The Golden Lotus, Volume 2

by Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng

  “But we can’t dispose of this house in such a short time,” Han Daoguo said.

  “What’s to prevent us sending for your brother, you silly fellow?” Wang Liu’er said. “We can leave a few taels with him and he can look after the house. That’s quite simple. If anybody from Ximen’s family makes inquiries, they can be told we have gone to the Eastern Capital because our daughter was anxious to see us. We have no cause to be afraid.”

  “But I owe a great deal to my master’s kindness,” Han Daoguo said. “I don’t like the idea of turning around on him and acting so deceitfully.”

  “If you are going to think about principles, you will starve,” Wang Liu’er said. “He amused himself with your wife, and now you take his money. So you are quits. The other day, I bought presents and paper offerings and went to offer my sympathy. That whore, his first wife, kept me waiting for hours and insulted me most disagreeably. I did not know what to do with myself. At last, the Third Lady came out and sat down with me, but I came home as soon as I could. If that counts for anything, you certainly ought to take this money.”

  Han Daoguo said no more. They made their decision that very night. Before it was light, they sent for Han the Second, gave him twenty taels of silver to carry on with, and gave the house into his charge. Han the Second was quite agreeable. He told them to go their way and he would see after everything. So Han Daoguo and his wife, with the boy Wang Han and the two maids, set off for the Eastern Capital. They hired two large carts to carry their trunks and boxes, and left the city at daybreak.

  That day, Wu Yueniang with her little son, Meng Yulou, Pan Jinlian, Ximen Dajie, and Ruyi’er, went with Chen Jingji to burn paper offerings at Ximen Qing’s grave. While they were there, Zhang An told Yueniang that he had met Han Daoguo the night before.

  “If he is back,” Yueniang said, “why hasn’t he been to see me? Perhaps he will come during the day.”

  She burned the paper offerings but did not stay very long at the grave. When she got home, she told Chen Jingji to go and see Han Daoguo and find out where the boats were. Jingji went and knocked at the door, but for a long time no one answered. At last Han the Second opened the door.

  “My brother and his wife,” he said, “have gone to the Eastern Capital to see their daughter. I know nothing at all about the boats.”

  Jingji went back and told Yueniang. She was greatly worried and told Chen Jingji to take a horse and go to the river to find out whether the boats had arrived. As soon as he came to the wharf, Jingji found Laibao and the boat there.

  “Brother Han has already taken a thousand taels to you,” Laibao said.

  “We haven’t seen anything of him,” Jingji said. “Zhang An, the grave keeper, saw him and, when we went to the grave, we heard he had come back. The Great Lady sent me to his house, but they had taken all their belongings and gone to the Eastern Capital with the silver. Father is dead, and this is his last week’s mind. The Great Lady was worried and sent me to see if the boats had arrived.”

  Laibao said nothing. He thought: “The fellow deceived me. Now I see why he suggested selling a thousand taels’ worth of goods. He made up his mind that very moment. Really, even though men meet face to face, their minds might be a thousand miles apart.”

  So Laibao heard of his master’s death. He decided to take Chen Jingji to the wine house and the bawdy house. Secretly, he removed eight hundred taels’ worth of merchandise, sealed it up, and stored it at an inn. Then they went to the customs office, paid the duty, and their boat was allowed to proceed. They loaded their merchandise upon carts and so brought it to the city. The stuff was stored in one of the rooms in the eastern wing of Ximen’s house.

  After Ximen’s death, the shop in Lion Street had been closed. Clerk Gan and Cui Ben got rid of all the goods in the other silk shop, paid over the money fairly, then gave up their jobs and went home. The house was sold. The medicine shop was still kept open, and Chen Jingji and Clerk Fu looked after it.

  Laibao’s wife had a son called Sengbao, now five years old. Han Daoguo’s wife had a niece who was four years old. Their parents had arranged that these two children should some day marry. Yueniang did not know this.

  When Laibao handed over the merchandise, he put all the blame on Han Daoguo. “He sold two thousand taels’ worth of goods,” he told Yueniang. She repeatedly urged him to go to the Eastern Capital to get the money out of Han Daoguo.

