The expected melodramatic scenario did not occur, so Song Ci happily spent a short holiday at the Hot Spring Palace. Two days later, Madam Song returned to the city, as she had to preside over the ancestral rituals for the Winter Solstice, being the House Mistress.
Song Ci stayed with Empress Dowager Wang at the palace for another three days and returned to the city on the twenty-sixth of the twelfth lunar month in a grand fashion.
Upon returning to the Prime Minister's Mansion, Song Ci heard that the Commandery Princess Chunping had gone back to the Mingyang Uncle's Mansion and fiercely confronted her mother-in-law, leaving them fuming and bedridden. She forcefully took over the stewardship and reorganized the servants from top to bottom, selling anyone who showed resistance on the spot.
