The Golden Lotus, Volume 2

by Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng

  “Brother,” he said to Yang the Elder, shaking his clenched fist, “you are unreasonable. Why should you beat a man so young and poor? You know the saying that a clenched fist should never smite a smiling face. This young man did nothing to provoke you. If you have any money, treat him as a friend and give him some. Why are you beating him? I don’t think it is right, and I shall be on his side.”

  “You know nothing about it,” Yang the Elder said. “He says I stole his property. How could a beggar like him have any property worth stealing?”

  “I believe he was rich once,” the man said. “He doesn’t look to me as if he came from a poor family. And as for you, I very much doubt if you have been rich ail your life. Now listen to me. If you have any money with you, let him have some.”

  Yang brought out a handkerchief in which was a piece of silver worth about four or five qian. He gave it to Jingji and raised his hand in salute to the man. Then he mounted his donkey again and rode proudly away. Jingji got up. He saw that his savior was no other than a man he had known in the Beggars’ Rest, a fellow called Flying Ghost. He was now acting as foreman to a gang of fifty men who were working at a temple south of the city, building some new rooms. This man took Jingji by the hand. “Brother,” he said, “if I had not used strong language to that man, you would not have that silver. He knows when it is time to give way. If he had not done so, I should have let him taste my fists. Come with me and have some wine.”

  They went to a small wine house, sat down, and ordered two pots of wine and four dishes. The waiter set out the dishes and two pots of olive wine that, at that time, was greatly liked. They drank this wine in large bowls instead of small cups.

  “Brother,” the man said, “which will you have, noodles or rice?”

  “Our noodles are freshly washed and our rice the finest white rice,” the waiter said.

  “I will have noodles,” Jingji said, and noodles were brought. Jingji had two bowls and his friend one.

  “Brother,” the man said, “come with me to my place today, and tomorrow I will take you to see the Abbot of the temple where I am working. We are building some rooms and cottages there, and I have fifty men working under me. I will give you a very light job. You will only have to carry earth, and for that you shall have five fen a day. Then I will get a room and we will sleep there together. We can cook our own food and lock our door, and I will let you have all you need. That will be better than the Beggars’ Rest, and going around with the watchman. It will be much pleasanter for us to live together.”

  “You are very kind,” Jingji said. “May I know if this work will last for long?”

  “We only started a month ago, and I think we shall finish in the tenth month, but I am not sure.”

  They drank as they talked and finished two large pots of wine. The waiter brought them the bill. It was for one qian and three and a half fen. Jingji was going to pay, but Flying Ghost pushed his money aside.

  “Do you think I would let you pay, you silly fellow?” he said. “I have money of my own.” He brought out a handkerchief and gave the waiter one qian and five fen, taking back the change. Then he put his arm around Jingji and they went back to his place. That night they slept together. They were both drunk and behaved in an unseemly manner. Indeed they did so all night. Jingji called the man his brother, his sweetheart, his husband, and other attractive names. In the morning they went together to the temple. Here Flying Ghost, whose name was Hou Lin, rented a room with a fire and bought cups and bowls and other things that were necessary.

  The workmen saw that Jingji was only about twenty-four or twenty-five. They noticed his white face and handsome appearance and realized that he was Hou’s man. They made many jokes about him.

  “Young man,” one said, “what is your name?”

  “I am called Chen Jingji.”

  “Well, Chen Jingji, you certainly live up to your name.”*

  And another said: “You are very young. How can you do such strenuous work? Are you sure that pole isn’t too much for you?”

  Then Hou came up. “You beggars,” he said, “what do you mean by making fun of him?” He gave spades and shovels and baskets to the workmen, and they went to their tasks. Some carried earth, some mixed the mortar, some worked on the foundations.

  One of the monks in the temple was called Ye. The Abbot had given him instructions to cook for all the workers. Ye was about fifty years old. He had only one eye. He wore a long black gown, and his feet were bare. There was a ragged girdle around his waist. He could not read the sacred scriptures, but he was very attentive to his devotions. He was a skillful fortune-teller.

