Qingwen's Lantern

If Dream of the Red Chamber is a mirror that reveals demons, she is the dirtiest woman in the Jia household.

Duo Guniang: a servant's servant, a cook's wife. Of the more than two hundred men throughout the Rong and Ning mansions, half had been “tested” by her. She welcomed heroes and gathered talented men from every corner of the house. Even Second Master Lian, a man among men, was no more than an ordinary passerby beneath her skirts.

Everyone called her lewd, and everyone wanted to sleep with her. She only smiled. She spoke neither of affection nor of love, only of money and a fleeting night of pleasure. She thought that was how her life would go until the day she came upon a young gentleman and her cousin, who had been driven out of the Grand View Garden and was now so ill she had barely a breath left.

She had meant to catch them in the act, but outside the window she heard the purest confession in the world.

At that moment, the dirtiest woman in the entire Jia household became its clearest, brightest lamp.

She laid to rest Qingwen, who had died unjustly. She kept alive the scattered poems left behind after the household was confiscated. With the hands everyone despised, she protected the last trace of decency in this collapsing mansion.

Dream of the Red Chamber says, “All that remains is a vast expanse of whiteness, clean and pure.” The Lamp of Qingwen says, “Don't be afraid. There is still a lamp burning in the mud.”

Open this book, and you will be the one who lights it.