by AnonYMous
“Master Lu, those debts you owed have all been cleared up by Miss Fragrance,” said Mother Xiao. “If I’ve been at all unkind to you, I hope you will both forgive me.” At the news that his debts had been paid, Lu Shu was even more delighted. Fragrance took her seat in the sedan chair, while Lu Shu and Felix escorted the baggage to the dock. She alighted from the sedan chair and boarded the boat. They carried the baggage on and paid the sedan chair and the porters.
Just as they were about to start, a young man in his twenties, a sword gripped in his hand, leapt into the cabin, seized hold of Lu Shu, and demanded, “Where do you think you’re taking my wife?”
“She’s not married,” said Lu Shu, “and I’ve just bought her out. What sort of scoundrel are you, to suddenly show up with a sword in your hand and threaten violence in an attempt to seize my wife?” He turned and looked at Fragrance, who was sitting in the cabin, a cynical smile playing on her face, saying nothing. “Why are you sitting there smiling and not saying anything?” demanded Lu Shu. “What do you mean by it?”
“He’s my husband. I’m his wife. What would you expect me to say? By rights, I should be on his side. Why should I favor you?”
“You always said you had no husband, that you weren’t promised to anyone,” said Lu Shu in great agitation. “All you had was an uncle. Where does this husband come from?”
“You’re an intelligent person, so how can you be so stupid? At first, when you had money, I didn’t have a husband. Now that your money’s all gone, why can’t I go and live with my husband? We in the business always lead a new client on by saying we have no husband. We want to deceive him. If we didn’t do that, he’d never be willing to lavish any money on us. If I really meant what I said about marrying, I’d be giving myself to this person one day and that person the next, and even if you chopped me up into tiny pieces, there still wouldn’t be enough of me to go around.”
“Even if he is your husband, you and I had such love for each other, how could you look me in the eye and say that?”
“That’s even more ridiculous. Haven’t you heard the saying ‘In love affairs, when the money goes, the love goes, too’? You’ve played around all this time, you’ve spent a good deal of money, and you’re still so muddle-headed!”
“That may be, but now that you’re pregnant…”
Fragrance burst into peals of laughter before he could finish the sentence. “You’re really deluded! Not only am I not pregnant, I have never been pregnant. If I were, well, whenever we in the business get pregnant, we pick out a good client with plenty of money and insist that he is the father. The birth is the time to get him to produce his money and pay for the delivery as well as all the postnatal expenses. Now that you’ve spent all your money, why should you care whether I’m pregnant or not? Even if I were, if I gave birth to a girl, I’d naturally keep her and raise her to carry on earning money after me. If I had a boy, I wouldn’t just let you have him for nothing. Even if I were willing to give him to you, you surely don’t imagine you’d be able to take the baby home with you and bring him up?”
At these words, Lu Shu felt as if he had been pitched bodily into ice-cold water; even his heart froze up. In his fury he wanted to go on arguing with Fragrance, but the young man who held him in his grip said, “You stupid son of a bitch! My wife slept with you, sacrificing the body her parents gave her, while all you did was spend a little stinking money. And now you go in for all this sniveling nonsense in hopes of making off with her!” As the sword plunged into his chest, Lu Shu let out a great cry.
If you are wondering what happened, please turn to the next chapter.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Lu Shu returns home thanks to contributions from his brothers;
Wu Zhen incurs hatred in his dealings with a borrower.
Lu Shu was held in the grip of Fragrance’s husband, whose sword was plunging into his chest. He let out a great cry and awoke from what proved to be a dream, his whole body dripping with sweat. He glanced at the lamp’s faint glimmer and the bright moonlight outside the window and was astonished. Fragrance has been so affectionate, so infinitely loving, and she’s sworn so many oaths and taken so many vows, he thought, I can’t believe she could say such things or be so heartless. It must be my own suspicions that have given rise to this dream. But then his thoughts took another turn. Although she used to be so nice to me, ever since I failed to give her that headband she asked for, she’s been quite different. Perhaps she really is the way she appeared in my dream. With thoughts such as these running through his mind, he got no sleep.
