Chapter 119

中乡魁宝玉却尘缘

沐皇恩贾家延世泽

Baoyu explains his remarks before Oriole leaves. The day of the examinations arrives; Baochai is concerned by Baoyu’s hasty and unconvincing conversion, while Lady Wang is concerned as it will be the first time the boys have been away without her. Baochai finds their parting conversation ominous and Baoyu’s behaviour strange – he acts like he is leaving forever. He is rushed out, giggling, while the ladies weep.

Huan and Lady Xing discuss Qiaojie; all is settled, and she is to leave with no ceremony after Yun sends her horoscope to the prince. A maid overhears and rushes to tell Patience. Qiaojie is disconsolate. A messenger arrives from Lady Xing telling her to prepare; Lady Wang comforts her, and is furious to hear of Huan’s involvement. Grannie Liu is announced; Patience persuades Lady Wang to see her. She is told the whole story since Xifeng’s death. She is aghast, and suggests hiding Qiaojie in her village. Lady Wang consents after hearing Patience and Qiaojie’s entreaties. They act quickly and silently, before Yun returns with the signed contract; Qiaojie is dressed as Qinger, and she and Patience slip into a carriage with Grannie Liu. The sentries, who disapprove of Lady Xing’s plan, are on their side. Lady Wang is still apprehensive; Baochai tells her to act normal, and she will find someone to tell Lady Xing. The Mongol prince, meanwhile, is dismayed to hear that the proposed girl is from the respected Jia family, and shuts down the deal before Yun arrives. Huan is furious. Lady Wang tells them that Patience and Qiaojie have killed themselves and she wants the bodies back. Huan, Yun and Lady Xing are left to blame each other. They interrogate the sentries, who deny all knowledge, complaining about having not been paid while Yun and Huan gamble. They are unable to unearth anything.

The day that the examinations finish, Lan arrives late in the evening without Baoyu. Lan explains that Baoyu finished his exam early and got lost in the crowd outside. All weep and a search party is sent; Baochai, Xichun and Aroma guess that the monk is involved. Tanchun visits a few days later, offering some comfort, although she is upset by recent events. News arrives that Baoyu was placed seventh in the exam, and Lan has passed too as 130th; Baochai and Lady Wang feign delight. Tealeaf briefly cheers them by suggesting that he must be found now that he’s passed, but Xichun and Tanchun are more circumspect, thinking he may have become a monk, and that it was fate. Aroma faints with grief. Lan is summoned by the Emperor, who enjoyed his composition, and explains Baoyu’s disappearance. He also finds that Zhen Baoyu has passed too. The Emperor orders a memorial, and declares an amnesty that saves Pan, and later pardons Zhen and She and returns the confiscated property, all thanks to Baoyu’s poem. He also orders all the garrisons to make a full search for him.

Qiaojie is the toast of her new village; Grannie Liu proposes a match between her and the son of the richest local family. She sends Baner to Rongguo, and he returns with news of the family’s rehabilitation and a letter from Lian inviting Qiaojie home. Qinger and Patience go with her. It is an emotional return; Lian, who is also newly returned, is furious with Yun’s co-conspirators; Lady Xing is ashamed. Aroma is suddenly taken ill.

Chapter 113

忏宿冤凤姐托村妪

释旧憾情婢感痴郎

Aunt Zhao’s delirium gets worse; her fits are irregular and terrifying, and none of the women can bear to be with her. The doctor who arrives pronounces her dead, and Zheng sends someone to attend to Huan and the funeral. Gossip spreads, predicting a speedy death for Xifeng too. Patience is distressed; she seems beyond hope, and Lian is unconcerned. Xifeng wants to die, and sees an apparition of Erjie, which scares her. Grannie Liu has arrived with her granddaughter Qinger 青儿; Xifeng calls her in despite her illness, but sees another spectral apparition before she enters. Grannie Liu, who is visiting having heard of Lady Jia’s death, is devastated to see how ill Xifeng is. Patience is cautious that she doesn’t say anything tactless to upset her; Grannie Liu talks with Qiaojie, who she named. Xifeng suggests taking her with her back to the country. Grannie Liu tells Xifeng how she upsetting she has found all the recent news. Upon leaving, she tells Patience that she fears the illness is very nasty. Lian enters in a black mood, which upsets Patience. He asks her to open a casket, when Xifeng takes a turn for the worse. Qiaojie and Grannie Liu rush in, followed by Lady Wang, by which time she has improved. Warmed by Grannie Liu’s presence, Xifeng calls her over and asks her to pray for her. She offers her a bracelet, and is refused; Grannie Liu hurries out to pray, leaving Qinger, who is by now firm friends with Qiaojie.

