Early on the seventeenth day of the tenth month, Chen Caozhi, Xie Daoyun, Ran Sheng, and their party of more than thirty left Chen Family Cove for Shanyin, the seat of Kuaiji Commandery. Shanyin County lay a hundred and fifty li from Qiantang, a journey of two days. Chen Caozhi had traveled this road three years earlier to ask the eminent monk Zhi Mindu to treat his mother's illness; his destination then had been the Xie Clan's estate at Dongshan in Shangyu.
Xie Daoyun did not ride a horse that day, taking an ox cart instead. She had been somewhat worried that Chen Caozhi would ask why she had abandoned her horse for a cart, and was pleased that he asked nothing. But then another thought struck her: Chen Caozhi's asking nothing shows precisely that he understands everything. At this thought, Xie Daoyun could not help feeling shy, and a little dejected. However she disguised herself as a man, she was, in the end, still a woman.
Yuji County lay between Qiantang and Shanyin and was itself part of Kuaiji Commandery. Since the Yuji county seat lay farther south, it was actually more distant than Shanyin, Kuaiji's seat directly to the east. Thus, Chen Caozhi's party did not visit the Yuji county seat but headed straight for Shanyin.
On the afternoon of the eighteenth, Chen Caozhi's party entered Shanyin County. Lakes lay scattered like stars across the sky and pieces on a chessboard, while mountains and waters lent each other splendor; every season offered sights worth admiring. Xie Daoyun lifted the curtain over the cart window to take in the scenery along the road. This trip would also allow her to spend a couple of days at the Xie Clan's Dongshan estate.
Chen Caozhi urged his horse alongside Xie Daoyun's