The Golden Lotus, Volume 2

by Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng

  “Civil officers are always stingy,” Bojue said. “Their three taels will go no way at all. You will have to spend your own money.”

  “This Li,” Ximen Qing said, “is the man who tried Sun Wenxiang, Huang the Fourth’s brother-in-law. He reminded me that he had set the young man free.”

  “I see,” Bojue said. “So naturally, he is careful not to forget it. You will have to give them the party if only for that reason.” Then he said to Ying Bao: “Show the man in.”

  “Who is this?” Ximen asked.

  “A young man,” Bojue said. “He comes of a very decent family. His parents are dead, and he has been with the princely family of Wang since he was a child. He is married. He could not get on with the others and now he is out of work and finds it hard to get a job. He is a friend of Ying Bao, and asked Ying Bao to find him one. This morning Ying Bao asked me to recommend him to you, but I told him I didn’t know whether you were in need of anybody.”

  “What is his name?” he said to Ying Bao. “Bring him in.”

  “His name is Laiyu,” Ying Bao said.

  Laiyu knelt down outside the lattice and kowtowed to Ximen Qing.

  “He is a strong lad,” Bojue said. “He looks as if he could carry a heavy load. How old are you?”

  “I am twenty,” Laiyu said.

  “Have you any children?” Bojue asked him.

  “No, I have only my wife.”

  “His wife is nineteen,” Ying Bao said, “she is a good cook and she sews well.”

  Ximen Qing was impressed by Laiyu’s appearance; he liked the way the young man bowed and stood upright again. He seemed an honest fellow.

  “Since Uncle Ying has brought you to me, I will engage you,” he said. “Mind that you serve me faithfully. Choose an auspicious day, then have the hiring contract made out and come with your wife.”

  Laiyu kowtowed. Ximen Qing sent him with Qintong to the inner court to kowtow to Wu Yueniang and the others. Yueniang gave him the apartment that Laiwang had had. Ying Bojue went away, and Laiyu and Ying Bao got the hiring contract written and gave it to Ximen Qing. Ximen called the young man Laijue.

  We have now to speak of Mistress Ben the Fourth. After her young daughter had taken service with the Xia family, she had to depend upon Ping’an, Laian, or Huatong to run errands for her. Indeed, at one time or another, nearly all Ximen Qing’s boys might have been found drinking wine in her place. She was a good-natured woman and used to cook food for them and give them tea or water whenever they asked for it. When Ben the Fourth came back from the shop, he often saw the boys about but did not give the matter a moment’s thought. Now he was away, they all came to see what they could do for her. Daian and Ping’an, especially, were frequently about the place.

  On the ninth, there was the reception that An, Li and Wang had asked Ximen Qing to give for Magistrate Zhao. Laijue and his wife came early in the morning. The wife went to the inner court to kowtow to Yueniang and the other ladies. She was wearing a purple coat, a black cape, and a green skirt. She was short and her face was shaped like a melon seed. She was carefully powdered, and her feet were very small. Yueniang inquired whether she could sew and asked a number of questions about housework. Her answers were perfectly satisfactory. Yueniang gave her the name Huiyuan and bade her take her turn in the kitchen every third day.

  About this time, Aunt Yang died. Antong brought them the news. Ximen Qing sent an offering of food and five taels of silver, and Wu Yueniang, Li Jiao’er, Meng Yulou, and Pan Jinlian went to the funeral. Qintong, Qitong, Laijue and Laian went with them.

  Ximen Qing, in the silk shop, watched the tailors making fur necklets for Yueniang. The first one they made he gave to Daian and told him to take it, with ten taels of silver, as a New Year gift to Zheng Aiyue. The people at the bawdy house made much of Daian and gave him five qian of silver. When he came back, he said to Ximen Qing: “Sister Zheng Aiyue is very grateful to you. She told me to say she was sorry she had entertained you so poorly the other day. She gave me three qian of silver.”

  “Keep it,” Ximen Qing said. “By the way, now that Ben the Fourth is not at home, what are you doing at his house all the time?”

  “When Mistress Ben’s daughter went away,” Daian said, “there was no one she could ask to do anything for her. So we are always ready to run an errand when it is necessary.”

  “That is right,” Ximen said. “You must do all you can to help her now she has nobody else to do things for her.”