At first light he called Felix. “What’s the matter, Master?” asked the page. “Why are you getting up so early?”
“Don’t ask questions, just get me the water for my wash.” Felix rushed off to get it. After Lu Shu had washed, he left the inn and went straight to the Futura teahouse, but he had arrived too early; the others were not there yet. He poured himself a cup of tea and waited for some time until, one by one, they came in. After greetings had been exchanged, they joined Lu Shu at his table and ate their breakfast.
As they were chatting, the steward from the Jinyulou, Drummer Hua, came up and greeted them, then walked around to where Lu Shu was sitting, bent down, and whispered in his ear: “Sir, yesterday you sent someone to fetch Miss Fragrance. She should have come to attend on you, but she was out on assignment at the time. I hope you and the other gentlemen won’t hold it against us. When Miss Fragrance returned from the assignment, she asked after you as soon as she came in the door. When she found that you hadn’t been to visit her yesterday, she cried all night, and the first thing this morning she told me to come over and invite you.”
“I’ve been going there for months,” said Lu Shu, “and in all that time she has never been out on an assignment, but yesterday, when I wasn’t there, she just happened to have one at the Jin compound or the Yin1 compound or wherever it was. Look, you don’t need to cover up for her; I know why she didn’t come. You were afraid I didn’t have the money.”
“Just what are you saying, sir? I can understand that you might be suspicious, but by a very odd coincidence she really did happen to have an assignment at the Jin compound yesterday. If you don’t believe me, you can check it out for yourself. You and Miss Fragrance have been close for a considerable time, and you shouldn’t be too quick to suspect her. Even if you didn’t have the money to pay for an assignment, she would still have gone there just to be with you.”
Jia Ming, who was listening, recognized this as mere persiflage on Drummer’s part. “There’s no need to keep on about it,” he said. “Master Lu will visit your house quite soon.”
“I hope all of you gentlemen will favor us with your company,” said Drummer. “Do come and enjoy yourselves.” He turned to Wei Bi: “Miss Lute asks you to be sure to pay her a visit. She says she has something important to tell you.” Wei Bi gave a noncommittal reply.
Drummer took a few steps away, then turned and addressed Lu Shu again: “With regard to what the owner said to you the other day, sir, please do as she asked. She needs the money today to meet her expenses.”
“I know,” said Lu Shu. After further exhortations, Drummer finally left.
“Brother Lu,” said Jia Ming, “do you believe what Drummer said about Miss Fragrance missing you and wanting you to visit her?”
“Perhaps she did send him over to invite me. I’m not sure.”
“Worthy brother, don’t be misled, I beg of you. Yesterday when you asked for her and she didn’t come, we realized that they wanted to keep you away. Everything he said today about inviting you was false; the only true thing was that they want money from you. If you have money and go there and pay them today, they’ll fawn all over you the way they used to. If you don’t have any, you’re likely to get the cold treatment. Besides, if you have no money, you won’t want to go there empty-handed. As I told you yesterday, when people in that business want to pick a fight with a client, they always act like that.”
“How many good-hearted people are there in that business?” asked Wu Zhen. “The only thing they have eyes for is money.”
“That’s a little hard to accept,” said Yuan You. “As the proverb says, ‘Sex doesn’t lead us astray, we lead ourselves astray.’ There are some in the business who are simply infatuated with their clients. In a word, it’s six of one, half a dozen of the other. These pleasure quarters are also part of our karmic fate from a previous life.”
“I think Brother Lu has treated Fragrance rather well,” said Wei Bi. “He’s spent a great deal of money on her, and perhaps she couldn’t bring herself to be so heartless after all.”
“There’s no point in trying to guess,” said Jia Ming. “Let’s wait and see how things develop.”
As Lu Shu listened to the give-and-take of opinion, he recalled his dream of the night before and wished that he could grow a pair of wings and fly down to the Jinyulou and put Fragrance to the test. But he had no money, and he was afraid of Mother Xiao’s nagging. In his anxiety and restlessness, both staying and leaving were equally repugnant to him. Yuan You understood how he felt and invited everyone to a restaurant for lunch, to the Futura for afternoon tea, and then on to a party at Qiang Da’s in the evening.
