by AnonYMous
“We must always listen to advice,” Jia Ming urged her. “Newness may be a good thing in clothes, but not in our friends. Let’s clear this matter up for you and work out a compromise that will allow you to stay on here.” But Maid Zhang was adamant.
“Mistress Zhang, you’re determined to leave,” said Wu Zhen, “and it just so happens that Mistress You, who’s been at Qiang Da’s house for three or four years without taking a leave to return home, has somehow gotten herself pregnant and wants to quit her job and go back to have the baby. Now if we recommend you to Qiang Da, I can guarantee that he’ll accept you on the spot. In addition, we’ll get Master Lu to give you a few taels without letting Miss Fragrance know. As a favor to us, don’t breathe a word about it.” After conferring with his brothers, he promised her ten taels, and she finally agreed.
The brothers went back upstairs to Fragrance’s room, where they ordered wine and tried to mediate between Lu Shu and Fragrance. “I can’t let you play the host here,” said Lu Shu. After some polite sparring, he again ended up as host.
Once the wine had been brought, Lute put herself out to seduce Wei Bi. She sang several sweetly flattering songs to the music of the lute, and he was attracted and bandied jokes with her. By this time he was also rather drunk. After the party broke up, Lute wanted him to stay the night, but since he had come with the others, he was afraid that when they returned to Qiang Da’s they might tell Lucky, so he felt he had to go back to town. “Since you’ve favored me with your love, let’s have a tacit agreement,” he said to Lute. “Some other day I’ll come back on my own.” On that understanding, she allowed him to go back to the city with the others.
Meanwhile, despite all the pleas of the sworn brothers, Fragrance’s fury continued unabated. She climbed onto the bed, pulled Lu Shu’s hair, and bit him. She raged at him, cursed him, dug her nails into him, and cried and sobbed, all the while making every kind of malicious and unreasonable accusation. Lu Shu responded by paying her every conceivable compliment, swearing countless oaths, and taking innumerable vows. After spending a great deal of time and effort on the bed, he finally managed to bring her around. And there I shall leave them.
The four brothers arrived at Qiang Da’s and went to Cassia’s room, where Phoenix, Paria, and Lucky joined them, having heard them arrive. “Have you had any supper?” they asked. Jia Ming told them in detail why they had been held up at the Jinyulou and explained that Lu Shu had insisted they have supper there. The courtesans couldn’t stop laughing at the story. Wu Zhen called Qiang Da in and recommended Maid Zhang for a position, and he agreed.
Sanzi then came in and asked, “Are you gentlemen going back tonight?”
Wei Bi, who was lying on Cassia’s bed, was the first to reply. “I’m drunk. I’m not going back.”
“Since you’re not going back, we’ll stay and keep you company,” said the others. Sanzi left the room.
“Stay where you are for a while,” Lucky said to Wei Bi in private. “I have a steady client in my room, one who hasn’t been by in a long time. Let me send him off first, then I’ll come and invite you to my room.”
“See you get rid of him as soon as you can. I’m dead tired.”
“I know.” She excused herself to the others and left the room.
The client in Lucky’s room was one Mi Shengmo, a young man in his twenties with a large head and a face full of pockmarks who was also short and stout. For these reasons, and also because his speech was rather slow and he was an eldest brother, people called him Big Face Mi and gave him the nickname Turtle. His father had worked in the Salt Administration and acquired a great deal of property, and when he died, he left many contracts behind. Mi Shengmo had no job or profession of any kind; he relied on rents and loan repayments for a living. In the past he had had a relationship with Lucky that had brought her in a good deal of money, clothing, and jewelry, but because he had been out of town collecting debts, he had not been to see her for a considerable time. He had now been sitting in her room for quite a while. Lucky had intended to have him stay the night, but she had also been afraid that Wei Bi might come and want to stay over himself, so she had never actually asked Mi. For his part he fully intended to catch up with her after a long absence and had taken it for granted that she would invite him to stay. But here he was, sitting for a long while, and she hadn’t said a word about his staying over. Moreover, she had spent much of her time in another room, leaving him on his own, and he had begun to feel a trifle uneasy. And now she came in and sat herself down but still said nothing. He grew impatient and called Sanzi into the room and announced, “Sanzi, I’m staying over.”
