by Cao Xueqin
“You’ll be the death of me, you monster,” she scolded. “Off to pick a fight, are you? Better kill me first.”
Xue Pan’s eyes nearly started from his head in fury.
“What’s all this nonsense!” he bellowed. “You won’t let me go, yet pin this thing on me for no reason at all. As long as Baoyu lives, I shall always be his whipping-boy. We’d better all die and be done with it.”
“Do have patience,” urged Baochai, stepping quickly forward. “Mother’s so upset, yet instead of soothing her you raise this rumpus. When people—especially your own mother—advise you, it’s for your own good. You shouldn’t fly into a temper.”
“So you’re nagging again, are you?” he roared. “You’re the one who started this.”
“You only blame me for nagging, never blame your own thoughtlessness.”
“Instead of blaming my thoughtlessness, why don’t you blame Baoyu for looking for trouble outside? Let’s take just one example—that recent business of Qiguan. I’ve met Qiguan a dozen times without his making up to me once; but the very first time Baoyu met him, before he even knew his name, Qiguan gave him his girdle. That was my fault too, I suppose?”
“There you go again,” cried his mother and sister frantically. “That’s why he got beaten. This shows you’re the one who told.”
“You want me to burst with anger,” growled Xue Pan. “It’s not being wrongly accused that enrages me, it’s this fearful fuss you make over Baoyu.”
“Who’s making a fuss?” retorted Baochai. “You started it by arming yourself and threatening to fight. Now you accuse us of fussing.”
As all her arguments were so reasonable and even harder to refute than his mother’s, Xue Pan cast about for some way to silence her in order to have his say. And being in a towering rage, he did not trouble to weigh his words carefully.
“It’s no use flying into a huff with me, my dear sister,” he sneered. “I can see into your heart. Mother’s told me about your gold locket which has to be matched with jade. Naturally you looked round carefully, and now that you find Baoyu has that rubbishy thing you’re bound to take his side.”
Baochai was speechless at first with indignation. Then catching hold of her mother she sobbed:
“Do you hear what he’s saying, mother?”
At this Xue Pan knew he had gone too far and sullenly retired to his own room.
Though trembling with rage, Aunt Xue tried to comfort her daughter.
“You know that monster always talks nonsense,” she said. “Tomorrow I’ll tell him to apologize.”
Bitterly wronged as Baochai felt, she could not make a scene for fear of upsetting her mother. So with tears in her eyes she took her leave and went back to her own apartment to cry all night.
The next morning she rose early and, without troubling to make a careful toilet, simply straightened her clothes and set off to see her mother again. On the way she happened to meet Daiyu standing alone under the shade of some blossom and was asked where she was going. Baochai, not stopping, said she was on her way home. Daiyu saw that she looked in low spirits, quite unlike her usual self, and had been crying.
She called mischievously after her, “Cousin, look after your health! Even if you fill two vats with tears that won’t cure his welts.”
To know how Baochai replied you must read the next chapter.
Chapter 35
Yuchuan Tastes Some Lotus-Leaf Broth
Yinger Skilfully Makes a Plum-Blossom Net
Baochai heard Daiyu’s taunt but walked past without turning her head, so anxious was she to see her mother and brother. Daiyu, standing in the shade of the blossom, went on staring into the distance towards Happy Red Court. She saw Li Wan, Yingchun, Tanchun, Xichun and their maids pay short calls and leave again, but there was no sign of Xifeng.
“Why hasn’t she called to see Baoyu?” she wondered. “Even if she’s busy, you’d think she’d put in an appearance to please the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang. There must be some reason why she hasn’t come.”
But just then, raising her head, she caught sight of a gaily dressed group proceeding in that direction. Looking more closely she could recognize the Lady Dowager on Xifeng’s arm, then Lady Xing and Lady Wang, with the concubine Zhou and some maids bringing up the rear. Together they entered the court. Daiyu nodded and tears ran down her cheeks as she reflected wistfully how good it Was to have parents. A little later she saw Baochai enter with Aunt Xue, and then Zijuan came up suddenly behind her.
