The Warning Voice

by Cao Xueqin

  ‘Come on, you little monkey, you let Mrs Liu in this minute! If she doesn’t come in directly, they won’t get their dinners in time.’

  ‘Don’t worry, I’m coming!’

  Cook Liu brushed past the boy and, pushing the gate open for herself, went hurrying back to the kitchen. Several of her assistants were waiting there already. They had been standing about doing nothing, none of them having dared to take the initiative without her.

  ‘Where’s Fivey gone?’ she asked them.

  ‘She just this minute went off to look for her cousins in the tea-room,’ they said.

  Cook Liu put the packet of Lycoperdon Snow somewhere to give to her daughter later and began making up the food-boxes for the different apartments. While she was engaged in this work, Ying-chun’s little maid Lotus arrived with a message from Chess.

  ‘Chess says for dinner tonight she wants a bowl of eggcustard, lightly done.’

  ‘That’s a bit of a luxury just now,’ said the cook. ‘I don’t know why it is, but for some reason hen’s eggs seem to be in very short supply this year. Ten cash each they’re charging for them at the moment, and even then you’re lucky if you can find any. The other day, when they were making up a present for one of Her Ladyship’s relations that had just had a baby, there were four or five of our buyers out scouring the markets for eggs. They had no end of a job getting together two thousand. So you can imagine what it must be like for me. Tell her to ask for eggs some other time.’

  ‘The other day when she wanted bean-curd, you gave me some that was rancid,’ said Lotus, ‘and I got a telling-off for it. Now she wants eggs and you say you haven’t got any. I bet I could find some here if I looked.’

  She stepped over to the food-container and took the lid off. Among the other things revealed was a little cache of some ten or a dozen eggs.

  ‘There you are, what are they then?’ she said. ‘Aren’t you terrible? The food we eat is all paid for, I don’t know why you’re so grudging with it. It isn’t as if you’d laid the eggs yourself!’

  ‘I’ll give you laying eggs, my girl! If anyone lays eggs around here, it’ll be your mother! Those are the only eggs I’ve got left and I’ve been saving them up to use as garnishing on other dishes. Even then I’ll only use them if the young mistresses ask for them specially. I need to have a few eggs by me in case of emergency. What am I going to do if one of the mistresses asks for some eggs and you lot have already eaten them all? “What?” she’ll say. “No eggs? Not even any eggs?” You people lead such soft, sheltered lives. All you’ve got to do is stretch your hands out for washing-water and your mouths open for food. You think eggs are the commonest things in the world, you don’t realize there can be such things as shortages. Never mind eggs, the day may yet come when there’s not even a corn-stalk to be had. My advice to you girls is to try and make do with what you’re given. After all, you get the best quality white rice, and chicken and duck to eat every day. It’s too much pampering that causes this passion for variety: eggs one day, bean-curd the next, fried pickled turnips in gluten batter… It’s all very well saying you want something different, but I’m afraid it won’t do. If each lot wants something different, that’s ten different dishes I’ve got to prepare. I might just as well stop catering for the young mistresses altogether and do nothing but cook for you girls!’

  Lotus went red and shouted angrily back at her.

  ‘It’s not true that we’re always asking for something different. This rigmarole of yours is quite uncalled for. Anyway, it’s your job to give us what we want. If that isn’t your job, I’d like to know what is. You were obliging enough to Swallow the other day, when she came to say that Skybright wanted a dish of artemisia shoots. “With pork or with chicken?” you asked her. And when Swallow said Skybright didn’t eat meat, she’d have it with wheat gluten, only not too much oil, “Oh,” you said, “how stupid of me! I’d quite forgotten she was a vegetarian.” You scurried off to wash your hands first before you cooked it, and when you’d cooked it, you carried it all the way there for her yourself, just like a little dog that runs wagging its tail to its master. Why you should pick on me to make an example of in front of all these people, I do not know.’

