by Cao Xueqin
As soon as they were alone Xifeng demanded, “Just why am I hellish? A hell-cat? When that bitch cursed me and wished me dead, you joined in. In a thousand and one days I must be good at least one day; yet it seems, after all this time, I’m less to you than a whore. How can I have the face to go on living now?” By now she was weeping again.
“What more do you want?” cried her husband. “Just think a bit who was most to blame yesterday? Yet today it was I who knelt down and begged your pardon in front of all those people. You’ve got quite enough face, so stop nagging now. Do you expect me to kneel to you again! It’s no good going too far.”
This silenced Xifeng and she giggled.
“That’s better.” He grinned. “I honestly don’t know how to cope with you.”
Just then a serving-woman came in to report that Bao Er’s wife had hanged herself. They were both shocked to hear this. But after her initial fright Xifeng put on a bold face.
“If she’s dead, she’s dead,” she retorted. “What’s all the fuss about?”
Presently, however, Lin Zhixiao’s wife came in and whispered to her, “Bao Er’s wife has hanged herself, madam. And her people are threatening to sue you.”
“That’s fine.” Xifeng gave a scornful laugh. “I’ve been waiting for a chance to go to court.”
“We’ve all been trying to talk or frighten them out of it,” said Mrs. Lin. “They’re willing to drop the matter if you’ll give them a few strings of cash.”
“I haven’t a cent, and I wouldn’t give it to them if I had. Let them go ahead and arraign me. Don’t try to talk them round or scare them away. Just let them go ahead. But if they lose their case I shall sue them for blackmail.”
Mrs. Lin was in a quandary when Jia Lian glanced at her significantly and, catching on, she withdrew to wait outside.
“I’ll go and see what can be done,” he told Xifeng.
“You’re not to pay them anything,” she warned.
He went to talk the business over with Lin Zhixiao, then sent people to negotiate and finally hushed the matter up by paying two hundred taels. To give them no chance to change their minds, however, Jia Lian also sent stewards to ask Wang Ziteng for some runners and sergeants to help with the funeral. When the dead woman’s family knew this, they dared make no further move but simply had to swallow their resentment.
Jia Lian also told Lin Zhixiao to deduct the two hundred taels from their housekeeping funds, under cover of various items in their daily expenditure. In addition he gave Bao Er some money too, and promised to find him a good wife later on. Bao Er raised no objection, naturally, having received both money and consideration. He continued in Jia Lian’s service as before.
As for Xifeng, although inwardly uneasy she pretended outwardly to be unconcerned. When no one else was about she took Pinger’s hand and said gently.
“Yesterday I was drunk. You mustn’t hold it against me. Where did I hurt you? Let me have a look.”
“It’s nothing,” Pinger answered. “You didn’t hit hard.”
Then someone outside announced, “Madam Zhu and the young ladies have come.”
To know the reason for their visit, read on.
Chapter 45
Two Girls Pledge Friendship After a Heart-to-Heart Talk
A Plaintive Poem Is Written One Windy, Rainy Evening
As Xifeng was comforting Pinger the young people called. They were offered seats and Pinger handed round tea.
“Well, you’ve come in force,” chuckled Xifeng. “Anyone would think we’d issued invitations.”
“We’ve come about two things,” Tanchun announced. “One is Xichun’s business; and we’ve also brought you a message from the old lady.”
“What is it that’s so urgent?” demanded Xifeng.
“We’ve started a poetry club,” Tanchun explained, “but not even the first meeting was fully attended—all because we’re too soft to keep order. So it occurred to me that we must rope you in too as our supervisor—we need someone strict and impartial. Then Xichun needs more materials of every kind for her painting of the Garden. We told the old lady, and she says there may be some left-over materials in the downstairs store-room at the back, which we can have if we can find them. If not, we can send out to buy more.”
“I’m no hand at versifying,” Xifeng answered. “All I can do is come and join in the eating.”
“You wouldn’t have to write anything,” said Tanchun. “Your job would simply be to watch out for truants or slackers and punish the offenders as you think fit.”
“Don’t try to fool me.” Xifeng laughed. “I can guess what you’re after. It’s obviously not a supervisor you want but a mint-master to supply you with cash. You must take it in turns to play host in this club of yours, and because your monthly allowances aren’t enough you’ve thought up this scheme to rope me in so that you can milk me. Isn’t that the idea?”
The others laughed.
“There’s true perspicacity for you!” cried Li Wan.
“What an elder sister-in-law you are!” scolded Xifeng. “You’re supposed to be in charge of these girls’ studies and of teaching them good manners and needlework. If they do wrong you ought to remonstrate with them. Now they’ve started this poetry club which shouldn’t cost much, but you refuse to take charge. The old lady and Lady Wang have their titled status of course, but your ten taels a month is twice as much as we get, and yet the old lady and mistress still pity you as a poor widow with no means of support. So you get an extra ten taels for your son, which means getting as much as they do, and on top of that you’ve been given land in the Garden farm and are paid rent, apart from the largest share in the annual bonuses. There are less than ten in your household, counting the servants, and your food and clothing still come from the common fund. Your income adds up to four or five hundred taels a year. Then why not use one or two hundred a year to keep these girls amused? After all, it won’t be for long. When they marry, you won’t be the one to provide their dowries. Yet here you are, so afraid of spending a cent, you’ve put them up to coming to pester me. I’ve a good mind not to take the hint but just go and eat up everything you’ve got.”
