The Golden Days

by Cao Xueqin

  As Snowgoose and the other maids had now finished supper too and were once more in attendance, Dai-yu asked Bao-yu if he was ready to go. He looked at her blearily through tired eyes.

  ‘If you want to go, I will go with you.’

  Dai-yu rose to her feet. ‘We really ought to go. We’ve been here practically all day!’

  The two of them began saying their good-byes.

  A maid came forward with Bao-yu’s rain-hat and he lowered his head slightly for her to put it on. Holding the brim of the great saucer-shaped red felt top, she jerked it up and prepared to bring it down, aiming the inside part at his crown.

  ‘Stop!’ he cried impatiently.’ You have got to go easy with a great clumsy thing like that! Haven’t you ever seen anyone putting one of these things on before? You had better let me do it myself.’

  ‘Come here!’ said Dai-yu standing on the edge of the kang. ‘I’ll put it on for you!’

  Bao-yu went and stood in front of her. Putting her two hands round the inner cap, Dai-yu eased it gently down until its rim fitted over his golden headband, so that the walnut-sized red woollen pompom of the headband was left quivering outside the cap on its flexible golden stem.

  ‘There!’ she said, after a few further adjustments.’ Now you can put on your cape.’

  Bao-yu took the cape from his maid and fastened it himself.

  ‘The nurses who came with you are still not back,’ said Aunt Xue. ‘Perhaps you had better wait a bit.’

  ‘We wait for them?’ said Bao-yu. ‘We have got the maids. We shall be all right.’

  But Aunt Xue was not satisfied, and ordered two of her own women to see the cousins home.

  As soon as they were back they thanked the women for their trouble and went straight in to see Grandmother Jia, who had not yet had her supper. She was delighted to learn that they had been with Aunt Xue, and observing that Bao-yu, had had more than a little to drink, she told him to go and rest in his room and not come out again, and instructed the servants to keep a careful watch over him. Remembering which servants usually attended him, she asked what had become of Nannie Li. The maids dared not tell her the truth, which was that she had gone home.

  ‘I think she must have had something to do,’ said one of them. ‘She came in when we did just now, but went out again almost immediately.’

  ‘Why worry about her?’ said Bao-yu over his shoulder, swaying slightly as he made his way to the bedroom. ‘She’s better looked after than you are! If it weren’t for her I might live a few days longer!’

  Inside his room he found a writing-brush and ink laid out on the desk. Skybright was the first to greet him.

  ‘You’re a nice one!’ she said. ‘You made me mix all this ink for you this morning, sat down in a state of great enthusiasm, wrote just three characters, threw down the brush again, rushed out, and left me waiting here all day for you to come back and finish. Now you just sit down here and use this ink up, and perhaps I’ll let the matter pass!’

  Skybright’s words awoke in Bao-yu a recollection of the morning’s events.

  ‘What became of the three characters I wrote?’

  Skybright laughed. ‘You’re really drunk, aren’t you! This morning before you went to the other house you gave careful instructions that they were to be pasted up over the outside door. I was afraid that someone else might make a mess of it, so I got up on a ladder and spent half the morning sticking them up myself. My hands are still numb from doing it.’

  ‘I’d forgotten.’ Bao-yu smiled. ‘If your hands are cold, I’ll warm them for you.’ He took both her hands in his own and led her outside to inspect the sheet of calligraphy newly pasted up over the doorway. Just then Dai-yu arrived.

  ‘I want you to tell me honestly, cousin,’ said Bao-yu. ‘Which of these three characters do you think is the best?’

  Dai-yu looked up at the three characters above the door:

  RED RUE STUDY

  ‘They are all equally good. I didn’t know you could write so beautifully. You must do one for me some time!’

  ‘You’re just saying that to humour me,’ said Bao-yu. ‘Where is Aroma?’ he asked Skybright.

  Skybright shot out her lips and indicated the kang inside, on which Aroma, fully clothed, was lying fast asleep.

  ‘Just look at that!’ said Bao-yu with a laugh. ‘It’s a bit early for sleep, isn’t it?’

