The Dreamer Wakes

by Cao Xueqin

  ‘I won’t go home!’ she began babbling. ‘I’m going back to the South with Lady Jia!’

  ‘But why should Lady Jia need you to go with her?’ they asked.

  ‘I’ve been with her all my life. Sir She wanted to separate us and tried all manner of tricks to lay his hands on me. I thought old Mother Ma could help me get my own back but that was all money wasted: it didn’t work, nobody died. Now if I go home, I’m afraid someone may try to take revenge!’

  At first they thought she was possessed by the spirit of Faithful, but her subsequent reference to Mother Ma pointed to something quite different. The ladies said nothing, but Suncloud and some of the other maids interceded with the spirit on Aunt Zhao’s behalf:

  ‘Sister Faithful, your death was of your own choosing; what does it have to do with Mrs Zhao? Please set her free!’

  With Lady Xing present they didn’t dare say any more.

  ‘I’m not Faithful!’ protested Aunt Zhao. ‘I’ve been sent for by King Yama of the Nether World. He wants to question me about Mother Ma and the black magic …’

  She dropped her voice to a whisper, and continued:

  ‘Oh Mrs Lian, put in a good word for me with Lord Yama! For all the bad that I’ve done, there must be some good! Dear Mrs Lian! Dearest Mrs Lian! I never meant to harm you! I was such a fool! I should never have listened to that old slut!’

  While this extraordinary scene was taking place, Jia Zheng sent in a servant to fetch Jia Huan. One of the serving-women went out to inform the Master that Aunt Zhao was possessed by some evil spirit, and that Jia Huan was looking after her.

  ‘What nonsense!’ exclaimed Jia Zheng brusquely. ‘We’re leaving now anyway.’

  So the men set off, while Aunt Zhao continued to rave deliriously and no one could bring her to her senses. Lady Xing was afraid she might say something even more indiscreet.

  ‘Leave some women here to keep an eye on her,’ she ordered. ‘We really must be going. When we reach the city we’ll send a doctor.’

  Lady Wang had always disliked Aunt Zhao and was only too glad to abandon her. Bao-chai, on the other hand, was less ill-disposed towards her; she knew that Aunt Zhao had tried to harm Bao-yu, but could not help feeling sorry for her all the same and secretly asked Aunt Zhou to stay behind with her. Aunt Zhou was a good soul, and agreed to do so. Li Wan volunteered to stay as well, but was informed curtly by Lady Wang that her presence would be unnecessary.

  They were now ready to leave.

  ‘What about me?’ asked Jia Huan in some alarm. ‘Do I have to stay too?’

  ‘You great booby!’ retorted Lady Wang contemptuously (and not a little hypocritically). ‘Would you forsake your own mother when she is at death’s door?’

  Jia Huan dared not utter another word.

  ‘Dear brother,’ said Bao-yu, ‘you really ought to stay. As soon as we get to town, I’ll send someone out to you.’

  They climbed into their carriages and returned home, leaving Aunt Zhao with Aunt Zhou, Jia Huan and a few serving-women at the temple.

  When they reached home, Jia Zheng, the ladies and the rest of the family went to Grandmother Jia’s apartment and tearfully surveyed the scene. Steward Lin came in at the head of the domestic staff to pay their respects.

  ‘Get out!’ shouted Jia Zheng as they fell to their knees. ‘I shall deal with you tomorrow!’

  Xi-feng had already fainted several times that day, and was too weak to come out and welcome them home. The only person to receive them was Xi-chun, looking extremely ashamed of herself. Lady Xing ignored her entirely, Lady Wang was her reasonable self, while Li Wan and Bao-chai took her by the hand and spoke a few comforting words. You-shi predictably had a barbed comment to make:

  ‘What a deal of trouble we have put you to these last few days, my dear!’

  Xi-chun could say nothing in reply, but only blushed a deep crimson from ear to ear. Bao-chai took You-shi aside and gave her a meaningful look. The ladies went to their rooms.

  Jia Zheng examined the extent of the damage, heaving many a silent sigh. He went into his study and, sitting on his mourning mat, sent for Jia Lian, Jia Rong and Jia Yun and gave the three of them a short homily. Bao-yu wanted to wait on him in the study, but Jia Zheng said it would not be necessary. Jia Lian went to his mother’s room. That night passed uneventfully.

