The Golden Lotus, Volume 2

by Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng

  She went to her room, and Jingji took the clothes to the pawnshop. He was busy for a long time, but at last was able to return to his own room. There he threw himself on the bed and went to sleep. It was almost sunset when he woke up. He was anxious to go to Jinlian when, suddenly, dark clouds gathered in the sky and it began to rain.

  Jingji looked at the pouring rain. “Oh, what vile weather!” he said to himself. “She was all ready and waiting for me to go and explain things, and now it is raining. What wretched luck I have.” He waited and waited, but the rain did not stop. At the first night watch, it was still coming down in torrents, and water was streaming from the roof. At last he could wait no longer. He took a red rug and wrapped it around himself. By this time Yueniang had come home and Jingji’s wife and maid were both with her in the inner court. He locked the door, and went to the garden by the gate in the western corner. Still the drenching rain poured down. He pushed open the gate leading to Jinlian’s rooms. She knew that he would come, and had told Chunmei to give Qiuju plenty of wine and send her to bed. None of the doors was locked, and Jingji was able to walk straight in.

  The windows were partly open and candles were burning brightly. Fruits and refreshments were set out on a table, and golden cups for the wine. Jinlian and Jingji sat down side by side.

  “Tell me,” she said to him, “if you have had nothing to do with Yulou, how do you come to have her pin?”

  “I picked it up by the white rose arbor in the garden. I swear it. May I die this very moment if I lie to you.”

  “If that is true,” Jinlian said, “keep the thing. I don’t want it. But remember this: whatever happens, you must not lose the little perfume satchel I gave you to keep your pins in. If anything happens to that, you will know what to expect.”

  They drank together and played chess. Before the first night watch was over they went to bed and there sported very merrily, spending half the night in transports of delight. In days gone by, Jinlian, by constant diligent practice, had acquired a most marvelous skill in all the arts of love, and this night it was made manifest to her young lover.

  Qiuju woke. She could hear a man’s voice in the other room, but could not be quite sure whose it was. Before dawn, she got up to make water, and heard the door of her mistress’s room being softly opened. The rain had not stopped, but there was a glimmer of moonlight, and through the window she caught a glimpse of a figure wrapped in a red rug. It seemed very like Chen Jingji.

  “So it is he who comes night after night to sleep with my lady,” she said to herself. “She is always boasting about her virtue, yet here she is carrying on with her son-in-law.”

  The next morning she went to the kitchen and told her story to Xiaoyu. Xiaoyu was very friendly with Chunmei, and repeated the story to her. “Qiuju,” she said, “says that your lady is carrying on with young master Chen. He spent last night with her and did not go away till this morning. You know his wife and her maid were not in their rooms last night.”

  Chunmei went back and told Jinlian what she had heard. “Mother,” she said, “you will have to beat that slave. She can’t be allowed to spread this tale all around the place. It might be disastrous for you.”

  Jinlian, furiously angry, summoned Qiuju. The girl knelt down. “I told you to go and make some gruel,” the woman said, “and you have broken the pot. What is the matter with you? Is the hole in your bottom so large that all your brains have fallen out? I fancy your hide is beginning to tickle because it hasn’t had a good drubbing for so long.” She found a rod and with it gave Qiuju thirty hard blows. The maid squealed like a pig being killed, and her body was bruised.

  “Mother,” Chunmei said, “if you don’t beat her harder than this, it will only allay that tickling. Why not take her clothes off and get one of the boys to give her twenty or thirty strokes with a good thick stick? Then she will begin to know what’s what. If you give her gentle taps like this, you’ll never make the water muddy. This is nothing more than play. Bold as she is, she seems to have no fear of you.” Then she turned to Qiuju. “You are a slave,” she said to Qiuju, “and you ought to know that you should never talk to outsiders about anything that happens in your own house. Why, if all maids were like you, people might as well keep a whistle.”

  “I never said anything,” Qiuju cried.

  “Still obstinate!” Jinlian said, “you master-murdering slave! Let’s have no more from you.”

  Qiuju went to the kitchen.

