by AnonYMous
One day Paria’s uncle arrived in Yangzhou and went first to Qiang Da’s. He was directed to Old Lane, where he asked the way to Paria’s house. Paria invited him to have dinner there and stay the night, but the following day he demanded sixty thousand cash from her for a full year’s payment and said that if she didn’t provide it he would take her home. She flew into a rage and quarreled with him.
If you are wondering what happened, please turn to the next chapter.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Sisters reunite with the gift of a gold hairpin,
And in-laws quarrel over the repair of a grave.
Paria’s uncle, Wang Eight,1 had arrived in Yangzhou and quarreled with her. Suspecting her of living with someone, he had demanded an annual payment of sixty thousand cash; if it were not paid, he would take her home. “Don’t you start suspecting that I’m living with someone and making a lot of money,” said Paria. “The truth is that the prefect here banned prostitution, so Qiang Da had to close down, and I had nowhere to go. Master Yuan was kind enough to borrow this house from a friend of his and let me stay here for the time being. He’s also helping out with some money to tide me over. In the few years I’ve been in Yangzhou I’ve piled up seventy or eighty taels in debt. I’ll never be able to pay it off, but if you want to take me back and will agree to pay it off for me, I’ll go with you. That way I won’t have to reveal the miserable conditions in which I live.”
Their quarrel went on for days, until Yuan managed to patch up an agreement by which he would pay one hundred silver dollars in return for a bill of sale giving Paria her freedom and severing relations with her uncle forever. Yuan took out the money he had made while acting for Wu Zhen, exchanged it for a hundred silver dollars, and gave them to the uncle, who signed the bill of sale and returned to Yancheng.
Paria threw herself wholeheartedly into her relationship with Yuan. She even brought out her own private savings and gave them to him so that he could supplement his income by lending them at interest. Choosing an auspicious day, he invited Jia Ming, Wei Bi, Phoenix, and Lucky to a banquet. They knew that Paria was now married2 to Yuan You and brought presents and spent the whole day at the Old Lane house, enjoying themselves thoroughly. Because Paria was now a married woman, Yuan You thought it wrong to continue to call her Mistress or Miss Paria, and since her childhood name was Sizi, he decided to call her Siniang.3 He also visited his parents and told them about the marriage. His father, Yuan Shou, was delighted at the news since Yuan You had no children by his wife, and he chose an auspicious day and sent a sedan chair for Paria. She paid her respects to him and his wife and gave them first-meeting presents. She also said to the maidservant, “Please ask the first lady to step out, so that I can pay my respects to her,” but Mistress Du excused herself on the grounds of illness. Yuan You’s parents invited Paria to extend her visit to a whole day, and it was not until after supper that she took a sedan chair back to her house.
From this point on Yuan You spent all of his time with Paria at Old Lane, treating his wife, Mistress Du, as a stranger. At festival time he would go home to see his parents and then come straight back. Paria now had someone she could depend on for the rest of her life. But let me leave her for a moment.
Any campaign initiated by a local yamen has the head of a lion and the tail of a snake. In the course of the ban on prostitution, each of the brothels laid out some money in bribes. Qiang Da’s opened its doors again, and Lucky was taken back. Wei Bi, who had not lost his feeling for her, regularly spent his nights there. Phoenix, with a subsidy from Jia Ming, was able to get by in the house on Ridge Street. After some time the prohibition on opium was also relaxed, and both counties withdrew their warrants. Phoenix stopped taking the antidote and openly smoked opium. She never went to sleep before the fourth watch, but then slept until noon. Jia Ming was with her constantly, and whenever she lit the lamp to smoke, he would lie down opposite her. She would roast the opium, put it in the pipe, and hand it to him, saying, “Here, try this, just for fun!”
“I’ve given it up,” he would reply. “I shouldn’t start again.” But he could not hold out forever against her daily agitation and mockery as she urged him to smoke. He tried it once or twice, and before long he was back to his old habit.
