“Let me have your record of service,” Ximen Qing said. “I will speak to him for you.”
Uncle Wu rose and bowed to Ximen.
“You ought to be satisfied,” Bojue said to him. “His Lordship wouldn’t do it for anybody but you. But, after all, if he doesn’t look after your interests, whom will he bother about? A little effort on his part and, I’m sure, everything will turn out well.”
They went on drinking until the second night watch. When Li Ming was about to go away, Ximen told him to come the following day. Li Ming went out. The boys cleared everything away. When the ladies in Yueniang’s room heard that the guests in the outer court had gone, they went to their own apartments.
Pan Jinlian expected Ximen Qing to go to her room and hurried there but, as she reached the second door, she saw Ximen Qing going towards Wu Yueniang’s room. She hid herself behind the shadow wall and watched him pass. Then she went quietly after him. Yuxiao was standing at the door.
“Why haven’t you gone to your room, Fifth Mother?” she said. “Where is Grandmother?”
“Oh, that old thing has a pain,” Jinlian said, “she has gone to bed.”
She heard Yueniang say: “What made you send for those two new boys? They are no use at all. They sing the same old tune over and over again.”
“When you told them to sing ‘The Lotus Pool,’ they were not so bad,” Meng Yulou said. What are the little turtles called? They did nothing but play about all the time they were here.”
“One is Han Zuo, and the other Shao Qian,” Ximen Qing said.
“They might call themselves by any name,” Yueniang said. “We know nothing whatever about them.”
Jinlian tiptoed into the room, and stood behind the bed. Suddenly she said: “Sister, you told them to sing a song. He stopped them and told them to sing ‘I Remember the Flute Playing.’ That confused the little turtles. They didn’t know whom to obey.”
Yulou turned around quickly. “Where have you come from?” she said. “You gave me a fright, speaking suddenly like that. You might have been a ghost. How long have you been there?”
“The Fifth Lady has been standing behind you a long time,” Xiaoyu said.
Jinlian nodded her head. “My son,” she said, “don’t think yourself so clever. You always flatter yourself that nobody sees through your little tricks. What right had you to compare her to a virgin in the palace? She and I were both in the same boat; we had both been married before. How could she take off her skirt for you, so that you saw the blood upon the red azalea? I should like to know how you would prove that. I can put up with a good deal, but this is too much. You told your friends that, since she died, you have never been able to enjoy your favorite dishes. Now that Butcher Wang is dead, you have to eat your pork with the hair on. Have you had nothing but dung to eat? You regard us as beneath contempt. We don’t mind that. But the Great Lady manages the household for you, and you pay no heed to her. She who is dead is the only one worth thinking about. Why didn’t you save her when she was dying? How did you live before you met her? Now everything is wrong. Whenever her name is mentioned, you are upset. But you have taken someone to fill her place and, what’s more, you seem very glad of the chance. It looks as though the only water fit to be drunk in this house comes from her room.”
“Sister,” Yueniang said, “the good are short-lived; the wicked live a thousand years. If you have not a lathe to turn a ball, you must shape it with a chisel. Since we are dull and don’t suit him, he must do as he pleases.”
“I don’t want to be nasty,” Jinlian said, “but the things he says are so hurtful. I can’t let them go by.”
“When did I say anything of the sort, you little strumpet?” Ximen Qing said, laughing.
“The day you entertained his Grace Huang,” Jinlian answered, “you were talking to Ying the Second and Scholar Wen. If she were here, you wouldn’t care if the rest of us died tomorrow. You had better marry somebody to take her place, you rascally scamp.”
Ximen Qing jumped up and kicked her. She ran away as quickly as she could. Ximen followed her, but when he reached the door she had disappeared. Chunmei was there. He put his hand on the maid’s shoulder and went back to the inner court.
Yueniang saw that he was drunk and was anxious to get rid of him because she wished to listen to the nuns. She told Xiaoyu to take a light and take him away. Jinlian and Yuxiao were standing in a dark passage, and Ximen Qing passed them without seeing them.
“Father seems to be going to your room,” Yuxiao said.
