“The man she is going to marry has indeed the horse for his animal,” the old women cried, “but we are afraid he will think her too old. Can you make her a few years younger?”
“I will make her thirty-four,” the man said.
“If you do that, will that fit in with the Horse?” old woman Xue said.
“Yes,” the man said, “the Ding fire meets the Geng gold. From the gold melted in the fire, a precious jewel is made. It will be all right.” He put down Yulou’s age as thirty-four. The two old women went on to the Town Hall. There they were taken to the young man. He asked who old woman Xue was.
“She is the go-between of the other party,” old woman Tao said. She told the young man the result of her visit. “The lady is very beautiful,” she said, “but she is slightly older than you. I did not venture to settle the matter without your consent. Here is the card.”
Li looked at it. “Born at the hour of the Rat, the twenty-seventh day of the eleventh month, thirty-four years of age,” it said.
“That is all right,” the young man said. “She is only two or three years older than I am.”
“Yes, my lord,” old woman Xue said hastily, “and doubtless you remember the proverb: When the wife is two years older than her husband, his wealth will be increased, and if she is three years older, she will be like a mountain of gold. The lady is very beautiful and has a perfect disposition. I need hardly say that she knows how to read and can manage a household very economically.”
“You need say no more,” the young man said. “I have seen her myself. “We must select a day of good omen for the betrothal.”
“When shall we come to receive your orders?” the old women said.
“We will not waste any time. Come two days from now.”
He gave each of them a tael of silver for her pains, and they went off in high spirits.
Li was very pleased that his marriage was now so far advanced. He consulted with He Buwei and then told his father. Then he sent for the Master of the Yin Yang, who selected the eighth day of the fourth month for the betrothal and the fifteenth for the wedding. He made a handsome present to He Buwei and Little Zhang to buy tea and wine and other things. The two go-betweens went to Ximen’s place and told Yueniang and Yulou the days that had been selected. On the eighth day of the fourth month, sixteen dishes of fruits and cakes, a gold headdress, a set of gold ornaments, a cornelian girdle, a set of little bells, gold bracelets and silver pins, two scarlet ceremonial cloaks, four embroidered dresses, thirty taels of silver, rolls of silk and cotton, were made into twenty separate parcels. He Buwei and the two women took them all to Ximen’s house.
On the fifteenth, a number of servants from the Town Hall came to take Meng Yulou’s things away. Yueniang made them take everything that had belonged to Yulou. Ximen Qing had given his daughter one of the lacquer beds, and now Yueniang gave Yulou the bed decorated with mother of pearl that had been in Jinlian’s room. Yulou wished to take Lanxiang with her and leave the younger of her maids to Yueniang. But Yueniang would not agree.
“No,” she said, “I will not take your maid. I have Zhongqiu and Xiuchun and the nurse to look after the baby, and they are all I need.”
Then Yulou sent all her things away, leaving two little silver pots as playthings for the baby. That evening there came for her a sedan chair carried by four men, with eight men from the Town Hall, and four pairs of red lanterns to attend her. Yulou put on her golden headdress, ornaments, and pearls. Then she dressed in a straight-sleeved scarlet gown. First she went to say farewell to Ximen Qing’s tablet; then she kowtowed to Yueniang.
“Sister Meng,” Yueniang said, “you are cruel. You are leaving me here alone, and I have no friend left.” They held each other’s hands and cried.
All the household went with her to the gate, and there an old woman put a veil of red silk on her head and gave her a golden vase to carry. As Yueniang was a widow, she did not go out, but asked Aunt Meng to take Yulou to her new husband.
“That is Master Ximen’s third lady,” the people in the street said to one another. “Now she is marrying the magistrate’s son. This is the wedding day.” Some said it was good, and some that it was bad. Those who considered it good said: “Ximen Qing was a very pleasant fellow. He is dead now, and his first wife lives on at his home as his widow. She could not possibly manage the household if it remained so big, so she lets the ladies go their own way, and all is as it should be.”
