Dream of the Red Chamber: Zhen Baoyu Refuses to Be a Substitute

Everyone says I'm Jia Baoyu's double.

The same face, the same name, the same infatuation. But he has the Soulbound Jade, and I don't. He's the Jia family's most precious treasure; I'm a shadow of the Zhen family. Why should that be?

The Zhen family hosted the emperor four times, and their silver turned to dust. The year I turned fourteen, the Dowager Consort died, our protection vanished, and the Imperial Guards entered the mansion. My father died unjustly in prison. Our old servants turned on us and sold the girls. I fell from a life of luxury to begging, marched to the capital under guard, and saw the world's coldness at every turn. Only then did I understand: A true jade has to hide behind a fake one for anyone to notice it.

I pretended to be Jia Baoyu and infiltrated the Jia family. Grandmother Jia mistook me for him, and Madam Wang burst into tears. But Li Qi saw through me at a glance: "When you're pretending to be him, your eyes are cold. When you're yourself, they're warm. I recognize your warmth."

I took the civil service exams, passed the provincial level, entered officialdom, and burned the account books to protect the family. I turned myself into the very kind of person I'd hated as a boy. But on the day Jia Baoyu became a monk, a monk and a Daoist found me. "The Soulbound Jade chose the wrong master. You're the real one. Return the jade."

I returned the jade to Green Ridge Peak and cast my own cold jade into the mortal world. Then I sat down, took the pen name Cao Xueqin, and wrote this book, Dream of the Red Chamber.

I've finished writing. You can call me Jia Baoyu now, but my name is Zhen Baoyu.

The true jade returns to the mortal world; the false jade returns to Green Ridge Peak. True and false, false and true. In the end, only I know: I'm no one's double. I'm myself.