宝钗借扇机带双敲
椿龄画蔷痴及局外
While Nightingale and Daiyu are discussing the incident, Baoyu arrives. He enters to make things up, but she is still emotional and tells him to act as if she were dead, leading to his further upsetting her by declaring that he’d become a monk. He continues trying to placate her to no avail, when Xifeng arrives, sent by Grandmother Jia to check on them. She drags them to Grannie Jia, and reports what she saw – all laugh. Baoyu turns to apologise to Baochai for not being at Pan’s birthday. He compares her physically to Yang Guifei, angering her. A maid comes looking for a fan and Baochai shouts at her; the exchange gives Daiyu secret, but visible, satisfaction, so Baochai treats her innocent question with some malice. All are uncomfortable, and Xifeng comments as such. When Xifeng and Baochai leave, Daiyu sets upon Baoyu about Baochai’s testiness – he is in very low spirits now. He drops in to see Lady Wang, and attempts to seduce a sleeping Golden 金钏. Lady Wang hears this and in anger sends her away.
Walking in the garden, Baoyu hears someone weeping and thinks that a maid is imitating Daiyu’s burial of flowers (he is reminded of the story of Xishi). Before he castigates them, he sees that it is Charmante. He watches and admires her as she writes a character (qiang) in the ground several dozen times. It starts suddenly raining and, fearing for her constitution, he emerges and tells her to stop writing, before rushing off himself. When Baoyu arrives back, two soubrettes are with Aroma, playing with ducks. The gate is locked, and the maids don’t recognise who he is as he is back so soon. When he is finally let in, he lashes out, kicking Aroma; she pretends he missed when he realises who it was that he lashed out at. Later, she notices how large the bruise is, and can’t sleep well; in the morning she feels giddy and finds herself spitting blood.
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