Consort Mo led the two men into the courtyard. An open-air well stood there, arranged in the traditional "four waters returning to the hall" layout. Beneath the eaves of the main hall, a desk sat with bright lamps glowing on either side. Scattered across the desk were several drafts of manuscripts, revised and edited, while a small side table held raspberries chilled in well water—sweet and tart, perfectly suited for the restless spring days.
Behind the desk sat a young man of about twenty-five or twenty-six, dressed in a green robe with his chest half-open. A brush hung from his lips as he teased a heterochromatic-eyed cat in his lap. Seeing the Zhou brothers arrive, the young man prepared to stand and greet them. However, the cat in his arms tilted its head and rubbed against his palm, preventing him from raising his hands to perform a bow. It even cast a haughty glance at the two Zhou brothers with its half-green, half-yellow eyes.
The young man chuckled, set his brush down on the inkstone, coated it with ink, and wrote on the paper: "Thieving little mouse, one ear long, ink-colored, agile in flight; the cat cannot catch it."
Chapter 36