“As soon as the boy comes back from Abbot Wu, I will send him with you to Pan,” Ximen said.
“We won’t wait for him,” Bojue said. “I will go at once. I most sincerely hope that your lady may be cured, and, if there is anything I can do to help, I will do it, even if I have to go on my head instead of my feet.” He went off with Xie Xida.
When Daian came back with the charms, they were put upon the door of Li Ping’er’s rooms. But that night she was terrified once more. She said to Ximen Qing: “He has been with two other men to carry me off. They ran away as you came in.”
“Don’t believe it,” Ximen Qing said. “Brother Ying says it is all due to your weakness. He tells me that he knows a priest called Pan who will give us some very efficacious charms and medicine, and who has the power to drive out devils. I have told Brother Ying to get him to come tomorrow morning, and I’m sure he will get rid of all the disturbing influences.”
“Oh, Brother,” said Li Ping’er, “send for him this very moment. The dead man has gone away in a fury, and I am afraid he will come back and take me with him. Send for him now.”
“If you are afraid, I will send for Wu Yin’er to keep you company,” Ximen said.
Li Ping’er shook her head. “I don’t wish to trouble her,” she said, “I shouldn’t like her to lose business.”
“What about old woman Feng, then?”
Li Ping’er nodded, and Ximen Qing sent Laian for the old woman. But the door was locked, and the old woman was not to be found. Laian told the Beanpole that, when she came back, she must be told to go at once to Ximen Qing’s house because the Sixth Lady needed her. Ximen Qing told Daian that, early next morning, he must go with Ying Bojue to the Temple of the Five Sacred Mountains to bring the priest Pan.
The next day, Nun Wang came. She brought a box of specially treated rice, twenty large milk biscuits and a small box of preserved eggplants. When she arrived, Li Ping’er bade Yingchun help her to sit up in bed. Nun Wang made a reverence, and Li Ping’er asked her to sit down.
“Teacher,” she said, “I have not seen you since you had those texts printed for me. Though I have been so very ill, you have never come to see me.”
“I did not know about your illness, Lady,” the nun said. “It was only yesterday that the Great Lady sent a servant to the convent and I heard for the first time that you were ill. And, speaking of the printing of those texts, you don’t know what trouble I had with that wicked old nun Xue. You remember it was arranged that we should both make terms with the printer. I got nothing out of it, but she secretly persuaded the printer to give her five taels. She did not even let me see a penny. Lady, when that bad old woman dies, she will go to the very depths of Hell. She put me in such a state that I even forgot the Great Lady’s birthday, and I did not come.”
“Let her go her evil way,” Li Ping’er said, “but do not quarrel with her.”
“I had no intention of quarreling with her,” the nun said.
“The Great Lady is annoyed with you,” Li Ping’er said. “She says you have never read the scriptures for her.”
“Oh, Buddha!” Nun Wang cried, “I don’t profess to be a saint, but I should not dare to forget a thing like that. I have been reading them all the time. I only stopped yesterday when the month was up. I have just seen her and told her about my troubles. I told her that I had only just heard about your illness, and I have nothing to offer but this rice, the preserved fruits, and the biscuits you will perhaps make into sop. The Great Lady told Xiaoyu to bring me here to see you.”
Xiaoyu opened the boxes. Li Ping’er looked at them and thanked the nun. Then the nun said: “Sister Yingchun, please go and warm two of these biscuits. I want to see your lady take something to eat.”
Yingchun took away the things and Li Ping’er ordered tea to be brought for the nun.
“I have had tea in the Great Lady’s room,” the nun said. “I only want to see you eat some porridge.”
Yingchun set the table and brought in four kinds of tea cakes for Nun Wang. For Li Ping’er she brought some porridge with a plate of preserved fruits and two steamed milk biscuits. There were two bowls of porridge and a pair of small ivory chopsticks. Yingchun and Ruyi’er held the bowls and assisted Li Ping’er. But she only took two or three mouthfuls of porridge and nibbled at the cakes. Then she shook her head and would eat no more. She told them to take the things away.
“We must eat and drink,” Nun Wang said. “Do have a little more. This porridge is so good.”
