by Cao Xueqin
The woman could not deny the truth of this, but she dared not go to confess the theft to Xifeng.
“If I hadn’t heard about it that would be different,” Tanchun continued. “But now that I know about this I shall have to help you out.”
She signaled to Shishu, who slipped out of the room. And the others went on talking until suddenly Pinger came in.
“Cousin Tanchun must have magic powers,” giggled Baoqin clapping her hands. “She can summon goddesses.”
“This isn’t Taoist magic,” Daiyu chuckled. “It’s the first rate military tactic called ‘guarded as a virgin, swift as a hare’ to catch your opponent off guard.”
Baochai shot them a warning glance and they dropped the subject.
“Is your mistress any better?” Tanchun asked Pinger. “Her illness has really made her lose her wits. She’s let everything slide, and we’re the ones who suffer.”
“What do you mean, miss?” asked Pinger hastily. “Tell me who’s dared to offend you.”
Wang Zhu’s wife stepped forward, very flustered, to urge her, “Please take a seat, miss, and let me explain.”
“Who are you to butt in when the young ladies are talking?” demanded Pinger sternly. “If you had any manners, you’d wait outside till you were sent for. It’s unheard of for servants from outside to enter the young ladies’ rooms without any reason.”
“You should know we have no manners here,” put in Xiuju. “People barge in whenever they please.”
“That’s your fault,” retorted Pinger. “Your young lady is good-natured, but you should put people out and then report them to Her Ladyship.”
Seeing that Pinger was red in the face with anger, Mrs. Wang finally withdrew.
Tanchun resumed, “Let me tell you: if anyone else offended me I’d not make an issue of it. But this woman and her mother-in-law, because Yingchun’s so sweet-tempered and she’s her nanny, smuggled out her trinkets so that she could gamble and then cooked up a false account to blackmail Yingchun into getting her off. Wang Zhu’s wife had a big row with these two maids in the bedroom, and Yingchun couldn’t control her. It was too much for me: that’s why I asked you over. Tell me, has that woman, coming from another planet, no sense at all? Or has someone put her up to this to get Yingchun to knuckle under first, and after that Xichun and me?”
“What an idea, miss!” declared Pinger with a smile. “How could our mistress stand up to such a charge?” Tanchun smiled cynically.
“As the proverb says, ‘Everyone feels for his fellow creatures.’ And ‘When the lips are gone the teeth will feel the cold.’ How can I help being alarmed?”
Pinger asked Yingchun, “What’s your opinion, miss? A little business like this is easy to handle, but she’s your nanny’s daughter-in-law after all.”
Yingchun, reading Retribution for Good and Evil with Baochai, had not even heard what Tanchun was saying.
“Why ask me?” she replied. “There’s nothing I can do. They brought this on themselves. I can’t get them off but I shan’t blame them either. If they bring back the tiara I’ll take it; if not I won’t demand it. If the mistresses ask about it and I’m able to cover up for them, they’ll be in luck; if I can’t, there’s no more I can do. I can’t lie to the mistresses for their sake—I have to tell the truth. If you say I’m too soft and can’t make up my mind, while you have a good plan to please all parties without annoying the mistresses, just go ahead with it—I don’t need to know it.”
This answer amused them all.
Daiyu chuckled, “This is really a case of ‘descanting upon religion while tigers and wolves gather at one’s gate.’ What would happen to this household if you were a man and had to keep it in order?”
“Many men are the same, so why laugh at me?” answered Yingchun.
As she was speaking a new arrival walked in. If you want to know who it was read the following chapter.
Chapter 74
Malicious Talk Makes Lady Wang Have a Search Made of the Garden
To Guard Her Integrity Xichun Breaks with the Ning Mansion
As Pinger was smiling over Yingchun’s answer they were suddenly joined by Baoyu. It turned out that enemies of Mrs. Liu in charge of the Garden’s kitchen had reported that she had organized gambling parties in her younger sister’s name, and they had divided the winnings equally. Alarmed by the news that Xifeng had decided to have her punished too, Mrs. Liu had hurried to Happy Red Court, being on the best of terms with the maids there, and secretly got Qingwen and Venturina to enlist Baoyu’s help. And as Yingchun’s nurse was also incriminated, he thought it better to go with Yingchun to intercede for both women instead of going alone for Mrs. Liu.
