by Cao Xueqin
‘Here comes the phoenix at last!’ she said sarcastically. ‘Hurry up and go inside. If you stay away much longer, there’ll be a riot!’
Bao-yu smiled at her sympathetically.
‘Guess where I’ve been.’
She ignored his question and turned away from him to wipe her eyes. He hurried on, dejected because of his inability to comfort her. When he entered the hall where the others were assembled and went up to greet his grandmother and his mother, it really was as if a phoenix had appeared. Hurriedly he made his birthday kotow to Xi-feng.
‘What do you mean by going off on your own like that?’ Grandmother Jia grumbled. ‘I never heard of such a thing. If this happens again, I shall tell your father when he comes back and get him to give you another beating.’
Bao-yu’s pages came in next for her censure.
‘Why do they listen to him – rushing off like that whenever he tells them to? They should tell us first. Where have you been, anyway?’ she asked him. ‘Have you had anything to eat? Has anything happened to give you a fright?’
‘The Prince of Bei-jing’s favourite concubine died yesterday,’ said Bao-yu. ‘I went to condole with him. He was in such a state when I got there that I didn’t like to leave immediately. That’s why I’ve been so long.’
‘If you sneak out again without first telling us,’ said Grandmother Jia, ‘I really shall tell your Pa to beat you.’
Though Bao-yu promised to obey, she still wanted to have his pages whipped; but the others all begged for a reprieve: ‘Don’t take it to heart, Grandmother! He’s already said he won’t do it again. And anyway, he’s back now, so we can forget our worries and concentrate on enjoying ourselves.’
Grandmother Jia had in fact been extremely worried and her anxiety had made her vengeful. Now that Bao-yu was back and she was no longer worried, her vengeful feelings evaporated and the subject of beatings was quickly dropped. Her concern now was lest Bao-yu should have been unduly distressed by his visit, or have failed to eat enough while he was away, or have been involved in some accident on the way there or back. While she continued to fuss over him, Aroma took her place at his side to wait upon him, and the rest of the company resumed the play-watching which his arrival had interrupted.
The play being performed on this occasion was The Wooden Hairpin. Grandmother Jia and the other ladies found it greatly affecting, shedding copious tears in the course of it and sighing or cursing in the appropriate places.
The events that ensued will be told in the following chapter.
Chapter 44
Xi-feng’s jealousy is the object of an unexpected provocation
And Patience’s toilet is a source of unexpected delight
BAO-YU having now taken his place amongst the girls, they and the rest of the company were once more able to give their undivided attention to the players.
The play being performed on this occasion was, as we noted at the end of the previous chapter, The Wooden Hairpin, and it chanced that they had reached that section of it popularly referred to as ‘The Husband’s Offering’, in which the hero Wang Shi-peng, believing that his wife has drowned herself, goes with his aged mother to the river Ou-jiang to make offerings to her soul. At this point Dai-yu, who was able to guess what the real purpose of Bao-yu’s early-morning excursion had been, turned to Bao-chai and remarked, in a voice loud enough for Bao-yu to overhear, that she thought Wang Shi-peng a ‘very silly sort of fellow’.
‘He could have made his offering anywhere. Why was it necessary for him to go rushing off to the riverside to make it? They say that “objects aid recall”: well, since all the water in the world comes ultimately from a single source, a bowlful of it scooped up anywhere should have sufficed. His feelings could have been just as effectively relieved by weeping over a bowlful of water as by rushing off to the banks of the river.’
Bao-chai made no reply. Bao-yu, who had certainly heard her, turned away and called for hot wine to drink Xi-feng’s health with.
Grandmother Jia was determined that this should be a day like no other and that Xi-feng should derive the greatest possible enjoyment from it. Not feeling sufficiently energetic to sit with the rest, however, she had retired to the inner room with Aunt Xue, reclining on a couch there in a position from which it was still possible to watch the players. A small selection from the dishes which had covered the two tables laid for her outside had been set down within easy reach where she could pick at them while conversing with Aunt Xue. The remainder she had made over to the maids and older women on duty who had not been catered for, bidding them take their banquet outside on to the verandah where they could sit down and enjoy themselves without restraint.
