“You said mine was no good,” Bojue said. “Do you flatter yourself that your ‘bit of broken brick’ was any better? If you ask me, your wife is that horse and I the bit of broken brick. I and your wife would make a fine pair. It would be a case of a skinny donkey going around a broken millstone.”
“Your wife, the old whore,” said Xie Xida, “has only black beans to feed the pigs with. If she offered them to a dog, the dog would refuse them.”
They joked with one another and each filled up his own cup. It was Han Daoguo’s turn. “Master, you are here,” Han Daoguo said. “How dare I go before you?”
“Don’t stand on ceremony,” Ximen Qing told him. “We must follow the order of the game.” Han Daoguo said:
“The fifth cast gives the winter plums. ‘Among the plums, I meet an angel.’”
Then it was Ximen’s turn. “I will throw a six,” he said. “The sixth cast fills the sky with stars. ‘The stars are cold: the dark green waters mirror them.’”
Ximen did throw a six. Ying Bojue said: “I am sure promotion will come to you this winter. Fortune will turn your way.” He filled a cup for Ximen.
Li Ming and the other singers came and sang for them. The party did not break up until the night watch had sounded. Ximen Qing dismissed the boys, watched the servants clear everything away, and told the four clerks to take charge in turn and see carefully to the doors and windows. Then he went home.
The next day, Ying Bojue came with Li and Huang to make a settlement of their debt. They said to Ximen Qing: “So far we have only got back fourteen hundred and fifty taels. That is not enough to cover the expenses; we can only offer his Lordship three hundred and fifty. When we receive the next payment from the authorities, we will pay the remainder.” Bojue spoke on their behalf, and Ximen Qing told Chen Jingji to weigh the money and accept it.
Huang and Li then went away, leaving the money on the table. Ximen Qing said to Ying Bojue: “Brother Chang told me that he had got a house. He wants thirty-five taels. He came the other day, but I could not attend to him because the baby was ill. I don’t know whether he mentioned the matter to you or not.”
“I told him he had no business to worry you when your little son was ill,” Bojue said. “I said you couldn’t be expected to discuss matters of that sort when you were so terribly anxious. ‘Keep the landlord quiet,’ I said to him, ‘and I will see our brother and get it fixed up for you.’”
“We will have something to eat and then you can take him fifty taels,” Ximen said. “This is an auspicious day and he can settle the matter now. Tell him to spend anything that is left over on setting up a small shop so that he can make a little money for himself. That ought to be enough for his wife and himself.”
Bojue thanked him. Food was brought, and they ate it together. Afterwards, Ximen told Bojue that he would not detain him, and asked him to go and arrange about Chang’s house.
“I should like one of your servants to go with me,” Ying Bojue said.
“Nonsense,” said Ximen Qing. “Put the money in your sleeve and take it to him. That’s all that’s necessary.”
“I don’t mean that,” Bojue said, “but I have other matters to attend to. It is my cousin Du’s birthday. I sent him a present this morning and he sent a boy to ask me to go and see him this afternoon. I shan’t be able to come back and report to you. If you will let one of your boys come with me, he can come and tell you when we have arranged about the house.”
“Wang Jing shall go with you,” Ximen said.
Wang Jing went with Bojue to see Chang Zhijie. Chang was at home and invited Bojue to go in. Bojue showed him the money. “His Lordship,” he said, “told me to come and arrange with you about the house. I am very busy and have to go and see my cousin Du. Let us get the matter settled quickly. Then I must go.”
Chang Zhijie hastily told his wife to make some tea. “His Lordship is really very kind,” he said. “I can’t think of anyone else who would have done it.” They drank their tea and went to New Market Street. There they signed the contract and paid the landlord. Bojue told Wang Jing to go home and report to his master; then he gave the remaining silver to Chang Zhijie and went to see his cousin. Ximen Qing looked at the contract and told Wang Jing to take it back to Chang Zhijie.
CHAPTER 61
Li Ping’er Falls Ill
The cricket chirps mournfully in the dew
It frightens her as she lies on the autumn pillow.
Her tears moisten the embroidered coverlets.
Lonely she lies, her exquisite limbs are cold.
The night seems as unending as her sorrow.
The rain pours down. The lamp is very dim.
