"Pao-yu began to feel restless and discontented. He did not know exactly what he wanted, but something was clamoring within him, undefined and yet insistent. Ming-yen sought to relieve his boredom, securing for his master some novels [...] and plays such as Record of the Western Chamber. To Pao-yu these were great discoveries. Ming-yen asked him not to take the books into the Takuanyuan, where they might be discovered and traced to him. But what use were the books if Pao-yu, who lived in the Takuanyuan, could not take them with him? So he selected a safe corner in his room and, when no one was around, he would take them out and pore over them. One day about the middle of the Third Moon, Pao-yu sat reading Record of the Western Chamber in a peach grove by the brook that wound its way through the Takuanyuan. As he reached the passage containing the line "petals falling into patterns of red," a gust of wind seemed to respond to the words and scattered the peach blossoms all around him, covering his lap and the book. He hesitated to shake them on the ground lest he trample on them. Instead, he carefully gathered them in the broad folds of his garment and shook them into the brook."

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