Inside the heated pavilion, under the direction of the maid Yuanyang, two young maids were stoking the brazier with the finest spirit charcoal until it blazed brightly. Little blue flames flickered, driving away some of the chill and filling the pavilion with an unusually rich abundance of spiritual energy.
Even so, everyone seemed a little listless, and no one felt much like talking.
Grandmother Jia sat in the seat of honor, on a rosewood armchair inlaid with precious stones and decorated with auspicious clouds. She cradled a warm-jade hand warmer and rubbed it absently, occasionally making inconsequential small talk with Lady Wang and Aunt Xue. Yet her gaze kept darting toward the hall entrance—far more often than it had while they were waiting for Aunt Xue's family.
Daiyu, Baoyu, Baochai, Tanchun, Yingchun, Xichun, and the other younger women were just as distracted. They sat around on embroidered stools and chairs, but only a few murmured to one another now and then. Most of the time, they sat in silence, each absorbed in her own thoughts. The laughter and cheerful warmth of earlier had vanished.
It was no wonder things had turned out this way.
The young maid had just reported that, not long ago, an official from the Heavenly Court's Immortal Selection Bureau had arrived outside the Rongguo Immortal Estate, bearing a congratulatory notice and riding on auspicious clouds with immortal cranes, accompanied by drums and gongs. That meant someone in the estate had passed the Immortal Selection—and had placed very near the top.
Even though they were all women, they couldn't help being deeply curious about such an important event. It was extraordinarily rare, and they all wanted to learn the reason as soon as possible. Naturally, they had little interest in anything else.
Suddenly!
No one knew how