  He turned once more to Skybright. ‘When I was having lunch at the other house today there was a plate of bean-curd dumplings. I remembered how fond you are of those things and asked Mrs Zhen if I could have some to eat in the evening. She had them sent over for me. Did you get them all right ?’

  ‘Don’t talk to me about those dumplings!’ said Skybright. ‘As soon as they arrived I realized that they must be for me, but as I’d only just finished eating, I put them on one side meaning to eat them later. Then after a while Nannie Li came in and caught sight of them. “I don’t expect Bao-yu will want these,” she said. “I think I’ll take them for my grand-children”; and she had them sent round to her house.’

  While Skybright was talking, Snowpink came in carrying some tea on a tray. Bao-yu invited Dai-yu to have some, to the great merriment of the maids, who pointed out that she had slipped away some minutes before.

  After drinking about half a cupful, Bao-yu suddenly thought of the tea he had drunk early that morning.

  ‘When you made that Fung Loo this morning,’ he said to Snowpink, ‘I remember telling you that with that particular brand the full flavour doesn’t come out until after three or four waterings. Why have you given me this other stuff? This would have been just the time to have the Fung Loo.’

  ‘I was keeping it for you,’ said Snowpink, ‘but Nannie Li came and drank it all.’

  With a flick of the wrist Bao-yu hurled the cup he was holding on to the floor, where it smashed noisily, breaking into innumerable pieces and showering Snowpink’s skirt with hot tea. He jumped angrily to his feet.

  ‘Is she your mistress that you should all treat her with such reverence? Merely because I drank her milk for a few days when I was a baby she is as spoiled and pampered as though she were some sort of divinity. Let’s get rid of the old woman now and have done with it!’

  And he strode off without more ado to tell Grandmother Jia that he wanted his old nurse dismissed.

  All this time Aroma had been only pretending to sleep, hoping by this means to engage Bao-yu’s attention and provoke some coquetry between them. As long as the talk dwelt on calligraphy and Skybright’s dumplings there seemed no pressing need for her to get up; but when she heard him break a teacup and grow really angry she hurriedly rose to her feet and intervened to restrain him.

  By this time someone had arrived from Grandmother Jia’s room to inquire what all the noise was about. Aroma pretended that she had smashed the cup herself by slipping on some snow while fetching tea. Having disposed of the inquirer, she then proceeded to exhort Bao-yu.

  ‘Dismiss her by all means, if you really want to I But we should all like to leave with her; so while you are about it, why not make a clean sweep and dismiss the lot of us ? I am sure you will find plenty of other good servants to replace us with.’

  Bao-yu had nothing to say to this, and Aroma and the rest helped him onto the kang and started undressing him. He kept trying to tell them something as they did so, but an object seemed to impede his tongue and his eyelids were growing increasingly hot and heavy. Soon the maids had him lying down between covers. Aroma took off the ‘Magic Jade’, wrapped it in a piece of silk, and slipped it under the quilt, so that it should not be cold on his neck the next morning. By this time Bao-yu was already asleep, having dropped off as soon as his head touched the pillow.

  While this was going on, Nannie Li and the other old women had arrived back at last. Learning that Bao-yu was drunk, they dared not approach him and soon went off again, having satisfied themselves by whispered exchanges that he was safely asleep.

  Bao-yu awoke
next morning to hear someone announcing that ‘Master Rong from the other house’ had brought Qin Zhong over to pay his respects. Bao-yu hurried out to te-ceive them and conducted Qin Zhong into the presence of Grandmother Jia. Observing that Qin Zhong’s good looks and gentle demeanour admirably qualified him to become Bao-yu’s study-companion, Grandmother Jia was pleased, and made him stay for tea and then dinner, after which she sent him to be introduced to Lady Wang and the rest. Everybody loved Qin-shi and was delighted to meet this charming younger brother, and there were First Meeting presents from everybody waiting for him when he left. Grandmother Jia’s was an embroidered purse enclosing a little God of Literature in solid gold to signify that literary success was ‘in the bag’.

