The Golden Lotus, Volume 1

by Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng

  “Oh, you good man,” she said, “you have let other people know all that we did last night, and I have had to suffer in consequence. You should keep to yourself the things we say to one another, until you forget them. Why should you let everybody know? Your mouth runs over like a water trough, and I will never tell you anything again.”

  “What’s that!” Ximen cried, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Huilian scowled at him and went away.

  She was very careful and cunning in her dealings with other people in the household. If she was buying anything at the gate she would call Fu “Master Fu” and Chen Jingji “Uncle.” Ben the Fourth was always “Old Fourth.” Now that she had had this affair with Ximen Qing, she was much less sedate in her manner, and was often at the gate joking with some man or other. She would go after Fu and say to him, “Master Fu, I wonder if you would mind buying some powder for me?” Fu was a simple-minded fellow and looked out for the powder seller for her, but he was not altogether comfortable about it at heart.

  One day Daian said jokingly, “Sister, you should have been out with your scales earlier. The powder seller has gone.”

  “You rascal,” Huilian said, “the Fifth Lady and the Sixth Lady have asked me to buy some powder for them. What do you mean by talking of two measures of rouge and three of powder? They powder their faces many times a day. I shall tell them what you say.”

  “Oh, Sister!” the boy said, “you always try to frighten me by talking about the Fifth Lady.”

  Once she said to Ben the Fourth: “Old Fourth, please keep a lookout for the flower seller, and buy me two branches of plum blossom and a couple of chrysanthemums.” Ben the Fourth waited about for the flower seller, neglecting his own business. When the man came, he told her, and, standing by the second door, she picked out the flowers she liked best, and two purple and gold handkerchiefs. She spent seven qian and more. She took a piece of silver from her purse and asked Ben the Fourth to weigh it for her. He was busy upon his accounts, but left them, weighed the silver, and was about to cut off the amount she wanted. Then Daian came up.

  “I will cut off the silver you want,” he said. He took the piece, but instead of cutting it, looked at Huilian.

  “Well,” she said, “you thievish monkey! Why don’t you cut it? Why stand there looking at me? Did you hear the dogs barking the night I stole the money?”

  “I don’t say you stole the silver,” Daian said, “but somehow or other it seems familiar. It is just like some Father had in his purse. The other day, he had a piece cut into two at the lantern market. One piece he gave to the goldsmith and this is the other. I remember it perfectly.”

  “Don’t you know that many things in this world look alike? What should I be doing with your master’s silver?”

  Daian laughed. “I know what that silver paid for,” he said. Huilian slapped him. He cut the silver and gave the money to the flower seller, but made no offer to give Huilian the change.

  “You rascal,” she said, “you must be a brave man to dare to take my money.”

  “I am not robbing you,” the boy said, “I am only going to buy some fruit.”

  “You thievish monkey,” Huilian cried, “give it back to me, and I will give you something.” When Daian handed back the silver, she gave him a small piece and put the rest back in her purse.

  After that she often stood at the gate to buy artificial flowers and handkerchiefs, sometimes spending several taels. She would buy four or five measures of melon seeds and give them to the maids and serving women. For herself she bought a pearl headband and a pair of bright gold earrings. She wore red silk trousers and a broad-sleeved gown in which she kept fragrant tea leaves. She carried several perfume boxes. Every day she spent at least two or three qian, all of which came from Ximen Qing.

  After Jinlian knew of her relations with Ximen, Huilian went to the Fifth Lady’s room every day and waited on her with the utmost diligence. She served her with tea and water and sewed for her, doing many things that were quite unnecessary, and many things that she had no desire to do. She did not go to Yueniang even once a day, for all her time was spent with Jinlian, waiting upon her when she played chess or dominoes with Li Ping’er. Sometimes Ximen Qing would come in while they were playing, and then Jinlian would purposely ask Huilian to serve the wine. Sometimes they would sit and play together to please him.

  CHAPTER 24

  The Ladies Celebrate the Feast of Lanterns

  Candles blaze in silver sconces

  Wine is heated in the jars

  The guests are merry and their laughter never ceases.

