While Xue Baochai's Hengwu Garden was bustling with activity, and some troublesome little girl—the Flame Immortal—had just finished snatching spirit herbs from the Illusory Realm and run off somewhere to play again, Grandmother Jia, Lady Wang, and Jia Zheng had dismissed their maids and were strolling together through the Grand View Garden.
It had been half a month since the Imperial Consort Yuan's family visit. The Grand View Garden was still beautiful, but since the Ning and Rong mansions were no longer spending great quantities of spirit stones and manpower on its upkeep, many of the flowers in the garden had begun to wither. In many places, entire trees were already shedding their blossoms.
Still, the scene of petals drifting in the breeze had its own special charm.
In any case, Grandmother Jia, Lady Wang, and Jia Zheng paid it no mind. They simply walked slowly along the bluestone path beside Qinfang Creek.
Little by little, the sun began to sink in the west. Its afterglow fell across the garden's pavilions and towers, and their gray-tiled roofs. From the banquet courtyard in the distance, over in Hengwu Garden, faint strains of music and cheerful laughter could still be heard. But the three of them paid that little attention, too, and continued their stroll.
"..."
Grandmother Jia was, naturally, wearing the same dark-patterned, ocher-gold robe of longevity she usually wore. Her hair was silver, yet she was still full of vigor.
She carried no cane and did not ask her son or daughter-in-law to support her. Her steps were steady, but for some reason, though her eyes occasionally swept over the garden scenery, her gaze seemed absent. It was hard to tell whether she had something else on her mind.
"..."
Lady Wang walked just behind Grandmother Jia's left side, wearing