賈府收到消息時，眾人都沉默了。因為大家其實早就知道，她會有這一天。只是沒有人想到，會來得這麼快。
寶玉聽見迎春死訊時，呆了很久，一句話都說不出來。
後來他忽然想起，迎春小時候最愛下棋。她總是一個人安安靜靜坐著，把棋子擺來擺去。那時候寶玉還笑她：「二姐姐，你這棋下得也太慢了。」迎春只是低頭一笑，也不生氣。
如今再想，那樣安靜的一個好人，也被這世界活活逼死了。寶玉那天夜裡，一個人坐了很久。他忽然感覺，大觀園裡那些好女孩，一個個都會消失。
秦可卿死了，金釧兒死了，尤三姐死了，尤二姐死了，晴雯死了，如今連迎春也死了。
而且她們幾乎都不是病死的，她們是被這個世界，一點一點逼死的。
寶玉忽然覺得害怕，因為他第一次真正明白，這座看起來花團錦簇的賈府，其實根本不是什麼富貴溫柔鄉，而是一座會吃人的墳墓。
（未完待續）Jia Baoyu had always felt that Yingchun did not quite belong to this world. She was far too quiet.
Among all the sisters in the Grand View Garden, some loved to laugh and talk, some loved to compose poetry, some loved to compete and prove themselves, and some loved noise and play. Only Yingchun was always sitting quietly in a corner. When others spoke, she listened. When others argued, she lowered her head and said nothing. Whether people around her were crying or laughing, she remained unmoved, only giving a faint smile, as though the affairs of the world had nothing to do with her.
Even the maids called her “Second Blockhead.” Only Baoyu knew that she was not a block of wood without feeling. She had simply learned, from childhood, to endure.
She was the daughter of Jia She, Baoyu’s eldest uncle. In a family like the Jia household, she should also have been one of the honored grandchildren of the main line, possessing a status as noble as Baoyu’s own. Yet why had such a noble young lady been born with such a weak and yielding nature?
She never argued with her father. Even when she disagreed, she always submitted and accepted whatever came. She did not dare disobey her elders. Whenever trouble arose, she only knew how to retreat. Even when the maids and old women in her own rooms stole from her, she did nothing. Even when her wet nurse’s daughter-in-law bullied her openly, she did not fight back.Jia Baoyu had always felt that Yingchun did not quite belong to this world. She was far too quiet.
Among all the sisters in the Grand View Garden, some loved to laugh and talk, some loved to compose poetry, some loved to compete and prove themselves, and some loved noise and play. Only Yingchun was always sitting quietly in a corner. When others spoke, she listened. When others argued, she lowered her head and said nothing. Whether people around her were crying or laughing, she remained unmoved, only giving a faint smile, as though the affairs of the world had nothing to do with her.
Even the maids called her “Second Blockhead.” Only Baoyu knew that she was not a block of wood without feeling. She had simply learned, from childhood, to endure.
She was the daughter of Jia She, Baoyu’s eldest uncle. In a family like the Jia household, she should also have been one of the honored grandchildren of the main line, possessing a status as noble as Baoyu’s own. Yet why had such a noble young lady been born with such a weak and yielding nature?
She never argued with her father. Even when she disagreed, she always submitted and accepted whatever came. She did not dare disobey her elders. Whenever trouble arose, she only knew how to retreat. Even when the maids and old women in her own rooms stole from her, she did nothing. Even when her wet nurse’s daughter-in-law bullied her openly, she did not fight back.
Tanchun once became so angry that she scolded her: “You are far too honest.” But Yingchun only lowered her head and softly said, “Let them be.”
The reason for all this must be traced back to Yingchun’s birth. Although Yingchun was the biological daughter of Jia She, the eldest son of the Jia family, she was not born to his principal wife, Lady Xing. She was born to one of Jia She’s concubines. Her mother died early, so she grew up without maternal love. And Lady Xing, her nominal mother, felt no affection for her at all and remained utterly indifferent to her.
On the surface, Yingchun was also one of the legitimate grandchildren of the Jia family. But under the feudal clan system, the distinction between legitimate and concubine-born children determined a person’s fate.
Her legal mother, Lady Xing, was foolish, weak, and obsessed with money. She had no motherly love for Yingchun whatsoever. In Chapter Seventy-Three of Dream of the Red Chamber, Lady Xing even scolds Yingchun to her face, complaining that Yingchun was not born from her own body. She compares her with Tanchun and humiliates her, saying that although both were born of concubines, why was Tanchun not like her? Tanchun had ability and won people’s respect.
All of this caused Yingchun, though nominally one of the honored granddaughters of the Jia family and a noble young lady, to develop a weak, submissive nature, always accepting humiliation and never daring to compete with others.
