“Well,” Ximen said, “when I told her that none of you had one like it, she didn’t care to wear it herself, and so she asked me to take it to the silversmith’s and change it for something else.”
Jinlian asked how much it weighed, and what Li Ping’er wished to have made instead of it. Ximen told her.
“For such a pin,” Jinlian said, “three taels and five or six qian of gold will be quite enough. The Great Lady’s comb has only one tael and six qian in it. You must have one made for me with what is to spare.”
“But she wants a solid stem,” Ximen said.
“Even if she does, it will only take three taels, and there will be enough left to make a pin for me.”
“You little strumpet,” Ximen said, laughing, “you are never satisfied unless you are getting something out of somebody. You’re always on the make.”
“My son,” Jinlian said, “don’t forget what your mother tells you. If I don’t get my pin there will be trouble.”
Ximen Qing put the net into his sleeve again and laughed. As he passed through the door, Jinlian called to him: “You have come out of this business rather easily. He asked her what she meant. “Well,” she said, “yesterday there was a great deal of thunder but very little rain. You told her to hang herself, and here you are with her hairnet. She has twisted you around her little finger, and she isn’t afraid of you in the least.”
Ximen laughed. “You’re talking nonsense,” he said, and went out. Yueniang, Yulou and Li Jiao’er were sitting together in Yueniang’s room when there was some excitement among the boys. They were looking for Laiwang. Ping’an pushed aside the lattice and was going in. Yueniang said: “Why do you want him?” Ping’an told her that Ximen Qing wanted him at once. After some time Yueniang told the boy that she had sent Laiwang on an errand. She had told him to go with a present of oil and rice to the nuns.
“I will tell Father that you have sent Laiwang on some business,” Ping’an said.
“Tell him what you like, you young scamp,” Yueniang said. The boy went away.
“If I open my mouth,” Yueniang said to Yulou and the others, “he says I take too much upon myself. If I do not, I feel I am not doing my duty. Now that woman has come here, of course her house ought to be sold. There is a tremendous fuss, ringing of bells and beating of drums, and somebody must be sent to take charge of the place. Old woman Feng is there, and an unmarried boy was chosen to keep her company. That was all that was necessary. The house won’t run away. Now he must have Laiwang and his wife to go there. There is always something wrong with Laiwang’s wife, and who’s going to wait upon her if she has to stay in bed?”
“Lady,” Yulou said, “it is not for me to say anything, but, after all, you are the mistress of this house and you ought not to refuse to speak to him. It has made us all very unhappy, and the boys don’t know to whom they must go. He is all muddled these days, and you really must take our advice and speak to him again.”
“Third Sister,” Yueniang said, “you don’t know what you’re talking about. I did not begin this quarrel. He flew into a temper without any excuse at all. I am not afraid of him, and no matter what he does, I shall not look at him with a friendly eye. He has said insulting things about me behind my back and called me a whore. What right has he to say things like that? He has seven or eight women here and he says I am not a lady. But it has always been the same. Fall in with other people’s wishes and they will say nice things about you: tell the truth and everybody will hate you. I reproved him perfectly justly. I told him he had accepted things from her, bought her house, and that if he married her, all the gentlemen at the office would scorn him. Her mourning was not over, and I said it was not the right time to marry. I never dreamed that they were making plans the whole time. They used to meet regularly and I never knew a thing about it. It was like putting me inside a big jar. One day he would tell me he was at the bawdy house; the next night, he said, he was at another bawdy house. And all the time he was staying with her.
“Yes, he goes to the bawdy houses, where all the people are like beautiful foxes and behave like dragons and tigers. They swindle him and cheat him, and he thinks everything they do is perfect. I have done my duty by him and spoken to him fairly, and now he has not a word for me. But I want nothing from him. Let him give me three meals a day and I can do without a husband. Let him allow me to go my own way and he can go his.”
Yulou and the others could think of no reply to make to this. After a while Li Ping’er came in, beautifully dressed. She wore a gown of red silk embroidered with gold and a skirt with an embroidered pattern of green leaves. Yingchun came with her, carrying a silver pot, and Xiuchun, with a box of tea leaves. They came to offer tea to Yueniang and the others. Yueniang told Xiaoyu to offer the Sixth Lady a chair. Then Sun Xue’e came and all the ladies had tea.
