by Cao Xueqin
‘Look, I’ve brought you something nice,’ he said, going up to her, all smiles, and holding out the packet: ‘something for your face. You know you’re always saying how good rose-orris is for skin troubles – how much better than the silver powder you get from outside – well, have a look at this!’
Sunset opened the packet, took one look at its contents, and let out a hoot of laughter.
‘Who did you get this from?’
Jia Huan told her.
‘They’ve been having you on,’ said Sunset. ‘This stuff isn’t rose-orris, it’s jasmine face-powder.’
Jia Huan looked again. It did in fact have a slightly pinkish tinge, and when he sniffed it, he found that it had a sweet, almost sickly perfume, quite unlike the clean, fresh scent of the orris.
‘Well, anyway, it’s good stuff,’ he said. ‘Orris or this stuff, it’s all powder, isn’t it? You can keep it to use on your face. This is still better than anything you could buy from outside.’
Sunset put it away resignedly.
Aunt Zhao eyed her offspring scornfully.
‘You don’t think if they’d got anything really good they’d give it to you, do you? I’m not surprised she made a fool of you; I’m surprised you bothered to ask her for it. Take it back and throw it in her face, that’s what you ought to do. Now that the others are all either chasing around the countryside after this funeral or lying with their toes curled up in bed is just the moment for a good old row. Stir them all up a bit. Pay them back for some of the things they’ve done to us in the past. No one’s going to be bothered to dig a little thing like this up in two months’ time when they’re all back again. And even if they do, you’ve got a good excuse. Bao-yu’s your elder brother; you can’t do anything to offend him, I agree. But that doesn’t mean that you have to put up with what every little cat or dog of his chooses to do to you.’
Jia Huan hung his head.
‘It’s not worth a quarrel,’ said Sunset, defending him. ‘Much better just grin and bear it, whatever we think.’
‘Just stay out of this, will you?’ said Aunt Zhao. ‘It’s got nothing to do with you. He knows he’s in the right. It’s a golden opportunity to go and tell these little hussies exactly what he thinks of them.’ She pointed at Jia Huan scornfully. ‘Pah! Spineless creature! If ever I say a word out of place or give you the wrong thing by mistake, I get black looks from you soon enough! Oh yes, you can be very fierce with your own mother! But when some little chit of a girl makes a fool of you, you take it lying down. How can you expect the servants to respect you when you grow up if you always behave like this? Oh, you’re so useless, you make me sick!’
Shamed and angered by her words, yet still not daring to act upon them, Jia Huan made a dismissive gesture with his hand.
‘It’s all very well to talk, but you wouldn’t dare to go there any more than I would. You want me to go back there and have a row with them, don’t you? All right, suppose I do and they tell the school. I’m the one who’ll feel the pain when I get beaten, not you. You’re always stirring me up to do things; then, when I get beaten and sworn at, you just keep your head down and say nothing. This time you’re trying to stir me up to have a row with these girls. Well, if you’re not afraid of Tan-chun, why don’t you do it yourself? Then perhaps in future I might take a bit more notice of what you said.’
His words touched Aunt Zhao on the raw.
‘What?’ she screamed. ‘Me afraid of my own flesh and blood, of my own daughter that I once carried inside me? That’s a good story!’
She snatched up the packet of orris-powder from where Sunset had placed it and went rushing off in the direction of the Garden. Sunset, having found expostulation in vain, slipped off to another apartment to shelter from the storm. Jia Huan slunk off through the ornamental gate to play on his own outside.
As Aunt Zhao, still in a highly combustible state, went charging into the Garden, who should she run into but old Mamma Xia, that aunt of Swallow’s who was also the foster-mother and implacable enemy of Nénuphar. From Aunt Zhao’s livid face and bloodshot eyes it was evident to the old nannie that she was in a very nasty temper. Mamma Xia politely inquired where she was going.
‘Now even the little painted actresses who haven’t been with us more than a few days are discriminating against us. I could take it from anyone else, but to have little creatures like that putting you in your place – it’s more than flesh and blood can bear!’
