The Crab-Flower Club

by Cao Xueqin

‘That would be very nice. But tell them to bring the water only as far as the gate. They can leave it there at the foot of the outer wall. Tell them not to come inside.’

  ‘Of course,’ said Bao-yu, putting the cup into his sleeve as they went into the foyer. He found a junior maid of Grandmother Jia’s there and entrusted it to her.

  ‘When Grannie Liu goes, see that she takes this cup with her, will you?’

  By the time he had done this, Grandmother Jia was already outside in the courtyard expressing a desire to get back. Adamantina made no serious effort to detain her, and after seeing her guests out of the Hermitage, went in again and closed the gate after her.

  Back at the scene of the party, Grandmother Jia, who was feeling somewhat exhausted, told Lady Wang and the girls to act as hostesses to Aunt Xue while she herself went off to Sweet-rice Village for a rest. Xi-feng ordered the servants to fetch a little bamboo carrying-chair, which Grandmother Jia got into. Two old women lifted it up, and then off they all went, Xi-feng and Li Wan one on either side of it and a little cohort of maids and older servants bringing up the rear.

  As soon as Grandmother Jia had gone, Aunt Xue excused herself and left. Lady Wang, having dismissed the young actresses and given orders for the left-over food in the lacquer boxes to be distributed among the maids, also availed herself of the opportunity of taking a rest. Putting her feet up on the couch lately occupied by Grandmother Jia, she first caused the blinds to be let down, then, instructing one of the junior maids to massage her legs, and murmuring something about ‘calling her if anyone came from Her Old Ladyship’, she settled herself down for a nap.

  Bao-yu and the girls watched the maids take the food-boxes out onto the rockery. Some sat there on the rocks for their picnic; others spread out over the grass below or sat under the trees or down at the water’s edge. Although so dispersed, they managed to create a considerable hubbub.

  After a little while Faithful arrived with instructions to show Grannie Liu some more of the Garden. The cousins, hoping for more laughs, went along with them.

  A short walk took them to the monumental stone arch at the entrance to the Reunion Palace.

  ‘Goodness me!’ said the old woman. ‘You even have a temple here!’

  She fell down on her knees and kotowed, causing her young companions to double up with laughter.

  ‘Why do you laugh?’ she said. ‘Do you think I don’t know what the words say? We have quite a few temples where I come from and they all have arches like this. The writing on the arch is the name of the temple.’

  ‘All right. What’s the name of this temple then?’ they asked her.

  Grannie Liu pointed upwards at the characters inscribed overhead.

  ‘ “Temple of the Jade Emperor”. That’s what it says, doesn’t it?’

  This produced an ecstasy of merriment in the young people. No doubt they would have gone on teasing her, but just at that moment there was an alarming rumble from her bowels and she clutched the hand of one of the little maidservants standing by and begged her for the favour of a couple of sheets of paper, while with the other hand she began undoing the buttons of her dress.

  The others, still laughing, shouted at her to stop.

  ‘No, no! Not here! Not here!’

  They told one of the older women to escort her to a place beyond the north-east corner of the precincts where there was a privy. Having led Grannie Liu to within sight of it and pointed it out to her, the old servant deemed this an excellent opportunity of taking some time off, and went away, leaving Grannie Liu to make her way back alone.

  Now Grannie Liu had drunk quantities of yellow rice-wine, which did not in fact agree with her; on top of that she had eaten a lot of rich, fatty food; and as the food had made her thirsty, she had concluded by drinking an excessive amount of tea. The upset stomach which was the inevitable consequence of so much indulgence kept her a wearisome long time in the privy before her business there was completed.

  When she at last emerged, the colder air outside drove the wine fumes up into her head, increasing the dizziness, which might be thought normal in a woman of her years who has suddenly got up after squatting for a long time on her heels, to such an extent that she was quite unable to make out the route that she had come by. Everywhere she looked there were buildings, rocks and trees. Unable to decide which of them lay in the right direction, she made for the nearest paved path and, with slow and deliberate steps, followed it to see where it would take her.

