by Cao Xueqin
“Are you staying here or going back today?” asked the Lady Dowager.
“Your Ladyship hasn’t seen all the clothes we’ve brought,” replied Nanny Zhou with a smile. “Oh yes, we mean to stay for a couple of days.”
“Isn’t Cousin Bao at home?” Xiangyun now asked.
“Cousin Bao’s the only one she thinks of.” Baochai laughed. “It’s because they’re both fond of pranks. That shows she hasn’t changed her mischievous ways.”
“You’re getting too big to go on calling each other by your pet names,” said the Lady Dowager.
Just then Baoyu walked in.
“So Cousin Yun’s here!” he exclaimed. “Why didn’t you come last time we sent to invite you?”
“The old lady said you must stop that,” Lady Wang told him. “But there you go using pet names again.”
Daiyu told Xiangyun, “He has something nice for you.”
“Something nice for me?”
“Don’t believe her.” Baoyu laughed. “How tall you’ve grown in the short time you’ve been away.”
“And how is Sister Xiren?” she asked him.
“Very well, thank you.”
“I’ve brought her a little present.”
With that she produced a handkerchief tied in a knot.
“What is it?” he asked. “Why didn’t you bring her a couple of red cornelian rings like those you sent over the other day?”
“What do you think these are?” Xiangyun unwrapped the handkerchief with a smile, disclosing four more rings of the same sort.
“Look at the girl!” cried Daiyu. “Why didn’t you give the servant these to bring too, when you sent those rings to us? Wouldn’t that have been simpler? Now you turn up with more yourself. I thought it was something different, but it’s only the same again. How silly you are!”
“Silly yourself!” Xiangyun smiled. “Let me explain and the rest of you shall judge which of us is silly. I sent those rings to you by the page you’d dispatched. The messenger needn’t say a word, once you saw the rings you’d know that they were for the young ladies. Whereas if I’d sent some for the maids as well, I’d have had to tell him which was for which. If he’d been intelligent, all right; but if he’d been stupid he couldn’t have remembered the names and would have mixed everything up, including your rings. A matron who knew the maids would have managed all right, but that day it happened to be a page who couldn’t possibly be told the maids’ names. So wasn’t it simpler for me to bring them here myself?”
She put the four rings down.
“One for Xiren, one for Yuanyang, one for Jinchuan, one for Pinger,” she announced. “Could a page have remembered the four of them so clearly?”
Everyone laughed.
“Now she’s cleared the matter up.”
“Still such a talker!” cried Baoyu. “She’s never at a loss.”
“Even if she couldn’t talk, her golden unicorn could.”
With this thrust Daiyu rose and left the room.
Luckily her remark had been heard only by Baoyu and Baochai. When the latter smiled Baoyu had to smile too, conscience-stricken as he was. And seeing him smile, Baochai went off hurriedly to join Daiyu.
“Have some tea and rest,” the Lady Dowager urged Xiangyun. “Then you can go and see your sisters-in-law and stroll with your cousins in the Garden where it’s cool.”
Xiangyun did as she was told. After a short rest she wrapped up three of the rings and, accompanied by her nurses and maids, called on Xifeng and chatted for a while with her before going on to visit Li Wan in the Garden. And after a little conversation there she set off to see Xiren in Happy Red Court.
“You needn’t all come with me,” She told her nurses and maids. “Go and see your friends and relatives. It’ll be enough if I have Cuilu.”
So the others went off, leaving just the two of them. “Why isn’t the lotus in bloom yet?” asked Cuilu. “It isn’t time yet.”
“Their lotus is like that in our pool—it has double flowers.”
“Theirs isn’t as good as ours.”
“Look, they have a pomegranate-tree over there, miss, with four or five branches trained together, one above the other. That can’t have been easy to grow.”
“Plants are like human beings,” said Xiangyun. “When they’re filled with vital force they grow well.”
“I don’t believe it.” Cuilu shook her head. “If human beings and plants are alike, why haven’t I seen a man with one head growing on top of another?”
Xiangyun had to smile at this.