The nuns inform the Jias of their decision to stay, despite Adamantina’s disappearance. The house staff have not told anyone apart from Xichun, but rumours reach Baoyu, who sighs at her strange and worldly end. After he is depressed for several days, Baochai finds out. Although sad, she criticises his brooding and lack of work. He falls asleep; upon waking, he resolves to speak with Nightingale for the first time since she entered his service. At first she tells him to go away; he is disheartened. He then talks her round, but finds himself at a loss for words. Eventually he asks her what he has done wrong, at which she scoffs and snivels, causing him to sob. Musk interrupts and rebukes them both; he returns in tears with Musk to further rebuke from Aroma. Both he and Nightingale have a sleepless night; she reflects deeply and reevaluates him and his situation, feeling touched by his devotion and regretting Daiyu’s fate. She hears a great rumpus come from Xifeng’s.

Chapter 42

蘅芜君兰言解疑癖

潇湘子雅谑补余音

The party breaks up, and Grannie Liu tells Xifeng she intends to go home the next morning. Xifeng tells her she’s given Grandmother Jia and her baby a cold - she’s never seen her more active. Grannie Liu suggests they might have caught it from seeing a spirit, and Xifeng sends for her almanac. From this, she concludes it must have been a flower spirit, and she arranges an exorcism with positive results. Xifeng asks Grannie Liu to name her baby, and she chooses Qiaojie 巧姐 – it is the unlucky date of her birth, and she suggests fighting fire with fire. Before she goes to bed, Patience talks Grannie Liu through a large pile of presents for her – Grannie Liu is overawed, and promises to bring some vegetables next new year.

The next morning, Doctor Wang 王太医 arrives to see Grandmother Jia before Grannie Liu can get off. Grandmother Jia refuses to stand behind a curtain, and assesses Dr Wang to be a court physician of eminent stock. He prescribes no medicine; Xifeng enters with Qiaojie and she is also examined, and he prescribes missing a few meals and taking some pills. Grannie Liu says goodbye, and is given more presents by Faithful and the cup from the hermitage before leaving.

After calling on Grandmother Jia, Baochai invites Daiyu to hers. Baochai interrogates a nonplussed Daiyu; it transpires she wants to know the source of some of Daiyu’s drinking game quotes, which came from ‘The Return of the Soul’ and ‘the Western Chamber’. Daiyu is ashamed; Baochai confesses that as a girl she used to read books like that behind adults’ backs, but they were reading them too. She considers the corrupting influence of pernicious fiction, and that boys would be better off taking up business or agriculture, and girls sewing or spinning. At that point, Li Wan’s maid Candida arrives to summon them to discuss an important matter. It seems Xichun has asked to leave the club for a year, probably because of Grannie Liu’s comments on her painting – Grandmother Jia has asked her to paint the garden with some people. Daiyu repeatedly sets all laughing with comments about Grannie Liu and Xichun, and Baochai offers commentaries analysing her wit. Xiangyun breaks a chair laughing. Baoyu signals to her that her hair is loose; she corrects it, and rejoins the party, suddenly accusing Li Wan for all the horseplay. Li’s response makes her blush. Baochai suggests that, as the painting is going to be very difficult indeed, they compromise, and that she should have half a year’s leave from the club and that Baoyu should help, as he can ask his male friends for advice. Baochai scoffs at his inappropriate suggestion for the type of paper they should use, and suggests asking Lady Wang for the architectural drawings of the garden, as well as various pieces of artistic equipment. Finding that Xichun has no equipment at all, she dictates a long list of essentials to ask Lady Jia for. The teasing then continues all round, and at one point Daiyu pleads to Baochai for mercy during a tussle, making subtle reference to their earlier conversation, embarrassing her. Baochai then does Daiyu’s hair. After a while, they go to see Grandmother Jia, who is better.

