by Cao Xueqin
‘Don’t worry about the money,’ You-shi and Jia Rong both chimed in, not waiting for her to finish. ‘That’s something we can certainly take care of for you.’
‘If Zhang Hua is only suing because he wants money,’ said Jia Rong, ‘I think I can now see what to do. We must promise him money on condition that he will admit that the charges he brought against us were false ones. Of course, we shall have to spend a bit of money to see that he isn’t too heavily proceeded against; but once the case has been dismissed and he has been released, all we have to do is give him the money we promised, and that should be the end of it.’
Xi-feng tutted and looked amused.
‘Brilliant! No wonder you made such a mess of your match-making if this is the way you go about things! I always thought that you were intelligent, but I see now that I was wrong. If we do as you suggest, he will pretend to agree, the case will be called off, and that will appear to be the end of it. But don’t you see, if you put money into the hand of a fellow like that, he will get through it in about four or five days and then think up some other villainy as a means of getting more? Even though we have nothing to fear from him, he will still be a constant source of worry. What you propose in any case plays straight into his hands, because it enables him to say that we must have something to be ashamed of or we wouldn’t be offering him money.’
Jia Rong was a sharp young man and quickly saw what his aunt was driving at.
‘I’ve got another idea,’ he said. ‘Perhaps I should be the one to clear this mess up after all, since I am the one who got us into it. I shall ask Zhang Hua straight out what his intentions are. Is it definitely Aunt Er he wants, or is he willing to make do with someone else if we will give him the money? If it is definitely Aunt Er and no one else will do, I shall simply have to break it to her that she must go and join him.’
‘That’s all very well, but I don’t want to part with your Aunt Er,’ said Xi-feng hurriedly. ‘In fact, I refuse to hear of it. Even suppose she were willing, what would people think of us if we allowed her to go? No, I think we must keep her, even if it means giving him more money.’
Jia Rong knew perfectly well that although Xi-feng said this, she was secretly longing to get rid of Er-jie and was merely anxious that if she did so it should be with her reputation for womanly virtue untarnished. He deemed it safest not to dispute with her, however, but merely to agree with everything she said.
‘This outside part of the business should not be too hard to settle,’ said Xi-feng. ‘In the long run it’s here at home that we are going to have the difficulty. Hadn’t you better come with me to explain all about this to Grandmother and Lady Wang?’
This threw You-shi into another panic. She seized Xi-feng by the hand and earnestly entreated her to think of some lie which would obviate this necessity.
‘If you are not capable of dealing with the consequences, you ought not to do these things in the first place,’ said Xi-feng coldly. ‘Really! It quite disgusts me to hear you bleat like this! Oh well. I wasn’t going to help you out of this fix, but I am such a weak, soft-hearted creature. I suppose I shall have to. You’d better stay out of this, then. I’ll take your sister on my own to make her kotow to Grandmother and the ladies. I shall say that this is your sister and that I have taken a great fancy to her. I shall tell them that because I haven’t so far managed to give Lian a son, I had been thinking of buying two girls to serve him as chamber-wives, but that since seeing your sister I had thought how much nicer it would be to have her instead as his Number Two and keep it all inside the family. Then I shall say that since her mother and sister died she has been living in very reduced circumstances and would have found it impossible to hold out on her own until the end of the hundred days mourning, so I have taken it upon myself to invite her here to live with us. I shall tell them that I’ve already had a room made ready for her and would like her to move in there as a temporary measure until the mourning period is over and she is allowed to sleep with Lian. All lies, of course, but I am sufficiently brazen to get away with them. Even if there is any trouble, I promise that it shan’t come near you. Well, what about it? Do you think that will do?’
You-shi and Jia Rong were all smiles.
‘Very handsome of you, and very resourceful, too. But then you always were both of those things. When this affair is safely out of the way, we shall come round and make you a kotow.’
‘Fiddlestick! I don’t want your kotows,’ said Xi-feng. ‘She pointed her finger at Jia Rong. ‘I know you now for what you are.’
Her face reddened as she said this, and for a moment she seemed on the point of tears. Jia Rong put on his most winning smile.
‘Come on now, forgive and forget, won’t you, just this once?’
He knelt once more, but she turned her head away and ignored him. He got to his feet again, still smiling.
You-shi made the servants bring a basin of water and a vanity-box, so that Xi-feng could wash her face and hands and comb her hair, and gave orders to hurry on the dinner. Xi-feng insisted that she must go back, but You-shi was equally insistent that she should stay and eat with them.
‘If you go off now like this, how shall we ever have the face to visit you at your place in the future?’
Jia Rong added his own smiling persuasion.
‘Come on, Auntie! I promise that in future I shall serve you as a truly devoted nephew, strike me dead if I don’t!’
Xi-feng gave him a look.
‘Pshaw! Who believes –?’
But she did not finish.
