Chapter 269 — Style Name

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In this way, Yizhi Hall could make a name for itself and no longer be constrained at every turn by the Ying Duke's estate.

"But 'Yizhi Hall' is a hall name, so I'm afraid it may not be quite suitable," he mused. "It would be better to choose another style name."

"I was thinking the same," Dou Xin said. "But I can't think of a good name offhand. Do you have any ideas?"

"Then just use your own style name!" Song Dan said. "Sooner or later you'll have to help plan this sort of thing anyway."

Dou Yan flushed with shame. "I don't have a style name!"

Song Yan was quite surprised, but then grew eager to try.

"Then let's make one up on the spot, shall we?" he said, and pulling Dou Yan into the study, he dismissed all the attendants and personally laid out the xuan paper and ground the ink. "Zhao—the sun's brightness. 'The autumn moon sheds its bright radiance, the winter ridge shows a solitary pine'... that seems a bit too lonely and cold, not fitting for what we're trying to do. 'The bright moon rises from the Tianshan Mountains, amid the vast sea of clouds'... Master of the Sea of Clouds... that doesn't seem quite right either..."

Seeing him so utterly absorbed and exhausted, Dou Yan could not help pursing her lips in a smile. She stepped forward and pressed a hand over the ink stick in Song Yan's grasp. "Let me grind the ink for you!"

Their fingertips touched.

Song's hand lingered for a moment before he let go.

"How about taking Zhending as your name?" he said, walking to the brush rack and selecting a weasel-hair brush. "The Cha River of Zhending originates from the Hutuo River. The Rites of Zhou calls it Houchi, and in the Northern Wei it was also called Qingning River. Why don't we take one of these two?"

Dou Yan was born in Zhending, but in her previous life she had known only that the Cha River was a branch of the Hutuo, and not that the Hutuo had once been called Houchi and Qingning. In this life, it was only when Master Song happened to mention it while lecturing her that she learned the origins of the Cha River—and even that he had come by only after arriving in Zhending and consulting ancient texts.

She was sure that most people would never notice such things.

Song Su spoke fluently, and he seemed utterly familiar with it all.

Gazing at Song Zhi, Dou Yan's eyes could not help deepening a shade.

Song Yan, head bowed as he wrote, did not notice. He was still talking to himself. "I think Qingning is better. Laozi once said: of those in the past that attained the One—heaven attained it and became clear, earth attained it and became tranquil. Why not take the style name 'Master of Qingning' or 'Recluse of Qingning'... 'Pavilion Lord of Attaining the One' isn't bad either."

Dou Yan liked it very much. "Then let's engrave 'Master of Qingning,'" she said with a smile.

Seeing that Dou Yan liked it, Song Yan was delighted. Eagerly he rummaged through the study, opening chests and cabinets. "I remember my grandfather left me a piece of tianhuang stone. I'll carve you a leisure seal."

Dou Yan was astonished. "You can carve seals too?"

"Mm!" Song Yan said. "Sometimes my eldest uncle wants to check how well I've trained my internal martial arts, so he has me carve seals to see if my hand is steady. I once studied seal carving specifically under Master Jin Shouyan, a great master from southern Fujian." As he spoke, he turned his head with a smile. "Found it!" He took out a gold-lacquered, mother-of-pearl-inlaid box painted with plum blossoms and set it on the kang table.

The seal knob was a cicada clinging to bamboo, its colors rich and vivid, its texture as tender as a baby's skin. Dou Yan could not bear to put it down.

"Carve a seal with this?" Song Yan excelled at calligraphy, and since he said he could carve seals, his technique was presumably good. But seal carving demanded not only calligraphy but also composition; at Song Zhi's age, no matter how gifted, he likely still had shortcomings. She felt that such a precious piece of tianhuang stone should be saved until Song Yan's blade work was more seasoned, so it might be put to its full use—it would be a pity otherwise. "When I was little, I once sneaked a few of my father's chicken-blood stones, and I brought them with me when I married. Why not use chicken-blood stone? Keep this tianhuang for later, and carve me a leisure seal then."

That tone, tinged with a certain doting indulgence, made Song Chu start, and then break into a delighted smile.

"Our family has several more little stones like this," he said, not having expected Dou Yan to like seal material. "Only this one's knob is suited to you, which is why I thought of it. If you like them, just take them all." As he spoke, he called loudly for Chen He.

Chen He darted in at once.

Song Yan instructed him, "Go fetch the storeroom keys. The madam and I are going to look for some seal material."

Chen He answered and went to get the keys.

Dou Chi's heart stirred.

She went to the storeroom with Song Chu.

The young servant held the lantern high, lighting the storeroom brightly.

Beads of sweat broke out faintly on Dou Yan's forehead.

There were five pieces of tianhuang stone in all, scattered carelessly in a box. Two were raw stones, but their veining was clear and their quality excellent; the other three already had carved knobs—one a tiger, one a lion, one a deer.

No wonder Song Yan had said only the material in her hand was suitable for her.

Dou Yan muttered to herself, and with a pang of distress wiped clean one by one the dust-covered white ginkgo jelly Qingtian stone, the lotus-root-pink jelly chicken-blood stone, and the white hibiscus Shoushan stone.

Seeing this, Chen He hurried forward to help, and explained, "These are all small pieces with nowhere to go, so they were put on the shelves of this curio cabinet. If you like tianhuang stone, there's still a Guanyin figure carved from tianhuang in the storeroom—it's a bit small, but if you don't mind, I'll find it and let you have a look?"

Carving a Buddha figure from tianhuang stone—whose idea was that?

Dou Yan nodded.

Chen He took the ledger and went to look for the figure. In an old box, Dou Yan discovered two inkstones. One made clever use of a stone eye, carved into a lotus leaf and frog, the stone clear and moist. The other was purple, its underside dotted with stone eyes of every size, which at first glance seemed like watery vapor, extraordinarily round and smooth. One look told her they were no ordinary pieces.

Dou Yan drew in a sharp breath and asked Song Yan, "How many more things like this does your family have?"

"I don't know." Song Yan seemed to be seeing these two inkstones for the first time as well. He turned them over in his hands. "There's too much stuff, page after page of ledgers, dense as can be. Some things that left a deep impression I just took out and used..." As he spoke, he raised the inkstones toward Chen He and said, "Take them off the ledgers. I'm taking them back to the study."

Chen He answered, still there sweating over the ledgers with the storeroom manager and muttering, "I remember clearly it was in this storeroom... how could it be gone..."

Out of sight, out of mind. Dou Yan could not be bothered to wait there any longer, so she said a word to Chen He and returned to their rooms with Song Yan.

Both of them were covered in dust, so they called the maids to wash and change afresh.

When Dou Yan came out, Song Yan was examining the two inkstones by lamplight.

Hearing the commotion, he raised his head and said with a smile, "Tell me, if I give these two inkstones to my father-in-law, do you think he will like them?"

So he had brought the two inkstones out intending to give them to his own father.