The Poor Girl Loses Her Padded Coat and Endures an Uproar; The Young Gentleman Sends Fruit and Is Alarmed by Hidden Designs

Now to return to Daiyu. After she had made up her mind to ruin her health, she grew weaker day by day and finally stopped eating altogether. For the first ten days or so, Grandmother Jia and the others took turns visiting her, and she could still occasionally say a few words. In the last two days, she had almost stopped speaking. Her mind drifted between stupor and clarity. Grandmother Jia found the onset of this illness strange and questioned Zijuan and Xueyan twice, but how dared they tell the truth? Zijuan wanted to go find Shishu to verify the news, but she feared that the more she inquired, the more the rumor would seem true, and that it would only hasten Daiyu’s death. When she saw Shishu, she did not mention it at all. Xueyan was the one whose passing on of words had caused the disaster. Now she wished she could protest with all her might that she had not spoken carelessly, so naturally she dared say even less. That day Daiyu could not swallow even a drop of water and was at her last breath. Zijuan saw that there was little hope and, after weeping by the......