Chapter 1

Zhen Shiyin in a Dream Sees the Jade
of Spiritual Understanding
Jia Yucun in His Obscurity Is Charmed
by a Maid


This is the opening chapter of the novel. In writing this story of the Stone the author wanted to record certain of his past dreams and illu¬sions, but he tried to hide the true facts of his experience by using the allegory of the jade of “Spiritual Understanding.” Hence his recourse to names like Zhen Shiyin.1 But what are the events recorded in this book, and who are the characters? About this he said:
“In this busy, dusty world, having accomplished nothing, I suddenly recalled all the girls I had known, considering each in turn, and it dawned on me that all of them surpassed me in behaviour and understanding; that I, shameful to say, for all my masculine dignity, fell short of the gentler sex. But since this could never be remedied, it was no use regretting it. There was really nothing to be done.
“I decided then to make known to all how I, though dressed in silks and delicately nurtured thanks to the Imperial favour and my ancestors’ virtue, had nevertheless ignored the kindly guidance of my elders as well as the good advice of teachers and friends, with the result that I had wasted half my life and not acquired a single skill. But no matter how unforgivable my crimes, I must not let all the lovely girls I have known pass into oblivion through my wickedness or my desire to hide my shortcomings.
“Though my home is now a thatched cottage with matting windows, earthen stove and rope-bed, this shall not stop me from laying bare my heart. Indeed, the morning breeze, the dew of night, the willows by my steps and the flowers in my courtyard inspire me to wield my brush. Though I have little learning or literary talent, what does it matter if I tell a tale in rustic language to leave a record of all those lovely girls. This should divert readers too and help distract them from their cares. That is why I use the other name Jia Yucun.”2
Do you know, Worthy Readers, where this book comes from? The answer may sound fantastic, yet carefully considered is of great interest. Let me explain, so that there will be no doubt left in your minds.
When the goddess Nu Wa melted down rocks to repair the sky, at Baseless Cliff in the Great Waste Mountain she made thirty-six thousand five hundred and one blocks of stone, each a hundred and twenty feet high and two hundred and forty feet square. She used only thirty-six thousand five hundred of these and threw the remaining block down at the foot of Blue Ridge3 Peak. Strange to relate, this block of stone after tempering had acquired spiritual understanding. Because all its fellow blocks had been chosen to mend the sky and it alone rejected, it lamented day and night in distress and shame.
One day as the Stone was brooding over its fate, it saw approaching from the distance a Buddhist monk and Taoist priest, both of striking demeanour and distinguished appearance. They came up to the Stone and sat down to chat.
When they saw the pure translucent Stone which had shrunk to the size of a fan-pendant, the monk took it up on the palm of his hand and said to it with a smile:
“You look like a precious object, but you still lack real value. I must engrave some characters on you so that people can see at a glance that you’re something special. Then we can take you to some civilized and prosperous realm, to a cultured family of official status, a place where flowers and willows flourish, the home of pleasure and luxury where you can settle down in comfort.”
The Stone was overjoyed.
“May I trouble you to enlighten me,” it said, “as to what wonder¬ful merits you will bestow on me? And where do you mean to take me?”
“Don’t ask.” The monk smiled. “You’ll find out all in good time.”
With that he tucked the Stone into his sleeve and hurried off with the Taoist. But where they went no one knows.

After no one knows how many generations or aeons, a Taoist known as Reverend Void, searching for the Way and immortality, came to Great Waste Mountain, Baseless Cliff and the foot of Blue Ridge Peak. His eye fell on the inscription on a large stone which was still discernible and he read it through. It was an account of the Stone’s rejection for repair¬ing heaven, its transformation and conveyance to the world of men by the Buddhist of Infinite Space and the Taoist of Boundless Time, and the joys and sorrows, partings and encounters, warm and cold treatment from others it had experienced there. On its back was a Buddhist verse:
Unfit to mend the azure sky,
I passed some years on earth to no avail;
My life in both worlds is recorded here;
Whom can I ask to pass on this romantic tale?
There followed the name of the region where the Stone fell, the place of its incarnation, and the story of its adventures   including trivial family affairs and light verses written to amuse idle hours. The dynasty, year and country’s name were, however, obliterated.
The Reverend Void said to the Stone: “Brother Stone, you seem to think that your tale recorded here is interesting enough to merit publica¬tion. In my view, in the first place, there is no way of finding out the dynasty and the year; in the second, there is nothing here about worthy and loyal ministers and how they regulated the government and public morality. There are merely some girls remarkable only for their passion or folly, or else for their small gifts and trifling virtues which cannot even compare with those of such talented ladies as Ban Zhao or Cai Yan.4 Even if I were to transcribe it, it would hardly arouse much interest.”
“How can you be so dense, master?” protested the Stone with a smile. “If there’s no way of finding out the date, you can easily ascribe this tale to some time in the Han or Tang Dynasty. But since all novels do that, I think my way of dispensing with this convention and just dealing with my own adventures and feelings is more original. Why insist on a certain dynasty or definite date? Besides, most common people of the market-place much prefer light literature to improving books. The trouble is that so many romances contain slanderous anecdotes about sovereigns and ministers or cast aspersions upon other men’s wives and daughters so that they are packed with sex and violence. Even worse are those writers of the breeze-and-moonlight school, who corrupt the young with pornography and filth. As for books of the beauty-and-talented-scholar type, a thousand are written to a single pattern and none escapes border¬ing on indecency. They are filled with allusions to handsome, talented young men and beautiful, refined girls in history; but in order to insert a couple of his own love poems, the author invents stereotyped heroes and heroines with the inevitable low character to make trouble between them like a clown in a play, and makes even the slave girls talk pedantic non¬sense. So all these novels are full of contradictions and absurdly unnatu¬ral.
“Much better are the girls I have known myself during my young days. I wouldn’t presume to rank them as superior to all the characters of earlier works, yet their stories may serve to dispel boredom and care while the few doggerels I have inserted may raise a laugh and add zest to wine. As for the scenes of sad partings and happy meetings, prosperity and decline, these are all true to fact and not altered in the slightest to cause a sensation or depart from the truth.
“At present the daily concern of the poor is food and clothing, while the rich are never satisfied. All their leisure is taken up with amorous adventures, material acquisition or trouble-making. What time do they have to read political and moral treatises? I neither want people to marvel at this story of mine, nor do I insist that they should read it for pleasure; I only hope they may find distraction here when they are sated with food and wine or searching for some escape from worldly cares. By glancing over it in place of other vain pursuits, they may save their energies and prolong their lives, sparing themselves the harm of quarrels and argu¬ments, or the trouble of chasing after what is illusory.
“Besides, this story offers readers something new, unlike those hack¬neyed and stale hodge-podges of sudden partings and encounters which teem with talented scholars and lovely girls Cao Zijian, Zhuo Wenjun, Hongniang, Xiaoyu5 and the like. What do you say, master?”
The Reverend Void thought it over, then carefully reread The Tale of the Stone. He found in it both condemnation of treachery and criticism of flattery and evil, but it was clearly not written to pass censure on the times. Moreover it surpassed other books in its voluminous accounts of benevolent princes, good ministers, kind fathers and filial sons, and all matters pertaining to proper human relations, as well as eulogies of virtu¬ous deeds. Although the main theme was love, it was simply a true record of events, superior to those sham meretricious works devoted to licen¬tious assignations and dissolute escapades. Since it did not touch at all on current events he copied it out from beginning to end and took it away to find a publisher.
Since all manifestations are born of nothingness and in turn give rise to passion, by describing passion for what is manifest we comprehend nothingness. So the Taoist changed his name to the Passionate Monk and changed the title of the book from The Tale of the Stone to the Record of the Passionate Monk.
Kong Meixi of eastern Lu6 suggested the title Precious Mirror of Love. Later Cao Xueqin in his Mourning-the-Red Studio pored over the book for ten years and rewrote it five times. He divided it into chap¬ters, furnished headings for each, and renamed it The Twelve Beauties of Jinling. He also inscribed on it this verse:
Pages full of fantastic talk
Penned with bitter tears;
All men call the author mad,
None his message hears.

Now that the origin of the story is clear, let us see what was recorded on the Stone.
Long ago the earth dipped downwards in the southeast, and in that southeast part was a city named Gusu7; and the quarter around Changmen Gate of Gusu was one of the most fashionable centres of wealth and nobility in the world of men. Outside this Changmen Gate was a certain Ten-li Street, off which ran the Lane of Humanity and Purity; and in this lane stood an old temple, which being built in such a narrow space was known from its shape as Gourd Temple. Beside this temple lived a gentle¬man named Zhen Fei, whose courtesy name was Shiyin. His wife, née Feng, was a worthy virtuous woman with a strong sense of propriety and right. Although neither very rich nor noble, their family was highly re¬garded in that locality.
Zhen Shiyin had a quiet disposition. Instead of hankering after wealth or rank, he was quite happy tending flowers, growing bamboos, sipping wine or writing poems  spending his time very much like an immortal. One thing alone was lacking: he was now over fifty but had no son, only a three-year-old daughter named Yinglian.
One long hot summer day as Shiyin was sitting idly in his study, the book slipped from his hand and, leaning his head on the desk, he fell asleep.
In dream he travelled to an unknown place, where he suddenly no¬ticed a monk and a Taoist approaching, talking together. He heard the Taoist ask:
“Where do you mean to take that stupid object?”
“Don’t worry,” replied the monk. “A love drama is about to be enacted, but not all its actors have yet been incarnated. I’ m going to slip this silly thing in among them to give it the experience it wants.”
“So another batch of amorous sinners are bent on making trouble by reincarnation,” commented the Taoist. “Where will this drama take place?”
“It’s an amusing story.” The monk smiled. “You’ve never heard anything like it. In the west, on the bank of the Sacred River, beside the Stone of Three Incarnations there grew a Vermilion Pearl Plant which was watered every day with sweet dew by the attendant Shen Ying in the Palace of Red Jade. As the months and years went by and the Ver¬milion Pearl Plant imbibed the essences of heaven and earth and the nourishment of rain and dew, it cast off its plant nature and took human form, albeit only that of a girl. All day long she roamed beyond the Sphere of Parting Sorrow, staying her hunger with the fruit Secret Love and quenching her thirst at the Sea of Brimming Grief. But her heart was heavy because she had not repaid the care lavished on her.
“Just then, as it happened, Shen Ying was seized with a longing to assume human form and visit the world of men, taking advantage of the present enlightened and peaceful reign. He made his request to the God¬dess of Disenchantment, who saw that this was a chance for Vermilion Pearl to repay her debt of gratitude.
“‘He gave me sweet dew,’ said Vermilion Pearl, ‘but I’ve no water to repay his kindness. If he’s going down to the world of men, I would like to go too so that if I repay him with as many tears as I can shed in a lifetime I may be able to clear this debt.’
“This induced many other amorous spirits who had not atoned for their sins to accompany them and take part in this drama.”
“That certainly is odd,” remarked the Taoist. “I’ve never heard of repayment with tears before. I imagine this story should have more fine points than the usual run of breeze-and-moonlight tales.”
“The old romances give us only outlines of their characters’ lives with a number of poems about them,” said the monk. “We’re never told the details of their intimate family life or daily meals. Besides, most breeze-and-moonlight tales deal with secret assignations and elopements, and have never really expressed the true love between a young man and a girl. I’m sure when these spirits go down to earth, we’ll see lovers and lechers, worthy people, simpletons and scoundrels unlike those in earlier romances.
“Why don’t you and I take this chance to go too and win over a few of them? That would be a worthy deed.”
“Exactly what I was thinking. But first we must take this stupid object to the palace of the Goddess of Disenchantment and clear all the formali¬ties. After all these romantic souls have gone down we can follow. So far only half of them have descended to earth.”
“In that case I’m ready to go with you,” said the Taoist.
Zhen Shiyin had heard every word of their conversation but did not know what was meant by the “stupid object.” He could not resist ac¬costing them with a bow.
“Greetings, immortal masters!” he said with a smile.
When they had returned his greeting he continued: “Rare indeed is the opportunity to listen to such a discussion of cause and effects as I have just heard. But I am too dull to grasp it. If you would kindly elucidate to enlighten me, I promise to listen most attentively. For profiting by your wisdom may prove my salvation.”
“This is a mystery which we cannot divulge.” The two immortals smiled. “When the time comes, think of us. Then you may be able to escape from the fiery pit.”
Shiyin could hardly press them. “I mustn’t probe into a mystery,” he said, “but could you show me that object you mentioned just now?”
“If you want to know, you are destined in your life to meet with it,” said the monk.
With that he produced a beautiful piece of translucent jade and handed it to Shiyin. On the obverse were carved the words Precious Jade of Spiritual Understanding. Before Shiyin could look carefully at the col¬umns of smaller characters on the reverse the monk snatched it away from him saying:
“We’ve reached the Land of Illusion.”
He passed with the Taoist through a large stone archway on which was inscribed: Illusory Land of Great Void. A couplet on the two pillars read:

When false is taken for true, true becomes false;
If non-being turns into being, being becomes non-being.

Shiyin was starting after the two immortals when he heard a fearful crash, as if mountains had collapsed and the earth split asunder. With a cry he woke up and stared about him. There was the fiery sun still blazing down on the rustling plantain leaves. Already half of his dream had slipped his mind.
The nurse came up then with Yinglian in her arms, and it struck Shiyin that his daughter was growing prettier and more lovable every day. He picked her up and played with her for a while, then took her to the gate to watch a religious procession pass by. He was just about to go in again when a monk and a Taoist priest drew near, laughing and gibbering like two maniacs. The monk was barefooted, his head scabby; the priest, lame with tangled, tousled hair. When they reached Shiyin’s gate and saw the child in his arms, the monk burst into lamentations.
“Why are you carrying that ill-fated creature, sir?” he asked. “She will bring nothing but trouble to her parents.”
Shiyin thought the man was raving and paid no attention.
“Give her to me!” cried the monk. “Give her to me!”
Losing patience, Shiyin clasped his daughter more tightly and was turning to reenter the house when the monk pointed at him and let out a roar of laughter. He then declaimed:

“Fool, to care for this tender child:
An image in the mirror, snow melting away. Beware what will follow the Lantern Feast, The vanishing like smoke when the fire burns out.”

Shiyin, hearing this clearly, wondered what it meant. Before he could ask, the Taoist told the monk:
“This is where our paths divide. Each must go about his own busi¬ness. Three aeons from now I shall wait for you at Mount Beimang, and together we can go to the Land of Illusion to have this affair expunged from the register.”
“Very good,” said the monk.
Then both vanished without a trace.
Shiyin realized then that these were no ordinary men and regretted not having questioned them. His rueful reflections were cut short by the arrival of a poor scholar who lived next door in Gourd Temple. His name was Jia Hua8, his courtesy name Shifei, and his pen-name Yucun. A native of Huzhou, he was the last of a line of scholars and officials. His parents had exhausted the family property and died leaving him alone in the world. Since nothing was to be gained by staying at home, he had set out for the capital in the hope of securing a position and restoring the family fortunes. But by the time he had reached here a couple of years ago his money had run out and he had gone to live in the temple where he made a precarious living by working as a scrivener. For this reason Shiyin saw a good deal of him.
Having greeted Shiyin, Yucun asked, “What are you watching from your gate, sir? Is there any news in town?” “Nothing,” was the reply. “My little girl was crying, so I brought her out to play. You couldn’t have arrived at a better moment, as I was feeling thoroughly bored. Come in and help me while away the long summer day.”
He told a servant to take his daughter inside, and led Yucun into his study, where a boy served tea. They had not exchanged many remarks when a servant hurried in to announce the arrival of a certain Mr. Yan.
Then Shiyin excused himself, saying, “Forgive my rudeness. Do you mind waiting here for a few minutes?”
“Don’t stand on ceremony, sir,” said Yucun, rising. “I am a regular guest here, I don’t mind waiting.”
So after Shiyin went to the front room Yucun passed the time by leafing through some books, until he heard a young woman coughing outside. He slipped over to the window and looked out. It was a maid picking flowers. She had uncommon features, bright eyes and graceful eyebrows, and although no great beauty she possessed considerable charm. Yucun stared at her, spell-bound.
Just as she was leaving with her flowers, the girl abruptly looked up and caught sight of him. His clothes were shabby yet he was powerfully built with an open face, firm lips, eyebrows like scimitars, eyes like stars, a straight nose and rounded cheeks. She turned away thinking to herself, “He’s a fine-looking man for all his tattered clothes. This must be the Jia Yucun my master keeps talking about, whom he’d gladly help if only he had the chance. Yes, I’m sure it’s him, our family has no other friends who are poor. No wonder my master also says he’s a man who won’t remain long in this plight.” She could not resist looking back a couple of times.
Yucun seeing this was overjoyed, thinking that she must have taken a fancy to him. He decided that she had good judgement and was one of the few who could appreciate him in his obscurity.
Presently the boy came back and let Yucun know that the guest was staying to a meal. Since this made it out of the question to wait any longer, Yucun went through a passage to the side gate and left. And after the departure of Mr. Yan, Shiyin did not trouble to invite him back.
In time the Mid-Autumn Festival came round. After the family meal, Shiyin had another table laid in his study and strolled over in the moonlight to the temple to invite Yucun over.
Ever since the Zhens’ maid had looked back that day, Yucun flattered himself that she was well-disposed to him and thought of her constantly. As he gazed at the full moon, his thoughts turned to her again and he declaimed this verse:
“Not yet divined the fate in store for me,
Good reason have I for anxiety,
And so my brows are knit despondently;
But she, as she went off, looked back at me.
My shadow in the wind is all I see,
Will she by moonlight keep me company?
If sensibility were in its power
The moon should first light up the fair one’s bower.”

Having recited this, Yucun rumpled his hair and sighed as he reflected how far he was from realizing his ambitions. He chanted the couplet:
“The jade in the box hopes to fetch a good price, 
The pin in the casket longs to soar on high.”

He was overheard by Shiyin, who arrived just then.
“I see you have high ambitions, Brother Yucun!” he joked.
“Not in the least,” replied Yucun, somewhat embarrassed. “I was merely reciting some lines by a former poet. I don’t aspire so high. To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”
“Tonight is mid-autumn, commonly known as the Festival of Reunion. It occurred to me that you might be feeling lonely in this temple, brother. I’ve prepared a little wine in my humble place and wonder if you’d condescend to share it?”
Yucun needed no urging.
“You lavish too much kindness on me, sir,” he said, “Nothing would please me better.”
They went to the court in front of Shiyin’s study. Soon they had fin¬ished their tea and sat down to a collation of choice wine and delicacies. At first they sipped slowly, but their spirits rose as they talked and they began to drink more recklessly. The sound of flutes and strings could be heard from all the houses in the neighbourhood; everywhere was singing; and overhead the bright moon shone in full splendour. The two men be¬came very merry and drained cup after cup.
Yucun, eight-tenths drunk, could not suppress his elation. He impro¬vised a quatrain to the moon and declaimed it:
“On the fifteenth the moon is full, Bathing jade balustrades with her pure light; As her bright orb sails up the sky All men on earth gaze upwards at the sight.”

“Excellent!” cried Shiyin. “I’ve always maintained that you were cut out for great things. These lines foretell rapid advancement. Very soon you will be treading upon the clouds. Let me congratulate you.” He filled another large cup. Yucun tossed it off and then sighed.
“Don’t think this is just drunken talk,” he said. “I’m sure I could acquit myself quite creditably in the examinations; but I have no money in my wallet for travelling expenses and the capital is far away. I can’t raise enough as a scrivener....”
“Why didn’t you say so before?” interposed Shiyin. “I’ve often won¬dered about this, but since you never mentioned it I didn’t like to broach the subject. If that’s how things are, dull as I am at least I know what’s due to a friend. Luckily the Metropolitan Examinations are coming up next year. You must go as fast as you can to the capital and prove your learning in the Spring Test. I shall count it a privilege to take care of the travelling expenses and other business for you.”
He sent his boy in to fetch fifty taels of silver and two suits of winter clothes.
“The nineteenth is a good day for travelling,” he continued. “You can hire a boat then and start your journey westward. How good it will be to meet again next winter after you have soared up to dizzy heights.”
Yucun accepted the silver and clothes with no more than perfunctory thanks, then said no more of the matter but went on feasting and talking. They did not part until the third watch, when Shiyin saw his friend off and returned to his room to sleep until the sun was high in the sky. Then, remem¬bering the previous night’s business, he decided to write Yucun two letters of introduction to certain officials in the capital who might put him up.
But the servant sent to ask his friend over bought back word, “The monk says that Mr. Jia left for the capital at the fifth watch this morning. He asked the monk to tell you that scholars are not superstitious about lucky or unlucky days but like to act according to reason; so he had no time to say goodbye in person.”
This Shiyin had to accept.

Uneventful days pass quickly. In a flash the merry Festival of Lan¬terns came round and Shiyin told his servant Huo Qi to take Yinglian out to see the fireworks and ornamental lanterns. Towards midnight Huo Qi set the little girl down on a doorstep while he stepped round the corner to urinate. When he came back she had gone. He made a frantic search for her all night. And at dawn, not daring to face his master without her, he ran away to another district.
Shiyin and his wife were naturally alarmed when their daughter failed to come home. They sent search parties out, but all returned without any word of her. She was the middle-aged couple’s only child, and her loss nearly drove them distracted. They wept day and night and were tempted to take their own lives. After a month’s grief Shiyin fell ill, and then his wife. Every day they sent for doctors.
Then, on the fifteenth day of the third month, a fire broke out in Gourd Temple the monk preparing the sacrifice carelessly let a pan of oil catch fire and soon the window paper was alight. Since most of the nearby buildings had bamboo walls and were probably doomed to destruction, the flames spread from house to house until the whole street was ablaze like a flaming mountain. Soldiers and civilians tried to put out the fire, but it was beyond control. The conflagration raged for a whole night and destroyed none knew how many houses before it burned itself out. The Zhens’ home, being next to the temple, was reduced to a pile of rubble. Although they and their few servants were lucky enough to escape with their lives, poor Shiyin could do nothing but stamp his feet and sigh.
He and his wife decided then to go and live on their farm. But the last few year’s harvests had been ruined by flood and drought and the coun¬tryside was overrun by bandits who seized fields and land, giving the people no peace. The punitive expeditions by government troops only made matters worse. Finding it impossible to settle there, Shiyin had to mortgage his land and take his wife and two maids to find refuge with his father-in-law Feng Su.
Now this Feng Su, a native of Daruzhou, although only a farmer was quite comfortably off. He was not pleased by the arrival of his daughter and son-in-law in this sorry state. Fortunately Shiyin had some money left from the mortgage of his land, and he asked Feng Su to invest this for him in some estate on which he could live in future. His father-in-law tricked him, however, by pocketing half the sum and buying him some poor fields and a ramshackle cottage. As a scholar, Shiyin had no knowledge of business or farming. He struggled along for a year or two, losing money all the time, while Feng Su kept admonishing him to his face and com¬plaining to all and sundry behind his back of his incompetence, idleness and extravagance.
To the shock Shiyin had suffered the previous year and the toll taken by his subsequent misfortunes was now added the bitter realization that he had misplaced his trust. Ageing and a prey to poverty and ill health, he began to look like a man with one foot in the grave.
He made the effort one day to find some distraction by taking a walk in the street, leaning on his cane. Suddenly a Taoist limped towards him, a seeming maniac in hemp sandals and tattered clothes, who as he came chanted:
“All men long to be immortals
Yet to riches and rank each aspires;
The great ones of old, where are they now?
Their graves are a mass of briars.
All men long to be immortals,
Yet silver and gold they prize
And grub for money all their lives
Till death seals up their eyes.
All men long to be immortals
Yet dote on the wives they’ve wed,
Who swear to love their husband evermore
But remarry as soon as he’s dead.
All men long to be immortals
Yet with getting sons won’t have done.
Although fond parents are legion,
Who ever saw a really filial son?”

At the close of this song Shiyin stepped forward.
“What was that you just chanted?” he asked. “I had the impression that it was about the vanity of all things.”
“If you gathered that, you have some understanding,” the Taoist re¬marked. “You should know that all good things in this world must end, and to make an end is good, for there is nothing good which does not end. My song is called All Good Things Must End.”
Shiyin with his innate intelligence at once grasped the other’s mean-
mg. Putting on a smile he said, “Wait a minute, will you let me expound this song of yours?”
“By all means do,” said the Taoist. Shiyin then declaimed:

“Mean huts and empty halls 
Where emblems of nobility once hung; 
Dead weeds and withered trees, 
Where men have once danced and sung.

Carved beams are swathed in cobwebs
But briar-choked casements screened again with gauze;
While yet the rouge is fresh, the powder fragrant,
The hair at the temples turns hoary for what cause?

Yesterday, yellow clay received white bones;
Today, red lanterns light the love-birds’ nest;
While men with gold and silver by the chest
Turn beggars, scorned by all the dispossessed.

A life cut short one moment makes one sight,
Who would have known it’s her turn next to die?
No matter with what pains he schools his sons.
Who knows if they will turn to brigandry?

A pampered girl brought up in luxury
May slip into a quarter of ill fame;
Resentment at a low official rank
May lead to fetters and a felon’s shame.

In ragged coat one shivered yesterday,
Today a purple robe he frowns upon;
All’s strife and tumult on the stage,
As one man ends his song the next comes on.

To take strange parts as home
Is folly past compare;
And all our labour in the end
Is making clothes for someone else to wear.”

The lame, eccentric Taoist clapped his hands. “You have hit the nail on the head,” he cried.
“Let’s go,” was Shiyin’s brief reply.
He transferred the sack from the Taoist’s shoulder to his own, and then, without even calling in at his home, he strode off with the priest.
This caused a sensation in the neighbourhood and words of it soon reached Shiyin’s wife, who gave way to a storm of weeping. After con¬sultation with her father she had a thorough search made, but there was no news of her husband. She had perforce to go back and live with her parents. Luckily she still had her two maids, and the three of them by sewing day and night helped to defray Feng Su’s expenses. For his part, grumble as he might, he had to lump it.
One day the elder of the two maids was buying some thread at the gate when she heard men shouting to clear the street, and people said the new prefect had arrived to take up office. She hid in the doorway to watch. First soldiers and runners marched past two by two. Then came a large sedan-chair in which was seated an official in a black gauze cap and red robe. The maid stared in surprise and thought: His face looks familiar. Have I seen him somewhere before? But once back in the house she thought no more of the matter.
That evening, just as they were going to bed, there came a loud knocking on the gate and a clamour of voices. Messengers from the yamen or¬dered Feng Su to appear for questioning by the prefect. His jaw dropped and he gaped in consternation. Did this mean fresh calamity?
To find out, read the next chapter.




Chapter 2

Lady Jia Dies in the City of Yangzhou
Leng Zixing Describes the Rong Mansion





A verse says:
Who can guess the outcome of a game of chess?
Incense burned out, tea drunk - it’s still in doubt.
To interpret the signs of prosperity or decline
An impartial onlooker must be sought out.

Rearing the hubbub at his gate, Feng Su hurried out so see what the messengers wanted.
“Ask Mr. Zhen to come out,” they bawled. “Be quick about it.”
“My name is Feng, not Zhen,” he answered with an ingratiating smile. “My son-in-law’s name is Zhen, but he left home a year or two ago to become a priest. Is he the man you want?”
“How would we know? We’re here on the prefect’s orders. If you’re his father-in-law, you must come and clear this up with His Honour to save us another trip.”
Giving Feng Su no chance to protest they dragged him off, while his whole household trembled, not knowing what this portended.
Towards the end of the second watch he returned in the highest of spirits. Asked what had happened, he told them: “This new prefect, Jia Hua, is a native of Huzhou and an old friend of my son-in-law. When he passed our gate and saw our Jiaoxing buying thread, he supposed that Shiyin had moved his household here. He seemed very upset when I explained all that had happened. He asked after my granddaughter too and I told him she was lost on the Feast of Lanterns. ‘Never mind,’ said His Honour. ‘I’ll have a search made and I’m certain we shall find her.’ At the end of our conversation, as I was leaving, he gave me two taels of silver.”
Zhen’s wife was very moved by this. And so the night passed.
Early the next morning a messenger arrived from Jia Yucun with two packets of silver and four lengths of brocade for Mrs. Zhen as a token of gratitude. There was also a confidential letter for Feng Su asking him to persuade Mrs. Zhen to let the prefect have Jiaoxing as his secondary wife. Feng Su could hardly contain himself for joy. Eager to please the prefect, he prevailed on his daughter to agree and that very same night put Jiaoxing in a small sedan-chair and escorted her to the yamen.
We need not dwell on Yucun’s satisfaction. He gave Feng Su a hun¬dred pieces of silver and sent Mrs. Zhen many gifts, urging her to take good care of her health while he ascertained her daughter’s whereabouts. Feng Su went home and there we can leave him.
Now Jiaoxing was the maid who had looked back at Yucun that year in Gusu, little dreaming that one casual glance could have such an ex¬traordinary outcome. And so doubly kind was fate that within a year of marriage she bore a son; while after another half year Yucun’s wife contracted a disease and died, and then he made Jiaoxing his wife, fur¬ther improving her position.
A single chance hiatus
Raised her status.

Yucun, after receiving Shiyin’s gift of silver that year, had left on the sixteenth for the capital. He did so well in the examinations that he be¬came a Palace Graduate and was given a provincial appointment. He had now been promoted to this prefectship.
But although a capable administrator Yucun was grasping and ruthless, while his arrogance and insolence to his superiors made them view him with disfavour. In less than two years they found a chance to impeach him. He was accused of “ingrained duplicity, tampering with the rites and, under a show of probity, conspiring with his ferocious underlings to foment trouble in his district and make life intolerable for the local people.”
The Emperor, much incensed, sanctioned his dismissal. The arrival of this edict rejoiced the hearts of all officials in the Prefecture. But Yucun, although mortified and enraged, betrayed no indignation and went about looking as cheerful as before. After handing over his affairs he gathered together the capital accumulated during his years in office and moved his household back to his native place. Having settled them there he set off, “the wind on his back, moonlight in his sleeves,” to see the famous sights of the empire.
One day his travels again took him to Yangzhou, where he learned that the Salt Commissioner that year was Lin Hai his courtesy name was Lin Ruhai - who had come third in a previous Imperial examina¬tion and recently been promoted to the Censorate. A native of Gusu, he had now been selected by the Emperor as a Commissioner of the Salt Inspectorate. He had been little more than a month in this present post.
One of Lin Ruhai’s ancestors five generations earlier had been en¬nobled as a marquis. The rank had been conferred for three generations; then, as the benevolence of the present gracious Emperor far exceeded that of his noble predecessors, he had as a special favour extended it for one more generation, so that Lin Ruhai’s father had inherited the title as well. He himself however, had made his career through the examina¬tions, for his family was cultured as well as noble. Unfortunately it was not prolific, although several branches existed, and Lin Ruhai had cousins but no brothers or sisters. Now he was in his forties and his only son had died at the age of three the previous year. He had several concubines but fate had not granted him another son, and he could not remedy this. By his wife, nee’ Jia, he had a daughter Daiyu just five years old. Both par¬ents loved her dearly. And because she was as intelligent as she was pretty, they decided to give her a good education to make up for their lack of a son and help them forget their loss.
It so happened that Yucun had caught a chill which laid him up in his inn for a month and more. Exhausted by his illness, and short of funds, he was searching for somewhere to recuperate. Fortunately he had two old friends here who knew that the Sale Commissioner was looking for a tutor. Upon their recommendation Yucun was given the post, which pro¬vided the security he needed. He was lucky, too, to have as pupil only one small girl accompanied by two maids. Since the child was so delicate, her lessons were irregular and this meant that his duties were light.
In a twinkling another year went by and then his pupil’s mother unex¬pectedly fell ill and died. The little girl attended her during her illness and then went into strict mourning. Yucun considered resigning, but Lin Ruhai kept him on so as not to interrupt his daughter’s education during the period of mourning. Recently, grief had brought about a relapse in the delicate child’s health, and for days at a time she had to abandon her studies. Then Yucun, finding time hang heavy on his hands, used to take a walk after his meals when the weather was fine.
One day he strolled to the outskirts of the city to enjoy the country¬side. He came to luxuriant woods and bamboo groves set among hills and interlaced by streams, with a temple half hidden among the foliage. The entrance was in ruins, the walls were crumbling. A placard above the gate bore the inscription: Temple of Perspicacity. And flanking the gate were two mouldering boards with the couplet:

Though plenty was left after death, he forgot to hold his hand back;
Only at the end of the road does one think of turning on to the right track.

“Trite as the language is, this couplet has deep significance,” thought Yucun. “I’ve never come across anything like it in all the famous temples I’ve visited. There may be a story behind it of someone who has tasted the bitterness of life, some repentant sinner. I’ll go in and ask.”
But inside he found only a doddering old monk cooking gruel. Not very impressed, Yucun casually asked him a few questions. The man proved to be deaf as well as dim-witted, for his mumbled answers were quite irrelevant.
Yucun went out again in disgust and decided to improve the occasion by drinking a few cups in a village tavern. He had scarcely set foot inside the door when one of the men who was drinking there rose to his feet and accosted him with a laugh.
“Fancy meeting you here!”
It was Leng Zixing, a curio-dealer whom he had met in the capital. As Yucun admired his enterprise and ability while Zixing was eager to cultivate one of the literati, they had hit it off well together and become good friends.
“When did you arrive, brother?” asked Yucun cheerfully. “I’d no idea you were in these parts. What a coincidence, meeting you here.”
“I went home at the end of last year and stopped here on my way back to the capital to look up an old friend. He was good enough to ask me to stay, and since I’ve no urgent business I’m breaking my journey for a couple of days. I shall go on about the middle of the month. My friend’s busy today, so I came out for a stroll and stopped here to rest. I’d no idea I’d run into you like this.”
He made Yucun sit down at his table and ordered more food and wine. Drinking slowly, they spoke of all they had done since parting.
“Is there any news from the capital?” asked Yucun.
“Nothing much,” replied Zixing. “But something rather curious has happened in the house of one of your noble kinsmen.”
“I’ve no kinsmen in the capital. Who do you mean?”
“You have the same surname even if you don’t belong to the same clan.”
Yucun asked to whom he alluded.
“The Jia family of the Rong Mansion. You needn’t be ashamed of the connection.”
“Oh, that family.” Yucun laughed. “To tell the truth, our clan is a very large one. Since the time of Jia Fu of the Eastern Han Dynasty its branches have multiplied until now you find Jias in every province. Impossible to keep track of them all. The Rong branch and mine are, however, on the same clan register, but they’re so grand that we’ve never claimed rela¬tionship and are gradually drifting further and further apart.”
“Don’t talk like that, friend. Both the Ning and Rong branches have declined.” Zixing sighed. “They’re not what they used to be.”
“How is that possible? They used to be enormous households.”
“I know. It’s a long story.”
“Last year when I was in Jinling,”1 said Yucun, “on my way to visit the Six Dynasty ruins I went to the Stone City and passed the gates of their old mansions. Practically the whole north side of the street is taken up by their houses, the Ning Mansion on the east and the Rong Mansion adjoining it on the west. True, there wasn’t much coming and going out-side their gates, but over the wall I caught glimpses of most imposing halls and pavilions, while the trees and rockeries of the gardens behind had a flourishing, opulent look. There was nothing to suggest a house in decline.”
“For a Palace Graduate you’re not very smart.” Zixing chuckled. “A centipede dies but never falls down, as the old saying goes. Although they’re not as prosperous as before, they’re still a cut above ordinary official families. Their households are increasing and their commitments are growing all the time, while masters and servants alike are so used to lording it in luxury that not one of them thinks ahead. They squander money every day and are quite incapable of economizing. Outwardly they may look as grand as ever, but their purses are nearly empty. That’s not their worst trouble, though. Who would’ve thought that each new generation of this noble and scholarly clan is inferior to the last?”
“Surely,” countered Yucun in surprise, “a family so cultured and versed in etiquette knows the importance of a good upbringing? I can’t vouch for our other branches, but I’ve always heard that these two houses take great pains over the education of their sons.
“It’s these two houses I’m talking about,” rejoined Zixing regret¬fully. “Just hear me out. The Duke of Ningguo and the Duke of Rongguo were brothers by the same mother. The Duke of Ningguo, the elder, had four sons and after his death the oldest of these, Jia Daihua, succeeded to the title. The elder of his two sons, Jia Fu, died at the age of eight or nine leaving the younger, Jia Jing, to inherit the title. But he’s so wrapped up in Taoism that he takes no interest in anything but distilling elixirs. Luckily when he was younger he had a son Jia Zhen, to whom he’s relinquished the title so that he can give all his mind to becoming an immortal; and instead of going back to his native place he’s hobnobbing with Taoist priests outside the city. Jia Zhen has a son called Rong just turned six¬teen. Jia Jing washes his hands of all mundane matters, and Jia Zhen has never studied but lives for pleasure. He’s turning the Ning Mansion up¬side down, yet no one dares to restrain him.
“Now for the Rong Mansion, where that curious business I just men¬tioned took place. After the death of the Duke of Rongguo, his elder son Jia Daishan succeeded to the title and married a daughter of Marquis Shi of Jinling, by whom he had two sons, Jia She and Jia Zheng. Jia Daishan has been dead for many years but his wife, Lady Dowager Shi, is still alive. Their elder son Jia She inherited the title. The younger, Jia Zheng, was so fond of studying as a child that he was his grandfather’s favourite and he hope to make a career for himself through the examinations. When Jia Daishan died, however, he left a valedictory memorial, and the Em¬peror out of regard for his former minister not only conferred the title on his elder son but asked what other sons there were, granted Jia Zheng an audience, and as an additional favour gave him the rank of Assistant Secretary with instructions to familiarize himself with affairs in one of the ministries. He has now risen to the rank of Under-Secretary.
“Jia Zheng’s wife, Lady Wang, bore him a son called Jia Zhu who passed the district examination at fourteen, married before be was twenty and had a son, but then fell ill and died. His second child was a daughter, born strangely enough on the first day of the year. But stranger still was the birth later of a son who came into the world with a piece of clear, brilliantly coloured jade in his mouth. There are even inscriptions on the jade, Isn’t that extraordinary?”
“It certainly is. The boy should have a remarkable future.”
“That’s what everyone says.” Zixing smiled cynically. “And for that reason his grandmother dotes on him. On his first birthday Jia Zheng tested his disposition by setting all sorts of different objects before him to see which he would select. Believe it or not, ignoring everything else he reached out for the rouge, powder-boxes, hair ornaments and bangles! His father was furious and swore he’d grow up to be a dissolute rake. Because of this he’s not too fond of the boy, but the child’s still his grandmother’s darling. He’s seven or eight now and remarkably mis¬chievous, yet so clever you won’t find his equal in a hundred. And he says the strangest things for a child. ‘Girls are made of water, men of mud,’ he declares. ‘I feel clean and refreshed when I’m with girls but find men dirty and stinking.’ Isn’t that absurd? He’s bound later on to run after women like the very devil.”
“That doesn’t follow,” put in Yucun, grown suddenly grave. “You don’t know how he’s come into the world. I suspect his father is making a mistake as well if he thinks the boy depraved. To understand him you’d need to be widely read and experienced, able to recognize the nature of things, grasp the Way and comprehend the Mystery.”
He spoke so seriously that Zixing asked him to expand on this.
“All men, apart from the very good and the very bad, are much alike,” said Yucun. “The very good are born at a propitious time when the world is well governed, the very bad in times of calamity when danger threat¬ens. Examples of the first are Yao, Shun, Yu and Tang, King Wen and King Wu, Duke Zhou and Duke Shao, Confucius and Mencius, Dong Zhongshu, Han Yu, Zhou Dunyi, the Cheng brothers, Zhang Zai, and Zhu Xi. Examples of the second are Chi You, Gong Gong, Jie, Zhou, Qin Shi Huang, Wang Mang, Cao Cao, Huan Wen, An Lushan and Qin Hui.
“The good bring order to the world, the bad plunge it into confusion. The good embody pure intelligence, the true essence of heaven and earth; the bad, cruelty and perversity, the evil essence.
“This is a prosperous, long-enduring reign when the world is at peace and there are many people in the court and in the countryside who are endowed with the good essences. The over-abundance of this good es¬sence, having nowhere to go, is transformed into sweet dew and gentle breezes and scattered throughout the Four Seas.
“But because there is no place under the clear sky and bright sun for the essence of cruelty and perversity, it congeals in deep caverns and in the bowels of the earth. If wafted by winds or pressed upon by clouds, it is thrown into agitation and traces of it may escape. And should these meet the pure essence, good refuses to yield to evil while evil envies good --- neither can prevail over the other. This is like wind, rain, lightning and thunder which cannot vanish into thin air or give way but must battle until they are spent. So in order to find some outlet these essences permeate human beings, who come into the world embodying both. Such people fall short of sages or perfect men, but neither are they out-and-out villains.
“The pure intelligence with which they are endowed sets them above their myriad fellow creatures, but their perversity and unnatural behaviour sink them lower than other men too. Born into rich and noble families, such people will become romantic eccentrics; born into poor but cultured families, they will become high-minded scholars or recluses. Even if born into luckless and humble homes, they will never grow up into yamen runners or servants at the beck and call of the vulgar --- they’ll turn out celebrated actors or courtesans. People of this type in the past were Xu You, Tao Qian, Yuan Ji, Ji Kang and Liu Ling, the two families of Wang and Xie, Gu Kaizhi, Chen Shubao, the Tang emperor Minghuang, the Song emperor Huizong, Liu Tingzhi, Wen Tingyun, Mi Fu, Shi Yannian, Liu Yong and Qin Guan. More recent examples are Ni Zan, Tang Yin and Zhu Yunming. Then there are others like Li Guinian, Huang Fanchuo, Jing Xinmo, Zhuo Wenjun, Hongfo, Xue Tao, Cui Yingying and Zhaoyun. All of these, in their different fields, were essentially the same.”
“You’re saying that such people may become princes or thieves, de¬pending on whether they’re successful or not.”
“Exactly. You don’t know yet that since my dismissal I’ve spent two years travelling through different provinces and come across one or two remarkable children. Hence my guess that this Baoyu you mentioned belongs to the same category. Let me give you an example no further away than Jinling. You know Mr. Zhen, who was principal of the Jinling Provincial College?”
“Who doesn’t know him? The Zhen and Jia families are interrelated and on a very friendly footing, I’ve done business with the Zhens a num¬ber of times.
“Last year when I was in Jinling,” said Yucun, “someone recom¬mended me to the Zhens as a resident tutor. I was surprised to find their household so grand, yet it combined wealth with propriety. Posts like that are not easy to come by. But although my pupil was a beginner, he was harder to teach then a candidate for the Provincial Examination. Here’s an example of the absurd things he’d say: ‘I must have two girls as company while I study, or I can’t learn character   my brain gets muddled.’ He told his pages, ‘The word “girl” is so honourable and pure, not even the supreme Buddhist and Taoist titles can compare with it. You with your filthy mouths and stinking tongues must never violate it. Before you utter this word, mind you rinse your mouths with clear water or fragrant tea. If you don’t, your teeth will grow crooked and rip through your cheeks.’
“He had a fearful temper and could be incredibly stubborn and ob¬streperous; but as soon as classes were over and he joined the girls he became a different person --- amiable, sensible and gentle. More than once, because of this, his father thrashed him within an inch of his life, but still that didn’t change him. When the pain became too much for him, he would start yelling, ‘Sister! Little Sister!’ Once the girls in the inner chambers teased him saying, ‘Why do you call us when you’re being beaten? Do you want us to beg you off? For shame!’ You should have heard his answer. He said, ‘The first time I called I didn’t know it would ease the pain. But then I discovered that it worked like magic. So when the pain’s worst, I keep on calling “Sister.” ’ Have you ever heard anything so ludicrous?
“His grandmother indulged him so unwisely that she was often rude to his tutor or blamed her son. That’s why I resigned from that post. A boy like that is bound to lose the property he inherits and won’t benefit by the advice of teachers and friends. The pity is, all the girls in his family are admirable.”
“The three girls in the Jia family aren’t bad either,” rejoined Zixing, “Jia Zheng’s elder daughter Yuanchun was chosen to be a Lady-Clerk in the palace of the heir apparent because of her goodness, filial piety and talents. The second, Yingchun, is Jia She’s daughter by a concubine. The third, Tanchun, is Jia Zheng’s daughter by a concubine. The fourth, Xichun, is the younger sister of Jia Zhen of the Ning Mansion. The Lady Dowa¬ger is so attached to these grand-daughters that she makes them study in the Rong Mansion near her, and I hear good reports of them all.”
“I prefer the Zhen family’s way of giving their daughters the same sort of names as boys instead of choosing flowery names meaning Spring, Red, Fragrant, or Jade,” remarked Yucun. “How could the Jia family sink to such vulgarity?”
“You don’t understand,” said Zixing. “They named the eldest girl Yuanchuns because she was born on New Year’s Day, and so the others have chun in their names too. But all the girls of the last generation had names like those of boys. For proof, look at the wife of your respected employer Mr. Lin, the sister of Jia She and Jia Zheng in the Rong Man¬sion. Her name, before she married, was Jia Min. If you don’t believe me, check up when you go back.”
Yucun pounded the table with a laugh. “No wonder my pupil always pronounces mm as mi and writes it with one or two strokes missing. That puzzled me, but now you’ve explained the reason. And no wonder she talks and behaves so differently from the general run of young ladies nowadays. I suspected she must have had an unusual mother. If she’s a grand-daughter of the Rong family that explains it. What a pity that her mother died last month.”
“She was the youngest of four sisters, but now she’s gone too.”
Zixing sighed. “Not one of those sisters is left. It will be interesting to see what husbands they find for the younger generation.”
“Yes. Just now you spoke of Jia Zheng’s son born with jade in his mouth, and mentioned a young grandson left by his elder son. What about the venerable Jia She? Has he no sons?”
“After the birth of this son with the jade Jia Zheng had another by his concubine, but I know nothing about him. So he has two sons and a grandson. However, there’s no saying how they’ll turn out. Jia She has two sons as well. Jia Lian, the elder, is over twenty now. Two years ago he married a relative, the niece of Jia Zheng’s wife Lady Wang. This Jia Lian, who has bought the rank of a sub-prefect, takes no interest in books but is a smooth man of the world, so he lives with his uncle Jia Zheng and helps him to manage his domestic affairs. Since his marriage he’s been thrown into the shade by his wife, who is praised by everybody high and low. I hear she’s extremely good-looking and a clever talker. So resource¬ful and astute that not a man in ten thousand is a match for her.”
“That bears out what I was saying. These people we’ve been dis¬cussing are probably all pervaded by mixed essences of both good and evil. They are people of similar ways.”
“Never mind about good and evil,” protested Zixing. “We’ve been doing nothing but reckoning accounts for others. You must drink another cup.”
“I’ve been talking so hard, I’m already slightly tipsy.”
“Gossip goes well with wine. Why not drink some more?”
Yucun looked out of the window. “It’s growing late. They’ll soon be closing the city gates. Let’s stroll back and continue our conversation in town.”
With that they paid the bill. They were on the point of leaving when a voice from behind called out:
“Congratulations, Brother Yucun! What are you doing here in the wilds of the country?”
Yucun turned to look. But to know who it was, you must read the chapter which follows.


Chapter 3

Lin Ruhai Recommends a Tutor to His
Brother-in-Law
The Lady Dowager Sends for Her Motherless
Grand-Daughter


To continue. Yucun turned and saw that it was Zhang Rugui, a native of this place and his former colleague who had also been dismissed from his post for the same reason as himself, and had returned home to Yangzhou. Now there was word from the capital that a request for the reinstatement of former officials had been sanctioned, and he was busily pulling strings to find some opening. Re congratulated Yucun the instant he saw him and lost no time, once greetings had been exchanged, in telling him the good news. Yucun was naturally overjoyed, but after some hurried remarks each went his own way.
Leng Zixing, who had heard everything, at once proposed asking Lin Ruhai to enlist the support of Jia Zheng in the capital. Accepting his advice, Yucun went back alone to verify the report from the Court Ga¬zette.
The next day he laid his case before Lin Ruhai.
“What a lucky coincidence!” exclaimed Ruhai. “Since my wife’s death my mother-in-law in the capital has been worried because my daugh¬ter has no one to bring her up. She has sent two boats with male and female attendants to fetch the child, but I delayed her departure while she was unwell. I was wondering how to repay you for your goodness in teaching her: now this gives me a chance to show my appreciation. Set your mind at rest. I foresaw this possibility and have written a letter to my brother-in-law urging him to do all he can for you as a small return for what I owe you. You mustn’t worry either about any expenses that may be incurred --- I’ve made that point clear to my brother-in-law.”
Yucun bowed with profuse thanks and asked: “May I know your re¬spected brother-in-law’s position? I fear I am too uncouth to intrude on him.”
Ruhai smiled. “My humble kinsmen belong to your honourable clan.
They’re the grandsons of the Duke of Rongguo. My elder brother-in-law Jia She, whose courtesy name is Enhou, is a hereditary general of the first rank. My second, Jia Zheng, whose courtesy name is Cunzhou, is an under-secretary in the Board of Works. He is an unassuming, generous man who takes after his grandfather. That is why I am writing to him on your behalf. If he were some purse-proud, fivolous official I’d be dishonouring your high principles, brother, and I myself would disdain to do such a thing.”
This confirmed what Zixing had said the previous day, and once more Yucun expressed his thanks.
“I’ve chosen the second day of next month for my daughter’s de¬parture for the capital,” continued Ruhai. “It would suit both parties, surely, if you were to travel together?”
Yucun promptly agreed with the greatest satisfaction, and took the gifts and travelling expenses which Ruhai had prepared.
His pupil Daiyu, who had just got over her illness, could hardly bear to leave her father, but she had to comply with the wishes of her grand¬mother.
“I am nearly fifty and don’t intend to marry again,” Ruhai told her, “You’re young and delicate, with no mother to take care of you, no sister or brothers to look after you. If you go to stay with your grandmother and uncles’ girls, that will take a great load off my mind. How can you refuse?”
So parting from him in a flood of tears, she embarked with her nurse and some elderly maid-servants from the Rong Mansion, followed by Yucun and two pages in another junk.
In due course they reached the capital and entered the city. Yucun spruced himself up and went with his pages to the gate of the Rong Mansion, where he handed in his visiting-card on which he had styled himself Jia Zheng’s “nephew.”
Jia Zheng, who had received his brother-in-law’s letter, lost no time in asking him in. Yucun cut an impressive figure and was by no means vulgar in his conversation. Since Jia Zheng was well-disposed to scholars and, like his grandfather before him, delighted in honouring worthy men of letters and helping those in distress, and since moreover his brother-in-law had recommended Yucun, he treated him uncommonly well and did all in his power to help him. The same day that he presented a petition to the throne Yucun was rehabilitated and ordered to await an appointment. In less than two months he was sent to Jinling to fill the vacated post of prefect of Yingtian. Taking leave of Jia Zheng he chose a day to pro¬ceed to his new post. But no more of this.

To return to Daiyu. When she disembarked, a sedan-chair from the Rong Mansion and carts for her luggage were waiting in readiness. She had heard a great deal from her mother about the magnificence of her grandmother’s home; and during the last few days she had been impressed by the food, costumes and behaviour of the relatively low-ranking attendants escorting her. She must watch her step in her new home, she decided, be on guard every moment and weigh every word, so as not to be laughed at for any foolish blunder. As she was carried into the city she peeped out through the gauze window of the chair at the bustle in the streets and the crowds of people, the like of which she had never seen before.
After what seemed a long time they came to a street with two huge stone lions crouching on the north side, flanking a great triple gate with beast-head knockers, in front of which ten or more men in smart livery were sitting. The central gate was shut, but people were passing in and out of the smaller side gates. On a board above the main gate was writ¬ten in large characters: Ningguo Mansion Built at Imperial Command.
Daiyu realized that this must be where the elder branch of her grandmother’s family lived.
A little further to the west they came to another imposing triple gate. This was the Rong Mansion. Instead of going through the main gate, they entered by the smaller one on the west. The bearers carried the chair a bow-shot further, then set it down at a turning and withdrew. The maid¬servants behind Daiyu had now alighted and were proceeding on foot. Three or four smartly dressed lads of seventeen or eighteen picked up the chair and, followed by the maids, carried it to a gate decorated with overhanging flowery patterns carved in wood. There the bearers with¬drew, the maids raised the curtain of the chair, helped Daiyu out and supported her through the gate.
Inside, verandahs on both sides led to a three-roomed entrance hall in the middle of which stood a screen of marble in a red sandalwood frame. The hall gave access to the large court of the main building. In front were five rooms with carved beams and painted pillars, and on either side were rooms with covered passageways. Cages of brilliantly coloured parrots, thrushes and other birds hung under the eaves of the verandahs.
Several maids dressed in red and green rose from the terrace and hurried to greet them with smiles.
“The old lady was just talking about you,” they cried. “And here you are.”
Three or four of them ran to raise the door curtain, and a voice could be heard announcing, “Miss Lin is here.”
As Daiyu entered, a silver-haired old lady supported by two maids advanced to meet her. She knew that this must be her grandmother, but before she could kowtow the old lady threw both arms around her.
“Dear heart! Flesh of my child!” she cried, and burst out sobbing.
All the attendants covered their faces and wept, and Daiyu herself could not keep back her tears. When at last the others prevailed on her to stop, Daiyu made her kowtow to her grandmother. This was the Lady Dowager from the Shi family mentioned by Leng Zixing, the mother of Jia She and Jia Zheng, who now introduced the family one by one.
“This,” she said, “is your elder uncle’s wife. This is your second uncle’s wife. This is the wife of your late Cousin Zhu.”
Daiyu greeted each in turn.
“Fetch the girls,” her grandmother said. “They can be excused their lessons today in honour of our guest from far away.”
Two maids went to carry out her orders. And presently the three young ladies appeared, escorted by three nurses and five or six maids.
The first was somewhat plump and of medium height. Her cheeks were the texture of newly ripened lichees, her nose as sleek as goose fat. Gentle and demure, she looked very approachable.
The second had sloping shoulders and a slender waist. She was tall and slim, with an oval face, well-defined eyebrows and lovely dancing eyes. She seemed elegant and quick-witted with an air of distinction. To look at her was to forget everything vulgar.
The third was not yet fully grown and still had the face of a child.
All three were dressed in similar tunics and skirts with the same brace¬lets and head ornaments.
Daiyu hastily rose to greet these cousins, and after the introductions they took seats while the maids served tea. All the talk now was of Daiyu’s mother. How had she fallen ill? What medicine had the doctors prescribed? How had the funeral and mourning ceremonies been con¬ducted? Inevitably, the Lady Dowager was most painfully affected.
“Of all my children I loved your mother best,” she told Daiyu. “Now she has gone before me, and I didn’t even have one last glimpse of her face. The sight of you makes me feel my heart will break!” Again she took Daiyu in her arms and wept. The others were hard put to it to com¬fort her.
All present had been struck by Daiyu’s good breeding. For in spite of her tender years and evident delicate health, she had an air of natural distinction. Observing how frail she looked they asked what medicine or treatment she had been having.
“I’ve always been like this,” Daiyu said with a smile. “I’ve been taking medicine ever since I was weaned. Many well-known doctors have examined me, but none of their prescriptions was any use. The year I was three, I remember being told, a scabby monk came to our house and wanted to take me away to be a nun. My parents wouldn’t hear of it. The monk said, ‘If you can’t bear to part with her she’ll probably never get well. The only other remedy is to keep her from hearing weeping and from seeing any relatives apart from her father and mother. That’s her only hope of having a quiet life.’ No one paid any attention, of course, to such crazy talk. Now I’m still taking ginseng pills.”
“That’s good,” approved the Lady Dowager. “We’re having pills made, and I’ll see they make some for you.”
Just then they heard peals of laughter from the back courtyard and a voice cried:
“I’m late in greeting our guest from afar!”
Daiyu thought with surprise, “The people here are so respectful and solemn, they all seem to be holding their breath. Who can this be, so boisterous and pert?”
While she was still wondering, through the back door trooped some matrons and maids surrounding a young woman. Unlike the girls, she was richly dressed and resplendent as a fairy.
Her gold-filigree tiara was set with jewels and pearls. Her hair-clasps, in the form of five phoenixes facing the sun, had pendants of pearls. Her necklet, of red gold, was in the form of a coiled dragon studded with gems. She had double red jade pendants with pea-green tassels attached to her skirt.
Her close-fitting red satin jacket was embroidered with gold butter¬flies and flowers. Her turquoise cape, lined with white squirrel, was inset with designs in coloured silk. Her skirt of kingfisher-blue crepe was pat¬terned with flowers.
She had the almond-shaped eyes of a phoenix, slanting eyebrows as long and drooping as willow leaves. Her figure was slender and her man¬ner vivacious. The springtime charm of her powdered face gave no hint of her latent formidability. And before her crimson lips parted, her laugh¬ter rang out.
Daiyu rose quickly to greet her.
“You don’t know her yet.” The Lady Dowager chuckled. “She’s the terror of this house. In the south they’d call her Hot Pepper. Just call her Fiery Phoenix.”
Daiyu was at a loss how to address her when her cousins came to her rescue. “This is Cousin Lian’s wife,” they told her.
Though Daiyu had never met her, she knew from her mother that Jia Lian, the son of her first uncle Jia She, had married the niece of Lady Wang, her second uncle’s wife. She had been educated like a boy and given the school-room name Xifeng.2 Daiyu lost no time in greeting her with a smile as “cousin.”
Xifeng took her hand and carefully inspected her from head to foot, then led her back to her seat by the Lady Dowager.
“Well,” she cried with a laugh, “this is the first time I’ve set eyes on such a ravishing beauty. Her whole air is so distinguished! She doesn’t take after her father, son-in-law of our Old Ancestress, but looks more like a Jia. No wonder our Old Ancestress couldn’t put you out of her mind and was for ever talking or thinking about you. But poor ill-fated little cousin, losing your mother so young!” With that she dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief.
“I’ve only just dried my tears. Do you want to start me off again?” said the old lady playfully. “Your young cousin’s had a long journey and she’s delicate. We’ve just got her to stop crying. So don’t reopen that subject.”
Xifeng switched at once from grief to merriment. “Of course,” she cried. “I was so carried away by joy and sorrow at sight of my little cousin, I forgot our Old Ancestress. I deserve to be caned.” Taking Daiyu’s hand again, she asked, “How old are you, cousin? Have you started your schooling yet? What medicine are you taking? You mustn’t be home sick here. If you fancy anything special to eat or play with, don’t hesitate to tell me. If the maids or old nurses aren’t good to you, just let me know.”
She turned then to the servants. “Have Miss Lin’s luggage and things been brought in? How many attendants did she bring? Hurry up and clear out a couple of rooms where they can rest.”
Meanwhile refreshments had been served. And as Xifeng handed round the tea and sweetmeats, Lady Wang asked whether she had dis¬tributed the monthly allowance.
“It’s finished,” was Xifeng’s answer. “Just now I took some people to the upstairs storeroom at the back to look for some brocade. But though we searched for a long time we couldn’t find any of the sort you de¬scribed to us yesterday, madam. Could your memory have played you a trick?”
“It doesn’t matter if there’s none of that sort,” said Lady Wang. “Just choose two lengths to make your little cousin some clothes. This evening don’t forget to send for them.”
“I’ve already done that,” replied Xifeng. “Knowing my cousin would be here any day, I got everything ready. The material’s waiting in your place for your inspection. If you pass it, madam, it can be sent over.”
Lady Wang smiled and nodded her approval.
Now the refreshments were cleared away and the Lady Dowager ordered two nurses to take Daiyu to see her two uncles.
At once Jia She’s wife, Lady Xing, rose to her feet and suggested, “Won’t it be simpler if I take my niece?”
“Very well,” agreed the Lady Dowager, “And there’s no need for you to come back afterwards.”
Lady Xing assented and then told Daiyu to take her leave of Lady Wang, after which the rest saw them to the entrance hall. Outside the ornamental gate pages were waiting beside a blue lacquered carriage with kingfisher-blue curtains, into which Lady Xing and her niece en¬tered. Maids let down the curtains and told the bearers to start. They bore the carriage to an open space and harnessed a docile mule to it. They left by the west side gate, proceeded east past the main entrance of the Rong Mansion, entered a large black-lacquered gate and drew up in front of a ceremonial gate.
When the pages had withdrawn, the curtains were raised, and Lady Xing led Daiyu into the courtyard. It seemed to her that these buildings and grounds must be part of the Rong Mansion garden; for when they had passed three ceremonial gates she saw that the halls, side chambers and covered corridors although on a smaller scale were finely constructed. They had not the stately splendour of the other mansion, yet nothing was lacking in the way of trees, plants or artificial rockeries.
As they entered the central hall they were greeted by a crowd of heavily made-up and richly dressed concubines and maids. Lady Xing invited Daiyu to be seated while she sent a servant to the library to ask her husband to join them.
After a while the servant came back to report, “The master says he hasn’t been feeling too well the last few days, and meeting the young lady would only upset them both. He isn’t up to it for the time being. Miss Lin mustn’t mope or be homesick here but feel at home with the old lady and her aunts. Her cousins may be silly creatures, but they’ll be com-pany for her and help to amuse her. If anyone is unkind to her, she must say so and not treat us as strangers.”
Daiyu had risen to her feet to listen to this message. Shortly after this she rose again to take her leave. Lady Xing insisted that she stay for the evening meal.
“Thank you very much, aunt, you’re too kind,” said Daiyu. “Really I shouldn’t decline. But it might look rude if I delayed in calling on my second uncle. Please excuse me and let me stay another time.”
“You’re quite right,” said Lady Xing. She told a few elderly maids to escort her niece back in the same carriage, whereupon Daiyu took her leave. Her aunt saw her to the ceremonial gate and after giving the maids some further instructions waited to see them off.
Back in the Rong Mansion, Daiyu alighted again. The nurses led her eastwards, round a corner, through an entrance hall into a hall facing south, then passed through a ceremonial gate into a large courtyard. The northern building had five large apartments and wings on either side. This was the hub of the whole estate, more imposing by far than the Lady Dowager’s quarters.
Daiyu realized that this was the main inner suite, for a broad raised avenue led straight to its gate. Once inside the hall she looked up and her eye was caught by a great blue tablet with nine gold dragons on it, on which was written in characters large as peck measures:
Hall of Glorious Felicity.
Smaller characters at the end recorded the date on which the Em¬peror had conferred this tablet upon Jia Yuan, the Duke of Rongguo, and it bore the Imperial seal.
On the large red sandalwood table carved with dragons an old bronze tripod, green with patina, stood about three feet high. On the wall hung a large scroll-picture of black dragons riding the waves. This was flanked by a bronze wine vessel inlaid with gold and a crystal bowl. By the walls were a row of sixteen cedar-wood armchairs; and above these hung two panels of ebony with the following couplet inset in silver:
Pearls on the dais outshine the sun and moon;
Insignia of honour in the hall blaze like iridescent clouds.
Small characters below recorded that this had been written by the Prince of Dungan, who signed his name Mu Shi and styled himself a fellow provincial and old family friend.
Since Lady Wang seldom sat in this main hall but used three rooms on the east side for relaxation, the nurses led Daiyu there.
The large kang by the window was covered with a scarlet foreign rug. In the middle were red back-rests and turquoise bolsters, both with dragon-design medallions, and a long greenish yellow mattress also with
dragon medallions. At each side stood a low table of foreign lacquer in the shape of plum-blossom. On the left-hand table were a tripod, spoons, chopsticks and an incense container; on the right one, a slender-waisted porcelain vase from the Ruzhou Kiln containing flowers then in season, as well as tea-bowls and a spittoon. Below the kang facing the west wall were four armchairs, their covers of bright red dotted with pink flowers, and with four footstools beneath them. On either side were two tables set out with teacups and vases of flowers. The rest of the room need not be described in detail.
The nurses urged Daiyu to sit on the kang, on the edge of which were two brocade cushions. But feeling that this would be presumptuous, she sat instead on one of the chairs on the east side. The maids in attendance served tea, and as she sipped it she studied them, observing that their make-up, clothes and deportment were quite different from those in other families. Before she had finished her tea in came a maid wearing a red silk coat and a blue satin sleeveless jacket with silk borders. With a smile this girl announced:
“Her Ladyship asks Miss Lin to go in and take a seat over there.”
At once the nurses conducted Daiyu along the eastern corridor to a small three-roomed suite facing south. On the kang under the window was a low table laden with books and a tea-service. Against the east wall were a none too new blue satin back-rest and a bolster.
Lady Wang was sitting in the lower place by the west wall on a none too new blue satin cover with a back-rest and a bolster. She invited her niece to take the seat on the east. But guessing that this was Jia Zheng’s place, Daiyu chose one of the three chairs next to the kang, which had black-dotted antimacassars, looking none too new. Not until she had been pressed several times did she take a seat by her aunt.
“Your uncle’s observing a fast today,” said Lady Wang. “You’ll see him some other time. But there’s one thing I want to tell you. Your three cousins are excellent girls, and I’m sure you’ll find them easy to get on with during lessons, or when you’re learning embroidery or playing to¬gether. Just one thing worries me: that’s my dreadful son, the bane of my life, who torments us all in this house like a real devil. He’s gone to a temple today in fulfilment of a vow, but you’ll see what he’s like when he comes back this evening. Just pay no attention to him. None of your cousins dare to provoke him.”
Daiyu’s mother had often spoken of this nephew born with a piece of jade in his mouth, his wild ways, aversion to study and delight in playing about in the women’s apartments. Apparently he was so spoiled by his grandmother that no one could control him. She knew Lady Wang must be referring to him.
“Does aunt mean my elder cousin with the jade in his mouth?” she asked with a smile. “Mother often spoke of him. I know he’s a year older than me, his name is Baoyu, and for all his pranks he’s very good to his girl cousins. But how can I provoke him? I’ll be spending all my time with the other girls in a different part of the house while our boy cousins are in the outer courtyards.”
“You don’t understand,” replied Lady Wang with a laugh. “He’s not like other boys. Because the old lady’s always doted on him, he’s used to being spoilt with the girls. If they ignore him he keeps fairly quiet though he feels bored. He can always work off his temper by scolding some of his pages. But if the girls give him the least encouragement, he’s so elated he gets up to all kinds of mischief. That’s why you mustn’t pay any attention to him. One moment he’s all honey-sweet; the next, he’s rude and recalcitrant; and in another minute he’s raving like a lunatic. You can’t take him seriously.”
As Daiyu promised to remember this, a maid announced that dinner was to be served in the Lady Dowager’s apartments. Lady Wang at once led her niece out of the back door, going west along a corridor and through a side gate to a broad road running from north to south. On the south side was a dainty three-roomed annex facing north; on the north a big screen wall painted white, behind which was a small door leading to an apartment.
“That’s where your cousin Xifeng lives.” Lady Wang pointed out the place. “So next time you know where to find her. If you want anything just let her know.”
By the gate several young pages, their hair in tufts, stood at attention. Lady Wang led Daiyu through an entrance hall running from east to west into the Lady Dowager’s back courtyard. Stepping through the back door, they found quite a crowd assembled who, as soon as they saw Lady Wang, set tables and chairs ready. Jia Zhu’s widow, Li Wan, served the rice while Xifeng put out the chopsticks and Lady Wang served the soup.
The Lady Dowager was seated alone on a couch at the head of the table with two empty chairs on each side. Xifeng took Daiyu by the hand to make her sit in the first place on the left, but she persistently declined the honour.
“Your aunt and sisters-in-law don’t dine here,” said her grandmother with a smile. “Besides, you’re a guest today. So do take that seat.”
With a murmured apology, Daiyu obeyed. The Lady Dowager told Lady Wang to sit down; then Yingchun and the two other girls asked leave to be seated, Yingchun first on the right, Tanchun second on the left, and Xichun second on the right. Maids held ready dusters, bowls for rinsing the mouth and napkins, while Li Wan and Xifeng standing behind the diners plied them with food.
Although the outer room swarmed with nurses and maids, not so much as a cough was heard. The meal was eaten in silence. And immediately after, tea was brought in on small trays. Now Lin Ruhai had taught his daughter the virtue of moderation and the harm caused to the digestive system by drinking tea directly after a meal. But many customs here were different from those in her home. She would have to adapt herself to these new ways. As she took the tea, however, the rinse-bowls were proffered again, and seeing the others rinse their mouths she followed suit. After they had washed their hands tea was served once more, this time for drinking.
“You others may go,” said the Lady Dowager now. “I want to have a chat with my grand-daughter.”
Lady Wang promptly rose and after a few remarks led the way out, followed by Li Wan and Xifeng. Then her grandmother asked Daiyu what books she had studied.
“I’ve just finished the Four Books,” said Daiyu. “But I’m very ig¬norant.” Then she inquired what the other girls were reading.
“They only know a very few characters, not enough to read any books.”
The words were hardly out of her mouth when they heard footsteps in the courtyard and a maid came in to announce, “Baoyu is here.”
Daiyu was wondering what sort of graceless scamp or little dunce Baoyu was and feeling reluctant to meet such a stupid creature when, even as the maid announced him, in he walked.
He had on a golden coronet studded with jewels and a golden chaplet in the form of two dragons fighting for a pearl. His red archer’s jacket, embroidered with golden butterflies and flowers, was tied with a coloured tasselled palace sash. Over this he wore a turquoise fringed coat of Japa¬nese satin with a raised pattern of flowers in eight bunches. His court boots were of black satin with white soles.
His face was as radiant as the mid-autumn moon, his complexion fresh as spring flowers at down. The hair above his temples was as sharply outlined as if cut with a knife. His eyebrows were as black as if painted with ink, his cheeks as red as peach-blossom, his eyes bright as autumn ripples. Even when angry he seemed to smile, and there was warmth in his glance even when he frowned.
Round his neck he had a golden torque in the likeness of a dragon, and a silk cord of five colours, on which hung a beautiful piece of jade.
His appearance took Daiyu by surprise. “How very strange!” she thought. “It’s as if I’d seen him somewhere before. He looks so famil¬iar.”
Baoyu paid his respects to the Lady Dowager and upon her instruc¬tions went to see his mother.
He returned before long, having changed his clothes. His short hair in small plaits tied with red silk was drawn up on the crown of his head and braided into one thick queue as black and glossy as lacquer, sporting four large pearls attached to golden pendants in the form of the eight precious things. His coat of a flower pattern on a bright red ground was not new, and he still wore the torque, the precious jade, a lock-shaped amulet con¬taining his Buddhistic name, and a lucky charm. Below could be glimpsed light green flowered satin trousers, black-dotted stockings with brocade borders, and thick-soled scarlet shoes.
His face looked as fair as if powdered, his lips red as rouge. His glance was full of affection, his speech interspersed with smiles. But his natural charm appeared most in his brows, for his eyes sparkled with a world of feeling. However, winning as his appearance was, it was diffi¬cult to tell what lay beneath.
Someone subsequently gave an admirable picture of Baoyu in these two verses written to the melody of The Moon over the West River:
Absurdly he courts care and melancholy
And raves like any madman in his folly;
For though endowed with handsome looks is he,
His heart is lawless and refractory.
Too dense by far to understand his duty,
Too stubborn to apply himself to study,
Foolhardy in his eccentricity,
He’s deaf to all reproach and obloquy.
Left cold by riches and nobility,
Unfit to bear the stings of poverty,
He wastes his time and his ability,
Failing his country and his family.
First in this world for uselessness is he,
Second to none in his deficiency.
Young fops and lordlings all, be warned by me:
Don’t imitate this youth’s perversity!
With a smile at Baoyu, the Lady Dowager scolded, “Fancy changing your clothes before greeting our visitor. Hurry up now and pay your re¬spects to your cousin.”
Of course, Baoyu had seen this new cousin earlier on and guessed that she was the daughter of his Aunt Lin. He made haste to bow and, having greeted her, took a seat. Looking at Daiyu closely, he found her different from other girls.
Her dusky arched eyebrows were knitted and yet not frowning, her speaking eyes held both merriment and sorrow; her very frailty had charm. Her eyes sparkled with tears, her breath was soft and faint. In repose she was like a lovely flower mirrored in the water; in motion, a pliant willow swaying in the wind. She looked more sensitive than Bi Gan4, more delicate than Xi Shi.
“I’ve met this cousin before,” he declared at the end of his scrutiny.
“You’re talking nonsense again,” said his grandmother, laughing.
“How could you possibly have met her?”
“Well, even if I haven’t, her face looks familiar. I feel we’re old friends meeting again after a long separation.”
“So much the better.” The Lady Dowager laughed. “That means you’re bound to be good friends.”
Baoyu went over to sit beside Daiyu and once more gazed fixedly at her.
“Have you done much reading, cousin?” he asked.
“No,” said Daiyu. “I’ve only studied for a couple of years and learned a few characters.”
“What’s your name?”
She told him.
“And your courtesy name?”
“I have none.
“I’ll give you one then,” he proposed with a chuckle. “What could be better than Pinpin?”
“Where’s that from?” put in Tanchun.
“The Compendium of Men and Objects Old and New says that in the west is a stone called dai which can be used instead of graphite for painting eyebrows. As Cousin Lin’s eyebrows look half knit, what could be more apt than these two characters?”
“You’re making that up, I’m afraid,” teased Tanchun.
“Most works, apart from the Four Books, are made up; am I the only one who makes things up?” he retorted with a grin. Then, to the mystifi¬cation of them all, he asked Daiyu if she had any jade.
Imagining that he had his own jade in mind, she answered, “No, I haven’t. I suppose it’s too rare for everybody to have.”
This instantly threw Baoyu into one of his frenzies. Tearing off the jade he flung it on the ground.
“What’s rare about it?” he stormed. “It can’t even tell good people from bad. What spiritual understanding has it got? I don’t want this nui¬sance either.”
In consternation all the maids rushed forward to pick up the jade while the Lady Dowager in desperation took Baoyu in her arms.
“You wicked monster!” she scolded. “Storm at people if you’re in a passion. But why should you throw away that precious thing your life depends on?”
His face stained with tears, Baoyu sobbed, “None of the girls here has one, only me. What’s the fun of that? Even this newly arrived cousin who’s lovely as a fairy hasn’t got one either. That shows it’s no good.”
“She did have one once,” said the old lady to soothe him. “But when your aunt was dying and was unwilling to leave her, the best she could do was to take the jade with her instead. That was like burying the living with the dead and showed your cousin’s filial piety. It meant, too, that now your aunt’s spirit can still see your cousin. That’s why she said she had none, not wanting to boast about it. How can you compare with her? Now put it carefully on again lest your mother hears about this.”
She took the jade from one of the maids and put it on him herself. And Baoyu, convinced by her tale, let the matter drop.
Just then a nurse came in to ask about Daiyu’s quarters.
“Move Baoyu into the inner apartment of my suite,” said his grand¬mother. “Miss Lin can stay for the time being in his Green Gauze Lodge. Once spring comes, we’ll make different arrangements.”
“Dear Ancestress!” coaxed Baoyu. “Let me stay outside Green Gauze Lodge. I’ll do very well on that bed in the outer room. Why should I move over and disturb you?”
After a moment’s reflection the Lady Dowager agreed to this. Each would be attended by a nurse and a maid, while other attendants were on night duty outside. Xifeng had already sent round a flowered lavender curtain, satin quilts and embroidered mattresses.
Daiyu had brought with her only Nanny Wang, her old wet-nurse, and ten-year-old Xueyan, who had also attended her since she was a child. Since the Lady Dowager considered Xueyan too young and childish and Nanny Wang too old to be of much service, she gave Daiyu one of her own personal attendants, a maid of the second grade called Yingge. Like Yingchun and the other young ladies, in addition to her own wet-nurse Daiyu was given four other nurses as chaperones, two personal maids to attend to her toilet and five or six girls to sweep the rooms and run er¬rands.
Nanny Wang and Yingge accompanied Daiyu now to Green Gauze Lodge, while Baoyu’s wet-nurse, Nanny Li, and his chief maid Xiren made ready the big bed for him in its outer room.
Xiren, whose original name was Zhenzhu, had been one of the Lady Dowager’s maids. The old lady so doted on her grandson that she wanted to make sure he was well looked after and for this reason she gave him her favourite, Xiren, a good, conscientious girl. Baoyu knew that her sur¬name was Hua7 and remembered a line of poetry which ran, “the fra-grance of flowers assails men.” So he asked his grandmother’s permis¬sion to change her name to Xiren.
Xiren’s strong point was devotion. Looking after the Lady Dowager she thought of no one but the Lady Dowager, and after being assigned to Baoyu she thought only of Baoyu. What worried her, though, was that he was too headstrong to listen to her advice.
That night after Baoyu and Nanny Li were asleep, Xiren noticed that Daiyu and Yingge were still up in the inner room. She tiptoed in there in her night clothes and asked:
“Why aren’t you sleeping yet, miss?”
“Please sit down, sister,” invited Daiyu with a smile.
Xiren sat on the edge of the bed.
“Miss Lin has been in tears all this time, she’s so upset,” said Yingge. “The very day of her arrival, she says, she’s made our young master fly into a tantrum. If he’d smashed his jade she would have felt to blame. I’ve been trying to comfort her.”
“Don’t take it to heart,” said Xiren. “I’m afraid you’ll see him car¬rying on even more absurdly later. If you let yourself be upset by his behaviour you’ll never have a moment’s peace. Don’t be so sensi¬tive.”
“I’ll remember what you’ve said,” promised Daiyu. “But can you tell me where that jade of his came from, and what the inscription on it is?”
Xiren told her, “Not a soul in the whole family knows where it comes from. It was found in his mouth, so we hear, when he was born, with a hole for a cord already made in it. Let me fetch it here to show you.”
But Daiyu would not hear of this as it was now late. “I can look at it tomorrow,” she said.
After a little more chat they went to bed.
The next morning, after paying her respects to the Lady Dowager, Daiyu went to Lady Wang’s apartments. She found her and Xifeng dis¬cussing a letter from Jinling. With them were two maid-servants who had brought a message from the house of Lady Wang’s brother.
Daiyu did not understand what was going on, but Tanchun and the others knew that they were discussing Xue Pan, the son of Aunt Xue in Jinling. Presuming on his powerful connections, he had had a man beaten to death and was now to be tried in the Yingtian prefectural court. Lady Wang’s brother Wang Ziteng, having been informed of this, had sent these messengers to the Rong Mansion to urge them to invite the Xue family to the capital. But more of this in the next chapter.



Chapter 4

An Ill-Fated Girl Meets an ill-Fated Man
A Confounded Monk Ends a Confounded Case




To resume. Daiyu and the other girls found Lady Wang discussing family affairs with messengers sent by her brother, and heard that her sister’s son was involved in a murder case. Since she was so occupied, the girls called on Li Wan.
Li Wan was the widow of Jia Zhu who had died young, but luckily she had a son, Jia Lan, just five and already in school. Her father, Li Shouzhong, a notable of Jinling, had served as a Libationer in the Im¬perial College. All the sons and daughters of his clan had been de¬voted to the study of the classics. When he became head of the fam¬ily, however, in the belief that “an unaccomplished woman is a virtu¬ous woman,” instead of making his daughter study hard he simply had her taught enough to read a few books such as the Four Books for Girls, Biographies of Martyred Women, and Lives of Exemplary Ladies so that she might remember the deeds of worthy women of earlier dynasties while devoting her main attention to weaving and household tasks. That was why he gave her the name Li Wan1 and the courtesy name Gongcai.
So this young widow living in the lap of luxury was no better off than withered wood or cold ashes, taking no interest in the outside world. Apart from waiting on her elders and looking after her son, all she did was to accompany the girls at their embroidery or reading.
Though Daiyu was only a guest here, with cousins like these to keep her company she felt completely at home, except for worrying some¬times about her father.
But to return to Jia Yucun. No sooner had he taken up his post as prefect of Yingtian than a charge of murder was brought to his court. It was a case of two parties claiming to have purchased the same slave girl, neither willing to give way, and in consequence one of them had been beaten to death. Yucun summoned the plaintiff for questioning.
“The murdered man was my master,” the plaintiff testified. “He bought a slave girl not knowing that she’d been kidnapped and paid for her in silver. Our master said he’d take her home three days later because that would be a lucky day. Then the kidnapper sold her on the sly to the Xue family. When we found this out, we went to him to demand the girl. But the Xues lord it in Jinling with their money and powerful backing. A pack of their thugs beat my master to death, after which the murderers, master and men, disappeared without a trace, leaving here only a few people who weren’t involved. I lodged a charge a year ago, but nothing came of it. I beg Your Honour to arrest the criminals, punish the evil-doers and help the widow and orphan. Then both the living and the dead will be everlastingly grateful!”
“This is a scandal!” fumed Yucun. “How can men commit a murder and go scot-free?”
He was about to order his runners to arrest the criminals’ relatives for interrogation, in order to find out the murderers’ whereabouts and issue warrants for their arrest, when an attendant standing by his table shot him a warning glance. Then Yucun refrained and left the court in some bewilderment.
Back in his private office he dismissed everyone but the attendant, who went down on one knee in salute, then said with a smile:
“Your Honour has risen steadily in the official world. After eight or nine years, do you still remember me?”
“Your face looks very familiar, but I can’t place you.”
The attendant smiled. “High officials have short memories,” he said. “So you’ve forgotten the spot you started from, Your Honour, and what happened in Gourd Temple?”
At this disconcerting remark, the past came back to Yucun like the crash of a thunder-bolt. Now this attendant had been a novice in Gourd Temple. When the fire left him stranded he decided that work in a yamen would be easier and, having had enough of monastic austerity, instead of going to an¬other temple he had taken advantage of his youth to grow his hair again and get this post. No wonder Yucun had failed to recognize him.
Now, taking his hand, the prefect observed with a smile: “So we are old acquaintances.”
He invited him to take a seat, but the attendant declined the honour.
“We were friends in the days when I was hard up,” said Yucun. “Besides, this is my private office. As we are going to have a good talk, how can you remain standing all the time?”
Then, deferentially, the attendant perched sideways on the edge of a chair. And Yucun asked why he had stopped him from issuing the warrants.
“Now that Your Honour’s come to this post,” said the attendant, “surely you’ve copied out the Officials’ Protective Charm for this province?”
“Officials’ Protective Charm? What do you mean?”
“Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of it? In that case you won’t keep your job long. All local officials nowadays keep a secret list of the most powerful, wealthy and high-ranking families in their province. Each province has such a list. Because if unknowingly you offend one of these families, you may lose not only your post but your life as well. That’s why it’s called a Protective Charm. This Xue family mentioned just now is one Your Honour can’t afford to offend. There’s nothing difficult about this case, but out of deference to them it was never settled by your predecessor.”
With that he took a hand-written copy of the Officials’ Protective Charm from his pocket and handed it to Yucun. It was a doggerel cata¬logue of the most notable families in that district with notes on their an¬cestry, ranks and family branches. It started off:
The Jinling Jias,
If truth be told,
Have halls of jade,
Stables of gold.
Twenty branches descended from the Duke of Ningguo and the Duke of Rongguo. Apart from eight branches in the capi¬tal, there are twelve branches in their ancestral district.
Vast 0 Pang Palace,
Fit for a king,
Isn’t fine enough
For the Shis of Jinling.
Twenty branches descended from Marquis Shi of Baoling, Prime Min¬ister. Ten in the capital, ten in the ancestral district.
If the Dragon King wants
A white jade bed,
He applies to the Wangs
Of Jinling, it’s said.
Twelve branches descended from Earl Wang the High Marshal. Two in the capital, the rest in the ancestral district.
The Xues in their affluence
Are so rich and grand,
Gold is like iron to them
And pearls like sand.
Eight branches descended from Lord Xue, Imperial Secretary, Now in charge of the Treasury.

Before Yucun could finish reading the list, a chime sounded at the gate and a certain Mr. Wang was announced. Putting on his official robes and cap again, he went to receive the caller, coming back in the time it takes for a meal to ask for more information.
“These four families are all closely connected,” said the attendant, “In¬jure one and you injure them all, honour one and you honour them all. They help each other and cover up for each other. This Xue charged with murder is one of the Xues on that list. Not only can he count on the support of those three other families, he has plenty of influential friends and relatives both in the capital and in the provinces. So whom is Your Honour going to arrest?”
“If that’s so, how are we to settle the case?” asked Yucun. “I take it you know the murderer’s hiding-place?”
“I won’t keep it from Your Honour.” The attendant grinned. “I know not only where the murderer has gone. I know the kidnapper who sold the girl, and I knew the poor devil who bought her. Let me put all the facts before you.
“The man who was killed, Feng Yuan, was the son of one of the minor local gentry. Both his parents died when he was young and he had no brothers; he lived as best he could on his small property. Up to the age of eighteen or nineteen he was a confirmed queer and took no interest in women. But then, no doubt as retribution for entanglements in a former life, he ran into this kidnapper and no sooner set eyes on this girl than he fell for her and made up his mind to buy her for his concubine. He swore to have no more to do with men and to take no other wife. That was why he insisted on her coming to him three days later. Who was to know that the kidnapper would sell her on the sly to the Xues, meaning to abscond with the payment from both parties? Before he could get away with this, they nabbed him and beat him within an inch of his life. Both refused to take back their money --- both wanted the girl. Then young Xue, who will never give an inch to anyone, ordered his men to beat Feng Yuan into a pulp. Three days after being carried home he died.
“Young Xue had already fixed on a day to set off for the capital. But happening to see this girl two days before leaving he decided to buy her and take her along, not knowing the trouble that would come of it. Then, having killed a man and carried off a girl, he set off with his household as if nothing had happened, leaving his clansmen and servants here to settle the business. A trifling matter like taking a man’s life wouldn’t frighten him away. So much for him. But do you know who the girl is?”
“How could I know?”
“She’s by way of being Your Honour’s benefactress.” The atten¬dant sniggered. “She’s Yinglian, the daughter of Mr. Zhen who lived next to Gourd Temple.”
“Well!” exclaimed Yucun in astonishment. “So that’s who she is! I heard that she was kidnapped when she was five. Why didn’t they sell her before?”
“Kidnappers of this type make a point of stealing small girls. They bring them up somewhere out of the way until they’re eleven or twelve, then take them elsewhere to sell according to their looks. We used to play with Yinglian every day. Although seven or eight years have passed and she’s now a good-looking girl of twelve or thirteen, her features haven’t
changed and anyone who knew her can easily recognize her. Besides, she had a red birthmark the size of a grain of rice between her eyebrows, which makes me quite sure it’s her.
“As the kidnapper happened to rent rooms from me, one day when he was away I asked her outright. She’d been beaten so much she was afraid to talk; she just insisted that he was her father, selling her to clear his debts. When I tried repeatedly to wheedle it out of her, she burst into tears and said she didn’t remember a thing about her childhood. So there’s no doubt. It’s her, all right.
“The day that young Feng met her and paid down his silver, the kid¬napper got drunk. Then Yinglian sighed, ‘At last my trials are over!’ She started worrying again, though, when she heard Feng wouldn’t be fetch¬ing her for three days. I was so sorry for her that as soon as the kidnap¬per went out I sent my wife to cheer her up.
“My wife told her: ‘Mr. Feng’s insistence on waiting for a lucky days is proof that he won’t be treating you like a servant. Besides, he’s a very fine gentleman, quite well-to-do, who never could abide women in the past, yet now he’s paid a fancy price for you. That all goes to show you’re quite safe. Just be patient for two or three days. You’ve no rea¬son to worry.’
“She perked up a bit then, believing that she’d soon have a place where she belonged. But this world is full of disappointments: the very next day she was sold to the Xues. Any other family wouldn’t have been so bad; but this young Xue, otherwise known as the Stupid Tyrant, is the most vicious ruffian alive, who throws money about like dirt. He started a big fight and then dragged her off by force more dead than alive. What’s become of her since, I don’t know.
“Feng Yuan dreamed of happiness, but instead of finding it he lost his life. Wretched luck, wasn’t it?”
“This was retribution, no accident,” replied Yucun with a sigh. “Other¬wise, why should Feng Yuan have taken a fancy to Yinglian and no one else? As for her, after being knocked about all those years by the kidnap¬per she at last saw a way out with a man who loved her, and if she’d married him all would have been well; but then this had to happen! Of course, Xue’s family is richer than Feng’s, but a profligate like Xue Pan is sure to have troops of maids and concubines and to be thoroughly debauched — he could never be as true to one girl as Feng Yuan. So this romance was an empty dream, a chance encounter between an ill-fated young couple. Well, enough of that. What’s the best way to settle this case?”
“Your Honour used to be shrewd enough in the past,” said the atten¬dant with a smile. “What’s made you so short of ideas today? I heard that your appointment was due to the good offices of the Jias and Wangs, and this Xue is related to the Jias by marriage. So why not sail with the stream and do them a good turn, settling this case in such a way that you can face them in future?”
“There’s much in what you say. But a man’s life is involved. More¬over, I’ve been re-instated by the Emperor’s favour and am in fact be¬ginning a new life. I should be doing my utmost to show my gratitude. How can I flout the law for private considerations? I really can’t bring myself to do such a thing.”
The attendant sneered: “Your Honour is right, of course. But that won’t get you anywhere in the world today. Remember the old sayings: ‘A gentleman adapts himself to circumstances’ and ‘The superior man is one who pursues good fortune and avoids disaster.’ If you do as you just said, not only will you be unable to repay the Emperor’s trust, you may endanger your own life into the bargain. Better think it over care¬fully.”
Yucun lowered his head. After a long silence he asked: “What do you suggest?”
“I’ve thought of a very good plan,” said the attendant. “It’s this. When Your Honour tries the case tomorrow, make a great show of send¬ing out writs and issuing warrants. Of course the murderer won’t be forthcoming and the plaintiff will press his case; then you can arrest some of Xue’s clansmen and servants for interrogation. Behind the scenes I’ll fix things so that they report Xue Pan’s ‘death by sudden illness,’ and we’ll get his clan and the local authorities to testify to this.
“Then Your Honour can claim to be able to consult spirits through the planchette. Have one set up in the court and invite both military and civilians to come and watch. You can say: The spirit declares that Xue Pan and Feng Yuan were enemies in a former existence who were fated to clash in order to settle scores; that, hounded by Feng Yuan’s ghost, Xue Pan has perished of some mysterious disease; that since this trouble was caused by the man who kidnapped the girl with such-and-such a name, he must be dealt with according to the law, but no one else is involved… and so on and so forth.
“I’ll see to it that the kidnapper makes a full confession, and when the spirit’s message confirms this, people will be convinced.
“The Xues are rolling in money. You can make them pay a thousand or five hundred taels for Feng Yuan’s funeral expenses. His relatives are insignificant people, and all they’re out for is money. So the silver will shut their mouths.
“What does Your Honour think of this scheme of mine?”
“Impossible,” Yucun laughed. “I shall have to think this over care¬fully in order to suppress idle talk.”
Their consultation lasted late into the afternoon.
The next day a number of suspects were summoned to court and Yucun cross-examined them carefully. He found that the Feng family was indeed a small one and just out for more money for the funeral, but the case had been confused and left unsettled because of the stubborn Xues’ powerful connections.
So Yucun twisted the law to suit his own purpose and passed arbitrary judgement. The Fengs received a large sum for funeral expenses and made no further objections.
Once the case was settled Yucun lost no time in writing to Jia Zheng and Wang Ziteng. Commander-in-Chief of the Metropolitan Garrison, to inform them that the charge against their worthy nephew was dropped and they need not worry about it any longer. All this was due to the attendant who had been a novice in Gourd Temple, but Yucun, dismayed by the thought that this man might disclose certain facts about the days when he was poor and humble, later found some fault with him and had him exiled to a distant region.
Let us return now to young Xue, who had bought Yinglian and had Feng Yuan beaten to death. He came of a scholarly Jinling family, but having lost his father while still a child he was thoroughly spoiled by his mother as the only son and heir, with the result that he grew up good for nothing. For they were millionaires, in receipt of an income from the State Treasury as Purveyors for the Imperial Household.
Young Xue’s name was Pan, his courtesy name Wenqi, and since the age of five or six he had shown himself extravagant in his habits and insolent in his speech. At school he merely learned a few characters, spending all his time on cockfights, riding or pleasure trips. Although a Court Purveyor, he knew nothing of business or worldly affairs but pre¬vailed on his grandfather’s old connections to find him a well-paid sine-cure in the Board of Revenue and left all business to his agents and old family servants.
His widowed mother, née Wang, was the younger sister of Wang Ziteng, Commander-in-Chief of the Metropolitan Garrison, and the sister of Lady Wang, wife of Jia Zheng of the Rong Mansion. She was about forty years of age and Xue Pan was her only son. But she also had a daughter two years younger whose infant name was Baochai, a beauti¬ful, dainty girl of great natural refinement. While her father was still alive he made her study, and she turned out ten times better than her brother. However, after her father’s death it was so clear that Xue Pan would prove no comfort to their mother that Baochai gave up her studies and devoted herself to needlework and the household management, so as to share her mother’s burden and cares.
Recently, to honour culture, encourage propriety and search out tal¬ent, in addition to selecting consorts and ladies-in-waiting the Emperor in his infinite goodness had made the Board compile a list of the daughters of ministers and noted families from whom to choose virtuous and gifted companions for the princesses in their studies.
Moreover, since the death of Xue Pan’s father, all the managers and assistants in the Purveyor’s offices of different provinces had taken ad¬vantage of his youth and inexperience to start swindling, and even the business in the various family shops in the capital was gradually falling off.
Thus Xue Pan, who had long heard of the splendours of the capital, now had three pretexts for a visit to it: First, to escort his sister there for the selection; secondly, to see his relatives; and thirdly, to clear his accounts and decide on further outlay. His real reason, of course, was to see the sights of the great metropolis.
He had long since packed his luggage and valuables and prepared local specialities of every kind as gifts for relatives and friends. An aus¬picious day for departure had just been chosen when he met the kidnap¬per who was selling Yinglian and, struck by her good looks, promptly purchased her. When Feng Yuan demanded her back. Xue Pan relying on his powerful position ordered his bullies to beat the young man to death. Then entrusting the family affairs to some clansmen and old ser¬vants, he left with his mother and sister. To him a murder charge was just a trifle which could easily be settled with some filthy lucre.
After some days on the road they were approaching the capital when word came of the promotion of his uncle Wang Ziteng to the post of Commander-in-Chief of Nine Provinces with orders to inspect the bor¬ders.
Xue Pan told himself gleefully, “I was just thinking what a bore it would be to have an uncle cramping my style in the capital. Now he’s been upgraded and is leaving. It shows Heaven is kind.”
He suggested to his mother, “Although we have some houses in the capital, none of us has lived there for ten years or more and the caretak¬ers may have rented them out. Let’s send someone on ahead to have one cleaned up.”
“Why go to such trouble?” she asked. “When we arrive, we should first call on relatives and friends. We can stay with your uncle or aunt. Both of them have plenty of space. Wouldn’t it be simpler to put up there first and take our time over opening up other houses?”
“But uncle’s just been promoted and is going to the provinces, so his place is bound to be upside down. If we descend on him like a swarm of bees, it will look most inconsiderate.”
“Your uncle may be leaving for his new post, but there’s still your aunt’s house. They’ve written year after year inviting us to visit the capital. Now that we’re here and your uncle’s getting ready to leave, your Aunt Jia is sure to press us to stay there. It will appear very strange to them if we’re in such a rush to open up one of our own houses.
“I know what you’re after. You’re afraid of being under restraint if
you stay with your uncle or aunt. You’d prefer to be on your own, free to do as you please. In that case, go and find yourself some lodgings. I’ve been parted all these years from your aunt and we old sisters want to spend a little time together. I shall take your sister there with me. Have you any objection to that?”
Realizing that he could not talk his mother round, Xue Pan had per¬force to order his servants to make straight for the Rong Mansion.
Meanwhile Lady Wang, who had learned with relief of the dismissal, thanks to Yucun, of the charge against Xue Pan, had been dismayed again by her brother’s promotion to a frontier post, for this confronted her with the lonely prospect of having none of her own family to visit. But a few days later a servant suddenly announced that her sister had brought her son and daughter and whole household to the capital, and they were just alighting outside the gate.
In her joy, Lady Wang hurried out to the reception hail with her daugh¬ter and daughter-in-law to greet the whole party and conduct them inside. We need not dwell on the mingled delight and sorrow of these two sisters meeting again in the evening of life or all their tears, laughter and reminiscences.
Lady Wang took them in to pay their respects to the Lady Dowager, and they distributed the gifts they had brought. When the entire family had been introduced, a feast of welcome was spread for the travellers. And after Xue Pan had paid his respects to Jia Zheng, Jia Lian took him over to call on Jia She and Jia Zhen.
Then Jia Zheng sent a message to his wife saying. “My sister-in-law has seen many springs and autumns, and my nephew is young and inex¬perienced. He may get into some scrapes if they live outside. The ten rooms and more in Pear Fragrance Court in the northeast corner of our grounds are empty. Let us have them swept clean and ask your sister and her children to stay there.”
Before Lady Wang could extend this invitation, the Lady Dowager also sent to urge, “Do invite your sister to stay here, so that we can all be close together.”
Aunt Xue was only too glad to comply so as to have some check on her son, who was likely to get up to fresh mischief if they lived outside. She promptly accepted with thanks and in private intimated to Lady Wang that, if she was to make a long stay, she must be allowed to defray all her household’s daily expenses. Lady Wang knew that this presented no difficulty for the Xue family, and therefore agreed. So Aunt Xue and her children moved into Pear Fragrance Court.
This court where the Duke of Rongguo had spent his declining years was small but charming, its dozen or so rooms including a reception hail in front and the usual sleeping quarters and offices behind. It had its own entrance to the street which the Xue household used, while a passage from a southwest gate led to the east courtyard of Lady Wang’s main apartment. Every day after lunch or in the evening, Aunt Xue would walk over to chat with the Lady Dowager or to talk over the old days with her sister.
Baochai spent her time with Daiyu, Yingchun and the other girls, very happy to read, play chess or sew with them.
Only Xue Pan at first disliked this arrangement, for fear that his uncle would control him so strictly that he would not be his own master. He had to comply for the time being, however, because his mother had made up her mind to it and the Jia family pressed them so hard to stay. None the less, he sent servants to make ready one of his own houses for when he decided to move.
To his relief, after less than a month he found himself on familiar terms with half the Jia sons and nephews, and all the rich young men of fashion among them enjoyed his company. One day they would meet to drink, the next to look at flowers, and soon they included him in gambling parties or visits to the courtesans’ quarters, with the result that Xue Pan rapidly became even ten times worse than before.
Although Jia Zheng was known for his fine method of schooling his sons and disciplining his household, the family was too large for him to see to everything. Moreover the head of the clan was Jia Zhen, who as the eldest grandson of the Duke of Ningguo had inherited the title and was responsible for all clan affairs.
Besides, Jia Zheng, occupied as he was by public and private busi¬ness, was too easy-going to take mundane matters seriously, preferring to give all his leisure to reading and chess.
Since Pear Fragrance Court was two courtyards away from his quar¬ters and had its own entrance to the street through which people could pass as they pleased, the young men caroused and enjoyed themselves just as they chose. For these reasons, before very long Xue Pan gave up all thought of moving.
To know what followed, turn to the next chapter.

Chatper 5

The Spiritual Stone Is Too Bemused to Grasp
the Fairy’ s Riddles
The Goddess of Disenchantment in Her Kindness
Secretly Expounds on Love


Drowsy in spring beneath embroidered quilts,
In a trance with a goddess he leaves the world of men.
Who is this now entering the Land of Dreams?
The most unregenerate lover since time began.

The fourth chapter told briefly how the Xues came to stay in the Rong Mansion, but now let us return to Daiyu.
Since her coming to the Rong Mansion, the Lady Dowager had been lavishing affection on her, treating her in every respect just like Baoyu so that Yingehun, Tanehun and Xichun, the Jia girls, all had to take a back seat. And Baoyu and Daiyu had drawn closer to each other than all the others. By day they strolled or sat together; at night they went to bed in the same apartment. On all matters, indeed, they were in complete accord.
But now Baochai had suddenly appeared on the scene. Although only slightly older, she was such a proper young lady and so charming that most people considered Daiyu inferior to her. In the eyes of the world, of course, everyone has some merits. In the case of Daiyu and Baochai, one was lovely as a flower, the other graceful as a willow, but each charming in her own way, according to her distinctive tem¬perament.
Besides, Baochai’s generous, tactful, and accommodating ways con¬trasted strongly with Daiyu’s stand-offish reserve and won the hearts of her subordinates, so that nearly all the maids like to chat with her. Be¬cause of this, Daiyu began to feel some twinges of jealousy. But of this Baochai was completely unaware.
Baoyu was still only a boy and a very absurd and wilful one at that, who treated his brothers, sisters and cousins alike, making no difference between close and distant kinsmen. Because he and Daiyu both lived in the Lady Dowager’s quarters he was closer to her than to the other girls, and being closer had grown more intimate; but precisely because of this he sometimes offended her by being too demanding and thoughtless.
Today the two of them had fallen out for some reason and Daiyu, alone in her room, was again shedding tears. Sorry for his tactlessness, Baoyu went in to make it up and little by little contrived to comfort her.

As the plum blossom was now in full bloom in the Ning Mansion’s gar¬den, Jia Zhen’s wife Madam You invited the Lady Dowager, Lady Xing, Lady Wang and the others to a party to enjoy the flowers. She brought Jia Rong and his wife with her to deliver the invitations in person, and so the Lady Dowager and the rest went over after breakfast. They strolled round the Garden of Concentrated Fragrance and were served first with tea then wine; but it was simply an informal gathering of the womenfolk of both houses for a family feast, with nothing of special interest to record.
Soon Baoyu was tired and wanted to have a nap. The Lady Dowager ordered his attendants to take good care of him and bring him back after a rest.
At once Jia Rong’s wife Qin Keqing said with a smile: “We have a room ready here for Uncle Baoyu. The Old Ancestress can set her mind at rest and leave him safely to me.” She told his nurses and maids to follow her with their young master.
The Lady Dowager had every confidence in this lovely slender young woman who with her gentle, amiable behaviour was her favourite of all the great-grandsons’ wives of the Rong and Ning branches. She was therefore sure Baoyu would be in good hands.
Keqing led the party to an inner room, where Baoyu noticed a fine painting of “The Scholar Working by Torchlight.”1 Without even seeing who the artist was, he took a dislike to the picture. Then he read the couplet flanking it:
A grasp of mundane affairs is genuine knowledge,
Understanding of worldly wisdom is true learning.
These two lines disgusted him with the place for all its refinement and luxury, and he begged to go somewhere else.
“If this isn’t good enough, where can we take you?” asked his host¬ess with a laugh. “Well, come along to my room.”
Baoyu nodded and smiled but one of his nurses protested:
‘‘It’s not proper for an uncle to sleep in his nephew’s room.”
“Good gracious!” Keqing smiled. “I won’t mind his being offended if I say he’s still a baby. At his age such taboos don’t apply. Didn’t you see my brother who came last month? He’s the same age as Uncle Baoyu, but if they stood side by side I’m sure he’d be the taller.”
“Why haven’t I met him?” asked Baoyu. “Do bring him in and let me have a look at him.”
The women burst out laughi . “He’s miles away, how can we bring him? You’ll meet him some other time.”
Now, having reached the young matron’s room, they were meet at the threshold by a subtle perfume which misted over Baoyu’s eyes and melted his bones.
“How good it smells here!” he cried.
Entering, he saw on the wall a picture by Tang Yin2 of a lady sleeping under the blossom of a crab-apple tree in spring. On the two scrolls flanking it, Qin Guan3 the Song scholar had written:
Coolness wraps her dream, for spring is chill;
A fragrance assails men, the aroma of wine.
On the dressing-table was a rare mirror from Wu Zetian’s4 Hall of Mirrors. In the gold tray by it, on which Zhao Feiyan5 once danced, was the quince thrown in fun by An Lushan6 at Lady Yang,7 which had wounded her breast. At one end of the room stood the couch on which Princess Shouyang8 had slept in the Hanzhang Palace, and over it hung the cur-tains strung from pearls by Princess Tongchang9.
“It’s nice in here,” exclaimed Baoyu repeatedly in his delight.
“This room of mine is probably fit for a god,” rejoined Keqing with a smile.
With her own hands she spread a gauze coverlet washed by Xi Shi’0 and arranged the bridal pillow carried by Hongniang11. Then the nurses and attendants made Baoyu lie down and slipped out leaving only four maids Xiren, Meiren, Qingwen and Sheyue to keep him company. Keqing told them to wait on the verandah and watch the kittens and puppies playing there.
Baoyu fell asleep as soon as he closed his eyes and dreamed that Keqing was before him. Absent-mindedly he followed her a long way to some crimson balustrades and white marble steps among green trees and clear streams, in a place seldom trodden by the foot of man, unreached by swirling dust.
In his dream he thought happily, “This is a pleasant spot. If only I could spend my whole life here! For that I’d gladly give up my home where my parents and teachers kee caning me every day.”

His fancy was running away ith him when he heard someone sing¬ing a song on the other side of a hill:
Gone with the clouds spring’s dream.
Flowers drift away on the stream.
Young lovers all, be warned by me,
Cease courting needless misery.
Baoyu realized that the voice was a girl’s and before the song had ended he saw the singer come round the hill and approach him. With her graceful gait and air she was truly no mortal being. Here is as proof her description:
Leaving the willow bank, she comes just now through the flowers. Her approach startles birds in the trees in the court, and soon her shadow falls across the verandah. Her fairy sleeves, fluttering, give off a heady fragrance of musk and orchid. With each rustle of her lotus garments, her jade pendants tinkle.
Her dimpled smile is peach-blossom in spring, her blue-black hair a cluster of clouds. Her lips are cherries and sweet the breath from her pomegranate teeth.
The curve of her slender waist is snow whirled by the wind. Dazzling her pearls and emeralds and gosling-gold the painted design on her fore¬head.
She slips in and out of the flowers, now vexed, now radiant, and floats over the lake as if on wings.
Her mothlike eyebrows are knit yet there lurks a smile, and no sound issues from her lips parted as if to speak as she glides swiftly on lotus feet and, pausing, seems poised for flight.
Her flawless complexion is pure as ice, smooth as jade. Magnificent her costume with splendid designs. Sweet her face, compact of fragrance, carved in jade; and she bears herself like a phoenix or dragon in flight.
Her whiteness? Spring plum-blossom glimpsed through snow. Her purity? Autumn orchids coated with frost. Her tranquility? A pine in a lonely valley. Her beauty? Sunset mirrored in a limpid pool. Her grace? A dragon breasting a winding stream. Her spirit? Moonlight on a frosty flyer.
She would put Xi Shi to shame and make Wang Qiang’2 blush. Where was this wonder born, whence does she come?
Verily she has no peer in fairyland, no equal in the purple courts of heaven.
Who can she be, this beauty?

Overjoyed by the apparition of this fairy, Baoyu made haste to greet her with a bow.
“Sister Fairy,” he begged with a smile, “do tell me where you are from and whither you are going. I have lost my way. May I beg you to be my guide?”
“My home is above the Sphere of Parting Sorrow in the Sea of Brim¬ming Grief,” she answered with a smile. “I am the Goddess of Disen¬chantment from the Grotto of Emanating Fragrance on the Mountain of Expanding Spring in the Illusory Land of Great Void. I preside over ro¬mances and unrequited love on earth, the grief of women and the passion of men in the mundane world. The reincarnations of some former lovers have recently gathered here, and so I have come to look for a chance to mete out love and longing. It is no accident that we have met.
“My realm is not far from here. All I can offer you is a cup of fairy tea plucked by my own hands, a pitcher of fine wine of my own brewing, some accomplished singers and dancers, and twelve new fairy songs called ‘A Dream of Red Mansions.’ But won’t you come with me?” Forgetting Keqing in his delight, Baoyu followed the goddess to a stone archway inscribed: Illusory Land of Great Void. On either pillar was this couplet:
When false is taken for true, true becomes false;
If non-being turns into being, being becomes non-being.

Beyond this archway was a palace gateway with the inscription in large characters: Sea of Grief and Heaven of Love. The bold couplet flanking this read:
Firm as earth and lofty as heaven, passion from
time immemorial knows no end;
Pity silly lads and plaintive maids hard put to
it to requite debts of breeze and moonlight.

“Well, we ,“ thought Baoyu, “I wonder what’s meant by ‘passion from time immemorial’ and ‘debts of breeze and moonlight.’ From now on I’d like to have a taste of these things.”
Little did he know that by thinking in this way he had summoned an evil spirit into his inmost heart.
He followed the goddess through the second gate past two matching halls on both sides, each with its tablet and couplet. He had no time to read them all but noticed the names: Board of Infatuation, Board of Jealousy, Board of Morning Tears, Board of Night Sighs, Board of Spring Longing and Board of Autumn Sorrows.
“May I trouble you, goddess, to show me over these different boards?” he asked.
“They contain the records of the past and future of girls from all over the world,” she told him. “These may not be divulged in advance to you with your human eyes and mortal frame.”
But Baoyu would not take no for an answer and at last she yielded to his importunity.
“Very well then,” she conceded. “You may go in here and have a look round.”
Baoyu was overjoyed. He looked up and saw on the tablet the name Board of the Ill-Fated. This was flanked by the couplet:
They brought on themselves spring grief and
autumn anguish;
Wasted, their beauty fair as flowers and moon.

Grasping the meaning of this and strangely stirred, Baoyu entered and saw more than ten large cabinets, sealed and labelled with the names of different localities. Having no interest in other provinces, he was eager to find his native place and soon discovered one cabinet labelled First Reg¬ister of Twelve Beauties of Jinling. When he asked what this meant, Disenchantment told him:
“That is a record of the twelve foremost beauties in your honourable province. That’s why it’s called the First Register.”
“I’ve always heard that Jinling’s a very large place,” replied Baoyu. “Why are there only twelve girls? In our family alone just now, if you count the servants, we must have several hundreds.”
“True, there are many girls in your honourable province. Only those of the first grade are registered here. The next two cabinets contain records of those in the second and third grade. As for the rest, they are too mediocre for their lives to be worth recording.”
Baoyu looked at the next two cabinets and saw written on them: Sec¬ond Register of Twelve Beauties of Jinhing and Third Register of Twelve Beauties of Jinling. He opened the door of this last, took out the register and turned to the first page. This was covered by a painting in ink, not of any figures of landscape but of black clouds and heavy mist. Beside this were the lines:
A clear moon is rarely met with,
Bright clouds are easily scattered;
Her heart is loftier than the sky,
But her person is of low degree.
Her charm and wit give rise to jealousy,
Her early death is caused by calumny,
In vain her loving master’s grief must be.

On the next page Baoyu saw painted a bunch of flowers and a tat¬tered mat, with the legend:
Nothing avail her gentleness and compliance,
Osmanthus and orchid with her fragrance vie;
But this prize is borne off by an actor,
And luck passes the young master by.

Unable to make anything of this, he put the album down, opened the door of another cabinet and took out the Second Register. This opened at a picture of fragrant osmanthus above withered lotus in a dried-up pond. By this was written:
Sweet is she as the lotus in flower,
Yet none so sorely oppressed;
After the growth of a lonely tree in two soils
Her sweet soul will be dispatched to its final rest.
Still baffled, Baoyu put this volume aside and took out the First Regis¬ter. The first page had a painting of two withered trees on which hung a jade belt, while at the foot of a snowdrift lay a broken golden hairpin. Four lines of verse read:
Alas for her wifely virtue,
Her wit to sing of willow-down, poor maild!
Buried in snow the broken golden hairpin
And hanging in the wood the belt of jade.
Baoyu could make nothing of this either. He knew the goddess would not enlighten him, yet he could not bring himself to put the book down. So he turned to a painting of a bow from which was suspended a citron. This bore the legend:
For twenty years she arbitrates
Where pomegranates blaze by palace gates.
How can the late spring equal the spring’s start?
When Hare and Tiger meet,’3
From this Great Dream of life she must depart.
On the next page was a picture of two people flying a kite, while in a large boat out at sea sat a girl, weeping, covering her face with her hands. With this were the lines:
So talented and high-minded,
She is born too late for luck to come her way.
Through tears she watches the stream
On the Clear and Bright Day; “‘
A thousand lithe east wind blows,
But her home in her dreams is far away.
Next came a painting of drifting clouds and flowing water with the legend:
Nought avail her rank and riches, 
While yet in swaddling clothes an orphan lone; 
In a flash she mourns the setting sun,
The river Xiang runs dry, the clouds over Chu have flown.
Next was depicted a fine piece of jade dropped in the mud, with the verse:
Chastity is her wish,
Seclusion her desire;
Alas, though fine as gold or jade
She sinks at last in the mire.
There followed a sketch of a savage wolf pursuing a lovely girl to devour her. The verdict read:
For husband she will have a mountain wolf,
His object gained he ruthlessly berates her;
Fair bloom, sweet willow in a golden bower,
Too soon a rude awakening awaits her.
Next was depicted a seated girl reading a sutra alone in an old temple. This had the legend:
She sees through the transience of spring,
Dark Buddhist robes replace her garments fine;
Pity this child of a wealthy noble house
Who now sleeps alone by the dimly lit old shrine.
Next came a female phoenix perched on an iceberg, with the verdict:
This bird appears when the world falls on evil times;
None but admires her talents and her skill;
First she complies, then commands, then is dismissed,
Departing in tears to Jinling more wretched still.
After this was a lonely village with a pretty girl spinning in a humble cottage. The inscription read:

When fortune frowns, nobility means nothing;
When a house is ruined, kinsmen turn unkind.
Becuase of help given by chance to Granny Liu,
In time of need she is lucky a friend to find.
After this was painted a pot of orchids in bloom beside a beauty in ceremonial dress. The legend ran:

Peach and plum in spring winds finish seeding,
Who can bloom like the orchid at last?
Pure as ice and water she arouses envy,
Vain the groundless taunts that are cast.

Next came a picture on a beautiful woman hanging herself of a tower, with the verdict:
Love boundless as sea and sky is but illusion;
When lovers meet, lust must be king.
Say not all evil comes from the Rong Mansion,
Truly, disaster originates from the Ning.

Baoyu would have read on, but the goddess knowing his high natural endowments and quick intelligence feared the secrets of Heaven might be divulged. She closed the book therefore and said to him with a smile:

“Why not come with me to enjoy the strange sights here instead of puzzling your head over these silly riddles?”
As if in a daze he left the registers and followed her past pearl porti¬ères and embroidered curtains, painted pillars and carved beams. Words fail to describe those brilliant vermilion rooms, floors paved with gold, windows bright as snow and palaces of jade, to say nothing of the delec¬table fairy flowers, rare plants and fragrant herbs.
As Baoyu was feasting his eyes on these marvellous sights Disen¬chantment called with a laugh: “Come out quickly and welcome our honoured guest.”
At once out came several fairies, lotus sleeves swaying, feathery gar¬ments fluttering, lovely as spring blossom, entrancing as the autumn moon. At sight of Baoyu they reproached the goddess:

“So this is your guest! Why should we hurry out to meet him? You told us that today, at this hour, the spirit of Sister Vermilion Pearl would be coming to revisit her old haunts. That’s why we’ve been waiting all this time. Why bring this filthy creature here instead to pollute this domain of immaculate maidens?”
Baoyu started at that and wished he could slip away, feeling intoler¬ably gross and filthy, but Disenchantment took him by the hand.
“You don’t understand,” she explained to the fairies. “I did set off to the Rong Mansion today to fetch Vermilion Pearl, but as I was passing the Ning Mansion I met the spirits of the Duke of Ningguo and the Duke of Rongguo who told me, ‘Since the start of this dynasty, for some gen¬erations, our family has enjoyed a fine reputation as well as riches and rank. But after a hundred years our good fortune is at an end, gone be¬yond recall. Although we have many descendants, the only one fit to continue our work is our great-grandson Baoyu. Even though his is head¬strong and eccentric, lacking in intelligence, we nonetheless had certain hopes of him. However, our family’s luck has run out and there seemed to be no one to show him the right way. How fortunate we are to have met you, goddess. We beg you to warn him of the dangers of lusting after women, so that he may escape from their snares and set his feet on the right path. Then we two brothers will be happy.’

“Sympathizing with their request, I fetched him here. To begin with I made him look at the three registers of the girls in his own household. When he failed to understand, I brought him here to taste the illusion of carnal delight so that later he may perchance awaken to the truth.”

With that she led Baoyu inside. A subtle perfume hung in the air and he could not help asking what incense was being burned.

“You don’t have this scent in the dusty world so you wouldn’t know it,” Disenchantment told him, smiling. “This is made from the essences of the different exotic young plants which grow in all famous mountain resorts. Distilled with the resin of every precious tree, its name is Mar¬row of Manifold Fragrance.”
As Baoyu marvelled at this they took seats and young maids served tea with such a pure scent, exquisite flavour and refreshing quality that again he asked its name.
“This tea grows in the Grotto of Emanating Fragrance on the Moun¬tain of Expanding Spring,” Disenchantment told him. “Infused with the night dew from fairy flowers and spiritual leaves, its name is Thousand Red Flowers in One Cavern.”
Nodding in appreciation Baoyu looked round him. He saw jasper lutes, rare bronze tripods, ancient paintings, new volumes of verse nothing was lacking. But what delighted him most was the rouge by the window and the spilt powder left from a lady’s toilet. On the wall hung this couplet:

Spiritual, secluded retreat,
Celestial world of sweet longing.

Lost in admiration of everything about him, he asked the fairies’ names.
They were introduced by their different appellations as Fairy of Amorous
Dreams, Great Mistress of Passion, Golden Maid Bringing Grief, and
Saint of Transmitted Sorrow.
Presently little maids brought in tables and chairs and set out wine and refreshments. Verily, glass vessels overflowed with nectar and amber cups brimmed with ambrosia. No need to dwell on the sumptuousness of that feast. He could not resist inquiring, though, what gave the wine its remarkably pure bouquet.
“This wine is made from the stamens of a hundred flowers and the sap of ten thousand trees mixed with the marrow of unicorns and fer¬mented with phoenix milk,” the goddess told him. “We call it Ten Thou¬sand Beauties in One Cup.”
As Baoyu sipped it, twelve dancing girls stepped forward to ask what they should perform.
“The twelve new songs called ‘A Dream of Red Mansions’,” or¬dered Disenchantment.
The dancers assented. Lightly striking their sandalwood castanets and softly plucking their silver lyres, they began:
At the dawn of creation....

But the goddess interrupted them to tell Baoyu, “This is not like your romantic dramas in the dusty world in which there are always the fixed parts of scholars, girls, warriors, old men and clowns, and the set nine tunes of the south or north. These songs of ours lament one person or event in an impromptu fashion and are easily set to wind or stringed accompaniments. But no outsider can appreciate their subtle qualities, and I doubt whether you will really understand their meaning. Unless you first read the text, they will seem to you as tasteless as chewed wax.”

With that she turned and ordered a maid to bring the words of the “Dream of Red Mansions” songs. She handed the manuscript to Baoyu, who followed the text as he listened.

FIRST SONG:
PROLOGUE TO THE DREAM OF RED MANSIONS
At the dawn of creation
Who sowed the seeds of love?
From the strong passion of breeze and moonlight they came.
So in this world of sweet longing
On a day of distress, in an hour of loneliness,
Fain would I impart my senseless grief
By singing this Dream of Red Mansions
To mourn the Gold and the Jade.


SECOND SONG:
A LIFE MISSPENT
Well-matched, all say, the gold and the jade;
I alone recall the pledge between plant and stone.
Vainly facing the hermit in sparkling snow-clad hills
I forget not the fairy in lone woods beyond the world.
I sigh, learning that no man’s happiness is complete:
Even a pair thought well-matched
May find disappointment.


THIRD SONG:
VAIN LONGING
One is an immortal flower of fairyland,
The other fair flawless jade,
And were it not predestined
Why should they meet again in this existence?
Yet, if predestined,
Why does their love come to nothing?
One sighs to no purpose,
The other yearns in vain;
One is the moon reflected in the water,
The other but a flower in the mirror.
How many tears can well from her eyes?
Can they flow on from autumn till winter,
From spring till summer?


Baoyu could see no merit in these disjointed and cryptic songs, but the plaintive music intoxicated his senses. So without probing into the mean¬ing or asking where the songs came from, he listened for a while to pass the time. The singers went on:


FOURTH SONG:
THE TRANSIENCE OF LIFE
At the height of honour and splendour
Death comes for her;
Open-eyed, she has to leave everything behind
As her gentle soul passes away.
So far her home beyond the distant mountains
That in a dream she finds and tells her parents:
“Your child has gone now to the Yellow Spring;
You must find a retreat before it is too late.”


FIFTH SONG:
SEPARATION FROM DEAR ONES
Three thousand li she must sail through wind and rain,
Giving up her home and her own flesh and blood;
But afraid to distress their declining years with tears
She tells her parents: “Don’t grieve for your child.
From of old good luck and bad have been predestined,
Partings and reunions are decreed by fate;
Although from now on we shall dwell far apart,
Let us still live at peace;
Don’t worry over your unworthy daughter.”


SIXTH SONG:
SORROW AMIDST JOY
She is still in her cradle when her parents die,
Although living in luxury who will dote on her?
Happily she is born too courageous and open-hearted
Ever to take a love affair to heart.
Like bright moon and fresh breeze in a hall of jade
She is matched with a talented and handsome husband;
May she live with him for long years
To make up for her wretched childhood!
But over the Gaotang Tower the clouds disperse,
The river Xiang runs dry.
This is the common fate of mortal men,
Useless it is to repine.

SEVENTH SONG:
SPURNED BY THE WORLD
By nature fair as an orchid,
With talents to match an immortal,
Yet so eccentric that all marvel at her.
To her, rich food stinks,
Silken raiment is vulgar and loathsome;
She knows not that superiority fosters hatred,
For the world despises too much purity.
By the dim light of an old shrine she will fade away,
Her powder and red chamber, her youth and beauty wasted,
To end, despite herself, defiled on the dusty road
Even as flawless white jade dropped in the mud.
In vain young scions of noble houses will sigh for her.

EIGHTH SONG:
UNION OF ENEMIES
A mountain wolf, a savage ruthless beast,
Mindless of past obligations
Gives himself up to pride, luxury and license,
Holding cheap the charms of a noble family’s daughter,
Trampling on the precious child of a ducal mansion. Alas, in less than a year her sweet soul fades away.

NINTH SONG:
PERCEPTION OF THE TRANSIENCE OF FLOWERS
She will see through the three Springs15
And set no store
By the red of peach-blossom, the green of willows,
Stamping out the fire of youthful splendour
To savour the limpid peace of a clear sky.
Though the peach runs riot against the sky, 
Though the clouds teem with apricot blossom,
Who has seen any flower that can win safely through autumn?
Even	now mourners are lamenting by groves of poplars,
Ghosts are wailing below green maples, 
And the weeds above their graves stretch to the skyline.
Truly, changes in fortune are the cause of men’s toil, 
Spring blooming and autumn withering the fate of flowers.
Who can escape the gate of birth, the fate of death?
Yet in the west, they say, grows the sal tree16
Which bears the fruit of immortality.

TENTH SONG:
RUINED BY CUNNING
Too much cunning in plotting and scheming
Is the cause of her own undoing;
While yet living her heart is broken
And after death all her subtlety comes to nothing.
A rich house, all its members at peace,
Is ruined at last and scattered;
In vain her anxious thought for half a lifetime,
For like a disturbing dream at dead of night,
Like the thunderous collapse of a great mansion,
Or the flickering of a lamp that gutters out,
Mirth is suddenly changed to sorrow.
Ah, nothing is certain in the world of men.

ELEVENTH SONG:
A LITTLE ACT OF KINDNESS
Thanks to one small act of kindness
She meets by chance a grateful friend;
Fortunate that her mother
Has done some unnoticed good.
Men should rescue the distressed and aid the poor,
Be not like her heartless uncle or treacherous cousin
Who for love of money forget their own flesh and blood.
Truly, rewards and punishments
Are meted out by Heaven.

TWELFTH SONG:
SPLENDOUR COMES TOO LATE
Love is only a reflection in a mirror,
Worse	still, rank and fame are nothing but a dream,
So quickly youth and beauty fade away.
Say no more of embroidered curtains and love-bird quilts,
Nor can a pearl tiara and phoenix jacket
Stave off for long Death’s summons.
Though it is said that old age should be free from want,
This depends on the unknown merits laid by for one’s children.
Jubilant in official headdress
And glittering with a gold seal of high office,
A man may be awe-inspiring and exalted,
But the gloomy way to the Yellow Spring is near.
What remains of the generals and statesmen of old?
Nothing but an empty name admired by posterity.

THIRTEENTH SONG:
GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END
Fragrant dust falls from painted beams at the close of spring;
By nature passionate and fair as the moon,
The true root is she of the family’s destruction.
The decline of the old tradition starts with Jing,
The chief blame for the House’s ruin rests with Ning.
All their sins come about through Love.

EPILOGUE:
THE BIRDS SCATFER TO THE WOOD
An official household declines,
Rich nobles’ wealth is spent.
She who did god escapes the jaws of death,
The heartless meet with certain retribution.
Those who took a life have paid with their own lives,
The tears one owed have all been requited in kind.
Not light the retribution for sins against others;
All are predestined, partings and reunions.
Seek the cause of untimely death in a part existence,
Lucky she who enjoys rank and riches in old age;
Those who see through the world escape from the world,
While foolish lovers forfeit their lives for nothing.
When the food is gone the birds return to the wood;
All that’s left is emptiness and a great void.

After this they would have gone on to sing the second series, but the Goddess of Disenchantment saw that Baoyu was utterly bored.
“Silly boy!” she sighed. “You still don’t understand.”
Baoyu asked the faires then not to sing any more, explaining that he was drunk and would like to sleep off the effects of the wine.
Disenchantment ordered the feast to be cleared away and escorted him into a scented chamber hung with silk, more luxuriously furnished than any he had seen in his life. More amazing still, he saw there a girl whose charm reminded him of Baochai, her grace of Daiyu. He was puzzling over this when Disenchantment said:
“In your dusty world, countless green-windowed chambers and em¬broidered boudoirs of rich and noble families are desecrated by amorous men and loose women. Worse still, all dissolute wretches since ancient times have drawn a distinction between love of beauty and carnal desire, between love and lust, so as to gloss over their immorality. Love of beauty leads to lust, and desire even more so. Thus every sexual transport of cloud and rain is the inevitable climax of love of beauty and desire.
“And what I like about you is that you are the most lustful man ever to have lived in this world since time immemorial.”
“You must be mistaken, goddess,” protested the frightened Baoyu. “My parents are always scolding me because I’m too lazy to study. How dare I risk being called ‘lustful’ as well? Besides, I’m still young and hardly know what that word means.
“Don’t worry,” said Disenchantment. “In principle all lust is the same, but it has different connotations. For instance, there are profligates in the world who delight only in physical beauty, singing, dancing, endless mer¬riment and constant rain-and-cloud games. They would like to possess all the beauties in the world to gratify their momentary desires. These are coarse creatures steeped in fleshly lust.
“In your case, you were born with a passionate nature which we call ‘lust of the mind.’ This can be grasped by the mind but not expressed, apprehended intuitively but not described in words. Whereas this makes you a welcome companion to women, in the eyes of the world it is bound to make you appear strange and unnatural, an object of mockery and scorn.
“After meeting your worthy ancestors the Duke of Ningguo and the Duke of Rongguo today and hearing their heartfelt request, I could not bear to let you be condemned by the world for the greater glory of women. So I brought you here to entertain you with divine wine and fairy tea, then tried to awaken you with subtle songs. And now I am going to match you with my younger sister Jianmei,’7 whose childhood name is Keqing, and this very night at the auspicious hour you must consummate your union. This is simply to let you know that after you have proved for yourself the illusory nature of pleasures in fairyland you should realize the vanity of love in your dusty world. From this day on you must understand this and mend your ways, giving your minds to the teachings of Confucius and Meneius and devoting yourself to the betterment of society.”
With that she initiated him into the secrets of sex. Then, pushing him forward, she closed the door and left.
Baoyu in a daze did all the goddess had told him. We can draw a veil over his first act of love.
The next day, he and Keqing had become so attached and exchanged so many endearments that they could not bear to part. Hand in hand they walked out for a stroll.

Suddenly they found themselves in a thorny thicker infested with wolves and tigers. In front a black torrent barred their way and there was no bridge across. They were in a quandary when Disenchantment over¬took them.
“Stop! Stop!” she cried. “Turn back before it’s too late.”
Standing petrified Baoyu asked, “What is this place?”
“The Ford of Infatuation,” Disenchantment told him. “It’s a hundred thousand feet deep and a thousand ii wide, and there is no boat to ferry you across. Nothing but a wooden raft steered by Master Wood and punted by Acolyte Ashes, who accept no payment in silver or gold but ferry over those who are fated to cross. You strolled here by accident. If you had fallen in, then all my well-meant advice to you would have been wasted.”
Even as she spoke there came a crash like thunder from the Ford of Infatuation as hordes of monsters and river devils rushed towards Baoyu to drag him in. Cold sweat poured off him like rain. And in his terror he shouted:
“Keqing! Save me!”
Xichun hurried in with the other maids in dismay to take him in her arms.
“Don’t be afraid, Baoyu,” cried the girls. “We’re here.”
Qin Keqing was on the verandah telling the maids to watch the kittens and puppies at their play, when she heard Baoyu call her childhood name in his dream.
“No one here knows my childhood name,” she thought in surprise. “How is it that he called it out in his dream?”
Truly:
Strange encounters take place in a secret dream, 
For he is the most passionate lover of all time.


Chapter 6

Baoyu Has His First Taste of Love
Granny Liu Pays Her First Visit
to the Rong Mansion



The theme:
She knocks one day at the gate of the rich,
And the rich themselves talk of want;
Their gift is not a thousand pieces of gold
But more than her own flesh and blood could give.
Qin Keqing was amazed to hear Baoyu call her childhood name in his dream, but she could hardly question him. As for Baoyu, he felt as bemused as if he had lost his wits. Attendants promptly brought him a longan decoction and after sipping a couple of mouthfuls he got up to adjust his clothes.
As Xiren reached out to fasten his trousers for him, she touched his thigh and found it cold and sticky. She drew back in alarm and asked what was the matter. Rushing crimson, Baoyu simply squeezed her hand.
Now Xiren was an intelligent girl, and being a couple of years older than Baoyu she already knew the facts of life. She guessed from the state he was in what must have happened and blushing herself helped him to tidy his clothes without any further questions.
They went then to where the Lady Dowager was and after a hasty meal returned to his room, where in the absence of the other maids and nurses Xiren fetched him a change of clothes.
“Don’t tell anyone, please, dear sister,” begged Baoyu sheepishly.
With an embarrassed smile she asked, “What did you dream about to dirty yourself like that?”
“It’s a long story,” answered Baoyu, then told her his dream in full, con¬cluding with his initiation by Disenchantment into the “sport of cloud and rain.” Xiren, hearing this, covered her face and doubled up in a fit of giggles.
Since Baoyu had long been attracted by Xiren’s gentle, coquettish ways, he urged her to carry out the instructions with him; and as she knew that the Lady Dowager had given her to Baoyu she felt this would not be an undue liberty. So they tried it out secretly together, and luckily they were not discovered. From that hour Baoyu treated Xiren with spe¬cial consideration and she served him even more faithfully than before.

Now although the Rong Mansion was not unduly large, masters and servants together numbered three or four hundred. And although it had not too much business, a score of things had to be seen to every day easier to unravel a skein of tangled hemp than to recount them! Just as I was wondering with which event or person to begin, suddenly from a thousand ii away came a humble individual as insignificant as a mustard-seed, who being remotely connected with the Rong House was that day paying them a visit. Let me take her family, then, as a starting point.
Do you know the name of this family and its remote connection with the Rong Mansion? If you think this too trivial or vulgar, Gentle Readers, you had better put this book down and choose one more to your liking. If you fancy this senseless story will serve to while away the time, then let me, the stupid Stone, tell you it in detail.
The surname of these humble folk I have just mentioned was Wang. They were local people whose grandfather while a petty official in the capital had come to know Xifeng’s grandfather, Lady Wang’s father. Eager to attach himself to the powerful Wangs, he ‘joined family” with them, calling himself Wang’s nephew. At that time only Lady Wang and her elder brother, Xifeng’s father, both of whom had accompanied their father to the capital, were aware of this remote “clansman.” The rest of the Wangs knew nothing about these connections.
The grandfather had died leaving a son Wang Cheng who, since the family was then in a poor way, moved back to their native village outside the capital. Recently Wang Cheng too had fallen ill and died, leaving a son Gouer, who had married a girl from a family called Lin by whom he had a son called Baner and a daughter called Qinger. Their family of four lived on the land.
As Gouer was busy during the day and his wife had the housework to see to, there was nobody to mind the children until he fetched his mother-¬in-law Granny Liu to live with them. An old widow who had been through much and was supporting herself as best she could on two mu of poor land because she had no son, she was only too glad to be taken in and cared for by her son-in-law. She did her best to make herself useful to him and her daughter.
Autumn had ended, the cold was setting in, and because they had made no provision for the winter Gouer drank a few cups to drown his cares then started venting his spleen on his family. His wife was afraid to talk back, but Granny Liu was not going to stand for this.
“You mustn’t mind me butting in, son-in-law,” she said. “We villag¬ers are simple honest folk who eat according to the size of our bowl. Your trouble is that your father gave you such a soft time of it when you were young that you’re a bad manager. When you have money you never look ahead; when you’ve none you fly into a temper. That’s no way for a grown man to behave. We may be living outside the capital but we’re still at the feet of the Emperor. And ‘Changan’s streets are strewn with money’ — for those who know how to lay hands on it. What’s the use of flying into a huff at home?”
“It’s easy for you to jabber away on the kang,” Gouer retorted. “Do you want me to go out and steal? To rob someone?”
“Who’s asking you to rob anyone? But let’s put our heads together and think of something. Do you expect silver coins to come rolling in of themselves?”
“Would I have waited all this time if there was some way out?” Gouer snorted. “I’ve no relatives who live on rent, no friends in official posts what can I do? Even if I had, they’d most likely cold-shoulder us.”
“Don’t be so sure,” said Granny Liu. “Man proposes, Heaven dis¬poses. Work out a plan, trust to Buddha, and something may come of it for all you know.
“As a matter of fact, I’ve thought of a chance for you. In the old days you joined families with the Wangs of Jinling, and twenty years back they treated you not badly. Since then of course you’ve been too pig¬headed to go near them, so that now you’ve drifted apart.
“I recollect calling on them once with my daughter. Their second young lady was really open-handed, so pleasant and free from airs. She’s now the wife of the second Lord Jia of the Rong Mansion. I hear she’s grown even more charitable and is always setting aside rice and money to give alms to Buddhists and Taoists. Her brother has been promoted to some post at the frontier, but I’m sure this Lady Wang would remember us. Why not go and try your luck? She may do something for us for old times’ sake. If she’s at all willing to help, one hair from her body would be thicker than our waist.”
“Mother’s right,” put in her daughter. “But how could frights like us go to their gate? Most likely their gatekeepers would refuse to announce us. Why ask for a slap on the face?”
But Gouer had an eye to the main chance. Attracted by this sugges¬tion, he laughed at his wife’s objection and proposed:
“Since this is your idea, mother, and you’ve called on the lady before, why not go there tomorrow and see how the wind blows?”
“Aiya! ‘The threshold of a noble house is deeper than the sea.’ And who am I? The servants there don’t know me, it’s no use my going.”
“That’s no problem. I’ll tell you what to do. Take young Baner with you and ask for their steward Zhou Rui. If you see him, we stand a chance. This Zhou Rui had dealings with my old man and used to be on the best of terms with us.”
“I know him too. But how will they receive me after all this time? Still, you’re a man and too much of a fright to go, and my daughter’s too young to make a show of herself. I’m old enough not to mind risking a snub. If I have any luck we’ll all share it. And even if I don’t bring back any silver the trip won’t be wasted — I’ll have seen a little high life.”
They all laughed at that, and that same evening the matter was settled.
The next day Granny Liu got up before dawn to wash and comb her hair and to coach Baner. Being an ignorant child of five or six, he was so delighted at the prospect of a trip to the city that he agreed to everything he was told.
In town they asked their way to Rong Ning Steet. But Granny Liu was too overawed by the crowd of sedan-chairs and horses there to venture near the stone lions which flanked the Rong Mansion’s main gate. Having dusted off her clothes and given Baner fresh instructions, she timidly approached the side entrance where some arrogant, corpu¬lent servants were sunning themselves on long benches, engaged in a lively discussion.
Granny Liu edged forward and said, “Greetings, gentlemen.”
The men surveyed her from head to foot before condescending to ask where she had come from.
“I’ve come to see Mr. Zhou who came with Lady Wang when she was married,” she told them with a smile. “May I trouble one of you gentlemen to fetch him out for me?”
The men ignored her for a while, but finally one of them said, “Wait over there by that corner. One of his family may come out by and by.”
An older man interposed, “Why make a fool of her and waste her time?” He told Granny Liu, “Old Zhou has gone south but his wife is at home. His house is at the back. Go round to the back gate and ask for her there.”
Having thanked him, Granny Liu took Baner round to the back gate. Several pedlars had put down their wares there and about two dozen rowdy servant boys had crowded round those selling snacks and toys.
The old woman caught hold of one of these youngsters and asked, “Can you tell me, brother, if Mrs. Zhou is at home?”
“Which Mrs. Zhou?” he retorted. “We have three Mrs. Zhous and two Granny Zhous. What’s her job?”
“She’s the wife of Zhou Rui who came with Lady Wang.”
“That’s easy then. Come with me.
He scampered ahead of her through the back gate and pointed out a compound. “That’s where she lives.” Then he called, “Auntie Zhou! Here’s a granny asking for you.”
Mrs. Zhou hurried out to see who it was while Granny Liu hastened forward crying, “Sister Zhou! How are you?”
It took the other some time to recognize her. Then she answered with a smile, “Why, it’s Granny Liu! I declare, after all these years I hardly knew you. Come on in and sit down.”
Smiling as she walked in, Granny Liu remarked, “The higher the rank, the worse the memory. How could you remember us?”
Once indoors, Mrs. Zhou told a maid to pour tea. Then looking at Baner she exclaimed, “What a big boy he is!” After a short exchange of polite inquiries, she asked Granny Liu whether she just happened to be passing or had come with any special object.
“I came specially to see you, sister, and also to inquire after Her ladyship’s health. If you could take me to see her, that would be nice. If you can’t, I’ll just trouble you to pass on my respects.”
This gave Mrs. Zhou a shrewd idea of the reason for her visit. Since Gouer had helped her husband to purchase some land, she could hardly refuse Granny Liu’s appeal for help. Besides, she was eager to show that she was someone of consequence in this household.
“Don’t worry, granny,” she replied with a smile. “You’ve come all this way in good earnest and of course I’ll help you to see the real Bud¬dha. Strictly speaking, it’s not my job to announce visitors. We all have different duties here. My husband, for instance, just sees to collecting rents in spring and autumn or escorting the young gentlemen in his spare time, while all I do is accompany the ladies on their outings. But since you’re related to Her Ladyship and have come to me for help as if I were someone, I’ll make an exception and take in a message for you.
“I must tell you, though, that things have changed here in the last five years. Her Ladyship doesn’t handle much business any more but leaves everything to the second master’s wife. And who do you think she is? My lady’s own niece, the daughter of her elder brother and the one whose childhood name was ‘Master Feng.’ ”
“You don’t say!” cried Granny Liu. “No wonder I predicted great things for her. In that case I must see her today.”
“Of course. Nowadays Her Ladyship can’t be troubled with much business, so whenever possible she leaves it to the young mistress to entertain visitors. Even if you don’t see Her Ladyship you must see her, or your visit will have been wasted.”
“Buddha be praised! I’m most grateful for you help, sister.”
“Don’t say that. ‘He who helps others helps himself.’ All I need do is say one word — no trouble at all.” She sent her little maid in to see if the Lady Dowager’s meal had been served.
“This young mistress Feng can’t be more than twenty,” remarked Granny Liu as the two of them went on chatting. “Fancy her being able to run a great household like this!”
“You don’t know the half of it, my dear granny. Young as she is, she handles things much better than anyone else. She’s grown up a beauty too. Clever isn’t the word for her! As for talking, ten eloquent men are no match for her. You’ll see for yourself by and by. If she has a fault, it’s that she’s rather hard on those below her.”
At this point the maid came back to report, “The old lady’s finished her meal. The second mistress is with Lady Wang.”
At once Mrs. Zhou urged Granny Liu to hurry. “Come on! Our chance is while she has her own meal. Let’s go and wait for her. Later on such a crowd will be going there on business, we’ll hardly get a look in. And after her nap there’ll be even less chance to see her.”
They both got down from the kang and brushed their clothes. After some last-minute instructions to her grandson, Granny Liu followed Mrs. Zhou by winding ways to Jia Lian’s quarters, then waited in a covered passageway while Mrs. Zhou went past the spirit screen into the court and, before Xifeng’s return, explained who Granny Liu was to her trusted maid Pinger, who had come here as part of Xifeng’s dowry and then become Jia Lian’s concubine.
“She’s come all this way today to pay her respects. In the old days Her Ladyship always used to see her, so I’m sure she’ll receive her: that’s why I’ve brought her in. When your mistress comes I’ll tell her the whole story. I don’t think she’ll blame me for taking too much on myself.”
Pinger decided to invite them in to sit down and accordingly Mrs. Zhou went out to fetch them. As they mounted the steps to the main reception room, a young maid raised a red wool portière and a waft of perfume greeted them as they entered. Granny Liu did not know what it was but felt she was walking on air. And she was so dazzled by every¬thing in the room that her head began to swim. She could only nod, smack her lips and cry “Gracious Buddha!”
Pinger was standing by the kang in the east room, the bedroom of Jia Lian’s daughter. Casting two searching glances at Granny Liu she greeted her rather curtly and bade her be seated.
Pinger’s silk dress, her gold and silver trinkets, and her face which was pretty as a flower made Granny Liu mistake her for her mistress. But before she could greet her as “my lady” she heard the girl and Mrs. Zhou address each other as equals and realized that this was just one of the more favoured maids.
Granny Liu and Baner were given seats on the kang, while Pinger and Mrs. Zhou sat face to face on the edge. Maids brought tea and as she sipped it the old woman heard a steady tock-tock-tock like the sound made by a flour-bolting machine. Staring about her she saw a box-like object attached to one of the pillars in the room, with a weight of sorts swinging to and fro below it.
“Whatever can that be?” she wondered. “What’s it doing?”
The next instant she started at a loud dong like the sound of a bronze bell or copper chimes repeated eight or nine times. Before she could clear up this mystery, a flock of maids ran in crying:
“The mistress is coming!”
Pinger and Mrs. Zhou stood up at once, telling Granny Liu to wait till she was sent for. They left her straining her ears, with bated breath, as she waited there in silence.
In the distance laughter rang out. Ten to twenty serving women swished through the hall to another inner room, while two or three bearing lac¬quered boxes came to this side to wait. When the order was given to serve the meal, all left but a few who handed round the dishes. A long silence followed. Then two women brought in a low table covered with scarcely touched dishes of fish and meat which they set down on the kang. At once Baner set up a clamour for some meat, but his grand¬mother slapped him and told him to keep away.
Next Mrs. Zhou came to beckon them with a smile. Granny Liu at once lifted her grandson off the kang and led him into the hall. After some whispered advice from Mrs. Zhou she followed her slowly into Xifeng’s room.
A soft scarlet flowered portière hung from brass hooks over the door, and the kang below the south window was spread with a scarlet rug. Against the wooden partition on the east were a back-rest and bolster of brocade with chain designs next to a glossy satin mattress with a golden centre. Beside them stood a silver spittoon.
Xifeng had on the dark sable hood with a pearl-studded band which she wore at home. She was also wearing a peach-red flowered jacket, a turquoise cape lined with grey squirrel and a skirt of crimson foreign crêpe lined with snow-weasel fur. Dazzlingly rouged and powdered she sat erect, stirring the ashes of her hand-stove with a tiny brass poker. Pinger stood by the kang with a small covered cup on a little lacquered tray, but Xifeng ignored the tea and kept her head lowered as she stirred the ashes.
“Why haven’t you brought her in yet?” she finally asked.
Then, raising her head to take the tea, she saw Mrs. Zhou with her two charges before her. She made a motion as if to rise and greeted them with a radiant smile, scolding Mrs. Zhou for not speaking up before.
Granny Liu had already curtseyed several times to Xifeng, who now hastily said:
“Help her up, Sister Zhou, she mustn’t curtsey to me. Ask her to be seated. I’m too young to remember what our relationship is, so I don’t know what to call her.”
“This is the old lady I was just telling you about,” said Mrs. Zhou.
Xifeng nodded.
By now Granny Liu had seated herself on the edge of the kang, and Baner took refuge behind her. Coaxed to come forward and bow, he would not budge.
“When relatives don’t call on each other they drift apart,” observed Xifeng with a smile. “People who know us would say you’re neglecting us. Petty-minded people who don’t know us so well might imagine we look down on everyone else.”
“Gracious Buddha!” exclaimed Granny Liu. “We’re too hard up to gad about. And even if Your Ladyship didn’t slap our faces for coming, your stewards might take us for tramps.”
“That’s no way to talk!” Xifeng laughed. “We’re simply poor offi¬cials trying to live up to our grandfather’s reputation. This household is nothing but an empty husk left over from the past. As the saying goes: ‘The Emperor himself has poor relations.’ How much more so in our case?”
She asked Mrs. Zhou if she had notified Lady Wang.
“I was waiting for madam’s instructions,” was the reply.
“Go and see how busy she is. If she has visitors, never mind. But if she’s free, let her know and see what she says.”
After Mrs. Zhou left on this errand, Xifeng told the maids to give Baner some sweetmeats. She was asking Granny Liu questions when Pinger announced the arrival of a number of servants to report on affairs in their charge.
“I have a guest. They can come back this evening,” said Xifeng. “Only bring in anyone whose business won’t wait.”
Pinger went out, reappearing to say, “They’ve nothing pressing so I sent them away.
As Xifeng nodded, Mrs. Zhou came back.
“Her Ladyship isn’t free today,” she said. “She hopes you’ll enter¬tain them and thank them for coming. If they just dropped in for a call, well and good. If they have any business they should tell you, madam.”
“I’ve no special business,” put in Granny Liu. “I just came to call on Her Ladyship and Madam Lian, seeing as how we’re related.”
“If you’ve nothing special, all right,” said Mrs. Zhou. “If you have, telling our second mistress is just the same as telling Her Ladyship.”
She winked at Granny Liu, who took the hint. Although her face burned with shame, she forced herself to pocket her pride and explain her reason for coming.
“By rights, I shouldn’t bring this up at our first meeting, madam. But as I’ve come all this way to ask your help, I’d better speak up. .
Just then pages by the second gate called out, “The young master from the East Mansion is here.”
Cutting Granny Liu short Xifeng asked, “Where is Master Rong?” Booted footsteps sounded and in walked a handsome youth of seven¬teen or eighteen. Slender and graceful in light furs, he wore a jewelled girdle, fine clothes and a gorgeous hat. Granny Liu didn’t know whether to sit or stand and longed for some hiding-place.
“Sit down,” said Xifeng with a twinkle. “It’s only my nephew.”
Granny Liu perched gingerly on the edge of the kang.
Jia Rong announced cheerfully, “My father’s sent me to ask a favour, aunt. He’s expecting an important guest tomorrow, and he’d like to bor¬row that glass screen for the kang that our Grand-Aunt Wang gave you. He’ll return it promptly.”
“You’re too late,” replied Xifeng. “I gave it to somebody only yester¬day.”
Chuckling, Jia Rong half knelt by the foot of the kang. “If you won’t lend it, aunt, I’ll be given another sound thrashing for not asking properly. Have pity on your nephew!”
“You seem to imagine all the Wangs’ things are special. Haven’t you plenty of stuff of your own over there?”
“Nothing half as good.” He laughed. “Please, aunt, be kind!”
“Then look out for your skin if you chip it!”
She ordered Pinger to fetch the keys to the upstairs rooms and find trustworthy people to deliver the screen.
“I’ve brought men to carry it.” Jia Rong’s face lit up, his eyes twinkled. “I’ll see that they’re careful.”
He had barely left when she suddenly called him back.
Servants outside echoed, “Master Rong, you’re asked to go back.”
The young man hurried in again and stood at attention to hear his aunt’s instructions. Xifeng sipped her tea slowly and thoughtfully for a while, then said with a laugh:
“Never mind. Come back again after supper. I’ve company now and don’t feel in the mood to tell you at the moment.”
So Jia Rong slowly withdrew.
Granny Liu felt easy enough at last to say, “The reason I brought your nephew here today is that his parents haven’t a bite to eat. And winter’s coming on, making things worse. So I brought your nephew here to ask for your help.” She nudged Baner. “Well, what did your dad tell you? What did he send us here for? Was it just to eat sweets?”
Xifeng smiled at this blunt way of talking. “Don’t say any more. I understand.” She asked Mrs. Zhou, “Has granny eaten yet?”
“We set out first thing in such a rush, we’d no time to eat anything,” said Granny Liu.
At once Xifeng ordered a meal for the visitors. Mrs. Zhou passed on the order and a table was set for them in the east room.
“Sister Zhou, see that they have all they want,” said Xifeng. “I can’t keep them company.
When Mrs. Zhou had taken them to the east room, Xifeng called her back to hear what Lady Wang had said.
“Her ladyship says they don’t really belong to our family,” Mrs. Zhou told her. “They joined families because they have the same surname and their grandfather was an official in the same place as our old master. We haven’t seen much of them these last few years, but whenever they came we didn’t let them go away empty-handed. Since they mean well, coming to see us, we shouldn’t slight them. If they need help, madam should use her own discretion.”
“I was thinking, if we were really relatives it was funny I didn’t know the first thing about them.”
As Xifeng was speaking Granny Liu came back from her meal with Baner, loud in her thanks.
“Sit down now and listen to me, dear old lady,” said Xifeng cheerfully. “I know what you were hinting at just now. We shouldn’t wait for rela¬tives to come to our door before we take care of them. But we’ve plenty of troublesome business here, and now that Her Ladyship’s growing old she sometimes forgets things. Besides, when I took charge recently I didn’t really know all our family connections. Then again, although we look prosperous you must realize that a big household has big difficulties of its own, though few may believe it. But since you’ve come so far today and this is the first time you’ve asked me for help, I can’t send you away empty-handed. Luckily Her Ladyship gave me twenty taels of sil¬ver yesterday to make clothes for the maids, and I haven’t yet touched it. If you don’t think it too little, take that to be going on with.”
Talk of difficulties had dashed all Granny Liu’s hopes and set her heart palpitating. The promise of twenty taels put her in a flutter of joy.
“Ah,” she cried, “I know what difficulties are. But ‘A starved camel is bigger than a horse.’ No matter how, ‘A hair from your body is thicker than our waist.”’
Mrs. Zhou kept signalling to her not to talk in the crude way, but Xifeng merely laughed and seemed not to mind. She sent Pinger for the package of silver and a string of cash and presented these to the old woman.
“Here’s twenty taels to make the child some winter clothes. If you refuse it, I shall think you’re offended. With the cash you can hire a cart. When you’ve time, drop in again as relatives should. It’s growing late, I won’t keep you for no purpose. Give my compliments to everyone at home to whom I should be remembered.”
She stood up and Granny Liu, having thanked her profusely, took the silver and cash and followed Mrs. Zhou towards the servants’ quarters.
“Gracious me!” exclaimed Mrs. Zhou. “What possessed you when you saw her to keep on about ‘your nephew’? At the risk of offending you I must say this: Even if he were a real nephew you should have glossed it over. Master Rong, now, he’s her honest-to-goodness nephew --- where would she get a nephew like Baner?”
“My dear sister!” Granny Liu beamed. “I was struck all of a heap at sight of her and didn’t know what I was saying.”
Chatting together they reached Zhou Rui’s house and sat down for a few moments. Granny Liu wanted to leave a piece of silver to buy sweets for Mrs. Zhou’s children, but this Mrs. Zhou most resolutely declined --- such small sums meant nothing to her. Then with boundless thanks Granny Liu left by the back gate.
To know what followed, you must read the next chapter.
Truly:
In affluence, charity is freely dispensed,
One deeply grateful is better than kinsmen or friends.

Chapter 7

Madam You Invites Xifeng Alone
At a Feast in the Ning Mansion Baoyu
First Meets Qin Zhong



The theme:
Twelve maids pretty as flowers,
But who is it that loves them?
Do you ask the name of the one he meets?
It is Qin whose home is south of the Yangtze River.

After seeing off Granny Liu, Mrs. Zhou went to report to Lady Wang. On being told by her maids that their mistress had gone to chat with Aunt Xue, she made her way through the east side gate and the east courtyard to Pear Fragrance Court. On the verandah steps there, Lady Wang’s maid Jinchuan was playing with a girl who had just let her hair grow. Realizing that Mrs. Zhou had come on business, Jinchuan nodded towards the door.
Mrs. Zhou softly raised the portiere and went in. Lady Wang and her sister were having a good long gossip on domestic matters, and not want¬ing to disturb them she went into the inner room where Baochai in a house dress, her hair pinned into a loose knot, was copying an embroidery pattern with her maid Yinger at the low table on the kang. She put down her brush and turned with a smile to offer the visitor a seat.
“How are you, miss?” asked Mrs. Zhou, sitting on the edge of the kang, “I haven’t seen you over on our side for several days. Did Baoyu do something to annoy you?”
“What an idea! I’ve been staying in for a couple of days because an old ailment’s been troubling me again.”
“Why, miss, what is it? Better send for a doctor at once to make out a prescription. A few doses should set you right once and for all. It’s no joke being an invalid at your age.
“Don’t talk to me about medicine!” Baochai laughed. “Goodness knows how much silver we’ve squandered on doctors and medicines to cure this illness of mine. The most famous physicians and the most fabu¬lous drugs were of no use at all. In the end, luckily, there came a tonsured monk who claimed to specialize in mysterious diseases. We called him in and he diagnosed my trouble as a choleric humour I’d brought from the womb, but which thanks to my good constitution wasn’t too serious. No ordinary pills bring any relief, but he gave us an exotic prescription from across the seas, together with a packet of aromatic powder he’d pro¬cured as adjuvant goodness knows where. He prescribed one pill each time an attack comes on. And strange to say that’s done me good.”
“What is this prescription from across the seas? If you’ll tell me, miss, we’ll keep it in mind and recommend it to others with the same trouble. That would be a good deed.”
“Well, better not ask. But if you must know, it’s the most troublesome prescription.” Baochai laughed. “There aren’t too many ingredients and they’re easily obtainable, but each has to be gathered at just the right time. You have to take twelve ounces of the stamens of white peonies that bloom in the spring, twelve ounces of the stamens of white lotus that blooms in the summer, twelve ounces of the stamens of white hibiscus that blooms in the autumn, and twelve ounces of the stamens of white plum that blooms in the winter. These four kinds of stamens must be dried in the sun on the following vernal equinox, then mixed well with the powder. Then you must take twelve drains of rain that fell on the day Rain Begins..
“Aiya!” broke in Mrs. Zhou. “That would take three years. And what if it doesn’t rain on the day Rain Begins?”
“Exactly. You can’t always count on it. If it doesn’t, you just have to wait. You also have to collect twelve drains of dew on the day White Dew,2 twelve drains of frost on the day Frost Falls,3 and twelve drains of snow on the day Slight Snow.4 These liquids are mixed with the other ingredients, then twelve drains of honey and twelve of white sugar are added to make pills the size of longans. These must be kept in an old porcelain jar and buried beneath the roots of flowers. When the illness comes on, this jar can be dug up and one pill taken with twelve candareens of a phellodendron concoction.”
“Gracious Buddha!” Mrs. Zhou chuckled. “How terribly chancy! You
might wait ten years without such a run of luck.”
“Well, we were lucky enough to collect all the ingredients and have them carefully made up within two years of the monk’s telling us. We brought the pills up from the south. They’re buried under one of the pear trees now.~~
“Has this medicine any name?”
“Yes, the scabby monk told us they’re called Cold Fragrance Pills.”
Mrs. Thou nodded. “What are the symponis of this illness of yours, miss?”
“Nothing serious. Slight fits of coughing and shortness of breath. But one pill clears it up.”
Before they could say more, Lady Wang asked who was there. Mrs. Zhou hurried out and seized this chance to tell her about Granny Liu. It seemed Lady Wang had no further instructions for her, and she was on the point of leaving when Aunt Xue stopped her.
“Wait a minute,” she said with a smile. “I’ve something for you to take back.”
She called for Xiangling and the portiere clacked as in came the girl who had been playing with Jinchuan.
“Did you call, madam?” she asked.
“Bring me that box of flowers,” ordered Aunt Xue.
Xiangling accordingly fetched a brocade box.
“These are twelve sprays of gauze flowers of the new sort made in the Palace, “ explained Aunt Xue. “I remembered them yesterday, and thought it a pity to leave them tucked away when the girls might like to wear them. I meant to send them over yesterday, but forgot. You may as well take them now that you’re here. Give two each to your three young ladies. Of the six left, give a couple to Miss Lin and the other four to Master Feng.”
“It’s kind of you to think of them,” remarked Lady Wang. “But why not keep them for Baochai?”
“You don’t know what an odd girl she is, sister. She dislikes wearing flowers or make-up.”
Going out with the box, Mrs. Zhou found Jinchuan still sunning herself on the steps. “Tell me,” she said, “isn’t Xiangling the girl there was all that talk about? The one bought just before they came to the capital, who
was at the bottom of that manslaughter case?”
“That’s right,” said Jinchuan.
Just then Xiangling came over, smiling. Mrs. Zhou took her hand and studied her intently, then turned to Jinchuan again:
“She’s a handsome girl. Reminds me of Master Rong’s wife in our East Mansion.”
“That’s what I say,” agreed Jinchuan.
Mrs. Zhou asked Xiangling how old she had been when sold, where her parents were, her age now and her native place. But the girl simply shook her head and said she could not remember, so that their hearts bled for her.
Then Mrs. Zhou took the flowers to the back of Lady Wang’s princi¬pal apartment. Recently the Lady Dowager had found it inconvenient to have all her grand-daughters crowded together in her compound. Keep¬ing just Baoyu and Daiyu for company, she had sent Yingchun, Tanchun and Xichun to live in three small suites behind Lady Wang’s quarters, under the care of Li Wan. Hence Mrs. Zhou stopped here first as it was on her way, and found a few maids waiting in the hail for when they should be wanted.
Yingchun’s maid Siqi and Tanchun’s maid Daishu raised the portiere at that moment and stepped out, each carrying a cup and saucer. This meant that their young mistresses must be together, so Mrs. Zhou went in and discovered Yingchun and Tanchun playing draughts by the window. She presented the flowers, explaining where they came from. The two girls stopped their game to bow their thanks, then ordered their maids to put the gifts away.
As Mrs. Zhou handed over the flowers she remarked, “The fourth young lady isn’t here. Is she with the old lady, I wonder?”
“Isn’t she there in the next room?” the maids said.
Mrs. Zhou walked into the adjoining room and found Xichun laughing and chatting with Zhineng, a young nun from the Water Moon Convent. Xichun asked Mrs. Zhou her business. The box was opened and the gift explained.
“I was just telling Zhineng that I’d shave my head some day and become a nun too, and now you turn up with flowers.” Xichun smiled.
“Where shall I wear them if my head is shaved?”
Amid the banter that followed, Xichun told her maid Ruhua to put the present away.
The Mrs. Zhou asked Zhineng, “When did you arrive? And where’s that bald-headed, crotchety abbess of yours?”
“We came here first thing this morning. After calling on Lady Wang the abbess went to Mr. Yu’s mansion, telling me to wait for her here.”
“Have you received the monthly allowance and donation for incense due on the fifteenth?”
Zhineng shook her head. “I don’t know.”
Xichun asked who was in charge of the monthly donations for differ¬ent temples.
“Yu Xin,” was Mrs. Zhou’s answer.
“So that’s it.” Xichun giggled. “As soon as the abbess arrived, Yu Xin’s wife hurried over and whispered with her for a while. That must be why.”
After chatting for a time with the nun, Mrs. Zhou went on to Xifeng’s quarters. She walked through the passage, past Li Wan’s back window, and skirting the west wall entered Xifeng’s compound by the west side-gate. In the main hall outside the bedroom door sat Fenger, who hastily motioned her to the east room. Taking the hint, Mrs. Zhou tiptoed in and found a nurse patting Xifeng’s daughter to sleep.
“Is your mistress having a nap?” whispered Mrs. Zhou. “It’s time somebody woke her.”
As the nurse shook her head, from Xifeng’s room came the sound of laughter and Jia Lian’s voice. The door opened and out stepped Pinger with a large copper basin which she told Fenger to fill with water and take in. Then Pinger came over and asked Mrs. Zhou, “What brings you here again, auntie?”
Mrs. Zhou stood up and explained her errand, handing over the box. Pinger took out four sprays and went off with them, returning presently with two which she ordered Caiming to take to Master Rong’s wife in the Ning Mansion. After this she asked Mrs. Zhou to convey Xifeng’s thanks to Aunt Xue.
Only then did Mrs. Zhou make her way to the Lady Dowager’s corn-
pound. In the entrance hall she ran into her own daughter, dressed in her best, come from her mother-in-law’s house.
“What are you doing here?”asked Mrs. Zhou.
“Have you been keeping well, ma?” Her daughter beamed. “I waited and waited at home but you didn’t come. What’s been keeping you all this time? When I got tired of waiting I went on my own to pay my re¬spects to the old lady, and I was just going to see Lady Wang. Aren’t you through yet with your business? What’s that in your hand?”
“Ai! Granny Liu would choose today to call, and I put myself out running here and there for her. Then Madam Xue spotted me and asked me to deliver these flowers to the young ladies. I’m not through with it yet. But you must want something of me, coming at this time.”
“You’ve guessed right, ma. The fact is, your son-in-law had a cup too much the other day and a row started. Someone, I don’t know why, has spread ugly rumours and says he’s got a shady past. A charge has been lodged against him at the yamen to have him sent back to his native place. I came to ask your advice. Who can we get to help us out?”
“I thought as much,” said her mother. “A fuss about nothing. You go home while I deliver these flowers to Miss Lin. Her Ladyship and Madam Lian aren’t free just now, so go back and wait for me. Why get so ex¬cited?”
“Well, be as quick as you can, ma,” urged her daughter walking off.
“Of course. You young people lack experience, that’s why you’re so worked up.”
Daiyu was not in her room but Mrs. Zhou found her in Baoyu’s, trying to unravel the nine-ring puzzle with him.
Mrs. Zhou greeted her with a smile as she entered and said, “Madam Xue asked me to bring you these flowers to wear.”
“What flowers?” demanded Baoyu. “Let me see them.”
He reached for the box and, opening it, saw the two sprigs of gauze flowers from the Palace.
Daiyu glanced briefly at them in Baoyu’s hand. “Am I the only one getting these?” she asked. “Or have the other girls been given some too?”
“Each of the young ladies has some. These two are for you, miss.”
“I might have known.” Daiyu smiled bitterly. “I wouldn’t get mine till the others had taken their pick.”
Mrs. Zhou had nothing to say to this, but Baoyu put in, “What were you doing over there, Sister Zhou?”
“I had a message for Her Ladyship, who’s there. And Madam Xue asked me to bring back these flowers.~~
“What’s Baochai doing at home? Why hasn’t she been here for the last few days?”
“She’s not very well.”
At once Baoyu told his maids, “One of you go and see her. Tell her Miss Lin and I sent you to ask how our aunt and cousin are. Find out what’s wrong with her and what medicine she’s taking. I ought to go myself, but say I’m just back from school and have caught a chill as well. I’ll call some other time.”
As Qianxue offered to go, Mrs. Zhou left.
Now Mrs. Zhou’s son-in-law was none other than Jia Yucun’s good friend Leng Zixing. Finding himself involved in a lawsuit arising from the sale of some curios, he had sent his wife to ask for help. With full confi¬dence in her master’s power, Mrs. Zhou did not take this to heart. In fact she settled the matter that same evening by applying to Xifeng.
When the lamps were lit and Xifeng had disrobed, she went to see Lady Wang.
“I’ve taken charge of those things the Zhens sent today,” she an¬nounced. “As for our presents to them, I have sent them back by their boats which have come for the New Year provisions.”
When Lady Wang nodded, Xifeng went on, “I’ve prepared our birth¬day presents for the Earl of Linan’s mother. Who should deliver them, madam?”
“Any four women you see are free. Why consult me about such trifles?”
With a smile Xifeng went on, “Today Brother Zhen’s wife invited me to spend tomorrow with them. I haven’t anything special to do that I know of.”
“Even if you had, it wouldn’t matter, She usually asks us all, which can’t be much fun for you. Since she hasn’t invited us this time, only
you, she obviously wants you to have a little fun, so don’t disappoint her. Even if you had business you ought to go.
Xifeng had just agreed when Li Wan, Yingchun, Tanchun and the other girls came in to say goodnight, after which all retired to their own rooms.
The next day after Xifeng had finished her toilet she went to tell Lady Wang that she was off. She then went to the Lady Dowager; and when Baoyu heard where she was going he insisted on going too. Xifeng had to agree and wait until he had changed. Then the two of them drove quickly to the Ning Mansion.
Jia Zhen’s wife Madam You and ha Rong’s wife Qin Keqing had gathered a troop of concubines and maids to welcome them at the cer¬emonial gate. Having greeted Xifeng in her usual teasing fashion, Madam You led Baoyu to a seat in the drawing room.
When Keqing had served tea Xifeng asked, “Well, what did you invite me for today? If you’ve something good for me, hand it over quickly, I’ve other things to attend to.”
Before Madam You or Keqing could reply, a concubine retorted Laugh¬ingly. “In that case you shouldn’t have come. Now that you’re here, madam, you can’t have it all your own way.
Jia Rong entered then to pay his respects, and Baoyu asked if Jia Zhen were at home.
“He’s gone out of town to inquire after his father’s health,” said Madam You. “But you must find it dull sitting here. Why not go out for a stroll?”
“As it happens,” put in Keqing, “my brother whom Uncle Bao was so eager to meet last time is here today. He’s probably in the library. Why don’t you go and have a look, uncle?”
But as Baoyu slipped down from the kang Madam You and Xifeng interposed, “Steady on. What’s the hurry?” They ordered some maids to go with him. “Don’t let him get into any trouble,” they warned. “The old lady isn’t here to keep an eye on him today.~~
“Why not ask young Master Qin in here?” suggested Xifeng. “Then I can see him too. Or am I forbidden to see him?”
“You’d much better not,” retorted Madam You. “He’s not like our
boys with their rough, rowdy ways. Other people’s sons behave in a
more civilized fashion. How could he face a terror like you? You’d be a
laughing-stock.”
“I’m the one who laughs at others.” Xifeng smiled. “How can a boy laugh at me?”
“It’s not that, aunt,” said Jia Rong. “He’s shy and hasn’t seen much of the world. You’d have no patience with him.”
“Even if he’s a monster, I insist on seeing him. Don’t talk like a fool! Fetch him in at once or I’ll give you a good slap.”
“How dare I disobey?” Jia Rong chuckled. “I’ll bring him in at once.”
With that, he fetched in a lad more slightly built that Baoyu yet even more handsome, with fine features, a fair complexion, red lips, a graceful figure and pleasing manners, but as bashful as a girl. He bowed shyly to Xifeng and inquired almost inaudibly after her health.
Xifeng nudged Baoyu delightedly and cried, “Now you must take a back seat.” She leaned forward to take the young stranger’s hand and made him sit down beside her, then began questioning him about his age and the books he was studying. She learned that his school name was Qin Zhong.
Since this was Xifeng’s first meeting with Qin Zhong but she hadn’t prepared the usual gifts, some of her maids had hurried back to consult Pinger. And Pinger, knowing how intimate her mistress was with Qin Keqing, decided that she would want to give the boy something hand¬some. So she handed them a length of silk and two small gold medallions inscribed with the wish that the owner would win first place in the Palace Examination. When these were brought Xifeng protested that the gift was too poor, while Keqing and the others thanked her profusely.
After lunch Madam You, Xifeng and Keqing sat down to a game of cards, leaving the two boys to amuse themselves as they pleased.
At sight of Qin Zhong, Baoyu had felt quite eclipsed. He lapsed into a spell of stupefaction, and then gave way to foolish fancies again. “Imag¬ine there being such people in the world!” he thought. “Why, compared with him I’m no better than a filthy pig or mangy dog. Why did I have to be born into this noble family? If I were the son of a poor scholar or some minor official, I might have made friends with him long ago and life would
have been worth living. Although my status is higher, I’m just a stump of rotten wood swathed in silks and satins, just a ces s-pool or gutter filled with choice wines and meats. Riches and rank are anathema to me.”
In Qin Zhong’s eyes, Baoyu’s striking appearance and ingenuous behaviour were a fine foil to his rich costume, pretty maids and hand¬some pages. He for his part reflected, “No wonder everyone is so fond of Baoyu. Why did I have to be born into a poor family, unable to have him as an intimate friend? What a barrier there is between wealth and poverty. This is one of the greatest curses of this life.”
Thus both were lost in equally foolish reflections until Baoyu abruptly asked Qin Zhong what he was reading and, the latter answering frankly, they embarked on an animated conversation which soon made them feel even more drawn to each other. Then tea and refreshments were served.
“We two shan’t be drinking any wine,” said Baoyu. “Why not put a plate or two of these things on that small kang in the inner room and let us sit there where we won’t disturb you?”
So they went inside to have their tea. And Keqing, after serving Xifeng with wine and refreshments, slipped in to tell Baoyu:
“Your nephew’s young, Uncle Bao. If he says anything he shouldn’t, please overlook it for my sake. He’s a stubborn boy for all his shyness and likes to have his own way.
“Just leave us,” Baoyu laughed. “We’re all right.”
Having urged her brother to behave himself, Keqing returned to Xifeng.
Presently Xifeng and Madam You sent to remind Baoyu, if he wanted anything to eat from their room, just to ask for it. Baoyu agreed but he had no interest in food, so eager was he to learn more about how his new friend lived.
“My tutor died last year,” confided Qin Zhong. “My father’s old and unwell, with so much to keep him busy that he hasn’t had time to find me another yet. At present I’m just going over old lessons at home. In any case, in studying you need one or two congenial companions to talk things over with from time to time, to get the best out of it.”
“Just what I think,” broke in Baoyu. “We have a school for members of our clan who can’t engage a tutor, and some other relatives attend it too. My tutor went home last year, so I’m at a loose end myself for the
time being. My father wanted to send me to this school to go over the old lessons until my tutor returns next year, when I can go on studying alone at home. But my grandmother was against it, for fear so many boys would get up to mischief; and as I’ve been unwell for a few days the matter’s been dropped for a while.
“If, as you say, your worthy father is concerned over this, why not tell him about it when you go home today, and come and study in our school? I’ll be your schoolfellow, and we can help each other. What could be better?”
“The other day when my father brought up the question of a tutor he spoke highly of this free school here,” replied Qin Zhong eagerly. “He meant to come and talk it over with Lord Zhen, but didn’t like to trouble him about such a trifle when everyone here is so busy. If you think, Uncle Bao, I could grind your ink or wash the inkstone for you, let’s try to fix it as soon as possible. Then neither of us need waste our time, we’d have plenty of chances to talk, our parent’s minds would be set at rest, and we could become real friends. Wouldn’t that be fine?”
“Don’t worry,” said Baoyu. “Let’s go and tell your brother-in-law and sister, as well as Sister Xifeng. You can speak to your father when you get home, and I’ll tell my grandmother. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be arranged quickly.”
By the time this was settled, lamps were being lit and they went out to watch the game. When the score was reckoned, Keqing and Madam You had lost again and it was agreed that they should stand treat to a meal and an opera show in two days’ time. Then they chatted a while.
After dinner, because it was dark, Madam You suggested that they send two men-servants to see Qin Zhong home, and maids went out with these orders. When some time later the boy took his leave, she asked who was to accompany him.
“Jiao Da,” said the maids. “But he’s roaring drunk and using foul language again.”
“But why send him?” protested Madam You and Keqing. “We’ve all those young fellows who could go. Why pick Jiao Da?”
“I’ve always said you’re too soft with your servants,” was Xifeng’s comment. “Fancy letting them have their own way like this!”
“You know biao Da, surely?” Madam You sighed. “Not even the master can control him, let alone your Cousin Zhen. He went out with our great-grandfather on three or four expeditions when he was young, and saved his master’s life by carrying him off a battlefield heaped with corpses. He went hungry himself but stole food for his master; and after two days without water, when he got half a bowl he gave it to his master and drank horse urine himself. Because of these services, he was treated with special consideration in our great-grandfather’s time and nobody likes to interfere with him now. But since growing old he has no regard for appearances. He does nothing but drink and when he’s drunk he abuses everyone. Time and again I’ve told the stewards to write him off and not give him any jobs. Yet he’s being sent again today.”
“Of course I know Jiao Da, but you ought to be able to handle him,” scoffed Xifeng. “Pack him off to some distant farm and have done with it.” She asked if her carriage was ready.
“Ready waiting, madam,” said the attendants.
Xifeng rose to take her leave and led Baoyu out. Madam You and the others escorted them to the main hall, where by the bright light of lanterns they saw attendants waiting in the court. Because Jia Zhen was out —though he could have done nothing even if at home — Jiao Da was fairly letting himself go. Roaring drunk, he lashed out at the head steward Lai Er’s injustice, calling him a cowardly bully.
“You give all the soft jobs to others, but when it comes to seeing someone home late at night in the dark you send me. Black-hearted son of a turtle! A fine steward you are! I can lift my leg up higher than your head. Twenty years ago I’d nothing but contempt for this household, not to mention you bastards, you crew of turtle-eggs.”
He was cursing away full blast as bia Rong saw Xifeng in her carriage out, and ignored all the servant’s shouts to him to be quiet. Jia Rong could hardly let this pass. He swore at Jiao Da and told men to tie him up.
“We’ll ask him tomorrow, when he’s sobered up, what he means by this disgraceful behaviour,” he blustered.
Jiao Da had a low opinion, of course, of Jia Rong. He bore down on him bellowing still more angrily:
“Don’t try to lord it over biao Da, young Brother Rong! Not to speak
of the likes of you, not even your dad or granddad dare stand up to Jiao Da. If not for me, and me alone, you’d have no official posts, fancy titles or riches. It was your great-granddad who built up this estate, and nine times I snatched him back from the jaws of death. Now instead of show¬ing yourselves properly grateful, you try to lord it over me. Shut up, and I’ll overlook it. Say one word more, and I’ll bury a white blade in you and pull it out red!”
“Why don’t you get rid of this lawless wretch?” asked Xifeng from her carriage. “He’s nothing but a source of trouble. If this came to the ears of our relatives and friends, how they’d laugh at the lack of rules and order here.”
As Jia Rong agreed to this, some servants overpowered Jiao Da and dragged him off towards the stables, for this time he had really gone too far. Then he let loose a flood of abuse in which even Jia Zhen was in¬cluded.
“Let me go to the Ancestral Temple and weep for my old master,” he fumed. “Little did he expect to beget such degenerates, a houseful of rutting dogs and bitches in heat, day in and day out scratching in the ashes5 and carrying on with younger brothers-in-law. Don’t think you can fool me. I only tried to hide the broken arm in your sleeve....”
These obscenities frightened the servants half out of their wits. Hur¬riedly trussing him up, they stuffed his mouth with mud and horse-dung.
Xifeng and Jia Rong pretended not to have heard, whereas Baoyu in the carriage was rather entertained by this drunken outburst.
“Did you hear that, sister?” he asked. “What’s meant by ‘scratch¬ing in the ashes’?”
“Don’t talk nonsense,” snapped Xifeng, glowering. “What’s come over you? You not only listen to drunken raving but have to ask questions too. Just wait until we get back and I tell your mother — you’ll pay for this with a thrashing.”
“Dear sister,” apologized Baoyu fearfully, “I promise not to do it again.”
“That’s more like it, brother. The important thing, once we’re home, is to talk to the old lady about sending you and your nephew Qin Zhong to school.”
They were back now in the Rong Mansion. To know what followed,
turn to the next chapter.
Good looks pave the way to friendship, A mutual attraction starts boys studying.

Chapter 8

Nanny Li Makes a Nuisance of Herself by
Warning Against Drinking
Baoyu Breaks a Teacup and
Flies into a Temper


After Xifeng and Baoyu reached home and had paid their greetings, Baoyu told the Lady Dowager of Qin Zhong’s eagerness to attend their clan school, and the incentive it would be for him to have a friend and companion in his studies. He painted a glowing picture of the other boy’s admirable character and lovable qualities.
Xifeng backed him up, adding, “In a day or two Qin Thong will be coming to pay his respects to our Old Ancestress.” She then took advantage of the old lady’s pleasure at this news to invite her to the opera in two days’ time.
In spite of her age, the Lady Dowager looked forward to any excite¬ment. When the day arrived and Madam You came to invite her, she took Lady Wang, Daiyu, Baoyu and others along to watch the performances.
At noon the old lady went home for her siesta. And Lady Wang, who liked peace and quiet, returned too after her mother-in-law’s departure. Then Xifeng moved into the seat of honour and enjoyed herself to the full until the evening.

After Baoyu had seen his grandmother back for her nap, he would have returned to see the show if not for his reluctance to disturb Keqing and the rest. Remembering that he had not gone in person to ask after Baochai’s recent indisposition, he decided to pay her a visit. He feared that if he went past the main apartment something might happen to hold him up, while he dreaded still more the thought of meeting his father. So he decided to go the long way round.
His nurses and maids were waiting to take off his ceremonial clothes, but he went out again without changing. They followed him through the second gate under the impression that he was going back to the other mansion, instead of which he turned northeast round the back of the hall.
There, however, he ran into two of his father’s proteges, Zhan Guang and Shan Pinren, who hurried forward smiling. One threw an arm round him, the other took his hand.
“Little Bodhisattva!” they cried. “We so rarely see you, this is a de¬lightful surprise.”
Having paid their respects, asked after his health and chatted for a while, they were moving on when his nurse inquired if they were going to see the master.
They nodded. “His Lordship is sleeping now in his Mengpo Studio. Don’t worry,” they assured Baoyu, moving on.
These words made Baoyu laugh in spite of himself. He then turned north and hurried towards Pear Fragrance Court. Just then the chief treasurer Wu Xindeng and the manager of the granaries Dai Liang emerged from the counting-house with five other stewards. They hurried forward at sight of Baoyu and stood at respectful attention. One of them, Qian Hua, who had not seen Baoyu for some time, stepped forward and fell on one knee. Smiling slightly, Baoyu quickly helped him up, while one of the other men said cheerfully:
“The other day we saw some inscriptions written by you, young mas¬ter. Your calligraphy’s even better than before. When will you give us a few samples to put on our walls?”
“Where did you see them?” asked Baoyu.
“In several places,” they answered. “People admire them so much they asked us to get them some.
“They’re not worth having,” protested Baoyu, laughing. “But you can ask my pages for some if you want.”
The whole party waited until he had walked on before going their different ways. But enough of this digression.
On reaching Pear Fragrance Court, Baoyu went first to see Aunt Xue, whom he found distributing sewing to her maids. He paid his re¬spects to his aunt, who caught him in her arms and hugged him.
“How good of you to come, dear boy, on a cold day like this.” She beamed. “But get up here quickly on the warm kang.” She ordered hot tea to be served.
“Is Cousin Pan at home?” asked Baoyu.
“Ah, he’s like a horse without a halter,” she sighed. “He’s for ever rushing about outside. Not a day does he spend at home.”
“Is Baochai better?”
“Yes, thank you. It was thoughtful of you to send over to ask how she was the other day. She’s in her room now. Why not go in and see her? It’s warmer there. Go and keep her company and I’ll join you as soon as I’m through here.”
Baoyu promptly slipped off the kang and went to his cousin’s door, before which hung a somewhat worn red silk portière. Lifting this he stepped inside.
Baochai was sewing on the kang. Her glossy black hair was knotted on top of her head. She was wearing a honey-coloured padded jacket, a rose-red sleeveless jacket lined with brown- and snow-weasel fur, and a skirt of leek-yellow silk. There was nothing ostentatious about her cos¬tume, which was none too new. Her lips needed no rouge, her blue-black eyebrows no brush; her face seemed a silver disk, her eyes almonds swimming in water. Some might think her reticence a cloak for stupidity; but circumspect as she was she prided herself on her simplicity.
As Baoyu observed her he asked, “Are you better now, cousin?”
Baochai looked up and rose swiftly to her feet, saying, “Ever so much better, thank you for your kind concern.”
She made him sit on the edge of the kang and told Yinger to pour tea. As she asked after the old lady and her aunts and cousins, she took in Baoyu’s costume.
He was wearing a golden filigree coronet studded with gems, a gold chaplet in the form of two dragons fighting for a pearl, a yellowish green archer’s jacket embroidered with serpents and lined with white fox-fur, and a sash embroidered with many-coloured butterflies. From his neck hung a longevity locket, a talisman inscribed with his name, and the pre-cious jade found in his mouth at the time of his birth.
“I’ve heard so much about that jade of yours but I’ve never seen it,” said Baochai edging forward. “Do let me have a good look at it today.”
Baoyu leaned forward too, and taking the stone from his neck laid it in her hand. She held it on her palm. It was the size of a sparrow’s egg, iridescent as clouds at sunrise, smooth as junket, and covered with coloured lines. This was the form taken by the stupid Stone from the foot of Blue Ridge Peak in Great Waste Mountain. A later poet wrote these mocking lines:
Fantastic, Nu Wa’s smelting of the stone,
Now comes fresh fantasy from the Great Waste;
The Stone’s true sphere and spirit lost,
It takes a new form stinking and debased.
Know that when fortune frowns, pure gold is dulled,
And jade, in evil times, will cease to shine;
Heaped high the white bones of the nameless dead,
Who in their day were lords and ladies fine.
The stupid Stone had also recorded its transformation and below we shall reproduce the seal characters engraved on it by the scabby monk.
As the jade was small enough to be held in the mouth of a new-born child, if we were to reproduce the real size of the characters they would be so minute that our readers would find them a troublesome strain on their eyes. We are therefore enlarging them to scale to enable readers to study them by lamplight or even in their cups. This point is made clear so that nobody may sneer, “How big a mouth could an infant in the womb have, to hold this clumsy object!”

The obverse side read:
Precious Jade of Spiritual Understanding
Never Lose, Never Forget,
Eternal Life, Lasting Prosperity.
The reverse side:
1. Expels Evil Spirits.
2. Cures Mysterious Diseases.
3. Foretells Happiness and Misfortune.
After examining both sides Baochai turned the jade over to study the face more closely and read the inscription aloud, not once but twice. Then she turned to ask Yinger:
“Why are you standing gaping there instead of getting us tea?”
Yinger answered with a giggle, “Those two lines seem to match the words on your locket, miss.”
“Why, cousin,” cried Baoyu eagerly, “does that locket of yours have an inscription too? Do let me see it.”
“Don’t listen to her,” replied Baochai. “There aren’t any characters on it.”

“I let you see mine, dear cousin,” he countered coaxingly.
Cornered like this, Baochai answered, “As it happens, there is a lucky inscription on it. Otherwise I wouldn’t wear such a clumsy thing all the time.” She unbuttoned her red jacket and drew out a bright gold necklace studded with glittering pearls and jewels. Baoyu took the locket eagerly and found two inscriptions, one on either side, in the form of eight minute characters.

Never Leave, Never Abandon, Fresh Youth, Eternally Lasting.
Baoyu read this twice, then twice repeated his own.
“Why, cousin, this inscription of yours matches mine exactly,” he de¬clared laughingly.
“It was given her by a scabby monk,” explained Yinger. “He said it must be engraved on something made of gold.”
Before she could say more Baochai called her to task for not bringing them some tea. Then she asked Baoyu where he had come from. He was now close enough to her to catch whiffs of some cool, sweet fra¬grance which he could not identify.
“What incense do you use to scent your clothes with?” he asked. “I’ve never smelt this perfume before.”
“I don’t like incense perfumes. They just make good clothes reek of smoke.”
“What is that perfume, then?”
Baochai thought for a moment. “I know. It must be the pill I took this morning.”
“What pills smell so good? Won’t you give me one to try?”
“Don’t be silly!” She laughed. “You don’t take medicine for the fun of it.”
Just then a servant outside announced, “Miss Lin is here.” And in came Daiyu.
“Ah!” she exclaimed at sight of Baoyu. “I’ve chosen a bad time to come.”
Baoyu rose with a smile to offer her a seat while Baochai asked cheerfully, “What do you mean?”
“If I’d known he was here, I wouldn’t have come.
“That’s more puzzling than ever,” said Baochai.
“Either everybody comes at once or no one comes,” explained Daiyu mischievously. “If he came one day and I the next, spacing out our visits, you’d have callers every day and would find it neither too lonely nor too distracting. What’s so puzzling about that, cousin?”
Baoyu saw that she was wearing a crimson camlet cloak which but¬toned in front. “Is it snowing outside?” he asked.
“It’s been hailing for some time,” replied the maids.
“Have they brought my cape?”
“Wasn’t I right?” cried Daiyu. “As soon as I come, he must go.”
“When did I say a word about going? I just want to be prepared.”
“It’s snowing and it’s getting late now,” put in Nanny Li. “Just amuse yourself here with your cousins. Your aunt’s prepared refreshments in the other room. I’ll send a maid for your cape and tell your pages not to wait.”
As Baoyu agreed to this, his nurse went out and sent the pages away.
Meanwhile Aunt Xue had tea and other good things ready for them. When Baoyu spoke highly of the goose feet and duck tongues served a couple of days before by Madam You, she produced some of her own, pickled with distiller’s grain, for him to try.
“These taste even better with wine,” he hinted, smiling.
His aunt promptly sent for the best wine in the house.
“No wine, please, Madam Xue,” protested Nanny Li.
“Just one cup, dear nanny,” begged Baoyu.
“No, you don’t! If the Lady Dowager or Lady Wang were here I wouldn’t mind your drinking a whole jarful. But I haven’t forgotten the way they scolded me for two days on end just because some irrespon¬sible fool who wanted to get on the right side of you gave you a sip of wine behind my back. You’ve no idea what a rascal he is, Madam Xue. And drinking brings out all the worst in him. On days when the old lady’s in a good humour she lets him drink all he wants, but on other days she won’t let him touch a drop. And I’m always the one that gets into trouble.”
“Don’t worry, poor old thing,” said Aunt Xue, laughing. “Go and have a drink yourself. I’ll see that he doesn’t drink too much. If the old lady says anything, I’ll take the blame.” She ordered her maids, “Take the nurses along to drink a few cups now to keep out the cold.” So Nanny Li had to join the other servants to enjoy her drink.
As soon as she had gone Baoyu said, “Don’t bother to heat it. I prefer cold wine.”
“That won’t do,” said his aunt. “Cold wine will make your hand shake when you write.”
“Brother Bao,” put in Baochai teasingly, “you’ve the chance every day to acquire miscellaneous knowledge. How come you don’t realize how heating wine is? Drunk hot, its fumes dissipate quickly; drunk cold, it stays in your system and absorbs heat from your vital organs. That’s bad for you. So do stop drinking cold wine.”
Since this made sense, Baoyu put down the wine and asked to have it warmed. Daiyu had been smiling rather cryptically as she cracked melon-seeds. Now her maid Xueyan brought in her little hand-stove.
“Who told you to bring this?” demanded Daiyu. “Many thanks. Think I was freezing to death here?”
“Zijuan was afraid you might be cold, miss, so she asked me to bring it over.”
Nursing the stove in her arms Daiyu retorted, “So you do whatever she asks, but let whatever I say go in one ear and out the other. You jump to obey her instructions faster than if they were an Imperial edict.”
Although Baoyu knew these remarks were aimed at him, his only reply was to chuckle. And Baochai, aware that this was Daiyu’s way, paid no attention either. Aunt Xue, however, protested:
“You’ve always been delicate and unable to stand the cold. Why should you be displeased when they’re so thoughtful?”
“You don’t understand, aunt,” replied Daiyu with a smile. “It doesn’t matter here, but people anywhere else might well take offence. Sending a hand-stove over from my quarters as if my hosts didn’t possess such a thing! Instead of calling my maids too fussy, people would imagine I al¬ways behave in this outrageous fashion.”
“You take such things too seriously,” said Aunt Xue. “Such an idea would never have entered my head.”
By now Baoyu had already drunk three cups, and Nanny Li came in again to remonstrate. But he was enjoying himself so much talking and laughing with his cousins, he refused to stop. “Dear nanny,” he coaxed, “just two more cups--- that’s all.”
“You’d better look out,” she warned. “Lord Zheng’s at home today, and he may want to examine you on your lessons.”
With a sinking heart, Baoyu slowly put his cup down and hung his head.
“Don’t be such a spoil-sport,” protested Daiyu. “If Uncle sends for you, cousin, we can say Aunt Xue is keeping you. This nanny of yours has been drinking and is working off the effects of the wine on us.” She nudged Baoyu to embolden him and whispered, “Never mind the old thing. Why shouldn’t we enjoy ourselves?”
“Now, Miss Lin, don’t egg him on,” cried Nanny Li. “You’re the only one whose advice he might listen.”
“Why should I egg him on?” Daiyu gave a little snort. “I can’t be bothered with offering him advice either. You’re too pernickety, nanny. The old lady often gives him wine, so why shouldn’t he have a drop more here with his aunt? Are you suggesting that auntie’s an outsider and he shouldn’t behave like that here?”
Amused yet vexed, Nanny Li expostulated, “Really, every word Miss Lin says cuts sharper than a knife. How can you suggest such a thing?”
Even Baochai couldn’t suppress a smile. She pinched Daiyu’s cheek and cried, “What a tongue the girl has! One doesn’t know whether to be cross or laugh.”
“Don’t be afraid, my child,” said Aunt Xue. “I’ve nothing good to offer you, but I’ll feel bad if you get a fright which gives you indigestion. Just drink as much as you want, I’ll answer for it. You needn’t leave till after supper. And if you do get tipsy you can sleep here.” She ordered more wine to be heated, saying, “I’ll drink a few cups with you and then we’ll have our rice.”
Baoyu’s spirits rose again at this.
His nurse told the maids, “Stay here and keep an eye on him. I’m going home to change, then I’ll come back.” She urged Aunt Xue on the sly: “Madam, don’t let him have it all his own way or drink too much.”
When she had gone the two or three other elderly servants who were left, not being over-conscientious, slipped out to enjoy themselves. There remained only two maids eager to please Baoyu. But by dint of much coaxing and teasing, Aunt Xue kept him from drinking too many cups before the wine was whisked away. Then Baoyu had two bowls of soup made from pickled bamboo-shoots and duck-skin and half a bowl of green¬rice porridge. By this time Baochai and Daiyu had finished too and all of them drank some strong tea, after which Aunt Xue felt easier in her mind.
Now Xueyan and three other maids came back from their own meal to wait on them, and Daiyu asked Baoyu:
“Are you ready to go?”
He glanced at her sidewise from under drooping eyelids. “I’ll go whenever you do.”
Daiyu promptly rose to her feet. “We’ve been here nearly all day, it’s time we left. They may be wondering where we are.
As they took their leave their wraps were brought, and Baoyu bent his head for a maid to help him on with his hood. She shook out the crimson hood and started slipping it over his head.
“Stop, stop! Not so roughly, you silly thing,” he protested, stopping her. “Have you never seen anyone put on a hood before? Better let me do it myself.”
“What a commotion!” Daiyu stood up on the kang. “Come here. Let me see to it.”
Baoyu went up to Daiyu, who put her hand gently over his coronet and placed the edge of the hood on his chaplet. Then she made the red velvet pompon, the size of a walnut, bob up in front.
“That’s better,” she said, surveying her handiwork. “Now you can put on your cloak.”
As Baoyu did so his aunt remarked, “None of the nurses who came with you is here. Why not wait a bit?”
“Why should we wait for them?” he asked. “We’ve the maids to go with us. We shall be all right.”
To be on the safe side, however, Aunt Xue told two older servants to accompany them. Then Baoyu and Daiyu thanked their hostess and made their way to the Lady Dowager’s quarters.
The Lady Dowager had not yet dined but was very pleased when she learned where they had been. Observing that Baoyu had been drinking, she packed him straight off to rest, forbidding him to leave his room again that evening. As she gave orders for him to be well looked after, she wondered who was attending him and asked:
“Where’s Nanny Li?”
The maids dared not disclose that she had gone home. “She was here a moment ago,” they said. “She must have gone out on some business.”
Swaying a little, Baoyu called over his shoulder, “She has a better time of it than our old lady. Why ask for her? I wish she’d leave me in peace to live a little longer.”
While saying this he reached his apartment, where his eye fell on the brush and ink on the desk.
Qingwen greeted him with a smile, exclaiming, “A fine one you are! You made me grind that ink for you this morning because you were feeling good; but you only wrote three characters, then threw down your brush and marched off. You’ve kept us waiting for you the whole day. You must set to work quickly now and use up this ink.”
Reminded of that morning’s happenings, Baoyu asked, “Where are the three characters I wrote?”
“This fellow’s drunk!” Qingwen laughed. “Just before you went over to the other house you told me to have them pasted above the door, yet now you ask where they are. Not trusting anyone else to do a good job, I got up on a ladder to paste them up myself. My hands are still numb with cold.”
“I forgot.” Baoyu grinned. “Let me warm your hands for you.” He took Qingwen’s hands in his while they both looked up at the inscription over the lintel.
Just then Daiyu came in and he asked her, “Tell me honestly, dear cousin, which of these three characters is the best written?”
Daiyu raised her head and read the inscription: Red Rue Studio.
“They’re all good. I didn’t know you were such a calligrapher. You must write an inscription for me some time too.”
“You’re making fun of me again.” Baoyu chuckled. “Where’s Xiren?” he asked Qingwen.
Qingwen tilted her head towards the kang in the inner room, where Baoyu saw Xiren lying, fully dressed.
“That’s good,” he said. “But it’s rather early to sleep. At breakfast in the other house this morning there was a plate of beancurd dumplings. Knowing you’d like them, I asked Madam You to let me have them for supper, and they were sent over. Did you get them all right?”
“Don’t ask!” answered Qingwen. “I knew at once they were meant for me, but as I’d just finished my breakfast I left them here. Then Nanny Li came and saw them. ‘Baoyu won’t be wanting these,’ she said. “I’ll take them for my grandson.’ She got somebody to send them home for her.”
At this point Qianxue brought in tea and Baoyu said, “Do have some tea, Cousin Lin.”
The maids burst out giggling. “She’s gone long ago. Yet you offer her tea.”
After drinking half a cup himself he remembered something else and asked Qianxue, “Why did you bring me this tea? This morning we brewed some maple-dew tea, and I told you its flavour doesn’t really come out until after three or four steepings.”
“I did save that other tea,” she replied. “But Nanny Li insisted on trying it and she drank it all.”
This was too much for Baoyu. He dashed the cup to pieces on the floor, spattering the maid’s skirt with tea. Then springing to his feet he stormed:
“Is she your grandmother, that all of you treat her so respectfully? Just because she suckled me for a few days when I was small, she carries on as if she were more important than our own ancestors. I don’t need a wet-nurse any more, why should I keep an ancestress like this? Send her packing and we’ll all have some peace and quiet.”
He wanted to go straight to his grandmother to have the old woman dismissed.
Now Xiren had only been shamming sleep, in the hope that Baoyu would come in to tease her. She hadn’t troubled to get up when he asked about the dumplings; but now that he had smashed a cup and flown into a passion she jumped up and came out to smooth things over, just as a maid arrived from his grandmother to ask the reason for the noise. “I’d just poured out some tea,” said Xiren. “I slipped because of snow on my shoes and the cup was smashed.”
Then she turned to calm Baoyu. “So you’ve decided to dismiss her. Good. We’d all like to leave. Why not take this chance to get rid of the lot of us? That would suit us, and you’d get better attendants too.”
Thus silenced, Baoyu let them help him to the kang and take off his clothes. He was still mumbling to himself but could hardly keep his eyes open, so they put him straight to bed. Xiren took the precious jade off his neck, wrapped it up in her own handkerchief and tucked it under his mattress, so that it should not be cold to the touch when he put it on the next day.
Baoyu fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow. Meantime Nanny Li had come in. Hearing that he was drunk she dared not risk further trouble, and having quietly made sure that he was asleep she left easier in her mind.
Upon waking the next morning, Baoyu was told that Jia Rong from the other mansion had brought Qin Zhong over to pay his respects. He hastened to greet his new friend and presented him to the Lady Dowa¬ger, who was delighted by his handsome looks and pleasing manner. Con¬vinced that he would make an excellent schoolmate for Baoyu, she kept him to tea and a meal, then ordered servants to take him to meet Lady Wang and the rest of the family.
Qin Keqing was a general favourite, and they liked her brother for himself as well. All gave him presents on parting. The Lady Dowager’s gift was a purse containing a small golden effigy of the God of Learning symbolizing literary talent and harmony.
“You live so far away,” she said, “in hot or cold weather you may find the journey too much. You are welcome to stay here and must make yourself at home. Stay with your Uncle Baoyu, and don’t get into mis¬chief with those lazy young rascals.”
Qin Zhong agreed readily, then went home to report what had hap¬pened. His father Qin Ye, a secretary in the Board of Works, was nearly seventy and had lost his wife early. Having no children of his own he had adopted a son and daughter from an orphanage, but the boy had died leaving only the little girl, Keqing. She grew up to be a graceful, charming young woman. Because Qin was remotely connected with the Jia family, they arranged a match and she became Jia Rong’s wife.
Qin Zhong was born when his father was over fifty. His tutor had died the previous year and Qin Ye had not yet found another; thus the boy had been revising his lessons at home. His father was thinking of approaching the Jias about sending his son to their school in order not to waste the boy’s time, when as luck would have it Qin Zhong met Baoyu.
The old man was also overjoyed to learn that the school was now run by Jia Dairu, a venerable Confucian scholar under whose instruction Qin Zhong was bound to make progress and might even win a name for himself.
Qin Ye was a poor official, but the whole Jia household, high and low alike, thought so much of riches and rank that in the interest of his son’s career he had to pinch and scrape to get together twenty-four taels of silver as a handsome entrance gift. Then he took Qin Zhong to pay his respects to Jia Dairu, after which they waited for Baoyu to fix a day on which both boys could enter school.
Truly:
If one knew that in time to come there would be trouble,
Who would send his son to study today?

Chapter 9

Devoted Friends Join the Clan School
Mud-Slinging Boys Brawl
in the Classroom



Qin Ye and his son did not have long to wait for a message from the Jia family telling them the date on which to start school, for Baoyu was so eager to be with Qin Zhong he could think of nothing else. He sent a servant with a note asking his friend to come to his house in two days’ time, in the morning, to go to school together.
On the day appointed, while Baoyu was still asleep, Xiren made a neat package of his books and writing materials, then sat down dejectedly on the edge of the kang. When he woke, she helped him with his toilet.
“Why are you looking so unhappy, dear sister?” he asked gently. “Are you upset because you’ll all feel lonely while I’m at school?”
“What an idea!” She smiled. “There’s nothing like study, if you don’t want to be a failure in life and get nowhere. Just remember to keep your mind on your books in class, and out of class to think of the people at home. Don’t get into mischief with the other boys. It would be no joke if you were caught by the master. I know they say you should give your whole heart to study, but don’t overdo it or you’ll bite off more than you can chew and your health will suffer. At least that’s my idea. Do think it over.”
Baoyu agreed with all she said.
“I’ve packed your fur coats and given them to the pages,” Xiren continued. “If you find the school cold, mind you put more on, because we shan’t be there to look after you. I’ve given them charcoal for your hand-stove and foot-stove too. Mind those lazy scamps keep them filled. If you don’t keep them up to scratch they won’t lift a finger but leave you to freeze.”
“Don’t worry,” Baoyu assured her. “I know how to take care of myself outside. And you mustn’t stay here moping either, but drop in from time to time to chat with cousin Daiyu.”
By now he was dressed and she urged him to pay his respects to his grandmother and parents. After some brief instructions to Qingwen and Sheyue, he took his leave of the Lady Dowager, who naturally had some advice for him too. He went next to his mother and then to his father’s study.
Jia Zheng happened to have come home early today. He was talking with some secretaries and protégés when Baoyu went in to pay his re¬spects and announce his departure to school.
“Don’t make me die of shame with this talk about school.” His fa¬ther laughed scornfully. “All you’re fit for, in my opinion, is to go on fooling about. Your presence here contaminates this place and contami¬nates my door.”
“Your Lordship is too hard on him,” protested his companions, who had risen. “A few years at school and your worthy son is sure to show his mettle and make a name. He’s not a child any more. It’s nearly time for breakfast, he should be off.” With that, two of the older men led Baoyu out.
Jia Zheng asked who was accompanying his son, and three or four sturdy fellows who had been waiting outside came in and fell on one knee to pay their respects.
Recognizing Li Gui, the son of Baoyu’s old wet-nurse, Jia Zheng de¬manded, “What has he learned all the time you’ve attended him at his lessons? Nothing but a pack of nonsense and some clever tricks. As soon as I have leisure I’ll flay you alive and then settle accounts with that young reprobate.”
In consternation Li Gui fell on both knees, snatched off his cap and thumped his head on the ground submissively.
“I wouldn’t dare tell a lie, sir,” he exclaimed. “The young master has studied three volumes of the Book of Songs, down to ‘yu-yu cry the deer, lotus leaves and duckweed.’ ”
This unintentional travesty of the original line set the whole room in a roar of laughter. Even Jia Zheng himself could not help smiling.
“Even if he studied another thirty volumes, it would just be fooling people,” he retorted. “Give my compliments to the school principal, and tell him from me that such works as the Book of Songs and classical essays are a waste of time. He’d far better expound the Four Books and make his pupils learn them by heart.”
Li Gui promised to do this and then withdrew, seeing that his master had no further orders.
All this time Baoyu had been waiting with bated breath in the court¬yard. He hurried away as soon as he saw them emerging from the house.
Li Gui and the others, dusting off their clothes, asked, “Did you hear that? He’s going to flay us alive. Other people’s slaves get some re¬flected credit from their masters. All we get for waiting on you is beat¬ings and abuse. Do have a little pity on us in future.”
“Cheer up, good brothers,” replied Baoyu with a smile. “I’ll give you a treat tomorrow.”
“Who are we to expect treats, little ancestor? Just listen to our ad¬vice once in a while.”
By now they were back at the Lady Dowager’s quarters. She was chatting with Qin Zhong, who had been there for some time. The two boys exchanged greetings, then took their leave of her.
Baoyu, remembering that he had not said goodbye to Daiyu, hurried to her room. She was sitting before her mirror by the window and smiled when he told her that he was off to school.
“Good,” she said. “So you’re going to ‘pluck fragrant osmanthus in the palace of the moon.’ I’m sorry I can’t see you off.”
“Don’t have supper till I’m back, dear cousin,” he begged. “And wait for me to mix your rouge.
After chatting for a while he turned to leave.
“Aren’t you going to say goodbye to Baochai?” Daiyu called after him.
With no answer but a smile he left with Qin Zhong.

Now this Jia family school, which was only a li away, had been set up several generations earlier so that members of the clan who could not afford to engage a tutor would have somewhere to educate their sons. It was supported by those with official positions, who contributed according to the size of their stipends, and an elderly man of good reputation in the clan was elected to take charge of the boys’ instruction.
When Baoyu and Qin Zhong had been introduced to the other stu¬dents, they embarked on their studies. From this day onward the two of them became inseparable, going to school and leaving it together. And thanks to the Lady Dowager’s partiality, Qin Zhong often stayed for a few days with the Jia family. Indeed, she treated him like one of her own grandsons, giving him clothes, shoes and other necessities when she saw that his family was hard up. In less than a month he was on good terms with everyone in the Rong Mansion.
Since Baoyu always followed his own bent regardless of what was due to his position, in his usual unconventional way he privately urged Qin Zhong: “We’re the same age, and schoolmates too. Let’s forget that we’re uncle and nephew and just be brothers and friends.”
At first Qin Zhong would not agree to this, but since Baoyu kept call¬ing him “brother” or using his courtesy name, he started doing the same.
Now although all the pupils in this school were members of the Jia clan or relations by marriage, as the proverb so aptly says, “A dragon begets nine offspring, each one different.” And inevitably among so many boys there were low types too, snakes mixed up with dragons.
These two new arrivals were both remarkably handsome. Qin Zhong was bashful and gentle, so shy that he blushed like a girl before he spoke, while Baoyu was naturally self effacing and modest, considerate to oth¬ers and pleasant in his speech. And they were on such intimate terms, it was no wonder that their schoolmates suspected the worst. They began to talk about the pair behind their backs, spreading ugly rumours inside the school and out.
Now Xue Pan had not been long in the Rong Mansion before he learned of this school, and the thought of all the boys there appealed to his baser instincts. So he enrolled as a student. But he was like the fisherman who fishes for three days and then suns his net for two. The fee he paid Jia Dairu was thrown away, for he had no intention of really studying, his sole aim being to find some ‘sweet-hearts’ there. In fact, tempted by his money and other gifts several boys did fall into his clutches, but we need not dwell on this.
Chief among these were two amorous youths whose real names have not been ascertained, nor the branches of the family to which they be¬longed. But on account of their good looks and charm they were nicknamed Sweetie and Lovely. Although the object of general admiration, so that others also had designs on them, they were left unmolested for fear of Xue Pan.
Baoyu and Qin Zhong were naturally attracted by these boys too, but knowing them to be Xue Pan’s friends they did not venture to make any overtures. Sweetie and Lovely were equally drawn to them. But not one of the four spoke of what was in his heart. Every day from four different seats four pairs of eyes kept meeting, and while trying to escape detec¬tion they contrived by hints and allusions to reveal their thoughts. How¬ever, some sly rascals discovered their secret and began to raise their eyebrows, wink, and cough or clear their throats behind their backs.
This had been going on for some time when one day, as luck would have it, Jia Dairu went home early on business, giving the boys a seven-character line to be matched with another and promising them a new lesson in the classics the next day. He left his eldest grandson Jia Rui in charge. Qin Zhong took advantage of the fact that nowadays Xue Pan had virtually stopped coming even to roll-call to make eyes at Sweetie and secretly signal to him. Having asked to be excused, they went out to the back courtyard for a quiet chat.
“Do your parents mind what friends you make?” asked Qin Zhong.
The words were barely out of his mouth when a cough behind them made both boys look round in dismay. It was their schoolmate Jin Rong. Sweetie was a hot-tempered lad. In embarrassment and annoyance he demanded:
“What are you coughing for? Can’t we talk if we want to?”
“If you can talk, why can’t I cough?” Jin Rong sniggered. “But why not talk openly instead of in this hole-and-corner fashion? I’ve caught you at last. There’s no use denying it. Let me have a go first, and I’ll keep quiet about it. Otherwise I’ll rouse the whole school.”
Flushing crimson the two boys demanded indignantly, “What have you caught us at?”
“I’ve caught you red-handed!” Clapping and grinning, he yelled, “Fine pancakes for sale. Come on, fellows, and buy one.
The two friends rushed furiously in to complain to Jia Rui of Jin Rong’s uncalled-for insult.
Now Jia Rui was an unscrupulous, grasping scoundrel who used his position in the school to fleece the boys. In return for money and good meals from Xue Pan, he had not checked his disgraceful behaviour but actually abetted him in order to curry favour.
But Xue Pan was as fickle as water-weed which drifts east today, west tomorrow. Having recently acquired new friends he had dropped Sweetie and Lovely, to say nothing of Jin Rong whom they had replaced; and now that they were discarded, Jia Rui had nobody to put in a good word for him. Instead of blaming Xue Pan’s fickleness, he bore his favourites a grudge for this. And because he, Jin Rong and the rest all had this grievance against the two boys, when Qin Zhong and Sweetie came in with their complaint it only increased his annoyance. Not daring to reprove Qin Zhong he made a scapegoat of Sweetie, abusing him roundly for being a trouble-maker.
After this rebuff, Sweetie and Qin Zhong returned sullenly to their seats while Jin Rong triumphantly wagged his head and smacked his lips as he poured out more abuse. This was too much for Lovely, and they started bickering from their respective places.
“I saw them just now as plain as day in the back yard,” insisted Jin Rong. “They were discussing where and how to meet.”
He held forth wildly regardless of who might hear, although one of his listeners was already enraged. And who do you think this was? It was Jia Qiang, a direct descendant of the Duke of Ningguo, who had been brought up by Jia Zhen after the untimely death of his own parents. He was now sixteen and even more handsome and engaging than Jia Rong, from whom he was virtually inseparable.
Now “the more people, the more talk,” and the disgruntled servants in the Ning Mansion were good for nothing but slandering their masters. When their dirty talk reached Jia Zhen’s ears, to avoid coming under suspicion himself he had given Jia Qiang his own establishment outside the Ning Mansion and told him to live on his own.
Jia Qiang was as intelligent as he was handsome, but he attended the school only as a blind for his visits to cock-fights, dog-races and brothels. None of his clansmen dared to cross him, however, because he was a favourite with Jia Zhen and had Jia Rong to stand by him. Naturally, intimate as he was with them, he was not going to let anyone bully Qin Zhong with impunity! His first impulse was to take his side openly, but on second thought he decided, “Jin Rong, Jia Rui and that lot are thick with Uncle Xue, who has always been on good terms with me. If I side against them and they tell Old Xue, that will spoil our friendly relations. If I do nothing, though, they’ll just spread these tiresome rumours. I must find some way of stopping their mouths without any loss of face.”
He left the room on the customary excuse and quietly got hold of Mingyan, one of Baoyu’s pages, to work on his feelings with his account of the matter.
Mingyan was Baoyu’s most serviceable page but he was young and inexperienced. Jia Qiang told him that the insults to Qin Zhong reflected on his master, and if Jin Rong were allowed to get away with this he would take even greater liberties the next time.
Mingyan always liked to throw his weight about, and with this encour¬agement from Jia Qiang he rushed in to beard Jin Rong. Not addressing him as a servant should, he cried, “Hey, you fellow Jin! Who do you think you are?”
At this point Jia Qiang stamped the dust off his boots, straightened his clothes and looking at the height of the sun remarked, “It’s time I was off.” He asked Jia Rui’s permission to leave early to deal with some business, and Jia Rui dared not stop him.
By now Mingyan had grabbed hold of un Rong.” What we do is no business of yours,” he yelled. “If you’ve any guts, come and take on your Master Ming.”
The whole roomful of boys was dumbfounded.
“How dare you, Mingyan!” bellowed Jia Rui.
Livid with anger Jin Rong bawled, “The rebel! How dare a slave run wild like this? I’ll have a word with your master.” Tearing himself loose he rounded on Baoyu and Qin Zhong.
Wham! A square inkstone hurled by some unknown assailant whizzed past Jin Rong’s head to crash on to the next desk, one occupied by Jia Lan and Jia Jun.
Jia Jun was a great-great-grandson of the Duck of Rongguo, and the only son of his mother who had been widowed early. He sat at the same
desk as Jia Lan because they were firm friends. This hot-tempered, fear¬less little scamp had watched indifferently while one of Jin Rong’s friends hurled an inkstone at Mingyan; but when the stone landed smack in front of him, smashing his water-bottle and spattering his books with ink, this was more than he could stand.
“You gaolbirds!” he swore. “If you want a fight, you can have it.” He grabbed his own inkstone ready to let it fly.
Timid Jia Lan intervened, saying this was none of their business. But Jia Jun paid no attention. Since his inkstone was pinned down he caught up his satchel and hurled it at the offender. Being small and weak, he missed his target. The satchel landed with a tremendous crash in front of Baoyu and Qin Zhong, scattering books, paper, brushes and ink over their desk and smashing Baoyu’s teacup so that tea poured all over it too.
Jia Jun launched himself at the boy who had thrown the inkstone, while Jin Rong caught up a bamboo pole and played havoc with it in that narrow crowded room.
Mingyan was the first to be hit. “What are you waiting for?” he roared to Baoyu’s other pages Chuyao, Saohong and Moyu, all of whom were ready for mischief.
“Sons of bitches!” they shouted. “They’re using weapons now.”
In they charged, Moyu armed with a door bar, the other two brandish¬ing whips.
Jia Rui tried desperately to hold back or persuade the contendants in turn. But no one listened to him, the place was a bedlam. Some boys threw themselves eagerly into the scrimmage, punching those who could not hit back, the more timid shrank aside, others stood on their desks clapping and laughing wildly as they urged the combatants on. The school was like a seething cauldron.
Li Gui and the servants outside hearing this uproar hurried in to stop the fight. When they asked how it had started, everyone answered at once, each blaming another. With an oath Li Gui drove Mingyan and the pages out.
Qin Zhong had been hit on the head and bruised by Jin Rong’s pole, and Baoyu was rubbing the place with his coat lapel. Now that order had been restored he told Li Gui:
“Collect my books and bring round my horse. I’m going to report this to the principal. They insulted us gratuitously, but when we complained quite properly to Mr. Jia Rui he laid the blame on us. He let them abuse us and actually encouraged them to beat us. Mingyan seeing us bullied natu¬rally took our side, but then they ganged up to beat him. They’ve even broken open Qin Zhong’s head. How can we go on studying here after this?”
Li Gui begged him not to be hasty. “It would look very inconsiderate to disturb the principal over such a little thing when he’s busy. Trouble should be settled on the spot, I say. There’s no need to go and disturb the old gentleman. It’s Mr. Jia Rui who’s to blame. You’re in charge here, sir, in the old gentleman’s absence. If anyone misbehaves, you should punish him. How could you let them get so out of hand?”
“I did tell them to stop,” said Jia Rui. “But no one paid any attention.”
“You mustn’t mind if I speak frankly, sir,” rejoined Li Gui. “It’s be¬cause your own conduct leaves much to be desired that these boys don’t obey you. So if this business comes to the principal’s ears, it will go hard with you. Hurry up and think of a way to hush it up.”
“I won’t have it hushed up,” declared Baoyu. “I’m going to report it.”
“I’m not coming here any more,” sobbed Qin Zhong, “if Jin Rong is allowed to stay.”
“What an idea!” cried Baoyu. “Why should we have to keep away because they come? I’m going to tell everyone and have him expelled.” He asked Li Gui to which branch of the family Jin Rong was related.
Li Gui thought for a moment, then said, “Better not ask. If I tell you, it will only cause bad feeling among relatives.”
“He’s the nephew of Mrs. Jia Huang of the East Lane,” called Mingyan through the window. “I don’t know how he had the nerve to beard us. Mrs. Jia Huang is his aunt on the father’s side. She’s a sponger who sucks up to people and goes down on her knees to Madam Lian for things to pawn. How can we respect a ‘mistress’ like that?”
“Shut up, you dirty bugger. Don’t talk such rot,” roared Li Gui.
“So that’s who he is!” said Baoyu scornfully. “Cousin Jia Huang’s nephew. I shall go and see her about this.”
He ordered Mingyan to come in and wrap up his books.
The page did so, saying exultantly, “Why go yourself, sir? Let me go and tell her the old lady wants her. I’ll hire a carriage to bring her, and you can question her in the Lady Dowager’s presence. Wouldn’t that save trouble?”
“Do you want to die?” shouted Li Gui. “Just wait, I’ll give you such a thrashing when we get back. Then I’ll tell our master and mistress that you were the one who put Baoyu up to this. I’ve had trouble enough getting him halfway calmed down, and here you go again. You started this rumpus, but instead of trying to smooth things over you’re adding fuel to the fire.”
Mingyan dared say no more then. And Jia Rui, afraid of being incrimi¬nated if this went any further, had to pocket his grievance and ask Qin Zhong and Baoyu to forget it.
After holding out for some time Baoyu said, “All right, I won’t tell if un Rong apologizes.”
At first Jin Rong refused. But Jia Rui put pressure on him, and Li Gui and the others joined in.
“You started this,” Li Gui pointed out. “It’s up to you to end it.”
Under pressure from all sides, Jin Rong bowed to Qin Zhong. But Baoyu would not be satisfied with anything less than a full kowtow.
Jia Rui, anxious to smooth things over, urged Jin Rong softly, “Re¬member the proverb ‘A murderer can only lose his head.’ Since you began this you must humble yourself a little. Once you’ve kowtowed, that will be the end of it.”
So at last un Rong stepped forward and kowtowed to Qin Zhong.
To know what followed, read the next chapter.

Chapter 10

Widow un Pockets Her Pride Because
of Self-Interest
Dr. Zhang Diagnoses Keqing’s Illness



With heavy pressure on him and orders from Jia Rui to apologize, un Rong had to appease Baoyu by kowtowing to Qin Zhong. Then school was dismissed and he went home, where the more he brooded the an¬grier he grew.
“That flunkey Qin Zhong is only ha Rong’s brother-in-law, not a son or grandson of the Jia family,” he fumed. “He’s only in the school on sufferance, just as I am. But on the strength of his friendship with Baoyu he looks down on everyone else. If he at least behaved decently no one would mind; but the two of them must think the rest of us are blind, the way they carry on. Well, I caught him today making up to someone else, so I needn’t be afraid even if the whole thing comes out.”
“What scrape are you in now?” asked his mother, née Hu, when she heard this muttering. “I had to rope in your aunt and put her to no end of trouble to beg Madam Xifeng in the West Mansion to get you this place in the family school. Where would we be if not for their help? We couldn’t afford a tutor. Besides, you get free meals there, don’t you? That’s meant a great saving on your board these last two years. It’s fitted you out in all those smart clothes you’re so fond of. It was through the school, too, that you met Mr. Xue who’s helped us this last year or so to the tune of seventy or eighty taels of silver at least. If you’re expelled because of this row, don’t expect me to find another school like this. I can tell you, that would be harder than climbing up to heaven. Just amuse yourself quietly now before going to bed. That would be much better.”
Jin Rong had to swallow his anger and hold his tongue, and very soon he turned in. The next day be went back to school as if nothing had happened.
Now Jin Rong’s paternal aunt had married Jia Huang of that genera¬tion of the family which used the ‘jade” (yu) radical in personal names. Needless to say, not all members of the clan were as wealthy as those in the Ning and Rong Mansions. Jia Huang and his wife had very slender means and were only able to live as they did by keeping on good terms with both households and by making up to Xifeng and Madam You, who often helped them out.
Since today was fine and she had nothing to do, Jia Huang’s wife, née Jin, accompanied by a woman-servant, came over by carriage to see her widowed sister-in-law and nephew.
In the course of conversation Jin Rong’s mother described the quar¬rel in the school the previous day, giving a detailed account of the whole affair. Aunt Huang immediately flew into a passion.
“Our boy Rong is just as much a relative of the Jia family as that young fool Qin Zhong,” she cried. “How can some people suck up like that to the rich? Especially when they behave so disgracefully. As for Baoyu, he’s no call to make such a favourite of him. I’m going to the East Mansion to see Madam You, then I’ll tell Qin Zhong’s sister about this and see what she has to say.”
“I should never have told you, sister.” Jin Rong’s mother was frantic. “For goodness’ sake don’t say anything to them. Never mind who’s right and who’s wrong. If trouble came of it my boy would lose his place. And apart from the fact that we couldn’t afford a tutor we’d have to spend a lot more on his food and clothes.”
“Never mind that!” retorted Aunt Huang. “Let me tell them the facts and we’ll see what they have to say.”
Ignoring the widow’s protests, she called for her carriage and drove to the Ning Mansion, alighting at the small gate on the east side and going in on foot to see Madam You.
Not daring to vent her anger, she made polite conversation for a while, then asked, “Why don’t I see Madam Rong today?”
‘I don’t know what the matter is,” said Madam You. “But she’s missed her periods for two months and more, yet the doctors say she’s not expecting. She’s too tired to move or talk by the afternoon nowa¬days, and she has dizzy spells. I told her, ‘Don’t trouble to pay your respects here mornings and evenings, just have a good rest. If relatives call, I’ll receive them. And if the old folk wonder at your absence, I’ll make apologies for you.’ I told Rong not to let anyone tire or annoy her, so that she can rest quietly until she’s better. ‘If she fancies anything to eat, come to me for it,’ I said. ‘If we don’t have it you can ask Xifeng. If anything were to happen to her, you’d never find another wife with her good looks and sweet temper, not if you were to search around with a lantern.’ She’s quite won the hearts of the old folk and all our relations. So I’ve been most dreadfully worried the last few days.
“But then her brother had to come and see her this morning. He’s too young to know any better, but when he saw she was ill he shouldn’t have troubled her with his affairs, not to say a trifle like this. Even if he was treated unfairly, he shouldn’t have told her. They had a fight, you know, in school yesterday. Some other boy bullied him and there was dirty talk--- he repeated it all to her. You know how she is. For all she’s so pleas¬ant and so capable, she’s sensitive and takes everything to heart. She’ll brood over the least little thing for days on end. It’s this habit of worrying that’s made her ill. When she heard today that someone had picked on her brother, it upset her and made her angry. Angry with those dirty dogs who cause trouble and gossip; upset because Qin Zhong doesn’t study hard or give his mind to his books, and that’s how this trouble started. Because of this, she wouldn’t touch any breakfast.
“When word of this reached me I went over to soothe her. I gave her brother a talking-to, then packed him off to Baoyu in the other mansion. I didn’t come back till I’d seen her take half a bowl of bird’s-nest soup. You can’t imagine how worried I am, sister. We haven’t got any good doctors nowadays, either. This illness is keeping me on tenterhooks. Do you know of any good doctor?”
Aunt Huang’s furious determination while with her sister-in-law to have it out with Keqing had, during this recital, been scared away into the Sea of Java.
“We’ve been hoping to hear of some good doctors, but so far we don’t know of any,” she replied. “But judging by what you tell me, this may still mean she’s pregnant. Don’t let anyone give her the wrong medicine, though. That could be dangerous.”
“Just what I think,” agreed Madam You.
At this point Jia Zhen came in. Seeing Jia Huang’s wife he inquired, “Is this Mrs. Huang?”
She stepped forward to greet him, and before returning to his room he urged his wife to keep her to a meal.
Aunt Huang had come there to complain about Qin Zhong’s treat¬ment of her nephew, but after hearing of Keqing’s illness she hadn’t the courage to mention this, much less to complain. Moreover Jia Zhen’s and Madam You’s kind reception had transformed her indignation into pleasure. She chatted a little longer, then took her leave.
Once she had gone, Jia Zhen came in and sat down.
“What business brought her here today?” he asked.
“She didn’t seem to have any,” replied his wife. “She looked rather put out when she arrived but she calmed down little by little as I told her about our daughter-in-law’s illness. Because of that she couldn’t very well stop to a meal, as you suggested. She left quite soon without making any requests.
“But to get back to our daughter-in-law, you really must find a good doctor for her without any more delay. These that have been attending her are useless. They just listen to what we tell them and then dress it up in high-sounding language. They go to a lot of trouble, to be sure, three or four of them coming several times a day to feel her pulse in turn. After consulting together they write their prescriptions, but the medicine hasn’t done her the least bit of good. In fact, it’s bad for a patient to have to change her clothes four or five times a day and sit up to see the doctor.”
“Why should the silly child keep changing?” asked ha Zhen. “If she caught cold that would be even worse. This will never do. The finest clothes are nothing compared with her health. She can wear new ones every day if it comes to that.
“What I was going to tell you is that Feng Ziying called just now. He asked why I looked so worried. I told him I was upset because our daugh¬ter-in-law isn’t well but we can’t find a good doctor to tell whether she’s ill or pregnant, and whether there’s any danger or not. Well, Feng knows a doctor named Zhang Youshi who was his childhood tutor, a very learned man with a comprehensive knowledge of medicine, and an ex¬cellent diagnostician. He’s come to the capital this year to purchase an official rank for his son, and he’s staying with Feng. Fate may have meant him to cure our daughter-in-law. You never can tell. I’ve sent a servant with my card to invite him. It may be too late today, but I’m sure he’ll come tomorrow. Especially as Feng Ziying promised to ask him as soon as he reached home. Let’s wait, then, till this Dr. Zhang has seen her.”
Madam You cheered up at this. “And how are we to celebrate your father’s birthday the day after tomorrow?”
“I’ve just been to pay my respects to him,” answered Jia Zhen. “I invited him here to receive congratulations from the whole family, but he said, ‘I’m used to a peaceful life and don’t want to be disturbed by all the commotion in your house. Of course, you’re inviting me to go and have everyone kowtow to me because it’s my birthday, but it would be a hundred times more to my liking if you had my annotated Rewards and Punishments1 neatly copied out and printed. Suppose you entertain the two families for me at home the day after tomorrow instead of having them come here. Don’t send me any presents either. In fact, there’s no need for you to come yourself the day after tomorrow. You can kowtow to me now, if that will make you feel better. If you bring a great crowd to disturb me on my birthday, I shall be very displeased.’
“Since he made such a point of this, I shan’t venture to go again. You had better order Lai Sheng to arrange for the two days’ banqueting. It must be handsomely done. You can go to the West Mansion to deliver invitations in person to the old lady, Lady Xing, lady Wang and Xifeng.”
As he was saying this, ha Rong came in to pay his respects, and Madam You told him what her husband had said.
“Your father has heard today of a good doctor,” she added. “We’ve sent to ask him round and he should be coming tomorrow. You’ll have to tell him all your wife’s symptoms.”
Her son assented and had just withdrawn when he met the page sent to invite Dr. Zhang.
“I’ve been to Mr. Feng’s house with His Lordship’s card,” said the page. “The doctor said Mr. Feng had just told him about it, but he was so exhausted after a whole round of visits that even if he came now he couldn’t take the pulse. He’ll come tomorrow after a good night’s rest. He added, ‘I know very little about medicine and really shouldn’t pre¬sume to take up this responsibility, but since Mr. Feng has done me the honour of recommending me to your master I mustn’t decline. Go and give your master this message. As for His Lordship’s card, I really can’t presume to keep it.’ So I’ve brought it back. Will you please pass on this message for me, sir?”
Jia Rong went back to tell his parents this, after which he sent for Lai Sheng to instruct him to prepare the two days’ feast. And the steward went off to make his preparations.

The next day at noon the doctor was announced. Jia Zhen couducted him into the reception hall and made him take a seat. When they had drunk tea he broached the subject, saying, “Yesterday I was overwhelmed with admiration by all Mr. Feng told me of your character, learning and profound knowledge of medicine, sir.”
“I am simply an ignorant layman,” replied Dr. Zhang. “But when I heard yesterday from Mr. Feng that Your Lordship’s family is considerate to ordi¬nary scholars and had condescended to send for me, how could I disobey your orders? I am ashamed, though, that I have no real learning.”
“You are too modest, sir. May I trouble you to have a look at my daughter-in-law? I am relying on your superior knowledge to relieve our anxiety.”
Jia Rong accompanied the doctor to Keqing’s bedside.
“Is this your worthy wife?” asked Dr. Zhang.
“Yes, sir,” said Jia Rong. “Do sit down! Would you like me to de¬scribe her symptoms to you before you take the pulse?”
“May I suggest that I take her pulse before you enlighten me?” coun¬tered the doctor. “This is my first visit to your honourable mansion, and being quite unqualified I would not have come but for Mr. Feng’s insis¬tence. Let me take her pulse, and you may gauge the correctness of my diagnosis before you describe her condition recently. Then we can devise an efficacious prescription and submit it to the discretion of His Lord¬ship.”
“I see you are an authority,” replied ha Rong. “I am only sorry we did not meet earlier. Do examine her and let us know if she can be cured, to spare my father further anxiety.”
Some maids rested Qin Keqing’s arm on a pillow and raised her sleeve to expose the wrist. The doctor first took the pulse of the right wrist, feeling it carefully for a considerable time before he turned to the left wrist.
This done, he proposed, “Shall we go and sit outside?”
Jia Rong conducted him to another room, where they seated them¬selves on the kang. A serving woman brought in tea, and when they had drunk it Jia Rong asked:
“Judging by her pulse, doctor, is there any cure for her?”
“Your honourable wife’s left distal pulse is deep and agitated, the median pulse deep and faint,” replied the doctor. “The right distal pulse is faint and feeble, the median pulse slight and lacking in energy.
“A deep and agitated left distal pulse indicates a febrile condition arising from the weak action of the heart; the deep and faint median pulse is due to anemia caused by a sluggish liver. A faint and feeble distal pulse on the right wrist comes of debility of the lungs; a slight and listless median pulse indicates a wood element in the liver too strong for the earth element in the spleen.
“The fire produced by the weak action of the heart results in irregular menses and insomnia. A deficiency of blood and sluggish condition of the liver produce pain in the ribs, delayed menses and heartburn. Debility of the lungs leads to giddiness, perspiration in the early hours of the morning, and a feeling like sea-sickness. And the predominance of the wood ele¬ment in the liver over the earth element in the spleen causes loss of appetite, general lassitude and soreness of the limbs. These are the symp¬toms I would expect from my reading of the lady’s pulse. I cannot agree with the view that this pulse indicates a pregnancy.
An old woman who had been attending Keqing exclaimed, “That’s exactly how it is. This doctor must have second sight: there’s no need for us to tell him anything. Quite a few of our household physicians have seen her, but not one of them came so close to the truth. One says it’s a pregnancy, another that it’s an illness; this one declares it’s of no conse¬quence, that one that there’ll be a crisis at the winter solstice. They can’t make up their minds. Please tell us just what to do, sir.”
“Those gentlemen have delayed your lady’s recovery,” said the doc¬tor. “If she had taken the right medicine when she first missed her menses, she’d have been quite well by now. Since she’s had no effective treat¬ment, this trouble is only to be expected. I would rate her chances of recovery at three out of ten. If she sleeps well tonight after taking my medicine, that will about double her chances.
“Judging by her pulse, your lady is highly strung and unusually intelli¬gent. Because of this she is easily upset and prone to worry, which has affected her spleen. The element of wood in the liver has produced hot humours which have upset her menstruation. Am I right in assuming that your lady’s periods always tended to be irregular and several days late?”
“Yes, to be sure,” said the woman. “Never early but two or three days later than normal, sometimes as much as ten days behind time.”
“Quite so,” observed the doctor. “There’s the cause of her illness. If she’d taken a tonic to regulate her menses, this could have been avoided. This is clearly a case of enervation caused by too little water and too much wood. We’ll see how she responds to medicine.”
Thereupon he wrote out and gave Jia Rong the following prescription:
DECOCTION TO IMPROVE THE RESPIRATION, FORTIFY
THE BLOOD AND TRANQUILLIZE TI-IF LIVE
	Ginseng	.2	oz
	Atraetylis (clay baked)	. 2	oz
	Paehyma cocos	.3	oz
	Prepared Ti root	.4	oz
	Aralia edulis (cooked in wine)	. 2	oz
	White peony (cooked)	. 2	oz
	Szechuan selinum	. 15	oz
	Sophora tomentosa	. 3	oz
	Cyperus rotundus (processed)	. 2	oz
	Gentian soaked in vinegar	. 08	oz
	Dioseorea from the Huai region (cooked)	. 2	oz
	Genuine Tung-ngo glue (prepared with
	  powdered oyster-shell)	. 2	oz
	Carydalis ambigua (cooked in wine)	. 15	oz
	Dried liquorice	.08	oz
Adjuvant:	Seven Fujian lotus-seeds with the pits extracted and two large red dates.
“Excellent,” remarked Jia Rong after reading this. “Can you tell me, doctor, if her life is in any danger?”
“A man of your intelligence must know that at this stage it is impos¬sible to predict how long the illness may last. We must see how she responds to this treatment. In my humble opinion, there is no danger this winter and if she gets through the spring equinox we may expect a cure.”
Jia Rong was too sensible to press the matter. After seeing the doctor out he showed his father the prescription and diagnosis and told his par¬ents all that had been said.
“No other doctor has been so definite,” observed Madam You to her husband. “His prescription must be good.”
“He is not a professional doctor,” replied ha Zhen. “He doesn’t prac¬tise medicine for a living and only came as a favour to our friend Feng Ziying. With his help, there’s hope that our daughter-in-law may be cured. I see his prescription calls for ginseng. You can use that catty of a supe¬rior quality we bought the other day.”
Jia Rong withdrew to see about buying the medicine, which was then prepared and given to his wife. To know the effect of the treatment, read the next chapter.

Chapter 11

ha Jing’s Birthday Is Celebrated
in the Ning Mansion
Jia Rui Meets and Lusts
After Xifeng


Jia Jing’s birthday had now arrived. Jia Zhen had six large hampers filled with choice delicacies and rare fruit and sent ha Rong with some servants to deliver them.
“Make sure your grandfather’s agreeable before you pay your re¬spects,” he cautioned his son. “Tell him that in compliance with his wishes I’ve not ventured to go, but I am assembling the whole family here to honour him.”
After ha Rong had left the guests began to arrive. First Jia Lian and Jia Qiang. Observing the seating arrangements, they asked what enter¬tainment was to be offered.
“His Lordship originally planned to invite the old master, so he didn’t prepare any theatricals,” said the servants. “But the day before yester¬day, when he heard that the old gentleman wouldn’t be coming, he got us to hire some young actors and musicians. They’re getting ready now on the stage in the garden.”
Next to arrive were Lady Xing, Lady Wang, Xifeng and Baoyu. They were welcomed in by Jia Zhen and Madam You, whose mother had al¬ready come. After greetings had been exchanged they were urged to be seated. Jia Zhen and his wife handed round tea.
“The Lady Dowager is our Old Ancestress,” said Jia Zhen with a smile. “My father is only her nephew, and we wouldn’t have presumed to invite her on his birthday if not for the fact that the weather is refresh¬ingly cool now and all the chrysanthemums in our garden are at their best. We thought it might prove a pleasant distraction for her to watch all her children and grandchildren enjoying themselves. She hasn’t favoured us with her presence, however.”
“Up to yesterday she meant to come,” explained Xifeng before Lady Wang could get a word in. “But yesterday evening she saw Baoyu eating some peaches and she couldn’t resist eating nearly a whole peach. She had to get up twice just before dawn, which left her tired out this morning. She asked me to tell you that she couldn’t come, but she hopes you’ll send her a few delicacies if you have some that are easy to digest.”
“That explains it,” said Jia Zhen. “The old lady is so fond of lively parties, I was sure there must be some reason for her absence.”
Lady Wang remarked, “The other day Xifeng told me that Rong’s wife is indisposed. What’s wrong with her?”
“It’s a very puzzling illness,” replied Madam You. “At the Mid-Au¬tumn Festival last month she enjoyed herself half the night with the old lady and you, and came home none the worse. But for a fortnight since the twentieth of last month she’s grown weaker and weaker every day and lost all her appetite. And she hasn’t had a period for two months.”
“Can she be pregnant?” asked Lady Xing.
Just then the arrival of Jia She, Jia Zheng and the other gentlemen was announced. They were in the reception hail, ha Zhen hurried out.
Madam You continued, “Some doctors thought it might mean a happy event. But yesterday she was examined by an excellent physician rec¬ommended by Feng Ziying, who once studied with him, and according to him it isn’t a pregnancy but a serious illness. He made out a prescription, and today after one dose she feels less dizzy but there hasn’t been much other improvement.”
“If she weren’t quite incapable of any exertion, I know she’d have made an effort to be here today,” observed Xifeng.
“You saw her here on the third,” said Madam You. “She forced her¬self to bear up for several hours, because she’s so fond of you she couldn’t bear to tear herself away.”
Xifeng’s eyes became moist. After a pause she exclaimed, “Truly, ‘Storms gather without warning in nature, and bad luck befalls men over¬night.’ But life is hardly worth living if such an illness can carry off one so young!”
As she was speaking Jia Rong walked in. Having greeted the visitors he told his mother, “I’ve just taken the delicacies to my grandfather. I told him my father was waiting on Their Lordships and entertaining the young gentlemen here, and that in compliance with his orders he wouldn’t presume to go over. Grandfather was very pleased. He expressed ap¬proval and told me to ask you and my father to attend to the elder genera¬tion while we entertain the younger. He also wants to have ten thousand copies of his version of Rewards and Punishments printed and distrib¬uted as quickly as possible. I’ve already given this message to my father. Now I must hurry and see to the food for all the grand-uncles, uncles and other gentlemen.”
“Just a minute, Master Rong,” interposed Xifeng. “Tell me, how is your wife today?”
“Not well at all.” The young man’s face clouded. “Do go and see her for yourself, aunt, on your way home.” He left without saying any more.
Madam You asked Lady Xing and Lady Wang, “Would you prefer to eat here or in the garden? The actors are preparing out there.”
“Why not eat here and then go out?” suggested Lady Wang. “That would be simple.”
Lady Xing seconded this.
So Madam You ordered the meal to be served at once. There was an answering cry in unison outside the door and the maids went to fetch the dishes. Soon the feast was ready. Madam You made Lady Xing, Lady Wang and her mother take the places of honour, while she sat at a side table with Xifeng and Baoyu.
“We came to congratulate the old gentleman on his birthday,” re¬marked Lady Xing and Lady Wang. “But now it looks, doesn’t it, as if we were celebrating our own?”
“The Elder Master is fond of retirement,” said Xifeng. “He’s lived so long as an ascetic, we can already consider him an immortal. So he’ll know by divine intuition what you’ve just said.”
This set the whole company laughing. The ladies, having by now fin¬ished their meal, rinsed their mouths and washed their hands. Just as they were ready to go into the garden, Jia Rong turned up to tell his mother:
“All my grand-uncles, uncles and cousins have finished their meal. Lord She has some business at home, and Lord Zheng has also left as he doesn’t care for theatricals or anything rowdy. Uncle Lian and Cousin Qiang have taken the others over to watch the performance.
“Cards and gifts have been brought from the four princes of Nanan, Dongping, Xining and Beijing, from Duke Niu of Zhenguo and five other dukes, as well as from Marquis Shi of Zhongjing and seven other mar¬quises. I’ve reported this to my father, had the presents put in the count¬ing-house and the catalogues of gifts placed on file, and my father’s ‘received with thanks’ cards handed to the messengers, who were given the usual tips and a meal before they left.
“Won’t you ask the ladies to go and sit in the garden now, mother?”
“We’ve just finished our meal too,” said Madam You. “We’re com¬ing over.”
“I’d like to drop in and see Rong’s wife first, madam,” said Xifeng. “May I join you later?”
“A good idea,” approved Lady Wang. “We’d all go if not for fear of disturbing her. Tell her we asked after her.”
“My daughter-in-law always does as you ask her, dear sister,” said Madam You. “I’ll feel much easier in my mind if you go and cheer her up. But join us in the garden as soon as you can.”
Baoyu asked permission to go with Xifeng.
“Go if you want, but don’t be long,” said his mother. “Remember she’s your nephew’s wife.”
So Madam You took Lady Xing, Lady Wang and her own mother to the Garden of Concentrated Fragrance, while Xifeng and Baoyu went with ha Rong to see Keqing.
They entered her room quietly and when she made an effort to rise Xifeng protested, “Don’t. ft would make you dizzy.” She hurried for¬ward to clasp Keqing’s hand, exclaiming, “How thin you’ve grown, my poor lady, in the few days since last I saw you!”
She sat down on her mattress, while Baoyu also asked after his niece’s health and took a chair opposite.
“Bring in tea at once,” called ha Rong. “My aunt and second uncle had none in the drawing-room.”
Holding Xifeng’s hand, Keqing forced a smile.
“Living in a family like this is more than I deserve,” she said. “My father-in-law and mother-in-law treat me as their own daughter. And although your nephew’s young, we have such a regard for each other that we’ve never quarrelled. In fact the whole family, old and young, not to mention you, dear aunt that goes without saying have been goodness itself to me and shown me nothing but kindness. But now that I’ve fallen ill all my will power’s gone, and I haven’t been able to be a good daughter-in-law. I want so much to show how I appreciate your goodness, aunt, but it’s no longer in my power now. I doubt if I shall last the year out.”
Baoyu was looking pensively at the picture Sleeping Under a Crab ¬Apple Tree in Spring and Qin Guan’s couplet:
Coolness wraps her dream, for spring is chill;
A fragrance assails men, the aroma of wine.
As he raptly recalled his dream here of the Illusory Land of Great Void, Keqing’s remarks pierced his heart like ten thousand arrows and un¬known to himself his tears flowed. Xifeng, distressed as she was, did not want to upset the patient even more, knowing it would be better to dis¬tract and console her.
“You’re a regular old woman, Baoyu,” she scolded. “It’s not as bad as your niece would have us believe.” She turned to Keqing. “How can someone your age give way to such foolish fancies just because of a little illness? Do you want to make yourself worse?”
“She’d be all right if only she’d eat,” put in Jia Rong.
“Her Ladyship told you not to be too long,” Xifeng reminded Baoyu. “Don’t hang about here upsetting Keqing and making Her Ladyship worry.” She then turned to Jia Rong and said, “Take Uncle Bao to rejoin the others while I stay here a little longer.”
So Jia Rong led Baoyu to the Garden of Concentrated Fragrance while Xifeng soothed Keqing and whispered some well-meant advice into her ear.
When Madam You sent a servant for the third time to fetch her she said to Keqing, “Take good care of yourself. I’ll come back again to see you. The fact that this good doctor has been recommended to us is a sign that you’re going to get better. Don’t you worry.”
“Even if he were an immortal, he could cure a disease but not avert my fate,” retorted Keqing with a smile. “I know it’s only a matter of time now, auntie.
“How can you get better if you keep thinking like that? You must look on the bright side. In any case, I’m told the doctor said that even if you’re not cured there’s no danger until the spring. It’s only the middle of the ninth month now. You’ve four or five months yet, quite long enough to recover from any illness. It would be another matter if our family couldn’t afford ginseng; but your father and mother-in-law can easily give you two catties of ginseng a day, not to mention two drains. Mind you rest well. I’m off now to the garden.”
“I’m sorry I can’t go with you, dear aunt,” said Keqing. “Do come back again when you’ve time and let’s have a few more good talks.”
Xifeng’s eyes smarted again at this. “Of course I’ll come whenever I’m free,” she promised.
Accompanied by her own maids and some from the Ning Mansion, she took a winding path to the side gate of the garden. There a rare sight met her eyes.
Yellow chrysanthemums carpeted the ground;
Green willows covered the slopes;
Small bridges spanned the brooks
And winding pathways led to quiet retreats.
Clear springs welled from the rocks,
Fragrance was wafted from trellises laden with flowers,
While russet tree-tops swayed
In scattered copses lovely as a painting.
The autumn wind was chilly
And the song of golden orioles had ceased,
But crickets were still chirping in the warm sunshine.
At the far southeast end
Cottages nestled among the hills;
On the northwest side
Pavilions brooded over the lake water.
Fluting cast a subtle enchantment over men’s senses,
And silk-gowned girls strolling through the woods
Added to the charm of the scene.
Xifeng was strolling along enjoying this sight when a man appeared without warning from behind an artificial rockery and accosted her with, “Greetings, sister-in-law!”
She stepped back, startled, and asked, “Is it Master Rui?”
“Who else could it be? Don’t tell me you don’t know me.
“Of course I do, but you took me by surprise.”
“We must have been fated to meet, sister-in-law.” He was devouring her with his eyes as he spoke. “I slipped away from the banquet just now for a quiet stroll in this secluded spot. And I meet you here! What is this if not fate?”
Xifeng had sense enough to see through him. “No wonder Lian al¬ways speaks so highly of you,” she rejoined with a smile, feigning pleasure. “From seeing you today and hearing you talk, I can see how clever and understanding you are. I’ve no time to spare now, I must join Her Ladyship. But perhaps we shall meet again some other day.”
“I’ve often wanted to call and pay my respects. But I thought, being young, you might not welcome me.”
“What nonsense.” She assumed another smile. “Aren’t we of the same family?”
Enraptured by this unexpected good fortune, Jia Rui looked ready to make more indecent advances. But Xifeng urged him, “You must hurry back before you’re missed, or they’ll make you drink forfeits.”
Half numbed by this tantalizing remark he walked slowly away, look¬ing back at her over his shoulder. Xifeng purposely slowed down until he was out of sight.
“You can know a man’s face but not his heart,” she reflected, “I’ll show the beast! If he tries anything like that with me, I’ll sooner or later make him die at my hands, to let him know my ability.”
Then, rounding a miniature hill, she met several matrons hurrying breathlessly towards her.
“Our mistress sent us to fetch you, madam,” they cried. “She was worried because you didn’t come.”
“Your mistress is devilish impatient!”
Continuing to saunter along, she asked how many items had been
performed. The answer was: Eight or nine. They had now reached the back door of the Pavilion of Heavenly Fragrance, where Baoyu was amusing himself with some maids.
“No silly tricks now, Cousin Baoyu,” she warned him.
“The ladies are all in the gallery,” one of the girls told her. “Just up those stairs, madam.”
Xifeng gathered up her skirts to mount the stairs and found Madam You waiting for her on the landing.
“You and your niece are so thick, I thought you’d never tear yourself away,” teased Madam You. “You’d better move over tomorrow and stay with her. Sit down now and let me give you a toast.”
Xifeng asked Lady Xing and Lady Wang’s permission to be seated and exchanged a few polite remarks with Madam You’s mother, then she sat down beside her hostess to sip wine and watch the performance. Madam You sent for the list of their repertoire and asked her to choose a few items.
“How can I presume when Their Ladyships are present?” demurred Xifeng.
“Old Mrs. You has chosen several already,” replied Lady Xing and Lady Wang. “It’s your turn to pick a couple of good ones for us.”
Xifeng rose to signify obedience. Taking the list she read through it and marked The Resurrection1 and The Rhapsody2 Handing it back she observed, “When they’ve finished this Double Promotion3 there’ll be just time enough for these two.”
“Yes,” said Lady Wang. “We must let our hosts have some rest soon. Especially as this is a worrying time for them.”
“You come over so seldom,” protested Madam You, “I do hope you’ll stay a bit longer. It’s early yet.”
Xifeng stood up to look below and asked, “Where are the gentle¬men?”
“They’ve gone to drink in the Pavilion of Lingering Dawn,” replied one of the matrons. “They took the musicians with them.”
“Our presence cramps their style,” remarked Xifeng. “I wonder what they’re up to behind our backs?”
“How can you expect everybody to be as proper as you?” said Madam You jokingly.
So they laughed and chatted till the plays came to an end, when the wine was taken away and rice brought in. After the meal they returned to the drawing-room for tea, then ordered their carriages and took their leave of old Mrs. You. They were seen to their carriages by Madam You, attended by all the concubines and maids, and there they found the young men waiting with Jia Zhen. The latter urged Lady Xing and Lady Wang to come back again the next day, but Lady Wang declined. “We’ve spent the whole day here and we’re tired. We shall have to rest tomorrow.”
Jia Rui kept his eyes on Xifeng as the visitors got into their carriages and drove off.
After Jia Zhen and the others had gone indoors, Li Gui led round Baoyu’s horse and the boy mounted it and followed his mother home. When Jia Zhen and all the young men had dined, the party broke up; and there is no need to describe the entertainment they offered all their kins¬men the next day.
Xifeng dropped in more often now to see Keqing, who seemed slightly better on some days although in general her health did not improve, to the great dismay of her husband and his parents. And ha Rui, calling several times on Xifeng, invariably found she had gone to the Ning Mansion.

The thirtieth day of the eleventh month would be the winter solstice. As it approached, the Lady Dowager, Lady Wang and Xifeng sent daily to inquire after Keqing and were told each time that she was neither better nor worse.
“It’s a hopeful sign,” Lady Wang told the Lady Dowager, “if an illness grows no worse at a season like this.”
“Yes, of course,” replied the old lady. “If anything were to happen to the dear child, I’m sure it would break my heart.”
In her distress she sent for Xifeng and said, “You and she have always been good friends. Tomorrow’s the first of the twelfth month, but the day after that I want you to call on her and see just how she is. If she’s any better, come and tell me. That would take a great weight off my mind. And you must have the things she used to like to eat made and sent round.”
Xifeng promised to do this and after breakfast on the second she went
to the Ning Mansion to see Keqing. Although the invalid appeared no worse, she had grown very thin and wasted. Xifeng sat and chatted with her for some time, assuring her that she had no cause for alarm.
“Whether I’ll ever recover or not we’ll know when spring comes,” said Keqing. “Maybe I shall, for the winter solstice has passed and I’m no worse. Please tell the old lady and Lady Wang not to worry. Yester¬day I ate two of the yam cakes stuffed with dates that the old lady sent, and I think they did me good.”
“We’ll send you some more tomorrow,” offered Xifeng. “Now I must go to see your mother-in-law before hurrying back to tell the old lady how you are.
“Please send my respects to her and Lady Wang.”
Promising to do so, Xifeng left. She went to sit with Madam You who asked, “Tell me frankly, how did you find her?”
Xifeng lowered her head for a while. “There seems to be little hope,” she said at last. “If I were you I’d make ready the things for the funeral. That may break the bad luck.”
“I’ve had them secretly prepared. But I can’t get any good wood for you know what, so I’ve let that go for the time being.”
After drinking some tea and chatting a little longer. Xifeng said she must go back to report to the Lady Dowager.
“Don’t break it to her yet,” said Madam You. “We don’t want to alarm the old lady.”
Xifeng agreed to this and took her leave. Home again, she told the Lady Dowager, “Rong’s wife sends her respects and kowtows to you. She says she’s better and you mustn’t worry. When she’s a little stron¬ger, she’ll come herself to kowtow and pay her respects.”
“How did she seem?”
“For the present there’s nothing to fear. She’s in good spirits.”
The Lady Dowager thought this over, then said, “Go and change your clothes now and rest.”
Xifeng withdrew and reported to Lady Wang before going back to her room. Pinger helped her into the informal clothes she had warming by the fire. Then Xifeng, taking a seat, asked what had happened during her absence.
“Nothing much.” The maid handed her a bowl of tea. “Lai Wang’s wife came with the interest on that three hundred taels, which I put away. And Master Rui sent round again to ask if you were in, as he wanted to pay his respects.”
“That wretch! He deserves to die,” Xifeng snorted. “Just see what I do to the beast if he comes!”
“Why does he keep calling?”
Xifeng described their meeting and all he had said to her in the Ning Mansion garden during the ninth month.
“A toad hankering for a taste of swan,” scoffed Pinger. “The beast hasn’t a shred of common decency. He deserves a bad end for dreaming of such a thing.
“Let him come,” said Xifeng. “I know how to deal with him.”
What happened to Jia Rui when he came is told in the next chapter.

Chapter 12

Xifeng Sets a Vicious Trap
for a Lover
Jia Rui Looks into the Wrong Side
of the Precious Mirror of Love


While Xifeng was talking to Pinger, Jia Rui was announced. She or¬dered him to be admitted at once.
Overjoyed at being received, he hastened in and greeted her effu¬sively, beaming with smiles. With a show of regard she made him take a seat and offered him tea. The sight of her in informal dress threw him into raptures. Gazing amorously at her he asked:
“Why isn’t Second Brother Lian home yet?”
“I wouldn’t know,” Xifeng replied.
“Perhaps he’s been caught by someone and can’t tear himself away?”
“Perhaps. Men are like that. Bewitched by every pretty face they see.”
“Not all of us, sister-in-law. I’m not like that.”
“How many are there like you? Not one in ten.”
Tweaking his ears and rubbing his cheeks with delight, the young man insinuated, “You must be very bored here day in and day out.”
“Yes indeed. I keep wishing someone would drop in for a chat to cheer me.”
“I have plenty of time. Suppose I were to drop in to amuse you every day?”
“Now you’re joking,” she replied archly. “You wouldn’t want to come and see me.”
“I mean every word I say. May a thunderbolt strike me if I don’t! I didn’t dare come before because I was told you were very strict and took offence at the least little thing. Now I see how charming and how kind you are, you may be sure I’ll come, even if it costs me my life.”
“You’re certainly much more understanding than Jia Rong and his brother. They look so refined one would expect them to be understand¬ing, but they’re stupid fools with no insight at all into other people’s hearts.”
Inflamed by this praise, he edged closer. Staring at the purse hanging from her girdle, he asked if he might look at her rings.
“Take care,” she whispered. “What will the maids think?”
He drew back instantly as if obeying an Imperial decree or a mandate from Buddha.
“You had better go now,” Xifeng smiled.
“Don’t be so cruel. Let me stay a little longer.”
“This is no place for you during the day with so many people about,” she murmured. “Go now but come back again secretly at the first watch. Wait for me in the western entrance hall.”
To Jia Rui this was like receiving a pearl of great price.
“You’re not joking, are you?” he demanded. “How can I hide there with people passing back and forth all the time?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll dismiss all the pages on night duty. Once the gates on both sides are locked, no one can come through.”
Hardly able to contain himself for joy, the young man hurried off, convinced he would have his desire and longing for the evening.
That night, sure enough, he groped his way to the Rong Mansion, slipping into the entrance hall just before the gates were bolted. It was pitch dark and not a soul was about. Already the gate to the Lady Dowager’s quarters was locked, only the one on the east remaining open.
He waited, listening intently, but no one came. Then with a sudden clatter the east gate was bolted too. Frantic as he was, he dared not make a sound. He crept out to try the gate and found it securely closed. Escape was out of the question, for the walls on either side were too high to climb.
The entrance hall was bare and draughty. As it was the depth of winter the nights were long and an icy north wind chilled him to the bone. He almost froze to death.
At last dawn came and a matron appeared to open the east gate. As she went over to knock on the west gate and was looking the other way, Jia Rui shot out like a streak of smoke, hugging his shoulders. Luckily no one else was up at this early hour. He was able to escape unseen through the postern door.
Jia Rui had been orphaned early and left in the charge of his grandfa¬ther Jia Dairu, a strict disciplinarian who allowed him no freedom for fear he drink or gamble outside and neglect his studies. Now that he had stayed out all night his grandfather was furious and suspected him of drinking, gambling or whoring, little guessing the truth of the matter.
In a cold sweat with fright, Jia Rui tried to lie his way out.
“I went to my uncle’s house, and because it was late he kept me for the night.”
“You have never dared leave home before without permission,” thundered his grandfather. “You deserve a beating for sneaking off like that. And a worse one for deceiving me.
He gave Jia Rui thirty or forty strokes with a bamboo, would not let him have any food, and made him kneel in the courtyard to study ten days’ lessons. This thrashing on an empty stomach and kneeling in the wind to read essays completed the wretched youth’s misery after his freezing night.
But still too blinded by infatuation to realize that Xifeng was playing with him, he seized his first chance a couple of days later to call. She reproached him for his breach of faith, earnestly as he protested his inno¬cence; and since he had delivered himself into her hands she could not but devise further means to cure him.
“Tonight you can wait for me in another place that vacant room off the passage behind this apartment. But mind you don’t make any mis¬take this time.”
“Do you really mean it?”
“Of course I do. If you don’t believe me, don’t come.”
“I’ll come, I’ll come, even if I should die for it.”
“Now, you’d better go.”
Assuming that this time all would go well, Jia Rui went off.
Having got rid of him, Xifeng held a council of war and baited her trap while the young man waited at home impatiently, for to his annoyance one of their relatives called and stayed to supper. By the time he left the lamps were being lit, and Jia Rui had to wait for his grandfather to retire before he could slip over to the Rong Mansion and wait in the place appointed. He paced the room frantic as an ant on a hot griddle, but there was no sight or sound of anyone.
“Is she really coming?” he wondered. “Or shall I be left to freeze for another whole night?”
Just then a dark figure appeared. Sure that it was Xifeng, he threw caution to the winds and barely had the figure stepped through the door than he flung himself on it like a ravenous tiger, or a cat pouncing on a mouse.
“Dearest!” he cried. “I nearly died of longing.”
He carried her to the kang, where he showered kisses on her and fumbled with her clothes, pouring out incoherent endearments. Not a sound came from the figure in his arms.
Jia Rui had just pulled down his pants and prepared to set to work when a sudden flash of light made him look up. There stood Jia Qiang, a taper in his hand.
“What’s going on in here?” he demanded.
The figure on the kang said with a chuckle, “Uncle Rui was trying to bugger me.”
When Jia Rui saw that it was Jia Rong, he wished he could sink through the ground. In utter confusion he turned to run away.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Jia Qiang grabbed him. “Aunt Xifeng has told Lady Wang that without any reason you tried to make love to her. To escape your attentions she played this trick to trap you. Lady Wang’s fainted from shock. I was sent here to catch you. I found you on top of him, you can’t deny it. So come along with me to Lady Wang!”
Jia Rui nearly gave up the ghost. “Dear nephew,” he pleaded, “do tell her you couldn’t find me. I’ll pay you well for it tomorrow.”
“I might do that. Depends how much you’re willing to pay. I can’t just take your word for it, I must have it down in writing.”
“How can I put a thing like this down in writing?”
“That’s no problem. Just write that you borrowed so much silver from the bank to pay a gambling debt.”
“All right. But I’ve no paper or brush.”
“That’s easy.” Jia Qiang disappeared for a moment and promptly returned with writing materials, where upon the two of them forced Jia
Rui to write and sign an I. O. U. for fifty taels which Jia Qiang pocketed. When he urged Jia Rong to leave, however, the latter at first absolutely refused and threatened to lay the matter before the whole clan the next morning, Jia Rui kowtowed to him in desperation. However, with Jia Qiang mediating between them, he was forced to write another I. O. U. for fifty taels of silver.
“I’ll get the blame if you’re seen leaving,” said Jia Qiang. “The Lady Dowager’s gate is closed, and the Second Master is in the hall looking over the things which have arrived from Jinling, so you can’t get out that way. You’ll have to go through the back gate. But if anyone meets you I’ll be finished too. Let me see if the coast is clear. You can’t hide here, they’ll be bringing stuff in presently. I’ll find you somewhere to wait.
He blew out the light and dragged Jia Rui out to the foot of some steps in the yard.
“Here’s a good place,” he whispered. “Squat down there until we come back and don’t make a sound.”
As the two others left, Jia Rui squatted obediently at the foot of the steps. He was thinking over his predicament when he heard a splash above him and a bucket of slops was emptied over his head. A cry of dismay escaped him. But he clapped one hand over his mouth and made not another sound, though covered with filth from head to foot and shiv¬ering with cold. Then Jia Qiang hurried over calling:
“Quick! Run for it!”
At this reprieve, Jia Rui bolted through the back door to his home. By now the third watch had sounded, and he had to knock at the gate. The servant who opened it wanted to know how he came to be in such a state.
“I fell into a cesspool in the dark,” lied Jia Rui.
Back in his own room he stripped off his clothes and washed. Only then did he realize with rage the trick Xifeng had played him, yet the recollection of her charms still made him long to embrace her. There was no sleep for him that night. Afterwards, however, although he still longed for Xifeng, he steered clear of the Rong Mansion.
Both Jia Rong and Jia Qiang kept dunning him for payment, so that his fear of being found out by his grandfather and the hopeless passion which consumed him were now aggravated by the burden of debts, while he had to work hard at his lessons every day. The unmarried twenty-year-old, constantly dreaming of Xifeng, could not help indulging in “finger-play.” All this, combined with the effect of two nights of exposure, soon made him fall ill. Before a year was out he suffered from heartburn, loss of appetite, emissions in his urine and blood in his phlegm; his legs trembled, his eyes smarted; he was feverish at night and exhausted by day. And finally he collapsed in a fit of delirium.
The doctors who were called in dosed him with dozens of catties of cinnamon, aconitum roots, turtle-shell, liriope, polygonatum and so forth---but all to no effect. With the coming of spring he took a turn for the worse.
His grandfather rushed to and fro in search of new physicians, yet they proved useless. And when pure ginseng was prescribed this was beyond Jia Dairu’s means: he had to ask for help from the Rong Man¬sion. Lady Wang told Xifeng to weigh out two ounces for him.
“All our recent supply was used the other day in the old lady’s medi¬cine,” said Xifeng. “You told me to keep the remaining whole roots for General Yang’s wife, and as it happens I sent them round yesterday.”
“If we’ve none, send to your mother-in-law’s for some. Or your Cousin Zhen’s household may let us have what’s needed. If you can save the young man’s life, that will be a good deed.”
But instead of doing as she was told, Xifeng scraped together less than an ounce of inferior scraps which she dispatched with the message that this was all Her Ladyship had. To Lady Wang, however, she re¬ported that she had collected two ounces and sent them over.
Jia Rui was so anxious to recover that there was no medicine he would not try, but all the money spent in this way was wasted.
One day a lame Taoist priest came begging for alms and professes to have specialized in curing diseases due to retribution. Jia Rui heard him from his sick-bed. At once, kowtowing on his pillow he loudly implored his servants to bring the priest in.
When they complied he seized hold of the Taoist and cried:
“Save me, Bodhisattva! Save me!”
“No medicine can cure your illness,” rejoined the Taoist gravely. “However, I can give you a precious object which will save your life if you look at it every day.”
He took from his wallet a mirror polished on both sides and engraved on its handle with the inscription: Precious Mirror of Love.
“This comes from the Hall of the Illusory Spirit in the Land of Great Void,” he told Jia Rui. “It was made by the Goddess of Disenchantment to cure illnesses resulting from lust. Since it has the power to preserve men’s lives, I brought it to the world for the use of intelligent, handsome, high-minded young gentlemen. But you must only look into the back of the mirror. On no account look into the front — remember that! I shall come back for it in three days’ time, by when you should be cured.” He strode off then before anyone could stop him.
“This is a strange business,” reflected Jia Rui. “Let me try looking at this Taoist’s mirror and see what happens.” He picked it up and looked into the back. Horrors! A skeleton was standing there! Hastily covering it, he swore, “Confound that Taoist giving me such a fright! But let me see what’s on the other side.”
He turned the mirror over and there inside stood Xifeng, beckoning to him. In raptures he was wafted as if by magic into the mirror, where he indulged with his beloved in the sport of cloud and rain, after which she saw him out.
He found himself back in his bed and opened his eyes with a cry. The mirror had slipped from his hands and the side with the skeleton was exposed again. Although sweating profusely after his wet dream, the young man was not satisfied. He turned the mirror over again, Xifeng beckoned to him as before, and in he went.
But after this had happened four times and he was about to leave her for the fourth time, two men came up, fastened iron chains upon him and proceeded to drag him away. He cried out:
“Let me take the mirror with me!”
These were the last words he uttered.
The attendants had simply observed him look into the mirror, let it fall and then open his eyes and pick it up again. This time, however, when the mirror fell he did not stir. They pressed round and saw that he had breathed his last. The sheet under his thighs was cold and wet.
At once they laid him out and made ready the bier, while his grandpar¬ents gave way to uncontrollable grief and cursed the Taoist.
“This devilish mirror!” swore Jia Dairu. “It must be destroyed before it does any more harm.” He ordered it to be thrown into the fire.
A voice from the mirror cried out: “Who told you to look at the front? It’s you who’ve taken false for true. Why should you burn me?”
That same instant in hustled the lame Taoist, shouting, “I can’t let you destroy the Precious Mirror of Love!” Rushing forward he snatched it up, then was off like the wind.
Jia Dairu lost no time in preparing for the funeral, notifying all con¬cerned that sutras would be chanted in three days’ time and the funeral would take place in seven. The coffin would be left in Iron Threshold Temple until it could be taken to their old home.
All the members of the clan came to offer condolences. Jia She and Jia Zheng of the Rong Mansion contributed twenty taels each towards the expenses, and Jia Zhen of the Ning Mansion did the same. Others gave three or five taels according to their means, while the families of Jia Rui’s schoolmates collected another twenty or thirty taels. So Jia Dairu, although not well-off, was able to conduct the funeral in style.
And then, at the end of winter, a letter came from Lin Ruhai saying that he was seriously ill and wished to have his daughter sent home. This increased the Lady Dowager’s distress, but they had to prepare with all speed for Daiyu’s departure; and although Baoyu was most upset he could hardly come between her and her father.
The Lady Dowager decided that Jia Lian should accompany her grand¬daughter and bring her safely back. We need not dwell on the presents and arrangements for the journey, which naturally left nothing to be de¬sired. A day was quickly chosen on which Jia Lian and Daiyu took their leave of everyone and, accompanied by attendants, set sail for Yangzhou.
For further details, read the next chapter.

Chapter 13

Keqing Dies and a Captain of the Imperial
Guard Is Appointed
Xifeng Helps to Manage Affairs
in the Ning Mansion


Xifeng found life excessively dull after her husband’s departure with Daiyu for Yangzhou. She passed the evenings as best she could chatting with Pinger before retiring listlessly to bed.
One evening, tired of embroidering, she sat nursing her hand-stove by the lamp and told the maid to warm her embroidered quilt early, after which they both went to bed. When the third watch sounded they were still reckoning on their fingers the stage Jia Lian must have reached on his journey. Soon after that, Pinger fell fast asleep. And Xifeng’s eyelids were drooping drowsily when to her astonishment in came Keqing.
“How you love to sleep, aunt!” cried Keqing playfully. “I’m going home today, yet you won’t even see me one stage of the way. But we’ve always been so close, I couldn’t go without coming to say goodbye. Besides, there’s something I’d like done which it’s no use my entrusting to anyone else.”
“Just leave it to me,” replied Xifeng, rather puzzled.
“You’re such an exceptional woman, aunt, that even men in official belts and caps are no match for you. Is it possible you don’t know the saying that ‘the moon waxes only to wane, water brims only to overflow,’ and ‘the higher the climb the harder the fall’? Our house has prospered for nearly a hundred years. If one day it happens that at the height of good fortune the ‘tree falls and the monkeys scatter’ as the old saying has it, then what will become of our cultured old family?”
Quick to comprehend, Xifeng was awe-struck. “Your fears are well-¬founded,” she said. “But how can we prevent such a calamity?”
“Now you’re being naive, aunt,” Keqing laughed caustically. “For¬tune follows calamity as disgrace follows honour. This has been so from time immemorial. How can men prevent it? The only thing one can do is to make some provision for lean years in times of plenty. All’s well at present except for two things. Take care of them and the future will be secure.
Xifeng asked what she had in mind.
“Although seasonal sacrifices are offered at the ancestral tombs there’s no fixed source of income for this, and although we have a family school there’s no definite fund for it. Of course, while we’re still prosperous, we don’t lack the wherewithal for sacrifices, but where’s it to come from once we fall on hard times?
“I’d like to suggest that while we’re still rich and noble we should invest in some farms and estates near our ancestral tombs to provide for sacrifices. The family school should be moved to the same place.
“Let the whole family, old and young alike, draw up rules whereby each branch of the family will take it in turn to manage the land, income and sacrifices for a year. Taking turns will prevent disputes and malprac¬tices like mortgages or sales.
“Then even if the family property were confiscated because of some crime, the estate for ancestral worship would be exempted and in those hard times the young people could go there to study and farm. They’d have something to fall back on, and there would be no break in the sacri¬fices.
“It would be very short-sighted not to take thought for the future in the belief that our present good fortune will last for ever. Before long something marvelous is going to happen which will really ‘pour oil on the flames and add flowers to brocade.’ But it will simply be a flash in the pan, a brief moment of bliss. Whatever happens don’t forget the prov¬erb, ‘Even the grandest feast must have an end.’ Take thought for the future before it is too late.”
“What marvelous thing is going to happen?” asked Xifeng.
“Heaven’s secrets mustn’t be divulged. But because of the love be¬tween us let me give you some parting advice, and do remember it, aunt!” With that she declaimed:
“After the three months of the spring, all flowers will fade And each will have to find his own way out.”
Before Xifeng could ask more she was woken with a start by four blows on the chime-bar at the second gate. And a servant announced, “Madam Jia Rong of the East Mansion has passed away.”
Xifeng broke into a cold sweat. When she had recovered from her stupefaction, she dressed quickly and hurried over to Lady Wang.
By that time the whole household was lamenting, distressed by this shocking news. The old people recalled Keqing’s filial behaviour, the young people her affectionate ways and the children her kindness; while not one of the servants but wept for grief recollecting her compassion for the poor and humble and her loving goodness to old and young alike.

But let us return to Baoyu, who was so desolate after Daiyu’s depar¬ture that he had given up playing with his companions and went disconso¬late to bed each night. Roused from sleep by the announcement of Keqing’s death, he sprang suddenly from his bed. At once he felt a stab of pain in his heart, and with a cry spat out a mouthful of blood.
Xiren and his other maids rushed up to help him back to bed, asking anxiously what was the matter. Should they get the Lady Dowager to send for a doctor?
“There’s no need, it’s nothing,” he said. “A hot humour seized on my heart and stopped the normal flow of blood.” He got up again and demanded to be dressed so that he could go to his grandmother and then to the other mansion.
Anxious though Xiren was, she dared not stop him when he was in this mood.
The Lady Dowager however protested, “Just after a death their house is unclean. Besides, at night the wind is high. You may just as well go tomorrow.”
When Baoyu insisted, she ordered a carriage and plenty of attendants for him. They found the gates of the Ning Mansion wide open and brilliantly lit with lanterns on either side. There was an excited coming and going of people and the air was rent by the vociferous wailing from inside the house.
Alighting from his carriage Baoyu hurried to the room in which Keqing lay and having wept there went in to see Madam You, who happened to be laid up with another bout of dyspepsia. He then paid his respects to Jia Zhen.
By now Jia Dairu had arrived with Jia Daixiu, Jia Chi, Jia Xiao, Jia Dun, Jia She, Jia Zheng, Jia Cong, Jia Bin, Jia Heng, Jia Guang, Jia Chen, Jia Qiong, Jia Lin, Jia Qiang, Jia Chang, Jia Ling, Jia Yun, Jia Qin, Jia Zhen, Jia Ping, Jia Zao, Jia Heng, Jia Fen, Jia Fang, Jia Lan, Jia Jun and Jia Zhi.
Bathed in tears, Jia Zhen was telling Jia Dairu and the others, “Every¬one in the family, old and young, distant kin or close friends, knows that my daughter-in-law was infinitely superior to my son. Now that she has gone, my branch of the family is fated to die out.” With that he broke down again.
The men present tried to console him: “Since she has departed this world it is useless to weep. The main thing now is to decide what must be done.”
“What must be done?” Jia Zhen clapped his hands. “I’m ready to dispose of all in my possession.”
He was interrupted by the arrival of Qin Ye, Qin Zhong and some relatives of Madam You as well as her younger sisters. Leaving Jia Qiong, Jia Cen, Jia Lin and Jia Qiang to keep the guests company, Jia Zhen sent to invite someone from the Department of Astrology to choose auspi¬cious days.
It was decided that the body should remain in the house for seven times seven or forty-nine days, and mourning should start the third day after her death with the issue of obituary notices. During the forty-nine days a hundred and eight Buddhist monks were to perform the Litany of Great Compassion in the main hail to release the souls of those passed away before and after her and win remission for the sins of the de¬ceased. At an altar erected in the Heavenly Fragrance Pavilion, ninety-nine Taoists of the Perfect Truth Sect should pray for forty-nine days for absolution. The coffin would then be taken to the Garden of Concen¬trated Fragrance, where another fifty high bonzes and fifty high Taoists would sacrifice before it once every seventh day during the forty-nine days.
Jia Jing alone was untouched by the death of his eldest grandson’s wife. Expecting to attain immortality shortly himself, how could he go home to be soiled by mundane dust and squander all the merit he had acquired? So he left all the funeral arrangements to his son.
His father’s indifference gave Jia Zhen a free hand to indulge his extravagance. He decided that the cedar-boards he had seen would not do for the coffin and was searching for something better when Xue Pan called to offer condolences.
“In our timber-yard is some qiang wood from the Iron-Net Mountain across the sea,” said the young man. “A coffin made of this would last for ten thousand years. My father bought this timber for Prince Yi Zhong, but after his disgrace the prince didn’t take it. It’s still stored with us because no one has ventured to buy it. If you like, I’ll have it sent over.”
Overjoyed by this news, Jia Zhen had the timber fetched without de¬lay. Everyone gathered round and exclaimed in wonder, for the planks for the sides and the base were eight inches thick with a grain like that of the areca palm and the perfume of sandalwood or musk. When tapped they gave off a clear ringing sound like metal or jade.
Jia Zhen, his face radiant, inquired the price.
“You couldn’t buy this for a thousand taels,” replied Xue Pan with a smile. “Don’t worry about the price. All you need pay for is having it made up.”
After copious thanks Jia Zhen lost no time in giving directions for the wood to be sawn and varnished.
Jia Zheng objected, “This seems too sumptuous for ordinary people. The best quality cedar-boards would be quite adequate.”
But Jia Zhen, who would gladly have died in Keqing’s place, would not listen to this suggestion.
Word was brought that after Keqing’s death one of her maids, Ruizhu, had dashed out her own brains against a pillar. The whole clan praised this act of rare loyalty and Jia Zhen ordered that she be buried with the rites befitting a grandchild, her coffin resting in the Pavilion of Attained Immortality in the Garden of Concentrated Fragrance.
Another maid, Baozhu, offered to act as Keqing’s god-daughter and take the chief mourner’s part, since her mistress had no child. This pleased Jia Zhen so much that he directed that henceforward Baozhu should be addressed as “miss”, as if she were a daughter of the house.
Then Baozhu mourned like an unmarried daughter, weeping by the coffin as if her heart would break, while all the clansmen and servants observed the etiquette traditionally prescribed for such occasions with unimpeachable propriety.
What distressed Jia Zhen now was the fact that his son was only a state scholar. This would not look well in the inscription on the funeral banner and it meant that the retinue would have to be small.
As luck would have it , however, on the fourth day of the first week of mourning servants with sacrificial offerings arrived from the eunuch Dai Quan, chamberlain of the Palace of Great Splendour, who followed in a great palanquin with an official umbrella and gonging and drumming to offer an oblation.
Jia Zhen ushered him eagerly in and offered him tea in the Bee-Teas¬ing Pavilion. He already had a scheme in mind and soon found occasion to express his wish to purchase a rank for his son.
Dai Quan rejoined with a knowing smile, “To make the funeral more sumptuous, I presume?”
“Your assumption is correct, sir.”
“By a fortunate coincidence there happens to be a good post going. There are two vacancies in the corps of three hundred officers of the Imperial Guard. Yesterday the third brother of the Marquis of Xiangyang sent me 1,500 taels and asked me for one of them; and since we are old friends, as you know, for his grandfather’s sake I made no difficulties but agreed out of hand. Who would have expected that Fatty Feng, Mili¬tary Governor of Yongxing, wants to buy the other appointment for his son; but I haven’t yet had time to give him an answer. If your boy wants it, make haste and write out a statement of his antecedents.”
Jia Zhen at once sent a servant to pass on these instructions to his secretaries. The man returned presently with a sheet of red paper. After glancing at it Jia Zhen handed it to Dai Quan, who read:
Jia Rong, twenty, State Scholar of Jiangning District, Jiangning Pre¬fecture, Jiangnan.
Great-grandfather: Jia Daihua, commander-in-chief of the Metropoli¬tan Garrison and a hereditary general of the first class with the appella¬tion Spiritual Might.
Grandfather: Jia Jing, Metropolitan Scholar of the Yi Mao year.
Father: Jia Zhen, hereditary general of the third rank with the appella¬tion Mighty Intrepidity.
Dai Quan ordered one of his attendants, “Take this to Old Zhao, chief of the Board of Revenue, with my compliments. Ask him to draw up a warrant for an officer of the fifth rank in the Imperial Guard and to fill out a commission according to these particulars. Tomorrow I will weigh out the silver and send it over.”
Dai Quan then took his leave. His host, who could not detain him, saw him out. Before the eunuch mounted his palanquin Jia Zhen asked:
“Shall I take the money to the Board or to you, sir?”
“Just weigh out 1,200 taels and send it to my house. If you go to the Board, they’ll fleece you.”
Jia Zhen thanked him warmly and promised, “When the mourning is over I shall bring my worthless son to kowtow his thanks.” And so they parted.
Then runners could be heard clearing the way for the wife of Shi Ding, Marquis of Zhongjing. Lady Wang, Lady Xing and Xifeng wel¬comed her into the drawing-room. Then sacrificial gifts from the Mar¬quises of Jinxiang and Chuanning as well as the Earl of Shoushan were displayed before the coffin. Presently these three nobles alighted from their palanquins and Jia Zhen ushered them into the main hall.
So relatives and friends past counting came and went. Indeed, for forty-nine days the street outside the Ning Mansion was a sea of mourn¬ers in white interspersed by officials in their brilliant robes.
At his father’s order Jia Rong changed into court dress the next day to collect his commission, after which the funerary ware in front of the coffin as well as the insignia for the cortege were made to befit an offi¬cial of the fifth rank. The obituary tablet and notice were inscribed: “Ob¬sequies of Lady Qin, Spouse of the House of ha, Granted a Rank by Imperial Decree off the Celestial Court.”
The street gate in the Garden of Concentrated Fragrance was opened, and on platforms erected at both sides groups of blue-clad musicians played at appropriate times. The retinue stood in pairs in perfect symme¬try, and two large vermilion boards set up outside the gate bore the bold gilt inscriptions “Imperial Guard and Defender of the Palace Roads in the Inner Court of the Forbidden City.”
Across the road, facing each other, towered two altars for Buddhist and Taoist priests. The announcement on them read:
“Obsequies of Lady Qin of the Jia Family, Consort of the Eldest Great-Grandson of the Hereditary Duke of Ningguo, Imperial Guard and De¬fender of the Palace Roads in the Inner Court of the Forbidden City.
“In this land of peace and empire ruled according to the will of Heaven, in the centre of the four continents, we, Chief Buddhist Abbot Wan Xu, Controller of the School of the Void and Asceticism, and Chief Taoist Abbot Ye Sheng, Controller of the Primordial School of the Trinity, having reverently purified ourselves raise our eyes to Heaven and kowtow to Buddha. We humbly invoke all divinities to show their divine compassion and display their spiritual majesty afar in these forty-nine days of grand sacrifice, that the departed may be delivered from sins and absolved from retribution....” There was more in the same vein.

Now all that still troubled Jia Zhen was the fact that his wife was ill in bed again, unable to see to things. If any breach of etiquette occurred while so many nobles were calling, the family would be laughed at.
Baoyu noticed his preoccupation and asked: “Why do you look so anxious, cousin, now that everything’s settled so satisfactorily?” When told the reason he said cheerfully, “That’s no problem. I’ll recommend someone to take charge for you. Let her see to things this month and I guarantee that everything will go smoothly.”
“Who do you mean?”
Since there were many friends and relatives present, Baoyu drew closer and whispered into his ear.
“Excellent!” Jia Zhen sprang to his feet, overjoyed. “I must see to it at once.” Taking leave of the others he hurried off with Baoyu to the drawing-room.
As this was not one of the major days on which masses were said, only a few ladies who were close relatives had come. They were being entertained by Lady Xing, Lady Wang, Xifeng and other women of the household when Jia Zhen was announced. The ladies uttered cries of astonishment and hurriedly tried to slip into the inner room. Only Xifeng stood up composedly.
Jia Zhen was not in good health himself at this time and, being weighed down with grief, he limped in with a cane.
“You are not well,” said Lady Xing. “After all your recent exertions you ought to rest. What business brings you here?”
Still clutching his cane, Jia Zhen made an effort to kneel to greet and thank his kinswomen. Lady Xing urged Baoyu to restrain him and had a chair placed for him, but he would not take it.
Forcing a smile he announced, “Your nephew has come to ask a favour of his aunts and cousin.”
“What is it?” inquired Lady Xing.
“You know how it is, aunt. With my daughter-in-law gone and my wife ill in bed, everything is at sixes and sevens in the inner apartments. If my cousin Xifeng would condescend to take charge here for a month, that would set my mind at rest.”
“So that’s it.” Lady Xing smiled. “Xifeng is part of your Aunt Wang’s establishment, so you’ll have to ask her permission.”
“She’s young and inexperienced in these matters,” said Lady Wang. “If she handled things badly people would laugh. You’d better find some¬one else.”
“I can guess your real objection, aunt,” he replied. “You’re afraid she’d find it too tiring. As for handling things badly, I know that wouldn’t be the case. And any little slip would be overlooked. Ever since she was a child at play Cousin Xifeng has known her own mind, and by managing the other house since her marriage she’s gained experience. I’ve been thinking this over for some days and there’s no one else so competent. If you won’t agree for my sake or my wife’s, aunt, do it for the one who’s dead.” His tears flowed again.
Lady Wang’s only concern had been lest Xifeng, having no experi¬ence of funerals, might lay herself open to ridicule by managing badly. The earnestness of Jia Zhen’s request softened her heart and she eyed Xifeng thoughtfully.
Now Xifeng loved nothing better than displaying her administrative ability. Although she ran the household competently, as she had never been entrusted with grand affairs like weddings or funerals she was afraid others were not yet fully convinced of her efficiency and she was longing for a chance like this. Jia Zhen’s request delighted her. Seeing that his eagerness was overcoming Lady Wang’s initial reluctance, she said:
“Since my cousin is so earnest and pressing, won’t you give your consent, madam?”
“Are you sure you can cope?” whispered Lady Wang.
“I don’t see why not. Cousin Zhen has seen to all the important out¬side arrangements, it’s just a question of keeping an eye on the domestic side. And in case of doubt, I can consult you.”
Since this was reasonable, Lady Wang made no further objection.
“I can’t see to everything,” Jia Zhen said to Xifeng. “I must beg you to help us, cousin. Let me express my gratitude now, and when everything’s over I shall come round to your side to thank you properly.”
He made a low bow and, before she could return it, produced the Ning Mansion tally from his sleeve and asked Baoyu to hand it to her.
“You will have a free hand, cousin,” he promised. “Just use this to requisition whatever, you want, there’s no need to consult me. I’ve only two requests to make. First, please don’t try to spare me expense, as I want everything done handsomely. And secondly, treat the servants here as you would your own, don’t be afraid they may resent it. Apart from these two provisos, nothing else worries me.”
Xifeng did not venture to take the tally but glanced at Lady Wang.
“Do as your cousin asks,” said Lady Wang. “But don’t take too much upon yourself. If there are any decisions to make, send to ask him and your sister-in-law what should be done.”
Baoyu had already taken the tally from Jia Then and forced it on Xifeng.
“Would you prefer to stay here or to come over every day?” Jia Zhen asked her. “Coming over every day might be rather tiring. Why not let me clear out an apartment for you to stay in. Wouldn’t that save you trouble?”
“There’s no need,” replied Xifeng gaily. “They can’t do without me over there. I’ll come every day.”
Jia Zhen did not insist but left them after a little further chat.
As soon as the visitors had gone Lady Wang asked Xifeng what she proposed to do now.
“Please don’t wait for me, madam. I must sort things out before I come home.”
So Lady Wang left first with Lady Xing, while Xifeng retired to a small three-roomed annex to reflect as follows:
“First, this household is such a mixed one that things may get lost. Secondly, unless duties are assigned the servants may shirk work. Thirdly, the heavy expenditure may lead to extravagance and faked receipts. Fourthly, if no distinction is made between large tasks and small ones, some will have a harder time than others. Fifthly, these servants are so out of hand that those with any pretensions may defy me, and those with none won’t do their best.”
These were indeed the’ five distinguishing features of the Ning Man¬sion. To know how Xifeng coped, read the following chapter.
Truly:
Not one in ten thousand officials can rule the state,
Yet how splendidly a fair lady can run a household.

Chapter 14

Lin Ruhai Dies in Yangzhou
Baoyu Meets the Prince of Beijing
on the Road



When the news that Xifeng was to take charge reached Lai Sheng, chief steward of the Ning Mansion, he summoned all his colleagues.
“Madam Jia Lian of the West Mansion is coming to supervise our household,” he told them. “When she asks for things or gives orders, we must be extra careful. Better turn up earlier and leave later everyday, working hard this month and resting afterwards, in order not to lose face. You know what a tenor she is, sour-faced, hard-hearted and no respecter of persons once she’s angry.~~
They agreed and one remarked with a laugh, “Actually we need her to get this place into shape. Things are too out of hand.”
Along came Lai Wang’s wife just then with a tally and a receipt for the amount required, to fetch sacrificial paper and paper for supplications and prayers. They made her take a seat and have some tea while some¬one went for the amount required and carried it for her to the inner gate, where he handed it over to her to take inside.
Then Xifeng ordered Caiming to prepare a register and sent for Lai Sheng’s wife to bring her a list of the staff. She announced that all the men-servants’ wives were to come to her early the next morning for instructions. After checking quickly through the list and asking Lai Sheng ‘5 wife a couple of questions, she went home in her carriage.
She was back at half past six the next morning to find all the old serving¬women and stewards’ wives assembled. They did not venture into the ante¬chamber when they saw that she and Lai Sheng’s wife were busy assigning tasks, but from outside the window they heard her tell the latter:
“Since I’ve been put in charge here I daresay I shall make myself unpopular. I’m not as easy-going as your own mistress who lets you do as you please; so don’t tell me how things used to be managed here, but just do as I say. The least disobedience will be dealt with publicly, no matter how much face the offender may have.”
She made Caiming call the roll and the servants entered one by one for inspection. After this she ordered:
“These twenty, divided into two shifts often, will be solely responsible for serving tea to the guests on their arrival and before their departure. They will have no other duties. These twenty, also in two shifts of ten, will see to the family’s meals and tea every day. They will have no other duties either. These forty, divided into two shifts, will have the job of burning incense, keeping the lamps filled with oil, hanging up curtains, watching by the coffin, offering sacrificial rice and tea, and mourning with the mourners. Nothing else.
‘These four will be responsible for the cups, plates and tea things in the pantry, and will have to replace anything that is missing. These four will take charge of the dinner-sets and wine vessels, and likewise make good any loss. These eight will receive the presents of sacrificial offerings.
“These eight will look after the distribution of lamps, oil, candles and sacrificial paper to various places according to a list which I shall issue. These thirty will take night duty in turns, seeing that the gates are locked and keeping a look-out for fires, as well as sweeping the grounds.
“The rest of you will be assigned to different apartments and must stick to your posts. You will be responsible for everything there, from furniture and antiques to spittoons and dusters and each blade of grass —and will have to make good any loss or damage.
“Lai Sheng’s wife will make a general inspection every day and re¬port to me instantly any slackness, gambling, drinking, fighting or quarrel¬ling. If I find you being too soft, I shall make no allowances for you, even though your family has been in service here for three or four generations.
“Now you all have your duties, and if anything goes wrong I shall deal with the group concerned. My own servants have clocks and watches, because everything large or small must be done on time. Well, at least you have clocks here in your master’s rooms. I shall call the roll at half past six, you will have your meal at ten, and applications for stores or reports should be handed in punctually before half past eleven. At seven in the evening, after the burning of sacrificial paper, I shall make a tour of inspection, then issue those on night duty with their keys. I shall be back again at half past six the next morning. I needn’t remind you that we must all do our best during this period. When it’s over, no doubt your master will reward you.”
She then ordered the distribution of supplies of tea, oil, candles, feather whisks, brooms and so forth, and had tablecloths, antimacassars, cush¬ions, rugs, spittoons, stools and other furnishings issued. While this was being done, the servants in charge of each place and the articles taken by each were carefully recorded.
Now that all the servants had their respective duties, they were no longer able to pick the easy jobs and leave the hard ones undone. Nor were things mislaid any more on account of confusion. However many guests came and went, everything ran smoothly, unlike the previous dis¬order when a maid serving tea had to fetch in rice as well, or one accom-panying the mourners was sent to welcome new arrivals. That day saw the end, too, of disorder, negligence and pilfering. And Xifeng was thor¬oughly gratified by the authority she now wielded.
As Madam You was ill and grief had made Jia Zhen lose his appetite, Xifeng every day sent over from the other mansion some fine congee and delicacies she had prepared especially for them. And Jia Zhen also ordered the best food to be served for her alone in her annex every day.
Xifeng was not afraid of hard work. She came over punctually every morning at half past six to call the roll and see to any business, sitting alone in her annex and not even joining the other young wives to greet lady guests.
On the thirty-third day Buddhist monks performed the rites to cleave the earth asunder, break open Hell and light the dead down with lanterns to pay homage to the King of Hell; to arrest evil demons; to invoke Prince Ksitigarbha under the ground to raise up the Golden Bridge and lead the way with streamers. Taoists offered prayers and invocations, worship-ping the Three Pure Ones and the Jade Emperor. Bonzes chanting sutras burned incense, sacrificed to the hungry ghosts and intoned the Water Penitential while thirteen young nuns in red slippers and embroidered robes recited incantations before the coffin to lead the soul on its way. All was bustle and noise.
Knowing that many guests could be expected, Xifeng told Pinger to wake her up at four that day. By the time she had finished her toilet, sipped some milk and sweetened rice congee and rinsed her mouth, it was half past six and Lai Wang’s wife was already waiting with the other servants. Xifeng left the hail and mounted her carriage, in front of which were two brilliant horn lanterns inscribed with the large charac¬ters: “The Rong Mansion.”
As she slowly approached the Ning Mansion the lanterns above its main gate and the lamps on both sides shed a light bright as day on the two rows of attendants there in white mourning. At the main entrance her pages withdrew and maid-servants raised the curtain of the carriage. Xifeng was helped out by Fenger and escorted in by two serving-women with hand-lanterns. All the stewards’ wives of the Ning Mansion ad¬vanced to greet her.
Xifeng walked slowly through the Garden of Concentrated Fragrance to the Pavilion of Attained Immortality, where at the sight of the coffin her tears fell like pearls from a broken string. Pages were waiting re¬spectfully in the court for the burning of the sacrificial paper and now she ordered this to be done and an offering of tea presented. After one beat on the gong the music started. A large arm-chair had been set in front of the shrine and seating herself she gave way to loud lamentations. At once all the others, both men and women, high and low, joined in, until Jia Zhen and Madam You sent to persuade her to restrain her grief.
Then Lai Wang’s wife brought her tea to rinse her mouth, and Xifeng rose to take her leave of her kinsmen and proceed to the annex.
All the women-servants were present at the roll-call except for one usher. She came when summoned in great fear and trembling.
“So you’re the one.” Xifeng smiled scornfully. “You must consider yourself above the rest to disobey me like this.”
“I’ve been on time every day before,” said the woman. “But when I woke today it was still early, so I went back to sleep. That’s why I was a few minutes late. Please overlook it, madam, this once!”
Just then Wang Xing’s wife from the other mansion peeped in. With¬out dismissing the usher, Xifeng asked her what she wanted.
Eager to have her business attended to first, Wang Xing’s wife came forward and presented a request for silk thread to make tassels for the carriages and sedan-chairs. On Xifeng’s instructions Caiming read out the number of strings of beads and tassels needed for two palanquins and four sedan-chairs as well as four carriages. Finding the figures correct, Xifeng told Caiming to register them and gave a Rong Mansion tally to Wang Xing’s wife, who left.
Before Xifeng could deal with the offender in came four stewards from the Rong Mansion with indents for stores. Xifeng had their orders read out and pointed at two of the four items.
“These figures are wrong. Come back when you’ve worked them out correctly.”
The two stewards whose indents she tossed back withdrew very sheepishly.
Then she noticed Zhang Cai’s wife and asked her business. The woman handed her an order form, saying, “The covers for the carriages and sedan-chairs are finished, and I’ve come for the money for the tai¬lor.”
Xifeng told Caiming to enter this, and when Wang Xing’s wife had returned the tally and fetched the accountant’s receipt for the right sum Zhang Cai’s wife was sent to get the money. Another order for wall¬paper to paper Baoyu’s outer study was read out and registered. After Zhang Cai’s wife had finished her business and returned the tally, the other was sent with it to get wall-paper.
Then at last Xifeng turned to deal with the usher.
“If you’re late today and I’m late tomorrow, there will soon be no¬body here,” she said. “I should have liked to let you off, but if I overlook the first offence the others will get out of hand. I shall be obliged to make an example of you.”
With a stern look she ordered the woman to be taken out and given twenty strokes with the bamboo. She then threw down the Ning Mansion tally and gave orders that Lai Sheng should dock this usher of a month’s wages.
When the others heard this and saw Xifeng’s angry frown, they dared not show slackness in carrying out her orders. Some hastily dragged out the woman; others passed on the order to Lai Sheng. After the usher had been given twenty strokes she had to return to kowtow to Xifeng.
Xifeng warned the servants, “Anyone late again tomorrow will get forty strokes, and sixty the day after that. So those who want a beating, just come late.” With that she dismissed them.
The people outside the window, hearing this, went off to attend to their tasks. Then a steady stream of domestics from both mansions kept coming to hand in or apply for indents, while the woman who had been beaten also left shamefacedly. After this demonstration of Xifeng’s se¬verity, the servants of the Ning Mansion worked hard and, to be on the safe side, dared not neglect their duties. But no more of this.

Let us return to Baoyu. There were so many visitors about that day that, fearing Qin Zhong might be slighted, he urged him to go with him to see Xifeng.
Qin Zhong objected that she would be too busy to welcome visitors and might think them a nuisance.
“Us, a nuisance?” retorted Baoyu. “Not a bit of it. Come on.”
He took Qin Zhong to the annex where Xifeng was having a meal. At sight of them she smiled. “You do have long legs, don’t you? Come and join me.”
“We’ve eaten already,” Baoyu told her.
“Here? Or over in the other house?”
“Why should we eat here with these dolts? We had a meal over there with the old lady.” He and Qin Zhong sat down.
As soon as the meal was finished, a woman from the Ning Mansion arrived with an indent for incense and lamps.
“I knew it was time for you to come today but thought you’d forgot¬ten,” observed Xifeng, smiling. “If you had, you’d have had to pay for them yourself. And so much the better for me.
“It quite slipped my mind,” replied the maid cheerfully. “I only re¬membered a moment ago and hurried here just in time.”
She took the tally and went off. Soon the tally was returned and the amount entered.
“You use the same tallies in both your mansions,” remarked Qin Zhong with a smile. “What if someone faked one and ran off with your money?”
“Do you think us such a lawless lot?” Xifeng asked, laughing.
“How is it that no one has come from our house to ask for things?” put in Baoyu.
“When they came you were still fast asleep. But tell me, when are you two going to start your evening lessons?”
“We’d like to start right away. Only we can’t because they’re so slow getting the study ready.”
“If you’ll treat me, I’ll speed things up.”
“How can you? They’re doing it in their own good time.”
“They need materials for the job. They can’t do a thing if I withhold the tally.”
Baoyu cuddled up to her at that and coaxed, “Dear cousin, do give them the tally so that they can get what they need.”
“I’m so tired, my bones are aching,” protested Xifeng. “Must you jostle me like that? Don’t worry, they’ve just taken the wall-paper for your study. You must be crazy if you think they need telling when to ask.”
When Baoyu refused to believe this she made Caiming show him the record. Just then someone announced that Zhaoer was back from Suzhou and Xifeng promptly ordered him to be brought in. Zhaoer fell on one knee to greet her.
“Why have you come back?” she asked.
“The master sent me, madam. Lord Lin died on the third of the ninth month, at nine in the morning. The master and Miss Lin are escorting his coffin to Suzhou and should be home about the end of the year. He sent me to bring the news with his greetings and to ask for the old lady’s instructions. I was to see, too, if you were well at home, madam, and to take back some of his fur-lined gowns.”
“Have you reported to the other ladies?”
“Yes, madam. Everyone.” With that he withdrew.
Xifeng turned to Baoyu with a smile. “Now your cousin Daiyu can stay with us a good long time.”
“Poor thing!” exclaimed Baoyu. “Think how much she must have been crying the last few days.” He knit his brows and sighed.
Xifeng was anxious for news of her husband but had not liked to question Zhaoer too closely in the presence of others. Tempted to go home but kept by unfinished business and afraid of making herself look ridiculous, she had to restrain her impatience until the evening, when she summoned Zhaoer to give her all the particulars of their journey. That same night she got Pinger to help her select some fur-lined clothes and carefully thought out what else her husband might need. Having packed these things together she handed them to Zhaoer and cautioned him:
“Mind you look after your master properly outside and don’t make him angry. Try to keep him from drinking too much, and don’t pander to him by finding him loose women — if you do, I’ll break your legs when you get back.”
By then it was well after the fourth watch and though she went to bed she had lost all desire to sleep. Soon it was dawn. She made a hasty toilet and went over to the Ning Mansion.
Now that the day for the funeral was approaching, ha Zhen drove in person with a geomancer to Iron Threshold Temple to inspect the reposi¬tory for the coffin and enjoin on Abbot Sekong, who was in charge, the need for the finest furnishings and the help of the most noted monks for the coffin’s reception.
Sekong hastily prepared supper, but Jia Zhen had no interest in food. Since it was too late to return to town, however, he put up that night in the guest room, starting back first thing in the morning to arrange for the funeral procession. He sent men ahead to the temple to spend that night in redecorating the repository and in seeing to refreshments and the re¬ception of the funeral party.
Meanwhile Xifeng too had made careful preparations, choosing the servants, carriages and sedan-chairs of the Rong Mansion that would accompany Lady Wang to the funeral, and a place in which to stay her¬self for the occasion.
As the Duke of Shanguo’s wife had just died, Lady Xing and Lady Wang had to send sacrificial gifts and attend her funeral. Then birthday presents had to be sent to the consort of the Prince of Xian. Then a first son was born to the Duke of Zhenguo and congratulatory gifts had to be sent. Then Xifeng had to write a letter home and prepare gifts for her brother Wang Ren to take when he returned south with his family. Then Yingchun fell ill and every day they had to call in doctors, study their diagnoses, discuss the cause of the illness and decide on prescriptions....
As the day of the funeral approached, a thousand and one affairs kept Xifeng so busy that she had no time to eat and was hardly able to have a moment’s rest. When she went to the Ning Mansion, servants from the Rong Mansion followed her there; when she returned to the Rong Man¬sion, servants from the Ning Mansion would come after her. Yet busy as she was, her spirits were high. She shirked not a single task, determined to give no one any grounds for complaint. Indeed, she worked so hard day and night and handled everything so well that not one of the house¬hold, high or low, but was impressed.
Now the time had come for the wake. The family’s two troupes of actors and some musicians, dancers and acrobats were to perform a long programme of items, and the place was thronged with relatives and friends. As Madam You was still keeping to her bed Xifeng had to look after them single-handed; for all the other married women in the family were either tongue-tied, flighty, shy of strangers or awed by nobles and officials. None of them could compare with Xifeng with her charm, ready tongue and elegance. Having no fear of anyone, she gave whatever orders she pleased and did as she liked, regardless of anyone else.
That night was all brilliance and bustle, needless to say, with the lan¬terns and torches of the officials and guests coming and going.
When the auspicious hour arrived at dawn, sixty-four bearers in blue bore out the coffin. It was preceded by a great funeral banner bearing the inscription in large characters:
Spiritual Abode of Lady Qin of the Jia Family, Consort of the Imperial Guard and Defender of the Palace Roads of the Inner Court of the Forbidden City, and Eldest Great-Great-Grandson of the Duke of Ningguo Enfeoffed with the First Rank by the Heaven-Sent, Splendidly Established, Long-Enduring Dynasty.

The brand-new funeral paraphernalia was a dazzling sight. And Baozhu, observing the rites for an unmarried daughter, dashed an earthen basin to pieces when the coffin was lifted to be carried away and lamented bit¬terly before it.
Among the officials attending the funeral were: Niu Jizong, hereditary earl of the first rank, grandson of Niu Qing, Duke of Zhenguo; Liu Fang, hereditary viscount of the first rank, grandson of Liu Biao, Duke of Liguo; Chen Ruiwen, hereditary general of the third rank, grandson of Chen Yi, Duke of Qiguo; Ma Shang, hereditary general of the third rank, grandson of Ma Kui, Duke of Zhiguo; and Hou Xiaokang, hereditary viscount of the first rank, grandson of Hou Xiaoming, Duke of Xiuguo. Since the Duke of Shanguo’s wife had died, his grandson Shi Guangzhu was in mourning and unable to come. These six families, with those of Ning and Rong, were known as the “Eight Ducal Households.”
The other mourners included: the grandson of the Prince of Nanan; the grandson of the prince of Xining; Shi Ding, Marquis of Zhongjing; hang Zining, hereditary baron of the second rank, grandson of the Mar¬quis of Pingyuan; Xie Qiong, hereditary baron of the second rank, captain of the Metropolitan Garrison, grandson of the Marquis of Dingcheng; Qi Jianhui, hereditary baron of the second rank, grandson of the Marquis of Xiangyang; Qiu Liang, garrison commander of five cities, grandson of the Marquis of Jingtian.
Also present were Han Qi, son of the Earl of Jinxiang; Feng Ziying, son of the General of Divine Valour; Chen Yejun, Wei Ruolan and count¬less other sons of nobles.
There were also over a dozen palanquins and thirty to forty sedan-chairs for lady guests. These together with the carriages and sedan-chairs of the Jia family numbered well over a hundred. With the elaborate equi¬page in front and the performances given on the way, the procession extended a good three or four li.
Before long they reached stands with coloured silk awnings by the roadside where music was played and sacrificial offerings had been set out by different families. The first four belonged to the houses of the Prince of Dongping, the Prince of Nanan, the Prince of Xining, and the Prince of Beijing.
The original Prince of Beijing had won the highest distinction of these four princes, and therefore his descendants had inherited his title. The present holder of the title, Shui Rong, was a charming and modest young man of less than twenty with remarkable good looks. When he heard that the eldest great-great-grandson of the Duke of Ningguo had lost his wife, the thought of their forefathers’ friendship, shared dangers and glory as if of one family had made him lay aside all considerations of rank and go in person to express his condolences. Now he had set up a funeral booth by the roadside to offer a libation. He made some of his officers wait there while he went to court at dawn. The audience over, he changed into mourning clothes and came here by palanquin, preceded by sounding gongs and ceremonial umbrellas. He halted his palanquin at the stand and his officers ranged themselves on either side, forbidding soldiers and ci¬vilians to pass.
Presently, from the north, the Ning Mansion’s magnificent funeral procession bore down on them like a great silver landslide. The runners sent ahead to clear the way had reported the prince’s arrival to Jia Zhen, who now ordered the procession to halt while he, ha She and ha Zheng went to greet the prince according to state ceremonial. The prince bowed affably in return from his palanquin, treating them as old family friends without any affectation.
Jia Zhen said, “We are overwhelmed by the favour done us by Your Highness in honouring my daughter-in-law’s funeral with your presence.”
“That is no way for good friends to talk,” protested the prince.
Then he turned and ordered his chief steward to preside at the sacri¬fice for him and pour a libation. Jia She and the others, having bowed in return, stepped forward to express their gratitude.
The Prince of Beijing was completely unassuming. He asked Jia Zheng, “Which is the young gentleman born with a piece of jade in his mouth? I have long wanted to meet him but have never had the time. I am sure he must be here today. Won’t you present him?”
Jia Zheng withdrew at once to fetch Baoyu. He made him change out of mourning, then took him to meet the prince.
Baoyu had heard from his family and friends of the Prince of Beijing’s fine qualities, his talent, good looks, refinement and unconventionality. He had often wanted to meet him, but his father kept him under such strict control that hitherto he had never had a chance. Of course he was de¬lighted to be sent for. Walking forward, he was struck by the dignity with which the prince was sitting in his palanquin.
To know the sequel, read the chapter which follows.


Chapter 15

Xifeng Abuses Her Power at
Iron Threshold Temple
Qin Zhong Amuses Himself in
Steamed-Bread Convent


Looking up, Baoyu saw that the Prince of Beijing had on a princely silver-winged cap with white tassels, a white robe embroidered with zig¬zag wave patterns and five-clawed dragons, and a red leather belt stud¬ded with green jade. With his face fair as jade, his eyes bright as stars, he was truly a handsome figure.
Baoyu started forward to make his obeisance. As the prince from his palanquin raised him up, he noticed that Baoyu was wearing a sliver chaplet in the form of two dragons rising from the sea, an archer’s coat embroidered with white serpents, and a silver belt set with pearls. His face seemed a flower in spring, his eyes black as lacquer.
“You live up to your name,” remarked the prince. “You are really like precious jade. But where is that gem with which you came into the world?”
Baoyu hastily took the jade from inside his garments and handed it to the prince, who examined it carefully and read the inscription.
“Does it actually have magic powers?” he asked.
“So they say,” answered Jia Zheng. “But it has never yet been put to the test.”
The prince was very struck by the jade and, smoothing its silken cord, with his own hands he put it round Baoyu’s neck. Then taking the boy’s hand he asked him his age and what he was studying.
The clarity and fluency of Baoyu’s answers made the prince turn to observe to Jia Zheng, “Your son is truly a dragon’s colt or young phoe¬nix. May I venture to predict that in time to come this young phoenix may even surpass the old one?”
“My worthless son does not deserve such high praise,” rejoined Jia Zheng hurriedly with a courteous smile. “If thanks to the grace of Your Highness such proves the case, that will be our good fortune.”
“There is one thing, however,” cautioned the prince. “Because your son is so talented his grandmother and mother must have doted on him; but over-indulgence is very bad for young people like ourselves as it makes us neglect our studies. I went astray in this way myself and suspect your honourable son may do the same. If he finds it difficult to study at home, he is very welcome to come as often as he likes to my humble house. For although untalented myself, I am honoured by visits from scholars of note from all parts of the empire when they come to the capital. Hence my poor abode is frequented by eminent men, and conversation with them should improve his knowledge.”
Jia Zheng bowed and assented to this without hesitation.
The prince now took a string of beads from his wrist and gave it to Baoyu saying, “This first meeting of ours is so hurried that I have brought no gift to show my respect, but please accept this string of beads made of the aromatic seeds of some plant which His Majesty gave me the other day.”
Baoyu took it and turned to present it to his father, who together with his son offered formal thanks.
Then Jia She and Jia Zhen stepped forward and begged the prince to return, but he demurred: “The deceased has become an immortal and left our dusty world. Although by the favour of the Son of Heaven I have succeeded to this title, how can I precede the carriage of an immortal?”
Seeing that he was adamant, Jia She and the others thanked him and withdrew to stop the music, so as to let the long procession pass on. And thereupon the prince went back. But no more of this.
The whole road hummed with excitement as the great procession passed. By the city gate friends and colleagues of Jia She, Jia Zheng and Jia Zhen had set up sacrificial tents and not until each had been thanked in turn did the cortege leave the city and proceed along the highway towards Iron Threshold Temple.
Now Jia Zhen and Jia Rong urged their elders to mount their chairs or horses. All of Jia She’s generation mounted carriages or chairs while Jia Zhen’s contemporaries rode on horseback.
Xifeng was afraid that Baoyu, unchecked by his father, might come to some harm through reckless riding in the open country, for he would not
listen to anyone else in the household. And if there were any mishap it would be hard to account for it to the old lady. Accordingly she ordered a page to summon him to her carriage, and when perforce he came she told him with a smile:
“Dear cousin, you have your dignity and are as delicate as any girl. Don’t copy those apes on horseback. Wouldn’t it be better to come and share my carriage?”
Baoyu hurriedly dismounted to join her. They drove on laughing and chatting until two horsemen galloped up and alighted by the carriage to report, “We have reached a halting place, madam. Will you stop for a rest?”
Having asked to know the wishes of Lady Xing and Lady Wang, Xifeng was told, “Their Ladyships are not stopping, but they want you to suit your convenience.”
Thereupon Xifeng ordered a halt. Attendants led their carriage north¬wards away from the cortege and at Baoyu’s orders went to invite Qin Zhong, who was riding behind his father’s chair, to join them. When Baoyu’s page brought him this invitation and he saw his friend’s rider¬less horse following Xifeng’s carriage north, Qin Zhong knew that Baoyu must be with her. He promptly overtook them and together they entered the gateway of a farm.
The menfolk here had long since been packed off, but the farmhouse had so few rooms that the womenfolk had nowhere to go to keep out of the way. The sudden appearance in their midst of Xifeng, Baoyu and Qin Zhong with their gorgeous clothes and refined looks and manners made these village women stare with admiration.
Once in the thatched house Xifeng suggested to Baoyu that he should amuse himself outside. Taking the hint, he led Qin Zhong and the pages off to look around. He had never seen farm implements before and was thoroughly intrigued by the spades, picks, hoes and ploughs, although quite ignorant of their names and uses. When a page who knew informed him he nodded and remarked with a sigh:
“Now I understand the words of the old poet:
Who knows that each grain of rice we eat
Is the fruit of intensive toil?”
Strolling into an outhouse, he was still more intrigued by a spinning-wheel on the kang. His pages told him this was used to weave yarn. He had just climbed up on the kang to turn the wheel for fun when in came a peasant girl of seventeen or eighteen. She ran over crying:
“Don’t! You’ll break it!”
She was shouted at by his pages, but Baoyu had already let go of the wheel.
“I’ve never seen one before,” he explained with a smile. “I just wanted to have a try.”
“How could you people know how?” said the girl. “Get out of my way and I’ll show you.~~
Qin Zhong plucked at Baoyu’s sleeve and whispered, “Isn’t she fun?”
Baoyu gave him a shove. “You rascal. If you talk any more nonsense I’ll clout you.
Meanwhile the girl had started spinning. Baoyu was just about to speak to her when an old woman called, “Come here, quick, Second Daugh¬ter!”
At that she went off, much to his disappointment.
Then a messenger summoned them back to Xifeng, who had washed and changed to remove the dust of the journey. She urged the two boys to change, but Baoyu declined. Their attendants now produced the tea-ser¬vice and hamper which they had brought for the journey, and after some refreshments they smartened up and mounted their carriage again.
Once outside, Lai Wang presented a packaged gratuity to the peasant family, whose womenfolk came to thank them. Xifeng, however, took no notice of them, while Baoyu looked eagerly for the spinning-girl. But she was not in the group. They had not gone far, though, when he saw her, her little brother in her arms, approaching laughing and chatting with some smaller girls. Baoyu longed to alight and go with her, but knowing that the others would not agree he could only follow her with his eyes as their carriage drove swiftly off. Soon she was out of sight.
Before very long, they overtook the procession. Ahead of them were temple drums and cymbals, pennants and umbrellas, while monks from Iron Threshold Temple lined the road. Soon they entered the temple, where
again Buddhist rites were performed and incense burned, after which the coffin was installed in one of the side-chambers of the inner hall and Baozhu prepared to keep vigil there that night.
In the outer apartments Jia Zhen entertained their male friends and relatives, some of whom stayed for a meal while others took their leave immediately. He tendered them thanks one by one for coming. Then the guests began to take their leave from dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts and barons downwards, and by three o’clock all had dispersed.
The ladies were entertained in the inner apartments by Xifeng. They, too, left in order of precedence, and by about two o’clock all had gone except a few close relatives who would remain for the three day’s requi¬ems for the dead.
Knowing that Xifeng could not return with them, Lady Xing and Lady Wang proposed to take Baoyu back with them to the city. But as this was his first visit to the country and he insisted on staying behind with Xifeng, his mother had to leave him in her charge.
Now this Iron Threshold Temple had been built in the days of the Dukes of Rongguo and Ningguo and still had enough land of its own to provide for incense and lamps and repositories for the coffins of clans¬men. Since there was accommodation for both the dead and the living, the mourners escorting coffins had somewhere to stay. However, now that the family had grown the views of the rich members differed from those of the poor. Whereas the latter were content to stay here, those who were wealthy and fond of display maintained that the place was inconvenient and preferred to find accommodation in some nearby vil¬lage or convent to retire to at the end of the ceremonies.
On this occasion of Qin Keqing’s funeral most members of the clan stayed at Iron Threshold Temple. Only Xifeng, deciding that it would not suit her, had sent a servant to ask Abbess Jingxu of Steamed-Bread Con¬vent to clear a few rooms for her. Steamed-Bread Convent was the popular name for Water Moon Convent because of the good steamed bread made here. It stood not far from Iron Threshold Temple.
As soon as the monks had completed their devotions and the evening offering of tea had been made, Jia Zhen sent Jia Rong to urge Xifeng to rest. Then leaving her sisters-in-law to look after the women guests she took Baoyu and Qin Zhong off to Steamed-Bread Convent. Qin Zhong’s father, too old and frail to remain himself, had told his son to attend the requiems, and so the boy stayed with Xifeng and Baoyu.
They were met at the convent gate by Abbess Jingxu and two nov¬ices, Zhishan and Zhineng. After an exchange of greetings Xifeng retired to a rest room. While she was changing she noticed how tall and pretty Zhineng had grown.
“Why haven’t you and your abbess been to see us lately?” she asked.
“A few days ago a son was born to Mr. Hu,” explained the abbess. “His good lady sent us ten taels of silver to get some of our sisters to chant the Nativity sutra for three days, so we’ve been too busy to come and pay our respects.”
But let us return to Baoyu and Qin Zhong, who were fooling about in the hall when Zhineng came in.
“Look who’s here,” said Baoyu with a smile.
“What about it?” retorted Qin Zhong.
“It’s no use play-acting. What were you doing with her on your lap that day in my grandmother’s room, when no one else was about? Stop trying to fool me.”
“You’re just making that up!” protested Qin Zhong.
“Well, never mind. Tell her to pour me some tea and I’ll let you off.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Could she refuse if you ask her yourself? Why should I ask for you?”
“For you she would do it for love, but not for me.”
Then Qin Zhong said, “Bring me some tea, Zhineng, will you?”
This young novice had been in and out of the Rong Mansion since childhood. She knew everyone there and had often romped with Baoyu and Qin Zhong; and now that she was old enough to know the meaning of love she had taken a fancy to handsome young Qin Zhong, who was attracted in turn by her pretty looks. Although nothing had passed be¬tween them, they already had a secret understanding. So now with a radiant glance at him she complied. Soon she was back again with a cup of tea.
“Give it to me!” urged Qin Zhong with a smile.
“No, to me!” cried Baoyu.
Zhineng laughed mockingly. “Do I have honey on my hands that you squabble even over a cup of tea?”
Baoyu grabbed hold of the cup and started drinking, and before he could speak again Zhishan came to fetch Zhineng to lay the table. Pres¬ently she returned to invite them to have some refreshments, but the tea and cakes served in the convent did not tempt them. They sat a while, then escaped as soon as they could to amuse themselves elsewhere.
Xifeng retired presently, too, to the rest room accompanied by the abbess. When the older maid-servants saw there was nothing to do they went off to bed themselves, leaving only a few trusted younger maids in attendance.
The abbess seized this chance to say, “There’s something I’ve been meaning to go and ask Her Ladyship, but I’d like to have your advice on it first, madam.”
“What is it?” asked Xifeng.
“Amida Buddha!” sighed the abbess. “When I became a nun in Shancai Convent in the county of Changan, one of our benefactors was a very wealthy man called Zhang, whose daughter Jinge often came to our temple to offer incense. A young Mr. Li, who is brother-in-law to the prefect of Changan, met her there. He fell in love at first sight and sent to ask for her hand; but she was already engaged to the son of the former inspector of Changan. The Zhangs would have liked to cancel the en¬gagement but were afraid the inspector might object, so they explained to the Lis that she was betrothed. Still young Mr. Li insisted on having her, making things very difficult for the Zhangs.
“When word of this reached the inspector’s family, without even finding out the truth of the matter they came and stormed, ‘How many more men will you engage your daughter to?’ They refused to take back the betrothal gifts and took the matter to court.
“The girl’s family are desperate. They’ve sent to the capital to enlist help and are quite determined to return the gifts.
“Well, I understand that General Yun the Military Governor of Changan is on friendly terms with your family. If Lady Wang would get His Lord¬ship to write to General Yun, asking him to have a word with the inspec¬tor, I’m sure he’d drop the suit. And the Zhangs would gladly give any-
thing — even their whole fortune — in return for this favour.”
“There shouldn’t be any great difficulty about this,” rejoined Xifeng. ‘‘But Her Ladyship doesn’t trouble herself with such matters.~~
“In that case, madam, could you attend to it?”
“I’m neither short of money nor do I meddle with affairs of this sort.”
The abbess’ face fell. After a short pause she observed with a sigh, “Well, the Zhangs know that I’m appealing to your family. If you do nothing, they won’t realize that you can’t be troubled and don’t want the money — it would look as if you can’t even handle such a trifling business.”
This put Xifeng on her mettle. “You know me,” she replied. “I’ve never believed all that talk about Hell and retribution. I do what I please and am always as good as my word. Let them bring me three thousand taels and I’ll see to this for them.”
“Very good!” cried the abbess, overjoyed. “That’s easy.
“I’m not one of your go-betweens just out for money,” said Xifeng.
“These three thousand taels will just cover the expenses of the servants
I send out and reward them for their trouble. I myself don’t want a cent.
I could lay my hands any moment on thirty thousand.”
“Of course, madam. Will you do us this favour, then, tomorrow?”
“Can’t you see how busy I am, needed right and left? But since I’ve told you I’ll do it, of course I’ll settle it for you speedily.”
“A little thing like this might throw other people into a fearful flurry, but I know you’d have no trouble handling bigger things than this, madam. As the proverb says, ‘The abler a man, the busier he gets.’ It’s because you’re so capable that Her Ladyship leaves everything to you. But you mustn’t wear yourself out.”
This flattery made Xifeng forget her exhaustion and start chatting more cheerfully.
Meanwhile Qin Zhong had taken advantage of the darkness and the fact that nobody was about to go in search of Zhineng. Having found her alone in a back room washing up the tea things, he threw his arms around her and kissed her.
“What are you doing?” The novice stamped her foot in desperation and threatened to call out.
“Darling,” he pleaded, “I’m dying of longing for you. If you refuse me again this evening, I’ll die here on the spot.”
“What are you thinking of? At least wait till I’m clear of this prison and these people?”
“That’s easy to manage, but ‘distant water can’t quench a present thirst.
With that he blew out the lamp, plunging the room into pitch darkness, and carried her to the kang. Zhineng struggled in vain to free herself but did not like to scream, so she had to let him have his way with her.
He was just getting down to work when someone slipped in and pinned the pair of them down. Since no word was said, they did not know who it was. The two of them were frightened out of their wits until a chuckle revealed that it was Baoyu.
Qin Zhong sprang up swearing, “What are you playing at?”
“Will you do as I say or shall I raise the alarm?”
Zhineng fled, blushing, under cover of the dark and Baoyu pulled his friend out.
“Well, do you still deny it?” he demanded.
“Be a good fellow! I’ll do whatever you say as long as you don’t shout.”
“We’ll say no more about it just now. I’ll settle with you after we go to bed.”
Soon it was time to sleep. Xifeng had the inner room, the two boys the outer, while the maids slept on the floor or sat up to keep watch. For fear lest the precious jade might disappear while Baoyu was asleep, Xifeng had it fetched and put it under her own pillow.
As for how Baoyu settled scores with Qin Zhong, what the eye does not see can only be surmised, and far be it from us to speculate.
The next morning the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang sent to urge Baoyu to dress more warmly and to go home if there was nothing to keep him. This was the last thing he wanted. And Qin Zhong, infatuated as he was with Zhineng, made him beg Xifeng to stay a little longer.
Though the obsequies were over there remained certain trifles to at¬tend to, so Xifeng decided she could spare one more day. In the first place, this would satisfy Jia Zhen; in the second, she could attend to the abbess’ business; in the third, the Lady Dowager would be pleased to know that Baoyu was enjoying himself.
“My own business here is finished,” she told him with these consider¬ations in mind. “If you want to amuse yourself here a little longer, I sup¬pose I’ll have to put up with it. But we must leave tomorrow at the latest.”
“Just one day, dear, kind cousin. We’ll leave tomorrow.”
So they arranged to spend another night there.
Xifeng sent someone secretly to explain the abbess’ business to Lai Wang. He grasped at once what was wanted and hurried into town to get the chief secretary to write a letter in Jia Lian’s name, and set off with it that same night for Changan County. Since Changan was only a hundred li away, within two days the matter was settled. Military Governor Yun Guang had long wanted to please the Jia family and was only too glad to agree to this trifling request. Lai Wang brought back a letter from him to this effect.
Meanwhile Xifeng, after one more day in the convent, had said goodbye to the abbess, telling her to come for news in three day’s time.
Qin Zhong and Zhineng could hardly bear to part and bid each other a sad farewell after arranging to meet again in secret.
Xifeng went to take a last look at Iron Threshold Temple, where Baozhu insisted on remaining. Jia Zhen later was obliged to send maids there to keep her company.
To know the sequel, read the next chapter.


Chapter 16

Yuanchun Is Selected as Imperial Consort
in Phoenix Palace
Qin Zhong Dying Before His Time Sets Off
for the Nether Regions


Before long Baoyu’s outer study was ready. He had agreed with Qin Zhong to start evening lessons together; but Qin Zhong had a weak con¬stitution, and a cold he had caught in the country following his secret affair with Zhineng had upset him; thus on his return to town he devel¬oped a cough and lost his appetite completely. Too weak to go out, he had to rest at home. Although Baoyu was very disappointed, he could do nothing but wait for his friend’s recovery.
Meanwhile Xifeng had received Yun Guang’s reply, and the abbess had informed the Zhangs that their problem was solved. So the inspector had to swallow his anger and take back the betrothal gifts.
But though Zhang and his wife were snobbish and mercenary, they had a principled and feeling daughter. When Jinge learned that her en¬gagement had been broken she found a rope and quietly hanged herself; and the inspector’s son was so much in love that he drowned himself when he heard of her suicide, showing that he was worthy of his good fiancée.
Thus the Zhang and Li families were unlucky enough to lose both girl and money. Only Xifeng was the gainer by three thousand taels, quite unknown to Lady Wang and the rest of the household. This emboldened her from that time on to undertake countless similar transactions but we need not recount these here.
Now it was Jia Zheng’s birthday and both households had gathered to congratulate him. At the height of the festivities the gateman suddenly rushed in to announce:
“His Excellency Xia, Chief Eunuch of the Six Palaces, has come with a Decree from the Emperor!”
This startled Jia She, Jia Zheng and the rest, who did not know what it could mean. They at once called a halt to the theatricals and had the feast cleared away. A table was set out with incense. Then, throwing open the central gate they knelt down to receive the Decree.
Soon Xia Shouzhong the Chief Eunuch arrived on horseback, followed by a considerable retinue of eunuchs. He was not carrying an Imperial Edict, however. Having alighted in front of the main hall, he mounted the steps with a beaming smile and, facing south, announced:
“By special order of the Emperor, Jia Zheng is to present himself at once for an audience in the Hall of Respectful Approach.” This said, without even taking a sip of tea, he remounted his horse and rode off.
Jia She and the others could not guess what this portended. Jia Zheng lost no time in putting on his court robes and going to the Palace, leaving the whole family in dire suspense. The Lady Dowager sent one mounted mes¬senger after another in search of news; but it was four hours before Lai Da and a few other stewards came panting through the inner gate, crying:
“Good news! His Lordship asks the old lady to go at once to the Palace with the other ladies to thank His Majesty.”
The Lady Dowager had been waiting anxiously in the corridor outside the great hail with Lady Xing, Lady Wang, Madam You, Li Wan, Xifeng and the Jia girls, as well as Aunt Xue. On hearing this, they called Lai Da over and demanded more details.
“We had to wait in the outer court,” Lai Da told them. “So we had no idea what was going on inside. But then Chief Eunuch Xia came out. He congratulated us on the promotion of our eldest young lady. She’s to be Chief Secretary of the Phoenix Palace with the title of Worthy and Virtu¬ous Consort. And then His Lordship came out and confirmed this. Now he has gone to the East Palace and he begs Your Ladyship and the other ladies to go at once to offer thanks.”
They were all so relieved that their faces shone with delight as each dressed in the ceremonial robes appropriate to her rank. And presently four large sedan-chairs, with the Lady Dowager’s at the head, followed by Lady Xing’s, Lady Wang’s and Madam You’s, were making their way to the Palace. They were escorted by Jia She and Jia Zhen, also in court robes, as well as Jia Rong and Jia Qiang.
Then high and low alike in both mansions were filled with joy. Their faces radiant with pride, they broke into a tumult of talk and laughter.
Now, a few days previously, Zhineng had stolen away from Water Moon Convent and come to town to look for Qin Zhong in his home. She had been caught by his father, who drove her away and gave his son a beating. The old man’s rage had brought on an attack of his chronic disorder, and within a few days he was dead. Qin Zhong had never been strong nor had he fully recovered from his illness when he received this beating. His father’s death filled him with such remorse that his condi¬tion was now serious.
All this was preying so much on Baoyu’s mind that the honour con¬ferred on Yuanchun failed to raise his spirits. He alone remained utterly indifferent to the trip made by the Lady Dowager and the rest to offer thanks for the Imperial favour, the visits of congratulations paid by rela¬tives and friends, the excitement which filled both mansions. The general delight left him completely unmoved, just as if these things had never happened. His apathy made everyone declare that he was growing more and more eccentric.
Luckily a messenger arrived at this time from Jia Lian to announce that he and Daiyu were on their way back and would be home the following day. A little cheered, Baoyu questioned the man and learned that Jia Yucun was also coming to the capital to pay homage. For thanks to Wang Ziteng’s recom¬mendations he had been summoned to wait for a metropolitan appointment; and being a distant cousin of Jia Lian’s and Daiyu’s former tutor, he was travelling with them. Lin Ruhai had been buried in the ancestral graveyard and, his obsequies completed, Jia Lian was able to start back for the capital. Normally, the trip would have taken them till the beginning of the next month; however, the good news about Yuanchun had made Jia Lian decide to hurry back posthaste. The journey had been smooth and uneventful.
Baoyu was only eager to know that Daiyu was all right, taking no interest in the rest of this news. He could hardly contain himself until their arrival was announced just after noon the next day. But the joy of their reunion was tempered by grief. After a storm of weeping they exchanged condolences and congratulations.
Baoyu observed that Daiyu was looking even more ethereal. She had brought back a whole library of books, and lost no time in tidying her bedroom and setting out her things. She presented some brushes and stationery to Baochai, Yingchun, Baoyu and others. But when he pro¬duced the precious scented beads given him by the Prince of Beijing and offered them to her. Daiyu protested:
“I don’t want them. They’ve been handled by some stinking man.
She tossed the beads back and Baoyu had to take them.
But let us return to Jia Lian. After he had greeted the rest of the family he went to his own quarters; and busy as Xifeng was, with not a moment to herself, she set everything aside to welcome her husband back from his long journey.
Once they were alone she said jokingly, “Congratulations, Your Ex¬cellency, kinsman of the Imperial House! Your Excellency must have had a tiring journey. Your handmaid, hearing yesterday that your exalted car¬riage would return today, prepared some watery wine by way of wel¬come. Will the Imperial Kinsman deign to accept it?”
“You honour me too much,” Jia Lian replied with a chuckle. “I am quite overwhelmed.”
When Pinger and the other maids had paid their respects and served tea, Jia Lian asked his wife what had happened during his absence and thanked her for looking after things so well.
“I’m incapable of running things,” she sighed. “I’m too ignorant, blunt and tactless, always getting hold of the wrong end of the stick. And I’m so soft-hearted, anyone can get round me. Besides, lack of experi¬ence makes me nervous. When Her Ladyship is the least displeased I’m too frightened to sleep a wink. Time and again I’ve begged to be relieved of such a responsibility, but instead of agreeing she accuses me of being lazy and unwilling to learn. She doesn’t realize what a cold sweat I’m in, terrified of saying one word out of turn or taking one false step.
“And you know how difficult our old stewardesses are, laughing at the least mistake and ‘accusing the elm while pointing at the mulberry tree’ if one shows the least bias. Talk about ‘sitting on a hill to watch tigers fight,’ ‘murdering with a borrowed sword,’ ‘borrowing wind to fan the fire,’ ‘watching people drown from a dry bank’ and ‘not trou¬bling to right an oil bottle that’s been knocked over’ — they’re all old
hands at such tricks. On top of that, I’m too young to carry much weight; so naturally they pay no attention to me.
“As if that weren’t bad enough, when Rong’s wife suddenly died Cousin Zhen repeatedly begged Her Ladyship on his knees to let me help them out for a few days. I declined over and over again, but as she insisted I had to have a try. As usual I made a shocking mess of things —even worse than here. I’m sure Cousin Zhen is still regretting his rash¬ness. When you see him tomorrow, do apologize for me. Tell him he should never have entrusted such a task to someone so young and inex¬perienced.”
Just then they heard voices outside and Xifeng asked who was there. Pinger came in and said, “Madam Xue sent Xiangling over to ask me something. I’ve given her an answer and sent her back.”
“That reminds me,” said Jia Lian. “When I called on Aunt Xue just now, I ran into a very handsome young woman whom I didn’t think belonged to our household and wondered who she could be. In the course of conversation I learned she’s the girl they bought just before coming to the capital. Her name’s Xiangling. She belongs to that imbecile Xue now, and since he made her his concubine and her face has been slicked she’s grown even lovelier. She’s too good for that silly fool.”
“Well!” exclaimed Xifeng. “I should have thought you’d have seen enough of the world now that you’re back from a trip to Suzhou and Hangzhou, but you’re never satisfied. If you love her, that’s simple: I’ll exchange our Pinger for her how about that? Xue Pan is another of those greedy-guts who keep ‘one eye on the bowl and the other on the pan.’ Look how he plagued his mother for a whole year just to get hold of Xiangling. It’s because Aunt Xue saw she’s not only pretty but really well-behaved, being even gentler and quieter than most young ladies, that she went to all the trouble of inviting guests to a feast to make her his concubine in proper style. Yet in less than a fortnight he’s treating her like dirt. It’s really too bad....”
At this point a page from the inner gate reported that Jia Zheng was waiting for Jia Lian in the big library. The young man hastily straightened his clothes and went out.
Then Xifeng asked Pinger, “What on earth did Aunt Xue send Xiangling
along for just now?”
“It wasn’t Xiangling,” said Pinger, giggling. “I made that up. Really, madam, that wife of Lai Wang’s is losing all the little sense she had.” She drew nearer and lowered her voice. “She wouldn’t come earlier or later but had to choose this very moment, when the master’s just got home, to bring you the interest on that money. It’s lucky I met her in the hall or she’d have come in and blurted everything out. If our master had asked what it was, of course you’d have to tell him — you wouldn’t want to deceive him. And being what he is, ready to snatch money from a pan of scalding oil, he’d start spending even more recklessly if he knew that you had private savings. So I took it from her double-quick and gave her a piece of my mind, not knowing you’d hear. That’s why, in front of the master, I said it was Xiangling.”
Xifeng laughed. “I was wondering why Aunt Xue should suddenly send a concubine here when she knew that your master was back. So it was just one of your tricks.”
Just then Jia Lian returned. Xifeng called for wine and dishes, and husband and wife took their seats opposite each other. Although Xifeng was a good drinker she didn’t venture to drink much today. She was sipping her wine to keep him company when Jia Lian’s old wet-nurse Nanny Zhao came in. The young couple promptly invited her to join them on the kang. Nanny Zhao resolutely declined this honour. But Pinger and the others had already set a small table and stool beside the kang, and when the nurse had sat down Jia Lian gave her two dishes from their own table.
“Nanny can’t chew those, they’re too hard for her teeth,” said Xifeng. She turned to Pinger. “That bowl of fresh pork stewed with ham I remarked was so tender this morning would be just the thing for her. Take it and get them to heat it up quickly, will you?” She urged the nurse, “Nanny, try this Hui Fountain wine your boy brought back.”
“I will,” said the nurse. “But you must take a cup too. Don’t be afraid! The thing is not to drink too much. I didn’t come all this way for wine or food, though, but on some serious business. I hope you’ll lay it to heart, madam, and help me. Our Master Lian is good at making promises, but when the time comes he forgets all about them. Yes, I nursed and brought you up, and now that I’m old all I have are my two sons. If you’d do them a favour no one could say a word; yet I’ve begged you again and again and you’ve always agreed, but to this very day not a thing have you done. Now this wonderful stroke of luck has come out of the blue, you’ll be needing extra hands. So I’ve come to ask your help, madam. If I relied on our Master Lian alone, I’d probably have starved to death by now.”
Xifeng laughed. “Just leave his two foster-brothers to me, nanny,” she said. “You who nursed your boy from babyhood know what he’s like. He goes out of his way to help complete strangers, people nowhere near as deserving as his two foster-brothers. Who could possibly object if he did something for them? But he just favours outsiders. Well, perhaps I shouldn’t say that. The people we consider outsiders are ‘in’ with him, I suppose.”
That raised a general laugh. Nanny Zhao chortled as if she would never stop. “Amida Buddha!” she cackled. “So here comes an impartial judge. Our master wouldn’t be so cruel as to treat us as outsiders; but he’s so kind—hearted he can’t say ‘no’ to other people’s requests.”
“Oh yes, he’s very soft and generous to those ‘in’ with him. It’s only to us womenfolk that he’s adamant.”
“You’ve been so good, madam, and made me so happy that I’ll have another cup of that excellent wine. Now that I’ve got you to look after us, I needn’t worry any more.
Jia Lian, rather put out, smiled sheepishly. “Stop talking nonsense and let’s start on the rice,” he said. “I still have to go and see Cousin Zhen on some business.”
“Yes, we mustn’t delay you,” said his wife. “What did your uncle want you for just now?”
“It was about this Imperial visitation.”
“Has permission been granted then?” she asked eagerly.
“Not quite, but ten to one it will be.”
“What a great act of Imperial kindness!” She beamed. “I never heard of such a thing in any book or opera about the old days.”
“That’s right,” chimed in the nurse. “But I’m growing so stupid in my old age that although I’ve heard high and low talk of nothing else for days, I can’t make head or tail of it all. Just what is this Imperial visitation?”
Jia Lian explained. “Our present Emperor is concerned for all his subjects. No duty is higher than filial piety, and he knows that all, irre¬spective of rank, have the same family feeling. Though he himself waits day and night upon his Imperial parents, he considers this too little to express all his filial devotion; and he realizes that the secondary consorts and ladies-in-waiting in the Palace who have been away from their par¬ents for many years must naturally be longing to see them again, for it’s only right for children to miss their parents. But if the parents at home fall ill or even die of longing for their daughters, this must impair the harmony ordained by Heaven. So he requested Their Most High Majesties to al¬low the female relatives of the court ladies to visit them in the Palace on the days ending in two and six each month.
“His Majesty’s parents were delighted by the Emperor’s Piety, hu¬manity and manifestion of Heaven’s will on earth. In their infinite wis¬dom the two venerable sages moreover decreed that, since court eti¬quette might prevent the mothers of the Palace ladies from gratifying all the wishes of their hearts during such visits, they should be granted an even greater favour. Then in a special Edict it was decreed that, apart from the favour of these visits on certain days of the month, all those court ladies with adequate accommodation at home for the reception of an Imperial retinue might ask for a Palace carriage to visit their families. In this way they can show their affection and enjoy a reunion with their dear ones.
“All were so grateful for this Decree, they leapt for joy. The father of the Imperial Lady of Honour Zhou has already started building a sepa¬rate court for her visit home; and Wu Tianyou, father of the Imperial Concubine Wu, is looking for a site outside the city. Doesn’t this show that the thing is practically certain?”
“Amida Buddha! So that’s it!” cried Nanny Zhao. “I suppose our family will be preparing, too, for a visit from our eldest young mistress?”
“Of course,” said Jia Lián. “What else do you think we’re all so busy about?”
“If it’s really true, I shall have a chance to see some great doings,” exulted Xifeng. “I’ve often wished that I’d been born twenty or thirty years earlier, so that the old folk wouldn’t be despising me now for hav¬ing seen so little of the world. Their descriptions of how our first Emperor toured the country like the sage king Shun of old are better than anything in history, but alas! I was born too late — I missed seeing it.”
“Ah, such a thing only happens once in a thousand years,” declared Nanny Zhao. “I was just old enough then to remember things. In those days our Jia family was in charge of making ocean-going ships and re¬pairing the sea-wall round Suzhou and Yangzhou. To prepare for that Imperial visit, we spent money just like pouring out sea-water....”
“Our Wang family did the same,” put in Xifeng. “At that time my grandfather was in sole charge of all the foreign tribute, and whenever envoys came from abroad to pay homage it was our family who enter¬tained them. All the goods brought by foreign ships to Guangdong, Fujian, Yunnan and Zhejiang passed through our hands.”
“Who doesn’t know that!” said Nanny Zhao. “There’s still a rhyme:
When the Dragon King wants
A white jade bed,
He asks the Wangs
Of Jinling, it’s said.
That’s your family, madam. And the Zhens south of the Yangtze, oh, how rich and great they were! That family alone entertained the Em¬peror four times. No one who was told such a thing, if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, could believe it. Don’t talk about silver treated like dirt, every precious thing you could name was heaped up like hills, no one bothering to check the wicked waste.”
“So my grandfather and grand-uncles often said, and of course I be¬lieve it. What amazes me is how one family could have so much wealth.”
“Why, madam, the truth is they were just spending the Emperor’s money on the Emperor. Otherwise who would waste so much on empty show?”
Just then Lady Wang sent to inquire if Xifeng had finished her meal, and realizing that she was wanted she hastily ate half a bowl of rice and rinsed her mouth. She was starting out when some pages from the inner gate reported the arrival of Jia Rong and Jia Qiang, whereupon Jia Lian rinsed his mouth and Pinger brought him a basin to wash his hands. As soon as the young men came in he asked what they wanted, and Xifeng stayed to hear Jia Rong’s reply:
“My father sent me to tell you, uncle, that the old gentlemen have settled on a plan. We’ve measured the distance from the east wall through the garden of the East Mansion to the north, and it comes to three ii and a half, enough to build a separate court for the visit. Someone has been commissioned to draw a plan which should be ready tomorrow. Since you must be tired after your journey, please don’t think of coming over. If you’ve any proposals, you can make them first thing tomorrow.”
“Kindly thank your father for his consideration,” replied Jia Lian. “I shall do as he says and not call on him now. This is the best possible scheme, the easiest and the simplest to carry out. Any other site would entail more work without such good results. Tell him when you get back that I thoroughly approve, and if the old gentlemen have second thoughts I hope he will dissuade them from looking for another site. When I come tomorrow to pay my respects we can talk it over in detail.”
Jia Rong agreed at once to pass on this message.
Jia Qiang now stepped forward to announce, “My uncle has given me the job of going to Suzhou with Lai Da’s two sons and the two secretar¬ies Shan Pingren and Bu Guxiu. We’re to hire instructors, buy girl ac¬tresses and musical instruments and costumes there. He told me to let you know.”
Jia Lian looked quizzically at the young man and asked, “Are you sure you’re up to it? This may not be a big job, but there should be plenty of perks if you know the ropes.”
“I shall have to learn,” was Jia Qiang’s cheerful reply.
Jia Rong, standing in the shadow, quietly plucked Xifeng’s lapel. Tak¬ing the hint she said to her husband, “Don’t worry. Your cousin knows best whom to send. Why should you be afraid Qiang isn’t up to it? Is everyone born capable? The boy’s grown up now. He’s old enough to have seen a pig run, even if he hasn’t yet tasted pork himself. Cousin Zhen is sending him as a supervisor, not to do all the bargaining and accounting himself. I think it’s an excellent choice.”
“Of course I wasn’t querying that,” protested Jia Lian. “I only wanted to offer some advice.” He asked Jia Qiang, “Where is the money for this
coming from?”
“We’ve just been discussing that. Old Lai sees no need to take silver with us from here. The Zhens down south have fifty thousand taels of ours. Tomorrow a draft can be written for us to take. We shall first draw thirty thousand, leaving twenty thousand to buy ornamental lanterns, candles, streamers, bamboo curtains and hangings of every kind.”
Jia Lian nodded his approval. “Very good.”
“Well, if that’s settled,” interposed Xifeng, “I have two good men you can take along to help you.”
“What a coincidence!” Jia Qiang forced a smile. “I was just going to ask you to recommend a couple of people, aunt.” He inquired their names.
Xifeng asked Nanny Zhao, who had been listening as if in a dream. When Pinger nudged her she woke up and answered quickly, “One of them is called Zhao Tianling, the other Zhao Tiandong.”
“Don’t forget,” Xifeng cautioned Jia Qiang. “Now I must get back to my duties.” With that she left.
Jia Rong slipped out after her and whispered, “If there’s anything you want, aunt, make out a list and I’ll give it to Qiang to see to.”
“Don’t talk rubbish!” Xifeng snorted. “I’ve so many things already, I’ve nowhere to put them. I don’t care for your sneaky way of doing things.” And so she went off.
Meanwhile Jia Qiang was telling Jia Lian, “If you want anything, uncle, I’ll be happy to get it for you.”
“Don’t look so pleased,” replied Jia Lian mockingly. “So this trick is the first thing you learn when you start handling business. If I need any¬thing, of course I’ll write. There’s no time for it at present.”
With that he saw the young men out. Then several servants came to make reports, after which Jia Lian felt so tired that he sent orders to the inner gate to admit no one else: all business must wait until the next day. Xifeng did not get to bed until the third watch, but no more need be said about that night.
The next morning, after calling on Jia She and Jia Zheng, Jia Lian went to the Ning Mansion. With some old stewards, secretaries and friends he inspected the grounds of both mansions, drew plans for the palaces for the Imperial visit and estimated the number of workmen required.
Before long all the craftsmen and workmen were assembled, and endless loads of supplies were brought to the site: gold, silver, copper and tin, as well as earth, timber, bricks and tiles. First they pulled down the walls and pavilions of the Garden of Concentrated Fragrance in the Ning Mansion to connect it with the large eastern court of the Rong Mansion; and all the servants’ quarters there were demolished.
Formerly a small alley had separated the two houses, but since this was private property and not a public thoroughfare the grounds of both could now be thrown into one.
As a stream already ran from the northern corner of the Garden of Concentrated Fragrance, there was no need to bring in another. And though there were not enough rocks or trees, the bamboos, trees and rockeries as well as the pavilions and balustrades in the original garden of the Rong Mansion where Jia She lived were brought over. The proximity of the two mansions made amalgamation easy, in addition to saving much labour and expense. On the whole, not too many new features had to be added.
The whole was designed by an old landscape gardener known as Gardener Ye.
As Jia Zheng was unaccustomed to practical business he left it to Jia She, Jia Zhen, Jia Lian, Lai Da, Lai Sheng, Lin Zhixiao, Wu Xindeng, Zhan Guang and Cheng Rixing. Artificial mountains and lakes were made, pavilions constructed, and bamboos and flowers planted, according to the plan of the gardener. All Jia Zheng did on his return from court was to make a tour of inspection and discuss the most important problems with Jia She and the rest.
As for Jia She, he took his ease at home. If any minor points had to be settled, Jia Zhen and the others would explain them to him or send him a written report, while he passed on his instructions through Jia Lian and Lai Da.
Jia Rong’s task was to supervise the making of the gold and silver utensils. As for Jia Qiang, he had already left for Suzhou. Jia Zhen, Lai Da and the rest were in charge of the workmen, keeping a register and superintending operations. Impossible to describe in full all that bustle and commotion!
Owing to this all-engrossing business, Jia Zheng had stopped asking Baoyu about his studies and the boy was having an easy time. The only thing that worried him and spoiled his pleasure was Qin Zhong’s illness, now growing daily worse.
One morning, he had just washed and dressed and was thinking to ask his grandmother’s permission to pay another visit to his friend, when Mingyan peeped round the spirit screen by the inner gate. Baoyu hurried over to him.
“What is it?”
“Master Qin Zhong. He’s dying!”
Baoyu was staggered.
“He was clear-headed when I saw him only yesterday,” he cried. “How can he be dying?”
“I don’t know. That’s what an old fellow from his home just told me.
At once Baoyu went to tell the Lady Dowager, who instructed some trustworthy men to accompany him. “You may call to show your friend¬ship for your schoolmate,” she told him. “But mind you don’t stay too long.”
Baoyu hastily changed his clothes, then paced up and down franti¬cally, calling for his carriage. When at last it arrived he scrambled in and drove off, escorted by Li Gui, Mingyan and others.
Finding the gate of Qin Zhong’s house deserted, they swarmed into the inner apartments, to the consternation of Qin Zhong’s two aunts and cousins who quickly made themselves scarce.
Qin Zhong had already lost consciousness several times and been lifted on to a trestle-bed to die. At this sight Baoyu burst out sobbing.
“Don’t take on like that,” urged Li Gui. “You know how delicate Master Qin is. They’ve moved him for the time being to somewhere more comfortable than the hard kang. Going on in this way, little master, will only make him worse.”
At that Baoyu restrained himself and approached his friend. Qin Zhong lying back on his pillow was as pale as wax; his eyes were closed and his breath was coming in gasps.
“Dear brother!” Baoyu cried. “It’s me — Baoyu!”
He called several times but Qin Zhong made no reply. Still Baoyu went on calling: “Baoyu’s here!”
Qin Zhong was at his last gasp. His spirit, which had already left its body, saw that ghostly guards had come with a warrant and chains to drag him off. He was unwilling to leave, for there was no one to manage the household’s affairs and his father had left three or four thousand taels of savings. He was longing, too, for news of Zhineng. But hard as he pleaded the ghosts were adamant.
“You’re an educated young fellow,” they scoffed. “Don’t you know the saying, ‘If the King of Hell summons you at the third watch, who dares keep you till the fifth?’ We shades are strictly impartial, not like you mortals with all your soft-heartedness and favouritism.”
As they were shouting at him, Qin Zhong’s spirit heard Baoyu call.
“Have pity, divine messengers,” he begged. “Let me go back to say one word to my good friend. Then I’ll come with you.”
“What good friend is this?” asked the ghosts.
“The grandson of the Duke of Rongguo. His name is Baoyu.”
The ghost in command gave a howl of dismay, then swore at his fol¬lowers. “I told you to let him go back for a while, but you wouldn’t. Now he’s produced this favourite of fortune, what are we to do?”
The ghosts, flustered by their officer’s alarm, protested, “You were thundering mad yourself just now, but the name Baoyu seems to have terrified you. Why should we shades be afraid of a mortal like him? What can he do for us?”
Their officer swore, “That’s rubbish! You know the proverb, ‘The empire’s officials control all in the empire.’ That’s how it is in the nether regions too — the same for spirits as for mortals. It’ll do no harm to show some consideration.”
Hearing this, the ghosts had to let Qin Zhong’s soul return to its body.
The dying boy gave an indistinct cry and, opening his eyes, saw Baoyu by his side.
“Why didn’t you come earlier?” he asked faintly. “If you’d left it any longer, I shouldn’t have seen you.
Baoyu clasped his friend’s hands and asked through tears, “What last message have you for me?”
“Just this. When you and I first met, we thought ourselves above the common herd. Now I know how wrong we were. You should set your mind on making a name through the examinations, on winning distinction, in future....”
With that he gave a long sigh and breathed his last.
For what followed, read the next chapter.

Chapter 17

Literary Talent Is Tested by Composing
Inscriptions in Grand View Garden
Those Losing Their Way at Happy Red Court
Explore a Secluded Retreat


Baoyu wept over Qin Zhong’s death as if he would never stop; and it was some time before Li Gui and the rest could prevail on him to leave off. Even after his return he could not overcome his grief. The Lady Dowager gave the Qin family several dozen taels of silver in addition to funeral gifts; Baoyu went to offer his condolences and, seven days later, the funeral and burial took place. No need to record it in detail. Baoyu mourned for his friend and missed him every day, but there was no help for it.
Some time later Jia Zhen came to report to Jia Zheng that the work on the new garden had been completed and Jia She had inspected it.
“All is ready for you to look over, sir,” he announced. “If there is anything unsuitable, we can have it changed before the inscriptions for different places are chosen.”
Jia Zheng reflected for a while, then said, “The inscriptions do present a problem. By rights, we should ask the Imperial Consort to do us the honour of composing them, but she can hardly do this without having seen the place. On the other hand, if we leave the chief sights and pavil¬ions without a single name or couplet until her visit, the garden, however lovely with its flowers and willows, rocks and streams, cannot fully re¬veal its charm.”
“You are absolutely right, sir,” agreed his cultured companions.
“I have an idea,” said one. “The inscriptions for different places can’t be dispensed with, but neither can they be fixed in advance. Why not briefly prepare some tentative couplets and names to suit each place? We can have them painted on lanterns in the shape of plaques and scrolls for the time being. Then, when Her Highness favours us with a visit, we can ask her to decide on permanent names. Wouldn’t this be a way out of the dilemma?”
“A sound idea,” agreed Jia Zheng. “Let us have a look round then today and think up some inscriptions. If suitable, they can be used; if unsuitable, we can ask Jia Yucun over to help.”
“Your suggestions are bound to be excellent, sir,” they countered. “Why need we call in Yucun?”
“Frankly, I was never a good hand even in my young days at writing verse about nature — flowers, birds and scenery. Now that I’m old and burdened with official duties I’ve quite lost the light touch required for belles-lettres. Any efforts of mine would undoubtedly be so clumsy and pedantic that they would fail to bring out the garden’s beauty — they might even have the opposite effect.”
“Have no fears about that,” his secretaries assured him. “We can put our wits together. If each of us uses his ingenuity and we then choose the best suggestions, discarding the rest, we should be able to manage.”
“Very well. Luckily it’s a fine day for a stroll.”
Jia Zheng rose to his feet and set off at the head of the party, while Jia Zhen went on in advance to let everyone in the garden know they were coming.
It so happened that Baoyu had just arrived in the garden. For he was still grieving so much over Qin Zhong’s death that the Lady Dowager often told his servants to take him there to distract him.
Jia Zhen, coming upon him, warned him jokingly, “You’d better clear out! Lord Zheng is on his way here.”
Baoyu rushed out like a streak of smoke, with his nurse and pages behind him. But just round the corner he ran into Jia Zheng’s party. Since escape was impossible, Baoyu stepped to one side.
Now Jia Zheng had recently heard Baoyu’s tutor speak highly of his skill in composing couplets, remarking that the boy, though not studious, showed considerable originality. Having happened upon him like this, Jia Zheng ordered his son to accompany them. Baoyu had to comply, not knowing what his father wanted.
At the entrance to the garden, they found Jia Zhen with a group of stewards lined up in wait.
“Close the gate,” said Jia Zheng. “Let us see what it looks like from
outside before we go in.”
Jia Zhen had the gate closed and Jia Zheng inspected the gatehouse, a building in five sections with an arched roof of semi-circular tiles. The lintels and lattices, finely carved with ingenious designs, were neither painted nor gilded; the walls were of polished bricks of a uniform colour, and the white marble steps were carved with passion-flowers. The garden’s spotless whitewashed wall stretching to left and right had, at its base, a mosaic of striped “tiger-skin” stones. The absence of vulgar ostentation pleased him.
He had the gate opened then and they went in, only to find their view screened by a green hill. At this sight his secretaries cried out in approval.
“If not for this hill,” observed Jia Zheng, “one would see the whole garden as soon as one entered, and how tame that would be.”
“Exactly,” agreed the rest. “Only a bold landscape gardener could have conceived this.”
On the miniature mountain they saw rugged white rocks resembling monsters and beasts, some recumbent, some rampant, dappled with moss or hung about with creepers, a narrow zigzag path just discernible be¬tween them.
“We’ll follow this path,” decided Jia Zheng. “Coming back we can find our way out at the other side. That should take us over the whole grounds.”
He made Jia Zhen lead the way and, leaning on Baoyu’s shoulder, followed him up through the boulders. Suddenly raising his head, he saw a white rock polished as smooth as a mirror, obviously intended for the first inscription.
“See, gentlemen!” he called over his shoulder, smiling. “What would be a suitable name for this spot?”
“Heaped Verdure,” said one.
“Embroidery Ridge,” said another.
“The Censer.”1
“A Miniature Zhongnan.”2
Dozens of different suggestions were made, all of them stereotyped cliches; for Jia Zheng’s secretaries were well aware that he meant to test his son’s ability. Baoyu understood this too.
Now his father called on him to propose a name.
Baoyu replied, “I’ve heard that the ancients said, ‘An old quotation beats an original saying; to recut an old text is better than to engrave a new one.’ As this is not the main prominence or one of the chief sights, it only needs an inscription because it is the first step leading to the rest. so why not use that line from an old poem:
A winding path leads to a secluded retreat.
A name like that would be more dignified.”
“Excellent!” cried the secretaries.
“Our young master is far more brilliant and talented than dull pedants like ourselves.”
“You mustn’t flatter the boy,” protested Jia Zheng with a smile. “He’s simply making a ridiculous parade of his very limited knowledge. We can think of a better name later.”
They walked on through a tunnel into a ravine green with magnificent trees and ablaze with rare flowers. A clear stream welling up where the trees were thickest wound its way through clefts in the rocks.
Some paces further north, on both sides of a level clearing, rose tow¬ering pavilions whose carved rafters and splendid balustrades were half hidden by the trees on the slopes. Looking downwards, they saw a crys¬tal stream cascading as white as snow and stone steps going down through the mist to a pool. This was enclosed by marble balustrades and spanned by a stone bridge ornamented with the heads of beasts with gaping jaws. On the bridge was a little pavilion in which the whole party sat down.
“What would you call this, gentlemen?” asked Jia Zheng.
One volunteered, “Ouyang Xiu’s3 Pavilion of the Old Drunkard has the line, ‘A winged pavilion hovers above.’ Why not call this Winged Pavilion?”
“A delightful name,” rejoined Jia Zheng. “But as this pavilion is built over the pool there should be some allusion to the water. Ouyang Xiu also speaks of a fountain ‘spilling between two peaks.’ Could we not use that word ‘spilling’?”
“Capital!” cried one gentleman. “‘Spilling Jade’ would be an excel¬lent name.”
Jia Zheng tugging thoughtfully at his beard turned with a smile to ask Baoyu for his suggestion.
“I agree with what you just said, sir,” replied his son. “But if we go into this a little deeper, although ‘spilling’ was an apt epithet for Ouyang Xiu’s fountain, which was called the Brewer’s Spring, it would be unsuitable here. Then again, as this is designed as a residence for the Imperial Consort we should use more courtly language instead of coarse, inelegant expressions like this. Could you not think of some¬thing more subtle?”
“Do you hear that, gentlemen?” Jia Zheng chuckled. “When we sug¬gest something original he is all in favour of an old quotation; but now that we are using an old quotation he finds it too coarse. Well, what do you propose?”
“Wouldn’t ‘Seeping Fragrance’ be more original and tasteful than ‘Spilling Jade’?”
Jia Zheng stroked his beard again and nodded in silence while the others, eager to please him, hastened to commend Baoyu’s remarkable talent.
“The selection of two words for the tablet is easy,” said his father. “Go on and make a seven-character couplet.”
Baoyu rose to his feet and glanced round for inspiration. Then he declaimed:
“Willows on the dyke lend their verdancy to three punts; Flowers on the further shore spare a breath of fragrance.
His father nodded with a faint smile amid another chorus of approval. They left the pavilion then, crossed the bridge and strolled on, admir¬ing each rock, each height, each flower and each tree on the way, until they found themselves before the whitewashed enclosing walls of a fine lodge nestling in a dense glade of fresh green bamboos. With cries of admiration they walked in.
From the gate porch a zigzag covered walk with a cobbled path below and parallel to it wound up to a little cottage of three rooms, with the cottage door in the middle one and furniture made to fit the measure¬ments of the rooms. Another small door in the inner room opened on to the back garden with its large pear-tree, broad-leafed plantain and two tiny side courts. Through a foot-wide opening below the back wall flowed a brook which wound past the steps and the lodge to the front court before meandering out through the bamboos.
“This is pleasant. If one could study at this window on a moonlit night one would not have lived in vain,” observed Jia Zheng. He glanced at Baoyu, who hung his head in confusion while the others quickly changed the subject, one of them suggesting:
“We need a four-character inscription here.”
“What four characters?” asked Jia Zheng.
“Shades of the River Qi?”4 ‘‘Too commonplace.” “Traces of the Sui Garden?”5 “That is equally hackneyed.”
Jia Zhen proposed, “Let Cousin Bao make a suggestion.”
“Before he makes any suggestion,” objected Jia Zheng, “the impu¬dent fellow criticizes other people’s.”
“But his comments are correct. How can you blame him?”
“Don’t pander to him like that.” He turned to his son. “We’re put¬ting up with your wild talk today, so let’s have your criticisms first before we hear your own proposals. Were either of these gentlemen’s sugges¬tions appropriate?”
“I didn’t think so, sir.”
His father smiled sardonically, “Why not?”
“Since this will be the first place where our Imperial visitor stops, we should pay some tribute to Her Highness here. If we want a four-charac¬ter inscription there are plenty of old ones ready at hand, why need we compose anything new?”
“Aren’t ‘The River Qi’ and ‘The Sui Garden’ both classical allu¬sions?”
“Yes, but they sound too stiff. I propose ‘Where the Phoenix Alights.’”
The rest were loud in their praise and Jia Zheng nodded. “You young rascal,” he said, “with your pitiful smattering of knowl¬edge. All right, now let’s hear your couplet.”
Baoyu declaimed:
“Still green the smoke from tea brewed in a rare tripod;
Yet cold the fingers from chess played by quiet window.”
Jia Zheng shook his head. ”No better either!”
He was leading the party on when a thought struck him and turn¬ing to Jia Zhen he said, “All these compounds and lodges are fur¬nished with tables and chairs, but what about curtains, blinds, knick¬knacks, curios and so forth? Have appropriate ones for each place been prepared?”
“We have got in a large stock of ornaments which will be properly set out in due course,” replied Jia Zhen. “As for the curtains and blinds, Cousin Lian told me yesterday that they are not all ready yet. We took exact measurements from the building plans for each place when the work started, and sent out our designs to be made up. By yesterday about half of them were finished.”
Since he was clearly ignorant of the details, Jia Zheng sent for Jia Lian and asked him, “What are the different items? How many are ready and how many are not?”
Jia Lian promptly pulled out a list from the leg of one boot. After referring to it he replied, “Of the one hundred and twenty satin curtains embroidered with dragons and brocade hangings large and small with different designs and colours, eighty were ready yesterday and forty are still to come. Two hundred blinds were delivered yesterday. Beside these, there are two hundred portières of crimson felt, two hundred of red lac¬quered bamboo with gold flecks, two hundred of black lacquered bam¬boo, and two hundred woven with coloured silks. Half of each kind is ready, the rest will be finished by the end of autumn. Then there are chair-covers, table-drapes, valances and stool-covers — one thousand two hundred of each which we already have.”
As they walked on talking, their eyes fell on some green hills bar¬ring their way. Skirting these they caught sight of brown adobe walls with paddy-stalk copings and hundreds of apricot-trees, their blos¬soms bright as spurting flames or sunlit clouds. Inside this enclosure stood several thatched cottages. Outside grew saplings of mulberry, elm, hibiscus and silkwormthorn trees, whose branches had been in¬tertwined to form a double green hedge. Beyond this hedge, at the
foot of the slope, was a rustic well complete with windlass and well¬sweep. Below, neat plots of fine vegetables and rape-flowers stretched as far as eye could see.
“I see the point of this place,” declared Jia Zheng. “Although artifi¬cially made, the sight of it tempts one to retire to the country. Let us go in and rest a while.”
Just as they were on the point of entering the wicker gate they saw a stone by the pathway which was obviously intended for an inscription.
“That’s the finishing touch,” they cried, chuckling. “A plaque over the gate would have spoilt the rustic flavour, but this stone here adds to the charm. It would take one of Fan Chengda’s poems6 on country life to do justice to this place.
“What shall we call it then, gentlemen?”
“As your worthy son just remarked. ‘An old quotation beats an original saying.’ The ancients have already supplied the most fitting name — Apricot Village.”
Jia Zheng turned with a smile to Jia Zhen, saying, “That reminds me. This place is perfect in every other respect, but it still lacks a tavern-sign. You must have one made tomorrow. Nothing too grand. Just a tavern-sign of the sort used in country places. Let it be hung on a bamboo pole from a tree-top.”
Jia Zhen readily agreed to this, then suggested, “Other birds would be out of place here, but we ought to have some geese, ducks, hens and so on.”
When this proposal had met with general approval, Jia Zheng ob¬served, “‘Apricot Village’ is first-rate, but since it is the name of a real place we should have to get official permission to use it.”
“True,” agreed the other. “We shall have to think of something else. What shall it be?”
Without giving them time to think or waiting to be asked by his father, Baoyu blurted out, “An old poem has the line, ‘Above flowering apricot hangs a tavern-sign.’ Why not call this ‘Approach to Apricot Tavern’?” 
“‘Approach’ is superb,” they cried. “It suggests the idea of Apricot Village too.”
“‘Apricot Village’ would be too vulgar a name.” Baoyu smiled scornfully. “But an old poet wrote ‘A wicker gate by a stream sweet with paddy. ‘ How about ‘Paddy-Sweet Cottage’?”
Again the secretaries clapped in approbation but his father sternly silenced him. “Ignorant cub! How many ancient writers have you read and how many old poems have you memorized that you dare show off in front of your elders? I put up with your nonsense just now to test you in. fun — don’t take it seriously.”
With that he led the party into one of the cottages. It was quite free of ostentation, having papered windows and a wooden couch. Secretly pleased, he glanced at his son and asked, “Well, what do you think of this place?”
The secretaries nudged the boy to induce him to express approval. But ignoring them he answered, “It can’t compare with ‘Where the Phoenix Alights.”’
“Ignorant dolt!” Jia Zheng sighed. “All you care for are red pavilions and painted beams. With your perverse taste for luxury, how can you appreciate the natural beauty of such a quiet retreat? This comes of neglecting your studies.”
“Yes sir,” replied Baoyu promptly. “But the ancients were always using the term ‘natural.’ I wonder what they really meant by it?”
Afraid his pig-headedness would lead to trouble, the others hastily put in, “You understand everything else so well, why ask about the term ‘natural’? It means coming from nature, not due to human effort.”
“There you are! A farm here is obviously artificial and out of place with no villages in the distance, no fields near by, no mountain ranges behind, no source for the stream at hand, above, no pagoda from any half hidden temple, below, no bridge leading to a market. Perched here in isolation, it is nothing like as fine a sight as those other places which were less far-fetched. The bamboos and streams there didn’t look so artificial. What the ancients called ‘a natural picture’ means precisely that when you insist on an unsuitable site and hills where no hills should be, however skilfully you go about it the result is bound to jar....”
“Clear off!” thundered Jia Zheng. “Stop. Come back. Make up an¬other couplet. If it’s no good I’ll slap your face on both accounts.”
Baoyu had to comply. He declaimed:
“The green tide fills the creek where clothes are washed;
Clouds of fragrance surround the girls plucking water-cress.”
“Worse and worse,” growled Jia Zheng, shaking his head as he led the company out.
The path now curved around a slope, past flowers and willows, rocks and springs, a trellis of yellow roses, an arbour of white ones, a tree-peony pavilion, a white peony plot, a court of rambler roses and a bank of plantains. Suddenly they heard the plash of a spring gushing from a cave overhung by vines, and saw fallen blossoms floating on the water below. As they cried out in delight, Jia Zheng asked them to suggest another inscription.
“What more apt than ‘The Spring of Wuling’?” said one.
“Too hackneyed. Besides, it’s also the name of a real place,” ob¬jected Jia Zheng with a smile.
“Then how about ‘The Refuge of a Man of Qin’?”
“Even more impossible,” cried Baoyu. “How can we use something that implies taking refuge in time of trouble? I suggest ‘Smartweed Bank and Flowery Harbour.”
“That makes even less sense,” scoffed his father. He strolled to the water’s edge and asked Jia Zhen, “Do you have any boats here?”
“There will be four punts for lotus-gathering and one pleasure boat, but they aren’t ready yet.”
“What a pity we can’t cross.”
“We can make a detour by the path over the hills,” said Jia Zhen, and proceeded to lead the way.
The others followed, clinging to creepers and trees as they clam¬bered up. There were more fallen blossoms now on the stream, which appeared more translucent than ever as it swirled down its circuitous course. It was flanked by weeping willows and peach and apricot trees which screened the sun, and there was not a mote of dust in the air.
Presently, in the shade of the willows, they glimpsed an arched wooden bridge with scarlet railings. Once over this a choice of paths lay before them; but their attention was caught by an airy house of smooth brick with spotless tiles and an ornamental wall on one of the lesser slopes of the main hill.
“That building seems very out of place here,” remarked Jia Zheng.
But stepping over the threshold he was confronted by tall weathered rocks of every description which hid the house from sight. In place of trees and flowers there was a profusion of rare creepers, vines and trail¬ers, which festooned the artificial mountains, grew through the rocks, hung from the eaves, twined round the pillars and carpeted the steps. Some seemed like floating green belts or golden bands; others had ber¬ries red as cinnabar and flowers like golden osmanthus which gave off a penetrating scent, unlike the scent of ordinary flowers.
“This is charming!” Jia Zheng could not help exclaiming. “But what are all these plants?”
“Climbing fig and wistaria?” someone suggested.
“But they don’t have such a strange fragrance, do they?”
“They certainly don’t,” interposed Baoyu. “There are climbing fig and wistaria here, but the fragrance comes from alpinia and snakeroot. That one over there is iris, I fancy, and here we have dolichos, dwarf-mallow and glyrcyrrhia. That crimson plant is purple rue, of course; the green, angelica. A lot of these rare plants are mentioned in the Li Sao and Wen Xuan, 8 plants with names like huona, Jiangtan, lunzu and ziang; shifan, shuisong and fuliu; luyi, danjiao, miwu and fenglian. But after all these centuries scholars can no longer identify these plants, for which new names have been found....”
“Who asked your opinion?” roared his father.
Baoyu stepped back nervously and said no more.
Covered corridors ran along both sides of this court and Jia Zheng led his party down one of these to a cool five-section gallery with roofed verandahs on four sides, green windows and painted walls, more elegant than any they had yet seen.
“One could brew tea here and play the lyre without having to burn rare incense.” He sighed appreciatively, “This is certainly unexpected. We need a good inscription, gentlemen, to do it justice.”
“What could be apter than ‘Wind in the Orchids and Dew on Angeli¬cas’ ?“ one ventured.
“I suppose we have no other choice. Now what about a couplet?”
“I have thought of one,” said another. “The rest of you must correct it.
Fragrance of musk-orchids fills the court at dusk,
Scent of alpinia floats to the moonlit island.”
“Very good,” they commented. “Only the reference to ‘dusk’ seems inappropriate.”
He quoted the old poem then with the line, “The alpinia in the court weeps in the dusk.”
“Too sad, too sad,” they protested.
“Here’s one for your consideration,” said another.
“Along three paths white angelica scents the breeze, In the court a bright moon shines on golden orchids.”
Jia Zheng thoughtfully tugged at his beard and seemed about to pro¬pose a couplet himself when, raising his head, he caught sight of Baoyu, now afraid to open his mouth.
“Well?” he said sternly. “When it’s time to speak you say nothing. Are you waiting to be begged for the favour of your instruction?”
“We have no musk, moon or islands here,” said Baoyu. “If you want allusive couplets of that kind, we can easily compose hundreds.”
“Who is putting pressure on you to use those words?”
“Well then, I suggest ‘Pure Scent of Alpinia and Iris.’ And for the couplet:
Singing on cardamons makes lovely poetry;
Sleeping beneath roses induces sweet dreams.”
Jia Zheng laughed. “You got that from the line ‘Write on plantain leaves and green is the writing.’ This is mere plagiarism.”
“There’s nothing wrong with plagiarism provided it’s well done,” countered the others. “Even Li Bai copied from Yellow Crane Pavilion ~ when he wrote his Phoenix Tower. If you consider this couplet carefully, sir, it is livelier and more poetical than the original. It even looks as if the other line plagiarizes this by our young master.”
“Preposterous!” Jia Zheng smiled.
From there they went on some way until ahead of them loomed tow¬ering pavilions enclosed by magnificent buildings, all of them connected by winding passageways. Green pines brushed the eaves, white balus¬trades skirted the steps, the animal designs glittered like gold and the dragon-heads blazed with colour.
“This must be the main reception palace,” observed Jia Zheng. “Its one fault is that it is too luxurious.”
“Unavoidably so,” they reasoned. “Although Her Royal Highness prizes frugality, this is no more than is due to her present exalted rank.”
They were now at the foot of a marble arch finely carved with ram¬pant dragons and coiling serpents.
“What should be inscribed here?” asked Jia Zheng.
“‘The Fairy Land of Penglai’?”
He shook his head and said nothing.
As for Baoyu, he felt strangely stirred by this sight, as if he had seen a place of this kind before — though just when he could not remember. Called upon to compose an inscription, he was too preoccupied to think of anything else. The others, not knowing this, imagined that his wits were wandering and he was exhausted after his long ordeal. Fearing that if he were pressed too hard the consequences might be serious, they urged his father to give him a day’s grace.
Jia Zheng, aware that his mother might well be anxious, said with an ironic smile, “So sometimes you are at a loss too, you young rascal. Very well, I’ll give you until tomorrow. But if no inscription is ready then, so much the worse for you. This is the most important place, so mind you do your best.”
They continued with the tour of inspection and had covered little more than half the grounds when a servant reported that someone had arrived with a message from Yucun.
“We can’t see the rest of the places,” said Jia Zheng. “But by going out the other way we can at least get a general idea, even if we don’t see them all.”
He led the way to a large bridge above a crystal curtain of cascading water. This was the sluice admitting water from outside. Jia Zheng asked for a name for it.
“Since this is the source of the River of Seeping Fragrance it could be
called ‘Seeping Fragrance Lock,”’ Baoyu suggested.
“Rubbish,” said his father. “We just won’t have ‘Seeping Fragrance.
On they went past quiet lodges and thatched huts, stone walls and pergolas of flowers, a temple secluded in the hills and a convent half hidden among the trees, long covered walks, meandering grottoes, square mansions and round kiosks, none of which they had time to enter. How¬ever, it was so long since their last rest that all were footsore and weary by the time they saw another lodge in front, and Jia Zheng said, “Here we must rest a little.”
He led the way in past some double-flowering peach in blossom and through a moon-gate made of bamboo over which climbed flowering plants. Whitewashed walls and green willows confronted them then. Along the walls ran covered corridors, and the rockery in the centre of the court¬yard was flanked on one side by plantains, on the other by a red multi-petalled crab-apple tree, its branches trained in the shape of an umbrella, with green trailing tendrils and petals red as cinnabar.
“What superb blossoms!” they exclaimed. “We have never seen such a splendid one before.”
“This is a foreign variety called ‘Maiden Apple, “‘ Jia Zheng told them. “Tradition has it that it comes from the Land of Maidens, and that it blossoms profusely in that country; but that is nothing but an old wives’ tale.”
“If so, how did the name come to be handed down?” they wondered.
“Quite likely the name ‘Maiden’ was given by some poet,” said Baoyu, “because this flower is as red as rouged cheeks and as frail as a delicate girl. Then some vulgar character made up that story and ignorant people believed it.”
“A most plausible explanation,” said the others.
They sat down on some benches in the corridor and Jia Zheng at once asked for another inscription.
“Plantains and Storks’?” one proposed.
‘‘Or ‘Towering Splendour and Shimmering Radiance.’”
Jia Zheng and the rest approved, as indeed did Baoyu, adding, “It’s a pity, though....” Asked to explain himself, he said, “Plantain and crab¬apple blossom suggest both red and green. It’s a pity to refer to one and not the other.”
“What do you suggest then?” demanded his father.
“Something like ‘Red Fragrance and Green Jade’ would bring out the charm of both, I think.”
“Too feeble!” Jia Zheng shook his head.
He led the way into the building. It was unusually set out with no clear-cut divisions between the different rooms. There were only parti¬tions formed of shelves for books, bronze tripods, stationery, flower vases and miniature gardens, some round, some square, some shaped like sun¬flowers, plantain leaves or intersecting arcs. They were beautifully carved with the motifs “clouds and a hundred bats” of the “three companions of winter” — pine, plum and bamboo — as well as landscapes and figures, birds and flowers, scrollwork, imitation curios and symbols of good fortune or long life. All executed by the finest craftsmen, they were brilliantly coloured and inlaid with gold or precious stones. The effect was splendid, the workmanship exquisite. Here a strip of coloured gauze concealed a small window, there a gorgeous curtain hid a door. There were also niches on the walls to fit antiques, lyres, swords, vases or other ornaments, which hung level with the surface of the wall. Their amaze¬ment and admiration for the craftsmen’s ingenuity knew no bounds.
After passing two partitions Jia Zheng and his party lost their way. To their left they saw a door, to their right a window; but when they went forward their passage was blocked by a bookshelf. Turning back they glimpsed the way through another window; but on reaching the door they suddenly saw a party just like their own confronting them — they were looking at a big mirror. Passing round this they came to more doorways.
“Follow me, sir,” urged Jia Zhen with a smile. “Let me take you to the back courtyard and show you a short cut.”
He conducted them past two gauze screens out into a courtyard filled with rose trellises. Skirting round the fence, Baoyu saw a clear stream in front.
All exclaimed in astonishment, “Where does this water come from?”
Jia Zhen pointed to a spot in the distance.
“It flows from that lock we saw through the ravine, then from the northeast valley to the little farm, where some is diverted southwest.
Here both streams converge to flow out underneath the wall.”
“Miraculous!” they marvelled.
Now another hill barred their way and they no longer had any sense of direction; but Jia Zhen laughingly made them follow him, and as soon as they rounded the foot of the hill they found themselves on a smooth highway not far from the main entrance.
“How diverting,” they said. “Really most ingenious.”
And so they left the garden.
Baoyu was longing to get back to the girls, but receiving no dismissal from his father he had to follow him to the library. Now Jia Zheng sud¬denly remembered his presence.
“Why are you still here?” he demanded. “Haven’t you had enough of wandering around? The old lady will be worrying about you. She’s wasting her love on you. Off you go, quick.”
Then at last Baoyu could withdraw. What followed is recorded in the next chapter.


