Laiwang
来旺
“The Errand She Could Not Put in Writing”
His Story
Wang Xifeng’s man outside the inner apartments, the one she uses when the work cannot be done by a maid. In Chapter 68, learning that Jia Lian has secretly married You Erjie, she sends him to find Zhang Hua — the man Erjie had once been betrothed to — and pay him to bring suit against the Jia family in court. When the suit has served its purpose, Lai Wang is told to make Zhang Hua disappear. He keeps the money and reports the job done.
In Xiang Li's Hands
She paints him on an errand, not a crime. He crouches in blue-grey robes with a gilt lidded censer cradled against his cheek, eyes squeezed shut, grinning wide — a man delighted to be carrying something valuable that is not his. Nothing behind him but paper.
The Calligraphy
Two heavy characters at the top right give only 来旺, the bondservant house-name he shares with the family’s other 来-prefixed servants, never a courtesy name.
Connections
- Wang Xifeng 王熙凤 — his mistress; he runs her private money-lending and her private business.
- Zhang Hua 张华 — the ruined man he buys, briefs, and is then ordered to silence.
- You Erjie 尤二姐 — the target of the lawsuit he sets in motion.
Others of the same kind · steward / manager Lai Da 赖大 · Lai Er 赖二 · Lai Sheng 赖升 · Lai Shangrong 赖尚荣 · Lai Mama 赖嬷嬷 · Lin Zhixiao 林之孝 · Zhou Rui 周瑞 · Dai Liang 戴良 · Yu Lu 俞禄 · Wang Xin 王信 · Jin Cai 金彩 · Jin Wenxiang 金文翔 · Jiao Da 焦大 · Li Shi'er 李十儿 and 8 more
Named on these pages Wang'er xifu 旺儿媳妇
Dream of the Red Chamber
Xiang Li painted all 413 characters of the novel between 1975 and 1985, the first person to complete the entire cast. See the whole collection · Chinese Empresses
