Old Master asked me to show you around, but actually I’m not very familiar with Uncle Chi’s residence either. Old Master Song and Uncle Chi probably just felt we were in the way and casually sent us off. Young Master Song, why don’t you sit under the grape arbor in the courtyard? When Old Master Song and Uncle Chi finish talking, we can go in to attend them.”
A man and woman, both past the age when they could sit together freely—Old Master Song could act as he pleased without transgressing propriety, but she couldn’t wander around the courtyard with Song Mu as Old Master Song suggested.
Her arrangement was exactly right.
Song Mu greatly appreciated this. He felt she was gentle yet had her own views, unlike his Wang family cousins who, upon seeing him, would surround him without any restraint, ignoring all rules to drag him into their boudoirs, even competing for his attention jealously. If it wasn’t one falling into water today, it was another’s face breaking out in a rash from face powder tomorrow… And his uncle was even more insatiably greedy. Every time he saw him or his father, he complained that some family whose business was far inferior to his had made connections with so-and-so and become an imperial merchant making a fortune, or that another family had completed some lucrative deal because a certain high official had put in a word—all his words blamed Father for not helping him… This was also why he absolutely refused to marry a Wang family cousin, and why Father hesitated after learning his feelings.
Song Mu thanked her gently and sat at the stone table under the grape arbor.
Zhou Shaojin had Chun Wan help the servants of Yuqian Alley prepare tea and refreshments, while she herself stood at a proper distance outside the grape arbor.
Seeing this, Song Mu quickly stood up and said, “Miss, please sit here! I was just wanting to see what fish are kept in the fish tank!” Then, without waiting for Zhou Shaojin to speak, he went directly to the fish tank opposite and lowered his head, looking as if observing the fish.
Zhou Shaojin’s impression of him improved even more. She quietly instructed a maid to bring him a stool and place some refreshments on the nearby railing.
Old Master Song, peeping from inside the room, watched with satisfaction and chuckled repeatedly. He pulled Cheng Chi over to look and said, “How about it? My grandson is worthy of your niece, isn’t he?”
In the warm spring sun, the woman was gentle and lovely, the man refined and upright. Though standing left and right respectively, they were like the golden boy and jade maiden before a Bodhisattva’s seat—indescribably well-matched and pleasing to the eye.
Cheng Chi’s heart felt pierced with pain, yet he smiled at Old Master Song and said, “Let’s go! We’ll discuss serious matters!”
Old Master Song looked with delight for two more moments before going with Cheng Chi to the study in the west wing.
The courtyard immediately became quiet without a sound.
Song Mu glanced at the maids attending in the courtyard.
Each one stood there with lowered brows and downcast eyes, quiet and composed—the bearing of a great household.
Thinking of how the servants at his uncle’s house would whisper to each other and gossip when looking at him, Song Mu shook his head inwardly, feeling that his grandfather indeed had vision and insight.
But would Second Miss Zhou take a liking to him…
Song Mu had come full of confidence, but now felt somewhat uncertain.
He decided to still exchange a few words with Zhou Shaojin. That way at least Zhou Shaojin could get to know him better. Even if the two of them became engaged in the future, Second Miss Zhou would at least marry him happily and willingly.