“You are right, Mother,” one of the singing girls said, smiling. “Even we singing girls do not receive our patrons’ friends. And, in the family, one should be still more careful.”
Ximen Qing had something to eat. Then music was heard in the front court. General Jing had arrived. Ximen hastily dressed and went out to welcome him. When they had drunk their tea, he said to Jing: “Censor Song accepted your record of service and promised to do what we asked. You will undoubtedly be promoted very soon.”
“I am very grateful to you,” Jing said. “I shall never forget how kind you have been in this matter.”
“I mentioned Zhou to his Excellency,” Ximen said. “It may be that something will come to him too.”
The two eunuchs, Liu and Xue, came then. As they were escorted to the great hall, the musicians played. They both wore dark dragon gowns and gemmed girdles. When they had taken their places, Major Zhou arrived. They chatted together. “Yesterday,” Jing said to Major Zhou, “Siquan was good enough to speak highly of you to Censor Song, who had a party here. Now Song will certainly remember you, and you cannot fail to receive promotion.”
Major Zhou bowed and thanked Ximen Qing. Then Captain Zhang, Captain He, Captain Fan, Wang the Third, Uncle Wu and Kinsman Qiao came, one after the other. Qiao was wearing ceremonial dress, and four servants attended him. When he had greeted the others, he made a special reverence to Ximen Qing. People asked what appointment he held, and Ximen said: “My kinsman has just had honorary rank conferred upon him.”
“Since he is your kinsman, we must congratulate him,” Major Zhou said.
“I appreciate your kindness immensely,” Qiao said, “but please do not trouble.”
They all sat down according to their rank. After they had taken tea, wine was brought. The host offered it to his guests, and they all sat down again. Wang the Third refused to sit with them.
“You must sit down,” Ximen said to him. “This is not a formal party and I wish you to help me to entertain my guests.”
Then Wang the Third was compelled to sit down with them. When the soup course was finished, the musicians played different tunes and the four singing girls sang for them. Eunuch Liu, who sat in the place of honor, distributed money to the musicians and singers. It was a merry party and the guests did not leave until the first night watch. Then Ximen Qing paid the musicians and dismissed them, and the four singing girls went and played for a while to entertain the ladies. Yueniang asked Wu Yin’er to stay but let the others go. On their way, they went to the hall to say good-bye to Ximen Qing.
“I want you to come again tomorrow,” Ximen said to Zheng Aiyue. “Bring Li Guijie with you.”
“I know why you didn’t send for Guijie today,” the girl said. “It was because Wang the Third was here. It is rather late in the day for you to be taking precautions. What guests are you expecting tomorrow?”
“Nobody but relatives and friends,” Ximen Qing said.
“I suppose Beggar Ying will be here,” Zheng Aiyue said. “I won’t come if that hateful fellow is here.”
“No, he won’t be here tomorrow.”
“If I thought he was going to be here, I wouldn’t come,” Zheng Aiyue said. She kowtowed to Ximen and went away. He ordered the things to be cleared away, then went to Li Ping’er’s room and slept with Ruyi’er.
The next day he went early to the office and sent the prisoners to Dongpingfu. Then he went home to the party. All the guests arrived. There were twelve tables. Three singing girls came, Li Guijie, Wu Yin’er, and Zheng Aiyue, and three boys, Li Ming, Wu Hui, and Zheng Feng.
While they were drinking, Ping’an came and said: “Uncle Yun has come to see you. He has inherited a title and has brought presents with him.”
Ximen Qing told the boy to bring him in.
Yun Lishou was wearing a black silk ceremonial gown and a girdle with a gold buckle. Servants with presents followed him, and he handed the list to Ximen Qing. Upon it was written: ‘Yun Lishou, who has recently inherited the rank of officer of the royal guard and subprefect of Qinghe in Shandong, presents his humble compliments and offers ten sable skins, a sea fish, a parcel of dried shrimps, four preserved geese, ten preserved ducks, and two blinds of oiled paper.’
Ximen Qing told his servants to take the gifts and thanked Yun Lishou.
