Our fourth installment of Dream of the Red Chamber finds Zhen Shiyin, a middle-aged official in Suzhou, reading in his study on a hot summer day. As the afternoon passes, Zhen slips into a strange dream in which he sees two familiar monks. As they approach, the monks discuss the Stone's affection for a flower it watered on the banks of a mystical river, and how this flower gained consciousness and assumed a womanly form as a result. This is our first encounter with Lin Daiyu, the destined lover of the Stone in the mortal realm She vows to become human herself to pay back its affection with her own earthly tears.

Somewhat confused about what is happening, Zhen introduces himself to the mystics and asks for clarification. "Funny you should ask," they reply, "because you've got a role to play in this story as well." And so they show him the piece of jade. Yet he doesn't have long to look, for they soon arrive at the gates of the Jinghuan Fairy's palace, the Stone's final destination on his passage to the mortal world, and on which is written an ingenious and cautionary couplet: when life becomes a dream, dreams become life.