“Listen to her!” cried Li Wan laughingly. “I say one word and the crazy thing spews out two cartloads of shameless talk like a real dirty swindler and tight-fisted money-grubber. This creature was lucky enough to be born the daughter of a family of scholar-officials and to marry into a family like that too, yet she still carries on in this way. If she’d been the son of a poor family, there’s no knowing what dirty language she’d have used. She’d have tried to swindle everyone on earth.
“How could you strike even Pinger yesterday? For shame! You behaved like a dog drunk on yellow wine. I was so furious, I’d have taken up the cudgels for Pinger if not for the fact that it was the dog’s birthday and I didn’t want to upset the old lady either. But I’m still simmering with indignation. And now you’re challenging me! You aren’t good enough to pick up Pinger’s shoes. The two of you ought to change places.” The girls burst out laughing.
“I see,” Xifeng retorted. “You honoured me with this visit, not because of your poetry club or the painting either, but simply to avenge Pinger. I didn’t know she had such a champion. If I’d known, I should never have struck her—not even if some devil were forcing my hand. Here, Miss Pinger, let me apologize to you in front of Madam Zhu and the young ladies for my wild behaviour in my cups.” The others laughed again.
Li Wan asked Pinger, “Well? Didn’t I promise to help you get your own back?”
“It’s all very well for you ladies to have your fun, but I can’t take it,” was Pinger’s reply.
“Nonsense,” said Li Wan. “I’ll back you up. Hurry up and fetch the key now, and ask your mistress to open the storeroom for us.”
“My dear sister-in-law,” put in Xifeng, “do take these girls back to the Garden first. I was just going to check this rice account, and then I’ve got to see Lady Xing who sent for me
on some business, and give instructions for the clothes everyone needs for New Year.”
“Never mind those other things,” rejoined Li Wan. “Just settle my business first so that I can go home and rest and these young ladies will stop bothering me.”
“Give me a little time, dear sister,” countered Xifeng. “Why should you, who are usually so good to me, be so hard on me today just because of Pinger? You used to say, ‘However busy you are, you must take good care of your health and find time to rest.’ Yet now you want to kill me with overwork! Besides, it doesn’t matter if other people’s clothes are late, but you’re responsible for these young ladies’ being ready on time. If they’re not, the old lady will scold you for not seeing to it or at least reminding me. I’d rather take the blame myself than get you into trouble.”
“Listen, the rest of you, to this fine talk!” Li Wan smiled. “What a clever tongue! Tell me, are you going to take charge of our club or not?”
“What do you think? If I don’t join your club and fork out some money, I’ll be looked on as a traitor to Grand View Garden. How could I go on living here then? First thing tomorrow I shall proceed to my post, respectfully accept the seal of office, and then straightway give you fifty silver taels to spread over for several months for your club’s refreshments. And as I can’t write poems or essays being just completely vulgar—whether you call me supervisor or not, a few days after I’ve paid up you can still drive me away.”
Amid general laughter she went on, “I’ll open the storeroom presently and tell them to fetch out all the painting materials for your inspection. If there’s anything of use to you, you can have it; and if you’ll make out a list of what’s still missing, I’ll send people to buy it. I’ll supply you with the silk for the painting too. The drawing of the Garden isn’t with the mistress, Lord Zhen still has it. I’m telling you this to save you a trip for nothing. I’ll have it fetched and sent with the silk for the secretaries to work on. How about that?”
Li Wan nodded. “Thank you. If you’ll really do that I’ll let bygones be bygones. All right, let’s go. If she doesn’t send the things, we can come and pester her again.”
As she started off with the girls Xifeng remarked, “There’s only one person who could have put you up to all this, and that’s Baoyu.”
Li Wan turned back with a smile.
“Oh yes! I’d forgotten. It was Baoyu we came about. He was the one who didn’t turn up at our first meeting; but we were too soft with him. What should his punishment be?”
After a second’s thought Xifeng replied, “The only thing I can think of is to make him sweep all your floors for you.”
They approved laughingly and were on the point of leaving when Granny Lai came in, leaning on a young maid’s arm.
Xifeng and the others hastily rose, urged her to sit down and offered her congratulations. Seating herself on the edge of the kang she said:
“Our masters and mistresses are rejoicing over our good fortune, and we owe it all to your kindness. Yesterday when you sent Caiming over with presents too, madam, my grandson kowtowed his thanks at the gate.”
Li Wan asked, “When will he be leaving to take up his post?”