“I would if I could,” Li Ping’er said.
Nun Wang helped to pull the bedclothes over her and, as she did so, noticed how wasted Li Ping’er had become. She was shocked. “Lady,” she said, “you were fatter than this when I saw you last. What has made you so thin?”
“She was better for a while,” Ruyi’er said. “Then something angered her, and her illness came back again. Father sent for the doctor and he gave her some medicine that made her very much better. But, in the eighth month, the baby took fright and was very ill. My lady watched him day and night and never slept at all. She hoped he would recover, but, alas, he died. Then she cried and sobbed all day. Then, too, she was made angry, and, all things considered, got into a state that no one could stand, even if she were strong as iron or stone. Anybody but my lady would have complained and so got rid of her trouble, but she never tells anybody, only reluctantly when she is made to do so.”
“Who upset her?” the nun asked. “Your master loves her, and the Great Lady respects her. There are only the few other ladies, and I can’t think any one of them would offend her.”
“Ah, you don’t know,” Ruyi’er said. She told the younger maid to go and see if the door was fast and continued: “It was the Fifth Lady. It was her cat that scratched the baby and made him have a fit. Master came and asked my lady, but she would not tell him and, in the end, the Great Lady told him. He killed the cat. The Fifth Lady never relented. She went on making trouble with us. In the middle of the eighth month the baby died. The Fifth Lady was delighted and has insulted us every day since. We can hear clearly everything she says, and my lady cannot help being upset. She weeps nearly all the time. Anger and sorrow together have gradually brought her to this pass. Only Heaven knows what a good heart she has. She never shows an angry face to the other ladies. If she has nice clothes, she will not wear them unless the other ladies have dresses like them. There is not a single person in the house to whom my lady has not been kind at some time or another. The trouble is that, though they are ready enough to take things from her, they never have a kind word to say about her.”
“What do you mean?” Nun Wang said.
“There is old lady Pan, the Fifth Lady’s mother. Whenever Father stays the night in the Fifth Lady’s room, the old lady comes and sleeps here. And when she goes away, my lady never lets her go without stuff for making clothes or shoes. She gives her money too. Yet the Fifth Lady never has a good word to say about it.”
“Oh, woman!” cried Li Ping’er, “why do you have so much to say? Let them do what they like. Heaven is mighty, yet Heaven never boasts; and Earth is solid, yet Earth never speaks.”
“Buddha!” said Nun Wang, “who would have known that you had such a sweet disposition? But Heaven has eyes. Heaven will see your good works and reward you.”
“Teacher,” Li Ping’er said, “what reward shall I receive? Not even my child is left to me. I suffer so much pain, and have an ailment so unpleasant that even as a spirit I shall be unclean. I am going to give you some money so that, when I am dead, you can employ a few nuns to read as many texts as you can find so that this nasty disease may not cling to me forever.”
“You are looking too far ahead,” Nun Wang said. “Your heart is so good that Heaven cannot fail to protect you.”
While they were talking, Qintong came. “Father says this room must be cleaned,” he told Yingchun. “Uncle Hua has come to see your lady. He is in the outer court now.”
Nun Wang st
ood up. “I must go to the inner court,” she said.
“Teacher,” said Li Ping’er, “don’t go away. I wish you to stay for a few days. There is something I should like to say to you.” The nun promised to stay.
Ximen Qing brought in Uncle Hua. Li Ping’er lay still upon her bed and did not speak.
“I never knew you were ill until yesterday,” Uncle Hua said. “I have come especially to see you.”
“It is very good of you,” Li Ping’er said. She turned her face to the wall.
Hua stayed a short time, then went back to the outer court with Ximen Qing. “Our late noble relative,” he said to his host, “when he was Governor of Guangnan, had some gynura medicine. It is a certain cure for all those troubles from which women suffer. If she takes five fen of it, mixed with a little wine, it will stop that flow of blood. I know she has this medicine. Why has she not tried it?”
