The Golden Days

by Cao Xueqin

  ‘If you do, how is it that I’ve never seen you before?’

  She replied with some bitterness:

  ‘There are quite a few of us you’ve never seen. I’m not the only one, by any means. How could you have seen me ? I’ve never been allowed to wait on you or show myself in your presence.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘I don’t think it’s for me to say. – Oh, there’s something I do have to tell you, though. Yesterday a gentleman calling himself “Yun” came to see you. I thought you probably wouldn’t be able to see him at the time, so I told Tealeaf to ask him round this morning. Unfortunately by the time he came, you’d already gone off to see the Prince-’

  Their conversation was interrupted by the giggles of Ripple and Emerald who had just entered the courtyard with a large bucket of water. Each of them held the bucket by one hand and lifted her skirts up with the other. They were staggering under the unaccustomed weight and slopping a good deal of the water about as they went. The maid hurried out to relieve them. By now the giggles had given way to recriminations:

  ‘Look, you’ve soaked my dress!’

  ‘You trod on my toe !’

  They stopped to look at this person who had just issued from the young Master’s room and saw with some surprise that it was Crimson. Putting down the water, they hurried indoors to look. Bao-yu was there on his own. The girls were indignant. As soon as they had prepared the bath and seen him undressed, they shut the door after them and hurried to the other side of the building to find Crimson.

  ‘What were you doing in his room just now?’ they asked her accusingly.

  ‘I wasn’t doing anything,’ said Crimson. ‘I couldn’t find my handkerchief, so I went to look for it round the back. He was calling for some tea and none of you happened to be about, so I ran in and poured it out for him. And just at that moment you came back.’

  Ripple spat in her face:

  ‘Nasty, shameless little slut! When we asked you to fetch the water for us you said you were busy and made us go ourselves. You didn’t waste much time, having got him to yourself, did you ? You think you’re on the way up, don’t you ? Step by step. Well, we can catch up with you, my fine lady! Why don’t you take a look at yourself in the mirror and then ask yourself if you’re a fit person to go serving tea to the Masters?’

  ‘We’d better warn the others that when he asks for tea or anything in future they must stay where they are and let her go and get it!’

  ‘In that case,’ said Ripple, ‘the rest of us may as well clear off and let her have him all to herself!’

  They were still at their antiphonal taunting when an old woman arrived with a message from Xi-feng:

  ‘Someone is bringing some workmen in tomorrow to plant trees, so you have all got to be extra careful. No hanging clothes out to dry all over the place! There will be screens put up along the line of the embankment and you are not to go running around outside.’

  ‘Who’s the person in charge of the workmen?’ asked Ripple.

  ‘A young chap called “Yun” from up the Lane,’ said the old woman.

  The name meant nothing to Ripple and Emerald, who went on to ask about other matters; but Crimson knew it must be the young man she had met the day before in the outer study.

  Crimson’s surname was ‘Lin’. Her family had been retainers in the Jia family for generations. Nowadays her father worked as a farm-bailiff on the family’s estates. She was sixteen. Along with many other servants, she had originally entered the Prospect Garden to carry out caretaking duties in the period when it was still unoccupied. The part of it she was assigned to was the House of Green Delights. She found it a very beautiful place to live in – very quiet and secluded. But this had changed when Bao-yu and the girls were commanded to move in and Bao-yu had chosen the House of Green Delights as his own residence.

  Although Crimson was a very inexperienced maid, she had a measure of good looks and a determination to better herself. She was therefore constantly on the look-out for an opportunity of making herself known to Bao-yu and showing off her ability to serve him. Unfortunately the little group of body-servants who had accompanied him into the garden guarded their privileges with tooth and claw and were careful to allow no toehold to an ambitious outsider. Today she had at last found an opening, only to have her hopes immediately dashed by Ripple’s malice. She felt very discouraged.

  Still smarting with resentment, she heard the old woman say that Jia Yun was coming next day into the garden. The name provoked a momentary flutter in her breast; but she returned to her room with the same feeling of resentment bottled up inside her and went to bed to ponder moodily on the events of the day. As the thoughts pursued themselves round and round in her mind without object or conclusion, she suddenly heard her name being called very softly outside her window:

  ‘Crimson! Crim! I’ve found your handkerchief!’

