by AnonYMous
She returned at the third watch and, after paying the fare, remarked to Jia Ming, “That Master Lu’s father really was a grand secretary, and he himself is the assistant director of a ministry. He has several concubines, who have given him several sons. His eldest son’s mother was a concubine. The son succeeded in the examinations and has been appointed to the Hanlin Academy. After he passed the licentiate exam, his mother was sent away for some reason by Master Lu and married off to a tailor. Now Master Lu has come down from Beijing to visit Qingjiang, Yangzhou, Suzhou, and Hangzhou. He’s looking up his father’s protégés and friends in order to raise money for himself.2 He’s very fond of wine, but he won’t touch opium. We had a long talk, he and I, and he asked me to sing a suite from an opera as well as two popular songs, and also to have a drink with him. He gave me the five taels for the assignment, as well as this little ingot of silver.” She took out the ingot and put it into Jia Ming’s hand. It weighed over ten ounces.
“And to think that you weren’t even willing to go! Now we can buy a whole parcel of opium. That’s a load off my mind.”
“I’m going to keep it to buy clothes with. If I spent it on opium, it would be for your benefit.” She lay down and began to smoke, then suddenly gave a laugh for no apparent reason. “There’s something funny that I want to tell you. He adores my feet—thinks they’re so small—and wants to marry me.”
“Great!” said Jia Ming. He assumed she was joking and paid no attention to the remark. After smoking for a while, they got ready for bed.
The next day Ge Ren came back to fetch her for another assignment. Phoenix told Maid Gao to give him four hundred cash as a gratuity, and he went off. Once more Phoenix dressed and got herself ready and, after telling Jia Ming to wait up for her, stepped into the sedan chair. This time she did not return until the fourth watch. She smoked for a little while and then settled down to sleep. She and Jia Ming were lying in her bed when she said to him, “Master Lu really does want me to go with him, and he’s prepared to pay whatever it takes to buy me out. I’d like your advice. Should I go or not?”
Jia Ming was silent as he pondered the question. “Suppose I talked you out of it,” he said at last, “you don’t have many clients in Yangzhou these days. In fact, I’m the only one who comes here all the time. But I’m more than ten years older than you, I have a wife and children, and I can’t ask you to marry me. I’m not a rich man, either—this is all just a facade to make me look good. If I persuaded you to stay and you did well here, there’d be no problem, but if you did poorly and ended up worse off than you are now, you’d be sure to blame me and say, ‘I had this marvelous opportunity, but that fellow Jia stood in my way and wouldn’t let me go, and that’s what brought me to this wretched state.’ On the other hand, let’s suppose I encouraged you to go with him. Well, in the first place the man comes from Shandong and serves in the capital, where living conditions are nowhere near as good as they are here in the south. You’ve lived on the West Embankment in Qingjiang,3 so I imagine you know the situation. Moreover, you’re an opium smoker and he’s not. He’s had a sudden impulse to take you back with him, but there’s no knowing whether he’ll let you go on smoking. And there’s one other thing. You told me yesterday that he married off a concubine of his to a tailor after the woman had borne him a son who later got appointed to the academy. That shows you the sort of man he is! Look, I’m greatly obliged to you for bringing this problem to me, but I really can’t settle it for you. You’ll just have to work it out for yourself. If you can’t, you can always go off to a temple, burn some incense, get a fortune slip, and ask the bodhisattva what’s best for you.”
Phoenix said nothing in reply but slept peacefully through the night.
No sooner had Jia Ming left the next morning than Phoenix sent Zhang Er to call her husband to the house. “There’s someone who wants to marry me,” she told him and her mother-in-law. “Work out how much money you would need to let me go.”
Her husband and his mother put their heads together and said they would need four hundred thousand cash. “I joined your household when I was six years old,” retorted Phoenix, “and in the dozen or more years since then, I don’t know how much money I’ve made for you! Now, this is all I’m going to say: I’ll ask him for three hundred thousand for both of you. With that money, you can buy a couple of other girls who’ll enable you to get by.”