Lady Wang and Lady Xing also sat in this inner room, not on the kang, where Grandmother Jia’s couch had been placed, but at a high-topped table on the floor below. The young people sat at a number of tables in the outer room. From time to time Grandmother Jia would give orders to You-shi to make sure that Xi-feng was enjoying herself.
‘Make her sit at the head. Why isn’t she sitting at the head? It’s up to you to act as hostess on my behalf,’ she told You-shi. ‘The poor child is run off her feet all the rest of the year. Today I want her to be made a fuss of.’
You-shi went off to do her bidding, but shortly afterwards returned, a smile on her face, to announce that Xi-feng was being difficult.
‘She says she’s not used to sitting at the head. She says it makes her uncomfortable. And she refuses to drink anything.’
‘If you can’t make her, I shall have to come out and deal with her myself,’ said Grandmother Jia, laughing.
This brought Xi-feng herself running up. She spoke to Grandmother Jia from behind You-shi’s shoulder.
‘Don’t believe her, Grannie. I’ve had lots and lots to drink.’
‘Now look here,’ said Grandmother Jia to You-shi, ‘I want you to march this young woman back to her seat and force her to sit down in it. Then I want every one of you here to drink with her in turn. If she still refuses, I really and truly shall come out and deal with her myself.’
You-shi hauled Xi-feng out again, called for larger cups to be brought, and poured her out some wine.
‘There you are, my darling! In token of my appreciation of the noble way in which you have served Lady Jia and Lady Wang and me during the past year, please accept this cup of wine that I have poured out for you with my own fair hand!’
‘If you are really serious about wanting to show me your appreciation,’ said Xi-feng, ‘you ought to offer it to me kneeling down.’
‘Just listen to that!’ said You-shi. ‘I’ll tell you something, my girl: you just don’t realize how lucky you are. For all you know, things may never be as good as this for you again. If I were you, I’d have a good booze-up while you can. Come on, two cups!’
You-shi was so insistent that in the end Xi-feng had to drink two whole cupfuls from the larger cups. After that the cousins came up one by one to drink with her, which meant that she had to take at least a sip or two with each of them. Then old Mrs Lai, observing with what high spirits Grandmother Jia was watching these antics, determined to join in the fun too, and came over, with the other old nannies, to drink Xi-feng’s health along with all the rest. Because of the seniority of this group, it would have been difficult for Xi-feng to refuse them, so with each of them too she had to take a couple of sips. But when Faithful and the maids came trooping up, it was more than flesh and blood could bear and she begged to be excused.
‘Really, my dears, I couldn’t. Let me put it off until tomorrow.’
Faithful pretended to take umbrage.
‘I call that most insulting! Even Her Ladyship treats me with more consideration. I used to think that I counted for something round here, but now, after being put in my place in front of all these others, I can see that I did wrong to come. Well, if you won’t drink, I’m going!’
She turned away and began marching out, but Xi-feng ran after and detained her.
She fetched the wine herself, filled a cup to the brim with it, and drank it down to the last drop, up-ending it afterwards to show that it was dry. At that Faithful laughed and went away content.
As soon as she had resumed her seat, Xi-feng knew that she had drunk too much. Her heart was pounding in her throat and she felt an overwhelming desire to go back home and lie down. But the leader of the jugglers was bearing down on her.
‘Give this man his money,’ she said, turning to You-shi. ‘I have to go home to wash.’
You-shi nodded, and Xi-feng, choosing a moment when no one was looking, slipped outside and made her way along the outside of the hall under the shadow of the eaves. Patience, who had seen her go and was concerned about her, hurried after and gave her some support.