  One day, about the time of the Autumn Festival, Jinlian secretly arranged with Jingji to come and drink wine with her and enjoy the moonlight. They played Turtle Chess with Chunmei. It was very late when they went to bed, and they did not get up until it was time for morning tea. This was only asking for trouble. Again Qiuju discovered them, and she went at once to Yueniang’s room to tell her. But Yueniang was dressing her hair and Xiaoyu was standing at the door. Qiuju took Xiaoyu aside and said: “Brother-in-law has spent the night with my lady again, and they have not got up even yet. It is just as I told you the other day, yet I was beaten for my pains. Today I can prove what I say. This is no lie. I want the Great Lady to go and see for herself.”

  “Oh, you goggle-eyed slave!” Xiaoyu cried. “Here you are again with scandalous tales about your mistress. The Great Lady is doing her hair. Get off with you.”

  “What is she talking about?” Yueniang asked.

  Xiaoyu was obliged to make some answer, so she said: “The Fifth Lady sent Qiuju to ask you to go and see her.” Yueniang finished dressing and then hurried to the outer court to see what Jinlian wanted. Chunmei fortunately happened to see her coming. She rushed in and told Jinlian. The woman was still in bed with Jingji, and they were greatly alarmed when they heard that Yueniang was on her way. Jingji, rolled himself up in the coverlets and hid himself completely, and Jinlian made Chunmei set a table on the bed. She herself pretended to be making a pearl ornament.

  Yueniang came in and sat down. “You are very late this morning,” she said. “I wondered what you were doing. I see you are making an ornament.” She took the work in her hands and examined it. “It is really very well made,” she said. “There is the sesame flower in the middle, borders of squares on either side and, all around, bees resting on chrysanthemum flowers, and hearts interlaced. It is very pretty indeed. You must make one for me.”

  When Jinlian realized that Yueniang was speaking pleasantly, her heart began to beat more quietly. She told Chunmei to bring some tea. Yueniang drank it and shortly afterwards went away. “Sister,” she said as she was going, “when you have dressed your hair, come and see me.” Jinlian promised, and as soon as Yueniang had gone, she made Jingji get up and slip away. Both she and Chunmei had had such a terrible fright that they were bathed in sweat.

  “The Great Lady has never been to see me before unless she had something definite to say. I wonder what made her come so early today.”

  “That slave has been at her tricks again,” Chunmei said.

  Before long, Xiaoyu came and told them what had happened. “Qiuju came,” she said, “and talked about brother-in-law being here all day and all night. I scolded her for saying such things, but she still went on. Then the Great Lady asked what it was all about, and the only thing I could say was that you had sent to ask her to come and see you. Lady, you must be on your guard against such backbitings. And you must watch that slave.”

  Though Yueniang did not believe Qiuju, she was not quite easy in her mind because she realized that Jinlian was a young woman and easily carried away. Her husband was dead. If anything of the sort should happen, she was afraid the story would get out and there would be a scandal. Besides, she thought about Ximen Dajie. She would not allow her to go far away, and she gave the young couple the room that Li Jiao’er once had, so that henceforth they should live in the inner part of the house. Only when Clerk Fu went home did she allow Jingji to sleep at the shop. When the young man had to come for clothes or medicines or anything, Daian always came with him. The window
s and doors were all securely fastened, and the maids and serving women were not permitted to go out without very good cause. The household, in fact, was governed much more strictly, and this made it practically impossible for Jinlian and Jingji to indulge their very warm affection for each other. They found, as we so often find, that the joys of this life seldom attain their fullest realization, and that fine weather never lasts very long.

  For a month after Qiuju had told of the secret attachment between Jinlian and Chen Jingji, they never had an opportunity of meeting. At last Jinlian could bear the separation no longer. She was lonely behind her embroidered curtains and desolate in her painted chamber. She was afflicted by lovesickness, and became too languid to powder her face. She ate less food and drank less tea than was her custom. She grew thinner and thinner, and the girdle around her waist grew looser and looser. So languid was she that she would lie down on her bed and stay there for hours at a time.

