The Warning Voice

by Cao Xueqin

  ‘Cookie, Master Bao says, for his vegetable dish this evening could he have something cold and vinegary again, please, only not so oily as last time?’

  ‘Very good,’ Cook Liu stood in her doorway and called back cheerfully. ‘Why should they send you about such a great, important matter? Come in and look around, if it’s not too dirty for you.’

  Parfumgée had barely stepped into the courtyard when the woman to whom Ciggy had entrusted the money arrived back carrying Ebony’s hot fritter on a saucer.

  ‘Oo, lovely hot fritter! Give us a taste!’ said Parfumée jokingly.

  ‘That has been ordered and paid for by someone else,’ said Ciggy primly, as she took the saucer from the woman. ‘It is not for you.’

  ‘Do you fancy one, miss?’ Cook Liu asked Parfumée. ‘I’ve got one in here that I bought for our Fivey you can have if you like. It hasn’t been touched yet, so it’s quite clean.’

  She brought the fried cake out on a saucer and handed it to Parfumée.

  ‘There you are. Now you wait there a moment and I’ll heat up a nice cup of tea for you to go with it.’

  She went inside again to rake the top off the fire and heat some tea up in a skillet. But instead of waiting for her, Parfumée picked the fritter up from its saucer, went over to Ciggy with it, and held it under her nose for her to inspect.

  ‘Look! What’s that, then? Fritter. Who wants your mouldy fritter? I was only joking. I wouldn’t eat yours if you went down on your bended knees and begged me to!’

  She began to crumble it up between her fingers and throw the pieces to the birds.

  ‘Don’t worry, Mrs Liu!’ she called out in the direction of the kitchen. ‘I’ll buy two catties of these for you presently.’

  Ciggy glared at her in outrage.

  ‘Old Thunder up there must be blind not to strike you dead,’ she said bitterly. ‘Either that, or he must be angry with me for something. Still, I can’t compete with you, can I! I haven’t got anyone to rush out and give me things, or trot around after me like a self-adopted slave, or chip in with a good word for me when there’s an argument.’

  ‘All right, young ladies, that’s enough!’ said the women on the steps. ‘Can’t you even see each other without having words?’

  The more discerning of them, sensing that a storm was brewing and not wanting to get involved, had already begun slipping off elsewhere. But Ciggy had no stomach for a fight and went off, muttering angrily to herself, without further argument.

  When the women had all gone, Cook Liu came bustling out of her kitchen for a private word with Parfumée.

  ‘That business we were talking about the other day – have you spoken to him about it yet?’

  ‘Yes, I have,’ said Parfumée. ‘I was going to remind him of it today, but that wretched Zhao woman came along and upset everything with her quarrelling. How’s Fivey? Did she drink any of that Essence of Roses I brought her the other day?’

  ‘She drank it all,’ said Cook Liu. ‘She loved it. She’d really like some more, to tell the truth, but she doesn’t like to ask.’

  ‘That’s all right,’ said Parfumée. ‘I can easily get her some more. I only have to ask for it.’

  The object of Parfumée’s inquiry, who owed her strange name to the fact that she was the fifth of Old Liu’s grand-daughters, though only the daughter of a cook, was in both looks and intelligence a match for any of the senior maids – Patience, Aroma, Faithful or Nightingale – and it was only because of a weakly constitution that she was still, in her sixteenth year, without employment. Recently, however, observing how numerous the maids were in Bao-yu’s apartment and how light their duties were, and hearing that it was his intention to give them their freedom when they had finished service with him, her mother had conceived the ambition of getting her on the staff of Green Delights. Lack of a contact there had at first made this ambition seem unrealizable; but Cook Liu had previously worked at Pear Tree Court, where her cheerful and ungrudging service had won her golden opinions with the girls. They greatly preferred her to their own foster-mothers. And so when Parfumée moved into Green Delights, the cook had easily prevailed on her to tackle Bao-yu on her daughter’s behalf. Bao-yu had consented willingly, but the situation created by Xi-feng’s illness together with other more recent developments had so far prevented him from seeking higher approval for the appointment.

  But we digress.