As these sentiments, insofar as she could make sense of them, seemed very much in accord with her own, Mamma Xia asked her, with some interest, precisely what it was that had upset her. Aunt Zhao explained how Jia Huan had asked for rose-orris and been fobbed off with ordinary face-powder.
‘My dear Mrs Zhao,’ said Mamma Xia, ‘have you only now begun to realize what they are like? Why, what you have just told me is nothing! The other day they were even burning ghost money in here – and Bao-yu sticking up for them, if you please! If anyone else brings anything into the Garden, it’s all “unclean, unclean!” – there’s no end of a fuss. But ghost money, than which there’s nothing more unclean that I know of, that’s all right, apparently. You’re the most senior person after Her Ladyship, Mrs Zhao. I think you ought to put your foot down for once. I’m sure if you did, everyone would respect you for it. If you ask me, players is only trash anyway, so even if you upset them, there’s nothing much they can do about it. Let these two things, the powder and the ghost money, be your justification for making an example of them. I’ll support you with my evidence. Give them a taste of your authority now and you will find it that much easier to deal with other things later on. Even if the young mistresses don’t like it, they’re not going to side against you with riff-raff like these.’
Aunt Zhao’s resolve was strengthened by this encouragement.
‘I didn’t know about the ghost money,’ she said. ‘Tell me what happened.’
Mamma Xia did so, in great detail, concluding with a further incitement to action.
‘Go and have it out with them, Mrs Zhao! We’ll stand by you if there’s any trouble.’
These words were as music in Aunt Zhao’s ears. Emboldened by them, she marched off without more delay to Green Delights.
It chanced that Bao-yu was out when she arrived (he had heard that Dai-yu was visiting All-spice Court and gone off to join her there) and Parfumée was having lunch with Aroma and the other maids. The girls all rose to their feet as Aunt Zhao entered and politely invited her to join them.
‘Won’t you have some lunch, Mrs Zhao? Why are you in such a hurry?’
Ignoring the invitation, Aunt Zhao stepped forward, threw the powder she was carrying in Parfumée’s face and, with stabbing index finger for emphasis, began shouting at her abusively.
‘Little strumpet! You’re a bit of bought goods, that’s all you are. We paid down money and bought you, so that you could be trained to sing for our entertainment. Play-actors and prostitutes are the class of people you belong to; the lowest servant in this household is still a few steps above you. So what makes you think you have the right to go discriminating between one person and another? It’s no skin off your nose if Bao-yu wants to give something of his away to somebody: what business have you to try and stop him? I suppose you thought when you palmed that stuff off on Huan that he wouldn’t know the difference. Well, let me tell you: Master Huan is Bao-yu’s brother, whatever you may think of him, and that means he’s one of the masters, and there’s no cause for you to look down on him.’
Parfumée, never one to take things quietly, set up a howl of tearful protest.
‘I gave that stuff to him because I hadn’t got any orris and I was afraid if I told him I hadn’t got any he wouldn’t believe me. Anyway, it’s good powder. And suppose I have been trained as an actress, I’ve never played outside for money. I’m a little girl, not a trumpet or whatever it was you called me. And as for being “bought goods”, well, it wasn’t you who bought me. And anyway, look who’s talk
ing! I thought all of us here were bought goods. I don’t know why you of all people would want to drag that up.’
‘Stop that at once!’ said Aroma, shocked, and tried to pull her out of the way. But Aunt Zhao, in speechless fury, had already advanced on Parfumée and dealt her a couple of resounding slaps on the head. Aroma expostulated.
‘She’s only a child, Mrs Zhao, you don’t want to put yourself on the same level. Leave it to us to deal with her.’
Parfumée was not to be struck with impunity and reacted to the assault with a fine display of histrionics, weeping, shouting and throwing herself about in all directions.
‘How dare you hit me, you horrible old woman! You should look at yourself in the mirror! Go on, hit me again then, hit me again! I don’t want to go on living!’
Lowering her head, she drove it into Aunt Zhao’s midriff, continuing, as she butted into her, to repeat her challenge. Several of the servants shouted at her and attempted to pull her off. Aroma would have done so too, but Sky-bright drew her to one side and advised her against joining them.