Chapter 18

Yuanchun Visits Her Parents
on the Feast of Lanterns
Daiyu Helps Her True Love
by Passing Him a Poem


As soon as Baoyu was out of the courtyard, the pages who attended Jia Zheng stepped forward to throw their arms around his waist.
They said, “It’s lucky for you that the master was in such a good mood today. The old lady sent several times to ask how things were, and you should thank us for telling her he looked pleased. Otherwise she’d have sent for you and you wouldn’t have had this chance to shine. Ev¬erybody said your poems were the best. “Today’s your lucky day, so give us a tip.”
“You shall each have a string of cash,” he promised them.
“Who hasn’t seen a string of cash?” cried one. “Give me your pouch.”
Swarming round without so much as a “by your leave,” they stripped him of his scented pouch, fan-sheath and other pendants.
“Now let’s see him back!” they cried.
With one of them carrying him, the others in a troop escorted him along to the outer courtyard of the Lady Dowager’s apartments.
Since she had sent several times to see how her grandson was faring, she was naturally pleased when her nannies and maids brought him in, none the worse for his experience.
When presently Xiren handed him tea she noticed that not one of his pendants was left. “So those shameless wretches have taken all your things again,” she remarked with a smile.
Daiyu came over to see if this was true. Sure enough, all his trinkets had gone.
“So you’ve given them that pouch I made you too!” she remarked. “All right, that’s the last thing you’ll ever get from me.”
Going crossly back to her own room, she took her scissors and started cutting up the sachet she had been making for him at Baoyu’s own re¬quest.
Baoyu, seeing that she was angry, knew that something was up and hurried after her. Too late. Although the sachet had not been finished, the embroidery on it was very fine and she had put a lot of work into it, so he was annoyed to see it spoilt for no reason. Quickly undoing his collar, he pulled out the pouch he was wearing over his red tunic.
“Look, what’s this?” he asked, showing it to her. “When have I ever given anything of yours to someone else?”
Realizing that he treasured her gift so much that he had kept it safely hidden away, Daiyu repented of her hastiness and hung her head in si¬lence.
“You didn’t have to cut it up,” went on Baoyu reproachfully. “I know you don’t like giving me anything, so I’ll let you have this one back too, how about that?” Tossing it into her lap, he turned to go.
Choking with anger Daiyu burst into tears. She picked up the pouch meaning to cut it to pieces as well. But he rushed back to stop her, beg¬ging, “Dear cousin, spare it!”
She threw down the scissors to brush away her tears.
“You don’t have to treat me like that, kind one moment and cruel the next. If it’s a quarrel you want, we’d better have nothing more to do with each other. Why carry on like this?”
She flung herself tearfully down on her bed with her face towards the wall, wiping her streaming eyes. In desperation, Baoyu leant over her begging, “Dear cousin, dear kind cousin, do forgive me!”
Meanwhile the Lady Dowager had been asking where Baoyu was. Hearing that he was with Daiyu she said, “That’s good. Let them amuse themselves together for a while. He deserves a little relaxation after be¬ing kept so long under check by his father. Just see that they don’t quar¬rel. You mustn’t upset him.” And to this the servants agreed.
Unable to shake Baoyu off, Daiyu got up. “Since you won’t give me any peace, I’m going to leave you,” she declared.
As she started out he said with a smile, “Wherever you go, I’ll go with you.” He was fastening on the pouch again as he spoke.
Daiyu snatched at it, scolding, “First you say you don’t want it, and now you’re putting it on again. I really blush for you.” She started to giggle.
“Dear cousin, do make me another sachet tomorrow.”
“We’ll have to see how I feel.”
They went together then to Lady Wang’s quarters where they hap¬pened to find Baochai. Everyone was in a state of great excitement, as the twelve young actresses bought by Jia Qiang in Suzhou had just ar¬rived, together with the instructors he had hired and the costumes for the operas they would perform.
Aunt Xue had moved to quiet, secluded quarters in the northeast part of the grounds, and Pear Fragrance Court had been made ready for the rehearsals. Some family maids who had once trained as opera-singers themselves but were now hoary dames were sent to look after the little actresses, while Jia Qiang was put in charge of their daily expenses and the provision of everything they required.
Just at this time, Lin Zhixiao’s wife came to report, “The twenty-four little nuns — twelve Buddhist and twelve Taoist — whom I selected and purchased have now arrived, and their twenty-four new habits are ready. There’s another girl, too, who had entered holy orders without shaving her head. She comes from a Suzhou family of scholars and offi¬cials. She was delicate as a child, and although they bought many substi¬tute novices for her it was no use — her health didn’t improve until she joined the Buddhist order herself. That’s how she became a lay sister. She’s eighteen this year and her name in religion is Miaoyu. Her parents are dead now and she only has two old nurses and one maid to look after her. She’s widely read and well-versed in the sutras, besides being very good-looking. She came to the capital last year, having heard there were relics of Guanyin here and canons inscribed on pattra leaves. She’s been living in the Sakyamuni Convent outside the West Gate. Her tutor was an excellent diviner, but she passed away last winter. Miaoyu had meant to escort the coffin back to her native place; but as her tutor lay dying she told the girl not to go back home but to wait quietly where she was for something fortune had in store for her. So she didn’t accompany the coffin back.”
“In that case, why not ask her here?” put in Lady Wang.
“She’d refuse,” objected Lin Zhixiao’s wife. “She’d be afraid of being looked down on in a noble household.”
“A young lady from an official family is bound to be rather proud,” agreed Lady Wang. “Why not send her a written invitation?”
Lin Zhixiao’s wife agreed and left. One of the secretaries was in¬structed to make out an invitation, and the following day servants were sent with a carriage and sedan-chair to fetch Miaoyu. As to what fol¬lowed, we can leave that till later.
A servant came just then to request Xifeng to open the storeroom and issue the gauze and silk needed by the workmen for screens. Another asked her to store away the gold and silver utensils. Meanwhile Lady Wang and her maids were busy too.
So Baochai suggested, “Let’s not stay here where we’re only in the way. Let’s go and find Tanchun.”
She took Baoyu and Daiyu to the rooms of Yingchun and others to while away the time.
For Lady Wang and her helpers the days passed in a flurry of prepa¬rations until, towards the end of the tenth month, all was ready. The stew¬ards had handed in their accounts; antiques and precious objects had been set out; the pleasure grounds were well-stocked with cranes, pea¬cocks, deer, rabbits, chicken and geese to be reared in appropriate places; Jia Qiang had twenty operas ready; and the little Buddhist and Taoist nuns had memorized various sutras and incantations.
Then Jia Zheng, able at last to breathe more freely, invited the Lady Dowager to make a final inspection of the Garden and see that all was in order with nothing overlooked. This done, he chose an auspicious date and wrote a memorial, and the very same day that it was presented the Son of Heaven acceded to his request. The Imperial Consort would be permitted to visit her parents for the Feast of Lanterns on the fifteenth of the first month the following year. This threw the whole household into such a commotion that, hard at work day and night, they scarcely had time to celebrate the New Year.
In a twinkling the Feast of Lanterns would arrive. On the eighth of the first month eunuchs came from the Palace to inspect the general layout of the Garden and the apartment where the Imperial consort would change her clothes, sit with her family, receive their homage, feast them and retire to rest. The eunuch in charge of security also posted many younger eunuchs as guards by the screened and curtained entrances to the retir¬ing rooms. Detailed instructions were given to all members of the house¬hold as to where they should withdraw, where they should kneel, serve food or make announcements — all the exact etiquette to be observed. Outside, officers from the Board of Works and the Chief of the Metro¬politan Police had the streets swept and cleared of loiterers. Jia She su¬perintended the craftsmen making ornamental lanterns and fireworks, and by the fourteenth everything was ready. But no one, high or low, slept a wink that night.
Before dawn the next day all those with official ranks from the Lady Dowager downwards put on full ceremonial dress. Everywhere in the Garden were hangings and screens brilliantly embroidered with dancing dragons and flying phoenixes; gold and silver glittered, pearls and pre¬cious stones shimmered; richly blended incense burnt in the bronze tri-pods, and fresh flowers filled the vases. Not a cough broke the solemn silence.
Jia She and the other men waited outside in the west street entrance, the Lady Dowager and the women outside the main gate, the ends of the street and the alleys leading to it all having been screened off.
They were growing tired of waiting when a eunuch rode up on a big horse. The Lady Dowager welcomed him in and asked for news.
“It will be a long time yet,” the eunuch told her. “Her Highness is to dine at one, pray to Buddha in the Palace of the Precious Spirit at half past two, and at five go to feast in the Palace of Great Splendour and look at the display of lanterns before asking leave from the Emperor. She can hardly set out until seven.”
This being the case, Xifeng suggested that the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang should go inside to rest and come back later.
So the Lady Dowager and others retired, leaving Xifeng in charge. She ordered the stewards to conduct the eunuchs to where refreshments were waiting. Then she had loads of candles carried in for all the lan¬terns.
It was not until the candles had been lit that a clatter of hooves was heard in the street. The next moment up panted ten or more eunuchs, clapping their hands as they ran. At this signal the other eunuchs said, “Her Highness is coming!” They all rushed to their posts.
For a long time they waited in silence, Jia She and the young men of the family by the entrance of the west street, the Lady Dowager and the women in front of the main gate.
Then two eunuchs wearing scarlet uniforms rode slowly up to the entrance of the west street. Dismounting, they led their horses behind the screens, then stood to attention, their faces turned towards the west. After some time another pair appeared, then another, until there were ten pairs lined up and soft music could be heard in the distance.
And now a long procession approached: several pairs of eunuchs carrying dragon banners, others with phoenix fans, pheasant plumes and ceremonial insignia, as well as gold censers burning Imperial incense. Next came a curved-handled yellow umbrella on which were embroi¬dered seven phoenixes, and under this a head-dress, robe, girdle and slip¬pers. After this came attendant eunuchs bearing a rosary, embroidered handkerchiefs, a rinse-bowl, fly-whisks and the like.
Last of all, borne slowly forward by eight eunuchs, came a gold-topped palanquin embroidered with phoenixes.
All present, including the Lady Dowager, hastily fell to their knees by the side of the road. Eunuchs rushed over to help up the old lady as well as Lady Xing and Lady Wang.
The palanquin was carried through the main gate to the entrance of the courtyard on the east, where a eunuch holding a whisk knelt down and invited the Imperial Consort to dismount and change her clothes. Then the palanquin was borne inside and the eunuchs withdrew, leaving Yuanchun’s ladies-in-waiting to help her alight.
She observed that the courtyard was brightly lit with ornamental lan¬terns of every kind, all exquisitely made of finest gauze. The highest, a rectangular lantern, bore the inscription: Fraught with Favour, Basking in Kindness.
Yuanchun entered the robing room and changed, then remounted her palanquin which was carried into the Garden. She found it wreathed with the perfumed smoke of incense, splendid with flowers, brilliant with count¬less lanterns, melodious with strains of soft music. Words fail to describe
that scene of peaceful magnificence and noble refinement.
Here, Readers, recalling the scene of desolation at the foot of Blue Ridge Peak in the Great Waste Mountain, I cannot but thank the scabby Buddhist and lame Taoist for bringing me to this place. For how other¬wise could I have seen such a sight? I was tempted to write a lantern-poem or a eulogy on family reunion to pay tribute to it, but feared slipping into the vulgar vein of other books. Besides, even writing an ode or eu¬logy could not do justice to the scene’s enchantment. If, on the other hand, I omit to write one my worthy readers can imagine its magnifi¬cence for themselves. So I had better save both time and paper and return from this digression to our story.
Now, as she gazed from her palanquin at the dazzling display both within and without the Garden, the Imperial Consort sighed softly:
“This is too extravagant!”
Then a eunuch with a whisk knelt down by the palanquin and invited her to proceed by boat. As she alighted she saw before her a clear wa¬terway winding like a dragon. From the marble balustrades on either bank lanterns of crystal and glass of every description shed a silvery light, clear as snow. The wintry boughs of the willows and apricot trees above them were festooned with artificial flowers and leaves made of rice-paper and silk, and from every tree hung lanterns. Lovely too on the water were the lotus flowers, duckweed and water-fowl made out of shells and feathers. Lanterns high and low seemed trying to outshine each other. It was truly a world of crystal and precious stones! The boats were magnificent too, with lanterns, rare miniature gardens, pearl por¬tieres, embroidered curtains, rudders of cassia and oars of aromatic wood, which we need not describe in detail.
By now they had reached a marble landing-stage. The lantern-sign above it bore the words, “Smartweed Bank and Flowery Harbour.”
Regarding this name, Reader, and others such as “Where the Phoe¬nix Alights” from the last chapter in which Jia Zheng tested Baoyu’s literary talent, you may wonder to find them actually used as inscriptions. For the Jias, after all, were a scholarly family all of whose friends and protégés were men of parts. Moreover they could easily find well-known writers to compose inscriptions. Why then make shift with phrases tossed off by a boy? Were they like newly rich upstarts who throw money about like dirt and, having painted their mansion crimson, put up huge inscrip¬tions such as “Green willows with golden locks before the gate, Blue hills like embroidered screens behind the house,” fancying these the height of elegance? Could that be the way of the Jia family described in this Tale of the Stone? This is surely a contradiction? Let me, stupid as I am, explain this to you.
The Imperial Consort, before she entered the Palace, had been brought up from childhood by the Lady Dowager. And after Baoyu was born, as Yuanchun was his elder sister and Baoyu her younger brother, bearing in mind that their mother had given birth to him late in life, she loved him more than her other brothers and lavished all her care on him. They both stayed with their grandmother and were inseparable. Even before Baoyu started school, when he was hardly four years old, she taught him to recite several texts and to recognize several thousand characters. she was more like a mother to him than an elder sister. After she entered the Palace she often wrote letters home reminding her parents to educate him well, for unless strictly disciplined he would not amount to much, but if treated too sternly he might also give them cause for anxiety. Her loving concern for him had never ceased.
Jia Zheng, earlier on, had scarcely believed the tutor’s report that Baoyu had a flair for literary composition. As the Garden happened then to be ready for inspection, he had called on his son for inscriptions in order to test him. And although Baoyu’s childish efforts were far from inspired, at least they were passable. The family could easily enough have enlisted the help of famous scholars; but it seemed to them that a special interest attached to names chosen by a member of the house. Besides, when the Imperial Consort learned that these were the work of her beloved younger brother, she would feel that he had not fallen short of her hopes. For these reasons Baoyu’s inscriptions were adopted. Not all had been chosen that day; some he supplied later. But enough of this.
When the Imperial Consort saw this name, she commented with a smile: “Just ‘Flowery Harbour’ would do. Why ‘Smart-weed Bank’ too?”
As soon as the eunuch in attendance heard this, he hastily disem¬barked and went ashore to report to Jia Zheng, who immediately had the alteration made.
Meanwhile the boat had reached the further shore and again Yuanchun mounted her palanquin. Before her now there towered the beautiful hall of an imposing palace. The marble archway in front of it bore the inscrip¬tion: “Precious Realm for the Immortal.” At once she ordered this to be changed to “House of Reunion.”
As she entered this temporary palace, she saw torches in the court¬yard flaring to the sky, powdered incense strewing the ground, flaming trees, jasper flowers, gilded windows and jade balustrades, to say nothing of screens as fine as the shrimp’s antennae, carpets of otter-skin, musk burning in tripods, and fans made from pheasant plumage. Truly this was:
An abode with golden gates and jade doors fit for immortals,
Its cassia and orchid chambers a worthy setting for the Imperial Consort.
After glancing around she asked, “Why has this place no name?”
The eunuch attendant fell on his knees. “Because this is the main palace,” he replied, “no subject outside the Court dared suggest a name.”
The Imperial Consort nodded and said nothing.
Another eunuch, the Master of Ceremonies, knelt and begged her to sit in a chair of state to receive the obeisances of her family. On both sides of the steps music was played as two eunuchs ushered in Jia She and the men of the family to range themselves below the dais; but when a lady-in-waiting relayed the Imperial Consort’s command to dispense with this ceremony they withdrew. Then the Lady Dowa¬ger of the Rong Mansion and the female relatives were led up the east flight of steps to the dais, but they too were exempted from the ceremony and shown out.
After tea had been served three times, Yuanchun descended from the throne and the music ceased while she went into a side chamber to change her clothes. Meanwhile a carriage had been prepared to drive her out of the Garden to visit her parents.
First she went to the Lady Dowager’s reception room to pay her respects as a grand-daughter of the house; but before she could do so her grandmother and the others knelt to prevent her. The Imperial Consort’s eyes were full of tears as her family drew near to greet her. As she clasped the hands of her grandmother and mother, the hearts of all three were too full to speak — they could do nothing but sob. Lady Xing, Li Wan, Xifeng, Yuanchun’s half sister Tanchun and her cousins Yingchun and Xichun also stood beside them weeping silently. But at last the Impe¬rial Consort mastered her grief and forced a smile as she tried to comfort them.
“Since you sent me away to that forbidden place, it hasn’t been easy getting this chance today to come home and see you all again,” she said. “But instead of chatting and laughing, here we are crying! Soon I shall have to leave you, and there is no knowing when I can come back again.” At this she broke down afresh.
Lady Xing and the others did their best to console her and the Lady Dowager asked her to take a seat, after which she exchanged courtesies with each in turn and more tears were shed. Next the stewards and attendants of both mansions paid their respects outside the door, and so did their wives and the maids.
This ceremony at an end, Yuanchun asked why Aunt Xue, Baochai and Daiyu were missing.
Lady Wang explained that they were afraid to presume, not being members of the Jia family and having no official status.
The Imperial Consort asked them to be invited in at once, and they were about to pay homage according to Palace etiquette when she ex¬empted them too and chatted with them.
Next Baoqin and the other maids whom Yuanchun had taken with her to the Palace kowtowed to the Lady Dowager, who hastily stopped them and sent them off to have some refreshments in another room. The se¬nior eunuchs and ladies-in-waiting were also entertained by members of the staff of both mansions, leaving only three or four young eunuchs in attendance.
When the ladies of the family had spoken with feeling about their separation and all that had happened since, Jia Zheng from outside the door-curtain asked after the health of his daughter, and she in turn paid her respects.
With tears she told him, “Simple farmers who live on pickles and
dress in homespun at least know the joys of family life together. What pleasure can I take in high rank and luxury when we are separated like this?”
With tears too he replied, “Your subject, poor and obscure, little dreamed that our flock of common pigeons and crows would ever be blessed with a phoenix. Thanks to the Imperial favour and the virtue of our ancestors, your Noble Highness embodies the finest essences of na¬ture and the accumulated merit of our forbears — such fortune has attended my wife and myself.
“His Majesty, who manifests the great virtue of all creation, has shown us such extraordinary and hitherto unknown favour that even if we dashed out our brains we could not repay one-thousandth part of our debt of gratitude. All I can do is to exert myself day and night, loyally carry out my official duties, and pray that our sovereign may live ten thousand years as desired by all under heaven.
“Your Noble Highness must not grieve your precious heart in concern for your ageing parents. We beg you to take better care of your own health. Be cautious, circumspect, diligent and respectful. Honour the Emperor and serve him well, so as to prove yourself not ungrateful for His Majesty’s bountiful goodness and great kindness.”
Then it was Yuanchun’s turn to urge her father to devote himself to affairs of state, look after his health and dismiss all anxiety regarding her.
After this Jia Zheng informed her, “All the inscriptions on the pavil¬ions and lodges in the Garden were composed by Baoyu. If you find one or two of the buildings not too tame, please condescend to re-name them yourself, that would make us extremely happy.”
The news that Baoyu was already able to compose inscriptions made her exclaim with delight, “So he’s making progress!”
When Jia Zheng had withdrawn, the Imperial Consort observed that Baochai and Daiyu stood out from their girl cousins, being truly fairer than flowers or finest jade. Then she inquired why Baoyu had not come to greet her. The Lady Dowager explained that, unless specially sum¬moned, as a young man without official rank he dared not presume.
At once the Imperial Consort sent for him and a young eunuch ush¬ered him in to pay homage according to Palace etiquette. His sister called
him to her and took his hand. Drawing him close to her bosom, she stroked his neck and commented with a smile, “How you have grown!” But even as she spoke her tears fell like rain.
Madam You and Xifeng stepped forward then to announce, “The banquet is ready. We beg Your Highness to favour us with your pres¬ence.” Then she rose and told Baoyu to lead the way.
Accompanied by all the rest she walked into the Garden, where the magnificent sights were lit up by lanterns. Past “Where the Phoenix Alights,” “Crimson Fragrance and Green Jade,” “Approach to Apricot Tavern” and “Pure Scent of Alpinia and Iris” they strolled, mounting pavilions, crossing streams, climbing miniature hills and enjoying the view from various different points. All the buildings were distinctively fur¬nished, and each corner had such fresh, unusual features that Yuanchun was lavish with her praise and approval. But she cautioned them:
“You mustn’t be so extravagant in future. This is far too much!”
When they reached the main reception palace she desired them to dispense with ceremony and take their seats. It was a sumptuous ban¬quet. The Lady Dowager and the rest sat at tables on either side, while Madam You, Li Wan and Xifeng passed round dishes and poured the wine. Meanwhile Yuanchun asked for writing-brush and inkstone and with her own hand wrote names for the spots she liked best. For the main reception palace she wrote the inscription: Recalling Imperial Favour, Mindful of Duty. And the couplet:
Compassion vast as the universe extends to old and young, Grace unknown before honours every state and land.
The pleasure grounds were named the Grand View Garden.
“Where the Phoenix Alights” was renamed “Bamboo Lodge,” “Crimson Fragrance and Green Jade” was changed to “Happy Red and Delightful Green” and also called Happy Red Court. The name “Pure Scent of Alpinia and Iris” was altered to “Alpinia Park,” the “Approach to Apricot Tavern” became “Hemp Washing Cottage.” The main pavil¬ion became “Grand View Pavilion,” its eastern wing “Variegated Splendour Tower,” that on the west “Fragrant Tower.” Other names given were “Smartweed Breeze Cot,” “Lotus Fragrance Anchorage,” “Purple Caltrop Isle” and “Watercress Isle.” She composed a dozen or so other inscriptions too such as “Pear Blossom in Spring Rain,” “Plane Trees in Autumn Wind” and “Artemisia in Evening Snow.” The rest of the inscriptions cannot all be recorded here. The other former inscrip¬tions at her order remained unaltered.
Then the Imperial Consort wrote this verse:
Enfolding hills and streams laid out with skill —What labour went to build this pleasure ground!
For these, the finest sights of earth and heaven,
Not fitter name than “Grand View” can be found.
With a simile she showed this to the girls and said, “I have never had a ready wit or any skill in versifying, as all of you know, but tonight I had to try my hand at a verse in honour of these pleasure grounds. Some day when I have more time, I promise to write a Description of Grand View Garden and a panegyric called The Family Reunion to com¬memorate this occasion.
“Now I want each of you to write an inscription and a poem to go with it. Do your best, and don’t feel restricted by my lame attempt. It was such a delightful surprise to me to find that Baoyu can compose inscriptions and poems. The Bamboo Lodge and Alpinia Park are the places I like best, and after them Happy Red Court and Hemp Washing Cottage. We must have four poems specially written for these. Although Baoyu’s couplets com¬posed earlier are charming, I want him now in my presence to write four lu¬shi1 in five-character lines on each of these places. That will repay the efforts I made to teach him when he was a little boy.”
Baoyu had to agree and went off to rack his brains.
Of Yingchun, Tanchun and Xichun, Tanchun was the cleverest, but she realized that she was no match for Baochai and Daiyu. Still she had to write something, as the others were doing. Li Wan, too, contrived to compose a verse of sorts.
The Imperial Consort looked first at the girls’ attempts. Here is what they had written:

REFRESHING THE HEART
Landscapes strange and rare here we find:
Bashfully, at the word of command, I take up my pen;
Who dreamed of such loveliness in the world of men?
A stroll through these grounds refreshes heart and mind.
Yingchun

ALL THINGS VIE IN SPLENDOUR
This garden laid out with consummate art 
I blush, with my poor skill, its fame to render.
Past telling are the marvels in this place
For here, indeed, all things compete in splendour.
Tanchun

REFINEMENT IN CREATION
This landscape stretches to infinity,
Its high pavilions soaring to the sky;
Laid out in radiance of the moon and sun,
Nature itself is by these scenes outdone.
Xichun


FAIR AND FINE
Bright hills and crystal water intertwine,
No fairy isle is half as fair or fine.
Green fans of singers mid sweet herbs are lost,
Plum-petals by red skirts of dancers tossed.
Rare verses should record this golden hour —
Our joy at the nymph’s descent from jasper tower.
Once she has visited these lovely grounds
No mortal foot may overstep their bounds.
Li Wan

CONCENTRATED SPLENDOUR,
BESTOWED FELICITY
West of the Palace in this pleasure ground
Sunlight, auspicious clouds, rare sights abound;
High willows orioles from the vale invite,
Tall bamboos tempt the phoenix to alight.
This night’s royal tour gives rise to poetry,
Her visit fosters filial piety.
Such wisdom flows from her immortal brush,
Too awed to pen more lines I can but blush.
Xue Baochai

A FAIRYLAND FAR FROM THE WORLD OF MEN
Who knows where this illustrious garden lies?
Far from the dusty world this paradise.
Here streams and mountains lend their fair delight
Enhanced by many a novel scene and sight.
Scents heady as the wine from Golden Dell2
Bind all in these jade halls with flowery spell;
Blessed by Imperial favour, we would fain
Welcome the royal visitant again.
Lin Daiyu

Yuanchun praised all these verses, then remarked with a smile, “Cousin Baochai’s and Cousin Daiyu’s are specially good. We others are no match for them.”
Now Daiyu had intended to outshine them all that night by a great display of her brilliance; but when the Imperial Consort asked them each for merely one inscription and one poem, she knew it would be presump¬tuous to write more and simply dashed off a verse for the occasion.
Meanwhile Baoyu was far from finished with his verses. Having writ¬ten on Bamboo Lodge and Alpinia Park, he was now tackling Happy Red Court. His draft contained the line:
The green jade leaves in spring are yet furled tight.
Baochai, glancing at it while no one else was looking, nudged him surrep¬titiously.
“She didn’t like ‘Red Fragrance and Green Jade,”’ she whispered. “That’s why she changed it to ‘Happy Red and Delightful Green.’ If you use ‘green jade’ again, won’t that look as if you’re challenging her judgement? Besides, there are plenty of allusions to plantain leaves you could use. Better find another phrase.”
Baoyu mopped his perspiring forehead. “I can’t for the moment think of any,” he said.
Baochai smiled. “Just change ‘green jade’ into ‘green wax.
“Is there such an allusion?”
With a mocking smile and a smack of the lips she nodded. “If you’re in such a state tonight, by the time you sit for the Palace Examination I dare say you’ll even forget the first primer you ever read. Have you forgotten the opening line of that poem on the plantain by the Tang poet Qian Xu, ‘Smokeless the cold candles, the green wax is dry’?”
Baoyu felt as if a veil had been lifted from his eyes. “How stupid of me!” he chuckled. “Fancy forgetting a ready-made phrase like that. You’re really my ‘one-word-teacher.’ From now on I shall have to ad¬dress you as ‘master, ‘ not as ‘sister’ any more.”
Suppressing a smile Baochai replied, “Hurry up and finish instead of talking such nonsense. Who are you calling ‘sister’? That’s your sister sitting up there in the golden robes. Why call me your sister?” Afraid to delay him by chatting, she slipped away.
Baoyu persevered until three poems were done and Daiyu, depressed at having no chance to shine, came up to his desk where he was strug¬gling alone, meaning to help him out by writing a couple of poems for him.
Asked if he had finished, Baoyu said, “I’ve only done three. All left now is Approach to Apricot Tavern.
“Well then, let me do that for you, while you copy out the other three.”
After thinking for a moment with lowered head, she scribbled the poem out on a slip of paper, screwed it into a ball and tossed it to Baoyu. When he smoothed it out he found it ten times better than his own at¬tempts. He was overjoyed. Having hurriedly copied it out with care he presented all four poems to Yuanchun.
This is what she read:

WHERE THE PHOENIX ALIGHTS
The fruit fresh formed on jade stalks rare
Makes for the phoenix fitting fare;
So green each stem they seem to drip
With coolness seeping from each verdant tip.
Bursting through stones, they change the water’s track;
Piercing through screens, hold tripod’s incense back;
Let none disturb these chequered shades,
That sweetly she may dream till daylight fades.


PURE SCENT OF ALPINIA AND IRIS
Alpinia fills the courtyard free from dust,
By climbing fig its fragrance reinforced;
Softly they heighten the fresh green of spring,
Gently they trail their perfume, ring on ring.
A light mist hides the winding path from view,
From covered walks drips chill and verdant dew.
But who will celebrate the pool in song?
Lost in a dream, at peace, the poet sleeps long.


HAPPY RED AND DELIGHTFUL GREEN
In quiet court long days pass tranquilly;
A charming match, plantain and apple-tree;
The green wax leaves in spring are yet furled tight,
The blossom decked in red keeps watch at night;
With crimson sleeves one sweeps the balustrade,
One, misty green, is by the rocks arrayed.
Facing each other in the soft east wind
They surely bring their mistress peace of mind!


APPROACH TO APRICOT TAVERN
A grove of apricots, a tavern-sign,
And a hillside hamlet beyond;
Elms, mulberries, swallows on rafters,
And geese on the caltrop pond.
In the fields spring leeks are green;
All round, the paddy flowers scent the breeze;
None goes hungry in these good times,
Ploughman and weaver alike can take their ease.

Yuanchun, delighted with these poems, exclaimed, “He has certainly made great progress!”
Having pointed out that the last poem was the best, she changed the name “Hemp-Washing Cottage” into “Paddy-Sweet Cottage.” She then made Tanchun copy out all eleven poems on ornamental paper, and a eunuch delivered them to Jia Zheng and the other men waiting outside, who praised them highly. Jia Zheng also presented a panegyric of his own composition entitled The Visitation.
Yuanchun had junket, ham and other delicacies presented to Baoyu and Jia Lan, who was too young to do more than pay his respects after his mother and uncles, for which reason he has not been previously mentioned.
Jia Huan had not yet recovered from an illness contracted over New
Year and was still convalescing in his own apartments; this is why no mention has been made of him either.
All this time Jia Qiang was waiting impatiently down below with his twelve young actresses. But now a eunuch ran down to him, exclaiming, “They have finished their poems. Give me your programme, quick!”
Jia Qiang lost no time in handing him a programme with a brocade cover and a list of the stage names of the twelve players. Presently four pieces were chosen: “The Sumptuous Banquet,”3 “The Double Seventh Festival,”4 “Meeting the Immortals”5 and “The Departure of the Soul.”6
Jia Qiang put on the first item without delay. All his players sang bewitchingly and danced divinely; thus although this was merely a stage performance they conveyed genuine grief and joy.
No sooner had they finished than a eunuch appeared backstage with a golden tray of cakes and sweetmeats, and asked which of the ac¬tresses was Lingguan. Realizing that this was a present for her, Jia Qiang accepted it gladly and made her kowtow her thanks.
The eunuch announced, “The Imperial Consort says that Lingguan is superb. She is to play in two more pieces of her own choice.”
Jia Qiang hastily agreed and suggested “A Visit to the Garden” and “The Dream.”7 But since neither formed part of her repertoire, Lingguan insisted on “The Pledge” and “The Quarrel”8 instead. And Jia Qiang had to let her have her way.
The Imperial Consort was so enchanted that she gave special instruc¬tions that this girl must be well treated and carefully trained. She gave Lingguan an extra reward of two rolls of Imperial satin, two embroidered pouches, some gold and silver trinkets and various delicacies.
Then they left the banqueting hall to visit the places Yuanchun had not yet seen, among them a Buddhist convent set among hills, where she washed her hands before going in to burn incense and worship Buddha. She chose as inscription for this convent the words, “Ship of Mercy on the Sea of Suffering.” And here she gave additional gifts to the Buddhist nuns and Taoist priestesses.
Soon a eunuch knelt to report that the list of gifts was ready for her approval. She read it through, found it satisfactory, and gave orders that the presents should be distributed. This was done by the eunuchs.
The Lady Dowager received two ruyi  sceptres, one of gold, the other of jade; a staff made of aloeswood; a chaplet of sandal-wood beads; four lengths of Imperial satin with designs signifying wealth, nobility and eternal youth; four lengths of silk with designs signifying good fortune and long life; ten bars of gold with designs signifying “May Your Wishes Come True,” and ten silver bars with fish and other designs to symbolize felicity and abundance.
Lady Xing and Lady Wang received the same gifts with the exception of the sceptres, staff and chaplet.
Jia Jing, Jia She and Jia Zheng each received two new books of His Majesty’s own composition, two cases of rare ink-sticks, four goblets, two of gold and two of silver, and lengths of satin identical with those described above.
Baochai, Daiyu and the other girls each received one new book, a rare mirror and two pairs of gold and silver trinkets of a new design.
Baoyu received the same.
Jia Lan received one gold and one silver necklet, a pair of gold and a pair of silver medallions.
To Madam You, Li Wan and Xifeng were given two gold and two silver medallions and four lengths of silk.
In addition, twenty-four lengths of satin and a hundred strings of newly minted cash were allotted to the women-servants and maids in atten¬dance on the Lady Dowager, Lady Wang and the girls.
Jia Zhen, Jia Lian, Jia Huan and Jia Rong each received one length of satin and a pair of gold medallions.
A hundred rolls of variegated satin, a thousand taels of gold and silver, with various delicacies and wine from the Palace were given to those in both mansions responsible for the construction and maintenance of the Garden, the furnishing and upkeep of the various houses in the Garden, the theatre management and the preparation of lanterns. Five hundred strings of newly minted cash were also given as largesse to the cooks, actresses and jugglers.
It was nearly three in the morning by the time all had expressed their thanks, and the eunuch in charge announced that it was time to leave. At once Yuanchun’s eyes filled with tears again, but forcing a smile she clasped the hands of her grandmother and mother and could not bring herself to let them go.
“Don’t worry about me,” she begged them, “Just take good care of yourselves. Thanks to the Emperor’s kindness you can now come to the Palace once a month to see me, so we shall have many chances to meet again. There is no need to be upset. If next year by Imperial grace I’m allowed another visit home, you must promise not to be so extravagant.”
The Lady Dowager and other women were sobbing too bitterly to make any reply. But although Yuanchun could hardly bear to leave, she could not disobey the Imperial regulations and had no alternative but to re-enter her palanquin which carried her away. The whole household did their best to console the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang as they helped them out of the Garden. But more of this in the next chapter.

Chapter 19

An Eloquent Maid Offers Earnest Advice
One Fine Night
A Sweet Girl Shows Deep Feeling
One Quiet Day


The day after her return to the Palace the Imperial Consort appeared before the Emperor to thank him for his kindness, and so pleased him with an account of her visit home that he sent rich gifts of satin, gold and silver from his privy store to Jia Zheng and other fathers of visiting ladies. But no more of this.
The inmates of the Rong and Ning Mansions were completely worn out after their recent exertions, and it took several days to remove and store away all the decorations and other movables from the Garden. The heaviest responsibility devolved upon Xifeng, who, unlike the others, had not a moment’s respite; but she was always so eager to shine, so anxious to give no one a handle against her, that she strove to carry out her many tasks as if they were nothing. Baoyu, on the other hand, was the one with the least to do and the most leisure.
One morning Xiren’s mother came and asked the Lady Dowager’s per¬mission to take her daughter home to tea and keep her until the evening. So Baoyu was left to amuse himself with the other maids at dice or draughts. He was feeling rather bored when a girl announced that a message had come from Jia Zhen inviting him over to the Ning Mansion to watch some operas and see their New Year lanterns. While Baoyu was changing his clothes before setting out, a gift of sweetened junket arrived from the Imperial Con¬sort. Remembering how Xiren had enjoyed this delicacy the last time they had some, he asked them to keep it for her. Then, having taken his leave of the Lady Dowager, he went over to the other mansion.
He was rather taken aback to find them performing operas like Mas¬ter Ding Finds His Father, Huang Boyang Deploys Ghosts in a Battle, Monkey Plays Havoc in Heaven and The Patriarch Jiang Kills Gen¬erals and Deifies Them. In all these, especially the two last, gods, ghosts, monsters and ogres took the stage among waving pennants, temple pro¬cessions, invocations to Buddha and offerings of incense, while the din of gonging, drumming and shouting carried to the street outside. The passers¬by commented appreciatively that no other family but the Jias could af¬ford to put on such a lively entertainment. Only Baoyu, disgusted by such rowdy, showy proceedings, soon slipped away to amuse himself else¬where.
First he went to the inner rooms to chat with Madam You and tease the maids and concubines there. And when he strolled out of the inner gate they did not see him off, assuming that he was going back to watch the performance. The menfolk — Jia Zhen, Jia Lian, Xue Pan and the rest were having such a good time gaming and drinking that they did not worry about his absence either, taking it for granted that he had gone inside. As for the servants who had come with him, the older ones, not expecting him to leave before dusk, sneaked off to gamble, drink New Year tea with relatives and friends or visit some brothel or tavern, intend¬ing to be back by dark. The younger ones, for their part, squeezed into the theatre to watch the fun.
When Baoyu found himself alone he thought, “There’s a marvellously lifelike painting of a beauty in the small study here. In all this excitement today she must be lonely. I’d better go and cheer her up.” He made his way towards the study.
As he neared the window he heard a moaning inside which pulled him up with a start. Could the beauty in the picture have come to life? Screw¬ing up his courage, he made a hole in the window-paper with his tongue and peeped through. No, the painted beauty had not come to life, but his page Mingyan was holding down a girl and indulging in the game taught Baoyu by the Goddess of Disenchantment.
“Heavens above!”
As Baoyu charged into the room, the trembling lovers quickly broke apart. And when Mingyan saw who it was, he fell on his knees to beg for mercy.
“A fine way to carry on in broad daylight!” cried Baoyu. “Do you want Lord Jia Zhen to kill you?” Meanwhile he was sizing up the maid, no beauty but a girl with a fair complexion and a certain charm. Red to the ears with shame, she hung her head in silence.
“Are you going to stand there all day?” he stamped his foot.
Coming to her senses, she dashed out like the wind. He rushed after her, shouting:
“Don’t be afraid! I shan’t tell anyone.”
“Holy ancestors!” swore Mingyan behind him. “Aren’t you telling everyone now?”
“How old is that girl?”
“Sixteen or seventeen, I suppose, at most.”
“If you didn’t even ask her age that shows how little you care for her. She’s wasted on you, poor thing. What’s her name?”
“That’s quite a story,” replied Mingyan with a guffaw. “It’s really a case of truth being stranger than fiction. She says that just before she was born her mother dreamed that she had a length of brocade with coloured designs of the lucky swastika. So she called her daughter Swas¬tika.”
“That is strange,” agreed Baoyu, chuckling. “Her good fortune may be coming later on.” He looked thoughtful.
Mingyan asked, “Why aren’t you watching those grand operas, Sec¬ond Master?”
“I did watch for a while, then got so bored that I came out to wander around. That’s how I discovered the two of you. Well, what shall we do now?”
“No one knows where we are.” Mingyan grinned and stepped closer. “If we slip out of town to amuse ourselves and come back later, they won’t be any the wiser.”
“That won’t do,” replied Baoyu. “We might get kidnapped. Besides, if they did find out what a row there’d be! We’d better go somewhere within easy distance so that it wouldn’t take long to come back.”
“Yes, but where? That’s the question.”
“Why not call on Xiren? Let’s see what she’s up to at home.”
“A fine idea. I’d forgotten her house.” Mingyan chuckled. “But what if they find out and give me a beating for leading you astray?”
“Leave it to me,” said Baoyu.
Then Mingyan brought round his horse, and they left by the back gate.
Luckily, Xiren’s home was only a few hundred yards away, so that in no time at all they reached its gate. Mingyan went in first to call her brother Hua Zifang.
Mrs. Hua, having fetched Xiren home, was enjoying tea and sweet-meats with her daughter and a few nieces when they heard shouts of “Brother Hua!” And Hua Zifang was considerably taken aback when he hurried out and found master and servant there. Helping Baoyu to alight, he called out from the yard:
“Here’s the young master!”
This came as a greater surprise to Xiren than to any of the rest. Run¬ning out to meet Baoyu she caught his arm and asked, “How did you come here?”
“I was rather bored,” he told her with a laugh. “I just came to see what you’re doing.”
Reassured, she gave a cry of exasperation. “So you’re up to mis¬chief again. Why should you come here?” She turned to Mingyan. “Who else is with you?”
“No-one.” Mingyan grinned. “Nobody knows we’re here.”
This worried Xiren again and she protested, “You’re quite impos¬sible. What if you ran into someone? What if Lord Zheng saw you? The streets are jammed with people and carriages, and if your horse bolted you could quite easily have an accident. This is no joke. You two really have a nerve. You’re the one to blame, Mingyan, and when I get back I shall tell the nurses to give you a good hiding.”
Mingyan pulled a face. “Why shove the blame on to me? The young master cursed me and beat me to make me bring him. I told him not to come. Well, we’d better go back.”
“Never mind,” interposed Zifang quickly. “Since you’re here, there’s no point in complaining. It’s just that our shabby place is so cramped and dirty, we don’t know where to ask the young master to sit.”
By now Xiren’s mother had come out to greet him too, and Xiren led Baoyu in. He saw four or five girls inside, who lowered their heads and blushed at his entry. Afraid that the young gentleman might feel cold, Zifang and his mother made him sit on the kang and hastily set out fresh
sweetmeats and brewed some choice tea.
“You’re just wasting your time. I know him.” Xiren smiled. “It’s no use putting out those sweetmeats. He can’t eat just anything.”
She fetched her own cushion and plumped it on the kang for Baoyu to sit on, then put her own foot-stove under his feet. Next she took two slabs of perfumed incense shaped like plum-blossom from her pouch, slipped them into her handstove, put its lid on again and placed it in Baoyu’s lap. This done, she poured him some tea in her own cup.
Meanwhile her mother and brother had carefully set out a whole table of titbits — none of them things he could eat, as Xiren well knew.
“Since you’ve come, you mustn’t go away without tasting some¬thing,” she said gaily. “At least try something to show you’ve been to our house.” She picked up a few pine kernels, blew off the skins, and gave them to Baoyu on a handkerchief.
He noticed that her eyes were red and there were traces of tears on her powdered cheeks. “Why have you been crying?” he whispered.
“Who’s been crying?” she retorted cheerfully. “I’ve just been rub¬bing my eyes.” In this way she glossed the matter over.
Xiren saw that Baoyu was wearing his red archer’s tunic embroi¬dered with golden dragons and lined with fox-fur under a fringed bluish-grey sable coat. “Surely you didn’t change into these new clothes just to come here?” she said. “Did no one ask where you were going?”
“No, I changed to go to Cousin Zhen’s to watch some operas.”
She nodded. “Well, after a short rest you’d better go back. This is no place for you.
“I wish you’d come home now,” coaxed Baoyu. “I’ve kept some¬thing good for you.”
“Hush!” she whispered. “What will the others think if they hear?” She reached out to take the magic jade from his neck and turning to her cousins said with a smile, “Look! Here’s the wonderful thing that you’ve heard so much about. You’ve always wanted to see this rarity. Now’s your chance for a really good look. There’s nothing so very special about it, is there?”
After passing the jade around for their inspection she fastened it on Baoyu’s neck again, then asked her brother to hire a sedan-chair or a small carriage and escort Baoyu home.
“I can see him back quite safely on horseback,” said Zifang.
“That’s not the point. I’m afraid of his meeting someone.”
Then Zifang hurried out to hire a sedan-chair, and not daring to detain Baoyu they saw him out. Xiren gave Mingyan some sweetmeats and money to buy firecrackers, warning him that he must keep this visit se¬cret if he wanted to steer clear of trouble. She saw Baoyu out of the gate, watched him get into the chair and lowered its curtains. Her brother and Mingyan followed behind with the horse.
When they reached the street where the Ning Mansion stood, Mingyan ordered the chair to stop and told Zifang, “We must look in here for a while before going home, if we don’t want people to suspect anything.”
Since this made good sense, Zifang handed Baoyu out and helped him to mount his horse, while the boy apologized for troubling him. Then they slipped through the back gate, and there we will leave them.
During Baoyu’s absence, the maids in his apartments had amused themselves as they pleased at draughts, dice and cards, until the floor was strewn with melon-seed shells. Nanny Li chose this moment to hobble along with her cane to call on Baoyu and see how he was. She shook her head over the way the maids were carrying on behind his back.
“Since I’ve moved out and don’t come so often, you’ve grown quite out of hand,” she scolded. “The other nurses don’t dare take you to task either. As for Baoyu, he’s like a ten-foot lampstand that sheds light on others but none on itself. He complains that other people are dirty, yet leaves you to turn his own rooms topsyturvy. Disgraceful, I call it.”
The maids knew quite well that Baoyu would not mind, and since Nanny Li had retired and left the house she had no further authority over them. They went on amusing themselves and simply ignored her. Asked how much Baoyu are at each meal and what time he went to bed, they just answered at random.
“What an old pest she is!” one muttered.
“Is that a bowl of junket?” asked Nanny Li. “Why didn’t you send it over to me? I’d better eat it here right now.” She picked up a spoon and started eating it.
“You leave that alone!” cried one girl. “That’s for Xiren. He’ll be annoyed when he comes back, and unless you own up you’ll get all of us into trouble.”
“I can’t believe it of him.” Nanny Li was both indignant and embar¬rassed. “What is this, after all, but a bowl of milk? He shouldn’t be¬grudge me that — or more costly things either. Does he think more of Xiren than of me? Has he forgotten who brought him up? It’s my milk from my own heart’s blood that he was raised on, so why should he be angry if I have a bowl of his milk? I declare I will, just to see what he’ll do. You seem to think the world of Xiren, but who is she? A low-class girl. I should know, I trained the creature.” With that, in a huff, she fin¬ished off the junket.
“They’ve no manners,” said another maid soothingly. “I don’t won¬der you’re cross, granny. Baoyu often sends you presents. This isn’t going to upset him.”
“You don’t have to humour me in that sly way,” Nanny Li snorted. “Do you think I don’t know how Qianxue was dismissed, all because of a cup of tea? I’ll come back tomorrow to hear what my punishment’s to be.” She went off then in a temper.
Presently Baoyu came home and sent someone to fetch Xiren. He saw Qingwen lying motionless on her bed.
“Is she ill?” he asked. “Or did she lose some game?”
“She was winning,” Qiuwen told him. “But then Grandame Li came along and raised such a rumpus that she lost the game. She went to bed to sulk.”
“You mustn’t take Nanny Li so seriously.” Baoyu smiled. “Just leave her alone.”
He turned then to welcome Xiren who had only just come in. After asking where he had dined and what time he had reached home, she gave the girls greetings from her mother and cousins. When she had changed out of her visiting clothes, Baoyu called for the junket.
“Granny Li ate the lot,” his maids reported.
Before he could make any comment Xiren interposed with a smile, “So that’s what you kept for me — thank you. The other day I enjoyed it, but it gave me a bad stomachache afterwards until I’d brought it all up. So it’s just as well she’s had it. Otherwise it would have been wasted. What I’d fancy now are some dried chestnuts. Will you peel a few for me while I make your bed?”
Taking this for the truth, Baoyu thought no more of the matter but started peeling chestnuts by the lamp. And since the others had left he asked with a smile, “who was that girl in red this afternoon?”
“My mother’s sister’s child.”
Baoyu heaved a couple of admiring sighs.
“Why are you sighing?” asked Xiren. “I know how your mind works. You think she isn’t good enough to wear red.”
“What an idea! If a girl like that isn’t good enough to wear red, who is? I found her so charming, I thought how nice it would be if we could get her here to live with us.”
“Nice, you call it?” Xiren snorted. “Nice to be a slave here?”
“Don’t be so touchy,” he retorted with a smile. “Living in our house doesn’t have to mean being a slave. Couldn’t she be our relative?”
“We’re too far beneath you for that.”
When Baoyu went on peeling the chestnuts in silence, Xiren laughed. “Why don’t you say anything? Have I offended you? All right, tomor¬row you can buy her for a few taels of silver.”
“How do you expect anyone to answer you?” Baoyu grinned. “All I meant was that she looks just the person to live in a mansion like this, much more so than some of us clods who were born here.”
“She may not have your luck but she’s her parents’ darling, the apple of their eye. She’s just turned seventeen and all her dowry is ready. She’ll be married next year.
The word “married” made Baoyu exclaim in dismay and feel put out.
Xiren observed with a sigh, “These last few years, since I came here, I haven’t seen much of my cousins. Soon I’ll be going home, but they’ll all be gone.”
Shocked by the implication of this, he dropped the chestnuts.
“What do you mean — going home?”
“Today I heard my mother discussing it with my brother. They told me to be patient for one more year and then they’d buy me out of ser¬vice.
“Why should they do that?” Baoyu was flabbergasted.
“What a strange question! I wasn’t born a slave in your family. I have my own people outside. What future is there for me if I stay on here alone?”
“Suppose I won’t let you go?”
“That wouldn’t be right. Why, even in the Palace they make it a rule to choose new girls every few years. They can’t keep them for ever either, so how can you?”
He decided upon reflection that she was right. None the less he ob¬jected, “Suppose, though, the old lady won’t let you go?”
“Why shouldn’t she? ff1 were somebody special or had so won the hearts of the old lady and Lady Wang that they couldn’t do without me, they might give my people a few extra taels so as to keep me. But I’m no one out of the usual: there are plenty much better than me. When I came here as a child I was with the old lady; then I waited on Miss Shi for a couple of years, and now I’ve been waiting on you for quite a time. If my people come to redeem me, your family is bound to let me go. They may even be generous enough not to ask for any money. If you say I look after you well, there’s no merit in that — it’s my job. And my place will be taken by someone else just as good. I’m not indispensable.”
By now it did indeed sound to Baoyu as if she had every reason to leave and none at all to stay. Yet in desperation he argued, “Well, but if I insist the old lady will speak to your mother and pay her so much that she won’t like to take you away.”
“Of course my mother wouldn’t dare refuse. Even if you didn’t talk nicely to her or pay her a cent, so long as you insisted on my staying how could she stand out? But your family has never thrown its weight about like that in the past. This isn’t like offering ten times the usual price for something you happen to like, when the owner finds it worth his while to sell. If you kept me for no reason, it would do you no good and would break up my family. The old lady and Lady Wang wouldn’t dream of such a thing.”
Baoyu remained sunk in thought for several minutes.
“So this means you’ll be going for certain?”
“Yes.”
“How can she be so heartless?” he wondered.
Aloud, he said with a sigh, “If I’d known that you’d be going, I shouldn’t have taken you on in the first place. I shall be left all alone here, a poor forsaken ghost.” And he retired sulkily to bed.
Now it so happened that when Xiren went home and heard her mother and brother talk of buying her out, she had assured them that Baoyu would never let her go so long as he lived.
“When you had nothing to eat and your only way of raising a little money was by selling me, I couldn’t stop you,” she said. “What girl can see her parents starve to death? I was lucky to be sold to this family, where I’m fed and clothed like a daughter of the house, not beaten all day long and scolded all night. Besides, even though father’s dead, you’ve got the family back on its feet and are as well-off again as you ever were. If you were still hard up, there might be some reason for redeem¬ing me and re-selling me at a profit. But since there’s no need, why do it? Just pretend I’m dead and stop thinking of buying me back.”
She wept and stormed until her mother and brother realized that she was adamant and would never leave. In any case she had been sold for life and although they thought the Jia family might be generous enough to let her go without asking for any money, they also knew that the servants there were not ill-used but shown more kindness than severity. Indeed, the girls who were personal attendants of members of the family, old or young, were generally treated more handsomely than servants in other jobs. In fact, they were even better off than daughters of ordinary humble households. So Mrs. Hua and her son did not press the point.
Baoyu’s unexpected visit and the apparent intimacy between maid and master opened their eyes to the true situation, leaving them much reassured. In fact, this was something they had not even hoped for. So they abandoned all thought of buying her freedom.
As for Xiren, these years had shown her that Baoyu was no ordinary youth but more high-spirited and wilful than other boys, with some inde¬scribably perverse streaks in his character. Of late he had been so in¬dulged by his grandmother that his parents were unable to control him strictly and he had now become so reckless and headstrong that he was losing patience with all conventions. She had long wanted to speak to him about this, but was convinced he would not listen to her.
Luckily, by throwing dust in his eyes today, she was able to sound him out and get him into a chastened mood for a good lecture. His silent retreat to bed indicated how upset he was and how wounded.
As for the chestnuts, she had pretended to hanker after them to make him forget the junket, for fear of a repetition of that incident involving maple-dew tea which had landed Qianxue in trouble.
Now she gave the chestnuts to the other maids and, coming back, nudged Baoyu gently. She found his face wet with tears.
“Why take on like this?” she coaxed. “If you really want me here, of course I won’t go.”
Sensing something behind this, Baoyu quickly rejoined, “Go on. Just tell me what else I must do to keep you. I don’t know how to persuade you.”
“We needn’t talk now of how well we get on together. If you want to keep me that’s beside the point. I’ve two or three things to ask you. If you agree to them, I’ll take it that you really and truly want me to stay. Then not even a knife at my throat could make me leave you.”
Baoyu’s face lit up. “Well, what are your conditions? I agree to them all, dear sister, good kind sister. I’d agree to three hundred conditions, let alone three. I only beseech you all to stay and watch over me until the day that I turn into floating ashes — no, not ashes. Ashes have a trace of form and consciousness. Stay until I’ve turned into a puff of smoke and been scattered by the wind. Then you’ll no longer be able to watch over me, and I shall no longer be able to care about you — you can let me go, and I’ll have to let you go wherever you please as well.”
“Steady on!” Xiren frantically clapped her hand over his mouth. “This is just what I wanted to warn you against, yet here you go, talking more wildly than ever.”
“All right,” agreed Baoyu promptly. “I promise not to.”
“This is the first fault you must correct.”
“Done. If I ever talk that way again, you can pinch my lips. What else?”
“The second thing is this. Whether you like studying or not, in front of the old master and other people stop running it down and making sarcas¬tic remarks about it. At least pretend to like studying, so as not to provoke your father and give him a chance to speak well of you to his friends. After all, he thinks: The men of our family have been scholars for gen-erations, but this son of mine has let me down — he doesn’t care for books. As if this wasn’t bad enough, you keep saying crazy things in public as well as in private, sneering at those who study hard so as to get on and calling them career-grubbers. You also say that, apart from that classic on ‘manifesting bright virtue,” all the rest are trash produced by fools of old who didn’t understand the Sage. No wonder your father gets so angry with you that he keeps punishing you. What sort of impression does that make on people?”
“All right.” Baoyu laughed. “That was just wild talk when I was too young to know any better. I don’t say such things nowadays. What else?”
“You must stop abusing Buddhist monks and Taoist priests and play¬ing about with girls’ cosmetics and powder. Most important of all, you must stop kissing the rouge on girls’ lips and running after everything in red.”
“I promise, I promise. What else is there? Tell me, quick!”
“That’s all. Just be a bit more careful about things in general instead of getting carried away by all your whims and fancies. If you’ll do all I’ve asked, I promise never to leave you, not even if they send a big sedan-chair with eight bearers to fetch me away.
Baoyu chuckled. “If you stay here long enough, you’ll have your sedan-chair and eight bearers some day.”
“I don’t covet such luck.” She smiled disdainfully. “If I’m not en¬titled to it what’s the good of riding on one?”
At this point Qiuwen appeared and said, “It’s nearly the third watch: time you were in bed. Just now the old lady sent round a nurse to ask, and I told her you were asleep.”
Baoyu asked her to hand him a watch and saw it was twelve o’clock. He washed and rinsed his mouth all over again, then undressed and lay down to sleep.
When Xiren got up first thing the next morning she felt heavy and out of sorts. Her head ached, her eyes were swollen, her limbs were burning like fire. She tried to carry on as usual at first but soon had to give up and lie down, fully dressed, on the kong. Baoyu at once informed the Lady Dowager, and a doctor was sent to examine her.
“It’s nothing but a cold,” said the doctor. “She will be all right after a couple of doses of medicine to relieve the congestion.”
The doctor left after making out the prescription. The medicine was brought and decocted, and Xiren drank it. Baoyu left her well covered so as to induce perspiration and went off to see Daiyu.
Daiyu was having a siesta, and since all her maids had gone out on their own business the place was unusually quiet. Baoyu raised the embroidered curtain and walked into the inner room, where he found her sleeping.
“Dear cousin!” he called, shaking her gently. “How can you sleep just after a meal?”
When Daiyu woke and saw who it was, she said, “Why don’t you go for a stroll? I haven’t recovered yet from all that excitement the other night. I’m still aching from head to foot.”
“A few aches are nothing, but if you go on sleeping you’ll really fall ill. Let me amuse you to keep you awake and then you’ll be all right.”
“I’m not sleepy.” She closed her eyes. “All I want is a little rest. Run away and play for a while. You can come back later.”
“Where can I go?” He nudged her again. “I find everyone else so boring.”
Daiyu could not suppress a laugh. “All right, if stay you must, go and sit down properly over there and we’ll talk.”
“I want to curl up too.” Seeing that there was no extra pillow, he added, “Why don’t we share that pillow of yours?”
“What nonsense! Aren’t there pillows in the outer room? Just help yourself to one.”
Baoyu went out to have a look, coming back to say, “I don’t want any of them. Who knows what dirty old woman has been using them?”
Daiyu opened her eyes at this and sat up, laughing.
“You really are the bane of my life! All right, have this.” She pushed her pillow towards him and fetched herself another. Then they lay down facing each other. Observing on his left cheek a bloodstain the size of a button, she leaned over to look at it carefully and laid one finger on it.
“Whose nails was it this time?”
Baoyu drew back, grinning. “That’s not a scratch. I may have splashed myself with the lip-salve I’ve just been mixing for the girls.”
As he searched for a handkerchief, Daiyu rubbed the place clean with her own, scolding as she did so, “Isn’t that just like you? And you have to leave traces too. Even if uncle doesn’t see it, that’s the sort of thing people love to gossip about and some may tell on you in order to win favour; and if such stories reach his ears it’ll mean trouble for all of us.”
Baoyu was not listening, however, so intent was he on the fragrance emanating from Daiyu’s sleeve, which he found intoxicating — it seemed to melt the marrow of his bones. He caught hold of her sleeve to see what she had hidden inside.
“Who wears anything fragrant in mid-winter?” she asked.
“Where does that scent come from then?”
“How do I know? Unless it’s some fragrance from my wardrobe that’s clung to my gown.”
Baoyu shook his head. “I doubt it. It’s a very unusual scent. Not the kind you would get from perfumed pastilles, scent-balls or sachets.”
“Do I have a Buddhist arhat to give me scent?” demanded Daiyu archly. “Even if I had some rare recipe, I’ve no kind cousin or brother to concoct it for me with stamens, buds, dew and snow. All I have are common scents.”
“Whenever I say one word, off you go!” Baoyu grinned. “I shall have to teach you a lesson. From now on, I’ll show you no mercy.”
He rose to his knees, blew on his hands, then stretched them out and started tickling her in the ribs and under her armpits.
Daiyu had always been ticklish, and this surprise attack set her gig¬gling so much that she very nearly choked.
“Stop it, Baoyu,” she gasped. “Stop, or I’ll be angry.”
He desisted then, demanding with a smile, “Will you talk that way any more?”
“I dare not.” Smoothing her hair she laughed. “You say I’ve an un¬usual scent, have you a warm scent?”
“A warm scent?” He looked puzzled.
Daiyu shook her head with a sigh. “How dense you are! You have jade, and someone else has gold to match it. So don’t you have a warm scent to match her cold scent?”
Baoyu caught her meaning then and chuckled. “You were begging for mercy a minute ago, but now you’re worse than ever.” He reached out again.
“Dear cousin, I promise not to tease,” she cried hastily.
“All right, I’ll forgive you if you let me smell your sleeve.”
With that he covered his face with her sleeve and started sniffing as if he would never stop. She pulled away her arm.
“You ought to go now.”
“Go I can’t. Let’s lie down in a civilized way and chat.”
He stretched out again while Daiyu lay down too, covering her face with her handkerchief and paying no attention to his rambling questions. How old had she been when she came to the capital? What fine sights and monuments had she seen on the way? What places of historical interest were there in Yangzhou? What were the local customs and tradi¬tions? Daiyu made no reply and to keep her awake — for he feared sleep might give her indigestion — Baoyu played a new trick.
“Aiyal!” he exclaimed. “Do you know the extraordinary thing that happened near your yamen in Yangzhou?”
Taken in by his straight face and earnest manner, Daiyu asked to hear about it. Then Baoyu, suppressing a laugh, started romancing.
“In Yangzhou there’s a hill called Mount Dai, in the side of which is a cavern called Lin Cavern.”
“You’re making this up,” cried Daiyu. “I’ve never heard of such a hill.”
“Do you know all the hills and streams in the world? Let me finish my story before you pull it to pieces.”
“Go on, then.”
Baoyu went on, “In Lin Cavern lived a number of rat spirits. One year on the seventh day of the twelfth moon, the Rat Patriarch ascended his throne to hold a council. He announced, ‘Tomorrow is the Feast of Winter Gruel when all men on earth will be cooking their sweet gruel. Here in our cave we have few fruits or nuts; we must go foraging.’ He handed an arrow of command to an able young rat and ordered him to go out and reconnoitre.
“Soon the young rat returned to report. ‘I have made a thorough search and inquired far and wide. The best store of grain and dried fruits is to be found in the temple at the foot of this hill.”’
“‘How many kinds of grain? How many sorts of dried fruits?’
“‘A whole granary full of rice and beans past counting, and five kinds of dried fruits: dates, chestnuts, peanuts, caltrops and sweet taros.’
“Delighted by this information, the Patriarch promptly detailed rats to go forth. Taking up an arrow of command he asked:
“‘Who will steal rice?’
“One rat took the arrow and went off.
“‘Who will steal beans?’ the Patriarch asked, picking up another arrow.
“Another rat accepted the mission.
“One by one they went off until finally there were only sweet taros left to be stolen.
“The Patriarch, holding an arrow, asked, ‘Who will go and steal sweet taros?’
“A very small, puny mouse volunteered, ‘I’ll go!’
“Seeing how small and weak she was, the Patriarch and the rest of the tribe would not hear of her going, for fear she proved unequal to the task.
“But the little mouse insisted, ‘Young and weak as I am, I have won¬derful magic powers and great eloquence and cunning. I swear to man¬age better than all the rest.’
“Asked to explain how, she said, ‘I shan’t steal outright like them, but change myself into a sweet taro and mix in a pile of others to escape detection. Then I shall spirit the taros away one by one, until there are none left. Wouldn’t that be more effective than stealing outright?’
“‘It certainly sounds it,’ replied the other rats. ‘But how do you manage the metamorphosis? Do show us.’
“‘That’s easy.’ The little mouse laughed. ‘Just watch.’ She shook herself and changed into a lovely girl with a most bewitching face.
“The other rats laughed. ‘You’ve made a mistake,’ they cried. “You’ve changed into a young lady, not a sweet taro.’
“‘You ignorant lot!’ retorted the little mouse, resuming her original form. ‘You only know what sweet taros are, but don’t know that the daughter of Salt Commissioner Lin is sweeter than any taro.”’2
Daiyu scrambled over and pinned Baoyu down. “You scoundrel!” she cried laughing. “I knew you were making fun of me.
She pinched Baoyu until he begged for mecry. “Dear cousin, let me off. I won’t do it again,” he pleaded. “It was smelling that sweet scent of yours that reminded me of this allusion.”
“You make fun of me and dare pretend it’s an allusion....
Just then in walked Baochai with a radiant face. “Who’s talking about allusions?” she asked. “I must hear this.”
Daiyu hastily offered her a seat. “Can’t you see?” She laughed. “He mocks me, then pretends it’s an allusion.”
“Cousin Bao, is it? No wonder.” Baochai smiled. “He knows so many allusions. The only trouble is that he forgets them just when he needs them most. If his memory is so good today, why didn’t he remem¬ber that allusion about the plantain the other night? He actually forgot the most obvious one. Everyone else was freezing, but he was so frantic that he was perspiring. So now his memory has come back again.”
“Amida Buddha!” cried Daiyu laughing outright. “She’s my good sister after all. You’ve met your match now. This just shows that no one can escape retribution.”
At that moment the sound of squabbling and angry shouting broke out in Baoyu’s apartments. What it was will be disclosed in the next chapter.


Chapter 20

Xifeng Reproves a Jealous Woman
Daiyu Mocks a Prattling Girl




Baoyu, as we saw, was in Daiyu’s room telling her the story about the rat spirits when Baochai burst in and teased him for forgetting the “green wax” allusion on the night of the Feast of Lanterns. Baoyu felt relieved as they laughed and made fun of each other, for he had feared that sleep¬ing after lunch might give Daiyu indigestion or insomnia that night, and so injure her health. Luckily Baochai’s arrival and the lively conversation that followed it had woken Daiyu up.
Just then, a commotion broke out in Baoyu’s apartments and the three of them pricked up their ears.
“It’s your nanny scolding Xiren,” announced Daiyu. “There’s noth¬ing wrong with Xiren, yet your nanny is for ever nagging at her. Old age has befuddled her.”
Baoyu wanted to rush straight over, but Baochai laid a restraining hand on his arm. “Don’t quarrel with your nurse now.” She warned him. “She’s a silly old thing, but you should bear with her.”
“I know,” said Baoyu, and dashed off.
Back in his apartments he found Nanny Li leaning on her cane in the middle of his room and roundly abusing Xiren.
“Ungrateful slut!” she scolded. “You owe your position to me, yet there you lie giving yourself such airs on the kang, and won’t even look at me when I come in. All you think about is making up to Baoyu, so that he pays no attention to me but does everything you say. A slave girl bought for a few taels of stinking silver, you’ve turned everything here topsyturvy. If you don’t behave, you’ll be dragged out and married off. We’ll see whether you can still bewitch Baoyu then.”
Imagining that Nanny Li was angry with her for lying in bed, Xiren at first explained, “I’m ill and just starting to perspire, so I’d covered up my
head and didn’t see you, granny.”
But when the old woman accused her of vamping Baoyu and threatened to have her married off, the injustice of these taunts reduced her to tears.
Baoyu overheard this tirade, but there was not much he could do except explain that Xiren was unwell and had just taken medicine.
“If you don’t believe me,” he added, “ask any of the maids.”
This only added fuel to the fire.
“That’s right. Stick up for those vixens of yours. Who am I, after all?” his nurse stormed. “Which of them am I supposed to ask? They’ll all take your side. They’re all under Xiren’s thumb. I know everything that goes on here. I’m going to have this out with you in the presence of the old lady and Lady Wang. I suckled you, I raised you; but now that you don’t need my milk any more, you push me aside and let your maids insult me.” She was weeping with rage.
By this time Daiyu and Baochai had come over too and they set to work to soothe her.
“Make some allowances for them, nanny,” they urged. “Let it blow over.”
The old woman seized on them to pour out her complaints: Qianxue’s dismissal for drinking a cup of tea, and the business of the junket the previous day.... It was hard to make head or tail of her maundering.
Xifeng happened just then to be in the Lady Dowager’s apartments totting up the scores after a game. When she heard angry voices she knew that Nanny Li was on the rampage again, working off on Baoyu’s maids her annoyance over her gambling losses today. She hurried across and pulled the nurse aside.
“Don’t be angry, nanny dear,” she said with a smile. “It’s just after the festival and the old lady’s had a happy day. At your age you ought to stop other people from brawling. Don’t forget yourself and start a rum¬pus here which may upset the old lady. Tell me who’s been annoying you and I’ll have her beaten for you. Now I’ve a broiled pheasant in my room, piping hot. Come along and have a drink with me, quick!”
With these words she tugged the nurse out, calling over her shoulder to her maid, “Fenger, bring Nanny Li’s cane for her, and a handkerchief to dry her tears.
Unable to hold her ground Nanny Li was borne off, lamenting as she
went, “I’m old enough to die and have done with it. But I’d sooner forget myself and lose face making a scene like this than put up with the insolence of that dirty bitch.”
Baochai and Daiyu in the background had been watching how Xifeng handled the situation. Now they laughed and clapped their hands.
“How lucky that this hurricane sprang up and carried the old creature off!”
Baoyu nodded and sighed. “Goodness only knows how this started. She keeps picking on people who can’t defend themselves. I suppose one of the other girls annoyed her yesterday, and she tried to settle scores like this....”
The words were scarcely out of his mouth when Qingwen gave a laugh.
“We’re not off our heads,” she said. “Why should we annoy her? And even if we had, we’d have taken the blame ourselves, not shift it to somebody else.”
Xiren caught hold of Baoyu’s hand and sobbed, “First you offend your old nurse because of me, and now because of me you’re offending everyone here. Haven’t I enough to put up with, without dragging them in as well?”
Because she was ill and upset Baoyu had to be patient. He urged her to lie down again and perspire. She was burning with fever and stretching out beside her he tried to soothe her.
“Just think of your health. Don’t upset yourself over such trifles.”
Xiren smiled bitterly.
“If I got upset easily, how could I stay a single minute in this room? But when it goes on like this day after day, what do you expect us to do? I’m always urging you to stop offending people on our account. You’re just out to stick up for us on the spur of the moment, but they remember it, and the next chance they have at the very least they say something unpleasant. Think how difficult you make it for us all.” She could not help crying as she spoke, but for fear of upsetting Baoyu she fought back her tears.
Presently the odd-job woman brought in the second dose of medicine. Baoyu would not let Xiren get up since she seemed on the point of perspiring. Instead he carried the medicine to her and raised her on the pillow to drink it. Then he told some of the younger maids to prepare his kang.
“Whether you mean to eat there or not, you’d better go and sit with the old lady and Lady Wang for a while,” suggested Xiren. “Then keep the young ladies company for a bit before coming back. I shall be all right after a quiet nap here.”
Hearing this, Baoyu removed her hairpins and bracelets for her and settled her for the night before going to dine in the Lady Dowager’s quarters.
After dinner his grandmother felt disposed to play cards with some of the old stewardesses. Baoyu, still worried about Xiren, went back to find her dozing. It was still early for him to go to bed, but Qingwen, Yixian, Qiuwen and Bihen had gone off to have some fun with Yuanyang and Hupo, leaving only Sheyue playing solitaire by the lamp in the outer room.
With a smile Baoyu asked, “Why didn’t you go with the others?”
“I haven’t any money.
“There’s a pile stacked under the bed. Isn’t that enough for you to lose?”
“If we all went off to play, who’d mind this place, with her lying ill here too? There are lamps above and stoves below everywhere. Those old women deserve a rest after waiting on you all day, and the girls ought to have some fun too after a day’s work. So I let them all go while I keep an eye on things here.”
Why, she’s another Xiren, thought Baoyu and smiled.
“I’ll be here,” he told her. “Don’t worry. You can go.”
“If you’re here there’s even less reason for me to go. Why don’t we both sit here and talk?”
“Just the two of us sounds rather dull. What can we do? I know! You were saying this morning that your head felt itchy. Since we’ve nothing to do, let me comb your hair for you.”
“If you like.”
Sheyue fetched her dressing-case and mirror, then pulled out her hair¬pins and let down her hair. Baoyu had just started combing it with a fine comb when Qingwen hurried in to fetch some money. She laughed mockingly at the sight of them.
“Fancy! You haven’t yet drunk the bridal cup but already you’re doing her hair.”
Baoyu grinned.
“Come, I’ll comb yours too if you like.”
“I’m not destined for such good fortune.”
Qingwen went off with the money, slamming the portière behind her.
Baoyu was standing just behind Sheyue, who was seated in front of
the	mirror. They exchanged glances in it and Baoyu smiled.
“She’s got the sharpest tongue of you all,” he remarked.
Sheyue wagged a warning finger, but it was too late. With another clack of the portière, Qingwen ran in again.
“Just what did you mean by that? We must have this out.”
“Run along!” Sheyue giggled. “Why take it up?”
“You’re covering up for him again. I know all your sly tricks. We must have this out after I’ve won back my money.
With that she went straight out.
When Baoyu had finished combing Sheyue’s hair he asked her to help him quietly to bed without disturbing Xiren.
The rest of the night passed without incident.
The next morning Xiren was better, having perspired, and after taking some gruel she lay back to rest. After breakfast Baoyu felt easy enough in his mind to go and call on Aunt Xue.
Because it was the first month when the schools were on holiday and needlework was taboo for the womenfolk, everyone was free. And Jia Huan, going there to play, had found Baochai, Xiangling and Yinger en¬joying a game of dice. He asked to join in.
Baochai, who always treated Jia Huan exactly like Baoyu, made him sit down beside them. They were staking ten cash on each throw, and Jia Huan gloated when he won the first round; but then he lost several times running and started to fret.
The next time it came to his turn he stood to win if he threw more than six, while Yinger needed only three to win. Jia  Huan shook the two dice from the pot as hard as he could. One turned up five, the other rolled over and over. Yinger clapped her hands and cried, “One!” while Jia  Huan, his eyes glued to the dice, yelled at random, “Six, seven, eight!” Finally, however, the dice came to rest at one. In exasperation he snatched up both dice and grabbed the stakes, insisting that he had thrown six.
“Anyone could see it was one,” protested Yinger.
Observing how upset Jia  Huan was, Baochai shot her a reproving glance.
“You’re getting above yourself,” she said. “Is it likely that one of the young masters would cheat you? Hurry up and put down your stake.”
The unfairness of this made Yinger fume, but she dared not answer back. As she slapped down some cash she muttered under her breath: “Fancy a young gentleman cheating! Even I wouldn’t make such a fuss over a few cash. Last time we played with Baoyu he lost a whole packet, yet he didn’t mind. Even when the girls grabbed all he had left, he only laughed.”
She would have gone on in this vein, but Baochai told her sharply to hold her tongue.
“How can I compare with Baoyu?” whined Jia Huan. “You keep in with him because you’re afraid of him, but you bully me because I’m a concubine’s son.” He started to snivel.
“Don’t talk like that, dear cousin, or people will laugh at you,” Baochai advised him.
She was scolding Yinger again when Baoyu walked in and, seeing this state of affairs, asked them what had happened. Jia Huan lacked the courage to tell him.
Baochai knew the Jia family’s rule: a younger brother must show respect to an elder. What she did not realize was that Baoyu did not want anyone to be afraid of him. He reasoned: We all have our parents to train us. Why should I butt in and strain relations with the younger ones? As I’m the wife’s son and he’s a concubine’s son, people will gossip even if I do nothing, much more so if I now try to control him.
He had an even more fantastic idea — do you know what it was, Reader? As a result of being brought up among girls — his sisters Yuanchun and Tanchun, his cousins Yingchun and Xichun of the Jia house, and his distaff-cousins Shi Xiangyun, Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai — he had come to the conclusion that while human beings were the highest form of creation, the finest essences of Nature were embodied in girls, men being nothing but the dregs and scum. To him, therefore, all men were filthy clods who might just as well not have existed. Only deference to Confucius, the greatest sage of all time who taught that fathers, uncles and brothers should be respected, made him keep on a fairly good footing with his brothers and boy cousins. It never entered his head that he as a man should set the younger boys a good example. This is why Jia Huan and the others were not afraid of him, only yielding to him to some extent for fear of the Lady Dowager.
To prevent Baoyu from scolding Jia Huan, which would only have made matters worse, Baochai covered up for him as best she could.
“The first month is no time for snivelling,” said Baoyu. “If you don’t like it here, find somewhere else to play. All that studying every day seems to have made you even more muddle-headed. Suppose you find one thing no good and another good, just drop the first and go for the second. Can you improve on something you dislike by sticking to it and crying over it? You came here to have a good time. Since you don’t feel happy, go somewhere else to enjoy yourself. Why vex yourself so? Bet¬ter take yourself off, quick.”
Jia Huan went back to his mother, the concubine Zhao.
At sight of his dejected face she asked, “Who’s been treating you as a doormat this time?” When he did not answer, she repeated the ques¬tion.
“I was playing with Cousin Baochai. Yinger was mean to me and cheated me. Then Brother Baoyu turned me out.”
His mother spat in disgust.
“Shameless little brat! Who told you to put yourself forward? Is there nowhere else for you to play? Why go looking for trouble?”
Xifeng, who was passing outside, overheard this exchange and called back through the window:
“What’s this rumpus in the middle of the first month? Huan’s only a child. If he makes some small mistake you can set him right. Why carry on at him like that? No matter where he goes, the master and Her Lady¬ship are there to keep him in order. Imagine spitting at him! He’s one of the young masters, and if he does misbehave there are people to correct
him — what business is it of yours? Come on, Brother Huan, come out and play with me.”
Jia Huan stood in even greater awe of Xifeng than of Lady Wang. He made haste, therefore, to obey and his mother dared raise no objection.
“You’re too spineless,” Xifeng scolded. “I’ve told you time and again that you’re free to eat or drink whatever you like and to play with any of the girls or boys. But instead of doing as I say, you let other people warp your mind and teach you these sneaky ways. You’ve no self-respect but will lower yourself. You behave spitefully yourself and then complain that every¬body else is unfair! How much did you lose to make you take on like this?”
“A couple of hundred cash,” he told her meekly.
“All this fuss over a couple of hundred cash! And you one of the young wasters!” She turned to Fenger. “Go and fetch a string of cash. Then take him to the back where the girls are playing. If you do anything so mean and sneaky again, Huan, first I’ll give you a good spanking and then send some one to tell your teacher about it — he’ll flay you alive for it. Your total lack of self-respect has got Cousin Lian gnashing his teeth. He’d have ripped out your guts before now if I hadn’t stopped him. Now be off with you!”
“Yes,” said Jia Huan and trotted off with Fenger, taking the string of cash. He then joined Yingchun and the others at their game. And there we can leave him.
Let us return to Baoyu. He was joking with Baochai when someone announced, “Miss Shi has arrived.”
He started up at once to go and see her.
“Wait,” said Baochai. “Let’s go together.”
She got down from the kang and went with Baoyu to the Lady Dowager’s apartments, where they found Shi Xiangyun laughing and chattering away. After they had greeted each other, Daiyu, who was also there, asked Baoyu where he had been.
“With Cousin Baochai.”
“I thought so,” said Daiyu tartly. “Thank goodness there was some¬one to keep you there, or you’d have flown here long ago.”
“Are you the only one I’m allowed to play with or to amuse?” he answered with a smile. “I happen to drop in on her once and you make such an issue of it.”
“Nonsense. What do I care if you go to see her or not? I’ve never asked you to amuse me either. You can leave me alone in future.”
With that she retired angrily to her room.
Baoyu promptly followed her there.
“Why lose your temper for no reason at all?” he protested. “Even if I said something wrong, you might at least sit there and chat with the others for a bit, instead of sulking alone.”
“What I do is none of your business.”
“Of course not, but I can’t bear to see you ruining your health.”
“If I ruin my health and die, that’s my affair. Nothing to do with you.”
“Why talk about ‘dying’ or ‘living’ just after the New Year?”
“I shall, so there! I’m ready to die any minute. If you’re so afraid of death, you can live to be a hundred — how about that?”
“If you just carry on like this all the time I’m not afraid.” He smiled. “Death would be better.”
“Exactly!” she retorted swiftly. “If you carry on like this it would be better for me to die.”
“I meant better for me to be dead. How you twist my words!”
As they were bickering, Baochai slipped in.
“Cousin Shi is waiting for you.”
She propelled Baoyu out.
More wretched than ever, Daiyu sat down by her window and shed tears of rage.
But in less time than it takes to drink two cups of tea Baoyu was back again. The sight of him made her sob convulsively. He knew it would be hard to pacify her and was prepared to coax her with all sorts of blan¬dishments and kind words. But she forestalled him by asking:
“What have you come back for? You’ve got a new playmate now, someone better than I am at reading, writing and versifying, better at talking and laughing with you too. Someone who dragged you away for fear you might lose your temper. So why come back? Why not leave me to die in peace?”
Baoyu stepped to her side and said softly, “Someone of your intelli¬gence should know that distant relatives can’t come between close ones, and new friends can’t take the place of old. Dense as I am, I know that. Look, you’re the daughter of my father’s sister, while Baochai’s a cousin on my mother’s side — you’re more closely related to me than she is. Besides, you came here first, we’ve eaten at the same table, slept in the same bed and grown up together, while she has only recently arrived. How could I be less close to you because of her?”
“Do I want you to be less close to her? What do you take me for? It’s just that my feelings are hurt.”
“And it’s your feelings that concern me. Do you only know your own heart and not mine?”
Daiyu lowered her head and was silent. After a pause she said:
“You blame other people for finding fault with you, without realizing how provoking you can be. Take today, for example. Why leave off your fox-fur cape when it’s turned so cold?”
Baoyu laughed.
“I was wearing it till you grew angry. Then I got so hot and bothered that I took it off.”
‘‘Well,” she sighed, ‘‘if you catch cold there’ll be the devil to pay.”
They were interrupted by Xiangyun’s arrival.
“Why, Ai Brother and Sister Lin!” she cried cheerfully. “You can be together every day, but it’s rarely I have a chance to visit you; yet you pay no attention to poor little me.”
“The lisper loves to rattle away,” said Daiyu with a laugh. “Fancy saying ai instead of er1 like that. I suppose, when we start dicing, you’ll be shouting one, love, three, four, five....”
“If you copy her long enough, you’ll soon be talking the same way,” Baoyu teased.
“How you do pick on one!” cried Xiangyun. “Always finding fault! Even if you are better than all the rest of us, there’s no need to go making fun of everyone else. But I know someone you’d never dare find fault with. If you do, I’ll really respect you.”
“Who’s that?” Daiyu promptly asked.
“Dare you pick fault with Cousin Baochai? If so, good for you. I may
not be up to you, but you’ve met your match in her.”
“Oh, her.” Daiyu snorted. “I wondered whom you meant. How could I ever presume to find fault with her?”
Baoyu tried to stop them, but Xiangyun rattled on:
“Naturally I’ll never come up to you in this lifetime. I just pray that you’ll marry a husband who talks like me, so that you hear nothing but ‘love’ the whole day long. Amida Buddha! May I live to see that day!”
That set everyone laughing, and Xiangyun turned and ran out.
To know the sequel, you must read the next chapter.


Chapter 21

Prudent Xiren Gently Takes
Baoyu to Task
Pretty Pinger Quietly Comes to
Jia Lian’s Rescue


As Xiangyun ran out of the room to escape Daiyu, Baoyu called after her, “Mind you don’t fall! She can’t catch you.” He barred Daiyu’s way at the door and urged with a chuckle, “Do let her off this time!”
“I’ll kill myself first,” she cried, tugging at his arm.
Seeing Baoyu blocking the doorway and Daiyu unable to get past, Xiangyun stopped and called with a laugh, “Let me off, dear cousin, please! Just this once!”
Baochai who had come up behind her chimed in, “Do make it up, both of you, for Baoyu’s sake.”
“Not I!” cried Daiyu, “Are you all ganging up to make fun of me?”
“Who dares make fun of you?” countered Baoyu, “She wouldn’t if you hadn’t teased her first.”
The four of them were still at loggerheads when a summons to dinner arrived and they went through the dusk to the Lady Dowager’s quarters where Lady Wang, Li Wan, Xifeng and the three Jia girls had already assembled. After dinner they chatted for a while before retiring for the night, and Xiangyun went back to Daiyu’s rooms, with Baoyu escorting them there. It was after the second watch and Xiren had to hurry him several times before he would return to his own room to sleep.
As soon as it was light next morning he scrambled into his clothes and hurried over in his slippers to Daiyu’s quarters. Zijuan and Cuilu were nowhere to be seen, and his two cousins were still sleeping. Daiyu lay peacefully with closed eyes, snugly wrapped in an apricot-red silk quilt, while Xiangyun’s black hair had tumbled all over the pillow, her quilt barely reached her shoulders, and she had flung one white arm adorned with two gold bracelets outside the covers.
“She fidgets even in her sleep,” he sighed. “If there’s a draught she’ll be complaining of a stiff neck again.” He gently pulled up the covers.
Daiyu, awake now, had sensed someone’s presence and guessed that it was Baoyu. Looking round to make sure she asked:
“What are you doing here so early?”
“Early? Get up and see what time it is.”
“You’d better go outside if you want us to get up.
Baoyu withdrew to the sitting-room while Daiyu roused Xiangyun. As soon as they were up and dressed he rejoined them and sat by the dress¬ing-table watching as Zijuan and Xueyan helped them with their toilet. When Xiangyun finished washing. Cuilu picked up the basin to empty it.
“Wait!” cried Baoyu, “I may as well wash here to save the trouble of going back to my room.
He went over and leant down to wash his face but declined Zijuan’s offer of soap, explaining, “There’s plenty in here, I don’t need any more.” After dabbling for a while he asked for a towel.
“Still up to your old tricks,” teased Cuilu, “Will you never grow up?”
Ignoring this, Baoyu called for salt to brush his teeth and rinse his mouth. This done, he saw that Xiangyun had finished doing her hair, so he went over and begged her:
“Good cousin, do my hair for me, will you?”
“I can’t,” she said.
“Dear cousin, you did before,” he coaxed with a smile.
“Well, now I’ve forgotten how to.”
“I’m not going out today anyway, and I’m not going to wear a cap, he persisted. “Just plait it anyhow.”
He coaxed and wheedled her with endless terms of endearment until Xiangyun took hold of his head and combed his hair. Since he wore no cap at home, she simply plaited the short hairs round his head and looped them together on top in one big queue tied with a crimson braid. This braid was decorated with four pearls and had a golden pendant at the end.
“There are only three of these pearls left,” she commented. “This fourth one doesn’t belong to the set. I remember they used to match. Why is one missing?”
“I lost it.”
“You must have dropped it when you were out. How lucky for who¬ever picked it up!”
Daiyu washing her hands near by smiled ironically. “Who knows whether it was lost or given to someone to mounted in a trinket?”
Instead of answering, Baoyu started playing with the toilet articles on the dressing-table by the mirror, absent-mindedly picking up some rouge. He was wondering if he could taste it without Xiangyun noticing when she reached out from behind him and, holding his queue with one hand, with the other knocked the rouge out of his grasp.
“Are you never going to change your silly ways?” she demanded.
Just then Xiren entered the room, but withdrew on seeing that Baoyu had obviously finished his toilet. She went back and was attending to her own when in came Baochai and asked her where he was.
“He’s hardly ever at home nowadays,” replied Xiren bitterly.
Baochai understood.
The maid went on with a sigh, “It’s all right to be fond of cousins, but still there’s a limit. They shouldn’t play about together day and night. But it’s no use our talking, we just waste our breath.”
Why, thought Baochai, judging by what she says this maid shows ex¬cellent sense.
She sat down on the kang to ask Xiren her age and where she came from, carefully sounding her out on various subjects and receiving a most favourable impression. But soon Baoyu returned, and then she took her leave.
“You two seemed to be having a good chat,” said Baoyu to Xiren. “Why did Cousin Baochai leave when I came in?”
Xiren did not answer till he repeated the question.
“Why ask me?” she retorted then, “Do I know what goes on be¬tween you?”
Baoyu saw she was not her usual self. “What’s made you so cross?” he asked gently.
“Who am I to be cross?” Xiren smiled sarcastically. “But you’d bet¬ter keep away from here. There are others who’ll look after you, so don’t bother me. I shall go back to wait on the old lady.” She lay down on the kang and closed her eyes.
In dismay Baoyu hurried to her side to soothe her, but she kept her eyes shut and paid no attention to him. He was puzzling over this when in came Sheyue.
“What’s the matter with her?” he asked.
“How should I know? Better ask yourself.”
This took Baoyu so aback that he said nothing. Then, sitting up, he sighed, “All right. If you’re going to ignore me I’ll go to sleep too.”
He left the kang and went over to his own bed. When he had been quiet for some time and his regular breathing made Xiren sure he was sleeping, she got up to put a cape over him. The next moment she heard a soft thud. With closed eyes, still shamming sleep, he had thrown it off. Xiren smiled knowingly and nodded.
“You needn’t lose your temper. From now on I’ll play dumb and not say one word against you ---  how about that?”
This goaded Baoyu into sitting up.
“What have I done now?” he demanded. “Why do you keep on at me? I don’t mind your scolding, but you didn’t scold just now. When I came in you ignored me and lay down in a huff — I’ve no idea why. Now you accuse me of temper, but I haven’t heard you say anything against me yet.”
“You know perfectly well without my telling you.”
This tiff was cut short by a summons from the Lady Dowager. Baoyu joined her for a meal and managed to swallow half a bowl of rice before going back to his quarters. He found Xiren asleep on the kang in the outer room with Sheyue playing solitaire beside her. Knowing that the two girls were good friends he ignored her too and raising the door cur¬tain went into his bedroom. When Sheyue followed him he pushed her out.
‘‘I wouldn’t think of troubling you.”
She withdrew with a smile and sent in two younger maids. Baoyu curled up with a book until, wanting some tea, he raised his head and saw the two girls standing there. The elder of the two had a certain delicate charm.
“What is your name?” he asked.
“Huixiang.”
“Who gave you that name?”
“My name used to be Yunxiang, but Sister Hua changed it to Huixiang.”
“You should be called Huiqi, not Huixiang. How many girls are there in your family?”
“Four.”
“And where do you come?”
“I’m the youngest.”
“Then we’ll call you Sier, Number Four, and drop this business of fragrance and of orchids. Which of you can compare with such flowers? It’s an insult to them, calling you by their lovely names.”
Thereupon he ordered tea. Xiren and Sheyue, listening outside, com¬pressed their lips to check their laughter.
That whole day Baoyu stayed indoors moping, not playing about with the girls of the house or his maids, just reading or writing to while away the time. And instead of calling for any other attendants he gave all his orders to Sier, who being a clever minx made full use of this chance and put herself out to please him.
After dinner, flushed by a few cups of wine, Baoyu would normally have amused himself with Xiren and the others; but this evening he sat all alone, disconsolate, by the lamp. Although tempted to join the girls, he was afraid that would make them gloat and give him even more talkings-¬to in future, while if he threw his weight about as the young master that would be too unkind.
“I’ll pretend they’re dead,” he resolved, “and I have to fend for myself. That’ll leave me free to amuse myself as I please.”
Then he read the chapter “The House-Breaker” in Zhuangzi till he came to the following passage:
“Do away with sages and wise men, and great robbers will disappear. Destroy jade and pearls, and no petty thieves will arise. Bum tallies and smash seals, and the people will revert to their natural simplicity. Break measures and scales, and they will no longer quarrel. Abolish all the sacred laws of the world and the people will discuss things freely.
“Confuse the musical scales, break harps and lutes, stop the ears of good musicians, and all men under heaven will learn to hear for themselves. Dispense with ornaments and coloured patterns, glue up the eyes of the keen-sighted, and all men under heaven will learn to see for them¬selves. Destroy quadrants and yard-measures, throw away compasses and squares, cut off the fingers of deft artisans, and all men under heaven will learn skill for themselves.”
Baoyu was so delighted with this passage that, stimulated as he was by wine, he picked up his brush and continued in the same vein:
“Burn the flower (Xiren), get rid of the musk (Sheyue), and those in the inner apartments will keep their advice to themselves. Spoil the beauty of the precious trinket (Baochai), dull the intelligence of the black jade (Daiyu), do away with affection, and in the inner chambers fair and foul will then be on an equal footing. Advice kept to oneself does away with the danger of discord; beauty marred obviates affection; intelligence dulled cuts out admiration for talents. For trinket, jade, flower and musk are alike spreading nets and laying traps to ensnare and bewitch all men under heaven….”
This written he threw down his brush and went to bed, falling into a dreamless sleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.
He did not awake till the morning, when he turned and saw Xiren lying fully dressed on the cover at his side. Yesterday’s grievance forgotten, he nudged her gently.
“Get up and sleep properly. You’ll catch cold like that.”
Now the wild way Baoyu played around with his cousins at all hours of the day and night had convinced Xiren that he would be impervious to advice, and so she had decided to teach him a lesson by disclosing her own feelings, expecting that he would soon get over it. When he sulked for a whole day it was her turn to be at a loss, and she passed a sleepless night. Seeing that he was obviously feeling better today, she deliberately ignored him. When he tried to take off her jacket, undoing a button, she pushed his hand away and buttoned it up again.
Baoyu caught hold of her hand then and asked softly:
“What’s really the matter?”
He had to repeat his question several times before Xiren opened her eyes.
“Nothing,” she said. “If you’re awake, go over there to wash before it’s too late.”
“Where am I to go?”
“How should I know?” Xiren snorted. “Go wherever you like. We may as well part company from now on, to stop people laughing at our rows and rumpuses. Besides, if you get tired of them over there you’ve a Sier and Wuer here to look after you. The rest of us are just a disgrace to our lovely names.”
Baoyu chuckled. “So you still remember that?”
“I’ll remember it if I live to be a hundred. I’m not like you, letting what I say go in at one ear and out at the other, forgetting what’s said at night by the next morning.”
Touched by the cloud on her pretty face, Baoyu took a jade hairpin from beside the pillow and threw it on the floor, breaking it in two.
“May the same thing happen to me if I don’t listen to you in future,” he cried.
“What a way to talk! First thing in the morning too.” Xiren hastily picked up the pieces. “It doesn’t really matter whether you listen to me or not, but why carry on like that?”
“You don’t know how bad I feel.”
“So you can feel bad too?” She smiled. “Then how do you think I feel? Hurry up and get dressed now.”
They both got up then and began their toilet.
Baoyu had gone to pay his respects to his grandmother when Daiyu came to his room. Finding him out, she looked through the books on his desk and discovered the passage in Zhuang zi which he had been read¬ing the previous evening. Amused as well as provoked by the lines he had added, she picked up a brush and appended a quatrain herself:

Who can the scurrile writer be
Who makes of Zhuangzi such a travesty
And, blind to his own incapacity,
Heaps such abuse on others?

This done, she went to pay her respects to the Lady Dowager and then Lady Wang.
It so happened that Xifeng’s daughter Dajie was ill, so the household was upside down. A doctor had just been summoned and after examining the child he announced:
“I am happy to inform Her Ladyship and Madam Lian that the little girl’s fever is simply due to smallpox.”
At once Lady Wang and Xifeng sent to ask whether the small patient was in any danger.
The answer was: “Although this is a serious illness, it is taking its natural course. There is no need to worry. But you must prepare loranthus and sanguis caudae or hog-tail’s blood.”
Xifeng lost no time in having a room cleared out for sacrifice to the God¬dess of Smallpox. At the same time she directed that no fried food should be served in her quarters, ordered Pinger to take some bedding and clothes to a different room for Jia Lian, and issued red cloth to her nurses, maids and other attendants for clothes. Clean rooms were also prepared for the two doctors who would take it in turn to attend the child and make out prescrip¬tions for her, remaining there in residence for twelve days.
So Jia Lian had to move to his study in the outer compound, while Xifeng and Pinger joined Lady Wang in daily sacrifice to the Goddess of Smallpox.
Jia Lian was the sort of man who once away from his wife was bound to get into mischief. Two nights alone were more than he could bear: he vented his ardour on his handsome page boys.
Now in the Rong Mansion was a rascally drunkard of a cook by the name of Duo Guan, a man so useless and cowardly that he was com¬monly known as Duo the Muddy Worm. While he was young his parents had found him a wife who was now just about twenty, and whose good looks were the admiration of all. But she was a flighty creature who loved nothing better than to have affairs. The Muddy Worm made no objection, for provided he had wine, meat and money himself he cared for nothing else. So most of the men in the Ning and Rong Mansions had had their fling with her. And because she was such a remarkably good¬-looking wanton, everyone called her “Miss Duo.”
Jia Lian was now inflamed by his banishment from his own bedroom. He used to eye Miss Duo avidly but had so far taken no steps to get her for fear of his wife at home and his fancy boys outside.
Miss Duo for her part had been hankering after Jia Lian too, waiting eagerly for her chance. As soon as she heard that he had moved to the study she kept strolling past to flaunt her charms, and Jia Lian rose to the bait like a famished rat. He consulted his trusted pages, who agreed to arrange a secret assignation for him, for not only did he promise them rich rewards — they were all on intimate terms themselves with Miss Duo. So the matter was settled at once.
At the second watch that night, when the household had retired and the Muddy Worm lay on his kang in a drunken stupor, ha Lian slipped into her room. The mere sight of her threw him into such a frenzy that with no prelimi¬nary professions of love he flung off his clothes and set to work.
Now this woman was so curiously constituted that the touch of a man seemed to melt her very bones, so that he felt as if bedded in cotton-wool, while in her wanton tricks and amorous cries she outdid any prostitute. No man but was driven to utter frenzy by her. Jia Lian only wished he could melt into her body!
To inflame him further, the woman under him teased, “Your daughter has smallpox and they’re sacrificing in your home to the goddess. You ought to lead a clean life for a couple of days, not dirty yourself for me. Hurry up and get out of here.”
“You’re my goddess,” he panted, going all out. “What do I care for any other goddess?”
The more wanton the woman, the more debauched Jia Lian revealed himself. At the end of this bout they vowed to be true to each other and could hardly bear to part. From that day they became sworn lovers.
But Dajie’s illness spent its course, her pustules gradually healed. After twelve days they “saw off’ the goddess and the whole family sacrificed to Heaven and their ancestors, made offerings, burnt incense, exchanged congratulations and distributed largesse. When these ceremo¬nies were at an end, Jia Lian returned to his old quarters and Xifeng. As the proverb says, “Reunion after long separation is better than a wedding night.” We need not dwell on the transports of their love.
The next morning when Xifeng had gone to pay her respects to the senior ladies, Pinger brought back the clothes and bedding Jia Lian had used outside. To her surprise a long strand of hair fell out of the pillow¬case. The knowing maid quickly tucked it in her sleeve and went into Jia Lian’s room, where she showed him the hair with a smile.
“What’s this?” she demanded.
As Jia Lian tried to grab it, Pinger turned to fly. He caught hold of her and threw her on to the kang, then tried to snatch the hair from her.
“You vixen! Give it to me, or I’ll break your arm.”
“You heartless brute!” she giggled, “I was kind enough to keep this between ourselves, yet you start manhandling me. Wait till she comes back and I tell her. You won’t half catch it!”
At once ha Lian begged with a smile, “Give it me, there’s a good girl, and I won’t use force.”
Just at that moment they heard Xifeng’s voice. Pinger had barely regained her feet when Xifeng came in and told her: “Get the patterns out of that box for the mistress, quick.”
As the maid was doing this, the sight of Jia Lian reminded Xifeng of something else.
“Have you brought back all the things he used outside?”
“Yes, madam.”
“Anything missing?”
“No. I was worried too that there might be, but I’ve checked care¬fully and there’s nothing missing.”
“Is anything there that shouldn’t be?”
Pinger laughed.
“Isn’t it enough that nothing’s missing? What else could be there?”
“Who knows what dirty business he’s been up to this last fortnight.” Xifeng smiled coldly. “One of his little friends might have left something:
a ring or sash or pouch. Or even some locks of hair or finger-nails, for all we know. They’re all souvenirs.”
Jia Lian turned pale at this. Behind his wife’s back he sawed at his throat to warn Pinger not to speak. She pretended not to see him, how¬ever, and laughed.
“Fancy, exactly the same idea occurred to me, madam. That’s why I searched carefully. But there wasn’t a sign of any monkey business. If you don’t believe me, madam, look for yourself. I haven’t put the things away yet.”
“Silly girl! If he had anything of the sort, would he let us find it?”
She went off again with the patterns.
Pointing at her own nose, Pinger shook her head and laughed.
“How are you going to thank me for that?”
Jia Lian, beaming, rushed to embrace her, pouring out an incoherent flood of endearments.
Dangling the hair in front of him, she teased, “I’ll have this hold over you for the rest of my life. If you’re nice to me, well and good. If not, I’ll let the cat out of the bag.”
“Keep it safely then. Don’t, for goodness’ sake, let her find out.”
As he spoke, catching her off guard, he snatched the hair.
“I don’t trust you with it,” he chortled. “I’d better burn it and be done with it.” He stuffed the hair into his boot.
“You beast!” she cried through clenched teeth. “As soon as the river’s crossed you pull down the bridge. Don’t ever expect me to lie for you again.”
Inflamed by her charming show of temper, Jia Lian threw his arms round her and tried to make love to her. But Pinger slipped from his grasp and ran out of the room, leaving him doubled up in frustration.
“Little flirt!” he swore. “You get a man all worked up then run away.”
From outside the window Pinger laughed. “If I’m a flirt that’s my business. Who told you to get so worked up? If I let you have your way and she got to know, I’d be the one to suffer.”
“Don’t be afraid of her. One of these days when I really lose my temper, I’m going to give that vinegary bitch a good beating to show her who’s master here. She spies on me as if I were a thief. It’s all right for her to talk to other men, but she won’t let me say a word to another woman. If I do, she suspects the worst. Yet she carries on as she pleases, chattering and laughing with any younger brother-in-law or nephew, old or young, quite regardless of my feelings. I’ll forbid her to see anyone in future.”
“She’s right to be jealous of you, but you’re wrong to be jealous of her,” retorted Pinger. “She’s done nothing that’s improper. But you, you’re up to no good. Even I wouldn’t trust you.”
“The two of you are in league. All you two do is right, all I do is wrong. Sooner or later I’ll settle scores with you both.”
While he was fuming Xifeng came back to the courtyard, and seeing Pinger at the window demanded:
“Why not talk inside? Why run out here to shout through the window?
What’s the idea?”
“That’s right!” Jia Lian called from the room. “The way she acts, you’d think there was a tiger here waiting to eat her.”
“Why should I stay there alone with him?” asked Pinger.
“All the better, surely.” Xifeng smiled.
“Is that remark aimed at me?”
“Who else?” Xifeng laughed.
“Don’t make me say things you’ll be sorry for!”
Instead of raising the door curtain for her mistress Pinger swept in ahead of her, swishing the curtain behind her, and passed through the hall into the other room.
Xifeng raised the curtain herself and walked in remarking, “The girl must be out of her mind, trying to get the upper hand of me. You’d better watch out, little bitch!”
Jia Lian had fallen back laughing on the kang.
“I never knew Pinger had it in her,” he crowed, clapping his hands. “She’s gone up in my estimation.”
“It’s you who’ve spoilt her. I hold you responsible.”
“When you two fall out, why put the blame on me? I’d better make myself scarce.
“Where are you going?”
“I’ll be back presently.”
“Wait,” said Xifeng. “There’s something I want to discuss with you.” To know what it was, read the next chapter.
Truly:
Virtuous maids have always harboured grief,
And charming wives since of old have known jealousy.


Chapter 22

A Song Awakens Baoyu to Esoteric Truths
Lantern-Riddles Grieve Jia  Zheng with
Their Ill Omens



Hearing that Xifeng wanted to consult him about something, Jia  Lian stopped to ask what it was.
“It’s Baochai’s birthday on the twenty-first,” she said. “What do you intend to do about it?”
“Why ask me that?” he retorted. “You’ve handled plenty of big birth¬day celebrations. Why can’t you cope with this?”
“For big birthdays there are definite rules but this is neither big nor small, that’s why I wanted your advice.”
He lowered his head to think before answering.
“You’re losing your grip,” he said after a pause. “There’s a prece¬dent in Baiyu’s birthday. Just celebrate this the same way.”
“As if that hadn’t occurred to me too!” Xifeng smiled mockingly. “But yesterday the old lady told me she’d been asking everybody’s age and learned that Baochai would be fifteen this year, and although that’s not a round number it means she’s reached marriageable age. If the old lady wants to celebrate her birthday specially, it’ll have to be different from Daiyu’s in the past.”
“In that case, have things on a more lavish scale.”
“That’s what I thought, but I wanted to sound you out so as not to be blamed for doing something extra on my own initiative without consulting you.”
“Well, well! Why this sudden show of consideration? Me blame you? I’m quite satisfied if you don’t find fault with me.”
With that he left, but where he went does not concern us.
Let us return now to Xiangyun. After spending several days in the Rong Mansion it was time for her to go home, but the Lady Dowager urged her to wait until after Baochai’s birthday and the performance of
operas. So Xiangyun, having to stay on, sent home for two pieces of her embroidery as a birthday-present for her cousin.
The fact was that the Lady Dowager had taken a fancy to Baochai since her arrival on account of her steady, amiable behaviour. And as this would be her first birthday in their house, the old lady summoned Xifeng and gave her twenty taels of silver from her own coffer for a feast and an opera.
Xifeng teased, “When an Old Ancestress wants to celebrate some grandchild’s birthday, no matter how grandly, who are we to protest? So there’s to be a feast and opera too, is there? Well, if you want it to be lively you’ll have to pay for it yourself instead of trying to play host with a mouldy twenty taels. I suppose you expect me to make up the rest? If you really couldn’t afford it, all right. But your cases are bursting with gold and silver ingots of every shape and size the bottoms of the chests are dropping out, they’re so full. Yet you’re still squeezing us. Look, aren’t all of us your children? Is Baoyu the only one who’ll carry you as an immortal on his head to Mount Wutai, that you keep every¬thing for him? Even if the rest of us aren’t good enough, don’t be so hard on us. Is this enough for a feast or theatricals?”
The whole company burst out laughing.
“Listen to that tongue of hers!” The old lady chuckled. “I’m not exactly tongue-tied myself but I’m no match for this monkey. Not even your mother-in-law would think of arguing with me, but you give me tit for tat.”
“My mother-in-lay dotes on Baoyu just as much as you do,” retorted Xifeng with a smile. “So I’ve no one to take my side. Instead, you make me out a termagant.”
That set the old lady crowing with laughter and put her in the highest of spirits.
That night, after the family had gathered to pay their evening respects to the Lady Dowager and then gone on to chat, she asked Baochai to name her favourite operas and dishes. Knowing the old lady’s partiality for lively shows and sweet, pappy food, Baochai gave these as her own preferences, adding even more to the Lady Dowager’s pleasure.
The first thing next day she had presents of clothing and trinkets sent to the girl. Lady Wang, Xifeng, Daiyu and the others also sent theirs according to the status of each. But these need not be enumerated in detail.
On the twenty-first a small stage was set up in the Lady Dowager’s inner courtyard and a new troupe of young actresses had been hired who were able to perform both Kunqu and Yiyang operas. Tables were laid in the hail for a family feast, to which no outsiders were asked: apart from Aunt Xue, Xiangyun and Baochai, who were guests, all the rest would be members of the family.
Not seeing Daiyu that morning, Baoyu went to look for her and found her curled up on her kang.
“Come on to breakfast,” he said, “The show will soon be starting. Tell me which opera you’d like and I’ll ask for it.”
Daiyu smiled disdainfully.
“If that’s how you feel, you’d better hire a special company to play my favourite pieces instead of expecting me to cash in on someone else’s birthday.”
“That’s easy, we’ll hire a company next time and let the rest of them cash in on us.
He pulled her up and they went off hand in hand.
After breakfast it was time to choose the plays and the Lady Dowa¬ger called on Baochai to name her choice. The girl declined the honour at first but finally, to the old lady’s delight, named a scene from Pilgrimage to the West. Next, Xifeng was ordered to take her pick. And knowing the old lady’s liking for lively plays, especially comedies and burlesques, she pleased her even more by selecting Liu Er Pawns His Clothes.
Daiyu, told to choose next, deferred to Aunt Xue and Lady Wang.
“I planned today as a treat for you girls,” said the Lady Dowager, “So make your choice and never mind your aunts. I didn’t lay on this show and feast for them. They’re lucky to be here at all, able to watch and eat free of charge, but I won’t let them choose any items.”
All laughed at that, and then Daiyu suggested one piece. She was followed by Baoyu, Xiangyun, the three Jia girls and Li Wan, and their choices were put on in turn.
When the feast was ready the Lady Dowager told Baochai to select another opera, and she asked for The Drunken Monk.
“You always choose something rowdy,” objected Baoyu.
“You’ve been watching operas all these years for nothing if you don’t know how good this is,” retorted Baochai. “Besides being spectacular it has some magnificent lines.”
“I never could stand noisy shows,” he persisted.
“If you call this noisy that just shows how little you know about op¬era,” she rejoined. “Come over here and let me explain. This opera has most stirring arias sung in the northern mode Dian Jiang Chun, which needless to say is an excellent melody; and the verses set to Ji Sheng Cao are quite superb, did you but know it.”
Baoyu edged closer then and begged her to recite them to him.
Baochai declaimed:

“Dried are the hero’s tears.
My patron’s house left behind;
By grace divine
Tonsured below the Lotus Throne.
Not destined to stay,
I leave the monastery in a flash,
Naked I go without impediment;
My sole wish now
To roam alone in coir cape and bamboo hat,
And in straw sandals with a broken aims bow!
To wander where I will.”

Baoyu pounded his lap to the rhythm of the verse and nodded appre¬ciatively, loud in his praise of these words as well as of her erudition.
“Do be quiet and watch,” said Daiyu. “Before we’ve seen The Drunken Monk you’re playing The General Feigns Madness.
This set Xiangyun giggling.
They went on watching operas until dusk. By then the Lady Dowager had taken a special fancy to the girl who played the part of the heroines and the one who took the clown’s role. She had them brought to her and on closer inspection found them even sweeter. All marvelled when it was disclosed that the heroine was only eleven, the clown only nine. The old lady rewarded them with some extra delicacies and two additional strings of cash.
“When that child’s made up she’s the living image of someone here,”
remarked Xifeng. “Have none of you noticed?”
Baochai knew whom she meant but she just smiled. Baoyu too had guessed but did not dare to speak out.
Xiangyun, however, blurted out, “I know! She looks just like Cousin Daiyu.”
Too late Baoyu shot her a warning glance, for by now everyone had noticed the resemblance and laughingly declared that it was most strik¬ing. Soon afterwards they scattered.
That evening while undressing, Xiangyun ordered Cuilu to pack her things.
“What’s the hurry?” asked the maid. “We can start packing when it’s time to leave.
“We’re leaving tomorrow morning. Why should we stay here and put up with dirty looks?”
Baoyu overheard this exchange and hurried in to take Xiangyun by the hand.
“Dear cousin, you’ve got me wrong,” he said. “Daiyu is so terribly sensitive that the others didn’t name her for fear of upsetting her. How could she help being annoyed, the way you blurted it out? I looked at you warningly because I didn’t want you to hurt her feelings. It’s ungrateful as well as unfair of you to be angry with me. If it had been anybody else but you, I wouldn’t care how many people she offended.”
Xiangyun waved him crossly away.
“Don’t try to get round me with your flattering talk. I’m not in the same class as your Cousin Daiyu. It’s all right for other people to make fun of her, but I’m not even allowed to mention her. She’s a grand young lady, I’m a slave how dare I offend her?”
“I was only thinking of you, yet now you put me in the wrong.” Baoyu was desperate. “If I meant any harm, may I turn into dust this instant and be trampled on by ten thousand feet!”
“Stop talking such nonsense just after the New Year. Or go and rave if you must to those petty-minded creatures who are so quick to take offence, and who know how to manage you. Don’t make me spit at you!”
She flounced off to the Lady Dowagers s inner room and threw her-
self down angrily on a couch.
After this snub Baoyu went to look for Daiyu, but scarcely had he set foot in her room than she pushed him out and closed the door in his face. Mystified, he called in a subdued voice through the window:
“Dear cousin!”
But Daiyu simply ignored him.
He hung his head then in dejected silence. Xiren knew it would be useless to reason with him just then. So he was standing there like a fool when Daiyu opened the door, thinking him gone. When she saw him still standing there, she hadn’t the heart to shut him out again. She turned away and curled up on her bed, while he followed her into the room.
“There’s always a reason for everything,” he said. “If you’d ex¬plain, people wouldn’t feel so hurt. What’s upset you suddenly?”
“A fine question to ask!” Daiyu gave a short laugh. “I don’t know. For you I’m a figure of fun, to be compared with an actress in order to raise a laugh.”
“But why be angry with me? I didn’t make the comparison. I didn’t laugh.”
“I should hope not, indeed! But what you did was even worse than the others laughing and making comparisons.”
Baoyu did not know how to defend himself and was silent.
“I wouldn’t have minded so much if you hadn’t made eyes at Xiangyun,” Daiyu went on. “Just what did you mean by that? That she’d lower and cheapen herself by joking with me? She’s the daughter of a noble house, I’m a nobody. If she were to joke with me and I answered back, that would be degrading for her — was that the idea? That was certainly kind on your part. Too bad she didn’t appreciate your thought¬fulness, but flared up all the same. Then you tried to excuse yourself at my expense, calling me ‘petty-minded and quick to take offence.’ You were afraid she might offend me, were you? But what is it to you if I get angry with her? Or if she offends me?”
Baoyu realized that she had overheard his conversation with Xiangyun. He had intervened in an attempt to prevent bad feeling between them but, having failed, was now held to blame by both sides. This reminded him of the passage in Zhuangzi:
“The ingenious work hard, the wise are full of care; but those without ability have no ambition. They enjoy their food and wander at will like drifting boats freed from their moorings.”

And again:
“Mountain trees are the first to be felled, clear fountains the first to be consumed.”
The more he thought the more depressed he grew.
“If I can’t even cope now with just these two, what will it be like in future?” he reflected. At this point it seemed quite useless to attempt to justify himself, so he started back to his room.
Daiyu realized that he must be very dejected by what had occurred to go off so sulkily without a word. But this only made her angrier than ever.
“Go, then!” she cried. “And don’t ever come back! Don’t speak to me again!”
Baoyu paid no attention. Returning to his room, he lay down on his bed staring fixedly before him. Although Xiren knew what had happened, she dared not mention it and tried to distract him with some more cheer¬ful subject.
“Today’s plays are bound to lead to others,” she prophesied. “Miss Baochai is sure to give a return party.”
“What do I care whether she does or not?” he snapped back, quite unlike his usual self.
“What do you mean?” asked Xiren. “This is the beginning of a new year when all the ladies and girls are enjoying themselves. Why carry on like this?”
“I don’t care whether they’re enjoying themselves or not.”
“If they are so obliging to each other, shouldn’t you be obliging too? Wouldn’t that be pleasanter for everyone?”
“For everyone? Let them oblige each other while ‘naked I go with¬out impediment.”’
Tears ran down his cheeks and, seeing them, she said no more. Baoyu, pondering the significance of that line, suddenly burst out sob¬bing. Getting up, he went to his desk, took up a brush and wrote this verse in the style of a Buddhist gatha:
Should you test me and I test you,
Should heart and mind be tested too,
Till there remained no more to test,
That test would be of all the best.
When nothing can be called a test,
My feet will find a place to rest.

For fear that others might not grasp the meaning, he then appended a verse after the melody Ji Sheng Cao and read the whole through again. Then he went to bed, feeling less frustrated, and slept.
Now some time after Baoyu’s abrupt departure Daiyu came, ostensi¬bly to see Xiren, to find out how things were. Told that he was asleep she was turning to leave when Xiren said with a smile:
“Just a minute, miss! He wrote something you might like to look at.” She quietly fetched and handed Baiyu the verses Baoyu had just writ¬ten, and the girl was both touched and amused to see what he had tossed off in a fit of pique.
“It’s just a joke, nothing serious,” she told Xiren.
She took it back to her own room and showed it to Xiangyun. Next day she showed it to Baochai as well. Baochai read the second verse. It ran:
If there’s no “I,” then neither is there “you,”
If she misunderstands you then why rue?
Freely I come and freely too I go.
Giving myself to neither joy nor woe,
Close kin or distant it’s the same to me.
What did it serve, my assiduity?
Today I see its true futility.

Having read this she read the first verse then laughed.
“So that’s the enlightenment he’s attained! This is all my fault for reciting that song to him yesterday. There’s nothing so apt to lead people astray as these Taoist teachings and Chan paradoxes. If he really starts taking such nonsense seriously and gets it fixed in his head just because of that song I quoted, I’m the first to blame.”
She tore up the verses and told her maids to burn them at once.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” protested Daiyu with a smile. “I’ve
some questions to ask him. Come with me, both of you. We’ll soon cure him of this nonsense.”
So the three girls went together to Baoyu’s rooms. Daiyu opened the attack by saying:
“Listen, Baoyu. Bao means that which is most precious, and yu that which is most solid. But in what way are you precious? In what way are you solid?”
When Baoyu could not answer, the girls clapped their hands and laughed.
“And this stupid fellow wants to dabble in metaphysics!”
Daiyu continued, “The last two lines of your verse are all very well
When nothing can be called a test
My feet can find a place to rest.
But it seems to me they still lack a little something. Let me add two more:
When there’s no place for feet to rest,
That is the purest state and best.
“Yes, that shows real understanding,” put in Baochai. “In the old days when the Sixth Patriarch Huineng of the Southern Sect went to Shaozhou in search of a teacher, he heard that the Fifth Patriarch Hongren was in the monastery on Mount Huangmei, so he took a job as cook there. The Fifth Patriarch, on the look-out for a successor, ordered each of his monks to compose a Buddhist gatha. His senior disciple Shenxiu recited:
‘The body is a Bodhi tree, The mind a mirror clear;
Then keep it cleaned and polished —Let no dust settle there.’
“Huineng heard this as he was hulling rice in the kitchen and com¬mented. ‘Very fine, but it needs rounding off.’ With that he declaimed:
‘The Bodhi tree is no tree, The mirror no mirror clear;
Since nothing actually exists, Where can any dust appear?’
Then the Fifth Patriarch passed on his robe and alms bowl to him. Your
verse amounts to much the same thing. But what about the conundrum you set him just now? He hasn’t answered it yet. How can you leave it at that?”
“Failure to answer promptly means defeat,” said Daiyu. “And even if he answered it now it would hardly count. But you mustn’t talk about Chan any more. You know even less about it than the two of us yet you dabble in metaphysics.”
Baoyu had in fact fancied that he had already attained enlightenment, but now that he had been floored by Daiyu, and Baochai had quoted Buddhist lore that he had never suspected her of knowing, he thought to himself, “They understand more about these things than I do, yet still they haven’t attained full enlightenment. Why should I trouble my head over such matters?” Thereupon he said with a laugh:
“I wasn’t dabbling in metaphysics. I just wrote that for fun.”
So the four of them made it up.
Just then they were told that the Imperial Consort had sent over a lantern-riddle for everybody to guess, after which they were to make up a riddle apiece and send these to the Palace.
At once the four of them hurried to the Lady Dowager’s quarters where they found a young eunuch with a square, flat-topped lantern of red gauze made specially for lantern-riddles. One riddle was already hang¬ing on it. They gathered round to read it and try to guess it, while the eunuch passed on the order:
“When the young ladies have guessed, they are not to tell anyone their answers but write them down privately to be sealed up and taken to the Palace. Her Royal Highness will see which are correct.
Baochai stepped forward with the others then to look at the riddle. It was a quite nondescript quatrain, but of course she praised its ingenuity and pretended to be thinking hard although she had guessed it at once. Baoyu, Daiyu, Xiangyun and Tanchun had guessed it too and they went off quietly to write down their answers. Then Jia  Huan, Jia Lan and others were fetched, and having racked their brains they wrote down their answers. After that each made up a riddle, copied it out neatly and hung it on the lantern for the eunuch to take away.
Towards evening the eunuch returned to announce that the Imperial Consort’s riddle had been correctly guessed by all except the Second Young Lady and Third Young Master, and Her Highness had thought of answers to theirs but did not know whether or not they were correct. With that he showed them the answers written down. Some were right, others wrong, but all made haste to say they were correct.
The eunuch then proceeded to give the winners their prizes: a poem-container made in the Palace and a bamboo whisk for cleaning teapots. The only two left out were Yingchun and Jia Huan, and while she regarded this as a game and did not take it to heart he was most disappointed.
And then the eunuch announced, “Her Highness did not attempt to guess the answer to the Third Young Master’s riddle, because it did not seem to her to make sense. She told me to bring it back and ask what it means.”
All of them gathered round to read the riddle:
First Brother has eight corners,
Second Brother two horns instead;
Second Brother likes to squat on the roof,
First Brother just sits on the bed.
A roar of laughter went up, and Jia Huan told the eunuch that the answer was a head-rest and an animal-head tile. The eunuch having noted this down accepted some tea and then left.
The old lady was delighted to know that Yuanchun was in such good spirits. She ordered a dainty screen-lantern to be made at once and put in the hall so that the girls could make up riddles and paste them on it. Scented tea and sweetmeats were prepared, as well as various little prizes.
Jia Zheng on his return from court found his mother in a cheerful frame of mind, and since this was a festival he came over that evening to join in the fun. He also had refreshments and prizes prepared and coloured lanterns lit in the hail, then invited the old lady in to see them. She sat with Jia  Zheng and Baoyu at the highest table, while below, Lady Wang, Baochai, Daiyu and Xiangyun occupied one table and Yingchun, Tanchun and Xichun another. The hail was thronged with nurses and maids in attendance. Li Wan and Xifeng had a table in the inner room.
When Jia Zheng commented on Jia Lan’s absence, a nurse went inside to ask Li Wan the reason. She rose to reply:
“He says he won’t come because the master hasn’t invited him.”
When this was reported to Jia Zheng the others laughed and remarked, “What a queer, stubborn boy.”
Jia Zheng promptly sent Jia Huan and two serving-women to fetch him. And the Lady Dowager made him sit next to her and helped him to dainties, while the others chatted and enjoyed themselves.
Normally Baoyu liked to hold forth at great length but today, in his father’s presence, he simply answered briefly when spoken to; and Xiangyun, al¬though a great chatterbox for a girl, seemed afflicted with dumbness by her uncle too. Daiyu was too reserved ever to talk much in company, and Baochai also behaved in the manner natural to her, choosing her words with care. So there was a constraint about this family party.
The Lady Dowager, knowing that Jia Zheng was the cause, suggested after three rounds of drinks that he should withdraw to rest. Aware that she wanted him out of the way so that the young people might enjoy themselves better, Jia Zheng said with a smile:
“When I heard today that you had prepared all these lantern-riddles, I brought some gifts and delicacies to join in. Won’t you spare your son a little of the love you have for your grandchildren?”
The old lady chuckled.
“None of them will laugh and talk with you here, and that’s very dull,” she said. “Well, if it’s riddles you want, I’ll give you one. But if you guess wrong you’ll have to pay a forfeit.”
“Certainly. And if I guess right shall I win a prize?”
“Of course.” Then she recited, “The monkey, being light of limb, stands on the topmost branch. It’s the name of a fruit.”
Jia Zheng knew of course that the answer was lichee,2 but he delib¬erately gave wrong answers and had to pay several forfeits before he guessed right and received a prize from his mother. Then he in turn set her a riddle:
Its body is square,
Its substance firm and hard;
Though it cannot speak
It will assuredly3 record anything said.
—	A useful object.
He whispered the answer to Baoyu, who took the hint and secretly told his grandmother. The old lady thought it over and decided he was right.
“An inkstone,” she said.
“Trust you, mother, to get it right first time.” Jia Zheng smiled and turned to order, “Bring in the presents.” There was an answering cry from the women below, who brought forward various trays and little boxes. The Lady Dowager, inspecting them one by one, was delighted to find them novelties for the Lantern Festival.
“Pour wine for the master,” she ordered.
Baoyu poured the wine and Yingchun presented it, after which the old lady said:
“Let me hear you guess some of the riddles the children have put on the screen.”
Jia Zheng rose and walked up to the screen. The first riddle he saw was:
  Monsters I can affright and put to flight;
A roll of silk my form; my thunderous crash
Strikes dread into the hearts of all,
Yet when they look around I’ve turned to ash.
“Isn’t this a firecracker?” asked Jia Zheng.
When Baoyu said that was right, his father read on:
No end to the labours of men, to heaven’s decrees,
But labour unblessed by Heaven will fruitless be.
What causes this constant, frenzied activity?
The uncertainty of mortal destiny.
“An abacus?”
Yingchun agreed with a smile.
Jia Zheng read the next riddle:
The children by the steps look up:
Spring surely has no fitter decoration.
But when the silk cord breaks it drifts away,
Blame not the east wind for this separation.
“That sounds like a kite,” said Jia Zheng.
When Tanchun had confirmed this he looked at another riddle:
A former life’s appearance come to nought,
Deaf to folk-songs the chanting of sutras
   she now hears;
Say not this life is sunk in a sea of darkness,
For in her heart a shining light appears.

“The lamp before a Buddhist shrine?” queried Jia Zheng.
“Yes,” said Xichun with a smile.
Jia  Zheng thought to himself: “Her Royal Highness wrote about a firecracker which disintegrates after a single explosion. Yingchun’s sub¬ject, the abacus, is in constant commotion; Tanchun’s kite is something which drifts away with the wind; Xichun’s temple lamp is even more lonely and neglected. What ill-omened subjects for all of them to choose so soon after the New Year!”
The more he reflected, the deeper his dismay. But in his mother’s presence he dared not disclose it and forced himself to look at the other riddles. Observing that the last was a verse by Baochai, he read it.
  Who leaves the levee with smoke-scented sleeves?
  Not destines by the lute or quilt to sit,
  It needs no watchman to announce the dawn,
  No maid at the fifth watch to replenish it.
  Burned with anxiety both day and night,
  Consumed with anguish as time slips away,
  As life speeds past we learn to hold it dear
  What cares it whether foul or fair the day?
After reading this Jia Zheng reflected with dismay, “The object itself isn’t ill-omened,4  but what inauspicious lines for a young girl to write. It doesn’t look as if any of these girls will have good fortune or long life.”
Sunk in gloom be looked the picture of grief as he lowered his head in thought.
His mother imagined that he must be tired, and felt his presence was spoiling the young people’s enjoyment.
“There’s no need for you to guess any more answers,” she said. “You’d better go and rest. We shan’t sit up much longer either.”
Jia Zheng assented with alacrity and forced himself to toast his mother
once more before he withdrew. Back in his own apartment, he turned the matter over in his mind with a grievous sense of foreboding and was unable to sleep. But no more of this.
As soon as he had gone the Lady Dowager urged her grand-children, “Now relax and have some fun!”
Baoyu had already run up to the screen-lantern and was prancing about like a monkey freed from its chain, pulling different riddles to pieces.
“Why not sit down as you were before,” said Baochai, “and chat with us in a more civilized way?”
Xifeng, who had joined them now, chimed in, “you ought to have the master keeping you by his side all the time. I forgot just now to suggest that you should make up some riddles in his presence. If I had, I’m sure you’d still be in a cold sweat.”
Baoyu made a frantic grab at her and a scrimmage ensued.
After chatting a little with Li Wan and the girls the Lady Dowager began to feel tired, and hearing the fourth watch sounded she ordered the food to be cleared away, telling the servants they could have what was left.
“Let’s rest now,” she said, rising to her feet. “Tomorrow’s still a holiday, and we ought to get up early. We can enjoy ourselves again in the evening.”
To know what happened next day, read the chapter which follows.

Chapter 23

Lines from “The Western Chamber”
Are Quoted in Fun
A Song from “Peony Pavilion”
Distresses a Tender Heart


After Yuanchun’s return to the Palace from her visit to Grand View Garden she gave instructions that Tanchun should copy out all the poems written that day for her to arrange in order of merit, because she wished them to be inscribed on the tablets in the Garden as a lasting memorial to that splendid occasion. Jia Zheng accordingly ordered skilled artisans to be found to polish and engrave the stones under the supervision of Jia  Zhen, assisted by Jia Rong and Jia Ping. As Jia Qiang had his hands full looking after the twelve actresses and their properties, he asked Jia Chang and Jia Ling to supervise the work instead. In due course wax was melted over the tablets and the poems were engraved in vermilion. But no more of this.
The twenty-four young Buddhists and Taoists from the Dharma Con¬vent and Jade Emperor’s Temple in the Garden had now been moved out, and Jia Zheng had been thinking of sending them to various temples elsewhere. Word of this reached Jia Qin’s mother nee Zhou who lived in the street behind just as she had decided to look in Jia Zheng’s house for some remunerative job, whether big or small, for her son. So she came by sedan-chair to enlist Xifeng’s help.
As this woman was normally unassuming, Xifeng agreed. Having thought out the right approach she told Lady Wang:
“We mustn’t send away the little Buddhists and Taoists, because they’ll be needed next time Her Highness comes, and it would be hard to get them together again if once they’d been dispersed. My idea is to move them all to our family’s Iron Threshold Temple. Then all we need do is to send someone with a few taels of silver every month for their firewood and rice, and they can be fetched back if needed without any trouble.”
Lady Wang passed on this proposal to her husband.
“Quite right,” he agreed. “I’m glad you reminded me. “ He sent for Jia Lian.
Jia Lian and Xifeng were having their meal together when this sum¬mons arrived. Not knowing what he was wanted for, he put down his rice bowl at once and started out.
“Wait a minute and listen to me!” She caught hold of his ann. “If this is some other business, that’s not my affair; but if it’s about those little novices, you must handle it my way.” She told him then exactly what to say.
Jia Lian shook his head, laughing.
“This is none of my business. If you’re so clever, go and ask uncle yourself.”
Xifeng threw back her head and laid down her chopsticks, staring at Jia Lian with an icy smile.
“Do you mean that, or are you joking?”
“Yun, the son of Fifth Sister-in-Law who lives in West Lane, has come several times begging me to find him a job, and I promised him I would if he would wait. Now here’s a job at last, but as usual you want to snatch it away.”
“Don’t worry. Her Highness wants more pines and cypresses planted in the northeast corner of the Garden, as well as more flowers at the foot of the tower. When that job comes up, I promise to let Yun have it.”
“All right then,” he chuckled. “But why were you so uncooperative last night when all I wanted was to try something different?”
Xifeng snorted with laughter and spat at him in mock disgust, then lowered her head and went on with her meal.
Grinning broadly, Jia Lian left. When he found that his uncle had in¬deed sent for him about the novices, taking his cue from his wife he suggested:
“Jia Qin seems to be shaping well. We might entrust this to him. He can just draw the allowance every month in the usual way.”
Since Jia Zheng never took much interest in such matters, he made no objection. As soon as Jia Lian went back to tell Xifeng, she sent a maid to notify Jia Qin’s mother, and the young man came to thank them both profusely. As a special favour Xifeng asked her husband to let him have three months’ allowance in advance and made him write a receipt, to which Jia Lian put his signature. He was then given the tally to fetch from the treasury three months’ allowance two or three hundred taels of glittering silver. One piece he picked up casually and gave as a tip to the men who had weighed the silver, “For a cup of tea,” as he put it. The rest he told his servant to carry home. On his mother’s advice he lost no time in hiring a sturdy donkey for himself and several covered carts. Taking these round to the side gate of the Rong Mansion, he called out the twenty-four little novices and seated them in the carts. Then to¬gether they set off for Iron Threshold Temple. And there we leave them.
Now it had occurred to Yuanchun while she was editing the poems on Grand View Garden that it would be a pity if her father locked up such charming pleasure grounds after her visit in deference to her, so that nobody could go there. The more so when the girls of the family had a taste for poetizing, and if they were to move there the Garden would make a perfect setting for them while its flowers and willows would not lack admirers. Then she reflected that Baoyu was unlike other boys, having been brought up among girls, so that if he alone were excluded he would feel left out in the cold, and this might distress the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang. She had better give directions for him to move in there too.
Having reached this decision, she sent the eunuch Xia Shouzhong to the Rong Mansion with the order: “Baochai and the other young ladies are to live in the Garden, which is not to be closed. Baoyu is to move in as well to continue his studies there.”
This edict was received by Jia Zheng and Lady Wang. As soon as the eunuch had left, they reported it to the Lady Dowager and sent servants to clean up the Garden and prepare the buildings, hanging up blinds, portieres and bed-curtains.
The others took the news fairly calmly, but Baoyu was beside himself with joy. He was just discussing it with his grandmother, demanding this, that and the other, when a maid announced that his father wanted him. At this bolt from the blue he turned pale, his spirits quite dashed. He clung like a limpet to the Lady Dowager, too terrified to leave her.
“Go, my treasure,” she urged him. “I won’t let him be hard on you. Besides, it’s because you wrote so well that Her Highness has said you should move into the Garden, and I dare say your father only wants to warn you to behave yourself when you’re there. Just say ‘Yes’ to what¬ever he tells you and you’ll be all right.”
She called two old nurses and ordered them to take Baoyu there and see that he was not frightened.
The nurses complied and Baoyu left with dragging steps. It so hap¬pened that Jia Zheng was discussing some business in his wife’s room while her maids Jinchuan, Caiyun, Caixia, Xiuluan and Xiufeng were stand¬ing outside under the eaves. At sight of Baoyu they smiled knowingly, and Jinchuan caught hold of his sleeve.
“I’ve just put some scented rouge on my lips,” she whispered. “Do you want to taste it?”
Caiyun pushed her away.
“Don’t tease him when he’s feeling low,” she scolded. “Go in quickly, while the master’s in a good mood.”
Baoyu sidled fearfully in. His parents were in the inner room. The concubine Zhao raised the portiere, and with a bow he entered. His fa¬ther and mother sat facing each other on the kang talking, while on a row of chairs below sat Yingchun, Tanchun, Xichun and Jia Huan, all of whom except Yingchun rose to their feet at his entrance.
Jia Zheng glanced up and saw Baoyu standing before him. The boy’s striking charm and air of distinction contrasted so strongly with Jia Huan’s vulgar, common appearance that he was reminded of his dead son Zhu. He glanced at Lady Wang. She had only this one son left and she doted on him. As for him, his beard was already turning grey. Bearing all this in mind, he forgot his usual aversion to Baoyu. After a pause he said:
“Her Highness has ordered you to study and practise calligraphy with the girls in the Garden, instead of fooling around outside and neglecting your studies. Mind that you apply yourself there to your lessons. If you go on misbehaving, watch out!”
“Yes, sir,” agreed Baoyu hastily.
Then his mother drew him over to sit beside her while Jia Huan and the other two sat down again. Stroking her son’s neck fondly Lady Wang
asked:
“Have you finished those pills prescribed for you the other day?”
“All but one.
“You must fetch ten more tomorrow. Get Xiren to see that you take one each evening at bedtime.”
“Ever since you ordered it, madam, Xiren has been giving me one every evening.”
“Who is Xiren?” demanded Jia Zheng.
“One of the maids,” his wife told him.
“A maid can be called anything, I suppose. But who thought up such a suggestive name for her?”
To shield Baoyu from his father’s displeasure Lady Wang said, “It was the old lady’s idea.”
“Such a name would never occur to the old lady. This must have been Baoyu’s doing.”
Since there was no hiding the truth Baoyu rose to confess: “I remem¬bered that line of an old poem:
When the fragrance of flowers assails men
we know the day is warm.
As this maid’s surname is Hua (Flower), I called her Xiren. “‘
“You must change it when you go back,” put in Lady Wang quickly. Then she turned to her husband. “Don’t be angry, sir, over such a little thing.”
“It doesn’t really matter, there’s no need to change it. But this shows that instead of studying properly Baoyu gives all his time to romantic trash.” Then he said sternly to Baoyu: “What are you standing there for, you unnatural monster?”
“Run along, “urged Lady Wang. “The old lady is probably waiting for you for supper.
Baoyu assented and slowly withdrew. Once outside he grinned and stuck out his tongue at Jinchuan before hurrying off with the two nurses. He found Xiren leaning in the doorway of the entrance hail. Her face lit up when she saw that he was back safely, and she asked what his father had wanted.
“Nothing much. Just to warn me to be on my best behaviour when I
move into the Garden.”
Having by now reached the Lady Dowager’s room he told her what had happened. Then he asked Daiyu, who was there, in which part of the Garden she would like to live.
Daiyu had been thinking this over and she answered: “My choice would be Bamboo Lodge. I love those bamboos half hiding the winding balustrade, and the place is quieter than anywhere else.”
“Just what I thought!” Baoyu clapped his hands. “That’s where I want you. With me in Happy Red Court, we shall be close together and beautifully quiet.”
At this point Jia Zheng sent a servant to report to the Lady Dowager that the twenty-second of the second month would be an auspicious day for the move into the Garden, and the young people’s quarters would be ready by then. Baochai was to have Alpinia Park, Daiyu Bamboo Lodge, Yingchun the Pavilion of Variegated Splendour, Tanchun the Studio of Autumn Freshness, Xichun Smartweed Breeze Cot, Li Wan Paddy-Sweet Cottage, and Baoyu Happy Red Court. Two old nurses and four maids were assigned to each apartment in addition to the occupant’s nanny and own attendants, and there were other servants whose sole duty was clean¬ing and sweeping. On the twenty-second they all moved in and at once the Garden gay with flowers and willows ruffled by a fragrant breeze from embroidered sashes lost its former air of desolation; but no need to describe this in detail.
Baoyu found life in the Garden all he could wish. He asked nothing better than to spend every day with his sisters, cousins and maids, read¬ing, writing, strumming the lute, playing chess, painting, chanting poems, watching the girls embroider their phoenix patterns, enjoying the flowers, softly singing, guessing riddles or playing the guess-fingers game. In a word, he was blissfully happy. There he wrote the following verses on the four seasons, which although quite commonplace give some idea of his sentiments and the scenery.
SPRING NIGHT
The walls flaunt hangings bright as sunset clouds
To muffle the frogs’ croaking in the lane;
The rain outside the window chills my pillow,
This vision of spring seems like the girl of my dreams.
The candle sheds slow tears for whom?
The blossoms fall as if reproaching me;
My maids are indolent from long indulgence;
Wearied by their laughter and prattle, I snuggle
down in my quilt.

SUMMER NIGHT
Weary of embroidery, the beauty dreams;
In its golden cage the parrot cries, “Brew tea!”
Bright window, moon like musk-scented palace mirror.
Dim the chamber with fumes of sandalwood and incense.
Clear dew from the lotus is poured from amber cups,
Cool air from the willows wafts past crystal railings;
In lake pavilions everywhere flutter silken fans,
And the blinds are rolled up on the vermilion tower
As she finishes her evening toilet.


AUTUMN NIGHT
The red pavilion scented with rue is hushed,
Moonlight floods the gauze dyed with madder;
Crows asleep by the well are wet with dew from the plane tree,
And storks roost on mossy boulders,
A maid spreads the gold-phoenix quilt,
The girl coming back from the balcony drops her trinkets;
Sleepless at night and thirsty after wine
I relight the incense and call for fresh tea.

WINTER NIGHT
Plum-blossom and bamboo dream, the third watch has come,
But sleep eludes them under silk eiderdowns.
Only a stork can be seen in the pine-shadowed court,
No oriole sings in the snow which has drifted like pear-blossom.
Cold is the green-sleeved girl as she writes a poem,
Tipsy the young lord in gold and sable gown;
Happily the maid knows how to make good tea
And gathers up fresh fallen snow to brew it.
When some toadies learned that these poems were the work of a son of the Rong Mansion who was only twelve or thirteen, they copied them out and praised them far and wide, while young gallants attracted by the romantic images in them inscribed them on their fans or walls and kept chanting and admiring them. As a result, Baoyu was flattered to find himself applied to for poems, calligraphy, paintings and inscriptions; and supplying these occupied much of his time every day.
But after a while this quiet life began to pall. Baoyu became restless, dissatisfied and bored. Most of the Garden’s inmates were innocent, ingenuous girls who laughed and romped all day long without any inhibi¬tions, quite unaware of his feelings. Then, too restless to stay with them he started fooling around outside, but still went on feeling disgruntled and frustrated.
His page Mingyan tried to think of some way to distract him and decided that there was only one thing that might appeal to him as a nov¬elty. He went to a bookshop and bought his master a pile of novels old and new, tales about imperial concubines and empresses, as well as ro¬mantic librettos. Baoyu had never read such works before. He felt he had discovered a treasure-trove.
“Don’t take them into the Garden,” Mingyan warned him. “If they were found I’d be in serious trouble.”
But how could Baoyu agree to this? After much hesitation he picked out several volumes written in a more refined style and smuggled these in, keeping them on the canopy over his bed to read when he was alone. The cruder and more indecent he kept hidden in his study outside the Garden.
One day, about the middle of the third month, carrying a copy of The Western Chamber he strolled after breakfast across the bridge above Seeping Fragrance Lock. There he sat down on a rock to read under a blossoming peach-tree. He had just reached the line
Red petals fall in drifts
when a gust of wind blew down such a shower of petals that he and his book were covered with them and the ground near by was carpeted with red. Afraid to trample on the flowers if he shook them off, Baoyu gath¬ered them into the skirt of his gown and carried them to the water’s edge where he shook them into the brook. They floated and circled there for a while, then drifted down the River of Seeping Fragrance.
Going back, he found the ground still strewn with blossoms and was wondering how to dispose of these when a voice behind him asked:
“What are you doing here?”
He turned and saw Daiyu, a hoe over one shoulder, a gauze bag hang¬ing from the hoe, and a broom in her hand.
“You’re just in time to sweep up these petals and throw them into the water,” cried Baoyu. “I’ve just thrown in a pile.”
“Not into the water,” objected Daiyu. “It may be clean here, but once it flows out of these grounds people empty all sorts of dirt and filth into it. The flowers would still be spoiled. I’ve a grave for flowers in that corner over there. I’m sweeping them up and putting them in this silk bag to bury them there. In time they’ll turn back into soil. Wouldn’t that be cleaner?”
Baoyu was delighted by this idea.
“Just let me put this book somewhere and I’ll help,” he offered.
“What book’s that?”
He hastily tucked it out of sight.
“Just the Doctrine of the Mean and The Great Learning.”2
“You’re trying to fool me again. You’d have done better to show me in the first place.”
“I don’t mind showing you, dear cousin, but you mustn’t tell anyone else. It’s a real masterpiece. You won’t be able to give a thought to eating once you start reading it.” He passed her the book.
Daiyu laid down her gardening tools to read, and the more she read the more enthralled she was. In less time than it takes for a meal she had read all the sixteen scenes. The sheer beauty of the language left a sweet taste in her mouth. After finishing reading she sat there entranced, recall¬ing some of the lines.
“Well, don’t you think it’s wonderful?” he asked.
She smiled.
“It’s certainly fascinating.”
“I’m the one ‘sick with longing,”’ he joked. “And yours is the beauty which caused ‘cities and kingdoms to fall.”’3
Daiyu flushed to the tips of her ears. Knitting her sulky brows, her eyes flashing with anger beneath half-drooping lids, she pointed a finger at Baoyu in accusal.
“You really are the limit! Bringing such licentious songs in here and, what’s more, insulting me with nasty quotations from them.” Her eyes brimmed with tears. “I’m going to tell uncle and aunt.”
She turned to go.
In dismay Baoyu barred her way.
“Forgive me this once, dear cousin! I shouldn’t have said that. But if I meant to insult you, I’ll fall into the pond tomorrow and let the scabby-¬headed tortoise swallow me, so that I change into a big turtle myself. Then when you become a lady of the first rank and go at last to your paradise in the west, I shall bear the stone tablet at your grave on my back for ever.
Daiyu burst out laughing at this and wiped her eyes.
“You’re so easy to scare, yet still you indulge in talking such non¬sense,” she teased. “Why, you’re nothing but ‘a flowerless sprout,’ ‘a lead spearhead that looks like silver.”’
It was Baoyu’s turn to laugh.
“Now listen to you! I’ll tell on you too.”
“You boast that you can ‘memorize a passage with one reading.’ Why can’t I ‘learn ten lines at a glance’?”
Laughing he put the book away.
“Never mind that. Let’s get on with burying the flowers.”
No sooner had they buried the blossom than Xiren appeared.
“So here you are,” she said. “I’ve been looking all over for you. The Elder Master is unwell and all the young ladies have gone to inquire after his health. The old lady wants you to go too. Come back quickly and change.”
Then Baoyu, taking his book, took leave of Daiyu and went back to his own room with Xiren.
With Baoyu gone and the other girls all out too, Daiyu did not know what to do and decided to go back to her own room. As she rounded the corner of Pear Fragrance Court where the twelve actresses were re¬hearsing, she heard sweet fluting and singing over the wall. Normally the
words of operas made little appeal to her, so she did not listen carefully; but now as she proceeded on her way two lines carried to her distinctly:
What a riot of brilliant purple and tender crimson,
Among the mined wells and crumbling walls.

Strangely touched by this, she stopped to listen. The singer went on:
What an enchanting sight on this fine morning,
But who is there that takes delight in the spring?

Daiyu nodded and sighed.
“So there are fine lines in these operas,” she thought. “What a pity that people just care for the spectacle without understanding the mean¬ing.”
Then, sorry to have missed a stanza through her preoccupation, she listened again and heard:
For you are as fair as a flower
And youth is slipping away like flowing water.

Daiyu’s heart missed a beat. And the next line
Alone you sit in your secluded chamber
affected her so much that she sank down on a rock to ponder the words.

For you are as fair as a flower
And youth is slipping away like flowing water.
They reminded her of a line in an old poem:

Water flows and flowers fall, knowing no pity....

and the lines from another poem:
Spring departs with the flowing water and fallen blossom, Far, far away as heaven from the world of men.
She compared this with the lines she had just read in The Western Cham¬ber:
Flowers fall, the water flows red,
Grief is infinite....

As she brooded over the meaning of all these verses, her heart ached and tears coursed down her cheeks. She might have remained there in a quandary had not someone come up behind her all of a sudden and given her a shove in the back. She turned to look.
But to know who it was, you must read the next chapter.
Truly:
She minds not her morning toilet, her embroidery at night; Facing the moon, cooling off in the breeze, she feels grief.

Chapter 24

The Drunken Diamond Proves Himself
Generous and Gallant
An Ambitious Girl Loses Her Handkerchief
as an Enticement


Daiyu's heart was touched, her thoughts were in a whirl, when some¬one came up from behind and shoved her in the back asking:
"What are you doing here all on your own?"
Startled, she looked round. It was Xiangling.
"You stupid creature to frighten me so," cried Daiyu. "Where have you sprung from?"
Xiangling giggled.
"I can't find our young lady anywhere. Your Zijuan is looking for you too. She says the Second Mistress has sent you some tea. Let's go back to your place, shall we?"
She took Daiyu by the hand and they went back to Bamboo Lodge, where they found two small flasks of new tea from the Palace sent over by Xifeng. The two girls sat down. If you ask what serious matters they discussed. These were merely the relative merits of different pieces of embroidery and tapestry. They also played a game of chess and read some passages from a book together before Xiangling took her leave.
But let us return to Baoyu. When Xiren fetched him back he discov¬ered Yuanyang leaning over the couch in his outer room examining some of Xiren's needlework.
"Where have you been?" she asked him. "The old lady is waiting for you. She wants you to go over to the other house to inquire after the Elder Master's health. You had better change quickly and go."
As Xiren went into the next room to fetch his clothes and boots, Baoyu sat on the edge of the couch and kicked off his shoes, waiting. He turned and noticed that Yuanyang was wearing a pink silk jacket, a sleeveless black satin jacket and a white silk sash. Her head, turned away from him, was bent over the needlework, and there was a flowered collar around her neck. Laying his cheek against the nape of the neck he inhaled her scent and could not resist stroking her, for her skin was just as white and smooth as Xiren's. Re mischievously nestled close to her.
"Good sister, let me taste the rouge on your lips!"
With this smiling appeal he clung to her like sticky toffee.
"Xiren!" called Yuanyang. "Come and look at this. All these years you've been with him, yet you still haven't taught him how to behave."
Xiren, walking in with her arms full of clothes, protested to Baoyu: "I wear out my tongue talking, but you still carry on like this. What's to become of you? If you go on in this way, you'll make it impossible for us to stay here."
She made him change quickly and go with Yuanyang to the front apart¬ment. After seeing the Lady Dowager he went out to where his pages and horse were waiting; but just as he was about to mount, Jia Lian arrived back from his father's house and, dismounting in front of Baoyu, exchanged a few words with him. At this point someone else came over to greet Baoyu too. This was a tall youth in his late teens with an oval face and intelligent, handsome appearance. But familiar though his face was. Baoyu could not remember his name or which branch of the clan he belonged to.
"Why are you staring at him like that?" asked Jia Lian. "Don't you know Yun, the son of Fifth Sister-in-law who lives in the back lane? "
"Of course. I can't think how I forgot." Baoyu asked after Yun's mother and inquired his business.
Indicating Jia Lian, the young man said, "I've come to have a word with Second Uncle. "
"You've grown very handsome since I saw you last." Baoyu grinned. "You could almost be my son.
"For shame!" Jia Lian chortled. "Your son? He's four or five years older than you"
Baoyu smiled.
"What age are you? "
"Eighteen."
Jia Yun had all his wits about him. He seized this chance to add: "As the proverb says. 'A grandfather in the cradle may have a grandson who leans on a stick.' I may be older than you but 'The highest mountain can't shut out the sun.' These last few years since my father died I've had no one to instruct me properly. If you don't think me too stupid to be your adopted son, Uncle Bao, that would be my great good fortune."
"Hear that?" Jia Lian laughed. "It's no joke adopting a son." With that he went inside.
"If you're free tomorrow," said Baoyu to Yun, 'lust drop in and see me. Don't learn their sneaky ways. I'm busy now but come to my study tomorrow. We can have a good talk and I'll show you round the Garden."
He swung himself into the saddle then and his pages escorted him to Jia She's house, where he found that his uncle had nothing worse than a cold. Having delivered his grandmother's message he paid his own re¬spects. Jia She stood up to reply to the Lady Dowager's inquiries after his health, then ordered a servant to take Baoyu to his wife.
Baoyu went to the back, to Lady Xing's apartment, and when she had risen to convey her respects to his grandmother he bowed on his own account. She made him sit beside her on the kang and asked after the rest of the family. While they sipped the tea she had ordered, Jia Cong came in to greet Baoyu.
"Did you ever see such a monkey?" asked Lady Xing. "Is that nanny of yours dead that she doesn't tidy you up? With that grubby face you look a regular dunce, not like the son of a cultured family."
Just then ha Huan and his nephew Jia Lan arrived together to pay their respects, and Lady Xing offered them chairs to sit on. But Huan so resented the sight of Baoyu sharing the same cushion with his aunt, who was fonding him and making much of him, that before long he signalled to Lan that they should leave. Lan had to comply, so they both got up to beg leave. Baoyu rose to go too, but Lady Xing stopped him with a smile.
"Just sit where you are. I've something else to say to you. "
He had to resume his seat. She then told the two others:
"When you get back, give my regards to your mothers. I'm so dizzy from the rumpus the girls have raised here that I won't keep you to dinner"
The two boys promised to do as she said and left.
"Did all the girls come?" asked Baoyu. "Where are they now?"
"After sitting here for a while they went off. They're at the back somewhere or other."
"You said you had something to tell me, aunt. What is it?"
"What have I got to say to you! It was only to ask you to stay for dinner with the girls. And I've something amusing to give you to take back."
They chatted until it was time for the meat. A table and chairs were arranged, the table laid, and they had dinner with the girls. Then Baoyu took his leave of Jia She and went home with his sister and cousins. After bidding goodnight to the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang they dispersed to their own rooms to rest.
But let us return to Jia Yun, who had gone in to see Jia Lian. He asked him:
"Have you any job for me yet?"
"Something did turn up the other day, but your aunt begged me to let Jia Qin have it. However, she said there's soon to be a lot of planting of flowers and trees in the Garden. As soon as that job comes up, she promises you can have it."
After a short silence Jia Yun said: "I'll just have to wait in that case. Please don't tell my aunt that I came today to ask. I'll mention it to her myself next time I see her. "
"Why should I mention it? What time do I have to gossip? Tomorrow I've got to set off at the fifth watch to make the trip to Xingyi and back on the same day. Wait until the day after to come back for news¬---but not before the first watch, I shan't be free till then." With that Jia Lian went inside to change his clothes.
On his way home from the Rong Mansion a scheme occurred to Jia Yun. He called on his maternal uncle Bu Shiren,1 who kept a perfumery from which he had just returned.
"What brings you here at such a late hour?" asked Bu after exchang¬ing greetings with his nephew.
"I've a favour to ask you, uncle. I need some Borneo camphor and musk. Could you possibly let me have four ounces of each on credit? I'll pay you by the Moon Festival without fail."
"Don't talk to me about credit." His uncle smiled coldly. "Some time ago one of my assistants gave goods worth several taels of silver on credit to a relative, who stilt hasn't paid up. We had to make good the loss between us. So we agreed never again to give credit to relatives or friends under pain of a twenty taels' fine. 
"In any case, those spices are in short supply. Even if you brought ready cash, a little shop like ours couldn't let you have so much. We'd have to try to get you some elsewhere. That's one thing.
"In the second place, you're obviously up to no good but want these things to do something foolish with them. Now don't go complaining that your uncle finds fault with you each time we meet! You young people have simply no sense. If you'd just think up some way to earn a few cash to keep yourself well fed and decently dressed, how pleased I should be!"
"You're quite right," uncle replied Jia Yun amiably. "When my father died I was too small to understand, but later my mother told me how grateful we should be to you for coming over to take things in hand and managing the funeral. And you know better than anyone else, uncle, that I didn't have any property or land left after my father's death which I squandered. Even the cleverest housewife can't cook a meal without rice. What do you expect me to do? You're lucky I'm not one of those thick-skinned people, for then I'd keep pestering you for three pecks of rice today, two pecks of beans tomorrow. What could you have done then, uncle?"
"Whatever your uncle has is yours for the asking, my boy. But as I keep telling your aunt, what worries me is that you won't use your head. Your best bet is to go to the big mansion. If you can't get to see the masters, pocket your pride and get on good terms with their stewards, and they may put some business in your way. The other day, out of town, I ran into the fourth son of your third uncle riding on a donkey with five carts behind him, taking forty of fifty novices to your family temple. His head is screwed on the right way, to get such a job."
This lecture was too much for Jia Yun, who rose to leave.
"What's the hurry?" asked his uncle. "Have a bite with us before you go.
"Are you crazy?" put in his wife before he had half finished. "I told you we've no rice left. All I've got for you is half a catty of noodles which I'm cooking for you now. Why pretend to be rich? If he stays he'll only go hungry."
"Just buy another half catty then," said Bu.
"Yinjie!" his wife called to her daughter "Go and ask Mrs. Wang across the road to lend us twenty or thirty cash---we'll pay her back tomorrow."
But by this time Jia Yun, murmuring. "Don't trouble," had already made himself scarce.
He left his uncle's house in a temper and was trudging home with lowered head, fuming over such shabby treatment, when he bumped into a drunkard. As Jia Yun started, the fellow swore:
"Are you blind, fuck you, charging into me like that?"
Before Jia Yun could get out of the way, the drunkard grabbed hold of him. Looking closer he saw that it was his neighbour Ni Er, a rowdy who lived on usury and his winnings in gambling-dens. He was always drinking and getting into fights. Having just collected some interest from one of his creditors, he was lurching drunkenly home when he bumped into Jia Yun. Spoiling for a fight, he raised a menacing fist.
"Hold on, old chap! It's me."
The voice sounded familiar Peering with bleary eyes, Ni Er recog¬nized Jia Yun and let go of him. Staggering, he said with a smile:
"So it's Master ha. Strike me dead! Where are you off to?"
"Don't ask me. I've never been so snubbed in my life!"
"Never mind. Tell me who's been bullying you. I'll settle accounts with him for you. If anyone in the three streets or six lanes near by, no matter who he is, offends a neighbour of the Drunken Diamond, I'll see to it that his relatives are scattered and his home destroyed."
"Take it easy, old chap. Listen to me." Jia Yun described how Bu had cold-shouldered him.
Ni Er was highly incensed.
"If he weren't your uncle, wouldn't I just blast him! How madden¬ing! Now don't worry. I've a few taels of silver here. If you want to buy something, just take it. On one condition though. All these years we've been neighbours, and everybody knows I'm a money-lender, yet you've never once asked for a loan. I don't know whether you don't want to dirty your hands having any dealings with a racketeer, or whether you're afraid of getting involved, thinking my interest too high. If so, I'm not asking now for any interest on this loan. Not for an I.O.U. either But if you're afraid you'll be lowering yourself, I won't presume to lend it. We can just go our different ways. "
With that he produced a packet of silver from his pouch.
Jia Yun thought, "Ni Er may be a rascal but he's open-handed and has the name of standing up boldly for his friends. It would be a mistake to annoy him by refusing. I'll take his silver and later pay him back double."
He said, "I know you're a real sport, old chap. I did think of ap¬proaching you, but was afraid you might ignore someone so useless, as all your friends are such bold and capable people. I thought if I asked for a loan you'd be bound to turn me down. But now since you're so gener¬ous I can't refuse. I'll send you an I. 0. U. when I get home."
Ni Er bellowed with laughter
"How you talk! But I won't hear of it," he declared. "You spoke of 'friends.' Well then, how can I charge you interest? If I did, that wouldn't be the act of a friend. Let's cut the cackle. As you don't look down on me and this is only a paltry sum---a mere fifteen taels thirty cents -take it to buy what you need. If you insist on writing an I. O. U. I won't give you the silver but lend it to others whom I expect to pay interest."
"All right," said Jia Yun, accepting the sliver. "I'll not write any I.O.U. So don't blaze up!"
"What you'd just said wasn't right," Ni Er chuckled. "It's dark now so I won't invite you to have a drink. I have some business to see to. You'd better go back. I'll trouble you to tell my family to lock up early and turn in, as I shan't be home tonight. If they want me for anything urgent, our daughter can come and fetch me tomorrow morning. They'll find me with the horse-dealer, Short-Legged Wang." So saying, he reeled away.
Marvelling at this stroke of luck Jia Yun reflected, "Ni Er is certainly a character! But what if he's only generous in his cups? Suppose he asks for a hundred per cent interest tomorrow?" This worried him for a while.
Then he decided, "Never mind, once that job comes my way I can pay him back double."
He took the silver to a money shop to be weighed and was delighted to find that Ni Er was honest and it was indeed fifteen taels and 34.2 cents. He first went next-door and gave Ni Er's message to his wife before going home. His mother, who was rolling thread on the kang, asked where he had been all day. For fear of vexing her he made no mention of going to see her brother.
"I was waiting for Uncle Lian in the west mansion," he said. "Have you had your meal?"
"Yes, and I've kept you yours. "
She told the maid to fetch it. It was already time to light the lamp, and after supper Jia Yun went straight to bed.
As soon as he was up and dressed the next morning, he went to a large perfumery outside the South Gate and bought camphor and musk, which he took to the Rong Mansion. Having first made sure that Jia Lian had indeed left, he went to the gate of his courtyard at the back. Some pages were sweeping the yard with tong-handled brooms. Presently Zhou Rui's wife came out.
"Stop sweeping," she told them. "The mistress is coming out."
Jia Yun swiftly stepped forward to ask:
"Where is Second Aunt going?"
"The old lady has sent for her," said Mrs. Zhou. "To cut out some clothes, I fancy."
That same moment Xifeng emerged with a throng of attendants. Know¬ing her weakness for flattery and ceremonial, Jia Yun stepped forward respectfully, saluted her with great deference, and inquired after her health.
Xifeng hardly glanced at him, however, merely asking as she walked on how his mother was and why she never called.
"She is not too well, aunt," he replied. "She often thinks of you and would like to come, but she can't get away.
Xifeng laughed.
"What a liar you are! You wouldn't have said that if I hadn't asked about her."
"May lightning strike me if I dare to tie to my seniors!" protested Jia Yun. "Only last night she was speaking of you, aunt. She said, 'Your aunt's delicate yet look at all she has on her hands. I don't know where she finds the energy to manage everything so well. Anyone less efficient would be quite worn out.'"
Xifeng beamed at this and involuntarily halted.
"Why pray, should you and your mother gossip about me like that behind my back?"
"The fact is that a very good friend of mine, who owns a perfumery, has bought the rank of an assistant sub-prefect and was recently ap¬pointed to a post somewhere in Yunnan. Since he is taking the whole family with him, he's decided to close the shop. He's been going through his stock, giving some things away, selling others cheap, and presenting the more valuable stuff to relatives and friends. That's how I acquired some Borneo camphor and musk. My mother and I agreed that if we tried to sell it we wouldn't be able to get the proper price, because who is there willing to spend so much on such things? Even the richest fami¬lies would only want a few grams at the most. And even if we gave the stuff away, we couldn't think of anyone who deserves to use so much valuable perfume as these---in fact he may sell the stuff to someone else for next to nothing. Then I thought of you, aunt, and remembered the packets of money you’ve spent in the past on such things. This year, what with the Imperial Consort in the Palace and the Dragon-Boat Fes¬tival coming, I'm sure you'll be needing ten times the usual amount. So after thinking it over we decided the most appropriate thing to do was to make a present of it to you, aunt, as a token of esteem. This way it won't be wasted."
He took out a brocade-covered box and respectfully raised it in both hands to present it.
Xifeng, as it so happened, needed some festival gifts and had been thinking of buying some spices and aromatic herbs. Gratified and de¬lighted by this unexpected gift and Jia Yun's little speech, she told Fenger:
"Take my nephew's present home and give it to Pinger"
Then to Jia Yun she said, "I see you have good sense. No wonder your uncle is always telling me how sensibly you talk and what tact you have."
Jia Yun, hearing this, felt he was getting somewhere. He stepped closer "Has uncle been talking to you about me then?" he asked signifi¬cantly.
Xifeng was tempted to tell him about the job of supervising tree-plant¬ing which they had in mind for him, but was afraid he might take it the wrong way and imagine she was offering it in return for a few aromatics. So she refrained, saying not a word about it. And after a few casual remarks she went on to see the Lady Dowager. Jia Yun had to go home without having broached the subject.
As Baoyu had invited him the previous day to call on him in his study, after lunch he went back and made his way to Luminous Clouds Studio outside the ceremonial gate leading to the Lady Dowager's apartments. He found Beiming having a game of chess with Chuyao and squabbling over a move. Four other pages, Yingchuan, Saohua, Tiaoyun and Banhe, were up on the roof robbing a bird's nest. As Jia Yun entered the court¬yard he stamped his foot.
"Up to your monkey-tricks again! Can't you see a visitor's come?"
Hearing this, all the pages scampered off. Jia Yun went into the study and took a seat.
"Has Master Bao been here today?" he asked.
"No, he hasn't. If you want to talk to him, I'll scout round and find out his whereabouts for you." Beiming went out.
For the time it takes for a meal Jia Yun inspected the calligraphy, paintings and curios. Then, as Beiming had not returned, he looked round for the other pages; but they had all gone off to amuse themselves. He was feeling put out and bored when a sweet voice just outside the door called:
"Brother!"
Looking out he discovered a maid of sixteen or seventeen, a slender, neat, clever-looking girl. She was shrinking back at sight of Jia Yun when Beiming returned.
"Good," he said. "I was looking for a messenger.
Jia Yun walked out to question the page, who told him:
"I waited for a long time, but nobody came out. This is one of the girls from Happy Red Court." He turned to her "Be a good girl and tell him, will you, that the Second Master from the back lane has called."
On learning that Jia Yun belonged to her masters' clan, the maid did not avoid him as she had before but shot him one or two penetrating glances.
"Never mind about the back lane," he joked. "Just tell him Yun has come.
The girl gave a faint smile.
"If you please, sir, I think you'd better go home and come back to-morrow, I'll tell him this evening if I have a chance."
"What do you mean?" asked Beiming.
"He missed his nap this afternoon, so he's sure to dine early and won't be coming here this evening. Are you going to make this gentle¬man wait and go hungry? He'd much better go home now and come back tomorrow. Because even if someone promised to take a message, he mightn't deliver it."
The girl spoke so concisely and prettily that Jia Yun wanted to ask her name. But as she worked for Baoyu he thought better of it, simply re¬marking:
"Right you are. I'll come tomorrow."
Beiming urged him to have a cup of tea before leaving.
"No thanks," said Jia Yun. "I have some other business." Walking off as he spoke, he looked back at the girl still standing there, and then made his way home.
The next day Jia Yun went back. In front of the main gate he ran into Xifeng on her way to the other house to pay her respects. She had just got into her carriage, but at sight of Jia Yun she ordered a servant to stop him and called to him with a smile through the carriage window:
"You've got a nerve, Yun, playing that trick on me! I see now why you gave me that present. You had a favour to ask. Yesterday your uncle told me you'd already approached him."
"Please don't bring that up, aunt," he pleaded, smiling. "I'm sorry I ever asked him. If I'd know how things stood I'd have come to you in the first place, and it would all have been settled long ago. I didn't know it was no use appealing to uncle."
Xifeng laughed.
"No wonder! So it was after failing with him that you came to me yesterday."
"That's not fair, aunt. I had no such idea in my mind. If I had, wouldn't I have appealed to you yesterday? But since you know about it now, I'll bypass uncle and beg you, aunt, to show me some kindness."
"What a roundabout way of doing things!" She smiled sarcastically. "You make it hard for me. If you'd told me earlier, this little business wouldn't have taken so long. Some trees and flowers are to be planted in the Garden, and I was looking for someone to put in charge. If you'd spoken before, it could have been fixed up some time ago."
"Well, you can put me in charge, aunt."
Xifeng thought for a moment.
"I think better not. Suppose we wait until next New Year and give you the bigger job of buying fireworks and lanterns?"
"Let me have this job first, dear aunt. If I do all fight in this, you can give me the other later."
"You do look ahead, don't you?" She chuckled. "All right. But I wouldn't have bothered if your uncle hadn't put in a word for you. I shall be back after breakfast, so come about noon for the money and you can start your planting the day after tomorrow."
She ordered the servants to start the carriage and left.
Overjoyed, Jia Yun went to Luminous Clouds Studio and asked for Baoyu, only to find he had gone out early that morning to call on the Prince of Beijing. He sat quietly there till noon when he heard that Xifeng was back, and then wrote a receipt and went to get the tally. He waited outside the courtyard while a servant announced him. Then Caiming came out and took his receipt. When the amount to be drawn and the date had been filled in, the page returned it to him with the tally. He saw to his delight that the sum entered was two hundred taels and went straight to the treasury to get the silver, then home to inform his mother, who re¬joiced with him.
At the fifth watch the next morning, he sought out Ni Er to return his loan, and seeing that he was in funds Ni Er took the money.
Then Jia Yun took fifty taels to the house of Fang Chun, a gardener who lived outside the West Gate, from whom he bought trees.
To revert now to Baoyu. His invitation to Jia Yun that day had been no more than a rich lordling's way of talking, and not being seriously meant was soon forgotten. Upon his return from the palace of the Prince of Beijing in the evening, he paid his respects to his grandmother and mother before going back to the Garden, where he took off his formal clothes and waited for his bath.
It so happened that Xiren had been asked over by Baochai to help braid some knot-buttons; Qiuwen and Bihen had gone to hurry the ser¬vants bringing water; Tanyun had asked leave for her mother's birthday; and Sheyue was ill at home. The other maids who did the rougher work, not expecting to be summoned, had gone off in search of their friends. Thus for a short while Baoyu was all alone. And precisely at this moment he wanted some tea. He called several times before two or three old nannies came in. These he hastily waved away saying:
"It's all right. I don't need you."
Then the old women had to withdraw.
As none of the girls were about, Baoyu fetched a bowl himself and went to get the teapot.
"Don't scald yourself, Master Bao. Let me do that," called a voice from behind. A girl stepped forward and took the bowl from him.
Baoyu started.
"Where did you spring from?" he asked. "What a fright you gave me!"
Handing him the tea she answered: "I was in the back yard. Didn't you hear me come in by the back door, Master Bao?"
Baoyu sized her up as he sipped his tea. Her clothes were by no means new, but with her fine black hair gathered in a knot, her oval face and her trim, slender figure, she looked altogether a most sweet, pretty girl.
"Do you work here?" he asked with a smile.
"Yes," she answered.
"How is it, in that case, I've never seen you?"
The maid laughed mockingly.
"There are plenty of us you haven't seen. I'm not the only one by any means. How could you know me? I don't fetch and carry for you, or wait on you personally."
"Why not?"
"That's asking! But I've something to report, sin Yesterday a young gentleman called Yun came to see you. I told Beiming to send him away as I thought you were busy, and asked him to come back this morning. But by then you'd already gone to call on the prince."
Just at this moment Qiuwen and Bihen staggered back, laughing and chatting, holding up their skirts, a bucket between them from which the water was splashing. This maid hurried to relieve them of their load.
"You've wet my skirt," Qiuwen complained to Bihen.
"You trod on my shoe!" Bihen retorted.
Looking at this girl who had appeared so abruptly, they saw it was Xiaohong. Both put down the bucket in surprise and hurried in. They were very put out to find Baoyu on his own. As soon as they had pre¬pared his bath and helped him undress, they closed the door behind them and went round again to the back to find Xiaohong.
"What were you doing in there just now?" they demanded.
"I hadn't been in," she said. "I couldn't find my handkerchief, so] was looking for it at the back when Master Bao called for tea. As none of you sisters was about, I went in to pour it for him. And that's when you turned up."
Qiuwen spat in her face.
"Shameless slut! I told you to go and hurry them with the water, but you said you were busy and made us go instead. Then you seized this chance to wait on him here yourself. You're making your way up, aren't you? Think we can't keep up with you, eh? Have a look at yourself in a mirror. Are you fit to serve Master Pao tea?"
Bihen chimed in: "Tomorrow we'll tell the others that if he wants tea or water or anything, we needn't stir---she'll do it."
"The rest of us may just as well clear oft leaving her on her own here."
They were laying into Xiaohong in turn when an old nanny arrived with a message from Xifeng.
"Someone's bringing gardeners tomorrow to plant trees, so you must watch out. Don't go sunning your clothes and skirts all over the place.
All the artificial hills will be screened off. You're not to go running wild."
"Who'll be in charge of the workmen?" asked Qiuwen.
"Some Master Yun from the back lane," was the answer
The name meant nothing to Qiuwen and Bihen, who put some other questions; but Xiaohong knew it must be the man she had met the day before in the study outside.
Now Xiaohong's family name was Lin and her childhood name was Hongyu (Red Jade): but because "yu" jade) came in the names Daiyu and Baoyu she was called Xiaohong instead. Her family had served the Jias for generations, and her father was now in charge of various farms and properties outside. Xiaohong was sixteen this year. When first sent into Grand View Garden she had been assigned to Happy Red Court, which was pleasantly quiet at the time. But after the girls and Baoyu were commanded to move there to live and these rooms were taken by him, simple as Xiaohong was, with her good looks she was foolishly ea¬ger to climb up in the world. She had long been looking for a chance to attract Baoyu's attention, but his other attendants were too smart to al¬low her to put herself forward. Today her opportunity had come, but her hopes had been dashed by the spitefulness of Qiuwen and Bihen. She was feeling most disgruntled when the old nanny mentioned that Jia Yun would be coming, and that put a new idea into her head. She went deject¬edly back to her room and lay down to think it oven. As she tossed and turned someone called softly through the window:
"Xiaohong! I've found your handkerchief for you."
She ran out to look. It was no other than Jia Yun. With a blush of confusion she asked:
"Where did you find it sir?"
Jia Yun laughed.
"Come here and I'll tell you."
He grabbed for her. She turned frantically and fled, but stumbled over the threshold and woke with a start. So it was only a dream!
If you want to know the upshot, read the next chapter

Chapter 25

Five Devils Invoked by Sorcery Take Possession
of Baoyu and Xifeng
Two Sages See the jade of Spiritual Understanding
in the Dream of Red Mansions

Xiaohong fell into a doze, her thoughts running on love. When Jia Yun tried to seize her she turned and fled, but stumbling over the threshold woke with a start to the realization that it was only a dream. She tossed and turned sleeplessly until day dawned, when some other maids called her to help them sweep and fetch water Without washing her face or putting on any make-up, she casually smoothed her hair in front of the mirror and hastily rinsed her hands, after which she lied a sash round her waist and set about her work.
Now Baoyu had been so struck by Xiaohong the previous day that he would have liked to have her wait on him, but he feared this might upset Xiren and the others; besides, there was no saying how the girl would turn out. If she proved satisfactory, well and good; if not, sending her away again would be awkward. So he got up moodily and sat there brood-ing, not even troubling to comb his hair or wash.
Presently the shutters were taken down and through the gauze win¬dow he had a clear view of the maids sweeping the courtyard. All of them were powdered and rouged, with flowers or willow shoots in their hair, but he saw no sign of Xiaohong. He slipped on his shoes and strolled out, ostensibly to look at the flowers, gazing this way and that until he glimpsed, half-hidden by a crab-apple tree, a figure leaning over the balustrade in the southwest corner of the covered walk. He strolled round the tree and looked more closely. Yes, it was the girl of the day before, apparently lost in thought. He was wondering whether to accost her when Bihen fetched him in again to wash. He had no choice but to go back.
And now Xiaohong was aroused from her abstraction by the sight of Xiren beckoning. She went to see what was wanted.
"Our watering-can's broken and hasn't been mended yet," said Xiren.
"I want you to go and borrow one of Miss Lin’s. "
The girl set off on this errand to Bamboo Lodge. As she crossed Green Mist Bridge the sight of the artificial hills screened oil reminded her that this was the day for tree-planting. Some distance away a band of men could be seen digging under the supervision of Jia Yun, seated on a nearby boulder. Not having the courage to approach him, she proceeded quietly to Bamboo Lodge, borrowed a watering-can and took it back, then lay down in her room in low spirits. The others, assuming that she was feeling unwell, paid no attention. And the day dragged by, uneventful.

The day after that was the birthday of Wang Ziteng's wife, and the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang had been invited to the celebrations. Since her mother-in-law did not go, neither did Lady Wang; but Aunt Xue, Xifeng, the three Jia girls, Baochai and Baoyu went along, not re¬turning till the evening.
It so happened that when Jia Huan came back from school Lady Wang had told him to copy out for her some incantations invoking the Buddhist guardian deities, the dvarapalas. The boy took a seat on the kang in her room, ordered candles to be lighted, and set about writing with a great show of importance. Now he called Caiyun to pour him tea, now told Yuchuan to trim the wicks of his candies, now complained that Jinchuan was standing in his light. As all the maids disliked him they took no notice -- all except Caixia who still kept in with him. She poured him some tea and, noticing that Lady Wang was chatting with some other people, she whispered:
"Be quiet. Don't be such a nuisance. You're only making yourself unpopular."
"Don't try to fool me," he retorted. "I can see what's happening. Now you're friendly with Baoyu, you mean to ignore me."
Caixia bit her lips and with one finger rapped him on the forehead.
"You ungrateful thing! Like the dog that bit Lü Dongbin---you bite the hand that feeds you
Just then Xifeng came in to pay her respects, and Lady Wang wanted a detailed account of the party---the other guests, the operas and the feast. Before long Baoyu, too, arrived. Having greeted his mother and made some polite conversation, he told the maids to help him off with his chaplet, gown and boots, then nestled up to his mother As she stroked and caressed him he put his arms round her neck and chattered.
"You've had too much to drink again, my son," scolded Lady Wang. "Row hot your face is! If you go on tossing about like this, the wine may go up to your head. Why not lie down and rest a while."
She called for a pillow and Baoyu, lying down behind her, asked Caixia to come and massage him. But when he joked with her she cold-shoul¬dered him and kept her eyes on Jia Huan. Baoyu took her hand.
"Do be nice to me, sister!" he begged.
Caixia snatched her hand away.
"If you do that again, I'll shout," she warned him.
This was overheard by Jia Huan, who had always hated Baoyu. At the sight of him teasing Caixia, he felt ready to explode with jealousy. He dared not protest outright, but he had mulled over a plan and now that they were so close he saw his chance to put it into action. Re would blind Baoyu with burning candle-wax'. Deliberately knocking over the candle¬stick, he splashed the hot melted wax on his half-brother's face. Baoyu's cry of pain made everyone jump for fright. They hastily brought over the standard lamp as well as several lamps from other rooms, and saw with consternation that Baoyu's face was covered with wax. Frantic and fu¬rious, Lady Wang ordered the servants to wipe it off, and then rounded on Jia Ruan.
"What a dunderhead!" scolded Xifeng with a smile on her face, as she scrambled on to the kang to attend to Baoyu. "Huan's not fit to mix in decent company. His mother really ought to bring him up better."
This remark was the cue for Lady Wang to stop abusing Jia Huan and to send for the concubine Zhao.
"Why don't you teach that spiteful brat of yours to behave himself?" she fumed. "Time and again I've overlooked this sort of thing, but it only makes you worse. Conceited creature!"
Although the concubine was eaten up by jealousy of Xifeng and Baoyu, she dared not show it either Now that Jia Ruan had made such trouble, she had no alternative but to accept these taunts meekly and show con¬cern for Baoyu. His left cheek was badly blistered, but luckily no damage had been done to his eyes. Lady Wang's heart ached for him even as she wondered how she was to answer for this to her mother-in-law tomor¬row. She vented her anger again on the concubine, then went on soothing Baoyu and dabbing his cheeks with a disinfectant ointment.
"It stings a bit but it's nothing serious," Baoyu assured her. "Tomor¬row if grandmother asks, I'll say I scalded myself."
"She'll scold us all the same for our negligence," retorted Xifeng smiling. "There'll be a row anyway, no matter what you say."
Lady Wang then had Baoyu escorted back to his rooms, where Xiren and the others were horrified by his appearance.
Daiyu had been lonely all day in Baoyu's absence, and sent several times that evening to ask whether he was back. When she learned of his accident she hurried over to find him in front of the mirror, his left cheek daubed with ointment. Imagining that the burn was serious, she approached to have a look; but Baoyu, knowing how fastidious she was, covered his cheek with one hand and waved her away. Daiyu knew her own weak¬ness; she also knew that Baoyu was afraid of disgusting her
"I just wanted to see where the burn is," she said gently. "Why do you have to hide it?"
She then came closer and turned his head to have a look.
"Does it hurt much?" she asked.
"Not really. I'll be all right in a couple of days. "
After keeping him company for a while she left, feeling rather de¬pressed.
The next day when Baoyu saw the Lady Dowager, although he took the blame for the burn on himself, sure enough she reprimanded all his attendants.
Another day went by and they had a visit from Priestess Ma, Baoyu's Buddhist godmother. The sight of him gave her a shock and she asked with concern what had happened. Learning that he had been scalded she nodded and sighed, then passed her fingers over his face with some mut¬tered incantations.
"He'll be all right now," she declared. "This was just a chance mis¬fortune. You don't know, Old Ancestress, all the solemn warnings there are in the Buddhist sutras about the sons born into noble families, who are always dogged by evil spirits who pinch them, nip them, knock their rice-¬bowls out of their hands, or trip them up on the road. That's why so many sons of great houses die young.
"Is there no way to prevent it?" asked the Lady Dowager anxiously.
"Of course there is. Just do more good deeds on his behalf. The sutras tell us of a great Bodhjsattva in the west whose glory illumines all around and whose special charge it is to bring to light the evil spirits in dark places. If faithful believers worship him devoutly, their descendants are assured of peace and health and no evil spirits can get possession of them."
"What offerings does this Bodhisattva require?"
"Nothing of any great value. Apart from incense and candles, a few catties of oil every day for the Big Lamp. For that lamp is a manifestation of the Bodhisattva. It has to be kept burning day and night."
"Row much oil does it take to keep it burning for one whole day and night? If you tell me the exact amount, I should like to donate it."
"There's no fixed amount, it's up to the donor. Several of the royal consorts have presented offerings of this kind in our convent. The mother of the Prince of Nanan has made a generous donation, forty-eight catties of oil a day and another catty of lampwicks, so her lamp is almost as large as a water vat. The lady of the Marquis of Jintian comes next with twenty-four catties. Other families give anything from five to three or one---it doesn't matter Some poor families who can't afford so much may just donate a quarter or half a catty, but we keep a lamp burning for them just the same. "
The Lady Dowager nodded thoughtfully.
"Of course, more can be given for parents or elders," continued the priestess. "But if our Old Ancestress gives too much for Baoyu, it won't be good for the boy and may even spoil his luck. Five catties or seven at the most would be ample."
"Make it five catties a day then," said the Lady Dowager. "You can collect a month's donation at a time."
"May Amida Buddha the Merciful Great Bodhisattva preserve you!" cried the grateful priestess.
The old lady ordered the servants, "In future when Baoyu goes out give his pages a few strings of cash to distribute as alms to bonzes, Tao¬ists and the poor. "
The priestess sat with them there a little longer, then made the rounds of different apartments, coming presently to that of the concubine Zhao who, after exchanging greetings, ordered tea. It was clear from a heap of satin remnants on the kang that she had been making slippers.
"I could do with some silk for uppers myself," remarked Ma. "Can you spare me a few odd pieces? I don't mind what colour."
"You won't find anything good in that lot," said the concubine with a sigh. "Good things don't come my way. That's all there is. But if you don't think them too bad you're welcome to choose a couple."
The priestess picked out several pieces and tucked them in her sleeves.
"The other day," the concubine went on, "I sent over five hundred cash. Did you sacrifice to the God of Medicine for me?"
"Yes, days ago.
"Amida Buddha!" She sighed again. "If I'd only more in hand I'd be giving oftener. I just haven't the means.
"Don't worry. Just hold out till Master Huan grows up and gets an official post. Then you can do all the good works you want."
"Well, well, don't talk about that!" The concubine snorted. "You can see how things are. My son and I are the least and lowest in this house¬hold. Of course Baoyu is the precious dragon of the house. Mind you, he's still just a child with winning ways, so I've nothing to say if his elders dote on him. But I refuse to crawl to her" She held up two fingers.
"You mean the second young mistress, Madam Lian?"
The concubine hastily signed to her to be quiet. Raving raised the portière to make sure that no one was there, she came back and whis¬pered:
"She's a terror, a real terror! If she doesn't end by shifting all the property here to her mother's house, I'm not a human being!"
The priestess, hearing this, decided to sound her out further.
"You don't have to tell me, it's plain enough," she said. "It's kind of you to put up with it and let her have her own way. That's fine."
"What else can we do, for goodness' sake? Who would have the nerve to say a word against her?"
The priestess gave a short laugh. After a moment's pause she said:
"I don't want to talk like a trouble-maker, but I do think if you don't stick up for yourselves you can't very well blame others. Even if you dare not tackle her openly you could have done something in secret, instead of letting things drag on like this."
Sensing something behind this, the concubine brightened up.
"In secret? Do explain how," she cried. "I've thought of that, but there's no one capable of doing it. If you'll show me some way, I'll make it well worth your while."
"Amida Buddha, don't ask me that," protested the priestess, although well aware that they both had the same thing in mind. "What do I know about such matters? No, that would be a sin, a wicked sin."
"Come on, you're always good to those in trouble. Are you going to stand by and watch that woman trample us, mother and child, to death? Or are you afraid I shan't be able to pay you?"
Ma smiled.
"It's right to say that I'm sorry to see you and your son bullied, but it's wrong of you to talk about paying me. Why, even if I hoped for some reward, what have you got that could tempt me?"
The concubine felt that Ma was yielding.
"Row can a smart woman like you be so dense?" she asked. "If you know some good magic to get rid of those two, the family property's bound to come to my son. When that happens you can have anything you want."
The priestess lowered her head for a while.
"When that happens," she said at last, "and everything's in the bag, unless I've something in writing you'll just ignore me. "
"That's no problem," said the concubine. "Though I haven't got much at the moment, I've saved a few taels of silver and I have some clothes and trinkets too. You can take some of them to be going on with. And I can write you a promissory note and, if you like, find a witness too, so that you can be sure I'll pay you in full later on."
"Do you really mean that?"
"How could] lie to you on such a matter?"
The concubine then called in a trusted old servant to whom she whis¬pered certain instructions. The woman went out, returning after a while with a promissory note for five hundred taels. Concubine Zhao pressed her fingerprints on this, then opened her chest and took out some loose silver. This she showed to the priestess.
"Take this first to spend on offerings. How's that?"
At the sight of this gleaming pile of silver and the promissory note, the priestess did not scruple to assent with alacrity. First she put away the silver and then the note. Next she rummaged in her waistband for a while and fished out twelve paper figures -- two of human beings and ten of devil~ with white hair and blue faces -- which she gave to the concubine.
"Write the eight characters of their horoscopes on these two figures,” she whispered. "Then put them, with five devils each, in their beds. That" all you have to do. I shall do my magic at home. It's sure to work. Mind you're very careful, and don't look alarmed."
They were interrupted by the arrival of a maid from Lady Wang.
"So here you are," she said to the concubine. "Her Ladyship's wait¬ing for you."
Then the two women parted company.

But let us return to Daiyu. Now that Baoyu's burn kept him indoors she often dropped in for a chat. Today after lunch she did some reading but soon became bored with the book; then she did a little needlework with Zijuan and Xueyan, but found this even more tedious. So she stood for a while leaning against the doorway in a brown study, before stepping out to look at the bamboo shoots sprouting below the steps. And then hardly knowing what she did, she stepped out of the courtyard. There was no one in sight in the Garden, nothing to be seen but the brightness flowers and the shadows of willows, nothing to be heard but birdsong and gurgling streams. And so she made her way to Happy Red Court. Son maids on the terrace there, having just fetched water, were watching the thrushes have their bath. Inside there was laughter and going in she found Li Wan, Xifeng and Baochai assembled there. At sight of her they smiled.
"Here comes another!"
"Were invitations sent out that you're here in force?" asked Daiyu jokingly.
"I sent you two canisters of tea the other day," interposed Xifeng. "Where were you?"
"Oh, it had slipped my mind. Thank you very much."
"How did you like it?” Xifeng asked.
"It's all right but I didn't care for it much," put in Baoyu. "I don't know how the rest of you found it."
"The flavour was quite delicate, but the colour wasn't too good," remarked Baochai.
"That was tribute tea from Siam," Xifeng told them. "Personally, I didn't find it as good as the kind we drink every day."
"I liked it," retorted Daiyu. "Different people have different tastes."
"In that case you can have mine," offered Baoyu.
"If you really like it I've plenty more," said Xifeng.
"Fine. I'll send a maid to fetch it," Daiyu promised.
"No need," rejoined Xifeng. "I'll have it sent round. I was going to send over to you tomorrow anyway to ask a favour."
"Listen to her!" cried Daiyu. "Just take a little tea from her and she starts ordering you about."
Xifeng chuckled.
"Asked a favour, you make such a fuss! Over drinking tea too. 'Drink our family's tea, a daughter-in-law to be'!"
As the whole party burst out laughing, Daiyu blushed and turned her head away, saying nothing.
Li Wan observed with a smile to Baochai, "Our second sister-in-law will have her joke."
"Joke?" Daiyu spat. "I call it disgustingly vulgar."
"Are you dreaming? What's wrong with being our daughter-in-law?" teased Xifeng, then pointed at Baoyu. "Look, isn't he handsome enough for you? Isn't his status good enough for you? Isn't his family rich enough for you'? Who could think it a bad match in any respect?"
Daiyu rose at once to go.
"You're offended," cried Baochai. "Come back, Daiyu! It'll spoil the fun if you go."
She ran after Daiyu to stop her. But at the doorway they were inter¬cepted by the concubines Zhao and Zhou, who had come to inquire after Baoyu. Li Wan, Baochai and Baoyu invited them to sit down. Xifeng, however, went on talking with Daiyu and ignored them. Baochai was just about to speak when a maid sent by Lady Wang announced that Wang Ziteng's wife had called and would like to see the young ladies. Li Wan at once urged Xifeng and the girls to go over, and the two concubines also took a hasty leave of Baoyu.
"I can't go out," said Baoyu. "Whatever happens, don't let my aunt come over here! Do wait a bit, Cousin Lin. I've something to tell you."
Xifeng, hearing this, turned to Daiyu with a smile.
"You'd better stay. You're wanted."
She pushed the girl back into the room and went off with Li Wan.
Baoyu, left alone with Daiyu, clasped her sleeve and smiled but could not get a word out. She could not help blushing and tried to break away.
"Aiya!" he cried suddenly. "Row my head aches!"
"Serves you right. Buddha be praised."
The next moment he let out a piercing cry.
"I'm dying!"
He leapt several feet into the air, babbling and raving. Daiyu and the maids rushed in panic to tell the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang; and as Wang Ziteng's wife was with them, the whole party hurried over. By now Baoyu had turned the whole place upside down in search of a sword or stick to kill himself with. His grandmother and mother shook with ter¬ror, bursting into loud lamentations for their darling. At once the whole household was thrown into confusion as everyone flocked to the Garden---from Jia She, Lady Xing, Jia Zheng, Jia Lian, Jia Huan, Jia Rong, Jia Yun, Jia Ping, Aunt Xue and Xue Pan down to Zhou Rui's wife and all the other female servants.
They were all in a great commotion and wondering what to do when in rushed Xifeng, brandishing a bright steel sword, with which she was trying to cut down all the chickens, dogs and people in her way. This was even more staggering! Zhou Rui's wife, aided by some of the stronger and braver maids, managed to overpower her and disarm her. They then carried her back to her room where Pinger and Fenger gave way to a storm of weeping.
Even Jia Zheng was quite distracted, trying to attend to both Baoyu and Xifeng at once. The others, it goes without saying, were still more distraught. But of them all Xue Pan was the most frantic, being afraid that in the crush his mother might be knocked over, Baochai stared at, or Xiangling exposed to indignities -- for he knew what libertines Jia Zhen and the rest were. Then, his eye suddenly falling on Daiyu, he was so enraptured by her charms that he almost melted on the spot.
By now proposals of all kinds were being made. Some suggested calling in exorcists to drive out evil spirits; some, getting a witch to lure them out by dancing; others recommended the Taoist Zhang from the Jade Emperor's Temple.... Pandemonium reigned as they tried all con¬ceivable remedies together with incantations, divination and prayers. But all to no avail. And at sunset Wang Ziteng's wife took her leave.
Next day Wang Ziteng came in person to make inquiries. This was followed by visits from young Marquis Shi's wife, the brothers and rela¬tions of Lady Xing, and the wives of other family connections. Some brought charm water. Others sent round bonzes and Taoists. Still nothing proved of any use.
Baoyu and Xifeng had fallen into a coma. They lay on their beds burning with fever and babbling deliriously. As the night wore on, be¬cause none of the maids or nannies dared go near them, they were car¬ried to Lady Wang's quarters where some pages in the charge of Jia Yun kept watch in turn. The Lady Dowager, Lady Wang, Lady Xing and Aunt Xue, racked by sobs, refused to stir from their side.
Afraid that their mother might fall ill of grief, Jia She and Jia Zheng bestirred themselves so frantically day and night that no one, high or low, had any rest or could offer any advice. Jia She kept summoning more bonzes and Taoists, but because these could do no good Jia Zheng lost patience and tried to dissuade him.
"Their fate rests with Heaven," he said. "Human beings are power¬less. Since their disorder is quite unforeseen and no drugs can cure it, it must be the will of Heaven. We shall just have to leave them to their fate."
His counsel fell on deaf ears. Jia She would not relax his exertions. But still there was no improvement.
By the third day the patients were lying at death's door and the whole household despaired. Then, as all hope was relinquished, preparations were started for the funeral. The Lady Dowager, Lady Wang, Jia Lian, Pinger and Xiren wept even more bitterly than the rest, unable to take food or sleep. Only the concubine Zhao and Jia Ruan were secretly ex-ulting.
On the morning of the fourth day Baoyu opened his eyes.
"I am going to leave you now, he told his weeping grandmother "You must make haste and get me ready to go.”
These words made her feel as if he had wrenched out her heart.
"Don't take it too hard, madam," urged the concubine. "The boy's as good as gone. Better lay him out and let him make an end of his misery. If you insist on holding him back, he'll not be able to breathe his last and will only suffer for it in the next world....”
Before she could finish the old lady spat in her face.
"May your tongue rot, you bitch!" she swore. "Who asked for your opinion? How do you know he'll suffer in the next world? Why say he's as good as gone? What good will it do you if he dies? You're dreaming! If he does die, I'll make you pay for it. You're the ones to blame for this, forcing the child to study and breaking his spirit so that the sight of his father made him as scared as a mouse chased by a cat. It's you bitches who have hounded him to his death. But don't gloat too soon -- you’ve still me to reckon with."
Quite beside himself to hear her curses and sobs, Jia Zheng hastily ordered his concubine away and tried to calm his mother. But just then a servant came in to announce that the two coffins were ready for his inspection. This added fuel to the fire of the old lady's anger.
"Who ordered coffins?" she screamed. "Fetch the coffin-makers here! Have them beaten to death!"
She was storming fit to convulse heaven and earth when the faint sound of a monk's wooden clapper reached their ears.
"Put your trust in Buddha who absolves sins," the monk chanted. "All those afflicted, distressed, imperilled or possessed by evil spirits, we can cure.”
At once the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang asked to have the monk brought in. Though Jia Zheng disapproved, he could not disregard his mother's wishes. He was marveling, too, that the voice carried so clearly right into the house. So he gave the order to the servants. Then in came a scabby-headed bonze and a lame Taoist. What was he like, this bonze?

His nose was bulbous and his eyebrows long,
His two eyes glittered with a starry light;
Ragged, in shoes of straw, with scabby head,
This vagrant monk was an obnoxious sight.

As for the Taoist:

With one leg short and one leg long,
All soaked with rain and caked with mud was he;
If asked from whence he came he would reply:
"West of the Penglai Isles in Weightless Sea."

Jia Zheng asked this pair which monastery they were from.
"There is no need to inquire into that, sir," replied the bonze with a smile. "We hear there is illness in your house and have come to cure it."
"Yes, two members of the family are bewitched. Have you perhaps some miraculous remedy?"
"Why ask us for a remedy?" retorted the Taoist. "You already have in your house a rare treasure capable of curing them."
With a start Jia Zheng grasped the significance of this remark.
"It is true that my son was born with a piece of jade in his mouth," he replied. "And the inscription on it claims that it can ward off evil. But it has proved ineffective."
"You do not understand the miraculous powers of that precious jade, sin It has not proved efficacious because it is confused by music, beauty, riches and lust for gain. Just bring it to me and I think we can restore its powers by incantation."
Jia Zheng took the jade from Baoyu's neck and passed it to them. The monk laid it reverently on the palm of one hand.
"Thirteen years have passed in a twinkling since we left you at the foot of Blue Ridge Peak," he said with a sigh. "How quickly time flies in this human world! Yet already you are full of worldly desires. Alas, how much better off you were before!

Untrammelled by heaven and earth,
From joy and grief alike your heart was free;
Then smelting gave you spiritual perception,
And you came to this world in search of misery.

What a deplorable state you are in now!

Powder and rouge have dulled your precious lustre;
Days and nights within silk chambers entrap your heart;
But you must wake at last from your sweet dream;
Poor lovers, when all debts are paid, must part."

Having chanted this he rubbed the jade again and muttered some gib¬berish over it, then handed it back to Jia Zheng.
"Its power has now been restored," he said. "But it must not be profaned. Keep the two patients in one room; hang it over the door of that room, and let no women apart from your wife and mother go inside. In thirty-three days' time, I guarantee they will have recovered completely.
With that he and the Taoist turned and left.
Jia Zheng hurried after them, urging them to sit down and have some tea, for he wanted to offer them some remuneration; but the two men had gone. And when the Lady Dowager sent servants to overtake them, no trace of them could be found.
Then, following the monk's instructions, the jade was hung over the doorway of Lady Wang's bedroom where the two patients were lying; and she herself kept watch there to prevent anyone else from entering. By evening both patients had slowly regained consciousness and said they were hungry. The Lady Dowager and Lady Wang were overjoyed. Some rice gruel was prepared and after eating it they felt better, the evil spirits which had possessed them retreating. At last everyone was able to breathe again. Li Wan, the Jia girls, Baochai and Daiyu were waiting with Pinger and Xiren in the outer room when they heard that the patients had come to and eaten some gruel. Before the rest could say anything, Daiyu exclaimed:
"Buddha be praised!"
Baochai turned to look at her and gave a laugh. This passed unnoticed by all but Xichun.
"What are you laughing at, Cousin Baochai?" she asked.
"I was thinking how much busier Buddha must be than men are. Apart from expounding the truth and saving all living creatures, he has to preserve the sick and restore them to health, as he has done with Baoyu and Xifeng who are on the mend today. And he'll have to take care of Miss Lin's marriage as well. Just think how busy he must be! Don't you find it amusing?"
Daiyu flushed and spat in disgust.
"How horrid you all are! I can't think what end you'll come to. In¬stead of following the example of good people, you're learning from Xifeng to make vulgar jokes."
She swept aside the portière and went out.
To learn what followed, turn to the next chapter.

Chapter 26

On Wasp-Waist Bridge, Xiaohong Hints
at Her Feelings
In Bamboo Lodge, Drowsy in Spring,
Daiyu Bares Her Heart


After thirty-three days' convalescence, when Baoyu had completely recovered his strength and the bums on his face had healed, he moved back into the Garden.

During his illness, Jia Yun had taken in pages to watch day and night beside him and had seen so much of Xiaohong and the other maids there that they were now on a familiar footing. Xiaohong noticed that Jia Yun had a handkerchief very like the one she had lost. She nearly asked him about it, but was too shy. After the visit of the monk and the Taoist, however, there was no further need for male attendants and Jia Yun resumed his tree-planting. Though Xiaohong did not want to drop the matter, neither did she want to arouse the suspicions of others by ques¬tioning the young man. She was wondering what to do when a voice called through her window:
"Are you there, sister?"
Peeping out she saw that it was Jiahui, another maid who belonged to the same court. She asked her in. Jiahui promptly entered and took a seat on the bed.
"I'm in luck." she crowed. "I was washing clothes in the court just now when Baoyu decided to send some tea to Miss Lin, and Xiren gave me the errand. As it happened, the old lady had just sent Miss Lin some money which she was sharing out among the maids. When she saw me she gave me two handfuls of cash -- how much it is I don't know. Will you took after it for me?"
She unwrapped her handkerchief and poured out the coins, which Xiaohong counted for her: "Five, ten, fifteen..." and then put away.
"How have you been feeling recently?" continued Jiahui. "Take my advice and go home for a couple of days. Get a doctor to see you and prescribe some medicine, and that should set you right."
"What an idea!" countered Xiaohong. "I'm perfectly all right. Why should I go home?"
"I know what, then. Miss Lin's so delicate, she's always taking medi¬cine. Ask her for some. That would do just as welt."
"Nonsense. You don't take medicine at random like that."
"Well, you can't go on like this. All your appetite's gone -- what's to become of you?"
"What does it matter? The sooner I die the better"
"How can you say such things?"
"You don't understand how I feel."
Jiahui nodded thoughtfully.
"Well, I don't blame you," she said. "Things are difficult here. Just take yesterday, for example. The old lady said everyone worked so hard while Baoyu was ill that, now he's better and all the vows have been paid, each one would be rewarded according to grade. I don't mind if the young ones like myself are left out, but why should you be left out? It isn't fair I wouldn't have begrudged Xiren ten times as much either--she deserves it. After all, to be honest, which of us can compare with her? Look how careful and conscientious she always is. And even if she weren't, she couldn't be passed over. What annoys me is having people like Qingwen and Yixian counted as top grade and boosted up just be¬cause their parents are senior servants here. Don't you call it maddening?"
"It's hardly worth being angry with them," retorted Xiaohong. "The proverb says 'Even the longest feast must break up at last.' Who's going to stay here for life? A few more years and we'll all go our differ¬ent ways. When that time comes who will worry about anyone else?"
These words brought tears to Jiahui's eyes, but not wanting to cry for no reason she forced a smile.
"That's true, of course," she agreed. "Yet only yesterday Baoyu was talking about how he's going to rearrange the rooms and the clothes he means to have made, as if we had hundreds of years to put up with here."
Xiaohong laughed sarcastically. Before she could say any more in came a little maid who had not yet let her hair grow, to deliver two sheets of paper and some patterns.
"Here are two patterns for you to trace," she said, tossing them at Xiaohong.
"Who are they from?" called Xiaohong as the child scampered off. "Can't you finish what you have to say before running away? Have you steamed wheatcakes waiting which may get cold?"
"They're from Yixian," cried the little girl through the window, then quickly galloped away.
Xiaohong crossly threw the patterns aside and rummaged in her drawer for a brush, but could not find any with a pointed tip.
"Where did I put that new brush the other day?" she muttered. "I can t remember.... Oh, of course, Yixian borrowed it the evening before last." She turned to Jiahui. "Do you mind fetching it for me?"
"Fetch it yourself. Xiren is waiting for me to lift some cases for her"
"If she were, could you stay here chatting? You only say she's wait¬ing because I asked you a favour, you little beast!"
Xiaohong set out from Happy Red Court to Baochai's apartments, but stopped at Seeping Fragrance Pavilion when she caught sight of Baoyu's old nurse, Nanny Li.
"Where are you off to, Mrs. Li?" she greeted her with a smile. "What brings you here?"
The old woman halted and clapped her hands.
"Tell me, why has he taken such a fancy to this tree-planter Yun or Yu, whatever his name is? Nothing would serve but that I go and fetch the fellow. When word of this gets to the Master, there'll be trouble."
"But do you have to give in to all his whims, nanny?"
"What else can I do?"
Xiaohong smiled.
"If that young man has any sense, he won't come. "
"He's not crazy. Why shouldn't he?"
"Well, if he does come, you ought to bring him in with you. Not leave him to go blundering round on his own. "
"Rave I time to wait for him? I just gave him the message. I'll send one of the girls of matrons to show him the way." She hobbled off on her stick.
Instead of fetching the brush, Xiaohong stood there lost in thought till a maid came up and asked what she was doing. It was Zhuier and Xiaohong inquired where she was going.
"To fetch Master Yun," cried Zhuier, running off.
Xiaohong had just reached the gate of Wasp-Waist Bridge by the time Zhuier returned, leading Jia Yun. He cast a sidelong glance at Xiaohong, who stole a glance at him too under cover of talking to Zhuier When their eyes met she blushed and turned abruptly away, going on to Alpinia Park.

Jia Yun followed Zhuier by winding paths to Happy Red Court. She went in first to announce him, then ushered him in. The young man had time to scrutinize the courtyard. There were a few scattered artificial rocks with plantains growing between, and two storks were preening their feathers under a pine. In the gallery surrounding the courtyard hung cages of every description containing all manner of rare exotic birds. The five-frame apartment before him had lattice-work carved with ingenious designs, while above its door hung a tablet inscribed with the words: Happy Red and Delightful Green.
"So that's why it's called Happy Red Court," he thought. "The name comes from that inscription."
He heard a laugh from behind one gauze-covered window and someone cried, "Come on in. Imagine my forgetting you for two or three months!"
Recognizing Baoyu's voice Jia Yun hurried in. He was dazzled by the glittering gold and emerald and the elegance of all the furnishings, but could see no sign of Baoyu. Turning to the left he noticed a large mirror from behind which emerged two girls in their mid-teens, of about the same build and height, who invited him into the inner room. Assenting without venturing to look at them, he stepped into a chamber screened with green gauze. On a small inlaid lacquer bed there with red curtains embroidered in gold lay Baoyu, informally dressed, in his slippers. At sight of the visitor he threw down the book in his hand and stood up, smiling. Jia Yun advanced to fall upon one knee, and was offered a chair opposite his host.
"After I saw you that month and invited you to my study," remarked
Baoyu, "a whole lot of things happened to make it slip my mind."
"That was my misfortune," replied Jia Yun with a smile. "And then you fell ill, uncle. Have you recovered completely?"
"Yes, thank you. I heard you were quite worn out after all those days' hard work."
"That's just as it should be. Your recovery, uncle, is a blessing to our whole family."
A maid had come in to offer him tea, and while talking with Baoyu he glanced surreptitiously at her. Slim with an oval face, she was dressed in a silver-red jacket, black satin sleeveless jacket and pleated white silk damask skirt. Raving been in the mansion all through Baoyu's illness, Jia Yun remembered most of the people of any importance there and knew that this was no other than Xiren, who enjoyed a special status in Happy Red Court. As Baoyu was sitting there while she served tea, Jia Yun rose to his feet with a smile.
"How can I trouble you to pour the tea for me, sister?" he protested. "Don't treat me as a guest in my uncle's rooms. Let me pour tea myself."
"Sit down, sit down," said Baoyu. "Why stand on ceremony with the maids?"
"I mustn't forget my manners before the sisters in your apartments, uncle."
He sat down to sip tea while Baoyu chatted idly with him, telling him which families had the best actors, the finest gardens, the prettiest maids, the most sumptuous feasts, and the best collections of curios. Jia Yun did his best to respond in the same vein. But when he noticed that his host looked tired, he rose to take his leave and was not pressed to stay.
"Drop in any time you're free," said Baoyu, before telling Zhuier to see the visitor out.
As no one else was about outside Happy Red Court, Jia Yun slowed down to chat with the maid, asking her age, her name and her father's trade. How long had she been working for Baoyu? How much did she earn a month? How many other girls worked there? She answered each question in turn readily enough.
"That girl who spoke to you on our way in," he said, "isn't she called Xiaohong?"
Zhuier laughed.
"That's right. Why do you ask?"
"She said something to you about a handkerchief. As it happens, I've picked one up."
At this Zhuier smiled.
"She's asked me several times whether I've seen her handkerchief. As if I had time to bother about such things! She asked me again today and promised to give me something if I found it. I'm not making this up you heard her for yourself in front of Alpinia Park. If you've found it, sir, do give it to me and we'll see what thanks I get."
The fact is that the month before when supervising the planting of trees, Jia Yun had picked up a silk handkerchief in the Garden. Re knew it must have been dropped by one of the girls there, but not knowing which had not ventured to take any action. When Xiaohong questioned Zhuier about it, he was delighted to learn that it was Xiaohong's. And now that Zhuier gave him this opening, he had his plan ready worked out. He took a handkerchief of his own from his sleeve, and handed it her with a smile.
"All right, here you are," he told her "But mind you let me know what reward you get. No cheating!"
Zhuier readily took the handkerchief on these conditions and, having seen Jia Yun out, went off to look for Xiaohong.

But let us return to Baoyu, who felt so lackadaisical after Jia Yun left that he curled up as if for a nap. Xiren seated herself on the edge of his bed and nudged him.
"You mustn't fall asleep again," she said. "If you're feeling bored, why not go out for a stroll?"
"I would." Baoyu took her hand. "But I can't bear to leave you.”
"Get up, quick!" she answered laughingly, pulling him up.
"Hut where shall I go? I'm thoroughly fed up."
"You'll feel better once you're out. If you just stay moping here, you'll only get more fed up."
Baoyu listlessly took her advice and pottered out. After playing for a while with the birds in the gallery, he strolled beside the River of Seeping Fragrance to have a look at the goldfish. As he did so, two fawns came bolting from the hillside opposite, and he was wondering what could have frightened them when he saw Jia Lan give chase, a small bow in his hand. Seeing Baoyu ahead of him, the boy stopped short.
"So you're at home, uncle," he said cheerfully. "I thought you'd gone out."
"What mischief are you up to now?" asked Baoyu. "Why shoot at those harmless creatures?"
"I've finished my lessons and I've nothing to do. I thought I'd prac¬tise archery."
"I suppose you won't stop," said Baoyu, "till you've knocked out your teeth."
His feet carried him on then to the gate of a courtyard. Bamboos dense as phoenix plumage there made a rustling music. And the board above the gate bore the inscription: Bamboo Lodge. Strolling in he found the bamboo portiere down. Not a voice could be heard. As he ap¬proached the window a subtle fragrance drifted through the green gauze. He pressed his face against the gauze and heard a long faint sigh, fol¬lowed by the words:
Day after day a drowsy dream of love.1
Baoyu felt his heart strangely stirred. And looking more closely, he could make out Daiyu, who was stretching herself on her bed.
He laughed.
"Why 'Day after day a drowsy dream of love'?" he called, then raising the portière walked in.
Blushing to think she had given herself away, Daiyu hid her face with her sleeve and turned towards the wall, pretending to be asleep. As Baoyu went up to her to turn her over, her nurse and two other old women followed him in.
"Your cousin's asleep, sir. We shall ask you in when she wakes up. Daiyu promptly turned over and sat up with a laugh.
"Who's asleep?"
The three old women smiled.
"Our mistake, miss."
They left after calling Zijuan to attend to her young mistress.
"What do you mean by coming in when people are asleep?" Daiyu challenged Baoyu with a smile as, sitting on the bed, she smoothed her hair.
The sight of her soft flushed cheeks, and her starry eyes now faintly misted over, enraptured Baoyu. He sank smiling into a chair.
"What was that you were saying just now?"
"I didn't say anything."
"Yes, you did. I heard you.”
Zijuan appeared at this point.
“Zijuan," said Baoyu, "Pour a cup of that good tea of yours for me, will you?"
"What good tea have we got?" she retorted. "If you want good tea, better wait till Xiren comes."
"Pay no attention to him," said Daiyu. "First go and get me some water."
Zijuan laughed.
"He's a guest, so of course I must get him tea before I fetch you water."
As she left to do this Baoyu exclaimed, "Good girl!

Should I share the bridal curtains with your sweet mistress,
Row could I give you the task of preparing the bed?"

At once Daiyu's face clouded over.
"What's that you said?" she demanded.
"I didn't say anything, did I?" Baoyu chuckled.
Daiyu began to cry.
"So this is your latest diversion," she sobbed. "All the dirty talk you hear outside, you repeat to me; and any disgusting books you read, you quote to make fun of me. A laughing-stock for you gentlemen, that's what I've become!"
Scrambling off the bed she walked away in tears. Baoyu followed her in alarm.
"Dear cousin, it was very wrong of me, but please don't tell!" he begged. "May it blister my mouth and rot my tongue if I dare say such things again."
Just then Xiren came in.
"Quick," she said. "Come hack and change. The master wants you.
This summons fell on his ears like a clap of thunder. Forgetting all else he rushed back to change, and hurried out of the Garden. Beiming was waiting for him at the inner gate.
"Do you know why my father wants me?" asked Baoyu.
"Hurry up, sir," said the page. "At any rate you'll have to go. You'll find out why when you get there."
He hustled his master off.
They passed the main hall, Baoyu with a sinking heart, when a bellow of laughter sounded just round the corner. Out sprang Xue Pan, clapping his hands.
"If I hadn't said your father wanted you, you'd never have come so quickly," he declared.
Beiming, laughing too, fell on his knees.
It took some moments for Baoyu to realize he had been tricked.
Xue Pan bowed in apology, raising clasped hands.
"Don't blame this young rascal," he said. "I put him up to it."
Baoyu had no alternative but to smile.
"I don't mind your fooling me," he said, "but why pretend to he my father? Shall I go and ask your mother what she thinks of your conduct?"
"My dear cousin, I was in such a hurry to see you that I forgot that taboo. Another day you can get even with me by pretending that my father wants to see me.
"You wretch!" exclaimed Baoyu. "You deserve to drop dead." He rounded on Beiming. "What are you still kneeling there for, you treacher¬ous dog?"
The page promptly kowtowed and got up.
"I wouldn't have disturbed you," Xue Pan explained, "but the third of the fifth month will be my birthday. And Cheng Rixing the curio dealer managed -- goodness only knows where -- to get hold of a fresh, crisp lotus root this thick and this long, a huge melon this size, a fresh sturgeon this long and a whopping great Siamese pig smoked with fra¬grant cedar which came as tribute from Siam. They must have been hard to come by, such presents, eh? The fish and the pig are just expensive rarities, but heaven knows how they managed to grow a lotus root and melon of that size. I gave some at once to my mother, then sent portions to your old lady and your parents; but I've still quite a bit left. To hog it all myself might bring me bad luck; and after thinking it over I decided you were the only one fit to share it. So I came over specially to invite you. Luckily a singing-boy has just turned up too. Why don't we make a day of it together?"
By now they had reached his study where they found Zhan Guang, Cheng Rixing, Hu Silai and Shan Pinren as well as the singing-boy. When greetings had been exchanged and tea drunk, Xue Pan ordered the feast to be served. At once his pages bustled about to lay the table, and when all was finally ready the party took their seats.
Baoyu saw that the melon and lotus-root were quite phenomenal.
"I haven't yet sent you over a birthday present, but here I am enjoy¬ing myself at your expense," he remarked with a smile.
"That's right," said Xue Pan. "What are you planning to send me?"
"I haven't anything really. The money, clothes, food and stuff like that in my place aren't mine to give. The only thing I could give you of my own would be a scroll of my calligraphy or painting. "
"Talking of painting," put in Xue Pan with a grin, "reminds me of an erotic picture I saw in someone's house the other day. Really superb it was. I didn't read all the inscriptions carefully, just noticed the artist's name: Geng Huang. The picture was marvellous."
Baoyu was puzzled. He knew the work of many calligraphers and painters past and present, but had never heard of an artist called Geng Huang. After a little thought he burst out laughing. He called for a brush and wrote two characters on the palm of his left hand.
"Are you sure the name was Geng Huang?" he asked Xue Pan.
"Of course."
Baoyu held out his hand.
"It wasn't these two characters? They're not very different."
When they saw he had written Tang Yin2, they declared, laughing, "That must be it. Mr Xue's eyes may have been blurred at the time."
Xue Pan grinned sheepishly.
"Who cares whether the fellow's name means 'sweet-silver' or 'nut-silver'?"3 he spluttered in his embarrassment.
Just then "Mr. Feng" was announced by one of the servants. Baoyu realized this must be Feng Ziying, the son of Feng Tang, General Shenwu. All urged that he be asked in. And before the words were out of their mouths Feng Ziying strode, chatting and laughing, into the room. They rose to offer him a seat.
"Fine!" Feng chuckled. "You don't go out, just enjoy yourselves at home."
Both Xue Pan and Baoyu smiled.
"We haven't seen you for some time," they said. "Is your father well?"
"Very well, thank you. But my mother recently contracted a chill and has been out of sorts for two days."
Xue Pan noticed some bruises on his face.
"Been fighting again?" he asked. "Who left his mark on your face?"
"Ever since I beat up Colonel Qiu's son I've made a point of keeping my temper. No more fist-fights for me. This happened the other day out hunting on Iron-Net Mountain, when my falcon caught me on the cheek with its wing."
"When was that?" asked Baoyu.
"We left on the twenty-eighth of the third month and only got back the day before yesterday."
"No wonder I didn't see you when I called on Shen on the third, or was it the fourth. I meant to ask where you were but I forgot. Did you go alone on this trip or with your father?"
"With my father, of course. I couldn't get out of it. Do you think me crazy enough to prefer roughing it to drinking with you and listening to songs? This time, though, something lucky turned up in my bad luck."
As he had now finished his tea, Xue Pan and the others asked him to join them at the table and take his time telling them just what had hap¬pened. But instead Feng rose to leave.
"You must excuse me. Really I should drink a few cups with you, but I've some very urgent business today to report to my father."
Xue Pan, Baoyu and the others would not hear of this and laid hands on him to keep him.
"Don't be ridiculous. You ought to know me better," he protested. "I really can't stay. But if you insist, get me a big cup and I'll drain two cups with you."
They had to agree to this. Xue Pan took the pot, Baoyu held the cup, and they poured two large cupfuls which Feng Ziying stood up and drained in a single breath.
"Do tell us before you leave what's your good luck in a stretch of bad," urged Baoyu.
Feng Ziying only laughed.
"I can't go into the details today. But I promise to invite you air to a special party when we can have a good talk. I've a favour to ask you too." Raising his clasped hands to say goodbye he started off.
"You're just whetting our curiosity," objected Xue Pan. "When is this party to be? Tell us now so as not to leave us in suspense.
"In ten days at the latest, maybe eight."
Then Feng Ziying went out, mounted his horse and rode off. The others returned from seeing him off to drink some more before the party dispersed.
When Baoyu went back to the Garden, Xiren was still worrying about the summons from his father, not knowing whether it meant trouble or the reverse. Seeing that Baoyu was tipsy, she asked him what had happened and he told her in detail.
"We were waiting here on tenterhooks while you had a good time," she said reproachfully. "You might at least have sent word."
"I meant to, but when Feng turned up I forgot."
Just then Baochai came in.
"So you've been treated to those delicacies of ours," she teased.
"Surely you and your family must have tasted them before us, cousin," he countered.
Baochai shook her head.
"Yesterday my brother did urge me to try them, but I didn't. I told him to keep them for others. I know it's not in my stars to deserve such dainties."
A maid brought her some tea as she spoke, and while she drank it they chatted. But no more of this.
Daiyu too had been worried on Baoyu's behalf when she heard that he had not come back all day after being sent for by his father. After dinner she learned of his return and decided to find out from him what had happened. As she strolled over she saw Baochai going into Happy Red Court before her. But noticing some unusually beautiful water-fowl of various species unknown to her splashing about in the pool by Seeping Fragrance Bridge, she stopped for a while to admire their brilliant colours. By the time she reached Happy Red Court the gate was closed and she was obliged to knock.
It so happened that Qingwen was in a bad humour, having just quar¬relled with Bihen, and at Baochai's arrival she transferred her anger to the visitor She was grumbling in the courtyard:
"She keeps coming here and sitting around for no reason, keeping us up till the third watch at night.
Now this fresh knocking on the gate only incensed her further.
"They've all gone to bed," she cried, not troubling to ask who it was. "Come back tomorrow."
Daiyu know the maids' ways and the tricks they played on each other Assuming that the girl in the courtyard had failed to recognize her voice and taken her for another maid, she called out again more loudly.
"It's me. Open the gate!"
Still Qingwen did not recognize her voice.
"I don't care who you are," she said crossly. "Master Bao's given orders that no one's to be admitted."
Rooted indignantly to the spot and tempted to let fly at her, Daiyu reflected, "Although my aunt's house is a second home to me, I'm after all an outsider here. With both my parents dead, I've no one to turn to except this family. It would be foolish to start a real rumpus."
As she thought thus, tears ran down her cheeks. She was wondering whether or not to go back when the sound of talk and laughter inside -- she distinguished the voices of Baoyu and Baochai -- upset her even more. She thought back then to the events of the morning.
"Baoyu must be angry with me, thinking I told on him," she reflected. "But I never did! You ought to investigate before flying into a temper like this. You can shut me out today, but shall we not see each other still tomorrow?"
The more she thought, the more distressed she felt. Oblivious of the cold dew on the green moss and the chill wind on the path, standing under the blossom by tile corner of the wall she gave way to sobs. And the sound of this beauty's weeping -- for Daiyu was the loveliest creature ever seen -- made the birds fly away from their roosts on the willows and flowering trees, unable to bear her distress.
Truly:

The hearts of the flowers were broken,
The birds were woken from their senseless dreams.

	The reason is told in these lines:

Peerless the beauty and talent of this girl
Wrapped in scent from embroidered curtains come alone;
Before her first sob dies away
Flowers strew the ground, the affrighted birds have flown.

As Daiyu was sobbing to herself the gate creaked open. If you want to know who came out, read the next chapter.

Chapter 27

Baochai Chases a Butterfly to
Dripping Emerald Pavillon
Daiyu Weeps over Fallen Blossom
by the Tomb of Flowers


As Daiyu was weeping, the gate creaked open and out came Baochai escorted by Baoyu, Xiren and other maids. Daiyu was tempted to accost Baoyu, but not wanting to embarrass him in public she stepped aside until Baochai had left and the others had gone in, when she came back and shed more tears before the closed gate. Then she went back in low spir¬its to her room and prepared listlessly for bed.
Zijuan and Xueyan knew their young mistress' ways. She would of¬ten sit moodily frowning or sighing over nothing or, for no apparent rea¬son, would give way to tong spells of weeping. At first they had tried to comfort her, imagining that she missed her parents and home or that someone had been unkind; but as time went by and they found this was her habit they paid little further attention. So tonight they withdrew to bed, leaving her to brood by herself.
Daiyu leaned against her bed-rail, clasping her knees. Her eyes were brimming with tears. There she stayed motionless as a statue, not lying down until after the second watch.
The next day was the twenty-sixth of the fourth month, the Festival of Grain in Ear. It was the time-honoured custom on this day to offer all manner of gifts and a farewell feast to the God of Flowers, for this festi¬val was said to mark the beginning of summer when all the blossom had withered and the God of flowers had to resign his throne and be seen off. As this custom is most faithfully observed by women, all the inmates of Grand View Garden rose early that day. The girls used flowers and osiers to weave small sedan-chairs and horses, or made pennants and flags of silk and gauze which they tied with gay ribbons to every tree and flower, turning the whole Garden into a blaze of colour. They decked themselves out so prettily, too, as to put the very flowers and birds to shame. But time forbids us to dwell on that splendid scene.
Now Baochai, the three Jia girls, Li Wan and Xifeng were enjoying themselves in the Garden with Xifeng's little daughter as well as Xiangling and the other maids. Only one person was missing, and that was Daiyu.
"Why isn't Cousin Lin here?" asked Yingchun. "Surely the lazy crea¬ture isn't still sleeping?"
"I'll go and rouse her," volunteered Baochai. "The rest of you wait here and I'll soon bring her."
She set off instantly for Bamboo Lodge.
On the way she met the twelve young actresses headed by Wenguan, who greeted her and chatted for a while. Then Baochai told them how to find the others and, having explained her own errand, followed the wind¬ing path towards Daiyu's quarters. As she approached Bamboo Lodge she saw Baoyu enter the courtyard. That made her pause and lower her head in thought.
"Baoyu and Daiyu grew up under one roof," she reflected. "They're so free and easy together, they don't care how they tease each other or show their feelings. And Daiyu's rather jealous and petty-minded. If I follow Baoyu in, he may not like it and she may resent it. I'd better go back."
She had started back to rejoin the other girls when a pair of jade¬-coloured butterflies the size of a circular fan appeared before her. They fluttered up and down most bewitchingly in the breeze. What fun it would be to catch them! Baochai drew her fan from her sleeve and ran after them over the grass. Flitting now high now low, this way and that, the butterflies led her through the flowers and willows all the way to the water's brink. By the time she neared Dripping Emerald Pavilion, pant¬ing and perspiring from all her exertions, she decided to give up the pur¬suit and go back. But just then she heard muffled voices from the pavilion.
Now this pavilion, which stood out in the middle of the pool, was sur¬rounded on four sides by covered corridors with balustrades and con¬nected with the banks by zigzag bridges. It had papered latticed windows on all four sides. Baochai stopped outside it to catch what was being said.
"Look at this handkerchief. If it's the one you lost, you can have it. If not, I'll take it back to Master Yun."
"Of course it's mine. Let me have it."
"What thanks am I going to get? You don't expect me to do this for nothing, do you?"
"Don't worry. I promised you something, I won't cheat you."
"I should hope not, after I've brought it back to you. But how are you going to thank the man who found it?"
"Don't be silly. He's a young gentleman. It's only right he should return what he finds. How could I reward him?"
"If you don't, what am I to say to him? Besides, he told me repeat¬edly he wouldn't let me give you this unless you offered him some re¬ward."
A short silence followed.
"All right," came the answer at last. "Give him this from me to thank him. But swear you won't let on to a soul."
"If I do, may a boil break out in my mouth and may I die a miserable death!"
Then a note of alarm was sounded.
"Goodness! We've been so busy talking, what if someone's eaves¬dropping outside? We'd better open the windows. Then if people see us they'll assume we're just chatting. And if anyone comes near we'll see her and can change the subject."
Baochai could hardly believe her ears.
"No wonder they say wicked people have always been cunning!" she thought. "How they're going to blush when they open the window and see me! One of them sounded like that sly, conceited Xiaohong who works for Baoyu. She's a strange crafty creature if ever I saw one. 'Desperation drives men to rebel and a dog to jump over a wall.' If she thinks I know her secret there may be trouble, and that would be awk¬ward for me. Well, it's too late to hide now. I must try to avoid suspicion by throwing them off the scent....”
That same instant she heard the thud of a window opening. At once she ran forward as noisily as she could, calling out laughingly:
"Where are you hiding, Daiyu?"
Xiaohong and Zhuier, who had just opened the window, were staggered to see her before them.
"Where have you hidden Miss Lin?" Baochai asked them merrily.
"Miss Lin? We haven't seen her," Zhuier answered.
"Just now, from the other bank, I saw her crouching here dabbling in the water. I meant to take her by surprise but she spotted me coming and dashed off to the east. And now she's disappeared. Are you sure she's not hiding in there?"
She deliberately went in and made a search before going on.
"She must have popped into some cave in the rocks," she muttered. "If a snake bites her, serve her right.
With that she went off, laughing up her sleeve at the way she had foxed them and wondering what they were thinking.
Xiaohong, in fact, had been quite taken in. As soon as Baochai was safely out of earshot she caught Zhuier by the arm.
"Heaven help us!" she whispered. "If Miss Lin was here she must have overheard us."
Zhuier said nothing, and a long pause followed.
"What shall we do?" asked Xiaohong.
"What if she did hear? This is none of her business."
"It wouldn't have been so bad Miss Xue overhearing. But Miss Lin's narrow-minded and likes to make cutting remarks. If she heard, and gives us away, what shall we do?"
A stop was put to this discussion by the arrival of Wenguan with Xiangling, Siqi and Daishu. The two girls chatted with them as if nothing had happened until Xiaohong saw Xifeng beckoning from the slope. Leav¬ing the other girls, she ran over to her.
"Can I do anything for Your Ladyship?" she asked, smiling sweetly.
Xifeng had a close look at her and was favourably impressed by her neat good looks and pleasant way of talking.
"I didn't bring my maids with me today," she said. "Hut now I've remembered something I want done. Do you think you could deliver a message correctly?"
Xiaohong smiled.
"Just give me your instructions, madam. If I don't get the message right and hold up your business, you can punish me."
"Tell me, which of the young ladies do you work for? Then I can explain where you are if she asks for you.
"I'm attached to Master Bao's apartments."
Xifeng chuckled.
"I see. That accounts for it. All right, if he asks, I'll let him know where you are. Now go to my house and tell your sister Pinger that she'll find a packet containing a hundred and sixty taels of silver under the stand of the ju-ware plate on the table in the outer room. That's for the embroiderers. When Zhang Cai's wife comes, she's to weigh it in her presence and let her take it. And there's another thing. I want you to bring me the pouch which is by the pillow on the bed in the inner room
Xiaohong went off to carry out these orders. She returned presently to find that Xifeng had vanished. But Siqi had just emerged from a cave and stopped to fasten her skirt. Xiaohong approached her.
"Know where the Second Mistress has gone?" she asked.
"I didn't notice."
Xiaohong looked around and went to ask Tanchun and Baochai, who were watching the fish not far off.
"You'll find her with Madam Li Wan, I think," Tanchun told her.
Xiaohong promptly set off to Paddy-Sweet Cottage, but on the way met Qingwen and half a dozen other maids.
"Still prancing about!" exclaimed Qingwen as soon as she set eyes on her. "You haven't watered the flowers, fed the birds or lit the tea-stove in our courtyard, yet you gad about outside."
"Yesterday Master Bao said the flowers needn't be watered to¬day -- once every other day would do," Xiaohong retorted. "I fed the birds while you were still asleep.
"And what about the tea-stove?" demanded Bihen.
"It's not my turn today, so don't ask me whether there's any tea or not."
"Just listen to the way she talks," jeered Yixian. "You'd all better keep quiet and let her fool about."
"Who says I was fooling about?" snapped Xiaohong. "I've been on an errand for the Second Mistress."
With that she showed them the pouch to silence them, and they patted company.
"No wonder!" Qingwen snorted as they walked on. "Now that she's climbed to a higher branch of the tree, she won't pay any more attention to us. Our lady may have thrown her a word or two, without even know¬ing her name, and she's already eaten up with pride. What's so marvel¬lous about running a little errand? We shall see if anything comes of it or not. If she's all that clever she'd better clear out of this Garden and stay perched on the top of the tree."
Xiaohong could hardly have it out with her. Swallowing her resent¬ment she went on and found Xifeng, sure enough, chatting in Li Wan's apartment. She stepped forward to make her report.
"Sister Pinger said, madam, that as soon as Your Ladyship left she put away the money; and when Zhang Cai's wife came for it, she weighed it in her presence and gave it to her." She handed the pouch to Xifeng and continued, "Sister Pinger asked me to tell Your Ladyship: Just now Lai Wang came to ask for your instructions before setting out to the mansion where you sent him, and she sent him off after explaining Your Ladyship's wishes."
"How did she explain my wishes?" Xifeng smiled.
"She said, 'Our lady sends her compliments to Her Ladyship. Our Second Master is away from home now, so Her Ladyship shouldn't worry over a couple of days' delay. When the Fifth Mistress is better, our lady will come with her to see Her Ladyship. The Fifth Mistress sent a ser¬vant the other day to report that our lady's sister-in-law had inquired after Her Ladyship in a letter, and hoped her sister-in-law here would oblige her with two longevity pills. If Her Ladyship has any to spare, please send them to our lady, and the next person to go that way will deliver them to her sister-in-law.'"
"Mercy on us!" cut in Li Wan with a laugh. "I've lost track of all these ladies and mistresses."
"I don't blame you. Xifeng smiled. "There are five families in¬volved." She turned to Xiaohong. "You're a good child and deliver mes¬sages clearly, not like some who mince their words or buzz like mosqui¬toes. You know," she turned to Li Wan, "my dear sister-in-law, I can't stand talking to most of the maids, apart from, the few in my service. They don’t know It, but I find it quite maddening the way they pad out a sentence and then break it down Into several, the way they mince, drawl and stutter Our Pinger used to be as bad as the rest. 1 asked her: Does a pretty girl have to buzz like a mosquito? And after a few scoldings she improved."
Li Wan laughed.
"Not everyone is a termagant like you.”
"But I like this girl," Xifeng continued. "Admittedly, her two mes¬sages weren't long, but she spoke to the point." She smiled at Xiaohong. "You must come and work for me. I'll make you my adopted daughter and see that you turn out all right."
Xiaohong burst out laughing.
"What's so funny?” demanded Xifeng. "Do you think, because I'm not much older than you, I'm too young to be your mother? If so, you're crazy. Just ask around. There are plenty of people twice your age eager to call me mother -- if only I'd let them. I'm doing you an honour."
"That wasn't why I laughed," replied Xiaohong. "1 laughed because Your Ladyship has got my generation wrong. My mother's Your Ladyship's adopted daughter, yet now you talk of me as a daughter too."
"Who's your mother?"
"Don't you know her?" put in Li Wan with a smile. "This child is Lin Zhixiao's daughter."
"You don't say so!" exclaimed Xifeng in surprise. "Why, you can't get a word out of Lin Zhixiao and his wife, not even if you stick an awl into them. I've always said they were a well-matched couple, deaf muses the pair of them. Who could have believed they'd produce such a clever daughter? How old are you?"
"Seventeen.”
Next she was asked her name.
"I was first called Hongyu," she answered. "But because of the 'yu' in Master Bao's name they call me Xiaohong now.
Xifeng frowned and tossed her head.
	"Disgusting! You'd think there was something special about 'yu', the way everybody wants that name. So in that case you can work for me. You know, sister-in-law, I told her mother, 'Lai Da's wife has her hands full, and anyway she's no idea who's who in this household. You choose a couple of good maids for me.' And she promised that's what she'd do. But instead, she sends this daughter of hers somewhere else. Did she think the girl would have a bad time with me?"
"How suspicious you are," teased Li Wan. "This child was already here by then. Row can you blame her mother?"
"In that case, I'll tell Baoyu to ask for someone else and send this girl to me -- if she's willing, that is.
Xiaohong smiled.
"Willing? As if that were for us to say! But if only I could work for Your Ladyship, I'd learn some manners and get more experience."
As she said this a maid came from Lady Wang to summon Xifeng, who took her leave of Li Wan. And Xiaohong went back to Happy Red Court, where we leave her.

Let us return to Daiyu, who had risen late after a sleepless night. When she heard that the other girls were farewelling the God of Flowers in the Garden, for fear of being laughed at for laziness she made haste to dress and go out. She was crossing the courtyard when Baoyu came in.
"Dear cousin, did you tell on me yesterday?" he greeted her laugh¬ingly. "You had me worrying the whole night long."
Daiyu turned away from him to Zijuan.
"When you've tidied the rooms, close the screen windows," she in¬structed. "As soon as the big swallows come back, you can let down the curtains. Hold them in place by moving the lions against them. And cover the censer once the incense is lit."
As she said this, she walked on.
Baoyu attributed this cold behaviour to the lines he had quoted at noon the previous day, having no idea of the incident in the evening. He bowed and raised his clasped hands in salute, but Daiyu simply ignored him, walking straight off to find the other girls.
Baoyu was puzzled.
"Surely what happened yesterday can't account for this?" he thought. "And I came back too late in the evening to see her again, so how else can I have offended her?"
With these reflections, he trailed after her.
Daiyu joined Baochai and Tanchun, who were both watching the storks dancing, and the three girls were chatting together when Baoyu arrived.
"How are you, brother?" asked Tanchun. "It's three whole days since last I saw you.”
"How are you, sister?" he rejoined. "The other day I was asking our elder sister-in-law about you.”
"Come over here. I want to talk to you.”
The pair of them strolled aside under a pomegranate tree away from the other two.
	"Has father sent for you these last few days?" asked Tanchun. Baoyu smiled.
	"No, he hasn't."
	"Oh, I thought someone told me he sent for you yesterday."
	"That someone must have misheard. He didn't."
	Tanchun chuckled.
"These last few months I've saved a dozen strings of cash. r want you to take them. Next time you go out you can buy me some good calligraphy and paintings, or some amusing toys."
"In my strolls through the squares and temple markets inside and out¬side the city," Baoyu told her, "I haven't seen anything novel or really well made. Nothing but curios of gold, jade, bronze or porcelain, which would be out of place here. Or things like silk textiles, food and clothing."
"That's not what I mean. No, but things like you bought me last time: little willow baskets, incense-boxes carved out of bamboo roots, and tiny clay stoves. They were so sweet, I just loved them! But the other people fell in love with them too and grabbed them as if they were treasures."
Baoyu laughed.
"If that's what you want, those things are dirt cheap. Just give five hundred cash to the pages and they'll fetch you two cartloads."
"Those fellows have no taste. Please choose some things which are simple without being vulgar, and genuine instead of artificial. Do get me a whole lot more, and I'll make you another pair of slippers. I'll put even more work into them than last time. How's that?"
"That reminds me." Baoyu grinned. "I was wearing your slippers one day when I met father He asked mc disapprovingly who'd made them. It wouldn’t have dune to tell him it was you, sister; so I said they were a present from Aunt Wang on my last birthday. There wasn't much he could say to that, but after an awful silence he commented, 'What a waste of time and energy and good silk.' When I told Xiren she said: 'Never mind that, but the concubine Zhao's been complaining bitterly, “Her own younger brother Huan's shoes and socks are in holes yet she doesn't care. Instead she embroiders slippers for Baoyu.”
Tanchun frowned.
"Did you ever hear such nonsense?" she fumed. "Is it my job to make shoes? Doesn't Huan have his fair share of clothes, shoes and socks, not to mention a whole roomful of maids and servants? What has she got to complain of? Who's she trying to impress? If I make a pair of slippers in my spare time, I can give them to any brother I choose and no one has any right to interfere. She's crazy, carrying on like that."
Baoyu nodded and smiled.
"Still, it's natural, you know, for her to see things rather differently."
This only enraged Tanchun more. She tossed her head.
"Now you're talking nonsense too. Of course she sees things differ¬ently with that sly, low, dirty mind of hers. Who cares what she thinks? I don't owe any duty to anyone except our parents. If my sisters, brothers and cousins are nice to me, I'll be nice to them too, regardless of which is the child of a wife or the child of a concubine. Properly speaking, I shouldn't say such things, but really that woman's the limit!
"Let me tell you another ridiculous thing too. Two days after I gave you that money to buy knick-knacks, she complained to me she was hard up. I paid no attention, of course. But after my maids left the room, she started scolding me for giving my savings to you instead of to Huan. I didn't know whether to laugh or lose my temper. So I left her and went to Her Ladyship."
But now Baochai called to them laughingly: "Haven't you talked long enough? It's clear you're brother and sister, the way you leave other people out in the cold to discuss your private affairs. Aren't we allowed to hear a single word?"
They smiled at that and joined her.
Meanwhile Daiyu had disappeared, and Baoyu knew she was avoiding him. He decided to wait a couple of days for the storm to blow over before approaching her again. Then, towering his head, he noticed that the ground was strewn with balsam and pomegranate petals.
"She's too angry even to gather up the blossom," he sighed. "I'IJ take these over and try to speak to her tomorrow.”
At this point Baochai urged them to take a stroll.
"I'll join you later," he said.
As soon as the other two had gone, he gathered up the fallen flowers in the skirt of his gown and made his way over a small hill, across a stream and through an orchard towards the mound where Daiyu had buried the peach-blossom. Just before rounding the hill by the flower's grave he caught the sound of sobs on the other side. Someone was la¬menting and weeping there in a heart-rending fashion.
"Some maid's been badly treated and come here to cry," he thought. "I wonder which of them it is."
He halted to listen. And this is what he heard:

As blossoms fade and fly across the sky,
Who pities the faded red, the scent that has been?
Softly the gossamer floats over spring pavilions,
Gently the willow fluff wafts to the embroidered screen.

A girl in her chamber mourns the passing of spring,
No relief from anxiety her poor heart knows;
Hoe in hand she steps through her portal,
Loath to tread on the blossom as she comes and goes.

Willows and elms, fresh and verdant,
Care not if peach and plum blossom drift away;
Next year the peach and plum will bloom again,
But her chamber may stand empty on that day.

By the third month the scented nests are built,
But the swallows on the beam are heartless all;
Next year, though once again you may peck the buds,
From the beam of an empty room your nest will fall.

Each year for three hundred and sixty days
The cutting wind and biting frost contend.
Row long can beauty flower fresh and fair?
In a single day wind can whirl it to its end.

Fallen, the brightest blooms are hard to find;
With aching heart their grave-digger comes now
Alone, her hoe in hand, her secret tears
Falling like drops of blood on each bare bough.

Dusk falls and the cuckoo is silent;
Her hoe brought back, the lodge is locked and still;
A green lamp lights the wall as steep enfolds her,
Cold rain pelts the casement and her quilt is chill.

What causes my two-fold anguish?
Love for spring and resentment of spring;
For suddenly it comes and suddenly goes,
Its arrival unheralded, noiseless its departing.

Last night from the courtyard floated a sad song –
Was it the soul of blossom, the soul of birds?
Hard to detain, the soul of blossom or birds,
For blossoms have no assurance, birds no words.

I long to take wing and fly
With the flowers to earth's uttermost bound;
And yet at earth's uttermost bound
Where can a fragrant burial mound be found?

Better shroud the fair petals in silk
With clean earth for their outer attire;
For pure you came and pure shall go,
Not sinking into some foul ditch or mire.
Now you are dead I come to bury you;

None has divined the day when I shall die;
Men laugh at my folly in burying fallen flowers,
But who will bury me when dead I lie?

See, when spring draws to a close and flowers fall,
This is the season when beauty must ebb and fade;
The day that spring takes wing and beauty fades
Who will care for the fallen blossom or dead maid?

Baoyu, listening, was overwhelmed with grief. To know more of this, read the next chapter.


Chapter 28

Jiang Yuhan Gives a New Friend
a Scarlet Perfumed Sash
Baochai Bashfully Shows Her Red Bracelet
Scented with Musk


As we saw, Daiyu held Baoyu to blame for her exclusion by Qingwen the previous night. As today happened to be the occasion for feasting the God of Flowers, her pent-up resentment merged with her grief at the transience of spring, and as she buried the fading petals she could not help weeping over her own fate and composing a lament.
Baoyu listened from the slope. At first he just nodded in sympathy, until she came, to the lines:

Men laugh at my folly in burying fallen flowers,
But who will bury mc when dead I lie? 
The day that spring takes wing and beauty fades
Who will care for the fallen blossom or dead maid?

At this point he flung himself wretchedly down on the ground, scatter¬ing his load of fallen flowers, heart-broken to think that Daiyu's loveli¬ness and beauty must one day vanish away. And it followed that the same fate awaited Baochai, Xiangling, Xiren and all the rest. When at last they were all gone, what would become of him? And if he had no idea where he would be by then, what would become of this place and all the flowers and willows in the Garden and who would take them over? One reflection led to another until, after repeated ruminations, he wished he were some insensible, stupid object, able to escape all earthy entangle¬ments and be free from such wretchedness despite the --

Shadows of blossom all around, 
Birdsong on every side.

Daiyu, giving way to her own grief heard weeping now on the slope.
"Everyone laughs at me for being foolish. Is there someone else equally foolish?" she asked herself.
Then, looking up, she saw Baoyu.
"So that's who it is." She snorted. "That heartless, wretched….”
But the moment the words "wretched" escaped her she covered her mouth and moved quickly away with a long sigh.
When Baoyu recovered sufficiently to look up she had gone, obvi¬ously to avoid him. Getting up rather sheepishly, he dusted off his clothes and walked down the hill to make his way back again to Happy Red Court. Catching sight of Daiyu ahead, he overtook her.
"Do stop!" he begged. "I know you won't look at me, but let me just say one word. After that we can part company for good."
Daiyu glanced round and would have ignored him, but was curious to hear this "one word," thinking there must be something in it. She came to a halt.
"Out with it." Baoyu smiled.
"Would you listen if I said two words?" he asked. At once she walked away.
Baoyu, close behind her, sighed.
"Why are things so different now from in the past?" Against her will she stopped once more and turned her head. "What do you mean by 'now' and 'the past'?" Baoyu heaved another sigh.
"Wasn't I your playmate when you first came?" he demanded. "Any¬thing that pleased me was yours, cousin, for the asking. If I knew you fancied a favourite dish of mine, I put it away in a clean place till you came. We ate at the same table and slept on the same bed. I took care that the maids did nothing to upset you; for I thought cousins growing up together as such good friends should be kinder to each other than anyone else. I never expected you to grow so proud that flow you have no use for me while you're so fond of outsiders like Baochai and Xifeng. You ig¬nore me or cut me for three of four days at a time. I've no brothers or sisters of my own -- only two by a different mother, as well you know. So I'm an only child like you, and I thought that would make for an affinity between us. But apparently it was no use my hoping for that. There's nobody I can tell how unhappy I am." With that, he broke down again.
This appeal and his obvious wretchedness melted her heart. But though shedding tears of sympathy, she kept her head lowered and made no reply.
This encouraged Baoyu to go on.
"I know my own faults. But however bad I may be, I'd never dare do anything to hurt you. If I do something the least bit wrong, you can tick me oft warn me, scold me or even strike me, and I won't mind. But when you just ignore me and I can't tell why, I'm at my wits' end and don't know what to do. If I die now I can only become a 'ghost hounded to death,' and not even the masses of the best bonzes and Taoists will be able to save my soul. I can only be born again if you'll tell me what's wrong.”
By now Daiyu's resentment over the previous evening was com¬pletely forgotten.
"Then why did you tell your maids not to open the gate when I called last night?" she asked.
"Whatever do you mean?" he cried in amazement. "If I did such a thing, may I die on the spot."
"Hush! Don't talk about dying so early in the morning. Did you or didn't you? There's no need to swear."
"I honestly knew nothing about your coming. Baochai did drop in for a chat, but she didn't stay long."
Daiyu thought this over.
"Yes," she said more cheerfully, "I suppose your maids felt too lazy to stir and that made them answer rudely."
"That's it, for sure. I shall find out who it was when I get back and give them a good scolding."
"Those maids of yours deserve one, although of course that's not for me to say. It doesn't matter their offending me, but think what trouble there'll be if next time they offend your precious Baochai!"
She compressed her lips to smile, and Baoyu did not know whether to grind his teeth or laugh.
They were summoned now to a meal and went over to his mother's apartment where, on seeing Daiyu, Lady Wang asked:
"Has Doctor Bao's medicine done you any good, child?"
"Not much," the girl answered. "The old lady wants me to try Doctor Wang's medicine."
"You don't know, madam," said Baoyu, "Cousin Lin suffers from an inherited weakness and has such a delicate constitution that she can't stand the least little chill. All she needs is a couple of doses to clear this up. Some pills would be best for her."
"The other day the doctor recommended some pills," said his mother "I can't quite recall the name.”
"I can guess," said Baoyu. "Just ginseng tonic pills."

"That wasn't it."
"Eight-treasure-leonurus pills then?" Left restorative? Right restor¬ative? Or, failing that, six-flavour-digitalis pills?"
"No, it wasn't any of those. All I can remember are the words ‘guardian angel.’"
Baoyu clapped his hands and laughed.
"I've never heard of guardian-angel pills. If there are guardian-angel pills there must be Bodhisattva powders too."
Everyone in the room burst out laughing.
Trying to repress a smile Baochai suggested: "Were they heavenly¬-king-fortifying-the-heart pills?"
"That's it," said Lady Wang. "Row muddle-headed I've grown. "
"You're not muddle-headed, madam," her son assured her. "Those angels and Bodhisattvas have muddled you."
"That's enough from you," she scolded. "It's time your father gave you another beating."
"My father wouldn't beat me for that."
"Since we know the name we'll send out tomorrow to buy some."
"Those remedies are useless," protested Baoyu. "If you'll give me three hundred and sixty taels of silver, I'll make up some pills for my cousin and I guarantee she'll be cured before they're all taken."
"Have some sense! What pills could be so expensive?"
Baoyu chuckled.
"It's true. This is a unique prescription. I won't go into all the strange ingredients now, but one's the afterbirth of a firstborn child, another's man-shaped ginseng roots with leaves on them -- these alone would cost more than three hundred and sixty taels. Then there's polygonum the size of a tortoise, pachyma from the root of a thousand-year-old pine, and other things of the same sort. These are nothing unusual, just ordi¬nary herbs; but the chief ingredient would give you a shock. Cousin Xue Pan pestered me for more than a year to give him this prescription. Even then, it took him more than two years and about a thousand taels of silver to have it made up. If you don't believe me, madam, ask Cousin Baochai."
Baochai raised a protesting hand, smiling.
"I know nothing and never heard a word about it. So don't refer auntie to me."
"After all she's good girl," said Lady Wang. "Baochai wouldn't tell a lie."
Baoyu turned where he was standing and clapped his hands.
"What I said is in fact true. Yet you accuse me of lying."
Whirling back he caught sight of Daiyu, who was seated behind Baochai, laughingly drawing one finger across her cheek to shame him.
Xifeng had been supervising the laying of the tables in the inner room but now she came out to join in the discussion.
"Baoyu isn't fibbing," she declared. "It's true. The other day Xue Pan came to me for some pearls. 'What for?' I wanted to know.
"He said, 'For a prescription.' And he grumbled, 'If I'd known all the trouble involved, I'd have left it alone.'
"I asked, 'What prescription is it?'
"He said, 'One of Baoyu's.'
"I hadn't time to listen to all the ingredients he listed. Then he said, 'I could have bought some pearls, but pearls for this medicine must have been worn on the head. That's why I've come to you. If you haven't any loose ones, let me take the pearls from one of your trinkets and I'll find you some good ones later to replace them.'
"So I had to give him a couple of my pearl trinkets. He wanted three feet of red gauze from the Palace too. Said he meant to grind the pearls into a fine powder to be mixed with other powdered ingredients."
Baoyu had punctuated Xifeng's speech with cries of "Buddha be praised! The sun shines at last in this room." As soon as she had finished he put in:
"This is actually only a makeshift, madam. The real prescription calls for pearls and gems worn by wealthy ladies of old from ancient tombs. But we can hardly go and dig up graves, can we? So we have to make do with pearls worn by living people."
"Amida Buddha!" cried Lady Wang. "The idea! Even if there are pearls in old tombs, how can you dig them up and disturb the bones of people dead for all those hundreds of years? No medicine made that way could be any good."
Baoyu appealed to Daiyu.
"You heard what's been said. Would my Cousin Xifeng back me up if I were lying?" Although facing Daiyu, he glanced at Baochai as he spoke.
Daiyu caught Lady Wang's arm.
"Just listen to him, auntie. When Baochai won't back up his fib, he appeals to me."
"Yes, Baoyu is good at bullying you," said Lady Wang.
"You don't know the reason, madam." Baoyu grinned. "Even when Cousin Baochai lived with her family she didn't know her brother's do¬ings; so she knows even less now that she's in the Garden. But just now cousin Daiyu, sitting at the back, drew a finger across her cheek to shame me because she thought I was fibbing."
A maid came in then to summon Baoyu and Daiyu to dinner with the Lady Dowager Without a word to Baoyu, Daiyu rose and started leading the maid away.
"Won't you wait for Master Bao?" asked the maid.
"He doesn't want anything to eat," replied Daiyu. "Come on, let's go. I'm going." She walked out.
"I'll eat here with you, madam," said Baoyu.
"No, no," objected Lady Wang. "This is one of my meatless days, so run along and have a proper meal."
"I'll have vegetarian food with you." He sent the maid away and took a seat at the table.
His mother told Baochai and the other girls to go ahead with their own meal and ignore him.
"You'd better go, " Baochai urged him "Even it you don't want anything to eat you should keep Daiyu company, she's not feeling happy. "
"Never mind her," he answered. "She'll be all right presently."
But as soon as the meal was over he called for tea to rinse his mouth, suspecting that his grandmother might be worried by his absence, and worried himself about Daiyu.
Tanchun and Xichun smiled.
"Why are you always in such a hurry, brother?" they teased. "Even rushing through your meals and tea."
"Let him finish quickly and join Cousin Lin," said Baochai. "Why should he fool around here?"
Baoyu gulped down his tea then and left, making straight for the west court. On the way he found Xifeng standing in the gateway of her com¬pound and picking her teeth with an earpick as she watched a dozen pages move some flower-pots.
"You've turned up just at the right time," she called to him with a smile. "Come on in. Come in and write a few words for me."
Baoyu had no option but to follow her in.
Once inside Xifeng called for a brush, inkstone and paper and started dictating to him:
"Forty rolls of red flowered satin; forty rolls of satin with serpent designs; a hundred rolls of Imperial gauze of different colours; four gold necklaces. "
"What is all this?" asked Baoyu. "It sounds neither like an account nor a list of presents. How am I to write it?"
"Just put it down. So long as I know what it means that'll do."
Baoyu did as he was told. And when he had finished she put the list away.
"There's something else I want, if you're agreeable," she then said with a smile. "I'd like that maid called Hongyu in your place to come and work for me. I'll find you a few others instead later All right?"
"My place is swarming with people," said Baoyu. "Take any of them you like. You don't have to ask."
"In that case, I'll send someone to fetch her. "
"Do."
He was starting to leave when Xifeng called him back, saying that she had something else to tell him.
"The old lady is waiting for me," he demurred. "You can tell me when I come back."
By the time he reached the Lady Dowager's quarters they had fin¬ished their meal there.
"Well," his grandmother asked, "what good things did your mother give you to eat?"
"Nothing special, but I had one bowl of rice more than usual. Where's Cousin Lin?"
"In the inner room.
Baoyu went in and saw a maid blowing at the charcoal in an iron. Two others were chalking patterns on the kang where Daiyu, bending over, was cutting out some material. He walked forward with a smile.
"Why, what are you doing?" he asked. "Stooping like that just after a meal will bring your headache back."
Daiyu paid no attention but went on with her work.
"That corner of the silk is still rather crumpled," one of the maids remarked. "Better iron it again."
"Never mind it." Daiyu put down her scissors. "It'll be all right pres¬ently."
Baoyu was digesting this snub when Baochai, Tanchun and the others arrived to chat with the old lady. Soon Baochai stepped into the inner room and asked Daiyu what she was doing, then watched her at work.
"How clever you're getting," she commented, "even able to cut out clothes. "
"This is just another specious way of fooling people," retorted Daiyu.
Baochai smiled.
"Let me tell you something funny," she volunteered. "Cousin Bao's annoyed with me because I denied knowing anything about that medi¬cine."
"Never mind him. He'll be all right presently."
Baoyu told Baochai, "The old lady wants to play cards and there aren't enough people. Won't you take a hand?"
Again Baochai smiled.
"Of course, that's what I came for."
As she went out Daiyu called after her, "You had better leave. There's a tiger here who might eat you. "
She went on with her cutting and ignored Baoyu, who suggested with a conciliatory smile: "Why don't you take a stroll before doing any more?"
Daiyu remained silent.
"Who told her to do this?" he asked the maids.
"Whoever it was," said Daiyu, "It's none of Master Bao's business."
Before he could say any more a servant came in to announce that someone was waiting outside to see him. As he hurried out Daiyu called after him:
"Buddha be praised! I hope I'm dead before you come back."

Outside he found Beiming, who told him that Feng Ziying had invited him oven. Remembering what had been said the previous day, Baoyu sent for his outdoor clothes and waited for them in the library.
Beiming went to the second gate, where he waited until an old woman appeared.
"Master Bao is in the library waiting for his outdoor clothes," he an¬nounced. "Do you mind going in to tell them?"
"You farting fool!" she cried. "Master Bao lives in the Garden now and so do all his attendants. Why bring the message here?"
"Of course." Beiming laughed. "How idiotic of me!"
He hurried to the inner gate on the east and got one of the lads playing ball by the paved passageway to run in with the message. The youngster came back after a while with a bundle which Beiming carried to the library.
Baoyu, having changed, called for his horse and set off with only four pages: Beiming, Chuyao, Shuangrui and Shuangshou. When they reached Feng Ziying's gate and were announced, Feng came out to welcome them. Xue Pan had already been there for some time with a number of singing-boys, Jiang Yuhan, an actor who played female roles, and Yuner, a courtesan from Brocade Fragrance Court. The introductions were made and tea was served.
Raising his cup Baoyu smiled at their host.
"Your remark the other day about good fortune and bad has been on my mind ever since," he said. "So as soon as your summons arrived I hurried oven."
"Row trusting you all are." Feng Ziying chuckled. "That was just an excuse to get you over here, for otherwise I was afraid you might de¬cline. Fancy your taking it so seriously."
Amid laughter wine was brought in and they took seats in due order Feng made one of the boy singers pour the wine and asked Yuner to their table to toast the guests. After three cups Xue Pan grew rowdy and seized her hand.
"Sing a nice new song for me," he begged, "and I'll drink a whole jarful of wine. How about it? "
Yuner had no choice but to take her pipa and sing:

Two lovers have I,
From both I'm loath to part,
For while I think of one
The other's in my heart.
Both have so many charms
They're hard to list;
Last night by the rose trellis
Was our tryst.
One came to make love, one to spy;
Caught in the act was I
And, challenged by the two of them,
Could think of no reply!

This sung, she said, "All fight, now drink ajar."
"That wasn't worth a whole jar," protested Xue Pan. "Let's hear something better."
"Listen," put in Baoyu. "If you drink so fast, you'll soon be drunk and we shan't have any fun. Suppose I empty a goblet first and we play a new game of forfeits? Anyone who doesn't do as I say will have to drain ten goblets in succession and leave the table to wait on the others."
When they all agreed to this, he picked up a goblet and drained it.
"Now," he said, "you must all make four lines about a girl's sorrow, her worry, her joy and her delight, explaining the reason for each. Then you must drink a cup of wine, sing a new popular song, and recite either a line from an old poem or couplet, or a saying from the Four Books or the Five Classics connected with some object on the table."
Before he had finished Xue Pan was on his feet protesting.
"I'm not doing that. Count me out. You just want to make fun of me.
Yuner stood up to push him back on to his seat.
"What are you afraid of?" she teased. "Don't you drink every day? Aren't you even up to me? I'm going to join in. If you do all right, well and good; if not, it won't kill you to drink a few cups. Or would you rather refuse and have to drink ten goblets and wait on the rest of us?"
	All clapped their approval and Xue Pan had to subside.
	Baoyu began:
	"The girl's sorrow: Youth is passing but she remains single.
	"The girl's worry: Her husband leaves home to make his fortune.
	"The girl's joy: Her good looks in the mirror in the morning.
	"The girl's delight: Swinging in a light spring gown."
	All cried "Good!" except Xue Pan, who shook his head.
	"No good," he growled. "He ought to pay a forfeit."
	"Why?" asked the others.
	"Because I didn't understand a word." Yuner gave him a pinch.
"Be quiet and think out your lines. If you don't, you'll be the one to pay a forfeit."
She accompanied Baoyu on the pipa as he sang:

Like drops of blood fall endless tears of longing,
By painted pavilion grow willows and flowers untold;
Sleepless at night when wind and rain lash gauze windows,
She cannot forget her sorrows new and old;
Choking on rice like jade and wine like gold,
She turns from her wan reflection in the glass;
Nothing can smooth away her frown,
It seems that the long night will never pass;
Like the shadow of peaks, her grief is never gone;
Like the green stream it flows for ever on.

The only one not to applaud this song was Xue Pan.
"You were off beat," he objected.
	Baoyu drained his cup and picked up a slice of pear from the table. "'Rain buffets the pear blossom and the door is closed,"' he quoted. It was now Feng Ziying's turn. He started off:
	"The girl's sorrow: Her husband falls mortally ill.
	"The girl's worry: Her boudoir in the tower is blown down.
	"The girl's joy: Twin sons at her first confinement.
	"The girl's delight: Catching crickets on the sly in the garden."
	Next, raising his cup, he sang:

You can bill and you can coo,
Be an imp of mischief too,
But a fairy? No, not you,
As my word you doubt.
Ask around and you'll find out
I love you, yes, I do!

Then, having drunk up, he picked up a piece of chicken. "'A cock crows at the moon by the rustic inn,"' was his quotation.
Yuner's turn came next and she began:
	"The girl's sorrow: Will she find a husband to support her?"
	Xue Pan sighed.
"Why child," he said, "with Master Xue here, what have you to worry about?"
	"Don't muddle her," cried the others. "Don't muddle her." Yuner went on:
	"The girl's worry: Will the bawd always beat and scold her?"
	Xue Pan cut in, "The other day when I saw that bawd of yours, I told her not to beat you. "
"If you interrupt again," the others warned him, "you'll have to drink ten cups.
	At once he slapped his own cheek.
	"You've been warned. Not another word now!"
	Yuner continued:
	"The girl's joy: Her lover cannot bear to go home.
"The girl's delight: The pipes hushed, she plays a stringed instru¬ment."
Then she sang:

On the third of the third moon blooms the cardamom;
Fain to creep into it an insect is come;
Failing to enter it clings
To the petals and there it swings.
Dear heart, if I don't let you in,
Your chances are thin!

She drained her cup and picked up a peach saying, "The peach trees are in blossom."'
It was now Xue Pan's turn.
"All right," he said. "Here goes. The girl’s sorrow... " A long pause followed.
"What is she sad about?" Feng Ziying prompted him. "Go on."
Xue Pan's eyes bulged, he was so frantic.
"The girl's sorrow... "
He cleared his throat twice and persevered:
"The girl's sorrow: She marries a queer. "
A roar of laughter went up.
	"What's so funny?" he demanded. "Is that wrong? Wouldn't a girl be sad if the man she married insisted on being a bugger?"
	Doubled up with laughter they gasped, "Quite right. Hurry up and go on.
His eyes bulging again he proceeded, "The girl's worry..." Once more his voice trailed away.
	"Well, what's the worry?"
	"The girl's worry: A big gorilla springs out of her boudoir."
	Roaring with laughter they cried, "Make him pay the forfeit. The last could just pass but this is impossible."
	However, before they could fill the goblet Baoyu put in, "As long as he rhymes it, that's good enough."
	"If the man in charge passes it," blustered Xue Pan, "why should you lot kick up such a fuss?"
	The others gave way.
	"The next two lines are more difficult," said Yuner "Suppose I do them for you?"
	"Nonsense. You think I've nothing better coming? Listen.
	"The girl's joy: Rising late after her wedding night."
	"Row poetic he's growing!" they exclaimed.
	"The girl's delight: A good fuck."
	All turned away crying, "For shame! Hurry up with your song. "
	Then he sang:
		A mosquito buzzes, hum-hum.
	"What sort of song do you call this?" they demanded.
	He went on:
		Two flies drone, buzz-buzz.
	"That's enough. Shut up!" they cried.
"All right, if you don't want it. That's a new song called Hum-hum. If you can't be bothered to listen and want me to stop, you must let me off the drinking.
	"We'll let you off. You're just holding up other people."
	Then Jiang Yuhan took over.
"The girl's sorrow: Her husband leaves, never to return.
"The girl's worry: She has no money to buy pomade.
"The girl's joy: The wick forms two heads like a double flower.1
	"The girl's delight: Husband and wife in harmony."
	Next he sang:

So many charms has Heaven given you,
You seem a goddess come down from the blue;
And blooming youth, life's springtide,
Is just the time to mate the lovebirds true.
The watch-tower drum is beating now,
The Milky Way gleams high above;
Make haste to trim the silver lamp
And draw the bridal curtains on our love.

This sung, he raised his cup and said, "I know very few poems, but luckily I remember a line of a couplet I read yesterday which happens to fit an object on the table."
Raving drained his cup he picked up a sprig of fragrant osmanthus and quoted:
"'When the fragrance of flowers assails men we know the day is warm. '"
Everyone passed this, and so the game ended. But Xue Pan leapt to his feet.
"You've gone too far!" he shouted. "You must pay a forfeit. How can you mention a treasure that isn't here?"
Jiang Yuhan was puzzled.
"What treasure?"
	"Don't try to deny it. Repeat that line again." The actor complied.
"Isn't Xiren a treasure?" demanded Xue Pan. If you don’t believe me, ask him." He pointed at Baoyu.
In some embarrassment Baoyu stood up.
"How many cups should we fine you, cousin, for this?" he asked.
"All right. I'll pay the penalty."
Xue Pan picked up his cup and tossed it off.
Feng Ziying and Jiang Yuhan asked for an explanation; and when Yuner told them who Xiren was, the actor rose to his feet to apologize.
"You're not to blame," said the others. "You didn't know." Presently Baoyu left the room to relieve himself, and Jiang Yuhan followed him out to apologize once more in the corridor. Baoyu was much taken by his charming appearance. Clasping his hand tightly he said:
"When you've time, do come and see me. By the way, I've some¬thing to ask you. In your honourable company there's an actor called Qiguan who's known all over the country, but I've never had a chance to see him."
Jiang Yuhan smiled. "That's my professional name." Baoyu stamped one foot in delight.
"What luck!" he cried. "You certainly live up to your reputation. How can I mark this first meeting?"
After a second's thought he drew the fan from his sleeve, unfastened the jade pendant on it and gave this to the actor
"Please accept this trifle as a mark of my friendship.
"What have I done to deserve this?" Qiguan smiled. "All right, I've something unusual here which I only put on for the first time this morning. It's still quite new. A small token of my devotion."
	He raised his gown to undo the scarlet sash round his trousers and handed it to Baoyu.
	"This was part of the tribute from the Queen of Qianxiang," he ex¬plained. "Worn in summer, it will perfume your skin and stop you from perspiring. I was given it by the Prince of Beijing yesterday, and I put it on for the first time this morning. I wouldn't dream of giving it to any¬body else. Would you mind letting me have your own in exchange, sir?"
	Baoyu took the scarlet sash with the greatest of pleasure, then untied his own pale green one and handed it to the actor They were both fas¬tening their new sashes when they heard a loud shout.
	"Caught in the act!"
	It was Xue Pan, who bounded over to seize them.
	"What are you up to?" he cried. "Leaving your wine and slipping away from the feast! Come on, let's see what you've got there."
	When they told him "Nothing," he refused to believe them. Not until Feng Ziying came out did he let them go. Then they went back to their seats and drank until the evening, when the party broke up.
	On Baoyu's return to the Garden he took off his outer garments to drink tea and Xiren, noticing that his fan-pendant was missing, asked what had become of it.
	"I must have lost it out riding," said Baoyu.
	But when he went to bed and she saw the blood-red sash round his waist, she knew more or less what had happened.
"Now that you've got a better sash, will you return mine?" she asked. Only then did he remember that the green sash belonged to Xiren and he should never have given it away. He was sorry but could hardly ex¬plain to her what had happened.
"I'll get you another," he promised.
	"I know what you've been up to again." She nodded and sighed. "You've no right to give my things to those low creatures. You should know better."
	She let it go at that and went to bed too, afraid to provoke him after he had been drinking.
	As soon as she woke the next morning, Baoyu confronted her with a smile.
	"You wouldn't know if a thief came in the night," he said. "Look at your pants."
	Xiren looked down and saw that the sash he had worn the previous day was now round her own waist. Aware that he had changed it during the night, she immediately took it off.
	"I'm not interested in such trash. Take it away. "
	He pleaded with her until she consented to wear it. But as soon as he left the room she took it oft threw it into an empty case and put on another Baoyu did not notice this on his return.
	"Did anything happen yesterday?" he asked.
	"Madam Lian sent over for Xiaohong. The girl wanted to wait for your return but 1 didn't think that necessary, so I took it upon myself to send her away."
	"Quite right. I knew. There was no need for her to wait."
	"And yesterday the Imperial Consort sent the eunuch Xia here with a hundred and twenty taels to be spent on masses, theatricals and sacri¬fices on the first three days of the month at Ethereal Abbey. She wants Lord Zhen to take all the gentlemen there to burn incense and worship Buddha. She also sent over presents for the Dragon-Boat Festival."
	Xiren told a young maid to fetch his gifts: two fine Palace fans, two strings of red beads scented with musk, two lengths of phoenix-tail silk, and a bamboo mat woven in a lotus pattern.
	Baoyu, delighted with these things, asked if the others had received the same gifts.
	"The old lady had an extra sandalwood Ruyi sceptre and agate pil¬low. Lord Zheng, Lady Wang and Madam Xue each had an extra sandal¬wood sceptre. You got the same as Miss Xue, while Miss Lin and the three other young ladies were given fans and beads, nothing else. Madam Li Wan and Madam Xifeng each had two rolls of gauze, two rolls of silk, two aromatic pouches and two pills from the Palace."
	"How can that be?" asked Baoyu. "Why did Miss Xue get the same as me and not Miss Lin? There must be some mistake."
	"Impossible. Each share was labelled when they were brought yes¬terday. Yours went to the old lady's apartments, and when I fetched it she said you must go to the Palace at the fifth watch tomorrow to ex¬press your thanks."
"Yes, of course.
He called for Zixiao.
"Take these things to Miss Lin," he instructed her. "Tell her this is what I got yesterday and she can keep anything she fancies."
The maid did as she was told, coming back to report, "Miss Lin says she received presents too; she wants you to keep yours. "
He had the things put away then and washed his face before setting off to pay his respects to his grandmother. Meeting Daiyu on the way, he hurried up to her with a smile.
"Why didn't you pick any of my things, as I asked?"
Daiyu had forgotten her earlier grievance in her preoccupation with this new incident.
"I'm not cut out for such good fortune," she said. "I can't compare with Cousin Baochai and her gold and jade. I'm just as common as any plant or tree."
Baoyu caught this innuendo.
"Other people may talk about gold and jade," he protested, "but if such an idea ever crossed my mind, may Heaven and Earth destroy me! May I never again be reborn in human form!"
Daiyu knew from this how hurt he felt.
"What nonsense," she scoffed. "Why make such oaths for no rea¬son? Who cares about your gold and jade anyway?"
"It's hard to tell you all that's in my heart, but you'll understand some day. You're the closest person in the world to me after my grand¬mother and my own parents. I sweart there's no one else."
"There's no need to swear I know I have a place in your heart. But whenever you see her; you forget all about me."
"That's your imagination. I'm not like that."
"Why did you appeal to me when Baochai refused to backup your fib yesterday? If I'd refused, goodness knows what you'd have done."
Seeing Baochai approaching just then, they moved on. And pretend¬ing not to have seen them -- although she had -- she walked on with lowered head to chat with Lady Wang before going on to the Lady Dowager's apartments. She found Baoyu already there.
	Now ever since her mother had told Lady Wang about the gold locket given to Baochai by a monk and his prediction that she would only marry a man with jade, Baochai had been rather distant to Baoyu. Yuanchun's gift of identical presents to them the previous day had made her even more sensitive on this score. Fortunately Baoyu was so wrapped up in Daiyu, so utterly engrossed in her, that he paid no attention to this coinci¬dence.
	Without warning now he asked Baochai to let him have a look at the red bead bracelet scented with musk on her left wrist. She had no alter¬native but to take it off. She was so plump, however, that this was by no means easy. And while he stood admiring her soft white arm it occurred to him. If she were Daiyu, I might have a chance to stroke her arm. Too bad for me that it's hers!
	Suddenly remembering the talk about gold and jade, he looked at Baochai more closely. Her face seemed a silver disc, her eyes were lustrous and almond-shaped, her lips red without rouge, her eyebrows dark without being pencilled. She was charming in quite a different way from Daiyu. He was so fascinated that when she pulled off the bracelet and offered it to him, he did not even take it.
	Embarrassed by the way he was staring, Baochai put the bracelet down and turned to go. She saw Daiyu then in the doorway, biting her handkerchief with a mocking smile.
	"Why are you standing there in a draught?" asked Baochai. "You know how easily you catch cold."
	"I was indoors until I heard a strange bird-cry. When I came out to look, it was only a silly goose.
	"Where is this silly goose? I'd like to see it."
	"As soon as I came out it flapped away.
	With these words she flicked Baoyu's face with her handkerchief catching him right on the eyes. He uttered an exclamation of surprise.
To know what came of this, read the next chapter.

Chapter 29

Favourites of Fortune Pray for
Better Fortune
An Absurd, Loving Girl Falls
Deeper in Love


Baoyu was so absorbed by his thoughts that when Daiyu flicked his eyes with her handkerchief, he gave a sudden start.
"Who's that?" he exclaimed.
She shook her head laughingly.
"Sorry, a slip of the hand. Cousin Baochai wanted to see the silly goose, and while pointing it out to her I hit you by mistake."
Baoyu rubbed his eyes and bit back the retort which was on the tip of his tongue.

Then Xifeng arrived and, alluding in the course of conversation to the Taoist mass to be held at Ethereal Abbey on the first of the next month, she urged the young people to go there to watch the operas.
"It's too hot for me," objected Baochai. "Besides, there aren't any operas I haven't seen. I'm not going."
"It's cool there with tall buildings on either side," countered Xifeng. "If we're going I shall send servants a few days in advance to clear out the Taoist priests and clean the place up, then screen it off and close it to the general public. It will be rather pleasant then. I've already told Lady Wang. If you won't go I mean to go alone. Things have been so boring recently; besides, even when we have shows at home, I can't watch them in comfort."
When the Lady Dowager heard of this she said, "In that case, I'll go along with you."
"If our Old Ancestress is going as well," cried Xifeng, "so much the better -- only I shan't be free to enjoy myself."
"I'll sit in the main balcony and you can watch from one of the side ones, will that suit you? Then you won't have to dance attendance on me.
"See how our Old Ancestress dotes on me!" Xifeng quipped.
"You must go, and your mother too," said the Lady Dowager to Baochai. "If you stayed at home you'd only sleep the whole day long."
Then Baochai had to agree.
The old lady sent a maid to invite Aunt Xue and to notify Lady Wang on the way that she meant to take the girls. Lady Wang had already excused herself on the grounds that she was unwell and expecting word from Yuanchun. She received this message with a smile and the com¬ment:
"What good spirits she's in. Go and tell them in the Garden that any of the young ladies who would like an outing may accompany the old lady on the first."
Those most excited by this news were the young maids who normally had no chance to cross the threshold, all of whom longed to go. If their mistresses were disinclined to stir they tried in every way to persuade them, to such effect that Li Wan and the rest all agreed to the trip. This pleased the Lady Dowager even more. Meanwhile servants had been sent to make everything ready.
When the first of the fifth month arrived, the road before the Rong Mansion was thronged with carriages, sedan-chairs, attendants and horses. As this mass had been paid for by the Imperial Consort and the Lady Dowager was going in person to offer incense, and as moreover it was just before the Double Fifth Festival, all the preparations were on a more lavish scale than usual.
Presently the ladies of the house emerged. The old lady's large se¬dan-chair had eight bearers; those of Li Wan, Xifeng and Aunt Xue, four apiece. The carriage shared by Baochai and Daiyu was gay with a green awning, pearl-tassels and designs of the Eight Precious Things; that shared by the three Jia girls had crimson wheels and an ornamented covering.
Behind them followed the Lady Dowager's maids Yuanyang, Yingwu, Hupo and Zhenzhu; Daiyu's maids Zijuan, Xueyan and Chunxian; Baochai's maids Yinger and Wenxing; Yingchun's maids Siqi and Xiuju; Tanchun's maids Daishu and Cuimo; Xichun's maids Ruhua and Caiping; and Aunt Xue's maids Tongxi and Tonggui.
They were also accompanied by Xiangling and her maid Zhener; Li Wan's maids Suyun and Biyue; Xifeng's maids Pinger, Fenger and Xiaohong; and Lady Wang's maids Jinchuan and Caiyun, who because they wanted to go were attending on Xifeng today.
Dajie and her wet-nurse rode in another carriage with other maids.
In addition there were two other maids and some old nurses from the different apartments, as well as some stewards' wives. The whole street was nearly hidden from sight by all their conveyances. Even after the Lady Dowager's sedan-chair had gone a considerable distance, these attendants were still mounting their carriages at the gate, where a babel of voices was heard:
"I don't want you in with me."
"Look out! you're sitting on my lady's things."
"Don't tread on my flowers!"
"You've gone and broken my fan."
There was no end to their noisy talk and laughter. Zhou Rui's wife went back and forth to remonstrate:
"Now, girls, don't make such laughing-stocks of yourselves out in the street."
She had to repeat this several times to make them quiet down, by which time the front part of the retinue had reached the abbey gate. And as Baoyu rode up on horseback before the Lady Dowager's sedan-chair, spectators lined the street.
As they neared the abbey gate, they heard the peal of bells and the roll of drums. Abbot Zhang in his robes of office, holding a tablet, was waiting with his priests by the roadside to welcome them. The Lady Dowager's sedan-chair had just been borne through the gate when, at sight of the clay images of gods guarding the temple gate, those of two messenger gods -- one with eyes able to see a thousand ii, the other with ears able to catch each breath of rumour -- together with local tutelary gods, she ordered her bearers to halt. Jia Zhen and the young men of the family advanced to receive her. And Xifeng, knowing that Yuanyang and the others were too far behind to help the old lady alight, got down from her own chair to do this. As she did so, an acolyte of twelve or thirteen, holding a case of scissors for cutting the candle-wicks, came darting out to see the fun and ran ~l tilt into her. She boxed his ears so hard that he pitched to the ground.
"Look out where you're going, little bastard!" she swore.
Too frightened to pick up his scissors, the boy scrambled to his feet to run outdoors. Just then Baochai and the other girls were dismounting from their carriages, escorted by a multitude of matrons and stewards' wives. At sight of the little fugitive, the attendants shouted:
"Catch him! Beat him!"
"What's happened?" asked the Lady Dowager.
Jia Zhen hurried over to make inquiries, while Xifeng gave the old lady her arm.
"It's an acolyte who trims the wicks," she explained. "He didn't get out of the way in time and was rushing wildly about."
"Bring him here. Don't frighten him," the Lady Dowager ordered. "Children of humble families are well sheltered by their parents, they have never seen anything so grand before. It would be too bad to frighten him out of his wits -- his father and mother would never get over it." She told Jia Zhen, "Go and bring him gently here."
Jia Zhen had to drag the boy over. His scissors now in one hand, trembling from head to foot, he fell on his knees. The old lady made Jia Zhen help him up.
"Don't be afraid," she said. "How old are you?"
But he was speechless with fright.
"Poor little thing!" she exclaimed, then turned to Jia Zhen. "Take him away, Zhen, and give him some cash to buy sweetmeats. Don't let any¬one bully him."
Jia Zhen assented and led the boy away, while the Lady Dowager moved on with her train to see the different shrines.
The pages outside had just observed them enter the third gate when out came Jia Zhen with the acolyte and ordered them to take him away, give him a few hundred cash and not illtreat him. Several servants promptly came forward and led him off.
Standing on the steps Jia Zhen demanded, "Where is the steward?"
All the pages shouted in unison, "Steward!"
At once Lin Zhixiao came running over, holding on his cap with one hand.
"Although this is a large place," Jia Zhen told him, "there are more people here than we expected. Keep those you need in this courtyard, send those you don't need to the other, and post some boys at the two main gates and side gates ready to carry out orders and run errands. You know, don't you, that all the ladies have come today, so not a single outsider must be allowed in."
"Yes, sir. Right, sir. Very good, sir," agreed Lin Zhixiao hastily.
"You may go. Wait! Why isn't Rong here?"
While he was still speaking Jia Rong hurried out from the bell-tower, buttoning his clothes.
"Look at him," sneered Jia Zhen. "While I swelter here he finds somewhere to cool off."
He ordered the servants to spit at him, and one of the pages spat in Jia Rong's face.
"Ask him what he means by it," ordered Jia Zhen.
So the page asked Jia Rong, "If His Lordship can stand the heat, why should you go to cool off?"
Jia Rong, his arms at his sides, dared not utter a word.
This had struck fear into Jia Yun, Jia Qin and Jia Ping; and even Jia Huang, Jia Bin and Jia Qiong promptly put on their caps and one by one edged forward from the shade at the foot of the wall.
"What are you standing there for?" Jia Zhen snapped at his son. "Hurry up and gallop home to tell your mother and wife that the old lady and all the young ladies are here. They should come at once and wait on them."
Jia Rong ran off shouting repeatedly for a horse. He grumbled: "Why was this not thought of before? Now I'm the one to take the brunt." Then he swore at a page, "Are your hands tied that you can't bring me a horse?"
He would have sent a page in his place, if not for fear this might be discovered later. As it was, he had to ride back to town himself.
But to return to Jia Zhen. As he was turning back to the hall he found Zhang the Taoist standing beside him.
"In view of my special position I ought to attend the ladies inside," the priest observed with a smile. "But it's such a hot day, with so many young ladies here too, that I don't like to presume without your permis¬sion. I'd better wait here in case the old lady may want me to show her round."
Jia Zhen knew that though this Taoist had been the Duke of Rongguo's substitute,1 later he had been made Chief Warder of the Taoist Script, with the title "Saint of the Great Illusion" verbally conferred by the pre¬vious Emperor, and now being Keeper of the Taoist Seal and entitled "Man of Final Truth" by the Emperor he was addressed as "Immortal" by nobles and officials alike. It would not do to slight him. Besides, during his frequent visits to the two mansions he had already made the acquain¬tance of all the ladies there, both young and old.
So Jia Zhen responded with a smile, "What sort of talk is this among friends? Stop it at once or I shall pull out your beard. Come along in with me.
Laughing heartily the Taoist followed him in.
Jia Zhen found the Lady Dowager and with a bow informed her:
"Grandfather Zhang has come to pay his respects."
"Bring him here," she rejoined at once.
Jia Zhen led in the priest, chortling.
"Buddha of Infinite Longevity!" he exclaimed. "I hope the Old An¬cestress has been enjoying good fortune, long life, health and peace, and that all the ladies and young ladies have been happy too. I haven't called on you to pay my respects, but Your Ladyship looks in better health than ever. "
"And are you well, Old Immortal?" she responded with a smile.
"Thanks to my share in your good fortune, yes. I keep feeling con¬cerned about your grandson, though. How has he been keeping all this time? Not long ago, on the twenty-sixth of last month, we celebrated the birthday of the Prince who Shades the Sky. As few people would be coming and everything was quite clean, I sent to invite Master Bao to come; but they told me he wasn't at home."
"It's true, he wasn't."
The old lady called for her grandson.
Baoyu, just back from the privy, hurriedly stepped forward to say, "How do you do, Grandad Zhang?"
The priest took him in his arms and asked after his health.
"Yes," he remarked to the Lady Dowager, "he looks as if he's put¬ting on weight now."
"He may look all right but he's really delicate. And his father is ruin¬ing his health, the way he keeps the boy poring over his books."
"I've seen some of his calligraphy and poems in different places recently. They're so remarkably good I can't understand why His Lord¬ship should still complain he's idle. I'd say he's doing all right." Then, with a sigh, the old Taoist observed, "To me, with his face and figure, his bearing and way of talking, Master Bao seems the image of the old duke." Tears welled from his eyes as he spoke.
The old lady was painfully affected too.
"You're right," she agreed. "Of all my sons and grandsons, Baoyu is the only one who takes after his grandfather."
The priest then remarked to Jia Zhen, "Of course, sir, your generation were born too late to see the duke. I don't suppose even Lord She and Lord Zheng remember too well what he looked like." He burst out laugh¬ing again before turning back to the Lady Dowager. "The other day in a certain family I saw a young lady of fifteen, a pretty girl. It seems to me time to arrange a match for the young master. And that young lady would do, as far as looks, intelligence and family go. But not knowing how Your Ladyship feels, I didn't like to do anything rash. I can go and broach the subject if Your Ladyship gives the word."
"A bonze told us this boy isn't fated to marry too early," she replied. "So we'll wait until he's older to settle things. But by all means keep your eyes open. Riches and rank are immaterial. Only if you find a girl pretty enough, come and let us know. Even if the family's poor it doesn't matter, we can always let them have a few taels of silver. But good looks and a sweet dispostition are hard to find."
At this point Xifeng joined in with a smile: "Grandfather Zhang, you still haven't brought our daughter her new talisman, yet you had the nerve to send round the other day to ask for yellow satin. And I didn't like to make you lose face by not giving it."
Zhang the Taoist roared with laughter.
"My eyes are so dim, I didn't notice you, madam, and haven't thanked
you~ The talisman was ready long ago and I was meaning to send it, but when Her Highness ordered this mass to be held I forgot. It's still before the image of Buddha. I'll go and get it."
He hurried off to the main hall, returning presently with a talisman on a tray covered with a red silk sutra wrapper with a dragon design. As Dajie's nurse took this from him, he held out his arms for the child.
"Why didn't you bring it in your hands?" Xifeng wanted to know. "Why use a tray?"
"My hands are too dirty, madam. A tray seemed cleaner."
"You gave me quite a turn when you brought in that tray," she teased. "I didn't know you had the talisman on it, I thought you'd come to ask for donations."
This set the whole party laughing. Even Jia Zhen could not suppress a smile.
"What a monkey you are!" cried the Lady Dowager turning to Xifeng. "Aren't you afraid of going to the Tongue-Cutting Hell?"
"I've done him no harm," she countered. "Why is he always warn¬ing me that unless I do more good deeds I shan't live long?"
Zhang the Taoist chuckled.
"I brought the tray for two reasons," he explained. "Not to collect donations, but to borrow Master Bao's jade to show my Taoist friends and disciples."
"If that's the case," said the Lady Dowager, "there's no reason why an old man like you should run around. Take Baoyu out to show it to them all, then send him back. Wouldn't that save trouble?"
"No, Your Ladyship doesn't understand. I may be more than eighty, but thanks to your shared good fortune I'm hale and hearty; and there are so many of them out there that the place stinks. Master Bao, not being used to this heat, might be over-powered by the stench. And that would be too bad."
Accordingly the old lady told Baoyu to take off his Jade of Spiritual Understanding and put it on the tray. Zhang the Taoist laid it reverently on the silk and carried the tray respectfully out with both hands.
For their part, the Lady Dowager and her party went on strolling round the temple. They were climbing to the upper storey of one building when
Jia Zhen reported that Grandad Zhang had brought back the jade. As he spoke, Zhang appeared with the tray.
"Everyone felt most obliged to me for the chance to see Master Bao's jade, which they think most wonderful," he declared. "They've nothing else worth offering, so they've sent these Taoist amulets as tokens of their respect. If Master Bao thinks they're nothing special, he can keep them as toys or give them away, just as he pleases."
The Lady Dowager saw in the tray several dozen amulets of gold and jade engraved with the inscriptions "May All Your Wishes Come True" and "Eternal Peace." Each was studded with pearls or jewels and finely carved.
"This won't do," she expostulated. "How can priests afford such things? It's quite uncalled for. We can't possibly accept them."
"These are just a small token of their esteem. I couldn't stop them," he said. "If Your Ladyship won't accept them, they'll think you look down on me and don't consider me as your protege."
So she had to tell a maid to take the gifts.
"Since Grandad Zhang won't let us refuse, and these things are no use to me, madam," said Baoyu, "why not let my pages carry them out with me now to distribute them to the poor?"
"That's a good idea," agreed his grandmother.
But Zhang the Taoist immediately objected, "That's a charitable thought, Master Bao; but even if these things are of little value, some of them are well made. They'd be wasted on beggars, who'd have no use for them. If you want to help the poor, why not give them money in¬stead?"
"All right," said Baoyu. "We'll keep them and distribute some alms this evening."
Thereupon the priest withdrew, while the Lady Dowager and her party went upstairs to sit in the main balcony, Xifeng and her companions occu¬pying that to the east. The maids, in the west balcony, took turns waiting on their mistesses.
Presently Jia Zhen came to report that lots had been drawn before the shrine for the operas, and the first was to be The White Serpent.
"What's the story?" asked the old lady.
"It's about the First Emperor of Han who killed a serpent, then founded the dynasty. The second is Every Son a High Minister."2
"So that's the second?" The Lady Dowager nodded, smiling. "Well, if this is the wish of the gods, what must be must be. And what's the third?"
"The Dream of the Southern Tributary State. "3
At this she made no comment. Jia Zhen withdrew to prepare the written prayers, burn incense and order the actors to start. But no more of this.
Baoyu, seated next to his grandmother upstairs, told one of the maids to bring him the tray of gifts. Having put on his own jade again he rum¬maged through his presents, showing them one by one to the old lady. Her eye was struck by a gold unicorn decorated with turquoise enamel, which she picked up.
"I'm sure I've seen something like this on one of the girls," she remarked.
"Cousin Xiangyun has one like that, only a little smaller," Baochai told her.
"So that's it!" exclaimed the Lady Dowager.
"All this time she's been staying with us, how come I've never no¬ticed it?" asked Baoyu.
"Cousin Baochai's observant," chuckled Tanchun. "She never for¬gets anything either."
"She's not so observant about other things," remarked Daiyu cuttingly. "But she's most observant about other people's trinkets."
Baochai turned away and pretended not to have heard.
As soon as Baoyu knew that Xiangyun had a unicorn too, he picked this one up and slipped it into his pocket. Then, afraid people might see through him, he glanced surreptitiously round. The only one paying any attention was Daiyu, who was nodding at him with a look of speculation in her eyes. Embarrassed by this, he took the unicorn out again and showed it to her.
"This is rather fun," he said with a smile. "I'll keep it for you till we get home, then put it on a cord for you to wear. "
Daiyu tossed her head.
"I don't fancy it."
"If you really don't, in that case I'll keep it for myself." He put it away again.
Before he could say more, Madam You and Rong's second wife -- Jia Zhen's wife and daughter-in-law -- arrived to pay their respects.
"You shouldn't have come," protested the old lady. "I'm just out for a little jaunt."
The next second it was announced that messengers had come from General Feng. For as soon as Feng Ziying heard that the Jia family were celebrating a mass in the abbey he had prepared gifts of pigs, sheep, incense, candles and sweetmeats and had them sent along. The moment Xifeng knew this she hurried over to the main balcony.
"Aiya!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands. "I wasn't prepared for this. We just looked on this as an outing, but they've sent offerings under the impression that we're making a serious sacrifice of it. It's all our old lady's fault. Now I shall have to prepare some tips."
That same instant up come two stewards' wives from the Feng fam¬ily. And before they had left more presents arrived from Vice-Minister Zhao, to be followed in quick succession by gifts from all their relatives and friends who had heard that the ladies of the Jia family were holding a service in the abbey.
The Lady Dowager began to regret the whole expedition.
"This isn't a regular sacrifice," she said. "We just came out for fun, but we've put them to all this trouble."
So after watching only one performance she went home that same afternoon and refused to go back the next day.
"Why not go the whole hog?" Xifeng reasoned. "Since we've al¬ready put everybody out, we may as well amuse ourselves again today."
But Baoyu had been sulking ever since Zhang the Taoist broached the subject of his marriage to his grandmother. He was still fulminating against the priest and puzzling other people by muttering: "I never want to set eyes on him again." As for Daiyu she had been suffering since her return from a touch of the sun. For these reasons the old lady remained ada¬mant. When Xifeng saw that she would not go, she took some others back with her to the abbey.
Baoyu was so worried on Daiyu's account that he would not touch his food and kept going over to find out how she was. Daiyu, for her part, was worried about him.
"Why don't you go and see the shows?" she asked. "Why should you stay at home?"
The Taoist's officiousness still rankled with Baoyu, and when Daiyu, said this he thought: "I could forgive others for not understanding me, but now even she is making fun of me." So his resentment increased a hun¬dredfold. He wouldn't have flared up had it been anyone else, but Daiyu's behaving this way was a different matter. His face clouded over.
"All right, all right," he said sullenly. "We've known each other all these years in vain."
"I know that too." She laughed sarcastically. "I'm not like those others who own things which make them a good match for you. "
He went up to her then and demanded to her face, "Does this mean you really want to invoke Heaven and Earth to destroy me?" Before she could fathom his meaning he went on, "Yesterday I took an oath because of this, and today you provoke me again. If Heaven and Earth destroy me, what good will it do you?"
Daiyu remembered their previous conversation and realized she had blundered. She was conscience-stricken and frantic.
"If I wish you harm, may Heaven and Earth destroy me too," she sobbed. "Why take on like this? I know. When Zhang the Taoist spoke of your marriage yesterday, you were afraid he might prevent the match of your choice. And now you're working your temper off on me."
Now Baoyu had always been deplorably eccentric. Since childhood, moreover, he had been intimate with Daiyu, finding her a kindred spirit. Thus now that he knew a little more and had read some improper books, he felt none of the fine girls he had seen in the families of relatives and friends fit to hold a candle to her. He had long since set his heart on having her, but could not admit as much. So whether happy or angry, he used every means to test her secretly.
And Daiyu, being rather eccentric too, would disguise her feelings to test him in return.
Thus each concealed his or her real sentiments to sound the other out.
The proverb says, "When false meets false, the truth will out." So inevi¬tably, in the process, they kept quarrelling over trifles.
So now Baoyu was reflecting. "I can forgive others not understand¬ing me, but you ought to know you're the only one I care for. Yet instead of comforting me you only taunt me. It's obviously no use my thinking of you every minute of the day -- you've no place for me in your heart." To tell her this, however, was beyond him.
As for Daiyu, she was reflecting, "I know I've a place in your heart. Naturally you don't take that vicious talk about gold matching jade seri¬ously, but think of me seriously instead. Even if I raise the subject, you should take it perfectly calmly to show that it means nothing to you, that the one you really care for is me. Why get so worked up at the mention of gold and jade? This shows you're thinking about them all the time. You're afraid I suspect this when I mention them, so you put on a show of being worked up -- just to fool me.
In fact, to start with their two hearts were one, but each of them was so hyper-sensitive that their longing to be close ended in estrangement.
Now Baoyu was telling himself, "Nothing else matters to me so long as you're happy. Then I'd gladly die for you this very instant. Whether you know this or not, you can at least feel that in my heart you're close to me and not distant."
Daiyu meanwhile was thinking, "Just take good care of yourself. When you're happy, I'm happy too. Why should you be upset because of me? You should know that if you're upset, so am I. It means you won't let me be close to you and want me to keep at a distance."
So their mutual concern for each other resulted in their estrangement. But as it is hard to describe all their secret thoughts, we shall have to content ourselves with recording their actions.
Those words "the match of your choice" infuriated Baoyu. Too choked with rage to speak, he tore the jade from his neck and dashed it to the floor.
"You rubbishy thing!" he cried, gnashing his teeth. "I'1l smash you to pieces and have done with it."
The jade was so hard, however, that no damage was done. So he looked around for something with which to smash it.
Daiyu was already weeping.
"Why destroy that dumb object?" she sobbed. "Better destroy me instead."
Zijuan and Xueyan dashed in to stop this quarrel. Seeing Baoyu ham¬mering at the jade they tried to snatch it away from him but failed. And since this was more serious than usual they had to send for Xiren, who hurried in and managed to rescue the stone.
Baoyu smiled bitterly.
"I can smash what's mine, can't I? What business is it of yours?"
Xiren had never before seen him so livid with rage, his whole face contorted.
"Because you have words with your cousin is no reason to smash this up," she said coaxingly, taking his hand. "Suppose you broke it, think how bad she'd feel."
This touched Daiyu's heart, yet it only made her more wretched to think that Baoyu had less consideration for her than Xiren. She sobbed even more bitterly, so distraught that she threw up the herbal medicine she had just taken. Zijuan hastily brought her a handkerchief which soon was completely soaked through. Xueyan meanwhile massaged her back.
"No matter how angry you are, miss, do think of your health!" Zijuan urged. "You were feeling a little better after the medicine; it's this tiff with Master Bao that's made you retch. If you fall ill, how upset Master Bao will be."
This touched Baoyu's heart, yet also struck him as proof that Daiyu had less consideration for him than Zijuan. But now Daiyu's cheeks were flushed and swollen. Weeping and choking, her face streaked with tears and sweat, she looked most fearfully frail. The sight filled him with com¬punction.
"I should never have argued with her and got her into this state," he scolded himself. "I can't even suffer instead of her." He, too, shed tears.
Xiren's heart ached to see how bitterly both of them were weeping. She felt Baoyu's hands. They were icy cold. She wanted to urge him not to cry, but feared that bottling up his resentment would be bad for him; on the other hand, comforting him might seem like slighting Daiyu. Thinking that tears might calm them all, she wept in sympathy.
Zijuan, who had cleaned up and was gently fanning Daiyu, was so affected by the sight of the three of them weeping in silence that she had to put a handkerchief to her own eyes.
So all four of them wept in silence until Xiren, forcing a smile, said to Baoyu:
"Just because of the tassel on your jade, if not for any other reason, you shouldn't quarrel with Miss Lin."
At this Daiyu forgot her nausea and rushed over to snatch the jade, seizing a pair of scissors to cut off the tassel. Xiren and Zijuan intervened too late to save it.
"All my work for nothing," sobbed Daiyu. "He doesn't care for it. He can get someone else to make him a better one."
Xiren hastily took the jade from her.
"Why do that?" she protested. "It's my fault. I should have held my tongue."
"Go ahead and cut it up," Baoyu urged Daiyu. "I shan't wear it anyway, so it doesn't matter."
During this commotion, some old nurses had bustled off without their knowing to inform the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang. For having heard Daiyu crying and vomiting and Baoyu threatening to smash his jade, they did not want to be held responsible should any serious trouble come of it. Their flurried, earnest report so alarmed the old lady and Lady Wang that both came to the Garden to see what dreadful thing had happened. Xiren was frantic and blamed Zijuan for disturbing their mistresses, while Zijuan held Xiren to blame.
When the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang found both the young people quiet and were told there was nothing amiss, they vented their anger on their two chief maids.
"Why don't you look after them properly?" they scolded. "Can't you do something when they start quarrelling?"
The two maids had to listen meekly to a long lecture, and peace was only restored when the old lady took Baoyu away.
The next day, the third of the month, was Xue Pan's birthday, and the whole Jia family was invited to a feast and theatricals. Baoyu had not seen Daiyu since he offended her and was feeling too remorseful and depressed to enjoy any show. He pleaded illness, therefore, as an excuse not to go.
Daiyu was not seriously ill, simply suffering from the heat. When she heard of Baoyu's refusal to go she thought, "He has a weakness for feasts and theatricals. If he's staying away today, it must either be be¬cause yesterday's business still rankles or because he knows I'm not going. I should never have cut that tassel off his jade. I'm sure he won't wear it again now unless I make him another." So she felt thoroughly conscience-stricken too.
The Lady Dowager had hoped they would stop sulking and make it up while watching operas together. When both refused to go she grew quite frantic.
"What sins have I committed in a past existence to be plagued with two such troublesome children?" she lamented. "Not a day goes by without something to worry about. How true the proverb is that 'En¬emies and lovers are destined to meet.' Once I've closed my eyes and breathed my last, they can quarrel and storm as much as they like. What the eye doesn't see the heart doesn't grieve for. But I'm not at my last gasp just yet." With that she wept too.
When word of this reached Baoyu and Daiyu, neither of whom had heard that proverb before, they felt as if a great light had dawned on them. With lowered heads they pondered its meaning and could not hold back their tears. True, they were still apart: one weeping to the breeze in Bamboo Lodge, the other sighing to the moon in Happy Red Court. But although apart, at heart they were as one.
Xiren scolded Baoyu, "It's entirely your fault. You used to blame boys who quarrelled with their sisters, or husbands who disputed with their wives, for being too stupid to understand girl's hearts. Yet now you're being just as bad yourself. The day after tomorrow, the fifth, is the festival. If you two go on looking daggers at each other that will make the old lady even angrier and no one will have any peace. Do get over your temper and apologize! Let bygones be bygones. Wouldn't that be better for both sides?"
Whether Baoyu took her advice or not you may read in the next chapter.

Chapter 30

Baochai Uses a Fan to Make an Insinuation
Lingguan Writes on the Ground
and a Foolish Young Man Is Touched


Daiyu for her part was also remorseful after her quarrel with Baoyu, but could think of no pretext to go and make it up. So she spent all day and night in a state of depression, feeling as if bereft. Zijuan, who guessed how she felt, tried to reason with her.
"The fact is you were too hasty the other day, miss," she said. "We should know Baoyu if no one else does. After all, it's not the first time there's been a rumpus over that jade."
"So you side with the others and blame me," snapped Daiyu. "In what way was I hasty?"
"Why did you cut off the tassel for no reason? That put you more in the wrong than Master Bao. I know how devoted he is to you, miss. All this comes of your touchiness and the way you twist his words."
Before Daiyu could retort they heard someone calling at the outer gate.
"It's Baoyu's voice." Zijuan smiled. "He must be coming to apologize."
"Don't let him in. "
"That wouldn't be right, miss. It's a scorching day. We don't want him to get sunstroke."
She went and opened the gate, ushering Baoyu in with a smile. "I thought you'd never cross this threshold of ours again," she re¬marked. "But here you are. "
"You take things far too seriously." He chuckled. "Why shouldn't I come? Even if I were dead, my ghost would haunt you a hundred times a day. Tell me, is my cousin better?"
"In her health, yes. Not in her feelings."
"I know what's the trouble with her."
He went in and found Daiyu indulging in a fresh fit of weeping on her bed, so much had his arrival touched her.
Walking cheerfully up to her bedside he asked, "Are you feeling a little better?"
When she simply wiped her tears without answering, he sat down on the edge of the bed.
"I know you're not really angry with me," he told her. "But if I stayed away others might think we'd quarrelled again and come to act as peacemakers, as if the two of us were strangers. So beat me or scold me as much as you like but for pity's sake don't ignore me, dear cousin, sweet cousin!"
Daiyu had in fact determined to ignore him, but this speech proving that she was dearer to him than anyone else, and all the endearments he now poured out, made her break down again.
"You needn't flatter me," she sobbed. "I shall never dare be friends with you again. Behave as if I'd gone."
"Where would you go?" Baoyu laughed.
"Home."
"I'd go with you. "
"What if I should die?"
"I'd become a monk."
"What a thing to say!" She frowned sternly. "Why talk such non¬sense? Think of all the sisters and girl cousins you have. Do you have so many lives that you can become a monk every time one of them dies? Wait and see what the others say when I tell them this."
Baoyu could have kicked himself for this fresh blunder. Flushing red he hung his head without a word, thankful that no one else was in the room. Too angry to speak, she fixed him with furious eyes until his cheeks were burning. Then, clenching her teeth, she stabbed with one finger at his forehead.
"You...."
But this exclamation ended in a sigh as she took out her handkerchief and wiped her tears.
Baoyu's heart was very full and he was ashamed of speaking so foolishly. When she struck him then sighed and wept without a word, he too was reduced to tears. He started to wipe them with his sleeve, having forgotten to bring a handkerchief, and Daiyu noticed through her own tears that he was wearing a new lilac blue linen gown. While dabbing at her own eyes she turned and took a silk handkerchief from her pillow, tossed him this in silence and covered her face again.
Baoyu took the handkerchief and wiped his tears, then stepped for¬ward to clasp her hand.
"You're breaking my heart with your weeping," he declared. "Come, let's go and see the old lady."
"Take your hands off me!" She pulled away. "You're not a child any more, yet you still carry on in this shameless way. Can't you behave yourself?"
She was interrupted by the cry "Thank goodness!"
The two of them started, then turned to see Xifeng sweeping gaily in.
"The old lady's fulminating against Heaven and Earth," she informed them. "She insisted I come to see if you'd made it up. I told her, 'No need, they'll be friends again in less than three days.' But she scolded me for being too lazy to stir, so I had to come. Well, what did I say? I can't see what you two have to quarrel about. Friends one day, squabbing the next, you're worse than children. Now you're holding hands and crying, but yesterday you were like fighting cocks. Come along with me, quick, to your grandmother to set the old lady's mind at rest."
She caught hold of Daiyu meaning to lead her away. Daiyu turned to call her maids but not one was there.
"What do you want them for?" asked Xifeng. "I'll look after you."
With that she pulled her out. And Baoyu followed them out of the Garden to the Lady Dowager's quarters.
"I said don't worry, they'll make it up themselves," announced Xifeng cheerfully. "Our Old Ancestress didn't believe me, and insisted I go along as peacemaker. I found they'd already asked each other's for¬giveness, and were clinging together like an eagle sinking its talons into a hawk. They didn't need any help."
This set the whole room laughing. Baochai was also there. Daiyu said nothing but took a seat by the Lady Dowager.
To make conversation Baoyu told Baochai: "I would have to be out of sorts on your brother's birthday; that's why I haven't sent any present over or even gone to offer congratulations. If he doesn't know I'm un¬well, he may think I couldn't be bothered and be offended. Do explain to him, will you, cousin?"
	"You're over-punctilious," said Baochai. "We wouldn't dare put you to any trouble even if you wished to go, much less so when you're un¬well. As cousins you're always seeing so much of each other, you've no call to behave like strangers."
	"So long as you understand and will overlook it." He added, "But why aren't you watching the operas, cousin?"
	"I feel the heat. After watching two pieces I couldn't stand it any longer. But as the guests hadn't left, I had to pretend to be feeling unwell in order to slip away."
	This sounded to Baoyu like a reflection on him. In his embarrassment he said with a sheepish smile:
	"No wonder they compare you to Lady Yang, you're both 'plump and sensitive to the heat. '"1
	Baochai was so enraged by this remark that she could have flown into a temper, but she restrained herself. This quip rankled so much, however, that she reddened and laughed sarcastically.
	"If I'm so like Lady Yang," she retorted, "it's too bad I've no brother or cousin able to be another Yang Guozhong. "2
	She was interrupted by one of the young maids, Dianer, who had mislaid her fan.
	"You must have hidden it, miss," she said playfully. "Do let me have it back."
	"Behave yourself!" cried Baochai sharply, wagging one finger at her. "Have I ever played such tricks with you, that you should suspect me? You should ask the other young ladies who are always joking with you."
	This rebuff frightened Dianer away.
	Baoyu knew he had made another gaffe, in public too. Even more embarrassed than earlier on with Daiyu, he turned away to talk to the others.
	Daiyu had been delighted to hear him make fun of Baochai. She would, indeed, have joined in if not for Baochai's retort regarding the fan. She decided, as it was, to change the subject.
"What were the two operas you saw, cousin?" she asked.
	Daiyu's enjoyment of her discomfiture at Baoyu's remark had not escaped Baochai, who smiled at this question.
	"One was that piece," she answered, "in which Li Kui abuses Song Jiang and then apologizes."
Baoyu laughed.
"Why, cousin," he cried, "surely you're sufficiently well versed in ancient and modern literature to know the title of that opera. Why do you have to describe it? It's called Abject Apologies."
"Abject Apologies, is it?" retorted Baochai. "You two are the ones well versed in ancient and modern literature, so of course you know all about 'abject apologies' -- that's something quite beyond me."
As both Baoyu and Daiyu were conscience-stricken, they immedi¬ately blushed. And Xifeng, although she did not understand such allu¬sions, could guess from their expressions what was afoot.
"Who's been eating ginger in such hot weather?" she asked. The others were mystified.
"No one's been eating ginger."
Xifeng put both hands to her cheeks with a show of astonishment.
"In that case, why are some people so red in the face?"
This embarrassed Baoyu and Daiyu even more. And when Baochai saw Baoyu so out of countenance, she simply smiled and let the matter drop. So did the others, who had not caught on to this exchange between the four of them.
Presently Baochai and Xifeng left. Then Daiyu turned with a smile to Baoyu.
"Now you've come up against someone with a sharper tongue than mine. Not everyone's as simple and tongue-tied as I am, so easy to tease."
Baoyu was already put out by Baochai's annoyance, and this fresh provocation added to his ill humour. But not wanting to annoy Daiyu too, he kept his temper and sulkily left the room.
It was now mid-summer. The days were so long that after lunch mas¬ters and servants alike were exhausted. His hands behind his back, Baoyu strolled through the grounds and did not hear a sound. From the Lady Dowager's quarters he wandered west through the passage hall to Xifeng's compound; but the gate there was closed and he knew he had better not call as she usually took a nap after lunch in the summer. So he sauntered through a side gate to his mother's apartments, where some maids were dozing with needlework in their hands while Lady Wang slept on a couch in the inner room. Jinchuan, sitting by her to massage her legs, was nodding drowsily too.
Baoyu tiptoed up to her and flicked one of her earrings, whereupon she opened her eyes.
"You sleepy-head!" he whispered.
She pouted, smiled and motioned him away, then closed her eyes again; but Baoyu was reluctant to leave her. He stole a glance at his mother. Her eyes were closed. Then he took a peppermint pastille from his pouch and slipped it between Jinchuan's lips. She accepted it without opening her eyes. At that Baoyu pressed closer and took her hand.
"I'll ask your mistress for you tomorrow," he said softly. "Then we can be together."
Jinchuan made no reply.
"Or rather I'll ask her as soon as she wakes."
The girl opened her eyes then and pushed him away.
"What's the hurry? 'A gold pin may fall into the well, but if it's yours it remains yours.' Can't you understand that proverb? I'll tell you some-thing amusing to do. Go to the small east courtyard and see what your brother Huan and Caiyun are up to."
"I don't care what they're up to. It's you I'm interested in."
At this point Lady Wang sat up and slapped Jinchuan's face.
"Shameless slut!" she scolded. "It's low creatures like you who lead the young masters astray."
Baoyu had vanished like smoke as soon as his mother sat up. Jinchuan's cheek was tingling but she dared say nothing and the other maids, hearing their mistress's voice, hurried in.
"Jinchuan!" ordered Lady Wang. "Go and tell your mother to come at once and take your sister away."
At these words Jinchuan fell on her knees and burst into tears.
"I shan't let it happen again, madam," she cried. "Whip me, scold me or punish me as you please, but for pity's sake don't send me away!
I've been with Your Ladyship more than ten years. If you dismiss me now, how can I look anyone in the face again?"
Lady Wang was generally speaking too good-natured and easy-going to beat the maids; but the shameless way in which Jinchuan had behaved was the one thing she could not abide. That was why, flaring up, she had slapped and cursed her. Although the maid pleaded hard she refused to keep her, and her mother, old Mrs. Bai, had to take her away. So Jinchuan went home in disgrace.

Meanwhile Baoyu had scuttled back to Grand View Garden. The sun was high in the sky, trees cast ample shade and the air was full of the shrilling of cicadas, but no human voice could be heard. However, as he approached a trellis of roses, he heard sobbing and stopped in his surprise to listen, Yes, there was someone on the other side of the trellis. As it was now the fifth month, the roses were in full bloom. Peeping through the lattice-work, he saw a girl crouching below the flowers and weeping all alone as she scratched the ground with a hairpin.
"Can this be another absurd maid come to bury flowers like Daiyu?" he wondered in some amusement. "If so, she's 'Dong Shi imitating Xi Shi,'3 which isn't original but rather tiresome."
He was on the point of calling out to the girl, "It's no use your trying to copy Miss Lin!" when he realized she was not one of the maids but looked like one of the twelve actresses, although he could not remember which role she played. He grimaced then hastily covered his mouth.
"It's a good thing I held my tongue," he told himself. "I've already annoyed Daiyu and hurt Baochai's feelings by my tactlessness. It would be still more senseless to offend any of these girls."
With these reflections, he felt put out at not being able to identify the girl and he studied her more closely. With her finely arched eyebrows and limpid eyes, her delicate features, slender waist and graceful movements, she bore a striking resemblance to Daiyu. He stood staring, unable to tear himself away. And now he observed that instead of using her hairpin to bury flowers she was writing something with it on the ground.
Baoyu followed the pin with his eyes as it moved up and down. He counted the strokes -- vertical, horizontal, dotted and curved -- there were seventeen in all. Then he traced them in the same order on his palm and discovered that this was the character Qiang for "rose."
"She must be trying to write a poem," he thought, "and these flowers have suggested the idea for a couple of lines. For fear of forgetting it, she's tracing the character while she thinks it out. Yes, that may be it. Let me see what else she writes."
He went on watching as the girl went on writing, but she merely re¬peated the same character.
Lost in thought, the girl by the trellis traced one Qiang after another until she had written several dozen, while Baoyu watched raptly from the other side, following the movements of the pin with his eyes.
"She must have some secret anxiety preying on her mind to carry on like this," he reflected. "Yet she looks too delicate to stand much anxiety. I wish I could share her troubles."
Mid-summer weather is unpredictable: a passing cloud may bring rain. Now a cool breeze sprang up and there was a sudden shower. Seeing that water dripped off the girl's head and in no time had wet her gauze clothes, he thought: It's raining. She's too frail to stand such a downpour. Impulsively he called out:
"Do stop writing! Look, you're getting drenched."
The girl raised her head with a start at hearing this shout from the other side of the trellis. As Baoyu was finely-featured and as the thick foliage screened all but the top of his face, she took him for a maid.
"Thanks, sister," she said with a smile. "You don't seem to have much shelter out there yourself either."
Baoyu uttered an exclamation of dismay as it came home to him how cold he was. Looking down he saw that his clothes were wet through.
"Bother it!" he cried.
He set off at a run then towards Happy Red Court, still worrying over the girl out in the rain.

Now as this was the eve of the Double Fifth Festival, the twelve young actresses had been given a holiday and were amusing themselves in different parts of the Garden. Baoguan who played young scholars and Yuguan who played young ladies were enjoying themselves in Happy Red Court with Xiren, when it came on to rain. They stopped up the drain to make water collect in the yard and caught some water-fowl-green-headed ducks, speckled mallards and mandarin ducks. Having tied their wings they let these loose in the yard, after which they bolted the gate.
While they stood on the verandah enjoying the fun, Baoyu arrived back only to find the gate closed. The girls were laughing too much to hear his knock, so that he shouted and pounded for a long time before they finally heard. And of course they were not expecting him back at this time.
"Who's that at the gate?" asked Xiren. "Who'll go and see?"
"It's I!" cried Baoyu.
"Sounds like Miss Baochai," said Sheyue.
"Nonsense!" exclaimed Qingwen. "Miss Baochai wouldn't come at this hour."
"I'll peep through a crack," offered Xiren, "to see if it's somebody we should let in. If it's not, we'll let whoever it is get a soaking."
She went along the covered corridor to the gate and discovered Baoyu there, drenched as a drowned cock. Torn between concern and amuse¬ment she hastily opened the gate, then doubled up with laughter, clapping her hands.
"How were we to know you were back?" she spluttered. "Where have you been, running about in such a downpour?"
Baoyu, in a foul temper, had decided to punish whoever opened the gate. Without waiting to see who it was, and assuming that this was one of the younger girls, he kicked Xiren so hard in the side that she let out a cry.
"You low creatures!" he stormed. "I treat you so well that you've lost all sense of respect. Now you dare make fun of me!"
At this point he lowered his head and heard Xiren's cry. He realized then what a blunder he had made.
"Oh, is it you?" He smiled apologetically. "Where did I kick you?"
Xiren had never had so much as a harsh word from Baoyu. Now that he had lost his temper and kicked her    in public too -- she felt overwhelmed with shame, resentment and pain. But sure that he hadn't done this deliberately, she did her best to control herself.
"It's all right," she answered. "Go in and change your clothes."
Once inside he said contritely, "This is the first time in my life I've lashed out in a temper -- and it had to be at you."
Still wincing she helped him out of his wet clothes.
"I'm your number one maid," she answered jokingly, "So I should have first share of everything big or small, good or bad. I just hope you won't make a habit of kicking people."
"I didn't mean to do it."
"I'm not saying you did. Usually it's the younger ones who go to the gate. They're all so spoilt that nobody can stand them, and they're not afraid of anyone either. It would have served them right if you'd kicked one of them to frighten them. Today I’m to blame for not letting them open the gate."
By now the rain had stopped. Both Baoguan and Yuguan had left. What with the pain in her side and her vexation, Xiren ate nothing that evening. And when she undressed to have her bath she was frightened by the bruise, the size of a bowl, below her ribs, but could hardly remark on it. The pain continued after she was in bed and made her groan in her sleep.
Though Baoyu had not kicked her deliberately, Xiren's obvious dis¬comfort disturbed him. And hearing her cry out during the night he real¬ized how badly he must have hurt her. He slipped out of bed, took the lamp, and went over to have a look. Just as he reached her bedside she coughed, then brought up some phlegm and opened her eyes with a gasp.
"What are you doing?" she asked in surprise when she saw him.
"You were groaning in your sleep. I must have hurt you badly. Let me have a look."
"I feel dizzy and there's a bitter-sweet taste in my throat. Throw the light on the floor, will you?"
Baoyu did as she asked and saw that she had coughed blood.
"How dreadful!" he exclaimed.
Xiren's heart failed her at the sight of the blood.
But to know what followed, you must read the next chapter.

Chapter 31

A Torn Fan Wins a Smile from a Maid
A Pair of Unicorns Suggest a Match


When Xiren saw the blood on the floor her heart failed her, for she had often heard tell: Spitting blood while young means an early death or infirmity for life. So her dreams of future honour and splendour had gone up in smoke! She could not help shedding tears. Baoyu's heart ached too.
"Row are you feeling?" he asked.
She forced a smile.
"All right."
He would have called someone at once to heat Shaoxing wine and fetch pills compounded with goat's blood, but Xiren restrained him.
"If you make such a fuss that people come flocking in, they'll blame me for getting above myself," she explained. "At present not a soul knows, but to noise it abroad would be damaging for us both. Just send a boy tomorrow to ask Doctor Wang for some medicine, and that will set me right. Far better keep the whole business quiet."
Since this made sense Baoyu had to agree. He fetched tea for Xiren to rinse her mouth and, knowing how worried he was, she lay there qui¬etly letting him wait on her, for otherwise he would have roused the others.
Next day, at the crack of dawn, Baoyu scrambled into his clothes. Not stopping to wash or comb his hair, he went off to find Wang Jiren whom he plied with questions. When the doctor heard what had happened, he assured him it was simply a contusion and prescribed some pills, giving directions as to their use which Baoyu carried out on his return to the Garden. But no more of this.

This was the day of the Double Fifth Festival. The doors were hung with mugwort and rushes, everyone wore tiger-charms, and Lady Wang gave a family feast at midday to which Aunt Xue and her daughter were invited.
Baoyu noticed that Baochai was cold-shouldering him because of what had happened the previous day. His own low spirits were ascribed by his mother to embarrassment over yesterday’s episode with Jinchuan, and therefore she deliberately ignored him. Daiyu, for her part, assumed that his dejection was the result of having offended Baochai, and that dis¬pleased her too. As for Xifeng, she had heard the evening before from Lady Wang about Baoyu and Jinchuan, and in deference to her aunt's displeasure was not her usual cheerful, laughing self, making the atmo¬sphere even more constrained. As Yingchun and the other Jia girls were affected by the general lack of spirits, the company soon dispersed.
Now Daiyu naturally preferred solitude to society. She reasoned, "Com¬ing together can only be followed by parting. The more pleasure people find in parties, the more lonely and unhappy they must feel when the parties break up. So better not forgather in the first place. The same is true of flowers: they delight people when in bloom, but it's so heart-rending to see them fade that it would be better if they never blossomed." For this reason she grieved over what others enjoyed.
Baoyu, on the other hand, wished that parties need never break up, flowers never fade; and although he could neither stop a feast from end¬ing nor flowers from withering, he grieved every time this happened.
So whereas Daiyu did not care when the feasters parted in low spirits today, Baoyu went back to his room feeling so gloomy that he did nothing but sigh. When Qingwen, who was helping him change, dropped his fan and broke it he sighed:
"How stupid you are! What's to become of you when in future you have a home of your own? Surely you can't go on being so careless then."
"How bad-tempered you've grown lately," she retorted with a snigger. "Always throwing your weight about. The other day you even beat Xiren, and now you're picking on me. You can kick or beat us as much as you like, of course, but what's so dreadful about dropping a fan? Plenty of glass vases and agate bowls have been smashed before without your flaring up. It seems pointless to make such a fuss over a fan. If you're fed up with us, you can send us packing and get some better attendants. But why not part company in a peaceful, friendly way?"
"Don't worry," he cried, fairly trembling with rage. "We shall part sooner or later."
Xiren, who had overheard them, now hurried in.
"Why take on again for no reason?" she asked Baoyu. "Didn't I tell you, the moment my back's turned there's trouble."
"If you're so clever," sneered Qingwen, "you should have come earlier to prevent this tantrum. You're the one who's looked after him since ancient times -- I never did. It's because you're so good at it that you got kicked right under your heart yesterday. Heaven knows what punishment is waiting tomorrow for me, unfit as I am to wait on him."
Annoyance and mortification tempted Xiren to make a sharp retort. She only controlled herself because Baoyu was already livid with rage.
"Run along and amuse yourself outside, good sister," she said, push¬ing Qingwen away. "We’re the ones to blame." This "we," obviously meaning Baoyu and herself, made Qingwen even more jealous.
"I don't know what you mean by 'we,'" she cried with a scornful laugh. "Don't make me blush for you. What you're up to on the sly is no secret to me. The fact of the matter is, you've not even earned the grade of a concubine yet, so you're no better than I am. How can you talk of 'we'?"
Xiren flushed crimson over her indiscretion.
"If the rest of you are so jealous," raged Baoyu, "I'll raise her status just to spite you."
Xiren caught him by the hand to restrain him.
"Why argue with a silly girl? You're usually broad-minded enough to overlook plenty of worse things than this. What's got into you today?"
"I'm too silly to be up to talking to you," snorted Qingwen.
"Are you quarrelling with me, miss, or with Master Bao? If I annoy you just tell me, instead of squabbling with him. If Master Bao annoys you, don't make such a row that everybody hears. I came in to try to smooth things over and save everybody's face, but then you set on me. Which of us are you mad at, him or me? What's the idea, lashing out in all directions? Well, I'll say no more. It's up to you now. "
With that she walked away.
"There was no need to fly into such a temper," said Baoyu to Qingwen. "I know what's on your mind. I'll tell the mistress you've reached the age to be sent home. How about that?"
"Why should I go home?" Tears of distress welled up in Qingwen's eyes. "How can you trump up an excuse to get rid of me just because you’ve taken a dislike to me?"
"I've never been through such a scene before. You're obviously set on going. So I'd better ask my mother to send you away."
He was starting out when Xiren barred the way.
"Where are you off to?" she asked.
'To tell my mother."
"What nonsense!" She smiled at him coaxingly. "How can you have the heart to shame her so? Even if she really wanted to leave, you should wait until she's cooled down and then mention it to the mistress casually. If you rush over now as if this were something urgent, Her Ladyship's bound to start imagining things."
"Not her. I'll just tell her that she insists on leaving."
"When did I insist on leaving?" sobbed Qingwen. "You fly into a rage, then put words into my mouth. All right, go and report it. But I'll dash out my brains sooner than leave this house."
"That's strange!" he fumed. "If you won't go, what's all this fuss about? I can't stand these rows. Far simpler if you left."
He was so set on telling his mother that Xiren saw no way to stop him. She fell on her knees to plead. This was the signal for Bihen, Qiuwen and Sheyue, who had been listening with bated breath outside, to rush in and kneel down beside her.
Baoyu pulled Xiren to her feet, sank with a sigh on to his bed, and sent the other girls out.
"What am I to do?" he demanded. "I've worn my heart out, yet nobody cares."
He wept and Xiren shed tears in sympathy. Qingwen beside them was trying to speak through her sobs when Daiyu's arrival made her slip away.
"What's all this crying during the festival?" asked Daiyu mockingly. "Are you fighting for sticky rice dumplings?"
The two of them laughed.
"Since you won't tell me I'll find out from her." Daiyu patted Xiren's shoulder. "What's happened, dear sister-in-law? I suppose you two have been squabbling again. Tell me what's wrong and I'll act as peace¬maker."
"You're joking, miss." Xiren pushed her away. "Don't talk such nonsense to us servant-girls."
"You may call yourself a servant-girl, but I regard you as my sister-in-law."
"Why give her another name for people to jeer at?" protested Baoyu. "There's enough gossip already without your joining in."
"You don't know how I feel, miss," said Xiren. "I'll never have any peace until I can die and be done with it!"
"I can't say what others would do if you died." Daiyu smiled. "I'd die first of crying."
"I'd become a monk if you died," Baoyu declared.
"Do be quiet," cried Xiren. "That's no way to talk."
Daiyu held out two fingers with a smile.
"That's twice, so far, you've become a monk. I must keep track of how many times you do it."
Baoyu knew she was referring to their conversation the other day, and with a smile he let the matter drop.
Soon after that Daiyu left and Baoyu received an invitation from Xue Pan, which he could hardly decline, to a drinking party. He was unable to leave before the end. Dusk had fallen by the time he came back, slightly tipsy, and as he lurched into his courtyard he noticed someone lying on a couch there. Assuming that it was Xiren, he sat down beside her and nudged her.
"Has the pain stopped?" he asked.
The figure on the couch sat up.
"Why are you back to plague me again?" she demanded.
It was not Xiren but Qingwen. He made her sit beside him.
"You're growing more and more spoilt," he teased. "When you dropped that fan and I just said a couple of words, you launched into such a tirade. I don't mind your scolding me, but was it right to drag Xiren into
it too when she meant so well?"
"It's so hot, keep your hands to yourself," countered Qingwen. "What would people think if they saw? I'm not fit to be sitting here with you anyway.
"Then why were you sleeping here?" he asked with a grin.
She giggled.
"It was all right before you came, but not now that you're here. Get up and let me have my bath. I'll call Xiren and Sheyue -- they've already had theirs."
"After all the wine I've drunk I need a bath too. If you've not had yours, fill the tub and we'll bath together."
Qingwen waved this proposal aside with a laugh.
"Not I.I wouldn't dare. I remember what happened that time Bihen helped you bath. Two or three hours it took and we couldn't go in heaven knows what you were up to. When you'd finished and we had a look, the floor right up to the legs of the bed was all over water -- even the bed mat was sopping. Goodness knows what sort of bath you had! It kept us laughing for days. I haven't the time to mop up after you, and see no need for you to bath with me. Besides, it's so cool now I don't think you ought to have a bath; I'll just get you a basin of water to wash your face and comb your hair. Yuanyang brought in a lot of fruit not long ago which is being chilled in that crystal bowl. I'll tell them to bring it for you."
"In that case, you mustn't bath either. Just wash your hands and bring the fruit."
Qingwen laughed.
"If I'm so careless that I even break fans, how can I fetch fruit? If I broke a plate too, I'd never hear the end of it."
"You can if you want. Such things are meant to be used. You may like one thing, I another. People's tastes differ. For instance, fans are meant for fanning; but if I choose to break one for fun, what's wrong with that? But we shouldn't break things to work off a fit of temper. It's the same with cups or plates which are for serving things in. If you smash them because you like the sound, all right. Just don't work off your temper on them. That's what's called caring for things."
"If that's so, get me a fan to tear up. I love ripping things apart."
With a smile he handed her his own. Sure enough, she ripped it in two, then tore it to pieces.
Baoyu chuckled.
"Well done! Try and make a bigger noise."
Just then along came Sheyue.
"What a wicked waste!" she cried. "Stop it."
Baoyu's answer was to snatch her fan from her and give it to Qingwen, who promptly tore it up and joined in his loud laughter.
"What's the idea?" demanded Sheyue. "Spoiling my fan -- is that your idea of fun?"
"Just pick another from the fan case," Baoyu told her. "What's so wonderful about a fan?"
"You'd better bring the case out here then and let her tear the whole lot up."
"You bring it." Baoyu chuckled.
"I won't do anything of the sort. She's not broken her wrist, let her fetch it."
"I'm tired." Qingwen lay back laughing. "I'll tear up some more tomorrow."
"You know the ancient saying," put in Baoyu. "'A thousand pieces of gold can hardly purchase a smile.' And what are a few fans worth?"
He called for Xiren, who came out having just changed into clean clothes and got little Jia Hui to clear away the broken fans. Then they sat outside for a while enjoying the cool.

At noon the next day Lady Wang and the girls were gathered in the Lady Dowager's room when the arrival of Shi Xiangyun was announced. She entered the courtyard presently with a troop of maids and nurses, to be greeted by her cousins at the foot of the steps. As the girls had not seen each other for a month they naturally had a most affectionate re-union, after which Xiangyun went in to pay her respects to the others.
"It's hot," said the Lady Dowager. "Do take off your outer gar¬ments."
As Xiangyun did so Lady Wang remarked, "What a lot you're wear¬ing, child."
"My second aunt made me," she replied. "I didn't want to put on so much."
"If you only knew, aunt, she loves dressing up in other people's clothes," said Baochai with a smile. "During her visit here in the third or fourth month last year, she put on Cousin Bao's gown and boots, as well as his chaplet, and stood behind that chair. At a casual glance she looked so like him -- except for two extra earrings -- that the old lady was quite taken in.
"'Baoyu, come here,' she cried. 'Don't let the dust from the lantern tassels over your head get in your eyes.
"The little wretch just smiled and didn't stir. Then we all burst out laughing and the old lady had to laugh too.
"'Well, you look even better dressed up as a boy,' she said." 
"You don't know the half of it," put in Daiyu. "The year before last she was fetched in the first month, and she'd only been here a couple of days when it started to snow. I believe my grandmother and aunt had just come back from bowing to the ancestral portraits, and the old lady's new red woollen cape was lying there. Cousin Shi put it on without anyone noticing, tying it at the waist with a handkerchief because it was too big and long for her. Then she went with the maids to the back yard to make a snow-man and fell flat on her face by the drain, covering herself with mud."
At the recollection of this everybody laughed.
"Nanny Zhou," asked Baochai, "does your young lady still get up to pranks like that?"
Xiangyun's nanny only smiled.
"I don't mind her pranks," said Yingchun, "But she chatters too much for me. Even in her sleep she rattles away, laughing and chattering. All the nonsense she talks - I don't know where she gets it from!"
"I expect she's better now," remarked Lady Wang. "The other day a match was proposed for her, and she'll soon be going to live with her mother-in-law. Then she'll have to change her ways.
"Are you staying here or going back today?" asked the Lady Dowager.
"Your Ladyship hasn't seen all the clothes we've brought," replied Nanny Zhou with a smile. "Oh yes, we mean to stay for a couple of days."
"Isn't Cousin Bao at home?" Xiangyun now asked.
"Cousin Bao's the only one she thinks of." Baochai laughed. "It's because they're both fond of pranks. That shows she hasn't changed her mischievous ways. "
"You're getting too big to go on calling each other by your pet names, said the Lady Dowager.
Just then Baoyu walked in.
"So Cousin Yun's here!" he exclaimed. "Why didn't you come last time we sent to invite you?"
"The old lady said you must stop that," Lady Wang told him. "But there you go using pet names again."
Daiyu told Xiangyun, "He has something nice for you."
"Something nice for me?"
"Don't believe her." Baoyu laughed. "How tall you've grown in the short time you've been away.
"And how is Sister Xiren?" she asked him.
"Very well, thank you."
"I've brought her a little present."
With that she produced a handkerchief tied in a knot.
"What is it?" he asked. "Why didn't you bring her a couple of red cornelian rings like those you sent over the other day?"
"What do you think these are?" Xiangyun unwrapped the handker¬chief with a smile, disclosing four more rings of the same sort.
"Look at the girl!" cried Daiyu. "Why didn't you give the servant these to bring too, when you sent those rings to us? Wouldn't that have been simpler? Now you turn up with more yourself. I thought it was something different, but it's only the same again. How silly you are!"
"Silly yourself!" Xiangyun smiled. "Let me explain and the rest of you shall judge which of us is silly. I sent those rings to you by the page you'd dispatched. The messenger needn't say a word, once you saw the rings you'd know that they were for the young ladies. Whereas if I'd sent some for the maids as well, I'd have had to tell him which was for which. If he'd been intelligent, all right; but if he'd been stupid he couldn't have remembered the names and would have mixed everything up, including your rings. A matron who knew the maids would have managed all right, but that day it happened to be a page who couldn't possibly be told the maids' names. So wasn't it simpler for me to bring them here myself?"
She put the four rings down.
"One for Xiren, one for Yuanyang, one for Jinchuan, one for Pinger," she announced. "Could a page have remembered the four of them so clearly?"
Everyone laughed.
"Now she's cleared the matter up.
"Still such a talker!" cried Baoyu. "She's never at a loss."
"Even if she couldn't talk, her golden unicorn could."
With this thrust Daiyu rose and left the room.
Luckily her remark had been heard only by Baoyu and Baochai. When the latter smiled Baoyu had to smile too, conscience-stricken as he was. And seeing him smile, Baochai went off hurriedly to join Daiyu.
"Have some tea and rest," the Lady Dowager urged Xiangyun. "Then you can go and see your sisters-in-law and stroll with your cousins in the Garden where it's cool."
Xiangyun did as she was told. After a short rest she wrapped up three of the rings and, accompanied by her nurses and maids, called on Xifeng and chatted for a while with her before going on to visit Li Wan in the Garden. And after a little conversation there she set off to see Xiren in Happy Red Court.
"You needn't all come with me," She told her nurses and maids. "Go and see your friends and relatives. It'll be enough if I have Cuilu."
So the others went off, leaving just the two of them.
"Why isn't the lotus in bloom yet?" asked Cuilu.
"It isn't time yet."
"Their lotus is like that in our pool -- it has double flowers."
"Theirs isn't as good as ours. "
"Look, they have a pomegranate-tree over there, miss, with four or five branches trained together, one above the other. That can't have been easy to grow. "
"Plants are like human beings," said Xiangyun. "When they're filled with vital force they grow well."
"I don't believe it." Cuilu shook her head. "If human beings and plants are alike, why haven't I seen a man with one head growing on top of another?"
Xiangyun had to smile at this.
"Can't you ever keep quiet?" she scolded. "How can I explain this to you? All things between heaven and earth are born from the dual principles yin and yang. So whether good or bad, weird or wonderful, everything that comes into being depends on the favourable or unfavourable influence of these two forces. This is true of even the rarest, strangest things."
"Do you mean to say everything's been a yin or a yang ever since Creation and the beginning of time?"
"What nonsense you do talk, you stupid thing." Xiangyun couldn't help laughing. "How could there be so many yins and yangs? Yin and yang are one. Where one ends, the other begins. It's not that after a yang is exhausted a yin comes into being, or the other way round."
"I find this terribly muddling," complained Cuilu. "What are yin and yang? Have they no shape or form, miss? Do just tell me what they look like.."
"They're simply natural forces, but whatever they enter assumes a form. Heaven is yang and the earth yin, for instance. Water is yin, fire yang; the sun is yang; the moon yin."
"I see." Cuilu's face lit up. "Now I understand. No wonder people call the sun the 'great yang' and fortune-tellers call the moon the 'great yin star.' This explains it."
"Buddha be praised. So you've caught on at last."
"It's all very well for these big things to have yin and yang, but what about mosquitoes, fleas and midges? What about flowers and grass, or bricks and tiles? Do they have yin and yang too?"
"Of course they do. That leaf, for instance, has its yin and yang. The side facing the light is yang, the side underneath yin."
"So that's how it is." Cuilu nodded. "I see. But which is yang and which yin in these fans we're holding?"
"The front is yang and the back yin."
After nodding again Cuilu lowered her head to think up some more questions, and her eye fell on the golden unicorn which her young mis¬tress was wearing as a pendant.
"Does this have yin and yang too, miss?" she asked.
"Of couse it has. The male of all beasts and birds is yang and the female yin."
"Is it male or female then?"
"Not even I know that."
"Never mind. If all other things have yin and yang, why don't human beings?"
"Get away, you low creature!" Xiangyun spat in disgust. "You're going too far."
"Why don't you tell me, miss? I know anyway, so don't think you can hide it from me.
"What do you know?" Xiangyun giggled.
"You're yang, miss, and I'm yin"
Xiangyun put her handkerchief to her mouth and burst out laughing.
"I get the point," insisted Cuilu. "Why should you find it so funny?"
"Quite right, quite right."
"People say that masters are yang and slaves are yin. Do you think I don't know an important rule like that?"
"You know all about it," replied Xiangyun with a smile.
By now they had reached the rose trellis.
"Look, what's that thing glittering like gold?" exclaimed Xiangyun. "Has someone dropped a trinket here?"
Cuilu quickly picked up the object and closed her fingers round it.
"Now we'll see which is yang and which yin," she cried with a laugh.
With that she took Xiangyun's unicorn to examine it. But asked to show what she had in her hand, she refused to let go of it.
"I can't let you see this treasure, miss," she teased. "I wonder where it comes from. How very odd! I've never seen anyone here with such a thing."
"Let me have a look."
At last Cuilu held out her hand.
"There you are.
Xiangyun saw it was a splendid gold unicorn, even bigger and hand¬somer than the one she wore. As she reached out for it and held it on her palm, a strange fancy crossed her mind. And just at that moment they were joined by Baoyu.
"What are you doing here in the sun?" he asked. "Why don't you go and see Xiren?"
"We're on our way there," replied Xiangyun, hiding the unicorn. "Let's go together."
They went on to Happy Red Court, where Xiren was leaning on the balustrade at the foot of the steps in the breeze. She made haste to greet Xiangyun and led her inside to sit down, asking what she had been doing since last they met.
"You should have come earlier," remarked Baoyu. "I've got some¬thing nice which I've been keeping for you." He rummaged in his pock¬ets for a while. "Aiya!" Then turning to Xiren he asked, "Did you put that thing away?"
"What thing?"
"That unicorn I got the other day."
"You've been carrying it on you all the time, why ask me?"
"I've lost it." He clapped his hands. "Where can I find it?"
He was about to go off in search of it. Xiangyun guessed that he was referring to her find.
"When did you get hold of a unicorn?" she asked.
"Only the other day, and I didn't come by it easily either. I can't think when I lost it. How stupid of me."
Xiangyun laughed.
"It's lucky it's just a toy, yet see what a state you're in!" With that she unclenched her fingers. "Look, is this it?"
Baoyu was overjoyed to see she had it. If you want to know what happened next, read on.

Chapter 32

An Avowal Leaves Baoyu Bemused
Disgrace Drives Jinchuan to Suicide


Baoyu was overjoyed to see the gold unicorn.
"Thank you!" Re reached out for it, laughing. "Where did you find it?"
"It's lucky it was only this." Xiangyun smiled. "Will you let it go at that if you lose your official seal in future?"
"Losing an official seal is nothing." He grinned. "But I deserve death for losing this."
Meanwhile Xiren had poured out tea which she offered to Xiangyun. "Miss Shi, I heard the other day that you're engaged now," she re¬marked with a smile.
Xiangyun blushed and said nothing, simply sipping her tea.
"So coy!" cried the maid. "Remember what you told me one evening some ten years ago when we were staying in the alcove on the west side? You weren't coy then; why be so bashful now?"
"The things you say!" Xiangyun expostulated. "How friendly we were then! But after my mother died and I went home they sent you here to wait on Second Brother, and now when I come you're no longer the same to me.
"Well I never!" Xiren protested. "In those days I was 'sister' and 'dear sister' to you when you wanted me to comb your hair, wash your face and dance attendance on you. Now you've grown up, you've put on the airs of a young lady. If you stand on your dignity, how dare I take liberties?"
"Amida Buddha! That's not fair," cried Xiangyun. "May I drop dead if I ever give myself airs. Look how hot it is today, yet as soon as I arrive I hurry straight over to see you. If you don't believe me, ask Cuilu. At home I'm always saying how much I miss you."
"Can't you take a joke?" Xiren and Baoyu remonstrated. "You still flare up so easily."
"You won't admit how provoking you are, yet scold me for flaring up."
As Xiangyun said this she unwrapped her handkerchief from which she	took a ring and passed it to Xiren, who was loud in her thanks.
"Actually, I was given one of those you sent your cousins," she re¬marked. "And now you've brought me one yourself -- a sure sign that you hadn't forgotten me. It's not the rings I value, it's the thought that counts."
"Who gave you one?" asked Xiangyun.
"Miss Baochai."
"I thought it was Miss Lin. So it was Baochai." Xiangyun sighed. "At home every day I often think that of all my cousins Baochai is the best. What a pity we aren't real sisters! If we were, it wouldn't be so bad being an orphan." Her eyes were brimming with tears.
"All right, all right," cried Baoyu. "No more of this."
"What's wrong?" demanded Xiangyun. "I know what's worrying you. You're afraid your Cousin Lin may hear and be cross with me for singing Baochai's praises -- right?"
"Miss Yun!" Xiren burst out laughing. "The older you grow the more outspoken you get."
Baoyu chuckled.
"I always say you girls are hard to talk with. And this proves it."
"Don't make me sick, dear cousin, speaking like that. You can keep your end up with us, but what happens when you cross swords with Daiyu?"
"That's enough," interposed Xiren. "I've a favour to ask you."
"What is it?" inquired Xiangyun.
"I've started on a pair of slippers but haven't been able to finish them because I've been poorly for the last couple of days. Have you time to do them for me?"
"Well, well," exclaimed Xiangyun. "This house is full of clever girls, to say nothing of sewing-women and tailors. Why pick on me? How can anyone who's asked possibly refuse?"
"Are you so dense?" parried Xiren with a smile. "Don't you know that none of the needlework for our apartments is done by sewing-women?"
Realizing that the shoes were for Baoyu, Xiangyun chuckled.
"In that case I'll do it -- but on one condition. I'll make slippers for you, not for anybody else."
"There you go again," protested Xiren. "Who am I to ask you to make slippers for me? The fact is they're not mine, but don't ask whose they are. At any rate I'd take it kindly of you."
"Of course, I've done plenty of sewing for you in the past. But you'll understand why I can't do it this time."
"Indeed, I don 't understand."
Xiangyun laughed sarcastically.
"I heard the fan-sheath I made the other day was taken to compare with someone else's, and in a tantrum that someone cut it to pieces. I know all about it, so don't try to fool me. Am I your slave to be given tasks like this?"
Baoyu cut in with a disarming smile, "I didn't know that sheath was your work."
"He honestly didn't know," Xiren assured her. "I told him that re¬cently there was a girl outside who did wonderful embroidery, and sug¬gested trying her out with a fan-sheath. He took me at my word, then showed it off right and left. For some reason it upset Miss Lin again and she snipped it in two. When he came back to ask for another like it, and I told him you'd made it, he was ever so sorry.
"Stranger and stranger!" cried Xiangyun. "Why should Miss Lin be angry? If she can snip, ask her to make another."
"Out of the question," said Xiren. "Even as it is, the old lady's afraid of her overtiring herself and the doctor has prescribed her a good rest. Who'd dream of troubling her with needlework? Last year it took her a whole year to finish one scented pouch. And this year I've not yet seen needle or thread in her hands."
As they were talking a servant came to announce: "Mr. Jia of Pros¬perity Street has called. The master wants the young gentleman to go and see him."
Knowing that it was Jia Yucun, Baoyu was most reluctant to go, but Xiren lost no time in fetching his formal clothes. As he pulled on his boots he grumbled:
"Surely it's enough if my father keeps him company. Why must he see me each time?"
Fanning herself, Xiangyun replied with a smile, "It must be because uncle thinks you're a good host. Otherwise he wouldn't send for you."
"It's not my father's idea. It's that fellow who asks for me each single time."
"'When the host is cultured, guests frequent his house,"' quoted Xiangyun. "He likes seeing you, surely, because he can learn something from you. "
"Don't call me cultured," begged Baoyu. "I'm the most vulgar of the vulgar herd, and I've no desire at all to mix with such people."
"You haven't changed one bit," sighed Xiangyun. "But now you're growing up. Even if you don't want to study and sit for the examinations, you should at least associate with officials and learn something about the world and administration. That'1l help you to manage your own affairs in future and make some friends. What other young gentleman spends all his time, the way you do, playing about with us girls?"
"Please go and call on some of your other cousins, young lady," he retorted. "People with worldly wisdom like yours will be polluted here."
"Don't say such things to him, miss," Xiren interposed. "Last time Miss Baochai gave him the same advice he just snorted and walked away without any regard for her feelings. In the middle of what she was saying he marched off. She flushed crimson and hardly knew whether to go on or not. Thank goodness it was Miss Baochai and not Miss Lin -- she 'd have made a fearful scene, weeping and sobbing. But there you are, it's true that nobody can help admiring Miss Baochai. She just blushed and went away. I felt very bad, sure she must be offended; but later she behaved as if nothing had happened. She's really good natured and toler¬ant. He's the one, believe it or not, who has since kept his distance. If you sulked and ignored Miss Lin like that," she asked Baoyu, "how many apologies would you have to make her?"
"Has Miss Lin ever talked such disgusting nonsense?" demanded Baoyu. "If she had, I'd have stopped having anything to do with her long ago.
Xiren and Xiangyun nodded and laughed.
"So nonsense is the name for it."
Now Daiyu had discovered Xiangyun's whereabouts and knew that Baoyu had hurried back, no doubt to talk about the gold unicorns. That set her thinking. In most of the romances Baoyu had recently acquired, a young scholar and beautiful girl came together and fell in love thanks to lovebirds, phoenixes, jade rings, gold pendants, silk handkerchiefs, em¬broidered girdles or other baubles of the sort. So Baoyu's possession of a gold unicorn like Xiangyun's might lead to a romance between them. She slipped over to see what was happening and judge of their feelings for each other, arriving just as Xiangyun was speaking of worldly affairs, and in time to hear Baoyu answer, "Miss Lin never talks such disgusting nonsense. If she did, I'd have stopped having anything to do with her."
This surprised and delighted Daiyu but also distressed and grieved her. She was delighted to know she had not misjudged him, for he had now proved just as understanding as she had always thought. Surprised that he had been so indiscreet as to acknowledge his preference for her openly. Distressed because their mutual understanding ought to preclude all talk about gold matching jade, or she instead of Baochai should have the gold locket to match his jade amulet. Grieved because her parents had died, and although his preference was so clear there was no one to propose the match for her. Besides, she had recently been suffering from dizzy spells which the doctor had warned might end in consumption, as she was so weak and frail. Dear as she and Baoyu were to each other, she might not have long to live. And what use was their affinity if she were fated to die? These thoughts sent tears coursing down her cheeks. And therefore instead of entering she turned away, wiping her tears.
Baoyu hurried out after changing his clothes to see Daiyu walking slowly ahead, apparently wiping her tears. He overtook her.
"Where are you going, cousin?" he asked with a smile. "What, cry¬ing again? Who's offended you this time?"
Daiyu turned and saw who it was.
"I'm all right." She gave a wan smile. "I wasn't crying."
"Don't fib -- your eyes are still wet."
He raised his hand instinctively to wipe away her tears. At once she recoiled a few steps.
"Are you crazy? Can't you keep your hands to yourself?"
"I did it without thinking." Baoyu laughed. "I was dead to all around me. "
"No one will care when you 're dead, but what about the gold locket and unicorn you'll have to leave behind?"
This remark made Baoyu frantic.
"How can you talk like that! Are you trying to put me under a curse, or set on annoying me?"
Reminded of what had happened the previous day, Daiyu regretted her thoughtlessness.
"Don't get so excited," she begged. "Why work yourself up over a slip of the tongue? The veins on your forehead are all swollen with anger, and what a sweat you're in!"
So saying, she too stepped forward without thinking and reached out her hand to wipe his perspiring face. Baoyu fixed his eyes on her. After a while he said gently, "You mustn't worry. "
Daiyu gazed at him in silence.
"Worry?" she repeated at last. "I don't understand. What do you mean?"
"Don't you really understand?" He sighed. "Could it be that since I've known you all my feelings for you have been wrong? If I can't even enter into your feelings, then you're quite right to be angry with me all the time."
"I really don't understand what you mean by telling me not to worry.
"Dear cousin, don't tease." Baoyu nodded and sighed. "If you really don't understand, all my devotion's been wasted and even your feeling for me has been thrown away. You ruin your health by worrying so much. If you'd take things less to heart, your illness wouldn't be getting worse every day."
These words struck Daiyu like a thunderbolt. As she turned them over in her mind, they seemed closer to her innermost thoughts than if wrung from her own heart. There were a thousand things she longed to say, yet she could not utter a word. She just stared at him in silence. As Baoyu was in similar case, he too stared at her without a word. So they stood transfixed for some time. Then Daiyu gave a choking cough and tears rolled down her cheeks. She was turning to go when Baoyu caught hold of her.
"Dear cousin, wait. Just let me say one word."
She dried her tears with one hand, repulsing him with the other.
"What more is there to say? I understand."
She hurried off without one look behind, while he just stood there like a man in a trance.
Now Baoyu in his haste had forgotten his fan, and as Xiren ran after him with it she caught sight of Daiyu face to face with him. As soon as Daiyu left, the maid walked up to Baoyu, still standing there as if rooted to the ground.
"You forgot your fan," she said. "Luckily I noticed it. And here it is."
Too bemused still to know who was speaking, he seized her hands.
"Dear cousin, I never ventured before to bare my heart to you," he declared. "Now that I've summoned up courage to speak, I'll die con¬tent. I was making myself ill on account of you, but I dared not tell any¬one and hid my feelings. I shan't recover till you're better too, I can't forget you even in my dreams."
"Merciful Buddha, save me!" cried Xiren in consternation. Shaking him she asked, "What sort of talk is this? Has some evil spirit taken possession of you? Go quickly!"
When Baoyu came to himself and saw Xiren there, blushing all over his face he snatched the fan and ran off without a word.
As the maid watched him go it dawned on her that his avowal had been meant for Daiyu, in which case it must surely lead to trouble and scandal. That would be truly fearful. She wondered how best to avert such a dreadful calamity.
She was still lost in thought when Baochai appeared.
"'Why are you standing here dreaming?" asked Baochai. "This sun is scorching."
"Two sparrows were fighting over there," improvised Xiren hastily. "It was so amusing that I stayed to watch."
"Where has Cousin Bao rushed off to all dressed up? I saw him passing and thought of stopping him; but because nowadays he often
talks so wildly, I decided not to call out."
"The master sent for him."
"Aiya! On such a sweltering day. What for? Could it be that something's made him angry and he's sent for Cousin Bao to lecture him?"
"It's nothing like that," replied Xiren with a laugh. "I think a guest wants to see him."
"A guest with no sense." Baochai appeared amused. "Why gad about in such hot weather instead of staying indoors and keeping cool?"
"Why indeed?"
"And what was Xiangyun doing in your compound?"
"She just dropped in for a chat. You know that pair of shoes I started the other day? I've asked her to finish them for me. "
Baochai glanced around to make sure no one was about. "How could someone with your good sense suddenly be so inconsid¬erate?" she asked. "Piecing together what I've seen and heard recently, I guess Yun's a nobody at home. To save expense, her people no longer employ sewing-women but make practically everything they need them¬selves. That's why, during her last few visits, she's confided to me when nobody was about that she gets quite tired out at home. And when I asked about their daily life, her eyes filled with tears and she made some evasive answer. So I gather she's having a hard time of it because she lost her parents so early on. I can't help feeling sorry for her."
"That's it, that's it." Xiren clapped her hands. "No wonder when I asked her last month to make ten butterfly knots, it took her so long to send them.
"'I've stitched them just anyhow,' she told me. 'I hope they'll do. If you want better ones, wait until I come to stay with you.'
"After what you've said, miss, I realize she couldn't very well refuse but she probably has to work late into the night at home. How stupid of me! If I'd known, I wouldn't have asked her."
"Last time she did tell me she has to work till midnight at home, and if she does the least bit of work for other people the ladies of the house don't like it."
"But we have such a stubborn, wayward young master he won't let the sewing-women make any of his things, big or small, and I haven't the time for it all."
"Never mind him. Just get the other girls to do it, and tell him you did it yourself."
"There's no fooling him. He'd know at once. No, I shall just have to slave away myself."
"Wait a bit." Baochai smiled. "Suppose I help you?"
"Will you really? What luck for me." Xiren beamed. "I'll bring the shoes over this evening."
While she was speaking an old maid-servant came panting up to them.
"Just imagine!" she gasped. "That girl Jinchuan, for no reason at all, has drowned herself in the well."
Xiren gave a start.
"Which Jinchuan?"
"How many Jinchuans are there? The girl who worked for the mis¬tress, of course. The other day, we don't know why, she was dismissed. She wept and sobbed at home but no one took any notice, till they found she'd disappeared. Just now one of the water-carriers was drawing water from that well in the southeast corner when he discovered a corpse. He fetched people to get it out, and it was Jinchuan. Her family's trying frantically to bring her round, but of course it's too late."
"This is rather odd!" exclaimed Baochai.
Xiren nodded and sighed, and the thought of her friendship with Jinchuan made tears run down her cheeks. She went back to Happy Red Court while Baochai hurried off to condole with Lady Wang.
All was strangely quiet in Lady Wang's apartments, where she sat in the inner chamber shedding tears all by herself. Not wanting to mention the maid's suicide, Baochai sat by her aunt in silence until asked where she had come from.
"From the Garden," was her reply.
"Did you see your Cousin Bao?"
"Yes, I saw him just now going out in formal clothes, but I don't know where he's gone.
Lady Wang nodded tearfully.
"Did you hear this extraordinary business about Jinchuan suddenly drowning herself in the well?"
"Why should she do a thing like that for no reason? It's very strange."
"The other day she broke something of mine, and in a fit of anger I struck her and sent her away. I was meaning to punish her for a couple of days and then to have her fetched back. I'd no idea she'd fly into such a passion she'd jump into the well. This is all my fault."
"You feel that way, auntie, because you're so kind-hearted. But I can't believe she drowned herself in a tantrum. She was playing by the well, more likely, and fell in. After being rather confined in your rooms she'd want to play around once she left, stands to reason. How could she work herself into such a passion? If she did, that was very foolish. She doesn't deserve any pity."
Lady Wang nodded.
"But even if you're right," she sighed, "I still feel bad about it."
"Don't take it so much to heart, auntie. If you feel bad about it, just give them a few extra taels of silver for her burial and you'll be doing all a kind mistress could."
"Just now I gave her mother fifty taels. I wanted to give them two sets of your cousins' new clothes to lay her out in as well; but according to Xifeng the only ones ready are two new sets for your Cousin Lin's birthday. She's such a sensitive child, so delicate too, that wouldn't she think it unlucky to have the clothes made for her birthday made over to a dead girl? So I've told the tailors to make two new sets as fast as they can. If it had been any other maid, I'd have felt a few taels of silver would be enough; but Jinchuan was with me for some time and was just like a daughter to me." As she was speaking she could not help shedding more tears.
"There's no need to hurry the tailors, "said Baochai. "The other day I had two sets made. I can easily fetch them for her. That would save lots of trouble. When she was alive she wore my old clothes and they were a perfect fit."
"But aren't you afraid it may bring bad luck?"
Baochai smiled.
"Don't worry, auntie. I'm not superstitious."
She rose to go, and Lady Wang sent two maids along with her.
When Baochai returned with the clothes a little later she found Baoyu sitting in tears beside his mother. Lady Wang had been scolding him, but at Baochai's entrance she stopped. The girl was shrewd enough to guess pretty well what had happened. She handed over the clothes to Lady Wang who sent for Jinchuan's mother and gave them to her.
What happened next is related in the following chapter.

Chapter 33

A Jealous Younger Brother Tells Tales
A Worthless Son Receives
a Fearful Flogging


Lady Wang, having summoned Jinchuan's mother and given her some trinkets, issued orders then and there for monks to be called in to say masses for the dead girl. Then the mother kowtowed her thanks and left the house.
Now Baoyu, on his return from seeing Yucun, had been cut to the heart by the news that her disgrace had driven Jinchuan to suicide. He had nothing to say in reply to his mother's scolding, but Baochai's arrival gave him a chance to slip out. He wandered aimlessly along, his hands behind his back, hanging his head and sighing, until he found himself by the front hall. He was skirting the door-screen when as ill luck would have it he bumped full tilt into someone who shouted to him to stop.
Baoyu started and, looking up, saw to his dismay that it was no other than his father. He had to stand aside respectfully, gasping with fright.
"Why are you moping like this?" demanded Jia Zheng. "It took you a long time to come out when Yucun asked for you; and when you did come, you had nothing spirited or cheerful to say but looked quite down in the mouth, the picture of gloom. And now you're sighing again. What have you to moan about? Is anything wrong? Why are you carrying on in this way?"
Baoyu normally had a ready tongue, but now he was so distressed by Jinchuan's death that he wished he could follow her straight to the other world. He heard not a word his father said but just stood there in a daze. His stupefied silence -- so unlike Baoyu -- exasperated Jia Zheng, who had not to begin with been angry. Before he could say more, how¬ever, an officer from the household of Prince Zhongshun was announced.
Somewhat taken aback Jia Zheng wondered what this meant, for in general they had no dealings with this prince. He ordered the man to be shown in at once and, hurrying to meet him, found that it was the chief steward of the prince's household. He hastily offered him a seat in the reception hall and tea was served.
The chief steward did not beat about the bush.
"Excuse the presumption of this intrusion," he said. "I come at the order of the prince to request a favour. If you, my lord, will grant it, His Highness will remember your kindness and I shall be infinitely indebted to you.
More mystified than ever, Jia Zheng rose to his feet with a smile.
"What instructions have you for me, sir, from the prince?" he asked. "I beg to be enlightened so that I may do my best to carry them out."
The chief steward gave a faint smile.
"There is no need for you, my lord, to do more than say one word," he answered. "There is in our palace an actor by the name of Qiguan, who plays female roles. He had never previously given any trouble, but sev¬eral days ago he disappeared. After searching the city for him without success, we instituted careful inquiries. We are told by eight out of every ten persons questioned that he has recently been on the closest terms with your esteemed son who was born with jade in his mouth. Of course, we could not seize him from your honourable mansion as if it were an ordinary household. So we reported the matter to His Highness, who says he would rather lose a hundred other actors than Qiguan, for this clever well-behaved lad is such a favourite with our master's father that he cannot do without him. I beg you, therefore, to ask your noble son to send Qiguan back, in compliance with the prince's earnest request and to save me from wearing myself out in a fruitless search."
He concluded this speech with a bow.
Alarmed and scandalized, Jia Zheng summoned Baoyu, who hurried in without knowing why he was wanted.
"You scoundrel!" thundered his father. "Not content with shirking your studies at home, you commit such wicked crimes outside! Qiguan is in the service of Prince Zhongshun; how dare a wretch like you lure him away and bring calamity on me?"
Baoyu on hearing this was consternated.
"I know nothing about it," he cried. "I've never even heard the name Qiguan, let alone lured him away.
He burst into tears.
Before Jia Zheng could speak again the chief steward said with a sardonic smile:
"It is useless to keep it a secret, sir. Tell us whether he is hiding here or where else he has gone. A prompt avowal will save us trouble and win you our gratitude."
Still Baoyu denied any knowledge of the matter.
"You may have been misinformed, I'm afraid," he muttered.
The steward gave a scornful laugh.
"Why deny it when we have proof? What good can it do you to force me to speak out before your noble father? If you never heard of this actor, how is it that you wear his red sash round your waist?"
Baoyu was thunderstruck and stood aghast. "How did they find out?" he wondered. "If they've even found out such secrets, it's not much use trying to keep the rest from them. Better send him off before he does any more blabbing."
So he said, "If you know so much, sir, how is it you are ignorant of something as important as his purchase of property? I am told that twenty li to the east of the city, in a place called Sandalwood Castle, he has bought a house and a few mu of land. I should think he might possibly be there."
The chief steward's face brightened.
"He must be there if you say so. I shall go and investigate. If we find him, well and good. If not, we shall come back for further enlighten¬ment."
He took a hasty leave.
Jia Zheng's eyes were nearly bursting from his head with rage. As he followed the chief steward out, he turned to order Baoyu:
"Stay where you are. I shall deal with you presently."
He escorted the steward all the way to the gate, and was just starting back when he saw Jia Huan racing past with a few pages. In his fury he ordered his own pages to beat them.
The sight of his father paralysed Huan with fright. He pulled up short, hanging his head.
"What are you rushing about for?" demanded Jia Zheng. "Where are all the people supposed to look after you? Have they gone off to amuse themselves while you run wild?"
As he shouted for the servants who accompanied Huan to school, the boy saw a chance to divert his father's anger.
"I wasn't running to begin with," he said. "Not until I passed the well where that maid drowned herself. Her head's swollen up like this, and her body's all bloated from soaking in the water. It was such a horrible sight that I ran away as fast as ever I could."
Jia Zheng was astounded.
"What maid here had any reason to throw herself into a well?" he wondered. "Such a thing has never happened before in this house. Since the time of our ancestors we have always treated our subordinates well. Of late, though, I've neglected household affairs and those in charge must have abused their power, resulting in this calamitous suicide. If word of this gets out, it will disgrace our ancestors' good name."
	He called for Jia Lian, Lai Da and Lai Xing.
	Some pages were going to fetch them when Huan stepped forward and caught hold of his father's gown, then fell on his knees.
	"Don't be angry, sir!" he begged. "No one knows about this except those in my lady's apartment. I heard my mother say…."
	He stopped and looked around, and Jia Zheng understood. At a glance from him the servants on both sides withdrew.
	"My mother told me," Huan went on in a whisper, "that the other day Brother Baoyu grabbed hold of Jinchuan in my lady's room and tried to rape her. When she wouldn't let him, he beat her. That's why she drowned herself in a fit of passion."
	Before he had finished Jia Zheng was livid with fury.
	"Fetch Baoyu! Quick!" he roared.
	He strode to his study fuming, "If anybody tries to stop me this time, I'll make over to him my official insignia and property and let him serve Baoyu! How can I escape blame? I'll shave off these few remaining hairs and retire to a monastery, there to atone for disgracing my ances¬tors by begetting such a monster."
	His secretaries and attendants bit their lips or fingers in dismay and hastily withdrew as they heard him raging at Baoyu again. Then Jia Zheng, panting hard, his cheeks wet with tears, sat stiffly erect in his chair.
"Bring Baoyu in!" he bellowed. "Fetch the heavy rod! Tie him up! Close all the doors. Anyone who sends word to the inner apartments will be killed on the spot."
The servants had to obey. Some pages went to fetch Baoyu.
Baoyu knew he was in for trouble when ordered by his father to wait, but he had no idea of the tale Huan had since told. He paced helplessly up and down the hall, wishing someone would carry the news to the inner apartments; but it so happened that nobody was about - even Beiming had disappeared. As he was looking round anxiously, an old nanny finally appeared. He seized on her as if she were a treasure.
"Go in quick!" he cried. "Tell them the master's going to beat me. Do hurry! This is urgent!"
He was too terrified to speak distinctly and the old woman, being hard of hearing, mistook the word "urgent" for "drowning."
"She chose drowning herself," she told him soothingly. "What does it matter to you?"
Her deafness made Baoyu frantic.
"Go and get my page to come," he begged.
"It's over now. Over and done with. And the mistress has given them clothes and silver too. Don't fret."
Baoyu was stamping his foot in desperation when his father's ser¬vants arrived and he had perforce to go with them.
Jia Zheng's eyes blazed at the sight of him. He did not even ask his son what he meant by playing about outside and exchanging gifts with actors, or by neglecting his studies at home and attempting to rape his mother's maid.
"Gag him!" he roared. "Beat him to death!"
The attendants dared not disobey. They thrust Baoyu down on a bench and gave him a dozen strokes with the heavy rod. His father, think¬ing these strokes too light, kicked aside the man with the rod and snatched it up himself. With clenched teeth he rained down dozens of vicious blows until his secretaries, foreseeing serious consequences, stepped forward to intervene. But Jia Zheng refused to listen.
"Ask him if such conduct as his can be pardoned," he cried. "You're the ones who've been spoiling him. When it comes to this do you still intercede for him? Will you still persist when he commits regicide or par¬ricide?"
Realizing from this tirade that their master was quite beside himself with rage, they hurried away, feeling constrained to send word to the inner apartments. Lady Wang dared not tell her mother-in-law at once. Having dressed in haste she ran towards the study, regardless of who was about, while men-servants and secretaries fled out of her way in confusion.
His wife's arrival roused Jia Zheng to still greater fury and he belaboured his son yet more mercilessly. The two servants holding Baoyu instantly withdrew, but the boy was already incapable of moving. Before his father could beat him any further, Lady Wang seized the rod with both hands.
"This is the end!" roared Jia Zheng. "You're determined to be the death of me today."
"I know Baoyu deserves a beating," sobbed Lady Wang. "But you mustn't wear yourself out, sir. It's a sweltering day and the old lady isn't well. Killing Baoyu is a small matter, but should anything happen to the old lady that would be serious."
"Spare me this talk." Jia Zheng gave a scornful laugh. "I've already proved an unfilial son by begetting this degenerate. When I discipline him all of you protect him. I'd better strangle him now to avoid further trouble."
With that he called for a rope. Lady Wang hastily threw her arms around him.
"You're right to chastise your son, sir, but have pity on your wife!" she cried. "I'm getting on for fifty and this wretch is my only son. If you insist on making an example of him, how dare I dissuade you? But if you kill him today, it means you want me to die too. If strangle him you must, take this rope and strangle me first, then strangle him. Mother and son, we won't dare hold it against you, and at least I shall have some support in the nether world."
She threw herself down on Baoyu and gave way to a storm of weeping.
Jia Zheng heaved a long sigh and sat down, his tears falling like rain.
Lady Wang, clasping Baoyu in her arms, saw that his face was white, his breathing weak, and his green linen underclothes were soaked with blood. When she undid them she cried out in distress at the sight of his buttocks and legs beaten black and blue, with every inch bruised or bleeding. "Ah, my poor child!" she wailed.
As she wept for her "poor child" she remembered her first son and called Jia Zhu's name.
"If you were still living," she sobbed, "I shouldn't care if a hundred others died."
Lady Wang's departure had roused the inner apartments, and she had been joined by Li Wan and Xifeng as well as Yingchun and Tanchun. Jia Zhu's name did not affect the others so much, but it reduced his widow to sobs. And the chorus of lamentation made Jia Zheng weep more bitterly himself.
In the middle of this commotion a maid suddenly announced, "The old lady is coming!"
And they heard her quavering voice outside the window, "Kill me first and then kill him. That will be a clean sweep.
Jia Zheng rose in dismay and distress to greet his mother, who entered on a maid's arm, gasping for breath. At once he stepped forward to bow respectfully.
"Why should you vex yourself, mother, and come over on such a hot day? If you have any instructions, just send for your son."
The Lady Dowager halted to catch her breath.
"Were you addressing me?" she demanded sternly. "Yes, I have some instructions. The pity is I've borne no filial son to whom I can speak."
Appalled by this rebuke, Jia Zheng fell on his knees, tears in his eyes.
"If your son disciplines his son, it is for the honour of our ancestors," he pleaded. "How can I bear your reproaches?"
The Lady Dowager spat in disgust.
"So you can't bear one word from me, eh? Then how does Baoyu bear your lethal rod? You talk of disciplining your son for the honour of your ancestors, but how did your father discipline you in the past?"
Her eyes filled with tears.
"Don't grieve, mother," he begged. "I was wrong to lose my temper. I shall never beat him again."
The old lady snorted.
"You needn't try to work off your rage on me. It's not for me to stop you beating your son. I suppose you're tired of us all, and we'd better leave now to save trouble all round."
She ordered the servants to prepare sedan-chairs and horses, telling them, "Your mistress and Baoyu are going back to Nanjing with me this instant."
The attendants had to make a show of complying with her orders. Then the Lady Dowager turned to her daughter-in-law.
"Don't cry," she urged Lady Wang. "Baoyu's still a child now and you love him; but when he grows up and becomes a high official he may not have any consideration for his mother either. Better not be too fond of him now if you want to avoid heartache later."
When Jia Zheng heard this he knocked his head on the floor.
"What place is there for me on earth, mother," he wailed, "if you reproach me like this?"
The Lady Dowager smiled sarcastically.
"You're making it clear that there's no place for me, and yet you start complaining. We are simply going away to save you trouble and leave you free to beat anyone you please."
She ordered attendants to pack up at once and make ready for the journey, while Jia Zheng kowtowed and earnestly begged her forgive¬ness.
But while storming at her son the old lady was worried about her grandson, and now she hurried over to look at the boy. She was further pained and enraged by the severity of his flogging today. Clasping him to her she wept bitterly. Lady Wang and Xifeng were hard put to it to soothe her. Then some of the maids who had assembled there took Baoyu's arms, meaning to help him out.
"Stupid creatures!" scolded Xifeng. "Have you no eyes? He's in no state to walk. Go and fetch that wicker couch."
They hastily did as they were told. Baoyu was laid on the couch and carried to the old lady's room accompanied by his grandmother and mother. As the Lady Dowager was still incensed Jia Zheng dared not
withdraw but followed them, aware from a glance at Baoyu that this time he had flogged him too severely. He turned to his wife, who was now lamenting even more bitterly.
"My child, my darling!" she wailed. "Why didn't you die as a baby in Zhu's place? Then your father wouldn't be so angry, and all my trouble wouldn't have been in vain. If anything happens to you now I shall be left all alone, with no one to depend on in my old age!"
These lamentations interspersed with reproaches against her "worth¬less son" dismayed Jia Zheng and made him repent that he had beaten Baoyu so mercilessly. But when he tried to mollify his mother she rounded on him with tears in her eyes.
"Why don't you leave us? What are you hanging around for? Won't you be satisfied until you've made sure that he dies?"
Then Jia Zheng was forced to withdraw.
By now Aunt Xue, Baochai, Xiangling, Xiren and Xiangyun had gath¬ered there too. Xiren was simmering with indignation which she could not express outright. And since Baoyu was surrounded by people, some giv¬ing him water to drink, some fanning him, there seemed nothing for her to do. She therefore slipped out and went to the inner gate, where she told some pages to go and fetch Beiming.
"There was no sign of trouble earlier on. How did this start?" she asked him. "And why didn't you come to report it earlier?"
"It just happened that I wasn't there," explained Beiming frantically. "I only heard about it half-way through the beating. At once I asked people how the trouble had started. It was over the business of Qiguan and Sister Jinchuan."
"How did the master come to hear about it?"
"In the case of Qiguan, it looks as if Master Xue Pan was behind it. Having no other way to vent his jealous spite, he got somebody from outside to come and tell His Lordship - then the fat was in the fire. As for Jinchuan, it was young Master Huan who blabbed. Or so His Lordship's men told me."
Both stories seemed likely and Xiren was convinced. She went back to find everyone ministering to Baoyu. When there was no more to be done for him, the Lady Dowager ordered them to carry him carefully back to his own room. All lent a hand to convey him to Happy Red Court, where they laid him on his own bed. And after some further bustle the others gradually dispersed, leaving Xiren able at last to wait on him hand and foot.
The next chapter tells how Baoyu answered her questions.