“It’s a most unfortunate thing, Master Mi,” said Sanzi, “but Miss Lucky already has an engagement for tonight.”
Mi Shengmo became even more angry. “If she had an engagement, why didn’t she mention it? She’s kept me waiting all this time. How can I go back now?”
“Master Mi, you’re quite wrong there. When you arrived, you said nothing about staying the night. How could Miss Lucky suddenly announce that she had an engagement? As for your sitting here all this time, that was by your own choice. We couldn’t very well urge you to leave, now, could we?”
“Look, I don’t care whose engagement it is. You’ll just have to put him off. I’m staying.”
“I can’t possibly tell him anything so unreasonable. First come, first served; that’s the rule. You haven’t favored us with your presence in quite some time. Don’t start any trouble now.”
“If I didn’t favor your house, I wouldn’t want to stay the night, would I? Now that I want to stay, you give me all this palaver, just to stop me. You can’t possibly be worried that I won’t pay, can you? Take a look at your accounts; I’m not a penny in arrears for the nights I’ve stayed here. You’re deliberately trying to get me out of the way. Well, I’m not going. If you have some monster in the house who’s game to stay the night, I’ll take him for a very brave person. If he won’t yield, tell him to come in here and have it out with me. If he can get the better of me, I’ll let him stay.” Sanzi continued to give meek and submissive replies, but Mi Shengmo only became more and more angry and began ranting and raving.
Wei Bi was lying down on Cassia’s bed because he was a little drunk. Since Wu Zhen needed to satisfy his habit, he had gone off with Jia Ming to smoke in Phoenix’s room, and Cassia had gone with him, while Yuan You had been pulled into her room by Paria for a tête-à-tête. As a result, Wei Bi was alone in Cassia’s room. At this late hour, when all was quiet in the house, he could hear someone shouting in Lucky’s room, and everything that the man said was directed at him. He flew into a drunken rage, tore off his gown, and rushed over to Lucky’s room, where he found someone sitting down and carrying on in a mixture of accents. Launching a surprise attack, Wei Bi rushed up, seized him by the collar, and threw him down. Mi Shengmo, caught unawares, found himself flung to the floor. Wei Bi then seized the chance to straddle him and start pummeling, while Mi kept up a stream of curses. Sanzi hastily pinned Wei Bi’s arms to his sides and knelt down and began pleading with him.
When Jia Ming, Wu Zhen, and Yuan You got word of what was going on and rushed into Lucky’s room, they asked Wei Bi what the matter was. “Brothers, don’t ask,” said Wei Bi. “Just help me beat up this ignorant bastard.”
Jia Ming looked at Mi Shengmo but did not recognize him. “Brother, don’t be angry,” he said. “Let him up. With us here, he won’t be able to fly away. Everybody has to listen to reason. Let him get up and say what he has to say. If it’s unreasonable, we’ll help you deal with him.” Wu Zhen prized open Wei Bi’s grip and pulled him to his feet. Mi Shengmo was helped to his feet by Sanzi.
“Wonderful!” he fumed, “Just wonderful!”
Jia Ming sat him down and asked his name. “Mi Shengmo,” he said.
“Why did you quarrel with our friend?” asked Jia Ming. Mi hesitated and said nothing.
“Master Mi wanted to spend the night with Miss Lucky,” ex
plained Sanzi. “I told him that someone else had already engaged her, and he started cursing wildly here in her room. Master Wei overheard and came in and somehow or other knocked him down.”
“Brother Mi,” said the sworn brothers, “it’s not that we’re taking Brother Wei’s side, but you do seem to be in the wrong here. First come, first served; that’s the rule. Suppose you had engaged her, and our brother Wei had come along later and wanted to do the same, you wouldn’t have let him. We’re in the pleasure quarter, after all, where we’re not supposed to quarrel. If you hadn’t called him names, Brother Wei would never have been so rash as to start fighting you. As the proverb says, nothing good comes from quarreling or fighting. Brother Wei is rather young and hotheaded, but do give way to him, for our sakes.” Jia Ming, Wu Zhen, and Yuan You then bowed to Mi Shengmo, and he bowed in return.