“Yes, he is drunk. He can go to bed. I am in no hurry.”
“Mother, wait here a moment for me,” Yuxiao said, “I am going to get some fruit for you to give the old lady.” She brought the fruit. Jinlian put it in her sleeve, and went to her room. On the way, she met Xiaoyu, coming back.
“Father is looking for you,” the maid said.
Jinlian came to her door but did not go in. She peeped through the window. Ximen Qing was on the bed amusing himself with Chunmei. She did not wish to disturb them, so she went around to the other room and gave the fruit to Qiuju. She asked whether old woman Pan was in bed, and the maid told her she had been asleep for a long time. Jinlian bade her put the fruit away and went back to the inner court. The ladies were all assembled, Nun Xue was sitting on the bed, and incense was burning on a small table. They were listening with great attention to the nun’s words.
Jinlian came in suddenly, smiling. “You have had trouble already,” Yueniang said to her. “He has gone to your room. Why have you come back here instead of seeing that he gets to sleep? I am very much afraid he will beat you.”
“Do you think he’d dare?” Jinlian said, smiling.
“You talked to him too roughly,” Yueniang said. “He was drunk and, if he had got into a rage, he would certainly have beaten you. We were all very anxious. You really are naughty.”
“I am not afraid of him, even when he is in a temper,” Jinlian said. “And what a performance! You told the boys to sing one song. He stopped them and told them to sing another to suit himself. It is the Third Lady’s birthday and not the time for songs of that sort. The dead are dead. He is always trying to show how much he thought about her, and I don’t like it.”
“What is the matter, ladies?” Aunt Wu said. “I don’t understand. His Lordship came in and suddenly went out again.”
“Sister,” Yueniang said, “you don’t understand. He remembered that, on the Third Lady’s last birthday, Li Ping’er was still alive. He cried because she was not here today. He told the boys to sing ‘I Remember the Flute Playing.’ The Fifth Lady didn’t like it and began an argument with him. He flew into a temper and kicked her. Then she ran away.”
“Lady,” Aunt Yang said, “you should let your husband do what he pleases. What is the use of arguing with him? I can understand how sad he must have felt at the Sixth Lady’s death, after you had all been so long together.”
“We should never have thought of complaining about the song,” Yulou said, “but Jinlian knows all the allusions. She realized that, when he picked out that particular one, he wished to praise her who is dead, and even went so far as to compare her with an historical personage. The song describes their loves, and tells how they lived for one another. It was too much for the Fifth Lady, and she quarreled with him. That caused all the trouble.”
“How clever you are, Sister,” Aunt Yang said to Jinlian.
“There are no songs she doesn’t know,” Yueniang said. “Give her the first line and she can always tell you the last. Whenever my husband calls for a song, there is always trouble. She knows what is in his mind. She often makes him angry.”
“Of all my children,” Yulou said, jokingly, “this is the only one who has any brains.”
“I make trouble for everybody,” Jinlian said, laughing, “and now you laugh at me.”
“Sister,” Aunt Yang said, “you must let your husband have his own way. The proverb says: One night of married bliss, and l
ove stays for a hundred nights. Even if husband and wife live together only a short time, they must love one another. When the Sixth Lady died so suddenly, it must have seemed to him as though he had lost one of his fingers. It is only natural that he should grieve when he thinks about her.”
“Let him think about her, by all means,” Jinlian said, “but with moderation. We are all his ladies. He ought not to exalt one and treat the rest of us like dirt. He was angry because we didn’t wear mourning for her long enough. We did so for fifty days. Why shouldn’t that have been enough?”
“You must not be too hard on him,” Aunt Yang said.
“How quickly time flies,” Aunt Wu said. “It must be nearly a hundred days since she died.”
“When is the hundredth day?” Aunt Yang said.
“The twenty-sixth day of the twelfth month,” Yueniang said.
“We ought to have a service for her,” Nun Wang said.
“We can’t have a service every time,” Yueniang said. “Perhaps we will have one on New Year’s Day.”
