Ge Lan stood with her head bowed in the outer room. After Xiao Song had left, she hesitated for a moment but still picked up the paper and pen and entered the inner chamber.
Ran Yan glanced at the paper and pen in her hand and asked, "What's the matter?"
Kneeling in front of the couch, Ge Lan looked at the hairpin in the brocade box and wrote: Wife, do you know the meaning behind giving a hairpin as a gift?
Ran Yan looked at the characters on the paper, startled for a moment, then soon smiled and said, "Had you not mentioned it, I wouldn't have paid it any mind. Tying up one's hair, binding one's thoughts—it's a token of commitment, isn't it?"
This time, it was Ge Lan's turn to be stunned. She had thought that her mistress was too naïve about matters of men and women and did not understand the deep significance of giving a hairpin, but it seemed that was not the case. She lifted her pen and wrote: The slave dares to ask if the wife has taken a liking to Mister Xiao?