Sometimes Baoyu looked at her and felt an inexplicable sadness. Because he knew that someone like her could not possibly live long in this world.
Yingchun was actually very beautiful. She did not carry Daiyu’s sickly fragility, nor did she possess Baochai’s dignified richness. Hers was a quiet beauty, like a dandelion blooming in early spring before the winter snow had fully melted—not startling at first glance, yet somehow astonishing, and too delicate to touch.
But she was too weak, too voiceless, as though she had known from childhood that in this family, she did not matter.
Grandmother Jia loved her granddaughters, but there was still a distance between them. Lady Wang was busy caring about Baoyu and Baochai. Lady Xing was her stepmother and never paid real attention to her. As for her own father, Jia She, he was absurd, heartless, and debauched, caring only for drinking, pleasure, and buying concubines. He never truly kept this concubine-born daughter in his heart.
So from childhood, Yingchun lived like a shadow that no one loved, no one cherished, and no one noticed.
She was not like Tanchun, who, though also born of a concubine, dared to step forward and speak back. Nor was she like Xichun, cold-hearted and detached. Yingchun simply endured in silence, swallowing all her grievances into her own heart.
When Jia She decided upon Yingchun's marriage and arranged for her to wed Sun Shaozu, everyone in the Jia household knew that Sun Shaozu had a terrible reputation. Yet not a single elder，whether man or woman—was willing to speak for Yingchun, oppose the marriage, or fight for a better future on her behalf.
Why, then, did Jia She, the head of the Jia family's senior branch, insist on marrying his daughter to a man of such ill repute? To understand that, one must first know who Sun Shaozu was and what relationship existed between him and Jia She.
Unlike the Jia and Wang families, the Sun family was not an old aristocratic clan with generations of scholarly distinction. It was, as Dream of the Red Chamber describes it, "not a family of scholars and men of letters, but one of ordinary commoners."
In earlier years, the Sun family had depended upon the Jia family for support. They had attached themselves to the Jia household as so-called "disciples." In other words, the Sun family's rise had originally been made possible through the influence and protection of the Jia family.
Sun Shaozu himself was one of the rising military figures of his day. He was described as powerfully built and physically imposing, skilled in both horsemanship and archery. After serving as a candidate official in the Ministry of War, he was appointed General of Shaanxi, becoming a military commander with real authority and a highly promising future.
At one time, Jia She accepted five thousand taels of silver from Sun Shaozu. Judging from the original novel, it is highly likely that Jia She had taken the money in exchange for using his influence at court to help secure Sun Shaozu's official promotion. But by then the Jia family's political influence had already begun to decline, and the matter was never successfully arranged.
As a result, the money became a tangled debt between Jia She and Sun Shaozu， a debt that neither side could clearly settle nor easily forget.
Sun Shaozu demanded repayment.
Jia She was not incapable of returning the money. He simply did not want to. Greedy to the core, he was unwilling to part with it. One of his advisers then offered him a disgraceful suggestion: marry Yingchun to Sun Shaozu. Once they became father-in-law and son-in-law, the debt could conveniently disappear.
Jia She, selfish beyond measure, never gave a moment's thought to his daughter's happiness. Instead, he accepted the proposal without hesitation.
After the marriage, Sun Shaozu himself once roared at Yingchun:
"Your father took five thousand taels of my silver and used you as payment! Don't pretend to be some noble lady before me! Your father truly spent my money. Now that he cannot repay it, he handed you over instead. If you want me to treat you like a proper wife, then return my five thousand taels first!"
Those words reveal everything.
In Sun Shaozu's eyes, Yingchun was never his wife.
She was merely something purchased for five thousand taels of silver，a possession through which he could vent his anger and satisfy his desires.
Sun Shaozu was violent, lustful, and utterly ungrateful. The prophetic verse in Chapter Five of Dream of the Red Chamber captures his nature in a single line:
"The wolf of Zhongshan, once he gains power, becomes savage."
His character can indeed be summed up in those words.
Like the ungrateful wolf of Zhongshan, he completely erased the kindness that the Jia family had once shown his own family. Once the Jia family declined and he himself rose to power, he not only failed to repay their generosity, but came to despise them. When he later appeared at the Jia Mansion demanding repayment of the debt, he even turned the blame back upon Jia She, leaving Jia She unable to defend himself.
Sun Shaozu's lust knew no limits. According to the novel, he had already violated virtually every maid and servant woman in his household. Whenever Yingchun tried, however gently, to dissuade him, he flew into a rage, even banishing her to a side room where she suffered continual humiliation.
