When they once again traveled by boat from Jinling, heading back to Yangzhou along the great river, the favorable wind and current made the journey much faster than it had been more than a year earlier, when Lin Daiyu and her maids had come upriver from Yangzhou. So before even a month had passed, Lin Daiyu, who had hurried back after receiving a letter saying her father was gravely ill, along with Xueyan, a certain bear, Zijuan, and the other servants, as well as Jia Lian and the others leading the group, had already been staying at the Lin residence in Yangzhou for some time.
However,
Lin Ruhai had been on the brink of death, and at last he got his wish to see his daughter one final time. When he saw her beside his sickbed, looking just as upright and increasingly spirited as she had in their letters, no longer sickly or bearing the signs of an early death, he finally stopped holding on. He let out his last breath and passed away peacefully, without a care left on his mind, no longer showing the worry and anguish that had plagued him before.
So, naturally, the Lin residence had spent this time in mourning and making funeral arrangements...
Fortunately, Jia Lian had come along, so none of the women, including Lin Daiyu, had to handle the affairs themselves. Jia Lian and the helpers he had brought, such as Zhaor, had taken care of everything inside and out. By the time the seventh day of mourning had passed, the day before they were to escort Lin Ruhai's coffin to Suzhou, he had already settled all the affairs of the Lin residence, including its money, land deeds, house deeds, and other belongings, as well as arrangements with the Lin family's collateral