Qi Xiang’er laughed. “Don’t talk nonsense, old oily mouth!”
“Are you making fun of me because I am old?” Bojue said. “I fancy I still have some good points. Anyhow, I can manage you four little strumpets without any difficulty.”
Qi Xiang’er laughed again. “Brother,” she said, “I can’t see you very well but it is obvious that you are boasting.”
“When I spend my money,” Bojue returned, “I insist upon having something worth paying for. You young strumpets of the Zheng family appear to have eaten something that makes you talk too much. You seem lost.”
“After listening to you,” said Dong Jiao’er, “she dare not open her mouth.”
“I don’t care whether she is afraid of me or not. Bring your instruments and each of you sing a song. Then I will let you go.”
“Very well,” Ximen Qing said, “two of you shall serve us with wine and the other two shall sing.”
Then Qi Xiang’er said: “I and my sister will sing.” Zheng Aiyue took her lute and Qi Xiang’er her zither. They sat down and sang very sweetly “Darkness Has Gone, the Dawn Is Here.” Dong Jiao’er offered wine to Uncle Wu, and Hong Si’er to Ying Bojue.
After they had drunk several cups of wine and the girls had finished singing, Ximen Qing still pressed Uncle Wu to stay and sent for Chunhong to sing some songs of the South. Only then did he tell Qitong to saddle a horse and take a lantern to see Uncle Wu to his home. But Wu said: “Brother, don’t order a horse for me. I will go with Brother Ying.” Ximen bade Qitong accompany them with a lantern. He himself went as far as the gate with them. As they were standing at the gate, Ximen said to Ying Bojue:
“Don’t forget about Gan. I am going to make a contract with him. Then I will join with my kinsman Qiao, and we will get the house ready for the storage of the goods.”
“I will not forget,” Bojue said. He went away with Uncle Wu. Qitong, carrying a lantern, went with them.
“My brother-in-law spoke about getting the house ready. What house does he mean?” Uncle Wu said.
“Han Daoguo has arrived with the goods he has bought,” Ying Bojue said, “and his Lordship is going to start a silk shop in the house facing his own.”
“When is he going to open it?” Uncle Wu said. “We are his kinsmen and friends, and we ought to do something to mark the occasion.”
They left the main street and came to the lane in which Ying Bojue lived. Uncle Wu said to Qitong: “Take Uncle Ying to his door.”
Bojue declined. “No,” he said, “go with your uncle. I don’t need a light. My house is close by.” They separated and Qitong went with Uncle Wu.
Ximen Qing paid and dismissed Li Ming and the others and went to sleep in Yueniang’s room.
The next day Ying Bojue brought Gan Chushen to see Ximen Qing. Gan was wearing black clothes. They discussed terms, then Ximen sent for Cui Ben and told him to go and see Master Qiao and find out what Qiao thought about the arrangement of the house, and when they should open their shop. “I will do everything your master wishes,” Qiao said to Cui Ben. “He need not worry about me.” So Ximen Qing made a contract with Gan, with Ying Bojue as the witness. It was decided that, out of the profits, three parts of every ten should be for Ximen Qing, three for Qiao, and the remaining four should be divided equally between Han Daoguo, Gan Chushen and Cui Ben. They set to work upon the warehouse, had signs painted, and only waited for the merchandise to come so that they might start business. At home, Ximen Qing cleared one of the courts for Master Wen to occupy as his secretary. He arranged to pay his new secretary three taels of silver as salary each month, and to make him appropriate gifts at the different seasons. Huatong was instructed to wait upon the scholar. When all these arrangements were completed, Ximen gave a series of parties.
After his birthday celebrations, he sent for Dr. Ren to see Li Ping’er. Then he went to the house opposite to see how the men were getting on with their work. Aunt Yang went home, but Guijie and Wu Yin’er still remained. Yueniang took three qian of silver and bought some crabs. She boiled them and, when dinnertime came, invited Aunt Wu, Guijie, Wu Yin’er and the ladies to come and enjoy them.
Yueniang had sent for old woman Liu to come and see Guan’ge. After taking tea, the old woman went with Li Ping’er to her apartments. The baby, she said, had been frightened and could not digest his food. She gave Li Ping’er some medicine for him. Yueniang gave her a small fee and dismissed her.