When the party broke up, Lu Shu returned to the Yichang and told Felix to make him a pot of strong tea, then sat morosely sipping it, while Felix stood by his side. “Go off to bed,” said Lu Shu. “I’m going to sit here for a while.”
“I deserve to die for saying this,” said Felix, “but there’s something I have to tell you.”
“If you have something to say, why not say it?”
“Sir, your father gave you money to come to Yangzhou and buy a concubine, but after arriving here, you never looked for one, you just spent a lot of the money you’d brought with you. I’ve noticed the way the people at Miss Fragrance’s place have been treating you recently; it’s nothing like what it was, but you continue to dote on her in the same way as before. Sir, your money is gone, your valuables are sold, and your clothes are in hock. In my humble opinion, those people will insist on payment for Miss Fragrance; they’ll never give her to you for nothing. Each day you stay here gets you deeper in debt, and in a few more days, when the autumn wind starts to blow, it’ll be no joke, I assure you! If you care for Miss Fragrance and can’t give her up, in my humble opinion you ought to hurry home and explain everything to your father, get a few hundred taels from him, and then return to Yangzhou, buy her, and take her back with you. Why stay on here to no purpose? Think about it, sir. Am I right or not?”
Lu Shu sighed. “Don’t be silly! Of course I want to go back, but I spent all my money without managing to buy her out, and now I’ve sold a lot of valuables and pawned many of my clothes. If I do go back, how am I going to face my parents? Moreover, I owe the Jinyulou a great deal of money, and they’ll never let me leave. Finally, I don’t have a penny for the boat fare. How am I to get back?”
“If you can’t face your parents, sir, you should have bought a concubine as soon as you arrived in Yangzhou and taken her straight back with you. Now that your money is gone, there’s no point in even mentioning that. As the old saying goes, ‘Sooner or later even the ugliest bride has to face her parents-in-law.’ Moreover, when you were living at home, you did many things more serious than this, and did your parents ever blame you? As I see it, that’s the least of your worries. As for the money you owe the Jinyulou, you’ve spent so much money there that even if you do owe them a few taels, they would never dare to try and stop you from going back. And as to the fare, you could talk to Master Yuan and the others about it. I see them with you every day, and they’re sworn brothers of yours. They’ll naturally find some way to get you home.”
“I know what to do. You go off to bed.”
Lu Shu drank several cups of tea and lay down on his bed fully clothed. The more he thought about his situation, the more bitter he felt, and he got no sleep that night. At dawn he told Felix to get up and bring him his water for washing, then went to the Futura teahouse and poured himself some tea while waiting for the others, who came in one after the other and joined him at his table. As they were chatting, Drummer Hua came up and greeted them, then asked Lu Shu for money. His tone was not as diplomatic as the day before; he simply demanded the money to take back with him. In front of the others, Lu Shu was too embarrassed to say that he had no money left. “You don’t need to go on about it,” he said. “This afternoon I’ll make a point of bringing it over.” Drummer was unwilling to accept this assurance and kept on standing there. Only after repeated interventions from the others did he leave.
Much as Lu Shu would have liked to go and see Fragrance, it was impossible with no money. He would also have liked to go home, but he lacked the fare. In this quandary, he asked Yuan You to move to another table, where he said, “You saw how he was pressing me to pay what I owe the Jinyulou. I was embarrassed to have to refuse. I would like to return home and get some money so that I can come back and pay them, but I don’t have the fare. There are also some clothes that I’ve pawned in Yangzhou, and I can’t go home without them. I’ve thought about this again and again, and I’m hoping that you can come up with some way to help me get home. When I return, I’ll pay it back together with the money that I borrowed before.”
“Why even mention those few taels of mine? As for the Jinyulou, I know you spent a lot there, and even if you left owing them a few taels, you’d hardly be letting them down. But approximately how much would you need for the fare and the pawnshop fees?”