  ‘Since your home is so far away,’ she said to Qin Zhong as he was leaving, ‘the weather may sometimes make it inconvenient for you to go back at night. In that case, do please stay here with us! And mind that you always keep with your Uncle Bao and don’t go getting into mischief with those young ragamuffins at the school !’

  Qin Zhong received these admonitions with deference and then went home to report on the day’s events to his father.

  Qin Zhong’s father, Qin Bang-ye, was one of the Secretaries in the Public Buildings Department of the Board of Works and a man in his middle sixties. He had lost his wife early, and finding himself still childless at the age of fifty, had adopted a boy and a girl from an orphanage. The boy had died, leaving only the girl Ke-er, or ‘Ke-qing’ as she was more elegantly renamed, who had grown up into an extremely charming and vivacious young woman and been married into the Jia family, with whom her adoptive father had long had a connection.

  Qin Bang-ye fathered Qin Zhong when he was fifty-three and the boy was now twelve years old. His tutor had returned south the year before, and he had been revising old lessons at home ever since. Qin Bang-ye had himself been on the point of speaking to his daughter’s in-laws about the possibility of getting Qin Zhong admitted into the Jia clan school as an external scholar when the happy accident of Qin Zhong’s meeting with Bao-yu occurred. Bang-ye knew of Jia Dai-ru, the master in charge of the school, as one of the leading elder scholars of the day, under whose tutelage there would be every hope of Qin Zhong’s making rapid strides in his education and eventually obtaining an advancement. He was therefore delighted that the matter had been so easily concluded.

  There was only one difficulty. Knowing the sort of style in which the Jias lived, Bang-ye realized that he would have to dip deeply into his pocket, and his official salary left that pocket only meagrely supplied. However, since this was a matter which concerned the whole future of his son, there was nothing for it but to strain his credit to the utmost. By borrowing a bit here and a bit there he was able to get together a sum of twenty-four taels of silver which he made up into a packet and laid reverently before Jia Dai-ru when he took Qin Zhong to the old teacher’s house to make his kotow. Nothing now remained but for Bao-yu to choose an auspicious day on which the two of them could begin school together.

  Their entry into the school was the occasion of a tumultuous incident of which an account will be given in the following chapter.

  Chapter 9

  A son is admonished and Li Gui receives

  an alarming warning

  A pupil is abused and Tealeaf throws the

  classroom in an uproar

  In the last chapter we left Qin Bang-ye and his son waiting for a message from the Jia household to tell them when Qin Zhong was to begin school. Bao-yu was impatient to see Qin Zhong again and sent word to say that it was to be the day after next.

  When the appointed day arrived, Bao-yu rose in the morning to find that Aroma had already got his books, brushes and other writing materials ready for him and was sitting disconsolately on the side of his bed. Seeing him get up, she roused herself and helped him to do his hair and wash. He asked her the cause of her despondency.

  ‘What’s upset you this time, Aroma? I can’t believe you are worried about being left alone while I am at school.’

  ‘Of course not!’ said Aroma with a laugh. ‘Learning is a very good thing. Without it you would fritter all your life away and never get anywhere. I only hope that you’ll see to it that you are learning when you are meant to be and that, when you are not, you will be thinking about home and not getting into scrapes with the other boys; because then you would be in real trouble with your father. And though you talk a lot about the need for effort and self-improvement, it would really be better to do too little work than too much. For one thing you don’t want to bite off more than you can chew; and for another you don’t want your health to suffer. At least, that’s how it seems to me, so you mustn’t mind my saying so.’

  Each time Aroma paused, Bao-yu answered ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. She continued:

  ‘I have packed your big fur gown for the pages to take. Mind you put it on if you find it cold at the school. It won’t be like here, where there is always someone else to think of these things for you. I’ve also given them your foot-warmer and your hand-warmer. You’ll have to see that they give the charcoal a stir from time to time. They’re such a lazy pack of good-for-nothings, they’ll be only too pleased to do nothing if you don’t stand over them. You could freeze to death for all they cared.’

  ‘Don’t worry!’ said Bao-yu. ‘I know how to do it myself. And don’t go getting gloomy, all of you, cooped up here while I am away. Try to spend as much time as you can with my Cousin Lin.’