“She has tried it,” Ximen Qing said. “Yesterday the Prefect Hu came to see me. I told him about her illness, and he, too, told me of some medicine. That was white cockscomb flowers. It is mixed with a little charcoal and taken with wine. She took it, and, for a day, the flow of blood ceased, but the next day it was worse than ever.”
“It is a very difficult case,” Hua Ziyu said. “I think, brother-in-law, that you would do well to look out for a coffin for her. I will send my wife to see her tomorrow.” He went away.
While the nurse and Yingchun were changing the bed for Li Ping’er, old woman Feng came. She made a reverence, and Ruyi’er said to her: “You are a fine one, Mother Feng! You have never been near your mistress, and yesterday Master had to send for you. Laian said your door was locked. Where were you?”
“I can’t tell you what a hard life I have,” old woman Feng said. “Every day I go to the temple for my religious devotions. I set off in the morning and, for some reason or other, I never get back till night. When I get home, there is always some priest to come and see me. Father Zhang, or Father Li, or Father Wang.”
“An old woman like you, and so many priests to visit you!” said Ruyi’er. “This is the first time we have heard of Father Wang.”
Li Ping’er smiled. “The old woman always talks nonsense,” she said.
Then Ruyi’er said: “Old woman, you refuse to come when you are sent for. For the last few days my lady has had nothing to eat, and she has been terribly depressed. You have only just come, yet you have made her laugh already. If you will only stay a few days, I’m sure she will soon be better.”
“Yes,” old woman Feng said, “I am a good doctor when it is a question of driving care away.” She laughed. Then she looked at Li Ping’er. “Lady,” she said, “I had hoped to find you better. Are you able to get out of bed when you wish to relieve nature?”
“If only she could, it would be splendid,” Yingchun said. “Until a few days ago, she could just manage to get up, we helping her, of course, but lately she has not been able, and we have had to put papers in the bed.”
As they were talking, Ximen Qing came in. “Old woman Feng,” he said, “you ought to be here nearly all the time. Why have you been so long away?”
“My Lord,” the old woman said, “you know this is the season for preserving vegetables. I have been preserving some, so that if anyone is brought to me, I shall be able to give her something to eat. I have no other way of buying them.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Ximen Qing said. “Yesterday I was having the vegetables on my farm dug up, and you might have had a bushel or two.”
“I am greatly obliged to your Lordship,” the old woman said. Then she went to another room. Ximen Qing sat down beside the bed and Yingchun burned incense.
“How do you feel today?” Ximen asked Li Ping’er. Then he said to Yingchun: “Has your mother had any gruel?” Yingchun told him that the nun had brought some milk biscuits but that her mistress had only tasted them and taken a tiny bit of porridge.
“Brother Ying and the boy went for Priest Pan,” Ximen Qing said, “but he was not at his temple. Tomorrow I will send Laibao.”
“Oh, do send for him at once,” Li Ping’er said. “I see that dead man whenever I close my eyes.”
“It is all because your mind is so enfeebled,” Ximen said. “Try to pull yourself together and don’t let such ideas get hold of you. When the priest comes he will exorcise any evil spirits there may be about. He will give you medicine too, and you will soon be well again.”
“Brother,” Li Ping’er said, “there is no hope for me. I had always hoped to live long years with you, and now I am dying when I am only twenty-seven. What an evil fate is mine that I must leave you! I shall go and never see you again until you come to the gate of the spirits.” She held his hand in hers and cried, sobbing softly, for she was too weak to make a noise. Ximen cried with her.
“Sister,” he said, “if there is anything that you would say to me, say it.”
In the midst of their grief, Qintong came and said: “An officer has come from your court. He says that tomorrow is the fifteenth, and there is a great deal of important business to be done. They wish to know whether you will be there or not.”
“I cannot go tomorrow,” Ximen Qing said. “Give the man a card, and tell Magistrate Xia that he must do all that is necessary.”
“Brother,” said Li Ping’er, “you must go to your office and not neglect your duties. Though I am dying, I shall not be gone so soon.”
“But I am going to stay and watch over you,” Ximen said. “I want you to keep firm hold on yourself and not let your thoughts bother you so much. Uncle Hua told me that I should get the boards for your coffin and so keep the evil ones away. When I have done so, you will certainly begin to improve.”
