Dream of the Red Chamber: Daiyu Is a Paper Doll

I am Lin Daiyu, made of paper. I have a brush. If I use it to rewrite someone else’s fate, I have to trade away something of my own. I helped Cui Yingying find Zhang Sheng, and lost a piece of my memory. I helped Yingning learn to cry, and forgot what it meant to feel compassion. I helped Du Liniang return home, and began to forget Baoyu’s face. Every time I use it, I drift a little farther from myself. But they keep coming. Yingning, Du Liniang, Pan Jinlian, Bai Suzhen. One after another, they pour into the Grand View Garden from all kinds of worlds. The brush said that once I had traded away all of myself, its other half would come to claim my body. Tonight, someone was laughing outside the window. I opened the door, and everyone was laughing. They all laughed exactly the same way. They said, “Daiyu, we’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”