As Lady Dowager's loyal maid, Yuan-yang faints from too much weeping over the old lady's death. After thinking about the hopelessness of her position and her future in the Chin family, she decides to die rather than become a concubine or be married off to a servant. She commits suicide by hanging herself, and her death is clearly a defiance of feudal persecution and oppression—a slave's rebellion against that system. Ironically, however, the Chin family members look upon her death as filial piety to the old lady. They praise her deed highly, seeing it as in keeping with traditional ethics and an honor for the family.
While Chin Cheng, Lady Wang, Lady Hsing, and others escort the coffins of both Lady Dowager and Yuan-yang to Iron Threshold Temple, Hsi-fengand Hsi-chun are left in charge of house affairs. Chou Jui's godson Ho San seizes this chance to join with outside gamesters and break into the mansion that night to steal Lady Dowager's silver and gold. Taking the valuables, the brigands see pretty Miao-yu, who is visiting Hsi-chun, and they later kidnap her from the Nunnery. Hsi-chun, anxious and depressed, decides to break with the evil world and become a nun.
Chin Cheng, when informed of the robbery, realizes they will have a difficult time making a list of all the stolen goods, since only Yuan-yang knew what property the old lady had, but they put a list together as best they can and notify the police.
Meanwhile, Concubine Chao, mourning at the Temple, falls to the ground, foaming at the mouth. She is believed to be bewitched as she babbles about the evil deeds that she has committed during her lifetime.
In Chapter 113, raving insanely, weeping, and begging for mercy, Concubine Chao dies. Some think that she has been tortured to death by the King of Hell because she plotted murder. It is predicted that Wang Hsi-feng must be fated for the same destiny, as well. In fact, Hsi-feng is confined to bed in a critical condition. When Granny Liu arrives, Hsi-feng asks to see her and treats her kindly, even entrusting her daughter Chiao-chieh to Granny Liu's guidance. Wang Hsi-feng 's arrogance and conceit during Granny Liu's earlier visits stands in sharp contrast with her humbleness now, a result of the Chin family's loss of power and prestige.
Thinking of Miao-yu's being kidnapped, Pao-yu recalls Chuang Tzu's saying about the illusory nature of life: Men are born to drift with the wind and scatter like clouds.
This pessimistic attitude towards life makes him sad about his separation from his close friends, especially from Tai-yu. His dark thoughts lead him to decide to go to speak with Tzu-chunn, who has served in his apartment since Tai-yu's death and who has been cold to him. He goes to her room and begs her to let him in, but is rejected. Finally his sincerity and his concern touch Tzu-chuan, and she regrets that Tai-yu did not have the good fortune to marry him. However, at heart, she feels that everyone's fate is predestined.
In Chapter 114, Hsi-feng is reported to be dying, calling for a boat and a sedan-chair so that she can hurry back to Chinling to fill in a register. When Pao-yu and Pao-chai hurry to Hsi-feng 's quarters, Hsi-feng is dead and is laid out for her funeral. However, it cannot be arranged as handsomely as Chin Ko-ching's or the old lady's were because Chin Lien has little money now. Ping-erh offers her savings for the funeral expenses, to Chin Lien's consolation, but Hsi-feng 's brother, Wang Jen, is dissatisfied because he cannot get any money from Hsi-feng now that she is dead.
Hsueh Ku and Hsiu-yen have been married quietly, and they now live in harmony and peace with each other and the rest of the family.
As Cheng Jih-hsing, Chia Cheng's secretary, counsels his master on keeping a close watch on the household, a visit from Chen Ying-chia is announced. He tells Chia Cheng that the Emperor has restored Ying-chia's hereditary title (a foreshadowing of the revival of the Chia family's prosperity) and that "the Sovereign's kindness surpasses heaven." Here, Kao Ngo portrays the Emperor as benevolent and sagacious, a treatment that suggests that the author is very scrupulous for fear that he himself might be charged with defiance against the Emperor. Chen Ying-chia also has a son named Pao-yu, who looks exactly like Chia Pao-yu, though he is one year younger.
In Chapter 115, Hsi-chun is adamant about becoming a nun, and the disregard of Madame Yu only makes her resolve stronger.
Lady Chen and Chen Pao-yu arrive. At the sight of one another, both Chen Pao-yu and Chia Pao-yu feel as if they were old acquaintances. Both are impressed by the fact that they have not only the same name, but also identical features. However, after they talk together, Chin Pao-yu is disappointed in Chen Pao-yu's interests—loyalty, filial piety, winning fame, and learning in order to live up to the expectations of the sagacious Emperor, father, and tutors.
When Pao-chai asks her husband's opinion about Chen Pao-yu, Chin Pao-yu asserts that Chen Pao-yu is a "place-seeker of the lowest sort," and thus they are as "incompatible as ice and charcoal." Chia Pao-yu even wishes he could change his looks so as to distinguish himself from Chen Pao-yu. Strangely enough, his dejection makes his old illness flare up again, and once more he seems deranged.
While everyone worries about Pao-yu's sudden illness, a monk arrives, bringing Pao-yu's lost jade and asking for a reward of ten thousand taels. The jade seems to revive Chia Pao-yu, but Chia Lien has no money to pay the monk, and thus they sit, stalemated, at the front of the house. Meanwhile, Sheh-yueh makes an injudicious comment that reminds Pao-yu of a quarrel he had with Tai-yu, and he suddenly pales and topples over backward.
In this chapter, Chia Pao-yu's disgust with fame and officialdom is obvious and is consistent with the treatment of the first 80 chapters. However, this handling is inconsistent with Chapters 85, 89, and 119. In the last 40 chapters, therefore, Chia Pao-yu is given two conflicting personalities, a flaw which further reflects the author's limitations and his feudal orientation.
In Chapter 116, when Chia Cheng looks for the monk to once again help Pao-yu, the monk has disappeared; moreover, Pao-yu's spirit has taken flight and is now led by the monk. Pao-yu enters the illusory realm, where he sees Yuan-yang, who says Cousin Lin wants to see him, and he reads the album that he dreamed of before: the First Register of the Twelve Beauties of Chinling. He realizes the predictions written there have come true, and, shortly thereafter, he sees Third Sister Yu, Ching-wen, and Chin Ko-ching. Amazed at the beauty of the fairy plant of Vermilion Pearl, Pao-yu is informed by a fairy maid of the history of the plant, which is revived by being watered every day with sweet dew by the attendant Shen Ying (apparently, Pao-yu after death).
The fairy's mistress, the Queen of Bamboo, appears to Pao-yu to be Talyu. He also sees Ching-wen, Hsifeng , Chin Ko-ching, and Ying-chun. Then, suddenly, the monk summons Pao-yu, gives him a violent shove, and forces him to return to the real world. Pao-yu awakens, recovered.
This description of the after-life world is realistic and vivid, somewhat different from Tsao Hsueh-chin's description of the dreamy Other World.