  “It is better for me to keep away,” Laibao said. “Their kinsman is a member of the Imperial Tutor’s household, and nobody dare touch them. If I were to go, it would look as though I wished to make trouble. We have every reason to be satisfied that they don’t come to us for something, and we must not stir up trouble.”

  “But it was my husband who arranged this marriage for Zhai,” Yueniang said. “Surely he would remember that.”

  “Han’s daughter is a favorite there,” Laibao said, “and she would certainly take her parents’ side. She will do nothing to help us. The best thing you can do is to keep quiet about the matter. Regard it as a dead loss, and say no more about it.”

  Yueniang could not think of anything else to say, so she said no more. She told him to try to find some customers to buy the merchandise he had brought. A number of people came, and Yueniang told Chen Jingji to deal with them. There was a long discussion, and in the end, they all said they did not want the stuff and took their money away.

  “Your son-in-law is not sufficiently experienced,” Laibao said to Yueniang. “I have been doing this sort of thing for years, and I know all there is to know about it. In business, the principle is: sell first and be sorry later. Don’t let us be sorry first, and sell afterwards. The stuff is here, and if we can do even moderately well out of it, we ought to be content. If the price is set too high, so that customers won’t make a deal, that is not good business. You must forgive me, but you are young and don’t understand business. Don’t think for a moment that I am ready to yield the advantage to others. I’m not; I simply want to sell the stuff and get it out of the way.”

  After this, Chen Jingji did no more in the matter. Laibao did not wait for Yueniang’s instructions, but took over the abacus and brought the customers back again. They measured out two thousand taels, Jingji counted it, it was given to Yueniang, and they went off with the goods.

  Yueniang offered Laibao twenty-three taels, but he put on an air of great dignity and refused to take it. “No, Lady,” he said, “my master is dead, and your property is like stagnant water. Don’t give me the money. You need it; I do not.”

  One evening, Laibao came in, very drunk. He went to Yueniang’s room and put his hand on the bed. “Lady,” he said, “you are very young. Your husband is dead, and you have only the baby. Don’t you ever feel lonely?” Yueniang did not answer.

  A letter came from Zhai at the Eastern Capital. It said that he had heard of Ximen Qing’s death, and that Han Daoguo had told him there were still some very beautiful girls in the household. He would like to know the price put upon them, said that he would pay it, and asked for the girls to be sent to the Eastern Capital to amuse the old lady. Yueniang did not know what to do. She sent for Laibao. This time the man did not even address her as Lady. “Woman,” he said, “if you do not send the girls, there will be serious trouble. It is all the fault of the dead old man. He was always trying to show off. Whenever he invited anyone here, he always had his own musicians. Everybody knew it. Now Han’s daughter is at the palace; it is quite natural that she should tell the old lady. Now, perhaps, you realize the truth of what I was saying the other day. Here they are coming to ask us for something. If you don’t do what he says, he will get someone from the local office to come and demand the girls. Then it will be too late, even if you give them up. I don’t suggest you should send them all; a couple will probably satisfy him.”

  Yueniang wondered. She could not well spare Lanxiang, who was the Third Lady’s maid, or Chunmei, who waited on the Fifth Lady. She wanted Xiuchun to look after the baby
. She asked her own maid, Yuxiao, and Yingchun if they would go, and they both agreed. Then Yueniang told Laibao to hire suitable conveyances and take the two girls to the Eastern Capital. This he did and, on the way, enjoyed them both.

  They reached the Capital, and Laibao went to see Han Daoguo and his wife. They talked over what had happened.

  “If you hadn’t prevented them,” Han Daoguo said, “something disagreeable might have happened. Of course, I’m not in the least afraid of them.”