Chapter 34

Moved by Affection, Baoyu
Moves His Cousin
A Wrong Report Makes Baochai
Wrong Her Brother


As soon as the others had left, Xiren sat down by Baoyu's side and with tears in her eyes asked the reason for this fearful beating.
"Oh, nothing special. What's the use of asking?" Baoyu sighed. "The lower part of my body hurts terribly. Do see how serious the damage is."
Xiren gently set about removing his underwear, but the least move¬ment made him grit his teeth and groan so much that she stopped. Only after three or four attempts did she succeed in undressing him. Then she clenched her teeth at the sight of his thighs, all black and purple with weals four fingers wide.
"Heavens! How could he be so cruel?" she exclaimed. "But, you know, this would never have happened if you'd paid the least attention to my advice. Well, it's lucky no bones are broken. What if you'd been maimed for life?"
Just then Baochai was announced. As there was no time to clothe Baoyu again, Xiren threw a lined gauze coverlet over him as Baochai walked in, a pill in one hand.
"Dissolve this drug in wine this evening and apply it as a salve," she told Xiren. "That will draw the heat and poison from the bruise and help to cure him."
Having handed her the pill, she asked, "Is he any better?"
Baoyu gratefully assured her that he was and asked her to take a seat. Seeing he was now able to open his eyes and talk, Baochai nodded in relief.
"If you'd listened to our advice, this wouldn't have happened," she sighed. "Now you've not only upset the old lady and your mother; when the rest of us see you like this, our hearts ache too.... "
She broke off abruptly, regretting her indiscretion, and hung her head with a blush.
She had spoken with such intimate, tender concern, although attempt¬ing to hide her deep emotion, and she looked so indescribably charming in her bashful confusion as she hid her blushing face and fingered her sash, that Baoyu completely forgot his pain in his elation. "I just get given a few strokes," he thought, "and they show such sweet distress and sym¬pathy. How good and kind they are! How admirable! If I were to meet with some accident and die, they'd surely be quite overcome with grief. But it would be worth dying, even with nothing to show for my life, pro¬vided I'd won their hearts. Indeed, it would be silly if I wasn't a happy and contented ghost."
His thoughts were interrupted by a question Baochai put to Xiren:
"What's the reason for this sudden row and beating?"
Xiren passed on what Beiming had said, and this was Baoyu's first inkling of Jia Huan's tale-telling. But when Xue Pan's name came up he was afraid Baochai would be upset.
"Cousin Xue would never do such a thing!" he interposed quickly. "Stop making such wild guesses. "
Baochai understood why he had silenced Xiren. "How tactful and cautious you are in spite of your pain after such a dreadful beating," she thought. "If you can be so considerate of our feelings, why not pay equal attention to important matters outside? For then your father would be pleased, and you wouldn't get into hot water like this. You cut Xiren short for fear of hurting me, but do you suppose I don't know my brother's wild, lawless ways? If such a rumpus was raised that time because of Qin Zhong, much worse things are possible now."
After these reflections she turned to Xiren with a smile.
"Why pin the blame on this person or that?" she said. "I think the master was angry because Cousin Bao doesn't behave well and keeps bad company. Even if my brother did let fall some careless remark about Cousin Bao, he can't have meant to make trouble. For after all, in the first place, it was the truth; in the second, he's the type who can't be bothered to gossip. You're used to Cousin Bao who's so considerate. You haven't met my brother, who fears neither Heaven nor Earth and blurts out whatever happens to be in his mind."
Baoyu's interruption when she spoke of Xue Pan had made Xiren realize that her tactlessness must have embarrassed Baochai, whose last remarks abashed her even more. As for Baoyu, he could see that while saying what was right and proper Baochai was also trying to put him at his ease. He felt even more touched. But before he could speak again she rose to leave.
"I'll come back tomorrow to see how you are," she assured him. "Have a good rest. I've given Xiren something to make you a salve tonight, and that should help."
With that she left, and Xiren escorted her out of the courtyard.
"Thank you, miss, for taking so much trouble," she said. "When Master Bao's better he'll come himself to thank you."
Baochai turned and smiled.
"There's nothing to thank me for. Just persuade him to rest properly and not let his imagination run away with him. We don't want the old lady and the mistress and everyone disturbed. For if word of it reached the master's ears, even if he did nothing for the time being, there'd be trouble later on."
So saying, she went off. With a warm sense of gratitude to her, Xiren returned to Baoyu. Finding him in a dreamy, drowsy state, she went to the other room to tidy herself.
Although Baoyu lay as still as he could, his buttocks were smarting as if scorched by fire, pricked by needles, or cut by knives. The slightest movement wrung a groan from him. Dusk was falling, Xiren had gone, and he dismissed the other maids saying that he would call if he wanted anything.
Dozing off, he dreamed that Qiguan had come to tell of his capture by prince Zhongshun's steward; after which Jinchuan appeared, in tears, to explain why she had thrown herself into the well. Half sleeping and half waking, he paid only scant attention. But then he felt himself shaken and caught the faint sound of sobbing. He opened his eyes with a start to see Daiyu. Suspecting at first that this was another dream, he propped him¬self up to look at her more closely. Her eyes were swollen, her face was bathed in tears: it was Daiyu beyond a doubt. He would have gazed at her longer, but the pain in his legs was so unbearable that he fell back with a groan.
"You shouldn't have come," he said. "Though the sun's set, the ground is still hot. Walking here and back may make you unwell again. I'm not in any pain after my beating, just putting on an act to fool them so that word of it will get out to my father. I'm shamming actually. Don't you worry about me. "
Daiyu was not crying aloud. She swallowed her tears in silence till she felt as if she would choke. She had a thousand replies to make to Baoyu, but not one word could she utter. At long last she sobbed:
"Never do such things again."
"Don't you worry," replied Baoyu with a long sigh. "Please don't talk this way. I would die happily for people like them, and I'm still alive."
At this point some maids in the courtyard announced Xifeng's arrival. Daiyu at once stood up.
"I'll go out the back way and drop in again later," she said.
Baoyu caught her hand protesting, "That's a strange thing to do. Why should you be afraid of her?"
Daiyu stamped one foot in desperation.
"Look at my eyes," she whispered. "She'd make fun of me if she saw. "
At once he released her and she slipped past his bed and out through the back court just as Xifeng came in from the front.
"Are you better?" she asked Baoyu. "If you fancy anything to eat, send someone to my place for it."
Aunt Xue called next. And then the Lady Dowager sent maids to inquire after the invalid. When it was time to light the lamps, Baoyu swal¬lowed two mouthfuls of soup and soon dozed off. Then came some of the older maid-servants, the wives of Zhou Rui, Wu Xindeng and Zheng Haoshi, who were in the habit of calling and had dropped in after hearing of today's trouble. Xiren hurried out to greet them with a smile.
"You're a second too late, aunties," she whispered, "Master Bao has just gone to sleep."
She offered them tea in the outer room and after sitting quietly for a while they left, having asked her to let Baoyu know that they had called.
As Xiren was coming back from seeing them off, one of Lady Wang's women accosted her with the message that her mistress wanted to see one of Master Bao's maids. Xiren came to a quick decision. Turning softly she told Qingwen, Sheyue, Tanyun and Qiuwen:
"The mistress has sent for one of us. You see to things here. I'll be back presently."
She went with the other woman out of the Garden to Lady Wang's apartments, where she found her fanning herself with a palm-leaf fan on the couch.
"Why didn't you send one of the others?" asked Baoyu's mother. "Who'll look after him in your absence?"
"Master Bao's sound asleep now, and the other girls know how to look after him," Xiren answered confidently. "Please don't worry, madam. I thought perhaps you had some instructions which one of the others might not understand, and that might hold things up."
"I've no special instructions. I just wanted to know how he is now."
"Miss Baochai brought us a salve, and after I applied it he seemed better. At first the pain kept him awake, but now he's sleeping soundly. It shows he's on the mend."
"Did he eat anything?"
"Only two mouthfuls of the soup the old lady sent. He complained he was parched and asked for some sour plum juice. But I thought to my¬self: Sour things are astringent, and when he was beaten and couldn't cry out some choleric humours must have rushed to his viscera; plum juice might affect them, bringing on a serious illness, and that would never do. Finally I talked him out of it and gave him some candied rose petals instead. He only ate half a bowl, though, then found it cloying and in¬sipid."
"Why didn't you send and let me know before?" cried Lady Wang. "The other day I was sent a couple of bottles of scented flower juice and meant to give them to him, but thought he might waste them. If he finds rose petals cloying, take him these. One tea-spoon in a bowl of water is delicious." She told Caiyun, "Fetch those bottles of juice which were brought the other day."
"Two bottles will be plenty," Xiren assured her, "More would be wasted. We can always come and ask for more when it's finished."
Caiyun went off on this errand, returning presently with two bottles which she handed to Xiren. They were tiny glass bottles barely three inches high, with silver caps which screwed on, and yellow labels. On one was written "Pure Osmanthus Juice," on the other "Pure Rose Juice."
"What luxury objects!" Xiren laughed. "Such small bottles can't hold much."
"They're for the Imperial use," explained Lady Wang. "Don't you see the yellow label? Mind you keep them carefully for him. Don't waste any of the juice."
Xiren assented and was about to leave when Lady Wang told her to wait.
"There's something else I want to ask you," she said.
Having made sure that no one else was about she continued, "There's talk that the master beat Baoyu because of some tale Huan told. Did you hear that? If you did, just tell me what it was. I won't make a rumpus about it. No one will know that it was you who told me."
"No, I didn't hear that," replied Xiren. "I heard it was because Mas¬ter Bao kept an actor from some prince's mansion, and they came to ask His Lordship to send him back."
Lady Wang shook her head.
"That was one reason, but there was another too. "
"If there's anything else I really don't know it," rejoined Xiren. She added, "May I make so bold, now that I'm here, to suggest something, madam9  
She broke off at this point.
"Go on.
With a sly smile she went on, "I hope Your Ladyship won't think it presumptuous."
"Of course not. What is it?"
"Actually, Master Bao does need to be taught a lesson. If His Lord¬ship doesn't discipline him, there's no knowing what may happen in fu¬ture."
On hearing this, Lady Wang clapped her hands together, exclaiming "Gracious Buddha!" Then although so eager to hear more, she confided, "Dear child, I'm glad you are so understanding -- that's exactly how I fed. Of course I know the importance of discipline. I haven't forgotten how strict I was with Master Zhu. But there's a reason for my indul¬gence now. I'm getting on for fifty, and I've only the one son left; be¬sides, he's rather delicate and the old lady dotes on him. If I were too strict so that something happened to him, or if the old lady were upset, the whole household would be turned upside down and that would be even worse. That's why he's been spoiled. I'm always scolding him, plead¬ing with him, getting angry with him or crying over him, but after a short improvement back he slips. He'll never mend his ways unless he's made to smart. Yet if he's badly injured, I'll have no one to depend on in the future."
With this she burst into tears. And Xiren, seeing her distress, wept in sympathy.
"He's your son, madam, of course you take this to heart. Even those of us who wait on him would be happy if everyone could keep out of trouble. If things go on like this we'll have no peace either. Not a day goes by but I reason with Master Bao, yet it has no effect. It's not his fault if people of that sort make up to him, and he loses patience when we reason with him. Since you've brought this up, madam, I'd like to ask your advice about something that's been worrying me for a long time. I've never raised it before for fear you might misunderstand. In that case, not only would I be wasting my breath but taking an outrageous liberty."
Lady Wang realized there was something behind this.
"Just say what's on your mind, my child," she urged. "I've heard nothing but good of you recently from everyone. I assumed it was just because you looked after Baoyu well and were pleasant to everybody. Such thoughtfulness in little things is good. That's why I treated you like one of the old nurses. Now I see you have principles too and your views coincide with mine. Just say whatever's on your mind, but don't let it go any further."
"It's nothing else, only that I was hoping Your Ladyship might ar¬range for Master Bao to move out of the Garden."
Lady Wang was shocked. She caught hold of Xiren's hand.
"Has Baoyu been up to anything improper?"
"No, no, madam. Don't misunderstand me. Nothing of that sort. But in my humble opinion, now that he and the young ladies are no longer children and, what's more, Miss Lin and Miss Bao aren't members of the family, cousins of different sexes should live apart. When they spend all their time together every day, it's not convenient for them and we can't help worrying. Besides, it doesn't look good to people outside. As the proverb has it: Best be prepared for the worst. A lot of foolishness is quite innocent, but suspicious people always think the worst. Better make sure in advance that there's no trouble.
"You know, madam, what Master Bao is like and how he enjoys amus¬ing himself with us girls. If no precautions are taken and he does some¬thing the least bit foolish -- no matter whether it's true or not -- there's bound to be talk. Lowclass people will gossip. When they're well dis¬posed, they laud you to the skies; when they're not, they talk as if you were worse than a beast. If people speak well of him, that's as it should be. If a single slighting remark is passed, not only shall we deserve a thousand deaths - that's not important - but his reputation will be ruined for life and how will you answer for it to His Lordship? Another proverb says: A gentleman should show providence. Better guard against this now. You're naturally too busy, madam, to think of these things, and they might not occur to us either. But if they do and we fail to mention it, that would be very remiss. Lately this has been preying on my mind day and night, but I couldn't mention it to anyone else. Only my lamp at night knew how I worried!"
Lady Wang felt thunderstruck on hearing this, borne out as it was by the case of Jinchuan. The more she thought, the more grateful she felt to Xiren.
"What a wise child you are to see so far!" she exclaimed. "Of course I've given some thought to this myself, but lately I've had too much else on my mind. Now you've reminded me. I'm glad you're so concerned for our reputation. I really had no idea what a good girl you are! All right, you may go now. Leave everything to me. But I tell you this: after what you've said today, I mean to entrust Baoyu to you. You must look after him and keep him safe. That way, you'll be safeguarding me as well, and I shan't forget our obligation to you. "
Xiren hastily assented and withdrew. Back in Happy Red Court, she found Baoyu had just woken up. When she told him about the juice he was delighted. He asked to taste some and pronounced it delicious.
Because Baoyu had Daiyu on his mind he was eager to send some¬one over to her, but for fear of Xiren he had to resort to a trick. He dispatched Xiren to Baochai to borrow some books, and as soon as she had left called for Qingwen.
"Go and see what Miss Lin is doing," he said. "If she asks after me, tell her I'm better."
"I can't just go there without any excuse. Is there no message that you want to send?"
"Not that I can think of."
"Give me something to take then, or ask to borrow something. Other-wise what am I going to say when I see her?"
After a little thought Baoyu picked up two handkerchiefs and tossed them to her.
"All right, tell her I sent you to give her these."
"This is even odder!" cried Qingwen. "What would she want two old handkerchiefs for? She'll flare up again and say you're teasing her."
"Don't worry. She'll understand."
So Qingwen took his gift to Bamboo Lodge, where she found Chunxian hanging some handkerchiefs to dry on the balustrade.
Chunxian held up a warning finger "She's gone to bed.
Qingwen slipped into the dark room where the lamps were not yet lit. Daiyu, lying on the bed, asked who it was.
"It's me, Qingwen."
"What do you want?"
"Master Bao has sent you some handkerchiefs, miss." Why should he send me handkerchiefs? Daiyu wondered. "Who gave these to him?" she asked. "I suppose they're specially fine ones. Tell him to keep them for someone else, I don't need them for the time being."
"They're not new," replied Qingwen giggling. "He's often used them."
Daiyu was even more mystified at this, but some careful thought cleared up the riddle for her.
"Leave them then," she said quickly, "You may go.
So Qingwen put down the handkerchiefs and left, puzzling her head all the way back over this gift.
Meanwhile Daiyu, touched by the meaning of this gift, was lost in reverie. Pleased as she was by Baoyu's insight and sympathy, it was sad to think that all her concern for him might come to nothing. This unex¬pected present of two used handkerchiefs was rather laughable if it were not for the fact that she understood the thought behind it; yet it was scandalous that he should send and she accept a secret gift. And it made her ashamed of her habit of crying so much. As she mused in this way, her heart was very full, her mind in a turmoil. Having ordered the lamps to be lit, without any thought of the possible consequences she ground some ink on the inkstone, dipped her brush in it and quickly wrote these lines on the handkerchiefs:

Vain are all these idle tears,
Tears shed secretly -- for whom?
Your kind gift of a foot of gauze
Only deepens my gloom.
By stealth I shed pearly tears,
Idle tears the livelong day;
Hard to wipe them from sleeve and pillow,
Then suffer the stains to stay.
No silk thread can string these pearls;
Dim now the tear-stains of those bygone years;
A thousand bamboos grow before my window –
Is each dappled and stained with tears?1

She would have written more but her whole body was afire, her face burning. Going to the mirror-stand she removed its silk cover and saw that her flushed cheeks were redder than peach blossom, but failed to realize that this was the first symptom of consumption. She went to bed with the handkerchiefs clasped in her hands and lost herself in dreams.

To return to Xiren and her errand to Baochai, when she found that Baochai was not in the Garden but had gone to her mother's house, she went back empty-handed. And Baochai did not return till the second watch.
The fact is that Baochai's knowledge of her brother had led her to suspect that he was behind the visit of the prince's chief steward, and Xiren's report confirmed her suspicion. Xiren of course had this on hear¬say from Beiming, who had simply been guessing, not having any proof. But she now was sure of his guilt. The joke was that for all Xue Pan's bad reputation he was not to blame this time, and yet everyone con¬demned him out of hand.
Coming home today after carousing outside, Xue Pan went in to greet his mother and found Baochai with her. After they had exchanged a few words he remarked:
"I hear Cousin Bao got a whacking. What for?"
Aunt Xue was already upset on this score.
"You trouble-maker," she snapped back, gnashing her teeth, "this is all your doing. And you have the impudence to ask!"
Xue Pan was genuinely taken aback.
"What trouble have I made?" he asked.
"Still playing the innocent? Everyone knows you were the one who told. Do you still deny it?"
"If everyone said I'd killed a man, would you believe it?"
"Even your sister knows it was you. Would she make up something against you?"
"Do keep your voices down!" put in Baochai quickly. "It will all be cleared up by and by." She turned to her brother. "Whether you told or not, it's over and done with. Don't let's quibble or make a mountain out of a molehill. Take my advice, though, and stop fooling around outside. Just mind your own business. You waste all your time with those rowdies and you're too careless. If nothing happens, well and good. But if trouble starts everyone is bound to suspect you, whether you caused it or not. Why, even I would suspect you, let alone others."
Blunt, outspoken Xue Pan could not stand such insinuations. Baochai's warning against fooling about outside and his mother's charge that his careless talk had caused Baoyu's flogging made him stamp with rage
and swear he must clear himself.
"Who's been shifting the blame on to me?" he fumed. "I'll smash the scoundrel's teeth. It's obvious that to make up to Baoyu they're using me as a whipping-boy. Is Baoyu the king of heaven? Whenever his father whacks him the whole household's bound to be upside down for days. After my uncle caned him for misbehaving last time, it somehow came to the old lady's ears that Cousin Zhen was behind it and she summoned him to give him a big dressing-down. This time they're pick¬ing on me. Well, I'm not afraid. I'll go and kill Baoyu then pay with my life -- make a clean sweep!"
He seized the door bar and started rushing out. In desperation his mother dragged him back.
"You'll be the death of me, you monster," she scolded. "Off to pick a fight, are you? Better kill me first."
Xue Pan's eyes nearly started from his head in fury.
"What's all this nonsense!" he bellowed. "You won't let me go, yet pin this thing on me for no reason at all. As long as Baoyu lives, I shall always be his whipping-boy. We'd better all die and be done with it."
"Do have patience," urged Baochai, stepping quickly forward. "Mother's so upset, yet instead of soothing her you raise this rumpus. When people -- especially your own mother -- advise you, it's for your own good. You shouldn't fly into a temper."
"So you 're nagging again, are you?" he roared. "You're the one who started this."
"You only blame me for nagging, never blame your own thoughtlessness."
"Instead of blaming my thoughtlessness, why don't you blame Baoyu for looking for trouble outside? Let's take just one example -- that recent business of Qiguan. I've met Qiguan a dozen times without his making up to me once; but the very first time Baoyu met him, before he even knew his name, Qiguan gave him his girdle. That was my fault too, I suppose?"
"There you go again," cried his mother and sister frantically. "That's why he got beaten. This shows you're the one who told."
"You want me to burst with anger," growled Xue Pan. "It's not being wrongly accused that enrages me, it's this fearful fuss you make over Baoyu."
"Who's making a fuss?" retorted Baochai. "You started it by arming yourself and threatening to fight. Now you accuse us of fussing."
As all her arguments were so reasonable and even harder to refute than his mother's, Xue Pan cast about for some way to silence her in order to have his say. And being in a towering rage, he did not trouble to weigh his words carefully.
"It's no use flying into a huff with me, my dear sister," he sneered. "I can see into your heart. Mother's told me about your gold locket which has to be matched with jade. Naturally you looked round carefully, and now that you find Baoyu has that rubbishy thing you're bound to take his side."
Baochai was speechless at first with indignation. Then catching hold of her mother she sobbed:
"Do you hear what he's saying, mother?"
At this Xue Pan knew he had gone too far and sullenly retired to his own room.
Though trembling with rage, Aunt Xue tried to comfort her daughter. "You know that monster always talks nonsense," she said. "Tomor¬row I'll tell him to apologize."
Bitterly wronged as Baochai felt, she could not make a scene for fear of upsetting her mother. So with tears in her eyes she took her leave and went back to her own apartment to cry all night.
The next morning she rose early and, without troubling to make a careful toilet, simply straightened her clothes and set off to see her mother again. On the way she happened to meet Daiyu standing alone under the shade of some blossom and was asked where she was going. Baochai, not stopping, said she was on her way home. Daiyu saw that she looked in low spirits, quite unlike her usual self, and had been crying.
She called mischievously after her, "Cousin, look after your health! Even if you fill two vats with tears that won't cure his welts."
To know how Baochai replied you must read the next chapter.

Chapter 35

Yuchuan Tastes Some Lotus-Leaf Broth
Yinger Skilfully Makes
a Plum-Blossom Net


Baochai heard Daiyu's taunt but walked past without turning her head, so anxious was she to see her mother and brother. Daiyu, standing in the shade of the blossom, went on staring into the distance towards Happy Red Court. She saw Li Wan, Yingchun, Tanchun, Xichun and their maids pay short calls and leave again, but there was no sign of Xifeng.
"Why hasn't she called to see Baoyu?" she wondered. "Even if she's busy, you'd think she'd put in an appearance to please the Lady Dowa¬ger and Lady Wang. There must be some reason why she hasn't come."
But just then, raising her head, she caught sight of a gaily dressed group proceeding in that direction. Looking more closely she could rec¬ognize the Lady Dowager on Xifeng's arm, then Lady Xing and Lady Wang, with the concubine Zhou and some maids bringing up the rear. Together they entered the court. Daiyu nodded and tears ran down her cheeks as she reflected wistfully how good it was to have parents. A little later she saw Baochai enter with Aunt Xue, and then Zijuan came up suddenly behind her.
"Do go and take your medicine, miss, before the boiled water gets cold," she urged.
"Must you always be hurrying me?" protested Daiyu. "Whether I take it or not is none of your business."
"You shouldn't stop taking medicine just because your cough's be¬ginning to be better. Although it's the fifth month and the weather's warm, you still ought to be careful. You've been standing here in the damp since first thing this morning. It's time to go back now and rest."
Daiyu realized then that she was indeed rather tired, and after some hesitation she walked slowly back to Bamboo Lodge on her maid's arm. As they entered the courtyard, the chequered shade cast by bamboos on the moss reminded her of those lines in The Western Chamber:

Who walks in this secluded spot,
Where dew glimmers white on dark moss?
	
	"Fate was unkind to Cui Yingying," she told herself with a sigh. "But at least she had a widowed mother and a younger brother, whereas poor Daiyu has nobody at all. The ancients said: All beauties are ill-fated. But I'm no beauty. Why should my fate be so cruel?"
	She was walking on lost in thought when the parrot in the covered walk swoped down to squawk at her.
	"You pest!" she cried, giving a start. "Smothering my hair with dust."
	Flying back to its perch the parrot screeched, "Raise the curtain, Xueyan. The young lady's here."
	She stopped, her hand on the perch, to ask whether the parrot's bird-seed and water had been changed. The bird gave a wheeze much like one of Daiyu's deep sighs. Then it rattled off the lines:

"Men laugh at my folly in burying fallen flowers,
But who will bury me when dead I lie?
See, when spring draws to a close and flowers fall,
This is the season when beauty must ebb and fade;
The day that spring takes wing and beauty fades
Who will care for the fallen blossom or dead maid?"
	The two girls burst out laughing.
	"Those are lines you often recite, miss," giggled Zijuan. "Fancy him getting them by heart!"
	Daiyu made her take the perch down and hang it on a hook outside the moon window, then went inside and sat down by the window to take her medicine. The room was flooded with a dim green light, its tables and couches cool in the green shade cast by bamboos through the gauze netting. To while away the time she played with the parrot from inside, teasing it and teaching it some of her favourite poems.
	
	But let us return to Baochai who reached home to find her mother doing her hair.
	"What are you doing here so early in the morning?" asked Aunt Xue.
"I came to see how you were, mother. Did he come back after I left yesterday or make any more trouble?"
	Baochai sat down beside her mother and burst into tears.
"There, child, don't take it so to heart," urged her mother, weeping too. "I' ll teach the monster a lesson. If anything were to happen to you, on whom could I rely?"
	Overhearing this, Xue Pan hurried in.
	"Forgive me this once, there's a good sister," he begged, making Baochai several bows from left and right. "I had a few drinks yesterday so I stayed out late, then on my way back I knocked into a friend; and that made me arrive home so drunk I've no idea what nonsense I may have talked. I don't blame you for being angry."
	Baochai, who had been hiding her face to weep, looked up at this with a smile.
	"Don't put on that act!" She spat in disgust. "I know what a nui¬sance you find us. You're trying to make us leave you so that you can do as you please."
	"How can you say such a thing, sister, not leaving me a leg to stand on? It's not like you to be so suspicious and unkind."
	"You accuse her of being unkind," put in his mother. "Was it kind what you said last night? Really you must have lost your senses."
	"Don't be angry, mother, and don't you worry, sister. I promise not to drink or fool about with those fellows any more, how's that?"
	Baochai smiled.
	"At last you're showing some sense."
	"If you can stick to that, why, dragons can lay eggs," scoffed his mother.
"If you catch me fooling around with them again, sister, you can spit in my face and call me a beast, not a man. I don't want to be such a trial to you both all the time. Vexing mother is bad enough; if I worry my sister too I'm less than human. Instead of being a filial son and good brother now that father's gone, I'm only upsetting you both. I'm really worse than a brute!"
While talking, tears gushed from his eyes. Since their mother showed fresh signs of distress at this, Baochai forced herself to interpose.
	"You've already made trouble enough without reducing mother to tears again."
Xue Pan dabbed quickly at his eyes and grinned.
"When did I reduce her to tears? All right, that's enough. Forget it. I'll get Xiangling to pour you a cup of tea."
"I don't want any, thank you. As soon as mother's ready we're going to the Garden."
"Let me have a look at your necklace. Shouldn't it be gilded again?"
"No need. It's still a bright gold.
"You ought to make yourself some new clothes too. Just let me know what colours and patterns you fancy."
"I haven't yet worn all the clothes I have. Why make new ones?"
By now Aunt Xue had changed, and she led her daughter into the Garden while Xue Pan went out.
When Aunt Xue and Baochai reached Happy Red Court to inquire after Baoyu, they knew from the throng of maids and nurses on the ve¬randah that the Lady Dowager and others must be there. Having gone in and exchanged greetings with all the ladies, Aunt Xue asked Baoyu if he were any better. He sat up on his couch to answer: "Yes, thank you, auntie. I'm sorry to have put you and my cousin to such trouble."
She hastily made him lie down again.
"If there's anything you want," she said, 'lust let me know."
"Thank you, I will," he replied gaily.
"What would you like to eat?" his mother asked. "I can have it sent over later."
"I'm not really hungry, but I'd like some of that broth you once had made with small lotus leaves and lotus seeds."
"Just listen to him!" Xifeng laughed. "You may not have expensive tastes, but you're certainly choosy to want something like that."
"Have it made! Have it made!" the Lady Dowager ordered.
"Don't be in such a hurry, Old Ancestress," cried Xifeng. "I must try to remember where the moulds are."
She sent an old servant to fetch them from the head cook, and after a while the woman came back to report: "The cook says those four moulds were returned, madam."
Xifeng thought this over.
"Well, I can't remember to whom I sent them," she remarked. "They're in the tea pantry most likely."
She sent to ask the steward in charge, but he did not have them either. Finally the steward in charge of the gold and silver plate had them sent over.
Aunt Xue took the casket containing the four silver moulds and exam¬ined them curiously. More than a foot long and about one inch across, they were inset with more than thirty delicately fashioned shapes no larger than peas -- chrysanthemum, plum-blossom, lotus flower, caltrop and the like.
"Your house is really the last word in refinement," she exclaimed to the old lady and her sister. "So many shapes just for one bowl of soup! I wouldn't have known what these were for if I hadn't been told."
Xifeng interrupted with a smile, "Why, auntie, the cooks preparing the Royal Feast last year thought this up, flavouring the dough shapes with fresh lotus leaves; but what really counts is the quality of the soup. It isn't anything special after all. Indeed, what family would often have such a soup! We did try it, though, when we first got the moulds; and he's suddenly remembered it today." She passed the casket to a maid with the order, "Tell the kitchen to kill a few chickens at once and make enough well-seasoned soup for a dozen people."
"Why so much?" asked Lady Wang.
"For a good reason." Xifeng smiled. "This is something we seldom have, and now that Cousin Bao has asked for it, it would be a pity just to make some for him and none for the old lady and Aunt Xue. We may as well all have some while we're about it -- then even I can taste this novelty."
"You monkey!" exclaimed the Lady Dowager. "Treating people at public expense. "
"That's all right," countered Xifeng quickly amid general laughter. "I can afford this little treat." She turned to the maid. "Tell them in the kitchen to do their best and charge it to my account."
As the maid left on this errand Baochai said playfully, "In the few years I've been here, careful observation has led me to the conclusion that, however clever Cousin Xifeng may be, she's no match for the old lady."
'I'm old and slow-witted now, child," said the Lady Dowager. "But at Xifeng's age I outshone her. Still, even if she's not up to me she's way ahead of your aunt. Your aunt, poor thing, has no more to say for herself than a block of wood and can't show herself to advantage to her elders. They can't help liking Xifeng for her clever tongue."
Baoyu chuckled.
"Does that mean you don't like people who don't talk much?"
"Oh, they have their merits too, just as those with smooth tongues have faults. It's better not to have too much to say for yourself."
"Quite so." Baoyu laughed. "My sister-in-law never talks much, yet you treat her just as well as Cousin Xifeng. If you merely liked good talkers, the only ones of these girls you could fancy would be Xifeng and Daiyu."
"Talking about the girls," observed the old lady. "I'm not saying this as a compliment to Aunt Xue, but the truth is that none of our four girls can stand comparison with Baochai."
"You're partial, madam," disclaimed Aunt Xue with a smile.
"But it's true," put in Lady Wang. "The old lady's often told me privately how good Baochai is."
Baoyu, angling for compliments for Daiyu, had not expected his grand¬mother to praise Baochai instead. He glanced at the latter with a smile, but she had turned away to talk to Xiren.
At this point lunch was announced and the Lady Dowager rose. Rav¬ing told Baoyu to rest well and charged the maids to take good care of him, she took Xifeng's arm and urged Aunt Xue to lead the way. As they left, she asked if the soup was ready or not, and what Aunt Xue and the others fancied to eat.
"If there's anything special, just tell me," she said. "I know how to make this minx Xifeng get it for us."
"How you love to tease her, madam," replied Aunt Xue, "She's al¬ways offering you good things, but of course you don't eat very much."
"Don't say that auntie," countered Xifeng. "If our Old Ancestress didn't think human flesh rancid, she'd have eaten me long ago. "
That set the whole company laughing. Even Baoyu joined in from his bed.
"What a terrible tongue Madam Lian has!" Xiren commented with a smile.
He reached out to make her sit beside him.
"You must be tired after standing so long."
"How forgetful I am!" she exclaimed. "Do ask Miss Baochai before she leaves the courtyard to send Yinger over to make a few nets for us."
"I'm glad you reminded me."
Baoyu sat up and called to Baochai through the window, "Will you send Yinger over after your meal, cousin? I want her to make me some nets if she has time."
"Of course," promised Baochai, turning back. "I'll send her pres¬ently."
The others who had not understood this exchange stopped to ask Baochai what was wanted. When she had explained the Lady Dowager said: "That's a good child. Send her to do as he asks. If you need more hands I have plenty of girls sitting idle. You can send for any of them."
"We can manage without Yinger," Aunt Xue and Baochai assured her. "She's nothing to do every day and needs something to keep her out of mischief."
As they walked on they were greeted by Xiangyun, Pinger and Xiangling, who had been picking balsam by some rocks and now left the Garden with them.
Lady Wang urged her mother-in-law to have a rest in her room, as she feared she must be tired. As the old lady's legs were aching she agreed. Maids were sent on ahead to see that all was ready; and because the concubine Zhao had excused herself on the grounds of an indisposi¬tion, there was only the concubine Zhou to help the serving-women and maids raise the portiére and set out the back-rests and cushions. The Lady Dowager entered on Xifeng's arm and sat down with Aunt Xue in the places of honour. Baochai and Xiangyun took two lower seats. Lady Wang brought tea herself to her mother-in-law while Li Wan served Aunt Xue.
"Leave serving to the young people," said the Lady Dowager to Lady
Wang. "You sit down and chat with us."
Seating herself on a stool, Lady Wang told Xifeng to have the old lady's meal brought there with some extra portions. Xifeng withdrew and told Lady Wang's serving-women to pass the order on to those of the Lady Dowager and ask her maids to hurry over, while Lady Wang instructed another serving-woman to fetch the young ladies. This took some time, and only Tanchun and Xichun appeared eventually; for Yingchun had no appetite that day, and no one thought anything of Daiyu's absence as she never ate more than one meal out of two.
Soon the food arrived and the table was laid.
"Our Old Ancestress and Aunt Xue mustn't stand on ceremony but do as I say," declared Xifeng, approaching them with a bundle of ivory chopsticks wrapped in a handkerchief.
"This is how we do things," the old lady told Aunt Xue, who acqui¬esced cheerfully.
Xifeng placed four pairs of chopsticks before the Lady Dowager, Aunt Xue, Baochai and Xiangyun, while Lady Wang and Li Wan superintended the serving of the dishes. Then Xifeng called for clean bowls and chose dishes for Baoyu.
After the lotus broth arrived and the old lady had inspected it, Lady Wang commissioned Yuchuan who was standing behind her to take Baoyu his meal.
"She can't carry all this single-handed," remarked Xifeng.
Just then, as it happened, Yinger and Xier arrived. Baochai knew that they had eaten already.
"Master Bao wants you to make some nets for him," she told Yinger. "You'd better go with Yuchuan."
As the two maids left on this errand Yinger asked, "How are we to carry this hot soup all that way?"
"Don't worry." Yuchuan smiled. "Leave it to me. "
She made an old nurse put the broth and dishes in a hamper and carry this behind them while they walked empty-handed to Happy Red Court. There Yuchuan took over the hamper and the two girls went in. Xiren, Sheyue and Qiuwen, who were amusing Baoyu, stood up to greet them.
"How did you two happen to arrive together?" they asked, taking the hamper.
Yuchuan promptly sat herself down on a chair, but Yinger would not presume to sit although Xiren hastily fetched a foot-stool for her.
Baoyu was delighted by Yinger's arrival but distressed and embar¬rassed by the sight of Yuchuan, who reminded him of her elder sister Jinchuan. For this reason he addressed himself exclusively to her. This made Xiren afraid that Yinger might feel slighted, and since she refused to be seated she took her to the outer room for some tea and a chat.
Meanwhile Sheyue and the others had fetched Baoyu's bowl and chopsticks, but instead of starting his lunch he asked Yuchuan: "How is your mother?"
Scowling and refusing to look at him, for a long time she did not an¬swer. Then she snapped out:
"All right."
Silence followed this snub. Then Baoyu tried again.
"Who asked you to bring me my lunch?"
"The madams and the ladies, naturally."
Well aware that Jinchuan's death was behind Yuchuan's displeasure, Baoyu cast about for some means to placate her. Not wanting to humble himself in front of the others, he dismissed them on various pretexts and then put himself out to be pleasant. And tempted though Yuchuan was to cold-shoulder him, she could not but be mollified by the amiable way in which he put up with all her rudeness. It was her turn to feel embar¬rassed.
"Do pass me the broth to taste, dear sister," he begged when he saw her face begin to brighten.
"I've never fed anyone. Wait till the others come back."
"I don't want you to feed me but I can't get out of bed," he said coaxingly. "If you'll just pass me the bowl, you can report back so much the sooner and have your own meal. I mustn't keep you here starving. If you can't be bothered to move I'll have to fetch the bowl myself, how¬ever much it hurts."
He struggled to get out of bed and could not suppress a groan. At that Yuchuan no longer had the heart to refuse.
"Lie down," she said, leaving her seat. "What a sight you are, suffering	for the sins committed in your previous incarnations." With a giggle she passed him the bowl.
"If you must be angry, dear sister, be angry here," advised Baoyu amiably. "Try to keep your temper in front of the old lady and the mis¬tress. If you carry on like this with them, you'll get another scolding."
"Drink your soup, go on, I'm not taken in by that sweet talk."
She made him drink a couple of mouthfuls, but Baoyu pretended not to like the flavour and left the rest untouched.
"Gracious Buddha!" she exclaimed. "You're hard to please."
"It's got no taste at all. If you don't believe me, try it."
Rising to his bait, Yuchuan took a sip. At once he cried with a laugh:
"Now it must taste delicious!"
Realizing that she had been tricked she said, "First you don't like it, now you say it's delicious. Well, I shan't let you have any more.
Though he smiled and pleaded she was adamant. She called the oth¬ers to come to serve him his meal. As the maids came back they heard the unexpected announcement that two nannies sent by Second Master Fu had called to pay their respects.
Baoyu knew that they came from the house of the sub-prefect Fu Shi, one of his father's former pupils who had prospered thanks to his con¬nection with the celebrated Jia family. Jia Zheng treated him better than his other pupils, and Fu Shi was forever sending servants over. Now Baoyu disliked foolish old nurses as much as hulking men-servants, but today he asked these two in for the reason that Fu Shi's younger sister Qiufang was said to be remarkably talented and good-looking; and al¬though he had never seen her, his admiration for such a fine girl made him feel it would be slighting her not to admit them. So he promptly invited them in.
Fu Shi, being an upstart, wanted to consolidate his own position by marrying his pretty, gifted sister into some rich and noble family. Indeed, his requirements were so strict that she was still not engaged yet at twenty-¬three; for no proposals had come from the rich and great, who looked down on his poverty and humble origin. Naturally, then, Fu Shi had his own reason for ingratiating himself with the Jia house.
The two nurses sent today happened to be exceptionally stupid. When invited in they paid their respects to Baoyu, and Yuchuan stopped teasing him to listen, bowl in hand, to the conversation. Baoyu went on eating as he talked while both he and Yuchuan kept their eyes on the two visitors. When he reached out suddenly for the bowl and upset it, splashing soup over his hand, Yuchuan started although not hurt herself and gave a cry:
"What are you doing?"
As the other maids rushed forward to take the bowl, Baoyu oblivious of his own pain cried:
"Where did you scald yourself, Yuchuan? Does it hurt?"
Everyone laughed at that.
"You're the one who got scalded, not me," she pointed out. Only then did he realize that his own hand was smarting.
No time was lost in mopping up the spilt soup. Baoyu stopped eating, rinsed his fingers and sipped some tea while exchanging a few more remarks with the two nurses, who then took their leave and were seen off to the bridge by Qingwen and some other girls.
As soon as they were alone, the old women started talking as they ambled along.
One of them said with a laugh, "No wonder Baoyu's called a hand¬some fool. Handsome is as handsome does, and anyone can see he's a bit touched. He scalds his own hand and asks someone else if it hurts what could be more stupid than that?"
"The last time I came here," the other rejoined, "I heard several of those girls say he's downright cracked. He got drenched himself in the rain and advised someone else to take shelter. Don't you call that soft? When there's no one about he laughs and cries to himself. When he sees a swallow he talks to the swallow, when he sees a fish in the stream he talks to the fish. He sighs or mumbles to the moon and stars, and has so little spirit he even puts up with the tantrums of those pert girls. When he's in a saving mood he treasures the least scrap of thread, but at other times he doesn't mind squandering millions."
Chatting like this they left the Garden and after taking leave of the others went home.
To revert to Xiren, as soon as these visitors had left she brought Yinger in and asked Baoyu what sort of net he wanted.
"I was so busy talking I forgot you," he told Yinger with an apologetic smile.
"I want to trouble you to make me some nets."
"Nets for what?"
"Never mind about that. Make a few of each kind."
"Good gracious!" Yinger clapped her hands and laughed. "That would take ten years and more."
"You've nothing to do anyway, dear sister, so do make them for me."
"You're asking the impossible," protested Xiren with a smile. "Let her first do a couple of the kind you need most."
"And which are those?" asked Yinger. "Nets to hold fans, scented pouches, or sashes?"
"Yes," said Baoyu. "One for a sash would be nice."
"For what colour sash?" asked Yinger.
"Scarlet," said Baoyu.
"A black or slate-blue net would make a good contrast, then."
"What would match a light green one?"
"That would go well with peach-pink."
"All right. Do me one also in peach-pink and another in leek-green."
"What design would you like?"
"How many do you know?"
"'Incense-stick,' 'ladder,' 'lozenge,' 'double squares,' 'chains,' 'plum-blossom' and 'willow-catkins. '"
"What was that pattern you worked for Miss Tanchun the other day?"
"That was 'clustered plum-blossom. '"
"That would do nicely," Baoyu said. At the same time he asked Xiren to fetch the thread.
Then a nurse called through the window: "Your lunch is ready, misses!"
"Go and have lunch," said Baoyu, "and come back as soon as you can."
"How can we go when we've a visitor here?" asked Xiren with a smile.
"Nonsense," declared Yinger, sorting out the thread. "Run along."
Then Xiren and all but two of the youngest girls left. Baoyu chatted with Yinger as he watched her work.
"How old are you?" he asked.
"Sixteen," she replied, her fingers busy netting the thread.
"What's your family name?"
"Huang."
Baoyu smiled.
"Then you're aptly named, because you really are a golden oriole."1
"My name used to be Jinying, but my young lady found that awkward and just called me Yinger instead. Now everyone's got into the way of it."
"Cousin Baochai is very fond of you," he remarked. "When she mar¬ries she's sure to take you along with her."
Yinger smiled at this and said nothing.
Baoyu went on, "I often tell Xiren he'll be a lucky man, whoever gets the pair of you, mistress and maid."
To this she replied, "I don't think you quite realize that our young lady, apart from her good looks, has some wonderful qualities which you won't find in anyone else in the world."
Baoyu was enchanted by Yinger's charming manner and the sweet, innocent way she spoke of her mistress.
"What wonderful qualities?" he asked. "Do tell me, dear sister."
"If I do, you mustn't let her know."
"Of course not."
Just then a voice outside asked, "Why are you so quiet?"
Looking round they saw that it was Baochai herself. Baoyu hastily offered her a seat, and having sat down she asked Yinger what kind of net she was making. Examining the net, which was only half done, she remarked: "This isn't very interesting. Why not make a net for his jade?"
"Of course, cousin!" Baoyu clapped his hands in approval. "I'd for¬gotten that. But what colour would be best?"
"Nothing too nondescript would do," said Baochai. "But crimson would clash, yellow wouldn't stand out well enough, and black would be too drab. I suggest you get some golden thread and plait it with black-beaded thread to make a net. That would look handsome."
Baoyu was so delighted with this idea that he immediately called for Xiren to fetch the gold thread. She happened to come in at that moment with two dishes.
"This is odd," she told him. "Her Ladyship has just sent me these two dishes."
"There must be such a lot of dishes today that she has sent these for all you girls."
"No, they said these were specially for me, and I needn't go over to kowtow my thanks. This seems very strange."
"If they're for you, then eat them," put in Baochai with a smile. "Don't look so puzzled."
"But such a thing has never happened before. I feel rather embar¬rassed."
"What's there to be embarrassed about?" Baochai smiled signifi¬cantly. "Some day more embarrassing things than this will happen to you.
Xiren sensed something behind these words, knowing that Baochai was not one to make cutting remarks. Recalling Lady Wang's hint the previous day, she dropped the subject and simply showed Baoyu the dishes before withdrawing again with the assurance:
"I'll fetch the thread as soon as I've washed my hands."
After lunch, having rinsed her hands, she brought the gold thread to Yinger and found that Baochai had been summoned by her brother and left. While Baoyu watched Yinger at work, Lady Xing sent two maids with two varieties of fruit for him and the message:
"If you're fit enough to walk, Her Ladyship hopes you'll go over tomorrow to have a little distraction. She's longing to see you.
"If I'm able I'll certainly come and pay my respects," he answered. "I'm already feeling much better. Please tell her not to worry.
He made the girls sit down and told Qiuwen to take half the fruit to Miss Lin. She was just leaving to do this when they heard Daiyu's voice outside, and Baoyu lost no time in inviting her in.
To know what followed, read on.

Chapter 36

A Dream During the Embroidering of Mandarin
Ducks in Red Rue Studio Foretells the Future
Baoyu Learns in Pear Fragrance Court
That Each Has His Share of Love


The Lady Dowager went back from Lady Wang's rooms to her own quarters very pleased by Baoyu's steady recovery. To forestall any fur¬ther summons from his father, she sent for Jia Zheng's chief page and gave him these orders:
"Next time your master wants Baoyu to meet or entertain guests, you can tell him without reporting it to me that I've forbidden the boy to set foot outside the second gate until after the eighth month. For one thing, it will be several months before he can walk again after that terrible beating. For another, just now his stars are unpropitious, and he mustn't meet any outsiders while sacrifices are being made to the stars."
When the page had assented and left, Nanny Li and Xiren were sum¬moned and instructed to tell Baoyu this to reassure him.
Baoyu had an inveterate dislike of entertaining literati or men in gen¬eral. He hated putting on ceremonial dress to pay calls, return visits or offer congratulations or condolences. Delighted by his grandmother's decision, he not only stopped seeing most relatives and friends but even grew lax about asking after the health of his seniors each morning and evening. After paying his respects early in the morning to his grand¬mother and mother he spent the rest of the day amusing himself in the Garden, often glad to idle away his time by offering his services to the maids. When Baochai or any of the others advised against this it only angered him.
"Imagine a pure, innocent girl joining the ranks of time-servers and place-seekers, who set such store by reputation!" he would fume. "This is all the fault of the ancients who had nothing better to do than coin maxims and codes to control stupid, uncouth men. It's too bad that in our time even those in refined ladies' chambers have been contaminated. This is an offence against Heaven and Earth which endowed them with the finest qualities."
Going further in his anger against the ancients, he burned all the Con¬fucian classics in his possession except the Four Books. His wild ways discouraged people from talking to him about serious matters. And the only person he really admired was Daiyu precisely because she alone had never urged him to seek an official career or fame for himself.

But now let us return to Xifeng. After Jinchuan's death several ser¬vants suddenly started bringing her gifts and coming to pay their respects or flatter her. She became at a loss to account for the stream of presents sent her. One evening, when no one else was about, she remarked to Pinger:
"These families never had much to do with me before. Why are they making up to me now like this?"
"Isn't it obvious, madam?" Pinger smiled. "I fancy their daughters are working for Lady Wang. Her four chief maids get one tael of silver a month, the others only a few hundred cash apiece. Now that Jinchuan's dead they're all hoping to land this cushy one-tael job."
"Of course." Xifeng laughed. "Good for you. There's no satisfying some people. They've squeezed enough and no hard work ever comes their way. You'd think they'd be contented with getting their daughters off their hands, but no, they want something better. Well, it's not often they spend their money on me. Since they're doing this of their own free will I'll accept whatever they bring, but it won't make any difference to my decision."
So she waited until enough gifts had been sent before taking the mat¬ter up with Lady Wang.
Her chance came at noon one day when Aunt Xue, Baochai and Daiyu were eating water-melons in Lady Wang's apartments.
"Since Yuchuan's sister died you've been one maid short, madam," observed Xifeng. "If there's any girl you fancy, just tell me, and next month we can issue her allowance."
Lady Wang thought this over.
"I don't see why we must have a fixed number of maids," she said. "I've all I need, why not let it go at that?"
"What you say makes good sense, of course, madam," answered Xifeng. "This just happens to be the tradition. If even the concubines have two maids apiece, why shouldn't you have your full quota? It's only saving one tael in any case."
"Very well," said Lady Wang on second thoughts. "You can issue the allowance but don't assign me another maid. We'll give this tael to Yuchuan. Jinchuan waited on me all that time before coming to such a sad end, it's only fair this double pay should go to her sister."
Xifeng turned to look at Yuchuan.
"Congratulations!" she called with a smile.
Then Yuchuan stepped forward to kowtow her thanks.
"That reminds me," said Lady Wang. "How much are the concu¬bines Zhao and Zhou allowed a month?"
"The regular two taels each. Concubine Zhao gets another two for Huan, making four taels and an extra four strings of cash."
"Are they paid in full every month?"
"Of course they are," declared Xifeng in surprise.
"The other day I seem to have heard someone complaining that she was one string short. Why was that?"
Xifeng replied readily, "The allowance for the concubines' maids used to be one string a month, but last year the gentlemen in the treasury decided to reduce it by half - to five hundred cash for each. As each of them has two maids, that makes one string less. They can't complain this was my doing. I'd like to give them the usual amount; but since the gentlemen cut it, how can I make good the cut? I'm only the intermedi¬ary, I've no say in the matter. I merely hand out what I'm given. Several times in fact I've suggested restoring their original pay, only to be told, 'This is the quota.' I can't do more. At least I pay them on the dot each month, whereas in the past those people in the treasury always kept them waiting. They were never paid so regularly before."
A short silence followed.
Then Lady Wang asked again, "Row many of the old lady's maids get one tael?"
"Eight before, now seven. The other one is Xiren."
"That's right, Baoyu has no maids in the one-tael class, but Xiren's still counted as in the old lady's service."
"Yes, Xiren still belongs to the old lady and is simply on loan to Cousin Bao, so her money comes out of the allowance for the old lady's maids. It would certainly be wrong to reduce Xiren's one-tael allowance be¬cause she's waiting on Baoyu, unless we gave the old lady another maid. And in that case, if Xiren's pay isn't cut Cousin Huan ought to have a maid with the same pay as well, to be fair. As for Qingwen, Sheyue and the other five of them, they get one string of cash apiece, while the eight younger girls like Jiahui get half a string. This is all according to the old lady's instructions, so it's no use anyone cutting up rough about it."
"Just listen to her," cried Aunt Xue with a laugh, "She rattles on like walnuts tipped out of a cart. But how clearly and fairly she puts every-thing."
"Did I say anything wrong, aunt?" asked Xifeng.
"Of course not. But you'd save breath by speaking slower."
Suppressing a smile, Xifeng waited for further instructions. Lady Wang thought for a while.
"Now," she announced, "you must choose the old lady a good maid in Xiren's place and stop Xiren's pay, but give her two taels and one string of cash from the twenty taels I get every month. In future she's to have the same treatment as Concubine Zhao, only her share is to come from my allowance, not from the general fund."
	Having agreed to this, Xifeng nudged Aunt Xue, "Did you hear that, aunt?" She asked. "What did I tell you?"
	"This should have been done long ago," was Aunt Xue's comment. "Quite apart from the girl's looks where would you find another with such ladylike manners, so polite and yet so firm and principled? She really is a treasure."
"You don't know half her fine qualities." There were tears in Lady Wang's eyes. "She's ten times as good as my Baoyu. I ask no better luck for him than to have her looking after him all his life."
"In that case," suggested Xifeng, "Why not go through the usual ceremonies and make her his concubine openly?"
"No, that wouldn't do. For one thing, they're both too young. For another, his father would never agree. Besides, when he behaves wildly, so long as Xiren's his maid he listens to her; but if she were made his concubine now she wouldn't dare remonstrate strongly. Better let things stand as they are for a few more years.
After Lady Wang had finished, as she had no further instructions Xifeng withdrew. As soon as she reached the corridor she found some stew¬ards' wives waiting for her there.
"What business has kept you so long today, madam?" they asked her gaily. "You must be feeling the heat."
Xifeng tucked up her sleeves and stood on the doorstep.
"It's pleasant here with the through draught, I'll cool off a bit before going on," she remarked. "It's not my fault if I've been a long time. Her Ladyship has been raking up ancient history, and I had to answer her questions one by one.
With a grim smile she added, "Well, from today on, I mean to show how ruthless I can be, and I don't care if they complain to Her Ladyship either. Rot those stupid, foul-mouthed bitches! They'll come to no good end. How puffed up they are with their own consequence! But they'll lose the lot, and sooner than they think. Blaming us, indeed, because their maids' pay is cut. Who do they think they are? Do they deserve maids?"
Still pouring out abuse, she went off to select a new maid for the Lady Dowager.

Meanwhile Lady Wang and the others had finished their melons, and after some further talk the party broke up, the girls returning to the Gar¬den. Daiyu, on the grounds that she must have a bath, turned down a suggestion by Baochai to call on Xichun. And after the two girls had parted, Baochai walked on alone to Happy Red Court, hoping that a chat with Baoyu would overcome the drowsiness induced by the mid-day heat.
To her surprise, his courtyard was utterly quiet. Even the two storks were sleeping under the plantain. Walking along the verandah into the outer room, she found his maids sprawled on their beds having a nap. She passed the curio cabinet into Baoyu's room and discovered him sleeping too. Xiren seated by him was sewing, a white whisk beside her.
Baochai tiptoed up to her.
"You're overdoing it, surely!" she said with a soft laugh. "You've no flies or mosquitoes here, so why the whisk?"
Xiren raised her head in surprise, then hastily put down her work and rose to her feet.
"So it's you, miss," she whispered. "You gave me quite a start. We've no flies or mosquitoes, I know. But there's a kind of midge, so small you can hardly see it, which can get through the gauze and bite anyone who's sleeping. It's like being stung by an ant."
"That's true. You've not much open space behind the house, but you've fragrant flowers all around and this room is scented too. These insects which live on the pollen of flowers are attracted to anything fragrant."
While saying this Baochai had been examining the work in Xiren's hand. It was a white silk stomacher lined with red, which she was em¬broidering with mandarin ducks at play among some lotus. The lotus flowers were pink, the leaves green, and the ducks a medley of colours.
"How charming!" exclaimed Baochai. "Whose is it, to be worth so much effort?"
Xiren motioned with her lips towards the bed.
"Isn't he too big to wear such things?" asked Baochai.
Xiren smiled.
"That's what he thinks. So to tempt him, I make them specially handsome. In this heat he's careless about covering himself; but if I get him to wear one of these it doesn't matter if he kicks off his bedding at night. If you think I've put a lot of work into this, you should see the one he has on.
"It's a good thing you have the patience."
"My neck aches from bending over so long today. Do you mind sitting here for a minute, miss, while I take a turn outside?"
With that Xiren left the room.
Baochai was so interested in the stomacher that she sat down without thinking in Xiren's place, unable to resist picking up the needle and going on embroidering the charming design.
Meanwhile Daiyu had run into Xiangyun and suggested they go to¬gether to congratulate Xiren. When they found the courtyard so quiet Xiangyun walked towards the servants' quarters in search of Xiren, but Daiyu peeped through the gauze of Baoyu's window. She saw him lying fast asleep in a pink linen shirt while Baochai sat next to him sewing, a whisk beside her. Seeing this Daiyu ducked out of sight and clapped one hand over her mouth to stifle her giggles, beckoning Xiangyun with the other hand. Her cousin ran over to see what was so amusing. She too was tempted to laugh, but restrained herself at the thought of how good Baochai had always been to her.
"Come on," she said, dragging Daiyu away before she could make any cutting remarks. "I remember now, Xiren said she was going to the pool at noon to wash some clothes. Let's go and look for her there."
Daiyu saw through this ruse and snorted, but let Xiangyun lead her away.
Baochai inside had embroidered two or three petals when Baoyu started calling out in his sleep:
"Who believes what those bonzes and Taoists say? A match between gold and jade? Nonsense! Between wood and stone more likely, I'd say."
Baochai was stunned by this when Xiren returned.
"Still not awake?" the maid asked.
Baochai simply shook her head.
"I just met Miss Lin and Miss Shi. Did they come in?"
"No, I didn't see them. Hadn't they something to tell you?"
"Some nonsense," Xiren said. "They were just having one of their jokes."
"They weren't joking this time, I assure you." Baochai smiled. "I was just going to tell you myself when you hurried off."
She was interrupted by one of Xifeng's maids who arrived with a summons for Xiren.
"There you are!" Baochai chuckled.
Then Xiren woke two of the other girls and left Happy Red Court with Baochai, going on alone to Xifeng's quarters. There she was indeed informed of her promotion and told to go and kowtow to Lady Wang, but not to trouble the Lady Dowager. Xiren was quite overwhelmed.
On her hasty return from thanking Lady Wang, Baoyu was awake and asked where she had been. She gave an evasive answer. Only that night when they were alone did she tell him the truth, at which he was overjoyed.
"I don't see you going home now," he gloated. "After your last visit home you tried to frighten me with heartless talk, saying your brother meant to redeem you and you'd no future here. Now we'll see who dares fetch you away.
"You've no call to talk like that." She gave an ironic smile. "From now on I belong to Her Ladyship. I can leave without so much as a word to you, just by getting permission from her."
"Well, suppose I behaved so badly that you got leave from her and left, people hearing of it would put the blame on me. Wouldn't you feel bad about that?"
Xiren laughed.
"Why should I? If you turn bandit, should I have to go along with you? Anyhow, there is always death as a way out. All of us must die in the end, even if we live to be a hundred. Once I've breathed my last and can't see or hear any more I'll be through with you, won't I?"
Baoyu hastily put his hand over her mouth.
"All right, all right. Don't say such things."
Xiren knew all his foibles. Whereas hypocritical compliments disgusted him, true sentiments of this kind distressed him too. Regretting her tact¬lessness she hastily turned to subjects more to his taste: the spring breeze and autumn moon; powder and rouge; and, finally, the good qualities of girls. When this led inadvertently to talk of girls' dying, she hastily broke off.
Baoyu had been joining in with the greatest of pleasure, and when she stopped he responded cheerfully:
"All men must die. The thing is to die for good reasons. Those vulgar sods believe that ministers who die for remonstrating with the Emperor and generals who die in battle win immortal fame as fine, upright men -- but wouldn't it be better if they didn't die? After all, there has to be a despot on the throne before ministers can remonstrate; but they court death in their eagerness to make a name, with a complete disregard for their sovereign. In the same way, there has to be a war before generals can die in battle; so they fight recklessly and try to win glory by dying, with no thought of the country's welfare. That's why I say these aren't worthy deaths."
"Loyal ministers and good generals only die when it's necessary, countered Xiren.
"If a foolhardy general has no idea of strategy and gets killed through incompetence, is that necessary? Civil officials are even worse. They learn by heart a few passages from books and if the government has the slightest fault they remonstrate at random, in the hope of winning fame as loyal men. If they court death in a fit of temper, is that necessary too? They should know that the sovereign receives his mandate from Heaven. Heaven wouldn't entrust such an onerous task to anyone but a benevo¬lent sage. So, you see, they die to win a reputation, not for the sake of noble principles.
"In my own case, if I had any luck I should die now with all of you around me; still better if your tears for me were to become a great stream and float my corpse away to some quiet spot deserted even by crows or any other birds, to vanish with the wind, never again to be born as a human being. That's how I should like to die."
To cut short such wild talk Xiren said she was tired and gave up answering him. Then Baoyu closed his own eyes and went to sleep. Nor did he revert to the subject the next day.

That day, bored with the Garden, Baoyu recalled some songs in The Peony Pavilion and read through the libretto twice. Still not satisfied, he decided to look for Lingguan who played the part of young ladies and was said to be the best singer among the twelve young actresses in Pear Fragrance Court. So he went out through the side gate in search of her. Baoguan and Yuguan, whom he found in the courtyard there, greeted him pleasantly and invited him in.
"Where is Lingguan?" he asked.
"In her room," they told him.
He hurried in and found her lying alone on her bed, and she did not move when she saw him. Used as he was to playing about with girls, he imagined Lingguan would respond like all the others; so he sat down beside her and with a coaxing smile begged her to get up and sing for him the passage describing the visit to the garden.
To his surprise she sat up and moved away.
"I've strained my voice," she said gravely. "I didn't even sing the last time Her Imperial Highness sent for us.
Now that she had sat up, Baoyu saw she was the girl who had written Qiang at the foot of the rose trellis. Never before had he been snubbed like this. His cheeks burning, he left the room. And when Baoguan and the others asked what the matter was, he told them.
"Just wait a bit till Master Qiang comes," advised Baoguan. "If he asks her to sing, she will."
"Where is he?" asked Baoyu, rather puzzled by this.
"He's just gone out. Lingguan must have taken a fancy to something and he's out trying to procure it for her."
Baoyu waited, mystified, until Jia Qiang arrived with a bird-cage con¬taining a bird and a miniature stage. He strode in cheerfully, eager to see Lingguan, but halted at sight of his uncle.
"What sort of bird is that," inquired Baoyu, "able to hold a flag in its beak and walk round the stage?"
"It's a jade-crested oriole," Jia Qiang told him.
"How much did you give for it?"
"One tael, eighty cents."
Urging Baoyu to sit a while, he went in to see Lingguan. By now Baoyu no longer wanted to hear her sing but was curious to know her relationship to Jia Qiang, who had walked in gaily calling out: "Get up and look at this!"
"What is it?" Lingguan raised herself on one elbow.
"I've brought you a bird to stop you feeling so bored. Let me show you how to put it through its tricks."
Holding out a few seeds, he coaxed the bird to pick up a mask and flag and strut round the stage. All the other girls laughed, exclaiming "How amusing!", but Lingguan gave a couple of snorts and lay down again in disgust.
"Like it?" Jia Qiang asked with a smile.
"It's bad enough your family cooping us up here to learn that old trash," she retorted. "And now you get a bird to do the same. You've obviously bought it to make fun of us, yet you ask whether I like it."
Jia Qiang was disconcerted and swore that he had never meant to hurt her.
"What a fool I am!" he cried. "I gave a couple of taels for this in the hope that it would amuse you, never dreaming that you'd feel this way about it. All right, I'll set it free -- to make you feel better."
With that he let the bird out and smashed the cage.
"That bird may not be human," said Lingguan, "but it has a mother bird in its nest. How heartless you are, bringing it here to play with. I coughed blood twice today, and Her Ladyship said that a doctor should be sent to examine me. But you -- you bring this here to make fun of me. How unlucky I am, ill, with no one to care for me.
She started sobbing again.
"I spoke to the doctor last night," Jia Qiang replied hastily. "He said it was nothing serious and he'd come to examine you again after you'd taken a dose or two of the medicine prescribed. I'd no idea you'd coughed blood again. I'll go and get him at once.
He started off, but Lingguan called him back.
"The sun's scorching just now," she said. "If you go off in a huff to fetch him, I won't see him."
So the young man had to remain where he was.
Meanwhile Baoyu was lost in wonder as the significance of all those chiangs written on the ground dawned on him. And feeling superfluous there he took his leave. Jia Qiang being too absorbed in Lingguan to notice, it was left to the other girls to see him out.
Turning this discovery over in his mind, Baoyu walked back in a daze to Happy Red Court where he found Daiyu sitting and talking to Xiren. Baoyu went straight up to Xiren.
"What I said last night was wrong," he told her with a sigh. "No wonder my father complains that I'm 'benighted.' It was wrong to say you'd all weep over my death. Now I know not all your tears would be for me   everyone will have his share."
Xiren had forgotten those words spoken lightly the previous evening, and was surprised when he brought them up again.
"You really are crazy," she told him teasingly.
Baoyu made no reply. Convinced now that all love was predestined, each having his allotted share, he was wondering wistfully who would shed tears for him when he was gone. But we need not attempt to guess all his inmost thoughts.
When Daiyu saw the distracted state he was in she refrained from asking any questions, knowing that he must have been affected by some¬thing somewhere.
"I've just come from auntie," she told him. "Tomorrow is Aunt Xue's birthday, and auntie wants to know whether you'll go over or not. You'd better send someone to tell her."
"I didn't even go on my uncle's birthday," he said. "What if I were to meet someone there tomorrow? I'd rather steer clear of both birth¬days. Besides, it's too hot for ceremonial dress. I'm sure Aunt Xue won't mind if I don't show up.
"The idea!" exclaimed Xiren. "She's on quite a different footing from His Lordship. You live close by, and she's a relative. If you don't go, she'll wonder why. If it's the heat you're afraid of, why not go first thing to kowtow and come back again after a cup of tea. Wouldn't that look better?"
Before Baoyu could answer, Daiyu teased, "You should go anyway for the sake of the one who kept away the mosquitoes."
"What's this about mosquitoes?" he demanded.
Xiren explained how Baochai had sat with him during his siesta the previous day, when there was nobody to wait on him.
"That's too bad," he cried. "How rude of me to sleep all through her visit. Well then, I must go tomorrow."
Just then Xiangyun appeared in formal dress. Her family had sent for her and she had come to say goodbye. At once they rose and asked her to be seated, but she could not stay and they had to see her out. Although her eyes were brimming with tears, she dared not complain in front of her family servants; but Baochai's arrival presently increased her reluctance to leave.
Baochai knew that if the servants reported this on their return to her aunt, Xiangyun might suffer for it. Accordingly she urged her to make a start. They saw her to the second gate, and Baoyu would have gone further but Xiangyun stopped him. She turned back, however, and beck¬oned him to her side.
"If the old lady forgets me," she whispered, "do remind her to send someone to send me back.”
Baoyu promised to do this for her.
They followed her with their eyes while she went to her carriage, and then retraced their steps. If you want to know what happened next, read on.

Chapter 37

Begonia Club Takes Form One Day in the
Studio of Autumn Freshness
Themes for Poems on Chrysanthemums Are
Prepared One Evening in Alpinia Park


Jia Zheng, having been appointed this year an Examiner of Provincial Education, chose the twentieth of the eighth month to start his journey. On that day, after paying his respects to the ancestral shrines and to the Lady Dowager, he was seen off by Baoyu and other young men of the family all the way to the Pavilion of Parting. But his doings outside need not concern us here.
His father's departure left Baoyu free to do as he pleased in the Garden, and he frittered away whole months in idleness. Re was feeling listless one day when Cuimo brought him a letter on fancy note-paper.
"I'm glad you've come," said Baoyu. "I'd quite forgotten, I meant to go and see Third Sister. Is she better?"
"Yes, she's stopped taking medicine today," replied Cuimo. "It was only a slight chill."
Baoyu unfolded the letter then and read:

Tanchun greets her Second Brother.
The other night the moon was clear after the rain, and it seemed such a rare chance to enjoy the moonlight that I stayed up until midnight strolling under the trees. As a result, I caught a chill in the dew. You took the trouble to come in person and cheer me up yesterday, then sent your maids with gifts of fresh lichees and Yan Zhenqing's 1 cal¬ligraphy. I was extremely touched by your kind concern.
			  As I was resting quietly today it occurred to me that the ancients, even when pursuing fame and struggling for profit, kept a small hill or stream to which they could retire; and there, with a few friends from far or near, they amused themselves in their cups by organizing poetry clubs or lit¬erary forums. The fame of those impromptu gatherings has come down through the centuries.
Though I myself have no talent I am lucky enough to live with others among rocks and fountains, and I admire the polished verses of Baochai and Daiyu. It would be a pity not to invite poetizers to a feast in a cool courtyard and a moonlit pavilion or to make poems and drink in Apri¬cot Tavern by Peach Stream. Why should the genius of the Lotus Society 2 be confined to men? Why should girls be excluded from cultured gatherings like those in the Eastern Hills? 3
If you will condescend to come, I shall sweep the path clear of blossoms to wait for you.
Respectfully written.

Baoyu clapped his hands delightedly.
"How high-brow Third Sister's become!" he chuckled. "I'll go now and discuss this with her."
He set off at once with Cuimo at his heels, and had just reached Seeping Fragrance Pavilion when the serving-woman on duty at the back gate of the Garden appeared with a letter. Catching sight of Baoyu she approached him and announced: "Master Yun sends his respects. He is waiting at the back gate and told me to give you this."
Baoyu opened the letter and read:

Your unworthy child Jia Yun sends his respectful greet¬ings and wishes his noble father boundless health and happiness.
Since I had the good fortune to become your adopted son, I have been longing day and night to please you but found no way to show my filial piety. Recently I was en¬trusted with the purchase of flowers, and thanks to your great influence I have been able to make the acquaintance of many gardeners and visit many celebrated gardens. I discovered a rare species of white begonia and after con¬siderable difficulty have succeeded in acquiring just two pots. If you consider me as your own son, please keep these flowers to enjoy.
As the weather is so hot I will not presume to intrude, for fear of disturbing the young ladies in the Garden.
I kowtow with humble respect, wishing you good health.

Having read this Baoyu asked with a smile, "Did he come all alone?"
"Just with two pots of flowers," said the old woman.
"Go and tell him I've read his letter and appreciate his thoughtfulness. You can put the flowers in my room.
With that he went with Cuimo to the Studio of Autumn Freshness where Baochai, Daiyu, Yingchun and Xichun were assembled.
"Here comes another!" they cried, laughing, as he entered.
"Not so vulgar, was it, that sudden idea of mine?" asked Tanchun gleefully. "I wrote a few invitations to see what would happen, and you all turn up in force."
"We should have started a club like this long ago," observed Baoyu.
"Start one if you like, but don't count me in," said Daiyu. "I'm not up to it."
"If you're not, who is?" countered Yingchun with a smile.
"This is a serious business," declared Baoyu. "We should encourage each other, not back out of politeness. Let's all give our ideas for general discussion. What suggestions have you, Cousin Baochai? And Cousin Daiyu?"
"What's the hurry?" asked Baochai. "We're not all here yet." Before she had finished speaking Li Wan walked in.
"How very refined!" she cried, laughing. "If you're going to start a poetry club, I'll volunteer to preside. I had this very idea last spring, but on second thoughts decided it would only be asking for trouble as I can't write poetry myself. So I dropped the idea and forgot it. Now that Third Sister's so keen, I'll help you get this going."
"If you're set on starting a poetry club," said Daiyu, "we must all be poets. And first, to be less conventional, we must stop calling each other 'sister,' 'cousin,' 'sister-in-law' and so forth."
"Quite right," agreed Li Wan. "Let's choose some elegant pen-names. I'll be The Old Peasant of Sweet Paddy. No one else can have that name.
"I'll be Master of Autumn Freshness," cried Tanchun. "There's something unreal and awkward about 'master' and 'scholar,"' ob¬jected Baoyu. "With all these wu-tung trees and plantains here, why not use them in your name?"
"Yes, I know what. I like plantains best so I'll call myself The Stranger Under the Plantain."
The others approved this as more original.
Only Daiyu teased, "Drag her off, quick! Stew some slices of her flesh to go with our wine." When the others looked mystified she ex¬plained with a smile, "Didn't an ancient say, 'The deer was covered with the plantain'? If she calls herself The Stranger Under the Plantain, she must be a deer. Let's hurry up and cook this venison."
Amid general laughter Tanchun cried, "Just you wait! You're very clever at making fun of people, but I've got the right name for you, a perfect name." She turned to the rest. "The wives of King Shun4 shed so many tears on bamboos that thereafter their stems became speckled, and now the speckled bamboo is called by their name. Well, she lives in Bamboo Lodge and she's always crying. When one day she pines for a husband, I'm sure the bamboos there will grow speckled too. I propose we call her Queen of the Bamboos."
The rest applauded while Daiyu lowered her head, reduced to silence.
"I've thought of a good name for Cousin Baochai," volunteered Li Wan. "A short one too."
"What is it?" asked Xichun and Yingchun.
"I'm entitling her Lady of the Alpinia. How's that?"
"An excellent title," said Tanchun.
"How about me?" asked Baoyu. "Think of one for me too."
"You've already got one." Baochai chuckled. "Much Ado About Nothing is just the name for you.
"Why not keep your old title of Prince of the Crimson Cavern?" sug¬gested Li Wan.
Baoyu smiled sheepishly.
"Don't bring up the silly things I did as a child."
"You've already got plenty of pen-names," said Tanchun.
"What do you want a new one for? We can just call you by any name we feel like."
"I've got one for you," offered Baochai. "It's vulgar, but it suits you to the ground. The two hardest things to come by are riches and nobil¬ity, and the third is leisure. Few people enjoy more than one of these, but you have all three. So you should be called The Rich and Noble Idler."
"That's too good for me." Baoyu grinned. "But just as you please."
"What about Second Cousin and Fourth Cousin?" asked Li Wan.
"We're no good at writing poetry so we shan't need pen-names, rejoined Yingchun.
"Even so, you'd each better have one," urged Tanchun.
"As Yingchun lives on Purple Caltrop Isle, let her be Mistress of Caltrop Isle," suggested Baochai. "And Xichun in the Pavilion of Scented Lotus could be Mistress of Lotus Pavilion."
"Very good," said Li Wan. "Now as I'm the eldest you must all listen to me. I'm sure you'll agree to my proposal. We seven are starting this club; but as Second Cousin, Fourth Cousin and I are no poetesses you must leave us out when it comes to writing, and we'll each take charge of something."
"We've already got titles." Tanchun giggled. "But we might just as well not have them, the way you're still talking. We must decide on forfeits for mistakes like that from now on.
"Wait till we've set up the club before laying down rules," said Li Wan. "My apartments are the largest, let's meet there. Though I can't versify, if you poets don't object to my vulgar company I'll act as host¬ess and in that way acquire some culture too. But if you elect me as warden, I shan't be able to manage on my own. We must have as our deputy-wardens the scholars of Caltrop Isle and Lotus Pavilion, one to set the theme and rhymes, the other as copyist and supervisor. We won't make a ruling that we three are not to write   when the subject and rhyme are easy we may have a go   but you four definitely must write. That's my proposal. If you don't accept it, I must withdraw from this illustrious company.
As Yingchun and Xichun had no liking for versifying and no chance of outdoing Baochai or Daiyu, they willingly agreed to this arrangement which suited them down to the ground. The others, seeing their relief, acqui¬esced understandingly without pressing them.
"All righ then," said Tanchun cheerfully. "Seems funny to me, though. This was my brain-wave, but you three end up in charge."
"Now that's settled," put in Baoyu, "let's go to Paddy-Sweet Cottage."
"Don't be in such a hurry," objected Li Wan. "We're still in the planning stage. Wait till I invite you."
"At least we should agree on how often to meet," urged Baochai.
"If we meet too often we won't enjoy it," predicted Tanchun. "Let's limit it to two or three times a month."
Baochai nodded.
"Twice a month is enough. We'll fix dates and meet regardless of wind or rain. If anyone likes to invite people to her place or the usual place for another gathering on some other day, well and good. Wouldn't that be more flexible and greater fun?"
They all approved this idea.
"As this was my suggestion," said Tanchun, "you must let me play hostess first. That's only fair."
"Very well then," agreed Li Wan. "You can call the first meeting tomorrow."
"Why not today? There's no time like the present. You set the sub¬ject, Caltrop Isle can fix the rhymes, and Lotus Pavilion can supervise."
"I don't think the subject and rhymes should be decided by one per-son," Yingchun demurred. "Drawing lots would be fairer."
"On my way here," remarked Li Wan, "I saw them carrying in two pots of white begonia which looked simply lovely. Why not write on the begonia?"
"Without having seen them?" protested Yingchun. "How can we?"
"It's only white begonia," countered Baochai. "There's no need to look at it first. The ancients wrote to manifest their own temperaments and feelings. If they'd only written about things they'd seen, we wouldn't have so many poems today."
"In that case let me settle the rhymes," said Yingchun.
She took a volume of poetry from the bookcase and opened it at ran¬dom at a lushi with seven-character lines. Having held this out for all to see, she told them to use the same metre. Then putting the book away she turned to a little maid.
"Say any word that comes into your head."
The maid, standing by the door, said, "Men (door)."
"Very well, that rhyme belongs to the thirteenth section of the rhyme system," announced Yingchun. "And that word must come in the first line."
Next she asked for the box of rhyme cards, pulled out the thirteenth drawer and told the maid to pick four cards at random. These proved to be pen (pot), hun (spirit), hen (stain) and hun (dim).
"'Pot' and 'door' aren't easy to fit in," was Baoyu's comment.
Daishu prepared four lots of paper and writing-brushes, and all quietened down to think. All but Daiyu, who went on fondling the wu-tong trees, looking at the autumn scene or joking with the maids. Yingchun had a stick of Sweet-Dream Incense lit. Being only three inches long and no thicker than a lampwick, this burnt quickly. The poems had to be finished before it burnt out, on pain of a penalty.
Tanchun was the first to finish. She wrote out her poem, made one or two corrections, and handed the paper to Yingchun.
"Are you ready, Lady of the Alpinia?" she asked Baochai.
"Yes, mine's done, but it's no good," replied Baochai.
Baoyu, his hands behind his back, was pacing up and down the corri¬dor. "Hear that?" he said to Daiyu. "They've finished theirs."
"Don't worry about me," she answered. Then he saw that Baochai had copied out her poem. "Good gracious!" he exclaimed. "There's only one inch of the incense left, but all I've done is four lines." He turned to Daiyu. "The incense is nearly burnt out. Do stop squatting on the damp ground."
Daiyu paid no attention.
"I can't help you now," he said. "I must write mine out, however bad it is." With that he walked to the desk. "We're going to look at the poems now," announced Li Wan. "Anyone who doesn't hand his in by the time we finish reading the others will have to pay a forfeit."
"The Old Peasant of Sweet Paddy may not write well herself," re¬marked Baoyu, "but she's a good judge and absolutely impartial. We'll all stand by your verdict."
The rest agreed. First they looked at Tanchun's paper.

Chill the sunset grass in front of the closed door,
Thick the green moss the rain-drenched pot below;
Her spirit's purity surpasses jade,
Her gentle form is ravishing as snow.
A faint ethereal loveliness is hers,
Her shadow at midnight chequers the moon's light.
Do not fly from me, chaste goodess;
Abide with me as fall the shades of night.

After admiring this they read Baochai's poem:

For the sake of the flowers the door is closed by day
As I go to water the pots with moss overgrown;
Immaculate its shadow on autumn steps,
Pure as snow and ice its spirit by dewy stone.
Only true whiteness dazzles with its brightness;
Can so much sadness leave a flawless jade?
Its purity rewards the god of autumn,
Speechless and chaste it stays as sunbeams fade.

Li Wan remarked with a smile, "Trust the Lady of the Alpinia!"
Then they turned to Baoyu's poem:

Autumn blooms cast chequered shadows by the door,
Seven nodes of snowy flowers in pots arrayed,
Like Lady Yang's shade, fresh from the bath, ice-pure,
Or Xi Shi's mournful spirit fair as jade.
No morning breeze can scatter this infinite sadness,
And the rain adds fresh tear-stains at night;
Leaning by painted balustrade it seems sensate
As pounding of clothes and fluting put dusk to flight.

When all had read this, Baoyu expressed his own preference for Tanchun's verse, but Li Wan insisted that Baochai's was more distin¬guished. She then asked Daiyu for her poem.
"Have you all finished?" cried Daiyu.
At once she took up her brush and dashed off eight lines which she tossed over to them. Li Wan and the others read:

Half-rolled the bamboo blind, half-closed the door;
Crushed ice serves as mould for jade pots.

"How do you do it?" exclaimed Baoyu in admiration before reading on.

Some whiteness from the pear-blossom is stolen,
Some of its spirit winter-plum allots.

"Splendid!" cried the others. "She's really original."
They read on:

The goddess of the moon sews a white gown,
The maid's weeping in autumn chamber never ends;
Silently, shyly, with never a word of complaint,
She reclines in the autumn breeze as night descends.

"This is the best!" cried the young people. "It's certainly the most charming and unusual," said Li Wan. "But our Lady Alpinia's has deeper significance and real substance."
"Quite right," put in Tanchun. "The Queen of Bamboos should come second."
"And the Happy Red Prince last," said Li Wan. "Agreed?"
"Mine was no good, that's quite fair," said Baoyu with a smile. "But you should reconsider which is the better, Lady Alpinia's or Queen Bamboo's."
"I'm the arbiter," insisted Li Wan. "You've no say in the matter. Any more argument will be penalized."
So Baoyu said no more.
"I've decided that from now on we should meet on the second and sixteenth of each month," continued Li Wan. "And you'll have to accept the subjects and rhymes I choose. You can have extra meetings on other days if you like -- I don't care if you meet every day. But mind you come to my place on the second and sixteenth."
"We must choose a name for this club," declared Baoyu.
"Nothing too common," said Tanchun. "Nothing too new-fangled either. As we happened to start with poems on begonia, why not call it Begonia Club? Even if this sounds a little commonplace, as it's based on fact that doesn't matter."
After some further discussion and some refreshments they parted, some going back to their own rooms, others calling on the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang. But no more of this.

Now Xiren had wondered what Baoyu was up to when he hurried off with Cuimo after reading the note. When two women from the back gate brought in two pots of begonia some time later, she asked where these were from and was told what had happened. Xiren made them put the plants down and take seats in the servants' room while she went inside, weighed out sixty cents of silver and fetched another three hundred cash which she handed to the two women.
"This silver is for the boys who brought the flowers," she explained. "And the cash is for you to buy drinks."
The two women stood up, beaming, to thank her profusely and make a show of declining; but on Xiren's insistence they accepted the tip.
"Are there any pages on duty outside the back gate?" she asked them.
"Yes, there are four of them there every day," they answered. "If there's anything you want done, miss, we can tell them."
"There's nothing I want," answered Xiren, smiling. "But Master Bao wanted to send something today to Miss Shi in the house of the young marquis. It's lucky you came. When you go out, please tell those boys at the back gate to hire a carriage. As soon as it arrives you can come here to get the money. Don't let them knock around in the front."
When the women had left to see to this, Xiren went back inside to look for a plate on which to put the gifts for Xiangyun; but the plate she wanted was missing from the carved cabinet. Turning round, she saw Qingwen, Qiuwen and Sheyue busy with their needlework.
"What's become of that white agate plate with spiral designs?" she asked them.
The girls looked at each other but could not remember.
"It was used to send lichees to Miss Tanchun," said Qingwen after some thought. "They've not sent it back yet."
"There are plenty of everyday dishes you could have used. Why choose that particular one?" Xiren inquired.
"Just what I said. But he insisted that plate looked best with the fresh lichees. And when I took it over, Miss Tanchun liked it so much she told me to leave the fruit on it; so I didn't bring it back. Look, that pair of vases from the top shelf hasn't come back either."
"Speaking of those vases reminds me of something funny," put in Qiuwen. "When our Master Bao takes it into his head to be filial, he really goes the whole hog. When he saw the fragrant osmanthus in bloom in the Garden he picked two sprays for himself, but all of a sudden he thought better of it. He said, 'These flowers have just bloomed in our own garden, I shouldn't be the first to enjoy them.' He promptly took down those two vases, filled them with water and put the sprays in him¬self, then having them carried over, he went personally to deliver on to his grandmother, another to his mother.
"This sudden filial piety on his part brought good luck to his messen¬ger too. I happened to be the one who went that day, and the old lady was as pleased as pleased could be. She told everyone:
"'What a good grandson Baoyu is after all, even sending me flowers like this! Yet other people blame me for spoiling him.'
"You know how little the old lady usually has to say to me. I've never been a favourite of hers. But that day she told them to give me a few strings of cash, saying I was a 'poor, delicate little thing.' What an unex¬pected stroke of luck! A few strings of cash mayn't be much, but it was a rare honour.
"Then I went to Her Ladyship's place just as she was looking through some cases with Madam Lian and the concubines Zhao and Zhou, sort¬ing out the bright clothes she'd worn in her young days to give away. When I went in she stopped looking at the clothes to admire the flowers. And to please her Madam Lian started praising Baoyu for being such a considerate, filial son -- she came out with two cartloads of compli¬ments. Her Ladyship felt that in front of everyone she had gained credit because of him, and this should silence those who had gossiped about him. She was so delighted that she gave me two gowns on the spot. Clothes are nothing special either - we're given new ones at any rate every year -- but this was a great mark of favour."
"Bah, you're easily pleased," scoffed Qingwen. "She gives others the best and you the cast-offs, yet you feel you have big face."
"Cast-offs or not, it was kind of Her Ladyship."
"If I'd been you I wouldn't have taken them," retorted Qingwen. "Anyone else's cast-offs I wouldn't mind; but why should someone in these rooms be superior to the rest of us? If she got the good clothes and I the cast-offs, I'd refuse them. Even at the risk of offending the mis¬tress, I wouldn't put up with that."
"Who here got the good ones?" demanded Qiuwen quickly. "I was ill for a few days at home, I didn't know. Do be a dear and tell me.
"If I tell you, will you return those gowns to the mistress?"
"Don't be silly. I just think it would be fun to know. Even if Her Ladyship gave me the dog's left-overs, I'd think it kind of her. I don't worry about other people's business."
The other girls laughed.
"You've hit the nail on the head. They were given to this foreign-species, spotted lap-dog of ours."5
"May all your tongues rot!" parried Xiren with a smile. "Never miss a chance to make fun of me, do you? You'll one by one come to a bad end."
"So it was you, sister," said Qiuwen. "I'd no idea. I do apologize."
"Stop fooling," urged Xiren. "I wish one of you would bring that plate back."
"Those vases should be fetched back too," said Sheyue. "It'd be all right in the old lady's place, but all sorts of people go to Her Ladyship's rooms. The rest don't matter, but if Concubine Zhao and that lot saw things from here they'd try some mean trick to break them, and the mistress wouldn't pay too much attention. We'd better fetch them back before it's too late."
Qingwen, hearing this, put down her needlework.
"All right, I'll go and get them," she volunteered.
"I'll go while you fetch the plate," offered Qiuwen.
"No, it's my turn," insisted Qingwen, laughing. "Are you going to take all the good errands and leave none for me?"
"Qiuwen only got clothes that once," teased Sheyue. "How can you expect to find them looking through clothes again today? That would be too much of a coincidence."
Qingwen snorted.
"Even if I don't see any clothes, maybe the mistress will think me so trustworthy that she gives me two taels of silver a month from her own allowance too. Who knows?" She laughed. "Don't try to fool me. I know all about it."
With that she ran off, and Qiuwen also left to fetch the plate from Tanchun's apartments.
When the plate had been brought, Xiren prepared the gifts then called for Nanny Song who was attached to their compound.
"Get yourself spruced up and put on your outdoor things," she said. "I want you to take some presents to Miss Shi."
"Just give the things and message to me," said the nurse. "I'll get ready and go at once.
Xiren picked up two small woven bamboo hampers. The first she opened contained fresh caltrops and euryale seeds; the second, pow¬dered chestnut cake sweetened with osmanthus.
"These are fresh from our Garden," she explained. "Master Bao wants Miss Shi to try them. And the other day she admired this agate plate, so she must keep it. Then here, in this silk wrapper, is the needle¬work she asked me to do. I hope she won't find it too clumsy. Send her our respects and the young master's greetings."
"Has Master Bao any other messages?" asked the nurse. "Will you go and find out, miss, in case you've forgotten something."
"Did you see him with Miss Tanchun?" Xiren asked Qiuwen.
"Yes, they were disussing starting some sort of poetry club and all busy writing poems. I shouldn't think he has any message. She needn't wait."
As Nanny Song took the things and prepared to leave, Xiren told her to go by the back gate where the boys had a carriage waiting. So the nurse left.

When Baoyu came back, the first thing he did was to admire the begonia; then, going inside, he told Xiren about the poetry club. She in turn reported how she had sent Nanny Song with the gifts to Xiangyun. He clapped his hands at this.
"How could we forget her?" he cried. "I felt there was something missing, but couldn't think what it was. I'm so glad you mentioned her. I meant to invite her. Our poetry club will be no fun without her."
"It's not all that important - just a way to pass the time," rejoined Xiren. "She's not as free as the rest of you and has no say at home. If you tell her she'll want to come, but she may not be able, and if she can't she'll be terribly disappointed. You'll only be upsetting her."
"That's all right," said Baoyu. "I shall ask my grandmother to send and fetch her."
Just then Nanny Song came back to report on her errand. Having expressed Xiangyun's thanks for the gift she told Xiren, "Miss Shi asked what Master Bao was doing. When I told her, 'Writing poems with the young ladies and starting a poetry club,' she was most disappointed you hadn't let her know. Quite a state she was in!"
This made Baoyu go straight to the Lady Dowager to insist that Xiangyun should be fetched at once. When the old lady told him that it was too late and she should be invited first thing the next day, he had to accept this reply and returned dejectedly to his own rooms.
Early the next morning he went back to urge his grandmother to send for Xiangyun, and did not relax until she finally arrived in the afternoon. After greeting her he lost no time in explaining the whole business to her. He was about to show her their poems when Li Wan and the others stopped him.
"Don't show her yet," said Li Wan. "Give her the rhymes. We'll fine her for coming late by making her write a poem in the same metre first. If it's good, we'll welcome her to join the club, if not, she'll have to stand treat first and then we'll think it over.
"You forgot to ask me; it's I who should fine you people," said Xiangyun laughingly. "All right, show me the rhymes. I'm no good, but I don't mind making a fool of myself. Just let me join the club and I'll willingly sweep the ground and burn incense for you.
"How could we forget her yesterday?" cried the others, delighted to find her so full of fun.
They quickly told her the rhymes. Xiangyun was too excited to give careful thought to her poems or to polish them. While chatting with the rest she made up some lines and casually wrote them out.
''I've done two verses using the same rhyme sequence, " she said. ''I don't suppose they're much good, they're just made to order." She handed over her poems for their inspection.
"Our four poems exhausted the subject, we couldn't have written another," they commented. "Yet here you come up with two. How can you have so much to say, unless you're repeating us?"
As they said this they read the poems:

A fairy flew down last night to the capital
And planted in a pot these flowers of rare jade,
Like the goddess of frost who loves the cold,
But not the wandering spirit of some chaste maid.
Whence comes this snow on a dull autumn day?
A night's rain stains its loveliness;
But poets will never tire of singing it,
That it may not pass the day in loneliness.

The others all applauded this, then went on to read the next.

Steps through alpinia lead to an ivy-clad gate;
Fit place, the wall's comer, for this pot set apart;
Love of purity makes the flower hold aloof,
Grief for the autumn breaks its owner's heart;
Wind dries the tears on jade candles.
Crystal screens break up its shadow cast by the moon.
I long to tell the moon goodess its secret,
But in the corridor night fades too soon.

The others exclaimed in delight after each line.
"See what a good idea it was to write poems on the begonia," they said. "How right we were to start our Begonia Club."
"Tomorrow let me pay my penalty by standing treat and calling the first meeting. All right?" proposed Xiangyun.
"Perfect!" they cried. Then they asked her opinion of the poems written the previous day.
That evening Baochai invited Xiangyun to stay with her, and by lamplight Xiangyun outlined her plans for entertaining the others and set¬ting subjects for poems. But Baochai thought all her proposals unsuitable.
"Since you've called a meeting, you're the hostess," she pointed out. "Although it's just fun, you must make proper provision. Do the thing cheaply but give no grounds for complaints; then everyone can have a good time.
"You're not in charge at home, and the few strings of cash you get each month hardly cover your own expenses; yet you took this on your¬self quite needlessly. When your aunt hears of it she's bound to scold you. Why, your whole allowance isn't enough to stand treat. Are you going home to ask for more? Or will you ask them here for money?"
This set Xiangyun worrying.
"Actually, I have an idea," continued Baochai. "One of the assistants in our pawnshop has a farm which produces fine crabs, and the other day he sent us several catties. Most of the people here, from the old lady down to those in the Garden, are very partial to crabs. Only the other day aunt talked of inviting the old lady to the Garden to enjoy the fragrant osmanthus and eat some crabs; but she's been too busy to ask her. So don't mention the poetry club but just issue a general invitation, and after the older people have left we can write all the poems we please.
"I'll get my brother to send us a few crates of the biggest crabs with some vats of good wine from our shop, in addition to which we'll prepare four or five tables of other refreshments. That's easily done and we'll all have a good time."
Xiangyun was extremely grateful.
"You've thought it all out!" she exclaimed admiringly.
"I'm only thinking of you," replied Baochai. "You mustn't be touchy or imagine I look down on you, because this is between friends. If you've no objection, I'll tell them to go ahead."
"My dear cousin, you're being touchy instead if you talk like that," said Xiangyun. "However scatter-brained I may be, I know when someone's being good to me. At least I've that much sense. If I didn't look on you as my own elder sister, I wouldn't have confided to you last time all the troubles I have at home."
Accordingly Baochai ordered a serving-woman, "Go and ask my brother to get us several crates of big crabs like those we had the other day. Tomorrow after lunch we're inviting the old lady and my aunt to see the fragrant osmanthus in the Garden. Tell him to be sure not to forget, as I've already issued the invitations."
The old woman went off to do as she was told.
Then Baochai advised Xiangyun, "The themes for verses shouldn't be too outlandish. You can see that the poets of old times didn't go in for far-fetched subjects or freakish rhymes. Such things don't make for good poems and seem rather lowclass. Of course, poetry shouldn't be stereo¬typed, but we mustn't overdo the emphasis on originality either. So long as our ideas are fresh, the language can't be vulgar. In any case, writing poetry isn't important. Our main jobs are spinning and sewing. If we've time to spare, the proper thing for us is to read a few chapters of some improving book."
Xiangyun, having agreed to this, suggested, "As we wrote poems on the begonia yesterday, I wonder if we could write about the chrysanthe¬mum this time?"
"Yes, the chrysanthemum is suitable for autumn. The only objection is that too many poems have been written about it in the past."
"That's what I feel. We could hardly avoid plagiarism."
Baochai thought this over.
"I know," she said presently. "We'll lay stress not on the chrysanthe¬mum but on the people looking at it, and set themes about their reactions to the flower. In this way we shall have tributes to the chrysanthemum as well as descriptions of feeling. This hasn't been done before and can't be too stereotyped. In fact, this combination will have freshness and dis-tinction."
"A good idea," agreed Xiangyun. "But how will you introduce the feeling? Give me an example."
After a moment's thought Baochai replied, "A Dream of Chrysan¬themums for instance."
"Of course. I've got one too. How about The Chrysanthemum's Shadow?"
"Can do, although of course it's been used before. If we have a fair number of themes we can include it. I've thought of another."
"Go on!"
"Questioning the Chrysanthemum."
"Splendid!" Xiangyun clapped one hand on the table. "I know. How d'you like Seeking Out the Chrysanthemum?"
"Good. We may as well think of ten themes and write them out."
They ground ink and dipped in the brush. Xiangyun wrote the themes out at Baochai's dictation, and in no time at all they had ten. After read¬ing them through Xiangyun said:
"Ten doesn't make a set. Let's have twelve while we're about it, like those albums of calligraphy and painting."
So Baochai thought up two more, making twelve in all.
"In this case let's arrange them in the right order." she said.
"Better still!" cried Xiangyun. "We shall have a chrysanthemum al¬bum."
"We'll start with Thinking of the Chrysanthemum. After thinking of it we seek it out; so number two will be visiting the Chrysanthemum. After finding it we plant it; so the third will be Planting the Chrysanthe¬mum. After it has been planted and flowers, we face it and enjoy it; so four is Facing the Chrysanthemum. To enjoy it further we pick it to put in a vase; so five is Displaying the Chrysanthemum. But to bring out its splendour once it is displayed we must write poems about it; so six is Writing About the Chrysanthemum. And as a verse must be accompa¬nied by a painting, number seven is Painting the Chrysanthemum. Even though we've been to so much trouble over it, we shan't know all its rare qualities unless we ask questions; so eight is Questioning the Chry¬santhemum. If the flower seems able to understand, we are so thrilled that we want to get closer to it; hence nine is Wearing the Chrysanthe¬mum.
"This exhausts all that men can do but, as there still remain certain aspects of the flower which can be described, ten and eleven are The Chrysanthemum's Shadow and A Dream of Chrysanthemum. And we end with The Withered Chrysanthemum to sum up all the emotions ex¬pressed before. In this way we shall cover all the fine sights and occupa¬tions of autumn."
Xiangyun copied out the themes again in this order and read them through once more.
"What rhymes shall we decide on?" she asked next.
"In general I'm against a hard-and-fast rhyme pattern," replied Baochai. "Why should fine lines be restricted by fixed rhymes? Let's not follow that petty rule but simply set themes. We want everyone to write some fine lines for pleasure, not to make it hard for them."
"I quite agree. In this way we should write better. But there are only five of us. Will each of us have to write on all twelve of these subjects?"
"No, that would be asking too much. We'll just copy out these themes and stipulate that the seven-character lushi form is to be used. We'll put the notice on the wall tomorrow, and people can choose whichever theme they like. If anyone's able to write on all twelve, well and good; but it's all right, too, not to do any. The winner will be the one who writes best and fastest. Once all twelve are done, those who haven't finished must stop and submit to the penalty."
Xiangyun agreed to this and, their plans made, the two girls put out the light and went to bed. If you want to know what followed, read the next chapter.

Chapter 38

The Queen of Bamboos Wins First Place
with Her Poems on Chrysanthemums
The Lady of the Alpinia Writes a Satire
upon Crabs


Having laid their plans Baochai and Xiangyun slept, and the next morn¬ing the latter invited the Lady Dowager and others over to enjoy the fragrant osmanthus.
"What a delightful, refined idea," said the old lady. "We should take advantage of such an invitation."
At noon she took Lady Wang and Xifeng to invite Aunt Xue to accom¬pany them to the Garden, and asked:
"Which would be the best spot?"
"It's up to you to choose, madam," said Lady Wang.
"Preparations have been made in Lotus Fragrance Anchorage," put in Xifeng. "The two fragrant osmanthus trees at the foot of the slope there are in full bloom, the water flowing past is green and clear, and you get a fine view from the pavilion in midstream. It's refreshing to look at water."
The Lady Dowager approved and led the way to Lotus Fragrance Anchorage.
This pavilion, built in the middle of the lake, had windows on all four sides, twisting corridors on left and right leading to both shores and, be-hind, a winding bamboo bridge connecting it with the bank. As they stepped on to this, Xifeng moved forward quickly to take the old lady's arm.
"Just step out boldly, Old Ancestress," she cried. "This bamboo bridge always creaks -- it doesn't matter."
Upon reaching the pavilion they saw on the balcony two bamboo tables, one laid with cups, chopsticks and wine pots, the other with a tea-service. Beside them a few maids were fanning two stoves: one to brew tea, the other to heat wine.
"Tea -- splendid! This is just the place for it," remarked the Lady Dowager. "Everything here is so clean."
Xiangyun said with a smile, "Cousin Baochai helped prepare this."
"Yes, I always say she's most provident, that child, and thinks of everything."
As the old lady made this observation, she noticed two inscriptions inlaid in mother-of-pearl on the black lacquer tablets hanging on the pil¬lars. She asked someone to read them to her. Xiangyun complied:

Magnolia oars shatter the reflections of lotus;
Caltrops and lotus-root scent the bamboo bridge.

The Lady Dowager glanced up again at the inscription on the board above her head, then turned to Aunt Xue.
"When I was young we had a pavilion like this too at home," she said. "It was called Pillowed Iridescence or something of the sort. I was no bigger than these girls at that time and I used to play with my sisters there every day. Once I slipped and fell into the water and nearly drowned! They managed to pull me out, but a wooden bolt had gashed my head. That's how I got this dent the size of a finger-tip on my temple here. They were all afraid I was done for after that ducking and chill, but I recovered."
Before anyone else could comment Xifeng quipped, "If you hadn't, who'd be enjoying all this good fortune today? Obviously our Old Ances¬tress was destined from birth to good luck and a long life: that's why the gods dented her head   to hold her good luck! The God of Longevity originally had a dent in his head too, but it was so stuffed with good fortune it swelled up instead into a bump."
Before she had finished, the Lady Dowager and all the others were quite limp from laughing.
"This monkey's so dreadfully spoilt, she even makes fun of me," declared the old lady. "I ought to tear out that glib tongue of yours."
"We'll presently be eating crabs," said Xifeng. "I was afraid you might have indigestion if I didn't first make you laugh. If you're in good spirits it doesn't matter eating a little more.
"I'll make you stay with me day and night to keep me laughing," threatened the Lady Dowager. "I won't let you go home."
"It's because you're so fond of her, madam, that she's so spoilt," interposed Lady Wang. "And by talking like that you'll make her even worse.
"I like her as she is." The old lady chuckled. "Besides, she never really oversteps the mark. When we've no visitors we should joke and chat, so long as the young people don't break the main rules of propriety. Why should we expect them to behave like angels?"
Now that everyone was in the pavilion tea was served, after which Xifeng set the tables. The one at the head was for the Lady Dowager, Aunt Xue, Baochai, Daiyu and Baoyu; that on the east for Xiangyun, Lady Wang, Yingchun, Tanchun and Xichun; and the small one near the door on the west for Li Wan and Xifeng. The seats at this were unoccu¬pied, however, as they were waiting on the tables of the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang.
"Don't bring too many crabs," Xifeng told the maids. "Fetch us ten and keep the rest in the steamer, to be brought in as we need them."
Having called for water to wash her hands, she stood by the old lady and shelled a crab, offering the meat to Aunt Xue. But the latter declined it.
"Please don't trouble," she said. "I prefer to do it myself."
So Xifeng gave this crab to the Lady Dowager, the second to Baoyu. She then sent for piping hot wine and ordered some young maids to fetch powdered green beans scented with chrysanthemum leaves and fragrant osmanthus, for use when they washed their hands.
Xiangyun, after eating one crab with her guests, left her seat to help the others and also went outside to give instructions that two dishes of crabs should be sent to the concubines Zhao and Zhou.
"You're not used to entertaining," said Xifeng coming over to her. "Go back and eat while I look after your guests for you. I'll eat after they've left."
But Xiangyun, declining this offer, had two more tables placed on the balcony for Yuanyang, Hupo, Caixia, Caiyun and Pinger.
"Since you're seeing to things here, madam," said Yuanyang to Xifeng, "we may as well go and eat."
"Yes, go along, all of you. Leave everything to me. "
At that Xiangyun went back to her seat and, after Xifeng and Li Wan had eaten a few hurried mouthfuls as a matter of form, Xifeng left the table again to do the honours. Presently she stepped out on to the balcony where the maids were enjoying the crabs. At her approach they rose and Yuanyang asked:
"Why have you come out here, madam? Do let us enjoy our crabs in peace!"
"This little bitch has become quite impossible!" cried Xifeng laughing. "Instead of thanking me for doing your job, you're complaining. Hurry up and pour me some wine."
Smiling, Yuanyang made haste to fill a cup and hold it to her lips. Xifeng tossed it off. Then Hupo and Caixia poured two more cups and held them to her lips, and she drank them too. By this time Pinger had ready a shellful of yellow crab meat.
"Add plenty of ginger and vinegar," said Xifeng. And when this was eaten she told them, "Sit down and go on with your meal. I'm leaving you.
"How shameless!" Yuanyang tittered. "Cadging from us."
"You'd better behave," warned Xifeng. "You know your Master Lian is in love with you and means to ask the old lady to let him have you as his concubine."
"Bah!" Yuanyang spat out. "What a way for a lady to talk! I'm going to smear your face with my dirty hands to get even."
She stood up as if to carry out her threat.
"Let me off this time, good sister!" pleaded Xifeng.
"If Yuanyang becomes a concubine, Pinger will make things hot for her." Hupo giggled. "Just look at her. She's drunk a whole saucer of vinegar with less than two crabs -- that's soured her."
Pinger had just scooped out the yellow flesh of a crab, and at this gibe she aimed it at Hupo's face, laughing.
"You foul-mouthed bitch!" she swore.
Hupo giggled and dodged so that Pinger, stumbling forward, smeared Xifeng's cheek with the crab flesh. Xifeng, still joking with Yuanyang, cried out with a start which made everyone burst out laughing. Unable to help joining in herself, she cursed:
"Damn slut! Have you no eyes that you smear anyone?"
Pinger hastily wiped Xifeng's face and went to fetch water.
"Gracious Buddha!" cried Yuanyang. "This is just retribution."
"What's happened?" called the Lady Dowager. "What are you laugh¬ing at? Let us into the joke."
Yuanyang and the others, still shaking with mirth, called back loudly, "Madam Lian came here to steal our crabs. Then Pinger flared up and smeared her face with yellow crab meat. Now mistress and maid are scrapping."
Amid general laughter the Lady Dowager said, "Do take pity on the poor thing and give her some of the smaller legs and innards."
Yuanyang cheerfully assented and cried loudly, "The table is covered with legs. Just help yourself, madam."
Then Xifeng, having washed her face, went back to wait on the Lady Dowager.
Daiyu, the only one afraid to eat much, had contented herself with a little meat from the pincers, after which she left the table.
As soon as the old lady had had enough they all left their places to wash their hands, then strolled off to look at the flowers, play with the water or watch the fish.
"It's windy here, and you've just been eating crab, madam," said Lady Wang presently to her mother-in-law. "You'd better go back and rest. If you've enjoyed this you can come again tomorrow."
"Very well," replied the Lady Dowager. "I didn't want to spoil your fun by leaving; but since you suggest it, let's go." She turned to Xiangyun. "Don't let your cousins Baoyu and Daiyu eat too much." When Xiangyun agreed, she advised her and Baochai, "You two had better not eat too much either. Crabs are delicious but not very wholesome. If you overeat you'll have a stomach-ache."
Having assented and seen her out of the Garden, they returned and ordered the tables to be cleared and reset.
"There's no need for that," Baoyu objected. "It's time to write po¬ems now. Just put the wine and dishes on the big round table in the middle there. You needn't assign seats either. We can help ourselves and sit wherever we please. Wouldn't that be more comfortable?"
"An excellent idea," Baochai approved.
"That's all very well," said Xiangyun, "but we mustn't forget the others."
She had another table set and more hot crabs brought for Xiren, Zijuan, Siqi, Shishu, Ruhua, Yinger and Cuimo. Two rugs were spread at the foot of the slope under the fragrant osmanthus trees for the serving-women and the younger maids, who were urged to eat and drink as much as they liked and not to come unless called.
Then Xiangyun pinned the themes on one wall. And the others crowding round to look exclaimed:
"How original! But this isn't going to be easy."
She explained why they had chosen no definite rhymes.
"Quite right too," approved Baoyu. "I don't like hard-and-fast rhyme schemes either."
As Daiyu did not want much wine or crab, she sent her maid for an embroidered cushion and sat by the balustrade angling for fish. Baochai played for a while with a spray of fragrant osmanthus, then leaned out of the window to toss some petals into the water so that the fish would come and nibble at them. Xiangyun roused herself from a brown study to urge Xiren's party and the maids at the foot of the slope to eat their fill. Tanchun, Li Wan and Xichun stood in the shade of the willows watching the waterfowl, while Yingchun, standing apart in the shade of the blos¬som, threaded jasmine flowers with a needle.
Baoyu first watched Daiyu fishing, then went over to make a few remarks to Baochai, after which he joined Xiren and the rest and sipped some wine with them while Xiren prepared a shellful of meat for him.
At this point Daiyu, laying down her rod, walked over to the table. She picked up a tarnished silver pot with a plum-blossom design and chose a tiny red soapstone cup shaped like a palm leaf. To the maid who hurried forward to pour her a drink she said:
"Go on with your meal. Let me pour my own wine, that's more fun."
By now she had poured half a cup and could see it was yellow wine.
"After eating a bit of crab I've slight indigestion," she said. "What I really want is a mouthful of hot spirits."
"There's some here," said Baoyu promptly. He told the maids to heat a pot of spirits in which acacia flowers had been steeped.
After just one sip Daiyu put the cup down. Baochai, coming over just then, picked up another cup and drank a mouthful before wetting her brush and ticking off the first title on the wall Thinking of the Chry¬santhemum, beside which she wrote "Alpinia."
"Dear cousin," put in Baoyu hastily. "I've got four lines already for the second. Do leave that one for me."
"I've only just taken one, yet what a fluster you're in!" replied Baochai mockingly.
Daiyu silently took the brush from her and ticked off the eighth sub¬ject, Questioning the Chrysanthemum, as well as the eleventh, A Dream of Chrysanthemums, writing "Bamboo" beside them. Baoyu, the next to take the brush, ticked off the second title Visiting the Chrysanthe¬mum and wrote "Red" by it.
Tanchun, strolling over now to look, remarked, "If no one's doing Wearing the Chrysanthemum, I'll try that." She wagged a finger teas¬ingly at Baoyu. "It's just been announced that no allusions to the inner chambers are allowed, so be careful!"
Meanwhile Xiangyun had come over to tick off numbers four and five, Facing the Chrysanthemum and Displaying the Chrysanthe¬mum, next to which she wrote her name.
"You should have a pen-name too," Tanchun objected.
"Though we've still a few pavilions and lodges at home, I'm not living there now," replied Xiangyun. "And there's no point in using a borrowed name."
Baochai countered, "Just now the old lady said your house has a water pavilion called Pillowed Iridescence. That's yours all right. Even though it's in other hands now, you're after all its old mistress."
"That's right," approved the rest.
Before Xiangyun could make any move, Baoyu blotted out her name and wrote up "Iridescence" in its place.
Then, in less time than it takes for a meal, the twelve poems were finished, written out and handed to Yingchun, who copied them out on a fresh sheet of coloured Xue Tao stationery1, adding the pen-name of the author to each. Li Wan and the others read them.

THINKING OF THE CHRYSANTHEMUM
I gaze around in the west wind, sick at heart;
A sad season this of red smartweed and white reeds;
No sign is there of autumn by the bare fence round my plot.
Yet I dream of attenuated blooms in the frost.
My heart follows the wild geese back to the distant south,
Sitting lonely at dusk I hear pounding of washing blocks.
Who will pity me pining away for the yellow flowers?
On the Double Ninth Festival they will reappear.
The Lady of the Alpinia

VISITING THE CHRYSANTHEMUM
Seize the chance to ramble out on a clear frosty day
Rather than linger over wine or tea.
Who has planted this flower before the frost under the moonlight?
Whence springs this autumn glory by balustrade and fence?
Waxed sandals patter, come gaily from far away,
In soaring spirits he chants endless poems;
If the yellow bloom will take pity on the poet,
Let it welcome him with a string of cash hung from his cane. 
	The Happy Red Prince

PLANTIING CHRYSANTHEMUMS
With my hoe I moved them from their bed in autumn
To plant them by the fence before my court;
An unexpected rain last night revived them,
How good to see them flower in this morning's frost.
I chant a thousand poems to this autumn splendour
And drunk with wine toast its cold fragrance,
Seal its roots with mud and water it with spring water
To keep it free from dust by the three paths to the house of the recluse.
	The Happy Red Prince

FACING THE CHIRYSANTHEMUM
Brought from another plot, more precious than gold,
One clump is pale, one dark;
Sitting bareheaded by the lonely fence,
In the cold clean scent I hug my knees and chant.
None, surely, in the world as proud as you;
I alone, it seems, know your worth.
We should make the most of autumn, gone so soon,
And facing you I treasure every moment.
Old Friend of Pillowed Iridescence

DISPLAYING THE CHRYSANTHEMUM
Music and wine gladly accompany
Chrysanthemum adorning a desk with style.
By the seat dewy fragrance as if from the garden path;
Tossing my book aside I face a spray of autumn.
Fresh dreams penetrate the curtain in clear frost,
Sunset in chill garden recalls a former visit.
You too disdain the world, for we share the same taste,
Not lingering by	breezy spring's peach and plum blossom.
	Old Friend of Pillowed Iridescence

WRTITNG ABOUT THE CHRYSANTHEMUM
Day and night the imp of poetry assails men;
Skirting the fence, leaning on the rock, they start chanting;
With the tip of the brush, by the rime, they write fine lines,
Or facing the moon croon their sweet melodies.
We may fill a page with sorrow and self-pity,
But who can put into words what autumn means?
Ever since Tao Yuanming of old passed judgement
This flower's worth has been sung through the centuries.
	The Queen of Bamboos

PAITTING THE CHRYSANTHEMUM
Painting for pleasure after writing verses
One brushes on the reds and blues at random;
A thousand ink-dots form the leaves,
Traces of frost stain the clustering flowers;
Dark and light their shadows overlap in the breeze,
Under one's hand autumn exhales its fragrance.
Don't think these flowers are picked by the east fence,
They are fixed to the screen for the Double Ninth Festival.
	The Lady of the Alpinia

QUESTIONING THE CHIRYSANTHEMUM
My questions about autumn none can answer,
Musing alone I stroll to the eastern fence.
Proud recluse, with what hermit are you taking refuge?
All flowers must bloom, what makes you bloom so late?
So lonely in dewy gardens and frosty courts,
When swans fly off, crickets chirp, does your heart ache?
Say not there is none in the world worth talking to;
Since you understand, why don't we chat awhile?
	The Queen of Bamboos

WEARING THE CHRYSANTHEMUM
Busy every day planting by the fence, picking for vases,
Not to adorn himself before the mirror,
The young lord of Changan is infatuated with flowers,
Just as the poet of Pengze 2 was crazy for wine.
His short hair is wet with cold dew from the path,
His coarse cap stained with autumn frost and fragrance;
This eccentric recluse is scorned by the men of today,
But let them clap their	hands and jeer by the roadside.
	The Stranger Under the Plantain

THE CHRYSANTHEMUM'S SHADOW
The teeming, diverse shades of autumn splendour
Quietly loiter about the mountain path;
The few lamps inside windows far or near cast their shadows,
Chequered patterns of moonlight filtered through wicker fence.
The soul of cold fragrance should dwell in these reflections,
Empty even in dreams the frost tracery of their spirit;
Tread softly and take good care of this dark sweetness,
For who can discern it in his drunken eyes?
Old Friend of Pillowed Iridescence

A DREAM OF CHRYSANTHEMUMS
A refreshing sleep by the fence while autumn mellows
And clouds and moonlight mingle hazily;
No need to envy Zhuang Zi his butterfly dream;
Recalling old friends, let me seek out Tao Yuanming.
In sleep the vision recedes with the flight of swans,
Aroused with a start we resent the chirp of crickets;
Awake, to whom can I describe my grief,
The infinite melancholy of cold mist and withered grass?
The Queen of Bamboos

THE WITHERED CHRYSANTHEMUM
Slowly drooping below congealed dew and heavy frost
Just after a feast in its honour on the Day of Light Snow.
The pale golden petals still retain some fragrance,
But the marred green leaves are withering on the stem.
Crickets chirp sadly under denuded boughs,
Wild geese wing slowly through far-flung frosty clouds;
Next year in autumn we shall meet again,
No need to sorrow over this brief parting.
The Stranger Under the Plantain

As they read each poem they praised it, heaping compliments on each other.
"Let me try to pass fair judgement now," said Li Wan with a smile. "On the whole each poem has striking lines but, speaking impartially, I rank Writing About the Chrysanthemum first, Questioning the Chry¬santhemum second, and A Dream of Chrysanthemums third; for all three show originality in the theme, ideas and style. The Queen of Bamboos will have to be given first place. Next in order of merit come Wearing the Chrysanthemum, Facing the Chrysanthemum, Displaying the Chrysanthemum, Painting the Chrysanthemum and Thinking of the Chrysanthemum."
Baoyu clapped his hands in delight at this, exclaiming, "Absolutely right. Very fair."
"Mine didn't amount to much," Daiyu observed. "They're rather contrived."
"But aptly so," rejoined Li Wan. "Not stiff and overloaded."
"To my mind," continued Daiyu, "the best line of all is 'Sunset in chill garden recalls a former visit' which presents such a strong contrast. And 'Tossing my book aside I face a spray of autumn' is perfect, leav¬ing nothing more to be said about displaying chrysanthemums, so that she had to revert to the time before the flower was plucked and put in the vase. Very penetrating, very subtle."
"Quite so. Still, your line about 'sweet melodies' is even better," countered Li Wan.
Tanchun put in, "And what about the Lady of the Alpinia? 'No sign is
there of autumn' and 'yet in dream I see' bring out the idea of nostalgia so vividly."
Baochai smiled and replied, "Your 'short hair wet with cold dew' and 'coarse cap stained with fragrance' do full justice to the subject too."
Xiangyun remarked gaily, "Questions like 'With what hermit are you taking refuge?' and 'What makes you bloom so late?' are bound to stump the flower."
Li Wan retorted, "I daresay your sitting bareheaded and hugging your knees while you chant, refusing to leave, would get on the flower's nerves too -- if it had any. "
At that there was general laughter.
"I'm last again," said Baoyu cheerfully. "But surely my 'Who has planted this flower?' 'Whence springs this autumn glory?', 'waxed sandals come from far away,' and 'chants endless poems' describe visiting the chrysanthemum all right? And don't 'rain last night' and 'this morning's frost' describe the planting? It's just that they're not up to such images as 'facing the moon croon their sweet melodies,' 'In the cold clean scent I hug my knees and chant,' 'short hair,' 'coarse cap, 'pale gold,' 'the marred green leaves are withering,' 'no sign is there of autumn' and 'seen in dreams."' He added, "Tomorrow when I've time, I mean to write on all twelve themes."
"Your verses aren't bad," Li Wan told him. "They're not as distinc¬tive as the others though."
After some further discussion of the poems they called for more hot crabs and sat round the big table to eat.
"Now that we're enjoying the fragrant osmanthus and eating crabs, we should write verses about this too," said Baoyu presently. "I've already made one. Who else is game?"
With that he hastily washed his hands and wrote out his poem for the others.

EATING CRABS
Row fine to eat crabs in the cool shade of osmanthus;
Gaily we pile on ginger, splash vinegar on each part;
A true gourmand should also have wine;
But this creature scuttling sidewise has no heart.
In our greed we forget how hard it is to digest,
Our fingers washed, the reek of its oil will remain;
The crab's sole function is to please men's palate,
And Su Dongpo3 laughed because its whole life it's busy in vain.

"If you call that a poem," scoffed Daiyu, "I can write you a hun¬dred."
"No, you've exhausted your talent, you can't write any more. All you can do is to disparage other people."
Instead of answering and without stopping to think, she picked up the brush and promptly wrote a verse:

Girt even in death with iron armour and long spears.
On the plate, delicious, it's sat,
Its pincers packed with meat like tender jade,
Its shell bulging with red, tasty fat.
How I love those eight succulent legs –
But who'll urge me to drink a thousand cups till my grief is overcome?
Let us toast this dainty at our feast today
When breeze ruffles fragrant osmanthus and frost gathers on chrysanthemum.

Baoyu reading this was loud in his praise, but Daiyu tore it up and told the maids to burn it.
"Mine isn't as good as yours, so I'm burning it," she told him with a smile. "Yours is fine. Better than your chrysanthemum poems. You should keep it to show other people."
"I've made a feeble attempt too," Baochai put in with a laugh. "It's not much good, but I'll write it out to amuse you. "
She did so and they read:

We sit, cups raised, in the shade of osmanthus and Wu-tong;
Mouths watering, for the Double Ninth we pine;
It crawls sidewise because the ways of the world are crooked,
And, white and yellow, harbours a dark design.

They all exclaimed at this point in admiration.
"That's the style!" cried Baoyu. "My verse will have to be burned too."
Then they read on:

Wine won't purge the smell without chrysanthemums,
And ginger is needed dyspepsia to prevent;
What can it do now, fallen into the cauldron?
On the moonlit bank all that remains is the millet's scent.

"It takes real talent to get deep significance into such a small subject as eating crabs," the others commented. "But as a satire, this is rather hard on the world!"
They were interrupted by Pinger's return to the Garden. To know what her business was, you must read the next chapter.

Chapter 39

An Old Village Woman Tells
Tall Stories
A Romantic Youth Insists on
Following Them Up


On Pinger's return she was asked, "What's your mistress doing? Why hasn't she come back?"
"She's too busy," replied Pinger, smiling. "As she didn't get a chance to eat properly and can't come, she's sent me to ask whether there are any crabs left. If so, I'm to take a few back for her to eat."
"There are plenty left," Xiangyun assured her.
She promptly ordered ten of the largest crabs to be brought.
"Mostly female ones if you please!" added Pinger.
They tried to make her take a seat, but she refused.
"We insist!" cried Li Wan laughingly.
She forced her on to the seat beside her own, filled a cup with wine and held it to her lips. But after one hurried sip Pinger rose to go.
"Oh no, you don't," said Li Wan. "I can see the only one who counts for you is Xifeng. You won't listen to what I say."
She ordered some matrons to deliver the hamper of crabs and tell Xifeng that she was keeping Pinger there.
Presently a matron returned with the empty hamper.
"Madam Lian says you and the young ladies mustn't laugh at her greediness, madam," she reported. "In this hamper are some caltrop cakes and chicken-fat rolls sent by Aunt Wang for you, madam, and the young ladies." She then turned to Pinger. "She says she knew, once she sent you here, you'd stay to amuse yourself; but you mustn't drink too much."
"And what if I do?" retorted Pinger, as she went on helping herself to wine and crab.
"Such a lovely girl!" cried Li Wan, taking her arm. "What a pity she's fated to wait on other people. Anyone not in the know would take you for the mistress of the house."
Pinger, eating and drinking with Baochai and Xiangyun, turned her head to protest with a smile, "Don't tickle me, madam."
"My, what are these hard things?" asked Li Wan.
"Keys," was the answer.
"Why, what valuables are you afraid of people stealing that you carry these keys about on you? It's as I always say: When Monk Tripitaka1 was searching for Buddhist scriptures, a white horse turned up to carry him; when Liu Zhiyuan2 was fighting for the empire, a melon spirit ap¬peared to give him armour. In the same way, Xifeng has you. You're her master-key. What does she want these keys for?"
Pinger laughed.
"Now you're making fun of me in your cups, madam."
"It's true all the same," said Baochai. "When we've nothing to do but gossip, we always agree that each single one of you girls is one in a hundred. And the wonderful thing is that each one of you has her own good qualities."
"Providence orders all things, great and small," chimed in Li Wan. "For instance, what would the old lady do without Yuanyang? Nobody else, not eyen Lady Wang, dares contradict the old lady; but when Yuanyang does, the old lady listens to her. Nobody else can remember all the clothes and trinkets the old lady has, but Yuanyang remembers. If not for her being in charge, goodness knows how many things would have been swindled out of them. Even so, the girl's broad-minded and instead of throwing her weight about she often puts in a good word for others."
"Only yesterday," remarked Xichun with a smile, "the old lady was saying she's better than any of us."
"She's really fine," agreed Pinger. "We others can't compare with her."
"Caixia in my mother's apartments is an honest girl too," put in Baoyu.
"Yes, she appears simple," said Tanchun, "yet she's smart. Her Ladyship is as unworldly as a Buddha, but if she overlooks anything Caixia sees to it for her. She keeps an eye on everything down to the least details of our father's affairs at home and outside. So if her mistress forgets anything she quietly reminds her."
"True enough," said Li Wan. She pointed at Baoyu, "And think what would happen in this young gentleman's rooms, if not for Xiren's good judgement. As for Xifeng, why, even if she had the strength of the Con¬queror of Chu who could lift a tripod weighing a thousand catties, how could she handle everything without Pinger here?"
"Four of us came with our mistress at the time of her marriage," said Pinger. "But the others have either died or gone, so that now I'm the only one left."
"So much the better for you as well as for Xifeng," commented Li Wan. "When your Master Zhu was alive we had two maids too, and I'm not the jealous type, am I? But they bickered so much every day that after his death I married them both off while they were still young. If there'd been just one worth keeping, I'd have someone to help me now." Tears ran down her cheeks.
"Why let this upset you?" said the others. "You're better off without them."
So saying they washed their hands and went to pay their respects to the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang. While the other maids swept the pavilion and cleared away the cups and dishes, Xiren took Pinger back with her to her room. And once seated there she asked her:
"Why has no one received the allowance for this month yet?"
"It'll be coming in a couple of days," Pinger whispered. "My mis¬tress got this month's allowance some time ago but has loaned it out. She'll distribute it as soon as she's collected the interest. But mind you don't pass this on."
"I can't believe she's short of money. Why should she put herself to all that trouble?"
Pinger smiled.
"These last few years she's been lending out this money for the monthly allowances together with her own. The interest she gets on these loans comes to more than a thousand taels of silver a year.
"So the two of you, mistress and maid, have been using our money to get interest and kept us waiting like regular fools!" said Xiren with a smile.
"There you go again, talking in that heartless way! You're not short,
are you?"
"No, I'm not. I've nothing to spend money on, but I need a reserve for him."
"If you need money urgently, I still have a few taels you can be going on with. I'll deduct it later from your allowance."
"I don't need any at the moment, but if we run out I'll send some¬body to fetch it."
Pinger, having agreed to this, left the Garden and returned to her own quarters.
Xifeng was out when she got back. But seated in her room, accompa¬nied by the wives of Zhang Cai and Zhou Rui, were Granny Liu and Baner who had called before to ask for help. A few maids were empty¬ing on to the floor some sacks of dates, pumpkins and other farm pro¬duce. They stood up when Pinger came in.
Granny Liu, who knew Pinger's status from her last visit, scrambled off the kang to greet her.
"All at home send their compliments," she said. "We'd have come before this to pay our respects to the mistress and to you, miss, but we've been very busy on the farm. This year we managed to get in a couple of piculs more of grain and a good crop of pumpkins, fruit and vegetables. These here are our first pickings. We didn't like to sell them but kept the best for you to taste. You young ladies must be tired of the delicacies you eat every day, and you may care to try our country fare. This is just our poor way of showing our gratitude."
Pinger thanked her for her trouble and asked her to take a seat. Hav¬ing sat down herself she urged Mrs. Zhang and Mrs. Zhou to be seated too, then told a maid to bring tea.
"You're rather flushed today, miss," remarked the stewards' wives. "Why, even your eyes are red."
"I know," replied Pinger. "I really can't drink, but Madam Li Wan and the young ladies simply forced me. I had to swallow one or two cups, which made my face red."
"I wouldn't mind a drink myself, but nobody treats me," joked Mrs. Zhang. "Next time you get an invitation, miss, I hope you'll take me along."
Everybody laughed.
"I saw those crabs this morning," remarked Mrs. Zhou. "I reckon two or three of them must weigh a catty. Three big crates like those must have weighed nearly eighty catties." She added, "Still, I don't suppose there were enough for everyone, high and low."
"Of course not," said Pinger. "Only people of some consequence had a couple. Of the others, some were lucky and some weren't."
"Crabs that size cost five silver cents a catty this year," put in Granny Liu. "That's fifty cents for ten catties. Five times fifty makes two taels fifty; three times five makes fifteen. Together with the wine and eat¬ables, that adds up to more than twenty taels of silver. Gracious Buddha! That's enough to keep us country folk for a whole year."
"Have you seen our mistress yet?" Pinger asked her.
"Yes," replied Granny Liu. "She told us to wait." Looking out of the window at the sky she added, "It's getting late. We ought to be going. If we found the city gate closed we'd be in a fine fix."
"True," said Mrs. Zhou. "I'll go and see what she's doing."
She went out and reappeared after some time, beaming.
"Luck must be with you today, granny," she announced. "The two ladies have taken quite a fancy to you."
Pinger and the others asked her what she meant.
"Madam Lian was with the old lady," replied Mrs. Zhou. "I told her quietly, 'Granny Lin wants to leave, so as to reach the city gate before it's closed.' She said, 'She's come all that way with a load of things; let her spend the night here and go back tomorrow.' Doesn't that show she's taken a fancy to you?
"That's not all either. The old lady happened to overhear us and asked, 'Who's this Granny Liu?' When that was explained by Madam Lian she said, 'I've been wanting to have a chat with some experienced old soul. Ask her over to see me.' Who could have imagined such a stroke of luck?"
She urged Granny Liu to go at once to the Lady Dowager.
"I'm not fit to be seen," objected Granny Liu. "Good sister, just tell her I've left."
"Go on, don't worry about that," said Pinger. "Our old lady is good ness itself to the old and needy. She's not haughty and high-handed like some people. If you're shy, Mrs. Zhou and I can come with you.
So she and Zhou Rui's wife set out with Granny Lin for the Lady Dowager's quarters.
When the pages on duty at the inner gate saw Pinger, they all stood at attention. Then two of them ran over to her, calling out a respectful greet¬ing.
"Now what is it?" she asked.
"It's late, miss," said one boy, smiling. "My mother's ill and wants me to go for a doctor. Can I have a few hours off, please?"
"A fine lot you are," cried Pinger. "Ganging up to ask for leave in turn every day, and not reporting to the mistress either but pestering me instead. After Zhuer went the other day, Master Lian happened to call for him; and when he wasn't to be found I was blamed for giving him leave. Now you're trying it on.
"It's quite true that his mother is ill," Mrs. Zhou confirmed. "Do let him go, miss."
"Come back early tomorrow then," stipulated Pinger. "And listen, I've an errand for you, so don't wait till the sun bakes your behind be¬fore coming back. And take a message for me on your way to Lai Wang. Tell him from the mistress that if he doesn't bring in the rest of that interest tomorrow, she doesn't want it -- he can keep it for himself."
The boy assented and made off in high spirits.
Pinger and the two others proceeded then to the Lady Dowager's apartments where all the girls from the Graden were assembled. Granny Liu had no idea who all these beauties decked out with pearls and emer¬alds could be; but she saw an old lady on a couch with a pretty silk-clad girl massaging her legs while Xifeng stood chatting to her. Concluding that this was the Lady Dowager, the old woman stepped forward, smil¬ing, and curtseyed to her.
"Greetings, Goddess of Long Life!" she cried.
The Lady Dowager raised herself to greet her in return and ordered Mrs. Zhou to fetch a chair for her. Baner, of course, was still too shy to pay his respects.
"How old are you, venerable kinswoman?" asked the Lady Dowa¬ger.
Granny Liu rose to answer, "Seventy-five."
"So old, yet so hale and hearty! Why, you're older than I am by several years. If I live to your age, I doubt whether I shall be so spry.
"We're born to put up with hardships, madam, and you to enjoy good fortune," replied Granny Liu with a smile. "If we were all like you, who'd do the farming?"
"And your eyes and teeth, are they still good?"
"I can't complain. But this year one of my back teeth on the left side has come loose."
"I'm old and useless now," rejoined the Lady Dowager. "My sight's failing, I'm hard of hearing, and my memory's going. I can't even re¬member all our old relatives. When they call I don't see them for fear they'll laugh at me, I've become so helpless. All I can do is eat pap, sleep, or amuse myself for a while with these grandchildren when I'm bored."
Granny Liu smiled.
"That's your good fortune, madam. We couldn't manage it even if we wanted to."
"Good fortune? I'm nothing but a useless old thing."
Everyone laughed at that.
"Just now Xifeng told me you've brought us a lot of pumpkins and vegetables," the Lady Dowager went on. "I've asked to have them cooked at once. I've been longing for some freshly picked things of this kind. Those we buy outside aren't as good as yours, straight from the fields."
"This is rough country fare but at least it's fresh," Granny Liu an¬swered. "We'd rather eat meat and fish ourselves, only we can't afford it."
"Now that we relatives have met, you mustn't leave with nothing to show for your visit. If you don't dislike our place, do stay for a couple of days. We have a garden too with fruit in it. Tomorrow you must try some and take some home, to show you've visited your relatives here."
Xifeng also pressed Granny Lin to stay, seeing what a liking the old lady had taken to her.
"Though our place here isn't as large as your farm we have a couple of empty rooms," she said. "Do stay for a day or two, and tell our old lady some of your village news and stories."
"You're not to make fun of her, you baggage," warned the Lady Dowager. "She's an honest village woman, how can she stand up to your teasing?"
She told the maids to offer Baner some fruit, but with so many people about the boy dared not eat. So she ordered them to give him some cash and sent him off to play with the pages outside. Then Granny Liu, after sipping a cup of tea, regaled the Lady Dowager with some village gossip which quite delighted her.
Granny Liu was still holding forth when Xifeng told a maid to invite her to dinner, and the Lady Dowager sent her some of her own dishes. Knowing how pleased the old lady was with her, Xifeng sent Granny Liu back again after her meal; and Yuanyang deputed an old nurse to take her to have a bath while she picked a simple change of clothing for her. Granny Lin, who was having the time of her life, changed quickly. Then, seated in front of the Lady Dowager's couch, she found some more gossip to tell her. Baoyu and the girls were there too and never having heard such talk before they found it more diverting than the ballads of blind folk-singers.
Now Granny Lin though a countrywoman was no fool. Besides, being old and experienced she could see how delighted the old lady was and how eagerly the young people were listening. So when she ran out of gossip she drew on her imagination.
"In our village we grow grain and vegetables year in, year out," she said. "Spring, summer, autumn and winter, in wind and rain, what time have we to sit idle? We just knock off for a rest each day in the fields, and I can assure you we see all kinds of queer doings.
"Last winter, for example, the snow fell for several days on end and piled up on the ground three of four feet deep. I got up early one day and hadn't yet left the house when I heard a noise from the woodpile. I peeped through the window, thinking it must be someone filching our firewood. But it wasn't anybody from our village."
"I suppose it was some passer-by who felt cold," put in the Lady Dowager. "Seeing fuel ready at hand he took some to make a fire. That might well be."
"It wasn't a passer-by either," Granny Liu chortled. "That's what was so strange. Who d'you think it was, my lady? A slip of a girl of seventeen or eighteen, pretty as a picture, with hair as glossy as oil, wearing a red tunic and a white silk skirt….
Just then a sudden commotion broke out outside.
"It's not serious," someone shouted. "Don't alarm the old lady."
At once they asked what had happened. A maid explained that a fire had broken out in the stables in the south court, but there was no danger as it was now under control.
The Lady Dowager, being very easily frightened, got up quickly and made them help her out to the verandah. At sight of flames in the south¬east part of the grounds she invoked Buddha in her terror, then ordered incense to be burned to the God of Fire. Lady Wang and the others hur¬ried over to the Lady Dowager's apartments to comfort her.
"It'll soon be put out," they assured her. "Do go back inside, madam."
But the old lady waited till all the flames had died down before leading the whole company indoors again. At once Baoyu asked Granny Liu:
"Why was that girl taking firewood when the snow lay so deep? Did she catch cold?"
"It was this talk about firewood that caused the fire," put in his grand¬mother. "Yet you still keep on asking about it. Don't mention it any more. Let's talk about something else."
Much against his will Baoyu had to drop the subject, and Granny Liu thought up another tale.
"To the east of our village," she said, "there lives an old woman who's over ninety this year. She fasts and prays to Buddha every day. And would you believe it, this so moved the Goddess of Mercy that she appeared to her one night in a dream. 'You were fated to have no de¬scendants,' she said. 'But I've told the Jade Emperor how devout you are, and he's going to give you a grandson.'
"The fact is, this old woman had only one son. This son, too, had just the one son; but they only managed to bring him up to the age of seven¬teen or eighteen when he died, nearly breaking their hearts. In due time, sure enough, another son was born to them. He's just fourteen now, as plump and white as a snowball and the sharpest lad you ever set eyes on. This shows, doesn't it, that there really are gods and spirits?"
This story was just the kind that appealed to the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang, hence even the latter listened with close attention. Baoyu, however, was still trying go imagine what could have become of the girl who took the firewood, when he was addressed by Tanchun.
"Yesterday Xiangyun treated us," she said. "When we go back let's talk over our next meeting and how to ask her back. Suppose we invite the old lady to come and look at the chrysanthemums?"
"The old lady says she means to give a party herself in return for Xiangyun's, and we'll be invited too," replied Baoyu. "So we'd better wait till after that."
"If we wait until it's cold, though, the old lady may not like it."
"Why not? She enjoys rain and snow. Better wait for the first fall of snow and then ask her to a snow party. We'll have more fun ourselves too, writing poems in the snow.
"Writing poems in the snow?" put in Daiyu mockingly. "I don't think that would be half as much fun as building a woodpile and having a camp¬fire in the snow."
Baochai and the others laughed, while Baoyu flashed a glance at Daiyu but said nothing.
As soon as the party broke up, he quietly took Granny Liu aside to ask her who the girl in her story was. This forced the old woman to improvise again.
"In the fields just north of our village there stands a small shrine," she said. "It wasn't built for any god or Buddha, but there was once a gentle¬man ...." She stopped to think of a name.
"Never mind," said Baoyu. "Names don't matter, just tell me the story."
"This gentleman had no son, only one daughter called Mingyu," con¬tinued Granny Liu. "She could read and write and was her parent's most precious treasure, but when she reached the age of seventeen the poor girl fell ill and died...."
Baoyu stamped his foot and sighed.
"What happened afterwards?" he asked.
"Her parents were so heartbroken that they built this shrine, had an effigy made of the girl, and kept someone there to burn incense and keep the lamp burning. That was many years ago. Those people are dead now, the temple is in ruins, and a spirit has taken possession of the effigy."
"It's not that a spirit's taken possession of it," he retorted quickly. "The rule is that people of this kind are immortal."
"You don't say! Gracious Buddha! If you hadn't told me, I'd have sworn it was magic. She often takes human form to roam about through the villages, farmsteads and highways, and it was she who took that firewood. In our village they're talking of smashing up this image and razing the shrine to the ground."
"Don't let them do that!" urged Baoyu hastily. "It would be a great sin to destroy that shrine."
"I'm glad you told me, sir," said Granny Liu. "When I go back to¬morrow I'll stop them."
"My grandmother and my mother are both charitable people. In fact, our whole family, old and young, like to do good deeds and give alms; and they take the greatest delight in building temples and having images made. So tomorrow I'll draw up a subscription notice to collect donations for you. When enough contributions have come in, you can take charge of repairing the shrine and restoring the image, and every month I'll give you money for incense. Wouldn't that be a good thing?"
"If you do that I'll have a few cash to spend too, all thanks to this young lady!"
Baoyu then asked her the name of the district and village, how far it was there and back, and just where the shrine stood. She made up an¬swers at random but he believed her, and on his return to his room he spent the whole night thinking the matter over.
The next morning, as soon as it was light, he sent Mingyan with sev¬eral hundred cash to find the place described by Granny Liu and bring him back a clear report so that he could make further plans.
Baoyu waited hour after hour for Mingyan's return, as frantic as an ant on a hot pan. He waited and waited till sunset, when his page came back looking very pleased with himself.
"Did you find it?" demanded Baoyu eagerly.
"You must have got it wrong, Master Bao. You led me a fine dance," replied Mingyan, smiling. "It's not where you said, and the name's different too. So it took me a whole day to track it down. Then I found a tumbledown temple in the fields to the northeast."
Baoyu beamed with joy.
"Granny Liu's old," he said. "Her memory probably plays tricks with her. Well, what did you find? Go on!"
"The temple gate faces south all right, and the place is tumbling down. I was fed up with hunting for it, and as soon as I saw it I said to myself, 'At last!' I marched straight in. One look at the image, though, made me take to my heels - it's so fearfully lifelike!"
"She can take human form, so naturally she looks lifelike," replied Baoyu cheerfully.
"But it isn't a girl." Mingyan clapped his hands together. "It's blue-faced and red-haired -- the God of Plague!"
"You useless fool," swore Baoyu in disgust. "You can't handle the least little job."
"I don't know what books you've been reading, Master Bao, or what nonsensical talk you've been swallowing, to send me on a wild-goose chase of this sort. And now you say I'm useless."
"Don't get so worked up," rejoined Baoyu soothingly. "You must try again some other day when you've time. If she was having me on, of course there's no such place; but if there is, you'll be doing a good deed and you can be sure I'll reward you handsomely."
Just then a page from the inner gate announced, "Some girls from the old lady's apartments are waiting for you, Master Bao, at the inner gate."
If you want to know what this meant, read the next chapter.

Chapter 40

The Lady Dowager Feasts Again
in Grand View Garden
Yuanyang Presides over
a Drinking Game


Baoyu hurried over at this summons and found Hupo by the screen. "Come quickly," she urged him. "The old lady's waiting for you." He went to the Lady Dowager's apartments, where she was dis¬cussing with Lady Wang and the girls how to repay Xiangyun's hospitality.
'I've a suggestion," said Baoyu. "As we're not inviting outsiders, there's no need for too many dishes; let's just have a few we like. There's no need for tables either; each of us can have a teapoy with a couple of dishes we fancy, as well as a ten-compartment box of titbits and a winepot apiece. Wouldn't that be more original?"
The Lady Dowager approved. She sent instructions to the kitchen to prepare their favourite dainties the next day and put them in separate boxes, and to serve breakfast in the Garden too. By the time this was settled the lamps were lit, and they retired for the night.
The next morning, as luck would have it, the weather was fine. Li Wan rose at daybreak to supervise the matrons and maids as they swept up fallen leaves, dusted tables and chairs, and prepared the tea-services and wine vessels. While she was doing this, Fenger arrived with Granny Liu and Baner.
"How busy you are, madam!" remarked Granny Liu.
"I knew you wouldn't be able to leave yesterday," replied Li Wan with a smile. "Yet you were in such a hurry to get away.
"The old lady made me stay to enjoy myself for a day," chuckled Granny Liu.
Fenger produced a bunch of keys and announced, "Madam Lian says there may not be enough teapoys out: we'd better unlock the attic in the tower and fetch some down to use for a day. She wanted to see to it herself, but she's talking with Lady Wang. So do you mind opening the attic, madam, and having the things brought out?"
Li Wan made Suyun take the keys, and sent one of the matrons to fetch a few page boys from the inner gate. Standing with raised head at the foot of Grand View Pavilion, she ordered them to go up and open the Tower of Variegated Splendour and carry down the teapoys one by one. Pages, matrons and maids set to work then to bring down more than twenty, while Li Wan warned:
"Careful! Steady on! You're not being chased by ghosts. Mind you don't bump them."
Then she turned to ask Granny Liu, "Would you care to go up too and have a look?"
The old woman needed no pressing but promptly pulled Baner up the stairs with her. She found the attic chock-a-block with screens, tables, chairs, ornamental lanterns large and small, and other similar objects. Although ignorant of the function of most of them, she was dazzled by their gay colours and fine workmanship.
"Gracious Buddha!" she exclaimed.
When she withdrew the door was locked and everyone came down.
Then it occurred to Li Wan that the old Lady might feel disposed to go boating. So on her instructions they unlocked the door once more and brought down oars, punt-poles and awnings. Pages were also sent to the boatwomen to order two barges from the boathouse.
In the middle of this bustle, along came the Lady Dowager with a whole company of people.
"How bright and early you are, madam!" cried Li Wan hurrying to meet her. "I didn't think you'd have finished your toilet yet. I'd just picked some chrysanthemums to send you.
Biyue held out a large emerald plate in the form of a lotus leaf, on which were chrysanthemums of different kinds. The Lady Dowager se¬lected a red one and pinned it in her hair. Then, turning, she caught sight of Granny Liu.
"Come here and take a few flowers to wear!" she called with a smile.
While the words were still on her lips, Xifeng pulled Granny Liu forward.
"Let me make you beautiful, granny!" she cried.
Seizing all the flowers on the plate, she stuck them this way and that in the old woman's hair, reducing everyone present to helpless laughter.
"I don't know what meritorious deed my head's done to deserve this good fortune," cackled Granny Liu. "What a dash I'm cutting today!"
"Why don't you pull them out and throw them in her face?" gasped the others. "She's got you up to look a real old vampire."
"I'm old now, but when I was young I was flighty too and fond of flowers," chuckled Granny Liu. "So it's right I should be an old flibber¬tigibbet today."
While laughing and chatting they had come to Seeping Fragrance Pavilion. Maids spread a large brocade cushion they had brought on the railing of the balcony. The Lady Dowager, seating herself there with her back against a pillar, made Granny Liu sit beside her.
"Well, what do you think of this garden'?" she inquired.
"Gracious Buddha!" ejaculated Granny Liu. "We country folk come to town before New Year to buy pictures to stick up; and when we're at a loose end we often say, 'If only we could take a stroll in these pictures !' We always reckoned the places shown were too good to be true, but coming to this garden today I can see it's ten times better than any painting. I wish someone would paint me a picture of it to show the folk at home. Then I'd die content."
The Lady Dowager pointed to Xichun. "See this young grand-daugh¬ter of mine?" she asked. "She can paint. Shall I get her to do a painting for you tomorrow?"
This offer so delighted Granny Liu that she hurried over to take Xichun's hand.
"Why, miss! So young and pretty, yet so clever too -- you must be a goddess come down to the earth."
After a short rest the Lady Dowager started showing Granny Liu round, going first to Bamboo Lodge. Inside its gate, a narrow pebbled path flanked with bamboos met their gaze. The ground on either side of it was carpeted with dark moss. Granny Liu left the path for the others, walking on the verge herself.
"Come up here, granny," urged Hupo taking her arm. "That moss is slippery."
"That's all right, I'm used to it," said the old woman. "Just go ahead, young ladies. Take care not to get your embroidered slippers dirty."
Intent on talking, she slipped and fell with a thud, at which the whole company clapped their hands and laughed.
"You wretches!" scolded the Lady Dowager. "Help her up. Don't just stand there laughing."
"That was to punish me for boasting," chuckled Granny Liu as she scrambled to her feet.
"Did you strain your back?" asked the Lady Dowager. "Let one of the maids pummel it."
"I'm not so finicky. Hardly a day goes by without my falling. How could I get someone to pummel my back each time?"
Zijuan had the bamboo portiere raised ready for them. The Lady Dowager and others went in and took seats, after which Daiyu with her own hands brought her grandmother a covered bowl of tea on a small tray.
"No tea for us," said Lady Wang. "Don't trouble to pour any more."
Then Daiyu told a maid to fetch her favourite chair from the window for Lady Wang. Granny Liu, meanwhile, was struck by the brushes and inkstones on the desk by the window and the bookcase piled with books.
"This must be the young master's study," she said.
The Lady Dowager smiled and pointed at Daiyu.
"This is my grand-daughter's room."
Granny Liu looked intently at Daiyu.
"This isn't like a young lady's chamber," she remarked. "But it's far better than the best study."
"Where is Baoyu?" asked the Lady Dowager.
"Boating on the lake," the maids told her.
"Who ordered boats?"
"I did," replied Li Wan hastily. "As we were fetching things from the attic just now, it occurred to me you might feel inclined for a turn on the lake, madam."
Before the old lady could answer, Aunt Xue was announced. And even as they rose to their feet she came in. When they had resumed their seats she remarked:
"You must be in good spirits, madam, to have come here so early."
"Only a minute ago I was saying all late-comers must be fined," the Lady Dowager chuckled. "I'd no idea the offender would be you.
They chatted for a while. Then the Lady Dowager noticed that the gauze on the window had faded.
"This gauze is pretty when new," she remarked to Lady Wang, "but it soon loses its vivid emerald colour. Anyway, as there are no peach or apricot trees in this courtyard and the bamboos are green themselves, green gauze is out of place here. We used to have window gauze in four or five colours, I remember. Tomorrow we shall have to change this for her."
"When I opened the storeroom yesterday," put in Xifeng, "I saw several rolls of pink cicada-wing gauze in one of the chests. There are several different designs -- sprays of blossom, floating clouds and bats, butterflies and flowers -- the colours so vivid and the gauze so soft, I've never seen anything like it. I took out two rolls, thinking they'd make good coverlets."
"Bah!" the Lady Dowager snorted. "Everybody says there's noth¬ing you haven't seen or done, but you don't even know what this gauze is. You must stop bragging in future."
"However knowledgeable she may be, she can't compare with you, madam," said Aunt Xue. "Do enlighten her and let us hear as well."
"Yes, good Ancestress, do enlighten me," begged Xifeng smiling.
Then the Lady Dowager told them all, "That gauze is older than any of you. No wonder she mistook it for cicada-wing gauze. As a matter off act, the two are so alike that those not in the know always mix them up. Its proper name is soft-mist silk."
"What a charming name," cried Xifeng. "I've seen hundreds of kinds of silk, but never heard of this one."
"How long have you lived?" retorted the old lady. "How many rari¬ties have you seen? What have you to brag about? This soft-mist silk comes in four colours only: light blue, russet, pine-green and pink. Used for bed-curtains or window gauze, from a distance it looks like smoke or mist -- that's how it got its name. The pink's also called rosy-cloud gauze. Even the Imperial gauze used in the Palace today isn't so soft and fine."
"I'm not surprised Xifeng hadn't seen it before," interposed Aunt Xue. "I'd never even heard of it either."
By now a roll had been fetched on Xifeng's instructions.
"That's it!" exclaimed the Lady Dowager. "We used it first just for windows, then found it was good for quilts and bed-curtains too. You must get some more out tomorrow and screen the windows here with some of the pink."
Xifeng promised to attend to this while the whole party admired the material. As for Granny Liu, her eyes were nearly popping out of her head.
"Gracious Buddha!" she gasped. "We couldn't afford to make clothes of this. It seems a shame to use it for windows."
"Clothes of this don't look well," said the Lady Dowager.
Xifeng promptly showed them the lapel of the red gauze tunic she was wearing, saying, "Look at this tunic of mine."
"Very nice too," said the Lady Dowager and Aunt Xue. "This is made nowadays for the Palace. Still, it can't compare with the other."
"You mean to say this shoddy stuff is made for the Imperial use?" exclaimed Xifeng. "Why, it's not even up to the gauze made for offi¬cials."
"We must see if there's any more of the blue," said the Lady Dowa¬ger. "If there is, give a couple of rolls to Granny Liu to make a bed ¬curtain. What's left can be matched with some lining and made into lined sleeveless jackets for the maids. Don't leave it there to be spoiled by the damp."
Xifeng agreed, and had the stuff put away. Then the Lady Dowager rose to her feet.
"Let's stroll on," she suggested. "Why should we stay cooped up here?"
Invoking Buddha again, Granny Liu remarked: "Everyone says 'The great live in great houses.' When I saw your room yesterday, madam, it was a grand sight with all those big cases, big wardrobes, big tables and big bed. The wardrobes alone are bigger and higher than one of our whole rooms. No wonder you keep that ladder in the back yard. I couldn't think at first what it was for, as you don't sun things on the roof. Then I saw it must be for opening the tops of wardrobes to take things out or put them in, for without a ladder how could you get up? But this small room is even better furnished than that big one, with all these fine things -- what¬ever they're called -- in it. The more I see of it, the less I want to leave."
"I'll show you better places than this," promised Xifeng.
Upon leaving Bamboo Lodge they saw a punting party out on the lake.
"Since they've got the boats ready, we may as well go aboard," suggested the Lady Dowager.
They were on their way to Purple Caltrop Isle and Smartweed Bank when they met several matrons carrying multicoloured lacquered ham¬pers inlaid with gilt designs. Xifeng at once asked Lady Wang where they should breakfast.
"Wherever the old lady chooses," was the reply.
The Lady Dowager, hearing this, called over her shoulder to Xifeng, "Your third cousin's place is pleasant. Take some people there to get it ready while we go by boat."
Then Xifeng turned back with Li Wan, Tanchun, Yuanyang and Hupo, accompanied by the attendants with the food. Having taken a short cut to the Studio of Autumn Freshness, they arranged the tables in Morning Emerald Hall.
Yuanyang remarked with a chuckle, "We often say that when the gentlemen feast outside they've someone who can raise a laugh to en¬tertain them. Today we've a female entertainer too."
Li Wan was too good-natured to catch on, but Xifeng knew that Granny Liu was meant.
"Yes, she should be good for some laughs today," she agreed.
Then the two of them began to lay their plans.
"You're up to no good," protested Li Wan, smiling. "As bad as chil¬dren. Mind the old lady doesn't scold you!"
"You won't be involved. Just leave the old lady to me," Yuanyang giggled.
As they were talking the rest of the party arrived. They sat where they pleased and were first served tea by the maids. Then Xifeng placed before each the ebony chopsticks inlaid with silver which she had brought wrapped in a cambric napkin.
"Bring that small cedar table over here," directed the Lady Dowager. "I want our kinswoman to sit next to me. "
As her order was carried out Xifeng cast Yuanyang a meaning glance, and the maid led Granny Liu aside to give her some whispered instruc¬tions.
"This is the custom of our house," she concluded. "If you disregard it people will laugh at you."
When all was ready they took seats at the tables. All but Aunt Xue who, having breakfasted already, did not eat anything but sat on one side sipping tea. The old lady had Baoyu, Xiangyun, Daiyu and Baochai at her table; Lady Wang had Yingchun, Tanchun and Xichun; while Granny Liu sat at the table next to the Lady Dowager's.
Usually Yuanyang left the younger maids to wait on the old lady dur¬ing meals, holding ready her rinse bowl, whisk and handkerchief. Today, however, she held the whisk herself and the other maids kept out of the way, realizing that she meant to bait Granny Liu.
Yuanyang, standing there, now whispered to the old woman, "Don't forget!"
"Don't worry, miss," was the answer.
Having taken her seat Granny Liu picked up the chopsticks, but found them too awkward to manage. For Xifeng and Yuanyang had decided to give her an old-fashioned pair of square-edged ivory chopsticks inlaid with gold.
"Why, these prongs are heavier than our iron shovels," the old woman complained. "How can I handle them?"
As everyone laughed, a matron brought in a box and stood holding it while a maid removed the cover, revealing two bowls. Li Wan put one on the Lady Dowager's table and Xifeng set the other, containing pigeon's eggs, before Granny Liu. The Lady Dowager urged her to make a start.
Granny Liu stood up then and declaimed at the top of her voice:

"Old woman Liu, I vow,
Eats more than any cow,
And down she settles now
To gobble an enormous sow. "

Then she dried up abruptly, puffing out her cheeks and staring down at her bowl.
The others had been staggered at first but now everyone, high and low, started roaring with laughter. Xiangyun shook so uncontrollably that she sputtered out the rice she had in her mouth, while Daiyu nearly choked and collapsed over the table gasping, "Mercy!" Baoyu fell convulsively into his grand mother's arms and she chuckled as she hugged him to her crying, "My precious!" Lady Wang wagged one finger at Xifeng but was laughing too much to speak. Aunt Xue, too exploded in such mirth that she sprayed tea all over Tanchun's skirt, making her upset her bowl over Yingchun, while Xichun left her seat and begged her nurse to rub her stomach for her.
As for the maids, some doubled up in hysterics, others sneaked out¬side to squat down in a fit of giggles, yet others controlled themselves sufficiently to fetch clean clothes for their young mistresses.
Xifeng and Yuanyang, the only ones with straight faces, urged Granny Liu to eat. But when she picked up the chopsticks she still found them unwieldy.
"Even your hens here are refined," she remarked, "laying such tiny, dainty eggs as these. Well, let me 'fuck' one of them."
This caused a fresh outburst of laughter. The Lady Dowager laughed so much that tears streamed from her eyes and Hupo had to pat her on the back.
"That wretch Xifeng's up to her tricks again," she gasped. "Don't believe a word she says."
Granny Liu was still admiring the dainty eggs and saying she wanted to "fuck" one, when Xifeng told her merrily:
"They cost one tael of silver each. Better try one while they're hot."
The old woman reached out with her chopsticks but failed to secure an egg. After chasing them round the bowl for a time she finally succeeded in catching one; but as she craned forward to eat it, the egg slipped and fell to the floor. She hastily put down her chopsticks and stooped to retrieve it. However, a maid had already picked it up.
"A tael of silver!" Granny Liu sighed. "And gone without a sound." The others had long since stopped eating to watch her antics. "This isn't a formal banquet. Who gave her those chop sticks?" de¬manded the Lady Dowager. "This is all the doing of that minx Xifeng. Get her another pair."
It was, indeed, not the maids but Xifeng and Yuanyang who had brought the ivory chopsticks. Now these were removed, an ebony pair inlaid with silver taking their place.
"After the gold comes the silver," observed Granny Liu. "They're not as handy, though, as the ones we use.
"If there's poison in the dish," Xifeng explained, "the silver will show it."
"Poison! If this food is poison, ours is pure arsenic. But I'm going to finish the lot, even if it kill me."
The Lady Dowager found her so amusing as she munched away with relish that she passed her some of her own dishes, at the same time instructing an old nurse to help Baner to everything that was going.
When presently the meal ended, the Lady Dowager and some of the others adjourned to Tanchun's bedroom for a chat while the tables were cleared and another laid for Li Wan and Xifeng.
Granny Liu watching this said, "Leaving everything else aside, what I like best is the way things are done in your household. No wonder they say, 'Good manners come from great households.’”
"You mustn't take offence," responded Xifeng quickly. "We were only having fun just now."
Yuanyang promptly stepped forward too.
"Don't be cross, granny," she begged with a smile. "Please accept my apologies."
"What a thing to say, miss!" Granny Liu laughed. "We were trying to amuse the old lady, why should I be cross? When you tipped me off, I knew it was all in fun. If I'd been annoyed I would have kept my mouth shut."
Yuanyang then scolded the maids for not serving granny with tea.
"That sister-in-law there brought me some just now," put in Granny Liu hastily. "No more, thank you. You ought to have your own breakfast now, miss."
"Come and eat with us," said Xifeng to Yuanyang, making her sit down at their table. "That'll save another commotion later on.
So Yuanyang sat down with them and the matrons brought an extra bowl and chopsticks. The three of them finished so soon that Granny Liu commented with a smile:
"It's a marvel to me what small appetites you have. No wonder a gust of wind can blow you over.
"What's happened to all the left-overs?" asked Yuanyang.
"Nothing's been done with them yet," replied the matrons. "They're still waiting here to be shared out."
"There's more than enough for the people here," said Yuanyang. "Choose two dishes for Pinger and send them round to Madam Lian's quarters."
"She's eaten already," put in Xifeng. "There's no need."
"If she doesn't eat them your cat can have them," said Yuanyang.
A matron promptly chose two dishes and took them off in a hamper.
"Where's Suyun?" Yuanyang asked next.
"They'll all eat here together," said Li Wan. "Why single her out?"
"That's all right then," replied Yuanyang.
"Xiren's not here," Xifeng reminded her. "You might send her a couple of dishes."
Yuanyang saw that this was done, then asked the matrons whether the boxes of titbits to go with the wine were ready yet or not. On being told that this would probably still take some time, she sent them off to expedite matters.
Xifeng and the others now joined the rest of the party who were calling in Tanchun's room. This was really three rooms in one, as Tanchun liked plenty of space. On the big rosewood marble-topped desk in the centre were piles of albums by noted calligraphers, several dozen good inkstones and an array of jars and other containers holding a regular forest of brushes. On one side a Ru-ware vase the size of a peck mea¬sure was filled with chrysanthemums white as crystal balls. In the middle of the west wall hung a large painting by Mi Fu, Mist and Rain, flanked by a couplet in Yan Zhenqing's1 calligraphy:

Indolent fellow among mist and clouds,
Rustic life amidst rocks and springs.

On another table was a large tripod. To its left, on a red sandalwood stand, a big dish of Guan-ware porcelain was heaped with several dozen handsome golden Buddha's-hands. To its right, suspended on a lacquer frame, was a white jade musical stone with a small hammer next to it. Baner, over the worst of his shyness now, was reaching out for the ham¬mer to strike the jade when one of the maids quickly stopped him. Then he wanted a Buddha's-hand to eat. Tanchun gave him one explaining that it was to play with, not to eat.
At the east end of the room stood a large bed, its leek-green gauze curtain embroidered on both sides with flowers and insects. Baner ran over to have a look.
"Here's a cricket!" he exclaimed. "Here's a locust!"
Granny Liu promptly gave him a slap.
"Little wretch!" she scolded. "Pawing everything with your dirty hands. If you're allowed in to look, don't raise such a rumpus.
At this Baner set up a howl and the others had to intercede to soothe him. Meanwhile the Lady Dowager had been looking through the win¬dow gauze at the back yard.
"That wu-tung tree under the eaves looks well," she remarked. "It's not sturdy enough though."
Just then a gust of wind carried them the strains of distant music.
"Who's having a wedding?" she asked. "We must be quite near the street here."
"Not near enough to hear sounds from the street," replied Lady Wang. "It's those child-actresses of ours rehearsing their music."
"If they're rehearsing, let's get them to do it here. It'll be a little outing for them and we'll have fun too."
Xifeng promptly sent for the actresses and gave orders for tables to be brought and a red carpet spread.
"No, let's use that lake pavilion by Lotus Fragrance Anchorage," proposed the Lady Dowager. "Music sounds better on the water. And we can drink in the Tower of Variegated Splendour which is roomy and within easy hearing distance."
All approved this idea.
Then with a smile to Aunt Xue the old lady said, "Let's go. These girls don't really welcome visitors for fear their rooms may be dirtied. We mustn't impose on them. So let's go boating and then have a few drinks."
As everyone rose to leave Tanchun protested, "What a thing to say! We only wish you'd come more often."
"Yes, my third grand-daughter's good that way," said the old lady. "It's Daiyu and Baoyu who are so pernickety. On our way back, when we're tipsy, we must go there just to annoy them."
They trooped out, laughing, and soon reached Watercress Isle where some boatwomen from Suzhou had punted two pyrus-wood boats. Into one of these they helped the Lady Dowager, Lady Wang, Aunt Xue, Granny Liu, Yuanyang and Yuchuan. Li Wan followed them and so did Xifeng, who took her stand in the prow meaning to punt.
"It's not as easy as it looks!" warned the Lady Dowager from the cabin. "We're not on the river, it's true, but it's fairly deep here. So don't try, and come inside at once."
"It's quite safe," cried Xifeng. "Don't worry, Old Ancestress."
She pushed off with a shove for the middle of the lake, but when the small overloaded boat started rocking she thrust the pole into the hands of a boatwoman and hastily squatted down.
Yingchun and the other girls followed in the second boat with Baoyu, while the rest of the attendants walked along the bank.
"How disgusting those withered lotus leaves look," remarked Baoyu. "Why not get people to pull them out?"
"What time has there been for that?" countered Baochai with a smile. "We've been out here enjoying ourselves every day recently."
Daiyu put in, "I don't like Li Shangyin's2 verses except for that single line:

'Leave the withered lotus to hear the patter of rain.

But now you two don't want to leave them."
"That's a good line," agreed Baoyu. "All right, we won't have them pulled out."
They had now reached Reed Creek by Flowery Harbour. In the shade here chill penetrated their very bones, while their awareness of autumn was heightened by the withered grass and caltrops on both sides. The Lady Dowager fixed her eyes on the airy lodge on the bank.
"Isn't that where Baochai lives?" she asked.
They told her it was.
At once she ordered the boats to go alongside and, climbing the stone steps to Alpinia Park, they were greeted by a strange fragrance. The advance of autumn had deepened the green of the rare plants and creep¬ers there, from each of which hung charming clusters of berries like coral beads. The room which they now entered was spotless as a snow cave, with hardly an ornament in the whole place. The desk was bare except for a rough crackleware vase with some chrysanthemums in it, two sets of books and a tea-service. The blue gauze bed-curtains and bedding were also of the simplest.
"What a goose this child is!" cried the Lady Dowager. "Why not ask your aunt for some knick-knacks? It didn't occur to me, I just didn't think. Of course you left all your own things at home."
Having told Yuanyang to be sure to fetch some curios, she called Xifeng to task.
"Why didn't you send over some pretty things for your cousin? How very stingy!"
"She wouldn't have them," explained Lady Wang and Xifeng. "She returned all the ones we sent."
"She doesn't care for such things at home either," put in Aunt Xue.
"This will never do." The old lady shook her head. "She may have simple tastes, but this wouldn't look well if relatives were to call. Be¬sides, it'll bring bad luck for girls, this austerity. Why, in that case we old women ought to live in stables! You've all heard those descriptions in ballads and operas of the elegance of young ladies' boudoirs. Maybe these girls of ours can't compare with those young ladies, but they shouldn't go to the other extreme either. When we've knick-knacks ready at hand why not display them? Of course, if your tastes are simple you can have less.
"I used to have a flair for decorating rooms, but now that I'm old I haven't the energy. These girls should learn how to fix up their rooms too. The only trouble is if you've a vulgar taste, for then you'll make even handsome things look frightful; but I wouldn't call our girls vulgar. Now let me fit out this room for you, and I promise it'll be in quiet yet excellent taste. I've a couple of nice things which I've managed to keep by not allowing Baoyu to set eyes on them -- if he had, they'd have disappeared."
She called Yuanyang over and ordered, "Fetch that miniature rock garden, that little gauze screen and the dark steatite tripod. Those three things will do nicely for the desk. And fetch those white silk bed-curtains with the ink painting and calligraphy in place of these."
"Very good, madam," said Yuanyang. "But those things are in some cases in the east attic. They may take a little finding. Suppose I get them tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow or the day after, it doesn't matter. Don't forget, that's all."
After sitting a little longer they went on to the Tower of Variegated Splendour, where Wenguan and the other young actresses paid their re¬spects and asked which tunes they should play.
"Just choose a few you want to rehearse," replied the Lady Dowa¬ger.
Thereupon the actresses withdrew to Lotus Fragrance Anchorage.
By now Xifeng and her helpers had everything in perfect order. There were two couches on the north side, left and right, spread with brocade cushions and velvet coverlets. In front of each couch stood two carved lacquer teapoys of different shapes with pyrus-blossom, plum-blossom, lotus and sun flower designs, some square, some round, one of which held an incense-burner, a vase and a box of various sweetmeats. The other was empty, ready for their favourite dishes. These two couches with four teapoys were for the Lady Dowager and Aunt Xue. Then there were a chair and two teapoys for Lady Wang, while the others had one chair and teapoy apiece. Granny Liu's seat was on the east; below it
was that of Lady Wang.
On the west sat Xiangyun, Baochai, Daiyu, Yingchun, Tanchun and Xichun in that order with, last of all, Baoyu. Li Wan and Xifeng had seats outside the inner screen, within the third row of balustrades. The designs on the comfit-boxes matched those of the teapoys. Everyone also had a tarnished silver wine-pot with engraved designs and variegated cloisonné cup.
As soon as the party was seated the Lady Dowager proposed, "Let's begin with a few cups of wine. It would be fun to play a drinking game."
"I know you're good at drinking games, madam," chuckled Aunt Xue. "But how can we play them? If you just want to get us drunk, let's simply drink a few cups more apiece."
"How modest you are today!" retorted the Lady Dowager. "Do you find me too old for this company?"
"I'm not being modest. I'm afraid of getting laughed at for giving the wrong answer.
"Even if we can't answer," interposed Lady Wang, "it only means drinking an extra cup. And anyone feeling tipsy can go and lie down. No one will laugh at us.
"Very well then," Aunt Xue agreed. "But you must start off with a cup, madam."
"Of course."
The Lady Dowager drained her cup.
Xifeng stepped forward to propose, "If we're to have a game, let Yuan-yang take charge."
The whole party agreed, knowing that it was always Yuanyang who made the rules for the old lady's drinking games. So Xifeng made her join them.
"If you're joining in, there's no reason why you should stand," said Lady Wang. She then ordered a young maid to fetch a chair and put it by Xifeng's or Li Wan's table.
After making a show of declining, Yuanyang took the seat with thanks and drank a cup, after which she announced:
"Drinking rules are as strict as martial law. Now that I'm in charge I'll be no respecter of persons -- anybody who disobeys me must pay a forfeit."
The others smiled and Lady Wang said, "Of course. Hurry up and tell us the rules."
But before Yuanyang could speak Granny Liu left her seat, waving one hand in protest.
"Don't make fun of me like this. I'm leaving," she declared.
"That won't do," chuckled the others.
Yuanyang ordered some maids to drag Granny Liu back to her table. They did so, giggling, while she pleaded to be let off.
"Anybody who speaks out of turn again will be made to drink a whole pot of wine," warned Yuanyang.
At this the old woman held her peace.
"I shall use three dominoes," announced Yuanyang. "We'll start with the old lady and go round in turn, ending with Granny Liu. For ex¬ample, I'll take a set of three dominoes and read out what's on each of the three in turn, ending with the name of the set. You must say either a line of classical poetry, a proverb or an adage after each; and they must rhyme. A cup of wine is the forfeit for any mistake."
Laughingly they all approved and begged her to start.
"Here's a set," said Yuanyang. "On the left is the 'sky'"
"The sky is blue on high," responded the Lady Dowager.
"Bravo!" applauded the others.
"In the centre's a 'five and six,'" Yuanyang continued.
"Six bridges with the scent of plum admix."
"The last piece is 'six and one."'
"From fleecy clouds rises a round red sun."
"Together they make a 'ghost distraught. '"
"By his leg the ghost-catcher he's caught."
While the whole party laughed and cheered, the Lady Dowager tossed off a cup of wine.
Then Yuanyang resumed, "Here's another set. The one on the left is a 'double five. '"
Aunt Xue responded: "Plum blossom dances when soft winds ar¬rive."
"A 'double five' again here on the right."
"In the tenth month plum blossom scents the height."
"In the middle 'two and five' make seven."
"The Weaving Maid and Cowherd3 meet in Heaven."
"The whole: O'er the Five Peaks the young god wends his way."
"Immortal joys are barred to mortal clay."
All applauded Aunt Xue's performance and she drank a cup.
	"Here's another set," said Yuanyang. "On the left 'two aces' combine."
	Xiangyun capped this: "The sun and moon on earth and heaven shine." Yuanyang continued, "On the right 'double aces' are found."
"The idle flowers fall, noiseless, to the ground."
"In the middle, a 'four and a one. '"
"Red apricot leans on clouds beside the sun."
"Together: The cherries ripen nine times in all."
"Birds in the Palace orchard make them fall." Her turn finished, Xiangyun drained her cup.
	"Next one," said Yuanyang. "On the left is a 'double three. '" Baochai responded, "Pairs of swallows chirp merrily." "Another 'double three' upon the right."
"The wind-trailed weeds seem belts of malachite." "In the middle, 'three and six' make nine."
"Three hills across the azure sky incline."
"Together: A lonely boat moored by a chain."
"The wind and waves bring sorrow in their train."
In conclusion Baochai drank her wine.
Yuanyang resumed, "The sign of 'heaven' on the left." Daiyu answered, "A fair season, a season bereft."4 Baochai turned to dart her a glance, but for fear of a penalty Daiyu ignored her.
	Yuanyang continued, "In the middle a 'screen' finely wrought." "No maid a message to the gauze window has brought."5 "That leaves only eight, by 'two and six' shown." "Together they pay homage at the jade throne." "Combined: A basket in which to gather posies." "On her fairy wand she carries peonies."
Having finished her turn Daiyu took a sip of wine.
	Yuanyang went on, "On the left, 'four and five' make nine." Yingchun responded, "The peach blossom is heavy with rain."
"Fine her! Fine her!" cried the others. "That doesn't rhyme. Be¬sides, why peach blossom?"
Yingchun smiled and took a sip. The fact is that Xifeng and Yuanyang were so eager to hear Granny Liu make a fool of herself that they had urged the others to give wrong answers, so that all were fined. When it came to Lady Wang's turn, Yuanyang answered for her. Then it was Granny Liu's turn.
"We country folk sometimes get together and play this when we've nothing better to do," said the old woman. "Mind you, our answers aren't so fine-sounding as yours. Still, I suppose I must try."
"It's easy," they assured her. "Just go ahead, it doesn't matter."
Smiling, Yuanyang announced, "On the left, 'four and four' make a man.
	Granny Liu thought this over, then suggested, "A farmer?" The company roared with laughter.
	"Good," the Lady Dowager encouraged her. "That's the style."
"We country people can only talk about the things we know," said Granny Liu, laughing herself. "You mustn't make fun of me."
Yuanyang continued, "'Three and four,' green and red, in the centre."
"A big fire burns the hairy caterpillar."
	The others chortled, "That's right. Go on in your own way. Yuanyang said, "On the right a really fine 'double ace. '"
	"A turnip and head of garlic in one place." Giggles broke out again.
	Yuanyang went on, "They make up 'flowers' in all."
Gesturing with both hands Granny Liu responded, "And a huge pump¬kin forms when the flower fall."
The others were shaking with laughter when they heard a commotion outside. What had happened will be told in the next chapter.


Chapter 41

Baoyu Sips Tea in
Green Lattice Nunnery
Granny Liu Succumbs to Wine
in Happy Red Court


Granny Liu’s gestures and response, “A huge pumpkin forms when the flowers fall,” caused a fresh glae of mirth. After tossing off the cup of wine, in the hope of wine, in the hope of raising another laugh she observed:
“To tell the truth, I’m clumsy. And now that I’m tipsy, unless I’m very careful, I may smash this porcelain cup. If you’d given me a wooden one it wouldn’t matter even if I dropped it.”
Once more everybody laughed.
“If you really prefer wooden cups I’ll fetch some,” offered Xifeng. “But first I must warn you that the wooden cups aren’t like porcelain ones; they come in a set, and you must drink from every cup in the set.”
The old woman thought: I was only trying to raise a laugh, but it seems they really do have them. When I’ve dined with the village gentry I’ve seen plenty of gold and silver cups, never any made of wood. I know These must be wooden bowls that the children use. She just wants to fool

me into drinking more. Never mind, this wine’s no stronger than mead anyway, so I needn’t be afraid of drinking a bit extra.
So she said, “Fetch them, and we’ll see.”
Xifeng told Fenger: “Bring that set of ten cups carved out of bamboo root on the bookshelf in the inner room.
The maid assented, but as she was about to go on this errand Yuanyang put in with a smile:
“I know that set, it’s too small. Besides, you just said wood and it won’t look right if now you produce bamboo. Better fetch from our place that large set of ten cups made out of boxwood roots. Let her drink from those.
Xifeng thought this a better idea, so Yuanyang sent someone to fetch
them. These cups when brought filled Granny Liu with amazement and admiration. Amazement because all ten fitted into each other, the largest being the size of a small basin and even the smallest as big as the cup in her hand. Admiration at the fine landscapes, trees and figures carved on them, as well as the seals and inscriptions.
“Just give me that small one,” she said hastily. “I can’t use so many.”
“No, you can’t just have one,” chuckled Xifeng. “None of our family has ever ventured to use this set, not having a big enough capacity for it. As you asked for it, granny, and we went to all the trouble of fetching it, you must drink from each cup in turn.”
“I daren’t!” exclaimed Granny Liu in consternation. “Dear madam, do let me off.”
The Lady Dowager, Aunt Xue and Lady Wang, knowing that she was too old to stand this, made haste to intervene.
“She mustn’t drink too much,” they said. “It’ll do if she just empties the biggest cup.
“Amida Buddha!” cried the old woman. “Let me use the small one, and put that big one aside. I’ll take it home to drink up little by little.”
All Yuanyang could do was to have one large cup filled, and Granny Liu raised this in both hands to her lips.
“Go easy,” warned both the Lady Dowager and Aunt Xue. “Mind you don’t chock.”
Aunt Xue urged Xifeng to give her some food with the wine.
“What would you like, granny?” Xifeng asked. “Just name it and I’ll feed you some.
“How can I tell what these dishes are?” said Granny Liu. “They all look good to me.
“Give her some fried egg-plant,” proposed the Lady Dowager with a smile.
Xifeng did so, picking up the food with her chopsticks and putting it into Granny Liu’s mouth.
“You must eat egg-plant every day,” she remarked. “Taste this of ours and see how you like it.”
“Don’t try to fool me,” cackled Granny Liu. “If egg-plant tasted like this, we’d stop growing other crops just stick to egg-plant.”
“It really is egg—plant,” they assured her. “We’re not fooling you.”
“Really egg-plant, is it?” marvelled the old woman. “All this time I’d no idea. Give me some more, madam, to chew more carefully.”
Xifeng accordingly fed her another mouthful.
After savouring it slowly Granny Liu said, “It does taste a little like egg-plant, but still it’s quite different. Tell me how you prepared this, so that I can cook some for myself.”
“It’s quite simple,” replied Xifeng, twinkling. “Pick some early egg¬plant and peel it, keeping only the best part, which must be cut into small pieces and fried with chicken fat. Then get some chicken breast, fresh mushrooms, bamboo shoots, dried mushrooms, spiced dried beancurd and various kinds of preserved fruit. Dice these too and boil them with the egg-plant in chicken soup, then add sesame oil and pickles and store it in a tightly-sealed porcelain jar. That’s all.”
Granny Liu shook her head and stuck out her tongue in amazement.
“Gracious Buddha! No wonder it tastes so good, cooked with a dozen chickens.”
While talking she had slowly finished the wine and now she started examining the cup.
“You haven’t drunk enough yet,” said Xifeng. “Have another cup¬ful.”
“Not on your life! It would kill me. It’s just that I admire pretty things like this. What workmanship!”
“Now that you’ve finished drinking from it,” put in Yuanyang, “tell us what wood it’s made of.”
“I’m not surprised you don’t know, miss.” Granny Liu smiled. “Liv¬ing behind golden gates and embroidered screens, what should you know about wood? But we hobnob with wood all day long, sleep on wooden pillows, rest on wooden stools and even eat the bark of trees in time of a famine. Seeing it and hearing and talking about it all the time, I can natu-rally tell good wood from bad and true from false. Well now, let me see what this is.” She was scrutinizing the cup carefully as she spoke. “Such a family as yours would certainly have nothing cheap, nor would you use any wood that’s easily come by. Judging by the weight of this, it can’t be fir, it must be pine wood.”
The whole party had exploded in fits of mirth when a serving-woman came in to tell the old lady:
“The young actresses have all gone to Lotus Fragrance Anchorage and are waiting for Your Ladyship’s instructions. Should they start their performance now or wait a while?”
“Yes, we’d forgotten them,” chuckled the Lady Dowager. “Tell them to start.”
Soon after the serving-woman left on this errand they heard the lilting strains of flutes and pipes. The breeze was light, the air clear, and this music coming through the trees and across the water refreshed and glad¬dened theirhearts. Baoyu could not resist filling his cup with wine, which he tossed straight off. He had just poured himself another cup when he saw his mother, who also wanted a drink, send for freshly-heated wine. He promptly took his cup over and held it to her lips. She took two sips.
When presently the heated wine arrived, Baoyu returned to his place while Lady Wang rose from her seat, holding the wine-pot. At this all the rest, including Aunt Xue, stood up. At once the Lady Dowager told Li Wan and Xifeng to take the pot.
“Make your aunt sit down,” she said. “Let’s not be so formal.”
Lady Wang relinquished the pot then to Xifeng and resumed her seat.
“How pleasant it is today,” remarked the Lady Dowager cheerfully. “Let’s all have a couple of drinks.” Having urged Aunt Xue to drink she said to Xiangyun and Baochai, “You two must drink a cup too. And even though your cousin Daiyu can’t take much, we won’t let her off either.”
With that she drained her own cup so that Xiangyun, Baochai and Daiyu had to follow suit.
Now the music, on top of the wine, set Granny Liu waving her arms and beating time with her feet for sheer delight. Baoyu slipped across to whisper in Daiyu’s ear:
“Look at Granny Liu!”
“When the sage king of old played music, all the hundred beasts started dancing,” quipped Daiyu. “Today we’ve just this one cow.”
The others tittered.
Presently the music stopped and Aunt Xue rising from her seat sug¬gested, “We’ve all had enough to drink, haven’t we? Let’s go for a
stroll before sitting down again.”
As this suited the Lady Dowager, they all got up and she led the way outside. In the hope of some freash diversion, she took Granny Liu to a grove at the foot of a hill and led her to and fro, telling her the names of the different trees, flowers and rocks.
After digesting~all this information the old woman remarked, “Fancy, in town it’s not only the people who have class, the birds are high-class too. Why, when they come to this place of yours, they grow so clever they can even talk.”
Baffled by this the others asked, “What birds have grown so clever they can talk?”
“I know that green bird with the red beak on the golden perch in the corridor,” she said. “He’s a parrot. But how come that black crow in the cage has grown a phoenix-lile crest and learned to talk too?”
This provoked a fresh burst of laughter.
Soon some maids came to ask if they would take some refreshments.
“After all that wine, we’re not hungry,” replied the Lady Dowager. “Still, bring the things here and those who want to can help themselves.”
The maids fetched two teapoys and also two small hampers. These when opened were seen to contain two different confections each. In one were cakes made of ground lotus-foot flavoured with fragrant osmanthus, and pine-kernel and goose-fat rolls. In the other were tiny fried dumplings no more than one inch long.
“What’s the stuffing in these?” asked the Lady Dowager.
Some servants told her, “Crab-meat.”
The old lady frowned. “Who wants anything so greasy?”
The other confection, small coloured pastries fried with cream, did not appeal to her either. Aunt Xue took a roll when she was pressed, but after one bite she handed it to a maid.
Granny Liu was struck by the daintiness and variety of the small past¬ries. Selecting one shaped like a peony she said:
“The cleverest girls in our village couldn’t make scissor-cuts as good as this. I’m longing to try one, but it seems a shame to eat them. It would be nice to take some back as patterns for the folk at home.”
Everyone laughed.
“When you go,” promised the Lady Dowager, “I’ll give you a jarful to take back with you. First try some while they’re hot.”
The others simply picked out one or two titbits which took their fancy, but Granny Liu had never tasted anything of the sort before. It hardly seemed possible that these small dainty objects could be very filling, and so she and Baner sampled some of each until presently half were gone. Xifeng had the remainder put on two plates and sent in a hamper to the actresses.
Now Dajie’s nurse brought her along and they played with her for a while. The child was amusing herself with a pomelo when she noticed Baner’s Buddha’s-hand and wanted it. Although the maids promised to fetch her one too, she was unwilling to wait and burst into tears. At once they gave the pomelo to Baner and induced him to part with his Buddha’s-hand. He had played with it long enough by then and now had both hands full with the cakes he was eating; besides, this fragrant round pomelo seemed more amusing; so, kicking it about like a ball, he cheerfully relin¬quished the Buddha’s-hand.
As soon as they had finished this collation the Lady Dowager took Granny Liu to Green Lattice Nunnery. Miaoyu promptly ushered them into the courtyard, luxuriant with trees and flowers.
“It’s those who live the ascetic life, after all, who have time to im¬prove their grounds,” observed the Lady Dowager. “These look better-kept than other places.”
As she spoke, they were walking towards the hall for meditation on the east side, and Miaoyu invited them to go in.
“We’ve just been having wine and meat,” said the old lady. “As you’ve an image of Buddha inside, it would be sacrilege. We’ll just sit in the outside room for a while and have a cup of your good tea.”
Miaoyu at once went to make tea.
Baoyu watched the proceedings carefully. He saw Miaoyu bring out in her own hands a carved lacquer tea-tray in the shape of crab-apple blossom, inlaid with a golden design of the “cloud dragon offering longev¬ity.” On this was a covered gilded polyehrome bowl made in the Cheng Hua period,’ which she offered to the Lady Dowager.
“I don’t drink Liuan tea,” said the old lady.
“I know,” replied Miaoyu smiling. “This is Patriarch’s Eyebrows.”
“What water have you used?”
“Rain-water saved from last year.
The Lady Dowager drank half the bowl and passed the rest with a twinkle to Granny Liu, urging her to taste the tea. The old woman drank it straight off.
“Quite good, but a bit on the weak side,” was her verdict, which made everyone laugh. “It should have been left to draw a little longer.”
All the others had melon-green covered bowls with golden designs of new Imperial kiln porcelain.
Having served tea, Miaoyu plucked at the lapels of Baochai’s and Daiyu’s clothes and they went out with her, followed surreptitiously by Baoyu. She invited the two girls into a side room, where Baochai sat on a couch and Daiyu on Miaoyu’s hassock, while the nun herself fanned the stove and when the water boiled brewed some fresh tea. Baoyu slipped in then and accused them teasingly:
“So you’re having a treat here in secret!”
The three girls laughed.
“What are you doing here? There’s nothing here for you.
Miaoyu was just looking for cups when an old nun came in bringing the used bowls.
“Don’t put away that Cheng Hua bowl,” cried Miaoyu hastily. “Leave it outside.”
Baoyu knew that because Granny Liu had used it, she thought it too dirty to keep. Then he saw Miaoyu produce two cups, one with a handle and the name in uncial characters: Calabash Cup. In smaller characters it bore the inscriptions “Treasured by Wang Kai of the Jin Dynasty” and “In the fourth month of the fifth year of the Yuan Feng period2 of the Song Dynasty, Su Shi of Meishan saw this cup in the Imperial Secre¬tariat.” Miaoyu filled this cup and handed it to Baochai. The other, shaped like a small alms-bowl, bore the name in the curly seal script: “Rhinoc¬eros Cup.” Having filled this for Daiyu, she offered Baoyu the green jade beaker that she normally drank from herself.
“I thought that according to Buddhist law all men should be treated alike,” said Baoyu with a grin. “Why give me this vulgar object when
they get such priceless antiques?”
“Vulgar object!” retorted Miaoyu. “I doubt if your family could pro¬duce anything half as good, and that’s not boasting either.”
“As people say, ‘Other countries, other ways.’ Here with a person like you, gold, pearls, jade and jewels must all count as vulgar.”
Very gratified by this remark, Miaoyu produced a huge goblet carved out of a whole hamboo root which was covered with knots and whorls.
“Here’s the only other one I have,” she said. “Can you manage such a large one?”
“Of course I can!” declared Baoyu delightedly.
“Even if you can, I’ve not so much tea to waste on you. Have you never heard the saying: ‘First cup to taste, second to quench a fool’s thirst, third to water an ox or donkey’? What would you be if you swal¬lowed such an amount?”
As the three others laughed, Miaoyu picked up the pot and poured the equivalent of one small cup into the goblet. Baoyu tasted it carefully and could not praise its bland purity enough.
“You’ve your cousins to thank for this treat,” observed Miaoyu primly. “If you’d come alone, I wouldn’t have offered you tea.”
“I’m well aware of that.” Baoyu chuckled. “So I’ll thank them in¬stead of you.”
“So you should,” said the nun.
“Is this made with last year’s rain-water too?” asked Daiyu.
Miaoyu smiled disdainfully.
“Can you really be so vulgar as not even to tell the difference? This is snow I gathered from plum-blossom five years ago while staying in Curly Fragrance Nunnery on Mount Xuanmu. I managed to fill that whole dark blue porcelain pot, but it seemed too precious to use so I’ve kept it buried in the earth all these years, not opening it till this summer. Today is only the second time I’ve used it. Surely you can taste the difference? How could last year’s rain-water be as light and pure as this?”
Daiyu, knowing her eccentricity, did not like to say too much or stay too long. After finishing her tea she signalled to Baochai and the two girls left, followed by Baoyu.
As he was leaving he said with a smile to Miaoyu, “That bowl may
have been contaminated, but surely it’s a pity to throw it away? I think you’d do better to give it to that poor woman, who’d make enough by selling it to keep her for some time. Don’t you agree?”
After a little reflection Miaoyu nodded.
“All right,” she said. “It’s a good thing I’d never drunk out of it, or I’d have smashed it. But I can’t give it to her myself. If you want to give it to her, I’ve no objection. Go ahead and take it.”
“Of course,” he chuckled. “How could you speak to the likes of her? You’d be contaminating yourself. Just let me have it.”
Miaoyu sent for the bowl and had it handed to him.
As he took it he said, “After we’ve gone, shall I send a few pages with some buckets of water from the stream to wash your floors?”
“That’s a good idea.” She smiled. “Only make them leave the buck¬ets by the wall outside the gate. They mustn’t come in.”
‘‘Of course not.’’
He withdrew, the bowl in his sleeve, and entrusted it to one of his grandmother’s small maids with the instruction, “Give this to Granny Liu to take home tomorrow.”
By this time the Lady Dowager was ready to leave, and Miaoyu did not press her hard to stay but saw them out and closed the gate behind them.

The Lady Dowager, feeling rather tired, told Lady Wang and the girls to go and drink with Aunt Xue while she herself had a rest in Paddy-Sweet Cottage. Xifeng ordered a small bamboo sedan-chair to be brought. The old lady seated herself in this and was carried off by two serving-women, accompanied by Xifeng, Li Wan and all her own maids and older serving-women.
Meanwhile Aunt Xue had taken her leave too. Lady Wang, having dismissed the actresses and given what was left in the hampers to the maids, was free to lie down on the couch vacated by her mother-in-law. She told a small maid to lower the portiere and massage her legs.
“When the old lady wakes, come and let me know,” she ordered the servants. With that she settled down for a nap, and the rest of the party dispersed.
Baoyu, Xiangyun and the other girls watched the maids put the boxes
of titbits on the rocks. Then, some sitting on the rocks or grass, some leaning against trees or strolling by the lake, they niade very merry.
Yuanyang arrived presently to take Granny Liu for a stroll, and the rest of them tagged along to watch the run. When they reached the arch erected for the Imperial Consort’s visit home, Granny Liu exclaimed:
“My word, what a big temple!”
She plumped down to kowtow, making everyone double up with laughter.
“What’s so funny?” she asked. “I know the words on this arch. We have plenty of temples like this where I live, all with arches like this one here. The characters on it are the name of the temple.”
“What temple is this?” they demanded.
Granny Liu looked up and pointed at the inscription.
“Splendid Hall of the Jade Emperor, isn’t it?”
They laughed and clapped and would have gone on teasing her, but Granny Liu’s stomach suddenly started to rumble. Hastily asking one of the younger maids for some paper, she set about loosening her clothes.
“No, no! Not here!” they cried, nearly in hysterics.
An old nurse was told to take her to the northeastern corner. Having shown her the way, the old servant took the chance to amble off to have a rest.
Now the yellow wine which Granny Liu had been drinking did not agree with her; and to quench her thirst after eating all that rich food she had drunk so much tea that her stomach was upset. She remained squat¬ting for some time in the privy. When she emerged the wine had gone to her head, and squatting so long had left the old creature too dizzy to remember the way .she had come.
She looked round. Trees, rocks, towers and pavilions stretched on every side, but having no idea how to reach these different places she could only hobble slowly down a cobbled path until she came to a build¬ing. After searching for a long time for the gate, she saw a bamboo fence. So they have beantrellises here too, she thought. Skirting the hedge, shereached a moon-gate and stepped through it. Before her was a pool five or six feet across, its banks paved with flag-stones, a clear green brook flowing through it, and lying across it a long slab of white stone. She crossed over this stone to a cobbled path which, after a couple of
bends, brought her to a door. The first thing she saw as she entered it was a girl, smiling in welcome.
“The young ladies ditched me,” said Granny Liu hastily. “I had to knock about till I found this place.”
When the girl did not answer, the old woman stepped forward to take her hand and bang! — bumped her head painfully on a wooden partition. Looking carefully at it, she found it was a painting. Strange! How could they make the figure stick out like a real person? Touching it, however, she found it was flat all over. With a nod and couple of sighs of admiration she moved on to a small door over which hung a soft green flowered portiere. She lifted this, stepped through and looked around.
The four walls here were panelled with cunningly carved shelves on which were displayed lyres, swords, vases and incense-burners. They were hung moreover with embroidered curtains and gauze glittering with gold and pearls. Even the green glazed floor-tiles had floral designs. More dazzled than ever she turned to leave — but where was the door? To her left was a bookcase, to her right a screen. She had just discovered a door behind the screen and stepped forward to open it when, to her amaze¬ment, her son-in-law’s mother came in.
“Fancy seeing you here!” exclaimed Granny Liu. “I suppose you found I hadn’t been home these last few days and tracked me down here. Which of the girls brought you in?”
The other old woman simply smiled and did not answer.
“How little you’ve seen of the world,” chuckled Granny Liu. “The flowers in this garden are so fine, you just had to go picking some to stick all over your own head for shame!”
Again the other made no reply.
Suddenly Granny Liu recalled having heard that rich folk had in their houses some kind of full-length mirror. It dawned on her that this was her own reflection. She felt it with her hand and looked more carefully. Sure enough, it was a mirror set in four carved red sandalwood partitions.
“This has barred my way. How am I to get out?” she muttered.
Then the pressure of her fingers produced a click. For this mirror had western-style hinges enabling it to open or shut, and she had accidentally pressed the spring which made it swing back, revealing a doorway.
In pleased surprise Granny Liu stepped into the next room, where her eye was caught by some exquisite bed-curtains. Being still more than half drunk and tired from her walk, she plumped down on the bed to have a little rest. But her limbs no longer obeyed her. She swayed to and fro, unable to keep her eyes open, then curled up and fell fast asleep.
Meanwhile the others outside waited in vain for her till Baner started crying for his grandmother.
“Let’s hope she hasn’t fallen into the cesspool of the latrine,” they said jokingly. “Someone should go and see.”
Two old women were sent but came back to report that there was no sign of her. So they searched in all directions but still could not find her.
She must have lost her way because she’s drunk, thought Xiren, and may have followed that path to our back yard. If she passed the hedge and went in by the back door, even if she knocked about blindly the girls there must have seen her. If she didn’t go that way but headed south¬west, let’s hope she’s found her way out. If not, she may still be wander¬ing around there. I’ll go and have a look.
Thinking in this way, she went back to Happy Red Court and called for the younger maids who had been left to keep an eye on the place. But they had seized this chance to run off and play. Going in past the latticed screen she heard thunderous snores and, hurrying into the bedroom, found the whole place reeking of wine and farts. On the bed, sprawled out on her back, lay Granny Liu. Xiren was shocked. She ran over and shook her hard until Granny Liu woke with a start. At sight of Xiren she hastily scrambled up.
“It was wrong of me, miss,” she cried. “But I haven’t dirtied the bed.” She was brushing it with both hands as she spoke.
Xiren signed to her to keep quiet, not wanting to disturb others for fear Baoyu should come to hear of this. Hurriedly she thrust several handfuls of incense into the large tripod and replaced the cover, then straightened things a little in the room. It was lucky at least that the old woman hadn’t been sick.
“It’s all right,” she whispered quickly. “I’ll see to this. Just say you were so tipsy that you fell asleep on one of the rocks outside. Now come along with me.”
Granny Liu assented readily and followed Xiren out to the young maids’ room where she was told to sit down. Two bowls of tea sobered her up enough to ask:
“Which of the young ladies’ room was that? So elegant and beauti¬ful! I thought I was in heaven.”
“That?” Xiren smiled. “That’s Master Bao’s bedroom.”
Granny Liu was too shocked to utter another word. Xiren took her out the front way to find the rest of the party.
“Granny Liu fell asleep on the grass” was all she told them. “Now I’ve brought her back.”
Then the others thought no more of the matter, and there it rested.
To know what the sequel was, read the next chapter.


Chapter 42

The Lady of the Alpinia Warns Against
Dubious Tastes in Literature
The Queen of Bamboos’ Quips
Add to the General Enjoyment


Presently the Lady Dowager awoke and the evening meal was served in Paddy-Sweet Cottage. But the old lady, too listless to eat, had herself carried back in the small bamboo sedan-chair to her own apartments to rest. She insisted, however, that Xifeng and the others should dine, and so they returned to the Garden. After the meal they went their different ways.
Now Granny Liu took Baner to see Xifeng.
‘I must go home first thing tomorrow,’ she announced. ‘I’ve not stayed here long, only two or three days, yet I’ve seen things, eaten things and heard tell of things I never even knew existed. The old lady and you, madam, as well as the young ladies and the girls in the different apartments, have all been kindness itself to a poor old woman. I’ve no way to show my gratitude when I get back except by burning incense every day and praying hard to Buddha to grant that all of you live to be a hundred.’
‘Don’t look so pleased,’ replied Xifeng with a smile. ‘All because of you, the old lady’s in bed with a chill and our Dajie has caught cold too and is running a fever.’
‘The old lady feels her age, and she isn’t used to exercise,’ observed Granny Liu with a sigh.
‘She’s never been in such high spirits as yesterday,’ Xifeng assured her. ‘Though she likes a jaunt in the Garden, she usually only sits a while in one or two places before coming back. With you here to show round yesterday, she covered more than half the Garden. As for Dajie, Lady Wang gave her a cake while she was crying for me, and eating it in the wind has made her feverish.’
‘I don’t suppose the little dear goes much into the Garden or places she doesn’t know. Not like our children, who as soon as they can walk are scampering all over the graveyards. She may have caught a chill in the wind, or being a clear-eyed innocent she may have met some spirit. If I were you I’d look up some book of enchantments, just so as to be on the safe side.’
Acting on this advice, Xifeng asked Pinger to find The Records of the Jade Casket and told Caiming to look up the relevant passage. After leafing through it Caiming read, ‘On the twenty-fifth of the eighth month, illness may be caused in the southeast by meeting a flower spirit. The cure is to carry forty coloured paper coins forty paces southeast, offering one at each step.’
‘There you are!’ exclaimed Xifeng. ‘There must be flower spirits in the Garden. Probably the old lady has run into one too.’
She sent for two lots of paper money and two servants to exorcise these spirits for the Lady Dowager and her own small daughter. Then sure enough Dajie fell into a sound sleep.
‘Yes, after all, it’s the old who are the most experienced,’ observed Xifeng. ‘Can you tell me, granny, why our Dajie is always ailing?’
‘It’s natural enough. The children of wealthy families are too deli¬cate to stand any rough handling. Being too pampered isn’t good for kiddies either. She’ll do better, madam, if you don’t spoil her too much.’
‘I think you’re right,’ agreed Xifeng. ‘By the way, she has no name yet. You give her one so that she can share your good fortune and live as long as you. Besides ‘ I hope you won’t mind my saying this you country folk aren’t so well off, and a name given by someone poor like you should act as a counterbalance.’
‘When was she born?’ asked Granny Liu after some thought.
‘That’s the trouble: the seventh of the seventh month.’
‘Why, that’s good! Call her Qiaoge1 then. This is what is known as ‘fighting poison with poison and fire with fire.’ If you agree to this name, madam, she’s sure to live to a ripe old age. And when she grows up and has her own family, if anything untoward happens, her bad luck will turn into good all because of this ‘happy coincidence’ in her name.
Xifeng was naturally pleased and said gratefully, ‘I hope it will turn out for her as you say.
She called Pinger then and told her, ‘Tomorrow we’ll most likely be busy. Sort out our presents for granny now that you’re free, so that she can leave as early as suits her tomorrow.’
‘You mustn’t spend any more on me,’ protested Granny Liu. ‘I’ve imposed on you for several days already, and if I take presents too I shall feel even worse.
‘It’s nothing much, nothing special,’ replied Xifeng. ‘But good or bad you must take it. That will look better to your neighbours you’ll have something to show for your trip to town.’
Just then Pinger returned and said, ‘Come and have a look, granny.
She led the old woman to the other bedroom, where the kang was half covered with things. Pinger picked them up one by one to show them to her.
‘This is the green gauze you admired yesterday,’ she said. ‘And here is some pale grey gauze from our mistress for a lining. These two rolls of raw silk would do well for tunics or skirts, and the two lengths of silk in this wrapping will make clothes for New Year. Here’s a hamper of all sorts of cakes from the Imperial kitchen; some you’ve tasted, others you haven’t; they’re better to offer to visitors than any you can buy outside. One of these two sacks you brought vegetables in has two pecks of rice in it from the Imperial fields, which makes an excellent porridge; the other is full of fruit and nuts from our Garden. In this packet are eight taels of silver. All these are presents from our mistress. These two pack¬ets of fifty taels each, a hundred in all, are a present from Lady Wang who wants you to start a small business or buy some land with it, so that in future you don’t have to appeal to friends for help.’ Then, smiling, she said in a low voice, ‘These two tunics and this skirt, four headscarfs and packet of embroidery silks are from me, granny. The clothes may not be new, but they haven’t been worn much. Still, if you turn up your nose at them, I shan’t complain.’
Granny Liu had exclaimed ‘Gracious Buddha!’ at each item men¬tioned, until she must have invoked Buddha hundreds of times. Now, finding Pinger so generous and so modest too, she protested with a smile:
‘How can you say such a thing, miss? Who am I to turn up my nose at such fine things? Things money wouldn’t buy, even if I had any. I just feel ashamed to take so much, and yet since you’re so generous, miss, I must.’
‘Don’t talk as if we were strangers,’ chuckled Pinger. ‘I wouldn’t presume like this if we weren’t good friends. So don’t have any scruples about accepting. I’ve a favour to ask you too. Next New Year I want you to bring us some of your dried vegetables cabbage, string-beans, lentil, egg-plant and gourds. All of us here, high and low, enjoy such things. That’ll be quite enough, don’t trouble to bring anything else.’
Granny Liu agreed to this with a thousand thanks.
‘Off to bed with you now,’ Pinger urged her. ‘I’ll pack everything up for you and put it here. First thing tomorrow I’ll get some boys to order a carriage and load this on for you, so that you don’t have to worry about a thing.’
More grateful than ever, Granny Liu went back to thank Xifeng effu¬sively and take her leave of her. She spent the night in the Lady Dowager’s apartments, meaning to say goodbye to the old lady as soon as she was up the next day.
But since the Lady Dowager was unwell, the whole family came the next morning to ask after her health, and a doctor was sent for. Soon a maid announced his arrival and an old nurse stepped forward to draw the bed-curtains.
‘I’m an old woman,’ said the Lady Dowager. ‘Old enough to be his mother. Why should I be afraid of his laughing at me? Leave the curtains as they are, he can see me like this.’
The maids moved a small table up to the bed, put a tiny cushion on it and sent to invite the doctor in. Presently ha Zhen, Jia Lian and Jia Rong led Doctor Wang over. Not presuming to walk up the central ramp, he took the side steps up the terrace behind Jia Zhen. Two serving-women had the portiere raised and two others ushered him in, while Baoyu came out to greet him.
The Lady Dowager in a blue silk tunic lined with a curly sheepskin was seated on the couch. On either side stood two short-haired young maids holding whisks, rinse-bowls and the like, while ranged beside them were half a dozen old nurses; and behind the green gauze screen the doctor glimpsed other figures wearing gay silks and trinkets set with pre¬cious stones and pearls. Lowering his head, he advanced to pay his re¬spects. The Lady Dowager saw from his robes of the sixth official rank that this was one of the Imperial physicians.
With a smile she greeted him, then asked Jia Zhen: ‘What is this gentleman’s honourable name?’
‘Wang.’
‘In the old days,’ she said, ‘the director of the Academy of Imperial Physicians. Wang Junxiao, was an excellent diagnostician.’
Wang bowed and, his head lowered, rejoined with a smile, ‘He was my great-uncle.’
‘So our families are old friends.’ With these words she slowly placed one hand on the cushion. An old nurse put a low stool slightly to one side of the table and Doctor Wang, sitting respectfully on the edge of the stool, bent one knee to lean over the couch. He felt both her pulses in turn for some length of time, his head inclined meditatively, after which he rose with a bow, his head lowered, to take his leave.
‘Thank you for your trouble,’ said the Lady Dowager. ‘Zhen, take the doctor to the study and see that he gets some tea.’
Jia Zhen and Jia Lian, quick to obey her instructions, conducted the doctor to the study outside.
There he told them, ‘There is nothing wrong with the old lady except a slight chill. She need not take any medicine. A light diet and keeping warm will put her right. However, I’ll make out a prescription and if she likes the old lady can take one dose. If she feels disinclined, it’s of no consequence.’
He sipped some tea then and wrote out the prescription. Just as he was about to leave, Dajie’s nurse carried her in and asked with a smile:
‘Will Doctor Wang look at us too?’
The doctor at once stood up. Supporting the child’s hand with his own left hand as she nestled in the nurse’s arms, with his right hand he felt her pulse. Then he felt her forehead and made her show him her tongue.
‘This young lady may scold me for what I’m going to say,’ he told them with a smile. ‘She will be all right if she just goes without two meals. There’s no need to dose her with medicine. I’ll bring some pills for her to take dissolved in ginger-water before sleeping.’
With that he left, seen off by Jia Zhen and the others. They went back to report his diagnosis to the Lady Dowager, then laid the prescription on her desk and withdrew. Lady Wang and the younger women and girls had emerged from behind the screen once the doctor had gone, and Lady Wang sat there a little longer before returning to her own apartments.
When Granny Liu knew that the old lady was free, she came in to say goodbye. The Lady Dowager urged her to come again and told Yuanyang:
‘See Granny Liu out. I’m not well enough to see her off myself.’
Then with final thanks Granny Liu took her leave and withdrew with Yuanyang to the maids’ room. Yuanyang pointed at a bundle on the kang.
‘Those are two sets of clothes given to the old lady on previous birth¬days,’ she said. ‘She never wears anything made outside, and it’s a pity to keep them stored away, but she’s never once put them on. Yesterday she told me to choose two sets for you to take back you can either give them away or wear them at home. In this hamper are the pastries you asked for. In this packet the medicines: plum-blossom powder, purple-gold pills, tonic for the blood and restorative pills, each kind wrapped up with directions for its use. Here are two embroidered pouches you can wear for fun.’ She loosened the strings of these and took out two silver ingots. Showing her the device ‘May your wishes come true,’ she sug¬gested with a smile, ‘You take the pouches, granny, and leave these to me.
Granny Liu, in such raptures already that she had invoked Buddha several hundred times, at once agreed, ‘Of course, you keep them, miss.’
Yuanyang smiled to see that the old woman thought her in earnest. Replacing the ingots she said, ‘I was only teasing. I’ve plenty of these. Keep them to give the children at New Year.’
And now a young maid stepped forward to hand Granny Liu a porce¬lain bowl made in the Cheng Hua period.
‘This is a present from Master Bao,’ she announced.
‘Well, imagine that!’ cried Granny Liu, taking the bowl. ‘I must have done good deeds in some past life to have all this happen today.’
‘Those clothes you changed into when I asked you to have a bath the other day were mine,’ Yuanyang told her. ‘If they’re any use to you keep them, and here are a few others.’
As Granny Liu hastily thanked her, she produced two more sets of clothing and wrapped them up for her. The old woman wanted to go to the Garden to say goodbye to Baoyu, the young ladies and Lady Wang, but Yuanyang prevented her.
‘There’s no need. They don’t see people at this hour. I’ll tell them later. You must come again when you’ve time.’
An old serving-woman was dispatched to get a boy from the inner gate to help Granny Liu with her things. Then they went to Xifeng’s apartments to fetch the gifts there, which the page carried out through the side gate and loaded on to the carriage they had hired. Finally, the old serving-woman escorted Granny Liu to the carriage and saw her off.
After breakfast, Baoyu and the others paid their respects again to the Lady Dowager, after which they returned to the Garden. Where their ways parted Baochai said to Daiyu:
‘Come with me. I’ve something to ask you.
So Daiyu accompanied her to Alpinia Court.
As soon as they arrived, Baochai sat down and announced teasingly, ‘You must kneel down. I’m going to try you.
‘The girl must be mad!’ exclaimed Daiyu in amazement. ‘What am Ito be tried for?’
‘A fine young lady you are, a sheltered, innocent girl!’ Baochai snorted. ‘Yet the things you say! Confess now.
Daiyu, who had not the least idea what she meant, was amused but beginning to be worried too.
‘What have I said wrong?’ she asked. ‘You’re just trying to pick fault. Tell me what you mean.
‘So you’re still playing the innocent.’ Baochai smiled. ‘What were those lines you quoted yesterday when we played the drinking game? I couldn’t think where they had come from.’
Daiyu remembered then that, the day before, she had been careless enough to quote two lines from The Peony Pavilion and The Western Chamber. Her cheeks flaming, she threw her arms round Baochai and giggled:
‘Dear cousin, they slipped out inadvertently. Now that you’ve scolded me, I promise not to say them again.’
‘They were new to me but I was so struck by them I’d like to know where they’re from.’
‘Don’t tell anyone, dear cousin! I won’t do it again.’
She was blushing in such confusion and pleading so hard that Baochai had not the heart to question her further. Instead she made her sit down and have some tea.
‘You may not believe it, but I used to be a madcap too,’ she said gently. ‘At seven and eight I was a real handful. Our family could be considered a scholarly one, and my grandfather’s chief delight was col¬lecting books. There were a lot of us in those days, boys and girls to¬gether, and we all hated serious books. Some of my boy cousins liked poetry, others librettoes. We had books like The Western Chamber. Tale of the Lute and A Hundred Dramas of the Yuan Dynasty ‘ a whole collection of that sort. They used to read them in secret, and so did we girls. When the grown-ups later found out, we were beaten or scolded and the books were burnt, which put a stop to that.
‘So it’s best for girls like us not to know how to read. Even boys, if they study to no good purpose would do better not to study at all, and that’s even truer in our case. Poetry-writing and calligraphy are not re¬quired of us, nor of boys either for that matter. If boys learn sound prin¬ciples by studying so that they can help the government to rule the people, well and good; but nowadays we don’t hear of many such cases ‘reading only seems to make them worse than they were to start with. And while study leads them astray, the books they read are debased too. So it’s worse than taking up farming or trade, for in those professions they could do less damage. As for us, we should just stick to needlework. If we happen to have a little education we should choose proper books to read. If we let ourselves be influenced by those unorthodox books, there’s no hope for us.’
Daiyu had lowered her head to sip tea during this lecture and, rather impressed by it, she now simply murmured, ‘Yes.’
Just then Suyun came in to announce, ‘Our mistress wants you both to go and discuss some important business. All the other young ladies are there with Master Bao.’
‘What can this be?’ wondered Baochai.
‘We’ll know when we get there,’ said Daiyu.
They went to Paddy-Sweet Cottage, where they found all the others assembled.
Li Wan told them gaily, ‘Before we’ve got our club going, someone’s trying to wriggle out. Here’s Xichun asking for a whole year’s leave.’
‘That’s all because the old lady told her yesterday to paint a picture of the Garden,’ said Daiyu. ‘She’s glad of the excuse to ask for leave.’
‘You can’t blame it on the old lady,’ countered Tanchun. ‘It was Granny Liu who started it.’
‘That’s right,’ rejoined Daiyu promptly. ‘It’s all owing to her. Whose granny is she anyway? Old Mother Locust would be a better name for her.’
Everybody laughed.
‘Xifeng knows all the usual run of smart talk,’ said Baochai. ‘Luck¬ily she hasn’t had too much education, so all her jokes are the vulgar talk of the town. But now our sharp-tongued Daiyu is using the method of the Spring-and-Autumn Annals2 to condense such talk, extract its essence and colour it with metaphors so that every phrase tells. How graphically the name Old Mother Locust conjures up everything that happened yes¬terday. What a ready wit!’
‘Your commentaries are quite up to their standard too,’ cried the others, laughing.
Li Wan interposed, ‘I asked you here to decide how much leave to allow her. I said a month, but she thinks that’s too short. What do you say?’
‘Actually a year isn’t too long,’ replied Daiyu. ‘Since this Garden took a year to build, painting it will naturally require two, what with grind¬ing the ink, spreading out the paper, dipping the brushes in the colours and then....
Before she could finish the others, knowing that she was poking fun at Xichun, asked, ‘And then what?’
Unable to hold back her laughter, Daiyu went on, ‘Then slowly paint¬ing the whole thing in detail. It will surely take two years.
This sally was greeted with hilarious applause.
‘Marvellous!’ cried Baochai. ‘Especially that last bit about ‘slowly painting.’ Painting is the crux of the business, isn’t it? That’s why all those jokes yesterday seemed funny at the time, not when you look back on them; but when you consider what she’s just said, though there seems nothing to it, it’s so funny in retrospect that I can’t move for laughing.’
‘You’re egging her on to show off,’ complained Xichun. ‘And at my expense this time.
Daiyu caught hold of her arm. ‘Tell me, are you just painting the Garden or us as well?’ she asked.
‘The idea at first was just the Garden,’ said Xichun. ‘But yesterday the old lady objected that that would look like an architect’s drawing. She told me to put everybody in, just as in a family outing. I’m no good at the details of buildings or at painting people either, but I can’t very well back out now. A fine fix I’m in.’
‘People are easy,’ said Daiyu.’But can you paint insects?’
‘You’re talking nonsense again,’ objected Li Wan. ‘What insects does this painting need? A bird or two, perhaps, would be appropriate.’
‘We can dispense with other insects,’ giggled Daiyu. ‘But the paint¬ing will have no point without yesterday’s Old Mother Locust.’
This produced a fresh outburst of laughter.
Shaking with mirth and pressing her hands to her heart, Daiyu cried, ‘Do start soon. I’ve even got the title ready for you. Call it Guzzling in the Company of the Locust.’
That set them rocking backwards and forwards with laughter until something crashed to the floor. At once all looked round. Xiangyun had been leaning on the back of a chair and, this being none too steady, her weight on it as she laughed had toppled it over, upsetting both girl and chair. Luckily the partition stopped her from slipping to the ground. This sight convulsed the whole party. Baoyu hastily helped Xiangyun up, and by degrees they regained control of themselves.
Baoyu then shot Daiyu a glance. Taking the hint she went into the bedroom and took the cover off the mirror to have a look. Seeing that the hair at her temples was dishevelled, she smoothed it with a hair-brush from Li Wan’s dressing-case, then put the brush away again and re¬joined the party.
Wagging one finger at Li Wan she demanded, ‘Are you teaching us needlework and sound principles, or are you getting us here to romp and have fun?’
‘Just listen to her!’ protested Li Wan. ‘She takes the lead in sending you into hysterics but puts the blame on me. What a terror she is! Well, I just hope, when you marry, you’ll get a fierce mother-in-law and several really vicious sisters-in-law. We’ll see if you can go on being so cheeky then.’
Daiyu, flushing, caught hold of Baochai. ‘Let’s grant her one year’s leave.’
‘I’ll make a fair proposal,’ countered Baochai. ‘Listen, all of you. What Xichun’s best at is impressionistic sketches, whereas for a painting of this Garden one needs to have the whole lay-out in mind. As a matter of fact, this Garden itself is exactly like a painting with just the right number of rocks, trees, pavilions and villas near and far, some scattered, some grouped together. If you put all that on paper as it is, the result can’t possibly please. You must consider the spacing on the paper, how much to present in the background, how much in the foreground, what to play up and what to play down. Certain things should be added, others left out; certain things should be hidden, others revealed. And you must study your draft carefully to produce a good composition.
‘The second essential thing is that in order to get the proportions of the buildings right you’ll have to use a ruler. The least carelessness may result in crooked balustrades, collapsing pillars, lopsided windows and doors, steps out of line, or even tables squashed into the walls and flower¬pots perched on top of screens. Then the whole thing would be a joke.
‘The third thing is to make sure that the figures put in are suitably spaced and at different heights. Then the folds of their clothes, their girdles, their fingers and the way they walk are especially important. One slip of the brush and you’ll get swollen hands and deformed feet which will look worse than dirty faces or tousled hair.
‘So it seems to me a very difficult job. One year’s leave is too long, but one month is too short. I suggest allowing her half a year and asking Cousin Bao to help her. Not that he can teach her anything about painting - he’d only hold her up -  but if she has any problems or difficulties he can help solve them by consulting those gentlemen in the study outside who are good at painting.’
‘That’s a good idea,’ cried Baoyu eagerly. ‘Zhan Ziliang paints ex¬cellent pavilions in the meticulous style and Cheng Rixing does superb beauties. I can go and consult them right away.’
‘‘Much Ado About Nothing’ ‘ that’s you,’ observed Baochai. ‘I say one word and off you go to consult them. At least wait till we’ve reached a decision. First let’s discuss what materials we’ll need.’
‘We’ve some big sheets of xue lang paper3 at home which absorbs ink well,’ put in Baoyu.
‘I knew you’d be no use.’ Baochai smiled mockingly. ‘That xue lang paper absorbs the ink and gives good shading effects for calligra¬phy, ink sketches or landscapes of the Southern School. But if you used it for this, the colours wouldn’t stand out and would easily run. Yon’d ruin the picture and simply waste the paper.
‘So let me make a suggestion. When this Garden was built there was a detailed architect’s drawing, and though it was done by craftsmen the lay-out and directions are accurate. Ask Lady Wang for that and Xifeng for a piece of heavy weight silk of the same size, then get the secretaries outside to have the silk prepared and make a draft according to the draw¬ing with some additions or omissions; and once you’ve put in the figures there’s your painting. Ask them to prepare the green and blue colours and the gold and silver too. In addition you’ll need portable stoves to melt and extract the glue, as well as to heat water to clean the brushes. A big varnished table with a felt cover will be needed too. You haven’t enough paint-saucers or brushes either. You’d better buy new sets.’
‘I haven’t all that equipment,’ exclaimed Xichun. ‘I just paint with my writing-brushes. And the only pigments I have are red-ochre, indigo, gamboge and rouge. Apart from that, all I have is a couple of colouring brushes.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me earlier?’ scolded Baochai. ‘I’ve got all that paraphernalia, more than you’d need ‘ you couldn’t have used it all if I’d sent it over. I’ll keep it for you, and let you have whatever you want when you need it. But these things are only good for painting fans; it would be a pity to use them on a painting this size. I’ll make out for you now a list of materials you can ask the old lady for. In case you don’t know everything that’s required, I’ll list them and Cousin Bao can write them down.’
Baoyu, not trusting his memory, had already got brush and ink ready and at this he picked up the brush with alacrity.
‘Four large brushes for drawing outlines, four of the medium size and four small ones,’ Baochai began. ‘Four large colouring brushes, four medium and four small ones; ten large brushes for painting fine lines and ten small ones; ten beard-and-eyebrow brushes; twenty large and twenty small brushes for colour washes; ten brushes for painting features; twenty willow brushes.
‘Then you’ll need four ounces each of ‘arrow-head’ cinnabar, south¬ern ochre, orpirnent, azurite, malachite and gamboge; eight ounces of indigo; four boxes of white lead; ten sheets of rouge; two hundred sheets each of red gold-foil and green gold-foil; four ounces of glue and four ounces of pure alum ‘ that’s not counting what’s used to prepare the silk, but you can leave that to the secretaries when you get them to do it. Once these pigments are properly rinsed, ground, mixed with glue and shaken, I guarantee you’ll have enough to play about with and last you a lifetime.
‘Then you must prepare four fine silk filters; four sieves; four feather-dusters; four large and small mortars; twenty large coarse bowls; ten five-inch saucers; twenty three-inch coarse white saucers; two portable stoves; four large and small earthenware cooking pots; two new porce¬lain jars; two new buckets; four white cloth bags one foot long; twenty catties of soft charcoal; one catty of hard charcoal; one chest with three drawers; ten feet of plain gauze; two ounces of ginger; half a catty of soy sauce....
‘And one pan and frying-slice,’ put in Daiyu.
‘What are they for?’ demanded Baochai.
‘Since you want things like ginger and soy sauce, I may as well get you a pan to fry those colours and eat them.’
Everyone laughed.
‘You don’t understand,’ rejoined Baochai with a smile. ‘Those coarse saucers can’t stand too much heat. The fire would crack them if you didn’t first smear ginger and soy sauce on the bottom.’
‘Yes, that’s right,’ agreed the others.
Daiyu had another look at the list, then nudged Tanchun and whis¬pered, ‘Look at all the pots and chests she wants just for one painting. She must have mixed things up and put in the list of her dowry as well.’
Tanchun exploded in a fit of laughter.
‘Cousin Baochai!’ she cried. ‘Why don’t you pinch her lips? Ask her what she just said about you.
‘I don’t have to ask,’ retorted Baochai. ‘One doesn’t expect ivory from a dog’s mouth.’
As she spoke she pushed Daiyu down on the kang to pinch her cheeks.
‘Forgive me, dear cousin,’ pleaded Daiyu giggling. ‘I’m too young to know the right way to talk; but you, dear as an elder sister to me, can teach me. If you won’t forgive me, who else can I turn to?’
The others did not know what lay behind this exchange.
‘How pathetic she sounds,’ they teased. ‘Our hearts bleed for her. Do let her off!’
Baochai had only been joking, but catching this reference to her ear¬lier lecture on reading improper books, she stopped teasing and let Daiyu go.
‘What a good girl you are,’ observed Daiyu. ‘If it had been me I shouldn’t have been so forgiving.’
Baochai pointed a finger at her. ‘No wonder the old lady’s so fond of you and everybody loves you. I declare I’m growing quite fond of you myself now. Come here and let me do your hair for you.’
Daiyu, complying, turned round and Baochai arranged her dishevelled hair for her. Baoyu, watching, decided that this way of dressing her hair was an improvement and regretted having sent her to comb her hair before ‘ the job should have been left for Baochai. His reverie was cut short by Baochai remarking:
‘If you’ve finished that list, you can show it to the old lady tomorrow. We may have the things at home; if not, they can be bought. I’ll help you with the preparations.’
Baoyu put the list away then and they chatted. That evening after dinner they went as usual to pay their respects to the Lady Dowager. As she had been suffering from nothing more serious than a slight chill caught when she was tired, a day in bed and a dose of medicine had set her right by the evening.
What happened the day after is told in the next chapter.

Chapter 43

To Kill Time Money Is Raised
to Celebrate a Birthday
Incense Is Burned on the Ground
to Undying Love


The Lady Dowager was not really ill but had simply caught a chill that day in the Garden. Knowing that a visit from the doctor and some medi¬cine had set her right, Lady Wang stopped worrying and sent for Xifeng whom she told to prepare some things to be taken to Jia Zheng. While they were discussing this, the old lady summoned them and they both hurried over.
‘Are you feeling better, madam?’ asked Lady Wang.
‘Much better,’ replied the Lady Dowager. ‘Just now I tried some of that quail soup you sent, and found it tasty. I ate a few mouthfuls of the flesh too, and enjoyed it.’
‘That was a filial offering from Xifeng,’ said Lady Wang. ‘It shows a proper respect for her elders and due gratitude for all your kindness to her.’
‘It’s good of her to be so thoughtful.’ The old lady nodded. ‘If there’s any left not yet cooked, I’d like a few slices fried, because being salty it goes well with porridge. The soup doesn’t, although it’s good.’
Xifeng promised to see to this at once and had the order passed on to the kitchen.
Meantime the Lady Dowager told Lady Wang, ‘I’ll tell you why I sent for you. The second of next month is Xifeng’s birthday. Last year and the year before that I meant to celebrate it, but each time something urgent cropped up and I let matters slide. This year everyone’s here and nothing’s likely to happen, so let’s all have some good fun.’
‘Just what I was thinking,’ replied Lady Wang. ‘If that’s what you want, madam, why not settle on it?’
‘For birthdays in the past we’ve always sent our presents separately, which is stereotyped and rather formal. Now I’ve thought of a new, informal way which should be fun.’
‘We’ll do whatever you think best, madam.’
‘Well then, why don’t we copy those poorer families in which every¬body chips in, and however much is collected goes for a treat. What do you say? Wouldn’t that be fun?’
‘Very good. But how shall we go about it?’
Hearing this, the Lady Dowager in high spirits at once gave orders to invite over Aunt Xue, Lady Xing, the girls and Baoyu, as well as Jia Zhen’s wife Madam You from the other mansion, and the wives of the chief stewards such as Lai Da. The maids, infected by the old lady’s good humour, bustled off cheerfully to deliver her invitations; and in less time than it takes for a meal the room was packed with people, old and young, high and low.
Aunt Xue and the Lady Dowager had the seats of honour; Lady Xing and Lady Wang had two chairs by the door; Baochai and five or six other girls sat on the kang; Baoyu sat at his grandmother’s knee; and the rest stood, crowding the floor.
The Lady Dowager ordered stools to be fetched for Lai Da’s mother and a few of the older and most highly thought of nurses; for it was the family custom to show more respect to domestics who had served the older generation than to the sons and daughters of the house. Hence Madam You and Xifeng remained standing while, after a show of declin¬ing, Lai Da’s mother and three or four other old nurses sat down.
Then the Lady Dowager, beaming, announced her plan. All fell in readily with the novel suggestion. Those on good terms with Xifeng liked the idea, those afraid of her were glad of a chance to please her; and since everyone could afford it they agreed with alacrity.
The Lady Dowager made the first contribution, promising to give twenty taels.
‘I’ll follow suit,’ said Aunt Xue, ‘and give twenty too.’
‘We dare not rank ourselves with the old lady,’ disclaimed Lady Xing and Lady Wang laughingly. ‘Since we’re one grade lower, we’ll give sixteen apiece.’
‘We’re naturally one grade lower still,’ put in Madam You and Li Wan. ‘We’ll give twelve taels each.’
‘You’re a widow with no means of support,’ objected the old lady to Li Wan. ‘We can’t milk you like this. I’ll pay your share.’
‘Don’t get carried away, madam,’ warned Xifeng with a chuckle. ‘First count the cost. You still have two more shares to pay, yet now you’re offering to give twelve taels for her. You’re in a good mood at the moment, but presently you may regret it and complain, ‘So much spent on that minx Xifeng!’ Then you’ll play some clever trick to make me part unknowingly with three or four times the amount.’
‘What do you propose then?’ asked the Lady Dowager amid general laughter.
‘My birthday hasn’t come yet,’ said Xifeng, ‘but already I’m quite overwhelmed. Here I am, not paying a cent myself but imposing on all of you ‘ it’s really too bad. So why not let me pay for my sister-in-law? Then I’ll eat more on that day and enjoy myself better.’
Since Lady Xing and the others approved, the old lady gave her con¬sent.
‘I’ve something else to say,’ continued Xifeng. ‘It’s quite fair, I think, for our Old Ancestress to give twenty herself plus Daiyu’s and Baoyu’s shares, and for Aunt Xue to give twenty herself plus Baochai’s share. But it’s not very fair for the two mistresses to give less them¬selves, only sixteen each, and not to pay for anybody else either. This is too hard on our Old Ancestress.’
The Lady Dowager laughed heartily. ‘So this hussy Xifeng takes my side, and quite right too,’ she crowed. ‘They’d have cheated me if not for you.’
‘Just turn Baoyu and Daiyu over to them,’ urged Xifeng. ‘Make them pay one extra share each.’
‘Yes, that’s only fair,’ the old lady approved. ‘We’ll do that.’
Lai Da’s mother rose to her feet in mock indignation.
‘This is too bad! I can’t bear to see Their Ladyships treated this way. One is Madam Lian’s mother-in-law, the other’s her father’s sister; yet instead of taking their side she sides with someone less close. What’s become of her family feeling?’
This set the whole party laughing.
Then Lai Da’s mother said, ‘Twelve taels each from Madam You and Madam Zhu. Of course we’re a grade lower, aren’t we?’
‘No, you can’t reckon that way,’ replied the old lady. ‘It’s true you re one grade lower, but I know you’re all rich. You’ve much more money than they have. So though you rank lower, you must pay the same amount.’
The stewards’ wives readily agreed to this.
‘As for the girls,’ continued the old lady, ‘they can simply make a gesture by each giving the equivalent of her monthly allowance.’ She turned then and called, ‘Here, Yuanyang! A few of you get together and decide on your contributions.
Yuanyang assented and went out, coming back presently with Pinger, Xiren, Caixia and a few other younger maids. Some said they would give two taels, others one.
‘Why are you in on this?’ the old lady asked Pinger. ‘Shouldn’t you give your mistress something special for her birthday?’
‘I have my own present ready,’ replied Pinger gaily. ‘But I want to give my share to the general fund too.’
‘That’s a good girl,’ approved the Lady Dowager.
‘That accounts for everyone here,’ remarked Xifeng. ‘Just to be polite, though, we’d better ask the two concubines whether they’d like to join in or not. Otherwise they may feel slighted.’
‘Of course. Fancy my forgetting them! I don’t suppose they’re free to come. Send a maid to ask them.’
One of the girls went and after some time brought back the answer, ‘They’ll give two taels each too.’
The Lady Dowager was pleased. ‘Get a brush and ink and see how much it comes to,’ she ordered.
‘You greedy bitch,’ whispered Madam You to Xifeng. ‘So many in¬laws and nurses chipping in for your birthday, yet you’re still not satis¬fied. You must needs drag in those two poor wretches too.’
‘Nonsense!’ Countered Xifeng softly. ‘Get away with you! Who says they’re poor? They throw their money away on other people. We may as well take some and have a good time.’
By now the contributions had been counted and they totalled just over a hundred and fifty taels.
‘That’s more than enough for one day’s theatricals and feasts,’ ob¬served the Lady Dowager.
‘As we’re not inviting guests, the feasting won’t cost much,’ re¬marked Madam You. ‘This sum should be enough for two or three days. Besides, the theatricals won’t cost anything. We can save on that.’
‘We must get whatever troupe Xifeng wants,’ insisted the old lady.
‘We’ve heard our own actresses so many times,’ said Xifeng, ‘let’s spend some money and get in a troupe from outside.’
‘I’m entrusting all the arrangements to Zhen’s wife,’ announced the Lady Dowager. ‘We mustn’t make Xifeng work. She’s just to have fun that day.’
Madam You agreed to this. And they went on chatting till the old lady was tired, when the party slowly dispersed.
After seeing Lady Xing and Lady Wang off, Madam You called on Xifeng to discuss what arrangements to make for the party.
‘Don’t ask me,’ said Xifeng. ‘Just watch the old lady’s reactions and do whatever she wants.’
‘You minx, you don’t deserve such luck,’Madam You teased. ‘I couldn’t think what we were being summoned for. So it was just for this. And as if paying up weren’t bad enough, I’ve got to go to so much trouble too. How are you going to thank me?’
‘Don’t talk rubbish,’ chuckled Xifeng. ‘I didn’t ask you to help, why should I thank you? If you think it too much trouble, go and ask the old lady to give someone else the job.’
‘See how this has gone to your head!’ Madam You laughed. ‘Take my advice and be a bit more modest. If you’re so full of yourself you’ll spill over!’
After some further conversation she left.
The next morning Madam You was still making her toilet when some silver was delivered to the Ning Mansion.
‘Who brought this?’ she asked.
Her maids told her the wife of the steward Lin Zhixiao. She sent to have her fetched from the maids’ room. Madam You offered her a stool and still combing her hair inquired:
‘How much is there in this packet?’
‘It’s the money from the staff which we’ve brought over first,’ was the answer. ‘The old lady’s and the mistresses’ isn’t here yet.’
At this point the maids announced, ‘People have come with chips from Madam Xue and the mistress in the other mansion.’
‘You wretches,’ scolded Madam You, smiling. ‘You only remember words of no consequence. Yesterday, for fun, the old lady decided to copy the way poor families chip in to raise money; but you keep solemnly repeating the word. Bring the silver in at once. And see that the messen¬gers have some tea before they go.’
With a cheerful assent the maids brought in two packets of silver, including the shares of Baochai and Daiyu.
‘Whose is still missing?’ asked Madam You.
‘The old lady’s, Lady Xing’s and the shares of the young ladies and their maids,’ replied Mrs. Lin.
‘How about Madam Zhu?’
‘You’ll get hers from Madam Lian when you go over there, madam. It’s all there.’
Madam You, having finished her toilet, ordered her carriage and drove to the Rong Mansion. She called first on Xifeng, who had already wrapped the silver up ready to be delivered.
‘Is it all here?’ asked Madam You.
‘Yes.’ Xifeng smiled. ‘Hurry up and take it away. I won’t be re¬sponsible if anything’s lost.’
‘I don’t quite believe you.’ Madam You laughed. ‘I must count it here in your presence.’ She did so, and found that Li Wan’s share was missing. ‘I knew you were up to one of your tricks,’ she scolded. ‘Where’s your elder sister-in-law’s contribution?’
‘Haven’t you got enough with all the rest? What does it matter if you’re one share short? I’ll make it up later if your funds run out.’
‘Yesterday in front of everyone you played the Lady Bountiful; now you want to get out of it, but I won’t let you. I’ll have to apply to the old lady now for the money.’
‘What a terror you are,’ protested Xifeng, smiling. ‘Don’t complain next time you’re in trouble if I put on the screws.
‘So you can be frightened too! I wouldn’t let you off if you weren’t usually so dutiful to me.’ She took out Pinger’s share then, saying, ‘Here, Pinger, take this back. I’ll make it up for you if we haven’t enough.’
Pinger understood and replied, ‘Do keep it, madam. If there’s any left over, you can give it back to me later just the same.’
‘So your mistress is allowed to cheat, but I’m not allowed to bribe you,’ teased Madam You.
Then Pinger had to take the money back.
‘Your mistress is so thrifty,’ continued Madam You, ‘I wonder what she does with all her money. If she can’t spend it all, she’ll have to take it and spend it when she’s in her coffin.’
With this she set off to pay her respects to the Lady Dowager, and after a little conversation with her adjourned to Yuanyang’s room to ask her advice about the party and how best to please the old lady. When their plans were made and she was ready to leave, Madam You returned Yuanyang’s two taels with the explanation:
‘I shan’t be needing these.’
She went on then to Lady Wang’s apartments to chat, and when Lady Wang withdrew to her Buddhist shrine she gave Caiyun her share back too. Next she took advantage of Xifeng’s absence to reimburse the two concubines Zhou and Zhao as well. When they dared not take the silver she insisted:
‘You’re not well off enough to afford this. If Xifeng hears about it, I’ll take the blame.’
Then the two women accepted with effusive thanks.
In no time it was the second of the ninth month. All the inmates of the Garden knew that Madam You had arranged for a grand party with not only operas but acrobatics and blind story-tellers too, both men and women. They were looking forward to a delightful time.
Li Wan reminded the girls again, ‘Don’t forget, today is the day for our club meeting. I suppose Baoyu’s not here because he’s forgotten this refined gathering in his eagerness to join in the fun.’ She sent a maid to see what he was doing and ask him over.
The maid returned after some time to report, ‘Sister Xiren says he went out first thing this morning.’
‘Surely not!’ they exclaimed in surprise. ‘This girl’s muddled up the message.’
So Cuimo was sent to ask again, but on her return she confirmed that Baoyu had gone out, saying that a friend of his had died and he must go to offer condolences.
‘Impossible,’ cried Tanchun. ‘Nothing could have induced him to go out today. Fetch Xiren and let me ask her.’
But even as she was speaking, Xiren walked in.
‘Whatever business he had, he shouldn’t have gone out today,’ said Li Wan and the others. ‘In the first place, how could he run off on Madam Lian’s birthday, when the old lady’s in such good spirits and high and low in both mansions are going to join in the fun? In the second, this is the day for our first club meeting, yet he sneaks off alone without even asking leave.’
Xiren explained, ‘Last night he told me he’d important business first thing this morning and must go to the mansion of the Prince of Beijing, but he’d hurry back. I tried to dissuade him, but he wouldn’t listen. When he got up today he asked for a suit of mourning. It looks as if some lady of consequence in the prince’s household has died.’
‘If that’s so, he did right to go,’ observed Li Wan. ‘Still, he should be back by now.’
They discussed what to do.
‘Let’s just go ahead with our poems,’ said some. ‘We can punish him when he comes back.’
But just then the Lady Dowager sent for them, and they all went to her apartments. The old lady was displeased when Xiren reported Baoyu’s absence. She ordered him to be fetched back.
Baoyu, with something preying on his mind, the previous day had given Mingyan some instructions. ‘I’m going out first thing tomorrow, so have two horses waiting at the back gate. I don’t want anyone else to come with us. Tell Li Gui that I’m going to call on the Prince of Beijing, and that he must stop anyone going out to look for me. He can say I’ve been kept by the prince and will soon be back anyway.
Mingyan had no idea what was afoot but had to carry out his orders. The next morning, sure enough, he had two horses ready saddled outside the back gate of the Garden.
At dawn Baoyu, in full mourning, came out of the side gate, mounted his horse without a word and, bending low in the saddle, cantered off down the street. Mingyan could only mount the other horse and whip it on to catch up, shouting after him:
‘Where are we going?’
‘Where does this road lead?’
‘It’s the main road to the North Gate. There’s nothing amusing out¬side, it’s quiet and deserted.’
Baoyu nodded. ‘A quiet spot is what I want to find.’
He whipped his horse on and after a couple of turns it sped through the city gate. More puzzled than ever, Mingyan followed close behind. They rode straight on for seven or eight ii until the houses were few and far between. Then Baoyu reined to a halt and turned to ask:
‘Can I buy some incense here?’
‘I suppose so,’ said Mingyan. ‘What kind do you want?’
Baoyu replied thoughtfully, ‘Other kinds are no good; it must be made of sandalwood, rue or laka-wood.’
‘Those are difficult to get,’ Mingyan told him, grinning. When Baoyu looked worried he asked, ‘What do you need incense for, sir? I’ve no¬ticed that you often carry bits of incense in your pouch. Why don’t you use that?’
Thus reminded, Baoyu reached for the pouch inside his lapel and was pleased to discover two bits of eaglewood in it. He thought, ‘This seems a bit lacking in respect. Still, something I have on me should be better anyway than anything I can buy.’ He asked then where he could get hold of an incense-burner.
‘An incense-burner!’ exclaimed Mingyan. ‘Where would we find one out in the open country? If you wanted these things why didn’t you tell me before? I could easily have brought them.’
‘Don’t be a fool,’ retorted Baoyu. ‘I wouldn’t have been riding so hard if it was so simple.’
Mingyan thought for a while then suggested, ‘I have an idea you might consider, sir. I imagine you’ll be needing other things too, so why not go on another couple of ii to River Goddess Convent?’
‘Is River Goddess Convent near here? So much the better. Come on, then.
With a crack of his whip Baoyu set off again, calling over his shoulder to Mingyan, ‘The nuns in that convent often come to our house. If we ask them for the loan of an incense-burner, they’re bound to let us have one.’
‘Of course, we’re patrons of theirs. Even in a temple we didn’t know they could hardly refuse. Only I don’t understand why you’re so pleased to go there today, sir. I always thought you had a special dislike for this River Goddess Convent.’
‘It’s those vulgar fools who worship gods and build temples for no reason that I hate. Those rich eunuchs and ignorant women who have too much money to spend hear of some god and build a temple to him without knowing the least thing about him, on the strength of some legend or romance they’ve heard, which they take as the truth. In this River Goddess Convent, for example, they worship the Goddess of the River Luo. That’s how the convent got its name. But of course in ancient times no such goddess existed. She’s Cao Zijian’s invention.1 Yet some fools had to make an image and worship her. Still, this happens to suit my purpose today, so I’ll make use of it.’
They had now reached the convent gate. The old abbess was as as¬tonished by this visit as if a live dragon had swooped down from the sky. She made haste to welcome them and told an old serving-man to see to their horses. Baoyu, going in, did not bow to the image of the goddess but simply stared at it in admiration. For though made of clay it really had the grace of ‘a startled swan of drifting dragon’ and the charm of ‘a lotus rising from green water or sun shining through morning mist.’2 Unwit¬tingly, he shed tears.
When the old abbess offered him tea he asked if he might borrow an incense-burner. She went to fetch one, finally returning with incense and sacrificial paper to burn as well, but these Baoyu declined. He told Mingyan to find a clean spot at the back of the garden for the incense-burner. Failing to find one, his page asked:
‘How about the coping of the well?’
Baoyu nodded and went with him to the well. Having put down the incense-burner, Mingyan stepped aside. Baoyu produced and lit his eaglewood, bowed to it with tears in his eyes, then turned and ordered Mingyan to return the incense-burner. The page assented, but instead of doing as he was told he fell on his knees, kowtowed several times and then prayed:
‘I, Mingyan, have served our second master for several years now and known all his affairs; but he didn’t tell me about today’s sacrifice, and I dared not ask. Though your name, oh spirit to whom he is sacrific¬ing, is unknown to me, I am sure you must be a girl with no peer on earth or in heaven, of incomparable intelligence and beauty. As my master can’t tell you what it is he wants, let me pray to you in his place.
‘If your fragrant spirit has feeling and compassion, although sepa¬rated from the world of men do come and visit our young master from time to time, since he longs for you so much. And do help him in the nether world too, so that in his next life he may be reborn as a girl and enjoy himself with the rest of you, never again becoming a filthy man with a beard and shaggy eyebrows.’
This prayer ended, he gave several more kowtows before scrambling to his feet. While he was still holding forth, Baoyu could not help bursting out laughing. Now he kicked him over and swore:
‘Shut up, or people will laugh.’
Mingyan rose then and picked up the incense-burner. As they walked away he said, ‘I told the abbess you’d come out without any breakfast, sir, and asked her to prepare a simple meal. So do try to eat something. I know you’ve come out to avoid the big feast and the racket at home today. Spending a quiet day here you’ll have anyway observed the pro-prieties; but it would never do if you eat nothing.’
‘If we cut the feast, I don’t mind if we have a vegetarian snack here.’
‘Good. But there’s another thing: people are bound to be worried by our absence. If not for that, it wouldn’t matter going back late. But since they’ll be worrying, you ought to start back to town soon, sir, and go home. For one thing, that will relieve the minds of the old lady and Lady Wang; for another, you’ve already paid sufficient respect to the dead. That’s all there is to it. If you go home to drink and watch the shows, it won’t be because you want to but simply out of respect for your parents, sir. If you’re so set on staying here, regardless of how upset the old lady and Lady Wang are, even the spirit you’ve just sacrificed to will feel uncomfortable. What do you think, sir?’
‘I know what’s on your mind.’ Baoyu grinned. ‘You’re the only one to have come out with me, and you’re afraid of a dressing-down when we get home hence all this high-sounding advice. But I’ve not been here long, and I only came to make a sacrifice before going to the feast and watching the show. I never said I’d stay out here all day. Now that I’ve done what I came for, we can hurry back and stop them worrying. That’s best both ways, isn’t it?’
‘That’s more like it,’ said Mingyan.
They entered the hall where the abbess had indeed prepared a veg¬etarian meal for them. Baoyu ate a little and so did Mingyan, after which they mounted their horses and rode back the way they had come.
Mingyan behind kept warning, ‘Steady on, sir. That horse hasn’t been ridden much. Keep a good grip on the reins.’
In no time they re-entered the city and returned home through the back gate, then Baoyu hurried over to Happy Red Court. Xiren and the other girls had gone, leaving only a few old women there in charge. They beamed with joy at sight of Baoyu and exclaimed:
‘Amida Buddha! Here you are at last. You had Miss Xiren worried frantic. The feast is just starting. Do hurry, Master Bao.’
Baoyu hastily changed his mourning for splendid robes and asked where the feasters were.
The old women told him, ‘In the new hall in the small garden.’
He headed straight for the place, hearing in the distance the faint sound of singing and fluting. When he reached the entrance hall he saw Yuchuan sitting alone on the porch, in tears. She stopped crying at sight of him.
‘Here comes the phoenix!’ she cried. ‘Go in, quick. If you’d been any later, I can’t think what would have happened.’
‘Guess where I’ve been,’ he said with a sheepish smile.
But she did not answer, simply wiping her eyes.
He hurried into the hall and paid his respects to his grand-mother and mother. Everyone was as delighted as if they had indeed got hold of a phoenix. Then Baoyu greeted Xifeng and offered his congratulations.
‘You must have taken leave of your senses,’ scolded the Lady Dowa¬ger and his mother. ‘How could you run off without telling anybody? Disgraceful! If you ever do such a thing again, we shall tell your father when he comes home and he’ll give you another beating.’
Then the Lady Dowager rounded on the servants. ‘Why do you all do as he says?’ she stormed. ‘You let him go wherever he pleases without reporting it. And just where did you go?’ she asked Baoyu. ‘Have you had a meal? Did anything frighten you?’
‘‘Yesterday one of the Prince of Beijing’s favourite concubines died,’ said Baoyu. ‘I went to offer condolences. He was weeping so bitterly, I hadn’t the heart to leave him. So I stayed for a while.’
‘If you go out again without letting me know,’ she warned, ‘I really shall tell your father to beat you.’
Baoyu promised to do as she said. She threatened, then, to have his servants beaten; but the others pleaded:
‘Don’t take it to heart, madam. Now that he’s back we should stop worrying and have some fun.’
As the old lady’s fit of temper had been caused by anxiety, her delight at his return now restored her good humour. She stopped reproaching Baoyu and started making much of him instead, afraid he had had a bad time, missed his breakfast or been frightened on the road. Xiren had come to wait on him too, and they all went on watching the opera.
The opera performed that day was The Tale of the Thorn Pin, which so moved the old lady and Aunt Xue that they shed tears. The others laughed at or cursed the characters.
If you want to know what followed, read the next chapter.


Chapter 44

Xifeng, Taken by Surprise,
Gives Way to Jealousy
Pinger, Unexpectedly Gratified,
Makes Her Toilet


Baoyu was sitting with the girls as everybody watched The Tale of the Thorn Pin. When it came to the scene in which the hero sacrifices to his drowned wife, Daiyu remarked to Baochai:
‘What a fool this Wang Shipeng is! Surely he could offer a sacrifice anywhere. Why must he rush off to kneel beside the river? The proverb says: Things have their associations. But water the whole world over in the last analysis comes from the same source. He could have ladled out a bowl of water anywhere and wept over it to work off his feelings.’
Baochai refrained from answering, while Baoyu turned away to ask for some heated wine to toast Xifeng.
As this was a special occasion, the Lady Dowager was determined that Xifeng should have a whole day of unalloyed pleasure. Feeling un¬equal to joining the feasters herself, she reclined on a couch in the inner room to watch the opera from there with Aunt Xue, from time to time nibbling some of her favourite titbits set out on the teapoy beside her as they chatted. The two tables of food prepared for her she made over to the maids and serving-women who had no share in the feast; with in¬structions not to stand on ceremony but to sit in the verandah outside and eat and drink as much as they pleased.
Lady Wang and Lady Xing sat at the high table in the old lady’s room, the girls at tables in the outer room.
The Lady Dowager reiterated to Madam You, ‘Xifeng must take the seat of honour. And mind you play hostess well for me to show our ap¬preciation of her hard work all the year round.’
‘I’ll do my best, madam,’ promised Madam You. ‘But she says she’s not used to sitting in the seat of honour. She feels out of place there and won’t drink anything.’
‘If you can’t make her drink,’ chuckled the old lady, ‘I’ll go out presently and toast her myself.’
Xifeng hurried in to protest, ‘Don’t believe her, Old Ancestress. I’ve had quite a few cups already.’
The old lady jokingly ordered Madam You, ‘Drag her out quick, and force her on to her seat, then take it in turns to toast her. If she still refuses to drink, I shall really come out.’
Madam You gaily carried out these instructions and ordered a mug to be filled.
‘From one end of the year to the other you’ve been dutifully filial to the old lady, Lady Wang and me,’ she told Xifeng. ‘I’ve no gift for you today, so I’ll offer you a mug of wine with my own hands. Drink up now like a good girl.’
‘If you really want to show appreciation you must kneel down, then I’ll drink,’ was Xifeng’s laughing retort.
‘Don’t be carried away by all the compliments paid you. I can tell you, such good luck is very rare. Who knows if a day like this will ever come again? So make the most of it, and now drink two cups.’
Xifeng had no choice but to do as she was told. Next, all the girls presented cups and she had to sip from each. Then Lai Da’s mother, seeing the Lady Dowager in such high spirits, decided to join in the fun and led some old serving-women in to toast Xifeng, who again could not refuse them. By the time Yuanyang and the younger maids came to drink her health, she had really had all she could take.
‘Good sisters, let me off,’ she begged. ‘I’ll drink with you some other time.’
‘So we have no face, is that it?’ protested Yuanyang. ‘Why, even the mistress condescends to drink with us. You usually show us more consideration, but now in front of all these people you’re putting on the airs of a mistress. Well, it’s my fault for coming. If you won’t drink, we’ll leave you.’ She turned to go.
Xifeng hastily stopped her, crying. ‘All right, good sister, I’ll drink.’
She picked up the winepot, filled her cup to the brim, and tossed it off. Then Yuanyang withdrew with a smile.
After seating herself again, Xifeng felt the effects of the wine. Her heart was beating so fast that she decided to go home for a rest. As the jugglers has just come in, she asked Madam You to see about tipping them while she went and had a wash.
Madam You nodded and, since no one else detained her, Xifeng left the table and slipped out the back way. Watchful Pinger quickly followed her and took her arm. They were just approaching the covered walk when they noticed one of their young maids standing there, but at sight of them she turned and ran. This made Xifeng suspicious. She called to her to stop. At first the girl pretended not to hear, but when Pinger called to her too she had to come back.
Xifeng, more suspicious than ever now, stepped with Pinger into the entrance hall and told the maid to join them and close the partitions. Seat¬ing herself on the steps leading to the small courtyard, she made the girl kneel down.
‘Get two boys from the inner gate to bring ropes and whips,’ she sharply ordered Pinger. ‘We’ll give this impudent little bitch a good flog¬ging.’
The girl, frightened out of her wits, burst into tears and knocked her head on the ground as she begged for mercy.
‘I’m not a ghost,’ snapped Xifeng. ‘Why didn’t you stand to atten¬tion when you saw me? Why run away?’
‘I didn’t see you, madam,’ sobbed the maid. ‘I ran because I re¬membered there was no one in our apartments.’
‘If so, why did you come here in the first place? Even if you didn’t see me, we called you at the top of our voices a dozen times, but that only made you run the faster. We weren’t far off and you’re not deaf. How dare you answer back?’
She slapped the girl so hard on the face that she staggered, then gave her another slap on the other side. At once the girl’s cheeks began to swell up and turn purple.
‘Mind you don’t hurt your hand, madam,’ urged Pinger.
‘Hit her for me then. Make her say why she ran away. If she won’t, tear her lips!’
The maid went on protesting her innocence until Xifeng threatened to brand her mouth with a red-hot iron. Then she confessed with tears:
‘The master’s home. He sent me here to watch out for you and let him know as soon as I saw you coming, madam. He didn’t think you would be back so soon.’
Xifeng guessed that there was more to it than this. ‘Why did he ask you to do that?’ she demanded. ‘Why should he be afraid of my return? There must have been a reason. If you tell me straight out, I’ll be good to you; but if you won’t talk, I’ll get a knife this instant and carve you up.’ She drew a pin from her hair as she spoke and jabbed viciously at the maid’s mouth.
Shrinking back in fright the girl sobbed, ‘I’ll tell you, madam. But please don’t let the master know that I told.’
Pinger, trying to pacify Xifeng, urged the maid to hurry up.
‘The master came home not long ago and had a short nap,’ she said. ‘After he woke up he sent someone to see what you were doing, madam. She reported that you’d just started the feast and wouldn’t be back for some time. Then the master opened a case and took out two pieces of silver, two hairpins and two bolts of satin. He told me to take them se¬cretly to Bao Er’s wife and ask her to come over. She took the things and came; then the master told me to watch out for you, madam. What happened after that I don’t know.’
Trembling with rage, Xifeng sprang to her feet and hurried towards her compound. Another young maid was stationed at the gate, and at sight of Xifeng she ducked back and ran. Xifeng called her by name to stop, and this girl had more sense: seeing that there was no escape, she came running out instead.
‘I was just coming to report to you, madam,’ she said with a smile. ‘But luckily here you are.’
‘What were you coming to report?’
‘Our master’s back …’   She went on to repeat the story told by the other.
Xifeng spat in disgust. ‘And what have you been doing all this time?’ she cried. ‘You’re only trying to clear yourself because I caught you.
She dealt the maid a blow which made her stagger, then tiptoed into the courtyard and up to the window to listen.
She heard the woman inside say laughingly, ‘If only that hellish wife of yours would die!’
‘What if she did?’ replied Jia Lian. ‘I’d marry another who might be just as bad.’
‘When she dies, you can promote Pinger and make her your wife. She should be easier to handle.’
‘Nowadays she won’t even let me touch Pinger,’ said Jia Lian. ‘Pinger resents it too, but she dares not complain. What a fate, being saddled with a hell-cat like her!’
Xifeng was convulsed with fury, convinced by their praise of Pinger that the latter must have been complaining about her behind her back too. By now the wine had quite gone to her head and, not stopping to think, she rounded on Pinger and slapped her. Next she kicked open the door and burst into the room. Without a word she caught hold of Bao Er’s wife and pummelled her, then posted herself at the door to cut off Jia Lian’s retreat.
‘Dirty whore!’ she cursed. ‘You steal your mistress’ husband and plot to murder your mistress. And Pinger, you come here! You whores and bitches have ganged up against me, yet you make such a public show of trying to please me.’
With that she struck Pinger again. Having no one to whom to com¬plain of this injustice, Pinger holding back her tears nearly choked with rage.
‘Can’t you wallow in the muck by yourselves without dragging me in for no reason at all?’ she stormed. She started scratching and slapping Bao Er’s wife too.
Jia Lian, coming home in high spirits after drinking, had allowed him¬self to be caught off his guard so that when his wife burst in he was quite at a loss. Now that Pinger was making a scene too he flew into a drunken passion. When Xifeng beat Bao Er’s wife he could only look on furiously and sheepishly, but as soon as Pinger joined in he charged forward and kicked her.
‘You slut! Who are you to raise your hand against her?’
Pinger fearing that he would beat her promptly left off, protesting tearfully, ‘When you talk behind our backs, why drag me in?’
Pinger’s fear of Jia Lian made Xifeng angrier than ever. She rounded on her and struck her again, insisting that she go on beating Bao Er’s wife. In desperation, Pinger ran out of the room to find a knife with which to kill herself, but the serving-women and maids outside hastily stopped her and tried to dissuade her.
When Xifeng saw Pinger bent on suicide, she rammed her head against Jia Lian’s chest and screamed, ‘You’ve all ganged up to do me in, and when I find out you all try to frighten me. Strangle me and have done with it!’
In a towering rage Jia Lian snatched a sword from the wall.
‘She needn’t kill herself,’ he bellowed. ‘I’ve had all I can take. I’ll kill the lot of you and pay with my life. Make a clean sweep!’
This uproar was at its height when Madam You and some others arrived on the scene.
‘What does this mean?’ they exclaimed. ‘A moment ago all was well. What’s the row about?’
Their presence emboldened Jia Lian, half drunk as he was, to bluster even more wildly and swear to kill Xifeng. For her part’ at their arrival she had stopped storming and slipped away tearfully to enlist the support of the Lady Dowager.
By this time the opera was over. Xifeng ran to the old lady and threw herself into her arms.
‘Save me, Old Ancestress! Lian wants to kill me.’
The old lady, Lady Xing and Lady Wang immediately asked what had happened.
‘When I went home just now to change,’ Xifeng sobbed, ‘I heard him talking to someone. Not liking to intrude if he had a guest, I listened outside the window. It was Bao Er’s wife there, and the two of them were plotting to poison me because I’m a shrew and put Pinger in my place. Angry as I was, I dared not quarrel with him; I just gave Pinger a couple of slaps and asked her why she should want to murder me. He flared up then and threatened to kill me.’
The Lady Dowager and the others believed her story.
‘How monstrous!’ exclaimed the old lady. ‘Bring the wretch here.’
That same moment Jia Lian rushed in with his sword, followed by a crowd of people. Counting on the Lady Dowager’s usual indulgence and the helplessness of both his mother and aunt, he ranted and raged with a great show of bravado.
Lady Xing and Lady Wang angrily barred his way. ‘Have you gone mad, you degenerate?’ they scolded. ‘How dare you behave like this in the old lady’s presence?’
He cast them a sidelong glance. ‘It’s the old lady who’s spoiled her,’ he retorted. ‘So now she even has the nerve to swear at me.’
Lady Xing wrathfully snatched away his sword and ordered him out of the room. But he simply went on blustering and storming.
‘I know you have no respect for us,’ snapped the Lady Dowager. ‘Send someone to fetch his father, and see if he’ll go then.’
Then Jia Lian slunk off. Too angry to go home, he went to his outside study.
Meanwhile Lady Xing and Lady Wang had been remonstrating with Xifeng.
‘Don’t take it so seriously,’ said the old lady, smiling. ‘He’s only a boy and as greedy as a cat. This sort of thing can’t be helped. All young men go through such stages. It’s my fault for making Xifeng drink so much --  the wine’s turned to vinegar.’
At this everybody laughed.
‘Don’t worry,’ the old lady told Xifeng. ‘Tomorrow I’ll make him come here to apologize to you. Don’t go back today to embarrass him. As for that wretch Pinger, I thought she was a good girl how could she turn out so sly?’
‘Pinger’s not to blame,’ put in Madam You soothingly. ‘Xifeng was just making a whipping-boy of her. Husband and wife couldn’t very well fight each other, so both worked off their temper on her. Pinger feels most terribly wronged. Don’t you go blaming her too, madam!’
‘So that’s how it is,’ said the Lady Dowager. ‘Yes, I never thought the child was one of those vamps. Well then, poor thing, her mistress stormed at her for no reason. Here, Hupo! Go and tell Pinger from me: I know she’s been unfairly treated and tomorrow I’ll get Xifeng to apolo¬gize; but she mustn’t make a scene today because it’s her mistress’ birthday.’
Long before this Li Wan had led Pinger into Grand View Garden, but she was still sobbing too much to speak.
‘You’re an intelligent girl,’ reasoned Baochai. ‘You know how well Xifeng’s always treated you. Today she just happened to have too much to drink and whom could she vent her anger on if not you? People are laughing at her for getting drunk. If you go on taking it so much to heart, it’ll look as if all your good qualities are a pretence.’
Just then Hupo arrived with the Lady Dowager’s message which vindicated Pinger and made her feel rather better. She did not go back, however, to Xifeng’s apartments.
After resting for a while, Baochai and the others rejoined the Lady Dowager and Xifeng. Then Baoyu invited Pinger to Happy Red Court, where Xiren came out to welcome her with a smile.
‘I was going to ask you over,’ she remarked, ‘but Madam Zhu and the young ladies got in first.’
Pinger thanked her with a smile. ‘This storm sprang up out of the blue,’ she said. ‘I’d done nothing, nothing at all, to deserve such treatment.’
‘Madam Lian’s usually very good to you. Today she just happened to fly into a temper.’
‘I don’t hold it against my mistress,’ answered Pinger. ‘But that bitch had to drag me in, to amuse herself at my expense, and our fool of a master beat me instead of her.’
The thought of this injustice brought on a fresh fit of weeping.
‘Don’t be so upset, dear sister,’ urged Baoyu. ‘Let me apologize for them.
‘What has it to do with you?’ asked Pinger, smiling.
‘We’re all cousins alike, so when they offend anybody I ought to apologize.’ Then he added, ‘What a pity you’ve dirtied your new clothes too. Why don’t you change into some of Xiren’s so that yours can be sprayed with spirits and pressed? You’d better comb your hair too.’
He ordered some young maids to bring water and heat a flat-iron.
Now Pinger knew only by hearsay how attentive Baoyu was to girls. For as she was Jia Lian’s favourite concubine and Xifeng’s confidante he had always steered clear of her, much though he regretted not being able to pay her more attention. Secretly impressed today by his behaviour she told herself, ‘Yes, he lives up to his reputation. He shows real con-sideration.’
Now Xiren specially opened a case to take out some clothes she sel¬dom wore to lend her, and Pinger hastily changed and washed her face.
‘Put on some rouge and powder too,’ coaxed Baoyu who was watch¬ing. ‘Otherwise it will look as if you’re still angry with Xifeng. After all, today is her birthday and the old lady did send someone to comfort you.
Pinger felt the truth of this and looked round for some powder, but could not see any. At once Baoyu went to the dressing-table and opened a porcelain casket made in the Xuan De period1 containing ten sticks of four-o’clock-seed powder. He handed one to her.
‘This isn’t white lead. It’s made of the seeds of purple four-o’clock ground fine and mixed with aromatics.’
Pinger holding it on her palm found it light, pinky white and fragrant, delightful in every respect. Brushed over her cheek it was easy to spread smoothly and felt moist, having much finer grains than the usual powder which was bluish-white and sticky. The rouge too, in its small white-jade box, she observed, was not in the usual sheets but looked more like rose salve.
‘The rouge sold in the market isn’t clean, and the colour’s faint,’ explained Baoyu. ‘This is made from the essence of the very best saf¬flower, which is steamed after all impurities have been extracted and attar added. You need only take a little on a pin, rub it on the palm of your hand, then dilute it with a drop of water and apply it to your lips. What’s left on your palm will be enough for your cheeks.’
Pinger carried out his instructions and did indeed find the rouge ex¬traordinarily vivid and fragrant.
Then, with a pair of bamboo scissors, Baoyu cut a spray of double autumn flowering orchid that was growing in a pot for her to pin on her hair. Just then, however, Li Wan sent a maid to fetch her, and Pinger hastily left.
It distressed Baoyu that he had never shown much attention to Pinger before, though she was such an intelligent, good-looking girl, altogether superior to the common run of stupid, vulgar creatures. He had been grieving all day because this was Jinchuan’s birthday, till this chance to show Pinger some attention a chance he had never expected in a lifetime ‘ had brought him a quite unlooked-for happiness. He there¬fore curled up on his bed feeling very pleased with himself.
‘Jia Lian’s only interested in sex but has no consideration for girls,’ he reflected. ‘Here’s Pinger, all alone, with no parents, brothers or sis¬ters, waiting on Jia Lian and Xifeng and coping so well with his vulgarity and her vindictiveness; yet she still gets into this dreadful trouble today. How unkind fate is to her! She’s even worse off than Daiyu.’
These reflections upset him again, reducing him to tears, and as Xiren and the others had left the room he indulged in a fit of weeping. Noticing that the alcohol sprayed on Pinger’s clothes was now almost dry, he pressed the clothes with the iron and folded them neatly. He saw she had forgotten her handkerchief. As it was still stained with tears, he washed it in the basin and hung it up to dry in a mood of pleasurable melancholy. Then, growing bored, he went off to Paddy-Sweet Cottage to chat with the others until it was time to light the lanterns and part.
Pinger spent the night with Li Wan and Xifeng with the Lady Dowa¬ger. Thus Jia Lian, going home that evening, found the place uncannily quiet. But since he could hardly fetch them he had to spend that night alone. The next morning, too late, he regretted the scene he had made. So when Lady Xing came over early, distressed by his drunken behaviour the previous day, he accompanied her to the old lady’s apartments. Go¬ing in sheepishly, he fell on his knees before the Lady Dowager.
‘Well?’ she asked.
With an apologetic smile he said, ‘Yesterday I drank too much and disturbed you, madam. I’ve come now to be punished.’
She spat in disgust and swore, ‘You degenerate! After swigging you might at least stretch out on your bed quietly like a corpse instead of beating your wife. Xifeng’s a regular saucebox and likes to lord it over everyone, but how you frightened the poor thing yesterday! If not for me you might have killed her. What do you intend to do now?’
Jia Lian had to accept this reproach, much as it rankled, and did not venture to vindicate himself.
‘Aren’t Xifeng and Pinger both beauties? Aren’t they enough for you?’ the old lady demanded. ‘You never stop philandering, dragging every stinking bit of filth to your room. Fancy beating your own wife and concubine for a whore like that! How can the son of a good family be¬have so disgracefully? If you’ve any respect for me, get up. I’ll forgive you on condition that you apologize to your wife and take her home. That’s the way to please me. Otherwise just take yourself off, I won’t have you kneeling to me.’
During this lecture Jia Lian saw Xifeng standing there, not in her usual finery but with her eyes swollen from weeping, her pale face unpainted and unpowdered, looking more pathetic and lovely than ever before. He thought, ‘I may as well apologize and make it up. That will please the old lady too.’
He therefore replied with a smile, ‘To hear is to obey, madam. But I’m afraid this will only make her more headstrong.’
‘Nonsense,’ retorted the Lady Dowager. ‘She has the strongest sense of what’s fitting, I know, and won’t burst out like this again. If she offends you in future, of course I’ll give you permission to make her submit to your authority.’
Jia Lian rose to his feet then and bowed to Xifeng.
‘It was my fault, madam,’ he said. ‘Please forgive me.’
At that the whole company laughed.
‘Don’t make a scene now, Xifeng,’ said the old lady smiling. ‘If you do, I shall be cross.’
Next she sent for Pinger and ordered Jia Lian and Xifeng to make their peace with her. This Jia Lian was very ready to do. He promptly stepped forward and said:
‘I’m the one to blame for the unjust way you were treated yesterday, miss, and because of me your mistress wronged you too. So let me apolo¬gize for myself as well as for your mistress.’ With that he bowed again, making the Lady Dowager and Xifeng laugh.
Then the old lady told Xifeng it was her turn, but already Pinger had kowtowed to her mistress.
‘I deserve death, madam,’ she said, ‘for offending you on your birth¬day.’
Xifeng was thoroughly ashamed of having drunk so much the previ¬ous day that she had forgotten their long friendship and lost her temper, humiliating Pinger quite groundlessly just because of something a third party had said. Seeing the maid kowtow now, she hastily raised her to her feet, shedding tears of contrition and distress.
Pinger was weeping too. ‘In all the years I’ve served you, madam, you’ve never laid a finger upon me,’ she said. ‘I don’t blame you for striking me yesterday. It was all the fault of that bitch. How could you help being angry?’
The Lady Dowager ordered attendants to escort the three of them to their own apartments.
‘If anyone raises the subject again,’ she said, ‘report it to me at once. And no matter who it is, I’ll take my cane and give him a good beating.’
The three of them, having kowtowed once more to the old lady, Lady Xing and Lady Wang, were seen back by some old nurses.
As soon as they were alone Xifeng demanded, ‘Just why am I hell¬ish? A hell-cat? When that bitch cursed me and wished me dead, you joined in. In a thousand and one days I must be good at least one day; yet it seems, after all this time, I’m less to you than a whore. How can I have the face to go on living now?’ By now she was weeping again.
‘What more do you want?’ cried her husband. ‘Just think a bit who was most to blame yesterday? Yet today it was I who knelt down and begged your pardon in front of all those people. You’ve got quite enough face, so stop nagging now. Do you expect me to kneel to you again? It’s no good going too far.’
This silenced Xifeng and she giggled.
‘That’s better.’ He grinned. ‘I honestly don’t know how to cope with you.’
Just then a serving-woman came in to report that Bao Er’s wife had hanged herself. They were both shocked to hear this. But after her initial fright Xifeng put on a bold face.
‘If she’s dead, she’s dead,’ she retorted. ‘What’s all the fuss about?’
Presently, however, Lin Zhixiao’s wife came in and whispered to her, ‘Bao Er’s wife has hanged herself, madam. And her people are threat¬ening to sue you.’
‘That’s fine.’ Xifeng gave a scornful laugh. ‘I’ve been waiting for a chance to go to court.’
‘We’ve all been trying to talk or frighten them out of it,’ said Mrs. Lin. ‘They’re willing to drop the matter if you’ll give them a few strings of cash.’
‘I haven’t a cent, and I wouldn’t give it to them if I had. Let them go ahead and arraign me. Don’t try to talk them round or scare them away. Just let them go ahead. But if they lose their case I shall sue them for blackmail.’
Mrs. Lin was in a quandary when Jia Lian glanced at her significantly and, catching on, she withdrew to wait outside.
‘I’ll go and see what can be done,’ he told Xifeng.
‘You’re not to pay them anything,’ she warned.
He went to talk the business over with Lin Zhixiao, then sent people to negotiate and finally hushed the matter up by paying two hundred taels. To give them no chance to change their minds, however, Jia Lian also sent stewards to ask Wang Ziteng for some runners and sergeants to help with the funeral. When the dead woman’s family knew this, they dared make no further move but simply had to swallow their resentment.
Jia Lian also told Lin Zhixiao to deduct the two hundred taels from their housekeeping funds, under cover of various items in their daily ex¬penditure. In addition he gave Bao Er some money too, and promised to find him a good wife later on. Bao Er raised no objection, naturally, hav¬ing received both money and consideration. He continued in Jia Lian’s service as before.
As for Xifeng, although inwardly uneasy she pretended outwardly to be unconcerned. When no one else was about she took Pinger’s hand and said gently:
‘Yesterday I was drunk. You mustn’t hold it against me. Where did I hurt you? Let me have a look.’
‘It’s nothing,’ Pinger answered. ‘You didn’t hit hard.’
Then someone outside announced, ‘Madam Zhu and the young ladies have come.’
To know the reason for their visit, read on.

Chapter 45

Two Girls Pledge Friendship After
a Heart-to-Heart Talk
A Plaintive Poem Is Written One Windy,
Rainy Evening


As Xifeng was comforting Pinger the young people called. They were offered seats and Pinger handed round tea.
‘Well, you’ve come in force,’ chuckled Xifeng. ‘Anyone would think we’d issued invitations.’
‘We’ve come about two things,’ Tanchun announced. ‘One is Xichun’s business; and we’ve also brought you a message from the old lady.’
‘What is it that’s so urgent?’ demanded Xifeng.
‘We’ve started a poetry club,’ Tanchun explained, ‘but not even the first meeting was fully attended all because we’re too soft to keep order. So it occurred to me that we must rope you in too as our supervisor ‘ we need someone strict and impartial. Then Xichun needs more materials of every kind for her painting of the Garden. We told the old lady, and she says there may be some left-over materials in the down¬stairs store-room at the back, which we can have if we can find them. If not, we can send out to buy more.’
‘I’m no hand at versifying,’ Xifeng answered. ‘All I can do is come and join in the eating.’
‘You wouldn’t have to write anything,’ said Tanchun. ‘Your job would simply be to watch out for truants or slackers and punish the offenders as you think fit.’
‘Don’t try to fool me.’ Xifeng laughed. ‘I can guess what you’re after. It’s obviously not a supervisor you want but a mint-master to sup¬ply you with cash. You must take it in turns to play host in this club of yours, and because your monthly allowances aren’t enough you’ve thought up this scheme to rope me in so that you can milk me. Isn’t that the idea?’
The others laughed.
‘There’s true perspicacity for you!’ cried Li Wan.
‘What an elder sister-in-law you are!’ scolded Xifeng. ‘You’re sup¬posed to be in charge of these girls’ studies and of teaching them good manners and needlework. If they do wrong you ought to remonstrate with them. Now they’ve started this poetry club which shouldn’t cost much, but you refuse to take charge. The old lady and Lady Wang have their titled status of course, but your ten taels a month is twice as much as we get, and yet the old lady and mistress still pity you as a poor widow with no means of support. So you get an extra ten taels for your son, which means getting as much as they do, and on top of that you’ve been given land in the Garden farm and are paid rent, apart from the largest share in the annual bonuses. There are less than ten in your household, counting the servants, and your food and clothing still come from the common fund. Your income adds up to four or five hundred taels a year. Then why not use one or two hundred a year to keep these girls amused? After all, it won’t be for long. When they marry, you won’t be the one to provide their dowries. Yet here you are, so afraid of spending a cent, you’ve put them up to coming to pester me. I’ve a good mind not to take the hint but just go and eat up everything you’ve got.’
‘Listen to her!’ cried Li Wan laughingly. ‘I say one word and the crazy thing spews out two cartloads of shameless talk like a real dirty swindler and tight-fisted money-grubber. This creature was lucky enough to be born the daughter of a family of scholar-officials and to marry into a family like that too, yet she still carries on in this way. If she’d been the son of a poor family, there’s no knowing what dirty language she’d have used. She’d have tried to swindle everyone on earth.
‘How could you strike even Pinger yesterday? For shame! You be¬haved like a dog drunk on yellow wine. I was so furious, I’d have taken up the cudgels for Pinger if not for the fact that it was the dog’s birthday and I didn’t want to upset the old lady either. But I’m still simmering with indignation. And now you’re challenging me! You aren’t good enough to pick up Pinger’s shoes. The two of you ought to change places.’
The girls burst out laughing.
‘I see,’ Xifeng retorted. ‘You honoured me with this visit, not because of your poetry club or the painting either, but simply to avenge Pinger. I didn’t know she had such a champion. If I’d known, I should never have struck her ‘ not even if some devil were forcing my hand. Here, Miss Pinger, let me apologize to you in front of Madam Zhu and the young ladies for my wild behaviour in my cups.’
The others laughed again.
Li Wan asked Pinger, ‘Well? Didn’t I promise to help you get your own back?’
‘It’s all very well for you ladies to have your fun, but I can’t take it,’ was Pinger’s reply.
‘Nonsense,’ said Li Wan. ‘I’ll back you up. Hurry up and fetch the key now, and ask your mistress to open the storeroom for us.
‘My dear sister-in-law,’ put in Xifeng, ‘do take these girls back to the Garden first. I was just going to check this rice account, and then I’ve got to see Lady Xing who sent for me on some business, and give instructions for the clothes everyone needs for New Year.’
‘Never mind those other things,’ rejoined Li Wan. ‘Just settle my business first so that I can go home and rest and these young ladies will stop bothering me.
‘Give me a little time, dear sister,’ countered Xifeng. ‘Why should you, who are usually so good to me, be so hard on me today just because of Pinger? You used to say, ‘However busy you are, you must take good care of your health and find time to rest.’ Yet now you want to kill me with overwork! Besides, it doesn’t matter if other people’s clothes are late, but you’re responsible for these young ladies’ being ready on time. If they’re not, the old lady will scold you for not seeing to it or at least reminding me. I’d rather take the blame myself than get you into trouble.’
‘Listen, the rest of you, to this fine talk!’ Li Wan smiled. ‘What a clever tongue! Tell me, are you going to take charge of our club or not?’
‘What do you think? If I don’t join your club and fork out some money, I’ll be looked on as a traitor to Grand View Garden. How could I go on living here then? First thing tomorrow I shall proceed to my post, respectfully accept the seal of office, and then straightway give you fifty silver taels to spread over for several months for your club’s refresh¬ments. And as I can’t write poems or essays ‘ being just completely
cause of your poetry club or the painting either, but simply to avenge Pinger. I didn’t know she had such a champion. If I’d known, I should never have struck her ‘ not even if some devil were forcing my hand. Here, Miss Pinger, let me apologize to you in front of Madam Zhu and the young ladies for my wild behaviour in my cups.
The others laughed again.
Li Wan asked Pinger, ‘Well? Didn’t I promise to help you get your own back?’
‘It’s all very well for you ladies to have your fun, but I can’t take it,’ was Pinger’s reply.
‘Nonsense,’ said Li Wan. ‘I’ll back you up. Hurry up and fetch the key now, and ask your mistress to open the storeroom for us.
‘My dear sister-in-law,’ put in Xifeng, ‘do take these girls back to the Garden first. I was just going to check this rice account, and then I’ve got to see Lady Xing who sent for me on some business, and give instructions for the clothes everyone needs for New Year.’
‘Never mind those other things,’ rejoined Li Wan. ‘Just settle my business first so that I can go home and rest and these young ladies will stop bothering me.’
‘Give me a little time, dear sister,’ countered Xifeng. ‘Why should you, who are usually so good to me, be so hard on me today just because of Pinger? You used to say, ‘However busy you are, you must take good care of your health and find time to rest.’ Yet now you want to kill me with overwork! Besides, it doesn’t matter if other people’s clothes are late, but you’re responsible for these young ladies’ being ready on time. If they’re not, the old lady will scold you for not seeing to it or at least reminding me. I’d rather take the blame myself than get you into trouble.’
‘Listen, the rest of you, to this fine talk!’ Li Wan smiled. ‘What a clever tongue! Tell me, are you going to take charge of our club or not?’
‘What do you think? If I don’t join your club and fork out some money, I’ll be looked on as a traitor to Grand View Garden. How could I go on living here then? First thing tomorrow I shall proceed to my post, respectfully accept the seal of office, and then straightway give you fifty silver taels to spread over for several months for your club’s refresh¬ments. And as I can’t write poems or essays ‘ being just completely
vulgar ‘ whether you call me supervisor or not, a few days after I’ve paid up you can still drive me away.’
Amid general laughter she went on, ‘I’ll open the storeroom pres¬ently and tell them to fetch out all the painting materials for your inspec¬tion. If there’s anything of use to you, you can have it; and if you’ll make out a list of what’s still missing, I’ll send people to buy it. I’ll supply you with the silk for the painting too. The drawing of the Garden isn’t with the mistress, Lord Zhen still has it. I’m telling you this to save you a trip for nothing. I’ll have it fetched and sent with the silk for the secretaries to work on. How about that?’
Li Wan nodded. ‘Thank you. If you’ll really do that I’ll let bygones be bygones. All right, let’s go. If she doesn’t send the things, we can come and pester her again.’
As she started off with the girls Xifeng remarked, ‘There’s only one person who could have put you up to all this, and that’s Baoyu.’
Li Wan turned back with a smile.
‘Oh yes! I’d forgotten. It was Baoyu we came about. He was the one who didn’t turn up at our first meeting; but we were too soft with him. What should his punishment be?’
After a second’s thought, Xifeng replied, ‘The only thing I can think of is to make him sweep all your floors for you.’
They approved laughingly and were on the point of leaving when Granny Lai came in, leaning on a young maid’s arm.
Xifeng and the others hastily rose, urged her to sit down and offered her congratulations. Seating herself on the edge of the kang she said:
‘Our masters and mistresses are rejoicing over our good fortune, and we owe it all to your kindness. Yesterday when you sent Caiming over with presents too, madam, my grandson kowtowed his thanks at the gate.’
Li Wan asked, ‘When will he be leaving to take up his post?’
Granny Lai sighed. ‘I pay no attention to their affairs, they do just as they please. When he kowtowed to me at home the other day, I gave him apiece of my mind. I said, ‘Child, don’t start throwing your weight about now that you’re an official. You’re thirty this year and, though you were born in bondage, our masters were kind enough to give you your freedom the moment you came out of your mother’s womb. Thanks to the generosity of your masters above as well as your parents below, you were able to study like a young gentleman, cossetted by maids and nurses as if you were a phoenix. Though you’ve reached this age I doubt if you even know how the word ‘slave’ is written. All you know is how to enjoy yourself.’
‘‘It doesn’t occur to you,’ I said, ‘that you owe your present posi¬tion to the generations of hardship your grandfather and father had to go through.
‘‘You’ve had one trouble after another since you were a boy, and the money we’ve spent on you would make a silver statue bigger than you are. When you were twenty our masters were kind enough to help you purchase an official post, although plenty of real gentlefolk go hun¬gry. You were born a slave, so watch out ‘ don’t tempt fortune too far. After having an easy life of it for ten years you managed somehow -- Heaven only know how -- to get our masters to have you selected for this post. A district magistrate may not rank too high yet he has a lot of work to do as the father and mother of everyone in the district. If you don’t behave properly as a loyal servant of the state to be worthy of your masters’ kindness, Heaven and Earth will surely condemn you.
‘You worry too much,’ Li Wan and Xifeng told her with a smile. ‘We’re sure he will do all right. He called occasionally some years ago but hasn’t been here for quite a few years now ‘ we only saw his visiting-card at New Year or on birthdays. The other day, though, when he came to kowtow to the old lady and Lady Wang we caught a glimpse of him in the old lady’s compound. He cut quite an impressive figure in his new official robes, and seemed to have put on weight too. You should be pleased by his appointment instead of worrying like this. If he doesn’t do well, that’s his parents’ look-out; you should just concentrate on en¬joying yourself. When you’ve time you must come by sedan-chair for a day of card-playing or a chat with the old lady. No one would dream of treating you shabbily. You’ve fine big buildings at home too, where of course everybody must respect you like a lady of quality.’
Pinger brought in tea at this point and at once Granny Lai stood up to take it.
‘You should have let one of the younger girls do this, miss,’ she said.  ‘You’re doing me too much honour.’
Sipping the tea she continued, ‘You don’t understand, madam, all children need a firm hand. Even then, the way they still make trouble on the sly causes us endless worry. Those who know us say: Boys will be boys. Those who don’t may talk of our relying on wealth and influence to bully other people, and that would damage even the masters’ reputation. When I get too provoked, I often call in his father and give him a good dressing-down, to make them behave a bit better for a while.’
She pointed then at Baoyu. ‘You won’t like what I’m going to say, but your father isn’t strict enough with you, and the old lady always shields you. Who didn’t see, in the old days, how your grandfather beat your father when he was a boy, though he never ran wild the way you do, fearing neither Heaven nor Earth. And Lord She in the east courtyard, though he was naughty, never buried himself at home the way you do; yet he got beaten every day. As for your cousin Zhen’s grandfather in the East Mansion, he had such a fiery temper he’d flare up at a word, grilling his son as if he were a brigand. From all I’ve seen and heard, Lord Zhen seems to follow his grandfather’s method of disciplining his son, only he’s erratic. And as he doesn’t mind how he behaves himself, you can’t blame his cousins and nephews for not being afraid of him. If you’ve any sense, you should be glad of this warning. If not, you may not like to say anything but I dare say you’re cursing me in your heart.’
Lai Da’s wife came in just then followed by the wives of Zhou Rui and Lin Zhixiao to make their reports.
Xifeng remarked with a smile, ‘The daughter-in-law has come for her mother-in-law.’
‘That’s not why I came,’ said Lai Da’s wife, ‘but to ask if you ladies would honour us with your presence.’
‘How stupid of me to forget what I really came for and just to maun¬der on!’ exclaimed Granny Lai. ‘Now that my grandson’s appointed to this post, we’ve got to give a feast at home for all the relatives and friends who want to congratulate him. I didn’t want to invite some people, not others. Besides, I thought, it’s sharing our masters’ good fortune that’s brought us this undreamed-of honour, so I don’t mind even if it bankrupts us. That’s why I told his father to make it a three-day affair.  The first day we shall have a few tables of guests and an opera in our humble garden, and invite the old lady, the mistresses, and all you other ladies and young ladies to come and have some fun; at the same time we’ll ask the gentlemen to honour us with their presence at another feast with an opera in the hall outside. On the second day, we’ll entertain relatives and friends; on the third, our fellow servants from these two mansions. This will be a great occasion for us, these three days of excite¬ment, and we owe it all to our masters.’
‘When is it to be?’ asked Li Wan and Xifeng. ‘We’ll certainly come, and quite likely the old lady will be happy to come too, but we can’t say for sure.
‘We’ve chosen the fourteenth,’ said Lai Da’s wife promptly, ‘Do give mother face by coming.’
‘I can’t answer for the others, but I promise to come,’ said Xifeng. ‘First let me warn you, though, I’ve no presents or tips to bring, so mind you don’t laugh at me if after eating I just up and leave.’
‘What a thing to say, madam!’ Lai Da’s wife smiled. ‘Why, if you felt like it, you could give us twenty or thirty thousand taels.’
Granny Lai put in, ‘Just now I went to invite the old lady, and she’s promised to come too, so it seems I really have face.’
After pressing the invitations she was rising to leave when the sight of Zhou Rui’s wife reminded her of something.
‘Oh, there’s something else, madam,’ she said to Xifeng. ‘What has Mrs. Zhou’s son done wrong that you want to dismiss him?’
‘Yes, I meant to tell your daughter-in-law, but I was so busy I forgot,’ said Xifeng. ‘When you go home, Mrs. Lai, tell your husband that neither mansion is to keep Zhou Rui’s son. He must go.
While Mrs. Lai had to agree to this, Zhou Rui’s wife fell on her knees to beg her son off.
‘What happened?’ asked Granny Lai. ‘Tell me what he did, and I’ll be judge for you.
‘On my birthday yesterday, he got drunk before the feasting even started,’ said Xifeng. ‘And instead of seeing to the presents my par¬ents’ family sent, he sat there swearing and wouldn’t bring them in. Only after the two serving-women delivering the things came in themselves did he at last get some pages to help him carry them in. The boys did all right, but he went and dropped a hamper so that dumplings started rolling all over the courtyard. After the two women had gone, I sent Caiming to tell him off, and he had the nerve to swear at him. How can we keep on such an insolent, lawless young bastard?’
‘Is that all?’ Granny Lai smiled. ‘I thought it was something serious. Take my advice, madam, and if he’s done wrong, beat him, reprimand him and make him mend his ways, but don’t dismiss him ‘ that would never do. He can’t be treated like one of our children, as his mother came here with the mistress at the time of her marriage; so dismissing him would reflect badly on Her Ladyship. Keep him on, I say, madam, and give him a good beating to teach him a lesson. If you’ve no consider¬ation for his mother, at least have some for Lady Wang.’
Xifeng turned to Lai Da’s wife. ‘In that case give him forty strokes, and see to it that he doesn’t get drunk again.’
Lai Da’s wife assented and Zhou Rui’s wife kowtowed her thanks. She would have kowtowed to Granny Lai too, but Lai Da’s wife stopped her. Then these three women left and Li Wan and the girls returned to the Garden.
That evening Xifeng was as good as her word. She had servants get out all the painting material in the storeroom and send it to the Garden. Baochai and the rest went through it and found only half what they wanted. They made out a list of the other things they needed for Xifeng to pur¬chase. But no more of this.
Soon the silk had been sized with alum outside, and the draft drawing was delivered. Baoyu went to help Xichun every day, while Tanchun, Li Wan, Yingchun and Baochai often forgathered there to watch her paint¬ing and to be together.
As the weather was chilly now and the nights were lengthening, Baochai asked her mother for some sewing to do. Every day she paid two courtesy calls on the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang, and could not but keep them company for a while if they seemed so inclined; and from time to time she felt obliged to drop in for a chat with the girls in the Garden; thus her days were so fully occupied that she sewed every night by lamplight, not going to bed till the third watch.
Daiyu, who suffered from a bad cough around every spring and au¬tumn solstice, had overtaxed her strength this year by going not more than usual, because of the Lady Dowager’s good spirits, and had recently started coughing again worse than ever. She therefore stayed in her own rooms to rest. Sometimes she grew bored and wished the girls would drop in for a chat to while away the time; yet when Baochai and the rest called to see how she was, a short conversation was enough to exhaust her. Knowing how delicate and hypersensitive she was, they all made allowances for her, overlooking any lack of hospitality and cour¬tesy.
Today Baochai came to visit her and turned the conversation to her illness.
‘Though the doctors who come here aren’t bad, their prescriptions don’t seem to be doing you much good,’ said Baochai. ‘Why don’t you ask a real authority to come and examine you and see if he can’t cure you? You can’t go on like this, having trouble every spring and summer. After all, you’re not an old woman or a child.’
‘It’s no use,’ was Daiyu’s reply. ‘I have a hunch I shall never get over this. You know how poorly I am at the best of times, let alone when I’m ill.’
‘That’s true.’ Baochai nodded. ‘The ancients said, ‘Food is life, yet what you normally eat doesn’t give you energy or strength, and that’s a bad sign.’
‘Life and death are determined by fate, rank and riches decreed by Heaven,’ quoted Daiyu with a sigh. ‘It’s beyond the power of man to alter fate. It seems to me my illness is worse this year.’ This short speech had been punctuated by several bouts of coughing.
‘I saw your prescription yesterday,’ said Baochai. ‘It struck me there was too much ginseng and cinnamon in it. Although they stimulate the vital forces, you shouldn’t have anything too hot either. To my mind, the first essential is to calm your liver and improve your digestion. Once the fire in your liver is quelled so that it can’t overcome the ‘earth’ element your digestion will be better and you’ll be able to assimilate your food. When you get up each morning, you should take an ounce of the best quality bird’s-nest boiled into a gruel with half an ounce of crystal sugar in a silver pot. Taken regularly, this is a better tonic than any medicine.’
‘How good you always are to others!’ Daiyu exclaimed with a sigh. ‘I’m so touchy that I used to suspect your motives. I really began to appreciate you that day when you warned me against indiscriminate read¬ing and gave me such good advice. I can see now I’d misjudged you all along. My mother died early and I’ve no sisters or brothers so, come to think of it, in all my fifteen years no one ever advised me as you did the other day. No wonder Xiangyun speaks so highly of you. I used to be sceptical when she sang your praises, but not after my own recent expe¬rience. For instance, when you said anything I always answered back, but instead of taking offence you offered me good advice. That showed that I’d been wrong. If I hadn’t realized this the other day, I wouldn’t be confiding in you now.
‘You just said I should eat bird’s-nest. Bird’s-nest is easy to buy, but my health is so poor that I fall ill every year and while it’s nothing serious I’ve already caused plenty of trouble, what with sending for doctors and preparing medicine with ginseng and cinnamon. If I started demanding bird’s-nest now, the old lady, Lady Wang and Xifeng wouldn’t say any¬thing, but those below would be bound to think me too pernickety. Look how jealous these people are and how much gossip there is here because the old lady favours Baoyu and Xifeng. In my case, they’d resent it even more. After all, I’m not a daughter of the house, I’m here because I’ve nowhere else to go. They resent me enough as it is. If I should push myself forward, they’d all start cursing me.’
‘Well, in that case I’m in the same position as you.
‘How can you compare yourself with me? You have your mother and your brother too; you have shops and land here as well, not to mention all your property at home. You’re just staying here to be close to your rela¬tives, not spending a cent of their money on anything, free to leave when¬ever you please. But I have nothing. Yet all I eat, wear and use, down to the least blade of grass or sheet of paper, is the same as their own girls get. Naturally those petty-minded people dislike me.’
‘It only means providing one extra dowry in future,’ Baochai chuckled. ‘And it’s too early to worry about that yet.’
Daiyu flushed red. ‘I confide my troubles to you, thinking you’ll take them seriously,’ she said, ‘but instead you make fun of me.’
‘I was only joking, but it’s quite true. Don’t worry. As long as I’m here I shall keep you company. Just tell me any complaints or troubles you have, and I’ll help as far as I can. As for my brother, though, you know what he’s like. My only advantage over you is that I have a mother. Fellow-sufferers can sympathize with each other. Why should an intelli-gent girl like you lament your lack of a brother? Of course, you were right just now in saying that it’s better not to put people to too much trouble. Tomorrow when I go home, I’ll ask my mother for some of the bird’s-nest I fancy we still have, and bring you a few ounces. You can get your maids to prepare some every day. It won’t cost anything and you’ll not be putting anybody out.’
‘It’s a small thing, but I appreciate your kindness,’ said Daiyu grate¬fully.
‘It’s not worth mentioning. I’m afraid I’m often lacking in consider¬ation. Well, you must be tired, I’ll go now.
‘Do drop in again this evening for a chat.’
Baochai promised to do this and left.
Daiyu sipped two mouthfuls of rice gruel, then lay down to rest again.
The weather changed unexpectedly before sunset and it began to drizzle. Autumn is a capricious season of many showers and as dusk fell it grew very dark, while the rain pattering on the bamboo leaves made the place seem unusually lonely. Knowing that Baochai would not come out in this weather, Daiyu picked up a book at random under the lamp. It was an anthology of Yue-fu, containing lyrics such as Autumn Sorrow in a Girl - Chamber and The Pain of Parting. Daiyu was moved to write a poem about separation herself entitled A Windy; Rainy Evening by the Autumn Window in the style of A Night of Flowers and Moonlight by the Spring River. This was her poem:
Sad the autumn flowers, sear the autumn grass,
Autumn lamps flicker through the long autumn night;
Unendurably desolate by the autumn window,
In the wind and rain autumn seems infinite.
The wind and rain speed autumn on its way,
By the window shattering her autumn dream;
And the girl with autumn in her heart cannot sleep
But trims the candle by her autumn screen.
Guttering on its stick, the candle sheds tears of wax,
Evoking the grief of separation, its pain,
As through each autumn courtyard gusts the wind
And on each autumn window beats the rain.
The autumn wind, through silken quilts strikes chill,
Her water-clock the autumn rain spurs on.
All night the pelting rain and soughing wind
Accompany her tears for one now gone.
Chill mist enwraps the court in loneliness,
Bamboos drip by the lattice without pause;
None can tell when the wind and rain will cease,
But already tears have soaked her window’s gauze.

Having read this through, she had just put down her brush and was about to go to bed when Baoyu was announced. And in he walked, in a large hat of plaited bamboo leaves and a coir cape.
‘Where does this fisherman come from?’ she greet him laughing.
‘Do you feel better today? Have you taken your medicine? How is your appetite?’ As he made these inquiries he took off his cape and hat and picked up the lamp, shading it with one hand, to examine her face intently.
‘You look a little better today,’ was his verdict.
She saw that he was wearing a red silk coat, no longer new, with a green girdle, green silk trousers embroidered with flowers, cotton socks embroidered with gold thread, and slippers with butterfly and flower de¬signs.
‘Why did you only protect your head and clothes from the rain, not your footwear?’ she asked. ‘Not that your shoes and socks are dirty either.’
‘I’ve got a complete set of rain-wear,’ he told her gaily. ‘I came here in pyrus-wood pattens, which I left outside on the verandah.’
She noticed then that his cape and hat were not the usual sort sold in the market, but extremely finely made.
‘What plant are they woven of?’ she asked. ‘You don’t look like a hedgehog in that cape, for a wonder.’
‘These three things are all presents from the Prince of Beijing. When it’s raining he wears a similar outfit at home. If you like them, I’ll get you a set. The best thing is the hat as it’s adjustable ‘ the crown can be detached. So men or women alike can wear it in winter in the snow. I’ll get you one for when it snows this winter.’
‘No thank you,’ Daiyu chuckled. ‘If I wore one of those, I should look like the fisherman’s wife in paintings and operas.’
As these words left her lips she remembered with dismay that she had just greeted Baoyu as a fisherman. She flushed scarlet and leaned forward over the table, coughing as if she could never stop. Baoyu, how¬ever, appeared not to have noticed. Catching sight of the poem on the table, he picked it up, read it through, and exclaimed in involuntary admi-ration. Daiyu hearing this instantly snatched the paper from him and burned it over the lamp.
‘Too late! I know it by heart,’ he said cheerfully.
‘I’m better now. Thank you for coming so often to see me, even in the rain,’ she said. ‘Now it’s late and I’d like to sleep. Please go now. Come again tomorrow.’
At this he took from his pocket a golden watch the size of a walnut. Its hands, he saw, showed that it was after nine. Replacing the watch he agreed:
‘Yes, it’s time to turn in. I’ve disturbed you too long again.’ He put on the cape and hat and took his leave, turning back at the door to ask, ‘What would you like to eat? Let me know and I’ll tell the old lady first thing in the morning. I’m a better messenger than those old women.’
‘I’ll think about it during the night, and let you know early tomorrow. Listen, how it’s pouring outside. You’d better go quickly. Have you any¬one with you?’
Two serving-women answered, ‘Yes, they’re waiting outside with umbrellas and a lantern.’
‘A lantern? In this weather?’ she asked in surprise.
‘That’s all right,’ said Baoyu. ‘It’s a horn lantern, and it’s rain¬proof.’
She took an ornate glass lantern from the bookcase, ordered a small candle to be lit in it, and handed it to him.
‘This is brighter, just the thing to use in the rain.’
‘I have one like that too,’ he said. ‘I didn’t bring it for fear they might slip and break it.’
‘Which is more valuable, lamp or man? You’re not used to wearing pattens, so get them to carry the horn lantern in front and take this one yourself, since it’s handy and bright and meant to be used in the rain. Wouldn’t that be better? You can send it back later. And even if you drop it, it won’t matter. What’s come over you suddenly that you want to ‘cut open your stomach to hide a pearl’.’
Baoyu promptly took the lantern. Two serving-women led the way with an umbrella and the horn lantern, while two young maids with um¬brellas followed behind. He made one of these hold the glass lantern and rested a hand on her shoulder.
Scarcely had he gone when a woman, also with an umbrella and a lantern, arrived to deliver a big package of the best quality bird’s-nest and a packet of fine plum-petal snow-white sugar from Alpinia Park.
‘This is better than any in the shops,’ she said. ‘Our young lady hopes you will use it, and when it’s finished she’ll send some more.’
Daiyu thanked her and asked her to sit down in the outer room to have some tea.
‘I won’t stay,’ the woman replied. ‘I’ve got other things to do.’
‘I know what keeps you busy,’ rejoined Daiyu laughingly. ‘Now that it’s turning cold and the nights are long, this is the time for evening gam¬bling parties.’
‘I’ll confess, miss, my luck has been very good this year,’ said the woman with a smile. ‘There are always a few of us on night duty, and we mustn’t sleep during our watch; so gaming helps to keep us awake and pass the time pleasantly. Tonight it’s my turn to be banker. Now that the Garden gates are closed it’s time to start.’
‘Thank you very much for bringing these things in the rain. I’m sorry if I’ve kept you from making more money.’ She ordered her maids to give the woman a few hundred cash for wine to keep out the chill.
‘Thank you, miss, for treating me again.’ The woman kowtowed and, having gone to the outer room to take the money, went off with her umbrella.
Zijuan put away the packages, moved aside the lamp and lowered the curtains, then helped her mistress to bed.
Daiyu’s thoughts turned to Baochai as she lay on her pillow, and again she envied her for having a mother and a brother. Then she reflected that, good as Baoyu was to her, there was still a certain distance between them. Moreover, the rain drumming steadily down on the bamboos and plantains outside wafted a chill through her curtains and made her shed tears again. Only towards the end of the fourth watch did she finally fall asleep.
If you want to know the sequence, read the next chapter.

Chapter 46

An Old Reprobate Makes an Unseemly Proposal
Yuanyang Vows Never to Marry





Daiyu did not fall asleep till nearly dawn. But let us leave her now and turn back to Xifeng, who received a mysterious summons from Lady Xing and after hastily changing her clothes went off in her carriage to the east court.
Lady Xing sent her maids away then confided to Xifeng, ‘The Elder Master has given me a difficult task, and I am at a loss, so I want your advice as to how to handle it. He’s taken a fancy to the old lady’s maid Yuanyang and wants to make her his concubine. He’s told me to go and ask the old lady for her. I know this is quite commonly done, but I’m afraid the old lady may not agree. What would you advise me to do?’
‘If I were you, I wouldn’t run my head against a brick wall,’ replied Xifeng promptly. ‘The old lady can’t even eat without Yuanyang; how could she part with her? Besides, when we’re chatting I’ve often heard her remark that the Elder Master, at his advanced age, shouldn’t be taking concubines left and right. For one thing, he’s spoiling those girls’ chances of marriage; for another, he’s injuring his health and neglecting his official duties by spending all the time drinking with his concubines. You can judge from that, madam, that she’s not particularly partial to the Elder Master. He’d do better to try to avoid offending her further instead of ‘tickling the tiger’s nose with a straw.’ Please don’t be annoyed, madam, but I haven’t the courage to approach her. As far as I can see, it would be useless and just cause unpleasantness. The Elder Master’s behaviour is rather unbecoming for a gentleman getting on in years; you should talk him out of it. It wouldn’t matter if he were young; but when a man has such a flock of younger brothers, nephews, children and grand¬children, doesn’t it look bad to go on fooling around like this?’
‘Other noble families often have three or four concubines, so why shouldn’t we?’ retorted Lady Xing coldly. ‘I doubt if I can talk him out of it. Even if Yuanyang is the old lady’s favourite maid, when her elder son, a grey-bearded official wants her for his concubine his mother can hardly refuse him. I invited you over simply to ask your opinion, but at once you trot out all these reasons against it. Did you think I’d send you on this errand? I shall go myself, of course. You blame me for not dis¬suading him, but surely you know your father-in-law better than that. He’d ignore my advice and fly into a temper.’
Xifeng knew that her mother-in-law was a stupid, weak-minded woman who, to save herself trouble, always humoured Jia She, finding her sole pleasure in life in amassing property and money. All decisions great or small in their household she left to her husband; but when money passed through her hands she was extraordinarily tight-fisted, alleging that she had to economize to make up for his extravagance. Not one of her chil¬dren or servants did she trust, nor would she listen to their advice. It would be futile to reason with her now, seeing that she was so stubborn.
So with a pleasant smile Xifeng replied, ‘You’re quite right, madam. What can I know, young as I am? After all, she’s his mother and would surely never refuse him the rarest treasure, not to say a maid. Whom else would she give her to if not the Elder Master? I was silly to take what she said in private so seriously. Even in Lian’s case, for instance, the master and you may threaten to beat him to death when he displeases you, but the moment you see him your anger melts away and you still give him things you treasure. Of course, that’s how the old lady will treat the Elder Master. As she’s in high spirits today, it seems to me now’s the time to make this request. Would you like me to go first to coax her into a good humour? Then when you come I’ll make some excuse to leave, taking everyone else there with me, so that you can broach the subject. If she agrees, so much the better. If she doesn’t, no harm will be done as no one else will know.’
Mollified by this, Lady Xing told her, ‘My idea was not to approach the old lady first, for if she refused that would be the end of the matter. I was thinking of telling Yuanyang first in private. She may be bashful, but when I’ve explained it all to her she naturally won’t say anything. And that can be taken to mean consent. Then I’ll go and ask the old lady, and she’ll find it difficult to refuse even though she doesn’t want to part with the girl. For as the proverb says, ‘There’s no holding someone who wants to leave.’ It’s sure to work out all right.’
‘After all, you know best, madam.’ Xifeng smiled. ‘This is bound to work. Every girl, not to mention Yuanyang, wants to rise in the world and become someone of importance. Who would refuse to become a semi-mistress and remain in service instead, with no prospect but that of mar¬rying some servant in the end?’
‘That’s what I think,’ agreed Lady Xing. ‘Not to say Yuanyang, even those senior maids in responsible positions would jump at the chance. All right, you go over first, but don’t let a word leak out. I’ll come over after dinner.’
Meanwhile Xifeng had been thinking, ‘Yuanyang is a sharp cus¬tomer. Still she may refuse. If I go back first and Yuanyang agrees, all right; but if she refuses my mother-in-law’s so suspicious she’s sure to think I told her and encouraged her to hold out. Seeing me proved right and herself made to look a fool, she may vent her temper on me and that would be no joke. Better if the two of us go over together, for then whether Yuanyang agrees or not no suspicion can fall on me.’
So she said cordially, ‘As I set out just now, my maternal uncle’s house sent over two baskets of quails which I told the kitchen to have deep-fried and sent over for your dinner. And as I came through your main gate, I saw some pages carrying off your carriage for repairs ‘ they said it was cracking up. Why don’t you come back now, madam, with me in mine? Then we can go together.’
Lady Xing called for her maids to change her clothes, assisted by Xifeng, after which they both mounted the carriage.
Then Xifeng said, ‘If I accompany you to the old lady’s place, madam, she may ask what I’ve come for and that would be awkward. Suppose you go first, and I follow after changing my clothes?’
Lady Xing thought this reasonable, and went on first to call on the Lady Dowager. After chatting with her for a while, she left on the pre¬text of going to see Lady Wang. Instead, however, she slipped out through the back door to Yuanyang’s bedroom. The girl, who was sitting there doing some needlework, hastily rose to her feet at her approach.
Lady Xing asked with a smile, ‘What are you making? Let me have a look. I’m sure you’re doing finer work than ever.’ So saying she en¬tered the room, inspected the embroidery and praised it loudly. Putting it down then, she subjected Yuanyang to a careful scrutiny.
The maid was wearing a light purple silk tunic, none too new, a black satin sleeveless jacket with silk borders, and a pale green skirt. She had a supple wasp-waist, slender shoulders, an oval face, glossy black hair and a finely arched nose, while her cheeks were slightly freckled. This close inspection embarrassed and puzzled her.
‘What brings you here at this hour, madam?’ she asked with a smile.
Lady Xing signed to her attendants to leave, then sat down and took Yuanyang’s hand. ‘I’ve come specially to congratulate you,’ she announced.
This gave Yuanyang some inkling of what was afoot. She blushed and lowered her head without a word.
‘You know, the Elder Master has no one reliable to wait on him,’ Lady Xing continued. ‘He could buy a girl, of course, but those one gets through brokers aren’t clean and there’s no knowing what mayn’t be wrong with them; besides, after two or three days they’re liable to get up to monkey-tricks. So he’s been trying to choose one in our household. At first there seemed to be no one suitable. One was ugly, another bad-tempered, and some had certain good points but other shortcomings. Af¬ter keeping his eyes open for the past six months, he’s decided that of all the girls here you’re the best ‘ pretty, well-behaved, dependable and sweet-tempered. So he wants to ask the old lady to let him take you into his chambers.
‘Your position will be quite different from that of a girl bought from outside, for as soon as you enter our house we shall go through the ceremonies and give you the rank of a secondary wife, treated with all respect and honour. Besides, you’re a girl with a will of your own. As the proverb says, ‘True gold will find its price.’ Now that the Elder Master has picked you, you’ll be able to realize your highest ambitions, and this will stop the mouths of those who dislike you. So come along with me to tell the old lady.’
She took Yuanyang’s hand to lead her out, but the girl coloured and shrank back.
‘What’s there to be so bashful about?’ asked Lady Xing, seeing how embarrassed she was. ‘You won’t have to say a word. Just come with me.’
Yuanyang simply hung her head and would not budge.
‘Don’t tell me you’re unwilling!’ cried Lady Xing. ‘You’re a very silly girl if that’s the case, turning down the chance to be a mistress and choosing to remain a maid instead. All you can look forward to then is marrying some servant in two or three years’ time ‘ you’ll still be a slave. Far better come to us. You know I’m much too good-natured to be jealous, and the Elder Master will treat you well. In a year or so, when you give birth to a child, you’ll be on the same footing as me with the whole household at your beck and call. If you let slip this chance to better yourself, you’re going to regret it ‘ but then it’ll be too late.’
Still Yuanyang simply hung her head and said nothing.
‘You’ve always been a straightforward girl,’ persisted Lady Xing. ‘Why are you being so sticky about this? What’s worrying you? Just tell me, and I’ll see that your wishes are met.’
Yuanyang remained silent.
‘I suppose you’re too shy to say ‘yes’ yourself and would prefer to leave it to your parents,’ Lady Xing smiled. ‘Quite right and proper too. I’ll speak to them and get them to speak to you. You can be frank with them.’ This said, she went off to find Xifeng.
Xifeng had long since changed her clothes, and since no one else was in the room but Pinger she disclosed this news to her.
Pinger shook her head. ‘I don’t see this working out,’ was her ver¬dict. ‘From the way she’s spoken when we were chatting on our own, she’s not likely to consent. But we shall soon see.
‘The mistress may bring Yuanyang here to discuss it.’ said Xifeng. ‘If Yuanyang’s willing, all right; if not, she’ll be feeling put out, and it would be embarrassing for her to have you others here. Tell the rest to go and deep-fry some quails and prepare a few other dishes to go with them. Then you can go off and amuse yourself somewhere else till you think she’ll have gone.
Pinger passed on these instructions to the other servants, then saun¬tered off to enjoy herself in the Garden.
Meanwhile Yuanyang had guessed that Lady Xing would be going to discuss this business with Xifeng, and that other people were sure to come to sound her out again. Thinking it wisest to make herself scarce, she told Hupo:
‘If the old lady should ask for me, tell her I’m not feeling well and I had no breakfast. I’ve gone for a stroll in the Garden but shan’t be long.’
Hupo agreed to this, and Yuanyang went out. While walking in the Garden, to her surprise she met Pinger, who seeing that they were alone cried teasingly:
‘Here comes the new concubine!’
Yuanyang flushed scarlet, ‘So that’s it!’ she exclaimed. ‘You’re all in league against me. Wait till I go and have this out with your mistress.’
Pinger hearing this regretted her tactlessness. Drawing Yuanyang over to sit on a rock under a maple, she told her frankly all that Xifeng had said since her return.
Still blushing, Yuanyang answered bitterly, ‘What good friends we were, the dozen or so of us ‘ Xiren, Hupo, Suyun, Zijuan, Caixia, Yuchuan, Sheyue, Cuimo, Cuilu who went with Miss Xiangyun, Keren and Jinchuan who’ve died, Qianxue who’s left, and the two of us. We worked together from the time we were young and never had any se¬crets from each other. Now that we’ve grown up we’ve gone our dif¬ferent ways, but I haven’t changed ‘ I don’t hide anything from you. So I’ll confide something to you, but mind you don’t tell Madam Lian. Quite apart from the fact that the Elder Master only wants to make me his concubine, even if Lady Xing had died and he sent matchmakers in style to make me his principal wife, I wouldn’t agree to it.’
Before Pinger could reply they heard laughter behind the rock.
‘For shame!’ someone cried. ‘Such talk’s enough to set one’s teeth on edge.’
Startled, they jumped to their feet to see who was there. It was Xiren, who emerged laughingly from behind the rockery.
‘What’s up?’ she asked. ‘Let me into the secret.’
The three of them sat down again and Pinger retold her story.
‘Of course, we shouldn’t say this, but what an old lecher the Elder Master is!’ was Xiren’s comment. ‘He can’t keep his hands off any girl who’s not bad-looking.’
‘Since you’re unwilling,’ said Pinger, ‘I’ll tell you an easy way to fob him off.’
‘What’s that?’ asked Yuanyang.
‘Simply tell the old lady you’ve already given yourself to Master Lian,’ Pinger giggled. ‘The father can hardly take what belongs to his son.’,
Yuanyang spat in disgust. ‘What rubbish! Your mistress was raving the other day. How can you go repeating that today?’
‘If you don’t want either of them,’ teased Xiren, ‘get the old lady to tell Lord She you’re already promised to Baoyu. Then he’ll have to give up.
Frantic with rage and embarrassment, Yuanyang swore, ‘You two bitches, you won’t come to a good end! I turn to you in trouble, thinking you’ll have the decency to help me, but instead you take it in turns to make fun of me. You think your own futures are assured and you’ll both end up as secondary wives. I’m not so sure. In this world, things don’t always turn out the way you want. So don’t start counting your chickens before they’re hatched.’
Seeing how frantic she was, the two others did their best to soothe her.
‘Don’t take it the wrong way, dear sister,’ they cried. ‘We’ve been like real sisters since we were small and were only having a joke among ourselves. But, seriously, tell us your plan, so that we can stop worrying.’
‘Plan? What plan do I have? I just refuse to go.’
Pinger shook her head. ‘Then he may not give up. You know what Lord She’s like. Though he won’t dare do anything now while you’re with the old lady, you won’t be in her service all your life, will you? Some day you’ll be leaving. If you fell into his clutches then, that would be worse.’
‘Pah! As long as the old lady lives, I shan’t leave this house. If she passes away, he’ll have to observe three years’ mourning anyway: he can’t take a concubine the moment his mother dies. And in those three years anything might happen. Time enough to worry then. If the worst comes to the worst, I can shave my hair off and become a nun. Failing that, I can kill myself. I don’t care if I never get married. Then life would be simpler.’
‘What a shameless slut!’ laughed Pinger. ‘The wild way she runs on!’
‘Things have gone too far for modesty,’ Yuanyang retorted. ‘If you don’t believe me, wait and see. Lady Xing said just now she means to speak to my parents. She’ll have to go to Nanking for that.’
‘‘Your father and mother are looking after properties in the south,’ said Pinger. ‘So even though they’re not here, they can still be found. Besides, your elder brother and sister-in-law are here. It’s too bad you’re a house-born servant. It’s worse for you than for us who are here on our own.’
‘What difference does it make? You can’t force an ox to bend its head to drink. Would he kill my parents if I refuse?’
Just then they saw her sister-in-law approaching.
Xiren remarked, ‘As your parents aren’t on the spot, they must have spoken to your sister-in law.’
‘That whore!’ swore Yuanyang. ‘She’s a regular camel-dealer. She won’t let slip this chance to suck up to them.’
By now her sister-in-law had come up to her.
‘I’ve been looking for you everywhere,’ she said smiling. ‘So this is where you’d run off to. Come with me. I want to have a word with you.’
Pinger and Xiren asked her to sit down.
‘No thank you. Don’t stir,’ said the woman. ‘I just want to have a word with my sister-in-law.
‘What’s the hurry?’ they asked, pretending not to know. ‘We’re guessing riddles here and making bets. We must hear her answer to this one before she goes.’
‘What do you want?’ demanded Yuanyang. ‘Out with it.’
‘Come with me,’ the other insisted. ‘I’ll tell you over there. It’s good news for you, anyway.
‘Your mean what Lady Xing told you?’
‘If you know, why keep putting me off? Come along, and I’ll give you the details. It’s simply the most wonderful piece of good fortune.’
Yuanyang sprang up and spat hard in her face. Pointing an accusing finger at her she swore.
‘Shut your foul mouth and clear off, if you know what’s good for you. What’s all this talk of ‘good news’ and ‘good fortune’? No won¬der, though. You’ve always envied those families who start throwing their weight about once their daughters are concubines, as if every one of them was a concubine too. You can’t wait to pitch me into that fiery pit. Then if I get given face you can bully people outside, calling yourselves relatives of the ha family; if I lose face and land in trouble, you turtles can shrink back into your shells and leave me to my fate.’
She wept and stormed while Pinger and Xiren restrained her and tried to calm her.
Her sister-in-law was goaded to retort, ‘Whether you’re willing or not, you might at least explain properly instead of slinging mud at other people. The proverb says, ‘One doesn’t talk about midgets in front of dwarfs.’ Your abuse of me I won’t presume to answer. But these girls haven’t offended you, why embarrass them with all this talk about con¬cubines?’
‘That’s no way to speak,’ protested the other two. ‘She wasn’t referring to us. Your’ re the one trying to drag us into this. Which master or mistress has made us concubines? Besides, we’ve no parents or brother in service here who could make use of our position to bully others. There are people of that kind. Let her swear at them ‘ it doesn’t worry us.
‘I put her to shame and she didn’t know how to cover up,’ said Yuanyang. ‘That’s why she tried to provoke the two of you. It’s a good thing you understand. Being carried away, I didn’t choose my words carefully enough; then she saw her chance and grabbed it.’
Her sister-in-law flounced off in a huff while Yuanyang went on ful¬minating against her. When at last they had calmed her Pinger asked Xiren:
‘Why were you hiding there? We didn’t see you.
‘I went to Miss Xichun’s apartment to fetch Master Bao, only to be told I’d just missed him ‘ he’d gone back. I doubted that, for in that case I would have seen him. I decided to see if he was with Miss [in, but I ran into some of her people who told me he wasn’t there either. It had just occurred to me that he might have left the Garden, when you hap-pened to come along. I dodged out of sight, and then Yuanyang came along too. I slipped from behind that tree to behind this rockery; but you were so busy talking that even with two pairs of eyes you didn’t see.’
‘Even with two pairs of eyes they didn’t see you?’ Someone behind them laughed. ‘Even with three pairs of eyes you didn’t see me!’
With a start they turned and saw Baoyu approaching them.
‘What a chase you’ve led me,’ Xiren exclaimed with a smile. ‘Where have you been all this time?’
‘After I left Xichun, I spotted you coming and guessed you were looking for me, so I hid myself to tease you. I watched you sail straight past into the courtyard, then come out again and question everyone you met. I was laughing up my sleeve, ready to pop out and frighten you when you reached me. But then I saw you dodge into hiding too and knew you were playing a trick on someone else, I peeped out and saw these two. So I crept behind you, and after you came out I hid where you’d been hiding.’
‘We’d better go and have another look in case another couple’s hiding there,’ proposed Pinger with a laugh.
‘No, there’s no one there now,’ he assured her.
Aware that Baoyu must have overheard everything, Yuanyang laid her head on her arms on the rock and pretended she was dozing off.
‘It’s cold on that stone. Come back to my place to rest,’ he sug¬gested, nudging her.
Helping her up, he invited Pinger too for a cup of tea. Pressed by both Pinger and Xiren, Yuanyang acquiesced and the four of them went to¬gether to Happy Red Court. The conversation Baoyu had overheard had naturally depressed him. He simply lay down quietly on his bed, leaving the three girls to chat in the outer room.
To return to Lady Xing, she had learned from Xifeng that Yuanyang’s father Jin Cai and his wife were acting as caretakers in Nanjing and seldom came up to the capital. However, her elder brother Wenxiang was a buyer for the Lady Dowager, and her sister-in-law was chief laun¬dress in her apartments.
Lady Xing promptly sent for Wenxiang’s wife and told her what she proposed. Young Mrs. Jin was of course only too pleased and went off jubilantly to find Yuanyang, sure that her mission would meet with instant success. Instead, she was denounced to her face by Yuanyang and snubbed by Xiren and Pinger into the bargain.
She returned, angry and discomfited, to report to Lady Xing, ‘It’s no use, she just swore at me.’ Since Xifeng was present she dared not mention Pinger, but she added, ‘Xiren joined in her attack on me and talked a whole lot of other nonsense too, which doesn’t bear repeating. You had better persuade Lord She to buy another girl, madam. That little bitch isn’t cut out for such great fortune, nor are we for such good luck.’
‘What has this to do with Xiren?’ asked Lady Xing. ‘How did she come to hear of it? Who else was there?’
‘Miss Pinger was there too.’
Xifeng promptly interposed, ‘Why didn’t you slap her face? Every time I go out, off she goes to amuse herself. When I got home today there was no sign of her. I suppose she took Yuanyang’s side too?’
‘Miss Pinger wasn’t there on the spot,’ replied Mrs. Jin. ‘It looked like her from a distance, but I may have been mistaken. That was just my guess.
Xifeng ordered a servant, ‘Go and fetch Pinger, quick. Tell her I’m back and Her Ladyship is here too. She’s wanted for something.’
Fenger hastily stepped forward to put in, ‘Miss [in sent a maid with a note several times to invite her over, so finally she went. As soon as you came back, madam, I went to fetch her, but Miss Lin asked me to tell you she’d like to keep her for a little, madam.’
‘Every day she seems to want her for something or other,’ remarked Xifeng, then let the matter drop.
As there was nothing more Lady Xing could do, she went home after dinner and told her husband that evening what had happened. Jia She thought the matter over, then summoned Jia Lian.
‘We have other caretakers besides the Jins in Nanjing,’ he said. ‘Send at once to have Jin Cai recalled.’
‘According to the last letter from Nanjing, Jin Cai has had a stroke, sir,’ replied his son. ‘Money for his coffin has already been issued there, and for all we know he may already be dead. Even if he’s still living he’ll be in a coma, so it wouldn’t be any use sending for him. And his old wife is deaf.’
Jia She swore. ‘You scurvy scoundrel !’ he fumed. ‘Quite a know-all, aren’t you? Get out!’
In consternation Jia [ian promptly withdrew. Soon he heard the order given to fetch Jin Wenxiang. He himself remained on call in the outside study, daring neither to go home nor to confront his father.
Presently Wenxiang arrived and some pages ushered him through the inner gate. He was with Lord She for the space of five or six meals, and after he left Jia Lian did not venture to ask what had been said. Not until late that evening, having ascertained that his father was asleep, did he finally go home where Xifeng cleared up the whole mystery for him.
As for Yuanyang, she passed a sleepless night. The next day her brother came and asked the Lady Dowager’s permission to take her home for a rest. The old lady agreed and told her to go. This was not what Yuanyang wanted  but she complied reluctantly in order not to arouse the old lady’s suspicions. Her brother told her what Lord She had said and what dignity she would have as his secondary wife. However, Yuanyang refused to consider it. Unable to change her mind, he had to go back and report this to Jia She.
Jia She flew into a rage. ‘Tell your wife to tell her this from me,’ he fumed. ‘Tell her these are my own words. ‘From of old, young nymphs have preferred youth to age. She must think me too old for her. I daresay she has set her heart on one of the young masters, most likely Baoyu or possibly my son. If that’s her scheme, tell her to forget it. For if she refuses me, who else will dare take her later? That’s the first thing.
‘‘The second is this: if she’s counting on the old lady’s partiality to her to find some decent husband outside, she’d better think again. For no matter whom she marries she’ll still be within my reach, unless she dies or remains single all her life, in which case there is nothing I can do. Otherwise, the sooner she changes her mind the better for her.’’
Wenxiang had expressed agreement after each sentence of this dia¬tribe. Now Jia She added:
‘And don’t you try to cheat me. Tomorrow I shall send the mistress to her again. If you’ve really told her and she still refuses, I won’t hold you responsible. But if when we ask her again she agrees, you’ll have to watch out for your head!’
Jin Wenxiang agreed hastily and withdrew. Upon his arrival home, without waiting to get his wife to pass on this message he told Yuanyang himself, reducing her to a state of speechless anger.
After some reflection she said, ‘Well, supposing I agree, you’ll still have to take me back to report this to the old lady.’
Her brother and his wife were overjoyed by this apparent change of heart. Her sister-in-law at once took her to the Lady Dowager, who happened to be chatting with Lady Wang, Aunt Xue, Li Wan, Xifeng, Baochai and the other girls, as well as a few of the chief stewards’ wives, all of whom were doing their best to amuse the old lady.
Delighted by this opportunity, Yuanyang drew her sister-in-law for¬ward and threw herself on her knees before her mistress. Sobbing, she told the old lady what Lady Xing had said to her, what her sister-in-law had told her in the Garden, and how her brother had threatened her today.
‘Because I wouldn’t agree, the Elder Master says I’ve set my heart on Baoyu. He swears I’ll never escape him, not even if I marry some¬one outside, no, not even if I go to the ends of the earth ‘ he’ll have his revenge in the end. Well, my mind’s made up. Everybody here can bear witness. I shall never marry so long as I live, neither Baoyu with his precious jade, nor someone born with silver or gold, not even a Heavenly King or Emperor!
‘If Your Ladyship tries to force me, I’ll kill myself rather than marry. If I’m lucky, I shall die before you, madam. Otherwise I mean to serve Your Ladyship till the end of your life; then, rather than go back to my parents or to my brother, I shall commit suicide or shave my head and become a nun. If you think I’m not in earnest and this is just empty talk which I’ll go back on later, may Heaven, Earth, all the deities and the Sun and Moon who are my witnesses choke me with an ulcer in my throat so that I rot away into a pulp!’
   Before coming in, she had hidden a pair of scissors in her sleeve, and while uttering this oath she let down her hair with her left hand and started cutting it with the scissors in her right. Maids and serving-women hurried over to stop her. She had cut off one lock already but, luckily, her hair being so thick, it was difficult to cut much. They lost no time in dressing it for her again.
The Lady Dowager was trembling with rage.
‘The only girl left I can trust, and they want to get her away from me,’ she quavered. Her eye falling on Lady Wang beside her, she cried, ‘So you’re all deceiving me, putting on a show of being dutiful but plot¬ting against me in secret. Whenever I have anything good you come and demand it from me. And my best servants too. Now I’ve only this one girl left, and seeing how partial I am to her naturally infuriates you. You’re trying to get her away from me, so as to get me under your own thumb.’
Lady Wang had risen to her feet but did not venture a word in self-defence. And Aunt Xue being her sister, could not try to shift the blame from her. Li Wan had quietly taken the girls outside when Yuanyang began her story.
Tanchun, however, had sense enough to see that it was not for Lady Wang to clear herself of these false charges, nor for Aunt Xue to defend her sister, nor for Baochai to defend her aunt, while Li Wan, Xifeng and Baoyu were in no position to protest either. It was now up to one of the girls to speak. But Yingchun was too naive, Xichun too young. So after listening for a while outside the window, she entered the room with a smile.
‘What has this to do with Her Ladyship?’ she asked her grandmother. ‘Just think, madam, how could a younger sister-in-law know that her elder brother-in-law was going to get a concubine? Even if she did, could she say anything?’
At once the old lady chuckled, ‘I’m losing my wits with age,’ she exclaimed. ‘Don’t laugh at me, Madam Xue. This elder sister of yours is a very good daughter-in-law, not like my elder son’s wife who’s so afraid of her husband she only makes a show of compliance to me. Yes, I was wrong to blame your sister.’
Aunt Xue murmured agreement, then added, ‘I wonder if you’re not, perhaps, rather partial to the wife for your younger son, madam?’
‘No, I’m not partial,’ the old lady declared. She continued, ‘Baoyu,
why didn’t you point out my mistake and prevent me from blaming your mother so unfairly?’
‘How could I stick up for my mother at the expense of my elder uncle and aunt?’ he countered. ‘Anyway, someone’s done wrong; and if mother here won’t take the blame, who will? I could have said it was my fault but I’m sure you wouldn’t have believed me.’
‘Yes, that’s right,’ chuckled the Lady Dowager, ‘Now kneel to your mother and ask her not to feel hurt, but to forgive me for your sake on account of my old age.’
Baoyu stepped forward and knelt to do as he was told, but his mother instantly stopped him.
‘Get up,’ she cried with a smile. ‘This is absurd. How can you apolo¬gize for your grandmother?’
As Baoyu rose to his feet the old lady said, ‘And Xifeng didn’t pull me up either.’
‘I haven’t said a word against you, madam,’ retorted Xifeng laugh¬ingly, ‘but now you’re trying to put the blame on me.’
All the others laughed and the old lady cried, ‘This is strange! Let’s hear what you have to say against me.
‘Who told you, madam, to train your girls so well? If you bring one up as fresh as a sprig of young parsley, you can’t blame people for wanting her. It’s lucky I’m a grandson’s wife. If I were a grandson I’d have grabbed her long ago. I shouldn’t have waited till now.’
‘So it’s all my fault, is it?’ the old lady chortled.
‘Of course it is,’ agreed Xifeng.
‘In that case I won’t keep her. You can take her away.’
‘Wait till I’ve done enough good deeds in this life to be reborn as a man. Then I’ll marry her.’
‘You can take her and give her to Lian. See if that shameless father-¬in-law of yours still wants her then or not.’
‘Lian doesn’t deserve her,’ said Xifeng. ‘He’ll have to make do with scarecrows like Pinger and me.’
They were all laughing at this when Lady Xing was announced, and Lady Wang went out to greet her.
If you want to know what followed, read the next chapter.


Chapter 47

A Stupid Bully Is Beaten Up
for His Amorous Advances
A Cool Young Gentleman Leaves Home
for Fear of Reprisals


Lady Wang hurried out to greet Lady Xing who had come in the hope of news, unaware that the Lady Dowager knew all about her proposal to Yuanyang. Only as she stepped into the courtyard was she quietly ap¬prised of this by some serving-women; but it was too late to retreat now that her arrival had been announced and Lady Wang had come out to meet her. She had no choice but to go in and pay her respects.
The old lady received her without a word, to her great mortification. Xifeng had already left on the pretext of some business, while Yuanyang had retired to her room to sulk. Now Aunt Xue, Lady Wang and the others withdrew one by one to spare Lady Xing embarrassment. She herself dared not leave, however.
Once they were alone the Lady Dowager sneered, ‘I hear you’ve been doing some matchmaking for you husband. Quite a model of wifely submission and virtue, aren’t you? Only you carry this obedience too far. You have children and grand children now, yet you’re still afraid of him. Instead of giving him a little good advice you let him carry on just as he pleases.’
Blushing all over her face Lady Xing replied, ‘I have reasoned with him several times, but he pays no attention. You know how it is, madam. I had no choice.’
‘Would you commit murder too if he insisted’? Have some sense! Your sister-in-law is a simple soul and, for all her poor health, she has to worry about high and low in this household. Though your daughter-in-law helps her, her work is never done. So I don’t make too many demands on them, and when the two of them overlook certain things, that child Yuanyang is thoughtful enough to attend to my wants. She sees I get what I need, and tells them in time what wants replenishing. If not for her, in all their press of business the pair of them would be bound to forget this or that. Do you expect me to see to everything? To work out every day what I need to ask for? She’s the only maid left me who’s not just a child and knows something of my ways and temperament. In the second place: she gets on well with the older and younger mistresses alike here, and never tries in my name to ask this mistress for clothes or that for money. So during the last few years the whole household old and young, starting with your sister-in-law and daughter-in-law, all trust her. It’s not just that I rely on her, she saves them trouble too. As long as I’ve someone like her, I don’t have to worry about going short of anything even if my daugh¬ters-in-law or my grandsons’ wives forget it. But who would you give me in her place if she left now? Even if you managed to produce a girl of her size made of pearls but unable to talk she’d still be no use to me.
‘I was just on the point of sending to tell your husband: I’ve money here for him if he wants to buy someone, and I don’t care if it costs eight or even ten thousand taels; but he can’t have this girl. If she can be left to wait on me for a few years, that’ 11 be the same as him waiting on me day and night himself like a dutiful son. It’s a good thing that you’ve come. It’s more fitting that he should hear this from you.’
She called for her maids then and told them, ‘Ask Madam Xue and the young ladies to come back. We were having fun together, why have they all left?’
The maids made haste to carry out her orders.
Everyone hurried back except Aunt Xue, who objected, ‘I’ve just got home, why should I go over again? Tell her I’m sleeping.’
‘Do us a favour, dear madam, good ancestress!’ pleaded the maid. ‘Our old lady’s in a bad temper. If you won’t go, we shall never man¬age to soothe her. Just do it for our sake. If you’re tired, madam, I’ll carry you there on my back.’
‘You little imp!’ Aunt Xue chuckled. ‘You’ve nothing to fear except a taste of her tongue.’ None the less she felt constrained to go back with the maid.
The Lady Dowager made her sit down and suggested, ‘What about a game of cards? You must be rather rusty, so let’s sit together to make sure that Xifeng can’t cheat us.’
‘That’s right, you must help me, madam,’ agreed Aunt Xue. ‘Shall we have a foursome or rope in one or two others?’
‘Yes, there are just four of us,’ observed Lady Wang.
‘One more would be more fun,’ put in Xifeng.
‘Then send for Yuanyang,’ directed the old lady. ‘Tell her to sit on my left. Your aunt’s eyesight isn’t good; she can help us both with our cards.’
Xifeng sighed and remarked to Tanchun, ‘With all your education, it’s too bad you haven’t learned to tell fortunes too.’
‘What an odd thing to say!’ exclaimed Tanchun. ‘Why not concen¬trate on winning some money from the old lady instead of thinking about fortune-telling?’
‘I want some fortune-teller to predict how much I’ll be losing today. How can I hope to win? Look, before the game even starts they’ve laid ambushes right and left.’
The Lady Dowager and Aunt Xue laughed.
Presently Yuanyang arrived and took a seat between the Lady Dowa¬ger and Xifeng. The red felt cloth was spread and the cards were shuffled and drawn. After the five of them had played for a while, Yuanyang noticed that the old lady needed only a ‘two of circles’ to win the game, and she signalled this to Xifeng whose turn it was to discard. Xifeng deliberately hesitated.
‘I’m sure Aunt Xue has the card I want,’ She said. ‘If I don’t play this she’ll never part with it.’
‘I haven’t anything you want,’ said Aunt Xue.
‘I won’t believe that till I’ve seen your hand.’
‘You can have a look if you like. But first discard and let’s see what that card is.’
Xifeng put down the ‘two of circles’ in front of Aunt Xue.
‘I don’t want that,’ chuckled the latter. ‘I’m only afraid the old lady is going out.’
‘I’ve thrown the wrong one!’ cried Xifeng hastily.
But the Lady Dowager, beaming, had already laid down her hand.
‘Don’t you dare take it back,’ she crowed. ‘Who told you to throw the wrong card?’
‘You see why I wanted to consult a fortune-teller,’ said Xifeng. ‘But this time it was really my own fault.’
‘That’s right.’ The old lady laughed. ‘You should slap your own face and blame yourself.’ She turned to Aunt Xue. ‘It’s not that I’m miserly and to win; I play for luck.’
‘Of course, madam,’ replied Aunt Xue with a smile. ‘Who’s so foolish as not to know that?’
Xifeng, who was counting out the cash she had lost, strung the coins together again on hearing this. ‘That’s fine,’ she cried with a twinkle. ‘If the old lady only plays for luck, not for money, I needn’t count my cash in this miserly way. I’ll put it away at once.’
The Lady Dowager always made Yuanyang shuffle the cards for her, but now as she chatted with Aunt Xue she noticed that the girl had made no move.
‘What’s the matter?’ she asked. ‘Won’t you even shuffle for me?’
Yuanyang picked up the cards then, asking, ‘Isn’t Madam Lian going to pay?’
‘Not going to pay? Paying up will bring her better luck!’ cried the old lady.
She ordered a young maid to bring Xifeng’s whole string of cash and put it by her pile. The girl did as she was told.
‘Give that back,’ pleaded Xifeng. ‘All right, I’ll pay the amount I owe.’
‘Xifeng really is stingy,’ laughed Aunt Xue. ‘This is only a game, after all.’
At this Xifeng left her seat and, taking Aunt Xue by the arm, turned and pointed at the wooden chest in which the Lady Dowager kept her money.
‘Look there, aunt,’ she said. ‘Goodness knows how much of my money has been swallowed up by that. It’s less than an hour since we began, and already the money in that chest has beckoned to this string of cash. As soon as this string’s gone in too we shan’t have to play any more, and our Old Ancestress will have got over her temper. Then she’ll send me off to attend to my duties again.’
The whole company was laughing uproariously when Pinger arrived with another string of cash, for fear her mistress might not have enough.
‘There’s no need to put that in front of me,’  cried Xifeng. ‘Just put it on the old lady’s pile. That will save the money in her chest the trouble of beckoning twice.’
The Lady Dowager laughed so much at this that she scattered the cards in her hand all over the table as she nudged Yuanyang and out told her to pinch Xifeng’s mouth.
Pinger put the money down as she was told and, having joined in the laughter, left. By the courtyard gate she met Jia Lian.
‘Where’s my mother?’ he asked. ‘Father sent me to fetch her.’
‘She’s been standing stock-still all this time before the old lady. You’d better clear off, quick. It’s taken our mistress a long time to coax the old lady into a better temper.’
‘I’ve come over just to ask whether she’s going to Lai Da’s feast on the fourteenth or not, so that I can have her sedan-chair ready,’ he re¬plied. ‘What’s wrong with fetching my mother and pleasing the old lady at the same time?’
‘Take my advice and steer clear,’ Pinger smiled. ‘The whole family, Lady Wang and Baoyu too, have had a dressing-down. But here you come asking for a share in it.’
‘It’s blown over now. Why should I have to make up for something past and done with? Besides, this business had nothing to do with me, and my father himself ordered me to fetch my mother. If he discovered that I’d sent someone else, in the temper he’s in now he’d vent his anger on.’
With that he walked in. And since there was reason in what he said, Pinger followed. Once in the hall, Jia Lian tiptoed to the door of the inner room and peeped inside. He had just seen Lady Xing standing there when Xifeng with her sharp eyes spotted him. She signalled to him to keep out and threw a meaning glance at Lady Xing; but the latter, afraid to go without taking her leave, poured a cup of tea for the Lady Dowager. As the old lady turned to take it, she caught sight of Jia Lian who had not stepped back in time.
‘Who’s that in the hall?’ she demanded. ‘It looked like some young fellow peering in.
‘Yes, I thought I saw someone too,’ said Xifeng. ‘I’ll go and have a look.’
She got up and started out.
At once Jia Lian came in with a conciliatory smile.
‘I’ve come to ask whether the old lady means to go out on the four¬teenth,’ he announced, ‘so that I can have her chair ready.’
‘Why didn’t you come in, then instead of skulking outside?’ asked the Lady Dowager.
‘I didn’t like to disturb you at your game, madam. I was hoping to get my wife to come out so that I could ask her .’
‘Why couldn’t you wait for her to go home where you can ask her all the questions you want? Since when have you been so attentive? Or are you spying for someone, acting in this hole-and-corner way? You gave me quite a fright, you sneaky devil. Your wife is playing cards with me and won’t be free for some time. Better go home and plot against her again with that wife of Zhao Er’s.’
Amid general laughter Yuanyang put in, ‘Bao Er’s wife, not Zhao Er’s wife, Old Ancestress.’
‘That’s right.’ The old lady smiled. ‘How do you expect me to re¬member their names, whether they mean ‘carried in the arms or on the back’?’ Talking of that business I can’t help but be angry. I came to this house as the bride of a great-grandson, and now I have great-grand¬daughters-in-law myself. In my fifty-four years first and last here, I’ve had plenty of shocks and frights and seen all manner of amazing happen¬ings ‘ but never such scandalous carryings-on as yours. Off with you now. Out of my sight!’
Without venturing to say a word, Jia Lian beat a hasty retreat.
‘Well,’ whispered Pinger. standing outside the window, ‘you wouldn’t take my advice and now you’ve caught it.’ Just then Lady Xing came out and ha Lian complained. ‘It’s all the master’s fault, but we are the ones to suffer for it, madam.’
‘May lightning strike you, you unfilial wretch,’ scolded Lady Xing. ‘Other sons would die for their fathers; but you, you start complaining just because of a little talking-to. You’d better watch your step. He’s in a bad mood these days ‘ mind he doesn’t beat you.’
‘Please go home quickly, madam,’ he urged. ‘It’s some time now since I was sent to find you.
He then accompanied his mother out and across to the other courtyard.
When Lady Xing gave her husband an abbreviated version of what the Lady Dowager had said, Jia She felt at a loss and bitterly mortified too. After this, on the pretext of illness he stopped calling on his mother, being actually afraid to face her, sending his wife and son instead to pay their respects every day. None the less he made his men scout around and finally, for the sum of eight hundred taels, bought a seventeen-year-old girl called Yanhong to be his concubine. No more of this.
The card game in the Lady Dowager’s rooms went on until dinner time, and the next couple of days passed uneventfully.
Soon it was the fourteenth, and almost before it was light Lai Da’s wife came to invite them over. The Lady Dowager, being in a good humour, took Lady Wang, Aunt Xue, Baoyu and the girls to spend half a day in Lai Da’s garden. Although it could not compare with Grand View Garden, the grounds were extensive and neatly laid out with pleasant streams, rocks and trees, as well as some splendid lodges and fantastic pavilions.
Xue Pan, Jia Zhen, Jia Lian, Jia Rong and some other close relatives of the Rong and Ning households were entertained in the outer hall. Their distant relatives did not come, however, and neither did Jia She.
A few officials and sons of good families had also been invited to keep them company. Among these was a certain Liu Xianglian, whom Xue Pan had been longing to meet again ever since he first made his acquaintance; for the report that Liu was fond of acting in romantic op¬eras about young scholars and beauties had made him mistake him for a homosexual. Eager as he was to make closer acquaintance, he was overjoyed by this chance meeting today.
The others also knew Liu Xianglian’s reputation, and Jia Zhen, emboldened by wine, persuaded him to perform in two operas, after which he came and sat down next to Liu, chatting with him for a while on various subjects.
Now this Liu Xianglian was the son of a good family who had lost both parents early. No great scholar but frank, chivalrous and unconven¬tional in his ways, he was a good spearman and swordsman addicted to gambling and drinking, fond of the company of singsong girls and quite a musician himself. His youth and good looks led many who did not know him to mistake him for an actor; but he had been invited today because he was a friend of Lai Da’s son Shangrong. The other guests behaved de¬cently enough after drinking; but Xue Pan got up to his old tricks again, which so disgusted Liu that he would have slipped away had not Lai Shangrong most earnestly detained him.
‘Just now Master Bao told me he’d noticed you as soon as he came in, but there’s too much of a crowd here to talk in comfort,’ said Lai Shangrong. ‘He hopes you’ll stay on after the party breaks up, as he has something to ask you. If you insist on going, let me fetch him first. Then I shan’t be responsible for your leaving without having seen him.’
He ordered some pages, ‘Go in and get one of the old women to have a quiet word with Master Bao and ask him to come out.’
This was done, and in less time than it would take to drink a cup of tea they were joined by Baoyu.
‘I leave Xianglian to you, my dear uncle,’ said Lai Shangrong with a smile. ‘I must see to our other guests.’ With that he left them.
Baoyu led Liu Xianglian into a small study at one side of the hail and, when the two of them were seated, asked, ‘Have you visited Qin Zhong’s grave at all recently?’
‘Yes, I have,’ Xianglian told him. ‘Some time ago a few of us were flying falcons near his grave. For fear it might not have stood up to the heavy rain this summer, I rode over on my own to have a look and, sure enough, found it slightly damaged. So after coming home I got together a few hundred cash and went out three days later with two men I’d hired to repair it.’
‘That explains it,’ said Baoyu. ‘Last month when the lotus seed¬pods in our pool in Grand View Garden ripened, I picked ten and sent Mingyan out to offer them at his grave. When he came back, I also asked if the grave had been damaged by the rain; but he said that on the con¬trary it looked in better condition than before. I guessed, then, that some friends must recently have restored it. My trouble is that I’m cooped up at home all the time and am not my own master. Every move I make is known, and there’s always someone trying to stop me or dissuade me, so whatever I say, I can’t do a thing. Though I’ve money, I can’t spend it as I want.’
‘You don’t have to worry about that,’ Xiangiian assured him. ‘I’ll see to anything that you can’t do outside. So long as you remember him, that’s what counts. It will soon be the first of the tenth month, and I’ve put by some money to sacrifice at his grave. You know how hard up I am, with no property of my own, and any money I get slips straight through my fingers. It seemed better to set this sum aside so as not to be caught empty-handed when the time comes.’
‘That’s why I was meaning to send Mingyan to look for you; but you’re so seldom at home, floating about free as duckweed every day, one never knows where to find you.’
‘There was no need to look for me. Each of us must simply do what he can. But soon I shall be setting out on a long journey. I don’t expect to be back for three or four years.’
‘Why should you stay away so long?’
‘You don’t know what’s been on my mind.’ Xianglian gave a bitter smile. ‘You’ll find out all in good time. Now I must take my leave.’
‘It’s so rarely we have a chance to meet, can’t you stay until the party breaks up this evening?’
‘That honourable maternal cousin of yours is up to his old tricks again. If I stay, there may be trouble. I’d better keep out of his way.
‘I see,’ said Baoyu after a thoughtful pause. ‘Well, you may be right to keep out of his way, but you mustn’t really go off on a long journey without letting me know beforehand. Whatever happens, don’t just slip away.’ He was shedding tears as he spoke.
‘Of course I’ll say goodbye to you,’ promised Xianglian. ‘Only don’t tell anyone else.’ As he stood up to leave he added, ‘Go on in, there’s no need to see me out.’
He left the study and had just reached the main gate when he saw Xue Pan there bawling, ‘Who let that lad Liu get away?’
Liu Xiangiian’s eyes flashed with anger. He longed to strike Xue Pan dead with one blow of his fist. Only the thought that a drunken brawl would embarrass Lai Shangrong made him control himself.
Xue Pan catching sight of him was as overjoyed as if he had found some treasure.
‘Where are you going, brother?’ he chortled, staggering forward to catch him by the arm.
‘I’ll be back soon,’ said Xianglian.
‘If you go, dear fellow, it won’t be any fun. Do stay a bit longer to show you care for me. Any pressing business you have, just leave it to me ‘ your elder brother ‘ only don’t hurry off. Do you want an official post? Want to make money? Your elder brother can easily fix it for you.
Angered and humiliated by this outrageous talk, Xianglian hit on a plan. He pulled Xue Pan aside.
‘Do you mean that, about wanting to be my friend?’
Xue Pan could hardly contain himself for excitement.
‘How can you ask such a question, dear brother?’ he leered. ‘If I’m not in earnest may I drop dead!’
‘Very well, but we can’t talk here. After staying a little longer I’ll leave first, and you can follow me presently to my place. We may as well make a night of it. I’ve two marvellous boys there, absolutely virgin; so there’s no need for you to bring a single servant. I’ve people to wait on you.’
Xue Pan was so overjoyed that he half sobered up.
‘Do you really mean it?’
‘Now, come, come!’ Xianglian chuckled. ‘Why turn sceptical when someone’s sincere with you?’
‘I’m no fool.’ Xue Pan grinned. ‘I trust you. But I don’t know where you live. If you go on ahead, how am Ito find you?’
‘I live outside the North Gate. Do you mind spending a night outside, away from your family?’
‘If I’ve got you, I shan’t miss my family.’
‘In that case, I’ll wait for you on the bridge outside the North Gate. Now let’s go back to the feast. Once you see I’m gone, you can slip out and no one will notice.’
Xue Pan promptly agreed. They went back to their table then and drank another round. Xue Pan could hardly sit still. As he feasted his avid eyes on Xianglian he grew more and more jubilant, until soon he was tossing off whole pots of wine without waiting to be urged. When he was nine-tenths drunk, Xianglian rose to leave and slipped away unnoticed. Outside the gate, he ordered his page Xinnu to go home while he paid a call out of town.
Then he mounted his horse and rode straight out of the North Gate to wait on the bridge for Xue Pan. In less time than it takes for a meal, he saw a solitary horseman approaching. It was Xue Pan, his mouth open, his eyes gaping, his head turning right and left like a pedlar’s rattle as he gazed wildly around. So intent was he on staring into the distance that he missed what was close at hand and rode right past Xianglian’s horse. Amused and disgusted, Xianglian cantered after him. Riding on, Xue Pan observed that the houses now were few and far between. He turned back then to make another search and was overjoyed by the sight of Liu Xianglian.
‘I knew you’d keep your word,’ he chortled.
‘Ride on, quick,’ said Xianglian. ‘We don’t want people to see us and follow us.’
He spurred on his horse and Xue Pan followed close behind. At a lonely spot near a marsh overgrown with reeds, Xianglian dismounted and tethered his horse to a tree.
‘Down you get,’ he said. ‘First we must take an oath. Cursed be he who has a change of heart or betrays our secret.’
‘Right you are!’ Xue Pan slithered eagerly down from his saddle. Having made fast his horse he fell on his knees to swear: ‘If ever I have a change of heart or betray our secret, may Heaven and Earth destroy me....’
Before he had finished, wham! He was struck from behind by what seemed like an iron hammer. Everything went black before him, then he saw a riot of golden stars as he flopped to the ground.
Xianglian stepped forward to have a look at him and, knowing the oaf to be unused to beatings, gave him only a few light punches in the face which instantly turned all the colours of a fruit stall. When Xue Pan tried to struggle to his feet, Xianglian tripped him with one foot a couple of times and sent him sprawling again.
‘We did this by mutual consent,’ complained Xue Pan. ‘If you didn’t want to, you could simply have said so. Why fool me into coming out here and then beat me up?’ He let loose a flood of abuse.
‘You must be blind not to know your master,’ cried Xinglian. ‘Now instead of asking my pardon you insult me. There’s no point in killing you, I’ll just teach you a lesson.’
He fetched his horsewhip and gave him a few dozen strokes all over his back till Xue Pan, pretty well sober now, yelped with pain.
‘You coward,’ sneered Xianglian. ‘I thought you could take a beat¬ing.’ As he spoke he dragged him by the left leg through the mud into the reeds, bedaubing him with slime. ‘Now do you know who I am?’
Xue Pan said nothing, just lay face downwards, groaning. Xianglian tossed away the whip to pummel him with his fists. Xue Pan rolled over and over frantically howling:
‘You’ve broken my ribs. I know you’re straight. I shouldn’t have believed other people’s talk.’
‘Don’t drag anyone else into this. Just stick to the point.’
‘What more do you want me to say, except that you’re straight and I was wrong?’
‘You’ll have to do better than that to be let off.’ Xue Pan whined, ‘Dear younger brother...’ Once more Xianglian punched him.
‘Ouch!’ he yelled. ‘Dear elder brother...’ Xianglian struck him twice again.
‘Mercy, kind master, spare me! I was blind. From now on I’ll respect and fear you.’
‘Drink two mouthfuls of that water,’ ordered Xianglian.
Xue Pan wrinkled his brows. ‘It’s too foul. How can I drink it?’
Xianglian raised a threatening fist.
‘I’ll drink it, I’ll drink it.’
Bending his head he lapped up a mouthful of the water at the base of the reeds; but before he could swallow it, he retched and spewed up everything he had eaten.
‘Filthy swine!’ swore Xianglian. ‘Lick up that vomit and I’ll let you off.’
Kowtowing frantically Xue Pan begged, ‘Have a heart! Do a good deed and let me off. I can’t stomach that, not if you kill me.
‘This stench is making me sick!’ declared Xianglian.
With that he left Xue Pan, untethered his horse and, mounting it, rode away. When Xue Pan saw with relief that he had gone, he regretted his blunder in mistaking his man. He tried to struggle to his feet, but the pain was too much for him.
When the absence of the two of them from the feast was suddenly noticed by Jia Zhen and others, they searched high and low for them but could not find them. It was rumoured, though, that they seemed to have gone out of the North Gate. Xue Pan’s pages were too afraid of him to follow him against his orders; Jia Zhen, however, was so worried that he sent Jia Rong with some men to track them down. The search party rode out of the North Gate for more than two li along the road from the bridge, until they saw Xue Pan’s horse tethered to a tree beside the marsh.
‘Thank goodness!’ they exclaimed. ‘If the horse is here, the rider can’t be far off..’
Going up to the horse, they heard groaning in the reeds and hurrying forward discovered Xue Pan there, his clothes tattered and torn, his face swollen and bruised, covered from head to foot with mud like a sow.
Jia Rong had a shrewd idea of what had happened. Quickly dismount¬ing, he ordered some men to help Xue Pan to his feet.
‘So today Uncle Xue’s pursuit of love has brought him to this swamp,’ he joked. ‘I suppose the Dragon King was so impressed by your roman¬tic spirit that he wanted you to be his son-in-law; but then you knocked into the dragon’s horn!’
Xue Pan wished he could sink through the ground for shame. As he could not ride, Jia Rong sent to the North Gate to hire a small chair for him, after which they all returned to the city together. ha Rong threat¬ened to carry him back to Lai Da’s feast, and Xue Pan had to plead hard not to have this business made public before he was allowed to go back home.
Then Jia Rong returned to Lai Da’s house to tell Jia Zhen what had
happened. Hearing of the beating Xianglian had given Xue Pan, ha Zhen observed with a laugh:
‘A lesson like this should be good for him.’
After the party had broken up that evening he went to inquire after Xue Pan’s health, but the latter sent word from his bedroom that he was too unwell to receive anyone.
To return to the Lady Dowager and her party, after they all went back to their own quarters Aunt Xue and Baochai noticed that Xiangling’s eyes were swollen from weeping. Having learned the reason they hur¬ried in to see Xue Pan. They found that, although badly bruised on both face and body, he had broken on bones. Aunt Xue, torn between mater¬nal affection and anger, abused her son and Liu Xianglian by turns. She wanted to complain to Lady Wang and have Xianglian arrested.
‘This isn’t all that serious,’ Baochai demurred. ‘They were simply drinking together, and drunken brawls are common enough. A man often gets a thrashing too when he’s drunk. Besides, everyone knows how wild and headstrong Pan is. I understand why your heart’s bleeding for him, mother, and it won’t be hard to get even. In three days’ or five days’ time, when my brother’s well enough to go out again, Cousin Zhen, Cousin Lian and the others over there won’t let the matter drop. They’ll invite that fellow to a feast to make a public apology to Pan. If you make such an issue of it and spread the news, everyone will think you spoil your son and encourage him to make trouble and that once he’s beaten you raise a big rumpus, relying on your powerful relatives to bully humble folk.’
‘You’re right as usual, child,’ replied her mother. ‘I was muddled for the moment by anger.
‘In fact, this is all to the good,’ continued Baochai with a smile. ‘He’s not afraid of you, mother, and won’t listen to other people’s advice ei¬ther. He’s growing more and more headstrong. Coming a few croppers should cure him.’
Xue Pan was still raging at Liu Xianglian from his kang, ordering his servants to go and pull down Liu’s house, beat him to death, or take the case to court. Aunt Xue stopped them however, saying:
‘Liu Xianglian ran riot after a bout of drinking, but now that he’s sobered up he’s filled with remorse. He’s run away for fear of the con¬sequences.’
Xue Pan, hearing this, gradually got over his rage.
To know the outcome, read on.

Chapter 48

A Rebuffed Reprobate Decides
on a Journey
An Aspiring Maid Racks Her Brains
to Write Poetry


After he was told that Liu Xianglian had fled, little by little Xue Pan’s anger abated. In a few days he was over his pain and simply pretending to be ill, being ashamed to see relatives or friends till his bruises had disappeared.
In no time the tenth month arrived, and as some of their shop manag¬ers were to got home to settle their annual accounts, the Xue family had to prepare a farewell feast for them.
One of those leaving was Zhang Dehui, a man of over sixty who had managed the Xues’ pawnshop since he was young and was now worth two or three thousand taels. Not wanting to return before spring he said:
‘This year sacrificial paper and aromatics are in short supply, which means that next year the price is bound to rise. I propose to send my eldest son here to see to the shop after New Year and on my way back purchase sacrificial paper and scented fans to sell before the Dragon-Boat Festival. After deducting taxes and expenses, we should still net a profit of several hundred percent.’
When Xue Pan heard this he reflected, ‘Since my beating I’ve been ashamed to show my face, wishing I could disappear for a year or so; but I have nowhere to hide. I can’t go on shamming illness indefinitely. Be¬sides, all these years I’ve never taken to books or soldiering, and al¬though I’m in business I’ve never handled a balance or abacus and know nothing either about local customs and different parts of the country. I may as well take some capital and travel around with Zhang Dehui for a year. It doesn’t matter whether I make money or not; I can at any rate hide my face for a while and enjoy some sight-seeing at the same time.’
Having made up his mind to this, he took Zhang aside after the feast, explained his plan, and asked him to wait a couple of days so that they could travel together.
That evening he told his mother. But though pleased in a sense, she was also afraid he might get into trouble outside the loss of capital was immaterial. So she withheld her consent.
‘I don’t worry too much so long as you’re with me,’ She said. ‘And it’s not as if we needed you to handle business or were short of money. If you’ll stay quietly at home that’s worth more to me than a few hun¬dred taels.’
But Xue Pan, once his mind was made up, was stubborn.
‘You keep complaining every day of my lack of worldly wisdom, my ignorance and failure to learn,’ he protested. ‘Yet now that I’ve re¬solved to stop fooling around, come to grips with life and establish myself by learning to run the business, you won’t let me. What do you expect me to do? I’m not a girl to stay cooped up at home all the time. You’ll have to let me out some day. Besides, Zhang Dehui is well on in years, a moral character and an old family friend. What could go wrong if I’m with him? He’ll naturally point it out if I make the least blunder. And he knows the market so well that his advice will be most useful to me. Yet you won’t let me go! All right, I’ll slip away some day without telling you, and come back next year with my fortune made. Just wait and see if I don’t!’
He went off to bed in a huff. Then Aunt Xue discussed the matter with her daughter.
‘If my brother’s really serious about working properly, that’s good,’ said Baochai. ‘But if he’s just saying this to talk you round, once away from home he may slip back into his bad old ways and it will be even more difficult to restrain him. Still, it’s no use worrying too much. If he truly reforms, so much the better for him; if he doesn’t, there’s nothing you can do about it, mother. It depends half on what one can do for him half on his own fate. He’s no longer a boy, and if you keep him at home this year for fear he’s too inexperienced to travel or do business, it’ll be just the same next year. As his arguments sound reasonable, you may as well send him off to have a try ‘ at worst it only means wasting eight hundred or a thousand taels. After all, he’ll have assistants who can’t very well cheat him. Besides, once he’s gone there’ll be no one to egg him on or to back him up, and he won’t be able to throw his weight about. If he has food, he can eat; if not, he’ll just have to go hungry. And for all we know, seeing that he’s on his own, he may cause less trouble than at home.’
Aunt Xue thought this over for a while.
‘You’re quite right,’ she said at last. ‘It’s worth a little money if he’ll learn to behave himself better.’
Having agreed on this they retired for the night.
The next day Aunt Xue invited Zhang Dehui to a meal in the study at which Xue Pan presided, and standing in the back corridor she urged Zhang very earnestly through the window to take good care of her son. Zhang promised to do so.
After the meal as he took his leave he said, ‘The fourteenth is an auspicious day to start a journey. Please get your luggage ready, sir, and hire mules. On the fourteenth we can make an early start.’
Xue Pan was overjoyed and passed on this message to his mother, who promptly set to work with Baochai, Xiangling and two old nurses to prepare his things. An old steward, the husband of Xue Pan’s wet-nurse, was to accompany him with two other experienced old bondsmen as well as two of the pages who usually attended him, making a party of six. Three carts were hired for the luggage, and four sturdy mules. Xue Pan himself would ride a large black mule from the family stable, in addition to which a horse was provided for him too. When all these preparations had been made, his mother and sister went on to give him good advice and warnings which we can pass over here.
On the thirteenth, Xue Pan want to take his leave first of his maternal uncle, then of other members of the Jia family; but we need not dwell on all the farewell banquets offered by Jia Zhen and the rest.
On the fourteenth, first thing in the morning, his mother and sister saw him out of the ceremonial gate and with tears in their eyes watched until he was out of sight before turning back again.

Aunt Xue had brought to the capital only four or five families of ser¬vants apart from a few old nurses and young maids. Now that five of the men had gone with her son, only one man-servant was left. That same day, accordingly, she had all the ornaments, curtains, and other furnish¬ings of the study stored away and ordered the wives of two men who had accompanied Xue Pan to move into the inner quarters. She also told Xiangling to clear up and lock her room and to share her own bedroom.
‘You already have quite a few people to keep you company, mother,’ observed Baochai. ‘Why not let Sister Xiangling move in with me? We’ve plenty of space in the Garden, and now that the nights are getting longer and I sew every evening, wouldn’t it be better if I had one more compan¬ion?’
‘Of course.’ Her mother smiled. ‘That had slipped my mind or I should have suggested it. Only the other day I was telling your brother that Wenxing’s too young to do much, and Yinger can’t wait on you properly all on her own. We must buy you another maid.’
‘A girl bought outside is a dark horse,’ objected Baochai. ‘If she turns out badly the money will be wasted, but that’s a small matter com¬pared with the trouble she may cause. We’d better take our time making inquiries, and not buy a girl until we know her record.’
She urged Xiangling to pack up her bedding and toilet things, and or¬dered an old nurse and Zhener to take them to Alpinia Park. Then she went back to the Garden with Xiangling.
‘I thought of asking our lady’s permission to stay with you after your brother left,’ Xiangling confided. ‘I was afraid, though she’d think I just wanted to play about. I’m so glad you suggested it.’
‘I know how long you’ve admired this Garden without ever having time really to enjoy it,’ Baochai answered. ‘There’s no fun in hurried visits every day. So if you take this chance to stay here for a year, I’ll be glad of your company and you’ll get your wish too.’
‘Can you take this opportunity, dear miss, to teach me to write po¬etry?’
‘The more you get, the more you want!’ chuckled Baochai. ‘As this is your first day here, I advise you to start by paying your respects to all the ladies in the different apartments outside the Garden’s east gate, beginning with the old lady. You needn’t tell them specially that you’ve moved into the Garden; but if anyone asks, just say I’ve brought you to keep me company. Then after you come back you ought to call on all the young ladies here.
Xiangling agreed and was about to set out when Pinger hurried in. Xiangling greeted her, and Pinger returned her greeting with a strained smile.
‘I’ve brought her here to keep me company,’ Baochai told Pinger. ‘I was just going to send someone to report it to your mistress.’
‘What a way to talk, miss!’ cried Pinger. ‘How do you expect me to answer?’
‘No, this is only right. ‘Hostels have their hosts, abbeys their ab¬bots.’ It’s a small matter, but still I should notify her so that the night-watch will know whom to expect here before locking the gates. Will you report this for me when you go back? That’ll save me sending some¬one.’
Pinger agreed readily, then asked Xiangling, ‘Why don’t you call on your neighbours now that you’re here?’
‘Just what I was saying to her,’ remarked Baochai.
‘But you’d better leave us out,’ advised Pinger. ‘Master Lian is at home, ill in bed.’
Xiangling did as she was told, going first to call on the Lady Dowager. As soon as she had left, Pinger took Baochai’s arm.
‘Have you heard the latest news in our family, miss?’ she whispered.
‘Not a word,’ rejoined Baochai. ‘These last few days we’ve been so busy getting my brother off, I’ve heard nothing of what’s been happening in your apartments. I haven’t even seen my cousins for a couple of days.’
‘Then you haven’t heard of the beating Lord She gave Master Lian? It’s quite laid him up.’
‘I heard something vaguely this morning but didn’t believe it. If you hadn’t come, I’d have gone to call on your mistress. What did he beat him for?’
‘It’s all the fault of that upstart Jia Yucun ‘ the bastard deserves to starve to death!’ fumed Pinger, grinding her teeth. ‘In the less than ten years that we’ve known him he’s stirred up endless trouble. This spring Lord She happened to see a few old fans somewhere, which made him so dissatisfied with all our best fans at home that he sent men out at once to search for better ones. A wretched crank they call the Stone Idiot had twenty old fans as it happened, but though so poor that he’d hardly a bite to eat, he’d sooner die than part with them. Master Lian had to pull a lot of strings just to meet him. Then, after much urging, the idiot invited him home and let him have a look at a few of these fans. According to Mas¬ter Lian they were quite unique, all made of rare varieties of bamboo. And the calligraphy and paintings on them were by genuine old masters.
‘When he came back and reported this, Lord She determined to buy them at any price. But the Stone Idiot swore, ‘I’ll die of cold and hunger sooner than sell, even if you offer me a thousand taels apiece.
‘There was nothing Lord She could do, except storm at Master Lian every day. Even when the fellow was promised five hundred taels in advance, he still refused. ‘I’d sooner die than part with my fans, ‘ he insisted. So, really, miss, what could be done?
‘Then that black-hearted scoundrel Jia Yucun heard about it and hatched a scheme. He had the idiot taken to his yamen on a charge of owing the government some money, and ordered the default to be made good by the sale of his property. So the fans were seized, paid for at the official price and brought to our house. As for that Stone Idiot, who knows whether he’s alive or dead?
‘Lord She, once he had the fans, asked Master Lian, ‘How did he succeed where you failed?’ Master Lian simply answered, ‘It’s nothing to boast of, if somebody is willing to ruin a family for such a trifling rea¬son. ‘ Then his father flew into a passion, and accused him of trying to put him in the wrong. That was the main reason.
‘There were a few other things too, so insignificant that I can’t re¬member them exactly. Together, anyway, they got our young master a beating. Instead of being held down and flogged with a cane or stick, he was beaten where he stood ‘ with just what, nobody knows ‘ so that his face was cut open in two places. We heard that Aunt Xue had a cure for cuts of that kind. Could you send for a pill now, miss, for me to take to him?’
Baochai promptly despatched Yinger to fetch a pill, and handed this to Pinger, ‘I won’t call just now, under the circumstances,’ she said. ‘Please give my regards to your mistress.’
Pinger assented and left.

Let us return to Xiangling, who had paid her courtesy calls. After dinner, when Baochai had gone to see the Lady Dowager, she went to Bamboo Lodge. And Daiyu, now in better health, was delighted to learn that she had moved into the Garden.
‘I shall have more free time here,’ remarked Xiangling. ‘If only you’d teach me to write poems, how lucky I’d count myself!’
‘If you want to write poetry you must acknowledge me as your tu¬tor,’ replied Daiyu teasingly. ‘I’m no poet myself, but I dare say I could teach you.’
‘Of course I’ll be only too glad to be your pupil. But you must be patient with me.’
‘It’s quite simple really. There’s hardly anything to learn,’ Daiyu told her. ‘In regulated verse’ it’s just a matter of opening, developing, changing and concluding; and the developing and changing couplets in the middle should be antithetical. A level tone should be contrasted with a deflected one, an abstract word with a concrete one. But if you’ve got a really fine line, the rules can be disregarded.’
Xiangling said, ‘No wonder, then that whenever I steal time to read a couple of old poems, I find some lines have very neat parallelisms while others have none. And I understood there was a rule that the first, third and fifth characters of a line needn’t follow the tone pattern, but the second, fourth and sixth must abide strictly by it. Yet I found that in some old poems even the second, fourth and sixth characters break the rules. This has always puzzled me. From your explanation it seems one needn’t bother with these rules, provided the line is fresh and original.’
‘That’s right. The rules of prosody are secondary, the main thing is to have original ideas. For if there’s feeling, a poem is good even if the lines are unpolished. This is what we mean by ‘not letting the words interfere with the sense.’’
Xiangling gushed, ‘I simply love those lines by Lu You:
The heavy hangings, unrolled, retain the scent of incense; The old inkstone, slightly concave, brims with ink.
That’s so true and so quaintly put.’
‘You mustn’t on any account read poems of that kind,’ warned Daiyu. ‘It’s because you don’t understand poetry that you like such superficial lines when you come across them. Once you get into that habit you’ll never cure yourself of it. Now, listen to me: If you really want to write poetry, take my copy of the complete poems of Wang Wei and study a hundred of his pentasyllabic poems in regulated verse until you know them well. Then read one or two hundred of Du Fu’s regulated heptasyllabics, and one or two hundred of Li Bai’s2  heptasyllabic qua-trains. After digesting these and laying a foundation with these three poets, go on to read Tao Yuanming, Ying Yang, Xie Lingyun, Yuan Ji, Yu Xin and Bao Zhao.3 In less than a year’s time, with your intelligence, you can count on becoming a poet.’
‘That’s fine, miss.’ Xiangling smiled. ‘Please give me that book then to take back with me, and I’ll read a few poems tonight.’
Daiyu told Zijuan to fetch Wang Wei’s Regular Pentasyllabics and give it to Xiangling.
‘Just read those I’ve marked with red circles,’ she told her. ‘Read all the ones I’ve chosen. If there’s anything you don’t understand, ask your young lady. Or I can explain it to you next time I see you.’
Xiangling took the book back to Alpinia Park and, oblivious of all else, read poem after poem by lamplight, ignoring Baochai’s repeated remind¬ers to go to bed. Seeing her so much in earnest, Baochai finally let her be.

One morning, Daiyu had just finished her toilet when a radiant Xiangling came in to return Wang Wei’s poems and ask for Du Fu’s Regulated Verse.
‘How many poems have you memorized?’ asked Daiyu.
‘I’ve read all those marked with red circles.’
‘Do you appreciate them better now?’
‘I think so, but I’m not sure. I’d like your opinion.’
‘Go ahead. We can only make progress by talking things over.
‘To my mind, the beauty of poetry lies in something that can’t be put into words yet is very vivid and real when you think about it. Again, it seems illogical, yet when you think it over it makes good sense.
‘There’s something in that. But what grounds have you for saying so?’
‘Well, take that couplet in the poem on the northern borderland:
In the great desert a single straight plume of smoke;
By the long river at sunset a ball of flame.
Of course the sun’s round, but how can smoke be straight? The first description seems illogical, the second trite. But when you close the book and think, the scene rises before your eyes, and you realize it would be impossible to choose any better words. Or take the couplet:
As the sun sets, rivers and lakes gleam white;
The tide comes up and the horizon turns blue.
The adjectives ‘white’ and ‘blue’ seem illogical too; but when you think about it no other words would be so apt, for read aloud they have all the savour of an olive weighing several thousand catties! Again, take the lines:
The setting sun still lingers by the ford,
A single plume of smoke ascends from the village.
It’s the choice of ‘lingers’ and ‘ascends’ that I admire. On our way to the capital that year, our boat moored by the bank one evening. There was nobody about, nothing but a few trees, and the smoke from some distant cottages where supper was being cooked rose up, a vivid blue, straight to the clouds. Fancy, reading those lines last night carried me back to that place.’
Meanwhile Baoyu and Tanchun had also arrived and sat down to listen to this disquisition on poetry.
‘Actually, you don’t need to read any more poems,’ remarked Baoyu with a smile. ‘‘True understanding need not be sought far away.’ Judg¬ing by the little I’ve heard you say, you’ve already grasped the gist of the matter.’
Daiyu put in, ‘You’ve praised that expression ‘a single plume of smoke ascends’ without realizing that it’s taken from an earlier poet. Have a look at this line, which is even more evocative and natural.’
She found and showed her Tao Yuanming’s lines:
Misty the distant village,
Smoke dawdles up from the hamlet.
Xiangling read this and nodded her appreciation. ‘So ‘ascends’ is derived from ‘dawdles up,’’ she said.
‘You’ve got it,’ cried Baoyu laughing. ‘No need for further explana¬tions. In fact, more might lead you astray. Just start writing poetry your¬self now, and you’re bound to produce something good.’
Tanchun said, ‘Tomorrow I’ll prepare some refreshments and invite you formally to join our poetry club.’
‘Don’t laugh at me, miss,’ cried Xiangling. ‘It’s just out of admira¬tion for you that I’m learning this for fun.’
‘Who’s not doing it for fun?’ countered Tanchun and Daiyu. ‘We don’t write seriously either. If we really set up as poets, people outside the Garden would split their sides laughing.’
‘Don’t be too modest,’ said Baoyu. ‘The other day, when I was discussing our painting with those secretaries outside and they heard we’d started a poetry club, they begged me to show them some of our poems. I wrote out a few for them, and they were so genuinely impressed that they copied them all out to have them printed.’
‘Is that true?’ demanded Tanchun and Daiyu.
‘I’m not a liar like that parrot there on the perch.’
‘You really are the limit!’ they exclaimed. ‘In the first place they aren’t proper poems, and even if they were you shouldn’t circulate our writings outside.’
‘What does it matter?’ he argued. ‘We’d never have heard of the poems by ladies of old if they hadn’t been made public.’
At this point Xichun’s maid Ruhua arrived, and at her request Baoyu went to see her mistress.
Xiangling again urged Daiyu to lend her Du Fu’s poems, and begged her and Tanchun to set her a subject.
‘Let me try my hand and you can correct it,’ she said.
‘Last night there was a fine moon,’ rejoined Daiyu. ‘I was meaning to write a poem on it but didn’t get round to it. Take that as your subject, and choose as your rhymes any characters in the fourteenth group rhym¬ing with han (‘cold’).’
Xiangling went back in high delight with the poems. After cudgelling her brains she wrote a few lines, then read a couple more of Du Fu’s Regulated Verses which she could not bear to put down. She was so
engrossed that she forgot food and sleep.
‘Why torture yourself?’ asked Baochai. ‘This is all Daiyu’s fault. I must settle scores with her. You were always a bit weak in the head, and now this has crazed you completely.’
‘Please don’t distract me,’ begged Xiangling.
With that she finished her verse and showed it to her.
Baochai read it and commented with a smile, ‘This isn’t the way. Don’t be shy, though. Just show it to her and see what she has to say.
So Xiangling took the poem to Daiyu, who read as follows:
The moon hangs in mid-sky, cold is the night;
Round its reflection, limpid white its light,
Inspiring poets to let their fancies roam,
But traveller, sick at heart, cannot bear the sight.
By emerald pavilion hangs a mirror of jade,
A disc of ice outside pearl screen displayed;
No need for silvery candles this fine night
Its bright splendour lights up the painted balustrade.
Daiyu commented with a smile, ‘You’ve no lack of ideas but the language lacks elegance, because you’re restricted by having read so few poems. Scrap this one and write another. Just let yourself go.’
Xiangling went away in silence. She did not go back to her room but strolled by the pool and under the trees, sat lost in thought on the rocks or crouched down to scribble on the ground, to the amazement of all those who passed by.
When Li Wan, Tanchun, Baochai and Baoyu heard of this, they climbed a slope some way off and stood there laughing as they watched her, now frowning, now smiling to herself.
‘The girl’s bound to go mad at this rate,’ giggled Baochai. ‘She sat up all last night muttering to herself, and didn’t go to sleep till nearly dawn. In less time than it takes for a meal it was daybreak, and I heard her get up and make a hurried toilet before rushing off to find Daiyu. She came back to spend the whole day in a daze; but since the poem she wrote was no good, now of course she’s writing another.’
Baoyu chuckled. ‘This is a case of ‘a remarkable place producing outstanding people.’ So Heaven has endowed her with more than good looks. We were always regretting that such a girl lacked polish, but now see what’s happened! This shows there is true justice in the world.’
‘I only wish you would work as hard.’ Baochai smiled. ‘Then you’d succeed in your studies.’
Baoyu let this pass.
They now saw Xiangling set off exuberantly to find Daiyu again.
‘Let’s follow her,’ suggested Tanchun. ‘I want to see if she’s done any better this time.’
So off they trooped together to Bamboo Lodge, where they found Daiyu discussing Xiangling’s poem with her.
‘What’s it like?’ they asked.
‘A creditable effort but still poor,’ was Daiyu’s verdict. ‘This one is too arty. She’ll have to try again.’
They asked to see the verse, which read:
Neither silver nor liquid this chill light on the window;
A jade disc hangs above in the limpid sky;
Pale the plum-blossom steeped in fragrance,
Slender the willow slips, their dew half dry.
Golden steps appear coated with powder,
Marble balustrades seem lightly frosted over;
Waking in West Pavilion, no trace of man.
But some vestiges still behind the screen we discover.
Baochai remarked pleasantly, ‘This doesn’t read like a poem about the moon, but it would do if the subject were changed to The Colour of the Moon, for almost every line seems to deal with colour. Never mind, all poetry starts with meaningless talk. In a few days you’ll do better.’
Xiangling, who had preened herself on this poem, was discouraged again by these comments. She refused to give up, however, and once more started racking her brains. Leaving the others to chat, she strolled into the bamboo grove before the steps and concentrated on thinking, deaf and blind to everything going on around her.
Presently Tanchun called to her through the window, ‘Do have a rest, Xiangling!’
‘‘Rest’ belongs to the fifteenth group of rhymes you’ve got the wrong rhyme,’ she answered absently.
Everybody laughed.
‘She’s really become a demoniac poet!’ said Baochai. ‘It’s all Daiyu’s fault for egging her on.’
‘The Sage says ‘tireless in teaching others,’’ quipped Daiyu. ‘Since she consulted me, I had to tell her what I knew.’
‘Let’s take her to see Xichun,’ proposed Li wan. ‘It’ll wake her up to look at the painting.’
No sooner said than done. They dragged Xiangling off past Lotus Fragrance Anchorage to Warm Scented Arbour, where Xichun was hav¬ing a siesta on her couch. The painting, propped against one wall, was covered by a piece of gauze. Having woken Xichun they removed the gauze, disclosing that the painting was only about one-third finished. Xiangling saw some beautiful girls in it. Pointing at two of them she said with a smile:
‘This is our young lady, and that’s Miss Lin.’
Tanchun laughed. ‘If all who can write poems are to be painted there, you’d better hurry up and learn.’
After a few more jokes the party dispersed.
Still Xiangling’s whole mind was occupied by poetry. That evening she sat up facing the lamp lost in thought, only going to bed after midnight and lying there open-eyed, not getting off to sleep till nearly dawn. When presently day broke and Baochai woke up, she found her sleeping soundly.
‘She’s been tossing and turning all night,’ thought Baochai. ‘I won¬der if she’s finished her poem? She must be tired out. I’d better not wake her.’
Just then Xiangling laughed in her sleep and cried, ‘Ah, now I’ve got it! She’ll hardly be able to find fault with this.’
Amused and touched, Baochai woke her up to ask, ‘What have you got? Your single-mindedness should move the gods to pity. But you may fall ill if you can’t write good poems.
Having finished her toilet she went off with the other girls to pay her respects to the Lady Dowager.
Now Xiangling had been so determined to learn to write poems, giving her whole mind to it, that although she had failed to finish this new poem the previous day she had suddenly hit on eight lines in her dreams. As soon as she was dressed she wrote them Out.  And as she could not tell whether they were good or not, she went to find Daiyu again. She reached Seeping Fragrance Pavilion as Li Wan and the, girls, just back from Lady Wang’s apartments, were laughing at Baochai’s account of how Xiangling had been versifying and talking in her sleep. When they looked up and saw her, all clamoured to see her new poem.
If you want to know what it was like, read the next chapter.

