Dream of the Red Chamber: How Hua Xiren Became a Prospective Concubine

In the dim light of a bronze mirror, I see the face of Hua Xiren. I was four when I first entered the Jia household. The threshold was so high it nearly tripped my small, frail body. All I remember is the stewardess’s bony finger jabbing my forehead as she scolded me: “Remember, one wrong step here, and every step after will be wrong. You’ll never rise again!” How could I forget? Passed from one servant woman to another, I lived on cold leftovers. When I woke shivering in the middle of the night, all I could do was grind down the hunger and cold lodged in my bones, swallow them with my tears, and endure until they became a burning ember called “making something of myself,” branded deep in my heart. Luckily, I came to serve Second Master Bao. The tenderness amid all this splendor is a more tempting drug than the spring sunshine. I know this haven of softness is my ladder to success. Second Master treats me well, and everyone can see it. Even Old Madam once praised me with a smile, calling me “reliable.” Those words are the golden robe I have painstakingly woven, protecting me as I carefully make my way through this sprawling mansion. Aunt Zhao! She was born a household slave, yet she managed to become half a mistress! Everyone may sneer behind her back at her coarse behavior, but so what? She still clawed her way up from the muck, won a favor even Aunt Zhou could not, and bore Third Girl and Brother Huan. That is a solid foundation! And yet the position of Second Master Bao’s wife remains unsettled, like a sword hanging over my head. Miss Lin is delicate and melancholy, while Miss Bao is composed and proper... Whoever takes that seat will control my fate. I must read the winds early and sink my roots toward the tree that will truly shelter me in the future. “Even if the road ahead is a mountain of blades and a sea of fire, even if I must step over other people’s corpses... I, Hua Xiren, will claim the position of concubine and keep it in my grasp!”