  Untrammeled hips sway as the willows of Zhang Tai

  Unpainted lips sing as the spring in the imperial gardens

  From the fragrance of their attire we know their will with us

  Flowers fall from their hair and are gathered in silence.

  If it were not for the delights of love

  Would Han be sober after drinking?

  The day came when the moon shines in the heavens and lanterns shine upon the earth. Ximen Qing had all his lanterns set out and a splendid feast prepared in the great hall. On the sixteenth day of the first month the whole household assembled, with Ximen Qing and Wu Yueniang in the place of honor, and the other ladies all beautifully dressed. The four maids who acted as the musicians of the family played and sang many songs about the lanterns. A small table was laid specially for Chen Jingji. The food was exquisite and the fruits appropriate to the season. Four maids served the wine, and Laiwang’s wife Song Huilian sat on a chair outside the door, chewing melon seeds, waiting for the wine to be brought from the kitchen. It was her duty, when wine was wanted in the hall, to send Laian and Huatong to the kitchen to fetch it. She said: “The rascals have all run away; there is no one here.” Then Ximen Qing saw Huatong bringing the wine, and asked him where he had been, saying he deserved a whipping. When the boy came out of the hall, he complained to Huilian.

  “Sister,” he said, “why did you tell Father stories about me? I haven’t been away at all.”

  “I can’t help that,” Huilian said, “they called for wine and you were not there. If you are not to blame, who is?”

  “Sister,” said the boy, “it is very nice and tidy here, yet you are throwing down melon seeds. If Father sees it he will be angry again.

  “Don’t you bother about me, you young rascal,” Huilian said. “If youwon’t sweep them away, I’ll tell one of the other boys, and if Father sees them, I’ll take all the responsibility.”

  “Oh, don’t make a fuss about it,” the boy said. “I’ll sweep them away for you.”

  Ximen Qing saw that his son-in-law Chen Jingji had no wine and told Pan Jinlian to give him some. She stood up quickly, poured out a cup of wine and smilingly handed it to Jingji.

  “Brother,” she said, “Father says I must give you some wine. Now you must drink it.”

  Jingji took the cup and looked slyly at Jinlian. “Fifth Mother, please don’t trouble. I will drink it.”

  Jinlian, with the light between Ximen Qing and herself, squeezed Jingji’s hand as he took the cup from her. He pretended to be paying attention to the others, but touched her tiny feet.

  “What shall we do if Father sees us?” Jinlian whispered with a smile. They made love in front of the others, without anyone knowing what they were about. But Huilian, who was standing outside the window, saw quite clearly everything that passed between them.

  “This woman,” she thought, “is always trying to get the better of me, and here she is, behaving like this with that young man. Next time she treats me badly, I shall know what to say.”

  They had been drinking for some time when a message came from Ying Bojue inviting Ximen Qing to go with him to see the lanterns. Ximen told Yueniang to enjoy herself with the others, and he, with Daian and Ping’an in attendance, went to join Bojue.

  Yueniang and her companions went on with their feast till the stars grew dim and the full moon, rising in the east, made
the courtyard bright as day. Then some of the women went to their rooms to change their dresses; others adorned themselves in the light of the moon, and others put flowers in their hair in the lantern light. Meng Yulou, Jinlian, Li Ping’er and Huilian stood in front of the great hall to watch Chen Jingji set off the fireworks.

  Li Jiao’er, Sun Xue’e and Ximen Dajie went with Yueniang to the inner court.

  “He is out,” Jinlian said to the others. “Shall we ask the Great Lady to let us go to the street?”

  “If you go,” said Huilian, “please take me with you.”

  “If you wish to go, you must ask the Great Lady,” Jinlian said. “If she and the Second Lady would like to go too, we will wait here for them.”

  Huilian was about to go to the inner court, but Yulou said: “She will do no good. I will go myself and ask them.” Li Ping’er said: “I am going to my room to find a warmer cloak. It will be cold as the night gets older.”

  “Sister,” Jinlian said: “if you have a cloak to spare, bring one for me. It will save my going back to my room.” Li Ping’er promised, and went away.

  Only Jinlian was left to watch Chen Jingji setting off the fireworks. She went over to him and pinched him slightly. “Brother,” she said, laughing, “don’t you feel cold with such thin clothes on?”