Those who considered it bad said: “Now, even Ximen Qing’s wives are remarrying. He was a most unprincipled fellow. He lived for money and to seduce other people’s wives and daughters, and, now he is dead, his wives remarry and take his property with them. Some have married; some have run away; some have carried on intrigues with impossible people; some have even descended to theft. They are like the feathers of a chicken, all scattered to the winds. As the proverb says: we may have to wait thirty years for our reward, but, in this case, we see the reward today.”
Aunt Meng came with the sedan chair to the Town Hall. The beds and furniture were all in their proper places. She was asked to take wine and then went home. Li gave the two old women Xue and Tao each five taels and a roll of silk, and they went home too. The young couple became husband and wife that same night and enjoyed each other as fishes enjoy water. Next day, Yueniang sent tea and food to Yulou, since Aunt Yang, who would have done it, was now dead. The three Aunt Mengs also sent tea. Then they received an invitation from the Town Hall asking them to go on the third day of the wedding. There was a very grand dinner; musicians and singing girls were present to perform plays and music. Yueniang dressed in pearls and put on a scarlet cloak, an embroidered skirt, and a girdle with a gold buckle, and went in a large sedan chair to the Town Hall. The ladies were entertained in the great hall and the magistrate’s wife was there to receive them.
When Yueniang got home after this very lively feast, she went to the inner court. It was so quiet that not a sound could be heard. She remembered how busy all the ladies had been in Ximen Qing’s lifetime, and how, when she had come back from a party, they had all come to welcome her home. Indeed, one long bench had not been enough for the ladies to sit on. Now they were all gone. She went to Ximen Qing’s tablet and sobbed.
Young Master Li and Yulou, both very lively by nature, were delighted with each other. They were so much attracted one to the other that they found it hard to separate even for a moment. The young man looked closely at Yulou and, the more he looked at her, the more he loved her. And her two maids were very pretty too. Lanxiang was now eighteen. He was so delighted he did not know what to do with himself.
The young man’s first wife, when she died, left an old maid called Yuzan. She was now about thirty years old. She painted her face till she looked like a demon. She used to dress her hair in a number of knots, then, around it, she put a handkerchief, and tied it with a gold ribbon as if it had been a hairnet. She wore the strangest green and red clothes and shoes like boats, with four eyes. Each of them was at least one foot two inches long. When she was in the presence of anyone, she shivered and shook, talked in a quavering voice, and behaved in the queerest manner. Before the young master had married again, it was she who served him every day with food and tea. She was very industrious, and smiled and talked even when she did not mean to. When Yulou came, and her young master attached himself so firmly to her, it was a very great trouble to Yuzan. She was furious.
One day, when the young man was reading in his study, she went to the kitchen and made a special cup of tea. She put the teacup on a tray and took it to the study. She put on a smiling face, pulled aside the lattice, and went to offer the tea. But the young man, after reading a while, had gone to sleep on the table.
“Master,” she said, “nobody cares for you as I do. I have made you such a nice cup of tea. Your newly married wife is still comfortably asleep in bed. Why don’t you order her maids to make some tea for you?”
The young man was half asleep and did not
answer. “You old beggar,” she said, “you have been so busy all night that you are tired out now. That’s why you go to sleep in the daytime. Wake up and have this cup of tea.”
Then the young man woke up and saw the maid.
“Put down that tea and go away, you dirty slave,” he said.
Yuzan flushed, put down the tea, and went out in a bad temper. “You don’t appreciate my kindness,” she said. “I had the best of intentions when I made you this tea, and yet you shout at me. I may be ugly, but as the proverb says: an ugly person is a jewel in the household, but the beauty is a source of trouble. I may be ugly, but you used to like me well enough.”
The young man kicked her. Yuzan pulled a face long enough to reach the ceiling. She never painted her face again, nor did she make any more tea. When she saw Yulou, she never addressed her as “Lady,” but just said “You” and “I.” She used to seat herself on Yulou’s bed. Yulou said nothing.