  It took her in time to the courtyard wall of a house, but she could find no gate in it, and after wandering round a long while looking for one, she came upon a bamboo trellis, which she contemplated with some astonishment.

  ‘Hmn. Bean-sticks. What are they doing here?’

  The ‘bean-sticks’ resolved themselves into a rose-covered pergola. After walking alongside it for a while, she came to a round ‘moon-gate’, which she entered. Ahead of her was a channel of crystal-clear water, five or six feet wide. Its banks were reinforced with stone, and a large, flat slab of white stone had been laid across it to make a bridge. After she had crossed the bridge there was a raised cobbled path which, after a couple of right-angled bends, brought her up to the door of the house.

  The first thing she saw on entering it was a young woman smiling at her in welcome. Grannie Liu smiled back.

  ‘I’m lost, miss. The young ladies have left me to find my own way and I’ve wandered in here by mistake.’

  Surprised that the girl did not reply, Grannie Liu stepped forward to take her hand and – bang! – hit her head a most painful thump on the wooden wall. The girl was a painting, as she found on closer inspection.

  ‘Strange!’ she thought. ‘How can they paint a picture so that it sticks out like that?’

  Grannie Liu was ignorant of the foreign mode of light-and-shadow painting and was sorely puzzled to discover, on touching the picture, that it did not in fact ‘stick out’ but was flat all over. Turning from it with a sigh and a shake of her head, she moved on to a little doorway in the wooden partition-wall, over which hung a green, flower-patterned portière. She raised the portière and went inside.

  In the room she now entered everything, from the top of the surrounding walls, delicately incised with shapes of swords, vases, musical instruments, incense-burners and the like, to the lavish furnishing below, in which

  The weaver’s glowing art combined

  With gleam of gold and orient pearl,

  and thence down to the very floor of brilliantly patterned green glazed tiles beneath her feet, was such as to make even more dazzled the eyes of an already intoxicated old woman.

  She looked for the way out – but where was it? To the left of her there was a bookcase, to the right a screen. She tried behind the screen. Ah, yes! There was the door. But there too, to her intense surprise, approaching her from the opposite direction and causing her a momentary palpitation of the heart, was another old woman, whom she took to be her old gossip from the village.

  ‘What? are you here too?’ she asked her. ‘I suppose you were wondering what had become of me these last few days. Well, it was neighbourly to come and look for me. Which of the young women brought you in?’

  She noticed, with much amusement, that her old neighbour’s head was covered all over with flowers.

  ‘Hoo! You’ll catch it! Picking the flowers from their garden to put in your own hair. Well I never!’

  The other merely grinned back at her and said nothing. Grannie Liu stretched out a hand to give her the touch of shame. The other old woman stretched her hand out too to stop her. After a brief, soundless skirmish, Grannie Liu managed to get her finger onto the other one’s face. But no sooner had she done so than she recoiled in horror, for the cheek she touched was as cold and hard as a block of ice. Suddenly the truth dawned on her:

  ‘I’ve heard of rich folks having what they call “dressing mirrors” in their houses. Mayhap I’m standing in front of one of them and it’s myself I’m looking at.�
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  She stretched out her hand again to feel and closely examined the surface. Yes, no doubt of it: it was a mirror, let into the carved surface of the wooden partition. She laughed at her own error.

  ‘Yes, but how do I get out of here?’ she thought, as she continued to finger the mirror’s carved surround.

  Suddenly there was a loud clunk! which so frightened the old woman that for some moments she rolled her eyes in terror. The mirror was in fact a kind of door. It had a West Ocean mechanism by which it could be opened or closed, and Grannie Liu, in feeling around it, had accidentally touched the spring which had made the mirror slide back into the panelling, revealing the doorway underneath.

  Pleasantly surprised, she passed through the doorway into a room whose main feature was a rich and elegantly patterned bed. Now Grannie Liu was seven or eight parts drunk and thoroughly worn out from all her walking. Seeing a bed in front of her, she sat down on it gratefully, to rest her feet. But though she intended no more than a few moments’ rest, as soon as she had sat down, her weariness overcame her. Her head went down and her feet went up as though she was no longer in possession of them; a darkness closed over her eyes, and she sank back on the bed, fast asleep.

