by Cao Xueqin
“Fancy! You haven’t yet drunk the bridal cup but already you’re doing her hair.”
Baoyu grinned.
“Come, I’ll comb yours too if you like.”
“I’m not destined for such good fortune.”
Qingwen went off with the money, slamming the portiere behind her.
Baoyu was standing just behind Sheyue, who was seated in front of the mirror. They exchanged glances in it and Baoyu smiled.
“She’s got the sharpest tongue of you all,” he remarked.
Sheyue wagged a warning finger, but it was too late. With another clack of the portiere, Qingwen ran in again.
“Just what did you mean by that? We must have this out.”
“Run along!” Sheyue giggled. “Why take it up?”
“You’re covering up for him again. I know all your sly tricks. We must have this out after I’ve won back my money.”
With that she went straight out.
When Baoyu had finished combing Sheyue’s hair he asked her to help him quietly to bed without disturbing Xiren. The rest of the night passed without incident.
The next morning Xiren was better, having perspired, and after taking some gruel she lay back to rest. After breakfast Baoyu felt easy enough in his mind to go and call on Aunt Xue.
Because it was the first month when the schools were on holiday and needlework was taboo for the womenfolk, everyone was free. And Jia Huan, going there to play, had found Baochai, Xiangling and Yinger enjoying a game of dice. He asked to join in.
Baochai, who always treated Jia Huan exactly like Baoyu, made him sit down beside them. They were staking ten cash on each throw, and Jia Huan gloated when he won the first round; but then he lost several times running and started to fret.
The next time it came to his turn he stood to win if he threw more than six, while Yinger needed only three to win. Jia Huan shook the two dice from the pot as hard as he could. One turned up five, the other rolled over and over. Yinger clapped her hands and cried, “One!” while Jia Huan, his eyes glued to the dice, yelled at random, “Six seven, eight!” Finally, however, the dice came to rest at one. In exasperation he snatched up both dice and grabbed the stakes, insisting that he had thrown six.
“Anyone could see it was one,” protested Yinger.
Observing how upset Jia Huan was, Baochai shot her a reproving glance.
“You’re getting above yourself,” she said. “Is it likely that one of the young masters would cheat you? Hurry up and put down your stake.”
The unfairness of this made Yinger fume, but she dared not answer back. As she slapped down some cash she muttered under her breath: “Fancy a young gentleman cheating! Even I wouldn’t make such a fuss over a few cash. Last time we played with Baoyu he lost a whole packet, yet he didn’t mind. Even when the girls grabbed all he had left, he only laughed.”
She would have gone on in this vein, but Baochai told her sharply to hold her tongue.
“How can I compare with Baoyu?” whined Jia Huan. “You keep in with him because you’re afraid of him, but you bully me because I’m a concubine’s son.” He started to snivel.
“Don’t talk like that, dear cousin, or people will laugh at you,” Baochai advised him.
She was scolding Yinger again when Baoyu walked in and, seeing this state of affairs, asked them what had happened. Jia Huan lacked the courage to tell him.
Baochai knew the Jia family’s rule: a younger brother must show respect to an elder. What she did not realize was that Baoyu did not want anyone to be afraid of him. He reasoned: We all have our parents to train us. Why should I butt in and strain relations with the younger ones? As I’m the wife’s son and he’s a concubine’s son, people will gossip even if I do nothing, much more so if I now try to control him.
He had an even more fantastic idea—do you know what it was, Reader? As a result of being brought up among girls—his sisters Yuanchun and Tanchun, his cousins Yingchun and Xichun of the Jia house, and his distaff-cousins Shi Xiangyun, Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai he had come to the conclusion that while human beings were the highest form of creation, the finest essences of Nature were embodied in girls, men being nothing but the dregs and scum. To him, therefore, all men were filthy clods who might just as well not have existed. Only deference to Confucius, the greatest sage of all time who taught that fathers, uncles and brothers should be respected, made him keep on a fairly good footing with his brothers and boy cousins. It never entered his head that he as a man should set the younger boys a good example. This is why Jia Huan and the others were not afraid of him, only yielding to him to some extent for fear of the Lady Dowager.