Chapter 41

贾宝玉品茶栊翠庵

刘老老醉卧怡红院

Grannie Liu is afraid of breaking her porcelain cup, and asks for a wooden one. Faithful fetches ten boxwood cups, the size and detail of which astonish Grannie Liu. Xifeng jokes that she has to drink from all of them, she is given one of the largest in the end, and some food to accompany it. She is astonished further by the exquisite and complex recipe. When asked, she concludes the cups to be pine, causing further laughter. The music starts, and the drinking continues apace all round – Grannie Liu is particularly enjoying the music, and is consequently mocked by Daiyu. After the music, Grandmother Jia walks with Liu, who admires the flora and birds, but cannot name them. They eat some snacks, including some delicately fashioned pastries which further enchant Grannie Liu. She and Baner eat a lot of them, and the rest are sent to the actresses. A nurse arrives with Xifeng’s daughter, who swaps a grapefruit with Baner for a Buddha’s hand.

Adamantina welcomes Grandmothers Jia and Liu et al to the hermitage. Jia declines to enter the meditation hall, staying in the garden to take tea. Baoyu studies Adamantina attentively, and whilst the others take tea, he spots her take Baochai and Daiyu to her own room and gatecrashes. Adamantina tells a lay-sister to leave the cup Grannie Liu used outside – she considers it contaminated. They drink tea and discuss the value of cups. Adamantina is very eccentric about the water she uses for her tea. Baoyu suggests giving Grannie Liu’s cup to her, and getting his boys to clean her floor.

Grandmother Jia leaves the party to rest, along with Xifeng and Li Wan, and others also take the opportunity to excuse themselves. Faithful is instructed to show Grannie Liu more of the garden, and the cousins join. She kowtows at a stone arch, causing laughter, before her bowels rumble and she is quickly escorted to a privy by a servant who then leaves her to find her own way back. Her business takes some time. She is disorientated on exiting – not to mention still very drunk - walking into a Western-style painting with perspective and then being confused first by a mirror, and secondly by the automatic latch on the door on which the mirror is. She passes through the door and out on a bed. The cousins meanwhile are concerned, and send someone to the privy to check on her. Aroma thinks it through and hurries to Green Delights, where she finds Grannie Liu on a bed surrounded by a heady funk of wine and fart. She wakes and apologises, Aroma gestures to her not to speak, covers up the smell with fragrance and leads her out to the junior maids’ quarters. She asks whose room it was, and on discovering it is Baoyu’s, is horrified by the enormity of her trespass. Aroma escorts her back to the cousins, saying that she had fallen asleep on the grass; Grandmother Jia wakes and heads back to her own apartment, and everyone else goes back to the garden.

Chapter 40

史太君两宴大观园

金鸳鸯三宣鸦牌令

Baoyu arrives at Grandmother Jia’s to find them already deeply discussing the arrangements for Xiangyun’s farewell party. Baoyu suggestion of an informal party is accepted. The next morning, Li Wan supervises the arrangements, which Grannie Liu interrupts; Xifeng dresses her up, causing laughter, as does Liu’s earnestness in expressing her delight at the garden and Xichun’s painting. The ladies are touring garden: Grannie Liu slips outside the Naiad’s House causing more mirth. Daiyu serves the party tea, and Grannie Liu is impressed, thinking it a man’s study. Grandmother Jia notices the gauze on the windows is faded, and they discuss gauze materials at length. They leave Daiyu and, as the punts are out, they punt across the lake and have lunch en masse at Tanchun’s.

