The Golden Lotus, Volume 2

by Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng

  “You little strumpet!” he cried, “what do you want that for? You would like me to play with you, I suppose, but today your darling is far too tired for anything of that sort. The medicine is in the little gold box in my sleeve. Give it to me. You will be in luck if you make my prick stand up.”

  Jinlian looked for the little gold box and, when she found it, opened it. There were only three or four pills left. She took a wine pot and poured out two cups of wine. She took one pill herself, leaving three. Then she made the terrible mistake of giving him all three. She was afraid anything less would have no effect. Ximen shut his eyes and swallowed them. Before he could have drunk a cup of tea, the medicine began to take effect. Jinlian tied the silken ribbon for him and his staff stood up. He was still asleep. She mounted upon his body, put some powder on the top of his penis, and put that in her cunt; immediately it penetrated right to the heart of her. Her body seemed to melt away with delight. Then, with her two hands grasping his legs, she moved up and down about two hundred times. First it was difficult, because she was dry, but soon the juices of love flowed and moistened her cunt. Ximen Qing let her do everything she wished, but he himself was perfectly inert. She could bear it no longer. She put her tongue into his mouth. She held his neck and shook it. She writhed on his penis, which was entirely inside her cunt; only the two testicles remained outside. She caressed it with her hand, and it looked remarkably fine. The juices flowed; in no time she had used up five handkerchiefs. Still Ximen persevered, although the head of his prick was swollen and hotter than burning coal. The ribbon felt so tight that he asked her to remove it, but the penis stayed erect, and he asked her to suck it. She bent down and, taking it in her lips, sucked it and moved up and down. Suddenly the white sperm squirted out like living silver; she took it in her mouth and could not swallow it fast enough. At first it was sperm, and then it became an unceasing flow of blood. Ximen Qing had fainted and his limbs were stiff outstretched.

  Jinlian was frightened. She hastily gave him some red dates. Blood followed sperm, cold air followed blood. Jinlian was terrified. She threw her arms around him and cried: “Darling, how do you feel?”

  It was some time before Ximen came to himself. He said: “My head and eyes spin. I wonder what is the matter.”

  “What makes you yield so much today?” Jinlian said. “You must have taken too much medicine.”

  Readers, there is a limit to our energy, but none to our desires. A man who sets no bounds to his passion cannot live more than a short time. Ximen had given himself to the enjoyment of women, and he did not realize that he was like a lantern whose oil is exhausted and whose light is failing. Now his seed was used up, there was nothing in store for him but death. As we said at the beginning of this book:

  Beautiful is this maiden; her tender form gives promise of sweet womanhood,

  But a two-edged sword lurks between her thighs, whereby destruction comes to foolish men.

  No head falls to that sword: its work is done in secret,

  Yet it drains the very marrow from men’s bones.

  The next morning, when Ximen Qing got up and went to dress, he suddenly felt dizzy and almost fell forward. Fortunately, Chunmei caught him and he did not actually fall. He sat down on a chair, and it was some time before he recovered. Jinlian was again frightened.

  “You must be hungry,” she said. “Stay here, and tell me what you would like to eat. I will not let you go until you have had something.”

  She told Qiuju to go to the kitchen for gruel.

  “I want some gruel,” Qiuju said to Sun Xue’e. “Father fainted and now he has asked for gruel.”

  Wu Yueniang heard this and came at once to ask Qiuju what was the matter. The maid told her how Ximen had nearly fallen when he was doing his hair. Yueniang was greatly upset. She urged Xue’e to hurry with the gruel and went at once to see her husband in Jinlian’s room. He was still sitting on the chair.

  “What is the matter?” Yueniang said.

  “I don’t know,” Ximen said, “but my head feels very bad.”

  “It was fortunate Chunmei and I were there to catch him, or he would have hurt himself badly,” Jinlian said. “He is so heavy.”

  “Perhaps his head is dizzy from drinking too much wine last night,” Yueniang said.

  “Yes,” Jinlian said. “Where did you go drinking yesterday, that you came in so late?”