  Bao-yu heard about the fracas created in his apartment by Aunt Zhao while he was at All-spice Court visiting the girls. Though deeply distressed on Parfumée’s behalf, he decided, after some hesitation, that intervention by him could only make matters worse, and resolved to stay where he was. He did so until word reached All-spice Court that Tan-chun had succeeded in getting Aunt Zhao out of the way. Returning then, he had formally reproved Parfumée for her belligerency and then sent her on an errand to the kitchen.

  Parfumée now arrived back at Green Delights and reported on the fulfilment of her mission. She also told him that, if he still had any, Fivey would like some more of the Essence of Roses.

  ‘Yes, I think I’ve still got some,’ said Bao-yu. ‘Look, why don’t you give her all of it? I don’t drink it very often myself.’

  He sent Aroma to fetch it. As there was not a great deal of it left, he told Parfumée that Fivey might as well keep the bottle. Parfumée went back to the kitchen again to give the bottle to Cook Liu.

  When she got there, she found Fivey there as well. To give her ailing, cooped-up daughter a little treat, Cook Liu had brought her along with her that day when she went to work. The girl had just been taking a little walk in the environs of her mother’s kitchen and was now resting her feet in the kitchen and having a cup of tea. Mother and daughter, when they saw the glittering five-inch crystal bottle half-full of ruby liquid that Parfumée was carrying, assumed that it was some of Bao-yu’s West Ocean grape wine that she was bringing them.

  ‘Sit yourself down,’ said Cook Liu. ‘I’ll just fetch the mulling-pan and boil up some water to heat it in.’

  Parfumée laughed.

  ‘That’s all there is, I’m afraid. He says you can keep the bottle.’

  Fivey realized that the red liquid must be not grape wine but some more Essence of Roses, and thanked her effusively for her kindness. Parfumée asked her how she felt.

  ‘A bit livelier today,’ said Fivey. ‘That’s why I came in with Mother. I’ve been for a walk all around here, but there’s really not much to look at – just a lot of rocks and the backs of buildings. I haven’t seen anything that you could really call a view.’

  ‘Why don’t you go right inside?’ said Parfumée.

  ‘Because I won’t let her,’ her mother chipped in. ‘None of the young ladies in there knows her. If some inquisitive person were to stop her and start asking questions, she’d have a lot of trouble explaining what she was doing. Once you’ve got her a place in there, as you so kindly promised, I’m sure there will be plenty willing to show her around. She’ll be able to look around the Garden then until she’s sick of the sight of it!’

  ‘You don’t want to worry,’ said Parfumée. ‘I’d look after her.’

  ‘I’m sure you would, bless you!’ said the cook. ‘But folks like us have to be more careful.’

  She poured Parfumée a cup of tea. Parfumée accepted her hospitality to the extent of using some of this as a mouth-wash before getting up to go.

  ‘My hands are a bit full at the moment,’ said Cook Liu. ‘Fivey will see you out.’

  The two girls went out together. Having first ascertained that there was no one else about, Fivey impulsively took Parfumée by the hand:

  ‘Did you really ask him about that?’

  ‘Of course I did!’ said Parfumée. ‘I wouldn’t deceive you. I’ve found out that there are two vacancies that haven’t yet been filled: one of them is the place left by Crimson, for whom Mrs Lian still hasn’t found him a substitute; the other one is Trinket’s. If he asks for you, it will be
only one out of those two places, so he will be perfectly within his rights. The only reason he hasn’t done so already is because Patience keeps telling Aroma that if we have any requests concerning either jobs or allowances to make, we’d be well advised to put them off for the time being. The fact is that Miss Tan is looking for someone to make an example of. She’s already made an example of Mrs Lian by turning down two or three of her requests in a row, and now she’s trying to pick on us. She hasn’t found an excuse for doing so yet, but she hasn’t given up trying. So if we go asking her about a thing like this now, it’s almost a foregone conclusion that she will say no; and once she’s turned it down, it will be very difficult to get that refusal reversed. Much better wait until the situation here has quietened down a bit – till Their Ladyships are back again and everyone is in a good mood. If he approaches the old girl then, she’ll give him anything he asks for, no matter what it is.’