She cannot sleep.
Now the crow cries and the golden pit is cold.
One night, when Han Daoguo was at home from the shop, his wife Wang Liu’er said to him: “Through our master’s kindness we have made a good deal of money. I think we ought to prepare some sort of a feast and invite him to come. Besides, he has just lost his son and we should do something to console him. It need not be a very expensive entertainment, but it should be well done. When the people at the shop see it, they will realize that you are on very good terms with his Lordship. Such friendships as that between our master and yourself are not by any means usual. It will help when you go to the South.”
“That is just what I have been thinking,” Han Daoguo said. “Tomorrow is the fifth, but that is not a favorable day. Why don’t we give our party on the sixth? I will engage two singing girls and take my card around myself and ask him to come. At night, I will go and sleep at the shop.”
“Why should you engage singing girls?” Wang Liu’er said. “After dinner, he may wish to stay a while, and it will be awkward if there are singing girls about. Our neighbor, Mistress Luo, knows a girl called Shen. She is young and has an excellent voice. She has the advantage of being blind. We might get her to come. We can send her away when we have done with her.”
Han Daoguo agreed. The night passed. The next day he went to the shop and asked Master Wen to write an invitation card for him. Then he went himself to Ximen Qing. “Tomorrow,” he said, “I am arranging to have a very small party, and I beg you to come.” He handed his card to Ximen Qing. Ximen looked at it.
“You should not take so much trouble,” he said. “I shall be free tomorrow, and I will come as soon as I get back from the office.” Han Daoguo went away. The next morning, he sent Hu Xiu to buy food and engaged a cook. He sent a sedan chair for Miss Shen. His wife and the maids prepared some excellent tea and waited for Ximen Qing.
In the afternoon, Qintong brought a jar of grape wine and, later, Ximen Qing came in a sedan chair, followed by Daian and Wang Jing. He was wearing a zhongjing hat, a black silk gown, and black shoes with white soles. Han Daoguo welcomed him and thanked him for the wine. Ximen sat down on a chair that was set by itself in the place of honor. Wang Liu’er, in a dainty dress, came and kowtowed four times to him. Then she went out to see about the tea. Wang Jing brought it, and Han Daoguo offered a cup to Ximen; then he sat down and took a cup himself. When they had drunk their tea, Wang Jing took the cups away.
“Both when I have been here and when I have been away,” Han Daoguo said, “you have been very kind to me and my wife. I find it hard to express my gratitude. The other day, when your son died, I was not at home, and, unfortunately, my wife had a very bad cold and could not call to offer our sympathy. We have ventured to invite you today, partly in the hope of making you merry and partly as a sign of our sincere sympathy.”
“You are both very kind,” Ximen Qing said.
Wang Liu’er came and sat with them. “Have you told his Lordship?” she asked her husband.
“Not yet,” he said.
“What is that?” Ximen Qing said.
“He was going to ask two singing girls to come, but I thought they might be in the way and I wouldn’t let him send for them. We know a young lady who often visits my neighbor Luo, a certain Miss Shen. She knows all the
latest songs. The other day, when I was at your house, I saw Miss Yu. She sings well, but not so well as Miss Shen. I have asked Miss Shen to come and sing for you. If you like her singing, you may think fit to get her to sing for your ladies.”
Han Daoguo told Daian to take his master’s cloak, and the table was laid. Hu Xiu brought in the food. Wang Liu’er opened the jar and heated the wine. She carried the pot and her husband offered a cup of wine to Ximen Qing. Then Miss Shen came. Her hair was dressed high upon her head, and the ornaments and flowers she wore were very simple. Her gown was green, her skirt red. Her feet were very small. Her cheeks were the color of peach flowers, and her eyebrows long. She kowtowed to Ximen Qing. He bade her rise and asked how old she was.
“I am twenty-one,” she said.
“How many songs do you know?” Ximen asked.
“More than a hundred; some long, some short.”
Ximen asked Han Daoguo to give her a seat, and, after making a reverence, she sat down. Then she took a zither and sang “The Arbor of Fragrance in Autumn.” When they had finished their soup and other dishes had been brought, she sang “The Five Thousand Rebels.” They drank again, and Ximen Qing asked her to put down the zither and sing a short song to the accompaniment of the lute. Miss Shen was anxious to display her skill. Gently waving her silken sleeves, she took up the lute delicately, tuned it softly, and sang. The song she sang was “Sheep upon the Mountains.” Han Daoguo asked his wife to fill up a cup of wine and offer it to Ximen Qing.