“I’ll leave out the valuables. My clothes were pawned for a dozen or more taels. I also owe several thousand cash in room and board at the Yichang, and then there’s the fare on top of that. With a little over twenty taels, I should be able to get away.”
“Wait here a minute. Let me talk to the others and see what we can do for you.”
“Thank you for everything.”
Yuan You went back to the other table and told the sworn brothers what Lu Shu had said. “I don’t mean to put myself forward,” said Wu Zhen, “but in helping a friend, each of us should consider his own circumstances, not try to compete with the others. We should do what we can individually.”
“Quite right,” said Jia Ming and Wei Bi.
“There’s no time to lose,” Yuan You went on. “Today we should order the boat and tomorrow allow Brother Lu to go home. You saw how Drummer Hua was dunning him for money. If we see him here tomorrow, we’ll all look bad.”
Jia Ming then brought Lu Shu back to join them and addressed the brothers: “Today we’ll go back to Qiang Da’s for a full day’s entertainment, with each person paying for himself, as a farewell party for Brother Lu. Tomorrow morning our parting gifts will enable him to redeem his belongings and hire a boat to take him home.”
“Brothers, I thank you all for your great generosity,” said Lu Shu, “but you don’t need to go to any further expense today.” The brothers, however, insisted. After finishing their breakfast they invited Lu Shu to go with them to Qiang Da’s while they sent Felix down to the dock to reserve a passage. At Qiang Da’s they provided banquets at lunch and supper. As they broke up that evening, they arranged to meet next morning at the Peace teahouse on Ridge Street. This was to avoid meeting Drummer Hua at the Futura, where he would have continued to harangue Lu Shu.
Lu Shu took his leave of the others and returned to the Yichang, where he stayed the night. The next morning he got up, washed, paid for his room and board, and then went with Felix to the Peace teahouse and poured himself a cup of tea. A little later Yuan You came in and joined him, and after some time the others also arrived. “Brother Lu,” said Wu Zhen, “please don’t think this too little. I’m really hard-pressed these days.” He produced two silver dollars and placed them in front of Lu Shu. Jia Ming brought out three taels and Wei Bi a note for four thousand cash; both men handed the money to Yuan You. I was counting on four or five taels from each of them, thought Yua
n. Together with the eight taels that I’ve brought, he might just have had enough to get home. But what they’ve given him amounts to less than twelve thousand cash, which will not even be enough to redeem his clothes from the pawnshop. No wonder people say, ‘You have friends every day when you’re wining and dining, but never a one in times of need.’ They had two banquets yesterday for which each of them contributed over three thousand cash. Wouldn’t it have been better to omit the meals and increase the money that they offered their friend? Although Yuan You thought like this, he couldn’t ask them to add to their contributions, so he simply passed the money along to Lu Shu and thanked the donors.
After breakfast, Yuan You paid the bill, and they all went to the Yichang. Felix was sent off to cash the note. When the various sums were combined and used to redeem Lu Shu’s clothes from the pawnshop and pay his bills at the guesthouse, there was nothing left for his fare. “Brothers, get someone to carry the baggage and go on board,” said Yuan You. “I want to try something else. I’ll be back soon to pay the fare for Brother Lu.”
With his page in attendance, Yuan You hurried to a money shop that he dealt with and, after much persuasion, managed to borrow ten thousand cash on a short-term basis. Telling his page to carry the money, he left the Customs and headed for the canal. Felix, who was standing in the bow of the boat, hailed him. Yuan You and his page boarded and went into the cabin, where they gave the ten thousand to Lu Shu. “Brother, this should be just enough to get you home.” Lu Shu thanked him again and again, paid his fare, and had Felix buy various provisions. Then Lu Shu addressed his sworn brothers: “I am deeply thankful for the gracious affection you have shown me in your noble city and also for your great generosity today. In a month at the most, I shall return, and, once I’m back here, I shall thank you all again.”
“We’ve treated you very poorly,” they replied. “Please don’t think too badly of us. When you arrive home, kindly convey our best wishes to your father and mother. Bon voyage! Take care!”