As they approached the passage-way which led from Grandmother Jia’s rear courtyard to the gallery in the midst of the little enclosure surrounded by walls and buildings which had once been the scene of Jia Rui’s night-long sufferings, they recognized one of the junior maids from their own apartment standing there, who, as soon as she caught sight of them, turned tail and ran. Xi-feng at once became suspicious and called out after her. The little maid at first pretended not to hear, but when the shouting behind her continued, could no longer keep up the pretence and had to turn about and face them.
Xi-feng’s suspicions were now thoroughly aroused. Advancing into the gallery and calling the maid back into it, she first made Patience close the partitions, so that they were completely cut off from the outside, then, seating herself on the gallery’s stone plinth and ordering the maid to kneel down in front of her, she told Patience in a fierce, loud voice to fetch two pages from the inner gate with a rope and whips to ‘flog to a jelly’ this abominable creature who had so little regard for the presence of her mistress. The wretched girl, already half-dead with fright, now wept for terror and knocked her head repeatedly on the ground, entreating Xi-feng for mercy.
‘I’m not a ghost,’ said Xi-feng. ‘You’re supposed to stand still and wait when you see me coming. What do you mean by running away from me like that?’
‘I didn’t see you at first, ma’am,’ said the little girl tearfully. ‘I was running because I’d just remembered that there was no one at home to look after things.’
‘If there’s no one at home, you had no business to go out in the first place,’ said Xi-feng. ‘And even if you didn’t see me, you must have heard me calling you. Patience and I shouted to you at the tops of our voices ten or a dozen times, but you only ran the faster. We weren’t all that far away from you, either, and you certainly aren’t deaf. How dare you lie to me!’
She raised her hand and dealt the girl a slap on the cheek that made her reel, quickly followed by a second slap on the other cheek. An angry red patch swelled up instantly on either side of the girl’s face.
‘Don’t, madam. You’ll hurt your hand,’ Patience pleaded.
‘Hit her for me, then,’ said Xi-feng, ‘and ask her why she ran away. If she still won’t talk, tear her lips!’
At first the maid tried sticking to her story, but when she heard that Xi-feng was going to heat an iron red-hot and burn her mouth with it, she broke down and tearfully confessed that Jia Lian was at home and had stationed her in the passage-way to look out for her mistress and give him warning of her coming; but as Xi-feng had left the party so much earlier than expected, she had been taken unawares.
This seemed to Xi-feng to have the ring of truth about it.
‘Why did he ask you to look out for me?’ she asked. ‘Surely I’m allowed to go back to my own room? There must have been a reason. Tell me. If you do, from now on I shall love you and be your friend. But if you don’t, I shall take a knife and cut your flesh with it!’
To reinforce her threat, she plucked a formidable hairpin from her hair and jabbed it violently in the neighbourhood of the girl’s mouth, causing her to dodge this way and that from it in terror.
‘I’ll tell, madam, I’ll tell. Only please don’t let him know that it was me that told you,’ she wept and implored.
Patience begged Xi-feng not to hurt the girl, at the same time urging the girl to make a clean breast of what she had to say. The story then came out.
‘Mr Lian came in a while ago and had a bit of a nap. When he woke up, he sent someone to see what you were doing. They brought word back that your birthday party had only just started and you wouldn’t be back for ages, so he opened the chest and took out two pieces of silver and two hairpins and two lengths of satin and told me to go and give them in secret to Bao Er’s missus and tell her to come over. So then she came over to our room and Mr Lian made me go and wait in the passage here and look out for you. And that’s really all I know.’
Xi-feng was by now shaking all over with anger. She pulled herself to her feet notwithstanding and strode off swiftly towards the house. As she approached the gateway of the courtyard, another little maid popped her head out but quickly drew it in again and ran when she saw that it was Xi-feng. When Xi-feng called to her by name, however, this maid, being more quick-witted than the other one, neither went on retreating nor stood still, but simply turned about and came running up to Xi-feng outside, an obsequious little smile upon her face.
‘Oh madam, I was just going over to tell you when I saw you coming here yourself.’
‘Tell me what?’ said Xi-feng.
The girl then proceeded to relate voluntarily what the other girl had just told under duress.
Xi-feng spat contemptuously.