‘Leave them to it, Aroma. You and I don’t want to get mixed up in this. It’s the law of the jungle now: you hit me, I hit you. Heaven knows where it will end!’
The servants who had followed in Aunt Zhao’s wake, when they heard the rumpus inside, gave thanks to the Lord Buddha that justice was at last being done. Among them, the old women who bore grudges against the little actresses were particularly gratified to hear that Parfumée was being beaten.
The news travelled quickly. Nénuphar and Étamine, who had found a quiet corner of All-spice Court in which to be alone together, heard it when the two former ‘painted faces’ of their troupe, Xiang-yun’s Althée and Bao-qin’s Cardamome, burst in on them to enlist their support.
‘Come on, you two! If we let them bully Parfumée, we shall all of us suffer. It’s time to come out in the open and make a stand. Let’s show them a bit of spirit!’
The four of them were only children, full of righteous indignation for their friend. Without a moment’s reflection they rushed off in a body and went charging into Green Delights. Cardamome made first impact, and Aunt Zhao would have been swept off her feet had she not been simultaneously ringed round by the three others, who, with fists flailing, heads butting, and all emitting loud ‘boo-hoos’, pressed in upon her rear and sides. Skybright and the senior maids, though pretending concern and making half-hearted attempts to intervene, found it difficult not to laugh; but Aroma was genuinely distressed and dashed from one to another of them, dragging them away from Aunt Zhao. It was useless. As she pulled one off, another would dart in to replace her.
‘What’s the matter with you all?’ wailed Aroma. ‘If you’ve got a grievance, why can’t you discuss it like sensible human beings? You can’t go taking the law into your own hands like this. I never heard of such a thing!’
Aunt Zhao could only curse helplessly, Éitamine and Nénuphar held her firmly by each arm and Althée and Cardamome had her pinned between them with their heads.
‘Kill us!’ they kept shouting, ‘Kill us all four!’
Parfumée meanwhile lay stretched out corpselike on the ground, having cried herself into a swoon.
The little actresses might have remained locked in their grapple with Aunt Zhao indefinitely, but Skybright had already sent Swallow to bear word of what was happening to Tan-chun, and You-shi, Li Wan and Tan-chun, together with Patience and a number of female domestics, now arrived upon the scene and shouted to them peremptorily to release her.
Aunt Zhao was by now pop-eyed with anger and the veins stood out thickly on her forehead. They asked her how she came to be in such a predicament, but her reply, though long and voluble, was made almost incomprehensible by rage, and You-shi and Li Wan, unable to make anything of it, contented themselves with shouting some more at the actresses. Tan-chun, though, merely sighed.
‘This isn’t really very serious. You are too easily angered, Aunt. As a matter of fact there was something I wanted to discuss with you, but the maids didn’t seem to know where you had got to. Now it appears that you were in here, working yourself into a rage. Do come with us now.’
You-shi and Li Wan smilingly confirmed the invitation.
‘Yes, Mrs Zhao. Come with us to the office and we can discuss things with you there.’
Since she could scarcely object to being consulted, Aunt Zhao was constrained to go along with them, but even as she went she continued muttering angrily to herself until Tan-chun cut her short:
‘These girls are here for our amusement,’ Tan-chun said. ‘They are like pets. You can talk to them and play with them if you feel like it, or if you don’t, you can simply ignore them. It’s the same when they are naughty. Just as, when your puppy-dog bites you or your kitten scratches you, you can either ignore it or have it punished, so with these girls. If they do something to offend you, you can either let it pass, or, if you don’t feel able to, you can call in one of the stewardesses and have them punished. There is absolutely no need to go rushing off in person, shouting and hollering at them. It’s so undignified. And besides, it sets so bad an example. Look at Aunt Zhou. She doesn’t seem to suffer any of this disrespect you complain of and she isn’t always rushing off after people to have it out with them. If I were you, Aunt, I should go back to your room now and try to calm down a bit. And don’t go listening any more to those trouble-makers. There’s no reason why you should do other people’s work for them; you get no thanks for it; they merely laugh at you for being stupid. However angry you may feel now, try to be patient for a few days until Lady Wang gets back and we’ll see what we can do to get all this sorted out then.’
