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Chapter 74: The Dream of the Red Chamber (Three)
Zhang Xian turned on the television and navigated to the film and television page, where the 1987 version of "Dream of the Red Chamber" was playing. In this episode, titled "The Soul of the Sorrowful Fragrance Returns to the Bitter Grief," Wang Xifeng portrayed a duplicitous character who supported Jia Mu in arranging the marriage between Xue Baochai and Jia Baoyu, all while using Lin Daiyu's name as a pretext.
Lin Daiyu sighed softly, uttering, "Baoyu, you..." before her spirit faded away, leaving behind a lingering fragrance.
After watching the episode, Zhang Xian felt quite pleased. "Sister Lin, who told you to be so frail? If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't have high hopes for you either. It's no wonder you met such a fate." She turned off the television, stretched lazily, and prepared to go to bed. Suddenly, she noticed someone standing at her bedroom door.
Zhang Xian had divorced her husband long ago due to her inability to bear children. Her mother-in-law had looked down on her and urged her son to leave. Now she lived alone. With no one else in the house, seeing someone at the door sent chills down her spine. She gasped and fell back onto the sofa.
After a while, she got up to look again, but there was no one at the door. Was she dizzy? Zhang Xian wondered as she walked toward the bedroom door. The light was on inside, and as she approached, she suddenly saw someone sitting at her vanity.
Zhang Xian's heart raced as she let out another scream. Her legs trembled uncontrollably; she wanted to run but found herself frozen in place as if under a spell. She widened her eyes and stared at the figure at the vanity, slowly turning her neck.
Deep down, Zhang Xian knew what she was about to see and was terrified but felt compelled to look.
The person at the vanity turned their head sharply and glared at her—Zhang Xian gasped in horror. Wasn't that Li Luwen's face? But her attire was strange, and how could Li Luwen be here when she was supposed to be in the hospital?
At that moment, Zhang Xian tried to convince herself it was just an illusion—not real, not real. She forced herself to close her eyes and not think about it or look.
The room was eerily quiet; even the clock's relentless ticking sounded hauntingly sinister in that moment. After a long while, Zhang Xian slowly opened her eyes only to find a face inches away from hers. She screamed again and fainted.
When Zhang Xian woke up again, it was dawn. She realized she had spent the night lying on the floor. Thankfully, she had turned on the air conditioning before entering; otherwise, she would have caught a cold.
I asked, "What was she wearing?"
"The same clothes Lin Daiyu wore when she passed away in 'Dream of the Red Chamber,'" Zhang Xian replied with a trembling voice, sounding as if she had seen a ghost.
Had I known this would happen today, I would have acted differently from the start. Seeing how frightened she was made me think that perhaps Hua Lu and Mo Feng experienced something similar—perhaps even more terrifying—otherwise how could such tragic accidents occur?
Chi Xinrong dismissed Zhang Xian's nightmare with indifference: "What you think about during the day influences your dreams at night. You watched 'Dream of the Red Chamber,' which is why you had this nightmare; nothing actually happened."
I remained silent as I contemplated Zhang Xian's clothing.
Qin Jian continued their conversation: "The key point is that she saw all this before going to sleep; lying on the floor all night led her to mistakenly believe it was just a nightmare."
Zhang Xian shook his head, his face growing paler as he said, "I can't remember if it was something I saw or a nightmare I had. Just thinking about it gives me a headache."
I saw a building that looked like a rental property, an old structure from the 1980s. According to Zhang Xian, there were issues with the drainage pipes. Li Luwen lived on the second floor with a few families who were also struggling financially; some couples worked together to earn money and shared the rent.
Generally, the drainage had been clogged for quite some time, and the residents on the first floor had all connected external drainage pipes. The second floor couldn't do that, so whenever the sewer backed up, it started from there. Each time the second floor got clogged, Li Luwen would come to the hospital to squeeze in and sleep in the ward.
Because of this, her colleagues often criticized her actions, looking down on her and belittling her.
Zhang Xian, Qin Jian, Chi Xinrong, and I walked toward Li Luwen's rental unit when an old man came down from the second floor. He wore glasses and had his hands clasped behind his back, not even glancing at us as he walked past in the opposite direction.
A cold wind swept through, causing me to shiver. Zhang Xian pulled his neck in slightly, while Qin Jian muttered, "It's so cold here."
Chi Xinrong added, "I don't like old houses, especially rural ones; there are so many rumors about them."
"Old houses have many stories. I recently watched a few TV series featuring horror stories set in old houses."
I was surprised that Qin Jian was into that; our shared experiences with horror events weren't enough for him—he also watched horror movies.
After recounting that incident, Zhang Xian fell silent. Even when we spoke, he remained quiet, as if filled with reverence for this place.
The chill from earlier penetrated to the bone and lingered for a while. The staircase of this old house was located outside, and the layout made it seem like the first and second floors were completely disconnected. The stairs were on the side of the first floor, and that chill felt like a draft sweeping through sharply.
Standing on the stairs and looking around, I saw tall buildings in the distance and busy roads nearby; they seemed out of place compared to this gray old structure. This area where Qin Jian lived was home to workers—a zone that hadn't been renovated due to urban planning delays and a gathering place for temporary residents.
Once we reached the second floor, the ground was dirty with an odd smell lingering in the air.
Zhang Xian had called the landlord before we arrived. When we got to the second floor, the landlord hurried over to unlock the door. He had a spare key; it would be troublesome if a tenant lost their key without having a backup.
His explanation was unnecessary; we weren't there to inspect the place but to find something.
Zhang Xian told the landlord we were friends of Li Luwen. She was hospitalized and needed to grab some clean clothes. Since she was a doctor at City Hospital, his explanation seemed reasonable.
We entered Li Luwen's bedroom.
Li Luwen was undeniably a person who loved cleanliness; her bedroom was a stark contrast to the chaos outside. The simple furniture, the modest sofa, the clothes rack, and the bed were all spotless and neatly arranged, without a single wrinkle in sight.
On the bedside table lay a book.
Chi Xinrong was the first to grab it. Without even opening it, she expressed her disappointment, "It's just some fortune-telling from a street vendor."
Qin Jian continued searching.
Zhang Xian was unsure where to start looking.
I glanced around the less-than-ten-square-meter space, turned back, and lifted the brown mat beneath the blanket. Underneath it, on a cover made of kraft paper, were three cleanly written characters: "Dream of the Red Chamber."
"I found it."
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