A magician came to the Jia mansion. He carried a mirror with two sides — one that showed beauty and joy, the other that showed skulls and decay.

"Every pleasure contains its opposite," he told Baoyu. "Every joy shadows a grief. This is the riddle of life and death."

Baoyu stared into the mirror. On one side, he saw himself marrying Daiyu. They grew old together in the garden, their children playing among the pavilions.

He flipped the mirror. On the other side, he saw the garden burning. The Jia mansion crumbling. His father in chains, his mother weeping, and Daiyu — Daiyu dead in her Bamboo Lodge, cheeks still wet with tears.

"Which is true?" he asked.

"Both," the magician said, and vanished.

The mirror was found in Baoyu room that night, wrapped in silk. He never looked into it again, but he never forgot what he saw.