Sure enough, it was a bright red sedan.
The sedan was decorated with great lengths of red silk. Four sedan bearers carried it, while more than a dozen men in front cleared the way with gongs and drums.
Perhaps because it was still early, there were hardly any people on the streets, so the procession did not attract much attention.
Tao Mo lifted the hem of his robes, stepped forward, bent down, and climbed into the sedan.
Watching from the side, Old Tao and Hao Guozi both felt a mixture of sorrow and happiness.
“Lift the sedan!” one of the bearers shouted.
The sedan rose steadily from the ground.
“Move out!”
Dong-dong-qiang—!
The thunder of gongs and drums shook the sky!
Tanyang County, still only half awake from the drowsiness of night, was quickly roused by the bursts of noise.
It was not only the street outside the county yamen. Gongs and drums thundered outside Master One-Hammer’s residence, Lin Zhengyong’s residence, and the homes of every prominent person who had received an invitation. The only difference was that those households had arranged their own musicians. Tao Mo’s gongs and drums had been sent by Gu She.
Gradually, all the sounds of gongs and drums converged in one place.
Looking at the dozen or so sedan chairs crowded outside the Gu residence, Madam One-Hammer could not resist sticking her head out and looking around. Irritably, she said, “What exactly is all this supposed to be? First everyone has to wear red, then ride in red sedan chairs, then beat gongs and drums—and now we’re simply sitting here without moving?”
Master One-Hammer smiled. “Don’t be impatient. The good part comes later.”
Madam One-Hammer suddenly reached over and twisted his ear. “What do you know? Tell me everything!”
Master One-Hammer winced in pain and could only smile placatingly. “Wife, you’re worrying too much. We sleep in the same bed and eat at the same table every day. Naturally, anything I know, you know too.”
“So what if we sleep and eat together? I’m not tucked inside your belly. How am I supposed to know all the schemes you keep hidden in there?” Madam One-Hammer switched to poking him in the forehead.
Master One-Hammer said, “My wife isn’t inside my belly. She’s inside my heart.”
Although Madam One-Hammer had heard his sweet talk countless times before, it still pleased her. She gave him a coquettish glare. “Smooth talker.”
And with that, the matter was considered settled.
Master One-Hammer had just breathed a sigh of relief when a commotion suddenly broke out outside. He lifted the curtain and asked, “What happened?”
The sedan bearer said, “A sedan chair was carried into the Gu residence.”
Master One-Hammer asked, “Only one?”
“Only one.” The bearer craned his neck to look. “Yes, only one.”
Madam One-Hammer hurriedly asked, “Whose?”
“I don’t know. It looked like a red sedan chair.”
To be fair, although Gu She had explicitly written on the invitations that everyone attending the banquet should arrive in a red sedan chair, who could possibly find a red sedan chair at such short notice? More importantly, who at their age would willingly ride through the streets in one? Of the dozen or so sedan chairs outside the Gu residence, only three were actually red, including the one occupied by Master One-Hammer.
Madam One-Hammer said unhappily, “Even if he is a great talent renowned throughout the realm, he should at least understand what it means to respect one’s teacher. How can his teacher still be sitting outside while someone else is allowed in first?”
Master One-Hammer merely patted her hand without saying anything.
After a while, servants from the Gu residence came over and invited the couple to leave the sedan and enter on foot.
Madam One-Hammer said irritably, “Didn’t someone else just ride straight inside? Why do the two of us have to get out when it’s our turn?”
Master One-Hammer asked, “Was that person Lord Tao?”
The servant was startled but quickly recovered. “Yes. Just as Master One-Hammer said.”
Madam One-Hammer frowned. She had heard that Gu She and Tao Mo were close, but she had never imagined they were close enough for Tao Mo to receive treatment this exceptional.
The servant repeated the explanation Gu Xiaojia had taught him beforehand. “Lord Tao has stayed at the residence for quite some time and may be regarded as a frequent guest. Young Master therefore instructed us in advance to receive him with the courtesies due a member of the household.”
Only then did Madam One-Hammer reluctantly climb out of the sedan. It was, after all, someone else’s private friendship. However dissatisfied she might feel, it was hardly her place to say anything.
Master One-Hammer held out the congratulatory gift to a servant and said meaningfully, “A trifling gift, merely to express my good wishes. May Young Master Gu achieve everything his heart desires.”
Madam One-Hammer glanced at him. “How terribly conventional.”
Master One-Hammer laughed heartily without defending himself and walked toward the entrance with his wife.
Just then, Lin Zhengyong stepped onto the stairs.
As the three pairs of eyes met, Master One-Hammer cupped his hands first. “Brother Zhengyong, I trust you have been well.”
“Brother One-Hammer, you look as healthy as ever.”
“Hahahaha…”
The two men entered together, laughing.
