The Crab-Flower Club

by Cao Xueqin

  The play had already ended when Xi-feng burst in upon the aged matriarch and flung herself trembling upon her bosom.

  ‘Save me, Grannie, save me! Mr Lian is going to kill me!’

  ‘What?’ cried Grandmother Jia, Lady Xing and Lady Wang in startled simultaneity.

  ‘When I went home just now to change my clothes,’ Xi-feng tearfully related, ‘I was surprised to hear Mr Lian indoors talking to somebody. I was scared to go in straight away, thinking it must be a guest, so I listened for a while outside the window. Then I found that it wasn’t a guest that he was with but Bao Er’s wife, and they were saying what a tyrant I was and planning to poison me so that he could marry Patience. I became very angry then; but I didn’t want to make a scene with him. I struck Patience a couple of times. All I did to him was ask him why he should want to kill me, but he was so much put out by that that he tried to murder me on the spot.’

  Grandmother Jia, believing this farrago to be true, was naturally appalled.

  ‘How dreadful! Bring the wretch here at once!’

  But before the words were out of her mouth, Jia Lian himself came running in, sword in hand, with a crowd pursuing at his heels.

  Grandmother Jia had always treated Jia Lian and Xi-feng with indulgence, and on this occasion Jia Lian seemed to think that he could presume on this to riot in her presence with impunity, totally disregarding the fact that his mother and aunt were there as well. This deliberate flouting of their authority by a licensed favourite greatly incensed the two ladies. They seized hold of him with angry scoldings, one on either side.

  ‘Disgusting creature! Have you no sense of decency left whatever? Can’t you see that Grandmother is here?’

  ‘It’s because Grandmother spoils her so much that she has become the way she is,’ said Jia Lian, leering at them through bloodshot eyes.

  Lady Xing, having at last succeeded in wresting the sword from his grasp, shouted at him fiercely.

  ‘Get out of here at once!’

  But Jia Lian remained where he was and went on talking and talking in the same leering, disgusting manner, like a little boy who expects his naughtiness to be admired. Grandmother Jia, in a voice which shook with anger, uttered the only threat that she knew would shift him.

  ‘I realize that we count for nothing with you. Fetch his father, some one, and see if he’ll go then.’

  At that Jia Lian finally shambled out. Sulkily avoiding the conjugal apartment, he took himself off to his study outside.

  After he had gone, Lady Xing and Lady Wang turned on Xi-feng and began scolding her; but Grandmother Jia did what she could to comfort her by dismissing the incident as unimportant.

  ‘Young men of his age are like hungry pussy-cats, my dear. There’s simply no way of holding them. This sort of thing has always happened in big families like ours – certainly ever since I can remember. It’s all my fault, anyway. I shouldn’t have made you drink so much wine. It’s all turned to vinegar inside you.’

  This made everyone laugh.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ she went on. ‘I’ll see that he apologizes to you tomorrow. Just for tonight, though, so as not to put him too much out of countenance, I think you had better stay away from him.’

  Her voice became harsher when she remembered Patience.

  ‘Little wretch! I always thought she seemed such a nice girl. To think that underneath it all she should have been so wicked!’

  You-shi laughed.

  ‘There’s nothing wrong with Patience. She just happened to be the person nearest at hand for Feng to work off her spleen on. When Feng and Lian are angry with one another, they both take it out on Patience. The poor girl is terribly unjustly treated. Don’t you go taking sides against her as well!’

  ‘Oh well, that’s all right,’ said Grandmother Jia. ‘I must say, she never struck me as a wily seductress. In that case, of course, I’m sorry for the poor child – bearing the brunt of it all when she is the innocent party.’

  She called Amber to her.

  ‘Amber, I want you to take a message to Patience for me. Tell her – and I want you to make it quite clear that the message comes from me personally – that I know she has been unjustly treated and I shall make her mistress apologize to her tomorrow. Only tell her not to make a fuss about it today, because it is her mistress’s birthday.’

  Patience was at this time in Prospect Garden, whither she had been carried off at the earliest opportunity by Li Wan and where, as soon as they were indoors, she had collapsed in a sobbing heap, resisting all attempts at lifting her. Bao-chai tried reasoning with her.