  A boy called Little Iron Rod was jumping about begging Jingji to give him some fireworks. The young man thought that here was an opportunity. He gave the lad a few fireworks and told him to go and set them off outside the gate.

  “So you think my clothes are too thin,” he said to Jinlian. “Have you anything warmer for me?”

  “You are determined to get something out of me,” Jinlian said. “You touched my feet, and I did not complain. Now you have the audacity to ask me for clothes. I don’t belong to you. Why should I give you clothes?”

  “If you won’t give me any, well and good,” Jingji said, “but why try to frighten me?”

  “Oh, you’re like the birds that gather on the city walls, always afraid of something.”

  They were talking when Yulou and Huilian came back. “The Great Lady,” Yulou said, “says she will not go out because she is not very well, but we may go if we promise to come back in good time. Li Jiao’er has a bad leg and she doesn’t feel like walking.”

  “Well,” Jinlian said, “if they won’t go, we must go with the Sixth Lady; then, if he comes back, we shall be the only ones to blame. Do you think we should take Chunmei, Yuxiao, your maid Lanxiang, and the Sixth Lady’s Yingchun?”

  Xiaoyu came up and asked if she might go, and Yulou said she might if she obtained her mistress’s permission. This she did, and came back to them, smiling.

  Then the three ladies set off with their maids. The two boys Laian and Huatong escorted them with lanterns. Jingji set off several fireworks on the mounting stone.

  “Uncle,” Huilian cried, “wait a moment for me. I am just going to my room for a second.”

  “We are off now,” Jingji said.

  “If you don’t wait for me, I will never love you again,” Huilian cried. She ran to her room and changed into a dress of red silk with a white skirt, set a red and gold kerchief on her head, pins and flowers in her hair. Finally she put on a pair of gold lantern-shaped earrings. Then she joined the ladies in their walk “to gain immunity from the hundred sicknesses.” The ladies all wore white silk gowns. They had masses of pearls and flowers on their heads. With their white faces and red lips they looked like angels in the moonlight.

  Chen Jingji and Laixing walked beside them, setting off fireworks as they went along. There were lotuses that slowly threw forth fire, golden thread chrysanthemum, and orchids ten feet high. When they came to the street, there was a never-ending stream of incense, and the revelers were as plentiful as ants. Crackers exploded with a sound like thunder and the lanterns were bright with a thousand different hues. Flutes and drums sounded wildly. It was a splendid festival.

  When the people in the street saw a procession advancing with lanterns of various colors, they imagined that it must have come from some noble household, and gave way immediately. “Uncle,” Huilian said, “light a rocket for me.” And a little later: “Uncle, set off a full moon for me.” First, her ornaments fell off; then she lost a shoe, and had to wait while someone helped her on with it again. She jumped about and joked incessantly with Chen Jingji. Yulou did not approve of this behavior.

  “Why do your shoes keep coming off?” she asked.

  Yuxiao said, “She was afraid of soiling her own shoes, so she put a pair of the Fifth Lady’s over them.” Yulou demanded that she should come and show her feet.

  “She asked me yesterday to give her a pair of my shoes,” Jinlian said, “but I never dreamed the scamp would think of putting them on outside her own.”

  When Huilian pulled up her skirt, Yulou saw that she was indeed wearing two pairs of red shoes, bound to her ankles by green laces. She said no more.

  After a while they crossed the street and went to the lantern fair. “Let us go first to the Sixth Lady’s house in Lion Street,” Jinlian said to Yulou. She ordered the boys to take them there. Old woman Feng had gone to bed and two girls who had been entrusted to her to sell were asleep with her, but when the boys knocked at the door, she got up hastily and opened it, and the ladies went in.

  The old woman opened the stove to boil some water, then took a jar and was about to go out to buy some wine, but Yulou told her they did not wish for any wine, they had had so much at home before they came. “But we shall be glad to have some tea if you will give us some,” she said.

  “If you invite people to take wine with you, you must give them something to eat,” Jinlian said.

  “Yes,” said Li Ping’er, “and if you think of giving us wine, we shall want a couple of large jars. No small ones for us!”