Chapter 49

White Snow and Red Plum-Blossom Make
the Garden Entrancing
Girls Enjoy Rustic Fare at
a Venison Barbecue


When Xiangling discovered the others talking about her, she went up to them with a smile.
‘Read this,’ she said. ‘If it’s any good, I’ll persevere; if not, I’ll give up trying to write poetry.’
She handed Daiyu her poem and they all read:

Hard, surely, to hide such splendour,
A form so fair, a spirit so cold, so withdrawn;
Washing-blocks pound in an expanse of white,
Only a crescent is left when cocks crow at dawn;
In green coir cape on the river he listens to autumn fluting,
In red sleeves she leans over her balustrade at night.
Well might the goddess Chang E ask herself:
Why cannot we enjoy endless, perfect delight?

‘Not only good but original and ingenious,’ was the general verdict. ‘As the proverb says, ‘All difficulties on earth can be overcome if men but give their minds to it.’ You certainly must join our poetry club.’
Xiangling, hardly able to believe her ears, was questioning Daiyu and Baochai to make sure they were not teasing when some maids and old nurses hurried in.
‘A party of ladies, old and young, have arrived,’ they announced. ‘We don’t know them, but they’re your relatives. Please go quickly to welcome them.’
‘What are you talking about?’ asked Li Wan. ‘You must explain more clearly. Whose relatives are they?’
‘Two of them are your younger cousins, madam. Two young ladies, one of them is said to be Miss Xue’s cousin, and there’s a young gentle¬man who’s Master Xue’s cousin. We’re on our way now to invite Madam Xue over. You and the young ladies had better go first.’
As these messengers left Baochai exclaimed joyfully, ‘Can it be our Xue Ke and his sister?’
Li Wan said gaily, ‘It sounds as if my aunt has come to the capital again. But how odd that they should all arrive together.’
Going in some mystification to Lady Wang’s reception hall, they found it crowded with people. Lady Xing’s brother and sister-in-law had brought their daughter Xiuyan to stay with her; and they had travelled with Xifeng’s elder brother Wang Ren, who was coming to the capital too. Half way there, when their boats moored, they had happened to meet Li Wan’s widowed aunt making the same journey with her daughters Li Wen and Li Qi; and having found out in the course of conversation that they were related, these three families had proceeded on their way together. Then there was Xue Pan’s cousin Xue Ke, coming to arrange for the marriage of his younger sister Baoqin who had been betrothed to the son of Aca¬demician Mei when their father was in the capital. Learning of Wang Ren’s trip, he had followed with his sister and overtaken him. In this way they had arrived together today to visit their respective relatives.
The Lady Dowager and Lady Wang welcomed these guests most warmly.
‘Not wonder our lamp wicks kept forming snuff and sputtering last night!’ remarked the old lady with a smile. ‘It was a sign of this reunion today.’
While exchanging family news and accepting the gifts brought, she ordered a meal. Xifeng, it goes without saying, was busier than ever, for Li Wan and Baochai were naturally chatting with their relatives about all that had happened since they parted. Daiyu enjoyed the general excite¬ment too until it came home to her that she alone had no family but was all on her own, and at this thought she shed tears. Baoyu, well aware how she felt, finally succeeded in consoling her, after which he hurried back to Happy Red Court.
‘Go and have a look, quick!’ he urged Xiren, Sheyue and Qingwen. ‘Baochai’s boy cousin looks and behaves quite differently from Xue Pan, more as if he were her real brother. And there’s something even more amazing. You always insist that nobody can rival Baochai’s looks but you should just see her girl cousin and my elder sister-in-law’s two cousins ‘ words fail me to describe them! Old Man Heaven, what fine essences and subtle spirits you must have used to produce such exquisite creatures! Why, I’ve been like the frog at the bottom of a well, imagining that our girls here were unmatched; but now, without searching far afield, here on this very spot I see others who surpass them. We certainly live and learn. Does this mean there are still others like these?’
He had been laughing and exclaiming so wildly that Xiren refused to go. Qingwen and the others had done as he said, however, and now they ran back smiling.
‘You must go and have a look,’ they urged Xiren. ‘Lady Xing’s niece, Miss Baochai’s cousin and Madam Zhu’s two cousins are as pretty as four fresh young shallots, they really are!’
While they were speaking, Tanchun came to find Baoyu. ‘This is a fine thing for our poetry club,’ she told him.
‘That’s right,’ he agreed. ‘You had the bright idea of starting the club, so now all these people turn up as if by magic. We don’t know, though, whether they can write poems or not.’
‘I asked them just now,’ said Tanchun. ‘Though they disclaimed modestly, they all seem as if they can. Even if they can’t, they can learn
‘	look at Xiangling.’
‘Miss Xue’s cousin sounds the best of them all,’ put in Xiren. ‘Is that your impression, miss?’
‘Yes,’ said Tanchun. ‘I shouldn’t be surprised if she surpasses even Baochai and all the rest of us here.’
‘It will be strange if she does. I shouldn’t have thought it possible to find anyone better than her!’ exclaimed Xiren, much impressed. ‘I must go and have a look.’
‘The old lady lost her heart to her as soon as she set eyes on her,’ Tanchun continued. ‘She’s already told Lady Wang to adopt her as her daughter, and means to bring her up as her own grandchild. It’s just been decided.’
‘Is that true?’ demanded Baoyu joyfully.
‘Since when have I lied to you?’ retorted Tanchun. ‘Now that the old lady has this good grand-daughter she’ll forget you, her grandson.’
‘I don’t mind. It’s only right to love girls more. Tomorrow’s the sixteenth our club ought to hold another meeting.’
‘Daiyu’s just out of bed and Yingchun’s ill again. There’s always someone missing.’
‘Yingchun doesn’t write much, so we can manage without her.’
‘Wouldn’t it be better, though, to wait a few days till the newcomers have settled down and then invite them? Our elder sister-in-law and Baochai naturally won’t be in a poetizing mood just now either. Besides, Xiangyun’s not here and Daiyu’s only just recovered. It wouldn’t suit anyone. Let’s wait till Xiangyun comes. By then the new arrivals will know us, Daiyu will be completely well, Li Wan and Baochai will have less on their minds, and Xiangling will have made further progress; then we can have a better meeting. Come on now, let’s go and see what’s happening in the old lady’s place. We don’t have to worry about Baochai’s cousin it’s settled that she’s to stay here. If the other three aren’t, we can beg the old lady to invite them to stay in the Garden too. The more the merrier.
Baoyu’s face lit up. ‘That’s a splendid idea,’ he cried. ‘I’m such a fool, I was so carried away by their arrival, I never thought of that.’
The two of them went together then to the Lady Dowager’s quar¬ters. Sure enough, the old lady was so delighted with Baoqin that she had made Lady Wang adopt her as her goddaughter. And overjoyed by this, she would not even hear of Baoqin staying in the Garden the girl was to sleep with her. Xue Ke was to be put up in Xue Pan’s study.
The Lady Dowager then told Lady Xing, ‘Your niece needn’t go home for a few days either. Let her enjoy herself in the Garden first.’
As Lady Xing’s elder brother was poorly off, he and his wife had counted on her providing them with accommodation and financial assis¬tance during this visit to the capital; so Xiuyan was entrusted to Xifeng. Now there were many girls, temperamentally different, in the Garden; and as Xifeng considered it unnecessary to open up another house for Xiuyan, she decided the best thing would be to put her up with Yingchun; for then if later Lady Xing heard that her niece was dissatisfied, no blame would attach to Xifeng. And not counting the time she chose to spend at home, each month that she stayed in Grand View Garden Xifeng would allocate her the same monthly allowance as Yingchun. Dispassionately appraising Xiuyan’s character and behaviour, she found her unlike both Lady Xing and her parents, being extremely gentle and lovable. So Xifeng gave her preferential treatment out of pity for her poverty and hard life, whereas Lady Xing paid little attention to her.
Because the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang appreciated Li Wan’s good qualities and her admirable conduct since her husband’s untimely death, they would not hear of her widowed aunt staying anywhere but in their house. So although most reluctant to impose on them, on the old lady’s insistence Li Wan’s aunt had to move into Paddy-Sweet Cottage with her two daughters.
Barely had the newcomers settled in than Shi Nai, Marquis of Baoling, was transferred to a provincial governorship. In a few days he would be taking his family to his new post. Not wanting to part with Xiangyun, the Lady Dowager kept her and had her fetched to their house, directing Xifeng go to give her a separate establishment. This Xiangyun resolutely declined, however, and at her insistence they let her move in with Baochai instead.
Things were livelier in Grand View Garden now that thirteen people, counting in Xifeng, lived there. In addition to Li Wan who had senior status there were Yingchun, Tanchun, Xichun, Baochai, Daiyu, Xiangyun, Li Wen, Li Qi, Baoqin and Xiuyan, as well as Xifeng and Baoyu. Apart from the two married women, the other eleven were all about the same age ‘ fifteen, sixteen or seventeen. Some of them had been born in the same month, on the same day or at the same hour, with the result that they themselves often confused their ages. Thus the terms ‘elder sis¬ter,’ ‘younger sister,’ ‘younger brother’ and ‘elder brother’ were bandied about at random.
Xiangling’s whole heart was nowadays set on writing poetry, but she did not like to trouble Baochai too much. For her, talkative Xiangyun’s arrival was a stroke of luck, as the latter was only too glad to be con¬sulted on poetry and would cheerfully hold forth on the subject at all hours of the day and night.
‘You’re deafening me with this noise,’ protested Baochai jokingly. ‘Real scholars would laugh to hear a girl discussing poetry so seriously.  They’d say you’d forgotten your place. One Xiangling is more than enough without a chatterbox like you joining in and spouting about ‘Du Fu’s profundity, Wei Yingwu’s quiet distinction, Wen Tingyun’s brilliance and Li Shangyin’s recondite obscurity.’ All these are dead poets; why harp on them without any mention of our two living poets?’
‘Which two living poets? Do tell me, dear sister,’ begged Xiangyun.
‘The hard-working eccentric Xiangling and the garrulous lunatic Xiangyun,’ answered Baochai.
Xiangling and Xiangyun were laughing uproariously when Baoqin ar¬rived. She was wearing a glittering green and gold cape made of some fabric they did not recognize.
‘Where did this come from?’ asked Baochai.
‘The old lady got it out for me because it was beginning to hail,’ replied her cousin.
Xiangling examining it more closely remarked, ‘No wonder it’s so pretty; it’s made of peacock feathers.’
‘Not peacock feathers,’ Xiangyun corrected her. ‘The feathers from wild ducks’ heads. That shows how fond of you the old lady is. Fond as she is of Baoyu, she never gave him this to wear.’
‘As the proverb says, ‘The fortune of each is predestined,’’ put in Baochai. ‘I never thought she’d come here at this time or that, having come, the old lady would take such a fancy to her.’
Xiangyun told Baoqin, ‘There are two places here where you can enjoy yourself just as you please: the old lady’s apartments or here in the Garden. When you call on Lady Wang, if she’s at home it’s all right to stay and chat with her for a while; but if she’s out, don’t go in. They’re a nasty lot there who’d all like to do us in.’
Baochai, Baoqin, Xiangling and Yinger all laughed.
Baochai said, ‘That’s good sense from a flibbertigibbet like you, but you still talk too bluntly. Our Baoqin is rather like you. You’re always saying you wish I were your sister; but now I think you’d better take my cousin as your younger sister.’
With another glance at Baoqin, Xiangyun said, ‘She’s the only one here fit to wear this cape. It’s too good for the rest of us.’
As they were chatting Hupo came in with the message, ‘The old lady doesn’t want Miss Baochai to be too strict with Miss Baoqin, because she’s still very young. Just let her do as she pleases and ask for whatever she wants, and don’t interfere.’
Baochai rose to give her assent, after which she nudged Baoqin and said mischievously, ‘I wonder where such good luck as yours comes from. Better leave us now before we start bullying you. I don’t see in what way I’m worse than you.
As she was teasing, Baoyu and Daiyu arrived.
‘You’re only joking, cousin,’ said Xiangyun, ‘but some people are really jealous.’
‘If anyone is, it must be him,’ said Hupo laughingly, pointing at Baoyu.
‘Oh, no, not him,’ Baochai and Xiangyun retorted in unison.
‘If not him, then her.’ Giggling, Hupo pointed at Daiyu.
Xiangyun kept silent but Baochai cried, ‘You’re even wider of the mark this time. She treats my cousin like her own sister; in fact she’s even fonder of her than I am. So how could she be jealous? Don’t be¬lieve that nonsense Xiangyun talks. You can never take anything she says seriously.’
Baoyu knew very well how narrow-minded Daiyu could be, and hav¬ing as yet no idea of what had recently passed between her and Baochai he was really afraid she might resent the Lady Dowager’s partiality for Baoqin. Her reactions to Xiangyun’s remark and Baochai’s answer were not what they would once have been but tallied with what Baochai had said, and this puzzled him. He thought, ‘The relationship between these two has changed, they now seem ten times better friends than the oth¬ers.’ And then he heard Daiyu address Baoqin as ‘younger sister’ without mentioning her name, as if they were real sisters.
Baoqin was young and warm-hearted, intelligent too, and well-edu¬cated from an early age. After a couple of days there she had formed a general impression of the ha family. And since the girls gave themselves no airs but were all good to her cousin, she tried likewise to make herself agreeable to them. Noticing too that Daiyu stood out from the rest, she treated her even more affectionately. Baoyu observed all this with secret surprise.
Presently Baochai and her cousin rejoined Aunt Xue, Xiangyun went
to the Lady Dowager’s apartments, and Daiyu returned to her own rooms to rest.
Baoyu followed her there and said with a smile, ‘Although I’ve read The Western Chamber and annoyed you by quoting some lines from it in fun, a line has occurred to me which I can’t understand. I’ll recite it now and see if you can explain it.’
Sensing something behind this she said archly, ‘Go on.’
‘In that scene ‘Trouble Over the Billet-doux’ there’ s an excellent line:

Since when did Liang Hong and Meng Guang become so intimate?

Isn’t that superb! The reference to Liang Hong and Meng Guang is just an ordinary classical allusion, but turned into a question it’s rather neat. So, since when? Can you explain?’
Unable to suppress a laugh she replied, ‘That’s a good question. Well asked in the play, and well asked by you too.’
‘You wouldn’t take my word for it before. Now you two are getting on fine, but I’m left out in the cold.’
‘I never knew how truly good she was, but used to think she had ulterior motives.’
Daiyu proceeded to give him a full account of all Baochai had said to her when she pulled her up for her gaffe in the drinking game, and her gift of bird’s-nest during her illness.
This explained matters to Baoyu. ‘I was wondering since when Liang Hong and Meng Guang started to hit it off so well,’ he said. ‘So it all came of her ‘being young and talking too freely.’’
Then Daiyu spoke of Baoqin, and wept because she had no sister of her own.
‘There you go again, upsetting yourself for no reason,’ scolded Baoyu. ‘Just see, you’re thinner this year than last, yet you won’t look after yourself. Every day you work yourself up for no reason at all, and aren’t satisfied until you’ve had a good cry.’
Wiping her tears she answered, ‘I’ve been feeling sick at heart, but I don’t seem to cry as much as before. Though my heart aches, I haven’t many tears to shed.’
‘You just imagine that because you’re so used to crying,’ he ob¬jected. ‘How can anyone’s tears dry up?’
At this point one of his maids brought him a scarlet woolen cape and the message, ‘Madam Zhu just sent to say that, as it’s started to snow, she wants to consult you about calling a meeting of the poetry club to¬morrow.’
While she was still speaking a maid arrived from Li Wan with an invitation for Daiyu, and Baoyu urged her to go with him to Paddy-Sweet Cottage. Having put on red boots lined with lambskin and with a gold-thread cloud-design applique, a crimson silk cape lined with white fox-fur, a green and gold plaited belt with double rings, and a snow-hat, she walked with him through the snow to Li Wan’s apartments. There they found the other girls assembled, most of them in red capes of wool or satin. Li Wan, however, had on a gown of blue velvet buttoned down the middle, Baochai a pale purple woollen cape embroidered with flower designs, and Xiuyan her ordinary indoor clothes without any outer gar¬ments to keep off the snow.
Presently Xiangyun arrived wearing an ermine coat lined with grey squirrel given her by the Lady Dowager, a scarlet woollen hood with a gosling-yellow applique of cloud designs and a golden lining, and a big sable collar.
‘Look, here comes the Monkey King!’ exclaimed Daiyu laughing. ‘She’s got a cape too, yet she’s dressed herself up like a saucy little Tartar.’
‘You should see what I’m wearing underneath,’ chuckled Xiangyun.
Taking off the coat she revealed a narrow-sleeved, none too new greenish yellow satin tunic lined with white squirrel, with fur-lined cuffs and collar, which was embroidered with dragons in gold thread and coloured silks. Her pink satin breeches were lined with fox fur. A long-tasselled coloured butterfly belt was fastened tightly round her waist. Her boots were of green leather. With her slender build she looked thoroughly neat and dashing.
‘She loves dressing up like a boy,’ they teased. ‘And that costume suits her better than a girl’s.’
‘Hurry up and discuss the poetry meeting,’ urged Xiangyun. ‘I want to know who’s to be host.’
‘It was my idea,’ said Li Wan. ‘We should have met yesterday, and the next date isn’t due for quite some time; so I thought, as it happens to have snowed, why shouldn’t we get together for a meeting to welcome the newcomers and to write some poems? What do the rest of you think?’
‘That’s a good idea,’ responded Baoyu promptly. ‘But it’s too late today, and tomorrow if the weather clears it won’t be such fun.’
‘The snow may not stop,’ said the others, ‘Even if it does, this evening’s fall is big enough to enjoy.’
‘There’s nothing wrong with this place, but Reed Snow Cottage would be even better,’ remarked Li Wan. ‘I’ve already sent people there to heat the flues under the floor, and we can sit round the fire and write poems. I don’t suppose the old lady will be in the mood to join us. And as we’re just going there for a romp, we need only let Xifeng know. Each of you can send one tael of silver here, and that ought to be enough.’ mdi¬cating Xiangling, Baoqin, Li Wen, Li Qi and Xiuyan, she continued, ‘We’ll leave these five newcomers out, as well as Yingchun who’s poorly and Xichun who’s asked for leave. If you four send your share. I guarantee that five or six taels will be ample.’
Baochai and the others readily agreed, then asked what the subject and the rhyme would be.
‘I’ve already decided, but all in good time,’ replied Li Wan with a smile. ‘You’ll hear what I’ve chosen tomorrow.’
After chatting a little longer they went to see the Lady Dowager. And nothing more of consequence happened that day.

Too excited to sleep soundly, Baoyu got up the next day as soon as it was light to draw the curtains. Although the blinds were down, it was so bright outside that he concluded regretfully that the weather must have cleared and the sun had come out. When he raised the blinds, however, to look through the glass window, he discovered that this brightness was not sunlight. It had been snowing hard all night so that the snow lay over a foot deep, and it was still falling in great flakes like cotton-wool.
In high delight he called for someone to help him with his toilet. Wear¬ing just his purple velvet gown lined with fox-fur and an otter waistcoat and belt, with a fine coir cape over his shoulders, a rattan hat on his head and pattens on his feet, he set off without delay for Reed Snow Cottage.
Once outside his own gate he gazed round. All was white except for some green pines and emerald bamboos in the distance, so that he had the sensation of being in a crystal bowl. As he rounded the foot of the slope he smelt a cold fragrance and, looking over his shoulder, saw a dozen or so crimson plum trees in Green Lattice Nunnery where Miaoyu lived, their blossom, red as rouge, reflected in the snow and remarkably vivid against it. He stopped there awhile to enjoy the sight. As he was about to continue on his way, on Wasp-Waist Bridge he saw a messenger with an umbrella sent by Li Wan to invite Xifeng over.
Outside Reed Snow Cottage, maids were sweeping the snow from the path. This cottage was built on the bank of a stream by a hill. Its adobe rooms with their thatched roofs and bamboo windows were sur¬rounded by a wattle-fence, and it was possible to fish through the win¬dows. All around grew clumps of reeds, through which a path mean¬dered to the bamboo bridge of Lotus Fragrance Anchorage.
When the maids saw Baoyu approaching in his rattan hat and coir cape, they burst out laughing.
‘We were just saying we needed a fisherman, and here you are to fill the bill,’ they cried. ‘The young ladies won’t be coming till after break¬fast. You’re too impatient.’
Baoyu had to go back then, and he had just reached Seeping Fra¬grance Pavilion when he saw Tanchun in a hooded scarlet woollen cape emerging from Autumn Freshness Studio leaning on the arm of a maid, followed by a serving-woman with a black silk umbrella. Guessing that she was on her way to see their grandmother, he waited for her by the pavilion and they left the Garden together.
In the Lady Dowager’s inner room, Baoqin was doing her hair and changing her clothes. Soon all the girls arrived and Baoyu set up a clamour, urging them to hurry breakfast because he was hungry. When finally the tables were laid, however, the first dish was a lamb embryo steamed in milk.
‘This is a tonic for us old people,’ said the Lady Dowager. ‘It’s a creature that’s never seen the sky and the sun, so I’m afraid you children mustn’t eat it. There’s some fresh venison which you can have presently.’
They all agreed to this except Baoyu, who was too impatient to wait. He steeped a bowl of rice in hot tea, added some diced pheasant and hastily swallowed this down.
‘I know you’re busy again today and can’t be bothered to eat,’ said his grandmother. ‘Keep the venison for him for this evening,’ she told the maids.
Only when Xifeng assured her that there was plenty, did she say no more about saving it for him.
Xiangyun whispered to Baoyu, ‘If there’s fresh venison, let’s ask for some to cook ourselves in the Garden. That would be fun.’
Baoyu promptly passed on this request to Xifeng, who ordered a serv¬ing-woman to take some venison to the Garden.
Presently they left the Lady Dowager and trooped back to the Gar¬den and to Reed Snow Cottage to hear what subject and rhyme Li Wan had chosen. But at this point Xiangyun and Baoyu disappeared.
‘It’s no good when those two get together,’ remarked Daiyu. ‘When¬ever that happens, there’s trouble. They must have slipped off because they have designs on that venison.’
Li Wan’s aunt came in now to watch the fun. She told her niece, ‘That boy with the jade and the girl with the golden unicorn are fine handsome young people who must have plenty to eat, but there they are planning to eat raw meat ‘ and talking as if they meant it. I can’t believe it!’
The young people laughed and exclaimed, ‘What an idea! Somebody fetch them, quick!’
‘This is all Xiangyun’s doing,’ said Daiyu. ‘What did I tell you?’
Li Wan hurried out to find the two of them. ‘If you want to eat raw meat, I’ll take you to the old lady’s place,’ she said. ‘I shan’t care then if you eat a whole deer and fall ill ‘ it won’t be my responsibility. Look how it’s snowing and how cold it is. Don’t go making trouble for me.’
‘We’re not eating it raw,’ countered Baoyu. ‘We’re going to grill it.’
‘That’s all right then,’ said Li Wan, eyeing the barbecue and spits which some old servants had brought. ‘Be careful now, and don’t cry if you cut your fingers!’ With that warning she went in again with Tanchun.
Now Pinger arrived, sent by Xifeng to explain that she was unable to come as she was busy distributing the New Year allowances. Xiangyun insisted that Pinger must stay with them, and the maid was only too will¬ing, for she was naturally playful and always up to endless pranks with her mistress. Seeing the fun they were having, she took off her bracelets to join Baoyu and Xiangyun by the barbecue, and suggested grilling three pieces first to try. Baochai and Daiyu, being used to a barbecue, were not surprised by this; but to Baoqin and Li Wan’s aunt it seemed very strange.
By now, Li Wan and Tanchun had fixed the subject and rhyme.
Tanchun said to Li Wan, ‘Just smell that venison! If it smells so good even from here, I must try some too.’
She joined the party outside and Li Wan followed.
‘All your guests are here,’ she protested. ‘Won’t you stop eating?’
Xiangyun, still munching, replied, ‘It’s only after eating this that I feel like drinking, and I need wine to give me inspiration. Without this venison I couldn’t possibly write a poem today.’ Her eye fell on Baoqin in her wild duck cape, who was standing there smiling at them. ‘Come here, silly!’ she cried. ‘Come and try some.’
‘How dirty it looks,’ laughed Baoqin.
‘Go and taste some,’ urged Baochai. ‘It’s really delicious. Cousin Daiyu’s so delicate, it would give her indigestion. If it weren’t for that, she’d like some too.’
Baoqin went over then to try a morsel, and finding it good she helped herself to more.
Presently a young maid came from Xifeng to fetch Pinger.
‘Miss Xiangyun won’t let me go. You go back first,’ Pinger told her.
Not long after the maid had left, Xifeng came in person, a cape over her shoulders.
‘So you have such a treat without telling me!’ she scolded, joining the group around the barbecue.
‘Where did all these beggars come from?’ cried Daiyu.  ‘Well, well!  Reed Snow Cottage is out of luck today, all messed up by Xiangyun.  My heart bleeds for it.’
‘A lot you know,’ retorted Xiangyun.  ‘A real scholar can afford to be eccentric.  You pretend to be so refined and pure, it’s disgusting!  Stuffing ourselves now with this venison will inspire us presently to produce some fine lines.’
‘If you don’t make good that boast,’ threatened Paochai, ‘you’ll have to pay the penalty by bringing up that meat and swallowing some of those reeds under the snow!’
When they had finished eating, they washed their hands and rinsed their mouths.
Pinger, looking for her bracelets, found one missing. She searched everywhere but there was no trace of it, to everyone’s surprise.
‘I know where it’s gone,’ said Xifeng with a smile. ‘There’s no need to look for it now. Just get on with your poems. I guarantee you’ll get it back within three days.’ Then she asked, ‘What are you writing today? The old lady says it will soon be New Year, and we should make some lantern riddles to amuse ourselves in the first month.’
‘That’s right,’ they agreed. ‘We’d forgotten. We must hurry up and make up a few good ones to guess in the first month.’
They went into the room with the heated floor, where refreshments and drinks were ready. Pasted on the wall was the subject on which they 1405 were to write, and the rhyme and metre. Baochai and Xiangyun, going over to have a look, saw that they were to compose a collective poem on the scenery in five-character lines using rhymes from the xiao group of rhymes. The order in which to write was not stipulated.
Li Wan proposed, ‘As I’m a poor hand at versifying, let me just do the first three lines. Whoever’s quickest can go on from there.’
‘We should arrange some sort of order,’ protested Baochai.
If you want to know the upshot, read the next chapter.


Chapter 50

In Reed Snow Cottage Girls Vie in
Composing a Collective Poem
In Warm Scented Arbour Fine Lantern
Riddles Are Made


‘We must have some sort of order. Let me write out the numbers,’ proposed Baochai.
She made them draw lots. And Li Wan, as it happened, drew first place.
‘If that’s how it is, I’ll give you the first line,’ volunteered Xifeng.
‘Better still,’ responded the others laughingly.
Baochai put down ‘Phoenix’ before ‘Old Peasant of Sweet Paddy,’ while Li Wan explained the subject to Xifeng. The latter thought for a while.
‘You mustn’t laugh!’ she warned. ‘I have only one line rather a crude one, too but I wouldn’t know how to go on from there.’
‘The cruder the better,’ they replied. ‘Let’s hear it, and then you can go off and attend to your own business.’
‘I suppose when it snows the north wind must blow,’ said Xifeng. ‘At any rate I heard it all last night. So my line is:
The north wind blew hard all night.
Will that do?’
The others exchanged smiling glances.
‘It may be crude but it doesn’t show what is to follow, and that’s the proper way to start a poem,’ was their verdict. ‘So besides being good, it leaves plenty of scope for the others. Let’s start with this line. Hurry up and write it down, Old Peasant of Sweet Paddy, then complete the couplet and begin a new one.’
Xifeng, Aunt Li and Pinger drank a few more cups of wine with them, then went off on their own business. Meanwhile Li Wan wrote:
Xifeng:
The north wind blew hard all night
After this she went on to write down the following lines composed by herself and others:

Li Wan:
The door opens on a flurry of snow.
Pity the pure white mingling with the mud....
Xiangling:
Jade scattered on the earth below.
Fain would it revive the dead grass
Tanchun:
But no veil on withered plants throw.
The village brew, matured, is costly now
Li Chi:
With a good crop the granaries overflow.
Ash flying from the pipe shows the change of season. 
  Li Wen:
The Dipper turns and longer the nights grow.
Cold hills have lost their vivid green
Xiuyan:
In frozen creeks no tide is heard to flow.
The snow hangs lightly on sparse willow boughs.
Xiangyun:
But slides off tattered plantain leaves drooped low.
Musk-ink is melted in the precious tripod
Baoqin:
Rich sables hide the silken sleeves below.
Brightness the mirror by the window catches
Daiyu:
Scent clings to walls with pepper dye aglow.
A side wind blows and blows incessantly
Baoyu:
While the clear dream lingers slow.
Whence comes the sound of the plum-blossom flute7
Baochai:
Who is it that on green jade pipe doth blow?
The giant turtle fears the earth may sink
Li Wan interposed at this point, ‘I’ll go and see about getting some wine heated for you.’
Baochai urged Baoqin to go on; but before she could do so, Xiangyun stood up boisterously.
Xiangyun:
Dragons fight, the cloud-wrack billows to and fro.
A lone boat puts back to the lonely shore....
Baoqin, standing up too, continued:
Baoqin:
A whip points at the bridge, the poet must go.
Fur coats are issued to the garrison....
Xiangyun could never bear to take second place. And being more quick-witted than the others, arching her eyebrows now she straightened up and declaimed:
Xiangyun:
Cotton-padded clothes to conscripts in the snow.
Hard the going through gullies and hills....
‘Well done!’ cried Baochai, and continued:
Baochai:
They must not shake the branches hanging low.
Soft and gleaming swirls the snow....
Daiyu cut in:
Daiyu:
In swaying dance, now swift, now slow.
Fresh taros are steamed for a treat....
She nudged Baoyu, but he was too intent on watching Baoqin, Baochai and Daiyu compete against Xiangyun to be bothered to join in himself. Prompted by Daiyu, however, he improvised:
Baoyu:
To ‘scattered salt’ the song compares the snow.
The boatman is fishing still in his coir cape....
‘You’re no good!’ cried Xiangyun with a laugh. ‘Keep out of this. You’re only holding us up.’
Baoqin took over.
Baoqin:
Silent the woodman’s axe, unheard each blow.
Hill after hill like crouching elephants....
Xiangyun struck in:
Xiangyun:
A single snake-like path winds to and fro.
Congealed by cold these flowers of ice....
As Baochai and the others exclaimed in admiration, Tanchun went on:
Tanchun:
Beauty no frost can blight or overthrow.
In the deep courtyard chilly sparrows take fright....
As Xiangyun was thirstily gulping down some tea, Xiuyan took this chance to join in.
Xiuyan:
In lonely hills an old owl hoots its woe.
Snow dances up and down the courtyard steps....
Xiangyun hastily put down her cup to interject:
Xiangyun:
Drifts at will on the lake below.
Glittering bright in dawn’s clear light....
Daiyu:
Setting the whole night aglow.
Truly the cold of three feet of snow is forgotten....
Xiangyun hastily continued:
Xiangyun:
Its promise clears the sovereign’s gloomy brow.
Who cares for the one lying frozen....
Baoqin cut in gleefully:
Baoqin:
While merry-makers, feasting, toast the snow.
A white silk belt from the heavenly loom is broken....
Xiangyun:
Whiter than mermaid’s silk from sea-market below,
Before she could start a new couplet, Daiyu put in:
Daiyu:
Deserted pools are locked in loneliness....
Xiangyun swiftly rounded this off.
Xiangyun:
Back to his humble lodge the poor scholar would go. Again Baoqin cut in:
Baoqin:
The ice to make our tea is slow to boil
Xiangyun who was having great fun, laughed and went on:
Xiangyun:
The leaves to warm the wine will hardly glow.
With a giggle Daiyu continued:
Daiyu:
Snow covers the broom of the monk up on the hill.... Baoqin gaily capped this:
Baoqin:
It hides the boy’s lyre below.
Xiangyun, doubled up with mirth, now babbled something so quickly that the others had to ask her to repeat it. She gasped.
Xiangyun:
On the stone tower sleeps an idle crane....
Hugging herself to stop her sides from splitting, Daiyu fairly shouted:
Daiyu:
And silken quilts are warm, the fond cats know....
They rattled off the next lines between fits of laughter.
Baoqin:
From the moon cave roll silver waves....
Xiangyun:
Cloud ramparts hide the crimson glow....
Daiyu:
One can almost taste the scent of wet plum-blossom.... ‘A fine line!’ exclaimed Baochai, and capped it:
Baochai:
And from the dripping bamboos sweet melodies flow.
Baoqin:
Snow-flakes wet the belt with a design of love-birds....
Xiangyun:
Or congeal on emerald hairpins in a row....
Daiyu:
They hang in the air although there is no wind....
Baoqin:
And though there is no rain still hiss down slow....
Xiangyun had collapsed by now in a fit of laughter. The rest of the party had long since opted out to enjoy watching these three rivals com¬pete. Daiyu urged Xiangyun to go on.
‘So even you can run out of ideas,’ she teased. ‘Let me hear if you can’t rattle on a bit longer.’
Xiangyun, lying in Baochai’s lap, was shaking with laughter.
Baochai made her sit up, declaring, ‘If you can use all the rhymes in this category, then I’ll admit you’ve won.’
‘Call this versifying?’ she spluttered, getting up. ‘I’m fighting for my life!’
‘Whose fault is that?’ they retorted laughingly.
Tanchun, having decided earlier on that she could not compete, had been writing down their lines. She told them now, ‘This still requires an ending.’
Li Wen took over and added:
Li Wen:
These lines record this happy day....
Li Qi added the concluding line:
Li Qi:
And praise on this sagacious reign bestow.
‘That’s enough,’ said Li Wan. ‘Even if we haven’t used up all the rhymes, to do that would sound forced and awkward.’
After a careful reckoning they found that Xiangyun had made up the most lines.
‘The credit should go to that venison!’ they quipped.
‘It hangs together quite well when you read it through,’ observed Li Wan. ‘Only Baoyu flunked again.’
‘I’m no good at collective poems,’ he rejoined. ‘You’ll just have to make allowances for me.’
‘We can’t make allowances every time,’ she retorted. ‘You com¬plain either that the rhyme’s too difficult, the judge too unfair, or that you’re no good at collective poems. Today you’ll have to pay the pen¬alty. I was struck just now by the red plum-blossom in Green Lattice Nunnery, and wanted to pick a spray for this vase; but because I can’t stand Miaoyu’s ways, I never have anything to do with her. Now we’ll punish you by sending you to fetch a spray.
‘A good penalty, refined and amusing,’ was the general verdict.
Baoyu agreed readily. He was starting out when Xiangyun and Daiyu both spoke up together.
‘It’s very cold outside. Have some hot wine before you go.
Xiangyun picked up the wine pot and Daiyu filled a large goblet.
‘After drinking our wine, if you don’t carry out your mission we’ll redouble your punishment,’ Xiangyun threatened him.
Having tossed off the wine he went out into the snow. Li Wan told some servants to accompany him, but Daiyu stopped them.
‘There’s no need,’ she said. ‘If other people go with him, he won’t get it.’
‘Yes, you’re right.’ Li Wan nodded and ordered a maid to fetch a tall vase with a narrow neck and sloping shoulders, and fill it with water in readiness. ‘Presently we should write some poems on red plum-blos¬som,’ she suggested.
Xiangyun promptly volunteered to do the first one.
‘Oh, no, you don’t,’ laughed Baochai. ‘You’ve done quite enough for today. It’s no fun if you hog everything and leave the rest of us idle. Baoyu has got to be punished when he comes back. He says he’s no good at collective couplets. All right then, we’ll make him write a poem on his own.’
‘Quite right,’ agreed Daiyu. ‘And I’ve another idea. Just now we didn’t make enough couplets. We should get those who contributed least to write on red plum-blossom.’
‘That’s an excellent idea,’ approved Baochai. ‘Xiuyan, Li Wen and Li Qi had no chance to shine although they are, after all, our guests, because Baoqin, Daiyu and Xiangyun were so greedy. This time, the rest of us should keep out of it and let just the three of them write.’
‘Qi’s not too good at poetry,’ said Li Wan. ‘Let Baoqin take her place.’
Baochai had to accept this. She added, ‘Let’s choose the three characters ‘red plum flower’ as rhymes. Each of them can write a heptasyllabic regulated verse, Xiuyan using the rhyme ‘red, ‘ Wen ‘plum’ and Baoqin ‘flower.’’
‘That’s all very well,’ said Li Wan. ‘But we mustn’t let Baoyu off.’
‘I’ve another good subject for him,’ put in Xiangyun quickly. Asked what it was, she replied, ‘‘Calling on Miaoyu to Beg for Red Plum-Blossom.’ Wouldn’t that be fun?’
They were voicing their approval when Baoyu came back, beaming, holding a branch of red blossom. The maids at once took it and put it in the vase, while all the others expressed their appreciation.
‘Go ahead and enjoy it,’ said Baoyu. ‘You don’t know the trouble it cost me.’
Tanchun handed him another cup of hot wine, and maids came to take his cape and hat and shake off the snow. Maids from different apart¬ments had brought extra clothing for all their young mistresses, and Xiren had sent Baoyu an old jacket lined with fox-fur. Li Wan ordered a dish of steamed taros and two plates of tangerines, oranges and olives to be sent back to Xiren, while Xiangyun told Baoyu the subject just chosen for him and urged him to hurry up and write.
‘Do let me choose my own rhymes, good cousins,’ he begged. ‘Don’t set the rhymes for me.’
The rest agreed, ‘All right. Do as you like.’
Meanwhile they were looking at the plum-blossom bough. Only about two feet in height with a side branch nearly five or six feet long, it had branchlets coiling like dragons or worms, others pointed like brushes, or densely twigged as a forest; and the petals, red as rouge, were fragrant as orchids. As the others were admiring this, Xiuyan, Li Wen and Baoqin composed and wrote out their poems. The rest read them in the order of their rhymes as follows:
RED PLUM-BLOSSOM
Rhyming ‘red’
Braving the cold it blossoms for the east wind
Ere peach trees bloom or apricots turn red;
In a dream, rosy clouds bar the way to Mount Luofu,
But to Yuling’s eternal spring my soul has fled.
Green sepals, rouged, blend into brilliant torches,
Tipsy snow-sprites over shattered rainbows have sped;
We can see this is no ordinary beauty
That in the snow and ice blooms pink and red.
Xing Xiuyan
Rhyming ‘‘plum’
What loveliness assails my drunken eyes?
This not the white I sing, but the red plum.
Its frozen cheeks are stained with tears of blood,
Its heart though free from misery is numb.
Transformed by an elixir wrongly swallowed,
Down it slips, its old guise east off, from Elysium.
Magnificent the spring north and south of the Yangtze;
Bees and butterflies who doubt this do not come!
Li Wen
Rhyming ‘flower’
Like rich girls in spring finery competing,
Stark boughs burst into flower.
Still courts, winding balustrades, with no white plum;
Stream and lonely hills glow with sunset at this hour.
Like fairy bark on red stream floating free,
Fluting drifts chill in the dreaming maiden’s bower.
It must have sprung from seeds in paradise;
Past doubting this, though changed in form the flower. 
                       Xue Baoqin

They praised all these poems delightedly pointing out that the last was the best. Baoyu was amazed that Baoqin, although the youngest, had the quickest wit; and Daiyu and Xiangyun poured a small cup of wine to congratulate her.
‘All three poems have their merits,’ said Baochai. ‘You two have grown tired of making fun of me every day, so now you’re picking on her.’
Li Wan asked Baoyu, ‘Are you ready?’
‘I did concoct something,’ he replied. ‘But their poems so overawed me that I’ve forgotten it. Let me think again.’
Xiangyun struck her hand-stove with a copper poker. ‘I’m starting to ‘beat the drum,’’ she warned. ‘If you’re not ready by the time I stop, you’ll have to pay another forfeit.’
‘I’m ready,’ he answered.
‘Dictate it to me.’ Daiyu picked up a brush. Xiangyun struck the hand-stove, crying, ‘One!’ ‘All right,’ agreed Baoyu. ‘Take this down.’ He declaimed:
‘Before the drinking starts, ere poems are made …’
Daiyu shook her head as she wrote. ‘A nondescript opening.’ ‘Hurry up!’ ordered Xiangyun.
He continued:
‘He goes to the Fairy Isles in search of spring, asking a boon.’
Daiyu and Xiangyun nodded. ‘That’s more like it.’
He proceeded:
‘Not in quest of dew from the Bodhisattva’s kundi, But to beg a plum branch by the fence of the Goddess of the Moon.’

Once more Daiyu shook her head as she wrote this down. ‘Too arty.’
Xiangyun hastily struck the stove again.
Baoyu went on:
‘He returns to earth with a load of cold red snow, A fragrant cloud cut far from the dusty world; Its forked boughs resting on the poet’s slim shoulders, His clothes by moss from the nunnery still purled.’

When Daiyu had finished writing this out and the others were discuss¬ing it, some maids ran in to announce:
‘The old lady’s coming!’
All hurried out to meet her, commenting, ‘What a good mood she must be in!’
She could be seen in the distance wearing a big cape with a grey squirrel-fur hood, seated in a small bamboo sedan-chair sheltered by a black silk umbrella, and surrounded by her maids, each holding an um¬brella. Li Wan and the young people were hastening to meet them when the Lady Dowager sent word that they should stay where they were.
Upon reaching them she announced, ‘I’ve given Lady Wang and Xifeng the slip. Though the snow lies so deep, I’m all right in this chair; but I didn’t want them to come traipsing through the snow.’
Calling out greetings, they pressed forward to take her cape and help her out of the chair.
Her first remark on entering the room was, ‘What beautiful plum-blossom! You certainly know how to enjoy yourselves. I’ve come at the right time.’
Li Wan had already ordered maids to spread a big wolf-skin rug in the middle of the kang for the old lady.
‘Go on with your fun, and don’t stop eating or drinking,’ she said when she had sat down on the rug. ‘Now that the days are shorter I’ve given up taking a nap after lunch. I was playing cards when I suddenly thought of you, so I came to join in your fun.’
By now Li Wan had passed her a hand-stove, and Tanchun brought over clean chopsticks and a cup and poured some warm wine for her.
The old lady took a sip.
‘What’s on that plate there?’ she asked.
They brought it over and told her, ‘Quails cured in wine.’
‘That will do nicely,’ she said. ‘Pull off some bits of the leg meat for me.’
Li Wan assented and did so, after first calling for water to wash her hands.
‘Just sit down as you were and go on chatting,’ urged the old lady. ‘I like listening.’ She told Li Wan, ‘You must sit down too as if I weren’t here, or else I shall go away.’
All resumed their seats then, except Li Wan, who moved to the lowest place.
‘What were you doing?’ the Lady Dowager asked. When informed that they had been writing poems she said, ‘You’d do better to make up some lantern riddles for all of us to enjoy after New Year.’
They agreed to this.
After some more conversation she remarked, ‘It’s damp here. You mustn’t stay too long or you may catch cold. Xichun’s place is warmer than this. Let’s go and see how she’s getting on with her painting, and whether it will be ready by New Year.’
‘By New Year?’ they exclaimed. ‘Not likely! It probably won’t be ready till the Dragon-Boat Festival.’
‘Well. I never! Is it going to take her longer to paint the Garden than it took the workmen to build it?’
She mounted her chair again then, and the whole party accompanied her past Scented Lotus Pavilion and along a covered walk with at either end an archway, both sides of which were inset with stone tablets. They passed through the western arch, which on its outer side bore the inscrip¬tion ‘Through the Clouds, ‘on the inner side ‘Across the Moon,’ and entered Xichun’s compound by the front northern gate. By the time the Lady Dowager alighted, Xichun had come out to meet her and lead them all along the verandah to her bedroom. Above its door was the inscription ‘Warm Scented Arbour,’ and perfumed air struck warm on their cheeks as attendants lifted the red felt portiere. As soon as they were inside, before even sitting down, the Lady Dowager asked to see Xichun’s paint¬ing.
Xichun explained that it was difficult to mix colours in such cold weather, as they congealed. ‘I was afraid of spoiling it, so I’ve put it away,’ she concluded.
‘I want it for New Year, so don’t be lazy!’ teased the old lady. ‘You must fetch it out at once and go on with it.’
As she was speaking, Xifeng, in a purple woollen gown, made a smil¬ing entrance.
‘What a dance you’ve led me, Old Ancestress!’ she cried. ‘Coming here without a word to anyone.’
The Lady Dowager was pleased to see her.
‘I didn’t want you to come out in the cold; that’s why I wouldn’t let them tell you,’ she replied. ‘You’re an artful puss to have found me after all. There’s no need to show your dutifulness in this way.’
‘I didn’t come out of any sense of duty,’ countered Xifeng laugh¬ingly. ‘When I found your place so quiet and questioned the maids, they wouldn’t tell me where you were. Just suggested I try the Garden. I was puzzling over this when a few nuns turned up. I realized they must have come with an alms list, or to make their annual requests for donations or incense money. So many people apply to our Old Ancestress just before New Year, I knew you’d run away to avoid being dunned. Now I’ve come to report to our Old Ancestress: Your duns have gone, you can come out of hiding. I’ve some very tender pheasant ready. So please come back for dinner. If you leave it any later, it’ll be overcooked.’
Amid the general merriment that followed, and before the old lady could make any retort, Xifeng ordered her sedan-chair. The Lady Dowa¬ger mounted it with Xifeng’s help, in smiling acquiescence, and was car¬ried through the east gate of the covered walk, chatting with the rest of the party.
All about lay snow, soft as powder, bright as silver. And suddenly, at the top of a slope, they saw Baoqin in the cape of wild ducks’ down, with a maid behind her carrying a vase of red plum-blossom.
‘So there she is!’ they cried laughingly. ‘No wonder two people were missing. She’s got herself some plum-blossom as well.’
‘Just look!’ exclaimed the old lady in delight. ‘This snowy slope matched with a girl like her, in that costume too, and with plum-blossom in the background what does it remind you of?’
‘It’s like Qiu Ying’st painting The Beauty in Snow which hangs in your room, madam,’ some of them answered.
The Lady Dowager shook her head.
‘No, the girl in that painting hasn’t a costume like hers, and she isn’t a patch on Baoqin for looks, either.’
Even as she spoke, someone in a red felt cape stepped out from be¬hind Baoqin.
‘Which of the girls is that?’ asked the old lady.
‘All the girls are here,’ they told her. ‘That’s Baoyu.’
‘My eyes are failing,’ she sighed.
While talking they had drawn level with Baoyu and Baoqin.
Smilling, Baoyu told Baochai, Daiyu and the rest, ‘Just now I went back to Green Lattice Nunnery, and Miaoyu’s given you each a spray of plum-blossom. They’ve already been sent to your rooms.
As they thanked him for going to such trouble, they left the Garden and made their way to the Lady Dowager’s quarters. They were chat¬ting there after dinner when Aunt Xue arrived.
‘I haven’t come over to see you all day because of this heavy snow, she told the old lady. ‘Are you in low spirits, madam? You should have gone out to enjoy the snowy landscape.’
‘What makes you think I’m feeling low? I went out and amused myself for a while with the girls.’
‘Last night I was thinking of asking my sister for the use of the Gar¬den for one day, to invite you to a simple meal so as to enjoy the snow. But I found you’d gone to bed early, and as Baochai told me you weren’t feeling too well I didn’t like to bother you. If I’d known, I should have invited you.’
‘It’s only the tenth month, and this is the first fall of snow this win¬ter,’ rejoined the old lady. ‘You’ll have plenty of chances to treat us later on.’
‘I hope so,’ said Aunt Xue. ‘That will give me an opportunity to show my respect.’
‘Mind you don’t forget, aunt!’ cried Xifeng playfully. ‘Why not weigh out fifty taels of silver now and give it to me to keep? Then as soon as it snows again, I’ll prepare the feast. That’ll save you trouble and the danger of forgetting.’
The Lady Dowager chuckled.
‘Yes, just give her fifty taels,’ she said to Aunt Xue, ‘and we’ll take half each. When it snows, I’ll excuse myself on the pretext of illness, so as to save you trouble, while Xifeng and I reap all the benefit.’
Xifeng clapped her hands. ‘Excellent! Just what I was thinking.’
General laughter greeted this sally.
‘Bah! For shame!’ exclaimed the Lady Dowager. ‘You’ve always got an eye to the main chance. Aunt Xue is our guest and it’s we who should be inviting her, instead of neglecting her so badly. How can we let her spend money on us? Yet instead of issuing an invitation, you have the nerve to ask for fifty taels. You’ve no sense of shame at all.’
‘No one’s as shrewd as our Old Ancestress,’ commented Xifeng. ‘She was just sounding you out, aunt. If you’d really forked up fifty taels, she’d have gone halves with me. Now that her scheme doesn’t look like coming off, she turns around to shift the blame to me, talking in that high-minded way. All right then, instead of asking Aunt Xue for money, I’ll let her treat the old lady at my expense; and I’ll offer our Old Ances¬tress another packet of fifty taels to make up for my officiousness. How’s that?’
By this time all the others were prostrate with laughter.
The Lady Dowager then reiterated that Baoqin, with the plum-blos¬som in the snow, had looked prettier than a picture. She asked her age as well as the hour, day and month of her birth, and wanted to know all about her family. Aunt Xue guessed that she wished to arrange a match be¬tween Baoqin and Baoyu, and she would have been quite willing had the girl not been promised already to a son of the Mei family. But as the old lady had made no direct proposal, she could not say so outright. She answered therefore in a roundabout way:
‘It’s a pity this poor child has had no luck. Before her father died two years ago, she saw a good deal of the world and travelled to all sorts of beauty spots with her parents. Her father knew how to enjoy life. And as he owned shops everywhere, he used to take his family to stay in differ¬ent provinces for several months or a year at a time, until they’d visited more than half the country. Last time he was here he betrothed her to Academician Mei’s son; but the year after that he died. And now her mother is a victim to asthma....’
She was interrupted at this point by Xifeng, who heaved a long sigh.
‘Too bad!’ she exclaimed. ‘I was on the point of proposing a match for her, but she’s already engaged.’
‘Whom were you going to propose?’ asked the old lady with a smile.
‘Never you mind, Old Ancestress. I was convinced they’d make an ideal couple. But as she’s engaged it’s no use bringing it up. I’d better hold my tongue.’
The Lady Dowager knew very well whom Xifeng had in mind, but in view of Baoqin’s engagement she said no more. After a little more chat they party broke up, and the night passed without further incident.

The next morning the sky had cleared. After breakfast the old lady told Xichun, ‘Never mind the weather but get on with your painting, and try to finish it before New Year. Of course, if you really can’t, it doesn’t matter. The main thing is to lose no time in painting in Baoqin and her
maid with the plum-blossom, just the way they looked yesterday.’
This was a tall order, but Xichun had to agree. When the others went to see how she was getting on, they found her lost in thought.
‘We can chat while she’s thinking,’ Li Wan told the rest. ‘Yesterday the old lady asked us to make up some lantern riddles; so when I went home with Qi and Wen, and we couldn’t sleep, I made up two using quotations from the Four Books, and they thought up two each as well.’
‘Yes, we ought to get to work on those riddles,’ the others agreed. ‘Let’s hear yours first and see if we can guess the answers.
‘‘Guanyin (Goddess of Mercy) lacks a chronicle,’’ said Li Wan. ‘The answer should be a line from the Four Books.’
Xiangyun promptly guessed, ‘‘The end is supreme goodness.’’
Baochai smiled. ‘First think about ‘chronicle.
‘Try again,’ urged Li Wan.
‘I’ll make a guess,’ said Daiyu. ‘Is it ‘though good there is no docu¬mentation’ ?’
‘That must be right,’ cried the others.
Li Wan continued, ‘‘A poolful of plants what are they?’’
‘‘Just flags and reeds,’ ‘responded Xiangyun promptly. ‘I must be right this time.’
‘Yes, good for you,’ said Li Wan. ‘Here is Wen’s riddle: ‘The water flows cold by the rocks.’ And the answer is the name of a man of old.’
‘Shan Tao?’2 asked Tanchun.
‘That’s right,’ said Li Wen.
‘Qi’s riddle is the word ‘glow-worm,’’ Li Wan went on. ‘And the answer is a single word.’
They cudgelled their brains for a long time. Then Baoqin said, ‘This one’s deep. Is the answer ‘flower’?’
‘You’ve hit the nail on the head,’ Li Qi told her.
‘What has ‘glow-worm’ got to do with ‘flower’?’ some of them demanded.
‘Most ingenious,’ remarked Daiyu with a smile. ‘Doesn’t grass turn into glow-worms?3 The character for ‘flower’ consists of the ‘grass’ radical and the character for ‘metamorphosis,’ doesn’t it?’
The others laughed when they caught on and said. ‘Very good.’
‘They’re all good, but they’re not the sort of riddle the old lady wants,’ observed Baochai. ‘We’d better make up some about everyday objects, which everyone can enjoy.’
All agreed to this.
After a moment’s thought Xiangyun volunteered, ‘I’ve got one writ¬ten after the melody Dian Jiang Chun, about some thing very common. See if you can guess the answer.’ She recited:
‘Parted from his valleys and streams,
He fools about midst mankind
In utter futility.
Fame and profit are vanity.
And nothing is left behind.

For a long time they failed to guess the answer. Some suggested a monk, others a Taoist, yet others a marionette.
‘You’re all wrong,’ declared Baoyu, who had been chuckling to him¬self for a while. ‘I’ve got it. It must be a monkey in a circus.’
Xiangyun confirmed that he was right.
‘The first part makes sense,’ said the others. ‘But what does the last line mean?’
‘Is there any performing monkey that hasn’t got its tail docked?’ asked Xiangyun.
All the others protested laughingly, ‘Even when making riddles, she’s full of monkey-tricks!’
Li Wan now turned to Baoqin. ‘Aunt Xue was telling us yesterday that you’ve travelled a good deal, and seen lots of sights. Do try your hand at some riddles. And since you write such good poems, why not make them in verse?’
Baoqin nodded cheerfully and went off to rack her brains.
Meanwhile Baochai was ready with a riddle which she recited:
‘Tier upon tier of carved cedar and sandalwood, By no craftsmen was it reared;
Even when the sky is swept by wind and rain No holy bells are heard.’
While the rest were trying to solve this, Baoyu chimed in:
‘Vanished from heaven and the world of men, The bamboo frame bids us beware! Gaze up to catch the message from the phoenix, And sigh your answer to the azure air.’
By now Daiyu had one ready too and she declaimed:
‘No need to tether these fine steeds with ropes, Galloping round the walls how fierce they seem! At their master’s bidding they speed fast as lightning;
Only three fairy isles on the giant turtle’s back have left a name.’
Tanchun now had one ready too, but before she could tell it to them Baoqin came back.
‘I’ve visited many places of historical interest since I was small,’ she said. ‘So I’ve made ten verses about ten of them. They’re very crude, but at least they recall the past and the answers are everyday objects. I hope you’ll guess them.’
‘How ingenious!’ exclaimed the others. ‘Won’t you write them out for us?’
If you want to know more about this, read the next chapter.


Chapter 51

Baoqin Composes Poems
Recalling the Past
An Incompetent Physician Prescribes
Strong Medicine


Baoqin told the others that she had written ten riddles in the form of quatrains, about famous places she had visited in different provinces.
‘How original!’ they cried.
They crowded round to read the poems, which were as follows:
RED CLIFF

Wrecked by Red Cliff, choking the stream,
Nothing remains in the empty hulks but names;
Yet countless gallant souls are roaming there
Where cold winds sough and fan the leaping flames.

COCHIN CHINA2
His rule is strengthened by great bells of bronze,
Whose sound has spread to tribes beyond the seas;
Ma Yuan assuredly achieved great deeds,
And the iron flute of Zhang Liang3 needs no praise.
MOUNT ZHONGSHAN4

Fame and profit have never kept you company,
Abruptly haled into the dusty world;
To sever all the strings attached is hard;
Don’t murmur, then, if taunts at you are hurled.
HUAJYIN5
Even the brave must guard against savage hounds;
He was made Prince of Qi and died straightway;
But let not the worldly despise him ‘He remembered the gift of a meal till his dying day.

GUANGHNG6
Cicadas chirp, crows roost, in a flash they are gone;
How looks the landscape by Sui Dyke today?
I was the emperor’s romantic reputation
That was to blame for so much calumny.
PEACH-LEAFFORD7

Flowers bloom in idleness by the shallow pool,
Peach-Leaf must part company at last with the bough;
Many mansions stood here in the Six Dynasties,
Only a portrait hangs on the bare wall now.
THE GREEN TOMB8

The dark stream is stagnant, choked,
The icy strings of the lute all her grief proclaim;
How absurd they were, the rules of the House of Han;
Wood the carpenter scorns should feel eternal shame.

MAWEI SLOPE9
Lonely traces of rouge and perspiration remain,
But with the flowing water her beauty has gone;
Yet some vestiges of her charm still linger on,
And even today a fragrance clings to her gown.

PIJDONG MONASThRY’0
A young maid, low-born and flippant,
By stealth brings a couple together;
Though caught out at last by her mistress,
          She has induced her young lady to join her lover.

PLUM-BLOSSOM NUNNERY’
Not by plum trees but by willows,
Who will pick up the beauty’s portrait here?
It is no use longing for a reunion in spring.
Autumn means parting for another year.

They all admired the subtlety of these riddles, Baochai, however, com¬mented, ‘The first eight deal with authenticated incidents in history, but it’s harder for us to understand the last two fictitious ones. I think you ought to write two others instead.’
Daiyu at once objected, ‘Don’t be so sanctimonious and strait-laced, dear cousin. The last two incidents may not appear in historical records, and not having read the romances from which they come we may not know the details; but we’ve surely all seen the operas based on them. Why, even three-year-olds know them, not to say us.
‘That’s quite right,’ agreed Tanchun.
‘Besides,’ Li Wan added, ‘these poems are about places she’s vis¬ited. What if these two stories are fictitious? Plenty of legends have come down from ancient times, and well-meaning busybodies have even faked relics to fool men. For instance, that year we come to the capital we passed three or four tombs on the way said to be Lord Guan’s. Well, there’s historical evidence for Lord Guan’s life and actions, but how could one man have so many tombs? They appeared, of course, as often happens, because later generations admired him and wanted to show their respect. I’ve since learned from a book of geography that Lord Guan isn’t the only one to have several tombs so do most famous men of old. As for legendary sites, there are even more of them. So though the stories referred to in these two riddles are fictitious, they’re mentioned in ballads and operas, even in temple oracles. The whole world knows them. Each one is a household word. Besides, it’s not as if we ourselves had read The Western Chamber and The Peony Pavilion, which are licentious works. So it doesn’t matter if these two verses are kept.’
Then Baochai did not insist, and they tried for a while to guess the answers, but with no success.
In winter the days are short, it was soon dinner-time, and they went to the mansion for a meal. Then a maid reported to Lady Wang that Xiren’s brother Hua Zifang had brought word that their mother was ill and wanted to see her daughter. He had come to beg permission to take her home.
‘Of course we can’t keep her if her mother wants her,’ was Lady Wang’s reply. She sent for Xifeng and told her to see to the matter.
Xifeng agreed and went back to her apartments. She asked Zhou Rui’s wife to break the news to Xiren, and gave her these instructions:
‘You must get another matron beside yourself and a couple of young maids to go with Xiren. Four older attendants are to escort her carriage. Take a big one yourselves and a smaller one for the girls.’
As Mrs. Zhou was leaving to carry out these orders, Xifeng added, ‘Xiren is a sensible girl. Tell her from me to dress smartly and to take a big bundle of good clothes in a handsome wrapper, as well as a good hand-stove. She must come and let me see her before she leaves.’
Mrs. Zhou assented and went off.
After some time, sure enough, Xiren arrived, having changed her clothes, accompanied by Mrs. Chou and two maids who were carrying her hand-stove and bundle. Xifeng saw that she had some fine gold pins ornamented with pearls in her hair, and was wearing an ermine-lined peach-red silk tapestry jacket with a hundred-beads design, a yellowish-green padded skirt embroidered with coloured silk and gold thread, and a black satin coat lined with squirrel.
‘These three garments which your mistress gave you are of good quality,’ acknowledged Xifeng with a smile. ‘But the coat’s on the drab side. It’s not warm enough either. You need one with thicker fur.’
‘The mistress gave me this squirrel, and the ermine too,’ Xiren re¬plied. ‘She promised to give me a fox-fur as well at New Year.’
‘Well, I have a fox-fur, but I don’t care for the way the fringe hangs and was meaning to have it altered,’ said Xifeng. ‘You may as well have that for the time being. When the mistress orders a coat for you for New Year, I’ll have it made for myself instead. That’ 11 compensate me for the one I’m giving you.’
Everybody present laughed.
‘We know your way of talking, madam,’ they said. ‘You give with both hands, the whole year round, privately giving away all sorts of things to make up for the presents that the mistress forgets. There’s really no saying how much you’ve given. And you never charge the mistress for them, of course. Yet you talk in this stingy way to raise a laugh.’
‘How can the mistress remember all these things, which aren’t im¬portant anyway?’ Xifeng retorted. ‘But if no one saw to them, it would reflect badly on the family; and I’m quite willing to put my hand in my pocket to keep everyone decently dressed for the sake of my own good name. I’m in charge of the household, after all, and if everyone here looked like scarecrows I’d be blamed for fitting you out in such a beggarly way.’
This impressed them all. ‘No one else can hold a candle to you, madam,’ they said. ‘So considerate as you are to Her Ladyship, and kindness itself to those of us beneath you.’
Pinger had been sent to fetch Xiren the fox-fur-lined coat of slate-¬blue silk tapestry with eight circular designs which Xifeng had worn the previous day. Now, seeing that Xiren’s wrapper was of black and white silk gauze, lined with pink silk, and in it she had only two worn silk-padded jackets and one fur jacket, Xifeng told Pinger to bring her own jade-coloured velvet wrapper with a silk lining, as well as a cape for the snow. Pinger brought two capes, one of worn crimson felt, the other a rather newer one of red satin.
‘One is already too much,’ Xiren demurred.
‘The felt’s for you,’ chuckled Pinger. ‘I’ve brought the other at the same time to send to Miss Xiuyan. Yesterday, in that heavy snow, the others were all wearing felt, camlet or satin, and it was really a splendid sight a dozen or so red capes against the snow. She was the only one in a shabby cape, all hunched up with cold, poor thing! So we’d better give her this.’
‘See the way she gives away my property!’ cried Xifeng. ‘As if I’m not spending enough myself without her help. A fine thing!’
‘It’s your fault, madam, for being so dutiful to Her Ladyship and so good to us servants,’ they retorted, smiling. ‘If you were the stingy sort that hoards things up with no consideration for those below you, she wouldn’t dare do such a thing.
‘That’s because she’s the only one with some inkling of my charac¬ter,’ rejoined Xifeng. She told Xiren, ‘Let’s hope your mother is better. If not, you’ll just have to stay there; but send me word, and I’ll have your bedding sent over. Don’t use their bedding or combs.’ She turned to Mrs. Zhou. ‘You all know our rules, of course. I don’t have to remind you.’
‘We know, madam,’ replied Mrs. Zhou. ‘When we get there, we’ll ask the others to keep their distance. If we stay, we’ll insist on a couple of inner rooms.
She went out then with Xiren and ordered the servant-boys to light the lanterns. Mounting their carriages, they drove to Hua Zifang’s house.

Meanwhile Xifeng had summoned two old nannies from Baoyu’s quarters.
‘Xiren probably won’t be back today,’ she told them. ‘You know which of the older girls have most sense. Get a couple of them to keep watch at night in Baoyu’s rooms. You must see to things too. Don’t let Baoyu run wild.’
The two nannies assented and left, returning presently to report:
‘We’ve told Qingwen and Sheyue to attend Master Bao. The four of us will keep watch at night in turn.’
Xifeng nodded.
‘See that he goes to bed early and gets up early.’
They promised to do this and went back to the Garden.
Before long Zhou Rui’s wife sent word that Xiren’s mother was dying, and Xiren could not come back. Having reported this to Lady Wang, Xifeng sent to the Garden for Xiren’s bedding and dressing-case. Baoyu looked on while Qingwen and Sheyue got these ready and sent them off. This done, the two maids changed their clothes for the night, and Qingwen sat down on the big openwork bronze clothes-warmer over the brazier.
‘Stop putting on such ladified airs,’ Sheyue teased. ‘Do something, can’t you!’
‘I will after all the rest of you are gone,’ retorted Qingwen. ‘So long as you’re here, I mean to take it easy.’
‘I’ll make the bed, dear sister, but you must let down the cover over the mirror and hook back the clasp about ‘ you’re taller than I am.’ She then went to make Baoyu’s bed.
‘I was just nicely warm and you had to disturb me!’ Qingwen gave a mock sigh.
Baoyu had been sitting brooding, wondering whether Xiren’s mother would recover or not. Hearing this exchange between the girls, he got up and went out to cover the mirror and hook back the clasp himself.
‘You can stay in the warm,’ he said as he came in again. ‘I’ve seen to everything.’
‘I can’t toast myself here all the time,’ replied Qingwen smiling. ‘That reminds me, I’ve not fetched your pewter bed-warmer.’
‘How thoughtful you suddenly are!’ remarked Sheyue. ‘He never uses a bed-warmer. And we shall be snugger here on the clothes-warmer than on the cold kang in the other room. There’s no need for a bed¬warmer today.’
‘If you both sleep on that clothes-warmer, I’ll be all alone out here.’ objected Baoyu. ‘I’d be too scared to get a wink of sleep.’
‘I mean to sleep here,’ declared Qingwen. ‘You sleep in his room, Sheyue.’
By this time it was already the second watch. Sheyue who had by this time drawn the curtains, removed the lamp and added incense to the burner, now helped Baoyu to bed. Then the two girls slept too, Qingwen on the clothes-warmer above the brazier, Sheyue outside Baoyu’s al¬cove.
After the third watch had sounded, Baoyu called Xiren in his sleep. He called a couple of times but no one answered, and it dawned on him as he woke that she was away, at which he laughed at himself.
Qingwen, awake too now, called to Sheyue, ‘You really sleep like the dead! He’s even woken me, over here; but you right next to him didn’t hear a thing.’
Sheyue turned over, yawning.
‘It was Xiren he called. What’s that to do with me?’ She asked Baoyu what he wanted.
He told her, ‘Some tea.’
She got up at once then, wearing nothing over her night clothes but a padded red silk jacket.
‘Slip on my fur before you go out to the other room,’ he advised. ‘You mustn’t catch cold.’
So she put on the warm sable jacket he used as a dressing-gown, then washed her hands in the basin and took Baoyu a cup of warm water and a large rinse-bowl, so that he could rinse his mouth. Next she fetched a bowl from the cupboard, warmed it with hot water and half filled it with tea from the warm pot for him to drink. She then rinsed her own mouth and drank half a bowl of tea too.
‘Bring me a drop too, dearie!’ called Qingwen.
‘You’re getting above yourself, aren’t you?’ Sheyue retorted.
‘Good sister, tomorrow night you needn’t stir, and I’ll dance atten¬dance on you. How about that?’
Then Sheyue gave her water to rinse her mouth and poured her half a bowl of tea.
‘Don’t go to sleep just yet, you two,’ she said. ‘You can have a chat while I slip out for a moment.’
‘Beware of the ghost out there waiting for you,’ teased Qingwen.
‘The moon’s bright tonight,’ said Baoyu, clearing his throat. ‘We’ll be talking. Just run along.’
Sheyue opened the back door then and, raising the felt portiere, found that it was indeed a bright moonlit night. As soon as she had gone, Qingwen felt tempted to give her a scare for fun. As she was stronger than the other girls and did not feel the cold, she slipped quietly down from the clothes-warmer wearing nothing but a light tunic, and tiptoed after Sheyue without putting on any wraps.
‘Don’t go out like that,’ warned Baoyu. ‘It’ll be no joke if you catch cold.’
Qingwen motioned to him to keep quiet and slipped out of the door. Once outside the room, however, a breath of wind chilled her to the bone and set her shivering.
‘No wonder they say you shouldn’t expose yourself to the wind when you’re warm,’ she thought. ‘This cold really cuts like a knife.’
Just then, before she had time to frighten Sheyue, Baoyu called loudly from inside, ‘Qingwen’s gone out!’
She turned back and went in again at once.
‘Did you think I was going to scare her to death’?’ She giggled. ‘What a fuss-pot you are ‘ a regular old woman!’
‘That wasn’t what worried me,’ Baoyu explained. ‘For one thing, I didn’t want you to catch cold. For another, if she’d been caught by surprise and screamed that might have woken the others; and instead of seeing the joke they’d accuse us of getting up to mischief as soon as Xiren was away. Now, come and tuck in my bedding for me, will you?’
Qingwen did so, putting her hands inside his quilt to warm them.
‘Your hands are icy!’ he exclaimed. ‘I warned you you’d catch cold.’
He noticed that her cheeks were as red as rouge, and feeling them found them as cold as ice as well.
‘Hop inside my quilt, quick, and warm up!’ he urged.
That same instant the door was flung open. Sheyue burst breathlessly m.
‘Goodness me! I’ve had such a fright,’ she cried laughing. ‘I thought I saw someone crouching in the dark, behind the rocks. I was just going to scream when I realized it was only that big pheasant ‘ it flapped out into the light at the sight of me, and then I saw it clearly. If I’d screamed, it would have woken all the others.’ Washing her hands then she re-marked, ‘So Qingwen’s gone out, has she? How come I didn’t see her? She must have been meaning to scare me.’
‘Here she is,’ chuckled Baoyu. ‘Thawing out under my quilt. If I hadn’t called out quickly, she’d have given you a fine fright.’
‘She didn’t need me for that. The wretch took fright herself,’ re¬torted Qingwen, returning to her own bed.
‘Surely you didn’t slip out like that, in that tight-fitting horse-thief’s out fit?’ asked Shenyue.
‘Oh yes, she did,’ said Baoyu.
‘You deserve to catch your death!’ exclaimed Sheyue. ‘What a day to choose! Why, just standing outside for a minute would chap your skin.’
She took the copper guard off the brazier to shovel some ash over the glowing charcoal, then put in two slabs of incense before replacing the guard. After that stepping behind the screen, she trimmed the lamp and lay down to sleep again.
Qingwen, warm now after being chilled, gave a couple of sneezes.
‘What did I tell you?’ Baoyu sighed. ‘Now you’ve caught cold.’
‘She complained of not feeling well this morning,’ Sheyue told him. ‘And she hasn’t eaten anything all day. Yet instead of taking proper care of herself she tries to scare me. If she’s ill tomorrow it will serve her right.’
‘Do you have a fever?’ asked Baoyu.
‘It’s nothing.’ Qingwen coughed. ‘I’m not all that delicate.’
Just then the clock on the shelf in the outer room struck two. The old nanny on night duty outside coughed warningly.
‘Go to sleep now, young ladies,’ she said. ‘There’ll be plenty of time for chattering tomorrow.’
‘We’d better stop talking before they start to nag,’ whispered Baoyu.
And so the three of them settled down to sleep.
The next morning, sure enough, Qingwen woke feeling listless. Her nose was stopped up and her voice was hoarse.
‘Let’s say nothing about this,’ suggested Baoyu. ‘If the mistress heard, she’d want you to go home and rest; and though you might enjoy being back with your people, it would be colder there. Better stay here. Just lie down in the inner room. I’ll have a doctor fetched through the back gate and he can take a look at you on the quiet.’
‘That’s all very well,’ said Qingwen. ‘But at least let Madam Zhu know. Otherwise, how will you explain it when people ask what the doctor’s doing here?’
Baoyu saw sense in this and called in one of the old nannies.
‘Go and tell Madam Zhu that Qingwen has a slight cold, nothing seri¬ous,’ he said. ‘But if she goes home to rest I’ll have nobody here, as Xiren’s away just now. Ask her to send for a doctor and have him come here quietly through the back gate. There’s no need to tell the mistress.’
The nanny returned in due course to announce, ‘I’ve told Madam Zhu. She says if a couple of doese will cure her, all right; otherwise she should be sent home. The weather now is treacherous. Infecting other people doesn’t matter much, but we mustn’t let the young ladies in the Garden catch anything.’
Qingwen heard this as she lay coughing in the alcove.
‘She talks as if I had the plague!’ she cried crossly. ‘Whom am I going to infect? All right, I’ll leave this place. But after this none of you must ever complain, as long as you live, of so much as a headache!’
She started getting up.
‘Don’t be angry.’ begged Baoyu, making her lie down again. ‘She’s only doing her job, afraid the mistress may scold if she hears about this. She doesn’t mean it seriously. You lose your temper far too easily, and of course being ill today makes you extra fractious.’
Just then the doctor was announced. Baoyu hid hurriedly behind a bookcase while a few matrons from the back gate ushered him in. The young maids had withdrawn, leaving three or four older women to let down the embroidered red curtains in front of the alcove, and Qingwen put her hand out through the curtains. The doctor hastily averted his eyes at the sight of two nails a good two to three inches long, stained crimson with balsam; and at once an old nanny covered the hand with a handker¬chief. After feeling the patient’s pulse for a while, the doctor rose and withdrew to the outer room.
‘The young lady is suffering from a cold aggravated by indigestion,’ he told the nannies. ‘The weather has been trying recently, and this is a mild attack of influenza. Luckily she is a young lady who normally eats and drinks with moderation, and the trouble isn’t serious; but as she is rather delicate she has succumbed to a slight infection. A couple of doses of medicine will set her right.’ He then followed the matrons out again.
Since Li Wan had sent to order the attendants at the back gate and the maids in the various apartments to keep out of sight, the doctor could only feast his eyes on the Garden ‘ not a single young woman did he see on his way out. Upon reaching the back gate, he sat down in the gatehouse used by the pages on duty to make out his prescription.
The old nannies asked him not to leave at once.
‘Our young master is most particular,’ one of them explained. ‘He may want to ask you some questions.’
‘Young master!’ exclaimed the doctor. ‘Wasn’t that a young lady I examined just now? Surely it was a young lady’s boudoir. And the cur¬tains were let down too, so how can it have been a young gentleman?’
‘Why, sir,’ chuckled the nanny, lowering her voice, ‘I see now why the boy told me they’d invited a new doctor. You don’t know our family. That was our young master’s room, and your patient was one of his maids, one of the more senior ones, true, but no young ‘lady.’ You wouldn’t have gained admission so easily to one of our young ladies’ boudoirs.’
With that she took the prescription back to the Garden.
Baoyu examined it and found it listed such herbs as perilla, platycodon, siler and nepeta, as well as citrus trifoliata and ephedra.
‘Confound the fellow!’ he swore. ‘He’s prescribing for her just as he would for a man. How could she stand such strong medicine? Even if she had bad indigestion how could she take citrus trifoliata and epbedra? Who sent for this fellow? Get rid of him, quick, and fetch some doctor we know.’
‘How were we to know what his prescriptions would be like?’ re¬torted the nanny. ‘We can easily send for Doctor Wang, but we’ll have to pay for the hire of this other man’s sedan-chair, as we didn’t send for him through the chief steward.’
‘How much will it be?’
‘It wouldn’t look well to give too little,’ she answered. ‘A family like ours, in such a case, should pay at least a tael.’
‘How much do we usually pay Doctor Wang?’
‘Doctor Wang and Doctor Zhang, who come so often, aren’t paid for each separate visit. Our rule is to give them a lump sum at the chief festivals every year. Since this new man’s only coming this once, we should give him one tael.’
Baoyu then ordered Sheyue to fetch some silver.
‘I don’t know where our Mistress Xiren keeps it,’ she answered laughingly.
‘I often see her getting money from that small inlaid cabinet,’ he told her. ‘I’ll help you find it.’
They went together into the storeroom and opened the cabinet. The top compartment was full of brushes and sticks of ink, fans, incense slabs, multi-coloured pouches, sashes and the like. On the lower shelf lay a few strings of cash. But upon opening one of the drawers, they discovered a small wicker basket containing some silver ingots, as well as a balance for weighing them with.
Sheyue picked up the balance and one ingot of silver.
‘Which is the one-tael mark?’ she asked Baoyu.
‘Are you asking me?’ he chuckled. ‘You should know better.’
She smiled too and started out to consult someone else.
‘Just pick one of the biggest pieces,’ urged Baoyu. ‘We’re not shop¬keepers ‘ why be so finicking?’
Setting down the balance, Sheyue picked up another ingot which she weighed in her hand.
‘This is probably about one tael,’ she remarked. ‘We’d better be on the generous side, so as not to have that poor devil laughing at us. It would never occur to him that we don’t know how to use a balance. Instead, he’d call us misers.’
The woman standing on the steps outside the door put in, ‘That’s half a five-tael bar, it must weigh at least two taels. As you’ve nothing here to cut it with, you’d better put it away, miss, and pick something smaller.’
By now, however, Sheyue had closed the cabinet.
‘I can’t be bothered,’ she laughed. ‘If it’s too much, you can pocket the difference yourself.’
‘Just go and fetch Doctor Wang here fast,’ ordered Baoyu.
The woman took the silver and went to do as she was told.
Before very long Mingyan brought Doctor Wang, who first examined the patient then made a diagnosis very similar to the previous one. But instead of such ingredients as citrus trifoliata and ephedra, his pre¬scription called for angelica, orange peel and white peony; moreover the dosage was smaller.
‘This is more like medicine for girls,’ observed Baoyu approvingly. ‘Although we want to drive out the cold, drastic methods are no good. Last year when I had a chill and a bilious attack, and Doctor Wang exam¬ined me, he said I couldn’t take strong drugs like ephedra, gypsum and citrus trifoliata. When I compare myself with you girls, I’m like a big poplar scores of years old in the graveyard, while you’re like that white begonia in bud which Jia Yun gave me last autumn ‘ how can you take medicines too potent even for me?’
‘Are poplars the only graveyard trees?’ Sheyue countered. ‘What about pines and cedars? Personally, I can’t stand poplars. They have so few leaves for their size, and they keep up that maddening rustling even when there’s not a breath of wind. How low-class to compare yourself to such a tree!’
‘I wouldn’t venture to compare myself with the pine or cedar,’ chuck¬led Baoyu. ‘Even Confucius said, ‘When winter comes, we realize that the pine and cedar are evergreen.’ You see, they’re so magnificent, only really thick-skinned people would compare themselves with them.’
As they were chatting, a serving-woman brought in the drugs. Baoyu ordered them to fetch the silver medicine-pot and brew the decoction over the brazier.
‘Why not let the kitchen do it?’ asked Qingwen. ‘You don’t want the whole place reeking of medicine, do you?’
‘The smell of medicine is sweeter than any flower or fruit,’ asserted Baoyu. ‘What could be finer than these herbs which immortals, as well as hermits and recluses, pick to decoct as medicine? I was thinking only just now that we lack nothing here except the fragrance of herbs; but now it will be perfect.’
With that he had the medicine brewed. He also made Sheyue prepare some things to send by an old nanny to Xiren, with a message begging her not to grieve too much. After having seen to all this, he went to pay his respects to his grandmother and mother and to have his meal.
Just then Xifeng was saying to the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang, ‘Now that it’s so cold and the days are shorter, wouldn’t it be better for the girls to have their meals with my elder sister-in-law in the Garden? They can come here to eat again once it is warmer.’
‘That’s a good idea,’ said Lady Wang. ‘Especially if there’s a high wind or snow. Exposure to cold after eating isn’t good; neither is breath¬ing cold air on an empty stomach. Some maids are always on duty in those five large rooms inside the back gate of the Garden, and we can send two women from our kitchen there to cook for the girls. They can get their share of fresh vegetables and any money or things they need from the chief steward’s office. And when we have game like pheasant or roebuck, we can send them a share.’
‘The idea did occur to me too,’ said the Lady Dowager. ‘But I was afraid it would mean more work, setting up another kitchen.’
‘It won’t,’ Xifeng assured her. ‘They’ll get their usual share. More in one place means less in another. And even if it causes a little more trouble, it will prevent the girls from being exposed to the cold. The others might stand it all right, but not Daiyu, or even Cousin Bao for that matter. In fact, none of the girls is really strong.’
‘Quite so,’ approved the Lady Dowager. ‘I would have proposed this myself, but saw you were all so busy, even if you didn’t complain of the extra work you might well feel that I only care about my younger grandchildren, with no consideration for those of you who run the house¬hold. I’m glad you suggested this.’
It so happened that Aunt Xue and Aunt Li had called, while Lady Xing and Madam You were still there paying their respects.
‘I’m going to say something today which I’ve been keeping back for fear of giving Xifeng a swelled head or causing jealousy,’ the old lady told them. ‘All of you have been sister-in-law yourselves, before and after your own marriages. So tell me ‘ have you ever known a sister-in-law as thoughtful as she is?’
Aunt Xue, Aunt Li and Madam You agreed.
‘She’s one in a thousand!’ they said. ‘Other young married women do no more than politeness requires, whereas she has genuine feeling for her husband’s younger relatives and is truly dutiful to you as well, madam.’
The Lady Dowager nodded.
‘But fond as I am of her, I’m afraid she may be too clever for her own good,’ she sighed.
‘You’re wrong there, Old Ancestress,’ laughed Xifeng. ‘It’s said that the cleverest people don’t live long. It’s all right for everyone else to say that and believe it. But you’re the last person who should subscribe to that. Our Old Ancestress is at least ten times more intelligent that I am, and since you’re enjoying both good fortune and long life, I ought to do even better. I may live to be a thousand, not dying until our Old Ancestress has ascended to the Western Paradise.’
‘What fun would that be, pray?’ the Lady Dowager parried. ‘Ev¬erybody else dead and only we two old hags left?’
The whole party burst out laughing at this retort.
What followed is related in the next chapter.

Chapter 52

Tactful Pinger Conceals the Theft of
Her Gold Bracelet
Plucky Qingwen Mends a
Peacock-Feather Cape in Bed


After the rest had left, Baochai and the other girls dined with the old lady. The meal at an end, Baoyu went back first to the Garden as he had Qingwen on his mind. His rooms were filled with the pungent scent of herbs and Qingwen was lying all alone on the kang, her face flushed with fever, her forehead hot to his touch. After hastily warming his hands over the brazier, he felt her body beneath the quilt and found it burning too.
‘I don’t mind the others going off,’ he said, ‘but how could Sheyue and Qiuwen have the heart to leave you?’
‘I made Qiuwen go for her meal, and just now Pinger called Sheyue out to have a word with her. Goodness knows what they’re being so secretive about my staying here although I’m ill, I suppose.’
‘Pinger’s not like that,’ he assured her. ‘Besides, she’d no idea you were ill. She must have come to talk to Sheyue about something else and, happening to find you in bed, said she’d come to ask after you. That’s only common politeness. If any trouble comes of your staying here, it has nothing to do with her. And the two of you normally get on so well, she’d never risk spoiling your friendship over something that is no concern of hers.’
‘You’re probably right,’ agreed Qingwen. ‘But why are they sud¬denly hiding something from me?’
‘I’ll slip out by the back door and listen outside the window, then let you know what it’s all about,’ he told her with a grin.
He did in fact go out to eavesdrop and heard Sheyue ask softly, ‘How did you recover it?’
‘When I missed it that day after washing my hands, my mistress told me not to make a fuss,’ replied Pinger. ‘Once out of the Garden, however, she ordered the matrons in all the Garden apartments to investigate carefully. It was Miss Xiuyan’s maid whom we suspected. We thought that, being poor and never having seen such things before, the child might have picked it up. We never dreamed it would turn out to be one of your girls. Luckily Madam Lian was out when Mrs. Song brought the bracelet back to me saying she’d seen young Zhuier take it, and she’d come to report it to Madam Lian. I was very glad to get my bracelet back.
‘I couldn’t help thinking then how considerate Baoyu is to you girls, and how proud of you as well. Yet two years ago Lianger stole a piece of jade, which is still making idle tongues wag, and now another of your girls has stolen a gold bracelet from one of his neighbours, too! It’s a shame that Baoyu of all people should be disgraced by his own maids in this way. So I hurriedly asked Mrs. Song on no account to tell him but just to forget it, and to say nothing to anyone about it. For if this came to the ears of the old lady and Lady Wang, how angry they’d be! It would reflect badly on Xiren and the rest of you as well.
‘So I simply told Madam Lian that the clasp of my bracelet was loose and so I’d dropped it in the grass on the way to Madam Zhu’s place, when the snow was too deep to find it. Today after the snow had melted and it lay glinting in the sun, I picked it up where I’d dropped it. And she took my word for it. The reason I’m telling you this is so that you’ll take precautions in future and not send Zhuier out on any errands. When Xiren comes back, you can talk it over with her and cook up some excuse for dismissing the girl.’
‘It’s not as if the little bitch hadn’t seen plenty of things of that sort,’ exclaimed Sheyue. ‘Why did she have to steal it?’
‘There’s not too much gold in that bracelet, though the pearl on it is a good size,’ remarked Pinger. ‘It’s one that Madam Lian gave me. She called it her ‘shrimp-beard bracelet.’ I haven’t told Qingwen because she’s as hot-tempered as crackling charcoal. She’d be bound to flare up and start beating or cursing the girl; then the whole story would get out. That’s why I’m just warning you to be on your guard.’ This said she took her leave.
Baoyu had overheard this with mixed feelings: pleasure at Pinger’s consideration for him, anger at Zhuier’s dishonesty, and regret that such
an intelligent girl should do something so underhand.
He went back to Qingwen and told her all that Pinger had said, con¬cluding, ‘She didn’t want you to know till you were better, because you take things so much to heart that this news might make your illness worse.
Indeed, Qingwen’s eyebrows had shot up and her eyes were round with rage. She wanted to summon Zhuier then and there.
‘All Pinger’s consideration for us would be wasted if you make a scene,’ he warned. ‘As she’s been so thoughtful, let’s do as she sug¬gested and get rid of Zhuier later.’
‘It’s all very well for you to talk,’ cried Qingwen. ‘But I can’t stand it ‘ I’m so angry!’
‘It’s not worth flaring up about. Just concentrate on getting better.’
Qingwen took some medicine then and that evening had the second infusion. She sweated a little that night, but not enough, and awoke the next morning with a fever, headache, a stopped-up nose and sore throat. Doctor Wang called again and made certain alterations in the prescrip¬tion; but although her temperature went down a little, her head continued to ache.
‘Bring her some snuff,’ Baoyu told Sheyue. ‘She’ll feel better after a few good sneezes.
Sheyue accordingly brought him a small flat, golden-starred glass case with gilt double-catches, and Baoyu opened it. Inside the lid, in western enamel, was a picture of a naked girl with yellow hair and fleshy wings the case contained some genuine Wangqia foreign snuff; but instead of taking it, Qingwen just pored over the picture.
‘Do hurry up and take some,’ Baoyu urged her. ‘It’s not good to expose snuff to the air too long.’
She promptly dipped one finger-nail into the snuff, put it to her nose and inhaled. As she felt no effect, she tried a larger amount. At once her nose tingled and the smarting spread right up to her cranium. She sneezed so violently, five or six times in succession, that her nose and eyes started to run.
‘My, that’s better!’ she exclaimed, closing the case. ‘Fetch me some paper, quick.’
One of the younger maids had a stack of fine soft paper ready, and Qingwen took sheet after sheet to blow her nose.
‘Well, how’s that?’ asked Baoyu.
‘Better. But my temples still ache.’
‘We may as well try some other Western medicine to set that right too.’ He told Sheyue, ‘Go and ask the Second Mistress for some of that Western ointment she keeps for headaches. Yi-fu-na, it’s called.’
Sheyue assented and went off to Xifeng’s apartments, returning after a while with some of the ointment. She then fetched a scrap of red satin from which she cut out two round patches, each the size of her finger-tip. Having heated the ointment, she spread it on with a hairpin. Qingwen picked up a hand-mirror and stuck the patches on her temples herself.
‘You were lying there like a tousled ghost,’ teased Sheyue. ‘Now with these patches you look rather pretty! We’re so used to the Second Mistress wearing these that we hardly notice them on her.’
She turned to Baoyu. ‘Madam Lian says tomorrow is your Uncle Wang’s birthday, and the mistress wants you to go and pay your re¬spects. What will you wear? We’d better get your clothes ready tonight, to save trouble tomorrow morning.’
‘I’ll wear whatever’s handy,’ Baoyu answered. ‘I can’t keep track of these endless birthdays all the year round.’
With that he got up and went out, intending to go and watch Xichun painting. Just outside his compound, however, he saw Baoqin’s little maid Xiaoluo passing by not far away. Overtaking her, he asked where she was going.
‘Our two young ladies are with Miss Daiyu,’ she told him. ‘I’m on my way there too.’
So he changed his mind and went with her to Bamboo Lodge. There, sitting round the brazier and chatting with Daiyu, he found not only Baochai and Baoqin but Xiuyan as well, while Zijuan was sewing in the warm alcove by the window.
‘Here comes another!’ they cried at sight of him. ‘There’s no place left for you.
‘What a delightful picture!’ laughed Baoyu. ‘‘Beauties in a Winter Chamber!’ Too bad I didn’t come a bit earlier. Still, this is the warmest room there is and I shan’t be cold on this chair.’
He seated himself on Daiyu’s favourite chair which was covered with a squirrel-fur rug. And his eye fell on a rectangular marble jardiniere in the alcove in which were arranged some single-petalled narcissi and rocks.
‘What lovely flowers!’ he exclaimed. ‘The warmer the room, the stronger their scent. How is it I didn’t notice them yesterday?’
Daiyu told him, ‘The wife of your chief steward Lai Da sent Baoqin two pots of winter-plum and two of narcissi. Baoqin gave me one pot of narcissi and Tanchun one of winter-plum. I only took it to show my ap¬preciation of her kindness. If you like it, you can have it.’
‘I’ve two pots actually in my room, only they’re not as good as this,’ he replied. ‘How can you possibly give away a present from cousin Baoqin?’
‘I’ve medicine simmering on the stove all day; in fact, I practically live on medicine,’ she countered. ‘How can I stand the scent of flowers as well? It’s too enervating. Besides, the pungent aroma of medicine here spoils the fragrance of the flowers. You’d better take these narcissi to your place where their pure perfume won’t get mixed up with other odours.’
‘How do you know?’ he demanded laughingly. ‘I’ve a patient tak¬ing medicine in my place too now.’
‘That’s a strange way to talk,’ she retorted. ‘As if I was hinting at something. How should I know what’s happening in your apartments? You should have come earlier to listen to our stories, instead of turning up now and raising such a rumpus.’
‘We’ve a subject now for the next meeting of our club,’ declared Baoyu. ‘We can write on the narcissus and winter-plum.’
‘Not I!’ cried Daiyu. ‘No more versifying for me. One only gets penalized each time, and that’s too shameful.’ She covered her face with her hands.
‘Now then!’ laughed Baoyu. ‘Why make fun of me again? If even I don’t feel ashamed why should you hide your face?’
‘Next time I’ll call a meeting,’ announced Baochai. ‘Each of you will have to produce four pentasyllabic shi and four ci on different themes. The first shi of couplets will be on The Diagram of the Supreme Ulti¬mate,’ and all the words that rhyme with xian will have to be used ‘ not one must be left out.’
‘You obviously don’t really want to invite us, cousin, or you wouldn’t make things so difficult,’ chuckled Baoqin. ‘Of course, if one tried, one could manage by filling up the lines with phrases from the Book of Change -  but where’s the fun in that? When I was eight, my father took me to the coast of the western sea to buy foreign goods, and there we saw a girl from the land of Zhenzhen, who had just turned fifteen, with a face like those beauties in Western paintings. Her long golden hair was plaited, and in it she wore precious stones like coral, amber, cat’s-eye and emer¬ald. She had on golden chain-mail and a jacket of foreign brocade, and she carried a Japanese sword inlaid with gold and studded with gems-in fact, she was even lovelier than those beauties in the paintings. It was said that she was versed in our Chinese classics and could expound the Five Can¬ons and write poems; so my father asked, through an interpreter, to see one of her poems written in her own hand.’
They all marvelled at this story.
Baoyu pleaded, ‘Good cousin, do let me have a look at that poem!’
‘I left it in Nanjing,’ said Baoqin. ‘I can’t lay my hands on it at a moment’s notice.’
Baoyu, most disappointed, sighed at not having the luck to see it.
‘Don’t try to fool us!’ chuckled Daiyu, tugging at Baoqin’s sleeve. ‘I know you wouldn’t leave such things behind. You’d naturally bring them all along. They may be taken in by your fib, but not I.’
Baoqin smiled and blushingly lowered her head in silence.
‘Trust Daiyu to say such a thing,’ put in Baochai. ‘You can’t out¬smart her.’
‘If you’ve brought it, do let us profit by seeing it,’ urged Daiyu.
‘They’ve a whole pile of cases and baskets not yet sorted out,’ ex¬plained Baochai. ‘Who knows which one it’s in? Just wait until everything’s properly unpacked, then she’ll let everyone see it.’ She turned to Baoqin. ‘Don’t you know it by heart? Do recite it.’
‘I remember a pentasyllabic regular verse she wrote,’ said Paoqin. ‘It wasn’t bad at all for a foreigner.’
‘Wait a bit,’ interposed Baochai. ‘Let’s get Xiangyun here to hear it too.’ She called Xiaoluo and told her, ‘Go to our apartments and tell our maid poetess that we have a foreign beauty here who writes good po¬ems. And tell her to bring the other poetry maniac to see her too.’
Xiaoluo went off on this errand with a smile.
After a while they heard Xiangyun demanding merrily, ‘Where is this foreign beauty?’  And in she came with Xiangling.
They teased, ‘Before you see her, you hear her voice.’
Baoqin and the others hurriedly offered them seats and told them what had been said.
‘Hurry up and let us hear the poem,’ begged Xiangyun.
Then Baoqin recited:
Last night I dreamed in a vermilion mansion,
Today my songs rise by the sea:
Clouds from the islands make a haze over the ocean,
Mist from the hills links the forests’ greenery;
To the moon, past and present are one;
Men’s passions, inconstant, are no counterpart.
As spring pervades south China.
How can I but take this to heart?

‘Not bad at all!’ was the verdict. ‘Better, in fact, than some Chinese could write.’
As they were speaking Sheyue came in to announce, ‘The mistress has sent to tell Master Bao to call on his uncle first thing tomorrow morn¬ing. She wants him to explain that she’s not well enough to go herself.’
Baoyu, who had risen to accept these instructions, asked Baochai and Baoqin if they would be going too.
‘No,’ said Baochai. ‘We just sent presents yesterday.’
After a little further chat they dispersed.
Baoyu had told his cousins to go on ahead, leaving him to follow, but now Daiyu asked him:
‘When will Xiren be back?’
‘Not until after the funeral, of course,’ he answered.
Daiyu had more to say but hesitated, lost in thought for a while.
‘Well, go along now,’ she said finally.
Baoyu, too, had much in his heart to say but did not know how to put it into words. After a thoughtful pause he rejoined, ‘We can talk again tomorrow.’
He walked down the steps with lowered head, turning back suddenly to ask, ‘Are you coughing much, now that the nights are longer? How often do you wake?’
‘I had a good night yesterday, with only two fits of coughing. But I only managed to sleep through the fourth watch ‘ after that I couldn’t get back to sleep again.’
‘I’ve just remembered something important.’ Drawing closer to her he whispered, ‘I think that bird’s-nest Baochai gave you....’
He was cut short by the arrival of concubine Zhao, come to ask after Daiyu’s health.
Daiyu knew that she had only called out of politeness on her way back from Tanchun’s apartments. She made her sit down and remarked, ‘It was considerate of you to come out on such a cold day.’
She ordered tea, glancing at Baoyu as she did so. Taking the hint, he left to join his mother for dinner, and was there reminded to make an early start the next day. Upon his return to Happy Red Court he saw to it that Qingwen took her medicine and slept in the warmth inside the al¬cove, while he remained outside. The brazier was moved closer to the alcove, and Sheyue slept on the clothes-warmer. They passed a quiet night.

The next morning Qingwen woke Sheyue before it was light.
‘Get up!’ she called. ‘You never seem to have had enough sleep! Go and get them to make some tea while I wake him up.’
Sheyue scrambled into her clothes.
‘Let’s get him up and dressed first, and move away this clothes-warmer before we call the others,’ she proposed. ‘The nurses said he wasn’t to sleep in this room for fear of infection. If we let them see us all crowded together in here, they’ll start nagging again.
‘Just what I think,’ agreed Qingwen.
Baoyu woke up himself as they were about to rouse him. He got up and dressed without delay while Sheyue called in some young maids to tidy the room. Only when this was done were Qiuwen and Tanyun summoned to wait on Baoyu.
As he finished his toilet Sheyue said, ‘It’s cloudy again and looks like snow, you’d better wear something woollen.’
He nodded and changed his clothes, then sipped a little of the lotus-seed and date broth a young maid offered him on a small tray, and took a piece of crystallized ginger from the plate Sheyue brought him. Finally, having urged Qingwen to look after herself, he went to the Lady Dowager’s apartments.
His grandmother was still abed, but hearing that Baoyu was going out she had him admitted to her bedroom, where he saw Baoqin lying asleep behind her, her face to the wall.
The Lady Dowager noticed that Baoyu was wearing, over his brown velvet archer’s coat lined with fox fur, a scarlet felt jacket embroidered with gold thread. Its slate-blue satin border was fringed with tassels.
‘Is it snowing?’ she asked him.
‘Not yet, but it looks as if it will,’ he replied.
‘Bring him that peacock-feather cape taken out yesterday,’ the old lady ordered Yuanyang.
The maid promptly brought in a cape which shimmered gold, green and blue and was no less magnificent, in a different style, than Baoqin’s cape of wild-duck down.
‘This is called ‘golden peacock felt, ‘‘ his grandmother told him with a smile. ‘It was woven of peacock feathers in Russia. The other day I gave your cousin one of wild-duck down, so now I’m making you a present of this.’
Baoyu kowtowed his thanks and put on the cape.
‘Mind you show it to your mother before you go out,’ the Lady Dowa¬ger charged him with a smile.
He agreed to this and, going out, saw Yuanyang standing in the pas¬sage rubbing her eyes. Since the day on which she had vowed never to marry, she had upset him by ignoring him. At sight of him now she started to slip away, but he stepped forward to greet her.
‘Look, dear sister! How does this suit me?’
She flung away from him into the old lady’s room.
Baoyu had to go on then to show the cape to his mother, after which he returned to the Garden and displayed it to Qingwen and Sheyue. He went back then to the Lady Dowager.
‘Mother’s seen it and thinks it a pity to wear it,’ he said. ‘She told me to be extra careful not to spoil it.’
‘It’s the only one left,’ replied his grandmother. ‘If you spoil it, you won’t get another. Impossible to replace it.’ She warned him not to drink too much and to come back early, which he promised to do.
Some old nurses followed him to the main hall where six stewards ‘Nanny Li’s son Li Gui, Wang Rong, Zhang Ruojin, Zhao Yihua, Qian Qi and Zhou Rui ‘ were waiting for him. With them were his four pages Mingyan, Banhe, Chuyao and Saohong, who were carrying a change of clothes for him and a cushion. A splendidly caparisoned white horse with an embossed saddle stood there in readiness too. When the stewards had received the old nurses’ instructions, acting as grooms they helped Baoyu to mount slowly into the saddle. Then Li Gui and Wang Rong took the bridle, Qian Qi and Zhou Rui led the way, and Zhang Ruojin and Zhao Yihua followed close behind, one on each side of Baoyu.
‘Let’s leave by the side gate, brothers,’ called Baoyu to Zhou Rui and Qian Qi. ‘Then I won’t have to dismount by my father’s study.’
‘There’s no need for that,’ replied Zhou Rui, turning his head with a smile. ‘His Lordship is away and the place is locked.’
‘Even so, I still ought to get down,’ insisted Baoyu.
‘Quite right, sir,’ chuckled Qian Qi and Li Gui. ‘If you were too lazy to dismount and we happened to run into Mr. Lai or Mr. Lin, even if they didn’t lecture you they’d have something to say about it. And all the blame would be laid on us for not teaching you better manners.’
So Zhou Rui and Qian Qi led the horse to the side gate. And, sure enough, as they were talking they ran into Lai Da. Baoyu promptly pulled up to dismount, but the chief steward hurried forward and clasped his knee. Baoyu stood up in his stirrups and, taking him by the hand, ex¬changed greetings with him. Then a page came in at the head of a couple of dozen men with brooms and dustpans. These lined up respectfully by the wall at the sight of their young master, while the page knelt on one knee and paid his respects. Baoyu, not knowing his name, simply smiled and nodded. Not until he had ridden past did the men move on.
Then Baoyu and his party passed through the side gate, where some grooms and the boys under the six stewards had some dozen horses ready. Once outside the gate, Li Gui and the rest mounted these horses. Then the whole troop, escorting Baoyu on all sides, galloped off.

But let us return to Qingwen, who was worried because the medicine had done her no good and now started abusing the doctor.
‘He’s nothing but a swindler and quack,’ she complained. ‘His medicine’s no use at all.’
‘You must have patience,’ urged Sheyue. ‘Haven’t you heard the saying: ‘Illness comes as fast as a wall falling down, but goes as slowly as unravelling a cocoon’? He’s no Lao Jun2 with a magic elixir to cure you overnight. Just rest quietly for a few days and you’ll be all right. The more impatient you are, the worse for you.
Qingwen switched then to lashing out at the younger girls.
‘Where have they all buried themselves?’ she scolded. ‘They take advantage of my illness to make off, bold as brass! I’m going to flay each one of them for this when I’m better.’
This so frightened Zhuier, one of the younger maids, that she hurried in to ask, ‘Is there anything you want, miss?’
‘Are the others all dead?’ demanded Qingwen. ‘Are you the only one left?’
At this, Zhuier sidled in.
‘Look at that little bitch!’ cried Qingwen. ‘She won’t come unless asked for. But on pay-day or when sweets are shared out, she’s always the first to come running. Come over here! Am I a tiger? Are you afraid I’ll eat you?’
Zhuier had to come closer. Then Qingwen, lunging forward, grabbed one of her hands and began jabbing it with a hairpin from under her pillow.
‘What use is this claw?’ she swore. ‘It won’t hold a needle or thread, all it’s good for is stealing. You with your avid eyes and itching palms, you’re the bane of our lives and a disgrace to us all ‘ I’ll carve you up!’
Zhuier screamed with pain until Sheyue pulled her away and made Qingwen lie down again.
‘You’ll catch your death after that sweat you were in,’ she scolded. ‘Once you’re better you can beat her as much as you like. Why raise this rumpus now?’
But Qingwen ordered someone to fetch Nanny Song and when she arrived informed her, ‘Master Bao has told me to tell you that Zhuier’s too lazy. When he gives her a job to do she refuses to stir; and when Xiren asks her to do anything, she even curses her behind her back. She must be sent packing today, and tomorrow he’ll report it himself to the mistress.’
Nanny Song knew at once that this was because of the bracelet.
‘Even so,’ she said with a smile, ‘we’d better wait till Miss Xiren comes back before dismissing her.’
‘Master Bao was most emphatic,’ insisted Qingwen. ‘Never mind about this ‘Miss’ or that ‘Miss,’ we’ll answer to her. Just do as I say. Tell her family to come and take her away.’
‘You may as well,’ put in Sheyue. ‘She’ll have to go sooner or later. The sooner she goes, the sooner we’ll have some peace.’
So Nanny Song had to fetch Zhuier’s mother. And when they had packed up her things, the woman came in to see Qingwen and Sheyue.
‘What’s this I hear?’ she protested. ‘If my girl misbehaves, why can’t you teach her a lesson instead of throwing her out? At least leave us a little face.’
‘Save that talk for Baoyu,’ snapped Qingwen. ‘This has nothing to do with us.’
‘Ask him?’ The woman snorted. ‘He does just what you young ladies tell him, doesn’t he? Even if he were willing to keep her, you wouldn’t let him. Why, just now, even though you were talking behind his back, you referred to him by name. That may be all right for the likes of you, but in our case it would be thought most ill-bred.’
‘So I called him by his name, did I?’ Qingwen flushed with anger. ‘All right, go and report me to the old lady. Tell her I’ve run wild and have me thrown out too.’
‘Just take your daughter and go, sister,’ put in Sheyue. ‘You can have your say about it some other time. This is no place for you to bicker and wrangle. Have you ever seen anyone wrangling with us here? Even Mrs. Lai and Mrs. Lin have to treat us with some respect, not to say you.
‘As for using his name, we’ve done that since he was a child, as well you know, on the old lady’s orders. Didn’t they have his name written out and posted up everywhere so that everybody would use it, for fear that otherwise he might die young? Why, even water-carriers, night-soil collectors and beggars use it, not to say us. Only the other day, Mrs. Lin was taken to task by the old lady for calling him ‘young master. That’s the first point.
‘The second is that since we’re always in and out reporting things to the old lady and the mistress, we obviously can’t refer to him as ‘master. We must use the name Baoyu a couple of hundred times a day; so it’s strange that you should choose this to pick fault. Some day when you have time, you can listen to us using his name to the old lady and Lady Wang; then you’ll understand. But of course, it’s not to be wondered at that you don’t know the rules in the inner apartments, since you don’t have any important business that would take you near the ladies of the house ‘ you’re mucking about outside the gate all the time.
‘And this is no place for you to hang about. If you do, people will be coming to ask you the reason, even if we don’t say anything ourselves. So first take your girl away. If you’re not satisfied, you can complain to Mrs. Lin and ask her to speak to Master Bao about it. There are nearly a thousand people in this household. If you come one day and others the next, how are we to recognize who’s who? We can’t have everyone running in and out here.’
She ordered one of the young maids to fetch a cloth and wipe the floor.
Zhuier’s mother was silenced then and dared stay no longer. Swal¬lowing her anger, she started out with her daughter.
‘You really have no manners,’ expostulated Nanny Song. ‘After working here all this time, your daughter should surely kowtow to the young ladies before she leaves. Presents they don’t expect, but she should at least kowtow to express her thanks. How can you just walk off?’
   At this, Zhuier had to come in again and kowtow to Sheyue and Qingwen, then to Qiuwen and the others. They all ignored her. Her mother, thoroughly discomfited and too cowed to say another word, went off in high indignation.
Qingwen had caught another slight chill, and this no top of her anger made her feel even more poorly. She tossed about restlessly and did not quiet down until lighting-up time when Baoyu came back, sighing and stamping his feet. Sheyue asked him what was the matter.
‘Today the old lady was in a good mood and gave me this cape,’ he explained. ‘But somehow I carelessly burned a hole in the back. Luckily it was too dark just now for my grandmother or mother to notice it.’
He took the cape off and Sheyue inspected the damage. There was a hole the size of a finger-tip.
‘This must have been done by a spark from a hand-stove,’ She com¬mented. ‘It’s nothing. We’ll smuggle it out at once for some skilled weaver to patch.’ She wrapped up the cape and told an old serving-woman to take it out. ‘See that it’s done by tomorrow morning,’ She ordered. ‘And be sure not to let the old lady or mistress know.’
The woman assented and went off, returning some time later with the cape.
‘I tried not only weavers and the best tailors but embroiders and sew¬ing-women too,’ she said. ‘But as they’d never seen anything like this before, none of them dared take on the job.’
‘What’s to be done then?’ wondered Sheyue. ‘I suppose you needn’t wear it tomorrow.’
‘Tomorrow is the birthday proper,’ objected Baoyu. ‘The old lady and my mother expressly told me to wear it when I go. But the day before I burn it. What a bad show!’
Qingwen, who had been following the conversation, could no longer keep silence and now sat up in bed.
‘Let me see it,’ she called. ‘Maybe it’s not in your stars to wear this cape. Look at the state you’re in.’
‘You’re right,’ said Baoyu, smiling.
He handed the cape to Qingwen and took her the lamp.
‘This is made of peacock feathers and gold thread,’ she observed after examining it carefully. ‘If we darn it with the same material it should pass.’
‘We’ve peacock feathers and thread,’ said Sheyue. ‘But you’re the only one here who can do that type of darning.’
‘There’s no help for it then but to try my best, I suppose.’
‘How can you?’ Baoyu demurred. ‘You mustn’t start working the moment you’re a bit better.’
‘Don’t fuss,’ she retorted. ‘I know what I can do.’
With that she sat up to knot up her hair and put on some clothes. At once she felt so dizzy that stars began dancing before her eyes and she was afraid she would collapse; but rather than worry Baoyu by giving up, she gritted her teeth and stuck it out. Having asked Sheyue to help by twisting the thread, she now took one and compared it with the cape.
‘It’s not quite the same,’ she remarked. ‘once it’s mended, though, the difference shouldn’t show.’
‘That’s splendid,’ said Baoyu. ‘Where would we find a Russian tailor?’
Qingwen first unpicked the lining and slipped a bamboo embroidery-frame the size of a teacup up the back of the cape. Next she scraped away the singed edges with a knife, sewed two threads across at right angles to each other, stitched in the outline in cross-stitch, and then darned the hole to reproduce the original pattern. After a couple of stitches she would stop to examine her work, and after every four or five, feeling dizzy, breathless and faint, she would sink back on her pillow to rest for a while. Baoyu hovered over her solicitously, offering her hot water, urging her to rest, putting a squirrel cape over her shoulders and sending for a pillow for her back, until she became quite frantic.
‘Do go to bed, little ancestor!’ she begged him. ‘If you stay up half the night again, you’ll have sunken eyes tomorrow, and that wouldn’t do!’
To soothe her he had to lie down, but he could not sleep. He heard the clock strike four just as she finished her task and was fluffing up the down with a small toothbrush.
‘That’s fine!’ exclaimed Sheyue. ‘If you don’t look closely you’d never notice it.’
Baoyu asked to see it too.
‘It’s really as good as new,’ he commented.
Coughing after her exertions, Qingwen said, ‘I’m afraid the mend still shows. But I can’t do any more.’ She sank back with a groan of exhaustion.
If you want to know the outcome, read the next chapter.


Chapter 53

Ancestral Sacrifice Is Carried Out
on New Year’ s Eve in the Ning Mansion
An Evening Banquet Is Held on the Feast
of Lanterns in the Rong Mansion


Seeing that mending his peacock-feather cape had left Qingwen ex¬hausted, Baoyu called a young maid to massage her; and barely had they rested for the time it takes for one meal before the day was light. Then Baoyu, instead of going out, ordered the doctor to be sent for at once.
Presently Doctor Wang arrived and felt his patient’s pulse.
‘She was on the mend yesterday ‘ what has caused this relapse today?’ he asked in surprise. ‘Has she been over-eating or tiring her¬self? Her influenza is better; but after sweating she hasn’t had a proper rest. The consequences may be serious.’
He withdrew to make out a prescription, then brought it in, and Baoyu saw that it called for fewer drugs to counteract noxious eontagions but more tonics such as pachyma cocos, rebmannia and angelica.
Baoyu ordered this medicine to be prepared at once.
‘What’s to be done?’ he sighed. ‘If anything happens to her, it will all be my fault.’
‘Run along and mind your own business, young master,’ scoffed Qingwen from her pillow. ‘Is it so easy to fall into a decline?’
Baoyu had to leave her then. But he returned during the afternoon on the pretext of not feeling well. Although Qingwen’s illness was by no means light, luckily, though hard-working she was not the worrying type, and instead of over-eating she normally kept to a simple diet. The Jia family’s cure for a cold or cough, among masters and servants alike, consisted mainly of fasting supplemented by medication. Thus as soon as Qingwen fell ill she had fasted for a couple of days and been careful to take her medicine, with the result that in spite of her exertions a few days of extra treatment set her right. And because all the girls in the Garden were eating at home now, catering for a patient was simple as Baoyu could easily ask for soup and gruel. But enough of this.

Upon Xiren’s return after her mother’s funeral, Sheyue told her in detail of Pinger’s visit, the part played by Nanny Song, the reason for Zhuier’s dismissal by Qingwen and the fact that this had been reported to Baoyu.
Xiren’s only comment was, ‘You were rather too hasty.’
These days Li Wan also had a cold on account of the bad weather; Yingchun and Xiuyan were fully occupied attending to Lady Xing, who was suffering from an inflammation of the eyes; Aunt Li and her two daughters had been invited by her younger brother to his home for a few days; and Baoyu was worried by Xiren’s depression after her mother’s death, as well as by Qingwen’s delayed recovery. So no one was in the mood for poetry gatherings, and several of the appointed dates passed unobserved.
It was now the twelfth month. As New Year was fast approaching, Lady Wang and Xifeng had their hands full with preparations. Wang Ziteng was promoted at this time to be Chief Inspector of Nine Provinces, and ha Yucun to the post of Minister of War, to assist with military strategy and advise on state policy. But no more of this.

Over in the Ning Mansion ha Zhen had the Ancestral Temple opened and swept, the sacrificial vessels prepared, the ancestral tablets put in place, and the north hall cleaned in readiness for displaying the ancestral portraits. High and low alike in both mansions were kept hard at work.
One morning in the Ning Mansion, Madam You and her daughter-in-law were preparing embroidery and other gifts for those in the other mansion when a maid came in with a trayful of gold New-Year ingots.
‘Xinger reports that that packet of loose gold of a mixed quality the other day amounted to a hundred and fifty-three taels and sixty-seven cents, madam,’ she announced. ‘It’s made two hundred and twenty ingots in all.’
She presented them for inspection and her mistress saw that they were of different shapes: plum-blossom, crab-apple-blossom, a writing-¬brush and an ellipsoid signifying ‘All Wishes Granted,’ and ‘The Eight Treasures of Spring.’
Having ordered these to be put away, Madam You sent to tell Xinger to hand in the silver ingots without delay. The maid had not been gone long on this errand when Jia Zhen came in for his meal, and his daughter-in-law slipped away.
Jia Zhen asked his wife, ‘Have we fetched the Imperial Bounty yet for the spring sacrifice?’
‘I sent Rong for it today,’ was her reply.
‘Of course, our family doesn’t depend on these few taels,’ observed her husband. ‘Still they are a mark of the Imperial favour. We should collect this silver early to show the old lady in the other mansion before using it to prepare the ancestral sacrifice; for this is evidence that we are honoured by the Emperor’s favour and benefit from the good fortune of our forbears. Even if we spent ten thousand taels on this sacrifice, it would convey less distinction than the use of this bounty so graciously conferred. Indeed, apart from one or two houses like ours, most poor families of hereditary officials have to rely on this silver for their New-Year sacrifice. Such consideration is truly a sign of the infinite gracious-ness of the Emperor.’
‘Exactly what I feel,’ agreed his wife.
Just then a servant announced their son’s return, and Jia Zhen or¬dered him to be admitted. Jia Rong came in, carrying in both hands a small yellow bag.
‘Why have you been so long?’ demanded his father.
Jia Rong answered with a smile, ‘I had to go to the Office of Impe¬rial Banquets for the bounty, as it isn’t issued by the Ministry of Rites nowadays. All in that office asked after you, sir, and said they hadn’t seen you for a long time but were constantly thinking of you.’
‘It’s not me they’re thinking of,’ laughed his father. ‘Now that New Year’s coming, it’s presents they want from me or an invitation to a banquet and opera.’
While speaking he examined the yellow bag, which was stamped with the four-word inscription: ‘Eternal Imperial Favour Granted’ and the seal of the Sacrificial Department of the Ministry of Rites. In smaller characters was written: ‘Two gratuities for the Spring Sacrifice are conferred by the Emperor in perpetuity upon Jia Yan, Duke of Ningguo, and Jia Yuan, Duke of Rongguo.’ The amount and date were specified, together with the name of the recipient Jia Rong, Captain of the Imperial Guard Reserve, while the officer in charge had signed his name in vermilion.
After his meal, ha Zhen washed and rinsed his mouth, then put on his boots and hat to go, accompanied by his son with the silver, to inform the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang and after them Jia She and Lady Xing that the bounty had been collected. This done, he returned home and took out the silver, ordering the bag to be burned in the large incense-burner in the Ancestral Temple.
After this he told his son, ‘Go and ask your Second Aunt whether they’ve fixed on dates or not for their New-Year feasts in the first month. If they have, get the secretaries to write out a detailed list so that our invitations don’t clash. Last year we were careless enough to invite sev¬eral families on the same day, and instead of attributing it to negligence they imagined we’d done it deliberately ‘ to make an empty gesture at no trouble to ourselves.’
Jia Rong went off to do as he was told, returning some time later with the list of dates for the feasts and the names of those invited. After running his eye over it Jia Zhen said:
‘Give it to Lai Sheng. Tell them to avoid asking the same people on those days.’
He proceeded then to the hall and was watching the pages shift screens, clean tables and polish the gold and silver sacrificial vessels, when a boy brought him a card and list.
‘Bailiff Wu of the manor in Black Mountain Village has arrived, sir,’ he reported.
‘The old scoundrel, coming so late!’ swore Jia Zhen.
Jia Rong took the card and list and held them out while Jia Zhen, his hands behind his back, read them. On the red card was written:
‘Your servant, Bailiff Wu Jinxiao, kowtows to wish the master and mistress boundless happiness and good health, and good health to the young master and young mistress too. May the New Year bring you great happiness and good fortune, wealth, nobility and peace. May you be promoted with increased emoluments and have all your wishes come true.’

Jia Zhen chuckled. ‘They have some sense, these country folk, eh?’
‘Yes, it’s not the style,’ said his son, ‘but the good wishes that count.’
Next they read the list, which was as follows:
thirty stags fifty deer fifty roebuck
twenty each of three breeds of hogs and pigs twenty boars
twenty wild goats
twenty each of three breeds of goats and sheep two sturgeon
two hundred catties of other fish
two hundred each of live chicken, ducks and geese two hundred each of salted chicken, ducks and geese two hundred brace of pheasants
two hundred brace of rabbits twenty pairs of bear’s-paws twenty catties of deer-sinews fifty catties of sea-slugs fifty deer-tongues fifty ox-tongues twenty catties of dried oysters
two bags each of hazel-nuts, pine-kernels, peach and apricot-kernels fifty pairs of giant lobsters
two hundred catties of dried prawns
one thousand catties of first-grade silver-frost charcoal two thousand catties of second-grade silver-frost charcoal thirty thousand catties of ordinary charcoal
two piculs of rose-rice from the Imperial Farm five hundred pecks each of three varieties of fine rice five hundred pecks each of other kinds of grain one thousand piculs of ordinary rice
one cartload of sun-dried vegetables
two thousand five hundred taels raised by the sale of grain and cattle. In addition, some trifles to amuse the young gentlemen and young ladies:
two brace of live deer
four brace of white rabbits four brace of black rabbits two brace of live pheasants two brace of foreign ducks.

Having read this list Jia Zhen ordered, ‘Bring him in.’
Soon Wu Jinxiao entered the courtyard, kowtowed and offered greet¬ings.
Jia Zhen told the servants to help him up.
‘So you’re still hale and hearty,’ he remarked.
‘Thanks to Your Lordship’s good fortune, I can still get about,’ was the reply.
‘Your sons have grown up. You should have sent them instead.’
‘I’m used to the trip, Your Lordship, and that’s a fact. Besides, I was sick and tired of staying at home. Of course they all wanted to come, to see what it’s like living at the feet of the Son of Heaven; but they’re still young and I was afraid they might get into trouble on the way. A few years from now I shan’t worry.
‘How long did you spend on the road?’
‘There’s been heavy snow this year, Your Lordship. The snow’s lying four or five feet deep in the country; and a sudden thaw recently made the going so difficult that I was held up for several days. The whole journey took me one month and two days, not that I didn’t make the best speed I could, knowing time was running short and Your Lordship might be worried.’
‘I was wondering why you were so late,’ replied Jia Zhen. ‘I’ve just looked at your list, you old scoundrel. So this year you’re trying to de¬fraud us again.’
Wu hastily took two steps forward.
‘May it please Your Lordship, we had a wretched harvest this year,’ he declared. ‘It rained steadily from the third month to the eighth without letting up for five days at a stretch. In the ninth month, hailstones as large as bowls fell for one thousand three hundred ii around, injuring thousands of men and countless houses, to say nothing of cattle and grain. That’s why this is all there is. I wouldn’t dare lie to Your Lordship.’
Frowning, bia Zhen answered, ‘I counted on your bringing at least five thousand taels. What use is this paltry sum? In all, we’ve only eight or nine manors left now, already two of them claim to have suffered from flood or drought. How are we to get through this New Year I’d like to know? And now you default like this.’
‘Your Lordship’s farms haven’t done so badly,’ said Wu. ‘My brother just a hundred ii away is much worse off. Those eight farms which he manages for the other mansion are several times bigger than yours, sir; yet he’s produced no more than I have this year, apart from just two or three thousand taels extra. They’re hard hit too.’
‘No doubt,’ replied Jia Zhen. ‘We can just about manage here, with no extra large outlay beyond the normal annual expenditure. If I want to enjoy myself, I spend more; but I can economize if necessary. As for New-Year gifts and entertaining, by not caring about appearances and cutting down I shall get by. It’s different for the other house. In recent years they’ve had so many unavoidable extra expenses, without acquir¬ing any additional income or property, that in the last year or two they’ve made great inroads into their capital. And whom can they ask for money if not you?’
Wu Jinxiao smiled.
‘Their expenditure may have increased, but surely it works both ways. Don’t they get presents from Her Imperial Highness and His Majesty?’
Jia Zhen turned to his son and the rest.
‘Did you hear that?’ he asked laughingly. ‘What a joke!’
Jia Rong made haste to explain to Wu, ‘You people from the back of beyond don’t understand. Can Her Highness make over the Imperial Treasury to us? Even if she wanted to, it’s not in her power. Of course she sends gifts at the different festivals, but they’re simply brocade, cu¬rios and other trifles. As for money gifts, those only amount to a hundred or so gold taels a year-worth little more than a thousand taels of silver. What use is that? The last couple of years, they’ve had to spend several thousand taels extra each year. Just reckon for yourself how much it cost to build the Garden the first year for the Imperial Visit. A second visit in another couple of years would bankrupt them!’
‘These simple country folk don’t realize that not all is gold that glit¬ters,’ chuckled Jia Zhen. ‘Wormwood carved into a drumstick may look imposing, but it’s bitter inside!’
‘The other house does seem to be in difficulties, sir,’ remarked his son. ‘The other day I heard Second Aunt asking Yuanyang in confidence to smuggle out some of the old lady’s things to pawn.’
‘That’s just your Aunt Xifeng’s trick.’ Jia Zhen laughed. ‘They’re not as poor as all that. You may be sure she does it to make a show of poverty, because she knows they’re spending too much and making in¬roads into their capital, and she wants to cut down on expenditure. I’ve my own means of reckoning, though. They’re not as badly off as they make out.’
With that he told the servants to take Wu Jinxiao away and entertain him well.
Jia Zhen now disposed of this rent in kind as follows: part was kept for the ancestral sacrifice; part delivered by Jia Rong to the other man¬sion; part kept for family use; and the rest divided into different shares and placed on the terrace of the main hail, where the younger men of the clan were summoned to collect them.
At this juncture the Rong Mansion sent over a variety of sacrificial offerings and gifts for Jia Zhen. When he had inspected these and super¬vised the arrangement of the sacrificial vessels, he changed into his slip¬pers, draped a big raccoon cloak over his shoulders, and made the ser¬vants spread a large wolfskin rug at the top of the steps by the pillars so that he could sit in the sun watching his junior clansmen collect their gifts. When he saw Jia Qin come to take a portion too, he called him over.
‘What are you doing here?’ he asked. ‘Who told you to come?’
Standing at attention Jia Qin replied, ‘I heard you had sent for us to take things, sir. So I came without waiting to be called.’
‘These things are for your uncles and cousins who have no jobs and no income,’ Jia Zhen told him. ‘Those two years when you had no job, I gave you a share. But now you’re in charge of the monks and Taoist priests in the family temple. Apart from the stipend you receive each month, the allowance for all the monks and priests passes through your hands as well ‘ yet you still show up to take this. You’re too miserly. Just look at yourself. Are you dressed like a gentleman of means with a re¬sponsible post? You used to complain because you had no income; but now that you have one, you look even shabbier than before.’
‘I have such a large household, my expenses are heavy.’
‘Don’t hand me that line!’ Jia Zhen laughed scornfully. ‘Do you think I don’t know what goes on in the family temple? Out there, of course, you’re the master and no one dares disobey you. With money in your hands and us at a safe distance you lord it over everyone, night after night assembling a pack of scoundrels-gamblers, debauchees or queers. And now that your money’s squandered you have the effrontery to come here for things. Well, you won’t get anything except a good beating. After New Year I shall tell your Second Uncle Lian to dismiss you.’
Jia Qin flushed scarlet and dared not reply.
Just then a servant announced that the Prince of Beijing had sent a gift of scrolls and pouches. Jia Zhen ordered his son to entertain the messenger and explain that he was out, and Jia Rong, assenting, went off. Jia Zhen watched till the distribution of goods was finished, then returned to his rooms to dine with his wife, and the night passed without further incident. The next day there was even more to do, but we need not go into the details.

By the twenty-ninth of the twelfth month all was ready. Both man¬sions were resplendent with new door-gods, couplets, tablets and New-Year charms. The Ning Mansion’s main gate was thrown open, as were the ceremonial gate, the doors of the great hall, the lobby and the inner hall, the three inner gates, the inner central gate and the inner secondary gate-all the gates leading to the main hall. And on both sides below the steps, tall vermilion candles blazed like golden dragons.
The next day all the titled members of the family from the Lady Dowa¬ger downwards put on the court costume appropriate to their rank and, led by the old lady in a large sedan-chair carried by eight bearers, went to the Imperial Palace to pay homage and attend a banquet. On their return, they alighted from their chairs by the lobby of the Ning Mansion. All their younger kinsmen who had not gone to court had lined up to wait in front of the main gate, and now ushered them into the Ancestral Temple.
Now as this was Xue Baoqin’s first visit here, she took pains to ob¬serve the whole place carefully. The temple, a five-frame structure en¬closed by a black palisade, stood in a separate courtyard to the west of the Ning Mansion. In large characters on the placard over the gate was the imposing four-characters inscription ‘Jia Family Ancestral Temple.’ In small characters beside this she read ‘Written by Kong Jizong, He¬reditary Duke Descended from Confucius.’ The couplet flanking this read:
The grateful recipients of Imperial Favour will gladly
dash their brains out on the ground;
Generations to come will make solemn sacrifice for deeds whose fame resounds to Heaven.
This too had been written by the duke descended from Confucius.
Entering this courtyard, the party proceeded along a way paved with white marble and bordered by green pines and cypresses to a terrace on which were displayed ancient bronze tripods and libation cups green with patina. Before the porch hung a placard gilded with the nine-dragon de¬sign, and the inscription ‘Stars Shine on the Assistant,’ which had been written by the late Emperor himself. The couplet on either side, also in the Imperial calligraphy, read:
Their achievements outshine the sun and moon,
Their fame will extend to all their posterity.
The tablet over the entrance to the main hail was engraved with frol¬icking dragons, and bore the intagliated motto in blue: ‘Venerate the Departed, Continue Their Sacrifices.’ The couplet flanking this, also written by the Emperor, read:
Their descendants succeed to their good fortune and virtue; Ning and Rong live in the memory of the black-haired people.
The hall itself, ablaze with candles and lamps, was so brilliant with silk hangings and embroidered curtains that the ancestral tablets, ranged in their places, were hard to make out distinctly.
The members of the Jia family disposed themselves now according to the generations to which they belonged, on the left and right-hand sides. Jia Qing the Master of Sacrifice was assisted by Jia She, with Jia Zhen as libationer, Jia Lian and Jia Cong to present silk, Baoyu to offer incense, and Jia Chang and Jia Ling to spread a rug for kneeling and tend the incinerator. Black-robed musicians played music while the libation-cup was presented three times and obeisance made. Then the silk was burnt and wine poured.
At the end of this ceremony the music stopped and all withdrew, fol¬lowing the Lady Dowager to the main hall, in front of the portraits. In the middle of the shrine hung with long silk curtains, surrounded by brilliant screens and blazing censers, were portraits of the Duke of Rongguo and the Duke of Ningguo in dragon robes with jade belts. On both sides were portraits of other ancestors.
Jia Xing, Jia Zhi and some others had ranged themselves in due order all the way from the inner ceremonial gate to the terrace by the verandah of the main hall, where stood Jia Jing and Jia She outside the palisade, while the ladies stood inside. The family servants and pages remained outside the ceremonial gate. Each time they brought a plate of offerings to this gate, it was taken by Jia Xing or bia Zhi and passed from hand to hand until it reached Jia Jing on the terrace. Jia Rong, as the eldest grand¬son of the senior branch, was the only one to accompany the ladies in¬side. When Jia bing passed him an offering he handed it to his wife, who passed it on to Xifeng and Madam You until it reached Lady Wang in front of the altar. She in turn passed it to the Lady Dowager, who set it on the altar. Lady Xing, posted west of the altar facing east, helped the Lady Dowager.
When all the dishes, rice, soup, cakes, wine and tea had been pre¬sented, Jia Rong withdrew to join Jia Jing’s group below the steps. Places were assigned according to generations, Jia Jing heading the senior group, Jia Zhen the second, and Jia Rong the third; and now they ranged them¬selves on the two sides, the men on the east and the women on the west. When the Lady Dowager offered incense and bowed, the whole clan knelt down together. Every square foot of the five sections of the hall, the three annexes, the inner and outer corridors, terrace and courtyard, was a mass of rich silks and brocades. And the only sounds to break the solemn silence were the tinkling of gold bells and jade pendants, the rus¬tling of silks and the shuffling of boots and slippers as the worshippers rose or knelt down.
After this ceremony, ha Jing, bia She and the other men hurried to the Rong Mansion, where they waited to pay their respects to the Lady Dowa¬ger. She, however, now went to Madam You’s sitting-room, the floor of which was covered with a red carpet where stood a large gilded cloisonne brazier, its three legs in the form of elephant trunks. On the kang by the north wall were a new crimson rug and red silk back-rests and bolsters embroidered with ‘Dragons in the Clouds’ designs and the character ‘Longevity.’ On it, too, were spread a black fox-skin and a big white fox-skin mattress. When the Lady Dowager had been ensconced here, more furs were spread on both sides and the few other ladies of her generation were invited to sit down.
Then fur rugs were spread on the smaller kang behind the partition for Lady Xing’s generation, and twelve carved lacquer chairs covered with grey squirrel-skins and with a large bronze foot-warmer under each were placed in a row on either side for Baoqin and the other girls.
Madam You ceremoniously presented tea to the Lady Dowager while Jia Rong’s wife served the other elderly ladies, after which Madam You served Lady Xing’s group and Jia Rong’s wife the girls. Xifeng and Li Wan stood by all this time in attendance.
After sipping some tea, Lady Xing and the rest rose to wait upon the Lady Dowager, and after a few words to the other old ladies she asked for her sedan-chair. At once Xifeng stepped up to her and took her arm.
‘We’ve prepared dinner for you, madam,’ demurred Madam You with a smile. ‘Why will you never honour us with your company at din¬ner on this day of the year before you leave? Aren’t we as good as Xifeng?’
Xifeng, supporting the old lady, urged her, ‘Come on, Old Ancestress. Pay no attention to her. Let’s go home to eat.’
‘You have your hands full here with the ancestral sacrifice,’ said the Lady Dowager. ‘How could you put up with more trouble from me? Besides, even though I don’t dine here, you send dishes over every year.  It’s better that way. If there’s more than I can eat today, I can save it for tomorrow. That way, don’t I get more of your food than by eating here?’ Everyone laughed.
Then the old lady reminded Madam You, ‘Make sure to post reliable people tonight, to see that no fires break out owing to carelessness.’
As soon as Madam You had promised to see to this, they all went out to the lobby to mount their sedan-chairs. The ladies slipped behind a screen while page boys brought in sedan-bearers to carry them out, Madam You and Lady Xing accompanying the others to the Rong Mansion. As their chairs were borne out of the main gate, they saw the insignia, equipage and musical instruments of the Duke of Ningguo and the Duke of Rongguo displayed on the east and west sides of the street, which was closed today to passers-by.
Presently they reached the Rong Mansion and found all its gates, too, open right up to the main hall. But instead of stopping at the lobby this time, they turned west after the main hall and alighted outside the Lady Dowager’s reception room. All trooping in after her, they discovered that the place was freshly furnished with embroidered screens and bro¬cade cushions. Fragrant herbs and aromatic pine and cedar-wood were burning in the brazier.
As soon as the Lady Dowager had taken her seat, some old serving-women reported that two or three ladies of her generation had come to offer their congratulations. She rose to welcome them, for they had al¬ready entered, and after clasping hands and greeting her they were ush¬ered to their seats and sipped some tea. Then the Lady Dowager saw them out no farther than the inner ceremonial gate. When she had re¬turned and seated herself again, Jia Jing and Jia She led in the younger men of the family.
‘I put you to so much trouble the whole year round, don’t stand on ceremony now,’ urged the old lady.
But the men in one group and the women in another paid their re¬spects together, after which they took seats on both sides in order of seniority to receive the salutations of their juniors. When all the men and maid-servants of both mansions had paid their respects according to their degree, there was a distribution of New-Year money, as well as pouches and gold and silver ingots. Then they took their seats for the family-reunion feast, the men on the east side, the women on the west, and New-Year wine, ‘happy-reunion soup,’ ‘lucky fruit’ and ‘wish-fulfilment cakes’ were served, until the Lady Dowager rose and went into the inner room to change her clothes, whereupon the party broke up.
That evening, incense and sacrifices were offered at the various Bud¬dhist shrines and to the kitchen god; and incense-sticks and paper effigies were burnt to Heaven and Earth in the main court of Lady Wang’s com¬pound. Huge horn lanterns high on both sides of the main gate of Grand View Garden cast a brilliant light, while all the paths were lit with lanterns too. High and low alike were splendidly dressed. And the babel of talk and laughter, punctuated by the explosion of fire-crackers, went on with¬out intermission the whole night long.
The next morning the Lady Dowager and others, rising at dawn, put on their robes of state and went with full pageantry to pay homage at the Imperial Palace as well as to offer the Imperial Concubine birthday con¬gratulations. Upon her return from the Imperial banquet, the old lady went to the Ning Mansion to sacrifice to the ancestors. Then, going back to her own apartments she received the younger generations’ New-Year salutations. After these ceremonies she changed her clothes and rested, not receiving any of the kinsmen and friends who came to offer their congratulations but simply chatting with Aunt Xue and Aunt Li or playing draughts and card-games with Baoyu, Baoqin, Baoehai, Daiyu and the other girls.
Lady Wang and Xifeng were busy entertaining guests, for an unend¬ing stream of friends and relatives attended the New-Year feasts and operas held daily for about a week in their hall and courtyard. And as soon as this was over, both mansions were decked out and hung with lanterns for the approaching Lantern Festival. The Lady Dowager was feasted by hia She on the eleventh, by Jia Zhen on the twelfth, staying with them on each occasion for half a day, while time forbids us to enu¬merate all the feasts to which Lady Wang and Xifeng were invited.
On the evening of the fifteenth, the Lady Dowager had tables spread in the big hall in the small garden, an opera company hired, and gay lan¬terns of every description displayed at a family feast for her kinsmen in both mansions.
The only one not invited was Jia Jing, who abstained from both wine and meat. After the ancestral sacrifice on the seventeenth he moved back outside the city to live in seclusion; but even during his stay at home he remained quietly in his room, ignoring all the festivities around him.
As for Jia She, after sitting a while at his mother’s feast he also asked her permission to withdraw; and this the old lady readily granted knowing that his presence would cause a general constraint. Having his own dif¬ferent pleasures, he went home to enjoy the festival by drinking with his proteges amid a bevy of gaily-dressed girls, to the sound of music and singing.
In the old lady’s hail about ten tables were set for the feast. Beside each, on a teapoy, stood an incense-burner burning Palace incense con¬ferred by the Emperor; an incense box and a vase; a miniature garden about eight inches long, four inches wide and two or three inches high, with fresh flowers among small mossy rocks; teacups made in a previous reign; and gay little teapots filled with the finest tea on a small tray of Western lacquerware.
Set out too was a crimson gauze screen in a carved purple-sandal¬wood frame embroidered with flowers and calligraphy. The embroiderer, a Suzhou girl called Huiniang, had come from a family of officials and literati and been a skilled calligrapher and painter; but occasionally she did some embroidery too purely for her own amusement, not to sell. All the flowers she embroidered were copied from paintings by famous artists of the Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties; thus the compositions and colours were based on excellent models, unlike the stereotyped com¬positions and garish colours produced by artisans. Beside each spray of flowers there were lines of verse about these flowers from short poems or songs by poets of old, all embroidered in cursive script with black silk thread. And the strokes of these characters, whether light or heavy, con¬tinuous or broken, were exactly the same as if written with a brush ‘ a far cry from the grotesquely distorted scripts in the embroidery sold in the market-place.
As Huiniang was not out to make money from this skill of hers, al¬though her embroidery was widely known few could procure a specimen of it. Many rich and noble official families were unable to acquire one. It was known as ‘Hui’ embroidery, and some vulgar hucksters had re¬cently started imitating it to fool people and make a profit.
Huiniang had been fated to die at the early age of eighteen, so that no more of her work could be obtained. Any family which possessed one or two samples only kept them as rare treasures. And then certain admirers of ‘Hui’ embroidery among the literati declared that to call such superb work ‘embroidery’ showed a lack of respect and failed to do justice to its beauty. After discussion they agreed not to call it ‘embroidery’ but ‘art.’ Hence it had now come to be known as the ‘Hui art’ and a genuine piece was priceless. Even a wealthy family like the bias had only acquired three pieces, two of which had been presented to the Emperor the previous year. All they had left now was this screen with sixteen panels. The Lady Dowager prized it so much that she would not display it to guests with her other ornaments. Instead, she kept it in her own apartments to enjoy when in a good mood or entertaining.
There was also a variety of porcelain vases from old kilns filled with flowers symbolizing ‘The Three Companions of Winter’ and ‘Wealth and Splendour in a Marble Hall.’
Aunt Li and Aunt Xue took the seats of honour. To their east stood a carved openwork dragon-screen with below it a low couch spread with cushions, pillows and furs. Beside the pillows, an elegant low table of foreign lacquer with gilt designs was set out with a teapot, cups, rinse-bowls and towels as well as a spectacle-case. Here the Lady Dowager reclined to chat with the others, putting on her spectacles whenever she wanted to watch the performance.
‘My old bones are aching,’ she told Aunt Xue and Aunt Li. ‘Excuse me if I just keep you company lying here.’ She made Hupo sit beside her to massage her legs with a small pestle.
In place of a banquet table before the couch, there stood only one tall teapoy on which were a screen, flower-vase and incense-burner, and a small, elegant long-legged table laid with winecups, spoons and chop¬sticks. Baoqin, Xiangyun, Daiyu and Baoyu were told to sit at this table to share her feast; for before each dish was served to them it was shown to the old lady and, if she fancied it, left on her small table first for her to taste, then removed to the four young people’s table. So they could be regarded as sitting with the Lady Dowager. Lower down sat Lady Xing and Lady Wang; then Madam You, Li Wan, Xifeng and Jia Rong’s wife; while Baochai, Li Wen, Li Qi, Xiuyan, Yingchun and the other girls had tables on the west side.
From the great beams on either side hung crystal, hibiscus-shaped chandeliers with coloured tassels. In front of each table was a candela¬brum of Western enamel with a lacquer shade in the shape of an inverted lotus leaf; and this could be turned outwards to shade the coloured candles’ light from the feasters and illumine the stage more brightly. The lattices of the windows and doors had been removed and in their place hung gaily-tasselled Palace lanterns. From the eaves of the house, as well as the covered walks on either side, hung lanterns made of horn, glass, gauze, cut-glass or silk and paper with embroidered or painted, raised or incised designs. Jia Zhen, bia Lian, Jia Huan, Jia Cong, Jia Rong, Jia Qin, Jia Yun, Jia Ling and Jia Chang were seated at tables in the corridors.
The Lady Dowager had sent to invite all the members of the elan. But some were too old to enjoy lively celebrations; some had no one to mind the house for them; some were bed-ridden; some envied the rich and were ashamed of their own poverty; some disliked or feared Xifeng; some were timid and unused to company ‘ for one reason or another they would not or could not come. Thus, large as the clan was, the only female relative to appear was Jia Cun’s mother, nee Lou, who brought her son; and the only men were Jia Qin, Jia Yun, Jia Chang and Jia Ling, all of whom worked under Xifeng. In spite of their depleted numbers, however, it was quite a merry family feast.
And now Lin Zhixiao’s wife led in six serving-women carrying three low tables, each covered with red felt and piles of bright copper coins, fresh from the mint, strung together with red cord. Mrs. Lin had two of these tables set before Aunt Xue and Aunt Li and the other in front of the Lady Dowager, who told her where to put it. Knowing the family custom, serving-women then untied the coins and stacked them up.
This was towards the end of the scene ‘Encounter in the Tower’ from The West Tower, when Yu Shuye flings off in a rage. The girl playing Wenbao ad-libbed:
‘So you’re leaving in a huff. Luckily this is the fifteenth of the first
month, and the Old Ancestress of the Rong Mansion is holding a family feast. I’m going to ride there as fast as I can on this horse to ask for some goodies now. That’s the thing to do.’
This set the old lady and the whole party laughing. Aunt Xue exclaimed, ‘Clever little imp!’ ‘She’s only nine,’ remarked Xifeng.
‘That was smart of her,’ said the Lady Dowager. ‘Reward the child.’
Three serving-women, who had small baskets ready, stepped forward at this command to fill their baskets with coins from the three tables. Then going to the stage they announced:
‘Our Old Ancestress, Madam Xue and Madam Li are giving this to Wenbao to buy goodies.’
With that they emptied their baskets and the coins scattered, clinking, all over the stage.
Jia Zhen and Jia Lian, too, had ordered their pages in secret to bring in several crates of coins.
To know how these were distributed, read the next chapter.

Chapter 54

The Lady Dowager Debunks Trite Stories
Xifeng Clowns to Amuse Her Elders





When Jia Zhen and Jia Lian heard the call for largesse they made their pages scatter the coins which they had prepared in advance, and the clink and jingle of money on the stage delighted the old lady. Then, as both men rose from their seats, a page brought Jia Lian a silver pot of freshly-heated wine which he carried himself as he followed Jia Zhen inside. First Jia Zhen bowed to Aunt Li and, taking her cup, turned round so that Jia Lian might fill it. He then bowed to Aunt Xue and filled her cup as well.
The two ladies rose protesting laughingly, ‘Please take seats, gentle¬men. Why be so formal?’
All but Lady Xing and Lady Wang had risen from their seats and were standing by them, with their hands at their sides, to show respect. Now Jia Zhen and Jia Lian went up to the Lady Dowager’s couch and, as it was low, knelt down, Jia Zhen holding her cup and Jia Lian, behind him, the wine-pot. Although only the two of them were proposing toasts, ha Huan and the other young men had trooped in behind them, and when these two knelt the rest fell on their knees too. Baoyu made haste to follow suit.
‘Why should you join in?’ whispered Xiangyun, nudging him. ‘Bet¬ter offer a toast yourself.’
‘I will later on,’ he replied softly. Only when his cousins had risen after pouring out the wine, did he rise to his feet.
After this toast, Jia Zhen and Jia Lian got up to pour wine for Lady Xing and Lady Wang.
‘How about our cousins?’ asked Jia Zhen then.
‘Get along now and leave them in peace,’ answered the ladies.
Then Jia Zhen and the other young men withdrew.
It was not yet the second watch. Eight scenes from Eight Gallants at the Lantern Festival were being performed, and the climax had just been reached when Baoyu rose to go out.
‘Where are you off to?’ asked his grandmother. ‘Watch out for the fireworks outside, or you may get burnt by some of the sparks raining down.’
‘I’m not going far,’ he replied. ‘I’ll be back soon.
She ordered some attendants to escort him, and he went out followed only by Sheyue, Qiuwen and a few young maids.
‘Where’s Xiren?’ asked the Lady Dowager. ‘She must be getting above herself if she only sends the younger girls out.’
Lady Wang rose to explain, ‘She couldn’t very well come, madam, because she’s newly in mourning for her mother.’
The old lady nodded but commented, ‘A girl in service can’t really afford the niceties of filial piety. If she were still waiting on me, she’d hardly absent herself at this time, would she? This all comes of our leniency. Having enough servants we don’t insist on these things, so this seems to be the rule now.
‘Even if she weren’t in mourning, we need someone in the Garden this evening to keep an eye on the fireworks and prevent accidents,’ put in Xifeng quickly. ‘Whenever we have operas here all the other maids from the Garden sneak out to watch, but Xiren can be relied on to see to things. Besides, this means that when Baoyu goes back presently to sleep he’ll find everything ready for him. If she’d come too, the others are so thoughtless that he’d find his bedding cold on his return, no tea made and everything at sixes and sevens. That’s why I told her to stay there to look after the house and see that everything’s ready for his return. Then we here needn’t worry, while she can observe the proprieties. Isn’t that better all round? But if our Old Ancestress wants her, I’ll send for her.’
‘You’re quite right,’ said the Lady Dowager. ‘Trust you to have thought it all out. Don’t send for her. But when did her mother die? How is it I didn’t know?’
‘Have you forgotten, madam?’ Xifeng smiled. ‘The other day she came herself to report to you.
The old lady thought back and chuckled.
‘So she did. What a memory I have!’
‘How can Your Ladyship remember every little thing?’ remarked the others laughingly.
‘She was only a child when she came to wait on me,’ recalled the old lady with a sigh. ‘Then she waited on Xiangyun for a time, until finally I gave her to our young demon king, and what a dance her’s led her all these years! It’s not as if her parents had been our slaves or received any special kindness from us. After her mother died I meant to give her some silver for the funeral, but somehow it slipped my mind.’
‘The other day the mistress gave her forty taels, and that should have been enough,’ interposed Xifeng.
The Lady Dowager nodded.
‘That’s all right then. As it happens, Yuanyang’s mother has just died too; but because her home’s in the south I didn’t send her back for the funeral. Now they can keep each other company.’ She ordered a serving-woman to take them some refreshments.
‘Yuanyang’s gone without waiting to be told,’ put in Hupo with a smile.
They went on with their feast then, still watching the opera.
Meanwhile Baoyu had gone straight back to the Garden. And seeing that he was going to his own quarters, the nurses did not follow him but sat down by the stove in the Garden gatehouse to drink and gamble with the women in charge of making tea there.
Baoyu found his compound brightly lit but strangely silent.
‘Can they all be in bed?’ wondered Sheyue. ‘Let’s go in quietly and give them a fright.’
Tiptoeing past the full-length looking-glass, they saw Xiren lying oppo¬site someone on the kang, with two or three old serving-women dozing on the other side.
Baoyu thought they were asleep. He was on the point of going in when he heard Yuanyang say with a sigh:
‘There’s no telling what will happen in this life. You were on your own here while your parents lived outside and were for ever travelling east and west, so no one would have expected that you’d be able to attend their death-beds. Yet this year your mother died at home and you were able to go to her funeral.’
‘Yes,’ said Xiren. ‘I never thought I’d be able to be there when she breathed her last. And the mistress gave me forty taels too, which was a very handsome reward to her for having brought me up, and more than I dared hope for.’
Baoyu turned to whisper to Sheyue, ‘I didn’t know Yuanyang was here too. If I go in, she’ll leave again in a huff. We’d better go back and leave them to chat in peace. I’m glad she came, Xiren was lonely all on her own.’
So they slipped out quietly. Then Baoyu, stepping behind some rocks, lifted his gown.
Sheyue and Qiuwen had stopped and averted their faces.
‘Don’t undo your pants till you’ve squatted down,’ they cried, ‘or you may catch a chill on your stomach!’
When the two younger maids behind knew what he was up to, they hurried to the room where tea was made to get hot water.
As Baoyu was about to rejoin the others, two of the servants’ wives approached.
‘Who’s that?’ they called.
‘It’s Baoyu,’ replied Qiuwen. ‘Don’t shout like that or you may startle him.’
‘Sorry, we didn’t know,’ said the women with a smile. ‘So we’ve caused you trouble on this festival. You must all be very busy, miss, these days.’
As they had drawn level now, Sheyue asked them what they were carrying.
‘Some cakes and fruit from the old lady for Miss Jin and Miss Hua.’
‘They’re playing The Eight Gallants over there, not The Magic Box,’ quipped Qiuwen. ‘So where does this Goddess Jinhua come from?’1
Baoyu made Qiuwen and Sheyue open the hampers, and as they did so the two women squatted down. Seeing some of the choicest fruits, sweetmeats, cakes and dishes from the feast there, he nodded and moved on. The two girls hastily closed the hampers and followed.
‘Those are friendly, tactful women,’ remarked Baoyu cheerfully. ‘They’ll be tired out themselves these days, but they said how busy you must be. They’re not boastful show-offs.’
‘Those two are all right,’ rejoined Sheyue. ‘Some of the others re¬ally have no manners.
‘You’re intelligent girls,’ he said. ‘You should make allowances for those poor coarse creatures.’
By now he had approached the Garden gate. The nurses, who had been looking out for him while drinking and gaming, tagged after him as soon as he reappeared and followed him to the corridor behind the feast¬ing hall in the small garden. There the two young maids had been waiting for some time, one holding a basin, the other a towel and a small flask of ointment.
Qiuwen dipped her fingers in the basin.
‘How careless you’re growing,’ she scolded. ‘Fancy bringing such cold water!’
‘It’s the fault of the weather, miss,’ explained the girl. ‘I took boiling water for fear it might get cold; but it’s cooled off all the same.’
Just then, as luck would have it, up came a nurse with a kettle of boiling water.
‘Please give me some of that, granny,’ begged the girl.
‘This is to make tea for the old lady,’ retorted the nurse. ‘Fetch some for yourself, lass. It won’t hurt you to walk a few steps.’
‘Never mind who it’s for,’ put in Qiuwen. ‘If you won’t give us any, I’ll pour water from the old lady’s teapot to wash in.
When the woman saw it was Qiuwen, she hastily poured them some water.
‘That’s enough,’ said Qiuwen. ‘At your age you should have more sense. As if we didn’t know this was for the old lady! But why do you think we asked?’
The nurse smiled and apologized, ‘My eyes are so dim I didn’t see who it was, miss.’
When Baoyu had washed his hands, the girl with the flask poured some ointment over them which he rubbed in. Then Qiuwen and Sheyue, having rinsed their hands in the hot water and rubbed on ointment too, escorted him back to the hail.
Baoyu now called for a pot of warm wine to toast Aunt Li and Aunt Xue, who both begged him to be seated.
‘Let the boy fill your cups,’ said the Lady Dowager. ‘And mind you empty them.’
She drained her own cup then. And when Lady Xing and Lady Wang followed suit, Aunt Xue and Aunt Li had to drink up too.
‘Fill your cousins’ cups,’ the old lady told Baoyu. ‘See that you do it properly and make them all drink up.’
Baoyu assented and filled every cup in turn. When he came to Daiyu she refused to drink but held the cup up to his lips, thanking him with a smile when he tossed it off. He poured her another cup.
‘Don’t drink cold wine, Baoyu,’ warned Xifeng. ‘If you do, your hands will tremble too much to write or draw your bow later on.
‘I haven’t drunk any cold wine,’ he protested.
‘I know. I’m just warning you.’
Having filled all the cups except that of Jia Rong’s wife, whose cup was filled by a maid, he went out to the corridor to toast Jia Zhen and the other men and kept them company for a while before returning to his seat inside.
Presently soup was served, followed by New-Year dumplings.
‘Tell the actresses to rest now,’ said the Lady Dowager. ‘Those poor children must have some hot soup and hot food before they go on.’ She ordered sweetmeats of every kind to be taken to the actresses.
Now that the performance had stopped, one of the matrons brought in two women story-tellers who often visited the house, putting stools for them at one side. They were told to sit down and handed a fiddle and a lute. Then the Lady Dowager asked Aunt Li and Aunt Xue what they would like to hear.
‘Anything will do,’ they answered.
She asked the two women what new stories they had.
‘One about the end of the Tang Dynasty and the Five dynasties,’ they replied.
‘What is its name?’
‘The Phoenix Seeks Its Mate.’
‘	‘That’s a good title,’ she remarked. ‘Why is it called that? Let’s hear what it’s about, and if it sounds good you can tell it.’
‘It’s about a country gentleman named Wang Zhong at the end of the Tang Dynasty,’ said one of the women. ‘His family came from Jinling.  After serving as a minister under two emperors, he retired in his old age. He had an only son called Wang Xifeng.’
The whole party laughed at that.
‘The same name as our minx Xifeng,’ chuckled the old lady. Some serving-women nudged the story-tellers.
‘That’s our Second Mistress’ name. Be careful,’ they warned.
‘Never mind. Go on,’ said the Lady Dowager.
The story-tellers rose to apologize.
‘We deserve to drop dead. We didn’t know it was Her Ladyship’s honourable name.’2
‘What does that matter?’ asked Xifeng cheerfully. ‘Plenty of people have the same name. Go on.’
Then one of the women continued, ‘One year, old Mr. Wang sent his son to take the examination in the capital. Running into heavy rain on the way he took shelter in a village where, as it happened, there lived a gentle¬man named Li, an old family friend of Mr. Wang’s, who put the young man up in his study. This Mr. Li had no son, only one daughter Chuluan3 who was thoroughly accomplished in lyre-playing, chess, calligraphy and painting.
‘I understand the title now,’ interposed the old lady. ‘You needn’t go on. I can guess the rest. Naturally Wang Xifeng wants to marry this Miss Chuluan.’
‘So you’ve heard this story before, Old Ancestress.’ The story-teller smiled.
The others explained, ‘The old lady can guess the ending, even if she hasn’t heard the story before.’
‘There’s a sameness about all these tales,’ complained the old lady. ‘And they’re so stereotyped all about talented scholars and lovely ladies. Fancy describing girls who behave so badly as fine young ladies! Why, they’re nothing of the sort. They’re always introduced as girls from cultured families whose fathers are invariably high officials or prime ministers. In that case, an only daughter would be treasured and brought up as a real fine young lady, well-versed in literature and a model of propriety; yet her first glimpse of a handsome man, whether a relative or family friend, sets her thoughts running on marriage. She forgets her parents then and gets up to all sorts of devilry, behaving quite unlike a fine lady. If she carries on like that she’s surely no lady, no matter how her head is crammed with learning. If a man whose head is crammed with learning becomes a thief, does the court spare him on account of his talents? So these story-tellers contradict themselves.
‘Besides, not only would the daughter of a good scholar-official fam¬ily be well-educated and a model of propriety so would her mother. And even if her father had retired, a big family like that would have plenty of nurses and maids to look after the girl. How is it that in all these stories, when such things happen, no one has any inkling of it except the girl herself and one trusted maid? What are all the others doing, I’d like to know? Isn’t that contradictory?’
Everyone laughed.
‘The old lady’s shown up their lies!’
‘There’s a reason for this,’ she continued. ‘Either the people who spin these tales envy the rank and riches of other families, or ask for help which isn’t granted, and so they make up these stories to discredit them. Or else they’re so bewitched by reading such tales that they wish they could get a fine young lady themselves, and so they invent these things for their own amusement.
‘But what do they know about the ways of scholar-official families? Let’s not talk about those great families in their stories even in a middle-rank family like ours such things couldn’t possibly happen. They’re talking utter nonsense! That’s why we never allow such stories here, and our girls have never heard any. Now that I’m growing old and the girls’ apartments are some distance away, I may listen to a tale or two to pass the time; but as soon as the girls come I put a stop to it.’
‘That’s the rule for a good family, madam,’ approved Aunt Li and Aunt Xue. ‘Even in our homes we don’t let the children hear such frivo¬lous nonsense.’
Xifeng stepped forward then to pour more wine.
‘That’s enough,’ she cried. ‘The wine’s cold but you’d better take a sip, Old Ancestress, to wet your gullet before debunking their lies. This is a story called Debunking Lies which is happening in this reign, here and now, in this year, month, day and hour. Our Old Ancestress, with only one mouth, can hardly speak for two families at once. As two blooms grow on separate boughs, let’s deal with one first. Never mind whether true or false, let’s go back to enjoying the lanterns and opera.4 Just allow these two relatives to have a cup of wine and enjoy two more scenes of the show. After that you can go on debunking stories, starting with those of the very first dynasty down to the present one ‘ how about it?’
She had filled everyone’s cup, chuckling as she spoke, and by now the whole company was prostrate with laughter. The two story-tellers as well were in fits of mirth.
‘What a tongue Her Ladyship has!’ they cried. ‘If she started telling stories she’s soon do us out of a job.’
‘Don’t get too carried away,’ cautioned Aunt Xue. ‘The gentlemen are outside, this isn’t like ordinary times.’
‘There’s only cousin Zhen,’ retorted Xifeng. ‘We’ve been like brother and sister since we were small and played naughty tricks to¬gether. Since my marriage, of course, I’ve behaved much more cor¬rectly. But even if we hadn’t played together as children and were only in-laws, isn’t there a story in The Twenty-four Acts of Filial Piety ~ about someone dressing in motley and clowning to amuse his parents? 6 They can’t come and amuse our Old Ancestress, so if I manage to make her laugh and eat a little more, keeping everybody happy, you should all thank me instead of laughing at me.’
‘It’s true that I haven’t had a good laugh for the last couple of days,’ said the Lady Dowager. ‘Now that she’s raised my spirits by her antics I’ll have another cup of wine.’ sipping her drink, she told Baoyu to offer Xifeng a toast.
‘I don’t need him,’ declared Xifeng laughingly. ‘I’ll cash in on some of your good fortune, madam.’
She took the old lady’s cup and drank what was left, then handed the cup to a maid and took another from a basin of hot water. All the cups on the tables were changed then for fresh ones from the basin, and when more wine had been poured they resumed their seats.
‘If our Old Ancestress doesn’t want to hear this story, shall we play a tune?’ asked one of the story-tellers.
‘Yes, play The General’s Command,’ ordered the old lady.
The two women tuned their instruments and played until the Lady Dowager asked the time. On being told that it was the third watch, she observed:
‘No wonder it’s growing so chilly.’
Some young maids had already brought warmer clothes.
Now Lady Wang rose to ask, ‘Why not move to the lobby with the heated floor, madam? Our two relatives needn’t be treated like outsid¬ers. We’ll keep them company for you.’
‘In that case why don’t we all move inside?’ countered the old lady. ‘That would be cosier.’
‘There may not be room for us all,’ demurred Lady Wang.
‘I know what. Instead of using all these tables, we’ll just join two or three together so that we can sit side by side, cosy and snug.’
They all liked this idea and rose from their seats. The servants hastily cleared the feast away, put three large tables together in the lobby, and brought in more refreshments.
‘Don’t stand on ceremony, anyone,’ said the old lady when all was ready. ‘Just sit where I tell you.
She made Aunt Xue and Aunt Li take the seats of honour on the north side and took an east seat herself with Baoqin, Daiyu and Xiangyun be¬side her. Baoyu, told to sit by his mother, found a place between her and Lady Xing. Baochai and the other girls sat on the west side, Madam Lou and her son Jia Jun came next, then Jia Lan between Madam You and Li Wan, and Jia Rong’s wife on the south side.
The Lady Dowager now sent word to ha Zhen, ‘You can take your brothers away, I shall soon be retiring.’
At once all the men came in to take their leave.
‘Go along,’ said the old lady. ‘No need to come in. We’ve just sat down and don’t want to stand up again. Go and rest now; tomorrow will be a busy day.’
‘Very good, madam,’ replied Jia Zhen. ‘But at least let us leave Jung here to serve you wine.’
‘That’s right,’ she agreed. ‘I’d forgotten him.’
With a word of assent Jia Zhen turned to lead ha Lian and the others out and, having told servants to see ha Cong and Jia Huang home, the two of them went off cheerfully to enjoy the company of some singsong girls. But no more of this.

Meanwhile the Lady Dowager remarked with a smile, ‘I was just thinking that to make our pleasure complete we ought to have a married couple here. I’d forgotten Rong. Now with him here we’ve nothing missing. Sit next to your wife, Rong, and we shall have a married pair.’
Some matrons announced that another opera was starting.
‘We women folk are just having a pleasant chat,’ said the old lady. ‘We don’t want any more noise. It’s so late, those child-actresses must be freezing. Let them rest a while. Go and fetch our girl-actresses here to put on a couple of items on this stage. The troupe from outside can watch.’
The women hurried off to send a messenger to Grand View Garden with instructions for the pages at the inner gate. These boys went straight to the changing room to escort all the grown people in the company out, leaving only the young performers. Then the instructor from Pear Fra¬grance Court brought Wenguan and the eleven other girl actresses out through the side gate of the corridor, accompanied by some women car¬rying bundles. Since there was no time to bring all their stage properties, they had chosen only the costumes for a few operas which they judged the old lady might like. The women led the actresses inside, and when they had paid their respects they stood there at respectful attention.
‘It’s the first month of the year, why didn’t your instructor let you out to enjoy yourselves?’ asked the old lady. ‘What have you been rehears¬ing lately? The eight scenes from The Eight Gallants were so noisy that they’ve made my head ache. Let’s have something quieter. Look, Madam Xue and Madam Li here both have opera troupes at home; they’ve seen countless good performances, and their young ladies have watched better operas and heard better singing than ours. These young actresses we’ve hired today are from troupes trained by well-known families of opera connoisseurs, better than many older companies, for all that they’re only children. We mustn’t make a poor showing today, so let’s try something new. Fangguan shall sing us ‘Seeking the Dream’7 with no accompaniment but a two-string fiddle and a flute.’
‘Very good,’ replied Wenguan with a smile. ‘Our performance can’t possibly measure up to the standard to which these ladies are accus¬tomed. They can only judge of our delivery and voices.’
‘That’s it,’ said the old lady.
‘What a clever child!’ exclaimed Aunt Li and Aunt Xue. ‘You’re helping the old lady to make fun of us.’
‘We just put on shows for fun here, we’re not professionals; that’s why you won’t find us following the usual fashion,’ said the Lady Dowa¬ger. She then told Kuiguan, ‘Sing that aria ‘Huiming Delivers a Letter’8 and don’t trouble to make up. Just sing a couple of scenes to amuse these ladies with our amateur style. But mind you do your best.’
Wenguan and the others assented and withdrew to change their clothes. First they staged ‘Seeking the Dream,’ then ‘The Letter Is Delivered.’ All listened in absolute silence.
‘It isn’t easy for her. I’ve seen truly hundreds of companies per¬form, but never heard an accompaniment of only flutes,’ observed Aunt Xue presently.
‘There have been cases,’ the Lady Dowager told her. ‘For instance that melody in The Western Tower ‘Longing by the Chu River’ is often sung to a flute accompaniment by the young male actor. It is rare, though, to have a whole scene like this. It just depends on one’s taste. This is nothing unusual.’ Pointing at Xiangyun she added, ‘When I was her age, her grandfather had an opera troupe in which someone performed real lyre music when they played ‘Listening to the Lyre’ from The Western Chamber  ‘Seduction by the Lyre’ in The Romance of the Jade Hair-pin and ‘Eighteen Songs to the Hunnish Pipe’ in The Lute Player’s Return.’0 What do you think of that?’
All admitted that such a thing was even rarer. Then the old lady told servants to order Wenguan and her troupe to play with lute and flute Full Moon at the Lantern Festival, and they went off to carry out her in¬structions.
At this point ha Rong and his wife offered toasts all round. The Lady Dowager was now in such high spirits that Xifeng suggested, ‘While the story-tellers are here, why don’t we get them to drum for us while we pass round a spray of plum-blossom and play ‘Spring Lights Up the Eye-brows’.’
‘That’s a fine drinking-game, and this is just the time for it,’ ap¬proved the old lady.
She sent for a black lacquered drum with copper tuds which was kept for drinking-games, asked the story-tellers to beat it, and took a spray of red plum-blossom from the table.
‘Whoever has the blossom when the drum stops must drink a cup and say something,’ she decreed.
‘The rest of us aren’t so smart as our Old Ancestress,’ objected Xifeng. ‘If we get stuck, it won’t be any fun. Let’s find something that highbrows and lowbrows alike can enjoy. Suppose the one caught with the blossom tells a joke?’
As Xifeng was noted for her jokes and endless fund of original quips, this met with the approval of all the feasters as well as the maid-servants there, both old and young. The young maids hurried out to urge their friends:
‘Come quick! The Second Mistress it going to tell a joke.’
In no time at all the room was crowded with maids.
As soon as the performance ended, the old lady had refreshments sent to Wenguan and the other actresses. Then she ordered the drum¬ming to start. The story-tellers, being old hands at this, varied the tempo and the plum was passed from hand to hand to its rhythm. First slow as the dripping of water from a clepsydra, the drumming soon gathered speed like the patter of peas being poured into a bowl. Then, after a rapid tattoo like a horse stampeding or sudden flashes of lightning, the sound abruptly broke off just as the plum-blossom reached the old lady’s hand. A roar of laughter went up, and Jia Rong at once stepped forward to fill her cup.
‘Naturally the old lady’s face should light up first,’ cried the others. ‘‘Then we shall be able to share in her happiness.’
‘I don’t mind drinking a cup,’ she rejoined. ‘But I can’t think of a joke.’
‘Why, your Ladyship knows even more and better jokes than Xifeng,’ they expostulated. ‘Do tell us a good one, madam.’
‘I’ve no new jokes, but I’ll just have to brazen it out. So here goes,’ said the old lady. ‘Well, a family had ten sons and ten daughters-in-law.  The tenth daughter-in-law was the cleverest, so smart and so well-spo¬ken that she was the favourite of her father and mother-in-law, who kept finding fault with the nine others. This seemed so unfair that the others put their heads together.
‘‘We’ve been dutiful daughters-in-law,’ they said. ‘We’re just not as smooth-spoken as that bitch, which is why the old couple keep on singing her praises. Who can we complain to about this injustice?’
‘The eldest one suggested, ‘Let’s go tomorrow to the Temple of the King of Hell to offer incense and complain to him. We’ll ask why, since we’ve all been born human, that bitch alone was given the gift of the gab while the rest of us are so dumb?’
‘The other eight approved of this idea. They all went the nest day to the temple and offered incense, then slept there at the foot of the altar while their spirits waited for the King of Hell to appear. They waited for a long time but nothing happened, and they were growing impatient when they saw Monkey King come somersaulting down through the clouds. At sight of these nine spirits, he raised his magic staff and threatened to beat them. The nine spirits knelt down fearfully to beg for mercy. Then Mon¬key asked what brought them there, and they told him the whole story. He stamped his foot.
‘‘So that’s the reason!’’ he sighed, ‘It’s a good thing you met me. If you’d waited for the King of Hell, he wouldn’t have known.
‘The nine spirits pleaded, ‘Have pity and tell us, Great Sage. Theat’s all we ask.
‘‘That’s easy,’ answered Monkey with a smile. ‘The day you ten girls were born, I’d gone to visit the King of Hell and happened to piss on the ground. Your youngest sister-in-law lapped it up. If you want the gift of the gab, I’ve plenty more piss you can drink if you like.’’
The whole company burst out laughing.
‘Fine!’ cried Xifeng. ‘It’s lucky we’re all so dumb here. Otherwise people might say we’d drunk monkey’s piss.’
Madam You and Madam Lou joked to Li Wan, ‘The one who’s drunk monkey’s piss is playing innocent!’
Aunt Xue remarked with a chuckle, ‘Topical jokes are always the funniest.’
The drums started up again then, and some young maids who just wanted to hear Xifeng’s jokes softly told the story-tellers that they would cough when it was time to stop. The plum-blossom went round twice and had just reached Xifeng when they coughed, and silence fell.
‘Now we’ve caught her!’ the others exulted. ‘Drink up quickly and let us have a good one. Just don’t make us split our sides laughing.’
Xifeng drained her cup and thought for a second.
‘In the middle of the first month,’ she began, ‘during the Lantern Festival a family was having a fine lively time, enjoying lanterns and drinking together. There were the great-grand-mother, grandmother, mothers-in-law, daughters-in-law, grand-daughters-in-law, great-grand-daughters-in-law, grandsons, grand-nephews and a pack of great-great-grandsons, as well as grand-daughters and grand-nieces on the paternal and maternal sides, and grand-nieces on the brothers’ and sisters’ sides... Aiya, it was really lively....’
Already laughing they cried, ‘Listen to the way she runs on. Who else is she going to put in?’
‘If you drag me in I’ll pinch your lips,’ warned Madam You.
Xifeng sprang to her feet to protest, ‘Here am I hard at work, yet you keep butting in. All right, I won’t say any more.
‘Go on,’ urged the old lady. ‘What happened?’
Xifeng reflected before answering, ‘They sat up together feasting all night, and then the party broke up.’
Having said this gravely with a straight face she stopped. The others waited in some mystification for her to go on, but all that followed was an icy silence.
Xiangyun stared at Xifeng until she said with a smile, ‘Here’s an¬other about the Lantern Festival. A man carried a fire-cracker as large as a house out of town to let it off, and thousands of people followed to watch. One fellow was so impatient that he set light to it on the sly with a stick of incense. Then --  Whizz! Bang! – the crowd roared with laughter and dispersed. But the man carrying the fire-cracker complained:
‘‘What a sloppy job the cracker-maker did! How could it burst apart before being lit?’’
‘Surely he’d heard the bang?’ objected Xiangyun.
‘The man was deaf,’ Xifeng told her.
When this had sunk in, everybody burst out laughing.
Then reverting to the unfinished joke they asked: ‘What happened afterwards in your first story? Do finish that one too.’
‘What a question to ask!’ cried Xifeng, banging the table. ‘The next day would have been the sixteenth, when the festival would be over and I suppose everyone would be busy clearing up. In that flurry who’d know what happened afterwards?’
At this they laughed again.
‘The fourth watch has sounded outside,’ announced Xifeng. ‘I think our Old Ancestress is tired, and it’s time for us to whizz off too like that deaf man’s fire-cracker.’
All the rest were rocking with laughter, their handkerchiefs pressed to their mouths. Madam You wagged a finger at Xifeng.
‘How this creature does rattle on!’ she spluttered.
‘The minx is growing perter all the time,’ chuckled the Lady Dowa¬ger. ‘She mentioned fire-crackers. We’ll let off some fireworks, too, to sober ourselves up.’
Jia Rong promptly went out to get pages to set up screens and stands in the courtyard on which to place or hang the fireworks. These had come as tribute from different parts of the country, and although not very large they were most ingeniously made in different colours, ornamented with scenes from stories and fitted with all kinds of fire-crackers.
As Daiyu was too delicate to stand much noise, her grandmother help her close to her while Aunt Xue put her arms around Xiangyun, who declared with a smile that she was not afraid.
‘She likes nothing better than letting off big fire-crackers herself,’ explained Baochai. ‘Why should she be scared of these?’
Lady Wang had taken Baoyu on her lap.
‘No one cares for poor little me!’ Xifeng complained.
‘I do,’ chuckled Madam You. ‘Come and sit on my knee and don’t be afraid. You’re behaving like a spoilt brat again. The sound of fire¬works has sent you off your head, just as if you’d eaten bees’ wax.’
‘When this party’s over let’s go and let off fireworks in the Garden,’ proposed Xifeng gaily. ‘I’m better at that than those page boys.’
Meanwhile a pyrotechnical display was going on outside, including sparklers like ‘A Skyful of Stars,’ ‘Nine Dragons Soar to the Clouds,’ ‘A Bolt from the Blue,’ and ‘Ten Peals in the Air.’
After this they ordered the young actresses to perform Lotus Flow¬ers Fall, largesse was scattered all over the stage and the little girls scampered round gaily to snatch up the coins.
By the time soup was served the Lady Dowager remarked, ‘It’s been a long night and I feel rather hungry.’
‘We’ve prepared some duck congee,’ Xifeng told her. ‘I’d prefer something less greasy,’ was the reply.
‘There’s date congee too for the ladies observing a fast.’
‘One’s too greasy, the other too sweet,’ complained the old lady. ‘We’ve almond gruel as well. Only I’m afraid that’s sweet too.’ ‘That will do for me.’
Then the tables were cleared, fresh delicacies served, and after a small collation they rinsed their mouths with tea and the party broke up.

In the morning of the seventeenth they went to the Ning Mansion’s Ancestral Temple to sacrifice once more, after which the temple gates were closed, the ancestral portraits put away, and everybody went home.
That day Aunt Xue asked the others over to a New-Year feast. Other feasts were given by the stewards on the eighteenth by Lai Da, on the nineteenth by Lai Sheng of the Ning Mansion, on the twentieth by Lin Zhixiao, on the twenty-first by Shan Taliang, and on the twenty-second by Wu Xinteng. The Lady Dowager went to some of these only, staying on till the end if she was in a good mood, otherwise leaving after a short time.
As for relatives and friends who came in person to invite the Jias to a feast or to enjoy a feast given by them, she declined to meet all, making Lady Wang, Lady Xing and Xifeng entertain the callers for her. And Baoyu, claiming that his grandmother needed him to amuse her, went nowhere but to Wang Ziteng’s house. So the old lady attended only those stewards’ family parties where she could relax and enjoy herself. But enough of this.
Soon the festival was over. To know what happened afterwards, read the next chapter.

Chapter 55

A Stupid Concubine Insults Her Own Daughter
in a Futile Squabble
A Spiteful Servant Imposes Upon
Her Young Mistress


The Lantern Festival passed. As one of the Dowager Concubines was unwell and the Emperor was known for his filial piety which had brought harmony to the land, all the Imperial Concubines ate and dressed simply, their visits home were cancelled, and there were no New-Year feasts or entertainments in the Palace. Consequently, there was no dis¬play of lantern riddles in the Rong Mansion this year.
No sooner was the bustle of New Year over than Xifeng had a mis¬carriage. She had to stop running the household for a month, and two or three doctors attended her every day; but overestimating her own strength, although staying indoors she continued mapping out plans for the house¬hold, which Pinger was sent to report to Lady Wang. All advice to rest she ignored.
Lady Wang felt as if she had lost her right arm, and simply had not the energy to cope. She decided important matters herself, entrusting lesser domestic affairs to Li Wan for the time being. But Li Wan, being one of those people who have more virtue than ability, inevitably let the servants have their own way; so Lady Wang told Tanchun to help her out for a month, until Xifeng was well enough to take over again.
Xifeng had a delicate constitution, however, and as a girl had never looked after her health. In her passion to shine she had overtaxed her strength, with the result that her miscarriage left her very weak. A month after it she was still losing blood. Although she kept this a secret, every¬one could see from her pallor and loss of weight that she was not taking proper care of herself. Lady Wang urged her not to worry about family affairs, but just to take medicine and recuperate. And as she herself was afraid that if she fell really ill other people would gloat, she concentrated on getting better as soon as possible. However, she did not start to mend for some time: not until the autumn did she begin to recover and gradually stop losing blood. But this is anticipating.

Meanwhile, seeing that for the time being Tanchun and Li Wan could hardly be relieved of their responsibilities, and that there were many people in the Garden who needed to be kept in order, Lady Wang enlisted Baochai’s help as well.
‘The old serving-women are no use,’ she told her. ‘They drink and gamble whenever they have the chance, sleeping during the day so as to play cards at night. I know all they’re up to. When Xifeng was up and about there was someone to scare them, but now they’ll be taking ad¬vantage. You’re a good steady girl, my dear. Your cousins are young and I’m busy do you mind putting yourself out, for a couple of days, to keep an eye on things for me? If there’s anything I overlook, come and let me know before the old lady asks and I’m stumped for an answer. If the servants misbehave, just tell them off. If they won’t listen, let me know. We don’t want to have any trouble.’
Baochai had to agree to this.
It was now early spring and Daiyu was coughing again while Xiangyun too was under the weather, confined to her bed in Alpinia Park, taking medicine day after day. As Tanchun and Li Wan lived some distance from each other, now that they were working together it proved so incon¬venient sending messages to and fro that they arranged to settle their business every morning in the small three-roomed hall south of the Gar¬den gate. They took to having breakfast there and returning to their own quarters about noon.
This hail had served as the headquarters for the eunuchs in charge at the time of the Imperial Consort’s visit, since when it had only been used by some old maid-servants who kept watch there at night. As the weather was warm now no major repairs were needed: a little fixing up made the place fit for the two of them to use. The tablet over this hall bore the inscription ‘Assisting Benevolence and Discussing Virtue,’ but mem¬bers of the household called it the Council Hall.
Now the two young mistresses came here at six every morning and did not leave until noon, after an endless stream of women-servants had reported on the matters entrusted to them. These women had all exulted secretly at the news that Li Wan was to be in sole charge, thinking her too kind-hearted to punish anyone, and obviously much easier to impose on than Xifeng. It did not worry them either when Tanchun later joined her, for they discounted her as a young unmarried girl who had always been most pleasant and easy-going. So they became much slacker than before. After only a few days, however, it dawned on them from the way certain matters were handled that Tanchun was every bit as alert as Xifeng, being simply more softspoken and even-tempered.
It happened now that a dozen or so promotions, demotions, marriages or funerals in the families of nobles or hereditary officials related to or friendly with the Rong and Ning houses kept Lady Wang busy for several days in a row, paying visits of congratulation or condolence. This left her less time than ever to attend to affairs at home.
So Li Wan and Tanchun remained in the hall all day long, while Baochai supervised the servants in Lady Wang’s apartments until her return; and last thing at night, after doing some needlework, she would make a tour of the Garden in a small sedan-chair accompanied by those on watch. Thus the three of them controlled things even more strictly than when Xifeng was in charge.
‘We’re only just rid of one demon patrolling the sea, and here come three guardian mountain spirits instead!’ all the servants started grousing secretly.
‘We’ve not even a chance now to drink and play cards at night.’
One day, Lady Wang was invited to a feast in the house of the Mar¬quis of Jinxiang. Li Wan and Tanchun rose early to attend her until she left, then went back to the hail. They were sipping tea there when Wu Xindeng’s wife came in to inform them that Zhao Guoji, the brother of Concubine Zhao, had died the previous day.
‘I reported this yesterday to the mistress,’ she said. ‘She told me to let you ladies know.’
She made no further comment after this, just stood by at respectful attention.
All the servants who had come to report on business were eager to see how these two would handle the matter. If it was handled correctly they would respect them; if the least mistake was made, not only would they despise them, once out of the inner gate they would start gossiping and making fun of them. Mrs. Wu knew what should be done, and had she been dealing with Xifeng she would have made various suggestions to curry favour, quoting precedents for her to decide between. But as she looked down on Li Wan as a simpleton and Tanchun as only a girl, she said no more, waiting to see what the two of them would do.
Tanchun consulted Li Wan, who thought for a moment.
‘The other day when Xiren’s mother died, I understand she was given forty taels,’ she said. ‘We can give the same amount.’
Mrs. Wu promptly assented, took the tally and was about to go off when Tanchun stopped her.
‘Don’t go for the money yet,’ said Tanchun. ‘I’ve something to ask you. Some of those old concubines in the old lady’s apartments came from outside, some from families serving here. There was a distinction. If a relative of one from our household died, how much was given? How much to one from outside? Give us a couple of examples.’
When questioned like this, Mrs. Wu could not remember.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ she answered with a smile. ‘Whatever sum’s given, who would dare to complain?’
‘Nonsense!’ retorted Tanchun pleasantly. ‘I would just as soon give a hundred taels; but if I didn’t go by the rules, not only would you laugh at me but I shouldn’t be able to face the Second Mistress.’
‘In that case I’ll go and look up the old accounts,’ offered Mrs. Wu. ‘I can’t for the moment remember.’
‘You’re an old hand at this,’ Tanchun pointed out. ‘Yet you claim to have forgotten, so as to make things awkward for us. Do you have to go and look up the accounts when you report to the Second Mistress? If so, Xifeng would count as lenient, not as exacting. Fetch those accounts at once. One more day’s delay, and instead of blaming you for negligence people will accuse us of incompetence.’
Mrs. Wu flushed scarlet and hurried out, while the other stewards’ wives stuck out their tongues in dismay. Then other matters were re¬ported.
Soon Mrs. Wu came back with the old accounts. Tanchun, taking them, found that two concubines who had been family servants had re¬ceived twenty taels apiece, and two from outside forty. Two others from outside had received a hundred taels and sixty taels respectively; but it was recorded that this was because the first was allowed an extra sixty to have her parents’ coffins moved to another province; the second was allowed an extra twenty to buy a burial ground.
Tanchun showed these items to Li Wan.
‘Give her twenty taels.’ she ordered Mrs. Wu.
‘And leave these accounts here for us to go through carefully.’
Mrs. Wu assented and withdrew.
Suddenly Concubine Zhao burst in. Li Wan and Tanchun at once asked her to be seated.
‘Everyone in this house tramples on my head.’ she stormed. ‘I should think you at least, miss, should take my side!’ She began to sob and snivel as she was speaking.
‘Whom are you accusing, madam?’ asked Tanchun. ‘I don’t under¬stand. Who’s trampling on your head? If you’ll tell me, I’ll take your side.’
‘You’re the one ‘ so whom can I complain to?’
Tanchun hastily rose to protest, ‘I wouldn’t dare.’
Li Wan also stood up to act as a peacemaker.
‘Sit down, please, and listen to me!’ cried the concubine. ‘I’ve been treated like dirt in this house all these years, though I’ve borne you and your brother, and now I rank even lower than Xiren. What face have I got left? Not only me ‘ this makes you lose face too.’
‘So that’s it.’ Tanchun smiled. ‘As if I dared take the law into my own hands!’
Sitting down again, she showed Concubine Zhao the account books and read out the items to her.
‘These are the rules handed down by our ancestors,’ she declared. ‘We all have to abide by them ‘ how could I change them? Xiren isn’t a special case. If Huan takes a concubine from outside later on, she’ll naturally rank the same as Xiren. This isn’t a question of competing for status, it has nothing to do with face. If someone’s in our mistress’ ser¬vice, I can only go by the rules. The sum’s given thanks to the kindness of our ancestors and our mistress. If that someone thinks it unfair and is too stupid to know when she’s well off, I can’t stop her complaining. If our mistress were to give away the whole house, I’d get no face from it. If she didn’t give a cent, it wouldn’t make me lose face either.
‘Take my advice and have a quiet rest while the mistress is out. Why work yourself up? The mistress is kindness itself to me, but you’ve grieved her more than once by the way you make trouble. If I were a boy, able to leave this house, I’d have gone long ago to make my own way in the world, for then of course I’d know what to do. It’s too bad that I’m only a girl and mustn’t say a word out of turn. The mistress fully understands, and thinks well enough of me to put me in charge; but before I’ve man¬aged to be of any use you come and start picking on me. If she found out and relieved me of the job so as not to embarrass me, then I’d really lose face. And so would you as well.’ By this time she was sobbing bitterly.
The concubine having no other answer to this retorted, ‘If the mis¬tress is partial to you, that’s all the more reason to lend us a helping hand. But you’ve quite forgotten us in your eagerness to curry favour with her.’
‘Who says I’ve forgotten you? How am Ito lend a helping hand? You have to ask yourselves: Don’t all mistresses like inferiors who make themselves useful? Good people don’t need the kind offices of others.’
Li Wan put in soothingly, ‘Don’t be angry, madam. It’s not her fault. She’s only too eager to help you, but how can she say so?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous, sister-in-law!’ cried Tanchun. ‘Who do you mean I’m to help? Does the daughter of any house help servants? You should know what they are ‘ their affairs are none of my business.’
‘Who asked you to help others?’ fumed the concubine. ‘If you weren’t in charge I wouldn’t have come to you. Now if you say one it’s one, if you say two it’s two. If you gave an extra twenty or thirty taels for your uncle’s funeral, why should the mistress object? Everyone knows how good she is it’s you people who are so stingy. It’s too bad she has no chance to show her kindness. But don’t worry, miss, it’s not your own silver you’re saving. I’d always hoped, after you married, you’d show more consideration to the Zhao family; but now before your feath¬ers have grown you’ve forgotten your roots, you’re so keen to fly to the very top of the tree.’
Before she had finished, Tanchun’s face was white with anger.
Nearly choking with sobs she demanded, ‘Who’s my uncle? My uncle’s just been appointed Military Inspector of Nine Provinces. What other uncles do I have? Is this my reward for always observing the ruler of propriety  to have all these relative foisted off on me? If what you say were true, why did Zho Guoji have to stand up whenever Huan went out? Why follow him to school? Why didn’t he behave like an uncle?
‘Do you have to make such a scene? Everyone knows I’m a child by a concubine, yet you needs must bring it up every few months and rub it in, as if you had to make it plain for fear they didn’t know. Who’s making the other lose face? It’s lucky I’ve sense enough to remember my man¬ners, or you’d have driven me frantic long ago!’
Li Wan tried desperately to pacify them, but the concubine went on ranting. She did not stop until it was announced:
‘Miss Pinger has come with a message from the Second Mistress.’
Concubine Zhao greeted Pinger with a smile and urged her to take a seat.
‘Is your mistress better?’ she asked. ‘I’ve been meaning to call on her but haven’t yet found the time.’
Li Wan asked Pinger her business.
‘The Second Mistress thought you ladies might not know what the usual allowance would be in connection with the death of Concubine Zhao’s brother,’ answered Pinger. ‘The rule is to give only twenty taels, but it’s up to you to decide. You can give more if you want.’
‘Why make an exception in this case?’ retorted Tanchun who had now dried her eyes. ‘Was he a prodigy who took twenty-four months to be born, or someone who saved his master’s life in the army? How clever your mistress is, wanting me to break the rules while she gets the credit, buying herself goodwill at our mistress’ expense! Tell her I don’t dare to increase or cut down amounts for no good reason. If she wants to be charitable and add something, she’ll have to wait till she’s better.’
Pinger had sensed as soon as she came in that something was wrong. After this tirade she grasped the situation. And since Tanchun was glow¬ering instead of replying with one of her usual jokes she waited there in a respectful silence.
At this point Baochai arrived too from Lady Wang’s apartments. Tanchun and the others rose to offer her a seat; but before they could enter into conversation another woman came in to make her report. And as Tanchun’s face was tear-stained, three or four young maids brought in a basin, towels and a mirror with a handle. One of them knelt before Tanchun, who was cross-legged on the couch, and held the basin out to her while two others knelt beside her with the towels, mirror and cosmet¬ics. Seeing that Daishu was not there to help, Pinger stepped forward to roll up Tanchun’s sleeves, take off her bracelets, and drape a large towel over the front of her clothes. Tanchun had just dipped her hands into the basin when the woman who had come in announced:
‘If you please, my ladies, the family school has sent for this year’s allowance for Master Huan and Master Lan.’
‘What’s the hurry?’ scolded Pinger. ‘Can’t you see the young lady is washing? You should wait outside, not come butting in like this. Would you be so impertinent to the Second Mistress? The young lady may be kind-hearted, but don’t blame me if my mistress hears of this and your lack of respect gets you all into trouble.’
‘How stupid of me!’ cried the woman in dismay, then hastily left the room.
Tanchun, now powdering her face, smiled ironically at Pinger.
‘You came just too late to see something still more ridiculous,’ she said. ‘Even an old hand like Mrs. Wu came without checking up on her facts in order to trip us up. When challenged, she’d the nerve to say she’d forgotten. I asked if that was the way she reported to the Second Mistress. I doubt whether that mistress of yours would put up with it.’
‘If she tried that just once, I can promise you she’d have her legs broken.’ replied Pinger. ‘You can’t trust these people an inch, miss. They’re trying to take advantage, because Madam Zhu’s a real Bodhisattva and you’re such a gentle young lady.’ Turning towards the door she called to the women outside, ‘All right, just take all the liberties you like. Wait till Madam Lian’s well again, and we’ll settle scores with you!’
The matrons outside answered, ‘You’re most understanding, miss.  You know the saying: ‘If a man does wrong, he alone must take the blame.’ We ‘d never presume to deceive Miss Tanchun. We’d deserve to die and go unburied if we provoked a delicate young lady like her.’
‘So long as you know that,’ replied Pinger scornfully. Then she turned with a smile to Tanchun. ‘You know how busy Madam Lian was, miss. She couldn’t cope with everything and is bound to have overlooked cer¬tain things. As the proverb says, ‘The spectator sees most of the sport.’ As a detached observer all these years, you may have noticed cases where she failed to make suitable cuts or additions. If you’ll set these right, you’ll first of all be helping the mistress in her work and showing your friendship for my lady as well...’
‘What a clever girl !’ exclaimed Baochai and Li Wan, smiling, before Pinger could finish. ‘No wonder Xifeng is so attached to you. We’d no intention of making any changes, but after what you’ve said we shall reconsider one or two cases to show our appreciation.’
‘I was so furious I wanted to work off my feelings on her mistress.’ Tanchun laughed. ‘But turning up and talking like this she has quite taken the wind out of my sails.’ She called in the woman who had just come and asked her, ‘What are these annual allowances for Master Huan and Master Lan for?’
‘For a year’s refreshments at school and the remainder for statio¬nery,’ was the reply. ‘Each gets eight taels of silver a year.’
‘All the young master’s expenses are covered by the monthly all¬owances for the different apartments,’ countered Tanchun. ‘Huan’s two taels a month are given to Concubine Zhao, Baoyu’s to the old lady’s maid Xiren; and Lan’s to Madam Zhu’s maid. So why this extra eight taels for the school? Do they go to school for the sake of this eight taels? From now on this will be cancelled. Tell your mistress this from me, Pinger, when you go back. Say I think there’s no need for it.’
‘This should have been cut long ago,’ said the maid with a smile. ‘Last year my mistress did speak of doing it, but with all the bustle over New Year she forgot.’
Then the matron had to assent and take herself off.
Now servants from Grand View Garden brought lunch hampers, and Pinger set out the dishes on the small table put ready by Daishu and Suyun.
‘You can go and attend to your business now that you’ve had your say,’ Tanchun told her. ‘You don’t have to help out here.’
‘I’m free now.’ replied Pinger, smiling. ‘The Second Mistress sent me partly to give you that message, partly to help the girls wait on you if I found you short-handed.’
‘Where’s Miss Baochai’s lunch?’ asked Tanchun.
Some girls hurried out to notify the matrons, ‘Miss Baochai’s lunch¬ing here too. Have her food brought over.’
Hearing this Tanchun said loudly, ‘Don’t start ordering them about. They’re all the wives of chief stewards, not people you can send to fetch rice and tea! Have you no manners? Pinger has nothing to do here. Let her go.’
Pinger promptly agreed and went out.
The stewards’ wives quietly drew her aside and said, ‘There’s no need for you to go, miss. We’ve already sent someone.’ They dusted off the steps with their handkerchiefs and urged her to have a rest there in the sun after standing for so long.
As soon as she sat down, two women from the boiler house brought over a mattress.
‘That stone’s cold, miss,’ they said. ‘This is quite clean, do use it.’
As she thanked them with a smile, someone else brought her a bowl of good freshly brewed tea.
‘This isn’t our usual tea but some for the young ladies,’ she whis¬pered. ‘Do try it.’
Pinger inclined her head and accepted it.
Then wagging finger at them all she scolded, ‘You’ve really gone too far. She’s only a girl and, quite properly, doesn’t like to lose her temper; but that’s no reason why you should be rude to her. If you really made her angry, at worst she could be blamed for flaring up but you’d get into big trouble. If she made a scene, even Lady Wang would have to humour her, and there’s nothing the Second Mistress could do either. How have you the nerve to slight her in that way? It’s like an egg dashing itself against a rock.’
‘How dare we?’ they protested. ‘It was all Concubine Zhao’s fault.’
‘That’s enough, my good women,’ whispered Pinger. ‘‘If a wall starts tottering, everyone gives it a shove.’ Concubine Zhao does tend to turn things upside down, I grant you, but when there’s trouble you put all the blame on her. I’ve seen for myself these years the airs you give yourselves and the tricks you play. If the Second Mistress weren’t so able, you fine ladies would have got the upper hand of her long ago. Every chance you get, you still try to land her in trouble. Several times she’s only just missed falling into your traps.
‘People say you’re scarred of her because she’s such a terror,’ Pinger continued. ‘But I who know her best can tell you she’s afraid of you too. Only the other day, we were saying things couldn’t go on like this ‘ there were bound to be a couple of rumpuses. Though Miss Tanchun’s an unmarried young lady, you’ve all misjudged her. She’s the only one of the young ladies that my mistress is half afraid of; yet you think you can treat her any way you please!’
They were interrupted by Qiuwen’s arrival. All the matrons greeted her and urged her to rest for a while.
‘They’re having lunch inside,’ they explained. ‘You’d better not go in till they’ve finished.’
‘What time have Ito wait?’ retorted Qiuwen. ‘I’m not like you.’
She was walking in when Pinger called her back. At sight of her Qiuwen smiled.
‘What are you doing here? Acting as an extra bodyguard?’ she asked, sitting down by her on the mattress.
‘What business brings you here?’ asked Pinger softly.
‘We want to know when the monthly allowances for Baoyu and the rest of us will be issued.’
‘Very important. I must say! Go back quickly and tell Xiren from me not to try to settle any business today. Every single request you make will be refused.’
Qiuwen asked the reason and all of them promptly told her.
‘They’re looking for some big issues and someone who counts to make an example of as a warning to everyone,’ Pinger explained. ‘Why should you bump your head against this brick wall? If you go in now, they can hardly make an example of you, out of deference to Their Ladyships; but if they don’t they may be accused of bias, of not daring to touch those backed by Their Ladyships and just picking on the weak instead. Wait and see. They’re even countermanding a few of the Second Mis¬tress’ rulings too ‘ that’s their only way to stop gossip.’
Qiuwen stuck out her tongue in dismay.
‘Thank goodness you came here. Sister Pinger!’ she cried. ‘You’ve saved me from a snubbing. I’ll go straight back and tell them.’ With that she left.
At this point Baochai’s meal arrived and Pinger sent in to seve her. Concubine Zhao had now left and the three others were eating on the couch, Baochai facing south, Tanchun west and Li Wan east. The ma¬trons waited quietly outside on the verandah, none but personal serving-maids venturing to go in.
‘We’d better watch our step and not try anything on,’ said the ma¬trons softly. ‘Mrs. Wu was went off with a flea in her ear, and do we have more face than she does?’ They decided not to go in until lunch was over.
All was quiet now inside, with no clatter of bowls or chopsticks. Pres¬ently a maid raised the portiere and two others carried out the table. Three girls from the boiler house had brought three basins of water, and as soon as the table was removed they went in, reappearing before long with the basins and rinse-bowls. Then Daishu, Suyun and Yinger took in three covered bowls of tea on trays.
When these three came out again Daishu instructed the younger maids, ‘You must see to things here till we come back from our meal. Don’t sneak off to have a rest.’
Then, slowly, the matrons made their reports in turn, not presuming to behave with their previous impertinence.
Tanchun, somewhat mollified, remarked to Pinger. ‘I’ve just hap¬pened to remember something important I’ve been meaning to discuss with your mistress. Come back straight after your meal, will you? As Miss Baochai is here too, the four of us can talk it over before asking your mistress whether she agrees or not.’
Pinger assented and left.
‘Why were you away so long?’ asked Xifeng on her return.
Pinger gave her a detailed account of all that had happened.
‘Splendid! Good for Tanchun!’ Xifeng smiled. ‘What did I always say? It’s too bad she wasn’t fated to be the mistress’ own daughter.’
‘So you, too, talk nonsense, dear madam!’ retorted Pinger. ‘She may not be the mistress’ own child, but everyone has to show her the same respect as the other daughters of the house.
‘You don’t understand.’ Xifeng sighed. ‘Though we may say they’re the same, a girl can’t compare with a boy. When the time comes to arrange her marriage, some foolish people will first ask whether she’s the daughter of the wife or of a concubine, and most likely refuse her in the second case. Although, not to mention a concubine’s child, even one of the maids in our family is better than the daughters of other house¬holds. Some unlucky family may lose an excellent daughter-in-law by insisting on the wife’s daughter, and some lucky one may do well by not being so choosy.’
She changed the subject then, continuing, ‘You know how hard I’ve tried to save money these last few years, which must have made the whole household secretly curse me. I’m riding on a tiger’s back, and though I’m not clamping down too strictly at present I can’t let every¬thing slide. Besides, our expenses have increased while our income’s dwindled; yet we still have to manage all affairs large and small accord¬ing to the ancestors’ old rules, in spite of less money coming in every year. If I economize too much, outsiders may jeer and Their Ladyships will feel the pinch, while the rest of the household complain of my stingi¬ness. On the other hand, if I don’t devise ways to save money in good time, another few years may see us bankrupted.’
‘That’s very true,’ agreed Pinger. ‘And there’s big expenditure still to come with the marriages of three or four young ladies and two or three young masters, as well as the Old Ancestress’ funeral.’
‘I’ve taken those into account. We’ve enough for that. The mar¬riages of Baoyu and Daiyu won’t cost the estate anything, as the old lady will pay for them herself. We can count Yingchun out too, as she belongs to the Elder Master’s side. That leaves Tanchun and Xichun, who will require ten thousand taels each at the most. Huan’s marriage shouldn’t cost more than three thousand, which we can raise easily by cutting down on other expenses.
‘As for the old lady’s funeral, all the preparations have already been made, and sundry minor expenses will amount at most to another four or five thousand. So if we economize now we should do all right. It’s only the possibility of some unforeseen expenses that makes me anxious, for then we’d really be in serious trouble. Still, it’s no use worrying now.
‘Hurry up and have your meal, then go back to hear what they’re discussing. This is just the chance I wanted: it worried me that I had no assistant. Although there’s Baoyu, he’s not cut out for the job ‘ even if I win him to my side he’s not much use. Madam Zhu’s too saintly to be of any use either. And Yingchun’s even worse, apart from the fact that she doesn’t belong to our house. Xiehun’s still too young; Lan’s even younger. As for Huan, he’s like a kitten half perished with cold, always looking for a stove or heated kang to creep under and get his hair singed. It really and truly passes my understanding how one mother could bear two such utterly different children!’
‘Daiyu and Baochai, now, are ‘ both good girls; but not being daugh¬ters of our family they can’t very well mind our affairs. Besides, one’s a lovely paper lantern which a puff of wind will blow out; and it’s no use asking the other anything, as she’s made up her mind not to open her mouth about matters that don’t concern her, but to shake her head in answer to all questions.
‘That leaves only Tanchun, who’s quick in the uptake with a ready tongue, a daughter of the house and a favourite with the mistress she just doesn’t show it because of the trouble made by that old bitch Concu¬bine Zhao, but at heart she’s as fond of her as of Baoyu. Tanchun’s totally different from Huan, whom nobody could like. If I had my way, he’d have been thrown out long ago. Now that she’s made this proposal, we should co-operate and help each other; then I won’t be on my own any longer.
‘From the point of view of what’s fair and right, a helper like her will save us worry and make the mistress’ task so much easier. From a selfish point of view, I’ve made myself so unpopular that it’s time for me to back down and look about me; because if I go on being so strict I shall get myself thoroughly hated, and everybody’s smiles will hide daggers!  You and I have only four eyes and two brains between us: if they once catch us off guard they can do for us. We must make the most of this chance. So long as she’s in charge, they’ll forget their past grudges against us for the time being.
‘And there’s another thing I must tell you, as you may not have spot¬ted it for all you’re so smart. Young as Tanchun is she’s no fool, only careful how she talks. In fact, with her book-learning, she’s smarter than I am. She must know the saying ‘To catch rebels first catch the chief.’ So to set an example she’s bound to start with me. If she reverses any of my decision, don’t argue with her but back her up, the more respectfully the better. On no account protest for feat I lose face.’
Long before the end of this speech Pinger was smiling.
‘What do you take me for ‘ a fool?’ she retorted. ‘That’s what I’ve been doing, and here you are warning me.’
‘I was afraid you’d forget other people in your concern for me, that’s why. If that’s what you’ve been doing, it shows you’ve more sense than I have. Don’t get so worked up, though, that you forget yourself and whom you’re talking to.’
‘That’s my way,’ countered Pinger. ‘If you don’t like it you can slap my face again. It won’t be the first time.’
‘You bitch!’ Xifeng laughed. ‘How many times do you have to harp on that? Why be so provoking when you can see I’m ill? Come and sit down. As we’re all on our own let’s have our meal together.’
Fenger and three or four other young maids came in then with a small table, which they set on the kang. Xifeng ate nothing but some bird’s-nest gruel and two tasty side-dishes, having cancelled her usual food for the time being. Fenger set Pinger’s normal four dishes before her and helped her to rice. Then Pinger, half kneeling on the kang and half stand-ing, accompanied her mistress. The meal at an end, she helped Xifeng wash and tinse her mouth. Then, having given Fenger some instructions, she went back to rejoin Tanchun.
But she found the courtyard quiet and deserted. To know the reason, read the following chapter.

Chapter 56

Clever Tanchun Devises a Scheme to Make
a Profit and End Abuses
Understanding Baochai Rounds It Out with
a Small Act of Kindness


After eating with Xifeng and waiting on her while she washed and then rinsed her mouth, Pinger went back to Tanchun. She found the Coun¬cil Hall quiet, with a few maids and matrons waiting outside the windows. As she walked in, the three cousins were discussing family affairs and had just brought up the subject of Lai Da’s garden, where they had feasted shortly before New Year.
Tanchun offered Pinger a foot-stool.
‘Here’s what I was thinking,’ she told her. ‘In addition to our monthly allowance of two taels, our maids have separate allowances; but a few days ago someone reported that each of us gets an extra two taels a month for hair-oil, rouge and powder. This is like that extra allowance of eight taels for the school just now another duplication. Admittedly it’s a small matter, involving very little money, but it doesn’t seem right. Why hasn’t this occurred to your mistress?’
‘There’s a reason,’ answered Pinger. ‘Of course the young ladies should be provided with cosmetics every month, and they’re bought by the stewards in charge, then delivered by the matrons to us in the differ¬ent apartments to be kept ready for when the young ladies need them. That’s to save us the trouble of having to send out all the time to buy them. So the stewards get the lump sum for this item, and distribute the cosmetics each month to the different apartments.
‘As for the monthly allowance of two taels, that was never meant for this purpose. It was so that you don’t have to search for the mistresses in charge, if they’re away or too busy to be bothered when you happen to need a little money. In other words, to see that you don’t go short. That money obviously isn’t meant for cosmetics. But I’ve noticed that at least half our sisters attending in the different apartments make these purchases with their own money. I suspect it’s because the stewards aren’t supplying them on time, or because what they buy is of a poor quality.’
‘So you’ve noticed that too.’ Tanchun and Li Wan smiled. ‘The stewards supply us all right, they wouldn’t dare stop, but always a few days late. When we hurry them they produce something inferior, good¬ness knows from where, which we can never use. We still have to buy our own with those two taels. We have to ask the sons of other people’s nurses or brothers to do this they get us what we want. But if we send those servants in charge, they buy the same kind, we can’t imagine why. Could it be that they just buy us shop-soiled rejects?’
Pinger smiled.
‘If the stewards get you that kind and they were to buy something better, of course the stewards would be annoyed and accuse them of trying to do them out of a job,’ she explained. ‘That’s why they have to do this. They’d rather offend you ladies than the stewards. But when you send your nurses, no one can complain.’
‘It’s been worrying me,’ put in Tanchun, ‘because we spend two lots of money but half the purchases are wasted. That means we’re spending twice as much as we should. So my first proposal is to stop that monthly allowance to the stewards. I’ve another idea too. You went with us to Lai Da’s house before New Year. How did you think his small garden compared with ours?’
‘It’s less than half the size and has far fewer trees and flowers.’
‘I had a chat with one of their grils,’ continued Tanchun. ‘I learned to my surprise that its annual produce ‘ apart from the flowers they wear and the bamboo shoots, vegetables, fish and prawns they eat ‘ has been contracted for by people who pay them at least two hundred taels a year. That was how I first learned that even a snapped lotus leaf or a blade of withered grass is worth money.’
‘Truly spoken like a rich young dandy!’ laughed Baochai. ‘Though sheltered young ladies know nothing about such things, in the course of your studies you’ve surely read Zhu Xi’s essay On Not Debasing One¬self?’
‘Of course I have. Just a lot of exhortations and empty talk, I call it.  Such things can’t really happen.’
‘So even Zhu Xi’s writings are empty talk, are they?’ retorted Baochai. ‘No, every word there is true. After just two days of managing affairs you’ve become so mercenary that you accuse Zhu Xi of empty talk! I suppose if you worked outside, where you’d profit more by cutting down bigger expenses, you’d bring the same accusation against even Confucius!’
‘Well-read as you are,’ countered Tanchun, ‘haven’t you read Jizi?2 Jizi said, ‘Those in a position to seek profit and emolument, or respon¬sible for planning and calculating, may talk like Yao and Shun but disobey the precepts of Confucius and Mencius.
Baochai smiled as Tanchun broke off and urged, ‘Go on.’
‘That’s all I want to quote. Why should I go on to make fun of my¬self?’
‘There’s nothing useless in this world, and when something has a use it’s worth money. I’d have thought, where a serious matter like this is concerned, you had sense enough to grasp such a self-evident truth.’
‘You call us here,’ put in Li Wan, ‘but instead of talking business the two of you just carry on an academic discussion.’
‘This academic discussion has a bearing on our business,’ replied Baochai. ‘If our small tasks aren’t guided by principles, they’ll get out of hand and sink to the vulgar level of the market-place.’
After this joking they got down to business.
Tanchun reverting to her earlier question said, ‘If we consider our Garden just twice the size of theirs, it should bring in double the profit’ four hundred taels a year. Of course, it would be petty and unworthy of our family to concentrate solely now on making money. But if a couple of women are assigned to take charge, all the valuable things here won’t be squandered it’s a shame to let them go to waste. Better choose a few of the most reliable old women here who know something about garden¬ing, and let them see to things. We needn’t charge them or ask for any rent if they send in some presents every year.
‘In the first place, with people in charge of the flowers and trees, the Garden will naturally improve as time goes on and we shan’t be called on for sudden emergency measures. In the second place, there’ll be no waste either. In the third, the old women won’t be working hard all year for nothing, but will have a few perks. In the fourth, what we save on the gardeners’ and cleaners’ pay can be spent on improvements and re¬pairs. How’s that?’
‘Very good!’ Baochai, who was standing looking at the scrolls on the walls, nodded approvingly. ‘‘Within three years an end will be put to famine.’
‘That’s an excellent idea.’ approved Li Wan too. ‘If we do this the mistress is sure to be pleased. Saving money isn’t the main thing, but we shall need fewer cleaners too. If there are people in charge of the Garden’s upkeep who are allowed to make something on the side, given the author¬ity and a profit incentive they’re bound to do their best.’
‘This proposal had to come from you, miss,’ remarked Pinger. ‘My mistress had the same idea, but she could hardly suggest it with all you young ladies living in the Garden. Instead of improving the place, how could she propose putting people in charge to save money?’
Baochai stepped up to her and patted her cheek.
‘Open your mouth and let me see what your teeth and tongue are made of!’ she cried. ‘From first thing this morning till now you’ve done so much talking, and you’ve a different argument each time. You neither praise Miss Tanchun to her face nor admit that your mistress ever over¬looks anything, not do you agree to whatever Miss Tanchun says; but each time she makes some proposal you have your answer pat the same idea occurred to your mistress, too, but there was always some reason why she couldn’t suggest it.’
‘Now you’re saying that because we live here she couldn’t put people in charge so as to save money. Can’t you two see what that means? If we really let people make money out of the Garden, they naturally won’t want anyone to pick a single flower or fruit. Of course they won’t dare deny us, but they’ll be quarrelling all the time with our maids. How far-sighted and circumspect Pinger is! She neither argues back nor flatters you. If her mistress weren’t good to us, as in fact she is, hearing Pinger talk like this would surely make her repent and mend her ways.’
‘I was in a bad temper this morning,’ said Tanchun. ‘When I heard she ‘d come I suddenly thought of her mistress and of how insubordinate all the servants have grown under her management. So the sight of Pinger made me even angrier. But she came in like a mouse shrinking from a cat, and looked so pathetic all the time she stood there; and then the way she talked! Instead of reminding me how good her mistress is to me, she spoke of my consideration for her mistress. That not only stopped me being angry but made me so ashamed I felt like crying. I thought: a girl like myself, who’s reduced to such a state that nobody cares for me ‘what can I do for anyone else?’ At this point she broke down again and wept.
Her distress reminded Li Wan and the others of all the instances of Concubine Zhao’s outrageous behaviour, which had involved Tanchun, making her embarrassed to face Lady Wang. They could not help shed¬ding tears of sympathy.
‘Don’t talk like that,’ they urged. ‘What does it matter? Now that we’re free, let’s work out a couple of ways to make a profit and get rid of past abuses, so as to prove ourselves worthy of the mistress’ trust.’
‘I understand,’ put in Pinger hastily. ‘Just trust this business to some reliable people of your own choosing, miss, and that will be that.’
‘That’s all very well, but we must consult your mistress first,’ in¬sisted Tanchun. ‘We’ve already overstepped our authority, scrimping and scraping, right and left, and I wouldn’t suggest this if she weren’t so understanding. If she were officious or spiteful, I’d never have dreamed of it either it would look as if I were trying to show her up. We cer¬tainly must consult her.’
‘In that case I’ll go and tell her,’ said Pinger, and with that she went off.
After a while she came back to tell them gaily, ‘I said there was no need to go. It’s such a good idea, of course my mistress approves.’
Then Tanchun and Li Wan asked for a list of the names of all the elderly women in the Garden, and after some discussion made a tentative choice of a few. These women; summoned and told the plan in outline by Li Wan, agreed to it readily.
‘Just leave that bamboo plot to me,’ said one. ‘In a year’s time there’ll be another plot. Then, apart from supplying the household with bamboo shoots, I can hand in some money too.’
Another said, ‘Let me have the paddy fields. I can keep all the pet birds, big and small, supplied with grain the whole year round without asking the stewards for any, and pay something over and above that too.’
Before Tanchun could reply, it was announced that a doctor had come to the Garden to see a young lady, and the matrons should go to escort him in.
‘Even if a hundred of you were to go to meet the doctor it wouldn’t look proper,’ objected Pinger. ‘Surely there are chief stewards’ wives to take him in?’
‘Yes, Mrs. Wu and Mrs. Shan,’ the messenger answered. ‘They’re waiting in the southwest corner by the Gate of Embroidery.’
Then Pinger let the matter drop. And as soon as the women had gone Tanchun asked Baochai her opinion.
‘One who is zealous at the start may grow lax before the finish,’’ quoted Baochai smiling. ‘Fine speech may hide a hankering after profit.’
Tanchun nodded her agreement, then selected a few more names from the list for the other three’s consideration, whereupon Pinger fetched a brush and inkstone.
‘Mrs. Zhu is a reliable old soul,’ they said. ‘Besides, her husband and son have always looked after bamboos, so we may as well put all the bamboos here in her care. And then there’s old Mrs. Tian who comes from a farming family. The paddy fields and vegetable plots in Paddy-Sweet Cottage are only for fun and don’t need to be cultivated seriously; still, it would be better to have her there in charge during the different seasons.’
‘What a pity there’s nothing we can turn to profit in Happy Red Court and Alpinia Park, large as they both are.’ remarked Tanchun.
‘Why, Alpinia Park’s even better,’ declared Li Wan. ‘Isn’t it full of the spices and herbs you find sold by perfumers, as well as at all the big markets and temple fairs? I reckon those will bring in the biggest profit of the lot. As for Happy Red Court, not to mention anything else, just think how many roses it has all spring and summer. That fence there is cov-ered with rambler roses and monthly-roses, as well as honeysuckle and other flowers, all of which fetch a good price in tea-shops and pharma¬cies when they’re dried.’
‘Is that so?’ asked Tanchun with a smile. ‘We’re no one, though, who understands such things.
‘The mother of Yinger who works for Miss Baochai does.’ Pinger informed them. ‘Have you forgotten that time she gathered and dried some sprigs to make me baskets?’
‘I’ve just been singing your praises, yet now you’re laying a trap for me, ‘protested Baochai jokingly.
‘What do you mean?’ asked the other three in surprise.
‘This is out of the question,’ she answered. ‘All your attendants here with nothing to do will certainly think badly of me if I bring in some¬one else. Let me suggest another woman instead: Mingyan’s mother, old Mrs. Ye, in Happy Red Court. She’s an honest old soul and on good terms with Yinger’s mother. You may as well entrust this to her. If there’s something she doesn’t understand, we shan’t have to tell her to consult Yinger’s mother, she may even leave the whole job to her that’s up to them. But if anyone gossips it won’t be our concern. Handled this way it will look fair and the work will be properly done.’
Pinger and Li Wan approved but Tanchun teased, ‘I’m only afraid they may forget friendship for profit!’
‘Not they,’ Pinger assured her. ‘Only the other day Yinger became Mrs. Ye’s god-daughter and they had a feast to celebrate. Those two families are on the best of terms.’
Then Tanchun made no further objection.
By the time they had settled on a few other women who had won their approval, and marked their names on the list, the matrons returned to report that the doctor had gone and showed them his prescription. Having examined it, the three young ladies sent for the ingredients and ordered them to be prepared. Tanchun and Li Wan then informed the women of the places entrusted to them.
‘Apart from what it’s decided the household requires, all the rest of the year’s produce will be yours,’ announced Li Wan. ‘And you must present an account at the end of the year.’
‘I’ve thought of something else,’ put in Tanchun. ‘If the accounts are made up at the end of the year and you take the money to the ac¬countants’ office in the usual way, there’ll be someone again in control
of you. You’ll still be in their clutches, and they’ll be able to fleece you. As this is our idea and we’ve bypassed them by entrusting the work to you, they’ll resent it even if they don’t say so outright; thus they’re bound to squeeze you if you go to them to settle your annual accounts. Why, every year the steward managing each property or estate gets one-third of the proceeds. That’s how it’s always been; it’s an open secret. That’s apart from what else they filch. Our new management of the Garden shouldn’t go through their hands at all. So come to us at the end of the year to settle your accounts.’
‘I don’t think accounts need be turned in at all,’ said Baochai. ‘Com¬parisons are so invidious. Better let the woman entrusted with one job be responsible for the expenses of that place. I’ve worked it out and it doesn’t come to much, just what’s needed for hair-oil, rouge, powder, scent and toilet-paper for the young mistresses and their maids, as well as for brooms, dustpans, dusters and whisks and food for the poultry, pet birds, deer and rabbits. If they take care of these few items, we needn’t draw anything from the accountants’ office. Think how much we can save that way.’
‘These items may be small,’ agreed Pinger, ‘yet the total saving in a year will amount to more than four hundred taels of silver.’
‘There you are!’ rejoined Baochai. ‘Four hundred a year, eight hun¬dred in two years: enough to buy a few more houses to rent and a few mu of not too good land. There’ll be more than that, of course; but after working hard for a whole year they should keep some back for them¬selves. Although our aim is to economize and make a profit, we mustn’t be too stingy either. If we saved an extra two or three hundred taels but spoiled our reputation, that wouldn’t do.
‘In this way, though, the accountants’ office can spend four or five hundred less on us each year without anyone feeling the pinch; the people here will benefit, as these women with no special means of livelihood will manage more comfortably; the plants in the Garden will do better from year to year; you’ll be more adequately supplied with what you need; and no loss of dignity will be involved. If all we wanted was to econo¬mize, of course we could save money and stash all our profits away; but then everyone would start complaining, and that would impair the dignity of a family such as yours.
‘Now there are several dozen old married women in the Garden. If we just give jobs to these few, the rest are bound to feel it unfair. For them simply to supply those few items, as I suggested, is letting them off too lightly. On top of that I think they should also give a few strings of cash each every year, regardless of how much they have left; and this combined sum can be distributed to the other nannies in the Garden. After all, even if they have no special assignments they work here day and night from early to late, running errands and locking or unlocking gates, no matter how bad the weather. They carry the young ladies’ sedan-chairs, punt boats, and draw sleighs in winter in fact, they do all the hard work the whole year round in the Garden. So they should have a small share in the profits too.
‘There’s another small thing, and I’ll put it more bluntly. If you just better yourselves without letting the others share in your good fortune, even if they don’t complain openly they’re bound to feel resentful; and then if they pick more fruit or flowers ostensibly for their mistresses but actually for themselves, there’ll be nobody to whom you can complain. But if they benefit too, they can keep an eye on things for you when you’re busy.’
The women were delighted with this proposal, which meant they would neither be controlled by the stewards nor have to settle accounts with Xifeng ‘ all they needed to do was to pay a few extra strings of cash every year.
‘That suits us!’ they cried. ‘This is better than being squeezed by those stewards outside and having to pay them.’
Those with no special assignments were also pleased to learn that they would be getting something for nothing.
‘If they do the hard work they deserve to make a little money,’ they said. ‘How can we sit idle and rake in a profit too?’
‘You nannies needn’t decline,’ replied Baochai with a smile. ‘This is as it should be. Just work hard and don’t slack or allow any gambling or drinking. This is really none of my business but, as you know, my aunt has urged me repeatedly to help out now that Madam Zhu’s so busy and my other cousins are still young. I don’t like to add to her worries by refusing. Besides, your Second Mistress has poor health and is busy with fam¬ily affairs, while I’ve nothing to do. Why, even a neighbour should help out, not to say a niece like myself when specially asked. So I have to overcome my scruples and not mind if everyone thinks me a nuisance. If all I cared about was my own reputation while other people made trouble drinking or gambling, how could I face my aunt? You’d be sorry too, then, and lose face yourselves.
‘You’re looking after all these young ladies and this big Garden be¬cause it’s acknowledged that you’re the steadiest, most reliable old nan¬nies whose families have served here for three or four generations. So you should behave in a fit and proper way. If my aunt hears you’ve been giving people a free hand to drink and gamble, she may take you to task; whereas if those stewards’ wives learn of it they may lecture you with¬out telling my aunt, and you’ll find yourselves being scolded by your juniors! Though they’re stewards and in charge, how much better to stand on your dignity and not give them a chance to sneer. That’s why I’ve suggested this bonus for you, so that all of you will work together to take good care of this Garden. When those in charge see you behaving in a serious, responsible way, they won’t have to worry about things and will respect you. It’s gratifying for us, too, having thought of a way for you to earn a bonus. While you seize power from them and profit your¬selves, you’ll also be helping to do away with waste and spare them worry. Think it over carefully.’
‘You’re quite right, miss,’ cried the women jubilantly. ‘Set your minds at rest, young ladies and madam. If we don’t show our gratitude for your goodness, may Heaven and Earth condemn us!’
They were interrupted by the arrival of Lin Zhixiao’s wife.
‘The ladies of the Zhen family from south of the Yangzi arrived in the capital yesterday,’ she announced. ‘They’ve gone to the Palace today to pay homage, sending some servants here with gifts and their respects.’
Tanchun took the list of presents from her and read:
twelve rolls of first-grade Imperial brocade with the serpent design twelve rolls of different colours for the Imperial use
twelve rolls of Imperial gauze in different colours
twelve rolls of Imperial silk
twenty-four rolls of satin, gauze and silk in different colours for official use.
Li Wan also looked at the list, then ordered the bringers of these gifts to be rewarded with the first-grade tip, and sent to inform the Lady Dowa¬ger. The latter summoned Li Wan, Tanchun and Baochai to her quarters to examine the presents, which Li Wan then had put aside, telling the servant in charge of the storeroom not to store them away until Lady Wang had seen them.
‘The Zhens are different from other families,’ observed the Lady Dowager. ‘It was right to give their men-servants the first-grade tip. I expect they will lose no time in sending some women to pay their re¬spects as well. We must have some dress materials ready for them.’
That same instant, sure enough, it was announced that four serving¬-women from the Zhen family had come to pay their respects. The old lady ordered them to be admitted. These women were all over forty and dressed not very differently from their mistresses. As soon as they had paid their respects the Lady Dowager had four foot-stools brought, and with murmured thanks they seated themselves after Baochai and the rest had resumed their seats.
‘When did you come to the capital?’ asked the old lady.
‘We arrived yesterday,’ the women stood up to reply. ‘Today our mistress has taken our young lady to the Palace to pay homage. She first told us to come and pay our respects to you, madam, and to ask after the young ladies.’
‘It’s so long since your last visit, we weren’t expecting you this year.’
‘‘Yes, this year we were sent for by the Emperor.’
‘Has the whole family come?’
‘Not the old lady, the young master, the two other young ladies or the other mistresses. Only our mistress and our third young lady.’
‘Is she engaged yet?’
‘Not yet.’
‘Your first and second young ladies’ families are on close terms with ours.’
‘Yes, every year when they write home they say how exceedingly good you are to them, madam.’
‘Not a bit of it!’ The Lady Dowager smiled. ‘That’s how it should be with old family friends and relatives. We see most of your second young lady, who’s so very good and modest.’
‘You’re too kind, madam,’ they replied.
Then she asked, ‘Does your young master stay with your old lady?’
‘Yes, madam, he does.’
‘How old is he? Has he started school yet?’
‘He’s thirteen this year’ was the answer. ‘Such a handsome boy that our old lady dotes on him. He’s always been very naughty and plays truant every day, but the master and the mistress couldn’t be too strict with him.’
‘It’s just the same in our family. What’s your young master’s name?’
‘Because the old lady treasures him so, and he has a fair complexion, she calls him Baoyu.’
The Lady Dowager exclaimed to Li Wan, ‘Another Baoyu fancy that!’
Li Wan half rose to reply, ‘There have been many people with the same names since ancient times, some living in the same, some in differ¬ent ages.’
‘After he was given this pet-name we did all of us, high and low, wonder whether some friend or relative didn’t have the same name,’ volunteered one of the women. ‘But after some ten years away from the capital, we could none of us remember.’
‘That’s my worthless grandson’s name,’ chuckled the Lady Dowa¬ger. She called in her attendants and ordered them, ‘Go and fetch our Baoyu from the Garden, so that these good women can have a look at him and see how he compares with their Baoyu.’
The maids went off at once, returning presently with Baoyu, at sight of whom the four women rose to their feet.
‘Well, this is a surprise!’ they exclaimed. ‘If we’d met him any¬where else but here, we’d have thought our Baoyu had followed us to the capital.’
They went up to Baoyu, who greeted them with a smile, and taking his hand they asked him a number of questions.
‘How does he compare with your boy?’ inquired the old lady.
‘Judging by what these four nannies just said, the two must look rather alike,’ put in Li Wan.
‘That’s no coincidence.’ rejoined the old lady. ‘If their faces aren’t disfigured in some way, the pampered sons of great houses all look rather handsome. There’s nothing strange about that.’
‘They’re the image of each other,’ declared the four women. ‘And judging by what you say, madam, both of them have been rather spoilt; but your young master seems to us the better-tempered of the two.’
‘Why do you say that?’
‘We found out by holding his hands just now. Ours would have thought us silly. We ‘re not allowed even to touch his things, let alone hold his hands. So all his maids are young ones.
This evoked a peal of laughter from Li Wan and the girls.
‘If we sent people to see your Baoyu, and they took his hand, he’d have to put up with it too,’ chuckled the old lady. ‘The thing about boys from families like ours is that, no matter how perverse they may be, they always behave correctly to visitors ‘ otherwise we would never let them be so naughty. We spoil our boy because he looks so engaging, and because his manners to visitors are even better than those of many grown¬ups. That’s why nobody can help being fond of him and why he has his own way so often at home. If he behaved badly to outsiders too, making us lose face, then no matter how handsome he was he’d deserve to be beaten to death.’
‘You are quite right, madam,’ they replied cheerfully. ‘Thought our Baoyu is so naughty and so wayward, his manners to guests are better than most grown-ups’. So everybody takes a fancy to him and can’t understand why he should sometimes be beaten. They don’t know the way he runs wild at home, saying and doing the most outrageous things which make our master and mistress very angry. It’s natural for boys of noble families to be wilful, extravagant and lazy such faults can be corrected. But what can we do when he was born with such a strange cranky temper?’
As they were talking Lady Wang was announced. She came in to inquire after her mother-in-law, and when the four visitors had paid their respects to her and said a few words the old lady told her to go and rest.  This Lady Wang did, having first served her with tea. She was followed by the four women when they had taken their leave of the old lady, and they chatted together for a while about family affairs before she sent them away. But enough of this.

Meanwhile the Lady Dowager was gleefully telling everyone who came in that another family had a Baoyu just like their own. The others thought little of it, supposing that many official families must use the same names and that it was the general rule, rather than the exception, for a grandmother to spoil her grandson. Only Baoyu, being a prejudiced simple¬ton, imagined that the four women had made this up to please his grand¬mother. He went back to the Garden to see how Xiangyun was.
‘Now you can be as naughty as you like,’ she teased. ‘Before this it was a case of ‘A single thread can’t make a cord nor a single tree a forest.’ But now that there are two of you, next time you’re beaten for raising a rumpus you can run away to Nanjing to find your double.’
‘Don’t believe such nonsense,’ he said. ‘How could there be an¬other Baoyu?’
‘Wasn’t there a Lin Xiangru in the Warring States Period and a Sima Xiangru in the Han Dynasty?’ she retorted.
‘All right, I’ll grant you that. But two people can’t possibly look just alike.’
‘Didn’t the men of Kuang take Confucius for Yang Hu?’
‘Confucius and Yang Hu looked alike but had different names; Lin Xiangru and Sima Xiangru had the same name but looked different. How can I look the same and have the same name as someone else?’
Unable to refute him Xiangyun said, ‘You’re just quibbling, I refuse to argue with you. Whether it’s so or not, this has nothing to do with me.’ Then she lay down to sleep.
Baoyu stared reflecting dubiously, ‘I may say this can’t be, yet I feel all the same it’s true. Yet how can I be sure, when I haven’t seen my double with my own eyes?’
Feeling at a loss, he went back to his room and lay down on the couch to think. Soon he dozed off and dreamed he was in a garden.
‘Is there another garden like this apart from our Grand View Gar¬den?’ he exclaimed in surprise.
As he was puzzling over this some girls all serving-maids ap¬proached.
Again he exclaimed in surprise, ‘So Yuanyang, Xiren and Pinger aren’t the only fine girls!’
‘What is Baoyu doing here?’ the girls asked each other.
Assuming that they were talking about him he answered with a smile, ‘I happened to stroll in here, not that I know which of my family’s friends this garden belongs to. Will you show me round it, sisters?’
‘Why, this isn’t our Baoyu,’ cried the girls. ‘He’s not bad-looking though, and soft-spoken too.’
‘Do you have another Baoyu here, sisters?’ he asked.
‘It was the old lady and mistress who told us to call him Baoyu, so as to make him live longer and keep him out of danger,’ they said. ‘He likes it when we call him by his name. But how can a stinking young upstart from far away like you start using it at random? You’d better watch out or we’ll beat you to a pulp, you filthy lout!’
‘Let’s go before Baoyu sees him,’ urged another.
‘He’d think talking to this stinking wretch had made us stink too.’
With that they left.
‘Why should they insult me like this?’ wondered Baoyu. ‘I’ve never been treated in such a way before. Can I really have a double?’
Occupied with these thoughts he had wandered into a courtyard.
‘Why, this is another Happy Red Court!’ he marvelled.
He ascended the steps and walked in. There was someone lying on a couch inside, with a few girls by him sewing or amusing themselves. The young man on the couch sighed.
‘Why don’t you sleep, Baoyu, instead of sighing?’ asked one of the girls. ‘I suppose it’s your cousin’s illness that’s worrying you?’
As Baoyu marvelled at this the young man replied, ‘I didn’t believe the old lady when she told me that in the capital there’s another Baoyu whose character’s just like mine. Just now, though, I had a dream. I dreamed I was in a big garden in the capital, where I met some girls who called me a stinking wretch and refused to talk to me. When at last I found his rooms he was asleep. Only his empty form was there his real self had gone, I don’t know where.’
Baoyu hearing this interjected hastily, ‘I came here to find Baoyu. So you’re Baoyu!’
The other stepped down from the couch and caught hold of him. ‘So you’re Baoyu!’ he cried. ‘This isn’t a dream then.’
‘Of course not. It’s absolutely true.’
As he said this someone announced, ‘The master wants Baoyu.’
That threw both of them into a panic. One started out while the other called:
‘Baoyu, come back! Come back!’
Xiren nearby heard him calling out in his sleep and shook him to wake him up.
‘Where’s Baoyu?’ she asked.
Baoyu, although awake now, was still confused.
Pointing outside the door he answered, ‘He’s just left.’
‘You’ve been dreaming,’ Xiren told him with a smile. ‘Rub your eyes and look that’s your own reflection in the mirror.
When Baoyu saw that he was indeed looking at himself in the big mirror, he also smiled. By now some maids had brought him a rinse-bowl and some strong tea to rinse his mouth.
Sheyue remarked, ‘No wonder the old lady keeps warning us, ‘There mustn’t be too many mirrors in children’s rooms. A young person’s spirit is weak, and if he looks at himself too much in the glass he may be frightened in his sleep and have nightmares.’ Yet we’ve put his couch in front of this big mirror. It’s all right when the cover’s down, but now that the hot weather’s made us sleepy we keep forgetting to lower it. Just now, for instance, we forgot again. He must have been lying there amusing himself by looking at his own reflection; then as soon as he closed his eyes he started dreaming foolish dreams. Otherwise he wouldn’t have called out his own name. Tomorrow we’d better move the couch inside.’
She was interrupted by the arrival of a messenger from Lady Wang to fetch Baoyu. To know why she wanted him, read the next chapter.

Chapter 57

Artful Zijuan Tests Baoyu’s Feelings
Kindly Aunt Xue Comforts Daiyu





Baoyu hurried to his mother as soon as summoned, to find that she wanted to take him to call on Lady Zhen. Naturally delighted to go, he changed his clothes hurriedly and accompanied her. The Zhens’ house struck him as much like the Rong and Ning mansions, if not slightly grander, and by making careful inquiries he learned that they did indeed have a young master called Baoyu. By the time they has spent the day there, for Lady Zhen kept them to a meal, he was quite convinced of this.
On their return that evening Lady Wang ordered a sumptuous feast to be prepared and a celebrated opera company hired to entertain Lady Zhen and her daughter, who two days later set off for Nanjing without any further leave-taking.

One day, having seen that Xiangyun was on the road to recovery, Baoyu went to call on Daiyu. She was taking a siesta, and not wishing to disturb her he’s joined Zijuan who was sewing on the verandah.
‘Was her cough any better last night?’ he asked.
‘A little.’
‘Amida Buddha! I do hope she soon gets well.’
‘Really, this is news to me! Since when have you started invoking Buddha?’ she teased.
‘‘Men at death’s door will turn in desperation to any doctor,’’ he quipped.
Noticing that she was wearing a thin padded silk tunic with black dots under a lined blue silk sleeveless jacket, he reached out to feel her clothes.
‘You shouldn’t sit in the wind so lightly dressed,’ he remarked. ‘If you fall ill too in this treacherous early spring weather, it will be even worse.’
‘When we talk to each other in future kindly keep your hands to yourself,’ retorted Zijuan. ‘You’re growing up now and should want people to respect you, but you keep provoking those wretches to gossip behind your back. You’re so careless, you still carry on like a little boy. Well, that won’t do. Our young lady’s warned us many a time not to joke with you. Haven’t you noticed recently how she’s been avoiding you?’
She got up then and took her needlework inside.
Baoyu felt as if doused by a bucket of cold water. He was staring blankly at the bamboo grove when Mrs. Zhu came to dig up some bam¬boo shoots and trim the bamboos. Then, stupefied, he went away. Pres¬ently, his wits wandering, not knowing what he did, he sank down in a daze on a rock and shed tears. For the time half a dozen meals would take he sat there brooding, but could not think what to do.
It so happened that Xueyan passed here now on her way back from Lady Wang’s quarters with some ginseng. Turning her head towards the rock below the peach tree she noticed someone sitting there lost in thought, his face propped on his hands. To her surprise she saw it was Baoyu.
‘What’s he doing here all alone on such a chilly day?’ she won¬dered. ‘Spring’s a dangerous time for people in delicate health. Can his wits be wandering again?’
Going over she crouched down beside him.
‘What are you doing here?’ she asked.
‘What do you want with me?’ countered Baoyu as soon as he saw who it was. ‘Aren’t you a girl too? To prevent gossip she’s ordered you to ignore me, but here you come seeking me out. If you’re seen, there will be talk. Hurry up and go home.’
Thinking Daiyu had been scolding him again, Xueyan had to go back to Bamboo Lodge where she gave Zijuan the ginseng, as their mistress was still asleep.
‘What’s Her Ladyship doing?’ Zijuan asked.
‘She’s been having a siesta too. That’s why I’ve been so long,’ replied Xueyan. ‘But let me tell you something amusing, sister. As I was waiting for the mistress and chatting with Sister Yuchuan in the maids’ quarters, who should beckon me out but Concubine Zhao. I thought she had some message, but it turned out she was there to ask leave from the mistress to go to her brother’s wake tonight and the funeral tomorrow; and she wanted to borrow my pale-blue satin tunic for her little maid Jixiang, who’s to go with her too but has nothing decent to wear. Well, I thought, they’ve clothes of their own, they just don’t want to wear them to the funeral for fear of getting them dirty they’d rather borrow someone else’s to soil. Of course, I’m not all that fussy about my clothes, but what kindness has that woman ever done us? So I told her. ‘All my clothes and trinkets are kept by Sister Zijuan on our young lady’s orders. I should have to tell her first and then report to my young mistress. And as our young lady’s not well, it would be a lengthy business and delay you, madam. Can’t you borrow from someone else?’’
‘You imp!’ Zijuan laughed. ‘You shift the blame for not lending your things to us, to stop her complaining about you. Is she leaving now or not till tomorrow morning?’
‘She was just setting off. I expect she’s gone by now.
Zijuan nodded in silence.
‘If our young lady’s still asleep, who’s been upsetting Baoyu?’ con¬tinued Xueyan. ‘He’s sitting out there crying.’
‘Out where?’
‘Under the peach-blossom behind Seeping Fragrance Pavilion.’
At once Zijuan laid down her needlework.
‘Be ready if she calls,’ she told Xueyan. ‘If she asks for me, tell her I’ll be back in a minute.’ So saying she left Bamboo Lodge to look for Baoyu.
Finding him, she told him gently, ‘I was only thinking of what’s best for us all. Why take offence and rush over here to sit crying in the wind? Are you trying to scare me by risking your health like this?’
‘I didn’t take offence,’ he answered with a smile. ‘You were quite right. But if everyone feels the way you do, before long nobody will speak to me at all. The thought of that upset me.’
Zijuan sat down too then beside him.
‘Just now we were talking face to face but you wouldn’t stay,’ he pointed out. ‘Why are you sitting right beside me now?’
‘You’ve probably forgotten, but a few days ago you and your cousin had just started talking about bird’s nest when Concubine Zhao burst in. I’ve just heard that she’s gone out, and that reminded me to come and ask you: what more did you mean to say if she hadn’t interrupted you that day?
‘Oh, nothing much,’ said Baoyu. ‘It simply occurred to me that now that she’s taking bird’s-nest and has to keep it up, it’s not right to impose too much on Baochai who’s only a visitor here. As it’s no use asking my mother. I dropped a hint to the old lady, and I suspect she must have told Xifeng. That was what I started explaining. I understand an ounce of bird’s-nest is being sent over to you every day now, so that’s all right.’
‘So it was you who suggested that, was it?’ said Zijuan. ‘That was very good of you. We’ve been wondering what made the old lady sud¬denly start sending an ounce every day. So that’s the reason.’
‘If she takes it regularly every day, after two or three years her health should be much better.’
‘She can have some every day here, but where will the money come from to continue the cure when she goes home next year?’
Baoyu gave a start.
‘Who’s going to which home?’ he demanded.
‘Your cousin back to Suzhou.’
‘Nonsense!’ Baoyu chuckled. ‘Suzhou may be her hometown, but she came here because there was no one there to look after her after her parents’ death. Whom could she go back to next year? No, you’re obvi¬ously fibbing.’
‘What a poor opinion you have of other people!’ Zijuan snorted. ‘You Jias may be a big, wealthy family, but do other families have only a father and mother and not other relatives? Our young lady was brought here for a few years while she was still only a child, because the old lady felt for her and didn’t think her uncles could take the place of her parents. When she grows up to marriageable age, she’s bound to be sent back to the Lin family.
‘How can a daughter of the Lins stay all her life with you in your Jia family? Even if the Lins were desperately poor, for generations they’ve been a family of scholars and officials: they’d never expose themselves to ridicule by abandoning a daughter to relatives. So next spring or next autumn at the latest, even if your family doesn’t send her back, the Lins are sure to send to fetch her.
‘The other evening our young lady told me to ask you for all the little gifts and souvenirs she’s given you since you were children. She means to return all yours to you as well.’
Baoyu was thunderstruck. Zijuan waited for him to answer, but not a word could he utter. And just then Qingwen came up.
‘So here you are, Baoyu!’ she cried. ‘The old lady wants you.’
‘He’s been inquiring after Miss Daiyu’s health, and I’ve been reas¬suring him,’ Zijuan remarked. ‘But he won’t believe me. You’d better take him away.’ With that she returned to her room.
Qingwen noticed Baoyu’s distraught look, the hectic flush on his cheeks and the sweat on his forehead. She at once led him by the hand to Happy Red Court where his appearance horrified Xiren, who imagined he must have caught a chill in the wind while overheated. A fever was not too alarming, but his eyes were fixed and staring, saliva was trickling from the corners of his lips, and he seemed in a state of stupefaction. He would lie down if a pillow was put for him, would sit up if pulled, and drink tea if it was brought. His condition threw them all into a panic, but not daring to report this too hastily to the Lady Dowager they first sent for his old nurse, Nanny Li.
Nanny Li, arriving presently, examined Baoyu carefully. When he made no answer to any of her questions she felt his pulse, then pinched his upper lip so hard that her fingers left deep imprints ‘ yet he felt no pain. At that she gave a great cry of despair and, taking him in her arms, started weeping and wailing.
Xiren frantically pulled her away.
‘Is it serious, nanny?’ she demanded. ‘Do tell us, so that we can let the old lady and the mistress know. Don’t start carrying on like this.’
Nanny Li beat the bed and pillows with her fists.
‘He’s done for,’ she wailed. ‘A life-time of care gone for nothing!’
Xiren had asked the nurse to have a look because she respected her age and experience. So now her words carried conviction. They all started sobbing.
Qingwen told Xiren then what had just happened, whereupon Xiren dashed off to Bamboo Lodge. There she found Zijuan giving Daiyu her medicine. Blind to everything else, Xiren flew at her.
‘What have you been saying to our Baoyu?’ she demanded. ‘Go and see the state he’s in! You’ll have to answer for this to the old lady. I wash my hands of it.’ So saying she threw herself into a chair.
Daiyu was taken aback by Xiren’s furious, tear-stained face and this behaviour which was so unlike her.
‘What’s happened?’ she asked.
Making an effort to calm herself Xiren sobbed, ‘I don’t know what your Miss Zijuan’s been telling him, but the silly boy’s eyes are staring, his hands and feet are cold; he can’t speak, and when Nanny Li pinched him he felt nothing. He’s more dead than alive! Even Nanny Li says there’s no hope and is weeping and wailing there. He may be dead by now for all I know.’
Nanny Li was such an experienced old nurse that Daiyu could not but believe her gloomy predictions. With a cry she threw up all the medicine she had just taken, and was racked by such dry coughing that her stom¬ach burned and it seemed her lungs would burst. Red in the face, her hair tousled, her eyes distended, limp in every limb, she choked for breath and could not lift up her head. Zijuan made haste to massage her back while she lay gasping on her pillow.
‘Stop thumping me,’ cried Daiyu at last, pushing her away. ‘You’d far better fetch a rope to strangle me.’
‘I didn’t say anything,’ the maid protested with tears. ‘Just a few words in fun, which he jook seriously.’
‘You should know how seriously the silly boy always takes teasing,’ scolded Xiren.
‘Whatever you said, go and clear up the misunderstanding, quick!’ urged Daiyu. ‘That may bring him back to his senses.’
Zijuan jumped up then and hurried off with Xiren to Happy Red Court, where the old lady and Lady Wang had already arrived. At sight of Zijuan the old lady’s eyes flashed.
‘You bitch!’ she stormed. ‘What did you say to him?’
‘Nothing, madam. Nothing but a few words in fun.’
At the sight of her Baoyu cried out and burst into tears, to the relief of everybody present. The Lady Dowager caught Zijuan’s arm, thinking she had offended him, and urged him to beat her. But Baoyu seized hold of her and would not let go.
‘If you go,’ he shouted, ‘you must take me with you!’
No one could understand this till Zijuan. when questioned, explained her threat made in fun of going back to Suzhou.
‘Is that all?’ exclaimed the Lady Dowager, the tears running down her cheeks. ‘So it was because of a joke.’ She scolded Zijuan, ‘You’re such a sensible girl normally, how could you tease him like that when you know how credulous he is?’
‘Baoyu’s always been too trusting,’ put in Aunt Xue soothingly. ‘And since Daiyu came here as a child and they’ve grown up together, they’re particularly close. This sudden talk of her leaving would have upset even a hard-hearted grown-up, let alone such a simple, credulous boy. But this disorder isn’t serious; you ladies mustn’t worry. One or two doses of medicine will set him right.’
Just then it was announced that the wives of Lin Zhixiao and Shan Daliang had come to inquire after the young master.
‘Show them in,’ said the old lady. ‘It’s thoughtful of them.’
But on hearing the name Lin, Baoyu grew frantic again.
‘No, no!’ he shouted from his bed. ‘The Lins have come to fetch her. Drive them away!’
Hastily chiming in, ‘Drive them away!’ his grandmother assured him. ‘They’re not from the Lin family. All those Lins are dead. Nobody will ever come to fetch her. Don’t you worry.
‘Never mind who they are,’ stormed Baoyu tearfully. ‘No one but Cousin Daiyu should have the name Lin.’
‘There are no Lins here,’ repeated the old lady. ‘They’re all been driven away.’ She ordered the attendants, ‘In future don’t let Lin Zhixiao’s wife into the Garden. And never mention the name Lin again. Mind you all do as I say like good children.’
Suppressing their smiles at this, the others assented.
Baoyu’s eye now fell on a golden boat with an engine, a toy from the West, which was on his cabinet.
‘Isn’t that the boat coming to fetch them?’ he shouted, pointing at it. ‘‘It’s mooring there.
The Lady Dowager ordered its instant removal, and when Baoyu reached out for it Xiren gave it to him. He tucked it under his bedding.
‘Now they won’t be able to sail away,’ he laughed. Seizing tight hold of Zijuan he refused to let her go.
At this point Doctor Wang was announced, and the old lady ordered him to be brought straight in. Lady Wang, Aunt Xue and Baochai with¬drew to the inner room while the Lady Dowager seated herself by Baoyu. When Doctor Wang found such a company assembled, he paid his re¬spects to the Lady Dowager before taking Baoyu’s hand to feel his pulse, while Zijuan had to stand there with lowered head, to the doctor’s aston¬ishment.
Presently the doctor rose and declared, ‘The trouble with our honourable brother is that some sharp distress has clouded his mind. According to the ancients, ‘Disorders of the phlegm take different forms:
indigestion owing to a weak constitution, derangement brought on by a sudden fit of anger, and obstruction caused by sudden distress.’ This is a disorder of the third kind. It is only a temporary blockage, however, less serious than the other types.’
‘Just tell us if he’s in danger or not.’ urged the Lady Dowager. ‘Who wants to hear this recital of medical lore?’
Doctor Wang bowed.
‘He is in no danger, no.
‘Is that really true?’ she persisted.
‘There is really no danger, madam, I give you my word.’
‘In that case, please take a seat in the outer room to make out your prescription. If you cure him, I shall prepare presents to show my grati¬tude and send him to kowtow to you in person. If you delay his recovery, though, I shall send to tear down the main hall of your Academy of Impe¬rial Physicians!’
The doctor bowed again.
‘You are too good, too good!’
For he had heard only the first part of her speech and not the jocular threat with which it concluded. He went on protesting his unworthiness until the old lady and all the rest burst out laughing.
When the medicine had been prepared according to the prescription and Baoyu had taken it, he did indeed calm down a little. He still refused to let go of Zijuan, however.
‘If she leaves here, they’ll go back to Suzhou!’ he cried.
The Lady Dowager and Lady Wang had perforce to let Zijuan stay there. They dispatched Hupo in her place to look after Daiyu, who from time to time sent Xueyan over to ask for news and was deeply moved when she learned all that had happened.
As everyone knew how cranky Baoyu was, and how close he and Daiyu had been since they were children, they took Zijuan’s joke as quite natural and his illness as nothing out of the way either, not suspecting anything else.
That evening, as Baoyu was quieter, his grandmother and mother re¬turned to their own quarters but sent several times during the night for reports from the sickroom. Nanny Li, Mrs. Song and some other ma¬trons nursed the patient devotedly, while Zijuan, Xiren and Qingwen watched day and night by his bedside. Whenever he slept he had night¬mares, and would wake up crying that Daiyu had gone or that people had come to fetch her. Each time this happened Zijuan had to comfort him.
Now his grandmother had Baoyu given all sorts of rare medicine-pills to dispel evil influences and powders to clear the mind. And the next day, after more of Doctor Wang’s medicine, his condition gradually improved; but although he was in his right senses again, he pretended from time to time to be delirious in order to keep Zijuan with him. As for her, thor¬oughly repenting the mischief she had caused she served him day and night without a murmur.
Xiren, herself once more, told her, ‘As you’re the one to blame for this, it’s up to you to cure him. I’ve never seen such a simpleton as our young master, the way he catches at shadows. What’s to become of him?’ But enough of this.

By now Xiangyun was better, and she came every day to see Baoyu. Finding that he had recovered his faculties she mimicked his crazy behaviour during his illness until, lying on his pillow, he had to laugh. Hav¬ing no idea himself of what had passed, he could hardly believe what was told him.
When no one else was about but Zijuan, he took her hand.
‘Why did you frighten me?’ he asked.
‘I only did it for fun,’ she replied. ‘But you took it seriously.’
‘You made it sound so convincing, how was I to know it was just a joke?’ he retorted.
‘Well, I made the whole thing up. There’s really no one left in the Lin family except for some very distant relatives who no longer live in Suzhou but are scattered in different provinces. Even if one of them asked for her, the old lady would never let her go.’
‘Even if the old lady would let her go, I wouldn’t.’
‘You wouldn’t!’ Zijuan laughed. ‘That’s just talk, I’m afraid. You’re growing up now and already engaged; in a couple of years you’ll be marrying, and then you’ll forget other people.’
‘Who’s engaged?’ asked Baoyu in dismay. ‘To whom?’
‘Before New Year I heard the old lady say she wanted to engage Miss Baoqin to you. Why else would she make such a favourite of her?’
He laughed.
‘People may call me crazy, but you’re even crazier! That was just a joke. She’s already engaged to the son of Academician Mei. If I were engaged to her, would I be in this state? Didn’t you plead with me and say I was mad when I swore that oath and wanted to smash that silly jade? Now you’ve come to provoke me again just as I’m getting bet¬ter.’ Through clenched teeth he added. ‘I only wish I could die this very minute and tear out my heart to show you. Then all the rest of me, skin and bones, could be turned into ashes ‘ no, ashes still have form better be turned into smoke. But smoke still congeals and can be seen by men it would have to be scattered in a flash, by a great wind, to the four quarters. That would be a good death.’ Tears were running down his cheeks as he spoke.
Zijuan hastily put her hand to his mouth, then wiped away his tears.
‘You needn’t worry,’ she urged. ‘I was putting you to the test be¬cause I was worried.’
‘You worried? Why?’ he asked in surprise.
‘You know I don’t belong to the Lin family. Like Xiren and Yuanyang, I was given to Miss Lin. And she couldn’t have been kinder to me. She treats me ten times better than her own maids brought from Suzhou; we don’t like being parted for a single moment. I’m worried now because, if she leaves, I shall have to go with her; but my whole family’s here. If I don’t go, I’ll be unworthy of all her goodness; if I do, I shall have to abandon my own people. That’s why, in my dilemma, I told you that fib to see how you felt about it. How was Ito know you’d take it so hard?’
‘So that’s what’s worrying you,’ Baoyu chuckled. ‘What a goose you are! Well, set your heart at rest. Let me just put it in a nutshell for you. If we live, we shall live together; and if we die, we shall turn into ashes and smoke together. What do you say to that?’
Zijuan was turning this over in her mind when suddenly Jia Huan and Jia Lan were announced. They had called to ask after Baoyu.
‘Thank them for coming,’ he said. ‘But tell them I’ve just gone to bed and they needn’t trouble to come in.’
The woman who had brought the message assented and left.
‘Now that you’re better you should let me go back to see my own patient,’ said Zijuan.
‘I know,’ he replied. ‘I meant to send you yesterday, but then I for¬got. Go along then, since I’m completely well again.’
She set about bundling together her bedding and dressing-cases.
‘I see several minors in your cases,’ he commented laughingly. ‘Will you leave me that small one? I can keep it by my pillow to use in bed, and it will come in handy when I go out.’
Zijuan had to do as he asked. Having sent her things on ahead, she took her leave of everyone and went back to Bamboo Lodge.
The news of Baoyu’s disorder had made Daiyu suffer a relapse and brought on many bouts of weeping. Now she asked Zijuan why she had returned and, learning that he was better, sent Hupo back to wait on the Lady Dowager.
That night, when all was quiet and Zijuan had undressed and lain down, she whispered to Daiyu:
‘Baoyu’s heart is really true to you. Fancy his falling ill like that when he heard we were leaving!’
Daiyu made no answer to this.
Presently Zijuan went on, half to herself, ‘Moving isn’t as good as staying put. This is a good family anyway. It’s the hardest thing in the world to find people who’ve grown up together and know each other’s character and ways.
‘Aren’t you tired after the last few days?’ scoffed Daiyu. ‘Why don’t you sleep instead of talking such nonsense?’
‘It isn’t nonsense. I was thinking of you. I’ve felt worried for you all these years with no father, mother or brothers to care for you. The im¬portant thing is to settle the main affair of your life in good time, while the old lady’s still clear-headed and healthy. The proverb says, ‘The healthi¬est old people last as long as a chilly spring or a hot autumn.’ If anything should happen to the old lady your marriage might be delayed, or else not turn out in the way you hoped.
‘There’s no lack of young lordlings, but they all want three wives and five concubines and their affections change from one day to the next. They may bring home a wife as lovely as a fairy, yet after four or five nights they cast her off, treating her like an enemy for the sake of a concubine or a slave girl. If her family’s large and powerful, that’s not so bad; and for someone like you, miss, so long as the old lady lives you’ll be all right. Once she’s gone, you’ll have to put up with ill treatment. So it’s important to make up your mind. You’ve sense enough to understand the saying, ‘The thousand taels of gold are easier come by than an under¬standing heart.
‘The girl’s crazy!’ exclaimed Daiyu. ‘A few days away, and you’ve suddenly changed into a different person. Tomorrow I shall ask the old lady to take you back. I no longer dare keep you.’
‘I meant well,’ was the smiling answer. ‘I just wanted you to look out for yourself, not to do anything wrong. What good will it do if you report me to the old lady and get me into trouble?’ With that Zijuan closed her eyes.
Although Daiyu had spoken so sharply, this talk had distressed her. After Zijuan went to sleep she wept all night, no dozing off until dawn. The next morning she found it an effort to wash herself, rinse her mouth and swallow her bird’s-nest broth. Then the Lady Dowager and others called to see her and urged her to take better care of herself.

That day was Aunt Xue’s birthday. Everyone from the Lady Dowa¬ger down gave her presents, and Daiyu also sent over two pieces of her own embroidery. Aunt Xue had hired a company of actresses and at her invitation the old lady, Lady Wang and the whole family except Baoyu and Daiyu went to watch the performance. On their way back from it that evening, the Lady Dowager and others dropped in to see the two patients again.
The next day Aunt Xue made Xue Ke keep their shop assistants com¬pany at a whole day’s feasting. The celebrations lasted for three or four days.
Now Aunt Xue had been struck by Xiuyan’s dignity and refinement; and as the girl was poor, having ‘only a thorn for a hair-pin, and plain cloth for a skirt,’ her habits were frugal. Thus Aunt Xue thought of be¬trothing her to her son. After some hesitation, however, she decided it would not be fair to the girl to marry her to a profligate like Xue Pan, and it occurred to her that Xiuyan and Xue Ke who was still unmarried would make a perfect match. She broached the subject to Xifeng.
‘You know how crotchety my mother-in-law is, auntie,’ said Xifeng with a sigh. ‘You must give me time to manage it.’
When the Lady Dowager called to see Xifeng, the matter was broached to her.
‘Aunt Xue has something to ask our Old Ancestress, but doesn’t know how to put it.’
‘What is it?’ asked the old lady.
Xifeng explained the marriage proposal.
‘Where’s the difficulty?’ The old lady smiled. ‘Nothing could please me better. Let me tell your mother-in-law and she’s sure to agree.
Once back in her own apartments, she sent immediately to ask Lady Xing over and proposed the match herself. Since the Xues came of fairly good stock and were now very wealthy, while Xue Ke was a handsome young man, and the go-between, moreover, was no less a person than the Lady Dowager, a moment’s thought convinced Lady Xing that this would be to her advantage. So she agreed.
The Lady Dowager in high delight promptly asked Aunt Xue to come over, and there was the usual exchange of polite formalities between both parties. Lady Xing lost no time in informing her brother Xing Zhong and his wife; and since they had come there to throw themselves upon her bounty, they were naturally more than happy to give their approval.
‘I love meddling in other people’s affairs,’ said the Lady Dowager. ‘Now that I’ve fixed this up, how much are you going to pay your go-between?’
‘Don’t worry about that,’ replied Aunt Xue. ‘Even if we brought you a hundred thousand taels of silver, I don’t suppose it would mean much to you. But since you’re the go-between, madam, will you find us someone to take charge of the betrothal ceremony?’
‘Whatever else we’re short of, we can produce one or two helpers of a sort, ‘the old lady chuckled.
She sent for ha Zhen’s wife and daughter-in-law. When they heard the news from her they offered their congratulations.
‘You know our family ways,’ she told Madam You. ‘The two fami¬lies never squabble over betrothal gifts. You must handle this business for me, neither too stingily nor too lavishly. Report to me when everything is arranged.’
As soon as Madam You accepted this task, Aunt Xue went home overjoyed to write invitation cards for the Ning Mansion.
Madam You knew Lady Xing’s cantankerous temper and would have preferred to have nothing to do with the business, but she had to fall in with the old lady’s wishes. She did her best to please Lady Xing, aware that Aunt Xue was so easygoing there would be no problem there. But enough of this.
Now that the whole household knew that Xiuyan was to marry Aunt Xue’s nephew, Lady Xing wanted to move her out of the Garden.
‘What does it matter if she stays?’ demurred the Lady Dowager. ‘There’s no danger of the two young people meeting, and it shouldn’t worry you if she sees Aunt Xue and the two cousins of the other family every day. They’re all girls, aren’t they? They may as well get to know each other better.’
Lady Xing made no further objection then.
Xue Ke and Xiuyan had met once previously on their way to the capital, and in all probability they were pleased enough with the match; but naturally this made Xiuyan more reserved and tongue-tied in the pres¬ence of Baochai and the rest of the girls. She felt specially shy with Xiangyun, who was such a tease. But being a well-brought up girl of some education, she showed no false modesty or silly coyness.
Baochai had realized from the start that Xiuyan’s family was poor, and while the other girls’ parents were respectable old people hers were penniless bodies who cared little for their daughter; Lady Xing had no genuine feeling for her either, simply making a show of affection. And Xiuyan had a sense of self-respect. As Yingchun was too feeble even to take care of herself, let alone look after her cousin whenever Xiuyan ran short of any daily necessities there was no one to see to it, and she was too unassuming to mention it. Baochai accordingly often helped her in secret, not letting Lady Xing know for fear of giving offence, with the result that now that this unexpected match had been arranged Xiuyan felt even more closely bound to Baochai than to Xue Ke. She often went to chat with her, and Baochai continued to address her as ‘cousin.’
One day Baochai set out to call on Daiyu. Happening to meet Xiuyan on the way, she beckoned her with a smile and they walked on together. As they skirted the back of a rockery, Baochai inquired:
‘Why have you changed out of padded clothes into lined ones, when the weather is still so cold?’
Xiuyan hung her head and said nothing.
Sensing some reason for this Baochai continued, ‘Don’t tell me this month’s allowance was held up again? Cousin Xifeng really is growing rather thoughtless.’
‘She issued it on the right date,’ rejoined Xiuyan. ‘But my aunt sent to tell me I shouldn’t need two taels a month and must save one for my parents. She said if I was short of anything I could borrow from Yingchun and make do. But, you see, Yingchun is a simple soul who doesn’t al¬ways think. She wouldn’t mind my using her things, but those maids and nannies of hers are all troublemakers ‘ you know what sharp tongues they have. Though I’m staying there, I dare not order them about; in fact, every few days I have to spend money on wine and cakes for them. I can’t manage even on two taels a month, and now it’s been cut to one. So the other day I got someone, on the sly, to pawn my padded clothes for a few strings of cash.’
Hearing this, Baochai frowned and sighed in sympathy.
‘It’s too bad that the Mei family have all gone to the new post and won’t be back in the capital till the year after next,’ she said. ‘If they were here, we could arrange Baoqin’s wedding and then yours. Once you leave here you’ll be all right. The trouble is that Xue Ke won’t consider getting married before his young sister; yet if you have to put up with two more years of this, I’m afraid it may ruin your health. I must talk to my mother and see what can be done.
‘If people bully you, just keep your temper and on no account fall ill. Actually you may just as well give them the other tael too, so that they stop pestering you; then you needn’t treat those creatures for nothing. If they make scathing remarks, just pretend not to hear and go about your own business. When you’re short of anything just apply to me. Don’t be finicky. It’s not because you’re engaged now to one of our family that I want you to treat me as your relative. Didn’t we become friends as soon as you arrived here? If you are afraid of gossip, just send your maid quietly to pass on messages to.’
Xiuyan lowered her head and assented.
Then Baochai pointed at the green jade pendant hanging from her skirt.
‘Who gave you that?’
‘It’s a present from Cousin Tanchun.’
Baochai nodded.
‘She must have noticed that you were the only one with no jade to wear; so to stop people laughing at you she gave you this. It shows how thoughtful and observant she is. Still, you should know that trinkets like these are only worn in big official families of rich nobles. Just look at me. Do I wear such magnificent ornaments? Seven or eight years ago I did, but not now that our family position’s changed. I economize whenever I can. In future, when you come to our family, I dare say you’ll find a whole chest of such trash still there. But nowadays our family’s not like theirs. We should after all dress more simply, not copy them.’
‘If that’s how you feel, sister, I’ll go back and take it off.’
‘No, that’s not what I meant,’ disclaimed Baochai hastily. ‘Since she was kind enough to give you this, if you don’t wear it she’ll wonder why. I just happened to mention the matter for you to bear in mind later.’
Xiuyan assented, then asked her where she was going.
‘To Bamboo Lodge,’ Baochai told her. ‘Slip back and send a maid over to our place with the pawn ticket. I’ll have the clothes redeemed quietly and sent to you this evening, so that you have something warm to wear; otherwise you’ll catch cold, and that would never do. Which shop is it, by the way?’
‘A shop called Heng Shu on the main road west of the Drum Tower.’
‘It happens to belong to our family.’ Baochai smiled. ‘If the shop assistants knew they’d say, ‘Before the bride is fetched her clothes have arrived.
Xiuyan blushed when she realized that it was one of the Xues’ shops. Making no answer she went away with a smile.
At Bamboo Lodge, Baochai found her mother chatting with Daiyu.
‘When did you get here, mother?’ she asked. ‘I didn’t know you were coming.’
‘I’ve been too busy till today to call to see her and Baoyu,’ said Aunt Xue. ‘And now I find both of them are well again.’
Daiyu offered Baochai a seat. ‘Life is certainly full of surprises,’ she said to her. ‘Take Aunt Xue and my Eldest Aunt, for instance. They’re going to be linked more closely still by marriage.’
‘What do girls like you know about such things, child?’ replied Aunt Xue. ‘There’s an old saying: ‘People a thousand ii apart may be linked by marriage.’ It’s all the doing of the Old Man of the Moon. If he’s secretly fastened his red thread around the ankles of two young people, not even the ocean or a whole country, or even a family feud for genera¬tions can stop them from becoming husband and wife. It always comes as a surprise.
‘On the other hand, if the Old Man of the Moon doesn ‘t do his part, even if the parents on both sides are willing and the young people have been brought up together and think themselves destined for each other, they’ll never be united.
‘Take the case of you two girls. We don’t yet know whether you’ll marry someone close at hand or beyond mountains and seas.’
‘Mother always drags us in!’ protested Baochai. Resting her head against her mother’s breast she asked laughingly, ‘Shall we go now?’
‘Look at her.’ teased Daiyu. ‘Such a big girl, and when you’re not around, aunt, she looks very dignified; but when she’s with you she acts just like a baby.’
Caressing her daughter Aunt Xue told Daiyu, ‘This child means as much to me as Xifeng does to the old lady. When I’ve serious business, I consult her; when there’s none, she amuses me. When I see her like this all my troubles melt away.’
Tears came into Daiyu’s eyes.
‘She’s doing this on purpose here, to wound me by reminding me that I’ve no mother.’
‘Look, mother!’ cried Baochai gaily. ‘Who’s acting like a baby now?’
‘You can’t blame here for being upset,’ replied Aunt Xue. ‘She has no parents, poor thing, no one to care for her.’ She turned then to caress Daiyu as well. ‘Don’t cry, there’s a good child,’ she urged. ‘It upsets you to see how fond I am of your cousin, but I love you even more if you only knew it. She’s better off than you, because though she’s lost her father she at least has me and her brother. I’ve often told her I can’t show how fond I am of you, for fear of the gossip it would cause. People like to put the worst interpretation on things. Instead of admitting that you’ve no one to turn to and behave in a way to make everybody love you, they’d accuse me of being good to you just because you’re the old lady’s favourite so as to please her.’
‘If you really love me, aunt, will you be my foster-mother?’ pleaded Daiyu .’If you turn me down, that means you aren’t in earnest.’
‘I’m willing, if you think I’m good enough.’
‘No, that wouldn’t do,’ put in Baochai.
‘Why not?’ Daiyu wanted to know.
‘Let me ask you a question,’ retorted Baochai with a smile. ‘why is Xiuyan engaged to my younger cousin before my brother’s engaged?’
‘Because he’s not at home, I suppose. Or because the horoscopes don’t match.’
‘‘No, it’s because my brother has already set his mind on someone, and it’ll be fixed up as soon as he returns. I needn’t name any names. Why did I say you couldn’t take her as your mother? Just work it out for yourself!’ She winked at her mother and laughed.
Daiyu buried her face in Aunt Xue’s lap protesting. ‘Aunt, if you don’t spank her, I won’t let her go!’
Aunt Xue put her arms round her and smiled.
‘Don’t believe a word of it. She’s only teasing.’
‘But honestly!’ Baochai giggled. ‘Mother’s going to ask the old lady for your hand tomorrow. Why waste time looking elsewhere?’
Daiyu lunged out at her laughing, ‘You crazy thing!’
Aunt Xue hastily parted them and told Baochai, ‘I think even Xiuyan’s too good for that brother of yours, that’s why I asked for her for your cousin instead. How could I dream of giving your brother this child?’
‘The other day, the old lady wanted your cousin Baoqin for Baoyu; and if she hadn’t happened to be engaged it would have been a good match. When I fixed things up for Xiuyan the old lady quipped, ‘I wanted one of your girls, but you’ve got one of ours instead.’ There’s some¬thing in that although she was only joking. Baoqin is engaged and I’ve no girl for her, but I can make a suggestion. Since the old lady is so fond of Baoyu and he’s such a handsome boy, she’ll never agree to a wife from outside for him. Then why not engage him to Baiyu? Wouldn’t that please everyone?’
Daiyu had been listening intently, but now, at the mention of her own name, she spat in disgust and grabbed hold of Baochai.
‘I’m going to teach you a lesson!’ she cried, her cheeks burning. ‘Why should you provoke my aunt into rambling on in such an indelicate way?’
‘That’s strange.’ Baochai laughed. ‘Why spank me for something my mother said?’
Zijuan ran up to them and cried laughingly, ‘Since you have this idea, madam, why not propose it to the mistress?’
‘What’s the hurry, child?’ asked Aunt Xue teasingly. ‘I suppose the sooner your mistress is married off, the sooner you can find yourself a young husband.’
Zijuan flushed and flashed back, ‘You’re presuming on your age, madam!’ With that she flung off.
‘What has this to do with you?’ scolded Daiyu, and then laughed too at her discomfiture. ‘Amida Buddha! Serves her right!’
Aunt Xue, Baochai and all the attendants present joined in the merri¬ment. Then some of the older maids said cheerfully:
‘Though it was just said in fun, it’s a good idea. We hope, madam, when you have time, you’ll discuss this with the old lady. You can volun¬teer to be the go-between, then this marriage is bound to come off.’
‘Yes,’ agreed Aunt Xue. ‘If I make this suggestion, the old lady’s sure to be pleased.’
As they were talking Xiangyun came in, a pawn ticket in her hand.
‘What’s this certificate for?’ she asked.
Daiyu had a look but did not know what it was.
‘It’s something marvellous,’ the matrons laughed. ‘But we won’t teach you for nothing.’
Baochai took it and saw that it was the pawn ticket Xiuyan had men¬tioned. She hastily folded it up.
‘It must be a pawn ticket some old nurse has lost,’ suggested Aunt Xue. ‘She’ll be frantic when she can’t find it.’
‘A pawn ticket? What’s that?’ asked Xiangyun.
Everybody laughed.
‘Little simpleton! She doesn’t even know what a pawn ticket is.’
‘That’s quite natural,’ remarked Aunt Xue. ‘As the daughter of a noble house, and still young, how could she know of such things? Where would she have seen one? Even if some one in their household had one, she wouldn’t set eyes on it. So don’t you go calling her a simpleton. If you showed your young mistresses this, that would make them all simple-tons too.’
‘Just now Miss Lin didn’t know it either,’ agreed the women. ‘And not only the young ladies. We’d be surprised if Baoyu ever set eyes on such a thing, though he often goes outside.’
Aunt Xue then explained to Xiangyun and Daiyu what a pawn ticket was.
‘So that’s it!’ they exclaimed. ‘How clever people are at making money! Is your family shop the same, aunt?’
‘Listen to them!’ Everyone laughed. ‘‘All crows are black the world over.’ How could their shop be any different?’
‘Where did you find this?’ asked Aunt Xue.
Before Xiangyun could answer, Baochai put in, ‘This ticket has ex¬pired. It was cancelled years ago. Xiangling must have given it them for fun.’
Her mother, believing this, let the matter drop.
Just then someone reported that the mistress of the other house had called to see Aunt Xue, and she went home. When the others had left as well, Baochai asked Xiangyun where she had found the ticket.
‘I saw your future sister-in-law’s maid Zhuaner slip it to Yinger, who tucked it between the pages of a book, thinking I hadn’t noticed. As soon as they’d gone I took a peep at it, but couldn’t guess what it was. Know¬ing you were all here I brought it along to show you.’
‘Can she be pawning her things?’ asked Daiyu. ‘If so, why send you this ticket?’
Realizing that she could no longer hide the truth from them, Baochai explained what had happened. Daiyu exclaimed in distress and sympa¬thy, but Xiangyun grew most indignant.
‘Wait till I go and take this up with Yingchun,’ she fumed. ‘I shall give those matrons and maids a piece of my mind. Won’t that help us to get our own back?’
Baochai caught hold of her as she was starting off.
‘Are you out of your mind again?’ she cried. ‘Sit down.’
‘If you were a man, you could go out and right wrongs,’ teased Daiyu. ‘But you’re not a Jing Ke or a Nie Zheng. Don’t be ridiculous.’
‘If you won’t let me have this out with them, shall we ask Xiuyan to come and stay with us in our apartments?’ rejoined Xiangyun.
‘We can discuss that later.’ Baochai smiled.
Tanchun and Xichun being announced at this point, they made haste to change the subject. If you want to know the upshot, read the next chapter.

Chapter 58

Under the Shade of an Apricot Tree
an Actress Mourns Her Stage Lover
The Master of Happy Red Court Sympathizes
with the Girl’s lnfatuation


The subject of conversation was changed at the arrival of Tanchun and Xichun. The newcomers having asked after Daiyu’s health, they all chatted for a while before dispersing.
Now the demise of the Grand Imperial Concubine mentioned earlier was announced, and all titled ladies were required to go to court to mourn according to their rank. Nobles throughout the empire were forbidden feasting and music for a year, while common citizens were debarred from marrying for three months.
The Lady Dowager, Lady Xing, Lady Wang, Madam You and her daughter-in-law nee Xu grandparents as well as grand-children of the Jia family had to go to court every morning when sacrifice was offered, not returning until two in the afternoon. After twenty-one days of lying in state in the Great Inner Court of the Side Palace, the coffin would be conveyed to the Imperial Mausoleum in the county called Xiaoci; and as this was some ten days’ journey from the capital, and the coffin would have to wait there for several days before it could be interred in the underground palace, the whole proceedings would occupy nearly one month.
By rights, Jia Zhen and his wife of the Ning Mansion should both have assisted at these obsequies; but as that would have left no one in charge at home, after much discussion they decided to beg leave from the court for Madam You on the plea that she was with child, so that she could take over the supervision of the two mansions.
Aunt Xue, having been prevailed upon to keep an eye on the girls and maids in the Garden, now had to move in there too. But at this juncture Baochai had Xiangyun and Xiangling with her; Li Wan, although her aunt and her aunt’s two daughters were not staying with her, received visits from them every few days, and she had been entrusted with Baoqin as well by the Lady Dowager; Yingchun had Xiuyan; Tanchun’s apartments were not convenient either, as she was so occupied with household af¬fairs and the trouble caused by Concubine Zhao and Jia Huan; and Xichun’s space was limited. Besides, as the old lady had asked Aunt Xue to take special care of Daiyu, for whom she herself felt the deepest sympathy, under the circumstances she naturally moved into Bamboo Lodge where she shared Daiyu’s room and kept a strict eye on the girl’s medicine and diet. Daiyu was more grateful for this than words can tell. She began to treat Aunt Xue as her own mother and Baochai and Baoqin as her sisters, feeling closer to them than to all the other girls, to the Lady Dowager’s great satisfaction.
Aunt Xue simply looked after the girls and controlled the younger maids, however, not interfering with other family business. And though Madam You came over every day she dealt only with routine matters, careful not to overstep her authority. In any case she was too busy, for besides being in sole charge of the Ning Mansion she had to see to the daily food and supplies for the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang in the hostel where they were staying.
While those in charge of the two mansions had their hands full in this way, all the chief stewards were busy too those who had not left earlier to look for lodgings for their masters and mistresses during the funeral ceremonies, either accompanied their masters to court or were busy handling jobs in their hostel outside. And in the absence of proper supervision, the servants of both mansions slacked or ganged up under the provisory chief stewards to abuse their power. The only stewards left in the Rong Mansion were Lai Da and a few in charge of outside busi¬ness. Deprived of his usual assistants, Lai Da delegated authority to some ignorant rogues who proved far from satisfactory, cheating him and sending in false accusations or recommendations. But we need not dwell here on all the trouble they caused.
As other official families were now disbanding their private opera troupes, Madam You and the others decided that when Lady Wang came home they would suggest dispensing with the services of their twelve child-actresses too.
‘We bought those girls,’ they told her, ‘so even if we stop training them we can keep them on as maids, just dismissing their instructors.’
‘We can’t treat them as servants,’ objected Lady Wang. ‘They’re the daughters of respectable families, whose parents being unable to make a living sold them into this low trade to dress up as ghosts and demons for several years. Here’s our chance to give them a few taels of silver as travelling-expenses would be unkind, and niggardly too. We still have a few old actresses here, it’s true, but they had their own reasons for not wanting to leave, which is why we kept them on as attendants and even¬tually married them to our own servants.’
‘Let’s find out which of these twelve girls want to go home,’ pro¬posed Madam You. ‘Then we can send word to their parents to come and fetch them and give them a few taels of silver as travelling-expenses. But we must make sure that it’s their parents who come for them, not some scoundrels who pretend to be their kinsmen and take them off merely to sell them all over again. For in that case, wouldn’t our kindness come to nothing? Anyone who doesn’t want to leave can stay.’
When Lady Wang approved, Madam You sent to inform Xifeng and ordered the steward in charge to give each of the instructors an eight-tael gratuity with free permission to leave. Everything in Pear Fragrance Court was inventoried and put away, and some servants were appointed to guard the place at night.
More than half the twelve young actresses, when summoned and ques¬tioned, proved reluctant to go home. Some said that their parents were only out to make money, and if they went back they would be sold again; others that their parents were dead, and they had been sold by their uncles or their brothers; others that they had nowhere to go; yet others that they had no wish to leave this family which had been so good to them. In all, only four or five elected to leave.
When Lady Wang heard this she had to keep them. The few who chose to leave were instructed to stay with their foster-mothers until their own parents should come for them. Of those who chose to remain, Wenguan was kept by the Lady Dowager, most of the rest being sent to different apartments in the Garden. Fangguan who played the part of young ladies was assigned to Baoyu; Ruiguan who played pert maids to Baochai; Ouguan who played young gentlemen to Daiyu; Kuiguan who played the chief warriors to Xiangyun; Douguan who played lesser war¬riors to Baoqin; and Aiguan who played old men to Tanchun. Madam You then took Jiaguan whose role was old women.
Once places had been found for them, they were as merry the whole day long in the Garden as caged birds newly set free; for everyone showed them indulgence, knowing that they had never learned to sew or wait on other people. One or two of the more intelligent, however, were worried by their lack of useful skills now that they had given up acting; so they began to learn sewing, weaving and other tasks expected of girls.

Soon the day came for the great sacrifice at court. The Lady Dowa¬ger and her party went at dawn to the hostel, where they had some refreshments before proceeding to court. After breakfast they retired to the hostel for a short rest, returning to court after lunch and a nap for the noon and evening sacrifices, then going back for another rest and not returning home until after dinner. Their hostel, the family temple of a high official, had nuns in residence and scores of cells all of which were scrupulously clean. The Rong Mansion party had the use of the east court¬yard, the Prince of Beijing’s household that of the west. Since the Prin¬cess Dowager and the Princess Consorts also rested there every day, they daily met the Lady Dowager and her party in the east courtyard, and the two families travelled to court and back together, keeping each other company. But these happenings outside need not concern us.

To return to Grand View Garden. Since the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang were away for the whole month of the state funeral, the maid-servants at home had little to do but amuse themselves in the Garden, whose occupants were increased by several dozen now that the matrons from Pear Fragrance Court were dispersed among the different apart-ments there. Because Wenguan and most of the other actresses, owing to pride or their privileged position, had given themselves airs above their station, treated their inferiors badly, insisted on the best of everything and made cutting remarks, the matrons had always resented them, not that they dared to quarrel with them outright. Pleased by the disbanding of the opera troupe, some of them let bygones be bygones; and though the more narrow-minded still bore a grudge, they were too scattered now to ven¬ture to get their own back.
Now the Clear and Bright Festival came round again. Jia Lian, having prepared the traditional offerings, took Jia Huan, Jia Cong and Jia Lan to Iron Threshold Temple to sacrifice to the dead. Jia Rong of the Ning Mansion did the same with other young men of the clan. Baoyu, not yet fully recovered, was the only one not to go.
After the midday meal he felt drowsy.
‘Why not go out while it’s fine?’ suggested Xiren. ‘Sleeping straight after lunch may give you indigestion.’
So taking a cane he strolled out in his slippers.
He found the matrons recently put in charge of different parts of the Garden busy at their various tasks, pruning bamboos and trees, planting flowers or sowing beans, while others in boats dredged mud from the lake or planted lotus there. Xiangyun, Xiangling, Baoqin and several young maids were sitting on the rocks enjoying the sight.
As Baoyu sauntered towards them Xiangyun laughed.
‘Drive that boat away, quick!’ she cried. ‘It’s come to fetch Cousin Lin.’
The general laughter this raised made Baoyu blush.
‘Did I choose to fall ill?’ he retorted. ‘It’s not kind to make fun of me.
‘Even in illness you had to be unique,’ she teased. ‘How can you blame us for laughing?’
He sat down then to watch everyone hard at work.
‘There’s a wind here and it’s cold sitting on the rock,’ remarked Xiangyun presently. ‘We’d better go indoors.’
As Baoyu was eager to see Daiyu, he parted company with them and walked on with his cane along the dyke from Seeping Fragrance Bridge. The willows were trailing golden threads, peach-blossom made a red mist, and the big apricot tree behind an artificial mountain was already bare of flowers and covered with thick foliage. The apricots on it were no bigger than peas.
‘Just a few days’ illness and I missed the apricot-blossom,’ thought Baoyu. ‘Now ‘Green leaves make a shade and the boughs are filled with fruit.’
Lost in contemplation of the tree, he thought of Xiuyan and her recent engagement. Though marriage was something everyone must go through with, this would mean one good girl the less; in just a couple of years she would be burdened with children as this tree was with fruit; and just as the apricots would soon be gone, leaving the branches bare, in a few more years Xiuyan’s hair would be turning silver and she would lose her beauty too. He could not help shedding tears as he gazed at the tree. But as he was sighing, a bird alighting to chirp on one of its boughs set him indulging in foolish fancies again.
‘This bird must have visited the tree when it was in bloom,’ he mused. ‘Now that there are no flowers left, only fruit and leaves, it’s chirping like this by way of lamentation. Too bad Gongye Chang2 isn’t here to tell me what it’s saying. Will it come back next year to see the blossom, I wonder?’
As he was occupied with these foolish fancies, a flame sprang up on the other side of the artificial mountain and frightened the bird away.
Startled, Baoyu heard a voice cry, ‘Do you want to die, Ouguan? How can you burn all this paper money here? I shall report this to the mistresses, so look out for a thrashing!’
Baoyu hurried in bewilderment to the other side of the rockery. There he discovered Ouguan, her face stained with tears, crouching over the ashes of some paper money, a light still in her hand.
‘To whom are you making this offering?’ he asked. ‘You mustn’t do it here. If it’s for your parents or brothers, tell me their names and I’ll write them down on paper and get the page boys outside to do it properly for you.’
Ouguan said nothing to this, not even when Baoyu repeated his ques¬tion. Then up came an irate matron to drag her away.
‘I’ve reported this to the mistresses. They’re very angry!’ she scolded.
Ouguan, being only a child, hung back for fear of being put to shame.
‘I always said you were riding for a fall,’ stormed the woman. ‘You can’t fool around here the way you did outside. You have to watch your
step.’ Pointing at Baoyu she continued, ‘Even our young master has to observe the rules. Who do you think you are to fool around here? It’s no use being afraid. Come along with me.’
‘She wasn’t burning paper coins but waste paper for Miss Lin,’ put in Baoyu quickly. ‘You didn’t see clearly and accused her wrongly.’
Ouguan had been at a loss, and Baoyu’s appearance had frightened her even more; but she took heart when he covered up for her like this and started defending herself.
‘Just look, is this paper money?’ she demanded. ‘Miss Lin spoiled some paper when writing ‘ that’s what I’ve been burning.’
The woman, even more provoked by this, stooped to pick up two unburned paper coins from the ashes.
‘Still trying to deny it?’ she snapped. ‘Here’s the evidence. We’ll discuss it in front of the mistresses.’ She caught hold of the girl’s sleeve to drag her off.
Baoyu quickly pulled Ouguan back, knocking the woman’s hand away with his cane.
‘Take that if you want to,’ he said. ‘I’ll tell you the truth. Last night I dreamed that the spirit of the apricot tree came to ask me for a string of white paper money, saying that if it was burns for me by a stranger, not by anyone in my apartments, my sickness would be cured faster. That’s why I got this paper, then asked Miss Lin’s permission to have her come and burn it for me to make my dream come true. It had to be kept a secret, and I was just beginning to feel better, able to get out of bed. But now, by butting in like this, you’ve gone and spoiled everything. And do you still mean to report her? Go with her, Ouguan, and tell them what I’ve just said. When the old lady comes back, I’ll report her for deliber¬ately spoiling my sacrifice so as to make me die early.’
Emboldened by this, Ouguan started tugging the woman away. The latter hastily dropped the paper money.
‘How was Ito know?’ she asked Baoyu meekly. ‘If you tell the old lady, Second Master, it will be the end of me! I’ll go and tell the mis¬tresses that I made a mistake ‘ it was you burning sacrificial paper.’
‘Don’t say anything about it and I won’t tell her,’ he promised.
‘But I’ve already reported it, and they ordered me to take her there.
How can I say nothing? All right, I’ll tell them Miss Lin sent for her.’
Baoyu thought for a while then nodded, and the woman went away.
Then he asked again: ‘Whom was the offering for? I’m sure it can’t have been for your own people, as in that case you’d have asked others to burn it for you. There must be a story behind it.’
Ouguan, grateful for his championship, began to feel that they were kindred spirits. Tears sprang to her eyes.
‘Only two people know this,’ she said, ‘Fangguan in your place and Miss Baochai’s Ruiguan. As you happened to spot me today and you’ve just helped me, I shall have to let you into my secret. You mustn’t tell a soul though.’ Then, sobbing again, she added, ‘I can’t bring myself to tell you. If you must know, go back and ask Fangguan when no one else is about.’ With that she went abruptly away.
Baoyu was very puzzled as he went on to Bamboo Lodge. He found Daiyu looking more pathetically frail than ever, although she insisted that her health was much better. She saw that he too was much thinner, and could not help shedding tears at the thought of the reason. After a brief chat she urged him to go back and rest, and Baoyu took her advice, being eager to question Fangguan. But it so happened that Xiangyun and Xiangling had called and were chatting with her and Xiren. He could not call her aside for fear of arousing their curiosity. All he could do was to wait.
After a while Fangguan went out with her foster-mother to have her hair washed. When the woman made her own daughter wash first, Fangguan accused her of showing favouritism.
‘So I’m to wash with the water your daughter has used, am I?’ she complained. ‘You grab my whole monthly allowance, and on top of tak¬ing advantage of me like that expect me to be content with other people’s leavings!’
‘You don’t know when you’re well off, you wretch,’ blustered the discomfited woman. ‘No wonder everyone says: ‘Don’t tangle with actresses’; even the best of them go to the bad once they take to the stage. Who do you think you are, you little monkey, to pick and choose like this and give me the rough side of your tongue? You’re like a mule biting its mates.’
Then the two of them started quarrelling in earnest.
Xiren sent a maid to urge them, ‘Stop that noise. Can’t you keep quiet when the old lady’s away?’
‘Fangguan’s too fussy,’ said Qingwen. ‘Why should she be so cocky? All she’s done is sing in a couple of operas; she’s not killed a traitor or captured a rebel chief.’
‘‘You can’t clap with one hand,’’ quoted Xiren. ‘The old one’s too unfair and the young one’s too tiresome.’
‘You mustn’t blame Fangguan,’ Baoyu expostulated. ‘As the prov¬erb says, ‘Injustice will cry out.’ She has no folk of her own, no one to care for her here; and that woman takes her money yet still treats her so badly. How can you say it’s her fault?’ He asked Xiren, ‘How much is her monthly allowance? Why don’t you take it and look after her? Wouldn’t that save trouble all round?’
‘If I want to look after her, I can anyway. Why should I need her bit of money to do it?’ replied Xiren. ‘That would simply set tongues wag¬ging.’
She got up and fetched from her room a bottle of scent and pomade, as well as some eggs, soap and hair-ribbons.
‘Give these to Fangguan,’ she told one of the matrons. ‘Tell her to send for some more water to wash her hair. They must stop quarrelling.’
This only incensed and humiliated the foster-mother even more.
‘You ungrateful slut,’ she swore at Fangguan. ‘So now you’re ac¬cusing me of robbing you!’ She slapped the girl and set her wailing.
Baoyu started towards the outer room, but Xiren hastily stopped him.
‘Stay where you are,’ she urged. ‘I’ll see to this.’
Qingwen had already gone out to confront the woman, however.
‘Old as you are, you have no sense,’ she scolded. ‘We only gave her those things because you don’t take proper care of her. But instead of feeling ashamed of yourself, you have the nerve to slap her! Would you dare do such a thing if she were still training in the opera troupe?’
‘She accepted me as her mother, so she’s my daughter,’ was the reply. ‘If she talks back at me, I’ve the right to beat her.’
Xiren told Sheyue, ‘I’m no good at arguing, and Qingwen’s too hot¬-tempered. Why don’t you go and give her a good scare?’
Sheyue at once went out.
‘Stop that noise and answer me this,’ she said to the woman. ‘In all the Garden, not just these apartments, which servant have you ever seen reprimand her children in the master’s rooms? Even if she were your own daughter, once she’s in service here it’s up to the master or the senior girls to punish her or scold her. It’s not for her parents to meddle with our affairs. If everybody butted in like you, what are we here sup¬posed to do? The older you get, the less you respect the rules.
‘You saw Zhuier’s ma make a scene here the other day, so now you’re following suit. Well, just you wait! These last few days, with so many people ill and the old lady so busy, I haven’t reported this yet. In a couple of days I shall make a full report, and that will take the wind out of your sails. Baoyu’s just getting better, and we’ve all been trying to keep our voices down; yet you raise a rumpus fit to wake the dead. If the higher-ups are away just a few days, you lot run completely wild with no respect for anyone at all. In another day or two, I suppose, you’ll be slapping us as well. She doesn’t need a foster-mother like you to muck her up!’
Baoyu, in the doorway, pounded the sill with his cane.
‘How can these old women be so heartless?’ he fumed. ‘Fantastic! Instead of looking after the girls in their charge, they torment them. If this goes on, what’s to be done?’
‘What’s to be done?’ echoed Qingwen. ‘Drive all those humbugs out, I say. We don’t need such good-for-nothings here.’
The woman was too deflated to say a word. Meanwhile Fangguan, wearing only a cerise padded jacket and flowered green silk lined-trou¬sers, loose round the ankles, her glossy black hair streaming over her shoulders, had given way to floods of tears.
Sheyue teased, ‘Miss Yingying has turned into Hongniang after a beating.3 Although you’re not on the stage now, you look just like her. Aren’t you going to tidy yourself up?’
‘No, she’s fine as she is,’ objected Baoyu. ‘She looks completely natural. Why should she spruce up?’
Qingwen led Fangguan away to wash her hair and dry it with a towel for her, after which she fastened it in a loose knot. Then she told her to change her clothes before rejoining them.
The old kitchen-maids now reported that dinner was ready, and asked whether it should be sent in or not. A young maid brought in this message to Xiren.
‘With all that racket just now I forgot to listen for the clock,’ she said. ‘What time is it?’
‘Something’s wrong with that silly clock, it needs mending again,’ answered Qingwen. Having looked at a watch she said, ‘Just wait for the time for half a cup of tea.’
As the young maid withdrew, Sheyue remarked, ‘Fangguan does deserve a spanking for being naughty. She was playing with the pendu¬lum yesterday; that’s how the clock got broken.’ While speaking she laid the table.
The young maid came back with a hamper for their inspection. And Qingwen and Sheyue, opening it, found the usual four kinds of pickles inside.
‘He’s better now, but they keep serving this rice gruel and pickles,’ grumbled Qingwen. ‘Why not send a couple of easily digested dishes instead?’
Just then, however, at the bottom of the hamper, she discovered a bowl of ham-and-fresh-bamboo-shoot soup. She put this before Baoyu, who took a sip.
‘It’s too hot!’ he exclaimed.
Xiren laughed.
‘A few days without meat and you’ve grown so greedy!’
She took the bowl and blew gently at the film of oil on the surface. Then, noticing Fangguan standing near by, she passed the bowl to her.
‘You can do this, ‘ she said. ‘Time you learned to make yourself useful, instead of acting like a silly goose. Mind you blow gently though. Don’t spit into the soup.’
Fangguan did as she was told, and was managing quite well, when in rushed her foster-mother who had been waiting outside with the rice.
Now when Fangguan and the others first arrived they had been as¬signed foster-mothers outside, who had later accompanied them to Pear Fragrance Court. This woman had originally been a third-class servant in the Rong Mansion, only doing some laundry work and never entering the inner apartments, so that she did not know the rules of the house. Once the actresses were taken into the Garden, however, their foster-mothers had gone with them to the different apartments. After being told off by Sheyue, this woman was afraid that she might not be allowed to remain in charge of Fangguan, and that would be very much to her disadvantage. So she was determined now to win them round. Seeing Fangguan blow¬ing on the soup, she hurried in.
‘Let me do that!’ she cried with a smile. ‘She’s so green she may break the bowl.’ She reached out for it.
‘Get out!’ shouted Qingwen. ‘Even if you make her smash it, this is no job for you. How dare you sneak into this room? Out you go at once!’ She scolded the younger maids, ‘Are you all blind? If she doesn’t know any better, you should have told her.’
‘We tried to chase her away but she wouldn’t go,’ they protested. ‘She didn’t believe us. And now she’s got us into trouble too.’ They rounded on the woman. ‘Now do you believe us? Half the places we’re allowed in are out of bounds to you, yet here you come bursting in where even we are forbidden to go. As if that weren’t enough, you start reach¬ing out and opening your big mouth!’ They bundled the woman off.
The matrons waiting at the foot of the steps for the hampers greeted her with mocking laughter.
‘You should have looked in the mirror before butting in there, sister,’ one of them sniggered.
The woman, torn between rage and shame, had to control herself as best she could.
By now, Fangguan had blown on the soup several times.
‘That’ 11 do,’ said Baoyu. ‘Don’t tire yourself. Taste it to see if it’s cool enough.’
Thinking he must be joking, she turned with a smile to Xiren and the other girls.
‘Go on, taste it,’ urged Xiren.
‘Let me show you,’ offered Qingwen, then took a sip.
Fangguan followed her example.
‘It’s all right,’ she said.
She passed the soup to Baoyu, who drank half a bowl and ate a few bamboo shoots with half a bowl of rice gruel. After that they cleared the table, some young maids brought in a basin, and as soon as he had rinsed his mouth and washed it was time for Xiren and the others to have their meal.
Baoyu signalled at this point to Fangguan. And since she was quick in the uptake and had learned a good deal in her few years as an actress, she pretended that she had a headache and had lost her appetite.
‘Then you may as well stay here and keep him company,’ said Xiren. ‘I’ll leave you the gruel, in ease you feel like it later.’ With that the other girls left.
When the two of them were alone, Baoyu described in detail how he had noticed something burning and spotted Ouguan, how he had lied to cover up for her, and how Ouguan had told him to ask her, Fangguan, for an explanation.
‘For whom were those offerings?’ he asked.
Fangguan heard him out with a smile, then heaved a sigh.
‘‘It’s a funny business but pathetic too.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘That offering was for Diguan, who died.’
‘Why not, if they were friends?’
‘They weren’t just ordinary friends. Ouguan had the fantastic notion that as she used to play young men and Diguan young ladies, and as they were often cast as husband and wife, although it was make-believe they should act the part every day as if they were really in love. So they became so crazy about each other that even offstage they were for ever together. In the end they were so devoted that when Diguan died she nearly cried her heart out, and to this day she’s never forgotten her. That’s why she burns paper money at all the festivals. When Ruiguan later took Diguan’s place, we found that Ouguan was just as attached to her.
‘‘Has your new sweetheart made you forget the old one?’ we asked.
‘‘No, but there’s a very good reason for this,’ she told us. ‘I’m like a widower who marries again. If he doesn’t forget his first wife, he’s still true to her. But if he insists on remaining single all the rest of his life, that’s against the rules of propriety too, and how could his dead wife rest in peace in her grave?’
‘Don’t you call that crazy and senseless? It’s really ridiculous!’
However, such foolish talk was precisely the kind to appeal to foolish Baoyu. He exclaimed in wonder, torn between sadness and joy.
‘Since Heaven creates such wonderful girls, what use are we filthy males except to contaminate the world?’ he cried.
He took Fangguan’s hand and urged her, ‘If that’s how things are, you must tell her something from me. I can’t very well tell her directly.’
‘What is it?’ asked Fangguan.
‘In future, she mustn’t burn paper coins. That’s a later practice and a heretical one, not based on the instructions of Confucius. At all future festivals she need only burn some incense in a censer; and if her heart is pure, Diguan’s spirit will know it. Foolish people don’t understand and have different sorts of sacrifices for the gods, Buddha and the dead; whereas actually the important thing is just sincerity. Even if you’re in a hurry, or away from home and unable to find incense, you can offer a clod of earth or a blade of grass, provided that it’s clean. Not only will the spirits of the dead accept such a sacrifice, even the gods will too.
‘Haven’t you seen that censer on my desk? Whenever I miss some dead friend, whatever the date, I burn incense and offer some fresh wa¬ter or tea, or maybe flowers or fruit, or even meat or vegetables. As long as your heart is pure, Buddha himself will come to the sacrifice. That’s why we say: ‘It’s the intention that counts, not the empty form.’ So go presently and tell her not to burn any more paper money in future.’
Fangguan promised to do this and then ate the rice gruel.
Just at that moment someone announced that Their Ladyships were back. To know what happened after, read the next chapter.

Chapter 59

Yinger and Chunyan Are Scolded
by Willow Bank
And Red Rue Studio Sends
for Reinforcements


Baoyu put on a coat and went over with his cane to pay his respects to Their Ladyships. Tired out after their recent exertions, they went to bed unusually early and after an uneventful night returned to the court at dawn.
The day for the funeral cortege to set off to the Imperial Tombs was now approaching. Yuanyang, Hupo, Feicui and Boli were busy packing the Lady Dowager’s things while Yuchuan, Caiyun and Caixia packed for Lady Wang, after which they checked through the baggage with the stewards’ wives who would be accompanying their mistresses. Six maids and ten stewards’ wives in all would be going, in addition to men-ser¬vants; but Yuanyang and Yuchuan were to stay behind to see to things at home. Horse-borne litters and harness had been made ready. And the curtains and bedding which had been prepared a few days previously were taken on ahead in carts by four of five women and a few men to the hostel, ready for the main party’s arrival.
When the day came, the Lady Dowager and Jia Rong’s wife took a horse-borne litter, with Lady Wang behind in another, while Jia Zhen rode at the head of an escort of servants. There were several big carts too for serving-women and maids which also carried changes of clothing. Aunt Xue and Madam You, at the head of the rest of the household, saw them off from outside the main gate. And Jia Lian, to smooth their journey for them, having seen his parents off caught up with the litters and followed behind with the escort.
In the Rong Mansion, Lai Da posted extra night-watchmen and locked the two main gates so that the only way in or out was through the small west side gate; and at sunset he had the ceremonial gate closed, allowing no entrance or exit. The front and back side gates and those to the east and west of the Garden were also locked, except for that leading to the back of Lady Wang’s compound, which was used by the girls, and the gate on the east to Aunt Xue’s compound. These two, being in the inner court, did not have to be locked.
Inside, Yuanyang and Yuchuan also closed their mistresses’ main apartments, and took the other maids and matrons from there to stay in the servants’ quarters; while every night Lin Zhixiao’s wife brought some dozen old serving-women to keep watch, and all the entrance halls were patrolled by extra pages with clappers. In this way excellent order was maintained.

Early one spring morning when Baochai awoke, parted her bed-cur¬tains and got up, she found it rather chilly. She opened the door and looked out. The soil in the courtyard was moist, the moss on it green, for a light rain had fallen at dawn. She then woke Xiangyun and the others.
As they were dressing, Xiangyun remarked that her cheeks itched. She was afraid she had a spring rash again, and would like some rose-nitric powder to apply to it.
‘I gave all I had left the other day to Baoqin,’ Baochai told her. ‘Daiyu had a good deal made and I was meaning to ask her for some, but not having felt any itching this spring I forgot.’ She ordered Yinger to go and fetch some of this powder.
As Yinger was about to leave on this errand, Ruiguan offered to go with her, as that would give her a chance to see Ouguan. So the two of them set off from Alpinia Park.
Chatting as they strolled, the girls soon reached Willow Bank. As they walked along it they saw that the willows, now turning green, seemed hung with golden threads.
‘Can you weave things out of osiers?’ Yinger asked.
‘What sort of things?’
‘Oh, anything ‘ little toys or useful objects. Wait till I’ve picked a few twigs with leaves and I’ll make a basket to fill with different flow¬ers. That should be fun.’
So instead of fetching the powder, Yinger plucked an armful of tender twigs which she made Ruiguan carry, and started to weave a basket as on they walked, stopping now and then to pick flowers. The dainty little basket was soon completed. Covered with its own fresh green leaves and filled with flowers, it made a charming and original toy. Ruiguan was delighted with it.
‘Do be a dear and give it to me!’ she begged.
‘No, this is for Miss Lin. We’ll pick more to make some for the rest of us later.’
By now they had reached Bamboo Lodge, where they found Daiyu at her toilet. At sight of the basket she exclaimed with pleasure.
‘Who made this pretty thing?’
‘I did,’ said Yinger. ‘It’s a present for you, miss.’
Daiyu took it, remarking, ‘No wonder everyone says you have clever fingers. This is really original.’ After examining it she made Zijuan hang it up.
Yinger, having asked after Aunt Xue, disclosed her errand. Then Daiyu got Zijuan to wrap up a packet of the powder for her.
‘I’m better today,’ remarked Daiyu. ‘I mean to go for a stroll. Go back and tell Cousin Baochai there’s no need for her to come and pay her respects to Aunt Xue or trouble to call on me either. As soon as I’ve done my hair, we’re both going, over to your place. We shall have our breakfast taken over there too. It will be livelier having it together.’
Yinger assented, then went to Zijuan’s room where she found Ruiguan unwilling to leave, so engrossed was she in her conversation with Ouguan.
‘Miss Daiyu is coming to our place,’ Yinger told them. ‘Why not come with us, Ouguan, and wait for her there?’
‘That’s a good idea,’ said Zijuan. ‘She’s just a nuisance here.’ She wrapped up Daiyu’s spoon and chopsticks in a table napkin and gave it to Ouguan saying, ‘Here’s a job for you. Take this along first.’
Ouguan went off cheerfully with the other two. As they walked along Willow Bank, Yinger picked some more twigs, then sat down on a rock to plait them, telling Ruiguan to deliver the powder first and then come back. But the two other girls were too intrigued by what she was making to leave. To hurry them she threatened:
‘If you don’t go now, I’ll stop.’
‘I’ll go with you,’ volunteered Ouguan. ‘Then we can hurry back.’
And with that they went off.
Presently along came Mother He’s young daughter Chunyan, who wanted to know what Yinger was making. Just at that moment the other girls returned.
‘What was that paper you were burning the other day when my aunt spotted you?’ Chunyan asked Ouguan. ‘Before she could report you, Baoyu gave her such a dressing-down that she went off in a huff and told my mother all about it. What feud did you have with them those few years in the troupe outside the Garden that you’re still at loggerheads?’
‘What feud?’ Ouguan snorted. ‘There’s just no satisfying them they’re for ever nagging at us. Not to mention anything else, goodness knows how much they made the last two years out of our daily food allowance outside ‘ more than enough to feed their own families ‘ in addition to their rake off on purchases. Yet any job we give them, they complain to high heaven. What sort of behaviour is that?’
Chunyan smiled.
‘She’s my aunt, so I can’t run her down to outsiders. But no wonder Baoyu says: ‘A girl before marriage is a precious pearl; after marriage, she somehow picks up all sorts of bad habits so that the pearl loses its lustre -- it’s a dead pearl; and as she grows still older, the pearl changes into a fish-eye. What a metamorphosis!’
‘That’s silly talk maybe, still there’s something in it. I don’t know about other people, but as for my mother and her sister, my aunt, it’s true that the older they grow the madder they get for money. First, at home, the two of them groused that they had no fat jobs; then luckily there was this Garden and I happened to be assigned to Happy Red Court; so apart from saving my keep, the family got four or five hundred cash extra a month. But they still said that wasn’t enough. Later both were assigned to Pear Fragrance Court to look after the actresses. My aunt had Ouguan as her foster-daughter; my mother, Fangguan; so for the last few years they were in clover. Since the actresses have moved into the Garden, they’ve been living separately, but they’re still just as greedy. Ridiculous, isn’t it?
‘The other day my aunt scolded Ouguan; then my mother squabbled with Fangguan ‘ wouldn’t even let her wash her hair. Yesterday being pay-day, my mother got Fangguan’s monthly allowance. As she couldn’t get out of buying her some things, she told me I could wash first. I thought: I’ve my own monthly allowance, and even if I hadn’t I could wash my hair any time simply by asking Xiren, Qingwen or Sheyue. Why should I accept this as a favour? How futile! When I refused, she made my younger sister Xiaojiu wash before Fangguan. Then naturally there was a row. And next she wanted to blow on Baoyu’s soup ‘ it’s enough to make you split your sides laughing.
‘As soon as she came in here I told her the rules; but she didn’t believe me, insisted she knew better. She’s simply been asking for a snub. It’s a good thing there are so many people in the Garden that no one remembers different relationships clearly. If they did, and it appeared that ours was the only quarrelsome family, I’d feel bad about these squabbles.
‘Now you’re playing about here where everything’s in the charge of my paternal aunt, who’s stricter about it, ever since it was put in her care, than about her own property. Apart from getting up early and turn¬ing in late so as to watch over it, she makes us keep an eye on things too for fear any damage is done, interfering, I’m afraid, with my own work. Now that they’ve both moved in here, the two sisters-in-law keep such a careful watch, they won’t allow a single blade of grass to be touched; yet you’ve plucked all these flowers and twigs! They’ll be here any minute now ‘ you’d better watch out!’
‘Others may not be allowed to pick what they like, but I am,’ retorted Yinger. ‘After the different places were allotted, each household was assigned its share of the produce. Not counting edibles, just take flowers for example. Those in charge have to send some over every day for the young ladies and maids to wear, as well as to put in their vases. My young lady was the only one who told them not to send any. She said she’d ask for what she needed, but in fact she never once has. So how can they scold me for picking a few flowers now?’
While she was still speaking, sure enough, along came Chunyan’s aunt leaning on her cane. Yinger and Chunyan at once urged her to be seated. The sight of all the willow twigs and flowers which Ouguan and the others had picked vexed the woman, but not liking to say anything against Yinger, who was making a basket, she rounded on her niece.
‘I told you to keep an eye on things, but you take that as a chance to play around and not go back to your apartments. When they want you there, you say you’ve been working for me. Using me as your cover, eh?’
‘You order me about yet you’re afraid, and now you’re scolding me,’ protested Chunyan. ‘I can’t be everywhere at once, can I?’
‘Don’t you believe her, aunt,’ chuckled Yinger. ‘She was the one who picked all these and asked me to make her a basket. When I tried to chase her away, she wouldn’t go.’
‘Don’t talk such nonsense!’ cried Chunyan. ‘My aunt can’t take a joke, she’ll believe you.
Indeed, her aunt had been born stupid, and now that age had addled her wits her one interest in life was money: she had no consideration at all for others. Inwardly fuming, she had not known how to retaliate until Yinger made this joke. Now, presuming on her seniority, she raised her cane and struck her niece several blows.
‘Little bitch!’ she swore. ‘I’ll teach you to talk back! Your mother’s grinding her teeth, itching to tear you to pieces and chew you up. Yet you still answer me back in that pert way!’
Hurt and humiliated, Chunyan sobbed, ‘Sister Yinger was only joking, yet you believed her and beat me. Why should my mother be angry? I’ve not boiled away her water or burned her pan. What have I done wrong?’
Yinger, seeing that her teasing had really angered the woman, now caught her by the arm.
‘I was only joking,’ she said soothingly. ‘By beating her you make me feel bad too.’
‘Don’t meddle with our affairs, miss,’ snapped the other. ‘Can’t we punish our own children just because you’re here?’
This stupid gibe made Yinger flush with anger. She let go of the woman with a scornful laugh.
‘You can punish her any time you please. Why do it just after I make a joke? All right ‘ go ahead.’
With that she sat down again and was going on making her basket when who should appear but Chunyan’s mother in search of her daughter.
‘Why haven’t you fetched water yet?’ she called. ‘What are you doing there?’
‘Come and look at this minx!’ her sister-in-law chimed in. ‘She won’t obey even me. She keeps answering back.’
Mother He came over to them.
‘Now what’s the girl up to?’ she demanded. ‘You may have no respect for your own mother, but you should at least show some respect to your aunt.’
Yinger tried to explain what had happened, but Chunyan’s aunt would not let her get a word in. Pointing to the flower basket on the rock she fumed:
‘See!  Your girl’s not a child any more, yet she still fools about. When she brings people here to wreck the place, how can I tell them off?’
Mother He’s tiff with Fangguan still rankled, and Chunyan’s way¬wardness made her even angrier. Stepping forward she boxed her ears.
‘You bitch!’ she cried. ‘A few years in high society and you imitate the ways of those loose women. I’ll have to teach you a lesson. I may not be able to control my foster-child but you’re my own spawn. I’m not afraid of you! Even if I can’t go where you young bitches go, why don’t you stay put there, waiting on your mistress? Why gad about outside so shamelessly?’ Grabbing the osiers she brandished them in Chunyan’s face. ‘What’s this you’re making? Your mother’s arse?’
‘We made that,’ cut in Yinger. ‘Don’t ‘scold the locust while point¬ing at the mulberry’.’
Mother He was eaten up with jealousy of senior maids such as Xiren and Qingwen, who had more prestige and authority in the different com¬pounds than she. Fearing them and forced to defer to them, she could only work off her rage and resentment on others. Now the sight of Ouguan, to whom her sister had such an aversion, added fuel to the fire of the anger.
Chunyan set off in tears to Happy Red Court. Afraid that if ques¬tioned she would explain why she was crying and make Qingwen angry again, her mother shouted frantically:
‘Come back! I’ve something to tell you.’
But Chunyan kept right on. Her mother in desperation chased after her. When the girl turned and saw her, she broke into a run; then Mother He, in hot pursuit, slipped on the moss and fell ‘ at which the other three girls burst out laughing.
In disgust, Yinger tossed all her flowers and twigs into the stream and went back to her room, while Chunyan’s aunt crossly invoked the aid of Buddha.
‘May a thunderbolt strike the wicked little bitch, spoiling all those flowers!’ she swore. She then picked more flowers to take to the vari¬ous apartments.
Meanwhile Chunyan, running into Happy Red Court, bumped into Xiren setting off to call on Daiyu. She caught hold of her, begging:
‘Save me, miss! My mother’s beating me again.
Annoyed to see Mother He close behind, Xiren said, ‘You beat your foster-daughter one day, your own daughter the next. Are you showing off how many daughters you have? Or do you really not know the rules here?’
The woman, although only recently come to the Garden, had sized up Xiren as quiet and good-tempered.
‘You don’t understand, miss, so don’t meddle in our affairs,’ she retorted. ‘You’re the ones who spoil them. Just mind your own busi¬ness.
She chased after Chunyan then to beat her again. While Xiren indig¬nantly turned back into the courtyard. Sheyue, hanging up handkerchiefs under the crab-apple tree, had overheard the commotion.
‘Never mind her, sister,’ she said. ‘What can she do?’
She signed to Chunyan, who took the hint and ran straight to Baoyu.
‘Well, wonders will never cease!’ declared the maids.
Sheyue urged the woman, ‘Steady on. Do us a favour, won’t you, and calm down.’
Mother He saw that her daughter had darted up to Baoyu, who had taken her hand.
‘Don’t be afraid; I’ll protect you,’ he promised her.
Chunyan told him tearfully all that had just happened to her and Yinger. This only made Baoyu more exasperated.
‘Why not simply fool about here?’ he asked. ‘Why must you even annoy our relative?’
Sheyue observed to the company at large, ‘We can’t blame her for telling us not to meddle in their business. Not knowing the facts, we’ve no right to interfere. We’d better ask someone who can cope to come and deal with this. That’s the only way to convince her and teach her manners.’ She turned and ordered a young maid, ‘Go and fetch Pinger here. If she’s busy, ask Mrs. Lin to come.
As the little girl left on this errand, the older servant-maids gathered round Mother He.
‘Quick, sister!’ they urged. ‘Ask the young ladies to call that child back. If Miss Pinger comes, you’re in for trouble.’
‘Whichever Miss Pinger comes I must have justice,’ blustered the woman. ‘No one has any right to stop a mother teaching her own daugh¬ter a lesson.’
‘Don’t you know who this Miss Pinger is?’ the others retorted. ‘She’s the one in Madam Lian’s household. If she’s in a good mood she may let you off with a short scolding. If she’s in a bad mood, sister, you’re in for it!’
The little maid came back at this point to report, ‘Miss Pinger’s busy just now. When she asked what had happened and I told her, she said:
‘In that case drive her out, and tell Mrs. Lin to give her forty strokes with a cane at the side gate. ‘‘
Dismissal was the last thing Mother He wanted. Tears streaming down her cheeks, she pleaded with Xiren and the rest:
‘It wasn’t easy for me to get this job. I’m a lone widow doing my very best to serve you all faithfully here and save my family a little ex¬pense. If I leave, I shall have to fend for myself and won’t be able to manage.’
Seeing the state she was in, Xiren relented.
‘You want to stay yet won’t keep the rules or do as you’re told, beating people right and left,’ she said. ‘How did we come to take on someone so stupid? These endless rows make people laugh at us.’
‘Don’t listen to her, ‘put in Qingwen. ‘Send her packing, that’s the only thing to do. Who has the time to argue with her?’
‘Be kind!’ the woman pleaded. ‘Lay up virtue in heaven! I was wrong, but in future I’ll do whatever you young ladies tell me.’ She prompted Chunyan, ‘This comes of my beating you. Not really beating you either, yet now I’m the one smarting for it. Put in a good word for me too.,’
Baoyu took pity on her then and agreed to let her stay on.
‘But no more of these scenes!’ he warned her.
After thanking them each in turn, Mother He left. And then Pinger arrived on the scene to ask what had happened.
‘It’s all over now,’ Xiren told her. ‘We can forget it.’
Pinger smiled.
‘It’s best to be easy on people ‘ saves trouble,’ she approved. ‘The mistresses have been away for a few days only, yet we’ve heard of nothing but squabbles of all sorts in every household ‘ before one’s over the next one crops up. I just don’t know how I’m to cope.
‘I thought we were the only ones,’ remarked Xiren. ‘I didn’t know there’d been other rows too.’
‘This business of yours is nothing,’ rejoined Pinger. ‘I was just listing to Madam You all the troubles there’ve been in the last three or four days ‘ eight or nine of them big and small. This little tiff of yours is nothing ‘ it doesn’t count. There’ve been far more serious or ridicu¬lous rows.’
Xiren asked what she was referring to. To know Pinger’s answer you must read the next chapter.

Chapter 60

Jasmine Powder Is Substituted for
Rose-Nitric Powder
Rose Flavoured Juice Is Repaid
with Pachyma Cocos


Xiren asked Pinger what trouble there had been.
‘Oh, a lot of nonsense that no one could conceive of!’ was the reply. ‘I’ll tell you some other day. Right now I’m too busy, and things aren’t straightened out either.’
As she was speaking, in came a maid sent by Li Wan.
‘Is Sister Pinger here?’ she asked. ‘My mistress is waiting for you. ‘What’s keeping you?’
‘Coming, coming!’ responded Pinger, hurrying out.
Xiren and the others commented jokingly, ‘With her mistress ill she’s in such great demand, everyone’s trying to grab her.’
Once Pinger had gone, Baoyu suggested to Chunyan, ‘Why not take your mother over to Miss Baochai’s place to say a few kind words to Yinger, so that she doesn’t feel too wronged.’
Chunyan agreed to this, going out with her mother, and Baoyu called again to her through the window, ‘Mind you don’t mention it in front of Miss Baochai, or Yinger may get scolded instead!’
Mother He and her daughter assented and left, chatting as they walked along.
‘I kept telling you, ma, but you never believed me,’ said Chunyan. ‘Why land yourself in trouble like this?’
‘Go on, you little bitch,’ chuckled her mother. ‘As the proverb says: ‘We learn from experience.’ I understand now, so don’t keep on at me.
‘If you’d just know your place and mind your own business here, ma, in the long run you’d gain a whole lot by it,’ went on Chunyan. ‘Let me tell you something: Baoyu often says that he’s going to ask the mistress to send all of us working here ‘ whether inside or outside back to our own parents. Isn’t that fine?’
‘Did he really say that?’ her mother asked eagerly.
‘Why should anyone tell such a lie?’ Chunyan retorted. ‘Buddha be praised! Buddha be praised!’ cried her mother. When they reached Alpinia Park, Baochai, Daiyu and Aunt Xue were having a meal. As Yinger had gone to make tea, the two of them went straight to find her.
‘I was talking too wildly just now,’ said Mother He ingratiatingly. ‘Please don’t hold it against me, miss. I’ve come now specially to apolo¬gize.’
Yinger, smiling, offered them seats and poured them some tea. But saying that they had business they took their leave and were starting back when Ruiguan hurried out after them.
‘Auntie! Sister!’ she called. ‘Wait a minute.’
Coming up to them she gave them a packet, explaining that this was some rose-nitric powder for Fangguan.
‘How small-minded of you, really!’ chuckled Chunyan.
‘Do you imagine she can’t get this in our place that you have to send her a packet?’
‘What she gets there is one thing,’ retorted Ruiguan, ‘but this is a present from me. Do take it back for her.’
Chunyan had to accept it then. When she and her mother got back, Jia Huan and Jia Cong had just called to see Baoyu.
‘I’ll go in by myself, ma,’ said Chunyan. ‘You’d better keep out.’ Her mother, now completely under her thumb, did not venture to op¬pose her.
When Baoyu saw that Chunyan was back he nodded to her and she took the hint, holding her tongue. After standing there for a few minutes she turned and went out, signalling to Fangguan to join her, then quietly told her what Ruiguan had said and handed over the powder.
Baoyu, having nothing to say to Cong and Huan, asked Fangguan presently what she had in her hand; and readily showing it to him she explained that it was rose-nitric powder for a spring rash.
‘It was kind of her to think of it,’ he remarked.
Jia Huan hearing this craned his neck to have a look, and when he smelt how fragrant the powder was he stooped to pull a sheet of paper out of his boot.
‘Give me half of it. won’t you, good brother?’ he wheedled.
Baoyu felt obliged to comply, but Fangguan was unwilling to part with a gift from Ruiguan.
‘Don’t you touch this!’ she cried. ‘I’ll fetch you some from else¬where.’
Baoyu smiled understandingly as he wrapped the powder up again.
‘Bring it quickly then,’ he said.
Fangguan took the packet and put it away, then went to her dressing-case to look for her own powder. When she opened the case, however, she found the box empty. ‘There was still some this morning. Where has it all gone?’ she wondered. The other maids when questioned did not know.
‘Why try to track it down just now?’ asked Sheyue. ‘Someone in this place must have run out of hers and taken it. Just give them some¬thing else, it doesn’t matter what they won’t know the difference. Hurry up and get rid of those boys so that we can have our meal.’
So Fangguan wrapped up a packet of jasmine powder and took it to Jia Huan; but when he eagerly held out his hand for it she tossed it on to the kang, forcing him to pick it up himself. Having put it in his pocket he took his leave.
In the absence of Jia Zheng, Lady Wang and the rest, Jia Huan had been playing truant from school for several days on the pretext of illness. Now that he had this powder he went off in high spirits to find Caiyun, who happened just then to be chatting with Concubine Zhao. Beaming, he told the girl:
‘I’ve got something good here for you to powder your face with. You’ve often said that rose-nitric powder is better for skin trouble than that nitric concoction bought outside. Have a look and see if this is the right stuff.’
Caiyun opened the packet and promptly burst out laughing.
‘Who gave you this?’ she asked.
Jia Huan explained how he had acquired it.
‘They were fooling you because you’re such a bumpkin,’ she chuckled. ‘This isn’t rose-nitric powder, it’s jasmine powder.’
Jia Huan examined it, and saw that it was pinker than the powder he had been shown, but equally fragrant.
‘Well, it’s good stuff just the same,’ he retorted. ‘Keep it to powder your face. It’s better than anything you can get outside.’
So Caiyun accepted it.
‘How could she give you anything good?’ sneered Concubine Zhao at this point. ‘Who told you to go there begging? No wonder they made a fool of you. If I were you, I’d take it back and throw it in her face. Now’s the time, while some have gone to the funeral and others are ill in bed, to raise a rumpus and let no one have any peace. This way we can get our own back. Two months from now they won’t rake it up again. Even if they do, you can have an answer ready. Baoyu is your elder brother, so if you don’t dare tackle him, never mind; but are you afraid of those cats and dogs in his place too?’
Jia Huan hung his head.
‘Why stir up more trouble?’ put in Caiyun quickly. ‘Whatever hap¬pens, we’d better put up with it.’
‘Don’t you barge in,’ retorted Concubine Zhao. ‘This has nothing to do with you. Better seize this chance, while we’ve got a good excuse, to bawl out those dirty bitches.’ Pointing at Jia Huan she spat out, ‘You spineless wretch, you deserve to be bullied by that scum! If I say a word against you or give you the wrong thing by mistake, you toss your head in a rage and throw a tantrum, your eyes popping out of your head; but now that these sluts make fun of you, you take it lying down. Do you expect anyone in this family to have any respect for you in future? You’re so useless, I blush for you.’
Jia Huan, though ashamed and annoyed, was afraid to do as she said. He brushed it aside.
‘You can talk, but you don’t dare go either,’ he muttered. ‘You just want me to go and have a row with them. If they report me to our school and I get a beating, of course you won’t feel the pain. Each time you’ve egged me on and trouble came of it so that I got beaten or cursed, you’ve always kept quiet. Now you’re egging me on again to quarrel with those servant-girls. Aren’t you afraid of Third Sister? If you have the guts to go, I’ll have more respect for you.
This touched his mother on the raw.
‘Why should I be afraid of a creature I spawned myself?’ she snapped. ‘If I were there’d be even more rows here.’
She grabbed the packet and dashed off towards the Garden. Caiyun, unable to stop her no matter how hard she tried, made herself scarce while Jia Huan slipped out of the ceremonial gate and went off to amuse himself elsewhere.
Concubine Zhao stormed straight into the Garden where she ran into Mother Xia, Ouguan’s foster-mother, who seeing the rage she was in asked where she was going.
‘Just look at this household!’ fumed the concubine. ‘Even those little singsong girls brought in to put on shows every other day treat some people better than others, taking advantage of those who have less weight. If it had been anyone else I wouldn’t have minded, but how can I let that little whore get the upper hand of us?’
This struck a chord in Mother Xia’s heart. She hastily asked what had happened, and was told how Fangguan had made a fool of Jia Huan by giving him jasmine powder instead of rose-nitric powder.
‘Is that all, madam?’ exclaimed Mother Xia. ‘Have you only just woken up to them? Why, that’s nothing! Yesterday they were even burning paper money here on the sly, and Baoyu stood up for them. But if other people bring something in they say it’s forbidden, unclean or taboo. So isn’t burning paper money taboo here? Just think, apart from the mistress, there’s nobody higher than you in this house; only you won’t use your authority, so nobody’s afraid of you.
‘Now what I suggest is this. As those young whores are low-class girls it won’t matter offending them. So seize hold of these two things they’ve done to teach them a lesson, and I’ll back you up as a witness. This way you can assert your authority, and other issues will be easier to handle. The mistresses and the young ladies can hardly side with those singsong girls against you.’
This made Concubine Zhao feel in a stronger position.
‘I didn’t know about that business of burning paper. Tell me the de¬tails,’ she said.
Mother Xia accordingly told her all that had happened. ‘Just go ahead and trounce them,’ she concluded. ‘If there’s a row, we’ll back you up.,’
Emboldened by this, Concubine Zhao made her way confidently to Happy Red Court. It so happened that Baoyu had gone to call on Daiyu, having heard that she was in, and Fangguan was having a meal with Xiren and the others. When the concubine came in they all stood up to greet her and offer her a seat, after which they asked her business. Instead of answering, she stepped forward and threw the powder in Fangguan’s face.
‘You trollop!’ she swore, pointing a finger at her. ‘We bought you with our money to train as an actress. You’re nothing but a painted whore. Even the lowest slave in our house ranks higher than you, yet you make up to some people and look down on others. When Baoyu wants to give someone a present you stop him, as if it were your property. And you fob this stuff off on my son, imagining he doesn’t know the difference. They’re both sons of the house, young masters. Who are you to treat him like dirt?’
This was more than Fangguan could take.
‘There was no rose powder left,’ she sobbed. ‘That’s why I gave him this. If I’d told him there wasn’t any more, he most likely wouldn’t have believed me. Isn’t this good powder too?
‘Even if I did train as an actress, I never performed outside. I’m only a girl; what do I know about painted whores? You’ve no call to swear at me, madam. You didn’t buy me. We’re all birds of a feather ‘ all slaves here. Why go for me?’
Xiren pulled her away, remonstrating, ‘Don’t talk such nonsense!’
The concubine was so angry that she darted forward and slapped Fangguan on both cheeks. Xiren hastily intervened.
‘She’s just a child with no sense, madam. Let her be! We’ll give her a good talking to presently.’
After being slapped, however, Fangguan would not keep quiet. She flew into a tantrum, wailing and screaming:
‘Who are you to beat me? Take a look at yourself in the mirror first. I’d sooner die than let a hag like you beat me!’
She threw herself at Concubine Zhao and dared her to slap her again. As the others tried to quiet her and pull her away, Qingwen gently tugged at Xiren’s sleeve.
‘Leave them alone,’ she whispered. ‘Let them make a row and see what comes of it. Everything’s at sixes and sevens now, with so many people trying to have the whip hand, taking it in turn to throw their weight about. This sort of thing can’t go on.’
The attendants outside who had come with Concubine Zhao were each and all delighted to hear this row.
‘High time too!’ they crowed. ‘Buddha be praised!’
As for the old women who had a grudge against the actresses, they all gloated too at the sight of Fangguan being beaten.
Meanwhile Ouguan and Ruiguan were amusing themselves together. When Kuiguan, the ‘warrior’ actress assigned to Xiangyun, and Douguan assigned to Baoqin heard of this fracas, they rushed to find the two of them.
‘Fangguan’s being bullied!’ they cried. ‘How can we put up with that? Let’s all go and have a first-class row to get our own back!’
Being all of them so childish, their one thought was to avenge their friend without worrying about the consequences, and so they ran together to Happy Red Court. First Douguan butted Concubine Zhao with her head, very nearly knocking her down. The other three swarmed round as well, weeping and wailing, tearing at her and butting her, so that she was surrounded on all sides. Qingwen and the other maids, laughing, only made a show of trying to intervene. As for Xiren, she was frantic. But as she pulled one away another rushed forward.
‘Are you out of your minds?’ she demanded. ‘If you have some complaint, say so quietly. How can you carry on in this crazy way?’
Concubine Zhao was helpless. All she could do was pour out a flood of abuse. Ruiguan and Ouguan, one on each side of her, had pinioned both her arms while Kuiguan and Douguan, one in front and one behind, were butting her with their heads.
‘You’ll have to kill all four of us!’ they swore.
Fangguan, stretched out on the ground, was crying as if she were about to die.
During this burly-burly, Qingwen had sent Chunyan to report it to Tanchun. So now Madam You, Li Wan and Tanchun came over with Pinger and some older serving-women. They ordered the four actresses to lay off, and asked what the trouble was. Concubine Zhao, nearly bursting with rage, her eyes, bulging, broke into an incoherent diatribe. Madam You and Li Wan paid no attention to her, simply ordering the four girls to keep quiet. Tanchun sighed.
‘What a fuss about nothing!’ she said. ‘You lose your temper, madam, too easily. I was just wanting to consult you about something, and was surprised when the maids told me they couldn’t find you. So you were here all the time in one of your rages. Please come along with me.’
Madam You and Li Wan chimed in with a smile, ‘Please come to the hall, and we can talk things over.
Concubine Zhao had no choice but to go with the three of them, still muttering and maundering.
‘Those girls are playthings,’ said Tanchun. ‘If we like them we can chat and joke with them; if we don’t we can ignore them. If they misbe¬have it’s like being scratched by a cat or a puppy, and we should over¬look it whenever possible. If it’s something inexcusable, we should just tell the stewards’ wives to punish them. Why lower ourselves to raise a hullabaloo? This is so undignified!
‘Look at Concubine Zhou. Why is it that no one takes advantage of her, and she doesn’t go round hounding other people either? My advice to you, madam, is to go back to your rooms and get your temper under control. Don’t listen to malicious trouble-makers, or you’ll just make yourself a laughing-stock by doing other people’s dirty work for nothing. Even if you’re bursting with anger, put up with it for a few days. When the mistress comes back she’ll straighten everything out.’
Concubine Zhao had nothing to say in reply to this lecture and had to go home. Then Tanchun turned indignantly to Li Wan and Madam You.
‘She’s so old, yet the way she carries on makes it impossible for anyone to respect her. Was it worth rampaging in such an undignified fashion over such a trifle? She has no sense of dignity and is too gullible.  She never uses her head. Those shameless slaves must have egged her on again to do this, using her ‘ because she’s a fool ‘ to get their own back.’
The more she thought about it, the angrier she felt. So she ordered the serving-women to find out who was at the bottom of this business. They had to agree, but once outside they smiled at each other and said:
‘This is like looking for a needle in the ocean!’
They summoned Concubine Zhao’s maids and all those in the Garden for questioning, but each denied any knowledge of how this had started. At a loss, they had to report to Tanchun their failure to find the culprit, but promised to make further investigations, to inform her of any irrespon¬sible talk, and to have the offender punished. Tanchun was gradually calming down when Aiguan slipped in to see her.
‘It’s Mother Xia who’s got her knife into us all and is always stirring up trouble,’ she confided. ‘The other day, she accused Ouguan of burn¬ing sacrificial paper; but luckily Baoyu said he’d asked her to do it, and that silenced the old creature. Today, when I brought you your handker¬chief, I noticed her gabbing away with Concubine Zhao. She only went away when she saw me coming.’
Although this sounded suspicious to Tanchun, she knew that Aiguan and the other girls belonged to one set and were very mischievous too; so after hearing her out, she was unwilling to use this as proof.
Now Mother Xia’s grand-daughter Chanjie also served in Tanchun’s apartments and often bought things or ran errands for the maids there, all of whom liked her. After her meal that day, Tanchun went to the hail to attend to some business; and Cuimo, left at home in charge, told Chanjie to go and send a page to buy some cakes.
‘I’ve just swept a whole big courtyard and my legs and back are aching,’ objected Chanjie. ‘Can’t you get someone else to go?’
‘Who else is there?’ countered Cuimo. ‘Go while it’s still early. And let me give you a word of advice: on your way to the back gate, tell your grandma to be on her guard.’
Then she explained how Aiguan had been telling tales about Mother Xia.
Taking the money from her Chanjie snorted, ‘So that little bitch wants to get us into trouble too! Wait till I tell my grandma this.’
With that she went off to the back gate. She found all the kitchen-maids, Mother Xia among them, sitting chatting on the steps there, as they were free for a while. She asked one of the women to go and buy the cakes. Then, fulminating, she passed on to her grandmother what she had just been told. Mother Xia, both angry and frightened, wanted to go and challenge Aiguan and to complain to Tanchun. Chanjie quickly stopped her.
‘What would you say if you went, grandma?’ she asked. ‘How did you get to know about it? Carping and complaining would only cause more trouble. I’m just telling you so that you’ll be on your guard. Don’t go rushing off in such a hurry.’
As she was speaking, along came Fangguan. Leaning on the gate she called pleasantly to Mrs. Liu in the kitchen:
‘Mrs. Liu, Master Bao says he’d like a cool, vinegary vegetable dish for supper; but don’t put in sesame oil ‘ that would make it greasy.’
‘All right,’ answered Mrs. Liu. ‘How come you were sent on this errand today? If you don’t think our place too dirty, come in and chat for a bit.’
Fangguan had just entered the kitchen when a woman came along carrying a plate of cakes.
‘Whose hot cakes are these?’ asked the girl jokingly. ‘Let me try one.’
Chanjie promptly took the plate.
‘These were bought for other people,’ she said. ‘You wouldn’t care for this stuff.’
Mrs. Liu seeing this quickly put in, ‘If you like such things, miss, I’ve some here freshly bought for my daughter. She hasn’t eaten any yet so they’re still here, clean and untouched.’ She brought out another plate for Fangguan, adding, ‘Wait, I’ll brew you some good tea.’
While she went in to poke up the fire and make tea, Fangguan took a cake and thrust it under Chanjie’s nose.
‘Who wants your cake? Isn’t this cake too?’ she demanded. ‘I was only joking, but I wouldn’t eat yours even if you kowtowed to me.’ She crumbled the cake into pieces then and tossed these to the sparrows, calling out, ‘You mustn’t feel hurt, Mrs. Liu. I’ll buy you another two catties presently.’
Chanjie was first speechless with anger. Then she snorted:
‘If the thunder god has eyes, why doesn’t he strike such wicked people dead? She’s deliberately needling me! Of course, I can’t com¬pare with the likes of you who have people sending you presents, offer¬ing to be your slaves and flattering you, in the hope that, if need be, you’ll put in a good word for them.’
The older women intervened, ‘Enough of that, you two. Why bicker every time you meet?’
A few of the more quick-witted, afraid this argument would lead to further trouble, quietly slipped away. Chanjie, however, dared not say any more. Grumbling to herself she went off.
When Mrs. Liu saw there was nobody about, she came out of the kitchen and asked Fangguan, ‘Did you mention that matter I spoke of the other day?’
‘Yes, I did,’ was the answer. ‘And I’ll bring it up again in a couple of days. But that old hag Zhao would choose this time for another row with me. Did sister take that rose flavoured juice I brought the other day? Is she any better?’
‘Oh, yes, she drank it all and just loved it, but she doesn’t like to ask you for more.
‘That’s nothing. I’ll get her some more.
The fact was that Mrs. Liu had a daughter just turned sixteen. Al¬though the daughter of a cook, she was just as good-looking as Pinger, Xiren, Yuanyang or Zijuan. As she was the fifth child they called her Wuer; but being delicate, she had never been given a job. Recently Mrs. Liu had noticed that Baoyu had many attendants, whose work was light; and she had heard that he meant to let all the girls in his service return to their own homes in future. She wanted to send Wuer there as a maid but had no one to recommend her. It so happened that she had worked in Pear Fragrance Court and been more assiduous than their foster-moth¬ers in waiting on Fangguan and the other actresses, with the result that they were good to her too. So now she had mentioned this request to Fangguan, asking her to pass it on to Baoyu. And he had agreed. Only, having been unwell recently and in view of all the troubles in the household, he had not yet referred the matter higher up. Enough, however, of this.
Fangguan returned now to Happy Red Court and broached the sub¬ject again to Baoyu. He had been away when Concubine Zhao made such a scene, and found himself in a difficult position, not knowing whether to intervene or not. After the uproar died down and he heard that Tanchun had persuaded her to leave, he returned from Alpinia Park to comfort Fangguan, and at last everybody had calmed down again.
Now Fangguan came back and told him that she wanted some more rose flavoured juice for Liu Wuer.
He answered readily enough, ‘There’s plenty. I seldom drink it. You can take her the whole lot.’
He told Xiren to fetch it. And seeing that there was not much left, he gave the whole bottle to Fangguan who took it away.
Mrs. Liu had just taken her daughter into the Garden to amuse her. After strolling for a while in an out-of-the-way corner, they went back to the kitchen to rest and have some tea. Now Fangguan came in with a small glass bottle about five inches high. The light falling on it showed that it was almost half full of some red juice, which they assumed to be some of the Western port which Baoyu drank.
‘Sit down, while we fetch the pewter heater to warm it in a jiffy with hot water,’ they said.
‘This is all there is left, so he’s given it you with the bottle,’ Fangguan explained.
Wuer realized then that it was the juice and accepted it with profuse thanks.
Asked if she was better she said, ‘I do feel a bit more energetic today; that’s why I came here for a stroll. There’s not much of interest at the back, though, only some big rocks and big trees and the back walls of the buildings. I haven’t seen any of the real beauty spots yet.’
‘Why didn’t you go to the front?’ asked Fangguan.
‘I wouldn’t let her,’ said Mrs. Liu. ‘The young ladies don’t know her. If someone who has it in for us were to see her, that would lead to another row. If in future, with your help, she gets a job, she’ll have so many chances to stroll around she may even get tired of the place.’
‘Don’t worry,’ replied Fangguan. ‘You can count on me.
‘Aiya, miss!’ exclaimed Mrs. Liu. ‘We’re of no account, not like you.
With that she served tea. But as it was not to Fangguan’s taste, after just one sip she rose to take her leave.
‘I have my hands full here,’ said Mrs. Liu. ‘Wuer will see you off.’
So Wuer went out with Fangguan, and seeing there was nobody about she tugged at her sleeve.
‘Did you really put in a word for me?’ she asked.
Fangguan laughed.
‘Why should I fool you? I’ve heard there are definitely two vacan¬cies in our compound. One is Hongyu’s place: Madam Lian took her away but hasn’t yet sent anyone to replace her. The other is Zhuier’s, which is still vacant too. So merely taking you on wouldn’t count as too many. It’s just that Pinger keeps telling Xiren that any new requests for people or money shouldn’t be raised yet awhile if possible, because Miss Tanchun’s looking for someone to make an example of. Even in her own quarters she’s turned down two or three requests. Right now she’s on the look-out for something in our place to make an issue of; so why should we jump into her trap? And if we were turned down now, it would be hard to get the decision changed later. Better wait for things to cool down. When the old lady and the mistress are free, if we approach them first, no matter how big a favour we ask they’re bound to agree to it.’
‘Even so, I’m feeling too impatient to wait,’ said Wuer. ‘If I were to be chosen now, in the first place my mother’ d be able to hold up her head and feel she hadn’t brought me up for nothing; in the second, my monthly allowance would make things easier for our family; in the third, I’d feel happier myself and my health might well improve. Even if I still had to see doctors and buy medicine, I needn’t spend the family’s money on it.’
‘I understand,’ said Fangguan. ‘Just don’t worry.
Then the two of them went their different ways.
Wuer, back home, told her mother how very grateful she was to Fangguan.
‘I never thought we’d get all that juice,’ said Mrs. Liu. ‘Though this is expensive stuff, if you take too much it will increase the hot humours,
so why not give some away? That would make a very handsome gift.’
‘Give it to whom?’
‘To your cousin. He’s been having a fever and was wanting some¬thing like this. I’ll take him half a cup.’
Wuer remained silent while her mother poured out half a cup and put the bottle with what was left in the cupboard. Then she said with a faint smile:
‘If I were you, I wouldn’t send it. If people asked where it came from there’d be more trouble.’
‘Why should we be afraid of that? After all our hard work, if our masters give us something it’s only right. We didn’t steal this, did we?’
So ignoring her daughter’s advice, she went straight off to the house of her elder brother outside, where her nephew was lying in bed. When they saw what she had brought, her brother, sister-in-law and nephew were all delighted. Cold water was drawn from the well to mix with the tonic, and the invalid drinking a bowl of it found it extremely refreshing. What was left in the cup was covered with a piece of paper and put on the table.
Now it happened that a few of the Jia family pages who were friendly with the young patient called to see how he was. Among them was Qian Huai, a nephew of Concubine Zhao, both of whose parents worked in the counting-house, and whose own job was escorting Jia Huan to school. No wife had yet been found for him and as he had taken a fancy to pretty Wuer he told his parents he would like to marry her. Time and again they had sent a go-between to propose the match; and as they were in easy circumstances and fairly well connected, Liu and his wife were quite willing, but they could not get Wuer’s consent. Though she did not say so outright, her attitude was so clear that her parents could not accept the offer for her. Recently, moreover, since they hoped she would get a job in the Garden they had let the matter drop, assuming that after a few years when she was released from service she would choose someone else outside. And the Qian family, in view of this situation, had given up the idea too. Only Qian Huai, angry and mortified by his failure, had resolved that he must have his way and get Wuer as his wife. He had come with the others today to see his friend, never expecting to find Mrs. Liu there too.
When Mrs. Liu saw all these new arrivals, with Qian Huai among them, she rose on the pretext of business to take her leave.
‘Have some tea first,’ her brother and sister-in-law urged her. ‘It was very good of you to think of your nephew.’
‘It’ll soon be time to serve dinner in the Garden. I’ll come to see him again when I’m free,’ she answered.
Then her sister-in-law took a packet from a drawer and saw her out. Having reached the corner of the wall, she gave the packet to Mrs. Liu.
‘Yesterday your brother was on duty at the gate.’ she said. ‘For five days before that everything was so quiet that he didn’t get any tips; only yesterday an official from Guangdong called and presented two small baskets of pachyma cocos for the masters, and another basket for the men at the gate. This is your brother’s share. Down south there they have so many ancient firs, they just extract the essence of the fungus on the roots and mix it with some kind of medicine to make this handsome snowy white pachyma cocos powder. They say if you mix it with human milk and drink a cup first thing every day, it’s the best tonic you could have. If you haven’t human milk, cow’s milk is next best; or failing that even boiling water will do. We thought it would be just the thing for your daughter, and I sent a maid this morning to take it to you; but she said your door was locked and you’d taken Wuer with you into the Garden. I’d been meaning to call to see how she was and take it her myself. But knowing that with the mistresses away there’s a strict watch every¬where, I thought as I’d no special business I’d better not go. Besides, I’ve heard that the last two days you’ve had a lot of upsets in the Gar¬den; and I didn’t want to get mixed up in anything. So I’m very glad you came. You can take this back now yourself.’
Mrs. Liu thanked her, took her leave and went back. As she approached the side gate, a boy called out to her:
‘Where have you been, auntie? They’ve been asking for you several times inside. Three or four of us have been looking for you everywhere
‘ the others aren’t back yet. But this isn’t the way to your house. This seems rather suspicious.’
‘You monkey!’ chuckled Mrs. Liu.
To know what followed, read the next chapter.


Chapter 61

Baoyu Covers Up a Girl’s Theft to
Protect His Sister
Pinger Wields Authority
to Right a Wrong


‘You monkey!’ chuckled Mrs. Liu. ‘If your aunt goes to find a lover that means one more uncle for you what’s wrong with that? Don’t make me tear out that tuft of mangy hair stuck on your head like the lid of chamberpot. Hurry up! Open the gate and let me in.’
Instead of doing so, the young rascal went on teasing.
‘When you go in, auntie, do filch a few apricots for me. I’ll wait for you here. If you forget, don’t expect me to open the gate for you in future, when you want to buy wine or oil in the middle of the night. I won’t even answer you, just leave you to shout yourself hoarse.’
Mrs. Liu spat.
‘You’re crazy!’ she scoffed. ‘This year’s not like the old days. Everything here has been put in the care of different women, every single one of them spoiling for a fight. Just walk under a tree, and they glare like broody hens. How can you touch their fruit?’
‘The other day I was walking under a plum tree when a bee brushed past my face, and just as I flapped it away that aunt of yours spotted me. She was too far away to see what I was doing and thought I was picking plums, so she let out a screech, then started squawking at the top of her voice that this fruit hadn’t yet been offered to Buddha, that Their Ladyships being away hadn’t tasted it yet, and that after the best had been sent to the mistress the rest of us would get our share, carrying on as if I were dying for her plums! I didn’t take it too kindly, sol gave her tit for tat.
‘But you have several aunts in charge of things here. Why not ask them for what you want? Why apply to me? This is like the rat in the barn who asked a crow for grain, as if a bird on the wing had some while the rat living in the barn had none.
‘Aiyaya!’ chortled the boy. ‘If you can’t help, you can’t. Why all this palaver? Think you won’t need me in future? If your daughter does get a good post, seems to me she’ll be wanting our help even more often, and only if we give it will she do all right.’
‘So you’re up to monkey tricks again, little wretch! What good post is my daughter going to get?’
The boy laughed.
‘Don’t try to fool me. I know all about it. Think you’re the only ones with connections inside? We have ours too. Though my own post’s out here, I have a couple of sisters who count for something in the Garden too. So, how can any secret be kept from us?’
Just then another old woman inside called out, ‘Hurry up, you young rascals, and go and fetch your Aunt Liu before it’s too late.’
Not stopping to bandy any more words with the boy, Mrs. Liu hastily opened the gate and went in, saying:
‘Don’t worry, I’m coming.’
She headed straight for the kitchen, where some other cooks shirking responsibility had been waiting for her to decide what dishes to send to the different apartments.
‘Where’s Wuer?’ Mrs. Liu asked.
‘She’s just gone to the boiler-house to look for the other girls,’ they told her.
Mrs. Liu, having put the pachyma flour away, was busy allotting the dishes for different quarters when Yingchun’s little maid Lianhua came in.
‘Sister Siqi says she wants a bowl of beaten eggs very lightly steamed,’ she announced.
‘You would ask for a rarity!’ remarked Mrs. Liu. ‘There’s such a shortage of eggs this year, goodness knows why, they cost ten cash each, and even at that price they’re hard to get. Yesterday the order came down to send food to the families of relatives, and several purveyors went out yet only managed to get two thousand eggs. So where am Ito find eggs? Go and tell her she can have them some other time.’
‘The other day when she asked for beancurd, you sent over some which was rancid,’ protested Lianhua. ‘She gave me a scolding for that.  Now she wants eggs and you say you haven’t any. What’s so precious about eggs? I don’t believe you haven’t even got eggs, I’ll have a look.’
She marched over to open the chest containing provisions, and sure enough found a dozen eggs in it.
‘There you are!’ she cried. ‘Why should you be so tightfisted? What we eat is the share given us by our mistresses; why should it worry you? You didn’t lay those eggs. Why take on so if people eat them?’
Mrs. Liu at once put down what she was holding and went over to confront her.
‘Stop talking rubbish!’ she cried. ‘Your mother’s the one who lays eggs! These few are all we’ve got left for making sauce with. They’re for emergencies. Unless the young ladies ask for some, I won’t use them. If you’ve eaten them all up, there’ll be a fine to do!
‘You girls living shut away in the inner compounds take everything for granted. You may think eggs are easily come by, knowing nothing about conditions outside in the market. Not to say eggs, there are some days when there’s not so much as a blade of grass to be had. Take my advice and be satisfied with the fine rice, fat hens and big ducks you get every day. You’re so sated with all that rich food, though, that you pester us all the time for something different: eggs and beancurd, or gluten of wheat and salted turnips. You certainly know how to vary your menu! But it’s not my job to cater specially for you. If each place asks for a different dish, that comes to over ten dishes. I’d better stop looking after our first-grade mistresses so as to devote myself to you second-grade mistresses.’
‘Who’s been asking for new dishes every day?’ shouted Lianhua, her face scarlet. ‘Are you never going to stop ranting? If we get you a job here, of course we expect a little consideration. The other day when Xiaoyan told you that Sister Qingwen would like some artemisia, you immediately asked whether she wanted it fried with pork or with chicken. Xiaoyan said anything with meat was no good; what was why she asked for artemisia fried with gluten of wheat with as little oil as possible. At once you cursed yourself for being so dense and hastily washed your hands to cook the dish, taking it there yourself like a dog wagging its tail. Yet today you pick on me in front of all these people!’
‘Gracious Buddha!’ cried Mrs. Liu. ‘All those here can bear wit¬ness. Not to say the other day, but ever since this kitchen was set up last year, any apartment wanting something extra has always brought money to buy it. Sometimes we had what was wanted, sometimes we didn’t. It may sound as if I’ve got a cushy job, with perks too, just catering for the young mistresses. Just work it out, though, and it’s really sickening. The young ladies plus their maids come to forty or fifty people, yet each day we get only a couple of hens, a couple of ducks, some dozen catties of meat and one string of cash worth of vegetables. Figure it out for your¬selves: how far will that go. It’s not even enough for the two fixed meals, so how can it be stretched to cover extras ordered by you girls? And you won’t take what we’ve bought but want us to go out and buy other things.
‘The way things are, we’d better ask the mistress for more money so that we can do as they do in the big kitchen catering for the old lady: put down all the known dishes on the menu, prepare different dishes every day, and settle the accounts at the end of each month.
‘The other day Miss Tanchun and Miss Baochai took it into their heads to have some fried wolfberry sprouts, and sent over a maid with five hundred cash. I couldn’t help laughing and told her, ‘Even if the two young ladies had bellies as big as a Buddha, they couldn’t eat five hun¬dred cash worth. It’ll only cost twenty to thirty cash and that we can afford.
‘So I sent the money back, but they wouldn’t take it, giving it to me as a tip to buy wine with. And they said, ‘Now that the kitchen’s inside the Garden, some of our people may go and pester you for things like salt or bean-sauce, all of which cost money. You can hardly refuse them; but if you give them what they want you’ll lose out. So take this money to make good the arrears they’ve let you in for.
‘They’re such considerate, understanding young ladies, those two, we can only pray to Buddha in our hearts to bless such kind mistresses. But when Concubine Zhao heard of this, she flew into a rage and fumed that I was getting too many perks. In less than ten days she kept sending over a maid to ask for this, that and the other. I laughed to myself: So you think this gives you the excuse to demand one thing after another. How can I afford so much?’
As they were arguing, Siqi sent someone over to find Lianhua. ‘Is she dead that she hasn’t come back yet?’ she asked.
Lianhua went back then in a huff to tell Siqi all that had been said, embroidering her account too. The result was that Siqi flared up. As soon as she had finished serving Yingchun’s meal she took the young maids with her to the kitchen, where they found the kitchen-maids having their own meal. When Siqi stormed in, the women stood up and asked her to take a seat, but she ordered the younger maids to ransack the place.
‘Just throw all the eatables in their chests and cupboards to the dogs,’ she cried, ‘so that no one gets any perks.’
At the word of command, the young maids crowded forward and started turning the whole place upside down. The kitchen-maids tried frantically to stop them.
‘Don’t believe what those children say, miss,’ they begged Siqi. ‘Even if Mrs. Liu had nine lives she’d never dare offend you. Honestly, eggs are hard to buy this year. We’ve just been scolding her for being so stupid: whatever she’s asked for, she ought to make shift to get it. Now she’s realized her mistake and steamed the eggs. If you don’t believe us, look on the stove.’
This soft talk gradually mollified Siqi, and the young maids were led away before they could smash everything. Having continued to make a scene for a while, Siqi finally let herself be persuaded to leave. Mrs. Liu could only clatter bowls and dishes as she grumbled to herself; but when the bowl of eggs was steamed and sent over, Siqi emptied it on the ground. However, the maid who had taken it kept silent about this on her return, for fear of causing fresh trouble.
Mrs. Liu now gave her daughter some soup and half a bowl of por¬ridge, then explained to her about the pachyma flour. Wuer decided to share the gift with Fangguan; so she wrapped up half of it in a piece of paper and as it was now growing dark, with few people about, slipped through the flowers and willows to find her friend. Luckily she was chal¬lenged by no one on her way to Happy Red Court. Once there, however, she was afraid to go in. She stood waiting in front of a rose bush some distance away until, after the time it would take for a cup of tea, Xiaoyan happened to come out. Wuer ran forward to call her. Xiaoyan did not recognize who it was until Wuer came closer.
‘What are you doing here?’ she asked.
‘Ask Fangguan to come out,’ urged Wuer. ‘I’ve something to tell her.’
‘You’re too impatient, sister,’ Xiaoyan whispered. ‘Just another ten days and you’ll be here. Why keep on looking for her? She was sent off on an errand to the front just now. You can either wait for her, or let me pass on your message if you’re in a hurry. The Garden gate may be closed soon.’
Wuer handed her the pachyma flour then, telling her how it should be taken and what it was good for.
‘I’m just giving her part of some that was given to me,’ she ex¬plained. ‘Please be good enough to let her have it.’
With that she took her leave and started back. She had just reached Smartweed Bank when along came Lin Zhixiao’s wife with a few serv¬ing-women. Having no time to hide, Wuer had to step forward to greet them.
‘I heard you were ill,’ said Mrs. Lin. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘The last couple of days I’ve felt better, so I came here with my mother for a little change. Just now she sent me to Happy Red Court to deliver something.’
‘I don’t believe it,’ replied Mrs. Lin. ‘I just saw your mother go out, so I locked the gate. If she’d sent you on an errand, why didn’t she tell me you were here? Why should she let me lock the gate? I really can’t understand this. You must be lying.’
Wuer had nothing to say to that, so she faltered, ‘My mother told me to send those things this morning, but I forgot and only just remembered. I suppose she imagined I’d already left; that’s why she didn’t tell you.’
Mrs. Lin saw how flustered and guilty she looked, and remembered Yuchuan telling her recently that things had disappeared from Lady Wang’s rooms but the young maids there claimed to know nothing about it, and the culprit hadn’t been found. All this made her suspicious. And just at this moment Chanjie and Lianhua arrived with several serving-women. When they understood the situation, they said:
‘You’d better cross-examine her, Mrs. Lin. She’s been creeping in here the last couple of days in a very sneaky way. Goodness knows what she’s up to.’
‘That’s right,’ added Chanjie. ‘Yesterday Sister Yuchuan told me that cupboard in the mistress’ annex had been opened and quite a few odd things were missing. And when Madam Lian sent Pinger to get some rose flavoured juice from Yuchuan, there was one bottle short. They wouldn’t have known if they hadn’t been looking for it.’
‘I didn’t hear about that,’ put in Lianhua. ‘But today I saw a bottle of juice.’
Since Xifeng had been sending Pinger every day to press Mrs. Lin to track down the thief, as soon as she heard this she asked:
‘Where did you see it?’
‘In their kitchen,’ was Lianhua’s answer.
At once Mrs. Lin told them to light the lantern and set off at their head to make a search.
In desperation then Wuer confessed, ‘That was given me by Fangguan in Master Bao’s place.’
‘I don’t care who gave it you,’ snapped Mrs. Lin. ‘Now that we have evidence of the theft, I shall report it and you can explain it to the mistresses.’
By this time they had entered the kitchen where Lianhua showed her the bottle. Suspecting there might be other stolen goods there, they made a thorough search and found a packet of pachyma flour as well. Picking up these things and taking Wuer with them, they went to report the busi¬ness to Li Wan and Tanchun.
As Li Wan’s son Lan was ill, she had stopped attending to household affairs and told them to go and see Tanchun. The latter had returned to her quarters, where she was washing in her room while her maids rested in the courtyard. Shishu went in alone to report, coming out again after some time to say:
‘I’ve told the young mistress. She wants you to get Pinger to report this to Madam Lian.’
Mrs. Lin had to lead them all off then to Xifeng’s quarters. First she found Pinger, who went in to report the business to her mistress. Xifeng had just retired for the night. Upon hearing this news she ordered:
‘Give Wuer’s mother forty strokes with the cane and throw her out. She’s never to set foot inside the inner gate again. Give Wuer forty strokes too, and pack her off at once to the manor to be sold or married off.’
When Pinger came out and passed on these instructions to Mrs. Lin, Wuer burst out weeping for tenor. Kneeling to Pinger she told her all that she and Fangguan had done.
‘That’s easily checked on,’ said Pinger. ‘We shall find out whether she’s telling the truth or not by questioning Fangguan tomorrow. But this pachyma flour was sent in as a present only the other day, and it shouldn’t have been unpacked until after Their Ladyships had come back and in¬spected it. You shouldn’t have stolen it.’
Wuer hastily explained how the pachyma flour had been given them by her uncle.
‘If that’s the case,’ said Pinger with a smile, ‘then you’ve done nothing wrong but are being used as a scapegoat. Well, it’s late now and my mistress has just taken her medicine and gone to bed; we mustn’t disturb her again over such a trifle. Let the night-watchers keep an eye on Wuer tonight, and tomorrow after I’ve told my mistress this we’ll decide what to do.’
Not daring to object, Mrs. Lin took Wuer out and handed her over to the women keeping watch that night, after which she went home.
Wuer, kept under guard, did not dare to stir hand or foot. Some of the women on duty berated her for her bad conduct. Others complained:
‘It’s bad enough having to keep watch at night without having to guard a thief too; if she should kill herself or escape while we weren’t looking, we’d get into trouble.’
Other women who were on bad terms with Mrs. Liu were delighted by this development, and they came to jeer at the girl too. Wuer who had always been delicate, having no water to drink and nowhere to sleep that night, felt angry at being so unfairly treated, but there was nobody to whom to complain. She sobbed the whole night through. All those women who had it in for her and her mother were longing to have them thrown out straight away, for fear the decision might be changed the next day. They got up early and went secretly to try to win Pinger over to their side, taking her presents, complimenting her on her competence and good judge¬ment, and telling her all kinds of tales about Mrs. Liu. Pinger heard them out in turn and sent them away. Then she slipped over to see Xiren and find out whether it was true that Fangguan had given Wuer the rose flavoured juice.
‘I did give Fangguan some,’ said Xiren, ‘but I don’t know what she did with it.’ Fangguan, when questioned, was startled into admitting that she had indeed given it to Wuer. Then Fangguan told Baoyu, and he was worried too.
‘Though the rose juice business is cleared up,’ he said, ‘if the pachyma flour is brought into it she’ll have to own up; and when they know that her uncle got it at the gate he’ll be blamed. They meant well, but we’ll be getting them into trouble.’
He lost no time in talking it over with Pinger.
‘The rose juice business is cleared up,’ he told her. ‘But they’re still in the wrong over the pachyma flour. Why not just say, good sister, that this was given her by Fangguan too? Then it will be all right.’
‘That’s all very well,’ smiled Pinger. ‘But yesterday evening Wuer already admitted that it was a gift from her uncle; so how can she say now that it was from you? Besides, before the thief who stole the juice has been found, how can we let off the one caught with evidence and go looking for other culprits? Who would own up? People wouldn’t be con-vinced either.’
Qingwen joined in at this )oint, saying. ‘That rose juice from the mis¬tress’ place must obviously have been taken by Caiyun no one else could have stolen it to give Master Huan. So stop making all these wild guesses.
Pinger chuckled, ‘Of course, we know that’s the case. But now Yuchuan’s so frantic, she’s crying. If we asked Caiyun in confidence and she owned up, Yuchuan could stop worrying and everybody would forget about it. Who wants to stir up trouble anyway? But that wretch Caiyun not only won’t admit it, she’s accused Yuchuan of the theft. Because of their back-biting and bickering the whole mansion’s heard of this business. So how can we pretend that nothing’s happened? We shall have to make investigations. We all know that the one who reported the theft is the thief herself, but as there’s no evidence how can we accuse her?’
‘Never mind,’ said Baoyu. ‘I’ll take the blame for that too. I’ll say I filched it on the sly from my mother’s place to frighten them for fun. Then both matters will be settled.’
Xiren commented, ‘Of course that would be a kind deed, clearing their reputations. When the mistress hears about it, though, she’ll scold you again for having no sense and acting so childishly.’
‘That doesn’t matter so much,’ said Pinger with a smile. ‘Actually, I could easily find the evidence in Concubine Zhao’s rooms, but I was afraid that would make another good person lose face. Other people wouldn’t mind, but she’d certainly be angry. It was her I was thinking of. I didn’t want to smash a jade vase to catch a rat.’ While saying this she held out three fingers to indicate to Xiren and the others that it was the third young mistress, Tanchun, whom she had in mind.
‘Quite right,’ they said. ‘Better put the blame on us here.’
‘Even so,’ proposed Pinger, ‘we must call those two trouble-makers Caiyun and Yuchuan over, and get them to agree to this arrangement. Otherwise they’ll get off unscathed without knowing the reason, thinking instead that because I hadn’t the gumption to get at the truth, I had to beg you people here to cover up the theft. That would encourage one of them to go on stealing with impunity, the other to let things drift.’
‘That’s true,’ agreed Xiren and the rest. ‘You must make it clear where we stand.’
A messenger was sent by Pinger to fetch the two girls.
‘You don’t have to worry,’ they were told. ‘We’re found the cul¬prit.’
‘Where?’ asked Yuchuan.
‘In Madam Lian’s place,’ Pinger told her. ‘She admits to every¬thing, but I know quite well that she didn’t steal those things; the poor creature’s confessed to it because she’s frightened. Master Bao here is sorry for her and means to take half the blame. I could, of course, name the real thief, but it so happens that she’s a good friend of mine. I don’t care much what happens to the receiver of the stolen goods, only this would damage a good person’s reputation too; so being in a quandary I’m going to ask Master Bao to take the blame, so as to keep the rest of us out of trouble.
‘Now I want to know what you intend to do. If you both agree to be more careful in future, so that nobody loses face, I’ll ask Master Bao to take the blame. If not, I’ll report the truth to Madam Lian rather than wrong an innocent person.’
Caiyun, at this, blushed with shame.
‘Don’t worry, sister,’ she said. ‘There’s no need to wrong an inno¬cent person, or to make a young lady who wasn’t involved lose face. It was Concubine Zhao who kept begging me to filch things, and I gave some of them to Master Huan that’s the truth. Even when the mis¬tress is at home, we often take this or that to give to friends. I thought after a couple of days this storm would blow over; but I can’t stand seeing an innocent person accused. You’d better take me to the Second Mistress, and I’ll make a clean breast of everything to her.’
The others hearing this were impressed by her courage.
‘That’s very decent of Sister Caiyun,’ said Baoyu. ‘But there’s no need for you to admit it; I’ll just say that I took it in secret to tease you all, and now that trouble’s come of it I should own up. I simply ask you sisters to make less trouble in future. That would be best for us all.’
‘Why should you own up to something I did?’ asked Caiyun. ‘I’m the one, if anyone, who deserves to be punished.’
‘That’s not the way to look at it,’ interposed Pinger and Xiren. ‘If you were to admit it you’d have to let on about Concubine Zhao, and when Miss Tanchun heard of it she’d feel bad again. Better let Master Bao take the blame to keep us all out of trouble. Apart from the few of us here, no one else need know about it isn’t that much neater? In future, though, we must all of us be more careful. If you want to take anything, at least wait till the mistress is back; then even if you give the whole house away, it’ll be no concern of ours.’
Caiyun lowered her head in thought and then agreed. After their plans were laid, Pinger took the two of them with Fangguan to the front where women kept watch at night and, having summoned Wuer, gave her secret instructions to say that the pachyma flour had also been a present from Fangguan. After Wuer had poured out her thanks Pinger took them to
her own quarters, where Mrs. Lin and some other serving-women had long been waiting, holding Mrs. Liu.
Mrs. Lin told Pinger, ‘I brought her here first thing this morning. For fear nobody would see to the young ladies’ morning meal, I sent Qin Xian’s wife to the Garden to take charge for the time being. Why not suggest to the Second Mistress that Mrs. Qin, being clean and painstak¬ing, might as well be assigned the job for keeps?’
‘Who is Qin Xian’s wife?’ asked Pinger. ‘I don’t seem to know her.’
‘She’s one of those who keep watch at night at the south gate of the Garden,’ Mrs. Lin answered. ‘She has nothing to do in the day time; that’s why you don’t know her. She has high cheekbones and big eyes, and is very clean and spry.’
‘That’s right,’ put in Yuchuan. ‘How could you forget, sister? She’s the aunt of Siqi who serves Miss Yingchun. Though Siqi’s parents belong to the Elder Master’s household, her uncle works here.’
Pinger recollected the woman then and smiled.
‘Ah, if you’d said that before I’d have known,’ she said. ‘Still, you’re in too much of a hurry to give her a job. The fact is, this business is more or less solved; we’ve even found out as well who took the things missing from the mistress’ place the other day. It was Baoyu who went over there and asked those two wretched girls for something. To tease him they said they dared not take anything with the mistress away; so when they weren’t looking he went in and took the things. Those silly crea¬tures didn’t know, that’s why they got scared. Now that Baoyu knows this has involved other people, he’s told me the whole story and shown me the things he took there’s nothing missing. He got that pachyma flour outside as well, and shared it out to a whole lot of people, not just the girls in the Garden. Even the nannies got some to take out for their rela¬tives, some of whom passed it on to other people. Xiren gave some to Fangguan and others too. This was just doing friends a favour, nothing unusual. As for those two baskets brought the other day, they’re still in the hall and the seals on them haven’t been broken; so how can we accuse people of pilfering them? Wait till I’ve reported this to my mis¬tress and then we’ll see.’
She went into the bedroom to tell Xifeng the same story.
‘That’s all very well,’ said Xifeng, ‘but we know Baoyu. He sticks up for those girls even if they’re in the wrong. And if people appeal to him or flatter him crowning him with a charcoal basket he’ll agree to anything. If we take his word for it and there’s worse trouble of this kind in future, how are we to control these servants? We must go on making detailed investigations. My plan is to fetch all the maids from the mistress’ house here. No need to torture or beat them; we can just make them kneel in the sun on shards of porcelain with nothing to eat or drink. If they don’t come clean, they’ll have to kneel all day. Then even if they’re made of iron, in a day they’re bound to confess.’
She added, ‘Flies go for cracked eggs. Even if this Liu woman didn’t steal anything, she must have been up to something or people wouldn’t have accused her. Even if we don’t punish her, we should dismiss her; that’s the usual court procedure. It wouldn’t be doing her an injustice.’
‘Why trouble yourself over this?’ countered Pinger. ‘We should be lenient whenever we can. This isn’t anything so important that you can’t overlook it. What I feel is this: however hard you work over here, you’ll be going back eventually to the other house; so why make enemies of the servants here, making them bear you a grudge? It’s not as if you haven’t troubles enough of your own. You managed after years to conceive a son but lost him in the seventh month through a miscarriage brought on, for all we know, by overworking and getting too upset and worked up over things. Wouldn’t it be better, while it’s not too late, to shut your eyes to half of what’s going on?’
This advice made Xifeng smile.
‘All right, you little bitch,’ she said. ‘Do whatever you like. I’m just feeling slightly better; I don’t want to lose my temper.’
‘That’s the right way to talk!’ chuckled Pinger.
With that she went out to deal with the women outside one by one. To know what happened later, read the next chapter.

Chapter 62

Sweet Xiangyun Sleep Tipsily
Among Peonies
Silly Xiangling Coyly Takes Off
Her Pomegranate Skirt


Pinger, going out as we saw, told Lin Zhixiao’s wife, ‘A prosperous family ought to minimize big scandals and overlook minor ones. It wouldn’t look good if we were to ring bells, beat drums and raise a rumpus over a trifle. So take mother and daughter back now: they’re to keep their jobs. And send Qin Xian’s wife back as well. There’s no need to say any more about this business. Just make a careful inspection every day.’ With that she left.
Mrs. Liu and Wuer hastily stepped forward to kowtow their thanks, after which Mrs. Lin took them back to the Garden and reported the matter to Li Wan and Tanchun, both of whom approved of the way it had been settled.
So Siqi and the rest had worked themselves up for nothing. And Qin Xian’s wife, after this stroke of luck came her way, was able to gloat for no more than half a day. She had busily taken over and checked up on the utensils, rice, grain, charcoal and so forth in the kitchen, where she dis¬covered serious shortages.
‘There’s two piculs of good rice short,’ she observed. ‘An extra month’s supply of ordinary rice has been drawn in advance, and there’s charcoal missing as well.’
At the same time she prepared presents for Mrs. Lin, secretly getting ready a load of charcoal, five hundred catties of firewood and one picul of good rice outside the Garden for her nephew to take to the Lins’ house. In addition, she prepared gifts to send the accountants and some dishes to treat her new colleagues. ‘My coming here is all thanks to your help,’ she told them. ‘In future we shall be one family. If I overlook anything, please see to it for me.
As she was bustling frantically about, a messenger suddenly arrived to announce: ‘You’re to leave after serving the morning meal. Mrs. Liu has been cleared and the job given back to her.’
Thunderstruck and utterly cast down by this news, Qin Xian’s wife made haste to pack up and beat a retreat. She was badly out of pocket over the presents, and now she had to make good that sum herself. Siqi too was completely taken aback, but fume as she might there was noth¬ing she could do.
As for Concubine Zhao, because Caiyun had given her so many things on the sly and Yuchuan had raised such a fuss, she was afraid others would find out the truth. This kept her in a constant cold sweat as she waited to hear the upshot. When Caiyun assured her that there would be no further trouble as Baoyu had taken the blame, this took a great load off her mind. It only made ha Huan more suspicious, however. He fetched out all Caiyun’s secret gifts to him and threw them at her face.
‘Sneaky double-crosser!’ he swore. ‘I don’t want this trash of yours. If you weren’t on good terms with Baoyu, why should he cover up for you? If you had any guts, you wouldn’t have let a single person know you’d given me these things. Now that you’ve blabbed about it I’d lose face if I kept them.’
Caiyun frantically assured him that she was not on friendly terms with Baoyu, nor had she told anyone. Sobbingly she tried in all sorts of ways to convince him, but ha Huan stubbornly refused to believe her.
‘If not for our past friendship,’ he cried, ‘I’d go and tell sister-in-law Xifeng that you stole these things and offered them to me, but I dared not take them. Just think what would happen then!’ With that he stormed out.
By this time Concubine Zhao was frantic too.
‘Ungrateful brat!’ she cursed. ‘Misbegotten monster!’
Caiyun, weeping her eyes out, looked quite heart-broken no matter how the concubine tried to comfort her.
‘Good child, how ungrateful he is, after all your kindness!’ she said. ‘But I know how it is. Let me put these things away, and in a couple of days he’ll come to his senses again.’
She wanted to take the things, but Caiyun in a fit of pique bundled them up together, and when no one was watching slipped into the Garden and threw them all into the stream, where some sank and some floated away. That night, under her quilt, she secretly wept with rage.

