Ying’er looked in, terrified, and covered her face with her hands.
A violent man, this Wu Song. And how sad, the case of this woman who, when the breath was still in her body, could use it in a thousand ways. Now she was powerless. She was only thirty-two years old. When his hand fell, her young life ended. The knife struck, and she was no more. Her spirit fled to the palace of the King of Hell, and her spirit vanished to the city of the dead. It was like the breaking of the golden branches of the willow by the snow in springtime, or the jade-like blossom rent and torn by the wild wind as the year goes out. We know not where her loveliness vanished that night, or where her sweet spirit went.
When Wu Song killed Jinlian, old woman Wang shouted, “Murder.” Then he went to her, and struck off her head. He dragged away the body, then thrust his knife through the woman’s heart, and pinned it to the eaves at the back of the house. It was the first night watch. He took Ying’er into the other room. “I am frightened, Uncle,” she said. “My child,” Wu Song said, “I can do nothing for you.”
Then he jumped over the wall and went into old woman Wang’s house. He wished to kill Wang Chao. But it seemed that Wang Chao’s end was not to be yet. When he heard his mother’s shrieks, he knew that Wu Song was killing her. He came to the front door but would not open it. He knocked at the back, but there was no answer. Then he rushed to the street to find a policeman. Meanwhile, the neighbors on either side knew that Wu Song was killing somebody, but none of them dared to interfere.
When Wu Song reached old woman Wang’s room, he found a light burning, but there was nobody there. He opened her chest, took out the clothes and strewed them on the floor. Then he found the silver, about eighty-five taels, for the old woman had only given Yueniang twenty. But he took ornaments, pins and earrings. Then, taking his knife, he jumped over the wall at the back. About the fifth night watch, he left the city, and went to Shizipo, where Zhang Qing and his wife lived. Then he became a monk. Afterwards, he went to Liangshan and joined the bandits.
CHAPTER 88
Chunmei Mourns for Pan Jinlian
For a moment he beheld her in a dream
But, when he woke, he knew that there was no one.
He turned and tossed and could not sleep
Then threw his clothes about him and paced the floor.
The morning breeze is sharp
The moonbeams dim.
He lies alone, wakeful, till morning breaks
But she of whom he dreamed
Does not return.
When Wang Chao and the police came to Wu Song’s place, the doors were still fastened. In old woman Wang’s house, money and things were missing and clothes were strewn over the floor. They realized that Wu Song had murdered the woman and gone off with the money. They forced the door and found the two bodies on the floor, covered with blood. The entrails of Pan Jinlian were pinned to the eaves at the back of the house, and Ying’er was still shut up in the room. She could only cry when they questioned her. The next morning they brought the matter before the notice of the magistrate and produced such evidence as they could get.
This magistrate had been recently appointed, and his name was Li Changqi. He was a native of Zaoqiang in the prefecture of Chending. When he heard of the murder, he sent his runners to summon the neighbors and the members of both families. So Wang Chao and Ying’er came before the magistrate. The house and the bodies were examined. The magistrate declared that Wu Song, when drunk, had killed the women Pan and Wang. He ordered the bodies to be buried temporarily, and issued a warrant for Wu Song’s arrest, offering a reward of fifty taels of silver for his apprehension.
Zhang Sheng and Li An took a hundred taels with them and went to old woman Wang’s house again. But when they got there, they found that the two women had been killed and that the local officials were examining the bodies and taking steps to arrest the murderer. They went back and told their master. When Chunmei heard the news, she wept for three days and would neither eat nor drink. Major Zhou was much disturbed and sent for all kinds of different entertainers to amuse her, but they could not assuage her grief. Every day she sent Zhang Sheng and Li An to see if Wu Song had been arrested.