“Can’t you ever keep quiet?” she scolded. “How can I explain this to you? All things between heaven and earth are born from the dual principles yin and yang. So whether good or bad, weird or wonderful, everything that comes into being depends on the favourable or unfavourable influence of these two forces. This is true of even the rarest, strangest things.”
“Do you mean to say everything’s been a yin or a yang ever since Creation and the beginning of time?”
“What nonsense you do talk, you stupid thing.” Xiangyun couldn’t help laughing. “How could there be so many yins and yangs! Yin and yang are one. Where one ends, the other begins. It’s not that after a yang is exhausted a yin comes into being, or the other way round.”
“I find this terribly muddling,” complained Cuilu. “What are yin and yang! Have they no shape or form, miss? Do just tell me what they look like.”
“They’re simply natural forces, but whatever they enter assumes a form. Heaven is yang and the earth yin, for instance. Water is yin, fire yang; the sun is yang; the moon yin.”
“I see.” Cuilu’s face lit up. “Now I understand. No wonder people call the sun the ‘great yang’ and fortune-tellers call the moon the ‘great yin star.’ This explains it.”
“Buddha be praised. So you’ve caught on at last.”
“It’s all very well for these big things to have yin and yang, but what about mosquitoes, fleas and midges? What about flowers and grass, or bricks and tiles? Do they have yin and yang too?”
“Of course they do. That leaf, for instance, has its yin and yang. The side facing the light is yang, the side underneath yin.”
“So that’s how it is.” Cuilu nodded. “I see. But which is yang and which yin in these fans we’re holding?”
“The front is yang and the back yin.”
After nodding again Cuilu lowered her head to think up some more questions, and her eye fell on the golden unicorn which her young mistress was wearing as a pendant.
“Does this have yin and yang too, miss?” she asked.
“Of course it has. The male of all beasts and birds is yang and the female yin.”
“Is it male or female then?”
“Not even I know that.”
“Never mind. If all other things have yin and yang, why don’t human beings?”
“Get away, you low creature!” Xiangyun spat in disgust. “You’re going too far.”
“Why don’t you tell me, miss? I know anyway, so don’t think you can hide it from me.”
“What do you know?” Xiangyun giggled. “You’re yang, miss, and I’m yin.”
Xiangyun put her handkerchief to her mouth and burst out laughing. “I get the point,” insisted Cuilu. “Why should you find it so funny?”
“Quite right, quite right.”
“People say that masters are yang and slaves are yin. Do you think I don’t know an important rule like that?”
“You know all about it,” replied Xiangyun with a smile. By now they had reached the rose trellis.
“Look, what’s that thing glittering like gold?” exclaimed Xiangyun. “Has someone dropped a trinket here?”
Cuilu quickly picked up the object and closed her fingers round it.
“Now we’ll see which is yang and which yin,” she cried with a laugh.
With that she took Xiangyun’s unicorn to examine it. But asked to show what she had in her hand, she refused to let go of it.
> “I can’t let you see this treasure, miss,” she teased. “I wonder where it comes from. How very odd! I’ve never seen anyone here with such a thing.”
“Let me have a look.”
At last Cuilu held out her hand.
“There you are.”
Xiangyun saw it was a splendid gold unicorn, even bigger and handsomer than the one she wore. As she reached out for it and held it on her palm, a strange fancy crossed her mind. And just at that moment they were joined by Baoyu.
“What are you doing here in the sun?” he asked. “Why don’t you go and see Xiren?”
“We’re on our way there,” replied Xiangyun, hiding the unicorn. “Let’s go together.”
They went on to Happy Red Court, where Xiren was leaning on the balustrade at the foot of the steps in the breeze. She made haste to greet Xiangyun and led her inside to sit down, asking what she had been doing since last they met.
“You should have come earlier,” remarked Baoyu. “I’ve got something nice which I’ve been keeping for you.” He rummaged in his pockets for a while. “Aiya!” Then turning to Xiren he asked, “Did you put that thing away?”
“What thing?”
“That unicorn I got the other day.”
“You’ve been carrying it on you all the time, why ask me?”
“I’ve lost it.” He clapped his hands. “Where can I find it?”
He was about to go off in search of it. Xiangyun guessed that he was referring to her find.
“When did you get hold of a unicorn?” she asked.