  One day, when the work was done and the workers had had their meal, they were all gathered together, some lying down, some squatting on their haunches. Ye looked hard at Chen Jingji.

  “This young man is a newcomer,” one of the men said to Ye, “why not tell his fortune?”

  “In my opinion, he is half one thing and half another,” one of them said.

  The priest asked Jingji to go to him. “Too handsome and woman-like,” he said. “A charming voice and a tender body are unpardonable. When an old man is like this, he will come upon hardship. When a young man is like it, he will not be stout and strong. You suffer from that smooth face of yours. All your life, you will be a woman’s man. Eight, eighteen, and twenty-eight. With eight years, eighteen, and twenty-eight, from the root of your nose to the top of your hair, whether you have any means of livelihood or not, you get less at both ends, and at thirty you cannot have a blackness between your brows. Your eyes are very handsome, and your mind is clever. Even if you cannot read, you have charm enough without. Whatever you do, people like you. When you play a trick, it is taken for the truth. Forgive me for saying so, but you are very cunning and get much sport from women. How old are you?”

  “I am twenty-four,” Jingji said.

  “I am surprised that you got past the year before last,” the monk said. “Your brows are narrow, and your son and your wife both die. The hanging jade is very dark, and your family will be ruined. Your lips do not cover your teeth and you will have many troubles in your life. Your nostrils are like the hob of a furnace, and you will not be able to keep your property. Have you experienced any such misfortunes?”

  “I have had them all,” Jingji said.

  “One thing I must tell you,” the monk said, “that your nose is detached is not a good sign. As the great teacher Ma says, he whose mountain root is broken will waste all his substance in his youth. He will bring ruin to the property he has inherited from his ancestors, and no matter how much his father left to him, he will spend it all. Your upper half is short and the lower half long. This is a sign that you are sometimes successful and sometimes fail. You spend your money, and money comes to you again. But, in the end, you will not leave a family behind you; you will be as when the hot sun shines on the hoar frost. But there is one sign of luck for you in the future. You are to be married three times. Have you ever been married and, if so, is your wife dead?”

  “Yes, she is dead,” Jingji said.

  “Well, three marriages are indicated for you,” the monk said. “But there is trouble also. “When you are about thirty, you will suffer from the machinations of others. You must not visit the flowers and the willows.”

  Then one of the workmen said: “Father Ye, you have made a mistake. He is a wife himself at this very time. How can you say that he will have three wives?”

  All the workers laughed. Then the Abbot gave the signal, and they all took their tools and went to work again.

  Jingji stayed for about a month and worked there. One day, in the middle of the third month, Jingji, who had been carrying earth, leaned against the temple wall and searched his body for vermin in the sun. A man who wore a swastika in his hat, a black gown with a purple lining, a girdle, and a pair of sandals, rode up on a brown horse. He was carrying a basket of fresh flowers. When he saw Jingji, he jumped off his horse at once and bowed low.


  “Uncle Chen,” he said, “I have been looking everywhere for you, and here you are.”

  Jingji, astonished, returned the greeting.

  “Brother,” he said, “who are you?”

  “I am Zhang Sheng, the servant of Major Zhou,” the man said. “Since you left the court, my mistress has been ill all the time. My master ordered me to find you, but it never occurred to me that you would be here. And even now I should not have seen you if my mistress had not told me to go to the country for these flowers. It is really a stroke of good luck for me. Don’t waste a moment. Take my horse and go to my master’s place.”

  The workmen stood and gazed. They did not speak. Jingji gave the keys to his friend Hou, mounted the horse, and rode quickly away.

  Footnote

  * There is a pun, of an ambiguous nature, on the word ji.