  His dressing was now completed and Aroma urged him to begin his visits to Grandmother Jia, Jia Zheng and Lady Wang. After a few parting instructions to Skybright and Musk, he went off to his grandmother’s, where he had to listen to more admonitions, then on to Lady Wang’s, and then outside to the study to see his father, Jia Zheng.

  Jia Zheng was in conversation with his literary gentlemen when Bao-yu entered the room and made his salutation. Hearing him announce that he was off to school to resume his studies, Jia Zheng smiled sarcastically.

  ‘I think you had better not use that word “studies” again in my hearing, unless you want to make me blush for you. In my opinion you might just as well be left to fool around as before, since that is all you seem fit for. At all events, I don’t want you here. I find your presence in a place like this contaminating.’

  The literary gentlemen rose to their feet with nervous laughter.

  ‘Come, come, Sir Zheng! You are too hard on him! Two or three years from now our young friend will be carrying all before him! He has left his old, childish ways behind him now – haven’t you boy ? Quite reformed. Come!’ – two of the older men took Bao-yu by the hands and hurried him from the room – ‘I am sure it must be time now for your breakfast. To breakfast! To breakfast!’

  Jia Zheng asked who was in attendance on Bao-yu. There was a ringing ‘Sir!’ from outside, and three or four strapping fellows entered the study and saluted Manchu fashion. Jia Zheng recognized the foremost one as Li Gui, the son of Bao-yu’s old wet-nurse, Nannie Li, and addressed himself to him.

  ‘You have attended Bao-yu during all his lessons in the past. What precisely has he been doing? Stuffing his head with worthless nonsense and acquiring a fine new stock of knavish tricks, I shouldn’t wonder! Wait until I have a little time to spare: I’ll have your hide off first and then settle accounts with that good-for-nothing son of mine!’

  ‘Sir!’

  Li Gui sank terrified to his knees, snatched off his cap, and knocked the ground several times with his forehead.

  ‘Master Bao has read the first three books of the Poetry Classic, sir, up to the part that goes

  Hear the happy bleeding deer

  Grousing in the vagrant meads…

  That’s the truth, sir. I wouldn’t tell a lie.’

  This novel version of the well-known lines provoked a roar of laughter from the literary gentlemen. Even Jia Zheng could not restrain a smile.

  ‘If he read thirty books of the Poetry Classic’ said Jia Zheng, ‘it would
still be tomfoolery. No doubt he hopes to deceive others with this sort of thing, but he does not deceive me. Give my compliments to the Headmaster and tell him from me that I want none of this trifling with the Poetry Classic or any other ancient literature. It is of the utmost importance that he should thoroughly understand and learn by heart the whole Four Books before he attempts anything else.’

  ‘Sir!’

  Seeing that Jia Zheng had nothing more to say, Li Gui and the other servants rose to their feet again and withdrew.

  All this time Bao-yu had been waiting for them in the courtyard outside, scarcely daring to breathe. As they came out, dusting their knees, Li Gui said,

  ‘Did you hear that, young master? “Have my hide off first” he said. Some people’s servants are respected for their masters’ sakes, but not us. All we get is beatings and hard words. So spare a thought for us in future, will you?’

  ‘Don’t be upset, old chap!’ said Bao-yu. ‘Tomorrow I’ll treat you all.’

  ‘Little ancestor,’ Li Gui replied, ‘nobody’s looking for treats. All we ask is that once in a while – just once in a while -you should do what you are told.’

  They were now back at Grandmother Jia’s apartment. Qin Zhong had already arrived and was engaged in conversation with the old lady. As soon as the two friends had greeted each other they took their leave.

  Bao-yu suddenly remembered that he had not yet seen Dai-yu and hurried to her room to say good-bye. He found her by the window making herself up at the mirror. Her answer to his announcement that he was off to begin school was smiling but perfunctory:

  ‘Good. I wish you every success. I’m sorry I can’t see you off.’

  ‘Wait till I get back and have had my supper, cousin,’ said Bao-yu, ‘and I will give you a hand with that rouge.’