love or his hidden dreams: If only Ming Feng were a lady like Qin, he would marry her in a heartbeat." Li Ruijue () - Juexin's wife. She marries him and falls in love with him, but realizes that Juexin still loves Mei more than her. She dies in childbirth. Han said that Ruijue "is beautiful and mild, and their intensive love produces their first boy, Hai Chen." After Master Gao dies, as Ruijue is pregnant with a second child, relatives cajole Juexin into moving Ruijue out of the city to avoid giving the coffin of Master Gao. Despite Juehui's pleas to have it reversed, Juexin allows the move to happen, and Ruijue dies of childbirth as Juexin is prevented from entering the delivery room during the period of mourning for Master Gao. Mei () - Juexin's cousin and the love of his life. She falls ill and dies. Han said that Mei "lives a miserable life." Within a year from the start of the novel she marries and becomes a widow. Because her mother-in-law had not treated her well, she lives with her mother. Han said that the Gao family's younger members, especially Juexin, "are sympathetic" to Mei. Ming Feng () - A maidservant who is forced to marry an older man. She commits suicide. Han describes Ming Feng as "another tragic woman" in the Gao family. Ming Feng wants to marry Juehui but Master Gao arranges to have her be a mistress to Milord Feng, a man who is at the same age level as Ming Feng's grandfather would be. Ming Feng begs other members to remove her from the situation but nobody can challenge Master Gao. At midnight before she is to be given to Feng, she appears in Juehui's bedroom but he is so busy working on academic articles that he does not notice Ming Feng and her pleas. She commits suicide by drowning herself in a pool of water. Han says "Jue Min [sic] and others pity the girl, while Jue Hui [sic] now regrets his carelessness. However none of the people could have changed Ming Feng's fate." Qin (): A female cousin of Gao Juexin, and a student. Feng said that Qin "is ensconced, somewhat ironically, in extensive and complex familial relationships" so that the book rarely mentions her life away from the Gao family. Feng explained that because Ba Jin made the female