Xifeng and Faithful continue mocking Grannie Liu, to Li Wan’s annoyance, and they have concocted a set of practical jokes. Faithful takes Liu aside to ‘brief’ her on mealtime decorum, as she is to sit with Grandmother Jia. As the food arrives delivers a comical grace with determination and, after a moment of silence, everyone is convulsed with laughter, which only continues as she attempts to eat pigeon’s eggs with extremely heavy chopsticks. Jia has already identified Xifeng as the culprit. Later, Xifeng and Faithful apologise, but Liu is sincere in her compliments regarding the family’s breeding and etiquette. Xifeng (as a married woman) and the maids then eat, with Liu present; there is an awful lot of food left over. They move to join the others in Tanchun’s stylish apartment; Liu disciplines the ever-bolder Baner for touching everything. They hear the actresses rehearsing, and summon them to play to them from across the water. They leave, and get in the punts; Xifeng insists on punting but struggles and hands over to one of the Suzhou boatwomen they have imported. Baoyu and Daiyu discuss poetry as they all head to Allspice Court. It is extremely fragrant, but Baochai’s apartment is stark and bare and Grandmother Jia asks Faithful to supply some ornaments before berating Xifeng, even though Baochai had wanted it this way. Grandmother Jia declaims on taste and girls, and insists that Faithful supply certain objects.

They move on to a drinking party, and Grandmother Jia suggests drinking games, with Faithful as MC. Grannie Liu tries to leave, but is compelled to stay. The game involves dominoes, poetry and rhyming. Baoyu notices Daiyu using lines from ‘the Western Chamber’. They all laugh at Grannie Liu’s attempts.

Chapter 39

村老老是信口开河

情哥哥偏寻根究底

Patience has come to collect some crab for Xifeng; Li Wan makes her sit and drink while an old woman takes the crabs. Xifeng sends back some more food in return, along with a jokey message for Patience. She starts drinking with gusto, and Li Wan embraces, tickles and compliments her, and the others join in. They discuss how well-matched all the maids and mistresses are in turn. Li Wan starts getting emotional, and the party breaks up for them to call on Grandmother Jia and Lady Wang. Aroma and Patience discuss the late payment of their allowances – Patience tells her about Xifeng’s financial investments and offers to lend her some, which is refused. Patience finds Grannie Liu and Baner at Xifeng’s – they have come to offer the first fruits of a good harvest to the house. Zhou Rui reports that Grandmother Jia had heard of Grannie Liu’s arrival and had asked to talk to her; Grannie Liu is reluctant, but persuaded. On the way, Patience allows a page whose mother is ill to take the day off. Grannie Liu is intimidated by all the ladies when she enters for her interview. She and Grandmother Jia talk about old age, and Liu is invited to stay longer. They take tea and chat further with Baner plays with the pages. Later, Liu is given a bath (which she puts up with) and returns to the others, telling them about country life, and embellishing some of the anecdotes somewhat. The maids report that a fire has broken out in the stables, but is under control. After a brief drama, Baoyu questions Grannie Liu on some of the finer details, to no avail – she continues her stories. Baoyu is still unsatisfied, and discusses possibilities for Xiangyun’s leaving party with Tanchun. Daiyu teases him, making everyone laugh. Afterwards, Baoyu is able to corner Grannie Liu again, and tests her inventiveness. Eventually, she makes up details about the locations of the places described, and Baoyu, wanting to investigate further, sends Tealeaf off on an errand there related to her story about a wood thief. He returns very late, having found what he was looking for, but saying the directions were completely wrong; Baoyu puts this down to Grannie Liu’s age. He’s angry, though, that Tealeaf didn’t find the beautiful wood thief in the temple but an ugly plague god, hurting his feelings. He promises Tealeaf ample rewards if he can find the place described. Baoyu is summoned by one of Grandmother Jia’s maids.

Chapter 6

贾宝玉初试云雨情

刘老老一进荣国府

Aroma and Baoyu are embarrassed while dressing him after his dream, and she laughs when he describes his dream to her. Baoyu has his way with her, doubling their mutual devotion.

Distant country relative Grannie Liu 刘老老 tries to persuade her son-in-law Gouer 狗儿 to appeal to Wang Xifeng for help, and she ends up going with grandson Baner 板儿 to see Zhou Rui 周瑞, with whom Gouer’s father had been friendly. Zhou Rui’s wife gains Liu an audience with Wang Xifeng through Xifeng's maid Patience 平儿. Liu mistakes Patience for Xifeng, and is overawed by the opulence and technology and cannot get a word out. Xifeng admonishes Liu for kowtowing to her, and regrets that there are not more relations visiting them. Liu is embarrassed by Jia Rong’s 贾蓉 arrival, who has come to borrow a glass screen. A meal is brought for Liu and Baner, and Xifeng gives them twenty taels.