Meanwhile, Yulou, Jinlian, Guijie, Wu Yin’er and Ximen Dajie were in one of the flower arbors. They had a small table and played dominoes. Xue’e was there too. She lost her game and was made to drink seven or eight cups of wine. Then she went away and the others asked Li Ping’er to take her place. Jinlian asked Guijie and Wu Yin’er to sing for them. They made merry all day, and, at sunset, Yueniang had the food boxes of the two singing girls filled and sent them home.
Jinlian had had too much to drink. She saw her husband going again to Li Ping’er and remembered that, the same morning, he had sent for Dr. Ren to see her. She was consumed by jealousy but she dared not go to him because she knew the baby was not well. As she was going in the dark to her own room, she trod upon some filth. When she reached her room, she asked Chunmei for a light. Her scarlet silk shoes were ruined. Her eyebrows went up and her eyes opened wide. She told Chunmei to get a stick, take a lamp, close the corner door, and give the dog a beating. The dog set up a terrible howling. Li Ping’er sent Yingchun to say that the baby had just taken old woman Liu’s medicine and gone to sleep. She asked that Jinlian would stop beating the dog. But Jinlian sat and made no answer. The dog beating continued. At last she allowed the dog to run away and began to grumble at Qiuju. The more she looked at her shoes, the more her anger increased. She called Qiuju and said: “It was your business to drive the dog out. What do you mean by letting him stay there? Is that dog your lover that you can’t bear to part with him? My new shoes, that I’ve only worn for three or four days, are completely ruined. You know you ought to have had a light showing for me when I came in. Why did you pretend not to know I was coming?”
“Before you came,” Chunmei said, “I told her to feed the dog and put him out. She wouldn’t listen but looked at me like a fool.”
“Oh, yes, the bold slave!” Jinlian cried. “I know you must be beaten before you will do anything. Come here and look at my shoes.”
Qiuju went forward and stooped to look at them. Jinlian struck her in the face with one. The girl’s face was cut: she drew back and tried to stop the blood with her hand.
“You slave! You slave! Would you try to escape me?” Jinlian cried. Then to Chunmei: “Pull her here: drag her here, and go get the whip. Take off her clothes and let me give her thirty stripes. If she tries to get away, I’ll give her more.”
Chunmei pulled off Qiuju’s clothes. Jinlian bade her hold the girl’s hands, and the blows fell upon her body like raindrops. Qiuju shrieked and cried like a pig being killed.
Guan’ge had only just closed his eyes, and now he was waked up by the noise. Once more Yingchun came to Jinlian. “Mother asks you please to forgive Qiuju. She is afraid the noise will frighten the baby.”
Old woman Pan was lying on the bed in the inner room. When she heard the noise, she got up. She asked her daughter to stop, but Jinlian would not listen to her. When Li Ping’er sent her maid again, old woman Pan took the whip from her daughter’s hands. “Daughter,” she said, “don’t beat the girl any more. Your sister is afraid that the noise will upset the baby. I don’t mind your beating this donkey, but we must not harm the treasure of the household.”
Jinlian was already wild enough, but when she heard her mother’s words she was infuriated. Her mind was so enraged that her face became purple. She pushed her mother away and the old woman all but fell down. “You old fool,” she screamed. “Keep yourself in your place and don’t interfere with me. What treasure indeed? What donkey? You are in league with everybody else to injure me.”
“Why! nothing of
the sort,” the old woman said. “I only come to get a little cold food. Why do you treat me so badly?”
“Take your old cunt off tomorrow,” Jinlian said. “I can tell you that nobody is going to get the better of me in this place.”
The old woman went to her room and wept. Jinlian went on beating Qiuju. She beat her twenty or thirty stripes with the whip, then gave her another ten with a cane. Qiuju’s skin and flesh were torn before she let the girl go. Then she drove her nails into her cheeks and scratched her face all over.
Li Ping’er covered the baby’s ears with her two hands. Tears coursed down her cheeks. She was furious, but she did not dare to say anything more.