This dressing-down was effective, insofar as it left Aunt Zhao without a word to say, and she returned in silence to her room. As soon as she had gone, Tan-chun burst out angrily to the others.
‘You’d think she’d know better at her age. Why can’t she do anything to make people respect her? I mean, what a ridiculous thing to quarrel about! And what a way to behave! She will listen to absolutely anything anyone tells her. She has absolutely no judgement of her own. And those wretched old women take advantage of the fact to use her as their cat’s-paw.’
The more Tan-chun thought about it, the angrier she became. She ended up by ordering the women to make some inquiries and find out whose incitement it was that had goaded Aunt Zhao into action. The women went off obediently to investigate, but turned to each other with shrugs and smiles as they left the building.
‘Like looking for a needle on the ocean bed!’
And though they had Aunt Zhao’s women and all the women from the Garden up in front of them for questioning, not one of them would admit to knowing anything at all about it, and they were obliged to report back to Tan-chun that they had failed.
‘But we shall go on making inquiries, miss,’ they said. ‘If we find anything suspicious, we shall report it to you.’
Tan-chun’s anger had by this time subsided and she would have let the matter drop; but Artémisie, the little actress who had been assigned to her apartment, came to her privately to tell her that she could identify the culprit.
‘It was Mamma Xia,’ she said. ‘She hates us and she is always trying to get us into trouble. The other day she tried to get Nénuphar into trouble for burning spirit-money, but Bao-yu had asked her to burn it, and when he owned up, Mamma Xia hadn’t a leg to stand on. Today, when I was delivering those handkerchiefs for you, I noticed her and Mrs Zhao twittering away for ever such a long time together and when they saw me coming they moved out of the way to avoid me.’
It seemed highly probable that it was Mamma Xia who had done the inciting; but these little actresses were all closely in league together, Tan-chun reflected, and all of them were exceptionally mischievous: it would be too risky to act on the evidence of what one of them had said. She thanked Artémisie for her information, but inwardly decided to do nothing.
By an unlucky chance Mamma Xia had a grand
daughter who worked in Tan-chun’s apartment and did various little errands for the maids, with all of whom she was popular. Her name was Cicada, but the maids all called her ‘Ciggy’. On this particular occasion Tan-chun had gone back to the ‘jobs room’ after lunch, leaving Ebony in charge of her apartment. Ebony now asked Ciggy to go to the Garden gatehouse and get one of the pages there to run out and buy her a sweetcake. Ciggy objected that she had just finished sweeping the courtyard and had a backache. She told Ebony to ask someone else.
‘There’s no one else I can ask,’ said Ebony. ‘I tell you what. If you’ll do this errand for me now, I’ll give you a piece of good advice that you can pass on to your grandma when you get there.’
And she proceeded to tell her about Artémisie’s denunciation.
‘Tell her to be on her guard.’
‘The little beast!’ said Ciggy, taking the money for the sweetcake. ‘She wants to join in too, does she? Wait till I tell my gran!’
And off she went to the back gate of the Garden.
It was a slack time now in the kitchen and the women, Mamma Xia among them, having for the time being finished with fetching and carrying, were sitting outside on the steps and gossiping. Ciggy asked one of them to go out and buy a hot fried sweetcake for her and then proceeded to give her grandmother an account, interlarded with much bad language of her own, of what Ebony had told her about Artémisie.
Mamma Xia, both angered and alarmed by what she heard, was all for going off straight away, having it out with the little actress, and protesting her innocence to Tan-chun; but Ciggy prevented her.
‘Don’t go, Gran! What can you say to them if you do go? How are you going to explain how you got to know about it? Once they start asking questions, you’ll be in the soup again. I’ve told you this to put you on your guard. You don’t have to do anything about it.’
Just then Parfumée peered in the gateway of the kitchen courtyard and called across to Mrs Liu, the cook, who was still banging about inside the kitchen.