Third Sister was in fact a born eccentric. Being good-looking and romantic, she liked to dress strikingly and behave more lasciviously and seductively than all other girls to infatuate men until they were fairly drooling, unable either to approach her or to stay away. She delighted in keeping them on a string like this. Her mother and sister tried in vain to dissuade her. 'How silly you are, sister,' she would retort. 'Why let those two reincarnated apes defile our precious bodies? Why act so helpless? Besides, that wife of his is a real terror. As long as this is kept from her, we're all right. If she comes to hear of it one day, she won't take it lying down and there's bound to be a big row. Who knows which of you will survive? If I don't have some fun now treating them like dirt, by the time this breaks it'll be too late to regret it - I'll be left with nothing then but a bad name.'
A Dream of Red Mansions by Cao Xueqin (tr. Gladys Yang)