By now Baoyu’s birthday had come round again, and they found that Baoqin’s birthday happened to fall on the identical day. As Lady Wang was away from home, however, it was not as lively as in previous years. Still, the Taoist priest Zhang sent over four gifts and a new charm with the boy’s Buddhist name on it; then some monks and nuns from various abbeys, nunneries and temples brought sacrificial offerings of food, pic¬tures of the God of Longevity, sacrificial paper for burning, the name of his own star god, the name of the star god presiding over that year, and lock-charms to safeguard Baoyu throughout the year. Men and women story-tellers who frequented the house came to offer congratulations.
Wang Ziteng sent his nephew his usual gifts: a pair of shoes and socks, a suit of clothes, a hundred longevity cakes in the shape of peaches, and a hundred bundles of ‘silver-silk’ noodles of the kind used in the Palace. From Aunt Xue the boy received half this amount, appropriate to her status. As for the rest of the family, Madam You gave him her usual gift of a pair of shoes and socks, and Xifeng a pouch symbolizing harmony embroidered in the Palace, in which were a golden God of Longevity, as well as a toy from Persia. Alms and gifts were dispatched to various temples, and there were presents for Baoqin as we’l, but we need not enumerate these. The girls just sent whatever they pleased a fan, some calligraphy, a painting or a poem to mark the occasion.
Baoyu got up early that morning and as soon as his toilet was finished put on ceremonial dress and went to the front court. There Li Kui and four other stewards had set ready the incense and candles for the sacri¬fices to heaven and earth. Baoyu lit the incense, bowed, poured libations and burned sacrificial paper, then went to do obeisance in the clan temple and the ancestral hall in the Ning Mansion. This done, he came out to the terrace of the ancestral hail to bow in the direction of the Lady Dowager and his parents. Next he called on Madam You to pay his respects, and after sitting there for a while returned to the Rong Mansion.
Here, he called first on Aunt Xue, who held him in her arms to prevent.
courtesies went into the Garden attended by Qingwen, Sheyue and a small maid carrying a rug. He called to pay his respects in turn to all his seniors starting with Li Wan, and then went out of the inner gate to the outer courtyard to see his four old nannies Li, Zhao, Zhang and Wang. On his return, everyone wanted to kowtow their congratulations, but he would not let them do so.
On his return to his quarters, Xiren and the other maids simply offered him verbal congratulations, for Lady Wang had forbidden the young people to let others bow to them for fear of spoiling their luck; hence none of the maid-servants kowtowed to him. And when presently Jia Huan, Jia Lan and others called, Xiren promptly stopped them from bowing and made them sit down for a while before they left.
‘I’m tired after walking,’ remarked Baoyu now.
He curled up on the bed and had just drunk half a cup of tea when gay chattering sounded outside and along came a troop of eight or nine laugh¬ing maids: Xiaoluo, Cuimo, Cuilu, Ruhua and Xiuyan’s maid Zhuaner, as well as a nurse carrying little Qiaojie, and Cailuan and Xiuluan, each of whom had brought a red rug. They cried out merrily, ‘We’ve gate-crashed to offer our congratulations. Hurry up and bring us some of the birthday noodles!’
The next moment Tanchun, Xiangyun, Baoqin, Xiuyan and Xichun arrived too. Baoyu hurried out to meet his cousins, beaming.
‘Thank you for coming!’ he said. ‘Brew some good tea, quick!’
Once inside they deferred to each other, then all took seats. Xiren and some other maids handed round tea, and barely had they sipped it when Pinger approached, freshly made up and as pretty as a flower. Baoyu hastily went out to greet her with the words:
‘I went just now to Cousin Xifeng’s place, but was told she wasn’t free to see me; so then I sent someone in to ask after you.’
‘I was helping your cousin do her hair,’ Pinger explained. ‘That’s why I couldn’t come out to speak to you. When I heard you’d asked after me I felt so honoured that I’ve come specially now to kowtow to you!’
‘That would be doing me too much honour!’ he chuckled.
By now Xiren had placed a seat in the outer room for Pinger. The latter curtseyed to Baoyu, who hastily bowed to her in return. Then Pinger knelt down and he at once followed suit. Pinger curtseyed again, and once again Baoyu bowed.
‘Make another bow,’ prompted Xiren, nudging him.
‘Why another? I’ve bowed already.’
‘She came to congratulate you,’ Xiren said, ‘but today is her birth¬day too. So it’s up to you to congratulate her as well.’
Baoyu bowed again in his delight and exclaimed, ‘So it’s your birth¬day too, sister!’
As Pinger hastily curtseyed in return, Xiangyun took Baoqin and Xiuyan by the arm.
‘You four had better spend the whole day bowing and curtseying to each other,’ she cried.
‘Is it Cousin Xiuyan’s birthday too?’ asked Tanchun. ‘How could I have forgotten?’ She ordered a maid, ‘Go and tell Madam Lian, and have another set of presents like Miss Baoqin’s sent at once to Miss Yingchun’s apartments.’
When the maid had gone off on this errand Xiuyan, now that Xiangyun had disclosed that it was her birthday, had to make a round of courtesy calls too.
‘This is rather intriguing,’ remarked Tanchun. ‘There are twelve months in a year with several birthdays in each. On account of there being so many people here some birthdays coincide with two or three of them falling on the same day. Even on New Year’s Day we celebrate one ‘ that’s Elder Sister’s birthday. No wonder she’s had such good fortune, with her birthday coming before anyone else’s. It was great-great-grand-father’s birthday too. Then comes the birthday of the old lady and cousin Baochai; there’s one coincidence for you. The first of the third month is the mistress’ birthday; the ninth is Cousin Jia Lian’s. There’ s none in the second month....’
‘The twelfth of the second month is Miss Lin’s birthday,’ put in Xiren. ‘Only she isn’t one of our family.’
‘Of course!’ chuckled Tanchun. ‘What’s wrong with my memory?’
Baoyu pointed at Xiren.
‘She and Cousin Daiyu have the same birthday, that’s why she re¬members it.’
‘The same birthday, do they?’ cried Tanchun. ‘But you’ve never even kowtowed to us each year. We didn’t know when Pinger’s birth¬day was either. We’ve only just now learned it.’
‘We’re nobodies,’ rejoined Pinger. ‘We haven’t the luck to be con¬gratulated on our birthdays or the rank to receive presents, so why trum¬pet the day abroad? Naturally we keep quiet about it. Now that she’s given me away, I shall call on you young ladies later to pay my respects.’
‘We mustn’t put you to such trouble,’ Tanchun demurred. ‘Instead we must celebrate your birthday too today, so as to make me feel better.’
Baoyu, Xiangyun and the rest approving this, Tanchun sent a maid to report to Xifeng, ‘We’ve decided not to let Pinger go today, as we’re all chipping in to celebrate her birthday.’
The maid went off smiling, returning after some time with Xifeng’s reply.
‘Madam Lian thanks you young ladies for doing her such an honour. She wants to know what birthday treat you’ll be giving Pinger, and says if you promise not to leave her out she won’t come to plague her.’
All laughed at this.
Tanchun said, ‘As it happens, our meals today aren’t being prepared by the kitchen in the Garden. We’re having noodles and dishes cooked outside. So we can whip round for the money, and get Mrs. Liu to take charge and prepare something here.’
The others all agreed to this.
Tanchun then sent to invite Li Wan, Baochai and Daiyu, while another maid summoned Mrs. Liu who was instructed to lose no time in preparing in her kitchen a feast for two tables. Mrs. Liu was puzzled by this.
‘The outside kitchen’s got everything ready,’ she said.
‘You don’t understand,’ Tanchun told her. ‘Today is Miss Pinger’s birthday. The meal prepared outside is provided by the chief accountant’s office. Now we’ve raised the money ourselves for a special party for Pinger. You just choose and make some new appetizing dishes, and bring the bill to me later.’
Mrs. Liu laughed.
‘So it’s Miss Pinger’s birthday too, eh? I didn’t know that.’ She
approached Pinger to kowtow to her, and when Pinger stopped her went off to prepare the feast.
Tanchun had already invited Baoyu to have his noodles with them in the Council Hall; so as soon as Li Wan and Baochai had arrived, maids were sent to invite Aunt Xue and Daiyu over. As the day was mild and Daiyu was feeling better, she accepted the invitation. The hall was packed with people, gay with flowers and silks. But now Xue Ke sent Baoyu four birthday presents ‘ a scarf, a fan, some scent and silk so Baoyu went over to eat noodles with him. Both families had prepared feasts and exchanged gifts. At noon Baoyu drank a few cups of wine with Xue Ke, and Baochai took Baoqin to pay her respects to him too. After toasting Xue Ke, Baochai told him:
‘There’s no need to send a feast to the other house. Better dispense with those formalities and just invite the shop assistants to a meal. We’re going to the Garden now with Cousin Baoyu, as we have others to look after; so we can’t keep you company.
‘Don’t let me keep you, cousins,’ replied Xue Ke. ‘The shop assis¬tants will be here any time.’
Then Baoyu asked to be excused and left with the girls.
When they entered the side gate, Baochai ordered the women in charge there to lock it, and took the key herself.
‘Why lock this gate?’ asked Baoyu. ‘Hardly anyone uses it; but now auntie and you two are inside and it will be awkward if you want some¬thing fetched from your home.’
‘One can never be too careful,’ was Baochai’s reply. ‘There’s been all sorts of trouble in your house these last few days, but our household wasn’t involved: that shows the advantage of keeping the gate shut. If it were left open, people might take a short cut through here, and then which of them should we stop? Better lock it, even if that’s less conve¬nient for mother and me. Don’t let anyone through. Then whatever trouble there may be, our household won’t be implicated.’
‘So you knew we’d lost some things recently,’ remarked Baoyu with a smile.
‘You only heard about the rose flavoured juice and pachyma flour because of the girls involved,’ retorted Baochai. ‘If not for them, you wouldn’t even have known of those two things. Actually there have been losses more serious than that. If it isn’t noised abroad, so much the better for everyone; otherwise, goodness knows how many people in the Garden would be implicated. I’m telling you this because you pay no attention to what goes on. I told Pinger the other day, too, because she’s an intelligent person and as her mistress isn’t here I wanted her to know. if word doesn’t get out, we may as well do nothing; if there’s a scandal, she’ll have been forewarned and know what it’s all about, then she won’t wrong innocent people. Take my advice and be more careful in future. And don’t repeat what I’ve told you to anyone else.’
They now reached Seeping Fragrance Pavilion where a dozen or so girls were amusing themselves by watching the fish. Among them were Xiren, Xianhing, Shishu, Suyun, Qingwen, Sheyue, Fangguan, Ouguan and Ruiguan. When they saw them approaching they said:
‘Everything’s ready in Peony Bower. Hurry up and go to the feast.’
Baochai went with them to Peony Bower, a small three-frame hail in Red Fragrance Farm, where all the ladies of the house including even Madam You had assembled. Only Pinger was missing.
Pinger had gone out, as it happened, because the families of Lai Da, Lin Zhixiao and the other stewards had been sending presents over in turn, and many of the servants of the first, second and third rank had also come one after another with gifts to offer their congratulations. Pinger was kept busy dispatching the messengers with tips and thanks, and she also had to report each case to Xifeng. Only a few of the gifts did she keep for herself; some she declined, and the rest she immediately made over to others. After occupying herself in this way for a while, she waited on Xifeng while she had her noodles, then changed her clothes and went back to the Garden. As soon as she entered it, she was met by several maids who had come to fetch her. They escorted her to Red Fragrance Farm where a sumptuous feast had been spread.
‘Now all the birthday stars are here,’ cried the others laughingly. They insisted that these four must take the seats of honour, but this they declined to do.
Aunt Xue declared, ‘I’m too old to mix in your crowd, and I feel very boxed up here too, I’d rather lie down in comfort in the Council Hall. I can’t eat anything or drink much either, so I’ll leave my place to them and that will suit everybody.’
At first Madam You and the rest would not hear of this, but Baochai said, ‘That’s all right. Why not let mother lie down in the hall where she can relax? We can send over any dishes she likes. She’ll feel freer. Besides, there’s nobody in front today, and she can keep an eye on things.’
‘In that case,’ agreed Tanchun, ‘we’d better do as she asks instead of standing on ceremony.
So they saw Aunt Xue to the hall, told the young maids to spread a silk mattress, back-rest and pillows for her, and instructed them:
‘Mind you look after Madam Xue well. Massage her legs, serve her tea and don’t shirk your work. We’ll be sending food over later, and after she’s eaten you can have what’s left. But you mustn’t leave this place.’
The young maids promised to carry out these orders.
Then Tanchun and the others went back. Finally they made Baoqin and Xiuyan take the top seats at the first table with Pinger facing west and Baoyu facing east, while Tanchun got Yuanyang to join her at the lower side of the table. At the table on the west side sat Baochai, Daiyu, Xiangyun, Yingchun and Xiehun in the same order, with Xiangling and Yuchuan on the fourth side. Madam You and Li Wan shared a third table with Xiren and Caiyun. At a fourth sat Zijuan, Yinger, Qingwen, Xiaoluo and Siqi.
When all were in place, Tanchun wanted to offer toasts, but Baoqin and the other three declined.
‘If you start that,’ they objected, ‘we’ll be standing here all day toasting again and again ‘ and still never finish.’
At that she did not insist. Then two women story-tellers offered to perform a ballad for the occasion.
‘No one here wants to hear your wild talk,’ everyone said. ‘Go to the hall to amuse Madam Xue.’ They picked various dishes and had them sent to her.
‘Just feasting quietly is no fun. Let’s play some drinking games,’ Baoyu proposed.
All the rest agreed, and suggested different games.
‘Let’s write down the names of all sorts of games and draw lots to decide which one to play,’ said Daiyu.
This met with general approval and writing-brush, inkstone and fancy note-paper were sent for.
Now XiangLing had been learning to write poetry and practising her calligraphy every day. When the brush and inkstone arrived, she could not resist getting up at once and offering to act as amanuensis. As the others thought of and called out the names of a dozen games, she put them down on separate slips of paper, which were roiled into spills and put in a vase. Then Tanchun told Pinger to take one. Pinger stepped forward to mix the lots and picked one out with her chopsticks. When she unfolded it, she found written there ‘She -fu conundrums.’
‘You’ve picked the ancestor of all drinking games,’ chuckled Baochai. ‘It was played in ancient times, but the original rules have been lost now. What we have is a later version, more difficult than all other drinking games. Half of us here wouldn’t be able to play it. Better scrap this and pick one to suit all tastes.’
‘As this has already been picked,’ Tanchun objected, ‘how can we scrap it? Pick another as well, and if that one’s more popular let the others play that while we play this first one.
She told Xiren to draw another lot, and this proved to be the finger-guessing game.
‘This is simple and quick, it suits me!’ chortled Xiangyun. ‘I shan’t play conundrums; that’s too boring and depressing. I shall guess fin¬gers.
‘She’s broken the rules,’ cried Tanchun. ‘Quick, Cousin Baochai, make her drink a cup as a forfeit.’
Baochai laughingly forced Xiangyun to drain a cup.
‘I’m taking charge so I’ll drink a cup too,’ said Tanchun. ‘There’s no need for any announcement, just do as I say. Fetch a dice-bowl and throw the dice in turn, starting with Baoqin. When two people throw the same number they must play conundrums.’
Baoqin cast a ‘three’; Xiuyan and Baoyu threw different numbers; and Xiangling when it came to her turn threw another ‘three.’
‘We must stick to objects in this room,’ said Baoqin. ‘If things out-
side were chosen, we wouldn’t have a clue.’
‘Right,’ agreed Tanchun. ‘Anyone who makes three wrong guesses must drink a cup. Now give her a conundrum to guess.
Baoqin thought for a moment then said, ‘Old.’
Xiangling, who was unfamiliar with this game, looked round the room and feasters but could see nothing fitting a classical allusion containing the word ‘old.’ But Xiangyun on hearing the clue had started staring around too. Catching sight of the name Red Fragrance Farm over the door, she realized that Baoqin had in mind the line ‘I am not as good as the old gardener.’ As Xiangling could not guess the answer and they were beating the drum to hurry her, she quietly tugged at her sleeve.
‘Say ‘peony’,’ ‘‘ she whispered.
Daiyu saw this and cried, ‘Quick, punish her! She’s cheating.’
That gave the game away and Xiangyun, forced to drink a cup of wine, in a huff rapped Daiyu’s knuckles with her chopsticks. Then Xiangling had to drink a cup as a forfeit too.
Now Baochai and Tanchun threw the same number, and Tanchun gave the word ‘‘man’.’
‘That’s too general,’ protested Baochai.
‘I’ll add another word then,’ said Tanchun. ‘Two clues for one co¬nundrum can’t be considered too vague.’ This time she gave the word ‘window.’
Baochai thought this over and, seeing chicken on the table, remem¬bered the allusions ‘cock-window’ and ‘cock-man,’ so she answered with the word ‘roost.’ Tanchun knew that Baochai had guessed right and had in mind the allusion ‘Chickens come home to roost.’ Smiling at each other both girls took a sip of wine.
Meanwhile Xiangyun, too impatient to wait, had started playing the finger-guessing game with Baoyu, shouting ‘three’ or ‘five’ at random. Madam You and Yuanyang, facing each other across the table to play the same game, were shouting now ‘seven’ now ‘eight.’ Pinger and Xiren had paired off together too, and were indicating the numbers they guessed with their fingers, which set their bracelets tinkling. Xiangyun, beating Baoyu, was entitled to make him pay forfeits before and after drinking.
She announced, ‘Before drinking, the loser must quote one line from a classical essay, one from an old poem, one domino’s name, one name of a melody, and one line from the almanac. All these together must make up a sentence. The forfeit after drinking is to name some sweet¬meat or dish and link it with human affairs.’
The others hearing this laughed.
‘Her forfeits are always more pernickety than other people’s; still, they’re fun,’ they remarked, then urged Baoyu to speak up quickly.
‘We’ve never done this before. Give me a chance to think first,’ he begged.
Daiyu offered, ‘Drink an extra cup and I’ll do it for you.’
So Baoyu drank while Daiyu recited:
‘Sunset clouds float with the lone wild duck,
The wild goose cries through the sky above wind-swept river;
A wild goose with a broken leg,
Its crying fills all hearts with sorrow.
Such is the wild goose’s return.’

Amid general laughter the others commented, ‘Stringing lines together like this is rather fun.’
Then Daiyu picked up a hazel-nut to pay the after-drinking forfeit and said:

‘Hazel-nuts having nothing to do with neighbourhood washing-blocks,
Why with them comes the sound of clothes beaten by ten thousand households?’

After these forfeits had been paid, Yuanyang and Xiren who had also lost each recited a proverb alluding to ‘long life,’ which we need not repeat.
They went on playing the finger-guessing game for some time, Xiangyun pairing off with Baoqin. Then Li Wan and Xiuyan, casting dice, threw the same number. Li Wan gave the clue ‘gourd,’ which Xiuyan answered with ‘green,’ and as she had guessed correctly each took a sip of wine. By now Xiangyun had lost the finger-game and had to pay a forfeit.
Baoqin quipped, ‘Please get into the jar, sir!’2
The rest laughed and cried, ‘Very apt!’ Then Xiangyun declaimed:

‘Leaping and rushing,
The river’s waves surge towards the sky;
An iron chain is needed to fasten the lonely boat,
Because there is wind on the river
It is not expedient to make a journey.’

Roaring with laughter the rest said, ‘How side-splitting! No wonder she made up this forfeit. It was so as to make us laugh.’
They waited then to hear her final line; but having tossed off her wine Xiangyun helped herself to a piece of duck, noticing as she did so that there was half a duck’s head in the bowl. She picked this out and started eating the brain.
‘Don’t just eat,’ they scolded. ‘Finish your forfeit first.’
Then holding up her chopsticks Xiangyun said,
‘This duck’s head is not that serving-maid, 2
How can its head be smeared with oil of osmanthus?’
At that the rest laughed even louder, while Qingwen, Xiaoluo, Yinger and the other maids came over to protest:
‘Miss Xiangyun, you’ve making fun of us. You must drink a cup by way of penalty. Why should we be smeared with osmanthus oil? You’d better give us each a bottle of it.’
Daiyu chuckled, ‘She wouldn’t mind giving you a bottle, if it weren’t for fear of being suspected of theft!’
Most of the company paid no attention; but Baoyu, understanding, lowered his head while Caiyun, having a guilty conscience, blushed. Baochai shot Daiyu a warning glance, making her regret her indiscretion; for in her eagerness to tease Baoyu she had forgotten until it was too late how sensitive Caiyun was. Dropping the subject then, they went on with their games.
Presently Baoyu and Baochai threw dice with the same number. Baochai gave the clue ‘precious’ and Baoyu after a little thought knew that this was a playful reference to his magic jade.
‘You’re making fun of me, cousin, and I’ve guessed the answer,’ he told her with a smile. ‘Don’t be annoyed if I break your taboo by saying
your own name chai ‘ ‘hairpin.’’
Asked what he meant he explained, ‘When she said ‘precious’ she naturally meant ‘jade’; so I answered ‘hairpin.’ An old poem has the line ‘The jade hairpin is broken, the red candle cold.’ Isn’t that the answer?’
‘You’re not allowed topical references,’ Xiangyun cried. ‘Both of you should pay a forfeit.’
‘It’s not just topical,’ objected Xiangling. ‘There are classical sources too.’
‘Not for ‘precious jade,’’ retorted Xiangyun. ‘Only New Year con¬gratulatory couplets pasted on gates may use it, but you won’t find it in any classical records. This conundrum won’t do.’
Xiangling insisted, ‘The other day reading Cen Shen’s poems I found the line ‘There is much precious jade in these parts.’ How could you have forgotten that? And then in one of Li Shangyin’s poems I found another line, ‘The precious hairpin daily gathers dust.’ I remarked at the time that apparently both their names appeared in Tang poetry.’
‘This will silence her!’ the others laughed. ‘Drink up, quick!’
Xiangyun having no more to say had to drain her cup.
So they went on dicing and playing finger-guessing games. And as there was nobody to control them in the absence of the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang, they enjoyed themselves just as they pleased, shouting different numbers, the hall a scene of wild merriment filled as it was with the fluttering of red and green silk, the flashing of jade and pearl trinkets.
When at last the feast ended and they prepared to leave, they sud¬denly discovered that Xiangyun was missing. Thinking she had gone out to relieve herself and would soon be back, they waited and waited, but there was no sign of her. A general search was made, but she could not be found.
Presently the wife of Lin Zhixiao arrived with several old nannies. For fearing that the young ladies might want something, and that in the ab¬sence of Lady Wang the young maids might get out of hand or become tipsy and obstreperous, they had come to ask if they were needed. Tanchun realized the reason for their coming.
‘So you’ve come to check up on us, being worried again!’ she chuckled. ‘We haven’t drunk much; we were just having fun together on the pretext of drinking. You nannies can set your minds at rest.’
Li Wan and Madam You also said, ‘Go and rest. We wouldn’t dream of letting them drink too much.’
‘We know that,’ answered Mrs. Lin and the others. ‘Even when the old lady wants them to drink they won’t, much less so now that the mistress is away; of course this is just in fun. We came to find out if you need anything. The days are long now, and after amusing themselves all this time the young ladies ought to have some extra snack. Thay don’t usually eat between meals, but unless they have something after a few cups of wine it may not be good for them.’
Tanchun smiled.
‘You’re quite right. We were thinking of asking for something.’
She turned to order some cakes. The maids standing on both sides assented and went off quickly to fetch them, while Tanchun urged the old women, ‘Go and rest or have a chat with Madam Xue. We’ll send you some wine.’
Mrs. Lin and the others politely declined and after a while withdrew.
As soon as they had gone Pinger felt her cheeks.
‘My face is so hot I didn’t like to let them see me,’ she said. ‘I suggest we wind up now to stop them from coming again ‘ that would be awkward.’
‘Never mind,’ said Tanchun. ‘It’s all right as long as we don’t get really drunk.’
As she was speaking a young maid came in, smiling.
‘Go and have a look quick, miss, at Miss Xiangyun,’ she cried. ‘She’s drunk, and she’s picked a cool spot on a stone bench behind the rockery to sleep it off.’
The rest laughed to hear this.
‘Let’s not make a noise,’ they said.
With that they went out to look, and sure enough found Xiangyun lying on a stone bench in a quiet spot behind an artificial mountain. She was sound asleep and covered with peony petals, which had floated over from all sides to scatter, red and fragrant, over her face and clothes. Her fan, dropped to the ground, was half buried in fallen blossoms too, while bees and butterflies were buzzing and flitting around her. And she had wrapped up some peony petals in her handkerchief to serve as a pillow. They all thought she looked both sweet and comical. As they crowded round to wake her, Xiangyun was still mumbling lines for forfeits in her sleep:
‘Sweet the fountain, cold the wine
Gleaming like amber in a cup ofjade;
The drinking lasts till the moon rises over the plum trees,
Then the drunkards help each other back ‘An appropriate time to meet relatives and friends.’
Laughing, they nudged her.
‘Hurry up and wake up! We’re going to eat. You’ll make yourself ill if you sleep on this damp bench.’
Xiangyun slowly opened her eyes then and saw them all, then looked down at herself and realized she was tipsy. She had come here in search of coolness and quiet, but as she had drunk so much wine by way of forfeits, overcome by dreamy inertia she had dozed off. Rather sheep¬ishly, she hastily sat up, straightened her clothes and went back with the others to Red Fragrance Farm. There she had a wash and two cups of strong tea, and Tanchun sent for the ‘pebble to sober drunkards’ for her to suck. Presently she made her drink some vinegar soup too, after which Xiangyun felt better.
Now they picked some sweetmeats and dishes to send to Xifeng, who sent them some food in return. After Baochai and the others had eaten some cakes, some of them sat or stood about in the hall while others went outside to enjoy the flowers or lean over the balustrade to watch the fish, laughing and chatting or doing whatever each pleased. Tanchun and Baoqin played draughts, with Baochai and Xiuyan looking on, while Daiyu and Baoyu engaged in a conversation under a flowering tree.
Then Lin Zhixiao’s wife and some other matrons brought in another woman looking most upset, who would not venture to enter the hall but knelt down at the foot of the steps to kowtow.
Now one of Tanchun’s positions on the draught-board had been threat¬ened, and although after putting up a struggle she had managed to win two spaces she was still losing the game. Her eyes intent on the board, she was thinking hard, toying with one hand with the draughtsmen in the box. When she finally turned her head to ask for tea and noticed Mrs. Lin, the latter had been standing there a long time. Asked her business, Mrs. Lin pointed at the woman.
‘This is the mother of young Caier who works for Miss Xichun,’ she reported. ‘She’s one of those looking after the Garden, and a fearful gossip. Just now I overheard her saying something which I dare not re¬peat to you, miss. She ought to be dismissed.’
‘Why no report this to Madam Zhu?’ asked Tanchun.
‘I met her just now on her way to the Council Hall to see Madam Xue, and told her about it. She sent me to tell you.’
‘Why not go to Madam Lian?’
‘There’s no need for that,’ interposed Pinger. ‘I’ll just tell her when I go back.’
Tanchun nodded.
‘In that case, dismiss her now and wait until the mistress comes back to make a final decision.’ This said, she went on with her game, while Mrs. Lin took the woman away.
Daiyu and Baoyu standing under the blossoms had watched this from a distance.
‘Your third sister’s rather smart,’ remarked Daiyu. ‘Although she’s been put in charge of things, she never oversteps her authority. Most people would have given themselves big airs long ago.
‘You don’t know that while you were unwell she did quite a few things, putting different people in charge of various parts of the Garden, so that now you can’t pick one extra blade of grass. She scrapped a few things too, taking me and Xifeng as her main targets. She’s very calcu¬lating, not simply smart.’
‘So much the better,’ said Daiyu. ‘This household of ours is too extravagant. Though I’m not in charge, when I’ve nothing to do and reckon things up I can see that the expenditure here exceeds the income. If expenses aren’t cut down now, a time will come when there’ll be nothing left.’
Baoyu chuckled. ‘Never mind. Whatever happens, the two of us won’t go short.’
Daiyu hearing this turned and went to the hall to join Baochai.
Baoyu was about to leave too when Xiren came along carrying a small carved, double-circle foreign lacquer tray on which were two cups of newly brewed tea.
‘Where has she gone?’ she asked. ‘I noticed that the two of you had had no tea for a long time, so I specially brought you two cups ‘ only to find her gone.
‘She’s over there; take it to her.’
With that he took one of the cups. Xiren, going off with the other, found Daiyu with Baochai.
‘I’ve only the one cup of tea,’ she said. ‘Which ever of you is thirsty can drink this first, and I’ll go to fetch another.’
‘I’m not thirsty,’ answered Baochai. ‘I’ll just take a sip.’
She took the cup and drank one mouthful, leaving half a cup which she handed to Daiyu.
‘I’ll get you some more.’ Xiren offered.
But Daiyu said, ‘You know the doctor won’t let me drink too much tea on account of my illness, so this half cup is plenty. Thank you for bringing it.’
She drained the cup and put it down, after which Xiren went to collect Baoyu’s cup.
He asked her, ‘Where’s Fangguan? I haven’t seen her all this time.’
Xiren looked around as she answered, ‘She was here a moment ago. A few of them were playing the ‘matching-herbs’ game, but I don’t see her now.’
Then Baoyu hurried back to his compound and found Fangguan lying on the bed with her face to the wall.
‘Don’t go to sleep,’ he said nudging her. ‘Let’s amuse ourselves outside. It’ll soon be time for dinner.’
‘You were all drinking and ignoring me; so having nothing to do all that time naturally I came to lie down,’ Fangguan retorted.
Baoyu pulled her up.
‘We’ll have another drink later at home, and I’ll tell Sister Xiren to bring you to the dinner table. How’s that?’
‘If Ouguan and Ruiguan aren’t there, only me, that’s no good. Be¬sides, I don’t like noodles. I didn’t have a proper meal this morning and I’m hungry, so I’ve told Mrs. Liu to prepare me a bowl of soup and half a bowl of rice and send them here. I’ll eat here. If we’re drinking tonight you mustn’t let anyone stop me ‘ I mean to drink my fill. At home, in the old days, I used to be able to drink two or three catties of good Huiquan wine; but after I learned this wretched singing they said drinking might spoil my voice, so for the last few years I haven’t so much as smelt a whiff of wine. I shall take the chance today to break my fast.’
‘That’s simple,’ he said.
Now a maid arrived with a hamper from Mrs. Liu. Xiaoyan took it and opened it, then put on the table one bowl of chickenskin soup with shrimp balls, one bowl of steamed duck with wine sauce, one of salted goose and another of four pine-kernel cream puffs, as well as a big bowl of hot green rice. She then fetched pickles, bowls and chopsticks, and filled one small bowl with rice.
‘Who wants such greasy stuff?’ complained Fangguan, just ladling some soup on the rice and eating a bowlful with two pieces of goose.
To Baoyu, the food smelled more appetizing than his usual fare, so first he ate one cream puff, then asked Xiaoyan for half a bowl of rice which he ate with soup and found delicious, exactly to his taste, much to the two girls’ amusement. After he had finished, Xiaoyan prepared to take back what was left.
‘You may as well finish it off,’ proposed Baoyu. ‘If it’s not enough ask for some more.’
‘There’s no need for that; this is plenty for me,’ she answered. ‘Just now Sister Sheyue brought us two plates of cakes. After eating this I’ll have had enough and shan’t need any more.’ So standing there by the table she finished all the food except two cream puffs, saying, ‘I’ll keep these for my mother. If you’re drinking tonight, give me a couple of bowls.’
‘So you like wine too?’ exclaimed Baoyu. ‘Wait till this evening then, and we’ll have a good bout of drinking. Your sisters Xiren and Qingwen have a good capacity and enjoy drinking too, only normally they don’t feel they should. Well, today everyone can break her fast. There’s an¬other thing I meant to tell you which I’ve only just remembered. In future you must take good care of Fangguan, and tell her if she does anything wrong. Xiren hasn’t time to look after so many girls.’
‘I know all that,’ said Xiaoyan. ‘You don’t have to worry. But what about Wuer?’
‘Tell Mrs. Liu to send her here tomorrow. I’ll inform them about it later and that will be that.’
Fangguan hearing this exclaimed, ‘Now that’s something really im¬portant!’
Xiaoyan called in two young maids then to wait on them while they washed their hands and to pour them tea while she herself cleared the table, gave the dishes to a serving-woman, washed her hands and went to see Mrs. Liu.
Baoyu started back then to Red Fragrance Farm to rejoin the girls, followed by Fangguan carrying his handkerchief and fan. As they went out of the gate they met Xiren and Qingwen, coming back hand in hand.
‘What are you two doing?’ Baoyu asked them.
‘The meal’s on the table waiting for you,’ Xiren said.
Smiling, Baoyu told them what he had just eaten.
‘I always say you’re as bad as a cat,’ Xiren laughed. ‘Whatever you smell takes your fancy. Other people’s food tastes better to you than your own. Still, you’d better go and keep them company and make a show of eating.’
Qingwen stabbed at Fangguan’s forehead with her finger.
‘You vamp!’ she cried. ‘When did you sneak off to have a meal? How did you two arrange it? Why didn’t you let us know?’
‘They just happened to meet,’ said Xiren soothingly. ‘They certainly didn’t arrange it in advance.’
‘If that’s how it is, he doesn’t need us,’ said Qingwen. ‘Tomorrow we’ll all clear out, leaving just Fangguan here to wait on him.’
Xiren chuckled, ‘All the rest of us can go, but not you.’
Qingwen retorted, ‘I should be the first to go, lazy, stupid, bad-tem¬pered and useless as I am.’
‘Supposing that peacock-feather cape gets burned again, who can mend it if you’re gone?’ asked Xiren. ‘Don’t give me that silly talk. When I ask you to do anything, you’re too lazy to thread a needle. And I never trouble you with sewing for me, only with things for him, yet you still refuse. How come then that when I was away for a few days and you were laid up, practically at death’s door, you mended that cape for him with no thought of your health? What made you do that? Come on, speak up! Don’t pretend not to understand and just keep on smiling.’
While talking together they had reached the hall. Aunt Xue had al¬ready come, so all took their seats and started the meal, Baoyu just eating half a bowl of rice steeped in tea to keep them company. Afterwards they sipped tea and chatted or amused themselves as they pleased.

Xiaoluo, Xiangling, Fangguan, Ruiguan, Ouguan and Douguan had been romping all over the Garden and picking flowers and herbs. Now they sat down on the grass holding these on their laps to play the game ‘matching herbs.’
One said, ‘I’ve bodhisattva-willow.’
This was capped by ‘I’ve arhat-pine.’
Another said, ‘I’ve gentleman-bamboo.’
Yet another answered, ‘I’ve lovely-lady plantain.’
‘I’ve starry-green.’
‘I’ve monthly-crimson.’
‘I’ve the peony of Peony Pavilion.’
‘I’ve the loquat of the Romance of the Lute.’
Then Douguan said, ‘I’ve a sister-flower,’ and nobody could match that until Xiangling said:
‘I’ve a husband-and-wife orchid.’
‘I’ve never heard of such an orchid,’ Douguan protested.
‘A stem bearing one flower is the lan orchid, and a stem bearing several flowers is the hui orchid,’ Xiangling told them. ‘When there are flowers above and below that’s brothers-orchid; when two flowers bloom side by side that’s a husband-and-wife orchid. This one of mine is like that, with two flowers side by side. How can you deny it?’
Unable to refute her, Douguan rose to her feet and teased, ‘In that case, if one flower is large, the other small, it should be a father-and-son orchid. Two flowers confronting each other should be an enemy orchid. Your husband’s been away for nearly a year and you’re longing for him, so you dream up a husband-and-wife orchid. For shame!’
Blushing, Xiangling got ready to spring up to pinch her.
‘You foul-mouthed bitch!’ she swore, laughing. ‘What drivel you talk!’
Seeing she was about to spring up, Douguan promptly stooped to hold her down, turning to appeal to Ruiguan and the rest:
‘Come and help me pinch her foul mouth!’
The two of them rolled over on the grass while the others laughed and clapped.
‘Look out!’ cried one. ‘There’s a puddle there. It would be a pity to dirty her new skirt.’
Douguan turned and saw just beside them a puddle of rain water which had already muddied half Xiangling’s skirt. Disconcerted, she let go of her and ran off. The others could not help laughing, but afraid Xiangling might vent her annoyance on them they too scampered away giggling.
Xiangling got up now and started cursing when she looked down and saw water dripping from her skirt. Just at this moment, along came Baoyu with some herbs and flowers he had picked, intending to join in their game. He saw the rest running away leaving Xiangling there, her head lowered, fingering her skirt.
‘Why have they all gone?’ he asked.
‘I had a husband-and-wife orchid,’ she told him. ‘They’d never heard of it and said instead I was cheating, so we started squabbling and I’ve spolit my new skirt.’
‘You have a husband-and-wife orchid and I’ve a neck-to-neck cal¬trop flower here,’ he answered, showing her the caltrop and taking the orchid from her.
‘Never mind about husband-and-wife or neck-to-neck,’ she grumbled. ‘Look at my skirt.’
Baoyu bent to look, then exclaimed, ‘Aiya! How did you get it in the mud? It’s too bad, this pomegranate-red silk shows the dirt so.’
‘This silk was brought the other day by Miss Baoqin. Miss Baochai made one skirt and I made another, which I put on today for the first time.’
Baoyu stamped his foot.
‘Your family can well afford to spoil a hundred skirts like that each day. Only this was given you by Miss Baoqin, and you and Cousin Baochai both have one; if hers is still all right while yours gets dirtied first, that looks ungrateful. Besides, dear old Auntie’s a fuss-pot. Even when you’re careful, I’ve often heard her complaining that you’re a poor manager and don’t know how to save but just waste things all the time. If she sees this, you’ll never hear the end of it.’
Xiangling was pleased and struck by his understanding.
‘That’s just it,’ she replied. ‘I have several new skirts, but none like this. If I had, I’d change it quickly and things would be all right for the time being.’
‘Better not move,’ Baoyu warned her. ‘Just stay put, otherwise you’ll muddy your underclothes and shoes as well. I have an idea. Last month Xiren made a skirt exactly like this. As she’s still in mourning she isn’t wearing it. How about letting her give you hers instead?’
Xiangling smiled and shook her head.
‘No, if others heard about it, that would be worse.
‘What would it matter? After her mourning ends, if she fancies some¬thing you can surely give it her, can’t you? The way you’re behaving isn’t like your usual self. Besides, this isn’t anything that need be kept secret; you can tell Cousin Baochai about it. We just don’t want to vex dear old Auntie.’
Xiangling thought this made good sense.
Nodding she said, ‘All right then. To show how grateful I am to you I’ll wait here. But be sure you get her to bring it here herself.’
Baoyu was delighted and agreed to this, musing as he hurried back with lowered head, ‘Poor girl, with no parents, not even knowing her family name after being kidnapped and sold to this Tyrant King.’ Then he thought, ‘What I did for Pinger last time was unexpected; now this is even more of a pleasant surprise.’ His thoughts wandering in this foolish way, he went back to his room and got hold of Xiren to explain the situa¬tion. As Xiangling was a general favourite and open-handed Xiren was a good friend of hers, as soon as she knew what had happened she opened her case, took the skirt out and folded it, then went off with Baoyu to find Xiangling still standing in the same spot.
‘I always said you were naughty,’ teased Xiren. ‘Now see what a mess you’ve landed yourself in.’
Xiangling blushed and said, ‘Thank you, sister. I never thought those mischievous imps would play such a dirty trick on me.’ When she took the skirt and unfolded it, she found it was just like her own. She made Baoyu look the other way and, turning her back on him, took off her skirt and slipped into the clean one.
‘Give me the dirty one to take back,’ said Xiren. ‘I’ll have it cleaned, then return it. If you take it back, they may see it and ask questions.’
‘You take it and give it to one of the girls. Now that I’ve got this one, I don’t need it any more.
‘That’s very generous of you,’ said Xiren.
‘Then Xiangling curtseyed her thanks, and Xiren went off with the soiled skirt.
Now Xiangling saw that Baoyu was squatting on the ground using a twig to scrape a little pit in which to bury her orchid and his caltrop flower together. First he lined the bottom of the pit with fallen blossoms then laid the flowers in it, strewed them with more blossoms, then filled in the pit with earth.
Xiangling pulled him by the hand saying, ‘What’s the idea? No won¬der people say you’re always up to underhand tricks. Look, your hands are all muddy and filthy. Go and wash them, quick.’
Baoyu got up smiling and set off to wash his hands while Xiangling walked away too. They had neither of them gone far when she turned back and called him to stop. Not knowing the reason, Baoyu turned back grinning, holding his muddy hands away from himself.
‘What is it?’ he asked.
But Xiangling simply giggled. Just then her young maid Zhener ap¬peared.
‘Miss Baoqin wants you,’ she said.
Xiangling urged Baoyu then, ‘Just don’t say anything about the skirt to your Cousin Pan. That’s all.’ With that she turned and went off.
Baoyu called laughingly after her, ‘Think I’m crazy? Why should I put my head in a tiger’s mouth?’ Then he went home to wash.
To know what happened later, read the next chapter.

Chapter 63

Girls Feast at Night to Celebrate
Baoyu’s Birthday
Jia Jing Dies of an Elixir and Madam You
Manages the Funeral Single-Handed


Baoyu going back to his room to wash up told Xiren, ‘We mustn’t stand on ceremony tonight but drink and enjoy ourselves. Let them know in good time what dishes we want so that they’ll have them ready.’
‘Don’t worry,’ she replied. ‘Qingwen, Sheyue, Qiuwen and I have contributed half a tael of silver each, which makes two taels; and Fangguan, Bihen, Xiaoyan and Sier have each given thirty cents. So, apart from those who are away, we’ve raised three taels and twenty cents which we’ve already given to Mrs. Liu, who’s preparing forty dishes. I’ve also arranged with Pinger to have a vat of good Shaoxing wine smuggled in. The eight of us are going to throw a birthday party for you.’
Baoyu was delighted but demurred, ‘How can they afford it? You shouldn’t have made them chip in.’
Qingwen demanded, ‘Do we have money and not they? All of us are just showing our feeling. Never mind whether they can afford it. Even if they steal the money, just you accept it.’
‘That’s right,’ said Baoyu.
‘It seems that you can’t be satisfied unless she gives you a few digs every day, ‘chuckled Xiren.
‘Now you’re learning bad ways too,’ shot back Qingwen. ‘Always goading others on to stir up trouble!’
At that all three laughed, after which Baoyu proposed locking the courtyard gate. But Xiren objected:
‘No wonder people say you’re forever making a great ado about nothing. If we lock the gate now that will arouse suspicion. Better wait a bit.’
Baoyu nodded.
‘I’ll take a stroll outside then,’ he said, ‘while Sier fetches water.  Xiaoyan can come with me.’
He went out, and as there was nobody else about asked when Wuer would be coming.
‘I told Mrs. Liu just now, and of course she’s very pleased,’ Xiaoyan informed him. ‘Only Wuer got so worked up that night she was hauled over the coals that as soon as she got home she fell ill again. She can’t come until she’s better.’
Baoyu sighed in disappointment.
‘Does Xiren know this?’ he asked.
‘I didn’t tell her,’ was the reply. ‘But Fangguan may have done for all I know.’
‘Well, I never told her. All right, I’ll let her know now. 
He went back inside on the pretext of washing his hands. Now, as the time came to light the lamps, they heard people approach¬ing the courtyard gate and when they peeped through the window saw Mrs. Lin with a few other stewards’ wives, the one in front carrying a big lantern.
‘They’re making their nightly check-up of those on duty,’ whispered Qingwen. ‘Once they’ve gone we can close the gate.’
All the servants on night duty in Happy Red Court had gone out to meet these women. After checking that they were all present Mrs. Lin warned them:
‘No gambling or drinking now, and no sleeping till morning! If I hear of such goings-on I’ll have something to say.’
‘Which of us would dare?’ they answered laughingly.
Then Mrs. Lin asked, ‘Is Master Bao in bed yet?’
As they replied that they did not know, Xiren nudged Baoyu, who put on slippers to go out to greet them.
‘No, I’m not in bed yet,’ he called. ‘Come in and sit down.’ Look¬ing towards the house, he ordered: ‘Serve tea, Xiren.’
Mrs. Lin entered then, smiling.
‘Still up!’ she exclaimed. ‘Now the days are long, the nights short, you should go to bed early so as to get up early tomorrow. Otherwise you may oversleep, and people will jeer that you don’t behave like a scholarly young gentleman but like a common coolie.’ Having said this she laughed.
Baoyu promptly agreed, ‘You’re right, nanny. I do generally go to bed early, so that I don’t know when you come every evening because I’m already asleep. But today after eating noodles I was afraid of getting indigestion; that’s why I’ve stayed up a bit.’
Mrs. Lin advised Xiren and Qingwen to brew him some puer tea.
‘We’ve made him some nuer tea1 and he’s drunk two bowls. Won’t you try some, madam?’ they answered. ‘It’s already brewed.’
As Qingwen poured a bowl Mrs. Lin observed, ‘Recently I’ve no¬ticed that the Second Master always calls you girls by your names. Though you’re working here you belong to Their Ladyships, so he should show more respect. If once in a while he happens to use your names, that doesn’t matter; but if this becomes a habit then his cousins and nephews may follow suit, and then people will laugh at us and say we’ve no re¬spect for elders in our household.’
‘You’re right, nanny,’ agreed Baoyu again. ‘Actually I only do that once in a while.’
The two girls put in, ‘You must be fair to him. Even now he still refers to us as ‘elder sisters,’ only using our names occasionally in fun. In front of others he always addresses us as he did before.’
‘That’s good,’ approved Mrs. Lin. ‘That’s how someone with edu¬cation and good manners ought to behave. The more modest you are, the more respected you’ll be. Not to say members of the staff of long stand¬ing or those transferred from Their Ladyships’ apartments, but even the dogs and cats from there mustn’t be badly treated. That’s the way a well brought up young gentleman should behave.’ She then drank up her tea and said, ‘We must be off now. I’ll wish you a good night.’
Baoyu pressed them to stay, but Mrs. Lin had already led her party off to finish making their rounds. At once Qingwen and others ordered the gate to be locked, and coming back Qingwen said:
‘That grandame must have been drinking, gabbing away and nagging at us like that.’
‘She means well anyway,’ remarked Sheyue as she started to lay the table. ‘She has to remind us from time to time to be on our guard and not overstep the limits.’
‘We don’t need that high table,’ put in Xiren. ‘Let’s put that round low pear-wood one on the kang. There’s room for all of us at it, and it’s more convenient.’
So they carried the table over, after which Sheyue and Sier fetched the dishes, making four or five trips with two big trays while two old women squatting outside by the brazier warmed the wine.
‘It’s so hot, let’s take off our outer clothes,’ Baoyu suggested.
‘You can if you want to,’ said the girls, ‘but we have to take it in turns to offer toasts.’
‘If you do that it’ll take all night,’ he objected. ‘You know how much I dislike those vulgar conventions. We may have to observe them in front of outsiders, but if you provoke me like that it won’t be nice.’
‘We’ll do as you say,’ they agreed.
So before taking seats they first divested themselves of their outer things and had soon laid aside their formal gowns and trinkets, leaving their hair to hang free and wearing only long skirts and bodices. Baoyu himself stripped down to a scarlet linen jacket and green dotted satin trousers, letting the ends of the trouser legs hang loose. Leaning on a jade-colored gauze cushion filed with all sorts of fresh rose and peony petals, he started playing the finger-guessing game with Fangguan.
Fangguan, who had also been complaining of the heat, had on only a short lined satin jacket a patchwork of red, blue and jade-coloured squares, a green sash, and pink trousers with a floral design left untied at her ankles. Her hair, woven in small plaits, was gathered on the crown of her head into a thick braid hanging down at the back. In her right ear she wore a jade stop no bigger than a grain of rice, in her left a ruby-ear-ring set in gold the size of a gingko nut, making her face seem whiter than the full moon, her eyes clearer than water in autumn.
‘The two of them look like twin brothers!’ chuckled the others.
Xiren and the rest poured wine for each.
‘Wait a bit before you start the finger-guessing game,’ they said. ‘Though we’re dispensing with the usual toasts, you must each take a sip from our cups.
Xiren held the first cup to her lips and took a sip, to be followed by the others, after which all sat down in a circle. As there was insufficient room on the kang, Xiaoyan and Sier set two chairs beside it. The forty white Ding ware dishes no bigger than saucers held all manner of sweet-meats and delicacies of land and sea, fresh or preserved, from every part of the country and from abroad. And now Baoyu proposed playing some drinking games.
‘Something quiet, not too rowdy,’ advised Xiren. ‘We don’t want people to hear us. And nothing too literary either, as we’re no scholars.’
‘How about the dice game ‘Grabbing the Red’?’  said Sheyue.
‘That’s no fun,’ objected Baoyu. ‘Better play the ‘Flower Game.’’
‘Yes, do let’s!’ cried Qingwen. ‘I’ve always wanted to play that.’
‘It’s a good game,’ agreed Xiren, ‘but no fun for just a few people.’
‘I’ve an idea,’ put in Xiaoyan. ‘Let’s quietly invite Miss Baochai and Miss Daiyu over to play for a short time. It won’t matter if we go on till the second watch.’
‘If we go around knocking different people up, we may run into some night-watchers,’ Xiren pointed out.
‘Don’t be afraid,’ said Baoyu. ‘My Third Sister likes drinking too; we should count her in. And Miss Baoqin as well.’
‘Not Miss Baoqin,’ the others demurred. ‘She’s with Madam Zhu, so that would make too much of a stir.’
‘Never mind,’ insisted Baoyu. ‘Hurry up and invite them.’
Xiaoyan and Sier, who had been awaiting this order, immediately called for the gate to be unlocked and went off to the different apartments.
‘They may not be able to get Miss Baochai and Miss Daiyu,’ pre¬dicted the senior maids. ‘We’ll have to go and drag them here by main force.’ So, telling an old woman to bring a lantern, Xiren and Qingwen went off as well.
Sure enough, Baochai objected that it was too late while Daiyu pleaded poor health, but the two maids begged them:
‘Do give us a little face. Just go and sit there for a while.’
As for Tanchun, she was eager to come but felt that if Li Wan were left out and came to hear of it later that wouldn’t be good; so she told Zuimo and Xiaoyan to insist that Li Wan and Baoqin should both be in¬vited. Presently they all arrived, one by one, at Happy Red Court, where Xiren had dragged Xiangling over as well. Another table had to be put on the kang before they could all sit down.
‘Cousin Daiyu feels the cold,’ said Baoyu. ‘Come and sit by the partition.’
She was given a cushion for her back while Xiren and the other maids fetched chairs and seated themselves beside the kang.
Leaning against her back-rest some way from the table, Daiyu teased Baochai, Li Wan and Tanchun, ‘You’re always accusing people of drinking and gambling at night, and now that’s just what we’re doing. How can we blame others in future?’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ replied Li Wan, ‘if we only do this on birthdays or festivals, not every night. There’s nothing to be afraid of.’
As she was speaking, Qingwen brought in a carved bamboo container filled with ivory slips bearing the names of flowers. Having shaken this she put it down in the middle. Next she brought the dice-box and shook it, and upon opening the box saw that the number on the dice was five. She counted, starting from herself, and Baochai being the fifth was the one who should start.
‘I’ll draw,’ said Baochai. ‘I wonder what I shall get.’
She shook the container and took out a slip on which they saw the picture of a peony with the words ‘Beauty surpassing all flowers.’ In¬scribed in smaller characters beneath was the line of Tang poetry, ‘Though heartless she has charm.’ The instructions read, ‘All the feasters must drink a cup by way of congratulations, for this is the queen of the flowers. She can order anyone to compose a poem or tell a joke to enliven the drinking.’
‘What a coincidence!’ all exclaimed laughingly. ‘A peony is just the flower for you.’ With that they drank a cup each.
After Baochai had drunk she decreed, ‘Let Fangguan sing us a song.’
‘In that case,’ said Fangguan, ‘you must all finish your cups.
When all had drained them, Fangguan started singing The Birthday Feast Is Spread in a Fine Season.
‘Not that song,’ protested the others. ‘We don’t want you, right now, to congratulate him on his birthday. Sing us your best song instead.’
Then Fangguan had to give them a careful rendering of a verse set to the melody The Season for Enjoying Flowers. 2
With a broom of green phoenix feathers,
I leisurely sweep fallen blossoms for immortals;
Lo, a wind rising all of a sudden
Swirls jade dust under the clouds,
So far removed though just outside the gate.
Do not miss by an inch again your slash at the yellow dragon,
Nor return to the poor wine-vendor in the east.
But let us turn our eyes to the roseate clouds.
Ah, Lu Dongbin,
Hasten back when you have found one to replace me!
If you delay,
I shall nurse my grief for ever by the peach-blossom.

Baoyu, holding the slip of ivory, had been softly repeating to himself. ‘Though heartless she has charm,’ gazing at Fangguan as she sang, lost in thought. Now Xiangyun snatched the slip from him and gave it to Baochai who threw sixteen, which made it Tanchun’s turn.
‘I wonder what I’ll get,’ she said with a smile.
But having drawn a slip out and seen what it was, she threw it down.
‘We shouldn’t play this game,’ she declared with a blush. ‘It’s a game for those men outside, a whole lot of silly nonsense.’
The others were wondering what she meant when Xiren picked up the slip for all to see. Under the picture of an apricot-blossom were the words in red ‘Fairy flower from paradise’ and the verse ‘A red apricot by the sun grows in the clouds.’ The directions were: ‘Whoever draws this will have a noble husband. All must drink to her, then drink another cup together.’
‘Is that all?’ they laughed. ‘This is a game for the inner apartments. Apart from a couple of slips with mottoes like these, there’s nothing improper; so what does it matter? Our family already has one Imperial Consort; are you going to be another? Congratulations!’
They all raised their cups, but Tanchun would not drink this toast until compelled to by Xiangyun, Xiangling and Li Wan.
When she protested, ‘Let’s give up this game and play another,’ they would not agree, and Xiangyun held her hand, forcing her to throw the dice. The number nineteen coming up, it was Li Wan’s turn. She shook the container, took out a slip, and smiled when she saw what it was. ‘Excellent!’ she crowed. ‘Just see what I’ve got. This is fun.’
They saw the picture of an old plum-tree with the motto ‘Cold beauty in frosty dawn’ and the line of verse ‘Content to stay by the bamboo fence and thatched hut.’ The instructions were: ‘Whoever draws this lot must drink a cup, then the one whose turn comes next must throw the dice.’
‘That’s fine,’ said Li Wan. ‘You go on dicing while I just drink one cup without worrying how the rest of you get on.’
She drained her cup and passed the dice to Daiyu, who threw eigh¬teen, making it Xiangyun’s turn. Xiangyun rolled up her sleeves to draw her lot, a picture of crab-apple-blossom with the motto ‘Deep in a fra¬grant dream’ and the line ‘So late at night the flower may fall asleep.’
Daiyu teased, ‘The words ‘late at night’ should be changed to ‘cool on the stone.’
At that everyone laughed, knowing that she was referring to how Xiangyun had fallen asleep earlier that day on a stone.
Giggling, Xiangyun pointed at the mechanical boat.
‘Hurry up and leave by that boat, and stop talking nonsense!’ she retorted.
Amid more laughter they read the instructions, ‘As she is deep in a fragrant sleep and cannot drink, the two next to her must each drink a cup instead.’
Xiangyun clapped her hands.
‘Amida Buddha!’ she cried. ‘This is really a lucky dip!’
It so happened that Daiyu and Baoyu were one either side of her, so they both filled their cups. Baoyu first drank half the cup, as no one was watching, then passed the rest to Fangguan, who drained the cup. As for Daiyu, while chatting with the others she quietly poured her drink into a rinse-bowl. Xiangyun then threw a nine, which made it Sheyue’s turn. On the lot she drew they saw a rose with the motto ‘Flower of final splendour’ and the line ‘When the rose blooms, spring flowers fade.’
Below was written, ‘All at the feast should drink three cups each to farewell the spring.’
When Sheyue asked what was written there, Baoyu frowned and hid the slip, saying, ‘We must all drink.’ So they took three sips each to symbolize three cups.
Then Sheyue threw nineteen and it was Xiangling’s turn. She drew a picture of two flowers on one stem with the motto ‘Double beauty linked with good fortune’ and the line ‘Double flowers bloom on a single stem.’ The instructions were: ‘All must congratulate the one who draws this lot and make her drink three cups, drinking one each themselves.’
Xiangling then threw a six, making it Daiyu’s turn. ‘I hope I get some¬thing good,’ she thought while drawing a lot. It showed a hibiscus flower with the motto ‘Quiet and sad in wind and dew’ and the line ‘Blame not the east wind but yourself.’ The instruction was: ‘Both hibiscus and peony must drink a cup.’
‘Fine!’ cried the others. ‘She’s the only one here fit to be compared to a hibiscus.’
Daiyu smiled too as she drank, then threw a twenty which made it Xiren’s turn.
Xiren drew a picture of peach-blossom with the motto ‘Exotic scene at Wuling’ and the line ‘Another spring returns and the peach blooms red.’ The instructions were, ‘The apricot-blossom, as well as those born in the same year, on the same day and those with the same surname must drink one cup.
‘This one is lively and good fun,’ cried the rest.
They worked it out that Xiangling, Qingwen and Baochai were the same age as Xiren, while Daiyu’s birthday fell on the same day; but they could not think of anyone with the same name until Fangguan said:
‘My family name is Hua. I’ll drink with her.’
As they filled their cups Daiyu remarked to Tanchun, ‘You’re the apricot-blossom destined to have a noble husband. So drink up quickly and we’ll follow suit.’
‘Stop talking nonsense!’ retorted Tanchun. ‘Sister-in-law, give her a slap.’
‘She hasn’t got a noble husband and now you want me to beat her,’ teased Li Wan. ‘No, I can’t bring myself to do it.’
At that they all laughed.
Xiren was about to throw the dice when they heard someone at the gate. An old woman went to see who was there and found it was a maid sent by Aunt Xue to fetch Daiyu back.
‘What time is it?’ everyone asked.
‘After the second watch,’ the maid informed them. ‘The clock’s just struck eleven.’
Baoyu could not believe it was so late, but when he called for his watch and looked at the time it was ten past eleven.
‘I can’t stay up any longer,’ said Daiyu getting up. ‘1 have to take medicine too after I go back.’
All agreed that it was time to disperse, so when Xiren and Baoyu tried to keep them Li Wan and Baochai demurred:
‘It doesn’t look right being so late. We’ve already made an excep¬tion to our rule.’
‘In that case,’ said Xiren, ‘let’s each have one final cup.
Qingwen and the others filled the cups, and after drinking them they called for lanterns. Xiren and the rest, having seen the visitors past Seep¬ing Fragrance Pavilion to the other side of the stream, came back and locked the gate, then continued their game. They also filled several big goblets and selected several dishes for the old maid-servants waiting on them. And now, being slightly tipsy, they played the finger-guessing game and made the losers sing songs. By the time of the fourth watch, the old women in addition to drinking their share had stolen more wine on the sly so that the whole vat was empty. When they learned to their surprise that the wine was finished, they cleared the table, washed and made ready for bed.
Fangguan’s cheeks after drinking were as red as rouge, making her look still more charming. Unable to hold herself steady she leaned on Xiren.
‘Dear sister,’ she murmured, ‘my heart’s beating ever so fast!’
‘Who gave you permission to drink so much?’ Xiren retorted.
Xiaoyan and Sier, who had felt dizzy too, had already gone to bed. Only Qingwen was still trying to rouse them.
‘No need to wake them,’ Baoyu remonstrated. ‘Let’s just get some rest anyhow.’
With that, lying back on his pillow of fragrant red petals, he curled up and went to sleep too.
Xiren feared that Fangguan was so drunk that she might be sick, so she quietly helped her over to lie down next to Baoyu, then sank down on the opposite couch herself. They all slept then, oblivious of everything around them.
When Xiren next opened her eyes the day was bright.
‘So late!’ she exclaimed.
Seeing Fangguan still sleeping on the edge of the kang she got up quickly to wake her. But by this time Baoyu had turned over and woken up.
‘It is late!’ he chuckled, nudging Fangguan to make her get up.
Fangguan sat up, still drowsy, rubbing her eyes.
‘Aren’t you ashamed?’ Xiren laughed. ‘You were so drunk you didn’t care where you flopped down to sleep.’
Fangguan stared round, and when she discovered that she had shared Baoyu’s bed she at once scrambled up.
‘How is it that I don’t remember a thing?’ she answered laughingly.
‘That goes for me too,’ rejoined Baoyu. ‘If I’d known, I’d have blackened your face with ink.’
Some young maids came in now to help them with their toilet.
‘I gave you a lot of trouble yesterday,’ declared Baoyu. ‘Tonight I’m going to throw a return party.’
‘No, we mustn’t raise another rumpus today,’ said Xiren. ‘If we did, people would complain.’
‘Why should we care?’ he retorted. ‘It’s only a couple of times. But we must be good drinkers if we managed to finish that whole vat of wine. Things were just getting lively when we ran out of wine.’
‘That’s what made it so good,’ said Xiren. ‘If we’d drunk to our full capacity, it wouldn’t seem such fun looking back. Yesterday we all did fine, and Qingwen actually forgot her scruples. I remember that she even sang a song.
‘Have you forgotten, sister, that even you sang one too?’ demanded Sier. ‘Everyone at the party sang.’
They all blushed then, hiding their faces in their hands, and were giv¬ing way to fits of laughter when Pinger came in.
‘I’ve come in person,’ she announced merrily, ‘to invite all the people at the party yesterday. Today I’m standing treat. Everybody must come.’
They asked her to take a seat and drink some tea.
‘It’s a pity we didn’t have her here last night,’ observed Qingwen.
‘What did you do last night?’ she asked.
‘We can’t tell you,’ Xiren replied. ‘Things were so lively, it was far more fun than even those times when Their Ladyships gave us parties. We finished up a whole vat of wine; then after drinking we all forgot ourselves and started singing, really let ourselves go! Finally not till after the fourth watch ‘ we lay down just anywhere to sleep it off.’
‘Fine goings-on!’ exclaimed Pinger. ‘You asked me for the wine but didn’t invite me, then tell me this to provoke me.’
‘He’s giving a return party today and is sure to invite you,’ Qingwen assured her. ‘Just wait.’
‘‘He’? Who is ‘he’?’ asked Pinger with a smile.
Qingwen made as if to slap her, protesting laughingly, ‘Why do you have such sharp ears?’
‘I’m too busy to bandy words with you now,’ Pinger told her. ‘I must be off to see to some business. Later on I’ll send to invite you. If anyone fails to turn up, I’ll come and knock down your door.’
Baoyu wanted to urge her to stay, but she was already gone. After he had finished his toilet and was drinking tea he suddenly caught sight of a piece of paper under the inkstone.
‘It’s no good,’ he scolded, ‘the way you stuff things carelessly just anywhere you please.
Xiren and Qingwen hastily asked what was wrong. Baoyu pointed at the paper.
‘What’s this under the inkstone? One of you must have forgotten to put your patterns away.
Qingwen took the paper from under the inkstone and saw it was a greeting card on a sheet of pink stationery. She passed it to Baoyu who read: ‘Miaoyu, the one outside the threshold, sends respectful greetings on the young master’s birthday.’
At once he sprang to his feet.
‘Who brought this in?’ he demanded. ‘Why wasn’t I told?’
The state he was in made Xiren and Qingwen suppose that this was a
greeting from someone of consequence.
‘Who accepted this card yesterday?’ they both asked together.
Sier rushed in to explain, ‘Miaoyu didn’t come herself but sent an old servant with this, so I put it there. But after all that drinking I forgot it.’
When the other girls heard this they commented, ‘We thought it was someone who mattered, the way you were carrying on; but this isn’t worth making such a fuss about.’
Baoyu, however, immediately asked for some paper and while spread¬ing it out and grinding ink wondered how to word a reply matching that phrase ‘outside the threshold.’ Brush in hand he thought hard for a long time, but could not hit on anything appropriate. He reflected, ‘If I consult Baochai, she’s bound to criticize this as eccentric. I’d better ask Daiyu.’ So tucking the card up his sleeve he set off to find her and had just passed Seeping Fragrance Pavilion when he saw Xiuyan approaching with sway¬ing steps.
‘Where are you going, cousin?’ he inquired.
‘To have a chat with Miaoyu,’ was the answer.
In surprise he remarked, ‘She’s so aloof and unconventional that she looks down on everybody. If she thinks so highly of you, this shows you’re not vulgar like the rest of us.’
‘She may not really think highly of me,’ replied Xiuyan with a smile, ‘but we were next-door neighbours for ten years when she was practis¬ing asceticism in Curly Fragrance Nunnery. My family was poor, and we lived for ten years in a house rented from the nunnery; so I often went in to see her when I was free, and she’s the one who taught me all the characters I know. Apart from being friends in poverty, she was half my teacher too. After we had left the nunnery to join our relatives, I heard that because she’d offended certain powerful people by her eccentric ways she had to come here for protection too. So as luck would have it we met again, and our old feeling for each other hadn’t changed ‘ in fact she’s even kinder to me than before.
Much impressed by this account Baoyu said with delight, ‘No won¬der your own behaviour and conversation are as unworldly as a wild stork or floating clouds! So this is the reason, I’m stumped just now by something connected with her and was on my way to ask somebody’s advice. Meeting you is a heaven-sent chance. You must tell me what to do.’
Then he showed the card to Xiuyan.
‘She hasn’t changed in the least,’ observed Xiuyan with a smile. ‘She was born like this ‘ headstrong and eccentric. I’ve never seen other people use appellations like this in greeting cards. Why, this, as the saying goes, is neither fish, flesh nor fowl! It doesn’t make sense.’
‘But you see she’s not one of us,’ Baoyu put in. ‘She’s outside the mundane crowd. She’s only sent me this greeting because she thinks I have some slight discernment. But I’m at a loss as to how to word my reply. I was on my way to ask Cousin Daiyu when luckily I met you.’
Hearing this, Xiuyan looked him up and down for a while.
She then said cheerfully, ‘As the proverb says, ‘To know someone by repute is not as good as meeting face to face.’ No wonder Miaoyu sent you this greeting card; no wonder she gave you that plum-blossom last year. As even she shows you special consideration, I shall have to explain this to you. She often says that the only good poetry written by the ancients from the times of Han, un, the Five Dynasties, Tang and Song, was the two lines:
For a thousand years you may have an iron threshold. But the end must be a mound of earth.
This is why she calls herself the one outside the threshold. She likes the writings of Zhuang Zi, from which she took that term ‘the odd person.’ If she called herself ‘the odd person’ in her card, you could call yourself ‘the mundane person,’ meaning you’re one of the common herd, and that would please her. Now that she’s called herself the ‘one outside the threshold,’ meaning she’s outside the iron threshold, to fall in with her you should call yourself the ‘one inside the threshold.’
Baoyu felt as if Buddha had suddenly shown him the light.
‘Aiya!’ he exclaimed. ‘No wonder our family temple is called Iron Threshold Temple. So that’s the origin of the name. Well, cousin, I won’t hold you up any longer. I must go and write a reply.’
Then Xiuyan went on to Green Lattice Nunnery while Baoyu went back to write on a card: ‘With the deepest respects of Baoyu, the one inside the threshold.’ Taking this himself to the nunnery, he slipped it through a crack in the gate, then went back.
He found that Fangguan had finished doing her hair, which was fas¬tened up in a knot, and she was wearing some trinkets. At once he in¬sisted on her dressing in a different style. He urged her to shave off her fringe completely, exposing her bluish scalp, and to part her hair in the middle. He also said that in winter she should wear a sable cap in the shape of a crouching hare and small tiger-head battle boots decorated with multi-coloured curling clouds, or leave her trouser ends loose and wear white socks and thick-soled boots. He objected to the name Fangguan as well, saying it would be more original to take a man’s name instead, and proposing the name Xiongnu.3 Fangguan was delighted.
‘In that case,’ she said, ‘when you go out you must take me along, and if anyone asks who I am just tell them I’m a page like Mingyan.’
‘Still, people will be able to see who you are,’ he chuckled.
‘How dense you are, I must say!’ she retorted. ‘We have some families of tribesmen here ‘ just say I’m from one of those. Besides, everyone tells me I look better with my hair plaited. Wouldn’t that be the smart thing to do?’
‘Splendid!’ approved Baoyu elatedly. ‘I’ve often seen officials with followers captured from abroad, as such people can stand wind and frost and are excellent horsemen. In that case, I’ll give you a tribal name ‘Yali Xiongnu. Those are names used by the tribes who have been a scourge to China since the days of Yao and Shun, and who plagued us so much during the Jin and Tang dynasties.
‘We’re lucky to be living now under the rule of an Emperor directly descended from the sage king Shun, an age when virtue, humanity and filial piety as vast as Heaven are manifest, and in a dynasty which will endure as long as the sun and moon. That’s why all the unruly barbarians who made such trouble in previous dynasties now submit to us with folded hands and bowed heads according to Heaven’s will, without our having to resort to arms; and distant tribes have surrendered to our rule. So we should make fun of them to add to the glory of our sovereign.’
‘If that’s how you feel,’ countered Fangguan, ‘you should go and practise archery and horsemanship and learn other martial arts, then set off to the border to capture some rebels! Wouldn’t that show your loyalty better than using us to do it? You’re simply wagging your tongue for your own amusement, on the pretext of praising the state’s achieve¬ments and virtue.’
‘That’s exactly what you don’t understand,’ replied Baoyu laugh¬ingly. ‘Now the Four Seas have submitted to our rule and peace reigns everywhere; so for ages to come there will be no need for arms. And even when having fun we should praise the court, so as not to be unwor¬thy to enjoy the fruits of peace.’
Fangguan agreed to this, and as both of them felt it quite appropriate he started addressing her as Yali Xiongnu. Actually the two Jia man¬sions had been presented by the court with slaves who had been cap¬tured by their ancestors; but these were only used as grooms, not being fit for other work.
Now Xiangyun was a madcap who loved to dress up as a warrior in a belted, tight-sleeved jacket. When she saw Baoyu fit Fangguan out as a boy, she followed suit by dressing Kuiguan up as a page too. Kuiguan, who had played warriors, kept her hair shaved over her temples and forehead as that had made it easier to paint a warrior’s face, and she was nimble too. So it was easy to dress her up as a page. Then Li Wan and Tanchun, also thinking it a good idea, made Baoqin’s Douguan dress up as a boy too in a short jacket and red shoes with her hair in two tufts. Had her face been painted, she would have been the spit of the Taoist priest’s acolyte who carries his master’s lyre on the stage.
Xiangyun changed Kuiguan’s name to Daying, and as her family name was Wei she was called Wei Daying;4 for in choosing this name Xiangyun had in mind the phrase ‘Only a true hero can keep his true colour.’ Why, to appear a man, should one resort to rouge or powder?
Douguan5 had been given that name because she was both small and young and a clever little imp. So in the Garden she was also called Adou or Fried Pea. Thinking that to give her a name like ‘Lyre-boy’ or ‘book¬boy’ would sound vulgar, and that ‘Dou’ was more original, Baoqin called her Doutong. 6
That afternoon when Pinger gave a return feast she had several tables of new wine and good dishes set out in Elm Shade Hall, saying that it was too warm in Red Fragrance Farm. To everybody’s delight, Madam You brought over her husband’s two concubines Peifeng and Xieyuan, two attractive young women who seldom had a chance to enjoy themselves in the Garden. Coming here now and meeting Xiangyun, Xiangling, Fangguan, Ruiguan and the other girls, it was a genuine case of ‘like attracts like’ or ‘birds of a feather flock together.’ Chatting and laugh¬ing with each other they paid no attention to Madam You, leaving it to the maids to wait on her while they amused themselves with the other girls.
When presently they went to Happy Red Court and heard Baoyu call Yali Xiongnu, the two concubines and Xiangling burst out laughing and asked what language this was. They tried to say this name themselves but kept getting it wrong, sometimes forgetting one character or even calling her Yell,7 which made all who heard them double up with mirth. Fearing that Fangguan might feel hurt, Baoyu hastily interposed:
‘I’ve heard that west of the ocean, in France, they’ve a type of precious golden-starred glass which in their language they call venturina. Suppose we compare you with that and change your name to Venturina?’
Fangguan was pleased and readily agreed. Accordingly they changed her name again. However, the others still found this a tongue-twister, so they translated it into Chinese and took to calling her Boli.8 But enough of this.
They returned now to Elm Shade Hall to amuse themselves there on the pretext of drinking. Some women story-tellers were told to beat the drum and Pinger plucked a spray of peony; then everyone ‘ twenty or so in all ‘ passed this round and the one who had it when the drumming stopped had to drink. They had been making merry for some time when it was announced that two serving-women had come with presents from the Zhen family. Tanchun, Li Wan and Madam You went to the hail to receive them, and the rest left Elm Shade Hall to stroll outside. Peifeng and Xieyuan went to take turns on the swing.
‘Both get on together and I’ll push you,’ offered Baoyu.
‘Oh no,’ said Peifeng in dismay. ‘Don’t get us into trouble. Better ask your Wild Ass to come and push us instead.’
‘Stop teasing, sister,’ he begged. ‘Otherwise other people will follow your example and make fun of her too.’
‘If you’re limp from laughing, how can you swing?’ warned Xieyuan.
‘You’ll fall off and get smashed like an egg!’
Peifeng ran to catch her, and they were scuffling in fun when some servants from the Eastern Manison came rushing up frantically. ‘The old master’s ascended to Heaven!’ they announced.
Everybody was consternated.
‘He wasn’t even ill, how could he pass away so suddenly?’ they exclaimed.
The servants explained, ‘His Lordship took elixirs every day; now he must have achieved his aim and become an immortal.’
Madam You was most worried by this news; for as her husband Jia Zhen, their son Rong, and Jia Lian too were all away, there was no man at home to take charge. She hurriedly took off her finery and sent a steward to Mysterious Truth Temple to have all the Taoist priests there locked up until her husband came back to question them. Then she hast¬ily went by carriage out of the city with the wives of Lai Sheng and some other stewards, having also sent for doctors to see what illness her fa¬ther-in-law had succumbed to.
As Jia Jing was dead it was no use for the doctors to feel his pulse. They knew, however, that for years he had been practising absurd Taoist breathing exercises. As for his yoga, worship of the stars, keeping vigil on certain nights, taking sulphide of mercury and wearing himself out with his senseless striving for immortality ‘ these were what had car¬ried him off. His belly after death was hard as iron, the skin of his face and lips parched, cracked and purple. They reported to the serving-women that he had died of excessive heat as a result of taking Taoist drugs.
The Taoist priests in their panic confessed, ‘His Lordship had just concocted a new elixir with some secret formula, and that was his undo¬ing. We’d warned him not to take such things before achieving a certain potency; but last night, during his vigil, unknown to us he took some and became an immortal. Doubtless he has attained immortality owing to his piety, leaving this sea of woe and sloughing his earthly integument to fare forth at will.’
Madam You, shutting her ears to this, ordered them to be immured until Jia Zhen’s return. And she sent messengers posthaste to take the news. Seeing that the temple was too cramped for the coffin to be left there, and as it could not be taken into the city, she had the corpse shrouded and conveyed by sedan-chair to Iron Threshold Temple. She reckoned that her husband could not be back for another fortnight at least, and as the weather was too hot for the funeral to be delayed she decided to get an astrologer to choose a day for it. As the coffin had been prepared many years ago, and kept ever since in the temple, the funeral was easily managed. Three days later a mourning service was held and further masses were performed while waiting for Jia Zhen. Since Xifeng of the Rong Mansion could not leave home and Li Wan had to look after the girls, while Baoyu knew nothing of practical affairs, the work outside was entrusted to a few second-rank stewards. Jia Bin, ha Guang, Jia Heng, Jia Ying, Jia Chang and ha Ling also had their different assignments. Madam You, being unable to go home, invited her step-mother old Mrs. You to come and keep an eye on things in the Ning Mansion. And Mrs. You, to be easy in her mind, had to bring her two unmarried daughters with her.
When Jia Zhen heard of his father’s death he immediately asked for leave, as did Jia Rong who also had official duties. The Board of Cer¬emony, well aware that the Emperor set great store by filial piety, dared make no decision themselves but reported the request to the throne. The Emperor, with his transcendent benevolence and filial piety, always treated the descendants of meritorious ministers with special consideration. As soon as he saw the memorial he asked what official post ha Jing had held, and the Board of Ceremony reported that he had been a Palace Graduate, whose ancestor’s noble title had passed on to his son Jia Zhen. Being old and infirm Jia Jing had retired to live quietly in Mysterious Truth Temple outside the city, where he had now died of illness. His son Zhen and his grandson Rong were both at court on account of the state obse¬quies. They had therefore asked leave to return to attend to the funeral.
When the Emperor heard this, in his exceeding kindness he decreed: ‘Though Jia Jing was an ordinary citizen who performed no special ser¬vice for the state, in view of his grand-father’s merit he is to be promoted posthumously to the fifth rank. His son and grandson are to escort his coffin through the lower north gate into the capital for a funeral cer-emony at his own home, so that his descendants can mourn for him as is there, and as it could not be taken into the city, she had the corpse shrouded and conveyed by sedan-chair to Iron Threshold Temple. She reckoned that her husband could not be back for another fortnight at least, and as the weather was too hot for the funeral to be delayed she decided to get an astrologer to choose a day for it. As the coffin had been prepared many years ago, and kept ever since in the temple, the funeral was easily managed. Three days later a mourning service was held and further masses were performed while waiting for ha Zhen. Since Xifeng of the Rong Mansion could not leave home and Li Wan had to look after the girls, while Baoyu knew nothing of practical affairs, the work outside was entrusted to a few second-rank stewards. Jia Bin, Jia Guang, Jia Heng, Jia Ying, Jia Chang and Jia Ling also had their different assignments. Madam You, being unable to go home, invited her step-mother old Mrs. You to come and keep an eye on things in the Ning Mansion. And Mrs. You, to be easy in her mind, had to bring her two unmarried daughters with her.
When Jia Zhen heard of his father’s death he immediately asked for leave, as did Jia Rong who also had official duties. The Board of Cer¬emony, well aware that the Emperor set great store by filial piety, dared make no decision themselves but reported the request to the throne. The Emperor, with his transcendent benevolence and filial piety, always treated the descendants of meritorious ministers with special consideration. As soon as he saw the memorial he asked what official post ha Jing had held, and the Board of Ceremony reported that he had been a Palace Graduate, whose ancestor’s noble title had passed on to his son Jia Zhen. Being old and infirm ha Jing had retired to live quietly in Mysterious Truth Temple outside the city, where he had now died of illness. His son Zhen and his grandson Rong were both at court on account of the state obse¬quies. They had therefore asked leave to return to attend to the funeral.
When the Emperor heard this, in his exceeding kindness he decreed: ‘Though Jia Jing was an ordinary citizen who performed no special ser¬vice for the state, in view of his grand-father’s merit he is to be promoted posthumously to the fifth rank. His son and grandson are to escort his coffin through the lower north gate into the capital for a funeral cer-emony at his own home, so that his descendants can mourn for him as is fitting before escorting his remains to their ancestral district. Let the of¬fice of Imperial Banquets bestow on the deceased a sacrificial feast of the first grade, and let all at court from princes and dukes downwards be granted leave to offer their condolences. By Imperial Decree!’
As soon as this decree was issued, not only did the Jia family express thanks for the Emperor’s goodness, all the high ministers at court were loud in their praise.
Jia Zhen and his son were speeding home posthaste when they saw Jia Bin and ha Guang galloping towards them, attended by some ser¬vants. At sight of Jia Zhen they hastily dismounted to pay their respects.
Asked their errand Jia Bin reported, ‘Sister-in-law was afraid that after you and our nephew came back there would be nobody to travel with the old lady, so she sent us to escort Her Ladyship.’
Jia Zhen expressed full approval, then asked how matters had been arranged at home, and Jia Bin described how the Taoist priests had been detained and the corpse taken to the family temple; and how, as there was no one in charge at home, old Mrs. You and her two daughters had been invited to stay and accommodation found for them in the main build¬ing.
Jia Rong had also dismounted. When he heard of the arrival of his two young aunts, he grinned at his father who was reiterating:
‘Well done, well done!’
They galloped on then, not stopping at any inns but changing horses at different post-houses as they sped back through the night. And upon reaching the capital they went straight to Iron Threshold Temple. It was then the fourth watch and the watch-men, hearing them, aroused every¬one in the place. Jia Zhen alighted and with Jia Rong wailed aloud, both advancing on their knees from outside the gate to where the coffin was resting, kowtowing and lamenting all the way. They went on wailing till dawn, by which time their voices were hoarse.
Madam You and the others all came to meet them. Then Jia Zhen and his son, having changed into mourning according to the rites, prostrated themselves before the coffin. However, since they had business to attend to which they could not ignore, they had to curtail their mourning in order to issue instructions. Jia Zhen read out the Imperial Decree to their rela¬tives and friends, then sent Jia Rong home first to arrange for the re¬moval of the coffin there.
Jia Rong had been eagerly awaiting this order. He rode swiftly home and hastily gave instructions for the tables and chairs to be cleared away from the front hall, the partitions removed, white mourning curtains hung up, and a shed for musicians as well as an arch erected in front of the gate. This done, he hurried in to greet his step-grandmother and two aunts.
Now Mrs. You, being old and fond of sleeping, often lay down on the couch to have a nap while her two daughters were sewing with the maids. When they saw Jia Rong they expressed their condolences. Beaming all over his face he said to his second aunt:
‘So you’re here again, Second Auntie. My father’s been longing for you!’
Second Sister You blushed.
‘You rascal!’ she swore at him. ‘You can’t get by if I don’t curse you every other day! You’re going from bad to worse, with absolutely no sense of what’s proper. Imagine the son of a good family, who studies and is taught manners all the time, not even being up to low-class riff¬raff.’
She picked up an iron and grabbed his head as if to hit him, where¬upon, shielding his head, he nestled close to her and begged for mercy. Third Sister You reached out to pinch his lips.
‘Wait till our elder sister hears of this,’ she scolded.
Chuckling, Jia Rong knelt on the kang to ask their pardon, at which both the sisters laughed. Then he tried to snatch some cardamom from his second aunt, who spat what she was chewing all over his face; but he just licked it off and ate it, shocking the maids who were there.
‘You’re wearing mourning and your grandmother is napping here,’ one of them remonstrated. ‘And after all they’re your aunts, for all they’re young. You really haven’t much respect for your mother. Presently we shall tell the master, and then you’ll be in big trouble.’
Jia Rong let go of his aunt then and grabbing hold of the maid kissed her on the mouth.
‘You’re quite right, sweetheart,’ he cried. ‘Now let’s make both their mouths water!’
The maids pushed him away. ‘You short-lived devil!’ they cursed. ‘You’ve a wife and maids of your own just like anyone else ‘ why come to plague us? Some people may know this is just fooling about; but there are other dirty-minded busybodies who like to gossip. They may spread so much talk that everyone in the other house hears about it. They’ll be saying we’re all fast and loose here.’
‘We’re two different households,’ scoffed Jia Rong. ‘We should both mind our own business. Haven’t we all enough troubles of our own? Since ancient times, even the Han and Tang dynasties have been de¬scribed as ‘filthy Tang and stinking Han,’ to say nothing of families like ours. Which household hasn’t its share of philanderers? Shall I give you a few examples? Even though the Elder Master over there is so strict, Uncle Lian carried on with his young concubines; and though Aunt Xifeng is so stern, Uncle Rui tried to make her. Neither affair was any secret to me....
As Jia Rong was rattling away so wildly he noticed that the old lady had woken up, and made haste to pay his respects.
‘Sorry to have put you to so much trouble, Old Ancestress,’ he said. ‘And my two aunts as well. My father and I are most grateful. When this business is over, we shall take the whole family, young and old, to your place to kowtow our thanks.’
Old Mrs. You nodded.
‘It’s good of you to say that, my child,’ she replied. ‘We’re only acting as relatives should.’ Then she asked, ‘Is your father well? When did you get the message and hurry back?’
‘We’ve only just arrived,’ he told her. ‘He sent me on ahead to see how you are, madam, and to beg you to stay till the whole business is finished.’ As he said this he winked at his second aunt.
Gritting her teeth and smiling, Second Sister You scolded softly, ‘You glib-tongued monkey! Are you keeping us here to be your father’s moth¬ers?’
‘Don’t worry, madam,’ said Jia Rong to old Mrs. You. ‘Not a day goes by but my father is thinking of my two aunts and looking for two well-born, handsome young gentlemen from rich and noble families to
arrange two matches for them. For some years he couldn’t find anyone suitable. Luckily, on his way home this time, he met just the right man.’
Old Mrs. You was only too ready to believe him.
‘What family is he from?’ she promptly asked.
The two sisters put down their sewing at this to chase him playfully and pummel him.
‘Don’t you believe the rascal, mother,’ one of them cried.
Even the maids protested, ‘Old Man Heaven has eyes. Look out, or you’ll be struck by a thunderbolt!’
Just then someone came in to announce, ‘We’ve made everything ready. Please go and have a look, Master Rong, and report it to His Lordship.’
Then ha Rong went out chuckling to himself. To know what hap¬pened later, read the next chapter.


Chapter 64

A Chaste Girl in Sad Seclusion Writes Poems
on Five Beauties
An Amorous Libertine Drops
His Nine-Dragon Pendant


Jia Rong hurried back to the temple to report to his father that all was ready at home; and that same night they assigned the various tasks and prepared all the pennons, poles and other essential paraphernalia. Five o’clock in the morning of the fourth day was fixed upon as the hour to have the coffin taken into the city, and all relatives and friends were informed of this.
When the time arrived, with its splendid funeral rites, a host of guests assembled, and tens of thousands of spectators lined the road all the way from Iron Threshold Temple to the Ning Mansion, some sighing in admi¬ration, others in envy, while crabbed pedants argued that frugality in the funeral rites would have been better than such extravagance. Endless different comments were made as the cortege passed; and not till nearly three in the afternoon did it finally reach the Ning Mansion, where the coffin was deposited in the main halt. After the sacrifice and mourning ended, the relatives and friends gradually dispersed, leaving only mem¬bers of the Jia clan to see to the entertaining of guests. The sole close relative to remain was Lady Xing’s elder brother.
Jia Zhen and Jia Rong, by duty bound to keep vigil by the coffin and mourn, nevertheless seized the chance once the guests had gone to fool around with old Mrs. You’s two daughters. Baoyu, wearing mourning, also went every day to the Ning Mansion, not returning to the Garden till the evening after the guests had left. Xifeng was still not well enough to stay there all the time; but when Buddhist masses were held and sutras read, or when visitors came to offer sacrifices, she made the effort to come over to help Madam You cope.

One day after the morning sacrifice, at a time when the days were stilt tong, Jia Zhen worn out after his recent exertions was dozing by the coffin and Baoyu, seeing that no guests had come, decided to go back to call on Daiyu.
He went first to Happy Red Court. As he stepped through the gate he found the court quiet and empty except for a few old women and young maids resting in the shade of the verandah, some asleep and others nodding drowsily. He did not go to disturb them, and only Sier noticed his arrival. As she hurried over to lift the portiere for him, Fangguan came dashing out, laughing, and nearly knocked full tilt into Baoyu.
At sight of him she pulled up.
‘Why are you here?’ she asked. ‘Hurry up and stop Qingwen from spanking me!’
As she was speaking they heard a clattering as if some things had fallen to the ground, and the next minute Qingwen appeared.
‘Where are you going, you bitch?’ she swore. ‘You’ve lost, yet you want to escape a spanking. With Baoyu out who’s going to come to your rescue?’
Baoyu hastily intercepted her.
‘She’s still young,’ he said with a smile. ‘If she’s offended you in some way, do let her off for my sake.’
Qingwen had never expected him back so soon. Amused by his sud¬den appearance, she exclaimed, ‘Fangguan must be a fox-fairy! Why, not even a magic charm to conjure spirits could work so fast.’ She added, ‘But I’m not afraid, even if you’ve called in a god.’
She made a grab at Fangguan, who had taken refuge behind Baoyu. Holding each girl by the hand he ted them inside. On the western kang there he found Sheyue, Qiuwen, Bihen and Zixiao playing knuckle-bones for melon-seeds. Apparently Fangguan had lost to Qingwen, then re¬fused to accept a spanking and run away; and Qingwen, jumping up to chase her, had scattered the knuckle-bones on her lap all over the floor.
Baoyu told them with a chuckle. ‘Now the days are so long, I was afraid you might alt be bored while I was out and go to bed after your meal, which might make you fall ill, I’m glad you found a way to amuse yourselves.’ As there was no sign of Xiren, he asked, ‘Where’s your sister Xiren?’
‘Her?’ said Qingwen. ‘She’s becoming more and more of a Confucian, sitting meditating alone with her face to the watt in the inner room. We haven’t been in for some time and don’t know what she’s up to. She hasn’t made a sound. Go on in, quick, and see if she’s attained sainthood yet.’
Laughing, Baoyu went inside and saw Xiren seated on the couch by the window, in her hand a skein of grey silk which she was netting. At sight of him she stood up. ‘What fibs has that creature Qingwen been telling about me?’ she asked. ‘1 was in a hurry to finish this net and had no time to fool around with them, so I told them, ‘You amuse yourselves. While the Second Master’s out I want to sit quietly here for a while to rest.’ Then she made up all that nonsense about me meditating and at¬taining sainthood. By and by I must go and pinch her lips!’
Baoyu smiled as he sat down beside her to watch her at work.
‘The days are so long, you should rest or amuse yourself with the others,’ he advised. ‘Or else go to see Cousin Daiyu. Why work at this in such hot weather? What’s it for?’
‘I noticed that you’re still using the fan case made that year when Madam Rong of the East Mansion died. As it’s blue it should only be used while mourning in summer for one of our clan or for relatives and friends outside. It shouldn’t normally be needed more than once or twice a year. Now there’s mourning in the other house, of course you should wear it every day when you go over; so I’m hurrying to finish another for you to replace that old one. You don’t care about such things, but if the old lady were to come back and see it, she’d scold us for being too lazy to fit you out properly.’
‘It’s good of you to think of such things, but you mustn’t overwork,’ he answered. ‘We don’t want you knocked out by the heat.’
Now Fangguan brought in a cup of freshly brewed tea which had been cooled in cold water; for even in summer they dared not use ice, as Baoyu was so delicate. Instead they immersed the tea-pot in water fresh from the well, changing the water from time to time until the tea was cool. Fangguan held the cup to Baoyu’s lips and he drank half of it.
Then he told Xiren, ‘When I came, I left word with Beiming that if any important visitors come to Cousin Jia Zhen’s place he must let me know directly. If nothing urgent crops up I won’t go back.’ As he turned to go out he instructed Bihen and the others, ‘If anything happens you can find me in Miss Lin’s place. ‘ With that he set off for Bamboo Lodge to find Daiyu.
As he was crossing Seeping Fragrance Bridge he saw Xueyan ap¬proaching, behind her two old women who were carrying caltrops, lotus-root, melons and other fruit.
‘Your mistress hardly ever eats cold things like these. What are you going to do with all this?’ he asked. ‘Are you inviting some of the other young ladies?’
‘If I tell you, you mustn’t let her know,’ said Xueyan. Baoyu nod¬ded.
Then she told the two women, ‘Take this fruit to Sister Zijuan. If she asks for me, tell her I’ve something to do and will soon be back.’
The women assented and went on their way. ‘Our young lady’s been feeling better the last few days,’ said Xueyan when they had gone. ‘Af¬ter lunch today Miss Tanchun came to ask her to go with her to see Madam Lian, but she didn’t go. And then I don’t know what she was thinking of she had a fit of depression, after which she took up her brush and wrote something ‘ whether poetry of something else I don’t know. When she sent me to fetch this fruit I also heard her tell Zijuan to clear away the things on the small lyre table and move it outside, then to put the tripod with dragon designs on the table ready for the melons and fruit. If she were going to entertain visitors, she wouldn’t bother to set out an incense-burner first; if she were going to burn incense, she’s not in the habit of scenting her clothes with it or having anything in the room except fresh flowers and fruit. Even when she does burn incense for the fragrance, it’s usually in her sitting room or bedchamber. Could it be that she has to scent the place with incense because the old serving-women have made it smelly? I really don’t know why else she’s doing this.’ Having said this she hurried away.
Baoyu involuntarily lowered his head to think this over.
‘Judging by what Xueyan said, there must be a reason,’ he thought. ‘If Daiyu were expecting one of the girls to call, she’d hardly make such elaborate preparations. Can this be the anniversary of her father’s or mother’s death? But in the past, on those days, I remember the old lady always had dishes specially prepared for her to offer as a private sacri¬fice; and both those dates have passed. More likely, as the seventh month is the season for melons and fruit and every family is making an autumn sacrifice at its graves, she’s felt moved to sacrifice privately in her own quarters, according to the precept in the Book of Rites that in autumn and spring one should offer the food in season. That may be it.
‘But if I go there now and find her upset, I shall have to do my best to comfort her; then she may try to hide her unhappiness, so that it rankles. On the other hand, if I don’t go, there’ll be no one to stop her grieving too much. Either way, she may fall ill. The best thing would be to call on Xifeng first, just for a short while, then come back. If I find Daiyu still upset I can try to console her. That way, she won’t give way to grief too long, but by having a good cry she’ll have vented her feelings without injuring her health.’
Having reached this decision he left the Garden and went to Xifeng’s place. A number of serving-women were coming out after having re¬ported on the business in their charge, and Xifeng, leaning against the door, was chatting with Pinger. At sight of Baoyu she smiled.
‘So you’re back,’ she said. ‘I’ve just told Lin Zhixiao’s .wife to send word to your pages that if there was nothing much to do you should take the chance to come back and rest a bit. Besides, with all that crowd there, the place is too stifling for you. Well, I’m glad you’ve come back of your own accord.’
‘Thank you for your concern,’ he answered. ‘It was because there was nothing to do today and I was wondering whether you were better, as you hadn’t been over for a couple of days, that I came back to have a look.’
‘That’s just the way it is with me,’ Xifeng told him. ‘I have my good days and my bad days. With Their Ladyships away from home, these women ‘ ai! ‘ not a single one of them behaves herself. Every day they either fight or squabble, and there’ve even been several cases of gambling and theft. Although Tanchun’s helping me see to things, she’s an unmarried girl. There are some things I can tell her, others I can’t. So I just have to bear up as best I can, and never have a moment’s peace. Don’t talk about getting better ‘ if I don’t get worse that’s good enough for me.’
‘Even so, you must take good care of your health and worry less,’ he urged her.
After a little further chat he took his leave of Xifeng and went back to the Garden.
When he entered Bamboo Lodge, he saw that the incense in the burner was nearly burnt out and the libation had already been poured. Zijuan was supervising the maids carrying the table inside and replacing the ornaments on it. Knowing that the sacrifice was over, Baoyu went in and found Daiyu reclining on the couch, her face to the wall. She looked ill and exhausted.
Zijuan announced, ‘Master Bao is here.’
Daiyu got up slowly then and with a smile invited him to sit down.
‘You seem much better recently,’ he remarked. ‘You look less flushed. But what’s upset you again?’
‘That’s no way to talk,’ she retorted. ‘There’s nothing wrong with me. Why should I be upset?’
‘You’ve tear-stains on your face, why try to fool me? I just thought that being so delicate you should take things easy, not distress yourself for no purpose. If you spoil your health, I’ll be....’ He broke off here, finding it difficult to go on.
Though he and Daiyu had grown up side by side and were kindred spirits who longed to live and die together, this was simply tacitly under¬stood by both but had never been put into words. Moreover Daiyu was so sensitive that his careless way of talking always offended her or even reduced her to tears. Today he had come to comfort her; but again, with¬out meaning to, had spoken too hastily so that he had to break off, desper¬ately afraid that Daiyu would be angry. And when he reflected that he had really meant well, he started shedding tears of distress. Daiyu had been annoyed at first by Baoyu’s immoderate language. Now, touched by the state he was in, being prone to weeping herself, she started shed¬ding tears in silence too.
Zijuan, arriving with tea for them, supposed they were bickering over something again.
‘Our young lady’s just getting better, Master Bao,’ she said. ‘What
do	you mean by coming to provoke her again?’ Baoyu wiped his tears and smiled.
‘I wouldn’t dream of provoking her,’ he protested, getting up to wan¬der around.
He noticed a sheet of paper under the inkstone and reached out for it. At once Daiyu started up to stop him, but he had already tucked it inside his clothes.
‘Do let me see it, dear cousin,’ he begged with a smile.
‘Regardless of when you come you ransack this place.’
As Daiyu was saying this Baochai dropped in.
‘What is it that Cousin Bao wants to read?’ she asked.
As Baoyu had not yet seen what was on the paper and did not know what Daiyu’s reaction would be, he dared not answer outright. Instead, he looked at Daiyu with a smile.
Daiyu offered Baochai a seat.
‘I’ve read of many talented beauties in ancient history,’ she said, ‘whose lives were sometimes enviable, sometimes tragic. As I’d noth¬ing to do today after my meal, I decided to choose a few of them and dash off some verses about them to express my feelings. Then Tanchun came to ask me to call on Xifeng with her, but I felt too lazy to go. I’d just written half a dozen poems when I felt sleepy, so I tossed them aside, not expecting the Second Master to come in and see them. Actually I don’t mind him reading them, but I don’t want him to copy them out and go showing them to other people.’
‘When have I ever done such a thing?’ asked Baoyu. ‘As for that fan, because I liked those poems about white begonia I copied them out neatly on it just for my own convenience when I have it in my hands. Of course I know that the poems and calligraphy from our inner apartments mustn’t be lightly taken outside. And remembering that time you ticked me off I’ve never taken it out of the Garden.’
‘Cousin Lin’s right to have such scruples,’ said Baichai. ‘As you’ve written our poems on your fan, you may forget and take it to your study where the secretaries may see them and ask who wrote them. If word spread, it wouldn’t look good. As the old saying goes, ‘Lack of talent in a woman is a virtue. ‘ The important thing for us is to be chaste and quiet, feminine accomplishments being secondary. As for versifying and the like, we simply do that for fun in the inner apartments; and whether we’re good or not at it doesn’t matter. Girls from families like ours don’t want to have a reputation for brilliance.’ Then she said to Daiyu with a smile, ‘Still it doesn’t matter if you show them to me, provided Cousin Bao doesn’t take them outside.’
‘In that case you needn’t see them either,’ said Daiyu. Pointing at Baoyu she added, ‘He’s already snatched them.’
At that Baoyu took the poems out of his pocket and stepped to Baochai’s side to read them with her. The poems were as follows:
XI SHI1
Gone with the foam the beauty who felled cities,
Her longing for home in Wu’s palace an empty dream,
Laugh not at the East Village girl who aped her ways,
White-haired, she still washed clothes beside the stream.
LADY YU2
Heart-broken as black steed neighing at night in the wind, In silent grief she stayed beside her lord;
The renegades Qing Bu and Peng Yue were doomed to be slaughtered;
Better, then, in Chu’s tent to fall on her own sword.
WANG ZHAOJUN3
A breath-taking beauty banished from the Han palace ‘From of old lovely girls have shared a sorry fate;
Even if the sovereign set little store by his beauties,
Why give a painter the power to arbitrate?

GREEN PEARL4
Rubble and pearls alike were cast away,
Shi Chong used this fair maid so slightingly;
Predestined he was to good fortune --
Together they died, but still lonely in death was she.

RED WHISK5
From his low bows, proud talk and air of distinction
The discerning beauty his true worth foretold;
The grand duke Yang Su was a living corpse,
How could he keep a girl so staunch and bold?
Baoyu having read these poems was loud in his praise. ‘You’ve writ¬ten just five poems, cousin,’ he said. ‘So why not call the whole An Ode to Five Beauties?’ Without giving her time to object, he picked up a brush and added this title.
Baochai observed, ‘In writing poetry, no matter what the subject, the important thing is to express some original ideas. If we tread in other people’s footsteps, even if the lines are polished they’re still second-rate and can’t be considered good poetry.
‘Take, for example, the poems on Wang Zhaojun, all expressing dif¬ferent opinions. Some lamented her fate, some blamed Mao Yanshou the painter, and others reproached the Han emperor for making him paint portraits of palace beauties instead of good ministers. Then Wang Anshi6 wrote:

A painting can never succeed in catching the spirit;
Unjust it was to execute Mao Yanshou.

And Ouyang Xiu7 wrote:
If the Emperor treated those in his presence like this.
How could he control tribesmen ten thousand ii away?

Both those poems were original, not mere plagiarizing. And these five Cousin Lin has written today can also be considered as fresh and original, a quite new approach to the subject.’
She would have said more, but someone came in to announce Jia Lian’s return. It had just been reported outside that he had gone to the East Mansion, and as he had now been there for some time he could be expected back soon. When Baoyu heard this he hastily got up and went to the main gate to wait for his cousin’s arrival, just as Jia Lian, having dismounted outside, came in. Baoyu knelt down and first asked after Their Ladyships’ health, then inquired after Jia Lian’s health. The two of them went hand in hand into the halt, where they found assembled Li Wan, Xifeng, Baochai, Daiyu, Yingchun, Tanchun and Xichun, and greet¬ings were exchanged.
‘The old lady will be back tomorrow morning,’ said Jia Lian. ‘She’s kept very well all through the journey. Today she sent me back ahead to have a look, and I’m to go out of the city at the fifth watch tomorrow to meet her.’
Now Jia Lian had long heard of Madam You’s lovely step-sisters and longed to meet them. Recently, with Jia Jing’s coffin in the house, he had been seeing Second Sister and Third Sister every day so that he was on familiar terms with them and had designs on them too. Knowing how free and easy both girls were with Jia Zhen and Jia Rong, he tried in a hundred ways to convey his own feelings, casting arch glances at them. Third Sister only treated him coolly, however, while Second Sister ap¬peared very interested; but since there were so many people about he could not make any advances. Fear of arousing Jia Zhen’s jealousy also kept him from acting too rashly. So the two of them had to be content with a secret understanding.
After the funeral, however, there were few people left in Jia Zhen’s house. The main quarters were occupied only by old Mrs. You and her two daughters attended by a few of the maids and serving-women who did the rough work, all the senior maids and concubines having gone to the temple. As for the female servants who lived outside, they simply kept watch at night and minded the gate in the daytime, and would not go inside unless they had business. So Jia Lian was eager to make good use of this chance. He spent the nights in the temple too, on the pretext of keeping Jia Zhen company; but he often slipped back to the Ning Man¬sion to inveigle Second Sister, telling Jia Zhen that he was going to see to the family affairs for him.
One day the young steward Yu Lu came to report to Jia Zhen, ‘The funeral sheds, mourning clothes and blue uniforms for attendants and carriers cost a thousand taels in all, of which we’ve paid five hundred; so we’re still five hundred short, and the tradesmen have sent to ask for payment. That’s why I’ve come for your instructions, sir.’
‘Just get the money from the treasury. Why come and ask me for old lady and my other elders. Then I’ll go to your place to make sure that the servants aren’t making trouble, and call on old Mrs. You as well.’
‘I don’t like putting you to so much trouble,’ objected Jia Zhen.
‘What does it matter between cousins?’ Jia Lian answered.
So Jia Zhen told his son, ‘Go with your uncle, and mind you go too to pay your respects to the old lady, master and mistresses of the other house. Give them our regards and ask if the old lady is better now or still taking medicine.’
Jia Rong assented and went off with Jia Lian. Taking a few pages with them, they mounted their horses and rode back to the city, chatting idly on the way.
Then Jia Lian deliberately mentioned Second Sister You, praising her for her good looks and modest behaviour, her lady-like ways and gentle speech, as if she were a paragon admired and loved by all.
‘Everyone praises your Aunt Xifeng,’ he said, ‘but to my mind she can’t stand comparison with your Second Aunt.’
Jia Rong, knowing his game, rejoined, ‘If you’ve taken such a fancy to her, uncle, I’ll act as your go-between to make her your secondary wife. How about that?’
‘That would be fine!’ Jia Lian beamed. ‘I’m only afraid your Aunt Xifeng wouldn’t agree, and neither might your grandmother. Besides I heard that your Second Aunt is already engaged.’
‘That doesn’t matter,’ Jia Rong assured him. ‘My second and third aunts aren’t my grandfather’s daughters but only stepdaughters. I’ve been told that while old Mrs. You was in the other family she promised her second daughter, before the child was born, to the Zhang family who managed the Imperial Farm. Later the Zhangs were ruined by a lawsuit, and she herself married again into the You family. Now, for the last ten years or so, the two families have lost touch completely. Old Mrs. You often complains that she’d like to break off the engagement, and my father also wants to find Second Aunt a different husband. As soon as they’ve picked a suitable family, all they need do is send someone to find the Zhangs, pay them a dozen or so taels of silver, and have a deed written breaking off the betrothal. The Zhangs are so hard up that when they see the silver they’re bound to agree; on top of which they’ll know that in dealing with a family like ours they can’t do anything else. If a gentleman like you, uncle, wants her as a secondary wife, I guarantee both her mother and my father will be willing. The only problem is my Aunt Xifeng.’
At this Jia Lian was too overjoyed to speak and could only grin fool¬ishly.
After a little reflection Jia Rong continued, ‘If you have the nerve to do as I say, uncle, I guarantee it wilt be all right. It will simply mean spending a little extra money.
‘What’s your plan? Out with it quick! Of course I’ll agree.’
‘Don’t let on a word about this when you go home. Wait till I’ve told my father and settled it with my grandmother; then we’ll buy a house and the furnishings for it somewhere near the back of our mansion, and install a couple of our servants and their wives there. That done, we’ll choose a day and you can get married on the sly. We’ll forbid the ser¬vants to tell anyone about it. As Aunt Xifeng lives tucked away inside the big mansion, how can she possibly get to know of it? Then you’ll have two homes, uncle. After a year or so, if word does get out, at most you’ll get reprimanded by your father; but you can say that as my aunt had no son you arranged this in secret outside, in the hope of having descen¬dants. When Aunt Xifeng sees that the rice is already cooked, she’ll have to put up with it; and if you ask the old lady then to put in a word for you, the whole thing will blow over.
As the old proverb says. ‘Lust befuddles the mind.’ Jia Lian was so infatuated by Second Sister’s beauty that he felt Jia Rong’s plan was foolproof, completely forgetting that he was in mourning and how inap¬propriate it was to have a concubine outside when he had a stern father and jealous wife at home.
As for Jia Rong, he had ulterior motives. He was attached to both his young aunts, but his father’s presence at home cramped his style. If Jia Lian married Second Sister he would have to have a separate establish¬ment outside, where Jia Rong could go to fool about in his absence.
Of course none of this occurred to Jia Lian, who thanked him saying, ‘Good nephew, if you fix this up I’ll buy you two really ravishing maids.’
By now they had reached the Ning Mansion and Jia Rong said, ‘Uncle, while you go in to get the silver from my grandmother and give it to Yu Lu, I’ll go on ahead to call on the old lady.’
Jia Lian nodded, then said with a smile, ‘Don’t tell the old lady that I’ve come with you.
‘I know.’ Jia Rong whispered then into his ear, ‘If you see Second Aunt today, don’t act too rashly. If there’s any trouble now, it will make things more difficult in future.’
‘Don’t talk rot,’ chuckled Jia Lian. ‘Go on. I’ll wait for you here.’
Jia Rong accordingly went to pay his respects to the Lady Dowager.
When Jia Lian entered the Ning Mansion, some of the stewards stepped forward with other servants to pay their respects and followed him to the hall. Jia Lian questioned them briefly for appearance’s sake, then dis¬missed them and went in alone. As he and Jia Zhen were cousins and on a close footing, he was not subject to any restrictions here and did not need to wait to be announced. He went straight to the main apartment. The old woman on duty in the corridor lifted the portiere as soon as she saw him; and on entering the room he saw Second Sister sewing with two maids on the couch on the south side, but of old Mrs. You and Third Sister there was no sign. Jia Lian went forward to greet Second Sister, who asked him to take a seat, and he sat down with his back to the east partition.
After an exchange of civilities he asked, ‘Where are your mother and Third Sister? Why aren’t they here?’
‘They just went to the back for something; they’ll be here soon,’ she told him.
As the maids had gone to fetch tea and there was no one else present, Jia Lian kept darting smiling glances at Second Sister, who lowered her head to hide a smile but did not respond, and he dared not make any further advances. Seeing that she was toying with the handkerchief to which her pouch was fastened, he felt his waist as if groping for his own pouch.
‘I’ve forgotten to bring my pouch of betel-nuts,’ he said. ‘Will you let me try one of yours, sister?’
‘I have some, but I never give mine away.’
Smiling, he approached her to take one; and afraid this would look bad if someone came in, she laughingly tossed him her pouch. Having caught it he emptied it out, chose one half-eaten nut which he popped into his mouth, then pocketed all the others. He was about to return the pouch when the two maids came back with the tea. As Jia Lian sipped his tea, he surreptitiously took off a Han-Dynasty jade pendant carved with nine dragons and tied this to her handkerchief. And when both maids were looking the other way, he tossed the handkerchief back. Second Sister just let it lie and went on drinking her tea, as if she had not noticed. Then the portiere behind them swished and in came old Mrs. You and Third Sister with two young maids. With a wink Jia Lian signalled to Second Sister to pick up the handkerchief, but she simply paid no attention; and not knowing what she meant by this he felt frantic. He had to step for¬ward to greet the newcomers. As he did so, he glanced back at Second Sister, who was still smiling as if nothing had happened. But looking again he noticed with relief that the handkerchief had vanished. They all sat down now and chatted for a while.
‘My sister-in-law says she gave you some silver the other day to keep for her, madam,’ said Jia Lian. ‘Today they have to settle an ac¬count, so Cousin Zhen sent me to fetch it and to see if everything is all right at home.’
On hearing this old Mrs. You immediately sent Second Sister to fetch the key and get the silver.
Jia Lian went on, ‘I wanted to come anyway to pay my respects to you and see both the young ladies. It’s good of you to have come here, madam, but we’re sorry to be putting our two cousins to such trouble too.’
‘What way is that for close relatives to talk!’ she protested. ‘We’ve made ourselves at home here. The truth is, sir, that since my husband died we’ve found it hard to make ends meet, and we’ve only managed thanks to my son-in-law’s help. Now that they have their hands full, we can’t help in any other way but at least we can keep an eye on things here for them ‘ how can you talk of putting us to trouble?’
By now Second Sister had brought the silver and given it to her mother, who passed it to Jia Lian. He sent a young maid to fetch a serving-¬woman.
‘Give this to Yu Lu,’ he ordered her. ‘Tell him to take it back to the other house and wait for me there.’
As the old woman assented and left, they heard Jia Rong’s voice in the courtyard; and presently in he came to pay his respects to the ladies.
‘Just now His Lordship your father was asking about you, uncle,’ he said. ‘He has some business he wants you to see to and was gong to send to the temple to fetch you, but I told him you’d be coming presently. His Lordship told me, if I met you, to ask you to hurry.’
As Jia Lian rose to leave he heard Jia Rong tell old Mrs. You, ‘The young man I told you about the other day, grandmother, the one my father has in mind for Second Aunt, has much the same features and build as this uncle of mine. How does he strike you, madam?’
As he said this he pointed slyly at Jia Lian and motioned with his lips at Second Sister. She was too embarrassed to say anything, but her sister scolded:
‘What a devilish monkey you are! Have you nothing else to talk about? Just wait, I’m going to pull out that tongue of yours.’
She ran towards him but Jia Rong had slipped out, laughing, and now Jia Lian took his leave of them with a smile. In the hall he cautioned the servants not to gamble and drink, then secretly urged Jia Rong to hurry back and take the matter up with his father. Next he took Yu Lu over to the other house to make up the sum of silver needed; and while the stew-ard went off with this he paid his respects to his father and the Lady Dowager.

To return to Jia Rong, when he saw that Yu Lu and Jia Lian had gone for the money and he had nothing to do, he went in again to fool around with his two aunts before leaving.
It was evening by the time he got back to the temple and reported to his father, ‘The money’s been given to Yu Lu. The old lady’s much better now and has stopped taking medicine.’ He then took this opportu¬nity to describe how Jia Lian had told him on the road of his wish to make Second Sister You his secondary wife and set up house outside, so that Xifeng should know nothing about it.
‘This is just because he’s worried at having no son,’ Jia Rong explained. ‘And as he’s seen Second Aunt, who’s already related to our family, marrying her would be better than getting some girl from a family about which we know nothing. So uncle repeatedly begged me to pro¬pose this to you, father.’ He omitted to say that this idea had originated with him.
Jia Zhen thought it over.
‘Actually, it would be just as well,’ he said finally. ‘But we don’t know whether your Second Aunt would be willing. Go and talk it over first with your old granny tomorrow. Get her to make sure your Second Aunt agress before we make any decision.’
Then, having given his son some further instructions, he went to broach the matter to his wife. Madam You, knowing that this would be improper, did her best to dissuade him; but as Jia Zhen had already made up his mind and she was in the habit of falling in with his wishes, and as Second Sister was only her step-sister and she was therefore not so responsible for her, she had to let them go ahead with this preposterous scheme.
Accordingly, the first thing the next day, Jia Rong went back to the city to see old Mrs. You and tell her his father’s proposal. In addition, he expatiated on Jia Lian’s good qualities and declared that Xifeng was mortally ill and, if they bought a house to live in outside for the time being, after a year or so when Xifeng died his Second Aunt could move in as the proper wife. He also described the betrothal presents his father would give, and the wedding ceremony Jia Lian would arrange.
‘They’ll take you in to live in comfort in your old age, madam,’ he assured her. ‘And later they’ll see to Third Aunt’s marriage too.’
He painted such a glowing picture that naturally old Mrs. You agreed. Besides, she was wholly dependent on Jia Zhen for money, and now that he had proposed this match she would not have to provide any dowry. Furthermore, Jia Lian was a young gentleman from a noble family, ten times better than the wretched Zhang family. So she went straight to discuss it with her second daughter.
Second Sister was a coquette. She had already had an affair with Jia Zhen, and it was her constant regret that her betrothal to Zhang Hua prevented her from making a better marriage. Now that Jia Lian had taken a fancy to her and her brother-in-law himself had proposed the match, of course she was only too willing. She nodded in assent, and this was at once reported to Jia Rong, who went back to inform his father.
The next day they sent to invite Jia Lian to the temple. When Jia Zhen told him that old Mrs. You had given her consent, he was so overjoyed that he could not thank Jia Zhen and Jia Rong enough. They made plans then to send stewards to find a house, have trinkets made and the bride’s trousseau prepared, as well as the bed, curtains and other furnishings for the bridal chamber.
Within a few days everything was ready. The house they bought was in Flower Spring Lane about two ii behind the Ning and Rong Street. it had over twenty rooms. They also bought two young maids. In addition, Jia Zhen installed his own servant Bao Er and his wife there to wait on Second Sister after she moved in. He then sent for Zhang Hua and his father and ordered them to write a deed cancelling the betrothal for old Mrs. You.
Now Zhang Hua’s grandfather had been in charge of the imperial Farm. After his death Zhang Hua’s father had taken his place, and as he was a good friend of old Mrs. You’s first husband, Zhang Hua and Sec¬ond Sister You had been engaged to each other before they were born. Later the Zhangs became involved in a lawsuit which ruined their family, leaving them too poor to feed and clothe themselves well, to say nothing of bringing home a bride for their son. And as old Mrs. You had left her first husband’s home, the two families had lost touch for more than ten years. When the Jia family’s stewards summoned Zhang Hua and or¬dered him to renounce his betrothal to Second Sister You, although un¬willing he had to agree for fear of the power which Jia Zhen and the others wielded. He accordingly wrote a deed cancelling the engagement, and old Mrs. You gave him ten taels of silver, after which the matter was settled.
When Jia Lian saw that all preparations were ready, he chose the third of the next month, an auspicious day, for the wedding, of which more will be told in the next chapter.
Truly:
Because he lusted after a kinswoman,
Husband and wife fell out.

Chapter 65

A Hen-Pecked Young Profligate Takes
a Concubine in Secret
A Wanton Girl Mends Her Ways and Picks
Herself a Husband


Jia Lian, Jia Zhen and Jia Rong, consulting together, soon had every¬thing satisfactorily arranged. On the second of the month, old Mrs. You and Third Sister were escorted first to the new house. Old Mrs. You saw at a glance that it was not as grand as Jia Rong had claimed; still, it appeared quite respectable, and she and her daughter were both satis¬fied. Bao Er and his wife gave them an effusive welcome, assiduously addressing old Mrs. You as ‘Old Madam’ or ‘Old Lady’ and Third Sister as ‘Third Aunt’ or ‘Third Young Mistress.’
The next day at dawn when Second Sister was brought over in a white sedan-chair, all the incense, candles and sacrificial paper as well as fine bedding, wine and food were ready. Presently Jia Lian, dressed in mourning, arrived in a small sedan-chair, after which they bowed to Heaven and Earth and burned sacrificial paper. And old Mrs. You was most grati¬fied to see Second Sister’s new finery, so unlike the trinkets and clothes she had worn at home. The bride was helped into the bridal chamber, where that night she and Jia Lian enjoyed the transports of love.
Jia Lian, more enamoured than ever of his new bride, did all in his power to please her in every way. He forbade Bao Er and the other servants to refer to her as ‘Second Mistress.’ They must all call her the mistress just as he did, as if Xifeng had been blotted out of existence. Whenever he went home he merely claimed to have been detained by business in the East Mansion; and Xifeng, knowing how close he and Jia Zhen were, thought it natural for them to talk things over together and never suspected the truth. As for the domestics, they never interfered in affairs of this kind. In fact, the idlers among them who made a point of learning all the gossip tried to profit by the situation, seizing this chance to make up to Jia Lian; thus none of them was willing to expose him. So Jia Lian’s gratitude to Jia Zhen knew no bounds.
Every month Jia Lian paid five taels of silver to defray the daily ex¬penses of this new establishment. In his absence, the mother and two daughters ate together; if he came, husband and wife had their meal alone while old Mrs. You and Third Sister retired to their own room to eat. Jia Lian also made over to Second Sister the savings he had put aside in the last few years, and when in bed told her freely all about Xifeng and her behaviour, promising to take her into the family as soon as Xifeng died. This, of course, was what Second Sister hoped for. So their house¬hold of a dozen or so people managed very comfortably.

Two months passed in a flash. One evening when Jia Zhen came home from Iron Threshold Temple, he decided to pay a visit to the two sisters whom he had not seen for so long. First he sent a page to find out whether Jia Lian was there, and was delighted when the boy reported that he was not. Having dismissed his attendants except for two trusted boys to lead his horse, he went straight to the new house. It was already lighting up time when he slipped quietly in. The two pages tethered the horse in the stable, then went to the servants’ quarters to await further orders.
When Jia Zhen entered the house the lamps had just been lit. He first met old Mrs. You and Third Sister; then Second Sister came out to greet him, and he addressed her as before as Second Cousin. They sipped tea together and chatted.
‘Well, how is the marriage I arranged for you?’ asked Jia Zhen with a smile. ‘If you’d missed this chance, you couldn’t have found another such man, not even if you’d searched with a lantern! Your elder sister will be coming to call one of these days with presents.’
Second Sister ordered wine and food to be prepared. And as they were members of one family now they closed the door and chatted with¬out constraint until Bao Er came in to pay his respects.
Jia Zhen told him, ‘It’s because you’re an honest fellow that I sent you here to work. In future I shall give you more important jobs. Don’t get drunk outside or make trouble, and I shall reward you well. Your Second Master Lian is busy and there are all sorts of people about in his place, so if you’re short of anything here just let me know. After all, we’re cousins ‘ it’s not as if I were an outsider.’
‘Yes, sir, I understand,’ answered Bao Er. ‘If I don’t do my best, you can cut off my head.’ Jia Zhen nodded.
‘I just want you to understand.’
The four of them drank together until Second Sister, sizing up the situation, said to her mother, ‘I’m afraid to go out alone. Will you come with me?’
Old Mrs. You took the hint and withdrew with her, leaving only two young maids there. Then Jia Zhen and Third Sister nestled up to each other and flirted so outrageously that the maids were shocked and slipped out, leaving them to amuse themselves however they pleased.
Jia Zhen’s pages were drinking in the kitchen with Bao Er, while his wife attended to the cooking, when the two maids burst in, giggling, and asked for drinks.
‘Why aren’t you waiting on them, sisters?’ asked Bao Er. ‘Why leave your post and come here? If they want something and nobody’s at hand, there’s bound to be more trouble.’
‘You stupid, befuddled turtle!’ scolded his wife. ‘Why not drink your¬self silly and pass out? Just keep your balls between your thighs and stretch your carcass out. Whether they call or whether they don’t, it’s nothing to do with you. I’ll see to all that. Anyway no drop of rain will spatter your head.’
Now Bao Er owed all his good fortune to his wife, and his recent good luck was even more thanks to her, for in this cushy job he had nothing to do but make money and get drunk, yet Jia Lian and the rest never repri¬manded him. He therefore obeyed her implicitly, as if she were his mother. And so having drunk enough, he went to bed. His wife kept the maids and pages company drinking, and made up to them in the hope that they would speak well of her to Jia Zhen. But as they were enjoying them¬selves they heard a sudden knocking on the gate; and when Bao Er’s wife hurried out to open it, she saw Jia Lian dismounting from his horse. He asked if all was well.
She quietly told him, ‘The Elder Master is here, in the west court¬yard.’
When Jia Lian heard that he went to his bedroom and found Second Sister there with her mother. At sight of him, they looked a little put out, but he pretended not to notice.
‘Bring some wine, quick,’ he ordered. ‘After a couple of drinks we can go to bed. I’m tired out.’
Second Sister at once stepped forward with a smile to take his outer garments and offer him tea, then asked about this and that. Jia Lian was so pleased that he itched to make love to her. Soon Bao Fr’s wife brought in wine which the two of them drank, while his mother-in-law went back to her room, sending one of the young maids to wait on them.
When Jia Lian’s trusted page Longer went to stable the horse he discovered another there and, looking closely, recognized it as Jia Zhen’s. Understanding the situation, he too went to the kitchen where he found Xier and Shouer sitting drinking. At sight of him, they exchanged know¬ing glances.
‘You’ve come just at the right time,’ they chortled. ‘We couldn’t overtake the master’s horse, and as we were afraid of being caught out after curfew, we come here to spend the night.’
Longer chuckled, ‘Well, there’s plenty of room on the kang, just lie down as you like. Second Master sent me to bring the monthly allowance to the mistress, so I shan’t be going back either.’
‘We’ve drunk too much,’ said Xier. ‘You must have a cup now.
But as Longer sat down and raised his cup, they heard a sudden com¬motion in the stable where the two horses, unwilling to be tethered to¬gether, had started kicking each other. Longer hastily put down his cup and rushed out to soothe them, coming back after he had managed to tie Jia Lian’s horse up elsewhere.
‘You three stay here,’ Bao Er’s wife told them. ‘There’s tea ready made for you. I must leave you now.’ With that she left, closing the door behind her.
Xier after a few cups was already glassy-eyed. By the time Longer and Shouer had locked the door they saw that he had passed out on the kang. They gave him a shove.
‘Get up and move over, good brother,’ they urged. ‘If you hog all the space, where are we to sleep?’
‘Must play fair tonight, each get a good fuck,’ Xier mumbled. ‘Any¬one who poses as proper I’ll fuck his mother.’
The other two seeing that he was drunk ignored him, simply putting out the light, then lying down to sleep as best they could.
The commotion made by the horses had alarmed Second Sister, who tried to distract Jia Lian with conversation. After a few cups, feeling randy, he ordered the maids to clear away the wine and dishes, then closed the door to undress. Second Sister was wearing nothing but a scarlet jacket. With her hair hanging loose, her cheeks flushed, she looked even lovelier than in the daytime.
Throwing his arms around her, Jia Lian declared, ‘Everyone calls that shrew of mine good-looking, but to me she isn’t fit even to pick up your shoes.’
‘I may have good looks but I’ve got a bad name,’ she answered. ‘So it seems not to be good-looking would be better.’
‘Why do you say that?’ he asked. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘You all think me silly,’ she told him, shedding tears. ‘But I have my wits about me. Now I’ve been your wife for two months, and already in that short time I’ve learned that you’re no fool either. I’ll be yours dead or alive. Being married to you, I’ll depend on you all my life, so of course I won’t keep any secrets from you. I’m provided for, but what about my sister? Seems to me things can’t go on the way they are now. We must think of some long-term plan.’
‘Don’t worry,’ chuckled Jia Lian. ‘I’m not the jealous type. I know all that happened in the past, you don’t have to be afraid. As your brother-in-law is my cousin, you naturally don’t like to broach the subject. It would be better for me to make the proposal.’
So he went to the west courtyard and saw through the window that the room was brightly lit and Jia Zhen and Third Sister were drinking and enjoying themselves inside, Jia Lian opened the door and went in.
‘So you’re here, sir,’ he said with a smile. ‘I’ve come to pay my respects .’
Jia Zhen, too embarrassed to speak, simply stood up and waved him to a seat.
Jia Lian laughed. ‘Why look so worried? As cousins we’ve always been on the closest terms. I can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done for me. If you take offence now, I shall be most upset. Please behave just as you did before. Otherwise I shall never dare come here again, not even if it means having no son.’ He made as if to kneel down.
Jia Zhen hastily raised him.
‘I’ll do whatever you say, cousin,’ he assured him.
Then Jia Lian called for wine, saying, ‘I’ll have a couple of drinks with Elder Cousin.’ Taking Third Sister by the hand he added, ‘Come and drink a cup with me too.’
Jia Zhen laughed.
‘What a character you are! I shall have to empty this cup.’ And he tossed it off.
Third Sister jumped on to the kang then and pointed at Jia Lian.
‘Don’t try to get round me with your glib tongue!’ she cried. ‘We’d better keep clear of each other. I’ve seen plenty of shadow-plays in my time; anyway don’t tear the screen to show what’s behind the scenes. You must be befuddled if you think we don’t know what goes on in your house. Now after spending a bit of your stinking money, you two figure you can amuse yourselves with us as if we were prostitutes! Well, you’re out in your calculations.
‘I know your wife’s such a termagant that you tricked my sister into coming here to be your second wife; but you can’t beat a stolen gong. And I’ve a good mind to call on this Madam Xifeng, to see what sort of prodigy she is. If everyone treats us right we can all live at peace. But if anyone takes the least guts, then fighting it out with that shrew. If I don’t, I’m not Third Mistress You! Who’s afraid of drinking? Let’s go ahead and drink.’
She picked up the wine-pot to fill a cup and drank half of this herself, then throwing one arm round Jia Lian’s neck started pouring the rest down his throat.’
‘I’ve already drunk with your cousin,’ she said. ‘Now let us play at being sweethearts.’
This gave Jia Lian such a scare that he sobered up. Jia Zhen, for his part, had never dreamed that Third Sister could act so brazenly. The two cousins, for all their experience of loose women, now found themselves struck dumb by this chit of a girl.
Then Third Sister cried out, ‘Ask my sister in! If you want fun, let’s all four of us have fun together. As the saying goes, ‘Perks should be kept inside the family.’ You’re cousins, we’re sisters; none of us are outsiders come on!’
Second Sister who had joined them began to feel embarrassed, and Jia Zhen wanted to sneak away, but Third Sister would not let him. By now Jia Zhen regretted having come. He had had no idea that Third Sister would behave like this, making it impossible for him and Jia Lian to have their way with her.
Now Third Sister wound her hair in a loose knot, her scarlet jacket, half unbuttoned, disclosing her leek-green bodice and snow-white skin. Below she was wearing green trousers and red slippers, and she now kicked her dainty feet against each other, now stretched them out side by side ‘ never still for a moment while her pendant eardrops swung this way and that. Under the lamplight her willowy eyebrows curved enticingly, her fragrant lips glowed red as cinnabar, and her eyes, bright as autumn pools, sparkled even more seductively after drinking. To Jia Zhen and Jia Lian it seemed that not only did she surpass her elder sister but that none of the girls they had ever seen, whether high or low, noble or humble, had possessed such bewitching charm. Both were too dazed and too intoxicated even to lift a finger. Her wanton coquetting had de¬prived them of speech.
Gesticulating and making eyes at them, Third Sister You had not put herself out to excite them, yet already the two men were at a loss to know which way to look, and had not so much as a word to say for themselves, so befuddled were they both by wine and lust. Holding forth loudly and freely, she heaped abuse on them, taunting and teasing them just as she pleased, as if they were prostitutes called in by her instead of men who had wanted to seduce her. Finally, sated with wine, having worked off her high spirits she drove them out, closed the door behind them, and retired to bed.
After this, whenever the maids were remiss in any way, Third Sister would loose a flood of abuse against Jia Zhen, Jia Lian and Jia Rong, accusing them of cheating a widow and her two fatherless daughters.  Thereafter, Jia Zhen hardly dared to come back unless Third Sister hap¬pened to be in the mood to send a page boy secretly to fetch him. And when he arrived he had to let her have her way.
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 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? Be¬sides, 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.’
They realized then it was no use trying to persuade her, and gave up.
And now Third Sister started demanding the best of everything whether food or clothing. When silver trinkets were made for her she wanted gold as well; when pearls were given her she asked for gems; if a fat goose was served her she demanded duck, and unless humoured would over¬turn the table. If her clothes were not just as she wanted, regardless of whether they were silk or satin, new or old, she would cut them up, swear¬ing as she tore them to shreds. So not for a day did Jia Zhen have any satisfaction. Instead, he squandered large sums of money for nothing.
Jia Lian when he went there just stayed in Second Sister’s rooms, and he was beginning to regret this set-up. But Second Sister had an affectionate disposition. To her, Jia Lian was her lord and master for life, she doted on him. As regards gentleness and obedience, she was ten times better than Xifeng, for she would consult him on everything and never dared make any decisions herself or trust to her own better judge¬ment. As regards her looks, conversation and behaviour, she was supe¬rior too. Yet although she had now reformed, because of her previous slip-ups she had been labelled a wanton, and so her other good qualities counted for nothing.
However, Jia Lian said, ‘Who’s perfect? If you recognize your mis¬takes and correct them, that’s all right.’ Thus he never mentioned her loose living in the past, content to dwell on her present goodness. And he stuck to her like glue, like a fish to water, vowing from his heart to be true to her his whole life long, having lost all interest in Xifeng and Pinger.
When they shared the same pillow and quilt, Second Sister often urged him, ‘Why not talk it over with your cousin Zhen, and choose some man you know to marry my sister? It’s no good keeping her here indefinitely, because sooner or later there’s bound to be trouble, and then what shall we do?’
‘I did mention this to him the other day,’ said Jia Lian. ‘But he can’t bear the idea of giving her up. I pointed out, ‘What’s the good of fat mutton if it’s too hot to eat? The rose is lovely but prickly. How can we control her? We’d better find someone and marry her off.’ He just hemmed and hawed, then changed the subject. So what do you expect me to do?’
‘Don’t worry,’ said Second Sister. ‘Tomorrow we’ll first tackle my sister. If she’s willing, we’ll let her go on making rows until he has no choice but to marry her off.’
‘That’s the idea,’ agreed Jia Lian.
The next day Second Sister prepared a feast and Jia Lian stayed in. At noon, they invited Third Sister and her mother over and made them take the seats of honour. Third Sister guessed their intention, and when their cups had been filled three times, without waiting for her sister to speak she said tearfully:
‘You must have invited me today, sister, for some important reason. I’m no fool, and there’s no need to harp on my shameful conduct in the past. I’m aware of it; it’s no use talking about it. You’ve found yourself a good niche now, and so has mother, and it’s only right and proper that I should look for a home of my own too. But marriage is a serious busi-ness; it’s for life, not a joking matter. I’ve had a change of heart and mean to turn over a new leaf, but I must find someone congenial before I’ll marry. If your choice, no matter how rich, talented and handsome, wasn’t a man after my own heart then my whole life would be wasted.’
‘That’s no problem,’ said Jia Lian. ‘You can make your own choice. And we’ll provide the whole dowry, so that mother needn’t worry about that either.’
‘Sister knows who I mean,’ sobbed Third Sister. ‘I don’t have to name him.’
‘Who is he?’ Jia Lian asked Second Sister, but she could not think who it could be.
While the others were wondering, Jia Lian, sure that he had guessed, clapped his hands.
‘I know who it is! He’s certainly not bad. You’ve made a good choice.’
‘Who is it?’ asked Second Sister.
‘It must be Baoyu,’ he chuckled. ‘No one else would do for her.’
Second Sister and old Mrs. You thought he had guessed right, but Third Sister spat in disgust.
‘If there were ten of us sisters, would we all have to marry your brothers and cousins?’ she asked. ‘Are there no men outside your fam¬ily?’
This puzzled them all. Who else could it be? They wondered.
‘Forget about the present, sister,’ said Third Sister. ‘Just think back five years and you’ll know.’
As they were talking, Jia Lian’s trusted page Xinger came in to re¬port, ‘The old master wants you to go over at once, sir. I told him you’d gone to see your uncle, then came straight to fetch you.
‘Did they ask about me at home yesterday?’ demanded Jia Lian hastily.
‘I told Madam that you were at the family temple making plans for the hundredth day sacrifice with Lord Zhen, so you probably couldn’t come home.
Jia Lian promptly called for his horse and rode off, accompanied by Longer, leaving Xinger behind to attend to other things. Second Sister ordered two dishes and made him drink a goblet of wine as he squatted by the kang while she questioned him about the Jia family. How old was Madam Lian? Was she really a terror? How old were the old lady and Lady Wang? How many girls were there in the household? Beaming as he ate and drank beside the kang, Xinger regaled old Mrs. You and her daughters with a detailed account of the Rong Mansion.
‘I keep watch at the inner gate,’ he said. ‘We have two shifts, four men in each, eight altogether. Some of us are trusted by Madam, some by the master. We’re careful not to annoy her men, but they’re always provoking us.
‘You ask about our mistress. Well, I shouldn’t really be telling you this, madam, but she’s crafty and vicious with a sharp, quick tongue. Second Master is all right, but he’s under her thumb. Still Miss Pinger in their apartments is good-natured; even though she’s on Madam Lian’s side, behind her back she often does people good turns. If we do anything wrong, Madam won’t let us off; but if we beg Pinger for help she smoothes things over.
‘There’s no one now in the whole household, barring Their Ladyships, who doesn’t hate her. We just make a show of liking her out of fear. That’s because she looks down on everyone and just sucks up to the old lady and mistress. Whatever she says goes, and no one dares stop her. She tries to save up piles of silver so that Their Ladyships will praise her for being a good manager; but of course we servants are the ones to suffer, while she takes all the credit.
‘If anything good happens, she rushes to take the credit before any¬one else can report it. If anything bad happens, or if she herself makes some mistake, she ducks and shifts the blame on to other people, stirring up more trouble too on the side. Now even her own mother-in-law, the Elder Mistress, can’t stand her, calling her a fair-weather sparrow, or a black hen that neglects her own nest but keeps butting in everywhere else. If not for the old lady’s backing, her mother-in-law would have fetched her back long ago.’
Second Sister smiled.
‘The way you’re talking behind her back makes me wonder what you’ll say about me in future. As I’m lower in status you can lay it on even thicker!’
Xinger hastily fell on his knees.
‘If I do, may a thunderbolt strike me dead!’ he swore. ‘If we’d had the luck from the start to have a mistress like you, we wouldn’t have had to put up with so many beatings and cursings or to live in fear and trem¬bling all the time. Why, all our master’s servants keep praising you, be¬hind your back as well, for your goodness and kindness to us. We’ve been talking of asking our master to let us come here to wait on you, madam.’
‘You monkey!’ she laughed. ‘Get up quickly. I was only joking ‘you needn’t be afraid. Why should you all come here? I’ve been mean¬ing, actually, to call on your mistress.’
Xinger threw up his hands in dismay. ‘On no account do that, madam. Take my word for it, it will be best for you never to meet her all your life. She’ll give you sweet talk when there’s hatred in her heart, she’s so double-faced and tricky. All the time she’s smiling she tries to trip you up, making a show of great warmth while she stabs you in the back. That’s the way she is. I’m afraid not even Third Aunt could outtalk her, so how could a gentle, kindly lady like you be a match for her?’
‘If I treat her politely what can she do to me?’
‘It’s not that I’m talking wildly because I’m drinking. Even if you treated her with respect, once she saw you were better looking and more popular with people, how could she let you off? If other women are jeal¬ous, she’s a hundred times so. If the master happens to cast a second glance at any maid, she’s liable to make a row then and there. Though Miss Pinger’s part of their household, and the master may be allowed to sleep with her once a year, or once in two years, she keeps nagging until Pinger loses her temper and makes a scene. ‘I didn’t ask to be his concubine,’ she says. ‘When I was unwilling you called me disobedient. You forced me into it, yet now you treat me like this!’ Then, generally, she pipes down and even asks Miss Pinger’s pardon.’
‘There you’re lying,’ said Second Sister with a laugh. ‘How could a hellion like that be afraid of a concubine?’
‘As the proverb says,’ he retorted, ‘‘everyone has to listen to rea¬son.’ Miss Pinger has been her maid since she was a girl, being one of the four she brought here at the time of her marriage. The rest got mar¬ried or died, leaving only this favourite maid, so she decided to make her a concubine. That was so as to show how broad-minded she was and also to stop the master from chasing after loose women outside.
‘There’s another reason too. It’s a rule in our family that when the young gentlemen reach teenage, before they’re married, two girls are always assigned to wait on them. Second Master had two, but within half a year of her arrival she picked fault with them and sent them both pack¬ing. Although no one could very well say anything, she knew it didn’t look good, so she forced Pinger to become his concubine. Pinger’s really a good sort. Instead of holding this against her or stirring up trouble be¬tween husband and wife, she’s completely loyal to her mistress ‘ that’s why she’s kept on.’
‘So that’s the way it is,’ remarked Second Sister. ‘But I hear you’ve another mistress who’s a widow, and several young ladies too. Why do they put up with her if she’s such a shrew?’
Xinger clapped his hands.
‘You don’t understand, I see. That widow, Madam Zhu, is such a kindly soul that she’s nicknamed Great Bodhisattva. Besides, the rule in our family is so strict that widows never attend to affairs: all that’s ex¬pected of them is to live quietly and chastely. But as there happen to be so many young ladies, they’ve been put in her charge and it’s her job to superintend their studies and teach them needlework and moral principles. She doesn’t have to bother about anything else. It’s only because of Madam Lian’s recent illness and because there’s so much to be done that Madam Zhu’s helping out for a few days. Still, there isn’t much she can do, she simply sticks to the old ways, not throwing her weight about like Madam Lian to show how smart she is.
‘As for our eldest young lady, it goes without saying, if she wasn’t so fine in every way she wouldn’t have been blessed with her present good fortune. Our second young lady, the one we call Dumbbell, won’t let out a peep even if she’s pricked with a needle. The third has the nickname Rose.’
‘Why’s that?’ asked the two You sisters.
Xinger chuckled.
‘Everyone loves roses, they’re so red and fragrant. But they’re prickly too. And she’s wonderfully clever. The pity is she’s not Lady Wang’s own child but ‘a phoenix from a crow’s nest.’ The fourth, who’s still young, is actually Lord Zhen’s younger sister; but because she lost her mother when she was a child, the old lady made Lady Wang adopt her and bring her up; and she never bothers about family affairs either.
‘Then, you may not know, madam, apart from our own young ladies we have two others, the likes of whom are seldom seen on earth or in heaven. One’s Lin Daiyu ‘ her mother was the old lady’s daughter. In looks and figure she’s just as lovely as Third Aunt, with a bellyful of book learning besides; but she’s always falling ill. Even in hot weather like this she wears lined clothes, and a puff of wind can blow her over. Being a disrespectful lot, behind her back we all call her the Sick Beauty.
‘Then there’s Aunt Xue’s daughter Baochai, with a skin so white she looks as if made of snow. Whenever we catch a glimpse of them coming out of the gate or getting into a carriage, or in the courtyard, we all seem to be possessed by ghosts or gods! The sight of either of them takes our breath away.
Second Sister laughed.
‘A big family like yours has strict rules. Even though you were taken into service there as children, when you happen to meet any of the young ladies you ought to make yourselves scarce.
Xinger brushed this aside.
‘It’s not that. If you talk about the proper etiquette, it goes without saying we should keep out of the way. But even when we do we still hold our breath because, if we let out a gasp, it might blow Miss Lin over; or being warm, might melt Miss Xue.’
Everybody in the room burst out laughing at this. To know what fol¬lowed read the next chapter.


Chapter 66

A Girl in Love Is Rejected and
Kills Herself
A Cold-Hearted Man Repents and
Thins to Religion


Bao Er’s wife slapped Xinger playfully.
‘How you do twist the truth and exaggerate!’ she teased. ‘The sense¬less way you talk sounds as if you were Baoyu’s servant, not Second Master’s’.
Before Second Sister could ask any other questions, Third Sister put in, ‘By the way, what does he do, that Baoyu of yours, apart from study¬ing?’
‘Don’t ask, aunt,’ Xinger chuckled. ‘1ff tell you, you won’t believe me. Big as he is, he’s unique in never having had any proper schooling. All earlier generations of our family right down to Second Master studied hard for years; he’s the only one who won’t study, and he’s the old lady’s pet. At first his father tried to discipline him, but he’s long since given that up.
‘Baoyu carries on the whole time like a lunatic, talking in a way that no one understands, and what he gets up to goodness only knows. He’s handsome and is taken for an intelligent boy, but for all he looks so smart he’s actually muddle-headed, with nothing to say for himself in company. The only good thing about him is that though he’s never been to a proper school he’s managed to learn to read. He never studies books or prac¬tises military arts; and he doesn’t like meeting strangers, instead he just loves to fool about with the maids.
‘He has no sense of what’s fitting either. When he sees us, if he’s in the mood he’ll play around with us quite forgetting his station; if he’s not in the mood he’ll go off by himself, ignoring everyone else. If we’re sitting or lying about when he turns up, and we pay no attention to him, he never ticks us off. So nobody’s afraid of him; we know we can behave just as we please.’
‘When your master’s lenient you run him down; if he were strict you’d complain,’ said Third Sister with a smile. ‘That shows what a troublesome lot you are.
‘He made a good impression on us,’ remarked Second Sister. ‘We didn’t know he was like this. What a pity when he’s such a handsome boy.’
‘Don’t believe the nonsense he talks, sister,’ said Third Sister. ‘We’ve met Baoyu several times. The way he behaves and speaks does seem rather effeminate, but that’s because he spends all his time in the inner apartments. You can’t call him muddle-headed. Remember when we were in mourning, that day the monks filed round the coffin? We girls were all standing there and he stepped in front of us, standing in our way. People said he had no manners and should know better; but later didn’t he tell us in confidence, ‘You know, sisters, it’s not that I had no sense of respect, but those monks are so dirty I was afraid you’d find their stench overpowering.’
‘Then he was drinking tea, and you wanted some too. When that old woman took his bowl to pour some for you, he said at once, ‘I’ve dirtied that bowl; you must wash it first.’ From these two incidents, viewed dispassionately, I saw how obliging he is towards us girls he knows how to make himself agreeable to us. It just doesn’t seem right to outsid¬ers; that’s why they can’t understand him.’
‘It sounds as if the two of you are already of one mind,’ Second Sister chuckled. ‘How would it be if we were to betroth you to him?’ Inhibited by Xinger’s presence, Third Sister just lowered her head and went on cracking melon-seeds.
‘As far as looks and behaviour go, they’d make a fine couple,’ chortled Xinger. ‘Only he’s already made his choice, although it hasn’t yet been announced. It’s bound to be Miss Lin. Nothing has been done so far, as she’s so delicate and they’re both still young; but in another two or three years, as soon as the old lady says the word it will certainly be settled.’
As they were chatting, Longer came back to report, ‘The old master has some business, something extremely important and confidential, that he’s sending Second Master to Pinganzhou to attend to. He’s to set out in a few days and the whole trip there and back will take more than a fortnight. So he can’t come back today. He hopes the old mistress and Second Aunt will see to that matter right away, so that he can make the final decision when he comes tomorrow.’ This said, he went off with Xinger.
Second Sister ordered the gate to be closed and they turned in early, but she spent most of the night questioning her sister.
The next day it was after noon before Jia Lian arrived.
‘Why be in such a hurry to come when you’ve other important busi¬ness?’ Second Sister asked him. ‘You mustn’t delay your journey on my account.’
‘It’s not all that important,’ he told her. ‘The nuisance is I’ve got to make a long trip, starting early next month, and I shan’t be back for a fortnight.’
‘Well, just go with an easy mind. You needn’t worry about anything here. My sister’s not the type that keeps changing her mind. She says she’s going to turn over a new leaf, and she’ll be as good as her word. She’s already made her choice of a man. All you need do is to fall in with her wishes.’
‘Who is he?’ asked Jia Lian.
‘He’s not here now, and there’s no knowing when he’ll come back. But she’s made an intelligent choice. If he stays away for a year, she’ll wait for a year, she says. If he doesn’t return for ten years, she’ll wait for ten years. If he’s dead and never comes back, she’ll gladly shave off her hair and become a nun, fasting and chanting sutras all her life.’
‘Who can the fellow be that has won her heart so completely?’
‘It’s a long story,’ said Second Sister with a smile. ‘Five years ago, when it was our grandmother’s birthday, my mother took us there to offer congratulations. They’d invited a troupe of amateur actors, among them a certain Liu Xianglian who liked to play the young hero’s part in operas. She took such a fancy to him, she now declares he’s the only man for her. Last year we heard that he’d got into trouble and run away. We don’t know whether he has ever come back.’
‘Well, I never!’ exclaimed Jia Lian. ‘So that’s who it is. I was won¬dering what sort of fellow he could be. Yes, she’s made a good choice. But you know this Second Master Liu, for all he’s so handsome, is cold and stand-offish. He has no time for most people but happens to get on splendidly with Baoyu. Last year after he beat up that fool Xue Pan he left, feeling too embarrassed to see us, and we don’t know where he’s gone. Some people say he’s returned. I suppose we can ask Baoyu’s pages to find out. If he hasn’t come back and is still drifting about, Heaven knows how many years he may stay away. Your sister may wait in vain.’
‘No, my sister’s always as good as her word,’ she assured him. ‘Just let her have her way.’
At this point Third Sister joined them.
‘Believe me, brother-in-law, I’m not one of those who don’t say what they think,’ she declared. ‘I mean what I say. If Mr. Liu comes I’ll marry him. Until then I’ll fast, chant sutras and look after my mother while waiting for him to come and marry me, even if I have to wait a hundred years. If he never comes, I’ll go and become a nun.’ Drawing a jade pin from her hair she broke it in two, exclaiming, ‘If I’ve said a single word that isn’t true, may I end up like this pin!’
This said, she went back to her room. And after that she was, indeed, most correct in her speech and behaviour.
There was nothing Jia Lian could do. Having discussed some family business with Second Sister, he went home to tell Xifeng about his trip, then sent to ask Mingyan whether Liu Xianglian had returned or not.
‘I don’t know,’ said Mingyan. ‘Probably not. Otherwise I would have heard.’
And Liu’s neighbours when questioned said he had never come back. So Jia Lian had to pass on this information to Second Sister.
As the time for his departure approached he announced that he was leaving two days early, but in fact he spent two nights in Second Sister’s place, starting his journey secretly from there. He observed that Third Sister’s behaviour had indeed changed out of all recognition, and as Sec¬ond Sister was managing the house diligently and prudently he had no need to worry.
He left the city early in the morning and took the highway to Pinganzhou. He travelled all day, stopping only to refresh himself when he was hungry or thirsty, staying in inns at night, and he had been three days on the way when a caravan of pack-horses came towards him escorted by a dozen or so men on horseback. As they drew near he saw to his astonishment that among them were Xue Pan and Liu Xianglian. At once he spurred his horse forward to meet them, and after exchang¬ing the usual courtesies they chose an inn in which to rest and chat.
Jia Lian said, ‘After the two of you fell out we were very eager to patch it up between you, but Brother Liu had vanished without a trace. How come you’re together today?’
‘Wonders never cease,’ said Xue Pan. ‘I and my assistants bought some goods and started back to the capital this spring. All went well till the other day when we reached Pinganzhou and a band of brigands seized everything we had. Then along came Brother Liu in the nick of time to drive the brigands away, rescue our goods and save our lives into the bargain. When he wouldn’t accept anything for his help, we became sworn brothers and have been travelling together. From now on we shall be like real blood-brothers. But we shall part company at the crossroad in front, as he has to go two hundred ii farther south to visit an aunt of his. I shall go to the capital first to finish my business, then find a house for him and a suitable wife, so that we can all settle down there.’
‘If that’s the case,’ exclaimed Jia Lian, ‘We’ve been worrying need¬lessly for several days.’ As Xue Pan had spoken of finding a wife for Xianglian, he hastened to continue, ‘I’ve got the very bride for him, a splendid match for Brother Liu.’ He went on to explain how he had married Second Sister You and now wanted to find a husband for her younger sister, omitting only to add that Liu was Third Sister’s own choice. He then cautioned Xue Pan, ‘Mind you don’t tell the family. Just wait until she has a son, then of course they’ll have to know.’
Xue Pan was delighted.
‘You should have done that long ago,’ he said. ‘It serves Cousin Xifeng right.’
‘You’re talking nonsense again,’ put in Xianglian with a smile. ‘You’d better shut up.’
‘In that case,’ said Xue Pan, changing the subject, ‘we must fix up this match.’
‘It’s been my intention all along,’ Xianglian told them, ‘to marry only an outstanding beauty. But as this proposal comes from my honourable elder brothers, I shan’t insist on that. I’ll agree to whatever you suggest.’
‘Words don’t carry conviction,’ Jia Lian rejoined. ‘But once you see her, Brother Liu, you’ll realize that this sister-in-law of mine is a matchless beauty.’
Xianglian was overjoyed by this assurance.
‘If that’s so,’ he said, ‘When I’ve called on my aunt, in less than a fortnight I’ll come to the capital and we can settle everything then. How’s that?’
‘We’re both men of our word,’ replied Jia Lian. ‘But you’re such a rolling stone, always on the move, I don’t like leaving it undecided. If you drift away now and don’t come back, what’s to become of her? You’d better let me have some betrothal token.’
‘A true man never goes back on his word. I’m not rich and I’m in the middle of a journey, so where would I get a betrothal token?’
‘I’ve something suitable,’ Xue Pan cut in. ‘Just take it, Second Brother.’
‘I don’t want gold or silk,’ said Jia Lian. ‘What I have in mind is one of Brother Liu’s personal possessions; it doesn’t have to be anything valuable. I’ll just take it as a pledge.’
‘Very well, then,’ agreed Xianglian. ‘The only things I have with me, apart from this sword which I need in self-defence, are a pair of ‘duck and drake’ swords in my luggage they’re a family heirloom which I never use but always keep with me. You can take them as a pledge. However much of a wanderer I am, I’d never give up these swords.’
After that they drank a few more cups, then mounted their horses, took their leave of each other and went their different ways.
Truly:
Generals, not dismounting from their horses,
Gallop off to their destinations.

After Jia Lian reached Pinganzhou he called on the governor to settle his business, and was told to come back again before the tenth month. The very next day he hurriedly started back, and as soon as he got home went to see Second Sister.
Since his departure Second Sister had been running her household most prudently, staying in every day behind closed doors and taking no interest in outside affairs. And Third Sister had proved her iron resolu¬tion: apart from waiting on her mother and sister she had kept to herself, doing her share of work every day and sleeping alone at night on her lonely pillow. Although unaccustomed to such a solitary life she avoided all company, simply longing for Liu Xianglian’s early return, so that the main affair of her life could be settled.
When Jia Lian saw how things were, he was very pleased with Sec¬ond Sister’s virtuous conduct. After the usual civilities had been ex¬changed, he described his encounter with Liu Xianglian on the road and taking out the pair of swords passed them to Third Sister. She looked at the dragon and serpent designs on the sheath which was studded with bright pearls and jewels, then drew out the two swords, identical in size, one engraved with the word ‘duck,’ the other ‘drake.’ The blades had the cold gleam of two autumn streams. Overjoyed, she hastily took them to her chamber to hang them on the wall over her bed. Every day she would feast her eyes on them, happy that her future was provided for.
After Jia Lian had spent two days there, he went to report on his mission to his father, then returned home to see his family. By now Xifeng was well enough to attend to affairs and get about again. When Jia Lian told Jia Zhen about Third Sister’s engagement his cousin showed little interest, as he had recently found himself a new mistress and given up calling on the You sisters. He was willing to let Jia Lian do as he pleased. But suspecting that the latter might be unable to defray all the expenses, he gave him thirty taels of silver which Jia Lian passed on to Second Sister to prepare her sister’s trousseau.
Liu Xianglian did not come to the capital till the eighth month. When he called on Aunt Xue and Xue Ke he learned that Xue Pan, being unac¬customed to the rigours of travel and a different climate, had fallen ill as soon as he arrived home and was still being treated by doctors. Hearing of Xianglian’s arrival, he invited him into his bedroom.
Full of gratitude for the good turn Xianglian had done them, Aunt Xue let bygones be bygones, both she and her son thanking him most pro¬fusely. They went on to speak of the wedding, all the preparations for which were complete except for the choice of an auspicious day. Xianglian, in turn, was loud in his thanks.
The next day he called on Baoyu, and meeting again they felt so at home with each other that Xianglian asked for more details about Jia Lian’s secret marriage to a second wife.
‘I only heard about it from Mingyan and the others,’ Baoyu told him. ‘And it wasn’t my business to interfere. I also heard from Mingyan that Cousin Lian was very anxious to find you I don’t know what for.’
Xianglian explained all that had happened on the road.
‘Congratulations!’ cried Baoyu. ‘You’d be hard put to it to find a lovelier girl. She’s really ravishing, just the right match for you.’
‘If she’s so lovely she ought to have lots of suitors; why should he single me out? It’s not as if the two of us were close friends or he has any special concern for me. In our brief meeting on the road he kept pressing me to agree to this engagement. Why should the girl’s family be in such a hurry? I couldn’t help having misgivings, and soon started re-gretting having given him my swords as a pledge. That’s why I thought of asking you just what’s behind this.’
‘You’re a smart fellow,’ answered Baoyu. ‘Once you’ve given your pledge how can you start having second thoughts? You always said you wanted a ravishing beauty, and now you’ve got one. Isn’t that good enough? Why be so suspicious?’
‘If you didn’t know about Jia Lian’s secret marriage, how do you know that she’s so beautiful?’
‘She’s one of the two daughters of Madam You’s step-mother, old Mrs. You, by her first marriage. I saw a lot of them for a couple of months, so of course I know. She and her sister are really a pair of beau¬ties.’
Xianglian stamped his foot.
‘That’s no good then! I can’t go through with it. The only clean things in that East Mansion of yours are those two stone lions at the gate. Even the cats and dogs there are unclean. I don’t want to be a cuckold and take someone else’s leavings.’
Baoyu blushed. And Xianglian, regretting his tactlessness, made haste to bow.
‘I deserve death for talking such nonsense. But do at any rate tell me what her character’s like.’
‘If you know so much already, why ask me? I may not be clean myself either.’
‘I forgot myself just now,’ said Xianglian with a smile. ‘Please don’t make such an issue of it.’
‘Why mention it again?’ retorted Baoyu. ‘This makes it seem that you take it seriously.’
Xianglian took his leave then with a bow and left. He thought of going to see Xue Pan, but reflected that as the latter was unwell and so iras¬cible at the best of times he had better go and get his pledge back instead. This decision reached, he went to find Jia Lian.
Jia Lian was in the new house. When he heard that Xianglian had come he was overjoyed and hurried out to welcome him, then ushered him into the inner room and introduced him to old Mrs. You. To his aston¬ishment, instead of kneeling to her as his future mother-in-law, Xianglian simply bowed and addressed her as ‘aunt,’ referring to himself as ‘your nephew.’
And as they were sipping tea he said, ‘During my journey, as it hap¬pened, I was overhasty, not knowing that my aunt had arranged a match for me in the fourth month, making it impossible for me to retract. It wouldn’t be right would it, brother, for me to accept your proposal and refuse my aunt’s. If I’d given the usual gifts of money and silk, I wouldn’t venture to ask to have them back; but those swords were left me by my grandfather, so I must beg you to return them.’
Jia Lian was very put out when he heard this.
‘A pledge is a pledge,’ he argued. ‘And a pledge is given to stop a man from going back on his word. Can you cancel an engagement so casually? Pray reconsider the matter.’
‘In spite of what you say,’ replied Xianglian, ‘I’m willing to accept any penalty, but on this matter I definitely cannot obey your order.’
Jia Lian was about to reply when Xianglian stood up.
‘Let’s discuss this outside,’ he proposed. ‘It’s not convenient her.’
Third Sister had heard all this clearly from her room. She had been waiting and waiting for Liu Xianglian’s arrival, but now he had suddenly broken the engagement. It was clear to her that he must have heard some gossip in the Jia mansions which led him to believe her a shameless wanton, not fit to be his wife. If she let the two men go out now to discuss it, she foresaw that Jia Lian would fail to win him round and she would be utterly humiliated. So as soon as Jia Lian agreed to his proposal she took down the swords, concealing the ‘duck’ behind her elbow, and went out to intercept them.
‘There’s no need for you to go out to discuss this further.’ she told them. ‘Here’s your pledge, I’m returning it.’
Her tears falling like rain, with her left hand she passed the sheath with one sword in it to Xianglian, and with her right cut her throat with the other blade. Alas!
The jade hill crumbles, never to rise again;
Peach-blossom, trampled, stains the ground with red.
Her fragrant spirit is lost in the infinite ‘None knows whither it has fled.

All present were consternated and tried in vain to revive her. Old Mrs. You sobbing with horror cursed Xianglian, while Jia Lian seized hold of him, calling servants to tie him up and drag him to court.
Second Sister dried her tears then to urge her husband, ‘Let him be! He didn’t threaten her, she took her own life. So what use would it be to take him to court? That would only cause a worse scandal. You’d better let him go, to save further trouble.’
Then Jia Lian, not knowing what else to do, let go of Xianglian and told him to get out. However, he did not move but burst into tears.
‘I never knew this intended wife of mine was so chaste, such a mag¬nificent girl.’  he exclaimed.
Prostrating himself over her corpse he gave way to a storm of weep¬ing. And when a coffin was brought and her body laid in it, he clasped it and lamented bitterly before finally leaving them.
Once outside the gate he did not know where to go, dazed and sunk in gloom as he recalled what had just happened. ‘So she was so lovely and chaste,’ he reflected, torn by remorse.
He wandered aimlessly on until one of Xue Pan’s pages appeared and asked him to go back. The boy took him to a magnificent bridal chamber. He heard the tinkling of pendants, and in came Third Sister, in one hand the ‘duck and drake’ swords, in the other a book. With tears she told him:
‘Your devoted handmaid waited five years for you, my lord, not know¬ing you would prove so cold-hearted. I have paid with my life now for my infatuation. Today, at the order of the goddess of Disenchantment, I am going to the Illusory Land of the Great Void to register all the amorous spirits in this case. But I couldn’t bear to go away without bidding you farewell, for from this day on we shall never meet again.’ This said, she turned to leave.
Xianglian could not bear to let her go and quickly stepped forward to stop her and question her.
‘We came from the Heaven of Love and we must return there from the Earth of Love,’ she told him. ‘I was deluded by love in my last life, but as I have repented of it and awakened, from now on I shall have nothing to do with you, sir.’
As her voice died away, a fragrant wind sprang up and she vanished into thin air.
Xianglian woke with a start, wondering if he had been dreaming. When he opened his eyes and looked round, there was no sign of the Xues’ page boy or of the bridal chamber. He was in a tumble-down temple, and beside him a lame Taoist priest was sitting catching lice. Xianglian rose to his feet, then bowed to the ground.
‘Where are we, holy master?’ he asked the priest. ‘And what is your immortal name?’
The priest chuckled, ‘I myself don’t know where we are or who I am. I’m simply putting up here for the time being.’
At this Liu Xianglian shuddered with cold, as if the marrow of his bones had frozen. He drew the ‘drake’ sword and with one stroke cut off his hair, then went away with the priest, no one knows where.
To know what became of him, read the next chapter.

Chapter 67

A Gift of Local Products Makes
Daiyu Homesick
Xifeng Questions a Page Boy
and Hatches a Plot


After Third Sister’s suicide, it goes without saying, old Mrs. You, Second Sister and Jia Lian were overcome with grief, as were Jia Zhen, his wife and Jia Rong as soon as they learned of it. They at once pre¬pared to bury her in style.
As for Liu Xianglian, Third Sister’s death had filled him with remorse and inspired him with foolish passion, till a few words from the Taoist priest freed him from his delusions. Thereupon he cut off his hair and renounced the world to go off with the priest, none knew where. But no more of this.
Aunt Xue had been so delighted to hear of Xianglian’s betrothal to Third Sister that she had decided to buy and furnish a house for him, prepare the bride’s trousseau and then choose an auspicious day for the wedding to express her gratitude to him for saving her son’s life. Now, hearing from one of their servant boys that Third Sister had taken her own life and Xianglian had gone off with a priest, she was overwhelmed by distress and bewilderment. And just then Baochai came over from the Garden.
‘Have you heard the news, child?’ her mother asked. ‘Wasn’t Third Sister You, the younger sister of your Cousin Zhen’s wife, engaged and a very good match it would have been too to your brother’s sworn brother Liu Xianglian? But for some unknown reason she’s cut her throat and he’s renounced the world. Isn’t it amazing? A real bolt from the blue!’
Baochai, however, did not take it to heart.
‘As the proverb says,’ she replied, ‘‘Sudden storms spring up in nature, and the fortunes of men may change overnight.’ They can’t have been predestined to be husband and wife. You’re upset, mother, because he rescued my brother, and if all had gone well between them of course it would have been only right for you to help with the wedding. Now that one of them is dead and the other’s gone, it seems to me you’d better let things be. Don’t grieve so much for them that you injure your health.
‘Now quite a time’s passed since brother came back from the south, and all the goods he brought ought to be disposed of. The assistants who went with him worked hard for several months. Why not talk it over with brother, and invite them to a meal to express our gratitude? Otherwise they may think we’re lacking in manners.’
In came Xue Pan then, tears still in his eyes. As he stepped through the door he clapped his hands together.
‘Mother,’ he blurted out, ‘have you heard about Brother Liu and Third Sister You?’
‘I heard talk of it in the Garden, and your sister and I were speaking about it just now.’
‘Isn’t it extraordinary?’
‘It certainly is. Why should a smart young man like Master Liu sud¬denly do such a foolish thing, going off with a Taoist priest? I suppose it’s because he was pre-ordained in some former existence to become a saint that he was so ready to listen to the priest. As you were such good friends and he lived all alone here, with no parents or brothers, you ought to make a thorough search for him. How could that lame and crazy priest go very far? He must be hiding in one of the temples near by.’
‘That’s exactly what I thought,’ replied Xue Pan. ‘As soon as I got this news I took my servants out to search high and low, but not a trace of him could we find. And everyone we asked said they hadn’t seen them. I was so frantic that, before coming back, I faced northwest and burst out howling.’ As he said this his eyes brimmed with tears again.
‘If you’ve made a search and failed to find him, you’ve done your duty as a friend,’ said his mother. ‘After all, his renouncing the world may not be a bad thing. You’d better not worry too much. For one thing, you’ve your business to attend to; and then you should make prepara¬tions in good time for your own wedding. Our family’s short-handed and, as the proverb says, ‘A slow sparrow should make an early start.’ We don’t want to find, when the time comes, that we’ve forgotten this, that and the other, so that people laugh at us.
‘Another thing, your sister says you’ve been home nearly a month now, so presumably those goods are all disposed of. You ought to enter¬tain the assistants who went on the trip with you to a feast, to thank them for their hard work. Of course, they’re our employees and we pay them; still, they’re our proteges too. And, after all, they accompanied you on a journey of one or two thousand ii, working hard for four or five months and sharing your hardships and dangers on the road.’
‘You’re quite right, mother,’ agreed Xue Pan. ‘Sister thinks of ev¬erything. It did occur to me too, but these days I’ve been so busy dis¬patching goods, my head’s been in a whirl; and the last few days I’ve been rushing about arranging Brother Liu’s wedding ‘ not that anything’s come of it and that’s held up our own business. Suppose we fix on tomorrow or the day after and send out invitations?’
‘Just decide on any day you please,’ said his mother.
As she was speaking a servant came in to report, ‘Manager Zhang’s assistants have brought two cases. They say these are things the master bought for himself, not included in the bill of goods. They meant to bring them over earlier but couldn’t get at them as they were beneath other cases. Yesterday they finished dispatching the goods; that’s why they’ve only sent them over today.’
Meanwhile two servant-boys had brought in two big palm-fibre cases, crated with spars.
‘Aiya!’ exclaimed Xue Pan. ‘How could I be so muddle-headed! These are things I bought specially for you, mother and sister, but as I forgot to bring them home they’ve had to send them.’
Baochai teased, ‘You say these were bought specially, yet you left them lying there for over a fortnight. If they had been something not specially bought, I suppose you wouldn’t have given them to us until the end of the year. You’re altogether too casual.’
‘I guess those brigands on the road scared the wits out of me, and they haven’t come back to my noddle yet,’ he said, raising a laugh. Then turning to the servants, he ordered, ‘Go and tell the messengers I’ve received these cases and they can go back now.’
Aunt Xue and Baochai now asked, ‘What good things are these, so carefully packed and crated?’
Xue Pan called servants to unfasten the ropes and remove the spars, then he unlocked the cases. They saw that one was filled with silks, satins, brocades, foreign imports and articles of daily use. The other, meant for Baochai, in addition to writing-brushes, ink-tablets, inkstones, statio¬nery, perfume-sachets, scented beads, fans, fan-sheaths, powder, rouge and pomade, had in it all sorts of toys from Huqiu in Soochow. Among them were figurines with movable limbs, lots for drinking-games, toy tum¬blers weighted with quicksilver, earthenware lanterns, whole sets of clay opera figures in blue gauze boxes, and even a clay sculpture of Xue Pan done to the life by one of the Huqiu craftsmen.
Baochai was not interested in the other things, but she picked up the figurine of Xue Pan to examine it carefully; and comparing it with her brother, she burst out laughing.
She told her maids, ‘Take this case to the Garden, so that it’ll be easier to distribute these presents to the different apartments there.’
With that she stood up to ask leave from her mother, then went back to the Garden.
Aunt Xue, for her part, when she had unpacked her case, divided the things into different lots which she told her young maid Tongxi to take to the Lady Dowager, Lady Wang and others.
Baochai, who had followed her case back to her own rooms, looked through the things in it one by one. Some she kept for herself; the rest she divided into appropriate lots. To some people she would just give toys; to others, stationery; or sachets, fans and pendants; rouge and pomade. She gave careful thought to what was a fair share for each, only making an exception in Daiyu’s case she was to have twice as much as anyone else. After she had allotted all the shares, she sent Yinger with an old maid-servant to deliver them to the different apartments.
Li Wan, Baoyu and the rest, on receiving these presents, tipped the messengers and told them that they would thank Baochai when next they saw her. Only Daiyu was grief-stricken at the sight of these toys from her home in the south which reminded her of her parents. Gazing at them through tears she sighed:
‘I come from south of the Yangzi, but my parents are dead and I’m all on my own, with no brothers; so I have to put up in my grandmother’s house. My health is poor too, and though I’m well looked after by my grandmother, aunt and cousins, none of the Lin family ever calls to see me or brings me local products which I could gain face by distributing as presents. This shows how lonely it is, how utterly wretched, to have no family of one’s own.’ These reflections made her feel her heart would break.
Zijuan, having waited on Daiyu for so long, knew just how her mind worked and that it was the sight of these gifts from her old home in the south that had upset her, making her feel homesick. But not daring to say so outright, she just tried to comfort her.
‘You’re so delicate, miss,’ she said, ‘that you’re always taking medi¬cine. These last few days you’ve just begun to recover your appetite and have a little more energy; but you’re not completely well yet. Miss Baochai’s gift of these things today shows how fond she is of you. They ought to make you happy instead of upsetting you. Doesn’t it look as if her presents, which she hoped would please you, have vexed you in¬stead? Wouldn’t she feel bad if she knew this?
‘And just think, miss, Their Ladyships are doing all they can to find good doctors to diagnose your illness and prescribe medicine, so that you’ll be cured as soon as possible. You’ve just taken a turn for the better, but by weeping again like this aren’t you yourself injuring your health? Don’t you want to please the old lady? You fell ill, didn’t you, because you undermined your strength by worrying too much? Your health’s as precious as gold, miss. Don’t treat it so lightly!’
As Zijuan was pleading like this with Daiyu, a young maid in the court¬yard announced, ‘Master Bao has come.’
‘Show him in at once,’ called Zijuan.
Even as she was speaking Baoyu walked in, and Daiyu invited him to take a seat.
Seeing the tear-stains on her face he asked, ‘Who’s been offending you again, cousin? Your eyes are red from weeping.’
Daiyu said nothing. Zijuan, standing to one side, jerked her chin to¬wards the bed, and Baoyu taking the hint walked over to have a look.  When he saw all the things piled up there he knew that these were pre¬sents from Baochai. ‘What nice things!’ he exclaimed. ‘Are you start¬ing a shop? Or why display them like this?’
Still Daiyu ignored him.
‘Don’t mention them, Second Master,’ said Zijuan. ‘They were sent by Miss Baochai, but at sight of them our young lady got upset and started weeping. I’ve been trying hard to console her, but it’s no use. And she’s missed a meal again. If she wears herself out with crying so that her illness comes back, the old lady’s going to give us a fearful scolding. It’s lucky you’ve come. Do talk her round for us.’
Baoyu was intelligent, and having always paid more attention to Daiyu than anyone else he knew just how narrow-minded and hyper-sensitive she was, how eager to outshine others in every way. When she saw that Baochai’s brother had brought all these things from the south, from her old home, to give away as presents, she must have been painfully re¬minded of her own loss and other causes for grief. But though he knew the real reason for her distress he refrained from speaking of it, for fear of making her feel worse.
‘I know why your young lady cried,’ he said with a smile. ‘She’s angry and upset because Miss Baochai didn’t send her more things. Don’t worry, cousin, next year when I go south I’ll bring you back two boat¬loads of things to stop you crying all the time.’
Daiyu couldn’t help chuckling at this.
But at once she protested, ‘However little I’ve seen of the world, I’m not such a fool as to get provoked because a present’s too little. What do you take me for, a two-year-old? You really have too low an opinion of other people. I have my own reasons which you know nothing about.’ With that she started shedding tears again.
Baoyu at once went to sit down on the bed beside her. He picked up the gifts one by one to examine them.
‘What’s this?’ he asked. ‘What’s it called? What’s that cute thing made of? And this one, what’s it used for? Look, cousin, you could put this one as an ornament on your bookcase or on your cabinet as a curio.’ In the hope of distracting her he kept up this idle chatter for a while.
Seeing Baoyu clowning like this to amuse her and asking all sorts of inconsequential questions, Daiyu was mollified and cheered up a little.
Noticing this, he suggested, ‘Don’t you think we should call on Baochai to thank her? Will you come with me?’
Daiyu had not intended to make a special trip to thank Baochai that could wait until next they met. But as Baoyu’s proposal was right she could hardly refuse, so she went off with him.

To return to Xue Pan. On his mother’s advice he lost no time in sending out invitations and making preparations for feast, which kept him busy all day.
The next day the three or four assistants invited arrived. After some talk about the dispatching of goods and the accounts, they were ushered to their seats. Xue Pan poured drinks for each in turn to thank them for their work, and Aunt Xue sent a maid out from the inner room to express her thanks as well.
One of the men asked, ‘Why isn’t Brother Liu here today? Did you forget to invite him, sir?’
Xue Pan knitted his brows.
‘Don’t bring up his name,’ he sighed. ‘None of you know, I sup¬pose, what’s happened to him. It’s really tragic. Two days ago, out of the blue, some crazy Taoist priest persuaded him to renounce the world, and he went away with the priest. Don’t you call that extraordinary?’
One of them answered, ‘In the shop we did hear a great hubbub outside about some Taoist priest, who with just a few words persuaded a young man to go away with him. Some said they disappeared in a gust of wind, others that they rode off on rainbow-coloured clouds ‘ there were different accounts. But we were too busy dispatching goods to pay much attention, so we didn’t make further inquiries. Besides, we were rather sceptical about it. Now you tell us that the convert was our Brother Liu. If we’d known that, we ought to have dissuaded him and never allowed him to leave. It’s really too bad to have lost such an entertaining friend. No wonder you feel upset, sir.
‘But would such an intelligent man really go off with the priest? Brother Liu can use arms, he’s strong. He may have seen through the priest’s black magic and just pretended to be taken in, so that he could do for the fellow somewhere else.’
‘One never knows,’ said Xue Pan. ‘If that’s what happened, fine: there’ll be one less sorcerer casting spells on people.’
‘But when you heard about it, didn’t you go to make a search?’ they asked.
‘We searched high and low, inside and outside the city, but couldn’t find him. And when I saw no sign of him ‘ you may think me a fool for this ‘ I broke down and blubbed.’
As he kept sighing and looked very downcast, not urging them to drink in his usual cheerful way, though it was a sumptuous feast with chicken, duck, fish, meat and other delicacies of land and sea, in view of their host’s low spirits the guests did not like to stay too long. After finishing a few cups of wine and a little food they left.

Meantime Baoyu had taken Daiyu to Baochai’s place to thank her. After the usual exchange of civilities, Daiyu said to Baochai:
‘Your brother must have been to a lot of trouble bringing back all those things. Now you’ve given so many to us, you can’t have anything left for yourself.’
‘Exactly. Why didn’t you keep them?’ asked Baoyu.
‘They weren’t anything good,’ said Baochai, ‘just some local prod¬ucts from far away, some novelties to amuse us. Whether I keep any or not doesn’t matter. If there’s anything I fancy, next year when my brother makes another trip I can ask him to bring more; it’s no trouble at all.’
At once Baoyu chuckled, ‘If he does, we’ll expect you to give us some. You mustn’t forget us.’
‘Speak for yourself,’ said Daiyu. ‘Don’t drag me in.’ Turning to Baochai she added, ‘You see he’s not come to thank you, but to order things for next year.’
Baoyu laughed.
‘If I get some, of course you’ll get a share too. So you ought to back me up instead of making such sarcastic remarks.’
Daiyu just smiled.
‘How did you two happen to arrive here at the same time?’ Baochai asked. ‘Did one of you fetch the other?’
‘Well, when you sent me these things, I knew Cousin Lin must have her share too,’ explained B’oyu. ‘So if I wanted to thank you, so would she. I called to pick her up and come here together, but found her upset and in tears. I can’t understand why she’s so fond of crying.’
Daiyu shot him a repressive look.
Taking the hint he changed his tune and said, ‘Cousin [in hasn’t felt too well these last few days. She was crying for fear her illness might come back. I tried to comfort her for a while and then we came, partly to thank you, partly because she’d feel low sitting all alone in her room.’
‘It’s only right to worry about one’s health,’ replied Baochai. ‘But all one need do is to take extra care about food and sufficient rest, and wearing suitable clothes for different weather. Why should one feel up¬set? Don’t you know, cousin, that grieving saps your spirits and energy? If you do yourself such serious harm you’ll fall ill. Do remember that.’
‘You’re quite right, cousin,’ agreed Daiyu. ‘Of course I know that. But you’ve seen how it’s been with me these last few years. Not one year’s gone by without my falling ill once or twice; that’s what unnerves me. The very sight of medicine, whether it does me any good or not, gives me a headache, and the smell nauseates me. How can I help being afraid of a relapse?’
‘Even so, you shouldn’t get too upset,’ urged Baochai. ‘Instead, whenever you don’t feel too well you should make an effort to come out and stroll about to cheer yourself up. That would be better than sitting moping at home. Depression just makes your health worse, that’s the trouble with it. A couple of days ago I felt so lazy and limp I longed to lie down, but knowing this is a treacherous time of the year I was afraid I might fall ill, so I forced myself to find something to do, and that way I got over it. You mustn’t mind me saying this, cousin, but ‘the more afraid you are the more likely the devil is to come.
‘What devil, cousin? From where?’ demanded Baoyu. ‘Why have I never seen one?’
Everyone laughed.
‘Silly lordling!’ mocked Baochai. ‘That’s just a figure of speech. There are no such things as devils. If there were, you’d be crying for fright.’
‘Well said, cousin,’ approved Daiyu with a smile. ‘You’re right to tick him off for blurting out whatever comes into his head.’
‘So you’re pleased whenever people snub me,’ said Baoyu. ‘Well, now that you’ve stopped feeling sad we’d better be going.’
After a little further chat they said goodbye to Baochai and left, Baoyu seeing Daiyu to Bamboo Lodge before going home himself.

Now when Concubine Zhao saw the presents sent to Huan, she seized on them gleefully, loud in her praise of Baochai.
‘Everyone speaks of Miss Baochai’s good manners and generosity,’ she gushed, ‘and sure enough here’s an example today. How much stuff could her brother bring back? Yet she sends some to every house¬hold, not missing one out or making any distinctions, even thinking of us who don’t count for anything here. This really does her credit! Miss [in, now, she’s quite different. Of course nobody brings her anything; but even if they did, she’d only send presents to those who have power and big face. Would she ever think of me or of my son? This shows that good breeding is really exceptional.’
As Concubine Zhao gloated over these presents for Huan, picking them up to play with and examine, it occurred to her that as Baochia was Lady Wang’s niece this was a good opportunity to go and make up to her mistress. So she hurried over with the presents to Lady Wang’s room.
Standing to one side there she said, ‘These are things Miss Baochai just gave Huan, things brought her by her brother. She’s so young yet she thinks of everybody! I gave the maid who brought them two hundred cash. I heard that Aunt Xue sent you some gifts too, madam. I wonder what they are? So their family’s sending us two lots of presents! How many things could they have got? Not wonder the old lady and you both praise Miss Baochai and make such a favourite of her. She’s really most lovable.’
While saying this she held out the things she had brought. But Lady Wang neither looked up nor reached out her hand.
‘Good, let Huan play with them,’ was all she said, without so much as glancing at the toys.
Annoyed by this snub, the concubine trailed back dejectedly to her room where she threw the toys aside and started grumbling, scolding and complaining. As no one asked her what the matter was, she sat there muttering to herself, showing how petty-minded and stupid she was. Even when good things came her way, she would make so many tactless and irritating remarks that Tanchun can hardly be blamed for being exasper¬ated with her mother and despising her.
When the maid delivering the presents for Baochai returned, she re¬ported how some of the recipients had thanked her and some had given her tips; only she had brought back the share for little Qiaojie.
‘Didn’t you take it or wouldn’t she accept it?’ asked Baochai in surprise.
‘When I took the things to Master Huan,’ Yinger explained, ‘I saw Madam [ian going to the old lady’s place. As she wouldn’t be at home, I didn’t know to whom to give Qiaojie’s share, so I didn’t go there.’
‘How silly of you,’ scolded Baochai. ‘Even if she were out, Pinger and Fenger would hardly be out as well. You could have given it to them, and they’d have told Madam Lian when she came back. Do you have to deliver it to her in person?’
So Yinger took the things out of the Garden again. On the way to Xifeng’s quarters she told the old maid-servant carrying them for her:
‘If I’d known that would be all right, I could have saved this trip.’
‘We’ve nothing to do at home, so this is a good chance for a stroll,’ said the old woman. ‘Only you’re not used to much walking, and after going to so many places today I daresay you’re tired out, miss. Still, after delivering this we shall be through, and then you can have a rest.’
Still chatting they reached Xifeng’s place and delivered the gift.
On their return, Baochai asked, ‘Did you see Madam [ian?’
‘No, we didn’t,’ Yinger answered.
‘I suppose she wasn’t back then?’
‘She was back, but Fenger told me, ‘Since coming back from the old lady’s place she hasn’t looked her usual cheerful self her face is black as thunder. She called Pinger in for a whispered consultation which the rest of us weren’t allowed to hear she even sent me out. So you’d better not go in. I’ll report that you’ve come.’ Then Fenger took the present in. When she came out again she said, ‘Our mistress sends
her thanks to your young lady.’ And she gave us a string of cash. Then we came back.’
Baochai was puzzled by this account, unable to think why Xifeng should be so angry.

But let us return to Baoyu. When Xiren saw him come home she asked:
‘Why didn’t you amuse yourself outside a bit longer? You said you were going with Miss [in to thank Miss Baochai. Did you do that?’
‘Of course that’s what I intended to do,’ said Baoyu, ‘but when I got there I found her in her room weeping over those things. I understood the reason, but I couldn’t very well ask her about it or scold her, so I pretended not to understand and chatted for a while about this and that so as to cheer her up; and as soon as she felt better I took her with me to thank Cousin Baochai. We chatted there for a bit, then I saw Daiyu back before coming home myself.’
‘Did you notice,’ asked Xiren, ‘whether Miss [in got more things than we did or the same amount?’
‘Her share was two or three times bigger.’
‘That shows real understanding and tact,’ approved Xiren. ‘Miss Baochai knows that all her other cousins have close relatives at hand to send them presents; besides, she and Miss [in aren’t simply relatives but half-sisters too, for, as you know, last year Miss [in became Aunt Xue’s god-daughter. So it was only right to give her a bigger share.’
Baoyu chuckled, ‘You sound like an old judge reviewing a case.’ He called a young maid then to fetch him a pillow as he wanted to lie down for a while.
‘If you’re not going out,’ said Xiren, ‘there’s something I want to ask you.’
‘Well, what is it?’
‘You know how good Madam Lian’s always been to me. Now she’s just getting over a serious illness and for some time I’ve been meaning to call on her, but it wasn’t convenient while Master [ian was at home, so I never went. Now I hear he’s out and you’re not going over there today; besides, this early autumn weather is neither too hot nor too cold; so I’d like to go and pay my meet. And this is a good excuse to take a stroll while you and the other girls keep an eye on things here. I shan’t be going long.
‘Yes, that’s what you should do,’ agreed Qingwen, ‘as you happen to be free now.
‘I was just saying what a good judge she was in her appraisal of Miss Baochai,’ Baoyu remarked. ‘Now in this case she’s showing real thought¬fulness too.’
‘There’s no need to heap praise on me, my good young master,’ replied Xiren with a smile. ‘Just amuse yourself with them here, but whatever happens don’t go to sleep and catch a chill, or the blame will fall on me again.’
‘I know,’ he said. ‘You can go.’
Xiren went to her room to change into new clothes, then picked up the mirror to tidy her hair and dust her face with powder. Coming out, she gave Qingwen and Sheyue some further instructions before leaving Happy Red Court.
At Seeping Fragrance Bridge, she paused to look round and enjoy the early autumn scene. Cicadas were shrilling in the trees, insects chirping in the undergrowth; the pomegranate flowers were fading, the lotus leaves withering, but the hibiscus on the river bank had put out clusters of red buds which looked enchanting against the vivid green leaves. Crossing the bridge then she soon saw Li Wan’s maid Suyun approaching, fol¬lowed by an old serving-woman with a lacquer hamper. Xiren asked where they were taking the hamper and what was in it.
‘These are caltrops and lotus seeds our mistress is sending Miss Tanchun,’ Suyun told her.
‘Were they picked in the stream in our Garden or bought outside?’
‘Mother Liu who works in our house asked leave to go and visit some relatives, then brought these back as a present for our mistress, and Miss Tanchun saw them as she happened to be in our place. Our mistress had some peeled for her to taste, but she refused as she’d just been drinking hot tea and said she’d try some later. So now we’re taking these to her house.’
Then they went their different ways. In the distance Xiren now saw someone flicking a whisk under a trellis of grapes, but as the sun was in her eyes she could not make out who it was. Drawing nearer she discov¬ered it was old Mrs. Zhu, who came forward, beaming, to greet her.
‘How is it you have time to come out for a stroll today, miss?’ she asked. ‘Where are you going?’
‘I’ve no time to stroll about, I’m on my way to call on Madam [ian. What are you doing here?’
‘I’m chasing away the wasps. This has been such a dry summer, all the trees are infested by insects who’ve been boring into the fruit so that lots of it has dropped ‘ what a wretched waste! Look at the grapes, just forming such pretty clusters, but the wasps and bees keeping swarming round to bite them. Worse still, magpies and sparrows come to steal grapes too. The trouble is that once a sparrow or insect has made a hole in three of four grapes in one cluster, the juice dripping on to the good ones rots them too. These sparrows and wasps are such a pest, I’m here to shoo them away. Just look, miss, because I stopped for one minute to talk, another swarm of wasps has come.’
‘Even if you keep waving that whisk you’ll never keep them all away. As soon as you drive one lot away from here, another will come over there. Better tell the purveyors to have a whole lot of small gauze bags made. If you put one bag over each cluster of grapes, the birds and insects won’t be able to spoil them; and as gauze lets through the air, that won’t hurt the grapes.
‘That’s a good idea,’ agreed the old woman. ‘This is my first year at this job, so I don’t know these clever dodges.’
‘We have many different kinds of fruit in the Garden,’ remarked Xiren. ‘Which kind ripens first?’
‘This is the start of the seventh month. The grapes are only just turn¬ing red. They won’t be really ripe and good to eat until the end of the month. If you don’t believe me, miss’ I’ll pick one for you to taste.’
‘Even if they were ripe, the first fruits have to be sacrificed to Bud¬dha and the next sent to the mistresses. How can we taste them first? As an old hand here, surely you know this rule?’
The old woman smiled sheepishly.
‘You’re right, miss. I only said that because of the question you asked.’ But while saying this she was thinking, ‘Drat it all! It’s lucky I was chasing wasps just now. If I’d happened to pick a grape to taste and been spotted, what a to-do there’d have been!’
‘Put in a request to Madam Lian for those bags I told you about,’ Xiren advised her. ‘She’ll get the stewards to have them made.’
This said she left by the Garden gate and went straight to Xifeng’s place.
Xifeng and Pinger were discussing Jia Lian’s secret marriage. As Xiren was a rare visitor and they did not know her errand, they broke off their conversation on her arrival.
With a forced smile Xifeng asked, ‘What wind’s blown such a noble visitor to our humble place?’
Xiren replied with a smile, ‘I knew you’d tease me when I came, madam, but never mind. While you were unwell I kept wanting to come and pay my respects, but when Master Lian was at home it wasn’t convenient, and I didn’t like to disturb you while you were ill, so I didn’t venture to come. As you’ve always been so kind to me, I knew you’d overlook it and not be offended.’
‘Cousin Bao has plenty of maids in his place, but you’re the only responsible one,’ said Xifeng. ‘Of course you couldn’t get away. Pinger often told me that you were thinking of me and asking after my health, so I felt very pleased. Now that you’re here it’s I who should be thanking you for your concern. How could I tease you, my dear Miss Xiren?’
‘If you put it like that, my dear madam, you’re really too kind.’
Xifeng took Xiren’s hand and urged her to sit on the kang, but only after declining several times did she take a seat on a stool by it, while Pinger herself fetched in tea.
‘Let the young maids attend to that,’ urged Xiren. ‘I don’t like to trouble you, miss.’
As she stood up to take the tea, turning her head she noticed in a needlework basket on one side of the kang a small crimson apron of imported satin.
‘Busy as you are every day, madam, do you still have time to do needlework?’ she asked.
‘I’m no needlewoman,’ said Xifeng. ‘And now that I’ve just got
over my illness there are so many family affairs to see to I’ve naturally no time for such things ‘ I’ve even given up doing what’s most urgent. But when I went to pay my respects to the old lady, I saw the gay mate¬rials Aunt Xue had sent her, which would look cute made into little clothes for children; so I asked the old lady for some. That provoked our Old Ancestress into baiting me. She declared I was the bane of her life, the way I demanded and grabbed everything I saw in her place. She had everyone laughing at me. You know I’m too thick-skinned to mind being scolded, so I just let our Old Ancestress rattle on and pretended not to hear. I’ve given that material to Pinger to first make a small apron for Qiaojie. With what’s left, when I’ve time, I’ll make some other things.’
‘You’re indeed the only one, madam, who can keep the old lady happy,’ rejoined Xiren laughingly. She picked up the sewing to examine it, then commented admiringly, ‘It’s really pretty with all these different colours. A good material needs someone with skilful fingers like this to embroider it. Especially for Qiaojie. Why, when she’s carried out wear¬ing this, people won’t be able to take their eyes off her. Where is Qiaojie?’ she added. ‘Why haven’t I seen her all this time?’
Pinger told her, ‘Just now Miss Baochai sent over some toys, and she was so tickled with them that she went on playing with them till her wet-nurse carried her off. She must have gone to sleep now, tired out.’
‘Qiaojie must be growing more and more of a romp.
‘Her plump little face is like a round silver plate. She smile at every¬body she sees and never offends anyone. She’s truly a little darling who keeps our mistress amused.’
‘What is Cousin Bao doing at home?’ Xifeng inquired.
‘I begged him to keep an eye on things there with Qingwen and the others, so that I could ask leave and come out,’ Xiren told her. ‘But I’ve been so engrossed in talking, a long time’s slipped by and I must be getting back now. I don’t want to have him complaining that I’m so lazy, wherever I go I stay sitting there and won’t move.’ With that she got up, took her leave of them, and went back to Happy Red Court.
After Pinger had seen Xiren out, Xifeng called her back to cross¬examine her further. The more she heard, the more furious she became.
‘You say you heard from the pages at the inner gate that your Second Master had secretly married another wife outside. Who told you that?’
‘Lai Wang.’
At once Xifeng sent for him.
‘Did you know that your Second Master had bought a house and married a concubine outside?’ she demanded.
‘I’m on duty all day long at the inner gate,’ stammered Lai Wang. ‘How could I know about the Second Master’s business? I heard this from Xinger.’
‘When did Xinger tell you?’
‘Before the master left on that trip.’
‘Where is Xinger now?’
‘He’s working in the new mistress’ house.’
In a furious temper Xifeng spat at him.
‘You contemptible son of an ape,’ she swore. ‘Who are you to talk about a new mistress or an old mistress? How dare you confer the title of mistress on her. The nonsense you talk, you deserve to be slapped.’ Then she asked, ‘Isn’t Xinger supposed to wait on the Second Master? Why didn’t he go with him?’
‘He was specially left here to look after Second Sister You; that’s why.’
Xifeng at once ordered him to fetch Xinger.
[ai Wang rushed off on this errand and, when he found Xinger fooling about with some other pages outside he simply told him that Xifeng wanted him. When Xinger heard this, without asking why he was wanted, he hurried with Lai Wang to the inner gate, where he announced his busi¬ness and was admitted. Having bowed to Xifeng he stood respectfully to one side. At sight of him she glared.
‘What fine goings-on have you, master and slave, been up to out¬side?’ she snapped. ‘Did you take me for a fool who wouldn’t know? As Second Master’s personal attendant, you must know the whole story. I want the true facts from you. Any attempt to cover up or lie, and I’ll have you beaten till your legs are broken!’
Xinger fell on his knees to kowtow.
‘What goings-on are these, madam, that you’re asking about?’
‘How dare you stall, you little bastard! I’m asking how your master fixed things up outside with Second Sister You. How did he buy the house and furnish it? How did the marriage take place? Tell me all these things clearly, you dog, and I may spare your life.’
Hearing these explicit questions Xinger reflected: Both mansions know about this business; the only ones kept in the dark were the old lady, Lord She, Lady Xing and Madam Lian. As the truth’s bound to come out in the end, why should I try to cover it up? I may as well come clean to get off a beating and worse punishment. For one thing, I’m too young to be expected to know how serious this was; for another, I’ve always known that Madam’s such a firebrand that even Master [ian’s half afraid of her; and, besides, this business was arranged by Master Lian, Lord Zhen and Master Rong between them ‘ it had nothing to do with me.
His mind made up, he screwed up his courage.
‘Have mercy on me, madam!’ he begged on his knees. ‘I’ll tell you everything. It started during our mourning for the Elder Master of the East Mansion. Second Master happened to meet Second Sister You there a few times, and I suppose he took a fancy to her and wanted to make her his concubine. So he first discussed it with Master Rong, asking him to act as go-between and arrange the match, and promising him presents if he pulled it off. Master Rong agreed readily and told Lord Zhen, who broached it to Madam You and old Mrs. You.
‘Old Mrs. You was quite willing but she said, ‘Second Sister was engaged as a child to the son of the Zhang family; so how can I marry her to Master Lian? If the Zhangs hear of it there may be trouble.
‘‘That’s nothing serious,’ said Lord Zhen. ‘Leave it to me. That fellow Zhang’s family has been beggared. If we just give him a few extra taels of silver, we can make him write a document cancelling the engagement and there’ll be no further trouble.
‘Later they did fetch that man Zhang and put it to him. When he’d written the document they paid him and off he went. Then Second Mas¬ter felt safe enough to go boldly ahead. Only, for fear lest this came to your ears, madam, and you stopped him, he bought and furnished a small house outside at the back, then took her over. And Lord Zhen gave him a married couple to work there.
‘Often, when he says he has business to attend to for Lord She or Lord Zhen, that’s a lie ‘ an excuse for him to stay outside there.
‘Originally the mother and the two sisters lived there, and they wanted to arrange a match for Third Sister You too, promising to give her a handsome dowry; but now Third Sister You’s dead, so there’s only old Mrs. You keeping Second Sister You company.
‘All this is the truth, I haven’t dared hide a thing.’ With that he kow¬towed again.
This account had left Xifeng transfixed with rage, her face livid, her almond eyes squinting. For a while she trembled convulsively, unable to get a word out for stupefaction. Then, looking down suddenly, she saw that Xinger was still kneeling there.
‘You’re not the one most to blame for this,’ she said. ‘But when Second Master carried on like that outside you ought to have told me about it earlier. For not doing that you fully deserve a beating. Still, since you’ve told me honestly now, without lying, I’ll let you off this time.’
‘I deserve death, madam, for not telling you before.’ Again he thumped his head hard on the ground.
‘Be off now.’
As he rose to leave she added, ‘Next time I send for you, mind you come at once. Don’t go far away.
Assenting repeatedly, Xinger withdrew. Once outside he stuck out his tongue in dismay.
‘That was touch and go!’ he exclaimed. ‘I only just escaped a good beating.’ He regretted having passed on the news to Lai Wang, and was scared stiff for worrying what to say when Jia Jian returned. But no more of this.
After the page had left, Xifeng turned to Pinger and asked, ‘Did you hear what Xinger said?’
‘Yes, I heard it all.’
‘How can there be such a shameless man in the world? Guzzling what’s in the bowl, he has his eyes on what’s in the pan. He wants every woman he sees, the greedy dog. Talk about off with the old love and on with the new! It’s a pity to give a lecher like him the insignia of the fifth or sixth rank. He may believe in the saying that the flowers at home aren’t as sweet as flowers growing wild; but if he thinks that, he’s making a big mistake. Sooner or later he’ll cause such a scandal outside, he won’t be able to face relatives and friends; and then only will he give up.
To mollify her Pinger said, ‘Of course you’re right to be angry; but you’ve only just got over your illness, madam, you shouldn’t let yourself be carried away. After that affair with Bao Er’s wife, the master seemed to be restraining himself and behaving much better. So why is he having affairs of this sort again? It must be Lord Zhen’s fault.’
‘Of course Lord Zhen’s to blame too. Still, it’s because our master is so debauched that it’s easy for people to tempt him. As the proverb says, ‘If an ox doesn’t want to drink, you can’t force it to.
‘Lord Zhen’s wife ought to have stopped him from doing such a thing.’
‘Exactly. How could Madam You let her sister be betrothed to two different families? First the Zhangs, then the Jias. Have all the other men in the world died out? Must all girls marry into our Jia family? Are we so well off, or what? It’s lucky that slut Third Sister You had sense enough to kill herself first; otherwise they’d have married her to Baoyu or Huan.
‘Madam You doesn’t seem to have cared about saving her sister’s face ‘ how could she ever have held up her head in future? But she wouldn’t worry about that, as after all Second Sister was only her half-sister and, by all accounts, a loose living, shameless bitch. But Cousin Zhen’s wife is a lady of rank; shouldn’t she feel ashamed of having such a flighty sister at home? Yet instead of trying to keep her away she bla¬tantly brings her here to carry on in that shocking way, not caring if people laugh.
‘Besides, Lord Zhen’s an official. He may not know all the rules of propriety, but surely he knows that it’s taboo for a man in mourning to marry, or to spurn his wife and take another woman. What I’m wonder¬ing is this: did he fix this up as a favour for his cousin or to harm him?’
‘Yes, Lord Zhen is too short-sighted,’ said Pinger. ‘He just wanted to please his cousin without worrying about the consequences.
‘Please his cousin?’ Xifeng snorted sarcastically. ‘No, this was giv¬ing him poison. Of all our cousins, he’s the oldest and most experienced; but instead of setting the others a good example he teaches them bad ways to spoil their reputation. And when there’s a public scandal he’ll just stand aside watching the fun. Honestly, I can’t find words strong enough to damn him. The scandalous goings-on in that East Mansion of his don’t bear speaking of. And to cover up his own debauchery he must needs make his cousin follow his example. Is this the way an elder brother should behave? He should have drowned himself in his own piss and died in place of his father, for what’s his life worth? Look how virtuous Lord Jing of the East Mansion was, fasting, chanting sutras and doing so many good deeds. How could he beget a son and grandson like these? I sup¬pose all the family’s good luck, generated by the auspicious geornancy of the ancestral tombs, was used up by the old man.’
‘That does seem to be the case. How else could they be so lacking in decency?’
‘It’s lucky the old lady, Lord She and Lady Xing haven’t heard of it. If it came to their ears, not only would our good-for-nothing master get beaten and cursed, even Lord Zhen and Madam You would certainly be made to smart for it.’
Xifeng went on cursing and raging, refusing to go over for lunch on the excuse that her head ached. Seeing that she was working herself up into a greater fury, Pinger urged:
‘You’d better calm down, madam. The thing’s done, so there’s no hurry. There’ll be plenty of time to talk it over again after Second Master’s return.’
Xifeng gave a couple of snorts.
‘After his return? No, that would be too late.’
Pinger knelt down to reason with her and comfort her, till at length Xifeng calmed down enough to sip some tea. Then, after taking some deep breaths, she asked for her pillow and lay down on the bed, her eyes closed as she considered what to do. When Pinger saw that she was resting, she withdrew. And when some people ignorant of what had hap¬pened arrived to report on their business, they were sent packing by Fenger. Then Manao was sent by the Lady Dowager to ask:
‘Why hasn’t the Second Mistress gone over for lunch? The old lady’s worried and sent me to see what’s wrong.’
As it was the Lady Dowager who had sent to inquire, Xifeng forced herself to get up.
‘I’ve a bit of a headache, nothing serious,’ she said. ‘Tell the old lady not to worry. After lying down for a while I’m feeling better.’ With that she sent the maid back.
She then thought the whole business over carefully once more, and hit on a cunning plan to kill several birds with one stone, working out the safest measures to achieve this. This done, instead of disclosing her plan to Pinger, she behaved as cheerfully as if nothing had happened, giving no sign of her fury and jealousy. She sent a maid to fetch Lai Wang and ordered him to bring workers the next day to clean up, repaper and fur¬nish the eastern rooms in their compound. Pinger and the others were nonplussed by this.
If you want to know the upshot, read the next chapter.


Chapter 68

Unhappy Second Sister You Is Decoyed
into Grand View Garden
Jealous Xifeng Makes a Scene
in the Ning Mansion


When Jia Lian left on his mission, it so happened that the Governor of Pinganzhou was away for a month inspecting border areas. To get a definite reply, Jia Lian had to wait in the hostel for his return. Thus by the time the governor came back, received him and settled the matter, nearly two months had passed.
Xifeng’s plans were already laid. As soon as Jia Lian left she ordered workmen to fix up the three rooms on the eastern side, decorating and furnishing them just like her own. On the fourteenth, she reported to the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang that she wanted to go to the nunnery to offer incense the next morning, taking only Pinger, Fenger and the wives of Zhou Rui and Lai Wang. Before setting out she disclosed her true purpose to them and ordered them all to wear mourning.
Then they set off, Xinger leading the way, to the house where Second Sister You lived. He knocked at the gate, which was opened by Bao Er’s wife.
Xinger announced with a grin, ‘Tell the Second Mistress that Madam Lian is here. Quick!’
Frightened out of her wits, Bao Er’s wife flew in to report this. Sec¬ond Sister You, too, was taken aback; but since Xifeng had come she had no choice but to receive her with befitting respect. She hastily straight¬ened her clothes and went out to meet her as Xifeng dismounted from her carriage and stepped through the gate.
Second Sister You saw that Xifeng had nothing but silver trinkets in her hair and was wearing a pale blue satin jacket, black satin cape and white silk skirt. Under eyebrows arched like willow leaves her almond eyes were as bright as those of a phoenix; she was pretty as peach ¬blossom in spring, simple and austere as chrysanthemums in autumn. As the wives of Zhou Rui and Lai Wang helped her into the courtyard, Sec¬ond Sister You stepped forward with a smile to curtsey to her, addressing her as ‘elder sister.’
‘I wasn’t expecting the honour of this visit, so I didn’t come out to meet you,’ she apologized. ‘Please overlook my negligence, elder sister.’ Again she curtseyed.
Smiling, Xifeng returned her greeting and hand in hand they entered the house, where Xifeng took the seat of honour while Second Sister ordered her maid to bring a cushion, then knelt to pay her respects.
‘Your slave is young,’ she said. ‘Since coming here, I’ve left all decisions to my mother and my step-sister. Now that I’ve had the good fortune to meet you, elder sister, if you don’t consider me too far beneath you I’d like to ask for your advice and instructions. I’ll bare my heart to you, too, and wait upon you.’ She bowed low.
Xifeng left her seat to return the courtesy.
‘This all comes of my behaving like a silly woman,’ she answered, ‘for ever advising my husband to take good care of his health and keep away from brothels, to spare his parents worry. We’re both fond, foolish women. But he seems to have misunderstood me. If he’d taken a mis¬tress outside and hidden it from me, that wouldn’t have signified; but now he’s taken you as his second wife, and that’s an important matter, in accordance with the rules of propriety, yet he never told me about it.
‘Actually, I’d advised him to take another wife, because if he begets a son I, too, shall have someone to rely on in future. But he seems to have thought me the jealous type, and so he took this important step in secret. That was really wronging me! And to whom can I complain but to Heaven and Earth?
‘This came to my ears about ten days ago, but for fear of vexing my husband I didn’t venture to take it up with him. Now that he happens to have gone on a long journey, I’ve come to call on you in person. I do hope you’ll understand how much I take this to heart and agree to move into our house so that we can live together as sisters, both of one mind, to advise Second Master to pay careful attention to his business and to look after his health. This is only right and proper.
‘Foolish and lowly as I am, and unworthy of your company, if we live in separate establishments like this, how do you suppose I can set my mind at rest? Besides, once outsiders know, it will reflect badly on both of our reputations. Not that gossip about us is so serious it’s Second Master’s reputation that really counts. Besides, it’s entirely up tp you to save me from getting a bad name.
I daresay you’ve heard talk about me from servants who think I run the household too strictly and most likely exaggerate behind my back. But how can someone as intelligent and broad-minded as you believe such disgruntled talk? If I were really so impossible, why have three generations of my seniors as well as all my cousins and in-laws and don’t forget that the Jias are a well-known old family ‘ put up with me all this time? Anyone else would have been angry at his marrying you in secret like this outside, but I actually consider it a blessing which shows that the gods and Buddhas of Heaven and Earth don’t want me to be defamed by those low creatures’ slander.
‘I’ve come today to beg you to move in and live with me, on the same footing, share and share alike to serve our father and mother-in-law and advise our husband together, and share the same griefs and joys like real sisters. Then those low types will be sorry they sized me up wrongly; and when Second Master comes back and sees this, he as our husband will regret his mistake. So, sister, you’ll have become my bene¬factress, redeeming my reputation.
‘If you won’t agree to coming back with me, I’ll gladly move out to live with you here and wait on you like a younger sister. All I beg of you is to put in a few good words for me to Second Master, so that he’ll allow me somewhere to stay. Then I shall die content.’
With that she started sobbing and weeping, moving Second Sister to tears too.
After this exchange they resumed their seats, and now Pinger came in to pay her respects. As she was unusually welldressed and looked a cut above the other maids, Second Sister You realized who she was and hastily laid a restraining hand on her arm.
‘Don’t do that, sister!’ she exclaimed. ‘You and I are of the same rank.’
Xifeng rose with a smile to protest, ‘Don’t overrate her that would spoil what little good fortune she may have! Just let her pay her respects, sister. She’s after all our maid. There’s no need to stand on ceremony with her.’
She then ordered Zhou Rui’s wife to unwrap four rolls of fine silk and four pairs of jewelled trinkets set in gold as her gift to Second Sister You at this first meeting, and these were accepted with thanks. Then, sipping tea, they spoke of what had happened.
‘It was all my fault,’ Xifeng kept reiterating. ‘No one else is to blame. But do be good to me.
Second Sister, quite taken in by her protestations, thought it was only natural for disgruntled servants to run down their mistress. So she replied very frankly, treating Xifeng as a trusted friend. Moreover, Mrs. Zhou and the other serving women there praised Xifeng for her goodness, say¬ing it was her being honest to a fault which had given rise to resentment. They announced too that the house had been made ready, as the new mistress would see for herself when she moved in. Second Sister had always thought it would be better for her to live in the Jia mansion, and hearing all this she naturally agreed.
‘I ought to accompany you, sister,’ she said. ‘But what about this household here?’
‘That’s no problem,’ Xifeng assured her. ‘Just get the servants to take over your personal belongings. The furniture here won’t be needed. You can assign anyone you think fit to stay here so as to keep an eye on it.’
‘Since I’ve met you today, elder sister, I’ll leave all the arrange¬ments for the removal to you. I haven’t been here long, and never having run a house before I’m too inexperienced to make decisions. These few cases can be taken. I’ve really nothing else here of my own, the other things belong to Second Master.’
Xifeng ordered Zhou Rui’s wife to make a note of these cases and see to it that they were carried carefully to the eastern rooms. Then she urged Second Sister to put on her jewels and they went out hand in hand to mount the carriage, in which they sat side by side.
‘Our family rules are strict,’ Xifeng now told her confidentially. ‘So far the old lady knows nothing about this business. If they learned that the Second Master married you while still in mourning, they’d have him beaten to death! So we can’t present you yet to Their Ladyships. We have a very big garden where the girls of our family live, but other people hardly ever go there. Now that you’re moving over, you can stay in the Garden for a couple of days till I’ve found some way to break this news, and then it will be all right to pay your respects.’
‘Do exactly as you think best, elder sister,’ acquiesced Second Sister.
As the pages accompanying the carriage had received their orders in advance, instead of entering the main gate they went straight to the one at the back; and as soon as the ladies alighted, everyone in the neighbourhood was chased away. Then Xifeng led Second Sister through the back gate of Grand View Garden to see Li Wan.
By this time most of the inmates of the Garden had heard the news. Now that they saw Xifeng bringing Second Sister in, they flocked over to see her and she greeted each in turn. Not one but was very favourably impressed by her beauty and her charm.
‘Don’t let word of this get out,’ Xifeng warned them all. ‘If it comes to the ears of Their Ladyships, I’ll kill the lot of you!’
The matrons and maids in the Garden were all afraid of Xifeng. And as Jia Lian had taken this second wife while observing state mourning and family mourning too, they knew it was a most serious offence and took care not to speak of the matter.
Xifeng quietly asked Li Wan to put up the new arrival for a few days.
‘Once this business is straightened out.’ she said, ‘of course she’ll move over with me.’
Knowing that rooms had been made ready in Jia Lian’s quarters and that it would not be fitting to announce this marriage during the period of mourning, Li Wan agreed.
Xifeng then dismissed all Second Sister’s maids, assigning some of her own to wait on her, and ordered the women in the Garden to look after her well.
‘If she disappears or runs away, you’ll have to answer for it!’ she threatened them, after which she went off to make other secret arrange¬ments.
Everyone in the household was amazed to see how benevolent Xifeng had become. As for Second Sister, now that she had found this niche and all the girls in the Garden treated her well, she was quite contented and happy, thinking her future assured.
After three days, however, Shanjie, the maid assigned to her, started showing signs of insubordination.
‘There’s no hair-oil left,’ Second Sister told her. ‘Go and ask Madam Lian for some.
‘How can you be so inconsiderate, madam?’ Shanjie retorted. ‘Madam Lian has to look after the old lady every day, as well as the mistresses of both mansions and all the young ladies. At the same time she has to give orders to several hundred men-servants and women-servants all told. Not a day goes by but she has ten or twenty important matters to attend to, besides dozens of minor ones. Outside, she has to see to sending gifts and returning the courtesies of so many noble fami¬lies from Her Imperial Highness down to princess and marquises; on top of which she has to cope with countless relatives and friends, as well as receiving or sending out thousands of taels of silver every day. How can you trouble her with trifles like this? I wouldn’t be so demanding if I were you. Yours isn’t a proper marriage. She’s treating you well be¬cause she’s so exceptionally kind and generous. If not for that, hearing the way you talk, she could well storm at you and kick you out. And then what could you do? You’d really be stranded.’
This harangue made Second Sister hang her head. She saw she would just have to stomach such slights. And things went from bad to worse: Shanjie even stopped fetching her meals, or served them unpunctually, bringing nothing but scraps. If Second Sister complained, the maid started screaming at her; but for fear others might scoff that she didn’t know her place, she had to put up with it. Every week or so when she happened to see Xifeng, the latter was all smiles and sweetness, for ever address¬ing her as ‘my dear sister.’
‘If any servants are remiss and you can’t control them, just let me know and I’ll have them beaten,’ promised Xifeng. Then she scolded the maids and matrons, ‘I know the way you take advantage of those who are kind and fear only those who are hard on you. Once my back’s turned you’re not afraid of anyone. If I hear one word of complaint from the second mistress, I’ll have your lives for it!’
Second Sister was taken in by this show of kindness.
‘With her taking my side like this, I’d better not make any fuss,’ she reflected. ‘Some servants have no sense, that’s only natural. If I report them and get them into trouble, I’m the one people will blame.’ So she covered up for the maids instead.

Meanwhile Xifeng had sent Lai Wang out to make detailed inquiries, and had now ascertained that Second Sister had indeed been engaged before to a certain Zhang Hua now nineteen, a wastrel and loafer who spent his time gambling and whoring and had squandered his family’s money. Having been driven out by his father, he now stayed in a gambling den. And his father, without telling him, had accepted ten taels of silver from old Mrs. You for cancelling the engagement.
After Xifeng had learned all these particulars, she gave Lai Wang a packet of twenty taels of silver and secretly ordered him to get Zhang Hua to stay with him and bring a suit against Jia Lian. He was to accuse him of marrying during a period of state and family mourning, against Imperial decree and unknown to his parents; of relying on his wealth and power to force Zhang Hua to renounce his engagement; and of taking a second wife without the consent of his first.
Zhang Hua, however, only too well aware of the danger involved, dared not bring such a charge. When Lai Wang reported this to Xifeng she fumed:
‘Damn him for a mangy cur that won’t let itself be hepled over a wall! Go and explain to him that it doesn’t matter even if he accuses our family of high treason. I just want him to make a row so that everyone loses face. If big trouble comes of it, I can always smooth things over.
Lai Wang carried out her orders and explained this to Zhang Hua.
Xifeng also instructed Lai Wang, ‘Get him to implicate you, then you can confront him in court I’ll tell you just what to say and I guarantee everything will be all right.’
When Lai Wang saw that he had Xifeng’s backing, he told Zhang Hua to include his name in his charge.
‘Just accuse me of acting as the middleman and of putting Second Master up to this,’ he said.
Zhang Hua, given this cue, acted on Lai Wang’s advice and wrote out his plaint, taking it the next morning to the Court of Censors. When the judge took his seat in the court and saw that this charge against Jia Lian involved his servant Lai Wang, he had no choice but to send for the latter to answer the charge. The runners, not daring to enter the Jia mansion, meant to order a servant to deliver the summons. But Lai Wang had reckoned on their coming, and was already waiting out in the street, When he saw the runners he approached them with a smile.
‘Sorry to have put you to this trouble, brothers,’ he said, ‘I must have done wrong. All right, put the chains round my neck.’
Not venturing to do this, they replied, ‘Please just come quietly, sir, and stop joking.’
Then Lai Wang went to the court and knelt down before the judge, who showed him the charge. He pretended to read it through and then kowtowed.
‘I was in the know about this,’ he admitted. ‘My master did this all right. But this fellow Zhang Hua has a grudge against me, that’s why he’s accused me of being the middleman. Actually, it was someone else. I beg Your Honour to make investigations.’
Zhang Hua, knowtowing too, said, ‘That’s true; but it’s someone I dared not mention, that’s why I accused the servant instead.’
‘Silly fool!’ Lai Wang made a show of desperation. ‘Hurry up and come clean. This is a government court. You must name him even if he’s a gentleman.’
Then Zhang Hua named Jia Rong. And the judge had to have him served with a summons.
Xifeng had secretly sent Qinger to find out when this summons was issued. Now she promptly called for Wang Xin, explained what had hap¬pened, and told him to go and bribe the judge with three hundred taels just to make a display of severity in order to frighten the culprits.
That evening Wang Xin went to the judge’s house and fixed things up. The judge, knowing the situation, accepted the bribe and the next day announced in court that Zhang Hua was a scoundrel who had trumped up this charge against innocent people because he was in debt to the Jia family. For as this judge was on good terms with Wang Ziteng, after a word in private from Wang Xin he was all for settling the matter without making trouble for the Jias. He therefore said no more, simply detained the plaintiff and the accused and summoned Jia Rong to court.
Jia Rong was seeing to some business for Jia Zhen when someone brought him word of this charge against him and urged him to think of a way out at once. He made haste to report this to Jia Zhen.
‘I was prepared for this; but that fellow certainly has a nerve!’ said Jia Zhen.
At once he sealed two hundred taels in a packet to be sent to the judge, and ordered a servant to go and answer the charge. As they were discussing their next step, the arrival of Madam Lian from the West Mansion was announced. Both men started and wanted to slip away into hiding, but it was too late ‘ Xifeng had already entered.
‘A fine elder brother you are!’ she cried. ‘A fine thing you got your younger brother to do!’
Jia Rong hastily stepped forward to pay his respects. Xifeng simply caught hold of him and went on in.
‘Entertain your aunt well,’ said Jia Zhen. ‘Order a good meal for her.’ He then called for his horse and made off.
Xifeng marched Jia Rong towards the inner rooms and Madam You came out to meet her.
‘What’s the matter?’ she asked, seeing how furious she looked. ‘Why this hurry?’
Xifeng spat in her face.
‘Couldn’t you find husbands for the girls of your You family that you had to smuggle them into the Jia family?’ she demanded. ‘Are all men of the has so wonderful? Have all the other men in the world died out? Even if you want to pawn off your sisters, there’s a proper procedure for marriage and it should be announced in a decent way. Have you taken leave of your senses? How could you send her over during a time of state and family mourning? And now that someone’s brought a charge against us, I’m all in a flurry. Even the court thinks me a jealous shrew and has summoned me to stand trial. My name will be mud! And I shall be divorced!
‘What wrong have I done you since I’ve come to this house that you treat me so cruelly? Or did Their Ladyships tip you a hint to trap me like this so as to get rid of me? Let’s go to face the judge now, both of us, to clear this up. Then we can put the case before the whole clan. If they give me a bill of divorce, I’ll leave.’
Sobbing and storming she caught hold of Madam You, insisting on going to court. Jia Rong knelt in desperation and kowtowed, begging her not to be angry.
‘May lightning blast your skull!’ she swore at him. ‘May five devils tear you apart, you heartless wretch! You fear nothing in heaven or on earth, playing such dirty tricks all the time and doing such shameless, lawless things to ruin our family. Even your dead mother’s spirit will disown you, so will all your ancestors. How dare you appeal to me?’
After this tearful tirade she raised her hand to strike him. Jia Rong thumped his head on the ground again.
‘Don’t be angry, aunt!’ he cried. ‘Don’t hurt your hand ‘ let me slap myself instead. Please don’t be angry, auntie.’
He raised his hands and slapped himself on both cheeks.
‘Will you meddle in that thoughtless way again?’ he asked himself. ‘Just listen to your uncle and not to your aunt?’
All present, repressing smiles, begged him to stop.
And now Xifeng threw herself into Madam You’s arms to weep and wail, calling on Heaven and Earth.
‘I wouldn’t mind you finding another wife for your brother in-law,’ she sobbed. ‘But why make him flout the Imperial decree and keep it secret from his parents? Why give me a bad name? We must go to find the judge before he sends police and runners to arrest me. After that we must go and see Their Ladyships and call the whole clan together to discuss this. If I’ve acted so badly, refusing to let my husband take a second wife or another concubine, just give me a bill of divorce and I’ll leave at once.
‘Actually, I’ve fetched your sister here myself, but didn’t venture to report it to Their Ladyships for fear they’d be angry. She has maids in the Garden to wait on her hand and foot, and I’ve prepared rooms for her in our place exactly like my own, where I meant to take her as soon as the old lady knew. We could all have settled down then, minding our own business, and I’d have let bygones be bygones. How was Ito know that she was engaged to another man before? How was Ito know what you’d been up to?
‘Yesterday, hearing that her betrothed had brought a charge against me, I was so desperate that I had to take five hundred taels of the mis¬tress’ silver to use as a bribe; because if I were summoned to court your ha family would lose face. And my servant is still locked up by the po¬lice.’
She went on storming and wailing, sobbingly invoking their ancestors and her parents, then tried to dash out her brains and kill herself. Madam You, reduced to a squelch, her clothes covered with tears and snot, could only round on Jia Rong.
‘You degenerate!’ she scolded. ‘You and your father are to blame for this. I warned you against it.’
Xifeng let out another wail, clasping Madam You’s face between both hands.
‘Were you crazy?’ she demanded. ‘Was your mouth stuffed with eggplant or with a bit and curb, that you couldn’t let me know? If you had, I wouldn’t be in such a fix, with this business so out of hand it’s been taken to court. Yet you’re still trying to shift the blame to them! As the saying goes, ‘A good wife keeps her husband out of trouble ‘ a sound woman counts for more than a sound man.’ If you were any good, how could they do such things? You’re as stupid and dumb as a gourd with its tip sawn off. All you care about, you fool, is getting a name for goodness. So they’re not afraid of you and won’t listen to what you say.’ She spat again and again in disgust.
‘That’s how it was, really,’ sobbed Madam You. ‘If you don’t be¬lieve me, ask the servants. Of course I tried to stop them ‘ they just wouldn’t listen. So what could I do? I don’t blame you for being angry, sister, but I simply couldn’t help it.’
The concubines and maids kneeling fearfully round them now pleaded with Xifeng, ‘You’re so wise and understanding, madam, even if our mistress did wrong you’ve got even with her now. Usually, in front of us slaves, you’re both on the best of terms. So please leave her some face!’
They brought Xifeng some tea, but she smashed the cup. However, she stopped crying and smoothed her hair.
‘Fetch your father here!’ she ordered Jia Rong. ‘I want to ask him why, with still a fortnight to go before the mourning for the uncle was over, he let the nephew take a wife. I’ve never heard of such a thing! I must learn the rules of propriety from him so as to pass them on later to the young people.’
Still on his knees, Jia Rong kowtowed and protested, ‘This had noth¬ing to do with my parents. It was I who put my uncle up to it I must have eaten some shit. My father knew nothing about it. He’s gone now to prepare for the funeral procession. If you make a scene, aunt, it will be the death of me. Whatever punishment you impose I’ll accept it, but for pity’s sake settle this court case ‘ it’s too serious for me to handle. You’re so intelligent you know the saying: ‘If your arm is broken, hide it in your sleeve.’ I was an utter fool. As I’ve done such a despicable thing, I’m just like a cat or a dog. Now that you’ve given me this lesson, auntie, do please do your best to settle this with the court. Though I’ve been so undutiful and wronged you, aunt, by causing all this trouble, what else can I do but beg you to take pity on me!’ He went on kowtowing as if he would never stop.
The behaviour of mother and son made it hard for Xifeng to go on storming at them. She had to adopt a different attitude now.
Apologizing to Madam You she said, ‘I’m too young and inexperi¬enced. When I heard the case had been taken to court, I was frightened out of my wits. How could I have been so rude to you just now, sister! Still, Rong is right: ‘If your arm is broken, hide it in your sleeve.’ You must forgive me. And please ask Cousin Zhen to lose no time in settling this lawsuit.’
‘Don’t worry,’ Madam You and Jia Jung assured her.
‘Uncle won’t be involved at all,’ added Jia Rong. ‘You said just now you’d spent five hundred taels, aunt. Of course we’ll get together that sum and send it over to make it up to you. How can we make you out of pocket over us? That would be even more outrageous. But one thing, aunt, will you help see to it that no word of this reaches Their Ladyships?’
Xifeng smiled sarcastically at Madam You.
‘First you stab me in the back and now you ask me to hush it us for you! I may be a fool but I’m not all that foolish. Your cousin happens to be my husband, sister. If you were worried because he had no son, wouldn’t I be still more worried? I look on your younger sister as my own sister. When I heard about this I was too excited to sleep and made my people get ready rooms at once, to fetch her in to live with up. Actu¬ally the servants had more sense: they said, ‘You’re too kind-hearted, madam. It seems to us it would be better to wait till you’ve reported this to Their Ladyships and see what they have to say.’ That made me rage at them, so they said no more.
‘But nothing worked out as I wanted. Like a slap in the face or a bolt from the blue came this suit brought by Zhang Hua. I had to beg people to find out who this Zhang Hua was, that he had such a nerve; and two days later I was told he was a rascally beggar. Being young and ignorant, I laughed and asked what he’d accused us of. The servants told me, ‘The new mistress was engaged to him. Now he’s desperate, liable to starve of freeze to death anyway, so he’s seized on this chance. Even if he dies for it, it’s a better bet than dying of hunger and cold; so how can you blame him? After all, the master acted too hastily and was guilty of two offences by marrying during state mourning and family mourning. He was wrong, too, to keep it a secret from his parents and to take a new wife without his wife’s consent. As the proverb says, ‘One who will risk being sliced to pieces dare unsaddle the Emperor.’ A man so desperately poor will go to any lengths. He’s in the right too, so why not make an indictment?’
‘So you see, sister, even if I’d been as wise as Han Xin or Zhang Liang,’ such talk would have frightened me out of my wits. Besides, with my husband away, I had no one to consult; I could only try to patch things up with money. Yet the more I gave him, the more I was at his mercy and the more he blackmailed me. But how much can he squeeze out of me? No more than from a pimple on a rat’s tail. That’s why I panicked and flew into such a rage that I came looking for you …’
Not waiting for her to finish, Madam You and her son said, ‘Don’t worry. We’ll see to it.’
Jia Rong added, ‘It’s Zhang Hua’s poverty that’s made him so reckless he’s risked his life to indict us. I know what to do. Promise him some money and get him to admit that he brought a false accusation; then we can settle the business. When he comes out, we’ll give him some more silver and that will be that.’
‘What a clever boy!’ said Xifeng derisively. ‘No wonder that you did this thing with no thought of the consequences. How stupid you are! Suppose he agreed to what you proposed and got money from us after the case was settled, of course that would be that for the time being. But as such people are rascals, as soon as that silver was spent he’d start blackmailing us again. If he made further trouble what should we do? We may not be afraid of him, still it’s something to worry about. And he can always say if we hadn’t wronged him why should we give him money?’
Jia Rong had sense enough to understand this.
He said with a smile, ‘Well, I have another plan. Since I caused the trouble it’s up to me to fix it. I’ll go and sound Zhang Hua out. Does he want her back, or will he give her up and settle for money with which he can marry another girl? If he insists on having her, I’ll go and persuade my second aunt to leave here and marry him; if he wants money, we shall have to give him some.’
‘That’s all very well,’ said Xifeng hastily. ‘I certainly don’t want her to leave us, and I certainly won’t let her. If you’ve any feeling for me, nephew, just give him a bigger sum in settlement.’
Jia Rong knew very well that in spite of Xifeng’s protestations she really wanted to get rid of Second Sister and was only posing as broad-minded. He had to agree, however, to whatever she said, at which she looked delighted.
‘The problem outside is easy to handle, but what about the arrange¬ment at home?’ Xifeng now asked. ‘You must come back with me to report this.’
This threw Madam You into another panic. She begged Xifeng to make up some story for her.
‘If you can’t talk your way out, why do this in the first place?’ asked Xifeng sarcastically. ‘I’ve no patience with the way you’re carrying on. But it wouldn’t be like me to refuse to find a way out for you, as I’m so soft-hearted that even when people trick me I still act like a fool. All right then, I’ll see to this. Both of you keep out of it.
‘I’ll take your sister to pay her respects to Their Ladyships, and tell them that I took a fancy to her, and because I have no son I was thinking of buying a couple of concubines. Finding your sister so charming, and as we’re relatives too, I wanted her to be Lian’s second wife. But because her parents and sister had died recently and she was finding it hard to manage, with no home of her own, how could she possibly wait till after the full hundred days’ mourning? So I decided to bring her into our house, and I’ve made the side rooms ready for her to stay in for the time being. Once the mourning is over she can live with my husband.
‘I shall brazen it out somehow in my shameless way. If anyone is blamed it won’t be you. What do you think of this plan?’
Madam You and Jia Rong responded, ‘It’s most generous and kind of you. How clever you are! Once it’s settled, we’ll certainly both come to thank you.’
Madam You ordered her maids to help Xifeng wash her face and comb her hair. Then the table was spread and she herself served the wine and food. Before long, however, Xifeng rose to go.
She went to the Garden and told Second Sister what had happened, explaining how worried she had been, how she had ascertained the facts, and what would have to be done to keep them all out of trouble. She promised to get them out of the dilemma.
To know what her plans really were, read the next chapter.


Chapter 69

Crafty Xifeng Kills Her Rival
by Proxy
And Second Sister Swallows Gold
and Dies


Unable to express all her gratitude, Second Sister went off with Xifeng. And propriety required Madam You to accompany them to report to the old lady.
‘You needn’t say anything.’ Xifeng assured her, ‘Leave all the talk¬ing to me.’
‘Of course,’ agreed Madam You. ‘If there’s any blame we’ll let you take it.’
They went first to the Lady Dowager’s room where she was chat¬ting and laughing with the girls from the Garden. At sight of the pretty young woman Xifeng had brought in, the old lady looked at her search¬ingly. ‘Whose child is this?’ she asked. ‘So charming!’
Xifeng stepped forward and said with a smile, ‘Take a good look, Old Ancestress. Isn’t she sweet?’ Pulling Second Sister forward too, she told her, ‘This is grandmother-in-law. Hurry up and kowtow to her.’
At once Second Sister prostrated herself to pay her respects. Then Xifeng introduced the girls to her one by one.
‘Now you know them,’ she said. ‘After the old lady’s through with inspecting you, you can pay your respects to each other.’
Second Sister pretended that this was the first time she had met them, then stood there with lowered head while the Lady Dowager looked her up and down.
‘What is your name?’ she inquired. ‘How old are you?’
‘Never mind about that, Old Ancestress,’ Xifeng chuckled. ‘Just say, is she prettier than me?’
The old lady put on her spectacles, telling Yuanyang and Hupo, ‘Bring the child closer. I want to look at her skin.’
Amid suppressed laughter, Second Sister was pushed forward and subjected to a carefully scrutiny. Then the Lady Dowager made Hupo hold out her hands for inspection. Yuanyang lifted Second Sister’s skirt as well to show her feet. Her examination at an end, the old lady took off her spectacles.
‘Perfect!’ she pronounced. ‘She’s even prettier than you.’
Smiling. Xifeng promptly knelt down to relate in detail the story she had made up in Madam You’s room. ‘Do take pity on her, Old Ances¬tress,’ she pleaded. ‘Let her move in now, and after a year they can be formally married.’
‘That’s quite in order,’ the old lady conceded. ‘I’m glad your’re so understanding and tolerant. But she mustn’t live with Lian for a year.
Xifeng kowtowed, then got up and requested that two maids be sent to present Second Sister to Lady Xing and Lady Wang and tell them this was the old lady’s decision. The Lady Dowager agreed and this was done. Lady Wang had been worried because of Xifeng’s bad name. Now that she was taking in a second wife for her husband, she was naturally pleased. So from now on Second Sister could come into the open, and she moved to Xifeng’s side rooms.
Xifeng meanwhile sent a messenger in secret to urge Zhang Hua to insist on claiming his bride, promising that in addition to a generous dowry he would be given money to set up house. For Zhang Hua himself was too spineless to dare sue the Jia family.
Then Jia Rong sent a man to court to contend, ‘It was Zhang Hua who first gave up the engagement. Being related to the You family we did, it is true, invite her to stay in our house; but there was no talk of marriage. Because Zhang Hua owed us money and could not pay it, he trumped up this charge against our master.’
As the judges were all connected with the Jia and Wang families and had in addition accepted bribes from them, they condemned Zhang Hua as a rascal whom poverty had driven to blackmail. His plea rejected, he was beaten and thrown out of court. But Qinger outside had fixed it with the runners not to beat him severely.
And now Qinger told Zhang Hua, ‘As you were engaged to the girl first, if you demand her the court will have to give her to you.’
Thereupon Zhang Hua brought a new suit; but again Wang Xin took a message to the judge, and the court’s verdict was: ‘Zhang Hua’s debt to the Jia family must be repaid in full by a specified date. As for his be¬trothed, he can marry her when he has the means.’
Zhang Hua’s father, summoned to court to hear this verdict after having been told the situation by Qinger, exulted that now he would get both the money and the girl. He went to the Jia mansion to fetch Second Sister.
Xifeng with a great show of alarm reported this to the Lady Dowager.
‘This muddle is all my sister-in-law Zhen’s fault!’ she complained. ‘Apparently the engagement was never really cancelled. That’s why the Zhangs took the case to court, and now this decision’s been made.’
The old lady sent at once for Madam You.
‘Because your sister was promised from childhood to the Zhang family, and they never broke the engagement, they’ve brought this charge against us now,’ she scolded.
‘But they took the money,’ protested Madam You. ‘How can they still claim her?’

Xifeng put in, ‘According to Zhang Hua, he never saw any money, and no one contacted him. According to his father, Second Sister’s mother did make such an offer but they turned it down; and after her mother died you took her in as a secondary wife. As we’ve no proof to the contrary, he can talk any nonsense he pleases. It’s lucky Second Master Lian isn’t at home and they haven’t been formally married. Still, as she’s already here, how can we send her back? Wouldn’t that make us lose face?’
The old lady said, ‘They’re not married yet, and it wouldn’t look good to seize someone promised to another man. That would damage our reputation. We’d better send her back. It’ll be easy enough to find some other nice girl.’
When Second Sister heard this she exclaimed, ‘My mother really did give them ten taels of silver to cancel the engagement. Now in despera¬tion because he’s poor, he denies it. My sister did nothing wrong.
‘That shows how troublesome such rascals are,’ said the Lady Dowa¬ger. ‘Well, I leave it to you, Xifeng to sort this out.’
Xifeng had to comply. On her return she sent for Jia Rong, who knew perfectly what she was aiming at. He realized what a great loss of face it would be if Second Sister were to be reclaimed by the Zhangs, so he reported this to Jia Zhen and secretly sent Zhang Hua the message: Now that you’ve got so much money, why must you have the girl back? If you insist, the gentlemen may get angry and find a way to kill you where no one will bury you. With money, you can go home and find a good bride. If you do that, we’ll help with your travelling expenses.
Zhang Hua on reflection thought this a good idea. He discussed it with his father, and they reckoned they were now the richer by about a hun¬dred taels. So the next day at dawn, father and son started home.
When Jia Rong heard this he told the Lady Dowager and Xifeng, ‘Zhang Hua and his father have fled for fear of being punished for bring¬ing a false charge. The court knows of this but has decided to let the matter drop. The whole business is over!’
Xifeng reflected, ‘If I make Zhang Hua reclaim Second Sister, Lian on his return will most likely offer more money to get her back, and Zhang Hua’s bound to agree. So I’d better keep her here with me until I’ve made other plans. The only snag is we don’t know where Zhang Hua will go, and whether he’ll spread this story or come back later to reopen this case. If he does, I’ll have cut my own throat! I should never have given other people this handle against me.’ She bitterly regretted what she had done.
Then she hit on another plan. She quietly ordered Lai Wang to send men to find Zhang Hua, then either hale him to court on a charge of theft and have him done to death, or send assassins to kill him secretly. In this way the root of the trouble would be removed and her reputation as¬sured.
Lai Wang went home and thought over these instructions.
‘Since the man’s gone and the matter’s dropped, why do anything so drastic?’ he asked himself. ‘Taking someone’s life is a serious crime, no joke. I’ll fool her into thinking it’s done instead.’
He lay low outside for a few days, then returned to report that Zhang Hua, traveling with a fair amount of silver had been beaten and killed at dawn one day by some highwaymen in the Jingkou district, and his father had died of fright in the inn. A post-mortem had been held there and the bodies buried.
Xifeng did not believe him.
‘If I find you’ve been lying, I’ll knock out your teeth!’ she threat¬ened. But there the matter rested.
Meanwhile Xifeng and Second Sister were on the best of terms, to all appearances closer even than sisters.
When Jia Lian finally came home after completing his business, he went straight to the new house. But it was locked up and deserted, with only an old caretaker there who told him all that had happened. Jia Lian stamped his foot in the stirrup, then went to report on his mission to his parents. ha She, very pleased, praised his competence and rewarded him with a hundred taels of silver as well as a new concubine ‘ a seven¬teen-year-old maid of his named Qiutong. Jia Lian kowtowed his thanks and left in high spirits. Having paid his respects to the Lady Dowager and other members of the family he went home somewhat sheepishly to see Xifeng, but found her less stern than usual. She came out with Second Sister to welcome him and ask after his health. Then Jia Lian, telling her of his father’s gift, could not help looking pleased and proud. Xifeng immediately sent two servingwomen to fetch Qiutong by carriage. Be¬fore she had rid herself of one thorn in her side, here out of the blue was another! However, she had to watch her tongue and hide her anger by a show of complaisance, ordering a feast of welcome, then taking Qiutong to present her to the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang, much to her husband’s amazement.
On the Double Twelfth, ha Zhen rose early to sacrifice to the ances¬tors, then took his leave of the Lady Dowager and other ladies of the family. Most of the men saw him off to the Pavilion of Tearful Parting, only Jia Lian and ha Rong accompanying him all the way to the temple and back, a trip taking three days and three nights. On the road, Jia Zhen admonished them on the need to run their households well, and they gave him the appropriate assurances ‘ there is no need to dwell on their conversation.

To return to Xifeng at home. Outwardly, it goes without saying, she treated Second Sister well; but inwardly she plotted to destroy her.
When the two of them were alone she told Second Sister, ‘You have such a bad name, sister, even the old lady and the mistresses have heard about it. They say that while still a girl you were unchaste and intimate with your brother-in-law. ‘You’ve picked someone nobody else wanted,’ they scold me. ‘Why not get rid of her and choose someone better.’ Talk like that makes me furious. I’ve tried to find out who started this, but I can’t. If this goes on, how are we to hold up our heads in front of these slaves? I seem to have landed myself in a foul mess.’ Having said this a couple of times, she pretended to fall ill with anger, refusing to eat or drink.
All the maids and servants, with the exception of Pinger, kept gossip¬ing, making sarcastic remarks, and casting aspersions at Second Sister. As for Qiutong, having been given to Jia Lian by his father, she felt supe¬rior to everyone else including even Xifeng and Pinger, not to say a dis¬carded wanton who had been Jia Lian’s mistress before she became his wife. ‘How can she take precedence of me!’ she thought. So she treated her with contempt. Xifeng was secretly pleased at this, and Seccond Sister had to swallow her indignation.
As Xifeng was shamming sickness she stopped having her meals with Second Sister, just ordering the servants to take food to her room every day ‘ and the rice and dishes were always of the worst. Pinger took pity on her. She would spend her own money on extra dishes for her, or take her sometimes for a stroll in the Garden, getting special soups made for her in the kitchen there. No one else dared report this to Xifeng; but Qiutong, happening to find out, went to tell her.
‘Pinger’s spoiling your reputation, madam,’ she said. ‘The good dishes we have here are wasted on her ‘ she won’t eat them. Instead, she scrounges food in the Garden.’
Xifeng swore at Pinger, ‘Other people’s cats catch mice for them, but mine just steals my chickens!’
Pinger did not venture to talk back. After that she had to keep at a distance from Second Sister, and she bore Qiutong a grudge but could not speak out.
Li Wan, Yingchun and Xichun in the Garden thought Xifeng was un¬commonly good to Second Sister. Others like Baoyu and Daiyu were worried for her, but did not like to meddle in their affairs. Second Sister looked so pathetic when she called that they sympathized with her, and when they were talking alone she would shed tears, but she never breathed a word against Xifeng who had shown her nothing of her vicious side.
When Jia Lian came home and observed Xifeng’s irreproachable behaviour to Second Sister, he did not give the matter a second thought. Besides, he had long had designs on many of his father’s concubines and young maids, including Qiutong, who for their part were disgusted be¬cause their senile old master, still lecherous, was virtually impotent. Why, then, should he keep them all there? So apart from a few with some sense of propriety, the rest played about with the pages at the inner gate or even made eyes at Jia Lian, who was only too ready to flirt with them but for fear of his father dared go no further than that.
Although Qiutong had been interested in Jia Lian, they had never had an affair. Now that as luck would have it she had being given to him, it was truly like throwing a dry faggot on a blazing fire. They clung to each other like glue, Jia Lian so enamoured of his new concubine that he never left her side. Little by little his affection for Second Sister lessened. Qiutong was the only one he cared for.
Xifeng, though hating Qiutong, was eager to use her first to rid herself of Second Sister by ‘Killing with a borrowed sword’ and ‘Watching from a hilltop while two tigers fought.’ For once Qiutong had killed Sec¬ond Sister, she could do this new concubine in. Her mind made up, when they were alone she often advised Qiutong:
‘You’re young and inexperienced. She’s now the second mistress, your master’s favourite. Even I have to yield to her to some extent, yet you keep provoking her. You’re just looking for trouble.’
Inflamed by such talk. Qiutong took to cursing and storming every day, ‘The mistress is too soft and weak; I haven’t that kind of forbear¬ance. What’s happened to her? She used to be such a terror. Well, the mistress may be broad-minded, but I’m not going to put up with a mote in my eye. Just let me have it out with that bitch ‘ then she’ll see!’
Xifeng in her room pretended to be too frightened to say a word.
Second Sister in her room wept for rage and could not eat, but she dared not tell Jia Lian. And the next day when the Lady Dowager asked why her eyes were so red and swollen. She dared not explain.
Qiutong seized every chance to score off her. She secretly told the old lady and Lady Wang, ‘She keeps making trouble, complaining and whin¬ing all day for no reason at all, besides cursing madam and me behind our backs. She hopes we’ll both die early, so that she can live with Second Master and do just as she pleases.’
‘Imagine!’ exclaimed the old lady. ‘When a girl’s too pretty, she is bound to be jealous. Xifeng’s been kind to her all along, yet she repays her by treating her like a rival! This shows she’s a worthless creature.’
Little by little she took a dislike to Second Sister. And when the others saw that she had lost favour with the old lady, they naturally bullied her too. Second Sister was in such a miserable dilemma, she could neither die nor live. Pinger was the only one who tried, behind Xifeng’s back, to help her and divert her mind from her troubles.
How could Second Sister, fragile as snow, delicate as a flower, stand up to such cruel treatment? After suppressing her anger for just a month, she fall ill and lost her appetite. Too listless to move, she grew daily thin¬ner and paler. One night when she closed her eyes, she saw her younger sister approaching, the duck-and-drake swords in her hands.
‘You’ve always been too naive and soft-hearted,’ Third Sister told her, ‘That’s why you’re in trouble now. Don’t trust that shrew’s hon¬eyed talk or her show of being such a virtuous wife ‘ at heart she’s crafty and cruel. She’s made up her mind to kill you. If I’d been alive, I’d never have let you move into their house; even if you had, I’d not let her treat you like this. Still, we brought this on ourselves by our worthless lives and wanton ways, corrupting men and upsetting family relations. So this is just retribution. Now take my advice and kill that shrew with this sword, then go together to the Goddess of Disenchantment for her to decide the case. Otherwise you will die in vain and no one will pity you.’
Second Sister sobbed, ‘I’ve already got a bad name, sister. As I de¬serve my present fate, why should I add to my crimes by killing her? Let me just put up with it. If Heaven takes pity on me, I may recover. Wouldn’t that be better?’
‘Still so naive, sister?’ the other scoffed. ‘No one, since time imme¬morial, has escaped Heaven’s far-flung net. The Way of Providence is retribution. Although you’ve repented and mended your ways, you’ve already made father, son and cousins guilty of incest; so how can Provi¬dence allow you to live at peace?’
‘If I can’t live at peace, that’s only just,’ said Second Sister tear¬fully. ‘I bear no resentment.’
Hearing this, Third Sister heaved a long sigh and withdrew. Second Sister woke with a start to find it was only a dream.
When Jia Lian came to see her, as no one else was about she told him with tears, ‘I shan’t get over this illness. I’ve been with you for half a year and I’m with child, but don’t know whether it will be a boy or a girl. If Heaven has pity and the child is born, well and good. Otherwise, I shan’t be able to save myself, let alone the child.’
‘Don’t you worry,’ Jia Lian, in tears himself, reassured her. ‘I’ll get a good doctor for you.’
He immediately went out to send for the doctor. However, Doctor Wang was busy maneuvering to get a post in the army in order to acquire a noble title for his offspring. In his absence the servants fetched Doctor Hu Junrong. His diagnosis was that her menstruation was irregular and some tonic would set her right. When Jia Lian told him that she had missed three periods and was often sick, so it looked like a pregnancy, Hu Junrong asked the serving-women to show him the lady’s hand, and Sec¬ond Sister stretched our her hand from behind the curtains. After feeling the pulse for some time he declared:
‘If it were a pregnancy, the liver humour should be strong. But the wood is in the ascendant, and that engenders the fire element which causes irregular menstruation. May I make so bold as to ask to have a glimpse of the lady’s face, so that I can see how she looks before ventur¬ing to make out a prescription.’
Jia Lian had to order the curtain to be raised. But the sight of Second Sister robbed Hu Junrong of his senses. He was too dazed to know what he was doing. Then the curtain was lowered and Jia Lian escorted him out. Asked what the trouble was he said:
‘It’s not a pregnancy, just congestion of the blood. To make her periods normal, we must get rid of the congestion.’ He then wrote a prescription and took his leave.
Jia Lian ordered servants to send over the doctor’s fee and buy and prepare the medicine for the patient.
In the middle of the night, Second Sister had such a pain in her stom¬ach that she miscarried ‘ the foetus was male ‘ and bled so copiously that she fainted. Jia Lian hearing this cursed Hu Junrong and had another doctor fetched at once. He also sent men to go and beat up Hu; but the latter heard of this in time to bundle together his things and run away.
The newly summoned doctor said, ‘She had a weak constitution to begin with, and after conceiving she seems to have been bottling up some resentment. That other gentleman made the mistake of using potent drugs which have undermined the lady’s health completely. We cannot look for a speedy recovery. She will have to take both potions and pills, and must pay no attention to any malicious gossip; then we can only hope she may get well.’ This said, he left.
In a frenzy, Jia Lian asked who it was that had fetched that fellow Hu and had the man beaten within an inch of his life.
Xifeng showing ten times more anxiety exclaimed, ‘We seem fated to have no son! After going to such trouble to beget one, we come up against this bungling quack.’ She offered incense and kowtowed to Heaven and Earth, praying earnestly, ‘Let me fall ill if only Sister You can recover, conceive again and give birth to a boy. Then I’ll gladly fast and chant sutras for the rest of my life.’
Jia Lian and the others, seeing this, could not but praise her.
While Jia Lian stayed with Qiutong, Xifeng prepared soup and broth for the invalid.
She also berated Pinger, ‘You’re just as luckless as me with my ill¬ness, because you’re not ill, just barren! It must be our bad luck that’s brought the Second Mistress to this pass ‘ or may be someone’s horo¬scope clashes with hers.’
Thereupon she sent out to consult fortune-tellers, who returned the reply that the trouble had been caused by a woman born in the year of the rabbit. They checked, and as Qiutong was the only one in their household born in that year they laid the blame at her door.
Qiutong’s jealousy had already been aroused by the care Jia Lian lavished on Second Sister, fetching doctors, giving her medicine, and hav¬ing the servant who had blundered beater. Now she was told that she was the one to blame, and Xifeng advised her to move out for a few months and make herself scarce.
Qiutong wept and stormed, ‘What’s all this senseless talk from that blind rascal? I kept clear of her as well water and river water. How could my horoscope clash with hers? She had all sorts of contacts out¬side, the slut. Why does the jinx have to be found here? Which of all those fine fellows she knew got her with child? It’s only this credulous master of ours who’s taken in by her. Even if she had a child, we wouldn’t know whether its name should be Zhang or Wang. You may treasure her bastard, madam, but not I! Who can’t have a child? If 1 have one a year or so from now, at least there’ll be no doubt who fathered it.’
The maids were amused by this tirade but dared not laugh outright. And just then Lady Xing called.
Qiutong told her, ‘The Second Master and Second Mistress want to throw me out. I’ve nowhere to go. Please take pity on me, madam!’
Lady Xing first scolded Xifeng, then said sternly to Jia Lian:
‘You ungrateful cur! Whatever her faults, she was given you by your father. How can you throw her out for the sake of a woman you brought in from outside? Have you no respect for your father? If you want to get rid of her, you can at least return her to him.’ She then left in a temper.
Emboldened by this, Qiutong went to Second Sister’s window to scream abuse at her, making her feel even more wretched.
Jia Lian spent that night in Qiutong’s room. And after Xifeng had gone to bed Pinger slipped in to see Second Sister and comfort her, advis¬ing her to rest well and not trouble about that bitch.
Second Sister took her hand and said through tears, ‘How good you’ve been to me, sister, since I came here! You’ve suffered a lot too on my account.
If I come out of this alive, I’ll repay your kindness. I’m afraid I’m done for, though, and can only pay you back in my next life.’
Pinger was reduced to tears too.
‘It was all my fault,’ she confessed. ‘I was too naive. I never kept anything from her, so when I heard of your marriage outside I felt I had to tell her. I had no idea such trouble would come of it.’
‘No, you’re wrong,’ protested Second Sister. ‘If you hadn’t told, she’d have found out anyway. You just happened to tell her first. At any rate, I wanted to move in for appearances’ sake. So you’re in no way to blame.’
They both wept again and presently, after a few more words of ad¬vice, Pinger saw that it was late and went back to rest.
Left to herself Second Sister thought, ‘I’m so ill, and getting worse every day, I see no hope of recovery. And now that I’ve miscarried and haven’t the child to worry about, why should I go on putting up with such taunts? Better die and be done with it! They say swallowing gold will kill you. Wouldn’t that be a cleaner death than hanging myself or cutting my own throat?’
She struggled out of bed and opened her case, from which she took a piece of gold of a fair size. Weeping and cursing her fate, she put it in her mouth and after several desperate attempts succeeded in swallowing it. Then she hastily dressed herself neatly and put on her trinkets, after which she lay down on the kang. Not a soul had any suspicion of what she had done.
The next morning when she failed to call for her maids, they attended cheerfully to their own toilets while Xifeng and Qiutong went off to pay their respects to the senior mistresses.
Pinger was shocked by this and scolded the maids, ‘Don’t be so heartless! You only obey harsh people who beat or curse you ‘ and that’s the treatment you deserve. Have you no pity at all for someone so ill? You might at least behave decently, instead of taking advantage of her good nature and kicking her when she’s down.’
The maids opened Second Sister’s door then. At sight of her lying  neatly dressed ‘ dead on her bed, they screamed with fright. Pinger running in wept bitterly when she saw this. And the maids, remembering now how gentle Second Sister had been and how much kinder to them than Xifeng, shed tears over her death as well, but took care to hide their grief from their dreaded mistress.
The news spread at once through the whole mansion. Jia Lian came in, clasped the corpse and wept without stop.
Xifeng put on a show of sobbing, ‘How cruel of you, sister, to leave me alone like this! What a poor return for my kindness!’
Madam You and Jia Rong also came to mourn and console Jia Lian. Then he reported the matter to Lady Wang, and obtained permission to leave the corpse for five days in Pear Fragrance Court before its re¬moval to Iron Threshold Temple. Hasty orders were given to have the court gate opened and the three main rooms cleared for the coffin’s resting place. Since it would be unbecoming to carry the bier through the back gate, Jia Lian had a new gate leading to the street made through the main wall facing Pear Fragrance Court; booths were set up on either side of this and an altar was erected for Buddhist masses. And there Second Sister was carried on a soft couch with a silken mattress and a coverlet shrouding her body. Eight pages and a few matrons escorted the bier from the inner wall to Pear Fragrance Court, where they had an astrolo¬ger waiting.
When Jia Lian lifted the coverlet and saw Second Sister lying there as if alive, yet even lovelier than in life, he threw his arms around her.
‘Wife, your death is a mystery,’ he wailed. ‘But I brought it on you.’
Jia Rong hastily stepped forward to console him.
‘Don’t give way to such grief, uncle. This aunt of mine was ill-starred.’ As he spoke he pointed south at the wall of Grand View Gar¬den.
Jia Lian caught his meaning and softly stamped his foot.
‘Yes, I know. I shall get to the bottom of it and avenge you!’
The astrologer reported that as the lady had died at five in the morning she could not be carried to the temple on the fifth, but the third or the seventh would be appropriate, and the body should be coffined at three the next morning an auspicious hour.
‘The third won’t do,’ said Jia Lian. ‘We’ll make it the seventh. As my uncle and cousin are away, we mustn’t leave her here too long as this is a minor funeral. After the coffin has been placed in the temple for five weeks, we’ll have a big mass and then close the mourning shrine. Next year it can be taken south for burial.’
The astrologer approved this and left after writing out the obituary.  Baoyu had already come to mourn, and now other members of the clan arrived. Jia Lian hurried back then to ask Xifeng for money for the coffin and funeral rites.
Meanwhile, after seeing the body carried away, Xifeng had shammed illness again and claimed that Their Ladyships would not let her attend any ceremonies while unwell. She did not put on mourning either. Going instead to the Garden, past the rockeries to the wall at the north end, she eavesdropped on her husband outside, then came back to report the few remarks she had caught to the Lady Dowager.
‘Don’t listen to his nonsense,’ said the old lady, ‘Girls who die of consumption are cremated, aren’t they, and their ashes scattered? Why should she have a formal funeral and burial? Still, as she was a secondary wife, let her body be kept for five weeks in the temple before being carried out to be burnt or buried in some common graveyard.’
Xifeng smiled.
‘That’s exactly what I think, but I dare not urge him to do that.’
A maid came then to ask Xifeng to go back as Jia Lian had gone home to get some money from her, and so she had to return.
‘What money do we have?’ she asked him. ‘Don’t you know how tight things have been here recently? We couldn’t distribute each month’s allowance on time. It’s been like hens eating up next year’s grain. Yes¬terday I pawned a gold necklace for three hundred taels, and that may have given you ideas; but now only about two dozen taels are left. If you want that you can have it.’
She told Pinger to fetch this and gave it to Jia Lian, then went off again on the excuse that the old lady wanted her.
Jia Lian swallowing his resentment had to resort to opening Second Sister’s cases to look for any savings; but all he found were some broken trinkets, soiled artificial flowers and some of her half worn silk clothes, the sight of which reduced him to tears again. He wrapped them up in a cloth and, not asking the maids or pages to carry the bundle, started out to burn it himself. Pinger, both touched and amused, filched a packet of loose silver ‘ about two hundred taels ‘ and going to the eastern rooms gave him this, warning him to keep it a secret.
‘If you must cry, can’t you cry as much as you want outside?’ she scolded him. ‘Why do it here, attracting attention?
‘You’re right,’ said Jia Lian as he took the silver. He then gave a skirt to Pinger saying, ‘This is one she was fond of wearing. Keep it for me as a memento.’
Pinger accepted it and put it away.
Having taken the silver, Jia Lian came out with some others and or¬dered men to buy wood for the coffin. The best timber was expensive, but nothing inferior would satisfy him; so he mounted his horse and went to make the choice himself. By evening some good timber had been de¬livered ‘ as it cost five hundred taels, he had to buy it on credit. He had the coffin made immediately, at the same time assigning mourners to keep vigil, and he did not go home that night, but watched by the coffin.
What happened later is recorded in the next chapter.

Chapter 70

Daiyu Starts Another Poetry Club
Peach-Blossom Society
Xiangyun Dashes Off a Poem
on Willow Catkins


Jia Lian attended the funeral ceremonies at Pear Fragrance Court for seven days and seven nights, during which monks and priests chanted sutras. Then the Lady Dowager summoned him and forbade him to send the coffin to the family temple, so all he could do was choose a spot near Third Sister’s grave and arrange with of the temple to have Second Sister buried there. Only members of the clan, Wang Xin and his wife, Madam You and her daughter-in-law were present at the interment. Xifeng did not lift a finger to help, leaving Jia Lian to manage everything himself.
New Year was now approaching and, on top of the host of things that had to be seen to, Lin Zhixiao brought a list of eight men-servants who had reached the age of twenty-five and not yet married, to ask whether there were any maids due to leave who would make them suitable wives. Xifeng having read the list went to consult the old lady and Lady Wang, but although there were several maids in that category they found objec¬tions in the case of each. First, Yuanyang since vowing never to leave their service had neither spoken to Baoyu nor put on fine clothes or make up; and in view of her determination, they could hardly force her to marry. Then Hupo was disqualified by illness. And Caiyun, since breaking with ha Huan recently, had also contracted some unknown disease. Apart from them, only the older maid-servants doing rough work for Xifeng and Li Wan were due to leave. The others were too young. So the men had to look for wives outside.
While Xifeng was unwell, Li Wan and Tanchun had been too occu¬pied with domestic affairs to have time for anything else; and what with celebrating New Year and the Lantern Festival and miscellaneous busi¬ness, the poetry club had been forgotten. Now, although there was a lull and it was midspring, a whole series of misfortunes ‘ Baoyu’s loss of his friend Liu Xianglian, the suicides of Third Sister and Second Sister, and Liu Wuer’s illness brought on by mortification ‘ had reduced Baoyu to such a state of dejection that he appeared dazed and often raved like a madman. Xiren and his other maids were alarmed but not daring to report this to the old lady they just did their best in every way to divert him.
One morning, as soon as he woke he heard giggling and muffled cries from the outer room.
‘Go and rescue her, quick!’ said Xiren with a smile. ‘Qingwen and Sheyue have pinned Venturina down and are ticking her.’
Baoyu draped his squirrel-fur jacket over his shoulders and went out to have a look. The three girls had not folded their quilts or put on their outer clothes. Qingwen in a leek-green silk bodice, red silk pants and red slippers, her hair tousled, was sitting astride Fangguan who was being tickled in the ribs by Sheyue in a red silk chemise, an old jacket over her shoulders. Fangguan lying on her back in a flowered bodice, red pants and green socks was thrashing her legs wildly, quite out of breath from laughing.
‘Two big girls bullying one small one!’ chuckled Baoyu. ‘I’ve come to the rescue.
He climbed on to the kang to tickle Qingwen in the ribs. Being tick¬lish, she at once let go of Fangguan to grab him; and Fangguan seized this chance to pull her down and tickle her under the armpits.
‘Mind you don’t catch cold!’ warned Xiren, amused to see the four of them scuffling together.
Just then Li Wan’s maid Biyue came in.
‘Last night my mistress left a handkerchief somewhere,’ she an¬nounced. ‘Is it here?’
Xiaoyan answered, ‘Yes, it is. I picked it up from the floor and didn’t know whose it was. I’ve just washed it and hung it out. It’s not quite dry yet.’
Biyue smiled at sight of the scrimmage on the kang.
‘You’re lively here,’ she remarked, ‘starting your horseplay so early in the morning.’
‘Don’t you play about in your place too?’ asked Baoyu. ‘There are plenty of you there.’
‘Our mistress is so serious that her two cousins and Miss Baoqin hold themselves in check as well. And now that Miss Baoqin’s moved in with the old lady we’re even quieter. By winter next year, when her cousins will have gone, it will be still quieter. Didn’t you notice how lonely Miss Baochai’s place seemed after Xiangling went home, leaving Miss Xiangyun all on her own?’
Even as she was speaking, in came Cuilu sent by Xiangyun to invite Baoyu over to read a fine poem. Asked where this good poem was, she said:
‘The young ladies are all at Seeping Fragrance Pavilion. Go and see for yourself, young master.’
Baoyu hastily washed, dressed and left. Sure enough he found Daiyu, Baochai, Xiangyun, Baoqin and Tanchun all there reading a poem.
‘Why are you so late up?’ they demanded. ‘For a year our poetry club’s been broken up and no one’s called it together again. Now it’s early spring, a fresh start for all living things and high time to bestir our¬selves to get it going again.’
‘We started the club in autumn,’ added Xiangyun. ‘That’s why it didn’t prosper. If we start it again now in spring when everything bur¬geons, it’s bound to come to life. And this poem on peach-blossom is so good, why not change our Begonia Club into Peach-Blossom Club?’
Baoyu nodded approvingly and asked to read the poem.
But the others proposed, ‘Let’s go and find the Old Peasant of Sweet Paddy, to talk it over together and get things going.’
With that they all got up and set off for Paddy-Sweet Cottage, Baoyu reading the poem on the way. It was as follows:
PEACH-BLOSSOM
Outside the blind, peach-blossom, a soft spring breeze;
Within, a girl is languidly dressing her hair.
Outside, the peach-blossom; within the girl ‘Not far apart the blossom and maid so fair.
Obligingly, the breeze blows back the blind
And holds it to afford a glimpse of her bower;
Outside, the peach is blooming as of old,
Frailer the girl within than any flower.
The flowers, knowing pity, grieve for her;
Their sighs gentle breezes express;
Breeze wafts through bamboo slats, blooms fill the court,
But this spring scene redoubles her distress.
The gate of the quiet, mossy courtyard is closed,
At sunset she leans alone on the balustrade;
Then, shedding tears in the soothing breeze,
Neath blossoming boughs slips the red-skirted maid.
Luxuriant the foliage and blooms
With petals a fresh red, leaves emerald green;
These myriad trees enwrapped in mist
Cast a rosy glow, as if of warmth, on her screen.
Duck-and-drake brocade from heaven’s loom is burned,
While on coral pillow she wakes in balmy spring;
But chill to the touch of rouged cheeks,
Sweet spring water in golden basins her maids bring.
To what can the vividness of rouge be likened?
The colour of flowers? A girl’s tears dropping slow?
If tears are likened to blossom,
Long as the blooms retain their charm they flow.
As she gazes at the blossom her tears run dry ‘Her tears run dry, spring ends, blooms fade away;
The fading blossoms hide the fading maid;
Blossoms drift down, she tires, dusk follows day.
A cuckoo-call and spring is left behind,
Only faint moonlight falls on the lonely blind.
Baoyu instead of praising this poem shed tears, for he knew it must be by Daiyu. But not wanting the girls to see how moved he was, he hastily wiped his eyes.
‘Where did you get this?’ he asked.
‘Guess who wrote it,’ challenged Baoqin.
‘The Queen of the Bamboos, of course.’
‘No, she didn’t,’ giggled Baoqin. ‘I did.’
‘I don’t believe it. The style and spirit are definitely not yours. ‘That just shows how little you know,’ put in Baochai. ‘Were all Tu Du’s lines like ‘clustered chrysanthemums have flowered twice in tears for other days’? He has other exquisite lines like ‘Plums steeped in rain will wax crimson in days to come’ and ‘The waterweed in the breeze trails long emerald belts.’’
‘Even so,’ Baoyu retorted, ‘I know you’d never let your cousin write such sad lines. And even if she had the talent, she wouldn’t want to. Cousin Daiyu is different. She’s known such grief that she writes mournful lines.’
All laughing, they now reached Paddy-Sweet Cottage where they showed Daiyu’s poem to Li Wan, who was of course loud in her praise. Then they discussed the poetry club and decided to start it the following day, the second of the third month, and to change its name from Begonia Club to Peach-Blossom Society, electing Daiyu as its president.
The next day after breakfast they all gathered in Bamboo Lodge. When the question arose of a subject for the first poem, Daiyu suggested that each of them should write a hundred rhyming couplets on peach-blossom.
‘That won’t do,’ objected Baochai. ‘There have been so many po¬ems since ancient times on peach-blossom, if we did that we’d be bound to produce something stereotyped, not to be compared with your poem. We must think of a different subject.’
Just then the arrival of Lady Wang’s sister-in-law was announced and they all had to go to the mansion to pay their respects. They chatted with Wang Ziteng’s wife, and after lunch showed her round the Garden. Not till after dinner when the lamps were lit did she take her leave.
The day after that was Tanchun’s birthday. Yuanchun sent two young eunuchs to present her with a few curios, and she received gifts which need not be enumerated from the rest of the family. After breakfast she changed into ceremonial costume and went to the different apartments to pay her respects.
Daiyu observed laughingly, ‘I picked the wrong day again to start this club, forgetting that we’d be celebrating her birthday for the next two days. Though there won’t be feasts and operas, we’ll all have to go with her to spend the day amusing Their Ladyships, and that won’t leave us any spare time.’ So the date was changed to the fifth.
That day, however, while the girls were waiting upon the old lady and Lady Wang at breakfast, a letter arrived from Jia Zheng. After paying his respects Baoyu asked his grandmother’s permission to open it and read it to her. Apart from the usual greetings, the letter said that Jia Zheng would definitely be back by the middle of the sixth month. Another letter on family affairs was opened and read by Jia Lian and Lady Wang.
The news of ha Zheng’s impending return by the sixth or seventh month threw them all into a flurry of excitement. On this same day, too, they heard that Wang Ziteng had arranged to marry his daughter to the son of Marquis Baoning on the tenth of the fifth month. Xifeng hastened to offer her services, and this took her away from home for days at a time. Then Wang Ziteng’s wife came to invite Xifeng and the young people for a day’s pleasure, and the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang told Baoyu, Tanchun, Daiyu and Baochai to accompany Xifeng. Not daring to refuse, they had to go back to dress in formal costumes and then went out for the whole day, not returning till the evening.
Baoyu, back in Happy Red Court, took a short rest. And Xiren seized this chance to advise him to avoid distractions in future and spend his spare time revising the classics, ready for his father’s return.
Baoyu reckoned on his fingers. ‘There’s still plenty of time,’ he ex¬postulated.
‘Reading’s one thing, and there’s writing too,’ she replied. ‘You may have read what’s required, but how about your calligraphy exer¬cises?’
‘I’ve done quite a few. Haven’t they been kept?’
‘Of course. When you were out yesterday I got them out and counted them there are only fifty to sixty sheets. Surely you should have written more than that in the last three or four years? I suggest that, starting tomorrow, you’d better put aside all other business and concen¬trate on writing a few sheets every day to make up. Then even if you haven’t a sheet to show for each day, you’ll have done enough to pass muster.’
Baoyu at once counted the sheets himself and found he had really procrastinated too long.
‘From tomorrow on I’ll write a hundred characters a day,’ he prom¬ised, after which they turned in for the night.
The next day as soon as he was dressed, he sat down by the window to grind ink and practise writing in real earnest, instead of going straight to his grandmother. Thinking he must be unwell she sent maids to make inquiries, whereupon he went over to pay his respects and explain that he was late because he had been practising calligraphy since first thing that morning.
The old lady was very gratified to hear this.
‘As long as you’re writing or studying, you needn’t come here,’ she said. ‘You tell your mother that.’
Baoyu did so.
‘It’s no use sharpening your spear just before a battle,’ warned Lady Wang. ‘If you’d done some reading and writing every day, you’d have finished all that’s expected and wouldn’t feel so frantic. if you go at it too hard now you may fall ill again’
‘No, I’ll be all right,’ he assured her.
The old lady also expressed the fear that he might overwork and ruin his health.
‘Don’t you worry, madam,’ said Baochai and Tanchun. ‘His read¬ing we can’t do for him, but writing we can. We’ll each copy out one sheet for him every day to get him out of this fix; then His Lordship won’t be angry when he comes home, and Baoyu won’t fret himself ill.’
The old lady was delighted with this idea.
When Daiyu heard that Jia Zheng was coming home, she knew he would certainly check on his son’s studies and was afraid Baoyu would get into trouble. So she pretended to have lost interest in re-starting the poetry society, in order not to distract him. Tanchun and Baochai each day neatly copied out a sheet of characters in the orthographic script for Baoyu, while he himself put on a spurt and wrote two or three hundred characters a day. In this way, by the end of the third month, he had amassed quite a number of exercises. He reckoned that with another fifty sheets he could get by.
Then to his surprise Zijuan came to give him a rolled-up package. When he opened it he found a number of sheets of old bamboo paper filled with small characters modelled on those of Zhong You and Wang Xizhi, exactly as he would have written them himself. Baoyu joyfully bowed his thanks to Zijuan, and went over in person to thank Daiyu. Xiangyun and Baoqin also copied out some sheets for him. So altogether, althought less than was strictly required, he had about enough. And once this was off his mind, Baoyu started reading the classics he had been set.
But it so happened that at this time some coastal regions were devas¬tated by tidal waves and the local officials reported this to the court, whereupon the Emperor decreed that Jia Zheng on his way back should inspect these areas and supervise relief work. This meant that he would not be home till the end of winter. When Baoyu heard this, he put aside his books and calligraphy exercises and started amusing himself again as before.
It was then the end of spring. Xiangyun, feeling listless one day, watched the swaying willow catkins and then dashed off the following short poem to the melody Rumengling:
Boughs with silk floss entwined
Or sweet mist glimpsed through a half rolled-up blind?
As slender fingers with the catkins play,
Cuckoo and swallow cry out in dismay:
Stop, pray! Do stay!
Don’t let spring steal away.

Feeling rather pleased with this verse she wrote it down and showed it to Baochai, then went to find Daiyu.
Daiyu read it and pronounced, ‘Good. It’s fresh and original. I can’t write in this way myself.’
‘Our poetry club has never tried writing irregular metres,’ said Xiangyun. ‘Why don’t you call a meeting tomorrow to do that? Wouldn’t that make a change?’
Intrigued by this suggestion Daiyu cried, ‘Of course! That’s a won¬derful idea. I’ll send out invitations right away.
She gave orders for refreshments to be prepared, then sent her maids out to invite the others while she and Xiangyun fixed on willow catkins as the subject and on the different melodies to be used. They fastened a notice to this effect on the wall.
When the others arrived they read first this notice and then Xiangyun’s poem, which they praised.
Baoyu said: ‘I’m no good at irregular metres. Still, I shall have to write some sort of nonsense.’
They drew lots for the different metres and Baochai got Linjiangxian; Baoqin, Xijiangyue; Tanchun, Nankezi; Daiyu, Tan tuoling; and Baoyu, Dielianhua. Zijuan lighted a stick of Sweet-Dream Incense then and they started. Very soon Daiyu had finished and written her verse out. Then Baoqin and Baochai completed theirs. They looked at each other’s poem.
Baochai said with a smile, ‘Let me see yours first, and then you can see mine.’
‘How come the incense is burning so fast today?’ exclaimed Tanchun. ‘There’s only one third left, yet I’ve just made up half.’ She asked Baoyu, ‘How about you?’
Baoyu did not think what he had written was any good, so he crossed it out meaning to start again, then looking round saw that the incense was nearly burnt up. The others laughed.
‘Baoyu’s lost again,’ said Li Wan. ‘You’d better write out the half you’ve done, Tanchun.’
Tanchun did so. Her lines to the melody Nankezi were only half com¬pleted:
In vain the willow trails long slender branches,
Hanging strands of silk are they;
They cannot curb the catkins
And north, south, east and west these drift away.

Li Wan said, ‘That sounds easy. Why not finish it?’
Seeing that the incense was already burnt out, Baoyu preferred to admit defeat rather than writing something inferior. He put down his brush to read Tanchun’s unfinished poem, and this gave him the idea for the following conclusion which he wrote:
Do not mourn their falling;
Where they fly, only I have any idea;
Orioles grieve, butterflies flag as flowers fade,
But next spring, another year past, they will reappear.
The others teased, ‘You didn’t do your own assignment, so even if you’ve finished this off well it doesn’t count.’
Then they read Daiyu’s poem to the melody Tangduoling:
Pink petals fall in Hundred Flowers Islet.
By Swallow Tower their fragrance slowly fades;
Catkins following in clusters
float off like ill-fated maids;
Vain their close attachment and beauty.
The willow too knows what it is to yearn;
In early prime her head turns white,
She laments her life but has no one to whom to turn.
The spring breeze to whom she is wedded no pity will show,
Leaving it to chance whether to stay or go.

As they read this they nodded and exclaimed, ‘Too sad! But of course it’s good.’
Next they read Baoqin’s verse to the melody Xijiangyue:
Few and far between in the Han garden,
They make the whole Sui Dyke gleam!
Their spring splendour gone with the wind,
Moonlight and plum-blossom nothing but a dream.
Here and there in the courtyard crimson petals fall ‘Beside whose curtain snow down these fragrant flakes?
North and south of the Great River it is the same,
The heart of every parted lover aches.

The others commented with a smile, ‘This is really in a tragic vein. The fifth and sixth lines are the best.’
‘Still it’s too mournful,’ objected Baochai. ‘Willow catkins may be light and fickle, yet it seems to me, to be original, we should praise what’s good about them. That’s what I’ve done, but you may not approve.
‘Don’t be so modest,’ said the rest. ‘Yours is bound to be good, so let’s hear it.’ Then they read her verse to the melody Linjiangxian:
Dancing at ease in spring before white jade halls,
Swirling gracefully in the spring breeze

‘That’s the best line yet!’ cried Xiangyun. ‘Swirling gracefully in the spring breeze.’
While whirling all around me
Are butterflies and bees.
I have never followed the flowing stream,
Why then should I abandon myself to the dust?
Constant to ten thousand boughs,
Whether together or parted I keep trust.
Do not jeer at me as rootless,
But lend me strength, good wind,
To soar up to the azure sky at last.

The others clapped the table and exclaimed with admiration. ‘There’s real strength in this,’ they said. ‘It’s the best of the lot. Less tender and poignant, though, than the Queen of Bamboo’s poem; and Pillowed Iridescence’s has charm and feeling. Today Little Xue and the Stranger Under the Plantain have fallen behind. They’ll have to be penalized.’
‘We’ll accept any penalty,’ cried Baoqin gaily. ‘But how will you punish the one who handed in a blank paper?’
‘Just wait,’ said Li Wan. ‘We’ll deal with him strictly, you can be sure of that, to make an example of him.’
As she was speaking something crashed against the bamboo outside -- it sounded as if a window had fallen out. They all jumped with fright and maids ran out to investigate.
One of the girls outside called, ‘A big butterfly kite’s got entangled in the bamboo.
‘What a fine kite,’ remarked the other maids. ‘Whose can it be? Its string has snapped. Let’s get it down.’
Hearing this Baoyu and the others went out to look.
‘I know this kite,’ said Baoyu. ‘It belongs to Yanhong in the other house. Fetch it down and send it back to her.’
‘Is there only one kite like this in the world?’ objected Zijuan. ‘How can you be sure it’s hers? I don’t care if it is, I’m going to keep it.’
‘Don’t be so greedy, Zijuan,’ scolded Tanchun. ‘You’ve kites of your own, so why filch somebody else’s? That may bring you bad luck.’
‘Quite right,’ agreed Daiyu. ‘Someone may have set it adrift to float away evil influences. Get rid of it, quick. And let’s loose ours too to send away our bad luck.’
Then Zijuan told some younger maids to take the kite to the women on duty at the gate, who should give it to anyone who came asking for it.
When the younger maids heard they were going to fly kites, they hurried off eagerly to fetch a kite in the form of a beautiful girl, as well as high stools, cords and reels, and a pole with a stick tied to its top for launching the kite. Baochai and the others standing by the gate, ordered the maids to fly this on the open ground outside.
Baoqin remarked, ‘This of yours isn’t as handsome as Cousin Tanchun’s big phoenix with flapping wings.’
Baoyu agreed and turned to tell Cuimo to fetch it, where upon she went off cheerfully on this errand.
Baoyu, in high spirits, sent a young maid home with the instructions, ‘Fetch that big fish kite Mrs. Lai brought us yesterday.’
After a long interval the maid came back empty-handed.
‘Qingwen flew it yesterday and lost it,’ she announced.
‘And I hadn’t flown it even once!’ exclaimed Baoyu.
‘Never mind.’ said Tanchun. ‘She sent off your bad luck for you.’
‘In that case bring the big crab kite,’ ordered Baoyu.
The maid came back presently with a few others carrying a beauty kite and reel. ‘Miss Xiren says yesterday she gave the crab kite to Mas¬ter Huan,’ she told him. ‘Here’s one just brought by Mrs. Lin. She suggests you fly this instead.’
Baoyu examined the kite and was pleased to find it exquisitely made, He told them to fly it. By now Tanchun’s kite had come too, and Cuimo and some other maids were already flying it above a nearby slope. Baoqin told her maids to fly a big red bat kite. Baochai, infected by the general enthusiasm, had sent up a lite in the shape of a formation of seven wild swans. Now all these kites were airborne except Baoyu’s beauty, mak¬ing him so frantic that sweat poured down his face. When the others laughed at him, he angrily threw the kite to the ground and pointing at it swore:
‘If you weren’t a beauty, I’d trample you to bits!’
‘It’s the fault of the bridle,’ said Daiyu soothingly. ‘If you adjust it, it’ll be all right.’
Baoyu ordered this to be done and at the same time sent for another kite. They were all looking up and watching the kites sail through the air when the maids brought many others of different kinds and played with them for a while.
Then Zijuan exclaimed, ‘It’s pulling hard now, miss. Won’t you take over?’
Daiyu wrapped a handkerchief round her hand and pulled. Sure enough, the wind was blowing hard. She took the reel and paid out the cord. As the kite soared off, the reel whirred and all of a sudden the whole cord had run out. Then she urged the rest to let their kites drift away.
‘We’re all ready,’ they said. ‘You start first.’
‘Though it’s fun to let it go, I haven’t the heart to.’ she replied with a smile.
‘Kite-flying is just for fun, that’s why we call it ‘sending off bad luck,’’ said Li Wan. ‘You should do this more often, and then you might get rid of that illness of yours. Wouldn’t that be a good thing?’
‘Our young lady’s getting more and more stingy,’ put in Zijuan. ‘We always sent off a few kites every year, so why begrudge one today? If you won’t do it, miss, I will.’ She took from Xueyan a pair of small silver Western scissors, and clipped the cord tied to the reel.
‘There!’ she said with a laugh. ‘That’ll carry off her illness.’
The kite drifted away until soon it seemed no bigger than an egg, then it dwindled to a speck like a black star and the next minute vanished from sight.
Watching with screwed-up eyes they cried, ‘What fun!’
‘It’s a pity we don’t know where it’ll land,’ observed Baoyu. ‘Let’s hope it falls somewhere with people about and gets picked up by some children. If it falls in the wilderness where nobody lives, how lonely it will feel. I’d better send this one after it to keep it company.’ He cut the cord of his kite and let it go too.
Tanchun was about to cut the cord of her phoenix kite when she saw another just like it in the sky.
‘Whose can that be?’ she wondered.
The others advised, ‘Don’t cut yours loose yet. That other kite seems to be approaching it.’
Even as they spoke the two phoenixes converged, their cords becom¬ing entangled. They tried to pull Tanchun’s back, but as the other side was pulling too, they could not disentangle them. And just then another kite the size of a door, in the form of the character ‘good-luck,’ came zooming over, the bells on it ringing.
‘This one will get entangled too,’ they cried. ‘Don’t pull yours back. Let all three of them tangle together, that will be amusing.’
This new kite did indeed get entangled with the two phoenixes. The three kite-fliers tugged at their cords until these snapped and the three kites sailed away. They clapped and laughed, then, crying.
‘What fun! Whose could that good-luck kite be? It played a dastardly trick.’
‘My kite’s gone and I’m tired,’ said Daiyu, ‘I’m going back to rest.’
‘Just wait till we’ve sent off all our kites and then we’ll go,’ said Baochai.
So they loosed their kites, then dispersed, Daiyu going back to her own apartments to rest.
To know what happened later, read the next chapter.


Chapter 71

Lady Xing Feeling Wronged Puts Xifeng
in the Wrong
Yuanyang Happens Upon
Two Lovers


Upon Jia Zheng’s return to the capital, after all his business was despatched, he was granted a month’s home leave. Growing old now and worn out by his heavy responsibilities, he was so happy after this long time away to be reunited with his family that banishing all thought of business he passed the time reading, and when he was tired would play chess or drink with his proteges or enjoy the domesticity of the inner quarters with his mother, sons and wife.
The second of the eighth month that year would be the old lady’s eightieth birthday, and all their relatives and friends were bound to come to offer congratulations. How were they to accommodate so many feast¬ers? Jia Zheng talked it over with ha She, Jia Zhen and ha Lian, and they decided to hold feasts from the twenty-eighth of the seventh month to the fifth of the eighth in both mansions, the Ning entertaining the men, the Rong the ladies. Two of the larger buildings in Grand View Garden, Var¬iegated Splendour Tower and Auspicious Shade Hall, could be prepared as retiring rooms. On the twenty-eighth they would invite the prince con¬sorts, princes, princesses and dukes of the Imperial House together with their ladies; on the twenty-ninth, ministers, military governors and their titled wives; on the thirtieth, other officials with their titled wives, and relatives close and distant with their wives. Family feasts would be given on the first by Jia She, on the second by Jia Zheng, on the third by ha Zhen and ha Lian, on the fourth by the whole Jia family old and young. Finally, on the fifth, Lai Da, Lin Zhixiao and the other chief stewards would give a feast.
From the start of the seventh month streams of messengers had been arriving with gifts. The Ministry of Rites by Imperial decree presented the old lady with one gold and jade Ruyi sceptre, four lengths of coloured satin, four gold and jade ear-rings, and five hundred taels of silver from the Imperial Treasury. The Imperial Consort Yuanchun sent eunuchs with a golden image of the God of Longevity, an eaglewood cane, a string of scented beads, a box of rare incense, one pair of gold and four of silver ingots, twelve lengths of coloured satin and four jade cups. As for the gifts sent by all the princes and their consorts, as well as officials and officers high and low who had connections with the Jia family, these were too many to enumerate. A large table covered with a red felt was set in the hall to display all the best gifts for the old lady’s inspection. The first two days she enjoyed examining them, but after that she lost inter¬est.
‘Let Xifeng put them away,’ she said. ‘I’ll look at them some other time when I’ve nothing to do.’
On the twenty-eighth, both mansions were hung with lanterns as deco¬rations, phoenix screens were set up and lotus-patterned carpets spread, while the sound of fluting and drumming carried into the streets outside. The only guests that day in the Ning Mansion were the Prince of Beijing, the Prince of Nanan, Prince Consort Yongchang, the Prince of Leshan and a few young nobles. To the Rong Mansion came only the Dowager Princess of Nanan, the wife of the Prince of Beijing and a few other noble ladies.
The Lady Dowager and the rest received them in full court costume appropriate to their rank. After greetings had been exchanged the guests were invited to Auspicious Shade Hall in the Garden to drink tea and freshen up, after which they went to the Hall of Glorious Celebration to offer their congratulations and sit down to a feast. There was much polite deferring to each other before finally they sat down, the two princes’ consorts in the seats of honour, then the other ladies according to their rank. The wives of the Marquis of Jinxiang and the Earl of Linchang sat at the lower table on the left. The Lady Dowager, as hostess, took a lower seat on the right and Madam You, Xifeng and some other daughters-in-law, headed by Lady Xing and Lady Wang, ranged themselves behind her on both sides to wait on the guests. Outside the bamboo porti~e matrons headed by the stewards’ wives Mrs. Lin and Mrs. Lai served the dishes and wine, while a few young maids supervised by Mrs. Zhou Rui stood behind the screens waiting for orders. The servants who had come with the guests were entertained elsewhere.
Presently, actors came on the stage to offer congratulations, which signified that it was time for the performance to start. At the foot of the stage stood twelve pages, still too young to let their hair grow. One of these with both hands presented a list of the repertoire to the woman in charge at the bottom of the steps, who passed it to Mrs. Lin. She laid it on a small tray and noiselessly raised the portiere, then sidled up to Madam You’s maid, the concubine Peifeng. Peifeng presented it to Madam You, who carried it over to the two highest seats. The mother of the Prince of Nanan after first declining this honour chose an auspicious item, then passed the list to the wife of the Prince of Beijing who ‘ after a show of modesty ‘ also selected one item. The rest after some deferring to each other finally all said:
‘Let them sing whatever they think best.’
When dishes had been served four times followed by soup, the ser¬vants who had accompanied their mistresses brought forward tips which were given to the performers, after which they all had a wash and re¬turned to the Garden where fresh tea was served. The mother of the Prince of Nanan, asking after Baoyu, was told by the Lady Dowager that he had gone to worship in one of the temples where monks were chant¬ing sutras to pray for peace and longevity for her. Then she asked after the girls.
‘Some of them are unwell, others are delicate, and they’re so shy in company that I told them to keep an eye on my rooms for me,’ said the old lady. ‘As we have plenty of actresses, I’ve sent a troupe to perform in my hail, and they’re watching operas there with the girls in their aunt’s family.’
‘In that case, do invite them over,’ urged the Dowager Princess.
The Lady Dowager turned to tell Xifeng, ‘Go and fetch Xiangyun, Baochai, Baoqin and Daiyu, and ask Tanchun to come with them.’
Xifeng assented and went off. She found the girls eating sweetmeats and watching an opera in the old lady’s place with Baoyu, just back from the temple. When she passed on her instructions, Baochai, Baoqin, Daiyu, Tanchun and Xiangyun all went with her to the Garden where they were introduced and paid their respects. Some of the visitors had met them before. One or two had not, but all alike expressed their admiration. The mother of the Prince of Nanan knew Xiangyun best.
‘When you heard I was here, why didn’t you come out?’ she teased. ‘Were you waiting for an invitation? I shall take your uncle to task for this some time.’
Next she took Tanchun and Baochai by the hand to ask them their age and exclaimed in delight, so impressed was she by them. Then letting them go she drew Daiyu and Baoqin to her, subjected them to a close scrutiny and praised them in the highest terms.
‘They’re all so charming,’ she said laughingly, ‘I don’t know which to praise most.’
A servant had already brought in the five sets of presents prepared: five gold and five jade rings and five bracelets of scented beads.
‘Don’t laugh at these gifts,’ said the mother of the prince. ‘Take them to give to your maids.’
The five girls curtseyed their thanks, and then the wife of the Prince of Beijing also gave each of them a set of presents. There is no need to describe all the gifts presented them by the other guests.
After sipping tea the guests strolled for a while in the Garden. Then the Lady Dowager asked them to go back to feast, but the mother of the Prince of Nanan declined.
‘I’m not feeling well today, but I simply had to come,’ she said. ‘So please excuse me if I leave early.’
The old lady and others could not press her to stay, and after a further exchange of civilities they saw her to the Garden gate, where she mounted her sedan-chair and left. The wife of the Prince of Beijing stayed a little longer, then took her leave too. Some of the others withdrew early, some stayed till the end.
As the Lady Dowager had had a tiring day, the next day she did not receive any guests, leaving Lady Xing and Lady Wang to entertain them for her. The sons of noble families simply came to the outer hall to pay their respects, and were received by Jia She, Jia Zheng and Jia Zhen, who then took them off to feast in the Ning Mansion. But no more of this.
During these celebrations, Madam You did not go home at night. She spent each day entertaining guests, and stayed on in the evening to amuse the Lady Dowager and help Xifeng to supervise the disposal of the vari¬ous utensils, the putting away of presents and tipping of servants, then retired for the night in Li Wan’s quarters in the Garden.
This evening after she had waited on the old lady during her meal, the latter said, ‘You must all be tired, I know I am. So eat early and go and rest. Tomorrow you have to get up early again.’
Madam You assented and withdrew to have dinner in Xifeng’s apart¬ments; but Xifeng was in the upstairs storeroom overlooking the servants putting away the tapestry screens presented while Pinger, alone in the room, put away Xifeng’s clothes.
‘Has your mistress had her meal?’ asked Madam You.
Pinger smiled.
‘How could we omit to invite you, madam, if we were having a meal?’
‘Well then, I’ll go somewhere else to find something to eat. I’m ravenously hungry.’
As she started off, Pinger called, ‘Do come back, madam! Here are some cakes for you to be going on with. Then come for dinner later.’
‘No, you’re all so busy here, I’ll go and cadge a meal from the girls in the Garden.’ With that she left and Pinger could not detain her.
Madam You went straight to the Garden. As she found its main gate and the side gates still open and coloured lanterns still hanging there, she ordered her maid to fetch the women on duty, but the girl came back to report that not even the shadow of anyone was to be found in the gatehouse. Told to fetch the stewards’ wives in charge, she went to the corner house outside the inner gate where those women gathered to chat before work. There she found only two matrons sharing out sweetmeats and dishes.
‘Are none of the stewards’ wives here?’ she asked. ‘My mistress from the East Mansion wants one of them immediately.’
The two matrons, intent on the food, hearing that it was a mistress from the other mansion answered casually:
‘They’ve just gone.
‘Well then, go to their homes and fetch them,’ urged the maid.
‘We’re caretakers, not messengers. If you want someone fetched, send a messenger.
‘Aiya, this is mutiny! So you won’t take orders!’ the girl cried, ‘And why can’t you go yourselves? You may be able to fool newcomers but you can’t fool me. Who’s to run errands if not you? Whenever you get wind of any perks of handouts to one of the stewards’ wives, you dash off like dogs with wagging tails to announce it. Have you no sense of respect? Would you respond like this to Madam Lian’s instructions?’
The women had been drinking, and now that this maid had shown them up they retorted angrily:
‘Shut your filthy mouth. Whether we run errands or not is none of your business. You’ve no right to nag at us. You know very well how that father and mother of yours toady to the stewards of your mansion ‘they’re worse than any of us. People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. We know what’s what. We belong to different house¬holds. Go and impress your own people if you can, before you come here meddling in our affairs.’
‘Fine, fine,’ snapped the maid. ‘That’s fine!’
Livid with anger she hurried back to report this.
Madam You, now in the Garden, had come across Xiren, Baoqin and Xiangyun exchanging stories and jokes with two nuns from the Ksitigarbha Nunnery. Explaining that she was hungry, she went on to Happy Red Court where Xiren offered her some sweet and savoury pastries. The two nuns and Baoqin and Xiangyun went on sipping tea and telling stories till the maid arrived, fuming, to report everything the women had said.
‘Who were they?’ asked Madam You grimly.
To spare her feelings, the nuns and Baoqin and Xiangyun suggested that it must be a misunderstanding ‘ the maid had heard wrongly.
The nuns nudged the maid.
‘You lose your temper too easily, miss,’ they scolded. ‘Why pass on all the nonsense those silly old women talk? Madam’s health is what’s important. Here she’s been wearing herself out for days, and not a bite to eat or a drop to drink has she had yet. The least we can do is try to keep her amused. Why should you tell such tales?’
Xiren drew the maid aside.
‘Good sister, just go out and have a rest,’ she coaxed. ‘I’ll get some¬one to fetch them.’
‘No need,’ said Madam You. ‘Just send for those two women, then ‘fetch Xifeng here.’
‘I’ll go,’ offered Xiren.
‘No, not you,’ replied Madam You.
The two nuns rose respectfully to their feet to demur, ‘You’re so magnanimous, madam, won’t it make for talk if you lose your temper today of all days when our Old Ancestress is celebrating her birthday?’
Baoqin and Xiangyun interceded too.
‘All right then,’ said Madam You. ‘If it weren’t for the old lady’s birthday I’d certainly thrash this out. As it is, I’ll overlook it for the time being.’
Meanwhile the girl sent by Xiren to find some woman in charge out¬side the Garden had met Zhou Rui’s wife and told her what had hap¬pened. Though Mrs. Zhou was not in charge, as the maid who had at¬tended Lady Wang to the Jia mansion at the time of her marriage she was a person of some consequence, and so quick-witted and ingratiating that all the mistresses liked her. She now hurried to Happy Red Court, exclaiming as she ran:
‘The mistress’s angry! That will never do. Things have come to a pretty pass. If only I’d been there! I’ll slap their faces for them, and in a few days we’ll deal with them properly.’
When Madam You saw her she cried, ‘Come on, Sister Zhou, let’s hear what you think about this. The Garden gates are still wide open so late, with the lanterns alight and all sorts of people going in and out. What if anything happens? So I decided to tell the women on duty to put out the lights and lockup. But to my surprise there was no one there at all.’
‘How outrageous!’ said Mrs. Zhou. ‘The other day Madam Lian told them that with all sorts of people here these days they must lock up and put out the lights as soon as it gets dark, and not let any outsiders into the Garden. Yet today they leave their posts. When these celebrations are over, some of them must be given a good hiding!’
Madam You then told her what the maid had reported.
‘Don’t be angry, madam,’ urged Mrs. Zhou. ‘After the merry-mak¬ing I’ll get the stewards to beat them within an inch of their lives, and we’ll ask who told them to talk in that way about different households. Now I’ve ordered the lights to be put out and the main and the side gates closed.’
Just then a maid arrived from Xifeng to invite Madam You to supper. ‘I’m not hungry now,’ was the answer. ‘I’ve just had some past¬ries. Ask your mistress to start without me.
Mrs. Zhou went off to report this to Xifeng.
‘Those two women carry on like stewardesses,’ she said. ‘And when we speak to them they treat us like dirt. If you don’t make an example of them, madam, Madam You is going to feel slighted.’
‘In that case,’ replied Xifeng, ‘remember those two women’s names, and when this commotion is over have them tied up and sent to the other mansion for Madam You to beat or pardon as she thinks fit.’
This was just what Mrs. Zhou had been hoping for, as she had long been on bad terms with both women. On withdrawing she sent a page with this message to Lin Zhixiao’s wife, and asked her to go straight to see Madam You. At the same time she sent people to have both those women tied up and kept under guard in the stable.
It was dark now and, not knowing what was afoot, Lin Zhixiao’s wife took a carriage to the mansion. She went first to Xifeng’s quarters. But when she announced herself at the inner gate some maids came out to tell her:
‘The mistress has just gone to bed. Madam You is in the Garden. You can go and see her there.’
So Mrs. Lin had to go to the Garden. When the maids at Paddy-Sweet Cottage announced her, Madam You regretted the trouble she had caused her. Inviting her in she said:
‘I only asked for you because I couldn’t find the women on duty. It isn’t all that important. Since you’d left they shouldn’t have called you back again, making a trip for nothing. It’s a small matter and I’ve al¬ready set it aside.’
Mrs. Lin responded with a smile. ‘Madam Lian sent to tell me you had some instructions for me, madam.’
‘The idea! I didn’t know you’d left or I wouldn’t have asked for you. Some busybody’s been talking to Xifeng. I suppose it was Sister Zhou. You go back and rest now. It’s of no consequence.’
Li Wan was on the point of explaining, but Madam You stopped her.
Seeing this, all Mrs. Lin could do was leave. But it so happened that on her way out of the Garden she ran into Concubine Zhao.
‘Well, well, sister!’ cried the concubine with a smile, ‘Why are you running about here at this hour of the day instead of resting at home?’
Mrs. Lin explained that she had gone home and why she had re¬turned, then gave a detailed account of what had happened.
Now the concubine was naturally officious, and as she kept on good terms with the stewards’ wives, trading information with them, she had a fair idea of what had happened. She told Mrs. Lin what she knew of the whole story.
‘So that’s the way it was!’ Mrs. Lin laughed. ‘What a storm in a teacup. If she’s kind she’ll forget it; if she’s mean, at most she’ll just give them a thrashing and have done with it.’
‘My dear sister-in-law,’ said the concubine, ‘this may not be serious but it shows how domineering they are, fetching you here for nothing to make an outright figure of fun of you. Go back and rest now; you’ll be busy tomorrow, so I won’t keep you for tea.’
Then Mrs. Lin left and was approaching the side gate when the daugh¬ters of those two women came up to her in tears and begged her to help.
‘You silly children,’ she scolded. ‘Who told your mothers to get drunk and talk nonsense, landing themselves in trouble? This had nothing to do with me. It was Madam Lian who had them tied up, and now people are holding me to blame too. I’m in no position to help you.
The two children, being only seven or eight, had no sense and just went on crying and pleading with her.
Unable to shake them off Mrs. Lin exclaimed,’ Silly creatures! Why don’t you approach the right people instead of pestering me?’ She turned to one girl. ‘Your elder sister’s mother-in-law Mrs. Fei came here with Lady Xing at the time of her marriage. Get your sister to ask her mother-¬in-law to enlist Her Ladyship’s help, then your problem will be solved, won’t it?’
The little girl accepted this advice. The other went on pleading.
‘How silly can you get?’ snapped Mrs. Lin. ‘If she goes and asks, the whole business will blow over. They can’t just let her mother off and have yours beaten, can they?’ With that she went off in her carriage.
So one of the small girls went to ask her sister to speak to old Mrs. Fei. This Mrs. Fei, as Lady Xing’s personal maid at the time of her marriage, had once been of some consequence, but as Lady Xing had recently lost favour with the Lady Dowager her servants had lost some of their authority too; thus they were always eager to find fault with the upper servants of ha Zheng’s household. Old Mrs. Fei, presuming on her age and Lady Xing’s backing, had taken to drinking and cursing people at random to work off her resentment. The Lady Dowager’s grand birth¬day celebrations had filled her with envy as she watched other people showing off their administrative ability and ordering their underlings about; but no one in Jia Zheng’s household paid much attention to her spiteful scolding and aspersions. The news now that Zhou Rui’s wife had had a relative of hers tied up added fuel to the fire of her indignation. Being in her cups, she pointed at the wall separating the two brothers’ houses and loosed off a flood of abuse. She then went to find Lady Xing.
‘My son’s mother-in-law has done nothing wrong,’ she complained. ‘She had a few words with one of the maids of Madam You over in the other mansion, and at the instigation of Zhou Rui’s wife Madam Lian has had her tied up in the stable. They’re threatening to beat her after the celebrations, and her an old woman of more than seventy too! Please, Your Ladyship, ask Madam Lian to let her off this once.
Lady Xing had felt snubbed after her request for Yuanyang was turned down; and since then the old lady had treated her more coldly, showing much more consideration to Xifeng. Still, moreover, during the Dowager Princess of Nanan’s recent visit, when she asked to see the girls the Lady Dowager had sent for Tanchun but passed over Yingchun. Lady Xing’s resentment had been rankling, only she had had no occasion to express it. And now these jealous and spiteful servants, not daring to avenge their own grievances, kept making up stories to provoke her, first simply denouncing servants of ha Zheng’s house, then by degrees throwing the blame on Xifeng herself. They said Xifeng just curried favour with the old lady and liked to throw her weight about keeping her husband under her thumb, getting Lady Wang worked up, and showing no respect at all for the real mistress of the mansion. Later, they even brought charges against Lady Wang, alleging that she and Xifeng had set the old lady against Lady Xing. So even if Lady Xing had been strong-minded, as a woman she could not help bearing a grudge, and recently she had come to detest Xifeng. When Mrs. Fei told her this tale she made no comment.
The next morning she went to pay her respects to the Lady Dowager. The whole family had come to feast and watch operas, and the old lady was in high spirits. As no distant relatives had been invited, only junior members of the family, she came out in informal dress to receive their salutations in the hall, reclining on a couch in the middle furnished with a pillow, back-rest and foot-stool. Seated on low stools around the couch were Baochai, Baoqin, Daiyu, Xiangyun, Yingchun, Tanchun and Xichun. Jia Bin’s mother had brought her daughter Xiluan too, Jia Qiong’s mother her daughter Sijie, and about twenty other grand-nieces of different ages had assembled as well.
As Xiluan and Siqi were good-looking, well-spoken girls a cut above the others, the Lady Dowager was delighted with them and made them also sit in front of her couch where Baoyu was massaging her legs. Aunt Xue had the seat of honour, the others sitting down in a row on each side according to their ages and the seniority of their family branch. In the corridor outside the portiere the male members of the clan also sat in due order.
First the women of the clan, row by row, paid their respects; then the men. By the time the old lady on her couch told them to desist, they had all gone through the ceremonies.
Then Lai Da led the other stewards and servants to kowtow, kneeling from the ceremonial gate to the hall. They were followed by their wives, then the maids from various apartments. This went on for the time it would take for two or three meals, and after that many bird-cages were brought into the courtyard and the birds let loose.1 Jia She and the others burnt incense and paper money to sacrifice to Heaven, Earth and the God of Longevity; and only then did they start to watch operas and feast. Not until the interval did the old lady retire to her room to rest, enjoining the others to enjoy themselves. She also told Xifeng to keep Xiluan and Sijie there to have a good time for a couple of days. Xifeng went out to inform the girls’mothers, and as they owed much to her they agreed with alacrity. And the girls were only too glad to amuse themselves in the Garden, and spend the night there.
That evening when the time came for the party to break up, Lady Xing in front of everyone approached Xifeng with a smile to ask her a favour.
‘Last night I heard you were angry and sent Steward Zhou’s wife to have two old women tied up ‘ I don’t know what they’d done wrong. By rights I shouldn’t ask to have them let off, but it seems to me the old lady’s birthday is surely the time to give alms to the poor and aged, yet here we are punishing old folk instead. So if you won’t give me this face, do at least let them off for the old lady’s sake!’ After this speech she went off in her carriage.
Mortified at being addressed like this in front of so many people, Xifeng flushed crimson, quite put out for a moment. Then she turned with a cold laugh to Mrs. Lai and the stewards’ wives.
‘How extraordinary!’ she said. ‘Yesterday some of this household annoyed Madam You of the other mansion, and not wanting her to take offence I left her to deal with the culprits. It wasn’t because they had offended me. Who’s been telling tales again?’
Lady Wang asked what all this was about, and Xifeng reported what had happened the previous day.
Then Madam You said with a smile, ‘I had no idea of this. And you needn’t have meddled.’
‘I wanted to save your face,’ retorted Xifeng. ‘That’s why I left you to deal with them ‘ that seemed only reasonable. Just as, if someone in your place offended me, stands to reason you’d send her to me to deal with, however much of a favourite that servant might be. I don’t know what busybody went and reported this as if it was something of conse¬quence, just to prove her loyalty.’
‘But what your mother-in-law said is right,’ put in Lady Wang. ‘Your cousin Zhen’s wife isn’t an outsider, so such formalities are uncalled for. The old lady’s birthday is the important thing. You’d better let them off.’
She turned and gave orders for both old women to be released.
More mortified than ever, in her frustration Xifeng could not hold back her tears. But not wanting anyone to see her weep, she went back in a pique to her room. However, it so happened that the Lady Dowager sent Hupo to fetch her. When Hupo saw her she exclaimed in surprise:
‘What’s come over you suddenly? The old lady wants you.
Xifeng hastily wiped her eyes, washed and powdered her face, then went over with Hupo.
The Lady Dowager asked her, ‘How many of those families who sent presents the other day sent screens?’
‘Sixteen families,’ replied Xifeng. ‘There are twelve big screens and four small ones for kang. The big screen sent by the Zhens south of the Yangzi has twelve red tapestry scenes from the opera Every Son a High Minister on one side and on the other gilded depictions of the char¬acter ‘Longevity’ in various styles of calligraphy. That’s the best of the lot. Then there’s a glass screen from the family of Admiral Wu of Can¬ton which isn’t bad.’
‘In that case don’t dispose of those two, but store them in a safe place,’ the old lady said. ‘I want to give them as presents.’
As Xifeng assented, Yuanyang suddenly stepped forward to stare at her.
‘Don’t you know her?’ asked the old lady. ‘What are you staring for?’
‘I’m wondering why her eyes are so swollen,’ answered Yuanyang with a smile.
The Lady Dowager told Xifeng to come closer and looked at her hard.
Xifeng tried to laugh it off.
‘My eyes were itching so I rubbed them,’ she said.
Yuanyang chuckled, ‘Has someone been provoking you again?’
‘Who would dare?’ retorted Xifeng. ‘Even if someone did, I wouldn’t dare cry on the old lady’s birthday.’
‘Quite right,’ agreed the Lady Dowager. ‘I’m just going to have my supper. You can wait on me, then take what’s left for yourself and Chen’s wife. Then you two must help the two nuns to pick some Buddhist beans for me. That’ll bring you long life too. The other day your girl cousins and Baoyu did that; so I want you to do it too, and then you can’t accuse me of favouritism.’
As she was speaking a vegetarian meal was served for the two nuns, after which a meal with meat was brought for the old lady. When she had finished eating, the remainder was taken to the outer room for Madam You and Xifeng. They had just started their meal when the old lady sent for Xiluan and Sijie to join them.
After that they washed their hands and lit incense, and a pint of beans was brought. First the two nuns chanted some Buddhist incantations over it, then they picked out the beans one by one and put them in a basket, chanting the name of Buddha over each. These beans would be cooked and distributed at the crossroads to bring longevity. The old lady lay down on her couch then and listened to the Buddhist tales of karma told by the nuns.
Yuanyang, having heard from Hupo about Xifeng crying, had found out the reason from Pinger. So that night after the others had left she reported:
‘Madam Lian did cry, because Lady Xing made her lose face in pub¬lic.’
Asked how it had happened, she told the old lady.
The Lady Dowager said, ‘This shows Xifeng has good manners. How can she allow servants to offend each and every mistress in our clan ‘and get away with it just because it’s my birthday? Lady Xing’s been sulking for some time but didn’t dare flare up. This gave her the excuse to shame Xifeng in public.’
Just then Baoqin came in and they broke off, the old lady asking Baoqin where she had come from.
‘We were chatting in Cousin Lin’s place in the Garden,’ she an¬swered.
This reminded the Lady Dowager of something, and she ordered an old woman to take her instructions to the servants in the Garden.
‘I’ve kept Xiluan and Sijie here,’ she said. ‘Though they may be poor they’re the same as our own young ladies, so you must look after them well. I know all our servants, men and women alike, are impressed only by riches and rank and unlikely to think much of them; but if I hear of anyone showing them the least disrespect, there’s going to be trouble!’
The woman assented and was about to leave when Yuanyang said, ‘I’ll go. The people there wouldn’t pay any attention to her.’
She went straight to the Garden, going first to Paddy-Sweet Cottage. Finding neither Li Wan nor Madam You there, she questioned the maids who told her that they were with Tanchun. Yuanyang went on to Morning Emerald Hall and, sure enough, found all the inmates of the Garden there chatting. At sight of her they pressed her to take a seat.
‘What brings you here at this hour?’ they asked.
‘Can’t I come and enjoy myself as well?’ Yuanyang chuckled be¬fore giving them the old lady’s message.
Li Wan hastily stood up to hear it, then sent for the chief servants from each household and ordered them to pass on these instructions.
Madam You remarked, ‘The old lady really thinks of everything. Even ten of us healthy young people put together aren’t up to her’
Li Wan said, ‘Xifeng’s devilish clever, she comes closest to her; but the rest of us can’t hold a candle to her.’
‘Don’t talk about her, poor thing,’ put in Yuanyang. ‘These last few years she may have made no mistakes that the old lady knows of, but she’s offended goodness knows how many other people. Well, it’s hard to please everybody. If you’re too honest and don’t know any tricks, your father and mother-in-law will think you a simpleton and the house¬hold won’t respect you. If you’re full of tricks, you’ll please some and offend others. In our family especially, this new lot of ‘mistresses’ promoted from slaves are so puffed up they all think they can do as they like. If they’re in the least dissatisfied, they gossip behind people’s backs or stir up trouble. So as not to upset the old lady, I haven’t breathed a word about this to her. If I did, none of us could have a single day of peace! I shouldn’t be saying this in front of you, Miss Tanchun, but when someone complains on the sly that the old lady dotes on Baoyu, that doesn’t matter ‘ it counts as natural partiality. But when the old lady shows her fondness for you, I hear the same person complain. Isn’t that ridiculous?’
Tanchun said with a smile, ‘There are plenty of silly people; don’t take it so seriously. It seems to me humble households are better off having fewer people even though they’re poorer, because parents and children enjoy themselves together, laughing and joking. In a big family like ours, outsiders think our wealthy young ladies must be very happy. Little do they know the unspeakable troubles we have here, much worse than anywhere else.’
‘Other people don’t worry as much as you, third sister,’ said Baoyu. ‘I’m always urging you not to listen to that vulgar talk or think about those vulgar matters. Just enjoy your wealth and high rank. You’re luckier than us men who can’t enjoy a quiet, leisurely life, but have to muck about.’
‘Who can compare with you, with not a care in the world?’ asked Madam You. ‘All you do is play around with your girl cousins, eating when you’re hungry, sleeping when you’re tired and going on like this year after year, taking no thought at all for the future.’
‘Every day I spend with my cousins is all to the good,’ he answered. ‘When I die that’ 11 be the end. Who cares about the future?’
The others laughed.
‘You’re talking nonsense again,’ teased Li Wan. ‘Even if you were good for nothing and stayed here all your life, these girls would get mar¬ried and leave the family, wouldn’t they?’
‘No wonder people say you belie your handsome looks,’ chuckled Madam You. ‘You’re really and truly a fool.’
‘A man’s fate is uncertain,’ Baoyu quipped. ‘Who knows when he will die? If I died today or tomorrow, this year or next, I’d die content.’
The others hastily stopped him.
‘He’s raving again,’ they said. ‘We mustn’t talk to him. If we do, he talks like a fool or a lunatic.’
‘Don’t say such things, Cousin Bao,’ Xiluan put in. ‘When all your sisters and cousins here have left to get married, the old lady and the mistress are bound to feel lonely too; then I’ll come and keep you corn¬pany.’
Li Wan and Madam You laughed.
‘You’re talking nonsense too, child. Are you never going to get mar¬ried? Whom are you trying to fool?’
Xiluan blushed and lowered her head.
It was then already the first watch, so they all went back to their own rooms to rest.
Yuanyang, when she reached the Garden gate, saw that the side gates were closed but not yet bolted. There was nobody about, and the only light apart from the faint moonlight was in the gatehouse. As she was all alone and had not brought a lantern, and as she walked quietly, no one in the gatehouse had noticed her approach. Happening just then to want to relieve herself, she left the path and walked across the grass to the back of a rockery under a large fragrant osmanthus. She had just skirted the rockery when the rustle of clothes made her start with fright, and looking in that direction she saw two people who at sight of her ducked behind some rocks under the trees. But Yuanyang had seen in the moon-light that one of them, a tall, buxom maid in a red skirt with loosely tied hair, was Siqi from Yingchun’s apartments. Assuming that she and another girl were also relieving themselves here and had dodged out of sight to frighten her for fun, she called out laughingly:
‘Siqi, if you don’t come out quickly and try to scare me, I’ll scream and have you caught as a thief. Fancy a big girl like you fooling about at this time of the night.’
Yuanyang was only teasing to get her to come out. But Siqi, having a guilty conscience, thought she had been caught red-handed and was afraid Yuanyang’s shouts would alert other people, which would be even worse. As Yuanyang had always treated her well, better than the other girls, she ran out from behind the tree to catch hold of her arm.
‘Good sister.’ she begged, dropping to her knees. ‘Do keep quiet for goodness’ sake.’
Puzzled by this, Yuanyang pulled her up to ask, ‘What do you mean?’ Siqi blushed crimson and burst into tears. Then Yuanyang remem¬bered that the other figure had looked something like a young man, and she guessed more or less what had happened. She flushed up to her ears, quite consternated. Presently, taking a grip on herself, she asked softly:
‘Who was he?’
Siqi sank to her knees again.
‘My cousin,’ she faltered.
Yuanyang spat in disgust.
‘How could you?’
Siqi turned and hissed, ‘It’s no use hiding. Sister’s seen you. Come here quick and kowtow to her.’
At that the page boy had to crawl out from behind the tree to thump his head vigorously on the ground. Yuanyang wanted to hurry away, but Siqi caught hold of her and begged through her sobs:
‘Our lives are in your hands, sister. Do, please, let us off!’
‘Don’t worry,’ said Yuanyang. ‘I won’t tell a soul.’
As she was speaking they heard someone at the side gate call, ‘Miss Jin’s left. Lock the gate.’
Yuanyang, unable to shake off Siqi’s grip, promptly called out, ‘I’m still here. Just wait a bit, I’ll be leaving in a minute.’
Then Siqi had to let her go.
To know what came of this, read on.

Chapter 72

Xifeng Puts up a Bold Front,
Ashamed to Admit Her illness
Lai Wang’s Wife Relies on Her Mistress’ Power
to Force Through a Match for Her Son


Yuanyang left the side gate still blushing, in a flutter after this shock. ‘This is serious!’ she thought. ‘If it got out, the charge of lewdness linked with theft might even cost them their lives besides involving other people. Well, as it’s no concern of mine, I’d better keep it to myself and not tell a soul.’ So on her return she simply reported that she had passed on the Lady Dowager’s orders, after which they all went to bed. After this Yuanyang seldom went to the Garden after dark; and reflecting that if even the Garden was the scene of such strange carryings-on, other places must be still worse, she went nowhere else either if she could avoid it.
Now Siqi and her cousin had been playmates as children and vowed in fun to marry no one else. Both of them had now grown up good-looking, and whenever Siqi went home they would exchange glances, recalling their former feeling for each other although neither could make open overtures. Besides, they feared their parents’ disapproval. So they had bribed the women in charge of the Garden gate to leave it open, and taking advantage of today’s confusion had had their first rendezvous. Although they had not made love, they had secretly exchanged solemn vows and pledges, baring their hearts to each other. Their sudden discov¬ery by Yuanyang had made the boy run off through the flowers and wil¬lows to slip out by the side gate.
Siqi, repenting too late, could not sleep that night. The next day when she saw Yuanyang she turned red and white by turns in an agony of embarrassment and guilt. She lost her appetite and grew quite bemused. But when two days passed without any repercussions she began to feel somewhat easier in her mind.
That evening, however, one of the matrons came to tell her in confidence,’ Your cousin’s skedaddled. He hasn’t been home for three or four days and a search is being made for him everywhere.’
Distraught by this news Siqi thought,’ Even if there’s a scandal we ought to die together. Of course, being a man he can go anywhere he wants to. How heartless he is!’ This embittered her so much that the next day she felt too upset to bear up. Ill with frustration she took to her bed.
When Yuanyang learned that a page in the Jia household had fled and Siqi was asking to go home on sick leave, she knew they were afraid of the consequences if she disclosed their secret. As this preyed on her mind, she went to see Siqi. After sending everyone else out of the room, she gave the girl her solemn word:
‘I’ll die before I breathe a word about this. Just stop worrying and nurse your illness. Don’t risk your little life like this, child!’
Siqi caught her by the arm.
‘Sister, we’ve been on good terms since we were children,’ she sobbed. ’You’ve never .treated me as an outsider and I’ve always re¬spected you. Now if you’ll really keep my slip-up a secret, I shall look on you as my own mother ‘ for I’ll owe every day that I live to you. If I get well, I shall set up a shrine to you and burn incense and bow to it every day to pray for good fortune and long life for you. If I die, I’ll become a donkey or a dog so as to repay your kindness. ‘Even the longest feast must break up at last,’ says the proverb. In two or three years we shall all be leaving this place. Still, even floating weeds may come together again, much more so human beings. And if we do meet again I shall try to repay your goodness.’ She shed tears as she spoke.
By now Yuanyang was weeping in sympathy.
Nodding she said, ‘All right. I’m not in charge, so why should I spoil your good name? Why be so officious? In any case, I could never bring myself to speak of such a thing. So don’t you worry. When you’re better you must behave more circumspectly and not carry on like that.’
Siqi propped on her pillow nodded repeatedly, and after more reassur¬ances Yuanyang left.
As she knew that Jia Lian was away and these last few days Xifeng had looked out of sorts, quite unlike her usual self, on the way back she called to see her. When she entered the courtyard the servants at the inner gate stood up to let her in, and as she stepped into the hail Pinger came out of the bedroom and approached her.
‘She’s just had a bite to eat and is having a nap,’ Pinger whispered. ‘Won’t you wait in the other room for a while?’ She took her to the eastern room where a maid served tea.
‘What’s the matter with your mistress these days?’ Yuanyang asked in a low voice. ‘I’ve noticed she seems very listless.’
As they were alone Pinger sighed, ‘She’s been this way for some time, at least a month. And these last few days she’s been kept on the go and provoked into the bargain, so that’s brought on a relapse. As it’s worse now than before, she can’t put up a brave front and hide it.’
‘In that case why not get a doctor in good time?’
Again Pinger sighed.
‘Don’t you know the way she is, sister? She won’t hear of fetching a doctor or taking medicine. When I simply asked out of concern how she felt, she swore crossly that my nagging was making her ill. Poorly as she is, she still insists on checking on this and that every day instead of taking things easy to get back her health.’
‘Even so, you ought to get a doctor to diagnose her illness and save us all worry.’
‘I’m afraid it’s something serious.’
‘What do you mean?’
Pinger drew closer to whisper, ‘Since her period last month she’s been having fluxions off and on non-stop. Wouldn’t you call that seri¬ous?’
‘Aiya! From what you say, it sounds like menorrhagia.’
Pinger spat in disgust, then chuckled.
‘What does a girl like you know about such things? It’s unlucky to talk like that.’
Yuanyang blushed.
‘I didn’t know any such things to start with,’ she answered. ‘But have you forgotten that was how my sister died? I’d no idea what her illness was till I overheard my mother telling her mother-in-law, and the name meant nothing to me. Later I heard mother explain its cause and that gave me an inkling.’
‘Yes, I’d forgotten that,’ said Pinger gently.
As they were chatting a maid came in.
‘Just now Mrs. Zhu came again,’ she announced. ‘We told her the mistress is having a siesta, so she went to Lady Wang’s place.’
Pinger nodded.
Yuanyang asked, ‘Which Mrs. Zhu?’
‘That professional go-between,’ Pinger explained. ‘The family of some official named Sun wants to arrange a match with us, so recently she’s been turning up here every day with a card, making a regular nui¬sance of herself.’
Before she had finished the maid returned to report, ‘The master’s back.’
By now Jia Lian was calling Pinger from the door of the hall, and before she could go to meet him he stepped through her doorway. At sight of Yuanyang seated on the kang he halted.
‘What brings our distinguished Sister Yuanyang to our humble abode?’ he asked smiling.
Remaining seated she answered, ‘I came to pay my respects to you and madam, but you were out and she was having a nap.
‘You work so hard all the year round for the old lady, by rights I should call on you. How can we trouble you to come to see us?’ He added, ‘Still, this is very opportune. I was meaning to go and see you, but felt so hot in this heavy gown that I came back first to change into a lighter one. Now Heaven has taken pity on me and saved me a trip by having you waiting here.’ He seated himself on a chair.
She asked what his business was.
‘It’s slipped my mind,’ Jia Lian chuckled, ‘but you may remember. On the old lady’s birthday last year, an itinerant monk presented her with a Buddha’s-hand made of soapstone; and as the old lady took a fancy to it, it was taken straight to her place for display. The other day on her birthday I checked our inventory of curios and found this listed there, but I don’t know where it’s got to now. The caretakers of the storeroom for antiques have mentioned it several times, as they want to record where it is. So I meant to ask you whether it’s still in the old lady’s place or whom she’s given it to.’
‘The old lady had it out for a couple of days, then got tired of it and gave it to Madam Lian,’ was Yuanyang’s answer. ‘So now you are asking me! I even remember the day when I sent Old Wang’s wife to bring it here. If you can’t remember, ask Madam Lian or Pinger.’
Pinger who was getting out clothes for Jia Lian came out on hearing this.
‘Yes, it was delivered here. It’s kept upstairs,’ she said. ‘Madam sent to tell them that it had been given to us, but the fools must have forgotten to record it. Now they’re pestering us again over these trifles.’
Jia Lian grinned.
‘How come I didn’t know it was given to your mistress? You two must have pocketed it.’
‘She told you, sir,’ Pinger retorted. ‘You wanted to give it to some¬one else, but she didn’t agree, so we managed to hang on to it. Now you’ve forgotten and say we’ve kept it. What precious, priceless rarity is it, pray? We’ve never kept anything from you, not even things ten times better than this. Why should we value that worthless object now?’
Jia Lian lowered his head with a smile to think this over, then clapped his hands.
‘Yes, I’m getting muddle-headed and forgetful,’ he exclaimed. ‘I don’t wonder you scold me ‘ my memory’s not what it was.’
Yuanyang smiled.
‘You’re not to blame. You have so much to attend to, so many people coming to you with requests; and then when you drink a few cups of wine how can you remember every single thing?’ While saying this she rose to take her leave.
Jia Lian stood up hastily too.
‘Dear sister, please sit down for a while,’ he begged. ‘I’ve some¬thing else to ask you.’ He reprimanded the maid, ‘Why didn’t you brew some better tea? Hurry up and fetch a clean bowl with a lid and brew some of that new tribute tea.’
Turning back to Yuanyang he went on, ‘These days, because of the old lady’s birthday, I’ve spent the few thousand taels of silver I had. Our house rents and land rents from various places won’t be coming in till the ninth month, so right now I’m rather hard up. Tomorrow I have to send presents to the Prince of Nanan and prepare Double-Ninth gifts for Her Imperial Highness; then there are weddings and funerals coming up in several other families too. I need at least two or three thousand taels, and I can’t raise that sum quickly. As the proverb says, ‘It’s better to ask of one’s own folk than of outsiders.’ So I wonder, sister, if you’ll stick your neck out and filch me a case of gold and silver utensils which the old lady isn’t using for the time being. I can pawn them for some silver to tide over. In less than half a year, when my money comes in, I’ll redeem them and return them. I promise not to land you in any trouble.’
‘You certainly know a trick or two,’ Yuanyang laughed. ‘The idea!’
‘I won’t lie to you,’ he chuckled. ‘Apart from you, there are sev¬eral others who have control of plenty of silver, but none of them is as sensible and plucky as you. If I approached them they’d take fright. So I’d rather strike the golden bell once instead of trying all the broken drums.’
At this point one of the Lady Dowager’s maids hurried in in search of Yuanyang.
‘The old lady wants you, miss,’ she said. ‘We’ve been looking ev¬erywhere, but here you were all the time.’
Then Yuanyang quickly went back.
As soon as she had gone Jia Lian went in to see Xifeng, who had woken up and heard him ask for a loan. Not liking to interpose, she just lay on the kang until Yuanyang had left and Jia Lian entered her room.
‘Did she agree?’ she asked him.
‘Not in so many words, but it looks hopeful,’ he answered cheerfully. ‘You must go and mention it again this evening, and that should fix it.’
‘I’ll do nothing of the sort,’ retorted Xifeng. ‘If she agrees, once you get hold of the money you’ll forget all your fine talk and promises now. Who’s going to run such a risk for you? If it came to the old lady’s ears, I’d lose all the face I’ve had the last few years.
‘Be an angel,’ he begged. ‘If you fix this up, I’ll make it worth your while ‘ how’s that?’
‘What with?’
‘Whatever you say.
Pinger beside them put in, ‘Don’t ask for any other rewards, madam.
Just yesterday you were saying you needed a couple of hundred taels. If you get this loan you can deduct them from that. Wouldn’t that suit you both?’
‘I’m glad you reminded me,’ cried Xifeng gaily. ‘All right then.’
‘What a hard bargain you drive,’ protested Jia [ian. ‘Don’t talk about pawning things for a mere thousand taels when I know you could easily produce three to five thousand of ready cash here and now. You should be thankful I’m not borrowing from you, just asking you to put in a word; and yet you still demand interest. This is the limit...’
Before he could go on, Xifeng sprang up.
‘If I have three thousand or fifty thousand, I didn’t earn it from you.’ she cried. ‘Nowadays everybody inside and out, high and low, keeps carping about me behind my back, so you may as well join in. Ghosts from outside don’t come in unless they’re invited by some family devils. Where did our Wang family’s money come from, pray? Is it all from your Jia family? Don’t make me vomit. You think you’re as rich as a mint-master. The sweepings from the cracks in our Wang family’s floor are enough to last you a lifetime. Aren’t you ashamed talking like that? There’s evidence to prove it. Just look at the dowries Lady Wang and I brought and compare them with yours. In what way are we inferior to you?’
‘Why take a joke so seriously?’ he asked, smiling. ‘This is nothing to get so worked up about. If you want a couple of hundred taels, that’s nothing. More than that I can’t manage, but this I can afford. Suppose you take that to be going on with before you raise this loan?’
‘I’m not waiting for that to pay for my funeral, so what’s the hurry?’
‘Why carry on like that? There’s no need to flare up.’
‘Don’t accuse me of temper. But your words cut me to the heart. I was thinking that the day after tomorrow is the anniversary of Second Sister You’s death; and as she and I were good friends, the least I can do is burn some paper money at her grave for friendship’s sake. Though she didn’t leave any children, we shouldn’t forget her now that she’s turned to dust.’
Jia Lian lowered his head and was silent for some time.
‘I’d forgotten,’ he admitted. ‘It’s good of you to remember. If you
don’t need the money till the day after tomorrow, wait till we raise this loan tomorrow, then you can take as much as you want from it.’
Just then Lai Wang’s wife came in.
‘Is it settled?’ Xifeng asked her.
‘No, nothing doing,’ answered Mrs. Lai. ‘But I think if you sponsor it, madam, it should come off.’
Jia [ian wanted to know what they were talking about.
‘It’s of no great consequence,’ Xifeng told him. ‘Lai Wang has a son who’s seventeen this year and not yet married. They want Caixia who waits on Lady Wang, but don’t know whether Her Ladyship will agree. The other day she kindly said that as Caixia is grown up and so delicate she can be given her freedom and sent home, so that her parents can arrange for her marriage. Then Mrs. Lai approached me. I thought the two families being fairly well matched, once the request was made it was bound to be granted. Yet here she comes now saying nothing do¬ing!’
‘What does that matter?’ he rejoined. ‘There are plenty of better girls than Caixia.’
Mrs. Lai put in with a smile, ‘You may look at it that way, sir; but her family turning us down like that will make others look down on us even more. It’s not so easy to find a suitable girl. I thought with your help we could fix it up ‘ that at a word from madam they’d surely agree. So I troubled some one to go and sound them out, but to my surprise we got snubbed. The girl herself is agreeable and never seemed to be against the match, but those two old creatures have grander ideas for their daugh¬ter.’
This was a challenge to Xifeng and Jia Lian; but as her husband was there the former said nothing, just waited to see his reaction. Jia Lian having other things on his mind did not take this seriously. However, as Mrs. [ai had accompanied Xifeng here at the time of her wedding and served them well, he could hardly ignore her request.
‘It’s not all that important,’ he said. ‘Why keep on about it? Don’t worry, you can go now. Tomorrow I’ll act as go between and send two respectable fellows with betrothal gifts to tell them it’s my proposal. If they still hold out, we’ll get them to come and see me.’
At a sign from Xifeng, Mrs. Lai fell on her knees to kowtow her thanks to Jia Lian.
‘It’s your mistress you should be kowtowing to,’ he said. ‘Even though I’ll do what I can, it would be best for her to send for Caixia’s mother and put it to her nicely. Otherwise even if they agree, we’ll seem too overbearing.’
‘If you’re willing to go to this trouble for her,’ put in Xifeng, ‘how can I just stand watching? Well, Mrs. Lai, you’ve heard that. After this is settled, you must hurry up and see to my business for me. Tell your hus¬band to collect all the money lent out before the end of this year ‘ not a single cash short. I’ve a bad enough reputation as it is. I don’t want to make it worse by going on lending out money.’
Lai Wang’s wife laughed.
‘You needn’t worry, madam. Who would dare say a word against you? But, honestly speaking, if you stopped lending out that money we’d save ourselves trouble and offend fewer people.’
Xifeng snorted.
‘I’ve acted like a fool all for nothing. What did I need money for? Only for daily expenses, as we’re overspending our income and our house¬hold is always short. My monthly allowance and his, plus those of our four maids, come to only some twenty taels a month ‘ not enough to last three or five days. If I hadn’t raised more by hook or by crook, we’d long ago have had to move into some tumble-down cave. But all I’ve got for my pains is the reputation of a moneylender. So I may as well call in all those loans. I can spend money as well as anyone else. In future let’s all sit here spending, without worrying how long the money will last. Isn’t that the idea?
‘Before the old lady’s birthday the other day, Lady Wang worried for two months, not knowing how to raise funds, till I reminded her that in the back upstairs storeroom there were four or five cases of big copper and pewter vessels lying useless. By pawning these for three hundred taels she managed to make her contribution. As for me, as you know, I sold that gold striking-clock for five hundred and sixty-four taels. But in less than half a month it all went on some ten outlays big and small. Now that even our treasury is short, someone’s had the bright idea of milking the old lady. A few more years and we’ll be reduced to selling our clothes and jewellery, and won’t that be fine!’
Lai Wang’s wife chuckled.
‘The clothes and jewels of any single one of our mistresses would raise enough to last us a whole lifetime. But of course that would never do.’
‘It’s not that I’ve got cold feet,’ Xifeng insisted. ‘But if things go on this way I really can’t cope. Last night I suddenly had a very odd dream. I dreamed that someone with a familiar face, but whose name I couldn’t recollect, came to see me. When I asked her business, she said Her Imperial Highness had sent her to fetch a hundred rolls of silk from me. I asked which Imperial Highness. She told me it wasn’t the one from our family, so I refused. Then she tried to take the silk by force. We were scuffling when I woke up.’
Lai Wang’s wife said with a smile, ‘That’s because you’d been worrying all day about presents for the Palace.’
Just then it was announced that the eunuch Xia had sent a young eunuch to see them.
Jia Lian frowned.
‘What is it this time?’ he exclaimed. ‘Haven’t they squeezed enough out of us this year?’
‘You keep out of sight and let me handle this,’ suggested Xifeng. ‘If it’s some small matter, all right. It it’s something important I know how to ward him off.’
Jia Lian withdrew then to the annex.
Xifeng ordered the young eunuch to be brought in and offered him a seat, after which tea was served. She then asked his business.
‘His Excellency Xia saw a house today which he’d like to buy, but he’s two hundred taels short,’ was the answer. ‘He sent me to ask you, madam, if you have ready money at home and can lend him a couple of hundred for the time being. He’ll pay you back in a few days.’
Xifeng replied with a smile, ‘Don’t speak of paying us back. We’ve plenty of silver here; just take any amount you need. If ever we’re short of funds, we’ll apply to you.’
‘His Excellency also said he still hasn’t repaid the twelve hundred taels he borrowed the last two times. He will definitely return it all before the end of the year.’
‘His Excellency is too scrupulous.’ Xifeng laughed. ‘He may as well forget it. At the risk of offending him I’d like to say that if he remem¬bered to pay us back all he’s borrowed, goodness knows how much that would come to. The only thing that worries us is that we may not have money when he needs it. As long as we have, he can take it.’ She called for Lai Wang’s wife and told her, ‘Go and get hold of two hundred taels from somewhere.’
Taking the hint, Mrs. Lai replied, ‘I came to borrow from you, madam, because I couldn’t raise money anywhere else.’
‘You just come in asking us for money,’ scolded Xifeng, ‘When I ask you to get some outside, you say you can’t.’ She told Pinger, ‘Take those two gold necklets of mine and have them pawned for four hundred taels.’
Pinger went off, returning after some lapse of time with a brocade-covered box containing two silk wrappers. In one was a gold filigree necklet studded with pearls as large as lotus seeds; in the other, a jewel¬led green enamel necklet. Both were similar to those made for the Pal¬ace. She took these away and soon brought back four hundred taels, half of which on Xifeng’s instructions she gave to the young eunuch, the other half to Lai Wang’s wife to meet expenses for the Moon Festival. Then the young eunuch took his leave, and a servant was ordered to carry the silver for him and see him out of the main gate.
Jia Lian returned now demanding, ‘When will those scoundrels out¬side stop plaguing us?’
Xifeng chuckled, ‘It’s a case of ‘talk of the devil.’’
‘Yesterday the eunuch Zhou came and asked straight out for a thou¬sand tales. When I hedged, he looked put out. In future we’re bound to offend them even more often. I only wish we could come into another two or three million taels.’
While he was speaking Pinger helped her mistress with her toilet, and then Xifeng went to wait upon the Lady Dowager at dinner.
Jia Lian had barely gone to his outside study when Lin Zhixiao ap¬peared.
‘Just now I heard that Jia Yucun has lost his post,’ he reported. ‘I don’t know why. Of course, it may not be true.’
‘Whether it’s true or not, he’s not likely to keep his present post for long,’ replied Jia Lian. ‘If he gets into trouble, I’m afraid we’ll be in¬volved. It would be better to keep clear of him.’
‘Quite so,’ agreed Lin. ‘But that’s easier said than done. At the moment he’s very thick with the master of the East Mansion, and our master Lord She likes him too. Every body knows that he’s a frequent visitor here.’
‘Provided we don’t get involved in any of his schemes, it doesn’t matter. Go and check up to find out what’s really happened.’
Lin Zhixiao assented, but instead of leaving he sat there chatting until the subject of their financial straits came up again. He took this chance to advise:
‘We should cut down on our household ‘ it’s too large. Why not ask the old lady and the master to release some old servants who have served the family well but are no longer useful? They all have indepen¬dent means, and that would save us some money and grain each year. We have too many maids as well. Now that times have changed we can’t follow the old rules but should tighten up a bit! Those used to eight maids can make do with six, those used to four with two. By cutting down like this in all our apartments we’d save a good deal of money and grain every year. And then half the girls in the household, who are grown up anyway, should get married. With them married, our household would increase. Wouldn’t that be a good thing?’
‘I’ve had the same idea,’ agreed Jia Lian. ‘But the master is only just back, and there are quite a few important matters I haven’t yet reported to him; so there’s been no time to bring this up. The other day when the professional match-maker came with a horoscope to propose a match, Her Ladyship told us not to mention it as His Lordship is just home, enjoying this family reunion, and a sudden proposal of this sort might upset him.’
‘Quite right and proper too. You think of everything, sir.’ ‘Yes, but this reminds me of something. Our man Lai Wang wants Caixia in Her Ladyship’s place for his son. Yesterday he asked my help. As it’s nothing important, I don’t think it matters which of you goes to propose it. Just send anyone who’s free and say I approve of the match.’
Lin Zhixiao could not but assent. After a pause, however, he smiled. ‘Actually, sir, if I were you I’d have nothing to do with this. That son of Lai Wang’s, for all he’s so young, drinks and gambles and gets up to all sorts of devilry outside. They may both be bond-servants; still, mar¬riage is for life. Though I haven’t seen Caixia these last few years, I hear she’s grown up a nice-looking girl. Why ruin her life for her?’
‘So that young fellow’s a dissolute drunkard, eh?’
‘He not only drinks and gambles but carries on outrageously outside. We’ve turned a blind eye because his mother worked for madam.’
‘I didn’t know that,’ said Jia Lian. ‘In that case we certainly won’t give him a wife. We’ll give him a good beating instead, then have him locked up and take his parents to task.’
‘This isn’t the time for that.’ The steward smiled. ‘I shouldn’t have brought it up. Wait till he makes trouble again and we’ll report it to you, sir, for you to handle. Better let him off for the time being.’
Jia Lian said nothing to this, and soon Lin Zhixiao withdrew.
That evening Xifeng sent for Caixia’s mother and proposed the match. Although the woman did not like the idea, as Xifeng had done her the honour of proposing it in person she had to agree out of hand. After she had left, Xifeng asked Jia [ian whether he had broached the matter.
‘I was meaning to,’ he said, ‘but then I heard that the boy is a worth¬less wretch. I thought: if he’s really no good, we’d better discipline him for a couple of days before giving him a wife.’
‘Who told you he’s no good?’
‘One of our servants, of course.
‘You think nothing of us Wangs, not even of me, much less our ser¬vants. I’ve spoken to Caixia’s mother and she’s consented gladly. Am I to call her back now and tell her it’s off?’
‘There’s no need for that if you’ve already made the proposal. I’ll just tell the boy’s father tomorrow to give him a good dressing-down.’
The rest of their conversation need not concern us.

Now Caixia after being released from service was waiting for her
parents to choose her a husband. Although she had been on friendly terms with ha Huan, nothing had come of it; and now she saw Lai Wang coming repeatedly to ask for her hand. As she had heard that his son was a drunkard and gambler and ugly into the bargain, she felt all the more upset ‘ for if Lai Wang fixed up this match with Xifeng’s backing her whole life would be ruined. This prospect made her so frantic that that evening she secretly sent her younger sister Xiaoxia to Concubine Zhao, to find out the situation.
Concubine Zhao had always been on good terms with Caixia and was all for giving her to Jia Huan, for then she would have an ally in the house. She had never expected Lady Wang to discharge her. Day after day she urged ha Huan to go and ask for her, but he was too shy to speak and not too attracted by Caixia in any case. To him, she was only a maid and he would have others in future; so he procrastinated, quite willing to give her up. His mother was reluctant to do this, however. After the younger sister came for news, as she was free that evening she went to enlist ha Zheng’s help.
‘What’s the hurry? ‘he asked. ‘Wait till the boys have studied a year or two more before we get concubines for them. I’ve already got two suitable maids in mind, one for Baoyu, one for Huan. But they’re still young and it might hold up their studies; so let’s wait a couple of years.’
‘Baoyu’s had one for two years already. Didn’t you know that sir?’ asked Concubine Zhao.
At once Jia Zheng demanded, ‘Who made the decision?’
Before she could answer they heard a crash outside. To know what had happened, read the following chapter.


Chapter 73

A Foolish Maid by Chance Picks up
a Pornographic Pouch
A Timid Young Lady ignores the Loss
of Her Gold Phoenix Tiara


Concubine Zhao’s conversation with Jia Zheng was interrupted by a crash outside. Upon inquiry they found that one of the shutters of the outer room, not being properly secured, had clattered to the ground. Con¬cubine Zhao reprimanded the maids and got them to fix it in place, then helped Jia Zheng to bed.
Meanwhile, in Happy Red Court, Baoyu had just gone to bed and his maids were thinking of turning in themselves when someone knocked at the gate. An old woman opened it to admit Xiaoque, a girl working for Concubine Zhao, who would not state her business but went straight in to find Baoyu already in bed, with Qingwen and some other maids sitting chatting beside him.
‘What’s happened?’ they asked. ‘What brings you here at this hour?’
Addressing herself to Baoyu, Xiaoque announced, ‘I’ve got some news for you. Just now my mistress was talking to Lord Zheng and I heard your name. So look out tomorrow if he sends for you.’
This said, she turned to leave.
Xiren urged her to stay for some tea, but for fear that the Garden gate would be closed she went off.
Baoyu instantly felt as distraught as Monkey King on hearing the incanta¬tion to tighten the magic band around his head. Staggered, he racked his brains but could think of no way out except to cram in readiness for a test the following day. He fancied that if he could give correct answers from his books, other lapses would be overlooked and he might muddle through. Throw¬ing a jacket round his shoulders he got up to study, thinking remorsefully, ‘I was sure he wouldn’t test me these first few days, so I let things slide and got rusty. If I’d known, I’d have done some revising every day.’
Now, the only ones of the Four Book he knew by heart together with the commentaries were the Great Learning, the Doctrine of the Mean and the Analects. His knowledge of the first half of Mencius was so sketchy that if suddenly give one sentence from it he would be unable to recite what followed, and the whole of the second half had slipped his mind. When it came to the Five Classics, while writing poems himself he had browsed quite often through the Book of Songs and if questioned on that should be able to get by. It did not matter that he had forgotten the rest, as his father had never told him to study them. As for classical prose, in the past few years he had read several dozen works includ¬ing the Zuo Annals, Anecdotes of the Warring States, the commen¬taries of Gongyang and Guliang, and some writings of the Han and Tang dynasties no more than a few score works in all; but he was quite unable to quote from them, for he had only glanced at them when at a loose end and in the mood. Never having studied them hard, he had since forgotten them and if tested on them now would be floored.
Then there were the fashionable eight-section essays which he had always loathed, taking the view that as these were not written by sages or worthies they could not expound the wisdom of sages or worthies and were simply ladders by which later examination candidates climbed up to bureaucratic advancement. Jia Zheng before his departure had set him over a hundred essays of this kind to study. Baoyu had skipped through these, noting here and there a well-written paragraph or argument or certain digressions, amusing anecdotes or poignant sentiments. But this again was only when the mood took him. He had never given his mind to studying whole essays. If he prepared one now, tomorrow he might be examined on quite another; and it was out of the question to revise the whole lot in one night. These reflections made him more and more frantic.
While Baoyu was dilly-dallying over his studies, none of the girls in his place could go to bed either. It goes without saying that his chief maids Xiren, Sheyue and Qingwen trimmed candles and poured tea for him. The younger ones, however, were all so sleepy that they kept dozing off.
‘Little bitches!’ Qingwen scolded. ‘You all sleep like the dead every day ‘ are you so short of sleep that you can’t even sit up late for once? If you drowse off again I’ll jab you with a needle.’
Just then they heard a thump in the outer room and rushing out to look found that one young maid, falling asleep in her chair, had banged her head on the wall. She woke up with a start to hear this scolding and in her dazed state imagined that Qingwen had struck her.
‘Good sister,’ she cried tearfully, ‘I promise not to do it again!’
The others burst out laughing.
‘Don’t punish her,’ put in Baoyu hastily. ‘You should have sent them all to bed. And you must be tired yourselves. You’d better take it in turns to get some sleep.’
‘Just get on with your work, Little Ancestor,’ urged Xiren. ‘You’ve only this one night; so give your mind to those books for the time being. You’ll have plenty of time once you’ve passed this test to attend to other things.’
As she spoke in such earnest Baoyu had to comply. He went on read¬ing. But presently when Sheyue poured him more tea to moisten his throat, he noticed that she was wearing a short jacket but had taken off her skirt.
‘It’s cold so late at night,’ he warned. ‘You should put on a gown.’
With a smile she pointed at his books.
‘Just forget us for the moment and concentrate on those.’
At this point Venturina dashed in through the back door declaring ex¬citedly that someone had just jumped down from the top of the wall.
‘Gracious! Where?’ cried the others.
At once they called people out to search everywhere.
Qingwen saw how wearisome Baoyu found this cramming, and knew that if he wore himself out tonight he was likely to make a poor showing the next day. She had been wanting to find some way out for him and this alarm provided her with a pretext.
‘Take this chance to sham ill,’ she advised him. ‘Just pretend you’ve had a fright.’
Baoyu snatched eagerly at this suggestion.
The matrons on night duty were summoned to search everywhere with lanterns.
When they failed to find anyone they said, ‘The girls, going out half asleep, must have taken some branches tossed by the wind for a man.
‘Stop farting!’ retorted Qingwen. ‘You’re trying to shift the blame for not making a proper search. More than one person saw someone break in. Some of us had gone out with Baoyu, and we all saw it. It gave him such a fright that he turned white and now he’s feverish. I’m going to the mistress to get a sedative for him, and when she asks what’s happened I’ll have to report it in full. So how can you give up search¬ing?’
At this the matrons dared not raise any further objections. They made a more thorough search while Qingwen and Venturina went off to fetch medicine, loudly spreading the news that Baoyu had fallen ill as a result of a shock. At once Lady Wang sent some of her own attendants to give him medicine, besides ordering those on night duty to search every nook and cranny of the Garden and check on the men on duty at the inner gate outside it. So they ransacked the Garden all night with lanterns and torches, and when dawn came the stewards were instructed to make careful investigations. They questioned all the matrons and men-servants who had been on night duty.
When the Lady Dowager heard of Baoyu’s fright and asked the rea¬son they dared not hide it from her.
‘I guessed as much,’ said the old lady. ‘It shows how careless they are on the night watch nowadays. And what’s more serious is that some of them may even be thieves themselves. You can never tell.’
Lady Xing and Madam You had come over to pay their respects and were waiting on her with Xifeng, Li Wan and the girls. They all remained silent after this remark until Tanchun stepped forward.
‘It’s true that with Cousin Xifeng unwell the servants in the Garden have become much more disorderly,’ she said. ‘At first, they used to gather in threes or fours to dice or play cards for small stakes in their spare time, or to keep themselves awake when on night duty. But re¬cently they’ve grown bolder. They’ve actually formed gambling clubs with someone acting as banker, and the stakes are as high as thirty, fifty or a hundred strings of cash. A fortnight ago they even started a fight.’
‘If you knew this why didn’t you report it before?’ demanded the old lady.
‘As Her Ladyship was busy and out of sorts and Cousin Xifeng was ill, I just told my sister-in-law and the stewardesses. I also reprimanded the servants several times, and lately they’ve behaved better.’
‘You unmarried young girls can’t be expected to know how serious this is. To you gambling is nothing much; you’re only afraid that it may lead to quarrels. But this gambling night after night leads to drinking and unlocking the gates to buy this, that and the other or send to look for someone. At the dead of night when few people are about, thieves may hide themselves there and debauchees and bandits can easily be smuggled in, and then anything could happen! Besides, in those places where you girls live in the Garden the maids are a mixed lot, some good and some bad. Pilfering isn’t of much consequence, but if worse trouble came of it there could be a scandal! This isn’t something we can pass over lightly.’
After this harangue Tanchun resumed her seat in silence.
Xifeng, though not fully recovered, was feeling a little better today. Having heard what the old lady said, she remarked, ‘It’s too bad my falling ill again at this time.’
She sent at once to summon Lin Zhixiao’s wife and three other stew¬ardesses in charge of the maids and reprimanded them in the presence of the Lady Dowager, who ordered them to fetch the culprits forthwith, promising rewards to those who voluntarily gave information and threat¬ening to punish any who withheld it. Seeing how angry she was, Mrs. Lin and the others dared not shelter their friends. They hurried to the Garden to summon and question all the servants in turn. Though at first everyone denied ever having gambled, in the end inevitably they arrived at the truth; there were three main bankers, eight minor ones, and more than twenty people involved in the gaming.
Haled before the Lady Dowager they all knelt down in the courtyard, kowtowing to beg for mercy. First she ascertained the names of the chief bankers and the sums of money involved. One was no other than a rela¬tive of Lin Zhixiao; another was the younger sister of Mrs. Lin the cook in the Garden; the third was Yingchun’s nurse. These three were the ring-leaders. The rest need not be enumerated here. The Lady Dowager ordered all the dice and cards to be burned and all the winnings confis¬cated and distributed among the other servants. The chief culprits were given forty strokes of the bastinado apiece then dismissed from service, with orders never to set foot there again. Their followers received twenty strokes apiece, were fined three months’ wages and demoted to clean the privies. Lin Zhixiao’s wife was also reprimanded.
Her relative’s disgrace mortified Mrs. Lin, and Yingchun too was embarrassed. Daiyu, Baochai and Tanchun sympathizing with her rose to beg the old lady to forgive her nurse.
‘That nanny never used to gamble,’ they pleaded. ‘She must have been drawn in accidentally. Do let her off for Cousin Yingchun’s sake.’
‘You don’t understand,’ said the Lady Dowager. ‘Those nannies are privileged because they nursed you. As a result they’re worse than anyone else when it comes to making trouble, setting their mistresses against each other and covering up the faults of their favourites. I’ve experience enough of that. I’ve been meaning to make an example of one of them and now, luckily, she’s presented me with the chance. So don’t interfere. I know what I’m doing.’
Then Baochai and the others could say no more.
Presently the old lady lay down to have a nap and the others with¬drew; but knowing how angry she was they did not go straight home. Madam You chatted for a while in Xifeng’s place, and when Xifeng looked tired she left to pass the time with the girls in the Garden. Lady Xing after sitting a little with Lady Wang decided to take a stroll in the Garden too. She had just reached the gate when Sister Numskull, one of the Lady Dowager’s maids, came along chortling to herself over some gaudy object in her hands, and as her head was lowered bumped into Lady Xing. She looked up then and halted.
‘What outlandish toy have you got there that you’re so pleased, silly creature?’ asked Lady Xing. ‘Let me see it.’
This Sister Numskull, who was fourteen or fifteen, had recently been chosen to do rough jobs ‘ fetching water or sweeping the yard ‘ for the Lady Dowager. She was plump with a round face and big feet, a good, fast worker. And being ignorant and simple-minded she behaved and talked quite unconventionally. Since the old lady liked her rough-and¬-ready ways and her ability to make people laugh, she gave her the nick¬name Numskull and when she felt bored would make fun of her, letting her behave in any way she liked. For this reason she also called Numskull her crazy maid. So when the girl did anything wrong no one took her to task for it, knowing the old lady’s partiality to her. And this emboldened her when she was free to go and play in the Garden.
Today she had been catching crickets there when she saw behind a rock a gaily embroidered sachet. It was exquisitely made and very charm¬ing, but on it in place of the usual flowers or birds were two naked figures locked in embrace, and on the other side some characters.
Not knowing that this was pornography the silly girl wondered, ‘Are these two monsters fighting? Or maybe a husband and wife tussling to¬gether?’ Unable to make it out she had started back, chuckling to her¬self, to show it to the Lady Dowager. In reply to Lady Xing’s question she said:
‘Yes, this really is very strange, madam. Do have a look.’ She handed her the pouch.
One glance at it so horrified Lady Xing that she clutched it tight.
‘Where did you find this?’
‘Behind a rock when I was catching crickets.’
‘Mind you don’t tell anybody! It’s something very wicked. You’d be beaten to death for picking it up if you weren’t such a fool. But you mustn’t mention it to anyone else.’
Numskull turned pale with fright.
‘I won’t!’ she promised, then kowtowed several times and went off quite bewildered.
Lady Xing looked round and saw some girls about. She stuffed the pouch into her sleeve to conceal it from them, wondering where it could have come from, then hiding her consternation went on to see Yingchun.
Yingchun was vexed and depressed by her nurse’s disgrace. When Lady Xing was announced she invited her in and tea was served.
‘You’re no longer a child,’ scolded Lady Xing. ‘Why didn’t you take your nurse to task for carrying on in that way? Other people’s ser¬vants don’t misbehave, only ours ‘ how do you account for that?’
Yingchun lowered her head to play with her sash.
‘I did speak to her twice but she paid no attention,’ she muttered after a pause. ‘What more could I do? Besides, she’s my nanny. It’s for her to scold me, not for me to speak sharply to her.’
‘Nonsense. If you do wrong, of course she should pull you up; but when she breaks the rules like this you should assert your authority as mistress. If she wouldn’t obey you, why not report it to me? Once out¬siders hear about this what fools we shall look!’
‘Another thing, to raise money for her bank I daresay she wheedled you, soft and spineless as you are, into lending her some trinkets and clothes to pawn. If she’s swindled you I haven’t a cent to help you redeem your trinkets and clothes for the coming festival.’
Yingchun, her head lowered, just fingered her clothes in silence.
Lady Xing laughed scornfully.
‘Your fine brother and sister-in-law, Master Lian and Madam Lian, are high and mighty. They control this household and run everything but pay no attention to you, their only younger sister. If you were a child of my own and discriminated against, there’d be nothing we could do about it. Yet you’re not my own child. But even though you and Lian didn’t have the same mother, at least you have the same father; so he ought to show a little consideration instead of making people laugh at you.
‘It’s a mystery to me the way things turn out. Your mother was Lord She’s concubine, Tanchun’s mother Lord Zheng’s concubine, and by rights you two should have the same status. When your mother was alive she was ten times better than Concubine Zhao, so you should be superior to Tanchun. How come, then, you’re not half as good? Isn’t it strange? Well, I’m thankful I’ve no children of my own to make a laughing-stock of me.’
Some servants waiting on them interposed, ‘Our young lady’s good-hearted and honest, not like Miss Tanchun who talks so glibly and likes to score off her cousins. She knows very well how it is with our young mistress but never shows the least concern for her.’
‘What can you expect when her own brother and sister-in-law treat her like that?’
Just then the arrival of Xifeng was announced.
Lady Xing snorted.
‘Ask her to go back and rest to get over her illness. I don’t need her services here.’
Then another maid came to report that the old lady had woken up, whereupon Lady Xing took her leave.
‘Now what’s to be done?’ asked Xiuju when Yingchun came back from seeing off Lady Xing. ‘The other day I told you, miss, that gold filigree phoenix tiara inlaid with pearls was missing, but you wouldn’t even ask what had happened to it. When I said nanny must have pawned it to raise money for gambling, you didn’t believe me and told us to ask Siqi where she had put it. I did. And though she was ill she remembered quite distinctly that it hadn’t been put away but left in a case on the bookshelf for you to wear during the Moon Festival. You should have asked nanny about it, only you’re too soft and afraid of offending people. Now it’s missing, won’t it look odd if you’re the only young lady not wearing one tomorrow?’
‘There was no need to ask,’ said Yingchun. ‘Of course she took it to tide her over. I thought she’d smuggled it out and would smuggle it back again in a day or two, but apparently she forgot. It’s no use asking her now that she’s in trouble.’
‘How could she have forgotten? She knows you too well and was simply taking advantage of you, miss. I’ve just had an idea. Why not let me go and report this to Madam Lian? She can either send to demand it back or just get it out of hock for her with a few strings of cash. What do you think?’
‘Don’t do that,’ demurred Yingchun hastily. ‘Let’s not make any fuss. I’d rather lose it than stir up more trouble.’
‘How can you be so soft, miss?’ protested Xiuju. ‘If you’ll never stand up for your rights, some day you’ll be spirited away yourself! Bet¬ter let me go.’ She started off and Yingchun had no way to stop her.
Now the wife of Wang Zhu the old nurse’s son had come to beg Yingchun to intercede for her mother-in-law, but she stayed outside when she heard this talk about the gold phoenix tiara. Yingchun was so weak that none of the servants were afraid of her. If Xiuju reported this to Xifeng, however, it would be serious. So Mrs. Wang came in, with an ingratiating smile, to make her appeal.
First she begged Xiuju,’Please don’t go, miss, to stir up trouble. My mother-in-law, being old and muddle-headed, borrowed your young lady’s phoenix tiara because she’d lost some money and had no means of win¬ning it back. She meant to redeem it in a day or two, but she didn’t recoup her losses and that delayed her. Then, as ill luck would have it, someone told tales and landed her in trouble. Still, we can’t keep some¬thing belonging to your mistress. We’ll redeem it without fail.’ She turned to Yingchun. ‘Do us a favour, miss. As she nursed you at her breast when you were small, go and ask the old lady to let your old nanny off.’
‘It’s out of the question, sister,’ replied Yingchun. ‘Even if I pleaded for a year it wouldn’t be any use. Just now Cousin Baochai, Cousin Daiyu and the other girls tried to beg her off, but the old lady wouldn’t hear of it. How much more could I do alone? Besides I’ve been humili¬ated enough. Why should I go asking for another snub?’
Xiuju put in, ‘Redeeming the tiara and asking a favour are two quite different things. Don’t mix them up. Or do you mean you won’t give it back if our young lady doesn’t get her off? Go and fetch the tiara first.’
Yingchun’s refusal and Xiuju’s taunt left Wang Zhu’s wife at a mo¬mentary loss. Then, in her mortification, she took advantage of Yingchun’s good temper to round on her maid.
‘Don’t be so smug, miss!’ she cried. ‘In all the different young masters’ and mistresses’ households, which nurse or nanny doesn’t get certain perks. Why expect us to be so scrupulous? Are you maids the only ones allowed to filch things on the sly? After Lady Xing’s niece came here, Her Ladyship ordered us to save one tael of silver a month for her sister-in-law; so here we are spending more on Miss Xiuyan while getting one tael less. And when you’re short of this or that we have to provide it. Who goes to ask for more money? We just make do some¬how. We’re out of pocket by at least thirty taels. Now it seems we’ve been spending our money all for nothing...
Not waiting for her to finish, Xiuju spat in disgust.
‘On what have you spent thirty taels for us? Let’s work it out. What has our young lady asked you for?’
As the woman had cast aspersions on Lady Xing. Yingchun hastily interrupted, ‘That’s enough. If you can’t produce my tirara, at least don’t drag in other things and raise this rumpus. I don’t want that tiara. If Their Ladyships ask about it I’ll tell them I’ve lost it, so as not to involve you. Better go back and rest now.’ She told Xiuju to bring her some tea.
Instead the girl exploded, ‘You may not mind, miss, but how about us who are supposed to be looking after you? After filching your things they even accuse you of sponging on them and want their money back! If Her Ladyship asks you why and how so much was spent, people may think we’ve been squeezing you! That would be dreadful!’ She burst into tears.
Siqi could not let this pass either and dragged herself out of bed to take Xiuju’s side. Unable to stop their dispute, Yingchun picked up Retri¬bution for Good and Evil and started reading it.
It so happened that Baochai, Daiyu, Baoqin and Tanchun had agreed to come together to cheer Yingchun up, guessing that she must be mop¬ing. They reached the courtyard as the three servants were squabbling. And Tanchun peeping through the window was amused to see Yingchun sitting on the couch reading, oblivious of the row. A small maid hastily raised the porti ‘ re and announced the young ladies’ arrival. Yingchun put down her book and got up while Mrs. Wang, seeing Tanchun among the visitors, quieted down of her own accord and prepared to slip out.
Tanchun sat down and asked, ‘Who were talking in here just now? It sounded like a quarrel.’
‘Not really,’ Yingchun told her. ‘They were making a mountain out of a molehill. It’s nothing to worry about.’
Tanchun smiled.
‘I heard something about a gold phoenix and ‘sponging on us ser¬vants.’ Who’s been asking the servants for money? Have you, cousin? Don’t you get your monthly allowance just like the rest of us?’
‘Of course she does,’ cried Siqi and Xiuju. ‘All the young mistresses get the same and their nurses and nannies make free with their money, never keeping any account, just asking for what they need. But now she claims that our young lady overspent and they had to make it up. When did our mistress ever ask them for anything?’
‘If my cousin hasn’t, they must mean we have. Call her in. I want to get this clear.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ protested Yingchun. ‘This doesn’t concern you, so why involve yourself with her?’
‘That’s not so,’ retorted Tanchun. ‘We’re in the same boat, cousin, so your business is mine too. If she’s rude to you, she’s rude to me as well. You’d feel the same if you heard someone in my place complaining about me. Of course, as mistresses we don’t worry about trifling ex¬penses, just ask for whatever we want ‘ yes, that does happen. But what was that about your gold phoenix tiara?’
Wang Zhu’s wife hurried in now to defend herself before Xiuju and Siqi could accuse her. And Tanchun seeing this smiled.
‘How stupid you are!’ she sneered. ‘As your mother-in-law’s in trouble you should beg Madam Lian to redeem the tiara with some of the winnings still left, to settle the matter. It’s not as if we don’t know about this, so we could have covered it up to save her face. Since she’s already lost face, whatever crimes she’s charged with she can only be punished once ‘ nobody has two heads to be chopped off. So if I were you I’d appeal to Madam Lian. It’s outrageous to make a scene here.’
The woman could not deny the truth of this, but she dared not go to confess the theft to Xifeng.
‘If I hadn’t heard about it that would be different,’ Tanchun contin¬ued. ‘But now that I know about this I shall have to help you out.’
She signalled to Shishu, who slipped out of the room. And the others went on talking until suddenly Pinger came in.
‘Cousin Tanchun must have magic powers,’ giggled Baoqin clapping her hands. ‘She can summon goddesses.’
‘This isn’t Taoist magic,’ Daiyu chuckled. ‘It’s the first rate mili¬tary tactic called ‘guarded as a virgin, swift as a hare’ to catch your opponent off guard.’
Baochai shot them a warning glance and they dropped the subject.
‘Is your mistress any better?’ Tanchun asked Pinger. ‘Her illness has really made her lose her wits. She’s let everything slide, and we’re the ones who suffer.’
‘What do you mean, miss?’ asked Pinger hastily. ‘Tell me who’s dared to offend you.’
Wang Zhu’s wife stepped forward, very flustered, to urge her, ‘Please take.a seat, miss, and let me explain.’
‘Who are you to butt in when the young ladies are talking?’ de¬manded Pinger sternly. ‘If you had any manners, you’d wait outside till you were sent for. It’s unheard of for servants from outside to enter the young ladies’ rooms without any reason.’
‘You should know we have no manners here,’ put in Xiuju. ‘People barge in whenever they please.’
‘That’s your fault,’ retorted Pinger. ‘Your young lady is good-na¬tured, but you should put people out and then report them to Her Lady¬ship.’
Seeing that Pinger was red in the face with anger, Mrs. Wang finally withdrew.
Tanchun resumed, ‘Let me tell you: if anyone else offended me I’d not make an issue of it. But this woman and her mother-in-law, because Yingchun’s so sweet-tempered and she’s her nanny, smuggled out her trinkets so that she could gamble and then cooked up a false account to blackmail Yingchun into getting her off. Wang Zhu’s wife had a big row with these two maids in the bedroom, and Yingchun couldn’t control her. It was too much for me: that’s why I asked you over. Tell me, has that woman, coming from another planet, no sense at all? Or has someone put her up to this to get Yingchun to knuckle under first, and after that Xichun and me?’
‘What an idea, miss!’ declared Pinger with a smile. ‘How could our mistress stand up to such a charge?’
Tanchun smiled cynically.
‘As the proverb says, ‘Everyone feels for his fellow creatures.’ And ‘When the lips are gone the teeth will feel the cold.’ How can I help being alarmed?’
Pinger asked Yingchun, ‘What’s your opinion, miss? A little business like this is easy to handle, but she’s your nanny’s daughter-in-law after all.’
Yingchun, reading Retribution for Good and Evil with Baochai, had not even heard what Tanchun was saying.
‘Why ask me?’ she replied. ‘There’s nothing I can do. They brought this on themselves. I can’t get them off but I shan’t blame them either. If they bring back the tiara I’ll take it; if not I won’t demand it. If the mistresses ask about it and I’m able to cover up for them, they’ll be in luck; if I can’t, there’s no more I can do. I can’t lie to the mistresses for their sake ‘ I have to tell the truth. If you say I’m too soft and can’t make up my mind, while you have a good plan to please all parties with¬out annoying the mistresses, just go ahead with it ‘ I don’t need to know it.’
This answer amused them all.
Daiyu chuckled, ‘This is really a case of ‘descanting upon religion while tigers and wolves gather at one’s gate.’ What would happen to this household if you were a man and had to keep it in order?’
‘Many men are the same, so why laugh at me?’ answered Yingchun.
As she was speaking a new arrival walked in. If you want to know who it was read the following chapter.

