A Dream of Red Mansions

Plot Synopsis

In the Gourd Temple in Renqing Lane of Gusu City, there lived a poor scholar named Jia Yucun. With the financial support of Zhen Shiyin, a local official, he went to the capital to take the imperial examination. He passed the Jinshi examination and became an official. However, due to his embezzlement and perversion of the law, he was dismissed from office within a year. He then came to Yangzhou and became a retainer of Lin Ruhai, the Censor-in-Chief of Salt Administration, teaching Lin Daiyu to study. A year later, Lin Ruhai's wife passed away, and Lin Daiyu was escorted by Jia Yucun to the Rongguo Mansion in the capital. Thanks to the help of Daiyu's uncle, Jia Zheng, within two months, Jia Yucun was reinstated and appointed as the prefect of Yingtianfu in Jinling. From then on, he had a prosperous official career. The Jia family in the capital was a prominent noble family, with two mansions, the Rongguo Mansion and the Ningguo Mansion. After Daiyu moved into the Rongguo Mansion, her grandmother, Lady Jia,