  “He had something to eat in the shop with my brother,” Yueniang said.

  Chunmei brought the gruel. She gave some to Ximen Qing, but he ate only half a bowl and then set it aside.

  “How does your head feel?” Yueniang asked him.

  “It is not so bad now,” he said, “but I don’t seem to have any strength or energy at all.”

  “Don’t go to the office today,” Yueniang said.

  “No, I won’t. I’ll go to the outer court and get Jingji to write some invitations. I am going to ask Zhou and Jing and Captain He to come on the fifteenth.”

  “You haven’t had your medicine,” Yueniang said. “Get some milk. You must take that. I think you must have been overdoing things the last few days.”

  She told Chunmei to get some milk from Ruyi’er, and the maid brought it in a bowl. Ximen took it with his medicine and went to the outer court. Chunmei helped him. When they came to the corner gate that led to the garden, his eyes clouded over; his body seemed to collapse, and he could not hold himself up. Chunmei took him back again.

  “Listen to me,” Yueniang said. “You must have a rest. We will postpone these invitations. There is no real need to write them now. Do absolutely nothing, and don’t go out. And tell me anything you would like to eat. I’ll make it for you.”

  “I don’t want anything,” Ximen said.

  Yueniang went to the inner court and questioned Jinlian. She asked whether Ximen Qing had been drunk when he came in the previous night, whether he had had any more to drink, and if he had busied himself with her.

  Jinlian was so full of denials that she hated herself because she had only one mouth to express them.

  “Oh, no, Sister,” she said. “He came back so late and he was so drunk that he never thought of such a thing. He asked me for more wine, but I gave him tea instead. I told him there was no wine and he must go to sleep. I have had nothing to do with him since you spoke to me the other day. I don’t like to say anything, but I fancy he had been somewhere before he came home. But I’m not at all sure. I can only tell you that I had nothing to do with him in that way.”

  Wu Yueniang and Meng Yulou sent for Daian and Qintong and questioned them closely.

  “Where did your father go drinking yesterday?” the Great Lady asked. “Tell me the truth. If you don’t, and anything happens, I shall hold you two responsible.”

  Daian refused to say anything except that his master had gone to Lion Street and had taken wine there with Uncle Wu the Second and Ben the Fourth. Yueniang sent for her brother. “Do you know,” she asked him, “if your brother-in-law went anywhere else after he took wine with you?”

  “He stayed only a short time with us,” Uncle Wu said. “Then he went away again.”

  This made Yueniang very angry. As soon as her brother had gone, she sent for the two boys again. She scolded them severely and threatened them with a beating. This frightened them, and they confessed that Ximen had been to see Han Daoguo’s wife. Jinlian was waiting for this.

  “Now, Sister,” she said, “you see you have been blaming me, and I am innocent. The one who is really guilty is laughing at us. Just as every tree has its own bark, so each one of us has his own face to consider. How can you think that I exist only for things of that sort? You might perhaps ask these two slaves where our husband was the other day when you went to see Mistress He. It was very late when he came back and I don’t believe he had been paying New Year calls.”

  Before Qintong had time to speak, Daian told them how his master had been carrying on with Lady Lin.

  “No wonder he was so anxious we s
hould send her an invitation,” Yueniang said. “I said to him: ‘We have never met her, and she certainly won’t come.’ Of course, we never dreamed of what was going on. No wonder that, in spite of her age, she paints her eyebrows and powders her face till it looks like the plaster on the wall. The old strumpet!”

  “I have never heard of anybody like her,” Yulou said, “and with a grown-up son too! It would be better for her to marry again than to carry on in this shameless way.”

  “The old whore doesn’t know what shame is,” Jinlian said.

  “I didn’t think she would come,” Yueniang said, “yet she had the audacity to do so.”

  “Sister,” Jinlian said, “now you see who is black and who is white. You scolded me when it was Han Daoguo’s wife who was really to blame. It looks as though, in this household, almost everybody has a lover in secret. They are turtles openly and even send their young turtles here so that those young turtles can help them in their evil games.”