“Sister,” Jinlian said to Li Ping’er, “you owe apologies to our Great Sister. Let me tell you that for a long time she and Father have not spoken to one another, and it is all on your account. We have done our best to smooth matters over. You must give a party and try to get the old couple to talk to one another again.”
Li Ping’er agreed. She kowtowed four times before Yueniang. “Sister,” Yueniang said, “she is teasing you. You must not urge me any more,” she said to Jinlian. “I have taken an oath that I will not speak to him even if I live to be a hundred years old.” There was nothing more to be said.
Jinlian took a brush and began to brush Li Ping’er’s hair. She noticed that the new wife was wearing a set of golden hair ornaments with designs representing different insects, and a comb with an inlaid pattern showing the Three Friends of Winter, the bamboo, the plum and the pine.
“Sister,” said Jinlian, “you should not wear these pins. They catch your hair. A golden Guanyin with a solid stem, such as the Great Lady wears, is much more suitable.”
“I have thought of having one made like Great Sister’s,” Li Ping’er said.
Xiaoyu and Yuxiao, when they came in to wait upon the ladies, did not show due respect to Li Ping’er. Yuxiao said to her: “Sixth Mother, what office did your father-in-law hold at court?”
“He was in the Department of Forestry,” said Li Ping’er.
“Ah,” Yuxiao said, laughing, “so your acquaintance with the rod did not begin yesterday.”
Then Xiaoyu began. “Last year,” said she, “some old men, the elders of the village, were seeking you, to get you to go to the Eastern Capital.”
Li Ping’er did not understand this remark. “Why were they seeking me?” she asked.
“Because you are so clever at dealing with floods,” Xiaoyu said.
Then Yuxiao began again. “Where you come from, Mother, the ladies all worship the Thousand Buddhas. That, I suppose, is why you kowtowed so often yesterday.”
And Xiaoyu said: “Yesterday, four officers were sent from the court to ask you to visit the Mongols in Tartary. Isn’t that so?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” said Li Ping’er.
Xiaoyu laughed. “They said you knew how to speak the language.” Jinlian and Yulou were greatly amused at all this, but Yueniang upbraided her maids and told them to go and attend to their business. As for Li Ping’er, she flushed and paled in turns, and did not know whether she should stay or go away. After a little while she went back to her own room.
When Ximen Qing returned, he told her that he had given her ornaments to the silversmith. Then he said that on the twenty-fifth, he proposed to give a banquet and invite her late husband’s eldest brother.
“There is no need to invite him again,” Li Ping’er said, “I settled that with his wife, but, if you like to do so, by all means do.
“Old woman Feng can look after my house alone,” she added; “all you need do is get someone to take turns with Tian Fu. There is no necessity to send Laiwang there. I hear his wife is not very strong and really not fit to go there.”
“I did not know that,” Ximen said. He called Ping’
an and told him to go to the house on Lion Street every other day to relieve Tian Fu.
On the twenty-fifth Ximen Qing gave a banquet for all his relatives and friends. A band of players and four singing girls were engaged, Li Guijie, Wu Yin’er, Dong Yuxian and Han Jinchuan. They came about noon. The guests took tea under the awning, and, when they had all assembled, went to the great hall. The guests, who included the band of brothers as well as Ximen’s relatives, sat at six tables. Ximen Qing himself sat in the host’s place, with his son-in-law, Ben the Fourth, and Fu, the manager of his shop, at his table. The musicians played several melodies, and two youths, Li Ming and Wu Hui, sang a song. There was more music and then the four singing girls came to serve the wine.
“Today,” said Ying Bojue, “is a very happy day in our brother’s life. I say so with great diffidence, but I should very much like to pay my respects to our new sister-in-law and assure her of our affectionate regard. I do not wish to cause any inconvenience, but here are two venerable uncles, and I should like to know what they have come for if not to see her.”
“My wife is not at all beautiful,” Ximen said. “It will be better to dispense with this visit.”