Her husband shook his head. “It’s not enough!”
“Oh, don’t be so stupid! I’m not too far away from thirty, and I’m often ill. How many more years do I have left in the business? You’ll have three hundred thousand, and on top of that I’ll leave behind all this furniture, as well as clothes. Altogether, that’s worth another two hundred thousand. Isn’t that enough for you to live on? If you still refuse, I won’t try to force you, but from now on I won’t let that fellow Jia in the door, and I won’t take on any other clients, either. I’ll stop living off this business. I’m quite prepared to shut my door and go and beg from you! Just think for a moment which would be better for you.” Her husband realized that she was determined to go, and after consulting his mother he accepted the offer.
Phoenix also told Zhang Er to invite her sister over. “I’m going to get married and leave for the capital,” she told her. “Well, that’s that. We’ve been together as sisters for a while. I’m giving you forty thousand cash so that you and your husband will have something to remember me by.” Although Mistress Lin couldn’t bear to lose her sister, she loved the thought of the money she had been offered. She said she couldn’t bear to part with Phoenix, but in her heart she felt that her dearest wish had been realized.
Phoenix said to her brother, “If you’ll come with me to the capital, I’ll arrange a good job for you so that you can come back here.” He was delighted to hear her promise of a job and readily agreed.
Having explained her decision to everyone, Phoenix had her lunch, satisfied her opium habit, and called a sedan chair to take her to the guesthouse, where she reached an agreement with Master Lu. That evening she waited for Jia Ming to arrive. They had dinner, then lit the lamp and smoked. “About that matter I mentioned last night,” she began, “I’ve made arrangements today with this fellow Lu. We’ll conclude the agreement tomorrow, and on the fourth of the sixth month we’ll set off. I’d be much obliged if you’d take the silver to the money shop tomorrow and divide it up in the right amounts for my husband and sister. I wouldn’t trust anyone else to do it. Well, that’s that. You and I have been lovers for quite some time, and you can’t refuse me.”
Although Jia Ming acquiesced, he felt as if he had just choked on a lump of ice. I never imagined she would be so cruel, he thought. When I first met her, she was wearing bronze earrings! How I helped that woman! And when opium was banned and the brothels closed and she had nowhere to go, think how pitifully she pleaded with me! I found her a house and furnished it for her, taking care of everything down to the last detail! But now that she has a home of her own and doesn’t need to worry about the daily necessities, she’s constantly going on about marriage. My trouble is that just now I can’t come up with the full sum for her husband that would allow me to take her home. I blame myself for encouraging her to go on that assignment the other night. She’s only just met this Lu, and already she has designs on his money, completely forgetting the two or three years we’ve spent together and all the vows she’s taken. How close we’ve been to each other—inseparable! And now she wants to go and marry him! I never imagined when I wrote those lines “If you truly do not wish to leave me / Let’s live out our next lives in wedded bliss” that they would turn out to be so prophetic. But now I understand: as a general rule, all courtesans are liars, no matter how sweet their words. But if I utter the slightest criticism of her and the news gets around, people are bound to say that I’m sore because she’s marrying someone else after I’ve spent a little money on her. Oh well, he thought bitterly, I must have owed her a debt from a previous existence, and w
ith this affair the debt is paid in full. Had this Lu not come, we would never have parted, not even for a little while. I expect that my karmic involvement with her is now wiped clean. Let her go!
The following day one of Lu’s servants brought the silver to Phoenix, who put it away in her room. “Call in a scribe to draw up a bill of sale,” she said to her husband. “I’ll have the silver changed into cash for you.” As he went off, she gave the silver to Jia Ming, whispering something in his ear. He nodded and took the silver to the money shop and asked the clerk to convert it into two sums, one of three hundred thousand and the other of forty thousand. He brought both sums back and laid them on the table, handing Phoenix the silver that was over.
