Yulou could not help laughing. “How do you manage to get all this information?” she said.
“It’s common gossip,” Jinlian said. “Everybody knows it. If you bury a body in the snow, it always turns up again when the snow melts.”
“She said her husband was dead,” Yulou said. “Who is this husband, then?”
“The clouds never disperse unless there is wind,” Jinlian said, “and business is never done without telling a lot of lies. She would never have got the job if she hadn’t deceived us. You remember what she looked like when she first came. Half starved, yellow-faced, as thin as a lath, and her limbs shaking. Now she has enjoyed good food for a couple of years, she starts stealing our husband. If we don’t put a stop to it, she will have a baby one of these days, and, if that happens, where shall we be? And whose baby would it be?”
“There is something in what you say,” Yulou said, laughing. They stayed talking for a while and then went to the inner court to play chess.
One afternoon, Ximen Qing reached Qinghe. He told Ben the Fourth and Wang Jing to take the luggage home, and went with Captain He to the office. He helped to make the necessary arrangements there, then mounted his horse and rode home.
Wu Yueniang received him in the hall and gave him water to wash his face. He ordered a maid to set up a table in the courtyard that he might offer incense to Heaven and Earth in thanksgiving for his safe return. Yueniang asked him why he did this.
“Oh, it was terrible,” Ximen Qing said, “I very nearly lost my life. On the twenty-third, when we had crossed the Yellow River and come to the place called the Town of the Eight Corners, there was a frightful storm. Dust and sand filled our eyes and we could make no progress at all. It was late and for a hundred miles we had not seen a soul. We were alarmed because we had so much luggage and we were afraid highwaymen might suddenly attack us. Then we came to an old monastery. The monks were so poor that they were going without light. The only thing they could give us was porridge. We spent the night there and started off again the next morning. The wind had stopped. It was a much worse journey than the last one. The last was during the hot season, but it was more agreeable than this, because, not only was the weather terribly cold this time, but we always felt so insecure. It was a good thing for us we were on the plain when the storm arose. If it had come on while we were crossing the Yellow River, I don’t know what might have happened. I vowed to offer a pig and a sheep to Heaven and Earth on the first day of the twelfth month.”
“Why did you go to the office before you came home?” Yueniang asked.
“Magistrate Xia has been promoted to be an officer of the Imperial Escort,” Ximen said. “That is an appointment in the Capital and he is not coming back here. The new captain is He Yingshou, a nephew of Eunuch He. He is a boy of about twenty. He is quite ignorant and the old eunuch begged me to look after him. I couldn’t leave him to find his own way to the office. He knows nothing about the place. He has bought Xia’s house for twelve hundred taels. I arranged it all for him. He is going to send for his family as soon as Xia’s people have left.
“I can’t imagine who told Xia about these promotions. He sent a large sum of money to his Holiness Lin, and his Holiness told Marshal Zhu that he would like to retain his present position for another three years instead of going to the Capital. The Marshal spoke to his Eminence about the matter and it made matters most awkward. If it hadn’t been for our kinsman Zhai speaking on my behalf, I might have lost my position. Our kinsman was very much annoyed. He said I had been very careless. I can’t think who told Magistrate Xia.”
“If you will forgive my saying so,” his wife said, “you are indeed careless. Whenever you hear anything, you tell it first to one person and then to another. You like to show people how rich and powerful you are. You carelessly let things slip, and those who hear do not lose the opportunity. Then there is trouble. People worm secrets out of you and go off and use the information to their own advantage. You never hear about it till they have done all they wish to do.”
“When I left Magistrate Xia,” Ximen said, “he begged me repeatedly to do anything I could for his family. We must send them a present and call.”
“It will be Mistress Xia’s birthday on the second of next month,” Yueniang said. “We will go then. As for you, you must be careful. Remember the saying: Never let people know more than a quarter of what you know yourself. Even your own wife may take advantage of you, not to mention other people.”
As they were talking, Daian came and said: “Ben the Fourth would like to know if you are going to his Lordship Xia’s place.”
“Tell him to go when he has had something to eat,” Ximen said.
Li Jiao’er, Meng Yulou, Pan Jinlian and Ximen Dajie came to welcome him home. They sat down together and talked.
Ximen Qing remembered that the last time he had returned from the Eastern Capital, Li Ping’er was still alive. He went to her room, bowed before her tablet and wept. Ruyi’er, Yingchun, and Xiuchun came to kowtow to him. Then Yueniang sent Xiaoyu to ask him to go to dinner in the inner court. He gave orders that those who had accompanied him on his journey should be given five taels of silver.