  He whispered to the boy: “Go and talk to her and say I should like to go and see her. See how she takes it. If she is well disposed, ask her to give you a handkerchief for me.”

  Daian went to see Mistress Ben the Fourth, and Ximen Qing went home.

  Wang Jing had brought from the silversmith’s a golden tiger and four pairs of pins with gold heads and silver stems. He gave them to Ximen Qing. Ximen put two pairs of pins away in his study and went with the others to Li Ping’er’s room. He gave the tiger and one pair of pins to Ruyi’er and the other pair of pins to Yingchun. They kowtowed and thanked him. Ximen asked Yingchun to give him something to eat and afterwards went to the study and sat down. Daian came in quietly, but he said nothing, because Wang Jing was there. Ximen Qing told Wang Jing to go to the inner court for some tea.

  “I told her what you said,” Daian said. “She smiled. She said she would expect you this evening and gave me this handkerchief.”

  He handed to Ximen Qing a red embroidered silk handkerchief, wrapped in red paper. Ximen Qing put it to his nose and found it fragrant. He was delighted and put it into his sleeve. Wang Jing brought tea, and he drank it. Then he went back to the shop to watch the tailors at work.

  He was told that Uncle Hua had come to see him, and gave orders that he should be brought in. They went into a small room and Huatong brought them tea.

  “I have heard of a merchant with five hundred sacks of Wuxi rice,” Hua Ziyu said. “Now that the river is frozen, he is anxious to sell it as soon as he can and get home again. I thought you might like to buy it, since it is so cheap.”

  “I don’t need any rice now,” Ximen said. “When the river is frozen, nobody buys rice. The price will go down again as soon as the ice melts. And, besides, I have no spare cash at the moment.”

  He told Daian to set a table and go for some food, and sent Huatong for Ying Bojue. When Ying Bojue came, the three men sat around the fire drinking. Ximen Qing called for some wheaten cakes. After a while, a novice from Abbot Wu’s temple, Yingchun, came with presents and charms for the New Year. Ximen Qing asked him to sit down with them and have some wine. Then he asked him to arrange for a memorial service on the hundredth day after Li Ping’er’s death, and gave him the necessary money.

  At sunset, Hua Ziyu and Yingchun went away. Clerk Gan shut up the shop and joined Ximen and Bojue. They threw dice and guessed fingers. Lights were brought. Then Laian came and said that Yueniang and the other ladies had come back.

  “Where have they been?” Ying Bojue asked.

  “Aunt Yang is dead,” Ximen said. “This is her third day. I sent an offering of food and money, and the ladies have been to offer their sympathy.”

  “How old was she?” Bojue asked.

  “Seventy-five or seventy-six,” Ximen said. “She had no children of her own and lived with her nephew. I gave her a coffin. I had it made for her several years ago.”

  “For an old lady to have a coffin is like having treasure in a chest,” Bojue said. “It was very kind of you.”

  They drank more wine, and at last Ying Bojue and Clerk Gan went away. When Ximen himself left the shop, he told Wang Xian to be very careful about the fire and the candles. Wang Xian bolted the door after him.

  Ximen Qing could see nobody about, and he went hurriedly to Ben the Fourth’s place. The woman was standing at the door when she heard the door of the shop close and saw Ximen Qing coming out of the dark. She hastily opened her door and Ximen went quickly in. She shut the door again and said: “Plea
se come in.”

  A door led to an inner room in which were a small bed and a bright fire. There was a lamp on the table. Mistress Ben was wearing a golden band about her hair, a purple silk coat, and a jade-colored skirt. She made reverence to Ximen Qing and offered him a cup of tea. “I hope my neighbor, Mistress Han, will not know anything about this,” she said.

  “You need not be afraid,” Ximen Qing said. “It was quite dark when I came across. Nobody could have seen me.” He kissed her and embraced her. Then he pulled aside the coverlet, laid her on the bed, twined her legs around his shoulders and went to work; for the clasp was already on. It was not long before the juices of love flowed from her so freely that they wet his trousers. Ximen extracted his penis and took some powder from his box; putting it in the usual place he returned to the attack. The powder held the fluid back, so things went more easily. She held his penis in her cunt and whispered words of endearment. Ximen, excited by the wine he had drunk, held her legs and pushed forward vigorously. He thrust with all his might almost three hundred times, until her disheveled hair covered his shoulders and her tongue was too cold to speak. Ximen was hardly breathing, but suddenly the sperm flowed forth and gave him an exquisite orgasm. After a long pause, he took out his penis and the juices of love flowed, but she wiped them away with her handkerchief. They both dressed, and she dried her face with balsam.

