This novel opens with the couplet: "Truth becomes fiction when the fiction's true / real becomes not-real when the unreal's real."
A brilliant character in this novel named Cassia dies when she drinks the poison she prepared for her husband's maid. This novel opens with the couplet: "Truth becomes fiction when the fiction's true / real becomes not-real when the unreal's real." The protagonist of this novel becomes lethargic soon after a begonia tree inauspiciously blooms out of season. After a purse is found with an indecent picture, all of the maids in this novel come under suspicion of having an illicit affair. When the protagonist's sister First Spring gets promoted to (*) imperial consort of the second degree, the Rongguo and Ningguo branches of their family transform their adjacent compounds into one gigantic pleasure grounds. In this novel, the goddess Nuwa rejects a stone that eventually finds its way into the mouth of the protagonist Jia Baoyu. For 10 points, name this 18th century Chinese novel by Cao Xueqin.
A brilliant character in this novel named Cassia dies when she drinks the poison she prepared for her husband's maid.
Dream of the Red Chamber [or The Story of the Stone; or Hong Lou Meng; or Shitou ji] 