  ‘Holy name!’ said Cook Liu. ‘These people here will be my witness. Whenever anyone from one of the other apartments, whether mistress or maid, asks me for a special order – and I’m not just talking about that occasion you mentioned, I’m talking about ever since this kitchen here first started – they invariably offer me something to cover the extra cost. Whether I have to buy anything extra or not, it’s a nice gesture and I appreciate it. Some people think that as I only have the young ladies to cater for, I must make a lot out of it; but if anyone took the trouble to sit down and work it out, they’d get a shock. Between forty and fifty people I have to cater for, counting both mistresses and maids. And do you know what my daily allowance is? Two chickens, two ducks, ten catties of pork and a thousand cash worth of vegetables. You try managing on that! I can barely make it stretch to two meals a day provided everyone sticks to the regular menu; but if I’m going to have one person ordering one thing and one person ordering another, turning down the food I’ve bought for them and expecting me to buy other materials to make up their orders, my allowance simply won’t stretch to it. If that’s the way you want it, you’ll just have to ask Her Ladyship to give you all bigger allowances; then we can do what they do in the main kitchen for Her Old Ladyship’s meals: have a blackboard with the names of all the dishes under the sun chalked up on it and work through them one by one, having a different dish every day. Then you could settle with me for what you’d eaten at the end of each month. A week or two ago Miss Tan and Miss Bao suddenly thought they’d fancy a dish of salted bean-sprouts and Miss Tan sent one of the girls over with five hundred cash to ask me if I would prepare it for them. I laughed. “They’d never eat five hundred cash worth,” I said, “not if they had bellies like the Laughing Buddha. Twenty or thirty cash would be ample.” I sent the money back to her, but she wouldn’t take it – said I should keep it to buy myself a drink with. “Now that the kitchen’s inside,” she said, “I expect you often have people coming round and asking you for favours.” She said, “I know it’s hard for you to refuse them, but even salt and soy sauce cost something, and we don’t want you to end up out of pocket. Let’s call this a payment to make up for some of the extras that other people have had out of you.” Now there’s a kind, understanding young lady! I praise the Lord in my heart for a young lady like that! Too bad that Mrs Zhao got to hear about it. She was furious, of course: thought I was doing far too well out of it. And sure enough she sent one of her little maids round less than ten days later asking for this and asking for that. I couldn’t help laughing. You’re just the same. I suppose you’ve taken a leaf out of her book. Well, it’s no good. My allowance just won’t stretch to it.’

  Just then another messenger arrived from Chess to find out what had become of Lotus.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ the messenger asked her. ‘Have you taken root or something? Why don’t you come back?’

  Lotus flounced off angrily after the messenger. The report that she gave when she got back was so highly embellished that Chess could hardly fail to be incensed by it. She was unable to do anything about it for the time being, because she was in the middle of serving Ying-chun her dinner; but as soon as Ying-chun’s meal was over, she hurried off to the kitchen, taking several of the junior maids with her.

  She arrived as the kitchen staff were having-their own dinner. The women, to whom it was obvious that some kind of mischief was imminent, rose to their feet with nervous smiles on their faces and invited her to sit with them. Ignoring the women, she issued a brusque command to her minions:

  ‘Right! Boxes, bins, cupboards – wherever the food’s kept – throw it all out! Better the dogs eat it than these swindlers have it all!’

  The young maids, needing no second bidding, threw themselves with great g
usto into the work of ransacking the kitchen, while the women made vain efforts to restrain them and pleaded with Chess to call them off.

  ‘You don’t want to believe everything those young girls tell you, miss. Mrs Liu would never dare offend you, she knows it’s more than her job is worth. She did say that eggs are hard to come by lately, it’s true; but we told her that it was silly of her to take that line, and that if you say you want something, it’s up to her to find some means of getting it for you, whatever it is. That’s what we told her. She’d already admitted that she was in the wrong and put a basin of eggs in the steamer before you arrived. Look on the stove, if you don’t believe us.’

  Chess’s anger subsided somewhat under these blandishments and the young maids were persuaded, albeit reluctantly, to discontinue their pillage. Chess continued to grumble for a bit and make unflattering remarks about the cook, but was eventually persuaded to return, while Cook Liu, with much banging of pots and pans and indignant muttering, set about making her a custard. When this was in due course delivered to her, Chess promptly emptied it on the ground, but the woman who had taken it prudently refrained from reporting this fact on her return for fear of provoking further unpleasantness.

