Chapter 324 - The Students Refuse to End Class! (1/2)

Zhang Ye drank a mouthful of tea because his throat had turned dry from all the speaking.

“My explanations and a.n.a.lysis still isn’t enough to convince you, right?” Placing down the thermos flask, Zhang Ye looked at everyone, and focused on the people from the literary world, who sat in the first row.

A few Peking University students gave a faint acknowledgment.

Ma Hengyuan got a microphone from someone beside him and said, “But that is just an a.n.a.lysis, and includes your own personal inference. It can be considered as an answer to the questions, but it is still insufficient to explain the problem. It has already been determined by academia and the historical world that ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ has 120 chapters. So how can it be overturned by a few words from you? In my opinion, I believe that the 120 chapters of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ are complete. Although there are some small flaws of different varieties, it’s not major. The change in character, like Jia Baoyu and Grandmother Jia, after the eightieth chapter might have been intentionally done by Cao Xueqin. He wanted to convey some information or hints to the reader that we may not have discovered. At least, the endings of all the characters in ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ have a beginning and an end.”

“Does it really have a beginning and an end?” Upon hearing such chicanery in his refute, Zhang Ye laughed. To use such rhetoric meant that Zhang Ye had already caused their heads to spin from his lecture.

Ma Hengyuan said coldly, “Of course. Is there a problem with that?”

Meng Dongguo also said, “The 120 chapters of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ is complete. There are flaws, but what needs to be said has been said. What needs to be written has been written.”

Zhang Ye shook his head. “I can’t agree with that.”

Meng Dongguo exclaimed. “You have doubts on that?”

These people clashed with Zhang Ye once again!

The Peking University students did not understand why Zhang Ye raised doubts with its completeness. Did the 120 chapters of “Dream of the Red Chamber” lack completeness?

Zhang Ye chuckled. “This is actually something I wanted to talk about later on, but since it has been brought up, I can talk about it now. All of you think that the 120 circulated chapters gives us a complete plot and character development, but I do not agree. The plot and characters were not complete, and this is also the reason why I doubt that the chapters after the eightieth were written by Mr Cao. I will not use the nine times twelve structure to a.n.a.lyze it, nor would I use historical information to prove my point. Let’s just look at the 120 chapters. I want to ask you, what happened to Drunken Diamond after the eightieth chapter?”

Drunken Diamond?

Who was this person?

The Peking University students did not study this cla.s.sic too deeply, so they had forgotten.

However, Redologist, Teacher Yang’s expression changed slightly. He glanced at Ma Hengyuan and Meng Dongguo, but did not say a word.

Yan Yu was also frowning in silence.

Meng Dongguo was stunned. What Drunken Diamond? Was there such a person? His research on ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ was shallow, and had never read it too deeply.

Ma Hengyuan, who was a professor in Literature, knew this person. He paused before saying, “This person isn’t important, nor…”

Zhang Ye interrupted him. “Not important? This person’s name has appeared once in a t.i.tle during the first 80 chapters—This Drunken Diamond shows n.o.bility of character when handling his money! Hur Hur, could Cao Xueqin let such an unimportant person appear in the chapter t.i.tle? A person whose name previously appeared in a chapter t.i.tle suddenly mysteriously disappeared?”

Ma Hengyuan insisted, “This sort of side character does not need to be explained.”

Zhang Ye smiled and said, “Alright then, what about Crimson? Where did Crimson go?”

“Crimson? That…” Ma Hengyuan was stumped.

Regarding Crimson, whose original name was Lin Yuhong, there were a lot more people who knew her.

In the beginning, no one paid too much attention, but with Zhang Ye mentioning it, everyone begin to think. Right, what happened to Crimson?

Zhang Ye said to everyone, “If you insist that Drunken Diamond is an unimportant side character, then I’m sure Crimson isn’t? Everyone can try recalling her. Crimson’s name had previously appeared in chapter t.i.tles, and she was an important character that not only appeared once in previous chapter t.i.tles. Chapter 24’s ‘the Quiet-voiced Girl provides material for fantasy by losing her handkerchief’ and Chapter 26’s ‘A conversation on Wasp Waist Bridge is a cover for communication of a different kind’. In Chapter 27, it was written that Crimson was eloquent and interesting in her speech, resulting in her being appreciated by Fengjie.” Zhang Ye had prepared this in advance, and immediately got the staff member to take out the information and project it on the screen. He pointed at it, “It is clearly written in black and white how important she was as a character. It can be seen from the first 80 chapters. Although Cao Xueqin did not use much to describe her, he mentioned this character more than once, but after the eightieth chapter, why did a character like Crimson disappear?”

No one could answer!

Zhang Ye continued to pursue this matter. “Can you still consider this a complete plot with complete characters? If the currently circulated version’s chapters after the eightieth were written by Cao Xueqin. then no matter how muddleheaded Mr Cao was, no matter how sick he was, or how many slip up he had, he would not have forgotten an important character he previously established, right?”

People kept questioning Zhang Ye, but Zhang Ye explained each and everyone of them!

Now, it was time for Zhang Ye to pose his question, but none of them could explain it!

Zhang Ye was not done. He took out another piece of information. “If people want to insist that Crimson was not an important character, or that Cao Xueqin had forgotten her, and forgotten to write a plot regarding Crimson at the end, then fine. Everyone, please take a look at Zhiyanzhai’s comments. I have already mentioned Zhiyanzhai in my lecture yesterday. I also mentioned that the entire book did not mention ‘The Temple of Prison G.o.d’, but I didn’t provide this information. Alright, now take a look. These are Zhiyanzhai’s comments. It clearly states that Crimson would appear in ‘The Temple of Prison G.o.d’ later on! She even saved Jia Baoyu! Even if the world of Redology does not recognize Zhiyanzhai’s ancient ma.n.u.script, you can never deny its existence forever. Was Zhiyanzhai shooting his mouth wantonly? Impossible! Even if he were spouting nonsense, he would not have spun a story and place, that had never been mentioned before, in the past, right? Besides, if Zhiyanzhai can remember a person like Crimson, how could Cao Xueqin forget her? No matter how anyone explains, or tries to make it compatible, it does not make sense! Through a character like Crimson, it perfectly proves that my view is right! It is not Cao Xueqin who had forgotten an important character, but the continuer who had forgotten this character!”

“Such an explanation…” Ma Hengyuan stopped his sentence midway. Finally, he remained silent with a gloomy face. He realized that he could not refute this statement!

It was already unknown what the people from the literary world were feeling.

Zhang Ye sure was impressive. He had really researched ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ right to the bone. Not a single problem could stump him. He actually managed to answer all of them. While answering with an explanation, he even used it to prove his point! Could it be that…what he said was the truth?

It can’t be!