One day after lunch, Phoenix had just lit the lamp and was smoking beside him, when a woman in her early thirties came in. She was wearing a freshly starched but well-worn cotton gown and had with her a boy of twelve or thirteen. They came into the reception room, where Phoenix’s mother-in-law, Mistress Dai, was sitting at the table playing patience. The woman saw her as she came in and cried out: “Madam, it’s been such a long time since we met! Do you remember me?” She told the boy she had brought with her to call the lady “Ma’am.”
Mistress Dai thought hard. “Are you the sister?”
“You’re absolutely right!” said the woman with a smile.
Mistress Dai called out to Phoenix, “Daughter-in-Law! Your sister’s here.” Phoenix quickly got to her feet and came out from her room. One glance was enough to tell her that it was indeed her sister, who had married into the Lin family. Phoenix had been married as a child bride, and Mistress Dai had taken her to Qingjiang, which was why the two sisters had had no news of each other in over ten years. The two women clung to each other, sobbing. Phoenix invited her sister into her room and told Jia Ming about her. They greeted each other and sat down. Mistress Lin told the boy to call Phoenix auntie.
“How many children do you have?” asked Phoenix.
“Four, three boys and a girl. This is the youngest boy, who’s twelve.” They filled each other in on what had happened to them since they parted.
Jia Ming called to Zhang Er to prepare lunch, but Mistress Lin said, “We’ve already had lunch.” Jia Ming sent someone out to buy pastries to offer the visitors.
He then got to his feet and said to Mistress Lin, “You’ll have to excuse me, I’m afraid, but do stay and have dinner here.”
“Where are you going?” asked Phoenix.
“I have a little business to see to. I’ll be back once I’ve done it.”
“Come back as soon as you can. Don’t stop off anywhere else.” He promised he would not, then took his leave of Mistress Lin and went off.
“How did you know I was back in Yangzhou and living at this address?” asked Phoenix.
“For several years after you went to Qingjiang, I used to ask people we knew who came from there, and so I still got news of you, but for the last few years I’ve had no news at all. Forgive me for saying this, but I really thought we would never see each other again. Not a day has gone by that I didn’t miss you. The other day I happened to be amusing myself standing in my doorway, when Mistress Wang, who used to be our neighbor—nowadays she makes shoes for all the houses—well, she told me that you had come back to Yangzhou and were living here, and that’s how I found out. When my husband came home that evening, I told him, and he was delighted to hear you had returned and urged me to come and see you. So today I brought your nephew with me and asked the way here. But how have you been these last years? How is your husband? And have you been blessed with any children?”
Phoenix heaved a sigh. “What I’ve had to suffer would make a long story. I was six when my mother-in-law took me to Qingjiang to learn to sing and play music. I can’t tell you how many curses and beatings I had to endure. At twelve they forced me to take clients, and I suffered a great deal of misery and humiliation. They ran a house in Qingjiang with a dozen or so girls, and at first business was quite good. But my husband and his brother whored and gambled and smoked opium, and they also slept around among the girls in the house, causing no end of trouble and getting involved in several nasty lawsuits. Their debts amounted to over a thousand strings, and the wretched place closed down. This spring they slipped away to Yangzhou and sent me to Qiang Da’s on Ninth Lane. I took out a high-interest loan of ten thousand to buy some bedding, then worked there on a split-fee basis. I was luck
y enough to meet this man Jia who was here just now, and he took care of everything for me. Later there was a campaign in town against prostitution and opium, and again it was Master Jia who found me a house, furnished it, and asked my mother-in-law and me to move in. My husband was too pigheaded to come. He’s living alone in lodgings and every day, come rain or shine, he has to have his two hundred cash for opium, and that doesn’t cover his clothes, shoes, socks, and so on, either. Fortunately, no children have appeared on the scene. Just to keep this place going, we need food, fuel, and minor items. I also need my opium. Master Jia has some every day, too. We roast an ounce of opium and have to make it last four days. All in all, including my husband’s expenses, we need over a thousand cash a day just to get by. I’m often ill these days and can’t take any clients. If I hadn’t met this fellow Jia, I can’t imagine what sort of state I’d be in. But I haven’t seen you in years. How is your husband doing, by the way?”