When he found so much company there and was asked about his health and why he had come, he replied evasively that he had simply dropped in to see Yingchun. The others accepted this and went on chatting. Presently Pinger took her leave to attend to Xifeng’s business, and Mrs. Wang followed her out. “Do put in a good word for us, miss,” she begged. “We’re going to redeem the tiara anyhow, I promise you.”
“You’ll have to sooner or later,” retorted Pinger. “So why make such a scene today? You expect us to get you off, don’t you? Well, if you’re truly repentant I haven’t the heart to report this, not if you bring the tiara straight back to me as soon as possible,”
“I will,” promised Mrs. Wang, reassured by this. “I won’t keep you from your work, miss. I’ll get it out of hock this evening and report to you before returning it,”
“Mind you do, or you’ll have to take the consequences!” Then they went their different ways, Pinger rejoining Xifeng who asked her what Tanchun had wanted her for. “She was afraid you were angry,” Pinger prevaricated. “She urged me to soothe you and asked how your appetite was.”
“That was kind of her. Just now something else cropped up. It’s been reported to me that Liu Er’s wife and her younger sister ran gambling parties together, but Mrs. Liu was really the one behind it. You’ve always advised me to let things slide whenever possible, to get more rest and keep fit. Because I ignored your advice, I’ve had to pay for it—to start with, I’ve offended my mother-in-law and ruined my own health. Well, now I know better. Let them raise any rumpus they please; at any rate there are plenty of other people to control them. Why should I worry for nothing, just getting myself disliked by everyone? It’s more important for me to take care of my health. And even after I’m better I mean to take things easy—leave all responsibility to them and have a good time myself. So I’m paying no attention, as I said, to that report.”
“If you take that line madam, so much the better for us,” Pinger approved.
Just then Jia Lian came in. With a clap of his hands he sighed.
“Here’s fresh trouble out of the blue! How did my mother come to hear of Yuanyang’s loan to me the other day? Just now she sent for me and asked me to raise two hundred taels—no matter where—for her Moon Festival expenses. When I told her I’d nowhere to raise it she retorted, ‘When you’re short yourself you can get a loan, but when I ask your help you fob me off saying you’ve nowhere to turn. Where did you get stuff the other day to pawn for a thousand taels? You can even spirit away the old lady’s things, yet you boggle now at a mere two hundred taels. It’s lucky for you I haven’t told anyone else.’
“I can’t believe she’s really short of money. Why should she pick on me like this for nothing?”
“There were no outsiders here that day. How did the news leak out?” wondered Xifeng.
Pinger thought back carefully, then cried, “I know! That evening the things were brought over, the mother of the old lady’s girl Numskull came to deliver the laundry and stayed chatting for a while in the servants’ quarters. She must have asked what was in the big case, and one of our maids, not knowing any better, told her.”
She called in the maids and asked which of them had blabbed to Numskull’s mother. In fright the girls dropped to their knees, swearing that none of them
dared say a word out of turn: whenever questioned about anything they denied all knowledge of it, so how could they have let this secret out? Xifeng saw they were telling the truth.
“No, they wouldn’t dare,” she agreed. “We mustn’t wrong them. Let’s not worry about this now but find a way to satisfy Her Ladyship. However short we are ourselves, we mustn’t get into her bad books again.” She told Pinger to pawn her gold necklace for two hundred taels and have the money sent to Lady Xing.
“Let’s pawn it for four while we’re at it,” suggested Jia Lian. “We need money ourselves as well.”
“No, I don’t need any,” she answered. “And we don’t know yet how to raise two hundred to redeem it.”
Pinger sent Lai Wang’s wife with the necklace to the pawnshop. And on her return, Jia Lian himself took the money to Lady Xing while Xifeng and Pinger went on trying to guess who had let the cat out of the bag.
