On the 12th day of the first lunar month, Chu Lingxuan, the Third Master, and Chu Lingwei returned. With them also came the old master and Ming.
The old master had returned to celebrate Shuangshuang's one-month-old birthday.
Chu Lingxuan spoke with great sorrow, "My uncle and aunt-in-law went to Tang Garden, but no matter how much we pleaded, my mother refused to return to secular life."
Chen Afu also felt helpless upon hearing this. Everyone knew that Liao Chen didn't sincerely want to be a Buddhist nun. She was just frustrated, wronged, and unwilling. To let her reside in the Buddhist monastery bearing her repressed grief alone was too heart-wrenching for her family. If she could truly find solace in Buddhism like Empress Dowager Shan, perhaps everyone except the old Marquis would have accepted it.