“Don’t talk about us! He did take the examinations. He went down to Taizhou several times, but without any success. Later my father-in-law died, and the funeral expenses left us with a good many debts. Because my husband was in mourning, he wasn’t able to take the military exam. He’s neither good nor bad, he has no business or profession, and he’s steadily eating up our resources, frittering away all we have. We have the three boys and the girl, and we depend on my doing laundry and needlework for other people to make ends meet. The other day when I heard you were in Yangzhou, I was overjoyed and wished I could have flown straight over. First, because we haven’t seen each other in many years and I wanted to talk to you, but second, because I wanted to consult you about the loan of a few taels to serve as capital for my husband so that he can start up in some kind of business. By rights, since this is our first meeting, I oughtn’t to be saying these things, but I really have no choice.”
“Look, we’re sisters, and today we’ve been reunited. By rights, as your sister, I should be giving you money without your even asking for it. Unfortunately, I didn’t return to Yangzhou after making my fortune—I sneaked back here after suffering a loss. If I hadn’t met this fellow Jia in Yangzhou, I don’t know what sort of state I’d be in. Now, even though I depend on him alone, he’s not a rich man, and I have to scrape along. At present I have nothing over at all. Now, don’t take this the wrong way, but I’d guess from the look of you that you’re probably pinched for money.” She plucked a gold ruyi ornament from her hair and pressed it into her sister’s hand. “I’m not at all well off, but do take this and sell it. Put the money toward the capital your husband needs to start a business.”
“When he has a bit of money over, he’ll pay you back,” said her sister.
“There’s no need for that sort of talk between sisters. If only I could, I’d help you more. Why shouldn’t I? By the way, where has that devil Changshanzi got to these days?”
“Don’t talk about him! At one time he was working in Nanjing as a three-tail.4 Then three years ago he arrived in Yangzhou and stayed with us for ten days or more. The children all called him uncle, and when he left he gave them a hundred cash each. Since then I haven’t heard a thing about him.”
“Our parents had a hard life,” said Phoenix, “and we children were scattered all over the place. I spent a dozen years away from Yangzhou, but luckily I’m back now. I had hoped that the three of us could get together often. But we have no word of him; in fact we don’t even know if he’s still alive. If anything should happen to him, it would be the end of the family line. Since coming back to Yangzhou, I’d been unable to find out anything about either of you; I’m so happy to see you today. I’ve long meant to visit Father’s and Mother’s grave to pay my respects, but I keep forgetting. Now that you’ve found your way here, let’s wait until you’re free and then go there together.”
“I’ll come over early in the morning the day after tomorrow.” She turned to her son: “And now my lad, I’m taking you home.”
“Have dinner here before you go.”
“It’s not so easy walking the streets after dark. I’ll come back and visit you some other time.”
Phoenix gave the boy a hundred cash. “Your poor aunt! Here, take this and buy yourself some candy.”
“Thank you, Auntie!” said the boy. Mistress Lin took leave of Phoenix and her mother-in-law and left with her son.
When Jia Ming returned that evening, Phoenix told him that her sister had asked her for a loan and that she had given her the gold ruyi to sell. He nodded and said nothing. “The day after tomorrow in the morning,” she continued, “hire a rowboat for me and come with us to sacrifice at my parents’ grave. I shall also need you to get a carton and buy some ingots.”5
“I’ll hire the boat,” said Jia Ming, “but I have something I need to see to that day. Why don’t you go on your own?”
“Oh, how wrong I was to suggest it! Master Jia’s a great playboy, is Master Jia. How could he lower himself to sacrifice at my parents’ grave?” Faced with her anger, Jia Ming consented to go with her.
