CONTENTS

CHAPTER 81

Four Beauties Fish in the Pond to Try Their Luck

Pao-yu's Father Orders Him Back to the Family School

CHAPTER 82

An Old Teacher Expounds the Classics to Warn Against Mischief

The Queen of Bamboos Falling lll Has a Fearful Nightmare

CHAPTER 83

The Imperial Consort Falls lll and Her Relatives Call ot the

Palace

Chin-kuei Makes a Scene and Pao-chai Has to Swallow He

Anger

CHAPTER 84

Poo-yu's Writing Is Tested and His Marriage Considered

Chia Huan Visits an Invalid and Arouses Fresh Resentment

CHAPTER 85

Chia Cheng Is Promoted to the Rank of Vice-Minister

Hsueh Pan Is Involved in Another Manslaughter Case

CHAPTER 86

An Old Magistrate Takes a Bribe to Re-open a Case

A Young Girl, to While Awoy Time, Explains a Lute Score

CHAPTER 87

Moved by an Autumn Poem, a Lutist Mourns the Past

One Practising Yoga Is Possessed Through Lust

CHAPTER 88

Pao-yu, to Please His Grandmother, Praises a Fatherless Boy

Chia Chen, to Uphold Household Discipline, Has Unruly Servants

Whipped

CHAPTER 89

A Memento of a Dead Maid Leads Pao-yu to Write a Poem

A False Suspicion Makes Tai-yu Abstain from Food

A OREAM OF RED MANSIONS

CHAPTER 90

The Loss of a Padded Jacket Involves a Poor Girl with a Scold

A Gift of Sweetmeats Perturbs a Young Gentleman

CHAPTER 91

Wanton Pao-chan Lays a Cunning PIot

Pao-yu Makes Extravagant Answers When Catechized

CHAPTER 92

Comments on the Llves of Worthy Women of Old Fill Chiao-chieh

with Admiration

Chia Cheng, Toying with a Mother Pearl, Discourses on the Rise

and Fall of Great Houses

CHAPTER 93

A Servant of the Chen Family Offers His Services to the Chias

A Scandal in Water Moon Convent Is Exposed

CHAPTER 94

The Lady Dowager Gives a Feast to Celebrate the Strange

Blossoming of the Crab-AppIe Trees

The Loss of Pao-yu's Jade of Spiritual Understanding Heralds

Trouble

CHAPTER 95

A Rumour Comes True and the ImDerial Consort Yuan chun Dies

A Fraud Is Perpetrated After Pao-yu Loses His Mind

CHAPTER 96

Hsi-feng Withhoids Information and Lays a Cunning Plan

Disclosure of a Secret Deranges Tai-yu

CHAPTER 97

Tai-yu Burns Her Poems to End Her Infatuation

Pao-chai Goes Through Her Wedding Ceremony

CHAPTER 98

Unhappy Vermilipn Pearl's Spirit Returns in Sorrow to Heaven

Deranged Shen Ying Sheds Tears in the Lodge of His Loved One

CHAPTER 99

An Upright Official Has Venal Underlings

A Perusal of the Court Gazette Fills Chia Cheng with Concern

for His Nephew

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 100

By Frustrating Chin-kuei Hsiang-ling Makes a Worse Enemy of Her

Pao-yu Grieves Over Tan-chun's Departure to Marry Far from

Home

CHAPTER 101

A Ohostly Warning Is Given One Moonlit Night in Grand View

Garden

A Fearful Omen Is Issued by the Oracie in Scattering Flowers

Temple

CHAPTER 102

Powers of Darkness Derange the Inmates of the Ning Mansion

Priests Exorcise Evil Spirits in Grand View Garden

CHAPTER 103

Chin-kuei Plots Murder and Destroys Herself

Chia Yu-tsun, Blind to the Truth, Meets an Old Friend in Vain

CHAPTER 104

The Drunken Diamond Brags That Small Fry Can Stir Up Big

Billows

A Crazy Lordling Grieves Over the Past

CHAPTER 105

Imperial Guards Raid the Ning Mansion

A Censor Brings a Charge Against the Prefect of Pingan

CHAPTER 106

Hsi-feng Is Conscience-Smitten at Causing Calamity

The Lady Dowager Prays to Heaven to Avert Disaster

CHAPTER 107

The Lady Dowager Impartially Shares Out Her Savings

Chia Cheng's Hereditary Title Is Restored by Imperial Favour

CHAPTER 108

Pao-chai's Birthday Is Celebrated with Forced Mirth

Pao-yu, Longing for the Dead, Hears Ghosts Weeping in Bamboo

Lodge

CHAPTER 109

Pao-yu Waits for a Fragrant Spirit and Wu-erh Is Loved by

Default

Ying-chun Pays Her Mortal Debt and Returns to the Primal Void

CHAPTER 110

The Lady Dowager Passes Away Peacefully

Hsi-feng Is Powerless and Loses Support

A DREAM OF REO MANSIONS

CHAPTER 111

Yuah-yang Dies for Her Mistress and Ascends to the Great Void

A Despicable Slave Leads Robbers into the Mansion

CHAPTER 112

A Terrible Disaster Befolls Miao-yu

Nursing Enmity Concubine Chao Is Haled Off to Hell

CHAPTER 113

Repenting Her Sins Hsi-feng Seeks Help from a Village Woman

Relinquishing Her Resentment Tzu-chuan [s Touched by Her

Besotted Moster

CHAPTER 114

Hsi-feng Has Hallucinations and Goes Back to Chinling

Chen Ying-chia, Pardoned by the Emperor, Returns to Court

