元妃省亲

　　As Jia Baoyu, Xue Baoqin, Xing Youyan and Ping'er had birthdays on the same day, the young ladies held a hilarious1（欢闹的） drinking party in the hall of the peony（牡丹，芍药） garden for them. When it was Xiangyun's turn to compose a verse amid a drinking game, she made fun of the service maids by saying, holding a duck head in hand, "This ya tou (referring to the duck head in hand) is not that ya tou (referring to the service maids around, as both are homophones同音异形异义词 in Chinese), for this ya tou has applied2 no hair oil…." Everybody roared with laughter. Some service maids protested, laughing, "You made fun of us, so you have to drink another cup. Let's pour a full cup her…." As the party went on drinkers' games continued with ceaseless laughter and people suddenly noticed that Xiangyun had disappeared. While they looked this way and that, a serice maid rushed in laughing, "Young ladies. Hurry to have a look at the Lady Xiangyun. She's sleeping on the stone bench over there." The group tiptoed over, and sure enough, saw Xiangyun sleeping soundly. Fallen flowers scattered3 on her body, her hair and her face. Her fan had dropped on the ground aside. Bees danced in the air around her. Under her head was a make-shift pillow of peony flowers wrapped with her handkerchief. Amid laughter service girls gently woke her up and helped her-she was still mumbling4 something drunkenly-get inside the room.