He sent a card to Major Zhou, and told Laixing to get half a pig, half a sheep, forty measures of fine flour, a sack of white rice, ajar of wine, two hams, two geese, ten chickens, and take them, with a supply of condiments, to Captain He. He also sent a cook.
He was in the hall when Qintong came and said that Scholar Wen and Ying Bojue had come to see him. Ximen Qing ordered the boy to bring them in. They bowed several times and said: “What a rough journey you must have had.” Ximen thanked them for looking after his house in his absence.
“This morning, when I awoke,” Bojue said, “I heard the crying of the magpies on the roof, and my wife said to me: ‘I expect that means his Lordship Ximen is back. Why don’t you go and see?’ I said: ‘Brother started on the twelfth and he hasn’t been away a fortnight yet. How can he be back already?’ ‘Well,’ my wife said, ‘whether he is back or not, you must go.’ She told me to dress and come, and here you are. I congratulate you.”
He saw the wine and rice and other things collected outside the hall. “To whom are you sending these things?” he said.
“I came back with Captain He, the new magistrate,” Ximen said. “His family has not come yet and he is staying at the office for the time being. I am sending him some provisions. I have invited him to dinner tomorrow, and I am going to ask you and Uncle Wu to come too.”
“I must remind you,” Bojue said, “that Uncle Wu and you are officers. Master Wen wears a scholar’s hat. I am only a private person, and it seems hardly fitting that I should join you. I don’t know what he may think. He may laugh at me.”
“If that’s all that is worrying you,” Ximen said, laughing, “I will lend you my silk hat, and, when Captain He asks who you are, I’ll tell him you’re my eldest son. Will that suit you?”
They laughed. “I am serious,” Bojue said. “My size in hats is eight and three-tenths. Yours won’t fit me.”
“I take a hat eight and three-tenths too,” Scholar Wen said. “Perhaps you would like my scholar’s hat!”
“No,” Ximen Qing said. “Don’t let him have it. When he goes to pawn himself, he might wear it.”
“Well said, Sir,” Scholar Wen said, “the joke is on both of us.”
Tea was brought. “I suppose his Lordship Xia will stay at the Capital,” Scholar Wen said, “or is he coming back
“He is now an officer of the Imperial Escort,” Ximen said. “He wears embroidered robes and carries a wand. It is an exalted position and he will not come back.”
He looked at the card that was to go with the provisions for Captain He, and bade Daian take them. Then he went with Ying Bojue and Scholar Wen to the side room and sat down on the stove bed. He sent Qintong to tell Wu Hui, Zheng Chun, Zheng Feng and Zuo Shun that they would be wanted the following day. The table was set and they began to drink.
Ximen told a servant to get another pair of chopsticks and invite his son-in-law.
Chen Jingji came and sat down with them. They sat near the fire and, while the wine went around, Ximen Qing told them of the dangers he had passed through.
“Brother,” Bojue said, “you have a heart stout enough to carry you through a hundred dangers. Even if there had been ruffians about, they could not have harmed you.”
“‘If a good man were to govern the country for a hundred years,’” Scholar Wen said, “‘he would be able to make evil men into peaceful citizens, and could do away with the punishment of death.’* You are doing the Emperor’s service, and Heaven will not let you come to harm.”
Ximen Qing asked how things had been in the household.
“There was nothing of any consequence,” Jingji said. “His Excellency An of the Office of Works sent twice to ask if you had returned. Only yesterday a man came from him, and I told him you were not back.”
Then Ping’an came and said that the junior officers and their men were outside. Ximen Qing went to the hall and gave orders that the two officers should be admitted. They came and knelt down. “When will you assume your office?” they asked, “and what money will you require?”
“Let everything be as before,” Ximen told them.
“Last year, you were alone,” they said, “but now you are promoted to a higher office, and Captain He comes to the office also. It is not the same. There are two officers instead of one.”
“Take ten taels more, then,” Ximen Qing said.
As the two men were going away, Ximen stopped them. “You had better ask Captain He when he wishes to assume office.”
“Captain He says on the twenty-sixth,” they said.
“Very well. See that everything is ready on that day.” When the two junior officers had gone, Master Qiao came. Ximen Qing asked him to stay, but he went away as soon as he had taken tea. Ximen Qing went back to Ying Bojue and Scholar Wen, and they drank together until evening. That night, Ximen slept with Yueniang
Old woman Wen heard that Ximen had returned. She told Wang the Third, and he sent a card of invitation to Ximen Qing. In return, Ximen sent Daian with a pair of pig’s trotters, two live fish, two roast ducks and a jar of wine as a belated birthday present to Lady Lin. Lady Lin gave Daian three qian of silver.