Meanwhile, Chen Jingji had gone to the Eastern Capital to get some money so that he could marry Jinlian. On the way, he met Chen Ding, a servant of his family, who was coming to tell him that his father was very ill and that his mother wanted him to take up the responsibilities of the household. Then Jingji traveled with even more haste than before. At last he came to the Eastern Capital and hurried to the house of his uncle, Zhang Shilian. But his uncle was dead, and his aunt told him that his father had died three days before. They were all wearing mourning clothes.
Jingji made a reverence before his father’s tablet, and kowtowed to his mother and his aunt. His mother realized that he was now a grown man, cried with him, and talked about the matters that needed to be decided. “I am happy and sad at the same time,” she said. When Jingji asked her what she meant, she said she was happy because the announcement of the Emperor’s successor meant a general amnesty for all prisoners, and sad because of the death of Jingji’s father and uncle. “Your aunt is now a widow,” she said, “and we shall not be able to stay here any longer. You must take your father’s body and bury it at our old home.”
If I take the coffin and all the other things, Jingji thought, it will mean a long and slow journey, and I shall be too late to marry. I had better take the chests and valuables and go and marry Jinlian at once. Then I can come back for the coffin, and I shall not be too late.
When he had thought the matter over, he said to his mother: “The country is overridden by bandits and thieves and it is not at all safe to travel. If I take both the coffin and the boxes at the same time, they are likely to attract attention, and what can I do if anything happens? I suggest we do things more gradually. To begin with, I will get two carts and take all these trunks and things and go and see about a house for you. Then I will come back and take you, Chen Ding, and the coffin, at the beginning of next year. When we are settled, we will put the coffin into a monastery and offer sacrifice, then build a tomb and bury it.”
His mother, being a woman, was deceived by these smooth-sounding words. She let him take everything away, two cartloads in all. They put banners on the carts to make it seem as though they were pilgrims and, on the first day of the twelfth month, Chen Jingji left the Capital.
When he reached Qinghe, he went to tell his Uncle Zhang that his father was dead, and that his mother and his father’s body were coming shortly. “I have brought these things,” he said, “so as to make everything ready for my mother.”
“In that case,” his uncle said, “I must go back to my own house.” He bade his servants make preparations at once for the removal.
When his uncle had gone, Jingji was delighted. “Now I have got rid of that old fellow,” he said to himself, “I can marry Jinlian straightaway and have a good time. My father is dead and my mother treats me with every indulgence. I will begin by divorcing my wife, and then send an accusation against my mother-in-law. She has no hold on me now since my family is no longer under the ban.”
People decide upon courses of action like this, but Heaven often thinks otherwise. Jingji took a hundred taels for old woman Wang, and went to Amethyst Street. But when he got there, there were two rough graves outside the door, each with a spear and a large lantern upon it. On the door itself was pasted a notice that said: “Murder! The murderer Wu Song has killed Pan and Wang. Anyone who arrests him, or gives notice of his whereabouts, will receive a reward of fifty taels of silver.”
Jingji looked at the notice. He was as if rooted to the ground. Two men came out of a tent.
“Who are you?” they cried. “Why are you looking at the notice? We haven’t arrested anybody yet. Who are you?” They looked as though they would lay hands on Jingji. He ran away. When he came to a wine house, not far from the stone bridge, he saw a man dressed in black coming towards h
im.
“What are you doing here, Brother?” the man said. “You seem very brave.”
Jingji saw that it was a great friend of his, a man called Yang the Second, who was nicknamed Iron Claw. They greeted one another, and Yang the Second asked Jingji where he had been. Jingji told him that he had been to the Eastern Capital, and that his father had died. Then he said: “This woman who has been killed was my father-in-law’s wife. This is the first I have heard of it. I have only just read the notice.”
“It was her brother, Wu Song, who came back from banishment and murdered her,” Yang the Second said. “I don’t know why he did it. He even killed old woman Wang. I know Wu Song had a niece, for she has been living with my uncle, Yao the Second, for the last three or four years. Wu Song ran away as soon as he had murdered the two women, and my aunt got the girl away from the authorities and found a husband for her. The two bodies, as you see, are still here. The police will have a very difficult task looking out for Wu Song all the time, and I doubt whether he will ever be caught.”