  ‘Come, Patience, you are an intelligent girl. Think how well your mistress treats you normally. Just because she’s got a bit drunk today and taken it out on you – why, it shows how close you are to each other! You wouldn’t want her to take it out on anyone else, would you? Everyone else is laughing at her for being such a drunken silly. If you alone insist on taking it so tragically, it will begin to look as if your reputation for good sense was undeserved.’

  Just then Amber came in with the message from Grandmother Jia, and Patience, conscious of the aura of prestige it gave her, began gradually to perk up a bit. She remained in the Garden, however, and made no attempt to return to her mistress.

  After she had sat with Patience and rested for a while, Li Wan, together with Bao-chai and the rest of the girls, went back to see Grandmother Jia and Xi-feng, whereupon Bao-yu invited Patience over to Green Delights. Aroma gave her an enthusiastic welcome.

  ‘I’d like to have asked you here in the first place, but I saw that Mrs Zhu and the young ladies were taking care of you, so I didn’t like to interfere.’

  Patience’s face was smiling as she thanked her, but fell again almost immediately.

  ‘I can’t understand it, I really can’t. I’d done absolutely nothing to deserve such treatment.’

  ‘Oh, it was a passing fit of anger,’ said Aroma. ‘I don’t suppose Mrs Lian knew what she was doing. Look how well she treats you normally.’

  ‘I wasn’t thinking so much of Mrs Lian,’ said Patience. ‘It’s what that hateful woman said. Why should she want to amuse herself at my expense? And then for that stupid master of mine to go and beat me –!’

  Once more the sense of injustice overcame her and she could not restrain her tears.

  ‘Don’t be upset, Patience!’ said Bao-yu consolingly. ‘I offer you an apology on their behalf.’

  Patience laughed.

  ‘It has nothing to do with you.’

  ‘We’re all cousins,’ said Bao-yu. ‘What one of us does concerns all the others. If they have done you an injury, it’s up to me to apologize.’

  He turned his attention to her appearance.

  ‘What a pity! You’ve made your new dress all damp. Aroma’s dresses are in here. Why don’t you change into one of hers, then you can spray some samshoo on this one and iron it? You’ll need to do your hair again as well.’

  He called to the junior maids to fetch water for washing and heat a flat-iron.

  Up to this moment Patience had known only by hearsay of the remarkable understanding shown by Bao-yu in his dealings with girls. He had deliberately kept away from her in the past, knowing her to be Xi-feng’s confidante and (he supposed) Jia Lian’s cherished concubine. It had indeed been a source of frequent regret to him that he had been unable to show her how much he admired her. Seeing him like this for the first time, Patience reflected on the truth of what she had heard.

  ‘He really has thought of everything,’ she told herself, as she watched Aroma open up a large chest – specially for her – and select two scarcely-worn garments from it for her to change into. Then, since the water had already arrived, she took off her own dress and skirt and quickly washed her face. Bao-yu, who stood by smiling while she washed, now urged her to put on some make-up.

  ‘If you don’t, it will look as if you are sulking,’ he said. ‘After all, it is Feng’s birthday, and Grandma did specially send someone
to cheer you up.’

  Inwardly acknowledging the reasonableness of this advice, Patience looked round her for some powder, but could not see any, whereupon Bao-yu darted over to the dressing-table and removed the lid from a box of Early Ming blue-and-white porcelain in which reposed the head of a white day-lily with five compact, stick-like buds on either side of the stem. Pinching off one of these novel powder-containers, he handed it to Patience.

  ‘There you are. This isn’t ceruse, it’s a powder made by crushing the seeds of garden-jalap and mixing them with perfume.’

  Patience emptied the contents of the tiny phial on to her palm. All the qualities required by the most expert perfumers were there: lightness, whiteness with just the faintest tinge of rosiness, and fragrance. It spread smoothly and cleanly on the skin, imparting to it a soft bloom that was quite unlike the harsh and somewhat livid whiteness associated with lead-based powders.

