The students were surprised. The people from the literary world looked unconvinced.
Even Redologists, like Yan Yu and Teacher Yang, had never researched or proved this rule. The people of this world didn’t even think of it. This was because they had always believed the 120 chapters of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ were all written by Cao Xueqin. Naturally, their thinking was restricted as a result. It was not that this world’s people were not as intelligent as those from Zhang Ye’s world, but rather it was due to certain objective factors.
This conclusion was suggest by Mr Zhou Ruchang from Zhang Ye’s world. Liu Xinwu’s “The True Ending of the novel ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’” also mentioned it.
Zhang Ye said to the audience, “Cao Xueqin’s ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ is very strict. In general, every nine chapters is one unit. The book has a total of twelve, nine-chapter units. ” With a slight pause, he continued, “I can tell many do not believe this. Then shall we discuss this in depth? Yes, let’s look at the first 80 chapters of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ that we all can read together. It can be clearly seen that the first chapter to the ninth chapter is a unit. And the ninth to the eighteenth chapter is another unit. Two times nine is eighteen. Let’s first look at the first unit. Does everyone remember what the eighteenth chapter is about? What is stated in the book? It writes about the Imperial Concubine’s paying a visit to her family!”