The maids and old women had been busy meanwhile laying the table. You-shi made a selection from the dishes with her own chopsticks to put on Xi-feng’s plate and Jia Rong knelt down beside her and offered her a cupful of wine. When Xi-feng and You-shi had eaten, a maid served them with tea to rinse their mouths with and then with a better tea to drink. After a couple of sips of the latter, Xi-feng rose to go. Jia Rong saw her all the way back to her own place.
As soon as she was back, Xi-feng went into the Garden to tell Er-jie about these latest developments. She told her how worried she had been when she heard about the lawsuit, and what she had found out as a result of her inquiries. Then she explained what had to be done now in order to ensure that none of the others got into trouble.
But if you want to know how Xi-feng’s plan turned out in the event, you will have to read the following chapter.
CHAPTER 69
A scheming woman kills with a borrowed knife And one who has ceased to hope swallows gold and dies
Er-jie was full of gratitude when she heard what Xi-feng was planning to do for her and gladly accompanied her to the inner mansion. You-shi, feeling that – in spite of what had been agreed – she could hardly stay away when her own step-sister was being formally presented to the family, went along with them, on the express understanding that she herself would say nothing and that, in the event of there being any opposition, Xi-feng would take sole responsibility.
When the three of them arrived in Grandmother Jia’s apartment, the old lady was talking to Bao-yu and the girls – such conversations, enlivened by much joking and laughter, being nowadays her principal source of amusement. Seeing Xi-feng come in accompanied by a beautiful young woman, she screwed up her eyes and peered at the latter with curiosity.
‘Well now, who is this charming young person?’
‘Have a good look, Grandma,’ said Xi-feng, taking Er-jie by the hand and drawing her forwards. ‘Tell me what you think of her. – Quick, make your kotow!’ she whispered to Er-jie. ‘This is Lian’s grandmother.’
When Er-jie had completed her obeisance, Xi-feng pointed to each of the cousins in turn and told her their names.
‘You can make your curtseys to them later, after you have been to see Their Ladyships,’ she said.
Er-jie had to greet each of the cousins by name, as if she were meeting them for the first time. After that she stood, with head demurely lowered, to one side.
Having studied her face for some moments, Grandmother Jia raised her head to think, but presently gave up with a laugh.
‘It’s no good,’ she said. ‘I can’t think who it is. But I’m sure I’ve seen her somewhere else before.’
‘Never mind about that, Grandma,’ said Xi-feng laughing. ‘Just tell me what you think of her. Is she prettier than me?’
Grandmother Jia put on a pair of spectacles.
‘Bring the child a little closer,’ she told Faithful and Amber. ‘Let me have a look at her skin.’
Amid suppressed titters from the others present, Er-jie was hustled forward. Grandmother Jia looked her up and down very carefully.
‘Hold her hand out,’ she said to Amber. ‘Let me look at her hand.’
When the hand had been inspected, Grandmother Jia took off her spectacles and laughed.
‘Flawless. Yes, she’s prettier than you.’
Xi-feng laughed too, then, kneeling down, proceeded to repeat, more or less word for word, what she had told You-shi she would say.
‘Will you be very kind and let her stay here, Grandma? She wouldn’t begin living with Lian until next year, when she is out of mourning.’
‘Yes, that’s perfectly all right,’ said Grandmother Jia. ‘Very good of you to have suggested it. I’m very glad. Provided, as you say, that she and Lian don’t start sleeping together until next year.’
Xi-feng kotowed. Then she asked Grandmother Jia if she would mind deputing two of her women to take Er-jie round to see Lady Xing and Lady Wang, and whether it would be all right for them to say that Er-jie was being installed on Grandmother Jia’s initiative. The old lady consented and Er-jie was led off to see the other ladies. Xi-feng’s failure to take adequate steps for procuring her husband an heir had for some time now been a source of anxiety to Lady Wang, for she knew that her niece’s reputation must be suffering as a consequence. She was therefore delighted, when Er-jie was presented to her as Jia Lian’s new concubine, to learn that it was Xi-feng herself who was responsible for the arrangements. Now that Er-jie’s union with Jia Lian had been brought into the open, it was possible to move her from the Garden into the apartment in Xi-feng’s courtyard that had been prepared for her.
Meanwhile Xi-feng’s agents were secretly inciting Zhang Hua to claim his affianced wife, promising that she would come to him with a generous trousseau and that they would give him a substantial sum of money to set up house with. It was no easy task persuading him, since from the very start he had had little stomach for this case. His apprehensions seemed justified when, in answer to the summons, Jia Rong’s representative eventually appeared in court and made the following statement:
‘Zhang Hua had already broken off his engagement with the young lady before she entered our house. She did so, in any case, merely as a kinswoman, already related to the family by her sister’s marriage. There was never any talk of forcing her into matrimony. Zhang Hua trumped up this case against my master because my master was attempting to recover some money owing to him which Zhang Hua was unable to pay.’