Mi Shengmo had intended to fight Wei Bi, but when he saw how many supporters of his adversary were present, he knew that he was outnumbered and had to contain himself. Leaving the house, he returned home, where all night long he continued to stew over the incident. The next day he was thinking of gathering some men to go to Qiang Da’s, seize Wei Bi and Lucky, and bring charges against them. But when he learned that Wei Bi was the son of the candidate for the Salt Administration, he realized that he couldn’t match Wei’s power and merely brooded. The pent-up anger brought on a serious illness, which almost cost him his life, and he took a vow never to go near the pleasure quarter again. It was fortunate for him that he suffered those blows from Wei Bi, because thanks to them his property was preserved. From this point on he drops out of the story.
After persuading Mi Shengmo to leave, Jia Ming, Wu Zhen, and Yuan You returned to their favorites’ rooms to sleep. The following day they asked Lu Shu to give Maid Zhang the ten taels and have her belongings moved to Qiang Da’s, where she was to work. A few days after that, it was Jia Ming’s birthday, and Wu Zhen, Yuan You, and Wei Bi decided to hold a party at Qiang Da’s to which they would all contribute. Since they had not seen Lu Shu for a couple of days, Yuan You wrote him a letter of invitation.
If you are wondering if he attended the party, please turn to the next chapter.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Brother Jia offers sound advice to a friend;
Mistress Lu extracts the truth from a page.
As love struck as ever, Lu Shu continued to spend all of his time at the Jinyulou. He was in bed one morning when he heard Maid Wang calling from outside the curtain: “Sir, wake up! Master Yuan has sent his steward over with a letter for you, and he’s waiting for an answer.” Startled awake, Lu Shu quickly put on his underwear and got out of bed. He saw that the red recipient’s slip on the envelope read, “For the perusal of Master Lu Wenhua.” Beside it, in small characters, were the words “Reply urgently requested,” and on the back of the envelope was the date, “Sent on the first day of autumn of the Xinsi year.”1 He tore open the envelope and took out the two sheets of six-column paper, which read as follows:
The cherry apple flaunts its beauty, the leaves of the wutong tree begin to wither. I think of you and hope that you are happy and successful and that you are enjoying your conjugal bliss. I recall the time when you first arrived in Yangzhou and swore brotherhood with us. Every morning and evening, almost without exception, we spent together. Who would have expected that you would meet your predestined love, enter paradise surrounded by fairy maidens, and enjoy both music and romance but have no time for your old friends? Now, since it is Brother Jia Xinpan’s birthday, Yingshi, Qingyuan,2 and I intend to borrow Qiang Da’s house to hold a celebration that will last all day. I make so bold as to hope that you will join us at the Futura teahouse. My only fear is that the fairy maiden may not let young Liu3 leave the Peach Blossom Grotto, but I beg to inform you of the event anyway. I send this letter especially to apprise you and hope that you will peruse it. I also await your arrival in the morning. I shall stop here.
Respectfully, your sworn brother, Yuan You
When he had finished reading the letter, Lu Shu asked, “Did Shunzi bring this?”
“Yes.”
“Go down and tell him to give my regards to his master and the others and say that I’ll join them shortly.”
After Maid Wang had done so, she brought the water for Lu Shu’s wash, then called to Fragrance: “Miss, do get up! Master Lu has been up for some time.”
“I’m awfully tired today. I just want to go on sleeping.”
“Don’t call her,” said Lu Shu. “I’m off to the Parade. Let her sleep.” He finished his wash, ate some lotus seeds, and left. On North Willow Lane he ran into Felix, who accompanied him to the Futura, where Lu Shu found the sworn brothers already assembled. He went straight up to Jia Ming and bowed, saying, “Brother, please forgive me for not coming to offer you birthday congratulations.”
Jia Ming returned the bow. “It’s just an ordinary birthday.4 I wouldn’t dream of bothering you. Do sit down.” After greeting the others, Lu Shu took a seat.
When the tea had been poured, Wu Zhen said, “Brother Lu, I don’t mean to criticize, but for several days now you’ve been so preoccupied with your beautiful lover that you haven’t come to join us. Today is Brother Jia’s birthday, and if Brother Yuan hadn’t written to you, you’d have forgotten even that. What do you think? Do you deserve a penalty?”
