Chen Caozhi's party of more than thirty had stayed an extra night in Qingdian because Xiao Chan had been bitten by a vicious dog. They set out again early on the seventeenth, but the snow-covered roads made travel difficult. That afternoon, north of Yuji County, they met his clansman and elder cousin Chen Chang, who had left Chen Family Cove the previous day on Clan Chief Chen Xian's orders to visit Chen Caozhi in Shanyin. After the Chen Clan's landholding case had concluded at the beginning of the month, Chen Xian had sent someone to reassure Chen Caozhi with the news. Chen Caozhi had replied that he would return to Chen Family Cove on the fifteenth. When the sixteenth day of the twelfth month came and he still had not returned, Chen Xian had sent Chen Chang to Shanyin to inquire. A steward from the Ding Clan had accompanied Chen Chang, for Ding Chunqiu had returned to Qiantang from Yangzhou at the beginning of the month, and his wedding to the daughter of Quan Li, the Regular Mounted Attendant, was set for the twentieth. It would be a great pity if Chen Caozhi could not attend. Liu Shangzhi had also returned to Qiantang after the Tuduan reverification in Wuxing Commandery ended, and Xu Miao and Gu Kaizhi were reportedly due to arrive before the twentieth.
Chen Chang thought little of Xiao Chan's dog bite when he heard about it and spoke only of the landholding case. Ni Taibin, the minor Qiantang County official, had been exiled to Huainan to serve in a military household, while the three farming households that had accused the Chen Clan had been sentenced to three years of hard labor. However, Wen Ji, Yangzhou's administrative aide, had not pursued the He and Lu Clans who had