Li Ping’er nodded. “Very well,” she said, “but don’t let yourself be cheated. You must not spend more than ten taels on the wood. And, if you really look upon me as your wife, don’t have my body burned, but lay me beside your dead wife. So, perhaps, I may benefit from some of the offerings made at her tomb. And do not spend too much money on those boards for my coffin. You have a great household, and you must think of the future.”
These words pierced Ximen’s heart as though they had been a sword. “Sister,” he said, “why do you talk like this? Even if I were a poor man, I would not treat you so disgracefully.”
Then Wu Yueniang came with a small box of apples. “My sister-in-law has sent these especially for you,” she said to Li Ping’er. She told Yingchun to wash and peel them.
“It is very kind of Mistress Wu,” Li Ping’er said. When Yingchun had peeled some of them, she cut them into slices, put them on a plate and tried to help Li Ping’er to eat one. But she could only suck it and spit it out. Yueniang was afraid they might be disturbing her, so she made her turn her face to the wall, and she and Ximen Qing went out to talk about her.
“I am afraid she is in a very bad way,” Yueniang said. “You ought to go and buy some boards for her coffin before it is too late.”
“So Brother Hua has just said, and I have spoken to her about it. She said I must not spend much money because I have so many people to provide for and I must think of the future. It went to my heart. But I think I will wait until Priest Pan has been, and then I’ll see about the coffin.”
“You don’t realize the situation,” Yueniang said. “Look how she has changed. She has lost appetite till she cannot even drink a drop of water. You still hope for her recovery. We must face the facts. If she does get better, we can give the coffin to somebody for charity. It will not cost us much.”
“I will do what you say,” Ximen Qing said. He went to the great hall and sent for Ben the Fourth. “You know who has good coffin boards for sale,” he said. “Go with Chen Jingji, my son-in-law, and see if you can find a good set. Take the money with you.”
“I believe that Captain Chen, in the Main Street, has some good boards,” Ben the Fourth said.
Ximen Qing sent for Chen Jingji and said to him: “Go to the Great Lady and ask her for
five pieces of silver. Then go to look at the boards with Ben the Fourth.” Chen Jingji hurried away, got the money, and went out with Ben the Fourth. In the afternoon they came back.
“We went to Chen’s place and looked at all the boards he has,” Jingji said, “but we did not think them either particularly good or very cheap. On our way back we met Master Qiao. He told us that a scholar named Shang had a very fine set of boards. His father bought them at Chengdu in Sichuan, where he used to be a judge. He brought them for his own lady. There were two sets originally and they have used one. They are of the kind known as Peach Flower Cavern. The set is complete in five pieces—sides, cover, top and bottom. They are asking three hundred and seventy taels. We went with Master Qiao to see the set, and it certainly is a very fine one. Master Qiao bargained with Scholar Shang for a long time, and at last the scholar agreed to reduce his price by fifty taels. He would not have sold the boards at all, he said, if he had not wanted the money to pay for his expenses when he goes to the Capital next year to sit for the public examination.”
“Take three hundred and twenty taels at once and secure the boards,” Ximen Qing said. “There is no time to lose.”
“He has taken two hundred and fifty taels as a deposit,” Jingji said, “so that leaves us with seventy more to pay.” They went again to the inner court and Yueniang gave them another seventy taels. Then they went to Master Shang’s. That evening a number of porters brought the boards, carefully wrapped in red drugget. They set them down in the courtyard. Ximen Qing examined them and found them excellent. He sent for carpenters to saw them, and the wood gave out a delightful fragrance. The main piece was about five inches thick, two feet five inches broad and seven feet five inches long. Ximen Qing was quite satisfied. He sent for Ying Bojue to come and look at them and asked him if he had ever seen such a fine set of coffin boards in his life before. Bojue expressed his admiration.
“A perfect example of the fitness of things!” he exclaimed. “Everything in the world has its proper owner somewhere. You have bought these boards for my sister-in-law, and it is clear evidence that she did well when she married you.”
The Golden Lotus, Volume 2 Page 15