“Only the other day, and I didn’t come by it easily either. I can’t think when I lost it. How stupid of me.”
Xiangyun laughed.
“It’s lucky it’s just a toy, yet see what a state you’re in!” With that she unclenched her fingers. “Look, is this it?”
Baoyu was overjoyed to see she had it. If you want to know what happened next, read on.
Chapter 32
An Avowal Leaves Baoyu Bemused
Disgrace Drives Jinchuan to Suicide
Baoyu was overjoyed to see the gold unicorn. “Thank you!” He reached out for it, laughing. “Where did you find it?”
“It’s lucky it was only this.” Xiangyun smiled. “Will you let it go at that if you lose your official seal in future?”
“Losing an official seal is nothing.” He grinned. “But I deserve death for losing this.”
Meanwhile Xiren had poured out tea which she offered to Xiangyun.
“Miss Shi, I heard the other day that you’re engaged now,” she remarked with a smile.
Xiangyun blushed and said nothing, simply sipping her tea.
“So coy!” cried the maid. “Remember what you told me one evening some ten years ago when we were staying in the alcove on the west side? You weren’t coy then; why be so bashful now?”
“The things you say!” Xiangyun expostulated. “How friendly we were then! But after my mother died and I went home they sent you here to wait on Second Brother, and now when I come you’re no longer the same to me.”
“Well I never!” Xiren protested. “In those days I was ‘sister’ and ‘dear sister’ to you when you wanted me to comb your hair, wash your face and dance attendance on you. Now you’ve grown up, you’ve put on the airs of a young lady. If you stand on your dignity, how dare I take liberties?”
“Amida Buddha! That’s not fair,” cried Xiangyun. “May I drop dead if I ever give myself airs. Look how hot it is today, yet as soon as I arrive I hurry straight over to see you. If you don’t believe me, ask Cuilu. At home I’m always saying how much I miss you.”
“Can’t you take a joke?” Xiren and Baoyu remonstrated. “You still flare up so easily.”
“You won’t admit how provoking you are, yet scold me for flaring up.”
As Xiangyun said this she unwrapped her handkerchief from which she took a ring and passed it to Xiren, who was loud in her thanks.
“Actually, I was given one of those you sent your cousins,” she remarked. “And now you’ve brought me one yourself—a sure sign that you hadn’t forgotten me. It’s not the rings I value, it’s the thought that counts.”
“Who gave you one?” asked Xiangyun. “Miss Baochai.”
“I thought it was Miss Lin. So it was Baochai.” Xiangyun sighed. “At home every day I often think that of all my cousins Baochai is the best. What a pity we aren’t real sisters! If we were, it wouldn’t be so bad being an orphan.” Her eyes were brimming with tears.
“All right, all right,” cried Baoyu. “No more of this.”
“What’s wrong?” demanded Xiangyun. “I know what’s worrying you. You’re afraid your Cousin Lin may hear and be cross with me for singing Baochai’s praises—right?”
“Miss Yun!” Xiren burst out laughing. “The older you grow the more outspoken you get.”
Baoyu chuckled.
“I always say you girls are hard to talk with. And this proves it.”
“Don’t make me sick, dear cousin, speaking like that. You can keep your end up with us, but what happens when you cross swords with Daiyu?’ ‘That’s enough,” interposed Xiren. “I’ve a favour to ask you.”
“What is it?” inquired Xiangyun.
“I’ve started on a pair of slippers but haven’t been able to finish them because I’ve been poorly for the last couple of days. Have you time to do them for me?”
“Well, well,” exclaimed Xiangyun. “This house is full of clever girls, to say nothing of sewing-women and tailors. Why pick on me? How can anyone who’s asked possibly refuse?”
“Are you so dense?” parried Xiren with a smile. “Don’t you know that none of the needlework for our apartments is done by sewing women?”
Realizing that the shoes were for Baoyu, Xiangyun chuckled.
“In that case I’ll do it—but on one condition. I’ll make slippers for you, not for anybody else.”
“There you go again,” protested Xiren. “Who am I to ask you to make slippers for me? The fact is they’re not mine, but don’t ask whose they are. At any rate I’d take it kindly of you.”