  Ximen Qing gave her a few taels of silver and two pairs of gold-headed pins, and told her to buy flowers and ornaments for the New Year. She thanked him and quietly let him out. Daian was waiting for him in the shop. As soon as the boy heard Ben the Fourth’s door open, he opened the gate and let Ximen Qing in. Ximen was sure that nobody had seen him, and afterwards went several times to see Mistress Ben and sported with her more than once. But, as the proverb says: If you would have no one discover your secret, never do anything that you do not wish to have known. Mistress Han found out what was going on, and she told Pan Jinlian. Jinlian did not say a word to Ximen Qing.

  On the fifteenth, Qiao sent an invitation to Ximen, and he went with Ying Bojue and Uncle Wu. It was a large party and there were many people drinking and listening to the plays. The guests did not leave until the second night watch. The next day Qiao sent each of them a present of food.

  At the beginning of this month, Cui Ben, who had bought silk and other merchandise to the value of two thousand taels of silver, loaded them upon a boat and started back. When the boat reached Linqiing, he left the boy Rong Hai in charge of the merchandise, hired a horse, and came to ask for money to pay the duty. When he came to the gate, Qintong cried: “What, are you back, Brother Cui? Come in. I will go and tell the master. He is in the shop.”

  But when Qintong came to the shop, Ximen Qing was not there. He asked Ping’an, and Ping’an said his master had gone to the inner court. Then Qintong went to Yueniang, but she said: “Your Father went out this morning and has not come back yet.” The boy went to all the rooms, the garden, and the studies, but he could not find Ximen Qing. He went back to the gate.

  “I’ll be killed if I can tell you where he is,” he said. “I can’t find him anywhere. How he has managed to vanish in broad daylight is more than I can understand. And here is Brother Cui waiting for him.”

  Daian knew where his master was, but he said nothing.

  Then Ximen appeared suddenly, and the boys were astonished. He had been amusing himself with Mistress Ben the Fourth. Ping’an made a face at Qintong. He and the other boys were worried for Qintong’s sake. If Cui Ben, they thought, had gone away, there would be punishment in store for Qintong. Fortunately, Cui Ben had not gone away. He kowtowed to Ximen Qing and handed him the accounts.

  “The boats are at the wharf,” he said, “and I need money to pay both freight and duty. We set off together on the first day of the month and separated at Yangzhou. The others went on to Hangzhou. I stayed a couple of days at Miao Qing’s. He has spent ten taels of silver on a Yangzhou girl for you. She is sixteen years old, the daughter of a captain there, and her name is Chuyun. I can’t tell you how beautiful she is. I can only say that her face is like a flower, her skin like jade, her eyes like stars, her eyebrows like the new moon, her waist like the willow, and her feet hardly three inches long. She is so beautiful that the fish when they see her sink to the depths of the river, and geese fall stricken to the ground. She is pretty enough to make the moon retire in shame and the flowers hang their heads. She knows three thousand short songs and eight hundred long ones. At the moment she is at Miao Qing’s house, and he is getting ready ornaments and clothes to send with her. He is going to send her with Laibao in the spring, in the hope that she will amuse you when you feel the need of amusement.”

  Ximen Qing was delighted. “You should have brought her with you,” he said, “and there was no need for him to bother to buy clothes and ornaments for her. Do you think I couldn’t provide her with things of that sort, myself?”

  Ximen Qing loathed himself because he had no wings to fly to Yangzhou, to bring back the girl and amuse himself with her.

  He gave Cui Ben something to eat and five taels of silver to pay the duty and freight. He also gave him a letter to the officer at the wharf, asking him to be lenient. Cui Ben took it to Assistant Secretary Qian.

  Ping’an noticed that Ximen Qing did not call for Qintong. “My boy,” he said, “I could never have believed you’d be so lucky. His Lordship must be in a good temper today or you would have been tied up and beaten.”