  “Mother,” Chunmei said, “nothing can be done by worrying. The Great Lady has sent for the two nuns and I hear that tonight they are to stay and read the scriptures. This means that the door to the inner court will be closed early. I will pretend to go to the stable to get some straw to fill a mattress, but really I will go to the shop and ask young master Chen to come and see you. What do you think?”

  “Good sister,” Jinlian said, “do, for pity’s sake, tell him to come. I will never forget how well and kindly you have served me.”

  “There is no need to say that, Mother,” Chunmei said. “You and I are really but one. Father is dead, and whether you go up or down in the world, I shall always be ready to go with you and to stay wherever you may stay.”

  “If you feel like that, what more could I desire?” Jinlian said.

  That evening, she went to Yueniang’s room, but soon she excused herself, saying that she did not feel very well and went to her own place. She was like a cicada escaping from its chrysalis. Yueniang closed the door of the inner court very early and dismissed the maids and serving women. Then she settled down to listen to the nuns.

  “Good sister,” Jinlian said to Chunmei, “go at once and bring him to me.”

  “First I must give Qiuju some wine and get her comfortably out of the way. Then I will go.” She heated two large cups of wine, gave them to Qiuju, and hustled her into the kitchen. Then she took a basket and went to the outer court. She filled the basket with straw and went stealthily to the pawnshop. She knocked softly at the door. Clerk Fu was not there and Jingji was alone. He had just gone to bed when he heard the knock. He recognized Chunmei’s voice and, when he opened the door, found that it was indeed she.

  “Come in,” he said, smiling, “there is no one here but myself.”

  Chunmei went in. She asked where the boys were.

  “Daian and Ping’an are both at the medicine shop,” Jingji told her, “and I am left here to bear my loneliness as best I can.”

  “My mistress sends her love to you,” Chunmei said, “and says what a fine person you must be to let all these days pass without coming near her. She says she supposes that, now you have Yulou, you don’t care about her any more.”

  “Oh, what a thing to say!” Jingji said. “Ever since that last time I have been afraid, and the Great Lady keeps the doors and windows so tightly shut that I dare not move.”

  “For some days,” Chunmei said, “my mistress has been miserable. She is restless all the time and never eats a thing. And when she has anything to do, she doesn’t seem to know how to set about it. Today the Great Lady is busy listening to the nuns, but my mistress has gone back to her room and wants to see you there. She has sent me especially to ask you to go to her.”

  “I am grateful for her love,” Jingji said. “You go first and I will follow in a few moments.”

  He opened the cabinet and took out a white silk kerchief and a pair of silver toothpicks. He gave these to Chunmei and embraced her. Then he lifted her on to the bed and kissed her. They were very well pleased with one another.

  When they had amused themselves for a while, Chunmei went back with the straw. “Brother-in-law,” she said to Jinlian, “was delighted to see me. He says he will come, and gave me this kerchief and these toothpicks.”

  “Keep a good lookout,” Jinlian said. “He may come any moment.”

  It was the twelfth day of the ninth month, and the moon was very bright. Jingji went first to the medicine shop and ordered Ping’an to take his place at the pawnshop. He told the boy that the Great Lady had sent for him to listen to the exhortations of the two nuns. Then he went to Jinlian. He knew that the main garden gate would be shut, so he went in by the other and, when he came to Jinlian’s apartments, shook the hibiscus tree as a signal. Chunmei came out to welcome him and took him into the room. Jinlian was standing at the door. “Oh, villain,” she said to him with a smile, “how kind you are to stay away from me for so long.”

  “I wished to come ever so much,” Jingji said, “but I was afraid I should get you into trouble.” They held each other’s hands and went into the room together. Chunmei closed the door in the corner and set food and wine on the table. Jinlian and Jingji sat down side by side and Chunmei opposite. They poured the wine and passed the cups to one another. When they had had wine enough, a sidelong look came into the woman’s eyes and her cloudlike hair seemed to lose its tidiness. She brought out the love instruments that had once belonged to Ximen Qing. The Case for Mutual Enjoyment was there, the Trembling Voice and Lovely Eyes, the silver clasp and the Bell of Excitement. In the candlelight, Jinlian stripped herself of all her clothes and lay naked upon a “drunken old gentleman’s chair.” Jingji, too, took off his clothes. They found a set of twenty-four pictures representing the pleasures of love, and endeavored to reproduce in real life the joys depicted in the paintings.