“Brother,” Xie Xida said, “do not say that. We have told you what we wish. Why should we have come if we did not desire to see our sister-in-law? Then here is your honorable relative Hua the Elder. Once he was only a friend; now he is a relative. You cannot treat us as strangers. Please ask the lady to come and see us. There is nothing to be afraid of.”
Ximen Qing laughed but did not move.
“Brother,” Bojue said, “don’t laugh. We have all brought our presents. We don’t ask the lady to come out for nothing.”
“Oh, you’re talking nonsense,” Ximen said. However, they pressed him again and again, and at last he told Daian to go to the inner court and ask Li Ping’er to come to them. There was a long delay. Then Daian came back and said that the Sixth Lady thought there was no need for such a ceremony.
“It is you, you little dog bone,” Ying Bojue said. “You’re playing tricks. You haven’t been to the inner court at all. You have just come back and made up this story.”
“I should not dare to do such a thing, Uncle,” the boy said. “If you don’t believe me, go yourself and ask her.”
“You think I dare not go,” Bojue said. “I know my way about your garden well enough. I will go and drag the lady out, whether you will or not.”
“We have a strong dog and a fierce one,” Daian said. “He will bite your legs.”
Bojue left his seat and kicked Daian. “You young scamp,” he said, laughing, “you have had your joke. Now be quick and ask the lady to come. If you don’t succeed, I will give you twenty strokes with one of these palings.”
The singing girls laughed. Daian went back a little way and looked to his master for instructions. Ximen Qing could not help himself. He told the boy to ask the Sixth Lady to dress and come to them. Daian went and after a while came back for Ximen Qing. All the menservants were dismissed and the second door was closed. Yulou and Jinlian urged Li Ping’er to go out, and arranged the flowers on her head. The servants spread beautiful rugs on the ground, and the four singing girls went to the inner court. They played their instruments and walked in front of Li Ping’er. The incense was delightfully fragrant and the music exquisite.
Li Ping’er wore a long gown of red silk embroidered in five colors. Her skirt was green and bore the design of the Hundred Flowers, with golden stems and leaves of many colors. She wore a girdle with a green jade clasp. On her wrists were golden bangles. There were pearls upon her breast and jade tinkled at the hem of her skirt. Pearls and flowers were piled high upon her hair, and two jewels were upon her brow. Pendants came down over her white cheeks. Tiny shoes, with embroidered love birds on them, peeped out from beneath her skirt. The four singing girls played their instruments about her. She looked like the stem of a blossom bending in the wind; her embroidered girdle flowed behind her. She greeted them all with a low reverence, and they quickly left their chairs to return her greeting.
Yulou, Jinlian and Li Jiao’er stood behind the screen with Yueniang to watch the proceedings. They heard the song of congratulation to one who has reached exalted rank, the song that declares that Heaven has joined these two together and compares them to the phoenix and his mate living together in wedded bliss for generation after generation.
“Sister,” said Jinlian, “do you hear that? That is not a fitting song for this occasion, for if they are to live together for generation after generation, what about you?”
Yueniang, in spite of her equable temperament, could not help feeling annoyed. Ying Bojue, Xie Xida and the others paid compliments to Li Ping’er as though they hated themselves because they had only one mouth to sing her praises. “Is this Sister-in-law?” they said. “Why! in all the world, we have never seen anyone so beautiful. We need not speak of the sweetness of her nature and her virtue. And how exquisitely she carries herself. There is no other like her in all the world. Brother, we envy you. Now that we have seen this lady once, we shall be happy if we die tomorrow.”
“Take the lady back to her room at once,” they said to Daian. “We must not let her tire herself.”
Yueniang heard this and cursed them for a pack of rogues.
Li Ping’er retired. The four singing girls, seeing that she was rich, flattered her in their turn, calling her Mother this and Mother that, arranging her ornaments and putting her clothes in order, leaving nothing undone.
Yueniang, feeling very unhappy, went to her own room. Daian and Ping’an brought to her presents, money, rolls of silk, dresses and boxes, but Yueniang would not look at them. All she said was: “You rascals! Why have you brought that stuff here? Take it to the outer court.”