Wang Liu’er said to Miss Shen: “You know another fine song. I should like you to sing it for his Lordship.”
At the first meeting with her lover
No more than twice ten springs had welcomed her.
Black is her hair like a black cloud
Her cheeks as rosy as a peach blossom
As tender as the soft shoots of the bamboo.
If she had been born of a good family
She would have been a great lady.
Alas, she has thrown away her virtue in a house of ill fame.
If she could give up that evil life and marry,
It would be better than having always to dismiss one man
To give welcome to another.
At the first meeting with her lover
She is as perfect as the moon, as graceful as a flower
A jewel amid the dust and wind
With a slim waist that a hand can encircle
And a clever mind that needs no telling.
He is full of regret that they did not meet before
Now, as they lie on the bed drinking, they repine
They pour their wine, sing softly to each other, and embrace.
One looks long and is charmed
The other gazes and is filled with delight.
They know that their joy may last for but a moment
And strive to throw foreboding to the winds.
The songs reminded Ximen Qing of his first meeting with Zheng Aiyue. He was pleased. Wang Liu’er filled his cup again and said, smiling: “My Lord, do not hurry over your wine: Miss Shen has several songs to sing yet. She has only made a beginning. You may decide to send for her to sing for your ladies. In my opinion, she is certainly cleverer than Miss Yu.”
“Miss Shen,” Ximen Qing said, “if I send someone for you at the Double Ninth festival, will you come?”
“Whenever you think fit to command me, I will come,” Miss Shen said.
Ximen Qing was pleased with the intelligent way she spoke. They drank again. Wang Liu’er thought that the girl’s presence might prove hampering to her dealings with Ximen Qing, so, after a few more songs, she told her husband to send Daian with Miss Shen back to Mistress Luo’s house. Ximen Qing gave her three qian of silver to buy strings for her instruments. When Miss Shen had thanked him, he told her that he would send someone for her on the eighth day. “My lord,” Wang Liu’er said, “you need only tell Wang Jing. I will do the rest.” Miss Shen went away. Han Daoguo went to the shop and left his wife alone with Ximen Qing. Wang Liu’er threw dice and drank with him. Their hearts began to grow warm. Ximen Qing pretended that he was going to change his clothes and went to her room. She followed him; they fastened the door and set to their pleasure. Wang Jing took a lamp and went to another room where he joined Daian and Qintong and drank wine with them.
The boy Hu Xiu stole a few cups of wine in the kitchen. Then he dismissed the cook and went to the room where Wang Liu’er had her domestic shrine. There he set down a mattress and went to sleep. But the room was next to Wang Liu’er’s, and soon the boy woke up. He could hear sounds coming from the next room. Through a crack in the partition he could see a light. He thought that Ximen Qing had gone and that Han Daoguo was sleeping there. He took a pin and made a hole in the paper. Through the hole he peeped. The candles were shining brightly. He was surprised to see Ximen Qing sporting vigorously with his master’s wife, whose legs were plainly to be seen over the frame of the bed. Ximen Qing was wearing a short silken vest and nothing at all upon the lower part of his body. At the edge of the bed, he was coming and going, plunging and prancing, making a considerable noise. The woman was saying all kinds of endearments to him. Hu Xiu heard: “My darling, if you would like to burn your naughty sweetheart, do so. Burn me whenever and wherever you like. I shall not forbid you. My body is all yours, and whatever you like to do with it, you may do.”
“But your husband may not like it,” Ximen Qing said.
“Even if that turtle had eight heads and eight galls, he would not dare not to like it; it is only by your bounty that he exists.”
“If you will love me only,” Ximen said, “I will send him and Laibao to stay in the South. I can keep them busy there buying merchandise for me.”
“Then send him,” the woman said. “Why should you keep him here? Send him away by all means, and when he comes back I will find another woman for him. I belong heart and soul to you, so I want him no longer. Do with me whatever you think fit, I shall be quite content. And if I lie to you, may this unworthy body rot utterly away.”
