On the tenth day of the fifth month, Xie Daoyun left Jiankang for Kuaiji with more than twenty assistants, maids, and servants. Xie Wan ordered his eldest son, Xie Lang, to accompany her to Kuaiji to gain experience. Xie Lang was sixteen that year; in another two years, he too would enter official service.
Last September, when Xie Daoyun had accompanied Chen Caozhi to Kuaiji as deputy commissioner for land registration, they had gone first to Wu Commandery and then to Qiantang, taking a considerable detour. Chen Caozhi had used public business to serve his private interests, going to Huating to see Lu Weiwei. This time, Xie Daoyun's party traveled along the southern shore of Taihu Lake, through Wuxing Commandery to Qiantang, saving several hundred li.
Along the way, Xie Daoyun often recalled the long journey she had shared with Chen Caozhi the year before, smiling absently time and again. The farther apart they were, the more bitter her longing became. She could not deceive herself. Had there ever been a friendship so tenderly entwined? This talk of remaining lifelong friends was merely her own excuse. Unable to become his wife, she hoped only to see Zizhong as a friend-
The road was rough, and the carriage jolted. Xie Daoyun began coughing again, and Liu Xu, the maid riding with her, hurriedly brought her Mulberry and Apricot Decoction to soothe her throat. Xie Daoyun had found the prescription in a medical book; it could treat dryness in the lungs. She had ordered the serving women to brew it daily and keep it ready for her to drink. It did indeed clear heat and moisten the lungs, but the cough never quite left her-
Liu Xu gently patted Xie Daoyun's back and said, "If only Master Chen were in Jiangdong. We