  First thing next morning Steward Lin came into the study and knelt before Jia Zheng, who asked him for a full account of the calamity. Lin mentioned that Zhou Rui was involved:

  ‘Mr Lian’s servant Bao Er has been arrested, and some of the items on the inventory of stolen property have been found on his person. He is being interrogated, and they hope to trace the burglars through him.’

  This piece of information threw Jia Zheng into a rage:

  ‘That our servants should have the base ingratitude to betray us to thieves, that they steal from their own masters! It is sheer treason!’

  He sent a man at once to the temple to bind Zhou Rui and deliver him to the authorities for questioning. Lin remained kneeling and did not dare rise to his feet.

  ‘What are you still down there for?’

  ‘I deserve to die, sir! I beg your forgiveness!’

  Lai Da and some of the other stewards now came in to pay their respects and to present the various bills for funeral expenses.

  ‘Give these to Mr Lian to deal with. He can report back to me afterwards.’

  Jia Zheng bellowed at Lin to get up and leave the study. Jia Lian now knelt on one knee and whispered a suggestion in Jia Zheng’s ear.

  ‘Out of the question!’ snapped Jia Zheng, glowering at Lian. ‘Just because the money for Mother’s funeral has been taken by thieves, does that mean we must stoop to fining our own servants?’

  Jia Lian blushed and said nothing further. He stood up but dared not move.

  ‘How is it with your wife?’ asked Jia Zheng.

  Jia Lian knelt again.

  ‘I’m afraid she is near the end.’

  Jia Zheng sighed.

  ‘I never dreamt that our family would crumble as quickly as this! And now, to add to our misfortunes, Huan’s mother has been taken ill at the temple, and we still don’t know what’s the matter with her. Do you know anything about this?’

  Jia Lian did not dare breathe a word.

  ‘Tell one of the servants,’ said Jia Zheng, ‘to take a doctor out there and have a look at her, will you?’

  ‘Yes, Uncle.’

  Jia Lian went out at once, and executed these instructions. To learn if Aunt Zhao survived or not, please turn to the next chapter.

  Chapter 113

  Xi-feng repents of her former misdeeds, and entrusts her child to a village dame

  Nightingale softens a long-standing animosity, and warms to her besotted master

  After the departure of most of the family from the temple, Aunt Zhao grew more delirious than ever, and those who had remained with her listened aghast. Two serving-women attempted to support her where she knelt on the ground, one minute raving incoherently, the next sobbing her heart out in anguish. Then she grovelled and began begging for mercy:

  ‘Oh Great Lord Red Beard! You’re killing me! I’ll never be so wicked again!’

  She wrung her hands and howled in agony. Her eyes bulged out of their sockets, blood gushed from her mouth, her hair was wildly dishevelled. She was a terrifying sight, and no one now dared go near her.

  By evening her voice began to grow hoarse and she sounded more and more like a croaking harpy. None of the women could bear to be in her presence, and they deputed some of the more courageous menfolk to come in and keep watch on her. One minute she seemed to be gone, then she came round again, and so it went on all night. By the next morning she was incapable of speech, her face was horribly contorted and she began rending her clothes and baring her bosom, as if someone else was stripping her naked. She was now totally inarticulate, and the torment she was undergoing was terrible to behold.

  She seemed to
have reached a final crisis, when the doctor arrived. He would not take her pulse, but gave orders at once for her last things to be made ready and himself prepared to leave without further ado. The servant who had brought him entreated him to stay and take her pulse, so that he could at least return with a satisfactory report to his master, and in the end the doctor relented. He felt her pulse once, and pronounced that there was no sign of life. Hearing this, Jia Huan burst out wailing, and immediately everyone’s attention was turned to him and no one spared another thought for Aunt Zhao, lying dead on the kang, her feet bare, her hair in disarray. Only Aunt Zhou seemed affected.

  ‘Such is the end of a concubine!’ she thought morbidly to herself. ‘And she even bore the Master a son. Who knows what sort of a death mine will be!’