  Outside in the Garden meanwhile, the cousins were beginning to wonder what had become of her, and Ban-er, missing his grandmother, became panicky and began to cry.

  ‘Perhaps she’s fallen into the privy,’ one of the young people suggested cheerfully. ‘We’d better send someone to have a look.’

  Two old women were sent to the privy to investigate. When they reported back that she was not there, the others were at a loss to think where she could have got to. It was Aroma who hit on the correct hypothesis.

  ‘She must have missed the way back because she was drunk. If she followed the path in the wrong direction, it will have taken her to our back courtyard. Now if she went through the pergola and then on into the house through the back door, she’ll probably have been seen by one of the maids. If she didn’t go in through the pergola but went on walking in a south-westerly direction, Heaven only knows where she’ll end up! I think I’d better go and have a look.

  She hurried back to Green Delights, intending to ask the junior maids if they had seen her; but the place was deserted; they had all sneaked off elsewhere to play. Entering the main building by way of the front door, she made her way through the complicated carved partition. A thunderous snoring could be heard coming from the bedroom at the back. She hurried through. As she entered the bedroom, a heavy stink, compounded of farts and wine-fumes, assailed her nostrils. Her eyes travelled to the bed, from which the sounds were coming, and saw Grannie Liu, spreadeagled on her back and fast asleep.

  As soon as she had overcome her shock, she rushed up to the bed and shook her relentlessly until she woke. Grannie Liu opened her eyes wide and saw Aroma standing over her.

  ‘Oh, miss!’ She scrambled hurriedly to her feet. ‘Oh, I am sorry! Anyway – praise be! – I haven’t dirtied the bed.’

  She felt it nervously, to make sure.

  Aroma, mortally afraid that someone would overhear and Bao-yu get to know of what had happened, gestured to her violently not to speak. Hurriedly she threw three or four whole handfuls of Hundred Blend aromatic onto the incense burner that stood always smouldering beside the bed and replaced its cover.

  ‘At least it’s a mercy she wasn’t sick,’ she thought to herself.

  Speaking to her in an urgent whisper, she nevertheless contrived to smile at her reassuringly:

  ‘It’s all right. I’ll look after this. Just follow me.’

  Grannie Liu nodded gratefully and followed her to the junior maids’ quarters outside, where Aroma made her sit down.

  ‘If they ask what happened, just say that you passed out and had a little nap on the rockery.’

  Grannie Liu willingly agreed, and Aroma gave her some tea. By the end of the second cup she had sobered up completely and was able to converse.

  ‘Which of the young ladies does the bedroom belong to?’ she asked Aroma. ‘It’s the most beautiful I ever saw. I thought I was in paradise.’

  Aroma gave a wry little smile.

  ‘It’s – actually it’s Master Bao’s bedroom.’

  Grannie Liu fell silent, horrified by the enormity of her trespass. Seeing that she had now recovered, Aroma led her out through the front courtyard and back to where the others were waiting.

  ‘I found her asleep on the grass,’ she said when she saw them, ‘so I’ve brought her back for you.’

  The others seemed satisfied with this explanation, for no further mention was made of it.

  Shortly after this Grandmother Jia woke up and dinner was laid for her in Sweet-rice Village; but she felt too exhausted to eat anything, and getting into the bamboo carrying-chair again, had herself carried back to her own apartment to rest. When she was back, she told Xi-feng and the rest of the young folk who had escorted her to go and have their dinner, and the cousins went back into the Garden.

  Ensuing events will be dealt with in the following chapter.

  Chapter 42

  Lady Allspice wins over a suspicious nature with some well-intentioned advice

  And River Queen enhances her reputation as a wit with some amusing sarcasms

  The last chapter showed how Grandmother Jia, escorted by all the others, returned from Sweet-rice Village to her own apartment. As soon as she arrived, she insisted that the young people should go off and have their dinner. The young people accordingly went back into the Garden, and when they had eaten, the party finally broke up.