  Zhai was delighted with the two girls, both of whom were very beautiful. One could play the zither and the other the banjo. Neither was more than eighteen years old. He took them to the palace to wait upon the old lady, and she gave two bars of silver for them. Laibao took the silver home, but he only gave one of the bars to Yueniang. He tried to frighten her by saying: “If I hadn’t gone, you would never have had this silver. The Hans are very rich and comfortable there. They have a house all to themselves and a host of maids and servants to wait on them. Master Zhai calls them Father and Mother. Their daughter goes to the palace to see the old lady every day. They are on such good terms that she is always going about with the old lady. When she asks for one thing, they give her ten. She chooses the kinds of food she likes best and clothes in the latest style. She has learned how to write and do sums. When luck is on one’s side, cleverness always follows. She is tall and very pretty. When I saw her the other day, she was just as beautiful to look at as a tree of jade, and so charming and pleasant. She called me Uncle Bao. Those two girls of ours will have to ask her for their needles and thread.”

  Yueniang thanked him and gave him food and wine. When he refused to take her money, she gave him a roll of silk for his wife to make into clothes.

  One day, Laibao and Liu Cang, his wife’s brother, went to the river and brought away all the merchandise that had been left at the inn, and sold it for eight hundred taels of silver. Then he secretly bought a house, opened a store near Liu Cang’s house, and gave parties to his friends every day. His wife used to tell Yueniang that she was going to see her mother, but really she went to the new house. There, she changed her ornaments, dressed up in pearls and gold and silver, and went to see Wang Liu’er’s mother. This old lady was known as Old Sow Wang. They discussed the marriage between the young children. Whenever she went there, she went in a sedan chair and, when she came back, she dressed again in her ordinary clothes and returned to Ximen’s house. Yueniang knew nothing of all this.

  Laibao himself was always getting drunk and, on several occasions, came to Yueniang’s room and made improper overtures to her. If Yueniang had not been a virtuous woman, she would have been caught by his bait and would assuredly have been seduced.

  Then some of the other women told Wu Yueniang how Laibao’s wife had arranged this marriage for her child, and how she was going about in gold and silver, showing every sign of great wealth. Pan Jinlian also told her several times, but she would not believe a word of it. Laibao’s wife heard of this, and made a terrible to-do in the kitchen, abusing high and low alike.

  Laibao himself began to swagger. He went about bragging. “You people are all very well at talking in bed, but that’s about all you can do. I went on the water and come back with the cash. If it hadn’t been for me, Clerk Han would have walked off with all of it. His mouth was as wide open as a pair of the largest pincers. He would have gone off with all of it to the Eastern Capital, and it would have been just as if the whole lot had fallen into the water without so much as a splash. Yet nobody has a kind word for me. You talk about my getting money by robbing my master, and things of that sort. The one who cuts off the leg doesn’t know, and the one whose leg is cut off doesn’t know either. The proverb says: Don’t believe scandalmongers or you will lose your calabash. Don’t believe lies, or you will lose your net. Some backbiting women have been saying that we have suddenly got very rich and been fixing up a marriage. Why, she goes and borrows, as any poor priest might do, clothes and ornaments from her sister. People talk about our using our master’s money because they want to get us kicked out. But don’t worry. If we do leave here, Heaven will give no grass to the waterfowl. I shall wash my eyes and keep an eye on those strumpets who are shut up here.”

  Yueniang came to hear of this kind of talk and was anxious to find out what it meant. Laibao’s wife quarreled with everybody and talked about killing herself. And the man treated her without any respect when he found her by herself. Yueniang was very angry, but she did not know what to do. Finally, she decided to send Laibao and his wife away. Then the man openly carried on business with his brother-in-law, and they did a roaring trade during the shortage of cloth.

  CHAPTER 82

  Pan Jinlian Makes Love with Chen Jingji

  Now that Pan Jinlian had tasted the joys of love with Chen Jingji, never a day passed that did not witness some new proof of the passion that united them. Sometimes they would stand, close pressed together, and gaze into each other’s laughing eyes; sometimes they sat, and so made love, giving each other gentle slaps and pinchings, with occasional ticklings, feeling themselves free of all restraint. If others were present and they could not speak the words they longed to speak, they would write short notes of love, and drop them on the floor, each picking up the other’s. One day—it was about the fourth month—Jinlian took a silk handkerchief, and in it wrapped a powder satchel, in which she had placed a lock of hair and some fragrant pine leaves. She intended to give this to Jingji with her own hands, but, finding he was not in his room, she threw it through the window. When the young man returned, it lay there in its paper wrappings, and, when he opened it, he found the satchel and the handkerchief. There was a short poem with the gifts.