Yang the Second asked Jingji to go and drink with him in the wine house. Now that the young man knew his lover was dead, he was very much upset and could not drink much. He drank three cups or so and then left Yang the Second and went home. That evening he bought some paper money. Then he went to the stone bridge not far from old woman Wang’s door. “Sister Pan,” he said, “your young brother, Chen Jingji, comes to offer you this paper money. It was because my coming back was so delayed that you met your death. Now you are dead, you will become a goddess. Use your spiritual power to help those who seek to arrest Wu Song. When he is found, I will go to the place of execution to see him cut to pieces. Only then shall I be satisfied.”
He sobbed and set fire to the paper money. Then he went home, shut the gate, and went to his own room. He went to sleep. Jinlian appeared to him, wearing a simple dress, and covered with blood. She said to him, with tears: “Brother, I died such a bitter death. I longed to live with you, but, alas, before you came back, that fellow Wu Song murdered me. The underworld will not take me in, so all day I must wander about, and all night I seek for shelter everywhere and try to beg a little water to drink. I thank you for burning paper money for me. My murderer has not been found, and still my body lies in the street. If you think of our past love, buy a coffin and bury me properly, that I may not lie there exposed any longer.”
“Sister,” Jingji said, “you know that I would gladly bury you, but I am afraid of my mother-in-law, that cruel, heartless woman. If she hears of it, she will seek to do me some evil, and this would be an opportunity. Sister, go to Major Zhou’s place. See Chunmei and ask her to have your body buried.”
“I have been there,” Jinlian cried, “and I could not get in. The god of the gate stopped me. But I will go again.”
Jingji still cried and tried to hold her hand and talk to her, but the smell of the blood on her body came to him, and she escaped from him. He woke up and found it was a dream. The night watchman’s drum was sounding the third night watch.
“How strange!” he said to himself. “Did I not see my sister? Did she not tell me all about this tragedy and ask me to bury her? But I do not know when Wu Song will be arrested. It is a sad business.”
Search was kept up for Wu Song, but two months passed and there was no sign of him. At last there came news that he had gone to Liangshan and joined the bandits, and the policemen told the magistrate. Then the magistrate gave orders that the bodies might now be taken away and buried by their families. Wang Chao took away his mother’s body, but there was no one to bury Jinlian.
Chunmei had been sending Zhang Sheng and Li An nearly every day to the Town Hall for news. Each time they could only report that the murderer had not been caught and that the bodies were still there. The police were keeping watch over them and nobody dared move them. At the beginning of the first month, Chunmei had a dream. Pan Jinlian came to her, covered with blood and her hair in disorder. “Sister,” the woman said, “I had such a sad death. It was hard for me to come and see you because the god of the gate would not let me in. Now my enemy, Wu Song, has escaped. My body still lies in the street, blown by the wind and drenched by the rain. Dogs and fowls come and stand over me. I have no near relations, and there is no one to take me away. If you still remember the friendship there used to be between us, buy a coffin and bury me somewhere. Then, in Hades, I can close my eyes and mouth in peace.” As she said this, she cried bitterly.
Chunmei wished to take her hand and ask her many things, but Jinlian slipped away from her. She woke up and knew it was a dream. She was still crying.
She did not know what the dream meant until the next day. Then she said to Zhang Sheng and Li An: “Go and see whether the bodies of those two women are still there.”
When they came back, the men told her: “The murderer has escaped and the two bodies could not lie there forever with the police keeping watch over them, so the magistrate has ordered the relatives to take them away. The old woman’s son has taken away his mother’s body, but the other woman is still there.”
“Now,” Chunmei said, “I am going to ask you two to do something for me. If you do it, I will see you are well paid for it.”
The two men knelt down. “Lady,” they said, “you need not talk of payment. If you will speak kindly of us to our master, we shall be grateful and, if you tell us to go through fire or water, we are ready to do it.”
