Li Guanyi asked in confusion, "If you want to look, why don't you go have a look? Isn't today for the outing in the countryside?"
Xue Shuangtao replied with a smile, "How can we? Even if we go outing, it's with the ladies to the outskirts of the city, beside a little stream to compose poems and make witty replies. They say it is to see me off, but actually, they just want to use this opportunity to gather together, to compete in this and that, to struggle against each other."
"They feel that aside from family background, they are not inferior to me."
"They won't say it openly but will insinuate it, and I have no choice but to respond with a smile. It's very tiring."
Li Guanyi said,
"What kind of outing is that? Isn't that just openly competing and secretly fighting?"
"It's meaningless."
Xue Shuangtao laughed, looking very practiced, "That's how it is with the aristocratic families."