In the palace two days before, Lu Yaozhu and Su Liya left for Ningzhuo.
Empress Lu sat on a stool by the open window, she held a threaded needle in her right hand and slowly passed it through a square-shaped, embroidered screen. She tied up her wide sleeve with a thin ribbon to keep it from getting in the way of her work.
It was 4:45 pm, nearly 5 pm and the once-hot sun was now getting cooler as sunset drew near. Empress Lu sat there with a slight smile as she made several small stitches on the main white material attached to the screen. There was nothing as relaxing to her as embroidering, it was the only thing she felt that she could control.