  She quickly got up and went outside to look. To her surprise it was Jia Yun. A maidenly confusion mantled her comely cheek.

  ‘Where did you find it?’ she asked timidly.

  Jia Yun laughed:

  ‘Come over here and I’ll show you!’

  He took hold of her dress to pull her to him. Overcome with shame, she turned and fled, but her foot caught on the threshold and she fell on her face.

  The conclusion of this adventure will be revealed in the following chapter.

  Chapter 25

  Two cousins are subjected by witchcraft to

  the assaults of demons

  And the Magic Jade meets an old acquaintance while

  rather the worse for wear

  We have seen how Crimson, after lying a long time a prey to confused and troubled thoughts, at last dozed off to sleep; and how later, when Jia Yun grabbed at her, she turned and fled, only to stumble and fall on the threshold of her room. At that point she woke in bed and discovered that she had been dreaming. She did not get to sleep again after that, but lay tossing restlessly throughout the night.

  When daylight came at last, she got up, and shortly after was joined by the other maids who shared with her the early morning duties of sweeping the rooms and courtyards and fetching water for the others’ washing.

  Crimson’s own toilet was a simple one: a brief look in the mirror while she coiled her hair, a quick wash, and she was ready to join the others in their sweeping.

  Her encounter with Bao-yu had made a stronger impression on that impressionable young man than she realized. He had even thought of asking for her by name to wait upon him, but hesitated, partly from fear of offending Aroma and the rest, and partly because he did not know what she was really like and dreaded the unpleasantness of sending her away again if she proved unsatisfactory. The question still preoccupied him when he woke that morning. He rose quite early and sat musing silently on his own, making no effort to begin his toilet.

  In a little while the paper-covered shutters were removed and he was able to see clearly through the silken gauze of the casement into the courtyard outside. He could see several girls there sweeping, all of them heavily made-up and with flowers and ornaments in their hair, but no sign of the quiet, neat girl of the day before. He went outside in his slippers to look around, pretending that he had gone out to inspect the flowers. He could see someone leaning on the balustrade in the south-west corner of the cloister-like covered walk, but she was half hidden by the crab-apple tree and he could not make out who it was. He approached and looked more closely. It was she, yesterday’s girl, standing there on her own, apparently lost in thought. He was a little shy of addressing her at that particular moment and was still hesitating when Emerald came up and asked him to come in and wash. He had to go in again without having spoken to her.

  While Crimson stood there musing, she suddenly became aware that Aroma was beckoning to her, and hurried up to see what she wanted.

  ‘Our spittoon is broken,’ Aroma said. ‘Can you go to Miss Lin’s and ask them if they will lend us one until we can get a replace
ment?’

  Crimson hurried off in the direction of the Naiad’s House. When she got to Green Haze Bridge, she stopped a moment to look around. She noticed that cloth screens had been set up all along the side of the artificial hill, and remembered that this was the day on which the workmen were coming into the garden to plant trees. She could just make out a knot of workmen digging a hole in the distance and Jia Yun sitting on some rocks supervising them. She would have liked to go over, but did not quite dare, and having collected the spittoon, returned, in very low spirits, and lay down in her own room to brood. The others all assumed that she must be feeling unwell and took no notice.

  Next day was the birthday of Wang Zi-teng’s lady. A message had already been received from that quarter inviting Grandmother Jia and Lady Wang to spend the day with her. Lady Wang would have liked to go but felt unable, even though the invitation was from her brother’s wife, because she could see that Grandmother Jia did not want to. Wang Zi-teng’s other sister, Aunt Xue, went instead, together with his niece Xi-feng, Bao-chai, Bao-yu and the three Jia girls. They did not return until the evening.