“Her Ladyship knowing doesn’t matter much,” Xifeng observed. “The danger is that her servants may take this chance to gossip and stir up fresh trouble. Those greedy gluttons in the other house, who are always throwing dirt, bear Yuanyang a grudge. If they hear that she’s secretly lent things to Master Lian, they may make a commotion and spread outrageous talk. Master Lian can take it, but Yuanyang’s a good girl and if she’s involved in trouble it will be our fault.”
“Don’t worry,” Pinger laughed. “Yuanyang lent us those things for your sake, not for our master’s. Though it sounds like a secret favour, in fact she’ll have got the old lady’s permission first. The old lady only pretends not to know because she has so many grandchildren, and if all of them borrow her things to pawn but then make a scene saying that they can’t replace them, how is she to cope? So even if this gets out it won’t hurt Yuanyang.”
“Even so, we know Yuanyang’s all right, but those who don’t know her are bound to think the worst.”
Just then Lady Wang was announced. Surprised by this unexpected visit, they hurried out to welcome her. They saw that her face was stem and she was accompanied by her confidential maid only. Without a word she went into the inner room and sat down, while Xifeng poured her some tea.
“You must be in good spirits,” Xifeng remarked, “to stroll over here today, madam.”
Lady Wang sharply ordered Pinger to leave the room. Hastily assenting she withdrew with all the other maids, wondering what this foreboded. Having closed the door behind her, she sat on the steps to stop anyone else going in. Xifeng was flustered too and quite bewildered.
Then Lady Wang with tears in her eyes produced a sachet from her sleeve.
“Look at this!”
Xifeng took it and saw the indecent embroidery on it. Very shocked she exclaimed, “Where did you find this, madam?”
Tears streaming down her cheeks Lady Wang quavered, “Are you asking me! I’ve been in the dark all this time. Relying on your discretion, I took things easy. I’d no idea you were just as careless as me. Fancy leaving a thing like this on a rock in the Garden, openly, in broad daylight too! One of the old lady’s maids picked it up. Luckily your mother-in-law found her with it; otherwise she’d have taken it to the old lady. How could you be so thoughtless as to leave this lying around?”
“What makes you think it’s mine, madam?’ asked Xifeng, changing colour.
“Whose else could it be?” Lady Wang sobbed. “Just think, you’re the only young couple in our household. What would older women be doing with such a thing? And where could the girls get hold of it? No, it must be that dissolute wretch of a husband of yours who picked it up somewhere. And intimate as you are, it’s natural that you young people keep playthings of this kind in your bedroom. Don’t try to deny it. It’s a mercy that nobody else in the Garden knows. If one of the maids there had found it and your girl cousins saw it, that would have been terrible! Or suppose some little maids picked it up and took it outside, telling people they had found it in the Garden, how could we ever hold up our heads again?”
Red in the face with pique and mortification, Xifeng knelt down by the kang.
“Of course your reasoning is logical, madam,” she said tearfully. “I daren’t contradict you. Still, do think more carefully, madam.
“In the first place, this sachet was made by craftsmen outside. See, the belt and tassels are the kind sold in the market. If they’d been made by embroiderers of our house they’d certainly be finer. However young and flighty I may be, I wouldn’t want such trash.
“In the second place, this isn’t the sort of thing I’d carry around with me. Even if I had one I’d have to keep it indoors, not take it everywhere with me. Besides, when I’m in the Garden with the girls we often scuffle in fun, and think how ashamed I’d feel if it was seen, not only by my cousins but even by the servants! However young and flighty I may be, I wouldn’t be as foolish as all that.
“In the third place, of all the ladies of our house I’m the only young married woman, but there are plenty of servants’ wives younger than me who are for ever dropping into the Garden then going home again at night. Couldn’t this belong to one of them?
“Fourthly, I’m not the only visitor to the Garden. Lady Xing of the other house often takes Yanhong, Cuiyun and other young concubines there. They’re all more likely than me to have such things. Cousin Zhen’s wife isn’t too old either, and she often brings along Peifeng and others; so this could equally well belong to them.
“Fifthly, with so many maids in the Garden, can we guarantee that they all behave properly? Isn’t it possible that one of the older girls, who knows the facts of life, sneaked out unchecked or made some pretext to gossip with the pages at the inner gate, and smuggled this in from outside?
