Taiching Four Mansions, the southwestern corner.
A maple forest was hidden in one corner, where an elegant hut resided.
Inside the yard of the hut, in front of a stone table, a man and a woman were brewing spring water for tea.
The man was an elder in a green robe, his face weathered but adorned with meticulously combed black hair.
He lifted the kettle of boiling water and filled a teacup to seventy percent, not a drop more or less, perfectly measuring the tea within the cup.
Yan Jidao gently pushed the steaming cup of tea towards the guest across the table and looked up directly at the woman, whose arrival had surprised him greatly.
Yan Jidao cut directly to the chase, "Why have you come?"
As he spoke, he glanced at the woman across the table who wore her hair tied up in a man's style and was dressed in a Confucian robe.
In the air lingered a subtly enchanting fragrance of orchids.