“Do go and take your medicine, miss, before the boiled water gets cold,” she urged.
“Must you always be hurrying me?” protested Daiyu. “Whether I take it or not is none of your business.”
“You shouldn’t stop taking medicine just because your cough’s beginning to be better. Although it’s the fifth month and the weather’s warm, you still ought to be careful. You’ve been standing here in the damp since first thing this morning. It’s time to go back now and rest.”
Daiyu realized then that she was indeed rather tired, and after some hesitation she walked slowly back to Bamboo Lodge on her maid’s arm. As they entered the courtyard, the chequered shade cast by bamboos on the moss reminded her of those lines in The Western Chamber:
Who walks in this secluded spot,
Where dew glimmers white on dark moss?
“Fate was unkind to Cui Yingying,” she told herself with a sigh. “But at least she had a widowed mother and a younger brother, whereas poor Daiyu has nobody at all. The ancients said: All beauties are ill-fated. But I’m no beauty. Why should my fate be so cruel?”
She was walking on lost in thought when the parrot in the covered walk swooped down to squawk at her.
“You pest!” she cried, giving a start. “Smothering my hair with dust.”
Flying back to its perch the parrot screeched, “Raise the curtain, Xueyan. The young lady’s here.”
She stopped, her hand on the perch, to ask whether the parrot’s birdseed and water had been changed. The bird gave a wheeze much like one of Daiyu’s deep sighs. Then it rattled off the lines:
“Men laugh at my folly in burying fallen flowers,
But who will bury me when dead I lie?
See, when spring draws to a close and flowers fall,
This is the season when beauty must ebb and fade;
The day that spring takes wing and beauty fades
Who will care for the fallen blossom or dead maid?”
The two girls burst out laughing.
“Those are lines you often recite, miss,” giggled Zijuan. “Fancy him getting them by heart!”
Daiyu made her take the perch down and hang it on a hook outside the moon window, then went inside and sat down by the window to take her medicine. The room was flooded with a dim green light, its tables and couches cool in the green shade cast by bamboos through the gauze netting. To while away the time she played with the parrot from inside, teasing it and teaching it some of her favourite poems.
But let us return to Baochai who reached home to find her mother doing her hair.
“What are you doing here so early in the morning?” asked Aunt Xue.
“I came to see how you were, mother. Did he come back after I left yesterday or make any more trouble?”
Baochai sat down beside her mother and burst into tears.
“There, child, don’t take it so to heart,” urged her mother, weeping too. “I’ll teach the monster a lesson. If anything were to happen to you, on whom could I rely?”
Overhearing this, Xue Pan hurried in.
“Forgive me this once, there’s a good sister,” he begged, making Baochai several bows from left and right. “I had a few drinks yesterday so I stayed out late, then on my way back I knocked into a friend; and that made me arrive home so drunk I’ve no idea what nonsense I may have talked. I don’t blame you for being angry.”
Baochai, who had been hiding her face to weep, looked up at this with a smile.
“Don’t
put on that act!” She spat in disgust. “I know what a nuisance you find us. You’re trying to make us leave you so that you can do as you please.”
“How can you say such a thing, sister, not leaving me a leg to stand on? It’s not like you to be so suspicious and unkind.”
“You accuse her of being unkind,” put in his mother. “Was it kind what you said last night? Really you must have lost your senses.”
“Don’t be angry, mother, and don’t you worry, sister. I promise not to drink or fool about with those fellows any more, how’s that?”
Baochai smiled.
“At last you’re showing some sense.”
“If you can stick to that, why, dragons can lay eggs,” scoffed his mother.
“If you catch me fooling around with them again, sister, you can spit in my face and call me a beast, not a man. I don’t want to be such a trial to you both all the time. Vexing mother is bad enough; if I worry my sister too I’m less than human. Instead of being a filial son and good brother now that father’s gone, I’m only upsetting you both. I’m really worse than a brute!”
