The Crab-Flower Club

by Cao Xueqin

  Just then Bao-chai’s arrival was announced by one of the maids. Since putting his trousers on again was out of the question, Aroma snatched up a lightweight coverlet and hurriedly threw it over him. Bao-chai came in carrying a large tablet of some sort of solid medicine which she instructed Aroma to pound up in wine and apply to Bao-yu’s injuries in the evening.

  ‘This is a decongestant,’ she said, handing it to her. ‘It will take away the inflammation by dispersing the bad blood in his bruises. After that, he should heal quite quickly.’

  She turned to Bao-yu.

  ‘Are you feeling any better now?’

  Bao-yu thanked her. Yes, he said, he was feeling a little better, and invited her to sit down beside him. Bao-chai was relieved to see him with his eyes open and talking again. She shook her head sadly.

  ‘If you had listened to what one said, this would never have happened. Everyone is so upset now. It isn’t only Grandmother and Lady Wang, you know. Even –’

  She checked herself abruptly, regretting that she had allowed her feelings to run away with her, and lowered her head, blushing. Bao-yu had sensed hidden depths of feeling in the passionate earnestness of her tone, and when she suddenly faltered and turned red, there was something so touching about the pretty air of confusion with which she dropped her head and played with the ends of her girdle, that his spirits soared and his pain was momentarily forgotten.

  ‘What have I undergone but a few whacks of the bamboo?’ he thought, ‘– yet already they are so sad and concerned about me! What dear, adorable, sweet, noble girls they are! Heaven knows how they would grieve for me if I were actually to die! It would be almost worth dying, just to find out. The loss of a life’s ambitions would be a small price to pay, and I should be a peevish, ungrateful ghost if I did not feel proud and happy when such darling creatures were grieving for me.’

  He was roused from this reverie by the sound of Bao-chai’s voice asking Aroma what it was that had moved his father to such violent anger against him. Aroma’s low reply, in which she merely repeated what Tealeaf had told her, was his first inkling of the part that Jia Huan had played in his misfortune. Her mention of Xue Pan’s involvement, however, made him apprehensive that Bao-chai might feel embarrassed, and he hastily interrupted Aroma to prevent her from saying more.

  ‘Old Xue would never do a thing like that,’ he said. ‘It’s silly to make these wild assertions.’

  Bao-chai knew that it was out of respect for her feelings that he was silencing Aroma, and she wondered at his considerateness.

  ‘What delicacy of feeling!’ she thought, ‘– after so terrible a beating and in spite of all the pain, to be still able to worry about the possibility of someone else’s being offended! If only you could apply some of that thoughtfulness to the more important things of life, my friend, you would make my Uncle so happy; and then perhaps these awful things would never happen. And when all’s said and done, this sensibility on my behalf is rather wasted. Do you really think I know my own brother so little that I am unaware of his unruly nature? Nothing has ever been allowed to stand in the way of Pan’s desires. Look at the terrible trouble he made for you that time over Qin Zhong. That was a long time ago, and I am sure he has got much worse since then.’

  Those were her thoughts, but what she said was:

  ‘There’s really no need to look around for someone to blame. If you ask me, the mere fact that Cousin Bao has been willing to keep such company was in itself quite enough to make Uncle angry. And though my brother can be very tactless and may well have let something out about Cousin Bao in the course of conversation, I’m sure it wouldn’t have been deliberate trouble-making on his part. In the first place, it is, after all, true, what he is supposed to have said: Cousin Bao has been going around with that actor. And in the second place, my brother simply hasn’t got it in him to be discreet. You have lived all your life with sensitive, considerate people like Cousin Bao, my dear Aroma. You have never had to deal with a crude, forthright person like my brother – someone who says whatever comes into his head with complete disregard for the consequences.’

  When Bao-yu cut short her remarks about Xue Pan, Aroma had realized at once that she was being tactless and inwardly prayed that Bao-chai had not taken exception to them. To her, therefore, these words of Bao-chai’s were a source of tongue-tied embarrassment. Bao-yu, on the other hand, could see in them only the refusal of a frank and generous nature to admit deviousness in others and a sensibility capable of matching and responding to his own. As a consequence his spirits soared yet higher. He was about to say something, but Bao-chai rose to her feet and anticipated him.

