The Red Chamber Read Online Free PDF Page B

winces at the memory of the sweet, delicate little boy.
    “Your father’s getting on. Why didn’t he get himself a concubine then, when your brother died? Now he has no heir, and the Lins are about to die out.”
    Daiyu jerks her hand away. “My father would never have gotten a concubine.”
    “Maybe he’ll get one now.”
    Daiyu is jolted from her shyness by anger. “My father has no intention of remarrying. He loved my mother—”
    Lady Jia gives a bark of laughter. “That shows how much you know about men.”
    Xifeng intervenes swiftly, taking Daiyu’s hand with a smile. “Why don’t we introduce you to everyone?”
    Baochai comes up to make her bow, followed by the other two girls on the kang . “We call these two the ‘Two Springs,’ ” Xifeng says. Even though their gowns are of different colors, the cut and design of their clothes, and the jewelry and ornaments they wear, are nearly identical. The elder, who is tall with sloping shoulders and a pretty oval face, looks to be about Daiyu’s age. The younger one, who had criticized the cape, is shorter and plumper, with an upturned nose like a kitten’s.
    The older girl, who closely resembles the boy in the “peacock gold” cape, smiles at Daiyu. “I’m Tanchun, ‘Exploring Spring.’ ” She points at the other girl. “She’s Xichun, ‘Cherishing Spring.’ ”
    “They were named for our great-aunt Her Highness the Imperial Concubine,” Baochai explains. “ Her name was Yuanchun, because she was born on the first day of spring.”
    And now the boy who was trying on the cloak comes up. He cannot be anyone but Baoyu. He is so handsome that all the light in the room seems to shine on him. Low over his brow he wears a gold headband shaped like two dragons playing with a large pearl. He is dressed in a jacket of slate-blue silk with tasseled borders and medallions down the front, over a pair of ivy-colored embroidered trousers. He does not kowtow, but looks at her as if he and she are the only two people in the world.
    “Haven’t I met you before?” he says. She expects him to be arrogant, but the tone in which he addresses her is gentle, almost courtly.
    “No, I’ve lived in the south for my whole life.” Although she has almost never spoken to a boy her own age before, she does not feel shy with him.
    “That’s odd. I feel as if I’ve seen you before. What are the characters in your name?”
    “The ‘yu’ is jade, like in your name, and the ‘Dai’ is the kohl that women use to darken their eyebrows.”
    She senses him staring at her long, straight eyebrows, without the hint of an arch, something that the neighborhood children back in Suzhou teased her about.
    He laughs. “It suits you. Do you have a nickname?”
    She shakes her head.
    “Then I’ve got one for you: Pinpin.” It is a diminutive form of the word for “frown.” Baoyu continues teasingly, “Your given name refers to a kohl that women put on their brows. And your own brows are puckered together in a little frown. It’s a perfect name.”
    She feels her cheeks start to redden, half in embarrassment, half in annoyance.
    “It’s the first time you’ve met and already you’re giving her a nickname,” Baochai murmurs. “Don’t you think you’re being a little too familiar?”
    “Baoyu, where are your manners?” Uncle Zheng says, but the boy ignores him.
    “Can you read?” he asks.
    “Yes.”
    “Do you mean girls’ reading, like The Classic for Women ,” he speaks scornfully, “or real books?”
    She draws herself up. “I’ve read the Four Books. That is, I’ve read Confucius, and Mencius, and the Great Learning, but I’m still in the middle of the Doctrine of the Mean. My father taught me himself.”
    “What poets do you like?”
    Daiyu hears Lady Jia click her tongue disapprovingly. “Isn’t it enough that girls receive a basic education, enough for them to be able to run the household? It’s a waste of time for them to be educated like