The Crab-Flower Club

by Cao Xueqin

  ‘All right. Go and get it,’ said Bao-yu.

  ‘And be born a beggar in my next life?’ said Musk. ‘No thank you! She hasn’t broken her arm. Let her go and get it herself.’

  Skybright stretched back on the bed, smiling complacently.

  ‘I’m rather tired just now. I think I shall tear some more tomorrow.’

  Bao-yu laughed.

  ‘The ancients used to say that for one smile of a beautiful woman a thousand taels are well spent. For a few old fans it’s cheap at the price!’

  He called to Aroma, who had just finished changing into clean clothes, to come outside and join them. Little Melilot came and cleared away the broken bits of fan, and everyone sat for a while and enjoyed the cool.

  But our narrative supplies no further details of that evening.

  About noon next day, while Lady Wang, Bao-chai, Dai-yu and the girls were sitting in Grandmother Jia’s room, someone came in to announce that ‘Miss Shi’ had arrived. Shortly afterwards Shi Xiang-yun appeared in the courtyard, attended by a bevy of matrons and maids. Bao-chai, Dai-yu and the rest hurried out to the foot of the steps to welcome her.

  For young girls like the cousins a reunion after a mere month’s separation is an occasion for touching demonstrations of affection. After these initial transports, when they were all indoors and the greetings, introductions and salutations had been completed, Grandmother Jia suggested that, as the weather was so hot, Xiang-yun should remove her outer garments. Xiang-yun rose to her feet with alacrity and divested herself of one or two layers. Lady Wang was amused.

  ‘Gracious, child! What a lot you have on! I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone wearing so much.’

  ‘It’s my Aunt Shi who makes me wear it all,’ said Xiang-yun. ‘You wouldn’t catch me wearing this stuff if I didn’t have to.’

  ‘You don’t know our Xiang-yun, Aunt,’ Bao-chai interposed. ‘She’s really happiest in boy’s clothes. That time she was here in the third or fourth month last year, I remember one day she dressed up in one of Bao-yu’s gowns and put a pair of his boots on and one of his belts round her waist. At first glance she looked exactly like Cousin Bao. It was only the ear-rings that gave her away. When she stood behind that chair over there, Grandmother was completely taken in. She said, “Bao-yu, come over here! You’ll get the dust from that hanging lamp in your eyes if you’re not careful.” But Xiang-yun just smiled and didn’t move. It was only when everyone couldn’t hold it in any longer and started laughing that Grandmother realized who it was and joined in the laugh. She told her that she made a very good-looking boy.’

  ‘That’s nothing,’ said Dai-yu. ‘What about that time last year when she came to stay for a couple of days with us in the first month and it snowed? Grandma and Auntie Wang had just got back from somewhere – I think it was from visiting the ancestors’ portraits – and she saw Grandma’s new scarlet felt rain-cape lying there and put it on when no one was looking. Of course, it was much too big and much too long for her, so she hitched it up and tied it round her waist with a sash and went out like that into the back courtyard to help the maids build a snowman. And then she slipped over in it and got covered all over with mud – ’

  The others all laughed at the recollection.

  Bao-chai asked Xiang-yun’s nurse, Mrs Zhou, whether Xiang-yun was still as tomboyish as ever. Nurse Zhou laughed but said nothing.

  ‘I don’t mind her being tomboyish,’ said Ying-chun, ‘but I do wish she wasn’t such a chatterbox. You wouldn’t believe it – even when she’s in bed at night it still goes on. Jabber-jabber, jabber-jabber. Then she laughs. Then she talks a bit more. Then she laughs again. And you never heard such a lot of rubbish in your life. I don’t know where she gets it all from.’

  ‘Well, perhaps she’ll have got over that by now,’ said Lady Wang. ‘I hear that someone was round the other day to talk about a betrothal. Now that there’s a future mother-in-law to think about, she can’t be quite as tomboyish as she used to be.’

  ‘Are you staying this time, or do you have to go back tonight?’ asked Grandmother Jia.

  ‘Your Old Ladyship hasn’t seen all the clothes she’s brought,’ said Nurse Zhou. ‘She’ll be staying two days here at the very least.’

  ‘Isn’t Bao at home?’ said Xiang-yun.

  ‘Listen to her!’ said Bao-chai. ‘Cousin Bao is the only one she thinks about. He and she get on well together because they are both fond of mischief. You can see she hasn’t really changed.’