“This not only isn’t mine, I can assure you that Pinger has never had such a thing either. Please reconsider the matter carefully, madam.”
This made good sense to Lady Wang.
“Get up,” she said with a sigh. “I should have known that a girl of good family like you couldn’t be so frivolous. I just challenged you because I was so angry. But what’s to be done? Your mother-in-law sent this over just now in a sealed package with word that she got it from Numskull the day before yesterday. I nearly choked with rage!”
“Don’t be angry, madam. If this gets out, it may come to the old lady’s ears. We must calm down and investigate this on the quiet to get to the bottom of it. And even if we fail to find the culprit, we mustn’t let outsiders know about it but ‘hide our broken arm in our sleeve.’ Now let’s take this gambling as a pretext to dismiss a good few servants. Let’s choose four or five stewardesses like the wives of Zhou Rui and Lai Wang, whose discretion we can count on, and put them in the Garden ostensibly to check up on the gambling.
“We have too many young maids now. As they grow up they start getting ideas and cause trouble. If we wait till there’s a scandal, we shall regret it too late. Now if we send some of them packing for no reason, it’ll not only vex the girls but will make us seem unreasonable, madam. So let’s take this chance to find fault with some of the older and more obstreperous ones, and send them home to get married. This will prevent any scandals here and save us money too. What do you think, madam?”
Lady Wang sighed again.
“You are right, of course. But to be fair to your cousins, I pity the poor girls. We needn’t go further back, but just look at Daiyu’s mother —how cosseted she was before she married, treasured like gold or jade! She lived in real style like a fine young lady. But our girls today are only slightly better off than other people’s servants, with merely two or three presentable maids apiece and four or five younger ones who look like scarecrows. I haven’t the heart to cut down their attendants, and I doubt if the old lady would agree to it either. Difficult as things are, we’re not all that poor. I never lived in real luxury and style, yet as a girl I was better off than you. I’d sooner skimp a little myself rather than see them go short. If we’re to save money I’m willing to make a start.
“Now, sen
d for Zhou Rui’s wife and the others and order them—in strict confidence, mind—to hurry up and get to the bottom of this.”
Xifeng called Pinger in to pass on these orders. And soon the wives of Zhou Rui, Wu Xing, Zheng Hua, Lai Wang and Lai Xi arrived, these being the only five couples here who had accompanied Lady Wang or Xifeng to the Jia mansion at the time of their marriage, the others having gone south on business. Lady Wang was just thinking five too few to make a careful check when they were joined by Lady Xing’s personal maid, wife of the steward Wang Shanbao who had brought over the pouch. As Lady Wang treated Lady Xing’s trusted maids on the same footing as her own, and this woman had come with a great show of concern to ask about this matter, she said to her:
“Go and tell your mistress I want you to move into the Garden for a while to keep an eye on things there. That would be better than my finding other people.”
Now Wang Shanbao’s wife, disgruntled by the lack of respect shown her by the maids in the Garden, had long been looking—unsuccessfully— for some grounds to fault them. To her mind, this pouch provided a handle against them, while Lady Wang’s proposal gave her a welcome chance to settle scores with them.
She promptly answered, “That’s easy. If you’ll excuse your slave saying so, discipline should have been tightened up there long ago. You don’t go to the Garden very often, madam. The maids there all behave as if they’d become fine young ladies of noble rank. They turn things upside-down, and nobody dares say a word for fear they’ll work their young mistresses up to accuse people of insulting them. Who’s willing to take such a risk?”
“Well, that’s only to be expected,” said Lady Wang. “Our young ladies’ maids are a cut above the rest, but you should teach them manners. Not to correct the young mistresses would be wrong, how much more so in the case of their maids.”
“The others aren’t so bad,” continued Mrs. Wang. “But do you know that minx Qingwen in Baoyu’s place, madam? Because she’s prettier than most and has the gift of the gab, she makes herself up every day like Xi Shi and is very pert and forward, jabbering away all the time and showing off. She scolds and carries on in a shocking way on the least provocation. A regular vamp she is—it’s scandalous!”