  ‘I’ll come and see you again tomorrow. You must rest now and give yourself a chance to get well. I’ve given Aroma something to make a lotion with. Get her to put it on for you in the evening. I can guarantee that it will hasten your recovery.’

  She was moving towards the door as she said this. When she was outside, Aroma hurried after her to see her off and to thank her for her trouble.

  ‘As soon as he’s better,’ she said, ‘Master Bao will come over and thank you himself, Miss.’

  ‘It’s nothing at all,’ said Bao-chai, turning back to her with a smile. ‘Do tell him to rest properly, though, and not to brood. And if there’s anything at all he wants, just quietly come round to my place for it. Don’t go bothering Lady Jia or Lady Wang or any of the others, in case my uncle gets to hear of it. It probably wouldn’t matter at the time, but it might do later on, next time there is any trouble.’

  With that she left, and Aroma turned back into the courtyard, her heart full of gratitude for Bao-chai’s kindness. Reentering Bao-yu’s room, she found him lying back quietly, plunged in thought. From the look of it, he was already half asleep. Tiptoeing out again, she went off to wash her hair.

  But it was difficult for Bao-yu to lie quietly for very long. The pain in his buttocks was like the stabbing and pricking of knives and needles and there was a burning sensation in them as if he were being grilled over a fire, so that the slightest movement made him cry out. Already it was growing late. Aroma appeared to have gone away, but two or three maids were still in attendance. As there was nothing that they could do for him, he told them that they might go off and prepare themselves for the night, provided that they remained within call. The maids accordingly withdrew, leaving him on his own.

  He had dozed off. The shadowy form of Jiang Yu-han had come in to tell him of his capture by the Prince of Zhong-shun’s men, followed, shortly after, by Golden, who gave him a tearful account of how she had drowned herself. In his half-dreaming, half-awake state he was having the greatest difficulty in attending to what they were saying, when suddenly he felt someone pushing him and became dimly aware of a sound of weeping in his ear. He gave a start. Fully awake now, he opened his eyes. It was Lin Dai-yu. Suspecting this, too, to be a dream, he raised his head to look. A pair of eyes swollen like peaches met his own, and a face that was glistening with tears. It was Dai-yu all right, no doubt about that. He would have looked longer, but the strain of raising himself was causing such excruciating pain in his nether parts, that he fell back again with a groan. The groan was followed by a sigh.

  ‘Now what have you come for?’ he said. ‘The sun’s not long set and the ground must still be very hot underfoot. You could still get a heat-stroke at this time of day, and that would be a fine how-do-you-do. Actually, in spite of the beating, I don’t feel very much pain. This fuss I make is put on to fool the others. I’m hoping they’ll spread the word around outside how badly I’ve been hurt, so that Father gets to hear of it. It’s all shamming, really. You mustn’t be taken in by it.’

  Dai-yu’s sobbing had by this time ceased to be audible; but somehow her strangled, silent weeping was infinitely more pathetic than the most clamorous grief. At that moment volumes would have been inadequate to contain the things she wanted to say to him; yet all she could get out, after struggling for some time with her choking sobs, was:
/>
  ‘I suppose you’ll change now.’

  Bao-yu gave a long sigh.

  ‘Don’t worry, I shan’t change. People like that are worth dying for. I wouldn’t change if he killed me.’

  The words were scarcely out of his mouth when they heard someone outside in the courtyard saying:

  ‘Mrs Lian has come.’

  Dai-yu had no wish to see Xi-feng, and rose to her feet hurriedly.

  Bao-yu seized hold of her hand.

  ‘Now that’s funny. Why should you start being afraid of her all of a sudden?’

  She stamped with impatience.

  ‘Look at the state my eyes are in!’ she said. ‘I don’t want them all making fun of me again.’

  At that Bao-yu released her hand and she bounded round to the back of the bed, slipping into the rear courtyard just as Xi-feng was entering the room from the front.

  ‘A bit better now?’ said Xi-feng. ‘Is there anything you feel like eating yet? If there is, tell them to come round to my place and get it.’