The Censor, whose past connections with both the Jia and Wang families, not to mention the substantial bribe he had pocketed only the night before, inclined him to accept this as a reliable version of the facts, ruled that Zhang Hua was a person of untrustworthy character, driven by destitution to make a number of malicious and defamatory accusations against the defendants, none of which could be substantiated. The charges in the indictment were dismissed and Zhang Hua was sentenced to be flogged and driven from the court. By distributing money in the right quarters, Cheerful was able to ensure that the flogging administered was a light one and got to work again on Zhang Hua as soon as it was over.
‘There’s no question you were betrothed to this girl. If you go back and tell them that it’s the girl you want and nothing else, they’re sure to give judgement in your favour.’
Zhang Hua was induced to do this and the court, after further persuasions from Wang Xin, did in fact give judgement in his favour.
‘Zhang Hua is to repay the full amount owed by him to the Jia family within the period specified. But provided that he does so, his affianced wife is to be restored to him as soon as he is in a position to receive her.’
This judgement was confirmed in the presence of Zhang Hua’s father, who was specially summoned to the Court of Censors to hear it. When Cheerful explained to the old man that this meant that he and his son were to get not only the promised money but also Er-jie and her trousseau as well, he was naturally delighted and at once went along to the Jia mansion to claim the bride. Xi-feng went in feigned alarm to report this latest development to Grandmother Jia.
‘It’s all the fault of Cousin Zhen’s wife,’ she said. ‘It seems that the Zhang family had never agreed to break off this earlier engagement, and now they have sued us and the court has given judgement against us.’
Grandmother Jia summoned You-shi from the other mansion and rebuked her for her carelessness.
‘It seems that your sister’s betrothal before she was born to this Zhang person was never properly broken off, and now his family are suing us. I can’t imagine what you thought you were at when you made this arrangement!’
‘But it was broken off,’ You-shi protested. ‘They even took our money.’
‘When Zhang Hua was giving evidence, he said he’d never seen any money,’ Xi-feng chipped in. ‘He said no one had ever approached him about breaking off the engagement. His father said your step-mother mentioned something about breaking it off but there was nothing final. He said that when your step-mother died, you moved your sister in regardless and married her to Lian as his Number Two. No one present at the time was able to refute those statements, so they were able to get away with them. It’s a good job Lian hasn’t slept with the girl yet. As far as that goes, there is nothing to stop her going back to Zhang. The only thing is, it would be a frightful loss of face for us to let her go again having once moved her in.’
‘Yes, but as you say, Lian hasn’t touched her yet,’ said Grandmother Jia. ‘It would be even worse for our reputation to hold on to someone who by rights is somebody else’s wife. Much better hand her over to him. We can easily find someone else for Lian.’
‘The engagement really was broken off,’ said Er-jie, and named the date on which it had occurred. ‘My mother gave the Zhangs twenty taels for doing it. It must be because they are so hard up that they have brought this case against you. The things they have been saying are quite untrue. My sister made no mistake.’
‘It only goes to show how dangerous people like this are to provoke,’ said Grandmother Jia. ‘Well, in that case, Feng, you had better go and see what you can do about it.’
Whatever reluctance she may have felt, Xi-feng was obliged to say that she would. She had Jia Rong summoned to her room to talk to him about it. Jia Rong knew her feelings well enough – but after all, how could a family like the Jias really contemplate handing over one of their women to a beggar? The idea was preposterous. When he reported the conversation to his father, Cousin Zhen sent someone to have a word privately with Zhang Hua.
‘Look here, you’ve had a lot of money out of them,’ the man said. ‘Why do you have to have the woman as well? If you insist too hard, my master is likely to start getting angry with you, and frankly I wouldn’t give much for your chances if he does. Why don’t you and your father go back to where you came from? With the money you’ve already got you’d have no difficulty in finding yourself a very nice little wife, and if you decide to go away, I can promise you some more money towards your travel expenses.’
This sounded to Zhang Hua like good advice, and after talking it over with his father, he agreed that if the money he had already received were to be made up to a total of one hundred taels, he and his father would undertake to make themselves scarce. The money was handed over, and father and son rose at four o’clock next morning to begin the journey back to their native village. As soon as he had made sure of their dep
arture, Jia Rong went round to tell Grandmother Jia and Xi-feng.
‘Zhang Hua and his father have run away. The charges in the indictment were all fabricated and they lost their nerve because they thought they were going to be found out. The court knows all the facts now but has decided not to prosecute. So that is the end of the affair.’
Xi-feng was not as put out by this as might have been expected.
‘After all,’ she told herself, ‘even if I bad insisted on Zhang Hua taking her away, there was always the possibility that Lian might get back in time to reclaim her. He would only have had to give Zhang a little money and Zhang would surely not have refused to give her back. Perhaps it’s just as well that she’s staying here. I have her here safely under my thumb while I think of some other way of dealing with her. But I don’t like this idea of Zhang going off nobody knows where. Suppose he talks? Or suppose one day he finds some means of reopening the case? Everything I have done up to now will turn out to have been simply working towards my own downfall. Oh, I should never have put a weapon like this into somebody else’s hand!’