  “It is not for you to call Wang the Third’s mother a whore,” Yueniang said. “She told me that, when you were young, you were a maid at her place.”

  Jinlian’s face became scarlet. “The old whore is mad,” she said. “When was I ever at her place? My aunt was a neighbor of hers, and when I used to go and stay with my aunt, I occasionally went to the Lin woman’s garden to play with other little girls. I come from her place, do I? Why, I know nothing whatever about her. She is just a blind old strumpet.”

  “You have too much to say,” Yueniang said. “I only told you what she said, and there is no need for you to make such a fuss about it.”

  Jinlian was silent.

  Yueniang told Xue’e to make some meat-stuffed dumplings for Ximen Qing. As she passed the second door, she saw Ping’an going to the garden. She stopped him and asked what he was about.

  “Li Ming has engaged four singing girls for the party on the fifteenth and has come to know if everything is all right,” Ping’an told her. “I told him the invitations had not been sent out yet, but he wouldn’t be satisfied with that and asked me to go and see Father.”

  “Party?” Yueniang said. “What party, you rascal? What are you going to ask? Go and tell that young turtle to be off about his business? What is all the excitement about?”

  Ping’an ran away in bewilderment.

  Yueniang went back to Jinlian’s room. She told Ximen Qing that Li Ming had come to inquire about the singing girls. “I told him we shouldn’t need any as the party had been postponed,” she said.

  Ximen Qing nodded. He expected to be better in a day or two, but when one day had passed his warrior swelled up and there were red scrofulous spots on it. The testicles were swollen too, and as bright-colored as a tomato. When he pissed, it hurt like the cutting of a knife, and this pain he felt every time. The soldiers came to take him to the office, and were grieved to hear of his illness.

  “You must do what I tell you,” Yueniang said to him. “Send a card to Captain He and tell him that you must rest at home until you are stronger. And we must send at once for Doctor Ren, and get him to give you some medicine. This is serious, and we must not put off any longer. You can’t go on in this state. You haven’t had a proper meal for two or three days. Besides, you really are very much swollen.”

  But Ximen would not send for the doctor. He said: “Oh, it is nothing very serious. I shall be better in a few days and ready to go out.”

  He sent a card to the office excusing himself. He was very irritable and impatient at being in bed.

  Ying Bojue heard he was not well and came to see him. Ximen asked him to come in. Bojue bowed and said: “I didn’t know you were not well. So that is why you didn’t go to Uncle Hua’s place the other day.”

  “I should certainly have gone if I had been well,” Ximen Qing said. “I don’t know why, but I have not had energy enough even to move.”

  “What is the trouble, Brother?” Bojue asked him.

  “Nothing very particular?” Ximen said. “My head feels heavy; my limbs seem to give way under me, and I can’t seem to walk.”

  “Your face is flushed,” Bojue said, “and judging by that, I think you must have some fever. Have you sent for a doctor?”

  “No,” Ximen said, “my wife talked about sending for Doctor Ren, but I told her not to bother because it wasn’t serious enough.”

  “You are wrong, Brother,” Bojue said. “You must send for him at once and let him have a look at you and give you some medicine to get rid of this fever. It is Spring now and a dangerous season for the lungs. I met Li Ming yesterday. He told me he had been bidden to engage some singing girls for a party you were giving today, but that you were not well and the party had been put off. That gave me quite a shock, and I came to see you at once.”

  “I haven’t been to the office,” Ximen said. “I sent a card of excuse.”

  “You certainly must not go out,” Bojue said. “You need a rest.”

  After drinking tea, Bojue said he must go and that he would come again. “Li Guijie and Wu Yin’er will come and see you, I’m sure,” he said. Ximen Qing asked him to stay and have something to eat, but he said he would rather not, and went away.

  Then Ximen told Qintong to go for Dr. Ren. The doctor came and felt his pulse. “The fever is mounting,” the doctor said, “and there is exhaustion of the fluid in your testicles. It is clearly a case of sexual exhaustion. I will give you something to supply the missing element.”