  Qintong laughed. “You know his Lordship too well,” he said.

  It was the twentieth of the month when the merchandise arrived. It was stored in the house in Lion Street. Ximen Qing was busy preparing presents for the New Year, when a man came from General Jing. He was anxious to know whether the Imperial Rescript had come in response to the report that Censor Song had made. “My master says, perhaps you will send someone to the provincial office to find out.” Ximen Qing sent a man with five qian of silver to the provincial office, and he found that the Imperial Rescript had arrived the day before. He made a copy and brought it back. It was a very long document, and, in the course of it, reference was made to Major Zhou, General Jing and Uncle Wu. They were all spoken of in terms of high praise and recommended for promotion.

  Ximen Qing read the document with great satisfaction. He went to the inner court and said to Wu Yueniang: “Censor Song’s recommendations have come. He has suggested your brother for promotion, and that he be given charge of the commissariat in this district. Zhou and Jing are commended too, and they will both be promoted. I am going to send a boy for your brother so that I can tell him.”

  “Yes, do,” Yueniang said, “I will get the maids to prepare wine and food for you. But, if he takes up this new office, won’t he need money?”

  “Don’t worry about that,” Ximen said, “I will lend him anything he needs.”

  After a while, Uncle Wu came, and Ximen Qing showed him the Imperial Rescript. Uncle Wu thanked Ximen and Wu Yueniang. “I shall never be able to forget your kindness,” he told them both.

  “If there is anything you need, let me know,” Ximen Qing said.

  Uncle Wu thanked him again. They sat down with Yueniang in her room and had a meal there. Ximen asked Chen Jingji to make a copy of the document for Uncle Wu, and then sent it to Major Zhou and General Jing.

  CHAPTER 78

  Pan Jinlian and Her Mother

  Uncle Wu went away in the evening. The next day, Jing came to thank Ximen Qing. “I read the Imperial Rescript yesterday,” he said, “and was greatly pleased. It is all due to your kindness, and I can never forget the fact.” He drank some tea and rose. “When is Master Yun going to invite us to take wine with him?” he asked.

  “It is so close to the New Year that we are all busy,” Ximen Qing said. “He will probably put it off until afterwards.” Jing went away.

  Ximen Qing killed a pig and sent it with two jars of wine, a roll of red silk, a roll of black silk, and a hundred fruit pastries to Censor
Song. Chunhong took them with Ximen’s card to the Censor’s office. The officers took the boy in, and Song saw him in the hall at the back. While he was writing a note in return, he gave the boy some tea and three qian of silver. Then Chunhong came back and gave Ximen Qing the card. It said:

  To the most exalted and noble Ximen. Twice already I have enjoyed your magnificent hospitality, and I do not know how to thank you. Now, you send me presents that I feel I have no right to accept. You may, perhaps, have learned that I have recommended your kinsman and Jing. I am anxious to see you that we may talk about the matter. With most cordial thanks I now send back to you your servant. Your friend, Song Qiaonian.

  The Censor sent a man with a hundred copies of the new calendar, forty thousand sheets of paper, and a pig.

  One day a document arrived, confirming Uncle Wu in his new appointment. Ximen Qing went to call upon him, taking thirty taels of silver and four rolls of silk. On the twenty-fourth, Ximen Qing set seals upon his office and prepared a feast for his kinsmen and friends. When Uncle Wu returned from assuming office, Ximen invited him, and there was another celebration.

  Now Captain He’s family arrived. Ximen Qing sent tea to them in Wu Yueniang’s name. On the twenty-sixth, Abbot Wu and twelve priests came to read the office for the hundredth day after the death of Li Ping’er. A host of relatives and friends came that day to offer tea to Ximen Qing. They, in turn, were asked to eat vegetarian food, and all went away the same evening. On the twenty-seventh, Ximen sent presents to his relatives and friends. He sent half a pig, half a sheep, a jar of wine, a sack of rice and a tael of silver to Ying Bojue, Xie Xida, Chang Zhijie, Clerk Fu, Clerk Gan, Han Daoguo, Ben the Fourth and Cui Ben. To Li Guijie, Wu Yin’er, and Zheng Aiyue, he sent a dress and three taels of silver each.

  Yueniang wished Nun Xue to hold a service in her temple and sent Laian to her with oil, rice, flour and money.