In early October, Xie An's wife Liu Dan received a letter from her niece Xie Daoyun and learned that she was five months pregnant. Unable to endure the jolting of a long journey, Xie Daoyun had decided to remain in Ye City for the birth and return to Jiangdong the following summer. Lady Xie Liu Dan was delighted, but worried that the Northern Lands might lack seasoned midwives. She specially hired two in Jiankang and ordered a steward of the Xie Residence to escort them all the way to Hebei with eight private soldiers of the Xie Clan to attend Xie Daoyun's delivery. Liu Xu and two other maids went with them-
Braving wind, frost, rain, and snow, the party reached Ye City in mid-December after nearly two months of arduous travel. By then, the celebrated talent Xie Daoyun had a great swollen belly and had grown much fuller all over. Seeing that Third Aunt had sent midwives from so far away to deliver her child, she was both grateful and amused. How could a city as large as Ye City possibly lack experienced midwives?
In early December, Sima Su Qi of Ji Province requested leave from Chen Caozhi to return to Pingyu for the wedding of his younger sister Su Hui and Cai Tao, son of the Cai Clan Head. Chen Caozhi prepared a generous wedding gift for him to take-
Wumeng Administrative Clerk Liu Laozhi had also hoped to return to Pengcheng before the new year to visit his aged father and get married while he was there. His fiancée was the daughter of Dai Xun, governor of Qiao Commandery, and their wedding was set for the eighteenth of February the following year. But with Su Qi away from Ji Province, Liu Laozhi, as Wumeng Administrative Clerk, had