  ‘I know,’ said Fivey, ‘but I’m too impatient to wait that long. I want that job now. In the first place it will make my mother happy. She’ll feel that all the trouble she has had in bringing me up has not been wasted. Secondly, the pay I shall earn will make things easier for them at home. And thirdly, if only I felt a bit more cheerful, as I shall do if I get that job, I do believe that this illness of mine would get better – and that would mean a great saving for my family on doctor’s fees and medicines.’

  At that point Parfumée left her and continued on her way back alone. Fivey returned to the kitchen. She and her mother spoke warmly together of Parfumée’s kindness.

  ‘I’d never have thought anything like this would ever come our way,’ said Cook Liu. ‘Still, though it’s so precious, you can have too much of a good thing. You don’t want to overheat your blood. I think it would be rather a nice gesture if we were to pour a little of this off to give to someone else.’

  Fivey asked her who she had in mind.

  ‘I was thinking of taking half a cupful to your uncle’s boy,’ said Cook Liu. ‘He’s been down with a fever this last day or two, and it’s just the sort of thing he would enjoy.’

  Fivey made no reply and watched in silence while her mother decanted a small quantity of the red liquid into a teacup and then placed the bottle, after corking it up again, on a shelf of the kitchen cupboard.

  ‘I think if I were you I wouldn’t give him that,’ she said finally. There was a wry little smile on her face. ‘If anyone should ask you where it came from, we might find ourselves in trouble.’

  ‘Oh, fiddlesticks!’ said her mother. ‘Surely we don’t have to be that careful? If you work as hard as I do all the year round, you are entitled to a few perks. No one is going to say that we stole it, surely?’

  She sailed off cup in hand then to her brother’s, leaving Fivey alone in the kitchen. She found her nephew in bed. He and his parents were all three delighted when they learned what she had brought them. A cupful of cool water freshly drawn from the well was mixed with a little of the essence and handed to the sick boy to drink. He finished it at one draught and immediately declared that he felt better and that his head seemed somewhat clearer. The cup containing the remainder of the essence was covered with a square of paper and set on the table beside him.

  While Cook Liu was still there, some of the sick boy’s workmates from the mansion called in to visit him. Among them was a young fellow called Qian Huai, related on his mother’s side to Aunt Zhao. His father worked in Accounts. Qian Huai’s own job was to accompany Jia Huan when he went to school. A bachelor and with money to spend, he had for long been an admirer of Fivey’s and in time past his parents had, at his insistence, made several approaches to Fivey’s parents through intermediaries asking for Fivey’s hand in marriage. Her parents were by no means averse to the match, but as Fivey herself, though without actually saying anything, made it perfectly plain by her behaviour that the idea was repugnant to her, they had not dared to accept. More recently, with talk of Fivey going into service in the Garden, they had been less inclined than ever to look on Qian Huai as a possible son-in-law, for it now seemed probable that after four or five years’ service as a maid, Fivey would be at liberty to marry someone of their own choice from outside. Qian Huai’s parents, too, when they saw the way things stood, were inclined to let the matter drop.

  Not so Qian Huai, however. Wounded in his amour propre by Fivey’s rejection, he made a fierce vow that he would pursue her relentlessly, with all the force and guile at his command, until he had succeeded in making her his wife.

  It was a surprise to him, needless to say, to call with the other pages on his sick workmate and find Fivey’s mother at the bedside. Cook Liu was equally flustered on recognizing Qian Huai among the little group of visitors and got up to go, on the pretext of being busy.

  ‘Do just stay for a cup of tea,’ said her brother and sister-in-law. ‘It was so kind of you to think of him.’

  ‘I expect they’ll be wanting their dinner inside now,’ said Cook Liu. ‘I’ll come and see him again when I’m not so busy.’

  The sister-in-law opened a drawer and took out a small paper packet from it as they were leaving. Outside, at the corner by the gate, she pressed it, smilingly, into Cook Liu’s hand.

