After Consort Yuan's visit home was over, everyone in both the Ning and Rong Residences—including Lin Daiyu and Tanchun—was utterly worn out. Nearly everyone was exhausted and drained.
Daiyu and Tanchun had it easier. At least they were young ladies of the household, so they could rest and keep their hands clean. But the maids, matrons, and servants in both residences had it rough.
Afterward, they spent another two or three days cleaning and tidying everything. Only then did they manage to put the furnishings, things that had been brought out for the occasion, and all the out-of-place decorations in both residences and the Grand View Garden back in order. They kept at it until the eighteenth day of the first month.
Once everything was sorted, Grandmother Jia, Jia Zheng, Jia She, and the others were discussing whether to seal off the enormously costly Grand View Garden and keep idle visitors out when another decree from Consort Yuan arrived.
After returning, Consort Yuan had remembered the garden's beautiful scenery. She figured that after her visit, Jia Zheng and the others would surely seal it up carefully and forbid anyone from entering. But then the lavishly built garden would go to waste.
After all, they still didn't know whether she would be allowed to visit home next year. It would be a waste to leave such a vast, luxurious garden sitting empty.
So she simply issued a decree: Daiyu, the three Spring sisters, the widowed Li Wan, Baochai, and the other young ladies of the Jia family were all to move into the garden. It was not to be sealed off.
And that wasn't all!
To look after her only younger brother, she also made a point of stating in the decree that Baoyu was to move into the garden with