While talking, tears gushed from his eyes. Since their mother showed fresh signs of distress at this, Baochai forced herself to interpose.
“You’ve already made trouble enough without reducing mother to tears again.”
Xue Pan dabbed quickly at his eyes and grinned.
“When did I reduce her to tears? All right, that’s enough. Forget it. I’ll get Xiangling to pour you a cup of tea.”
“I don’t want any, thank you. As soon as mother’s ready we’re going to the Garden.”
“Let me have a look at your necklace. Shouldn’t it be gilded again?”
“No need. It’s still a bright gold.”
“You ought to make yourself some new clothes too. Just let me know what colours and patterns you fancy.”
“I haven’t yet worn all the clothes I have. Why make new ones?”
By now Aunt Xue had changed, and she led her daughter into the Garden while Xue Pan went out.
When Aunt Xue and Baochai reached Happy Red Court to inquire after Baoyu, they knew from the throng of maids and nurses on the verandah that the Lady Dowager and others must be there. Having gone in and exchanged greetings with all the ladies, Aunt Xue asked Baoyu if he were any better. He sat up on his couch to answer: “Yes, thank you, auntie. I’m sorry to have put you and my cousin to such trouble.”
She hastily made him lie down again.
“If there’s anything you want,” she said, “just let me know.”
“Thank you, I will,” he replied gaily.
“What would you like to eat?” his mother asked. “I can have it sent over later.”
“I’m not really hungry, but I’d like some of that broth you once had made with small lotus leaves and lotus seeds.”
“Just listen to him!” Xifeng laughed. “You may not have expensive tastes, but you’re certainly choosy to want something like that.”
“Have it made! Have it made!” the Lady Dowager ordered. “Don’t be in such a hurry, Old Ancestress,” cried Xifeng. “I must try to remember where the moulds are.”
She sent an old servant to fetch them from the head cook, and after a while the woman came back to report: “The cook says those four moulds were returned, madam.”
Xifeng thought this over.
“Well, I can’t remember to whom I sent them,” she remarked. “They’re in the tea pantry most likely.”
She sent to ask the steward in charge, but he did not have them either. Finally the steward in charge of the gold and silver plate had them sent over.
Aunt Xue took the casket containing the four silver moulds and examined them curiously. More than a foot long and about one inch across, they were inset with more than thirty delicately fashioned shapes no larger than peas—chrysanthemum, plum-blossom, lotus flower, caltrop and the like.
“Your house is really the last word in refinement,” she exclaimed to the old lady and her sister. “So many shapes just for one bowl of soup! I wouldn’t have known what these were for if I hadn’t been told.”
Xifeng interrupted with a smile, “Why, auntie, the cooks preparing the Royal Feast last year thought this up, flavouring the dough shapes with fresh lotus leaves; but what really counts is the quality of the soup. It isn’t anything special after all. Indeed, what family would often have such a soup! We did try it, though, when we first got the moulds; and he’s suddenly remembered it today.” She passed the casket to a maid with the order, “Tell the kitchen to kill a few chickens at once and make enough well-seasoned soup for a dozen people.”
“Why so much?” asked Lady Wang.
“For a good reason.” Xifeng smiled. “This is something we seldom have, and now that Cousin Bao has asked for it it would be a pity just to make some for him and none for the old lady and Aunt Xue. We may as well all have some while we’re about it—then even I can taste this
novelty.”
“You monkey!” exclaimed the Lady Dowager. “Treating people at public expense.”
“That’s all right,” countered Xifeng quickly amid general laughter. “I can afford this little treat.” She turned to the maid. “Tell them in the kitchen to do their best and charge it to my account.”
As the maid left on this errand Baochai said playfully, “In the few years I’ve been here, careful observation has led me to the conclusion that, however clever Cousin Xifeng may be, she’s no match for the old lady.”
“I’m old and slow-witted now, child,” said the Lady Dowager. “But at Xifeng’s age I outshone her. Still, even if she’s not up to me she’s way ahead of your aunt. Your aunt, poor thing, has no more to say for herself than a block of wood and can’t show herself to advantage to her elders. They can’t help liking Xifeng for her clever tongue.”
