Through Dream of the Red Chamber: From Winning Keqing to Becoming a Pillar of the Nation

Lin Fu, a modern history graduate student, unexpectedly transmigrates into the body of Jia Heng, the concubine-born son of Jia She in the Rongguo Mansion. This is an original character who does not appear in the source novel. He arrives just as Qin Keqing is still unmarried and about to be betrothed to Jia Rong. Knowing Qin Keqing’s tragic fate and the Jia family’s eventual downfall, Jia Heng uses his foreknowledge to defy the family elders before they can arrange the marriage, declaring, “This concubine-born son will win her hand with military honors,” and marries Qin Keqing instead.

After the wedding, he refuses to sink into the Jia family’s extravagant life. Seizing the opportunity presented by the frequent wars in the northwest during Kangxi’s later years, he resolutely joins the army. Starting as a lowly border soldier, he relies on modern military knowledge and precise predictions of history’s course to repeatedly defeat powerful enemies on the battlefield. He puts down the remnants of Galdan’s forces, repels the Russian invasion, quells the rebellion in Tibet, and campaigns against the native chieftains of the southwest. Through hundreds of battles, he carves out a path to a noble title in blood and steel.

He respects the original story’s course, witnessing the love and heartbreak among Bao, Dai, and Chai, as well as the Jia family’s rise and fall. At the same time, he uses his military achievements to quietly lay plans, protect his wife and children, support the loyal, and strike at the treacherous. Gradually, he breaks free of the Jia family’s constraints and becomes an undeniable military power at court. Qin Keqing, too, sheds her former sorrow and timidity, becoming a steadfast pillar of support for his army’s logistics. The couple live in harmony and raise three sons and two daughters, all of whom inherit their father’s ambitions: some ride across the battlefield, while others take charge of government affairs.

In the end, Jia Heng rises from a concubine-born son to the powerful Grand General Who Guards the Nation, earning the title of Prince Zhongyong. He not only changes his own fate and Qin Keqing’s, but, at a turning point between dynasties, uses an iron hand to safeguard peace for the nation and its people, writing a military legend that crosses into the world of Dream of the Red Chamber.