  When Fivey returned to the kitchen, her mother gave her some soup and a half a bowlful of congee and told her about the Lycoperdon Snow. Fivey, resolving to share the latter with her friend and benefactress Parfumée, wrapped half of it up in a separate sheet of paper and, having waited until it was dusk, when there were not many people about, made her way to Green Delights, keeping to the trees as much as possible, so that no one should see her. She managed to get as far as the gate of the courtyard without being stopped by anyone, but, not daring to go inside, retreated to the cover of some rose bushes and lurked there until someone should come out.

  Fortunately she did not have long to wait. After about the time it would take to drink a cup of tea Swallow came out of the gate and Fivey stepped out of the bushes and called to her to stop. Swallow could not at first make out who it was and had to go up close and scrutinize her before asking what she wanted.

  ‘Will you tell Parfumée to come out for a minute, please?’ said Fivey. ‘I want to have a word with her.’

  Swallow laughed softly.

  ‘You’re too impatient. Your business is sure to be settled within the next ten days, whatever you do. It’s silly to keep on asking. Anyway, she’s just gone out to the front, so you’ll have to wait a bit. But perhaps it would be better if you gave me a message to pass on to her. If you wait till she comes back, you might find yourself inside still when they shut the gate.’

  Fivey handed her the packet.

  ‘This stuff is Lycoperdon Snow…’

  She went on to explain what its properties were and how it was to be taken.

  ‘I’ve just been given some and I want to share it with her. Would you mind giving it to her for me, please?’

  Leaving the packet in Swallow’s hands, she turned and began swiftly making her way back again. She had just got as far as the part of the Garden bordering Flowery Harbour when she saw Lin Zhi-xiao’s wife at the head of a party of stewardesses coming towards her from the opposite direction. Concealment was impossible; there was nothing for it but to walk straight up to them and greet them.

  ‘What are you doing, running around like this?’ said Lin Zhi-xiao’s wife. ‘I thought you were supposed to be ill.’

  Fivey forced herself to smile.

  ‘I’ve been a bit better this last day of two, so Mother brought me into the Garden with her for a change of air. I’ve just been to Green Delights for her, to deliver something.’

  ‘That can’t be right,’ said Lin Zhi-xiao’s wife. ‘I saw your mother go out of the Garden just now; that’s why I shut the gate. If she’d really sent you to Green Delights, why didn’t she tell me you were still inside? Why did she go out and let me lock the gate without saying anything? You must be lying.’

  Fivey was momentarily at a loss for a reply.

  ‘Actually she told me this morning but I forgot,’ she stammered. ‘I only just now remembered. Probably she didn’t say anything about my being in here because she thought I’d already gone home.’

  Observing her confusion and the halting nature of her reply, Lin Zhi-xiao’s wife remembered that Silver had lately reported some things missing from Lady Wang’s apartment which none of the other maids would admit to having taken and wondered if Fivey might be the thief. It was unfortunate for Fivey that Ciggy and Lotus, together with a number of older servants, should have arrived on the scene at that moment and helped to confirm her suspicion.

  ‘Give her a good grilling, Mrs Lin!’ said one of these new arrivals. ‘She’s been sneaking to and fro all over the place this last day or two. I don’t know what she’s been up to, but she’s certainly been up to something.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Ciggy, ‘and Silver told me yesterday that when they opened that cupboard in Her Ladyship’s side room the other day they found a whole lot of things missing. They noticed there was a bottle short when Mrs Lian sent Patience over for some Essence of Roses, otherwise they’d never have thought of looking.’

  ‘Oh?’ said Lotus with a pleased-looking smirk. ‘I didn’t know about that. As a matter of fact I’ve seen a bottle of Essence of Roses somewhere today.’

  ‘Where?’ Lin Zhi-xiao’s wife asked eagerly. Ever since the bottle from Lady Wang’s cupboard had been found missing, Xi-feng had been sending Patience round daily to inquire about the progress of her investigations and she was under great pressure to discover the thief.