Chunmei went into her room and got ten taels of silver and two rolls of cloth.
“The dead woman was really my sister,” she said to them. “She married Ximen Qing and, after his death, left his household. Then she was murdered. Don’t say anything to your master, but go and buy a coffin with this money, put her body into it, and take her outside the city. Find a suitable place and bury her there. I will pay you well.”
“We will go and do so at once,” the men said.
“I am afraid the magistrate will not let us take the body away,” Li An said. “We ought to have a card from our master to give him.”
“Oh, we will tell him that the dead woman is our lady’s sister,” Zhang Sheng said. “I don’t believe the magistrate will make any objection. We shan’t need a card.”
They took the money and went to the Town Hall.
“It is my belief that the dead woman must have been a friend of the master’s young lady,” Zhang Sheng said to Li An. “They probably lived together. That is why she is so concerned about this dead woman. Perhaps you remember that when the woman was killed, our lady cried for three or four days and wouldn’t eat anything. The master sent for all sorts of people to come and amuse her, but they couldn’t do anything. Now there is nobody to bury the woman and she wants to do it. If we manage this business, she will certainly say a kind word for us to our master. It is a stroke of luck for us, because he never refuses her anything. He considers her more than the other ladies.”
They came to the Town Hall and sent in their petition. “The dead woman’s sister is the Major’s wife,” they said. “It is by her orders that we have come to ask for leave to remove the body.”
They paid six taels for a coffin. Then they dug up the body, put the woman’s entrails back into it, and sewed up the gash with thread. Finally they wrapped her in a shroud and put her into the coffin.
“Our best plan,” Zhang Sheng said, “will be to bury her at the Temple of Eternal Felicity, where our master worships. There is room there.”
They hired two men to carry the coffin to the temple and said to the Abbot that they would like to bury the body there, since it was that of their young mistress’s sister. The Abbot pointed out a place behind the temple, near a poplar tree, and there they buried her. Then they went back and told Chunmei all they had done. “We bought a coffin and buried her,” they said, “and we have still four taels left.”
“It is very kind of you,” Chunmei said. “Will you take the four taels and give two to the Abbot and ask him to read a dirge to help her on her way to
paradise?” She gave the two men each a tael and a present of food besides.
The two men knelt down. “We have done nothing,” they said, “and we dare not take these gifts. We only ask that you should speak well of us to our master.”
“I shall be angry if you do not,” Chunmei said.
So the two men kowtowed and took the money. Then they went to drink, and said how kind their mistress was. The next day, Zhang Sheng took the silver and asked the Abbot to hold a service for the dead woman. Chunmei gave them five qian of silver to get paper money to burn for her.
* * *
Chen Ding reached Qinghe about this time. He brought with him Chen Jingji’s family and his father’s coffin. He set down the coffin at this same Temple of Eternal Felicity where, after a funeral service had been held, they proposed to bury it. When Jingji heard of their arrival, he brought in the luggage and kowtowed to his mother.
“Why did you not come to meet me?” she asked.
“I haven’t been well, and there is no one to look after the house,” he said.
“Where is your uncle?”
“When he found you were coming, he went back to his old house.”
“You should not have allowed him to do so,” Mistress Chen said. “He might just as well have stayed.”
Then Zhang came to see his sister; they embraced each other and wept. Then they sat down together to talk.
The next day, Jingji’s mother told him to take five taels of silver and some paper money and give them to the Abbot to hold a service for his father. Jingji set out on horseback. On the way, he met two of his friends, Lu and Yang. He dismounted, and greeted them. They asked him where he was going.
“My father’s body is at the temple outside the city,” Jingji told them. “Tomorrow will be the twentieth, and my father’s last week’s mind, so my mother has asked me to take some money to the Abbot for the ceremony.”
“We are very sorry,” the two men said. “We had no idea your father’s coffin had arrived. When will the funeral be?”
The Golden Lotus, Volume 2 Page 65