Then she said, one day, to her mistress’s two maids: “Don’t call me Sister, call me Aunt. I am only slightly inferior to your mother and you must call me Aunt when your father is away. You must do what I tell you and work hard. If you don’t obey me, you shall have a taste of my shovel.”
She tried very hard to make up to the young man but he would have nothing to do with her. Then she was annoyed and would not get out of bed until noon. She refused to cook and would not scrub the floors.
“Don’t bother about her,” Yulou said to her maids. “Go yourselves to the kitchen and do the cooking and take the food to your master.”
Yuzan was terribly jealous. She used to go to the kitchen, break the plates, and curse and beat the maids. “You thievish little whores!” she cried, “you must know that I was here before any of you. Your mother was not here before I was. Now you get hold of everything and don’t exert yourselves in the least. The First Lady never used to call me Yuzan, but although you have been here only a few days, you have the audacity to call me by my name. I am not your servant. Before you came, I used to sleep with the young master. We slept together every night and did not get up till breakfasttime. We were like sugar and honey together, and I managed everything. Now you have come and smashed the honey jar and broken the relations between us. I am driven to a cold room where I have to put benches together to make a bed. I never enjoy my master’s weapon any more. Indeed, I’ve forgotten what it is like. There is no place where I can say what I think. When she was in Ximen’s family she was only the third lady, and I know she was called Yulou. I know it. And now that she comes here, she ought to control herself a little instead of boasting and ordering people about.”
Yulou heard all this. It made her angry but she would not speak to her husband about it. One day, when it was very hot, the young man ordered them to heat some water and bring the bathtub so that he could take a bath with Yulou.
“Tell Lanxiang to go and do it,” Yulou said. “Don’t ask your own maid.”
“No,” the young man said, “it is her business to do it. I can’t have her going on like this.”
When Yuzan heard her master asking for water so that he could have a bath with his wife, she was very annoyed. She brought the tub and plumped it on the floor. Then she heated a great cauldron of water.
“I have never seen such a strumpet,” she grumbled. “Always trying to harm me in some cunning way. What a strumpet she must be, washing herself nearly every day. Look at me! I slept with my master for months and months and never used a drop of water. But I didn’t offend the eyes of Buddha. This whore has been trying to quarrel with me for a long time.” She cursed all the way from the kitchen to the bedroom. Yulou heard her and said nothing, but the young man heard her too, and he was very angry. Though he had no clothes on, he picked up a stick and went out. Yulou tried to stop him.
“Don’t be angry with her,” she said. “It will be more trouble than it is worth if you go out now, when you are so hot, and catch a chill.”
But the young man found it too much. “No,” he said, “the ill-mannered slave!” He went out and seized her by the hair. Then he threw her to the ground, and blows fell from his stick like raindrops. Yulou tried to get him to stop, but she did not succeed until the maid had received thirty blows.
Then the maid knelt down before him. “Don’t beat me any more, Master,” she said. “I know you don’t want me any more, and I will go away.”
This made the young man angrier than ever and he struck her again.
“Since she is ready to go away,” Yulou said, “don’t beat her. And don’t let yourself get into such a state.”
The young man sent for old woman Tao to take the maid away. She was sold for eight taels of silver, and old Tao gave the money to the young man.
CHAPTER 92
Meng Yulou Outwits Chen Jingji
The savage tiger trusts to its own strength
But often is taken unawares.
It growls like thunder then, but that is all,
For the chains are set upon its legs.
When we see the tiger sleeping,
Its eyes have not the fierceness that we know.
The life of man is in worse case
Should evil men then not take heed?
