June thirteenth.
Overcast.
The city gate was wide open.
The lady of the Township Manor, Sun Qinglian, dressed in plain clothes, stood at the entrance with the Yan Family members, beside her all the young masters and misses who usually did not show their faces, also stood behind her with expressions of grief.
Yan Wanqing stood by Sun Qinglian's hand, her hairpin adorned with nothing but a single flower, without any earrings.
Along the road, throngs of uninvited commoners dressed in plain clothes had filled the sides, stretching from the Township Manor to the outside of the city gate. No one organized them, but they had come all the same.
This sight brought some comfort to the people of the Yan Family.
It turned out that people still remembered.
The commoners still remembered the Duke of the Township's merits over the years and knew to welcome him home today.
Someone in the crowd began to shout first, "They're back!"