CHAPTER 115

Personal Prejudice Strengthens Hsi-chun's Conviction

Pao-yu Fails to Find a True Friend in His Double

CHAPTER 116

Pao-yu, His Divine Jade Recovered Attains Understanding in the

lllusory Realm

Chia Cheng Escorts His Mother's Coffin Home to Fulfil His Filial

Duty

CHAPTER 117

Two Maids Protect Pao-yu's Jade Lest He Renounce the World

A Worthless Son, Taking Sole Charge of the House, Revels in Bad

Company

CHAPTER 118

A Disgruntled Uncle and Cousin Delude a Helpless Girl

Alarmed by His Cryptic Talk, Wife and Concubine Reprove Their

Witless Husband

CHAPTER 119

Pao-yu Passes the Examination with Honours and Severs Earthly

Ties

The Chia Family Retains Its Wealth and Titles Thanks to Imperial

Favour

CHAPTER 120

Chen Shih-yin Expounds the lllusory Realm

Chia Yu-tsun Concludes the Dream of Red Mansions

CHAPTER 81

Four Beauties Fish in the Pondto Try Their Luck

Pao-yu's Father Orders Him Backto the Family School

After Ying-chun's departure, Lady Hsing behaved just as if

nothing had happened. Lady Wang, however, who had brought

Ying-chun up, was bitterly distressed. She was sighing to

herself in her room when Pao-yu came in to pay his respects.

Noticing the tear-stains on her cheeks he did not venture to take

a seat, simply standing on one side till she urged him to mount

the kang and sit beside her.

His mother saw from the dazed look on his face that he had

something on his mind.

"What's worrying you now?" she asked.

"It's nothing really. But after hearing yesterday what poor

Ying-chun has to put up with, 1 feel it's truly too much for her

to bear! 1 didn't dare tell grandmother, but it kept me from

sleeping all night. How can girls from a family like ours stand

such cruel treatment? Ying-chun especially, who's always been

too timid to answer anyone back. Yet now she of all people

is up against such an inhuman monster, who has no idea how

sensitive a girl is." As he spoke his eyes brimmed with tears.

"There's no help for it," Lady Wang answered. "As the

saying goes, 'A married daughter - spilt water.' So what can

1 do about it?"

"Last night 1 had an idea. Suppose we talk grandmother

into having Cousin Ying-chun fetched back? Then she can go

on staying in Purple Caltrop Isle, eating and playing with us

just like in the old days, instead of being bullied by that scoun-

drel Sun. When he sends to fetch her back we won't let her go,

not even if he sends a hundred times! We'll just tell him this is

the old lady's decision. Don't you think that's a good plan?"

Both amused and exasperated, his mother exclaimed, "There

you go again - talking nonsense! Sooner or later a giri has to

leave home, and once she's married off what can her mother's

family do for her? If she happens to get a good husband, fine;

if not, there's no help for it - that's fate. Surely you know the

saying, 'Marry a cock and follow the cock; marry a dog and

follow the dog'? How can every girl be like your eldest sister,

chosen as an Imperial Consort? Besides, Ying-chun's newly

married; her husband's still young. People's temperaments

differ, and just at the start she's bound to feel a bit awkward.

A few years from now, when they know each other better and

have a child or two, things should work out all right.

"Mind you don't breathe a word about this to the old lady.

If 1 find you have, you'll catch it! Go and see to your own

affairs now. Don't stay here talking nonsense."

Pao-yu sat there a little longer in subdued silence, then

listlessly took his leave. Thoroughly depressed and not knowing

how to work off his feelings, he went back to the Garden,

straight to Bamboo Lodge. Once inside, he burst out crying.

Tai-yu, who had just finished dressing, was most alarmed

to see the state he was in.

"What's happened?" she asked. "Who's been annoying

you?"

Although she repeated her questions several times, Pao-yu

just went on sobbing, his head bent over the table, unable to

speak. She sat on a chair in bewilderment to watch him.

"Has someone else provoked you? Or have 1 offended you?"

she asked presently.

"No, neither!" he blurted out with a sweep of one hand.

"Well, what's upset you then?"

"1 can't help thinking that the sooner we all die the better!

Life is really so meaningless."

"What are you talking about?" she asked, more puzzled than

ever. "Have you taken leave of your senses?"