  ‘Perhaps now that you’re getting older you had better stop using baby-names,’ said Grandmother Jia, reminded by the talk of betrothal that her babies were rapidly turning into grown-ups.

  Just then Bao-yu came in.

  ‘Ah! Hallo, Yun! Why didn’t you come when we sent for you the other day?’

  ‘Grandmother has just this moment been saying that it is time you all stopped using baby-names,’ said Lady Wang. ‘I must say, this isn’t a very good beginning.’

  ‘Our cousin has got something nice to give you,’ said Dai-yu to Xiang-yun.

  ‘Oh? What is it?’ said Xiang-yun.

  ‘Don’t believe her,’ said Bao-yu. ‘Goodness! It’s no time since you were here last, but you seem to have grown taller already.’

  Xiang-yun laughed.

  ‘How’s Aroma?’

  ‘She’s fine. Thank you for asking.’

  ‘I’ve brought something for her,’ said Xiang-yun. She produced a knotted-up silk handkerchief.

  ‘What treasure have you got wrapped up in there?’ said Bao-yu. ‘The best present you could have brought Aroma would have been a couple of those cheap agate rings like the ones you sent us the other day.’

  ‘What are these, then?’

  With a triumphant smile she opened her little bundle and revealed four rings, each inset with the veined red agate they had so much admired on a previous occasion.

  ‘What a girl!’ said Dai-yu. ‘These are exactly the same as the ones you sent us the other day by messenger. Why didn’t you get him to bring these too and save yourself some trouble? I thought you must have got some wonderful rarity tied up in that handkerchief, seeing that you’d gone to all the trouble of bringing it here yourself – and all the time it was only a few more of those! You really are rather a silly.’

  ‘Thilly yourthelf!’ said Xiang-yun. ‘The others can decide which of us is the silly one when I have explained my reason. If I send things for you and the girls, it’s assumed that they are for you without the messenger even needing to say anything; but if I send things for any of the maids, I have to explain very carefully to the messenger which ones I mean. Now if the messenger is someone intelligent, that’s all right; but if it’s someone not so bright who has difficulty in remembering names, they’ll probably make such a mess of it that they’ll get not only the maids’ presents mixed up, but yours as well. Then again, if the messenger is a woman, it’s not so bad; but the other day it was one of the boys – and you know how hopeless they are over girls’ names. So you see, I thought it would be simpler if I delivered the maids’ ones myself. There!’ – she laid the rings down one after another on the table – ‘One for Aroma; one for Faithful; one for Golden; and one for Patience. Can you imagine one of the boys getting those four names right?’

  The others laughed.

  ‘Clever! Clever!’ they said.

  ‘You’re always so eloquent,’ said Bao-yu. ‘No one else gets a chance.’

  ‘If she weren’t so eloquent, she wouldn’t be worthy of the gold kylin,’ said Dai-yu huffily, rising from her seat and walking off as she spoke.

  Fortunately no one heard her but Bao-chai, who made a laughing grimace, and Bao-yu, who immediately regretted having once more spoken out of turn, but who, suddenly catching sight of Bao-chai’s expression, could not help laughing himself. Seeing him laugh, Bao-chai at once rose from her seat and hurried off to joke with Dai-yu.

  ‘When you’ve finished your tea and rested a bit,’ said Grandmother
Jia to Xiang-yun, ‘you can go and see your married cousins. After that, you can amuse yourself in the Garden with the girls. It’s nice and cool there.’

  Xiang-yun thanked her grandmother. She wrapped up three of the rings again, and after sitting a little longer, went off, attended by her nannies and maids, to call on Wang Xi-feng. After chatting a while with her, she went into the Garden and called on Li Wan. Then, after sitting a short while with Li Wan, she went off in the direction of Green Delights in quest of Aroma. Before doing so, however, she turned to dismiss her escort.

  ‘You needn’t stay with me any longer,’ she said. ‘You can go off now and visit your relations. I’ll just keep Fishy to wait on me.’

  The others thanked her and went off to look for various kith and kin, leaving Xiang-yun alone with Kingfisher.

  ‘Why aren’t these water-lilies out yet?’ said Kingfisher.

  ‘It isn’t time for them yet,’ said Xiang-yun.

  ‘Look, they’re going to be “double-decker” ones, like the ones in our lily-pond at home,’ said Kingfisher.