  CHAPTER 97

  Chunmei Finds a Wife

  for Chen Jingji

  When they came to Major Zhou’s place, Chen Jingji dismounted and Zhang Sheng went in to tell Chunmei. She ordered him to take Jingji to a room where he could have a bath, and told a woman to take him fresh clothes, boots and hat. The Major was still in the great hall, and Chunmei gave orders for the young man to be taken to the hall in the inner court. There she waited for him, beautifully dressed. Jingji came in and made a reverence to her as though she were his cousin. They sat down facing each other and talked of the things that had happened since they last met. Tears were in their eyes.

  Chunmei expected the Major to come at any moment. She looked meaningfully at Jingji and said softly: “If he asks you any questions, say that you are my cousin and that I am a year older than you. I am twenty-five and was born at noon on the twenty-fifth day of the fourth month.”

  “I will remember,” Jingji said.

  The maid brought tea and Chunmei asked him how he became a priest. “My husband did not know that we had anything to do with one another,” she said, “or he would not have punished you. He is sorry now. At that time I could not ask you to stay here, though I should have liked to, because Xue’e was here. That was why I let you go away. I got rid of her as soon as I could and told Zhang Sheng to look for you. I never imagined that things would come to such a pass that you would become a workman outside the city.”

  “It is a long story,” Jingji said. “After we saw each other last, I made up my mind to marry Pan Jinlian. Then my father died at the Eastern Capital, and I came back too late. Wu Song had killed her. I heard that through your kindness she had been buried at the Temple of Eternal Felicity. I went there and burned paper offerings for her. Then my mother died. When I had buried her, my money was stolen. I came home and my wife died. That strumpet, my mother-in-law, took me to law and made off with all my wife’s things. To settle the law case I had to sell my house and then I was as poor as if I had been cleaned completely out. Fortunately, I met an old friend of my father who took me to the Yangong temple to be a monk. Then some rascal gave me a beating. I was arrested and taken to the court. When I got away from there, I had no relative or friend to give me a helping hand, so I went to the temple and joined the workmen there. It was good of you, Sister, to tell Zhang Sheng to find me. I feel I am a new man now that I see you again.” They both shed tears.

  Major Zhou came from the hall. A servant pulled aside the lattice and he went into the room. Jingji stepped forward and knelt down before him. The Major hastily returned his greeting.

  “I had no idea,” he said, “that you were my good cousin. I was misled, or I should never have treated you so unbecomingly. I must apologize.”

  “It was my fault,” Jingji said. “I have not been to see you. I trust you will forgive me.” He again knelt down before the officer. Major Zhou helped him up and begged him to take the place of honor. Jingji was too clever to do this, and sat on a chair in the lower place. When they had all sat down together, tea was brought.

  “Good cousin,” Major Zhou said, “how old are you? I haven’t seen you since we met that day. How did you come to go to the temple?”

  “I am twenty-four years old,” Jingji said, “a year younger than my cousin here. Her birthday is on the twenty-fifth of the fourth month. I went to the Yangong temple because my parents are dead and my family ruined. I did not know that my cousin had married you. If I had known, I should certainly have called to see you.”

  “Your cousin has been so worried about you all this time that she has never been at ease,” Major Zhou said. “I sent out people to look for you, but they could never find you. It is a piece of good luck that I see you here today.”

  Major Zhou had been a friend of Ximen Qing. It was therefore to be expected that he would have made the acquaintance of Chen Jingji. But though Zhou was a friend of Ximen, he was an honest man and had never pried into his friend’s domestic affairs. Always, when he had been at Ximen’s house, Jing and Xia and other officers had been with him and he had never met Jingji. Besides, the young man had been a priest, and it never occurred to Zhou that he was Ximen Qing’s son-in-law. So he was deceived by his wife and Jingji and believed that they were cousins.

  Zhou ordered the servants to prepare dinner, and it was soon upon the table. The wine pots were of silver and the cups of jade. Wine was poured in a golden stream, and they feasted until the evening. Then the Major bade Zhou Ren prepare a room in the west court. Chunmei found two sets of bedclothes, and a boy called Xi’er was told to wait on him.

  The time passed very quickly, the sun and moon racing like a weaver’s shuttles.