Xiaoyu brought tea and gave each of them a cup. When they had drunk it, Yueniang washed her hands and burned incense. Nun Xue preached to them again. After some opening verses, she told them how the holy man, Wu Jie, broke his vows and fell in love with Hong Lian, and how, in a later life, he became Dong Po. She went on for a long time.
Lanxiang brought two boxes of vegetarian food and cakes. She took the incense burner from the table and put down the food and a pot of tea. The nuns had this, then the maid brought food and a jar of wine for the other ladies as they sat around the fire.
Yueniang cast dice with her sister-in-law, and Jinlian guessed fingers with Li Jiao’er. Yuxiao stood behind Jinlian’s chair to serve the wine and, at the same time, suggested how she should play. Li Jiao’er was beaten.
“I will guess fingers with her now,” Yulou said. “She seems to win all the time. But I won’t have her putting her fingers in her sleeves, or Yuxiao standing behind her, either.”
Jinlian was beaten and was made to drink several cups of wine. She went to her room. She had to knock at the corner gate for a long time before Qiuju, rubbing her eyes, came to open it.
“You have been to bed, you slave,” Jinlian said.
“No,” said Qiuju.
“You are lying, you have only just this moment got up. What an idle good-for-nothing you are! You didn’t even come to meet me. Has your father gone to bed?”
“He has been in bed a long time,” Qiuju said.
Jinlian went to the inner room, pulled up her skirts, and warmed herself at the fire. Then she demanded tea. Qiuju hastily poured out a cup for her.
“Your hands are dirty, and I don’t want stewed tea. Go and tell Chunmei to get the small kettle and boil some fresh water. Put some more tea leaves in the pot and make it strong.”
“Chunmei has gone to bed. Shall I wake her?”
“No, don’t disturb her. Let her sleep.”
Qiuju went in. Chunmei was sleeping at Ximen Qing’s feet. Qiuju woke her up. “Mother has come,” she said. “She wants some tea. Get up at once.”
Chunmei spat at her and cursed her.
“You slave! What do you mean by coming here and startling me like that? ‘Mother has come,’ indeed! Well, what about it?”
She got up, however, and slowly dressed herself. Then she went to Jinlian and stood, rubbing her eyes. Jinlian scolded Qiuju.
“You saw she was asleep, you slave. Why did you wake her?” Then she said to Chunmei: “The kerchief on your head is rumpled. Pull it down a little. And what have you done with the other earring?”
Chunmei looked at herself and saw that one of her earrings had gone. She took a light and went into the other room to look for it. After searching a long time, she found it on the footstool.
“Where did you find it?” Jinlian asked.
“It was Qiuju’s fault,” Chunmei said. “She woke me up suddenly and my earring caught in the curtain hook. I found it on the footstool.”
“I told her not to wake you,” Jinlian said, “but she didn’t pay any attention.”
“She said you wanted some tea.”
“I wouldn’t let her make it. She has such dirty hands.”
Chunmei filled the small kettle and put it on the fire. She put coal on the brazier, and the water was soon boiling. She washed a cup, made some very strong tea, and gave it to her mistress.
“Has your father been in bed long?” Jinlian asked.
“Yes, I helped him to bed a long time ago. He asked where you were, and I told him you were still in the inner court.”
Jinlian drank her tea. “Yuxiao gave me some fruits and things for my mother. I gave them to this slave. Did she hand them over to you?”
“No, I haven’t seen them. I have no idea what she’s done with them.”
“Where are the fruits?” Jinlian said to Qiuju.
“I put them in the cabinet,” the maid said. She went and brought them. Jinlian counted them and found that an orange was missing. She asked what had become of it.
“I took them and put them in the cabinet just as you gave them to me,” Qiuju said. “Surely you don’t think I was so near starvation I had to go and eat it.”
“You thief!” Jinlian cried. “You are far too cheeky. If you haven’t stolen it, where is it? When I gave them to you, I counted them. Why is there one short? Did you think I brought them for you?”
She turned to Chunmei. “Give her ten slaps on each side of her face.”
“I should soil my hands if I touched those dirty cheeks,” Chunmei said.
“Send her to me, then,” Jinlian said.
Chunmei pushed the girl to her mistress and Jinlian pinched her cheeks.