To prevent Baoyu from scolding Jia Huan, which would only have made matters worse, Baochai covered up for him as best she could.
“The first month is no time for sniveling,” said Baoyu. “If you don’t like it here, find somewhere else to play. All that studying every day seems to have made you even more muddle-headed. Suppose you find one thing no good and another good, just drop the first and go for the second. Can you improve on something you dislike by sticking to it and crying over it? You came here to have a good time. Since you don’t feel happy, go somewhere else to enjoy yourself. Why vex yourself so? Better take yourself off, quick.”
Jia Huan went back to his mother, the concubine Zhao.
At sight of his dejected face she asked, “Who’s been treating you as a doormat this time?” When he did not answer, she repeated the question.
“I was playing with Cousin Baochai. Yinger was mean to me and cheated me. Then Brother Baoyu turned me out.” His mother spat in disgust.
“Shameless little brat! Who told you to put yourself for ward? Is there nowhere else for you to play? Why go looking for trouble?”
Xifeng, who was passing outside, overheard this exchange and called back through the window:
“What’s this rumpus in the middle of the first month? Huan’s only a child. If he makes some small mistake you can set him right. Why carry on at him like that? No matter where he goes, the master and Her Ladyship are there to keep him in order. Imagine spitting at him! He’s one of the young masters, and if he dose misbehave there are people to correct him—what business is it of yours? Come on, Brother Huan, come out and play with me.”
Jia Huan stood in even greater awe of Xifeng than of Lady Wang. He made haste, therefore, to obey and his mother dared raise on objection.
“You’re too spineless,” Xifeng scolded. “I’ve told you time and again that you’re free to eat or drink whatever you like and to play with any of the girls or boys. But instead of doing as I say, you let other people warp your mind and teach you these sneaky ways. You’ve no self-respect but will lower yourself. You behave spitefully yourself and then complain that everybody else is unfair! How much did you lose to make you take on like this?”
“A couple of hundred cash,” he told her meekly.
“All this fuss over a couple of hundred cash! And you one of the young wasters!” She turned to Fenger. “Go and fetch a string of cash. Then take him to the back where the girls are playing. If you do anything so mean and sneaky again, Huan, first I’ll give you a good spanking and then send some one to tell your teacher about it—he’ll flay you alive for it. Your total lack of self-respect has got Cousin Lian gnashing his teeth. He’d have ripped out your guts before now if I hadn’t stopped him. Now be off with you!”
“Yes,” said Jia Huan and trotted off with Fenger, taking the string of cash. He then joined Yingchun and the others at their game. And there we can leave him.
Let us return to Baoyu. He was joking with Baochai when someone announced, “Miss Shi has arrived.”
He started up at once to go and see her.
“Wait,” said Baochai. “Let’s go together.”
She got down from the kang and went with Baoyu to the Lady Dowager’s apartments, where they found Shi Xiangyun laughing and chattering away. After they had greeted each other, Daiyu, who was also there, asked Baoyu wher
e he had been.
“With Cousin Baochai.”
“I thought so,” said Daiyu tartly. “Thank goodness there was someone to keep you there, or you’d have flown here long ago.”
“Are you the only one I’m allowed to play with or to amuse?” he answered with a smile. “I happen to drop in on her once and you make such an issue of it.”
“Nonsense. What do I care if you go to see her or not? I’ve never asked you to amuse me either. You can leave me alone in future.”
With that she retired angrily to her room.
Baoyu promptly followed her there.
“Why lose your temper for no reason at all?” he protested. “Even if I said something wrong, you might at least sit there and chat with the others for a bit, instead of sulking alone.”
“What I do is none of your business.”
“Of course not, but I can’t bear to see you ruining your health.”
“If I ruin my health and die, that’s my affair. Nothing to do with you.”
“Why talk about ‘dying’ or ‘living’ just after the New Year?”