  As soon as Xi-feng had gone, Bao-yu was visited by Aunt Xue, and shortly after that by someone whom his grandmother had sent to see how he was getting on. At lighting-up time, after taking a few mouthfuls of soup, he settled down into a fitful sleep.

  Just then a new group of visitors arrived, consisting of Zhou Rui’s wife, Wu Xin-deng’s wife, Zheng Hao-shi’s wife, and those other members of the mansion’s female staff who had had most to do with Bao-yu in the past and who, having heard of his beating, were anxious to see how he was. Aroma came out smiling on to the verandah to welcome them.

  ‘You’re just too late to see him, ladies,’ she told them in a low voice. ‘He’s just this minute dropped off.’

  She ushered them into the outer room, invited them to be seated, and served them with tea. After sitting there very quietly for several minutes, they got up to take their leave, requesting Aroma as they did so that she would inform Bao-yu when he waked that they had been round to ask about him. Aroma promised to do so and showed them out. Just as she was about to go in again, an old woman arrived from Lady Wang’s to say that ‘Her Ladyship would like to see one of Master Bao’s people.’ After reflecting for a moment, Aroma turned to the house and called softly to Skybright, Musk and Ripple inside.

  ‘Her Ladyship wants to see someone, so I’m going over. Stay indoors and keep an eye on things while I’m away. I shan’t be long.’

  Then she followed the old woman out of the Garden and round to Lady Wang’s apartment in the central courtyard. She found Lady Wang sitting on a cane summer-bed and fanning herself with a palm-leaf fan. She appeared not entirely pleased when she saw that it was Aroma.

  ‘You could have sent one of the others,’ she said. ‘There was no need for you to come and leave him unattended.’

  Aroma smiled reassuringly.

  ‘Master Bao has just settled down for the night, Madam. If he should want anything, the others are nowadays quite capable of looking after him on their own. Your Ladyship has no need to worry. I thought I had better come myself and not send one of the others, in case Your Ladyship had something important to tell us. I was afraid that if I sent one of the others, they might not understand what you wanted.’

  ‘I have nothing in particular to tell you,’ said Lady Wang. ‘I merely wanted to ask about my son. How is the pain now?’

  ‘Much better since I put on some of the lotion that Miss Bao brought for him,’ said Aroma. ‘It was so bad before that he couldn’t lie still, but now he’s sleeping quite soundly, so you can tell it must be better than it was.’

  ‘Has he had anything to eat yet?’ said Lady Wang.

  ‘He had a few sips of some soup Her Old Ladyship sent,’ said Aroma, ‘but that’s all he would take. He kept complaining that he felt dry. He wanted me to give him plum bitters to drink, but of course that’s an astringent, and I thought to myself that as he’d just had a beating and not been allowed to cry out during it, a lot of hot blood and hot poison must have been driven inwards and still be collected round his heart, and if he were to drink some of that stuff, it might stir them up and bring on a serious illness, so I talked him out of it. After a lot of persuading, I got him to take some rose syrup instead, that I mixed up in water for him; but after only half a cup of it he said it tasted sickly and he couldn’t get it down.’

  ‘Oh dear, I wish you’d told me sooner,’ said Lady Wang. ‘We were sent some bottles of flavouring the other day that I could have let you have. As a matter of fact I was going to send him some of them, but then I thought that if I did they would probably only get wasted, so I didn’t. If he can’t manage the rose syrup, I can easily give you a few of them to take back with you. You need only mix a teaspoonful of essence in a cupful of water. The flavours are quite delicious.’ She called Suncloud to her. ‘Fetch me a few of those bottles of flavouring essence that were sent us the other day.’

  ‘Two will be enough,’ said Aroma, ‘otherwise it will only get wasted. If we run out, I can always come back for more later.’

  Suncloud was gone for a considerable time. Eventually she returned with two little glass bottles, each about three inches high, which she handed to Aroma. They had screw-on silver tops and yellow labels. One of them was labelled ‘Essence of Cassia Flower’ and the other one ‘Essence of Roses’.

  ‘What tiny little bottles!’ said Aroma. ‘They can’t hold very much. I suppose the stuff inside them must be very precious.’