Chapter 74

Malicious Talk Makes Lady Wang Have
a Search Made of the Garden
To Guard Her integrity Xichun Breaks with
the Ning Mansion


As Pinger was smiling over Yingchun’s answer they were suddenly joined by Baoyu. It turned out that enemies of Mrs. Liu in charge of the Garden’s kitchen had reported that she had organized gambling parties in her younger sister’s name, and they had divided the winnings equally. Alarmed by the news that Xifeng had decided to have her punished too, Mrs. Liu had hurried to Happy Red Court, being on the best of terms with the maids there, and secretly got Qingwen and Venturina to enlist Baoyu’s help. And as Yingchun’s nurse was also incriminated, he thought it better to go with Yingchun to inter¬cede for both women instead of going alone for Mrs. Liu.
When he found so much company there and was asked about his health and why he had come, he replied evasively that he had simply dropped in to see Yingchun. The others accepted this and went on chat¬ting. Presently Pinger took her leave to attend to Xifeng’s business, and Mrs. Wang followed her out. ‘Do put in a good word for us, miss,’ she begged. ‘We’re going to redeem the tiara anyhow, I promise you.
‘You’ll have to sooner or later,’ retorted Pinger. ‘So why make such a scene today? You expect us to get you off, don’t you? Well, if you’re truly repentant I haven’t the heart to report this, not if you bring the tiara straight back to me as soon as possible,’
‘I will,’ promised Mrs. Wang, reassured by this. ‘I won’t keep you from your work, miss. I’ll get it out of hock this evening and report to you before returning it,’
‘Mind you do, or you’ll have to take the consequences!’
Then they went their different ways, Pinger rejoining Xifeng who asked her what Tanchun had wanted her for. ‘She was afraid you were an¬gry,’ Pinger prevaricated. ‘She urged me to soothe you and asked how your appetite was.’
‘That was kind of her. Just now something else cropped up. It’s been reported to me that Liu Er’s wife and her younger sister ran gambling parties together, but Mrs. Liu was really the one behind it. You’ve al¬ways advised me to let things slide whenever possible, to get more rest and keep fit. Because I ignored your advice, I’ve had to pay for it’ to start with, I’ve offended my mother-in-law and ruined my own health. Well, now I know better. Let them raise any rumpus they please; at any rate there are plenty of other people to control them. Why should I worry for nothing, just getting myself disliked by everyone? It’s more important for me to take care of my health. And even after I’m better I mean to take things easy leave all responsibility to them and have a good time myself. So I’m paying no attention, as I said, to that report.’
‘If you take that line madam, so much the better for us,’ Pinger ap¬proved.
Just then ha Lian came in. With a clap of his hands he sighed.
‘Here’s fresh trouble out of the blue! How did my mother come to hear of Yuanyang’s loan to me the other day? Just now she sent for me and asked me to raise two hundred taels no matter where for her Moon Festival expenses. When I told her I’d nowhere to raise it she retorted, ‘When you’re short yourself you can get a loan, but when I ask your help you fob me off saying you’ve nowhere to turn. Where did you get stuff the other day to pawn for a thousand taels? You can even spirit away the old lady’s things, yet you boggle now at a mere two hundred taels. It’s lucky for you I haven’t told anyone else.’
‘I can’t believe she’s really short of money. Why should she pick on me like this for nothing?’
‘There were no outsiders here that day. How did the news leak out?’ wondered Xifeng.
Pinger thought back carefully, then cried, ‘I know! That evening the things were brought over, the mother of the old lady’s girl Numskull came to deliver the laundry and stayed chatting for a while in the servants’ quarters. She must have asked what was in the big case, and one of our maids, not knowing any better, told her.’
She called in the maids and asked which of them had blabbed to Numskull’s mother. In fright the girls dropped to their knees, swearing that none of them dared say a word out of turn: whenever questioned about anything they de¬nied all knowledge of it, so how could they have let this secret out?
Xifeng saw they were telling the truth.
‘No, they wouldn’t dare,’ she agreed. ‘We mustn’t wrong them. Let’s not worry about this now but find a way to satisfy Her Ladyship. However short we are ourselves, we mustn’t get into her bad books again.’ She told Pinger to pawn her gold necklace for two hundred taels and have the money sent to Lady Xing.
‘Let’s pawn it for four while we’re at it,’ suggested Jia Lian. ‘We need money ourselves as well.’
‘No, I don’t need any,’ she answered. ‘And we don’t know yet how to raise two hundred to redeem it.’
Pinger sent Lai Wang’s wife with the necklace to the pawnshop. And on her return, Jia Lian himself took the money to Lady Xing while Xifeng and Pinger went on trying to guess who had let the cat out of the bag.
‘Her Ladyship knowing doesn’t matter much,’ Xifeng observed. ‘The danger is that her servants may take this chance to gossip and stir up fresh trouble. Those greedy gluttons in the other house, who are al¬ways throwing dirt, bear Yuanyang a grudge. If they hear that she’s secretly lent things to Master Lian, they may make a commotion and spread outrageous talk. Master Lian can take it, but Yuanyang’s a good girl and if she’s involved in trouble it will be our fault.’
‘Don’t worry,’ Pinger laughed. ‘Yuanyang lent us those things for your sake, not for our master’s. Though it sounds like a secret favour, in fact she’ll have got the old lady’s permission first. The old lady only pretends not to know because she has so many grandchildren, and if all of them borrow her things to pawn but then make a scene saying that they can’t replace them, how is she to cope? So even if this gets out it won’t hurt Yuanyang.’
‘Even so, we know Yuanyang’s all right, but those who don’t know her are bound to think the worst.’
Just then Lady Wang was announced. Surprised by this unexpected visit, they hurried out to welcome her. They saw that her face was stern and she was accompanied by her confidential maid only. Without a word she went into the inner room and sat down, while Xifeng poured her some tea.
‘You must be in good spirits,’ Xifeng remarked, ‘to stroll over here today, madam.’
Lady Wang sharply ordered Pinger to leave the room. Hastily assent¬ing she withdrew with all the other maids, wondering what this fore¬boded. Having closed the door behind her, she sat on the steps to stop anyone else going in. Xifeng was flustered too and quite bewildered.
Then Lady Wang with tears in her eyes produced a sachet from her sleeve.
‘Look at this!’
Xifeng took it and saw the indecent embroidery on it. Very shocked she exclaimed, ‘Where did you find this, madam?’
Tears streaming down her cheeks Lady Wang quavered, ‘Are you asking me? I’ve been in the dark all this time. Relying on your discretion, I took things easy. I’d no idea you were just as careless as me. Fancy leaving a thing like this on a rock in the Garden, openly, in broad daylight too! One of the old lady’s maids picked it up. Luckily your mother-in-law found her with it; otherwise she’d have taken it to the old lady. How could you be so thoughtless as to leave this lying around?’
‘What makes you think it’s mine, madam?’ asked Xifeng, changing colour.
‘Whose else could it be?’ Lady Wang sobbed. ‘Just think, you’re the only young couple in our household. What would older women be doing with such a thing? And where could the girls get hold of it? No, it must be that dissolute wretch of a husband of yours who picked it up somewhere. And intimate as you are, it’s natural that you young people keep playthings of this kind in your bedroom. Don’t try to deny it. It’s a mercy that nobody else in the Garden knows. If one of the maids there had found it and your girl cousins saw it, that would have been terrible! Or suppose some little maids picked it up and took it outside, telling people they had found it in the Garden, how could we ever hold up our heads again?’
Red in the face with pique and mortification, Xifeng knelt down by the kang.
‘Of course your reasoning is logical, madam,’ she said tearfully. ‘I daren’t contradict you. Still, do think more carefully, madam.
‘In the first place, this sachet was made by craftsmen outside. See, the belt and tassels are the kind sold in the market. If they’d been made by embroiderers of our house they’d certainly be finer. However young and flighty I may be, I wouldn’t want such trash.
‘In the second place, this isn’t the sort of thing I’d carry around with me. Even if I had one I’d have to keep it indoors, not take it everywhere with me. Besides, when I’m in the Garden with the girls we often scuffle in fun, and think how ashamed I’d feel if it was seen, not only by my cousins but even by the servants! However young and flighty I may be, I wouldn’t be as foolish as all that.
‘In the third place, of all the ladies of our house I’m the only young married woman, but there are plenty of servants’ wives younger than me who are for ever dropping into the Garden then going home again at night. Couldn’t this belong to one of them?
‘Fourthly, I’m not the only visitor to the Garden. Lady Xing of the other house often takes Yanhong, Cuiyun and other young concubines there. They’re all more likely than me to have such things. Cousin Zhen’s wife isn’t too old either, and she often brings along Peifeng and others; so this could equally well belong to them.
‘Fifthly, with so many maids in the Garden, can we guarantee that they all behave properly? Isn’t it possible that one of the older girls, who knows the facts of life, sneaked out unchecked or made some pretext to gossip with the pages at the inner gate, and smuggled this in from outside?
‘This not only isn’t mine, I can assure you that Pinger has never had such a thing either. Please reconsider the matter carefully, madam.’
This made good sense to Lady Wang.
‘Get up,’ she said with a sigh. ‘I should have known that a girl of good family like you couldn’t be so frivolous. I just challenged you be¬cause I was so angry. But what’s to be done? Your mother-in-law sent this over just now in a sealed package with word that she got it from Numskull the day before yesterday. I nearly choked with rage!’
‘Don’t be angry, madam. If this gets out, it may come to the old lady’s ears. We must calm down and investigate this on the quiet to get to the bottom of it. And even if we fail to find the culprit, we mustn’t let outsiders know about it but ‘hide our broken arm in our sleeve.’ Now let’s take this gambling as a pretext to dismiss a good few servants. Let’s choose four or five stewardesses like the wives of Zhou Rui and Lai Wang, whose discretion we can count on, and put them in the Garden ostensibly to check up on the gambling.
‘We have too many young maids now. As they grow up they start getting ideas and cause trouble. If we wait till there’s a scandal, we shall regret it too late. Now if we send some of them packing for no reason, it’ll not only vex the girls but will make us seem unreasonable, madam. So let’s take this chance to find fault with some of the older and more obstreperous ones, and send them home to get married. This will prevent any scandals here and save us money too. What do you think, madam?’
Lady Wang sighed again.
‘You are right, of course. But to be fair to your cousins, I pity the poor girls. We needn’t go further back, but just look at Daiyu’s mother ‘how cosseted she was before she married, treasured like gold or jade! She lived in real style like a fine young lady. But our girls today are only slightly better off than other people’s servants, with merely two or three presentable maids apiece and four or five younger ones who look like scarecrows. I haven’t the heart to cut down their attendants, and I doubt if the old lady would agree to it either. Difficult as things are, we’re not all that poor. I never lived in real luxury and style, yet as a girl I was better off than you. I’d sooner skimp a little myself rather than see them go short. If we’re to save money I’m willing to make a start.
‘Now, send for Zhou Rui’s wife and the others and order them in strict confidence, mind to hurry up and get to the bottom of this.’
Xifeng called Pinger in to pass on these orders. And soon the wives of Zhou Rui, Wu Xing, Zheng Hua, Lai Wang and Lai Xi arrived, these being the only five couples here who had accompanied Lady Wang or Xifeng to the Jia mansion at the time of their marriage, the others having gone south on business. Lady Wang was just thinking five too few to make a careful check when they were joined by Lady Xing’s personal maid, wife of the steward Wang Shanbao who had brought over the pouch. As Lady Wang treated Lady Xing’s trusted maids on the same footing as her own, and this woman had come with a great show of concern to ask about this matter, she said to her:
‘Go and tell your mistress I want you to move into the Garden for a while to keep an eye on things there. That would be better than my finding other people.’
Now Wang Shanbao’s wife, disgruntled by the lack of respect shown her by the maids in the Garden, had long been looking unsuccessfully ‘ for some grounds to fault them. To her mind, this pouch provided a handle against them, while Lady Wang’s proposal gave her a welcome chance to settle scores with them.
She promptly answered, ‘That’s easy. If you’ll excuse your slave saying so, discipline should have been tightened up there long ago. You don’t go to the Garden very often, madam. The maids there all behave as if they’d become fine young ladies of noble rank. They turn things upside-down, and nobody dares say a word for fear they’ll work their young mistresses up to accuse people of insulting them. Who’s willing to take such a risk?’
‘Well, that’s only to be expected,’ said Lady Wang. ‘Our young ladies’ maids are a cut above the rest, but you should teach them man¬ners. Not to correct the young mistresses would be wrong, how much more so in the case of their maids.’
‘The others aren’t so bad,’ continued Mrs. Wang. ‘But do you know that minx Qingwen in Baoyu’s place, madam? Because she’s prettier than most and has the gift of the gab, she makes herself up every day like Xi Shi and is very pert and forward, jabbering away all the time and showing off. She scolds and carries on in a shocking way on the least provocation. A regular vamp she is ‘ it’s scandalous!’
Thus reminded, Lady Wang remarked to Xifeng, ‘Last time we went for a stroll with the old lady in the Garden, I noticed a girl with a willowy waist, sloping shoulders and eyes and eyebrows rather like Daiyu’s. She was scolding one of the younger maids and I didn’t at all like the wild look of her, but being with the old lady I said nothing. I meant to ask later who she was, but I forgot. She seems to fit this description of Qingwen,’
‘Qingwen’s the prettiest among the maids,’ Xifeng replied. ‘She does act and talk rather flippantly too. Your description sounds like her, but I can’t remember exactly what happened that day.’
‘That’s easily remedied,’ said Wang Shanbao’s wife. ‘Just fetch her now for Your Ladyship to see.
Lady Wang observed, ‘The girls from Baoyu’s place whom I see most often are Xiren and Sheyue. They’re not too smart and that’s all to the good. If she’s there, she naturally wouldn’t dare come. She’s just the sort of girl I’ve always disliked. And now that this has happened, think how dreadful it would be if this bitch were to lead our precious Baoyu astray!’
She told her maid to go to the Garden.
‘Just give them this message: I want Xiren and Sheyue to stay to look after Baoyu, but that clever girl Qingwen is to come here at once. Don’t tell her why I want her.’
The maid assented and went off to Happy Red Court.
Qingwen happened to be unwell that day and had just got up from a nap, feeling out of sorts. She had no choice now but to obey this sum¬mons. As all the maids were well aware that Lady Wang disliked finery and pertness. Qingwen had taken care to keep out of her way. Now as she had been unwell for a couple of days and not paid much attention to her toilet, she had no special misgivings. When she entered Xifeng’s room with her hair dishevelled and her costume rumpled, like a frail beauty just aroused from sleep, Lady Wang immediately recognized her as the girl she had seen. This rekindled her anger. And being genuinely outraged and already prejudiced, she was too outspoken to conceal her feelings. She smiled sarcastically.
‘What a beauty!’ she sneered. ‘Really like an ailing Xi Shi. Whom are you trying to vamp, going about like this? Don’t think I’m ignorant of your goings-on. I’ll let you off now, but very soon I’ll have you skinned alive. How is Baoyu today?’
Qingwen knew that someone must have been running her down, but did not venture to express her resentment. And quickly recovering from her surprise she was intelligent enough not to give a truthful answer.
‘I seldom go into Baoyu’s rooms or spend much time with him,’ she lied. ‘So I can’t say just how he is. You’ll have to ask Xiren or Sheyue, madam.’
‘You deserve a slap on your mouth,’ fumed Lady Wang. ‘Are you dead? What are you paid for?’
‘I used to serve the old lady,’ answered Qingwen. ‘Then she said there were too few older maids in the Garden and Baoyu was nervous because it was so empty, so I was to go and keep watch at night in the outer rooms, just to keep an eye on the place. When I said I was too clumsy to wait on the young master, the old lady scolded, ‘I’m not asking you to look after him, you don’t have to be smart.’ So I had to go. It’s only two or three times a month, when Baoyu’s bored, that we all have a game together. His personal needs are attended to by his old nurses and the matrons with Xiren, Sheyue and Qiuwen under them. In my spare time I still do some sewing for the old lady, so I’ve never paid much attention to Baoyu’s affairs. But if you wish, madam, I shall be more attentive in future.’
‘Amida Buddha! Don’t trouble!’ exclaimed Lady Wang, quite taken in by this. ‘The less you have to do with Baoyu, the better. Since you were assigned to him by the old lady, I’ll get her permission tomorrow to have you dismissed.’
She turned and told Wang Shanbao’s wife, ‘You people move into the Garden and keep a good watch on her for a few days. Don’t let her sleep in Baoyu’s quarters. We’ll deal with her after I’ve spoken to the old lady. Get out!’ she rapped at Qingwen. ‘What are you standing there for? I can’t bear the sight of such a vamp. Who let you dress in those gaudy reds and greens?’
Qingwen had to withdraw, so outraged that once out of the door she covered her face with her handkerchief and wept all the way back to the Garden.
Meanwhile Lady Wang was reproaching herself to Xifeng.
‘These last few years I haven’t had the energy to see to things,’ she lamented. ‘I never set eyes on such a fox-fairy! I suppose there are others like her too. Tomorrow I must make a thorough investigation.’
Seeing how enraged she was, and knowing that Wang Shanbao’s wife often told tales to Lady Xing and incited her to make trouble, Xifeng could not defend Qingwen even had she had good reasons for doing so. She just lowered her head and assented.
‘You must look after your health, madam,’ urged Mrs. Wang. ‘Just leave trifling matters like this to your slaves. It should be very easy to find the culprit. This evening after the Garden gates are locked and no news can get in or out, we’ll take them by surprise and have a thorough search made of all the maids’ rooms I’m positive that whoever had that pouch will have other things of the same kind. When we find them we’ll know whose it is.’
‘That’s a good idea,’ approved Lady Wang. ‘We can’t let innocent people take the blame.’ She asked Xifeng her opinion.
‘Of course you’re right, madam,’ Xifeng had to acquiesce. ‘That’s the way to do it.’
‘This is an excellent plan,’ added Lady Wang. ‘Otherwise we could search for a year and still get nowhere.’
So they agreed on it. After supper when the old lady had gone to bed and Baochai and the rest had returned to the Garden, Wang Shanbao’s wife accompanied Xifeng there. They ordered all the gates to be locked and started their search in the rooms of the servants on night duty, but discovered nothing more incriminating than some left-over candles and a jar or two of oil.
‘These count as stolen property too,’ declared Wang Shanbao’s wife. ‘They mustn’t be moved till we’ve made our report to Her Ladyship tomorrow.’
Then they went first to Happy Red Court and had the courtyard gate locked. Baoyu was rather unhappy on Qingwen’s account. When he saw these matrons marching into the maids’ rooms, he asked Xifeng what they were doing.
‘Something important is missing,’ she told him. ‘As people are ac¬cusing each other and we think one of the maids may have stolen it, we’re making a general search to clear up suspicion.’
She sat down to sip tea while Mrs. Wang and the others set about searching. They asked whose the different cases were and told the own¬ers to open them themselves. Xiren had already guessed from what had happened to Qingwen that something was amiss. Now she was the first to step forward and open her cases and boxes for them to examine. Finding nothing out of the way, the women went on to search the other maids’ cases one by one. When they came to Qingwen’s they asked:
‘Whose is this? Why doesn’t anyone open it for us?’
Xiren was about to open it when Qingwen rushed in, her hair loosely knotted. Crash! She flung the lid back and raised the case bottom up¬wards in both hands to empty all its contents on the floor. Wang Shanbao’s wife was disconcerted. She had a look and, finding nothing improper, suggested to Xifeng that they should move on.
‘You’d better make a careful search,’ warned Xifeng. ‘If you fail to find anything, what are we going to say to Her Ladyship?’
The stewardesses assured her, ‘We’ve been through everything care¬fully, and there’s nothing that shouldn’t be here except a few objects used by boys; but these must have belonged to Baoyu when he was small. There’s nothing of consequence.’
Xifeng smiled. ‘In that case we can go to another house.’
As they went out she said to Mrs. Wang, ‘I have a suggestion, if you agree to it, and that is to restrict the search to our own family. We mustn’t raid Miss Baochai’s quarters.’
‘Of course not. How can we search our relatives?’
‘Exactly.’
By now they had reached Bamboo Lodge where Daiyu was already in bed. When visitors were announced, not knowing their errand she prepared to get up, but Xifeng came in and made her lie down again.
‘Go back to sleep,’ she said. ‘We won’t stay long,’
She chatted with Daiyu while Mrs. Wang took the others to the maids’quarters and searched their cases and baskets one by one. In Zijuan’s room they discovered two amulets which Baoyu had often worn, two tassels from a boy’s belt, two pouches and a fan in a sheath ‘ all Baoyu’s old belongings. Wang Shanbao’s wife. thought she had made a find and hastily called Xifeng over to have a look.
‘Where do these things come from?’ she asked. Xifeng told her with a smile, ‘B aoyu’s been thick with them ever since he was a child, so naturally these are some of his old things. This is nothing extraordinary. Better put them back and try somewhere else.’
‘Our two apartments’ accounts are so muddled,’ put in Zijuan gaily, ‘I can’t even remember the day, the month or the year when these things were left here.’
In view of what Xifeng had said, Mrs. Wang had to let this pass and they went on to Tanchun’s place. Apparently someone had sent Tanchun word of their coming, and she knew there must be some reason for this indignity. She had ordered her maids to open all the doors and light candles in readiness. When the women arrived she deliberately asked them their business.
‘Something’s missing, and we don’t know who took it,’ Xifeng told her. ‘For fear people may put the blame on these girls, we’re making a general search to disarm suspicion. This seems the best way to clear them.’
Tanchun laughed scornfully. ‘Naturally, all our maids are thieves and I’m their brigand chief. So search my cases first. They’ve given me all their stolen goods for safe-keeping.’
She ordered her maids to open up all her chests as well as her mirror-stand, dressing-case, bedding, wrappers and bundles large and small for Xifeng’s inspection.
‘I’m simply carrying out Her Ladyship’s orders,’ said Xifeng with a mollifying smile. ‘You’ve no call to blame me, cousin. Don’t be angry.’
She told the maids to close the cases at once, and Pinger and Fenger made haste to help Daishu and the rest put the things away.
‘I’ll let you search my things, but not my maids’,’ Tanchun insisted. ‘As a matter of fact, being meaner than all the others, I know everything they’ve got and I’m keeping it for them here. They haven’t so much as a needle or thread themselves. So if search you must, search me. If you don’t agree, go and report to Her Ladyship that I won’t obey her orders, and I’ll accept any punishment she thinks fit.
‘Just you wait though! The day will come when you’re raided too. Weren’t you talking this morning about the Zhen family and how they were doing fine but insisted on ransacking each others’ houses? Now they’ve been raided themselves and their property’s been confiscated. Our turn’s coming too. Now I realize that big families like ours can’t be destroyed in one fell swoop from outside. In the words of the old saying, ‘A centipede even when dead won’t fall to the ground.’ We must start killing each other first before our family can be completely destroyed.’ By now she was shedding tears.
Xifeng looked in silence at the stewardesses.
Taking the hint Zhou Rui’s wife proposed, ‘As all these girl’s things are here, madam, we’d better go elsewhere and leave Miss Tanchun to rest.’
Xifeng got up to take her leave.
But Tanchun cried, ‘Mind you make a thorough search. I won’t have you coming here again tomorrow!’
‘Since all your maids’ things are here, there’s no need to search,’ replied Xifeng with a smile.
Tanchun laughed scornfully.
‘How smart you are! You’ve opened even my bundles of old clothes, yet still pretend you haven’t ransacked the place. Will you accuse me later of shielding my maids and refusing to let you search? Let’s get this clear now. If you want to search again, just go ahead.’
Xifeng knew how difficult Tanchun was and therefore answered sooth¬ingly, ‘We’ve made a thorough search, even including your things.’
‘Are you all satisfied?’ Tanchun challenged the others.
Zhou Rui’s wife and the rest assured her that they were.
But Wang Shanbao’s wife was tactless. She had heard that Tanchun was difficult to handle, but thought this was because others were afraid to stand up to her. How could a young girl have her own way like this? Besides, the mere daughter of a concubine would hardly dare cross her, Lady Xing’s personal maid whom even Lady Wang treated with respect, to say nothing of younger members of the household. Tanchun’s behaviour had led her to believe that she was simply annoyed with Xifeng, not with the rest of them. So she decided to assert herself and stepping forward through the crowd she pulled up the girl’s lapel.
‘Yes,’ she sniggered. ‘I’ve searched even the young lady’s person. There’s really nothing.’
‘Let’s go, nurse,’ interposed Xifeng. ‘Stop this fooling.’
Even as she was speaking ‘ slap! Tanchun boxed Mrs. Wang’s ears.
‘Who do you think you are?’ she fumed, pointing one finger at her. ‘How dare you paw me? It’s only for Her Ladyship’s sake and because you’re old that I call you ‘nurse’, but like a dog counting on its master’s backing you’re always making trouble. Today you’ve gone too far. If you think I’m as good-natured as your young mistress, whom you bully just as you please, you’re making a big mistake. I didn’t scold you for coming to raid our place, but you’ve no right to take liberties with me.’
She started taking off her clothes and insisted that, instead of letting a slave maul her, Xifeng must search her carefully herself.
Xifeng and Pinger hurriedly helped to dress her again.
‘A few cups of wine and you play the fool,’ they scolded Mrs. Wang. ‘The other day you offended Her Ladyship too. Be off with you now, and not another word.’
They tried to placate Tanchun.
‘If I’d any pride,’ scoffed Tanchun, ‘I should have dashed my brains out long ago. How can I let a slave search my person for stolen goods? Tomorrow I’ll report this to Their Ladyships, then go to apologize to Lady Xing and accept whatever punishment she thinks fit.’
Wang Shanbao’s wife, thoroughly abashed, started grumbling outside the window, ‘This is too much! I’ve never been struck before in all my life. Tomorrow I’ll ask Her Ladyship’s leave to go home. What’s there left for me to live for?’
‘Hear that?’ Tanchun snapped at her maids. ‘Are you waiting for me to go out and argue with her?’
At once Daishu darted out.
‘If you get leave to go home, that’s our good fortune!’ she cried. ‘We’re only afraid you won’t ask.’
‘Well!’ laughed Xifeng. ‘Here’s truly a case of ‘like mistress like maid’.’
‘We thieves all have ready tongues,’ retorted Tanchun. ‘But she isn’t clever enough to tell tales to her mistress.’
Pinger tried to smooth things over and fetched Daishu back while Zhou Rui’s wife and the others soothed Tanchun. And Xifeng waited till she had gone to bed before leading her search party to Warm Spring Village opposite, for as this lay just between Xichun’s and Tanchun’s quarters it was the next place to visit before Xichun’s. Li Wan, ill in bed, had just taken medicine and gone to sleep, so without disturbing her they searched her maids’ rooms. Not finding anything there they went on to Xichun’s place.
Xichun being little more than a child was frightened, and Xifeng had to soothe her. However, in Ruhua’s case they discovered a big package of thirty to forty gold and silver ingots: so instead of evidence of immoral conduct they had found stolen goods! There was also a set of jade orna¬ments for a man’s belt and a bundle containing a man’s sandals and socks. Ruhua turned pale. And asked where these things came from she knelt down and sobbed.
‘They were given my brother by Lord Zhen,’ she faltered. ‘Now that our parents are down south he lives with our uncle. And because my uncle and aunt are fond of drinking and gambling, for fear they’d squan¬der anything he gets my brother always gives it to an old nurse to bring to me for safe-keeping.’
Xichun was naturally timid and this disclosure appalled her.
‘I’d no idea!’ she cried. ‘How disgraceful! If you want to have her beaten, sister-in-law, do take her away so that I don’t have to hear it.’
‘If what you say is true, it’s forgivable,’ said Xifeng to Ruhua. ‘But you shouldn’t smuggle things in here in secret. If you had these smuggled in, you can smuggle in other things too; so whoever brought them in here is to blame. If you’re lying and these are stolen goods, don’t expect to get off alive!’
Kneeling before her Ruhua sobbed, ‘I dare not lie to you, madam. You can check with Her Ladyship and His Lordship tomorrow. If they say these weren’t gifts, I won’t complain if you have me and my brother beaten to death.’
‘Naturally I shall check. But even if these were gifts you still did wrong. Who gave you permission to bring things here in secret? Tell me who your intermediary was and I’ll let you off. But mind you never do such a thing again.’
‘Don’t let her off, sister-in-law,’ cried Xichun. ‘We have so many people here, if we don’t make an example of one of them the bigger offenders will get quite out of hand. Even if you’re willing to forgive her, I’m not.’
‘She’s usually quite well behaved, isn’t she? We all make mistakes, and this is her first offence. If she does it again we’ll punish her for both. But I wonder who smuggled the things in for her?’
‘As for that, it must be Mrs. Zhang at the back gate. She’s always whispering with the maids and they all do her little favours.’
Xifeng told the stewardesses to make a note of this name, and the things were entrusted to Zhou Rui’s wife for temporary custody till a check had been made the next day. Then they took their leave of Xichun and went on to Yingchun’s place.
Yingchun was already asleep. They knocked for some time before the gate was opened. Xifeng gave orders not to disturb the young lady and went with the others to the maids’ quarters. As Siqi there was Mrs. Wang’s grand-daughter. Xifeng was curious to know whether or not she was biased by family ties and she therefore paid special attention to this search. Mrs. Wang started with the other girls’ cases and, finding noth¬ing exceptionable, went on to open Siqi’s case. After a perfunctory search she declared there was nothing there and started to close it.
‘Wait!’ cried Zhou Rui’s wife. ‘What’s this?’
She reached to pick out a man’s silk socks and slippers as well as a small bundle. When they opened this, they found inside a love-knot and a letter. These were handed to Xifeng for her inspection, for as she was in charge of the household and had to read letters and go through accounts, she knew quite a few characters. Xifeng saw that this stationery was red with double happy-life designs. On it was written:
After your visit home last month my parents found out about our understanding, but we can’t have our wish until after your young lady’s marriage, if it’s possible to meet in the Garden, get Mrs. Zhang to send me word. That would be more convenient than your coming here. Do, do arrange it! Also, I’ve received the two pouches you sent me, and I’m sending you a string of scented beads as a token of my love. Please. Keep them safely. Your cousin, Pan Youan.
This letter, far from angering Xifeng, amused her. As none of the others could read and Mrs. Wang had no inkling of this romance between her grand-daughter and young Pan, the sight of the slippers and socks had made her uneasy. When Xifeng started laughing at what was written on the red paper she said:
‘I suppose this is some account and you’re amused by their poor writing, madam?’
‘Quite. This account takes some working out. As Siqi’s maternal grandmother, tell me how her cousin comes to have the name Pan in¬stead of Wang?’
In some surprise Mrs. Wang stammered, ‘Her paternal aunt married a Pan, so she has a cousin named Pan ‘ the Pan Youan who ran away the other day.’
‘That explains it,’ chuckled Xifeng. I’ll read it for you.’
She read the letter, and everybody was shocked. It had never oc¬curred to Wang Shanbao’s wife, so intent had she been on exposing others, that her grand-daughter would be caught out. She was quite over¬whelmed by shame and vexation. Zhou Rui’s wife and the other stewardesses asked her, ‘Well, what have you to say to that? How should we deal with her in your opinion?’
Mrs. Wang wished she could sink into the ground, and Xifeng laughed at her. ‘This is just as well,’ she remarked to Mrs. Zhou. ‘She’s saved her granny and everyone trouble by quietly picking a fine young man for herself.’
Zhou Rui’s wife chuckled too and made some caustic comments. Unable to vent her anger on anyone else, Mrs. Wang slapped her own face.
‘You old bitch who’s lived beyond your time!’ she swore. ‘This is retribution for your sins. You brought this on yourself.’
The others burst out laughing, then while making a show of consoling her flung a few taunts at her. Only Siqi stood silent with lowered head, but to Xifeng’s surprise she showed no sign of fear. It was too late to question the girl, but for fear she might do away with herself that night Xifeng detailed two matrons to keep an eye on her. Then she had the evidence they had discovered taken back to her place and retired, mean¬ing to settle the matter the next day.
During the night, however, Xifeng had to get up several times and lost a good deal of blood. The next morning she kept to her bed, feeling weak and dizzy. The court physician summoned to examine her reported:
‘The young mistress suffers from lack of vital blood and a hot humour in the spleen caused by worry and undue exertion. This has resulted in listlessness, drowsiness, indigestion and lack of appetite. A tonic to re¬store her strength and cool the hot humour is recommended.’
Having made out a prescription including ginseng, angelica, astragalus and the like, he took his leave.
Some old nurses took the prescription to Lady Wang, and this so added to her worries that for the time being she set Siqi’s business aside.

That day Madam You happened to call first on Xifeng and then on Li Wan in the Garden. She was meaning to visit the girls when Xichun sent a maid to invite her over. Xichun told her all that had happened the night before and showed her the ingots found among Ruhua’s things.
‘These really were gifts to her brother from Zhen,’ Madam You confirmed. ‘His giving them was above-board, but she shouldn’t have smuggled them in here on the sly ‘ that’s turned state traffic in salt into contraband.’ She scolded Ruhua for her stupidity, saying eating too much rich food had addled her wits.
‘As master and mistress you weren’t strict enough with your ser¬vants, yet now you blame the maid,’ protested Xichun. ‘Of all us girls here I’m the only one to lose face through my maid. How am Ito face people in future? Last night I urged Xifeng to take her away, but she wouldn’t. That’s natural, I suppose, as Ruhua comes from the East Man¬sion. But today I meant to take her there myself, so I’m glad you’ve come. Do take her away quickly. You can beat her, kill her or sell her
‘ I shan’t care in the least.’
Ruhua fell on her knees weeping.
‘I won’t do such a thing again. But please, miss, for old time’s sake, let me die here with you!’ she pleaded.
Madam You and the nurses interceded too.
‘This was just a momentary slip-up, and she won’t dare do it again,’ they said. ‘She’s been waiting on you since childhood. You’d better allow her to stay.’
But Xichun although young had a will of her own and was most un¬compromising and eccentric. However hard they pleaded, she was ada¬mant as she felt the maid had disgraced her.
‘I don’t want Ruhua,’ she insisted. ‘Not only that, now that I’m growing up I think it best not to visit you people over there myself. Espe¬cially as these last few days I’ve been hearing a lot of gossip. I don’t want to be mixed up in any scandal.’
‘Who’s been gossipping?’ asked Madam You. ‘What about? Aren’t we all one family? If you hear talk about us, you should ask the gossips why they spread such rumours.’
Xichun smiled scornfully.
‘A fine way to talk! A young girl like me should just steer clear of scan¬dals. What sort of creature would I be if instead I sought them out? And at the risk of offending you I must say: Your reputation’s known, so I don’t have to ask what it is. As the ancients said: ‘Where good and evil, life and death are concerned, even fathers and sons are unable to help each other.’ That’s even truer of us. What I care about is my good name, not yours. If you get involved in scandals in future, don’t drag me in.’
Madam You did not know whether to laugh or be angry. She said to the servants, ‘No wonder they all call her young and foolish. I didn’t believe them, but you heard the unreasonable way she talked just now ‘ showing no judgement or sense of proportion at all. It’s childish talk, but it cuts people to the quick.’
‘She’s young, madam,’ the nurses rejoined. ‘You must make allow¬ances.
‘I may be young,’ Xichun retorted. ‘All the same I’m speaking from experience. You don’t know enough characters to read, so you’re all so benighted that when I talk sense you call me young and foolish.’
‘You’re the Number One Scholar, the greatest talent of all times,’ quipped Madam You. ‘Stupid people like us don’t have your sense. How’s that?’
‘Even Number One scholars can be foolish. In fact they’re most likely to lack enlightenment.’
‘Fine!’ Madam You crowed. ‘A moment ago you were a talented scholar; now you’ve become a chief monk holding forth on enlightenment.’
‘If I weren’t enlightened, I wouldn’t have the heart to give up Ruhua.’
‘But that proves you heartless and cold.’
‘As the ancients said: ‘One must be ruthless to keep out of trouble.’ I’m pure and spotless. Why should I spoil my integrity by letting you involve me in your affairs?’
Being sensitive on this point, Madam You disliked such talk. She had been mortified to hear that there had been gossip, but had controlled herself in front of Xiehun. This last thrust was more than she could take, however.
‘In what way have we involved you?’ she demanded. ‘Your maid does wrong, and for no reason you round on me. I’ve put up with it for some time, but that’s only emboldened you to keep on like this. If you’re such a fine young lady, we won’t venture to approach you in future for fear of spoiling your good reputation.’ She ordered her servants to take Ruhua away and got up in a temper to leave.
‘If you do stay away that will save us bickering and trouble, and we can all have a quiet life,’ cried Xichun.
Madam You did not answer this but went straight out. To know what happened later, read the next chapter.

Chapter 75

At a Feast One Night Portentous Sighing
Is Heard
New Poems on the Moon Festival Are Taken
as Good Omens


Madam You left Xichun in a huff to call on Lady Wang, but the nurses accompanying her quietly warned her, ‘Better not go there, madam. TJia Zhen family have just sent people with some things and they seem to want it kept quiet, so this may not be a good time to call.’
‘Only yesterday your master told me that, according to the Court Gazette, tJia Zhens have been charged with crimes,’ said Madam You. ‘Their house has been raided, their property confiscated, and they’ve been fetched to the capital to stand trial. So why have these people come?’
‘Why indeed?’ answered the nurses. ‘The few women who arrived just now looked flustered and agitated. They must be up to something they don’t want to be known.’
In view of this, Madam You called instead on Li Wan. The court physician treating her had just left, and as her health had recently im¬proved she was sitting propped up against her pillow in bed with a quilt around her, just hoping someone would drop in for a chat. She soon no¬ticed, however, that Madam You was not her usual amiable self, simply sitting there lost in thought.
‘It was good of you to come,’ said Li Wan. ‘Have you eaten any¬thing in your round of calls? You must be hungry.’ She told Suyun to try to find some delicacies for her.
‘No need, no need,’ Madam You at once demurred. ‘Ill as you’ve been, you can’t have any delicacies here. Besides, I’m not hungry.’
‘Lan’s aunt has sent me some good fried flour; let’s mix a bowl for you to taste.’ She ordered a maid to prepare this, while Madam You remained silent in a brown study.
The attendants who had come with her suggested. ‘You didn’t wash at noon, madam. Would you like to freshen up now?’
When she nodded, Li Wan told Suyun to fetch her dressing case, and with it the girl brought some of her own rouge and powder.
‘Our mistress doesn’t use cosmetics, so please make do with these of mine if you don’t think them dirty, madam,’ she said with a smile.
‘The idea!’ scolded Li Wan. ‘Although I haven’t got such things, you should have fetched some from one of the young ladies, instead of producing your own. You’re lucky it’s her and not anybody else or they’d have taken offence at your impudence.’
‘What does it matter?’ said Madam You. ‘I use all your servants’ things each time I come here. Why should I be fussy today?’
She sat cross-legged on the kang while Yindie took off her bracelets and rings, then spread a large handkerchief on her lap to protect her clothing. A large basin of warm water was brought in by Chaodou, one of the younger maids, who stooped to hold it out for Madam You.
‘Will you never learn to adapt yourself to circumstances?’ cried Yindie. ‘Once given an instruction, you stick to it, regardless. Because our mis¬tress is lenient and not particular about etiquette at home, you get the idea you can be equally casual in a relative’s house, carrying on in public the way you do in private.’
‘Never mind,’ said Madam You. ‘All I want is a wash.’
Chaodou hastily knelt down.
‘In our family,’ went on Madam You with a smile, ‘high and low alike all observe the outward forms of etiquette but actually carry on in a scandalous way.’
Li Wan knew from this that she had heard about the last night’s happenings.
‘Why do you say that?’ she laughed. ‘Who’s been carrying on in a scandalous way?’
‘Why ask me? You may have been ill but you weren’t dead  
Before she could say more, Baochai was announced and she entered even as Li Wan was asking her in. Madam You quickly wiped her face and got up to offer her a seat.
‘All by yourself?’ she asked. ‘Where are the other girls?’
‘I haven’t seen them,’ said Baochai. ‘I’ve come because mother’s unwell, and our only two reliable maids are ill in bed; so I must go back to keep her company tonight. I meant to ask leave from Their Ladyships, but then I thought that as it’s not really serious there’s no need to men¬tion it; and anyway I’ll come back as soon as she’s better. So I’ve just come to let you know.’
Li Wan and Madam You exchanged smiles at this. And now that the latter had cleaned up they all had some fried-flour ‘tea.’
Li Wan remarked, ‘We must send to inquire after Aunt Xue’s illness, as I’m not well enough to go myself. Yes, just go along home, dear cousin. I’ll assign people to keep an eye on your rooms for you while you’re away. But mind you come back after a day or two, otherwise I’ll be held to blame.’
‘Why should you be? This is just for the time being and perfectly natural. It’s not as if you were taking a bribe to let a thief escape! And I see no reason for you to send people over. Why not invite Xiangyun here to stay with you for a few days? Wouldn’t that be simpler?’
‘Where is she?’ asked Madam You.
‘I just sent her to find Tanchun and bring her here, so that I can let her know too.’
That same moment Xiangyun and Tanchun were announced, and after they had been offered seats Baochai explained why she was leav¬ing the Garden.
‘Very good,’ commented Tanchun. ‘So you’ll come back when auntie’s better. And even if you don’t, that won’t matter either.’
‘That’s strange way to talk!’ exclaimed Madam You. ‘Are we driv¬ing our relatives away?’
‘That’s the idea.’ Tanchun smiled mockingly. ‘Better drive them out before getting thrown out by others. In any case, there’s no need for relatives to live together all the time. We’re a happy family of kith and kin I must say, all like game-cocks fighting to finish each other off.’
‘I’m certainly out of luck today,’ Madam You laughed, ‘Finding so many of you girls in a bad temper.’
‘Who told you to come and burn yourself on the stove?’ Tanchun retorted. ‘And who else has offended you?’ She went on thoughtfully, ‘Xichun has no reason to scold you, so who else could it be?’
Madam You just muttered an evasive reply.
Knowing she was reluctant to speak out for fear of trouble, Tanchun teased, ‘Don’t pretend to be so simple. People don’t get their heads chopped off except for crimes against the state, so what are you so afraid of? I’ll tell you the truth: I slapped that old wife of Wang Shanbao’s yesterday, and I’m quite willing to take the consequences. But apart from calling me names behind my back, nobody’s likely to give me a beating for it.’
Asked by Baochai what had provoked her, Tanchun described in de¬tail the search made the night before and why she had struck Mrs. Wang. Since Tanchun had come out with it, Madam You told them how Xichun had just treated her.
‘She’s like that,’ observed Tanchun, ‘so eccentric and stubborn there’s just no talking her round.’ Then she informed them, ‘When no action was taken this morning and I heard that our peppery Xifeng was ill again, I sent my nanny to find out what had happened to Wang Shanbao’s wife. She came back to report that the old creature got a thrashing for being too meddlesome.’
‘Serves her right too,’ approved Madam You and Li Wan.
Tanchun laughed caustically.
‘Who can’t see through that trick? Just wait and see   Madam You and Li Wan made no answer to this. And presently, thinking it time for the Lady Dowager’s meal, Xiangyun and Baochai went back to pack their things while Madam You took her leave of Li Wan and went straight to the old lady’s place. She found her sitting on her couch listening to Lady Wang’s disturbing account of how tJia Zhen family had got into trouble, had their property confiscated and been fetched to the capital for punishment. She asked Madam You where she had come from and if Xifeng and Li Wan were any better.
‘They’re both better today,’ Madam You made haste to assure her.
The old lady nodded and sighed.
‘Well, let’s not trouble ourselves about other people’s affairs but consider how to celebrate the Moon Festival.’
‘We’ve got everything ready,’ said Lady Wang. ‘But we don’t know where you’d like to have the feast. Only the wind may be cold at night in the empty Garden.’
‘That doesn’t matter. We can dress more warmly. That’s just the place to enjoy the moon, of course.
While they were chatting tables had been brought in, and Lady Wang and Madam You at once helped to serve the food. The Lady Dowager saw that in addition to the dishes prepared for her there were two big hampers of others, it being the custom for the two mansions to present her with extra dishes every day. She asked what they were.
‘I’ve told you several times to stop this, but you never listen,’ she complained. ‘We’re not as well off as we used to be.’
‘I’ve passed on your instructions more than once, but this goes on as usual,’ Yuanyang said. ‘So I had to let it go.’
‘This is only everyday family fare,’ put in Lady Wang. ‘As today is one of my fast days we haven’t got much, and knowing that you’re not too fond of gluten of wheat and beancurd I just chose minced water¬mallow with pepper sauce.
‘That’s good. Just what I fancy.’
At once Yuanyang set this dish before her. Baoqin and the other girls after deferring to each other took seats too. And Tanchun, told by the old lady to join them, after first declining the honour sat down opposite Baoqin, Shishu then brought out a bowl and chopsticks. Pointing at two dishes in a hamper Yuanyang remarked:
‘We don’t know what these are, they’re from the Elder Master. This bowl of bamboo-shoots with chicken marrow is from Lord Zhen.’ She placed it on the table.
The old lady simply tasted a couple of dishes, then ordered those two to be returned to the senders.
‘Tell them I’ve tried them,’ she said. ‘In future there’s no need to send over every day. 1ff fancy anything I’ll ask for it.’
The matrons assented and went off with the dishes.
‘Is there any congee?’ the Lady Dowager asked.
Madam You, who had a bowl ready, remarked that it was made of special red rice. The old lady took it and ate half a bowl, then had some sent to Xifeng. She also had a bowl of bamboo-shoots and a dish of salted raccoon sent to Daiyu and Baoyu, and another bowl of meat sent to Jia Lan. Then she urged Madam You to come and eat. The latter assented but waited till the old lady had washed her hands, rinsed her mouth and left the table to chat with Lady Wang. And as she took a seat, Tanchun and Baoqin got up and asked to be excused.
‘What, leave me all alone at this big table!’ cried Madam You. ‘I’m not used to it.’
‘Yuanyang and Hupo!’ called the old lady, chuckling. ‘Here’s your chance to tuck in. Come and keep her company.
‘Fine, fine.’ Madam You smiled. ‘Just what I was hoping for.’
‘It’s great fun watching a whole lot of people eating together.’ The old lady pointed at Yindie. ‘That’s a good child too. Come and join your mistress. You can stick to the rules again after leaving me.’
‘Come on, quick,’ Madam You cried. ‘No need to put on an act.’
The Lady Dowager, her hands behind her as she looked on with amusement, noticed one of the maids offer Madam You a bowl of the ordinary white rice for the servants.
‘Are you out of your mind, serving your mistress that rice?’ she demanded.
‘Your rice is finished, madam,’ said the maid. ‘And as there’s an extra young lady today, we’re short.’
‘We have to cut our coat according to our cloth,’ Yuanyang put in. ‘Nowadays there’s no margin at all.’
Lady Wang explained, ‘The last couple of years, what with floods and drought, our farms haven’t been able to produce their quota, espe¬cially of the rice of the finer kind. So we only issue as much as we think will be needed, for fear of running out. The rice you buy outside isn’t to our taste.’
The old lady chortled, ‘As the proverb says: ‘Even a clever wife can’t make congee without rice.
Amid general laughter Yuanyang asked the servant, ‘In that case, why not fetch Miss Tanchun’s rice here to make up? Wouldn’t that be the same? Why be so stupid?’
‘No, I’ve had enough,’ said Madam You with a smile. ‘There’s no need to fetch more.
‘You may have had enough, but what about me?’ Yuanyang par¬ried.
Then the serving-women hurried off to fetch more. Presently Lady Wang went off to have her meal leaving Madam You to chat with the old lady till about nine, when she was told:
‘It’s late now. You’d better go back.’
Madam You took her leave then and went out to the gate to mount her carriage. Yindie took a place at one side of the carriage. The serv¬ing-women, having let down the curtain, led the young maids to wait at the Ning Mansion’s gate; for as the two mansions were less than a bow shot apart, no elaborate preparations had to be made when the members of both exchanged visits, especially at night when many of them went out and returned. So the old nurses just led the young maids the short dis¬tance over, the men-servants at both gates having already cordoned off the east and west ends of the street. Madam You’s carriage was not drawn by a mule. Instead, seven or eight pages pulled it gently along to the steps of the Ning Mansion, then withdrew behind the stone lions flanking the gate while the serving-women raised the curtain and Yindie alighted to help her mistress down. Seven or eight lanterns large and small shed a bright light, and noticing four or five carriages drawn up by the stone lions Madam You inferred that visitors had arrived for another gambling party.
‘Look at all those carriages,’ she said to Yindie. ‘And how many more came on horseback we’ve no means of knowing, as their horses will all be tethered in the stables. How much money can those young fellows’ parents give them to throw away like this?’
By now she had reached the front hail, where Jia Rong’s wife was waiting to welcome her at the head of serving-women and maids with candles.
‘I’ve always wanted to take a peep at them,’ remarked Madam You. ‘Here’s our chance at last! Suppose we walk past their windows?’
The matrons assented and led the way with lanterns, one of them going quietly ahead to warn the pages in attendance not to make any commotion. When Madam You and the rest tiptoed up to the windows they heard quite a noise inside ‘jokes and compliments interspersed with complaints and curses.
The fact is that Jia Zhen, being in mourning and unable to go out to amuse himself or listen to operas or music, had thought of a way to while away the time. In the day-time, under the pretext of practising archery, he invited young lordlings and other wealthy relatives and friends to ar¬chery contests. Arguing that shooting at random could not improve their skill and might even spoil their style, he imposed certain penalties and set stakes as an incentive to all to do their best. They had set up a target in the shooting-range under Heavenly Fragrance Pavilion and made it the rule to assemble there every morning after breakfast. Jia Zhen, not want¬ing his name to be used, made Jia Rong act as the banker.
The young hereditary nobles from wealthy families whom they invited were a set of profligates who enjoyed cock-fights, dog-racing and play¬ing about with singsong girls and young actors. They agreed to take it in turn every day after the shooting contest to stand treat, so that Jia Rong need not defray all the expenses. And so day after day they had pigs, sheep and poultry killed and vied to show off their wealth, the skill of their chefs and the sumptuousness of their feasts.
Jia She and Jia Zheng did not hear about this until it had gone on for a fortnight or so, and not realizing what was involved they judged it quite right and proper for these young men not versed in literature to practise military arts, the more so as they belonged to families of hereditary gen¬erals of noble ranks. They even ordered ha Huan, Jia Cong, Baoyu and Jia Lan to come over too after breakfast every day to practise archery with Jia Zhen for a while.
But since Jia Zhen had other ends in view, alleging the need to relax after their exertions he soon started arranging card games in the eve¬nings and they laid wagers while drinking. So little by little these turned into gambling parties. Now, after three or four months, gambling had priority over archery and they played cards, diced and gambled quite openly day and night. The servants, getting more perks, encouraged this and so it was now routine ‘ quite unknown to people outside the family.
Recently their group had been joined by Lady Xing’s younger brother Xing Dequan, an inveterate wastrel, as well as the confirmed prodigal Xue Pan who naturally thought this a splendid scheme.
Xing Dequan although Lady Xing’s brother had totally different in¬terests, being a credulous fool who spent money like water and found all his pleasure in drinking, gambling and debauchery. He liked good drinkers and shunned those who did not drink, no matter whether they were high or low, making no distinction between master and slave; hence every¬body called him Foolish Uncle.
Xue Pan, who had long been dubbed the Stupid Lordling, naturally found Xing a man after his own heart. As both of them liked dicing because it was fast, they had got two fellows to dice with them on the kang in the outer room where a few other men were playing cards at a big table, while in the inner room a less uncouth party were in the middle of a game of dominoes. Most of their attendants were pages of less than fifteen, all grown men-servants being debarred from the place. This was why Lady You dared peep through the window.
She saw that wine was being served by two young actors of seven¬teen or eighteen, strikingly handsome in their fine clothes and make up. Xue Pan was scowling after a losing throw, but now with a lucky toss he recouped his losses and won, which restored his good humour.
‘Let’s stop for a while,’ proposed Jia Zhen, ‘and have some re¬freshments before going on.’
He asked how the two other tables were getting on. The domino players in the inner room had also finished and were waiting for supper, but the card players were in the middle of a game and reluctant to stop. Without waiting for them they had one table set first, and Jia Zhen sat down to dine with those who were ready, instructing Jia Rong to wait for the rest. Xue Pan, in exuberation, fondling one of the actors as he drank, ordered him to toast Foolish Uncle. But Xing was in a bad mood, after losing. Tipsy after two bowls of wine, he complained that the actors sim¬ply made up to the winners, ignoring the losers.
‘You pansies are all the same,’ he swore. ‘We’ve been together all these days and you’ve had favours from us all, but now as soon as I lose a few taels of silver you start cold-shouldering me. Do you think you’ll never need my help again?’
Seeing that he was half drunk, the others tried to humour him.
‘Quite right, quite right,’ they said. ‘That’s a bad way they have.’ They sternly ordered the two boys, ‘Hurry up and offer him wine to apologize.’
The two young actors, accustomed to such scenes, knelt down to offer Xing a drink.
‘In our profession our masters train us all, no matter how generous or close our patrons may be, just to make up to the rich and powerful. A man may be a living Buddha or saint, but so long as he has no money or influence we have to ignore him. Besides, sir, we’re young and in this low profession, so please overlook it this time and let us off.’
They raised a cup of wine and fell on their knees.
Though Foolish Uncle was mollified he kept up a show of anger.
‘They’re telling the truth, that’s how it is,’ said the others. ‘You’ve always had a soft spot in your heart for actors; why be like this today? If you refuse to drink how dare they get up?’
Xing gave in at that and growled, ‘If it weren’t for all these gentle¬men interceding, I’d have nothing more to do with you.’ Then only did he take the cup and drain it.
Another bowl was poured. And now the wine went to his head, mak¬ing him hark back to earlier grievances. Pounding the table he said to Jia Zhen with a sigh:
‘We can’t blame these boys, my worthy nephew, for being so grasp¬ing. Why, where money and power are concerned, many people from big official families will forget even their own flesh and blood. Did you hear about the row I had yesterday with your respected aunt?’
‘No, I didn’t,’ was ha Zhen’s reply.
Xing Dequan sighed again.
‘‘It was all over filthy lucre.
Jia Zhen knew he was on bad terms with Lady Xing, who thoroughly disapproved of him and often complained about him.
‘You’re rather too improvident, uncle,’ he said. ‘If you go on spending at this rate, you’ll never have enough.’
‘My dear worthy nephew, you don’t know how it is in our family,’ Xing retorted. ‘At the time of my mother’s death I was still small and knew nothing of affairs. Of my three sisters your respected aunt is the oldest. She grabbed all our family property and brought it over with her at the time of her marriage. Now my second sister’s married too, but also in straitened circumstances. My third is still at home, all our expenses are doled out to us by your aunts personal maid here, the wife of your steward Wang Shanhao. When I come to ask for money I’m not cadging from you Jias. Our Xing family has quite enough for me to spend -- if only I could get my hands on it. It’s grossly unjust. but what can I do about it?’’
Afraid this maudlin talk would make a bad impression on their guests. Jia Zhen tried to change the subject. But Madam You outside had heard all this clearly.
‘Hear that?’ she whispered to Yindie. ‘That’s Lady Xing’s younger brother complaining about her. If she treats her own brother so badly, no wonder other people complain of her too.’
She was eager to hear more, and just then the card players who had finished their game came over to join the feast.
 ‘Who offended Uncle Xing just now?’ one of them asked. ‘I didn’t quite get it. Tell us. and let us arbitrate.’
Xin told them then how the two actors cold-shouldered losers and made up to winners.
‘‘In that case,’ said the young man. ‘you had good reason to be angry, uncle. Let me ask you two boys this: Uncle Xing has only lost some money, not his prick, hasn’t he? So why cold-shoulder him?’
At this eyeryone roared with laughter, including Xing, who guffawed so hard that he sprayed rice all over the floor.
Madam You outside spat in disgust.
‘Listen to those shameless voung scoundrels.’ she SWO~C softly. ‘Barely lost their milk-teeth yet spewing out such dirt. If they go on swilling that yellow wine, who knows what they’ll come out with next!’
She retired to her own room to bed.
Jia Zhen kept the guests company until the fourth watch when at last the party broke up, then went to spend the night with his concubine Peifeng. The next day when he got up, some servants reported that the water¬melons and mooncakes for the festival were ready for distribution.
Jia Zhen told his concubine, ‘Ask your mistress to share them out as she thinks fit. I have other things to attend to.’
Peifeng reported this to Madam You, who had shares sent over to the different households.
Presently the concubine came back to inquire, ‘The master wants to know whether you’re going out today or not, madam. He says since we are in mourning we can’t celebrate the Moon Festival on the fifteenth of the eighth month, but we can have a family party tonight to mark the occasion with melons, fruit, cakes and wine.’
‘I don’t want to go out,’ replied Madam You, ‘but Madam Zhu over there is unwell and Xifeng is laid up too. If I don’t go, there’ll be no one to see to things. Besides, as he’s so busy, why have a party?’
‘The master’s not receiving visitors today and won’t be at home to them till the sixteenth. He’s set his mind on inviting you to a feast.’
‘All right then, but I can’t return this favour.’
Peifeng went off laughing, returning soon to report, ‘The master hopes you’ll come home early in time for dinner, madam. And he’s told me to go with you.
‘In that case he’d better hurry up and have breakfast, so that I can make a start.’
‘He says he’ll have it outside, and wants you to breakfast without him.’
‘Whom has he got out there?’
‘I hear two men have just arrived from Nanjing, bull don’t know who they are.
As she was speaking Jia Rong’s wife, having finished her toilet, came in to pay her respects. Soon they sat down to breakfast together, Madam You in the higher place, her daughter-in-law in the lower. Then Madam You changed her clothes and went over to the Rong Mansion.

On her return that evening, Jia Zhen had indeed prepared a feast: a whole pig and sheep together with other dishes and sweetmeats too many to enumerate. Peacock-feather screens and lotus-patterned cushions were set out in the Hall of Green Shrubs in the Garden of Concentrated Fra¬grance, and there he and his wife and concubines dined, then drank to¬gether to enjoy the moon.
By the time of the first watch the breeze was fresh and the bright moon silvered everything high and low. Jia Zhen proposed playing some drinking games, whereupon Madam You made Peifeng and the three other concubines join them, sitting in a row in the lower seats at their table to play the finger-guessing game and drink. Then Jia Zhen, in high spirits after wine, sent a servant to fetch a purple bamboo flute and asked Peifeng to play it while Wenhua sang. Her voice was so clear and tender that the listeners were entranced.
After that they played more drinking games until nearly midnight, by when Jia Zhen was eight-tenths drunk. Tea was served, and they had just been brought fresh wine cups when they heard long-drawn-out sighing from the direction of the garden wall. Everyone heard it distinctly and they were fearfully startled.
‘Who is there?’ demanded iia Zhen sternly.
But though he called out several times there was no answer.
‘It maybe one of our servants behind the wall,’ suggested Madam You. ‘Nonsense,’ her husband retorted. ‘The servant’s quarters are no¬where near the wall. Besides, that part is just by the ancestral temple. Who could he there at this hour?’
That same instant they heard a gust of wind on the other side of the wall and the sound as if of partition windows slamming inside the temple. The air struck them as colder, and the moon just now so bright and clear seemed suddenly dimmed. All the girls and women shivered. Jia Zhen half sobered up, but though more in control of himself than the women he was most amazed and apprehensive too. This cast a gloom over the party. Still, they felt constrained to sit there a little longer before retiring to their rooms to rest.

The next morning being the fifteenth, Jia Zhen rose early and led the whole family to open the ancestral temple to perform the usual rites for the first and the fifteenth of every month. Looking round carefully, he observed that everything in the temple was undisturbed with no sign of anything amiss. He therefore made no mention of the strange occur¬rence the previous night, thinking he must have imagined it in his cups. The ceremony at an end, he had the temple locked up as before.

After supper Jia Zhen and his wife went over to the Rong Mansion. He found Jia She and Jia Zheng sitting chatting with the Lady Dowager while the younger men and boys of the family stood around in atten¬dance. Jia Zhen greeted each in turn, and after a few remarks the old lady invited him to take a seat, which he did on a stool near the door.
‘How is your cousin Baoyu getting on with his archery these days?’ she asked him.
‘He’s making great progress, not only in his form. He’s now able to use a stronger bow as well.’
‘That’s good. But don’t let him overtax his strength.’
When Jia Zhen had agreed to this she remarked, ‘The mooncakes you sent us yesterday were good. The melons looked all right but were disappointing.’
‘The cakes were made by a new pastry cook. Finding them good I ventured to have some made for you, madam, as a token of respect. It’s strange that this year’s melons aren’t up to the usual standard.’
‘There was too much rain this summer,’ remarked Jia Zheng.
‘Well, the moon has risen now. Let’s go and offer incense.’
The old lady rose and leaning on Baoyu’s shoulder led the way to the Garden. By now all the Garden’s main gates were wide open, big horn-lanterns hanging above. On the terrace in front of the Hall of Auspicious Shade where incense was burning in screened containers, shielded candles were alight, and melons, cakes and sweetmeats had been set out, Lady Xing and the other ladies were waiting for them. The bright moonlight, coloured lanterns, scents and incense evoked an ethereal splendour defy¬ing description.
The terrace was spread with carpets and silk cushions. The Lady Dowager washed her hands, burned incense and kowtowed; then all the rest followed suit. After that she said it would be better to enjoy the view of the moon from a height, and ordered the feast to be served in the big pavilion on the ridge of the hill. Attendants hurried there to make prepa¬rations while she had a short rest in the Hall of Auspicious Shade, sipping tea and chatting with her family. When presently it was announced that all was ready she started up the hill, leaning on some maids’ shoulders.
‘The mossy stones may be slippery,’ warned Lady Wang. ‘Why not go up in a bamboo chair?’
‘The path is swept every day and it’s very smooth and wide,’ coun¬tered the old lady. ‘I may as wall walk to loosen up my old bones.’
Jia She and Jia Zheng led the way, followed by two old nurses with horn-lanterns. Yuanyang, Hupo and Madam You kept beside the old lady to help her along while Lady Xing and the rest clustered behind, and a mere hundred paces brought them to the summit on which stood Convex Emerald Hall, so called because it was built on a promontory. On its front terrace, partitioned into two by a large screen, were tables and chairs all round in shape to symbolize perfect reunion. The old lady took the centre seat with Jia She, Jia Zhen, Jia Lian and Jia Rong on her left, on her right ha Zheng, Baoyu, Jia Huan and Jia Lan. The circle, however, was only half complete, the other half being conspicuously vacant.
‘I don’t usually feel there are too few of us, yet tonight I do,’ ob¬served the old lady. ‘Why, in the old days, on an evening like this there’d have been thirty to forty menfolk and womenfolk and it would have been ever so lively. This is too small a party. We can’t ask others to join us, as they’re all celebrating at home with their own parents, so let’s get some of the girls to fill up the gap on the other side.’
Yingchitn, Tanchun and Xichun were fetched, and Jia Lian, Baoyu and the other boys stood up to offer them seats, taking lower places themselves. Then the Lady Dowager called for a twig of osmanthus and ordered a serving-woman to beat a drum on the other side of the screen as the twig passed from hand to hand. Whoever had it when the drum¬ming stopped had to drink a cup of wine and tell a joke as forfeit. The game started with the old lady passing the twig to Jia She, and so on in turn. After two rounds Jia Zheng was left with it in his hand and had to drink up, while his children, nephews and nieces nudged or tugged at each other meaningly as they waited, smiling, to hear what joke he would tell. As his mother was in high spirits he felt constrained to do his best to please her.
‘If you can’t make us laugh,’ she warned, ‘we shall punish you by making you tell another.’
‘1 have only the one joke, madam. If you don’t find it funny I’ll accept the penalty... .There was a man who was hen-pecked....’
He was interrupted here by a burst of laughter, as Jia Zheng had never told jokes of this type before.
‘This must be a good one,’ said the old lady, laughing.
‘If you think it good, you must drink another cup, madam.’
‘Agreed.’
He went on, ‘This hen-pecked husband never dared go anywhere without his wife’s permission. But on the Moon Festival, going out to do some shopping, he met friends who dragged him home to drink with them. He got drunk and slept in their house. The next day when he woke up, quite conscience-stricken, he had to go home to apologize. It hap-pened that his wife was washing her feet.
‘She said to him, ‘Well, if you lick my feet I’ll forgive you.’
‘So the man had to lick her feet. But he couldn’t help retching, and this so enraged his wife that she threatened to beat him.
‘‘What insolence!’ she cried.
‘He fell on his knees in fright and explained, ‘It’s not that your feet stink, madam, but all the rice-wine and mooncakes I had yesterday have turned my stomach today.
The whole company laughed, and Jia Zheng at once poured a cup of wine for the old lady.
‘If that’s how you feel, let’s replace this wine with spirits,’ she pro¬posed. ‘We don’t want you to be sick.’
Amid general mirth the drumming started once more, stopping this time when Baoyu had the osmanthus. His father’s presence made him feel on edge, but here he was caught with the twig in his hand. If I fail to tell a good joke I’ll be scolded for being too stupid even to tell a joke, he thought. If I tell an amusing one he’ll say I’m no good at studying, only able to gab, and blame me all the more. So I’d better get out of it.
He stood up and pleaded, ‘I’m no good at telling jokes. Please set me some other forfeit.’
‘Well then,’ said Jia Zheng, ‘write an occasional poem with ‘au¬tumn’ as the rhyme. If it’s good you’ll get a reward. If not, look out tomorrow!’
‘We’re just playing a drinking game,’ objected the old lady. ‘Why make him write a poem?’
‘He can do it,’ Jia Zheng assured her.
At once she sent for paper and a brush.
Jia Zheng warned, ‘Mind you don’t use ornate phrases like ‘frozen jade,’ ‘silver crystal,’ ‘bright splendour’ or ‘shining purity.’ Your poem must be original. I want to test your ability after these years of study.’
This was just what Baoyu had been hoping for. He promptly made up four lines and wrote them out, presenting the poem to Jia Zheng who nodded without any comment. The Lady Dowager took this as a good sign.
‘How is it?’ she asked.
To please her Jia Zheng answered. ‘Quite a good effort. But be¬cause he hasn’t been studying the right books the language lacks distinc¬tion.’
‘That’s good enough. After all, how old is he? Do you expect him to be a prodigy? You should encourage him, to make him pay more attention to study in future.’
‘Very well.’ Jia Zheng turned to order a nurse, ‘Go and tell the pages in my study to bring two of those fans I brought back from Hainan to give him.’
Baoyu having bowed his thanks sat down again, and they went on with the game.
This prize given to Baoyu made Lan now leave his seat to write a poem too, which he handed to his grandfather. Jia Zheng, very pleased with it, explained the contents of both poems to the old lady. And she was so delighted that she ordered a prize to be given to Lan too, after which they resumed their seats to continue the game. This time the drum¬ming stopped when the osmanthus was in Jia She’s hand, and he had to drink a cup and tell a joke.
‘The son of a certain family was most filial,’ he began. ‘One day his mother fell ill, and unable to find physicians able to cure her they called in an old woman who practised acupuncture. As she knew nothing of the principles of pulse-taking, she diagnosed the illness as fire in the heart which a few acupuncture treatments would set right.
‘The son asked in alarm, ‘How can you needle her heart? Won’t that kill her?’
‘The old woman said, ‘There’s no need to needle the heart. Just needling the ribs will do.’
‘He protested, ‘But the heart isn’t anywhere near the ribs.’
‘She said, ‘That doesn’t matter. Don’t you know that all parents are biased, so that their hearts always incline to one side?’’
Amid general laughter his mother had to sip some wine.
After a short silence she said, ‘I suppose I should get that old woman to give me some acupuncture treatment too.’
Jia She realized then that she took the joke personally and he had offended her by his tactlessness. At once he stood up to pour her wine and tried to pass it off, and the old lady let the matter drop.
The game went on and this time Huan was caught holding the flower. Recently he had paid more attention to his studies; but, like Baoyu, in¬stead of studying the orthodox classics he preferred to read poems, espe¬cially those dealing with the bizarre and supernatural. When he saw Baoyu awarded a prize for his poem he wanted to show off too, but in his father’s presence dared not suggest it. Now that his turn had come to pay a forfeit, he also took paper and brush and wrote a four-lined verse which he handed to Jia Zheng. His father, although quite impressed, could read between the lines a lack of interest in study.
‘You brothers are alike,’ he rebuked them both. ‘All the ideas you express are heterodox. You’ll both turn out undisciplined reprobates. The ancients spoke of a ‘matchless pair,’ and that’s what you two are; only in your case ‘matchless’ means ‘incorrigible.’ The elder brother shame¬lessly compares himself to Wen Tingyun, and now the younger considers himself another Cao Tang.’
Jia She and the others laughed, and Jia She asked to see the poem and was full of praise for it.
‘This seems to me to show character,’ he observed. ‘In our family we’re not like those poor pedants who must ‘study by the light of re¬flected snow or glow-worms’ to pass the examination for the highest degree in order to climb up to exalted positions. Our sons should study too; but if they’re a bit more intelligent than average and look all right, they can hardly fail to get some official post. There’s no need for them to pore over tomes and become bookworms. That’s why I like this poem of his ‘ it shows the spirit of our noble house.’
Thereupon he ordered a servant to fetch some novelties from his room as a reward. And patting Huan on the head he said with a laugh, ‘Just go on writing like this – it’s our family’s style.  I’m sure you’ll inherit our noble ranks in future.’
Jia Zhen protested, ‘He was just writing nonsense.  How can these lines foretell the future?’ He poured a cup of wine for the old lady and the game went on.
Then the Lady Dowager suggested, ‘You gentlemen can take your leave now.  there must be friends waiting for you outside.  It won’t do to neglect them.  Besides, it’s already past the second watch.  Once you’ve gone, our girls will be able to enjoy themselves more freely for a while before we retire for the night.’
Jia She and the others stopped the game then and after a final toast took the younger men away.  If you want to know the sequel, read the next chapter.

Chapter 76

By Convex Emerald Hail Fluting
Fills an Old Lady with Grief
In Concave Crystal Lodge Girls Composing
a Poem Lament Their Loneliness


When ha She and Jia Zheng had led Jia Zhen and the other men away, the Lady Dowager ordered serving-women to remove the screen and turn the two feasts into one. This they did by clearing the tables, replenishing the refreshments and bringing clean cups and chopsticks while the ladies put on warmer clothes, washed their faces and sipped tea. As they took seats again around one table the old lady noticed that Baochai and Baoqin were missing ‘ they were celebrating the festival at home. In addition, Li Wan and Xifeng were unwell and the absence of these four made things seem rather quiet.
‘In the past,’ she remarked, ‘When the master was away we used to invite Aunt Xue over to enjoy the moon with us and had great fun, until suddenly the thought of his absence, parting husband from wife, mother from son and father from children took away a bit from our pleasure.
‘This year with the master back our family’s reunited, but that means we couldn’t ask Aunt Xue and her children over to have a good time with us. Besides, they’ve two relatives staying there this year and couldn’t leave them to come over here. And on top of that, Xifeng’s unwell. If she were here joking and laughing, she’d make up for ten other people. This shows nothing can ever be perfect in this world.’ She sighed and called for a big cup of heated wine.
‘This year you and your son are together,’ said Lady Wang. ‘That’s an improvement on the past. Though you had more young people around you then, it still wasn’t as good as having your own son back.’
‘True,’ agreed the old lady. ‘That’s why I’m in such good spirits that I want to drink from a big cup. You should switch to big cups too.’
Lady Xing and the others had to comply. It was late now, they were tired, and as none of them were good drinkers they were flagging; but since the old lady was still in the mood for fun they had no choice but to keep her company. She ordered rugs to be spread on the steps and mooncakes, water-melons and other refreshments set out there so that the maids could sit down in a circle and enjoy the moon as well.
The moon, now in mid sky, was more dazzlingly lovely than ever.
‘With such a fine moon we must listen to some fluting,’ decided the Lady Dowager. She sent for the girl musicians, telling them, ‘Too many instruments would break the spell. One flute played in the distance will be enough.’
The flutist was just going off when one of Lady Xing’s matrons brought her a message. The old lady asked what it was, and the matron answered:
‘Just now, on his way home, the Elder Master tripped over a stone and sprained his ankle.’
At once the Lady Dowager sent two women to see how he was and urged Lady Xing to hurry back. As she was taking her leave the old lady added, ‘Zhen’s wife may as well go with you. I’ll soon be turning in.’
Madam You countered gaily, ‘I’m not going back today. I mean to sit up drinking the whole night with our Old Ancestress.’
‘No, that won’t do. A young couple like you ought to be united to¬night. How can you desert your husband for my sake?’
Madam You flushed crimson and tittered, ‘What do you take us for, Old Ancestress? We aren’t as young as all that ‘ we’ve been married for over a dozen years and are getting on for forty. Besides, we’re still in mourning. There’s no harm in my keeping you company tonight. How can you ask me to spend it with my husband?’
‘Quite right,’ chuckled the old lady. ‘I’d forgotten you were still in mourning. Yes, your poor father-in-law has been dead two years and more ‘ how time does fly! I must drink a big cup as a forfeit for forget¬ting. Well, don’t go then but stay and keep me company. Rong’s wife can go back with her great-aunt.’
So Madan You told her daughter-in-law to accompany Lady Xing, and they mounted their carriages at the gate, then left.
In the Garden, the Lady Dowager led her party to enjoy the osmanthus in bloom, after which they returned to the feast and fresh wine was heated. They were chatting when, all of a sudden, from under the osmanthus came wafting the sweet, dulcet, mellifluous sound of fluting. In the bright moonlight and fresh breeze, with the sky above a void, the earth utterly still, this music dispelled all care and anxiety. Every voice hushed, they sat appreciating it in silence.
The fluting went on for the time it takes to drink two cups of tea. When it stopped, everyone exclaimed in admiration. Then warm wine was poured again.
‘Wasn’t that delightful?’ asked the old lady, beaming.
‘Really lovely, madam!’ they replied. ‘We’d never have thought of such a thing. We need you to show us how to enjoy ourselves.’
‘This still isn’t good enough. What’s needed is slow music, the slower the better.’
They had been eating melon-seed oil mooncakes stuffed with pine ¬kernels from the Palace, and the old lady now ordered one of these to be sent with a big cup of warm wine to the flutist, with instructions to drink it slowly then play another melody to the very best of her ability. Some serving-women had just gone off on this errand when back came the two matrons sent to ask after Jia She.
‘We saw His Lordship,’ they reported. ‘His right instep is a bit swollen, but he’s taken some medicine and the pain is less now. It’s nothing serious.’
The Lady Dowager nodded.
‘I worry too much about my children,’ she sighed. ‘He calls me biased, yet I feel such concern for him.’ She repeated Jia She’s joke to Lady Wang and Madam You.
‘It was only a joke after drinking,’ said Lady Wang soothingly. ‘Anyone can make a slip. He can’t possibly have had you in mind, madam. Why take it to heart?’
Yuanyang had now brought a soft hood and a cape. ‘It’s late,’ she said. ‘There’ll be dew, and you may catch cold in the wind unless you put more on. After a little while you should go and rest.’
‘Why hurry me when I’m in high spirits?’ asked the old lady. ‘I’m not drunk, am I? I’m going to sit up till dawn.’
She called for more wine, put on the hood and the cape, and went on drinking and joking with the rest.
Now from the shade of the osmanthus trees they heard the melodi¬OUS strains of fluting again, sadder this time than before, and all kept silent. The old lady was under the influence of wine, and in the still night, under the bright moon, the plaintive music touched her heart and she could not hold hack her tears. The others were painfully affected too; but after some time, noticing her distress, they began to talk gaily to cheer her up and called for more wine, directing the flutist to stop.
‘I’ve learned one joke,’ announced Madam You. ‘Let me tell it to amuse our Old Ancestress.’
The old lady forced a smile.
‘So much the better.’
‘A family had four sons. The eldest had only one eye, the second only one ear, the third only one nostril, the fourth had all his organs but was dumb....’
Seeing that the Lady Dowager had closed her eyes, she broke off and with Lady Wang softly asked if she was awake. The old lady opened her eyes.
‘I’m not sleepy, just closing my eyes to rest them a hit. Go on with your joke, I’m listening.’
Lady Wang demurred, ‘It’s already the fourth watch, madam, windy and with heavy dew. Won’t you go and rest? You can enjoy the moon again tomorrow; it’s still bright on the sixteenth.’
‘How can it he so late?’
‘It really is. The girls couldn’t stay up any longer; they’ve all gone off to sleep.’
The Lady Dowager looked around and found only Tanchun there ‘the rest had slipped away.
‘All right,’ she said with a smile. ‘You’re not used to staying up all night either. And we shouldn’t tire the girls, weak and delicate as they are. So poor Tanchun’s the only one still here. You’d better go too. It’s time the party broke up.’
She rose, took a sip of tea, then wrapped the cape around her and was carried off by two women in a small bamboo sedan-chair which they had ready. The others followed her out of the Garden.
The serving-women clearing up discovered that one fine porcelain cup was missing.
They asked the others, ‘Did one of you break a cup? If so, bring us the pieces to hand in as evidence. Otherwise we may be accused of stealing it.’
The others denied having broken anything.
‘But one of the maids attending the young ladies may have dropped a cup,’ they suggested. ‘Try to remember, or just go and ask them.’
‘That’s right,’ cried the woman in charge of the tea-services. ‘I remember Cuilu taking a cup. I’ll ask her.’
She went to look for Cuilu, who happened to come towards her along the covered walk accompanied by Zijuan.
Cuilu called out, ‘Has the old lady left? And do you know where our young ladies are?’
‘I’ve come to ask you for a cup, but you ask me for your mistresses instead.’
‘I’d just taken Miss Xiangyun some tea when she suddenly disap¬peared.’
‘Her Ladyship said just now they’d all gone to bed. You must have been playing about somewhere not to notice.’
‘They can’t have slipped off quietly to bed. They must be strolling about. Maybe, seeing the old lady leave, they went ahead to see her off. Let’s go to her place to look for them. Once we find them your teacup will turn up too. You can fetch it first thing tomorrow. What’s the hurry?’
‘Provided I know where it is, there’s no hurry. I’ll come for it to¬morrow.
The woman went back then to clear away while Zijuan and Cuilu made for the old lady’s quarters.
Daiyu and Xiangyun had not gone to bed. This big family reunion in the ha mansion, which the Lady Dowager still complained was less lively than in the old days, as well as her reference to Baochai and Baoqin celebrating at home with their own family, had made Daiyu feel so dis¬consolate that she had slipped out to the corridor to shed tears. As Baoyu was listless and distraught these days because Qingwen’s illness had taken a turn for the worse, when his mother urged him to go to bed off he went. Tanchun was in no mood for enjoyment either, with family troubles weighing on her mind. And as neither Yingchun nor Xichun was too inti¬mate with Daiyu, that left only Xiangyun to comfort her.
‘‘You should have more sense,’ Xiangyun told her, ‘than to let this scene upset you. I have no family either, but 71 don’t take it to heart the way you do. With your poor health you ought to look after yourself. It’s too bad of Baochai and Baoqin. They kept saying our club must meet to celebrate the Moon Festival this year by writing a poem together, but now they’ve abandoned us and gone off to celebrate it on their own. Instead of our meeting to write a poem, the men and boys of the house have had things all their own way. As the old saying goes: How can an outsider be allowed to sleep beside one’s bed?’ Well, if they won’t join in, why don’t the two of us write a poem together? Tomorrow we can shame them with it.’
As Xiangyun was trying to cheer her up, not wanting to spoil her fun Daiyu replied, ‘All right, But it’s too noisy here to have any poetic inspi¬ration.’
‘Enjoying the moonlight on this hill is good. hut it’s better still by the water. You know that lake at the foot of this hill and Concave Crystal Lodge by the inlet there? A lot of thought went into designing this Gar¬den. The crest of the hill is called Convex Emerald, and the creek in the lake below Concave Crystal. ‘Convex’ and ‘concave, ‘ so seldom used before, make fresh, original names. And these two places - one above, one below; one bright, one dark; one hill, one water seem specially designed for enjoying the moonlight. Those who like to look at the moon from a height can come here; those who prefer to see its reflection in water can go there. But as these two words are usually pronounced wa and tu’ they’re considered rather uncouth. That’s why Lu You’s line ‘The old inkstone, slightly concave, brims with ink’ was scoffed at as vulgar. Ridiculous, isn’t it?’
‘Lu You wasn’t the only one to use this word. so did many other writers of old ‘- Jiang Yan in his poetic essay On Green Moss, Dongfang Shuo in his Miraculous and Strange Records, and Zhang Yanyuan in
his Anecdotes on Painting when he described the frescoes Zhang Sengyou2 painted in a monastery. Why, there are too many instances to quote. But nowadays people not knowing this think these vulgar words.
‘To tell you the truth,’ Daiyu continued, ‘I’m the one who sug¬gested both names. It was when we proposed names for places which hadn’t yet been given any and marked their localities. They were taken to the Palace and shown to Elder Sister who sent them to uncle, and he was delighted. He said if only he’d known he’d have asked us girls to help with the names, and he accepted them all without changing a word. Well, let’s go to concave Crystal Lodge.’
They walked down the hill, round a bend, and reached the lake. A path by the bamboo railings along its bank led to Lotus Fragrance Pavil¬ion. The little building here, nestling at the foot of the hill on which stood Convex Emerald Hall, had been given the name Concave Crystal be¬cause it was on low ground close to the water. As it was so small, with few rooms, there were only two serving-women on night duty; and knowing that the ladies at Convex Emerald Hall would not be requiring their ser¬vices, after enjoying their share of mooncakes, sweetmeats, wine and dishes, they had put out the lights and gone to bed.
‘So they’re asleep ‘ good,’ said Xiangyun when they saw that the place was dark. ‘Let’s enjoy the water and moonlight under this aw¬ning.’
Sitting on two bamboo stools they gazed at the bright moon in the sky and then at its reflection in the lake, the moon above and its reflection below rivalling each other in magnificence. It was like being in some mermaids’ crystal palace. As a breeze ruffled the green water of the lake they felt thoroughly refreshed.
‘What fun it would be to drink now in a boat on the lake!’ exclaimed Xiangyun. ‘If we were at my home I’d take a boat out.’
‘As the ancients often said: ‘What enjoyment can there be if every¬thing is perfect?’’ remarked Daiyu. ‘To my mind this is quite good enough.’
‘It’s only natural for men to hanker for more. Didn’t the old people often say: The poor think the rich have all their hearts’ desire. Try to disabuse them and they won’t believe you ‘ not unless they grow rich
themselves. Take the two of us for instance. Although we’ve lost our parents we’re living in luxury, yet we have a lot to upset us.
‘We aren’t the only ones. Even their Ladyships, Baoyu, Tanchun and the others can’t have their way in everything big and small, even if they have good reason for wanting something. That applies to everyone. Especially girls like us who are living with other families, not our own....
Afraid Daiyu would start grieving again, Xiangyun interposed, ‘Well, enough of this idle talk. Let’s get on with our poem.’
As she was talking they heard melodious fluting.
‘Their Ladyships are in high spirits today,’ Daiyu remarked. ‘This fluting is pleasant and should give us inspiration. As we both like five-character lines, let’s make regulated couplets in that metre.’
‘What rhymes shall we use?’
‘Suppose we count the bars from this end of the railing to the other to decide which category of rhymes to choose. For example, if it’s six¬teen we’ll use the Xian rhymes. Wouldn’t that make a change?’
‘That’s certainly original.’
So they got up to count the bars and found there were thirteen in all.
Xiangyun chuckled, ‘It would be thirteen! That means the yuan group of rhymes. There aren’t too many for a long poem of couplets, so it may be awkward. Still, you must make a start.’
‘We’ll see which of us does better. But we ought to have paper and a brush to write it down.’
‘We can copy it out tomorrow. There’s no danger of forgetting it before then.’
‘All right then. I’ll start with a pat phrase.’ Daiyu declaimed:
‘Mid-autumn’s fifteenth night is here again....’ Xiangyun reflected, then said:
‘As on the Feast of Lanterns we stroll round.
The sky above is sprinkled with bright stars  
Daiyu continued:
‘And everywhere sweet strings and pipes resound.
Goblets fly here and there as men carouse....
‘I like that last line,’ Xiangyun approved. ‘I must find something good to match it.’ After a moment’s thought she said:
‘No house but has its windows opened wide.
The breeze that softly fans the air is chill  
‘You’ve capped my attempt,’ admitted Daiyu. ‘But your second line is trite. You should go from strength to strength.’
‘A long poem with tricky rhymes had to be padded out a bit. We can use some good lines later.’
‘If you don’t, you should be ashamed!’ Daiyu went on:
‘But bright as day the fine night scene outside.
The greybeard grabbing for a cake is mocked  
‘That’s no good,’ laughed Xiangyun. ‘It’s not classical. You’re put¬ting me on the spot by using an everyday incident like that.’
‘I’d say you hadn’t read many books. This reference to cakes is a classical allusion. You should read the Tang dynasty records before you talk.’
‘Well, you haven’t foxed me. I’ve got it.’ Xiangyun capped the verse:
‘Green girls share melons laughing themselves silly.
How fresh the scent of jade osmanthus bloom....’
‘That really had no classical source,’ protested Daiyu.
‘Tomorrow we’ll look it up for everyone to see. Let’s not waste time now.’
‘Anyway your second line is no good, padded out with expressions like ‘jade osmanthus.’’ She continued:
‘How bright the regal gold of the day-lily.3
Wax candles set the sumptuous feast aglow  
‘You got off cheap with ‘day-lily,’’ observed Xiangyun. ‘That ready-made rhyme saved you a lot of trouble. But there was no need to drag in praise of the sovereign on their behalf. Besides, the line after that is mediocre.’
‘If you hadn’t used jade osmanthus. I wouldn’t have had to match it with day-lily, would I ? And we have to bring in some opulent images to make it true to life.’
Then Xiangyun continued:
‘1


‘Wild drinking games the splendid park confuse.
Opposing sides obey the self-same rule  
‘That last line’s good but rather hard to match.’ Daiyu thought for a little then said:
‘Those guessing riddles hear three different clues.
The dice is thrown and wins ‘ the dots are red....’
Xiangyun said, ‘I like your ‘three clues,’ making something collo¬quial poetic. But you shouldn’t have brought in dice again in the next line.’ She continued:
‘Drums speed the blossom passed from hand to hand.
The courtyard scintillates with limpid light  
Daiyu commented, ‘You capped my line all right but fell down again on the next. Why keep padding it out with the’breeze’ and the ‘moon’ all the time?’
‘I haven’t brought in the moon yet. And anyway a subject like this can do with some purple patches.’
‘Well, we’ll let it go for the time being. We can consider it again tomorrow.’ Daiyu went on:
‘A silver splendour merges sky and land.
For hosts and guests alike the same requital  
‘Why go on referring to others? Why not speak about us?’ Xiangyun resumed:
‘Verses are written turn and turn about.
One leaning on the barricade to think  
‘Yes, this is where we come in,’ Daiyu remarked, then continued:
‘One ‘tapping the door’4 to make the scene stand out.
Engrossed as ever, though the wine is drunk  
‘Now we’re getting somewhere!’ Xiangyun went on:
‘They savour the last watches of the night.
Then comes a gradual end to talk and laughter....’
‘Here’s where each line gets more difficult,’ observed Daiyu, con¬tinuing:

‘Nought’s left now but the waning frosty light.
By the steps, dew-drenched hibiscus blooms at dawn  
Xiangyun exclaimed, ‘Now what paroled shall I choose? Let me see.’ She stood up to think, her hands clasped behind her back, then said with a smile, ‘All right. Luckily I’ve hit on a word. I was nearly floored.’ She resumed:
‘In the courtyard, mist the albizzia shrouds.
Autumn rapids pour forth through the core of rocks  
Daiyu sprang up with a cry of admiration.
‘This clever imp had really kept some good lines up her sleeve. Fancy coming out with ‘albizzia’ ‘ how did you think of that?’
‘Luckily for me, yesterday I dipped into the Selected Writings of Different Dynasties and found this name. I didn’t know what tree it was and wanted to look it up, but Cousin Baochai said, ‘There’s no need for that. This is the tree whose leaves open out in the daytime and fold up at night.’ Not trusting her, I checked up and found she was right. So it seems Cousin Baochai really knows a lot.’
‘It’s just the word to use here, and your line about ‘autumn rapids’ is even more felicitous, better than all the other lines. I shall have to cudgel my brains to match it, but I can’t possibly think of anything as good.’ After a little reflection she went on:
‘Wind-swept leaves gather at the root of clouds.
Lonely and pure the Lady of the Star  
‘The parallel will pass but the second line is a comedown,’ was Xiangyun’s verdict. ‘Still, at least the sentiment suits the scene. You haven’t just used an allusion for padding.’ She continued:
‘The Silver Toad5 puffs and deflates the moon.
Elixirs are prepared by the Jade Hare  
Daiyu simply nodded, then capped this:
‘The goddess flies towards the Palace of Cold Void.
One soars on high to greet Weaving Maid and Cowherd  
Xiangyun looking up at the moon nodded and continued:
‘One sails a barque to the heavenly maiden fair.
The orb, for ever changing, wanes and waxes  
‘You’re using the same image again,’ objected Daiyu, but went on:
‘At each month’s start and end but its ghost is there. Clepsydra’s water had wellnigh run dry  
Before Xiangyun could continue, Daiyu pointed at a dark shadow in the pool and exclaimed, ‘Look there! That looks like a man in the dark. Could it be a ghost?’
‘You’re imagining things again. I’m not afraid of ghosts. I’ll hit it.’
Xiangyun bent to pick up a stone and threw it into the pool. Splash! Ripples radiated out to shatter the moon’s reflection, which then rounded out again. When this had happened several times, they heard a cry in the dark shadows and a white stork took wing straight towards Lotus Fra¬grance Pavilion.
‘So that’s all it was,’ chuckled Daiyu. ‘I didn’t think it could be a stork. It gave me quite a fright.’
‘How amusing ‘ it’s given me an idea.’ And Xiangyun declaimed:
‘The lamp by the window is no longer bright.
A stork’s shadow flit across the chilly pool  
Daiyu exclaimed in admiration again, stamping her foot.
‘This confounded stork had helped her! This line is even more origi¬nal than the one about ‘autumn rapids.’ How am I going to match it? The only parallel for ‘shadow’ is ‘spirit.’ A stork flitting across the chilly pool sounds so natural, apt, vivid and original too! I shall have to give up.’
‘We can find something if we both think hard, or else leave it till tomorrow.’
Daiyu still looking up at the sky ignored her.
After a while she suddenly laughed and said, ‘You needn’t gloat. I’ve got it. Listen.
‘The poet’s spirit is buried in cold moonlight.’
Xiangyun clapped her hands.
‘Very good indeed! The only possible parallel. Burying the poet’s spirit ‘ wonderful.’ She added with a sigh, ‘Of course that line’s distinctive, but it’s rather too melancholy. Now that you’re unwell you shouldn’t make such strangely sad and depressing lines which sound ill-omened.’
Daiyu chuckled, ‘If I hadn’t, how was Ito beat you? But I worked so hard on it, I haven’t got the next line yet....’
Just then someone stepped out from behind the rocks on the other side of the balustrade and laughed.
‘A fine poem, a fine poem!’ she cried. ‘But it is too melancholy. You’d better not go on. If you continue in this way, these two lines won’t stand out so well and the poem may seem padded and forced.’
Daiyu and Xiangyun, caught unawares, were startled to see Miaoyu.
‘Where did you spring from?’ they asked.
‘Knowing you were all enjoying the moon and listening to fine flut¬ing, I came out to admire this clear lake and bright moonlight too and on my way here suddenly heard the two of you poeticizing, which seemed the height of refinement. So I stopped to listen. You’ve made some good lines but as a whole it’s too mournful ‘ or was that fated? That’s why I stepped out to stop you.
‘The party broke up long ago and the old lady’s left the Garden. Most of the others here must be asleep, and your maids will be wonder¬ing what’s become of you. Aren’t you afraid of catching cold? Come back to my place now for a cup of tea. The day will break any minute.’
‘I’d no idea it was so late,’ said Daiyu.
The three girls went to Green Lattice Nunnery. They found the lamp before the shrine still lit and the incense in the censer not yet burnt out, but the few old nuns there had gone to bed leaving only one young maid dozing on a hassock. Miaoyu roused her to brew tea. Then came a sud¬den knocking on the gate, and the maid opened it to admit Zijuan and Cuilu with some old nurses come to look for Daiyu and Xiangyun.
Seeing them drinking tea they said laughingly, ‘You had us searching the whole Garden ‘ even Madam Xue’s place ‘ for you. We were looking just now in that small pavilion at the foot of the hill, and luckily the night-watchers were awake. They told us two people had been talking under the awning outside. Someone else joined them and they spoke of going to the nunnery. That’s how we’ve tracked you down.’
Miaoyu told the maid to take them to another room to have a rest and some tea. She herself brought out a brush, inkstone, paper and ink and asked the girls to recite their composition, which she wrote down from start to finish.
Finding her in such a good mood Daiyu said, ‘I’ve never seen you before in such high spirits. If not for that I wouldn’t presume to ask for your opinion. Is this poem worth polishing? If you think not, we’ll burn it; but if it is, will you please make some corrections?’
‘I won’t venture to make rash comments, but as you’ve already used twenty-two rhymes I expect you ye produced your most striking images and if you go on you may tire yourselves out. I’d like to round it off, only I’m afraid I may spoil it.’
Daiyu had never read any poems by Miaoyu, and as the young nun was so eager she urged her, ‘Please do! That may make out feeble attempts seem passable.’
‘We must wind up the poem by reverting to the present situation. If we pass over true feelings and incidents and simply search for striking images and expressions, we’ll be losing our identity and departing from the main theme.’
‘Quite right,’ they concurred.
Miaoyu picked up her brush and wrote her addition straight off, then showed it to the other two, saying:
‘Don’t laugh at me! I feel this is the only way to get back to the theme. Then a few sad lines earlier on won’t matter.’
They took what she had written and read:
The incense in gold tripods has burnt out,
And ice-white oil in the jade basin forms;
Fluting recalls a widow’s lamentations
As a small serving-maid the silk quilt warms.
On empty curtains a bright phoenix hangs.
The idle screens gay ducks and drakes enfold;
Thick dew has made the moss more slippery,
And heavy frost makes bamboo hard to hold.
Strolling again beside the winding lake,
Climbing once more the solitary hill,
The rugged boulders seem contending ghosts.
The gnarled trees wolves and tigers crouching still.
Dawn lights the tortoise pedestal of stone,
On outer trellis now the thick dew falls.
A thousand woodland birds begin to stir,
In vales below a single gibbon calls.
How can we stray on a familiar road?
Why ask the way to fountain-heads we know?
The bells chime in Green Lattice Nunnery,
The cocks in Paddy-Sweet Cottage start to crow.
With cause for joy why grieve excessively,
Or needlessly display anxiety?
A maiden’s feelings none but she can vent ‘To whom can she confide her nicety?
Speak not of weariness though night is done,
Over fresh tea let us talk on and on.
She then appended the title ‘A Poem Written Collectively with Thirty-five Rhymes While Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival in Grand View Garden.’
Daiyu and Xiangyun heaped praise on this ending.
‘We’ve been ignoring a talent right under our eyes, yet trying to seek what is far away!’ they exclaimed. ‘We have such a superior po¬etess here, yet every day we pretend to be able to write.’
‘We can polish it tomorrow,’ suggested Miaoyu. ‘It’ll soon be light, and after all we must get some rest.’ Then the other two took their leave and went off with their maids. Miaoyu saw them out of the gate and watched until they were out of sight before closing the gate and returning to her room.
Meanwhile Cuilu had told Xiangyun, ‘They’re sitting up waiting for us in Madam Zhu’s place. Let’s go back now.’
‘You can call in there on the way and tell them to go to bed,’ replied Xiangyun. ‘If I go, I’ll only disturb them. I’d better raise a rumpus in Miss Lin’s place instead.’
In Bamboo Lodge half the maids were already asleep. Having un¬dressed and washed, Daiyu and Xiangyun went to bed; Zijuan put down the gauze bed-curtain and took away the lamp, closing the door behind her. However, Xiangyun could not sleep in a strange bed. As for Daiyu, being anaemic she often suffered from insomnia too, and having stayed up past her usual hour she now felt wide-awake. So the two of them tossed and turned.
Daiyu asked, ‘Why aren’t you asleep yet?’
‘I can’t sleep well in a strange bed ‘ that’s my trouble. And I’m no longer sleepy, so I’m just resting. What about you?’
‘I’ve had insomnia a long time now,’ Daiyu sighed. ‘In a whole year I probably have only ten nights of good sleep.’
‘No wonder you’re unwell then!’
If you want to know what followed, read the next chapter.

Chapter 77

A Pretty Maid Wrongly Accused
Dies an Untimely Death
Lovely Actresses Sever Worldly Ties
and Join a Nunnery


After the Moon Festival, as Xifeng though well enough to leave her bed was not yet fully recovered, Lady Wang continued to summon the doctor to attend her every day as before. The fortifying pills he pre¬scribed required, among other ingredients, two ounces of the best gin¬seng. Lady Wang sent for some. But after a long search, all her maids could find was a small box of roots no thicker than hairpins, of such poor quality that she made them look again. Presently they came back with a packet of ginseng rootlets.
“When we don’t want it there’s plenty; when we do there’s none,” she exclaimed in exasperation. “Time and again I’ve told you to make sure to put things back in the right place, but you never listen, just dump¬ing them anywhere. You don’t know the value of ginseng. When we need it we have to pay through the nose, and what’s bought outside may not be efficacious.”
Caiyun explained, “This seems to be all we have. Last time Lady Xing came to ask for some, you gave her our whole stock.”
“Nonsense. Go and make a more careful search.”
This time Caiyun brought back a few packets of herbs.
“What these are I don’t know,” she said. “Please have a look, madam. There isn’t anything else.”
Lady Wang opened the packets but could not recall what they were, and there was no ginseng among them. She sent to ask Xifeng whether she had any. A few rootlets only, was the reply, not of the best quality either, and she needed these for her medicine every day. Lady Wang then applied to Lady Xing, who said it was because she had run out that she had asked her for ginseng the other day.
Then Lady Wang had no other recourse but to apply in person to the
old lady. The latter at once ordered Yuanyang to fetch all she had, and this proved to be quite a large packet of ginseng roots each as thick as a man’s finger. Yuanyang weighed out two ounces. Lady Wang gave these to Zhou Rui’s wife, instructing her to send them to the doctor along with the herbs which they could not identify, and get him to label these.
Before long Mrs. Zhou brought them back.
“All the herbs have been properly wrapped up and labelled,” she said. “But as for this ginseng, madam, although it’s of the best quality and costs more than thirty taels of silver an ounce now, it’s too old. Ginseng isn’t like other medicines. No matter how fine the roots, after a hundred years they turn to ashes. There haven’t turned to ashes yet ,but they have dried up and lost their potency. So the doctor hopes you’ll take this back and get him some fresher, whatever the quality.”
Lady Wang lowered her head in thought.
“There’s nothing for it then,” she concluded at last, “but to go and buy two ounces.” Not interested in examining the other packets she had them put away, then told Zhou Rui’s wife, “Get the servants outside to buy two ounces of good ginseng. If the old lady happens to ask just tell her we used hers no need to say any more.
Baochai who was present put in, “One moment, aunt. There’s no good ginseng to be bought outside. Whenever they get a whole root they cut it into two or three pieces and graft other rootlets on to these to be sold, with others, as if they were whole roots; so the size is nothing to go by. Our shop often does business with those ginseng dealers. I can easily ask mother to get my brother to send an assistant to approach one of them and buy two ounces of good whole roots. It’s worth spending a few taels extra to get the best.”
“That’s a splendid idea!” exclaimed Lady Wang. “It’s good of you to take the trouble.”
Baochai came back some time later to report that someone had been sent, and they should have the ginseng that evening in time to prepare the medicine the next morning. Lady Wang was greatly relieved.
“This is like the proverb: ‘The pomade-vendor uses water for her own hair,”’ she sighed. “Goodness knows how much we’ve given away, but when we need any ourselves we have to ask for help right and left!”
“Ginseng’s expensive,” rejoined Baochai with a smile. “After all, it’s only medicine, and such things should be given away to help others. We shouldn’t hoard them the way vulgar people do.”
Lady Wang nodded.
“Quite right.”
Baochai left then, and as no one else was about Lady Wang sum¬moned Zhou Rui’s wife to ask the result of their recent search of the Garden. Mrs. Zhou had discussed this with Xifeng and agreed to keep nothing back. Her description of all that had happened shocked and en¬raged Lady Wang. But she was in a quandary too, as Siqi was Yingchun’s maid and both of them belonged to Lady Xing’s house. She proposed reporting the matter to her.
Mrs. Zhou demurred, “The other day she scolded Wang Shanbao’s wife and boxed her ears for being too officious. So now Mrs. Wang’s shamming ill and won’t leave home — especially as Siqi’s her grand¬daughter and she fell into her own trap. All she can do now is pretend it never happened and hope things will quiet down. If we report this to Her Ladyship, she may suspect us of trying to stir up more trouble. Better take Siqi to her with the evidence, and after seeing it they’ll at most give her a beating and assign a different maid here. Wouldn’t that be simpler?
“If instead of that we just report it, Lady Xing may make excuses in order to shift the responsibility. ‘Why doesn’t your mistress deal with it, then?’ she may ask. ‘Why report it to me?’ That would cause delay. And if Siqi took this chance to kill herself, that would make matters worse. The women who’ve been watching over her the last few days are liable to grow slack. Suppose they do, and something happens — what then?”
After some thought Lady Wang decided, “You’re right. We must hurry up and see to this before dealing with those vixens in our own house.”
Thereupon Mrs. Zhou called together some of her colleagues and led them to Yingchun’s compound.
She told Yingchun, “The mistress says Siqi has grown up and her mother keeps coming to ask to have her back, so Her Ladyship’s giving her back to be married off. She’s to leave today. Another good maid will be chosen to wait on you, miss.
She ordered Siqi to pack up her things and leave.
Yingchun’s eyes filled with tears, for she hated to part with the girl. But as other maids had told her in confidence about the events of that evening, fond as she was of Siqi there was nothing she could do where the question of morality was concerned. Siqi had begged her to intervene on her behalf and let her stay on; however, Yingchun did not have a ready tongue and was too weak to reach a decision.
“How cruel you are, miss!” sobbed Siqi, seeing that her fate was sealed. “You’ve kept me hoping the last two days, yet won’t say a good word for me now.”
Zhou Rui’s wife demanded, “You don’t expect the young lady to keep you, do you? Even if she did, how could you face the others in the Garden? Take my advice and pack up quickly to slip away without any¬one noticing. That’ll look better for us all.”
Yingchun said tearfully, “I don’t know what wicked thing you’ve done, but asking to keep you would spoil my reputation too. Just look at Ruhua: she was here for some years as well, but she left when she was told to. And you’re not the only two. All the girls in the Garden will have to leave, I suppose, when they’re grown up. Since we have to part sooner or later, you may as well go now.
“After all, the young lady sees things more clearly,” agreed Mrs. Zhou. “Others will be sent away later, don’t you worry.
Siqi had no alternative but to kowtow to Yingchun and take her leave of the other maids.
In tears she whispered, “If you hear that I’m in bad trouble, miss, do put in a good word for me for old time’s sake.”
Yingchun with tears in her own eyes promised, “I will.”
Then Zhou Rui’s wife and her colleagues led Siqi out, instructing two serving-women to carry away all her things. They had not gone far when Xiuju overtook them and, wiping her tears, handed Siqi a silk package.
“This is from our young lady,” she said. “Now that mistress and maid are parting, she wants you to have this keepsake.”
This gift reduced Siqi to tears again. She and Xiuju wept together until Mrs. Zhou lost patience and insisted that tl~ey must be on their way.
“Please be kind and wait a little, aunties,” Siqi sobbed. “Let me say
goodbye to the others here who’ve been like sisters to me all these years.” Mrs. Zhou and the rest had business of their own to attend to and felt
this task an extra imposition, in addition to which they bitterly resented the airs these maids put on. Naturally they had no patience with such talk.
“Get a move on and stop dilly-dallying,” they scoffed. “We’ve more important things to see to. Are you one flesh and blood that you have to say goodbye? They’d only laugh at you. Shilly-shallying won’t get you anywhere. So come along.”
With that they marched straight on to the back side gate, and Siqi afraid to say more had no choice but to follow.
It so happened that Baoyu came back just then from outside. When he saw Siqi being led off, followed by women carrying things, he guessed that she had been dismissed for good. He had heard of the commotion that night and the happenings earlier in the day which had led to Qingwen’s relapse; but though carefully questioned, she herself could not tell what had given rise to it all. The day before he had seen Ruhua leave, and now it was Siqi’s turn. In consternation he barred the way and asked where they were going. The stewards’ wives knew Baoyu’s quirky ways and did not want him to pester and delay them.
“This is none of your business,” said Mrs. Zhou with a smile. “Get back to your books.”
“Good sisters, please wait a moment,” he begged. “I have something to say.
“The mistress ordereu us not to lose any time. And what can you have to say? We are just carrying out Her Ladyship’s orders. That’s our only concern.”
Siqi caught hold of his sleeve.
“They can’t disobey orders,” she sobbed. “But please go and beg Her Ladyship to let me off.”
Baoyu’s heart bled for her. Tears started to his eyes.
“I don’t know what dreadful thing you’ve done,” he cried. “Qingwen’s fallen ill with anger, and now you’re leaving. All of you are leaving! What’s to become of me?”
At this Mrs. Zhou scolded Siqi, “You’re no longer a deputy young
mistress now. I’ll beat you if you don’t do as you’re told. Don’t think you still have your young mistress to protect you and can go on making any trouble you please. So come along quietly instead of tugging at Mas¬ter Bao. What way is that to behave?”
They dragged Siqi off before she could say any more; and Baoyu, afraid they might report this, could only glare after them. When they had gone some distance he shook a finger at them and swore:
“How strange! How is it that once girls marry they get contaminated by men and become so obnoxious — even worse than men!”
The matrons on duty at the gate burst out laughing.
“Whatever is Master Bao talking about?” they cried. “Goodness knows where he gets hold of such nonsense.” To tease him they asked, “Do you mean that all girls are good and all married women bad?”
“That’s right.” Baoyu nodded. “Of course.”
“We’re so stupid,” they chuckled, “there’s something else we’d like you to explain....”
Before they could finish some nurses came along.
“Watch out!” they cried. “Mind you gather together all those on duty and stay at your posts. Her Ladyship’s come to the Garden on a tour of inspection. She may very well come here....
Then one of them ordered someone to fetch the relatives of that girl Qingwen in Happy Red Court and wait here to take her away.
“Buddha be praised!” they chortled. “At last Heaven has opened its eyes. Once this pest is gone we shall have a little peace.”
Baoyu, as soon as he heard that his mother was coming to make a check-up, guessed that it boded trouble for Qingwen. So he dashed off too soon to hear the nurses’ jubilation.
He found Happy Red Court packed with people. His mother, sitting there with a face like thunder, ignored him.
Qingwen was wasting away, having touched no food for four or five days; but now with dishevelled hair she was dragged from the kang and two women carried her off.
“She’s only to take the clothes she has on,” ordered Lady Wang. “The finer ones are to be kept for better maids.”
She then summoned all the maids for her inspection.
This was because Wang Shanbao’s wife had taken advantage of Lady Wang’s anger a few days previously to slander Qingwen, as well as others in the Garden whom she disliked. And Lady Wang had taken all this to heart. As she was busy during the festival she let things slide for a couple of days, but now she had come to inspect all the maids in the Garden, not only to dismiss Qingwen, but also because it had reached her ears that as Baoyu was growing up, his maids who were hussies were teaching him bad ways. As this was more serious than Qingwen’s case, Lady Wang meant to examine all the maids from Xiren down to the girls assigned rough work.
“Which is the one,” she asked, “born on the same day as Baoyu?”
Since the girl in question dared not answer, an old nurse pointed her out.
“Huixiang here, also called Sier.”
Lady Wang looked at her closely. She saw that this maid, while by no means half as pretty as Qingwen, was not unattractive and looked intel¬ligent. She dressed rather conspicuously too. Lady Wang smiled scorn¬fully.
“Another shameless slut! She said in secret that a boy and girl born on the same day, at the same hour, are destined to marry. It was you who told him that. Do you think because we live apart I don’t know? Though I don’t often come to the Garden, I keep a close watch on what you’re up to here. Baoyu is my only son. How can I allow hussies like you to lead him astray?”
At mention of what she had said in confidence to Baoyu, Sier blushed and hung her head, weeping.
Having ordered her to be fetched away by her parents and married off, Lady Wang asked:
“Which is the creature called Ye1U Xiongnu?”
The nurses pointed out Fangguan.
“Oh, an actress? No wonder she’s a vamp. When we offered last time to release you, you wouldn’t go. Well then, you should have be¬haved yourself, instead of making mischief and getting Baoyu to carry on so wildly.”
“I’d never dare!” pleaded Fangguan with a smile.
“So you’re talking back! Tell me this: The year before last when we went to the Imperial Sepulchre, who coaxed Baoyu to bring that girl Liu Wuer here? Luckily she died a premature death; otherwise, if you’d got her in, you’d have ganged up to make more trouble in the Garden. You even bully your own foster-mother, to say nothing of other people.”
She sent for this woman to take Fangguan away and find her a hus¬band outside, saying she could keep all her things. She also ordered all the young actresses assigned to the different girls’ quarters the previous year to clear out of the Garden, be fetched away and married off. This naturally delighted their foster-mothers, who came to kowtow their thanks.
Then Lady Wang had the whole house searched. Any of Baoyu’s things which looked suspicious were to be confiscated and taken to her quarters.
“This will clean things up,” she said, “and save gossip in future.” She also warned Xiren and Sheyue, “Be careful now. If you overstep the mark I shan’t let you off either.”
She had them look up an almanac, which indicated that it would be inauspicious to move that year. So Baoyu had to stay in the Garden for the time being.
“Next year we’ll move him out,” declared Lady Wang. “That will stop further trouble.”
This said, she led her attendants off to inspect other compounds, not even waiting for tea.
But to revert to Baoyu: He had expected nothing more than a per¬functory check-up, little dreaming that his mother would come down on them like a thunderbolt, taking them to task for things they had said in secret — which she had got word for word. He knew there was no saving the situation and wished he could die then and there; but as she was in such a rage he dared not make a false move or utter a word. He followed her to Seeping Fragrance Pavilion, where she told him:
“Go back and apply yourself to your books. You may be questioned tomorrow. Your father was fuming just now.
On his way back he wondered who had been telling tales. No outsid¬ers knew what went on in his house, so how could his mother be so well informed? In a quandary, he returned to his room and found Xiren weep-
ing there. Distressed by the less of his favourite maid, he threw himself on the bed to start weeping too.
Xiren knew that Qingwen’s dismissal was the only thing that really mattered to him. She nudged him.
“It’s no use crying. Get up and listen to me. Qingwen’s on the mend, and going home like this she’ll be able to rest quietly for a few days. If you really don’t want to let her go, wait till your mother has got over her anger then go and beg the old lady to recall her. That shouldn’t be diffi¬cult. The mistress did this in a fit of anger, just because she was taken in by some spiteful talk.”
“I can’t imagine what her crime was,” he sobbed.
“The mistress just feels that someone with her good looks is bound to be rather flighty, and there can’t be any peace with such a beauty here
—	that’s why she dislikes her. She prefers plain, ungainly girls like us.”
“Even so, how could she know our secret jokes? No outsiders could have passed them on. That’s what’s so odd.”
“Have you ever shown any discretion? When you get worked up you don’t care who’s about. Many’s the time I’ve tipped you a wink or signalled to you on the sly, but before you took the hint others had already noticed.”
“How is it my mother knows all the faults of the other girls but not those of you, Sheyue and Qiuwen?”
Touched on the raw Xiren lowered her head for a while, at a loss for an answer.
“Yes, that’s odd,” she agreed presently. “We three have spoken care¬lessly in fun too, but the mistress seems to have forgotten that. Maybe she has other things on her mind and won’t send us away until she’s dealt with them.’’
“You’re known as a paragon of virtue,” he retorted. “And those two are influenced by you. So how could you slip up so as to deserve punish¬ment? Fangguan now, being so young and a bit too smart, can’t help bullying people and offending them. In Sier’s case, it’s my fault. It started that day when I quarrelled with you and called her in to wait on me. That made her uppish and led to this trouble today.
“But Qingwen’s like you , she was transferred here as a child from
the old lady’s quarters. She may be better-looking, but what does that
- matter? And though she’s outspoken and has a sharp tongue she’s never done you any harm. I suppose it’s her good looks that were her undo¬ing.” He burst into tears again.
Inferring from this that Baoyu suspected her of telling tales, Xiren did not like to pursue the subject further.
“Only Heaven knows the truth,” she sighed. “We can’t find out now who told, so it’s no use crying. Take it easy till the old lady’s in a good mood, then you can tell her about it and ask to have Qingwen back.”
“Don’t hold out false hopes,” he snorted. “If I wait till my mother calms down it’ll be too late, because Qingwen’s illness won’t wait. She’s always lived in comfort, never had to put up with a single day’s bad treatment. Even I, who know her so well, often offended her. Dismissing her now,” he went on more bitterly, “seriously ill as she is and with all that resentment bottled up inside her, is like throwing a delicate orchid just coming into bloom into a pigsty. Besides, she has no parents, only an elder cousin who’s a drunkard. How can she stand it there? How can you talk of waiting for a few days? Who knows whether I’ll ever see her again or not?”
Xiren laughed.
“You’re like ‘the magistrate who goes in for arson but won’t allow common people to light a lamp.’ If we let slip some tactless remark you say it’s unlucky, but it’s all right for you to talk about her dying. She may be extra delicate, still it shouldn’t come to that.”
“I didn’t speak at random. There was an omen this spring.”
“What omen?”
“That begonia at the foot of the steps was thriving, but then for no reason half its branches withered. I knew that was a portent, and now see what’s happened to her.”
Xiren laughed again.
“I shouldn’t say this, but I must, you’re a regular old woman. How can an educated young gentleman talk that way? What have plants to do with human fate? If you’re not an old woman you really are a fool.”
“You don’t understand,” Baoyu sighed. “Not only plants and trees but all things in the world are just as sentient and rational as human be-
ings. When in rapport with someone, they’re specially sensitive. Some outstanding examples are the juniper tree before Confucius’ temple and the yarrow before his tomb, as well as the cypress before Zhuge Liang’s1 temple and the pine before Yue Fei’s2 tomb. All these stately plants em¬bodying these men’s fine spirit have endured for centuries, withering when the world is in confusion and flourishing again when it is well gov¬erned. They have withered and revived again several times in all these thousands of years. Aren’t they sure signs?
“Minor examples are the peony before Lady Yang’s Scented Pavil¬ion, the tree of longing before her Upright Tower, or the grass on Wang Zhaojun’s tomb. They all had divine sensibility, didn’t they? It’s because she’s going to die that half the begonia withered.”
Hearing this senseless talk, Xiren did not know whether to laugh or cry.
“You’re getting more and more outrageous,” she protested. “How can you rack your brains to compare Qingwen, a mere nobody, with those great figures? Besides, however good she may be, she’s lower in status than I am. You should compare me, not her with the begonia. I suppose this means I’m going to die very soon.
Baoyu clapped a hand over her mouth.
“What a thing to say! Before one death’s taken place you’re talking of another. All right, let’s drop the subject. I’ve already lost three of you, I don’t want to lose one more.
Secretly pleased, Xiren told herself: If they hadn’t gone, how far would you have let yourself go?
“From now on,” he continued, “let’s say no more about it, just con¬sider the three of them as dead and gone. Others have died before with¬out it mattering much to me anyway. It’s all the same. But let’s talk about practical matters. We must secretly send her things to her without letting the mistresses know, as well as a few strings of cash from our savings to help cure her illness. We owe her that for old times’ sake.”
“How heartless and stingy you think us!” Xiren exclaimed. “We don’t need a reminder from you. I’ve already sorted out all her clothes and things and put them aside. In the daytime there are too many busybodies around, all eager to make trouble; but as soon as it’s dark we’ll quietly
get Mrs. Song to take them over. I’ve saved a few strings of cash too, which I’m giving her.”
Baoyu expressed grateful thanks.
“I’m already known as ‘a paragon of virtue’,” she said sarcasti¬cally. “Surely this is a cheap way to add to my reputation.”
At once he apologized and tried to mollify her.
That evening, in strict confidence, they sent Mrs. Song off on this errand. And after settling his maids down, Baoyu slipped out of the back gate alone and begged an old woman to take him to see Qingwen. At first she most resolutely refused, saying that if it was found out and reported to the mistress she’d lose her job; but after he pleaded hard and prom-ised her a tip she finally took him.
Now Qingwen had been sold into bondage to Lai Da’s family at the age of ten, before she had grown her hair. Old Mrs. Lai used to take her to the Rong Mansion, and the Lady Dowager took a fancy to her be¬cause of her intelligence and good looks, where upon Mrs. Lai presented her to the old lady, and that was how she had later become Baoyu’s maid. Having come here as a child, she had no recollection of her old home and parents. Her only relative was a cousin on her father’s side, a good cook but without any steady employment. She had asked Mrs. Lai to take him into service in the Rong Mansion. By that time Qingwen was waiting on the old lady and had turned out a smart, sharp-tongued girl with a hot temper; but touched by her remembering her kinsman, Mrs. Lai bought him too and gave him one of the bondm aids as his wife.
However, once living in comfort, the fellow forgot his hard life as a vagrant and took to drinking heavily, paying no attention to his wife who happened to be a good-looking, amorous woman. When he drank so reck¬lessly, ignoring her, she felt as disconsolate as a piece of jade tossed among brambles or a beauty immured in solitude. Then, finding him so easygoing that he was never jealous, she started dispensing her favours to all the stout fellows and men of parts in the mansion until soon she had tried out half the men, masters as well as servants. If, Reader, you wish to know her name, she was that “Miss Deng,” the wife of “To the Muddy Worm” with whom ha Lian had once had an affair.
As these were Qingwen’s only relatives, she had to stay with them.
Her cousin was away at this time and Miss Deng had gone out after supper to call on friends, leaving Qingwen lying alone in the outer room. Baoyu told the old woman to keep watch in the courtyard, then lifted the matting portiere and went in. There was Qingwen on an earthen kang covered with a coarse mat, although at least she had her own pillow and bedding. Not knowing what to do, he approached her with tears in his eyes and gently took her hand, softly calling her name.
Qingwen had caught a chill and this, combined with her relatives’ reproaches, had made her illness worse. After coughing for a whole day she had just dozed off, but hearing her name called she opened her eyes with an effort. When she saw it was Baoyu, she was so overwhelmed with pleased surprise mingled with grief and anguish that she promptly burst out sobbing. Grasping his hand with all her might, she managed at last to gasp between fits of coughing:
“I never thought to see you again....”
Baoyu too could only weep.
“Merciful Buddha!” cried Qingwen. “You’ve come just in time. Pour me half a cup of tea. I’ve been parched all this time, but when I call no one comes.
“Where is the tea?” he asked, wiping his eyes.
“On the stove.”
Baoyu saw a black earthenware pot which he would never have rec¬ognized as a teapot. He took from the table a bowl, so large and coarse that it bore no resemblance to a teacup either and when he had it in his hand it smelled of rancid oil. He washed and rinsed it several times, after which he picked up the pot and poured out half a bowl. The dark red brew was unlike any tea he had seen.
Qingwen leaning on her pillow urged, “Pass it over, quick, for me to take a sip. You can’t expect them here to have the kind of tea we’re used to.”
Baoyu first took a sip himself. The brew had no fragrance, only a bitter taste slightly reminiscent of tea. But when he passed her the bowl she gulped it all down as if it were sweet dew. He reflected: In the past the best tea couldn’t satisfy her, yet now she likes this! It shows the truth of the old saying: “The well-fed turn away from cooked meats, while the
famished enjoy dregs of wine and husks of rice.”And again: “One glut¬ted with rice prefers thin gruel.”
Shedding tears he asked, “Have you anything to tell me while nobody’s about?”
“What is there to say?” she sobbed. “I’m just dragging on from day to day, from hour to hour. I shall be gone in a few days at most, I know. But I can’t die content. I may have been born with more than my share of good looks, but there’s been no secret understanding between us and I’ve never tried to lead you astray, yet they insist I’m a vamp. That I do resent! Now I’ve got this bad name for nothing and I’m dying. If only I’d known how things would end I’d have acted differently; but I was fool enough to think we’d always be together. How could I guess there’d be this sudden scandal and I’d have nowhere to plead my innocence?” She burst into tears again.
Baoyu took her hand. On her wrists, thin as sticks, were for silver bracelets.
“Better take these off,” he advised. “You can wear them when you’re better.” As he drew off the bracelets and put them under her pillow he remarked, “You took such care to grow those finger-nails two inches long; now your illness is going to spoil them.”
Qingwen dried her tears and reached for a pair of scissors to cut off the tapering nails of the last two fingers of her left hand. Then, under the quilt, she took off her worn red silk bodice and gave this to him together with the nails.
“Take these keepsakes to remind you of me,” she said. “And now take off your inner jacket and help me put it on, so that lying in my coffin I shall feel as if I were still in Happy Red Court. I shouldn’t do such a thing, of course, but as I’ve already got a bad name — why not?”
At once Baoyu took off his inner jacket, put on her bodice, and con¬cealed the finger-nails.
“If they see these when you go back and question you,” she sobbed, “there’s no need to lie. Just tell them these are mine. Since I’ve been falsely accused, why shouldn’t I at least have this satisfaction?”
While she was still speaking her cousin’s wife lifted the portiere and burst in, smirking.
“Fine, I heard all you two said!” She turned to Baoyu. “What is a young master doing in a servant’s room? Have you come to seduce me, thinking me young and pretty?”
“Hush, good sister! Not so loud!” he begged. “She’s worked for me all these years, so I slipped in to see her.”
Miss Deng hustled him into the inner room.
“You don’t want me to shout,” she chortled. “All right — if you’ll be nice to me.
She plumped down on the edge of the kang hugging Baoyu to her. He had never seen such behaviour as this before. His heart beating fast he blushed all over his face.
“Good sister, don’t tease me!” he pleaded.
Miss Deng laughed tipsily.
“Bah! I’ve always heard that you were a lady’s man. What makes you so bashful today?”
Flushing crimson he implored, “Do let go of me, then we can talk properly. If the old woman outside hears — how awful !“
“I came back long ago and sent her to wait for you at the Garden gate,” she laughed. “I’ve been waiting and waiting for a chance like this, but now that you’re here I’ve discovered you’re a fraud. For all you’re so handsome, you’re nothing but a fire-cracker without powder — good only for show. Why, you’re much shyer than I am. This shows it’s no use listening to gossip. For instance, when my cousin came home I was sure you two must have been up to some monkey business; that’s why I came back to listen outside the window. If there’s been some goings-on between you, as you were alone you would have talked about it; but to my surprise there’d been nothing of the sort. So it’s clear lots of people get wrongly accused in this world. I’m sorry I misjudged you. Well, as this is the case, you’ve nothing to worry about. You can come whenever you like and I won’t pester you.
Feeling very relieved he got up and straightened his clothes.
“Good sister, please take good care of her for a couple of days,” he urged her. “I must be off now.
He went out then to say goodbye to Qingwen. Both were reluctant to part, but part they must; and knowing how hard he found it, she covered
her face with the quilt and ignored him until he left.
Baoyu had wanted to call on Fangguan and Sier too, but as it was dark and he had been out for some time he was afraid he would be missed and a search might be made for him, leading to more trouble. He had better return to the Garden and go out again the next day. When he reached the back gate, pages were bringing out bedding while nurses inside were checking up on people. A minute later and he would have been locked out. Luckily he was able to slip in unobserved.
Home again, he simply told Xiren that he had been with Aunt Xue and left it at that. Presently when preparing his bed, she had to ask him how they should sleep that night.
“Any way you like,” was his answer.
Now for the last couple of years, since Xiren got into the good books of Lady Wang, she had begun to stand on her dignity and broken off her intimacy with Baoyu even in private or at night, behaving more distantly than when they were young. And though she had no major business to attend to, all the needlework of the household, as well as the accounts and seeing to the clothing and shoes of Baoyu and the young maids kept her fully occupied. Moreover, though she no longer suffered from flux-ions, when she was tired or caught cold she sometimes coughed blood; and for this reason she had avoided sleeping in the same room as Baoyu. However, he often woke up in the night and being very timid would al-ways call for someone; so Qingwen, who was a light sleeper and soft-footed, had been given the task of pouring him tea and attending him at night and had slept on a bed near his.
Now Xiren had to ask who should sleep on the bed near his, as she considered this work at night more important than any daytime tasks. Told to do as she thought fit, she could only move in her own bedding to sleep in Baoyu’s room as in the old days.
That evening he was lost in thought. Finally she persuaded him to go to bed, but after she and the others had turned in she heard him groaning and tossing about in bed till after midnight, when finally he calmed down and started snoring. In relief she dozed off herself, but in less time than it takes to drink half a cup of tea he called for Qingwen. Xiren woke with a start and asked what he wanted. Some tea, he said. She got up, rinsed
her hands in a basin of water, then poured him half a cup from the warm pot.
After sipping some tea Baoyu said with an apologetic smile, “I’m so used to calling her, I forgot it was you.
“You were used to calling me in your sleep when she first took over. It took you months to get out of the habit. So I knew that though Qingwen’s gone her name would still be on your lips.”
They lay down again. Baoyu tossed and turned for another hour or two, not falling asleep till the fifth watch. Then he saw Qingwen come in, looking her usual self. Having entered the room, she told him with a smile:
“Take good care of yourselves. I must leave you now.” With that she turned and vanished.
Baoyu called her, waking Xiren again. She thought it was another slip of the tongue, but he sobbed:
“Qingwen is dead!”
“What a thing to say! How could you know? Don’t let other people hear you talk such nonsense.”
Baoyu insisted that he was right and could hardly wait till dawn to send to find out. Just at daybreak, however, a young maid sent by Lady Wang came to the Garden and called out asking to have the front side gate opened, as the mistress had instructions to be passed on.
“Baoyu must wash and dress quickly!” she cried. “The master has been invited out to enjoy the autumn scenery and the osmanthus in bloom. He is pleased with Baoyu because he wrote a good poem the other day, so he means to take him along. That’s what Her Ladyship said, so don’t get a word wrong. Hñrry up and tell him to come as fast as he can. The master’s waiting in the principal apartments for the boys to come and have breakfast. Master Huan has already arrived, and someone’s been sent to fetch Master Lan as he’s to go as well.”
As she delivered this message, the serving-woman inside assented sentence by sentence while buttoning her clothes, then opened the gate. Several other maids, hastily dressing themselves, had run to pass on these instructions.
When Xiren heard knocking at the gate, she got up at once and sent to ask what was so pressing. This summons relayed to her, she quickly
called for hot water and urged Baoyu to get up and wash while she fetched his clothes. Since he was going out with his father, instead of choosing his most splendid new clothes she selected a less conspicuous outfit.
Baoyu had.no choice but to go as fast as he could. He found his father drinking tea, obviously in a good humour. Having paid his morning re¬spects he was greeted by Jia Huan and Jia Lan in turn, and then Jia Zheng ordered him to sit down to breakfast.
“Baoyu doesn’t study as hard as you,” he told the other boys. “But when it comes to writing inscriptions or capping verses you haven’t got his flair. Today our hosts are bound to make you write poems, and Baoyu must help you both out.”
Lady Wang, who had never heard such praise from him, was both surprised and pleased. After father and sons had left, she was thinking of going over to see the old lady when the foster-mothers of Fangguan, Ouguan and Ruiguan were announced.
“Ever since Your Ladyship kindly allowed Fangguan to come home she’s behaved like a crazy creature,” one of them reported. “She’ll neither eat nor drink. And now the three of them — she’s got Ouguan and Ruiguan to do the same — insist on cutting their hair and becoming nuns. They threaten to kill themselves if we won’t let them. At first I thought the child was just unused to the way we live outside, and would get over this whim in a couple of days. But they’re carrying on worse and worse. We’ve scolded and beaten them, but it’s no use. We’re really at our wits’ end: that’s why we’ve come to beg Your Ladyship’s help. We’ll either have to allow them to become nuns or give them a good talking to and let other families take them. We haven’t the fortune to keep them!”
“Nonsense!” exclaimed Lady Wang. “How can you let them have their own way? How can anyone enter a nunnery for fun? Give them a thrashing and they’ll show more sense.~~
Now as this was just after the mid-autumn sacrifices, nuns from vari¬ous nunneries had come to present sacrificial offerings, and Lady Wang had kept Abbess Zhitong of Water Moon Convent and Abbess Yuanxin of Ksitigarbha Nunnery to stay for a couple of days. When they heard
this news, they thought it a chance to get two girls for nothing to work for them.
“After all,” they told Lady Wang, “it’s because your house is a virtu¬ous one and you yourself do so many good deeds that these young girls have been influenced in this way. Though the house of Buddha isn’t easy to enter, we should remember that the law of Buddha extends to all alike. Our Buddha’s wish is to save all living creatures, yes, even chickens and dogs; but, alas, those who are deluded are hard to awaken. Anyone who has the root of goodness in her and can attain enlightenment can tran¬scend transmigration. Why, even a number of tigers, wolves, snakes and insects have now entered Nirvana.
“These three orphan girls far from their native places lived here amid wealth and splendour but now they remember their early poverty which forced them to take to a despised profession, and they have no idea what will become of them in future. So turning away from this sea of suffer¬ings they have decided to renounce the world and cultivate virtue, in the hope of doing better in their next life. This is a good and noble resolve. Please don’t stand in their way, madam.”
Now Lady Wang was fond of doing good deeds. She had not allowed Fangguan and the other girls to have their way because, to her mind, they were only children who had made this proposal in a fit of anger; they might prove unable to stand austerity, leading to more trouble in future. The speech of these two swindlers struck her as reasonable. Besides, she was quite distracted these days with a host of family problems, in addition to which Lady Xing had sent word that she intended to fetch Yingchun back tomorrow for a couple of days so that her prospective in-laws could inspect her, and official go-betweens had also come to pro¬pose a match for Tanchun. Unable to give much thought to these minor matters, she consented willingly.
“Well then, since that’s how you feel, why not take these girls away as your acolytes?”
“Merciful Buddha!” the abbesses exclaimed. “how good of you, madam! This is a most virtuous deed.” They forthwith bowed their thanks.
“They’d better be questioned first,” said Lady Wang. “If they are really in earnest they can come and, in my presence, pay their respects
to you now as their Mothers Superior.”
The three foster-mothers fetched the three girls, and Lady Wang sounded them out carefully. As their minds were made up, they kow¬towed to the two abbesses and then to Lady Wang by way of farewell. Seeing that they were determined and not to be dissuaded, she could not help feeling a pang of pity and sent for gifts for them as well as for the abbesses. Then Fangguan went off with Zhitong of Water Moon Con¬vent, and the other two erstwhile actresses with Yuanxin of Ksitigarbha Nunnery.
To know what followed, read on.

Chapter 78

An Old Scholar at Leisure
Has Eulogies Composed
His Unorthodox, Witless Son
Laments the Hibiscus


After the two abbesses had taken the young actresses away, Lady Wang called to pay her morning respects to the Lady Dowager. And finding her in a good mood she reported:
“Baoyu’s maid Qingwen has grown up row, and this last year or so she’s kept falling ill. I’ve noticed too that she’s saucier and lazier than the others. Recently she was ill again for over ten days, and the doctor diagnosed it as consumption; so then and there I dismissed her with in¬structions not to come back when she’s better, giving her to her family to marry off. I also took it on myself to send away those few young ac¬tresses. Because, on account of their theatrical training, they talked in a wild way we don’t want our girls to hear; and as they performed for us here for a time, it wouldn’t have been right to ask for money for them. In any case, we have too many maids. If we need more in future, we can always pick a few others.”
“Quite right and proper.” The old lady nodded approval. “Exactly what I had in mind myself. But I always thought Qingwen a very nice girl. How could she have turned out so badly? She struck me as smarter than the other maids, with a ready tongue too and better at needlework the best choice as a concubine for Baoyu in future. Who could have dreamed that she’d change for the worse?”
“You made the right choice, madam, only she wasn’t fated to have such good fortune. That’s why she contracted this illness. As the saying goes, ‘A girl changes eighteen times before reaching womanhood.’ And the smarter the girl, the more out of hand she’ll get. You must have seen many such cases.
“Three years ago when I thought about this question too, she was my first choice. No one’s a match for her in other ways, it’s just that she’s
2373


a bit flighty. For steadiness and propriety, Xiren comes first. Though what’s wanted in a wife is virtue, they say, and in a concubine beauty, still it’s better to choose a girl with a sweet disposition and steady character. Xiren may not be up to Qingwen in looks, yet she’s the best for Baoyu’s chamber. Trustworthy, too, and honest. These last few years she’s never once led Baoyu into mischief. In fact, whenever he does wrong she tries her best to dissuade him — after watching her for two years I know this for certain. That’s why I secretly stopped her pay as a maid and gave her two taels a month from my own allowance, so that she’d understand and look after him even better. I didn’t make it public for two reasons: partly because Baoyu’s young, and if his father knew of this he might think it bad for his studies; partly because if she was known to be his concubine she wouldn’t dare gainsay him, and Baoyu would carry on more wildly than ever. This is why I didn’t report it to you earlier.”
The Lady Dowager smiled.
“If that’s the case so much the better. Xiren’s always been so quiet I felt she was rather stupid; but as you know her so well you can’t be wrong. I’m all in favour, too, of not letting Baoyu know. None of us must mention this, just let it be understood. I’m well aware that in future Baoyu won’t listen to his wife’s or concubines’ advice. I can’t understand him either. I’ve never known another child like him. One expects a boy to be mischievous, but this extraordinary liking he has for maids has been preying on my mind. I’m for ever finding him fooling about with them. At first I thought this intimacy was because he’d grown big enough to know about sex; but watching him more closely I realized that wasn’t the rea¬son, which makes it even odder. Could it be that he was really meant to be born a girl....”
This set every body laughing. Then Lady Wang went on to describe how Jia Zheng had praised Baoyu today and taken the boys out with him to pay a call. This pleased the old lady still more.
Soon Yingchun, dressed to go out, came to take her leave. Then Xifeng arrived to pay her respects and wait upon the old lady as she had break¬fast. They chatted till it was time for her siesta, when Lady Wang called Xifeng over to ask her whether she had prepared her pills.
“Not yet,” was the answer. “I’m still taking herb-cordials. But don’t
2375


you worry, madam. I’m much better.”
Lady Wang believed her, having seen that she looked more energetic. She told her of Qingwen’s dismissal.
“How come you didn’t know that Baochai — of her own accord— had moved home to sleep with her mother?” she continued. “A couple of days ago I made a search of all the other apartments in the Garden. And, just imagine, I found young Lan’s new nurse a regular vamp! I didn’t like the look of her at all. So I urged your sister-in-law to send her packing, as in any case he’s big enough now not to need so many nurses. And I asked her, ‘Surely you knew about Baochai’s leav¬ing?”
“She said yes, but Baochai had told her she’d be coming back in a few days, once Aunt Xue was better. Actually, there’s nothing much the matter with Aunt Xue apart from that chronic cough and backache of hers which she gets every year. So Baochai must have moved out for some other reason. Do you think somebody offended her? She’s a sensitive child, and it would be too bad if we offended her after living together for so long.”
“Why should anyone offend them for no reason?” asked Xifeng cheer¬fully. “They spend all their time in the Garden, so if there has been any misunderstanding it must be among themselves.”
“Can Baoyu have been tactless?” wondered his mother. “He’s such a simpleton, so tacking in scruples, that in a fit of excitement he may have spoken wildly.”
“Don’t worry so much about him, madam. When Baoyu goes out on business, he may talk and behave like a simpleton. But when he’s at home with all these girl cousins of his, or even with the maids, he’s most considerate to them, afraid of giving offence. So no one could possibly be annoyed by him.
“I think Baochai must have left because of the search the other night, naturally concluding that we didn’t trust certain people in the Garden. As she’s a relative, we could hardly search her servants. But for fear that her household might be suspected, being sensitive as she is she took her self off so as to avoid suspicion. And quite right, too.”
Convinced by this estimate, Lady Wang lowered her head and after
2377


some reflection told a maid to invite Baochai over. She explained about the recent search to set her niece’s mind at rest then urged her to move back into the Garden.
“I’d been meaning to move out for some time,” said Baochai with a smile. “Only I didn’t find the occasion to ask you, as you have so much important business to attend to. But that day, as it happened, my mother was unwell again and our only two reliable maids were ill; so I took the chance to move out. Now that you know about it, I can explain the rea¬son and ask leave today to move my things out too.”
Neither Lady Wang nor Xifeng would hear of this.
“Don’t be so stubborn!” they cried laughingly. “What you should really do is move in again, not let something so inconsequential come between us.
“I don’t understand what you mean.” Baochai rejoined. “I didn’t leave because of anything that happened here, but because my mother’d been feeling less energetic and at night she had nobody to rely on but me. Besides, my brother will soon be getting married. There’s a lot of needle¬work to do, his rooms still have to be furnished, and I have to help her with all the preparations. You know, aunt and Cousin Xifeng, how it is in our family and that I’m not fibbing.
“For another thing, after I moved into the Garden that small side gate in the southeast corner was kept open for me to go through; but other people wanting to take a short cut could use it too, and there was nobody to make a check there. If trouble had come of it, it would have been awkward for both families.
“Besides, my moving into the Garden to sleep was of no great conse¬quence. A few years ago we were all young and I had no business at home, so I was better off here than outside, able to do needlework with the other girls and amuse myself with them—that was better than sitting idly at home by myself. Now we’ve all grown up and have our different tasks. Moreover, these years you’ve had various troubles, aunt. And the Garden is too big for you to keep an eye on everything. The fewer the people there, the less you need worry. So now I’ve not only made up my mind to move out, but I’ll venture to advise you, aunt, to cut down as far as possible, for that won’t make us lose face. It seems to me
2379


that much of this expenditure in the Garden could be avoided. After all, times have changed. You know our family well, aunt — we weren’t as badly off as this in the old days!”
Xifeng after hearing this said to Lady Wang, “She’s right. We needn’t insist.”
Lady Wang nodded.
“I’ve no anawer to that. Just do as you think fit.”
At this point Baoyu came back with the other boys.
“My father is still feasting,” he said. “As it will soon be growing dark, he told us to come home first.”
Lady Wang hastily asked, “Did you make any gaffes today?”
“No,” he answered with a smile. “Not only that but I’ve brought back a lot of loot.”
Then some old serving-women fetched in from the pages at the inner gate the presents the young masters had received. Lady Wang saw these were three fans, three fan-pendants, six boxes of writing brushes and ink-tablets, three strings of scented beads and three jade rings, which Baoyu explained had been given them by Academician Mei, Vice-Minister Yang and Secretary Li—one set apiece. He then pulled a talisman, a small sandalwood Buddha, from his pocket.
“This was a gift just for me from the Duke of Jingguo.”
Lady Wang asked what guests had been there and what poems they had written, then took the three boys to pay their duty visit to the old lady, ordering the servant carrying Baoyu’s presents to accompany them.
The Lady Dowager, delighted, inevitably cross-examined them too. Baoyu was so worried about Qingwen, however, that after answering her questions he told her that his bones ached after riding.
“Go back quickly then,” urged the old lady. “Once you’ve changed your clothes and rested, you’ll feel better. But mind you don’t lie down.”
Thereupon Baoyu hurried back to the Garden.
Sheyue and Qiuwen had been waiting in the old lady’s place with two younger maids. When Baoyu left they followed him, Qiuwen carrying his presents.
“How hot it is!” he kept complaining.
While walking he took off his hat, belt and outer garment, which Sheyue
2381


carried for him. Baoyu was now wearing only a green satin jacket above a pair of blood-red trousers, and Qiuwen noticing that these were trou¬sers which Qingwen had made for him heaved a sigh.
“Better keep those trousers as a memento,” she said. “Really, though she’s gone her handiwork is still here.”
“Yes, that’s Qingwen’s work,” said Sheyue, then quoted the saying: “‘The handiwork remains though the maker’s gone.”’ Qiuwen nudged her, saying more cheerfully:
“Those trousers, with that green jacket and the blue boots make a vivid foil for black hair and a snow-white complexion.”
Baoyu in front pretended not to have heard them and walked on a few paces, then stopped.
“Is it all right if I take a stroll?” he asked.
“What are you afraid of in broad daylight?” Sheyue answered. “You can’t get lost.” She told the two young maids to accompany him. “We’ll join you after we’ve put these things away.
“Won’t you wait for me here, good sister?”
“We’ll be back soon,” Sheyue promised. “With both our hands full we’re like a regular retinue, one carrying the ‘four treasures of the study,’ one a hat, belt and garments— it looks so ridiculous!”
As this was what Baoyu had hoped for, he let them go. He then led the two young maids behind a rockery. Without further ado he asked:
“After I left, did Sister Xiren send anyone to see Sister Qingwen?”
“She sent Mrs. Song,” one girl told him.
“What did she say after she came back?”
“She said Sister Qingwen was crying out all night. First thing this morning, she closed her eyes and stopped calling because she’d fainted away and couldn’t get a sound out, just gasping for breath.”
“Whom was she calling all night?” he hastily asked.
“Her mother.”
Baoyu wiped his tears.
“Who else?”
“Nobody else.”
“You silly thing, you can’t have heard her clearly.”
The other girl by him was smarter. When she heard this she stepped
2383


forward.
“She really is silly,” she told Baoyu. “I not only heard her clearly, I went over on the sly to see Qingwen.”
“Why did you do that?”
“Because I remembered how good Sister Qingwen always was to us—not like other people. Though she’d been unfairly treated and left, if we couldn’t find any other way to help her, we should at least go to see her to repay her former kindness. Even if we were found out and reported to the mistress, and if we got beaten for it, we’d gladly put up with that. That’s why, at the risk of a beating, I slipped over to see her. She always had intelligence, and was clear in her head right up to the time of her death. She only closed her eyes because she didn’t want to talk to those vulgar people. When she saw me, she opened her eyes and took my hand.
“‘Where is Baoyu?’ she asked me. “I told her where you’d gone.
“She sighed, ‘I shan’t be able to see him again then.’
“Why not wait till he’s back?’ I asked. ‘Then he can see you once more, which is what you both want.’
“She smiled and told me, ‘You don’t understand. I’m not going to die. There’s a vacancy now in heaven for a flower goddess, and the Jade Emperor has appointed me. I have orders to go to my new post at half past two; but Baoyu won’t be back till a quarter to three — too late by a quarter of an hour to see me. When people are fated to die and the King of Hell summons them, he sends small devils to fetch their spirits away. If someone wants to delay a bit he can burn paper money and serve some porridge; then while the devils are scrambling for the money, the one who’s dying can have a short reprieve. But now I mustn’t delay, as I’ve been invited by the gods in heaven.’
“At the time. I didn’t quite believe her. But when I got back and looked carefully at the clock, it was true that she died at half past two, and at a quarter to three your return was announced. So she’d got both the times right.”
“You don’t understand because you can’t read,” Baoyu answered. “This is absolutely true. Every single flower has its goddess, and there’s
2385


also a goddess in charge of all the flowers. I wonder whether she’s gone to take charge of them all, or of one particular flower.”
The maid had no ready answer. As it happened to be the eighth month and hibiscus was blooming beside the pond in the Garden, she took her cue from that.
“I asked her to let us know what flower she’d be in charge of,” she said, “so that in future we can sacrifice to her. She told me, ‘Heaven’s secrets can’t be disclosed; but as you are so pious I’ll tell you. You can let Baoyu know, but no one else — if you do, you’ll be struck dead by a thunderbolt!’ Then she told me she was in charge of the hibiscus.”
Baoyu, far from being surprised, felt his grief turn into pleasure. He pointed at the hibiscus.
“This flower needs a girl like her to care for it,” he observed, “I always thought that someone with her talents was bound to be given a responsible task.”
But although Qingwen had departed this sea of woe, the thought that they could never meet again inevitably filled him with grief and longing.
“Though I didn’t see her at the end,” he reflected, “I must go and sacrifice now at her shrine, for the sake of our friendship these last half dozen years.
Accordingly, he went straight back to change his clothes and, on the pretext of going to see Daiyu, went out of the Garden alone to the house where he had last visited Qingwen, assuming that her coffin would be there.
However, as soon as Qingwen died, her cousin and his wife had re¬ported this in the hope of getting some money at once for the funeral. Lady Wang on hearing this news gave them ten taels of silver and ordered them to have the body taken out of town immediately to be cre¬mated, for as Qingwen had died of consumption it must not be kept in the vicinity. The cousin and his wife took the money, then lost no time in having her body coffined and taken to the crematorium outside the city. Her clothes and trinkets, which were worth some three or four hundred taels, they kept for future use. Then they locked up the place and went to attend her funeral.
Baoyu, finding no one there, stood outside the door for a while; then,
2387


as there was nothing he could do, he had to return to the Garden. Back in his own rooms, he felt so depressed that he decided to call on Daiyu. However, he found she was out. When he asked where she had gone, her maids told him:
“To Miss Baochai’s place.”
Baoyu went then to Alpinia Park, only to find it quiet and deserted—even the furnishings had been removed. He was very much taken aback. He inquired of an old serving-woman who chanced to come along just then what had happened.
“Miss Baochai has gone,” she informed him. “We’ve been told to look after the place until everthing’s been moved away. After we’ve cleared these things away, the compound will be locked up. You’d better go now, young master, so that we can sweep up the dust. You won’t have to make any more trips here, sir, in future.”
For a while Baoyu stood there stupefied. He saw that the fragrant herbs and creepers in the courtyard were as green and luxuriant as ever, but they suddenly seemed to have grown disconsolate too, and the sight added to his grief. He left in silence. It had struck him that for some time no one had passed the tree-lined dyke outside the gate, whereas in the old days a whole succession of maids from different quarters had kept com¬ing here all of their own accord. Looking down, and seeing that the stream at the foot of the dyke was still flowing smoothly past, he marvelled that nature could be so lacking in feeling. After grieving awhile he reflected:
“Five girls have gone, among them Siqi, Ruhua and Fangguan; and now Qingwen is dead, and Baochai’s household has left. Though Yingchun hasn’t gone yet, she’s been away these days and match-makers keep coming to arrange her marriage. It probably won’t be long before all the girls in the Garden disperse. Still, it’s no use moping over this. I may as well call on Daiyu and keep her company for a while before coming back to pass the time with Xiren. Most likely only the two or three of us will remain together till our dying day.”
Thinking in this way, he went to Bamboo Lodge; but Daiyu was still out. He thought next of attending Qingwen’s funeral, then decided against this, guessing that it would only make him feel sadder. So he returned dejectedly to his rooms.
2389


He was just wondering what to do when a maid from Lady Wang came to find him.
“The master’s back and wants you,” she announced. “He has an¬other good subject for poetry. Go quickly. Hurry!”
Baoyu had to accompany her to Lady Wang’s place, only to find that his father had left already. His mother ordered the servants to take him to his father’s study.

Jia Zheng was discoursing with his secretaries on the beauty of the autumn scenery.
“Before the last party broke up,” he remarked, “we spoke of an incident which was surely the most enchanting tale of all times. ‘Gallantry and sub¬limity, loyalty and magnanimity’ — not one quality was missing. So it should make a fine subject for an elegiac poem. Suppose we write one?”
His protégés promptly asked what wonderful story this was.
“There was a certain Prince Heng who governed Qingzhou,”’ Jia Zheng told them. “What he loved most was feminine beauty, and when at leisure he liked to practise the military arts. So he selected a number of beautiful girls and made them train for battle every day. When at a loose end, he would feast his beauties for days and ask them to display their swordsmanship or to seize or defend a bastion. One of these girls named Lin, the fourth child of her family, was a surpassing beauty and expert too in military arts. She was known as Fourth Mistress Lin. The prince, delighted with her, put her in command of all the other girls and called her his ‘Lovely General’.”
The secretaries all exclaimed in wonder.
“‘Lovely’ followed by ‘General’ — what a very gallant and ro¬mantic title! This is really miraculous. Prince Heng himself must have been the most romantic figure of all time!”
Jia Zheng smiled.
“Quite so. But what followed is even more amazing and heart-rend¬ing.”
His protégés all asked eagerly, “What was that?”
“The next year the Yellow Turbans, Red Brows2 and other rebels joined forces to raid the region east of the Taihang Mountains. The prince,
2391


thinking them rabble who did not need to be taken seriously, led a light force to wipe them out. However, those rebels were crafty. His forces lost two battles, and the prince was killed by the rebels. Then all the civil and military officers in the provincial capital said to each other:
“‘If even the prince could not beat them, what can we do?’
“They wanted to surrender. But Fourth Mistress Lin hearing this bad news assembled her women soldiers and announced:
“‘We were shown such favour by the prince in the past that we shall never be able to repay a fraction of it. Now that he has fallen in defence of the royal cause, I want to die for him too. Any of you who wish to follow me may— the rest are free to leave.’
“When the other women saw how determined she was, they all vol¬unteered to join her. So that same night Fourth Mistress Lin led them out of the city to attack the rebels’ camp. The rebels were caught unawares and several of their chieftains were killed. Then seeing that their oppo¬nents were only a few women whom they reckoned couldn’t amount to much, they counter-attacked and after some hard fighting killed them all, including Fourth Mistress Lin. And so she succeeded in proving her loy¬alty. When this was reported to the capital the Emperor and all his minis¬ters were shocked and moved and naturally sent troops to crush the rebels. As soon as the Imperial troops arrived, the rebellion was suppressed —we need not go into that.
“But, gentlemen, after hearing this story of Fourth Mistress Lin, don’t you think it admirable!”
“Truly admirable and amazing!” exclaimed his secretaries. “This is really a wonderful subject. We should all write something to commemo¬rate her.”
One of them had already picked up a brush and written a short pref¬ace based on ha Zheng’s account simply changing a few words. He now handed this to his patron to read.
“That’s the idea,” said Jia Zheng. “Actually, a short account has already been written. The other day an Imperial Decree was issued or¬dering a search to be made for all those who should have been com¬mended but were left out of past records, whether monks, nuns, beggars or women, as long as they had performed some worthy deed. The ac¬-
2393


counts were to be sent to the Board of Rites for the Emperor’s ap¬proval. So this account was sent to the Board of Rites. And after hearing this story, you should all write a poem on the Lovely General’s loyalty and sense of honour.”
“So we should,” they all agreed, laughing. “And what’s still more admirable is the fact that our dynasty is showing such unprecedented kindness, unmatched in earlier times. The men of Tang said, ‘Our saga¬cious court overlooks nothing,’ and this has come true today. Our dy¬nasty lives up to this prediction.”
Jia Zheng nodded.
“Exactly.”
As they were speaking, Huan and Lan arrived, and Jia Zheng told them to look at the subject. Though both of them, like Baoyu, could write poetry, this was not their special line. When it came to writing examina¬tion papers, Huan and Lan might surpass Baoyu; but when it came to literature in general, they were much inferior. Besides, they lacked Baoyu’s literary brilliance and poetic flair. Thus the poems they wrote were like eight-section essays, inevitably stereotyped and pedantic.
Baoyu, though not to be reckoned a good scholar, had innate intelli¬gence and loved to browse on literature of all kinds. He believed that some ancient classics were apocryphal and contained errors too, thus they should not be taken for gospel; moreover, if one had too many scruples and just stuck together phrases from old books, such writing would be most uninteresting. These being his views, when he saw a subject for poetry — whether difficult or easy — he would write on it effortlessly, just as glib talkers having nothing to go on rely on their ready tongues to hold forth at random, spinning lengthy yarns which though they have no basis in fact delight all those who hear them. Even strict sticklers for the truth cannot beat such entertaining fantasies.
Jia Zheng, growing old now, no longer hankered after fame and profit; besides, by temperament, he was fond of poetry, wine and liberal talk. Although he felt constrained to guide his sons and nephews along the right path, when he saw that Baoyu albeit not fond of study had some understanding of poetry, he decided that this did not really disgrace their ancestors; for they themselves, he recalled, had been the same and though
2395


working hard for the examinations had never distinguished themselves —apparently this was the Jia family’s destiny. Moreover, his mother doted on this grandson. So Jia Zheng did not insist too much on Baoyu working for the examinations and had recently treated him more leniently. And he wished that Huan and Lan, apart from writing eight-section essays, would follow Baoyu’s example. This was why, whenever they were composing poetry, he would summon all three boys together to write. But enough of this.
Now Jia Zheng told them to write a poem apiece, promising the re¬ward to one who finished first and to give an additional prize for the best poem. As Huan and Lan had recently written several poems in com¬pany, they no longer lacked confidence. After reading the topic, they went off to think it over. Before long, Lan was the first one to finish. And Huan, afraid to be left behind, finished his too. By the time both had copied their verses out, Baoyu was still lost in thought. Jia Zheng and his secretaries read the two younger boys’ verses. Lan’s heptasyllabic quatrain read as follows:

Fourth Mistress Lin, Lovely General,
Had jade-like beauty but an iron will;
Because she gave her life to requite Prince Heng
Today the soil of her district is fragrant still.

The secretaries said admiringly, “When a boy of thirteen can write like this, it truly shows the influence of a scholarly family.”
Jia Zheng smiled.
“The language is childish, but it’s quite a good effort.”
Then they read Huan’s eight-line pentameter, which was as follows:

Fair young ladies know no sorrow,
But a general has no relief;
Wiping her tears she left her broidered hangings
And took the battlefield, her heart filled with grief.
She wanted to requite the prince’s kindness—
Who else would wreak vengeance on the enemy.
Let us, at her grave, eulogize her loyalty
And her eternal, peerless gallantry.

“This is even better!” the secretaries exclaimed. “Being a few years
2397


older after all, he is more original.”
“It’s not too bad,” said Jia Zheng, “but it still lacks real feeling.”
“It’s quite good enough,” they protested. “The Third Young Master is only a couple of years older — he’s not reached manhood yet. If they go on working hard like this, in a few years they’ll be like the poets Yuan Ji and Yuan Xian.”
Jia Zheng laughed.
“You’re praising them too highly. The trouble with them is that they don’t study hard.” Then he asked Baoyu how he was getting on.
His protégés said, “The Second Young Master is composing his care¬fully. It’s bound to be more stylish and poignant than the others.”
Baoyu said with a smile, “This subject seems unsuitable for a poem in the later style. Only a long poem in the old style— some song or ballad—can convey the spirit.”
The secretaries rose to their feet, nodding and clapping.
“We knew he’d come out with something original,” they said. “When presented with a subject, the first thing to consider is what is the most suitable form for it. This shows he’s an old hand at versifying. This is like tailoring—you must measure your customer before cutting out a gown. As this is a eulogy of the Lovely General and there is a preface to it, it should be a longish ballad something like Wen Tingyun’s The Pitcher Song3 or some other old ballad, or like Bai Juyi’s Song of Eternal Sor¬row,4 half narrative and half lyrical, lively and graceful. That’s the only way to do justice to such a good subject.”
Jia Zheng, approving this, took up the brush ready to write the poem down.
“Very well then,” he said to Baoyu, smiling. “Dictate it to me. If it’s no good, I’ll give you a thrashing for making such a shameless boast.”
Baoyu started off with one line:
“Prince Heng loved martial arts, the fair sex too….”
Jia Zheng having written this down shook his head. 
“Crude!”
“That’s the classical style. Surely not crude,” one of his protégés remonstrated. “Let’s see how he continues.
2399


“We’ll keep it for the time being,” Jia Zheng conceded. Baoyu resumed:
“He taught girls horsemanship and archery, 
Taking no joy in splendid song or dance, 
Only in spearmanship and soldiery.”

When Jia Zheng had written this out, the secretaries said, “The third line has a classical flavour and is vigorous too — excellent. And these four lines are apt, fitting the narrative style.”
“Don’t overdo your praise.” demurred Jia Zheng. “Let’s see how he turns the subject.”
Baoyu went on:

“No dust was seen to rise by watching eyes,
By the red lantern stood the general fair.”

After these two lines the rest exclaimed in approval.
“Wonderful — ‘No dust was seen to rise’ followed by ‘the red lantern’ and ‘general fair.’ The choice of words and images is superb.”
Baoyu resumed:

“Her sweet breath scented every battle-cry,
Hard for one so frail to wield cold sword and spear.”

All clapped their hands and laughed.
“It’s drawn to the life! Was Master Bao there at the time to see her delicate form and smell her sweet breath? If not, how could he have conjured it up like this?”
“When ladies practise fighting,” Baoyu explained, “however fearless they are they’re no match for men. It goes without saying they’ll appear rather delicate.”
“Stop blethering,” said his father, “and go on quickly.”
After a moment’s reflection Baoyu recited:

“Her knots of clove and her hibiscus belt  

The secretaries commented, “A change of rhyme here is excellent, showing flexibility and fluency. Besides, this line is charming in itself.”
Jia Zheng wrote it down, observing. “This line is no good. He’s al¬ready given us sweet breath’ and ‘hard for one so frail to wield.’ Why go on like this? It’s lack of substance that makes him pad out his lines in
2401


this way.
“A long poem needs certain ornate images to add some touches of colour,” ventured Baoyu.
“If you just hunt for images,” said his father, “how can you move on to the fighting? Another couple of lines like this will be superfluous.”
“In that case I suppose I can revert to the subject in the next line.”
Jia Zheng smiled scornfully.
“What great skill have you got? You’ve just made a fresh opening by bringing in something irrelevant. If now in one line you try to round it off and revert to the main theme, you’ll find you’ve bitten off more than you can chew.”
Baoyu lowered his head to think, and then continued:

“Enchain no pearls but a keen blade enchain.”

He asked hastily, “Will this line do?”
All the secretaries applauded.
Jia Zheng having copied this out said with a smile, “We’ll let it go. Carry on.”
“If this is all right, I’ll go straight on; if it’s not, I’ll scrap it and think up something else.”
“Be quiet!” snapped his father. “If it’s no good you’ll have to do it again. If you had to write a few dozen poems, would you complain it was hard work?”
Baoyu had to rack his brains and then declaimed:

“After a night’s manoeuvres she is exhausted,
Powder and rouge her silken headscarf stain.”

Jia Zheng said, “This is another stanza. What follows?” Baoyu re¬sumed:

“The next year rebels rampaged east of the mountains, 
Fierce tigers and leopards, swarming hornets were they.”

Again the others exclaimed, “That fine word ‘rampaged’ shows skill, and the turn in the narrative is natural too.”
Baoyu went on:

“The prince led Imperial troops to wipe them out;
One battle, then another—they lost the day.
2403


A reeking wind swept down the fields of wheat,
Flags and empty commander’s tent the sun did gild;
Green hills were silent, the stream gurgled on;
Now, in the heat of battle, Prince Heng was killed.
Rain drenched the bones of the dead, blood stained the grass;
Moonlight fell cold on the sand, ghosts hovered around.”

“Wonderful, wonderful!” cried the secretaries. “Composition, narra¬tion and imagery—all are perfect. Let’s see how he proceeds now to the Fourth Mistress. There’s bound to be another skilful transition and more remarkable lines.”
Baoyu continued:

“Commanders and men thought only of fleeing to safety, 
The city must speedily be razed to the ground. 
Who would have looked in a boudoir for loyalty? 
The prince’s favourite rose up wrathfully.”

All commented, “A good narraitve style.”
“Too wordy,” said Jia Zheng. “It may grow tedious.” Then Baoyu resumed:

“Who might that be, the favourite of Prince Heng?
Fourth Mistress Lin the fair general— none but she!
She gave the order to her lovely troops,
Fair as peach and plum-blossom they set off to fight;
Tears stained their embroidered saddles, heavy their grief,
No clank from their armour in the chilly night.
None could know the outcome— victory or defeat—
But they vowed at all costs their lord’s kindness to repay;
The rebels were too powerful to rout,
They crushed these willows and blooms—alack the day!
Their ghosts stayed by the city, close to home;
Steeds trampled their sweet rouged corpses where they lay;
This news, sent posthaste to the capital,
Filled every family with sore dismay.
The city’s loss appalled the Emperor,
Generals and ministers hung their heads in shame,
For not one of the court officials could compare
With lovely Fourth Mistress Lin of deathless fame.
2405


For this fair lady I sigh and sigh again
And, my song ended, my thoughts with her remain.”

After Baoyu had finished, all the secretaries heaped praise on him and read through the poem once more.
Jia Zheng observed with a smile, “Well, though there are some good lines it’s not moving enough.”
Then he dismissed the three boys. They left like prisoners reprieved to return to their different quarters.

We need not concern ourselves with all the others, who went to bed as usual when night fell. Only Baoyu, whose heart was heavy as he went back to the Garden, suddenly noticed the hibiscus in bloom and remem¬bered the young maid’s account of Qingwen’s appointment as the god¬dess in charge of this flower. Imperceptibly, his spirits rose again as he gazed at the hibiscus, sighing. All of a sudden it occurred to him that he had not yet paid his respects by her coffin, and it would be only fitting to sacrifice now before the flower — this would be more original than the vulgar ceremonies before the bier.
He was on the verge of bowing to the flowers when he had second thoughts. “Even if I do this, I mustn’t be too casual about it,” he told himself. “I’ll have to dress properly and have the sacrifice well pre¬pared to show my sincere respect.”
Then he reflected, “It definitely wouldn’t do to sacrifice to her in the usual vulgar manner, I must do something different and create a new ceremony which is romantic and original with nothing mundane about it
—	only then will it be worthy of the two of us. Besides, the men of old said: Objects as humble as ditch-water and water-weeds can be offered to princes and deities. It’s not the value of the objects that counts, but only the heart’s sincerity and reverence. That’s the first thing.
“And secondly, the eulogy and elegy must be original too and uncon¬ventional. It’s no good following the beaten track and padding the writing with high-sounding phrases; one should shed tears of blood, making each word a sob, each phrase a groan. It’s better to show grief and to spare, even if that makes for an unpolished style. At no cost must genuine feel¬ing be sacrificed to meretricious writing. Besides this was deprecated by
2407


many of the ancients too — it’s not a new idea of mine today. Unfortu¬nately, men today are so keen on official advancement that they have completely discarded this classical style, for fear of not conforming to the fashion and damaging their chances of winning merit and fame. As I’m neither interested in rank or honour, nor writing something for others to read and admire, why shouldn’t I follow the style of such poetic essays as The Talk of the Great, Summoning the Soul, The Lament and The Nine Arguments of the ancient Chu people, or The Withering Tree, The Queries, The Autumn Flood and Life of the Great Gentlmen? I can intersperse the writing with solitary phrases or occasional short couplets, using allusions from real life as well as metaphors, and writing whatever I feel like. If merry, I can write playfully; if sad, I can record my anguish, until I’ve conveyed my ideas fully and clearly. Why should I be restricted by vulgar rules and conventions?”
Baoyu had never been a good student, and now as he entertained such perverse ideas how could he produce any good poems or essays? Yet he wrote purely for his own enjoyment, not for others to read or admire. So giving free rein to his absurd imagination, he made up a long lament, and he copied this out neatly on a white translucent silk kerchief which Qingwen had fancied, entitling it Elegy for the Hibiscus Maid and giving it a preface and a concluding song.
He also had four of the things which Qingwen had liked best pro¬vided. When it was dark and the moon was up, he told the young maid to place these before the hibiscus. First be bowed, then hung the elegy on a spray of flowers and, shedding tears, recited:

“In this year of lasting peace, this month when hibiscus and osmanthus bloom, and on this hapless day, loutish Baoyu of Happy Red Court pre¬sents fresh flowers, icy mermaid’s silk, water from Seeping Fragrance Fountain and maple-dew tea, mere trifles to convey his sincere feelings and to sacrifice to:
The Hibiscus Maid in charge of this autumn flower in the Palace of the White Emperor.
The dedication:
Pensively, I reflect that sixteen years have passed since this girl came into the dusty world, and her former name and home district have long been lost beyond recall. Only for little more than five years and eight
2409


months did I have her together with me as a dear companion in my bed-chamber to help me with my toiler and to share my recreations. In life, neither gold nor jade could compare with her character; neither ice nor snow with her purity; neither sun nor stars with her fine spirit; neither flowers nor moon with her beauty. All the maids admired her goodness, all the nurses praised her kindness.
Who could know that the eagle would be trapped in a net because pigeons and falcons hated its soaring spirit, that the orchid would be cut down because weeds envied its fragrance? How could such a delicate flower withstand a fierce gale, or the care-stricken willow endure torren¬tial rain? Slandered by poisonous pests, she fell mortally ill: her cherry lips lost their redness as she moaned, her apricot cheeks became wan and faded. Slanderous accusations came from behind screens and curtains; brambles and thorns choked doors and windows. It was not that she asked for trouble, but refuting false charges she was fated to die. She was trampled down without cease, endlessly accused. Like Jia Yi,5 She was attacked by those jealous of her noble character; and, like Gun,6 imper¬illed by her integrity. She hid her bitterness in her heart, and who is thereto lament her life cut short?
Now the fairy clouds have scattered; no trace of her can be found. No search can be made for the incense that revives the dead, as the way to the Fairy Isles is lost. No medicine that restores life can be obtained, as the Magic Barge7 is gone. Only yesterday I was painting those bluish eyebrows; today, who will warm her cold fingers with the jade rings? Medicine remains in the tripod on the stove; the tear-stains on my gown are still wet. Sad it is to open the mirror-case, for the phoenixes on its back have parted company with the broken mirror. Her comb has broken, alas and flown off like a vanishing dragon; her gold hair-pin has dropped in the grass; her emerald hair clasp is in the dust; the magpies8 are gone, the needle of the Double Seventh Festival rests idle; the love belt is broken, and who is there to weave the multicoloured silk thread?
In this autumn season ruled over by the White Emperor, I dream in my lonely bed in a deserted room. In the dim moonlight under the plane tree, her charming image and sweet spirit have vanished; fragrance clings to the lotus curtain, but her scented breath and easy talk are no more. With¬ered grass stretches to the horizon, and everywhere crickets keep up a mournful chirping. In the evening the mossy steps are wet with dew, but no sound of pounding clothes comes through the portiere. As rain pat-
2411


ters down on the vine-covered wall, one hardly hears fluting from the other court. The cockatoo before the eaves still remembers her sweet name; the begonia withering outside the balustrade foretold her death. No more games of hide-and-seek behind the screen, her dainty footsteps are silent; no more matching-herbs contests in the court where orchids burgeon in vain. The embroidery thread cast aside, who is there to decide the coloured patterns on silk? Linen crumpled, who is there to iron and scent it? Yesterday, on my father’s orders, I was borne far off in a carriage to another garden; today offending my mother, I wept over the removal of her lonely bier. When I heard that her coffin was to be cremated I blushed with shame at breaking my vow to die, be buried and reduced to ashes together with her!
By the old temple in the autumn wind, will-o’-the-wisps are lingering; on the desolate mount in the setting sun, a few scattered bones only remain; elm trees rustle; tangled artemisia sighs; gibbons wail beyond the misty wilderness; ghosts weep around the foggy graveyard path¬ways. The young lording behind red gauze curtains is filled with longing for the ill-fated maid in her mound of yellow earth. Facing the west wind, for you I shed tears of blood, while the master of Zi Ze9pours out his grief to the cold moon in silence.
Alas! This calamity was caused by evil spirits, not because the gods were jealous. Slashing the slanderer’s mouth would be too good for her! Cutting out the shrew’s heart could not vent my anger! Though you had a short stay on earth, so deep was my feeling for you that I took careful thought and made detailed inquiries. Then I learned that the Heavenly Emperor had graciously summoned you to the Palace of Flowers; for in life you were like an orchid, and in death you are in charge of the hibis¬cus. Though the young maid’s words seemed fantastic, in my humble opinion there are good grounds for them. Of old, Ye Fashan10 summoned a spirit to write an epitaph for him, and Li He1’ was ordered by Heaven to make a record-different happenings but the same in principle. For suit¬able tasks are selected for different talents, and the wrong choice of person would do the flowers injustice. This convinces me that the Heav¬enly Emperor makes most fitting use of his power, appointing those best suited to each post.
In the hope that her immortal spirit may descend here, I offer my poor composition for her compassionate ears. And here is the song to sum¬mon her spirit:
2413


Grey, grey is the sky!
Are you riding a jade dragon in the void?
Vast, vast is the earth!
Are you descending in jade and ivory carriage?
So bright and sparkling your canopy
Is it the radiance from the zodiac’s tail?
Are there coloured plumes leading the way
And on either side constellations?
Are you escorted by the God of Clouds,
Approaching with the Courier God of the Moon?
I hear the creaking of your carriage wheels —Are you coming in a phoenix equipage?
I smell a subtle fragrance —Are you wearing scented herbs?
Sparkling the light from your skirt —Have you carved the bright moon for your pendant?
On an altar of luxuriant orchid leaves
I burn scented oil in lotus lamps,
And pour you osmanthus wine
In goblets of gourds.
Gazing intently through the cloudy air
I seem to glimpse some vision;
Bending over the depth to listen,
Methinks I catch a sound.
Can you, roaming through boundless space,
Bear abandoning me in the dust?
If I beg the God of Wind to drive my carriage,
May I hope to ride with you?
Wrathful is my heart,
But what use is it lamenting?
You are resting now in peace;
Is it destiny that has thus changed my life?
Tranquil you sleep in your secluded vault;
Can you leave it to change once more?
I remain enfettered here.
Ah, spirit, will you come at my call?
Are you approaching or tarrying?
Come, I implore you!
Since you live in the silent unknown, even if you approach me my eyes cannot see you. With ivy as your screen, rush-swords as your retinue, you rouse the willows to open their drowsy eyes and dispel the bitterness in lotus seeds. Met by the Goddess of Music at Cassia Cliff, you are welcomed by the Goddess of the River Luo12 at Orchid Isle; Nong Yu13 plays the flute and Han Huang14 sounds the clapper to summon the Queen of Mount Song and the Dowager of Mount Li.15 The Divine Tor¬toise manifests itself in the River Luo, wild beasts dance to the melody Xianchi,16 dragons sing below the Red Stream, and phoenixes alight at the Pearl Forest.
I am sacrificing with sincerity, caring little what sacrificial vessels I am using.
Setting out in your chariot from the City of Bright Morning Clouds,17 you return with your banners to the Hanging Garden.18 One moment your form seems faintly visible, the next it is suddenly blotted out by mist. The clouds and mist converge, then part again; fog and rain obscure the sky; then the mist withdraws, high above gleam stars, and the moon in mid sky brightens the hills and streams.
My heart is beating fast, like one just waking from a dream. I weep with longing and shed tears, not knowing where to go. All human voices are hushed; the only sounds are the rustling of bamboo, birds taking wing in fright, fish blowing bubbles....
In my grief I invoke you and, these rites at an end, look for some sign. 
Ah, may your spirit come to the sacrifice!”

After chanting this he burned the silk and poured a libation of tea, still reluctant to leave the place. The young maid had to urge him several times before he turned away. Then, abruptly, they heard laughter behind some rocks.
“Please wait a bit!” cried a voice.
The two of them gave a start. And the maid looking back, saw a figure emerging from behind the hibiscus blooms.
“Help! A ghost!” she cried. “Qingwen’s spirit has really come!”
Baoyu in fright turned to look too.
To know whether or not it was a ghost, read the next chapter.

Chapter 79

Xue Pan Marries a Fierce Lioness
and Repents Too Late
Yingchun Is Wrongly Wedded
to an Ungrateful Wolf


Baoyu, after sacrificing to Qingwen, was startled to hear a voice from the shade of the flowers. Stepping forward to investigate, he found it was no other than Daiyu.
“What an original funeral ode!” she teased, smiling all over her face. “It deserves to be passed down with that epitaph commemorating Cao E,1 the filial daughter.”
Baoyu blushed.
“The usual run of funeral odes seem to me so stereotyped,” he ex¬plained, “I tried to use a new form. It was just for fun; I never thought you’d hear it. If it won’t do, why don’t you suggest some improve¬ments?”
“Where is your draft? I must read it carefully. I didn’t hear the whole long piece, only the two lines:
The	young lordling behind red gauze curtains is filled with longing
For the ill-fated maid in her mound of yellow earth.
That’s a felicitous couplet, except that ‘red gauze curtains’ is rather trite. There are real-life images ready at hand — why not use one of those?”
He hastily asked what she meant.
“We all have rosy-cloud gauze pasted on latticed windows nowa¬days,” she replied. “Why not say ‘Under madder-gauze window, a young lording filled with longing’ ?“
Baoyu stamped his foot in approval.
“Excellent! Just the thing!” he exclaimed. “Trust you to think up such a phrase. It shows there are plenty of good ready-made scenes and images from olden days down to the present, but stupid fools can’t trot
2419


them out or recall them. Still, though this is a marvellous change you’ve made, it describes the place where you live — it’s too good for me.” He disclaimed over and over, “I am unworthy!”
Daiyu laughed.
“What does it matter? My window can be your window. Why must you draw such distinctions as if we were strangers? In ancient times, even strangers sometimes shared the same horse and fur coat without worrying if they got spoilt; and look how much closer we are.”
“Among friends one shouldn’t be stingy even with gold and jade, to say nothing of horses and furs,” he agreed. “Still, disrespect to a lady is quite out of the question. So I’ll tell you what, I may as well change the ‘lordling’ and ‘maid’ and make it your lament for her — that would be better. Besides, you used to be very good to her too. I’d rather scrap the whole thing than give up this new ‘madder-gauze’ image. So suppose we change it to:
Below the madder-gauze window, a young lady filled with longing;
Under the yellow mound, her ill-fated maid.
Though this new version has nothing to do with me, I’m just as satisfied with it.”
“But she wasn’t my maid, so how can you say that? Besides, ‘young lady’ and ‘maid’ lack elegance. Wait till my Zijuan dies, it won’t be too late for me to use that phrase then.”
Baoyu laughed.
“Why bring bad luck on her with such talk?”
“It was your idea, not mine.
“I know what. Here’s a more appropriate change. Let’s say:
Below the madder-gauze window, I have no good fortune; 
Under the yellow mound, how ill-fated you are!”
Daiyu abruptly turned pale, filled with misgivings by these ominous words. But instead of disclosing this she smiled and nodded.
“That really is a change for the better. Don’t make any more alter¬ations, but go quickly now to see to your proper business. Just now your mother sent word that first thing tomorrow you’re to go to your Aunt
2421


Xing’s place. Your Second Sister’s been chosen by some family; so probably they want you to go over when those people call to make a formal request for her hand.”
“What’s the hurry? I’m not feeling too well, I may not be up to going over tomorrow,” he said, clapping his hands.
“There you go again! Take my advice and stop being so wayward. You’re not a child any more....
As she spoke, she started coughing.
“The wind’s cold here,” he put in hastily. “It’s silly to stay standing here. Do hurry back.”
“I’m going home to rest. See you tomorrow.”
With that Daiyu started back, and Baoyu was turning back listlessly too when it occurred to him that Daiyu had no one to escort her; so he hastily told the young maid to see her home. When he reached Happy Red Court, sure enough Lady Wang had sent a nanny to tell him to go to Jia She’s place the next morning, as Daiyu had just told him.
Jia She had promised Yingchun to a family named Sun from Datong Prefecture, one of whose ancestors, a military officer, had been taken as a pupil by the Jias; thus both families could be considered as friends of long standing. The only Sun now in the capital was a police commissioner named Sun Shaozu, not yet thirty. A big man with a powerful physique, he was a good archer and horseman and well versed in the ways of society. His family was rich, and he was now waiting for some better appointment when some vacancy should occur in the Ministry of War. As he was not yet married and the Suns were old friends, and as more¬over his appearance and estate were suitable, Jia She approved of him and had chosen him to be his son-in-law.
When he reported this to the Lady Dowager, she was not too pleased. However, she felt that if she raised objections he might not listen, and that young people’s marriages were decreed by Heaven; besides, as this was Yingchun’s own father’s decision, why should she be officious?
So she just said, “I see,” with no further comment.
Jia Zheng, however, had a deep aversion to the Suns, for although their families had long been connected this was simply because Sun’s grandfather, wanting to make use of the Jias’ influence to settle some
2423


private troubles, had formally acknowledged them as his teachers. They were not a family of well known literati. Hence Jia Zheng advised against the match once or twice, but desisted when Jia She paid no attention.
Baoyu had never set eyes on this Sun Shaozu, so the next day he had to go over for courtesy’s sake to meet him. When he heard that the wedding would soon be taking place, that Yingchun would be going to her new home within the year and that Lady Xing and others had asked the old lady’s permission to take her out of the Garden, he grew more and more dismayed. Often lost in thought, he did not know what to do. And now the news that Yingchun would be taking four maids with her when she married made him stamp his feet.
“That’ll be five less clean people in the world!” he sighed.
He took to going every day to wander around Purple Caltrop Isle. He found the lodge there quiet and deserted, with only a few old women in charge of the place at night. Even the reeds and smartweed on the bank and the caltrops and water-weeds in the pool had a disconsolate look, as if longing for their old friends, not flaunting their autumn splendour as before. Struck by this scene of desolation, he could not contain his feel¬ings but then and there made up a song which he chanted as follows:
“A pool at night; the chilly autumn wind
The red-jade shadows of caltrop apart has tossed;
Smartweed and caltrop are overcome by grief,
Their slender stems weighed down by dew and frost.
No more the chess-men clatter all day long,
The board by swallow droppings is defiled.
The men of old longed for departed friends,
Much more so I — your kinsman since a child.”
Baoyu had just declaimed this when he heard a laughing voice behind him call:
“Are your wits wandering again?”
Looking over his shoulder he saw that it was Xiangling. He turned with a smile to ask her:
“What are you doing here, sister? You haven’t come to the Garden to stroll for days.”
Xiangling clapped her hands.
2425


“It’s not that I didn’t want to,” she cried gaily. “But now that your Cousin Pan is back, I’m no longer free to do whatever I please. Just now our mistress sent to find your Cousin Xifeng; but she wasn’t at home and they said she’d come to the Garden. When I heard that, I asked for this errand and came to look for her. One of her maids whom I met told me she’s in Paddy-Sweet Cottage, so I was on my way there when I came across you. Tell me: Is Sister Xiren keeping well these days? What car¬ried off Sister Qingwen so suddenly? Just what illness did she have? And why did Miss Yingchun move out so quickly? See how empty this place has become!”
Baoyu answered her queries as quickly as he could, then invited her to Happy Red Court for some tea.
“I’ve no time just now,” said Xiangling. “I’ll come after I’ve found Madam Lian and delivered my message.
“What business is this that’s so urgent?”
“It’s to do with your Cousin Pan’s wedding, that’s why it’s urgent.”
“Tell me, which family is she from after all? They’ve been debating it for half a year: one day it was to be the Zhangs, next the Lis, then the Wangs. What wrong have the girls in those families done to deserve so much talk about them?”
“Well, it’s settled now,” Xiangling told him. “No other families need be dragged in.”
“Which family has been settled on?”
“Last time your cousin went on a business trip, he called on some relatives on the way. They’ve been related to us since way back and are also registered in the Board of Revenue as purchasing agents for the court — they’re one of the wealthiest families around. When the mis¬tresses were chatting the other day, it turned out that your two mansions know this family too. The whole capital, from nobles down to tradesmen, all call that family the Osmanthus Xias.”
“How did they get that name?”
“Well, their surname is Xia, and they are rolling in wealth. Apart from other landed property, they have several hundred acres growing nothing but osmanthus trees. They own all the shops in the capital selling osmanthus, and they supply the Palace too with all those needed for display. That’s
2427


how they came by this name. Now old Mr. Xia is dead; his widow lives with her daughter and there are no sons — it’s too bad that their male branch has died out.”
“Never mind that,” said Baoyu. “What’s the girl like? How did he come to take a fancy to her?”
“It’s partly fate, and partly a case of ‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.’ In the old days the two families were on close terms and as children they played together. Since they rank as cousins, they didn’t have to avoid each other according to the rules of propriety. And though they hadn’t met for so many years, as soon as he visited her family old Mrs. Xia, having no son herself, sturck by your cousin’s good looks shed tears of joy, more delighted than if he had been her own son. She pre¬sented the two young people to each other. Well, the girl who’d grown up as pretty as a flower was taught to read and write at home; so your cousin made up his mind then and there. The Xia family entertained him for three or four days, and those old pawnshop assistants of his as well, pressing them to stay even longer, and only letting them leave when they absolutely insisted.
“As soon as your cousin got home, he pestered our mistress to ask for the girl’s hand. As she had seen the girl and the two families were well matched, she agreed. She talked it over with your mother and Madam Lian, then sent someone to propose the marriage, and it was immediately settled. Only there’s so little time left before the wedding that we’re rushed off our feet. The sooner she comes the better, I say. Then we shall have one extra poetess!”
Baoyu smiled wanly.
“Still, I’m rather worried for you.”
Xiangling flushed.
“What a thing to say! We’ve always treated each other with respect, but now you’re suddenly talking like this — the idea! No wonder every¬one says it’s no good being too familiar with you.”
She turned then and went off.
Baoyu was very much put out. He stood there in a daze for a while, his thoughts wandering, shedding tears, then returned dejectedly to Happy Red Court.
2429


He passed an uneasy night. In his dreams he called for Qingwen or had frightening nightmares which gave him no peace. The next day he had no appetite and ran a fever, all because of the recent happenings —the search of the Garden, the dismissal of Siqi, the departure of Yingchun and the death of Qingwen — which had filled him with mortification, dread and grief. And on top of that he had caught cold, so now he fell ill and was confined to his bed.
When the Lady Dowager heard this, she came daily in person to see him. Lady Wang regretted having scolded him too sharply on Qingwen’s account, but she gave no outward sign of her remorse, simply ordering the nurses to look after him well and sending doctors twice a day to examine him and prescribe medicine.
Not until a month had passed did Baoyu begin to recover. He was told to convalesce for a hundred days, touch no greasy food and not stir out of his rooms. During this whole period he was not even allowed to go to the gate of his court, but only to amuse himself indoors. After forty of fifty days spent in this way he felt ready to burst from boredom — how could he put up with this? But plead as he might, the old lady and Lady Wang were adamant, and he simply had to accept the situation. So he fooled about with the maids in every conceivable way.
One day he heard that Xue Pan was giving a feast and opera show to celebrate his wedding, and the party was uncommonly lively. Told that this young lady from the Xia family was a beauty with literary accom¬plishments too, he longed to go over then and there to see her.
Some days later he heard that Yingchun’s marriage had taken place and grieved deeply that he had been unable to see her off, reflecting that he and his girl cousins had always been together, but were they to meet again after this separation they could not be as intimate as before. He found it thoroughly exasperating being unable to go and see them now. However, he had to be patient and amuse himself with his maids.
At least he was spared his father’s constant reproofs and admoni¬tions to study. So during these hundred days he and his maids rampaged as they pleased, getting up to mischief never heard of before and stop¬ping short only of pulling down Happy Red Court. We can draw a veil over the details.
2431


Xiangling after scolding Baoyu that day decided that he had been deliberately rude to her.
She thought, “No wonder Miss Baochai dared not get too close to him. I lacked her foresight. And no wonder Miss Lin keeps quarrelling with him and crying for rage. He must keep teasing her too. I’d better steer clear of him.”
So after that she seldom went into the Garden. Xue Pan’s marriage kept her busy every day. She imagined his new wife would protect her and share her responsibilities, enabling her to lead a quieter life. And having heard that this young lady was talented as well as beautiful, she assumed she must be refined and gentle too. She was therefore ten times more eager even than Xue Pan for her arrival. Finally the day came when the bride arrived, and she began waiting hand and foot on her new mistress.
Now this Miss Xia, who had just turned seventeen, was quite good-looking and had some education. As regards ability and craftiness, she took after Xifeng. In one respect only had she been unlucky. Because her father had died when she was a child, and she had no brothers either, her widowed mother had spoilt this only daughter, doting on her and fall¬ing in with all her whims. Inevitably, this over-indulgence had made her like the brigand Dao Zhi of old: she had as high an opinion of herself as if she were a goddess, and treated others like dirt. In appearance pretty as a flower, at heart she was a termagant. At home she had vented her temper on her maids, for ever cursing them or beating them. Now that she was married, she felt it incumbent on her to behave as the mistress of the house, not with the gentle shyness befitting a girl — she must show her authority to keep others under her thumb.
In view, moreover, of Xue Pan’s pig-headed pride and extravagance, she decided she must strike while the iron was hot and tame him com¬pletely, or she would never be able to have her own way. Moreover, the presence of such a charming and talented concubine as Xiangling had filled her with the same resolve as the First Emperor of Song2 when he decided to wipe out the Prince of Southern Tang, demanding,3 “How can I let another sleep alongside my bed?”
As her family owned so many osmanthus trees, she had been given
2433


the pet name Jingui Golden Osmanthus; so she forebade the whole household to use these two words. Any maid careless enough to slip up and do so was severely beaten and punished. Then, realizing the impossi¬bility of banning any reference to osmanthus, she decided to give the flower a new name; and recalling the story of the osmanthus and the Moon Goddess,4 she changed the name of the flower to ‘moon-goddess flower’ to add to her own dignity in this way.
Now Xue Pan was a man who would discard the old as soon as he had something new, and one who looked tough but lacked stamina. Pleased with his new wife at the start, he humoured her. And Xia Jingui observing this tried to control him more strictly step by step. For the first month they were on equal terms; after two months Xue Pan began to give ground. One day after drinking he consulted her on something he wished to do and, when she would not hear of it, losing his temper he made an angry retort then went ahead and did it. Then Jingui cried as if she were de¬mented, refused all food and pretended to be ill.
The doctor summoned to see her said:
“She has anger in her blood and should take some tranquillizing medi¬cine.”
Aunt Xue berated her son.
“You’re a married man now and will soon have a son of your own, yet you’re still such a fool!” she fumed. “She was brought up like a young phoenix, a daughter as delicate as a flower; and her family agreed
• to let you have her, thinking you a gentleman. Yet instead of keeping yourself in check, behaving yourself and living peacefully, you act like an oaf and bully her in your cups. You’ll have to suffer for it and spend money now on medicine.”
Xue Pan, filled with remorse by these reproaches, went in to comfort his wife. But Jingui, delighted to have her mother-in-law take her side, behaved still more arrogantly in her gratification at this and out-manoeu¬vred him by simply ignoring him. Not knowing what to do, he had to lump it. And it took him nearly a fortnight to mollify her.
After that Xue Pan took greater pains not to provoke her, and inevita¬bly this humbled him still more. Seeing that her husband was lowering his colours and her mother-in-law was good-natured, Jingui pressed her at-
2435


tack by degress. At first she simply kept Xue Pan under her thumb; later she tried artfully to control Aunt Xue as well, and Baochai too. Baochai had long recognized her impropriety and knew how to cope with it, giving her hints not to over-reach herself. When Jingui saw that she was not to be bullied, she tried to pick fault with her in various ways; but being unable to find any chinks in her armour, she finally had to come to terms with her.
One day Jingui, at a loose end, started chatting with Xiangling and asked about her home district and her parents. When Xiangling said she could not remember them, Jingui flared up and accused her of deliber¬ately hiding things from her. She then asked who had given her the name “Xiangling,” and on being told that it was Baochai she gave a scornful smile.
“Everyone says she’s learned,” she scoffed, “but this name doesn’t make sense.
Xiangling answered with a conciliatory smile, “A iya, madam! You may not know, but even her uncle is always praising her for her scholar¬ship.”
To know what Jingui’s answer was, read the next chapter.

Chapter 80

Lovely Xiangling Is Unjustly Thrashed
by Her Lecherous Husband
The Taoist Priest Wang Prascribes a Cure
for a Shrew


Jingui turned away her head, pursed her lips and snorted. Striking the palms of both hands together she sneered:
“What scent has the caltrop, pray? If caltrops count as fragrant, how can we describe those truly fragrant flowers? This name is certainly senseless!”
“Not only the caltrop, but even lotus leaves and lotus seed pods have a subtle scent,” Xiangling assured her. “But of course it can’t compare with the fragrance of flowers. On a quiet day or night, or at dawn or midnight, if you inhale that scent carefully it smells even better than flow¬ers. In the breeze or dew, caltrops, euryale seeds, reeds and rushes too, have a subtle fragrance which is very refreshing.”
“Do you mean to say you dislike the fragrance of orchids and osmanthus?” demanded Jingui.
Xiangling, in the heat of argument, completely forgot the taboo as she answered quickly:
“The fragrance of orchids and osmanthus is unique....”
Before she could finish, Jingui’s maid Baochan wagged a warning finger at her.
“Do you want to die? Mentioning the mistress’ name!”
“I slipped up,” apologized Xiangling, embarrassed by her gaffe. “Please don’t be offended, madam.”
Jingui laughed.
“It doesn’t matter. You’re over-scrupulous. Still, I don’t think that Xiang for sweetness in your name is right, I’d like to change it for another word, if you agree.”
“What a thing to say, madam!” cried Xiangling gaily. “I belong to you completely, so why consult me about changing my name? This is doing me too much honour. Just use whatever word you think best, madam.”
“You may agree, but suppose my sister-in-law takes offence? She may not like the name I choose and say, ‘She’s only been here a few days, but already she’s refuting me.
“Let me tell you how it is, madam. When I was bought, it was to serve the old lady; that’s why Miss Baochai gave me this name. Later, when I started waiting on our master, that had nothing to do with her. And now that I’m serving you, Miss Baochai has even less to do with me. Besides, she’s such an understanding young lady, how could she take offence?”
“In that case, let’s substitute the Qiu meaning autumn for Xiang. The caltrop flourishes and flowers in autumn, so that is surely more appropri¬ate.”
“Just as you say, madam,” agreed Xiangling cheerfully.
Thereafter her name was changed to Qiuling, and Baochai raised no objection.
Now Xue Pan was a living example of the saying “To cover the land of Shu after getting the region of Long.” After marrying Jingui, he was struck by her maid Baochan’s charms. As she seemed approachable as well as alluring, he often flirted with her when asking her to fetch him tea or water. Baochan knew what he wanted, but dared not encourage him until she knew how her mistress felt about it. Jingui was well aware of what was happening.
“It’s Xiangling I want to trap, but I can’t find any pretext,” she re¬flected. “As he’s keen on Baochan now, I may as well let him have her and he’s bound to lose interest in Xiangling. Then I can settle her hash. Since Baochan is my maid, she’ll be easy to handle later.”
Her mind made up, she waited for her chance.
One evening after drinking, Xue Pan ordered Baochan to bring him some tea. Before taking the cup he squeezed her hand; and Baochan, pretending to shrink away, let the cup fall with a clatter to her ground, splashing her clothes as well as the floor with tea. To cover his confusion, Xue Pan accused the maid of carelessness.
She retorted, “You didn’t take it properly sir.”
Jingui smiled sarcastically.
“You’re both pretty obvious. Do you take me for a fool?”
Xue Pan lowered his head with a sheepish smile and said nothing as Baochan left the room, blushing.
Later, at bedtime, Jingui deliberately urged her husband to sleep else¬where.
“I don’t want to see you eating your heart out,” she said.
He simply grinned.
“If you want something, tell me,” she continued. “Acting on the sly is no good.”
Emboldened by wine, Xue Pan knelt on the quilt and nuzzled her.
“Good sister, just give me Baochan and I’ll do whatever you say! If you want someone’s brains, I’ll get them for you!”
“What senseless talk!” she retorted. “If you’ve taken a fancy to someone, say so outright, and we can make her your concubine to avoid any hint of scandal. Why should I care?”
Xue Pan was so delighted with this assurance that he thanked her most profusely and did his best to pleasure her as a husband should that night.
The next day he stayed indoors killing time at home, feeling increas¬ingly randy. After lunch, Jingui deliberately went out to clear the coast for them both, and Xue Pan started making advances to Baochan. Well aware of what he wanted, she only made a show of resisting. And he was about to have his way with her when Jingui who had waited till she reckoned that they would be locked together, called for young Sheer, a maid she had brought from her home. Being an orphan with no one to care for her, this girl had been given the name She meaning “waif’ and assigned rough jobs to do. Now, according to her plan, Jingui summoned her.
“Go and get Qiuling to fetch my handkerchief from my room,” she ordered. “No need to tell her that these are my instructions.”
Sheer went straight to find Xiangling.
“Miss Qiuling, our mistress has left her handkerchief in her room, she said. “Wouldn’t you like to fetch it and take it to her?”
Now Xiangling, upset by all Jingui’s recent unkindness to her, had been trying in every way to placate her; so on hearing this she hurried to her mistress’ room. All unwittingly she burst in just as the two of them were setting to work. Flushing crimson up to her ears, she promptly fled. As Xue Pan felt he had cleared himself with his wife, and apart from her there was no one he need be afraid of, he had not even bothered to bolt the door. Thus when Xiangling burst in, although a little put out he did not much care.
Baochan, however, had a sharp tongue and a strong sense of self¬-importance. Xiangling’s sudden intrusion made her wish the earth would swallow her up. At once she pushed Xue Pan away and rushed out of the room crying rape.
Xue Pan had been to great pains getting hold of Baochan. Now his frustration, owing to Xiangling, naturally turned his excitement into sav¬age hatred for her.
He ran out and spat at her.
“You damn bitch!” he swore. “Why come barging in here now?”
Xiangling, knowing that she was in trouble, darted away. Then Xue Pan looked for Baochan and, failing to find her, loosed off more abuse at Xiangling.
After dinner that evening, befuddled with wine, he happened to scald his feet because the bath water was rather hot. Blaming this on Xiangling he ran out, stark naked as he was, to kick and beat her. The poor girl had never been treated so badly before, but there was nothing she could do except to slip away nursing her grievance.
By now Jingui had told Baochan in confidence to spend the night with Xue Pan in Xiangling’s room and become his concubine. When Xiangling, ordered to sleep with her, demurred, she accused her of thinking her bed too dirty or of being too lazy to wait on her mistress at night.
“That oaf of a master of yours falls for every girl he sees,” she swore. “He’s grabbed my maid, yet doesn’t send you to attend me. What’s his idea? Is he trying to hound me to death?”
Xue Pan, hearing this, feared he might be thwarted again and there¬fore joined in too.
“You ungrateful bitch!” he roared at Xiangling. “Go on at once, or I’ll beat you!”
Xiangling had no choice but to carry her bedding over. And when Jingui ordered her to sleep on the floor, again she had to comply. But no sooner had she lain down than Jingui called for tea, then presently told her to massage her legs, rousing her seven or eight times altogether, so that there was no sleep for Xiangling that night.
Now that Xue Pan had got possession of Baochan whom he prized as a great treasure, he had no attention to spare for anyone else, much to Jingui’s disgust.
“I’ll let you enjoy yourself for a few days,” she thought spitefully. “But don’t blame me when by and by I get my own back!”
Meanwhile, hiding her resentment, she went on tormenting Xiangling. After a fortnight she suddenly shammed ill, complaining of an unbearable pain in her heart and the loss of the use of her limbs. The doctors sum¬moned were unable to cure her, and the household ascribed this illness to her anger caused by Xiangling.
Then one day, from Jingui’s pillow-case there fell out a paper effigy inscribed with the date of her birth and her horoscope. Five needles had been thrust through it: one through the heart and one through each of the limbs. This discovery caused a commotion among the maids who reported it at once to Aunt Xue, making her consternated at first. Xue Pan, even more worked up, wanted to beat all the servants to extort a confes¬sion from them.
“That wouldn’t be fair,” said Jingui. “This black magic is most likely Baochan’s doing.”
“It couldn’t be,” he objected. “She’s not been in your room recently. Why accuse an innocent person?”
Jingui smiled sarcastically.
“Who else could it be? Do you imagine I did it myself? Who else dares enter my room?”
“Xiangling should know — she’s spent all her time with you lately. Let’s beat her first, to get the truth out of her.”
“Whomever you beat, no one’s going to confess,” scoffed Jingui. “Take my advice and pretend you know nothing about it. Just let the matter drop. Anyway, if I’m done to death what does it matter? Wouldn’t you love to marry a better wife? I know very well that the three of you all want me out of the way!” By now she was sobbing.
Goaded by these taunts, Xue Pan grabbed hold of a doorbar and rushed to find Xiangling. Without giving her a chance to speak he started beating her, insisting that she was the one who had worked this witchcraft. As Xiangling protested her innocence Aunt Xue came running over to stop her son.
“How can you beat her without first investigating?” she scolded. “The girl has served you all these years and always been very dutiful. How could she do a wicked thing like this? You must find out the truth before you start laying about you.
At this, Jingui was afraid that Xue Pan might be over-ruled by his mother. She started bawling again.
“For over a fortnight,” she wailed, “you’ve monopolized my Baochan and won’t let her come to my room, leaving me only Qiuling to sleep with me. When I want to cross-examine Baochan, you shield her. Now you’re working off your temper by beating Qiuling. Why not murder me and have done with it? Then you can choose a beautiful wife from some rich and noble family. Why play all these silly tricks?”
This tirade made Xue Pan still more frantic.
Aunt Xue was furious at Jingui’s outrageous, overbearing ways and the pressure she was putting on Xue Pan who, unfortunately, was so spineless that he was used to giving in to her; and now his affair with Baochan enabled her to pose as a reasonable, complaisant wife whose maid he had seized. Aunt Xue, moreover, had no means of knowing who was responsible for the black magic. Just as “Not even good officials can settle family troubles,” so “Not even parents can settle disputes be¬tween son and wife.” Being at a loss, she could do nothing except berate Xue Pan.
“You degenerate wretch!” she fumed. “Even a cur in heat is less shameless than you! So you couldn’t even keep your paws off your wife’s maid but had to grab her too — giving your wife a handle to accuse you of monopolizing her maid. How can you face people after this? We don’t know who put that spell on her, but instead of finding out the facts you start beating your concubine. I know you: off with the old love and on with the new — a poor return for all I’ve done for you! Even if Xiangling did wrong, you’ve no right to beat her. I shall send for a broker at once and sell her off to set your mind at rest.”
She told Xiangling, “Get your things together. Come on.”
She then ordered the servants, “Fetch a broker at once. We’ll sell her for whatever she’ll fetch, to rid ourselves of this pest, this thorn in the flesh. Only then can we have any peace.
Xue Pan hung his head throughout this diatribe, but Jingui who had been eavesdropping called through the window:
“You can sell anyone you want, but why drag in other people? Am I such a jealous shrew that I can’t tolerate a flesh? Who finds her a pest? Who thinks her a thorn in the flesh? If I were the jealous kind, I wouldn’t have allowed him to have my maid.”
Aunt Xue nearly choked, trembling with anger.
“What manners are these?” she spluttered. “When the mother-in-law is talking, how dare her daughter-in-law wrangle with her through the window? Imagine the daughter of a respectable family raising such a row! Outrageous, I call it!”
Xue Pan stamped his foot frantically.
“Do be quiet! Think how people will laugh if they hear us!”
Determined to go the whole hog, Jingui went on ranting more wildly.
“I’m not afraid if people laugh!” she shrieked. “Why should I be, when your concubine is trying to do me in? You’d better keep her and sell me instead. Everyone knows that you Xues have pots of money for bribes, as well as powerful relatives who’ll shut people’s mouths. So go ahead! What are you waiting for? If you think I’m no good, what blinded you before? Why keep running to our home to beg for my hand? Now you’ve got me as well as all the gold and silver in my dowry. And my maid, who’s not bad-looking, you’ve even grabbed her too. So it’s time to get rid of me!”
Screaming, she slapped herself and rolled on the ground.
Xue Pan was too frantic to know what to do — remonstrate, reason and plead with her, or beat her. He stumped in and out of the room, sighing and fuming, cursing his own bad luck.
Meanwhile Baochai had persuaded her mother to go back to her own room, but she insisted that Xiangling must be sold.
“Our family only buys maids, never sells any,” Baochai pointed out. “Your anger’s making you talk foolishly, mother. If outsiders come to hear of this, how they’ll laugh! If my brother and sister-in-law dislike her, why not keep her to wait on me? I need another maid.”
“If she’s kept it’ll cause more trouble. Far simpler to throw her out.”
“If she’s with me that will be the same anyway. I won’t let her go to their quarters in the front, so she’ll be entirely cut off from them, just as if she’d been sold.”
Xiangling had already run up to Aunt Xue and tearfully begged her not to drive her away but to let her wait on Miss Baochai. So finally Aunt Xue relented.
After that, Xiangling moved into Baochai’s quarters and had no more to do with the young couple; still, she could not help bewailing her fate to the moon and sighing before the lamp. Though she had lived with Xue Pan for several years, because of irregular menses she had never con¬ceived a child. Now anger and grief further undermined her health, and these upsets aggravated her anaemia. She fell into a consumption and lost her appetite. Doctors were called in, but their medicines failed to cure her.
Meanwhile Jingui continued to make scenes, upsetting Aunt Xue and Baochai; but all they could do was to shed tears in secret as they la¬mented their fate. Two or three times Xue Pan, emboldened by wine, stormed at his wife and threatened her with a stick, but Jingui simply dared him to beat her. When he threatened her with a knife, she stretched out her neck and challenged him to kill her. Then, unable to bring himself to it, he could only rage for a while. When this had happened several times, Jingui became even more over-bearing and Xue Pan even more spineless.
With Xiangling still in the house, Jingui could never be fully at ease; however, she let her be for the time being, as she was no longer an annoyance to her.
It was now with Baochan that she started finding fault. But Baochan, unlike Xiangling, had a fiery temper and as she was on good terms with Xue Pan she felt she could afford to ignore her mistress. When Jingui tried to bully her, she refused to give ground. At first they simply wrangled. Then Jingui, when in a temper, would curse and beat her. Though Baochan could not strike back she would throw a tantrum, roll on the ground and threaten to kill herself, searching for knives or Xue Pan, unable to cope with the two of them, could only pace to and fro between both women, watching. If they became too rowdy, he would go out and keep away from the house.
When Jingui happened to be in a good mood, she would gather a party together to play cards, dice and make merry. All her life she had loved gnawing bones, so she had chickens or ducks killed every day and the meat given to others while she herself chewed the fried bones to go with her wine. When she tired of this, or when anything offended her, she would flare up and begin scolding again.
“If ponces and strumpets can enjoy themselves, why shouldn’t I?” she would clamour.
Aunt Xue and Baochai paid no attention to her. And by now Xue Pan too was helpless, only regretting day and night that he had married this monster. They were all at their wits’ end. High and low in the Ning and Rong Mansions knew of this, and none of them but deplored it.
By this time Baoyu’s hundred days’ confinement was up and he was allowed out of doors. Coming over to call on Jingui, he found nothing outrageous in her looks or behaviour — she seemed just as lovely as the other girls — so he was mystified and amazed by her bad reputation.
One day when he went to pay his respects to his mother, he found Yingchun’s nanny there too, telling Lady Wang what a reprobate Sun Shaozu was.
“All our young lady can do is to cry in secret,” she said. “She’s longing to be fetched home, to have a few days’ respite.”
“The last couple of days I’ve been thinking of sending for her,” an¬swered Lady Wang. “But so many troubles cropped up that it slipped my mind. The other day Baoyu called there, and when he came back he made the same suggestion. Well, tomorrow’s an auspicious day; we’ll send to fetch her.”
Just then a servant arrived from the Lady Dowager to tell Baoyu to go first thing the next day to Tianqi Temple, in order to offer thanks for his recovery. As Baoyu was only too eager for any outing, these instructions so delighted him that he could hardly close his eyes all night as he waited for day to break.
The next morning after he had washed and dressed, accompanied by two or three old nurses he went by carriage out of the West Gate to burn incense and offer thanks in Tianqi Temple, where all the preparations for this had been made the previous day. Baoyu, being naturally timid, kept away from the fierce-looking images of gods and demons there. For this magnificent temple had been built in an earlier dynasty but then neglected for so many years that all the clay sculptures there struck him as mon¬strous and left him aghast.
After hastily burning the sacrificial paper, Baoyu retired to a quiet room to rest. When he had been served a meal, the old nurses, Li Gui and others strolled with him through the temple grounds till he was tired, when they took him back inside for another rest. Not wanting him to go to sleep, the nurses fetched Old Wang, the Taoist priest in charge of the temple, to divert him.
This old Taoist, formerly an itinerant vendor of medicine, had made a considerable profit out of his nostrums; and outside the temple hung a notice to the effect that pills, salves, plasters and powders of every kind were obtainable here. This priest also frequented the Ning and Rong Mansions, where he had come to be known as One-Plaster Wang; for he claimed that his plasters were so efficacious that each could cure all manner of different ailments.
When One-Plaster Wang entered the room, Baoyu was lying drows¬ily on the kang while Li Gui and the others were urging him not to sleep.
At sight of the priest they cried, “You’ve come just at the right time, father! You’re so good at spinning yarns, won’t you tell our young mas¬ter some story?”
One-Plaster Wang laughed.
“Quite right. You mustn’t fall asleep after eating the gluten in that vegetarian meal, or it’ll play tricks in your belly!”’
The whole room laughed, Baoyu too, as he got up and straightened his clothes. Then One-Plaster Wang ordered his acolytes to make them some good, strong tea.
Mingyan interposed, “Our master won’t drink your tea. Even sitting in this room he’s half choked by the smell of your plasters.”
“We never keep plasters in here,” said the priest with a grin. “A few days ago, when I learned that Master Bao would be coming today, I scented this room with incense again and again.”
“I’m always hearing how good your plasters are,” remarked Baoyu. “Just what diseases do they cure?”
“It would take too long to tell you that in full. I use one hundred and twenty different ingredients which complement each other just as do a prince and his ministers, and co-operate with each other just as do a host and his guests. Some of them are heating, some cooling, some costly, some cheap. Inwardly, they fortify the humours, build up the patient’s strength, improve the appetite, increase resistance, tranquillize the nerves, expel cold and heat, and eliminate indigestion and phlegm. Outwardly, they regulate the blood, relax the muscles, remove dead tissues and help new ones to grow, cure chills and act as an antidote to poison. They are marvellously effective, as you’d know, sir, if you’d tried one.”
“I can hardly believe that one plaster cures so many different ail¬ments,” Baoyu answered. “I’d like to know if it’s any good for a malady I have in mind.”
“It cures all diseases,” One-Plaster Wang asserted. “If it does you no good, you can tweak my beard, slap my old face and pull down my temple — how’s that? Just tell me the symptoms of this malady.”
“Have a guess. If you guess right, I’ll believe in your medicine.”
One-Plaster Wang thought for a while.
“This is quite a poser,” he said at last with a smile. “I’m afraid my plaster may not work in this case.
Then Baoyu told Li Gui and the other servants, “Go out and have a stroll. There are too many people in here, it’s getting stuffy.”
The servants withdrew, leaving only Mingyan in attendance. After he had lighted a stick of Sweet-Dream Incense, Baoyu told him to sit down beside him so that he could lean against him. At this point, One-Plaster Wang had a sudden idea. Smiling all over his face, he drew closer to whisper:
“I’ve guessed it! Now that the young gentleman is growing up, I suppose he wants some drug to increase his virility — right?”
Cutting him short, Mingyan snapped, “Shut up, you idiot!”
“What did he say?” asked Baoyu in bewilderment.
“Never mind. He was talking rot.”
One-Plaster Wang was appalled and dared not ask any more ques¬tions.
“Better tell me outright, sir,” he said.
“What I wanted to know was this: have you a prescription to cure a jealous shrew?”
The priest clapped his hands and laughed.
“I give up! Not only have I no such prescription, I’ve never even heard of one either.”
“In that case,” Baoyu teased, “your plaster doesn’t amount to much.”
“Though I’ve no plaster to cure a shrew, there is a potion which might. Only it takes time it doesn’t work overnight.”
“What potion is that? And how should it be taken?”
“It’s called Cure for Jealousy. Take one top-quality pear, one fifth of an ounce of crystal sugar, one tenth of orange peel and three bowls of water. Boil these till the pear is soft, and let the shrew take one does first thing each day. Then in due course she’ll be cured.”
“That wouldn’t cost much, but I doubt whether it would work.”
“If one dose doesn’t do the trick, give ten. If she’s not cured today, repeat the treatment tomorrow. If it doesn’t work this year, go on with it next year. At any rate, these ingredients aren’t injurious but good for the lungs and digestion. This sweet potion cures coughs and tastes delicious too. If she takes it for a hundred years she’ll die in any case, and once dead how can she go on being jealous? So in the end it will prove efficacious.”
By now Baoyu and Mingyan were roaring with laughter.
“You oily-mouthed ox!” they cried.
“What does it matter?” chuckled One-Plaster Wang. “I was just whil¬ing away the time to stop you from felling sleepy. It’s worth money, making you laugh. To tell you the truth, even my plasters are bogus. If I had some really good medicine, I’d take it myself so as to become an immortal instead of coming here to fool around.”
By this time it was the hour for the sacrifice, and they asked Baoyu to go out to burn sacrificial paper, pour a libation of wine and distribute alms. The sacrifice ended, he went back to the city.
By now Yingchun had already been home for some time. When the women from the Sun family who had come with her had been enter¬tained to dinner and sent home, Yingchun, shedding tears in Lady Wang’s room, described her wretchedness.
“Sun Shaozu cares for nothing but women, gambling and drinking,” she sobbed. “He’s had affairs with practically all our maids and young servants’ wives. When I demonstrated mildly two or three times, he cursed me for being jealous, saying I must have been steeped in vinegar. He also says he put five thousand taels in father’s safe-keeping and he shouldn’t have spent it. He’s come here several times to ask for it back, and when he fails to get it he points at me and scolds, ‘Don’t put on those ladified airs with me! Your old man has spent five thousand taels of mine; so he’s sold you to me. If you don’t behave yourself, I’ll beat you up and send you to sleep with the servants. When your grandfather was alive, seeing how rich and influential our family was, he went to great trouble to get connected with us. Actually, I belong to your father’s generation. It was a mistake my marrying you because that’s made me step down one generation, as if I were the one chasing after power and profit.”’
She wept as she spoke, and Lady Wang and all the girls shed tears too.
Lady Wang said soothingly, “You’ve already married this oaf, so it can’t be helped. Your uncle did advise your father against it, but he wouldn’t listen — he’d set his heart on this match. And now it’s turned out badly. Well, child, this is fate.”
“I can’t believe I was fated to suffer like this,” sobbed Yingchun. “I lost my mother when I was a child, and was lucky to have a few peaceful years here with you, auntie. But now see what’s become of me!”
Lady Wang, trying to console her, asked where she would like to stay.
“Being snatched away so suddenly from my cousins, I dream of them all the time,” Yingchun replied. “I long for my old rooms too. If I can spend a few more days in my old quarters in the Garden, then I shall die content. Who knows if I’ll ever have such a chance again.”
“Don’t talk so wildly,” interposed Lady Wang. “Little squabbles be¬tween young couples are quite common. Why speak in that ill-omened way?”
She ordered the house at Purple Caltrop Isle to be made ready at once, and told the girls to keep Yingchun company and cheer her up.
To Baoyu she said, “Mind you don’t breathe a word about this to the old lady! If she gets to hear of it, I’ll hold you to blame.”
Baoyu promised to keep quiet.
That evening Yingchun stayed in her old quarters, and her girl cousins and the maids lavished affection on her. After three days, however, she had to go to stay with Lady Xing. First she took her leave of the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang. When it came to saying goodbye to the girls, she was prostrated by grief. It was Lady Wang and Aunt Xue who soothed her and finally persuaded her to stop weeping and go over to the other mansion, where she spent a couple of days with Lady Xing. Then Sun Shaozu sent to fetch her back and, though Yingchun dreaded returning, for fear of her cruel husband she had to hold back her grief and take her leave.
As for Lady Xing, she was so callous that she had not even asked Yingchun how she got on with her husband, or whether her household was difficult to manage, simply entertaining her in the most perfunctory manner.
To know what the outcome was, read the next chapter.


Chapter 81

Four Beauties Fish in the Pond
to Try Their Luck
Baoyu’s Father Orders Him Back
to the Family School


After Yingchun’s departure, Lady Xing behaved just as if nothing had happened. Lady Wang, however, who had brought Yingchun up, was bitterly distressed. She was sighing to herself in her room when Baoyu came in to pay his respects. Noticing the tear-stains on her cheeks he did not venture to take a seat, simply standing on one side till she urged him to mount the kang and sit beside her.
His mother saw from the dazed look on his face that he had some¬thing on his mind.
“What’s worrying you now?” she asked.
“It’s nothing really. But after hearing yesterday what poor Yingchun has to put up with, I feel it’s truly too much for her to bear! I didn’t dare tell grandmother, but it kept me from sleeping all night. How can girls from a family like ours stand such cruel treatment? Yingchun especially, who’s always been too timid to answer anyone back. Yet now she of all people is up against such an inhuman monster, who has no idea how sensitive a girl is.” As he spoke his eyes brimmed with tears.
“There’s no help for it,” Lady Wang answered. “As the saying goes, ‘A married daughter —spilt water.’ So what can I do about it?”
“Last night I had an idea. Suppose we talk grandmother into having Cousin Yingchun fetched back? Then she can go on staying in Purple Caltrop Isle, eating and playing with us just like in the old days, instead of being bullied by that scoundrel Sun. When he sends to fetch her back we won’t let her go, not even if he sends a hundred times! We’ll just tell him this is the old lady’s decision. Don’t you think that’s a good plan?”
Both amused and exasperated, his mother exclaimed, “There you go again talking nonsense! Sooner or later a girl has to leave home, and once she’s married off what can her mother’s family do for her? If she happens to get a good husband, fine; if not, there’s no help for it —that’s fate. Surely you know the saying, ‘Many a cock and follow the cock; many a dog and follow the dog’? How can every girl be like your eldest sister, chosen as an Imperial Consort? Besides, Yingchun’s newly married; her husband’s still young. People’s temperaments differ, and just at the start she’s bound to feel a bit awkward. A few years from now, when they know each other better and have a child or two, things should work out all right.
“Mind you don’t breathe a word about this to the old lady. If I find you have, you’ll catch it! Go and see to your own affairs now. Don’t stay here talking nonsense.”
Baoyu sat there a little longer in subdued silence, then listlessly took his leave. Thoroughly depressed and not knowing how to work off his feelings, he went back to the Garden, straight to Bamboo Lodge. Once inside, he burst out crying.
Daiyu, who had just finished dressing, was most alarmed to see the state he was in.
“What’s happened?” she asked. “Who’s been annoying you?”
Although she repeated her questions several times, Baoyu just went on sobbing, his head bent over the table, unable to speak. She sat on a chair in bewilderment to watch him.
“Has someone else provoked you? Or have I offended you?” she asked presently.
“No, neither! “he blurted out with a sweep of one hand.
“Well, what’s upset you then?”
“I can’t help thinking that the sooner we all die the better! Life is really so meaningless.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked, more puzzled than ever. “Have you taken leave of your senses?”
“No, I haven’t. If I tell you, it will upset you too. You saw how wretched Yingchun looked yesterday, and heard all that she said. Why must a girl get married when she grows up? That’s what I’d like to know. Why put up with such bad treatment from her husband? I still remember what fun we had when we started our Begonia Club, making up poems and acting as host in turn. Now Cousin Baochai has gone home, even Xiangling can’t come here any more; and on top of that, Yingchun has left us to get married. With these congenial spirits gone, what’s to become of us? I wanted to ask grandmother to have Yingchun fetched back, but mother won’t hear of it. She called me silly, said I was talking nonsense, and I dared not argue with her. Such a short time, and just see how the Garden has changed! If this goes on a few years more, goodness knows what it will be like. The more I think about it, the sadder I feel.”
Daiyu, while he was speaking, had gradually lowered her head and withdrawn to the kang. Now, without saying a word, she heaved a sigh and lay down with her face to the wall.
Zijuan, who had just brought in tea, was puzzled to find the two of them like this. And now Xiren arrived.
“So here you are, Second Master,” she said to Baoyu. “The old lady’s been asking for you, and I guessed you’d be here.”
Daiyu rose at this to offer Xiren a seat. Baoyu noticed that her eyes were red from weeping.
“Cousin, I was only talking nonsense just now. Don’t let it upset you,” he pleaded. “Take my advice and look after your health. Have a rest now. I’ll be back when I’ve seen what the old lady wants me for.”
After he had gone, Xiren asked what had happened.
“He was upset on account of Cousin Yingchun,” Daiyu answered. “I was rubbing my eyes because they itched — that’s all.”
Xiren made no comment but hurried out after Baoyu, then went on her own way while he proceeded to his grandmother’s quarters. As she was already having her siesta, he returned to Happy Red Court.
That afternoon when Baoyu got up from his nap, feeling thoroughly bored he picked up a book at random. Xiren seeing this went out to brew him some tea. The book he had happened to take was an anthology of ancient songs, and leafing through it he came upon Cao Cao’s verse:
Facing the wine let us sing,
For life is short.
In dismay, he put it down and picked up a collection of Jin Dynasty prose. After turning a few pages only, however, he closed the book abruptly and rested his chin on his hands, lost in thought. This was how Xiren discovered him when she brought in the tea.
“Why have you stopped reading?” she asked.
Instead of answering, he merely took the bowl from her, putting it down again after one sip. Xiren stood beside him watching in mystifica¬tion till he suddenly stood up.
“‘Transported beyond the earthly form’ —fine!” he muttered.
Xiren was amused but afraid to ask what he meant.
“If you don’t enjoy reading these books, why not take a stroll in the Garden?” she suggested. “Don’t make yourself unwell by moping.”
Baoyu agreed to this and walked out, still deep in thought. Soon he reached Seeping Fragrance Pavilion, but found it looking desolate and deserted. Going on to Alpinia Court, he was even more dismayed to see its plants as luxuriant as before but the doors and windows closed. Turn¬ing past Scented Lotus Pavilion, he saw a few girls in the distance who were leaning over the railings at Smartweed Bank. On the ground beside them several young maids were squatting down as if to search for some¬thing. He tiptoed behind a rockery to hear what they were saying.
“Let’s see whether it rises to the bait,” said one girl — it sounded like Li Wen.
“Good, it’s gone!” laughed Tanchun. “I knew it wouldn’t rise.”
“That’s right, cousin. Don’t move, just wait, and it’s bound to sur¬face.”
“Here it comes!”
The last two speakers were Li Qi and Xing Xiuyan.
Baoyu could not resist picking up a stone and tossing it into the pool. The splash it made startled the four girls.
“Who’s this practical joker?” they cried. “Giving us such a fright!”
He bounded out laughingly then from behind the rockery.
“You’re having such a good time — why didn’t you let me know?
“I knew it couldn’t be anyone else,” said Tanchun. “Only Second Brother would play such a trick. All right, to make up for that you must catch us some fish. One was rising to the bait just now, but before we could hook it you frightened it away.”
“You enjoy yourselves here, leaving me out,” he chuckled. “By rights I should penalize you!”

They all laughed at that.
“Let’s all fish to try our luck,” proposed Baoyu. “Whoever catches a fish will have good luck this year. Whoever doesn’t will have bad luck. Who’ll start?”
Tanchun urged Li Wen to take the lead, but she declined.
“In that case I’ll start off.” Tanchun turned to Baoyu. “If you drive away my fish again, Second Brother, I shan’t let you off!”
“I was trying to scare you for fun just then. But you can go ahead now,” he assured her.
Tanchun cast the line and, in less time than it takes to say ten sen¬tences, a minnow swallowed the bait and the float bobbed down. With a swing of the rod she landed the little fish alive and thrashing. Shishu grabbed for it on the ground, then with both hands dropped it into a small porcelain jar filled with clear water.
Tanchun passed the rod to Li Wen, who cast in turn. When the line twitched she raised the rod, but there was nothing on the hook. She cast again, but when presently the line tautened again and she pulled it in she once more drew a blank. She examined the hook then, and found it was bent inwards.
“No wonder I caught nothing,” she said with a smile, then told Suyun to adjust the hook and bait it with another worm on which a reed had been fixed. Not long after she cast, the reed submerged, and she hastily landed a tiny carp two inches long.
“Now it’s your turn, Cousin Baoyu,” she said with a smile.
“Let the other two girls try first,” he urged.
Xiuyan said nothing, but Li Qi demurred. “No, Cousin Bao, you try first.”
“Stop deferring to each other!” cried Tanchun, who had just seen a bubble on the water. “Look, the fish have all gone over to your side. Go on!”
Li Qi took the rod then and very soon made a catch. When Xiuyan had followed suit and returned the rod to Tanchun, she handed it to Baoyu.
“I’m going to fish like hang Taigong,”1 he announced as he walked down the stone steps and sat down by the pool. But his reflection fright¬ened the fish away. Though he waited there a long time holding the rod, the line still did not move. And when bubbles rose from one side of the pool, he swung his rod there so fast that the fish made off quickly.
“I’m impatient but they’re slow coaches! What shall I do? Good fish, come quick to my rescue!” he exclaimed so frantically that the four girls laughed.
While Baoyu was still talking, the line twitched. In delight, he yanked so hard that the rod knocked against a rock and broke into two. The line snapped as well, so that the hook was lost. A roar of laughter went up.
“I’ve never seen anyone so clumsy!” teased Tanchun.
Just then Sheyue hurried towards them, in a great fluster.
“The old lady’s woken, Master Bao,” she cried. “She wants you to go there at once.”
This startled all five of them.
“What does she want him for?” Tanchun inquired.
“I don’t know,” the maid answered. “I heard say some scandal’s come to light and she wants to ask Baoyu about it. She’s going to ques¬tion Madam Lian as well.”
Baoyu was petrified.
“Which maid is going to catch it this time?” he wondered.
“We’ve no idea what it’s all about,” said Tanchun. “You’d better go immediately, Second Brother. If there’s any news, send Sheyue to let us know.”
Then the four girls went off.
When Baoyu entered the Lady Dowager’s room, he was relieved to find her playing cards there with his mother as if nothing were amiss.
At sight of him she said, “The year before last when you fell ill you were cured by a crazy monk and a lame Taoist. When you had that fit, how did you feel?”
Baoyu cast his mind back.
“I remember standing up feeling quite all right before the fit came on. Then it seemed as if someone had clubbed my head from behind, and it hurt so badly that everything went black. Still, I saw green-faced, long¬-fanged devils all over the place, who were swinging swords and clubs. When I lay down on the kang, my head felt as if clamped in a vice. I passed out from the pain. When I came round, I remember seeing a shaft of golden light in the hall which shone on to my bed. All the devils ran away from it and vanished. My head stopped aching too and my mind cleared.”
“That sounds like it,” observed the old lady to Lady Wang.
At this point Xifeng came in and paid her respects to both her seniors in turn.
“What did you want to know, Old Ancestress?” she asked.
“Do you still remember what it was like when you were seized by that fit of madness that year?”
“I can’t remember too clearly,” was Xifeng’s answer, “But I felt I couldn’t control myself, as if someone was pushing and tugging me to kill people. I tried to seize every weapon I could lay hands on and kill every¬one I saw. Even when I was exhausted, I couldn’t stop.”
“And when you got better?” prompted the old lady.
“I thought I heard a voice in the air — just what it said I can’t re¬member.”
“Judging by this, it was her all right,” said the Lady Dowager. “The way they felt during their fits coincides with what we’ve just heard. How could that old witch be so vicious! And to think that we chose her to be Baoyu’s godmother! It was that monk and priest — Buddha be praised!
— who saved his life, yet we never thanked them for it.”
“Why are you interested in our illnesses, madam?” Xifeng wanted to know.
“Ask your aunt. I’m too tired to tell you.
Then Lady Wang explained. “Just now the master was here. He told us that Baoyu’s godmother was actually a witch who practised black magic. Now that her secret’s out, she’s been arrested by the police and taken to prison to be put to death.
“A few days ago some fellow — Pan Sanbao I think his name was — brought evidence against her. He sold a house to the pawnshop across the street for several times what it was worth, but still wanted more. The pawnbroker naturally refused this demand. Then Pan bribed that old witch, as she was for ever calling in at the pawnshop and knew everybody there to cast a spell so that all their women fell ill and their homes were topsy¬-turvy. Thereupon she went there claiming that she could cure them, and burnt paper offerings which proved efficacious. She got several dozen taels from them as well.
“But all-seeing Buddha meted out retribution. She left in such a hurry that day that she let fall a silk bundle, which the shop assistants picked up. On opening it, they found inside a whole lot of paper figures as well as four pills with a pungent smell. They were wondering what these could be when the old witch went back for them, and they caught and searched her. They found on her a box with two carved ivory naked devils inside, one male and one female, besides seven red embroidery needles. At once she was haled to the police court, where she disclosed many secret affairs of ladies in big official families. This being reported to the garri¬son, a search was made of her house and a whole lot of clay devils were brought to light together with some boxes of knockout scent. In addition, in an unoccupied room behind her kang hung a seven-star lamp, and under it were straw effigies — some with iron bands round their heads, some with nails stuck in their chests, some fastened with locks. In the cupboard was a great stack of paper figures. And below were account books listing the families which had employed her and the amounts of silver due to her. She had also collected a good deal of money as dona¬tions for oil and incense.”
“Yes, she must have been our jinx!” Xifeng exclaimed. “After we got well, I remember, that old witch called several times to ask Concu¬bine Zhao for money. When she saw me, she changed colour and her eyes blazed. I couldn’t guess the reason at the time. Now it’s clear what they were up to! In my case, of course, running the household I’m bound to get myself hated by certain people, and it’s not to be wondered at if they try to kill me. But what reason has anyone to hate Baoyu? How could they be so vicious?”
“I suppose it’s because I prefer Baoyu to Huan,” said the old lady. “That sowed the seeds of hatred.”
“The old creature’s already been sentenced,” observed Lady Wang, “so we can hardly bring her here as a witness. But without her evidence, how are we to get Concubine Zhao to confess? And if such a scandal got out, our reputation would suffer. We’d better give her rope to hang her¬self — she’s bound to give herself away one of these days.”
“You’re right,” agreed the Lady Dowager. “A case of this kind can’t be proved without a witness. But Lord Buddha is all-seeing! Haven’t Xifeng and Baoyu recovered? Never mind, Xifeng, let’s forget about the past. You and your aunt must have dinner here before you go.” She told Yuanyang and Hupo to serve the meal.
“Why trouble to order the meal yourself, Old Ancestress?” asked Xifeng with a twinkle.
Lady Wang also smiled. And as some serving-women were waiting outside for instructions, Xifeng told a young maid to order dinner, inform¬ing her that they would both be dining there.
At this moment, however, Yuchuan arrived with a message for Lady Wang:
“The master wants you to find something for him, madam, after the old lady’s meal.”
“You’d better go now,” urged the Lady Dowager. “It may be impor¬tant.”
Lady Wang assented. Leaving Xifeng there, she went back to her room to chat with ha Zheng and find him the things he wanted.
“Has Yingchun gone back?” he asked. “How’s she making out with the Sun family?”
“The poor child kept shedding tears and saying her husband’s a ty¬rant.” She repeated what Yingchun had told her.
Jia Zheng sighed.
“I knew it wasn’t a good match,” he recalled, “but what could I do once my brother had settled on it? The pity is, Yingchun’s the one to suffer.”
“She’s newly married. We can only hope that later they’ll get on better.” This said, his wife suddenly tittered.
“What’s there to laugh at?”
“It’s Baoyu — he came here specially first thing this morning and talked like a silly boy.”
“What did he say?”
When she repeated their son’s remarks Jia Zheng started laughing too.
“Speaking of Baoyu, this reminds me,” he said. “It’s no good leaving that boy all the time in the Garden. If a daughter turns out badly, she’ll go to another family anyway; but having a bad son is serious. The other day someone recommended a tutor to me. His scholarship and moral charac¬ter are excellent, and he’s a southerner too. But I feel that teachers from the south are too lenient. Our young rascals here all have enough low cunning to get away with slacking. Besides, they’re so unruly that a teacher who isn’t strong on discipline and just humours them may let them waste their time. That’s why the last generations never engaged a teacher from outside but just picked some elderly, fairly scholarly kins¬man to run the family school. Uncle Dairu now, though he’s no great shakes as a scholar, knows how to keep these boys under control and isn’t soft with them. I don’t think we should let Baoyu go on idling. We’d better send him back to the family school.”
“I quite agree,” approved his wife. “While you were away at your post he often fell ill, so he hasn’t studied properly these last few years. It will be good for him to go over his lessons again in the family school.”
Jia Zheng nodded. The rest of their talk can be passed over.

The next morning when Baoyu had finished his toilet, his pages an¬nounced that the master wanted him. He hastily straightened his clothes and went over to Jia Zheng’s study. Having paid his respects he stood waiting for instructions.
“What have you been studying recently?” asked his father. “Though you’ve done some calligraphy, that doesn’t amount to much. In these last few years, I can see, you’ve grown wilder than ever; and I’ve often heard that you refused to study on the pretext of poor health. But aren’t you in good health now? I’ve also heard that you spend all your time in the Garden playing about with your girl cousins and even fooling about with the maids, forgetting your studies completely. You may write a few lines of poetry but it’s not up to much, nothing to boast about. After all, when you come to take the examinations, it’s essay-writing that counts; but you’ve neglected that. Here’s what you’re to do from now on. Stop versifying and writing couplets, and concentrate on studying eight-sec¬tion essays. I give you one year. If you’ve made no progress by the end of that time you can stop studying, and I shall disown you!”
He called for Li Gui then and told him, “Tomorrow morning Beiming is to accompany Baoyu to the family school, after first getting ready the books he needs and bringing them to show me.
To Baoyu he said sternly, “You may go now. Come back here tomor¬row morning.”
Baoyu had nothing to say to this and went back to Happy Red Court, where Xiren was anxiously waiting. She was pleased by the news that he was to go back to school. He, however, sent word at once to his grand¬mother in the hope that she would put a stop to this scheme; and on receiving his message she sent for him.
“Don’t worry,” she told him. “Go to school, or your father will be angry. Anyone who makes it difficult for you will have me to reckon with.”
As there was no more Baoyu could do, he went back.
“Call me early tomorrow morning,” he ordered his maids. “The master’s taking me to the family school.”
Xiren and the others assented, and she and Sheyue took turns keeping watch that night.
Xiren woke Baoyu early the next day and, having helped him dress, sent a young maid to tell Beiming to be ready waiting by the inner gate with his books and other school things. But she had to urge Baoyu twice before he would leave. On reaching Jia Zheng’s study, he asked whether his father had arrived or not.
The page on duty told him, “Just now one of his secretaries came to see him, but they said the master was still getting dressed and asked him to wait outside.”
Feeling slightly relieved Baoyu hurried to Jia Zheng’s apartment, ar¬riving just as his father was sending for him. Baoyu went in and listened to his instructions, after which they mounted the carriage and, with Beiming carrying the books, drove to the family school. A servant had gone on ahead to announce their arrival.
Dairu stood up as Jia Zheng entered the classroom and greeted him. Taking him by the hand, the teacher asked after his health and that of the old lady. Then Baoyu went over to pay his respects, while his father waited for Dairu to take a seat before sitting down himself.
“I have brought my son here myself today because I have a request to make,” said Jia Zheng. “He’s no longer a child and it’s time for him to study for his career, so as to establish himself and win a name in future. At home nowadays he just fools around with the children. He may have a smattering of poetry, but the verses he writes are nonsensical; and even if they were good, those effusions about the wind and rain, moonlight and dew have no bearing on his life-work.”
“He looks a handsome, intelligent lad,” Dairu answered. “Why should he just play about instead of studying? Poetry is all very well, but he’ll have plenty of time to take that up after passing the official examina¬tions.”
“Quite so,” agreed Jia Zheng. “All we want him to study now is the classics. He must learn how to expound them and how to write essays. If he is disobedient, I hope you will discipline him thoroughly, so that his life won’t be wasted for lack of solid learning.”
He stood up then, made a bow, and after a few more civilities took his leave. Dairu saw him to the gate and asked him to convey his respects to the Lady Dowager. Then Jia Zheng, assenting, mounted his carriage and left.
Re-entering the classroom, Dairu saw that Baoyu had a small hard¬wood desk in a corner by the southwest window. On the right side of the desk he had piled two sets of old books and one slim volume of essays. Beiming, on his instructions, was arranging his writing materials in the drawers.
The teacher said, “Baoyu, I heard you were unwell some time ago. Have you recovered completely?”
Baoyu stood up to answer, “Yes, sir.”
“Well, the time has come now for you to study hard. Your father is very anxious that you should turn out well. First revise, right from the beginning, all those books you studied before. Spend every morning on that. After lunch you can practise calligraphy. In the afternoon, you’ll expound texts and read essays.”
Baoyu assented respectfully, then sat down and looked around, per¬ceiving that several old classmates such as Jin Rong were missing, while the few younger boys who had joined since he left appeared a coarse, common lot. Recalling Qin Zhong, it struck him with dismay that he had no friend now with whom to exchange confidences. But not venturing to speak, he moodily started reading.
The teacher told him, “As this is your first day, I’ll let you go home early. Tomorrow I want to hear you expound a text. You’re by no means stupid. When you’ve analyzed a few passages for me tomorrow, I shall be able to see how much you’ve read recently and what standard you’ve reached.”
This set Baoyu’s heart thumping To know how he made out, read the following chapter.

Chapter 82

An Old Teacher Expounds the Classics to
Warn Against Mischief
The Queen of Bamboos Falling Ill
Has a Fearful Nightmare


Baoyu, home from school, went to call on his grandmother.
“Good! Now the wild colt’s muzzled,” she said with a smile.
“Report to your father, then go and amuse yourself.”
Baoyu, having assented, presented himself to Jia Zheng.
“Back from school so early?” his father asked. “Did the teacher assign your lessons?”
“Yes, sir. In the morning I’m to revise the Four Books; after lunch, practise writing; in the afternoon, expound texts and read essays.
Jia Zheng nodded.
“Go and keep your grandmother company for a while. Instead of just fooling around you must learn some manners. Go to bed early, and get up early to go to school every day. Do you hear?”
“Yes, sir. Yes, sir.”
Baoyu, withdrawing, hurried to call on his mother and then to report to his grandmother, very soon leaving her again to rush to Bamboo Lodge. Once inside the gate, he clapped and crowed with laughter.
“Here I am back safe and sound!”
Zijuan raised the portiere and he went in and sat down.
“I thought I heard you’d gone to school,” said Daiyu, startled by his sudden return. “How come you’re back so early?”
“Ah, it’s too bad!” he exclaimed. “When my father made me go to school today, I thought I’d never set eyes on you all again. But I survived it somehow, and now that we’re together again I feel as if I’d just risen from the dead! ‘One day apart seems three autumns’ — how true that old saying is.”
“Have you paid your duty calls?”
“Yes, all of them.”
“Called anywhere else?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“You should drop in to see your other cousins too.”
“I can’t be bothered right now. I’d rather just sit here and chat with you for a while. ‘Early to bed and early to rise’ those are my father’s orders; so I’ll have to leave calling on them till tomorrow.”
“After sitting here a bit you must go back to rest.”
“I’m not tired, only dying of boredom. Sitting here with you I don’t feel bored, yet now you’re trying to shoo me away again!”
With a faint smile Daiyu told Zijuan, “Brew a cup of my Longjing tea for the Second Master. Now that he’s studying we must treat him with more respect.”
Zijuan laughingly fetched the tea leaves and told one of the younger maids to make tea.
“Don’t mention studying!” Baoyu continued. “I can’t stand such moral talk. And those eight-section essays are still more ridiculous. Using them to wangle a degree and make a living — that’s not so bad; but how can you claim they ‘voice the views of the sages’? The better ones are nothing but a hotch-potch of classical tags, while the most ludicrous ones are written by ignoramuses who drag in this, that and the other to make up a monstrous mishmash, yet boast of their erudition! How can this be called expounding the views of the sages? When father insists on my studying these essays, I can’t oppose him; but here are you talking about study too.”
“We girls don’t have to write essays,” Daiyu answered. “Still, when I was young and your kinsman Mr. Jia Yucun was my tutor, I read a few essays too. Some of them showed good sense, some were quite subtle. Though I didn’t altogether understand them, I thought quite highly of them. I don’t see how you can condemn them so sweepingly. Besides, If you want an official career, this is the scholarly way to go about it.”
Baoyu was disgusted by talk of this kind.
“Daiyu never used to be like this,” he reflected. “What’s made her so worldly-wise all of a sudden?” But not wanting to argue with her, he simply snorted.
Just then they heard the voices of Qiuwen and Zijuan outside.
“Sister Xiren said I’d find him in the old lady’s place, but instead he’s here,” said Qiuwen.
“We’ve just made tea,” Zijuan told her. “Wait till he’s drunk it before fetching him back.”
Then the two of them came in.
“I’ll be coming presently,” Baoyu promised Qiuwen. “I’m sorry you had the trouble of looking for me.
When Qiuwen made no answer, Zijuan said, “Drink up quickly and go. They’ve been longing for you all day.”
“Shut up, you bitch!” cried Qiuwen.
Amid general laughter he rose to take his leave, and Daiyu saw him to the door while Zijuan waited at the foot of the steps, not reentering the house until he had gone.
Baoyu soon reached Happy Red Court. As he went in, Xiren emerged from the inner room.
“Is he back?” she called out.
“Long ago,” Qiuwen answered. “I found the Second Master with Miss Lin.”
“Did anything happen today?” Baoyu wanted to know.
“Nothing much,” said Xiren. “Only Her Ladyship sent Sister Yuanyang over just now with a message: The master has set his mind on your studying hard, and if any maids dare fool about with you they’ll be dealt with in the same way as Qingwen and Siqi. After serving you all this time, I must say I find a warning like that uncalled for!” She was looking most put out.
“Good sister, don’t worry,” he cried. “I’ll have to study hard so that the mistress doesn’t scold you again. In fact, I must do some reading this evening, as tomorrow I’ve got to expound texts to the teacher. If I need anything, Sheyue and Qiuwen can attend to it. You’d better go and rest.”
“If you’re really going to study hard, we’ll be glad to wait on you, was her reply.
Baoyu had a hasty supper, then made them light the lamp so that he could revise the Four Books. But where to start? When he leafed through one volume, the text seemed clear enough; yet when he thought it over carefully, he was not too sure of the meaning. He consulted the notes and then the commentaries, until the first watch had sounded.
“I find poetry very easy, but with this I’m getting nowhere,” he re¬flected as he sat there, his mind in a whirl.
“Go to bed now,” urged Xiren: “You can’t digest all that in just one night.”
When Baoyu mumbled agreement she and Sheyue helped him to bed, then turned in themselves. But Xiren, waking later, heard him still tossing about.
“Are you still awake?” she asked. “Stop racking your brains! You must get some rest if you’re going to study well tomorrow.”
“I know, but I can’t sleep. Will you come and take off one of these quilts for me?”
“Better keep it on — it’s not hot.”
“Well, I feel hectic.”
He started kicking off one of his quilts.
Xiren promptly got up to stop him, and laying one hand on his forehead found it a little hot.
“Don’t move,” She coaxed. “You’re rather feverish.”
“I know.”
“How come?”
“Don’t worry. It’s because I’m feeling frantic. But don’t raise an alarm, or my father’s hound to say I’m shamming to get out of going to school — or why else should I fall ill now of all times? I’ll be well enough to go back to school tomorrow; then everything will he all right.”
Taking pity on him she said, “I’ll come and sleep with you.”
She massaged his back for a while, then they both dozed off, not waking until the sun was high in the sky.
“Confound it, I’ve overslept!” exclaimed Baoyu.
He hastily dressed, paid his respects to his elders and hurried to school. Already the teacher was glowering.
“No wonder your father is angry and calls you good-for-nothing you start slacking on your second day at school! What time is it now?”
Baoyu excused himself by explaining about his feverish night, then settled down again to study.
That afternoon Dairu set him a passage to analyse from the Analects, beginning with the line “Respect the young.” He thanked his lucky stars that it was not from the Great Learning or the Doctrine of the Mean.
“How am Ito analyse it?” he asked.
“Carefully explain the passage and the gloss.”
Baoyu read it aloud, then began, “In this passage the sage is encour¬aging young people, exhorting them to work hard while there is time, so as not....”
He broke off here and glanced up at the teacher, who smiled.
“Just go ahead. In expounding the classics, as the Book of Ceremony says, nothing is taboo. Go on, ‘So as not...’ — what?”
“So as not to grow old without achieving anything. First he says ‘re¬spect’ to encourage young people, then warns them not to grow into men whom nobody would respect.”
He looked up expectantly.
“That’s more or less right,” said Dairu. “Now paraphrase the whole text.”
“The sage said: When people are young, their intelligence and talents all seem quite formidable. Who can be sure that in future they won’t equal me today? But if they let things slide until they are forty or fifty and still not known, however promising they may have been when young, by that time nobody will ever fear them.”
The teacher smiled.
“When you summarized the meaning just now, it was fairly clear,” he said. “But your paraphrase was rather childish. The words ‘not known’ don’t mean failure to attain officialdom. Here ‘knowing’ refers to un¬derstanding the truth, which doesn’t depend on becoming an official. Didn’t some sages of old turn hermit and remain unknown? They weren’t officials, were they? But does that mean they were no good?”
“When he said that such cases were ‘not to be feared, ‘ he meant that people knew the limitations of their understanding; so this is in direct contrast to the previous idea — it doesn’t imply fearing their power. You should examine such points carefully to grasp their subtlety. Do you un¬derstand now?” “Yes, sir.”
“Then here’s another passage for you to expound.”
He turned to a page and pointed out for Baoyu the line, “I have never yet seen anyone who loved goodness as much as beauty.”
Feeling rather sensitive on this score, Baoyu objected with a smile, ‘‘There’s nothing worth expounding here.
“Nonsense! If this subject were set in the examinations, would you say it wasn’t worth writing about?”
Then Baoyu had to comply.
“The sage noticed that men didn’t love goodness but were enrap¬tured with beauty when they saw it. Actually, goodness is something inherent in human nature, yet people don’t hanker after it. As for beauty, though it’s also born not made, and everybody loves it, it is a human desire whereas goodness is a law of nature. However, people don’t love the law of nature as much as human desire. Confucius both deplored this and hoped that men would change their ways. He also noticed that though some men loved goodness, that love didn’t go very deep. Only when they came to love goodness as much as beauty could that be considered true love.”
“That is more or less correct,” commented Dairu. “Now tell me this. If you understand the sage’s teachings, why are you having trouble on both scores? Though I don’t stay in your family and your father has never spoken to me of this, I am well aware of your shortcomings. Why don’t you want to make progress? You’re young now, just at the ‘for¬midable’ age. Whether you turn out well or not is entirely up to you. I’m going to give you a month to revise all the classics you studied before, then another month to read essays. After that I’ll set you subjects to write about. And 1 shan’t tolerate any slacking! As the proverb says, ‘Men must choose between progress and comfort. Keep what I’ve told you in mind!”
Baoyu promised to do so, and from that day on he had to apply himself harder to his studies.

After Baoyu went back to school, Happy Red Court was so quiet that Xiren had more time for embroidery. As she stitched a pouch for betel-nuts one day, she reflected that his return to school had made life less complicated for his maids; indeed, had he gone back earlier, Qingwen might never have come to such a sad end. Grieving over her friend’s death, she sighed. Then it occurred to her that although at present she could control Baoyu, as she was not destined to be his wife but only a concubine, if his wife proved a termagant she herself would share the same fate as Second Sister You and Xiangling. Judging by the attitude of Their Ladyships as well as certain remarks let fall by Xifeng, it seemed as if their choice would be Daiyu — who could be difficult. Flushing at this thought, her heart beat so fast that she plied her needle at random. Finally, laying down her embroidery, she went to Daiyu’s place to sound her out.
Daiyu, engrossed in reading when she arrived, got up to offer her a seat.
“Are you much better these days, miss?” asked Xiren stepping for¬ward.
“How could I be? A bit better, that’s all. What have you been doing at home?”
“Since Master Bao went back to school we’ve had very little to do. So I dropped in here for a chat to see how you are.
Zijuan brought in tea at this point.
“You mustn’t trouble, sister!” Xiren rose to her feet, then added with a smile, “I heard the other day from Qiuwen that you’d been gossiping behind our backs!”
“Don’t you believe her,” Zijuan laughed. “All I said was that with Master Bao away at school, Miss Baochai gone and even Xiangling stay¬ing away, you must be feeling lonely.”
“Don’t talk about Xiangling!” cried Xiren. “Poor thing! She must be having a hard time of it with her mistress such a martinet, a worse terror even than her.” She held up two fingers to indicate the Second Mistress —Xifeng. “She doesn’t even care for appearances.
“She’s no less hard-hearted,” put in Daiyu. “Remember how Sec¬ond Sister You died?”
“Of course,” agreed Xiren. “we’re all women, only a bit different in status, so I can’t think why anyone should be so cruel. It spoils our repu¬tation outside as well.”
Daiyu guessed there was something behind this, as it was not Xiren’s habit to gossip in such a way behind people’s backs.
“Well, it’s hard to say,” she answered. “In every family, if the east wind doesn’t prevail over the west wind, then the west wind is bound to prevail over the east wind.”
“But a concubine is diffident to start with. How dare she take advan¬tage of the wife?”
Just then a serving-woman called from the courtyard, “Is this Miss Lin’s house? Is anybody in?”
Xueyan went out and, thinking she recognized one of Aunt Xue’s servants, asked her business.
“Our young lady sent me to bring something to Miss Lin.”
Telling her to wait, Xueyan came back to report this, and Daiyu made her fetch the woman in. The latter curtseyed to Daiyu, but instead of explaining her errand just stared at her.
Embarrassed by her scrutiny Daiyu asked, “What did Miss Baochai tell you to bring me?”
“A jar of lichees preserved in honey.” Catching sight of Xiren then, the woman added, “Isn’t this Miss Hua from the Second Master’s place’?”
“How did you know, aunty?” asked Xiren.
“We stay in mostly to keep an eye on the house, not going out much with our mistress or young ladies, so you other young ladies wouldn’t be likely to know us. But as you sometimes come to our place, we have a faint recollection of you all.”
Having given the jar to Xueyan she turned back to look at Daiyu again, then observed with a smile to Xiren, “No wonder our mistress says that Miss Lin here and your Master Bao would make a perfect pair. She’s as pretty as a goddess, indeed she is!”
To put a stop to such foolish talk, Xiren hastily interposed, “You must be tired out, aunty. Take a rest and have some tea.”
“We’re all very busy over there preparing for Miss Baoqin’s wed¬ding,” the woman chuckled. “And there are two more jars of lichees which Miss Baochai wants sent to Master Bao.”
She took her leave then and started to hobble away. Daiyu, though annoyed by her impertinence, could hardly reprove a messenger sent by Baochai. When the woman had stepped outside she called: 
“Thank Miss Baochai for me.”
The old creature was still exclaiming, “Such good looks — too good for anyone but Baoyu!”
Daiyu could only pretend not to have heard.
Xiren remarked with a smile, “When people grow old they talk so foolishly, one doesn’t know whether to be angry or laugh.”
Xueyan showed Daiyu the jar of fruit.
“I don’t want it now. Put it away,” said Daiyu, then talked a little longer with Xiren until the latter left.

That evening when Daiyu went into the inner room to get ready for bed, the sight of the jar of lichees reminded her of the old woman’s maundering and she felt a pang. In the quiet dusk, her heart filled with forebodings.
“My health’s poor and I’ve reached the age to marry,” she reflected. “Judging by Baoyu’s behaviour, he isn’t interested in anyone else; but my grandmother and aunt haven’t yet indicated their preference. If only my parents were still alive, or had fixed this match in advance!” Then it occurred to her, “Even if they’d lived they might have promised me to someone else, who couldn’t possibly be up to Baoyu. This way there may still be a chance.”
Her heart was in a turmoil, distraught as a pulley swinging up and down. After many a sigh and tear, she flung herself listlessly down on her bed fully dressed.
She was lying there in a daze when a young maid approached to report that Mr. Jia Yucun had asked to see her.
“It’s true that I studied under him,” said Daiyu. “But I’m not a boy; why should he want to see me? Besides, though he’s my uncle’s friend, my uncle’s never mentioned him to me; so it would be inappropriate to receive him.”
She told the maid, “I’m not well enough to go out. Give him my greet¬ings and apologies.”
“I think he’s here to offer congratulations,” said the girl. “Some people have just come from Nanjing to fetch you.”
That same moment in walked Xifeng, Lady Xing, Lady Wang and Baochai.
“We’ve come to congratulate you and to see you off!” they cried.
“What do you mean?” asked Daiyu in alarm.
“Don’t play the innocent,” teased Xifeng. “Surely you know that your father has been promoted to be the Grain Commissioner of Hubei and has taken another wife, a most suitable match. They don’t feel it would be right to leave you here, so they asked Mr. Jia as go-between to arrange for you to marry a relative of your stepmother, a widower. Now they’ve sent to fetch you back, and the wedding will probably take place as soon as you get home. It’s all been decided by your stepmother. We’re sending your Second Cousin Lian to escort you and look after you on the road.”
At this, Daiyu broke out in a cold sweat. She did seem to have a hazy recollection of her father’s appointment to an official post there.
“This can’t be true!” she protested frantically. “Cousin Xifeng must be joking.”
She saw Lady Xing wink at Lady Wang, then say, “She still doesn’t believe it. Let’s go.
With tears in her eyes Daiyu begged, “Dear aunts, please wait!”
But in silence, smiling coldly, they all went away.
Daiyu had no means to express her desperation. Sobbing bitterly, she seemed through her tears to see the Lady Dowager standing before her. Thinking, “If I beg my grandmother, she’s the only one who may save me,” she fell on her knees and clasped the old lady’s waist.
“Save me, madam!” she pleaded. “I’d rather die than go south. Be¬sides, she’s my stepmother, not my own mother. Do let me stay with you, madam!”
But with a look of indifference the old lady said, “This has nothing to do with me.”
“What does that mean, madam?” she sobbed.
“Marrying a widower is good: you’ll get two sets of wedding pre¬sents.”
“If I can stay with you, madam, I promise not to put you to extra expense. I just implore you to save me!”
“It’s no use. All girls must get married sooner or later. You ought to know that, child. You can’t stay here for ever.
“I’d rather be a bondmaid here, earning my keep. Please, please speak up for me, madam!”
Still the old lady said nothing.
Daiyu caught hold of her again and cried, “Madam, you were always so kind, so fond of me, how can you leave me in the lurch like this? Even if I’m only your grand-daughter, removed by one generation, my mother was your own daughter — won’t you protect me for her sake at least?” She gave way to a storm of weeping in the Lady Dowager’s lap.
“Yuanyang, take her out to calm down,” ordered the old lady. “She’s wearing me out, making such a scene.
Daiyu knew then that appealing for help was useless. Determining to kill herself instead, she stood up and started out. How bitterly she grieved that she had no mother! For though her grandmother, aunts and cousins had always seemed so good to her, this now appeared to be nothing but a pretence.
“How is it I haven’t seen Baoyu?” she wondered. “He might be able to help.”
And just then Baoyu suddenly appeared.
“Congratulations, cousin!” he said with a smile.
This made Daiyu even more frantic. Forgetting all reserve she seized him by the arm.
“Fine!” she cried. “Now I know how heartless you are, Baoyu!”
“In what way am I heartless? Now that you’re engaged, we must each go our own way.
Feeling yet more angry and helpless, she gripped his arm.
“Good cousin, to whom do you want me to go?” she sobbed.
“If you don’t want to leave, you can stay here. You were originally promised to me: that’s why you came to live here in the first place. And just think how close we’ve been.”
Then it seemed to Daiyu that she had indeed been engaged to Baoyu. Her sorrow turned to joy.
“My mind’s made up even if I die!” she cried. “Tell me honestly, do you want me to leave or to stay?”
“I want you to stay. If you doubt me, I’ll show you my heart!” 

He drew a small knife and plunged it into his chest so that blood spurted out. In terror, she thrust one hand over his heart.
“How can you do that!? You’d better kill me first!”
“Don’t be afraid,” he said. “I’ll show you my heart.”
He groped around with his hand in the gaping wound while Daiyu trembled and wept, fearful lest others see them. Racked by sobs she held him close.
Then Baoyu exclaimed, “I’m done for! Now I’ve lost my heart I must die!”
He turned up his eyes and slumped with a thud to the ground.
As Daiyu started screaming she heard Zijuan calling her.
“Miss! Miss! Have you had a nightmare? Wake up! Undress and go to bed properly.”
Daiyu turned over and found it was all a dream. She was still sobbing, her heart beating wildly. Her pillow was drenched and she felt icy cold.
She thought, “My parents both died long ago and never engaged me to Baoyu, so how could such ideas occur to me?” Recalling the dream and her helplessness, she wondered what would become of her if Baoyu were really to die. 11cr mind in a turmoil of anguish, she burst out weep¬ing again until soon she was perspiring. Struggling up to take off her robe, she told Zijuan to tuck in her quilt and lay down again, but toss and turn as she might she could not sleep. There was a rustling outside like wind or rain, and presently some way off she heard heavy breathing — it was Zijnan, fast asleep and beginning to snore. She sat up again with an ef¬fort, wrapping the bedding around her; but a cold draught through the window cracks made her shiver, so once more she lay down. As she was dozing off, she heard sparrows twittering on the bamboo; and although the blinds were drawn. light gradually filtered through the window-paper.
By no Daiyu was wide-awake. She started coughing, waking up Zijuan.
“Still not asleep, miss?” she asked. “And coughing again! You must have caught cold. Look, the window’s light and it will soon be dawn. Yon must rest properly, not let your thoughts wander.”
“1 want to sleep, but 1 can’t. You can go back to sleep” Talking set her coughing again.
But Zijuan was too upset by Daiyu’s fit of coughing to sleep any longer. She hastily got up to fetch the spittoon. By now it was light.
“Are you getting up?” Daiyu asked.
“It’s already bright. How can I go on sleeping?”
“In that case, you may as well change the spittoon.”
Zijuan, assenting, hurried out to fetch a clean spittoon, placing the used one on the table in the outer room. Having closed the door behind her, she let down the soft flowered portiere before going to wake Xueyan. When she came back to empty the spittoon, she was shocked to find the sputum in it flecked with blood.
“Oh!” she exclaimed. “Heaven help us!”
“What’s the matter?” called Daiyu from the inner room.
Aware of her gaffe Zijuan hedged, “It’s the spittoon — it nearly slipped from my hand.”
“It wasn’t because there’s something in the sputum?”
“Oh no!” But her voice was quavering with distress and tears gushed from her eyes.
Daiyu’s suspicions had been aroused by the sweet-salty taste in her throat, and now they were confirmed by Zijuan’s exclamation of dismay as well as the catch in her voice.
“Come in!” she called. “Ifs cold out there.”
“Yes, miss.” Zijuan sounded even more woeful, and the sadness in her voice set Daiyu shivering.
She came in, wiping her eyes with a handkerchief.
“Why are you crying for no reason so early in the morning?” Daiyu asked.
“Who’s crying?” She forced a smile. “When I got up my eyes felt itchy. You must have slept even less than usual last night, miss. I heard you coughing half the time.”
“That’s right. The harder I tried to sleep, the more wide-awake I felt.”
“You’re so delicate, miss, I don’t think you should worry so much. Health is what counts. As the saying goes, ‘As long as the mountain’s there we shan’t lack fuel. ‘Besides, everyone here from Their Ladyships down is ever so fond of you. 
Unfortunately, this last remark reminded Daiyu of her dream. Her heart missed a beat, all turned dark before her eyes, and the colour drained from her face. Zijuan hastily held up the spittoon for her while Xueyan patted her back, and after retching she spat out some dark, bloody mu¬cus. Her two maids turned pale with fright. As they stood there gaping, she fell back in a faint. In dismay, Zijuan signalled to Xueyan to go for help.
As soon as Xueyan went out she saw Cuilu and Cuimo approaching.
“Why hasn’t Miss Lin come out yet?” asked? Cuilu with a smile. “Our young lady and Miss Tanchun are in Miss Xichun’s place, discuss¬ing that painting she’s done of the Garden.” Xueyan waved her hands to stop them.
“What does this mean?” they asked in astonishment.
When she explained what had happened they thrust out their tongues in dismay.
“This is no joking matter. You must report it at once to the old lady. Heavens! How can you be so stupid?”
“I was on my way there when you turned up,” she countered.
Just then Zijuan called from the house, “who’s that out there Miss Lin would like to know.”
They hurried in, and the two newcomers saw Daiyu lying in bed cov¬ered with a quilt.
“Who told you to make such a fuss over nothing?” she asked them.
Cuimo said, “Our young lady and Miss Xiangyun are in Miss Xichun’s place discussing that painting she’s made of the Garden. They told us to invite you over, miss. We didn’t realize you were unwell.”
“It’s nothing serious: I just feel a bit limp. I shall get up after I’ve rested. Go back and tell Miss Tanchun and Miss Xiangyun I’d like them to drop in if they’ve time after lunch. Has Master Bao gone there too?”
“No.”
Cuimo added, “Master Bao’s going to school these days. The master checks up on his lessons every day, so he can’t run around the way he used to.”
When Daiyu made no response, after waiting a little the two maids slipped away.
Let us turn now to Tanchun and Xiangyun in Xichun’s room. Com¬menting on her painting of Grand View Garden, they found it rather over¬crowded in parts and rather empty in others. When it came to discussing a suitable inscription, they sent to invite Daiyu over to consult her. And now they saw Cuilu and Cuimo return looking thoroughly disconcerted.
“Why hasn’t Miss Lin come?” asked Xiangyun.
“Last night her illness flared up again, and she coughed all night,” Cuilu answered. “We heard from Xueyan that she spat out a whole lot of blood.”
“Is that true?” exclaimed Tanchun in consternation.
“Of course it’s true,” Cuilu insisted.
“Just now when we went in to see her,” Cuimo added, “she looked in a very bad way, hardly able to talk.”
“If she’s in a bad way, of course she can’t talk,” said Xiangyun.
“How can you be so dense?” cried Tanchun. “If she can’t speak, that means... “Her voice trailed away.
Xichun said, “Cousin Lin is very intelligent but I think she takes things too much to heart she’s so serious about even the least little thing. How can one take everything so seriously?”
“Well, if that’s the case,” said Tanchun, “we should all go and see her. If she’s so very ill, we must get our sister-in-law to report in to the old lady and send for a doctor, so that we’ll know how to cope.
“That’s right,” agreed Xiangyun.
“The two of you go on ahead,” said Xichun. “I’ll go over later on.” Then Tanchun and Xiangyun, helped along by some young maids, went to	Bamboo Lodge. Their arrival upset Daiyu, reminding her of her dream. “What can I expect of them, when even my grandmother cold-shoul¬dered me like that?” she wondered. “Besides, they wouldn’t have come unless I’d invited them.” But instead of showing what was in her mind, she made Zijuan help her to sit up and offered them seats.
Tanchun and Xiangyun sat down, one on either side of her on the edge of the bed, distressed to see her so ill.
“What brought on this relapse, cousin?” Tanchun asked.
“It’s nothing serious. I just feel very limp.”
Zijuan standing behind her pointed surreptitiously at the spittoon. And Xiangyun, being young and straightforward, picked it up to have a look. What she saw horrified her.
“Did you bring this up, cousin?” she exclaimed. “Heaven help us!”
Daiyu had been too dazed before to look carefully at her sputum. At Xiangyun’s ejaculation she turned to look, her heart already sinking.
To cover up Xiangyun’s tactlessness, Tanchun hastily put in, “This is nothing out of the usual it’s just that a hot humour in the lungs made her bring up a drop or two. But Xiangyun is so silly, the least little thing always makes her fly off the handle.”
Xiangyun, regretting her blunder, blushed at this.
Seeing how listless and tired Daiyu seemed, Tanchun got up and said, “You must rest well, cousin. We’ll call again later on.
“Thank you both for your concern.
Tanchun urged Zijuan, “Look after your young lady well !“
As Zijuan assented Tanchun turned to leave; but just then somebody outside started shouting.
To know who it was, read on.

Chapter 83

The Imperial Consort Falls 111 and
Her Relatives Call at the Palace
Jingui Makes a Scene and Baochai
Has to Swallow Her Anger


Tanchun and Xiangyun, on the point of leaving, heard an old woman shouting outside, “You good-for-nothing little bitch! Who are you to come and fool around in our Garden?”
At this Daiyu pointed outside. Showing the whites of her eyes she exclaimed, “I shall have to leave here!”
For ever since moving into Grand View Garden, though able to rely on her grandmother’s partiality Daiyu had always watched her step with other people. When she heard this abuse shouted outside her window, she was sure it must be aimed at nobody else but her. Reflecting that she was a finely brought up young lady but now had lost her parents, she wondered who had sent this old creature to insult her. This was too much to bear! With a heart-rending cry she fainted away.
“What’s come over you, miss?” wailed Zijuan. “Wake up, quick!”
Tanchun called her too, and after a while Daiyu regained conscious¬ness. Still she could not speak, just kept pointing out of the window.
Tanchun caught her meaning and opening the door went out. She saw an old woman with a stick chasing after a grubby little girl.
“I’m here to look after the flowers and fruit trees,” the old crone was shouting. “Why should you come too? Wait till we get home and I’ll give you a good thrashing.”
The child looked round, sucking one finger, and laughed at her.
Tanchun scolded, “You people are getting too out of hand! Is this the place for you to bawl abuse?”
When the old woman saw who it was she said sheepishly, “It’s my grand-daughter who followed me here. I was afraid she’d make a noise, so I told her to go back. I wouldn’t dare bawl her out here.”
“That’s enough. Hurry up and go, the two of you. Miss Lin’s not feeling well. Hurry!” “Yes, miss.”
The old woman made off, the small girl running after her.
Going back inside Tanchun found Xiangyun in tears, holding Daiyu’s hand. Zijuan supported the invalid with one arm and massaged her chest till, slowly, she opened her eyes.
“What did you think that old woman meant?” Tanchun asked her with a smile.
Daiyu just shook her head.
“She was scolding her grand-daughter. I heard her just now. Such creatures talk nothing but nonsense. They don’t understand that some things aren’t allowed.”
“Cousin...” sighed Daiyu, then broke off, clasping her hand.
“Don’t fret yourself. It’s only right that we should come to see you as you haven’t anyone to look after you. If you’ll just rest, take your medicine and look on the bright side of things, you’ll gradually get well enough for us all to start the poetry club again. Wouldn’t that be nice?”
“That’s right,” chimed in Xiangyun. “That would be fun.”
“You want me to cheer up,” sobbed Daiyu. “But how can I? I shan’t live to see that day.”
“That’s taking too gloomy a view!” protested Tanchun. “Who doesn’t fall ill or have trouble from time to time? How can you think in that way? Now just have a good rest while we go to see the old lady. We’ll look in again by and by. If there’s anything you want, tell Zijuan to let me know.”
“Dear Cousin!” cried Daiyu, in tears. “When you see the old lady, please give her my respects and tell her I’m a bit poorly, but it’s nothing serious she’s not to worry.”
“I know. You just have a good rest.”
When Tanchun had gone off with Xiangyun, Zijuan helped her young mistress to lie down again and stayed by her side while Xueyan saw to other things. Her heart ached but she dared not weep. Daiyu lay there awhile with closed eyes but could not sleep. Normally she found the Garden very quiet, but now lying in bed she was conscious of the sough¬ing of the wind, the chin of insects, the chirping of birds, and the sound of passing footsteps. She seemed to hear children, too, crying in the distance. Disturbed by these noises, she told Zijuan to let down her bed-curtains.
Presently Xueyan brought in a bowl of bird’s-nest soup which she passed to Zijuan.
“Will you have some soup, miss?” asked Zijuan outside the curtain.
When Daiyu assented faintly she gave the bowl back to Xueyan to hold while she helped the patient sit up. Having tested the temperature of the soup herself, still supporting Daiyu she raised the bowl to her mouth. Daiyu, her eyes half closed, took two or three sips, then shook her head and would not drink any more. Zijuan handed the bowl back to Xueyan and gently laid her young mistress down once more. After a little rest, feeling slightly better, Daiyu heard a low voice outside asking:
“Is Sister Zijuan at home?”
Xueyan hurried out and saw it was Xiren.
“Come in, sister,” she said softly.
“How is your young lady?”
As they started in Xueyan described what had happened just now and the night before.
“No wonder Cuilu just came to our place and said Miss Lin was ill!” exclaimed Xiren in dismay. “Master Bao was so alarmed, he told me to come and see how she is.”
While they were whispering, Zijuan lifted the portiere of the inner room and beckoned Xiren over.
“Is she asleep?” asked Xiren tiptoeing towards her.
Zijuan nodded. “Have you only just heard about it?”
Xiren inclined her head with a worried look. “How is this going to end? I was nearly scared to death too last night by the other!”
Zijuan asked what had happened.
“He was all right when he went to bed in the evening,” Xiren told her. “But in the middle of the night he suddenly yelled that he had a pain in his heart, and raved that someone seemed to have cut it out! He kept up this rumpus quite a time, not quieting down till after the last watch had sounded. Wouldn’t you call that frightening? Today he couldn’t go to school, and we’re sending for a doctor to prescribe medicine.”
Just then they heard Daiyu coughing behind her bed-curtains, and Zijuan hurriedly took her the spittoon. Daiyu languidly opened her eyes.
“Whom were you talking to?”
“Sister Xiren has come to see you, miss.”
By now Xiren had come over to her bed. Daiyu made Zijuan help her sit up, then indicating the edge of the bed invited Xiren to be seated. Perching sideways, Xiren urged her with a smile:
“You’d better lie down, miss.”
“I’m all right. Don’t be such alarmists. What was that you were saying just now about someone having a pain in the heart in the middle of the night?”
“Master Bao had a nightmare, nothing of consequence.”
Daiyu was touched and at the same time distressed, knowing that Xiren had said this for fear she might be anxious.
“Did you hear him talk in his sleep?”
“He didn’t say anything.”
Daiyu nodded. After a while she sighed.
“Don’t tell Master Bao that I’m ill. It would make him waste time, and his father would be angry.”
“Yes, miss. You’d better rest now.”
Daiyu nodded and asked Zijuan to lower her to her pillow. Xiren stayed to say a few more encouraging words, then took her leave and went back to Happy Red Court where she simply told Baoyu, to his great relief, that Daiyu was a little unwell but not in any danger.
Tanchun and Xiangyun, leaving Bamboo Lodge, had set off to call on the Lady Dowager. On the way Tanchun warned her cousin:
“When you see the old lady, mind you don’t talk in that wild way you did just now!”
Xiangyun lowered her head. “I know. It’s because just now I was frightened out of my wits!”
When they arrived, Tanchun’s report that Daiyu was unwell worried the old lady.
“That precious pair are always falling ill,” she said. “Now that Daiyu’s growing up she should pay more attention to her health. I think the child broods too much.” When no one ventured to make any comment she ordered Yuanyang, “Go and tell them: After the doctor’s seen Baoyu tomorrow he must go to Miss Lin’s place too.”
Yuanyang assented and withdrew to pass on these instructions to serv¬ing-women, who went off to relay the message. Tanchun and Xiangyun took dinner with the old lady before going back to the Garden, where we will leave them.
The next day the doctor came. He diagnosed Baoyu’s upset as a slight one, a mild case of indigestion and a chill which sweating would put right. Lady Wang and Xifeng sent servants with his prescription to report this to the old lady, at the same time sending word to Bamboo Lodge that the doctor was on his way. Zijuan promptly tucked Daiyu’s quilt round her and put down the bed-curtains, while Xueyan hastily tidied up the room.
Soon Jia Lian arrived with the doctor.
“This gentleman often comes to our house,” he said, “so there’s no need for all the maids to hide.”
An old nurse raised the portiere, the doctor was invited in and they took seats. Then Jia Lian suggested that Zijuan should first describe her young lady’s symptoms.
“Wait a bit,” said Doctor Wang. “Suppose I first feel the pulse to make my own diagnosis. If these girls think it wrong or there’s some¬thing I’ve omitted, then they can let me know.”
Zijuan drew one of Daiyu’s hands out from the curtain, rested it on a cushion, and gently pulled her sleeve and bracelet up out of the way. Doctor Wang felt the pulse for some time, then that of the other wrist, after which he and Jia Lian withdrew to take seats in the outer room.
“All six pulses’ are tense,” he announced, “due to bottled up emo¬tion.”
At this point Zijuan came out too and stood in the doorway, and Doc¬tor Wang, addressing her, continued:
“I would expect this illness to give rise to constant dizzy spells, loss of appetite as well as frequent dreams; and no doubt she wakes several times in the night. She must be hypersensitive, taking offence at remarks which don’t even concern her. People not knowing the truth may think her cross-grained, when in fact it’s all due to this illness which has upset her liver and weakened her heart. Am I right?”
Zijuan nodded and said to Jia Lian, “The gentleman is absolutely right.”
“So that’s how it is,” said the doctor.
He got up and went with Jia Lian to the study to write out a prescrip¬tion. The pages there had already prepared a sheet of pink stationery. After Doctor Wang had sipped some tea he took a brush and wrote:
The six pulses are tense and slow owing to pent-up grief. The feeble¬ness of the left cun pulse shows debility of the heart. The strength of the guan pulse shows an over-heated liver. When the liver humour cannot disperse, it is bound to invade the spleen, causing loss of appetite and inevitably affecting the lungs too. The humours, failing to turn into vital force, will congeal as phlegm and agitate the blood, so that naturally there will be coughing.
The treatment should calm the liver, protect the lungs and strengthen the heart and the spleen. But invigorants must not be rashly adminis¬tered. I suggest starting off with thorowax boiled with turtleblood, fol¬lowed with medicine to soothe and strengthen the lungs. This is my humble proposal for your wise consideration.

He then listed seven drugs and an adjuvant.
Jia Lian reading this asked, “When the blood is agitated, is it safe to use thorowax?”
Doctor Wang smiled.
“I see you know, sir, that thorowax is a stimulant, not to be used in cases of vomiting blood or nose-bleed; but actually, boiled with turtle-blood, this is the only drug which will stimulate the digestive system and release the humour from the gall. Instead of agitating the blood it can strengthen the liver and keep down hot humours. This is why the Yellow Emperor’s Manual of Medicine says, ‘Use stimulants for a haemor¬rhage, occludents for a blockage.’ This method is similar to ‘using Zhou Bo’s strength to stabilize the Liu’s dynasty’2 —applying turtle-blood to mitigate the stimulating function of the thorowax.”
Jia Lian nodded. “So that’s how it is. Very well, then.”
“Let her take two doses first, after which we can add or cancel cer¬tain ingredients or perhaps try a different prescription. I still have a little business to attend to and mustn’t stay longer, sir. I shall come to pay my respects some other day.”
As Jia Lian saw him out he asked, “What about Cousin Bao’s pre¬scription?”
“There’s nothing much wrong with Master Bao. I think another dose should set him right.”
The doctor mounted his carriage then and left.
Jia Lian, having ordered servants to get the medicine, had just gone back to tell Xifeng about Daiyu’s illness and the doctor’s prescription, when Zhou Rui’s wife arrived to report on some matters of no great consequence.
“Tell the mistress that,” he cut in halfway. “I’m busy.” With that he left.
“Just now I went to Miss Lin’s place,” said Zhou Rui’s wife after transacting her business. “She seems in a very bad way! Her face has no colour at all; she’s nothing but skin and bones. And when I asked how she felt, not a word did she say — simply cried. Later Zijuan told me, ‘Our young lady’s ill, yet when she needs something she won’t ask for it. So I mean to ask Madam Lian to advance us a couple of months’ allowance. Although we get issued medicine, we need some cash for incidental expenses. ‘ I promised to pass on this request to you.
Xifeng lowered her head in thought.
“I’ll tell you what,” she said presently. “I’ll give her a few taels to use, and you needn’t let Miss Lin know. I can’t very well advance the monthly allowance. If once the precedent was set and everyone else followed suit, what should we do? Remember how Concubine Zhao quar¬relled with Miss Tanchun — all because of the monthly allowance? Besides, as you know, our outlay exceeds our income these days and we’ve never got around this. Those not in the know think me a bad manager. Some gossips even accuse me of spiriting stuff away to my own family. But you as a stewardess, Mrs. Zhou, must naturally know better.”
“The injustice of it!” exclaimed Mrs. Zhou. “A big household like this can only be run by someone with your forethought, madam. No ordinary woman could manage it; no, not even a man with three heads and six arms! Yet people still talk such rubbish.” She suddenly laughed. “You haven’t heard the even more stupid things they say outside, madam. The other day when Zhou Rui came home, he told me outsiders imagine we’re made of money. They talk of the Jia family having so many storerooms for gold, so many for silver, and of using nothing but golden utensils stud¬ded with gems!
“Some say, ‘When their daughter became an Imperial Consort, natu¬rally the Emperor would give half his things to her family. That time Her Highness paid a visit home, we saw with our own eyes the cartloads of gold and silver that she brought, which is why the house is fitted out like the crystal palace of the Dragon King. And that day they went to give offerings in the temple, they spent tens of thousands of taels, but to them that’s just one hair from the hide of an ox.
“Other people say, ‘The lions outside their gate must be made of jade. In their Garden they had two gold unicorns, but one got stolen so now there’s only one left. Not to say the mistresses of the house, even the maids have nothing to do except drink, play chess, strum the lyre or paint — they have attendants to wait on them anyway. The silks and gauzes they wear, all their food and ornaments too, are things that com¬mon folk never even heard of. As for the young masters and mistresses, of course it goes without saying that if they want the moon from the sky someone will pluck it down for them to play with!’
“Then, madam, there’s a song:
The House of Ning, the House of Rong, Treat silver and gold as clay;
No end to their victuals and clothing, but at last  
She broke off here because the final line ran:
But at last all will vanish away.
Mrs. Zhou had been rattling on, only pulling up short when she suddenly remembered how ominous this sounded. And Xifeng, guessing this, did not press her to finish.
“Well, never mind that,” she said. “But where did they get that story about the gold unicorn?”
“That was the small gold unicorn presented to Master Bao by the old Taoist priest of that temple.” Mrs. Zhou smiled. “Later it was lost for a few days, but Miss Shi found it and returned it to him. Then they made up this story outside. Ridiculous, isn’t it, madam?”
“Not ridiculous, actually, but rather alarming! Things are getting harder for us every day, and yet we still keep up such an outward show. ‘Bad for a man to be famed, bad for a pig to grow fat, ‘ the proverb says. Especially as with us this is empty fame. Goodness knows what the end will be.”
“You have reason to worry, madam. Still, for years now that has been the talk of the town — in teashops, taverns and every least little alley. And how can you stop people talking?”
Xifeng nodded, then asked Pinger to weigh out a few ounces of silver for Mrs. Zhou.
“Take this to Zijuan,” she instructed her. “Just tell her I’m giving her this for sundries, and she mustn’t hesitate to ask for things that are their due, but let’s have no more talk of advancing the monthly allowance. She’s quite clever enough to catch on. When I’ve time, I shall call to see Miss Lin.”
Mrs. Zhou, assenting, took the silver and left. No more of this.

Now as Jia Lian was on his way out a page had approached and reported, “The Elder Master wants you, sir.”
He hurried over and Jia She informed him, “We’ve just had word that an Imperial Physician and two assistants were summoned to the Palace to attend a patient — it can hardly be one of the maids-of-honour or attendants. Has there been any news from the Imperial Consort’s pal¬ace these last few days?”
“None, sir.”
“Go and ask the Second Master and your brother Jia Zhen, or send to find out from the Academy of Imperial Physicians.”
Accordingly, Jia Lian dispatched a man to the Academy of Imperial Physicians, then went over to see Jia Zheng.
“Where did you hear that?” asked Jia Zheng when he had explained his errand.
“From the Elder Master just now.”
“You and your brother Zhen had better go to the Palace to find out.”
“I’ve already sent to the Academy of Imperial Physicians.”
Jia Lian then withdrew to find Jia Zhen and, meeting him, told him about this.
“I heard the same news,” said Jia Zhen. “I was on my way to tell Their Lordships.”
Both went together to Jia Zheng, who said, “If it’s our Imperial Con¬sort, we’re bound to be sent some word.”
Jia She joined them then and they waited till the afternoon, but the messengers sent out had still not returned. Then in came a gatekeeper.
“Two Imperial eunuchs have come, asking to see Your Lordships,” he announced.
“Invite them in,” said Jia She.
Servants led in the eunuchs, who were met by ha She and Jia Zheng at the inner gate. Their Lordships first inquired after the health of Her Highness, then ushered the eunuchs into the hail and invited them to sit down.
“The other day the Imperial Consort from your house became indis¬posed,” the eunuchs informed them. “Yesterday we received the order to summon four of her female relatives to the Palace to see her. Each may bring one maid, no more. As for male relatives, they may send in their cards at the gate to pay their respects and await further orders there; but they must not enter the Palace. You are to go between eight and ten tomorrow morning and leave between four and six in the after¬noon.
Jia Zheng and Jia She had risen respectfully to hear these injunctions. When they had resumed their seats tea was offered to the eunuchs, who then took their leave. Their Lordships escorted them out of the main gate, returning to report this to the Lady Dowager.
“Four female relatives,” she said. “Naturally there’s myself and your wives, but who’s to be the fourth?”
No one venturing to answer her, she thought it over.
“It will have to be Xifeng,” she concluded. “She always knows how to cope. You menfolk go and discuss which of you will go.”
Their Lordships assented and withdrew. They decided that apart from Jia Lian and Jia Rong, who would be left in charge at home, all the other men of the family should go. They ordered four green sedan-chairs and some dozen carriages to be made ready by dawn, and servants went to carry out these instructions. Then Jia She and Jia Zheng went in again to report:
“You are to enter the Palace between eight and ten in the morning and leave between four and six in the afternoon; so you’d better retire early, madam, in order to make an early start tomorrow.”
“I know,” she said. “You may go.
After their withdrawal Lady Xing, Lady Wang and Xifeng stayed be¬hind a little longer to talk of Yuanchun’s illness and other things, then went back to their own quarters.
The next day at dawn, the maids in the different houses lit the lamps, their mistresses washed and dressed, and the masters made ready too. It was about six when Lin Zhixiao and Lai Da came to the inner gate to announce:
“The sedan-chairs and carriages are ready outside the gate.”
Presently Jia She and Lady Xing came over. When all had break¬fasted Xifeng escorted the old lady out first, followed by the other ladies, each supported by one maid, advancing slowly. Li Gui and another stew¬ard were ordered to ride ahead, followed by their wives, to the outer gate of the Palace. Their Lordships and the gentlemen of lower generations rode in carriages or on horseback, with a great retinue of servants, leav¬ing Jia Lian and Jia Rong at home in charge.
The Jia family’s carriages, sedan-chairs and horses had halted for some time outside the gate of the outer west wall when at last two eu¬nuchs emerged.
“The Jia ladies come to see their noble relative can enter the Palace now,” they announced. “The gentlemen are to pay their respects outside the inner gate, but may not go in.”
Guards at the gate cried, “Make haste!”
The four sedan-chairs were borne in behind some young eunuchs, while the gentlemen followed on foot. All the menservants had been or¬dered to wait outside. When they approached the inner gate, some old eunuchs sitting there rose to their feet.
“No further, gentlemen!” they ordered.
Then Jia She, Jia Zheng and the rest ranged themselves at attention in order of seniority while the ladies alighted from their chairs which had also stopped at the gate and, each supported by her maid, were led in by the young eunuchs. Soon they came to the bed-chamber of Imperial Consort Yuanchun, its walls dazzling with gleaming glazed tiles. Two young maids-of-honour told them:
“You need only pay your respects. Other formalities can be dispensed with.”
The Lady Dowager’s party, having thanked the Imperial Consort, went over to the bed and paid their respects. The Imperial Consort told them to sit down, which they did with murmured thanks.
“How has your health been recently?” she asked her grandmother.
The old lady stood up, leaning on her maid’s arm.
“By grace of Your Highness, my health is still good.”
Lady Xing and Lady Wang were questioned next, and they rose to answer too.
Then Xifeng was asked, “How are you managing at home?”
Rising she replied, “We are managing all right.”
“It’s not been easy for you all these years working so hard.” 
Before Xifeng could answer, a maid-of-honour brought in a list for Her Highness to inspect. When she saw on it the names of Jia She, Jia Zheng and others, her heart ached and she could not hold back her tears.  The maid passed her a handkerchief.
“I’m a little better today,” she said wiping her eyes. “Tell them to rest outside.”
Her relatives rose to their feet again to give thanks for her gracious¬ness.
With tears in her eyes she told them, “We are less fortunate than humble folk whose daughters can keep close to their fathers and broth¬ers.
Suppressing their own grief they answered, “Don’t grieve, Your High¬ness. Our family has benefited so much from your grace!”
“How is Baoyu these days?” 
“Working much harder at his books,” said the old lady. “Because his father makes strict demands on him, he can write essays now.
“That’s good.”
She ordered a feast to be served to them outside. Then two maids-of-honour and four young eunuchs led them to another palace where the feast was already laid, and they sat down in due order. But we need not dwell on this.
After dining, the old lady led the three others back to thank the Impe¬rial Consort for the feast, and they kept her company until nearly five when, not daring to stay any longer, they took their leave. The Imperial Consort ordered her maids-of-honour to show them to the inner gate, outside which the same four young eunuchs escorted them. When the ladies had seated themselves once more in their chairs, Jia She and the other gentlemen followed them home, where similar arrangements were made for visiting the Palace on the two following days. No more of this.

Let us turn back now to Jingui in the Xue family. After driving Xue Pan away she had no one to squabble with as Qiuling had gone to stay with Baochai, leaving only Baochan with her. And Baochan since be¬coming Xue Pan’s concubine showed more spirit than before, so that Jingui found in her an even worse rival and repented — too late — of having made her a secondary wife.
One day after drinking a few cups alone Jingui, lying on the kang, decided to work off her spleen on Baochan.
“Where did the master go when he left home the other day?” she asked. “You must of course know.”
“How should I?” answered Baochan. “If he wouldn’t tell even you, madam, who can possibly know what he’s up to?”
Jingui laughed scornfully.
“Are you still calling me ‘madam’? You two have it all your own way. She ‘s untouchable because she has a protectress, and I dare not catch the lice on a tiger’s head, but you are still my maid. Yet when I ask you a question you scowl at me and snap back! If you’re so power¬ful, why not strangle me? Then either you or Qiuling could be the mistress — wouldn’t you like that better? It’s too bad that I’m not dead yet, blocking your path!”
Unable to stomach this, Baochan glared at her.
“Save that talk for someone else, madam!” she retorted. “I haven’t said anything wrong. Why should you work off your anger on someone weaker because you daren’t challenge her? If someone really offends you, you pretend not to hear so as to keep out of harm’s way.” She burst out crying.
More enraged than ever, Jingui scrambled down from the kang to beat her. But Baochan had also acquired the Xia family ways, and she would not give an inch. While Jingui smashed cups and saucers and over¬turned tables and chairs, Baochan paid no attention, just bewailing her unjust fate at the top of her voice.
Aunt Xue in Baochai’s room heard this commotion.
“Xiangling,” she said, “go over and see what’s happening. Tell them to calm down.”
“That won’t do, mother. Don’t tell her to go,” said Baochai. “How could she stop them? It would simply pour oil on the flames.”
“In that case, I’ll go myself.”
“I don’t think you need go either. Let them make a scene. There’s nothing we can do about it.”
“But this is outrageous!”
With that Aunt Xue took a maid and headed for Jingui’s room. Baochai, impelled to go with her, told Xiangling to stay behind. As mother and daughter reached Jingui’s door they heard unabated shouting and sob¬bing inside.
“What are you doing?” cried Aunt Xue. “Turning the house upside-down again! What way is this to behave? The walls are so thin, aren’t you afraid our relatives may hear and laugh at you?”
Jingui called back from inside, “Of course I don’t want people to laugh at us. But things here are topsy-turvy, with no distinction between mistress and maid, between wife and concubine — this whole household’s a mix-up! That’s not how we behave in our Xia family. I really can’t stand your household any longer!”
“Sister-in-law,” put in Baochai, “mother came because you’re mak¬ing too much noise. Even if she spoke a little hastily, lumping mistress and maid together, never mind. Let’s first clear things up, so that we can live in peace and mother can stop worrying about us.”
“That’s right,” said Aunt Xue. “Let’s first clear everything up. You’ll have plenty of time to grouse about me later.”
Jingui sneered, “Dear sister, good sister! What a paragon you are! You’re bound to marry into a good family and get yourself a good hus¬band. You certainly won’t be a grass-widow like me, lone and loin, trampled on and bullied by everyone. I’m a foolish creature but all I beg of you, sister, is not to twist my words like that so as to run me down! My parents never taught me properly. Besides, what goes on here between wife and husband, wife and concubine, is hardly the business of an un¬married girl!“
Baochai was mortified and enraged by such talk, but what rankled most was the affront to her mother.
Suppressing her anger she said, “Watch your tongue, sister-in-law. Who’s run you down? Who’s bullied you? Why, not to say you, not even Qiuling has ever had a single harsh word from me.
This only made Jingui pound the edge of the kang.
“How can I compare with Qiuling?” she wailed. “I’m not even as good as the dirt beneath her feet. She’s been here so long, she’s in your confidence and knows how to make up to you. I’m a newcomer and no good at flattery. How can I compare with her? Why be so hard on me? How many girls are fated to be Imperial Consorts? Do a few good turns, or else you’ll end up like me — married to a fool, a grass-widow and a disgrace to the family!”
By now Aunt Xue could contain herself no longer. She sprang up.
“I’m not defending my own child,” she cried. “She was advising you for your own good, yet you keep taunting her. If you have grievances, don’t quarrel with her. Better strangle me instead!”
Baochai hastily intervened, “Mother, don’t be angry. We came here to calm her down, but by losing our own tempers we’re making things worse. Let’s go now, and wait till sister-in-law feels better before we say any more.” She told Baochan, “You stop your rumpus too.”
As she and her mother went out to cross the courtyard, they saw one of the Lady Dowager’s maids approaching with Xiangling.
“Where have you come from?” asked Aunt Xue. “Is the old lady well?”
“Yes, madam, she is. She sent me to give you her greetings and thank you for those lichees the other day, as well as to congratulate Miss Baoqin.”
“How long have you been here?” asked Baochai.
“Quite a while now.
Aunt Xue flushed, aware that she must have overheard them. “Nowadays we have these disgraceful scenes — not like a respect¬able family,” she said. “It must sound ridiculous to you over there.”
“Don’t say that, madam! What family doesn’t have a few tiffs and squabbles? You are over-sensitive.”
The maid followed them to their room and after sitting there for a while went off. Baochai was just giving Xiangling some instructions when Aunt Xue suddenly let out a cry:
“I’ve such a pain in my left side!”
To their consternation, she collapsed on the kang. To know the up¬shot of this, read the next chapter.

Chapter 84

Baoyu’s Writing Is Tested and
His Marriage Considered
Jia Huan Visits an Invalid and
Arouses Fresh Resentment


Aunt Xue’s anger over the scene with Jingui upset her liver, bringing on a pain in her left side. Baochai, knowing the cause, did not wait for the doctor to come but first sent out to buy a little Ourouparia rbyncbopbylla and brewed a strong bowlful of this for her to drink. Then she and Xiangling massaged the patient’s legs and rubbed her chest until presently she felt better.
Aunt Xue was both angry and sad: angry with Jingui who had proved such a shrew, and sorry for Baochai who was so forbearing. Baochai soothed her till she drifted off to sleep, and her liver gradually ceased to trouble her.
“You mustn’t take these quarrels to heart, mother,” Baochai urged her. “In a few days, when you feel up to it, why not go and enjoy a chat with the old lady and Aunt Wang. After all, Xiangling and I are here to see to things at home, and I don’t suppose she’ll dare try anything.”
Aunt Xue nodded. “I’ll wait a couple of days and see.”
The Imperial Consort’s recovery restored the whole household’s good humour. Especially when, a few days later, some old eunuchs came with gifts and silver from her, announcing that Her Highness wished to ex¬press her gratitude for the family’s concern, and apportioning each one’s share. Jia She and ha Zheng sent word of this to the Lady Dowager, and together they returned thanks to Her Highness. After some tea the eu¬nuchs left, and Their Lordships went to the old lady’s room to chat until one of the serving-women outside reported:
“The pages say someone has come to see the Elder Master on impor¬tant business.”
The old lady urged him to go, and Jia She withdrew.
Struck by a sudden thought then, she remarked cheerfully to Jia Zheng, “Her Imperial Highness is really very concerned about Baoyu. The other day she asked after him specially.”
“But the scamp has fallen short of her kind expectations,” he an¬swered. “He won’t study properly.”
“Well, I put in a good word for him. I told her that recently he’d learned to write essays.
“No, he still isn’t up to that, madam.”
“You’re always sending him to write poems and essays outside, and doesn’t he do all right? He’s only a child; you have to teach him slowly. As the saying goes, ‘No one grows fat on just one mouthful.
“Quite right, madam,” he agreed at once with a smile.
“Talking of Baoyu,” she went on, “I want to consult you on some¬thing. Now that he’s growing up, you should look out for some nice girl for him. After all, marriage is for life it’s very important. Whether she’s a distant relative or a close one, wealthy or poor, is immaterial. Provided we know for sure that she has a good temper and is nice-looking, that will do well enough.”
“That’s very true, madam, but I’d just like to add this: Before we find a good girl for him he must learn better ways himself. Otherwise, if he turned out a ne’er-do-well and spoilt some girl’s life, that would be de¬plorable.”
This answer vexed the old lady.
“Of course,” she said, “with his father and mother at hand, why should I worry my head over this? I suppose, as Baoyu’s been with me since he was small, I may have spoilt him a bit and held up his progress. Still, he seems to me quite handsome and, what’s more, he has a good heart. How can you be so sure he’s a good-for-nothing, bound to spoil some girl’s life? Or am I prejudiced? I think he’s better anyway than Huan. What’s your opinion?”
Disconcerted by this, Jia Zheng answered with a smile, “You have so much experience of people, madam, if you approve of him and think him promising, you can’t be wrong. I was just a little too anxious for him to grow up quickly. This may be the reverse of that old saying, ‘No man recognizes his son’s good qualities.’”1
The old lady laughed at this and the others joined in.
“Now that you’re getting on in years and have an official post you’re naturally growing more diplomatic,” she chuckled. She turned to tell Lady Xing and Lady Wang, “When I think of him as a boy, with his cranky ways, he was twice as bad as Baoyu! It was only after his marriage that he began to learn a little sense. Now he’s for ever complaining about his son, but to my mind Baoyu shows a bit more understanding than he does!”
Both her daughters-in-law laughed, “You will have your little joke, madam!”
Some young maids came in then to ask Yuanyang to announce that dinner was ready.
“What are you whispering about over there?” the old lady asked. When told by Yuanyang she said, “In that case the rest of you had better all go and have dinner, leaving just Xifeng and Zhen’s wife to eat with me.
Jia Zheng and Their Ladyships agreed to this but waited none the less till the meal was served and she dismissed them again before withdraw¬ing, Lady Xing returning to the other mansion.
Jia Zheng and Lady Wang went back to their own quarters, where he reverted to his mother’s proposal.
“The old lady dotes on Baoyu,” he said. “But he must have some solid learning if he’s to get an official rank in future. Then all her affec¬tion for him won’t have been wasted, and he won’t ruin some girl’s life.”
“Of course you are right, sir,” agreed Lady Wang.
He sent one of the maids to Li Gui with the message: “When Baoyu gets back from school and has had his dinner, I want him to come here at once. I have something to ask him.”
“Very good,” was Li Gui’s answer.
So when Baoyu, back from school, was about to pay his duty calls, Li Gui told him, “There’s no need for that, Second Master. You’re to go to see your father after dinner. I hear he has some questions to ask you.”
Baoyu was thunder-struck. Having called on his grandmother he went back to the Garden for a hasty meal, then rinsed his mouth and hurried over to see his father, whom he found sitting in his inner study. Baoyu paid his respects, then stood there at attention.
“These days I have had other things on my mind, so there’s some¬thing I forgot to ask you,” said Jia Zheng. “Earlier on, you said your teacher had told you to expound the classics for a month, after which he would start you off on essay-writing. Nearly two months have passed since then. Have you started writing essays?”
“I’ve only written three, sir. The teacher said, there was no need to tell you until I can write better. That’s why I didn’t venture to report.
“What were the subjects?”
“One was ‘At fifteen I set my mind on study, one was ‘When people do not know him he bears no resentment,’ one was ‘Then they followed the Mohists.’”2
“Do you have the drafts?”
“I copied them all out and the teacher corrected them.”
“Did you bring them home or leave them at school?”
“They are at school.”
“Have them fetched for me to see.”
Baoyu promptly sent word to Beiming that he was to fetch him quickly from the school a thin bamboo-paper copybook labelled Class Work, which was in the drawer of his desk.
Soon Beiming brought in the exercise book and gave it to Baoyu, who handed it to his father. Opening it he read the first essay entitled “At fifteen I set my mind on study.” Baoyu had started off, “Even as a child the sage had already set his mind on study.” Dairu had crossed out “child” and substituted “at fifteen.”
Jia Zheng commented, “Your use of ‘child’ doesn’t make the meaning clear, because childhood lasts until the age of sixteen. In this passage the sage explained how his learning and understanding improved with the years; that is why he specified clearly his attainments at fifteen, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty and seventy, to show different stages of development. By changing your ‘child’ to ‘at fifteen’ your teacher made it much clearer.”
Going on to read the exegesis he saw that the original, which had been crossed out, started, “Now it is common for people not to be bent on study.” He shook his head.
“Not only is this childish, it shows you have no desire to become a scholar.”
He read on, “For the sage to set his mind on it at fifteen was surely very rare.
“This is even greater nonsense!” he exclaimed.
Then he read Dairu’s correction, “Who is there who does not study? But few set their minds on it. This was why the sage had faith in himself when he was fifteen.”
“Do you understand his corrections?” he asked. “Yes, sir.”
His father then turned to the second essay on “When people do not know him he bears no resentment.” First he read the teacher’s correc¬tion: “One who does not grieve because other people do not recognize his merits will remain well content.” Then strained his eyes to read what had been crossed out.
“What is this? ‘When one is not annoyed with people, he is truly a scholar. ‘ First you tackle only the idea of ‘no resentment’. Then you confuse the definition of a gentleman. Of course that had to be changed to fit the subject. Besides, to be logical, the second part should refer to what precedes it. You need to think things over more carefully.” “Yes, sir.”
Jia Zheng read on, “‘Now all men grieve if their talents go unrecog¬nized, yet he was an exception. How could he have achieved this unless he was well content?”’ And Baoyu’s conclusion read, “Wasn’t he a true scholar?”
Jia Zheng commented, “This has the same fault as the opening. The correction, though a little flat, will pass muster.”
The third essay was on “Then they followed the Mohists.”
After reading the title he looked up thoughtfully to ask Baoyu, “Have you studied Mencius already?”
“The teacher said Mencius was easier to understand, so he taught me that first, sir. We finished three days ago and are on the first half of The Analects now.”
Jia Zheng saw that the opening was virtually unaltered. “It seems there was no other course to follow apart from that of Yang Zhu.”
“That’s not too bad for you,” he commented, then read on, “It is not that men wanted to follow the Mohists, but as Mozi’s teachings swayed half the world, apart from Yang Zhu who else was there to follow?”
“Did you write this?” he asked his son. “Yes, sir.”
Jia Zheng nodded. “It’s nothing very brilliant; still it’s not bad for a beginner. The other year at my post I set the subject ‘Only a knight is capable of this.’3 Those candidates had all read essays on this theme, and instead of writing something original they could only plagiarize. Have you studied that passage?” “Yes, sir.”
“I want you to introduce some ideas of your own. Don’t imitate ear¬lier writers. Just broach the theme and that will be enough.”
Baoyu, forced to accept this assignment, lowered his head and cud¬gelled his brains while his father, his hands clasped behind his back, also stood by the door thinking. Just then a young page came dashing towards the gate. At sight of the master he pulled up and stood respectfully with his arms at his sides.
“What are you doing?” Jia Zheng asked.
“Madam Xue has called on the old lady, and Madam Lian has told us to order dinner.”
As Jia Zheng made no comment, the page withdrew.
Now ever since Baochai had left the Garden, Baoyu had missed her acutely. On hearing that Aunt Xue had called, he assumed that Baochai must be with her. He braced himself to say:
“I’ve broached the subject, sir, but don’t know whether it will do or not.”
“Read it out.”
“Not all men in the world are knights. If one without property can remain steadfast, that is quite exemplary.”
Jia Zheng nodded. “That will do. In future when you write essays, you must first make clear the definitions and grasp the meaning and logic. Does the old lady know that you’re here?” 
“Yes, sir.”
“In that case, you had better go now to her place.”
Baoyu assented. Controlling his impatience he slowly withdrew. How¬ever, once past the screen by the moon-gate at the end of the corridor, he ran like the wind to the Lady Dowager’s compound, paying no attention to Beiming who called frantically after him:
“Mind you don’t fall! The master’s coming!”
As soon as he entered the gate, Baoyu heard his mother and Xifeng laughing and chatting with Tanchun and some others. At sight of him the maid who lifted the portière whispered:
“Your aunt is here.”
Baoyu hurried in to greet Aunt Xue, then paid his evening respects to the old lady.
“How is it you’re so late back from school?” she asked.
He explained that his father had been reading his essays and had made him broach a new theme. His grandmother beamed.
Then he asked the others, “Where is Cousin Baochai?”
“She didn’t come,” answered Aunt Xue with a smile. “She’s doing needlework at home with Xiangling.”
Baoyu, disappointed as he was, could hardly leave at once. As they were chatting dinner was served, and naturally the Lady Dowager and Aunt Xue took the seats of honour, with Tanchun and the others in lower seats.
“How about Baoyu?” asked Aunt Xue.
“Baoyu, come and sit with me,” said the old lady.
“When I came back from school,” he countered quickly, “Li Gui said my father wanted to see me after my meal; so I asked at once for one dish and one bowl of rice with some tea, then went over there. Please go on with your meal, ladies.”
“In that case, Xifeng can sit with me. Your mother just told me that this is one of her fast days, so she’ll be eating separately.”
Lady Wang also told Xifeng, “Go ahead and eat with the old lady and Aunt Xue. You needn’t wait for me, I’m fasting today.”
Xifeng acquiescing, a maid set a cup and chopsticks before her. She rose to take the wine-pot and fill the others’ cups before resuming her seat.
As they drank the Lady Dowager remarked, “Just now, aunt, you mentioned Xiangling. The other day I heard the maids speak of Qiuling, and had no idea whom they meant. When I asked, I discovered it was Xiangling! Why should the child change a perfectly good name?”
Aunt Xue flushed crimson and sighed.
“Don’t mention that, madam!” she said. “Since Pan married that senseless wife of his they bicker all day long, not like a proper family at all. I’ve spoken to her several times, but she’s too stubborn to listen and I haven’t the energy to wrangle with them; so I just let them do as they please. It was she who disliked the maid’s name and must needs change it.”
“Why, what was wrong with it?”
“I’m ashamed to speak of it, madam. But you over here know all that goes on in our household. Of course it wasn’t because the name was no good but because it was chosen by Baochai or so I’ve heard. That’s why she wanted to change it.”
“But why should that be?”
Aunt Xue wiped her tears with her handkerchief. Before going on she sighed.
“You’ve no idea, madam! Nowadays my daughter-in-law keeps pick¬ing on Baochai. The other day when you sent someone to see me, we were in the middle of a family row.”
“Yes, the other day I heard you had liver trouble and meant to send someone to ask after you; but then I didn’t, because they said you were better. My advice to you is: Don’t take such things to heart. The young couple are newly married; they’ll get straightened out in time. Not ev¬eryone can have Baochai’s sweet disposition — young as she is, she’s much better than most older folk. The other day when the maid came back to report, we all lauded her to the skies as one in a hundred, so broad-minded and sweet-tempered! I’m willing to guarantee that, once she marries, her in-laws are bound to love her and high and low in their house will look up to her.”
Baoyu, who had been listlessly waiting for an excuse to leave, sat down again now to listen carefully.
“It’s no use,” said Aunt Xue. “However good she is, she’s only a girl. And Pan’s grown up such a fool, he really causes me endless anxi¬ety. I’m always afraid he’ll drink too much outside and land himself in trouble. Luckily he’s often with the gentlemen here: That makes me feel easier in my mind.”
Baoyu put in, “Don’t worry, aunty. All his friends are big merchants and respectable people. How could he get into trouble?”
Aunt Xue smiled at him. “If you’re right, then I needn’t worry.”
The meal at an end, Baoyu excused himself on the pretext that he had to study that evening. And while some maids were serving tea, Hupo came in with a whispered message for the old lady, who turned to tell Xifeng:
“You must go home at once to see to Qiaojie.”
Xifeng did not know what had happened, and the others were mysti¬fied too until Hupo explained:
“Just now Pinger sent a girl to report that Qiaojie is poorly. She hopes you’ll go back at once, madam.”
“Go on,” urged the Lady Dowager. “You don’t have to stand on ceremony with your aunty.”
Xifeng promptly assented and took her leave of Aunt Xue.
“You go first,” put in Lady Wang. “I’ll be coming presently. Poor little soul! Don’t let the maids make a commotion, and tell them to keep your pet dogs and cats quiet too. A delicately nurtured child like her is bound to have these little upsets.”
Murmuring assent, Xifeng went off with her maid.
Aunt Xue asked now about Daiyu’s illness.
“She’s a good child, only too sensitive,” said the old lady. “That’s undermined her health. As far as intelligence goes, she’s a match for Baochai; but regarding consideration for other people, she hasn’t her thoughtfulness and unselfishness.”
After a little more idle talk Aunt Xue said, “You should rest now, madam, and I must get back to see how things are doing, as there are only Baochai and Xiangling at home. And from there I must go with my sister to see Qiaojie.”
“That’s right. You’ve had a great deal of experience. Tell them if you notice anything amiss, so that they’ll know what to do.”
Thereupon Aunt Xue took her leave, accompanying Lady Wang to Xifeng’s quarters.
Jia Zheng, pleased by the results of Baoyu’s test, brought the subject up when he went out to chat with his secretaries. One of them was the relative newcomer Wang Ertiao, a good chess-player whose courtesy name was Zuomei.
“We can see that Master Bao has made great progress in learning.” he observed.
“Progress? No,” said Jia Zheng. “He’s only just making a start. And it’s too early by far to talk of ‘learning.
Zhan Guang demurred, “You are too modest, sir. This is the opinion of us all, not only Mr. Wang. Master Bao is sure to distinguish himself in the examinations.”
“You are too partial to him, gentlemen.”
“I have a proposal to make, sir,” added Wang Ertiao, “If you don’t think it presumptuous.” “What is it?”
With a deferential smile Wang answered, “Some acquaintances of mine, the family of Old Mr. Zhang the former Governor of Nanshao, have a daughter who is said to be a paragon of virtue and a beauty, and she is not yet bespoken. The Zhangs have no son, and a property worth millions; but they won’t agree to a match until they can find a young man from a rich and noble house who is himself outstanding. After two months here I can see that Master Bao, with his disposition and scholarship, will go far. And your family, sir, is of course unexceptionable! If I propose the match, I can vouch for it that they will agree at once.
“Yes, Baoyu has reached the right age, and the old lady often speaks of this,” Jia Zheng answered. “But I know very little about this Old Mr. Zhang.”
“I know this family Brother Wang means,” said Zhan Guang. “The Zhangs are related to the Elder Master. You can ask him about them, sir.”
After a moment’s reflection Jia Zheng remarked, “I have never heard him speak of this connection.”
“You wouldn’t know of them, sir, because they are related to his brother-in-law Mr. Xing,” Zhan Guang explained, whereupon Jia Zheng realized that they were relatives of Lady Xing.
After sitting there for a while he went in to pass on this proposal to his wife and get her to make inquiries of Lady Xing. But his wife had gone with Aunt Xue to see Qiaojie, and she did not come back till the evening when Aunt Xue had left. Only after telling her what his secretaries had said did Jia Zheng ask:
“How is Qiaojie?”
“She seems to have had some kind of fit.”
“Is it serious?”
“It looks like epilepsy, but she hasn’t had convulsions.”
He simply coughed by way of comment, after which both of them retired for the night.
The next day, when Lady Xing came over to pay her respects, Lady Wang told her mother-in-law of this proposal and asked her sister-in-law about the Zhang family.
“Though we are relatives from way back, these last few years we’ve been out of touch,” was the answer. “I don’t know what that girl is like. But the other day Yingchun’s mother-in-law Mrs. Sun sent an old woman to ask after us and she mentioned this Zhang family, saying they wanted Mrs. Sun to find a suitable husband for their daughter. I hear she’s an only child and very pampered. She has studied a little, but being shy of company she always stays at home. Because she’s the only daughter, Old Mr. Zhang won’t hear of her leaving home to be married, for fear her in-laws are too strict with her. They want a son-in-law who will live with them and help to manage the household.”
“That would never do!” cried the old lady, not waiting for her to fin¬ish. “Our Baoyu needs people to look after him: how can he manage someone else’s household?”
“Quite so, madam,” agreed Lady Xing.
The old lady turned to Lady Wang. “When you go back, tell your husband from me: This match with the Zhang family is out of the ques¬tion.”
Lady Wang promised to do so.
“And how did you find Qiaojie yesterday?” the old lady asked them next. “Just now Pinger came over and said she’s in a bad way. I intend to go and see her too.”
“We know how fond you are of her, but you shouldn’t trouble, madam,” they demurred.
“No, it’s not just to see her. I need a bit of exercise to loosen my joints.”
They went off then, on her instructions, to have their meal, after which they escorted her to Xifeng’s compound. Xifeng, hurrying out to meet them, invited them in.
“How is Qiaojie?” asked the old lady.
“We’re afraid it’s epilepsy,” was the reply.
“In that case why don’t you send for a doctor at once?”
“We already have, madam.”
Their Ladyships went into the inner room where the nurse was hold¬ing the child wrapped up in a peach-red silk-padded quilt. Her face was deathly pale, her forehead contorted and her nose feebly twitching. After looking at her they went back to the other room and had just sat down to have a consultation when a young maid came in.
“His Lordship has sent to ask after Qiaojie,” she announced.
“Tell him from me that we’ve sent for the doctor,” answered Xifeng. “We’ll let the master know what prescription he makes out.”
The old lady, recollecting the Zhangs’ proposal, reminded Lady Wang, “You should go and let your husband know what we decided. Otherwise the Zhangs may send a matchmaker and their request.” She asked Lady Xing, “How is it you have nothing to do with the Zhang family these days?”
“Because their stingy ways don’t suit us, madam. They’re not good enough for Baoyu!”
From this Xifeng inferred what was afoot.
“Are you talking about Brother Bao’s marriage, madam?” she asked. Lady Xing having confirmed this, the old lady explained the conclu¬sion they had reached.
“Excuse my presumption, Old Ancestress,” said Xifeng with a twinkle. “But there’s an ideal match here. Why look elsewhere?” The old lady, chuckling, asked what she meant.
“One ‘precious jade’ and one ‘gold locker’ — how could you for¬get that, madam?”
“Why didn’t you propose it yesterday when your aunt was here?” countered the old lady, laughing.
“In the presence of our Old Ancestress and Their Ladyships, how could we young people presume? Besides, how could I bring that up when it was our Old Ancestress aunty came to see? The way to do it is for Their Ladyships to call on her and make a formal proposal.”
The Lady Dowager smiled, as did both her daughters-in-law.
“Yes, that was stupid of me,” she conceded.
Just then the doctor was announced. The old lady remained in the outer room while Lady Xing and Lady Wang went inside. The doctor, led in by Jia Lian, paid his respects to the Lady Dowager before going into the sickroom. Returning after examining the patient, he bowed to the old lady and standing before her reported:
“The child’s trouble is half owing to hot humours, half to some exter¬nal shock. First we should dose her to clear up the cold and phlegm, then give her Four-Spirit Powder, because this illness is quite serious. Nowa¬days the cow bezoar sold in the market is usually counterfeit. We’ll have to find the genuine article.”
When the old lady had thanked him the doctor went out with Jia Lian to write his prescription, then left.
“We usually keep a stock of ginseng,” said Xifeng. “But I doubt if we have any cow bezoar. If we buy some outside we must make sure it’s genuine.”
“Let me send to Aunt Xue for some,” proposed Lady Wang. “Xue Pan does so much business with overseas merchants, he may have some genuine bezoar. I’ll send to ask them.”
At this point the girls of the family came to ask after Qiaojie, and after a short visit left with the old lady.
When the medicine was ready they forced it down Qiaojie’s throat and, gagging, she brought it up with some phlegm, much to her mother’s relief. And now one of Lady Wang’s young maids came in with a small red package.
“Here’s the bezoar, madam,” she said. “Her Ladyship wants you to weigh it yourself to make sure the amount is correct.”
Xifeng took it, assenting, and told Pinger to make haste and brew the pearl powder, baroos camphor and cinnabar while she herself used a small steelyard to weigh out the required amount of cow bezoar. This had just been mixed with the other ingredients, ready to dose Qiaojie when she woke up, when Jia Huan raised the portiere and came in.
“What’s the matter with Qiaojie, Second Cousin?” he asked. “My mother sent me to see her.”
“She’s better,” answered Xifeng, who had an aversion to both him and Concubine Zhao. “Go back and thank your mother for her concern.”
Jia Huan, while agreeing to this, kept staring around.
“I hear you’ve got cow bezoar here. What’s it like?” he asked. “Can I have a look?”
“Don’t be such a nuisance!” she scolded. “Qiaojie’s only just on the mend. The bezoar is being brewed.”
Jia Huan reaching out for the skillet bumped against it. It overturned with a splash, dousing the fire, and ashamed of his bungling he took to his heels.
Beside herself with fury Xifeng cursed, “Our true sworn enemy, aren’t you! Why play such dirty tricks here? Your mother tried to do me in before; now you come to do for Qiaojie! What cause have I given you to make you hate us so?”
She swore at Pinger too for not stopping him.
As she was raging a maid came in looking for Huan.
“Go and tell Concubine Zhao to stop trying so hard!” snapped Xifeng. “Qiaojie’s done for: she needn’t worry!”
Pinger was hastily brewing a fresh lot of medicine, and the maid not knowing what was amiss asked in a whisper why Madam Lian was so angry. Pinger told her how Huan had upset the skillet.
“No wonder he dared not go home!” exclaimed the maid. “He must be hiding somewhere. Goodness knows what he’ll be up to next! Let me clear up for you, sister.”
“There’s no need. Luckily there was still a bit of cow bezoar left, and it’s ready now. You’d better go.”
“I’m going back to tell Concubine Zhao,” said the maid. “This should stop her singing his praises every day.”
On her return she was as good as her word. Concubine Zhao sent angrily for her son, and the maid found him skulking in an outer room.
“You good-for-nothing!” scolded his mother. “Why spill their medi¬cine, giving them a chance to curse us? I told you to call to ask after her, not to go in. But in you went, and instead of leaving at once you had to ‘catch lice on the tiger’s head. ‘ Just wait till I tell your father, and see what a thrashing he’ll give you!”
As Concubine Zhao was storming, Jia Huan in the outer room made an even more startling statement. To know what it was, read on.

Chapter 85

Jia Zheng Is Promoted to the Rank
of Vice-Minister
Xue Pan Is Involved in Another
Manslaughter Case


As Concubine Zhao in her room was raging at Jia Huan in the outer room, he suddenly blurted out:
“All I did was upset the skillet and spill some medicine I didn’t kill the brat! Why should everyone curse me as if I were a monster? Do you want to hound me to death? Some day I’ll kill that little bitch, and let’s see what you do then! Just tell them to watch out.”
His mother hurried out to stop his mouth.
“Still raving!” she cried. “Do you want them to kill me first?”
Mother and son wrangled for a time. And Xifeng’s taunts so rankled with Concubine Zhao that she sent her no further condolences. Although in a few days Qiaojie recovered, their two households were on even worse terms than before.
One day, Lin Zhixiao reported to Jia Zheng, “Today is the birthday of the Prince of Beijing. What are your instructions, sir?”
“Just send presents as we did in the past, after letting Lord She know.”
The steward accepted these orders and went to carry them out.
Presently Jia She came over and they decided to take Jia Zhen, Jia Lian and Baoyu with them to offer congratulations. The others took this as a matter of course, but Baoyu was most eager to see more of the prince whose distinguished appearance and manners had so impressed him. He changed hastily into ceremonial dress and went with his father to the princes mansion, where Their Lordships sent in their cards, then waited to be summoned. Soon a eunuch came out, a chaplet in his hand, and beamed at the sight of them, asking:
“How are you two gentlemen?”
Jia She and Jia Zheng greeted him in return, and the three young men followed suit.
“His Highness asks you to come in,” said the eunuch.
The five of them followed him in past two gates and one court to the inner palace gate, where they halted while he went in to announce their arrival and the young eunuchs there stepped forward to greet them.
Before long, the eunuch returned to invite them in, and they followed him respectfully. The Prince of Beijing in ceremonial robes had come out to the corridor to meet them. First Their Lordships stepped forward to pay their respects, and after them Jia Zhen, Jia Lian and Baoyu.
The prince took Baoyu by the hand. “It’s so long since I saw you, he said, “I’ve been thinking of you.” With a smile he asked, “Have you kept that jade of yours safe?”
Baoyu bowed and bent one knee as he replied, “By the grace of Your Highness, yes.
“I’ve no rich fare to offer you today, but let us have a chat,” the prince proposed.
Some eunuchs raised the portiere and he led the way in, followed by Jia She’s party with bowed heads. First Jia She asked to pay homage and knelt down even while the prince was declining. Then Jia Zheng and the others made obeisance too.
As they were withdrawing respectfully, the prince ordered eunuchs to take them — all but Baoyu to join his relatives and friends and to entertain them well. He offered Baoyu a seat so that they could talk, and the boy kowtowed his thanks. Then seated on the edge of an openwork porcelain stool near the door he launched into a description of his studies and essay writing, to which the prince listened with sympathetic interest.
“Yesterday,” the prince told him after tea had been served, “Gover¬nor Wu came to court and spoke of your honourable father’s probity as an examiner, and the great respect in which all the candidates held him. His Majesty asked about this when he received him, and the governor commended your father most highly. This augurs well for him.”
Baoyu who had stood to hear this replied, “Your gracious Highness and Governor Wu are most kind.”
At this point a young eunuch entered to report, “The gentlemen in the front court thank Your Highness for the feast.” 
He presented the cards on which the guests paid their respects, and the prince after glancing at them handed them back, remarking with a smile:
“I have put them to undue trouble.”
“And the special meal Your Highness is conferring on Jia Baoyu is ready now.”
He received orders then to take Baoyu to a small courtyard, a charm¬ing place where attendants waited on him at his meal. On his return to offer thanks, the prince spoke to him kindly again and suddenly remarked with a smile:
“Last time I was so intrigued by that jade of yours that on my return I had a replica made. I’m glad you have come today — you can take it back for your amusement.”
He made the young eunuch fetch it and gave it to Baoyu, who re¬ceived it with both hands, thanked him and then withdrew. Two young eunuchs escorted him out on their master’s orders and he went back with Jia She and the rest.
While Jia She went home, Jia Zheng took the three young men to call on the old lady and tell her whom they had met in the prince’s mansion, after which Baoyu reported to his father how Governor Wu had recom¬mended him to the Emperor.
“This Governor Wu is an old family friend,” observed Jia Zheng. “He is one of our sort, a man of integrity.”
After a little more casual talk the Lady Dowager urged them to go and rest. Jia Zheng took his leave but told his three juniors, who were following him to the door, to stay and keep the old lady company. Back in his room he had barely sat down when a maid announced:
“Lin Zhixiao is outside with something to report, sir.” She presented Governor Wu’s red visiting-card.
Realizing that Governor Wu had called in his absence, Jia Zheng told her to bring the steward in, and went out to the corridor to see him.
Lin Zhixiao reported, “Today Governor Wu came to call, and I told him where you had gone, sir. I also heard that a vacancy for a vice-¬minister has come up in the Ministry of Works, and people outside and in the ministry are all saying that you are to be appointed, sir.”
“That remains to be seen,” replied Jia Zheng.
Lin Zhixiao reported then on a few other matters and left.

Now Baoyu, the only one of the three young men to have stayed with his grandmother, described how the prince had entertained him and dis¬played the jade given him. When it had been admired by all, the old lady ordered the maids to put it away so that he would not lose it.
“Mind you keep your own jade safely,” she warned Baoyu. “Don’t mix them up!”
Taking his jade from his neck he rejoined, “This is mine — how could I lose it? They’re quite different when you compare them. Impossible to confuse them. And there’s something else I’ve been meaning to tell you, madam. The other night when I went to bed and hung my jade on the curtain, it started glowing, making the whole curtain red!”
“You’re talking nonsense again,” she said. “The valance of the canopy is red, so naturally when it catches the light the curtain seems red too.”
“No, the light was out by then. The whole room was pitch dark, and yet I saw it clearly.”
Lady Xing and Lady Wang exchanged meaning smiles.
“It’s a lucky sign,” Xifeng assured him.
“A lucky sign? What do you mean?”
“You wouldn’t understand,” said his grandmother. “You’ve had an exciting day, so go and rest now. Don’t stay here talking nonsense.
Baoyu hung around for a while before going back to the Garden, and as soon as he had gone the old lady said:
“That reminds me, when you went to see Aunt Xue did you broach that business?”
“We only went today,” replied Lady Wang, “because Xifeng was held up for two days by Qiaojie’s illness. We told Aunt Xue, and she was only too willing. However, she says she must first consult Xue Pan — as his father’s gone — and Pan’s still away from home.”
“Quite right too,” agreed the old lady. “We’d better not make it pub¬lic, in that case, until Aunt Xue has decided.”
But no more of their discussion about Baoyu’s marriage.
Baoyu back in his own quarters told Xiren, “Just now my grandmother and Cousin Xifeng were talking so cryptically, I’d no idea what they meant.”
Xiren reflected, then smiled.
“I can’t guess either,” she said. “Was Miss Lin there at the time?”
“No, she hasn’t been over there recently — she’s only just left her bed.”
Just then they heard a quarrel break out in the outer room between Sheyue and Qiuwen.
“What are you two scrapping about now?” called Xiren.
“We were playing cards,” said Sheyue, coming in. “When she won she took my money, but when I won she wouldn’t pay. To make it worse, she grabbed my whole bank too.”
“What does a little money matter?” chuckled Baoyu. “Stop making such a noise, you silly things.”
The two girls went off then and sat down to sulk while Xiren helped Baoyu to bed.
Xiren had realized from Baoyu’s remark that his marriage was under discussion. She had not told him this, however, for fear that his senseless notions would make him burst out again with a flood of foolish talk. But as she too was deeply concerned about his marriage, she lay awake that night thinking and decided to go to see if Zijuan knew of any develop-ments which might shed light on the matter. The next day she rose early. Having seen Baoyu off to school, she spruced herself up and walked slowly to Bamboo Lodge. Zijuan, whom she found picking flowers, in¬vited her to go in and take a seat.
“Thanks, sister, I will,” said Xiren. “Picking flowers are you? Where’s your young lady?”
“She’s just finished dressing and is waiting for her medicine to be heated.”
She led Xiren inside, where Daiyu was reading.
“No wonder you wear yourself out, miss, reading as soon as you get up,” said Xiren cheerfully. “I only wish our Master Bao would study as hard as you do!”
Daiyu smilingly put down her book. By now Xueyan had brought in a small tray on which were one cup of medicine, another of water, while a young maid behind her was holding a spittoon and rinse-bowl.
Xiren had come to size up the situation. But although she sat there for a while she found it impossible to approach the subject; and she did not like to risk upsetting Daiyu, sensitive as she was, by fishing for informa¬tion. So presently she made some excuse to leave. Approaching Happy Red Court, she halted at sight of two people standing outside. One of them, spotting her, ran over and Xiren saw it was Chuyao.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Just now Master Yun came with a note for Master Bao. He’s wait¬ing here for a reply.”
“Surely you know that Master Bao goes to school every day. Why wait for a reply?”
“I told him that, but he wanted me to tell you, miss, so that you can give him an answer.
Before Xiren could make any comment she recognized the other per¬son as Jia Yun, now sidling sheepishly towards her.
“Tell him I’ve got the note and I’ll give it to Master Bao later, “ she told Chuyao.
Jia Yun had been hoping to engage Xiren in conversation in order to ingratiate himself with her, but for fear of seeming presumptuous he had come over slowly. Being close enough now to hear this remark, he could hardly come any further. And as Xiren now turned her back on him and went in, he had to leave dejectedly with Chuyao.
When Baoyu came home that evening Xiren told him, “Today young Master Yun who lives in the lane called.”
“What did he want?”
“He left a note.”
“Where is it? Let me see it.”
Sheyue fetched it from the bookcase in the inner room, and Baoyu saw that the envelope was inscribed “Respected Uncle.”
“Why has this boy stopped calling me father?” he demanded.
“What do you mean?” asked Xiren.
“The other year when he sent me those white begonias, he called me his god-father. Now on this envelope he’s written ‘uncle. ‘Evidently he no longer considers me as his father.”
“He has no sense of shame, and neither have you!” she scolded. “A big fellow like him calling a boy like you father — isn’t that shameless? Why, you’re not even... “ She broke off, blushing and smiling.
Baoyu knowing what she meant rejoined, “That doesn’t follow. As the saying goes, ‘A childless monk may have many filial sons. ‘ I agreed to it only because he struck me as clever and pleasant. If he backs out, what do I care!” While saying this he opened the letter.
“There’s something shifty about young Master Yun,” observed Xiren. “At times he insists on seeing you, at others he looks around slyly; it shows he’s up to no good.”
Baoyu concentrating on his letter ignored her comments, and Xiren saw that its contents made him frown, smile and shake his head by turns. He ended up looking exasperated.
“Well, what does he say?” she asked.
By way of answer he tore the note into pieces.
To change the subject she asked, “Will you be studying again after dinner?”
Leaving her question unanswered he exclaimed, “What a swine this young Yun is — ridiculous!”
“What’s the matter anyway?” she asked with a smile.
“Why ask? Let’s eat now, then we can rest. I’m fed up.
He told a young maid to light a fire and burned the scraps of the letter. But when the meal was ready presently, he sat down in a daze and Xiren had to coax him to get him to eat one mouthful. Soon he pushed aside his bowl and flung himself down moodily on the couch. Then he suddenly burst into tears.
Xiren and Sheyue were nonplussed.
“Why carry on like this for no reason at all?” cried Sheyue. “It’s all that Jia Yun’s fault! Why should he send such a stupid note to addle Master Bao’s wits and send him into hysterics. If he goes on bottling up his feelings like this, what are we to do?” She started sobbing too.
Xiren could hardly help laughing.
“Cut that out, good sister!” she urged her. “It’s bad enough him making a scene without your joining in. What has that letter got to do with you?”
“That’s crazy talk,” Sheyue countered. “Who knows what rubbish he wrote? Why pin it on me? Come to that, his note may have had to do with you!”
Before Xiren could answer Baoyu burst out laughing and, scrambling off the couch, smoothed out his clothes.
“Stop squabbling and let’s sleep now,” he said. “I must get up early tomorrow to go to school.”
So they went to bed, passing an uneventful night.
The next morning when Baoyu had dressed he set off to school. But as he was leaving his compound, struck by a thought he told Beiming to wait, then turned to call Sheyue.
“What brings you back?” she asked him, coming out.
“If Jia Yun comes again today, tell him not to fool about here. If he does, I’ll tell the old lady and the master.”
Sheyue agreed to this. But Baoyu had no sooner started off again than he saw Jia Yun hurrying towards him. At sight of Baoyu he swept him a bow.
“Congratulations, uncle!”
“You’ve got a nerve!” Baoyu retorted, remembering his note of the previous day. “Disturbing me when I have other things on my mind.”
“You can have a look, uncle, if you don’t believe me. The heralds are already here at the main gate.”
More exasperated than ever Baoyu cried, “What are you talking about?”
Just then they heard shouting outside.
“Listen, uncle, to that!”
This set Baoyu wondering.
“Have you no manners?” they heard someone shout. “How dare you make such a row here?”
Another voice answered, “Your master has been promoted! How can you stop us proclaiming the good news? Other families would be only too pleased to hear us!”
Then Baoyu realized with delight that they were announcing his father’s promotion to be vice-minister. He started off.
Jia Yun caught up with him, saying, “Are you pleased, uncle? Once your marriage is fixed, that’ 11 be double happiness for you!”
Baoyu flushed and spat. “Clear off, you oaf!”
“What have I said wrong?” Jia Yun reddened. “Wouldn’t you...?”
“Wouldn’t I what?” demanded Baoyu sternly.
Then ha Yun dared say no more, and Baoyu hurried off to school.
“What brings you here today?” asked Dairu beaming. “I just heard of your father’s promotion.”
“I came to see you, sir, before going to my father,” said Baoyu re¬spectfully.
“You need not study today, you can have a holiday. But don’t spend it playing in the Garden. You’re no longer a child, remember. Though you can’t handle affairs yet, you should learn from your elder cousins.”
Baoyu assented and went home. At the inner gate he met Li Gui coming out.
“So here you are, young master!” The steward halted, smiling. “I was just going to the school to fetch you.”
“On whose instructions?”
“The old lady sent to find you, and your maids said you’d gone to school. So just now she sent again to tell me to ask for a few days’ leave for you — I hear operas will be put on to celebrate. You’ve turned up just in time, Master Bao.”
Passing through the gate, Baoyu observed that all the maids and ma¬trons in the court were beaming.
“Why so late, Master Bao?” they cried. “Go in and congratulate the old lady, quick!”
Baoyu entered his grandmother’s room and his face lit up when he saw Daiyu sitting on her left, Xiangyun on her right. All the ladies of the house had assembled there except for Baochai, Baoqin and Yingchun. Beside himself with joy, he offered congratulations to his grandmother and then to Their Ladyships, after which he greeted his cousins one by one.
“Are you better, cousin?” he asked Daiyu.
“Yes, much better,” she answered with a smile. “I heard you were unwell too. Are you all right now?”
“Oh yes. That night I suddenly had a pain in my heart, but these last few days I’ve been well enough to go back to school. That’s why I’ve had no time to call on you.”
While he was still speaking Daiyu turned away to talk to Tanchun. Xifeng standing near them smiled.
“You two are behaving like guests, not like inseparables,” she teased. All these civilities! Well, as the saying goes, ‘you show each other re¬spect as to a guest.’”
The others laughed while Daiyu blushed furiously, not knowing whether to let this go or not. After some hesitation she blurted out:
“What do you know about it?”
That set the company laughing even more loudly. Xifeng, conscious of her gaffe, was wondering how to change the subject when Baoyu sud¬denly exclaimed to Daiyu:
“Cousin Lin, you never saw anyone as boorish as Jia Yun...” He broke off without finishing the sentence.
This provoked a fresh gale of mirth.
“What is all this?” others asked.
Daiyu, also in the dark, smiled shyly too.
Baoyu hedged, “Just now I heard that some operas are to be pre¬sented. When will that be?”
All looked at him, still laughing.
“If you heard that outside.” quipped Xifeng, “you should come and tell us, not ask us about it.”
“I’ll go and find out,” he offered.
“Don’t go running around outside,” warned the old lady. “For one thing, the heralds would laugh at you. For another, your father’s in a good humour today, but if he saw you outside he would be angry.”
“Yes, madam,” said Baoyu, then slipped away.
The old lady asked Xifeng, “Who’s talked of presenting operas?”
“Uncle Wang. He said that the day after tomorrow, which is an aus¬picious day, he’ll send over a new company of actresses to congratulate you, madam, as well as the master and mistress.” She added with a twinkle, “It’ll not only be an auspicious day but a happy occasion too. That day...” She winked at Daiyu, who smiled back.
“Why, of course!” exclaimed Lady Wang. “It’s our niece’s birth¬day.”
The old lady thought for a second and then said, “It shows I’m grow¬ing old, I get so muddled. “It’s lucky I have Xifeng as my mentor. All right then. If Baoyu’s uncle wants to offer congratulations, Daiyu’s uncle’s family can celebrate her birthday too.”
Everybody laughed.
“Whatever our Old Ancestress says is so aptly put, no wonder she has such good fortune!” someone exclaimed.
Baoyu coming back just then was in raptures when he heard about Daiyu’s birthday. Presently they all had a meal there and made merry with the old lady.
After the meal, Jia Zheng came hack from thanking the Emperor and kowtowed to the ancestors, then to his mother. Standing before her, he spoke to her briefly before going out to entertain his guests. A constant stream of kinsmen was coming and going now, with a great noise and bustle. Carriages and horses thronged the gate; silks and sables filled the hall. Truly:
Bees and butterflies converge on flowers in bloom;
Sea and sky stretch boundless under the full moon!
These visits continued for two days till the time for the celebration. Early that morning Wang Ziteng and other kinsmen had sent over a com¬pany of actresses, and a stage was set up in front of the Lady Dowager’s main hall. Outside it waited the men of the family, in official robes. More than ten tables of feasts had been prepared for relatives; and as the actresses were new and the old lady was in high spirits, they set up a glass screen in the inner hall to feast the ladies there. At the table of honour sat Aunt Xue accompanied by Lady Wang and Baoqin. Opposite was the table for the old lady accompanied by Lady Xing and Xiuyan. The two lower tables were vacant, and the old lady urged the girls to seat themselves there quickly.
Presently Xifeng, a troop of maids behind her, escorted in Daiyu. Dressed in new clothes and made up, she appeared like the moon god¬dess come down to earth as she greeted the others with a bashful smile. Xiangyun, Li Wen and Li Qi invited her to take the best seat at their table, but she declined.
“You must sit there today.” insisted the old lady, smiling.
Aunt Xue rose to ask, “Is this a happy occasion for Miss Lin too?”
“Yes, it’s her birthday.”
“How could I have forgotten!” Aunt Xue went over to Daiyu. “Ex¬cuse my bad memory, child! I’ll send Baoqin over presently to offer her congratulations.”
“You are too kind.” Daiyu smiled. While every one took a seat, she looked around and seeing Baochai was not there, she asked Aunt Xue, “How’s Cousin Baochai? Why hasn’t she come today?”
“She should have come, but we have no one to keep an eye on things at home, so she has to stay in,” Aunt Xue explained.
“But now she has a sister-in-law, aunty, surely you don’t need Baochai to mind the house? I suppose she doesn’t like joining in noisy parties, but I do miss her so!”
“It’s good of you to think of her,” said Aunt Xue. “She longs to see you all too. One of these days I’ll send her over to have a chat with you.”
Now maids came in to pour wine and bring in dishes, while outside the performance had started. The first two items, of course, had propitious themes. When it came to the third, they saw fairy pages and maids with flags and pennons lead in a girl dressed as a goddess, with black gauze on her head, who sang an aria and then left the stage. No one knew what opera this was till they heard it said outside that this was the scene “Re¬turning to Heaven from Hell” from the new opera The Tale of Ruizhu.2 The girl was the moon goddess who descended to earth and became betrothed to a mortal; luckily the goddess Guanyin had shown her the right course and she died before her marriage took place. She was now going back to the moon. That was why she sang:
Sweet they say is the love of mortals, 
Yet autumn moon and spring flowers are soon abandoned, 
And I nearly forgot the palace of the moon.
The fourth item was “Eating Husks” from The Tale of the Lute.3 The fifth was about Bodhidharma leading his disciples back across the river— a fantastic and most spectacular performance.
At the height of their enjoyment, one of the Xue family servants came rushing in, pouring with sweat.
“Go back quickly, sir!” he panted to Xue Ke. “And ask madam to go back too. There’s bad trouble at home!”
“What’s happened?” Xue Ke demanded.
“I’ll tell you when we get back, sir.” Xue Ke went off without stop¬ping to take his leave. And when maids took word of this to Aunt Xue, she turned pale with alarm. After a hasty leave-taking she mounted her carriage with Baoqin to go back, amid general consternation.
“We must send someone over to find out what’s amiss and to show our concern,” said the Lady Dowager.
The others approved this, then went on watching the opera.

Aunt Xue, reaching home, saw court runners standing by the inner gate. Some assistants from the pawnshop were telling them:
“Wait till the mistress comes home, then everything can be settled.” The runners, at the arrival of an old lady attended by so many ser¬vants, knew that this must be Xue Pan’s mother. And as she looked someone of consequence they kept themselves in check, standing at at¬tention to let her pass. She went to the back from whence came sounds of wailing, and discovered Jingui there. As she hurried forward Baochai came out to meet her, her face wet with tears.
“So you’ve heard the news, mother,” she said. “Don’t worry. We must find some way to square things!”
Aunt Xue went inside with her daughter, trembling with fright after having heard from the servants in the court what her son had done.
“Whom had he been quarrelling with?” she asked tearfully.
“Don’t try to get to the bottom of it now, madam,” they urged her. “Taking a life is a capital offence regardless of persons. We had better discuss what to do.”
“What is there to discuss?” she sobbed.
“What we propose is this,” they said. “We’ll get ready some silver tonight and go straight with Master Ke to see Master Pan. We can find some shrewd scrivener there and pay him to tear up that capital offence charge; then we can ask the Jia family to intercede with the magistrate of the yamen. There are those runners waiting outside too. First give them a few taels of silver to get rid of them, madam, and then we can get started.”
“Better find the other man’s family,” was Aunt Xue’s counter-pro¬posal. “Promise them some money for the funeral as well as for com¬pensation. If they drop the charge, the matter can be hushed up.”
“That won’t do, mother!” called Baochai from the inner room. “In a business like this, the more money you pay them the more trouble they’ll make. What the servants suggested was right.”
“I wish I were dead!” wailed Aunt Xue. “I’ll go and see my son for the last time, then die together with him!”
Baochai urged her to be of good comfort and called to the servants in the outer room, “Quickly go with Master Ke to deal with this business.”
Maids helped Aunt Xue inside.
“If you have any news, cousin, send word at once!” called Baochai to Xue Ke who was starting out. “But stay there yourselves to cope.”
Xue Ke assented and left. And Jingui seized this chance, while Baochai was consoling her mother, to round upon Xianghing.
“You used to boast that this family came to the capital after getting away scot-free with murder!” she raged. “Now he’s really gone and killed a man! And for all your bragging about the Xues’ wealth and pow¬erful connections, look at the panic everybody’s in now! If my husband’s for it and can’t come back, you’ll all clear off leaving me to bear the brunt!” She burst out storming and sobbing.
Aunt Xue hearing this nearly fainted away with anger and Baochai, though frantic, was helpless. At the height of this scene, one of Lady Wang’s trusted maids came from the Jia Mansion to ascertain what had happened. Baochai knew she was going to marry into their household, but as this had not yet been announced, and she was feeling desperate, she did not hide herself as etiquette demanded but told the maid:
“At present this business isn’t very clear. All we’ve heard is that my brother has been arrested by the county yamen for killing a man outside. We don’t know what the verdict will be. Xue Ke has just gone to make inquiries. As soon as we have definite news, we’ll send word to your
mistress. Go back now and thank her for her concern. We shall be asking later for help from your master.”
The maid accepted these instructions and left.
Aunt Xue and Baochai stayed at home in suspense until, two days later, a page came back with a letter which a young maid brought in. Baochai opened it and read:
This case involving Brother Pan was inadvertent manslaughter, not murder. This morning I sent in a plea in my name, but it has not yet been approved. Brother Pan’s first confession was most unfortunate. Once my plea is ratified, we shall ask to go to court again to retract it, and then he may be let off. Five hundred more taels of silver to cover expenses are needed at once from our pawnshop. There must be no delay! Tell Aunt not to worry. For the rest you can question the page.
Having perused this, Baochai read it out again in full for her mother.
“So it seems his fate is still in the balance!” cried Aunt Xue, wiping her tears.
“Don’t be upset, mother,” urged Baochai. “Let’s first call in the page and find out the details.”
She sent a maid to fetch him in, and Aunt Xue asked him to tell them just what had happened.
“When I heard what Master Pan told Master Ke the other evening, I was frightened out of my wits!” he began.
To know his account of the matter, read the next chapter.

Chapter 86

An Old Magistrate Takes a Bribe
to Re-open a Case
A Young Girl, to While Away Time,
Explains a Lute Score


After listening to Xue Ke’s letter, Aunt Xue called in the page who had brought it.
“You heard what Master Pan said. How did he come to kill a man?” she asked.
“I didn’t get it too clear, madam. That day he told Master Ke....” The page looked round to make sure they were alone before continuing, “Master Pan said he was so sick of all these rows at home that he made up his mind to go south to buy goods. He decided to ask somebody to go with him a certain Wu Liang who lives more than two hundred ii south of this city. On his way to find him he met that Jiang Yuhan who used to be such a friend of his, bringing some young actors to town. While they were having a meal and drinking together in his inn, Master Pan was annoyed by the way the waiter kept staring at Jiang Yuhan. But then Jiang left.
“The next day, while drinking with Wu Liang, Master Pan remem¬bered what had happened the day before and, when the waiter was slow in bringing fresh wine, he started cursing him. When the fellow answered back, he threatened him with his wine bowl. The rogue craned his neck, daring our master to hit him. Then Master Pan brought the bowl down on his head. Blood spurted out and he dropped to the ground swear¬ing — but very soon he fell silent.”
“Why did no one stop him?” scolded Aunt Xue.
“That, Master Pan didn’t say and I dare not make anything up.
“You go and rest now.
“Yes, madam.”
When the page had gone Aunt Xue went to see Lady Wang, to enlist her husband’s help. Learning what had happened, he hedged. They must wait to see the magistrate’s response to Xue Pan’s petition, he said, before deciding on a course of action.
Aunt Xue sent the page back with more money from the pawnshop, and three days later received another letter. She sent to tell Baochai, who came at once and read it out as follows:
With the money you sent we have squared the yamen officers. Brother Pan is not being ill-treated in jail; don’t worry. Only the local people are cutting up rough. The dead man’s family and the witnesses are holding out, and even that friend invited by Brother Pan is taking their side.
I and Li Xiang are strangers here, but luckily we found a good pettifog¬ger, and after his palm was greased he came up with a plan. He advised us to get hold of Wu Liang who was drinking with Brother Pan and bail him out, then offer him money to enlist his help. If he wouldn’t agree, we could say he was the one who killed Zhang San then laid the blame on an outsider. If that scared him, then it should be easy to handle.
I took his advice and got Wu Liang out; then we bribed the dead man’s relatives and the witnesses; and the day before yesterday I sent in an¬other petition. Today the answer has come, and I enclose a copy for you to see.

Baochai next read out the petition:

Petitioner....
Petition on behalf of his brother, a victim of foul play who-has been unjustly accused.
My elder brother Xue Pan, a native of Nanjing now resident in the capital, set off on such and such a day to go south on business. A few days after he left home, a family servant brought the news that he had been in¬volved in manslaughter. I came immediately to Your Honour’s county and learned that he had accidentally injured a man named Zhang. When I went to the jail, he told me with tears that this Zhang was a stranger to him and there had been no enmity between them. An accidental quarrel had broken out when my brother, asking for wine, spilt some on the ground. Zhang San happened to be stooping to pick something up, and my brother, whose hand slipped, struck the top of his head with the wine bowl and killed him. During interrogation, for fear of torture, he con¬fessed that he had killed the man in a fight. But Your Honour, in your infinite goodness, realized that this could not have been the case and deferred giving a verdict. As my brother in jail is forbidden to send in a plea, on account of our close relationship I am venturing to intercede for him. I hope Your Honour will graciously permit another trial. This will be a great act of mercy, and my whole family will for ever remember your ineffable goodness. This is my earnest petition.

The magistrate’s rescript read:

Investigation at the scene of the crime uncovered definite proof; and your brother, without being tortured, confessed in writing to killing a man in a brawl. Coming from far away and not being an eye-witness, how can you trump up a case? By law you should be punished, but in view of your brotherly concern I shall pardon you. Your petition is rejected.

“He’s done for, then!” exclaimed Aunt Xue. “What shall we do?”
“Wait till you hear the end of Brother Ke’s letter,” said Baochai, then read it out.

What really matters, the messenger can tell you.

Then Aunt Xue questioned the page.
“The magistrate knows that our family is well off, madam,” he said. “If we get help from people of consequence in the capital, then send him a handsome present, he can hold another trial and lighten the sentence. There’s no time to be lost. Any delay, and the master will suffer for it.”
Aunt Xue dismissed the page and went straight to the Jia Mansion to tell Lady Wang of this and appeal to her husband. Jia Zheng agreed only to send someone to speak to the magistrate — not to send him a bribe. And doubting the use of this, Aunt Xue prevailed on Xifeng to send Jia Lian with several thousand taels to buy off the magistrate, while Xue Ke at the same time squared the others involved.
Then the magistrate held a fresh trial, to which he summoned the local bailiff, witnesses and dead man’s relatives as well as Xue Pan, who was fetched from the jail. When the secretaries of the criminal department had checked the roll of names, the magistrate ordered the bailiff to iden¬tify the original deposition, then called forward the dead man’s mother Mrs. Zhang and his uncle Zhang Er for questioning.
Mrs. Zhang, weeping, testified, “My husband, Zhang Da, lived in the southern suburbs and died eighteen years ago. My first and second sons died too, leaving me only Zhang San — who has been killed. He was twenty-three this year and not yet married. Because our family is poor, with no means of livelihood, he worked as a waiter in Li Family Inn. That afternoon, they sent from the inn to tell me he had been killed. I was frightened to death, Your Honour! I rushed there and saw him lying on the ground, at his last gasp, bleeding from a gash on his head. When I called him he could not answer, and soon he died. I must have it out with that young devil!“
The runners raised an intimidating shout.
Then she kowtowed, pleading, “Your Honour, avenge me! He was the only son I had left.”
The magistrate waved her aside and called for the inn-keeper.
“Was Zhang San a workman in your inn?” he asked.
“Not a workman but a waiter,” Li Er replied.
“At the autopsy, you said that Xue Pan killed Zhang San with a bowl. Did you see him do it?”
“I was serving at the bar. I heard a customer call for wine, and soon after that someone cried, ‘Confound it! He’s knocked out!’ I ran there and saw Zhang San flat on the ground, unable to speak. I lost no time in summoning the bailiff and sent word to Zhang’s mother too. But as to how the fight started, I really have no idea. The man who was drinking with him must know that, Your Honour.”
“In your testimony at the first trial you said you witnessed the fight,” said the magistrate sternly. “How is it you’re now retracting?”
“The funk that I was in made me muddle things up.”
Once more the runners raised a warning shout.
Next the magistrate asked Wu Liang, “You were drinking with Xue Pan, weren’t you? How did he come to strike the waiter? Out with the truth!”
“I was at home that day when this Mr. Xue asked me out to drink with him. Not liking the wine he called for a different kind; and when Zhang San refused to fetch it, he flared up. He dashed the wine over the waiter’s face, and somehow or other the bowl struck his head. This I saw with my own eyes.
“Rubbish! At the autopsy, Xue Pan admitted to killing him with the bowl, and you confirmed that. Why are you eating your words now? Slap twenty-three this year and not yet married. Because our family is poor, with no means of livelihood, he worked as a waiter in Li Family Inn. That afternoon, they sent from the inn to tell me he had been killed. I was frightened to death, Your Honour! I rushed there and saw him lying on the ground, at his last gasp, bleeding from a gash on his head. When I called him he could not answer, and soon he died. I must have it out with that young devil!”
The runners raised an intimidating shout.
Then she kowtowed, pleading, “Your Honour, avenge me! He was the only son I had left.”
The magistrate waved her aside and called for the inn-keeper.
“Was Zhang San a workman in your inn?” he asked.
“Not a workman but a waiter,” Li Er replied.
“At the autopsy, you said that Xue Pan killed Zhang San with a bowl. Did you see him do it?”
“I was serving at the bar. I heard a customer call for wine, and soon after that someone cried, ‘Confound it! He’s knocked out!’ I ran there and saw Zhang San flat on the ground, unable to speak. I lost no time in summoning the bailiff and sent word to Zhang’s mother too. But as to how the fight started, I really have no idea. The man who was drinking with him must know that, Your Honour.”
“In your testimony at the first trial you said you witnessed the fight,” said the magistrate sternly. “How is it you’re now retracting?”
“The funk that I was in made me muddle things up.”
Once more the runners raised a warning shout.
Next the magistrate asked Wu Liang, “You were drinking with Xue Pan, weren’t you? How did he come to strike the waiter? Out with the truth!”
“I was at home that day when this Mr. Xue asked me out to drink with him. Not liking the wine he called for a different kind; and when Zhang San refused to fetch it, he flared up. He dashed the wine over the waiter’s face, and somehow or other the bowl struck his head. This I saw with my own eyes.
“Rubbish! At the autopsy, Xue Pan admitted to killing him with the bowl, and you confirmed that. Why are you eating your words now? Slap his face!”
With an answering shout the runners raised threatening hands.
“Xue Pan didn’t fight Zhang San — truly!” faltered Wu Liang. “His hand slipped — that’s how the wine bowl hit Zhang San’s head. Please have the goodness to ask Xue Pan, Your Honour!”
The magistrate summoned Xue Pan.
“What feud was there between you and Zhang San?” he demanded. “How did he die? Tell the truth!”
“Be merciful, Your Honour!” begged Xue Pan. “I truly never hit him. Because he wouldn’t bring us better wine, I was emptying my bowl on the ground when my hand slipped and the bowl smashed in his head. I tried to stem the bleeding, but couldn’t. Blood came pouring out, and presently he died. At the autopsy that day, for fear Your Honour would have me beaten, I said I’d struck him with the bowl. I beg Your Honour’s pardon.”
“You dolt!” bellowed the magistrate. “When first I asked why you struck him, you said you were angry because he wouldn’t fetch fresh wine. But now you say it was an accident!”
Glaring, he threatened to have him beaten and tortured. But Xue Pan stuck to his statement.
The magistrate ordered the coroner, “Give me an honest report of the wounds you recorded in the autopsy that day.”
“When I examined Zhang San’s corpse,” said the coroner, “the only wound on the body was one gash on the skull caused by a porcelain object. Half an inch deep and 1.7 inches long, it had broken the skin and fractured 0.3 inch of the parietal bone. This wound was undoubtedly caused by a blow.”
The magistrate checked this with the post-mortem record. Although knowing that the secretaries had altered this he did not dispute it but ordered them, hugger-mugger, to sign the new confession.
“Your Honour!” sobbed Mrs. Zhang. “Last time, I heard there were other wounds. How are there none today?”
“You are talking nonsense,” he fumed. “Here is the post-mortem record. Can’t you read?”
He then summoned the dead man’s uncle Zhang Er to ask him, “How many wounds were there on your nephew’s body?”
“One on the head,” replied Zhang Er hastily.
“Quite so,” said the magistrate.
He made a secretary show Mrs. Zhang the record, and told the bailiff and Zhang Er to point out the testimony of all the eye-witnesses that there had been no fight and that this was not murder but simply an acci¬dent. Having made them append their signatures, he consigned Xue Pan to jail until further notice, ordered the bailiff to take the others away, and declared the court adjourned. When Mrs. Zhang wept and clamoured, he told runners to throw her out.
“It really was an accident,” Zhang Er assured her. “How can we hold him to blame? Now His Honour has decided the case, don’t make a scene.”
Xue Ke, outside, was pleased when he heard the upshot. He sent word home but stayed there himself, waiting to pay the plaintiffs com¬pensation once the verdict was announced. Then he overheard several passers-by in the street saying that an Imperial Concubine had died, and the Emperor had suspended court for three days. As this place was not far from the Imperial Sepulchres, the local magistrate had to prepare for the funeral and would probably be occupied for some time. Xue Ke, knowing that waiting there would serve no purpose, went to see Xue Pan in prison.
“Just wait with an easy mind, cousin,” he urged him. “I’m going home but will be back before long.”
To allay his mother’s anxiety, Xue Pan gave him a note for her in which he had written:
I am all right now. After a few more payments to the yamen I’ll be able to return home. Don’t begrudge spending money!

Then, leaving Li Xiang to attend to things there, Xue Ke went home. When he saw Aunt Xue, he told her how the magistrate had been sub¬orned and decided the case in their favour, returning a verdict of death by misadventure.
“After paying the dead man’s family more compensation, we should have no further trouble,” he concluded.
Aunt Xue said with relief, “I was hoping you’d come back to see to our family affairs. I ought to go to thank the Jia family. Besides, now that Imperial Concubine Zhou had died they have to go to court every day, leaving the house empty. I was thinking of going over to help see to things and keep your aunt company, but we have no one at home. You’ve come just at the right time.”
“It’s because I heard outside that Imperial Consort Jia had died that I hurried back. I did wonder, though, how that could be, as she had been in good health.”
“Last year she had one bout of illness, then recovered. This time we hadn’t heard that she was unwell, but we were told that for several days the old lady in the Jia Mansion had been poorly, and whenever she closed her eyes she saw Her Highness — that had everyone worried! Yet when they sent to make inquiries, it seemed nothing was amiss. Then three nights ago the old lady asked, ‘How could Her Highness come all by herself to see me?’ No one took her seriously, thinking this another hal¬lucination brought on by illness. ‘You don’t believe me,’ she said, ‘but Yuanchun herself just told me: Prosperity and splendour soon run out; some way of escape must be found!’
“Still no one paid much attention, thinking it natural for an old soul of the worrying sort to have such notions. But the very next morning, word came from the Palace that the Imperial Consort was mortally ill and all ladies of rank were to go to pay their respects. That threw them into a fluster, and they hurried to the Palace. Before their return, though, word reached us here that it was Imperial Concubine Zhou who died. Just fancy, isn’t it remarkable the way these rumours outside and our suspi¬cions at home coincided!”
Baochai put in, “It wasn’t just the rumours outside that misled us, but the mere words ‘Her Highness’ set her family in a tizzy, and only after¬wards did they find out the truth. The last couple of days their maids have come and told us that they knew earlier on it couldn’t be their Royal Highness.
“How can you be sure?’ I asked.
“The answer was, ‘A few years ago at New Year, someone in the provinces introduced to us a fortune-teller, said to be infallible. The old lady told us to put Her Highness’ horoscope in with the maids’ for him to work out.
“He said, ‘There must be some mistake in the hour of birth of that girl born on the first of the first month. Otherwise, she must be of high degree — she couldn’t be in this house.’
“Lord Zheng said, ‘Never mind whether there’s a mistake or not. Just predict her fortune.’
“‘She was born in the year Jiashen, the month bin gym,’ he said. ‘Three of these characters signify ‘demotion’ and ‘bankruptcy.’ Only shen augurs well for officialdom and wealth; still that doesn’t hold good for a girl who has to leave home. The day of her birth is yimao. In early spring the ‘wood’ element is in the ascendant. Although the two signs clash, the bigger the clash the better, just as in the case of good wood — the more you polish it, the greater its value. But most auspicious of all is the hour sign xinshi, xin meaning precious as gold, shi high rank and wealth. Combined, they make up the ‘winged horse’ sign, and the day in this combination is so exceptionally auspicious that she should soar up like the moon in the sky and rank high in the Emperor’s favour. If the hour of her birth is correct, she must be a sovereign lady.’
“‘Wasn’t that an accurate forecast?’ said the maids. ‘We also re¬member his saying that unluckily her splendour would be short-lived. If a mao month happened to fall in a yin year, there would be a double clash and that would undermine her strength, just as in the case of good wood if it’s carved too intricately. They forgot all those predictions and got worked up over nothing. But we remembered the other day and told our mistress. This isn’t the yin year nor the mao month, is it?”’
Before Baochai could finish, Xue Ke said excitedly, “Never mind about other people. If you know of such a miraculous fortune-teller, quickly give me Xue Pan’s horoscope — I’m sure he’s under some evil star this year to have such a bad stroke of luck — and I’ll get him to work out what’s going to happen.”
“That man came from the provinces,” said Baochai. “We don’t know whether he’s still in the capital this year or not.”
Baochai then helped her mother get ready to go to the Jia Mansion. At the time of Aunt Xue’s arrival, the only ones of the family at home were Li Wan, Tanchun and Xichun, who asked her about Xue Pan’s case.
“It won’t be settled till the court has reported it to the higher-ups,” Aunt Xue told them. “But it looks as if it won’t be too serious.”
They were relieved to hear this.
Tanchun remarked, “Yesterday evening Her Ladyship, thinking back, said, ‘Last time we had trouble at home, Aunt Xue rallied round. But now, with troubles of our own, we’re in no position to help her.’ This has been preying on her mind.”
“I’ve been feeling bad myself,” answered Aunt Xue. “But with your Cousin Pan in this fix and your Cousin Ke away to sort things out, there was only Baochai at home — and what could she do? I couldn’t leave her before, especially not with my daughter-in-law so senseless. At present the magistrate there is so busy preparing the funeral of Imperial Concu-bine Zhou, he has no time to wind up Pan’s case. So your Cousin Ke has come back, making it possible for me to come over.
“Won’t you stay here for a few days, aunt?” urged Li Wan.
“I’d like to stay and keep you company for a bit.” Aunt Xue nodded. “But that would be rather lonely for Baochai.”
“If that’s what worries you, aunty, why not bring her over too?” suggested Xichun.
Aunt Xue smiled.
“No, that wouldn’t do.”
“Why not?” asked Xichun. “Didn’t she stay here before?”
“You don’t understand,” put in Li Wan. “She has work to do at home. How could she come?”
Xichun, thinking this the truth, did not press the point.
As they were chatting, the Lady Dowager’s party returned.
At sight of Aunt Xue, without stopping to exchange greetings, they asked her for news of Xue Pan, which she gave them in full. When she described his encounter with Jiang Yuhan, Baoyu — though he could not ask in front of the rest — knew that this was his friend the actor. He wondered, “If he’s back in the capital, why hasn’t he come to see me?” Baochai’s absence puzzled him too, and he remained lost in thought till Daiyu’s arrival cheered him up and stopped him thinking about her. He and the girls stayed to dine with the old lady, after which they dispersed, Aunt Xue staying on to sleep in the old lady’s annex.
Once home again, Baoyu was changing his clothes when he remem¬bered the sash given him by Jiang Yuhan.
He asked Xiren, “Do you still have that red sash which you refused to wear the other year?”
“I put it away,” she said. “Why do you ask?”
“Oh, for no special reason.
“Didn’t you hear how Master Pan got charged with murder through mixing with such riffraff? Why bring that up again? You’d better study quietly and forget about such trifles, instead of worrying your head over nothing.”
“I’m not doing anything wrong, am I?” lie demanded. “It just hap¬pened to cross my mind. What does it matter whether you have it or not? I ask one little question, and listen to the way you run on!”
“I didn’t mean to nag.” She smiled. “But someone who studies the classics and knows the rules of propriety ought to aim high. Then, when the one you love comes, she’ll be pleased and respect you.
This reminded Baoyu of something.
“Botheration!” he exclaimed. “There was such a crowd with the old lady just now that I wasn’t able to talk with Cousin Lin. She paid me no attention either. By the time I left, she’d already gone. She must be in her place now. I’ll drop in to see her.” With that he started out.
“Don’t be too long,” said Xiren. “I shouldn’t have said that, getting you all worked up.
Baoyu made no reply but went off with lowered head to Bamboo Lodge where Daiyu, bending over her desk, was reading. He approached her with a smile.
“Have you been back long?”
“You cut me, so why should I stay there?” She asked archly.
“There were so many people talking, I couldn’t get a word in. That’s why I didn’t speak to you.”
He had been eyeing Daiyu’s book, but could not recognize the char¬acters in it. Some looked familiar, others were combinations of various radicals and numerals.
In puzzled surprise he observed, “You’re getting more erudite, cousin, all the time, reading something so esoteric!” Daiyu burst out laughing.
“What a scholar!” she teased. “Have you never seen a lute score before?”
“Of course I have. But how come I don’t know any of those charac¬ters there? Do you understand them, cousin?”
“Would I read it if I didn’t?”
“I don’t believe you. I’ve never seen you playing a lute. We have several hanging in our study. The other year a scholar called, Ji Haogu I think his name was. My father asked him to play, but when he took the lutes down he said none of them was any good and proposed, ‘If you like, sir, I’ll bring my own lute some day to play for you. ‘But he never turned up again, probably because my father’s no connoisseur. Why have you been hiding this accomplishment from me?”
“I’m no good at it really,” she said. “The other day, feeling a bit better, I rummaged through the books on the big bookcase and found a set of lute scores which looked intriguing. It gives a lucid account of musical theory and clear instructions for playing. Luting was truly an art the men of old cultivated to achieve tranquility and integrity. In Yangzhou, I heard it explained and learned to play, but then I gave up and that was the end of that. As the saying goes, ‘Three days without playing, and fingers become thumbs.
“The other day when I read those scores, there were no words to the music, only titles. Then I found a score somewhere else with words set to the music, which made it more interesting. It’s really hard to play well. We read that when the musician Kuang played the lute, he could summon up wind and thunder, dragons and phoenixes. Even the sage Confucius learned from the musician Xiang, and as soon as he played a piece he realized that this was King Wen’s music. Then there was the musician who, playing of mountains and streams, met a man of true understand¬ing...” Here her eyelashes fluttered and, slowly, she lowered her head.
By now Baoyu’s enthusiasm was aroused.
“Dear cousin, how fascinating you make it sound!” he exclaimed. “But I can’t read any of those characters. Won’t you teach me a few of them.” 
“You don’t have to be taught. Once I explain, you’ll catch on.”
“I’m a stupid fellow, so tell me what that character like ‘big’ (大) with a hook to it means, and the one that has a ‘five’ in it.”
Daiyu rejoined gaily, “the one made up of ‘big’ and ‘nine’ means that you must thumb the ninth note of the lute. The hook combined with ‘five’ means that you must pluck the fifth string with your right hand. They’re not characters actually but musical signs, which are very easy to follow. Then there are various methods of fingering: Whirring, strok-ing, plucking, damping, tapping, sliding, gliding, pushing and so forth.”
Baoyu was delighted.
“Good cousin, since you understand all about it, why don’t we learn to play the lute?” he proposed.
“No,” she said. “The men of old made music to induce self-restraint, curb passion, and suppress licence and extravagance. So anyone want¬ing to play the lute should choose some quiet, lofty studio either in some attic among forests and rocks, or on the summit of a hill or the bank of a stream. A fine, mild day should be chosen too, with a cool breeze and bright moon. Then one should burn incense and sit quietly, one’s mind a blank, one’s breathing regular, to become one with the spirit world and the Way. This is why the ancients said ‘Hard to meet one who under¬stands music’. When there are no understanding listeners, one should play to the cool breeze and bright moon, green pines and rugged rocks, wild monkeys and hoary cranes, conveying one’s emotions in solitude so as not to do injustice to the lute.
“Then again, good fingering and execution are needed. Before play¬ing one must dress fittingly in a loose cape or long robe like the men of old, to be worthy of this instrument of the sage’s. This done, the hands should be washed, incense lit, and the lutist should sit lightly on the couch with the lute on his desk, its fifth note facing his heart. Only then, when mind and body are well-regulated, can the two hands be raised slowly. And whether soft or loud, fast or slow, the playing must be natural and dignified.”
“We’re only learning for fun!” exclaimed Baoyu. “If you’re so par¬ticular, it’ll be too hard.”
While they were talking Zijuan had come in. She smiled at the sight of Baoyu.
“So you’re in good spirits today, Master Bao!” she remarked.
“My cousin’s conversation is so illuminating, I could never tire of listening,” he told her.
“That’s not what I meant,” said the maid. “You must have been in good spirits today to come here.”
“While she was unwell, I was afraid to disturb her; besides, I had to go to school. That’s why I gave the impression of keeping away....
“Miss Lin’s only just better,” Zijuan interrupted. “As you know that, Master Bao, you should let her rest now and not wear her out.”
“I was so intent on listening, I forgot that she might be tired.”
“It’s not tiring but fun to discuss such things,” said Daiyu with a smile. “I’m only afraid you may not understand.”
“Well, anyway, I’ll get it clear gradually.” With that he stood up say¬ing, “Really you’d better rest now. Tomorrow I’ll ask Tanchun and Xichun to learn to play the lute for me too.”
“You’re too spoilt!” chuckled Daiyu. “If we all learn to play but you don’t understand, won’t that be a case of playing a lute to an....”1 Here she recollected herself and broke off.
“So long as you can play, I’ll be only too glad to listen,” said Baoyu cheerfully. “I don’t care if you think me an ox.”
Daiyu blushed and smiled while Zijuan and Xueyan laughed.
Baoyu was on his way out when along came Qiuwen with a younger maid carrying a small pot of orchids.
“Someone sent four pots of orchids to Her Ladyship.” she announced. “They’re too busy to enjoy them, so Her Ladyship told us to take one pot to Master Bao, one to Miss Lin.”
Daiyu saw that a few sprays had double blooms. The sight stirred her, but whether with joy or with grief she did not know as she stared at them blankly. Baoyu’s mind, however, was still set on the lute.
“Now that you have these orchids, cousin,” he said, “you can play that tune The Orchid.”2
This remark upset Daiyu. Going back to her room she gazed at the orchids, reflecting, “In spring, plants put out fresh blooms and luxuriant leaves. I’m still young, yet already I’m like a plant in late autumn. If my wish comes true, I may gradually grow stronger. If not, I fear I’ll be like a fading flower — how can I stand buffeting by rain and wind?” She could not hold back her tears.
Zijuan seeing this could not understand the reason. She thought, “Just now with Baoyu here she was so happy. Why has looking at orchids made her sad again?”
She was anxiously wondering how to comfort her mistress when a maid arrived with a message from Baochai. To know what it was, read on.

Chapter 87

Moved by an Autumn Poem,
a Lutist Mourns the Past
One Practicing Yoga Is
Possessed Through Lust


Baochai’s maid, called in by Daiyu, presented her young lady’s greet¬ings and letter, then was sent off to have some tea. Opening the letter, Daiyu found written there:

Born on an unlucky day in an ill-fated family, I have no sister and my mother is failing. Day and night there is bickering and brawling here, on top of which fearful disasters have assailed us thick and fast. At dead of night I toss and turn, overwhelmed by anxiety. Surely you who under¬stand me must sympathize with me?
I recall the Begonia Club we formed in autumn and how we enjoyed chrysanthemums and crabs in happy harmony. When I remember those lines:
Proud recluse, with what hermit are you taking refuge?
All flowers must bloom, what makes you bloom so late?
I cannot but feel that the chrysanthemum’s old fragrance is like the two of us! Moved by these thoughts I have scribbled out four stanzas. Though simply an empty lament, they voice my distress.
1
Sad to see the passing of seasons,
Cool autumn is here once more;
My family is ill-fated,
Alone I dwell, my heart sore.
Day-lilies in the northern hall
Cannot make me forget my cares.
With no means to banish grief,
My heart despairs.
2
Low hang the clouds, 
The autumn wind makes moan; 
I pace the court
Through withered leaves turned roan.
Where can I go?
Lost, my past happiness.
Remembered joys
But fill me with distress.
3
The sturgeon has its tarn,
The crane its nest,
One lurking within scales,
One with long plumage dressed!
At my wit’s end
I ask infinity:
High heaven, vast earth,
Who knows my misery?
4
The Milky Way is twinkling,
The atmosphere strikes chill;
The moon is sloping down the sky,
The jade clepsydra’s still.
There is no sleep for aching hearts.
My grief I must impart;
Chanting again and yet again
For one who knows my heart.

Daiyu after reading these lines was plunged in grief. She reflected, “The fact that Cousin Baochai didn’t send these to anyone else, only to me, shows that we are kindred spirits.”
She was lost in thought when someone outside called out, “Is Cousin Lin at home?”
Putting Baochai’s letter away she asked who was there, even as Tanchun, Xiangyun, Li Wen and Li Qi trooped in. They exchanged greet¬ings while Xueyan brought them tea, after which they chatted. Remem¬bering the poems they had written that year on chrysanthemums, Daiyu remarked:
“Baochai came over twice after moving out, yet these days even when something happens she doesn’t come. Isn’t that odd? I won¬der whether she’ll ever come back or not!”
“Why shouldn’t she?” asked Tanchun with a smile. “She’s bound to eventually.... Just now, of course, she has too much to see to, what with her sister-in-law’s cranky ways, aunty getting on in years, and on top of everything this trouble of Cousin Pan’s. She hasn’t the time to spare that she used to have.”
Just then a gust of wind sprang up, dashing fallen leaves against the window paper. By and by they smelt a faint fragrance.
“Where does this scent come from?” they wondered. “What can it be?”
“It’s like fragrant osmanthus,” observed Daiyu.
“Cousin Lin is talking like a southerner,” teased Tanchun. “How could fragrant osmanthus bloom in the ninth month?”
“Quite so.” Daiyu laughed. “That’s why I said it’s like fragrant osmanthus.”
“You’d better pipe down, Tanchun.” put in Xiangyun. “Don’t you remember the lines:

Ten li of lotus blooms.
And in late autumn fragrant osmanthus seeds.

This is the season for it to blossom down south, only you’ve never seen it.	When you go south in future, you’ll find out.”
“Why should I go south?” asked Tanchun. “Besides, I knew that without your telling me.
Li Wen and Li Qi said nothing, only smiled.
“Don’t be so sure about that, cousin,” said Daiyu. “As the saying goes, ‘Man is a wanderer, here today but gone tomorrow’. For example, how did I get here, when I’m a southerner?”
Xiangyun clapped her hands and laughed.
“Today Cousin Lin’s floored Cousin Tanchun!” she crowed. “Not only is Daiyu here from the south, the rest of us come from different places too. Some are northerners, others were born in the south and brought up in the north, still others were brought up in the south and then came north. Our coming together now in one place shows that everyone’s fate is fixed. Each individual is destined for different places.”
The others nodded approval while Tanchun merely smiled. And after more casual talk the visitors left. When Daiyu saw them to the door they said, “You’ve only just got a bit better, don’t come out. We don’t want you to catch cold.”
She stood in the doorway exchanging civilities with them until they left the compound, then went back to her room and sat down. It was sunset now, birds were winging back to the hills. And Xiangyun’s talk about the south filled Daiyu’s mind with fancies.
“If my parents were still alive.., the south with spring flowers and autumn moonlight, limpid streams and lucent hills, Yangzhou’s twenty-four bridges and Six Dynasties’ relics.., no lack of maids to wait on me, and freedom to do as I pleased without worrying... a scented carriage and a painted barge, the red apricots and green signs of country taverns, my own mistress, respected by all.... Now, living with another family, although they treat me so well I have to watch my step all the time.... What sins did I commit in my last life to be so wretched now? In the words of the deposed king of Southern Tang,1 ‘Here I can only bathe my face in tears every day’....” She lost herself in these reflections.
Zijuan coming back supposed that her melancholy had been induced by the talk about south and north which Daiyu had taken to heart.
“The young ladies were here so long chatting, you must be tired, miss,” she said. “I just told Xueyan to get the kitchen to prepare you a bowl of cabbage soup with ham and dried shrimps, as well as some bamboo shoots and layer in it. Is that all right?”
“It will do.”
“There’ll be congee too.”
Daiyu nodded, then said, “I’d like you two to cook it, not leave it to the kitchen.”
“Yes, we will,” Zijuan assured her. “I was afraid, too, that the kitchen wouldn’t be clean enough. As for the soup, I asked Xueyan to tell Mrs. Liu that it must be very clean. And Mrs. Liu said she’d get together the ingredients, then ask their Wuer to cook it on the small stove in their own room.”
“It’s not that I think them dirty,” said Daiyu. “But all this time I’ve been unwell I’ve had to depend on them for everything. So now they may resent these special instructions about soup and congee.” Her eyes brimmed with tears again.
“Don’t go imagining things, miss,” urged Zijuan. “You’re the old lady’s grand-daughter and she dotes on you. They’re only too glad of a chance to please you. How can they possibly complain?”
Daiyu nodded. Then she asked, “That Wuer you mentioned just now, isn’t she the girl who was with Fangguan in Master Bao’s place?”
“That’s the one.”
“Didn’t I hear say she’d be coming to work in the Garden?”
“Yes, miss. But she fell ill, and when she got over it and was to come, there was all that trouble over Qingwen and the rest, and so it got de¬layed.”
“She looked to me a neat girl,” Daiyu said.
Now a serving-woman outside delivered the soup, Xueyan went out to fetch it.
The woman reported, “Mrs. Liu says to tell your young lady that this was prepared by her Wuer. She didn’t dare have it prepared in the big kitchen for fear your young lady might think it not clean enough.”
Xueyan voiced approval and brought the soup in. Daiyu, who had heard this exchange, made Xueyan tell the woman to thank them for their trouble, after which the latter left. Then Xueyan set Daiyu’s bowl and chopsticks on the small table.
“We’ve those five-spice pickles from the south too,” she said. “Would you like some with sesame oil and vinegar?”
“All right, if it’s not too much trouble.”
When the congee was served, Daiyu ate half a bowl and two spoon¬fuls of the soup, but then gave up. Two maids cleared and wiped the table, took it away, then brought in the small table which she liked to use.
Daiyu, having rinsed her mouth and washed her hands, asked Zijuan, “Have you added fresh incense?”
“I’ll do it now, miss.
“You two may as well finish up the congee and soup; they taste quite good and they’re clean. I’ll see to the incense myself.”
The two maids agreed and sat down to supper in the outer room.
After adding fresh incense, Daiyu settled down to read when a west wind sprang up and set all the trees rustling. Presently the iron chimes swinging from the eaves raised a loud tinkling too. Xueyan, her supper finished, now came back.
“It’s grown cold,” Daiyu told her. “Have you aired my fur clothes, as I asked you the other day?”
“Yes, all of them.”
“Bring me something to put over my shoulders.”
Xueyan fetched in a bundle of fur-lined clothes and unwrapped it for Daiyu to make her choice. The first thing her eye fell on was a silk wrapper. Undoing this, she found the old handkerchiefs Baoyu had sent her when he was ill, on which she had written poems —they still had her tear-stains on them. Wrapped inside were the scented pouch which she had cut up, a fan-case and the tassel from Baoyu’s Jade of Spiritual Understanding. These had been in the chest when it was opened to sun the clothes, and Zijuan for fear that they might get mislaid had put them in the bundle.
The sight of these things made Daiyu forget about putting on some¬thing warmer. She picked up the two handkerchiefs and gazed blankly at her old poems, then started weeping. Zijuan coming in now saw Xueyan standing there stock-still, holding a felt wrapper of clothes. The mutilated pouch, the fan-case in two or three pieces and the snipped off tassel were on the little table; and Daiyu, clutching two old handkerchiefs with writing on them, was gazing at them in tears. Truly:

When the sad meet with sadness,
New tears mingle with the old!

Zijuan realized that these things had reopened old wounds, making her young mistress grieve over the past, and guessed it would be useless to reason with her.
“Why look at those, miss?” she asked, smiling. “They’ll only remind you of the pranks Master Bao and you got up to when you were young, quarrelling one day and making it up the next. If he’d been as well-mannered then as he is now, these things would never have got spoilt.”
To Zijuan’s surprise, this banter reminded Daiyu even more of her first years here. Big tears streamed down her cheeks.
“Xueyan’s standing waiting,” Zijuan reminded her. “Do put on some¬thing warmer.”
Then at last Daiyu put down the handkerchiefs. Zijuan promptly picked them up to wrap them up with the pouch and other things and whisk them away.
Daiyu, draping a fur-lined jacket over her shoulders, went disconso¬lately to the outer room to sit down. Turning her head she noticed that she had not yet put away Baochai’s poems. She picked them up, reread them twice, then sighed:
“Though our positions are different, we’re one in our distress. I may as well write four verses too and set them to music, to sing them to a lute accompaniment. Tomorrow I’ll copy them out and send them to her by way of reply.”
She told Xueyan to fetch the brush and ink-stone from her desk, then wrote four stanzas, after which she got out the lute scores and set her verses to the melodies Quiet Orchid and Longing for a Worthy Man. She made a copy to send to Baochai, then told Xueyan to fetch from the chest the short lute she had brought north with her. Having tuned the strings she practised some finger exercises. And as Daiyu was so intelli¬gent and had learned to play a little in the south, although out of practice she soon regained her old skill. She played until it was late ,then called Zijuan in to clear up and went to bed.

To return to Baoyu. He got up and dressed the next morning and was on his way to school with Beiming when Moyu came running towards them, grinning from ear to ear.
“Master Bao, you’ve got off cheap today!” cried Moyu. “The tutor’s not at school; it’s a holiday.”
“Is that true?” demanded Baoyu.
“If you don’t believe me, look! Can’t you see Master Huan and Master Lan coming?”
Sure enough, Baoyu saw the two boys accompanied by their pages laughing and chatting together as they approached. At sight of him they stood at respectful attention.
“Why are you coming back?” he asked.
Huan answered, “The tutor has some business today, so he’s given us one day’s holiday. We’re to go back tomorrow.”
Baoyu went to report this to his grandmother and father, then returned to Happy Red Court.
“Why are you back?” asked Xiren.
He told her the reason, and after sitting down for a short time started out.
“Where are you off to?” she wanted to know. “What’s the hurry? You’ve just been given a day off. I advise you to have a rest.”
He halted then with lowered head and said, “You’re right, of course. But it’s so seldom I get a free day, why shouldn’t I have some fun? Do have a heart!”
He looked so pathetic that Xiren chuckled, “All right, go wherever you like, sir!”
Just then lunch was served, however, and Baoyu had to eat. But after gobbling his food and rinsing his mouth he dashed off to find Daiyu. When he reached her gate, he saw Xueyan hanging out some handkerchiefs in the courtyard.
“Has your mistress had her meal?” he asked.
“She had half a bowl of congee in the morning, but didn’t want any lunch. She’s taking a nap now. You’d better come back later, Master Bao.”
Baoyu had to turn back. He did not know where to go until it occurred to him that he had not seen Xichun for several days; so he strolled over to Smartweed Breeze Cot. Stopping outside her window, he discovered that all was quiet and thought he had better not enter as she must be having a siesta too. He was on the point of leaving when he heard a faint sound inside, but could not make out what it was. He stopped to listen, and after some time heard a chinking sound. Still he could not make out what it was.
“If you move that piece here,” said a voice inside, “what about your position there?”
At that he realized they were playing draughts, but could not identify the voice. Then he heard Xichun say, “What do I care? If you take that piece of mine, I’ll move here. If you take this piece, I’ll move there. I shall still be able to encircle that place in the end.”
“What if I do this?” asked the other.
“Ah!” exclaimed Xichun. “I didn’t guard against a thrust like that!”
The second voice sounded familiar, but Baoyu knew it was not one of his cousins’. Assuming that the other player could not be an outsider, he softly raised the portiere and went in, only to discover that the visitor was no other than the “outsider” Miaoyu of Green Lattice Nunnery. Seeing this, he dared not disturb them; and the two girls, intent on their game, did not notice him. Baoyu stood beside them watching.
Miaoyu, her head lowered, asked, “Don’t you want this corner?”
“Of course I do,” said Xichun. “But your pieces there are all dead, so what have I to fear?”
“Don’t be so sure,” said Miaoyu. “Wait and see.”
“I’ll attack here and see what you can do.”
Miaoyu, smiling, linked her pieces in one continuous border and counter¬attacked, threatening Xichun’s corner.
“This is called ‘pulling off the boot, “‘ she chuckled.
Before Xichun could reply Baoyu burst out laughing, making the two girls start.
“Why do such a thing?” exclaimed Xichun. “Coming in without a word to startle us! How long have you been there?”
“Quite a while. I’ve been watching you fight for that corner.”
He greeted Miaoyu and said to her with a smile, “It’s rarely that you leave your saintly abode. Why have you descended today to the mun¬dane world?”
Miaoyu flushed up but said nothing, lowering her head to keep her eyes on the board. Conscious of his gaffe, Baoyu tried to cover it up.
“You who have renounced the world are not like us vulgar world¬lings,” he said with a conciliatory smile. “First of all, your hearts are at peace, so you are more spiritual and have quiet perception....”
He was running on like this when Miaoyu glanced up at him, then lowered her head again, blushing furiously. Baoyu, cold-shouldered like this, sat down sheepishly at one side.
Xichun wanted to finish the game, but after a while Miaoyu said, “Let’s play some other time.” She stood up to smooth down her clothes, but then sat down again and asked Baoyu fatuously, “Where did you come from?”
He had been waiting for her to address him so that he could make up for his earlier tactlessness. However, it occurred to him that she might be testing his understanding. He reddened and could not answer. With a faint smile Miaoyu turned to talk to Xichun.
“Is that so hard to answer, Second Brother?” chuckled Xichun. “Have you never heard the saying, ‘I came from where I’ve been’? Why blush like that as if she were a stranger?”
Miaoyu took this dig personally. Her heart misgave her and her cheeks burned — she knew she must be red in the face too. In her embarrass¬ment she stood up and said, “I’ve been here so long, I must be getting back to my nunnery.
As Xichun knew her ways, instead of pressing her to stay she saw her to the door.
“It’s so long since last I was here,” said Miaoyu, “I may not be able to find my way back with all those twists and turns.”
“Why not let me show you the way?” Baoyu volunteered.
“Thank you, sir. Please lead on!”
Taking their leave of Xichun, they left Smartweed Breeze Cot and followed a winding path which took them near Bamboo Lodge. Suddenly they heard a twanging.
“Where does that luting come from?” Miaoyu asked.
“It must be Cousin Lin playing the lute.”
“Can she play too? Why did she never mention it?”
Baoyu repeated what Daiyu had said to him.
“Let’s call on her,” he proposed.
“One can only listen to luting, not look at it — that’s always been the rule,” she objected.
“I’m a vulgar person, I know,” he said with a grin.
Being outside Bamboo Lodge now, they seated themselves on an ar¬tificial hill to listen quietly to the clear music. Daiyu was chanting softly:
The wind is soughing, the days drawing in,
Far away, lost in thought, the lovely maid;
I gaze towards my home—where is it?
Tears stain my dress beside the balustrade. 

After a pause she continued:

Far-stretching hills, long rivers,
Bright moonlight shining on my window-sill;
Sleepless I lie beneath faint Milky Way,
Clad in thin silk; the wind and dew are chill.
As she paused again, Miaoyu remarked, “The first stanza used the qin rhyme, the second the yang rhyme. Let’s hear what follows.”
Then they heard fresh chanting inside:
Your lot is not of your choosing,
And mine is filled with care;
You and I are kindred spirits,
Revering the ancients that we may not err.
Miaoyu commented, “Another stanza, but how mournful!”
“Though I don’t understand music, it does sound too sad,” Baoyu agreed.
Inside, they heard the strings being returned.
“The main string is too high!” Miaoyu exclaimed. “It may not fit that scale.”
Inside, Daiyu resumed:
Life in this world is but a speck of dust,
Karma ordains all mortals’ destiny;
If Karma rules, then why repine?
Would that my heart were pure as the moon in the sky!
The colour draining from her face Miaoyu exclaimed, “Why did she suddenly play such a high note? It’s enough to crack metal or stone! This is too extreme.”
“What do you mean?”
“I doubt if she can keep it up.”
Even as she said this, they heard the main string snap. Miaoyu stood up and hastily started off.
“What’s the matter?” Baoyu asked.
“You’ll know later; don’t talk about it.”
With that she left, and Baoyu went back to Happy Red Court feeling puzzled and depressed.

Miaoyu returned to the nunnery, and the old deaconess waiting for her there closed the gate. She sat down for a while to chant the sutra for the day, and after supper burned incense and worshipped Buddha. This done, she dismissed the deaconess for the night. As her couch and back-rest were ready, she quietly let down the curtain and sat cross-legged to medi¬tate, banishing all frivolous thoughts to concentrate on the truth.
Some time after midnight, she heard a thud on the roof. Suspecting a thief, she left her couch and went out to the veranda. She saw cloud streamers in the sky and moonlight limpid as water. As it was not yet too cold, she stood there alone for a while by the balustrade till a sudden caterwauling broke out on the roof. Abruptly recalling Baoyu’s remarks that day, her heart started beating faster and her face burned. Hastily suppressing her feelings, she returned to her cell and sat down again on the couch.
But her fancy, now running as wild as galloping horses, made her imagine that the couch was rocking and she was no longer in the nun¬nery. Many young lordlings had come to ask for her hand and, against her wishes, go-betweens were tugging and pushing her into a carriage. Then brigands kidnapped her and threatened her with swords and clubs, so that she screamed for help.
This aroused the novices and deaconess, who came with torches to see what was the matter. Finding Miaoyu with outflung arms, frothing at the mouth, they hastily woke her up.
Her eyes staring, crimson in the face, she shouted, “How dare you thugs attack one under Buddha’s protection!”
Frightened out of their wits they assured her, “It’s us! Wake up!”
“I want to go home,” she cried. “If there’s any kind soul among you, take me back!”
“You’re here in your own cell,” said the deaconess, then told the novices to pray to Guanyin and ask for an oracle. They opened the book of oracles at a passage indicating that she had “offended a spirit in the southwest corner.”
“That’s right!” one of them exclaimed. “No one lives in the south¬west corner of Grand View Garden, so there are bound to be evil spirits there.”
They busied themselves getting soup for her and boiled water. And the novice who took the best care of Miaoyu, being a southerner herself, sat on the couch and put one arm around her.
Miaoyu turned to her and demanded, “Who are you?”
“Don’t you know me?”
Miaoyu looked more carefully. “So it’s you!” she cried, hugging the novice to her. “If you don’t save me, mother,” she sobbed, “I’m done for!”
The novice tried to bring her to her senses. She massaged her while the deaconess brought tea, and not till dawn did Miaoyu fall asleep. They sent for doctors then. One diagnosed her trouble as debility of the spleen brought on by worry; one attributed it to a hot humour in the blood; an¬other to offending evil spirits; and yet another diagnosed a chill. They could not reach agreement.
Later they called in another doctor who after examining the patient asked, “Did she practise yoga?”
“Yes, every night,” answered the deaconess.
“Was this a sudden fit last night?”
“That’s right.”
“Then it came on because evil thoughts crossed her mind and kindled a hot humour.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“It can be cured, as luckily she did not meditate very long, so the evil did not penetrate too deep.”
He prescribed some medicine to alleviate the hot humour in her heart, and after taking it Miaoyu felt some relief.
When young dandies heard this story, they spread all manner of rumours and commented, “She’s too young — romantic and intelligent too to stand such an austere life. Who knows what lucky man will get hold of her in future?”
After a few days, although Miaoyu felt better, she was still not back to normal, her mind remaining confused.
One day, Xichun was sitting quietly when Caiping came in to ask, “Do you know, miss, what happened to Sister Miaoyu?”
“No. What?”
“I heard Miss Xing and Madam Zhu discussing it yesterday. The night after she went back from playing chess with you, some evil spirit took possession of her, and she started raving that bandits had come to kidnap her! Even now she hasn’t recovered. Isn’t that extraordinary?”
Xichun remained silent, thinking, “Though Miaoyu is so chaste, she’s not severed all earthly ties yet. It’s too bad that I live in a family like this and can’t become a nun. If I renounced the world, how could evil thoughts assail me? Not one would cross my mind — all desires would be stilled!” Then, suddenly struck by an idea, she chanted:
In the beginning Creation had no abode;
Where, then, should we abide?
Since we come from the void
We should return to the void.

She told a maid to burn incense and sat quietly for a while, then looked up the treatises on draughts by Kong Rong,2 Wang Jixin3 and others. After reading a few pages, she was not impressed by such gambits as “thick foliage enfolds crabs” and “yellow hawks seize a hare,” while the “thirty-six ways to enclose a corner” struck her as too hard to remem¬ber. She was intrigued, however, by “ten galloping dragons” and was thinking this over when someone entered her compound calling “Caiping!”
If you want to know who it was, read the following chapter.

