An Old Scholar at Leisure Solicits a Ballad of the Fair Warrior; A Foolish Young Gentleman Fabricates a Dirge for the Hibiscus Maiden

After the two nuns had taken Fangguan and the others away, Lady Wang went to Grandmother Jia’s rooms to pay her respects. Seeing that Grandmother Jia was in good spirits, she took the chance to report: “That maid Qingwen in Baoyu’s room is grown up now, and this past year she has been ill again and again. I found her particularly unruly and lazy. A while ago she was sick in bed for more than ten days. The doctor said it was consumption, so I quickly had her moved out. Even if she recovers in the future, she is not to enter the garden again. She is to be given to her family to marry off. As for those opera girls, I also took it upon myself to release them. For one thing, they can all sing opera, and they speak without weighing their words. If the other young ladies heard them, it would not be good. For another, they came from an opera troupe to begin with, so releasing them is only proper. Besides, there are already too many maids, and not enough hands. We can simply choose a few more.” Grandmother Jia nodded. “That reasoning is sound enough. I had been thinking......