  When the old year drew near its end,

  We saw the plum blossom.

  Now, suddenly, New Year’s Day is here

  Dainty flowers appear upon the branches.

  Fresh lotus leaves come out

  Upon the surface of the water.

  Jingji had been at Major Zhou’s house for more than a month. It was Chunmei’s birthday. Wu Yueniang sent Daian with a plate of longevity noodles, two geese, four chickens, two plates of fruit and ajar of wine. Major Zhou was sitting in the hall when a servant told him that Daian had come. He ordered the presents to be taken in. Daian brought the present list and came in and kowtowed.

  “Tell your mistress it is very kind of her to send us these things,” Zhou said to Daian. Then he handed the present list to a boy and told him to take it to his uncle. He said that Daian should be given a handkerchief and three qian of silver, and the porter a hundred coppers. Then he put on his ceremonial dress and went out. Daian stood at the door of the hall to wait for the return card. He saw a young man wearing a hat with a ribbed rim, a black gown, summer shoes, and light socks come through a corner door and give money to a boy. Then the man went back again. Daian thought he looked very like Chen Jingji, but he could not make out how Jingji could possibly be there. The boy gave Daian the handkerchief and the money, and he went home. He gave the return card to Yueniang.

  “Did you see your sister?” Yueniang said.

  “No, but I saw brother-in-law,” Daian said.

  “What do you mean, you young rascal?” Yueniang said, laughing. “What brother-in-law are you talking about? Do you have the audacity to speak of the Major as your brother-in-law, a man of his years?”

  “I don’t mean the Major,” Daian said. “It was Chen Jingji I saw. When I got there, Major Zhou was in the great hall. I gave him my list and kowtowed. He said I was to thank you, and gave me some tea. Then he said to a boy: ‘Take this card to your uncle and ask him for a handkerchief and three qian of silver for this man and a hundred coppers for the porter.’ He dressed then and went out. I saw Master Chen coming by the corner door, and it was he who gave the return card to the boy. Then he went back, and I picked up my box and came away. I am sure it was he.”

  “I don’t believe it, you scamp,” Yueniang said. “I am sure that that young lamb must be wandering in other pastures now. He has probably died of starvation by this time. How could he be in that house? Would the Major have him there? Why, Chunmei herself would not have
him.”

  “Lady, will you have a wager with me?” Daian said. “I am sure it was Master Chen I saw. I should know him even if he had been burned to ashes.”

  “What was he wearing?” Yueniang said.

  “A new hat with a ribbed rim and a gold pin,” Daian said. “He had a black gown, summer shoes, and white socks. He was looking very well.”

  “I can’t believe you,” Yueniang said.

  Jingji went to the inner court where Chunmei was adorning herself in front of a mirror. He showed Yueniang’s card to her. “Why is this woman sending you presents?” he said.

  Chunmei told him that she had met Yueniang at the Temple of Eternal Felicity at the Festival of Spring, and that Ping’an had stolen ornaments from the pawnshop that Major Zhou had recovered for her. “She sent presents to thank my husband,” Chunmei said, “and on the baby’s birthday I went to see her. Now we are excellent friends, and she promised to send me birthday presents.”

  Jingji looked very hard at Chunmei. “Sister,” he said, “you must have a very short memory. Have you forgotten how that whore treated you? She separated us and she is responsible for Jinlian’s death. I only hope I may never set eyes on her again, and here you are actually befriending her. Why did you prevent Wu Dian’en from beating the boy? Then that woman would have been arrested and exposed. It was no business of ours. And, besides, if she has not been carrying on with Daian, why did she marry him to Xiaoyu? If I had been here then, I certainly would not have allowed you to do that. She is our enemy, and I can’t understand why you let her come here. Friendship does not seem to mean anything to you.”

  Chunmei said nothing for a long time. Then she said: “Why not let bygones be bygones? I have a soft heart, and I do not like nursing a grievance.”

  “In these days,” Jingji said, “if you have a soft heart you will suffer for it.”