“Father told us to bring it here,” Daian said.
Yueniang told Yuxiao to take the presents and put them on the bed.
When Yueniang’s brother, Wu the Elder, had had his second course, he went to pay a visit to his sister. She rose as soon as he came in and made a reverence to him. Then they sat down to talk.
“It was very kind of you to entertain my wife yesterday,” said Wu the Elder, “and now my brother-in-law has done the same for me. My wife tells me that you have not been on speaking terms with your husband for some time, and I was thinking it would be my duty to remonstrate with you, when he happened to invite me here. Sister, if you persist in this course, you will lose all merit. There is an old saying that a man is a fool who fears his wife, but that a woman of gentle birth stands in awe of her husband. Obedience and virtue are the ordinary lot of woman. Whatever he does, you should not interfere. Take everything as a matter of course, and he will appreciate the good qualities that are in you.”
“It is too late now to show him my good qualities,” Yueniang said, “or I should not be treated with such contempt. Now, you see, he has a rich wife and I am treated as a maidservant, as if I didn’t even exist. You need not worry. I shall put up with his treatment of me. He has changed his manner to me for some time now.” She burst into tears.
“Sister,” Uncle Wu said, “you are doing the wrong thing. You and I are not people of that sort. You must not behave like this. If you and your husband live together in harmony, it will redound to our credit.”
He argued with Yueniang for a long time, and Xiaoyu brought him tea. When he had drunk it, a boy came from the hall to ask him to return to the party, so he took leave of his sister and went back. The feast continued until evening and then broke up. Li Ping’er gave each of the singing girls a handkerchief with a gold pattern, and five qian. They went away delighted.
Thereafter Ximen Qing spent every night with Li Ping’er. The others were quite happy about it except Jinlian, who secretly told stories to Yueniang about Li Ping’er, and to Li Ping’er about Yueniang, in the hope of stirring up trouble between them. Li Ping’er had no means of knowing the truth, so she fell into the trap, called Jinlian her sister, and became very inti
mate with her.
After his marriage with Li Ping’er, Ximen came into possession of more ill-gotten wealth, and was richer than ever. His house was refurnished, inside and out; rice and wheat were piled high in his barns; his mules and horses were in droves, and his maids and menservants would have made a small army.
Ximen Qing changed Tian Fu’s name to Qintong. He bought two more boys, one called Qitong and the other Laian. He engaged Li Ming, Guijie’s brother, to teach music to the maids. Chunmei was to learn the lute; Yuxiao, the cithern; Yingchun, the banjo; and Lanxiang, the four-stringed fiddle. Every day they dressed themselves beautifully and went to a room at the west side of the hall to study. Ximen gave Li Ming many meals and paid him five taels a month. He gave two thousand taels to Fu and Ben the Fourth, and instructed them to open a pawnshop. Chen Jingji, his son-in-law, kept all the keys and went out to collect the debts. Ben the Fourth kept the accounts and weighed the stock. Fu managed the medicine shop and the pawnshop, assayed the silver, and looked after the business generally. The medicine was stored in the loft above Jinlian’s rooms. Shelves were made and put up in the loft over Li Ping’er’s rooms, and on them were stored clothes, headdresses, curios, books and pictures from the pawnshop. Piles of silver came in every day.
Chen Jingji got up early every day and went to bed late. He was responsible for all the keys, and checked the accounts and the money. He was very clever at taking in and paying out, writing and making out accounts, and Ximen Qing was very pleased with him. One day when they were sitting together in the hall, Ximen said: “You have done very well since you have been here. If your father knew, he would be pleased. You know the saying that he who has a son must depend on that son, and he who has no son must depend on his son-in-law. If I have no child, this property will all come to you and your wife.”
“Misfortune came upon me,” Chen Jingji said, “and my family has had a very hard time. My father and my mother have both had to go far away, and I had to come to you. I have received the greatest kindness at your hands, and, whether I live or die, I can never hope to repay you. But I am young and inexperienced, and only ask that you will not be too severe with me. I dare not hope for anything beyond that.”
The Golden Lotus, Volume 1 Page 35