  The servant meanwhile hurried back to inform Jia Zheng, who sent a man to attend to Aunt Zhao’s funeral arrangements and to stay on with Jia Huan at the temple for three days, after which they were both to return. The accepted version of Aunt Zhao’s death was that she had been called before the Infernal Tribunal and tortured to death for her wilful attempt to injure the lives of others. A speedy end was also predicted for Xi-feng, since Aunt Zhao had named her as her own accuser in the Nether World.

  When this last piece of gossip reached the ears of Patience, she was most distressed. Her mistress did indeed seem beyond hope of recovery, and to make matters worse, Jia Lian had recently made it plain that he had no scrap of affection left for his wife. He was now more preoccupied than ever, and appeared completely unconcerned by Xi-feng’s illness. Patience did her best to be cheerful with Xi-feng; but Ladies Xing and Wang, although they had been back from the temple for several days, had neither of them paid her a personal visit, and had only sent a maid to enquire after her health. Their coldness intensified Xi-feng’s misery, as did the fact that Jia Lian on his return had not so much as a kind word for her.

  All Xi-feng wanted now was to die a quick death, and this made her a prey to all manner of evil spirits. On one occasion she saw the figure of You Er-jie slowly approaching her bed from the back of the room.

  ‘It is so long since we last met, sister!’ said the apparition. ‘I’ve thought a great deal about you, but it’s been impossible for me to come and see you. Now I’ve managed to do so at last, and I find you reduced to this extremity. Lian is too much of a fool to appreciate what you’ve done for him, and instead he complains how mean you are, and says that you’re ruining his career and making him feel thoroughly ashamed. I can’t bear to see you treated so!’

  ‘I myself have come to regret my own small-mindedness,’ mumbled Xi-feng in reply. ‘Dear sister! It is so kind of you to visit me like this, and to put past grievances behind you!’

  Patience was standing at her side and heard her speaking.

  ‘What was that, ma’am?’ she asked.

  Xi-feng suddenly awoke and recalled at once that You Er-jie was dead. This must be her spirit seeking the life of her tormentor in vengeance. Now that Patience had woken her, she felt scared but at the same time reluctant to confess her fear. She tried somewhat shakily to compose herself.

  ‘I’m just feeling a little unsettled,’ she said to Patience. ‘I think I must have been talking in my sleep. Will you come and give me a rub?’

  Patience climbed up onto the kang and had just started pummelling her when a junior maid came in and announced that Grannie Liu had come, and was being brought in by the serving-women to pay her respects to Mrs Lian.

  ‘Where is she?’ asked Patience, getting down anxiously from the kang.

  ‘She didn’t presume to come straight in,’ replied the maid. ‘She is waiting for Mrs Lian’s instructions.’

  Patience nodded. She thought that Xi-feng would feel too weak to receive visitors, and said to the maid:

  ‘Mrs Lian needs to have a rest. Tell Grannie Liu to wait a while. Did you ask her what she has come about?’

  ‘They have already asked her,’ replied the maid, ‘and she said she has come on no particular business. She has only just learned of Her Old Ladyship’s death. She would have come before if she had known sooner.’

  Xi-feng had overheard them, and called Patience over:

  ‘If someone has had the kindness to call, we must not appear rude or unappreciative. Go and ask Grannie Liu to come in. I should like to talk to her.’

  Patience reluctantly complied, and went out herself to fetch Grannie Liu. As soon as she left the room, Xi-feng began to drift off to sleep again, and as her eyes closed she saw another apparition – this time a man and a woman walking towards the kang. It seemed they were about to climb up onto it, and she called out in alarm for Patience:

  ‘There’s a man coming towards me!’

  Her cries brought Felicity and Crimson rushing to her bedside.

  ‘What do you want, ma’am?’

  Xi-feng opened her eyes. The figures had vanished. She knew they must be spectres come to haunt her, but again could not bring herself to say so in front of the maids.

  ‘Where’s that wretched Patience got to?’ she asked.

  ‘Didn’t you send her to fetch Grannie Liu?’

  Xi-feng lay still for a while in silence to recover her spirits. Presently Patience returned with Grannie Liu, who had brought a little girl with her and was asking:

  ‘And where’s our Mrs Lian?’

  Patience led her up to the kang.