  ‘This is something your brother brought back yesterday, from the gate. He was five days on duty there and not a single tip all the time. Then suddenly yesterday some high-up from Canton came here on a visit and left three little baskets of this white stuff– “Lycoperdon Snow” it’s called – two for the masters and one for the people on the gate. This here is your brother’s share of it. I opened it last night to have a look. It’s beautiful stuff – so white and fine. They say that a little of it taken every morning mixed with breast-milk is wonderful for building up the body. If you can’t get breast-milk, you can use cow’s milk, or even plain boiled water. Of course, we immediately thought of your Fivey; it would be just the thing for her. I sent our little maid round with some this morning, but she said your door was locked. She said you must have taken Fivey in with you. I would have gone in then to see her and given it to her myself; but then I thought that with the mistresses away they’re much stricter about letting people in and out now and they’d be sure to ask what business I had going inside. And besides, this last day or two we’ve heard rumours of such terrible goings-on in there, I should be afraid of getting mixed up in something. So it’s a good job you came today, sister-in-law; you’ll be able to take the packet to her yourself.’

  Cook Liu thanked her and left. At the corner gate of the Garden her way was blocked by a grinning page.

  ‘Where have you been, missus? There have been two or three calls from inside asking for you. Me and the others have been looking for you all over the place. Where have you just come from? You don’t live out in this direction. I bet you’ve been up to something!’

  ‘Cheeky little monkey!’ said the cook.

  The rest of their exchange is recorded in the following chapter.

  CHAPTER 61

  Bao-yu owns up to a crime he did not commit And Patience bends authority in order that the innocent may be spared

  Cook Liu was trying to get back into the Garden, but the bantering page-boy delayed her.

  ‘You don’t live in this direction. Naughty old Auntie! What have you been up to?’

  ‘“Auntie” is it?’ said Cook Liu, laughing. ‘Cheeky little monkey! If your “auntie” has got herself a fancy man, that means you have a new uncle, so what are you worrying about? You open that gate quickly, my lad, and let me in, or I’ll take hold of you by that little po-cover of yours and pull your hair out!’

  ‘If I let you in, promise you’ll pinch a few apricots for me,’ said the boy, ‘to make up for having kept me waiting so long. Mind you don’t forget, now, or next time you want to nip out in the middle of the night for a bottle of wine or some oil, I’ll not open for you. I’ll just let you stand there shouting and not even answer you.’

  ‘You must be mad!’ said the cook. ‘We
can’t do that sort of thing any more now. Nowadays it’s all divided up among the garden-women; and there isn’t one of them, either, that wouldn’t just as soon scratch your eyes out as look at you. You only have to walk under one of the fruit-trees and they’re watching you like hawks. Fat chance I should have of picking any of the fruit for you! Only yesterday I was walking underneath a plum-tree and raised my hand to drive a bee away that was buzzing in front of my face. One of your old aunties happened to see me, but as she was quite a long way off, she couldn’t quite make out what I was doing. She thought I was picking the plums. Oh, you should have heard her shout! “Don’t take them! We haven’t offered the first-fruits yet. No one must have any of those plums until Their Ladyships have got back and made the offerings. You’ll get your share in time.” I suppose she thought I had a craving and couldn’t wait! I’m afraid I wasn’t very polite. I gave her a piece of my mind. You ask one of your old aunties if you want some fruit, my boy, it’s no good asking me. You asking me for fruit is like the granary rat asking the crow for corn: Have asking Have-not!’

  ‘Oh dear, oh dear!’ said the boy sarcastically. ‘If you can’t get me any, you can’t; there’s no need to go on about it so. I suppose you think you won’t be needing my services any more; but you will. When your Fivey gets her job inside, you’re going to need my services more than ever.’

  ‘Whatever rubbish will the boy come out with next?’ said the cook. ‘What job are you talking about?’

  ‘It’s no good pretending,’ the boy crowed. ‘I know. You needn’t think you’re the only one with contacts inside. I’ve got my contacts too. I may be all the time working here outside, but I’ve got two girl cousins inside who keep me informed. There’s nothing much going on inside there that I don’t know about.’

  At that point in their exchange they were interrupted by an old woman’s voice from within: