by the butler.

The servants at the gate going to the prince's mansion were somewhat curious about who this guest could be for the crown prince himself to greet them at the gate.

When they saw the young woman in a golden-colored jacket and gauze skirt get out of the palanquin, they finally realized that the young lady of the Fan family had arrived. Considering the relations.h.i.+p between the prince's manor and Fan Manor, the personal friends.h.i.+p between the Crown Prince and Miss Fan, and how rarely she showed her face in public, it was only right that he greet her at the gate.

"Miss Ruoruo." Crown Prince Jing's surname was Li, and his given name was Hongcheng. The gossip in the capital was that he was never seen far from a pleasure house, but standing before Miss Fan, he seemed a bashful and respectful young man.

Fan Ruoruo curtsied, greeted the Crown Prince, and smiled. "And so what did Ruojia choose as a topic today?"

The Crown Prince laughed in response, but his gaze occasionally s.h.i.+fted toward the palanquin behind her. Was he still not going to come out after all that effort? Servants came forward and parted the curtains of the sedan chair in deference... but to their surprise, there was no one inside. The people inside the prince's mansion were taken aback. What was he playing at?

Fan Ruoruo stifled a giggle. "My brother is behind us," she explained.

As they talked, they saw the 16-year-old catch up with them from not far behind, gasping for breath, accompanied by an attendant. The young man wore pale maroon robes with the collar unfastened. He seemed rather frivolous, but combined with his clean face, it made the people around him feel relaxed.

"My apologies, my apologies." Fan Xian cupped his hands and bowed to the crown prince. "The rocking of the palanquin made me feel dizzy," he explained awkwardly, "so I got out and walked. But it's so hot out, so I stopped to drink some winter cherry juice. I'm late, I know."

"Not late at all." Crown Prince Jing looked at this young man who he had only met once before, and felt particular fondness for him. He laughed heartily. "As long as you could come, Brother Fan."

Fan Xian noticed that the crown prince was now calling him by his surname, unlike a few days before. He could not tell what the crown prince meant to show by this. He paused for a moment, and a smile crept across his face. "The winter cherry juice from outside your mansion is far better than what they serve in other places, so naturally I had to try it."

The crown prince smiled. They could have stood there talking all day. With a wave of his hand, he ushered the siblings into the garden.

From his days in Danzhou, Fan Xian knew that his sister was a talented poet. Although her verse tended to be rather melancholy and bound by convention, it was still good poetry. But it was clear that she had little in the way of artistic achievements compared to the princelings and young scholars who attended the poetry contests, and so Fan Ruoruo had little renown as a poet.

So he was very curious how his sister would behave at this sort of gathering, as well as Princess Ruojia, who had caused the leak of Dream of the Red Chamber to be sold by illegal booksellers at dirt-cheap prices.

But as he followed Crown Prince Jing into the rear garden, with its winding corridors and running water, he realized, in a seemingly unconstrained nation such as this, there was still segregation between men and women. The women sat beneath a pavilion on the other side of the lake, with layers of thin white silk hanging from it, swaying in the wind.

Slightly disappointed, he followed the crown prince to the edge of the lake. As he looked at the floating silk in the distance, he couldn't help but think of Stephen Chow, a director and actor who he had loved so much in his past life. He sighed deep in his heart. "It feels like first love."