“I shall, so there! I’m ready to die any minute. If you’re so afraid of death, you can live to be a hundred—how about that?”
“If you just carry on like this all the time I’m not afraid.” He smiled. “Death would be better.”
“Exactly!” she retorted swiftly. “If you carry on like this it would be better for me to die.”
“I meant better for me to be dead. How you twist my words!”
As they were bickering, Baochai slipped in.
“Cousin Shi is waiting for you.”
She propelled Baoyu out.
More wretched than ever, Daiyu sat down by her window and shed tears of rage.
But in less time than it takes to drink two cups of tea Baoyu was back again. The sight of him made her sob convulsively. He knew it would be hard to pacify her and was prepared to coax her with all sorts of blandishments and kind words. But she forestalled him by asking:
“What have you come back for? You’ve got a new playmate now, someone better than I am at reading, writing and versifying, better at talking and laughing with you too. Someone who dragged you away for fear you might lose your temper. So why come back? Why not leave me to die in peace?”
Baoyu stepped to her side and said softly, “Someone of your intelligence should know that distant relatives can’t come between close ones, and new friends can’t take the place of old. Dense as I am I know that. Look, you’re the daughter of my father’s sister, while Baochai’s a cousin on my mother’s side—you’re more closely related to me than she is. Besides, you came here first, we’ve eaten at the same table, slept in the same bed and grown up together, while she has only recently arrived. How could I be less close to you because of her?”
“Do I want you to be less close to her? What do you take me for? It’s just that my feelings are hurt.”
“And it’s your feelings that concern me. Do you only know your own heart and not mine?”
Daiyu lowered her head and was silent. After a pause she said:
“You blame other people for finding fault with you, without realizing how provoking you can be. Take today, for example. Why leave off your fox-fur cape when it’s turned so cold?”
Baoyu laughed.
“I was wearing it till you grew angry. Then I got so hot and bothered that I took it off.”
“Well,” she sighed, “if you catch cold there’ll be the devil to pay.”
They were interrupted by Xiangyun’s arrival.
“Why, Ai Brother and Sister Lin!” she cried cheerfully. “You can be together every day, but it’s rarely I have a chance to visit you; yet you pay no attention to poor little me.”
“The lisper loves to rattle away,” said Daiyu with a laugh. “Fancy saying ai instead of er like that. I suppose, when we start dicing, you’ll be shouting one, love, three, four, five....”
“If you copy her long enough, you’ll soon be talking the same way,” Baoyu teased.
“How you do pick on one!” cried Xiangyun. “Always finding fault! Even if you are better than all the rest of us, there’s no need to go making fun of everyone else. But I know someone you’d never dare find fault with. If you do, I’ll really respect you.”
“Who’s that?” Daiyu promptly asked.
“Dare you pick fault with Cousin Baochai? If so, good for you. I may not be up to you, but you’ve met your match in her.”
“Oh, her.” Daiyu snorted. “I wondered whom you meant. How could I ever presume to find fault with her?”
Baoyu tried to stop them, but Xiangyun rattled on:
“Naturally I’ll never come up to you in this lifetime. I just pray that you’ll marry a husband who talks like me, so that you hear nothing but ‘love’ the whole day long. Amida Buddha! May I live to see that day!”
That set everyone laughing, and Xiangyun turned and ran out.
To know the sequel, you must read the next chapter.
Chapter 21
Prudent Xiren Gently Takes Baoyu to Task
Pretty Pinger Quietly Comes to Jia Lian’s Rescue
As Xiangyun ran out of the room to escape Daiyu, Baoyu called after her, “Mind you don’t fall! She can’t catch you.” He barred Daiyu’s way at the door and urged with a chuckle, “Do let her off this time!”
“I’ll kill myself first,” she cried, tugging at his arm.
Seeing Baoyu blocking the doorway and Daiyu unable to get past, Xiangyun stopped and called with a laugh, “Let me off, dear cousin, please! Just this once!”