The next day he bought a brown paper carton and filled it with ingots. Early in the morning of the day after he sent someone to the Taiping dock to hire a rowboat and bring it to the back door of Phoenix’s house and wait there.6 Phoenix had risen at dawn, and soon after she finished her toilette, her sister and young nephew arrived and came to her room. Jia Ming and Phoenix greeted them and invited them to sit down, and Mistress Lin told her son to call Jia Ming uncle. Jia sent someone out to buy pastries, and after they had eaten, he and Phoenix each smoked a little opium, then packed the pipe and the lamp into a bag. Inviting Mistress Lin and her son to join them, and with Maid Gao carrying the bags and the carton, they opened the back door and stepped into the boat. Jia Ming gave the order to set off. They went through the sluice at Tianning Gate and under the drawbridge at North Gate as far as Rainbow Bridge, where they stepped ashore and followed the little boy to the grave, which was at the back of the Jiang Garden. It was a single mound in a deplorable state of disrepair, and both Phoenix and her sister broke into loud sobs at the sight. Jia Ming told Maid Gao to put the carton down and go with the boy to the grave keeper’s house and call him. The keeper, whose name was Pistol Tian, heard their shouts and hastened to gather touch paper and prayer cushions and then came to the grave with a shovel over his shoulder. After greeting everyone, he set down the prayer cushions and the touch paper and shoveled up enough earth to make a crown, which he heaped on top of the grave. Mistress Lin, Phoenix, and the boy all knelt down and kowtowed. Jia Ming also bowed, then told the boy to blow on the touch paper, which ignited the carton. The flames rose up, and in no time at all the carton and the ingots inside it had been consumed.
“How much would it cost to cover the grave properly?” Phoenix asked the grave keeper.
“A thousand.”
“I can’t offer you too little. Let’s say five hundred.” The keeper refused but accepted after Jia Ming added another hundred. He asked for Phoenix’s address and said that once the work was done he would call on her to collect the money. Jia Ming gave him another seventy or eighty cash, and he took the money, picked up the cushions, and went off with his shovel over his shoulder.
Jia Ming led the group to the east side of Rainbow Bridge and into the Dexingju restaurant, where he chose a large square table. It was just noon, and there were no other customers as yet. Jia Ming and Phoenix went to the room of the proprietress, Mistress Wang, where they lit the lamp, smoked some opium, and ordered the meal. When they had both satisfied their habit, they invited Mistress Lin and her son to join them for lunch. Afterward they went back to the proprietor’s room and smoked some more, telling Maid Gao to sit down and have her lunch. As soon as she had finished, Jia Ming told her to gather up the opium paraphernalia and asked Mistress Wang to make out the bill. Then with the others he went back and boarded the boat, and they visited Peach Blossom Temple, Little Gold Hill, and Fahai Temple. By the time they had had afternoon tea, it was getting dark, an
d they took the boat to the rear of Phoenix’s house, knocked on the back door, and went in. Jia Ming paid for the boat, including a tip for the boatman, who then rowed his empty boat away. Phoenix asked her sister and nephew to stay for dinner, after which the visitors said good-bye and went home.
Several days later, Pistol Tian made his way to Phoenix’s house and reported that the grave had been properly covered. She gave him the six hundred cash. He asked for and received a few dozen more as a tip, and then took himself off.
That evening Phoenix and Jia Ming were smoking opium in their room when they overheard Phoenix’s mother-in-law, Mistress Dai, muttering to herself in the reception room, “My old fellow’s grave is on Mount Wutai. For many years after we left Yangzhou, we never sacrificed there. Now this year we’re back in Yangzhou, and I’ve said more than once how I’d like to wrap up some things and take a few hundred cash with me to the grave, but no one around here does anything I want. How was I to know there’d be money available today to visit her parents’ grave and even put a cover on it? Parents are important, too, but anything I say goes in one ear and out the other.”
She went on grumbling like this until Phoenix could stand it no longer and called out from the other room, “Look, you have two grown-up sons. Why don’t you talk to them instead of grumbling at me? I sold the body my parents gave me to support your whole family, and even if I did have their grave covered, that’s no crime. Moreover, I don’t have many clients nowadays. If it wasn’t for Master Jia running over here all the time—well, everything depends on him. When he comes here to enjoy himself, you can hardly expect him to concern himself with your family’s living expenses, let alone with these matters! At your age, to come out with such nonsense!”