One Lifetime Is Never Enough

1.20 Summer Dream at Lotus House

There was a large piece of manicured land housing a famous tea house, just outside the border of Ming town. Despite not being enclosed within the vicinity of the protective stone walls circling the town, this tea house was considered one of the safest places in the Empire - constantly guarded by higher ranked town guards. Reason being, this place was highly popular with nobility and those of the wealthy. Sometimes, members of the Imperial Family and their important guests even made special trip to the tea house.

The tea house boasted connections to the best entertainers and scholars from every corner of the Empire - who would sometimes grace the guests with their performances or knowledge. It was not a strange occurrence to have famous scholars and personages congregating their meetings inside this place, exchanging poems  or entertaining each other with their talents. Some martial artists from neighbouring towns or even from the pugilist world also sometimes would meet for friendly matches inside the expansive estate.

It was called Lian(1) House.

The Lian tea-house, looking deceptively plain from the outside, had an expansive man-made pond filled with lotus flowers and red koi fish freely swimming underneath the clear waters.

At the center of the pond, there was an open pavilion suspended over the water, only connected to the main building via a small bridge. At the moment, the pavilion was adorned with hanging long fabrics of white, swaying gently in the summer breeze. The tea-house was awfully busy today, with all smaller pavilions and even the normally unused main building were elegantly decorated with tea tables and low cushions for seats. Streams of people continuously came through the main gate and sat at the tables assigned for them. The workers and the managers served small condiments and of course their best tea to the seated guests.

The seatings were decided and arranged by the guests' status - with the wealthy or those with nobler identity having the privilege of interrupted view of the suspended pavilion. Clearly, the suspended pavilion was the center stage of the upcoming performance that day.

"I have booked for one of the best seats available over 2 months ago," An older gentleman with white beard said to his accompanying friend as they walked through the connecting bridge towards one of the seating areas, while being led by one of the tea house servants. He looked mightily pleased.

"Aii, how lucky you are," His friend sighed, "At that time I was out of town for business. Only when I came home, my wife told me that the Young Miss and the mysterious lady from the Ji family decided to finally do a formal performance."

His wife and daughter were also chattering from behind him, "They were vouched very strongly by Master HeShan and Master SunChen. I personally have not heard the Ji family's young ladies perform, but Master HeShan and Master SunChen's skills themselves should not be doubted."

"That's right, Mother," the daughter nodded slightly, "It is worth the trip and fee for this performance just to see such talents of two of the best scholars in Da Lang." Her tone was as casual as could be, but any person could see the excitement and longing mistiness in her eyes when she spoke about HeShan and SunChen. The two scholars clearly had their own share of admirers.

"It should be the first public performance for Young Miss Ji, right?" There was a young gentleman in his late teens with a group of his friends just coming in through the main gate. Another servant of the tea-house was leading them towards their assigned seats.

"Correct. I have never seen her before either." One of his friends nodded.

"The first Madam of the Ji estate was quite a famous beauty back in the days, so her daughter should be quite alluring as well." The other chimed in.

"Aiya!! Beautiful or not, don't suddenly grow an extra ball," another interrupted in disdain. This youth was quite crass in his way of speaking, making his other friends furrowed their brows, "She is betrothed to the Yong Prince, Prince Zhang GuoFu. Be careful you won't get castrated if you laid your eyes on her."

"But there is another young lady from the Ji family?" the first young gentleman asked.

"Ah, yes, a mysterious one indeed. No one knows or have seen her before. For all we know, she is not a young lady, but someone even older than your grandma," the crude youth snorted. 

These group of young men hailed from the capital city of Da Lang, having heard about the hearsay fame of the Ji family. They were actually sons or family members of higher ranked officials in the capital city, some directly reporting to the Emperor himself. The crude talking youth had also once been under SunChen's tutelage when the latter was still residing in Da Lang. He knew SunChen never held public performances, so when he heard that SunChen was going to do a performance with another famous scholar - HeShan; and the infamous qin players from the Ji estate, he sent his servant to obtain some seats. His friends followed suit; if anything, the excursion served as a break from their boring days in the capital city. Lian tea-house was famous anyway, so why not make the trip?

He was named Chao HuiBo(2) - a 17 years old young man, the heir to the current Minister of Finance. He had a flawless image, his profile currently attracted other young lady guests around them. But there was a transparent arrogance on his high eyebrows and his condescending gaze. Even the beauty of the lotus in the pond and the quaint atmosphere of the tea house did not enter his eyes - he always looked bored. 

"Bo-ge," a dainty young female about 15-16 years old called and reached for his arms from behind. She was the only female of the group - Chao MeiHua(3) - and was the only Di (4)sister of Chao HuiBo. 

If there was a sentence to describe her that day: Chao MeiHua was dressed to impress. Her beauty was enhanced by her bright green colored embroidered robe and dress, and she had the best quality hair accessories on her hair. Her youthful face was enhanced with careful application of faint make up and rouge on her lips, making her whole countenance absolutely captivating.

(Chao HuiBo and Chao MeiHua)

"It's fine, right? Besides, don't you want to perhaps gain some new knowledge from He-laoshi or Sun-laoshi?" She chortled, her eyes brightened when she mentioned SunChen's name. It was clear she had deep admiration towards the young calligraphy teacher. Neither she or her brother had been under tutelage of HeShan, but both had been taught by SunChen personally when they were younger. The Minister of Finance of-course had several other concubines and shu children(4) from those women, but they did not matter as much as his two Di-children from his legal wife. 

Chao MeiHua even collected poems composed by SunChen - not a lot, but some were circulated in Da Lang from his younger days before he left Da Lang. She treasured them like she would her own life.

"Eh? Apparently it's Young Master HuiBo and Lady MeiHua," A deep voice carrying a trace of joviality was heard from behind them.

The group of young nobles turned their heads and were flabbergasted at the sight of the newcomers at the gate. Having lived in the capital of Da Lang all their life and acquainted with the Imperial Family through their fathers or senior family members, how could they not recognize the person who just spoke. And not to mention, the person's accompanying entourage were anything but ordinary.

It was Crown Prince Zhang KongJing, 2nd Prince Zhang JunLi, the 3rd Prince Zhang GuoFu, and the current young vice-commander of the Wolf Army - Zhen BuFeng. Zhen BuFeng casted his sharp gaze over the group of youth before returning to look at nothing in particular. The grim young man also had his spear at his back, treating it like his own body part as usual.

Some of lower status nobility paled and shrunk their heads, trying not to be recognized by the arriving Imperial sons. They could understand why the Yong Prince would come - as his fiancee was going to be at that stage showing off her talent in qin. But what about the rest? Surely they were not here to drink tea and watch their future sister-in-law perform to show their support?

-------------------

Notes:

(1) "Lian" = Lotus

(2) "Hui" = clever/smart. "Bo" = wave/ripple

(3) "Mei" and "Hua" = "Beautiful" and "Flower". 

(3) Di children are children born from the first wife of a man. Di children have much higher status and privileges (usually) than the children born from concubines (normally called "shu children")