Leaving the Red Chamber

What is going on? I wasn’t even a real person. I was just a character in a book?! Fine, so I’m a character in a book. But I’m not even a proper character, just a super minor female character with two lines who gets killed off as soon as she appears! The biggest cannon fodder in Dream of the Red Chamber: the legitimate daughter of the Rongguo House, the wife of the esteemed Imperial Commissioner of Salt. My only purpose is to have a daughter for that flighty Divine Attendant Shen Ying to seduce, and then foot the bill as the Lin family’s wealth, accumulated over generations and worth millions, gets spent by others. And all I get in return is a line saying that Miss Lin was an orphan adopted by the Jia family, and that every blade of grass and scrap of paper she used was paid for by the Jias. What the hell? You can whitewash the truth and put a little powder on your own face, but you don’t have to slap my family around like that! Now that I’ve been reborn, I refuse to die. I’m going to live well, and keep my eyes wide open to see how all you gods and Buddhas are going to slander the Lin family this time. And while I’m at it, I’ll rescue a few more cannon fodder characters from that unlucky Jia family. So what if we’re cannon fodder? Cannon fodder can live their own way. Why should you get to decide our fate?