Ximen Dajie came to Chen Jingji with all her belongings, but they were continually quarreling. He had asked his mother to give him some money to set him up in business. His Uncle Zhang borrowed fifty taels of silver from Mistress Chen and asked Jingji to find some work for him. One day, Jingji got drunk and quarreled with his uncle. This upset the uncle very much. He went elsewhere to borrow money and repaid the fifty taels he had had from his sister. This so distressed Mistress Chen that she fell ill. She had to go to bed; the doctors were sent for, and she took their medicine. Her son worried her so much about money that she gave him two hundred taels and Chen Ding was bidden to start a cloth shop at the front of the house. Jingji invited Lu the Third and Yang, and other foxy and doggish friends, to come to the shop, play the lute, gamble, and dice. This happened every day and, as they drank until midnight, the money was soon gone. Chen Ding told his mistress what was happening, and she placed her confidence in him. But Jingji accused Chen Ding and his wife of making money for themselves out of the dyeing of the cloth, and dismissed them. Then he asked Yang the Elder, whose name was Yang Guanyan, to be his manager.
This man’s nickname was Iron Fingernails. He was a thorough-paced rascal, a magnificent liar, and skilled in the art of making something out of nothing. When he promised anything to anyone, they had as much chance of getting it as of catching a shadow, but when he made up his mind to get money out of anybody, it seemed as easy as if he took it from a sack.
Chen Jingji got another three hundred taels from his mother, so now his business had cost five hundred taels. First he had to go to buy cloth at Linqing. Yang went home, packed his baggage, then went back to Jingji and they started together for Linqing to buy what they needed. It was a place of considerable importance and a center of trade. People came to it from all sides. There were thirty-two flower and willow streets and seventy-two halls of music. Jingji was still young and only too glad to go with Yang to places of this sort instead of occupying himself with the purchases he had to make.
One day they went to a house where they saw a girl called Feng Jinbao. She was attractive and beautiful, and perfect from every point of view. They asked how old she was.
“She is my own daughter,” the old procuress told them, “and my only source of livelihood. She is just sixteen years old.”
Jingji was entranced. He gave the old woman five taels of silver and spent several nights with Feng Jinbao. When Yang saw how absorbed in the girl the young man was, so that he could not be persuaded to leave her, he suggested that Jingji should marry the girl and take her home with him. The old procuress demanded a hundred and twenty taels, but, after some discussion, she came down to a hundred. Jingji paid the money and took away the girl. She sat in a sedan chair; Yang and Jingji rode on horseback with the cloth they had
bought. They cracked their whips, set their horses at the gallop, and were very pleased with themselves.
When they got home, Mistress Chen was so much upset to find that they had only bought a small supply of merchandise and that her son had married a singing girl that she died. Jingji bought a coffin, put his mother in it, called in some monks to hold a service and buried her in about a week’s time. Her brother Zhang remembered how kind she had been to him and made no trouble with Jingji.
As soon as the young man came back from the grave, he set up his mother’s tablet in the upper room and gave the other two rooms to Feng Jinbao, leaving only a little room for his wife. Then he bought a maid called Chongxi for Feng Jinbao. Yang looked after the shop and Jingji stayed at home and enjoyed the finest of food and drink. He spent every night with the singing girl and paid not the slightest attention to his wife.
One day he heard that Meng Yulou had married the magistrate’s son and taken with her a considerable amount of property. Then the magistrate’s term of office expired, and he was made Sub-Prefect at Yanzhou. He went to take up this new appointment. This reminded Jingji that he had once picked up one of Yulou’s pins in the garden. He decided that he would take this pin with him to Yanzhou, and, with that as his evidence, claim that Yulou had had an intrigue with him and had given him the pin. He would say that everything she had brought with her from Ximen’s household really belonged to Yang Jian and should have been confiscated. The magistrate Li, he thought, was only a civil officer and not one of very high rank, and a few sharp words would induce him to order his son to give up Yulou. “Then,” the young man said to himself, “I will bring her back with me and, with Feng Jinbao, I shall have two women for my enjoyment.” Unfortunately for him, the matter did not turn out as pleasantly as he expected.
The Golden Lotus, Volume 2 Page 70