The next day Ximen Qing entertained Captain He to dinner. It was laid in the great hall. Very careful preparations had been made. Uncle Wu, Ying Bojue, and Scholar Wen came early and took tea with Ximen Qing. He sent a man to remind Captain He. Then the singing boys came and kowtowed to Ximen.
“Why haven’t you engaged Li Ming today?” Bojue asked.
“If he doesn’t come of his own accord, I shall not send for him,” Ximen said.
Ping’an brought a card and announced Major Zhou. Uncle Wu, Scholar Wen, and Ying Bojue withdrew to a side room while Ximen Qing put on his ceremonial clothes and went to receive Major Zhou in the great hall. The Major congratulated Ximen on his promotion, and Ximen thanked him for the men who had acted as his escort on the journey to the Capital. They sat down and Zhou asked what he had seen at the Capital and in the Court. When Ximen had told him, he said: “I suppose Xia will be taking his family to the Capital?”
“Yes,” Ximen said, “but not before next month. For the time being, Captain He is living at the office, but he has bought Xia’s house. I made the arrangement myself.”
“Excellent!” Major Zhou said. Seeing the tables all set out, he asked what guests Ximen was expecting.
“It is only a very plain meal in honor of Captain He,” Ximen said. “It is the least I can do seeing that we are both in the same office.”
When Major Zhou had drunk his tea, he stood up. “One of these days,” he said, “I shall bring the officers of my command to offer you two gentlemen our congratulations.”
“You are too kind,” Ximen said. Thank you for troubling to come and see me.”
They bowed to each other. Major Zhou went away and Ximen Qing rejoined his three friends.
It was late in the afternoon when Captain He came. Ximen Qing introduced Uncle Wu and the others and they exchanged greetings. After tea, they took off their ceremonial clothes. Captain He soon realized that Ximen Qing was a very rich man, so splendid was the repast served to him. There were four singing boys playing different instruments. They drank together till the first night watch, then Captain He went back to the office. Uncle Wu, Ying Bojue, and Scholar Wen went away at the same time. Ximen Qing dismissed the singing boys, told the servants to clear everything away, and went to Pan Jinlian’s room.
Jinlian had taken particular pains to make herself look pretty and she had washed her body with perfumed water. She was expecting him and, when he came, she smiled sweetly. She took his clothes and told Chunmei to make tea. They went to bed, and, under the coverlets, embraced and pressed their tender bodies closely together. She used every one of her hundred charms to give him pleasure. They enjoyed each other for a while, then Ximen Qing found that he could not sleep. He told her how he had longed for her while he had been away. Then, as he was still unsatisfied, he asked her to play the flute for him. She was ready to do anything he asked, so that she might the more firmly establish her hold over him. They had been separated for a long time. She had been starved for love so long that passion set her afire. She would have made herself a part of him. She grasped his penis and wanted to suck it almost all night. He wished to make water, but she would not let him go. “Darling,” she said, “never mind how much there is; my mouth can take it all. It is chilly tonight and you might take cold if you got out of bed. It would be more trouble.”
Ximen Qing was delighted. “Dearest,” he said, “I don’t believe anyone else would love me as you do.” He made water into her mouth and she drank it gradually. “Do you like it?’ said Ximen.
“It is a little bitter,” she replied. “Give me some fragrant tea leaves to take the taste away.”
“The tea leaves are in my white silk coat,” Ximen said. “Get them for yourself.” Jinlian pulled the coat to her, took the tea leaves, and put them into her mouth.
Readers, concubines are always ready to lead their husbands on and to bewitch them. To this end, they will go to any length of shamelessness and endure any shameful thing. Such practices would be abhorrent to a real wife who had married her husband in the proper way.
Ximen Qing and Jinlian enjoyed ecstasies of pleasure that night.
The next day, Ximen Qing went to the office with Captain He. It was their first appearance in their new posts. There was a banquet, and musicians played for them. In the afternoon Ximen went home and the soldiers of his office sent a present of food. Wang the Third sent a man to ask him to dinner. Ximen was about to leave for Wang’s house, when a servant came and announced the arrival of An, of the Office of Works. Ximen Qing hurriedly put on his robes and went to welcome him.
An, who now held the rank of a Vice President, wore a girdle with a golden clasp, and a silver pheasant as the badge of his office. He was followed by a host of officers. They entered the hall, smiling, and congratulating one another.
“I have asked several times when you were expected to return,” An said, when they had sat down, “but I was told you were not yet back.”
“I could not leave the Capital until I had been presented at Court,” Ximen said.
The Golden Lotus, Volume 2 Page 35