  This kerchief of silver silk and this perfume satchel

  Are for you.

  The lock of hair is a memory of our first mating.

  The pine leaves mark my trust

  That you will remember forever.

  I write my love with my tears.

  In the deep night I am alone with my shadow.

  Do not let the night pass in vain,

  But come quickly to the arbor of roses.

  To the young man this seemed a clear sign that she wished him to go to the arbor. He took a piece of fancy paper and wrote a poem in reply. Then he went to the garden but found that Wu Yueniang was paying a visit to his loved one. At first, indeed, he did not know this, and when he reached the garden gate called: “Darling, are you there?” Fortunately, only Jinlian heard him and, hurriedly lifting the lattice, she came out and made a warning sign to him with her hands.

  “Oh, it is you!” she said. “I suppose you are looking for your wife. She was here a moment ago, but now she has gone to the garden to pick some flowers.” The young man silently handed his poem to her, and she put it in her sleeve.

  “What did he want?” Yueniang said. Jinlian said he was looking for his wife, and that she had told him he would find her in the garden. So Yueniang was deceived. Soon she went away, and Jinlian took from her sleeve the packet Chen Jingji had given her. It was a golden fan, with green rushes beside a flowing stream painted upon it. Accompanying it was a poem.

  On this white silk are painted dark bamboos

  And green rushes that seem to be alive

  With gold and silver to enhance their brightness.

  Will you not use this, darling, when the day is hot

  Not to bring cooling breezes, but to give you shade?

  When people throng around you, put it in your sleeve

  Let it refresh you when you are alone.

  I could not bear to think

  That vulgar hands might snatch it from your own.

  When she had read this poem, Jinlian plied her maids, Chunmei and Qiuju, with wine, and when it grew late, sent them to another room to sleep. Then alone, she opened wide the green windows and lighted long tapering candles. She made ready the bed and perfumed it, then bathed and went out to stand beside the flower pleasance to await a fitting moment.r />
  That night, Ximen’s daughter had gone to Yueniang’s room to hear the exhortations of Sister Wang, the nun. Only the maid, Yuanxiao, was left with Chen Jingji. He gave her a kerchief and said: “You stay where you are, I am going to play chess with the Fifth Lady. If your mistress should return, come and tell me at once.” Then he went to the garden. The flowers in the moonlight cast their shadows, some long, some short. He found his way to the Rose Arbor but, long before he reached it, could see Jinlian, uncovered, standing there, her glorious tresses waving in the gentle breeze. He approached quietly, then suddenly dashed forward and took her in his arms. Jinlian was taken by surprise.

  “Oh,” she cried, “you young villain, what do you mean by rushing out and frightening me like that? It is a good thing it is I, with whom you know you can do what you like, but would you have dared to do it with anybody else?”

  Jingji had taken more wine than usual that evening. “I don’t think it would have mattered very much if it had been somebody else,” he laughed. Then, hand in hand, they walked towards her room. It was brightly lighted by the candles on the table, and refreshments lay ready before them. They made fast the corner gate; then sat side by side and began to drink.

  “Where is your wife?” Jinlian said.

  “She has gone to hear the reading of the sacred texts,” Jingji answered. “I told Yuanxiao that she must come and warn me at once if it became necessary. She thinks I have come to play chess with you.”

  They drank wine together in great content, for, as the proverb says: If the drinking of tea leads to frivolity, wine opens wide the floodgates of passion. As the olive-colored wine coursed through their veins, the ruddy hue of the peach flower mounted to their cheeks. One would seek a kiss; the other would not seem too shy. At last they snuffed out the candles and went to bed.