  Yulou told the old woman that they were only teasing her. “Don’t go,” she said, “just make some tea for us.” Then the old woman decided not to go.

  “Why is it so long since you came to see me?” Li Ping’er asked old woman Feng. “What are you doing, these days?”

  “You see these two girls,” the old woman said. “Who is there to look after them if I go out?” Yulou asked who was selling them.

  “One is a maid belonging to a neighbor,” the old woman said. “She is thirteen years old, and they only want five taels of silver for her. The other is the wife of a servant in the Wang household. Her husband ran away, so they sent her to me. They ask ten taels for her.”

  “I know someone who wants a girl, so there is a chance for you,” Yulou said.

  “Who is that, Third Lady?” the old woman asked.

  “The Second Lady has only one maid,” Yulou said, “and that, of course, is not enough for her. She needs someone rather older, so you can sell the older of the two to her. How old is she?” The old woman said that she was seventeen. Tea was brought and she served it to the ladies.

  Chunmei, Yuxiao and Ximen Dajie went upstairs to look out over the street. Then Chen Jingji warned the ladies that it was getting late, and almost time to return. Jinlian told him to mind his own business. However, she called down Chunmei and the others, and they left the house. As the old woman was seeing them to the door Li Ping’er asked where Ping’an was.

  “I haven’t seen him all day,” the old woman said, “but then I often have to wait till midnight for him.”

  Laian told them that the boy had gone with his master to Ying’s house.

  “Lock your door, and go to bed,” Li Ping’er said to the old woman, “he will not be back tonight. Come and see me tomorrow and bring the maid for the Second Lady. You know you are like the Abbot of the Stone Buddha Temple: you never do anything unless you are made.” They waited till she had locked the gate, and then went home again.

  When they reached their own gate, they found a woman called Han, the wife of a Mohammedan, making a terrible to-do. Her husband was away on duty with a Chamberlain of the Royal Stables, and she had b
een out on the walk to cure the hundred illnesses. She had come home drunk. Now she said that somebody had broken open her door, stolen her dog, and a lot of things were missing. She was sitting at the side of the road and cursing everybody. The ladies stopped and Jinlian told Laian to bring the woman over to them to tell them what was amiss. The woman came, made reverence and told her story. The ladies gave her some money and fruits, and Yulou told Laian to ask Jingji to take the woman home. Jingji made fun of the whole affair and wouldn’t do anything for the woman, so Jinlian bade Laian take her home. “Come and see me tomorrow,” she said. “You can do some washing for me, and I will tell my husband and see that you get your rights.” At this the woman Han smiled, thanked them repeatedly, and went home.

  The ladies went on. When they came to the gate, Ben the Fourth’s wife was standing there. She smiled, made a reverence to them, and invited them to take tea with her. Yulou told her that they had been delayed by listening to Madam Han’s story, and that it was too late for them to accept her invitation, though they thanked her very much. But Ben the Fourth’s wife pressed them and at last they went in. In her room there was an image of the Buddha of the Eight Calamities, and another of the sage Guan. A snow-flower lantern hung by the door. When they had all sat down, she told her daughter, a girl of fourteen years called Changjie, to greet the ladies and hand around the tea. Yulou and Jinlian each gave the girl two flowers, and Li Ping’er gave her a handkerchief and a qian of silver, with which, she said, she might buy some melon seeds. Ben the Fourth’s wife was delighted and thanked them repeatedly. After a while they left. Laixing met them at the gate, and, when they asked whether Ximen Qing had come home, told them he had not. They stood at the gate for a few moments while Chen Jingji set off two large chrysanthemum fireworks, a large orchid, and a golden goblet with a silver stem. Then they retired. It was the fourth night watch before Ximen Qing came back.

  At the festival Chen Jingji and Jinlian had been laughing and chatting with Huilian, and he had already begun to feel some attraction for the woman. The next morning he dressed, and, before going to the shop, went to the inner court to pay his respects to Yueniang. When he came to her room, Li Jiao’er, Jinlian and Aunt Wu were there, about to have some tea. Yueniang herself had gone to burn incense at the shrine of Buddha. The young man greeted them politely.