  ‘In her mother’s kitchen,’ said Lotus.

  Lanterns were lit and the little party hurried off to investigate, Fivey protesting anxiously as they went:

  ‘But that little bottle came from Master Bao’s room. It was given to me by Parfumée.’

  ‘Parfumy!’ said Lin Zhi-xiao’s wife contemptuously. ‘If we find the evidence in the kitchen, I shall have to report it, and that’s that. It will be up to you to explain yourself to the mistresses if you can.’

  By now they had reached the kitchen and some of them, led by Lotus, went inside to look. They came out almost immediately with the bottle. Lin Zhi-xiao’s wife, thinking that there might be other stolen articles in the kitchen, ordered a thorough search, in the course of which the packet of lycoperdon was discovered. Taking this and the rose essence as evidence, they now led Fivey off to face Li Wan and Tan-chun.

  But Li Wan would not see them. Jia Lan was ill, and she was too busy looking after him to have time for household business. They should see Miss Tan about it, she said.

  Tan-chun was not in the office, having already returned to her own apartment. Off they all trooped then to Tan-chun’s place, where one of their number went inside to announce their business. The maids were all in the courtyard enjoying the cool evening air. Tan-chun was inside, washing her hair, they said. Scribe went indoors to report. It seemed an age before she re-emerged.

  ‘I told Miss Tan. She said you’d better find Patience and ask her to see Mrs Lian about it.’

  So off they went once more, this time to Wang Xi-feng’s place, where they told their business to Patience. Patience, on going inside to report, found that her mistress had just gone to bed. Xi-feng heard her through, after which she gave judgement summarily as follows:

  ‘Give the mother forty strokes, turn her out of the Garden, and make sure that she is never employed inside the Inner Gate again. Give Fivey forty strokes too and pack her off to the grange. They can either sell her or marry her to one of the hands.’

  Patience relayed this verdict, word for word, to Lin Zhi-xiao’s wife and the others waiting outside. Fivey, shocked and weeping, threw herself on her knees at Patience’s feet and explained to her how Parfumée had given her the rose essence as a present.

  ‘We can clear that up easily enough,’ said Patience. ‘All we’ve got to do is wait until we can ask Parfumée tomorrow to find out whether she gave it to you or
not. But what about this lycoperdon stuff? That was brought here as a present for Their Ladyships. No one had the right to touch that before Their Ladyships had seen it.’

  Fivey explained that the packet of powder came not from Lady Wang’s store but from her uncle’s share of the surplus that had been given as a douceur to the gate-people.

  ‘That puts you in the clear then,’ said Patience, smiling. ‘It’s beginning to look as if you are wearing the hat for someone else.’ She turned to Lin Zhi-xiao’s wife. ‘It’s too late to do anything about this now. Mrs Lian has just taken her medicine and gone to bed; I can’t go pestering her about a little thing like this at this time of night. You’d better hand her over to the night watch and tell them to look after her until the morning. I’ll explain it all to Mrs Lian tomorrow, and we’ll see what we can do.’

  Lacking the confidence to dispute this countermanding by Patience of her mistress’s orders, Lin Zhi-xiao’s wife conducted Fivey outside and handed her into the custody of the watch before continuing about her own business.

  Though still unbound, Fivey was unable to move freely and was obliged to stay where she was put and listen to the ill-natured comments of the old women. Some of them, assuming as a matter of course that she was guilty, rebuked her for her misconduct; others complained of the trouble that she was causing them.

  ‘As if we haven’t got work enough already, they have to give us this thief to mind,’ they grumbled. ‘If she does herself an injury or gives us the slip while we’re not looking, we shall get into trouble!’

  And those who in the past had got on badly with her mother rejoiced in the daughter’s discomfiture and lost no opportunity of taunting and abusing her.

  Poor Fivey! Her heart was full of the injustice of it, but there was no one to pour out her troubles to. The hardships of that night were doubly distressing to a person of her weak and ailing constitution: no one to give her tea or even a cup of water when she was thirsty, no pillow or bedding for her to lie on – even if she had felt like sleeping. The wretched girl spent the whole night in almost continuous weeping.