Chapter 84

试文字宝玉始提亲

探惊风贾环重结怨

Baochai recognises Aunt Xue’s illness as being brought on by the scene with Jingui; medicine, massage and reassurance causes it to subside, and she agrees to go away.

Yuanchun has recovered; she sends the family some gifts in thanks. Grandmother Jia is touched that she remembered Baoyu; Zheng is snide about his prospects. She reminds him that they should choose him a suitable bride; her only concern is that she is pretty and sweet natured. Zheng is unwilling to start until Baoyu shows an improvement in attitude, which angers her. Zheng jokes, uncomfortably; in response Lady Jia reminds the assembled that he was much worse than Baoyu as a youth.

Later, with Lady Wang, Zheng decides to summon Baoyu. He quizzes him on his studies, and asks him to fetch a school book. He runs through his translations and interpretations with a critical eye. He has some praise for Baoyu’s octopartites, and asks him to compose something on the spot. While he is doing so, a pageboy runs past saying that Aunt Xue has arrived; Baoyu is excited to think that Baochai may also have arrived, and speeds up his composition. Dismissed, he runs to Grandmother Jia’s (who is proud to hear how his meeting with Zheng went), but is disappointed to find that Baochai isn’t with Aunt Xue. Over dinner, Lady Jia asks Aunt Xue about Caltrop’s change of name; Aunt Xue tells her of the horror of living with Jingui and her provocations of Baochai. Grandmother Jia tells her to stop worrying; they’re a new couple and will settle down. Baoyu is rapt by Aunt Xue’s praise for Baochai, and chirps in to defend Pan’s friends. Xifeng is called away suddenly; Qiaojie is ill. Aunt Xue also soon takes her leave. Zheng, meanwhile, is playing Go with friends, who praise Baoyu’s progress. Zheng still considers him uncultured, but is pleased by their opinion. One of them proposes an acquaintance’s daughter, and relation of Lady Xing, as a match for Baoyu. Later, he discusses the proposal with Lady Wang, and asks after Qiaojie.

The next day, Lady Wang asks Lady Xing about the family of the proposed match; she has had no contact with them for years, but has also heard they are looking for a husband for the daughter. Grandmother Jia vetoes the match, as Baoyu would also be taking on the role of head of her family. They go to visit Xifeng; Qiaojie has had convulsions. They tell Xifeng about the match, Lady Xing also admitting the family are very mean. Xifeng laughs and reminds them of Baoyu’s jade and Baochai’s locket – they are surely a predestined pair! The doctor arrives to see Qiaojie and diagnoses fever; they send for the prescribed ingredients. The expectorant works and the potion just brewed when Huan arrives, making Xifeng tense. She tells him to leave them alone, but he clumsily knocks the potion into the fire, igniting her anger. She sends a spiteful message to Aunt Zhao with a maid, for whom Patience explains the context. She delivers the message, and an agitated Aunt Zhao sends for Huan and abuses him.