Madam One-Hammer lagged half a step behind and asked a servant, “Where is Lord Tao?”
The servant paused and answered vaguely, “Inside.”
Seeing him hurry away the moment he answered, Madam One-Hammer looked toward the inner hall in confusion.
Just how far “inside” was inside?
Very far inside indeed. Deep, deep inside.
Tao Mo stood before the wedding hall. Two spirit tablets had been placed prominently above it. He might not recognize many other characters, but he could recognize his own father’s name.
“The one beside him is my mother.” Gu She emerged from the inner hall.
Elio’s Notes: The two spirit tablets represent Tao Mo’s deceased father and Gu She’s deceased mother at the wedding rites. In traditional family ritual, a deceased parent could be symbolically present through a spirit tablet.
Gu She was also dressed entirely in red. Yet on him, the robes somehow gave him an ethereal, almost otherworldly elegance.
Tao Mo stared blankly as Gu She walked toward him.
“My father is still alive,” Gu She said, “so I didn’t invite him.”
By then, Tao Mo’s entire attention had been captured by Gu She. He had no idea what Gu She had even said and simply nodded.
Yue Ling watched from the side and laughed openly.
Adviser Jin was less blatant about it, but he too wore an unmistakably delighted expression.
Very few people knew about Gu She and Tao Mo, so the wedding hall was actually much quieter than the Cinnabar Banquet outside.
Old Tao suddenly interjected, “Does Chancellor Gu know about this?”
Knowing and choosing not to come, knowing and being unable to come, and not knowing at all were three completely different things.
“He does not.”
Old Tao frowned.
Of all possible answers, that was the worst. If Chancellor Gu knew nothing, then his eventual reaction could take any number of forms—and there might not even be a limit to how bad it could become.
“I have not been in contact with him for several years,” Gu She said. “My mother’s decision is sufficient for this matter.”
Old Tao looked at the spirit tablet above the hall and slowly sighed.
Gu She said to Gu Xiaojia, “The auspicious hour has not arrived yet. Go outside and see how the Cinnabar Banquet is going.”
“Yes.” Gu Xiaojia answered and ran outside.
Outside, however, everything had already descended into chaos.
Gu She had painted four works in total: one each of plum blossom, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum. What made the four paintings unusual was that all of them had been painted in cinnabar, filling each piece with deep crimson. Yet strangely, even such vivid, saturated color could not conceal the lofty and unyielding spirit of the plum, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum within the paintings.
Elio’s Notes: Plum blossom, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum are collectively known as the “Four Gentlemen” in traditional Chinese painting. They are associated with cultivated character and virtues such as resilience, integrity, humility, and endurance.
Every person viewing the paintings knew that the pigments before their eyes were red, yet the plum blossoms, orchids, bamboo, and chrysanthemums within them somehow seemed white or green, elegant in color and untouched by anything vulgar or worldly.
“Excellent paintings! Truly excellent! Gu Xianzhi—worthy indeed of the name Gu Xianzhi!”
Someone in the crowd suddenly shouted, and the others immediately echoed the praise.
Standing to one side, Gu Xiaojia curled his lip disdainfully. If Young Master hadn’t wanted to use these paintings to draw all these people here, he probably would have burned them long ago. As far as I’m concerned, these aren’t even as good as the paintings he burned before.
To Gu She, the value of a painting did not lie in the painting itself, but in the level of attainment he had reached through creating it.
Master One-Hammer had sharp eyes. The moment he saw Gu Xiaojia standing near the doorway, he immediately walked over. “When does your young master intend to show himself?”
Caught off guard, Gu Xiaojia hurriedly replied, “Young Master will naturally come out whenever he feels like coming out.”
“And Lord Tao? I haven’t seen Lord Tao for many days. I was hoping to take this opportunity to catch up with him.”
When exactly did he become so close to Lord Tao? Gu Xiaojia wondered. But Master One-Hammer was Gu She’s teacher, after all, so Gu Xiaojia did not dare say anything aloud. He offered a few perfunctory replies and quickly found an excuse to leave.
When Gu Xiaojia returned to the inner hall, he found Gu She and Tao Mo standing hand in hand, just about to bow to Heaven and Earth.
He hurried over in alarm. “I’ll do it! I’ll do it…”
Yue Ling smiled. “What exactly are you planning to do? At this point, it’s too late to steal either groom.”
“I want to call out the wedding bows.”
Yue Ling clicked his tongue. “Tsk, tsk. So when affection runs deep enough, all resentment really does disappear.”
Gu Xiaojia looked pleadingly at Gu She.
Gu She nodded.
Delighted, Gu Xiaojia squeezed Yue Ling aside and called loudly, “First bow, to Heaven and Earth!”
Gu She and Tao Mo turned toward the doorway. Before they could even bow, several masked figures dressed in red suddenly dropped from above with a succession of whooshes.
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