Dream of the Red Chamber: Baoyu Conquers the Southeast

Whenever a dynasty nears its end, the stone left behind to mend the heavens dreams once more of the Dream of the Red Chamber.

At seventy-one, Jia Baoyu throws himself into the Qinhuai River, seeking death. When he wakes, he has become Lord Bao Erlang in Jiankang, capital of the Southern Liang. His old acquaintances are still alive, and a bridal sedan for Yingchun has already arrived at the door. The groom is Sun Shaozu, a subordinate of Hou Jing.

He stops the sedan, breaks into the ancestral hall, and takes out the old armor left by his forebears. This time, the wicked will repay their debts in lives with their bones, their fortunes, and their power.

But beyond the garden gates lie the crumbling Taicheng, Jiangling awaiting the flames, and emperors and generals who use the wives and children of all under heaven as bargaining chips.

Daiyu, too, takes up the sword Xie Daoyun once wielded. The girl who once depended on others now means to defend her own home. But when enemy troops arrive, she shuts with her own hands the secret passage that lets only the nobles escape.

Later, the one who once buried flowers begins burying the nameless defenders of the city.

Baoyu finally understands: change the twelve prophetic verses, and new girls will still be carried off in bridal sedans. Put someone else in the vermilion tower, and the people who built it may still have no roof over their heads.

From the Qinhuai to Jiangling, from defending the southeast to marching north, he will contend with the mighty of the old order for the realm. He must also beware those who stand beside him to mend the heavens, lest they turn around and build another vermilion tower that devours its people.

Daiyu asks, "Can a single stone like you really mend the heavens?"

Flames begin to rise below the city walls. The silk weavers, boatmen, and builders, the people never recorded in family genealogies or registers of merit, are coming with lanterns in their hands.

Baoyu doesn't answer at once.

Once, from atop the vermilion tower, he saw only a garden in springtime. Now that he has stepped beyond its gates, he sees that the people who held up the tower had always been standing in wind and rain.

"First, open the gates," he says.

"Once the heavens are mended, they must be allowed to stand beneath them too."