Chapter 6: The Cousin from the Black River

Liyan pulled on his robe and ran up the stair to the shoal.

The black and gold barge had already tied up at the gravel.

Thirty attendants in black coats stood in a double line along the shore.

Down the middle of them walked a man in black and gold silk.

He had a short dark beard, a wide happy face, and a gold front tooth that flashed whenever he smiled.

He smiled constantly.

"Cousin!" he roared across the water. "Cousin Mingjue!"

"Eight hundred years since I saw you, and you've got yourself married without inviting me!"

Mingjue came up the stair behind Liyan.

He had put on his formal robe, and he was standing very straight.

"Hongde," he said.

Hongde seized him in a bear hug, which Mingjue endured.

"Look at this long face! Still the gloomiest dragon in the nine provinces!"

"And this must be the husband."

He turned, and a large warm hand closed around Liyan's, and shook it up and down.

"A scholar! Splendid. A man of learning. Mingjue always did like a book."

"Xie Liyan," Liyan said. "I teach school."

"Of course you do. Look at the ink on those fingers. Come, come, I've brought presents."

Attendants carried up the presents.

There was a basket of golden peaches, a jar of rice wine sealed with red wax, and a box of ivory combs.

Bo stood in the palace doorway with his keys in his fist.

He looked like a man watching a cat approach a fish tank.

"Marriage custom," Hongde explained cheerfully. "Kin witness a first marriage."

"I'm to stay until the banquet on the Double Ninth, cousin, and see it properly done."

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