  Not long before they returned, Jia Huan got back from school and Lady Wang gave him the task of copying out the text of that prolonger of life and highly efficacious prophylactic against sickness and misfortune, the Dharani of the Immaculate Diamond. He seated himself on Lady Wang’s kang, called for a candle to be lit, and, with a great deal of self-important fuss, began his copying, one minute calling for Suncloud to pour him tea, the next requiring Silver to trim the wick of his candle, and shortly after that informing Golden that she was standing in his light. The maids all hated Jia Huan and took no notice – all, that is, except Sunset, who had always had a soft spot for him. She poured him a cup of tea and, observing that Lady Wang was engaged in conversation with someone elsewhere in the apartment, quietly counselled some restraint:

  ‘Try not to throw your weight about so!’ she said. ‘It’s silly to put people’s backs up.’

  Jia Huan scowled angrily:

  ‘I know what I’m doing,’ he said. ‘Don’t talk to me like a child! You’re friends with Bao-yu nowadays, are’nt you? You don’t like me any more. I know. I’ve watched you both.’

  Sunset clenched her teeth. She stabbed the air above his head with her finger:

  ‘You ungrateful thing! You’re like the dog that bit Lü Dong-bin: you don’t know a friend when you see one.’

  They were still exchanging words when Xi-feng came in, having just got back from the birthday party. Lady Wang wanted to know about the other ladies who had been invited, whether the plays had been any good, and what sort of things they had had to eat and drink.

  In a little while Bao-yu, too, arrived, and after a few respectful words to his mother, asked the servants to take off his headband and gown for him and help him off with his boots. Disencumbered, he flung himself into his mother’s bosom to be fondled and petted by her, then, worming his way up and nuzzling affectionately against her neck, he proceeded to add his own amusing commentary on the day’s events.

  ‘You’ve been drinking again, child,’ said Lady Wang. ‘Your face is burning. All this romping about will make you sick. Lie down quietly for a while over there!’

  She made them bring him a head-rest, and he lay down behind her, towards the back of the kang. Sunset was instructed to massage him by gently patting his legs.

  He tried to joke with Sunset as she knelt beside him, but she barely acknowledged his questions and answered frigidly, directing her eyes and all her attention upon Jia Huan. Bao-yu seized her hand:

  ‘Come, my dear! You must take notice of me if I speak to you!’

  He tugged at her hand as he spoke, but she snatched it from his grasp.

  ‘If you do that again,’ she said, ‘I shall call out!’

  Jia Huan heard every word of this exchange. He had always hated Bao-yu, and this flirting with Sunset – his Sunset – was the last straw. He must be revenged or burst. A moment’s reflection suggested the means. He had only to feign a slight clumsiness of the hand and it was done. The candle, brimming with molten wax, toppled straight on to Bao-yu’s face. There was a piercing cry, which made everyone else in the room jump. Quickly they brought standard lamps up from the floor below. By their light Bao-yu’s face was seen to be covered all over in wax. Torn between anguish for him and anger with Jia Huan, Lady Wang urged the servants to remove it as quickly as possible, while alternately berating the other boy for his carelessness. Xi-feng scrambled up on to the kang to help the servants, grumbling at Jia Huan as she did so:

  ‘Huan, you are the most cack-handed creature I have ever met! You are simply not fit for decent company. I don’t know why Aunt Zhao hasn’t taught you better.’

  Her words reminded Lady Wang that she had been abusing a Master in front of the servants. She ceased rebuking Jia Huan at once and, summoning Aunt Zhao, directed all her wrath upon that luckless concubine:

  ‘This is a fine son you bore us, I must say! He is a blackhearted little monster! You might at least try to teach him better. But no. Time and again I have overlooked this sort of thing, but instead of feeling sorry, you glory in it. You think that when I do nothing, you have got the better of me.’

  Aunt Zhao was obliged to swallow her anger and endure these taunts in silence. She climbed up onto the kang and made a show of helping the others with the injured boy. She looked at his face. The whole left side of it was badly blistered. It was a wonder that the eye had not been damaged. When Lady Wang saw it, she was both full of anguish for her son and at the same time, when she thought of the questioning to which she would inevitably be subjected by Grandmother Jia and wondered what she would say, terrified on her own account. To relieve her fear she turned once more on Aunt Zhao. Then, after tongue-lashing the concubine, she comforted her beloved son and applied Antiphlogistic Ointment to the blistered part of his face.

