The Legend of Concubine's Daughter Minglan

Chapter 59

At the beginning of February, as air teemed with spring chill, tender green buds shot out from branches. Minglan was in high spirits and decided to write calligraphy to welcome the arrival of spring. She laid out the table that had been put aside for the whole winter and ordered Danju to carefully grind thick ink for her. She just wrote down the first sentence of the poem "Behind bamboo two or three sprays of peach-tree grow..." when Molan came in. Minglan put down the writing brush in a hurry to welcome her in.

As they small-talked for a while, Molan caught sight of the marble table installed with malus spectabilis carved with rose wood. On the table paved snow-while paper with wet ink on it. Molan smiled, "Sorry to have bothered you." Minglan laughed, "Not at all. I just wrote for fun."

Molan walked to the table and picked up the paper, criticizing, "How dare to write with a huge brush?! If you lack of strength to make strokes stretch, the characters would huddle in a mess!"

Being criticized right in the face, Minglan muttered, "I'm only good at regular script that I practice through copying Buddhist scripture." Come on. How could her calligraphy that had been learnt during after-class time for gaining extra scores for college entrance exam compare to that of an art-pursuer practicing day and night?

Molan took a scornful glance at Minglan. Without saying anything, Molan took the brush and, by several waves, continued the poem, "When spring has warmed the stream, ducks are the first to know.". Indeed, the characters looked well-rounded and powerful, much better than those written by Minglan. Yet, though Minglan didn't know how to write, she could tell that Molan's were not as good as those of Old Madam's.

Of course, Minglan still exclaimed for her and tried all means to flatter Molan who, looking at her own calligraphy, was quite complacent and continued to write. The moment she finished the last character—adding a thick point to the character "time", Rulan came in. At the sight of Molan, she frowned, "Why are you here?"

Minglan had no time to comment on the last stroke and hurriedly welcomed Rulan into the room. Yancao had already got used to this and went to prepare tea before receiving order. Molan put down the brush and walked up from behind the table, smiling, "You can come here. Why can't I?" Minglan at once joked about herself in order to soften the climate, "That's because my place is too nice with great tea, great refreshment, and in particular, a great master."

"Pooh!"

Molan and Rulan spat at her together.

They didn't pay attention as to since when the three sisters began to gather often in the House of Clear Dusk. In truth, Rulan's House of Carefree was most luxurious and comfortable, but every time Molan entered, she would smirk it as being "flashy and gaudy". Molan's House of Mountain Moon was most elegant and simple with piles of paper, brushes and other writing tools everywhere, but Rulan would criticize her as a "fake pedant". Therefore, after a few rounds of chat, war began. Only Minglan was thick-skinned enough to endure this with shrugging shoulders.

Rulan walked behind the table to take a look at the characters. Though she could not judge whether they were good or not, she had to made some comments, "Why don't you use swallow paper? I remember that uncle sent many during the Spring Festival." Minglan collected her handkerchief and replied nervously, "That's too expansive. For practicing, it's not necessary."

Molan snorted, "Calligraphy is all about writing technique. Even Orchid Pavilion Forewords by Wang Xizhi was written on normal paper and still passed on through ages. Do you think it's only because of the paper?"

Minglan quickly cut in, "Both of your words make sense, but my poor writing technique only deserves such normal paper. Next time, if you want to practice calligraphy here, don't forget to bring your own paper and brushes."