258 Playing the Zither
Translator: Atlas Studios
Editor: Atlas Studios
This time, Gu Yanfei was certain that she understood.
“I’ll help you!” Gu Yanfei said with a smile, her lips curling into a confident smile.
A few strands of messy hair were blown against her jade-like face by the cold wind, making her look elegant and imposing.
Wei Jiaoniang and Lu Qin looked at each other again. The two of them almost burst out laughing at the same time.
The two of them leaned intimately on Gu Yanfei’s shoulder, making Gu Yanfei deeply feel what it meant to have two women on each side.
Several eyes around them looked at the three of them.
As they chatted and laughed, the group arrived at the imperial garden.
The palace maid, Liu Shuang, brought the girls to a three-room water pavilion by the lake.
The Tinglan Water Pavilion had been decorated in advance. The room was filled with incense, and there was a wool carpet on the ground. There was a zither table, tables, chairs, desks, chessboard, and so on. There were a few snow-white charcoal pots burning inside, and the temperature was suitable.
As soon as the frozen girls entered, they felt as if they had come back to life and took off their cloaks.
“Jiaoniang!”
Wei Jiaoniang, Gu Yanfei, and the others had just walked to the entrance of the water pavilion when a girl in green waved happily at Wei Jiaoniang.
Wei Jiaoniang put away the umbrella and handed it to a palace maid beside her. She turned around and whispered to Gu Yanfei, “The Eldest Prince will definitely come later.”
She even imitated Gu Yanfei and made a divination gesture, as if to say that she had just calculated it.,
Gu Yanfei and Lu Qin were amused by her. Their laughter was loud as they crossed the threshold together.
In the water pavilion, most of the girls had already taken their seats. There was still a clear distinction between the nobles and the aristocratic families. The noble ladies sat in the east, and the women from the aristocratic families sat in the west.
Behind a rosewood-inlaid shell piano table against the west wall, a dignified and beautiful girl from an aristocratic family sat elegantly. She placed her hands on the strings and first tested the music. Then, her slender fingers plucked the strings and played “High Mountains and Flowing Water”.
High mountains and flowing water meet bosom friends.
Playing “High Mountains and Flowing Water” was naturally to wait for a soulmate.
Wei Jiaoniang signaled Gu Yanfei and Lu Qin to look at the girl playing the piano with her eyes and whispered, “They must have received the news. Otherwise, why would they be playing the piano in the middle of winter?”
As they spoke, they arrived in front of the lady in green. Wei Jiaoniang asked with a smile, “What are we playing?
‘Let’s play hide-and- seek,” a lady in green suggested.
Lu Qin immediately rejected it without thinking. “How can we play in such a small place? It’s snowing outside.’
As she spoke, she pushed open a window and looked out at the lake outside the water pavilion. The clear water sparkled in the snow.
‘Let’s feed the fish.” Lu Qin’s eyes darted around as she suggested with a smile, “1 heard that there are many gold and silver-scaled koi in this lake. Their entire bodies are covered in golden or silver scales. They’re extremely beautiful.” Lu Qin excitedly called the palace maid to get the fish food.
Wei Jiaonang pointed at Lu Qin’s forehead and told Gu Yanfei with a smile,
‘Yanfei, Ah Qin is just too lazy to move because of the cold weather.”
Lu Qin stuck out her tongue playfully and winked at Gu Yanfei, not embarrassed at all.
The two boxes of fish food were quickly served. The girls fed the fish, admired them, ate snacks, and chatted and laughed.
At the door, a middle-aged eunuch with a pale face and a beard instructed a few palace maids to pour tea and water. From time to time, he would add fruits and snacks to the plate while he looked out from time to time.
After a while, a little eunuch finally arrived late with a tray.
The middle-aged eunuch took the tray and personally carried over the white porcelain jug and several wine glasses.
The tip of Wei Jiaoniang’s nose twitched as she smelled the hint of alcohol in the air. She blurted out, “Jade Flower Dew.”
As she spoke, Wei Jiaoniang stroked her chin with a thoughtful expression.
Other than attending the palace banquet, foreign ministers and women like them were not allowed to drink casually. They were afraid that they would be disrespectful in front of the emperor. This was the rule, so the palace servants wouldn’t casually serve wine.
Wei Jiaoniang narrowed her eyes and sized up the palace servant who was serving wine. Her imagination ran wild. Could this be some kind of scheme?
In an instant, all the scenes about palace battles that Wei Jiaoniang had seen appeared in her mind.
However, in the next moment, Gu Yanfei raised her eyebrows and said to the middle-aged eunuch, “It’s you..”