Baochai who had come up behind her chimed in, “Do make it up, both of you, for Baoyu’s sake.”
“Not I!” cried Daiyu, “Are you all ganging up to make fun of me?”
“Who dares make fun of you?” countered Baoyu, “She wouldn’t if you hadn’t teased her first.”
The four of them were still at loggerheads when a summons to dinner arrived and they went through the dusk to the Lady Dowager’s quarters where Lady Wang, Li Wan, Xifeng and the three Jia girls had already assembled. After dinner they chatted for a while before retiring for the night, and Xiangyun went back to Daiyu’s rooms, with Baoyu escorting them there. It was after the second watch and Xiren had to hurry him several times before he would return to his own room to sleep.
As soon as it was light next morning he scrambled into his clothes and hurried over in his slippers to Daiyu’s quarters. Zijuan and Cuilu were nowhere to be seen, and his two cousins were still sleeping. Daiyu lay peacefully with closed eyes, snugly wrapped in an apricot-red silk quilt, while Xiangyun’s black hair had tumbled all over the pillow, her quilt barely reached her shoulders, and she had flung one white arm adorned with two gold bracelets outside the covers.
“She fidgets even in her sleep,” he sighed. “If there’s a draught she’ll be complaining of a stiff neck again.” He gently pulled up the covers.
Daiyu, awake now, had sensed someone’s presence and guessed that it was Baoyu. Looking round to make sure, she asked:
“What are you doing here so early?”
“Early? Get up and see what time it is.”
“You’d better go outside if you want us to get up.”
Baoyu withdrew to the sitting-room while Daiyu roused Xiangyun. As soon as they were up and dressed he rejoined them and sat by the dressing-table watching as Zijuan and Xueyan helped them with their toilet. When Xiangyun finished washing. Cuilu picked up the basin to empty it.
“Wait!” cried Baoyu, “I may as well wash here to save the trouble of going back to my room.”
He went over and leant down to wash his face but declined Zijuan’s offer of soap, explaining, “There’s plenty in here, I don’t need any more.” After dabbling for a while he asked for a towel.
“Still up to your old tricks,” teased Cuilu, “Will you never grow up?”
Ignoring this, Baoyu called for salt to brush his teeth and rinse his mouth. This done, he saw that Xiangyun had
finished doing her hair, so he went over and begged her:
“Good cousin, do my hair for me, will you?”
“I can’t,” she said.
“Dear cousin, you did before,” he coaxed with a smile. “Well, now I’ve forgotten how to.”
“I’m not going out today anyway, and I’m not going to wear a cap,” he persisted. “Must plait it anyhow.”
He coaxed and wheedled her with endless terms of endearment until Xiangyun took hold of his head and combed his hair. Since he wore no cap at home, she simply plaited the short hairs round his head and looped them together on top in one big queue tied with a crimson braid. This braid was decorated with four pearls and had a golden pendant at the end.
“There are only three of these pearls left,” she commented. “This fourth one doesn’t belong to the set. I remember they used to match. Why is one missing?”
“I lost it.”
“You must have dropped it when you were out. How lucky for whoever picked it up!”
Daiyu washing her hands nearby smiled ironically. “Who knows whether it was lost or given to someone to mounted in a trinket?”
Instead of answering, Baoyu started playing with the toilet articles on the dressing-table by the mirror, absent-mindedly picking up some rouge. He was wondering if he could taste it without Xiangyun noticing when she reached out from behind him and, holding his queue with one hand, with the other knocked the rouge out of his grasp.
“Are you never going to change your silly ways?” she demanded.
Just then Xiren entered the room, but withdrew on seeing that Baoyu had obviously finished his toilet. She went back and was attending to her own when in came Baochai and asked her where he was.
“He’s hardly ever at home nowadays,” replied Xiren bitterly.
Baochai understood.
The maid went on with a sigh, “It’s all right to be fond of cousins, but still there’s a limit. They shouldn’t play about together day and night. But it’s no use our talking, we just waste our breath.”