  Returning from the Garden with little Ban-er, Grannie Liu first called on Xi-feng to announce her intention of leaving for home early next morning.

  ‘We’ve only been here two or three days,’ she said, ‘but in these two or three days we’ve seen and heard and eaten and drunk more things than we ever dreamed of. I’m truly grateful to you and Her Old Ladyship and the young gentlewomen and the young ladies working in the different apartments for treating an old countrywoman with so much kindness. I don’t know what I can do in return. All I can think of is to buy some sticks of best incense when I get back so that I can offer some every day to the Lord Buddha and pray him to give you long life. Leastways it would show my gratitude.’

  ‘It’s a bit early yet for rejoicing,’ said Xi-feng drily. ‘Thanks to you, Her Old Ladyship seems to have caught a chill and is at this very moment lying on her back complaining how bad she feels; and my little girl has caught a cold, too, and is lying in there with a fever.’

  Grannie Liu murmured sympathetically.

  ‘Her Old Ladyship’s feeling her age, poor soul,’ she said. ‘And she isn’t used to the exercise.’

  ‘I’ve never seen her more lively than she was today,’ said Xi-feng. ‘Generally when she goes into the Garden, she’ll visit just one or two places, sit there for a little while, and then come back again. But today, because you were there and she wanted to show you everything, she must have covered the greater part of the Garden. It was also because of you that I wasn’t on hand when Lady Wang gave my little girl that piece of cake. I’m sure it was eating out in the cold that has made her feverish.’

  ‘I suppose your little lass doesn’t go into the Garden very much,’ said Grannie Liu. ‘Not like our young ones, off to play in the grave-garths almost as soon as they can walk. She may have caught a cold from the wind as you say. On the other hand, children of her age, being pure of body, often have the second sight. It could have been brought on by seeing a spirit. If I was you, I’d have a look in the Almanac, just in case. You never know, the child might have been pixified.’

  Wondering why she had not thought of this herself, Xi-feng at once ordered Patience to fetch down the Jade Casket. Sunshine was summoned to look up the relevant passage and read it out to them. This, after some preliminary hunting, he proceeded to do:

  EIGHTH MONTH. TWENTY-FIFTH DAY: Sicknesses occurring on this day have a south-easterly ori
gin. Possible causes Encounter with spirit of hanged person or flower spirit. Recommended action Maximum benefit may be obtained by procuring voluntary departure of spirit. To do this, take forty pieces of coloured paper ‘spirit money’ and walk forty paces in a south-easterly direction offering one of the pieces at every step.

  ‘There you are!’ said Xi-feng. ‘That must be it. The Garden is just where you’d expect to run into a flower spirit. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if that doesn’t account for Her Old Ladyship’s trouble as well.’

  She sent someone forthwith to obtain two lots of spirit money and got two of the servants to carry out the exorcism, one on Grandmother Jia’s behalf and the other on behalf of her little girl. As soon as it was over, she and Grannie Liu went in to see how Baby was getting on. They found her sleeping peacefully.

  ‘There!’ said Xi-feng delightedly. ‘It takes an old, experienced person like yourself to know these things. Perhaps you could also tell me why she’s such a sickly little girl. She’s always going down with something or other.’

  ‘There’s nothing unusual about that,’ said Grannie Liu. ‘Children of well-to-do folks are brought up so delicate, their bodies can’t stand any hardship. And for another thing, when young folks are cherished too much, it overloads their luck. It might be better for her if in future you tried not to make quite so much of her.’

  ‘You may be right,’ said Xi-feng without much conviction. ‘It’s just occurred to me: as we haven’t named the child yet, I wonder if you’d like to name her for us? For one thing, being named by someone so old will help her to live longer; and for another – I hope you won’t mind my saying this, but you country people do have quite a lot of poverty and hardship to contend with – being named by a poor person like yourself may help to balance her luck.’

  Grannie Liu thought for a bit.

  ‘When was she born?’

  ‘Ah, that’s just the trouble,’ said Xi-feng. ‘She was born on Qiao-jie – the Seventh of the Seventh – a very unlucky date.’