Phoenix’s husband found a scribe on the street and invited him into the house, where he took brush and ink and drew up a bill of sale, which he read out to Phoenix. She told her husband to sign it first. He picked up the brush and looked at her with tears streaming down his cheeks, but she pretended not to notice, which made him angry. Hardening his heart, he made a cross and attached his thumbprint, then burst out sobbing. Mistress Dai and her eldest son, Lan Da, also signed, as well as Phoenix’s brother and sister. Phoenix gave the document to Lu’s servant to take away with him, while her husband and sister gathered up their money.
Jia Ming saw that the matter was now settled. Since she’s so heartless, he thought, why should I be reluctant to part with her? Far better to harden my heart and let her go! He ordered a meal in a restaurant and had it delivered to Phoenix’s house as a farewell dinner that evening. Although they sat drinking at the same table, the situation was very different from what it had been. Jia Ming was sunk in gloom, while Phoenix radiated happiness. After they had drunk a few cups of wine, Jia Ming said, “Very well, then. You and I have been lovers for several years, and now you’re leaving me to enjoy a life of wealth and privilege. I don’t suppose we shall meet again in this life. If you’d do me the honor, I’d like to ask you for a song.”
Phoenix called to Maid Gao to bring her lute. She also told her to bring from the chest a pair of slippers of white imported-crepe silk embroidered with blue in the Gu style, slippers she had never worn, and placed them in front of Jia Ming. She then began strumming the lute and, after modulating her voice, sang a “Leaving the Capital Air”:
These tiny silken slippers, never worn,
I hereby give to my lover,
To my lover,
That he may long remember me.
I have no choice
But to steel my heart and marry another.
If you should miss me,
Just look upon these silken flowers.
If you should wish to meet me,
It will have to be in a midnight dream.
If you should wish to be reunited,
In this life it cannot be—
You’ll have to wait till the next.
When she had finished the song, she pressed the slippers into Jia Ming’s hand. “Keep these as a memento.”
Jia Ming put them away. “Play me a ‘Lucky Grass’ tune,” he said. She assented and played the lute while he sang:
You want to leave, and I cannot stop you.
The more I think, the more betrayed I feel.
When first we loved,
You said we’d spend our lives together.
But who’d have thought you’d take your lute so far away?
My best endeavors are water through a sieve,
Employed in vain.
They were all for you, my dear,
But by you I am betrayed.
They were all for you, my dear,
But by you I am betrayed.
When he had finished his song, Phoenix handed the lute back to Maid Gao and poured a large cup of wine, which she offered to Jia Ming. “Since I came to know you,” she said, “I’ve received countless favors from you, favors that are engraved on my heart. How could I bear to part from you? I’m running away now because I want to use Lu’s money to break off all connections with my in-laws. Within six months, or at the most in a year, I’ll definitely come back to Yangzhou, and you and I can be together again.”
Jia Ming took the cup and drained it in a single draft, then poured out another large cup and handed it to her. “My only hope is that you and he will have a long and happy marriage and that you’ll never think of me. I hope you will forgive me if in any way I’ve failed to treat you properly these last few years. Take good care of yourself on the journey. There’s just one thing that worries me. After you’ve crossed the Yellow River and are traveling by road, you’ll be setting off every day at the fourth watch, and by that hour you won’t have satisfied your habit. How are you going to cope?” At these words, Phoenix for the first time shed a few tears. She finished the wine in her cup and brought their dinner to a close.
The next day she took out some money and asked Jia Ming to buy her a number of odds and ends as well as a packet of opium, which she roasted ready for the journey. Jia, whose feeling for her continued as strong as ever, bought her a rosary with one hundred and eight beads of balsam from the Genuine Daichunlin Perfumery. As Phoenix received it, she undid a white jade pendant from her belt and gave it to him. Each of them kept the gifts as mementos. On the evening of the third Jia Ming and Phoenix lay on her bed and smoked opium all night. Jia Ming heaved sigh after sigh, but she said nothing.
At dawn on the fourth Lu’s men arrived with a sedan chair. Phoenix hastily combed her hair, put on her makeup, and changed into new clothes. To Mistress Dai, she said, “Well, ma’am, I’m off.” Her husband, brother-in-law, sister, Orchid, and Jia Ming were all there, but she did not so much as glance at any of them, just said these few words to Mistress Dai and walked out with a jaunty air. On seeing her leave, Mistress Dai, Mistress Lin, and Orchid burst out sobbing.