Chapter 88

Baoyu, to Please His Grandmother,
Praises a Fatherless Boy
Jia Zhen, to Uphold Household Discipline,
Has Unruly Servants Whipped


As Xichun was studying the treatise on draughts, she heard Caiping’s name called in the courtyard and recognized Yuanyang’s voice. Caiping went out to usher in Yuanyang, who had brought a young maid carrying a small yellow silk bundle.
“What brings you here?” asked Xichun with a smile.
“The old lady will be eighty-one next year, miss. As that’s nine times nine, she’s going to offer sacrifices for nine days and nine nights, and she’s vowed to have three thousand six hundred and fifty-one copies of the Diamond Sutra made. This work has been given to copyists outside. But as people say this sutra, like Taoist canons, is only the shell of truth whereas the Prajnaparamitra Sutra is the kernel, this second sutra must be included as well to make the offering more meritorious. Since the Prajnaparamitra Sutra is the more important, and Guanyin is a female bodhisattva, the old lady wants some mistresses and young ladies of the family to make three hundred and sixty-five copies of it, as an act of reverence. In our family except for Madam Lian who’s too busy with household affairs and, besides, can’t write all the ladies are go¬ing to write copies, some more, some less. Even Madam Zhen and the concubines of the East Mansion will be doing their share. So of course all the ladies over here must join in.”
Xichun nodded. “Other tasks may be beyond me, but I’ve every con¬fidence when it comes to copying sutras. Just put your things down, and now have some tea.”
Yuanyang placed the little bundle on the table and sat down with her. Caiping brought them tea.
“Will you do some copying too?” Xichun asked Yuanyang.
“You must be joking, miss! In the past I might have managed, but these last three or four years have you ever seen me with a brush in my hand?”
“Still, it would be a meritorious deed.”
“Well, I’m doing something else. Every night after helping the old lady to bed, I pray to Buddha and set aside a grain of rice for each time I invoke his name. I’ve been doing that for more than three years, and saved the rice. When the old lady makes her sacrifice, I shall add my rice to it for alms as an offering to Buddha, to show my devotion.”
“In that case,” joked Xichun, “when the old lady becomes Guanyin you’ll be her Dragon Maid.”1
“How could I aspire to that? It’s true, though, that it’s the old lady and nobody else that I want to serve. I don’t know if this was predes¬tined!”
Making ready to go, she told the little maid to unwrap the bundle and take out its contents.
“This stack of paper is for copying the sutra. And this” she held up a bundle of Tibetan incense “is for you to light while copying.”
Xichun agreed to this.
Yuanyang, leaving her, went back with the little maid to make her report to the Lady Dowager. Finding her playing shuanglu2 with Li Wan, she stood and watched. Li Wan made some lucky throws and captured several of the old lady’s pieces, at which Yuanyang inwardly chuckled.
Then in came Baoyu with two miniature cages made of thin bamboo splints, containing green crickets.
“I heard you’re not sleeping well at night, madam,” he said. “So I’ll leave you these to amuse you.
“Don’t go fooling around now your father’s away!” she warned him with a smile.
“I haven’t been fooling around.”
“If you haven’t been playing truant from school, how did you get hold of these?”
“I didn’t get them myself. This morning, our teacher set Huan and Lan some couplets to write. Huan couldn’t do them, so I secretly helped him. When he recited them the teacher was pleased and commended him. He bought these for me to show his gratitude. That’s why I’m making you a present of them.”
“Doesn’t he study every day? Why can’t he write a couplet? If he can’t, your Grandad Ru should slap his face to shame him! You’re bad enough yourself. Remember , when your father was at home, how dev¬ilish scared you were every time he made you write poems. But now you’re bragging again. Of course, Huan is even worse, getting other people to do his work for him, then thinking up ways to bribe them. A child of his age up to such dirty tricks, and with no sense of shame either! What sort of creature will he grow up to be?”
Everyone in the room burst out laughing.
“What about young Lan?” the old lady asked. “Did he manage to write the couplets? Or did Huan do them for hi1n, as Lan’s smaller?”
“No,” said Baoyu with a smile. “Lan did them himself.”
“I don’t believe you. You must have been up to more monkey busi¬ness. You’re getting above yourself nowadays — a camel in a flock of sheep — being the eldest and the one who can write!”
“He really wrote them himself,” insisted Baoyu, smiling. “And our teacher praised him, saying he’ll go far in future. If you don’t believe me, madam, you can send for him and test him yourself; then you’ll know.”
“Well, if that’s truly the case I’m very glad. I was just afraid you were fibbing. If he’s up to writing couplets, the boy should get some¬where in future.” Her eye fell on Li Wan, reminding her of Jia Zhu. “That means your sister-in-law hasn’t brought him up in vain since your brother Zhu died. He’ll become the mainstay of the house some day in place of his father.”
She could not refrain from tears.
Li Wan was very moved too, but held back her own tears to comfort the old lady.
“This is all owing to the virtue of our Old Ancestress,” she said with a smile. “We all benefit from your good fortune. If he lives up to your expectations, madam, how lucky we shall be! You should be pleased, Old Ancestress, not sad.” She turned to tell Baoyu, “You mustn’t praise your nephew like that in future. What does a child of his age understand? I know you just meant to be kind, but he has no sense. If he gets conceited and cocky, he won’t make any progress.”
“Quite right,” the old lady agreed. “Still, he’s too small to be driven too hard. A little boy is timid. If you force him too hard his health may suffer and he won’t be able to study. Then all your efforts would be wasted.”
At this, Li Wan could no longer restrain herself. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she hastily wiped her eyes.
Jia Huan and Jia Lan now came in to pay their respects to the old lady. Lan greeted his mother too, after which he came over and stood at attention beside his great-grandmother.
“Just now,” she said, “I heard from your uncle that your teacher commended you for writing a good couplet.”
Lan said nothing, only smiled. Then Yuanyang came to announce that dinner was ready.
“Ask Aunt Xue to come over,” ordered the old lady.
Hupo sent to Lady Wang’s place to deliver this message. Baoyu and Huan withdrew then while Suyun and some young maids cleared away the dice game. Li Wan stayed to wait on the old lady, and Lan remained by his mother.
“You two had better eat with me,” said the old lady.
Li Wan assented, and the table was laid.
Then a maid came in to announce, “Her Ladyship told me to report that Madam Xue has been shuttling back and forth these days and can’t come to see you today, madam, because after lunch she went home.”
Thereupon the old lady made Lan sit beside her.
Dinner at an end, the old lady washed and rinsed her mouth, then lay down on the couch. They were chatting together when a young maid came in and whispered to Hupo. The latter reported to the Lady Dowa¬ger:
“Master Zhen of the East Mansion has come to pay his respects.”
“Tell him not to trouble, and thank him. As he must be tired out with family business, he should go and rest.”
This message passed on by a maid to the serving-woman outside was relayed to Jia Zhen, who withdrew.
The next day, Jia Zhen came over to attend to certain business. Ser¬vants at the gate reported on several matters, one of them announcing, “The bailiff of our farm has brought some produce.”
“Where’s the list?” demanded Jia Zhen.
The man presented it, and he saw that it comprised simply fresh fruits, vegetables, game and the like.
“Which is the steward in charge of these things?” he asked.
One of the gate-keepers replied, “Zhou Rui.”
Then Jia Zhen ordered Zhou Rui, “Check the list and take the pro¬duce inside. I’ll have a copy of the list made later, to see that the ac¬counts tally. Tell the kitchen to add a few dishes to the lowest-grade meal of the fellow who brought these things, and tip him according to the usual practice.
Zhou Rui assented and had the things delivered to Xifeng’s com¬pound. After handing over the list and the produce he left. Before long he returned to ask Jia Zhen, “Have you checked the amounts of the things that just arrived, sir?”
“What time do I have? I gave you the list to check.”
“I have, sir. There’s nothing short, and of course nothing extra. As you’ve kept a copy, sir, please call the messenger in to ask whether this is the genuine list or faked.”
“What are you driving at? Only a little fruit, what does it matter? And I’m not doubting your word.”
Just at this point, Bao Er came in and kowtowed.
“Please, sir, let me go back to working outside,” he requested.
“What have the two of you been up to now?” demanded Jia Zhen.
“I can’t speak out here,” said Bao Er.
“Who’s asking you to speak?”
“Why should I stay here — getting in people’s way?”
Zhou Rui cut in, “I handle the rents and the income and expenditure of the farm — a matter of three to five hundred thousand a year — and the master and mistresses have never found fault, not to say over a few trifles like these. Yet, judging by Bao Er, we’ve eaten up all our masters’ farms and properties!”
It was clear to Jia Zhen that Bao Er had been making trouble and he had better dismiss him.
“Clear off, quick!” he ordered, then turned to Zhou Rui. “You needn’t say any more either. Go and attend to your business.”
Then the two men went away.
Jia Zhen was relaxing in his study when he heard a great uproar at the gate. He sent to find out what had happened and the gate-keepers re¬ported:
“Bao Er is fighting with Zhou Rui’s adopted son.”
“And who may that be?” he asked.
“A rascal called He San, who gets drunk and brawls every day at home and often comes to sit at our gate. When he heard Bao Er scrap¬ping with Zhou Rui he joined in.”
“Outrageous!” swore Jia Zhen. “Have Bao Er and that fellow He San tied up. Where is Zhou Rui?”
“When they started fighting, he slipped away.”
“Bring him here! This is the limit!”
The servants assented.
In the midst of this commotion Jia Lian came back and his cousin described what had happened.
“Scandalous!” exclaimed Jia Lian.
He sent more servants in search of Zhou Rui, who came, knowing he was in for it.
“Tie them all up!” Jia Zhen ordered.
Jia Lian fumed at Zhou Rui, “Your earlier dispute could have been overlooked, and the master had already dismissed you both. Why start another fight outside? The two of you fighting was bad enough, but you dragged in that bastard He San as well to make trouble. And instead of checking them, you cleared off!” He gave Zhou Rui several kicks.
“Just beating Zhou Rui is not enough,” said Jia Zhen.
He ordered his men to give Bao Er and He San fifty lashes apiece, then drive them out, after which he and Jia Lian discussed other busi¬ness.
The servants, in private, aired different views about this. Some said Jia Zhen was biased, unable to settle disputes, others that he was a de¬bauchee.
“Earlier on, when the You sisters were carrying on in that shameless way, wasn’t it he who persuaded Master Lian to take Bao Er on?” one pointed out. “Now it must be because he’s lost interest in Bao Er’s wife that he’s found fault with Bao Er.”
Thus they argued the matter at length.

Now Jia Zheng’s post in the Ministry of Works enabled his domestics to enrich themselves. And ha Yun, getting wind of this, hoped to procure some lucrative job himself. He approached contractors outside, and after coming to terms with them bought some fashionable embroidery with which to persuade Xifeng to secure him a commission.
Xifeng, at home, heard from the maids that Jia Zhen and her husband, angry with some of the servants, were having them beaten. She was about to send to find out what had happened, when Jia Lian came in and told her the whole story.
“It’s a small matter in itself,” was Xifeng’s comment, “but we’ll have to put a stop to such behaviour. Our family still counts as enjoying good fortune, but even so these underlings dare fight! Later on, when the younger generation takes over, they’ll get quite out of hand. The other year, in the East Mansion, I saw Jiao Da lying as drunk as a lord at the foot of the steps cursing wildly. Swearing at high and low he was, quite regardless! He may have served his first master well, but still he’s only a servant and ought to show some respect. Your Cousin Zhen’s wife — if you don’t mind my saying so — is so easy-going that all her staff are spoilt and quite above themselves. And now there’s this fellow Bao Er! I understood that he was a favourite with you and your Cousin Zhen, so why did you beat him today?”
Embarrassed by this question, Jia Lian sheepishly changed the sub¬ject, then left her on the pretext that he had business.
Xiaohong came in next to report that ha Yun was outside asking to see her.
“Invite him in,” said Xifeng, wondering why he had come.
Hongyu went out and smiled at Jia Yun, who hastily stepped closer.
“Did you give her my message, miss?” he asked.
Blushing she said, “You seem to have a lot of business, sir!”
“How often have I troubled you before?” he protested. “Only once, the other year when you were in Uncle Bao’s place....”
For fear of detection she cut him short by asking, “Did you see the handkerchief I left you that time, sir?”
Jia Yun was overjoyed by this question. But before he could answer a young maid came out, and he and Hongyu hurried towards the house, walking side by side, not keeping their distance from each other.
“When I come out presently,” whispered Jia Yun, “I want you to see me out, I’ve something amusing to tell you.” Hongyu blushed and glanced at him, but did not answer. When they reached Xifeng’s room, she went in first to announce him, then came out again and raised the portiere. She beckoned him in, but said deliberately, “Madam Lian asks you to come in, Master Yun.”
Smiling, he followed her into the room and paid his respects to Xifeng.
“My mother sends her greetings,” he added.
Xifeng inquired after his mother too, then asked, “What can I do for you?”
“I’ve never forgotten your past goodness to me, aunt, and have al¬ways wished I could show my gratitude. Only I was afraid you might suspect I had ulterior motives. Now I’ve brought you a little gift for the Double-Ninth Festival. Of course you lack for nothing here, but this is just to show your nephew’s respect. I only hope you’ll condescend to accept it.”
Xifeng smiled. “Sit down if you have something to say.”
Jia Yun perched on the edge of a chair, hastily placing his present on the table beside him.
“You’re not all that well off,” said Xifeng. “Why waste money on this? And I don’t need such things. So tell me honestly what you’ve come here for.”
“I didn’t have anything special in mind, just wanted to show how I appreciate your kindness to me, aunt,” he said with a smirk.
“That’s no way to talk,” she answered. “You’re badly off, I know that perfectly well; so why should you spend money on me for nothing? If you want me to accept this, you must tell me your reason clearly. If you beat about the bush like this, I won’t take it.”
Jia Yun had no choice but to come out with the truth. Standing up with an obsequious smile he said, “Well, it’s not too high-flown, what I’m hoping. The other day I heard that Lord Zheng was in charge of the construction of the Imperial Sepulchres. I have several friends who have done work of this kind and are most reliable; so please, aunt, will you recommend us to the master? If you get us a couple of contracts, I’ll be eternally grateful! And if you need me for anything at home, I’ll serve you to the best of my ability.”
“On other matters I have some say,” she replied. “But these govern¬ment jobs are fixed by officials above and seen to by the secretaries and runners under them, so that other people can hardly get a look-in. Even our servants only go along to wait on the master. Your uncle Lian too only goes there in connection with family business — he can’t interfere with public works.
“As for our family affairs, as soon as one trouble’s settled another crops up. Not even Master Zhen can keep order here. So how could you, young as you are and junior in status, possibly cope with these people? Besides, those cushy government jobs are nearly finished: they’re simply spinning them out. Can’t you make do by finding other commissions at home? This is honest advice. Go back and think it over and you’ll see that. I appreciate your offer, but take these things back and return them to whomever you got them from.”
bust then in came some nannies with little Qiaojie, tricked out in em¬broidered silks, her arms filled with toys. She went up to her mother, smiling, to prattle to her. At once Jia Yun sprang to his feet.
Beaming, he asked, “Is this my younger sister? Do you want some¬thing nice?”
The child burst out crying, and he quickly stepped back.
“Don’t be frightened, darling,” said Xifeng, taking Qiaojie on her lap. “This is your big Cousin Yun. Why be shy?”
“What a pretty child!” he exclaimed. “She’s another who’s destined to enjoy great good fortune.”
Qiaojie turned to look at him, then started crying again.
When this had happened several times, Jia Yun saw that it was impos¬sible to stay and got up to take his leave.
“Take those things with you,” Xifeng reminded him.
“They’re only trifles, aunt. Won’t you do me the honour of accepting them?”
“If you won’t take them, I’ll have them sent back to your place. Don’t behave this way, Yun. It’s not as if you were an outsider. When there’s some opening I’ll certainly send for you; but if there’s none, what can I do about it? These things are quite superfluous.”
Seeing her so adamant he reddened and said, “In that case, aunt, I’ll look for something more acceptable to show my respect.”
Xifeng told Hongyu, “Take those things and see Master Yun out.” Jia Yun left thinking to himself, “People call her a martinet, and she
certainly is one! There’s no chink in her armour — she’s as hard as nails. No wonder she’s never had a son. And this Qiaojie is even odder, treating me as if we’d been enemies in some past life. I’m really out of luck — all this trouble for nothing!”
As Jia Yun had been rebuffed, Hongyu was upset too as she followed him out. Jia Yun took the bundle from her and unwrapped it, then chose two pieces of embroidery to slip to her. But Hongyu thrust them back.
“Don’t, sir!” she said. “If the mistress knew, it would look bad for both of us.”
“Just take them. What is there to be afraid of? How could she possi¬bly know? If you refuse, that means you look down on me.
Hongyu accepted them with a smile but said, “Why should I want these things of yours? What is this anyway?” She blushed crimson again.
“It’s the thought that counts,” he chuckled. “Besides, these aren’t worth much.”
They had now reached the compound gate, and Jia Yun tucked the rest of the embroidery inside his jacket while Hongyu urged him to leave.
“If there’s anything you want, just come and ask me,” she said. “Now that I’m working here it’s easy to find me.”
Jia Yun nodded. “It’s too bad your mistress is such a martinet that I can’t call too often. Anyway you must understand what I meant just now. I’ve something more to tell you when I have the chance.”
Blushing all over her face she answered, “Go now. You must call more often in future. You shouldn’t have kept at such a distance from her.”
“Right.”
Then Jia Yun left the compound. Hongyu stood at the gate watching till he was out of sight before finally turning back.

Xifeng in her room now ordered dinner and asked the maids if they had prepared any congee. Some went to ask, returning with the answer, “Yes, we have.”
“Get a couple of southern dishes preserved in liquor.”
“Very good, madam,” said Qiutong, and sent some young maids for these.
Pinger now stepped forward and said, “It had slipped my mind, but at noon today while you were with the old lady, the abbess of Water Moon Convent sent a nun to ask for two jars of southern pickles, madam. She wants a few months’ allowance advanced too, because she isn’t well. I asked the nun what was wrong, and she said the abbess has been unwell for four or five days. The other night some acolytes and novices refused to blow out the light when they went to bed. She scolded them several times, but they paid no attention. When she saw that the lamp was still burning after midnight, she told them to blow it out; but as they were all asleep no one answered, so she had to get up herself to put it out. When she went back to her room, she saw a man and a woman sitting on the kang. And when she asked who they were, they fastened a rope round her neck! She screamed for help. That roused the others who lit lamps and hurried over. They found her lying on the ground, foaming at the mouth. Luckily they managed to bring her round. But she still has no appetite; that’s why she asked for the pickles. As I couldn’t give her any in your absence, I told the nun you were busy with the old lady and I would tell you after you came back. Then I sent her away. bust now that talk about preserves from the south reminded me; otherwise I’d have forgotten.”
Xifeng digested this in silence.
“We still have some of those preserves from the south, don’t we?” she said. “Send her some. As for the money, tell Master Qin to come in a day or so to take it.
Then Hongyu came and reported, “Just now Master Lian sent a mes¬senger to let you know that he has business to see to outside town and won’t be back tonight.”
“Very well,” said Xifeng.
bust then they heard a young maid screaming at the back and come panting to the courtyard. Pinger, going out to investigate, found several maids chattering there.
“What’s all the excitement?” Xifeng called out.
Pinger, returning, told her, “One girl who’s scary was talking about ghosts.”
“Which one?”
The girl came in and was asked, “What’s this about ghosts?”
“I went just now to the back to get a servant to put more coal on the stove, and I heard a scuffling in those three empty rooms. First I thought it was a cat chasing rats, but then I heard a sound like someone sighing. I got scared and ran back.”
“Nonsense!” Xifeng scolded. “We don’t allow talk about ghosts and spirits here. I never believe such tales. Hurry up and get out!”
At once the young maid withdrew.
Next Xifeng made Caiming check their account for that day. By the time this was done it was nearly the second watch and after sitting up for a while to chat she sent them all to bed, then retired herself.
Towards midnight, sleeping fitfully, Xifeng found herself shivering and woke with a start. Her trepidation growing as she lay there, she surprised Pinger and Qiutong by calling them over to keep her company. Qiutong had formerly often defied Xifeng, but she had become more obedient after Jia Lian began to slight her owing to her treatment of Second Sister You, and Xifeng had done her best to win her over. Still, she lacked Pinger’s devotion to their mistress, making only a show of complaisance. Now that Xifeng was unwell, she brought her some tea.
“Thank you.” Xifeng took a sip. “Go back to bed now. It’s enough if just Pinger stays here.”
To please her, however, Qiutong said, “If you can’t sleep, madam, we can take it in turns to sit with you.”
Xifeng talked with them for a while, then dozed off. By the time she was sound asleep they heard cocks crowing in the distance; so they lay down fully dressed till dawn, when they got up to help her with her toilet. Xifeng was on edge and upset after her bad night, but not wanting to
show this she forced herself to get up. She was sitting there listlessly when she heard a maid in the courtyard asking for Pinger.
“I’m in here,” Pinger called.
The girl lifted the portiere and came in, having been sent by Lady Wang to find Jia Lian.
She reported, “Someone outside has come on urgent official busi¬ness. As the master has just gone out, Her Ladyship wants Master Lian to go over at once.
Xifeng was startled by this. To know what this business was, you must read the next chapter.

Chapter 89

A Memento of a Dead Maid Leads Baoyu
to Write a Poem
A False Suspicion Makes Daiyu
Abstain from Food


Xifeng, in low spirits that morning, was shocked by the young maid’s announcement.
“Official business!” she exclaimed, “What is it?”
“I don’t know, ma’am. Just now a page from the inner gate reported that urgent business has come up at His Lordship’s ministry, so Her Ladyship sent me to ask Master Lian to go over.”
Relieved to know that the matter concerned the Ministry of Works, Xifeng told her, “Go and tell Her Ladyship that Master Lian left town on business last night, and hasn’t yet returned. But first send someone to let Master Zhen know.”
The maid assented and left.
Before long, Jia Zhen came over to question the messenger from the ministry. Then he went in to inform Lady Wang, “Word has come from the Ministry of Works that yesterday they heard from the Yellow River Commission that the dyke in Henan has been breached, flooding several prefectures and districts. State funds have been allocated for repair work, and this will be keeping the whole ministry busy. So they sent specially to report this to His Lordship.” This said he withdrew, and on Jia Zheng’s return relayed this message to him.
From then on right up till winter, as Jia Zheng was busy every day and constantly in his yamen, Baoyu grew more slack in his studies, although for fear of his father he still attended school. He dared not call on Daiyu too often either.
One morning in the middle of the tenth month, a sudden drop in the temperature made Xiren prepare a bundle of warm clothes for him be¬fore he set off to school.
“It’s so cold today,” she said, “you must dress more warmly first thing and in the evening.”
She took out a coat for him to wear, and wrapped up a cape for a young maid to give Beiming with the message, “Now that it’s cold, you must keep this ready for Master Bao.”
The page assented, took the bundle, and followed Baoyu to school.
Baoyu was doing his lessons when a wind sprang up, buffeting the window paper.
“The weather is changing,” remarked Dairu and, opening the win¬dow, he saw that tiers of black clouds in the northwest were bearing slowly southeast.
Beiming now came in. “Master Bao, it’s getting colder; better put on more clothes,” he advised.
When Baoyu nodded, Beiming brought in a cape. At sight of it Baoyu became lost in thought. All the other boys stared at it too. For it was the peacock-feather cape which Qingwen had mended.
“Why bring this?” demanded Baoyu. “Who gave it to you?”
“The girls in your place brought it out in a wrapper,” said Beiming.
“I’m not too cold; I won’t wear it. Wrap it up.”
Dairu imagined that Baoyu thought the cape too good to wear, and was pleased by this evidence of frugality.
But Beiming urged, “Do put it on, Master Bao. If you catch cold, I’ll be the one who’s blamed. Please wear it for my sake!”
Baoyu had to comply then. He sat staring at his book in a dazed fash¬ion; but the tutor paid no attention, thinking he was studying.
That evening, when the class was dismissed, Baoyu asked for a day’s sick leave. And as old Dairu simply coached these boys to while away the time when he himself was not ailing, as often happened, he was glad to have one less to worry about the next day. Knowing, moreover, that ha Zheng was busy and that Baoyu’s grandmother doted on the boy, he nodded his consent.
Baoyu on his return reported this to his grandmother and mother, who naturally believed him. After sitting there for a while he went back to the Garden to join Xiren and the others. He was not his usual cheerful and talkative self, however, for he lay down, still wearing the cape, on the kang.
“Supper’s ready,” Xiren announced. “Would you like it now, or a bit later?”
“I don’t want any, I’m not feeling well,” he answered. “You go ahead and have yours.
“In that case, you’d better take your cape off. You’ll spoil it if you crumple it like that.”
“Never mind.”
“It’s not just that it’s flimsy, but look at that stitching on it you shouldn’t spoil it.”
Touched to the quick by this he sighed, “All right then, wrap it up carefully for me and put it away. I’ll never wear it again!”
He stood up to take off the cape and folded it up himself before Xiren could take it.
“Well, Master Bao!” she exclaimed. “Why are you putting yourself out like this today?”
Instead of answering he asked, “Where is the wrapper?”
Sheyue quickly passed it to him and while he wrapped the cape up turned to wink at Xiren.
Baoyu sat down by himself then, in low spirits, ignoring them. When the clock on the shelf struck, he looked down at his watch and saw it was half past five. By and by a young maid came in to light the lamp.
“If you don’t want supper,” said Xiren, “at least have half a bowl of hot congee. If you go without food that may arouse hot humours; then we shall have more trouble.”
He shook his head. “I’m not hungry. If I force myself to eat, I shall feel worse.”
“Then you’d better go to bed early.”
She and Sheyue prepared the bed, and Baoyu lay down. He tossed and turned but could not sleep, only dozing off when it was nearly dawn. But after no more than the time it takes for a meal, he was awake again.
By now Xiren and Sheyue were up.
Xiren said, “I heard you tossing about last night till the fifth watch, but I didn’t like to disturb you. And then I dropped off myself. Did you get any sleep or not?”
“A little, but then somehow I woke up again.”
“Aren’t you feeling well?”
“I’m all right, just rather edgy.”
“Are you going to school today?”
“No, yesterday I asked for a day’s leave. I’d like to amuse myself in the Garden today, but just now I feel cold. Get them to clean up a room for me, and put ready some incense, paper, ink and a brush; then you can get on with your work while I sit there quietly for a bit. I don’t want to be disturbed.”
“If you want to study quietly,” Sheyue said, “who’d dream of dis¬turbing you?”
“That’s a good idea,” agreed Xiren. “You won’t catch cold, and sitting quietly by yourself you won’t be distracted either. But what will you eat today, if you’ve lost your appetite? Let us know in good time so that we can tell the kitchen.”
“Anything will do; don’t fuss. But I’d like some fruit put in that room to scent it.”
“Which room would be best?” Xiren wondered. “The only clean one, really, is Qingwen’s old room. As no one goes there nowadays, it’s quite tidy. Only it may be chilly.”
“That’s all right,” he said. “Just put a brazier in there.”
She readily agreed to this.
While they were talking a young maid had brought in a saucer, bowl and pair of chopsticks, which she handed to Sheyue saying:
“Just now Miss Xiren asked for these, and the old woman from the kitchen has brought them.”
Sheyue saw that it was a bowl of bird’s-nest soup.
“Did you order this?” she asked Xiren.
“He had no supper yesterday evening and passed a sleepless night,” Xiren explained. “I thought he must be feeling hollow inside this morning; so I got the girls to ask the kitchen for this.”
She told the younger maids to bring a table, and Sheyue waited on Baoyu while he finished the soup and rinsed his mouth. Then Qiuwen came in.
“The room’s been tidied,” she said. “But Master Bao had better wait till the charcoal is red before going there.”
Baoyu nodded, too preoccupied by his own thoughts to talk.
Soon a young maid came to announce, “The writing things have been put ready.”
“Good,” he said.
Yet another girl announced, “Breakfast is ready. Where will you have it, sir?”
“Just bring it here; that’s simplest.”
She assented and went out to fetch the food.
Baoyu remarked with a smile to Xiren and Sheyue, “I’m feeling so depressed, I doubt if I can eat anything alone. Why don’t you have break¬fast with me? If I see you enjoying it, I may eat more.”
“You may like the idea, Master Bao,” chuckled Sheyue. “But that would never do!”
“Actually it doesn’t matter,” countered Xiren. “We’ve drunk together more than once before. But we can only do this occasionally to cheer you up, young master. If it wasn’t in fun, that would be against all the rules of propriety!”
So the three of them sat down, Baoyu in the top place, the two girls on either side. After they had finished the meal, a young maid brought them tea to rinse their mouths and they had the table removed.
Baoyu holding his cup sat silent, lost in thought.
“Is that room ready?” he asked presently.
“We told you it was,” said Sheyue. “Why ask again?”
After a while he went to Qingwen’s old room, lit a stick of incense and set out some fruit. Then he sent the others away and closed the door. Xiren and the other girls outside took care to keep very quiet.
Baoyu chose a sheet of pink paper with a gilded border and floral designs on one of the top and bottom corners.
After a short invocation he picked up his brush and wrote:
The Master of Happy Red Court bums incense to Sister Qingwen, and presents tea with a sweet fragrance. Pray come to the sacrifice!

He then penned the verse:

My close companion, you alone
My inmost thoughts could share;
A sudden storm out of the blue
Cut short your life of care.
Who is there now to speak so sweet and low?

Streams flowing east can no more westward flow.
I long for you, but have no herb’
To bring you back again.
Glimpsing the cape—a turquoise cloud— 
Fills me with endless pain.
This written, using the incense stick as a taper, he burned his poem to ashes, then sat quietly till the incense was burnt up, whereupon he left the room.
“Why are you coming out?” Xiren asked. “Were you feeling bored again?”
“I was in the dumps and wanted a quiet place where I could sit for a bit,” he prevaricated, smiling. “Now that I’ve got over it, I’m going to have a stroll outside.”
He went out, making straight for Bamboo Lodge, and on reaching the courtyard called, “Is Cousin Lin in?”
“Who is it?” asked Zijuan, raising the portiere. “Oh, Master Bao. She’s in her room. Please come in.”
As Baoyu followed her in, Daiyu called from the inner room, “Zijuan, bring Master Bao in here.”
Flanking the door of her room, Baoyu saw a newly written couplet on purple paper with gilded cloud-dragon designs. It read:

Green casement and bright moon remain,
But the men of old annals are gone.
He smiled and walked in, asking, “What are you doing, cousin?”
She rose to meet him and said with a smile, “Sit down. I’m copying a sutra, and have only two lines left. Let me finish it and then we can talk.” She told Xueyan to bring tea.
“Don’t trouble,” said Baoyu. “Just go on with your copying.
He noticed in the middle of the wall a scroll painting of the Moon Goddess Change and another goddess, each with an attendant, the sec¬ond one carrying what looked like a long clothing bag. There were only a few clouds surrounding them, with no other decorations. It was done in the style of Li Longmian’s2 outline drawings. The inscription “Contend¬ing in the Cold” was written in the old official script.
“Have you just put this painting up, cousin?” he asked.
“That’s right,” said Daiyu. “Yesterday when they were tidying up, I thought of it and took it out for them to hang.”
“What’s its story?”
“Surely everybody knows it,” she said with a smile, “Why ask?”
“I can’t for the moment remember. Do tell me, cousin.”
“You must know the lines:
The Green Nymph and Change, both able to stand cold, 
Are vying in beauty in the frosty moon.”3

“Of course!” he exclaimed. “How original and cultured! And this is the right season, too, to hang this up.”
He strolled around looking at this and that till Xueyan brought him some tea. And soon Daiyu, her copying finished, stood up.

“Excuse me for neglecting you,” she said.
“Always so polite, cousin!” he chuckled.
He noticed now that Daiyu was wearing a pale-blue embroidered fur-lined jacket under a short white squirrel tunic, and a pink embroidered silk padded skirt of the kind worn by Lady Yang. With no flowers in her cloudy tresses, which were loosely knotted and clasped with a flat gold pin, she was truly like:
A jade tree standing gracefully in the breeze.
Or sweet dewy lotus in bloom.
“Have you been playing the lute these days, cousin?” he asked.
“Not for the last two days, because I found copying made my fingers too cold.”
“It’s just as well not to play. Though the lute is a refined instrument, I don’t think much of it. No one ever won wealth, nobility or long life from playing it, only grief and longing. Besides, to play, you have to memorize the score which is rather an effort. As you’re so delicate, cousin, it seems to me you shouldn’t waste energy on it.”
Daiyu simply smiled and said nothing.
Then, pointing at a lute on the wall, he asked, “Is this yours? Why is it so short?”
“Because when I first learned to play, being small I couldn’t reach the strings of regular lutes, so this was specially made for me. Though it’s not anything exceptional, its parts are well fitted and it’s well propor¬tioned. See the grain of the wood. Isn’t it as fine as yak hair? So it has quite a clear timbre.”
“Have you written any poems these days?”
“Hardly any since the last poetry club.”
Baoyu smiled and said, “Don’t try to hide it from me! I heard you chanting something like ‘Why repine? Would that my heart were pure as the moon in the sky.’ You accompanied it on the lute, and the sound seemed exceptionally clear. Can you deny that?”
“How did you happen to hear?”
“I heard it the other day on my way back from Smartweed Breeze Cot, and not wanting to disturb you I just listened quietly then went away. I’ve been meaning to ask you: Why did you start with level rhymes, then at the end change suddenly to an oblique one?4 What was the reason for that?”
“Music comes naturally from the heart,” she answered. “There are no set rules you just play as you feel.”
“So that’s the reason. It’s too bad I don’t understand music and so it was wasted on me.”
“How many understanding people have there been since of old?” she replied.
At that, Baoyu realized that he had been tactless, and feared he had hurt her feelings. He sat there with so much he longed to say, yet not knowing how to word it. Daiyu also felt that her last remark had been thoughtless, and must have sounded cold; so she too was silent. This convinced Baoyu that she took this personally, and he rose sheepishly to say:
“I’ll leave you to rest now, cousin. I’m off to see Tanchun.”
“When you see her, give her my regards.”
He agreed to this and went out.
After seeing him off, Daiyu came back and sat down dejectedly.
“Nowadays Baoyu talks in such an ambiguous way, blowing hot and cold by turns, I can’t tell what he means,” she thought.
Just then Zijuan came in to ask, “Have you finished copying, miss? Shall I put away the brush and ink-stone?”
“Yes, you can. I shan’t be doing any more.”
She went into the inner room then to lie down, turning the problem over in her mind.
Zijuan came in again to ask if she would like some tea.
“No, I just want to rest a bit. You needn’t stay here.”
Zijuan going out found Xueyan all alone in a brown study.
“What’s worrying you?” she asked, going up to her.
Xueyan gave a start, then said, “Don’t make such a noise! Today I heard something very strange. I don’t mind telling you, but you mustn’t pass it on!” She signed towards the inner room, then started out, beckon¬ing Zijuan to follow. At the foot of the steps she said softly, “Did you know, sister, that Baoyu is engaged?”
Zijuan was flabbergasted.
“Who says so?” she demanded. “Surely not!”
“It’s true, I assure you. Most likely, apart from us, all the others know.”
“Where did you hear this?”
“From Daishu. She says the girl’s father is a prefect. It’s a wealthy family, and she’s good-looking too.”
Just then Zijuan heard Daiyu coughing as if she had got up. Afraid she had come to the outer room and overheard them, she caught hold of Xueyan and signed to her to keep quiet. But when she looked into the room there was no one there.
She whispered to Xueyan, “What exactly did she say?”
“The other day wasn’t I sent to Miss Tanchun’s place to thank her?” said Xueyan. “She wasn’t in. Daishu was the only one there. As we sat chatting we happened to speak of Master Bao’s mischievous ways. ‘He’s really a problem!’ she said. ‘Just playing about, not at all like a grown man. Already engaged, yet still so muddle-headed!’
“‘Is it settled?’ I asked.”
“She said, ‘Yes. Some Mr. Wang was the go-between—he’s re¬lated to the East Mansion; so without making further inquiries they ac¬cepted out of hand.’”
Zijuan cocked her head, thinking this extremely strange.
“Why has nobody in the house mentioned it?” she pressed.
“Daishu explained that too. It was the old lady’s idea. She was afraid that if Baoyu knew about it he’d start running wild. That’s why it’s never mentioned. And after telling me this Daishu told me on no account to pass it on she said that I like to blab.” She pointed at the house. “That’s why I didn’t tell her a word about this. Since you asked me today, I couldn’t hide it from you.”
At this point they heard the cockatoo, which had learned this from them, call out, “The young lady’s back! Bring tea! Quick.”
Startled, they turned to look, and seeing no one there they scolded the bird. Going back inside, they discovered Daiyu just about to sit down on a chair, panting for breath. Zijuan asked in confusion if she wanted a drink.
“Where have you two been?” gasped Daiyu. “I called but nobody came.”
She went back to the kang and sank down with her face to the wall, telling them to let down the curtain. Having done this, the two maids went out, each wondering whether she had overheard them, but neither liking to express her misgiving.
Now Daiyu had been brooding anxiously, then eavesdropped on her two maids’ conversation. Though she did not hear everything, she caught the main gist and felt as if plunged into a raging sea. Thinking it over, it bore out the ominous dream she had so recently had. Frustration and grief filled her heart. Die and be done with it, she thought, rather than have a blow like this sprung upon her. She also reflected bitterly that she had no parents to turn to. Well then, she would let her health run down, and in half a year or so leave this sea of troubles. Having reached this resolve, she closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep, without covering herself with the quilt or putting on more clothes.
Zijuan and Xueyan came in several times to see if she needed any¬thing, but as she lay motionless they did not like to call her. She went without supper that evening. After the lamps were lit, Zijuan raised the curtain and found her asleep, her quilt kicked to the bottom of the bed. She covered her gently to stop her from catching cold, and Daiyu did not move; but as soon as the maid had left she kicked off the bedding again.
Zijuan felt constrained to ask Xueyan, “Was it really true what you told me earlier on?”
“Of course it was.”
“How did Daishu get to know?”
“She heard it from Hongyu.”
Then Zijuan confided, “I’m afraid our young lady overheard us. Look at the state she was in just now; that must be the reason for it. We mustn’t ever mention it again.”
They got ready to go to bed then. But first Zijuan went in to have another look at their young mistress, and found that she had kicked off her bedding again. Once more she gently tucked the quilt around her. But no more about that night.
The next day Daiyu rose early, and instead of calling her maids sat there alone lost in thought. When Zijuan woke and saw her already up, she exclaimed in surprise:
“You’re up very early, miss!”
“I know,” said Daiyu. “I went to bed early, that’s why I woke early.”
Zijuan hastily got up and roused Xueyan to help Daiyu with her toilet. She just stared blankly, however, at the mirror and soon was weeping so copiously that her silk handkerchief was drenched. Truly:
Gazing into the mirror at her emaciated face,
Both she and her reflection pitied each other!

Zijuan refrained from trying to comfort her, for fear of making mat¬ters worse. Some time passed before Daiyu set about her toilet, but list¬lessly, her tears still flowing. She then sat there a little longer.
“Light a stick of that Tibetan incense,” she told Zijuan presently.
“You had hardly any sleep, miss. What do you want incense for? To copy more sutras?”
Daiyu nodded.
“You woke up too early, miss,” protested Zijuan. “If you copy sutras now, I’m afraid you’ll wear yourself out.”
“Don’t worry. The sooner I finish the better. Besides, it’s not the sutra I’m thinking about, but writing will help distract me. And later, when you see my calligraphy, it’ll be like seeing me again,” She shed tears anew.
Knowing that it was useless to reason with her, Zijuan could not hold back her own tears.
Now that Daiyu had made up her mind to ruin her health, she wanted no nourishment and ate less every day. Baoyu often made time to visit her after school; but although she had so much she longed to tell him, now that they were no longer children she could hardly tease him playfully as before or express her pent-up feelings. He, too, wanted to bare his heart to her to console her, yet he feared this might offend her and make her illness worse. So when they met they could only express their concern in the most superficial way. Truly, theirs was a case of “devotion leading to alienation.”
The Lady Dowager and Lady Wang, fond as they were of Daiyu, simply called in doctors to attend her as she was so often ill, with no inkling that she was wasting away for love. And though Zijuan knew the truth, she dared not reveal it. So for a fortnight Daiyu ate daily less, till her appetite had so diminished that she could not even swallow a mouth¬ful of congee. Any talk she heard she suspected concerned Baoyu’s marriage. Anyone from Happy Red Court, whether master or maid, made her think of his impending marriage too. When Aunt Xue called on her without Baochai, this made her still more suspicious. She even wished everyone would keep away, and refused to take any medicine in the hope of hastening her death. In her dreams, she kept hearing people refer to “Madam Bao.” Suspicion poisoned her mind. And at last the day came when, refusing both rice and congee, she was at her last gasp, at death’s door.
To know what became of her, read the chapter which follows.

Chapter 90

The Loss of a Padded Jacket Involves
a Poor Girl with a Scold
A Gift of Sweetmeats Perturbs
a Young Gentleman


After Daiyu had resolved on self-destruction she went into a decline, until there came a day when she could eat nothing. For the first fortnight or so, when the old lady and others took it in turn to call, she had still been able to say a few words, but these last two days she remained virtually silent. Sometimes she lay in a coma, sometimes she had lucid spells. Wondering what had brought on this illness, her grandmother questioned her maids a couple of times. But how dared they tell her the truth?
Zijuan wanted to ask Daishu to confirm the report but feared that would only hasten her young lady’s death, and so when she saw Daishu she held her tongue. And Xueyan, as she knew that her tattling was the root of this trouble and only wished she could grow a hundred tongues to deny it, was of course even more afraid to speak out.
The day that Daiyu abstained completely from food, Zijuan felt that the end had come and, for a while, remained weeping at her side.
Then she came out and whispered to Xueyan, “Go in and look after her carefully while I go to tell the mistresses. She’s never been as bad as this before.”
Xueyan agreeing to this, Zijuan went off.
Xueyan stayed watching over Daiyu, now in a coma. Too young to have seen anything like this before, she thought her young mistress was dying and, torn between grief and alarm, longed for Zijuan’s return. Then the frightened girl heard footsteps outside the window. It must be Zijuan, she thought with relief. As she sprang up to raise the portiere for her, the outside portiere swished and in came Daishu, sent by Tanchun to inquire after the invalid.
Seeing Xueyan waiting there Daishu asked, “How is she?”
Xueyan nodded and beckoned her in. Daishu noticed Zijuan’s ab¬
2731


sence, and was terrified by the sight of Daiyu apparently at her last gasp.
“Where’s Sister Zijuan?” she asked.
‘‘Gone to tell the mistresses.”
Under the impression that Daiyu was unconscious, and as Zijuan was away, Xueyan took Daishu’s hand and asked her in a low voice, “Was it true what you told me the other day about some Mr. Wang proposing a match for our Master Bao?”
“Of course it was.”
“When was the engagement fixed?”
“How could it be fixed? What I told you that day was what I heard from Hongyu. Later I went to Madam Lian’s place when she was talk¬ing it over with Sister Pinger. She said, ‘This is just a pretext for those protégés to suck up to His Lordship, so that he’ll help them in future. Not to say Lady Xing didn’t approve of the girl, even if she did what does her judgment count for? Besides, unknown to her, the old lady long ago decided on one of the girls in our Garden. She just made a show of con¬sulting her because His Lordship mentioned this proposal.
“I also heard Madam Lian say, ‘For Baoyu, the old lady’s bound to choose some relative. No other proposals, no matter from whom, would even be considered. “‘
Xueyan, forgetting herself, blurted out, “Why, then, our young lady’s dying for no reason!”
“What do you mean?”
“You wouldn’t know, but she overheard me telling Sister Zijuan about this the other day. That’s why she’s wasting away.
“Keep your voice down, or she may hear us!”
“She’s already unconscious. Look! She can hardly last more than a day or two now.
Just then Zijuan lifted the portiere and stepped in.
“What’s all this?” she exclaimed softly. “If you want to talk, talk outside instead of here. You’ll be the death of her!”
“This is so extraordinary,” cried Daishu, “I simply can’t believe it!”
“Good sister, don’t take offence,” retorted Zijuan, “but really you have no sense! You should have known better than to spread such gos¬sip.”
2733


As they were talking they heard Daiyu cough. Zijuan ran to the kang to attend to her while the two other girls fell silent.
Bending over Daiyu, Zijuan asked her softly, “Do you want some water, miss?”
“Yes,” was the faint reply.
Xueyan at once poured half a cup of boiled water which Zijuan took from her. Daishu stepped forward too, but Zijuan shook her head to make her keep quiet. They stood there until Daiyu coughed again.
“Do you want some water, miss?” Zijuan asked again.
Once again Daiyu murmured her assent and tried to raise her head, but this was beyond her. Zijuan clambered on to the kang beside her, the cup in her hand. First she made sure that the water was neither too hot nor too cold, then held it to Daiyu’s lips, supporting her head while she sipped. As she looked eager for more, instead of removing the cup Zijuan held it there while she took another sip. Then Daiyu shook her head, declining more, and lay down again with a sigh. After a while, half open¬ing her eyes, she asked:
“Was that Daishu talking?”
“Yes, miss,” said Zijuan.
Daishu, who had not yet left, came over to greet her. Daiyu opened her eyes to look at her and nodded.
After a pause she said, “When you go back, give my regards to your mistress.”
Guessing that she wanted to be left in peace, Daishu quietly slipped away.
Now Daiyu though so gravely ill had been clear in her mind. She had caught a sentence here and there of the conversation between Daishu and Xueyan, but she lay as if unconscious, owing partly to sheer weak¬ness. From what she overheard she realized that the match proposed had not been agreed to. And then Daishu had quoted Xifeng as saying that the old lady had decided on choosing some relative from the girls in the Garden. Who could this mean if not her? At this thought, her despair gave way to joy and her mind became clearer too. That was why she had drunk some water and why she had wanted to question Daishu.
Just then the old lady arrived with Lady Wang, Li Wan and Xifeng
2735


who had hurried over after hearing Zijuan’s report. Daiyu, her fears set at rest now, naturally no longer wanted to die. Though still weak and lacking in energy, she managed to answer their inquiries briefly. Seeing this, Xifeng called Zijuan over.
“What do you mean by frightening us like that?” she demanded: “Your young lady’s not in such a bad way after all.”
“She really looked bad,” replied Zijuan. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have presumed to disturb you. Now, coming back, I’m quite amazed to find her so much better.”
“Don’t listen to her. What does she know?” said the old lady with a smile . “When something’s wrong, it shows good sense to report it. I like a girl who’s not too lazy to use her tongue and feet.”
They stayed talking a little longer, then believing Daiyu to be in no danger they left, Truly:
The cure for a broken heart is heartening news;
The knot must be untied by the one who tied it.
So by degrees Daiyu recovered, and her two maids secretly gave thanks to Buddha.
Xueyan remarked to Zijuan, “Thank goodness she’s better now! Her falling ill was odd, and so was her recovery.
“Her falling ill wasn’t odd,” replied Zijuan, “but her recovery is. I suppose she and Baoyu must be destined for each other. As people say, ‘The way to happiness is never smooth’ and ‘Nothing can prevent a match made in Heaven.’ So it seems human wishes are willed by Provi¬dence, and they are fated to marry. Another thing: remember that year when I told Baoyu Miss Lin would be going back south? He flew into such a frenzy, he nearly turned the whole household upside down! This time another casual remark nearly cost our young lady her life. What is this if not a case of predestined fate?”
They had a good laugh in secret, after which Xueyan said again, “Well, thank goodness she’s better. We must be careful not to gossip in future. Even if Baoyu marries some other girl and I see the wedding myself, I won’t breathe a word about it.”
“That’s right,” agreed Zijuan, smiling.
2737


These two were not the only ones to be talking this business over. All the domestics knew of Daiyu’s strange illness and strange recovery, and in twos and threes they canvassed the matter together, till very soon this came to Xifeng’s ears. Lady Xing and Lady Wang also found it puzzling. Only the Lady Dowager had a good inkling of the reason.
One day Their Ladyships and Xifeng, chatting with the old lady in her room, brought up the subject of Daiyu’s illness again.
“I was just going to tell you something,” said the old lady. “Baoyu and Daiyu have been inseparable since they were small, and I didn’t think it mattered as they were children. Since then, though, there’s been all this talk about her sudden illness and sudden recovery — just because they are growing up now. So I don’t think it proper to leave them together all the time. What do you say?”
Taken aback, Lady Wang could only answer, “Daiyu is a bright, intel¬ligent girl. As for Baoyu, he’s such a simpleton he may get himself talked about sometimes. On the face of it, though, they’re both of them still children. If we move one of them out of the Garden now, all of a sudden, won’t that give people ideas? As they say: When the time comes do not tarry; boys must wed and girls must marry. Don’t you think it would be better, madam, to lose no time in arranging their marriages?”
Frowning, the old lady said, “Daiyu is over-sensitive, and though that’s not a bad thing in a way it’s also the reason why I don’t want to marry her to Baoyu. Besides, she’s so delicate. I doubt whether she’s long for this world. The most suitable choice is Baochai.”
“We all agree with you there, madam,” said Lady Wang. “But we must arrange a marriage for Daiyu too. A growing girl is bound to get ideas into her head. If she’s really set her heart on Baoyu and hears that he’s engaged to Baochai, we’re going to have a problem on our hands.”
“But we can’t marry her off before Baoyu,” objected the old lady. “Who ever heard of arranging a marriage for someone else’s child be¬fore one’s own? Especially as she’s two years younger than he is. Still, there’s truth in what you said, so we’ll just have to see to it that there’s no talk about Baoyu’s engagement.”
At once Xifeng turned to the maids.
“Did you hear that? Mind you don’t gossip about Master Bao’s en-
2739


gagement. I’ll flay anyone who blabs!”
“Xifeng,” said the old lady, “since that illness of yours you’ve stopped paying much attention to what goes on in the Garden. I want you to keep your eyes open, and not just with regard to this. The way the servants there were drinking and gambling the other year was disgraceful. You have sharper eyes than the rest of us, so we must trouble you to keep them under stricter control. Besides, I think they’re more obedient to you.
Xifeng promised to do her best, and after a little further talk they dispersed.
After that, Xifeng often went to check up in the Garden. One day she had just gone in when she heard an old woman at Purple Caltrop Isle raising a rumpus. As soon as the old woman saw her approaching, she stood at attention and greeted her.
“Why are you making such a noise here?” demanded Xifeng.
“The mistresses put me in charge of the flowers and fruit here, madam. I’ve done nothing wrong, yet Miss Xiuyan’s maid says we’re thieves!”
“Tell me what happened.”
“Yesterday our Heier came here with me to play for a bit. Having no sense, she went to Miss Xiuyan’s place to peek around, and then I sent her home. This morning, her maid told me something was missing. When I asked what it was, she started questioning me!”
“That’s nothing to get so worked up about.”
“Well, this Garden belongs to our mistress’ family, not to theirs. It’s our mistress who put us in charge here; so how dare they call us thieves?”
Xifeng spat in her face. “Don’t give me that talk!” she said sternly. “You’re here to keep an eye on things. When a young lady loses some¬thing, you should look into it. How can you maunder in this senseless fashion?”
She ordered her maids to fetch Lin Zhixiao’s wife to drive the woman away. At once Xiuyan came out to greet her with a smile.
“Please don’t,” she said. “It’s of no account — over and done with.”
“That’s not the point, cousin,” said Xifeng. “Quite apart from your losing something, she’s gone too far, forgetting her place like that.”
Seeing that the woman was kneeling to beg for pardon, Xiuyan invited
2741


Xifeng in to sit down.
“I know these creatures,” Xifeng went on. “I’m the only one of the mistresses they treat with any respect.”
Still Xiuyan begged her to let the woman off, saying her own maid was to blame.
“Well, for Miss Xing’s sake then, I’ll overlook it this time,” conceded Xifeng.
The woman kowtowed her thanks to them both and went off, where¬upon they sat down.
“What have you lost?” asked Xifeng with a smile.
“Nothing much, just a red jacket, an old one. When I told them to look for it and they couldn’t find it, I said it didn’t matter. But my maid is so silly she asked that woman about it, and of course that put her back up. It’s all this silly girl’s fault, and I’ve given her a scolding, so that’s that. We may as well forget about it.”
Xifeng looked her up and down and saw that though she had on some fur-lined and padded clothes, they were rather worn and could not be too warm. Her quilts too were on the thin side. But the knick-knacks in the room and on the desk, all provided by the Lady Dowager, were neatly set out and spotless. Impressed by this and drawn to her, Xifeng said:
“Of course a jacket isn’t all that important, but now that it’s cold you need something snug to wear. Naturally you should try to trace it. The insolence of that old slave, talking back!”
After a little more chat Xifeng took her leave, and having paid various other calls she went home. There she told Pinger to fetch a red crepe inner jacket, a deep green satin jacket lined with sheepskin, a sapphire blue embroidered padded skirt and a bright green gown lined with white squirrel. When these had been wrapped up she had them sent to Xiuyan.
Xiuyan was still upset after the old scold’s tirade, even though Xifeng had put a stop to it. She thought, “No one dares to offend any of the other girls here except me. With me, though, they keep making snide remarks— and now Xifeng knows about it.” The more she brooded the more wretched she felt, but there was nobody in whom to confide. She was choking back her sobs when Fenger brought in the clothes sent by Xifeng. Xiuyan most resolutely declined the gift.
2743


“My mistress says that if you think these too worn, she’ll send new ones later,” said Fenger.
“It’s very kind of your mistress.” Xiuyan smiled. “She’s sent me these because I lost a jacket, but I really can’t accept them. So take them back and be sure to thank her for me. I do appreciate her thoughtfulness.”
She gave Fenger a pouch, and with that the girl had to leave.
Before long, Fenger came back again with Pinger. Xiuyan welcomed them and asked them to sit down.
Pinger told her with a smile, “Our mistress says you’re treating us like strangers.”
“Oh no!” exclaimed Xiuyan. “But I really can’t accept such a hand¬some gift.”
“Our mistress says that if you won’t accept, it must be either be¬cause you think these clothes too shabby or because you look down on her. Just now our mistress insisted that if I were to bring back the clothes the way Fenger did, she’d be really angry with me.
Blushing, Xiuyan said gratefully, “Well then, I dare not refuse.” Then she urged them to have some tea.
On their way back, Pinger and Fenger were accosted by one of the old women who worked for Aunt Xue.
“Where have you been?” Pinger asked her.
“Our mistress and young lady sent me to give their regards to all the ladies here,” the woman replied. “Just now I asked Madam Lian where you were, and she said you’d gone to the Garden. Have you come from Miss Xing’s place?”
“How did you know?”
“I just heard about it. And, truly, no one can help admiring your mis¬tress and you, the way you both behave!”
Pinger laughed and invited her back to rest for a while.
“I have something else to do now,” said the woman. “I’ll call some other day.”
She went off, and Pinger returned to report on her errand to Xifeng. No more of this.
2745


Now Aunt Xue’s household had been turned upside-down by Jingui. When the woman went back and told them about Xiuyan, Baochai and her mother shed tears.
“It’s all because brother’s away that Xiuyan has to go on putting up with these slights,” said Baochai. “I’m glad Cousin Xifeng is so consid¬erate. In future we must see what we can do too as, after all, she’ll be marrying into our family.”
Just then Xue Ke came in.
“The friends Brother Pan has been making these years!” he fumed. “There’s not a single decent sort among the whole foxy lot. They’re a pack of curs! I don’t believe they feel any concern for him. They just come to ferret our news. The last couple of days I’ve sent the whole lot packing. I’ve told the gateman, too, not to admit such scoundrels from now on.
“Are they hang Yuhan’s lot?” asked Aunt Xue.
“No, Jiang Yuhan hasn’t come. These are some others.”
Xue Ke’s outburst had further lowered Aunt Xue’s spirits.
“Though I have a son, it’s as if I had none.” she sighed. “Even if the authorities let him off, he’ll be useless. Though you’re my nephew, and not so close, I can see that you have more sense than Pan and will be my only prop in my old age. It’s up to you to make a success of your life. Especially as the family of your betrothed isn’t as well off as before. It’s hard for a girl to leave home and get married, and all she hopes for is an able husband who will provide for her. If Xiuyan were like that crea¬ture....” — she pointed towards the inner rooms — “well, enough said! But Xiuyan is truly modest, sensible too. She can put up with poverty, and wealth wouldn’t spoil her either. Once this trouble blows over we must hurry up and arrange your wedding, and that will be one less thing on my mind.”
“There’s still Sister Baoqin’s marriage which must be on your mind, aunt.” he said. “As for mine, don’t worry about it.”
After some more talk Xue Ke went back to his room for supper. He thought to himself, “Xiuyan’s living in the Jias’ Garden as a dependent, and being a poor relation she must be having a thin time of it. As we travelled here together, I know her character and what she’s like. Heaven
2747


is really unjust, giving a spoilt bitch like Xia Jingui money while a girl like Xiuyan is so badly off. How does the King of Hell decide these things, I wonder?”
He wanted to write a poem to vent his frustration, but as he had no training in versification he could only pen the following doggerel:
A dragon stranded, a fish high and dry;
Apart we think of each other, you and I.
In mud and slime our bitter days are passed;
When will we find clear water at long last?
This written, he read it through and was tempted to paste it on the wall but diffidently told himself, “I don’t want people seeing it to laugh at me.” After a second reading he thought, “Never mind! I may as well paste it up for my own amusement.” Reading it once more, however, he decided it really was no good and put it between the pages of a book.
“I’m no longer a boy,” he mused, “but now our family’s run into this bad trouble and there’s no knowing when it will blow over. It’s keeping that sweet, gentle girl so sad and lonely!”
His reflections were cut short by the arrival of Baochan with a ham¬per which she put on the table, smiling. Xue Ke got up and invited her to be seated.
“Here are four dishes of sweetmeats and one small pot of wine,” she announced archly. “My mistress told me to bring them to you.
“Please thank my sister-in-law. But why didn’t she send a young maid instead of troubling you?”
“That’s all right. We’re one family, so why stand on ceremony? Be¬sides, you’ve put yourself out so much over Master Pan’s business, our mistress has long been wanting to show her appreciation, but she was afraid people might suspect her motives. You know how it is in our family — all sweet talk hiding inward disagreement. It shouldn’t matter send¬ing you a small present, but it might give rise to a whole lot of gossip. So today she simply prepared a couple of dishes and a pot of wine and told me to bring them to you secretly.” She glanced at him with a meaningful smile and added. “You mustn’t talk in that formal way again, sir, or you’ll embarrass me. I’m only a servant. If I can wait on Master Pan, what’s to stop me from waiting on you, sir?”
2749


Xue Ke was a simple, honest young fellow. He had never been treated like this by Jingui and Baochan before; yet as the latter said it was to thank him for helping Xue Pan, this seemed to him quite natural.
“Leave the dishes, sister,” he said. “But please take back the wine. I really can’t drink much, just a cup occasionally when I’m forced to, but ordinarily I never drink. Surely your mistress and you knew that?”
“I can use my own discretion in other matters,” she replied, “but I can’t obey you in this. You know what our mistress is like. If I took it back, she wouldn’t think it’s because you don’t drink but because I’d been remiss.”
So Xue Ke had to let her leave the wine. Then Baochan went to the door and peeped outside. Turning back to smile at him, she pointed to¬wards the inner rooms.
“I dare say she’ll be coming herself to thank you,” she said.
Not knowing what she meant, he felt rather put out.
“Please thank her for me, sister,” he rejoined. “I don’t want her to catch a chill in this cold weather. Besides, as we’re relatives there’s no need to be so polite.”
Baochan made no answer to this but went away smiling.
At first Xue Ke had believed that Jingui had sent him these things out of gratitude for his services to Xue Pan. But Baochan’s secretive ways and meaning glances made him afraid there was more to it than that.
“But what other designs could she have on me?” he wondered. “Af¬ter all, she’s my sister-in-law. Maybe this hussy Baochan, not liking to make advances herself, is using Jingui’s name. Still, she’s Cousin Pan’s concubine too, so how could she....” Then it occurred to him, “Jingui has never shown the least sense of propriety. When the fancy takes her she gets herself up like a vamp, preening herself on her beauty; so for all I know she may have designs on me. Or maybe, because she bears Sister Baoqin some grudge, she’s playing this dirty trick to get me into hot water and give me a bad name — that’s possible too.”
The likelihood of this alarmed him, and he was in a quandary when he heard someone giggling outside his window. Xue Ke gave a start. But to know who it was you must read the following chapter.

Chapter 91

Wanton Baochan Lays a Cunning Plot
Baoyu Makes Extravagant Answers
When Catechized



Xue Ke was in a quandary when giggling outside the window made him start. “That must be Baochan or Jingui,” he thought. “I’ll pay no attention and just see what they can do.”
He listened for some time. When there was no further sound, not venturing to eat any sweetmeats or drink the wine, he bolted the door and set about undressing. Then the window paper rustled. By now he was so flustered by Baochan’s tricks that he did not know what to do. He peered at the window but could see nothing stirring and suspected that he had been imagining things. Fastening his clothes again he sat down by the lamp to think hard, then picked up a sweetmeat and scrutinized it intently. Turning his head abruptly, he saw that a patch of the window paper was wet. He went over to have a look, and jumped for fright when suddenly someone outside blew into his face. This was followed by more giggling. Xue Ke hastily put out the lamp and, with bated breath, lay down.
“Why don’t you have some wine and a snack before turning in, Mas¬ter Ke?” called the person outside.
He recognized Baochan’s voice but made no sound, pretending to be asleep.
“How on earth could anyone be such a fool!” someone sneered after another couple of minutes.
He could not tell whether this was said by Baochan or Jingui, but it convinced him that they were up to no good. He tossed and turned and did not fall asleep until after the fifth watch.
At daybreak, somebody knocked at his door.
“Who’s there?” he called.
When there was no response, he had to get up and open the door. He found it was Baochan again, her hair dishevelled, her clothes loose. She had on a tight-fitting bodice with a gold border and rows of long buttons and loops in front, over which she had tied a none too new dark green sash. As she was not wearing a skirt, he could see her pomegranate-red trousers with floral designs and her new embroidered red slippers. She had evidently not yet made her toilet but come early to fetch the hamper to avoid being seen.
Her appearance in such a costume dismayed Xue Ke.
“You are up early,” he faltered, forcing a smile.
She blushed but did not answer, simply putting the sweetmeats back into the hamper, which she then took away. Supposing that she was vexed by his behaviour the previous night, he thought, “Just as well. If they’re annoyed, they’ll give up and leave me in peace.”
Feeling easier in his mind he called for water to wash in and decided to stay quietly at home for a couple of days, partly to rest, partly to avoid outside contacts. For Xue Pan’s old associates were trying to cash in on the situation, now that there was only young Xue Ke to manage the family’s affairs. Some officiously offered to run errands for him; others who could write legal plaints or knew a few clerks in government offices proffered their services to bribe the court; yet others urged him to appropriate fam¬ily funds or tried to blackmail him. Each used a different approach. He steered clear of these hangers-on as far as he could, but dared not refuse them outright for fear of future trouble. So he felt constrained to lie low at home till orders came down from above. But no more of this.

Let us revert to Jingui, who had sent Baochan with refreshments to sound out Xue Ke. Baochan on her return reported in full what had hap¬pened. As the young man had not risen to the bait, Jingui feared Baochan might despise her for this fiasco and therefore tried to cover up, changing her tune. However, not wanting to relinquish Xue Ke, she sat there in silence wondering what to do.
Baochan did not expect Xue Pan back and was casting about for a lover, but had not disclosed this to Jingui for fear of the consequences. Now that her mistress had made the first move, she saw it as a good chance to pre-empt Xue Ke herself, for then Jingui could hardly raise any objection. That was why she had spoken provocatively to him. When he seemed neither entirely unresponsive nor very forthcoming either, she had hesitated to do anything more rash. Later, when he blew out the light and lay down to sleep, she went back, very disappointed, to tell Jingui and see what she would do. Now that her mistress kept silent as if at a loss, she had to help her to bed and retire herself. But that night how could she sleep? She tossed and turned until she hit on a plan. She would get up first thing the next morning to fetch the hamper, alluringly dressed and with her hair uncombed to reveal her drowsy charms. While watching Xue Ke’s reaction she would put on a show of anger and ignore him; but if he showed regret, naturally she would smooth his way and then she could get him first she was sure of that. Such was her plan. However, when she tried to execute it, he behaved just as properly as the previous night. All she could do was act as if really affronted and take the dishes back. She deliberately left the wine-pot, though, to provide an excuse for returning.
Jingui asked her, “Did anyone see you fetch those things?”
“No, madam.”
“Did Master Ke ask you anything?”
	‘‘No.”
Since Jingui had lain awake all night unable to think of a plan she now decided, “If I go ahead with this affair, I may be able to keep it a secret from others, but how can I hide it from her? I’d better go shares with her, to keep her quiet. Besides, I can’t seek out Xue Ke myself, I’ll need her as go-between. So I may as well work out a sound plan with her.”
She therefore asked with a smile, “What is your honest opinion of Master Ke?”
“He strikes me as a fool.”
Jingui laughed. “How can you run down a gentleman like that?”
“His ingratitude for your kindness gives me the right to, madam,” Baoehan sniggered.
“His ingratitude? What do you mean?”
“You sent him goodies but he didn’t eat them. Wasn’t that ungrate¬ful?” She winked with a knowing smile.
“Don’t go imagining things,” scolded Jingui. “I sent him those things to express my appreciation for all he’s done for the master. And I asked if anyone saw you because I was afraid there might be talk. So I don’t understand what you mean, speaking like that.”
“Don’t get me wrong, madam,” said Baochan with a smile. “I’m your maid; how could I be disloyal to you? But you must keep this secret. If word got out, it would be no joke.”
“You dirty-minded creature!” Jingui flushed. “I suppose you’ve taken a fancy to him, but want to use me as your go-between, is that it?”
“Think whatever you want, madam, but I honestly feel for you. And if you really like him, I have a plan. Just think, what rat won’t steal oil? All he’s afraid of is the trouble there’d be if the secret got out, making him lose face. Take my advice, madam, and don’t be impatient but do him certain favours from time to time. He’s Master Pan’s younger cousin and not yet married. If you show more concern and are friendly with him, how can anyone find fault? Before long, he’ll naturally want to thank you. Then you can prepare some refreshments in our room, and when I’ve helped you to get him drunk, how can he run away. If he refuses, we’ll make a scene and accuse him of trying to seduce you. Then of course, out of fright, he’ll have to do as we want. If he still refuses, we can discredit him without spoiling our own reputation. What do you think of this, madam?”
Jingui, blushing crimson, cursed her laughingly, “Little bitch! You seem an old hand at seduction! No wonder Master Pan, when he was home, couldn’t bear to leave your side.”
Baochan pouted then giggled, “Here I am trying to help you, yet you call me such names!”
After that, Jingui was so intent on inveigling Xue Ke that she lost interest in making scenes, and there was more peace in the household.
That day when Baochan went back to fetch the wine-pot, she acted most demurely and decorously. Stealing a glance at her, Xue Ke regret¬ted his suspicions and wondered, “Could I, perhaps, have misjudged them? If so, that was a poor return for their kindness, and I’ve only myself to blame if they turn against me in future.”
A couple of days passed very peacefully. Whenever Xue Ke met Baochan, she would walk past with lowered head, not even lifting her eyes. When he met Jingui, she would greet him very warmly. This made the young man feel rather ashamed of himself. But enough of this.
Baochai and her mother, for their part, were most astonished by Jingui’s new sedateness and sudden cordiality to others. Aunt Xue thought hap¬pily, “When Pan married her, they must have transgressed somehow, which brought on all the trouble we’ve had these years. Now he’s in a bad way but luckily we have money and, with the Jia family helping, there’s still some hope. His wife’s sudden change for the better may mean that his luck will change too.”
Considering this, indeed, quite a miracle, one day after lunch, leaning on Tonggui’s arm, she went to call on Jingui. When they entered the courtyard they heard her talking with a man.
Tonggui was smart enough to call out, “Madam, here’s the old lady to see you!”
By now they had reached the door. The sight of a figure flitting behind it made Aunt Xue step back in alarm.
“Please come in, madam!” called Jingui. “This is no stranger here but my stepbrother. He’s a villager, unused to company. As he has never called on you yet, he came today meaning to pay his respects.”
“If it’s your brother,” said Aunt Xue, “ask him to join us.”
Jingui told the young man, whose name was Xia San, to come out to meet her mother-in-law, and he raised clasped hands to greet her. She returned his greetings and they sat down to talk.
“How long have you been in the capital?” asked Aunt Xue.
“My stepmother adopted me a couple of months ago, as she had no man in the house to see to things. I only came to the capital the day before yesterday; so I called on my sister today.”
As he looked rather embarrassed, after sitting there for a while Aunt Xue got up. “Do stay longer,” she urged, then turned to tell Jingui, “since this is your brother’s first visit here, you must keep him for a meal.”
Jingui assented to this and Aunt Xue left.
As soon as she had gone Jingui told Xia San, “Sit down. Now we’re above-board, so Master Ke won’t have to pry into our affairs. I want you to buy something for me today, but don’t let anyone see it.”
“Just leave it to me. Provided you have the money, I can get what¬ever you want.”
“Don’t boast! If you get overcharged I’m not having it.”
When they had exchanged some more banter, Jingui kept Xia San to dinner, then gave him her commission and some instructions, after which he left.
Subsequently, Xia San was a frequent visitor. And the old gatekeeper, having heard that this was Jingui’s brother, usually neglected to report his arrival. This led to endless trouble later on, but we need not go into that now.

One day a letter arrived from Xue Pan. His mother opened it and told Baochai to read it. He had written:
…I am doing all right in the county jail, so mother needn’t worry. Yesterday a clerk in the county yamen told me that though the prefectural court has approved our plea — I suppose you must have squared them—the provincial court has rejected it. The chief secretary in the county was decent enough to write at once requesting a remission; but the pro¬vincial governor has reprimanded the county magistrate. Now the gover¬nor wants to try the case himself, and if that happens I’ll be for it again. You can’t have bought over the provincial court. So as soon as you get this, mother, ask someone to put in a word at once with the governor; and get Xue Ke to come quickly. Otherwise I shall be transferred to the pro¬vincial court. Don’t stint silver! This is desperately urgent!

This reduced Aunt Xue once more to tears. Baochai and Xue Ke while consoling her warned:
“There’s no time to be lost!”
She had to send Xue Ke to smooth matters over with the county court. Servants were ordered to pack his luggage and weigh out silver at once so that he could set out that same night, as Li Xiang was already in the county, one of the pawnshop assistants was sent to accompany Xue Ke there. In the bustle and confusion, Baochai helped with the packing herself in case the domestics should overlook anything, not lying down to rest till nearly dawn. Being a cosseted girl from a wealthy family, the anxiety on top of her night-long exertions brought on a fever, she was unable to eat or even drink water. Yinger hastily reported this to her mother.
Hurrying to Baochai’s side, Aunt Xue found her fearfully flushed, burning with fever and unable to speak. She lost her head then and wept till she nearly fainted away. Baoqin supported her and tried to console her while Xiangling’s tears flowed like a fountain too as she called Baochai’s name to awaken her. For she was speechless, as if paralyzed, her eyes sunken, her nose blocked. Doctors were called in to attend her and gradu¬ally, to their great relief, she recovered consciousness.
This news had alarmed both the Ning and the Rong Mansions. First Xifeng sent over a maid with some Ten-Spices Restorative Pills; then Lady Wang sent some Wonder-Working Powder. The old lady, Lady Xing, Lady Wang and Madam You all sent maids to ask after Baochai; but none of them let Baoyu know of this. For seven or eight days she took medicine with very little effect, until bethinking herself of her Cool Fra¬grance Pills she took three of these and finally recovered. When some time later Baoyu heard of her illness, as she was already better he did not call to see her.
And now a letter came from Xue Ke which Aunt Xue had read to her. Instead of telling Baochai, for fear of worrying her, she went to enlist Lady Wang’s help, then described her daughter’s illness. After she had gone, Lady Wang passed on her request to her husband.
“We can ask the ministry to help, but not the provincial authorities,” said Jia Zheng. “The only way is to spend money.
“That child Baochai is having a hard time,” continued Lady Wang. “As she’s betrothed to our family, I think we should fix up the wedding soon, before she ruins her health.”
“I agree,” he replied. “But her family’s in too much of a commotion now; and as winter is nearly over, with the New Year in the offing, we have a good many affairs to attend to ourselves. Suppose we send the betrothal gifts this winter and the wedding gifts next spring — fix the date for the wedding after the old lady’s birthday. You can tell Aunt Xue this first.”
The next day, Lady Wang let her sister know this proposal, and Aunt Xue agreed to it. After lunch, the two of them called on the Lady Dowa¬ger. When they had taken seats she asked Aunt Xue:
“Have you just come over?”
“Actually I came yesterday,” replied Aunt Xue. “But it was too late then to pay my respects.”
Then Lady Wang repeated her husband’s proposal, and the old lady thoroughly approved. As Baoyu happened to come in just then, she asked him whether he had had his lunch.
“I had it as soon as I got back just now,” he said. “As I’m off to school again now, I wanted to call on you first. Besides, hearing that aunty was here, I wanted to pay my respects to her as well.” He asked Aunt Xue, “Is Cousin Baochai better?”
“Yes, she is,” was the answer.
As their conversation had stopped at his arrival, and as Aunt Xue seemed less cordial to him than before, Baoyu felt mystified.
“Even if she’s upset, why should they all keep so quiet?” he asked himself as he went back to school.
On his return that evening, having paid his respects to his elders, he went straight to Bamboo Lodge. But when he raised the portière and went in there was only Zijuan there — the inner room was empty.
“Where is your mistress?” he asked.
“With the old lady,” said Zijuan. “When she heard that Madam Xue had called, she went over to pay her respects. Didn’t you go too, Master Bao?”
“I did, but I didn’t see your young lady there.”
“She wasn’t there?”
“No. Where else could she have gone?”
“That’s hard to say.
He was on the point of leaving when Daiyu returned with Xueyan.
“So you’re back, cousin!” He turned to follow her in.
Daiyu invited him into the inner room and, when Zijuan had brought her a housecoat into which to change, she sat down.
“Did you see aunty?” she asked.
“Yes, I did.”
“Did she mention me?”
“No. And not only that, she didn’t treat me as warmly as she used to. When I asked after Baochai’s illness, she simply smiled and said nothing. Could she be annoyed because recently I haven’t called to see her?”
Daiyu smiled. “You haven’t been?”

“I knew nothing about it at first. A couple of days ago I heard; but I didn’t go.”
“What do you expect then?”
“But, honestly,” he protested, “the old lady, my mother and my father all told me not to. I could hardly defy them could I? If this were like the old days when we could slip through the small gate, I could easily call on her ten times a day; but now that gate’s closed and going round from the front is inconvenient.”
“I don’t suppose that occurred to her,” said Daiyu.
“But I’ve always found Baochai most understanding.”
“Don’t flatter yourself. She’d be the last one to excuse you. Espe¬cially as she was the invalid, not aunty. Think how jolly it used to be before, when we wrote poems, enjoyed the flowers and drank in the Garden together. Now she’s cut off and her family’s in trouble, yet when she falls so badly ill you behave as if nothing had happened! How could she help being annoyed?”
“Does that mean we won’t be on speaking-terms any more?”
“How am Ito know on what terms you’ll be? I was just talking about natural reactions.”
Baoyu started thinking this over, glassy-eyed, whereupon Daiyu ig¬nored him, just telling one of her maids to add a fresh slab of incense to the brazier while she picked up a book to read. After a while Baoyu frowned and stamped his foot.
“Why was I born?” he exclaimed. “The world would be a better place without me!”
She commented, “When ‘I’ exists, so do others; and where there are people you’ll have no end of worries, fears, fancies and dreams, not to mention all sorts of entanglements. I was only joking just now. Simply seeing aunty in low spirits shouldn’t make you start suspecting Baochai, should it? Aunty called, not to entertain you, but because that lawsuit is weighing on her mind. But by letting your fancy run away with you, you end up thinking the worst.”
Baoyu laughed suddenly, as if seeing the light.
“Quite right, quite right,” he cried. “You are much more perspica¬cious than I am. No wonder the other year when I was angry you put me through that Buddhist catechism, and I was stumped. If ever I become a real Buddha, I shall still need your guidance.”
She took this chance to sound him out. “Then let me ask you some¬thing, and see how you answer.”
Baoyu crossed his legs and folded his hands as if in prayer, his eyes closed, his face solemn.
“Go on,” he said.
“Suppose Cousin Baochai befriended you? Suppose she cold-shoul¬dered you? Suppose she befriended you first but not later? Suppose she befriends you now but not in future? Suppose you befriend her but she cold-shoulders you? Suppose you cold-shoulder her but she befriends you? What would you do in all those different cases?”
Baoyu thought for a while, then burst out laughing.
“However much water there is in the stream, one gourdful will suf¬fice me,” was his reply — indicating that, for him, she alone counted.
“What if your gourd is drifted off by the water?”
“No, the gourd is not drifted off by the water. The water flows where it wills and the gourd drifts of its own accord.”
“What if the stream runs dry and the pearl is lost?”
“My heart is a willow-catkin caught in the mud; how can it dance like a partridge in the spring wind?” he answered — affirming that he would be true to her.
“The first Buddhist commandment is not to lie,” she warned.
“The Buddhist Trinity will bear me witness!”
Daiyu lowered her head and was silent. Then, outside the eaves, they heard a crow caw before winging off southeast.
“Is that a good omen or a bad one?” wondered Baoyu.
“‘Good fortune or bad in the affairs of men does not depend on a bird’s cry,”’ she quoted.
They were interrupted by Qiuwen who came in to say, “Please go back, sir. His Lordship sent to ask whether you’re back from school, and Sister Xiren said you were. You’d better go quickly.”
Baoyu sprang up in alarm and hurried out, and Daiyu did not venture to detain him. To know what the upshot was, read the next chapter.

Chapter 92

Comments on the Lives of Worthy Women
of Old Fill Qiaojie with Admiration
Jia Zheng, Toying with a Mother Pearl, Discourses
on the Rise and Fall of Great Houses


Baoyu, as soon as he had left Bamboo Lodge, asked Qiuwen, “What does my father want me for?”
“He doesn’t want you,” she chuckled. “Sister Xiren sent me to fetch you, and for fear you wouldn’t come I made that up.”
In relief he cried, “It’s all very well to fetch me, but why give me such a fright?”
Back in Happy Red Court, Xiren wanted to know where he had been all this time.
“With Miss Lin. We got talking about Cousin Baochai; that’s what kept me there so long.”
“What were you discussing?”
He told her then about his catechism.
“You two have no sense,” scolded Xiren. “It’s all right to chat about family affairs or discuss certain lines of poetry; but why go in for Bud¬dhist cant? It’s not as if you were a monk.”
“You don’t understand. We have our own esoteric talk which no one else can join in.
“If your esoteric repartee leads to squabbles, we shall have to try to guess your riddles too,” she answered teasingly.
“In the past I was young and she was childish too, so if I spoke tact¬lessly she used to flare up. Now that I’m more careful she never takes offence. But recently she’s stopped coming here so often, and I have to go to school. That’s why, when we do happen to meet, we feel rather like strangers.”
“That’s how it should be,” approved Xiren. “Now that you’re both several years older, how can you go on behaving as if you were chil¬dren?”
He nodded. “I know. Never mind about that now. Tell me: Has the old lady sent any message for me?” “No, none.”
“She must have forgotten. Tomorrow’s the first of the eleventh month, isn’t it? It used to be her rule every year to hold a ‘cold-dispelling party’ that day, getting everybody together to drink and have fun. Today I asked for leave from school. As no message has come, shall I go tomorrow or not? If I do, I’ll have asked for leave all for nothing. If I don’t, and my father knows, he’ll call me an idler.”
“I think you’d better go,” she said. “You’re just beginning to study seriously, yet here you are wanting to rest. My advice to you is to work harder. Yesterday I heard your mother praise Master Lan for really con¬centrating on his books. Every evening after he comes back from school, he reads and writes essays on his own, not sleeping till nearly dawn. You’re much older than he is, and his uncle too. If you lag behind him the old lady will be angry. So you’d better go to school tomorrow morning.”
Sheyue objected, “It’s so cold, and he’s already asked leave. If he goes, the tutor will want to know why he asked for leave in the first place. It’ll look as if he fibbed so as to play truant. Let him have a day off, I say. Even if the old lady’s forgotten, can’t we have our own cold-dispelling party here? Wouldn’t that be fun?”
“If you take that line,” complained Xiren, “he’ll be even less willing to go.
“Well, I like a day’s fun whenever I can get it. How can I compare with you, working so hard to keep your good reputation for the sake of two extra ounces of silver a month?”
“Little bitch!” swore Xiren. “We were speaking seriously, but you go talking such nonsense.
“This isn’t nonsense. It’s you I’m thinking of.”
“What do you mean?”
“If Master Bao goes to school, you’ll wait glumly longing for his return to cheer us all up again. It’s no use your playing the innocent. I know you!”
Before Xiren could answer back, one of the Lady Dowager’s maids arrived.
“The old lady says Master Bao needn’t go to school tomorrow,” she announced. “She has asked Aunt Xue to come over to help pass the time, and most likely all our young ladies will come too. Miss Xiangyun, Miss Xiuyan and Madam Zhu’s cousins have been invited as well to this ‘cold—dispelling party’...
Before she could finish Baoyu cried excitedly, “You see? The old lady always enjoyed this party. So it’s on the level, my cutting school tomor¬row.
Xiren could say nothing to this, and the maid went back.
After a spell of hard study Baoyu had been counting on having good fun the next day. And the news that Aunt Xue would be coming made him assume that Baochai would be present too.
He said cheerfully, “Let’s turn in now, so that we can get up early tomorrow morning.”
That night passed without incident.
The next day, sure enough, he went over early to pay his respects to the Lady Dowager and then to his parents. When he reported that his grandmother had exempted him from attending school today, Jia Zheng raised no objections, and Baoyu slowly withdrew. Once outside, he ran like the wind to the old lady’s quarters. None of the others had yet ar¬rived except the nurse bringing Xifeng’s daughter Qiaojie, attended by several young maids.
Qiaojie paid her respects to the old lady then said, “Mama told me to come on ahead, to greet you and keep you company, great-grandmama. She’ll be coming presently.”
“Good child!” said the Lady Dowager with a fond smile. “I got up early and all this time I’ve been waiting, but so far only your Uncle Bao has come.
“Pay your respects to your uncle, miss,” prompted the nurse.
Qiaojie curtseyed to Baoyu, who returned her greeting.
“Last night,” prattled Qiaojie, “I heard mama say she wants to invite you over for a talk, uncle.”
“To talk about what?”
“Mama says Nanny Li has been teaching me to read for several years, but she doubts if I really know many characters. I told her, ‘I can read all right. Let me show you. ‘ She thought I was making it up, though, and didn’t believe me, saying I couldn’t possibly have learned because I play around the whole day long. I told her I don’t find learning characters hard. Even the Book of Filial Women is easy to read. But mama says I’m trying to fool her. She wants you to test me, uncle, when you have time.”
“There’s a good child!” exclaimed the old lady, laughing. “It’s be¬cause your mother can’t read that she thought you were fooling her. Get your uncle to test you tomorrow, and that’ 11 convince her.”
“How many characters do you know?” asked Baoyu.
“More than three thousand. I’ve read the Book of Filial Women, and a fortnight ago I started on the Lives of Chaste Martyrs.”
“Can you understand them?” he asked. “If not, I can explain them to you.”
“Yes, as her uncle you should do that for your niece,” the old lady approved.
“We can pass over King Wen’s queen,” began Baoyu. “Other virtu¬ous and able queens were Queen Jiang who took off her trinkets and blames herself for the king’s indolence, and Queen Wuyan who was plain but able to pacify the state of Qi. As for talented women, there were Cao Dagu, Ban Jieyu, Cai Wenji and Xie Daoyun.
“Meng Guang who wore a thorn hairpin and cloth skirt; Bao Xuan’s wife who fetched water herself with a pitcher; Tao Kan’s mother who cut off her hair and sold it to buy wine to entertain a guest; and Ouyang Xiu’s mother who used a grass stalk to write characters on the ground to teach her son to read and write, all could put up with poverty.
“There were others who had a hard time like Princess Lechang who kept a broken mirror and was finally reunited with her husband, and Su Hui who wove a brocade with a palindrome on it to send to her husband and moved him. While as for such dutiful daughters as Mulan who went to war in her father’s place and Cao E who plunged into the river to recover her father’s body, they are past counting.
“Then there were many chaste ladies such as Caoshi, who cut off her own nose rather than remarry; that’s a story of the Wei State.
“There were such famous beauties as Wang Qiang, Xi Shi, Fan Su, Xiaoman and Jiang Xian. There were also jealous wives such as Ren Gui’s wife who burned up two concubines’ hair, and Liu Baiyu’s wife who jumped into the Luo River and died after hearing him praise the charming Goddess of the River Luo. Of course Zhuo Wenjun and the girl with the red whisk1 were known for their....”
“That’s enough,” put in the old lady. “No need to go on. If you list too many, how can she remember them all?”
“I’ve read about some of those Uncle Bao named, but not all of them,” said Qiaojie. “What he says about those I’ve read about helps me understand them better.”
“As you obviously know how to real, there’s no need to test you on that,” he observed. “Besides, I’ll have to go to school myself tomor¬row.
“I heard mama say too that our maid Hongyu used to work for you, Uncle Bao; and after mama took her she’s never sent you another girl instead. Now mama wants to send you one called Wuer from the Liu family, but she doesn’t know whether you’ll have her or not.”
“Just listen to her!” exclaimed Baoyu in delight. “Your mother can send anyone she likes. Why ask me if I’ll have her?” He turned to say laughingly to his grandmother, “Judging by my niece’s looks and intelli¬gence, she should outdo even Cousin Xifeng in future. Especially as she can read as well.”
“It’s good when girls can read,” agreed the old lady. “But needle¬work is more important for them.”
“I’m learning that too from Nanny Liu,” said Qiaojie. “Appliqué work, chain-stitch and so on. I’m not much good at it, but I’m learning some different stitches.”
“In a family like ours,” said the old lady, “of course we don’t have to do such chores ourselves, but still it’s best to know how to, so as not to have to depend on others in future.
“Yes, great-grandmama.”
Qiaojie would have liked Baoyu to explain the Lives of Chaste Mar¬tyrs to her, but he looked so preoccupied that she refrained from making this request.
Do you know what was preoccupying Baoyu? It was the thought of Wuer. When first she was to have come to Happy Red Court, she had been prevented by illness; then when Lady Wang dismissed Qingwen, they dared not choose any maids who were good-looking. Later Baoyu had visited Qingwen in Wu Gui’s house and seen Wuer and her mother take things to her, and on that occasion he had thought Wuer charming. How lucky that Xifeng had remembered her and was sending her to replace Hongyu! So the foolish youth lost himself in rapturous day-dreams.
The old lady, grown tired of waiting, now sent maids to fetch her other visitors and presently Li Wan and her girl cousins arrived, as well as Tanchun, Xichun, Xiangyun and Daiyu. Having paid their respects to the Lady Dowager they greeted each other. Only Aunt Xue was still miss¬ing. Maids were sent to invite her, and she brought Baoqin with her. Baoyu paid his respects to Aunt Xue and greeted Baoqin but looked in vain for Baochai and Xiuyan.
“Why hasn’t Cousin Baochai come?” asked Daiyu.
Aunt Xue gave the excuse that she was unwell and Xing Xiuyan had naturally not come because her future in-laws were present. Baoyu was disappointed by Baochai’s absence, but as he had Daiyu’s com¬pany he dismissed her from his mind.
Soon Lady Xing and Lady Wang arrived too. When Xifeng heard of this, as it would be remiss for her to lag behind Their Ladyships she sent Pinger to excuse her, saying that she had a temperature but would come a little later.
“If she’s not well, she needn’t come,” said the old lady. “It’s time now for our meal.”
Maids moved back the brazier and set out two tables in front of the old lady’s couch. This done, the party sat down in due order. After din¬ner, they chatted around the fire, but there is no need to record their conversation.

Now what had kept Xifeng away? In the beginning it was embarrass¬ment at going later than Lady Xing and Lady Wang. And then Lai Wang’s wife had arrived.
“Miss Yingchun has sent someone with her regards,” she announced. “And the woman says she’s not called on Their Ladyships but come straight here.”
Not knowing what to make of this, Xifeng called the messenger in.
“Is your mistress well?” she asked.
“No, it wasn’t Miss Yingchun who sent me,” was the answer. “The fact is, Siqi’s mother has begged me to come to ask you a favour, madam.”
“Siqi has already been dismissed, so what can I do to help?”
“After Siqi left here she kept weeping all day long. Then, the other day, that cousin of hers turned up. At sight of him, her mother was furious — she accused him of ruining her daughter’s life and grabbed hold of him to beat him. Not a word did the young fellow say in self-defence. Siqi hearing this came running out, bold as brass.
“‘It’s because of him that I was dismissed,’ she told her mother. ‘I hate him too for his heartlessness. If you want to beat him now that he’s come, you’d better strangle me first!
“Her mother swore, ‘Shameless slut! What do you want to do?”’
“Siqi said, ‘A woman can only marry once. I slipped up and let him take advantage of me, so now I belong to him, and I’ll never, never marry anyone else. But what makes me angry is his lack of guts. A man should be responsible for his actions. Why run away? If he’d never shown up, I’d have stayed single all my life. If you’d tried to marry me to someone else, ma, I should have killed myself. Now that he’s here, ask him what his intentions are. If he hasn’t had a change of heart, I’ll kowtow farewell to you, ma, and you can count me as dead, for wher¬ever he goes I’ll go too, content even if we have to beg for food.
“Her mother wept with rage and swore, ‘You’re my daughter. I won’t let you marry him! How dare you defy me?’
“Then the silly girl smashed her head against the wall so that her brains spilled out, and she died in a pool of blood. Her mother wept, but as it was too late to save her she wanted her nephew to pay with his own life.
“That nephew of hers was an odd fellow too. He said, ‘Don’t worry. I’ve made some money outside, and I came back because of her — I was true to her. If you don’t believe me, look here. ‘ He took from his pocket a case of jewelry.
“Her mother relented then and asked, ‘If that was what you wanted, why didn’t you say so?’
“He told her, ‘Most women are fickle. If I’d said I had money, it might have tempted her. Now I can see she was truly one in a thousand. I’ll leave you these jewels and go and buy a coffin for her.
“Siqi’s mother took the jewels and let him go, not carrying on any more about her daughter. Who could have imagined, though, that he got people to carry back two coffins.
“‘What do you want two coffins for?’ she asked.
“He said with a smile, ‘One’s not enough. We need two.
“The fact that he wasn’t weeping made her think he was stupefied with grief. But after laying Siqi in one coffin — without so much as a whimper — before anyone could see what he was doing he whipped out a small knife and cut his own throat! Siqi’s mother sobbed bitterly then with remorse. And now the whole neighbourhood knows of this and they want to report it to the authorities. She’s frantic, that’s why she’s sent me to beg you to help. She’ll be coming later to kowtow her thanks.”
“What a silly girl!” exclaimed Xifeng in amazement. “And up against such a simpleton too it’s too bad! No wonder she took it so calmly when they found those things during the search that day. I’d no idea she was such a strong character! Actually I’ve no time to mind other people’s business, but what you’ve told me really makes my heart bleed. All right then, go and tell Siqi’s mother that I’ll get my husband to send Lai Wang to straighten things out for her.”
Only when Xifeng had sent this woman away did she go over to the old lady’s place.

To return to Jia Zheng. He was playing draughts one day with Zhan Guang, and both still had about the same number of pieces; but in one corner the issue was not yet decided and each was trying to enclose that sector.
A gateman came in to announce, “Mr. Feng is waiting outside to see you, sir.”
“Show him in,” ordered Jia Zheng.
The man withdrew to do so, and as Feng Ziying entered Jia Zheng rose to welcome him. Having taken a seat in the study, Feng saw that they had been playing draughts.
“Please go on with your game,” he urged them. “I’d like to watch.”
“My game isn’t worth watching,” said Zhan Guang with a smile.
“Don’t be so modest,” replied Feng. “Please carry on.”
“Have you come on business?” Jia Zheng wanted to know.
“Nothing of any importance. Please go on with your game, uncle, and I can learn by watching.”
Jia Zheng told Zhan, “Master Feng is a good friend of ours. As he’s in no hurry, let’s finish this game and then we can have a chat. You can watch from the side, Master Feng.”
“Are you playing for stakes?”
“Yes, we are,” said Zhan.
“In that case I mustn’t interfere.”
“It doesn’t matter if you do,” joked Jia Zheng. “He’s lost over ten taels already, but he never pays up. I shall have to make him stand us a meal some day instead.”
“That’s all right,” chuckled Zhan.
“Do you gentlemen both play from scratch?” asked Feng.
“We used to.” Jia Zheng smiled. “But he kept losing. Now I’m handi¬capped by giving him two pieces at the start, yet he still loses. From time to time he revokes too, and if I challenge him he gets worked up.
“That’s not true!” protested Zhan Guang laughingly.
“Just wait and see,” said Jia Zheng.
They played as they chatted, and when the game was finished they counted their pieces. After deducting the one with which he had opened, Zhan had lost by seven pieces.
Feng remarked, “You lost out trying to enclose uncle’s pieces. And so, being less vulnerable, he got the upper hand.”
“Excuse us for ignoring you,” Jia Zheng apologized. “Now we can talk.”
“I haven’t seen you for some time, uncle, so I called in the first place to pay my respects,” said Feng. “Another reason is that the vice-prefect of Guangxi has come to the capital with four novelties from the south or overseas, all fit to present to the court. One is a carved ebony screen with twenty-four leaves. They’re inlaid not with jade but with the finest marble carved with landscapes, figures, pavilions, flowers and birds. On each leaf are fifty to sixty girls in palace costume, so the screen is called ‘Spring Dawn in the Han Palace.’ All the girls’ features, their hands and the draperies are most delicately carved. The embellishments and designs are excellent too. It seems to me just the thing for the main hall of your honourable Grand View Garden.
“Then there’s a clock more than three feet high in the form of a boy holding a time-piece, which announces each hour in turn, while inside some clock-work figures play musical chimes. As both these are heavy objects, I didn’t bring them. But the two things I have with me are quite intriguing too.”
With that he produced a brocade box swathed in white silk floss and, having removed some padding, showed them a glass case in which was a gold stand mounted on red crepe. On the stand lay a dazzling bright pearl, as large as a dried longan.
“This is called a mother pearl,” Feng told them, then asked for a plate.
Zhan Guang at once passed him a black lacquer tea-tray.
“Will this do?”
“Yes, that’s fine.”
Feng took a silk pouch from his pocket and emptied all the pearls in it on to the tray, then placed the mother pearl in the middle and set the tray on the table. At once, all the small pearls rolled over and over until they were close to the big one, propping it up, all without exception nestling against the big pearl.
“Fantastic!” exclaimed Zhan.
“I’ve heard of this,” said Jia Zheng. “This is how it came by its name as the mother of pearls.”
Now Feng turned to the page who had accompanied him.
“Where is that box?” he called.
The page at once brought over a rosewood box. When opened it dis¬closed, on a lining of striped silk, some folded blue gauze.
“What is this?” asked Zhan.
“A curtain of mermaid-gauze.”
When Feng took it out of the box, the curtain — each fold less than five inches long — was less than half an inch thick. He unfolded it layer by layer. And by the time he had unfolded some ten layers, it was already too big for the table.
“See, there are two more folds,” he said. “It can only be hung in a room with a high ceiling. This is woven of mermaid-silk. In the heat of summer, hung in the hall, it will keep out all flies and mosquitoes. It is light and transparent too.”
“Don’t spread it all out,” interposed Jia Zheng, “or you’ll have trouble folding it up again.”
Then Zhan helped Feng refold the curtain.
“The price for these four things isn’t exorbitant,” Feng said. “He’s willing to sell them for twenty thousand taels: ten thousand for the mother pearl, five thousand for the curtain, and five thousand for the screen and the clock combined.”
“We can’t afford that!” exclaimed Jia Zheng.
“You are related to the Imperial House,” said Feng. “Couldn’t they use things of this sort in the Palace?”
“There are plenty of things they could use, but where is so much money to come from?” Jia Zheng retorted. “Wait, though, till I’ve sent these inside to show the old lady.”
“Certainly,” Feng agreed.
Jia Zheng ordered a servant to ask Jia Lian to take the pearl and curtain to the old lady; and Lady Xing, Lady Wang and Xifeng were invited over to see them. They examined each in turn.
“He has two other novelties: a screen and a musical clock,” Jia Lian informed them. “He’s asking twenty thousand taels for all four.”
“Of course they’re good,” said Xifeng. “But we haven’t so much spare money. And we’re not like those provincial governors who have to send tribute to court. In fact, for years I’ve been thinking that a family like ours should invest in some real estate — sacrificial land, manor houses or burial sites. Then in future, if things go badly for our descendants, they’ll have something to fall back on and won’t be bankrupted. This is my idea, but I don’t know whether the old lady and the masters and mistresses agree or not. If the gentlemen want to buy these — that’s up to them.”
The old lady and the rest agreed with her.
“Then I’ll take them back,” said Jia Lian. “It was Lord Zheng who told me to bring these to show the old lady, thinking they could be pre¬sented to the Palace — no one spoke of buying them to keep ourselves. But before the old lady says a word you come out with all that ill-omened talk!”
He took the things away, simply telling Jia Zheng that the old lady did not want them.
Then Jia Zheng told Feng, “These are excellent things, but we haven’t got the money. I’ll keep my eyes open, though, and if I find someone who wants them I’ll let you know.
Feng had to put pearl and curtain away and sit down again to make polite conversation, but feeling disheartened he soon rose to take his leave.
“Do stay and have dinner with us,” urged Jia Zheng.
“I don’t want to put you to too much trouble, uncle.”
“It’s no trouble at all.”
Just at this point, a servant announced Lord She even as he walked in, and there was the usual exchange of civilities.
Presently wine and dishes were brought in and the gentlemen started drinking. After four or five cups, mention was made again of the novel¬ties from the south.
“Such things are hard to dispose of,” remarked Feng. “Apart from distinguished families like yours, who else can afford to buy them?”
“That’s not necessarily so,” Jia Zheng demurred.
Jia She added, “Our family isn’t what it was — we’re simply keep¬ing up appearances.”
“How is Master Zhen of the East Mansion?” Feng inquired. “Last time I met him, in the course of conversation he mentioned that his son’s second wife can’t compare with his first from the Qin family. I forgot to ask which family the new young mistress comes from.”
“She’s from a noble family too,” said Jia Zheng. “She’s the daughter of old Mr. Hu, who was Governor of the Metropolitan Circuit.”
“I know Mr. Hu,” replied Feng. “His household isn’t too well regu¬lated. Still, that doesn’t matter if the girl herself is good.”
Jia Lian changed the subject by saying, “I’ve heard from someone in the cabinet that Yucun is to be promoted again.”
“Good,” said Jia Zheng. “But is this news reliable, I wonder?”
“There must be something in it,” insisted ha Lian.
“I was at the Ministry of Civil Affairs earlier on, and I heard the same talk,” confirmed Feng. “Is respected Master Yucun a member of your honourable clan?”
“Yes, he is,” said Jia Zheng.
“A close relation or a distant connection?”
“It’s a long story. He’s a native of Huzhou Prefecture in Zhejiang, who moved to Suzhou and didn’t make out too well there; but a certain Zhen Shiyin befriended him and helped him out. Then he passed the pal¬ace examination and was appointed a magistrate, after which he married one of the Zhen family’s maids — his present wife is his second. Then Zhen Shiyin lost all his money and seems to have disappeared. At the time when Yucun was dismissed from his post, he didn’t know our fam¬ily. My brother-in-law Lin Ruhai, who was Salt Commissioner of Yangzhou then, engaged him as a tutor for his daughter. When word came that he might be reinstated, he decided to return to the capital; and as my niece happened to be coming to visit us, her father asked Yucun to escort her here and wrote a letter recommending him to me. Since he made a fairly good impression on me; we saw quite a bit of each other. The strange thing was that Yucun knew our whole family history from the start — all about our Rong and Ning Mansions, the inmates of each, and different happenings here. So we were soon on a familiar footing.” He added with a smile, “He very soon learned how to climb the official ladder, getting himself promoted from the post of a prefect to that of a censor and then, in another few years, becoming Vice-Minister of Civil Affairs and Minis¬ter of War. After that, for some reason, he was demoted three ranks. Now it seems he is going up again.”
“Prosperity and ruin,” observed Feng, “are as unpredictable as suc¬cess or failure in one’s official career.
“Yucun counts as one who has got off lightly,” rejoined Jia Zheng. “There are other families much like ours, the Zhen family for instance, who had the same achievements to their credit, the same hereditary honours, the same way of life, with whom we were very close. A few years ago when they came to the capital, they would send people to call on us and they cut quite a dash. Before long, though, their property was confiscated and no more has been heard of them ever since. We don’t know what’s become of the family and can’t help worrying about them. Don’t you think this must strike fear into officials?”
“Well, our family should be safe,” ha She observed.
“Of course, your honourable family has nothing to fear,” Feng as¬sured him. “You have Her Highness in the Palace to watch over you, and a host of good friends and kinsmen. Besides, not one of your family from the old lady down to your young masters is grasping or niggardly.”
“That may be so,” said Jia Zheng. “But they have no virtue or ability either. How long can they go on just living on their capital?”
“Don’t talk that,” protested Jia She. “Let’s have some more drinks.”
They drank a few more cups, then rice was served. After they had finished the meal and drunk some tea, Feng’s page came over to whisper something to him, and he asked permission to leave.
Jia She asked the page what he had said.
“It’s snowing outside, sir, and the first watch has sounded.”
Jia Zheng sent a servant to look, who reported that more than one inch of snow had fallen.
“Have you put those valuables away?” Jia Zheng asked.
“Yes, uncle,” said Feng. “If your honourable family has any use for them, we can of course negotiate the price.”
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
“I’ll wait to hear from you. It’s cold; please don’t see me out.”
Jia Zheng and Jia She told Jia Lian to see him out. If you wish to know the sequel, read the next chapter.

Chapter 93

A Servant of the Zhen Family Offers
His Services to the Jias
A Scandal in Water Moon Convent
Is Exposed


After Feng Ziying had gone, Jia Zheng summoned the gateman.
“Today the Duke of Linan sent invitations to a banquet,” he said. “Do you know what the occasion is?”
“I asked, sir,” replied the gateman. “It’s no special celebration, but a company of young actors — a company with a fine reputation has come to the Prince of Nanan’s Mansion; and the duke is so pleased with them that he’s putting on two days’ performances for his friends’ en¬joyment. It should be very lively. There’s probably no need to send pre¬sents.”
Jia She came over at this point to ask Jia Zheng if he would be going the next day.
“I suppose we’ll have to,” was the reply, “to show our apprecia¬tion.”
Just then the gateman came back to report, “The secretary from your yamen has come to ask you to go there tomorrow, sir, as the minister has some business and will need you earlier than usual.” “Very well.”
Then two of the family’s bailiffs came in and paid their respects. After kowtowing they stood there at attention.
“Are you two from Hao Village?” Jia Zheng asked.  “Yes, sir.”
Instead of inquiring their business, -he chatted with Jia She till the latter rose to go and was escorted home by servants with lanterns.
Jia Lian then asked the bailiffs, “Well, what have you come for?”
“We collected the rent in kind for the tenth month,” they reported. “It should have arrived here tomorrow, but outside the city our carts were commandeered and, when we protested, all the things on them were dumped on the ground. We told them these weren’t merchants’ carts but were delivering rent to your mansions. Still they paid no attention. When we told the carters to drive on, some runners beat them up and made off with our .two carts. So we’ve come to report this, sir, and ask you to send to the yamen to get them back. Those lawless runners should be punished too. You’ve no idea, sir, how hard it is on merchants. All their goods are unloaded, regardless, and their carts are driven away. If the carters so much as murmur, they get their heads smashed in.”
“Outrageous!” swore Jia Lian.
He there and then wrote a note and told the servants, “Take this to the local yamen and demand the return of the carts as well as the pro¬duce. We won’t stand for it if one single thing is missing! And send Zhou Rui here at once!”
But Zhou Rui was absent. And when they looked for Lai Wang, they found he had gone out after lunch and not yet returned.
“Not one of the bastards is here!” swore Jia Lian. “They do not work
—just gorge themselves all the year round.” He ordered his pages, “Go and find them, quick!” Then he went home to sleep.

The next day the Duke of Linan sent over again to invite them.
Jia Zheng told Jia She, “I have business in my yamen. And Lian can’t go either, he has to stay in to deal with this commandeering of our carts. For politeness’ sake, you’d better take Baoyu over for the day.”
Jia She nodded. “That’s all right.”
Then Jia Zheng sent for Baoyu. “You’re to go with Lord She to the opera in the Duke of Linan’s place,” he told him.
Baoyu, only too delighted, changed his clothes and went off with Beiming, Saohong and Chuyao to present himself to Jia She and pay his respects. They drove to the duke’s mansion, where the gateman an¬nounced their arrival then ushered them in. Jia She led Baoyu into the courtyard in which a lively party had assembled. After they had paid their respects to the duke and greeted the other guests, everyone sat down to talk. Then the manager of the company stepped forward with an ivory tablet and a compendium of their repertoire. Falling on one knee he said:
“Please make your choice, gentlemen.” 
In order of seniority they selected operas. And when it came to Jia She’s turn, the manager caught sight of Baoyu. He hurried straight over to him and saluted.
“Please choose a couple of scenes, Master Bao,” he said.
This man with his clear complexion and red lips was fresh as lotus taken from the water, graceful as a jade tree in the breeze. Baoyu recog¬nized him at one glance as Jiang Yuhan. He had heard not long before that Jiang had brought a company of young actors to the capital, but his old friend had failed to come to see him. He could hardly stand up in this company to greet him.
“When did you come back?” he asked him with a smile.
Jiang pointing at himself murmured, “Surely you know, Second Mas¬ter.”
As they could not very well converse in public, Baoyu just picked one item at random. After Jiang Yuhan had moved on, there was some specu¬lation about him.
“Who is he?” someone asked.
“He used to play young ladies,” another man answered. “Now that he’s too old for that, he acts as manager instead and sometimes takes young men’s roles. He’s put aside a tidy sum of money and owns a couple of shops, but he won’t give up his profession and goes on manag¬ing an opera company.
“1 suppose he must have married,” one guest remarked.
“No, he’s not engaged yet. He’s got this idea fixed that marriage is for keeps, affecting one’s whole life, not something to enter into casu¬ally; so his wife, regardless of her social status, must measure up to his talent. That’s why he’s still unmarried.”
Baoyu wondered who the lucky girl would be to marry a man of his ability.
Then the performance started. And very lively it was too, with Kunqu, Yiqiang, Gaoqiang and Ban Zi operas.1 At noon tables were set out for the feast, and when they had watched a little longer Jia She rose to leave.
“It’s still early,” said the duke, coming over to press him to stay. “And I’ve heard that Jiang Yuhan is going to play in their best item — a scene from The Oil-Vendor and the Courtesan.”
Baoyu hearing this was most eager to stay, and so Jia She resumed his seat. Then, sure enough, Jiang Yuhan came on in the role of the oil-vendor Qin, and gave an excellent performance of how the young man cared for the courtesan when she was drunk, after which the two of them drank and sang together in affectionate intimacy.
Baoyu was not interested in the heroine, having eyes only for the young hero. And he was quite enraptured by his singing, for Jiang Yuhan had a resonant voice, clear enunciation and good sense of rhythm. By the time this scene ended he was firmly convinced that Jiang was a romantic, completely unique. He thought, “The Book of Music rightly says, ‘Stirred feelings find expression in sound, and when the sound follows a pattern we call it music.’ So sounds, notes and music take some understanding, and a study has to be made of their origin. Poetry can convey emotions, but it can’t thrill us to the marrow. In future I really must make a study of music.”
His reverie was interrupted by Jia She rising to leave. As their host could not prevail on him to stay, Baoyu had no choice but to go back with him.
On their return Jia She went home. And Baoyu, paying his duty call on his father, found him just back from the ministry questioning ha Lian about the seizure of their carts.
Jia Lian said, “I sent servants there today with my card, but the mag¬istrate was out. His factotum said, ‘His Excellency knew nothing about this, and gave no orders for the requisition of carts. It’s all the fault of those trouble-making scoundrels who take unfair advantage of people outside. As these are His Lordship’s carts, I’ll send at once to investi¬gate and guarantee to return them as well as the things tomorrow. If there is any delay, I shall report it to His Excellency and have them se¬verely punished. But since he is away now, I hope His Lordship will be understanding, as it would be better not to trouble my master.
“Without some official order, who would dare do such a thing?” de¬manded Jia Zheng.
“You don’t understand, sir,” said.Jia Lian. “It’s like this everywhere outside the city. I’m sure they’ll return our property tomorrow.” With that he withdrew.
Then Baoyu paid his respects to his father, who questioned him briefly before sending him to call on his grandmother.
As the stewards had been out the day before when Jia Lian sent for them, he had summoned them all and now they were ready waiting. Hav¬ing cursed them roundly he told the chief steward Lai Da, “Bring me the roster of servants and check their names; then write an announcement for them all to read. If anyone sneaks off without asking leave and isn’t on hand when called, holding up our business, you’re to beat him for me and drive him out forthwith!”
“Yes, sir! Yes, sir!”
Lai Da went out to pass on this warning, and thereafter the servants were more circumspect.
Soon after this, a man came to the gate wearing a felt cap, blue cotton clothes and slippers with cloth soles and leather uppers. He saluted the servants on duty, who looked him over from head to foot before asking where he came from.
“From the Zhen family in the south,” he answered. “I’ve a letter from my master which I’d like to trouble you gentlemen to take in to His Lordship.”
When they heard this they stood up and offered him a seat.
“You must be tired. Sit down,” they urged. “We’ll see to it for you.”
One gateman went in and reported this, handing Jia Zheng the letter which he opened and read:
... Our families have been long-standing friends sharing similar tastes, and I have the greatest admiration for you. My criminal incompetence deserved punishment by a thousand deaths, but instead the court with gracious clemency sent me to this border region. Now our fortunes have declined and our family is scattered. Our servant’s son Bao Yong, who used to serve me, though he has no outstanding ability is quite honest. If you would take him on, enabling him to support himself, I should be infinitely grateful for your kindness. This is my letter’s sole purpose. I shall write more fully later.
After reading this Jia Zheng smiled.
“We were thinking that our staff is too large,” he said. “However, we can’t turn away someone recommended by the Zhen family.” He told the gateman, “Bring him here. We’ll keep him and find him some appro¬priate work.”
So the gateman fetched Bao Yong, who kowtowed three times to Jia Zheng. Getting up again he said, “My master sends his respects, sir. Then he went down on one knee in salute, saying, “Bao Yong pays his respects, sir.”
Jia Zheng asked after Mr. Zhen’s health and scrutinized Bao Yong as he stood there in an attitude of respect. Just over five feet and broad-shouldered, he had thick eyebrows, protuberant eyes and a low forehead. His face was bearded and swarthy.
“Have you always been in the Zhen family or only worked there for a few years?” Jia Zheng asked.
“I have always been their man, sir.”
“Then why do you want to leave them now?”
“I didn’t want to, but my master insisted. He said, ‘You wouldn’t agree to going anywhere else, but serving the Jia family will be like serv¬ing us.’ So I came, sir.”
“Your master should never have got into such trouble, reducing him to these straits.”
“If I may make bold to say so, it’s because my master’s too good. He always treats people honestly, and that landed him in trouble.”
“Surely it’s good to be honest.”
“But because he was too honest, sir, nobody liked him and he of¬fended some people.”
“Well, in that case Heaven will give him his due deserts,” Jia Zheng laughed. Before Bao Yong could reply he went on to ask, “Is it true, as I heard, that your younger master’s name is also Baoyu?” “Yes, sir.”
“Is he doing well?”
“As for our Master Bao, sir, that’s a strange story. He’s like his father —too honest. As a child, what he liked best was playing about with girls, and though his parents gave him several good beatings he wouldn’t mend his ways. That year our mistress came to the capital, Master Bao fell very ill. He lost consciousness for so long that his father was frantic and had all the funeral preparations made. Then, luckily, he came round. But he started raving that he’d met a girl by an archway who took him into a temple, inside which were many cabinets filled with albums. Then going into a room he saw countless girls who’d all turned into ghosts or skel¬etons. That set him screaming with fright. As soon as our master saw that he’d come to he gave him good medical treatment, and gradually he recovered. After that, when our master sent him off to amuse himself with the girls, as he always used to, we discovered that he’d changed— he no longer enjoyed his old pleasures but much preferred to study. Even when they tried to coax him away from his books, he took no interest at all. So now, little by little, he’s learning to help his father manage the household.”
Jia Zheng digested this in thoughtful silence.
“Go off and rest now,” he said presently. “When a task comes up that you can do, of course we’ll assign you some duties.”
Bao Yong thanked him and withdrew, going out with the gateman to rest. But no more of this.

One morning, Jia Zheng rose early and was setting off to his yamen when he noticed the servants at the gate whispering and muttering among themselves as if they had some news for him which they dared not report outright. He called them over.
“What is this hole-and-corner business’?” he demanded.
“We hardly dare tell you, sir,” one of them answered.
“Why not? Out with it!”
“This morning when we got up and opened the gate, we found a sheet of paper pasted on it, covered with scurrilous writing.”
“The idea!” exclaimed Jia Zheng. “What was it?”
“Dirty talk about Water Moon Convent, sir.”
“Bring me the paper,” he ordered.
“We tried to take it down, but it was glued on too firmly; so we copied it out, then soaked the .paper to get it off. Just now Li De brought another sheet to show us — the same as the one on the gate. We dare not hide it from you, sir.”
They presented the paper, and he read: 
Jia Qin, a young supervisor,
To Water Moon Convent came.
One male among so many females,
He’s free to drink, whore and game.
This worthless young master set in charge
Is giving the Rong Mansion a bad name!

So enraged by this that his mind reeled, Jia Zheng ordered the ser¬vants to say nothing about it but to make a quiet search of the walls of the alleys in the vicinity. He then sent for Jia Lian, who came hurrying over.
Without any preliminaries Jia Zheng asked him, “Have you ever checked up on those novices in Water Moon Convent?”
“No,” said ha Lian. “Qin’s always been in charge of them.”
“Do you think him capable of such a trust?”
“Since you ask, sir, I suppose he must have fallen down on the job.”
Jia Zheng sighed. “Look what’s written on this poster!”
Jia Lian read it and exclaimed, “Could this be true?”
Just then along came Jia Rong with an envelope marked “Confiden¬tial” addressed to Jia Zheng. When they opened it, they found another copy of the same anonymous lampoon as that pasted on the gate.
Jia Zheng said, “Tell Lai Da to go at once with three or four carriages to the convent, to bring back all those novices. Don’t let word of this get out. Just tell them that they’re wanted in the Palace.”
Lai Da went off to carry out these orders.

Now the young Buddhist and Taoist novices when first they went to the convent had been in the charge of an old abbess who daily taught them litanies and invocations. But because the Imperial Consort never sent for them, they gradually became lax in their devotions; and as they grew older they began to take an interest in men. Jia Qin was a romantic. In his view, it had simply been a childish whim which made these ac¬tresses enter a convent, and accordingly he went to daily with them. As Fangguan, genuinely devout, was deaf to his enticements, he turned his attention to the other girls. Among these were a Buddhist named Qinxiang and a Taoist named Hexian, both of whom had seductive charm. So Jia Qin became their lover and whenever they had the time they would get together and learn how to sing and play the fiddle.
Since this was the middle of the tenth month and Jia Qin had just brought the monthly allowance for the convent, he hit on an idea.
“I’ve brought your allowance,” he told the girls. “But as I can’t get back to town today, I’ll have to spend the night here. It’s very cold, isn’t it? So suppose we sit up together to enjoy these sweetmeats and wine that I’ve brought with me?”
The novices, very pleased, set tables ready and invited the older nuns too. Fangguan was the only one who declined to join them. After a few cups Jia Qin proposed playing some drinking games.
“We don’t know how to,” said Qinxiang and the others. “Let’s just play the guessing-fingers game, and whoever loses must drink. Wouldn’t that be simpler?”
The older nuns objected, “It’s only just after noon, and it wouldn’t look right to have a rowdy party. Let’s drink a few cups, then those who like can leave first. Those who want to keep Master Qin company can drink all they please this evening, and we won’t interfere.”
Just then a serving-woman hurried in.
“Break this up, this minute!” she cried. “Here’s Mr. Lai from the Jia Mansion!”
The novices hastily set about clearing the tables and urged Jia Qin to hide.
But emboldened by a few cups of wine he blustered, “I came to bring the monthly allowance. I’m not afraid!”
While he was still speaking, in came Lai Da. The sight that met his eyes enraged him. But as Jia Zheng had enjoined strict secrecy, he forced himself to smile.
“So you are here too, Master Qin,” he said.
“What brings you here, Mr. Lai?” asked Jia Qin who had risen to his feet.
“I’m glad you’re here, sir. Tell these novices to get ready at once to drive to town. They’re wanted in the Palace.”
This puzzled them all, but before they could question him the steward continued, “Time presses. Be quick about it, or we may be shut out.”
The novices had to mount the carriages then. And Lai Da, riding a big mule, escorted them back to the city.

Meanwhile Jia Zheng, too angry to go to his yamen, sat alone in his study sighing over this scandal, and Jia Lian felt constrained to stay with him.
Then a gateman came in to announce, “His Lordship Zhang who should be on duty in the yamen this evening is ill, sir, and they would like you to take over for him.”
Jia Zheng was waiting for Lai Da’s return to deal with Jia Qin. Exas¬perated at having to go back on duty now, he made no answer. Jia Lian stepped up to him.
“Lai Da left after lunch, and the convent is some twenty ii from town; so even if he hurries he can’t get back till the second watch,” he said. “If you are needed at the yamen, sir, you can go with an easy mind. When Lai Da gets back. I’ll tell him to detain the novices and keep the matter quiet. You can deal with them when you come home tomorrow. If Jia Qin comes, we needn’t tell him anything either, but see how he ac¬counts for himself to you tomorrow.”
Jia Zheng seeing reason in this went off to his yamen, finally giving Jia Lian a chance to go home. He made his way slowly back, inwardly blam¬ing Xifeng for recommending Jia Qin; but as she was ill he knew he would have to wait before reproaching her.

However, through the servants’ gossiping word of this-had already reached the inner chambers. Pinger, who heard it first, at once told Xifeng. After a bad night Xifeng was in low spirits, worried over the trouble .at Iron-Threshold Temple. The news that an anonymous lampoon had been put up outside alarmed her.
“What does it say?” she asked quickly.
Here Pinger slipped up, “It’s nothing important,” she said casually. “Something to do with Steamed-Bread Convent.”
Xifeng with her guilty conscience was so consternated by this that she could not speak. She came over dizzy and after a fit of coughing spat out a mouthful of blood.
In a fluster Pinger corrected herself. “It’s only some problem over those Buddhist and Taoist novices in Water Moon Convent. Why should that upset you so, madam?”
“Ai! You fool!” exclaimed Xifeng in her relief. “Was it Water Moon Convent or Steamed-Bread Convent? Make up your mind!”
“I misheard it the first time, then discovered that it was Water Moon Convent, not Steamed-Bread Convent. Just now, by a slip of the tongue, I gave you the wrong name.
“I knew it must be Water Moon Convent. What have I to do with Steamed-Bread Convent? I did put Qin in charge of that convent. Prob¬ably he’s been helping himself to their monthly allowance.”
“I didn’t hear talk of that but of some scandal.”
“Well, I care even less about that. Where is Master Lian?”
“They say Lord Zheng is so angry that he can’t very well leave him. When I learned there was trouble I told the maids they mustn’t blab about it; but who knows whether Their Ladyships have heard this talk or not. It seems the master ordered Lai Da to fetch those girls back. I’ve sent to find out what’s up. As you’re unwell, madam, I don’t think you need bother about their affairs.”
Just then Jia Lian came in. Xifeng wanted to question him, but his scowling face made her pretend to know nothing about this business.
While Jia Lian was having supper Lai Wang came in to report, “They’re asking for you outside, sir. Lai Da is back.”
“Is Qin with him?” asked Jia Lian.
‘‘Yes, he’s come too.”
“Go and tell Lai Da that the master has gone to his yamen. The girls are to stay in the Garden for the time being. Tomorrow, when the master comes back, they’ll be sent to the Palace. Tell Qin to wait for me in the inner study.”
Then Lai Wang went off.
When ha Qin went to the study, the way the servants pointed at him and nudged each other made him doubt this talk about a summons to the Palace. He asked what was afoot, but no one would tell him. He was puzzling over this when Jia Lian came in and, having paid his respects, Jia Qin stood at attention.
“We don’t know what Her Highness wants these girls for,” he said. “I brought them as fast as I could. Luckily I took them their allowance today and was still there, so I came back with Lai Da. I suppose you know all this, uncle.
“What do I know? You’re the one in the know,” Jia Lian rapped out.
Jia Qin, though mystified, dared not ask his meaning.
“Fine goings-on!” Jia Lian fumed. “The master is furious!”
“I’ve done nothing wrong, uncle. I take them their allowance every month, and the girls keep up their devotions.”
Jia Lian saw that he was in the dark, and as they had been playmates together he sighed.
“Shut up! Take a look at this.”
He drew the lampoon from his boot and tossed it to him. Jia Qin picked it up and read it.
“Who’s behind this?” he faltered, pale with fright. “I haven’t of¬fended anyone — why go for me like this? I only go there once a month to take them the money. These charges are sheer lies. But if the master comes back and has me beaten up, I shall die of the injustice! Worse still, if my mother hears of it she’ll have me beaten to death!” As they were alone he went down on his knees to plead, “Have a heart, uncle! Save me!” He then kowtowed repeatedly, tears streaming from his eyes.
Jia Lian reflected, “This is the sort of thing the master abominates. If investigation proves that it’s true, there will be a fearful scene. If the scandal gets out, our reputation will suffer and that lampoonist will be¬come even bolder. Then we’ll have a lot more trouble later on. It would be better, while the master’s on duty, to fix up some way with Lai Da to hush it up so as to avoid further trouble. So far no evidence has been produced.”
His mind made up he said, “Don’t try to fool me. Do you think I don’t know the devilry you’ve been up to? If the master beats you to make you confess, your only way out is to refuse to admit it. Get up now, you shameless creature!”
Soon after this Lai Da joined them, and Jia Lian discussed his plan with him.
“Master Qin has really behaved outrageously,” said Lai Da. “When I went to the convent just now they were drinking! The charges in that lampoon must be true.”
“Hear that, Qin?” said Jia Lian. “Lai Da wouldn’t make that up, would he?”
Jia Qin blushed and dared not say a word.
Then Jia Lian urged Lai Da, “Just say that you found Master Qin at home and so you brought him along, but you haven’t seen me. Tomorrow you must try to persuade the master not to question those girls, but in¬stead to fetch a broker to take them away and sell them. If Her -Highness asks for them, we can buy some others.”
Thinking this over, Lai Da realized that a scandal would do no good but would further damage the family’s reputation. Accordingly he agreed.
Then Jia Lian said to Jia Qin, “Go with Mr. Lai and do whatever he tells you.” Jia Qin kowtowed his thanks and went off with the steward, to whom he kowtowed again when they came to a quiet spot.
“You’re really gone too far, Master Qin,” declared Lai Da. “I don’t know whom you offended to land yourself in this mess. Just think, what enemies have you?”
Jia Qin racked his brains and suddenly thought of one.
To know who it was, read the next chapter.

Chapter 94

The Lady Dowager Gives a Feast to Celebrate
the Strange Blossoming of the Crab-Apple Trees
The Loss of Baoyu’s Jade of Spiritual
Understanding Heralds Trouble


After Lai Da had taken Jia Qin off, the night passed without incident as they waited for Jia Zheng’s return. The novices, overjoyed to be back in the Garden, hoped to have a good look round before going to the Pal¬ace the next day. However, Lai Da ordered the matrons and pages there to keep watch and to supply them with food but not allow them to stir a single step. So the girls, although puzzled by this, had to stay there quietly until it was light. The maids in the different lodges in the Garden had heard of their arrival and summons to the Palace, but did not know the real facts of the case.
The next morning, Jia Zheng was about to leave his office when the minister sent him estimates of the costs for public works in two prov¬inces, which he had to check at once before going home. He therefore sent Jia Lian instructions not to wait for his return but to make a thorough investigation as soon as Lai Da was back, and then to take what action he thought fit.
This message pleased Jia Lian on Qin’s account. He reflected, “If I hush up this business completely, uncle may smell a rat. I’d better report it to Her Ladyship and do as she suggests; for then even if it’s not what he would have done he can’t hold me to blame.” Thus resolved, he went in to see Lady Wang.
“Yesterday the master was angry over that lampoon,” he announced, explaining its contents. “He had Qin and the novices brought here for an investigation. Today, as he has no time to look into this scandal, he’s told me to report it to you, madam, to do as you think fit. So I’ve come to ask you how we should deal with this.”
“How disgraceful!” exclaimed Lady Wang, very shocked. “If Qin really carried on like that, our family should disown him. But what a scoundrel that lampoonist must be! How could he sling mud like that? Have you asked Qin whether there’s any truth in it?”
“I did ask him just now. But think, madam, who would admit to any¬thing so shameless even if he’d really done it? Still, I don’t believe Qin would dare, for fear of the consequences, knowing that Her highness might send for these girls any time. To my mind, it shouldn’t be hard to find out the truth. But suppose it is true, madam, what will you do?”
“Where are those girls now?”
“All locked up in the Garden.”
“Do the young ladies know about this?”
“I expect they’ve all heard of their summons to the Palace. There hasn’t been any other gossip outside.”
“That’s good. These creatures mustn’t be kept here a moment longer. I was in favour of packing them off before, but the rest of you insisted on keeping them and now see what’s come of it! Tell Lai Da to take them away and carefully trace their families, if they have any. Then let him get out the bonds of those whose families can be found and draw a few dozen taels to hire a boat and send them back, with a reliable escort, to where they came from. When they’ve all been manumitted that will be the end of that. If we were to force them all to go back to secular life just because one or two of them have gone to the bad, that would be too heartless. And if we made them over to official brokers here, even though we didn’t ask for any money they’d still sell them, not caring at all whether they lived or died.
“As for Qin, you must give him a good talking to. He’s not to show his face here any more, except for sacrifices and celebrations. And he’d better be careful to steer clear of the master if he’s in one of his tempers, or else he’ll settle Qin’s hash! Another thing: tell the accountants’ of¬fice to cancel this allowance. And send word to Water Moon Convent that, on the master’s orders, they’re not to receive young gentlemen from our house except when they go to sacrifice at one of the graves there. If there’s any more talk we’ll drive away the whole lot, including the old abbess.”
Jia Lian assented and withdrew to notify Lai Da.
“This is how Her Ladyship wants you to handle this business,” he informed him. “When it’s done, let me know so that I can report to her. And better see to it quickly; then when the master comes back you can report to him that these were her instructions.”
“Our mistress is really a saintly soul!“ was Lai Da’s comment. “Fancy sending those creatures home, with an escort too! Well, as she’s so kind¬hearted, I shall have to find some reliable man. As for Master Qin, I’ll leave you to deal with him. And I’ll try to track down that lampoonist so that we can crack down on him.”
Jia Lian nodded and said, “Right.”
He lost no time then in dismissing ha Qin, while Lai Da made haste to take the novices away and deal with them according to his instructions.
That evening when Jia Zheng came back, they reported this to him; and as Jia Zheng disliked trouble, on hearing this he let the matter drop. Of course rogues outside, when they heard that twenty-four girls had been dismissed from the Jia Mansion, all wanted to get their hands on them; so whether they ever reached home or not is uncertain, and we have no means of guessing.

Now that Daiyu’s health was improving, Zijuan had time on her hands, and being puzzled by the report that the novices had been summoned to the Palace she went to the old lady’s place for news. She happened to find Yuanyang free too, and sitting down to chat she asked her about the nuns.
“This is news to me,” said Yuanyang in surprise. “I’ll find out later on from Madam Lian.”
As they were talking, two serving-women from Fu Shi’s family ar¬rived to pay their respects to the Lady Dowager. Yuanyang was taking them there when they heard that the old lady was having a nap, so the women delivered their message to her and left.
“Where are they from?” asked Zijuan.
“They’re perfect pests!” Yuanyang told her. “The Fus have a daughter who is not bad-looking, so they keep coming to praise her to the old lady for her good looks, good heart and good manners. They say she’s no chatter-box but a skilled needlewoman, who can write and keep accounts too, most dutiful to her elders and kind to the servants. Each time they come they reel all this off, as if offering the old lady some rare treasure. I can’t bear listening to them! But although they’re such a nuisance, our old lady loves that kind of talk. She isn’t the only one either. Even Baoyu who can’t abide most old women doesn’t mind these from the Fu family. Odd, isn’t it? Only the other day they came to say that lots of people are asking for their young lady, but her father won’t give his consent hinting that only a family like ours would be good enough for her. All their praise and flattery are having some effect on the old lady.”
Though taken aback, Zijuan asked with a show of indifference, “If she thinks it a good match for Baoyu, then why not fix it up?”
Before Yuanyang could explain someone inside called Out, “The old lady’s woken!”
Yuanyang hurried in then and Zijuan got up to leave. On her way back to the Garden she ruminated, “Is there only one Baoyu in the world that everybody should want him? And our young lady’s the one who dotes on him most. You can see by the way she behaves that she’s set her heart on him: why else should she keep falling ill? There’s confusion enough here already, what with gold unicorns and gold lockets, without foisting another Miss Fu on us too! I think it’s our young lady that Baoyu fancies; but judging by what Yuanyang says, he falls in love with every girl he meets. If so, our young lady’s eating her heart out for nothing.”
From thinking of Daiyu she went on to wonder what she herself should do, until she felt quite distracted. Though tempted to advise Daiyu to stop caring so much for Baoyu, she was afraid this would upset her; yet see¬ing her like this made her heart bleed. The more she brooded the more anxious she grew.
“Why worry about someone else?” she scolded herself. “Even if she really marries Baoyu, the way she is it won’t be easy to please her; and Baoyu, for all he’s good-natured, is too much of a flirt. But here I am hoping she’ll stop worrying yet worrying myself for nothing! From now on I’ll look after her as best I can and not care about anything else.”
This conclusion helped to calm her down by the time she reached Bamboo Lodge, where she found Daiyu sitting all by herself on the kang sorting out her old poems and essays. She looked up when Zijuan came in.
“Where have you been?” she asked.
“To call on some other girls.”
“Did you see Sister Xiren?”
“Why should I go to see her?”
Daiyu wondered how she had come to blurt out such a question, and in embarrassment she answered curtly, “I don’t care where you go. Fetch me some tea.”
Laughing up her sleeve, Zijuan went out to do this and heard a clamour of voices in the Garden. As she poured the tea she sent someone to find out what had happened.
The girl came back and told her, “Some crab-apple trees in Happy Red Court had withered, and nobody watered them; but yesterday when Baoyu had a look he claimed he saw buds on the branches. No one believed him or paid any attention. Today, all of a sudden, they burst into bloom with lovely crab-apple flowers! People were so amazed that they rushed over there to look, It’s caused such a sensation that even the old lady and Her Ladyship are coming to see the flowers. So Madam Zhu’s given orders to have the leaves in the Garden swept up, and they were calling servants just now to do this.”
Daiyu, overhearing that the old lady was coming, at once changed her clothes and sent Xueyan out to keep watch.
“Tell me as soon as the old lady comes,” she said.
It was not long before Xueyan came running back. “The old lady and the mistress have come with quite a party,” she announced.” You’d bet¬ter go right away, miss.”
Daiyu glanced at herself in the mirror and smoothed her hair, then took Zijuan’s arm to go to Happy Red Court, where she found the Lady Dowager seated on Baoyu’s couch. Daiyu paid her respects to her, then to Lady Xing and Lady Wang, after which she greeted Li Wan, Tanchun, Xichun and Xiuyan. The only ones absent were Xifeng, who was unwell; Xiangyun, who had been fetched home now that her uncle had a post in the capital; Baoqin,. who was staying with Baochai; and the two Li sis¬ters, who had moved out to live with Aunt Li on account of all the troubles in the Garden. So Daiyu saw only a few of the girls.
For a while they discussed this strange phenomenon of blossom out of season.
“Crab-apple should blossom in the third month,” said the old lady. “Although it’s now the eleventh, because the solar seasons are late this year it’s actually like the tenth, and we’re having an Indian summer which makes it warm enough for trees to blossom.”
“You’ve seen so much, madam, you must be right,” Lady Wang con¬curred. “It’s not all that remarkable.”
“I heard this plant had withered for a whole year,” said Lady Xing. “Why is it blossoming now? There must be some reason.
“I’m sure the old lady and mistress are right,” put in Li Wan with a smile. “In my foolish opinion, this blossoming shows that something good is coming Baoyu’s way.”
Tanchun remained silent, thinking, “It can’t be a good omen. All liv¬ing things which obey Heaven’s will must prosper, while all which flout it must die even plants know that. So unseasonable blossom must be an evil omen.” She could not say this, however.
Daiyu, elated by this talk of good luck for Baoyu, said gaily, “The Tian family of old had a red-bud tree which withered when the three brothers split up the property. That made them go back in remorse to live together, and then the tree blossomed again. This shows that plants change in accordance with human beings. Now Cousin Bao is studying hard and uncle is pleased with him, so these crab-apples have blossomed again.”
The old lady and Lady Wang were delighted with this explanation. “Daiyu’s made an.apt comparison,” they said. “Most interesting!”
As they were talking, Jia She and Jia Zheng arrived with Huan and Lan to look at the flowers.
“If I were you, I’d cut them down,” said Jia She. “It must be some flower-monster making trouble.”
Jia Zheng retorted, “‘Ignore a monster and it will destroy itself. Just let it be. There’s no need to cut it down.”
“What nonsense are you talking?” his mother protested. “This is some¬thing auspicious and good; there’s no monster here. If good comes of this, you can enjoy it. If bad comes of it, I’ll take all the consequences. But 1 won’t have you talking such rubbish!”
Thus silenced, Jia Zheng withdrew sheepishly with ha She.
Then the old lady in high spirits told them to order the kitchen to pre¬pare a feast at once, so that they could enjoy the flowers.
“Baoyu, Huan and Lan must each write a poem to commemorate this happy event,” she decreed. “Daiyu’s just over her illness, so we mustn’t trouble her to write; but if she’s in the mood she can polish your lines.” She told Li Wan, “All of you must drink with me.”
Li Wan agreed to this, then said teasingly to Tanchun, “This is all your fault.”
“We’ve not even been allowed to write poems,” retorted Tanchun. “So surely this has nothing to do with us?”
“Didn’t you start the Begonia Society? Now these crab-apples’ want to join your club too.”
At that everybody laughed.
Presently wine and dishes were served. And as they drank they all tried to please the old lady by cheerful talk. Baoyu poured wine for the others, then made tip and wrote out a quatrain which he read to his grand¬mother. It was as follows:
What made the crab-apple wither away?
And today why have fresh blossoms come?
To foretell a long life for our Old Ancestress
It is flowering anew, ahead of the plum.
Huan also wrote and read out this poem:
Crab-apples should burgeon in the spring,
But ours were bare this year.
The world is full of strange phenomena,
Yet only here do winter blooms appear.
Lan wrote out his verse neatly and presented it to the old lady, who made Li Wan read it out as follows:
Its misty charm had faded by last spring,
But after snow and frost pink blooms unfold.
Do not accuse this flower of ignorance— 
Good fortune at this feast it has foretold.
The old lady said, “I don’t know much about poetry, but I think Lan’s is the best. Huan’s is no good. Now come and eat, everyone.”
Baoyu was pleased to see her in a good mood until it occurred to him, “The crab-apple died at the same time as Qingwen. Now that it’s blos¬soming again, of course that augurs well for us in this compound, but it can’t bring Qingwen back to life like this flower.” At once his joy turned to sadness, till he remembered Qiaojie telling him that Xifeng would be sending Wuer to take Hongyu’s place. “This flower may be blossoming for her,” he thought, and his spirits rising again he chatted with the rest of them as before.
After some time the old lady left, leaning on Zhenzhu’s arm and ac¬companied by Lady Wang and the others. On their way back Pinger accosted them.
“Our mistress heard that the old lady was enjoying the flowers here,” she said with a smile. “As she couldn’t come herself, she’s sent me to help wait on Your Ladyships. Here are two rolls of red silk too, a con¬gratulatory gift for Master .Bao to drape over the trees.”
Xiren took the silk and showed it to the old lady, who commented laughingly, “Whatever Xifeng does is in good form, besides being origi¬nal and great fun!”
Xiren told Pinger, “When you go back please thank Madam Lian for Master Bao. If we’re to have good fortune, we’ll all share it.”
“Aha!” chuckled the old lady. “I forgot that. Though Xifeng is unwell she’s still so thoughtful. This was just the present to give.”
She went on then and the others followed her, while Pinger confided to Xiren, “Our mistress says this blossoming now is odd; so she wants you to cut strips of that red silk and hang them over the trees to bring good luck. And don’t let anyone spread foolish talk about this being a miracle.”
Xiren nodded agreement and then saw her off.

.Baoyu had been resting at home that day, wearing a fur-lined gown, when he noticed that the crab-apples had blossomed and went out to look atthem, sighing with admiration. So enchanted with them was he that he became quite wrapped up in their flowers, which evoked in him mixed feelings of grief and joy. At the sudden news that the old lady was com¬ing, he changed into a fox-fur archer’s jacket and black fox-fur coat, then went out so hurriedly to welcome her that he omitted to put on his Precious Jade of Spiritual Understanding. Not till the old lady had left and he had changed back into a gown did Xiren see that the pendant which usually hung around his neck was missing.
“Where is your jade?” she asked.
“When I changed just now in such a hurry, I took it off and put it on the small table on the kang instead of wearing it.”
Xiren could not see it on the small table. She searched the whole room, but there was no trace of it. Dismay made her break out into a cold sweat.
“Don’t worry,” said Baoyu. “It’s bound to be somewhere here. Ask the others. They must know.”
It occurred to Xiren that one of the other girls must have hidden it to tease her. “You bitches!” she said playfully to Sheyue and the rest. “What sort of joke is this to play? Where have you hidden it? If it really got lost, that would be the end of us all!”
“What are you talking about?” they answered seriously. “Joking is all very well, but this is no joking matter. Don’t talk nonsense. You must be crazy! Better think back to where you put it instead of accusing us.”
“Heavens!” cried Xiren anxiously, seeing them so much in earnest. “Where exactly did you put it, Master Bao?”
“I remember quite clearly putting it on that table,” he assured her. “Make a good search for it.”
Not daring to let outsiders know, Xiren, Sheyue, Qiuwen and the other girls quietly searched the whole place. They hunted around for hours, even turning out cases and crates — but all in vain. When the jade was nowhere to be found, they wondered if one of their visitors that day could have taken it.
But Xiren said, “All of them know how precious this jade is. Who’d dare take it? You mustn’t, for goodness’ sake, let word of this get out, but go and make inquiries at different households. If one of the other girls took it to play a trick on us, kowtow to her and beg her to return it. And if you find out that one of the little maids stole it, don’t report it to the mistresses but give her something in exchange for it. This isn’t just any¬thing! If it’s really lost, that’s more serious than losing Master Bao!”
As Sheyue and Qiuwen were leaving, she hurried after them with a final warning: “Don’t start by asking those who came to the feast. Be¬cause then, if you can’t find it, that will cause more trouble and make matters worse.
Sheyue and Qiuwen agreed and went off separately to make inquir¬ies; but nobody had seen the jade, and they were all alarmed. The two of them hurried back to eye each other blankly in consternation. By now Baoyu was alarmed too, while Xiren could only sob in desperation. The jade had vanished, and they dared not report it. All the inmates of Happy Red Court were petrified.
While they were in this state of stupefaction, along came some people who had heard of their loss. Tanchun ordered the Garden gate to be closed and sent an old serving-woman with two young maids to make another comprehensive search, promising a handsome reward to anyone who found the jade. Eagerness to clear themselves and receive a reward made everyone search frantically high and low — they even scoured the privies. But it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. They searched all day in vain.
“This is no laughing matter,” said Li Wan in desperation. “I’ve a blunt proposal to make.”
“What is it?” the others asked.
“Things have come to such a pass, we can’t be too nice. Now apart from Baoyu all the others in the Garden are women. I’m going to ask all you girls, as well as the maids you brought with you, to take off your clothes to be searched. If the jade isn’t found, we’ll tell the maids to search the serving-women and the maids doing the rough work. What do you say?”
“That’s an idea,” they agreed. “With such a crowd of us here we’re a mixed lot, and this would be a way to clear ourselves.”
Only Tanchun made no comment.
As the maids also wanted to clear themselves of suspicion, Pinger volunteered to be the first to be searched. Then the others stripped too, and Li Wan searched them in turn.
“Sister-in-law!” snapped Tanchun. “Where did you learn to behave in this scandalous way? If anyone stole it she wouldn’t keep it on her, would she? Besides, this jade may be treasured here but to outsiders not in the know it’s quite useless, so why should anyone steal it? I’m sure that someone is up to monkey tricks.”
When they heard this and noticed Huan’s absence — though earlier on he had been running all over the place — they suspected him but were unwilling to say so.
“Huan’s the only one who’d play such a trick,” Tanchun continued. “Send somebody to fetch him quietly and persuade him to return it; then give him a scare to make him keep his mouth shut, and that will be that.”
The others nodded approval.
Li Wan told .Pinger, “You’re the only one who can get the truth out of him.”
Pinger agreed to try and hurried off, coming back before long with ha Huan. The rest pretended that nothing was amiss and told maids to serve him tea in the inner room. Then they excused themselves, leaving him to Pinger.
“Your Brother Bao has lost his jade,” she told him with a smile. “Have you seen it?”
Jia Huan flushed scarlet and glared.
“When he loses something, why suspect me?” he protested. “Am I a convicted thief?”
He looked so worked up that Pinger dared not press him. “I didn’t mean that,”
She explained with a smile. “I thought you might have taken it to scare them; that’s why I simply asked if you’d seen it or not, to help them find it.”
“He was the one wearing the jade, so he’s the one you should ask instead of me. You all make so much of him! When there’s something good going, you don’t ask me to share it; but when anything’s lost, I’m the one you ask about it!” He got up and marched out, and they could not stop him.
“All this trouble’s due to that silly thing!” burst out Baoyu. “I don’t want it, so you needn’t make such a fuss. When Huan gets back he’s bound to tell everyone and raise a fearful rumpus.”
Weeping in desperation Xiren said, “You may not care that the jade’s lost, Little Ancestor, but if this comes to the mistresses’ ears it’ll be the death of us!” She broke down and sobbed.
Now that it was clear that this could not be hushed up, feeling even more worried they discussed how best to report it to the old lady and other mistresses.
“There’s no need to discuss it,” expostulated Baoyu. “Just say I’ve smashed it.”
“How casually you’re taking it, sir!” rejoined Pinger. “Suppose they ask why you smashed it? These girls will still be the ones to take the blame. And suppose they ask to see the broken bits?”
“Well then, say I lost it outside.”
That sounded more plausible, until they remembered that Baoyu had not been to school for a couple of days or paid any visits outside. They pointed this out.
“That’s not true,” he remonstrated. “Three days ago I went to see the opera in the Duke of Linan’s mansion. Just say I lost it that day.”
“That won’t do,” countered Tanchun. “If you lost it then, why didn’t you report it at the time?”
They were racking their brains to think up some good story when they heard sobbing and wailing — it was Concubine Zhao approaching.
“You lose something, yet instead of looking for it you torture my Huan behind my back!” she screamed. “I’ve brought him here to hand him over to you arse-lickers. You can kill him or slice him to pieces just as you please!” With that she shoved Huan forward. “You’re a thief!” she cried. “Own up, quick.”
Then Huan started crying too from mortification.
Before Li Wan could placate them a maid announced, “Here comes the mistress!”
Xiren and the other maids wished the earth would swallow them up, but they had to hurry out with Baoyu to meet her. Concubine Zhao went with them, afraid to say any more for the time being. And when Lady Wang saw the panic they were in, she realized that the news she had heard was true.
“Is the jade really lost?” she demanded.
No one dared answer.
Lady Wang went inside and sat down, then called for Xiren who fell on her knees in confusion, tears in her eyes, preparing to make her re¬port.
“Get up,” ordered Lady Wang, “Have another careful search made. It’s no use losing your heads.”
Xiren sobbed, unable to speak.
For fear she might tell the truth Baoyu put in. “This has nothing to do with Xiren, madam. I lost it on the road the other day when I went to the duke’s mansion to see the opera.
“Why didn’t you look for it then?”
“I was afraid to let on, so I didn’t tell them. Instead I asked Beiming and the rest to hunt for it outside.”
“Nonsense!” his mother exclaimed. “Don’t Xiren and the other girls help you off with your clothes? Whenever you come back from outside, if so much as a handkerchief or pouch is missing they have to look into it, not to mention that jade! They would certainly have asked about it.”
This silenced Baoyu but pleased Concubine Zhao.
“If he lost it outside why should they accuse Huan... “ she began.
Before she could finish Lady Wang rapped out, “We’re talking about the jade. Stop drivelling!”
With Concubine Zhao crushed, Li Wan and Tanchun told Lady Wang all that had happened, making her shed tears in dismay. She decided to report this to the old lady so that she could send people to question those members of Lady Xing’s household who had come with her to Happy Red Court that morning.
Just then, however, along came Xifeng, having heard about the loss of Baoyu’s jade and Lady Wang’s visit to the Garden. Although still an invalid, feeling unable to hold aloof she now arrived leaning on Fenger’s arm, just as Lady Wang was about to leave.
“How are you madam?” she faltered.
Baoyu and the others went over and greeted her.
“So you’ve heard too?” said Lady Wang. “Isn’t it odd? ft just van¬ished all of a sudden and can’t be found. Think now: which of the maids from the old lady’s place down to your Pinger is unreliable and a mis¬chief-maker? I shall have to report this to the old lady and organize a thorough-going search. Otherwise, Baoyu’s life may be cut short!”
“Our household’s so big, it’s a mixed lot,” Xifeng answered. “As the proverb says, you can’t judge by appearances, madam. Who can guar¬antee that everyone here is honest? But if we raise a hue and cry so that this becomes public knowledge, the thief will realize that if you find him out — or her, as the case may be — he will have to pay for it with his life, and in desperation he may smash the jade to destroy the evidence. Then what shall we do? In my foolish opinion, we’d better say that Baoyu never liked it and its loss is of no consequence, so long as we all keep this secret and don’t let the old lady and the master know. At the same time, we can secretly send people to search high and low and trick the thief into producing it. Once we have the jade back, we can punish the culprit. What do you think of this, madam?”
After some thought Lady Wang answered, “You’re right of course, but how are we to keep this from the master?” She called Huan over and told him, “Your brother’s jade is lost. Why should you raise such a row when simply asked a question? If you spread the news and the thief smashes the jade, I can’t see you living it down!”
In his terror Huan sobbed, “I won’t breathe a word about it!”
And Concubine Zhao was too cowed to say any more.
Lady Wang now told the others, “There must be places you haven’t searched. It was here all right, so how could it fly away? But the thing is to keep this quiet. I give you three days, Xiren, to find it for me. If you still haven’t recovered it by then, I’m afraid we shan’t be able to hush it up and there will be no peace for anyone!” She told Xifeng to go with her to Lady Xing’s house to discuss plans for a search.
Li Wan and the others talked it over again, then summoned the ser¬vants in charge of the Garden and made them lock the gates. Next they sent for Lin Zhixiao’s wife and told her to order the gatekeepers both at the front and the back not to let out any domestics, whether male or female, for the next three days. All were to remain in the Garden until something missing had been found again.
“Very well,” said Mrs. Lin, adding, “the other day we lost something at home of no great value. But to trace it my husband went out to consult a fortune-teller, a man called Iron-Mouth Liu, who cleared up the prob¬lem for us by analysing a character. And sure enough, when Zhixiao came back and looked where he suggested, we found the thing at once.”
“Good Mrs. Lin,” Xiren begged her,” do go and get your husband to consult that fortune-teller for us now.”
Mrs. Lin agreed readily to this and left.
“Actually those fortune-tellers and diviners outside are no use,” said Xiuyan. “When I was down south, I heard that Miaoyu was able to di¬vine by writing on sand. Why don’t we consult her? Besides, this jade is said to be supernatural, so the oracle should disclose its whereabouts.”
The others rejoined in surprise, “We often see her but never heard tell of this.”
“I doubt if she’ll agree if we others ask her, miss,” said Sheyue to Xiuyan. “So let me kowtow to you .and beg you to take this errand on yourself. If she clears up this mystery, we shall never forget your kind¬ness as long as we live!”
She knelt down to kowtow but Xiuyan stopped her, while Daiyu and the other girls also urged her to go straight to Green Lattice Nunnery.
Just then, however, Mrs. Lin came back. “Good news, young ladies!” she cried. “My husband’s been to see the fortune-teller and he says the jade can’t be lost: someone is bound to return it.”
Most of them found this hard to believe, but Xiren and Sheyue were overjoyed.
“What character did he analyze?” Tanchun asked.
“He said a whole lot, too much for me to repeat,” answered Mrs. Lin. “I remember that the character he picked was shang meaning ‘gift.’ Then, without asking any questions, that Iron Mouth Liu said, ‘You’ve lost something, I take it.
“A good guess!” exclaimed Li Wan.
Mrs. Lin continued, “Then he said the upper part of the character is the xiao for ‘small’ with the kou for ‘mouth’ below; so the thing should be small enough to put in the mouth and must be some sort of jewel.”
“That’s really miraculous!” they cried. “What else did he say?”
“The lower half of the character was a stroke or two short of jian meaning ‘see,’ so the object must have disappeared from sight. And as the top half was the same as in dang for ‘pawn,’ we should look for the missing object in a pawnshop. When we add ren, a ‘man,’ to shang, it gives chang meaning to ‘redeem.’2 So once we hit on the right pawn¬shop, we’ll find whoever pawned it and then we can redeem it.”
“In that case,” said the others, “let’s first look near by. If we search the neighbourhood pawnshops we’re bound to find it. Once we have the jade, it’ll be easy to question the thief.”
“Provided we get the jade back, it doesn’t matter whether we ques¬tion the thief or not,” was Li Wan’s opinion. “Please go right away, Mrs. Lin, to tell Madam Lian what the fortune-teller says, and report it to Her Ladyship too so that she can stop worrying. Then ask Madam Lian to send men to investigate.”
Mrs. Lin went off on this errand.
Feeling a little more reassured, they were waiting blankly for Xiuyan’s return when they saw Baoyu’s page Beiming beckoning outside the door to a young maid. The girl at once went out.
“Wonderful news!” he told her. “Hurry up and tell our Master Bao and all the ladies inside.”
“Tell me what it is, quick!” she retorted. “Don’t drag it out.”
Beiming clapped his hands, chuckling. “When I’ve told you, miss, and you go in and pass on the news, we’ll both of us get tipped. Can you guess what’s happened? I’ve got definite news about Master Bao’s jade.”
If you want to know the upshot, read the next chapter.

Chapter 95

A Rumour Comes True and the Imperial
Consort Yuanchun Dies
A Fraud Is Perpetrated After Baoyu
Loses His Mind


After hearing from Beiming that the jade had been found, the young maid hurried in to report this to Baoyu. The others all urged him to go out to question his page, and stepped into the corridor themselves to listen. Feeling reassured, Baoyu went to the door and asked:
“Where did you find it? Bring it here at once.”
“I can’t do that,” said Beiming, “till we’ve found a guarantor.”
“Tell me where it is then, and I’ll send someone to get it.”
“When I learned outside that Mr. Lin was going to consult a fortune¬teller, I followed him. Then, hearing that it could be found in a pawnshop, without waiting for him to finish I rushed over to several pawnshops and gave them a description of the jade, and one shop said they’d got it. When I asked for it, though, they wanted the pawn-ticket. ‘How much was it hocked for?’ I asked. They said, ‘We give from three hundred to five hundred cash. The other day someone brought in a jade like that and pawned it for three hundred. Today another man came with a piece and pawned it for five hundred.”’
Baoyu cut him short with the order, “Go at once, taking money to redeem both; then we’ll see whether one is the right piece or not.”
“Don’t listen to him, Master Bao!” scoffed Xiren from inside. “When I was small my brother often told me that hawkers of small pieces of jade pawn them when they need cash. Every single pawnshop must have some.”
The others had been surprised by Beiming’s report. Now, thinking over Xiren’s comment, they laughed.
“Tell Master Bao to come in,” they cried. “Pay no attention to that simpleton. The jade he’s talking about can’t be the right one.”
Baoyu was laughing too when Xiuyan came back.
Now Xiuyan on reaching Green Lattice Nunnery, as soon as she saw Miaoyu had asked her — without any preliminaries to consult an oracle for them by writing on sand. Miaoyu laughed disdainfully.
“I’ve treated you as my friend,” she said, “because you’re not one of the vulgar herd. Why trouble me like this today on the base of some rumour? Besides, I know nothing about ‘writing on sand.”’ And this said, she ignored her.
Knowing the young nun’s temperament, Xiuyan regretted having come. Still she reflected, “After telling the others, I can hardly go back empty-handed.” Since she could not very well argue with Miaoyu and affirm that she could use a planchette, she explained to her with a conciliatory smile that the lives of Xiren and the other maids depended on this. When she saw her wavering, she got up and curtseyed to her several times.
Miaoyu sighed, “Why should you put yourself out for others? No one’s known, since I came to the capital, that I can consult oracles. If I make an exception for you today, I’m afraid I shall have a lot of trouble in future.”
“I couldn’t help blurting it out, counting on your kindness,” said Xiuyan. “If you’re pestered in future, it’s up to you whether you agree or not who’d dare to force you?”
Miaoyu smiled and told the old deaconess to burn some incense, then from her case she took out a sand-board and stand and wrote an incanta¬tion. Xiuyan, after bowing and praying on her instructions, got up to help hold the planchette. Presently the wand wrote swiftly:
Ah! Come and gone without a trace
By the ancient pine at the foot of Blue Ridge Peak.
To seek it, cross myriads of mountains:
Entering my gate with a smile you will meet again.

This written, the wand stopped.
“Which deity did you invoke?” Xiuyan asked.
“Saint Li the Cripple.”
Xiuyan wrote down the oracle, then begged Miaoyu to explain it.
“I can’t,” was the answer. “I don’t understand it myself. Hurry up and take it back. You have plenty of clever people over there.”
Xiuyan went back, and as soon as she entered the courtyard the oth¬ers all wanted to know how she had fared. Without giving them the de¬tails, she handed Li Wan the oracle she had transcribed. The girls and Baoyu crowded round to read it and took it to mean that the jade could not be found quickly, but it would turn up some time when they were not looking.
“But where is this Blue Ridge Peak?” they asked.
“That must be some divine riddle,” said Li Wan. “We’ve no such peak here, have we? I expect the thief has thrown it under some rockery with pine trees on it, for fear of detection. But it says ‘entering my gate’—	whose gate would that be?”
Daiyu remarked, “I wonder whom she invoked.”
“Saint Li the Cripple,” Xiuyan told her.
“If it’s an immortal’s gate, that won’t be easy to enter!” exclaimed Tanchun.
Xiren hunted frantically round, clutching at shadows and searching under each rock, but there was no trace of the jade. When she came back, Baoyu smiled foolishly instead of asking whether she had found it.
“Little Ancestor!” cried Sheyue in desperation. “Where exactly did you lose it? If you tell us, even if we suffer for it, we shall have something to go on.”
“When I said I lost it outside, you wouldn’t have it,” he reminded her. “Now how can I answer your question?”
Li Wan and Tanchun interposed, “We’ve been in a flurry ever since this morning, and now it’s nearly midnight. Look, Cousin Lin’s already left — she couldn’t last out any longer. We ought to get some rest too: we’ll have our hands full tomorrow.”
They all dispersed then, and Baoyu went to bed. But poor Xiren and the other maids wept and racked their brains all night, unable to sleep.
When Daiyu, having gone home first, recalled all the earlier talk about gold and jade she told herself with inward satisfaction, “Monks and priests can’t be believed, and that’s a fact. If a match between the gold and the jade was predestined, how could Baoyu lose the jade? Maybe it’s be¬cause of me that this match between gold and jade has been broken up. Consoled by these reflections, she forgot the fatigues of the day and started reading again, till Zijuan who was worn out urged her to sleep. But although she lay down her thoughts turned to the crab-apple trees. “He was born with that jade; it’s no ordinary stone,” she mused. “So its disappearance must have some significance. If the blossoming of the crab-apples was a good omen, he shouldn’t have lost the jade. It looks as if the blossoming was an ill omen and he’s in for a spell of bad luck.” Her spirits sank again till she thought of her marriage, when it seemed right for the trees to have blossomed and for the jade to be lost. In this way, sad and happy by turns, she did not fall asleep till dawn.
Early the next day, Lady Wang sent to make inquiries at various pawn¬shops, and Xifeng also had a search made in secret. This went on for several days, but to no effect. Luckily the old lady and Jia Zheng did not know this. Xiren and the other maids were on tenterhooks every day, while Baoyu stayed away from school looking dazed and dejected, say¬ing not a word. However, his mother did not take this to heart, attributing it to the loss of his jade.
She was brooding one day when, abruptly, Jia Lian came in to pay his respects.
Beaming, he announced, “I’ve just heard that Yucun has sent word to the Second Master that your honourable brother has been promoted to the post of Grand Secretary and summoned to the capital. His appoint¬ment is to be proclaimed on the twentieth of the first month next year, and a dispatch has been sent to his post three hundred ii away. I expect he’s on his way now, travelling day and night, and will be here in little more than a fortnight. So I’ve come specially to report this to you, madam.
Lady Wang was overjoyed. She had been regretting that so few of her family were left and Aunt Xue’s family had declined, while her brother serving in the provinces could not look after them. His return to the capi¬tal now as Grand Secretary would exalt the Wang family and give Baoyu someone to rely on in future. She stopped worrying so much about the loss of the jade, looking forward every day to her brother’s arrival.
Then one day ha Zheng burst in, tears streaming down his cheeks.
“Quick!” he panted, “Go and ask the old lady to go at once to the Palace! You can escort her there — no need for too many people. Her Highness has suddenly fallen ill. A eunuch is waiting outside. According to him, the Imperial physicians say she’s had a stroke and there’s no hope!”
Lady Wang at once gave way to a storm of weeping.
“This is no time for crying,” he interposed. “Hurry up and fetch the old lady. But break it to her gently. Don’t frighten the old soul.” He then left to tell the servants to make preparations.
His wife, holding back her tears, went to tell the Lady Dowager that Yuanchun was ill and they were to call to pay their respects to her.
Invoking Buddha the old lady exclaimed, “Is she unwell again? Last time I had a bad fright till we heard it was just a rumour. Let’s hope this proves to be a false report too.”
Lady Wang concurred and urged Yuanyang and others to open the chests at once and get out the old lady’s ceremonial costume. She then hurried back to her room to change herself before returning to wait on the old lady. Presently they went out and were carried by sedan-chairs to the Palace.
Now Yuanchun, highly favoured by the sagacious sovereign since her installation as Imperial Concubine in Phoenix Palace, had grown too plump to exert herself — the least fatigue made her liable to apoplexy. A few days before this, on her way back from waiting on the Emperor at a feast, she had caught a chill which had brought on her former trouble. And this time it was serious: phlegm blocked her wind-pipe, her limbs were numb and c-old. This was reported to the Emperor, and Imperial physicians were summoned. However, she was unable to take any medi¬cine, nor could they clear up the congestion. In their anxiety the Palace officials asked permission to prepare for her death, which was why the Lady Dowager had been sent for.
Entering the Palace in response to the Imperial summons, she and Lady Wang found Yuanchun unable to speak. At sight of her grand¬mother she showed signs of distress but had no tears to shed, while the old lady stepped forward to pay her respects and offer condolences. Soon the cards of Jia Zheng and the rest were sent in and presented by maids-in-waiting; but Yuanchun’s sight had failed and the colour was slowly ebbing from her face. The Palace officials and eunuchs had to report this to the Emperor and, anticipating that other Imperial concu¬bines would be sent to see her, in which case it would not be fitting for her relatives to remain there, they asked them to wait outside. The old lady and Lady Wang could hardly bear to leave, but they had to conform to court etiquette and withdraw with aching hearts, not even daring to weep.
News was sent to the officials at the Palace gate, and presently a eunuch came out to summon the Imperial Astrologer. The old lady knew what this foreboded, but did not venture to move. Very soon a younger eunuch came out to announce:
“The Imperial Consort Jia has passed away.”
As the Beginning of Spring fell on the eighteenth of the twelfth lunar month that year, and Yuanchun had died on the nineteenth, it was already the first solar month of the next year and so her age was reckoned as forty-three.
Nursing her grief, the old lady rose to leave the Palace and go home by sedan-chair. Jia Zheng and the others, having also received the news, made their way sadly back. When they reached home, Lady Xing, Li Wan, Xifeng, Baoyu and the rest were ranged on both sides in front of the hall to meet them. After paying their respects to the Lady Dowager, then to ha Zheng and Lady Wang, they all gave way to weeping.
Early the next day, those with official titles went to the Palace to mourn beside the coffin as etiquette prescribed. As Jia Zheng was a vice-minister of works, though there were rules concerning the construc¬tion of an Imperial consort’s tomb, the minister had to consult him more specially regarding the building of this one, while his colleagues also called to ask for his instructions. This kept him doubly busy both at home and in the ministry, more so than after the deaths of the Empress Dowager and the Imperial Consort Zhou some time ago. Because Yuanchun had borne no son, her posthumous title was Virtuous and Noble Imperial Concubine, according to the rules of the Imperial House. But no more of this.
The whole ha family, men and women alike, were kept very busy going each day to the Palace. It was fortunate that Xifeng’s health had recently improved, as she now had to see to household affairs besides preparing to welcome and congratulate Wang Ziteng on his return. When her brother Wang Ren heard that their uncle was joining the Grand Sec¬retariat, he also came with his wife to the capital. Xifeng was delighted, these relatives’ arrival allaying some of her anxieties and contributing to her further recovery. And now that she was running the household again, Lady Wang’s burden was considerably lightened, while her brother’s impending arrival helped to set her mind at rest too,
As Baoyu had no official duties and had given up studying, his tutor leaving him to his own devices in view of their family’s trouble; and as ha Zheng was too busy to check up on him, he would normally have taken this chance to amuse himself with his girl cousins every day. How¬ever, since the loss of his jade he had grown thoroughly listless and talked nonsense. When told that the old lady was back and he should go to pay his respects, he went: if not prompted, he made no move. Xiren and his other maids felt deep misgivings yet dared not take him to task for fear of his anger. When his meals were set before him he would eat; otherwise he never asked for anything. Xiren, suspecting that he was not sulking but ill, made time one day to slip over to Bamboo Lodge and describe his condition to Zijuan.
“Do ask your young lady to come and talk some sense into him,” she begged.
However, when this message was passed on to Daiyu, she was reluc¬tant to call on Baoyu in the belief that the two of them were to marry. “If he came here I couldn’t ignore him,” she thought, “as we were together as children. But it would be quite wrong for me to seek him out.” She therefore refused to go.
Then Xiren confided in Tanchun. But the unseasonable blossoming of the crab-apples and even stranger disappearance of the precious jade, followed by the death of Yuanchun, had convinced Tanchun that their family was ill-fated. She had been worrying for days and was in no mood to go to admonish Baoyu. Besides, girls were supposed to keep a re¬spectful distance from their brothers; and when once or twice she did call, his apathy discouraged her from paying him any more visits.
Baochai had also heard of the loss of the jade. However, the day that Aunt Xue went home having agreed to a match between her and Baoyu she told her daughter, “Though your aunt has proposed it I’ve not yet given my consent, telling her we’d decide after your brother’s return. But are you willing or not?”
Baochai had answered gravely, “You shouldn’t ask me that, mother. A girl’s marriage is arranged by her parents. As father is dead the decision’s up to you, or you can consult Brother Pan; but you -shouldn’t ask me.
This only increased her mother’s regard for her, for Baochai although much indulged since childhood had always been a paragon of virtue. From then on Aunt Xue never mentioned Baoyu in her presence; and Baochai naturally made a point of never breathing his name. So now though shocked and disturbed by the loss of the jade she made no inquiries about it, simply listening to what others said on the subject as if this did not concern her.
Aunt Xue sent maids several times to ask for news. But worried as she was by the charge against her son Pan and eager for her brother’s arrival to help clear him; knowing, too, that although Yuanchun’s death had thrown the Jia family into confusion Xifeng was now well enough to run the household, she seldom went over herself. This left Xiren to bear the brunt. She waited assiduously on Baoyu and tried to advise and con¬sole him, but still his wits wandered. Yet she had to keep her anxiety to herself.
Shortly afterwards, Yuanchun’s coffin was deposited in one of the rear temples in the Imperial Sepulchre, and while the old lady and others were away attending the funeral Baoyu grew more deranged from day to day. -He had no fever or pain but could neither eat nor sleep properly and even grew incoherent in his speech. Xiren and Sheyue in their alarm reported this more than once to Xifeng, who came over from time to time. At first she thought he was sulking because the jade had not been found; then she realized that he was losing his mind and had doctors fetched to attend him every day. Although they prescribed various medi¬cines, his condition only grew worse. Asked whether he felt any pain, he would not answer.
After Yuanchun’s funeral was over, the old lady who had been con¬cerned about Baoyu came to the Garden with Lady Wang to see him. Xiren and the others told him to go out to meet them and pay his respects, for though deranged he could still get about as usual. Now he paid his respects to his grandmother as before, except that Xiren was beside him to prompt him.
“I thought you were ill, child,” the old lady exclaimed. “That’s why I came to see you. How relieved I am to find you looking all right.”
Lady Wang felt reassured too. However, Baoyu made no answer apart from tittering. Once seated inside, they questioned him and Xiren had to prompt him each time with an answer. He seemed completely changed too, behaving like a moron. The old lady’s misgivings increased.
“At first sight I saw nothing wrong,” she said. “But now that I look at him carefully, this illness seems serious — the boy’s lost his mind! How ever did this happen?”
Realizing that the truth could no longer be concealed and pitying Xiren in this predicament, Lady Wang whispered to her Baoyu’s story about losing the jade when he went to hear the opera in the duke’s mansion.
“We’ve sent to search for it everywhere,” she added distractedly, hoping to stop the old lady from worrying. “We’ve consulted oracles too, and they all say we shall find it in a pawnshop. So we shall get it back.”
At this the Lady Dowager rose frantically to her feet, tears streaming down her face.
“How could you lose that jade!” she exclaimed. “You really are too careless! Does the master also leave it at that?”
Seeing how angry she was, Lady Wang told -the maids to kneel down. Then, her head bowed, she answered humbly, “For fear of worrying you, madam, and making the master angry, I dared not report it.”
“This jade is the root of Baoyu’s life,” sighed -the old lady. “It’s because he’s lost it that he’s out of his mind. This will never do! The whole city knows of this jade, so if someone picked it up do you expect him to let you have it back? Send for the master at once and I’ll tell him this.”
Lady Wang and the maids pleaded in consternation, “If you are so angry, madam, think what a rage the master will be in! Now that Baoyu’s ill, just-leave it to-us to do our very best to find it.”
“Don’t be afraid of the master. I’ll handle him.” The old lady or¬dered Sheyue to send to fetch him. Presently it was reported that he was out paying a call.
“We can do without him then,” she said. “Say these are my instruc¬tions. For the time being there’s no need to punish the maids. I’ll get Jia Lian to write an announcement to hang up by the road Baoyu took that day, offering a reward of ten thousand taels to anyone who picked up the jade and returns it, and five thousand to anyone who tells us who has it so that we can get it back. Provided it can be found, we won’t stint our silver. In this way we’re sure to recover it. If we leave it to a few of our household to search, they could search their whole lives long without finding it.”
Lady Wang dared raise no objection. The old lady had these direc¬tions sent to Jia Lian with instructions to see to -this quickly.
Next she ordered, “Move all the things Baoyu uses every day to my apartments. Xiren and Qiuwen are to come over with him, leaving the other maids there in the Garden to keep an eye on his rooms.
All this time Baoyu had said nothing, just grinning foolishly. The Lady Dowager rose then, taking his hand, and Xiren and others helped them out of the Garden. Back in her own quarters, the old lady made Lady Wang sit down to supervise the rooms’ arrangement.
“Do you know what I have in mind?” she asked. “It seems to me there are too few people in the Garden, and those trees in Happy Red Court have withered and blossomed suddenly in a strange way. He used to have this jade to ward off evil spirits; now that he’s lost it I’m afraid he may succumb to some evil influence. That’s why I’ve brought him here to stay with me. We won’t let him out for a few days. The doctors can come here to see him.”
“Of course you’re right, madam,” answered Lady Wang. “Living with you, such a favourite of fortune, he can’t come to any harm.”
“Who’s a favourite of fortune? But my rooms are cleaner, and we’ve plenty of Buddhist scriptures which we can read to calm him. Ask Baoyu if he likes being here or not.”
But Baoyu only grinned. Not until prompted by Xiren did he say “Yes.”
Seeing this Lady Wang shed tears but could not sob aloud before the old lady.
Understanding her anxiety the latter said, “You go back now. I’ll take care of him. When the master gets back this evening tell him he needn’t come here. Just be sure not to complain about this.”
After Lady Wang had gone, the old lady made Yuanyang get out some tranquillizing medicines and give them to Baoyu according to the pre¬scription. But no more of this.

That evening Jia Zheng was coming home by carriage when he heard some passers-by talking.
“If anyone wants to make a pile, it’s easy!” said one.
“How?” his companion asked.
“I heard today that some young master in the Rong Mansion has lost a piece of jade, and a notice has been posted up describing its size, shape and colour. Ten thousand taels reward has been offered for its return, and five thousand for news of its whereabouts.”
Though Jia Zheng had not caught every word distinctly, he had heard enough to hurry home in amazement.
The gateman when questioned reported, “The first 1 heard of this, sir, was at noon today when Master Lian passed on the old lady’s order and sent people to post up a notice.”
“Our family must be on the decline!” Jia Zheng sighed. “For our sins we’ve been saddled with this degenerate. At the time of his birth he was the talk of the town, but after ten years and more the gossip died down. Now we’re raising this hue and cry again to find his jade — preposter¬ous!”
He hurried inside to question Lady Wang, who told him the whole story. As this had been done on his mother’s instructions, Jia Zheng could not oppose it. He just vented his anger briefly on his wife before going out again to order the notice to be taken down without the old lady’s knowledge. However, some idlers had already -made off with it.
A few days later, a man came to the Rong Mansion claiming to have brought back the jade.
In great jubilation the servants at the gate said, “Hand it over and we’ll go and report it for you.”
The fellow reached in his pocket for the notice, pointing at it for them to see.
“Wasn’t this put up by your house?” he asked. “It says clearly here that whoever returns the jade will get a reward of ten thousand silver taels. I may look poor now to you gentlemen, but once I have that silver I shall be rich; so don’t be so high-handed!”
He spoke with such confidence that the gateman answered, “Well then, just show me the jade so that I can report this for you.”
At first the man was unwilling, but on second thoughts he produced the jade and displayed it in the palm of-one hand.
“Isn’t this it?” he demanded.
These servants on duty at the gate all knew of the jade, but this was their first close look at it. They hurried in, eager to be the first with this good news. That day Jia Zheng and Jia She were out. Only Jia Lian was at home.
Hearing this report, he asked, “Is it genuine?”
“We’ve seen it for-ourselves,” the servants answered. “-But he won’t give it to us underlings. He wants to see one of the masters, to hand over the jade to him in exchange for the money.
Jia Lian hastened in happily to report this to Lady Wang who then told the old lady, so delighting Xiren that she clasped her hands together, in¬voking Buddha. And the Lady Dowager was as good as her word.
“Tell Lian to ask that man to wait in the study while he brings the jade here,” she said. “Once we’ve seen it we’ll give him the silver.”
Jia Lian accordingly invited the fellow in, treating him as a guest and thanking him profusely.
‘‘I would like to take this jade in to show the young master himself,” he said. “Then we’ll give you your full reward.”
The man handed him a red silk wrapper. Jia Lian opened it and saw indeed a fine translucent jade. He had paid scant attention to Baoyu’s jade before and now took a good look, a careful scrutiny disclosing the inscription “warding off evil.” Overjoyed, he ordered servants to wait on the visitor, then hurried in to let the old lady and Lady Wang identify the stone.
By now everyone was agog to see the jade. As soon as Jia Lian came in Xifeng snatched it from him and, not venturing to examine it herself, presented it to the old lady.
Jia Lian chuckled, “So even over a trifle like this, you won’t let me take the credit!”
When the Lady Dowager unwrapped the jade, it struck her as much more opaque than before. She rubbed it with her fingers while Yuanyang fetched her spectacles and, putting them on, she scruti¬nized the stone.
“That’s odd!” she exclaimed. “This is the jade all right, but how is it that it’s lost all its former lustre?”
Lady Wang examined it for some time but could not give a positive opinion. She told Xifeng to have a look.
“It resembles it, but the colour’s not quite right,” Xifeng observed. “Better let Baoyu look at it himself, then we shall know.”
Xiren beside her also had her doubts, but in her eagerness to have the stone prove authentic she did not express them. Xifeng took the jade from the old lady and went in with Xiren to show it to Baoyu, who had just woken from a nap.
“Here’s your jade,” Xifeng told him.
Baoyu, his eyes still blurred from sleep, took the jade and without so much as looking at it threw it on the ground.
“You’re trying to fool me again,” he said with a cynical smile.
Xifeng hastily picked up the jade, protesting, “Strange! How can you tell without even looking at it?”
Baoyu said nothing, just smiled.
Lady Wang h-ad come in too and seeing this she said, “It goes without saying he must know, as that strange jade came from the womb with him. This one must be a counterfeit made from the de¬scription in the notice.”
Then the truth dawned on everyone.
“If it’s a fake, give it to me and I’ll ask him how he dare play such tricks,” cried Jia Lian, who had overheard this from the outer room.
But the old lady remonstrated, “bust return it to him, Lian, and let him go. The poor devil must have been trying to capitalize on this trouble in our family; but now he’s spent money on making this for nothing and we’ve seen through his trick. In my view we shouldn’t make things hard for him. Just return him the jade saying that it isn’t ours and give him a few taels. Then when outsiders hear of it, if they pick up some clues they’ll be willing to let us know; whereas if we punish this fellow, then even if the genuine jade is found no one will dare bring it to us.”
Jia Lian agreed to this and withdrew. The man after his long wait was already somewhat apprehensive, and now he saw Jia Lian come out in a towering rage. But to know what happened next, read the following chapter.

Chapter 96

Xifeng Withholds Information and
Lays a Cunning Plan
Disclosure of a Secret
Deranges Daiyu


Jia Lian stormed to the study with the counterfeit jade, and when the man there saw how angry he looked his heart misgave him. He hastily rose to greet him, but before he could speak Jia Lian laughed scornfully.
“Of all the gall!” he swore. “You scoundrel! What place is this that you dare play such devilish tricks here?”
He called for servants. Those outside answered his summons with a shout like thunder.
“Get ropes and tie him up,” ordered Jia Lian. “We’ll report this to the master on his return and send this rogue to the yamen.”
“Very good, sir!” chorused the servants, but made no move.
Nearly paralyzed with fright by this show of power, the fellow knew that there was no escape and dropping to his knees kowtowed to Jia Lian.
“Don’t be angry, Your Lordship!” he begged. “It’s because I was driven to it by poverty that I thought up this shameless scheme. I bor¬rowed money to get that jade made, but I won’t venture to ask for it back
I’ll give it as a plaything to your young masters.” He kowtowed again and again.
“You stupid fool!” Jia Lian spat out. “Who in this mansion wants your trash?”
At this point Lai Da came in. With a smile he urged Jia Lian, “Don’t be angry, sir. This wretc4i isn’t worth it. Let him off and send him pack¬ing.”
“It’s disgraceful!“ Jia Lian fumed.
So Lai Da took a soft line, Jia Lian a hard one, until the servants outside called, “You stupid cur! Hurry up and kowtow to the master and Mr. Lai, then clear off. Are you waiting to be kicked out?”
Then he hastily kowtowed twice and slunk away. But this counter¬feiting of Baoyu’s jade became the talk of the town.
When Jia Zheng returned that day from his round of calls, as the matter was done with and they were afraid to enrage him during the Lantern Festival, no one reported it to him. Yuanchun’s funeral had kept them busy for some time and now, with Baoyu ill, although there were the usual family feasts the whole household was in low spirits and nothing noteworthy happened.
By the seventeenth of the first month Lady Wang was looking for¬ward to her brother Wang Ziteng’s arrival when Xifeng came in with bad news.
“Today the Second Master heard outside that uncle was travelling here posthaste, and was only two hundred li or so away when he died on the road!” she cried. “Did you here this, madam?”
“Not I!” exclaimed Lady Wang in consternation. “The master said nothing about it last night either. Where did this news come from?”
“The house of Chancellor Zhang.”
Lady Wang was speechless, in tears.
Presently, wiping her eyes, she said, “Get Lian to check up on it and let me know.”
Xifeng went off to do this.
Lady Wang had been reduced to weeping in secret as she mourned her daughter and worried over Baoyu, and now this third misfortune in swift succession was more than she could bear — she came down with colic. Moreover, Jia Lian confirmed that the news was true.
“Uncle was worn out by travelling so fast and he caught a chill,” he told her. “When he reached Shilitun a doctor was sent for, but unfortu¬nately that place has no good doctors. The wrong medicine was pre¬scribed and one dose killed him. We don’t know whether his family has arrived there or not.”
Lady Wang’s heart ached at this news, aggravating her pains. Un¬able to remain seated, she made Caiyun and others help her on to the kang, then speaking with an effort told Jia Lian to report this to Jia Zheng.
“Make ready to go there at once to help see to things,” she said.
“Then come straight back to let us know about it, to set your wife’s mind at rest.”
Unable to refuse, Jia Lian had to take his leave of Jia Zheng and set off.
Jia Zheng, who had heard the news earlier, was thoroughly discon¬certed, knowing also that Baoyu since losing his jade had grown feeble¬minded and no medicine would cure him, while now Lady Wang was ill too.
That year the records of officials in the capital were examined, and the Ministry of Works ranked Jia Zheng as first class. In the second month, the Minister of Civil Affairs took him to an audience at court and the Emperor, in recognition of his frugality and circumspection, appointed him Grain Commissioner of Jiangxi. That same day, giving thanks for this favour, he reported to the throne the date of his departure. Kinsmen and friends came to offer congratulations, but disturbed as he was by his domestic problems Jia Zheng was in no mood to-entertain them. Still he dared not postpone his journey.
He was in a quandary when he received a summons from the old lady and, hastening to her room, found his wife there too in spite of her illness. He paid his respects to his mother, who told him to take a seat.
“You will soon be going to your new post,” she said tearfully. “There is much I want to say to you, but will you listen?”
Jia Zheng promptly rose to his feet.
“Just give me your orders, madam. How dare your son disobey them?”
“I’m eighty-one this year, yet you’re going to post in the provinces,” she sobbed. “You can’t ask for compassionate leave either, as you have an elder brother at home to take care of me. Once you’re gone, there’ll be only Baoyu here that I care for, but the poor boy’s losing his mind and we don’t know what will become of him! Yesterday I sent Lai Sheng’s wife to get someone to tell Baoyu’s fortune. She found a very clever fortune-teller who said, ‘He must marry a bride with gold in her stars to help counteract his bad luck; otherwise there’ll probably be no saving him.’ I know you don’t believe in such things, so I’ve asked you here to consult you. Your wife is here too, so the two of you can talk it over. Should we try to save Baoyu? Or let things take their course?”
Jia Zheng answered submissively, “You were so good to your son, madam, do you think I don’t love my son too? It’s only because Baoyu made so little progress that I was often exasperated with him — just a case of wanting to ‘turn iron into steel.’ If you wish him to take a wife, as is right and proper, how could I disobey you and show no concern for him? I am worried too by his illness. Since you kept him away from me I dared not object; but can I not see for myself just how ill he is?”
Lady Wang saw that the rims of his eyes had reddened and knew how distressed he was. She therefore told Xiren to bring Baoyu in. When the boy saw his father, prompted by Xiren he paid his respects; but with his emaciated face and his lack-lustre eyes he looked like a moron. Jia Zheng told them to take him back.
He reflected, “I’m nearing sixty, and now I’m posted to the prov¬inces with no knowing when I shall come back. If this child really doesn’t recover, I shall be left heirless in my old age; for my grandson, after all, is another generation removed. Besides, Baoyu is the old lady’s favourite:
if anything happens to him, I shall be guilty of a greater crime.” He saw from his wife’s tears how this must affect her too.
Rising to his feet he said, “Old as you are, madam, you show such concern for your grandson, how can I, your son, disobey you? I shall fall in with whatever you think best. But will Aunt Xue agree to this, I won¬der?”
“She gave her consent some time ago,” Lady Wang told him. “We haven’t spoken of it yet simply because Pan’t business still isn’t settled.”
“This is the first problem.” he answered. “With her brother in jail, how can his sister get married? In the second place, although an Imperial Consort’s death does not preclude marriages, Baoyu should mourn for nine months for a married sister, and this is hardly the time for him to take a wife. Furthermore, the date of my departure has already been reported to the throne, and I cannot postpone it. How are we to arrange a wedding in these few days?”
The old lady thought, “He’s right. But if we wait till these are no longer problems, Baoyu’s father will be gone, and what shall we do if his illness gets steadily worse? We shall just have to disregard certain rules of etiquette.”
Her mind made up she said, “If you’re willing, I know of a way to get round these obstacles. I shall go myself with your wife to ask Aunt Xue ‘s consent. As for Pan, I’ll get Ke to tell him that we have to do this to save Baoyu’s life, and then he’s bound to agree. Of course it wouldn’t do to have a real marriage while in mourning, and Baoyu is too ill for that anyway — we just want a happy event to ward off evil. As both our families agree and there was that prediction about the young people’s ‘gold’ and ‘jade,’ there’s no need to compare their horoscopes; we’ll just select a good date to exchange gifts according to our family status. Then we’ll choose a day for the wedding, not engaging musicians but following the example of-the Palace, fetching the bride over in a sedan-chair with eight bearers and twelve pairs of lanterns. They can bow to each other as is done in the south, then sit down on the bed and let down the curtains, and won’t that count as a wedding?
“Baochai’s so intelligent, we don’t have to worry. Besides, he has Xiren in his chambers as well, and so much the better, as she’s another reliable, sensible girl who knows how to reason with him. She and Baochai get on well too.
“Another thing. Aunt Xue once told me, ‘A monk said that Baochai with her golden locket is destined to marry someone with jade.’ So for all we know, once she marries into our household her gold locket may bring the jade back. Then he should get steadily better, and wouldn’t that be a blessing for us all?
“All that needs to be done straight away is to get their rooms ready and furnished — it’s for you to assign them a place. We won’t give any feasts, but wait till Baoyu’s better and out of mourning before inviting relatives and friends. In this way we can manage everything in time, and you can leave with an easy mind, having seen the young couple settled.”
Jia Zheng though averse to this could not gainsay his mother. Forcing a smile he said, “You have thought it out well and that would be most fitting, madam. We must order the servants, though, not to noise this abroad or we should be censured for it. I’m only afraid Aunt Xue’s family may not agree. If they really do, we must manage it your way.”
“Just leave Aunt Xue to me,” she said, then dismissed him.
Jia Zheng withdrew feeling thoroughly uneasy. He had so much to do before going to his post, what with fetching credentials from the ministry, receiving relatives and friends who came with recommendations and entertaining a host of other people, that he left the arrangements for Baoyu’s wedding to his mother, wife and Xifeng. All he did was to assign his son a side-court with more than twenty rooms in it, adjacent to Lady Wang’s house behind the Hall of Glorious Felicity. When the old lady sent him word of some decision, he simply replied, “Very good.” But this is anticipating.
After Baoyu had seen his father, Xiren helped him back to the kang in the inner room. Since Jia Zheng was outside, no one ventured to speak to Baoyu, who dozed off and thus heard nothing of the conversation in the outer room. However, Xiren, keeping quiet, heard it clearly. Talk of this had reached her before, though only as hearsay, yet she tended to believe it in view of the fact that Baochai’s visits had stopped. This con¬firmation today delighted her.
“The mistresses certainly have good judgement,” she thought. “This is just the match for him. And what luck for me too! If she comes, my load will be ever so much lighter. But he’s set his heart on Miss Lin, so it’s a blessing that he didn’t hear this. If he had, Heaven knows how wildly he’d carry on!” This set her worrying.
“What shall I do?” she wondered. “Their Ladyships have no idea of their feelings for each other. They may be so pleased that they tell him, in the hope of curing him. Then suppose he acts the way he did when he first met Miss Lin and tried to smash his jade; or that summer in the Garden, when he mistook me for her and poured out his love; or when Zijuan teased him later, and he nearly cried himself to death? If they tell him now that he’-s to have not Miss Lin but Miss Baochai, it may not matter if his wits are wandering; but if-he’s fairly lucid, far from curing his madness it may hasten his death. Unless I explain this to them I may ruin three lives!”
Having reached this resolve she waited till Jia Zheng had gone, then leaving Baoyu in the care of Qiuwen she slipped out and quietly asked Lady Wang to go with her to the back room. The Lady Dowager paid little attention, assuming that there was something Baoyu wanted, and went on considering the gifts and arrangements for the wedding.
Once in the back room with Lady Wang, Xiren threw herself on her knees and burst into tears.
Lady Wang pulled her up and asked in surprise, “What’s come over you? What’s the trouble? Get up and tell me.”
“This is something a slave shouldn’t say, but I see no other way out!”
“Well, take your time and tell me.
“Your Ladyships have decided to marry Miss Baochai to Baoyu, and of course nothing could be better. All I’m wondering, madam, is this: which of the two, Miss Baochai and Miss Lin, do you think Baoyu pre¬fers?”
“As he and Miss Lin were together as children, he’s slightly fonder of her.”
“Not just ‘slightly fonder,”’ Xiren demurred, going on to cite ex¬amples of their behaviour. “Except for the avowal he made that summer, which I’ve never dared tell anyone, you saw the other instances your¬self, madam,” she concluded.
Holding Xiren’s hand Lady Wang answered, “I did have some inkling from what I saw. Now you’ve clinched it. But he must have heard what the master said just now. Did you notice his reaction?”
“Nowadays w-hen people talk to him he smiles; if no one talks to him he goes to sleep. So-he didn’t hear what was said.”
“Then what’s to be done?”
“I’ve made bold to tell you this, madam. It’s for you to tell the old lady and think of some really safe plan.”
“In that case, get back to your work. I won’t mention it now there are too many people there. I’ll wait for a chance to tell her later on, and then we shall see.”
She rejoined the Lady Dowager who was discussing Baoyu’s mar¬riage with Xifeng.
“What did Xiren want that she looked so secretive?” the old lady asked.
Lady Wang took this opening to give her a detailed account of Baoyu’s feeling for Daiyu. For a while the old lady said nothing, and Lady Wang and Xifeng kept silent too.
“Nothing else really matters,” the old lady sighed at last. “We needn’t worry about Daiyu. But if Baoyu is really so infatuated, it’s going to be difficult!”
“Not too difficult,” said Xifeng after some thought. “I’ve an idea, but don’t know whether Aunt Xue will agree to it or not.”
“If you have a plan, tell the old lady,” said Lady Wang. “We can discuss it together.”
“To my mind,” said Xifeng, “the only way is to ‘palm off a dummy’ on him.”
“Palm off what dummy?” the old lady asked.
“Never mind whether Baoyu is in his right mind or not, we must all drum it into his head that on the master’s orders he is to marry Miss Lin, and see how he takes it. If he doesn’t care either way, we needn’t trick him. If he’s pleased, we’ll have to do things more deviously.”
“Well, assuming he’s pleased, what then?” asked Lady Wang.
Xifeng went over to whisper something into her ear, at which she nodded and smiled.
“That should work,” she said.
“Tell me what you two are plotting,” urged the old lady.
In order not to give away -the secret, Xifeng whispered in her ear too. As she had anticipated, the old lady did not understand at first and Xifeng, smiling, had to explain more fully.
“That’s all right,” agreed the old lady. “Rather hard on Baochai, though. And if word gets out, what about Daiyu?”
“We’ll just tell Baoyu and forbid any mention of this outside, then how could she hear?”
At this point a maid announced Jia Lian’s return. Not wanting the old lady to question him, Lady Wang signaled to Xifeng who went out to meet him, signing to him to go with her to Lady Wang’s place. By the time they were joined by Lady Wang, Xifeng’s eyes were red from weep¬ing. Jia Lian, when he had paid his respects, described his trip to Shilitun to help arrange for Wang Ziteng’s funeral.
“An Imperial decree has conferred on him the rank of Grand Secre¬tary and the posthumous title of Duke Wenqin,” he announced. “The family has been ordered to take the coffin back to his native district, and officials along the way are to render assistance. They set off on the journey back south yesterday. My aunt told me to convey her respects and say how sorry she is to have been unable to come to the capital —there was so much she wanted to tell you. When she heard that Xifeng’s brother was on his way to the capital too, she promised if she met him on the road to send him here to give us all her news.
Lady Wang was naturally so upset by this account that Xifeng had to comfort her.
“Please have a rest now, madam,” she urged. “This evening we’ll come back to discuss Baoyu’s business.”
Going home with Jia Lian she told him what had happened, and asked him to send servants to prepare the bridal chambers.
One morning after breakfast, Daiyu set off to call on her grandmother to pay her respects and also by way of diversion. They had not gone far from Bamboo Lodge when she found that she had forgotten her hand¬kerchief. She told Zijuan to go back for one then catch her up she would be walking on slowly. She had passed Seeping Fragrance Bridge and reached the rocks behind which she and Baoyu had buried blossom, when she suddenly heard sobbing. She stopped to listen, but could not tell who was lamenting there or hear what she was saying. Very puzzled, she strolled over and found that the one crying there was an under-maid with thick eyebrows and big eyes.
Daiyu had expected to see one of the upper-maids come here to vent some grief which she could not confide to others. But when she saw this girl she thought with amusement, “A stupid creature like this can’t have been crossed in love. She’s one of those doing rough work who must have got scolded by the senior maids.” She looked hard at the girl but could not recognize her.
When Daiyu appeared, the maid dared not go on crying but stood up and wiped her eyes.
“Why are you weeping here? What’s come over you?” Daiyu asked.
That set the maid off again. “Judge for yourself, Miss Lin!” she sobbed. “They knew something, but I wasn’t in on it; so even if I made a slip of the tongue, sister had no call to slap me.”
Daiyu could not make head or tail of this.
“Which sister do you mean?” she asked with a smile.
“Sister Zhenzhu.”
Knowing from this that she worked for the old lady, Daiyu asked again, “What’s your name?”
“They call me Numskull.”
“Why did she slap you? What did you say wrong?”
“Why? Just because of the marriage of our Master Bao to Miss Baochai.”
Daiyu felt thunderstruck. Her heart beat wildly. Composing herself a little she said. “Come with me.”
Numskull accompanied her to the quiet spot where she had buried the peach-blossom. Then Daiyu asked, “Why should she slap you because Master Bao is marrying Miss Baochai?”
“Their Ladyships have settled it with Madam Lian. Because His Lordship’s going to leave so soon, they’re fixing up hurriedly with Aunt Xue to have Miss Baochai brought over before he goes. This will counter Master Bao’s bad luck with good. And after that... “ she beamed at Daiyu — “after his wedding they’ll fix up a match for you, miss.”
Daiyu listened, half stupefied, as the maid rattled on, “I don’t know how they settled this, but they won’t let anybody talk about it for fear of embarrassing Miss Baochai if she heard. All I did was to remark to sister Xiren— the one who works for Master Bao, ‘Things are going to be livelier here with Miss Baochai becoming Second Mistress Bao how ought we to address her?’ Tell me, Miss Lin, why should that annoy Sister Zhenzhu? Yet she marched over and slapped my face, saying I was talking nonsense and should be thrown out for not obeying orders! How was I to know the mistresses didn’t want this talked about? They never tell me anything, yet slap me!” She started sobbing again.
Daiyu felt as if her heart were filled with a mixture of oil, soy, sugar and vinegar — so sweet, bitter, painful and sharp that she could not put her sensations into words.
After a pause, in a trembling voice she said, “Don’t talk such non¬sense. If they heard, they’d give you another slapping. Be off with you now.
She turned to go back to Bamboo Lodge. But there seemed to be a mill-stone round her neck and her legs were as limp, her steps as falter¬ing, as if treading on cotton-wool. It seemed a long way to Seeping Fra¬grance Bridge, she was walking so slowly and so shakily; and moreover she added two bowshots to the distance by wandering about at random in a daze. When as last she reached the bridge, she inadvertently started back along the dyke.
When Zijuan brought the handkerchief Daiyu had gone. Looking round for her, she saw her white-faced, her eyes fixed in a vacant stare, wan¬dering unsteadily this way and that. She also glimpsed a maid walking off in front, but too far away to make out which it was. In shocked surprise she ran over.
“Why are you going back, miss?” she asked gently. “Where do you want to go?”
Hearing her as if in a dream, Daiyu answered without thinking, “To ask Baoyu what this means.”
Zijuan, nonplussed as she was, had to help her to the Lady Dowager’s quarters. When Daiyu reached the door, her mind seemed to clear. Turn¬ing to her maid who was supporting her, she stopped to ask:
“Why have you come?”
“To bring your handkerchief,” was the smiling answer. “Just now I saw you by the bridge, but when I accosted you, you paid no attention.”
“I thought you’d come to see Master Bao,” Daiyu laughed. “Why else should you come this way?”
Zijuan saw that her wits were wandering, and knew that she must have heard something from that maid. She could only nod and smile. However, this visit to Baoyu unnerved her, for he was already demented and now Daiyu was bemused too — what if they said something im¬proper?
But for all this, she had to do as she was told and help her young mistress inside.
Strange to say, Daiyu was no longer as limp as before. Lifting the portiere herself instead of waiting for Zijuan, she stepped in. All was quiet, for the old lady was having a nap, and her maids had either slipped out to play or were nodding drowsily or attending her. The clack of the portiere alerted Xiren, who came out from the inner room.
“Please come in and take a seat, miss,” she invited when she saw who it was.
“Is Master Bao in?” Daiyu asked with a smile.
Xiren, being in the dark, was about to answer when Zijuan signaled to her from behind Daiyu and, pointing at her young mistress, waved her hand warningly. Xiren was too puzzled by this to say any more. Daiyu, disregarding her, went on into the inner room where Baoyu was sitting. Instead of rising to offer her a seat, he simply stared at her with a foolish grin. Daiyu sat down and gazed back at him with a smile. They exchanged neither greetings nor civilities, just simpered at each other without a word.
Xiren, at a complete loss, did not know what to do.
“Baoyu,” said Daiyu abruptly. “Why are you ill?”
“Because of Miss Lin,” he answered with a smirk.
Xiren and Zijuan turned pale with fright and at once tried to change the subject; but the other two ignored them, still smiling foolishly. It dawned on Xiren that Daiyu was now deranged too, exactly like Baoyu.
She whispered to Zijuan, “Your young lady’s just over her illness. I’ll get Sister Qiuwen to help you take her back to rest.” She turned to tell Qiuwen, “Go with Sister Zijuan to see Miss Lin back. Mind you don’t say anything foolish.”
Qiuwen complied readily. In silence she and Zijuan helped Daiyu to her feet. She kept her eyes on Baoyu, smiling and nodding.
“Go home and rest, miss,” Zijuan urged her.
“Of course!” said Daiyu. “It’s time for me to go now.
She turned and went out, still smiling, without their assistance and walking much faster than usual. The two maids hurried after her as once out of her grandmother’s compound she forged straight ahead.
“This way, miss!” cried Zijuan, catching hold of her arm.
Daiyu allowed herself to be led back and soon they approached the gate of Bamboo Lodge.
“Gracious Buddha!” sighed Zijuan in relief. “Home at last!”
But the words were still on her lips when Daiyu staggered and fell, vomiting blood. To know what became of her, read the next chapter.

Chapter 97

Daiyu Burns Her Poems to End Her
Infatuation
Baochai Goes Through
Her Wedding Ceremony


As Daiyu reached the gate of Bamboo Lodge, Zijuan’s cry of relief startled her. She vomited blood. The two maids were just able to catch her as she was collapsing and carry her inside; then Qiuwen left Zijuan and Xueyan to attend to her.
After a while, Daiyu regained consciousness and saw that her maids were crying. She asked them the reason.
In relief Zijuan answered, “You seemed unwell just now, miss, when you left the old lady’s place, and we didn’t know what to do — we cried for fright.”
“Oh, I’m not going to die as easily as all that,” retorted Daiyu, pant¬ing as she spoke.
The news of Baoyu’s impending wedding to Baochai, a prospect which Daiyu had dreaded for years, had so enraged her that she had lost her senses. After the hemorrhage her mind gradually cleared, but she had completely forgotten what Numskull had said. Zijuan’s tears brought it back to her vaguely. Instead of grieving, however, she just longed to die quickly and be done with it. Her maids felt constrained to stay with her although they wanted to go and report her condition, for they were afraid Xifeng would scold them again for raising a false alarm.
However, Qiuwen had gone back panic-stricken. The old lady, just up from her nap, saw her agitation and asked her what had happened. Qiuwen’s fearful description of what she had seen made the Lady Dowa¬ger exclaim in horror and send at once for Lady Wang and Xifeng to communicate this bad news.
“I ordered all the maids to keep quiet,” said Xifeng. “Who could have blabbed? This makes things more difficult.”
“Never mind about that now,” said the old lady. “Let’s go and see how she is.”
The three of them went to Bamboo Lodge and found Daiyu deathly pale. She seemed comatose and her breathing was very weak. Presently she had another fit of coughing. Her maids brought over the spittoon and to their consternation her sputum was streaked with blood. Her eyelids fluttered then, and she saw the old Lady by her.
“Madam,” she gasped, “your love for me has been wasted.”
Her heart aching, her grandmother said, “Don’t be afraid, dear child. You must rest well.”
Daiyu smiled faintly, closing her eyes again as a maid came in to report the doctor’s arrival to Xifeng. Thereupon the ladies withdrew, and Doctor Wang was led in by Jia Lian to feel the patient’s pulse.
“She will be all right,” he observed. “Pent-up anger has drained her liver of blood, resulting in nervous disorders. Some medicine to regulate the blood will set her right again.”
This said, he went out with ha Lian to write out his prescription and fetch medicine.
The Lady Dowager had seen that Daiyu’s state was critical. After leaving her she said to Xifeng, “It’s not that I want to put a jinx on her but it doesn’t look to me, I’m afraid, as if the child will recover. You must get ready after-life things to counter her bad luck. If she gets over this ill¬ness, that’ 11 be a great weight off our minds. And if it comes to the worst, you won’t be caught unprepared at the last minute. We’ve that other business to attend to these days.
When Xifeng had acquiesced, the old lady questioned Zijuan; but the maid did not know who had told Daiyu the news.
Dubiously, the old lady went on, “It’s natural for young people who’ve played together as children to be partial to each other; but now that they’re big enough to know the facts of life they should keep at a distance. That’s how a girl should behave if she wants me to love her. To get other ideas into her head would be most improper, and all my love for her would be thrown away. I’m quite upset by what you’ve been telling me.”
On her return to her own quarters, she called in Xiren to interrogate her. Xiren repeated what she had told Lady Wang, then described Daiyu’s behaviour earlier that day.
“She didn’t look deranged when I saw her just now,” commented the old lady. “I simply can’t understand this. In a family like ours, of course there can’t be any carryings-on, but even thinking such thoughts is ta¬boo! If that’s not the root of her illness, I’m willing to spend any sum to cure her. If it is, I doubt if it can be cured and I don’t care!”
Xifeng put in, “Don’t worry about Cousin Lin, madam. Lian will take the doctor to see her every day anyway. It’s the other business that matters. I heard this morning that the rooms are practically ready. Why don’t you and Her Ladyship call on Aunt Xue to discuss it with her? I’ll go with you. The only snag is that with Cousin Baochai there it will be difficult to talk. Suppose we ask Aunt Xue over for a consultation here this evening? Then we can settle everything tonight.”
“You’re right,” Their Ladyships agreed. “But it’s too late today. We’ll go over there tomorrow after breakfast.”
As the old lady had finished her supper by now, Xifeng and Lady Wang went back to their own apartments.

The next day, Xifeng came over after breakfast and went in to sound out Baoyu.
“Congratulations, Cousin Bao!” she greeted him gaily. “The master has chosen a lucky day for your wedding. Doesn’t that make you happy?”
Baoyu just grinned at her and nodded imperceptibly.
“Your bride will be Cousin Lin. Are you glad?”
He simply burst out laughing, and she was unclear about his mental state.
“The master says you can marry her if you’re better, not if you go on acting the fool,” she warned.
“If anyone’s a fool, it’s you — not me!” he retorted seriously, then stood up and announced, “I’m going to see Cousin Lin to reassure her.”
Xifeng promptly barred his way.
“She knows it already,” she said. “As she’s to marry you, she’ll naturally feel too shy to see you.
“Will she see me after the wedding?”
Amused and perturbed Xifeng thought, “Xiren was right. At the men¬tion of Daiyu, though he still raves his mind seems clearer. If he really comes to his senses and finds out that it isn’t Daiyu but we’ve played a trick on him, then the fat will be in the fire!”
Suppressing a smile she said, “If you’re better she’ll see you, not if you act crazily.”
“I’ve given her my heart. When she comes, she’s bound to bring it and put it back in my breast.”
As he was raving, Xifeng came out and smiled at the old lady, who had been both amused and upset by their conversation.
“I heard,” she said. “We can ignore him for now and leave Xiren to calm him down. Let’s go.”
For by then Lady Wang had come too, and together they called on Aunt Xue, ostensibly to see how her family was faring. Aunt Xue was most grateful and gave them news of Xue Pan. When tea had been served she wanted to send for Baochai, but Xifeng stopped her.
“You needn’t summon her, aunty,” she said with a smile. “The old lady came partly to see how you are and partly because there’s some important business which she’d like to discuss with you in our place.”
Aunt Xue nodded and agreed to this, and after a little more idle talk they left.
That evening Aunt Xue came over. Having paid her respects to the old lady she called on Lady Wang, and speaking of Wang Ziteng’s death they all shed tears.
“Just now in the old lady’s place, Baoyu came out to pay his re¬spects,” remarked Aunt Xue. “He looked all right, simply a little thinner. Why do you speak as if it were so serious?”
“Actually it’s nothing much,” replied Xifeng. “But the old lady is worried. Now the master is going to a provincial post and may not be back for some years. Her idea is to have Baoyu’s wedding while he’s still here. Firstly, to set his father’s mind at rest; and secondly, in the hope that Cousin Baochai’s golden locket will bring Baoyu good luck, over-coming the evil influence so that he recovers.
Aunt Xue wanted the match but feared Baochai might feel herself wronged. “That’s all right,” she replied, “but we must think it out more carefully.”
Lady Wang told her Xifeng’s plan, adding, “As your son is away from home now, you need not give any dowry. Tomorrow send Ke to tell Pan that while we have the wedding here we’ll find some way to settle his lawsuit for him.” Omitting to mention that Baoyu had lost his heart to Daiyu, she concluded, “Since you agree to it, the sooner the bride comes the better — the sooner we’ll all feel easier in our minds.”
At this point Yuanyang arrived, sent by the old lady to hear what they had decided. Though this was treating Baochai shabbily, Aunt Xue could hardly refuse as they were so pressing. She consented with a show of readiness. Yuanyang went back to report this to the old lady, who in elation sent her back to urge Aunt Xue to explain the situation to Baochai so that she would not feel unfairly treated. Aunt Xue agreed to this. Having decided that Xifeng and her husband should act as go-betweens, the others left. Then Lady Wang and her sister sat up half the night talking.
The next day Aunt Xue went home and told Baochai in detail all these arrangements to which she had agreed. Baochai lowered her head in silence, and presently shed tears. Her mother did her best to comfort her, explaining the matter at length; and when Baochai went back to her room. Baoqin went with her to try to cheer her up. Aunt Xue also told Xue Ke, urging him to leave the following day to find out what sentence had been passed and to give Xue Pan this news, then to come back immediately.
Four days later Xue Ke returned.
“Regarding Cousin Pan’s business,” he reported, “the judge has ap¬proved a verdict of accidental manslaughter, which will be pronounced at the next session; and we must have silver ready by way of compensa¬tion. As for his sister’s wedding, Pan says your decision was a good one, and rushing it through will save a good deal of money. He says you shouldn’t wait for his return but do as you think fit.”
This news reassured Aunt Xue that her son would be released and her daughter’s wedding could be carried through, although she could see that Baochai looked rather unwilling. “Still,” she thought, “she’s a girl who’s always been submissive and a model of propriety. Knowing that I’ve agreed, she won’t raise any objections.”
She told Xue Ke, “Get a gilded card and write her horoscope on it, then have it sent at once to Second Master Lian and ask the date for the exchange of gifts, so that you can make preparations. We don’t mean to notify relatives and friends because, as you’ve said, all Pan’s friends are a bad lot and our only relatives are the ha and Wang families. Now the Jias are the bridegroom’s family and the Wangs have no one in the capi¬tal. When Miss Shi was engaged her family didn’t invite us, so we needn’t put them out either. But we must ask Zhang Dehui here to help see to things as he’s elderly and experienced.”
Xue Ke, acting on her instructions, had a card sent to the Jia family. And the next day Jia Lian called to pay his respects to Aunt Xue.
“Tomorrow is a very auspicious day,” he said. “So I’ve come to propose that we exchange gifts tomorrow. We only hope you won’t think us too niggardly, aunt. He handed her the card .on which was written the date of the wedding, and when she had made a polite rejoinder and nod¬ded her consent he hurried back to report this to Jia Zheng.
“Let the old lady know,” said Jia Zheng. “Suggest that as we’re not notifying friends and relatives, we may as well keep everything rather simple. Regarding the gifts, just ask her to approve them; no need to refer to me.”
Jia Lian assented and went off on this errand. Lady Wang told Xifeng to take all the gifts to the old lady for her inspection, and to get Xiren to let Baoyu know as well.
“Why go to all this bother?” Baoyu chuckled. “We send things to the Garden, then they send them back here again — our own people doing the sending and the accepting!”
Their Ladyships hearing this remarked cheerfully, “We say he’s weak in the head, but today he’s talking sense.”
Yuanyang and the other maids could not suppress smiles either as they showed the gifts one by one to the old lady.
“This is a gold necklet,” they said. “Here are gold and pearl trinkets, eighty of them in all. There are forty rolls of serpent-patterned brocade, a hundred and twenty rolls of coloured silk and satin and a hundred and twenty garments for all four seasons. As no sheep and wine have been prepared, here is the equivalent in silver.”
When the old lady had approved these gifts she quietly instructed Xifeng, “Go and tell Aunt Xue not to stand on ceremony. Ask her to wait till Pan is released to return gifts for his sister in his own good time. We here will prepare the bedding for the happy occasion.”
Xifeng assented and left to send Jia Lian to Aunt Xue’s place. She then instructed Zhou Rui and Lai Wang, “Don’t take the presents through the main gate but by that old side-gate in the Garden. I’ll be coming over myself presently. That gate is a good distance from Bamboo Lodge. If people from other households notice you, warn them not to mention this to anyone there.”
The stewards went off to carry out these orders.
In the happy belief that he was to marry Daiyu, Baoyu’s health im¬proved, though he still talked foolishly. The stewards sending the presents named no names when they came back; and though most of the household knew where they had been, in view of Xifeng’s instructions they dared not disclose it.
Now Daiyu, although taking medicine, was sinking steadily. Zijuan and her other maids pleaded hard with her.
“Things have come to such a pass, miss, we must speak out,” they said. “We know what’s in your heart. But nothing unforeseen can possi¬bly happen. If you don’t believe us, just think of Baoyu’s health — he’s so ill, how could he get married? Don’t listen to silly rumours, miss, but rest quietly till you’re better.”
Daiyu smiled faintly without a word, then started coughing again and brought up more and more blood. Her maids saw that she was dying, and nothing they could say would save her. They remained at her bedside weeping, though sending three or four times a day to report to the old lady. But as Yuanyang had noticed that recently Daiyu had lost favour in her grandmother’s eyes, she often neglected to pass on their messages. And as the old lady was occupied with preparations for the approaching wedding, when she had no news of Daiyu she asked no questions. All her maids could do was send for the doctor to see her.
During Daiyu’s previous illnesses, everyone from the old lady herself down to the maids of her cousins had come to ask after her health. But now not one relative or servant came, not even sending inquiries, and when she opened her eyes there was nobody but Zijuan in the room. She knew there was not the least reason for her to live on.
“Sister, you’re the one closest to me,” she murmured with an effort. “Ever since you were assigned to me by the old lady, I’ve always looked on you as my own sister....” Here she had to stop for breath.
Zijuan’s heart ached. She was sobbing too much to speak.
“Sister Zijuan!” panted Daiyu after a while. “I feel uncomfortable lying down. Please help me to sit up.”
“But you’re not well, miss. If you sit up you may catch cold.”
Daiyu closed her eyes without a word but presently struggled to sit up and Zijuan and Xueyan had to help her, propping her up with soft pillows on either side while Zijuan sat by her supporting her. Though she was so weak that she felt the bed beneath her painfully hard, she stuck it out.
“My poems....” she gasped to Xueyan.
Xueyan guessed that she wanted her manuscript book which she had been going through a few days ago. She found it and gave it to her. Daiyu nodded, then glanced up at the case on a shelf; but this time the maid could not read her thoughts. Daiyu’s eyes dilated with exasperation till a fresh fit of coughing made her bring up more blood. Xueyan hastily fetched her water to rinse out her mouth over the spittoon, then Zijuan wiped her lips with a handkerchief. Taking it, Daiyu pointed at the case, gasping for breath again so that she could not speak. Her eyes had closed.
“Better lie down, miss,” urged Zijuan.
When Daiyu shook her head, Zijuan realized that she must want a handkerchief and told Xueyan to fetch a white silk one from the case. But at sight of it, Daiyu put it aside.
“The one with writing... ,“ she managed to whisper.
Then it dawned on Zijuan that she wanted Baoyu’s old handkerchief on which she had written verses. She made Xueyan get it out and passed it to her.
“For pity’s sake, rest, miss!” she begged her. “Why tire yourself out? You can look at it when you’re better.”
But not even glancing at the poems, Daiyu tried with all her might to tear up the handkerchief. However, her trembling fingers lacked the strength. Although Zijuan knew how incensed she was by Baoyu, she dared not disclose this.
“Don’t wear yourself out again, miss, being angry!” she pleaded.
Daiyu nodded weakly and stuffed the handkerchief up her sleeve.
“Light the lamp,” she ordered.
Xueyan hastily complied. After glancing at the lamp Daiyu closed her eyes again and sat there breathing hard.
“Bring the brazier,” she murmured presently.
Thinking she was cold Zijuan urged, “You’d better lie down, miss and put on more bedding. Charcoal fumes might be bad for you.”
As Daiyu shook her head, Xueyan had to light the brazier and put it on its stand on the floor. At a sign that Daiyu wanted it on the kang, she moved it there, then went out to fetch a low table.
Daiyu bent forward, supported by Zijuan’s two hands. She pulled out the handkerchief, looked at the fire and nodded, then dropped the hand¬kerchief on it. This shocked Zijuan, who wanted to snatch it off but could not let go of her mistress, as Xueyan was still outside fetching the low table. By now the handkerchief was burning.
“Miss!” protested Zijuan. “Why do such a thing?”
Turning a deaf ear, Daiyu picked up her manuscript book and after glancing at it put it down. For fear she might burn this too, Zijuan hastily leaned against her to support her, thereby freeing one of her own hands. But Daiyu forestalled her by dropping the book on the fire out of her reach.
Xueyan coming in with the table saw Daiyu toss something on the fire and made a grab for it; but the inflammable paper was already smoulder¬ing. Not caring whether she burned her hands or not, Xueyan snatched the book from the fire, threw it on the ground and trampled it with her feet. Too late — there was nothing but a charred remnant left.
Daiyu closed her eyes and sank back, nearly knocking over Zijuan who, her heart palpitating, hastily asked Xueyan to help lay her down. It was too late to fetch help; yet what if they called no-one and their young mistress should die during the night with only herself, Xueyan, Yingge and a few young maids in attendance? They sat up apprehensively till dawn, when Daiyu seemed a little better. But after breakfast she had a sudden relapse, coughing and retching again.
Fearing the worst, Zijuan left Xueyan and the others in charge while she hurried to report this to the old lady. However, she found the place quiet and deserted, except for a few old nurses and some young maids of all work left there to mind the house. Asked where the old lady was, they returned evasive answers. In surprise, Zijuan went into Baoyu’s room and found it empty too. The young maids there also denied any knowl¬edge of his whereabouts.
By then Zijuan had a good inkling of the truth. “How cruel these people are!” she thought to herself, remembering that not a soul had called on Daiyu during the last few days. The more she dwelt on it, the more bitter she felt. In her indignation she turned and left abruptly.
“I’d like to see how Baoyu looks today,” she fumed. “Wouldn’t the sight of me shame him? That year when I told him a fib he fell ill, he was so frantic; but today he blatantly does a thing like this. It shows that all men’s hearts are as cold as ice — they really make you gnash your teeth!”
As she walked on brooding over this, she soon reached Happy Red Court. The gate was closed and all inside was quiet. It occurred to her then, “If he is getting married, he must have new bridal chambers. I wonder where they are?”
She was looking around when Moyu came flying along and she called to him to stop. The page walked over, grinning broadly.
“What brings you here, sister?” he asked.
“I heard Master Bao’s getting married so I came to watch the fun, but apparently the wedding’s not here. When exactly is it to be?”
“I’ll tell you in strict confidence, sister,” he whispered. “But don’t let Xueyan know. Our orders are not even to let you know. The wedding will take place this evening. Of course it won’t be here. His Lordship made Second Master Lian fix up new quarters for them. Well, is there anything you want me to do?”
“No, nothing. Off you go.”
Moyu darted off.
Zijuan remained lost in thought until she remembered Daiyu — was she still alive?
“Baoyu!” she swore through clenched teeth, her eyes swimming with tears. “If she dies tomorrow, you’ll get out of seeing her. But after you’ve had your pleasure, how are you going to brazen it out with me?”
She walked on in tears towards Bamboo Lodge and saw two young maids at the gate looking out for her.
At sight of her one cried, “Here comes Sister Zijuan!”
With a sinking heart she signaled to them to keep quiet: Hurrying to Daiyu’s bedside, she found her feverish, her cheeks hectically flushed. Knowing that this was a bad sign, Zijuan called for Daiyu’s old nurse Nanny Wang, who took one look then started sobbing and wailing.
Zijuan had hoped that old Nanny Wang with her experience would lend her courage; but the nurse’s reaction threw her into a tizzy till she bethought herself of someone else and sent a young maid quickly in search of her. Do you know who this was? Li Wan. As a widow, it was out of the question for her to attend Baoyu’s wedding; besides, she was the one in charge in the Garden. So Zijuan sent to ask her over.
Li Wan was correcting a poem for Lan when a young maid burst in.
“Madam!” she cried. “It looks as if Miss Lin’s done for! They’re all weeping and wailing there.”
Li Wan was horrified. Not stopping to ask any questions she sprang up and hurried out, followed by Suyun and Biyue. And on the way she reflected tearfully, “We’ve been as close as sisters here. Her looks and talents are truly so outstanding, one can only compare her to some god¬dess in heaven. But poor girl, fated to die so young and be buried far from home! I didn’t like to visit her all because of Xifeng’s underhand plan to fob off a different bride on Baoyu — so I’ve let my cousin down. How tragic this is!”
Now, reaching the gate of Bamboo Lodge, she was unnerved not to hear a sound inside. “Perhaps she’s already dead and they’ve finished lamenting her,” she thought as she hurried inside. “I wonder if they had clothes, bedding and shroud ready.”
A young maid by the door of the inner room at sight of her announced, “Here’s Madam Zhu!”
Zijuan hastily came out as Li Wan walked in.
“How is she?” she asked urgently.
Zijuan choked with sobs and could not get a word out. Her tears falling like pearls from a broken string, she could only point at Daiyu.
The maid’s grief distressed Li Wan even more. Asking no further questions she went over to look at the dying girl, already past speaking. She called her softly twice. Daiyu opened her eyes slowly and seemed to recognize her. She was still breathing faintly, but though her eyelids flut¬tered and her lips quivered, she could not utter a single word or shed a single tear.
Turning away, Li Wan saw that Zijuan had vanished and asked Xueyan where she was.
“In the outer room,” was the answer.
Li Wan hurried out and found her lying On the divan there, her face pale, tears flowing so fast from her closed eyes that a big patch of the silk-bordered flowered mattress was wet with tears and mucus. At Li Wan’s call she opened her eyes slowly and got up.
“Silly creature!” scolded Li Wan. “This is no time for weeping. Hurry up and get Miss Lin’s clothes ready. How long will you wait to change her? Are you going to expose an unmarried girl to set out naked to the other world?”
At this, Zijuan broke down and sobbed bitterly. Li Wan though weep¬ing too was impatient as well. Wiping her own eyes, she patted the maid on the shoulder.
“Good child, your crying is driving me distracted! Prepare her things quickly before it’s too late,” she urged.
She was startled just then by someone rushing in. It was Pinger. Burst¬ing in on this scene she stood rooted to the spot, speechless.
“Why aren’t you over there now? What brings you here?” asked Li Wan as Lin Zhixiao’s wife also joined them.
Pinger said, “Our mistress was worried and sent me to have a look. But as you’re here, madam, I shall tell her that she need only attend to affairs over there.”
Li Wan nodded.
“I’ll go in to see Miss Lin too,” added Pinger, already in tears as she entered the inner room.
“You’ve come in the nick of time,” Li Wan told Mrs. Lin. “Go out quickly and get some steward to prepare Miss Lin’s after-life things. When everything’s ready he’s to report to me — there’s no need to go over there.”
Mrs. Lin assented but made no move.
“Do you have other business?” Li Wan asked.
“Just now Madam Lian consulted the old lady and they want to have Miss Zijuan to help out there.”
Before Li Wan could answer, Zijuan interposed, “Please don’t wait for me, Mrs. Lin. When she’s dead, of course we’ll leave her. They needn’t be in such a hurry.... “Embarrassed by this outburst she went on more mildly, “Besides, nursing an invalid here I’m not clean. Miss Lin is still breathing and wants me from time to time.”
Li Wan helped her out by explaining, “It’s true. The affinity between Miss Lin and this girl must have been predestined. Though Xueyan’s the one she brought with her from the south, she doesn’t care for her much. I can see that Zijuan is the only one who can’t leave her for a second.”
Mrs. Lin had been put out by Zijuan’s reply, but she was unable to rebut Li Wan. Seeing Zijuan dissolved in tears, she smiled at her faintly.
“It’s all very well for Miss Zijuan to talk like that,” she rejoined. “But what am Ito say to the old lady? And how can I repeat this to Madam Lian?”
At these words, Pinger came out wiping her eyes.
“Repeat what to Madam Lian?” she wanted to know.
Mrs. Lin explained the situation, and Pinger lowered her head to think it over.
“In that case,” she suggested, “let Xueyan go instead.”
“Will she be suitable?” Li Wan inquired.
Pinger stepped closer to whisper something to her, at which she nod¬ded.
“Very well, then. Sending Xueyan will do just as well.”
Mrs. Lin asked Pinger if she agreed, and the answer was:
“Yes, it’s the same.”
“Then please tell her to come with me immediately. I’ll report to the old lady and Madam Lian that this was your idea, madam, and Miss Pinger’s too. Later you can explain to Madam Lian yourself, miss.”
“All right,” said Li Wan. “But why should someone of your seniority be scared to answer for such a little thing?”
“It’s not that.” Mrs. Lin smiled. “But we can’t be sure what plan the old lady and Madam Lian have; and besides you and Miss Pinger are here, madam.”
Pinger had already called out Xueyan, who had been holding aloof these last few days as the others had been taunting her as a careless child; and in any case she would never dream of ignoring a summons from the Lady Dowager and Madam Lian. She hastily smoothed her hair and on Pinger’s instructions changed into colourful clothes, then went off with Mrs. Lin. Li Wan, after a brief discussion with Pinger, sent her to tell Mrs. Lin to urge her husband to get a coffin ready without delay.
Pinger left to attend to this and, rounding a bend, saw Mrs. Lin walk¬ing ahead of her with Xueyan. She called to them to stop.
“I’ll take her there,” she said. “You go first to tell your husband to get Miss Lin’s things ready. I’ll report this for you to my mistress.”
Mrs. Lin agreed and went off, while Pinger took Xueyan to the bridal chambers and, having made her report, left to see to her own business.

Now that things had come to such a pass, Xueyan could not but grieve for Daiyu, though she dared not show her feelings to the old lady and Xifeng. “What do they want me for?” she wondered. “I’ll wait and see. Baoyu used to be so devoted to our young lady, why doesn’t he come out? Is he really ill or just shamming? He may be trying to put her off by pretending to have lost his jade and to be out of his mind, so that she’ll lose interest in him and he can marry Miss Baochai. I’ll slip in and see whether he’s really crazy or not. He can hardly be shamming today.”
She tiptoed to the door of the inner room and peeped in.
Now though the loss of his jade had deranged Baoyu, the news that he was to marry Daiyu seemed to him the most wonderful thing that had ever happened, and at once his health had improved, though he seemed less quick in the uptake than before. So Xifeng’s cunning scheme had succeeded completely. He could hardly wait to see Daiyu and go through with his wedding today. Beside himself with joy, although he sometimes talked nonsense he behaved quite differently from when he was demented. Xueyan saw this with indignation and distress, not knowing what was in his heart, then she slipped away.
Baoyu, seated in Lady Wang’s room, was pressing Xiren to help him into his wedding clothes and watching busy Xifeng and Madam You as he longed for the auspicious hour to arrive.
“Cousin Lin’s only coming from the Garden,” he said to Xiren. “Why should it take so long?”
Suppressing a smile she answered, “She has to wait for the appointed hour.”
Then he heard Xifeng say to Lady Wang, “Although we’re in mourn¬ing and won’t have musicians outside, according to us southerners’ rule they must bow to each other and utter silence won’t do. So I’ve ordered our troupe of house musicians to play some tunes and liven things up a little.”
“Very well,” said Lady Wang, nodding.
Presently a big sedan-chair entered the courtyard and the family mu¬sicians went out to meet the bride, while in filed twelve pairs of maids in two rows with Palace lanterns —a novel and distinctive sight. The Mas¬ter of Ceremonies invited the bride to alight from the chair, and Baoyu saw a maid with a red sash help her out — her face was veiled. And who do you think the other maid assisting the bride was? No other than Xueyan!
“Why Xueyan and not Zijuan?” he wondered, then told himself, “Of course. She brought Xueyan with her from her home down south. Zijuan is one of our household; so -naturally she needn’t bring her.” Reasoning like this, he felt as jubilant as if seeing Daiyu herself.
The Master of Ceremonies announced the procedure. Bride and bride¬groom paid their respects to Heaven and Earth, then invited the old lady to come out and receive four bows from them, after which they bowed to Jia Zheng and Lady Wang. Next they ascended the hall and paid their respects to each other before being ushered into the bridal chamber -where they went through other ceremonies such as “sitting on the bed” and “letting down the bed curtains,” in accordance with the old rules of Jinling.
Jia Zheng had never-believed that this wedding could cure Baoyu, but he had to go along with his mother’s decision. Today, however, he was pleased because Baoyu looked as if he had really recovered.
After the bride sat down on the bridal bed, she had to be unveiled. To be on the safe side, Xifeng had asked the old lady and Lady Wang there to keep an eye on things. Baoyu fatuously stepped over to the bride.
“Are you better, Cousin Lin?” he asked. “It’s so long since I’ve seen you! Why keep your face covered with that rag?”
He reached out to take off the veil, making the old lady break out in a cold sweat. But then Baoyu reflected, “Cousin Lin’s very sensitive; I mustn’t offend her.” So he waited till he felt he could wait no longer, then stepped forward and removed the veil, which the bridesmaid whisked away. At the same time Xueyan withdrew, and Yinger came in to wait upon her young mistress.
Baoyu looked at his bride and could not believe his eyes — she seemed to be Baochai. He shone the lamp on her face and rubbed his eyes. There was no doubt about it — it was Baochai! Splendidly dressed, soft and plump, her hair slightly dishevelled, fluttering her eyelashes and hold¬ing her breath she looked as alluring as lotus dripping with dew, as bashful as apricot blossom moistened by mist.
Baoyu was stupefied by the realization that Xueyan had disappeared and Yinger had taken her place. At a loss, he thought he must be dream¬ing and stood there in a daze till they took the lamp from his hand and made him sit down. Staring vacantly, he uttered not a word. The old lady, afraid he had lost his senses again, took charge of him herself while Xifeng and Madam You led Baochai to the inner room to rest. She, of course, remained silent too, lowering her head.
Soon Baoyu calmed down sufficiently to notice the presence of his grandmother and mother.
“Where am I?” he whispered to Xiren. “Is this a dream?”
“This is your wedding day,” she answered. “Don’t let the master hear you talking such nonsense. He’s just outside.”
“Who’s that beautiful girl sitting there?” he asked pointing inside.
Xiren put a hand to her mouth to hide her laughter, so amused that she could not speak.
“That’s the new Second Young Mistress,” she finally told him.
The others also turned their heads away, unable to keep from smiling.
“Don’t be silly!” cried Baoyu. “What Second Young Mistress do you mean?”
“Miss Baochai.”
“Then where is Miss Lin?”
“It was the master’s decision that you should marry Miss Baoehai, so why ask in that foolish way about Miss Lin?”
“But I saw her just now, and Xueyan too. How can you say they’re not here? What game are you all playing?”
Xifeng stepped forward to whisper, “Miss Baochai is sitting in the inner room; so don’t talk foolishly. If you annoy her, the old lady won’t like it.”
This bewildered Baoyu still more. Already deranged, after the myste¬rious apparitions and vanishings of-this evening he knew even less what to think. Ignoring all else he just clamoured to go and find Cousin Lin. The ladies did their best to pacify him, but he would not listen to reason; and as Baochai was inside they could not speak out plainly. Indeed, they knew that explanations were useless now that his wits were wandering again. They lit benzoin incense to calm him and made him lie down. No one made a sound and presently, to the old lady’s relief, he fell into a lethargic sleep. She decided to sit up with him till dawn and sent Xifeng to urge Baochai -to rest too. Baochai, behaving as if she had heard nothing, lay down then fully dressed in the inner room. As for ha Zheng, being out¬side he had no knowledge of these happenings and, in fact, felt relieved by what he had seen. Since the next day was the auspicious date to start his journey, he too rested for a while before receiving the congratulations of those who had come to bid him farewell. And when Baoyu was sound asleep, the old lady also returned to her room to sleep.
The next morning Jia Zheng bowed farewell in the ancestral temple, then came over to take his leave of his mother.
“Your unfilial son is going far away,” he said. “My one wish, madam, is that you will take care of your health at different seasons. As soon as I reach my post, I shall write to pay my respects. Please don’t worry about me. And Baoyu’s wedding has been carried out in accordance with your wishes. I beg you, madam, to admonish him from time to time.”
In order not to worry him on his journey, she did not tell him of Baoyu’s relapse.
“All I have to say is this,” she answered. “Though Baoyu was married last night he didn’t share the same room with his bride, so today we should make him see you some way on your journey. But as his wedding was to cure his illness and he’s only just slightly better, and as yesterday was a tiring day for him. I’m afraid he might catch cold if he went out. So I’d like to know your opinion. If you want him to see you off, I’ll send for him at once; but if you’re concerned for him, I’ll just have him fetched here to kowtow to you by way of farewell.”
“Why should he see me off? Provided he studies hard from now on that will please me more than having him escort me.
In relief, the old lady told him to sit down while she sent Yuanyang to fetch Baoyu and Xiren.
Presently Baoyu came. Told to pay his respects, he complied. Luckily his mind cleared for a while at sight of his father, and he made no gaffes, assenting to Jia Zheng’s instructions. Then his father dismissed him and went to his wife’s room to stress the need to discipline their son.
“You must on no account go on spoiling him,” he warned her. “Next year he must sit for the provincial examination.”
Lady Wang heard him out without mentioning what had passed and had Baochai fetched to wish her father-in-law a good journey. The other female members of the family saw him off at the inner gate, but she as a new bride could not leave the house. Jia Zhen and the other young men listened respectfully to his admonitions. Then having drunk a parting gob¬let with him, the younger male relatives and his old friends accompanied him ten li beyond the capital, then bid him farewell.
We shall now leave ha Zheng travelling to his new post and return to Baoyu. After coming back he had a sudden relapse, becoming so de¬ranged that he could not even take any nourishment. To know whether he lived or died, read the next chapter.

Chapter 98

Unhappy Vermilion Pearl's Spirit
Returns in Sorrow to Heaven
Deranged Shen Ying' Sheds Tears
in the Lodge of His Loved One



Baoyu returned to his room after seeing his father more dizzy, con¬fused and listless than before. Without even eating his meal he drifted off to sleep. Doctors were called in again but their remedies proved ineffec¬tual - he could not even recognize those around him, although when helped to sit up he looked normal enough. And this state of affairs contin¬ued for several days.
The ninth day after the wedding had now come - the day on which newly-weds should visit the bride's family. If they stayed away, Aunt Xue might well feel slighted; but how could they go with Baoyu so dis¬traught on account of Daiyu? On the other hand, they feared that if told of her death he might die himself of chagrin. His bride could hardly rea¬son with him either - for that, her mother was needed there. Yet if they neglected to pay this courtesy call, Aunt Xue would take offence.
The Lady Dowager consulted Lady Wang and Xifeng and proposed, “Baoyu may have lost his mind, but I can't see that going out would hurt him. Let's order two small sedan-chairs and have them escorted over through the Garden to keep up appearances; then we can invite Aunt Xue here to comfort Baochai, while we give our whole minds to curing Baoyu. Wouldn't that be best on both scores?"
Lady Wang agreed and had preparations made without delay. As Baochai was a new bride and Baoyu was crazed, neither objected to being taken over; for although Baochai knew how things stood and at heart blamed her mother for this injudicious match, it was too late now to protest. True, Aunt Xue reproached herself bitterly when she saw Baoyu's condition; still, they had to go through with the ceremonies in a perfunc¬tory way.
On their return Baoyu took a turn for the worse. The next morning he could not sit up, and he wasted away day by day until he could not even take liquid nourishment. In panic Aunt Xue and the others searched ev¬erywhere for good doctors, but not one was able to diagnose his illness until a certain Bi Zhan, a poor physician who lived in a ruined temple outside town, ascribed it to both internal and external factors: sudden transports of joy and grief depriving him of his senses and appetite and pent-up indignation resulting in congestion. He made out his prescription accordingly, and Baoyu took the first dose that evening. After the second watch, sure enough, he came to and asked for a drink of water. Their Ladyships in relief invited Aunt Xue and Baochai to the old lady's room to rest.
Baoyu, now that his mind had cleared, was convinced that he was dying. As the others had gone, leaving only Xiren there, he called her over to him and clasped her hand.
"Tell me," he sobbed, "what is Cousin Baochai doing here? I remem¬ber my father choosing Cousin Lin to marry me, so how did she get driven out by Cousin Baochai? Why should she force her way in here? I don't like to ask her for fear of offending her. And what news have you of Cousin Lin? Is she crying her heart out?"
Xiren prevaricated, "Miss Lin is ill."
"I'll go and see her then."
He tried to get up, but after several days without nourishment of any kind he was too weak to move.
"I'm dying!" he exclaimed. "But I've one request which I beg you to pass on to the old lady. Cousin Lin will be sobbing herself to death too and T'm done for now anyway, so that's two of us mortally ill in different places. If we die apart that' 11 make more trouble for you, so why not turn out a spare room and move the two of us there? You can nurse us both together while we're still living, and when we're dead you can lay us out together. For the sake of our friendship these years, please do this for me!"
Xiren was so affected by his words that she sobbed convulsively. And Baochai, coming back then with Yinger, heard him too.
"Why talk in that unlucky way instead of resting well so as to re¬cover?" she asked. "The old lady's just feeling a bit easier in her mind, yet here you are starting fresh trouble. You've always been the old lady's favourite, and now she's over eighty. Though she's not expecting you to win her honours, if you turn out well that will please her and the pains she's taken over you won't be wasted. As for your mother, it goes with¬out saying she's given her heart's blood to bring you up, and if you die young what's to become of her? And I, though I may be ill-fated, don't deserve this. Because of the three of us, even if you want to die Heaven won't allow it! So just rest quietly for four or five days till you're over this chill and your vital forces are restored; then this disorder will natu¬rally disappear."
This silenced Baoyu for some minutes. Then he sniggered, "You stopped talking to me for so long, why start haranguing me now?"
"Let me tell you the truth." she continued. "While you were in a coma for two days Cousin Lin died."
He sat up abruptly.
"Is that true?" he demanded.
"Of course it is. I wouldn’t say such a fearful thing if it wasn't. The old lady and your mother, knowing how fond of her you were, were afraid the news would kill you too. That's why they didn't tell you.
Baoyu burst out sobbing and fell back on his pillows. All before him was black and he could not make out where he was. He was feeling lost when he saw a figure approaching.
"Excuse me," he blurted out. "What is this place?"
"The way to Hell," was the answer. "But what are you doing here? Your span of life has not ended."
"I just heard that a friend had died, and looking for her here I lost my way."
"What friend?"
"Lin Daiyu of Suzhou."
"Lin Daiyu in life was no ordinary mortal; in death she is no ordinary ghost," said the apparition with a scornful laugh. "As she has no ghost, where can you find her? The spirits of men assume a form only when concentrated; when dissipated they change into vapour. In life they have a form; after death they scatter. So even ordinary mortals cannot be traced after death, let alone Lin Daiyu. You had better go back at once."
Nonplussed by this Baoyu asked, "If you say the spirit is dissipated after death, why should there be a Hell?"
"Hell exists for those who believe in it," was the disdainful answer. "Because the vulgar herd are afraid of death they tell cautionary tales about the wrath that Heaven visits on fools who are not content with their lot or senselessly cut short their lives by indulging in lust or running amok, making away with themselves for no good reason. So Hell has been dreamed up as a prison where such ghosts will suffer endless torments to expiate their crimes during their lifetime. By searching for Daiyu, you are courting death unjustifiably. The more so, as she has already returned to the Illusory Land of Great Void. If you want to find her, you must culti¬vate virtue and you will have occasion to meet again. If you chafe at your lot and commit the crime of cutting short your life, you may see your parents again but never Daiyu!" This said, he took a stone from his sleeve and aimed it at Baoyu's heart.
Terrified by this warning and a pain in the region of his heart, Baoyu longed to go home but did not know the way. He was hesitating when he heard his name and turned to find that the old lady, Lady Wang, Baochai and Xiren had gathered round, tearfully calling him, and he himself was still lying in his bed. The red lamp on his desk, the bright moon outside the window showed that he was still in this vain world, in the lap of luxury. Calming down, he realized that he had been dreaming. Though drenched with cold sweat he felt refreshed and clear-headed. Reflecting that there was in truth no way out for him, he heaved sigh after sigh.
Now Baochai had known from the start of Daiyu's death, but the Lady Dowager forbade any mention of it to Baoyu for fear of making his illness worse, though she herself knew that his breakdown was due to his longing for Daiyu, the loss of his jade being only secondary. She had taken her opportunity to tell him to end his torment and bring him back to his senses, so that he could be cured. The old lady and Lady Wang not knowing her motive, blamed her for her impetuosity; but when Baoyu came to they felt relieved and at once summoned Doctor Bi from the outer study to examine him.
"Strange!" observed the physician after feeling his pulse. "His pulse is steady and there is no sign now of melancholia. We'll give him a re¬storative tomorrow, and can hope for a cure." Then he left and the others dispersed, much easier in their minds.
Xiren, too, had been shocked by Baochai's disclosure, though she could not very well say so. But Yin ger in confidence has taken her to task for her indiscretion.
"You don't understand," said Baochai. "Come what may, I'll take the responsibility."
She paid no attention to ill-natured gossip, but carefully probed Baoyu's psychology and quietly needled him for his own good. And little by little he was growing more lucid, only lapsing into senselessness when he re¬membered Daiyu. It was Xiren who reasoned with him most frequently.
"The master chose Miss Baochai for you because she's so affable and good," she told him patiently. "He thought Miss Lin eccentric and suspected that she hadn't long to live. As for the old lady, she was afraid you might get worked up as you'd taken leave of your senses, so she had Xueyan brought over here to trick you."
Still Baoyu's heart ached and he often shed tears, tempted to kill himself. But he checked this impulse, remembering the warning in his dream and reluctant to hurt his grandmother and his mother. He took comfort too from the thought that, although Daiyu was dead, Baochai was a girl in a thousand and there might be something in the prophecy of a "match between gold and jade." As he seemed unlikely to do anything drastic, Baochai felt easy enough in her mind to wait dutifully on Their Ladyships, devoting the rest of her time to amusing him. Though Baoyu was too weak to sit up for long, the sight of Baochai sitting by his bed rekindled his amorous proclivity. But she would urge him gravely:
"That can wait. We're already husband and wife, but the main thing now is to recover your health."
Reluctantly, he had to fall in with her wishes, for during the day his grandmother, mother and Aunt Xue took it in turns to keep him company, and at night Baochai slipped away to sleep elsewhere, leaving nannies sent by the old lady to wait on him. So he had to convalesce quietly. Moreover, Baochai's gentle ways made him gradually transfer to her some of the love he had felt for Daiyu. But this is anticipating.
On the day of Baoyu's wedding Daiyu lay in a coma, her life hanging by a thread, while Li Wan and Zijuan wept as if their hearts would break. That evening she recovered consciousness and feebly opened her eyes. She seemed to want something to drink. As Xueyan had gone, leaving only Li Wan and Zijuan there, the latter brought her a bowl of pear juice and dried-longan syrup and gave her two or three sips with a small silver spoon, after which Daiyu closed her eyes to rest again. Li Wan knew that this lucid interval and slight rallying were the prelude to the end, but think¬ing that still a few hours away she went back to Paddy-Sweet Cottage to see to some business.
Meanwhile Daiyu opened her eyes and saw only Zijuan, her old nanny and some young maids. Clasping Zijuan's hand she addressed her with an effort.
"I'm done for! You've served me for several years, and I'd hoped that the two of us could always stay together. But now.... " Stopping to catch her breath, she closed her eyes in exhaustion.
Zijuan, whose hand she was still gripping, dared not move. Because Daiyu seemed better than earlier on she was still hoping for her recovery, and so these words struck chill into her heart.
"Sister!" continued Daiyu presently. "I have no dear one here, I have lived chastely.... Get them to send me home!"
Closing her eyes again, she clasped Zijuan's hand even more tightly as she panted silently, breathing out more than she breathed in - at her last gasp.
Zijuan was frantically sending to fetch Li Wan when luckily Tanchun arrived.
"Look at Miss Lin, miss!" whispered Zijuan, her tears falling like rain.
Tanchun came over and felt Daiyu's hand - it was chill and her eyes were glazed. Weeping, they called for water with which to wash her. Then Li Wan hurried in. The three of them had no time for civilities. They were washing Daiyu when she raised a sudden cry:
"Baoyu, Baoyu! How...."
Those were her last words. She broke out in a cold sweat. Zijuan and the others, holding her as she sweated, felt her body grow colder and colder. Tanchun and Li Wan bade her maids dress her hair and change her clothes. But her eyes turned up--alas!
Her sweet soul gone with the wind,
They sorrow at midnight, lost in fragrant dreams.
It was in the very same hour in which Baoyu and Baochai were mar¬ried that Daiyu breathed her last. Tanchun, recalling Zijuan and the other maids wept bitterly while Li Wan and Tanchun, recalling her lovable ways, lamented her fate and sobbed too with distress. As Bamboo Lodge was far from the bridal chambers, their wailing could not be heard there. Pres¬ently they caught the sound of distant music, but as soon as they pricked up their ears it vanished. When Li Wan and Tanchun stepped into the courtyard to listen, they saw only the wind - tossed bam¬boos and the shifting moonlight on the wall - a scene of loneliness and desolation.
They sent for Lin Zhixiao's wife, had Daiyu laid out and assigned maids to watch by her corpse, not notifying Xifeng till the next morning.
As Their Ladyships were so busy with ha Zheng leaving home that morning and Baoyu's increased derangement making the whole house¬hold frantic, Xifeng decided not to report Daiyu's death for fear Their Ladyships would fall ill under this fresh burden of grief. So she went herself to the Garden. On reaching Bamboo Lodge, she could not hold back her tears. Then she was told by Li Wan and Tanchun that all prepa¬rations had been made for the funeral.
"Well done," she said. "But why didn't you let me know before to save me worrying?"
Tanchun answered, "How could we, when seeing the master off?"
"At least the two of you took pity on her," commented Xifeng. "Very well then, I must go back to cope with the lovesick one over there. What a to-do! Not to report it today would be wrong; but if I report it I'm afraid it may be too much for the old lady."
"Do as you think fit," said Li Wan. "If possible, you should report it."
Nodding, Xifeng hurried away.
When she reached Baoyu's quarters and heard that the doctor had pronounced him out of danger, to Their Lady ships' relief, she broke the news to them about Daiyu without letting Baoyu know. The old lady and Lady Wang were consternated.
"I have her death on my conscience," sobbed the old lady. "But the child was really too foolish!"
She was in a dilemma, wanting to go to the Garden to mourn Daiyu, yet reluctant to leave Baoyu. Lady Wang, suppressing her own grief, persuaded her to remain to look after her health, and the old lady agreed to her going instead.
"Tell her spirit from me," she instructed, "it's not because I'm heart¬less that I'm not coming to see you off, but there's someone closer here whom I have to see to. As my daughter's daughter you are dear to me; but Baoyu is closer to me even than you. If any harm comes to him, how am I to face his father?" She wept again.
"You were very good to her, madam," said Lady Wang soothingly. "But each one's span of life is fixed by Heaven, and now that she's dead there's nothing we can do except give her the best funeral possible. That will show our feeling for her, and her mother's spirit and hers can rest in peace."
This made the old lady weep still more bitterly. And not wanting her to grieve too much, as Baoyu was still bemused Xifeng quietly sent some¬one with the trumped-up message, "Baoyu is asking for you, madam."
"Has anything happened?" she asked, no longer weeping.
"No, nothing," Xifeng assured her. "I expect he just wants to see you."
The old lady hurried out attended by Zhenzhu and followed by Xifeng. Half-way there they met Lady Wang, whose report on her visit to Bam¬boo Lodge naturally caused the old lady fresh distress; but she swal¬lowed back her tears because she was going to see Baoyu.
"As all the preparations are made, I won't go over for the time be¬ing," she said. "Do as you think fit. Seeing her would make my heart ache. But mind you give her a handsome funeral."
When Lady Wang and Xifeng had agreed to this, she went on to see Baoyu and asked what he wanted her for.
"Last night I saw Cousin Lin," he said with a smile. "She wants to go back south. I'm sure you're the only one who can keep her here for me, madam. Don't let her go!"
"All right. Don't worry," she answered.
Then Xiren made Baoyu lie down again.
After leaving him the old lady went in to see Baochai, who having been married less than a week behaved shyly in company. She no¬ticed that the old lady's face was tear-stained. After she had served tea, she was told to take a seat and perched respectfully on the edge of a chair.
"I heard that Cousin Lin was unwell," she remarked. "Is she any better?"
Bursting into tears the Lady Dowager answered, "I'll tell you, child, but don't let Baoyu know. It's all because of your Cousin Lin that you've been so unfairly treated. Now that you're married I can tell you the truth: your Cousin Lin died a couple of days ago at the very hour of your wedding. This illness Baoyu has is because of her. You used to live to-gether in the Garden, so I'm sure you know what I mean."
Baochai blushed, then shed tears at the thought of Daiyu's death. And after chatting with her a little longer, the Lady Dowager left.
After this, Baochai weighed the pros and cons carefully before hitting on a plan; but not wanting to act rashly she had waited till after her visit home on the ninth day after their wedding before breaking the news to Baoyu. And now that, sure enough, he was on the mend, they no longer had to keep things secret from him.
But though Baoyu was recovering steadily, he had not overcome his infatuation and he insisted on going to mourn for Daiyu. Knowing that the cause of his illness was not yet uprooted, his grandmother forbade him to give way to foolish fancies, but that only deepened his gloom and brought on a relapse. The doctor, however, saw that he was ill with longing and advised them to allow him to vent his feelings, for then the medicine would be more efficacious. Hearing this, Baoyu at once clamoured to go to Bamboo Lodge. They had to send for a bamboo chair and help him on to it, after which they set off, the old lady and Lady Wang leading the way.
The sight of Daiyu's coffin in Bamboo Lodge made the old lady weep till she had no more tears to shed and was out of breath. Xifeng and the others urged her to desist. Meanwhile Lady Wang had wept too. And they shed tears anew even after Li Wan invited them to rest in the inner room.
Baoyu on his arrival thought back to his visits here before his illness. Now the lodge remained but its young mistress was gone. He gave way to a storm of grief. How close they had been, yet today they were parted by death! He felt his heart would break. Alarmed by his frenzied anguish, all tried to comfort him, but already he had almost fainted away. They helped him out to rest. Baochai and the others who had come with him also mourned bitterly.
Now Baoyu insisted on seeing Zijuan to ask her what Daiyu's dying words had been. Zijuan had a deep grudge against him, but his misery softened her heart and in the presence of Their Ladyships she dared take no liberties. So she reported in detail how her young mistress had fallen ill again, how she had burned his handkerchief and her poems, and what her last words had been. Baoyu wailed again until he was hoarse and breath¬less, and Tanchun seized this chance to repeat Daiyu's dying request to have her coffin taken back to the south, reducing Their Ladyships to tears again. It was Xifeng with her persuasive tongue who succeeded in consoling them a little and urged them to go back. When Baoyu refused, his grandmother had to override his wishes.
Because the Lady Dowager was old and had been on tenterhooks day and night ever since Baoyu fell ill, this fresh access of grief made her so dizzy and feverish that although still worried about him she had to retire to her room to lie down. Lady Wang went back too in even greater anguish, leaving Caiyun to help Xiren, with the instructions:
"If Baoyu breaks down again, send us word at once."
Knowing that his grief must run its course, instead of trying to console him Baochai made some cutting remarks; and suspecting that she was jealous he swallowed back his tears. So the night passed without mishap.
The next morning when others came to see how he was, they found him debilitated but less distracted. They nursed him devotedly till he slowly recovered. Luckily the old lady had not fallen ill; only Lady Wang was still suffering from her heart trouble. When Aunt Xue called she was relieved to find her son-in-law looking better, and she kept the young couple company for a while.
Some time after this, the Lady Dowager asked Aunt Xue over for a consultation.
"We own Baoyu's life to you," she said. "Now he seems out of danger, but we've wronged your daughter. As he's convalesced for the prescribed hundred days and recovered his health, and as the mourning for Her Imperial Highness is over too, it's time for them to consummate their marriage. Please make the decision and choose a lucky day for this."
"You know best, madam. Why ask me?" replied Aunt Xue. "Baochai may look stupid but she had good sense you know what she's like, madam. I only hope the young couple will live in harmony to spare you worry, and then my sister and I can be easy in our minds too. You settle on a date, madam.... Is there any need to notify relatives?"
"For Baoyu and your daughter, this is the biggest event in their whole lives. Besides, think of all the trouble we had before things turned out well. We must celebrate for a few days and invite all our relatives. For one thing, it'll be a thanksgiving for Baoyu's recovery; for another, drinking on this happy occasion will make up to us for all the worries we've had."
Aunt Xue was naturally pleased by this proposal. She described the dowry she meant to give Baochai.
"I don't think that's necessary," said the old lady, "as we were rela¬tives before this marriage. Their rooms already fully furnished; but if there are any things Baochai specially likes you can bring them over, aunt. The child has never struck me as narrow-minded like Daiyu that was what made her die so young." At this both of them shed tears. Just then Xifeng came in and asked with a smile. "What are you ladies discussing?"
"We were speaking about your Cousin Lin," Aunt Xue told her. "That's what upset us.
"Well, don't be upset," Xifeng urged them. "I've just heard a good joke which I mean to tell you."
The old lady wiped her tears and said with a smile, "Whom are you making fun of this time I wonder? Go ahead and tell us. But if it isn't funny, lookout!"
Xifeng, before she even started to speak, gesticulated with both hands and doubled up with laughter. If you want to know what she told them, read the next chapter.

Chapter 99

An Upright Official Has Venal Underlings
A Perusal of the Court Gazette Fills
Jia Zheng with Concern for His Nephew




Xifeng offered to tell a joke to stop the Lady Dowager and Aunt Xue from grieving over Daiyu.
"Can you ladies guess whom this joke is about?" she asked, laughing herself before embarking on it. "Our new bridegroom and his bride!"
'What's happened?" the old lady wanted to know.
"One was sitting like this, one standing like this," began Xifeng, mim¬ing. "One turned away like this, one wheeled round like this. Then one...."
The Lady Dowager burst out laughing. "Tell us properly!" she scolded. “You've named no names yet, but already you have us in stitches."
"Yes, just tell us straight out," urged Aunt Xue. "No need to act it."
Then Xifeng expatiated, "Just now I went to Cousin Bao's place and heard laughter in his room. I wondered who was there and peeped through the window. Cousin Baochai was sitting on the edge of the kang, with Cousin Bao standing in front of her. Re pulled her sleeve and pleaded, 'Do talk to me, cousin! One word from you would cure me com¬pletely – I swear it!' But Baochai turned her head away, refusing to meet his eyes. He bowed to her then and tugged at her jacket. When she wrenched away, of course his legs were so weak after his illness that he toppled over and fell on top of her. Then blushing scarlet she scolded, 'You're getting more and more undignified!"'
The old lady and Aunt Xue laughed.
"Baoyu got up then," Xifeng went on. "Re said with a grin, 'It's lucky I toppled over -- that loosened your lips."'
"How strange of Baochai," remarked Aunt Xue. "What's wrong with having a bit of fun now that they're married? Hasn't she seen how you and Lian carry on?"
"What way is that to talk?" protested Xifeng, flushing. "I was telling you a joke to cheer you up, aunt, but you make fun of me instead."
The old lady chortled, "Quite right and proper too. Of course a hus¬band and wife are fond of each other; still, they ought to keep within bounds. What I like about Baochai is her sense of dignity. I only worry because Baoyu is still such a simpleton; but judging by what you say, his mind is much clearer now. What other jokes can you tell us?"
"Soon Baoyu will have consummated his marriage, and then Aunt Xue will have a grandson to dandle won't that be a still better joke?"
"You monkey!" laughed the old lady. "It was all very well for you to cheer us up when we were grieving over your Cousin Lin, but now you're getting cheeky. Do you want us to forget your Cousin Lin? You've no call to gloat, because she hated you; so don't go to the Garden all alone or her ghost may pounce on you to have her revenge!"
"She bore me no grudge," replied Xifeng. "It was Baoyu who made her grind her teeth with rage just before she died."
Thinking she was still joking they paid no attention to this.
"Stop talking nonsense," the old lady said. "Go and get people outside to choose the most auspicious day for Baoyu to round off his marriage."
Xifeng assented and after a little more chat went off on this errand. Then invitations were sent out to a feast with operas; but no more of this.
Now although Baoyu had recovered, when Baochai happened to dis¬cuss with him some books she had been reading, he remembered those with which he was most familiar but had quite lost his former intelligence, and he himself could not account for this. Baochai attributed it to the loss of his jade of "spiritual understanding." Xiren, however, frequently re¬proached him.
"How come you've lost that ready wit you used to have?" she would ask. "If you'd forgotten your foolish ways that would be fine; but you're just as bad as before - the only change is that you've grown more dim¬witted."
Baoyu never flared up at these strictures, simply grinned. If he car¬ried on wilfully, Baochai reasoned with him and managed to restrain him to some extent. Thus Xiren did not have to scold him so often and could devote herself to serving him well. The other maids also admired Baochai for her goodness and gentleness, and out of respect for her they all behaved well.
Baoyu, by nature restless, hankered after a stroll in the Garden. However, his grandmother was afraid that he might get over-heated there or catch cold, and that the place might upset him; for though Daiyu's coffin had been deposited in a nunnery outside town, the sight of Bamboo Lodge might bring back his earlier grief for its dead mistress. So they would not allow him to go. Besides, most of his girl cousins had left the place. Xue Baoqin had gone back to live with Aunt Xue. Shi Xiangyun had been fetched home after Marquis Shi's return to the capital, and as a date for her marriage had been fixed she seldom paid them visits, coming only for Baoyu's wedding and the later celebration, on both of which occasions she stayed with the old lady. And as Baoyu was now a married man and she would soon be married herself, she could not joke and laugh with him as before; so sometimes she just talked with Baochai, merely greeting Baoyu if they happened to meet. After Yingchun's marriage, Xing Xiuyan had gone to live with Lady Xing. The Li sisters were also living outside at present, and when they came with their mother they simply called on Their Ladyships and their girl cousins, then stayed for a couple of days with Li Wan. Thus the only inmates of the Garden now were Li Wan, Tanchun and Xichun. The old lady had meant to move them out, but after Yuanchun's death a succession of domestic troubles had left her no time to attend to this. Moreover, now that it was growing warmer, it was pleas¬ant in the Garden and they decided not to move till autumn. We will return to this later.

Now Jia Zheng had set off from the capital with several secretaries. Travelling by day and resting at night, he finally reached his province post and presented himself to his superior. Re then went to his office, and when the official seal had been ceremoniously made over to him he started checking up on the granaries in the districts and counties under his juris¬diction. Most of his previous posts had been in the capital, and he thought all official tasks the same, for even when appointed as examiner outside he had had no dealings with the local administration. And therefore, al¬though he had heard of such abuses as appropriating a percentage of the grain collected and squeezing money out of the local people, he had no direct experience of such matters and was determined to be a good offi¬cial. So in discussions with his secretaries he issued stern prohibitions, threatening to report in detail any instances of corruption that were dis¬covered.
At the start, his subordinates were apprehensive and tried in all man¬ner of ways to ingratiate themselves with him. However, Jia Zheng was inflexible. There had been no perquisites for his servants in the capital working for such a master, and when he was posted here they had bor¬rowed money and made new clothes to put up a better appearance, sure that once in the provinces they would make their fortunes, the money would just roll in. But this master of theirs was so stubborn that he carried out serious investigations and refused all gifts sent by the local officials.
The yamen secretaries and scriveners made a mental calculation. "Another fortnight like this," they said, "and we'll have to pawn all our clothes. And when our creditors dun us, what shall we do? There's all this glittering silver under our noses, but we can't lay hands on it."
The attendants and runners also complained, "You gentlemen at least didn't sink any capital into landing your posts. We're the ones who've been sold out: we spent pots of silver to get these jobs, but after more than a month here we haven't made a single cent! If we stick to this master, we shall probably never recoup our capital.. Tomorrow we're going in a group to resign."
The following day they did this. And Jia Zheng not knowing the rea¬son said, "You wanted to work here; now you want to leave. Since you dislike these posts, do as you please."
The runners went off then, complaining loudly, leaving only some family stewards who talked the matter over.
"Those able to leave have gone," they said. "But as we can't, we must think of some way out."
One of them, a gateman called Li Shier, scoffed, "What a useless lot you are, getting so het-up! While those runners were around, I couldn't be bothered to give them a tip-off. Now that they've been starved out, I'll show you what I can do. Our master will have to listen to me! If we just work together to make some money, we can enjoy ourselves when we get home. If you won't do as I say, I shall wash my hands of you--I can get the better of you any day."
“The master trusts you, Mr. Li," said the others. "If you won't help, we're done for."
“Well, after I've shown the way and we've got money, don't com¬plain that I've taken the lion's share; because if we fall out among our¬selves it will go hard with us all."
“Don't worry," the rest replied. 'We’d never do that. However little we get, it will be better than dipping into our own pockets."
Just then a clerk from the granary office arrived, asking for Zhou Rui. Li Shier sat down crossing his legs, his chest thrown out, and demanded:
"What do you want him for?"
Standing at respectful attention the clerk answered. "The Grain Com¬missioner has been here for over a month, and in view of his strict orders the local magistrates know they can't ask for favours, so none of them has opened the granaries yet. But once the time is up for grain to be shipped out, what will you gentlemen have come here for?"
"Don't talk nonsense," retorted Li. "Our master is most systematic and always keeps his word. These last two days he has been meaning to expedite the delivery. Re only put it off because I asked for a few days' delay. What do you want Mr. Zhou for anyway?"
"Just to ask about the order to expedite the delivery -- that's all."
"Stop talking rot! You made that up because of what I just said. Don't try any hanky-panky, or I'll get the commissioner to have you beaten and dismissed!"
"My family has worked in this yamen for three generations," said the clerk. "We're respected hereabouts and not badly off; so we can afford to serve this commissioner on the level until his promotion. We're not like those waiting for rice to put in their pan." This said, he added formally, "I'll take my leave of you now, sir."
Li Shier stood up then, smiling.
"Can't you take a joke?" he chuckled. "Don't be so thin-skinned."
"It's not that. But if I say any more, won't I be damaging your good reputation?"
Li stepped over to take his hand and asked, "What's your honourable name?"
"Zhan Rui, sir. In my young days I worked in the capital for a few years.
"Mr. Zhan! I've long heard of you. We brothers here are in accord. If you have some proposal, come over this evening and we can talk it over.
"We all know how sharp you are, Mr. Li. You had me scared stiff just now!"
They all laughed then and dispersed. But that evening Li had a long talk with the clerk.
The next morning Li Shier made some suggestions to sound out Jia Zheng, who reprimanded him sternly.
The day after, Jia Zheng gave orders for attendants to escort him out to pay calls, and the servants outside assented. Some time went by during which the gong sounded three times, but they had trouble finding a man to beat the drum in the hall, and when Jia Zheng stepped out of the vesti¬bule, there was only one runner on duty to clear the way. Letting this pass, he mounted his sedan-chair in the porch; but again he had to wait quite a while for the bearers to assemble; and when they carried him out of the yamen gate the gun fired only one salute, moreover on the band¬stand there were only one drummer and one trumpeter. At this Jia Zheng lost his temper.
"Things used to be orderly enough," he exclaimed. "Why are there so many absentees today?"
He took a look at his retinue -- the men were slouching and strag¬gling. None the less he went through with his round of calls, on his return ordering the absentees to be summoned and given a beating. Some pleaded that they had mislaid their hats, pawned their uniforms, or were too weak to carry his chair because they had eaten nothing for three days. In anger he had one or two of them flogged, then let the matter drop.
A day later, when the steward in charge of the kitchen came with a request for money, Jia Zheng had to pay him out of his own pocket. But after that things went from bad to worse -- compared with this, it had been plain sailing in the capital. In desperation he summoned Li Shier.
"What's come over those servants who accompanied me here?" he asked. "It's your job to discipline them. The silver we brought was spent days ago, and it's not yet time to draw the allowance from the provincial treasury. We shall have to send to the capital for more.
"Not a day has passed without my pulling them up," replied Li. "But somehow or other they're all so dispirited there's nothing I can do about it, sir. How much money does Your Lordship want us to fetch from home? I've heard that the governor will be celebrating his birthday in a few days, and all the other officials are sending him thousands of taels. Row much shall we send?"
'Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
"You know how it is, sir. We're new here and haven't had much to do with those other gentlemen; so why should they send us word? They're only hoping you won't call to congratulate him, sir; so that when you're dismissed they can get your lucrative post."
'Nonsense!" Jia Zheng retorted. "I was appointed by His Majesty. The governor can't dismiss me just because I fail to congratulate him on his birthday."
"You're right, of course, sir," replied Li with a smile. "But the capital is far away, and it's the governor who reports on everything here. If he commends you, you are a good official; if he finds fault you're likely to lose your job. By the time the court learns the truth, it is too late. Our old lady and the other mistresses are all longing for you to have a magnificent success here."
Jia Zheng of course understood his drift.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" he repeated.
"I dared not, sir. Now that you ask me, it's my duty to speak; but if I do, most likely you will be angry.
"Not if what you say makes sense."
"Those clerks and runners all bribed their way into this yamen; so of course they all want to feather their nests," Li explained. "They have families to support. Since you came to this post, sir, and before you've achieved anything for the state, there's already been talk."
"What are people saying?"
"The common folk say, 'The stricter the orders a new official gives, the more grasping he will be. The more frightened the county officials, the bigger the bribes they'll send in.
"When the time comes to levy grain, your yamen officials say they have orders from the new commissioner not to accept any money, and this makes it difficult for those country people who'd rather grease their palms and be done with it. So instead of praising you, sir, they complain that you don't understand the situation. But your close friend and kins¬man has climbed to the top in just a few years, simply because he has the good sense to please both his superiors and his inferiors"
"Rubbish," protested Jia Zheng. "Are you implying that I lack sense? As for pleasing both superiors and inferiors, do you want me to connive with rogues - to be 'a cat sleeping with rats'?"
"I spoke frankly, sir, out of concern for you, not wanting to keep any¬thing back," Li answered. "If you were to go on like this till you had no achievements to your credit and your reputation was damaged, you could accuse me of disloyalty for not putting the facts before you."
"What would you do in my place?"
"Just this, sir. While you're in your prime, with friends at court and the old lady in good health, look after your own interests. Otherwise, in less than a year you'll have spent all your family's money and made those above and below resent you too. They'll all assume that in this provincial post Your Lordship must be salting money away. So if some trouble crops up, who's going to help you? By then it will be hard to clear yourself' and too late to regret!"
"Are you advising me to become a corrupt official? Forfeiting my life would be of less consequence, but would you have my ancestors de¬prived of their noble titles?"
"A gentleman of your discernment, sir, must surely have noticed which officials have landed in trouble in recent years. All old friends of your Lordship's they were, and you often remarked on their probity; but now what has become of their good name? On the other hand, some relatives whom you have always run down have been promoted. It all depends on how well one handles things. You must understand the need, sir, to care for the local officials as well as for the people. Why, if you had your way, sir, and wouldn't let the local magistrates make a cent, who would handle all the work in the provinces? All you need to do is keep up appearances, living up to your good name as an honest official, while in private we underlings get the job done and take whatever blame there may be with¬out involving Your Lordship. We have been so long in your service, sir, you can surely rest assured of our loyalty."
Jia Zheng did not know what rejoinder to make to this.
"I can't risk my life!" he exclaimed. "If you get into trouble, I won't be responsible." Re then retired to his room.
After that Li Shier assumed great airs, conniving with others inside and outside the yamen to handle affairs unbeknown to Jia Zheng, who felt so satisfied that all was going smoothly that, far from suspecting Li, he trusted him completely. Certain accusations were brought against his office, but in view of Jia Zheng's austerity and honesty his superiors made no investigations. Only some of his secretaries who were well in-formed warned him what was happening; and when he did not believe them some resigned while those on good terms with him remained to help out. So the government grain was collected and shipped off without any scandal.
One day Jia Zheng was reading at leisure in his study when a clerk brought in a missive. It bore an official seal and the inscription: Urgent Despatch from the Garrison Command of Raimen to the Yamen of the Grain Commissioner of Jiangxi. Jia Zheng opened it and read:

Your old friend and fellow-provincial from Jinling, I was posted to the capital last year, delighted to be near you; and you did me the honour, for which I shall ever be grateful, to agree to link our families by marriage. But after my transfer to this coastal district I did not venture to pursue the matter, and with deep regret lamented my misfortune. Now that you have luckily travelled all this distance, my lifelong wish is fulfilled. I was about to send my congratulations when your gracious letter arrived, shedding lustre on our camp and on me, a mere soldier; for though we are separated by the ocean I am still favoured by your protection. Trusting that you will not spurn my low position, I aspire to connect myself with your family; as you have looked upon my son with favour and we have always admired your refined daughter. If you condescend to honour your earlier promise, I shall send the go-between immediately. Though the journey is far, it can be made by boat; and though we cannot welcome the bride with a hun¬dred chariots, we have a barque ready for the fairy maid. So I write this short letter to wish you further promotion and beg for your gracious consent. Eagerly awaiting your reply!

Your younger brother Zhou Qiong.

Raving read this, Jia Zheng reflected, "One's children's marriages do seem to be fated. I met him last year when he took up a metropolitan post, and as he took up a metropolitan post, and as he was a fellow-provincial and an old friend and I was struck by his son's handsome appearance I proposed this match at a feast, but said nothing about it to the family as it was not finally settled. When he was transferred to the coast we let the matter drop. Now I have been assigned here and he has sent this request. I consider our families well matched and think this should be a good marriage for Tanchun. However, since the family is not here I must write back to consult them."
As he was mulling this over, then gatekeeper brought him a summons to the provincial capital to discuss some business with the governor. Re had to make ready at once and proceed to the city to await the governor's orders.
Resting in his hostel one day, Jia Zheng started reading through a pile of Court Gazettes on his desk and found a report from the Board of Punishments which dealt with "the merchant Xue Pan of Jinling."
"This is disastrous!" he exclaimed. "They've referred the matter up!"
Re read carefully through the account of how Xue Pan had killed Zhang San in a brawl, then bribed the witnesses to make it out a case of manslaughter.
"Re's done for!" he cried, pounding the desk with his fist.
Re then read on as follows:
The Garrison Commander of the capital reported: "Xue Pan, a native of Jinling, while travelling through Taiping County put up in Li Family Hos¬tel. He had no previous acquaintance with the waiter Zhang San. On the day in question, Xue Pan ordered the inn-keeper to prepare wine and invited Wu Liang of Taiping County to drink with him. He sent Zhang San for the wine, but it was sour and he called for something better. Zhang San said that once he had bought it they could not change it and, annoyed by his insolence, Xue Pan dashed the wine in the waiter's face so fiercely that his hand slipped and the bowl hit Zhang San's temple just as he was stooping to pick up some chopsticks. The skin was broken, blood spurted out, and very soon he died. When the innkeeper could not revive him, he informed Zhang San's mother, who finding her son dead called in the local bailiff and reported the matter to the county yamen. The report of the post-mortem which they sent to the prefecture omitted to mention that the blow on the temple cracked the skull, making a gash one-third of an inch deep, and that there was another bruise in the small of his back. Apparently Xue Pan's hand did slip when he threw the wine, and the blow from the bowl accidentally killed Zhang San. So Xue Pan was convicted of manslaughter during a quarrel, and kept in custody until the payment of an indemnity."
A careful study of all the statements made by the culprits, Witnesses and dead man's relatives reveals that they are full of discrepancies. Fur¬thermore, there is this proviso to the ruling on death through brawls: When two men grapple together it is a brawl; only when there is no brawl and the one killed is a stranger to his slayer can it be considered as manslaughter. So we ordered the Garrison Commander to ascertain the true facts and report back.
Now we hear from the Garrison Commander that it was because Zhang San refused to change the wine that Xue Pan, who was tipsy, seized his right hand and struck him first in the small of the back. When Zhang San cursed him for this, Xue Pan threw the bowl at him, gashing his temple and cracking his skull so that his brains spilled not and he died on the spot. This means that Xue Pan killed Zhang San by striking him with the wine bowl and he should pay with his life. For this crime, the law decrees death by strangulation, pending Imperial review. Wu Liang should be flogged and sentenced to hard labour. The prefectual and county magis¬trates who sent in false reports....

Below this was appended: To be continued.
Since Aunt Xue had enlisted Jia Zheng's help and he had appealed to the magistrate, if the court was asked to punish these officials he might find himself involved. He was very worried. He picked up the next issue of the gazette, but it was not the right one; and although he looked through the whole pile he could not find the sequel to this report. His heart misgave him. Re was brooding over this with growing apprehension when Li Shier entered.
'Will Your Lordship please go to the government office," he said. "The drum has sounded twice in the governor's yamen.
As Jia Zheng was too lost in thought to hear him, Li had to repeat his message.
"What am I to do?" muttered Jia Zheng.
''Have you something on your mind, sir?”
Jia Zheng told him what he had read in the gazette.
"Don't worry, sir," Li rejoined. "If this is how the Board's handled it, Master Xue has got off lightly! Back in the capital, I heard that Master Xue fetched a lot of women to the inn, all drunk and disorderly, and he beat the waiter to death. Not only was the magistrate bribed, they told me, but Master Lian had to spend a lot of money squaring the different yamens before the case was sent up. I can't think why the Board didn't get it straight.
"But even if it's come out now, officials protect each other. At most they'll admit that they didn't get the facts right, for which they will sim¬ply be dismissed or penalized. They'll never own up to having taken bribes. Don't let it weigh on your mind, sir. I'll find out more for you presently, but don't keep the governor waiting."
"You don't understand," said Jia Zheng. "It'll be too bad if the mag¬istrate loses his post, and may even be otherwise penalized too, just for doing us a favour."
"Well, worrying won't help. They've been waiting outside for a long time; please go now, sir."
To know what the governor wanted with Jia Zheng, you must read the following chapter.

Chapter 100

By Frustrating Jingui Xiangling
Makes a Worse Enemy of Her
Baoyu Grieves Over Tanchun's Departure
to Marry Far from Home


Jia Zheng remained so long with the governor that the attendants out¬side started speculating what the reason could be; and when Li Shier could get hold of no information, he remembered the ominous report in the Court Gazette and began to be really worried. At last Jia Zheng emerged, and Li escorted him back. On the way, when no one else was near, he asked:
"Was it urgent business that kept you there so long, sir?"
"Nothing of coil sequence," replied Jia Zheng with a smile. "The gar¬rison commander of Haimen is related to the governor and has written recommending me to him. For this reason, the governor paid me some compliments and said, 'Now we are relatives too."'
Pleased and emboldened by this, Li urged him to agree to the garrison commander's proposal. However, Jia Zheng was still afraid that he might be implicated in Xue Pan's case. Being so far away, cut off from news and in no position to cope with emergencies, on his return to his office he lost no time in sending a servant to the capital to find out the situation and tell the Lady Dowager about the garrison commander's proposal. If she agreed to it, Tanchun could be sent to him.
The servant travelled post-haste to the capital. Having made his re¬port to Lady Wang, he found out from the Ministry of Civil Affairs that Jia Zheng was in no trouble - only the magistrate of Taiping County had been dismissed from his post. He sent word of this to Jia Zheng to relieve his mind, then stayed on to await further developments.

Now Aunt Xue had spent huge sums bribing the yamens dealing with Xue Pan's case to bring in a verdict of manslaughter, not murder. She had planned to sell a pawnshop to raise the ransom for him; but now that the Board of Punishments had unexpectedly reversed the verdict, she had to spend still more on bribes, all in vain - Xue Pan remained sen¬tenced to death and immured in prison pending the Major Sessions in the autumn. Aunt Xue wept day and night for rage and grief.
"Brother was born ill-fated," Baochai kept telling her to comfort her. "Inheriting so much property, he should have lived quietly, minding his own business. Instead he carried on scandalously down south, behaving so disgracefully over Xiangling. It was only because of his powerful con¬nections and money that he got away with killing that young gentleman. He should have turned over a new leaf then, and taken good care of you; but here in the capital he carried on just as before. Goodness knows how often he's provoked you, mother, how many tears he's made you shed.
"Then you got him a wife, and we thought we could all live in peace; but it was his fate to marry such a shrew that he left home to avoid her. As the proverb says, 'Foes are fated to meet' - before very long he killed a man again!
"You and Cousin Ke have done all you could for him: spending money and begging this one and that one to help. But there's no escaping fate, and he brought this on himself. People bring up children as props for their old age, and even the son of a poor family will work to support his mother. What good is one who squanders his whole inheritance and breaks his old mother's heart?
"Maybe I shouldn't say this, but the way brother behaves he isn't your son but your enemy. If you don't wake up to this, you'll keep crying from dawn till dusk, from dusk till dawn, and have more to put up with from sister-in-law as well. As for me, I can't always be here to smooth things over, for though Baoyu's a simpleton he won't let me stay here. But it makes me so worried seeing you like this!
"The other day the master sent to tell us how alarmed he was after reading the Court Gazette: that's why he sent a servant to see to things. I'm sure lots of people are anxious over this trouble brother's made. I'm lucky to be so close to you still. If I heard this news far away, I'd worry myself to death thinking about you! So do calm down, mother, and while brother's still alive check up on the various accounts. Get the old accountant to reckon up how much is owed to us and how much we owe, so as to see how much money there is left.
'These days we’ve been so upset about your brother," said Aunt Xue tearfully, “whenever you came, if you weren't consoling me I was telling you what had happened in the yamen; so I didn't let you know. We've already lost the title of Court Purveyor in the capital, and we've sold two of our pawnshops -- the proceeds went long ago. We still have one pawnshop left, but its manager has absconded with several thousand taels, for which we're sueing him. Your Cousin Ke outside asks every day for more money, and we must have spent tens of thousands from our funds in the capital. We can only make up the deficit by drawing silver from our clan funds down south and by selling our houses there. But only the other day we heard a rumour that our clan pawnshop in Jinling has been confiscated too, because it went bankrupt. If this is true, what's your poor mother to live on?" She broke down and sobbed.
'It's no use worrying about money matters, mother," said Baochai, in tears herself. "Cousin Ke will see to them for us. But how hateful of those assistants! When they see us come down in the world they strike out on their own; and some of them, so I've heard, help other people to squeeze us. This shows that all these years the only friends brother had made are wine-and-meat ones. not one of whom stands by him in time of trouble.
"If you're fond of me, mother, take my advice and now that you're old take better care of your health. I can't believe you'll ever go cold or hungry. What little clothing and furniture there is here, you'll simply have to let sister-in-law do as she likes with. I don't suppose the servants want to stay on, so if they ask to leave just let them go. Poor Xiangling has had a hard life; you'll have to keep her with you. If you're short of anything. I'll provide it if I can -- I don’t imagine Baoyu will object. Xiren is a good sort too. When she heard of our family trouble she spoke of you with tears. He's not upset, not knowing that anything's amiss. If he knew, he would be frantic...”
"Don't tell him, there's a good child," Aunt Xue cut in. "He nearly died because of Daiyu, and he's only just recovering. If he's upset and anything happens to him, you'll have more to worry about and I shall have fewer people to whom to turn."
"That's what I think," answered Baochai. "That's why I never told him."
Just then they heard Jingui storm into the outer room.
"I want to die and be done with it!" she shrieked. "My man's as good as dead! We may as well make a scene, all going to the execution ground for a show-down!"
She banged her head on the partition until her hair was all tousled. Aunt Xue could only glare in rage, unable to get a word out. It was Baochai who begged Jingui to be reasonable.
"Dear sister-in-law!" sneered Jingui. "You're no longer part of this household. You're living in comfort with that husband of yours, but I'm all on my own -- I needn't care about appearances!"
She threatened to rush out, back to her mother's home. Fortunately there were enough of them there to restrain her and talk her round so that, eventually, she left off storming. But Baoqin was so terrified that she kept out of her way.
Whenever Xue Ke was at home, Jingui would rouge and powder her face, paint her eyebrows, deck her hair and dress up like a vamp. She kept passing his room, coughing deliberately; and though well aware that he was inside, she would make a point of asking who was there. When they met, she would ogle him and ask coyly after his health, simpering and pouting by turns. The maids who saw her hastily scurried away. But disregarding appearances, she set her whole heart on enticing Xue Ke, to carry out Baochan's plan.
Xue Ke did his best to avoid her, but when they happened to meet he made a show of cordiality for fear that otherwise she might make a scene. And Jingui, besotted by her infatuation, indulged in the wildest fantasies which blinded her to his real attitude to her. She noticed, though, that Xue Ke left his things in Xiangling's keeping and that she was the one who washed and made clothes for him; while if Jingui chanced to find them talking together, they hastily parted company. This made her jealous. Not liking to vent her anger on Xue Ke she focused it on Xiangling. But afraid to offend him by quarrelling openly with her, she hid her resentment.
One day Baochan came to her, smiling all over her face.
"Have you seen Master Ke, madam?" she asked.
"No," said Jingui.
"I told you not to believe that strait-laced pose of his," chuckled Baochan. "That time we sent him wine, he said he couldn't drink; but just now I saw him going to see the mistress, red in the face and tipsy. If you don't believe me, wait at our courtyard gate for him to come out. You can intercept him then and challenge him to see what he has to say."
Provoked by this Jingui answered, "He won't be coming out yet a while; and he's such a cold fish, why should I challenge him?"
"That's no way to look at it, madam. If he's well-disposed, we'll know what to do. If not, we'll make other plans."
Convinced by this, Jingui sent her off to keep watch till he came out, then opened her dressing-case and eyed herself in the mirror. Having rouged her lips and selected a flowered silk handkerchief she left her room, rather flustered, as if she had overlooked something.
She heard Baochan outside saying, "You're in high spirits, Master Ke, today. Where have you been drinking?"
Taking her cue, Jingui lifted the portiere and stepped out.
"Today is Mr. Zhang's birthday," Xue Ke was telling Baochan. "They forced me to drink half a goblet. Even now my face is still burning...."
Jingui interposed, "Of course other people's wine tastes better than ours at home!"
At this taunt, Xue Ke blushed even redder. Stepping over quickly he countered with a smile, "How can you say such a thing, sister-in-law!"
Seeing them talking together, Baochan slipped inside.
Jingui had meant to make a show of annoyance, but now his flushed cheeks, sparkling eyes and appealing expression had melted her anger away.
"You mean you were forced to drink?" she asked with a smile.
"Of course. I can't drink," he said.
"It's best not to drink -- much better than landing in trouble through drinking like your cousin, so that when you take a wife she becomes a lonely grass widow like me, poor thing!" She shot him a sidelong glance, blushing as she spoke.
Shocked by these improper advances, Xue Ke decided to leave her; but she forestalled him by seizing hold of him.
"Sister-in-law!" he spluttered, trembling from head to foot. "Remem¬ber who you are!"
"Just come on in," she answered brazenly. "I've something impor¬tant to tell you."
This clash was cut short by the announcement behind them: "Madam! xiangling is here."
With a start Jingui turned to see Baochan watching them from under the raised portiere. She had called out this warning at sight of Xiangling. The shock made Jingui let go of Xue Ke, who took this chance to escape.
Xiangling had not noticed them until Baochan called out. Horrified by the sight of Jingui trying desperately to tug Xue Ke into her room, her heart went pit-a-pat and she wheeled away, leaving Jingui rooted to the spot in furious consternation as she stared after Xue Ke's retreating figure. With a curse she went back to her room then in frustration, and from that day on she hated Xiangling to the marrow of her bones. Xiangling had just passed the inner gate on her way to call on Baoqin when this sight frightened her away.

That same day Baochai, in the Lady Dowager's room, heard Lady Wang tell of Tanchun's marriage proposal.
"It's good that his family comes from our district," the old lady com¬mented. "But you say that boy visited our house -- why didn't your husband mention this before?"
"We didn't know it ourselves at the time," said Lady Wang.
"It's a good match but too far away. Though the master is in the south now, if he gets transferred in future won't the child be lonely there all by herself?"
"We're both official families, with no knowing where the next post will be. Their family may be transferred to the capital. Anyway, 'Leaves that fall return to their root in the end.' As the master's been posted there, and this was proposed by his superior, how can he refuse? I think he must approve, but not presuming to make the decision himself he sent the servant to ask your consent, madam."
"It's all right if you're both willing. But once Tanchun's gone who knows how long it'll be before she can come home. Any later than two or three years and I may never see her again!" She shed tears.
"When our girls grow up we have to marry them off," replied Lady Wang. "Even if the other family's from our own district, we can't be sure of always being together -- unless they're not officials. All we can hope for is that the girls will be happy. Take Yingchun: she's married into a family near by, yet we keep hearing how her husband ill-treats her-sometimes they even give her nothing to eat. And anything we send never reaches her. Recently, they say, it's gone from bad to worse and her in-laws won't let her come home. When she and her husband have words, he jeers that we're in debt to his family. Poor child, never able to hold up her head!
"The other day I was so worried about her, I sent some maids to see her. Yingchun hid herself in a side-room and wouldn't come out. When they insisted on going in they saw that, cold as it was, she was still wear¬ing thin, shabby clothes. With tears in her eyes she pleaded, 'When you go back, don't tell them what a wretched time I'm having; this is my fate. And don't send me clothes or things. I wouldn't get them. Instead, they'd accuse me of complaining and give me another beating.' Just think, madam, because she's close enough for us to know what's going on, when she has a bad time we feel even worse. Not that her mother pays any attention, and her father does nothing either, so poor Yingchun's worse off now than one of our third-grade maids.
"Though Tanchun's not my child, since the master's agreed to this match after seeing the boy, I feel sure it must be all right. So please give your consent, madam, then we'll choose a good day to send her off, well escorted, to join her father. He'll see that everything is done in style."
"Very well, as her father approves, get everything ready and choose a day for setting off on this long journey," said the old lady. "That will be another business settled."
"Very good, madam."
Baochai who had heard all this did not say a word, although inwardly she was lamenting. "Of all the girls in our family she's the best, yet now she's going so far away to get married -- there are fewer and fewer of us here every day."
When Lady Wang rose to leave, she went out with her. Back in her room, she did not tell Baoyu this news; but finding Xiren sewing alone she confided it to her, distressing her too.
But when word reached Concubine Zhao she started gloating. "This daughter of mine has never shown me any respect in this household. She treats me not like her mother but worse than her maids! She sucks up to those who have influence and sides with others against me. With her taking first place, Huan doesn't stand a chance. Now that the master's fetching her away, I'll have a freer hand. I can't expect her to look after me, but only hope she ends up like Yingchun - yes, that would please me.
With these thoughts in mind, she went over as fast as she could to congratulate Tanchun.
"You're going up in the world, miss," she said. "You'll be better off in your husband's home than here; so I've no doubt you're agreeable to this marriage. Though I brought you up, you've not done me any favours. But even if I'm seven-tenths bad, I'm still three-tenths good; so don't forget all about me once you get there.'
Tanchun went on sewing with lowered head throughout this rigma¬role, not saying a word. Finding herself ignored, Concubine Zhao left in dudgeon.
Mixed anger, amusement and grief made Tanchun shed tears when she was alone again. After a while she went off in low spirits to call on Baoyu.
"Third Sister," he said, "I heard that you were there when Cousin Lin died and that, far off in the distance, there was the sound of music. For all we know, she may have been an immortal."
"You're imagining things!" laughed Tanchun. "But there was some¬thing strange about that evening, and it didn't sound like any mortal mu¬sic. Perhaps you're right."
This confirmed Baoyu's belief. He recalled how, when he was out of his mind, an apparition had told him that Daiyu in life was no ordinary mortal, and after death no ordinary spirit. She must have been a goddess come down to earth. This reminded him of the Moon Goddess in an opera he had seen, so lovely, ethereal and charming!
After Tanchun had left, he insisted on having Zijuan to work for them
and at once despatched a maid to ask the old lady to send her.
Zijuan was unwilling to come, but she could only comply with Their Ladyships' orders. In Baoyu's presence, however, she did nothing but exclaim in dismay and sigh. When he quietly took her hand and softly questioned her about Daiyu. she gave him offhand answers. But Baochai did not blame her for this, secretly approving her loyalty to her young mistress.
As for Daiyu's other maids, though Xueyan had helped out at Baoyu's wedding that night, thinking her rather stupid he had asked Their Ladyships to send her away, and she had been married off to one of the servants. Nanny Wang had been kept on to escort Daiyu's coffin back south later on, while Yingge and the other young maids had gone back to work for the Lady Dowager.
Baoyu's grief for Daiyu deepened as it led him to reflect on the dis¬persal of all her attendants. He brooded helplessly till the sudden recol¬lection that she had died fully conscious convinced him that she had re¬turned to the realm of immortal S. His spirits rose again.
Just at that moment, however, he heard Xiren and Baochai discussing Tanchun 5 marriage. With a cry of dismay he threw himself on the kang, sobbing. In alarm they helped him up and asked what was wrong, but he could not speak for tears.
Presently, when he was calmer, he blurted out, "I can't live on like this! All my girl cousins and sisters are leaving one by one. Cousin Lin has become an immortal. First Sister's dead -- but I don't miss her so much, as we weren't always together. Second Sister had married a scoun¬drel. Now Third Sister is going to marry far from home, so we'll never meet again! Where Xiangyun will be going I don't know. And Baoqin is engaged to be married too. Why shouldn't one of them at least stay here? Why leave me all alone?"
Xiren started to reason with him, but Baochai waved her aside.
"It's no use trying to persuade him," she said. "Let me ask him a few questions." Turning to Baoyu she demanded, "Do you expect all these girls to keep you company here to the end of your life, and never to get married? You may have something else in mind for some of them, but how about your own sisters? Never mind whether they leave to marry far away or not; once your father's made the decision, what can you do? Are you the only one in the world who is fond of his cousins and sisters? If everyone were like you, I wouldn't be able to keep you company either. People study to increase their understanding; how is it then that, with you, the more you study the more muddled you get? You talk as if Xiren and I should both go away, so that you can invite all your sisters and cousins here to stay with you."
"I understand," he cried, clutching hold of them both. "But why part so soon? Why not wait till I've turned to ashes?"
Xiren put her hand over his mouth and scolded, "You're talking non¬sense again. The last two days you've just taken a turn for the better, and your young lady's eating a bit more too. If you make another rum-pus, I'll wash my hands of you.
"I know, I know!" cried Baoyu in desperation, aware that they were right. "But my mind's in a ferment."
Baochai ignored him, secretly telling Xiren to give him a sedative and talk him round little by little. Xiren for her part suggested telling Tanchun not to come to take leave of him.
"Why not?" retorted Baochai. "In a few days when his mind's clearer they should have a good talk. After all, his third sister's very sensible, not one of those who just make a pretence of shrewdness. She's bound to give him good advice, so that he doesn't behave like this again."
At this point Yuanyang arrived, sent by the old lady to say that she had heard of Baoyu's relapse and Xiren must comfort him and talk him round
he must stop having foolish fancies. Xiren agreed to this, and not long after that Yuanyang went back.
Soon Tanchun would be setting off on her long journey and, though they did not have to give her a complete dowry, the old lady felt they should provide her with all necessities. She sent for Xifeng, told her the master's decision, and asked her to see to things. Xifeng accepted this task. But to know how she carried it out, read the next chapter.


Chapter 101

A Ghostly Warning Is Given One Moonlit Night
in Grand View Garden
A Fearful Omen Is issued by the Oracle
in Scattering Flowers Temple


On Xifeng's return home, because Jia Lian was still out, she assigned servants to prepare Tanchun's dowry and baggage. After dusk, on the spur of the moment, she decided to call on her accompanied by Fenger and two other young maids, one going in front with a lantern. But when they went out, as the moon had already risen and was casting a shimmering, liquid light, she sent the girl with the lantern back again.
As they passed the window of the boiler house, they heard the babble of voices inside and what sounded like a half tearful half laughing discus¬sion. In annoyance, Xifeng told Xiaohong to go in casually but keep her ears open to find out what the women in there were gossiping about. The girl left them to do her bidding.
Then Xifeng went on with Fenger to the Garden. The gate was closed but not yet locked. They opened it and entered. The moonlight here seemed brighter than outside, the ground was covered with the dark shadows of trees and not a voice could be heard in that lonely stillness. As they made for the path to Autumn Freshness Studio, the soughing wind brought leaves rustling down from the trees on every side, while the creaking of their branches startled the chilly crows roosting there so that they winged off in alarm. Xifeng had been drinking, and this wind made her shiver. Fenger behind her hunched her shoulders too.
"My, it's cold!" she exclaimed.
"Run back and fetch me that sleeveless ermine jacket. I can't stand this," ordered Xifeng. "I'll be waiting for you in Miss Tanchun's place."
The maid agreed with alacrity, eager to go back to put on more clothes herself. She set off at a run.
Xifeng was just walking on when a snuffling and sniffing behind her made her hair stand on end. She turned to look. A creature black as coal was sniffing at her with out-stretched nose, its two eyes shining like lamps. Scared out of her wits, she let out a little scream as she saw that it was a hound. Trailing its bushy tail, the great dog bounded off up a hillock, where it turned and folded its front paws to salute her.
Trembling with fright she hurried on towards Autumn Freshness Stu¬dio, and was passing some rocks near its gate when a shadowy figure flitted in front of her. She wondered which apartment this maid belonged to.
"Who's there?" she called out.
No one answered even when she repeated the question, and she was frightened out of her wits. Then, indistinctly, she heard a voice behind her:
"Aunty, don't you recognize me?"
She swung round to see a pretty, well-dressed young woman who looked extremely familiar, though she could not identify her.
"Aunty," the other continued, "you're so set on enjoying wealth and luxury, you've thrown to the winds my advice to you that year to lay a foundation that will last for ever.
Xifeng lowered her head to think, but could riot for the life of her place this young woman.
"Aunty, you used to be so fond of me, how is it that now you've forgotten me completely?" the other asked her with a cynical laugh.
Only then did Xifeng realize that this was Jia Rong's first wife Qin Keqing.
"Mercy!" she exclaimed. "You're dead -- how did you get here?"
She spat at the apparition and turned to run, but tripped over a stone and fell down, drenched with sweat as if awakening from a nightmare. Though convulsed with fear, she was clear enough in her mind to see the blurred figures of Fenger and Xiaohong approaching. Not wanting to be laughed at, she scrambled up.
"What have you been doing that kept you so long?" she asked. "Hurry up and help me into that jacket."
Fenger came over to do this, after which Xiaohong took Xifeng's arm to help her forward.
"I've just been there and they're all asleep," Xifeng prevaricated. "Let's go back." With that she hurried home with her two maids.
By this time Jia Lian had returned, and she saw from his worried face that he was not his usual self. Though tempted to ask what was wrong, knowing his temper she refrained and simply went to bed.
The next day Jia Lian rose at dawn, meaning to call on the chief eunuch Qiu Shian who was in charge of the Audience Hall, to find out what news there was. As it was too early to leave, he picked up from the desk a copy of the Court Gazette delivered the previous day and started to read it.
The first item was a report from Wang Zhong, Governor of Yunnan, that eighteen felons had been apprehended in an attempt to smuggle muskets and gun-powder over the frontier. The ringleader Bao Yin was a servant in the household of Jia Hua, Duke of Zhenguo and Senior Impe¬rial Tutor.
He then read the second item. Li Xiao, Prefect of Suzhou, had im¬peached a man for condoning the crimes of one of his stewards, who had bullied soldiers as well as civilians, and had killed a chaste wife and two others of the family after failing to rape her. The culprit, Shi Fu, admitted that he served the family of Jia Fan who had a third-rank hereditary title. These two items made Jia Lian uneasy.
He wanted to read on, but feared that might make him too late to see Qiu Shian; so putting on formal clothes and not stopping for breakfast, he took two sips of the tea Pinger had just brought in, then went out, mounted his horse and rode off. Pinger put away the clothes out of which he had changed.
Xifeng was still in bed, and Pinger suggested, "I heard you tossing and turning during the night. Let me massage you now so that you can have a good nap."
Construing Xifeng's silence as consent, Pinger sat on the kang be¬side her and pummelled her gently. Xifeng was dozing off when the cries of her small daughter in the next room made her open her eyes again.
Pinger called out, "Nanny Li, what are you doing? If baby cries, you should pat her. What a glutton for sleep you are!"
Nanny Li, waking up with a start, was annoyed by this scolding. She gave Qiaojie several hard spanks.
"Die and be done with it, you little wretch!" she grumbled. "Why don't you sleep? Is your mother dead that you're wailing like this in the middle of the night?" Grinding her teeth, she pinched the child so that she burst out howling.
"This is the limit!" cried Xifeng. "Listen to the way she's taking it out on the child! Go and wham that black-hearted bitch, and bring Qiaojie in here."
"Don't be angry, madam," said Pinger. "She wouldn't dare. I ex¬pect she bumped into her by accident. If I were to give her a few whacks, they'd start accusing us behind our backs of beating people at midnight."
Xifeng was silent for some time, then she sighed, "Look what hap¬pens while I'm still alive and kicking. If I die tomorrow what will become of this imp?"
"What a way to talk, madam!" chuckled Pinger. "First thing in the morning too."
"You don't understand." Xifeng gave a cynical laugh. "I know I shan't last very long. Though I've lived only twenty-five years, I've seen and tasted things not given to others to see or taste, and had the best of food and clothing as well as of all the good things in this world. I've vented my spite fully too, and done enough others down. So if I'm a bit short on 'longevity' what does it matter?"
At this, Pinger's eyes brimmed with tears.
"Don't put on that soft-hearted act," scoffed Xifeng. "Once I'm dead, the two of you will be only too pleased. You can live in peace and harmony, without me as a thorn in your side. All I ask of you, come what may, is to take good care of my child."
Pinger was weeping now.
"Don't be such a fool," jeered Xifeng. "I'm not dying yet a while. Why start mourning so early? Are you trying to hasten my death with your wailing?"
Pinger hastily dried her eyes.
"It's the way you talk, madam, that upset me," she said, then went on massaging her until Xifeng dropped off.
Pinger had no sooner got down from the kang than she heard footsteps outside. For Jia Lian had left too late to see the chief eunuch, who had gone to court. And so he had come back in a bad temper.
"Are they still not up?" he asked Pinger.
"Not yet," she said.
He came in, banging the portiere behind him. "Fine!" he swore. "Not up at this hour, just to make things more difficult for me!"
He called for tea, and she promptly poured him a cup. But the maids had gone back to bed after Jia Lian went out, not expecting him home so quickly, and had therefore not prepared tea; so what Pinger brought him was not freshly brewed. In a fury he raised the bowl and -- crash! smashed it to smithereens.
Xifeng, startled from sleep, woke up in a cold sweat. She opened her eyes and gave a cry of dismay at sight of her husband sitting there in a rage while Pinger stooped to pick up the broken pieces.
"Why are you back so soon?" she asked.
She waited in vain for an answer and then repeated the question.
"Don't you want me back?" he bellowed. "Want me to die out¬side?"
"Why talk like that?" she said gently. "You don't usually come back so quickly, that's why I asked. You've no call to lose your temper."
"Since I didn't find him, why shouldn't I come straight back?" he bellowed again.
"If you didn't find him, you'll just have to be patient and go earlier tomorrow; then he'll be in."
"Why should I run errands for other people?" he roared. "I've plenty of work of my own here, with no one lifting a finger to help; yet for no reason at all I've had to run right and left for other people. Why the hell should I? The ones in hot water are taking it easy at home, not giving a -damn; and I hear they're laying on feasts and operas to celebrate some birthday with gonging and drumming! Why should I run these pointless errands for them?" He spat in disgust and swore at Pinger again.
Xifeng swallowed her anger and, on second thoughts, refrained from arguing with him.
"Why get so worked up?" she said, forcing a smile. "Why yell at me like that first thing in the morning? Who told you to take on jobs for other People? Since you have, you must just have patience and do as they ask. It's news to me that anyone in trouble should feel in the mood for feasts and operas.
“That's what you say! Tomorrow you can ask him."
"Ask whom?" she exclaimed in surprise.
"Whom? Your brother!"
"Is he the one you've been talking about?"
"Of course. Who else?"
"What business is it that he wants you to see to for him?" she de¬manded hastily.
"Are you still in the dark?"
"This is really very strange! I haven't heard a word."
"How could you hear? Even the mistress and Aunt Xue haven't heard. Because I didn't want to worry them, and because you're always com¬plaining of bad health, I hushed the business up outside and didn't let the family know either. The mere mention of this really makes me livid! If you hadn't asked me today, I couldn't very well have told you. You may think that brother of yours a gentleman; but do you know what people outside call him?"
"What do they call him?"
"Wang Ren (忘仁 -- forgetting humanity)
She burst out laughing. "Of course, that's his name - Wang Ren (王仁).”
"It's not the Wang Ren you think, but the Wang Ren meaning that he's lost all sense of decency and propriety."
"What backbiters have been slandering him like that?"
"It isn't slander. I may as well tell you now, because you ought to know what your fine brother's like. It's your second uncle's birthday he's celebrating - did you know that?"
Xifeng thought for a second, then exclaimed, "Oh! But tell me -isn't his birthday in the winter? I remember it was Baoyu who went every year. When the master was promoted, second uncle sent an opera troupe to perform here, and I told the family in confidence, 'Second uncle's very tight-fisted, not like our elder uncle. The two families keep bickering over money. When our elder uncle died, didn't his younger brother try to grab his property?' That's why I advised them, when his birthday came round, to pay back the opera so that we wouldn't be beholden to him. But what's the idea, celebrating his birthday in advance this year?"
"You're still in the dark," said Jia Lian. "As soon as your brother came to the capital, he held a requiem for your elder uncle. For fear that we might stop him, he didn't tell us; and he made thousands of taels out of the donations. Later, your second uncle bawled him out for grabbing the whole lot. Then, under pressure, he thought up another trick. He's invited guests on the pretext that it's second uncle's birthday, fishing for more money from them to pacify him. What does he care whether it's summer or winter, or whether relatives and friends know the date of the birthday or not? That's how shameless he is!
"Do you know why I got up so early? The censors have investigated the business by the coast and discovered a deficit during your elder uncle's term of office. As he's dead, his younger brother Wang Zisheng and his nephew Wang Ren have to make it good. In desperation, the two of them come to enlist my help; and because they looked scared stiff, and be¬cause they're related to you and our mistress, I agreed. I wanted to get Old Qiu who's in charge of the inner court to fix it up by transferring the deficit to some earlier or later account. Unfortunately I got there too late, after he'd gone to the Palace. So I went to all that trouble for nothing. But your brother's still ordering operas and giving feasts. Isn't that mad¬dening?"
Although Xifeng knew that Wang Ren was in the wrong, it was not her way to admit it.
"Whatever he's like, he's your brother-in-law," she said. "Besides, both the elder uncle who's dead and the second uncle who's alive should be grateful for what you're doing. It goes without saying that as this is our Wang family business, I must beg you humbly to help; otherwise other people will get blamed on my account and curse me behind my back."
In tears, she threw back her bedding and sat up, gathering her hair into a loose knot and slipping on some clothes.
"You don't have to take on like that," said Jia Lian. "It's your brother who'5 so disgusting. I didn't blame you. When I was out and you were poorly, these maids were still sleeping even after I was up -- since when has that been the rule in our family? You let it go, to show how kind¬hearted you are. When I say a word against someone, you get up. If I find fault with them tomorrow, will you take all the blame on yourself? This is so pointless!"
"It's high time for me to get up now," answered Xifeng, drying her eyes. "If that's how you feel, I'll be grateful if you'll fix things up for them. Not only for my sake either. When the mistress hears about it, she'll be pleased too."
"All right. I know. You don't have to teach me that."
"Why get up so early, madam?" asked Pinger. "Don't you have a fixed time for getting up every day? Master Lian's in a bad temper over something and taking it out on u~ That's just too bad!" She turned to challenge him, "Madam's done enough for you, hasn't she, always bearing the brunt for you? It's not my place to say this, sir, but you've taken advantage of her all this time, and it's not much you're doing for her now -- not just for her sake either  yet you make such a song and dance about it. Don't you mind hurting her feelings?
"Besides, you can't pin this on her. If we get up late, you've a right to be angry with us -- after all, we're only slaves. But madam's ruined her health by wearing herself out. Why treat her so unkindly?" She was on the verge of tears.
Jia Lian had been bursting with rage, but he was floored by these sharp yet gentle reproaches from his lovely wife and beautiful concubine.
"All right, all right!" he laughed. "She's quite enough for me to cope with, without your taking her side. Anyway I'm not wanted here: the sooner I die the better off you'll be."
"Don't talk like that," Xifeng retorted. "Who knows what will hap¬pen? I may die before you. The earlier I do, the sooner I'll have some peace." She wept again, and Pinger had to console her.
By now the sun was shining through the window and Jia Lian, having no more to say, rose and left. Xifeng had just got up to make her toilet when a young maid came in with a message from Lady Wang:
"The mistress wants to know whether you're going to call on your uncle, madam. If you are, she'd like you to take Madam Bao along."
Xifeng was depressed after her husband's disclosure and resented the way her family had let her down; on top of which she really felt very limp after her fright the night before in the Garden.
"Tell Her Ladyship I still have one or two things to attend to, so I can't go today," was her answer. "Besides, it isn't an important occa¬sion. If Madam Bao wants to go, she can go by herself."
The girl assented and went back to report this.
After Xifeng had finished her toilet, she reflected that even if she did not go she ought to send some message; besides, Baochai, still a new bride, should be accompanied if she paid a visit. So she went to see Lady Wang, then made some excuse to look in on Baoyu. She found him lying fully dressed on the kang, raptly watching Baochai as she combed her hair. Baochai was the first to see Xifeng in the doorway. She hastily rose to offer her a seat, and Baoyu got down from the kang. Xifeng seated herself with a smile.
"Why didn't you announce Madam Lian?" Baochai scolded Sheyue.
"As soon as she came in, she signed to us to keep quiet," the maid replied with a smile.
Xifeng asked Baoyu, "Why are you still here? You're grown up now, yet you still behave like a child. Do you have to stick around watching her doing her hair? Together all day long, don't you see enough of each other? Aren't you afraid the maids will make fun of you?" She laughed and smacked her lips.
Baoyu, though rather sheepish, paid no attention. Baochai blushed all over her face, feeling she should not let this pass but not knowing what to say. At this point Xiren brought in tea, and to hide her confusion Baochai passed their guest a tobacco-pipe, which Xifeng stood up to accept with a smile.
"Never mind us, sister," she said. "Hurry up and get dressed."
Baoyu, too, tried to pass off his embarrassment by rummaging around. "You go on ahead," Xifeng urged him. "Who ever heard of gentle¬men waiting to go with the ladies?"
"I just feel these clothes I'm wearing aren't very good, not up to that peacock-feather cape the old lady gave me that year."
"Why don't you wear it then?" she asked mockingly.
"It's too early in the season.
Thus reminded, Xifeng regretted having spoken. Luckily Baochai was related to the Wangs, still she felt rather put out in front of the maids.
But then Xiren interposed, "You don't realize, madam, that he wouldn't wear it even if the weather was cold."
"Why not?" asked Xifeng.
"Because our young master's behaviour is really fantastic. That year the old lady gave him this cape to wear on your second uncle's birthday, but that very same day he burnt it. My mother was very ill, so I was away; but Sister Qingwen was still here at the time. Though she was unwell, I heard she sat up all night mending it for him, so that the next day the old lady didn't notice the burn. One cold day last year when he was going to school, I told Beiming to take that cape for him, but the sight of it reminded him of Qingwen and he said he'd never wear it again. He told me to keep it for him all his life...."
"Speaking of Qingwen," Xifeng cut in, "it really was a shame! She was a pretty child with clever hands, only rather sharp-tongued. It was too bad that the mistress heard some rumour which cost the girl her life.
"That reminds me: I noticed one day that Wuer, the daughter of Mrs. Liu in the kitchen, was the image of Qingwen, and I decided to take her on. When I asked her mother she was only too willing. Then it occurred to me that since Hongyu had left Baoyu service for mine, I ought to give him Wuer in exchange; but Pinger told me the mistress had given orders that no girl looking like Qingwen was to work in Baoyu's place. So I dropped the idea. However, now that he's married what does it matter? I'd better tell her to come -- that is, if Baoyu would like it. If he misses Qingwen, he can look at this Wuer instead."
Baoyu who was on his way out stopped when he heard this.
Xiren answered for him, "Of course he would like it. He wanted to get her here long ago, only the mistress was so strongly against it."
"In that case I'll send her over tomorrow," said Xifeng, "I can square it with the mistress."
Baoyu, delighted by this, went to call on his grandmother while Baochai got dressed.
Baoyu's obvious affection for Baochai upset Xifeng when she con¬trasted it with Jia Lian's behaviour to her earlier on. Not wanting to stay there, she stood up and suggested to Baochai, "Let's go to see the mistress.
They went off cheerfully together to call on the old lady, and found Baoyu there explaining that he was going out to visit his uncle.
The old lady nodded. "Go along then," she said. "But don't drink too much, and come home early. You're only just over your illness."
Baoyu assented and left, coming back again from the courtyard to whisper a few words in Baochai's ear.
"All right," she replied with a smile. "Off you go now." She urged him to hurry.
The old lady chatted with Xifeng and Baochai until, presently, Qiuwen came in to say, "Master Bao has sent Beiming back with a message for Madam Bao."
"Has he forgotten something again?" Baochai wondered. "Why send his page back?"
"I told one of the girls to ask Beiming," Qiuwen answered. "He said, 'Master Bao forgot to tell Madam Bao this, so he sent me back with the message: If she's going, she'd better go soon; if not, she mustn't stand too long in a draught."
The old lady, Xifeng, the serving-women and maids all burst out laughing at this.
Baochai, flushing crimson, spat in disgust at Qiuwen. "You silly crea¬ture!" she scolded. "Bursting in so wildly just to tell us this!"
Qiuwen went off, giggling, to tell the girl outside to curse Beiming.
He ran off, calling back over his shoulder, "Master Bao insisted that I must dismount and bring back this message. If he found out I hadn't delivered it, he'd have sworn at me. Now I've been sworn at all the same just for doing as I was told!"
The girl laughed and ran back to report this.
"Off you go then," said the old lady to Baochai. "That'll stop him from worrying about you."
Baochai hardly knew which way to look, with Xifeng teasing her too. She left in a fluster.
Just then, Abbess Daliao of Scattering Flowers Temple arrived. Having paid her respects to the Lady Dowager and Xifeng, she sat down and had some tea.
“Why haven't you been to see us for so long?" the old lady asked her.
"These days we've been having sacrifices in our temple," said the abbess. "We had visits too from several noble ladies, so I didn't find time before. I've come today specially, Old Ancestress, to let you know that tomorrow we are holding another mass. If you'd care to join us, it would be a little outing for you.”
The old lady asked the nature of the mass.
"Last month evil spirits appeared in the Wang mansion, contaminating it," the abbess explained. "One night Madam Wang saw the ghost of her dead husband; so yesterday she came to our temple saying that she wanted to offer incense to the Flower-Scattering Saint and to have sacrifices made for forty-nine days to ensure the family peace, so that the dead may ascend to Heaven and the living enjoy good fortune. This is what kept me from coming to pay my respects before."
Xifeng normally had no patience with such proceedings, but since seeing a ghost the night before she had been filled with misgivings. This had changed her attitude, making her inclined to believe what the abbess said.
She asked, "Who is this Flower-Scattering Saint? How can he ward off evil and exorcise devils?"
Seeing that she was open to conviction, the abbess said, "Since you ask, madam, let me tell you. This saint's extraordinary powers are deep-founded. He was born in the Country of Great Trees in the Western Paradise. His parents were woodcutters. He came into the world with three horns on his head and four eyes, eight feet in height, with arms reaching to the ground. Because his parents thought he was a monster, they abandoned him behind the Icy Mountain. But an old monkey there with magic powers, coming out in search of food, saw a white vapour rising from this saint's head and noticed that tigers and wolves kept away from him. He knew then that this was no ordinary child, so carried him back to his cave and brought him up. Now this saint had been born so quick of understanding, he was able to discuss the Way and Buddhism with the monkey. They did this every day, until flowers rained down from the skies.
"A thousand years later the saint ascended to Heaven. But even now on the mountain you can see the place where he expounded the canons, scattering flowers. All prayers to him are granted, and he often manifests his divinity by saving those in distress. That is why this temple was built and offerings are made to his image."
"What proof have you of this?" Xifeng wanted to know.
"You're cavilling again, madam! What proof is needed? If this were false it could only fool one or two people. How could so many people with good sense have been fooled from old times till now? Just think, madam, the reason why Buddhist sacrifices have been made throughout the centuries is because they have proved efficacious in safeguarding the country and enriching the people -- that's why men believe in them."
Convinced by this reasoning, Xifeng replied, "In that case, I'll go tomorrow and try. Do you have divination lots in your temple? I'd like to draw one. If it solves my problem, I shall become a believer!"
"Our lots are infallible," Daliao assured her. "You'll know that when you draw one tomorrow, madam."
"Better wait till the day after that - the first of the month," said the old lady.
When Daliao had finished her tea, she went to pay her respects to Lady Wang and those in other apartments, after which she returned to the temple.
Xifeng bore up as best she could till the morning of the first; then she ordered a carriage and horses to be made ready and, attended by many servants, went with Pinger to the temple. Daliao came out at the head of all the nuns to welcome her; and after tea had been served, Xifeng washed her hands and entered the main hall to offer incense. In no mood to gaze at the image, she kowtowed devoutly and picked up the bamboo con¬tainer holding the lots. First she offered up a silent prayer about the appa¬rition and her bad health, then she shook the container three times. A bamboo slip shot out. With another kowtow she picked it up and saw the inscription: "Number 33. Most auspicious."
Daliao looked up that number in the oracle book and found the entry: 'Wang Xifeng returns home in splendour."
In amazement Xifeng asked her, "Was there another Wang Xifeng in olden times?"
Daliao answered with a smile, "Why, madam, with your broad knowl¬edge of past and present, haven't you heard the story of how Wang Xifeng of the Han Dynasty found an official post?"
Zhou Rui's wife beside them chuckled, "The other year, we wouldn't let that story-teller, Mrs. Li, tell this story because that was your name, madam."
"That's right," agreed Xifeng. "I had forgotten."
She then read the words below:
The one who for a score of years left home
Now in fine raiment will return again.
The honey culled from blossoms by the bee
	Is seized by others -- all its toil is vain.
The traveller arrives.
Word comes too late.
Settle the lawsuit.
Reconsider the match.
Xifeng could not make much of this, but the abbess cried, "Congratu¬lations, madam! What a coincidence! You have been here since child¬hood, never going back to Nanjing. Now that His Lordship has a provin¬cial post he may send for his family, which will give you a chance to return in splendour' as the oracle says." While speaking she had copied out the prediction and handed it to the maid.
Xifeng was still only half convinced. When Daliao served her a meal, she simply toyed with the food then made ready to leave, first donating some silver for incense, and the abbess could not prevail on her to stay longer.
When she reached home, the old lady and Lady Wang asked what the oracle had said. Once it had been explained to them they were delighted.
"The master may really have such a plan!" they exclaimed. "It would make a pleasant trip for us.
As one and all said this, Xifeng too accepted this interpretation.
When Baoyu woke from his siesta that day, Baochai was not in the room; but before he could ask her whereabouts she came in.
“Where have you been all this time?" he wanted to know.
"I was explaining an oracle for Cousin Xifeng," she told him with a smile.
He asked her what it had been and she read it out to him.
"Everyone declares it's a good omen," she told him. "But I think 'returns home in splendour may mean something else. Well, time will show."
"You're too sceptical, trying to twist the saint's meaning," he pro¬tested. "Everybody has always known that this is a good omen. Why read some other meaning into it? How else would you explain it any¬way?"
Before Baochai could tell him, a maid came from Lady Wang to sum¬mon her and she had to go over at once. To know the reason for this summons, read the next chapter.


Chapter 102

Powers of Darkness Derange the Inmates
of the Ning Mansion
Priests Exorcise Evil Spirits
in Grand View Garden



Summoned by Lady Wang, Baochai hurried over to pay her respects to her.
"Tanchun is going to be married," her mother-in-law said. "As her sister-in-law, you should give her some good advice to show your affec¬tion. After all, she's an intelligent child too, and I know how well both of you get on together. But I hear the news of her marriage set Baoyu crying bitterly -- you should reason with him as well.
"These days I'm constantly ailing, and Xifeng is unwell three days out of five. As you have good sense you ought to take things in hand, not holding back for fear of giving offence. In future you'll be responsible for this whole household."
"Yes, madam."
"Another thing," continued Lady Wang. "Your sister-in-law Xifeng brought Mrs. Liu's daughter here yesterday and said, as you're one maid short, the girl's to join your staff."
"Pinger brought her over just now, saying that both you and Xifeng had agreed to it, madam."
"Yes, Xifeng proposed it to me and I raised no objection -- I could hardly turn her down. Only, judging by the look in that girl's eyes, she's not the kind to keep quiet. I dismissed some of Baoyu's maids before because they were such vixens; but of course you know that -- that was why you moved out of the Garden. Now with you here things are different. I'm telling you just so that you'll be on the look-out. The only reliable girl in your place is Xiren."
Baochai expressed agreement and after a little more chat she took her leave. After her meal, she called on Tanchun and they had a good heart-to-heart talk which we need not record in detail.
The next day before setting off on her journey, Tanchun came to say goodbye to Baoyu who was, of course, most reluctant to see her go. She held forth, however, on the moral principles governing human relations and, though at first he hung his head in silence, he gradually brightened up and showed signs of seeing sense. Then, relieved in her mind, she bade farewell to the whole household, mounted her sedan-chair and set off to journey south by boat and by carriage.
Formerly all the girls had stayed in Grand View Garden; but after the Imperial Consort's death the place was not kept up. By the time of Baoyu's marriage and Daiyu's death, as Xiangyun had also left and Baoqin had moved home very few people remained there. Then, when the weather grew colder, Li Wan and her cousins as well as Tanchun and Xichun moved back to their former quarters, only returning sometimes by com¬mon consent to enjoy the flowers and moonlight. Now that Tanchun had gone and Baoyu was staying indoors to recuperate, there were even fewer pleasure-seekers left. So the Garden was very quiet, with only a few caretakers in residence.
After Madam You had gone over to see Tanchun off that day, as it was already dark and she did not want to take a carriage, she decided to walk through the side-gate which had been made in the Garden to give access to the Ning Mansion. She found the place desolate, its pavilions and lodges deserted, with vegetables growing in the former flower-beds. The sight filled her with nostalgia.
By the time she reached home she had a slight fever and, after bear¬ing up for a couple of days, she had to take to her bed. During the day¬time she was not too feverish, but at night her temperature shot up and she became delirious. The doctor summoned by Jia Zhen to attend her diagnosed a chill which had upset her digestion, making her delirious and subject to delusions. A bowel movement should set her right.
However, two doses of medicine failed to cure her - she raved more wildly than ever. In his anxiety Jia Zhen sent for Jia Rong.
"Find out what other good doctors there are outside and ask some of them here to see her," he ordered his son.
"This doctor we had is the best-known," was the answer. "Maybe my mother's illness is one that medicine can't cure."
"Nonsense! Stop giving her medicine, just leaving her to get over it herself?"
"That's not what I meant, sir. But the other day, when she went to the West Mansion, she came back through the Garden and as soon as she got home she had this fever, so something there may have put a jinx on her. There's a very good diviner here from the south, a man called Mao Banxian. Why not ask him here to consult him? If it seems that's what happened, we'll follow his advice. If it doesn't work, we can look for other good doctors."
Jia Zhen immediately sent to invite this man. He was offered a seat in his study and served with tea.
"You sent for me, sir," the diviner said to Jia Rong. "What do you want me to prognosticate?"
"My mother is ill. We'd like you to divine the reason.
"In that case," said Mao, "bring me clean water to wash my hands and set incense on the table. I'll see what I can do."
When the servants had done as he asked, he took out from his pocket a bamboo tube and, stepping forward, made a reverent bow.
He shook the tube, intoning, "The Yin and Yang of the Primal Order have interacted; sacred symbols have appeared with infinite changes; divine manifestations must answer the prayers of the pious.
"Now here is a devout gentleman named Jia whose mother is ill. We piously beseech the four great sages Fu Xi, King Wen, the Duke of Zhou and Confucius to hear our supplication, that manifestations may appear for the faithful and bad or good fortune be truthfully predicted. First vouch¬safe the three inner signs."
He emptied three coins from the tube on to a plate, then announced, "A true manifestation: the first toss shows three obverses."
Then he picked up the coins and poured them out again. The second toss was two obverses and one reverse, the third another three obverses.
Picking up these coins he intoned, "Now the inner signs have been revealed; we vouchsafe the three outer signs to make up the answer."
These came out as two obverses and one reverse for the first toss, two reverses and one obverse for the second, while the third was the same as the first.
Thereupon Mao Banxian put away the tube and the coins and re¬sumed his seat.
"Please sit down while I study this carefully," he said. "This is an irrelevant diagram. The third sign indicates plundering of brothers and certain misfortune. But since you are asking about your honourable mother's illness, it is the first sign that counts; and in that parents' sign there is a hostile ghost. The fifth sign shows another ghost; hence I fear your mother's illness is quite serious.
"However, there is a compensating factor, namely that the water ele¬ment is now in the ascendant, and next comes wood which leads in turn to fire. Then there is a progeny sign which subdues ghosts. Besides, in another two days the water will subside and all will be well.
"But I fear from the ghost in the parents' sign that your father's health may be affected too. The manifestations also show serious con¬tradictions and destruction, and there will be trouble when water is in the ascendant and earth is weak." With this he sat down, thrusting forward his goatee.
Jia Rong had at first been laughing up his sleeve at this rigmarole, but now he felt there might be something in it and in this prediction that his father would fall ill too.
"This is brilliantly divined, sir," he said. "But what caused my mother's illness?"
"The signs indicate fire counteracted by water, therefore it must be a case of a cold congestion combined with a hot humour. Even divination by milfoil would be unable to determine this more clearly -- for that you would need to resort to the method of the Duodecimal Cycle."
"Are you expert in that too, sir?"
"I know something about it."
Jia Rong asked him to demonstrate and gave him the two-hour period. Then Mao Banxian drew a board, set the deities in due order and found that it was the hour of the White Tiger.
"This is called the 'dissolution of animal spirits,"' he said. "White tigers are evil. When controlled by a spirit in the ascendant they cannot run amok; but now that disaster has befallen the house, at a time of misfortune and death, tigers grow ravenous and must prey on people. The portent acquired this name because animal spirits dissipate when alarmed.
"This sign indicates the loss of animal spirits attended by deaths, sick¬nesses and alarms. Since, according to the portent, tigers appear at dusk, she must have been taken ill in the evening. It also says, 'All who cast this lot must have a tiger spirit lurking in an old house to cause trouble. It may take form and utter sounds.' You asked to have your parents' for¬tunes told, sir. This coincides with the saying that a tiger appearing in the daytime harries men, seen at night it harries women. This is very omi¬nous!"
Before Jia Rong had heard him out he was pale with fright. "No doubt, sir," he agreed. "But this doesn't altogether accord with that other prediction. Just how serious is it?"
"Don't panic. Let me study it carefully again." He lowered his head and muttered to himself for a while.
"Good!" he cried presently. "There is hope. I have worked out that a noble spirit will come to the rescue. This sign is known as the 'dissolution of the sentient soul with the return of the spiritual soul.' Anxiety will be followed by joy. All will be well, but you must take precautions."
Jia Rong presented him with his fee and saw him out.
He then reported to Jia Zhen, "Mother caught this illness in the old house at dusk, when she met a white tiger spirit."
"You told me that the other day your mother came back through the Garden; she must have run into it there. Remember how your aunt Xifeng fell ill after going to the Garden? Though she didn't see anything herself, later on all the maids and nurses with her declared they had seen a furry creature on a rock with eyes as big as lanterns, and able to speak. It drove her back, making her fall ill from fright."
"Yes, I remember," replied Jia Rong. "I also heard from Uncle Bao's page Mingyan that Qingwen had become the Spirit of the Hibiscus in the Garden, and that after Miss Lin died music sounded high above, so she must have been put in charge of some flowers there too. What a dreadful thing -- all those monsters in the Garden! Before, with all those people coming and going and the place so full of life, it didn't matter. But now it's very lonely, and when my mother went there she may have trodden on some flowers or had some jinx put on her. So it seems the divination was correct."
"Did he say there was any danger?" asked Jia Zhen.
'According to him, in another two days she'll be better -- but I hope it doesn't all happen as he predicted."
"What do you mean?"
"If that fortune-teller was right, sir, I'm afraid you'll be out of sorts too."
Just then, someone called out from the inner quarters, "The mistress wants to get up and go over to the Garden. Her maids can't stop her!"
Her husband and son went in to pacify her.
"The one in red's calling me! The one in green's hurrying me!" Madam You was raving.
All present were both frightened and amused. Jia Zhen sent to buy paper money to burn in the Garden. And, sure enough, that night she sweated and calmed down, while after another two days she gradually recovered.
This story spread until everyone was talking of the devils in the Gar¬den, and the servants in charge there were too scared to cut flowers, prune tress or water the vegetables. At first, they dared not venture out at night, so that birds and beasts ran wild; then, even in the daytime, they would only go there in groups and armed with weapons.
Later, indeed, Jia Zhen also fell ill, but instead of consulting a doctor or taking medicine he made certain vows and had paper money burnt in the Garden and prayers offered to the stars. No sooner had he recovered than Jia Rong and the others fell ill in turn. This went on for several months, so that both households were appalled -- the sough of the wind and the cry of cranes caused panic, while people saw monsters in each tree or tuft of grass. As all income from the Garden stopped, the monthly expenses of different compounds increased and the Rong Mansion was harder pressed for money. The servants in the Garden, eager to leave the place, kept making up stories and stirring up trouble with their tales of flower spirits and tree monsters. So finally the Garden gate was sealed up and no one dared to go there any more. The fine towers, pavilions, lodges and terraces were each and all taken over by birds and beasts.
Now Qingwen's cousin Wu Gui lived just outside the Garden gate. Since Qingwen's death and the story that she had turned into a flower spirit, his wife dared not go out at night. One day she had a cold and took the wrong medicine while Wu Gui was out shopping, so that on his return late that evening he found her dead on the kang. Outsiders, knowing her bad reputation, claimed that a monster had climbed over the wall to enjoy her until she died of exhaustion.
The old lady, scandalized by this talk, posted guards outside Baoyu's house who sounded the watch as they patrolled in turn. And these young maids alleged that they had seen a red-faced figure as well as a ravishing beauty, raising such a ceaseless commotion that Baoyu went in terror every day. Luckily, Baochai had sense and she managed to curb these rumours to some extent by threatening to beat any maids whom she heard talking wildly. Still, all who lived there were so apprehensive that they hired extra watchmen, adding to the household's expenses.
Jia She alone was sceptical.
"How could there be monsters in such a fine garden?" he scoffed.
Choosing a fine sunny day and ignoring the others' warnings, he led a troop of armed servants to investigate.
Inside the Garden there was indeed a sinister atmosphere. Jia She braced himself to proceed, while his followers flinched with fear. One young servant, already afraid, heard a whizzing noise and looked round to see a gaudy creature fly past. With a cry of terror, his legs gave way and he fell down. Jia She turned to ask what had happened.
"I saw a monster!" gasped the boy. "Yellow in the face with a red beard, dressed in green. It flew into a cave behind the trees."
Shaken by this, Jia She asked, "Did the rest of you see it?"
Some servants seized this chance to chime in, "Yes, we did, sir. But as you were ahead, we didn't like to alarm you. So we kept quiet about it. We slaves can control ourselves."
Afraid to go any further, Jia She beat a hasty retreat, instructing the servants not to mention this but to say that a thorough search of the Garden had revealed nothing amiss. At heart, however, he believed the boy's story and decided to go to the Taoist Patriarch to invite some priests to exorcise evil spirits. And when they saw his fear, those servants who never let slip a chance to make trouble not only did not hush it up but embroidered on the story, so that all who heard it gaped in consternation.
Jia She felt he had no choice but to call in Taoists to exorcise the spirits haunting the Garden. An auspicious day was selected, and on the altar set up in the Hall of Reunion were placed the images of the Three Taoist Gods with, beside them, the Twenty-eight Constellations, the Four Great Generals Ma, Zhao, Wen and Zhou and, below these, the Thirty-six Heavenly Officers. Incense, flowers, lamps and candles filled the hall, on either side of which were ranged bells, drums and other scared vessels, as well as five flags denoting north, south, east, west and centre. The Board of Taoist Sacrifices sent forty-nine attendants who spent a whole day purifying the altar. Then three high priests offered incense and sprinkled water, after which the sacred drum was beaten. The priests wore seven-star chaplets, nine-coloured robes with Eight Diagrams de¬signs, and cloud-ascending sandals. Holding ivory wands, they presented a memorial begging the gods to descend.
Then for a whole day they chanted the Primal Void Canon to wipe out evil spirits and bring good fortune. This done, they issued the order to summon the heavenly generals. On it was written in large characters, "The Grand Monad, using the holy signs of the Three Sacred Realms, convokes all the deities of these realms to the altar for service.
The masters and the men-servants of both mansions had gone to the Garden that day to watch the priests catch monsters.
"What an impressive order!" they commented. "This commotion to summon heavenly generals here should frighten any number of monsters away."
They crowded round the altar to watch the acolytes raising flags and taking up their positions north, south, east, west and centre to await or¬ders. Next, the three high priests took their places before the altar, the first holding a sword and pitcher of holy water, the second the seven-¬starred black flag, and the third the peach-wood rod for beating mon¬sters. As soon as the music stopped, the magic tablet was rapped three times and they chanted incantations while the acolytes with their flags circled round them. Then the high priests, leaving the altar, made mem¬bers of the family lead them to the various pavilions, lodges, rocks and streams so that they could sprinkle them with holy water and brandish the sword at each. Returning, they rapped the tablet again several times and raised high the seven-starred flag. Next, the priests held the flags to¬gether and the rod beat the air three times.
The onlookers, sure that by now the monsters must have been caught, pressed forward to see them; but there was no sign of them. They saw nothing but the high priests sending for a bottle in which to imprison the monsters, and when this had been sealed up they wrote a charm in ver¬milion on the seal, then put the bottle away with instructions that later it should be taken back and kept securely under their temple pagoda. Fi¬nally, the altar having been cleared, they offered up thanks to the heav¬enly generals.
Jia She expressed respectful gratitude to the priests, but Jia Rong and some other younger men of the family were secretly most amused.
"What a great to-do!" they scoffed. "We expected them to show us the monsters they'd caught, to let us see what they were really like after all that hunting round. Heaven knows whether they caught anything or not!"
"You fools!" swore Jia Zhen. "Monsters take shape or vanish into thin air just as they please. With all the heavenly generals here, how dare they show themselves? Now that the evil has been exorcised, they'll have to stop making trouble -- such is the power of the sacred doc¬trine."
The young men waited sceptically to watch for further developments. The servants, however, did not question the claim that the monsters had been captured. They stopped panicking and let the matter drop. The re-co very of Jia Zhen and the other invalids was also attributed to the Tao¬ists' magic.
Only one page chortled, "I don't know what happened earlier on, but I went to the Garden that day with Lord She, and it was a big pheasant that flew past -- that was plain as daylight. But Shuaner took fright, thought he'd seen an apparition and described it to the life! We all backed him up by fibbing, so Lord She took his story seriously. That's why we had this grand show to watch today!"
But none of his hearers believed him, and still no one had the courage to live in the Garden.

One day, when Jia She was at leisure, he thought of ordering some servants to move into the Garden as caretakers to prevent bad charac¬ters from hiding there at night. Before he could give this order, Jia Lian came in and paid his respects.
"Today, in Uncle Wang's place, I heard that Second Uncle has been impeached by the governor," he announced. "He's accused of not keep¬ing a check on his subordinates and of levying too much grain. The court has been petitioned to dismiss him."
“It must surely be a rumour!" replied Jia She, very shocked. "Only the other day, he wrote to tell us the date of Tanchun's arrival and the auspicious day chosen for seeing her off to the coast. She'd had a smooth journey, he said, so the family need not worry. He also wrote that the governor was treating him as a relative and had given him a congratula¬tory feast. How could anyone related to him impeach him? But let's not waste time talking. Go straight to the Ministry of Civil Affairs to find out the facts, then come and let me know."
Jia Lian left at once.
On his return a few hours later he said, "I've just heard in the minis-try that he has been impeached. A report has been sent to the court, but thanks to His Majesty's clemency it hasn't been referred to the ministry. It has been decreed: 'Since he failed to keep his subordinates in check and levied too heavy a grain tax, cruelly exploiting the people, he should be dismissed. But in view of the fact that he was new to this provincial post and inexperienced in administration, enabling his subordinates to de¬ceive him, he is to be demoted three ranks and, by the gracious favour of the Emperor, can still serve as assistant minister of the Ministry of Works. He is to return forthwith to the capital.
"This news is reliable. We were just discussing it in the ministry when a magistrate from Jiangxi, newly summoned to court, arrived. He has a high opinion of Second Uncle. Says he's a good official but doesn't know how to handle subordinates, so those servants of his made trouble outside, bullying and cheating people and spoiling his reputation. The gov¬ernor, knowing this all along, also thinks well of Second Uncle. It's puz¬zling that he should have impeached him now. Maybe things were getting so out of hand he was afraid there might be some big scandal and there¬fore accused him of negligence to get him off more lightly."
Cutting him short, Jia She instructed him, "Go and tell your aunt about this, but don't let the old lady know."
Jia Lian went to report this news to Lady Wang. To know her reac¬tions you must read the next chapter.

Chapter 103

Jingui Plots Murder and Destroys Herself
Jia Yucun, Blind to the Truth,
Meets an Old Friend in Vain




Jia Lian went to tell Lady Wang all that had happened. The next day he returned to the Ministry of Civil Affairs for fuller information, then reported back to her.
"Is this news reliable?" she asked. "If so, the master will be pleased and our minds will be set at rest too. Those provincial posts are too risky. If he hadn't been recalled like this, those scoundrels might have been the death of him!"
"How did you know that, madam?" he inquired.
"Since your Second Uncle went to this provincial post, instead of sending home a single cent he's spent a whole lot of the family's money. And look at those men who went with him: They hadn't been gone long before their wives started dolling themselves up with gold and silver trin¬kets. Obviously they've been raking in money outside without the master knowing. And he's let them get away with such goings-on. If there'd been a scandal, not only would he be dismissed -- our ancestors might even be deprived of their titles!"
"You're quite right, madam. When I first heard he'd been impeached I had the fright of my life, but after I got the facts clear I felt relieved. I hope he'll pass some years quietly as an official in the capital, keeping his good reputation as long as he lives. Even if the old lady hears this she needn't worry, provided you reassure her."
"I know what to say. But go and see what more you can find out."
Jia Lian assented and was on the point of leaving when in hurried one of Aunt Xue's old serving-women in a fluster. Not stopping to pay her respects she blurted out:
"Our mistress has sent me, madam, to tell you that another dreadful thing has happened in our family!"
"What is it?"
"Something too awful for words!"
"You silly creature!" scolded Lady Wang. "If it's so serious, tell me properly."
"Master Ke is away, we've no man in the house; so how are we to cope? She wants you, madam, to send some gentlemen over to help us out."
"But what do you want them for?" asked Lady Wang impatiently, having no idea what she was talking about.
"Madam Pan is dead!"
"Pah! Good riddance to bad rubbish! Why get so worked up?"
"It wasn't a natural death - there's been foul play. Please, madam, send someone over at once to cope!" With that she turned to go back.
Both angry and amused Lady Wang exclaimed, "What a fool this old woman is! You'd better go and see what's happened, Lian. Pay no at¬tention to that stupid creature."
Not catching the instruction to him to go over, all the old woman heard was "pay no attention." She hurried off in a huff.
Aunt Xue was waiting anxiously for her return. When at last the ser¬vant came back she asked her, "Well, whom is she sending?"
"It's no use!" The old woman sighed. "When you're in a fix, the kindest of kin will do nothing. Her Ladyship not only refuses to help us, she swore I was a fool!"
"If she won't help," cried Aunt Xue in exasperation, "What did the young mistress say?"
"If Her Ladyship won't lift a finger, how can her daughter-in-law do anything? I didn't go to tell her."
"Her Ladyship isn't one of our family, but how can the daughter whom I brought up ignore me?" demanded Aunt Xue irately.
"Of course!" exclaimed the old woman, catching on. "Well then, I'll go again."
But just then ha Lian arrived. Having paid his respects to Aunt Xue and offered his condolences he said, "My aunt has heard that Pan's wife is dead, but she couldn't get any sense out of your servant and so she's very worried. She's sent me to find out what's happened and told me to help. What can I do for you, aunt?"
Aunt Xue had been sobbing with rage, but on hearing this she said quickly, "I'm sorry to put you out, Master Lian. I know how good my sister is to me, but this old creature can't give a message clearly and nearly held matters up. Please take a seat and I'll tell you all about it. The thing is - she didn't die a natural death."
"Did she kill herself in a pique because of Pan's trouble?"
"I only wish she had! These last few months she made scenes every day, going barefoot with tousled hair like a crazy creature. Although at the news of Pan's death sentence she did cry, she soon started making up again with rouge and powder; and had I protested she would have made a big row, so I ignored her. Then one day, for some reason, she came and asked to have Xiangling to keep her company. I told her, 'You have Baochan, so what do you want Xiangling for? It's not as if you liked her; why let her provoke you?’ As she insisted, however, I had to tell Xiangling to move in with her. The poor girl dared not disobey me and, had as her health was, she went there. I was pleasantly surprised when Jingui treated her very well, but when Baochai knew she said, 'Do you suppose Jingui is plotting something?' I paid no attention, though.
"A few days ago Xiangling fell ill, and Jingui made some soup for her herself. But Xiangling was out of luck: as Jingui took it to her she scalded her own hand and the bowl was smashed. I'd have expected her to blame it on Xiangling, but instead of losing her temper she swept up the pieces herself then mopped the floor, and they remained on good terms.
"Last night, she told Baochan to make two more bowls of soup for her to drink with Xiangling. After a while, I heard a great commotion in her room: first Baochan was screaming like mad, then Xiangling joined in and staggered out, leaning against the wall, to call for help.
"I hurried in and found my daughter-in-law thrashing about on the floor. Blood was gushing from her nose and eyes, and she was clawing with both hands at her stomach. I was frightened to death! When I asked what had happened she couldn't speak, and presently she died in agony. It looked to me as if she had taken poison.
"Then Baochan tearfully seized hold of Xi angling, accusing her of Poisoning her mistress. I don't believe Xiangling would do such a thing. In any case, confined to her bed, how could she? But Baochan insisted
she'd done it. So what could I do, Lian? I had to harden my heart to tell the matrons to tie Xiangling up and leave her in Baochan's charge. Then we locked them into the room, and I sat up all night with your cousin Baoqin waiting for your gate to open so that we could send you word. You have good sense, Lian. Tell me, how should we handle this?"
"Does the Xia family know about it?" he asked.
"No. We must clear up the business before we tell them."
"I think we'll have to go through official channels to get the matter settled. Naturally it's Baochan whom we suspect, but other people will ask what reason she had to poison her own mistress. To them, Xiangling would seem more likely to do it."
As they were talking, maids from the Rong Mansion came in to an¬nounce their young mistress. Although Jia Lian was Baochai's elder cousin-in-law, as they had known each other since childhood he did not withdraw when she entered. Baochai paid her respects to her mother and him, then went into the inner room to sit with Baoqin. Aunt Xue followed her in and told her what had happened.
Baochai pointed out, "If we have Xiangling bound, it will look as if we too believe she was the poisoner. You say the soup was prepared by Baochan, mother. In that case, you should tie her up and question her, at the same time sending to tell the Xia family and to report this to the authorities."
Aunt Xue thought this reasonable and consulted Jia Lian.
"Baochai is quite right," he agreed. "When we have reported this, I must also go and ask some men in the Board of Punishments to help see to things at the inquest and interrogation. But I think it may make things awkward if we tie up Baochan and set Xiangling loose."
"I didn't want to tie up Xiangling," Aunt Xue told him. "But I was afraid that, ill as she is, this false accusation might make her so desperate she'd try to kill herself -- then we'd have another death on our hands. That's why I decided to have her tied up and put in Baochan's charge."
"Still, this is strengthening Baochan's case," he objected. "They should either both be set free or both bound up, as the three of them were to¬gether. Well, just get somebody to comfort Xiangling."
Aunt Xue ordered the door to be opened and went in, while Baochai
sent the maids she had brought with her to help tie up Baochan, who had been gloating over the sight of Xiangling crying her heart out. When Baochan saw them coming with ropes to bind her she screamed, but the maids from the Rong Mansion silenced her and trussed her up. The door was left open with people on watch outside.
By then they had sent to inform the Xia family which had only re¬cently moved to the capital, as in the last few years they had gone bank¬rupt and Mrs. Xia, a widow, missed her daughter. She had an adopted son, a scoundrel who had squandered all their money and who often called on the Xue family. Jingui was too amorous to live without a man and had long been hankering after Xue Ke, but hers was a case of "beg¬gars can't be choosers." However, this foster-brother of hers was dense. Though he knew pretty well what she wanted he had not yet made love to her; and so Jingui, on her frequent visits home, would help him out with money. Today he was looking forward to a visit from her, when the ar¬rival of a Xue family servant convinced him that here was another gift for him. At the news that she had died of poison, he set up an angry outcry. His mother raised an even bigger uproar.
"My daughter was doing all right there!" she screamed. "Why should she poison herself?"
Weeping and wailing, she set off on foot with her son without waiting for a carriage, for the Xias being bankrupt tradesmen did not trouble to keep up appearances. The son walked on ahead while his mother, ac¬companied by an old slattern, sobbed and snivelled in the street as she hired a carriage. As soon as she entered the Xues' gate, without greet¬ing anyone she started loudly bewailing her "darling daughter," and clamouring for revenge.
Jia Lian had gone to the Board of Punishments to enlist help, leaving only Aunt Xue, Baochai and Baoqin at home. They had never seen such goings-on before and were too frightened to speak. Indeed, even had they reasoned with her, Mrs. Xia would not have listened.
"What good treatment did my daughter ever get in your family?" she ranted. "Her husband beat and cursed her all the time; then you wouldn't let the young couple stay together. You plotted to have my son-in-law imprisoned, so that she'd never set eyes on him again. Mother and daughter, you enjoy yourselves with your fine relatives' backing, but you still couldn't bear the sight of Jingui and got someone to poison her, then accused her of killing herself! Why should she take poison?"
She charged at Aunt Xue, who fell back protesting, "Madam! First go and look at your daughter and question Baochan, before making such allegations."
As Mrs. Xia's adopted son was there, Baochai and Baoqin were unable to come to Aunt Xue's rescue. They could only wring their hands in the inner room.
Then, as luck would have it, Lady Wang sent Zhou Rui's wife to help out. She came in to see an old woman wagging a finger at Aunt Xue and screaming at her. She knew this must be Jingul's mother.
"Are you Mrs. Xia, madam?" asked Mrs. Zhou stepping forward. "The young mistress has poisoned herself. It wasn't Madam Xue's do¬ing. How can you abuse her like this?"
"And who may you be?" Mrs. Xia retorted.
This reinforcement emboldened Aunt Xue to say, "She is one of the household of our Jia relatives."
"We all know you have powerful relatives," sneered Mrs. Xia. "That's why you can keep my son-in-law in jail. But does that mean that my child's death can go unavenged?" Seizing hold of Aunt Xue she de¬manded, "Just how did you murder my daughter anyway? Show me!"
Mrs. Zhou interposed, "Just go and see for yourself. Stop tugging at other people." She gave her a shove.
The adopted son ran over to protest, "Are you banking on your mas¬ters' power to beat up my mother?" He threw a chair at Mrs. Zhou, but missed her.
Baochai's maids inside on hearing this commotion hurried out, afraid Mrs. Zhou might get hurt. They crowded forward to intervene, expostu¬lating and warning the fellow off. But that only made Mrs. Xia and her son set up a still greater clamour.
"We know how powerful your Rong Mansion is!" they yelled. "Now Our girl has been killed, you may as well kill us too!"
Again they charged Aunt Xue. The maids, for all there were so many of them, were powerless to stop them for as the saying goes, "Ten thou¬sand men are no match for one desperado."
Things had just taken this ugly turn when Jia Lian arrived with seven or eight men-servants. Sizing up the situation, he ordered his men to drag Mrs. Xia's son away.
"Stop this brawling and talk reasonably," he said. "This place must be straightened up at once. Officers from the Board of Punishments are corning to hold an inquest."
The arrival of this gentleman with attendants before him to clear the way made all the servants present stand at attention, and Jingui's mother realized that this must be one of the Jia family. Then her son was seized and she heard there was to be an official inquest. She had been meaning to raise a great ballyhoo over her daughter's corpse, then appeal to the court for justice, little thinking that the others would inform the authorities first. This took the wind out of her sails. Aunt Xue was still too stunned to speak, and it was Mrs. Zhou who reported to Jia Lian:
"This woman came here not to look at her daughter but to abuse Madam Xue. We were remonstrating with her when a wild man burst in to raise pandemonium. In the presence of ladies too -- it was simply outrageous!"
"We needn't argue with them now," said Jia Lian. "Later we can have him beaten and interrogated. Men should keep to themselves and not intrude on ladies. His mother could surely have seen her daughter by herself. Why should he rush in if not to loot the place?"
Meanwhile his servants had secured the young man.
"What a way to behave, Mrs. Xia!" cried Zhou Rui's wife now that she had more support. "Since you came, you should have asked the facts of the matter. Either your daughter committed suicide, or Baochan poi¬soned her. Why try to blackmail people before finding out the facts and seeing the corpse? Would Madam Xue let her daughter-in-law die and do nothing about it? We've tied Baochan up. Because your daughter was always making trouble, she asked Xiangling to keep her company and they slept in the same room. That's why both she and Baochan are under guard there. We were waiting for you to come and attend the inquest, at which we'll find out just what happened."
Aware that her position was weak, Mrs. Xia had to go with Zhou Rui's wife to her daughter's room. The sight of Jingui lying stark on the kang, her face covered with clotted blood, set her wailing aloud.
When Baochan saw Mrs. Xia she sobbed, "Our young lady was kind to xiangling, getting her to move in with her, yet Xiangling seized this chance to poison her!"
By now the whole Xue household had gathered there. "Nonsense!" they protested. "She died after drinking that soup yesterday. Weren't you the one who prepared it?"
"Yes, I was. But after bringing it in I went out to see to something else. Then Xiangling must have put some poison in it."
Before she had finished speaking, Jingui's mother dashed towards Xiangling, but the others barred her way.
Aunt Xue said, "It looks as if she was poisoned by arsenic. We cer¬tainly have none here. No matter whether it was Xiangling or Baochan, someone must have bought it for her. After investigation the authorities are sure to find out. The culprit can't get away. Now let's lay her out properly ready for the inquest."
As the women-servants set about doing this, Baochai proposed, "You should clear away those feminine articles - there will be men coming in.
Then, under the mattress on the kang, they discovered a crumpled paper packet. Jingui's mother pounced on this and opened it, but finding nothing in it threw it away.
"There's the evidence all right!" exclaimed Baochan. "I recognize this packet. A few days ago, when we were plagued by rats, my mistress went to ask her brother for some arsenic and on her return put it in her jewel case. XiangLing must have seen it and used it to poison her. If you don't believe me, look in the jewel case.
Jingui's mother did so, but found nothing there except a few silver hairpins.
"Where have all her trinkets gone to?" wondered Aunt Xue.
Baochai made servants open the cases and cabinets, but all were empty.
"Who took my sister-in-law's things?" she asked. "Baochan must answer for this."
"How should she know?" asked Jingui's mother uneasily.
"Don't say that, madam," put in Mrs. Zhou. "I know Baochan was with her all the time. Of course she must know."
Under such pressure, Baochan could not deny it and had to confess, "My mistress always took something each time she went home. How could I stop her?"
"A fine mother you are!" the rest jeered at Mrs. Xia. "Squeezing your daughter till she had nothing left, then making her kill herself so that you could blackmail us! Very well, we'll report this at the inquest."
Baochai ordered a maid, "Go and ask Master Lian outside not to let any of the Xia household get away. In the inner room Mrs. Xia was on pins and needles.
"You bitch!" she swore at Baochan. "Stop blabbing! When did my daughter ever take things home?"
"The things don't matter," countered Baochan. "What's important is to find out who murdered her."
"Once we've found those things, we shall know who murdered her," Baoqin declared. "Hurry up and ask Cousin Lian to check up on the arsenic her son bought, then report it to the authorities."
"This Baochan must have lost her mind, talking such rubbish," pro¬tested Jingui's mother frantically. "My daughter never bought any ar¬senic. If Baochan says this, she must have poisoned her!"
In desperation Baochan started shouting, "Other people may accuse me falsely, but how can you? Many's the time I heard you tell your daughter not to take things lying down but to raise a rumpus and ruin their family, then move out bag and baggage and marry a better man. Did you tell her that or not?"
Before Mrs. Xia could speak Zhou Rui's wife chimed in, "When one of your own servants bears witness against you, how can you deny it?"
Gnashing her teeth Mrs. Xia swore at Baochan, "I never treated you badly! Do you want to be the death of me talking that way? When the officers come, I'll tell them you were the one who poisoned my daugh¬ter!"
Baochan's eyes nearly started out of her head for fury. "Madam," she begged Aunt Xue, "please let Xiangling go. We shouldn't wrong innocent people. I know what to say when I'm interrogated."
Hearing this, Baochai told them to untie Baochan instead. "An easy¬going girl like you, why get yourself involved needlessly?" she asked. "If you know something, speak out and be done with it so that we can get this straight."
Afraid that if it came to an interrogation she might be tortured, Baochan told them, "My mistress was forever complaining, 'With my looks, why did I have to have such a senseless mother, who instead of marrying me to Master Ke gave me to that stupid ruffian! If I could spend a day with Master Ke, I'd die content!' That's what made her hate Xiangling. At first I didn't realize this, and later when she was good to Xiangling I supposed it was because Xiangling had won her round. I thought she ordered that soup out of kindness....
"This is even greater nonsense!" fumed Jingui's mother. "If she wanted to poison Xiangling, why should she get poisoned herself?"
Baochai asked, "Xiangling, did you drink that soup yesterday?"
"A few days ago I was too ill even to raise my head," Xiangling replied. "When the mistress told me to drink I dared not refuse; but be¬fore I could struggle up the soup was spilt and she had to clean up the mess -- I felt very bad about it. Yesterday, again, she told me to drink some soup. I didn't want to, but I had to. Before I could start on it, though, I came over dizzy and to my relief Sister Baochan took the bowl away. I was dozing off when the mistress drank her own soup and told me to try mine, so I forced myself to take a couple of sips...."
Baochan broke in, "That's it! I'll tell you the truth. Yesterday the mistress told me to make two bowls of soup for her to drink with Xiangling. I was furious! I thought: Who is Xiangling that I should make soup for her? So, on purpose, I put an extra handful of salt in one of the bowls and marked it secretly, meaning that one for Xiangling. But as I carried it in the mistress stopped me and sent me to tell a page to order a carriage, as she wanted to go home. When I came back from this errand, I saw the bowl I'd marked in front of the mistress. I was afraid she'd scold me for over-salting it, and didn't know what to do; but then she moved to the hack of the room, and while she wasn't looking I changed the bowls round. Well, it served her right! She came back and carried the soup to Xiangling's bed, saying while she drank her bowl, 'You must at least taste this.' Xiangling didn't seem to find it too salty, and they both fin¬ished their bowls while I laughed up my sleeve at Xiangling for not notic¬ing the salt. How was I to know that my devilish mistress wanted to poison her? She must have put in the arsenic while I was out, then didn't know that I'd changed the bowls around. Truly, 'Heaven is just, and each reaps as he has sown.
The others thought over the sequence of events and could find no flaw in her story. They untied Xiangling too and made her lie down in bed.
But in spite of these incriminating facts Jingui's mother went on pro¬testing, whereupon Aunt Xue and the others, all talking together, insisted that her son must pay with his life for the murder.
Jia Lian called from outside, "There's no need to argue. Get every¬thing cleared up quickly. The officers from the Board of Punishments are coming."
This flustered Mrs. Xia and her son, who foresaw dire consequences.
"It's all the fault of my dead daughter," Mrs. Xia had to plead with Aunt Xue. "She brought this on herself. If we let them hold an inquest, it will reflect badly on your family too. Do hush the business up, madam!"
"That's impossible," said Baochai. "We've already reported it; how can it be hushed up?"
Zhou Rui's wife intervened, "The only way to hush the matter up is for Mrs. Xia herself to call off the inquest, in which case we shall say no more about it."
Jia Lian outside had also intimidated the son so that he was only too willing to go to the Board of Punishments to sign a statement that no inquest was needed as the cause of death was clear and to promise not to bring any suit later on. And to this the others agreed. Aunt Xue sent to buy a coffin for Jingui -- but no more of this.

Let us return to Jia Yucun, who had now been promoted to be prefect of the capital in charge of taxation. One day he went out of the city to check on the acreage of arable land, and passing through the County of Esoteric Understanding he reached the ford in the Stream of Rapid Re¬versal. He made his chair-bearers stop there to wait for his retinue. And seeing a small temple by the village, its crumbling walls revealing some hoary pines, he sauntered towards it. The gold had flaked off the images inside, and the hall was rickety. On one side was a broken tablet, but he could not decipher the half-obliterated inscription on it.
He decided to stroll to the back. In the shade of a green cypress there he saw a thatched hut in which a Taoist priest was sitting cross-legged, his eyes closed in meditation. As Yucun went closer, the man's face struck him as familiar and he suspected that they had met before, though he could not remember where. His attendants wanted to rouse the priest by shouting, but he stopped them. Walking slowly towards him he called out a greeting.
The Taoist opened his eyes a crack and asked with a smile, "What brings you here, Your Honour?"
"I have come from the capital on a tour of inspection, and happened to pass this way. Seeing you meditating so tranquilly, I felt sure you must have a profound understanding of the Way and would therefore like to make so bold as to ask for your instructions."
"Our coming and our going -- each has its predestined place," was the Taoist's reply.
Sensing that this was no ordinary priest, Yucun bowed low and asked, "Where have you been practising virtue, venerable master? And why are you staying here? What is the name of this temple? How many in¬mates has it? Are there not holy mountains where you could cultivate Truth? Or if you want to do virtuous deeds, why not choose somewhere more accessible?"
The Taoist replied, "A gourd is shelter enough for me, I need no holy mountains. The name of this temple has long been lost, but the broken tablet remains; and since the shadow follows the form, why should I ask for alms to have the temple repaired? 'The jade in the box hopes to fetch a good price; the pin in the casket longs to soar on high' -- that doesn't apply to me."
Yucun was quick-witted. The mention of "gourd," 'lade" and "pin" at once reminded him of Zhen Shiyin, and looking more intently at the Taoist he recognized him.
"Aren't you old Mr. Zhen, sir?" he asked, after motioning his atten¬dants to withdraw.
With a faint smile the Taoist answered, "Why talk about zhen (true) and jia (false)? They are the same."
The word jia, a homonym for Yucun's surname, confirmed his con¬jecture. He bowed again and said, "Since you generously helped me to go to the capital, I was lucky enough to pass the examination and was assigned to your honourable district. Only then did I learn that you, vener¬able sir, had left the dusty world and become an immortal. Although I longed to trace you, I feared that as a mundane, vulgar official I would never see your saintly countenance again. I am overjoyed at this encoun¬ter here! I beg you, venerable saint, to instruct the ignorant. If you do not spurn me, my house in the capital is near at hand and I would count it an honour to entertain you there so that I can hear your instructions every day."
The Taoist rose to return his bow and replied, "I know of nothing in this world but my hassock. What Your Honour just said completely passes this poor priest's understanding." With that he sat down again.
Yucun thought dubiously, "If he isn't Zhen Shiyin how is it that he looks and talks just like him? We haven't met for nineteen years, yet he appears unchanged. It must be because he has achieved immortality that he's unwilling to disclose his past. But now that I have found my bene¬factor, I can't let slip this opportunity. Evidently he's not to be tempted by wealth or rank, much less by mention of his wife and daughter."
"How can I bear it, saintly teacher," he said, "if you draw a veil over your past?"
He was about to bow again when one of his servants came to report, "It is growing dark, sir, high time to cross the ford."
As Yucun hesitated the Taoist said, "Pray lose no time in crossing, Your Honour. We shall meet again. If you delay, a storm may spring up. If you really wish to see me, I shall wait for you some other day at he ford." With that he sat down again and closed his eyes.
Jia Yucun had no choice but to say goodbye to the priest and leave the temple. He was about to cross the ford when someone came rushing towards him. If you want to know who it was, read the next chapter.

Chapter 104

The Drunken Diamond Brags That Small Fry
Can Stir Up Big Billows
A Crazy Lordling Grieves over the Past




As Jia Yucun was about to cross the ford someone rushed up to him.
"Your Honour!" this man, one of his runners, exclaimed. "That temple you just visited is on fire!"
Yucun turned to see flames leaping skyward and the sun blotted out by smoke and dust.
"How extraordinary!" he thought. "I've barely left the place, How could this blaze have started? I hope this hasn't done for Zhen Shiyin!"
He felt an urge to go back but did not want to delay his tour of inspec¬tion; yet he could not set his mind at rest without investigating. After a moment's reflection he asked, "Did you see that old Taoist leave the temple?"
'I followed you out, Your Honour, "said the man. "Then I had the gripes and had to relieve myself. When I turned I saw flames - the temple had caught fire-so I hurried here to report it. I didn't see anybody leaving the place.
Although Yucun was worried, his own career was his first concern and he did not want to turn back.
"You stay here till the fire burns out," he ordered. "Then go in to see whether the old priest was trapped or not, and come back to report to me."
The man assented and remained behind while Yucun crossed the river to carry on with his inspection. After checking up on a few districts, he put up in a hostel for the night.
The following day he journeyed another stage and re-entered the capital, runners before him clearing the way while others of his attendants fol¬lowed behind. Then, seated in his sedan-chair, he heard the men in front shouting angrily and asked them what had happened. One of the runners dragged over a man and made him kneel down before the prefect's chair.
"This drunkard didn't get out of the way but came charging at us, he reported. "When ordered to stop, he put on a drunken act and flopped down in the middle of the road, then accused me of knocking him down."
"I am in charge of this district," Yucun announced. "All citizens here come under my jurisdiction. When you saw your prefect coming, you were too drunk to make way yet had the nerve to make false accusa¬tions!"
'I buy drink with my own money," retorted the fellow. "When I'm tipsy it's the Emperor's land I lie down on. Not even high officials can interfere."
"Lawless scoundrel!" Yucun fumed. "Ask him his name."
"I am Ni Er the Drunken Diamond."
Yucun was furious. "Have this wretch beaten," he ordered. "We'll soon see whether he's hard as a diamond!"
The runners pinned Ni Er down and gave him some hard lashes till, sobered up by the pain, he begged for mercy.
Yucun from his chair scoffed, "So that's the rough diamond you are! I won't have you beaten now but taken to the yamen for a thorough interrogation."
The runners shouted assent, tied Ni Er up and dragged him oft, ignor¬ing his entreaties.
Yucun went to court to make his report, and by the time he returned to his office this incident had slipped his mind completely. But men in the street who had witnessed it commented to one another, "Ni Er, in his cups, counts on his strength to throw his weight about; but now he's fallen into Prefect Ji a's clutches he's not likely to get off lightly!"
This talk reached the ears of Ni Er's wife and daughter, who waited in vain that night for him to come home. The girl went to search different gambling-houses for him, and when everyone there confirmed the report she wept.
"Don't worry, "they said. "Prefect Jia is connected with the Rong Mansion, and a certain Second Master Jia of that family is one of your father's friends. If you and your mother ask him to put in a word, your father will be let off."
Ni Er's daughter thought, "Yes, I've often heard father say that Mr. Jia Yun next door is his friend, so why not get him to help?"
She hurried home to propose this to her mother, and together they called on Jia Yun. He happened to be in that day and promptly offered them seats while his mother ordered tea. Then Ni Er's wife and daugh¬ter told him their story.
"We've come to beg you to put in a word, Second Master, to get him set free," they entreated.
"That's easy," Jia Yun bragged. "As soon as I mention this to the West Mansion he'll be released. This Mr. Jia Yucun owes his high post to the help of the Rong Mansion, so once they send him a message the thing will be settled."
Mother and daughter went joyfully home, then took word to Ni Er in the lock-up that he need not fret because Jia Yun had promised to see about his release. Ni Er's spirits rose again.
However, since the embarrassing occasion when Xifeng had declined his presents, Jia Yun had seldom called at the Rong Mansion. For the gatemen there watched their masters' behaviour to visitors and acted accordingly. Welcome guests who were treated with favour they an¬nounced; but those who were cold-shouldered they turned away, even if they were relatives, fobbing them off with excuses.
Today Jia Yun went to the gate saying that he had come to pay his respects to Jia Lian.
"The Second Master is out," the gatemen told him. "We'll tell him when he comes back that you called."
Jia Yun thought of asking to see Xifeng instead, but for fear of another snub he refrained and went home, where Ni Er's wife and daughter importuned him again.
"You always said that not a single yamen, no matter which, dared disobey your family, " they said. "Now this prefect is one of your clan, and it's not a big favour to ask. If you can't even do this, you're one of the Jias in vain!"
"Yesterday I was too busy to send a message, but today I'll tell them and he'll be released," he boasted to cover up his discomfiture. "You've nothing to worry about!"
So mother and daughter waited again for news. As for Jia Yun, un¬able to gain admission through the main gate, this time he went round to the back, meaning to go through the Garden to find Baoyu. But the back gate was locked. He retraced his steps dejectedly, telling himself, "I wangled a treeplanting job from her that year because Ni Er lent me money and I sent in that gift of aromatics. Now that I've no money for gifts she won't let me in. It's not as if she's a decent sort. She simply loans out the family's funds left by our ancestors at exorbitant interest, but won't let us poor relations have even one ounce of silver! Can they count on remaining rich all their lives? Why, their name stinks outside! I'm not one to blab -- if I were, they would be involved in plenty of murder cases!"
Occupied by these reflections he reached home, where Ni Er's wife and daughter were waiting for him. Unable to put them off again he told them, "The West Mansion sent a message but Prefect Jia has ignored it. You had better get Leng Zixing, who's related to their steward Zhou Rui, to put in a word."
Mother and daughter objected, "If a gentleman like you failed, how could a servant succeed?"
"You don't understand," he blurted out in embarrassed exasperation. "Nowadays servants have much more say than their masters."
Seeing that he was unable to help, Mrs. Ni laughed sarcastically.
"Sorry to have troubled you for nothing these days," she said. "We shall thank you again when that man of mine comes out."
They left to ask others to intercede, and finally Ni Er was let off with only a few strokes, not convicted of any crime.
On his return, his wife and daughter told him how the Jia family had refused to help. Ni Er, who was drinking, flared up and wanted to seek Jia Yun out.
"The bastard, the ungrateful beast!" he fumed. "When he was starv¬ing and wanted to worm his way into that house to wangle a job, I was the one who helped him. Now when I land in trouble he leaves me in the lurch. Fine! If Ni Er raises a row, both the Jia Mansions will be dragged through the mud!"
"Ai! You're drunk again, talking so wildly, "they objected. "Weren't you beaten the other day for making a drunken scene? Before you've got over it, here you are starting again!"
"Do you think a beating makes me afraid of them? I was only afraid of not finding a handle against them. In jail, I palled up with quite a few decent fellows. According to them, apart from all these Jias here in the city there are plenty of others in the provinces too, and not long ago a number of their servants were put in clink. I'd always known the younger Jia men and their servants here were a bad lot but thought the older generation all right, so I was surprised to hear they'd landed in trouble. After asking around I heard that those in trouble belong to branches of the clan in other provinces. Now they are on trial, brought here to wait for the verdict. So I no longer need worry.
"As this puppy Jia Yun has let me down for all I was so good to him, my friends and I can spread word that their family's ridden roughshod over people, practised usury and abducted other men's wives. When the scandal spreads and reaches the censor's ears they'll catch it! Then they'll get to know Ni Er the Diamond!"
"Go to bed and sleep it off," urged his wife. "Whose wives have they abducted? You're making it up. You mustn't talk such nonsense.
"Staying at home, what do you know about what goes on outside? The year before last I met a young fellow called Zhang in a gambling-den, and he told me that his betrothed had been bagged by the Jias. He asked my advice, and I stopped him from making a row. I don't know where he is now, I haven't seen him for the last couple of years. If I knock into him, I'll fix up a plan to do in that young bastard Jia Yun! I won't let him off unless he offers me rich gifts! How dare he refuse to help me?"
He lay down, muttered for a while to himself, then dozed off. His wife and daughter paid no attention, considering these threats mere drunken talk. The next morning Ni Er went back to his gambling-house, and there we can leave him.

Upon Jia Yucun's return home, after a night's rest he told his wife of his encounter with Zhen Shiyin.
"Why didn't you go back to have a look?" she asked reproachfully,
shedding tears. "If he got burnt to death, won't we seem too heartless?"
"He's outside the mundane world now and wouldn't have anything to do with us," Yucun assured her.
Just then a servant outside announced, "The man Your Honour left at the temple after the fire the other day has come back."
Yucun went out and that runner, having paid his respects, reported, "After going back on Your Honour's order, I didn't wait for the fire to burn out but went in through the flames to look for the priest. The fire had burnt the place where he had been sitting and the back wall had col¬lapsed, so I expected to find him dead, but there was no sign of him, although a hassock and gourd there were undamaged. I looked every¬where for his corpse, yet found not a single bone. For fear that you might not believe me, I decided to bring back the hassock and gourd as evi¬dence; but when I touched them they both turned to ashes!"
Yucun realized that Zhen Shiyin had vanished by magic, being an im¬mortal. He dismissed the runner and went back to his room but did not repeat this message to his wife for fear that she as an ignorant woman might grieve, simply telling her that there was no trace of the priest so most likely he had escaped.
Then he went out and sat alone in his study to mull over Zhen Shiyin's conversation with him, when a servant suddenly brought him a summons to court to read some edicts. He hastily mounted his chair to go to the Palace, where he heard that Jia Zheng, recalled from his post as Grain Commissioner of Jiangxi, was to acknowledge his fault today at court.
He hurried to the cabinet and found the ministers assembled there reading an Imperial edict deploring the maladministration of the coastal provinces. Coming out, he went at once to find Jia Zheng, expressed his sympathy over his impeachment, then congratulated him on his return and asked about his journey. Jia Zheng described his experiences since last they met.
"Have you sent in your acknowledgement of culpability?" asked Yucun.
"Yes. After lunch I shall learn the Emperor's will."
That very moment he was summoned to an audience and hurried in, while the ministers concerned for him waited there.
It was some time before Jia Zheng emerged, his face streaming with sweat. The others crowded round to ask what had happened. He stuck out his tongue in dismay.
"I had the fright of my life!" he gasped. "Thank you, gentlemen, for your concern. Luckily nothing serious has happened."
They asked him what the Emperor had said.
"His Majesty wanted to know about the smuggling of firearms in Yunnan," Jia Zheng told them. "It was reported that the culprit was a servant of the former Senior Imperial Tutor Jia Hua, which reminded His Majesty of my ancestor's name, and he asked me what it was. At once I kowtowed and replied that it was Jia Daihua. Then the Emperor asked with a smile, 'Wasn't that former Minister of War who was later de¬moted to be prefect of the capital also called Jia Hua?"'
Yucun beside him gave a start. "What was your reply, sir?" he asked.
"I explained distinctly that the former Senior Imperial Tutor Jia Hua came from Yunnan, the present prefect from Huzhou in Zhejiang. Then His Majesty asked, 'Is that Jia Fan impeached by the prefect of Suzhou one of your family?' Kowtowing again I said, 'Yes, sir.' Then the Em¬peror demanded angrily, 'How can your family allow your servants to abduct a good citizen's wife?' I dared say nothing. 'What is Jia Fan's relation to you?' was the next question. 'He's a distant kinsman,' I said. The Emperor snorted at that and dismissed me. It was touch-and-go!"
"Quite a coincidence that," they commented, "these two cases one after the other."
"That's not so strange," said Jia Zheng. "What's bad is both men being Jias. Our poor clan is such a large one that after all these years we have relatives everywhere. Though no trouble came of it this time, the name Jia will stick in the Emperor's mind -- and that's bad."
"Truth will always prevail," they assured him. "You've nothing to fear."
"I would give anything not to be an official, but I dare not retire. Besides, our family has two hereditary titles. This is something that can't be helped."
"You are still in the Ministry of Works, sir," pointed out Yucun. "A metropolitan post should be quite safe."
"Even so, that's hard to say after two provincial appointments."
'We admire your character and your conduct, sir," the other officials told him. "Your brother is a man of honour too. All you need do is control your nephews more strictly."
"I am seldom at home to check up on them and can't be too easy in my mind about them. Since you've brought this up and we are close friends, please tell me -- have my nephews in the East Mansion been misconducting themselves?"
"Not really, but a few vice-ministers - some Imperial eunuchs too - are not on very good terms with them. It's nothing to worry about if you just warn them to be more circumspect in future."
They saluted him and left, and Jia Zheng went home. All his nephews and sons had turned out to welcome him, and when he had asked after the old lady's health and the young men had paid their respects, together they entered the house. Lady Wang and the other womenfolk had as¬sembled in the Hall of Glorious Felicity to meet him, but first he went to the old lady's apartments to pay her his respects and report to her all that had happened since his departure. Asked for news of Tanchun, he de¬scribed the marriage arrangements.
"I had to leave in too much of a hurry to wait for the Double Ninth Festival," he explained. "But though I didn't see her, I heard from the other family that everything went very well. Her father- and mother-in-law send their regards to you, madam. They hope, this winter or next spring, to be transferred to the capital, which would of course be still better. But I hear there is trouble in the coastal regions, so the transfer may be delayed."
The old lady had been depressed by Jia Zheng's demotion and Tanchun's marrying so far from home; but his explanation of his recall and the good news of Tanchun cheered her up again and with a smile she urged him to go and rest. Jia Zheng saw his brother, sons and nephews next, and when the younger ones had paid their respects he informed them that the next morning he would sacrifice in the ancestral temple.
After Jia Zheng's return to his quarters, when Lady Wang and others had greeted him, Baoyu and Jia Lian paid their respects again. Jia Zheng was relieved to see Baoyu looking better than at the time of his departure and, knowing nothing of his son's mental illness, he did not regret his demotion but was pleased to think how well the old lady had managed things. When, moreover, he observed that Baochai appeared still more quiet and composed and Lan quite cultured and handsome, he fairly beamed. Only Huan was unchanged, and his father could feel no real affection for him.
After a short rest, however, he asked abruptly, "Isn't there someone missing?"
Lady Wang knew he had noticed Daiyu's absence. As they had not written to him about her death and he was only just home and in high spirits, she did not like to break the news at once. She just said that Daiyu was unwell. Baoyu felt as if his heart had been pierced by a dagger, but as his father was back he had to repress his grief and wait on him. Lady Wang ordered a feast of welcome at which Jia Zheng's sons and grand¬sons poured him wine; and though Xifeng was the wife of a nephew, since she was running the household she joined Baochai and the others in passing the wine. After one round of toasts, Jia Zheng sent them away to rest and dismissed the servants too with instructions that the domestics could come to meet him after the ancestral sacrifice the next day.
When the others had gone, he and his wife talked of the happenings since their separation. Certain subjects Lady Wang did not venture to broach, and when he brought up the death of her brother Wang Ziteng she dared not show her grief. When he mentioned Xue Pan, she said simply that he had brought this trouble on himself, then she took this occasion to tell him about Daiyu's death. In consternation, Jia Zheng shed tears and sighed. Then Lady Wang gave way to weeping too until Caiyun who was attending her tugged her sleeve. She controlled herself then and talked of more cheerful topics, after which they retired for the night.
The next morning Jia Zheng worshipped in the ancestral temple, ac¬companied by all the younger male members of the family. This done, he took a seat in the temple annex and called Jia Zhen and Jia Lian in to ask about family affairs. Jia Zhen gave him a carefully edited account.
"Since I've just come home I can't make a detailed check-up," Jia Zheng told him. "But I've heard outside that your household isn't doing as well as before. You must be more circumspect in everything. You are no longer young, and you should discipline those youngsters so that they don't offend people outside. You take this to heart too, Lian. It's not that I want to find fault as soon as I get back, but I've heard talk. You must take extra care.
Jia Zhen and Jia Lian flushed red, not venturing to answer more than "Yes, sir." Then Jia Zheng dismissed them and went back to the West Mansion. After all the men-servants had kowtowed to him he entered the inner quarters where the women-servants paid their respects in turn - we need not dwell on this.

Jia Zheng's question about Daiyu the previous day and Lady Wang's reply that she was unwell had set Baoyu brooding again. After his father dismissed him he went back, shedding tears all the way. As Baochai was chatting in his room with Xiren and others, he sat gloomily by himself in the outer room. Baochai told Xiren to take him tea then came out to cheer him up, imagining that he was worried that his father might ques¬tion him about his studies.
"You go to bed first," said Baoyu. "I want to collect my thoughts a bit. My memory's not what it was, and if I keep forgetting what to say it'll make a bad impression on my father. If you go to sleep first, Xiren can keep me company here."
Baochai could not refuse and nodded agreement.
In the outer room, Baoyu softly begged Xiren to fetch Zijuan.
"I've something to ask her," he said. "But as she always looks so angry and cold-shoulders me when she sees me, you must do some ex¬plaining for me before she'll come."
Xiren answered, "I was pleased to hear that you wanted to collect Your thoughts, but what's this you're thinking about? If you've some-thing on your mind, why not ask her tomorrow?"
"I'm only free this evening. Tomorrow the master may give me some-thing to do and keep me busy. Dear sister, please fetch her quickly!"
"She won't come unless Madam Bao sends for her."
"That's why I want you to go and persuade her."
"What should I say?"
"You understand how I feel and how she feels -- both of us because of Miss Lin. Tell her that I wasn't faithless to her. It was you people who made me look faithless." He glanced towards the inner room and point¬ing at it continued, "I never wanted to marry her, but they tricked me into it - the old lady and others - and that was the death of poor Cousin Lin. But even so, they should have let me see her and clear myself -then she wouldn't have died with such a sense of grievance! You must have heard from Miss Tanchun and the others that, at the last, she re¬proached me angrily. And Zijuan hates me like poison because of her."
"But how can you think me so heartless? Qingwen was only a maid who didn't mean so much to me, yet the truth is that when she died I wrote an elegy for her and sacrificed to her. Miss Lin saw that for her¬self. Now that Miss Lin is dead, would I treat her worse than Qingwen? But I can't even sacrifice to her. Besides, her spirit is living on; so when she thinks about this won't she blame me still more?"
'You can sacrifice to her if you like," said Xiren. "What do you want of me?"
"Since my health started improving I've been wanting to write an elegy but somehow I've grown dim-witted. I can sacrifice any old way to other people, but there mustn't be anything the least bit crude about a sacrifice to her. So I want to find out from Zijuan what her mistress was thinking and how she detected it. Before my illness I could have figured it out, but now I can't remember a thing. You told me that Miss Lin was getting better; how did she come to die so suddenly? What did she say when she was well and I didn't go to see her? She didn't call when I was ill, and how did she explain that? And why is it your mistress never lets me touch those things of hers which I managed to get hold of?"
"She's afraid they might upset you, that's all."
"I don't believe it. If Miss Lin felt for me, why did she burn her poems before she died instead of leaving them to me as a memento? I heard tell that music sounded in the sky, so she must have become a goddess or an immortal. I saw her coffin, it's true, but who knows whether she was in it or not?"
"You're talking more and more nonsensically. How could anyone announce a death simply by displaying an empty coffin?"
"I didn't mean that!" he cried. "But when people become immortals, some retain their bodily form, others shed their mortal frame. Good sister, please fetch Zijuan for me!"
"You'll have to wait till I've explained to her just how you feel. If she's willing to come, all right; if she refuses it may take time to talk her round. But even if she comes, at sight of you she's bound to hold certain things back. It seems to me I'd better question her tomorrow after Madam Bao had gone to see the old lady. That way I may find out more. Then when there's time to spare, I'll tell you about it."
"That's all very well, but I'm too impatient to wait!"
At this point Sheyue came out. "The young mistress says it's already the fourth watch and she wants the young master to go to bed," she announced. "And Sister Xiren must have been enjoying her chat so much that she lost track of the time."
"That's right!" exclaimed Xiren. "It's time to go to bed. We can talk again tomorrow."
Though distressed, Baoyu had to comply, but as he was leaving he whispered, "Mind you don't forget tomorrow!"
Xiren smiled and said, "All right."
"You two are up to some tricks again," Sheyue teased. "Why not ask the mistress to let you sleep with Xiren, then you can talk all night for all we care."
Baoyu waved his hand saying, "There's no need for that."
"You bitch, talking such rot!" scolded Xiren. "Tomorrow I'll pinch your lips." She turned to Baoyu. "Look at all the trouble you've caused. Sitting up so late talking but without so much as a word about this." They escorted him to the inner room then went to bed themselves.
Baoyu could not sleep that night, and he was still thinking of Daiyu the next day when a servant brought in the message, "Relatives and friends have offered to send over operas and feasts to celebrate the master's return; but the master has declined. He says there's no need for operas, but we'll have a simple meal at home to invite them all for a chat. The date fixed is the day after tomorrow, so I've come to notify you.
To know what visitors came, turn to the next chapter.