  ‘Good day, ma’am,’ said Grannie Liu.

  Xi-feng opened her eyes, and as she looked at the old dame, she felt strangely moved.

  ‘How are you, Grannie?’ she asked. ‘Why has it been so long since you last came to see us? How big your granddaughter has grown!’

  Grannie Liu was most distressed to see the state Xi-feng was in – as thin as a stick, and evidently confused in her mind.

  ‘Why, Mrs Lian!’ she exclaimed. ‘To think that in the few months since last I was here you could have fallen so ill! I’m a foolish old baggage and deserve to die for not having visited you sooner!’

  She told little Qing-er to come up and pay her respects, but the girl only giggled. Xi-feng thought what a sweet child she was, and told Crimson to take charge of her.

  ‘We country folk never fall ill,’ pronounced Grannie Liu. ‘If happen we should, then we pray to the gods and make our vows. We never take medicines and the like. I’m wondering now if you mightn’t have fallen foul of some evil spirit, to have taken ill like this, ma’am?’

  Patience was aware that Grannie Liu’s rustic superstitions were ill-timed, and gave her a meaningful tug from the rear. The old dame interpreted this correctly and fell silent. But her words had in fact found an echo in Xi-feng’s own thoughts.

  ‘Grannie, dear,’ she said, speaking with a great effort, ‘you’re a lady with years of experience, and what you say is true. Did you know that Aunt Zhao had died too? You met her when you were here, didn’t you?’

  ‘Holy Name!’ exclaimed the old lady in the greatest surprise. ‘Fancy her dying, just like that! She was such a sturdy body. And she’d a young son if I recall – what will become of him?’

  ‘He’ll be all right,’ Patience consoled her. ‘He still has the Master and Lady Wang to look after him.’

  ‘That’s as may be,’ replied Grannie Liu gravely. ‘But can you be so sure, miss? I mean, it’s his own mother – however bad she may have been – as has died. Nobody can ever take a mother’s place.’

  This coincided with another of Xi-feng’s keenest anxieties, and she broke down and began sobbing. They all rallied round to comfort her.

  When Qiao-jie heard her mother in such distress, she came to the kang, held her hand and burst into tears herself.

  ‘Have you said hello to Grannie Liu?’ asked Xi-feng tearfully.

  ‘No, Mama.’

  ‘She gave you your name, and is like a foster-mother to you. Give her a curtsey now.’

  Qiao-jie went across to Grannie Liu and was about to curtsey when Grannie Liu seized her and said:
>
  ‘Holy Precious Name! Don’t you go weighing me down with such honours – it’ll carry me to my grave! Miss Qiao-jie, it’s over a year since I last was here; do you still remember me?’

  ‘Of course I do! That time when I saw you in the Garden I was still a very little girl. But I remember two years ago I asked you to bring me some big crickets. I can see you haven’t brought me any. You must have forgotten.’

  ‘Oh missie!’ exclaimed Grannie Liu. ‘What a silly old soul I am! If you want crickets we’ve enough and to spare at home. But you never come and visit us. If you came, you could bring home a cartload of crickets if you so wanted.’

  ‘In that case,' put in Xi-feng, ‘why not take her home with you for a visit?’

  ‘How could I possibly, ma’am?’ said Grannie Liu laughing. ‘Such a fine gentle young lady that’s grown up wrapped in silks and satins and used to dainty things to eat – why, what would I give her to play with at home? What would I feed her with? Would you have me die of shame?’

  She cackled and went on:

  ‘Mind you, I could act as a matchmaker for the young lady. Ours may only be a village, but we’ve wealthy folk there all the same, with land that spreads for thousands of acres around and hundreds of cattle and a fair bit of money too. Nothing to compare with the treasure you’ve got here, of course. In fact come to think of it you’d probably not so much as glance at such folk really, ma’am. But to us country people they’re dwellers in heaven!’

  ‘By all means go ahead and propose the match,' said Xi-feng. ‘I should be only too pleased to give Qiao-jie in marriage to such a family.’

  ‘Come, ma’am, you must be joking. Why, I dare say you’d be fussy about some great official family that lived in a big mansion, let alone simple country people. And even if you were willing, I hardly think Their Ladyships would be!’