“You need take no oaths,” Ximen said.
Hu Xiu heard all that they said and saw all that they did.
Han Daoguo, before he left the house, had seen no sign of the boy and supposed that he had gone to the shop. But when he got to the shop and made inquiries of Wang Xian and Rong Hai, they told him that the boy was not there. Han Daoguo went home again and looked for Hu Xiu at the front and the back, but could see him nowhere. In the front court, Wang Jing, Daian and Qintong were drinking.
When Hu Xiu heard Han Daoguo coming, he hurriedly lay down again on his mattress and pretended to be asleep. His master came into the room with a light. There the boy was, snoring. Han Daoguo kicked him. “Get up at once, you rascal,” he said. “I thought you were at the shop. You have no business here. You can find a place to sleep there. Get up and come with me.” Hu Xiu got up, rubbed his eyes, and went to the shop with Han Daoguo.
Ximen Qing and Wang Liu’er enjoyed the pleasures of love for a long time. He burned the woman in three places, at the pit of the stomach, on the mount of Venus, and on the tail bone. Then she got up, dressed herself, and called her maid to bring water that she might wash her hands. Fresh wine was heated; food was brought, and they talked together. After drinking a few cups of wine, Ximen Qing mounted his horse and went away with the three boys, Daian, Wang Jing and Qintong. It was the second night watch when they reached home.
He went to see Li Ping’er. She was lying on her bed. She noticed that Ximen Qing had been drinking and asked where he had been.
“Han Daoguo invited me to go to his place. He wished to express his sympathy in the loss of our child. There was a young woman named Shen there. She sings very well, certainly more sweetly than Miss Yu, and I am going to send for her at the festival. She shall sing for you. I know how melancholy you have been, but now you must not think about the baby any longer.”
He was going to tell Yingchun to take his clothes and mak
e ready to go to bed with Li Ping’er. “No,” she said, “I am still unwell, and the maid is making some medicine for me at this moment. Won’t you go and sleep with someone else? You must have seen how ill I have been looking lately. There is hardly any breath left in my body. You will take no more pleasure with me.”
“My dearest one,” Ximen said, “I love you too dearly ever to forsake you. I want to stay with you.”
Li Ping’er looked at him and smiled. “Who can believe that deceitful tongue of yours?” she said. ‘If I were to die tomorrow, would you not forget me? Wait till I am better and, if you still wish to sleep with me, you shall.”
“Very well,” Ximen said, “if you won’t have me, I’ll go to Pan Jinlian.”
“Yes, do,” Li Ping’er said. “That is exactly where you should go. She is waiting for you in a fever of anxiety. If you do not go, she will think I have prevented you.
“In that case, I will go now.”
Li Ping’er smiled bitterly. “I was teasing you,” she said. “But please go.”
When he had gone, she got up and sat on the bed. Yingchun brought her medicine. She could not restrain her tears, and her fragrant cheeks were wet with them. She sighed as she took the medicine.
Jinlian had gone to bed when Ximen Qing came to her room. “You have gone to bed very early,” he said.
“What kind of wind has blown you here?” she said. “Where have you been drinking today?”
“Han Daoguo asked me to go to his place,” Ximen said. “He wished to distract me after my bereavement, and to make some return for the kindness I’ve shown him.”
“Looking after his wife when he was away on business, I suppose!” Jinlian said.
“Oh, no,” Ximen said, “between master and man, anything of that sort would be improper.”
“Improper, do you say? Did you put a strap about your loins to make sure that you would not overstep the mark? It is no use trying to hoodwink me. I have known all about it for some time. On your birthday, that strumpet was here flaunting a pin with the character shou that you had secretly sneaked from Li Ping’er and given to her. The Great Lady and Meng Yulou both noticed it. I told her what I thought, and she flushed crimson. But I don’t suppose she mentioned that to you. So that is where you have been today. Oh, you shameless fellow! A flat-footed, lanky, ugly-looking strumpet like that with the hair all over her forehead and lips as red as blood! What a woman! A great purple-faced wanton hussy. I can’t imagine what you find in her. And you keep her brother here so that he can run messages between the pair of you.”
The Golden Lotus, Volume 2 Page 12