He never regarded Yingchun as the lawful wife he had properly married.
To him, she was nothing more than merchandise that he had bought.
The true reason for Sun Shaozu's cruelty was simple: he never believed this marriage to be an equal union between two noble families.
Yet Jia She knew all of this, and still he married Yingchun off to Sun Shaozu.
His reasons went beyond settling the tangled dispute over the five thousand taels of silver. Hidden in his heart was another, darker calculation. By sacrificing his daughter, he hoped to forge a connection with one of the rising military figures at court and create an opportunity for his own future advancement.
Although Jia She had inherited the hereditary title of First-Class General, it was little more than an empty honor. It could not compare with the real military power that Sun Shaozu now commanded.
Thus, this marriage was never truly about marrying off a daughter.
It was Jia She selling his daughter to repay a debt，and at the same time using her as a stepping stone for his own political ambitions.
On the day Yingchun was married, the Jia Mansion was once again filled with lanterns, music, and celebration. Everything appeared lively and festive.
Yet as Baoyu stood among the crowd, looking at Yingchun's quiet, pale face, an icy chill crept into his heart.
To him, it did not look like a wedding.
It looked like a funeral procession.
Later, even Tanchun secretly cursed,
"The Old Master has sold his own daughter." But her anger changed nothing.
Yingchun herself said almost nothing.As always, she lowered her head and gently murmured,
"A daughter's fate is to obey her parents' command."
Hearing those words, Baoyu felt as though something heavy were pressing against his chest.
He could never understand why girls who were so kind and gentle were so often treated like possessions, handed from one person to another.
Not long after Yingchun entered the Sun household, the nightmare began.
Sun Shaozu had never been a man who cherished women. As the Jia family declined further, he respected Yingchun even less.
When he was drunk, he beat her.
When he was in a bad mood, he beat her.
Sometimes he humiliated her before the servants, treating her no better than a household slave.
Yingchun had always been timid and submissive.Even when she was beaten, she never dared fight back.She only wept in secret.
Once, when she returned to visit her family, all her sisters were shocked.
Only a few months had passed, yet she had grown painfully thin. Her face was pale and lifeless, and even speaking seemed to exhaust her.
Tanchun could not hold back her tears. Xichun lowered her head in silence.
Only Yingchun still forced herself to smile and softly said："I'm managing... it's not so bad."
But everyone could see that nothing was well.
Later, she privately wept before Siqi. She confessed that whenever Sun Shaozu became drunk, he would spend entire nights cursing and beating her.
As she spoke, tears streamed down her face. Yet in the end, she said only one sentence:
"If I endure it... eventually it will pass." She spent her entire life enduring.
She endured the bullying of her wet nurse.
She endured servants stealing from her.
She endured her father's indifference.
She endured her husband's brutality.
She never dared to fight. She never even dared to hate.
But there are some things in this world that cannot be endured forever.
Less than a year after entering the Sun household, Yingchun fell gravely ill.
According to servants who later returned from the Sun residence, she was already critically sick before her death. Her throat was clogged with phlegm, leaving her unable to speak. Day after day she lay in bed, struggling for every breath.
Yet Sun Shaozu paid her no attention. He would not even hire a competent physician. He regarded her only as a nuisance.
So she endured，Day after day. Until, at last, she endured herself to death.
She was only twenty years old.
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When news of Yingchun's death reached the Jia Mansion, everyone fell silent.
For deep down, they had always known that this day would come.What none of them expected was that it would come so soon.
When Baoyu heard that Yingchun had died, he stood there in stunned silence for a long time, unable to utter a single word.
Then, quite suddenly, he remembered how much Yingchun had loved playing chess when she was young.
She would always sit quietly by herself, arranging and rearranging the chess pieces with endless patience.
Back then, Baoyu would laugh and tease her, "Second Sister, you play chess far too slowly."
Yingchun would simply lower her head, smile softly, and never take offense.
Now, looking back, Baoyu realized that even someone as gentle and quiet as Yingchun had been driven to death by this world.
That night, he sat alone for a very long time.
A terrible thought came over him.
One by one, all the good girls of the Grand View Garden would disappear.
Qin Keqing was gone.
Jinchuan was gone.
You Sanjie was gone.
You Erjie was gone.
Qingwen was gone.
And now, Yingchun was gone as well.
And almost none of them had died a natural death. They had been driven to death， little by little，by this world itself.
For the first time, Baoyu felt genuine fear.
He finally understood that the Jia Mansion, which appeared so prosperous, so elegant, and so full of flowers and beauty, was never a paradise of wealth and gentleness.
It was, in truth, a magnificent tomb， that quietly devoured the living.
(To be continued)