“I only came back yesterday,” Yun said, “and I have come at once to see you.” He made a reverence to Ximen Qing. Then he said: “You have been very kind to me, and these things are intended as a slight token of my gratitude.” He greeted the others.
Now that Yun Lishou had succeeded to a title, Ximen Qing treated him with more respect. He asked him to sit at the same table with the younger Uncle Wu. A cup and chopsticks were at once brought in for him, and Ximen Qing ordered food to be given to his servants. Then Ximen asked how he had come into the title.
“I am indebted to the kindness of his Excellency Yu of the Ministry of War,” Yun Lishou said. “My elder brother, who was in his department, died, and his Excellency appointed me to carry on the ancestral title and take up his appointment. Now I am in the office of the writer to the signet.”
Ximen Qing was pleased. “I congratulate you,” he said, “and I must give a special party in your honor.”
All the guests invited him to drink with them and the singers were bidden to offer him wine. Before long, Yun Lishou was tipsy. Ying Bojue might have been on the end of a string. He stood up and sat down again and joked and swore at the singing girls all the time. It was a very merry party; they all drank a great deal of wine, and nobody went away before the second night watch. Ximen Qing sent away the three singers and went to sleep in Yueniang’s room.
The next day he was up late. He had his breakfast and was going to call on Yun Lishou when Daian came and told him that Ben the Fourth wished to speak to him. Ximen knew that he wished to speak about acting as an escort to Mistress Xia. He went to the great hall. Ben the Fourth gave Xia’s letter to Ximen Qing. “His Lordship would like me to escort his family to the Eastern Capital, if you have no objection,” he said.
Ximen Qing read the letter. It thanked him for looking after Xia’s family and asked that Ben the Fourth might be allowed to take them to the Capital.
“Since he asks for you, I suppose you must go,” Ximen Qing said. “When do they propose to start?”
“They sent for me this morning,” Ben the Fourth said, “and told me they proposed to leave on the sixth. I hope to get back in about a fortnight.” He gave the keys of the shop to Ximen Qing.
“Very well,” Ximen said, “I will ask the younger Uncle Wu to look after the shop.”
Ben the Fourth went home to see about his luggage, and Ximen Qing, in his ceremonial robes, went to call on Yun Lishou.
That day, Aunt Wu was going home, and a sedan chair came to fetch her. Yueniang filled two boxes with delicacies, and went with her sister-in-law to the gate. Huatong was standing there, sobbing bitterly. Ping’an was pulling him and shaking him, but the boy only cried the louder. When Aunt Wu had gone, Yueniang came back and said to Ping’an: “What is the matter? Why are you pulling him about like that? You have made him cry.”
“Scholar Wen wants him, and he won’t go,” Ping’an said. “He stays here and answers me back all the time.”
“Leave him alone,” Yueniang said to Ping’an. She turned to the boy and asked him: “Why do you stand here crying? If Master Wen sends for you, you must go.”
“It is not your business,” Huatong cried to Ping’an, “and I won’t go. Why do you keep bullying me?”
“Why won’t you go?” Yueniang said.
The boy would not answer.
Then Jinlian came along. “You sly young rascal!” she said. “Why don’t you answer the Great Lady?”
Ping’an boxed his ears, and the boy cried louder than ever.
“Don’t hit him,” Yueniang said, “let him explain himself quietly. Tell me, why won’t you go?”
Then Daian came back with X
imen’s horse.
“Is your father back?” Yueniang asked him.
“No,” Daian said, “he is taking wine with Uncle Yun. I have brought back his ceremonial clothes and am going to take him his soft hat.”
Then he saw the boy crying. “Hullo, my boy,” he said, “what are you crying for? Is something hurting you?”
“Master Wen has called for him and he won’t go,” Ping’an said. “He stays there and is rude to me.”
“Brother,” Daian said, “when Master Wen sends for you, you must be on your guard. Scholar Wen is renowned for his fondness for hole-and-corner work. He can’t live without it. But you have put up with it before, why can’t you do so today?”
“You rascal!” Yueniang said to Daian. “What do you mean?”
“Ask him, Mother,” Daian said.