  ‘It was made specially for the Emperor,’ said Lady Wang. ‘That’s what the yellow labels mean. Haven’t you seen labels like that before? Mind you look after them and don’t let the stuff in them get wasted.’

  Aroma promised to be careful and began to go.

  ‘Just a minute!’ said Lady Wang. ‘I’ve thought of some-thing else that I wanted to ask you.’

  Aroma returned. Lady Wang first glanced about her to make sure that no one else was in the room, then she said:

  ‘I think I heard someone say that Bao-yu’s beating today was because of something that Huan had said to Sir Zheng. I suppose you don’t happen to have heard anything about that?’

  ‘No. I haven’t heard anything about that,’ said Aroma. ‘What I heard was that it was because Master Bao had been going around with one of Prince Somebody-or-other’s players and the Master was told about it by someone who called.’

  Lady Wang nodded her head mysteriously.

  ‘Yes, that was one of the reasons. But there was another reason as well.’

  ‘I really know nothing about any other reason, Your Ladyship,’ said Aroma. She dropped her head and hesitated a moment before going on. ‘I wonder if I might be rather bold and say something very outspoken to Your Ladyship? Really and truly —’ She faltered.

  ‘Please go on.’

  ‘I will if Your Ladyship will promise not to be angry with me.’

  ‘That’s all right,’ said Lady Wang. ‘Just tell me what you have to say.’

  ‘Well, really and truly,’ said Aroma, ‘Master Bao needed punishing. If the Master didn’t keep an eye on him, there’s no knowing what he mightn’t get up to.’

  ‘My child,’ said Lady Wang with a warmth rarely seen in her, ‘those are exactly my own sentiments. How clever of you to have understood! Of course, I know perfectly well that Bao-yu is in need of discipline; and anyone who saw how strict I used to be with Mr Zhu would realize that I am capable of exercising it. But I have my reasons. A woman of fifty cannot expect to bear any more children and Bao-yu is now the only son I have. He is not a very strong boy; and his Grannie dotes on him. I daren’t risk being strict. I daren’t risk losing another son. I daren’t risk angering Her Old Ladyship and upsetting the whole household. I do once in a while have it out with him: but though I have argued and pleaded and wept, it doesn’t do any good. He seems all right at the time, but he’ll be just the same again a short while afterwards and I always know that I have failed to reach him. I am afraid he has to suffer before he can learn �
� but suppose it’s too much for him? – suppose he doesn’t get over this beating? What will become of me?’

  She began to cry.

  Seeing her mistress so distressed, Aroma herself was affected and began to cry too.

  ‘I can understand Your Ladyship being so upset,’ she said, ‘when he’s your own son. Even we servants that have been with him for a few years get worried about him. The most that we can ever hope for is to do our duty and get by without too much trouble – but even that won’t be possible if he goes on the way he has been doing. I’m always telling him to change his ways. Every day – every hour – I tell him. But it’s no use; he won’t listen. Of course, if these people will make so much fuss of him, you can hardly blame him for going round with them – though it does make our job more difficult. But now that Your Ladyship has spoken like this, it puts me in mind of something that’s been worrying me which I should like to have asked Your Ladyship’s advice about, only I was afraid you might take it amiss, and then not only should I have spoken to no purpose, but I should leave myself without even a grave to lie in …’

  It was evident to Lady Wang that what she was struggling to get out was a matter of some consequence.

  ‘What is it you want to tell me, my child?’ she said kindly. ‘I’ve heard a lot of people praising you recently, and I confess that I assumed it must be because you took special pains in serving Bao-yu or in making yourself agreeable to other people – little things of that sort. But I see that I was wrong. These are not at all little things that you have been talking about. What you have said so far makes very good sense and entirely accords with my own opinion of the matter. So if you have anything to tell me, I should like to hear it. But I must ask you not to discuss it with anyone else.’

  ‘All I really wanted to ask,’ said Aroma, ‘was if Your Ladyship could advise me how later on we can somehow or other contrive to get Master Bao moved back outside the Garden.’

  Lady Wang looked startled and clutched Aroma’s hand in some alarm.