That day Ximen Qing had been taking wine in the house opposite with Ying Bojue, Cui Ben and his new manager, Gan. Afterwards he went to sleep with Yulou.
The next day Major Zhou invited him to go to a birthday party and he went. Li Ping’er saw that her child was no better, although he had taken old woman Liu’s medicine, and, as a result of the noise in the night, his eyes were upturned. The two nuns, Xue and Wang, came. Li Ping’er went to Yueniang’s room and said: “Here are a pair of silver lions that I have taken from the baby’s bed. I am going to give them to Sister Xue so as to have some Buddhist scriptures printed and given away in the temple on the fifteenth day of the eighth month.”
Nun Xue took the silver lions and was going away with them when Yulou stopped her. “Wait a moment,” she said. “Sister, you must get Ben the Fourth to weigh them. When we know the weight, Ben the Fourth can go with her and we shall know how much we shall have to pay for these copies of the scriptures. Ben the Fourth had better see to it, for our teacher, Xue, is not expert in such matters.”
“You are right,” Yueniang said. She sent Laian to fetch Ben the Fourth. When Ben the Fourth came, he made a reverence to the ladies and weighed the silver. It came to forty-one taels and five qian. Yueniang told him to go with Nun Xue to the printer to arrange for the printing of the texts.
Jinlian said to Yulou: “We will take the two teachers to the gate and then go to see Ximen Dajie. She is making shoes in her room.” Holding each other’s hands, they went to the outer court. Ben the Fourth and the two nuns went out, and Jinlian and Yulou went to the rooms at the side of the great hall. They found Ximen’s daughter making shoes under the eaves. Jinlian picked up the shoes and looked at them. They were of green Nanjing silk.
“You shouldn’t have made the designs in red,” Yulou said. “Blue would have been better, for you will have to have red heels.”
“I have a pair with red heels,” Ximen Dajie said. “That is why I am making this pair in red with blue heels.”
They sat down. Yulou asked if Chen Jingji was in. “He is asleep indoors,” said Ximen Dajie. “He has been drinking somewhere, I don’t know where.”
“If I hadn’t spoken as I did,” Yulou said to Jinlian, “that foolish Sixth Sister of ours would have given all that silver to the nuns. If they had once gone off with it, we should never have seen them again. That is why I suggested sending Ben the Fourth with them. They could have taken refuge with some people of importance and we should never have been able to get them out again.”
“The nuns would be fools if they didn’t make money out of rich ladies,” Jinlian said. “To get a sum like that from her is like pulling a hair out of a cow. She wishes to save the baby’s life because she knows she will never get another if this one dies, even though she gives mountains and rivers for charity. This printing of a few texts is a trifle. In our house it seems that some people are allowed to set the house on fire, but we mayn’t even light our lamps. You are no stranger and this is our sister, so there is no harm in my saying that that lady indulges herself too much. She sends for the doctor even in the early morning. Of course, it is no business of ours. What annoys me is the way she says in front of others: ‘Your father comes to see the baby and wants to sleep with me, but I always send him to the other ladies.’ I am good-natured enough in all conscience, yet she is always complaining about me. The Great Lady always seems to take her side. Yesterday, Father did not go to her room. What does she do but send a maid to the corner door to ask him to go and look at the baby. Then she took some medicine and told her husband to sleep with Wu Yin’er. You see how clever she is. He was delighted, of course, and the Great Lady didn’t seem to mind. Yesterday, when I was going to my room, I got my shoes all dirty and told my maid to drive the dog out. That displeased her, and she sent Yingchun to say the noise was frightening the baby. That old fool of a mother of mine told me to stop and said she was afraid of frightening the precious treasure. I was angry. I said something nasty to my mother, and now she has gone off in a huff. The best thing she could do, perhaps. We can manage well enough without that poor old woman.”
Yulou laughed. “How badly you have been brought up,” she said. “You should not talk like that about your own mother.”
“Well, she annoyed me. She always was deceitful and ready to take anybody’s part but mine. Anyone who will give her half a bowl of rice can always count on her support. If anyone gives her a little something she likes, she will remember it with gratitude forever. As for the other, after that baby’s birth she got our husband to stay there as if he had taken root. If he were to make her his first wife, she would throw us in the mud and trample on us. But Heaven has eyes, and that accounts for the baby’s illness.”
