After Murong Qinchen gave birth to Chen Zhongyu in Qiantang in the tenth month of the year before last, she came to the capital in late spring the following year. She spent little time at the Chen Residence beside the Qinhuai River, staying mostly with her mother and elder brother. When Xu Miao left to take up his post in Ji Province, she asked him to carry a letter to her husband, Chen Caozhi, saying that she wanted to return to Ye City in Hebei. But Chen Caozhi wrote back telling her not to travel north just yet-
Early in the fourth month, news of Huan Wen's death reached Jiankang. When Murong Qinchen learned that Chen Caozhi had also hurried back, she was beside herself with joy, looking forward every day to his arrival from Gushu. With the temperament of her maiden days, she would long since have ridden her Rouge Horse to Gushu to see him. Now that she was a mother, she had become much more patient. Little Zhongyu, a year and a half old, scarcely stayed quiet for a moment unless he was asleep. Brimming with energy, he was terribly mischievous. Though there were many serving women and maids, little Zhongyu clung only to his mother. Murong Qinchen's patience had been honed by her son. His maternal grandmother, of the Kezuhun Clan, said that little Zhongyu resembled Phoenix Child, Murong Chong. The Han saying that a nephew took after his maternal uncle made a great deal of sense-
On the nineteenth day of the fourth month, Murong Qinchen learned that Chen Caozhi would reach Jiankang the next day. Early the following morning, she took her maids, servants, and escorts toward New Pavilion to welcome her husband. They had been apart for nearly two years, and she had