“Of course, I’ve done plenty of sewing for you in the past. But you’ll understand why I can’t do it this time.”
“Indeed, I don’t understand.”
Xiangyun laughed sarcastically.
“I heard the fan-sheath I made the other day was taken to compare with someone else’s, and in a tantrum that someone cut it to pieces. I know all about it, so don’t try to fool me. Am I your slave to be given tasks like this?”
Baoyu cut in with a disarming smile, “I didn’t know that sheath was your work.”
“He honestly didn’t know,” Xiren assured her. “I told him that recently there was a girl outside who did wonderful embroidery, and suggested trying her out with a fan-sheath. He took me at my word, then showed it off right and left. For some reason it upset Miss Lin again and she snipped it in two. When he came back to ask for another like it, and I told him you’d made it, he was ever so sorry.”
“Stranger and stranger!” cried Xiangyun. “Why should Miss Lin be angry? If she can snip, ask her to make another.”
“Out of the question,” said Xiren. “Even as it is, the old lady’s afraid of her overtiring herself and the doctor has prescribed her a good rest. Who’d dream of troubling her with needlework? Last year it took her a whole year to finish one scented pouch. And this year I’ve not yet seen needle or thread in her hands.”
As they were talking a servant came to announce: “Mr. Jia of Prosperity Street has called. The master wants the young gentleman to go and see him.”
Knowing that it was Jia Yucun, Baoyu was most reluctant to go, but Xiren lost no time in fetching his formal clothes. As he pulled on his boots he grumbled:
“Surely it’s enough if my father keeps him company. Why must he see me each time?”
Fanning herself, Xiangyun replied with a smile, “It must be because uncle thinks you’re a good host. Otherwise he wouldn’t send
for you.”
“It’s not my father’s idea. It’s that fellow who asks for me each single time.”
“‘When the host is cultured, guests frequent his house,’“ quoted Xiangyun. “He likes seeing you, surely, because he can learn something from you.”
“Don’t call me cultured,” begged Baoyu. “I’m the most vulgar of the vulgar herd, and I’ve no desire at all to mix with such people.”
“You haven’t changed one bit,” sighed Xiangyun. “But now you’re growing up. Even if you don’t want to study and sit for the examinations, you should at least associate with officials and learn something about the world and administration. That’ll help you to manage your own affairs in future and make some friends. What other young gentleman spends all his time, the way you do, playing about with us girls?”
“Please go and call on some of your other cousins, young lady,” he retorted. “People with worldly wisdom like yours will be polluted here.”
“Don’t say such things to him, miss,” Xiren interposed. “Last time Miss Baochai gave him the same advice he just snorted and walked away without any regard for her feelings. In the middle of what she was saying he marched off. She flushed crimson and hardly knew whether to go on or not. Thank goodness it was Miss Baochai and not Miss Lin— she’d have made a fearful scene, weeping and sobbing. But there you are, it’s true that nobody can help admiring Miss Baochai. She just blushed and went away. I felt very bad, sure she must be offended; but later she behaved as if nothing had happened. She’s really good natured and tolerant. He’s the one, believe it or not, who has since kept his distance. If you sulked and ignored Miss Lin like that,” she asked Baoyu, “how many apologies would you have to make her?”
“Has Miss Lin ever talked such disgusting nonsense?” demanded Baoyu. “If she had, I’d have stopped having anything to do with her long ago.”
Xiren and Xiangyun nodded and laughed.
“So nonsense is the name for it.”
Now Daiyu had discovered Xiangyun’s whereabouts and knew that Baoyu had hurried back, no doubt to talk about the gold unicorns. That set her thinking. In most of the romances Baoyu had recently acquired, a young scholar and beautiful girl came together and fell in love thanks to lovebirds, phoenixes, jade rings, gold pendants, silk handkerchiefs, embroidered girdles or other baubles of the sort. So Baoyu’s possession of a gold unicorn like Xiangyun’s might lead to a romance between them. She slipped over to see what was happening and judge of their feelings for each other, arriving just as Xiangyun was speaking of worldly affairs, and in time to hear Baoyu answer, “Miss Lin never talks such disgusting nonsense. If she did, I’d have stopped having anything to do with her.”