‘You’ve left it a bit late, haven’t you – waiting until you see me and then trying to act the innocent?’
She raised her hand and struck the girl a blow that sent her staggering, then, tiptoeing across the courtyard, applied her ear to the window to hear what was going on inside.
The first thing she heard was a laugh and a woman’s voice.
‘The best thing that could happen to you,’ it was saying, ‘would be if that hell-cat wife of yours was to die.’
‘Suppose she did,’ Jia Lian’s voice said in answer, ‘and I married another one who turned out to be just as bad?’
‘If she was to die,’ said the first voice, ‘you ought to make Patience your Number One. I’m sure she’d be better than this one.’
‘Patience won’t let me come near her nowadays,’ said Jia Lian. ‘She has a lot to put up with, the same as me, that she doesn’t dare talk about. I don’t know, I reckon I must have been born under a hen-pecked husbands’ star!’
Xi-feng heard this shaking with fury. The couple’s praise of Patience made her at once suspect that Patience had been complaining about her behind her back. The fumes of wine mounted up inside her, clouding her judgement. Without pausing to reflect, she turned and struck Patience twice before kicking open the door and striding into the room. There, without more ado, she proceeded to seize hold of Bao Er’s wife and belabour her, breaking off only to block the doorway with her body in case Jia Lian might think of escaping.
‘Filthy whore!’ she shouted. ‘Stealing a husband isn’t enough for you, it seems. You have to murder his wife as well!’ She turned to Patience: ‘Go on, Patience, your place is over there with them – with that whoremaster of yours and his other whore! You’re all three in this together. You hate me just as much as they do under that smarmy outside of yours!’
This was followed by several blows.
Poor Patience, overwhelmed by so much injustice, had only Bao Er’s wife on whom she could vent her feelings.
‘If you have to do these shameful things,’ she said, ‘you might at least leave me out of it.’ And she began to pummel the woman in her turn.
Now Jia Lian had had a good deal to drink that day, and because of the euphoric state he was in, had taken insufficient precautions against surprise. Xi-feng’s unexpected arrival had therefore left him completely at a loss. But Patience’s outburst was another matter. The wine he had drunk rekindle
d his forgotten valour; and whereas the anger and shame he felt at seeing Xi-feng beat Bao Er’s wife had rendered him speechless, the sight of Patience doing the same thing so roused his valiancy that he shouted at her and gave her a kick.
‘Little whore! You want to join in too, do you?’
Patience, whose gentle nature was easily overawed, at once left off, tearfully protesting that it was cruel of them to speak about her in such a way behind her back.
Xi-feng, furious that Patience should be afraid of Jia Lian, rushed over and began striking her again, insisting that she should go on beating Bao Er’s wife and take no notice of him. Finding herself thus attacked on both sides simultaneously by the pair of them, Patience became so desperate that she dashed from the room, vowing that she would find a knife and kill herself, and would undoubtedly have done herself an injury if the maids and nannies from outside had not seized her and gradually talked her out of it.
Xi-feng’s reaction when Patience dashed off threatening suicide was to ram her head into Jia Lian’s chest and shout hysterically.
‘You’re all in league against me, and now you’re trying to frighten me because I overheard you. I don’t care. Kill me! Strangle me!’
Jia Lian, in a fury, snatched a sword down from the wall and drew it from its scabbard.
‘There’s no need for any of you to talk about suicide. I’m desperate too. I’ll kill the lot of you and swing for it. That’ll make a clean end of the business!’
Just as the rumpus was at its height, You-shi arrived with a crowd of others.
‘What on earth is happening? A moment ago everyone was enjoying themselves, and now here you all are shouting at each other!’
With the arrival of this audience Jia Lian pretended to be even drunker than he really was, striking a fiercely threatening attitude and behaving as if he was seriously intending to kill Xi-feng with his sword. Xi-feng, on the other hand, dropped the shrewishness she had up to then been showing as soon as she saw them come and, breaking quickly away, ran weeping to Grandmother Jia.