Chapter 105

Imperial Guards Raid the Ning Mansion
A Censor Brings a Charge Against
the Prefect of Pingan




Jia Zheng was entertaining his guests in the Hall of Glorious Felicity when in burst Lai Da.
"Commissioner Zhao of the Imperial Guards and several of his offic¬ers are here to see you, sir," he announced. "When I asked for their cards the commissioner said, 'No need: we are old friends.' He dis¬mounted from his carriage and came straight in. Please make haste to meet them, sir, with the young gentlemen."
Jia Zheng, who had had no dealings with Commissioner Zhao, could not understand why he should have come uninvited. As he had guests he could hardly entertain him, yet not to ask him in would be discourteous.
He was thinking it over when Jia Lian urged, "Better go at once, uncle, before they all come in."
That same moment a servant from the inner gate announced, "Com¬missioner Zhao has entered the inner gate."
Jia Zheng and others hastily went to meet him. The commissioner, smiling, said not a word as he walked straight into the hall. Behind him were five or six of his officers, only a few of whom they recognized, but none of these answered their greetings. At a loss, Jia Zheng had to offer them seats. Certain of the guests knew Commissioner Zhao, yet with his head in the air he ignored them all, simply taking Jia Zheng's hand as he made a few conventional remarks. This looked so ominous that some of the guests ~ipped into the inner room while all the rest stood at respectful attention.
Jia Zheng, forcing a smile, was about to make conversation when a flustered servant announced the Prince of Xiping. Before he could has¬ten to meet him the prince had entered.
Commissioner Zhao stepped forward at once to salute him, then or-
dered his officers, "Since His Highness has arrived, you gentlemen can take runners to guard the front and back gates."
His officers assented and went out. Jia Zheng, knowing that this spelt trouble, fell on his knees to welcome the prince, who helped him to his feet with a smile.
"We wouldn't presume to intrude without special reason, "he said. "We have come to announce an Imperial decree to Lord She. You have many feasters here, which is somewhat inopportune, so T'll ask your relatives and friends to disperse, leaving only your own household to hear the decree."
Commissioner Zhao put in, "Your Highness is very gracious, but the prince officiating at the East Mansion takes his duties so seriously that the gates are doubtless already sealed up."
Hearing that both mansions were involved, the guests were desperate to extricate themselves.
"These gentlemen are free to go," the prince said affably. "Have attendants see them out and notify your guards that there is no need to search them as they are all guests. Let them leave at once.
Then those relatives and friends streaked off like lightning, leaving Jia Zheng, Jia She and their households livid and trembling with fear. Mean¬while runners had swarmed in to guard all the doors, so that no one
whether master or man   could stir a foot from his place.
Commissioner Zhao turned to request the prince. "Please read the decree, Your Highness, then we can start the search."
The runners hitched up their tunics and rolled up their sleeves, ready to go into action.
The Prince of Xiping proclairned slowly, "His Majesty has ordered me to bring Zhao Quan of the Imperiai Guards to search Jia She's property."
Jia She and the rest prostrated themselves on the ground.
The prince, standing on the dais. continued. "Hear the Imperiai de¬cree: Jia She has intrigued with provincial officiais and abused his power to molest the weak, showing himself unworthy of Our favour and sullying his ancestors' good name. His hereditary rank is hereby abolished."
Commissioner Zhao thundered, "Arrest Jia She! Keep guard over the others."
At that time, all the men of both Jia Mansions were in the hall except for Baoyu, who had slipped off to join the old lady on the pretext of indisposition, and Jia Huan who was seldom presented to guests. So all the rest were now under surveillance.
Commissioner Zhao told his men to dispatch officers and runners to search the different apartments and draw up an inventory. This order made Jia Zheng's household exchange consternated glances, while the runners gleefully rubbed their hands, eager to ransack the place.
The prince interposed, "We hear that Lord She and Lord Zheng keep separate accounts, and according to the decree we are to search the former's property. The rest is to be sealed up pending further orders."
Commissioner Zhao rose to his feet. "May it please Your Highness," he said, "Jia She and Jia Zheng have not divided the family property, and we hear that Jia Zheng has put his nephew Jia Lian in charge of his household affairs. We shall therefore have to search the whole premises." When the prince made no comment he added, "I must go in person with my officers to search the houses of Jia She and Jia Lian."
"There is no hurry," demurred the prince. "Send word first so that the ladies inside may withdraw before you start to search."
But already the commissioner's attendants and runners, making the Jias' servants show them the way, had set off in different directions to ransack both mansions.
"No disorder now!" called the prince sternly. "I shall come in person to supervise the search!" Then getting up slowly he ordered, "None of those who came with me are to move. Wait here. Later we shall check up on the property and make an inventory."
Just then a guard came in and knelt to report, "In the inner apartments we have found some clothes from the Palace and other forbidden things which we haven't presumed to touch. I have come, Your Highness, to ask for your orders."
Presently another group gathered round the prince to report, "In Jia Lian's house we have found two cases of title-deeds and one of promis¬sory notes  all at illegally exorbitant rates of interest."
"Good!" cried Commissioner Zhao. "So they are usurers too. All their property should certainly be confiscated! Please rest here, Your
~ighness, while I supervise the search before coming back for your in¬structions."
Just then, however, the prince's steward announced, "The guards at the gate say that His Majesty has sent the Prince of Beijing to proclaim another decree and they ask the commissioner to receive him."
As Commissioner Zhao started out to meet the Prince of Beijing he told himself, "I was out of luck having that crabbed prince foisted on me. Now, with this other one here, I should be able to crack down on them hard!"
The Prince of Beijing had already entered the hall. Standing facing the doorway he announced, "Here is a decree. Let Zhao Quan, Commis¬sioner of the Imperial Guards, pay heed." He then proclaimed, "The commissioner's sole task is to arrest Jia She for trial. The Prince of Xiping will deterrnine what other measures to take according to the ear¬lier decree."
Elated by this, the Prince of Xiping seated himself beside the Prince of Beijing and sent the commissioner back to his yamen with Jia She. This development disappointed all his officers and runners, who had come out on hearing of the second prince's arrival. They had to stand there awaiting Their Highnesses' orders. The Prince of Beijing selected two honest officers and a dozen of the older runners, sending away the rest.
The Prince of Xiping told him, "I was just losing patience with Old Zhao. If you hadn't brought that decree in the nick of time, sir, they'd have been really hard hit here."
"When I heard at court that Your Highness had been sent to search the Jia Mansions I was relieved, knowing you would let them off more lightly, "the Prince of Beijing replied. "I never thought Old Zhao was such a scoundrel. But where are Jia Zheng and Baoyu now? And how much damage has been done inside?"
His men reported, "Jia Zheng and the rest are under guard in the servants' quarters, and the whole place has been turned upside down."
At the Prince of Beijing's orders, the officers fetched Jia Zheng for questioning. He fell on his knees before Their Highnesses and with tears in his eyes begged for mercy. The prince helped him up and urged him not to worry, then informed him of the terms of the new decree. With
tears of gratitude, Jia Zheng kowtowed towards the north to thank the Emperor then turned back for further instructions.
The prince said, "When Old Zhao was here just now, Your Lordship, his runners reported finding various articles for Imperial use and some promissory notes for usurious loans  this we cannot cover up. Regard¬ing those forbidden articles, as they were for Her Imperial Highness' use it will do no harm to report them. But we must find some way to explain those IOU's. Now I want you, sir, to take the officers and hon¬estly hand over to them all your brother's property, to end the matter. Don't on any account conceal anything, or you will be asking for trouble."
"I would never dare," answered Jia Zheng. "But we never divided up our ancestral estate, simply considering the things in our two houses as our own property."
"Very well," they said. "Just hand over everything in Lord She's house." They sent the two officers off with orders to attend only to this and nothing else.

Let us return now to the ladies' feast in the Lady Dowager's quar¬ters. Lady Wang had just warned Baoyu that unless he went out to join the gentlemen his father might be angry.
Xifeng, still unwell, said faintly, "I don't think Baoyu's afraid of meeting them, but he knows there are plenty of people there to entertain the guests, so he's waiting on us here instead. If it occurs to the master that they need more people there to look after the guests, you can trot out Baoyu, madam. How about that?"
"This minx Xifeng!" the old lady chuckled. "She still has the gift of the gab for all she's so ill!"
The fun was at its height when one of Lady Xing's maids came rush¬ing in crying, "Your Ladyships! We're done for! A whole lot of robbers have come, all in boots and official caps... They'er opening cases, over¬turning crates, ransacking the whole place'   
The old lady and the others had not recovered from this shock when Pinger, her hair hanging loose, dashed in with Qiaojie.
"We're ruined!" she wailed. "I was having lunch with Qiaojie when Lai Wang appeared in chains, and told me to lose no time in warning you
ladies to keep out of the way, as some prince has come to raid our house! I nearly died of fright! Before I could go in to fetch any valuables, a band of men drove me out. You'd better make haste to get together the clothes and things you need."
Lady Xing and Lady Wang were completely flummoxed, frightened out of their wits. Xifeng who had listened wide-eyed now collapsed in a faint. The old lady was crying with terror, unable to utter a word.
Pandemonium reigned as the maids tried to attend to their mistresses. Then they heard shouts, "The women inside must make themselves scarce! The prince is coming!"
Baochai and Baoyu looked on helplessly as the maids and nurses at¬tempted desperately to hustle the ladies out. Then in ran Jia Lian.
"It's all right now!" he panted. "Thank goodness the prince has come to our rescue!"
Before they could question him, he saw Xifeng lying as if dead on the floor and gave a cry of alarm. Then the sight of the old lady, terror-stricken and gasping for breath, made him even more frantic. LuckHy Pinger and others managed to revive Xifeng and help her up. The old lady recovered consciousness too, but lay back dizzily on the couch sob¬bing and choking for breath, while Li Wan did her best to soothe her.
Taking a grip on himself, Jia Lian explained to them how kindly the two princes had intervened. But fearing that the news of Jia She's arrest might make the old lady and Lady Xing die of fright, he withheld it for the time being and went back to his own quarter.
Once over the threshold, he saw that all their cases and wardrobes had been opened and rifled. He stood speechless in consternation, shed-ding tears, till he heard his name called and had to go out. Jia Zheng was there with two officers drawing up an inventory, which one of the officers read out as follows:

One hundred and twenty-three gold tnnkets set with jewels; thirteen strings of pearls two pale gold plates; two pairs of gold bowls; two gilded bowls; forty gold spoons; eighty big silver bowls and twenty silver plates; two pairs of ivory chopsticks inlaid with gold; four gilded pots; three pairs of gilded cups; two tea-trays; seventy-six silver saucers; thirty-six silver cups; eighteen black fox furs; six deep-grey fox furs; thirty-six
sable furs; thirty yellow fox furs; twelve ermine furs; three grey fox furs; sixty marten furs; forty grey fox-leg furs; twenty brown sheep-skins; two raccoon furs; two bundles of yellow fox-leg furs; twenty pieces of white fox fur; thirty lengths of Western worsted; twenty-three lengths of serge; twelve lengths of velveteen; twenty musk-rat furs; four pieces of spotted squirrel fur; one bolt of velvet; one piece of plum-deer skin; two fox furs with ornamental cloud patterns; a roll of badgercub skin; seven bundles of platypus fur; a hundred and sixty squirrel furs; eight male wolf-skins; six tiger-skins; three seal-skins; sixteen otter furs; forty bundles of grey sheep-skins; sixty-three black sheep-skins; ten sets of red fox-fur hat material; twelve sets of black fox-fur hat material; two sets of sable-fur hat material; sixteen small fox furs; two beaver-skins; two otter-skins; thirty-five civet-cat furs; twelve lengths of Japanese silk; one hundred and thirty bolts of satin: one hundred and eighty-one bolts of gauze; thirty-two bolts of crepe; thirty bolts of Tibetan serge; eigbt bolts of satin with serpent designs; three hales of hemp-cloth; three bales of different kinds of cloth; one hundred fur coats; thirty-two Tibetan serge garments; three hundred and forty padded and unpadded garments; thirty-two jade articles; nine jade buckles; over five hundred utensils of copper and tin; eighteen clocks and watches; nine chaplets; thirty-two lengths of different kinds of satin with serpent designs; three satin cush¬ions with serpent designs for Imperial use; eight costumes for Palace ladies; one white jade belt; twelve bolts of yellow satin; seven thousand and two hundred taels of silver; fifty taels of gold; seven thousand strings of cash.

Separate lists were made of all the furnishings and the mansions con¬ferred on the Duke of Rongguo. The title-deeds of houses and land and the bonds of the family slaves were also sealed up.
Jia Lian, listening at one side, was puzzled not to hear his own prop¬erty listed.
Then the two princes said, "Among the property confiscated are some 10U's which are definitely usurious. Whose are they? Your Lordship must tell the truth."
Jia Zheng knelt down and kowtowed. "I am guilty of never having managed the household affairs and that is the truth," he said. "I know nothing about such transactions. Your Highnesses will have to ask my nephew Jia Lian."
Jia Lian hastily stepped forward and knelt to report, "Since those documents were found in my humble house, how can I deny knowledge of them? I only beg Your Highnesses to be lenient to my uncle who knew nothing about this."
The two princes said, "As your father has already been found guilty, your cases can be dealt with together. You did right to admit this. Very well then, let a guard be kept over ha Lian; the rest of the household can return to their different quarters. Lord Zheng, you must wait prudently for a further decree. We shall go now to report to His Majesty, leaving officers and runners here to keep watch."
They mounted their sedan-chairs, Jia Zheng and the others kneeling at the inner gate to see them off. The Prince of Beijing, on leaving, stretched out one hand with a look of compassion and said, "Please set your minds at rest."
By now Jia Zheng felt slightly calmer, although still dazed.
Jia Lan suggested, "Grandfather, won't you go in to see the old lady first? Then we can send for news of the East Mansion."
Jia Zheng hastily did so, and found serving-women from different apart¬ments all milling about in confusion. In no mood to check what they were doing he entered his mother's room, where one and all were in tears. Lady Wang, Baoyu and others had gathered silently around the old lady, tears streaming down their cheeks. Lady Xing was shaken by sobs. At his arrival they exclaimed in relief.
"The master has come back safely," they told the old lady. "Don't worry any more, madam."
The Lady Dowager, apparently at her last gasp, feebly opened her eyes and quavered, "My son, I never thought to see you again!"
She burst out weeping and all the others joined in until Jia Zheng, fearing these transports of grief might be too much for his mother, held back his tears.
"Set your heart at rest, madam," he urged. "It is a serious matter, but His Gracious Majesty and the two princes have shown us the kindest consideration. The Elder Master has been taken into custody for the time being; but once the matter is cleared up the Emperor will show more clemency. And our property is not being confiscated."
Jia She's arrest distressed the old lady anew, and Jia Zheng did his best to comfort her.
Lady Xing was the only one who ventured to leave, going back to her apartments. She found the doors sealed up and locked, the serving-women confined in a few rooms. Unable to get in she burst out wailing, then made her way back to Xifeng's apartments. The side-gate there was also sealed, but Xifeng's room was open and from it came the sound of continuous sobbing. Entering, she saw Xifeng lying with closed eyes, her face ashen-pale, while Pinger wept beside her. Thinking her dead, Lady Xing started sobbing too.
"Don't cry, madam," said Pinger, stepping forward to greet her. "We carried her back just now in a dead faint, but presently she came to and cried a little. Now she is quieter. Please calm down, madam. How is the old lady now?"
Lady Xing made no answer but went to rejoin the Lady Dowager. The only people there were members of Jia Zheng's household, and she could not hold back her grief at the thought that both her husband and son had been arrested, her daughter-in-law was at death's door, and her daughter was ill-treated by her husband, so that she had nowhere to turn. The others tried to console her. Li Wan told servants to clear out some rooms for her for the time being, and Lady Wang assigned maids to look after her.
Jia Zheng outside was on tenterhooks, tweaking his beard and wring¬ing his hands as he waited for the Emperor's next decree.
"Which house do you belong to anyway?" he heard the guards out¬side shouting. "As you've come butting in here, we'll put you down on our list and chain you up to hand over to the officers inside."
Jia Zheng went out and saw it was Jiao Da.
"Why did you come here?" he asked.
Jiao Da stamped his foot and wailed, "I warned those degenerate masters of ours all along, but they treated me as their sworn enemy' Even you don't know, sir, what hardships I endured serving the old duke. Now things have come to a pretty pass with Sir Zhen and Rong arrested by some princes' officers! The ladies' trinkets were looted by the offic¬ers and runners and they were shut up in an empty room! And those

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useless slaves cooped up like pigs and dogs! Everything has been confis¬cated, furniture broken in pieces, porcelain smashed   they even want to put me in chains too! I've lived eighty to ninety years and trussed people up for the old duke; how can I let myself be trussed up instead? I told them I belonged to the West Mansion and broke out, but those fel¬lows wouldn't let me go. They hauled me here, where I find things are just as bad. I'm sick of life   I'll have it out with them!" With that he butted the runners.
As he was so old and their orders were not to make trouble, the run¬ners simply said, "Pipe down, old man. This is done by Imperial decree. You'd better take it easy and wait for news.
Although Jia Zheng tried to ignore this, he felt as if a knife had been plunged in his heart. "We're done for, done for!" he sighed. "To think that we should be reduced to this!"
As he was waiting impatiently for news from court, Xue Ke came running in. "What a time I had getting in here!" he panted. "Where is uncle?"
"Thank Heaven you've come!" Jia Zheng exclaimed. "How did you gain admittance?"
"By pleading hard and promising them money.
Jia Zheng described the raid to him and asked him to make inquiries. "I can't very well send messages to other relatives and friends now that we're under fire," he explained. "But you can deliver messages for me."
"It never occurred to me that you'd have trouble here, sir; but I've heard something about the East Mansion's business."
"What exactly are the charges against them?"
"Today I went to the yamen to find out what Cousin Pan's sentence is, and I heard that two censors have accused Cousin Zhen of corrupting young nobles by getting them to gamble   that isn't so serious. The more serious charge is of abducting the wife of an honest citizen, who Was forced to kill herself rather than submit. To bring this charge home, the censors got our man Bao Er and a fellow called Zhang as witnesses. Thi5 may involve the Court of Censors too, as that fellow Zhang had brought a suit before."
Jia zheng stamped his foot. "Terrible! We're done for!" he sighed, tears 5~eaming down his cheeks.
Xue Ke tried to reassure him then went off to find out more news, returning a few hours later.
"It looks bad," he informed him. "When I asked at the Board of Punishments, I didn't hear the result of the two princes' report but was told that this morning Censor Li brought another charge against the pre¬fect of Pingan, accusing him of pandering to an official in the capital and oppressing the people to please his superior   there were several seri¬ous charges."
"Never mind about other people," said Jia Zheng impatiently. "What did you hear about us?"
"That charge against the prefect of Ping an involves us too, sir. The official in the capital referred to by the censor was Lord She, who's accused of tampering with lawsuits. This adds fuel to the flames! All your colleagues are trying hard to keep out of this, so who would send you word? Even those relatives and friends at your feast either went home or are keeping well away until they know the upshot. Some clans¬men of yours   confound them! - have been saying openly, "Their ancestors left them property and titles. Now that they're in trouble who knows whom the title may go to. We all ought to take steps....
Without hearing him out Jia Zheng stamped his foot again. "What a fool my brother is!" he groaned. "It's a scandal, too, the way they've carried on in the East Mansion! For all we know this may be the death of the old lady and Lian's wife! Go and see what more you can find out while I look in on the old lady. If there's any news, the sooner we know it the better."
Just then a great commotion broke out inside and they heard cries of "The old lady's dying!" Jia Zheng hurried anxiously in. To know whether she lived or died, you must read the next chapter.

Chapter 106

Xifeng Is Conscience-Smitten
at Causing Calamity
The Lady Dowager Prays to Heaven
to Avert Disaster


The cry that the Lady Dowager was dying made Jia Zheng speed over to see her. She had in fact fainted from shock, but Lady Wang, Yuanyang and the rest had revived her and given her a sedative which had gradually restored her, though she was still crying for grief.
In the hope of soothing her he said, "Your unfilial sons have brought this trouble upon our family, alarrning you, madam. If you will take com¬fort, we can still handle the situation outside; but if you fall ill our guilt will be even greater!"
"I'm four score years and more," was her reply. "Ever since my gidhood when I married your father, thanks to our ancestors I've lived in the lap of luxury and never even heard tell of a nightmare like this. Now, in my old age, seeing you come to grief  it's too bad! I wish I could die and be done with worrying about you!" She broke down again.
Jia Zheng was at his wit's end when a servant outside announced a messenger from the court. He went out at once and saw that it was the Prince of Beijing's chamberlain.
"Good news, sir!" were the chamberlain's first words.
Jia Zheng thanked him and offered him a seat. "What instructions has His Highness for me?" he asked.
"Our master and the Prince of Xiping reported to the Emperor your trepidation, sir, and your gratitude for His Majesty's magnanimity. As it is not long since the Imperial Consort's passing, His Majesty, being most merciful, cannot bring himself to condemn you. You are to retain your Post in the Ministry of Works. Regarding the family property, only Jia She's share is to be confiscated; the rest will be restored to you and you are enjoined to work well. As for those promissory notes, our master has been ordered to examine them. All those at usurious, illegal rates of inter¬
est are to be confiscated according to regulations. Those on which the standard rates are charged are to be returned to you, together with your title-deeds. Jia Lian is dismissed from his post, but will be released with-out further punishment."
Jia Zheng rose to kowtow his thanks to the Emperor, then bowed his thanks to the prince.
~I beg you, sir, to report my gratitude now," he said. "Tomorrow I shall go to court to express my thanks, then go to your mansion to kow¬tow to His Highness."
Soon after the chamberlain had left the Imperial edict arrived and was put into force by the officers in charge, who confiscated certain things, returning the rest. Jia Lian was released, while all ha She's men and women bondservants were registered and sequestrated.
Unhappy Jia Lian had lost virtually all his possessions apart from some furnishings and those legitimate promissory notes which were returned to him. For though the rest of his property was not confiscated, the runners during their raid had carried it off. He had dreaded being punished and rejoiced at his release, but the loss overnight of all his savings as well as Xifeng's money   seventy or eighty thousand taels at least   was naturally galling; on top of which he was afflicted by his father's impris¬onment by the Imperial Guards and Xifeng's critical condition. And now Jia Zheng reproached him with tears in his eyes.
"Because of my official duties, I turned over the supervision of our family affairs to you and your wife," he said. "Of course you could hardly keep a check on your father, but who is responsible for this usury? Such conduct is most unbefitting a family like ours. Now that those notes of yours have been confiscated, the financial loss is of secondary impor¬tance, but think of the damage to our reputation!"
Jia Lian fell on his knees to reply, "In running the household I never presumed to act on selfish interests. All our income and expenditure were entered in the accounts by Lai Da, Wu Xindeng and Dai Liang, and you can check on them by asking them, sir. In the last few years, our expen¬diture has exceeded our income; and as I haven't made good the differ-ence there are certain deficits in the accounts. If you ask the mistress, sir, she will confirrn this. As for those loans, I myself have no idea where
the money came from. We shall have to find out from Zhou Rui and Lai Wang."
"According to you, you don't know even what is going on in your own apartments, to say nothing about family affairs! Well, I won't cross-examine you now. You've got off lightly yourself, but shouldn't you go to find out about the cases of your father and Cousin Zhen?"
Wronged as he felt, Jia Lian assented with tears and went away.
Heaving sigh after sigh Jia Zheng thought, "My ancestors spared no pains in his sovereign's service, winning fame and two hereditary titles; but now that both our houses have got into trouble these titles have been lost. As far as I can see, none of our sons or nephews amounts to any¬thing. Merciful Heaven! Why should our Jia family be ruined like this? Though His Gracious Majesty has shown extraordinary compassion by restoring my property, how am I   alone   to meet our two house¬holds' expenses? Jia Lian's admission just now was even more shock¬ing: it seems that not only is our treasury empty but there are deficits in the accounts, so we've made a mere show of affluence all these years, and I can only blame myself for being such a fool! If my son Zhu were alive he would have been my right hand. Baoyu, though he's grown up, is a useless creature." By now tears had stained his clothes, and he re¬flected, "My mother is so old yet not for a single day have we, her sons, provided for her out of our own earnings. Instead of that we've made her faint for terror. How can I shirk the blame for all these misdeeds?"
He was sunk in self-abasement when a servant announced some relatives and friends who had called to condole with him. Jia Zheng thanked each in turn.
"I am to blame for this family disaster," he said. "I failed to bring up my sons and nephews well."
One of them replied, "I have long known of your brother Lord She's unseemly conduct, and Master Zhen of that mansion was even more profligate. If they are blamed for their malpractices, it is no more than they deserve. Unfortunately, this scandal they've created has involved you as well, sir."
Another said, "Plenty of others kick over the traces without being impeached by the censors. This must be because Master Zhen offended
some of his friends."
"It's not the censors' fault," put in another. "We heard that one of your servants connived with some rogues outside to raise a hue and cry against your house. Then for fear there wasn't sufficient evidence, the censors tricked others of your men into talking. I always had the impres¬sion that your family treated its servants most generously, so why should such a thing happen?"
"No slaves are any good," someone else declared. "We're all rela¬tives and friends here and can speak frankly. Even at that post in the provinces, sir, scrupulous as you are yourself, I suspect that those grasp¬ing servants of yours damaged your reputation; so you had better watch out. Though your property hasn't been touched, if the Emperor's suspi¬cions are aroused it may be troublesome."
In consternation Jia Zheng asked, "What talk against me have you gentlemen heard?"
"There's no evidence of this, but it was said that when you served as Grain Commissioner you allowed your subordinates to feather their nests."
"I swear to Heaven I never dared to think of such a thing!" Jia Zheng protested. "But if those slaves of mine fleeced and swindled people, and trouble comes of it, I shall be done for!"
"It's no use panicking," they said. "You must make a serious check¬up of your stewards, and if you find any of them insubordinate you should crack down on them hard."
Jia Zheng nodded. Then a gateman came in to report, "The Elder Master's son-in-law Young Master Sun has sent word that he is too busy to call in person and so has sent a messenger instead. He says that the Elder Master owed him money and wants you to pay him back, sir."
"Very well." answered Jia Zheng with a sinking heart.
The others sneered, "No wonder your kinsman Sun Shaozu is said to be a scoundrel. Now that his father-in-law's house has been raided, instead of coming to help out he loses no time in demanding his money back. This is truly fantastic!"
"Let's not talk about him," said Jia Zheng. "My brother should never have agreed to that match. My niece has already paid dearly for his ~stake, and now her husband has started dunning me!"
As they were talking Xue Ke brought back the news, "Commis¬sioner Zhao of the Imperial Guards insists on pressing the charges made by the censors. I'm afraid things look black for the Elder Master and for Master Zhen."
"You must go and beg the princes to intervene, sir," Jia Zheng's friends urged hirn. "Otherwise both your families will be ruined."
He agreed and thanked them, after which they dispersed.
It was already time to light the lamps. Jia Zheng went inside to pay his respects to his mother and found her better. Returning to his own quarters, he brooded resentfully over the folly of Jia Lian and his wife, whose usury   now that it had come to light   had landed the whole family in trouble. He was most put out by this disclosure of Xifeng's misdoings. But ~ince she was so ill and must be distraught too by the loss of all her posses~ions, he could hardly reprimand them for the time being. Thus the night passed without further incident.
The next morning Jia Zheng went to court to express his gratitude for the Imperial favour, then called on both princes to kowtow his thanks and beg them to intervene on behalf of his brother and nephew. After they had agreed to do this, he went to enlist the help of other colleagues.

Let us returil to Jia Lian. Unable to extricate his father and cousin from the straits they were in, he returned home. He found Pinger sitting weeping by Xifeng, who was being abused by Qiutong in the side-room. ha Lian walked over to Xifeng, but as she seemed at her last gasp he had to hold back his reproaches.
"What's done is done," sobbed Pinger. "We can't get back what we've lost. But the mistress is so ill, you must send for a doctor for her."
"Pah!" spat out Jia Lian. "My own life is still at stake; why should I care about her?"
At this Xifeng opened her eyes and, without a word, shed tears. As Soon as Jia Lia~ had left she said to Pinger, "Stop being so dense. Now that things have come to this pass, why worry about me? I only wish I could die this very minute! If you have any feeling for me, just bring up Qiaojier after my death and I shall be grateful to you in the nether re¬gions!"
This only made Pinger sob more bitterly.
"You've sense enough to see," Xifeng continued, "that even if they haven't come to complain he must hold me to blame. Though the trouble was sparked off outside, if I hadn't been greedy for money I'd have been in the clear. Now after scheming so hard arid trying all my life to get ahead, I've ended up worse off than anyone else! If only I hadn't trusted the wrong people! I heard something vaguely too about Master Zhen's trouble and how he abducted the wife of an honest citizen named Zhang to be his concubine, forcing her to kill herself rather than submit. Well, we know, don't we, who that fellow Zhang was? If that business comes out, Master Lian will be involved too and I shall lose face completely. I'd like to die this instant, but I haven't the courage to swallow gold or take poison. And here you are talking of getting a doctor for me! That's not doing me a kindness but a bad turn."
This upset Pinger even more. She was at her wit's end. For fear that Xifeng might try to take her own life, she kept a close watch over her.
Luckily the Lady Dowager was ignorant of these developments. Now that her health was improving, she was relieved that Jia Zheng had kept out of trouble and Baoyu and Baochai stayed by her side every day. As Xifeng had been her favourite she told Yuanyang, "Give some of my things to Xifeng, and take Pinger some money so that she can look after her well. Once she's better I'll see what else can be done for her." She also told Lady Wang to help Lady Xing.
Since the whole estate of the Ning Mansion had been confiscated, all its bondservants registered and taken away, the Lady Dowager sent car¬riages to fetch Madam You and her daughter-in-law over. Alas for the Ning Mansion, once so grand! All that remained of it was these two ladies and the concubines Peifeng and Xieluan, without a single servant. The old lady placed at their disposal a house next to Xichun's, sent four women-servants and two maids to wait on them, had food prepared for them by the main kitchen, and provided them with clothing and other necessities. She also allotted them the sanrie monthly allowances as were issued by the accountants' office to members of the Rong Mansion.
As for the expenses incurred by Jia She, Jia Zhen and Jia Rong in prison, the accountants' office was quite unable to meet them. Xifeng
had no property left; Jia Lian was heavily in debt; while Jia Zheng who had no head for affairs simply said:
"I have asked friends to see that they are looked after."
Jia Lian in desperation thought of appealing to their relatives, but Aunt Xue's family was bankrupt, Wang Ziteng was dead, and none of the rest was in a position to help. All he could do was send some stew¬ards in secret to raise a few thousand taels by selling certain country estates to defray the prison expenses. As soon as he did this, however, the servants realized that the family was on the rocks and seized this chance for hanky-panky, filching money from the rents of the eastern manors too. But this is anticipating.

To revert to the old lady, she had not a moment's peace of mind but kept weeping as she wondered what was to become of them all. Their hereditary titles had been abolished, one of her sons and two younger kinsmen were in jail awaiting trial, Lady Xing and Madam You were disconsolate, and Xifeng was at death's door. Though Baoyu and Baochai kept her company to console her, they could not share her worries.
One evening, after sending Baoyu away, she struggled to sit up and told Yuanyang and the other maids to burn incense in the various shrines and then to light a censerful in her courtyard. Leaning on her cane she went out there. Hupo, knowing that she meant to worship Buddha, had placed a red felt cushion on the ground. The old lady offered incense and knelt down to kowtow and invoke Buddha several times.
She prayed to Heaven then with tears in her eyes, "Born a Shi, I married into the Jia family, and I earnestly implore holy Buddha in Heaven to have mercy on us! For generations our Jia family has never dared transgress or abuse our power. A devoted wife and mother, though un¬able to do much good I have never done anything wicked. But some of the Jia descendants must have offended Heaven by their arrogance and dissipation; thus our family has been raided, its property confiscated. Now my son and grandsons are in jail and fortune is frowning on them. I alone am responsible for these misfortunes because I failed to give them the proper training. Now I entreat Heaven to save us, turning the sorrow of those in jail to joy, and curing those who are ill. Even if the whole family
has sinned, let me alone take the blame! Spare my sons and grandsons! Have pity, Heaven, on a pious woman! Grant me an early death, but spare my children and grandchildren!" Her voice faltered here from dis¬tress and she burst out sobbing. Yuanyang and Zhenzhu as they helped her back inside did their best to comfort her.
Lady Wang had just brought Baoyu and Baochai to pay their evening respects. The old lady's grief set the three of them crying too. The sad¬dest of all was Baochai as she reflected that her brother was imprisoned in the provinces, with no knowing whether his death sentence would be commuted or not; and though her father-in-law was not in trouble, the Jia family was declining, while Baoyu was still deranged and showed no sign of trying to make good. Anxiety over her future made her weep still more bitterly than Their Ladyships. And her grief infected Baoyu.
He mused, "My grandmother can't be at peace in her old age, and that naturally upsets my father and mother. All the girls have scattered like clouds before the wind, with fewer left every day. How jolly it was, I remember, when we started that poetry club in the Garden; but ever since Cousin Lin's death I've felt gloomy, yet with Baochai by me I can't cry too often. And now she's so worried about her brother and mother, she hardly smiles all day." The sight of her now so overcome with grief was more than he could bear. He broke down and sobbed.
At this, Yuanyang, Caiyun, Yinger and Xiren, each of whom had her own cares, started sobbing too. This moved the other maids to tears as well, and nobody restrained them. So the wailing in the room grew louder and louder till the womenservants keeping watch outside hurried off in alarm to report this to the master.
Jia Zheng was sitting gloomily in his study when this message from his mother's servants was announced. He hurried over frantically and while still at a distance heard the whole household crying, which con¬vinced him that the old lady must be dying. Running distractedly in, he was relieved to see her sitting there sobbing.
"When the old lady is upset, the rest of you should comfort her," he chided the others. "Why are you all weeping too?"
They hastily dried their tears and stared blankly around. Jia Zheng stepped forward to console his mother, then once more briefly reprimanded
the rest, all of whom were wondering how they could have forgotten themselves and broken down when they had come meaning to soothe the old lady.
Just then a serving-woman brought in two maids from Marquis Shi's family. They paid their respects to the Lady Dowager and the rest of the company.
'~We've been sent by our master, mistress and young mistress," they announced. "They've heard that your trouble here isn't serious, nothing more than a passing alarm. For fear Your Lordship and Ladyships might be worried, they sent us to say that the Second Master here has nothing to fear. Our young mistress wanted to come herself but couldn't be¬cause soon she'll be getting married."
"Give them our regards when you go back," responded the old lady, as it was inappropriate to thank these underlings. "This misfortune must have been fated. It was kind of your master and mistress to think of us, and another day we'll go over to express our gratitude. I take it they've found your young lady a good husband  what's his family's position?"
"They are not too well-off," the maids answered. "But he's a hand¬some young man, and, from what we've seen of him, very easy-going. He looks rather like your Master Bao, and is said to have literary talents too."
"That's good," said the old lady cheerfully. "Being southerners, though we've lived here so long we abide by the customs of the south, so we haven't seen him yet. The other day I was thinking of my old family, and your young mistress is the one I love most   I used to have her here for the best part of the year. When she was old enough I meant to find a suitable huaband for her, but because her uncle was away I couldn't arrange a match. If she's lucky enough to have found a good young man, that sets my mind at rest. I'd wanted to attend the wedding feast this month, but my heart is burning over this terrible upset here, so how can I Possibly go? When you get back, give them my best regards. All of us here send our greetings. And tell your young lady not to worry about me. 1'm more than eighty years old, and even if I die today I shall have had a good life. I just hope that she and her husband will live happily together till old age; then I'll rest content in my grave." By now she was weeping
again.
"Don't grieve, madam," said the maids. "Nine days after the wed¬ding you may be sure she'll come here with her husband to pay her respects. Then how pleased you'll be to see them!"
The old lady nodded and the two maids left.
Others dismissed this from their minds, but Baoyu started brooding, 'What a life, with things going from bad to worse every day! Why must a girl marry into another family when she grows up? Marriage seems to change her into a different person. Now our dear Cousin Shi is being forced by her uncle to get married, so when next she sees me she's bound to keep at a distance. What is there to live for if everybody shuns you?" His heart ached again, but since his grandmother was just calming down he'dared not weep and simply sat brooding instead.
Presently Jia Zheng returned, as he still had misgivings about the old lady. Finding her better, he went back and sent orders to Lai Da to bring him the register of the servants in charge of the various household tasks. He checked the names. There were more than thirty families left  two hundred and twelve men and women in all   not counting Jia She's hondservants who had been sequestrated.
Jia Zheng summoned the twenty-one men-servants then working in the mansion to question them about the family's income and expenditure in the past. When the stewards in charge presented the accounts for recent years, he saw that their expenditure had exceeded their income, in addition to which there had been yearly expenses in the Palace, and there were many entries of sums borrowed from outside too. He then looked into their land rents in the east province, which of late amounted to less than half the rent delivered to their ancestors, whereas the family ex¬penses had increased tenfold. This discovery made him stamp in des¬peration.
"This is scandalous!" he exclaimed. "I put Lian in charge to keep a check on things; but it seems that for years we've been spending our rents a year in advance, yet insisted on keeping up appearances! Setting no store by our hereditary titles and emoluments, how could we fail to be ruined? Even if I retrench now it will be too late." He paced up and down, hands clasped behind his back, unable to hit on any way out.
The stewards knew that their master was worrying to no purpose, as he had no idea how to manage the household. "Don't worry, sir," they said. "This happens to every family. Why, even the princes, if you work out their expenses, don't have enough to live on. They just keep up ap¬pearances and get by for as long as they can. You at least have this small property thanks to the Emperor's favour, sir; but even if it had been confiscated too, wouldn't you still manage somehow?"
"You're farting!" swore Jia Zheng. "You slaves have no conscience! When your masters prosper you throw money around; when they're done for you take off, leaving them to their fate. You say it's good that our property hasn't been confiscated, but with a grand reputation while unable to hold on to our capital, how can we stand your putting on airs outside, boasting and cheating people? And when trouble comes of it, you shift the blame to your masters! This charge against the Elder Master and Master Zhen is said to have come of our servant Bao Er blabbing; but this register lists no Bao Er   why is that?"
"This Bao Er was not on our roster. His name used to be on the Ning Mansion register. Because Master Lian thought him an honest fellow he had him and his wife transferred here. When later his wife died, Bao Er went back to the Ning Mansion. Then when you were busy in your yamen, sir, and Their Ladyships and the young gentlemen were away mourning for the Imperial Consort, Master Zhen took over the management of the house and reinstated Bao Er. But afterwards he left. Since you haven't run the household all these years, sir, how could you know such things? You may think this is the only name not on the roster, but actually each steward has quite a few of his relatives under him as under-servants."
'Disgraceful!" was Jia Zheng's comment, and with that he dismissed them. Aware that he could not set his house in order overnight, he post¬poned taking action until Jia She's case was settled.
One day he was thinking things over in his study when one of his men rushed in. "Your Lordship, you are wanted at once at court for question¬ing!" he announced.
With some trepidation Jia Zheng obeyed this summons. To know whether it boded well or not, read the next chapter.

Chapter 107

The Lady Dowager Impartially
Shares Out Her Savings
Jia Zheng's Hereditary Title Is
Restored by Imperial Favour



Jia Zheng found the whole Privy Council as well as the princes as¬sembled in the Palace.
The Prince of Beijing announced, '~We have summoned you today on His Majesty's orders for an interrogation."
Jia Zheng at once fell on his knees.
'~Your elder brother connived with provincial officials to oppress the weak, and allowed his son to organize gambling parties and abduct an¬other man's wife, who took her own life rather than submit. Were you cognizant of these facts?" the ministers asked him.
"After my term of office as Chief Examiner by His Majesty's favour, I inspected famine relie{" replied ha Zheng. "I returned home at the end of winter the year before last and was sent to inspect some works, after which I served as Grain Commissioner of Jiangxi until I was impeached and came back to the capital to my old post in the Ministry of Works. Never, day or night, did I neglect my duties. But in my folly I paid insuf¬ficient attention to household affairs and failed to train my sons and neph¬ews correctly. I have proved unworthy of the Imperial favour and beg His Majesty for severe punishment."
The Prince of Beijing reported this to the Emperor, who soon issued an edict which the prince proclaimed:
We have ordered a strict investigation of Jia She, who has been im¬peached by the censors for conniving with locM officials to oppress the weak and, in league with the prefect of Pingan, subverting the law. Jia She admits that he and the prefect were connected by marriage hut denies intervening in a lawsuit, and the censors have no evidence of this. It is true that he took advantage of his power to extort antique fans from the Stone Idiot; but fans are mere trifles and this offence is less serious than
robbery with violence. Though the Stone Idiot conntnitted suicide, it was because he was deranged, not because he was hounded to death. ha She is to be shown lenity and sent to the frontier to expiate his crime.
As for the charge that Jia Zhen abducted another man's wife and she killed herself rather than be his concubine, a study of the censorate's original report reveals that Second Sister You was betrothed to Zhang Rua but he, being poor, consented to break the engagement, and her mother agreed to marry her to Jia Zhen's younger cousin as his concu¬bine. This was not a case of abduction. Regarding the charge that Third Sister You's suicide and burial were not reported to the authorities, it transpires that she was the sister of Jia Zhen's wife and they engaged her to a man who demanded the betrothal gifts back because of talk of her loose morals. She killed herself for shame; Jia Zhen did not hound her to death.
However, Jia Zhen deserves harsh punishment because, although he inherited a title, he flouted the law by a clandestine burial; but in view of his descent from a meritorious minister we will forbear from inflicting punishment and in our clemency will revoke his hereditary title and send him to serve at the coast to expiate his crime. Jia Rong, being young and not involved, is to be released. Since Jia Zheng has undeniably worked diligently and prudently for many years outside ffie capital, his reprehen¬sible mismanagement of his household is condoned.
Jia Zheng, moved to tears of gratitude, had kowtowed repeatedly while listening to this edict. He now begged the Prince of Beijing to peti¬tion the Emperor for him.
"You should kowtow your thanks for the Imperial favour," replied the prince. "What other petition have you?"
"Although I am guilty, His Majesty in His great favour has not pun¬ished me severely and my property has been returned to me. Overwhelmed with shame as I am, I would like to make over to the state my ancestral estate, emoluments and savings."
"His Majesty, ever merciful to His subjects, disciplines them with Perspicacity, meting out unerring rewards and punishments," replied the Prince. "Since you have been shown such clemency and had your prop¬erty restored, it would be inappropriate to present any further petition."
The other ministers also dissuaded him. Then Jia Zheng kowtowed his gratitud~ and having thanked Their Highnesses withdrew, hurrying
home to reassure his mother.
All the men and women, high and low, in the Rong Mansion had been wondering what this summons to the Palace meant and had sent out for news. Jia Zheng's return relieved them but none dared question him. He hastened to the old lady's side to explain to her all the details of his pardon; but although this set her mind ar rest, she could not help grieving over the loss of the two hereditary titles and the banishment of Jia She and Jia Zhen to such distant regions. As for Lady Xing and Madam You, this news reduced them to tears.
"Don't worry, madam," said Jia Zheng, hoping to comfort his mother. "Though Elder Brother is going to serve at the frontier, he will be work¬ing for the government too and isn't likely to undergo any hardships. Provided he handles matters well, he may be reinstated. Zhen is young, it is only right for him to work hard; otherwise he won't be able for long to enjoy the fortune left us by our ancestors.
The old lady had never been too fond of Jia She, while Jia Zhen being of the East Mansion was not one of her descendants. Only Lady Xing and Madam You were sobbing as if they would never stop.
Lady Xing was thinking. "We've lost everything and my husband is going so far away in his old age. Though I still have my son Lian, he always listens to his Second Uncle, and now that we have to live on him naturally Lian and his wife will take their side. What's to become of me left all on my own?"
Madam You had been in sole charge of household affairs in the Ning Mansion, second only to Jia Zhen, and they were a well-matched couple. Now he was to be banished in disgrace, all their property had been con¬fiscated, and she would have to live in the Rong Mansion where, though the old lady was fond of her, she would be a poor dependent saddled with Peifeng and Xieluan into the bargain; for her son Rong and his wife were in no position to restore the family's fortunes.
She thought, "Lian was the one to blame for my two sisters' deaths; yet he's in no trouble now, not parted from his own wife, while we're left stranded. How are we to cope?" These reflections made her sob.
The old lady's heart ached for them. She asked Jia Zheng, "Can't your elder brother and Zhen come home now that they've been sen-
tenced? And as Rong is not involved, shouldn't he be released as well?"
'According to the rules, elder brother can't come home," he told her. '~But I've asked people to put in a word so that he and Zhen can come back to get their luggage together, and the ministry has agreed. I expect Rong will return with his grand-uncle and father. Please don't worry, madam. I shall see to this."
"These years I've grown so old and useless that I haven't checked up on our family affairs," she said. "Now the East Mansion has been confiscated. Not only the house either, but your elder brother and Lian have lost all their property too. Do you know how much is left in our West Mansion's treasury? And how much land in our eastern estates? You must give them a few thousand taels for their journeys."
Jia Zheng was in a dilemma. He reflected, "If I tell her the truth she may be very worried; but if I don't, how am I to manage now  to say nothing of the future?"
Accordingly he answered, "If you hadn't questioned me, madam, I wouldn't have ventured to report this. But since you ask   and Lian is here too   I must tell you that yesterday I investigated. Our treasury is empty. Not only is all the silver gone but we have debts outside too. Now that elder brother is in this predicament, if we don't bribe people to help, then in spite of His Majesty's kindness they may be hard put to it. But I can't think where the money is to come from. We've already used up next year's rent from our eastern estates, so can't raise any sums there for the time being. We shall just have to sell those clothes and trinkets which thanks to Imperial favour weren't confiscated, to cover the trav¬elling expenses of elder brother and Zhen. As to what to live on our¬selves, we can worry about that later."
The old lady shed tears in her consternation.
"Is our family reduced to this?" she exclaimed. "I didn't see it for myself, but in the old days my family was ten times richer than this one, yet after a few years of keeping up appearances - though we were never raided like this - it went downhill and in less than two years was done for! Do you mean to say we shan't be able to manage even for a couple of years?"
"If we'd kept those two hereditary stipends we could still manoeu¬
vre outside. But whom can we expect to help us now?" In tears he continued, "All those relatives whom we helped before are poor, and the others we didn't help won't be willing to come to our rescue. I didn't investigate too carefully yesterday, but simply looked at the register of our servants. Quite apart from the fact that we can't meet our own expenses, we can't afford to feed such a large staff."
The old lady was distraught with anxiety when Jia She, Jia Zhen and Jia Rong came in together to pay their respects to her. At sight of them she clasped Jia She with one hand, Jia Zhen with the other, and sobbed. Her grief made them blush for shame and fall to their knees.
"We are reprobates who have forfeited the honours accorded to our ancestors and brought you grief, madam," they said tearfully. "We don't even deserve a piece of ground in which to bury our bones after death!"
All present seeing this gave way to weeping.
Jia Zheng interposed, "The first thing to do is make ready for their journey. The authorities will probably not agree to their staying at home for more than a couple of days."
Holding back her tears the old lady dismissed Jia She and Jia Zhen to see their wives. Then she told Jia Zheng, "There's no time to be lost! I'm afraid it's no use trying to raise money outside, and it will be bad if they fail to leave by the appointed time. So I had better settle this for you. But the household is topsy-turvy - this won't do!" She sent Yuanyang off to restore order.
After Jia She and Jia Zhen had withdrawn with Jia Zheng, weeping again they deplored their past excesses and spoke of their grief at part¬ing. Then they went to lament with their wives. Jia She being old did not mind leaving Lady Xing; but Jia Zhen and Madam You could not bear to be parted, and Jia Lian and Jia Rong wept beside their fathers. For though their banishment was less harsh than service in the army, the exiles might never again see their families. However, since things had come to such a pass they had to make the best of the situation.

The old lady made Lady Xing, Lady Wang, Yuanyang and the others open up her cases and take out all the things she had stored away since coming here as a bride. Then she summoned Jia She, Jia Zheng and Jia
Zhen to share out her belongings.
Jia She received three thousand taels of silver with the instructions, "Take two thousand for your journey and leave your wife one thousand."
"This three thousand is for Zhen," the old lady continued. "You are only to take one thousand, leaving your wife two thousand. She and your concubines can go on as before, sharing the same house but eating sepa¬rately; and I shall see to Xichun's marriage in future. Poor Xifeng had put herself out for us all these years yet now she has nothing left; so I shall give her three thousand too, on condition that she keeps it herself and doesn't let Lian use it. As she's still only half-conscious, tell Pinger to come and take it. And here are clothes left by your grandfather and costumes and trinkets I wore when I was young, which I have no further use for. The Elder Master, Zhen, Lian and Rong can divide his clothes between them; the rest are to be shared out by the Elder Mistress, Zhen's wife and Xifeng. This five hundred taels of silver is for Li an, for when he takes Daiyu's coffin back south next year.
Having made this apportionment she told Jia Zheng, "You spoke of debts outside; well, they must be cleared. Take this gold to settle them. It's the others' fault that I have to part with all my possessions like this; but you're my son too, and I can't show favouritism. Baoyu is already married. The gold, silver and other things which I have left must be worth a few thousand taels, and that will go to him. Zhu's wife has always been dutiful to me, and Lan's a good lad, so I'll give them some¬thing too. This is all that I can do."
Impressed by her sound judgement and fair treatment, Jia Zheng and the rest knelt down and said with tears, "You are so advanced in years, Old Ancestress, and your sons and grandsons have failed in their duty to you. Your goodness to us makes us doubly ashamed!"
"Stop talking nonsense," she answered. "If not for this trouble I'd have kept everything to myself. But o~r household is too large now, with only the Second Master holding a post, so we can manage with just a few servants. Tell the stewards to summon them all and make the necessary retrenchment. Provided each house had someone, that's enough. What should we have done, anyway, if they'd all been sequestrated? The maids should be re-assigned too, and some of them married off, some given
their freedom. And though this mansion of ours wasn't taken over by the authorities, you should at least give up the Garden. As for our other estates, let Lian investigate to see which should be sold and which kept up. We must stop putting on an empty show. I can speak bluntly: the Zhen family down south still has some money in the Elder Mistress' keep¬ing, which she should send back. Because if any other trouble should happen to us in future, wouldn't they be 'out of the frying-pan into the fire?'"
Jia Zheng had no head for family affairs and readily agreed to all her proposals. "The old lady certainly is a good manager!" he reflected. "It's her worthless sons who have ruined the family." Then, as his mother looked tired, he urged her to go and rest.
"I haven't much else," she continued. "What there is can be spent on my funeral, and anything left over can go to my maids."
Distressed to hear her talk like this, Jia Zheng and the others knelt down again and pleaded, "Don't take it so hard, madam! Sharing in your good fortune, we can hope later on for more marks of Imperial favour; and then we shall exert our selves to set our house in order, and atone for our faults by caring for you until you are a hundred."
"I certainly hope it turns out like that, so that I can face our ancestors after death. But you mustn't imagine I'm someone who enjoys riches and rank and can't endure poverty. These last few years you seemed to be doing fine, so I didn't interfere, content to laugh and chat and nurse my health, never dreaming that our family was doomed to ruin like this! I knew all along that we were putting on an empty show, but everyone in the household was so used to luxury that we couldn't cut down expenses all of a sudden. Well, here's a good chance to retrench, to keep the family going, if we don't want to become a laughing-stock. You expected me to be worried to death on hearing that we're bankrupt. But in fact I was upset because, recalling the honours conferred on our ancestors for their splendid services to the state, I kept wishing that you might do even better, or at least manage to keep what you'd inherited. Who knows what dirty business they got up to, uncle and nephew!"
As she was haranguing them like this, a flustered Fenger ran in to tell Lady Wang, "This morning our mistress cried and cried when she learned
about our trouble. Now she's at her last gasp. Pinger sent me to report this to you, madam."
Before she could finish the old lady asked, "Just how is she?"
"Not too well, they say," Lady Wang replied for Fenger, "Ah!" exclaimed the old lady rising to her feet. "These wretched
children won't give me a moment's peace!" She told maids to help her over to see Xifeng, but Jia Zheng barred the way.
"Madam, you've been so upset and attended to so much business, you ought to rest now. If your grandson's wife is unwell, your daughter-in-law can go and see to her; there's no need to go yourself. If you were to be upset again and fall ill, how could your sons bear it?"
"You're all to leave now and come back presently - I've more to say to you.
Not venturing to raise any further objections, Jia Zheng went to help prepare for his brother's and nephew's journeys, instructing Jia Lian to choose servants to accompany them.
Meanwhile the old lady made Yuanyang and the others go over with her to see Xifeng, taking her gifts for her. Xifeng's breath was coming in gasps, and Pinger's eyes and cheeks were red from weeping. When Their Lady ships were announced, Pinger hurried out to meet them.
"How is she now?"asked the old lady.
Not wanting to alarm her Pinger said, "She's a little better; Since you're here, madam, please step in and see for yourself."
She followed them inside, then darted over and quietly raised the bed-curtains. Xifeng, opening her eyes, was overcome with shame at sight of the old lady, for she had assumed that the Lady Dowager must be angry with her erstwhile favourite and would leave her to die - she had never expected this visit. Relief eased her choking sensation and she struggled to sit up; but the old lady made Pinger hold her down.
"Don't move," she said. "Are you feeling a bit better?"
"Yes, madam," answered Xifeng with tears in her eyes. "Since I came here as a girl, Your Ladyships have been so good to me! But it was my misfortune to be driven out of my mind by evil spirits so that I couldn't serve you dutifully and win my father- and mother-in-law's approval. You treated me so well, letting me help run the household; and after
turning everything upside-down how can I look you in the face again?" Here she broke down and sobbed, "Now Your Ladyships have come in person to see me, quite overwhelming me! Even if I had another three days to live, I deserve to have two days docked!"
'~That trouble started outside," said the old lady. "It had nothing to do with you. And even though you were robbed it doesn't matter. I've brought you a whole lot of things, to do just as you like with." She told the maids to show Xifeng her gifts.
Xifeng was insatiably acquisitive. The loss of all her possessions had naturally cut her to the quick, in addition to which she had dreaded being held to blame and felt life was not worth living. Now it seemed she was still in the old lady's good books, and Lady Wang instead of reproaching her had come to comfort her, while she knew that Jia Lian had kept out of trouble too. In relief she kowtowed to the old lady from her pillow.
'Please don~t worry, madam," she said. "If I recover thanks to your good fortune, I'll gladly be your menial and serve Your Ladyships with all my heart!~
Her obvious distress made the Lady Dowager give way to tears. Baoyu was accustomed to comfort and enjoyment, and had never known genuine anxiety. This was his first experience of disaster. Now that sobbing and wailing assailed him wherever he turned, his mind became more unhinged and when others wept he joined in.
All of them seemed so upset that Xifeng raised her head from the pillow and made an effort to comfort the old lady. "Please go back, Your Ladyships," she urged. "When I'm a bit better I'll come to kowtow my thanks."
The old lady told Pinger, "Mind you look after her well. If you're short of anything, come to me for it."
On her way back with Lady Wang, they heard weeping in several apartments. Once home, unable to check her grief any longer, the old lady dismissed Lady Wang and sent Baoyu to see off his uncle and cousin. She then lay down on her couch and burst into tears. Luckily Yuanyang and the other maids finally succeeded in consoling her, so that she fell asleep.
Jia She and Jia Zhen were by no means the only ones to be distressed
at leaving. None of the servants escorting them wanted to go. Simmering with resentment they cursed their fate, for separation in life is harder to bear than separation by death, and saddest of all were the people seeing them off. The once splendid Rong Mansion resounded with lamentations.
Jia Zheng, a model of propriety with a strong sense of moral obliga¬tion, clasped his brother's hand in farewell then rode ahead out of the city to offer them wine at the Pavilion of Parting and wish them a good journey. He reminded them of the government's concern for meritorious ministers, and exhorted them to work hard to repay this compassion. Shedding tears then, Jia She and Jia Zhen went their different ways.
When Jia Zheng returned with Baoyu, they found messengers out¬side their gate clamouring that an Imperial edict had just been issued bestowing the title of Duke of Rongguo on Jia Zheng. These men wanted largesse for bringing such good tidings.
The gatemen argued, "This is a hereditary title which our master already possesses; so how can you claim to be bringing us good tidings?"
The messengers retorted, "Hereditary titles are a great honour, harder to come by than an official appointment. Your Elder Master has lost his and will never get it back. But now His Sagacious Majesty has shown kindness greater than Heaven and restored this title to your Second Mas¬ter  such a thing only happens once in a thousand years. So why don't you tip us for bringing the good news?"
Jia Zheng arrived in the middle of this dispute. When the gatemen reported the news to him he was pleased, although this reminded him of his brother's offence. Shedding tears of gratitude he hurried in to report this to the old lady. She was naturally delighted and, taking him by the hand, urged him to work diligently to repay the Emperor's kindness. Lady Wang, arrtving just then to comfort the old lady, rejoiced too at this news. Lady Xing and Madam You, the only ones sick at heart, had to hide their feelings.

Those relatives and friends outside who had fawned on the Jias when they Were powerful had steered clear of them since hearing of their dis¬grace. Now that Jia Zheng had inherited the title and apparently still en¬joyed the Emperor's favour, they hurried over to offer congratulations.
To their surprise, Jia Zheng felt genuine embarrassment at inheriting his brother's title, despite his gratitude to the Emperor. The next day he went to court to offer thanks, and asked permission to make over to the state the houses and Garden which had been returned to him. When an edict declared this petition unwarranted, he went home in relief and con¬tinued to work steadily at his post.
But the family was now impoverished, its income falling short of its expenditure, and Jia Zheng was unable to take advantage of his social connections. The servants knew that though he was a worthy man, while Xifeng was too ill to run the household Jia Lian was piling up debts from day to day which forced him to mortgage houses and sell land. The wealthier of the stewards were afraid Jia Lian might appeal to them for help, and therefore made a pretence of poverty or kept out of his way. Some even asked for leave and did not return, for each was looking around for a new master.
The sole exception was Bao Yong, who had only recently come to the Rong Mansion just as disaster struck it. This honest fellow was filled with indignation by the way the rest cheated their masters; but being a newcomer his words carried no weight, so in anger he just went to sleep after supper each day. The other servants resented his lack of compli¬ance, and slandered him to Jia Zheng as a drunken trouble-maker and a slacker.
"Let him be," said Jia Zheng. "He was recommended by the Zhen family; we can hardly send him away. We may be in difficulties, but feeding one extra mouth won't make any difference."
As he would not dismiss Bao Yong, the servants complained about him to Jia Lian; but the latter no longer dared act high handedly and took no action either.
One day, feeling disgruntled, Bao Yong had a few drinks then strolled out to the road outside the Rong Mansion, where he saw two fellows talking.
"See there!" said one. "That fine mansion was raided the other day. I wonder what's become of its owners."
"How could a family like theirs be ruined?" the other said. "I heard that one of their daughters was an Imperial Consort, and even though
she's dead they should be well entrenched. I've seen them hobnobbing with princes and nobles too, so they must have plenty of backing. Why, even the present prefect, the last War Minister, is related to them. Couldn't these people have protected them?"
"You live here but don't know the first thing about it! The others weren't so bad, but that Prefect Jia was the limit! I've often seen him calling on both mansions, and after the censors impeached them the Emperor ordered him to investigate before any decision was made. What do you think he did? Because he'd been helped by both mansions, for fear of being accused of shielding them he gave them a vicious kick -that's why they were raided. Friendship doesn't mean a thing nowa¬days."
Bao Yong beside them overheard this idle gossip. "Are there such people in the world with no sense of gratitude?" he thought. "I wonder what relation he is to our master. If I meet the scoundrel I'll knock him off-- and to hell with the consequences!"
He was letting his drunken fancy run wild when he heard runners shouting, "Clear the way!" Although some distance off, he stood still and heard one fellow whisper, "It's Prefect Jia coming."
Bao Yong was furious. Emboldened by drink he yelled, "Heartless slave! How could you forget our Jia family's goodness to you?"
Jia Yucun peered out from his chair at the sound of the name Jia, but seeing a drunkard he ignored him and went on.
Bao Yong, being drunk and reckless, swaggered back to the house to question his fellow servants, who confirmed that Jia Yucun owed his promotion to the ha family.
"Instead of remembering their kindness, he kicked them down," Bao Yong fumed. "When I cursed him just now he dared not answer back."
The servants in the Rong Mansion had always disliked Bao Yong, but their masters would not take any action against him. Now that he had made this row outside, they seized the chance when Jia Zheng was free to report that Bao Yong had been drunk and disorderly. This news an¬gered Jia Zheng, who was afraid of fresh trouble. He summoned Bao Yong and reprimanded him; but not liking to punish him ordered him to keep watch in the Garden and not to leave the place. Bao Yong was a
loyal, straightforward fellow who safeguarded his master's interests. Jia Zheng had berated him on the basis of hearsay, but not venturing to justify himself he packed up his things and moved into the Garden to keep watch there and water the plants.
To know what happened later, read the next chapter.

Chapter 108

Baochai's Birthday Is Celebrated
with Forced Mirth
Baoyu, Longing for the Dead, Hears Ghosts
Weeping in Bamboo Lodge



When Jia Zheng's petition to make over to the state his mansion and Grand View Garden was rejected by the court, as there was no one staying in the Garden he had the place locked up. Later, as it adjoined the quarters of Madam You and Xichun and its vast grounds were deserted, to punish Bao Yong he sent him there to keep watch.
ha Zheng was regulating the household now in accordance with his mother's instructions, gradually cutting down the staff and economizing in all possible ways; but still he could not manage. Luckily for him, xifeng was the old lady's favourite   although no love was lost between her and Lady Wang and the rest   and as she was an able manager the household affairs were once more entrusted to her. Since the raid, how¬ever, for lack of funds she had no scope to manoeuvre and because the mistresses and maids of the different apartments were used to luxury, with their income less than a third of what it had been she found it impos¬sible to satisfy them. Inevitably there were endless complaints. But Xifeng, in spite of her illness, dared not relinquish her task and did her best to please the Lady Dowager.
After Jia She and Jia Zhen reached their destinations, having money they settled down there for the time being, writing home that they were COrnfortably off and the family need not worry. This relieved the old lady's mind, and Lady Xing and Madam You took comfort too.
One day, Shi Xiangyun arrived on her first visit after her marriage. The old lady, to whom she paid her respects, complimented her on her husband; and Xiangyun told her that her whole family was well and she need have no anxiety on that score. Then, speaking of Daiyu's death, they both shed tears; and the thought of Yingchun's hard lot made the old lady even sadder. After trying to console her, Xiangyun paid a round of
calls on the others, returning to rest in the old lady's room. And now they spoke of the Xue family and how it had been ruined by Xue Pan; for though this year he had been granted a reprieve, there was no knowing whether his sentence would be commuted next year or not.
"You haven't heard the latest," said the old lady. "The other day Pan's wife died in mysterious circumstances, nearly causing another scandal~ Thanks to the mercy of Buddha, the maid she had brought with her made a clean breast of the business, so that old Mrs. Xia couldn't raise a row and stopped them from holding an inquest. The trouble your aunt had getting rid of the Xi as! So you see the truth of the saying 'All kinsmen share the same fate.' The Xues are in a bad way. Now the only one she has staying with her is Ke. He's a good-hearted lad who says he won't marry while Pan is still in jail, his case not settled; that's why your Cousin Xiuyan is staying with the Elder Mistress and having a thin time. Baoqin hasn't married yet either, because Academician Mei's son is still in mourning for him. The Second Mistress' elder brother has died, Xifeng's elder brother is a nincompoop, and that niggardly Second Uncle of theirs has embezzled public funds; so they're in hot water as well. As for the Zhen family, we've had no news of them since their house was raided."
"Has Cousin Tanchun written home since she left?" asked Xiangyun.
"After her marriage your uncle came back with the news that she was happily settled at the coast. We've had no letter from her, though, and I miss her the whole time; but what with all the troubles our family's had, there's nothing I can do. Now Xichun's marriage still has to be fixed. As for Huan, who has time for him? We're harder up now than we used to be when you stayed here. Poor Baochai hasn't passed a single day in comfort since she came to our family. And your Cousin Bao's still so crazy   what can we do?"
"I grew up here so I know all my cousins we~," Xiangyun replied. "They've all changed since last I was here. I thought at first they were holding aloof because I'd stayed away so long; but on thinking it over I realize it isn't that. When we met, I could see they meant to be as free¬and~easy as in the old days; but, somehow, once we got talking they grew depressed. That's why after sitting with them for a bit I came back
here to you, madam."
"The way we're living now is all right with me, but how can those young people stand it? I've been wondering how to give them a day's fun, but I haven't the energy for it."
"I have an idea!" cried Xiangyun. "It's Baochai's birthday, isn't it, the day after tomorrow? I can stay an extra day to congratulate her, and we'll all have a day's fun. What do you think, madam?"
"Anger must have addled my wits. If you hadn't reminded me, I'd have forgotten. Of course, the day after tomorrow is her birthday. I'll get out some money to celebrate it tomorrow. We had several parties for her in the past, but not since she married into the family. Baoyu used to be such a clever, mischievous boy, but our family misfortunes have left him speechless. Zhu's wife is still a good daughter-in-law, quietly bringing Lan up and behaving the same whether things go well or badly   it's hard on her."
"The one who's changed most is Cousin Xifeng," put in Xiangyun. "She's lost her good looks and her old gift of the gab. Wait till I tease them tomorrow and see how they react. But I'm afraid, though they won't say so, they'll secretly resent the fact that now I have... " She broke off at this point blushing.
"Don't worry," said the old lady seeing her embarrassment. "You and your cousins used to have a good time chaffing each other. You mustn't have such scruples. People should make the best of what they've got, able to enjoy rank and riches or to put up with poverty. Your Cousin Baochai has always been broadminded. When her family was well-off she wasn't the least bit conceited; later, when they got into trouble, she kept cheerful. Now that she's one of our family, when Baoyu treats her well she takes it calmly, and if he's bad to her it doesn't provoke her. I think that's her good fortune. Your Cousin Daiyu, on the other hand, was narrow-minded and hyper-sensitive; that's why she didn't live long. Xifeng, being more experienced, shouldn't let upsets influence her behaviour. If she's so foolish, that's rather petty too. Well, as the day after tomorrow is Baochai's birthday, I'll get out some silver for a lively celebration, to give her a happy day."
"You're quite right, madam. And while you're about it, why not
invite all her girl cousins too? Then we can have a good chat."
"I certainly will." More cheerful now, the old lady told Yuanyang to get out a hundred taels and order the servants to prepare two days' feasts, starting from the next day.
Yuanyang sent one of the matrons off with the money, after which the night passed uneventfully.
The next day, servants were sent to fetch Yingchun home. Aunt Xue and Baoqin were invited too, and asked to bring Xiangling. Aunt Li was also invited, and Li Wen and Li Qi with her.
Baochai was still in the dark when one of the old lady's maids ar¬rived with the message, Aunt Xue has come, and you're asked to go over, madam."
Without stopping to change her clothes, she went over happily to see her mother. She found assembled there her cousin Baoqin and Xiangling, as well as Aunt Li and others. Ascribing their visit to the news that the Jia family was no longer in trouble, she paid her respects to Aunt Li and to the old lady, said a few words to her mother, then greeted the Li sisters.
"Please take seats, ladies," urged Xiangyun, "while we girls wish Cousin Baochai a long life."
Baochai stood amazed, then thought, "Yes, of course tomorrow is my birthday."
"Jt's right and proper for you girls to come and see the old lady," she protested. "I can't have you saying that it's on my account."
Baoyu, come to greet Aunt Xue and Aunt Li, arrived in time to hear her modest rejoinder. He had been wanting to celebrate his wife's birth¬day, but had not ventured to suggest it to his grandmother because the household was at sixes and sevens. Now that Xiangyun and the rest were about to congratulate Baochai, he was delighted.
"It's tomorrow, her birthday," he said. "I was meaning to remind the old lady."
"For shame!" retorted Xiangyun playfully. "The old lady doesn't need any reminding. Do you suppose these visitors would have come if she hadn't invited them?"
~aochai could hardly believe this, but now she heard the old lady tell her mother, "Poor Baochai has been married for a year, but with one
thing after another cropping up here we've not celebrated her birthday. I'm giving this party for her today, and have asked you ladies over for a good chat."
"You shouldn't have put yourself out, madam," said Aunt Xue. "You've been having such an anxious time, and the child hasn't been dutiful enough."
"The old lady's favourite grandchild is Cousin Bao," quipped Xiangyun. "So why shouldn't his wife be a favourite too? Besides, Baochai deserves a birthday party."
Baochai lowered her head and said nothing.
Baoyu told himself, "I thought marriage was bound to turn Cousin Shi into a different person, so I was afraid to approach her and she ig¬nored me too; but it seems from the way she talks that she hasn't changed. In that case, why has Baochai grown so bashful since we married? She can hardly get a word out."
As he was wondering about this, a young maid came in to report Yingchun's return. Then Li Wan and Xifeng arrived too, and greetings were exchanged.
Yingchun mentioned that at the time of her father's departure she had wanted to see him of{ but her husband had forbidden her. "He said that our family was having a run of bad luck and I mustn't be tainted by it," she explained. "I couldn't talk him round so I didn't come, just cried for days on end."
"Then why did he let you come today?" asked Xifeng.
"He says it's all right to keep up the connection now that our Second Master has inherited the title." She wept again.
"I was feeling very depressed," complaind the old lady. "That's why I invited you all here today to celebrate my granddaughter-in-law's birthday. I thought some fun and laughter would cheer us up, but here you are provoking me by bringing up those tiresome things again."
Then Yingchun and the others dropped the subject.
Though Xifeng forced herseJf to crack a joke or two, she was less Witty and amusing than before; but the old lady egged her on, in the hope of diverting Baochai. And Xifeng, understanding this, did her best.
She said, "Today the old lady's feeling more cheerful. And look at all
these people who haven't foregathered for so long, here today all to-gether." There she broke off for, glancing round, she realized that her mother~in-law and Madam You were absent.
The two words "all together" reminded the old lady of them too, and she sent to invite them. Lady Xing, Madam You and Xichun had per¬force to come, although much against their wishes, reflecting that if the Lady Dowager was in the mood to celebrate Baochai's birthday  with the family half ruined - it showed her favouritism. Hence they arrived looking listless and apathetic. When asked about Xiuyan, Lady Xing made the excuse that she was unwell and the old lady said no more, knowing that Aunt Xue's presence made it embarrassing for Xiuyan to come.
Soon sweetmeats and wine were served. "We won't send any to the gentlemen outside," said the Lady Dowager. "Today's party is just for us womenfolk."
Baoyu, though a married man now, still had the freedom of the inner quarters because he was his grandmother's favourite. Being unable to sit with Xiangyun and Baoqin, he took a seat by the old lady and started toasting the guests one by one on Baochai's behalf.
"Sit down now and let's all drink," proposed the old lady. "You can go round and pay your respects to them later. If you do that now, every¬one will be formal and that would spoil my fun."
Baochai complied and sat down.
"Today we may as well let ourselves go," continued the old lady. "We'll just keep one or two maids to wait on us, and I'll tell Yuanyang to take Caiyun, Yinger, Xiren and Pinger to the back to drink by them¬selves."
The maids protested, "We haven't yet kowtowed to Madam Bao. How can we go off to drink?"
"Just do as I say," she answered. "We'll call you when we need You."
After Yuanyang had gone off with the other maids, the old lady urged Aunt Xue and the others to drink. But none of them behaved as they had ~ the old days.
"What's wrong with you?" she demanded frantically. 'q want every-
one to have fun!"
"We're eating and drinking   what more should we do?" asked xiangyun.
~They used to be young and gay," explained Xifeng. "Now they're standing too much on their dignity to talk wildly; that's why you find them rather quiet, madam."
Baoyu whispered, "There's nothing we can talk about, madam, be¬cause any talk's bound to lead to something depressing. Why don't you get them to play a drinking game?"
The old lady had inclined her head to listen. Now she remarked with a smile, "If we're to play drinking games we must call Yuanyang back."
Needing no further instrnctions, Baoyu went to the back to give her this message.
"Won't you let us drink a cup in peace, young master?" she pro¬tested. "Why come and disturb us?"
"It's trne," he insisted. "The old lady wants you there. This isn't my doing."
Yuanyang had to tell the others, "Just go on drinking, I'll be back before long." With that she rejoined the old lady.
'~So here you are, eb?" said the Lady Dowager. "We want to play drinking games."
"I came because Master Bao told me you wanted me, madam. What game would you like to play?"
"Those literary games are terribly dull, but rowdy ones are no good either. You must think of something fresh."
After a moment~s reflection Yuanyang said, "Aunt Xue at her age doesn't like to cudgel her brains, so why don't we fetch the dice-pot and toss for the names of melodies, making the losers drink?"
"Very well." The old lady sent for the dice-pot and had it put on the table.
"We'll throw four dice," Yuanyang announced, "Anyone who fails to produce a name must drink one cup as forfeit. If a name is thrown, the others will have to drink according to the pips."
"That sounds simple," said the rest. "We'll do as you say."
They made Yuanyang drink a cup and toss to see who should start,
counting from herself - and it happened to be Aunt Xue, who threw four ones.
"The name for this," said Yuanyang, "is 'The Four Elders of Shangshan.' Those getting on in years should drink." This meant the old lady, Aunt Li, Lady Xing and Lady Wang. But as the old lady raised her cup Yuanyang continued, "Since Aunt Xue threw this, she must give the name of a melody corresponding to it, and the one whose turn is next must follow with a Line of poetry. The forfeit if either of them fails is one cup.
~You're having me on!" objected Aunt Xue. "How can I possibly answer?"
"It's too tame if you don't," said the Lady Dowager. "so better make a try. It's my turn next, and if I can't think of a line I'll drink with you.
Then Aunt Xue said, "The melody's called Retreating into Flowers as Old Age Approaches."
The old lady nodded and quoted:
"Men may say that in idle moments I ape children."

Then the dice-pot was passed to Li Wen, who tossed two fours and two twos.
Yuanyang said, "This has a name too. It's 'Liu Zhen and Yuan Zhao Go to Mount Tiantai.'
Li Wen named the melody Two Scholars Go to Peach-blossom Stream, and Li Wan who was next to her quoted:

"Finding Peach-blossom Stream to escape from Qin."

All took a sip of wine, after which the dice-pot went to the old lady, who tossed two twos and two threes. "I suppose I shall have to drink," she said.
But Yuanyang told her, "There's a name for this: 'The Swallow on the River Leads Its Fledgelings.' Everybody has to drink."
"Many of the fledgelings have flown," began Xifeng, when glances from the others silenced her.
"Well, what shall I say?" the old lady went on. "The Grandfather Leads His Grandchildren."
Li Qi, the next, quoted:
"Idly watching children catching willow-catkins."

And this won general approval.
Baoyu was eager to try his hand but had to wait for his turn. While he was thinking the pot was set before him and he threw one two, two threes and a single one. He asked, "What is this called?"
Yuanyang smiled and replied, "It's no good. Drink up and throw again."
This time he threw two threes and two fours.
"This is called 'Zhang Chang Paints His Wife's Eyebrows,"' Yuanyang announced.
Baoyu knew that she was teasing, and Baochai blushed scarlet. But Xifeng, not catching on, urged him, "Answer quickly, Cousin Bao, so that we can pass on to the next."
He gave up then, saying sheepishly, "I'll pay the forfeit. There's no one after me either."
Then the dice-pot went to Li Wan who made her toss.
Yuanyang said, "You've thrown 'The Twelve Girls with Golden Hair¬pins."
Baoyu at once hurried over to have a look and saw that half the pips were red, half green. "Very pretty!" he exclaimed. Suddenly recalling his dream of twelve girls he went back to his seat in a daze. "Those twelve girls were supposed to be from Jinling," he mused. "How is it that of all those in our family only these few are left?" Seeing Xiangyun and Baochai there but not Daiyu, he ~t tears well up in his eyes and, to escape detection, excused himself on the pretext that he was hot and wanted to take off some clothes. Xiangyun, who noticed him slip away, supposed that he was sulking because he had tossed less successfully than the rest. She was rather vexed herself too because the game was so dull.
Then Li Wan said, "I'm stumped. There are people missing too. I'd better pay the forfeit."
"This game isn't much fun, let's give it up," suggested the old lady. "Let Yuanyang have a try. See what she gets."
A young maid put the dice-pot before Yuanyang, who did as she was
told, throwing two twos and one five. While the fourth dice was still rolling in the pot she cried. "Not a five!" But a five it was. "Too bad!" she exclaimed. "I've lost."
"Doesn't this count as anything?" asked the old lady.
"Well, it has a name, but I can't think what melody goes with it." "Tell me its name and I'll think up something for you."
"It's 'Water-weeds Swept by Waves.'
"That's not difficult. Here you are: Autumn Fish Amid Caltrops." Xiangyun who came next recited:

"I sang white water-weeds on the southern river in autumn."

"Very apt," approved the others.
"This game's finished. Let's drink a few cups, then have rice," pro¬posed the Lady Dowager, then noticed that the place beside her was empty. "Where has Baoyu gone? Why isn't he back yet?" she asked.
Yuanyang told her he had gone to change his clothes.
"Who went with him?"
Yinger stepped forward to report, "When I saw Master Bao going out I told Sister Xiren to go with him."
Their Ladyships felt reassured, but after waiting for a while Lady Wang sent a young maid in search of him. She went to the bridal cham¬ber where Wuer was setting out candles.
"Where is Master Bao?" asked the maid.
"Over with the old lady, drinking."
"I've just come from there, sent by Her Ladyship to find him. If he were there, why should she send me?"
"In that case I don't know where he is," said Wuer. "You'd better try somewhere else."
On her way back the maid met Qiuwen. "Have you seen Master Bao?" she asked her.
"I'm looking for him too," was the reply. "The mistresses are wait¬ing for him to start dinner. Wherever can he have got to? Hurry back and tell the old lady, not that he's not at home but that he's feeling out of Sorts after drinking and doesn't want any food. After resting for a little he'll rejoin them. He hopes Their Ladyships will start without him."
The young maid ran meekly off to give this message to Zhenzhu, who reported it to the Lady Dowager.
"He never eats much," the old lady said. "So missing a meal doesn't matter. Tell him to have a good rest and not to trouble to come back today as we have his wife here instead."
Zhenzhu asked the younger maid, "Did you hear that?"
Replying in the affirmative and not liking to tell them the truth, the girl went out for a stroll then came back to report that she had delivered this message. The others paid no attention and after their meal broke up into groups to chat. But enough of this.

Baoyu who had left the feast in a fit of distress was at a loss what to do. Xiren overtook him to ask what was amiss.
"Nothing," he answered. "I'm just bored. While they're drinking, suppose we stroll over to Madam You's place."
"She's with the old lady," Xiren pointed out. "How can you call on her?"
"I'm not thinking of calling on anyone, just of seeing what her place is like."
Xiren had to follow him, chatting as they made their way to Madam You's lodge, near which they saw a small gate left ajar. Instead of going in, Baoyu accosted two matrons in charge of the Garden who were sit¬ting on the threshold gossiping.
"Is this small gate always open?" he asked.
"No, it's usually kept shut," they answered. "Today, hearing that the old lady might be wanting fruit from the Garden, we opened it in readi¬ness."
He strolled over and looked at the half open gate. Before he could step through it Xiren stopped him.
"Don't go in there," she warned. "The Garden's unclean after being deserted for so long, and you might see another apparition."
Rather tipsily he boasted, "I'm not afraid of such things!"
Xiren tried hard to restrain him, but the old women butted in, "This Garden's been quiet ever since the priests haled off the evil spirits that day, and we often go in alone to pick flowers or fruit. If Master Bao
wants to go in we'll keep him company. There's safety in numbers!"
Baoyu was pleased and Xiren, unable to stop him, had to go along with them.
When Baoyu stepped into the Garden, it struck him as a scene of desolation. The plants were withering, and the paint was flaking off the lodges in various places. In the distance, however, he saw a clump of bamboo which was still luxuriant. After a second's thought he said, "Since moving out of the Garden because of my illness, I've been living in the hack and haven't been allowed to come here for months. How quickly the place has run wild! Look, the only green things left are those bam¬boos. Isn't that Bamboo Lodge?"
"After a few months away, you've even lost your bearings," Xiren told him. "We were so busy chatting, you didn't notice passing Happy Red Court." She turned and pointed behind. "Bamboo Lodge is over there."
He looked in the direction in which she was pointing. "Have we really passed it?" he asked dubiously. "Let's go back and have a look."
"It's getting late, time to go home. The old lady must be waiting for you to start dinner."
Baoyu made no answer but found the path and walked on. You may wonder, Reader, how he could possibly have forgotten the way, even after an absence of nearly a year. The fact is that Xiren had tried to fob him off for fear that the sight of Bamboo Lodge, reminding him of Daiyu, would distress him again. When she saw him heading straight there and was afraid that he might be bewitched, she had pretended that they had passed the place. But Baoyu had set his heart on visiting Barnboo Lodge. He strode swiftly ahead and she had to follow him, till he froze in his tracks as if watching or listening to something.
"Do you hear anything?" she asked.
"Is there anybody staying in Bamboo Lodge?"
"I shouldn't think so."
"I distinctly heard sobbing inside, so there must be someone."
"That's just your imagination. Because you often used to come here before and find Miss Lin weeping."
Baoyu did not believe her and wanted to go closer to hear better.
The matrons overtaking them urged, "Better go back, Master Bao. It's growing dark. Other places aren't scary, but this is out of the way and they say that since Miss Lin's death weeping has often been heard here, so everybody gives the place a wide berth."
Baoyu and Xiren were startled.
"So it's true!" he exclaimed, shedding tears. "Cousin Lin! Cousin Lin! There was nothing the matter with you, but I killed you! Don't hold it against me   my parents made the decision. It's not that I was un¬true!" Feeling broken-hearted he burst into loud sobbing.
Xiren was at her wit's end when Qiuwen and some others hurried towards them.
"Whatever possessed you?" Qiuwen asked Xiren. "Why bring Master Bao here of all places? Their Ladyships are so frantic, they've sent out search parties. Just now someone at the side-gate said the two of you had come here, so frightening Their Lady ships that they lashed out at me and ordered me to bring people here at once. Hurry up and go back!"
Baoyu was still weeping bitterly. Ignoring his sobs, Xiren and Qiuwen dragged him off, wiping his tears as they told him how wonried his grand¬mother was. He had no choice but to go back.
To allay the old lady's anxiety Xiren took him straight to her room, where the others were still waiting.
"Xiren!" stormed the Lady Dowager. "I entrusted Baoyu to you think¬ing you had some sense. How could you take him to the Garden today, with him just over his illness? If something had given him a turn and brought on another fit, what should we have done?"
Not venturing to justify herself, the maid hung her head in silence. Baochai was appalled too by Baoyu's unhealthy colour, thus it was left to him to exonerate Xiren.
"What does it matter in broad daylight?" he asked. "It's so long since I've had a stroll in the Garden that I went there after drinking to clear my head. How could anything there possibly give me a turn?"

Xifeng, who had been so terrified in the Garden, shivered with fright at this. "Cousin Bao's too reckless!" she cried.
"Not reckless but loyal," put in Xiangyun. "He must have gone to find the Hibiscus Spirit, or in search of some other goddess!"
Baoyu made no reply, and Lady Wang was too worried to get a word out.
"Did anything frighten you in the Garden?" the old lady asked him. "Well, don't talk about it now. If you want to stroll there in future, you must take more people with you. If not for this rumpus you made, our party would have broken up long ago. Go and have a good night's sleep now, everyone, and mind you come early tomorrow. I want to make it up to you all by giving you another day of fun. Don't let this rumpus he kicked up upset you.
Then they all took their leave, Aunt Xue going to spend the night with Lady Wang while Xiangyun stayed with the Lady Dowager, and Yingchun went with Xichun. The others all returned to their own quarters.
Baoyu, back in his room, heaved sigh after sigh but Baochai, knowing the reason for this, ignored him. However, for fear that his grief might bring back his old illness, she called Xiren into the inner room to ask her just what had happened in the Garden. If you want to know Xiren's answer, read the next chapter.

Chapter 109

Baoyu Waits for a Fragrant Spirit and
Wuer Is Loved by Default
Yingchun Pays Her Mortal Debt and Returns
to the Primal Void



After Baochai had heard Xiren's story, for fear lest Baoyu should fall ill from grief she spoke to her, as if casually, of Daiyu's death.
'People feel for each other while on earth," she said. "But after death they go their separate ways, no longer the same as in life. Even if the one still living remains fond, the one who is dead can't know it. Be¬sides, Miss Lin is said to have become an immortal, so to her all men on earth must be unbearably vulgar and she'd never stoop to coming back. To imagine otherwise is to invite evil spirits to take possession of you."
Aware that these remarks were intended for Baoyu's ears, Xiren chimed in, "That's true, her corning back is out of the question. I was on good terms with her too, so if her spirit were still in the Garden how is it I've never seen her once in my dreams?"
Baoyu eavesdropping outside thought to himself, "Yes, this is strange! Though I've thought of her time and again each day since her death, why has she never appeared to me in dreams? She must have gone up to Heaven, I suppose, and because I'm too vulgar to have any communica¬tion with the divine I've not once dreamed of her. Well, tonight I'll sleep in the outer room and maybe, now that I've visited the Garden, she'll know my heart and ~et me dream of her. I must ask her where she's actually gone and offer regular sacrifices to her. If she'll really have nothing to do with a lout like me and won't let me dream of her, then I'll stop thinking about her."
His mind made up, he announced, "Tonight I'm going to sleep in the outer room, and you can just let me be."
Baochai made no attempt to dissuade him, only saying, "Don't go imagining all sorts of things. Didn't you see how worried your mother was  too worried to speak  because you went to the Garden? If you
don't look after your health and the old lady hears of it, she'll blame us for not taking better care of you.
"I just said that for fun," he answered. "I'll join you after sitting here awhile. You must be tired; you'd better turn in first."
Believing him, Baochai prevaricated, "I'll go to bed and let Xiren wait on you.
This was just what Baoyu wanted. After Baochai had retired he told Xiren and Sheyue to make up a bed for him outside, then sent them in several times to see whether she was sleeping yet or not. She pretended that she was, but in fact stayed awake all night.
When he thought Baochai was asleep he told Xiren, "I want you all to turn in. I've stopped feeling upset. If you don't believe me you can wait till I've dropped off before going inside, but mind you don't disturb me.
Xiren helped him to bed, made his tea then went inside, closing the door behind her, to attend to other things, after which she lay down fully dressed, ready to go out if summoned.
As soon as she had gone, Baoyu dismissed the two matrons who were sitting up to keep watch. Then he quietly sat up to pray below his breath before lying down once more. At first he could not sleep; but once he had calmed himself he dozed off and slept soundly all night, not wak¬ing until dawn. He sat up, rubbing his eyes, and thought back - no, he'd had no dream. With a sigh he recited the lines:
One living and one dead, sundered for years,
Her spirit never appeared to him in his dreams.1
Baochai who had passed a sleepless night herself heard this from the inner room. "That's a wild way to talk!" she called out. "If Cousin Lin were alive she'd take offence again."
Baoyu got up in embarrassment and went sheepishly in to tell her, "I meant to come in but somehow or other I happened to fall asleep."
"What's it to me whether you come in or not?" she retorted.
Xiren had not slept either. At the sound of their voices she promptly came in to pour tea. Then a young maid arrived, sent by the old lady, to inquire whether Baoyu had passed a good night or not and to tell him that,

~	~
if he had, he should go over with Madam Bao as soon as they were dressed.
Xiren sent her back with the message that Baoyu had slept well and would soon be going over.
After a hasty toilet, Baochai went ahead with Yinger and Xiren to pay her respects to the Lady Dowager, then to Lady Wang and Xifeng. By the time she rejoined the old lady Aunt Xue had arrived.
When asked if Baoyu had slept well, Baochai told them, "He's quite all right. He went to sleep as soon as we got back." Then, their minds relieved, they chatted.
And now a young maid came in to report, "Miss Yingchun has to go home. They say Mr. Sun sent servants to complain to the Elder Mistress, who sent word to Miss Xifeng to let her go back. Miss Yingchun's weeping in the Elder Mistress' room. She should be coming soon to say goodbye."
The others, sad to hear this, deplored Yingchun's fate.
"Such a brute of a husband has ruined her life," the old lady sighed.
Then Yingchun, her face tear-stained, came in to take her leave. As this was Baochai's birthday she had to choke back her grief, and know¬ing how strictly she was controlled her grandmother could not detain her.
"All right, you'd better go back," she said. "But don't be so upset. It's no use crying over spilt milk. I'll send for you again in a few days' time."
"You've always been goodness itself to me, madam," sobbed Yingchun. "But now there's nothing you can do. And I'm afraid this is the last time I shall see you!"
"What's to stop you from coming again?" the others remonstrated. "Your third sister's worse off, so far away that she's hardly any chance of coming home."
The thought of Tanchun reduced them all to tears.
But as this was Baochai's birthday, the old lady tried to strike a more cheerful note. "It's not impossible," she said. "Once peace is restored along the coast and her father-in-law is transferred to the capital, we shall see each other again."
"That's true," the rest agreed.
Then Yingchun had to leave disconsolately. Having seen her out the others rejoined the old lady, who entertained them till the evening when as she looked tired they dispersed.
Aunt Xue went back with Baochai to whom she said, "Your brother's got by this year. When there's an Imperial amnesty and his sentence is commuted, we can try to ransom him. But how am I to manage these next few years on my own? I'd like to get Xue Ke married. Do you think that a good idea?"
"You had doubts about it before, mother, because you were horrified by my sister-in-law," Baochai answered. "I think it's high time that you saw to this. You know Xiuyan and what a thin time she's having here. Once she marries into our family, though we're poor, at least she'll be much better off than staying here as a dependent."
"Then find a chance to mention it to the old lady. Tell her I need someone to help out, and so I want to fix the wedding day."
"Why not just discuss it with Cousin Ke? When you've chosen a good day you can come and tell the old lady and Elder Mistress, then take her over and be done with it. The Elder Mistress here is eager to get her married off."
"I heard today that your Cousin Shi's going back too. The old lady wanted to keep Baoqin for a few days and she's staying. As I think that sooner or later she'll be leaving home to get married, you'd better take this chance to have some good talks."
"Yes, mother, I will."
After sitting there for a while Aunt Xue said goodbye to the others and went home.
When Baoyu returned to his quarters that evening he thought, "The fact that I didn't dream of Daiyu last night may be because she has become an immortal and doesn't want to meet vulgar oafs like me; or it may be because I'm too impatient."
That gave him an idea and he told Baochai, "Last night I happened to doze off outside, and slept so much more soundly than in here that I woke up this morning feeling refreshed. So   if you've no objection   I'd like to sleep outside for a couple more nights."
Baochai knew from the poetry he had recited that morning that he
was thinking of Daiyu, and that there was no reasoning with such a simple¬ton. She decided she might as well let him have his own way until he himself lost hope, especially as he had slept well the previous night.
"What's that got to do with me?" she asked. "You can sleep wher¬ever you like; why should we stop you? But don't let your fancy run wild or put a jinx on yourself."
"What an idea!" he chuckled.
"Take my advice, Master Bao, and sleep inside," put in Xiren. "If you're not well looked after outside and catch cold, that will be bad." Before he could answer, Baochai tipped Xiren a wink and she continued, "Very well then. We'll get somebody to keep you company, to pour you tea during the night."
"In that case, you stay with me," he said with a smile.
Xiren flushed crimson with embarrassment and did not answer him. Knowing how staid she was Baochai proposed, "She's used to stay¬ing with me, so let her do that. Sheyue and Wuer can look after you. Besides, she's tired out after dancing attendance on me all day; we should let her have a good rest."
Baoyu went out gleefully.
Baochai told Sheyue and Wuer to make a bed for him in the outer room and to sleep lightly themselves and see to his tea. Assenting to this, they went out and found Baoyu seated bolt upright on the bed, his eyes closed and his hands folded just like a monk. Not daring to speak, they stared at him in amusement. Xiren, sent out by Baochai to see that he had all he wanted, was amused by this sight too.
"It's time to sleep," she said softly. "Why are you practising yoga?"
Baoyu opened his eyes and seeing who it was replied, "You all go to bed. I'll sit here a bit then sleep."
"The way you behaved yesterday kept Madam Bao awake all night. Are you starting all over again?"
Knowing that none of them would sleep if he stayed up, Baoyu lay down. Xiren gave the two other girls some final instructions then went inside, closing the door, and retired for the night.
Sheyue and Wuer spread out their quilts too, and when Baoyu had lain down they went to bed. But Baoyu could not sleep. As he watched them
unfolding their quilts he had recalled the time during Xiren's absence when Qingwen and Sheyue had waited on him. Sheyue had gone out in the night and Qingwen, to frighten her, had slipped out in her night clothes and caught cold   it was that illness that later carried her off. At this memory his heart went out to Qingwen. And mindful, suddenly, of Xifeng describing Wuer as the image of her, he shifted his longing for Qingwen to her double. While shamming sleep he peeped at Wuer, and more and more she looked to him like Qingwen, making him quite enraptured. There was no sound now from the inner room and he assumed that the occu¬pants were asleep. Not knowing whether Sheyue was awake or not, he called her a couple of times but received no answer.
Wuer hearing him asked, "Do you want something, Master Bao?"
'I want to rinse my mouth."
Since Sheyue was asleep, Wuer had to get up. Having trimmed the can~e she poured him a cup of tea, holding ready the spittoon in her other hand. She had got up in a hurry wearing only a peach-red silk shift, her hair loosely knotted. To Baoyu she appeared the reincarnation of Qingwen. He bethought himself abruptly of Qingwen's saying, "If I'd known I was going to get a bad name, I'd have committed myself." He gaped at Wuer, neglecting to take the cup.
Now after Fangguan's dismissal, Wuer had lost interest in coming into service here. But when later she heard that Xifeng was sending her to work for Baoyu, she was more eager for this than Baoyu himself. After her arrival, however, she was overawed by Baochai and Xiren and found Baoyu deranged and less handsome than before; moreover she heard that Lady Wang had dismissed certain maids for playing around with him, and so she gave up her girlish infatuation. Yet tonight her wit¬less master, taking her for Qingwen, was attracted to her. Wuer blushed all over her face. Not venturing to raise her voice she said softly:
"Rinse your mouth, Master Bao."
He took the tea with a smile, but forgetting to rinse his mouth asked with a grin, "You and Sister Qingwen were on good terms, weren't you?"
In bewilderment she answered, "We were like sisters; of course we were on good terms."
"When Qingwen was dying and I went to see her, weren't you there
too?" he asked softly.
She smiled and nodded.
"Did you hear her say anything?"
"No." She shook her head.
Forgetting himself, he took her hand. Wuer blushed furiously, her heart beating fast.
"Master Bao!" she whispered. "Say what you have to say, but keep your hands to yourself."
He dropped her hand then and told her, "She said to me, 'If I'd known I was going to get a bad name, I'd have committed myself.' Did you hear that?"
Wuer felt this was a challenge, yet dared not rise to it. "That was a shameless thing to say," she answered. "How can young girls talk like that?"
"Are you such a moralist?" he cried frantically. "It's because you look just like her that I confided this to you. Why run her down in that way?"
Not knowing what was in his mind she said, "It's late. You'd better sleep, Master Bao. If you keep sitting up you may catch cold. What did Madam Bao and Sister Xiren tell you?"
"I'm not cold." Suddenly remembering that she was in her night clothes, he was afraid she might catch cold like Qingwen. "Why didn't you put more on before bringing my tea?" he asked.
"You sounded in such a hurry, what time did I have for that? If I'd known you'd keep talking so long, I'd have put on something warmer.
At once he offered her the pale grey silk padded jacket which was lying over his quilt, and urged her to put it on.
She refused, saying, "Keep it yourself, Master Bao. I'm not cold. Anyway, I have clothes of my own.
She went back to her bed and slipped into a long gown, listening to make sure that Sheyue was still sound asleep, then came back slowly and asked, "Don't you want to have a good rest tonight, Master Bao?"
"Not a bit of it!" he answered with a smile. "To tell you the truth, I'm hoping to meet a goddess."
"What goddess?" she asked, even more bewildered.
'~If you want to know, it's a long story. Sit down next to me and I'll tell you.
'How can I sit down with you lying there?" she asked blushing.
"Why shouldn't you? It was very cold that year when Qingwen played a trick on Sheyue, and for fear she might catch cold I tucked her under my quilt. What does it matter? It's hypocritical to be so prudish."
It sounded to Wuer as if he were flirting with her. Little did she know that this foolish master of hers was speaking from his heart. She was at a loss, equally averse to leaving, standing there or sitting down.
"Don't talk such nonsense," she said playfully. "Suppose someone was to hear? No wonder people say you waste all your time on girls! You have Madam Bao and Sister Xiren, both as pre~y as goddesses, yet you insist on fooling around with others. If you go on talking that way I'll report it to Madam Bao  then what face will you have left?"
Just then they were startled by a sound outside. Baochai in the inner room coughed. Baoyu at once pursed his lips, and at this signal Wuer put out the light and tiptoed back to bed. Actually, because Baochai and Xiren had not slept the night before and today had been a busy day for them both, they had slept through the conversation. The sound in the courtyard made them wake with a start and prick up their ears, but nothing more could they hear. Baoyu in bed wondered, "Could Cousin Lin have come? Maybe hearing me talk she decided to give us a fright." He tossed and turned, giving way to foolish fancies, not falling into a troubled sleep till dawn.
Because Baoyu had fooled about with her half the night and then Baochai had coughed, Wuer had a guilty conscience and was afraid her mistress had overheard them. Filled with misgivings she could not sleep all night. When she got up the next morning, as Baoyu was still dead to the world she tidied the room.
"Why get up so early?" Sheyue asked. "Couldn't you sleep last night?"
Suspecting from this that Sheyue knew what had happened, Wuer 5miled sheepishly and made no reply. I'resently Baochai and Xiren got up too. When they opened the door and saw Baoyu still slumbering, they Wondered how he had managed to sleep so soundly the last two nights
outside.
Baoyu woke to find them all up. He sat up quickly, rubbing his eyes, and thought back. No, he had not drearned last night either. So it must be tiue that "The ways of immortals and mortals never meet." Getting slowly out of bed he recalled Wuer's remark during the night that both Baochai and Xiren were as pretty as goddesses. Indeed they were! He stared at Baochai as if stunned. She assumed he was thinking of Daiyu, but could not tell whether he had dreamed of her or not. Put out by his stare she asked:
"Did you meet a goddess last night?"
Imagining that she must have overheard them he faltered, "What do you mean?"
Wuer, too conscience-stricken to speak, waited for Baochai to go on.
"Did you hear Master Bao talk with someone in his sleep?" Baochai asked her with a smile, making Baoyu beat a discomfited retreat.
Red in the face, Wuer mumbled, "He did say something   I couldn't catch it clearly   in the first part of the night. Something about 'getting a bad name' and 'not committing herself.' I couldn't made it out and begged Master Bao to sleep. Then I fell asleep myself, so I don't know whether he said anything more.
Baochai lowered her head and thought, "He obviously had Daiyu in mind. If we let him stay outside, he may get more deranged and some flower fairy or tree spirit may take possession of him. Besides, his illness was brought on by his strong feeling for her. If only there were some way to divert his affection to me, he'd get over it." At this idea, she blushed up to her ears and went sheepishly back to her room to do her hair.

The old lady's improved spirits these last two days had made her overeat, and that evening she was out of sorts. The next day her chest felt constricted; however, she would not let Yuanyang report this to Jia Zheng.
"I've been rather greedy these two days and had too much to eat," she said. "Missing a meal will set me right. Don't make a fuss about it." So Yuanyang and the others kept quiet.
When Baoyu went home that evening, Baochai had just come back from paying her respects to the old lady and Lady Wang. The sight of her reminded him of her remarks that morning, making him rather ashamed. Seeing how put out he looked and knowing what a sentimentalist he was, she decided to use his infatuation to cure him.
"Are you going to sleep outside again tonight?" she asked.
"Outside or inside   it's all the same to me," he answered glumly.
She wanted to say more but could not get the words out.
"Well, just what does that mean?" asked Xiren. "I don't believe you slept so well outside."
Wuer seized this chance to add, "When Master Bao sleeps outside, the only snag is that he talks in his sleep in a way we can't understand, yet we dare not talk back."
"I'll move my bed outside tonight to see whether I talk in my sleep or not," said Xiren. "You two move Master Bao's bedding back to the inner room."
Baochai said nothing. Baoyu, too ashamed to argue, let them move his bedding inside.
Now Baoyu in his contrition wanted to set Baochai's mind at rest, while she, for fear lest longing might drive him distracted, thought it best to show affection to win him over  to take Daiyu's place in his heart. So that evening when Xiren moved out, he made abject advances which Baochai naturally did not reject. And thus that night at last their marriage was consummated. Later she conceived, but that need not concern us now.

When next day husband and wife had got up together, after Baoyu had dressed he set off first to see his grandmother. As she was so fond of him and thought Baochai dutiful too, it suddenly occurred to her to make Yuanyang open a case and get out a Han-Dynasty jade, an heirloom of hers. Though less precious than Baoyu's jade, it was a rare pendant.
Yuanyang found the jade and handing it over remarked, "I don't be¬lieve I've ever seen this before. Fancy you remembering so clearly, madam, the exact case and box it was in after all these years! By looking Where you told me I found it in a jiffy. But what do you want this for,
madam?"
'I'll tell you. This jade was given by my great-grandfather to my father. Since I was my father's favourite, just before I married he sent for me and gave me this himself, saying, 'This jade is a pendant of the kind worn in the Han Dynasty; it's very precious. Keep it to remind you of me.' I was young at the time I took it and didn't set much store by it, so I left it in the case. And after I came to this house and saw how many knick-knacks we had here, this seemed nothing special so I never wore it, and there it's lain for more than sixty years. Now seeing how dutiful Baoyu is to me, as he's lost his own jade I decided to get this out and give it to him, just as my father gave it to me."
Just then Baoyu arrived to pay his respects.
The old lady said gaily, "Come here, I've something to show you.
He walked up to her bed and she handed him the Han jade. A close scrutiny revealed that it was some three inches square, shaped like a musk-melon, pinkish, and very well carved. Baoyu was loud in his praise.
"You like it?" asked the old lady. "This was given me by my great-grandfather. Now I'm passing it on to you."
Smilingly Baoyu bowed his thanks and wanted to take the jade to show his mother.
"If your mother sees it," the old lady said, "She'll tell your father and he'll say that I love my grandson more than my son! They've never even seen this."
Baoyu went off cheerfully, leaving Baochai and the others to talk a little longer before taking their leave.
After this the Lady Dowager fasted for two days, yet the congestion of her chest persisted and she had dizzy spells and fits of coughing. When Lady Xing, Lady Wang and Xifeng came to pay their respects and saw that she looked quite cheerful, they simply sent to notify Jia Zheng, who imniediately came over. On leaving, he sent for a doctor to examine her. Before long the doctor arrived and felt her pulses. He diagnosed that the old lady had caught a chill as a result of not eating regularly, but some ~edicine to help the digestion and expel the cold would cure her. He Wrote out a prescription. Jia Zheng, noting that the ingredients were ordi¬nary medicines, told servants to prepare this for his mother. He himself
came each morning and evening to inquire afrer her health. When three days had passed and there was no improvement, he told Jia Lian to make haste to find some better doctor.
'~I don't think those doctors we usually have are much good," he explained. "That's why I want you to find one to diagnose her illness correctly."
Jia Lian reflected and said, "I remember that year when Cousin Bao fell ill, we got a man who wasn't a professional to cure him. We'd better call him in again."
"Medicine is abstruse, and the least celebrated physicians are often the best," Jia Zheng agreed. "Send to ask him over."
Jia Lian assented and left, returning to report, "That Doctor Liu has recently left town to teach. He only comes back every ten days or so. As we can't wait, I've invited another man who should be here presently." Then they had to wait.
All the ladies of the house called daily to ask after the old lady's illness. They were all assembled there one day when in came the old woman in charge of the Garden's side-gate.
She announced, 'Sister Miaoyu of Green Lattice Nunnery has heard of the old lady's illness and come to pay her respects."
"She's a rare visitor," they said. "Since she's called today, hurry up and show her in."
Xifeng went to the old lady's bedside to tell her this, while Xiuyan
Miaoyu's old friend  went out to meet her. Miaoyu was wearing a nun's cap, a pale grey plain silk tunic under a long, sleeveless checked jacket with dark silk borders, a yellow silk sash and a white skirt with dark designs. Holding a whisk and her beads she swept gracefully in, attended by a maid.
Having greeted her Xiuyan said, "When I stayed in the Garden 1 could often drop in to see you; but now that it's so deserted I don't like to go in on my own, and the side-gate is usually closed, so I haven't seen you for ages. I'm so glad you've come!"
"You were all of you so lively in the old days that even when you were living in the Garden I didn't feel it appropriate to call too often," Miaoyu replied. "Now I know their family isn't doing too well and I hear
the old lady is ill; so I've been thinking of you and would like to see Baochai too. What do I care whether you lock the gate or not? I come and go as I please. If I didn't want to come, you couldn't get me here even by invitation."
'I see you haven't changed in the least," Xiuyan chuckled.
Chatting together they entered the old lady~s room. When the others had greeted Miaoyu, she approached the old lady's bed to ask after her health and exchange civilities.
~Can you, who are saintly, tell me whether I shall get over this illness or not?" asked the Lady Dowager.
"A kindly old lady like you is bound to live to a great age," Miaoyu assured her. "You've just caught cold, and a few doses of medicine should set you right. Old people shouldn't worry."
'~I'm not the worrying sort," replied the old lady. "I always try to have fun. And I'm not feeling too bad, simply rather bloated. Just now the doctor said it's because I was vexed, but you know very well that nobody here would dare vex me. He can't be much good at diagnosis, can he? As I told Lian, the first doctor was right when he diagnosed a chill and indigestion. Tomorrow we're going to ask him over again." She told Yuanyang to order the kitchen to prepare Miaoyu some vegetarian dishes.
"I've had my lunch," said the nun. "I won't eat anything, thank you."
"That's all right," said Lady Wang. "But stay a little longer to chat."
"Yes, I haven't seen you all for so long, today I had to come.
They talked for a while until Miaoyu rose to leave. Turning round she saw Xichun standing there and asked, "Why are you so thin, Fourth Sis¬ter? Don't let your fondness for painting wear you out!"
"I haven't painted for ages," Xichun told her. "I don't feel like it because my present rooms aren't as light as those in the Garden."
"Where are you living?"
"In that house east of the gate you came through. It's very close if you care to drop in."
"I'll call when I'm in the mood," Miaoyu promised her.
Then Xichun and the others saw her out. On their return, hearing that
the doctor had arrived they dispersed.
The Lady Dowager's illness grew daily worse, no medicine proving effective, and later she developed diarrhoea too. Worried because she was not likely to recover, Jia Zheng sent to ask leave from his yamen and be and his wife attended her day and night. One day she took some nourishment, and they were feeling relieved when they saw an old woman peeping through the door. Caiyun, told by Lady Wang to see who she was, recognized her as one of the serving-women who had accompanied Yingchun to the Sun family.
"What brings you here?" she asked.
"I've been waiting outside for sorne time but couldn't find a soul, and I dared not burst in   I was frantic!"
"Why, what's wrong? Has Mr. Sun been bullying your young lady again?"
"My young lady's dying! The day before yesterday they had a row and she cried all night long. Yesterday she was choking, her throat blocked up with phlegm, yet they wouldn't get a doctor. Today she's worse!"
"The old lady's ill; don't kick up such a shindy."
Lady Wang inside had heard their conversation. Fearing that the old lady would be upset if she knew this, she ordered Caiyun to take the woman away. But the Lady Dowager lying there quietly had overheard them too.
"Is Yingchun dying?" she asked.
"No, madam," said Lady Wang. "These women are all alarmists. She says Yingchun hasn't been well the last couple of days and may take Some time to recover. They want us to get her a doctor."
"My doctor's a good one. Have him fetched at once."
Lady Wang told Caiyun to send the woman to report this to Lady Xing.
When the woman had left, the old lady lamented, "Of my three grand¬daughter5, one died after enjoying great good fortune; the third has mar¬ried so far from home that I shan't be able to see her again; Yingchun
a hard time but I thought she might pull through, never dreaming
'd die so young! What is there for an old woman like me to live for?"
Lady Wang, Yuanyang and the rest consoled her at length. Baochai
and Li Wan were absent at the time and Xifeng had recently fallen ill again. Now Lady Wang sent for them to keep the old lady company, for fear lest grief should aggravate her illness. Returning then to her own quarters, she sent for Caiyun.
"What a fool that woman is!" she scolded. "In future when I'm with the old lady and you have something to report, it can wait." The maids agreed to this.
Just as the serving-woman reached Lady Xing's apartments, word came that Yingchun was dead. Her mother wept. In Jia She's absence, she had to send Jia Lian to the Sun family to find out the situation. Since the old lady was so ill, nobody dared tell her the news. Alas, that this girl fair as a flower or the moon should be hounded to death by the Sun family after little more than a year of marriage! As the old lady was at death's door the others could not leave her, but had to let the Sun family arrange the funeral in perfunctory fashion.
The Lady Dowager, failing from day to day, longed to see her grand¬daughters and nieces. Her thoughts turned to Xiangyun and she sent to fetch her. The servant on her return slipped in to find Yuanyang, but could not enter the old lady's room where Yuanyang happened to be with Lady Wang and others. Instead she went to the back where she found Hupo.
"The old lady wanted to see Miss Shi and sent us to ask her to come, she told her. "But we found her crying her heart out, because her husband's desperately ill, and the doctors say he's not likely to recover unless it turns into consumption   in which case he may drag on for another four or five years. So Miss Shi is frantic. She knows the old lady is ill, but she can't come. She told me, too, not to mention this to her grand-aunt. If the old lady asks, she hopes you'll make up some excuse for her." Hupo exclaimed in dismay but did not answer. After some time she told the other to go. Not liking to report this, she decided to tell Yuanyang and ask her to make up some story. She went to the old lady's bedside then and found her in a critical condition. As there were many people standing round murmuring that it seemed there was no hope, Hupo had to hold her tongue
Jia	Zheng quietly drew Jia Lian aside and whispered some instruc¬0 which he assented softly. He then went out to summon all the
tions t
stewards at home.
"The old lady's sinking fast," be said. "You're to send at once to make the necessary preparations. First, get out the coffin and have it lined. Then get the measurements of the whole household and order tai¬lors to make mourning for them. The funeral retinue must be arranged too, and more hands will be needed to help in the kitchen."
Lai Da told him, "You needn't worry, Second Master. We've got it all figured out. But where is the money to come from?"
~You needn't raise money outside," replied Jia Lian. "The old lady has kept a sum in readiness. Just now the master told me that it must be handsomely done   we want a good show."
The stewards assented and went off to see to these matters while he returned to his own quarters.
"How is your mistress today?" he asked Pinger.
Pinger pouted towards the inner room. "Go in and see her."
He did so and found Xifeng, exhausted by dressing, leaning against the small table on the kang.
"I'm afraid you can't rest now," he told her. "The old lady will be gone by tomorrow at the latest, so you can't keep out of it. Hurry up and get somebody to clear up here, then make the effort to go over there. If it comes to the worst, we shan't be able to come back today."
"What is there here to clear up?" retorted Xifeng. "We've only these few things left, so what does it matter? You go first; the master may want you. I'll come when I've changed my clothes."
Jia Lian went ahead to the old lady's place and whispered to Jia Zheng that all the preparations had been made. Jia Zheng nodded. Then the doctor was announced. Jia Lian invited him in to feel the old lady's pulse. After some time he withdrew and quietly told Jia Lian, "The old lady's pulse is very weak. Be prepared...."
Jia Lian understood and told Lady Wang, who signalled to Yuanyang and, when she came over, sent her off to make ready the garments in which to lay out the old lady. At this point the Lady Dowager opened her eyes and asked for some tea. Lady Xing gave her a cup of ginseng broth but after tasting it she said:
"Not this. Give me a cup of tea."
Forced to humour her, they brought it immediately. She took two sips, then said, "I want to sit up."
"If you want something, madam, just tell us," urged Jia Zheng. "There is no need to sit up."
"After a little drink I feel better," she answered. "Prop me up on the pillow so that I can talk to you."
Zhenzhu gently propped her up, and they saw that she did look better. To know whether she lived or died, read the next chapter.

Chapter 110

The Lady Dowager Passes Away
Peacefully
Xifeng Is Powerless and
Loses Support


Sitting up the old lady said, "I've lived in your family sixty years and more, from girlhood to old age, and had more than my share of good fortune. Reckoning from your father down, all my sons and grandsons are good. But Baoyu whom I've been so fond of..." She broke off here and looked round. Lady Wang pushed Baoyu to her bedside and the old lady reaching out one hand from the quilt took his hand.
"You must make good, child!"she exhorted him.
"Yes, madam." He felt a pang but dared not cry, simply standing there while his grandmother continued, "I shall be content if I can see another great-grandson born. Where is my Lan?"
As Li Wan pushed him forward, the old lady let go of Baoyu and took Lan's hand.
"You must be a dutiful son," she said. "Make your mother feel proud of you when you grow up! Where is Xifeng?"
Xifeng, standing near the bed, stepped forward saying, "Here I am."
"You're too clever, child; you must do more good works. I haven't done many myself, simply letting others take advantage of me. I never went in much for fasting or chanting Buddhist scriptures, except that year when I had all those copies of the Diamond Sutra made. Have they all been distributed?"
"Not yet," was Xifeng's reply.
"Then hurry up and have them all given away. Our Elder Master and Zhen are enjoying themselves outside, but the most heartless one of all is that little wretch Xiangyun who still hasn't come to see me!"
Yuanyang and those who knew the reason said nothing. Next the old lady looked at Baochai and sighed. Her face was flushed now, a sign as Jia Zheng knew that the end was near. He offered her some ginseng
broth, but already her jaws were locked and her eyes closed. She opened them, however, for a last look round the room. Lady Wang and Baochai stepped forward and gently propped her up, while Lady Xing and Xifeng changed her clothes. Meanwhile serving-women had prepared the bier and spread bedding over it. Now they heard a rattling in her throat, and a smile overspread her face as she breathed her last   at the age of eighty-three. The women hastily laid her on the bier.
Jia Theng and the other men knelt down in the outer room, Lady Xing and the other ladies inside, and together they lamented. The stewards' prepara¬tions outside were complete. As soon as they heard the news, all the gates of the Rong Mansion were thrown wide open and pasted with white paper. Funeral sheds were erected as well as an archway in front of the main gate. The family and the domestics lost no time in putting on mourning.
Jia Zheng reported his mother's death, and the Ministry of Rites pe¬titioned the Emperor for leave for him. The Most High in deep compas¬sion, in view of ~he Jia family's past achievements and the fact that the old lady was the Imperial Consort's grandmother, bestowed on Jia Zheng one thousand taels of silver and ordered the Ministry of Rites to take charge of the sacrifice. The stewards spread word of the old lady's death and, though ihe Jia family had declined, when their relatives and friends saw the favour shown them by the Emperor they all came to offer their condolences. An auspicious day was chosen for coffining the dead and the coffin was deposited in the hall.
In the absence of ha She, Jia Zheng was the head of the house. Baoyu, Jia Huan and Jia Lan, as young descendants, had to keep watch by the coffin. Jia L~an, though a grandson too, undertook with Jia Rong's assistance to assign the menservants' tasks. Certain kinsmen were also invited to help out.
As for the ladies, Lady Xing, Lady Wang, Li Wan, Xifeng and Baochal were to lament by the coffin. Madam You should by rights have helped organize the household, as since Jia Zhen's departure she had been stay¬ing in the Rong Mansion; but she had never shown any initiative and had little knowledge of its management. Jia Rong's wife, it goes without say¬ing, was even less competent while young Xichun although she had grown up in the Rong Mansion knew nothing about its domestic affairs. So none
of these could take charge.
Xifeng was the only one capable of undertaking the task, and indeed with Jia Lian in charge outside it seemed appropriate to have her helping him inside. Emboldened by her previous experience of superintending Qin Keqing's funeral, she was confident that here was another chance to display her ability; and Their Ladyships both thought her the best choice. When, therefore, she was asked to superintend, she accepted readily.
"I ran this household before and the staff here obey me," she thought. "The servants of Lady Xing and Madam You used to be troublesome, but now they've gone. Though we haven't used a tally to get money from the treasury, we have ready cash in hand for this purpose which is even better; and my husband is in charge of affairs outside. So even if my health isn't what it was, I don't think I'll fall down on the job as it's bound to be simpler than that time in the Ning Mansion."
She decided to wait another day till the first three days had passeed, then assign the servants tasks first thing in the morning. She told Zhou Rui's wife to announce this to the staff and to bring her the register. Looking through this she found twenty one men-servants in all and only nineteen women, not counting the maids in the various apartments. As this made a total of barely forty people, they were going to be short¬handed. "We've fewer hands now for the old lady's funeral than that time in the East Mansion," she reflected. Even if she transferred a few servants from their farm, they still would not have enough.
As she was mulling this over a young maid came to report, "Sister Yuanyang would like you to go over, madam."
Xifeng went and found Yuanyang weeping bitterly. She caught hold of Xifeng and cried, "Please sit down, madam, and let me kowtow to you. Mourners can dispense with ceremony, they say, but I must kowtow to you now!" She fell on her knees.
Xifeng hastily stopped her. "What does this mean? Just tell me what you want," she said, pulling her up.
"All the arrangements, inside and outside, for the old lady's funeral are being made by Msater Lian and you, madam. The silver for this was put aside by the old lady, who never squandered money in her whole life; SO now I beg you, madam, to give her a fine, handsome send-off. Just
now I heard the master quote a classical tag   I didn't understand it something like 'In mourning, grief counts for more than appear¬ances.' I asked Madam Bao, who told me he meant that the most filial way to mourn the oLd lady is to show our grief, instead of wasting money to make a good show. But it seems to me that surely things should be done more impressively for someone like the old lady. I'm only a slave, though, so what can I say? But the old lady was so good to us both, won~t you do the thing handsomely? I know you're an able organizer, madam; that's why I asked you here to decide. I've served the old lady all my life, and now that she's dead I mean to follow her still. If I don't see her given a good funeral, how shall I be able to face her?"
Puzzled by this outburst Xifeng replied, 'Don't worry. It's not diffi¬cult to prepare a fine funeral. Though the master wants us to economize, we've a position to keep up. Even if we spend the whole sum on this, that's only right."
'~he old lady's last words were that anything she had left was for us. If you don't have enough, madam, just use this to make up the deficit. Whatever the master says. he can't go against her last wishes. Besides, he was there, wasn't he, and heard how the old lady shared things out."
"You've always been a sensible girl. Why are you carrying on like this now?" Xifeng asked.
"I can't help worrying, because the Elder Mistress lets things slide and the master's afraid of being ostentatious. If you share his view, madam, that for a family that's been raided to have a splendid funeral may lead to another raid, and don~t care about the old lady, what's to be done? I'm just a boudmaid and this doesn't concern me; but our family's reputation is at stake!"
"I understand. Don't worry. I'~ see to it."
Then Yuanyang thanked Xifeng profusely for her goodness.
Xifeng left thinking, "What an odd creature Yuanyang is! I wonder what's on her mind? By rights the old lady should have a handsome funeral. Well, never mind her. We'll do it according to our family tradi¬tion." She sent for Lai Wang's wife to ask Master Lian to come in.
"What do you want me for?" inquired Jia Lian when presently he entered. "Just look after your end of things inside the house. All deci¬
sions will be made anyway by the Second Master. It's up to us to do whatever we're told."
'~So you take that line too?" said Xifeng. "Apparently Yuanyang guessed right."
'~What did she say?"
Xifeng described how Yuanyang had asked her over and what she had said.
'What they say doesn't count," scoffed ha Lian. "Just now the Sec¬ond Master sent for me and said, 'Of course we must do things in style for the old lady. People in the know are aware that she provided for her own funeral; those not in the know may think that we kept some money tucked away and are still well-off. But if this silver of hers isn't used, who wants it? It should still all be spent on her. The old lady's from the south, where there is a graveyard but no houses for offering sacrifices. As her coffin's to go back to the south, we should keep some money to build houses in the ancestral graveyard and use the remainder to buy a few acres of fields to provide for sacrifices. Even if we don't return south ourselves we can let some poor relations live there, to sacrifice to her during festivals and to see to the upkeep of the grave.' Don't you agree that that's a sound idea? So how can we spend the whole sum on the funeral?"
"Have they issued the silver yet?"
'Who's seen any silver? All I know is that after my mother heard this she thoroughly approved, telling the Second Master and Mistress that it was a good idea. So what can I do? Now the men putting up the funeral sheds outside want several hundred taels, but no silver has been issued. When I went to draw some, they said they had the money but we should get the workmen to finish the job before settling accounts with them. Just think, all those servants with money have skedaddled. When we call the roll, some are said to be on sick leave, others 10 have gone to the farm. Those few left here, unable to leave, are just out to make money. Who's going to advance us any?"
Xifeng was struck speechless. Eventually she asked, "Then how are We to manage?"
Just then a maid came in and said, "The Elder Mistress wants to ask
you, madam, why everything's still topsy-turvy though today is the third day. After the sacrifice, why keep relatives waiting around? She called several times for the meal before the dishes came   without any rice. What way is this to manage?"
Xifeng at once went to expedite the servants and manage to get a meal of sorts served to the guests. As ill luck would have it, many guests had come, but all the servants were so apathetic that Xifeng had to see to things herself. Then in her concern she burned out and made Lai Wang's wife summon all the serving-women to assign them different tasks. The women accepted these but made no move.
"What time is it?" Xifeng demanded. "Why haven't you prepared the sacrificial offerings?"
"That's easily done," they answered. "But first we have to be issued with supplies."
"You stupid creatures!" fumed Xifeng. "Of course you'll get what you need for the jobs you're given."
The women went off then reluctantly, while Xifeng hurried to the main apartment to ask Their Ladyships' permission to fetch what would be needed. She could hardly do this, however, in front of so many guests. As it was nearing sunset, she had to find Yuanyang and tell her which of the old lady's things she wanted.
"Why ask me?" replied Yuanyang. "Didn't Master Lian pawn them that year? Has he ever redeemed them?"
"We don't need gold or silver, just an ordinary dinner service."
"Hasn't that gone to Lady Xing and Madam You?"
Xifeng realized that this was so and went to Lady Wang's quarters to find Yuchuan and Caiyun. Having got what she required from them she hastily made Caiming list these things, then handed them over to the serv¬ing-women.
Xifeng had looked so flustered that Yuanyang did not like to call her back. She wondered, "Why is she bungling things like this now when she used to be such a good manager? In the last few days things have been at Sixes and sevens. The old lady's love for her was thrown away!"
She was unaware that Lady Xing had concurred with Jia Zheng's proposal because she had been worrying about her family's future and
was eager to put something by. Besides, as the old lady's funeral should have been superintended by the senior branch of the family, although Jia She was away, each time there was some decision to make punctilious Jia Zheng would say, "Ask the Elder Mistress."
Lady Xing had always considered Xifeng extravagant and Jia Lian unreliable and would therefore not let any money out of her hands. Yuanyang, assuming that the funeral expenses had already been issued, suspected Xifeng of floundering because she did not take the business seriously. Accordingly she kept weeping and wailing before the old lady's coffin.
When Lady Xing heard these implied reproaches, instead of blaming herself for not facilitating Xifeng's work she said, "It's true, Xifeng isn't putting herself out."
That evening Lady Wang summoned Xifeng and told her, "Though our family's in these straits, we must keep up appearances. I've noticed that in the last few days our visitors haven't been properly looked after. I suppose you didn't give instructions for this. You must bestir yourself a bit more for us!"
Xifeng was at a loss for words. She wanted to explain that there was no silver to meet their expenses, but the silver was not her concern while this charge against her was one of negligence. Not venturing to defend herself she remained silent.
Lady Xing put in from the side, "By rights we daughters-in-law, not you young people, should see to these things. But as we can't leave the coffin we entrusted them to you. You mustn't trifle with your task."
Xifeng flushed crimson and was about to answer when music struck up outside   it was time for the dusk burning of sacrificial paper. As everyone had to mourn now she could say nothing; and later, when she came back to explain the real situation to them, Lady Wang urged her to go and see to things.
"We'll hold the fort here," she said. "Run along to make prepara¬tions for tomorrow."
Xifeng had to withdraw then, bottling up her resentment, and sum¬moned all the matrons to give them instructions.
"Take pity on me, nannies!" she pleaded. "I've been scolded by their
Ladyships because you've not pulled together, making our family look ridiculous. You must try a bit harder tomorrow!"
~This isn't the first time you've run things, madam," they said. "We wouldn't dream of disobeying you. But this time our mistresses are too pernickety! Just take the question of meals: some want to eat here, oth¬ers in their own quarters; when we fetch in one lady, another refuses to come. What with all this, how can we see to everything? Do persuade those ladies' maids, madam, not to pick so many faults."
~The most troublesome are the old lady's maids," said Xifeng. "Their Ladyships' are a difficult lot too  how can I tell them off?"
'When you took charge in the East Mansion, madam, you beat or cursed anyone you pleased," they countered. "You were so sharp, who dared to disobey you? Can't you control these minxes today?" Xifeng sighed, "When I was given that East Mansion job, though the mistress was there she didn't like to find fault. Now this business concerns the others as well as ourselves, so everyone feels free to criticize. Besides, the money outside isn't issued promptly. When something's needed, for example, for the funeral sheds and we send out for it, it isn't forthcoming
what can I do about it?"
"Isn't Master Lian in charge outside?" they countered. "Can't he attend to such things?"
"Don't tell me he's in charge! He's in a fix too. In the first place, the silver isn't in his hands and he has to put in a request for every purchase. Re has no ready money."
"Isn't the sum the old lady left in his hands?"
"Go and ask the stewards presently   they'll tell you."
"No wonder then!" they said. "We've heard the men outside com¬plain, 'A big do like this, yet there's nothing in it for us except hard work!' So how can you expect people to pull together?"
"Never mind that now but concentrate on the work in hand. Any more complaints from above and I shan't let you off!"
"How dare anyone grumble, whatever you want done, madam? But it's really hard for us to please everyone with each of the mistresses giving different orders."
At a loss, Xifeng pleaded, "Good nannies, at least help me out tomor¬
row! We'll talk things over again after I've made the ladies' maids see sense.
Then the serving-women left.
Xifeng, seethig with resentment, brooded with mounting anger till dawn, when she wanted to discipline the maids of the various apartments, yet feared that might offend Lady Xing; and she could not complain to Lady Wang, whom Lady Xing had turned against her. When the maids saw that Their Ladyships were not backing Xifeng up, they treated her with even less respect.
Pinger alone spoke up for her, explaining, "Of course Madam Lian wants to do things in style, but the master and Their Ladyships have forbidden any extravagance, which makes her unable to satisfy every¬body." By stressing this she calmed them down a little.
Now they had Buddhists chanting sutras and Taoists saying masses, with endless mourning, sacrifices and meals for guests; but they were so niggardly that no one would buckle to and the service was slipshod. Al¬though titled ladies kept arriving, Xifeng had no time to attend to them, so busy was she supervising the servants. As soon as she summoned one, another slipped away. She would first fume at them then appeal to their better nature; and in this way she managed to send off batch after batch of guests after entertaining them all anyhow. Of course Yuanyang and the others thought it disgraceful, and even Xifeng herself was mortified.
Though Lady Xing was the elder daughter-in-law, she turned a blind eye to everything else, simply displaying her fiLial piety by an appearance of overwhelming grief. Lady Wang had to follow suit, and naturally so did the rest. Li Wan, the only one to appreciate Xifeng's dilemma, dared not speak up for her.
She just sighed to herself, "As the saying goes, though the peony is lovely it needs the support of green leaves. With Their Lady ships letting her down, who else is going to help poor Xifeng? If Tanchun were here it wouldn't be so bad. Now she has only a few of her own servants to make shift as best they can, and they keep complaining behind her back that they're not making a cent or getting any credit! The master harps on filial piety but doesn't know much about management. How can a big affair like this be properly conducted without a certain outlay? Poor Xifeng!
She's been to such pains these few years to win a reputation, and now it looks as if she's going to lose it over this funeral!"
She made time to summon her own maids and told them, 'Don't follow the example of those others and start plaguing Madam Lian too. You mustn't think you can get by by wearing mourning and keeping watch by the coffin for a few days. If you see them unable to cope, you should lend a hand. This is the affair of us all: it's everybody's duty to help out."
Some of the servants who had genuine respect for Li Wan agreed, "You're quite right, madam, and we'd never dream of making trouble. But Sister Yuanyang and the others seem to hold Madam Lian to blame."
"I've spoken to Yuanyang too," replied Li Wan. "I've explained to her that it's not that Madam Lian doesn't take the old lady's funeral seriously, but she doesn't control the money, and how can the smartest daughter-in-law make gruel without rice? Now that Yuanyang under¬stands she's stopped blaming her. Still, it's extraordinary the way Yuanyang has altered. When she was the old lady's favourite, she didn't try to take advantage of it; now that the old lady's gone and she has no backing, she seems to have changed for the worse. I used to worry what would become of her. Luckily the Elder Master isn't at home now, so she's escaped his clutches. Otherwise, what could she have done?"
At this point Jia Lan came up and said, "Mother, it's time to go to bed. So many visitors all day long must have tired you; do have a rest now. I haven't touched my books these days, so I'm very glad that today grand¬father told me to sleep at home   I must review one or two books, so as not to have forgotten everything by the time the mourning is over.
'~Good child!" said Li Wan. "Of course it's good to study, but today you'd better rest. Wait till after the funeral."
"If you're going to sleep, mother, I'll curl up in my quilt too and think over my lessons."
The others all approved, "There's a good boy! Such a little lad, yet When he's a moment to spare he thinks of his books. How different from Master Bao who's still so childish even after his marriage. How uneasy he looks these days kneeling by his father; and the moment the master leaves he rushes offto find Madam Bao and whisper some nonsense to
her. When she ignores him he looks for Miss Baoqin, who tries to steer clear of him too. Miss Xing hardly ever talks to him either. The only ones nice to him are his cousins Xiluan and Sijie, for ever calling him 'cousin' this and 'cousin' that. We don't believe Master Bao thinks of anything except fooling about with young ladies. He hadn't~lived up to the old lady's expectations. She always doted on him, yet he can't hold a candle to our Master Lan. You won't have~to worry about his future, madam!"
"It's too early to say," replied Li Wan. "And who knows what will have become of our family by the time he grows up? But what's your opinion of young Master Huan?"
"That one's even worse!" they exclaimed. "He has eyes like a real monkey, darting shiftily this way and that. Though he's supposed to wail by the coffin, when the ladies come he spends all his time peeping at them round the curtain before it."
"Actually he's no longer a child," she said. "The other day I heard they were thinking of finding him a wife, but now that will have to wait. Still, our family's too big for us to sort Out everyone's problems, so let's not gossip about them. And there's something else I meant to ask. The funeral procession is to be the day after tomorrow. Are carriages ready for all the different households?"
"Madam Lian seems so distracted these days that we haven't seen her issuing instructions. Yesterday we heard from the men outside that Master Lian told Master Qiang to see to this. As our family doesn't have enough carriages or drivers, he says we'll have to borrow some from relatives."
"Can carriages be borrowed?" asked Li Wan with a smile.
"You must be joking, madam! Of course they can. But that day all our relatives will be using theirs, so borrowing may be hard and we'll prob¬ably have to hire some."
"We shall have to hire some for the servants, but how can the ladies take hired mourning carriages?"
"The Elder Mistress has no carriage now. Neither have Madam You and Master Rong's wife from the East Mansion," they reminded her.
"What can they do but hire some?"
Li Wan sighed, "In the old days, when female relatives called on us in
hired carriages, we all thought it scandalous. Now it's our turn. Tell your husbands tomorrow to get our carriages and horses ready as early as possible, to avoid ajam."
The serving-women assented and withdrew.

Since Shi Xiangyun's husband was ill, she had called only once after the old lady's death; but she felt she must attend the funeral which she reckoned would be held in two days' time. In any case, her husband's illness had proved to be consumption, so that he was in no immediate danger. She therefore came over the day before the wake, when she recalled the old lady's goodness to her, then thought of her own wretched fate. She had only just married a talented, handsome husband with a cheerful disposition, but then he had contracted this fatal illness which might any day carry him off. In distress she wept half the night, despite the attempts of Yuanyang and the others to console her.
Baoyu, seeing this, grieved for her too but was in no position to com¬fort her. He noticed that in her white mourning, her face bare of rouge and powder, she looked even lovelier than before her marriage. He turned then to eye Baoqin and the other girls in white and found them all very charming. Baochai, who was in deep mourning, had an air of greater distinction than in the coloured clothes she normally wore.
Baoyu told himsell, "The men of old said that of all flowers the plum-blossom ranks first. That must be not only because it's the first to bloom, but because its pure white and its fine fragrance are matchless. If only Cousin Lin were here now, dressed like this, how beautiful she would be!" At this thought, he felt a pang and could not hold back his tears; and as they were mourning the Lady Dowager he did not restrain himself but sobbed aloud.
The others were trying to make Xiangyun stop crying when Baoyu suddenly burst out sobbing too. They assumed that he was upset by the memory of the old lady's kindness to him, little knowing that he and Xiangyun were weeping for different reasons. Their storm of grief brought te~5 to the eyes of all. It was Aunt Xue and Aunt Li who finally stopped them.
The next day, the day of the wake, was still more strenuous. Xifeng
felt too exhausted to bear up, yet she had no choice but to exert herself until she was hoarse from shouting. That morning she managed to cope. By the afternoon, however, more relatives and friends arrived, entailing even more work, and she could not see to everything at once. She was frantic when a young maid ran up to her.
"So here you are, madam!" she cried. "No wonder our Elder Mis¬tress says, 'There are too many visitors for me to look after, but Madam Lian has sneaked off to take it easy.'
At this, Xifeng thought she would burst with anger. She held back her rage, but tears welled up in her eyes, everything turned dark and she tasted something sweet. Then red blood spurted from her mouth, her l::nees buckled and she collapsed. Pinger ran to support her as she went on vomiting whole mouthfuls of blood. To know what became of her, read the following chapter.

Chapter 111

Yuanyang Dies for Her Mistress and
Ascends to the Great Void
A Despicable Slave Leads Robbers
into the Mansion



The young maid's taunt so enraged and wounded Xifeng that she vonuted blood and fainted. Pinger heTd her up and called for help to carry her back to her room, where they laid her gently on her bed and ordered Hongyu to give her a drink of warm water. After one sip, however, Xifeng relapsed into unconsciousness. Qiutong came over to glance at her then went off, and Pinger did not cail her back. Instead she told Fenger who was standing near by to take word of this at once to Their Lady ships.
When Fenger explained Xifeng's inability to entertain the guests, Lady Xing suspected her of shamming and shirking, but did not like to say this in the presence of so many relatives.
She simply replied, ~'All right, let her take a rest." And the others made no comment.
That evening, naturally, they had a stream of visitors. It was lucky that certain close relatives helped entertain them, for some of the staff took advantage of Xifeng's absence to play truant or slack and pande¬monium reigned   it was most unseemly.
After the second watch, when the guests living at a distance had left, they prepared to farewell the dead and the women behind the mourning curtain began to wail. Yuanyang wept so bitterly that she fainted away. They raised her up and massaged her till she came round.
"The old lady was so good to me, I must follow her!" she cried.
Thinking her beside herself with grief, the others paid no attention. When the ceremony started, there were over a hundred mourners high and low present, but Yuanyang had disappeared. In the general confu¬sion her absence passed unnoticed until it was time for Hupo and the Other maids to kowtow to the dead; however, supposing that Yuanyang worn out by weeping must be resting somewhere, they let it go at that.
The ceremony at an end, Jia Zheng called Jia Lian outside to ask about the cortege the next day and whom he meant to leave in charge at home.
"Of the masters, I've told Jia Yun to stay behind," Jia Lian reported. '~Of the servants, I've ordered Lin Zhixiao's family to see to the dis¬mantling of the sheds. But which of the ladies should stay to keep an eye on the inner apartments?"
"I hear from your mother that your wife is too unwell to go. She can stay at home. And your Sister-in-law You suggests that since she is so ill, Xichun should keep her company and get a few maids to look after the mistresses' quarters."
Jia Lian knew that Madam You had made this proposal because she was not on good terms with Xichun, who could not take effective charge; and Xifeng was too ill to cope. After some consideration he replied, "Please have a rest, sir, while I go in to settle it with them before reporting back."
Jia Zheng nodded and ha Lian went to the inner quarters.

Now Yuanyang after a bout of weeping thought, "I've been with the old lady all my life, and I've found no niche for myself. Although the Elder Master isn't at home now, I don't think much of the Elder Mis¬tress either. And with the Second Master letting things slide, there'll be such chaos in future that there's no knowing who else may take over. Then we shall be at their mercy, whether they decide to make us concu¬bines or marry us off to some servants. I couldn't stand that. Better die and be done with it! But how shall I kill myself?"
By now she had entered the old lady's annex. As she stepped over the threshold in the dim lamplight, she saw the shadowy figure of a woman who appeared to be about to hang herself with the scarf in her hand. Yuanyang felt no fear but wondered, "Who is she? She has the same idea as mine, but is a step ahead of me."
"Who are you?" she asked. "Since we're both of the same mind, let's die together."
The other made no reply, and Yuanyang approaching her saw that it Was not one of their household. When she tried to look closer, the air struck chill and the apparition vanished. In stupefaction she left the room
and sat down on the kang.
"Ah, I know," she murmured after a moment's reflection. "That was Master Rong's first wife from the East Mansion. She died so long ago, what brought her here? She must have come to summon me. But why should she hang herself?" She thought it over and decided, "That's it. She's showing me the way."
This train of thought enabled an evil spirit to take possession of her and standing up, weeping, she opened her dressing-case to take out the lock of hair which she had cut off when she swore never to leave the old lady's service. Having tucked it inside her tunic, she undid her sash and looped it over the beam indicated by Qin Keqing. Then she wept again until the sound of guests dispersing outside made her afraid that someone might come in. She made haste to close ffie door, moved over a footstool and stood on it, tied the sash into a noose, slipped it round her throat and kicked the stool away. Then, alas, strangled to death, her sweet spirit took flight!
Her wraith was wondering where to go when she saw Qin Keqing's shadowy form in front. She overtook her crying, "Wait for me, Madam Rong!"
"I am not Madam Rong," was the reply, "but the sister of the God¬dess of Disenchantment."
"I can see quite clearly that you're Madam Rong  why should you deny it?"
"Let me tell you the reason, then you'll understand. I was the Arbiter of True Love in the palace of the goddess, and all romantic affairs were in my charge; then I descended to the dusty world as the most amorous of mortals, to lead all lovesick maidens back betimes to the Board of Love. This is why it was my Tot to hang myself. Now that I have seen through earthly love, passed over the sea of love and returned to heaven, there is no one in charge of the Board of Infatuation in the Illusory Land of Great Void. The Goddess of Disenchantment has appointed you in my Place to head this Board, and has therefore ordered me to lead you there."
"I have never known passion," replied Yuanyang's spirit. "How can I count as amorous?"
"You don't understand. Mortals mistake carnal appetite for love, and
	at	at	at	at	at	at	at	at
justify their immorality by calling themselves romantics and passing it off lightly. In fact, before the expression of joy or anger, grief or happiness, love is latent in each one's nature; once these feelings are expressed then we have passion. Our love is as yet unexpressed like a flower in bud. If once expressed, it would cease to be true love."
Yuanyang's wraith nodded agreement, then followed Keqing's spirit.

After Hupo had bid farewell to the dead and heard Their Ladyships designate caretakers, she decided to go and ask Yuanyang what carriage they would be taking the next day. Unable to find her in the old lady's room, she approached the smaller room which opened off it. The door was closed, but peeping through a crack she was startled by the dim lamplight and flickering shadows, though she could hear not a sound.
She went away exclaiming, "Where can the wretch have run off to?" Bumping into Zhenzhu she asked, "Have you seen Sister Yuanyang?"
"I'm looking for her too," was the answer. "Their Ladyships want her. Is she asleep in the annex?"
"I had a peep and didn't see anyone. The lamp hasn't been trimmed, and it was too dark and scary to go in. But now we can go in together, to make sure there's no one inside."
As they went in to trim the lamp Zhenzhu exclaimed, "Who put the stool here? It nearly tripped me up!"
Happening to look up, she let out a little scream and fell backward, knocking hard against Hupo, who by then had also seen the fearful sight. She shrieked, rooted to the spot. People outside hearing their cries rushed in and, after exclaiming in horror, went to report this to Their Ladyships.
At this news, Lady Wang, Baochai and the rest shed tears and went to take a look.
Lady Xing remarked, "I never imagined Yuanyang had it in her! We must send word of this at once to the master."
Baoyu kept silent, gaping in consternation, till Xiren anxiously took his arm and urged him, "Cry if you want to, but don't suppress your feel¬ings."

Then Baoyu burst out wailing. "Only someone like Yuanyang would Choose this way to die!" he thought. "The subtlest elements in the uni¬
verse are truly concentrated in such girls! She died a splendid death. Which of the old lady's sons or grandsons can compare with her, filthy creatures that we are?" This reflection raised his spirits.
Baochai had heard Baoyu wailing, but by the time she reached his side he was smiling.
'This is a bad sign!" cried Xiren. "He's losing his mind again."
"Don't worry," said Baochai. "He has his reason."
This delighted Baoyu, who thought, "After all she understands me. The others don't."
As Baoyu was letting his fancy run wild, Jia Zheng and some others came in.
"What a good girl!" declared Jia Zheng approvingly. "The old lady's love for her wasn't thrown away." He told Jia Lian, "Go and send to buy a coffin immediately and give her a good funeral. Tomorrow her coffin can go in the old lady's cortege and be left in the temple behind the old lady's coffin. This is what she wished for."
Jia Lian withdrew to attend to this, while orders were given to cut down Yuanyang's corpse and lay it out in the inner room.
Word of this brought Pinger, Xiren, Yinger and the other maids to the scene, where they mourned bitterly. Zijuan, who could see no future for herself, wished she had followed Daiyu to her grave to repay her mis¬tress' kindness, thinking that would have been a good death. As it was, she was hanging about for nothing in Baoyu's quarters; for though he treated her affectionately, nothing would come of it. So she wept even more heart-rendingTy than the rest.
Lady Wang now summoned Yuanyang's sister-in-law to attend to the coffining. After some discussion with Lady Xing, she also presented her with a hundred taels of the old lady's money, promising to give her all Yuanyang's belongings later. The sister-in-law kowtowed her thanks and withdrew.
"She really had spirit, the lucky girl!" she exulted. "Winning herself a good name like this and a fine send-off!"
"What a way to talk!"said a matron standing nearby. "You're so tickled at selling her life for a hundred taels, you'd have been even better pleased that year to have given her to the Elder Master for a still bigger
sum.
This home-thrust made the sister-in-law blush. She had just reached the inner gate when Lin Zhixiao led in men carrying the coffin, obliging her to return to help lay out the corpse and make a pretence of wailing.
Because Yuanyang had died for the Lady Dowager, Jia Zheng called for incense, lighted three sticks, and bowed before her coffin.
'Since she immolated herself she can't be treated as a bondmaid," he said. "All you youngsters should pay homage to her."
Baoyu, only too glad to comply, came over and kowtowed respect¬fuUy. Jia Lian, mindful of her past goodness to him, wanted to follow suit but Lady Xing stopped him.
"It's enough for one of the masters to kowtow to her," she reasoned. "If we overdo it she'll lose her chance of reincarnation."
Then Jia Lian desisted.
Baochai put out by this officiousness said, "By rights I shouldn't pay homage to her, but after the old lady's death we dared do nothing rash because of all the business we had to attend to; and as she showed true filial piety in our place, we should entrust to her the task of serving the old lady in our stead when she enters paradise. So it's only right for us to express our thanks."
Then leaning on Yinger's arm she went up to the coffin and poured a libation of wine, tears flowing down her cheeks. After that she bowed several times with clasped hands and wept bitterly. Some of those present thought Baoyu and his wife both rather crazed, others that they were compassionate yet others that they understood etiquette; and Jia Zheng approved of their conduct. They agreed to leave Xifeng and Xichun in charge of the house while the rest joined the funeral cortege. There was little sleep for anyone that night.
At the fifth watch the cortege could be heard assembling outside. At seven it set off, headed by Jia Zheng in deep mourning and weeping as befitted a filial son. Then the coffin was borne out of the gate and sacri¬fices were offered at the roadside by different families - we need not go into detail. Eventually they reached Iron Threshold Temple, where both coffins were deposited and all the men were required to stay. But no more of this.
Meanwhile in the Rong Mansion Lin Zhixiao supervised the disman¬tling of the sheds, refitted the doors and windows, had the courtyards swept clean and then assigned nightwatchmen. According to the rules of the house, after the second watch the three gates were closed and no man was permitted to enter the inner apartments, where only women kept watch.
Xifeng felt a little clearer in her mind after a night's rest, although too limp to get up. So Pinger and Xichun inspected the various apartments, then issued instructions to the women on watch and retired to their own quarters.
Let us turn back now to Zhou Rui's godson He San. The previous year when Jia Zhen was in charge, he had been thrashed and driven out because of his brawl with Bao Er, and he spent most of his time in a gambling-den. Recently, hearing of the old lady's death and assuming that there must be odd jobs going, he had gone there to make inquiries day after day   but all to no effect. He went back grumbling to the gambling-house and sat down dejectedly.
His cronies asked, "Why not play to recoup your losses?"
"I would if I could," said He San, "but I've no money."
"You' ve been with your godfather for several days and must have got pots of money from the Rong Mansion. Don't go telling us you're broke."
"Shut up!" he snapped. "They've got millions all right, but they're hanging on to it. It'll serve them right if one of these days there's a fire or thieves break in."
"You're lying again," said the others. "After their place was raided they can't have much left."
"A fat lot you know. It was only things from the palace that got con¬fiscated. The old lady left masses of gold and silver, but they won't touch it   it's all tucked away in her room waiting to be shared out after the funeral."
One of the gamesters made a note of this and after a few more throws remarked, "I've lost quite a bit but won't try to win it back now. I'm for bed." As he left he pulled He San out too. "Come on," he said, "I want
a word with you."
He San went out with him.
'You're a smart fellow yet now you're broke," said the man. "I think it'S a shame.~'
'It's my fate to be poor. What can I do about it?"
~You just said there's pots of silver in the Rong Mansion. Why don't you get hold of some?"
"Brother, they may be rolling in gold and silver, yet when the likes of us ask for a cent or two will they part with it for nothing?"
"If they won't, what's to stop us from helping ourselves?"
Catching his implication He San demanded, "Then what do you sug¬gest?"
"I call you pretty dumb. If I were you I'd have taken it long ago.
"How would you go about it?"
"If you want to make a pile," the other whispered, "all you need do is act as guide. I have plenty of friends who are dabs at this. Not to say the Jias are away at the funeral, with only a few women left in the house; no matter how rnany men were there we wouldn't be afraid! All I'm afraid of is that you haven't the guts."
"Of course I have! Do you think I'm scared of that godfather of mine? I only put up with him for my godmother's sake. He doesn't count. As for your idea, I'm afraid it may be a flop and land us in trouble instead. They have connections, you know, in all the yamens. So quite apart from the fact that we may not pull it off, even if we do they'll raise a hullabaloo."
"If that's all that's worrying you, you're in luck! I've palled up with some men from the coast, who are on the look-out here for some open¬ing. If we get the loot, there's no point in staying here   we'd better go to sea to have a good time, eh? If you don't want to ditch your god¬mother, we can take her along as well to share the fun. How about it?"
"You must be drunk, old man, to talk such rubbish!" With that He San pulled him to a quiet spot to discuss the matter further. Then they went their different ways, and there we will leave them.

Let us now revert to Bao Yong, who had been berated by Jia Zheng
and sent to keep watch in the Garden. After the Lady Dowager's death, although the whole household was busy while he was assigned no job that did not disturb him. He cooked his own meals, went to sleep when bored, and in his waking hours would exercise with a sword or staff in the Garden, left to his own devices. That morning he knew that the funeral cortege had left, but as no assignment had been given him he rambled round as his custom was till he saw a nun with an old deaconess go up to the side-gate and start knocking on it.
Bao Yong went over and asked, "Where are you going, reverend sister?"
The deaconess said, "We heard today that the services for the old lady have ended, but didn't see Miss Xichun with the cortege, so we think she must be at home minding the house. For fear she may feel lonely, my mistress has come to call on her."
"The family are all away and I'm the gateman here," was Bao Yong's reply. "I must ask you to go back. If you want to call, wait till the masters are back."
"What upstart scavenger are you," she asked, "that you try to inter¬fere with our coming or going?"
"I've no use for the likes of you," was his retort. "I won't let you in, so you'll just have to lump it."
"The impertinence!" she screeched. "Even when the old lady was alive, no one ever stopped us from coming. Who are you, you lawless brigand? We're going this way, so there!" With that she beat a tattoo with the door-rapper.
Miaoyu, speechless with anger, was about to turn back when the woman in charge of the inner gate heard them quarrelling and hastily opened the gate. Seeing Miaoyu turning away, she guessed that Bao Yong must have offended her. As all the women-servants knew how fond their mistresses and Xichun were of Miaoyu, she feared that if they came to learn that she had been refused admittance there would be trouble.
She hurried over calling, "We didn't know you were here, sister, and were late in opening the gate. Miss Xichun is at home, longing to see you. Please come back. This caretaker is new here and doesn't know our ways. We'll report him later to Her Ladyship and see that he's given a
whipping and thrown out."
When Miaoyu pretended not to hear, the woman chased after her and pleaded with her. Finally she voiced her own fear of punishment, all but going down on her knees, she was so frantic. So Miaoyu had to follow her through the gate. BaoYong glared but, unable to bar the way, went off fuming.
Miaoyu, attended by the old deaconess, called on Xichun and after expressing her condolences they started chatting.
Xichun told her, "I'm to stay and look after the house, and shall have to manage as best I can for a few nights; but Madam Lian is ill and I find it boring and scaring all on my own. If I had company I'd feel easier, for there isn't a single man in the house now. As you've done me the honour of calling today, won't you spend the night with me? We can play draughts and chat."
Miaoyu had no wish to stay but gave her consent because Xichun looked so pathetic, and a game of draughts appealed to her too. When she had sent back the deaconess to get her maid to bring over her tea things, night-clothes and bedding, they settled down for a good talk; and Xichun in her delight told Caiping to fetch some rain water kept from the previous year to brew some choice tea. Miaoyu would not drink out of any cups but her own; however, before long her maid brought over her things and Xichun herself made the tea. They chatted happily until the first watch, when Caiping got out the draughts board and they played draughts. Xichun lost twice in succession, then managed to win the third game by half a point only because Miaoyu ceded her four pieces.
In no time it was the fourth watch. The night was still, with not a sound outside.

"I must meditate at the fifth watch," Miaoyu remarked. "My maid will look after me. You'd better rest."
Xichun felt reluctant to part with her, but could hardly interfere with her devotions. She was about to go to bed when the women keeping watch in the Lady Dowager's quarters on the east side set up a sudden commotion. At once the matrons attending Xichun joined in.
"Help!" they screamed. "Men have broken in!"
In a panic, Xichun and Caiping heard the night-watch outside shouting
too.
"Mercy!" gasped Miaoyu. "They must be robbers!"
She promptly locked the door, shrouded the lamp and peeped out through the window. There were men standing in the yard. Too terrified to utter a sound, she turned, signalling for silence, then crept back and whispered, "What shall we do? There are some rough fellows outside."
That same instant they heard a great clattering on the roo{ and watch¬men came running to their compound to catch the thieves.
One called, "The old lady's room has been ransacked, but there's nobody there. We have men at the east side; let's search the west our¬selves."
When Xichun's serving-women heard that these were their own family retainers, they called out, "There are lots of them on our roof!"
The watchmen yelled, "Look! There they are!" and raised a clamour; but as tiles were raining down from the roof they dared not clamber up. Just as they were at a loss, the side-gate of the Garden banged and through it rushed a hefty fellow wielding a staff. At sight of him they took cover in alarm.
"Don't let one of them get away!" the newcomer yelled. "All follow me!"
The servants were too consternated to move   their bones seemed turned to water. They stared at that fellow standing there bellowing till the most keen-sighted among them identified him as Bao Yong, recom¬mended to their house by the Zhen family. That reassured them.
"One has gone," they faltered. "Some others are up on the roof."
Bao Yong ran and vaulted on to the roof to give chase.
The thieves had known that there were no men in the house. While in Xichun's courtyard they had peeped through the window and been in-flamed by the sight of a ravishing nun. As there were only terrified women inside, they were about to kick down the door when they heard the night¬watch rushing in after them and promptly climbed up the roof. When they Saw that their pursuers were few they thought of putting up a fight, but just then someone leapt on to the roof and charged them. As he was alone the thieves were not alarmed and went for him with knives; but When Bao Yong with his staff knocked one of them off the roof, the rest
tied over the Garden wall with him in hot pursuit. Accomplices hidden in the Garden to receive the loot had already carried most of it off. When they saw the thieves fleeing they drew weapons to defend them, and as Bao Yong was one against many they swarmed round him.
'You bandits!" he swore. "Dare you take me on?"
One thief reminded the rest, "He knocked down one of our mates whom, dead or alive, we'd better carry off."
Bao Yong hit out and four or five of the ruffians, all armed, surrounded him and fought back wildly. But now the nightwatchmen plucked up cour¬age to join in, and seeing that they could not get the upper hand the thieves had to run for it. Bao Yong, pursuing them, tripped over a case. When he regained his balance he thought: If the things are still here and the thieves have got away, there's no point in chasing them. He told the other ser¬vants to search with their lanterns, but all they found on the ground were a few empty cases which he asked them to put away while he himself went to the mistresses' quarters. As he did not know the way, he arrived first at Xifeng's house which was lit up.
"Do you have thieves here?" he asked.
Pinger inside quavered, "We haven't opened the gate. We only heard them shouting that there were thieves in the old lady's rooms. You'd better go there."
Bao Yong was wondering what path to take when some watchmen turned up and led the way. They found all the doors open and the women on night duty weeping and wailing.
Presently ha Yun and Lin Zhixiao arrived, frantic at having learned of the robbery. They went in to investigate. The door to the old lady's room was wide open, and they saw by their lanterns that the lock was broken. Going in, they found all the chests and cases empty.
They swore at the women who had been on duty, "Are you all dead? Didn't you know when thieves broke in?"
The women sobbed, "We took turns keeping watch, and our shifts were before midnight. We never stopped making our rounds from front to back. Those thieves came well after midnight when we'd gone, so we just heard shouting but didn't see anybody. You must ask the women in charge of the later shifts, sir."
"You all deserve to die!" fumed Lin Zhixiao. "We'll deal with you later. Let's go first to the different quarters to have a look."
The watchmen took them to where Madam You lived. The gate was locked, but some women inside called out, "Oh, what a fright we had!"
"Did you lose anything here?" asked Lin Zhixiao.
They opened the door saying, "Nothing."
Next Lin Zhixiao led the way to Xichun's quarters.
"Mercy on us!" they heard a woman inside exclaiming. "Our young lady's fainted for fright. Quick, bring her round!"
He told them to open the door and asked what had happened.
The woman who admitted them reported, "Thieves were fighting here, and our young lady passed out for terror. Luckily Sister Miaoyu was here, and she and Caiping revived her. We haven't lost anything."
"What were the thieves fighting over?"
A watchman told him, "We have to thank Bao Yong for jumping on the roof to chase them away. We heard that he knocked down one of the thieves too."
"He's by the Garden gate," volunteered Bao Yong. "You'd better go quickly to have a look at him."
Jia Yun and the others did so. They found a man lying there dead. Looking at him closely, to their surprise they recognized Zhou Rui's god¬son. They assigned one man to guard the corpse and two others to watch the front and back gates, both still locked. Lin Zhixiao told men to open the gate and report this robbery to the police. At once an investigation was made, and it was discovered that the thieves had climbed up to the roof from the back passage. Following their tracks to the roof of the west courtyard, they found many broken tiles and other tracks leading to the back and the Garden.
The watchmen insisted, "They were brigands, not thieves."
The constable protested, "If they didn't break in openly with torches and clubs, how can you call them brigands?"
"When we gave chase, they pelted us with tiles from the roof so that we couldn't get near them. Then one of our household, a man called '3ao, managed to get on the roof and beat them off. When he chased them to the Garden, a whole bunch of them attacked him. They only ran
away after they started getting the worst of it."
"That proves it," the constable said. "If they'd been brigands, couldn't they have beaten you people? Never mind that now. Quickly check on what has been stolen and send in a list so that we can report it to our superiors."
Jia Yun and the others went back to the main apartments, where Xifeng had come, ill as she was, and Xichun. Jia Yun paid his respects to Xifeng and greeted Xichun, then together they tried to find out what was miss¬ing. But as Yuanyang was dead and Hupo and the old lady's other maids had gone to the funeral, no one knew exactly how many things she had had, since they had been kept locked up. So how could they make a check?
They said, "There were many things in these cases and chests, and now they're all empty. It must have taken quite a time to ransack them. What were those women on night duty doing? And the thief killed was Zhou Rui's godson. So it must have been partly an inside job."
"Have all those women locked up," ordered Xifeng, glaring at them furiously. "Then take them to the police to be cross-examined!"
The women fell on their knees, wailing, to beg for mercy. How they were dealt with and whether or not the lost property was recovered is recorded in the next chapter.

Chapter 112

A Terrible Disaster Befalls Miaoyu
Nursing Enmity Concubine Zhao Is
Haled Off to Hell




When Xifeng ordered the women on night duty to be bound and sent to the police for interrogation, they threw themselves on their knees to beg for mercy.
'It's no use pleading," said Lin Zhixiao and Jia Yun. "The master left us in charge here. If nothing had happened, well and good; as it is, high and low alike we're all in trouble so who can get you off? If the dead man is Zhou Rui's godson, then from Her Ladyship down the whole household is involved."
"This is our fate," gasped Xifeng. "Why talk to them? Just turn them in. As for what was stolen, assure the police that it was the old lady's property and we must find out from the masters just what she had. After this is reported to them and they come back, we shall certainly send in the list of stolen goods and notify the civil authorities too."
ha Yun and the steward assented and withdrew.
Xichun, who had given no orders simply lamented, "I've never heard of such a thing before! Why did this have to happen to us of all people? How can I face the master and mistress when they come back? They'll say: We entrusted the house to you, and you let this dreadful thing hap-pen. How can I live on?"
"We didn't wish it on ourselves, did we?" said Xifeng. "Anyway, it's the night~watch~~5 who are responsible."
"You have some justification because you're ill; but I have no ex¬cuse. It's my elder sister-in-law who did for me by getting the mistress to make me mind the house! How can I look anyone in the face again?" ~he broke down anew and wept.
"Don't take it so hard," said Xifeng. "We've all lost face equally. If You take this silly attitude I shall feel worse."
Just then someone in the yard started bellowing, "I've always said those nuns, bawds, go-betweens and the like are no good! Our Zhen family never let such creatures cross our threshold. Who would have thought this house would put up with them? Yesterday, the moment the old lady's cortege left, that nun from some small temple was dead set on coming over here. When I refused to admit her, the old woman aL the side-gate bawled me out and fairly grovelled to invite her in. The side-gate kept opening and shutting   heaven knows what they were up to! I was too worried to sleep, and at the fourth watch bedlam broke loose inside. They wouldn't let me in when I saw a fellow standing in the west courtyard I charged over and killed him. Today I've discovered that this is where Miss Xichun lives, and where that nun came. She sneaked off this morning before it was light. Stands to reason it was the nun who led the thieves in!"
"Who is this mannerless wretch?" demanded Pinger. "How dare he shout so wildly outside when there are ladies in here?"
'Didn't you hear him talk of the Zhen family?" Xifeng said. "He must be that pesky creature they recommended." She asked Xichun, now even more upset by Bao Yong's diatribe, "What nun was he ranting about? Did you have some nun staying with you?"
Xichun explained how Miaoyu had called and how she had kept her for the night to play draughts.
"So that's who it was. And she was willing? Well, wonders will never cease! But if this tiresome wretch keeps yelling about it and the master bears, there may be trouble."
Nervous about the possible consequences, Xichun stood up to leave. Xifeng urged her to stay for, although she could hardly bear up, she was afraid that xichun in her alarm might do something desperate.
"Wait till we've seen them put away the things left by the thieves and assigned people to keep an eye on the place," she said. "Then we can go.
Pinger interposed, "How can we put anything away till officers have come to investigate? We'll just have to stay and keep watch here. But has anyone gone to report this to the master?"
Xifeng told her to send a matron to find out, and the latter came back to announce, "Lin Zhixiao can't get away, and some servants will have
to stay to wait on the officers while the others can't take a clear mes¬sage. So young Master Yun has gone."
Xifeng nodded and, with Xichun, went on sitting there anxiously.

To return to the gang of thieves roped in by He San, after they had carried off the old lady's gold, silver and other valuables and seen how feeble their pursuers were, they decided to rob the houses on the west side. Looking through a lighted window there they saw two beauties: a young lady and a nun. Then these wicked desperadoes would have bro¬ken in had not Bao Yong's arrival made them run off with their loot, although He San was missing. They hid for the time being with their fence, and the next day learned that He San had been killed and the theft reported to the authorities   which meant they could not stay in the capital. They decided to make haste to join some pirates at sea, for if they delayed until warrants were out against them they would be unable to pass the customs stations.
"Of course we must clear out," said the boldest among them. "But I can't bear to leave that nun behind. She's certainly a beauty! I wonder from which nunnery this chick comes."
"I know!" exclaimed another. "She must be from that Green Lattice Nunnery in the Jia Mansion. Wasn't there talk some years ago of an affair between her and their Master Bao? She was said to be so lovesick that a doctor was called in to give her some potion."
Thereupon the other proposed, "Let's lie low for one more day while our chief buys what we need for the journey. Tomorrow when the dawn bell strikes, you can leave the city gate separately and wait for me at Twenty~/i Slope outside."
Having agreed to this, the thieves divided out the loot and dispersed.

Meanwhile Jia Zheng and the others had escorted the coffin to Iron Threshold Temple and deposited it there, after which the relatives and friends went back. Jia Zheng kept vigil in the outer hall of the temple, Lady Xing and Lady Wang within, lamenting the whole night long.
The next day another sacrifice was to be held and the offerings were being set out when Jia Yun arrived. Having kowtowed before the Lady
Dowager's coffin he ran over to kneel to Jia Zheng and pay his respects, then blurted out the news of last night's robbery   how everything in the old lady's rooms had been stolen, how Bao Yong had given chase and killed one of the thieves, and how they had reported this to the au¬thorities. Jia Zheng listened dumbfounded. Their Ladyships overhearing this inside were frightened out of their wits. Speechless, they could only sob.
After a while Jia Zheng asked, "How did you draw up the list of stolen property?"
'As no one at home knew what was there, we haven't drawn it up yet," was Jia Yun's reply.
"So much the better. As our house was searched, to list any valuables would be reprehensible. Tell Lian to come here at once."
He sent for Jia Lian, who had taken Baoyu and some others to sacri¬fice elsewhere. And Jia Lian was so frantic when he heard the news that, regardless of Jia Zheng's presence, he cursed Jia Yun.
"You worthless wretch!" he fumed. "When I trusted you with such an important job, you should have seen to it that the place was patrolled at night. What are you   a zombie? I wonder you have the nerve to come and report it."
He spat repeatedly in Jia Yun's face while the young man stood at respectful attention, not daring to say a word.
"It's no use swearing at him." objected Jia Zheng.
Then Jia Lian knelt to ask him, "What shall we do, sir?"
"All we can do is report this to the authorities and hope they will apprehend the thieves. The trouble is that we didn't touch the old lady's legacy. When you asked for money I thought it wrong to use her silver so SOOn after her death, meaning to settle accounts and pay the workmen after the funeral. I intended to use what was left to buy land here and in the south near the ancestral graveyard to provide for sacrificial expenses. I don't really know how much she had left. Now that the authorities want a list of what's lost, it may cause further trouble to mention valu¬ables. In any case, we don't know the exact amount of her gold and silver or her clothes and trinkets, and we can't fake it up. It's ridiculous, I must say, the way you've bungled affairs. What's come over you?
What use is it kneeling there?"
Not venturing to answer, Jia Lian stood up to leave.
"Where are you going?" snapped Jia Zheng.
He turned back to reply, "I'm going to hurry home to straighten things out, sir."
When Jia Zheng simply snorted, Jia Lian hung his head again.
'Go in and te'll your mother first," ordered Jia Zheng. "Take one or two of the old lady's maids with you. Tell them to think carefully then make out a list."
Jia Lian knew perfectly well that all the old lady's things had been in the charge of Yuanyang who was dead; so to whom could he apply for information? Zhenzhu and the others would certainly not know. How¬ever, afraid to argue, he assented. Then he went inside where he was taken to task again by Their Ladyships, who told him to hurry back and ask the caretakers, "How will you have the face to meet us tomorrow?"
Jia Lian agreed and withdrew to order a carriage for Hupo and the maids. Mounting a mule himself he galloped home accompanied by a few pages. Jia Yun, too cowed to say any more to Jia Zheng, withdrew slowly with lowered head to mount his horse and follow. We can pass over their journey.
When Jia Lian reached home, Lin Zhixiao paid his respects and fol¬lowed him in to the old lady's quarters where Xifeng and Xichun were. Though seething with anger Jia Lian could not vent it on them.
He asked Lin Zhixiao, "Have officers been sent to investigate?"
With a guilty conscience the steward knelt down and reported, "The civil authorities have investigated the tracks made by the thieves, and also examined the corpse, sir."
"What corpse!?"
Told how Bao Yong had killed one of the thieves who looked liike Zhou Rui's godson, Jia Lian immediately summoned Jia Yun, who came in and knelt down too to hear his orders.
"Why didn't you report to the master that Zhou Rui's godson was one of the thieves and he was killed by Bao Yong?" Jia Lian demanded.
"The night-watchmen th6ught it looked like him, but as we couldn't be sure I didn't report it."
'~You idiot!" swore Jia Lian. "If you'd reported it, I would have brought Zhou Rui back to identify him, to clear the matter up."
Lin Zhixiao informed him, "The police have taken the corpse to the market-place to see who claims it."
"Then they're idiots too!" cried Jia Lian. "Who's going to ask to have justice done if one of his family has been killed as a robber?"
"Actually, they don't have to identify him," said the steward. "I rec¬ognized him all right."
Jia Lian replied thoughtfully, "Yes, wasn't it Zhou Rui's godson whom Master Zhen wanted to punish that year?"
"He had a fight with Bao Er, and you saw him yourself, sir."
This made Jia Lian more furious. He wanted to have all the night-watchmen beaten.
The steward begged him, "Please don't be angry, sir. Which of those watchmen would dare shirk his duty? But the rule of our house is that none of them can enter the inner gate   even we don't go in unless sent for. Master Yun and I kept a careful check outside and saw that the inner gate was firmly locked. None of the outer gates was opened either. The thieves came from the back passage."
"Then how about those women inside who were watching during the night?"
He was told that on Xifeng's orders they had been bound to await his questioning.
"Where is Bao Yong now?" he asked.
"He has gone back to the Garden."
"Bring him here."
When servants had fetched him Jia Lian said, 'It's a good thing you were here; otherwise most likely they'd have robbed all our houses."
Bao Yong said nothing to this, while Xichun was on tenterhooks for fear lest he mention Miaoyu. Xifeng did not dare to speak either.
Then someone outside announced the return of Hupo and the other ~aids When they came in all wept together again. Ordered by Jia Lian to ascertain what had been left by the thieves, all they could find were Some clothes, some lengths of silk and a money-box  everything else had gone. He thought with desperation of the workmen and the cooks
who had not been paid - how to settle with them all tomorrow? He was bemused.
After Hupo and the others had had their cry and discovered all the chests and cases open, unable to remember what they had contained they made up a list at random to send in to the authorities. Then Jia Lian reassigned the night-watch and Xifeng and Xichun retired to their own quarters. Jia Lian could not presume to rest at home and had no time to remonstrate with Xifeng. He mounted a horse and rode back out of the city while she, afraid Xichun might commit suicide, sent Fenger to com¬fort her.

At the second watch that night, all the inmates of the house were on their guard, too scared to sleep, locking the stable door after the horse had been stolen. But the thieves were set on kidnapping Miaoyu, know¬ing that there were only weak women in the nunnery. By the third watch when all was still, armed with daggers and narcotic incense they climbed on to the high wall and saw from the distance that there were still lights in Green Lattice Nunnery. One of them slithered down and hid himself be¬side it.
He waited till the fourth watch, when there was only one lamp left burning inside, and saw Miaoyu on her hassock sitting cross-legged in meditation.
After a while she sighed, "I came from Yuanmu to the capital hoping to make a name; but then 1 was invited here and couldn't go anywhere else. Yesterday out of kindness I called on Xichun only to be abused by that lout, and during the night I had another bad fright. Coming back today I still feel on tenterhooks, unable to concentrate."
As a rule she meditated in solitude and she was therefore reluctant to call in someone today to keep her company. But by the fifth watch, shiv¬ering with cold, she had just decided to summon her maid when a sound outside the window startled her, recalling what had happened the previ¬ous night. She called for her women, but not one of them answered. As she sat there, she smelt a whiff of scent which seemed to seep into her brain; and a numbness overcame her, making her unable to move or utter a sound. Panic-stricken then, she saw a man climb in with a gleaming
dagger. Although still conscious she could not stir and thinking that he must be going to kill her, she resigned herself to her fate and her fear left her. However, the intruder tucked his knife in the back of his belt to free his hands, then quietly took her in his arms and trifled with her a while. He then picked her up and slung her on to his back. Miaoyu felt as if drunk or deranged. So, alas, this pure-minded girl was drugged by the robber and ravi shed!
Carrying Miaoyu to the back wall of the Garden, this thief fixed up a rope-ladder and climbed over to where his mates had a carriage waiting. They laid Miaoyu inside it, then carrying lanterns inscribed with official titles called upon the guards to open the street gates and hurried to the city gate just as it was due to open. The officers there, assurning that they were going out on official business, did not even challenge them. They whipped their horses on to Twenty-li Slope to join the rest of their gang, then made their way by different routes to the south coast.
Whether Miaoyu lived on in shame after being kidnapped, or whether she resisted and was killed we cannot venture to say, not knowing the sequel.
Another of Miaoyu's attendants in Green Lattice Nunnery had been sleeping in the back room at the fifth watch when she heard a call from in front and supposed that her mistress was too restless to meditate. Next, she heard what sounded like a man's footsteps and a window being opened. She wanted to get up and investigate, but felt too listless even to call out. Hearing no summons from Miaoyu she waited till dawn by which time her head had cleared. Throwing on some clothes she got up then and called the deaconess to prepare tea and water. When she went to the front, however, Miaoyu had vanished without a trace and the window was wide open. Remembering the noises during the night, she had mis¬givings and wondered, "Where can she have gone so early?"
Going out of the courtyard to have a look, she found a rope-ladder by the wall and on the ground a pouch and dagger sheath.
"Mercy on us!" she cried. "Some thief must have drugged us last night!" She frantically called to the others to get up and make a search. The gate of the nunnery was still locked.
"We must have been overcome by charcoal fumes so that none of us
could get up," said the serving-women. 'But what do you want us for so early in the morning?"
"Our mistress has disappeared."
"She'll be meditating in the hall."
'You're still dreaming! Come and look!"
In bewilderment they opened the nunnery gate and made a search of the whole Garden. Drawing a blank and assuming that Miaoyu had gone to see Xichun, they knocked at the inner gate and were once more roundly abused by Bao Yong.
They explained, "Sister Miaoyu disappeared last night so we've come looking for her. Please be good enough to open the gate to let us ask whether she's here or not."
"That mistress of yours brought in thieves to rob our family," he swore. "Now she's gone off with them to enjoy the loot."
"Amida Buddha! What a thing to say! Aren't you afraid of going to the Hell Where Tongues Are Cut Out?"
'Shut up!" he fumed. "If you go on making a row I'll beat you up."
"Please tell them to open the gate," they begged, "We just want to have a look. If she isn't there we won't trouble you again, sir."
"If you don't believe me, go ahead and look. But if you don't find her you'll have to answer for it."
With that he called people to open the gate and Miaoyu's attendants trooped into Xichun's compound.
Xichun was feeling anxious and depressed. She wondered, "After Miaoyu left so early, can she have heard what that fellow Bao said? If she's offended she may never come back, and I shall be left friendless. I'm really in a fix now, with my parents dead and my sister-in-law against me. The old lady used to be good to me but now she's gone too, leaving me all alone. What's to become of me?"
She mused, "Cousin Yingchun died through cruel treatment; Cousin Xiangyun'5 husband is dying of consumption; and Cousin Tanchun has gone so far away. This was their fate, they had no say in the matter. Miaoyu'5 the only one who's completely free, free as a cloud or wild crane. How I do envy her! But how can the daughter of an official family do as she pleases? I'm in disgrace now because of this robbery. How
can I look people in the face again? And I doubt whether Their Ladyships understand me, so I've no idea what the future holds for me."
She decided to cut off her hair and become a nun. When Caiping and the others saw what she was doing they hastily intervened, but not before half of it had been snipped off.
"Before one trouble ends, another starts!" exclaimed Caiping franti¬cally. "What shall we do?"
As they were crying out in consternation, Miaoyu's attendants ar¬rived in search of her. When Caiping knew their errand she gave a start.
"She left first thing yesterday morning and hasn't been back," she told them.
Xichun inside asked hastily, "Where has she gone?"
Then the women described the noises during the night, the charcoal fumes which had overcome them and Miaoyu's disappearance this morn¬ing, as well as the sheath and rope-ladder they had found. Xichun was alarmed, not knowing what to make of this. Recalling what Bao Yong had said, she felt sure the thieves had seen Miaoyu and returned last night to kidnap her. If that were so, proud and chaste as she was, she would surely take her own life.
"Did none of you hear anything else?" she asked.
"We did. But though we were awake we couldn't utter a sound. Those thieves must have drugged us with narcotic incense. Most likely Sister Miaoyu was drugged too and unable to cry out. In any case, with all those thieves threatening her with swords and clubs, she wouldn't dare make a sound."
At this point Bao Yong bawled from the inner gate, "Hey, you there! Drive out those dirty nuns, quick! Hurry up and lock the gate."
Caiping, afraid she might be blamed for admitting them, urged the women to leave and ordered servants to lock the inner gate. By now Xichun was feeling more wretched than ever. However. Caiping and the rest reasoned with her and persuaded her to dress her half-shorn hair. They agreed to keep this to themselves and feign ignorance of Miaoyu's kidnapping, not taking any action till the return of the masters and mis¬tresses. Xichun was even more determined now to enter a convent, but no more of this for the moment.
Jia Lian on his return to Iron Threshold Temple reported how he had cross-examined the night-watch, made out a list of the lost property and notified the police.
"What did you list?" asked Jia Zheng.
Jia Lian showed him a copy of the list of things which Hupo remem¬bered.
"Regarding the gifts from the Imperial Consort, we have noted them," he said. "We left out certain other things which ordinary families are not supposed to have. As soon as it's time for me to stop wearing mourning I shall go and get people to make a careful search, and we should be able to recover them."
Jia Zheng nodded his approval but said nothing. Jia Lian went in then to see Their Ladyships.
"Better urge the master to go home early," he suggested. "Or every¬thing will be at sixes and sevens."
"That's right," agreed Lady Xing. "Staying here we're on tenter¬hooks."
"We juniors can't propose this," he added. "But if you do, madam, the Second Master is bound to fall in with your wishes."
Lady Xing and Lady Wang talked it over and decided to go back.
The next morning Jia Zheng, who was also worried, sent Baoyu to request Their Ladyships to go home that day and return a few days later. He had assigned stewards to take charge in the temple and hoped they would assign their serving women different duties. Then Lady Xing in¬structed Yingge and some other maids to keep watch by the coffin, and put Zhou Rui's wife and some matrons in overall charge. All the rest of the servants were to accompany them home. Carriages and horses were hastily made ready while Jia Zheng and the others bid farewell with lam¬entations to the old lady's coffin.
As they rose to leave, Concubine Zhao remained prostrate. Thinking she was still mourning, Concubine Zhou went to help her up and found that she was foaming at the mouth, her eyes staring blankly, her tongue lolling out. They were staggered by the sight and Huan started howling.
Concubine Zhao regaining consciousness cried, "I'm not going home!
I'm going south with the old lady."
"There's no need for that," the others expostulated.
"I've served the old lady all my life," she said. "The Elder Master wouldn't take no for an answer, and tried all sorts of tricks to get hold of me. So I asked the sorceress Ma to help me get my own back, spending all that silver for nothing   neither of them was killed. Now I'm going back, I don't know who'll plot against me again!"
All knew that Yuanyang's spirit must have taken possession of her. Their Ladyships stared at her speechlessly. It was Caiyun who inter¬ceded, "Sister Yuanyang, you died of your own accord and Concubine Zhao had nothing to do with it. Please let her be." In Lady Xing's pres¬ence she dared not say any more.
'I'm not Yuanyang," protested Concubine Zhao. "She's long since gone to the immortals' realm. The King of Hell has sent to arrest me, to try me for practising witchcraft with that priestess Ma." Then she screamed, "Good Madam Lian! Don't denounce me to the King of Hell! Bad as I was I must have done a bit of good as well. Dear madam, kind madam! I didn't mean to kill you. I was muddled for a while and did what that old bitch said."
While she was raving like this, Jia Zheng sent for Jia Huan. Serving-women reported to him, "Concubine Zhao is bewitched and Master Huan is looking after her."
"What nonsense!" scoffed Jia Zheng. 'We shall go first then." So the gentlemen set off.
Concubine Zhao went on raving in the temple and they did not know how to bring her to her senses. For fear of further disclosures Lady Xing said, "Leave some people here to look after her. We'll go back first. When we reach the city we'll send a doctor to see her."
Lady Wang who had never liked Concubine Zhao also washed her hands of her. But Baochai was too kind-hearted to do this, despite the attempt on Baoyu's life which she remembered, and so she secretly told Concubine Zhou to stay and look after her. The latter, being a good soul, agreed. Li Wan volunteered to stay too but Lady Wang overrode her.
"Do I have to stay here?" asked Jia Huan in desperation as they were leaving.
'Stupid creature!" snapped Lady Wang. "Your mother may be dy¬mg. How can you leave?"
This silenced Jia Huan, and Baoyu told him, "Good brother, you mustn't leave. When I get back to town I'll send people to see you."
Then they all went home by carriage, leaving only Concubines Zhao and Zhou, Jia Huan, Yingge and a few others in the temple.
After Jia Zheng, Lady Xing and the others reached home, they went to the old lady's room and wept. Lin Zhixiao led in the servants to kneel and pay their respects.
'Get out!" ordered Jia Zheng sternly. "We'll question you tomor¬row.
Xifeng had been feeling too faint that day to come out to welcome them. Xichun met them blushing with shame. Lady Xing ignored her, while Lady Wang treated her as if nothing had happened and Li Wan and Baochai took her hand and said a few words to her.
Only Madam You sneered, "Thank you, miss, for looking after the house the last few days."
Xichun made no answer, her face flushing crimson as Baochai pulled Madam You's sleeve and shot her a glance. Then they all dispersed to their own quarters.
Jia Zheng after a cursory look round heaved a sigh but made no com¬ment. He went to sit in his study and summoned Jia Lian, Jia Rong and Jia Yun to give them certain instructions. Baoyu's offer to keep him company there he declined; and Lan remained with his mother.
After an uneventful night, Lin Zhixiao came to the study first thing in the morning to kneel before his master. Questioned about the theft, he mentioned Zhou Rui's involvement.
"The police have arrested Bao Er," he said. "They found on him Some of the things listed as stolen. Now they are interrogating him to find out the whereabouts of that gang of thieves."
"What ingratitude!" thundered Jia Zheng. 'Family slaves bringing thieves to rob their masters! Outrageous!" He at once sent men out of the city to tie up Zhou Rui and take him to the police to be cross-exam¬ined. Lin Zhixiao remained kneeling before him in trepidation.
"Why are you still kneeling there?" Jia Zheng demanded.
"I deserve death. I beg you, sir, to be merciful!"
Just then Lai Da and other senior servants came in to pay their re¬spects and present the accounts for the funeral.
"Give those to Master Lian to check and report back to me." This order given, Jia Zheng dismissed the stewards.
ha Lian going down on one knee whispered something to him.
"Rubbish!" replied ha Zheng sternly. "Though the money for the old lady's funeral has been stolen, how can we punish our slaves by making them pay instead?"
ha Lian flushed but dared not argue, and stood up but dared not leave.
"How is your wife?" Jia Zheng asked.
Jia Lian knelt again to reply, "It looks as if she's past saving."
"I never guessed our family could go downhill so fast!" Jia Zheng sighed. "Huan's mother has fallen ill too in the temple, and we have no idea what the trouble is. Do you know?"
ha Lian did not venture to answer.
"Go and send servants to take a doctor to attend her."
ha Lian promptly assented and went off to see that a doctor was despatched to Iron Threshold Temple. To know whether Concubine Zhao lived or died, you must read the chapter which follows.

Chapter 113

Repenting Her Sins Xifeng Seeks Help
from a Village Woman
Relinquishing Her Resentment ZUuan Is
Touched by Her Besotted Master


Concubine Zhao, throwing a fit in the temple, babbled even more wildly once the main party had left, to the consternation of the few who re¬mained there. When two serving-women tried to lift her up she insisted on kneeling, raving and weeping by turns. Then, grovelling, she begged for mercy.
"You're beating me to death, Master Red Beard!" she cried. "I shall never dare do such a thing again!"
Presently, wringing her hands, she shrieked with pain, her eyes nearly starting from her head, blood trickling from her mouth, her hair dishev¬elled. The attendants were afraid to go near her.
By nightfall her voice was so hoarse that she sounded like a ghost wailing. The women, not daring to stay with her, called in a few bold men to keep her company. Sometimes she fainted away then after a while came round, keeping up a commotion all night. The next day she was speechless but with her face contorted kept tearing her clothes and bar¬ing her breasts, as if someone were stripping her. Though unable to utter a sound, the poor creature's agony was painful to witness.
At this critical juncture a doctor arrived. He dared not go near her to feel her pulse but warned them to prepare for the funeral.
As he rose to leave, the steward who had brought him pleaded, "Please examine her pulse, sir, so that I can report it to our master."
When the doctor complied the pulse had already stopped beating. Jia Huan hearing this burst out howling, and the others turned all their atten¬tion to him, ignoring Concubine Zhao as she lay there dead. Only kindly Concubine Zhou thought to herself, "So this is the end of a concubine! Though she at least had a son. Heaven knows what it will be like when I die!" This reflection pained her.
The steward hurried back to inform Jia Zheng, who sent people to attend to Concubine Zhao's funeral and keep Huan company there for three days before bringing him back. After the steward's return the news spread like wildfire that Concubine Zhao had been tortured to death by the King of Hell because she had plotted murder.
Some predicted, "Madam Lian must be done for too, if Concubine Zhao said it was she who denounced her."
This talk reached Pinger's ears, increasing her worry, for she saw that Xifeng's illness really looked fatal. And Jia Lian had recently lost his affection for her  busy as he was, he might at least have shown some concern for her health. Pinger tried to comfort her mistress; but Their Ladyships, though they had been back several days now, merely sent servants to ask after her instead of coming themselves, adding to Xifeng's wretchedness. And ha Lian, when he came home, never had a kind word for her.
By now Xifeng's sole wish was to die and be done with it, and in this state of mind she was assailed by spectres - she saw Second Sister You walking over from the back of the room towards her kang.
"How long it's been since last I saw you, Sister!" said Second Sister You. "I missed you badly but was unable to see you. Now that you've worn yourself out by all your scheming, my chance has come at last. Our husband's too foolish to feel obliged to you and blames you instead for stinginess and for ruining his career, so that now he can't hold up his head. This is so unfair that my heart bleeds for you!"
In a daze Xifeng replied, "And I'm sorry now that I was so narrow-minded. Yet instead of bearing a grudge you come to see me!"
Pinger beside her heard this and asked, "What's that you're saying, madam?"
Then Xifeng woke up and remembered that Second Sister You was dead and must have come to demand her life. She felt afraid but, not liking to disclose this, forced herself to say, "My mind was wandering. I must have been talking in my sleep. Massage my back for me."
As Pinger was doing this a young maid came in to announce the ar-rival of Granny Liu, whom a serving-woman had brought to pay her re-
spects.
Pinger immediately left the kang asking, "Where is she?"
"She won't presume to come in unless madam sends for her."
Pinger nodded. Thinking Xifeng too ill to receive visitors she said, "Madam is resting. Tell her to wait outside. Did you ask her business?"
'~The others did," answered the maid. "She's not here for anything special. She says she only heard the other day about the old lady's death, or she'd have come earlier."
Xifeng overhearing them called, "Pinger, come here! Since she's kind enough to call we mustn't cold-shoulder her. Go and ask Granny Liu in. I want to chat with her."
While Pinger went off on this errand Xifeng was about to close her eyes when she saw a man and a woman approaching as if they meant to get on to her kang. At once she called out to Pinger, "Where has this man burst in from?"
She called twice, and Fenger and Hongyu came running in.
"Do you want something, madam?" they inquired.
Opening her eyes she saw no strangers there and realized what had happened, though unwilling to admit it.
She asked Fenger, "Where is Pinger?"
"Didn't you tell her to go and fetch Granny Liu, madam?"
Xifeng forced herself to keep calm and said nothing as Pinger and Granny Liu came in with a little girl.
"Where is Madam Lian?" asked the old woman. And when Pinger led her to the kang she announced, "I've come to pay my respects, madam."
Xifeng opened her eyes and felt a pang of distress. "How are you, granny?" she responded. "Why haven't you been to see us for so long? How big your grand~daughter's grown!"
Granny Liu was grieved to see how wasted Xifeng had become, and how unclear in her mind. "Madam!" she exclaimed. "It's only a few months since last I saw you, and now you look so ill! It was very bad of me not to call earlier to pay my respects."
She told Qinger to curtsey, but she simply giggled. Xifeng took a fancy to the little girl and handed her over to the charge of Hongyu.
"We villagers don't fall ill," said Granny Liu. "When we feel poorly we just pray and make pledges to the gods - we never take medicine. I daresay, madam, this illness of yours was brought on by evil spirits."
At this tactless remark Pinger nudged her secretly. Granny Liu took the hint and said no more; however, this coineLded with Xifeng's own view.
~Granny," she said with an effort. "You're old and experienced. What you said is quite true. Did you hear of the death of Concubine Zhao whom you met here?"
'Amida Buddha!" exclaimed Granny Liu in surprise. "She was in good health - what did she die of? I remember she had a young son. What will happen to him?"
"He'll be all right," said Pinger. "The master and mistress will take care of him."
'Well, miss, you never know. However bad your child may be, he's your own flesh and blood; it's different if he's a stepson!"
This touched Xifeng on the raw and set her sobbing. They all tried to comfort her. Qiaojie came to the kang when she heard her mother weep¬ing and took her hand, shedding tears too.
'~Have you greeted granny?" sobbed Xifeng.
"Not yet," said the child.
"She's the one who gave you your name, so she's your godmother in a way. You should pay your respects to her."
Qiaojie went over to do this but the old woman hastily stopped her.
"Amida Buddha!" she cried. "You mustn't do that to the likes of me! I haven't been here for over a year, Miss Qiaojie. Do you still remember me?"
"Of course I do. When I saw you that year in the Garden I was still small. The year before that when you came, I asked you for some green crickets but you didn't bring me any. You must have forgotten."
"Ah, miss, I'm in my dotage. If it's green crickets you want, our village is swarming with them, but you never go there. If you did, you could easily get a whole cartful."
Xifeng suggested, "Well, take her back with you."
Granny Liu chuckled, "A delicate young lady dressed in silks and
brought up on the fat of the land, how could I amuse her in our place? And what could I give her to eat? Do you want to ruin me?" Laughing at the idea she went on, "I know what: I can arrange a match for her. Though we live in the country, we have big money-bags there too who own thousands of acres of land and hundreds of cattle, not to mention pots of silver. They just don't have gold and jade knick-knacks like yours. Of course, madam, you look down on such families. But to us farming folk they seem to be living in heaven!"
'Go and fix a match then," said Xifeng. "I'll agree to it."
'You must be joking! Why, a lady like you would most likely turn down even big official families; how could you agree to marry her to country folk? Even if you did, the mistresses wouldn't agree."
Qiaojie, not liking this talk, went off to chat with Qinger. Finding each other's company congenial, they soon became good friends.
Fearful that Granny Lin might tire Xifeng out with her loquacity, Pinger tugged at her sleeve and said, "You mentioned Her Ladyship whom you haven't seen yet. I'll go and find someone to take you there, to make your trip here more worthwhile."
As the old woman rose to leave. Xifeng asked, "What's the hurry? Sit down. Let me ask you: how are you making out these days?"
Her heart brimming over with gratitude Granny Liu answered, "If not for you, madam... "She pointed at her granddaughter then went on, "Her dad and mum would have starved. Now, though life on a farm is hard, we've bought quite a few mu of land and sunk a well. We grow vegetables and fruit too, and make enough from them to feed ourselves. The last couple of years, besides, you've given us clothes and material from time to time so that in our village we count as quite well-off. Amida Buddha! The other day when her dad came to town and heard that your family here had been raided, I nearly died of fright! Luckily others told me it wasn't this house, and that set my mind at rest. We learned later that the master had been promoted, and I was so pleased I wanted to come to offer congratulations, but what with all the field work I couldn't get away.
"Then yesterday we heard that the old lady had passed away. I was getting in beans when they brought me word, and it shocked me too much
to go on. I broke down there in the field and cried my heart out! I told my son-in-law, 'I shall have to leave you to your own devices. Whether it's true or not, I must go to town to have a look.' My daughter and son-in-law aren't lacking in gratitude either. They both cried over the news, and this morning before dawn they sped me on my way. I didn't know any¬one in town to ask, so came straight to your back gate and saw that even the door gods were pasted over. That gave me another fright! When I came in and looked for Zhou Rui's wife she was nowhere to be found, and a little girl told me she'd been driven out for doing something wrong. I had to wait around till I met someone who knew me before I could get in. I'd no idea that you were so ill too, madam." By now she was shed¬ding tears.
Pinger, concerned for her mistress, pulled Granny Liu to her feet be¬fore she could finish.
"After talking so long you must be parched," she said. "Let's go and have some tea." She took her to the maids' quarters leaving Qinger with Qiaojie.
"I don't need any tea," Granny Lin assured her. "But please, miss, get someone to take me to pay my respects to Her Ladyship and to weep at the old lady's shrine."
"There's no hurry," Pinger replied. "You can't leave town today anyway. Just now I was afraid you might say something tactless and set our mistress weeping again: that's why I hustled you out. I hope you don't mind."
"Amida Buddha! I know how thoughtful you are, miss. But what's to be done about madam's illness?"
"Does it look serious to you?"
"Maybe it's wrong to say so, but it does."
Just then they heard Xifeng calling, yet when Pinger went to her bed-
• side she remained silent. As Pinger was questioning Fenger, Jia Lian came in. After a cursory glance at the kang he entered the inner room without a word and plumped himself down, glowering. Qiutong alone went in to serve him tea and wait on him, but the others could not hear what they were saying. Then Jia Lian called for Pinger.
"Isn't your mistress taking medicine?" he asked.
"What if she isn't?"
"How should I know?" he retorted. "Bring me the key of the chest."
As he was in a temper she did not venture to question him but went out and whispered something to Xifeng. When the latter said nothing, Pinger brought in a casket and put it before Jia Lian, then turned to go.
"What the devil's your hurry?" he demanded. "Who's going to give me the key?"
Suppressing her annoyance she took it out of the casket and opened the chest. "What do you want taken out?" she asked.
'~What is there?"
'Say plainly what you want," she sobbed angrily. "Then we can die content!"
"What is there to say? You were the ones who brought all the trouble on us. Now we're four or five thousand taels short for the old lady's funeral, and the master told me to raise some money from the title-deeds of the family land   but what is there left? Do you want us to default? I should never have taken on this job! All I can do is sell the things the old lady left me. Are you against that?"
Pinger was sulkily turning out the chest when Hongyn darted in.
"Quick, sister!" she cried. "Madam's in a bad way!"
Ignoring Jia Lian, Pinger burned out to discover Xifeng clawing the air with both hands. Restraining her, she wept and cried for help. Jia Lian coming out to have a look stamped his foot.
"Now this!" he groaned with tears. "I'm finished!"
Just then Fenger announced, "They're asking for you outside, sir." And Jia Lian had to leave.
Xifeng was now so delirious that her maids set up a great wailing which drew Qiaojie to the room. Granny Liu also hastened to the kang, to invoke Buddha and mutter incantations till Xifeng grew slightly calmer. Then Lady Wang arrived, alerted by one of the maids, and was relieved
•	to find Xifeng quieter. Greeting Granny Liu, she asked when she had come; but after paying her respects the old woman could talk of nothing except Xifeng's illness.
Then Caiyun came in to report, "The master wants you, madam." So after giving Pinger a few instructions Lady Wang went away.
Xifeng had come to her senses now. At the sight of Granny Liu, whose prayers she had faith in, she sent her maids away and asked the old woman to sit beside her. Told of her qualms and the ghosts she had seen, Granny Liu assured her that the Buddhist deities in her village temple could work miracles.
'Please offer prayers for me!" begged Xifeng. "If you need money for a sacrifice, I have some." She slipped off a golden bracelet and held it out to her.
'There's no call for this, madam. When we villagers recover after making pledges, we just spend a few hundred coppers. What need is there for all this? I shall pray for you and make some pledge, and once you're better you can spend as much as you like."
Aware that she was in earnest, Xifeng could not insist. "Granny, my life is in your hands!" she said. "And my little Qiaojie is always ailing too; I entrust her to you as well."
Granny Liu assented readily and proposed, "In this case, as it's still early, I'll go back now. When you recover, madam, you can go to thank the gods."
Haunted by the ghosts of those she had wronged, Xifeng in her terror was eager for her to set off. "If you'll do this for me so that I can have a good night's sleep, I'll be very grateful," she said. "You can leave your grand-daughter here."
"She's a country girl with no manners, and may make trouble. I'd better take her back with me."
"Don't worry about that. We're all one family, so what does it mat¬ter? Though we're poor now, one extra mouth to feed is nothing."
Seeing that Xifeng meant this, Granny Liu wanted to leave Qinger for a few days to save them food at home; but she did not know whether the child would be willing. She decided to sound her out and questioned her. Qinger was now on such good terms with Qiaojie that they were reluc-tan? to part; so Granny Liu, having given her some instructions, said goodbye to Pinger and went with all speed out of town. Enough of this.

Now Green Lattice Nunnery belonged to the Jia family but had been inco~orated into the Garden built for the Imperial Consort's visit home.
Ilowever, it had its own income and needed no allowance from the Jia Mansion. After the nuns had notified the police of Miaoyu's abduction, they did not like to leave until the thieves were arrested and they knew what had happened to their mistress. They simply reported the business to the Jia Mansion.
But though the Jia family stewards all knew of the kidnapping, they thought it too trifling a matter with which to trouble Jia Zheng now that he was in mourning and disturbed in his mind. Xichun was the only one who fretted day and night because of this. Before long, however, the news reached Baoyu's ears and it was insinuated that, tempted by desire, Miaoyu had run off with some man. "She must have been kidnapped," he told himself. "As it wasn't in her nature to submit, she must have died resisting." In the absence of news of Miaoyu he kept brooding.
"She used to call herself the 'one outside the threshold.' How could a chaste girl like that come to such an end?" he wondered. "How lively we were in the old days in the Garden! After my second sister's mar¬riage, though, all the girls died or were married off. I thought she at least, unsullied by dust, would stay here; yet this sudden storm carried her off even more unexpectedly than Cousin Lin." His thoughts wandering, he recalled Zhuang Zi's saying about the illusory nature of life and felt that men were born to drift with the wind and scatter like clouds. He burst out weeping. Xiren and the rest thought he was deranged again and tried in every way to comfort him.
At first Baochai reasoned with him too, not understanding his distress. But Baoyu went on moping, his mind wandering. In her perplexity she made inquiries, and when she heard that Miaoyu had been kidnapped and vanished without a trace that upset her too. Still, to counteract Baoyu's depression she lectured him, "Though Lan hasn't gone back to school I hear he's studying hard day and night. He's the old lady's greatgrandson. The old lady always hoped that you, her grandson, would do well; and the master worries about you all the time. If because of some whimsy you ruin your health, what's to become of us all?"
Baoyu did not know how to answer. After a while he said, "Why should I worry about other people? What upsets me is the decline in our family fortune."
"There you are!" she cried. "Your parents want you to do well so as to carry on the family line. If you stick to your silly ways what good will come of it?"
Put out by this, Baoyu laid his head on his desk as if to sleep. Ignoring his sulkiness, Baochai told Sheyue and the other maids to keep an eye on him while she went to bed.
When he was alone in the room it occurred to Baoyu, "I've never had a heart-to-heart talk with Zijuan since she came here and feel bad the way I've cold-shouldered her, especially as she's not like Sheyue and Qiuwen whom I can keep in their place. I remember how she kept me company all that time while I was ill, and I still have that little mirror of hers   she was really good to me then. But now for some reason or other she's treating me coldly. It can hardly be because of Baochai, who was good friends with Cousin Lin and who isn't bad to Zijuan either. When I'm out, Zijuan chats quite happily with her; but as soon as I come in she goes away. I suppose it must be because after Cousin Lin died I got married. Ah, Zijuan, Zijuan! Can't an intelligent girl like you under¬stand how wretched I am?"It struck him then, "They're sleeping or doing needlework this evening: here's my chance to go and find her. I'll sound her out. If I've offended her I'll beg her pardon." His mind made up, he slipped out to look for Zijuan.
Zij nan's room was on the west side of the courtyard. Tiptoeing up to her window, Baoyu saw that there was still a light inside. He licked the window~paper and, peeping through the hole made in this way, saw Zijuan sitting all alone in the lamplight. She was doing nothing, lost in thought.
"Sister Zijuan," he called softly. "Aren't you asleep yet?"
Zijuan gave a start then sat as if stunned. 'Who is it?" she finally asked.
"It's me."
"Is it Master Bao?" she asked, recognizing his voice.
"Yes," he answered softly.
"What do you want?"
"I've something to tell you in private. Please let me in."
After a pause she replied, "If you've something to tell me, young master, please wait until tomorrow. It's late now; you'd better go back."
This sent a chill down Baoyu's spine. He knew Zijuan was unlikely to let him in, yet if he were to go back now he would feel even worse after her rebuff.
"I haven't much to say," he faltered. "I just want to ask you one question."
"Well then, out with it."
But for a long time he said nothing.
When he remained silent, Zijuan inside was afraid that by snubbing him she had unhinged him again. She stood up and listened carefully, then asked, "Have you gone or are you standing stupidly there? If you've something to say, fire away. You've already goaded one to death; is it my turn now? Isn't this futile?"
She peeped through the hole he had made in the window-paper and saw Baoyu standing there woodenly listening. In silence then she turned to trim the lamp.
Baoyu sighed, "Sister Zijuan! You used not to be so hard-hearted. How is it that nowadays you won't even say a single kind word to me? Of course I'm a lout, beneath your notice; but I do wish you'd tell me what I've done wrong so that even if you ignore me from now on I shall at least die knowing why."
"Is that all, young master?" she asked sarcastically. "Have you noth¬ing else to say? If this is all, I tired of hearing it when my young lady was alive. If we do anything wrong, I was sent here by Her Ladyship and you can report me to her. What are we bondmaids anyway but slaves?" She broke off, choking, here and blew her nose.
Baoyu outside realized that she was weeping and stamped in des¬peration. "How can you say such things!" he cried. "After all these months here, surely you understand me? If no one else will tell you how I feel, won't you let me explain? Do you want me to die of frustration?" He started sobbing too.
As Baoyu was blubbering, someone behind him remarked, "Who do you want to tell her for you? Whose slaves are we anyway? If you've offended her, it's up to you to apologize. Whether she'll accept your apologies or not is up to her. Why shift the blame to people like us who aren't involved?"
The two of them, one inside one outside, started. It was Sheyue. Her intervention embarrassed Baoyu.
~Well, what's going on?" Sheyue continued. "Here's one making apologies and one ignoring him. Hurry up and plead with her! Ai! Our sister Zijuan is too cruel. It's freezing outside, and he's begged you so long, yet you show no sign of relenting." Then she told Baoyu, 'Just now our mistress remarked that it's rather late and she wondered where you were. Why are you standing here all alone under the eaves?"
"Yes, what's the idea?" called Zijuan from her room. "I asked the young master to go back. If he has something to say it can wait till tomor¬row. This is so pointless!"
Baoyu still wanted to speak, but not in front of Sheyue. So he had to go back with her, telling himsel{ "Confound it! I shall never as long as I live be able to bare my heart. Only Old Man Heaven understands me!" His tears fell like rain.
"Take my advice, young master, and give up," Sheyue said. "You're crying for nothing."
Baoyu did not answer but went into his room where he saw that Baochai was pretending to be asleep.
Xiren however scolded, "If you have something to say, can't you wait till tomorrow? Why rush there to make such a scene? What if...
She left this sentence unfinished. Presently she asked, "Are you feeling all right?"
When Baoyu said nothing and simply shook his head, she helped him to bed. But naturally he passed a sleepless night.
After being provoked and further upset by Baoyu, Zijuan wept the whole night long. She thought, "It's common knowledge that Baoyu got married when he was out of his mind, and they tricked him into it. Later he came to his senses but then fell ill again and often wept with long¬ing  it's not as if he were heartless. The feeling he showed today was really touching. What a pity our Miss Lin didn't have the good fortune to marry him! This shows that everybody's fate is predestined. Right up to the end they cherish foolish fancies; then when the blow strikes and there's no help for it, blockheads let it go at that while sensitive souls can only shed tears and lament to the breeze or moon. The dead may have no
consciousness but, alas, there is truly no end to the anguish of the living. So it seems we are worse off than rocks or plants which can rest at peace, having no knowledge or feeling."
This reflection eased her, chilling her fevered passions, and she was getting ready to sleep when a clamour broke out in the eastern courtyard. To know its cause, read the next chapter.

Chapter 114

Xifeng Has Hallucinations and
Goes Back to Jinling
Zhen Yingjia, Pardoned by the Emperor,
Returns to Court


When Baoyu and Baochai heard that Xifeng was mortally ill, they hastily got up and the maids brought in candles to wait on them. They were on the point of leaving when some of Lady Wang's servants ar¬rived to report, "Madam Lian is in a bad way, but not yet at her last gasp. The second master and mistress had better not go there just yet. "There is something very strange about her illness, for she has been delirious since midnight, calling for a boat and sedan-chair so that she can hurry back to Jinling to fill in some register. Nobody knows what she means, and she keeps on crying and waiTing. So Master Lian has had to order a paper boat and paper chair for her. They haven't been delivered yet, and Madam Lian is still waiting, panting for breath. Her Ladyship sent us to tell you not to go over till she has passed away."
"That's odd!" exclaimed Baoyu. "Why should she go to Jinling?"
Xiren reminded him softly, "I seem to remember you had a dream one year about some registers, didn't you? Perhaps that's where she's go¬ing."
He nodded. "That's right. It's a pity I can't remember what was written there. It goes to show that all mortals' fates are predestined. But where can Cousin Lin have gone, I wonder? Now that you've reminded me, I feel I have an inkling. If I ever have that dream again I must read those registers carefully so as to be able to foretell the future."
"You're impossible to talk to!" protested Xiren. "How can you take a casual remark of mine so seriously? Even if you were able to foresee the future, what could you do about it?"
"I'm afraid it's out of the question. But if I knew in advance I wouldn't have to worry about you all."
Baochai came over at this point to ask, "What are you two discuss¬
mg?"
Not wanting her to question him Baoyu said, "We were talking about Cousin Xifeng."
"Why gossip about somebody who's dying? In the past you blamed me for putting a jinx on people, but that prediction came true, didn't it?"
Recalling the incident Baoyu clapped his hands. "Quite right, quite right!" he exclaimed. "So you can predict the future. In that case let me ask you to tell my fortune."
"What nonsense!" Baochai laughed. "I simply guessed at what the oracle meant. How can you take it seriously? You're as bad as my sec¬ond sister-in-law. When you lost your jade, she asked Miaoyu to consult the planchette; and when nobody could understand what it wrote she assured me secretly that Maioyu could foretell the future and had at¬tained enlightenment. How is it, then, that Miaoyu didn't know of the terrible thing that has happened to her now? Can this count as foretelling the future? Even if I hit upon the truth about Xifeng, I didn't really know what was going to happen to her. I don't even know what's going to happen to me, so how can I tell about you? All such auguries are bogus. How can you believe in them?"
"Never mind her. Let's talk about Cousin Xing," he said. "What with one trouble after another here, we've forgotten about her marriage. It was such an important event in your family, how could you handle it so sloppily, not even inviting relatives and fiiends?"
"You're wide of the mark again. Our closest relatives are your fam¬ily and the Wangs. There are no respectable Wangs left now, and we couldn't invite people from this house just after the old lady's funeral; so only cousin Lian helped out a little. Of course a few other relatives at¬tended, but since you didn't go you didn't know that. My second sister-in-law's fate seems rather like mine. When she was betrothed to my cousin Ke, mother meant to hold the wedding in style; but with Pan in
Prison Ke didn't want a big show, and then there was that trouble in our house. However, Cousin Xing was having a thin time of it with the Elder
Mistress, the more so as their property had been confiscated; and she found it hard to put up with Lady Xing's harshness. That's why I asked ~other to hold the wedding -but to do it quietly. Now she seems quite
contented and very dutiful to my mother too, ten times better than her real daughter-in-law ever was. She makes an excellent wife for Cousin Ke and is good to Xiangling as well. When he's away the two of them get on famously together. So though our family is poorer now, mother feels quite comfortable these days and only grieves whenever she thinks of Pan. Besides, he keeps sending home for money, and it's Ke who copes by raising cash outside. I hear that all but one of our houses in towns are mortgaged, and they're planning to move over there."
'Why move house?" asked Baoyu. "With them here, it's more con¬venient for you to drop in. If she moves far away a visit will take a whole day."
"Even though we are mother and daughter, it's still better for each to have her own establishment. How can she stay with relatives all her life?~'
Baoyu was about to dispute this when Lady Wang sent a maid to announce, "Madam Lian has breathed her last and everyone's gone over there. Her Ladyship wants the young master and young mistress to go too now."
Hearing this Baoyu stamped his foot, on the verge of tears. Baochai although upset too tried to restrain him.
'~Why mourn here?" she demurred. "We'd better go over."
They went straight to Xifeng's quarters, and found many mourners assembled there. When Baochai saw Xifeng already laid out, she gave way to loud weeping. Baoyu, taking Jia Lian's hand, sobbed bitterly; and Jia Lian too wailed again. As there was no one else present to remon¬strate, Pinger stepped forward sadly to urge them to desist; but still they went on lamenting.
Jia Lian, unable to cope, summoned Lai Da and told him to see to the funeral, then reported this to Jia Zheng and obtained his approval. But having little money in hand, he was hard put to i~. The thought of Xifeng's help in the past increased his wretchedness; and the sight of Qiaojie be¬side herself with grief made his heart ache even more. He wept till dawn, then sent to ask Xifeng's brother Wang Ren to come over.
Since the death of Wang Ziteng, as Wang Zisheng was so incompe¬tent Wang Ren had done as he pleased and alienated all his relatives.
When he heard of his younger sister's death he had to come and mourn; but the shabby way things were being done provoked him.
"My sister worked hard for years running your household, and did nothing wrong," he said. "So your family ought to take her funeral seri¬ously. Why is nothing ready yet?"
Jia Lian who had never liked him ignored this foolish, injudicious talk. Then Wang Ren called Qiaojie over.
"When your mother was alive," he said, "she neglected some of her duties and was so set on pleasing the old lady that she paid very little attention to us. Now, niece, you are growing up. Have you ever seen me take any advantage of your family? Now that your mother's dead you must be guided in everything by your second grand-uncle and me
we' re your only kinsmen left in her family. I know what your father is like: all he cares about is other people. That year his concubine You died, although I wasn't in the capital I heard you spent pots of money; yet now that your mother's dead he's skimping things like this. Why don't you protest?"
'My father would be only too glad to do things handsomely," Qiaojie replied. "But we're not as well-off as before. Having no money in hand, we have to economize wherever we can.
"Haven't you plenty of valuables?" he asked.
"How could we after that raid?"
"So you take that line too? I heard that the old lady gave you lots of things. Now is the time too use them."
Not liking to say that her father had already sold those heirlooms, Qiaojie denied any knowledge of the matter.
"Ha, I know!" he sneered. "You want to keep them all for your dowry!"
Qiaojie dared not retort and could only sob with rage. But Pinger remonstrated angrily, "If you have any complalnts, sir, wait till our master comes back. What does the child understand?"
"You were looking forward to your mistress' death so that you could take her place!" he retorted. "I don't want anything for myself; but you owe it to yourselves to keep up appearances." He sat down glowering.
Seething with resentment Qiaojie told herself, "It's not that my father
is heartless. When mama was alive, uncle made off with ever so many of our things; but now he talks as if he had clean hands!" He went down in her estimation.
Wang Ren for his part was convinced that his sister must have sizable savings, so that even after the raid they could hardly be short of silver. He thought, "My niece must be afraid I'll cadge on them; that's why she's taking her father's side. This minx is no good either!" This made him take a dislike to Qiaojie too.
Jia Lian, unaware of this, was preoccupied with raising money. He had put Lai Da in charge of outside business; but their home expenses were going to be heavy too, and he had no idea where the money was to come from. Pinger appreciated his anxiety.
"Don't ruin your health by worrying too much," she urged him.
"To hell with my health!" he exploded. "I haven't even the money for daily expenses. What's to be done? And to make matters worse, this fool has come butting in. What do you expect me to do?"
"Don~t worry, Second Master. If you're short of money, I still have some things which luckily weren't confiscated. Take them, sir, to be going on with."
Jia Lian was most relieved. "That's splendid," he answered with a smile. "It'll save me the trouble of borrowing right and left. I'll pay you back when I'm in funds again~"
"All I have was given me by the mistress, so why talk about paying me back? I just want this funer~ to be properly managed."
Feeling immensely grateful, Jia Lian raised money on these things of Pinger's, and thereafter he consulted her on all matters, much to Qiutong's annoyance
"Now that the mistress is gone, Pinger wants to take her place," she kept complaining. "I was the Elder Master's maid, so how can she out¬rank me?"
Pinger paid no attention to such remarks, but when Jia Lian learned of them he was disgusted and each time he lost his temper would swear at Qiutong. But when Lady Xing knew this she took Qiutong's side, and he had to control his anger. No more of this.
After the corpse had been laid out for more than ten days, the funeral took place. All this time Jia Zheng, still in mourning for his mother, was staying in the outer study. By now all his proteges and secretaries had left with the exception of Cheng Rixing who often kept him company.
Jia Zheng told him, "Our family's gone downhill with so many dying one after the other, and the Elder Master and Master Zhen away. We are more hard pressed every day, and I don't know what's become of our farm at East Village. All in all, we're in a bad way!"
"Yes, after all these years here I know the situation," said Cheng Rixing. "Which of your servants hasn't been battening on you by filching things from your mansion year after year? Naturally you're runing shorter every year. On top of that you have to meet the expenses of the Elder Master and Master Zhen, not to mention your debts outside; besides, recently you were robbed, and the police aren't likely to catch the thieves or recover your stolen property. If you want to set your house in order, sir, you will have to summon your stewards and send one whom you trust to check up everywhere. Some servants should be dismissed; and if there is a deficit anywhere, make the one responsible pay for it. Then you will know where you are. As for that big Garden of yours, no one would dare sell it; but you haven't put anyone in charge of all its produce. During those years when you were away, these people got up to their tricks pretending the place was haunted so that everybody was afraid to go there. Better check up on your staff and keep on only the servants loyal to you, sending the rest away."
Jia Zheng nodded. "I don't mind telling you, sir," he said, "that quite apart from the servants even my own nephews aren't to be relied on! If I start investigating, how am I to see to everything myself? Besides, be¬ing still in mourning, I can't attend to these things. And never having paid much attention to family affairs, I'm not clear what the situation is."
"You are the soul of goodness, sir. If other families owned such a property and fell on hard times, they would be able to get by for five or ten years by applying to these stewards. Some of them, I hear, have had themselves made magistrates."
"It's unthinkable to ask one's servants for money," objected Jia Zheng. "We shall just have to be more frugal. If the properties entered in our
books really exist, then we should be all right. I only fear they may be empty names.
"Quite true, sir. That's why I humbly suggest a check-up."
"I suppose you have heard some talk?"
"Though I have an idea what these stewards are capable of, sir, I wouldn't dare voice my suspicions."
Aware that there was something behind this, Jia Zheng sighed, "Since our grandfather's time we have always been kind masters, never treat¬ing our underlings harshly. But they seem to be getting more out of hand every day. If I try to act the stem master now, people will laugh at me!"
Just then one of the gatekeepers announced, "Master Zhen from the Yangtze V~ley has arrived."
"What brings him to the capital?" ha Zheng asked.
"I inquired, sir, and they say he has been reinstated through the Emperor's favour."
"Very well, then. Invite him in at once!"
The man went off to usher in Zhen Yingjia, whose secondary name was Youzhong, the father of Zhen Baoyu. He too was a native of Jinling of noble ancestry and related to the ha family, with whom he had been on close terms. Two years before this, having committed a fault, he had been degraded, his property confiscated. Now the Emperor, out of con¬cern for subjects who had peiformed meritorious service, had restored his hereditary title and summoned him to the capital for an audience. Learning of the Lady Dowager's recent death, he had prepared sacrifi¬cial gifts and come today to pay his respects at her shrine, first calling on Jia Zheng.
Jia Zheng, still in mourning, could not go ou~ to meet him but waited by his study door. Their reunion filled Mr. Zhen with mixed joy and sorrow. As they could not greet each other formally while Jia Zheng was in mourn¬ing, they took hands and exchanged a few civilities, then sat down as host and guest and while tea was served described their experiences since their last meeting.
"When did you go to court, sir?" Jia Zheng asked.
"The day before yesterday."
"I presume the Most High must have given you certain instructions
since he was gracious enough to summon you.
"Yes, the Sovereign's kindness surpasses heaven. He issued several decrees."
"What is your good news?"
"Recently pirates have been raiding the southeast coast, giving the people no rest, and the Duke of Anguo is being sent to wipe them out. Since our Sovereign knows that I am familiar with that locality, he has ordered me to pacify the people and to set off straight away. Yesterday I heard of the old laldy's passing, so to express my condolences I have brought incense to pay my respects at her shrine."
Jia Zheng bowed his thanks and rejoined, "By going on this mission, sir, you will certainly relieve the Emperor's anxiety and bring peace to the people. You are bound to achieve great deeds. As I shall be unable to witness them, I can only wait far off for news of your triumph. The garrison commander there happens to be related to me; I hope you will think well of him when you meet."
"What is your relationship, sir?"
'When serving as Grain Corninissioner in Jiangxi, I betrothed my young daughter to his son. They've been married for three years now. But as pirates have been raiding the coast and some cases there are still under litigation, I have had no news of them. My daughter is much in my thoughts. After your work of pacification, sir, I hope you will spare time to see them. I shall write a few lines to her, and if I may trouble you to pass on my letter I shall be extremely grateful!"
"Who doesn't feel for his children?" replied Zhen Yingjia. "That reminds me of a favour I'd like to ask of you. When His Majesty gra¬ciously summoned me to court, because my son is young and there is no one in charge at home I decided to bring my whole household here as well. But having to travel post-haste I came on ahead, leaving them to follow more slowly, and they have not yet arrived. I have orders to go straight to my post and dare not procrastinate. When my worthless son arrives, I shall certainly leave word for him to come and pay his respects to you, sir. I hope you will give him good advice, and if there is a chance to arrange a suitable match I would be most grateful if you would keep him in mind."
Jia Zheng assented to these requests, and after a little more talk Zhen Yingjia rose to leave.
"I'll see you tomorrow outside the city," he said.
Since he was in too much of a hurry to stay, Jia Zheng saw him out of his study. Jia Lian and Baoyu were waiting outside to see the guest off for him, not having presumed to enter as they had not been summoned. They both stepped forward now to pay their respects. The sight of Baoyu astounded Zhen Yingjia, who thought, "Why, he's the image of my Baoyu, except that he's in mourning!"
He greeted them and said, "Though we are close relatives, young gentlemen, we haven't met for so long that we don't recognize each other."
ha Zheng indicated ha Lian and said, "This is my elder brother She's son, my second nephew Lian." Then he pointed at Baoyu. "This is my second son, Baoyu."
Zhen Yingjia clapped his hands in amazement. "How extraordinary !" he exclaimed. "I heard at home that you had a son born with a piece of jade in his mouth, whose name was Baoyu. And I was amazed because he had the same name as my son. Later it seemed nothing unusual, so I thought no more about it. Now that I see him, though, they look exactly alike and bear themselves in the same way as well. This is most extraor¬dinary!" He inquired Baoyu's age and remarked, "My boy is one year younger."
Jia Zheng thanked him then for recommending Bao Yong, and re¬ferred back to how he had asked the servant about his young master having the same name as his son. Since Zhen Yingjia was so struck by Baoyu, he did not ask about Bao Yong but kept exclaiming "Truly ex¬traordinary!" He took Baoyu attentively by the hand. However, as the Duke of Anguo was about to set out on his journey, he had to go at once to get ready himself and reluctantly took his leave. He asked Baoyu many questio~5 as the two young men saw him out, then left in his carriage. When Jia Lian and Baoyu came back, they reported what the guest had said to Jia Zheng, who then dismissed them. Jia Lian went off to work out the accounts for Xifeng's funeral.
When Baoyu returned to his own quarters he told Baochai, "I've
never had a chance to meet that Zhen Baoyu whom they're always talking about, but today I've seen his father. He says Baoyu will be ~jving here any day now and wants to call on my father. He also says his son looks exactly like me, but I can hardly believe it. If he does come, you must all take a look at him to see whether he's really my double or not."
"Oh!" scoffed Baochai. "What nonsense you talk! Claiming that some manis your double and even asking us to look at him!"
Aware of his gaffe Baoyu blushed, wanting to explain. To know how he justified himself, read the next chapter.

Chapter 115

Personal Prejudice Strengthens
Xichun's Conviction
Baoyu Fails to Find a True Friend
in His Double


Baoyu, challenged by Baochai because of his gaffe, was trying to cover it up when Qiuwen came in to announce that the master wanted him in his study. He went there, glad of this chance to slip away.
"I'll tell you why I sent for you," said Jia Zheng. "You can't go to school as long as you are in mourning, but while staying at home you must review those essays you studied before. I am fairly free at present, so I want you to write a few essays to show me a couple of days from now, to see what progress if any you've made recently." When Baoyu had assented he went on, "I have told your brother Ruan and your nephew Lan to do some revision too. If your essays are poor, not even up to theirs, that will be disgraceful."
Not daring to protest Baoyu answered, "Yes sir," and stood there motionless till his father dismissed him. On his way out he met Lai Da and other stewards coming in with ledgers. Re streaked back to his room.
When Baochai ascertained that he had been told to write essays she was delighted and, though reluctant himself, he could not refuse this as¬signment. As he was sitting down to collect his thoughts, two nuns ar¬rived from Ksitigarbha Nunnery and paid their respects to Baochai, who greeted them coldly then told maids to serve tea. Baoyu would have liked to chat with the nuns but refrained in view of her evident aversion to them. And they, aware that they were being cold-shouldered, very soon took their leave.
"Won't you stay?" said Baochai.
"We have been chanting sutras in Iron Threshold Temple," they re¬plied. "That's why we've not come for some time to pay our respects. Today, after calling on Their ladyships, we want to see Miss Xichun too."
Then she nodded and let ffiem go.
Proceeding to Xichun's quarters the nuns asked Caiping, "Where is your young lady?"
"You may well ask," Caiping answered. "These days she won't eat a thing, just curls up on the kang."
'What's the matter?"
"That's a long story. When you see her, she'll probably tell you."
Xichun who had overheard them promptly sat up. "How are you?" she cried. "When our family's hard up you don't come near us!"
"Amida Buddha!" they exclaimed. "Whether well or badly off you're still our patrons, not to say that our nunnery belongs to your family and the old lady was always so good to us. During her funeral we saw all the mistresses except you. It's because we missed you that we've come today especially to see you, miss."
Xichun inquired after the nuns in Water Moon Convent.
"There was some scandal there; so now your gatemen won't let them in," they told her. "Is it true, as we heard the other day, that sister Miaoyu of Green Lattice Nunnery ran off with someone too?"
"What nonsense! Whoever gossips like that should have her tongue cut off! She was kidnapped by bandits. Why spread such wicked rumours?"
"That crankiness of hers   was she putting on an act? Mind, we don't want to run her down to you, miss. She's not like us rough crea¬tures who can only chant Buddhist canons or masses for others, and pray to come to a good end ourselves."
"What do you mean by a good end?"
"Of course a virtuous family like yours has nothing to worry about; but ladies of other houses, however noble, can't be sure of living in luxury all their lives. When trouble comes, they've no way to save themselves. But the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara is most kind and compassionate: when she sees anyone in distress she takes pity on her and finds a way to save her. That's why we all say, 'All-merciful Avalokitesvara saves souls in distress !' Those of us in holy orders, though we have a much harder life than ladies, are not in any danger. Even if we can't attain sainthood, we can at least hope for a better future by being reincarnated as men. Then we shan't have to suffer in silence as we do now, born as women. You
don't realize it, miss, but if you get married you'll be tied to your husband all your life, worse off than at present. But you have to be in earnest about renouncing the world. Sister Miaoyu, now, with her intelligence, thought herself a cut above us and looked down on us as vulgar. Little did she know that we vulgar ones would come to a good end while she met with such a fearful calamity."
As these words ~uched the right chord, ignoring the presence of her maids Xichun told them how Madam You had treated her and how she had been left to watch the house. Pointing at her shorn head she asked, "Do you think me so weak-willed as to hanker after this wretched life? I made up my mind long ago to renounce the world, but just didn't know how to do it."
In simulated alarm the nuns demurred, "You mustn't talk like that, miss. If Madam You heard, she'd drive us away from our nunnery with curses! A lovely young lady like you, from such a fine family too, is bound to make a good match and enjoy a life of luxury and splendour....
Flushing crimson Xichun cut them short. "If Madam You can drive you away, can't I?"
Knowing then that she was in earnest, they deliberately goaded her on by saying, "Don't be angry, miss, if we speak out of turn. But the mistresses would never let you, would they? It wouldn't be good if trouble came of this. It's you we're thinking of, miss."
"Just wait and see.
This sounded so ominous that Caiping signalled to the nuns to go. They took the hint, being afraid to incite Xichun any further. When they took their leave she did not try to detain them, simply saying sarcastically, "Do you think your nunnery is the only one in the world?"
Without venturing to answer, the nuns left.
As this development looked serious and Caiping feared she would be held to blame, she quietly went and reported it to Madam You.
"Our young lady still wants to cut off her hair," she said. "These last few days she's been unwell or else lamenting her fate. You'd better be careful, madam, that she doesn't make away with herself or we shall get the blame."
"She doesn't want to be a nun!" scoffed Madam You. "She just
likes to provoke me while the master's away. Well, let her."
Then Caiping could only try to talk Xichun round; but her young mis¬tress went on fasting every day and remained set on cutting off her hair. Her maids, unable to cope, reported this to the other mistresses. Their Lady shlps did their best to dissuade Xichun, but she was adamant.
They were thinking of telling ha Zheng when the arrival of Lady Zhen and her son Baoyu was announced. All hurried out to welcome her, then ushered her into Lady Wang's room to sit down. After an exchange of amenities Lady Wang sent to invite Zhen Baoyu in too, having heard that he was the image of he~ Baoyu.
The messenger came back to report, "Master Zhen is talking with the master in the study. His Lordship is so struck by him that he's sent for our Master Bao and Master Huan and wants Master Lan to have his meal there too. They'll come over after they've eaten." By this time dinner had also been served inside.
When ha Zheng saw that Zhen Baoyu did indeed look exactly like his son, he tested his literary talents and was so impressed by the youth's fluent answers that he sent for his sons and grandson to meet this prodigy, also meaning Baoyu to compare himself with him. Thus summoned, Baoyu came out in mourning with his younger brother and nephew. At sight of Zhen Baoyu he felt as if they were old acquaintances, while young Zhen too had the impression that they had met before. After they had greeted each other, Huan and Lan stepped forward in turn to pay their respects.
ha Zheng, being in mourning, had been sitting on the floor. When he offered Zhen Baoyu a seat the lad felt it would be presumptuous to take it as he belonged to the younger generation. He placed a mattress on the floor and sat on that. Baoyu and the two other boys could not sit with Jia Zheng; on the other hand, since the visitor belonged to their generation, Jia Zheng could hardly make his sons stand in his presense. In this di¬lemma he rose after a few remarks and ordered the meal to be served.
"Please excuse me," he said. "My sons will keep you company. They can profit by your edifying conversation."
"Don't let me keep you, sir," rejoined Zhen Baoyu politely. "I am the One hoping to learn from them."

After a few further words Jia Zheng went to his inner study, not let-
ting young Zhen escort him. Baoyu, Huan and Lan, who had left the room first, stood respectfully outside the door until Jia Zheng had gone before returning to ask the guest to sit down. Then they told each other how long they had been looking forward to this meeting   no need to record their conversation in detail.
Now the sight of Zhen Baoyu had reminded Baoyu of his dream. Sure that they must share the same views, he felt he had found a friend after his own heart; but since this was their first meeting he had to hold himself in check, the more so as Jia Huan and Jia Lan were present.
He complimented the visitor by saying, "I have long known of your fine reputation, but never had the chance to meet you in person. Now that I see you, sir, you truly seem an immortal descended from heaven!"
Zhen Baoyu had also heard of Baoyu, and felt that he lived up to his reputation. "We can study together, but we may not be travelling the same road," ' he thought. "Since we have the same name and look alike, we must be predestined to be kindred spirits. Now that I am beginning to know what is right, why shouldn't I pass my knowledge on to him? But as we've only just met, I don't know whether we are of the same mind. I mustn't be too hasty." So he said, "I have long known of your talents. You are one in ten thousand  so pure and refined. Being nothing but a vulgar fool myself, I am well aware that I disgrace the name which we both share."
Hearing this Baoyu thought, "He really does think as I do. But as both of us are men who can't compare with chaste girls, how can he attribute their qualities to me?" He answered, "Indeed, I don't deserve such praise. I am a foolish lout, a mere block of stone. How can I compare with your pure nobility? It is you who live up to the name 'precious jade.'
"When I was young I was very cocksure," replied Zhen. "I thought myself jade which only needed polishing; but after our family got into trouble, for some years I ranked lower than a pebble or tile. Though I can't claim to have experienced prosperity and adversity in full, I've nevertheless reached a slightly better understanding of human affairs. You have all the luxuries you can desire while your literary talent and grasp of affairs must be outstanding, so naturally your father treasures you. This is why I think you deserve to be called 'precious jade.'
This seemed to Baoyu sycophantic talk, and he did not know how to answer. ha Huan was rather unhappy at being ignored. Jia Lan, how¬ever, approved of what Zhen had said.
"You are too modest, sir," he chimed in. "Regarding literary talent and the ability to manage affairs, the only way to amass genuine knowl¬edge is through experience and study. Though I am too young to know much about literature, when I carefully think over what I have read, a good reputation and honour rank a hundred times higher than wealth and luxury."
Baoyu wondered irritably when the boy had picked up this pedantic twaddle. He said to Zhen, "I have heard that you too are against all that is vulgar and have a superior understanding of life. I am very lucky to have met you today and would like to hear some of your transcendent views to cleanse my heart of vulgarity and enable me to see things in a new light. I didn't Lhink you would take me for such a fool as to fob me off with mundane talk of that kind."
Zhen Baoyu thought, "He knows what I was like as a boy, so he suspects me of shamming. I had better made myself clear in the hope that then we may become close friends." So he replied, "You have spo¬ken very sincerely, and the fact is that when I was younger I did detest those old truisms too. As I grew older, though, and my father retired from official life, he couldn't be troubled to entertain guests and gave the task to me. Then I saw that all those mandarins had brought glory to their families, while of men of letters not one but spoke of loyalty and filial piety, concerned to win fame for their virtue and learning in order not to have lived in vain under such a sagacious reign or fall short of the expec¬tations of their fathers and the tutors who brought them up. So gradually I rid myself of some of the foolish notions I had as a boy. Now I want to seek out teachers and friends to help enlighten me. I am fortunate to have met you who can certainly edify me. What I said just now was truly from my heart."
By now Baoyu was thoroughly exasperated, but for politeness' sake he made an evasive answer. Luckily a message now came from the inner quarters: "If the young genflemen have finished dinner, Master Zhen is invited over for a chat."
r
Baoyu seized this chance to urge Zhen Baoyu to go in and the latter accordingly went ahead, accompanied by the others to Lady Wang's apartments. There Baoyu saw Lady Zhen in the seat of honour and paid his respects to her. Jia Huan and ha Lan followed suit, while Zhen Baoyu paid his respects to Lady Wang. So the two mothers confronted each other's sons. Though Baoyu was already a married man, as Lady Zhen was advanced in years and an old relative too, she showed a great inter¬est in him when she saw his close resemblance to her son. Lady Wang, it goes without saying, when she took young Zhen by the hand to question him found him better mannered than her own Baoyu. She glanced at ha Lan who, although more handsome than most, could not compare with either of them in looks. As for Jia Huan, he was so uncouth that she could not hide to whom she felt most partial.
All the maids came in to look at the two Baoyu's. "But how extraor¬dinary!" they commented. "It's not so strange their having the same name, but they are the image of each other! It's a good thing our Master Bao is in mourning, because if they were dressed alike there'd be no telling them apart."
Zij nan suddenly thought back fondly to Daiyu, telling herselL "What a pity Miss Lin is dead! Otherwise she might have been willing to marry this Zhen Baoyu." Then she heard Lady Zhen say, "The other day I heard from my husband that since our son is growing up he had begged your husband to take care of his marriage."
Lady Wang who had taken to the boy answered readily, "I'd like to act as go-between myself. Our house had four daughters, but three are either dead or already married, and the only one left, the younger sister of our nephew Zhen, is a few years too young; so it wouldn't be a good match. However, my elder daughter-in-law has two girl cousins, both nice~looking. One is already betrothed; the other would be just right for your honourable son. After a day or '~o I'll propose the match. The only snag is that her family is not so well-off nowadays."
"Madam, don't stand on ceremony with us!" protested Lady Zhen. "What have we to boast about? I'm afraid her family may think us too poor."
"Now that your husband has been entrusted with a mission, your for-
tunes will not only be restored   you're bound to prosper even more than before."
"I only hope so," replied Lady Zhen with a smile. "In that case, I beg you to be the go-between."
When they started discussing his marriage Zhen Baoyu had taken his leave, and Baoyu escorted him back to the outer study where Jia Zheng had returned. They stood talking there for a while until the Zhens' ser¬vant announced that his mother was leaving and wanted him to go home. Jia Zheng told the three boys to see him out. No more of this.
To revert to Baoyu, ever since he had met Zhen Baoyu's father and learned that his son was coming to the capital, he had been longing to meet him, sure that he would prove a kindred spirit. However, their talk had shown him that they were as incompatible as ice and charcoal. He went back dejectedly to his own quarters to brood in gloomy silence.
"Is that Zhen Baoyu really like you?" Baochai asked him.
"In looks, yes; but judging by the way he talks he doesn't have much understanding. He's just a place-seeker of the lowest sort."
"There you go running people down again! How can you be sure of that?"
"He talked and talked but said not a word about seeking for truth, just holding forth on scholarship and the management of affairs, as well as loyalty and filial piety. Isn't such a person a toady? It's too bad that we look alike! The thought of him makes me wish I could change my looks!"
As this sounded nonsensical to Baochai, she said, "The way you talk is really laughable! How can you change your looks? Besides, he was quite right. A man should establish himself and make a name. Who else is as soft and sentimental as you? Yet instead of admitting your weak char¬acter you call other people place-seekers."
Baoyu had been thoroughly exasperated by Zhen Baoyu's homily, and this rebuff from Baochai rankled still more. His dejection made his old illness flare up again, and instead of answering he grinned inanely. Baochai, not knowing the reason, thought he was scoffing at her to show disapproval and therefore paid no attention. But that day he was so dis-tracted that when Xiren and others teased him, he said nothing. The next morning he got up looking as vacant and stupid as during his past de¬
rangement.
Since Xichun was set on cutting off her hair and becoming a nun and Madam You was unable to talk her round, it seemed that unless they let her have her way she would commit suicide. Though she was under constant watch that did not solve the problem. So one day Lady Wang reported this to Jia Zheng. Her husband stamped his foot.
"What has our East Mansion done to be reduced to this?" he sighed.
Sending for Jia Rong to admonish him, he told him to get his mother to have a serious talk with Xichun. "If she insists on this course, she'll no longer be a daughter of our house," he warned.
However, Madam You's exhortations only made Xichun more eager to kill herself.
"As a girl, I can't stay with the family all my life," she said. "If my marriage proved like Second Sister's, the master and mistress would have more cause to worry, and besides she died too in the end. So if you have any real affection for me, just count me as dead and let me become a nun to live a clean life. Especially as I don't have to leave the house. Green Lattice Nunnery is in our own grounds and I can practise my devotions there, while if I need anything you can see to it. Miaoyu's maids are still there too now. If you'll agree to this you'll be saving my life; if you don't, I have no option but to die and be done with it! If I can have my wish, when my brother comes back I shall explain to him that you didn't force me to do this; but if I die he's bound to think it was you who drove me to it."
Madam You, who had always been on bad terms with Xichun, felt there was reason in this argument and went off to report it to Lady Wang; but the latter had gone to Baochai's apartments.
Horrified to find Baoyu out of his mind, Lady Wang reprimanded Xiren, "How careless you all are! Why didn't you tell me that Baoyu was ill again?"
"This illness of his is chronic," replied Xiren. "He gets better for a while, then has a relapse. He's been going to pay his respects to you every day, with nothing wrong with him, madam, and it's only today that his wits have wandered again. Madam Bao was just thinking of letting you know, but was afraid you might scold us for raising a false alarm."
When Baoyu heard his mother rebuking them, his mind cleared for a moment and to defend them he said, "Don't worry, madam. There's nothing wrong with me except that I feel rather gloomy."
"This is an old trouble of yours. You should tell me as soon as you feel unwell, so that we can get a doctor to prescribe medicine. What an ado there'd be if you had another bad relapse like that time when you lost your jade!"
'If you're worried, madam, you can send for a doctor and I'll take some medicine," he answered.
Lady Wang despatched maids to see to this and, as her whole con¬cern was Baoyu, she forgot about Xichun's problem, not returning to her own quarters until the doctor had come and made out a prescription.
A few days later Baoyu was more feeble-minded and, to everyone's consternation, he would not eat. As the termination of mourning was keeping the others busy, Jia Yun was instructed to receive the doctor; and Jia Lian, being short-handed, asked Wang Ren to help attend to outside affairs. Qiaojie was ill too after crying day and night for her mother. So once again the Rong Mansion was in a tumult.
On the day that they returned from terminating the mourning, Lady Wang came to see Baoyu. He was unconscious, and the whole house¬hold was frantic.
Weeping she told Jia Zheng, "The doctor refuses to prescribe any medicine. All we can do is prepare for the last rites."
Sighing bitterly ha Zheng went over in person, and when he saw that Baoyu was indeed dying he told Jia Lian to have preparations made. Jia Lian had to pass on his orders, but lacking money he was in a dilemma.
Just at this juncture a servant rushed in crying, "More trouble, Master Lian!"
Staggered, staring at the servant, Jia Lian demanded, "What now?"
"A monk has come to our gate bringing the jade which Master Bao lost. He's asking for a reward of ten thousand taels."
Jia Lian spat in the fellow's face. "Is that any reason to panic? Don't you know last time it was a fraud? Even if this is genuine, Baoyu is dying, so what good will the jade do him?"
"I told the monk that. But he says if we give him the silver Master
Bao will recover."
Just then they heard shouts outside, "This monk has run amuck! He rushed in and no one could stop him."
"Preposterous!" cried Jia Lian. "Throw him out, quick!"
They heard another commotion, and Jia Zheng was wondering what to do when a wailing went up inside, "Master Bao is dying!"
Feeling still more distraught, he heard the monk shouting, "If you want him to live, give me the money!"
He thought, "Last time it was a monk who cured Baoyu; now another has turned up who may be able to save him. But even if it's the genuine jade, how are we to raise so much money?" On second thoughts he decided, "Never mind. We can worry about that if Baoyu really recov¬ers." He was sending for the monk when in the man came and, without so much ass paying his respects or saying a word, ran towards the inner apartments.
Jia Lian grabbed his arm protesting, "There are ladies inside; how can you charge in so wildly?"
'Any delay and I'll be too late to save him!"
Then Jia Lian went over yelling, "Stop crying, everyone inside! A monk is coming in!"
Lady Wang and the others were sobbing too bitterly to pay any atten¬tion. As Jia Lian entered, still shouting, they turned to see a hulking monk. Although terrified, they had no time to hide as the monk marched straight to Baoyu's kang. Baochai slipped away then, but Xiren dared not move as Lady Wang had remained standing there.
'Benefactresses," cried the monk, "I've brought the jade." Holding it up he added, "Hurry up and bring out the silver, then I'll save him."
Panic-stricken Lady Wang could not tell whether it was genuine or not. "Provided you save his life, you'll get the silver," she promised.
"Hand it over then!" the monk insisted.
"Don't worry. We can raise that much silver anyway," Lady Wang assured him.
The monk roared with laughter and, holding the jade, lent over the kang to cry, "Baoyu, Baoyu! Your precious jade has come back."
Lady Wang and the rest saw Baoyu open his eyes, at which Xiren
cried out for joy.
"Where is it?" Baoyu asked.
The monk placed it in his hand and he grasped it tightly, then slowly held it up to examine it closely. "Ah!" he exclaimed. "At last!"
All there invoked Buddha in elation, even Baochai for getting the monk's presence.
Jia Lian coming over too now saw that Baoyu had indeed regained consciousness. Although delighted he made off hastily. The monk, how¬ever, overtook and grabbed him without a word, and Jia Lian had to go with him to the front of the house where he lost no time in reporting this to Jia Zheng. Overjoyed, Jia Zheng bowed his thanks to the monk, who bowed in return then sat down, making Jia Lian suspect that he would not leave until he received his reward. Jia Zheng, looking closely at him, saw that this was not the same monk as last time.
He asked, "Where is your monastery, and what is your name in reli¬gion? Where did you find this jade? How is it that the sight of it restored my son to life?"
"That I don't know," answered the monk with a smile. "All I want is ten thousand taels of silver."
He looked so boorish that Jia Zheng dared not offend him and simply replied, "You shall have it."
"If you have it, hurry up and bring it. I must be going."
"Please wait a little while I go inside to have a look."
"Go on then. Don't be long about it."
Jia Zheng went inside without having himself announced and walked to Baoyu's bedside. At sight of him his son wanted to sit up but was too weak to do so, and Lady Wang made him lie down, telling him not to move.
With a smile Baoyu showed his father the jade and said, "The pre¬cious jade has come back."
Jia Zheng glanced at it but did not examine it closely, knowing there must be some mystery about it. "Now that Baoyu has recovered," he said to his wife, '~how are we to raise the reward?"
"We must just give the monk all we possess," she answered.
"I can't believe this monk came for the money, did he?" asked Baoyu.
Jia Zheng nodded. "I find it strange too, yet he keeps demanding silver."
Lady Wang suggested, "Go and entertain him first, sir."
After his father had left, Baoyu said he was hungry. He finished a bowl of congee then asked for rice, and the serving women brought him a bowl. His mother did not want him to eat too much, but he assured her, "It's all right, I'm better now."He propped himself up to finish the bowl, and very soon felt well enough to sit up.
Sheyue helped him gently up, and in her jubilation remarked tactlessly, "This really is a treasure! Just the sight of it cured him. How lucky it wasn't smashed that time before!"
Reminded of his quarrel with Daiyu, Baoyu changed colour, let fall the jade and toppled over backwards. To know whether he lived or died, read the next chapter.

Chapter 116

Baoyu, His Divine Jade Recovered,
Attains Understanding in the illusory Realm
Jia Zheng Escorts His Mother' 5 Coffin Home
to Fulfil His Filial Duty


At Sheyue's reference to his jade, Baoyu fell backwards and fainted away again. Lady Wang and the others cried out in consternation, and although they did not reproach her Sheyue knew that her ill-considered comment was to blame. Weeping, she resolved that if Baoyu died she would follow him to the grave. When the others failed to revive him, his mother sent to ask the monk to save him; but when Jia Zheng looked for him, the monk had disappeared. Taken aback and hearing a fresh com¬motion from the inner apartments, he hurried in and found Baoyu once more in a coma. His teeth were clenched and his pulse had stopped, though when they felt his heart it was still warm. In desperation Jia Zheng summoned a doctor to administer medicine and restore him to life.
By then Baoyu's spirit had taken flight. Do you think he was really dead? As if in a dream he sped to the front hall where he paid his re¬spects to the monk who was seated there. The monk at once rose to his feet and led him away. Baoyu felt as light as a leaf floating through the air, and somehow without passing through the main gate they left the mansion.
After a while they came to a desolate region with a distant archway which struck Baoyu as familiar; but before he could ask the monk their whereabouts, the nebulous figure of a woman approached them. "How could there be such a beauty in a wilderness like this?" he wondered. "She must be a goddess come down to earth." Going closer and gazing at her more intently, he thought he knew her yet could not identify her. The woman greeted the monk, then disappeared, and as she did so he realized that it was Third Sister You. Marvelling at her presence there, he was again about to question the monk when the latter pulled him through the archway. On it was inscribed in large characters "Happy Land of
Truth" flanked by the couplet:
When false gives way to true, true surpasses false.
Though nothingness exists, being differs from nothingness.

Once through the archway they came to a palace gate, on its lintel the inscnption "Fortune for the Good, Calamity for the Licentious." Another couplet on the two sides read:
Even sages cannot change the past and future; Causes and effects tear the closest kin apart.

Having read this, Baoyu thought, "So here is my chance to find out about karma, past and future." At this point he saw Yuanyang standing there beckoning to him. "Apparently after coming all this way I'm still in the Garden," he mused. "But why is it so changed?" He wanted to accost her, but to his astonishment in a flash she was gone. Going over towards where she had stood, he saw a row of side courts with tablets over their gates. In no mood to read their inscriptions, he hurried to the place where Yuanyang had vanished. The gate of this court was ajar, but not liking to intrude he decided to ask permission from the monk. When he turned round, however, the monk was nowhere to be seen. He gazed abstractedly at the magnificent hall which he had certainly never seen in the Garden, and halted to look up at the inscription "Enlightenment for the Infatuated." The couplet on both sides read:

Joy and sorrow alike are false; Desire and longing are folly.

Baoyu nodded to himself, sighing, and wanted to go in to ask Yuanyang what this place was. Then realizing that it looked familiar he summoned up courage to open the gate and step in. Yuanyang was nowhere in sight and the whole building was so eerily dark that he was about to slip away when his eye fell on a dozen or so large cabinets, their doors half open. It suddenly occurred to him. "When I was young, I dreamed that I came to a place like this. What a stroke of luck my coming here again today!"
In a daze he forgot his search for Yuanyang and boldly opened the first cabinet, in which he found several albums. Elatedly he told himself, "Most people think dreams are false, but this one was based on fact! I never expected to have the same dream again, yet today I've recaptured
it.	I wonder whether these albums are the same as those I saw last time?"
He took the topmost album entitled First Register of Twelve Beau-ties of Jinling. Holding it he thought, "I have a faint recollection of this; it's too bad that I can't remember clearly." He opened it at the first page and saw a picture, too blurred to make out distinctly. On the back were a few lines of indistinct writing, but by straining his eyes he deciphered a few words about a jade belt, and over these what seemed to be the word un." Could this refer to Cousin Lin?" he wondered, then read about a golden hairpin in the snow and marvelled at the resemblance to Baochai's name. But when he reread the four lines consecutively, he could make no sense of them except that they seemed to suggest Daiyu and Baochai, which in itself was nothing extraordinary. Only the words "pity" and '~sighing" were ominous. How to interpret this? Then he rebuked him¬sel{ "I'm doing this on the sly. If I rack my brains too long and some¬body comes, I shan't be able to read the rest." So he leafed through the register without paying much attention to the pictures, and finally found the lines:
When Hare and Tiger meet,
From this Great Dream of life she must depart.

At that, the truth dawned on him. "Right! This prediction came true! It must mean Sister Yuanchun. If all the others were equally clear and I could copy them down to study them, I'd be able to find out the life-spans and fortunes of all these girls. When I went back I'd keep it se¬cret, but knowing in advance would save me worrying so much for noth¬ing."
He looked round but could see no writing-brush or ink, and for fear of being disturbed he read rapidly on. One of the pictures showed a shad¬owy figure flying a kite, but he did not trouble to examine it carefully. Instead he read hastily through all the twelve verses. Some he under¬stood at a glance, some after reflectiom; others baffled him and he tried to memorize them. Then, sighing, he picked up the third register of the beauties of Jinling. At first he did not understand the lines:

This prize is borne off by an actor,
And luck passes the young master by.

But when he saw the picture of flowers and a mat, he wept in consterna¬tion.
Before he could read on he heard someone calling, "You're playing the fool again. Your Cousin Lin wants you."
It sounded like Yuanyang's voice, yet when he turned he could see no one. While he was vacillating she suddenly beckoned to him from outside the gate and he hurried joyfully over. Yuanyang's shadowy figure walked ahead so fast that he could not overtake her.
"Good sister, wait for me!" he cried.
She paid no aflention, continuing on her way, so that Baoyu was forced to put on a spurt. Then he saw another fairyland with high pavilions, stately mansions with hanging eaves, and among them the indistinct fig¬ures of palace maids. As he feasted his eyes on this scene he forgot Yuanyang and his legs carried him through a palace gate. Inside were all manner of exotic flowers and herbs unknown to him, while in a flower-bed surrounded by a white stone balustrade grew a green plant, the tips of its leaves a light red. He wondered what rare plant this could be that it was so specially treasured, observing that the faintest breeze set it sway¬ing incessantly, and that though it was so small and had no blossoms its delicate grace was utterly enchanting.
He was looking on raptly when someone beside him demanded, "Where did this oaf come from to spy on our fairy plant?"
He swung round in dismay to see a fairy maid and explained to her with a bow, "While looking for Sister Yuanyang I blundered into this fairy realm. Please pardon my presumption! May I ask what place this is? Why did Sister Yuanyang come here to tell me that Cousin Lin wants me? I beg you to enlighten me."
"Who knows your cousins?" the fairy maid retorted. "I am keeping watch over this fairy plant, and no mortals are allowed to loiter here."
Reluctant to leave he pleaded, "Sister Fairy, if you are in charge of these fairy plants you must be the Goddess of Flowers. Do tell me what makes this plant unique!"
"That's a long story," she answered. "This plant, Vermilion Pearl, used to dwell on the shore of the Sacred River and was withering away
until it was revived by being watered every day with sweet dew by the attendant Shen Ying. Because of this, it went down to the world of men to repay Shen Ying's kindness. Now that it has returned to the realm of truth, the Goddess of Disenchantment has ordered me to watch over it and not let butterflies or bees molest it."
Baoyu could not fathom this. Convinced that he had met the Goddess of Flowers and determined not to let slip this chance, he persisted, "If you are in charge of this plant, Sister Fairy, there must be others in charge of those countless rare flowers. I won't trouble you to tell me who all of them are, but which fairy is in charge of the hibiscus?"
"That I can't tell you, but my mistress may know."
"Who is your mistress, sister?"
"The Queen of Tear-stained Bamboos."
"That's it!" Baoyu exclaimed. "The Queen of Bamboos, I'd have you know, is my cousin Lin Daiyu."
"Nonsense! This is the celestial abode of goddesses. Even if you call your cousin the Queen of Bamboos she's no Ehuang or Nuying  how could my mistress be related to mortals? If you go on talking so wildly, I'll call guards to drive you out!"
In abashed dismay Baoyu was just withdrawing when a messenger arrived to announce, "The attendant Shen Ying is invited to enter."
The fairy maid said, "I've been waiting all this time, but he hasn't put in an appearance. So how can I send him in?'
"Isn't that him leaving now?"
Then the fairy maid hurried out calling, "Please come back, Shen Ying!"
Baoyu, thinking it was somebody else she wanted and afraid of being driven away, made off as fast as he could.
Suddenly his way was barred by a sword and he was ordered to halt. In panic he looked up and saw Third Sister You. Slightly reassured he pleaded, "Sister, why should you threaten me too?"
"All the men of your house are a bad lot, spoiling people's reputations and breaking up marriages! Now that you're here I'm not going to let you off!"
Reduced to despair by this threat, Baoyu beard a voice behind him
call, "Sister, stop him! Don't let him get away!"
'On my mistress' orders," Third Sister You told Baoyu, "I've been waiting for a long time. Now that we've met, with one stroke of my sword I'm to cut through your involvements in the mundane world!"
This made Baoyu even more frantic, not that he fully understood her meaning. Turning to run, he found Qingwen behind him and torn between sorrow and joy appealed to her, "I've lost my way all on my own, and run into enemies. I want to go back but have none of you with me. Thank goodness you're here, Sister Qingwen! Do take me home at once."
"Don't be so alarmed, sir," she said. "I'm not Qingwen but have come on our Queen's orders to take you to her. No one is going to harm you.
Nonplussed he replied, "You say your Queen wants to see me. Who is she?"
"This is no time to ask questions. You'll know when you meet."
Baoyu had no choice but to follow her, and watching her carefully he felt certain she was Qingwen. "No doubt about it, that's her face and her voice," he told himself. "So why should she deny it? Well, I'm too confused to bother about that now. When I see her mistress I'll beg her to forgive me for anything I've done wrong. After all, women are so kindhearted, she's bound to excuse my presumption."
By now they had reached a fine palace blazing with colour, with a clump of bamboos in the courtyard, outside the door several pines. Under the eaves stood maids dressed like palace attendants who at sight of him murmured, "Is this the attendant Shen Ying?"
The maid who had brought him there said, "Yes, it is. Go in quickly to announce him."
One of the waiting-maids beckoned Baoyu with a smile, and he fol¬lowed her through several buildings to the main apartment which had a pearl curtain over its lofty door.
"Wait here till you're sent for," she told him, and in abject silence he did so while she went in, reappearing soon to say, "You may go in to pay your respects."
Another maid rolled up the portiere, and Baoyu saw a garlanded young lady in embroidered robes seated inside. Raising his eyes to her face he
saw it was Daiyu.
"So here you are, cousin!" he blurted out. "How I've been longing for you!"
The waiting-maids outside expostulated, "This attendant has no man¬ners! Out you go, quick!" One of them lowered the portie re again.
Baoyu longed to go in but dared not, yet was reluctant to leave. He wanted to question the waiting-maids, but none of them knew him and they drove him out. Qingwen, when he looked round for her, was no¬where to be seen. Filled with misgivings he left disconsolately, still with no one to guide him, unable to find the way by which he had come. He was in a quandary when he caught sight of Xifeng under the eaves of a house beckoning to him.
"Thank goodness!" he exclaimed. "I'm home again! What flummoxed me so just now?" He ran towards her crying, "So this is where you are, sister. The people here have been plaguing me, and Cousin Lin refused to see me, I don't know why."
As he reached her he saw it was not Xifeng but Qin Keqing, the first wife of Jia Rong. He halted and asked where Xifeng was. Instead of answering, Keqing went inside.
Not venturing to follow her, he stood there woodenly in a daze and sighed, "What have I done wrong to make them all cut me like this?" He burst out crying.
At once guards in yellow turbans with whips in their hands bore down on him demanding, "Where is this fellow from that he dares intrude into this fairy realm of bliss! Off you go!"
Afraid to protest, Baoyu was trying to find a way out when in the distance he saw a group of girls approaching, chatting and laughing. He was pleased to see that one of them looked like Yingchun.
"I've lost my way," he called to her. "Come to my rescue!"
At once the guards behind gave chase, and as he dashed off headlong the girls changed into demons too and joined in the pursuit.
Baoyu was desperate when along came the monk who had returned his jade. Holding up a mirror he declared, "I have come on orders from the Imperial Consort to save you."
The demons instantly vanished  all left was the desolate plain.
Seizing the monk by the arm, Baoyu implored him, "I remember you were the one to bring me here, but then you disappeared. I met many people dear to me, but they all ignored me and suddenly turned into de¬mons. Was that a dream or did it really happen? Please explain this to me, father."
"Did you pry into any secrets here?" asked the monk.
Baoyu thought, "Since he brought me to this fairy realm, he himself must be an immortal; so how can I hide anything from him? Besides, I want him to elucidate this." He therefore answered, "Yes, I saw some registers."
"There you are! After reading them can't you understand? All earthly ties of affection are bewitchments. Just bear what has happened care¬fully in mind, and I shall explain it to you later on." He gave him a violent shove. "Now go back!" Baoyu lost his balance and fell with a cry of dismay.
His whole household was in tears when Baoyu regained conscious¬ness. At once they called out to him. He opened his eyes to find himself on the kang and, seeing that the eyes of Lady Wang, Baochai and the rest were red and swollen from weeping, he calmed himself and thought, "Why, I must have died and come to life again!" Recalling all that had befallen his spirit, and pleased that he could still remember it, he laughed aloud and exclaimed, "That's it, that's it!"
His mother summoned a doctor, thinking he was deranged again, at the same time sending maids to report to Jia Zheng that their son had recovered from his heart attack and now that he could talk there was no need to prepare for the last rites. At this, Jia Zheng hurried over and saw that Baoyu had indeed regained consciousness.
"You luckless fool!" he cried. "Trying to frighten us to death!" All unwittingly he shed tears. Then, sighing, he called in the doctor to exam¬ine Baoyu's pulse and administer medicine.
Sheyue, who had been thinking of suicide, was equally relieved by his recovery. Lady Wang sent for a longan cordial, and when he had taken a few sips he felt calmer. In the general relief no one blamed Sheyue, but Lady Wang had the jade given to Baochai to hang on Baoyu's neck.
"I wonder where that monk found the jade," she remarked. "It's
odd the way one moment he was asking for silver and the next he van¬ished. Could he be an immortal?"
Baochai said, "Judging by the way he came and left, he can't have found the jade. When it was lost before, it must have been this monk who took it away."
"But it was here in our house," objected Lady Wang. "How could he have taken it?"
"If he could bring it back, he could have taken it too."
Xiren and Sheyue reminded them, "That year when the jade was lost, Lin Zhixiao consulted a fortune-teller; and after Madam Bao married into our house we told her that the character he came up with was the shang1 meaning reward. Do you remember, madam?"
"Yes," said Baochai thinking back. "You all said it meant we should look for the jade in a pawnshop. Only now is it clear that it meant that the jade had been taken by a monk, as the upper part of that character is the shang for 'monk.'
"I just can't get over that monk!" remarked Lady Wang. "When Baoyu fell ill that time, another monk came and said we had a treasure in our house -meaning this jade -which could cure him. Since he knew that, there must be more to this jade than meets the eye. Besides, your husband was born with it in his mouth. Have you ever heard of such a thing before? But who knows after all what this jade can do or what will become of him? It was this jade that made him fall ill, this jade that cured him, this jade that he was born with.... "She broke off here in a fresh fit of weeping.
Baoyu, who had been following their conversation, was better able now to understand what had happened when his spirit took flight. He said nothing, however, just fixing it in his mind.
Then Xichun joined in, "When the jade was lost, we asked Miaoyu to try the planchette and it wrote 'By the ancient pine at the foot of Blue Ridge Peak... entering my gate with a smile you will meet again.' I think 'entering the gate' is most significant. Buddhism is the gate to saint¬hood; I'm only afraid Second Cousin can't enter that gate."
Baoyu laughed sarcastically at this but Baochai knitted her brows, lost in thought.
	%~.	~
I     .	~
"There you go harping on Buddhism again!" scolded Madam You. "Haven't you dropped your idea of becoming a nun?"
Xichun smile. "The truth is, sister-in-law, I've been abstaining from meat for some time now."
"Good gracious, child!" exclaimed Lady Wang. "You mustn't have these notions."
Xichun said nothing, but Baoyu could not help sighing as he recol¬lected the verse "By the dimly lit old shrine she sleeps alone." Then suddenly recalling the inscription for the painting of a mat and flowers, he glanced at Xiren and tears started to his eyes. His abrupt transitions from smiles to tears puzzled the others, who could only assume that he was unhinged again, not knowing that his agitation arose from the verses he had memorized from the registers into which he had pried. Though un¬willing to speak of them, he was convinced of ~e truth of these predic¬tions. But we can return to this later.

The others saw that after Baoyu's revival his mind had cleared, and by taking medicine every day he steadily recovered his health. This being the case, Jia Zheng turned his mind to other matters. As there was no knowing when Jia She would be pardoned, and he did not like to leave the old lady's coffin in the temple for too long, he decided to escort it back to the south for burial and called in Jia Lian to consult him.
"Your decision is quite correct, sir," said Jia Lian. "Not being in office now you are free to see to this important business, whereas once you take off your mourning you will probably have other demands on your time. In my father's absence I couldn't presume to suggest this; but although your decision is excellent, this is going to cost several thousand taels and it's useless to expect the police to recover our stolen property."
"I have made up my mind," said Jia Zheng, "but since the Elder Master is away I wanted to consult you on how to handle this. You can't leave home or there would be no one in charge here. In my opinion all those coffins should be conveyed to the ancestral graveyard, and as I can't cope single-handed I'm thinking of taking Jia Rong along, the more 50 as his wife's is one of the coffins. Then there is your cousin Lin's. The old lady left instructions that it should go south with hers. I suppose
we shall have to borrow a few thousand taels to covef these expenses.
"Nowadays we can't count on others help~ng us out," replied Jia Lian. "As you are not in office, sir, and my father is away, we're in no position to raise a loan at present. All we can do is moitgage some prop¬erties."
"How can we, when this mansion of ours was built by the govern¬ment?"
"I don't mean this mansion we live in, but there are houses outside which can be mortgaged and redeemed again after you resume office, sir. If in future my father returns and is given a post, that will make it easier. My one regret is that you should have to exert yourself in this way at your advanced age, sir."
"I'm simply doing my duty by the old lady. But you must be more prudent in running the household!"
"You can rest assured about that, sir. I shall certainly do my best, incompetent as I am. Besides, you will need to take quite a few servants south, and as that will leave fewer here I can cut down on expenses and get by. If you should find yourself short of funds on the' way, sir, since you will be passing Lai Shangrong's place you can enlist his help."
"It's my own mother's funeral. Why should I asIC other families to help?"
"Yes, sir," muttered Jia Lian, then withdrew to raise the money.
Jia Zheng told Lady Wang his plans and asked her to take charge of
domestic affairs, then chose an auspicious day to start this long journey.
By now Baoyu had completely recovered his health, while Jia Huan and
Jia Lan were studying hard. Jia Zheng entrusted all three to the care of
Jia Lian.
"This is a year for the triennial examination," he told him. "Huan can't sit for it while in mourning for his mother. Lan is only a grandson, so after the mourning is over he's still entitled to take the examination and you must send Baoyu there too with his nephew. If he is a successful candidate, it will help to atone for our faults."
Jia Lian and the boys assented. After giving furthef instrutions to other members of the family, Jia Zheng bade farewell to tbe ancestral shrine, had sutras chanted for a few days at the temple outside the city, then
boarded a boat with Lin Zhixiao and others. He did not take leave of his friends and relatives, not wanting to put them out; thus only family mem¬bers saw him off.
Lady Wang reminded Baoyu from time to time of his father's instruc¬tions, and checked up on his studies. Baochai and Xiren too, it goes with¬out saying, encouraged him to work hard. Though he was in better spirjts after his illness, he took more fantastic notions into his head: not only was he averse to rank and an official career, he had lost much of his former interest in girls. But this was not too apparent to other people as he did not voice these views.
One day, after returning from seeing off Daiyu's coffin, Zijuan stayed disconsolately in her room to weep. "How unfeeling Baoyu is!" She thought. "When he saw Miss Lin's coffin taken south he showed no sadness, shed not a tear, and instead of consoling me when I sobbed he actually laughed at me. So all this heartless fellow's honeyed talk before was to fool us! It's a good thing I didn't take him seriously the other night, or I'd have been taken in by him again. One thing I can't make out, though, is his coolness towards Xiren nowadays as well. Madam Bao has never liked too much show of feeling, but don't Sheyue and the rest resent his behaviour? What fools most of us girls must be to have cared so much for him all that time - what can come of it in the end?"
Just then Wuer came in to see her. Finding Zijuan in tears she asked, "Are you crying for Miss Lin again? I see now that it's no good basing your opinion of somebody on hearsay. Because we'd always heard how good Master Bao was to girls, my mother tried time and again to get me into his service; and since coming here I've nursed him devotedly each time he was ill, yet now that he's better he hasn't a single kind word for me - he doesn't even so much as look at me!"
Tickled by this, Zijuan laughed. "Bah, you little slut!" she spat out. "How do you want Baoyu to treat you? A young girl should have some shame! When he shows so little interest in all those who belong to his household by rights, what time has he to waste on you?" Laughing again, she drew one finger over her cheek to shame her. "Tell me, what's the relationship between you and Baoyu?" she demanded.
Aware that she had given herself away, Wuer blushed furiously. She
was about to explain that she wanted no special consideration from Baoyu but he had recently shown too little' to his maids, when someone outside the courtyard gate shouted, "That monk is back again. He wants ten thousand taels of silver! The mistress is worried and wanted Master Lian to talk to him, but master Lian isn't at home! That monk is ranting crazily outside. The mistress asks Madam Bao to go and discuss what to do."
To know how they got rid of the monk, read the next chapter.

Chapter 117

Two Maids Protect Baoyu's Jade Lest
He Renounce the World
A Worthless Son, Taking Sole Charge
of the House, Revels in Bad Company


When Lady Wang sent to ask for Baochai, arid Baoyu knew that the monk was outside, he hurried all alone to the front crying out, "Where is my master?"
He called repeatedly but could not find him and, reaching the gate, saw Li Gui barring the way, refusing the monk admission.
"The mistress has sent me," said Baoyu, "to invite this holy man in."
Then Li Gui let go of the monk who swaggered in and, seeing that he looked like the monk in his trance, Baoyu had an inkling of the truth. Bowing he said, "Excuse my tardiness in welcoming you, master."
"I don't want you to entertain me," the monk replied. "Just hand over the silver and I'll be off."
This did not sound to Baoyu the way a saint would talk; moreover, the monk had a scabby head and was wearing filthy rags. He reflected, "The ancients said, 'One who has attained the Way makes no show of it; one who makes a show of it has not attained the Way.' I mustn't let slip this chance, but agree to give him the reward so as to sound him out."
Re replied, "Please have patience, master, and sit down to wait while my mother gets it ready. May I ask if you are from the Illusory Land of Great Void?"
"What 'illusory land'? Whence I came, thither shall I depart. I'm here to return you your jade. Can you tell me where it comes from?" When Baoyu could not answer the monk chuckled, "You don't even know your own origin yet question me!"
Baoyu had the intelligence after all he had experienced to have seen through the vanity of this earth, being simply ignorant of his own anteced¬ents. The monk's question awoke him to the truth.
"You don't need any silver," he cried. "I'll returri you the jade."
"And so you should!" laughed the monk.
Without a word Baoyu raced in to his own compound, which Baochai and Xiren had left to see Lady Wang. He snatched the jade up from his bed and dashed out, running full tilt into Xiren who started with fright.
"The mistress said it was very good of you to entertain the monk, and she means to give him some silver," she informed him. "What brings you back?"
'~Go straight and tell her there's no need to raise any money. I'll return him the jade instead."
"Not on any account!" She caught him by the arm. "This jade is your life. If he takes it away your illness will come back!"
"Not any more. Now I'm in my right mind again, what do I need the jade for?" He wrenched himself free and made off.
Xiren ran frantically after him calling, "Come back! I've something to tell you.
He cried over his shoulder, "There's nothing we need talk about."
She chased after him regardless, expostulating, "Last time you lost the jade it nearly cost me my life! You've just got it back and if he takes it away that will be the death of us both! You can only give it back over my dead body!" With that, overtaking Baoyu, she caught hold of him.
"Whether you die or not I must give it back," was his desperate re¬tort.
He pushed her with all his might, but she seized his belt with both hands and would not let go, weeping and screaming as she sank to the ground. The maids inside hearing this darted out and found them both distraught.
"Tell the mistress, quick!" Xiren sobbed. "Master Bao wants to give his jade back to the monk."
When the maids ran to report this, Baoyu grew even angrier and tore at Xiren's hands to free himself; but mindless of the pain she would not let go. And when Zijuan inside heard what Baoyu meant to do, even more frantic than the rest she completely forgot her resolve to remain aloof and ran out to help restrain him. Though he was a man and strug¬gling hard, he could not free himself from their desperate clutches.
"So you're hanging on to this jade for dear life!" he sighed. "What
would you do if I went away myself?" At that they burst into uncontrol¬lable sobbing.
They were still locked together when Lady Wang and Baochai hur¬ried over. "Baoyu!" wailed his mother. "You've gone crazy again!"
At sight of her Baoyu knew he could not escape. With a sheepish smile he said, "Why all this fuss? Why upset the mistress for no reason at all? I thought it unreasonable of the monk to insist on ten thousand taels, not one tael less; so in a pique I came back meaning to return him the jade, saying that it was a fake and we didn't want it. If he saw that we didn't value it, he'd be willing to accept whatever we offered."
"I thought you really meant to give it back," scolded Lady Wang. "All right then, but why didn't you tell them clearly? Why make them raise such a rumpus?"
Baochai put in, "If that's the case, well and good. If you really gave the jade back, that monk is so odd that he could cause fresh trouble for our family and that would never do. As for the reward, you can raise it by selling my jewels."
"Yes," agreed Lady Wang. "Let's do that."
Baoyu made no objection as Baochai stepped forward to take the jade from his hand. "There's no need for you to go out," she said. "Her Ladyship and I will give him the money."
"I don't mind not giving him the jade," he replied, "but I must see him once more."
xiren and Zijuan were still keeping hold of him. Baochai, having sized up the situation, told them, "Let go of him. He can go if he wants to."
Then Xiren released Baoyu, who said with a smile, "You people think more of the jade than you do of me! Now that you're not stopping me, suppose I go off with the monk and leave you the jade?"
In renewed alarm Xiren wanted to seize him again, but in the pres¬ence of the mistresses she could not take liberties, and Baoyu had al¬ready slipped away. She at once sent a maid to Beiming at the inner gate with the message, "Tell the servants outside to keep an eye on Master Bao; he's not in his right mind." The girl went off on this errand.
Lady Wang and Baochai went in now and sat down to ask Xiren just what had happened, and she related in detail all Baoyu had said. This so


• '••
worried them that they sent word to the servants outside to wait on Baoyu and hear what the monk had to say.
The maid on her return informed Lady Wang, "Master Bao is really rather crazed. The pages outside say he was at a loss because you wouldn't let him have the jade. Now he's gone out and begged the monk to take him with him."
Lady Wang exclaimed in horror, then asked what the monk had re¬plied.
"He said he wants the jade, not it's owner," the girl said. "Doesn't he want the money then?" asked Baochai. "I didn't hear anything about that, madam. Later the monk and Mas¬ter Bao were laughing and chatting together about many things, but the pages couldn't understand a word."
"Stupid creatures!" cried Lady Wang. "Even if they don't under¬stand, they can memorize it." On her orders the maid hurriedly fetched one of the pages and, standing outside the window, he paid his respects.
"Though you didn't understand the talk between the monk and Mas¬ter Bao, can't you repeat it to me?" asked Lady Wang.
"All we caught were phrases like 'the Great Waste Mountain,' 'Blue Ridge Peak,' 'the Land of Great Void' and 'severing mortal entangle¬ments', "he told her.
Lady Wang could not make head or tail of this either, but Baochai's eyes widened in alarm and she could not get a word out. They were about to send to fetch Baoyu back, when in he came grinning and saying to himsell, "Fine, fine!"
Baochai remained speechless while his mother asked, "What is this crazy talk?"
"I'm in earnest," protested Baoyu, "yet you call me crazy! That monk and I knew each other before and he simply wished to see me. He never really wanted a reward but was just doing a good deed. After he'd explained that, he vanished. Isn't that fine?"
His mother, not believing him, sent the page to question the gateman.
"The monk has really gone," he came back to report. "He left word that Your Ladyships needn't worry. He wants no silver, simply wants Master Bao to pay him occasional visits. 'Just submit to fate and things
will take their natural course', "he said.
"So he was a good monk after all! Did you ask where he lives?"
"The gateman said he told Master Bao, so he knows."
But Baoyu when questioned answered with a smile, "That place is far or near, depending on how you look at it....
"Wake up!" cut in Baochai, "Stop dreaming! The master and the mistress dote on you, and the master told you to study hard to advance yourself."
"What I have in mind will advance us all, won't it? Don't you know the saying. 'When one son renounces the world, seven of his ancestors will go to heaven'?"
Lady Wang lamented, "What's to become of us? First Xichun insists on renouncing the world, and now here's another. How can I live on like this?" She broke down and wept.
Baochai tried hard to console her and Baoyu said, "I was joking, madam. Don't take it seriously."
His mother stopped weeping to retort, "Is this ajoking matter?"
Just then a maid came in to announce, "Master Lian is back, quite unlike his usual self. He hopes you'll go back, madam, so that he can report something to you."
"Tell him to come in here," ordered Lady Wang in fresh alarm. "He's known his sister-in-law since they were children, so he doesn't have to avoid her."
When Jia Lian had entered and paid his respects to her, Baochai stepped forward to greet him.
He reported, "I have just had word from my father that he's seriously ill. He's sent for me. Any delay and I may never see him again!" Tears coursed down his cheeks.
"What illness did he say he had?" asked Lady Wang.
"It started as influenza but turned into consumption, and now he's dying. He sent a messenger posthaste with the news, warning that if I delay for so mucb as two days I shall be too late to see him. So I've come to ask your permission to leave at once, madam. But there's no one at home to see to things unless we rope in Qiang and Yun. Though they aren't much good at least they are men, and if business crops up
outside they can report it.
"My own household is no problem. Because Qiutong kept weeping and wailing that she didn't want to stay. I told her family to fetch her back and that has saved Pinger a good deal of vexation. Though Qiaojie has no one to look after her, Pinger is kind to her and she~s an intelligent gid though even more wilful than her mother, madam, so I hope you will discipline her from time to time." The rims of his eyes were red now and he dabbed at them with the silk handkerchief attached to the sachet at his waist.
"The child has her grandmother here," demurred Lady Wang. "Why should you entrust her to me?"
'If you bring that up, madam," he muttered, "I may say something outrageous. I can only beg you any way to be kind, as you always are, to your nephew."
He fell on his knees.
"Get up quickly!" she said, her own eyes reddening. "We are all one family, of course I'll help. Only one thing: the child is growing up, and if anything should happen to your father her marriage would be delayed. If some suitable family makes a proposal, should we wait for your return or let her grandmother decide what to do?"
"Since Your Lady ships are at home, naturally you can decide without waiting for me."
'Before you go, write to the Second Master telling him there is no one responsible at home and you don't know whether your father will re¬cover, so we hope he will have the old lady buried quickly and come back as fast as he can."
Jia Lian assented and started out, then turned back. "We have enough servants here for the house," he said, "But there's not one in the Garden since Bao Yong went back to his master. And Master Xue Ke has va¬cated that compound where Aunt Xue lived to move to their own house. It's not good having no caretakers for all those empty lodges in the Gar¬den, so I hope you'll send people from time to time to keep an eye on them. Green Lattice Nunnery belongs to us too, and since Miaoyu's dis¬appearance the nuns who attended her dare not take charge and want us to assign someone to see to things there."


• ' ~ • "• ~ • • ' ~	"• ~ • • "• ~~'•:•~• •    •    ','  ' ~~',':
"We can't set our own house in order, so how can we handle other people's affairs? But mind you don't mention this to Xichun, or she'll plague us again to let her be a nun. How can a family like ours allow one of our daughters to become a nun?"
"If you hadn't raised this, madam, I wouldn't have ventured to. But after all Cousin Xichun belongs to the East Mansion, and because she has no parents, her elder brother's away and she's hardly on speaking terms with her sister-in-law, I hear that she's often threatened to take her own life. Since her mind is made up, if we thwart her and she really kills hersel{ won't that be worse than entering a nunnery?"
Lady Wang nodded. "This business is really too much for me. I can't make the decision; that's up to her sister-in-law."
After a few further words Jia Lian went out, summoned the stewards to give them their instructions, then wrote to Jia Zheng and packed up for his journey.
Pinger naturally gave him some parting advice. It was Qiaojie, how¬ever, who was most distressed. Her father wished to entrust her to Wang Ren, but she was most unwilling; and it upset her even more, although she could hardly say this, to learn that Yun and Qiang would be in charge of outside business. She said goodbye to her father and settled down to live quietly with Pinger, for after Xifeng's death Fenger and Hongyu had asked leave on the pretext of illness. Pinger would have liked to get a girl from the Jia family to keep Qiaojie company and look after her, but there was no one available; nor could she get Xiluan or Sijie  forrner favourites of the old lady   for the latter had recently married and the former was engaged and shortly to wed.

Jia Yun and Jia Qiang, having seen Jia Lian off, came in to pay their respects to Their Lady ships. They stayed in the outer study by turns, and during the day would fool around with the servants or assemble friends to feast, taking it in turn to stand treat. They even held gambling parties; but this was kept secret from the inner apartments.
One day Lady Xing's brother and Wang Ren called and discovered Jia Yun and Jia Qiang staying there. As they were boon companions, On the pretext of helping with family affairs they often joined in ffie ganri¬
bling and drinking parties. The few reliable stewards had gone away with Jia Zheng and Jia Lian, leaving only some sons and nephews of Lai Da and Lin Zhixiao. These young fellows, used to taking advantage of their parents' positions to enjoy themselves, had no idea of how to manage a household and in their elders' absence ran wild like un¬bridled colts. Egged on by their two masters who were only kinsmen they did just as they pleased. So the Rong Mansion was turned upside-down.
Jia Qiang thought of roping in Baoyu, but Jia Yun dissuaded him say¬ing, "Don't ask for trouble. Uncle Bao was born under an unlucky star. One year I proposed an excellent match for him: the girl's father was a provincial tax-collector, the family owned several pawnshops, and she herself was prettier than a fairy. I went to the trouble of writing him the full particulars, but he wasn't cut out for such luck." Glancing round at his companions he continued, "He'd already fallen for Aunt Bao! And didn't you hear too   everyone must know it   that he made Miss Lin die of a broken heart? Oh well, each one's romance is fated by heaven. Yet he was annoyed with me because of this and since then has cold-shouldered me. He must have imagined I wanted to make him indebted to me."
Jia Qiang nodded and did not press the point. Neither of them knew that since meeting that monk Baoyu was eager to sever all worldly ties, and though he dared not break with his mother he was already holding aloof from Baochai and Xiren. When the younger maids, unaware of ffiis, still tried to attract him he paid no attention. He did not care about the family either. Lady Wang and Baochai kept urging him to study and while he made a pretence of doing so he remained preoccupied with the fairy¬land to which the monk had led him, thinking all those around him vulgar creatures. Since his own household irked him, when at leisure he would go to talk with Xichun and, seeing eye to eye, they strengthened each other's convictions.
Jia Huan and Jia Lan were left to their own devices. Jia Huan, be¬cause his father was not at home, his own mother had died and Lady Wang paid little attention to him, joined Jia Qiang's group; and when Caiyun reproached him she only got cursed for her pains. Yuchuan, hav¬
mg seen how unbalanced Baoyu was growing, had also asked her mother to take her home. So Jia Huan and Baoyu, each in his different way, were making themselves shunned by all. Only Jia Lan stayed with his mother and studied hard, writing compositions which he took to school for Jia Dairu to correct; but as recently the tutor had been confined to his bed the boy had at present to study on his own. Li Wan had always been sedate and now, apart from duty calls on Lady Wang and visits to Baochai, she did not stir from her rooms, just watching her son study. So although there were not a few inmates in the Rong Mansion, they kept to them¬selves, not imposing their will on others. Thus ha Huan and Jia Qiang went from bad to worse, going so far as to steal things to pawn or sell. And Jia Huan in particular stopped at nothing, even frequenting brothels and gambling-dens.
One day when Uncle Xing and Wang Ren were drinking with them in the outer study, being in high spirits they sent for some singsong girls to join them and propose toasts.
"The racket you make is too vulgar," objected Jia Qiang. "I suggest we recite some verses while we drink."
"All right," agreed the rest.
"Start with the word 'moon', " he went on. "I'll recite a line first, and we'll count round to see who has to drink when I reach the word 'moon.' Then he must recite another line on my orders and, if he fails, must drink three big cups as a forfeit."
When they acquiesced he tossed off a cup and declaimed:
"Winged goblets fly as we drink to the moon.
This made it Jia Huan's turn. "Recite a line ending with 'oleander,' "he was ordered.
"Silently the cold dew wets the oleander."
After this quotation he asked, "What's the other line?"
"One containing the word 'fragrance'.
"Heavenly fragrance wafts down from the clouds."
"How deadly dull!" protested Uncle Xing. "A fat lot of literature you know, yet you pose as literati! This isn't fun; it's downright exasperat¬
mg! Let's drop it and play a finger-game instead with the loser drinking and singing a song - 'a double dose of gall' this is called. If someone can't sing he can tell a joke, provided it's amusing."
"Right!" cried the rest.
They started playing wildly. Wang Ren lost, drained a cup and sang a song which was applauded. Then they began again and the singsong girl who lost sang Such a Pretty Young Lady. The next loser was Uncle Xing, who when asked for a song said, "I can't sing. I'll tell you a joke instead."
"If it doesn't make us laugh," warned Jia Qiang, "you must pay the forfeit."
Uncle Xing emptied his cup. "Listen, gentlemen," he began. "In a certain village stood a temple to Emperor Yuandi, with next to it the shrine of the tutelary god whom the Emperor often called over for a chat. One day Yuandi 's temple was robbed, and he told the tutelary god to investi¬gate.
"The tutelary god reported, 'There are no thieves in this locality. Your officers must have slipped up and allowed thieves from outside to break in and rob you.'
"'Nonsense!' said Yuandi. 'As the local deity, you're responsible for any thefts; yet instead of catching the robbers you're accusing my officers of negligence!"
"The other said, 'If they weren't negligent, there must be something unlucky about your temple.'
"Yuandi asked, 'Do you know anything about geomancy?'
"'Let me have a look round,' the other replied. He did this, then reported, 'You're running a risk with those double red doors behind you. Behind my shrine is a wall, so naturally I don't lose things. Once you build a wall behind yourself all will be well.'
"Emperor Yuandi was convinced and ordered his officers to fetch masons to build a wall.
"His officers objected, 'Nowadays no one comes to offer incense, so how are we to get the bricks and mortar and masons to build a wall?'
"Not knowing what to do, he told them to use magic but they were powerless.
"Then General Tortoise at Yuandi's feet stood up to say, 'You fel¬lows are useless, but I have a plan. Just pull down those red doors, and when night falls I'll stop up the doorway with my belly. Wouldn't that do as well as a wall?'
'The other officers approved, 'Good. This costs no money and should be very solid.'
"So General Tortoise undertook this task and for a few days all was quiet. Then, however, things started disappearing again. They summoned the tutelary god and told him, 'You said that once we had a wall these thefts would stop. Now with a wall, we're still losing things; how is that?'
"He answered, 'Your wall can't be s~id enough.'
"'Go and see for yourself.' they retorted.
"He examined it and it was certainly solid. So why were things still disappearing? However, when he felt it he exclaimed, 'I thought it was a real wall, but this is just a fake wall'! "'
All hooted with laughter, even Jia Qiang joining in.
"Fine, Foolish Uncle!" he cried. "Why should you abuse me without any provocation? Hurry up and drink a big cup as punishment."
Although already tipsy Uncle Xing did so, and the others went on carousing until they were all rather drunk. Then Uncle Xing ran down his elder sister and Wang Ren his younger, in the most virulent terms. Jia Huan in his cups also spoke scathingly of the way Xifeng had bullied his mother and him, trampling all over them.
"People should be more considerate," said the others. "Xifeng was so ruthless when she had the old lady's backing that now she's died sonless, leaving only one daughter. She's suffering for her sins!"
Jia Yun, recalling how shabbily Xifeng had treated him and how Qiaojie had cried at the sight of him, joined in the general abuse till Jia Qiang said, "Let's drink! Why gossip about other people?"
The two singsong girls asked, "How old is this daughter of hers? What does she look like?"
"She's very good-looking," answered Jia Qiang, "and nearly four¬teen already."
"It's too bad she was born into such a rich family," said one of the girls. "If she were from a humble family, she could help her parents and
brothers get official titles and make pots of money." Asked what she meant she explained, "There's a borderland prince not related to the Imperial House, a very gallant noble who is looking for a concubine. If she took his fancy, her whole family could move into his palace. Wouldn't that be fine?"
The others paid little attention as they went on drinking, but Wang Ren made a mental note of this.
At this point they were joined by two youngsters from the families of Lai Da and Lin Zhixiao. "What ajolly party you gentlemen are having!" they said.
The others stood up to rejoin, "Why are you so late? We've been waiting for you for some time."
"This morning we were worried by a rumour about more trouble for our family. We hurried off to investigate; but it's not true."
"If it has nothing to do with us, why didn't you come earlier?"
"Though we're not directly concerned there is a connection. You know who's in trouble? Mr. Jia Yucun. This morning we went there and saw him in chains and were told he was to be taken to court for trial. Knowing what a frequent visitor he was here, we were afraid our house might be involved and therefore went to make inquiries."
"That was thoughtful of you, brothers," said Jia Yun. "Yes, you were right to find out. Sit down and drink a cup, then tell us about it."
After some polite deferring they sat down to drink and said, "This Jia Yucun is an able gentleman and clever climber, who holds quite a high post but is too grasping; so several charges of extorting money from his subordinates have been brought against him. Our most sagacious, be¬nevolent Emperor is angered by nothing so much as reports of venal officials who abuse their power to oppress good citizens; he therefore issued a decree for his arrest and trial. If he is found guilty he will be in trouble; if the charges prove groundless, those who impeached him will suffer. This is a really good reign, if only we had the luck to be officials!"
"Your elder brother's in luck," the others told Lai Da's son. "Isn't he sitting pretty as a magistrate?"
"I'm only afraid he may not remain a magistrate for long, the way he's carrying on," was the reply.
"Does he fleece people too?"
The young man nodded, then raised his cup to drink.
"What other news did you hear?" they were asked.
"Nothing much," the two of them answered. "Only that a number of brigands captured at the coast have been tried, and during their interro¬gation they revealed the whereabouts of many more, some of them lying low here in town and looking out for a chance to break into more houses. But now all our high officials are good administrators and strategists, exerting themselves to repay the Emperor's favour, so wherever they go they quickly wipe out brigands."
"You spoke of some brigands in town. Have they found out who robbed our family?"
"That we haven't heard. There was some vague talk about a man from the provinces who robbed a house here and kidnapped a girl to take her to the coast; because she resisted him the brigand killed her, and before he could leave the capital he was caught and executed on the spot.
"Wasn't Miaoyu in our Green Lattice Nunnery kidnapped? Could she be the girl who was killed?"
"Yes, it must be her!" said Jia Huan.
"How do you know?" they asked him.
"That creature Miaoyu was disgusting, the airs she gave herself! She was all smiles to Baoyu, yet never cast so much as a glance at me. If it turns out to be her I'll be only too glad!"
"Women are being kidnapped all the time. This doesn't have to be her."
"There's some indication that it is," said Jia Yun. "The other day we heard that her serving-woman dreamed that she saw Miaoyu murdered."
The others chuckled, "A dream doesn't count!"
"Never mind about her dream," said Uncle Xing. "Let's have supper now. We must play for high stakes tonight."
The rest were willing and after their meal started betting heavily. They were still at it after midnight when they heard a clamour from the inner apartments.
A servant reported, "Miss Xichun has quarrelled with Madam You,

'
then cut off all her hair and rushed to kowtow to Their Ladyships, beg¬ging them to let her enter a nunnery and threatening that if they won't she'll kill herself on the spot. Their Ladyships don't know what to do and want Master Qiang and Master Yun to go in."
Jia Yun knew that Xichun had taken this into her head when left in charge of the house, and they had little chance of dissuading her. He proposed to Jia Qiang, "Though Their Ladyships have sent for us we can't   and indeed we shouldn't   make any decisions. We'll have to try to talk her round and, failing that, leave it to them to decide. After discussing it we can write to report this to Uncle Lian so that we won't be held responsible."
Having agreed on this they went inside to see Their Ladyships, and made a show of dissuading Xichun. She, however, was determined to renounce the world and begged them, if they would not let her leave, to give her a couple of clean rooms in which she could chant sutras and worship Buddha. Since the two young men were unwilling to make a decision and Xichun might really commit suicide, Madam You had to decide the matter herselL
"All right," she announced. "I'll take the blame. We'll just say that I couldn't stand my young sister-in-law and forced her to become a nun. Of course we mustn't let news of this get out. Here at home, with Their Ladyships as witnesses, let me take the responsibility. Qiang will have to write to Master Zhen and your Uncle Lian."
The two young men assented. To know whether Their Ladyships agreed or not, you must read the next chapter.

Chapter 118

A Disgruntled Uncle and Cousin Delude
a Helpless Girl
Alarmed by His Cryptic Talk, Wife and Concubine
Reprove Their Witless Husband


Madam You had convinced Their Ladyships that Xichun's case was hopeless.
"If you're set on worshipping Buddha," said Lady Wang, "it must be predestined and we really can't stop you. It doesn't seem proper, though, for a girT from a family like ours to become a nun. Now your sister-in-law has agreed to it and your piety is commendable, but I've one condition to make: Don't shave your head. So long as you're sincere, what does your hair matter? Just think of Miaoyu   she became a nun with long hair  but who knows what change of heart she had to come to such a bad end! Since you're set on this, we'll count your present quarters as your convent. We'lT also have to question all your maids, and if some are willing to stay with you we won't find husbands for them; for the rest we'll make other arrangements."
At this, Xichun stopped weeping and kowtowed her thanks to Their Ladyships, Li Wan and Madam You.
Then Lady Wang asked Caiping and the other maids, "Which of you want to join in your young lady's devotions?"
"Whichever of us you choose, madam," they replied. And, inferring that they were unwilling, she started casting about for someone else.
Xiren standing behind Baoyu expected him to burst into tears and have another relapse. But to her surprise, upsetting her even more, he Simply sighed, "How sublime!"
Though Baochai said nothing, not yet having fathomed his meaning, her heart ached to see him a victim still of delusions. Before Lady Wang could question any more maids, Zijuan came forward and knelt down before her. "Just now you asked who would stay with Miss Xichun," She said. "Whom do you have in mind, madam?"
"How can I choose anyone against her will?" was Lady Wang's reply. "If anyone wants to, she can volunteer."
'Of course Miss Xichun's doing this of her own free will, but the girls in her service aren't willing to do the same," said Zijuan. "I have a request to make, madam. It's not that I want to separate the other girls from Miss Xichun, but we each have our own ideas. I waited on Miss Lin all that time and Your Ladyship knows how good she was to me. I can truly never repay her tremendous kindness. When she died I longed to follow her to the grave, but as she belonged to another family and I'm a bond-slave of this house I could hardly kill myself. Now that Miss Xichun wants to enter holy orders, I beg Your Ladyships to assign me to wait on her all my life. If you will agree to this, I shall count it my good fortune!"
Before Lady Xing or Lady Wang could answer, Baoyu felt a pang at the thought of Daiyu and shed tears. The others were about to ask the reason when he burst out laughing again.
"It wasn't my place to propose this," he said, stepping forward. "But as you assigned Zijuan to my service, madam, I'm emboldened to ask you to agree so that she can realize her aspirations."
His mother objected, "When Tanchun married you nearly cried your heart out; yet now that Xichun wants to become a nun, instead of trying to dissuade her you approve. What do you mean by this? I can't under¬stand you."
"You've already agreed to her becoming a nun, and I assume her mind's made up on the subject. If that's the case, there's something I'd like to tell you; but if she hasn't decided yet I dare not speak out of turn."
"How ridiculous you are, cousin," protested Xichun. "If I had't made up my mind, how could I have won round the mistresses? I agree with what Zijuan just said. If you let me have my way I shall count it my good fortune. Otherwise I can always die  I'm not afraid! So just say what you have in mind."
"It can't count as disclosing any secret, as this was fated. I'm going to recite you a poem.
The others expostulated, "Why pester us with your poems when we're all so upset?"
"It's not my poem, but one I read somewhere. Listen."
'~All right," they conceded. "Recite it, but stop talking nonsense."
Without further argument Baoyu declaimed:
She sees through the transience of spring,
Dark Buddhist robes replace her garments fine;
Pity this child of a wealthy noble house
Who now sleeps alone by the dimly lit old shrine.

Li Wan and Baochai exclaimed, "Oh dear! He's bewitched."
Lady Wang, however, nodded and asked with a sigh, "Tell me truly, Baoyu, where you saw this poem?"
Not liking to disclose his dream he answered, "Don't ask me the place, madam."
Having digested the meaning she burst out sobbing, "I thought at first you were joking, but then you came out with this poem. All right, I under-stand. What do you expect me to do? I shall simply have to let you do as you choose; but just wait till I'm dead before you each go your own way!"
Baochai, trying to console her, felt such a stab of anguish that she could not help sobbing too, while Xiren was so prostrated with grief that Qiuwen had to support her. Baoyu neither wept nor attempted to comfort them, simply remaining silent. And at this point Jia Lan and Jia Huan slipped away.
To soothe Lady Wang, Li Wan said, "Baoyu must have been so upset by Xichun's decision that he started raving. Don't take his nonsense seriously, madam. Why not give Zijuan an answer, so that she can get up?
"What does my consent count for?" replied Lady Wang. "When someone's made up her mind there's no stopping her. As Baoyu said, this was fated."
Zijuan kowtowed. Xichun also thanked Lady Wang. Then Zijuan kow¬towed to Baoyu and Baochai too.
"Amida Buddha! Fine!" cried Baoyu. "You've stolen a march on rue!"
Baochai, for all her self-control, was finding it hard to bear up. And Xiren despite the presence of Lady Wang sobbed, "I want to be a nun with Miss Xichun too."
'You mean well," Baoyu told her gently. "But you're not fated to enjoy this pure happiness."
"Do you mean I'm going to die?" she cried.
Grieved as he was for her he could not tell her more, and since it was nearly dawn he urged his mother to rest, whereupon Li Wan and the others dispersed. Caiping escorted Xichun back as usual, but was later married off; and then Zijuan waited on Xichun as long as she lived, with¬out any change of heart. But this is anticipating.

Let us now return to Jia Zheng who was escorting the old lady's coffin south. On his way, boatloads of troops withdrawing upstream jammed the river and held him up, much to his anxiety. Luckily he learned from some officials from the coast that the garrison commander there had been recalled to the capital, and it relieved him to think that Tanchun must be going home. However, he was upset, not knowing when she would be starting on her journey. Estimating that his funds would be rnn¬ning out, he had no choice but to write to Magistrate Lai Shangrong, the son of Lai Da, to ask for a loan of five hundred taels of silver, instructing the messenger to overtake him with the requisite sum.
Some days passed, during which his boat proceeded only a few dozen ii; then his servant overtook them and, coming aboard, delivered Lai Shangrong's letter. It pleaded poverty, and the silver sent was a paltry fifty taels.
In a rage Jia Zheng ordered the man, "Take this back at once with his letter, and tell him not to trouble."
The servant had to go back to Lai Shangrong. Worried by the return of his letter and the silver, and aware that he had bungled things, Lai added another hundred taels and begged the servant to take this back and put in a good word for him. The man refused, however, and left without the money.
Lai Shangrong in dismay at once wrote home to his father, urging him to ask for leave and to buy his freedom. The Lai family requested Jia Qiang and Jia Yun to beg Lady Wang to be kind enough to release him; but Jia Qiang knew that this was out of the question and told them a day later that she had refused. Thereupon Lai Da asked for leave and sent to
advise his son to resign on the pretext of illness. Lady Wang, however, knew nothing of all this.
Now Jia Qiang's lie that Lady Wang had refused to let Lai Da re¬deem himself had dashed' Jia Yun's hope of bettering his position in the Rong Mansion. While gambling outside he lost heavily for several days in succession and, unable to pay up, applied to Jia Huan for a loan. But Jia Huan had not a cent, having already squandered his mother's savings, and was unable to help anyone else. Resenting his harsh treatment at Xifeng's hands, he decided now that Jia Lian was away to vent his spite on Qiaojie, using Jia Yun as his cat's paw.
He jeered at him, "You're a grown man, yet for lack of guts you let go a chance to make money, and instead come begging from a pauper like me!"
"That's ridiculous talk, Third Uncle," protested Jia Yun. "Being on the spree together all the time, what chance have we to make money?"
"Didn't someone say the other day that a prince in a border province wants to buy a concubine? Why not discuss this with Uncle Wang and marry Qiaojie off?"
"Don't take offence, uncle," retorted Jia Yun. "But if that prince were to buy her, how could he keep on good terms with our family?"
Jia Huan whispered something into his ear, but although Jia Yun nod¬ded he thought this too childish a notion to entertain seriously.
Just then Wang Ren turned up. "What are you two plolling behind my back?" he asked.
Jia Yun told him what Jia Huan had just whispered to him.
Wang Ren clapped his hands crying, "This is a fine idea! There's money in it! I'm only afraid you won't be able to pull it off. If you have the nerve to, as her maternal uncle I can authorize it. If Huan will pro¬pose it to Lady Xing I'll have a word with Uncle Xing; then if the other mistresses ask about it you can speak up in favour and it should go through."

Once they had agreed to this, Wang Ren went to find Uncle Xing while Jia Yun made this proposal - in an embroidered form - to Their Ladyships. Lady Wang was somewhat sceptical, but when Lady Xing
heard that her brother approved she sent to sound him out.
Uncle Xing, who had been won round by Wang Ren and hoped to share the proceeds, told his sister, "That prince is most distinguished. If we agree to this match, even though she's not his principal wife, once she goes to his palace my brother-in-law's rank is bound to be restored and you'll be in a good position again."
Lady Xing had no mind of her own. Taken in by Foolish Uncle's fabrications she consulted Wang Ren, who gave her even more blarney. Then she sent to urge Jia Yun to make the proposal, and Wang Ren lost no time in despatching a messenger to the prince's palace.
Not knowing the truth of the matter, the prince ordered some of his household to inspect the girl. Jia Yun informed them, "We've kept this secret from most of the family, just telling them that His Highness is proposing marriage. But once it's settled, as her grandmother approves and the girl's own uncle is the guarantor, we have nothing to fear."
When they agreed to this arrangement, he sent word to Lady Xing and reported the proposal to Lady Wang. Li Wan, Baochai and the others who were ignorant of the real facts thought it a good match and were all delighted.
On the appointed day, two ladies in magnificent costumes called. Lady Xing welcomed them in and civilities were exchanged, the visitors treat¬ing her with due respect as she was a lady of rank. Since the matter was not yet decided, Lady Xing instead of telling Qiaojie about it sent for her to come and meet some relatives who had called, Qiaojie, too young to suspect anything, came over with her nurse. And Pinger accompanied them as she had certain misgivings. She saw these two visitors dressed like ladies-in-waiting looked Qiaojie over from head to foot, after which they got up and took her hand to examine her once more; then after sitting a little longer they left. Qiaojie, most embarrassed by this scrutiny, went back to her room very puzzled and, not having heard of these rela¬tives before, asked Pinger who they were.
Pinger had more or less guessed from their behaviour that they were looking over a prospective bride; but in Jia Lian's absence, with Lady Xing in charge, she could not find out which family they came from. Their close scrutiny was uncalled for if it was a match between families
of equal status; and the two visitors had not behaved like members of any of the royal households with which the Jias were connected, but rather like provincials. She decided not to tell Qiaojie this but to make certain inquiries, which she did by discreetly questioning the maids and serving-women under her, who told her everything they had heard out¬side. Pinger was consternated. Though she kept this from Qiaojie, she hurried over to tell Li Wan and Baochai, begging them to inform Lady Wang.
Lady Wang knew that this was a bad business and warned Lady Xing against it; but the latter, taken in by her brother and Wang Ren, suspected Lady Wang's motives.
"My grand-daughter has reached marriageable age," she said. "With Lian away the decision is up to me. Besides, her own grand-uncle and maternal uncle have made inquiries, and they must surely know the facts of the case better than other people. So I'm quite willing. If things turn out badly, Lian and I won't hold anyone else to blame."
Lady Wang, secretly angered by such talk, forced herself to chat for a while on other matters before going off to confide tearfully to Baochai what had happened.
'~Don't let this upset you, madam," said Baoyu. "I don't think it will go through. If it does, it's Qiaojie's fate, so you needn't intervene."
"You can't open your mouth without raving!" his mother retorted. "Once the matter is fixed they'll come and take her away. And then, as Pinger says, won't your cousin Lian hold me to blame? Not to say that she's my own grand-niece, even if she were some distant relative we'd want something better for her. We arranged that match between Miss Xing and your cousin Xue Ke, and isn't it good the way they're living happily together? Then there's Baoqin who's made an excellent mar¬riage into the Mei family, which by all accounts is very comfortably off. As for Xiangyun's marriage, that was her uncle's idea and all went well to start with, but now her husband's died of consumption and she's made up her mind never to marry again, poor thing. How can I have the heart to let Qiaojie marry into the wrong family?"
As she was talking, Pinger called on Baochai to find out Lady Xing's intentions, and Lady Wang told her what the latter had said. Pinger, speech-
less at first, fell on her knees then implored, "Qiaojie's whole future is in your hands, madam! If we trust them, not only will the girl have a wretched life, but how are we to account for it to Master Lian when he comes home?"
"You're a sensible girl," Lady Wang replied. "Get up and listen to me. The Elder Mistress, after all, is Qiaojie's grandmother. If she de¬cides on this, how am I to stop her?"
Baoyu insisted, "It doesn't matter, if only you're clear-headed."
For fear that in his madness he might disclose her appeal to Lady Wang, Pinger did not remonstrate with him but left soon afterwards.
Lady Wang's anxiety made her heart palpitate. She told maids to help her to her room to lie down but would not let Baoyu and Baochai attend her, saying, "A little rest will set me right." However, she was so troubled in her mind that when word was brought that Li Wan's aunt had called she did not feel up to entertaining her.
Jia Lan came in then to pay his respects and reported, "This morning a letter came from my grandfather, which the servants at the gate brought in to my mother. She wanted to bring it to you, but then my grand-aunt arrived, so she told me to deliver it instead, madam. My mother will be coming presently and so will my grand-aunt, she says." He presented the letter.
"What has your grand-aunt come for?" asked Lady Wang.
"I don't know," he answered. "I only heard her mention some letter from my aunt Li Qi's future in-laws."
Lady Wang realized that since a match had been arranged and be¬trothal gifts exchanged between Zhen Baoyu and Li Wan's cousin Li Qi, the Zhen family must be wanting to go ahead with the marriage and Aunt Li had come to discuss this. She nodded and opened the letter, in which she read:

My journey has been delayed by the ships all along the river returning from their successful coastal campaign. I hear that Tanchun is coming to the capital with her father-in-law and husband, and wonder if you have any news of her. I received Lian's letter about the Elder Master's illness, but do not know if there is more definite news. Baoyu and Lan will shortly be taking the examination; they must study hard and not slack. It
will be some time before the old lady's coffin can be conveyed to our native place. My health is good; have no worry on that score. Tell Baoyu and the others what I have written. Rong will write separately.

To this were appended the date and Jia Zheng's signature.
Lady Wang returned the letter to Lan saying. "Take this to show your Uncle Bao, then give it back to your mother."
Just then, however, Li Wan brought over her aunt to pay their re¬spects, and Lady Wang offered them seats. Aunt Li told her of the Zhen family's wish to expedite Li Qi's wedding, and they talked this over.
Then Li Wan asked Lady Wang, "Have you read the master's letter, madam?"
"Yes, I have."
Jia Lan showed it to his mother, whose comment was, "Tanchun hasn't been back once in all these years since her marriage. Now that she's coming to the capital you can feel much easier in your mind, madam."
"Yes," said Lady Wang. "I had palpitations of the heart just now; but this news has made me feel better. I only wonder when she will arrive."
When Aunt Li had asked whether Jia Zheng had had a good journey, Li Wan said to her son, "Did you read the letter? It's nearly time for the examination and your grandfather has it very much on his mind. You must take his letter to show Uncle Bao."
"They haven't passed the first degree; how can they sit for the pro¬vincial examination?" Aunt Li inquired.
Lady Wang explained, "When his grandfather was Grain Commis¬sioner he bought him and Baoyu the rank of Imperial College Student."
Aunt Li nodded and Jia Lan went off with the letter to find Baoyu.

After seeing his mother to her room, Baoyu had gone back to amuse himself by reading the chapter "Autumn Water" in Zhuang Zi. Baochai, coming out from the inner room and finding him utterly absorbed in a book, went over to have a look and was dismayed to discover what it was. "Re takes that talk about 'leaving the world of men' seriously," she reflected."No good will come of it in the long run." But thinking it useless to try to dissuade him, she sat down beside him lost in revene.
Baoyu noticing this asked, "What's on your mind now?"
"Since we are man and wife, you're the one I have to rely on all my life; this isn't a question of my personal feelings. Of course wealth and honour are 'transient as drifting clouds' but the sages of old set store by moral character and a firm foundation...."
Without waiting for her to finish, Baoyu laid his book aside and said with a faint smile, "So you talk about 'moral character and a firm foun¬dation' and the 'sages of old'. Don't you know that one ancient sage taught that we 'should not lose the heart of a child?' What's special about a child? Simply this: it has no knowledge, no judgement, no greed and no taboos. From our birth we sink into the quagmire of greed, anger, infatuation and love; and how can we escape from earthly entanglements? I've only just realized that mortal men are like water weeds drifting to¬gether and then apart again. Though the ancients spoke of this, no one seems to have awakened to the fact. If you want to talk about character and foundation, tell me who has achieved the supreme primeval state?"
"Since you speak of the heart of a child," she countered, "the sages of old took it to mean loyalty and filial piety, not leaving the world and giving up all human relationships. The constant concern of Yao and Shun, Yu and Tang, the Duke of Zhou and Confucius was to save the people and benefit the world; so what they meant by the heart of a child was simply love for humanity. What would the world come to if everyone took your advice and disregarded all natural relationships?"
Baoyu nodded and chuckled, "But Yao and Shun didn't force Chao Fu and Xu You1 to take up office, nor did King Wu and the Duke of Zhou force Bo Yi and Shu Qi2 to serve them."
Before he could finish, Baochai interposed, "What you're saying now is even more wrong. If all the men of old had been like Cao Fu, XuYou, Bo Yi and Shu Qi, why should Yao and Sbun, the Duke of Zhou and Confucius be considered as sages today? It's even more ridiculous to compare yourself with Bo Yi and Shu Qi. They lived when the Shang Dynasty was in decline, and because they couldn't cope with the situa¬tion found some pretext to run away. But we live under a sage Emperor, out family is deeply indebted to the state, and our ancestors have lived in luxury; while in your case, particularly, since your childhood you've been treasured by the old lady while she was alive and by your parents. Just
think over what you said. Was it right or wrong?"
Baoyu made no answer, just looked up and smiled.
Baochai went on to plead, "Since you've run out of arguments, my advice to you is to take a grip on yourself and study hard; because if you can pass the triennial examination, even if you stop at that, you'll be paying back your debt of gratitude for your sovereign's favour and your ancestor's virtue."
Baoyu nodded and sighed, then said, "Actually it isn't difficult to pass. And what you said about stopping there and repaying my debt is not far wide of the mark."
Before she could answer, Xiren joined in, "Of course, we don't un¬derstand those old sages whom Madam Bao was talking about. I just feel that those of us who've been hard at it since we were small serving Master Bao, and told off ever so often  though of course that was only right -all hope he will show more consideration for us. Besides, it's for your sake that Madam Bao has been such a dutiful daughter-in-law; so even if you haven't much family feeling you shouldn't let her down. All those legends about gods and spirits are lies - who ever saw an immor¬tal come down to earth? Yet when that monk from goodness knQws where talked some nonsense to you, you believed it! How can someone with book-learning like you, Master Bao, take his advice more seriously than your parents'?"
Baoyu bowed his head and said nothing.
Before she could continue, they heard footsteps in the courtyard and someone outside the window asked, "Is Uncle Bao in?"
Recognizing Jia Lan's voice, Baoyu stood up and called cheerfully, "Come in!"
Baochai also rose to her feet as Jia Lan entered, beaming, to pay his respects to them both, after which he and Xiren exchanged greetings. Then he presented the letter to Baoyu.
After reading it Baoyu said, "So Tanchun's coming back?"
"According to grandfather, she must be," he answered.
Baoyu nodded and seemed lost in thought.
"Did you read the end of the letter, uncle, where grandfather urges us to study hard? Have you written any compositions these days?"
Baoyu smiled and said. "Yes, I must write a few to keep my hand in, so that I can wangle a pass."
~In that case, uncle, won't you set some subjects for us both, so that I can muddle through this examination too? Otherwise I may have to hand in a blank paper, making a fool of mysel{ which would reflect badly on you, uncle, as well."
"No, you should do all right."
Baochai invited Jia Lan to take a seat, and as Baoyu was still sitting in his own place the boy sat down respectfully beside him. They cheerfully discussed writing essays; and Baochai, observing this, withdrew to the inner room. "Judging by Baoyu's present behaviour," she thought, "he appears to have seen reason. Yet just now he stressed that this was where he would stop   what did he mean by that?"
Though Baochai still had her doubts, Xiren was delighted to hear how animatedly Baoyu was talking about essay writing and the examination. "Merciful Buddha!" she thought. 'He seems to have come to his senses at last after that lecture we gave him!"
As Baoyu and Jia Lan were talking, Yinger brought them tea and Jia Lan stood up to take it. He then cousulted Baoyu about the examination rules and suggested that they might invite Zhen Baoyu over. Baoyu ap¬peared very willing.
Presently Jia Lan went home, leaving the letter with Baoyu, who went in cheerfully and handed it to Sheyue for safe keeping. Coming out again he put away the volume of Zhuang Zi, then gathered together some of his favourite books on Taoism and Buddhism and told Sheyue, Qiuwen and Yinger to take them all away. Wondering what he was up to, Baochai sounded him out playfully, "It's quite right and proper to stop reading those, but why have them taken away?"
"It's just dawned on me that these books count for nothing. I'm going to have them burnt to make a clean sweep!" Hearing this she was beside herself with joy. But then he chanted softly to himself:
Buddha's nature is not to be found in sacred canons, The fairy barque sails beyond the realm of alchemy.
She could not hear too clearly but caught the words "Buddha's nature" and "fairy barque" which caused her fresh misgivings. As she waited to
see what he would do next, Baoyu ordered Sheyue and Qiuwen to pre¬pare a quiet room for him, and got out all his collections of the sayings of past sages as well as other famous works and poems written during ex¬aminations, which he had put in this room. Then, to Baochai's relief, he set to work in good earnest.
Xiren was amazed by these developments. She quietly told Baochai, 'The talking-to you gave him did the trick after all, madam. The way you kept refuting him made him see reason. Too bad, though, that it's rather late in the day   so close to the examination!"
Baochai nodded and answered with a smile, "Success or failure in examinations is fated, regardless of how soon or late one starts to study. We can only hope that from now on he'll stick to the right path and never be influenced again by those evil spirits!" Since they were alone in the room she went on softly, "Of course it's good that he's seen the light at last; but I'm afraid he may revert to his bad old ways and start fooling about with girls."
"Exactly, madam. After Master Bao put his trust in that monk he cooled off towards the girls here; now that he's lost faith in him, his old trouble may very well flare up again. I don't think he ever cared much for you or me, madam. Now Zijuan's gone, leaving just four senior maids and the only vamp among them is Wuer. They say her mother has asked Their Ladyships to let her go home to get married; however, for the time being she's still here. Sheyue and Qiuwen are all right, but in the old days Master Bao used to fool about with them too; soit looks as if Yinger is the only one in whom he's shown no interest, and she's steady girl. I suggest that pouring his tea and fetching his water can be left to her, with some younger girls to help her. What do you think of that, madam?"
"This is what I've been worrying about. Your idea's a good one." So from then on Yinger was assigned to wait on Baoyu with some younger maids.
Baoyu, however, never left his compound, just sending someone ev¬ery day to pay his respects for him to Lady Wang. And she, it goes without saying, was pleased to know how hard he was studying.
The third day of the eighth lunar month was the old lady's birthday. Baoyu went that morning to kowtow to her shrine before going to his
study. After lunch, Baochai, Xiren and some of the maids were chatting in the front room with Their Ladyships while he remained in his quiet room deep in thought, when suddenly Yinger brought in a tray of fruit and sweetmeats.
"Her Ladyship told me to bring you this, Master Bao," she announced. "It's a sacrifice to the old lady."
Baoyu stood up to express his thanks, then resumed his seat saying, "Put it down there."
As Yinger did so she whispered, "Her Ladyship's praising you." When he smiled she added, "Her Ladyship says, now you're working hard and will soon pass the examination; and next year you'll get your third degree and an official post, living up to your parents' hopes!"
He still merely nodded and smiled.
Yinger suddenly recalled what he had said when she made him a net before. "If you really pass, Master Bao, Madam Bao will be in luck! Remember that year in the Garden, when you told me to make you a plum-blossom net? You said he'd be a lucky man, whoever got the pair of us, mistress and maid. Now you're the one in luck."
Hearing this, Baoyu felt a stirring of desire, but quickly suppressing it said with a faint smile, "You say I'm in luck and your mistress too. How about you?"
Yinger blushed. "What luck is there for the likes of me  bondmaids for life?"
"If you can really remain a bondmaid all your life, you'll be luckier than us," he chuckled.
She was afraid he was raving again on account of what she had said, and decided to leave.
"You silly girl!" he laughed. "I've something to tell you."
To know what this was you must read the next chapter.

Chapter 119

Baoyu Passes the Examination with Honours and
Severs Earthly Ties
The Jia Family Retains Its Wealth and
Titles Thanks to Imperial Favour



Bewildered by Baoyu's talk, Yinger was about to leave.
"You silly girl!" he said. "I've something to tell you. Since your young mistress is in luck, of course you as her maid will be lucky too, which is more than your sister Xiren can count on. You must work hard in future, so that when your mistress prospers she may repay you for your faithful service."
The first half of this made sense to Yinger, not the last. However all she said was, "I understand. Madam Bao is expecting me. When you're ready to taste the sweetmeats just send a maid to call me."
Baoyu nodded and she left. Presently Baochai and Xiren also went back to their rooms, where we will leave them.
A few days later it was time for the examination. Everyone else sim¬ply hoped that the two young masters would write good compositions and pass with honours; but Baochai had noticed that Baoyu, though studying hard, seemed strangely detached and indifferent. As this was the first examination for which he and Jia Lan had entered, she feared they might meet with some mishap in the throng of people and horses; moreover ever since the monk's departure Baoyu had stayed indoors, and though she had rejoiced to see him studying she was sceptical about his sudden conversion and afraid of some new misfortune. And so, the day before the examination, she sent Xiren with some maids to help Suyun pack the young gentlemen's things; and when she had made sure that everything needed was ready, she went with Li Wan to ask Lady Wang to send more than the usual number of experienced stewards with them, ostensi¬bly to prevent their being jostled in the crowd.
The next day Baoyu and Jia Lan, in clothes neither new nor shabby, presented themselves cheerfully to Lady Wang.
"This is your first examination," she warned them. "The first time in all these years that you've ever left me. Even when I wasn't keeping an eye on you, you were surrounded by maids and serving-women, never sleeping for a single night alone. Today, entering for the examination, you're going to be entirely on your own, so you'll have to take care of yourselves! Come out as soon as you've finished your compositions to find our family servants, then come straight back to set the minds of your mothers and wife at rest." She was moved to grief as she spoke.
Jia Lan had assented to each sentence, whereas Baoyu had said noth¬ing. But when his mother finished he came over to kneel before her, shedding tears. After kowtowing three times he said, "I can never repay the mother who gave birth to me. But I shall do as well as I can in the examination, to obtain a good ju-ren degree and make you happy, madam. Then I shall have done my duty as a son and atoned for all my faults."
This upset Lady Wang even more. "It's good, of course, for you to feel that way," she said. "If only the old lady could have lived to see you now!" Weeping she tried to raise him to his feet, but Baoyu refused to getup.
"Even if the old lady can't see me, she'll know and be pleased," he answered. "So it's all the same whether she sees me or not. We're separated in form only, not in spirit."
This exchange made Li Wan aftaid that Baoyu was losing his mind again, besides striking her as inauspicious. She made haste to say, "Madam, why grieve over such a happy occasion? Especially as Brother Baoyu has recently been so sensible and dutiful, studying hard as well. When he and his nephew have taken the examination and written some good com¬Positions, they'll come straight back to show what they wrote to our seniors, after which we can wait for news of their success." She told maids to help Baoyu up.
He turned to bow to her saying, "Don't worry, sister-in-law. We're both of us going to pass. Later on, your Lan is going to do so well that you'll wear the costume of a high-ranking lady."
She chuckled, "I only hope it works out as you say, so that it won't have been in vain   She broke off there, afraid to upset Lady Wang.
"Provided you have a good son to continue our ancestors' line," re¬
joined Baoyu, "even though my brother hasn't lived to see it, it means he has done his duty."
Li Wan simply nodded, reluctant to say any more as it was growing late.
Baochai was most dismayed. For not only had Baoyu's words struck her as ill-omened, so had everything said by Lady Wang and Li Wan. Still, trying not to take it seriously she just held back her tears and kept silent. And now Baoyu walked over to make her a deep bow. All present, though mystified by his strange behaviour, did not like to laugh. They were even more amazed when Baochai wept.
Baoyu told her, "I'm going now, cousin. Take good care of the mis¬tress and wait for my good news!"
'It's time you were off. There's no need to maunder like this," she answered.
"So you're hurrying me? I know it's time to be off." He turned to look round and noticed two people missing. "Send word for me to xichun and Zijuan," he added. "Well, all I want to say is I shall be seeing them again."
As he sounded half rational, half crazy, the others attributed this to the fact that he had never left home before and was affected by what his mother had said. They thought it best to speed him on his way. "People are waiting outside," they reminded him. "If you delay any longer you'll be late."
Baoyu threw back his head and laughed. "I'm going now! No more ado! This is the end!"
The others answered cheefully. "Go quickly."
Only Lady Wang and Baochai behaved as if this were a separation for life.Their tears coursed down and they nearly burst out sobbing as Baoyu, laughing like a maniac, went out. Truly:
Taking the only approach to fame and wealth, He breaks through the first door of his cage.
Let us leave Baoyu and Jia Lan for the time being. When Jia Huan saw them set off to take the examination he was furious. Regarding himself as the master now, he decided, "Here's my chance to avenge
my mother. All the other men of the family have gone, and as the Elder Mistress listens to me whom else do I have to fear?" His mind made up, he called on Lady Xing, flattering her to get into her good graces.
Very gratified she said, "Now you're talking like a sensible boy! Qiaojie's marriage is something I should decide; but your cousin Lian is a fool and instead of leaving it to me, the child's own grandmother, he's entrusted it to other people!"
"That family says this branch of our house is the only one they recog¬nize," Jia Huan told her. "Now that it's settled, they'll be sending you rich presents, madam; and once your grand-daughter's married to a prince, the Elder Master will get a high post for sure. It's not my place to speak ill of our mistress, but after one of her daughters was made an Imperial Consort she became too overbearing! I hope that in future Qiaojie won't be so heartless. I must make her promise that."
"Yes, you should talk to her to let her know whom she has to thank for this.Why, even if her father were at home, he wouldn't be able to find her a better husband. It's only that silly Pinger who thinks this match no good and says your mistress is against it too. I suppose she begrudges us this satisfaction. If we put this off till your cousin Lian comes back, he maY listen to them and it may fall through."
"The other side has agreed. They're just waiting for you to send her horoscope, madam. According to the rules of the prince's house they'll fetch her three days after receiving it. There's one thing, though, which may not please you: They say since it's forbidden to marry the grand¬daughter of a cashiered official, they can only carry her over quietly and the celebration will have to wait till after our Elder Master is pardoned and back in office."
"Why should I object to that? It's only correct."
"In that case you can send the horoscope, madam."
"Don't be a fool! We've only women at home. You must tell Qiang to write it."
Jia Huan assented with gleeful alacrity and hurried off to give Jia Yun this message, after which they urged Wang Ren to go to the prince's residence to draw up the contract and bring back the money.
However, one of Lady Xing's maids   one recommended by Pinger
had overheard them and now slipped away to repeat the whole of their conversation to her. Pinger had known that they were up to no good and had explained this to Qiaojie, with the result that the girl wept all night, insisting that they must wait for her father's return instead of ac¬cepting Lady Xing's decision. This fresh news made her cry more bit¬terly, and she wanted to appeal to Lady Wang.
Pinger hastily stopped her saying, "Steady on, miss! The Elder Mis¬tress is your grandmother, so in your father's absence she's the one who has the say. Besides, your uncle is acting as guarantor, and they're in cahoots, so how can you override them? I'm only a servant, what I say doesn't count. We must think of some way out but on no account act rashly!"
"You'd better be quick about it," said Lady Xing's maid. "Otherwise a sedan-chair will be coming to fetch her!" With that she left.
When Pinger had seen her of{ she found Qiaojie prostrated with grief. Helping her up she said, "It's no use crying, miss. We're not in touch with your father, and judging by what they said...."
Before she could finish, a maid arrived from Lady Xing to announce, "The young lady's marriage is fixed! Pinger is to get together all the things she'll be needing. Her dowry can wait till Master Lian comes back."
Pinger had to agree. On her return to the room she found that Lady Wang had called and Qiaojie was weeping in her arms.
"Don't worry, child," said Lady Wang tearfully, "Your grandmother gave me a good ticking-off because I spoke up for you; so I can't see myself talking her round. We shall have to agree but put it off while we send a servant posthaste to tell your father."
"You haven't heard the latest, madam," said Pinger. "This morning Master Huan told Lady Xing it's the rule of the prince's house to fetch the girl there within three days of receiving her horoscope. She's already asked Master Yun to write it out; so how can we wait for Master Lian?"
The news that Jia Huan was behind this made Lady Wang speechless with rage.When she found her tongue again she gave furious orders to have him fetched; but after a long search her maids reported that he had gone out that morning with Jia Qiang and Wang Ren.
'~Where is Jia Yun?" she demanded.
"He's nowhere to be found either."
They stared at each other in dismay, at a loss. As Lady Wang could hardly take issue with Lady Xing, all they could do was weep.
A serving-woman came in at this point to announce, "The servants at the back gate say that Granny Liu's here again."
"In a family crisis like this we've no time to entertain visitors," said Lady Wang. "Put her off with some excuse."
But Pinger demurred, "Better invite her in, madam. As Qiaojie's god¬mother she should be told about this."
As Lady Wang raised no objection, the serving-woman brought in Granny Liu and greetings were exchanged. Puzzled to find them all with red eyes, Granny Liu presently asked, "What's wrong? You must have been grieving for Madam Lian again."
This mention of her mother made Qiaojie weep even more bitterly. Pinger said, "Let's not beat about the bush. Since you're her god¬mother you ought to know this." She drew her aside to explain the situa¬tion.
Granny Liu was flabbergasted too. After a while, however, she laughed and said, "A clever young lady like you must surely have listened to durm-ballads? They describe plenty of ways and means. It's not hard to find a way out."
"What way out have you, granny?" asked Pinger eagerly. "Do tell us quickly."
"It's very simple. Don't say a word to a soul; just up and leave, and that's that."
"That's easier said than done. A young lady frorn a house like ours, where's she to go?"
"If you want to spirit her away and don't mind her coming to my village, I~ll hide the young lady. I'll get my son-in-law to find a messen¬ger, and she can write a letter in her own hand for him to take to her father, so that he comes back at once. How about that?"
"What if the Elder Mistress finds out?"
"Do they know that I'm here?"
"As her quarters are in the back and she's such a tartar, nobody
passes on any news to her. If you'd come by the front gate she'd have known about it, but not now that you've come in by the back."
"Then let's fix a time, and I'll get my son-in-law to come with a carriage to fetch her."
"That would take too long," said Pinger. "Just wait here a moment." She hurried in and took Lady Wang aside to pass on Granny Liu's pro¬posal.
Lady Wang after thinking it over decided it would not do.
"It's the only way!" pleaded Pinger. "I wouldn't dare propose this to anyone else. You can pretend to be in the dark, madam, and later ask the Elder Mistress where Qiaojie has gone. We'll send to get Master Lian to hurry back."
Lady Wang said nothing but sighed.
Qiaojie who had overheard them begged, "Please come to my res¬cue, madam! When my father comes home he's bound to be grateful to you!"
"That's settled then," said Pinger. "You'd better go back, madam. We'll just ask you to send someone to look after our house."
"Keep it hushed up!" urged Lady Wang. "And mind you both take clothes and bedding with you."
'We can only pull it off if we leave at once," replied Pinger. "If they come back with everything fixed, then we're sunk!"
"All right. Go and get ready quickly. I'll see to things here." With that Lady Wang went over to see Lady Xing, engaging her in conversation to keep her at home while Pinger sent servants to make preparations.
"Don't sneak out!" she instructed them. "If anybody sees you, just say that the Elder Mistress has ordered a carriage to take Granny Liu home."
So the servants at the back were told to hire a carriage, while Pinger dressed Qiaojie up to look like Qinger and hurried her out. She herself, pretending to be seeing off Granny Liu, slipped into the carriage too when no one was looking; and so they left the mansion. Though the back gate had been open recently, there were 6nly a couple of gatekeepers on duty; and though there were a few other servants around, as the place was so big and practically deserted how could they keep an eye on everything?
Besides, Lady Xing had never shown them the least consideration whereas they were all indebted to Pinger; so although aware that this was wrong they connived at Qiaojie's escape. Lady Xing, still talking with Lady Wang, had no inkling of what was afoot.
Lady Wang, however, was on tenterhooks. After making conversa¬tion for a while she slipped over to see Baochai, who observing her dis¬tracted air asked what was worrying her. Lady Wang told her in confi¬dence what had happened.
"How dangerous!" exclaimed Baochai. "We must hurry up and stop Yun from going there."
"But I can't find Huan."
"You had better pretend to know nothing about this, madam, while I find someone to inform Lady Xing."
Lady Wang nodded and left it to her; but no more of this for the time being.

Now that prince from the provinces wanted to buy some serving-maids, and on the strength of the go-between's description he sent some of his household to look Qiaojie over. When they reported back to him he asked about her family, and not daring to deceive him they told him the truth.
On learning that she came from an old noble family, the prince ex¬claimed, "Out of the question! This is strictly forbidden: it would have been a fiasco! Since I have already paid homage at court I must choose a day now to return to my post. If anyone comes to broach this again, send him packing!"
So today when Jia Yun and Wang Ren arrived to present Qiaojie's horoscope, the prince's attendants blustered, "His Highness has given orders: Anyone who tries to pass off a daughter of the Jia family as a common citizen must be arrested and tried! In this reign of peace who dares do such a thing?"
This so terrified Wang Ren and ha Yun that they scuttled off, com¬plaining that this had not been made clear at the start. They parted crest-fallen.
Jia Huan, back at home waiting for news, was flustered to hear of
Lady Wang's summons. When Jia Yun came back alone his first words were, "Is it settled?"
Jia Yun stamped his foot. '~The fat's in the fire! Someone's let the cat out of the bag!" He described the dressing-down they had been given.
In consternation Jia Huan said, '~Now what's to be done? After I made it sound so good to the Elder Mistress this morning, you lot have landed me in a proper mess!"
As they were wondering what to do, they heard servants inside call¬ing that Their Ladyships wanted them. Very sheepishly the~ went in.
Lady Wang looked blackly at them and exclaimed, 'A fine thing you've done, hounding Qiaojie and Pinger to death! Hurry up and bring me their bodies!"
The two young men fell on their knees. Jia Huan was too afraid to say a word. Jia Yun with bowed head protested, "We would never have dared, but Grand-Uncle Xing and Uncle Wang proposed this match for Qiaojie, as we reported to Your Lady ships. The Elder Mistress was will¬ing, and told me to write out the horoscope. But that family has tumed her down, so how did we hound her to death?"
"Huan told the Elder Mistress she'd be fetched away in three days," snapped Lady Wang. 'And that her relatives were the guarantors. Isn't that what you said? Well, I shan't question you now. Hurry up and bring Qiaojie back. You'll have to answer for this when the master returns!" Lady Xing being now reduced to tearful silence, Lady Wang swore at Jia Huan, "Concubine Zhao was a bitch, and she left behind her a misbegot¬ten scoundrel!" She called her maids to help her back to her own quar¬ters.
Jia Huan, Jia Yun and Lady Xing indulged in mutual recriminations, then said, "Well, let's stop blaming each other. They can't really have killed themselves. Pinger must have hidden her in some relative's house."
Lady Xing sent for the gatemen from the front and the back of the house and berated them. '~Do you know where Qiaojie and Pinger have gone?" she demanded.
They answered in the same vein, 'Don't ask us, madam. Ask the gentlemen in charge. You've no call to storm at us. When our mistress questions us we know what to say. She can have us all beaten or dis¬
missed; but since Master Lian left there've been fine goings-on in the outer quarters! We haven't been issued our monthly allowances. They gamble, get drunk, fool about with young actors, and even bring women from outside into the house. Isn't that so, gentlemen?"
Jia Yun and Jia Huan had nothing to say for themselves, and when Lady Wang sent to order them to find Pinger and Qiaojie immediately they only wished the earth would swallow them up. They did not venture to question Qiaojie's household, knowing that all the maids there, detest¬ing them, would keep her whereabouts secret. Not daring to admit this to Lady Wang, they sent round to other relatives to ask, but in each case drew a blank. So Lady Xing inside and Jia Huan and the others outside were given no peace for several days in a row.

Soon came the day for the examination to end, and Lady Wang was eager for the return of Baoyu and Jia Lan. By the afternoon when there was no sign of them, she, Li Wan and Baochai sent servants out to make inquiries, but they did not come back, having no news. Others were sent, and when these did not return either the three women felt quite distraught.
That evening, to their delight Jia Lan came back.
"Where is your Uncle Bao?" he was asked.
Without stopping to pay his respects he sobbed, "Uncle Bao has dis¬appeared!"
Lady Wang, dumbfounded, collapsed. Luckily Caiyun and others were at hand to carry her to her bed and revive her; but at once she started wailing. Baochai remained speechless, dazed.
Xiren, dissolved in tears, reproached Jia Lan, "Stupid creature! You were with him, how could you lose him?"
"In the hostel we ate and slept in the same place," he told them. "And in the examination grounds our cells weren't too far apart, so we kept in close touch. This morning, Uncle Bao f~ni shed his papers first and waited for me to hand them in together. Then we came out together; but in the crowd at the Dragon Gate he disappeared. The servants who'd come to meet us asked me where he was and Li Gui said he'd seen him, just a few yards away, but he'd vanished in the crowd. I sent Li Gui and others to search in different directions while I took some men with me to
search all the cells. But he wasn't there. That's why I'm so late back." Lady Wang was crying too much to speak, Baochai had a fair idea of
the truth of the matter, while Xiren was sobbing as if she would never stop. So Jia Qiang without waiting for orders went out with others in different directions to search. In the Rong Mansion, plunged in gloom and half deserted, the banquet to welcome the candidates back went un¬touched. Forgetting his own exhaustion, Jia Lan wanted to make another search for Baoyu, but Lady Wang restrained him.
"Child, your uncle has disappeared," she said. "We can't have you getting lost too. Go and rest now, there's a good boy!"
Still Jia Lan insisted on going, till Madam You and the rest managed to dissuade him.
Xichun, the only one to grasp the truth, could not divulge it. She asked Baochai, "Did Cousin Baoyu take his jade with him?"
"Of course, he always wore it," was the answer, to which Xichun made no reply.
Xiren, recalling her attempt to snatch the jade from Baoyu, suspected the monk of spiriting him away. Her tears fell like pearls as, sobbing and broken-hearted, she remembered Baoyu's past kindness. "Sometimes when I provoked him he lost his temper," she thought. "But he always had the grace to make it up later, to say nothing of his warm-hearted consideration. When I provoked him too much, he swore he'd become a monk. For all we know he may have kept his word!"
By now it was already the fourth watch and there was still no news. Afraid Lady Wang would wear herself out with grief, Li Wan urged her to go and rest, and the others attended her, only Lady Xing going back to her own quarters while Jia Huan skulked out of sight. Lady Wang sent Jia Lan to bed but herself passed a sleepless night.
At dawn, the servants came back to report that they had searched high and low without finding a trace of Baoyu. Then Aunt Xue, Xue Ke, Xiangyun, Baoqin and Aunt Li called in turn to pay their respects and ask for news. This went on for several days, with Lady Wang too grief¬stricken to eat.
She was at death's door when a servant announced, "A messenger from the coast says he comes from the Garrison Commander, and our
Miss Tanchun will be arriving tomorrow."
This news relieved Lady Wang's mind, although she still grieved for Baoyu. And the next day, sure enough, Tanchun came home.They all went out some distance to welcome her and saw that, splendidly dressed, she looked lovelier than ever. At sight of Lady Wang's haggard looks and the red, swollen eyes of the others, she too broke down and wept before greeting them. It distressed her to see Xichun dressed like a Tao¬ist nun; and when she learned of Baoyu's disappearance and the family's many misfortunes they all wept again. Fortunately, with her persuasive¬ness and good sense she succeeded little by little in consoling Lady Wang to some extent.
The following day Tanchun's husband also called and, when informed what had happened, urged her to stay for a while to comfort the house¬hold. The maids who had accompanied her at the time of her marriage, reunited with their old friends, talked of all that had taken place since their departure; but day and night high and low alike were waiting for word of Baoyu.
One day, after the fifth watch, servants from the outer apartments came to the inner gate to announce good tidings. A few young maids rushed in, without waiting for the senior maids' permission, and burst out, "Such good news, madam!"
Jumping to the wrong conclusion, Lady Wang stood up elatedly to ask, "Where did they find him? Bring him in at once!"
"He's come seventh of the successful candidates."
"But where is he?" When there was no answer she sat down again.
"Who came seventh?" asked Tanchun. "Master Bao," they told her.
Then another shout went up outside, "Master Lan has passed too!"
The maids hurried out and came back with the announcement that Jia
Lan's name was the hundred-and-thirtieth on the list. Li Wan was natu¬rally overjoyed, but while Baoyu was missing she dared not show it. Lady
Wang too was pleased that Jia Lan had passed but thought, "If only
Baoyu were to come back how happy we all should be!"
Baochai, the only one still overcome with grief, had to hold back her tears.
All who offered congratulations said, "Since Baoyu was fated to pass, he's bound to turn up. Besides, now as a successful candidate, he's too well-known to remain lost."
Lady Wang half convinced by this gave a wan smile, whereupon they urged her to take some nourishment.
Beiming outside the third gate was clamouring, "Now that Master Bao has passed, we're certain to find him!" Asked what he meant he explained, "The proverb says: 'A successful candidate's fame spreads throughout the world.' Wherever he goes now, people will know about him and will have to send him back."
Those in the inner apartments commented, "That young fellow has no manners, yet he talks sense."
Xichun, however, countered, "How could a grown man like him get lost? I suspect he's seen through the ways of the world and taken mo¬nastic vows, in which case it will be difficult to find him."
This set Lady Wang and the others weeping again.
Li Wan agreed, "Yes, since ancient times many men have given up rank and wealth to achieve Buddhahood and become immortals."
"If he's so unfilial as to abandon his parents, how can he become a Buddha?" sobbed Lady Wang.
"People shouldn't have anything unique about them," Tanchun re¬marked. "We all thought it a good thing Brother Baoyu being born with that jade; but now it seems all this trouble stems from it. Don't be angry, madam, at what I'm going to say, but if he doesn't turn up in the next few days then there must be some reason, and you'd better consider him as never having been born. If there really is some mystery about him and he becomes a Buddha, this must be owing to your virtue in some previous existence."
Baochai said nothing, but Xiren could not bear her mental anguish   her head reeled and she collapsed. Lady Wang compassionately told some maids to help her back to her room.
Jia Huan was thoroughly mortified by the success of his brother and his nephew on top of Qiaojie's disappearance, for which he held Jia Qiang and Jia Yun to blame. He knew that with Tanchun back this matter would not be dropped, yet he dared not hide himself. These days he felt
on thorns.
The next day when Jia Lan went to offer his thanks at court, he learned that Zhen Baoyu had also passed and so they ranked as classmates.Young Zhen, told of Baoyu's mysterious disappearance, expressed his sympa¬thy.
The officer in charge of recommendations presented the papers of the successful candidates to the Emperor, who perused each in turn and found them all perspicuous. Observing that the seventh candidate Jia Baoyu was a native of Jinling, as was the hundred-and-thirtieth Jia Lan, he asked, "Is either of these Jias from Jinling from the same family as the late Imperial Consort?"
His ministers sent for them to question them, then repeated Jia Lan's account of Baoyu's disappearance as well as of their antecedents. There¬upon our sagacious, compassionate Emperor recalled the Jia family's services to the state and ordered his ministers to draw up a detailed me¬morial on the subject. His Majesty in his great goodness then ordered the bureau in charge to re-investigate Jia She's case and submit their find¬ings to him. He also read in the report "On the Successful Conclusion of the Compaign Against Brigands at the Coast" that "the whole empire is at peace and the people are content." In his delight he ordered his minis¬ters to reward those officials responsible and to proclaim a general am-nesty.
After Jia Lan had left the court and thanked his examiner, he heard of the general amnesty and reported it to Lady Wang. The whole family rejoiced and only hoped that Baoyu would now return home. Aunt Xue, even more overjoyed, made ready to ransom Xue Pan.
Then one day it was announced that old Mr. Zhen and Tanchun's husband had called to offer congratulations. Lady Wang sent Jia Lan out to entertain them. Presently he returned to her beaming.
"Wonderful news, madam!" he told her. "Mr. Zhen has heard at court that our Elder Master has been pardoned; and Uncle Zhen has not only been pardoned but is to inherit the Ning Mansion's noble title. Grandfa¬ther will keep the title of Duke of Rongguo, and after the period of mourning is to be made vice-minister of the Ministry of Works. All the property confiscated will be returned. The Emperor was impressed by Uncle Bao's
essays, and discovered that he is the Imperial Consort's younger brother, whose good character the Prince of Beijing has vouched for. His Maj¬esty summoned him to court and when it was reported that according to his nephew Jia Lan he had disappeared after the examination and a search was being made for him everywhere, the Emperor decreed that all the garrisons of the capital must do their utmost to find him.This decree should set your mind at rest, madam. Now that the Emperor has shown us such favour, Uncle Bao is bound to be found!"
Lady Wang and the rest of the family exchanged jubilant congratula¬tions. Only Jia Huan was frantic as he searched high and low for Qiaojie, who had left the city with Granny Liu and Pinger. In the village Granny Liu treated her with respect, cleaning out the best rooms for her and Pinger to stay in; and though she could only offer them country fare the food was fresh and clean, while with Qinger to keep her company Qiaojie felt quite at home.
When the few well-to-do families in the village heard that a young lady from the Jia Mansion was staying with Granny Liu, they flocked to see her and thought her a goddess come down to earth. Some sent pre¬sents of vegetables and frnit, others of game, making quite a commotion. The richest family among them, named Zhou, were millionaires owning a vast estate of good land. Their only son, a handsome, intelligent lad of fourteen for whom his parents had procured a tutor, had just passed the county examination.When his mother saw Qiaojie she thought enviously, "Country folk like us aren't good enough for such a young lady from a noble house."
Granny Liu guessed what she was thinking. "I know what's in your mind," she said. "Let me propose the match."
"Don't make fun of me!" laughed Mrs. Zhou. "Such grand people would never agree to marry her to a family like ours."
"We'll see about that," was the reply. And there the matter rested.
Concerned to know how the Jia family was faring, Granny Liu sent Baner to town to make inquiries. As it happened, he found Rongning Street lined with carriages and sedan-chairs, and people in the neighbourhood informed him, "The heads of the Ning and Rong Man¬sions are getting back their official posts and their confiscated property.
They're going up in the world again. Only that Baoyu of theirs who passed the examination has disappeared."
Baner was about to go happily home when some horsemen galloped up and alighted before the gate. The gateman went down on one knee to salute the foremost. "So you're back, Second Master," he cried. "Con¬gratulations! Is the Elder Master better?"
"He is," was the smiling answer. "Thanks to the Imperial favour, he will be home very soon. Whose are all these carriages?"
The gateman reported, "Imperial envoys have been sent to order us to fetch back the family property." Then the gentleman went in as if walking on air, and Baner guessed that he must be Jia Lian. Without making further inquiries, he hurried back to tell his grandmother.
When Granny Liu heard this news, beaming with smiles she passed it on to Qiaojie with her congratulations.
Pinger exclaimed, "What a lot we owe you, granny! If not for the way you fixed things, our young lady wouldn't be so happily placed to¬day." Qiaojie was still more delighted.
As they were chatting, the messenger who had taken her letter to Jia Lian came back to report, "Master Lian is extremely grateful and told me, as soon as I reached home, to escort the young lady back. He re¬warded me too with several taels of silver."
Granny Liu, gratified to hear this, had two carts prepared for them and urged Qiaojie to mount one. But by now she felt so at home here that she was reluctant to leave, while Qinger burst into tears, unwilling to part with her. Seeing this, Granny Liu told Qinger to go with them, and to¬gether they drove straight back to the Rong Mansion.

Earlier on, when Jia Lian had heard that his father was mortally ill and sped to his place of exile, they had wept on meeting again; but gradually Jia She recovered.When Qiaojie's letter arrived, Jia Lian told his father what had happened at home and promptly started back. On the way he heard of the general amnesty, and pressing on for another two days he reached home just as the Imperial decree had been brought. Lady Xing was worried because there was no one to receive it, Jia Lan being too young. Now Jia Lian's return was announced, and both joy and sadness
attended this reunion, but having no time to stop and talk he hurried to the front hall to pay homage.
The Imperial envoys asked after his father and instructed him, "Come tomorrow to the Imperial Treasury to receive your bounty. The Ning Mansion is yours to live in again." With that they took their leave.
When Jia Lian escorted them out, he saw several countrified carts which the servants were forbidding to draw up there. He knew from the altercation going on that Qiaojie had come back.
"Stupid bastards!" he swore at the servants. "When I was away you swindled us, forcing my daughter to flee, and now that they're bringing her back you bar the way! What grudge have you got against me?"
The servants had been afraid that Jia Lian on his return would bring them to book, not grasping the situation; but to their surprise he knew more about it than they did. Standing at respectful attention they reported, "After you left, sir, some of us fell ill, some had to ask for leave. Master Huan, Master Qiang and Master Yun were in charge  we had nothing to do with this."
"You scoundrels!" he swore. "When I'm through with my business I'll deal with you. Let those carts in at once!"
When Jia Lian went inside again he ignored Lady Xing. Going instead to Lady Wang's apartments he knelt down and kowtowed to her. "Qiaojie is back safe and sound, all thanks to you, madam!" he said. "I'll leave Cousin Huan out of this, but Yun is a rascal who made trouble before when left in charge of the house. Now I've only been away a couple of months, yet look at the chaos here! A fellow like this, I suggest we drive him away and have no more to do with him!"
"That wretch Wang Ren is just as bad," she complained.
"Don't worry, madam. I know how to deal with them."
As they were talking, Caiyun announced Qiaojie, and the girl paid her respects to Lady Wang. They had not been parted long, yet the thought of her narrow escape moved them both to tears, Qiaojie weeping bitterly. Jia Lian lost no time in thanking Granny Liu, and Lady Wang made the old woman sit beside her to talk over recent events. When Jia Lian saw Pinger he shed tears of gratitude, although he could not express his feel¬ings in public. And so much had she.risen in his estimation that he de¬
cided, after his father's return, to ask to have her promoted to be his wife. But this is anticipating.
Lady xing had feared ructions when Jia Lian found Qiaojie missing. The news that he had gone to see Lady Wang alarmed her even more, and she sent a mald to find out what was afoot. When the girl came back to report that Qiaojie and Grnnny Liu were talking there too, Lady Xing at last realized the trick played on her and suspected Lady Wang of selling her son agalnst her. "But who could have sent Pinger word?" she fumed.
Just then Qiaojie came in with Granny Liu and Pinger, followed by Lady Wang who lald the whole blame on Jia Yun and Wang Ren.
"When you heard their proposal, you naturally thought it a good one," she said. "How were you to know what they were up to outside?"
Abashed, Lady Xing admitted to herself that Lady Wang had made the right decision. After this, these two mistresses were on better terms.
Upon leaving Lady Wang, Pinger took Qiaojie to see Baochai, and each confided her troubles to the other.
Pinger told them, "The Emperor has shown us such favour that now our family should prosper again. I'm sure Master Bao will come back."
Just then Qiuwen came running in frantically. "Xiren is dying!" she cried. If you want to know what had happened, read the next chapter.

Chapter 120

Zhen Shiyin Expounds
the Illusory Realm
Jia Yucun Concludes the Dream
of Red Mansions


On hearing from Qiuwen that Xiren was dying, Baochai hurried to her bedside with Qiaojie and Pinger. Finding her unconscious after a heart attack they revived her with a drink of boiled water, then laid her down again and sent for a doctor.
~'How did Sister Xiren fall so ill?" Qinojie asked.
Baochai explained, '~The other evening she wept so bitterly that she fainted away. The mistress made people help her back to sleep; but be¬cause of that commotion outside we didn't get her a doctor."
The doctor arriving just then, they withdrew. After taking her pulse he attributed her illness to anxiety and anger, and made out a prescription accordingly.
Now Xiren had heard it rumoured that if Baoyu failed to return all his maids would be dismissed, and anxiety on this score aggravated her ill¬ness. After the doctor had gone Qiuwen brewed medicine for her, but lying there alone she had no peace of mind. She seemed to see Baoyu before her, then had a hazy vision of a monk who was leafing through an album and who told her, ~'Don't make a wrong decision. I'm having nothing more to do with you.
Before she could question him, Qiuwen came over saying, "Here's your medicine. Drink it up, sister."
Xiren opened her eyes and kept to herself what she now knew had been a dream.When she had drunk the medicine she reflected, "Baoyu must have left with the monk. That time when he tried to take the jade out, he looked as if he wanted to escape. When I stopped him he wasn't his usual self, the rough way he pushed and shoved me without any feel-ing at all; and later he had less patience with Madam Bao and not the least feeling for the other girls either, as if he'd awoken to the Truth. But
even so, how can you abandon your wife? I was sent by the mistress to wait on you, and though I've been getting the monthly allowance of a concubine, this was never publicly announced to the masters and mis¬tresses. If they dismiss me and I insist on staying, people will laugh at me; yet if I leave I shan't be able to bear it, remembering how good Baoyu was to me." She could not resolve this dilemma until recalling her dream in which it had been implied that she and Baoyu were destined to part she decided, "Better die and be done with it."
The medicine had eased the pain in her heart, yet she had to lie there in discomfort for several days before getting up again to wait on Baochai. The latter secretly shed tears of longing for Baoyu, lamenting her wretched fate; however, since her mother was preparing to ransom her brother, there was much to attend to and she had to help out. But no more of this for the present.

ha Zheng escorting the old lady's coffin, and Jia Rong those of Keqing, Xifeng and Yuanyang, had now reached Jinling where they had them interred. Then Jia Rong took Daiyu's coffin to be buried in her ancestral graveyard, leaving Jia Zheng to supervise the building of the tombs. One day he received a letter from home, and the news that Baoyu and Jia Lan had passed the examination delighted him; but Baoyu's disappearance so perturbed him that he felt constrained to hurry back at once. On the way he heard of the general amnesty and received another letter from home confirming his pardon and official reinstatement. Much heartened, he pressed on rapidly day and night.
The day they reached the Piling post station, it suddenly turned cold and began to snow, and their boat moored in a secluded spot. Jia Zheng sent servants ashore to deliver cards to friends in that locality, and to explain that he had no time to call and they should not trouble to call on him either, as the boat would be leaving again immediately. Only one page remained to wait on him as he wrote a letter to send home by a messenger travelling ahead by road. Before broaching the subject of Baoyu he paused. Looking up through the snow, he glimpsed at the prow of the boat a figure with a shaven head and bare feet, draped in a red felt cape.This man prostrated himself before Jia Zheng, who hurried out of
the cabin, meaning to raise him up and see who he was, but the man had already kowtowed four times, then stood up and made him a Buddhist salutation. Jia Zheng was about to bow in return when he recognized his son.
"Is it Baoyu?" he asked in amazement.
The other made no answer, looking torn between grief and joy.
"If you are Baoyu, what are you doing here, and in this costume?" Jia Zheng asked again.
Before Baoyu could reply, a monk and a Taoist priest appeared, each taking one of his arms. "Your worldly obligations have been fulfilled," they declared. "Why delay your departure?" Then all three of them glided ashore.
Though it was slippery underfoot, Jia Zheng hurried after them but could not overtake them. However, he heard one of them chant:
My home is Blue Ridge Peak,
I roam the primeval void.
Who will go with me to keep me company,
Returning to the Great Waste of infinity!
ha Zheng pursued them round a slope, only to find they had vanisbed. Limp and out of breath, his heart misgave him. Turning, he found that the page had followed him.
"Did you see those three men just now?" Jia Zheng asked.
"Yes, sir. As you were running after them I came too. But then I lost sight of those three."
ha Zheng was tempted to go on, but in the white wilderness there was no one in sight. Marvelling, he had to turn back.
When the servants returned and found their master gone, the boat¬man told them that he had gone ashore in pursuit of two monks and a Taoist priest. They followed his footprints in the snow and, seeing him approaching in the distance, went to meet him and escorted him back to the boat. After he had sat down and caught his breath he told them of his encounter with Baoyu. They suggested searching the vicinity.
"You don't understand," he sighed. "I saw them with my own eyes, they were not apparitions. And I heard them chanting a most occult poem. When Baoyu was born with jade in his mouth, I knew it was uncanny and
boded no good; but because the old lady doted on him we brought him up all these years. As for the monk and the priest, I have seen them three times. The first time was when they came to explain the miraculous na¬ture of the jade; the second time, when Baoyu was so ill and the monk took the jade in his hand and intoned some incantation to cure him; the third time, when he brought back the jade and I saw him sitting in the front hall, then all of a sudden he vanished. Although that increased my misgivings, I thought Baoyu fortunate to have the protection of these Buddhist and Taoist saints. Little did I know that Baoyu was a spirit who had come to earth to undergo certain trials, and who managed to fool the old lady for nineteen years! Only now is it clear to me." He shed tears.
"If Master Bao was really a Buddhist saint, he shouldn't have be¬come ajuren," they objected. "Why take the official examination then leave?"
"You don't understand that all the stars in the heavens, the saints in the mountains and the spirits in caves have each their own different na¬ture. Baoyu never showed any inclination to study, yet he'd only to glance at a book to master it. By temperament, too, he was different from other people." He sighed again.
They consoled him with talk of Jia Lan's success and the improve¬ment in the family's fortunes. Then Jia Zheng went on with his letter, describing this incident and urging the family not to grieve. He sealed the letter and sent it off with a servant, then continued on his way. No more of this.

Aunt Xue, after hearing of the amnesty, told Xue Ke to raise loans in various quarters until she had enough to ransom her son. The Board of Punishments sanctioned this and after receiving the money issued an order for Xue Pan's release. We need not dwell on their family reunion with its natural intermingling ofjoy and sorrow.
"If I ever run amuck again," swore Xue Pan, "may I be killed and disembowelled!"
His mother stopped his mouth. "Just make up your mind to it instead of raving. Why must you swear such a blood-curdling oath?" she scolded. "Now I've a proposal to make. Xiangling's had so much to put up with
since becoming your concubine, that now that your wife has killed herself and poor though we are we can still make ends meet, I suggest making her my daughter-in-law. What do you think?"
Xue Pan nodded his agreement.
"Quite right and proper," agreed Baochai and the rest.
Xiangling flushing crimson protested, "I shall go on serving the master as his maid. There's no need to raise my status."
Thereupon they started addressing her as the young mistress, and none of the household objected.
Then Xue Pan went to thank the Jia family, and Aunt Xue and Baochai went over too. When all were assembled and they had talked for a while, Jia Zheng's messenger arrived and presented his letter, announcing that the master would soon be home. Lady Wang made Jia Lan read the letter out, and when he reached the passage describing the encounter with Baoyu the whole family wept, Lady Wang, Baochai and Xiren being the most affected. They discussed Jia Zheng's injunction to them not to mourn for Baoyu because he was a reincarnated spirit.
One said, "If he'd become an official then had the misfortune to get into trouble and ruin the family, that would have been worse. It's better to have produced a Bodhisattva, thanks to the virtue of our master and mistress. In fact, Lord Jing of the East Mansion practised alchemy for more than ten years yet never became an immortal. It's harder still to become a Bodhisattva! If you look at it this way, madam, you'll feel better."
Lady Wang confided tearfully to Aunt Xue, "I don't blame Baoyu for deserting me, it's my daughter-in-law's cruel fate that upsets me most. When they'd only just been married a couple of years, how heartless it was of him to abandon her!" This made Aunt Xue's heart ache too.
Baochai, weeping, was oblivious to all around her; and as the men of the family had withdrawn to the outer apartments, Lady Wang went on, "He kept me on tenterhooks all those years, till he got married and passed the examination and I was pleased to hear that Baochai was pregnant. To think it should end like this! If I'd known, I wouldn't have found him a wife or ruined your daughter's life!"
"This was their fate," Aunt Xue answered. "What else could fami¬
lies like ours have done? It's lucky that she's with child. If she gives birth to a son, he's bound to make good and all's well that ends well. Look at your elder daughter-in-law: now Lan's juren and next year he'll be a court scholar   doesn't that mean that he'll become an official? After all that bitterness, she's having a taste of sweetness now to re¬ward her for her goodness.You know my daughter, sister. She's not flighty or petty-minded; you needn't worry about her."
Lady Wang, convinced of the truth of this, reflected, "B aochai was always a quiet, unassuming child with simple tastes; that's why this has happened to her. It seems that everyone's lot in life is predestined! Though she wept so bitterly, she retained all her dignity and even tried to console me   she's really one in a thousand. What a pity, though, that a boy like Baoyu lost out on his share of good fortune in this dusty world!" Com¬forted by these reflections she went on to consider Xiren's case and thought, "The other maids are easily disposed of: the older ones can be married off and the younger ones kept here to wait on Baochai. But what's to be done about Xiren?" As there were others present, she decided to discuss this with Aunt Xue that evening.
Aunt Xue did not go home that day, staying with her heart-broken daughter to cornfort her. However, Baochai showed her usual good sense, saying that it was no use complaining as Baoyu had been someone quite unique and this had been fated to happen.When she spoke so reasonably her mother, much relieved, went over to tell Lady Wang what she had said.
Lady Wang nodded. "I wouldn't deserve such a good daughter-in-law if I hadn't done some good deeds!" she sighed, giving way to grief again.
Aunt Xue consoled her for a while then raised another question. "Xiren's only the shadow of her old self, what with pining for Baoyu," she said. "The proper wife should stay at home as a widow, and some¬times a concubine wants to do the same; but in Xiren's case, her rela¬tionship with Baoyu was never made public."
"Exactly," said Lady Wang. "This is just what I wanted to talk over with you. If we dismiss her, I'm afraid she'll be unwilling, or threaten to kill herself; but I doubt whether my husband would agree to keeping her
on.	That's our dilemma."
"I'm sure he would never agree, especially as he doesn't know her position and thinks her simply a maid, with no reason to stay on here. You'll have to get one of her family to come, insist on them finding her a respectable husband, then give her a generous dowry. Being a sensible girl and still young, she should realize that she hasn't served you for nothing and that you've treated her quite handsomely, sister. I shall have a good talk with her too. Even after you've sent for one of her family, you needn't tell her about it until a good match has been fixed up and we've made sure that the family's well-off and the man's presentable. Then we can send her away.
"That's an excellent idea. Otherwise, if I let the master dispose of her off-hand wouldn't that be the ruin of her?"
Aunt Xue nodded her agreement and after some further talk went to see Baochai. Finding Xiren still in tears there she tried to console her; and the good-hearted girl, not being acrimonious, agreed to all she said.
"It's good of you to talk like this to a serving-maid, madam," said Xiren. "I should never dream of disobeying the mistress."
Aunt Xue felt even more drawn to her, finding her so submissive. Baochai also spoke of a woman's duties in life, and so they found them¬selves in complete accord.
A few days later, Jia Zheng arrived home and all the men went out to welcome him. By now Jia She and Jia Zhen were also back and, meeting again, they described their experiences since parting. But the women of the house, when they saw Jia Zheng, could not help grieving at the thought of Baoyu.
Jia Zheng urged them not to be distressed, telling Lady Wang, "This was fated. From now on those of us outside will have to manage the family affairs with your assistance inside, on no account letting things slide as we did before. The different households can see to their own affairs; there is no need for a general manager. You can decide, as you think right, on everything done in our family's inner apartments."
When Lady Wang told him that Baochai was with child and suggested dismissing Baoyu's former maids, he simply nodded in silence.
The next day Jia Zheng went to court to ask the chief ministers how
he should express his gratitude for the Imperial favour while still in mourn¬ing. They petitioned the Emperor on his behal{ and the Sovereign in his great goodness granted him an audience. When Jia Zheng had expressed his thanks and received various instructions, the Emperor asked what had become of Baoyu and marvelled at the account which Jia Zheng gave him.
The Emperor decreed, "The brilliance of Baoyu's writing must be due to his being an immortal. Were he at court we could have promoted him. Now, since he would never accept a noble rank, let him be given the title 'The Immortal of Literary Genius.
Jia Zheng kowtowed his thanks and withdrew, to be welcomed home by Jia Lian and Jia Zhen. When told of the Emperor's decree, the whole household was overjoyed.
Jia Zhen reported, "The Ning Mansion has been cleaned up, and with your permission we shall move over now. Sister Xichun can have Green Lattice Nunnery in the Garden for her devotions."
Jia Zheng made no comment, but after a pause he urged them to do their best to repay the Imperial favour.
Then Jia Lian informed him that his parents were willing to marry Qiaojie to the Zhou family. Jia Zheng, who had heard the previous night of all that had happened to her, said, "That's for the Elder Master and Elder Mistress to decide. We shouldn't despise country people, providing they are honest folk and their son is studious and seems promising. Not all the officials at court are city bred, are they?"
"No, sir," agreed Jia Lian. "But as my father is growing old and suffers from chronic asthma, he hopes to live quietly for a few years, leaving you in overall charge."
"I only wish I could live as a recluse in the country myself," Jia Zheng answered. "But I haven't yet repaid our Sovereign's great kindness." With that he went inside.
Jia Lian sent for Granny Liu to tell her the match was agreed on, after which she called on Lady Wang to predict that now they would win offi¬cial promotion and all the family's sons and grandsons would prosper.
Just then, a maid announced Xiren's sister-in-law, from whom Lady Wang elicited that some relatives had proposed a match for Xiren with a
certain Jiang family in the south city who owned houses, land and shops. The prospective bridegroom was a few years older but he had never been married and, as far as appearances went, was one in a hundred.
Lady Wang was favourably inclined and replied, "You can agree to it. Come back in a few days' time to fetch your sister-in-law." She also sent to make inquiries and, on being assured that it would be a good match, informed Baochal and asked Aunt Xue to break the news gently to Xiren.
Xiren was desolated yet dared not disobey. She remembered, that year Baoyu called on her family, she had sworn to them that she would rather die than be redeemed and go home. "Now the mistress is set upon this," she thought. "If I ask to stay they'll say I have no sense of shame; yet I really don't want to leave here!" She started sobbing. When Aunt Xue and Baochai reasoned with her she reflected, "If I died here that would be a poor return for Her Ladyship's kindness. I'd better die at home." So suppressing her grief she bade them all farewell, heart-rend¬ing as she found it to leave the other maids.
She mounted the carriage determined to kill herself, and when she saw her brother and sister-in-law she could not speak for sobbing. Her brother showed her one by one the betrothal gifts sent by the Jiang family as well as the dowry he had prepared, telling her which items had been given by Lady Wang, which they had bought themselves, so that Xiren was even more at a loss for words. After a couple of days at home she thought, "My brother's done things so handsomely, how can I cause him trouble by killing myself in his house?" In a dilemma, she felt her heart would break yet had to bear up.
The day came to fetch the bride, and not being the type to make a scene however wronged she felt, she let herself be carried off in the sedan-chair, deferring her decision till her arrival. However, once over their threshold, she found that the Jiangs had made scrupulous prepara¬tions according to all the correct wedding etiquette, and as soon as she entered the house she was addressed by the maid-servants as "Mis¬tress." All treated her so well that, once again, she did not like to bring trouble on them by committing suicide there. That night she wept and refused her husband's advances, yet he very tenderly deferred to her
wishes.
The next day when her chests were opened and he saw his old scarlet sash, he realized that this was Baoyu's maid. At first he had thought her one of the old lady's attendants, never dreaming that she was Xiren. Now, abashed by the memory of Baoyu's past friendship with him, he treated her even more kindly, deliberately showing her the pale green sash which Baoyu had given him in exchange. Only then did Xiren under¬stand that he was Jiang Yuhan. Convinced that their marriage must have been predestined, she told him how she had meant to kill herself. Deeply impressed by her loyalty, Jiang Yuhan showed her even more consider¬ation so that Xiren felt she had really nowhere to die.
Now, Honourable Readers, though certain things are predestined and "cannot be helped," it is wrong for sons of concubines or ministers of vanquished states as well as for men of principle and chaste women to keep using this phrase as a handy excuse. That was why Xiren was ranked in the Third Register. As a former poet passing the Temple 9f Lady Peach-blossom wrote:
Since time immemorial, the hardest thing is to die;
It is not the Lady of Xi1 alone who was broken-hearted.
But let us leave Xiren embarking on a new life and return to Jia Yucun, who had been found guilty of embezzlement and condemned to punish¬ment. He was pardoned under the general amnesty, but ordered back to his native place and reduced to the status of a common citizen. Having sent his family home first, he was making his way there with a baggage-cart and a page when, by the Ford of Awakening in the Stream of Rapid Reversal, he saw a Taoist priest emerge from a thatched shed to greet him. Recognizing his old friend Zhen Shiyin, he promptly returned the greeting.
"How have you been, worthy Mr. ha?" asked Shiyin.
"So you are Master Zhen, Immortal One!" replied Yucun. "How is it that last time we met you refused to recognize me? Later I was very worried to hear that your temple had been burned down. Now that I am lucky enough to meet you again, I am sure your virtue must be even greater. As for me, owing to my own inveterate folly, I've now been reduced to this."
"Last time you were a high official, so how could a poor priest claim acquaintance with you? As an old friend I ventured to offer you some advice, but you ignored it. However, wealth and poverty, success and failure are predestined. How amazing that we should meet again today! My humble temple is not far from here. Would you care to come for a chat?" Yucun agreed willingly.
They walked off hand in hand, followed by the page with the cart till they reached a thatched temple. Shiyin invited Yucun in to sit down, and a boy served tea.
Asked how he had come to renounce the world, Shiyin said with a smile, "It's easily done, with the speed of thought. Coming from the great world, sir, don't you know of a certain Baoyu who used to live in the lap of luxury?"
"Of course I do! Recently it has been rumoured that he has entered Buddhist orders too. I met him several times, but never dreamed he would take such a decision."
"That's where you were wrong! I knew his strange story in advance, and had already met him at the time when the two of us talked before the gate of my old house in Renqing Lane."
"How could that be?" exclaimed Yucun in surprise. "With the capital so far from your honourable district!"
"I met him in spirit a long time ago."
"Then you know, no doubt, where he is now?"
"Baoyu means 'divine jade.' Before the raid on the Rong and Ning Mansions, on the day when Baochai and Daiyu separated, that jade had already left the world of men to escape from calamity and effect a re¬union. Then, former ties of affection severed, form and essence once more became one. It further showed its miraculous origin by passing the examination with distinction and begetting a noble son, proving that this jade is a treasure tempered by the divine powers of nature, not to be compared with ordinary objects. It was taken to the mortal worla by me Buddhist of Infinite Space and the Taoist of Boundless Time. Now that its mortal course is run, they have carried it back to its original place: this is what has happened to Baoyu."
Yucun, though he understood barely half of this, nodded and mar-
velled, "So that's the way it was! I'was too ignorant to know. But why, with such a spiritual origin, was Baoyu so enamoured of girls before he became so enlightened? Would you explain that?"
"This may be hard for you to grasp fully, sir. The Illusory Land of Great Void is the Blessed Land of Truth. By reading the registers twice, he saw the beginning and the ending too all set down there in detail. How could that fail to enlighten him? Since the fairy herb has reverted to her true form, shouldn't the jade of 'spiritual understanding' do the same?"
Yucun was mystified, but knowing that this was some divine secret he did not press for a fuller explanation."You have told me about Baoyu," he said. "But there are many ladies in our humble clan; how is it that apart from the Imperial Consort all the others came to such undistinguished ends?"
"You must allow me to speak bluntly, sir. All noble ladies come from the realm of love and retribution. From time immemorial, carnal desire has been their cardinal sin, and they must not even immerse themselves in ~ove. Thus Cui Yingying and Su Xiaoxiao2 were immortals with earthly desires, while Song Yu and Sima Xiangru3 were writers of genius whose works were wicked. Anyone ensnared by love can come to no good end!"
Yucun absently stroked his beard and sighed. "I have one more ques¬tion, Reverend Immortal," he ventured. "Will the Rong and Ning Man¬sions be restored to their former prosperity?"
"It is an immutable law that the good are favoured by fortune while the dissolute meet with calamity. In these two mansions now, the good are laying up virtue, the bad repenting their crimes; so naturally their houses will prosper again with the orchid and fragrant osmanthus bloom¬ing together."
Yucun lowered his head in thought, then suddenly laughed, "I get it! One of the sons of their house called Lan4 has passed the examination; so that prediction of yours has come true. But just now, Reverend Immortal, you spoke of 'the orchid and fragrant osmanthus blooming together, and you mentioned that Baoyu has begotten a noble son. Is this as yet unborn son going to advance rapidly in his official career?"
"This belongs to the future," said Shiyin with a smile. "It's not for me to predict."
Yucun had more questions on the tip of his tongue but the other, un¬willing to answer them, ordered his servant to prepare food and invited Yucun to share it. After the meal, Shiyin forestalled further questions about Yucun's own future by urging him to have a rest in his temple.
"I still have some worldly affairs to settle and must attend to them today," he explained.
"What worldly affairs can you have, Immortal One, you whose life is given to cultivating virtue?" asked Yucun in surprise.
"Simply some private business concerned with family affection."
"What do you mean?" Yucun was yet more amazed.
"You are unaware, sir, that my daughter Yinglian met with misfortune as a child, and at the start of your official career you judged a case in which she was involved. She has married into the Xue family, but is dying now in childbirth leaving behind her a son to carry on the Xues' line. Since the time has come for her to sever all mortal ties, I must go to guide her spirit." With a flick of his sleeve he rose.
Yucun, left dazed, fell asleep in this thatched temple by the Ford of Awakening in the Stream of Rapid Reversal, while Shiyin went to con¬duct Xiangling to the Illusory Land of Great Void to enter her name in the record of the Goddess of Disenchantment. As he passed the archway, he saw a monk and a priest come drifting towards him.
"Congratulations, holy men!" he called. "Have you severed all their entanglements of love?"
"Not completely," they replied. "But we have brought that stupid object back with us. We still have to return him to his original place and record his experiences in the world, so that he won't have descended there for nothing."
Shiyin saluted and left them, whereupon the monk and the priest took the divine jade to Blue Ridge Peak and left it in the place where Nu Wa had melted down stones to repair heaven. This done, they went their different ways. Thus:
A book not of this world records events not of this world; A man with two lives reverts to his first form.
One day the Taoist immortal the Reverend Void, coming to Blue Ridge
Peak again, found there the stone left unused when heaven was repaired, with the same inscription on it that he had seen before. On reading it carefully once more, he discovered that appended to the epilogue-poem were more accounts of the denouement.
He nodded and sighed, "When I first read this strange story of Brother Stone, I said that it could be made known to the world and therefore had it transcribed. But at that time I hadn't read how he returned to his original form and place. This is quite a story   I wonder when it was added? Apparently Brother Stone after his descent to the world of men was burnished and awoke to the truth, which is highly gratifying! If too many years pass and the inscription is blurred, it may be misconstrued. I had better transcribe it again and find someone with the leisure to circu¬late it, to show the illusory nature of marvels, mundane matters, truth and falsehood. Then perhaps some men tired of mortal vanity may return to the truth, or some friendly mountain spirit may enable the Stone to de¬scend again to the world."
Thereupon he copied out the inscription again, tucked it into his sleeve and searched the haunts of splendour and wealth; but he found there only men striving to advance thier careers or to feed and clothe them¬selves   not one had time for the story of the Stone. However, when he reached the thatched temple by the Ford of Awakening in the Stream of Rapid Reversal, he discovered a man sleeping there and felt that here was someone sufficiently leisured to be given this Story of the Stone. The sleeper did not wake when called, but when the Reverend Void tugged at him he sat up slowly and opened his eyes, then leafed through the manuscript before putting it down again.
"Yes, I witnessed this whole business myself," he said. "The account you have copied out is quite correct. I'll tell you someone who will circu¬late it, so that this extraordinary case can be concluded."
The Reverend Void at once asked whom he had in mind.
"Wait till such-and-such a year, month, day and hour, then go to Mourn¬ing-the-Red Studio where you will find a certain Mr. Cao Xueqin," was the answer. "Just give him Jia Yucun's name, and tell him what you want of him." With that he lay down and went to sleep again.
The Reverend Void bore these instructions in mind and, after no one
knows how many generations or aeons, sure enough he found Mourning-the-Red Studio, where Mr. Cao Xueqin was reading an ancient history. He gave him Jia Yucun's message and handed him the Story of the Stone.
Cao Xueqin laughed, "This certainly sounds like Jia Yucun!"5
"How did you come to know him, sir?" asked the Reverend Void. "What makes you willing to pass this tale on for him?"
Mr. Cao chuckled, "They call you Void, and you really are devoid of sense! Since this is a fictitious rustic tale, provided it contains no clerical errors or perverse contradictions, it will serve to while away the time with a couple of friends after wine and food, or to dispel loneliness some rainy evening under the lamp by the window. It doesn't have to be vouched for or launched by men of consequence. All these questions you ask show that you're a pig-headed pedant and won't get you anywhere!"
The Reverend Void threw back his head and laughed, then tossed him the manuscript and left saying to himself, "So it's all hot air - fantastic! Neither author, transcriber, nor readers can tell what it is about. It is nothing but a literary diversion to entertain readers."
When this tale later came to be read, someone wrote four lines of verse to elucidate the author's meaning, as follows:
A tale of grief is told,
Fantasy most melancholy.
Since all live in a dream,
Why laugh at others' folly?