Jinlian, who was one of those people who always want to know everything, drew the boy aside and said to him: “Boy, tell me the truth. What does he want you for? If you won’t tell me, I shall ask the Great Lady to have you beaten.”
“He keeps on coming up to me,” said the boy, “and wants me to submit to him. He shoves his penis up my ass so roughly that today it’s swollen and hurts. When I ask him to take it out, he refuses and presses it up and down.”
“You thievish slave,” Yueniang said, when she heard this. “Get away from me. I’m surprised at you, Sister, wanting to know things like that. I am ashamed of you. I was so ignorant I didn’t realize what you were talking about and listened to every word you said. A splendid fellow that Scholar Wen must be. We let him have this boy, and this is the sort of thing he does.”
“Oh, Mother,” Jinlian said, “they all go in for this sort of thing. Even the beggars in their hovels.”
“But this Southerner is a married man,” Yulou said. “Why should he do it?”
“He has been here a long time, but we have never seen his wife,” Jinlian said.
“No, ladies,” Ping’an said, “and you are not likely to see her. He locks the door every time he goes out. I have only seen her once. She was going in a sedan chair to see her mother. She came back before the evening. She never goes out, but I have sometimes seen her in the evening emptying the chamber pots outside the door.”
“She can’t be a very respectable woman,” Jinlian said, ‘if she would marry a man like that. Why, she can never see the light of day. Her room must be as bad as a prison.”
The ladies went back to the inner court.
It was sunset when Ximen Qing came back.
“Have you been all this time at Yun’s place?” Yueniang asked him.
“Yes,” Ximen said. “He opened a jar of wine and insisted on my having something to eat. Now that Jing has been promoted, Yun will have charge of the seals. I and Qiao will get some presents ready and I will arrange for the officers to present him with a congratulatory scroll. I must ask Wen Guixuan to write it.”
“Wen Guixuan or Wu Guixuan,” Yueniang said. “The fellow is an atrocious scoundrel. If people get to hear of his goings on, we shall all be disgraced.”
“What are you talking about?” Ximen Qing said, alarmed.
“Don’t ask me. Ask the boy.”
“What boy?” Ximen said.
Jinlian explained. “What boy!” she said. “Why! Huatong, of course. When we took Aunt Wu to the gate, we found him there, crying, and he told us what that Southerner had done to him.”
Ximen Qing found it hard to believe. “Let us have the boy here,” he said, “and I’ll talk to him.” He sent Daian for Huatong and threatened to put on the thumbscrews.
“What have you been doing with that man?” he said. “Tell me the truth.”
“He gave me wine to drink and then misused me,” Huatong said. “Today, he tried to do it again, but I got away and would not go back. He told Ping’an to make me go back, and Ping’an hit me. The ladies saw him. And he kept on asking me things about your ladies, but I wouldn’t tell him. Yesterday, when you had a party, he told me to steal some of the silver for him. A short time ago, he went to see Scholar Ni and showed him your letters, and Scholar Ni told Magistrate Xia what was in them.”
Ah!” Ximen Qing said. “It is easy enough to paint the tiger’s skin, but who can paint the bones inside that skin? We may know people’s faces but never their minds. I treated him as a man. How could I tell that he was a dog in human form? I won’t have him here a moment longer.”
“Get up!” he shouted to Huatong. “And never go near him again.”
The boy kowtowed and went out.
“No wonder, the other day, when Kinsman Zhai scolded me for not being discreet, I couldn’t imagine who had given away my secrets,” Ximen said to Yueniang. “It was this dog bone. Why should I keep him here?”
“What is the use of asking me that?” Yueniang said. “You have no son for him to teach; why should you keep that fellow here to write your present lists for you? He lives at your expense and plays dirty tricks of this sort.”
“Say no more about it,” Ximen said. “Tomorrow he shall go.”
He sent for Ping’an. “Go and tell Scholar Wen,” he said, “that I need his house as a storehouse and he must go elsewhere. If he comes to see me, tell him I am out.”
Ximen Qing told his wife that Ben the Fourth had called to see him and said that he was going to the Capital with the Xia family on the sixth. “I think I will ask your younger brother to look after the shop,” he said. “What do you think?”
