In Chapter Twenty-Three of Dream of the Red Chamber, Imperial Consort Jia Yuanchun had already returned to the palace. Jia Zheng was busy engraving characters on the stones of the Grand View Garden, while Jia Zhen was busy supervising the work. All the "grown-ups" were occupied, leaving no one to keep an eye on Jia Baoyu. So his page Mingyan went outside and brought back some forbidden books.
His elders had taught him to read so that he could study the Four Books and Five Classics. Even Yuanchun had been selected to enter the palace as a female historian because of her virtue and filial piety, not because she was skilled in song and dance like Zhao Feiyan or Zhao Hede. The poems she wrote were dignified and proper, nothing like the gaudy, frivolous writing in these miscellaneous books.
But Jia Baoyu spent his time in the Grand View Garden with the girls. They did not avoid him even when sitting or lying down, and they had no idea of his troubles. The moment he saw the books Mingyan had brought, he treasured them like priceless gems. Though still innocent, he knew that some of the overly vulgar books could not be brought into the courtyard and could only be read secretly when no one was around. Books like The Story of Yingying, however, he took to the side of Qinfang Lock Bridge, where he chose a stone beneath a peach tree and read them carefully.
This book told the story of Zhang Sheng and Cui Yingying. Just as he reached the line, "Fallen blossoms form a crimson host," a gust of wind swept through, blowing more than half the peach blossoms from the branches. They fell like rain over Jia Baoyu, his book, and his clothes.
Jia Baoyu shook