  ‘It does hurt a bit,’ said Bao-yu when she asked him, ‘but nothing very terrible. When Grandma asks about it, we had better tell her that I did it.’

  ‘She’ll blame the rest of us for not looking after you properly, even if you say you did it yourself,’ said Xi-feng. ‘There’ll be a row, whatever you say.’

  Lady Wang told them to see him back to his room. It was a great shock to Aroma and the other maids when they saw him.

  Dai-yu had had a dull time of it with Bao-yu away all day, and in the course of the evening sent several times round to his room to inquire whether he was back yet. It was in this way that she heard about his scalding. She hurried round immediately to see for herself how he was.

  She found him with a mirror in his hand, examining the extent of the damage. The entire left side of his face was thickly plastered with ointment, from which she deduced that the injury must be a serious one. But when she approached him to look closer, he averted his head and waved her away. He knew how squeamish she was, and feared that the sight of it would upset her. Dai-yu for her part was sufficiently aware of her own weakness not to insist on looking. She merely asked him ‘whether it hurt very badly’.

  ‘Not so bad as all that,’ said Bao-yu. ‘A couple of days and it will probably be all right again.’

  Dai-yu sat with him a little longer and then went back to her room.

  Next day Bao-yu had to see Grandmother Jia. Although he told her that he had burned himself through his own carelessness, the old lady, as had been predicted, berated his attendants for having allowed the accident to happen.

  Another day went by, and Bao-yu’s godmother, old Mother Ma, called round. Mother Ma was a Wise Woman. Her special relationship with Bao-yu had been arranged in his infancy to ensure him the protection of her powers. She was shocked by her godson’s appearance and, on being informed of the cause, shook her head and tutted sympathetically. She made a few signs over his face with her fingers, muttering some gibberish as she did so, after which she assured them that he would soon be better: the malignant aura that had caused the accident was of
a transitory, impermanent nature. She turned to Grandmother Jia:

  ‘Bless you, my lucky lady! Bless you dearie! You don’t know a half of the unseen harms and dangers the Scripture tells us of. All the sons of princes and great folks the moment they begin to grow up are followed round everywhere they go by troops of invisible little imps – spiteful little creatures who nip them and pinch them whenever they can. Sometimes they knock the ricebowl from their hands when they’re eating. Sometimes they push them over when they are walking. It’s on account of these creatures that so many young gentlemen of good family don’t live to make old bones.’

  Grandmother Jia was anxious to know if the afflicted person could be freed from these unwelcome attentions.

  ‘Easily,’ said Mother Ma. ‘By doing good works. Giving a bit more to charity on the young person’s behalf. There is another way, though. According to what the Scripture says, there’s a Bodhisattva of Universal Light living in the Paradise of the West who spends his time lighting up the dark places where these evil spirits lurk, and if any believer, male or female, will make offerings to that Bodhisattva in a proper spirit of devoutness, he will grant their children and grandchildren his holy peace and protect them from possession by devils and from the powers of darkness.’

  ‘What sort of offerings do you make to this Bodhisattva?’ Grandmother Jia asked her.

  ‘Nothing very special. Apart from the usual incense offerings, we take a few pounds of sesame oil each day and make what we call a “sea of light” by burning wicks in it. We believe that this sea of light is the trans-substantial body of the Bodhisattva. It has to be kept burning night and day and never allowed to go out.’

  ‘How much oil does it take to keep it burning for one whole day and night?’ said Grandmother Jia. ‘I should like to do this for the boy.’

  ‘There’s no fixed amount/ said Mother Ma. ‘We leave it to our clients to decide how much they want to give. There are several members of the aristocracy among those I do this service for. Let’s see… There’s the Prince of An-nan’s lady. She’s my biggest subscriber. Her subscription is for forty-eight pounds of oil and a pound of lampwicks a day. Her sea of light is pretty nearly as big as a cistern. Then there’s the Marquis of Jin-xiang’s lady: twenty pounds of oil a day. Oh, and there’s some pays for ten pounds a day, some for eight pounds, three pounds, five pounds- all sorts. All of them I keep their seas of light burning for them, back at my house.’