Outside Zhengyang Gate.
Chen Ji rode aimlessly on the cobblestone road, the setting sun casting his shadow long and slanted on the street. Passersby, seeing the dazzling Qilin embroidery, turned their heads to avoid him, yet couldn't help but glance back.
Few in the Imperial Capital recognized his face, but the Qilin embroidery was uniquely of the Ning Dynasty.
The wind swept past the street corner, carrying bits of gossip: "Have you heard? The Qi family has taken those two playboys into their house..."
"Now the Marquis Wu Xiang has nowhere to get silver from, right?"
Under the gray-tiled eaves by the roadside, a few scholars in blue robes stroked their beards and nodded: "The Qi family's action, unafraid of the Eunuch Party's power, protecting the children of good families, is a model for our Confucian scholars."