  Then the rouge, too, was different – not in the usual sheets or tissues, but a tiny white-jade box filled with a crimson substance that looked like comfiture of roses.

  ‘This is made from safflower, the same as ordinary rouge,’ Bao-yu explained to her, ‘only the stuff they sell in the shops is impure and its colour is inferior. This is made by squeezing the juice from the best quality safflower, carefully extracting all the impurities, mixing it with rose-water, and then further purifying it by distillation. It’s so concentrated that you need only a dab of it on the end of a hairpin to do your lips with and still have enough left over to dilute with water in the palms of your hands for using on your cheeks.’

  Following his directions, Patience found that her complexion had acquired a radiant freshness that she had never seen in it before. At the same time her whole face seemed to be bathed in the most delectable perfume.

  Using a pair of bamboo scissors, Bao-yu now cut the twin blossoms from the stem of an autumn-flowering orchid that was growing in a pot and stuck them in Patience’s hair.

  At that very moment a maid arrived summoning her back to Li Wan’s place and she had to leave him in a hurry.

  Never before had Bao-yu been able to have Patience actually with him so that he could do things for her. She was such a superior sort of girl, so handsome, so intelligent, so different from the average run of common, insensitive creatures. His previous inability to serve her had been a source of deep regret.

  Today was – or would have been if she had lived – Golden’s birthday, and for this reason he had been feeling miserable since early morning. The row which had broken out later in the day between Xi-feng and Jia Lian had proved a godsend. It had at last given him an opportunity of showing Patience something of what he felt for her. This was an unlooked-for happiness he might otherwise have waited a lifetime for in vain. He stretched himself out on his bed in a pleasurable glow of satisfaction.

  These pleasant feelings were soon marred by the reflection that a coarse sensualist like Jia Lian who never considered anything but his own pleasure would certainly know nothing about the scientific preparation of cosmetics. He thought of Patience serving that precious couple, alone in the world without parents or brothers and sisters to defend her, somehow contriving to steer an even course between Jia Lian’s boorishness on the one hand and Xi-feng’s vindictiveness on the other, yet today, in spite of all her efforts, falling a victim to their cruelty. Truly her lot was an unhappy one – more unhappy even than Dai-yu’s!

  At this point in his reflections he became so upset that he began to shed tears, not bothering on this occasion to restrain them, because Aroma was not there to disapprove. Getting up from his bed, he went over to inspect Patience’s dress. The samshoo that had been sprayed on it was now nearly dry. He picked up the iron, ironed the dress for her, and neatly folded it. Then he noticed that she had left her handkerchief behind. As it was still marked with tear-stains, he washed it out in the water she had used for her face and hung it up to dry. Feeling a strange sensation in which sadness and happiness commingled, he mused for some minutes in silence before going over to Sweet-rice Village to join the others. He remained there a long while talking. The lamps had already been lit when he returned.

  As Patience spent that night at Li Wan’s place and Xi-feng slept with Grandmother Jia, Jia Lian returned to his room in the evening to find it gloomy and deserted. Not caring to call for anyone, however, he managed for himself as best he could and spent the night there alone. On waking next morning he felt nothing but revulsion and remorse when he remembered what had happened. His mother, Lady Xing, still worrying about the drunken exhibition he had made of himself the day before, came hurrying over first thing to urge him to go with her to see Grandmother Jia. This, despite the most acute feelings of shame and embarrassment, he now had to do.

  ‘Well?’ the old lady asked him, when he knelt before her.

  ‘I had too much to drink yesterday, Grandmother, and I’m afraid I broke in on you and made a scene. I’ve come here now to apologize.’

  Grandmother Jia snorted.

  ‘Disgusting wretch! If you must go filling yourself with liquor, why can’t you lie down quietly and sleep it off like a good, sensible creature? Fancy knocking your own wife about! Feng can normally hold her own against anyone – she’s a regular little Tyrant King as a rule – but yesterday you’d reduced the poor child to a state of terror. Suppose I hadn’t been here to protect her and you really had done her an injury, what would you have had to say for yourself then, I wonder?’

  Though smarting under the ludicrous injustice of what she had just said, Jia Lian knew that he was in no position to argue, and humbly acknowledged his guilt.