  He went away. Ximen Qing sent him five qian of silver, and a boy brought back the medicine. After taking it his head felt better, but his body was so weak that he could not get up. His prick swelled more and more and it was increasingly difficult for him to make water.

  In the afternoon Li Guijie and Wu Yin’er came with presents. When they had kowtowed to Ximen Qing, they asked how he was.

  “It is very good of you, Sisters, to come and see me, but why did you bother to buy presents?” he said. “For some reason I seem to have a little fever.”

  “Perhaps you have been drinking too much wine during the New Year celebrations,” Guijie said. “You will be all right if you don’t drink any more for a few days.”

  They went to the Sixth Lady’s room. There they found Yueniang and the others, and were asked to go and take tea in the inner court. Afterwards they went back to Ximen Qing.

  Then Ying Bojue, Xie Xida, and Chang Zhijie came. Ximen Qing told Yuxiao to prop him up in bed and asked the three men to stay for wine.

  “Brother,” Xie Xida said, “have you had any rice gruel?”

  Yuxiao turned her head away and did not answer. Ximen Qing said: “No, I have not had any. I couldn’t eat it.”

  “Well, send for some,” Xie Xida said. “We will have some with you.”

  After a while, the rice gruel was brought. Ximen ate half a bowl and set it down again.

  Guijie and Wu Yin’er had gone to join Yueniang in the Sixth Lady’s room. Bojue asked where they were. Ximen Qing told him.

  “Go and tell them to come and sing a song for your father,” Bojue said to Laian.

  But Yueniang would not let the girls go. She thought that Ximen Qing was in no condition to listen to songs, and told Laian to say to Ying Bojue that the girls were having something to eat with her.

  When the three friends had drunk some wine, one of them said: “Brother, you will be tired if we keep you sitting up. We will go now and you must lie down for a while.” Ximen thanked them for coming, and they went away.

  When Ying Bojue came to the door of the smaller courtyard, he called Daian and said to him: “I don’t like the look of your father’s face at all. Go and tell the Great Lady she ought to send for a doctor at once. Hu, in the High Street, is very good in fever cases. I suggest you send for him, but you mustn’t waste any time.”

  Daian went at once and told his mistress. She went to Ximen Qing. “Brother Ying says that Doctor Hu is very good in fever cases,” she said to him. “Why shouldn’t we send for him?”

  �
�Why should we?” Ximen Qing replied. “He didn’t do Li Ping’er the slightest good.”

  “Medicine will only cure cases that can be cured,” Yueniang said, “and Buddha saves only those who merit salvation. You do not think he is any good, but, if he cures you, that is all we care about.”

  “Very well, send for him,” Ximen Qing said.

  In a short time, Qitong brought the doctor. Uncle Wu was there, and he was present while the doctor examined Ximen’s pulse.

  “The poison is concentrated in the lower parts,” Dr. Hu said to Uncle Wu and Chen Jingji. “Something must be done at once, or he will begin to make blood all the time instead of water. This has been caused by his indulging in sexual intercourse without first making water.”

  They gave him five qian of silver for medicine and made Ximen Qing take it. But it was like throwing a piece of stone into the sea. He could not make water at all. Yueniang was very much alarmed. She sent away the two singing girls and sent a messenger for He Qixuan, the son of old He. He told them that there was an accumulation of poison in the male organ and that the bladder was very much inflamed. The fever was driving the poison downwards. Ximen’s veins, the doctor said, were filled with poisonous matter, and his heart and kidneys were completely out of harmony.

  They gave the doctor five qian of silver. Ximen drank the prescribed medicine, but the penis stayed erect, as if made of imperishable iron. Throughout the night, in her ignorance of the harm she was doing, she played with him, mounted his body, and put his candle into herself. He fainted several times.

  The next day, Captain He came to see him. When a boy came in to announce him, Yueniang said: “Captain He has come to see you. This is not a fit place to receive anybody. Shall I take you to the inner court?”

  Ximen Qing nodded. Yueniang put some clothes on him and she and Pan Jinlian helped him to go to the upper room. There they made a bed, cleaned out the place, and burned incense. Chen Jingji took in Captain He.