Baoyu chuckled.
“Does that mean you don’t like people who don’t talk much?”
“Oh, they have their merits too, just as those with smooth tongues have faults. It’s better not to have too much to say for yourself.”
“Quite so.” Baoyu laughed. “My sister-in-law never talks much, yet you treat her just as well as Cousin Xifeng. If you merely liked good talkers, the only ones of these girls you could fancy would be Xifeng and Daiyu.”
“Talking about the girls,” observed the old lady. “I’m not saying this as a compliment to Aunt Xue, but the truth is that none of our four girls can stand comparison with Baochai.”
“You’re partial, madam,” disclaimed Aunt Xue with a smile.
“But it’s true,” put in Lady Wang. “The old lady’s often told me privately how good Baochai is.”
Baoyu, angling for compliments for Daiyu, had not expected his grandmother to praise Baochai instead. He glanced at the latter with a smile, but she had turned away to talk to Xiren.
At this point lunch was announced and the Lady Dowager rose. Having told Baoyu to rest well and charged the maids to take good care of him, she took Xifeng’s arm and urged Aunt Xue to lead the way. As they left, she asked if the soup was ready or not, and what Aunt Xue and the others fancied to eat.
“If there’s anything special, just tell me,” she said. “I know how to make this minx Xifeng get it for us.”
“How you love to tease her, madam,” replied Aunt Xue, “She’s always offering you good things, but of course you don’t eat very much.”
“Don’t say that, auntie,” countered Xifeng. “If our Old Ancestress didn’t think human flesh rancid, she’d have eaten me long ago.”
That set the whole company laughing. Even Baoyu joined in from his bed.
“What a terrible tongue Madam Lian has!” Xiren commented with a smile.
He reached out to make her sit beside him.
“You must be tired after standing so long.”
“How forgetful I am!” she exclaimed. “Do ask Miss Baochai before she leaves the courtyard to send Yinger over to make a few nets for us.”
“I’m
glad you reminded me.”
Baoyu sat up and called to Baochai through the window, “Will you send Yinger over after your meal, cousin? I want her to make me some nets if she has time.”
“Of course,” promised Baochai, turning back. “I’ll send her presently.”
The others who had not understood this exchange stopped to ask Baochai what was wanted. When she had explained the Lady Dowager said: “That’s a good child. Send her to do as he asks. If you need more hands I have plenty of girls sitting idle. You can send for any of them.”
“We can manage without Yinger,” Aunt Xue and Baochai assured her. “She’s nothing to do every day and needs something to keep her out of mischief.”
As they walked on they were greeted by Xiangyun, Pinger and Xiangling, who had been picking balsam by some rocks and now left the Garden with them.
Lady Wang urged her mother-in-law to have a rest in her room, as she feared she must be tired. As the old lady’s legs were aching she agreed. Maids were sent on ahead to see that all was ready; and because the concubine Zhao had excused herself on the grounds of an indisposition, there was only the concubine Zhou to help the serving-women and maids raise the portiere and set out the back-rests and cushions. The Lady Dowager entered on Xifeng’s arm and sat down with Aunt Xue in the places of honour. Baochai and Xiangyun took two lower seats. Lady Wang brought tea herself to her mother-in-law while Li Wan served Aunt Xue.
“Leave serving to the young people,” said the Lady Dowager to Lady Wang. “You sit down and chat with us.
Seating herself on a stool, Lady Wang told Xifeng to have the old lady’s meal brought there with some extra portions. Xifeng withdrew and told Lady Wang’s serving-women to pass the order on to those of the Lady Dowager and ask her maids to hurry over, while Lady Wang instructed another serving-woman to fetch the young ladies. This took some time, and only Tanchun and Xichun appeared eventually; for Yingchun had no appetite that day, and no one thought anything of Daiyu’s absence as she never ate more than one meal out of two.
Soon the food arrived and the table was laid.