“Did you eat that orange, you thief? Tell me the truth, and I will let you off. Otherwise, I will get the whip and beat you without mercy. Don’t think I’m drunk. You deliberately stole that orange, and now you are trying to deceive me.”
“Am I drunk?” she asked Chunmei.
“Certainly not,” Chunmei said. “You are perfectly sober. It might be well to look in her sleeves. We might find some orange peel there.”
Jinlian took Qiuju’s sleeves and began to feel in them. Qiuju, in a great flurry, struggled to prevent her. Chunmei caught her hand. They found some orange peel.
Jinlian pinched the girl’s face as hard as she could, and boxed her ears. “You thievish slave!” she cried. “You are as ignorant as can be, yet you are cunning enough when it comes to cheating and stealing. I catch you red-handed, and you still try to make excuses. I am going to have my tea, so I shall not punish you now. I’ll deal with you tomorrow.”
“Mother,” Chunmei said, “don’t let her escape you. The best thing we can do is to take off all her clothes and get one of the men to give her a good thrashing. If we do that, she may learn to have some respect for us. If we use a stick as though we were prodding a monkey, she won’t take it seriously.”
Qiuju’s face was swollen. She went to the kitchen, sulking. Jinlian divided an orange into two parts and gave one to Chunmei. She gave her half the apples and pomegranates, saying: “These are for you. My mother can have the rest.” Chunmei put them into her sleeve without looking at them, as though they were of no consequence at all. Jinlian was going to give her some of the other things, but Chunmei asked her not to.
“I don’t care much for sweet things,” she said. “Please give them to Grandmother.”
Then Jinlian went to the chamber and made water. She asked Chunmei to get a tub of water so that she could wash. Then she asked what the time was.
“I have been asleep some time,” the maid said, “it must be about the third night watch.”
Jinlian took down her hair, and went to the inner room. The lamp was nearly out. She pulled up the wick. Then she went to the bed. Ximen Qing was snoring. She undressed and lay down beside him. After a while, she began to toy with his weapon. But Ximen had been playing with Chunmei; she could not excite it, for it wa
s too soft. She was fiery with wine, and squatting on her heels on the bed she put the prick in her mouth. She titillated the hole, moved the head backwards and forwards, and sucked it inside and outside without ceasing. Ximen Qing woke up.
“Now, you funny little strumpet, where have you been all this time?”
“We were drinking in the inner court,” Jinlian said. “The Third Lady gave us a feast and Miss Yu sang. We guessed fingers, threw dice, and played for a long time. I beat Li Jiao’er, but Yulou beat me. I had to drink a few cups of wine. Lucky for you that you got away and came here to sleep in peace, but don’t think I will let you escape.”
“Have you made the belt of ribbon?” Ximen said.
“Yes, it is here.” She took it from underneath the bedclothes, showed it to him, then tied it about his prick and around his waist. She tied it very tightly.
“Have you taken anything?” she asked him.
He told her that he had, and she continued her attentions until the sinews of the prick stiffened and it surged erect, a fingerbreadth longer than usual. She lay on his body, but the penis was so big that she had to stretch her cunt with both hands before it would fit. But when it entered she embraced his neck and asked him to hold her around the waist; and gradually the prick, pressing on one side, pressed from the other, buried itself completely. “Darling,” she said, “put a silk cloak below yourself.” Ximen folded a red gown twice and put it beneath his thighs. She started again, and absorbed the whole prick. “Delight of my heart,” she said, “feel. It’s gone right in. It has filled me completely. Are you satisfied?”
Ximen felt with his hand and found that the penis had entered so far that nothing, not even a hair’s breadth, remained outside. Only the testicles were left, and he was suffused with deepest pleasure.
“I’m cold,” she said. “Let us move the candle. It was nicer in summer.” And again, “Don’t you think this ribbon is better than the clasp? It doesn’t hurt me, and makes your prick longer. If you don’t believe me, put your hand on my belly. I can feel it touching my bowels. Embrace me and let me sleep on top of you.”
The Golden Lotus, Volume 2 Page 38