Then Ben the Fourth came back. He was on his way to Yueniang’s room, but, seeing the three ladies, he stopped outside the second door and did not venture to go farther. Laian came and said: “Ladies, Ben the Fourth is here.”
“Well, you rascal, let him come in,” Jinlian said. “We saw him only a moment or two ago.”
Laian told Ben the Fourth. He put something over his head and hurried through to the inner court to see Yueniang and Li Ping’er. He explained that the two nuns had given the printer forty-one taels and five qian. Five hundred copies were to be printed with silk covers, each of which would cost five fen, and a thousand copies in thinner silk that would cost three fen apiece. That would be fifty-five taels all together. We still have to pay the printer thirteen taels and five qian,” he said. “He has promised to send all the copies here on the fourteenth.”
Li Ping’er went to her room and brought a silver perfume box. She gave it to Ben the Fourth, who weighed it and found it to be fifteen taels. “Take it,” Li Ping’er said, “pay the printer and keep the rest for your expenses when you go to the temple to give out the texts. It will save you the trouble of coming to ask me again.” Ben the Fourth took the box. As he was going away, Li Ping’er said: “Fourth Brother, I thank you.”
Ben the Fourth bowed. “You are very kind,” he said. Then he went to the front court. There Jinlian and Yulou stopped him.
“Have you given the silver to the printer?” Yulou asked.
“Yes,” he said. “I have arranged for the printing of fifteen hundred copies. I paid forty-one taels and five qian, and now the Sixth Lady has given me this silver box.” Jinlian and Yulou looked at the box but said nothing. Ben the Fourth went out.
“Our Sixth Sister is wasting her money,” Yulou said. “If the baby is destined to live, nothing can kill him. If he is destined to die, his life won’t be saved by any distributing of texts. If she trusts the nuns, they will make a fool of her.”
They got up. “Let us go and look out of the gate,” Jinlian said. They asked Ximen Dajie to go with them but she declined. Pan Jinlian took Meng Yulou by the hand, and they went to the gate together. When they got there, she asked Ping’an if the house opposite had been made ready.
“Yesterday,” Ping’an said, “Father made the workmen clear it out and fix up the rooms in the back court as a warehouse. The Master of the Yin Yang came and blessed the starting of operations. The ground floor is being divided into three rooms, and shelves are being set up for the silk. The rooms at the front are to be made into a shop, and the painters have been told to decorate them. Next month the shop
will be opened.”
Yulou asked if Master Wen’s family had move in.
“Yes,” Ping’an said, “they came yesterday. This morning Father gave instructions that they were to be supplied with a bed, two tables, and two chairs.”
“Did you see his wife?” Jinlian said.
“She came in a sedan chair,” Ping’an said, “and it was too dark for me to see her.”
As they were talking, they heard ‘Ting, Ting, Ting’, and an old man came along shaking a brass rattle. “Here is the polisher of mirrors,” Jinlian said to Ping’an. “My mirror needs polishing. It is very tarnished. I told you to look out for a polisher, and you forgot all about it. Now, the very minute we come here, one comes along.”
Ping’an stopped the old man, who put down his things. “If you have any mirrors to clean,” Jinlian said to Yulou, “tell the boys to bring them out.” Then she said to Laian: “Go to my room and ask Chunmei for my mirrors, the large one and the two small ones and the square one I use for dressing. See that he gets a good polish on them.”
Yulou said to him: “Go to my room and ask Lanxiang for my mirrors.” Laian went and came back with mirrors large and small, eight altogether in his hands, and the square one pressed against his chest.
“You foolish boy,” Jinlian said, “you can’t carry all those mirrors. Why didn’t you make two journeys? You will make dents in them, holding them all together like that.”
“I have never seen that big mirror of yours,” Yulou said to Jinlian. “Where did you get it?”
“It came from the pawnshop,” Jinlian said. “I like its brightness. That’s why I keep it in my room.” She said to the boy: “Only three of those mirrors are mine.”
Yulou said: “and only two are mine.”
“Whose are the rest?” Jinlian said.
The Golden Lotus, Volume 2 Page 8