Chapter 75 - supercondensed

Baochai plans to move out to look after her mother. Youshi enjoys spying on a party of gambling men. At the unextravagant Mid-Autumn Festival dinner, a loud sigh is heard to come from the Hall of the Ancestors, sobering all. The family watch the moon from a mountain and play drinking games.

Chapter 75

开夜宴异兆发悲音

赏中秋新词得佳谶

Youshi is advised against going to see Lady Wang – the Zhens are visiting on secret business – so she goes to talk to Li Wan. She drinks and washes, and hints at the previous night’s investigations before Baochai arrives. They chat about Baochai’s plan to move out for a while to look after her mother, and are soon joined by Tanchun and Xiangyun. Tanchun is in a bad mood, and tells the others how she slapped Wang Shanbao’s wife before Youshi tells of her encounter with Xichun. They disperse, Youshi and Tanchun going together to Grandmother Jia’s, where Lady Wang is telling her the offences the Zhens have been charged with. She is shaken, and takes the opportunity of their arrival to talk about the Mid-Autumn Festival. They eat, Grandmother Jia fussing over each guest and the tribute dishes sent to her. Youshi starts eating later, along with the servants, and they fuss further over plain maids’ rice given to her – they cannot afford to be extravagant any more. After a jovial evening, Youshi returns to Ningguo. There are a lot of carriages present, and she decides to make a detour to spy on the large party of men, gathered by Cousin Zhen, who are gambling (the gatherings were originally for archery, which is not banned during mourning, but soon developed into gambling). Youshi watches a very drunk Xing Dequan 邢德全 lash out at and make up with two boys. He then tells Cousin Zhen about family developments regarding Lady Xing in embarrassing detail, which Youshi overhears with some relish. Having seen enough, she moves on. The next night, Zhen has arranged a family dinner for the Mid-Autumn Festival, which they can’t celebrate in full due to mourning. They eat, drink and are moved by the concubines’ music. Near midnight, they hear a long drawn-out sigh coming from the Hall of the Ancestors. The shock and dread sobers them all and they retire; entering the ancestral temple the next day to give an offering, Zhen can find nothing untoward and puts it down to drunkenness. He firmly locks the temple.

Zhen and Youshi go to Rongguo the next night, and having visited and chatted with Grandmother Jia and the male household members, they all go to make their Mid-Autumn offering. Grandmother Jia then suggests going to the mountaintop Convex pavilion to observe the moon. They venture up; Grandmother Jia comments on how small the family gathering looks. They play drinking games; Jia Zheng has to tell a joke, the mere prospect of which has everyone in convulsions. It is then Baoyu’s turn; feeling the pressure thanks to Zheng’s presence, he asks to be excused a joke and has to write a poem. Zheng likes the poem and gives him a fan. Jia She then tells a rather tactless, but well-received, joke. It is Jia Huan’s turn and, emboldened by Baoyu’s poem, tries one of his own, but it is weird and Zheng does not like it. He provides a harsh literary analysis of the two brothers’ work, which provokes laughter if not comprehension. Jia She reads Huan’s poem and disagrees with Zheng, complimenting and rewarding Huan. Zheng and She, along with the other men, have a final drink and leave Baoyu and the younger boys with the women.

Chapter 74 - supercondensed

Lady Wang confronts Xifeng about the purse; they start secret investigations, using the gambling as a pretext. After Skybright is questioned, raids are carried out at the garden residences, leading to confrontations. They find illicit objects belonging to Picture, and a love letter to Chess; Youshi is questioned about Picture.

Chapter 74

惑奸谗抄检大观园

避嫌隙杜绝宁国府

Baoyu arrives. Cook Liu’s enemies are taking the gambling as an excuse to try and oust her, and she has appealed to Baoyu who is looking to join forces with Yingchun in appealing for clemency. He cannot talk openly with the others present, however. Patience returns to Xifeng; she expresses her desire not to get too involved in the gambling business for fear of becoming ill and hated again, and to become more of a yes-man. Lian enters – news has leaked out of his pawning Faithful’s stuff, and his Mother has asked her for money. Patience deduces that Simple’s mother must have leaked it, but can’t find the original source; they decide to pawn some jewellery to raise the money anyway. Lady Wang arrives. She is angry and upset and dismisses Patience; she shows Xifeng the lewd purse, which she assumes is Xifeng’s. She is shamed and embarrassed, but it is not hers – it is low quality, she would be more careful, and she can name many others to whom it might belong. Xifeng suggests asking some of the most trusted servants to investigate in secret, with gambling as a pretext, so that Grandmother Jia doesn’t hear of it. Lady Wang agrees to the secret investigations, and wants Zhou Rui’s wife to help. Wang Shanbao’s 王善保 wife, who took the bag to Lady Wang, is delighted to be also recruited; she feels the maids don’t show her due respect and wants to teach them a lesson. Skybright is her least favourite, which causes Lady Wang to recall seeing someone of her description acting suspiciously. They decide to start with Skybright, and summon her. She had been napping and is not made up, so Lady Wang’s dislike of her is instantly exacerbated. Fearing that Baoyu may have been corrupted by her, Lady Wang lays into her. She responds that she doesn’t see much of him. She is dismissed, but Lady Wang remains incensed by her. Wang Shanbao’s wife suggests carrying out night time raids; Lady Wang agrees.