“I shall not express any opinion,” Yueniang said. “If you want him, send for him. He is my brother, and somebody is sure to say I favor him.”
Ximen Qing told Qitong to go and ask Uncle Wu the Second to come and see him. When the young man came, Ximen went with him to the great hall and took wine with him. Then he gave him the keys and asked him to go to the shop in Lion Street next morning.
Scholar Wen was very much upset, especially when he found that Huatong did not go near him. Then the next day, Ping’an came and said: “His Lordship says he is going to use this house as a storehouse, and I am to tell you to find somewhere else to live.”
The scholar was greatly disturbed and changed color. He realized that Huatong must be the cause. He put on his scholar’s gown and hat and went to see Ximen Qing.
“My master is at the office,” Qintong told him.
When Ximen Qing came back from the office, Scholar Wen again dressed up and went across, with a long letter. He gave the letter to Qintong, but Qintong would not take it. “My master has just come back from the office,” he said. “He is very tired and I dare not disturb him.”
Scholar Wen understood what this meant. He went to Scholar Ni to ask his advice, and then went back to the house he had lived in before.
CHAPTER 77
Ximen Qing Visits Zheng Aiyue in the Snow
At the end of the year
The plums and the snow match themselves in beauty.
Under the moon they are white with the same whiteness.
When the wind blows, the tender petals half emerge
They have not the wildness of the willow catkins.
The shadow of a pair of sparrows
Seems like a snow-white parrot.
The snowflakes in the moonbeams
Glitter like a mass of crystal.
Above the flowers they know how to find sweetness
Like a pair of mandarin ducks.
Scholar Wen was not permitted to see Ximen Qing, so, greatly ashamed, he had to go back to live in his old house. Ximen turned the rooms he had left into additional reception rooms for his own use.
One day, Scholar Shang came to see him. He was going to the Eastern Capital to enter for an examination, and he wanted Ximen to lend him a leather trunk and a warm cloak. Ximen asked him to sit down, and they had tea.
“I am anxious to have two appropriate compositions written to congratulate my kinsman Qiao and my friend Yun Lishou,” Ximen said. “Qiao has recently been granted honorary rank, and Yun has come into the fam
ily title. Perhaps one of your friends would not mind doing this for me. I should be glad to make it worth his while.”
Shang smiled. “You need not speak of reward,” he said. “My schoolfellow, Nie Lianghu, who is a graduate of the military academy and tutor to my son, is very learned. I will speak to him about it, and all you need do is to send the materials to him.”
Ximen Qing thanked him and he went away. Then Ximen sent Qintong with the scrolls, enclosing two handkerchiefs and five qian of silver, and, at the same time, sent the leather trunk and the coat to Scholar Shang. Two days later the scrolls were returned. Ximen Qing hung them on the wall and was very well satisfied with the composition and the writing of the golden characters.
Ying Bojue came to see him. “When are we going to have the feast in congratulation of Master Qiao and Brother Yun?” he said. “Are the scrolls ready? Why haven’t I seen Scholar Wen lately?”
“Don’t mention Scholar Wen to me,” Ximen said. “He is a dirty dog.” He told Bojue the whole story.
“Brother,” Bojue said, “I told you the fellow could not be trusted. He is very sly. It is a good thing you have such sharp eyes, or he would certainly have ruined your boys. But who will write the scrolls for you?”
“Scholar Shang was here yesterday,” Ximen told him. “He told me his friend Nie Lianghu was very well educated, and I asked him to write the scrolls. He has now finished them. Come and have a look.” He took Bojue to the hall. Bojue thought they were admirable.
“Everything seems to be ready,” he said. “Don’t wait too long before you send them. We must let our friends have plenty of time to make preparations.”
“Tomorrow is a good day,” Ximen said. “I will send them then.”
As they were talking, a servant came in to say that Xia’s son had called to say good-bye. “He said,” the man told them, “that they proposed to leave for the Capital on the sixth. I told him you were not at home, and he said, would you be good enough to ask Captain He to send someone to take charge of the house.”
The Golden Lotus, Volume 2 Page 46