“I’ve been in a daze, I really have! Make me the host today by way of a penalty.”
“We’ve already agreed to share the cost of the celebration,” said Wu Zhen. “There’s no need for you to host it on your own.”
“Then tomorrow I’ll invite you all to lunch and supper at the Jinyulou, as an offering to Brother Jia and also to make amends for my misdeeds. I hope you’ll all forgive me!” Laughing, they called to the waiter to cook the noodles. After breakfast, they went on to Qiang Da’s, had lunch and supper there, and did not part until the second watch.
When Lu Shu returned to the Jinyulou, he found Fragrance sitting in her room. “Where have you been gallivanting about? Coming back at this hour!”
“Today was Brother Jia’s birthday, and we shared the cost of a celebration in Miss Phoenix’s room,” replied Lu Shu.
“All you think of is your own pleasure, while I get left at home.”
“The brothers were going to send someone for you, but this morning you said you were tired, and I was afraid it might be too much for you, so I made the excuse that you weren’t very well. That’s why no one came to fetch you. It never occurred to me that you’d criticize me for it!”
Fragrance gave a sour smile. “It doesn’t matter what the occasion was. For no reason at all you’ve wished an illness on me! There’s no need for all the fancy double-talk. If you’d taken me with you, you couldn’t have had such a high old time with that sweetie of yours.” Greatly agitated, Lu Shu swore one oath after another, but Fragrance continued to complain in the same sarcastic manner.
All of a sudden a visitor arrived in the room opposite, and Maid Wang quietly called Fragrance away, leaving Lu Shu alone in the room. Bored and dejected, he threw himself down on the bed. He heard talk and laughter from the room opposite and after a while the sound of the door closing and the curtain being drawn. Later he heard the sound of the washbasin, and still later Fragrance’s voice quietly seeing the visitor out and urging him to come early the next day. Finally, he heard the visitor’s footsteps as he descended the stairs.
When Fragrance returned to her room, Lu Shu noticed that her hair was tousled. “Why is your hair in such a mess?” he asked.
“Sister Lute and I were playing about and she grabbed hold of me and mussed up my hair.”
“I was in here and I never heard Lute’s voice. It sounded like a man’s voice to me. Look, I know what’s going on. There’s no need to pretend.”
“All of a sudden you’ve turned into an entirely different person, full of the wildest suspicions! If you’re here tomorrow, I’m not even going to leave my room, just to avoid your suspi
cions.” Her face darkened.
“Don’t get upset,” said Lu Shu. “Let me tell you something. I’ve come across a poem in your Bamboo Songs of the Yangzhou Pleasure Quarter that puts it nicely:
A clever girl handles two men at once;
When she’s done with one, it’s the other’s lot.
The old one’s out the door; the new one stays;
She allows him to clean her cooking pot.
But you’re even cleverer than that—you reverse the order:
The new one’s out the door; the old one stays,
And you allow him to clean your cooking pot.”
Fragrance burst into sobs. “We in this business may be the lowest of the low, but we are not all stupid. I may have spent several years in a brothel, but I was still a virgin when I met you. Ever since you took that away from me, I have not slept with any other client. Fool that I was, I hoped that you’d rescue me from the fiery pit and that I’d spend the rest of my life with you. But after we’ve been together just a few months, your promises have turned out to be nothing but sweet talk. And today you start slandering me for no reason at all, making me out to be some vile, disgusting creature. When, oh when, will I get free of this life? When will I ever escape?” She threw herself down on the bed and started sobbing again. Lu Shu had to console her in every possible way before he finally persuaded her to stop. He remained as love struck as ever.
He had been in Yangzhou since the fourth month. He had brought with him over a thousand taels and three or four hundred silver dollars. How could that amount support such lavish expenditure as his? He had already run through the whole of the money and now owed a large amount in brothel fees.
Mother Xiao broached the matter with Fragrance. “For days now young Lu has been very down in the mouth. Several times I’ve asked him for money, and each time he’s put me off with a vague reply, which is very different from the generous response he used to give. In those days I only needed to mention something and the money would be there. It occurs to me that he’s from out of town and isn’t involved in any business here in Yangzhou. By my calculations, he’s spent a good deal in this place. If he runs out of money and we go on asking him to stay, where will we end up?”