  ‘Our ones are better,’ said Xiang-yun.

  ‘They’ve got a pomegranate-tree here which has four or five lots of flowers growing one above the other on each branch,’ said Kingfisher. ‘That’s a double-double-double-decker. I wonder what makes them grow like that.’

  ‘Plants are the same as people,’ said Xiang-yun. ‘The healthier their constitution is, the better they grow.’

  ‘I don’t believe that,’ said Kingfisher with a toss of her head. ‘If that were so, why don’t we see people walking around with one head growing on top of the other?’

  Xiang-yun was unable to avoid laughing at the girl’s simplicity.

  ‘I’ve told you before, you talk too much,’ she said. ‘Let’s see: how can one answer a question like that? Everything in the world is moulded by the forces of Yin and Yang. That means that, besides the normal, the abnormal, the peculiar, the freakish – in fact all the thousands and thousands of different variations we find in things – are caused by different combinations of Yin and Yang. Even if something appears that is so rare that no one has ever seen it before, the principle is still the same.’

  ‘So according to what you say,’ said Kingfisher, ‘all the things that have ever existed, from the time the world began right up to the present moment, have just been a lot of Yins and Yangs.’

  ‘No, stupid!’ said Xiang-yun. ‘The more you say, the sillier you get. “Just a lot of Yins and Yangs” indeed! In any case, strictly speaking Yin and Yang are not two things but one and the same thing. By the time the Yang has become exhausted, it is Yin; and by the time the Yin has become exhausted, it is Yang. It isn’t a case of one of them coming to an end and then the other one growing out of nothing.’

  ‘That’s too deep for me,’ said Kingfisher. ‘What sort of thing is a Yin-yang, I’d like to know? No one’s ever seen one. You just answer that, Miss. What does a Yin-yang look like?’

  ‘Yin-yang is a sort of force,’ said Xiang-yun. ‘It’s the force in things that gives them their distinctive forms. For example, the sky is Yang and the earth is Yin; water is Yin and fire is Yang; the sun is Yang and the moon is Yin.’

  ‘Ah yes! Now I understand,’ said Kingfisher happily. ‘That’s why astrologers call the sun the “Yang star” and the moon the “Yin star”.’

  ‘Holy name!’ said Xiang-yun. ‘She understands.’

  ‘That’s not so difficult,’ said Kingfisher. ‘But what about things like mosquitoes and fleas and midges and plants and flowers and bricks and tiles? Surely you are not going to say that they are all Yin-yang too?’

  ‘Certainly they are!’ said Xiang-yun. ‘Take the leaf of a tree, for example. That’s divided into Yin and Yang. The side facing upwards towards the sky is Yang; the underside, facing towards the ground, is Yin.’

  Kingfisher nodded.

  ‘I see. Yes. I can understand that. But take these fans we are holding. Surely they don’t have Yin and Yang?’

  ‘Yes they do. The front of the fan is Yang; the back of the fan is Yin.’

  Kingfisher nodded, satisfied. She tried to think of some other object to ask about, but being for the moment unable to, she began looking around her for inspiration. As she did so, her eye chanced to light on the gold kylin fastened in the intricate loopings of her mistress’s girdle.

  ‘Well, Miss,’ she said, pointing triumphantly to the kylin, ‘you’re not going to say that that’s got Yin and Yang?

  ‘Certainly. In the case of birds and beasts the males are Yang and the females are Yin.’

  ‘Is this a daddy one or a mummy one?’ said Kingfisher.

  ‘ “A daddy one or a mummy one”! Silly girl! ’

  ‘All right, then,’ said Kingfisher. ‘But why is it that everything else has Yin and Yang but we haven’t?’

  ‘Get along with you, naughty girl! What subject will you get on to next?’

  ‘Why? Why can’t you tell me?’ said Kingfisher. ‘Anyway, I know; so there’s no need for you to be so nasty to me.’

  Xiang-yun suppressed a giggle.

  ‘You’re Yang and I’m Yin,’ said Kingfisher.

  Xiang-yun held her handkerchief to her mouth and laughed.

  ‘Well, that’s right, isn’t it?’ said Kingfisher. ‘What are you laughing at?’

  ‘Yes, yes,’ said Xiang-yun. ‘That’s quite right.’

  ‘That’s what they always say,’ said Kingfisher: ‘the master is Yang and the servant is Yin. Even I can understand that principle.’