They start that night, and head to Green Delights, and go through the maids’ trunks. Baoyu is told that something is missing. Skybright is last, and angrily empties her trunk, lashing out at Wang Shanbao’s wife. They find nothing, and leave for Daiyu’s, where they find some boy’s articles which Xifeng dismisses. A forewarned Tanchun reacts stridently to the raiding party; she lets them search her belongings, but not her maids’, as she doesn’t let them keep their own belongings. Despite her anger, Wang Shanbao’s wife touches Tanchun’s clothes to make a joke about searching her, unleashing a slap and further anger. Both are furious and threaten to take the matter higher; Patience calms the scene and they move on to Li Wan (who is ill) and then Xichun’s. Xichun is more scared by the others, and illicit objects are found in her maid Picture’s 入画 possession. Xichun wants her beaten, although Xifeng is lenient, and names Mamma Zhang, a sour relation of Wang Shanbao’s wife, as a probable smuggler of the illicit objects. At Yingchun’s, Mrs Wang searches Chess (her granddaughter) perfunctorily, but the others find a love letter from her cousin and men’s socks. Xifeng laughs and reads it aloud, embarrassing Mrs Wang. The others are pleased to see her suffer. Xifeng postpones investigating Chess, but falls further ill that night and cannot do so.

Youshi sees Xifeng the next day and is called by Xichun to verify Picture’s story. Contrarily blaming Youshi, Xichun declares that she doesn’t want to see Picture or anyone from Ningguo again. They argue; Youshi considers her cold-hearted, young and foolish (mocking her intelligent reputation), and bursts out at sensitive references to her family. Youshi sweeps out with her maids and Picture, swallowing her anger.

Chapter 73 - supercondensed

An intruder scare leads to a crackdown on a staff gambling ring. Simple finds an erotic purse; a shocked Lady Xing hunts its owner. Yingchun’s nurse, who has stolen to feed her gambling, is dismissed, leading to a lengthy quarrel.

Chapter 73

A window casement has fallen; Aunt Zhao organises for it to be fixed. Her maid Magpie 小鹊 has hurried to Baoyu’s to let him know that she overheard Zheng and Aunt Zhao talking about something involving him. This makes him very uncomfortable, and he decides that the only solution is to revise his texts. It is soon clear that there is too much he doesn’t know, and he is merely getting himself into a more fraught state. The senior maids look after him, but the junior maids, obliged to stay awake but with no role, keep dropping off, causing Skybright indignation. Parfumée enters having seen an intruder; he cannot be found, but Skybright takes the opportunity of the panic to get Baoyu off his duties the next day because of the shock. The next day, Grandmother Jia is angry to find out about the intruder; Tanchun suggests that security is lax because Xifeng has been ill and the guards have become lax and gamble. The ill Xifeng gives a dressing down to Lin Zhixiao’s wife and the chief stewardesses, and Grandmother Jia orders them to find out who are the gambling ringleaders. They are soon found, and the three principal organisers beaten and dismissed. One of them is Yingchun’s nurse; Yingchun is humiliated and tries to get her off, with no luck.

Leaving Grandmother Jia’s, Lady Xing spots one of Lady Jia’s maids, Simple 傻大姐 who is young, stupid and has very big feet, smiling and holding a colourful object. It is an embroidered purse, on one side of which is an erotic scene. Lady Xing is shocked and confiscates it; she is puzzled by its origin. She goes to Yingchun’s to rebuke her about her nurse, and goes on to compare her unfavourably to Tanchun – also a chamber wife’s daughter - in every respect, before leaving for Grandmother Jia’s again. Yingchun argues with her maid Tangerine 绣桔 about her nurse, who Tangerine and Lady Xing believe to have been taking her property (particularly a pearl and gold phoenix) and pawning it for gambling money. Tangerine wants to tell Xifeng; this disturbs the nurse’s daughter-in-law, who overhears the conversation. She rushes in and confesses that the nurse took it, but intends to redeem and return it. Yingchun refuses to appeal for her again and Tangerine rebukes her, causing an argument about money. To stop the fuss and fighting, Yingchun declares that she will tell Lady Xing that she has just lost the phoenix. This upsets Tangerine further, as she expects to take the blame; Chess joins the argument. Meanwhile, Baochai, Daiyu, Baoqin and Tanchun arrive to check on Yingchun; Tanchun’s presence breaks up the argument, but she overhears some snippets and quizzes Yingchun about the phoenix. The daughter-in-law rushes back in to explain, but Tanchun politely suggests that she go to Xifeng and save some face. Patience arrives on cue, arranged by Tanchun. The daughter-in-law bounds up to Patience, and is rebuked for her bad manners and leaves. Tanchun explains the situation to Patience, and coldly asks her if Xifeng is trying to undermine her, Yingchun and Xichun. She turns to Yingchun, who is reading, and expresses at some length her desire to let the situation rest and not exacerbate by interfering, which amuses the others. 

Chapter 72 - supercondensed

Xifeng is ill, but money matters are pressing. She asks Brightie to start calling in loans in return for brokering her son’s marriage to Sunset. Most are lukewarm on the marriage, especially Sunset. Zheng won’t consent to her marrying Huan.