  “Go behind him and push,” Jinlian said to Chunmei. “I’m afraid he must be exhausted.”

  Chunmei, indeed, gave the young man a push forward. So the warrior stood inside her cunt; he plunged up and down, and gave both of them a most delightful orgasm.

  Qiuju, who was in the kitchen at the back, suddenly wished to make water and got up, but she found the door closed on the outer side, and could not open it at first. Finally, she put her hand around and succeeded in working back the bolt. It was quite light in the courtyard, and she went across on tiptoe to the other room. Peeping through the window, she could see candles shining brightly and three people in the room, all merrily drunk, and not a stitch of clothing on them. They seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely. Jinlian and Chen Jingji were plunging and rearing, and Chunmei, behind the young man, was rendering every assistance in her power, and in this way the three worked together.

  “These are the people who make themselves out to be so good, while I am beaten,” Qiuju said to herself. “But this time I have caught them in the act and tomorrow morning I will go and tell the Great Lady. She won’t say I’m lying now.”

  She watched them until she was quite satisfied, and then went back to the kitchen and to bed.

  The three others went merrily on until the third night watch. In the morning, Chunmei was the first to get out of bed. When she came to the kitchen, she found the door open. She questioned Qiuju, and the girl said: “Oh, yes! I had to get up in the night, and I pushed it open and went into the yard.”

  “You slave!” Chunmei said, “couldn’t you see the chamber pot in the room here?”

  “I didn’t know it was there,” Qiuju declared, and they squabbled for a long time. Jingji went away.

  Then Jinlian asked Chunmei what all the noise was about, and Chunmei told her how Qiuju had opened the door. Jinlian was greatly annoyed and determined to beat the girl again, but Qiuju went to the inner court and told the whole story to Yueniang.

  “You slave who would be the death of your mistress,” Yueniang said. “Only the other day you came to me with a long cock-and-bull story. You said your mistress was carrying on with my son-in-law, and that he was with her all
night and all day. So I went there: your mistress was in bed busy making an ornament, and my son-in-law was nowhere to be seen. When he did appear, he came from another part of the house altogether. You deceitful slave! My son-in-law is not a sugar figure that can be hidden away anywhere. Are you trying to throw dust in my eyes? If people knew the truth of this, they would know that you are a traitor to your mistress. But if they did not know, they would say: ‘When Ximen Qing was alive, he had dealings with many women. And now, though he has been dead only a short time, his own wives are behaving in a most disorderly fashion.’ They would even cast doubts upon my own child.”

  She was going to punish Qiuju, but the girl ran away in alarm and never dared to go to the Great Lady again. When Jinlian heard that Yueniang had refused to believe what Qiuju told her, she was even bolder than before. But Jingji’s wife heard whispers, and asked her husband questions.

  “Surely, you don’t believe that story!” he said. “Why, I spent the whole time at the shop. How could I go to the garden? Besides, you know the garden door has been shut all the time.”

  “I won’t argue with you,” his wife said. “If I hear anything more and find that the Great Lady will not believe you, you can keep away from me.”

  “If I have done anything wrong,” Jingji said, “sooner or later it will come out. You ought to refuse to listen to such scandal. You know the Great Lady doesn’t believe it.”

  “I only hope you are telling the truth,” his wife said.

  CHAPTER 84

  Wu Yueniang’s Pilgrimage

  One day, Wu Yueniang sent for Uncle Wu and told him she wished to go and offer incense at the temple at Taianzhou. When Ximen Qing was desperately ill, she had promised to make sacrifice there.

  “If you go, I must go with you,” Uncle Wu said. They got ready offerings, incense, candles, and paper things, and decided that Daian and Laian should go with them. They hired three horses, and a sedan chair for Yueniang. Before they left, Yueniang told Meng Yulou, Pan Jinlian, and Sun Xue’e to look well after the house, and Ruyi’er and the maids to take care of Xiaoge. They were to fasten the doors early and not to leave the house.