Chapter 7

送宫花贾琏戏熙凤

宴宁府宝玉会秦钟

Baochai gives Zhou Rui’s wife details of her illness and complex medication. Aunt Xue 薛姨妈 gives her artificial flowers for the girls, and she discovers that Caltrop 香菱 is Zhen Shiyin’s daughter, Yinglian. She delivers flowers to Yingchun 贾迎春, Tanchun 贾探春 and Xichun 贾惜春, who is playing with Sapientia 智能 from Watermoon Priory, but Wang Xifeng is detained in her bedroom with Jia Lian 贾琏, so Patience deals with them. Daiyu is playing with Baoyu, who snatches the flowers which Daiyu sneers at. Zhou Rui’s son-in-law, Leng Zixing, is in trouble; Zhou Rui’s wife is confidant in Wang Xifeng’s power to influence.

Xifeng is invited to Ningguo and agrees to take Baoyu; they are greeted by Youshi 尤氏 and served tea by Qinshi, who tells Baoyu that her brother Qin Zhong 秦钟, who he had wanted to see, was here, and he is led in. Each is extremely taken with the other, and they talk at length about the clan school and tutoring arrangements, moving to a different room while the others play (with the result that Qinshi and Youshi owed Xifeng a night of drinks and entertainment). The Ningguo staff offend a surly old servant who had once saved the grandfather’s life; he is restrained in the stables, and Baoyu repeats some of his bad language to Wang.