Feng Mengxiong had worried about Chen Caozhi all the way there, yet when he reached Chen Family Cove, he found Ding Yi kneeling upright and solemn in the small hall of the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall, conversing with Chen Xian, Clan Chief. Feng Mengxiong had no time now to wonder why Ding Yi's manner was so utterly different from what it had been at Maple Forest Ferry. The death of Mother Chen Lady Li had deeply shocked all three members of his family. It had been so sudden!
When Feng Lingbo saw Chen Caozhi approach in hemp mourning clothes and bow with his hands clasped, her heart ached. She was Mother Chen Lady Li's adopted daughter, yet she had not come to visit while her adoptive mother was gravely ill, and she felt deeply guilty. She discussed with her parents how she should observe mourning for her adoptive mother.
The Five Ranks of Mourning Attire System in the Rites of Zhou made no provision for an adopted daughter to observe mourning for her adoptive mother. Had Feng Lingbo been raised by Mother Chen from childhood, she would have had to observe three years of mourning in unhemmed sackcloth, just like Chen Caozhi. But Feng Lingbo had not been raised by Mother Chen, and both her own parents were alive. What mourning rites she should observe truly stumped Feng Mengxiong, Magistrate of Qiantang County, despite his familiarity with ritual propriety.
After discussing it with his wife, Sun Shi, Feng Mengxiong decided that Feng Lingbo should begin mourning Mother Chen Lady Li as a daughter, wearing unhemmed sackcloth, and remove her mourning clothes after the funeral procession. In other words, Feng Lingbo would stay at Chen Family Cove during these days, observing mourning for Mother Chen Lady Li alongside Chen Caozhi and