Wang Xifeng

However, she is disliked by the jealous Lady Xing, her husband's stepmother, who came from a family of lower social status and who resented Xifeng for her talent and power.

Sister Feng (凤姐, Fèng Jiě) as Xifeng is also known, is well known in the novel both for her great capability as well as her almost-venomous character; when a poorer member of the Jia family once tried to seduce her into having an affair with him, she tricked him repeatedly into "rendezvous" which turned out to be a trap, and the offending man eventually died of his desire for her (Chapters 11 and 12).

She can be kindhearted towards rustic folks like Granny Liu and poor relatives like Xing Xiuyan (who is not related to her at all but a niece of Lady Xing), but capable of great cruelty when her power is challenged, such as engineering the suicide of her husband's concubine You Erjie, whom Jia Lian married in secrecy, fearing the wrath of his wife.

In the Cheng-Gao version, when the Jia family collapsed, Qiaojie was sold into a brothel by Xifeng's heartless brother but was rescued by Granny Liu before any harm was done.

But it can be inferred from Xifeng's "panci" (判词, a short poem concluding the fate of a certain character) and other clues that she was probably divorced and abandoned by Jia Lian, thrown in jail, and died on the way to her hometown Jinling.