  ‘I should have thought that a couple of beauties like Feng and Patience would have been enough for you,’ she went on. ‘Why you should need to be forever sniffing after other skirts and bringing all this disgusting rag-tag and bob-tail back to your own room, I just do not understand. Fancy beating your own wife and your chamber-wife for a creature like that! And you a gentleman and member of a distinguished family! You ought to be thoroughly ashamed of yourself. If you have any consideration for my feelings at all, you’ll get up off the floor now – because you are forgiven as far as I am concerned – and you’ll apologize handsomely to that poor wife of yours and take her back home with you. Otherwise you can just take yourself off, for I shan’t accept your kotow!’

  Jia Lian turned and looked at Xi-feng, standing at his grandmother’s side. She was wearing none of her finery today, her eyes were swollen with weeping, and her face, pinched and yellow without its make-up, was pathetic and somehow more appealing than usual.

  ‘I suppose I’d better apologize,’ he thought. ‘It will help to patch things up between us; and it will please the old lady.’

  Having so resolved, he looked up at Grandmother Jia with a smile.

  ‘If that’s what you want, Grandmother, I daren’t disobey you. But it’s going to make her even more wilful than before.’

  ‘Nonsense!’ said Grandmother Jia, though not ill-humouredly. ‘I know for a fact that she is a model of wifely behaviour. I am sure she would be quite incapable of deliberately giving offence. If she does ever give you any trouble, I shall see to it myself that she submits to your authority.’

  Jia Lian got to his feet then, and clasping his hands in front of him, made a low bow to his wife.

  ‘It was all my fault, Mrs Lian. Please forgive me.’

  This was said in so droll a manner that everyone burst out laughing.

  ‘Now you’re not to be angry any more, Feng,’ said Grandmother Jia, ‘or I shall be angry with you!’

  She ordered someone to fetch Patience, and told Jia Lian and Xi-feng that she would now expect them to make it up with her.

  When Jia Lian saw Patience, he was even more ready to pocket his pride for her than he had been for Xi-feng.

  There’s no wife like a chamber-wife

  as the saying goes, and before anyone else could say a word, he had bounded up to her and began apologizing.


  ‘You were very badly treated yesterday, Patience. It was all my fault. It was because of me that Mrs Lian was so beastly to you. Apart from offering you my own apology, I’d like to apologize on her behalf as well.’

  He clasped his hands again and bowed, once more provoking Grandmother Jia to laughter. This time Xi-feng laughed, too.

  Grandmother Jia told Xi-feng that it was now her turn; but before she could do anything, Patience rushed up to her, threw herself at her feet and kotowed.

  ‘I made you angry on your birthday, madam. I shall never forgive myself.’

  Xi-feng was already feeling remorseful that in her previous day’s drunkenness she had so far forgotten herself as to humiliate Patience, in spite of all they had always meant to each other, because of a mere chance-heard remark. Seeing her now so generous and so lacking in resentment, she was both ashamed and deeply touched. There were tears on her cheeks as she bent down and raised the girl to her feet.

  ‘In all the years I’ve served you,’ said Patience, ‘you’ve never laid so much as a finger on me before. I bear you no grudge for striking me yesterday, madam. It was all that wicked woman’s doing. I don’t blame you in the least for losing your temper.’

  She, too, was crying while she said this.

  ‘See the three of them back to their room now,’ said Grandmother Jia to her women. ‘And if you hear another word about this, let me know straight away who said it. I don’t care who it is, I shall take a stick to them myself!’

  The three of them now kotowed to Grandmother Jia, to Lady Xing and to Lady Wang; then the old nannies, bidden once more to escort them, stepped forward with cries of obedience and conducted them back to their room.

  As soon as the three of them were alone together, Xi-feng started on Jia Lian.

  ‘Am I really such a hell-cat? Are you really so terribly hen-pecked? When that woman wished me dead, you agreed with her. Surely I can’t be all that bad? Surely I must have some good days, even if it’s only one in a thousand? You’ve made it seem as if I’m worse even than that worthless whore. How can I have the face to go on living now?’