The prodigal sons were noisy and boisterous; passersby near the Zuixian Pavilion could hear the loud calls for drinking inside.
Yet, Yan Qing was unusually quiet today.
Cheng Chu quickly noticed that Yan Qing seemed preoccupied and bumped his arm, leaning in, "Brother Yan, do you want to know how sister-in-law came to be with Wen Xingzhi?"
Yan Qing glanced sideways at him.
Cheng Chu got a jolt from that look and hastily begged for mercy, "Brother Yan, I mean no harm. I just see you're a bit distracted today. Usually, you're the liveliest one among us."
Yan Qing turned back, slouched into his chair, and sprawled out, "Didn't sleep well last night, huh?"
"Sure, sure, if you didn't sleep well, that's okay. Why not take a nap now?" Cheng Chu dared not disagree as his brother seemed to be in a bad mood. He didn't want to provoke him; he had an intuition that, at this moment, it would be best not to speak lest he gets involved in the backlash and ends up suffering for it.