  ‘I’m sure you can,’ said Xiang-yun. ‘Very good.’

  While they were talking, a glittering golden object at the foot of the rose pergola caught Xiang-yun’s eye. She pointed it out to Kingfisher.

  ‘Go and see what it is.’

  Kingfisher bounded over and picked it up.

  ‘Ah ha!’ she said, examining the object in her hand. ‘Now we shall be able to see whether it’s Yin or Yang.’

  She took hold of the kylin fastened to Xiang-yun’s girdle and held it up to look at it more closely. Xiang-yun wanted to see what it was that she held in her hand, but Kingfisher wouldn’t let her.

  ‘It’s my treasure,’ she said with a laugh. ‘I won’t let you see it, Miss. Funny, though. I wonder where it came from. I’ve never seen anyone here wearing it.’

  ‘Come on! Let me look,’ said Xiang-yun.

  ‘There you are, Miss!’ Kingfisher opened her hand.

  Xiang-yun looked. It was a beautiful, shining gold kylin, both larger and more ornate than the one she was wearing. Reaching out and taking it from Kingfisher, she held it on the palm of her hand and contemplated it for some moments in silence.

  Whatever reverie the contemplation inspired was broken by the sudden arrival of Bao-yu.

  ‘What are you doing, standing out here in the blazing sun?’ he asked her. ‘Why don’t you go and see Aroma?’

  ‘We were on our way,’ said Xiang-yun, hurriedly concealing the gold kylin.

  The three of them entered the courtyard of Green Delights together.

  Aroma had gone outside to take the air and was leaning on the verandah railings at the foot of the front door steps. As soon as she caught sight of Xiang-yun, she hurried down into the courtyard to welcome her, and taking her by the hand, led her into the house, animatedly exchanging news with her as they went.

  ‘You should have come sooner,’ said Bao-yu when they were indoors and Aroma had made Xiang-yun take a seat. ‘I’ve got something nice for you here and I’ve been waiting for you to come so that I could give it to you.’

  He had been hunting through his pockets as he said this. Not finding what he was searching for, he exclaimed in surprise.

  ‘Aiyo!’ He turned to Aroma. ‘Have you put it away somewhere?’

  ‘Put what away?’

  ‘That little kylin I got the other day.’

  ‘You’ve been carrying it around with you everywhere,’ said Aroma. ‘Why ask me about it?’r />
  Bao-yu clapped his hands together in vexation.

  ‘Oh, I’ve lost it! Wherever am I going to look for it?’

  He got up to begin searching.

  Xiang-yun now realized that it must have been Bao-yu who dropped the kylin she had only a few minutes earlier discovered outside.

  ‘Since when have you had a kylin?’ she asked him.

  ‘Oh, several days now,’ said Bao-yu. ‘What a shame! I’ll never get another one like that. And the trouble is, I don’t know when I can have lost it. Oh dear! How stupid of me!’

  ‘It’s only an ornament you’re getting so upset about,’ said Xiang-yun. ‘What a good job it wasn’t something more serious!’

  She opened her hand:

  ‘Look! Is that it?’

  Bao-yu looked and saw, with extravagant delight, that it was.

  The remainder of this episode will be told in the following chapter.

  Chapter 32

  Bao-yu demonstrates confusion of mind by making his declaration to the wrong person

  And Golden shows an unconquerable spirit by ending her humiliation in death

  OUR last chapter told of Bao-yu’s delight at seeing the gold kylin again. He reached out eagerly and took it from Xiang-yun’s hand.

  ‘Fancy your finding it!’ he said. ‘How did you come to pick it up?’

  ‘It’s a good job it was only this you lost,’ she said. ‘One of these days it will be your seal of office – and then it won’t be quite so funny.’

  ‘Oh, losing one’s seal of office is nothing,’ said Bao-yu. ‘Losing a thing like this is much more serious.’

  Aroma meanwhile was pouring tea.

  ‘I heard your good news the other day,’ she said, handing Xiang-yun a cup. ‘Congratulations!’

  Xiang-yun bent low over the cup to hide her blushes and made no reply.

  ‘Why so bashful, Miss?’ said Aroma. ‘Have you forgotten the things you used to tell me at night all those years ago, when we used to sleep together in the little closet-bed at Her Old Ladyship’s? You weren’t very bashful then. What makes you so bashful with me now, all of a sudden?’