Jia Ming turned to Mistress Dai and snapped, “She doesn’t cry, so why should you? Think of her as if she had just dropped dead of some disease.” Phoenix was still within earshot, but she pretended not to have heard and, accompanied by her brother, went out the front gate and stepped into the sedan chair. Jia Ming waited until she had gone and then, seething with resentment, left the house and returned home.
Meanwhile, Wei Bi had heard of Phoenix’s marriage and gone over to Qiang Da’s to tell Lucky. “Oh, dear! That was very wrong of her,” she said. “Master Jia always treated her so well in every possible way! She was in a wretched state when she arrived in Yangzhou, and if he hadn’t come to her aid, I can’t imagine how that family would have fared. Look at her now; she has all the necessities of life and can get by well enough. I’m surprised she was so heartless as to ignore all the love he had shown her and throw him over in order to marry someone else. If I had a client as good as that, someone who could find me a home and see to all my needs, why, with those advantages I’d never go with anyone else, no matter how much money he threw around. Well, that’s the way it is. She turned her back on all the love and kindness that he showed her. My only fear is that now Phoenix has gone, he’ll be in a terrible state.”
“Just what I was thinking. Tomorrow I’ll arrange to invite him over for a banquet to take his mind off it.”
“You’ve come just at the right time. There’s something I want to talk to you about.”
“What is it? Please tell me.”
“I was thinking of the time when all four of us, Cassia, Paria, Phoenix, and I, were here together. We were closer than sisters and had great fun. But Cassia was forced to go home because Master Wu got into trouble and she had debts that she couldn’t pay. Paria has married Master Yuan and has someone she can depend on for the rest of her life. And now Phoenix has married and gone off to live in the capital. I’m the only one left in the brothel, and there’s no future there. As it happens, my father was here the other day to collect his payment, and I asked him to let me have a life of my own. At first he refused, but I kept on at him day after day, and now we’ve come to an agreement: If I pay him two hundred silver dollars, h
e’ll give me a signed statement granting me my freedom. I’ve saved up a little money over the last few years, but not as much as that. I would like to consult you about helping me out with a hundred silver dollars. If you can take me into your compound, I’ll gladly serve your lady as a maidservant. If you don’t feel able to do that, then find me some small place to live. The good thing is that I’ve cut my opium habit by more than half, to just a pellet or two, and I need only a few dozen cash a day for expenses. If you can pull me out of the fiery pit, I’ll guarantee you a fine son who’ll succeed in one examination after another.”
Wei Bi was touched by her request, which he also found eminently reasonable—she was asking for only a hundred dollars, after all—and he readily consented. He had supper with her and stayed there that night. In bed with him, she said many sweet and loving things and repeated her request again and again. The next morning Wei Bi rose, had a breakfast of roasted lotus seeds, and then went back to the family compound and got a hundred silver dollars, which he brought to Qiang Da’s and gave to Lucky.
“There’s something else I need to explain to you,” said Lucky.
“What’s that?”
“When I spoke to my father, I never mentioned your name. I just said I’d borrow the money from somebody. If he knew that you were helping me with the money, he’d suspect that you wanted to marry me. Moreover, you’re the son of an official in the Salt Administration, and no matter how much money you offered, he would always hold out for more from such a prize as that. These two hundred dollars would never be enough to persuade him. So don’t come here the next two days. Think over whether you’ll take me into your compound or find some place for me outside. Let me settle matters with my father and send him off home, then come back on the third day and I’ll go with you. You and I are the only ones who know about this. Don’t talk to anyone else in case the news leaks out. If Qiang Da and the others hear of it, they’ll pester you for assignment fees, a wedding feast, and so on and so forth. You oughtn’t to throw your money away on such things.” Wei Bi was even happier to hear this reasoning of hers and nodded his head in agreement.