The second madam's niece, thirteen or fourteen years old, dressed in pale lotus-pink satin with gold-thread brocade. She is shy and returned to the capital with her mother while her father, recently demoted to Vice Minister of Works, was expected to arrive by year's end. Dou Xueci felt a strange dissonance upon meeting her, as in her previous life she had not attended this banquet and Yao Miaolan died not long after their first meeting.