Granny Lai sighed. “I pay no attention to their affairs, they do just as they please. When he kowtowed to me at home the other day, I gave him a piece of my mind. I said, ‘Child, don’t start throwing your weight about now that you’re an official. You’re thirty this year and, though you were born in bondage, our masters were kind enough to give you your freedom the moment you came out of your mother’s womb. Thanks to the generosity of your masters above as well as your parents below, you were able to study like a young gentleman, cossetted by maids and nurses as if you were a phoenix. Though you’ve reached this age I doubt if you even know how the word “slave” is written. All you know is how to enjoy yourself.’
“‘It doesn’t occur to you,’ I said, ‘that you owe your present position to the generations of hardship your grandfather and father had to go through.
“‘You’ve had one trouble after another since you were a boy, and the money we’ve spent on you would make a silver statue bigger than you are. When you were twenty our masters were kind enough to help you purchase an official post, although plenty of real gentlefolk go hungry. You were born a slave, so watch out—don’t tempt fortune too far. After having an easy life of it for ten years you managed somehow —Heaven only know how—to get our masters to have you selected for this post. A district magistrate may not rank too high yet he has a lot of work to do as the father and mother of everyone in the district. If you don’t behave properly as a loyal servant of the state to be worthy of your masters’ kindness, Heaven and Earth will surely condemn you.’“
“You worry too much,” Li Wan and Xifeng told her with a smile. “We’re sure he will do all right. He called occasionally some years ago but hasn’t been here for quite a few years now—we only saw his visiting-card at New Year or on birthdays. The other day, though, when he came to kowtow to the old lady and Lady Wang we caught a glimpse of him in the old lady’s compound. He cut quite an impressive figure in his new official robes, and seemed to have put on weight too. You should be pleased by his appointment instead of worrying like this. If he doesn’t do well, that’s his parents’ look-out; you should just concentrate on enjoying yourself. When you’ve time you must come by sedan-chair for a day of card-playing or a chat with the old lady. No one would dream of treating you shabbily. You’ve fine big buildings at home too, where of course everybody must respect you like a lady of quality.”
Pinger brought in tea at this point and at once Granny Lai stood up to take it.
“You should have let one of the younger girls do this, miss,” she said. “You’re doing me too much honour.”
Sipping the tea she continued, “You don’t understand, madam, all children need a firm hand. Even then, the way they still make trouble on the sly causes us endless worry. Those who know us say: Boys will be boys. Those who don’t may talk of our relying on wealth and influence to bully other people, and that would damage even the masters’ reputation. When I get too provoked, I often call in his father and give him a good dressing-down, to make them behave a bit better for a while.”
She pointed then at Baoyu. “You won’t like what I’m going to say, but your father isn’t strict enough with you, and the old lady always shields you. Who didn’t see, in the old days, how your grandfather beat your father when he was a boy, though he never ran wild the way you do, fearing neither Heaven nor Earth. And Lord She in the east courtyard, though he was naughty, never buried himself at home the way you do; yet he got beaten every day. As for your cousin Zhen’s grandfather in the East Mansion, he had such a fiery temper he’d flare up at a word, grilling his son as if he were a brigand. From all I’ve seen and heard, Lord Zhen seems to follow his grandfather’s method of disciplining his son, only he’s erratic. And as he doesn’t mind how he behaves himself, you can’t blame his cousins and nephews for not being afraid of him. If you’ve any sense, you should be glad of this warning. If not, you may not like to say anything but I dare say you’re cursing me in your heart.”
Lai Da’s wife came in just then followed by the wives of Zhou Rui and Lin Zhixiao to make their reports.
Xifeng remarked with a smile, “The daughter-in-law has come for her mother-in-law.”
“That’s not why I came,” said Lai Da’s wife, “but to ask if you ladies would honour us with your presence.”
“How stupid of me to forget what I really came for and just to maunder on!” exclaimed Granny Lai. “Now that my grandson’s appointed to this post, we’ve got to give a feast at home for all the relatives and friends who want to congratulate him. I didn’t want to invite some people, not others. Besides, I thought, it’s sharing our masters’ good fortune that’s brought us this undreamed-of honour, so I don’t mind even if it bankrupts us. That’s why I told his father to make it a three-day affair.
The firs
t day we shall have a few tables of guests and an opera in our humble garden, and invite the old lady, the mistresses, and all you other ladies and young ladies to come and have some fun; at the same time we’ll ask the gentlemen to honour us with their presence at another feast with an opera in the hall outside. On the second day, we’ll entertain relatives and friends; on the third, our fellow servants from these two mansions. This will be a great occasion for us, these three days of excitement, and we owe it all to our masters.”
“When is it to be?” asked Li Wan and Xifeng. “We’ll certainly come, and quite likely the old lady will be happy to come too, but we can’t say for sure.”
“We’ve chosen the fourteenth,” said Lai Da’s wife promptly, “Do give mother face by coming.”
“I can’t answer for the others, but I promise to come,” said Xifeng. “First let me warn you, though, I’ve no presents or tips to bring, so mind you don’t laugh at me if after eating I just up and leave.”
“What a thing to say, madam!” Lai Da’s wife smiled. “Why, if you felt like it, you could give us twenty or thirty thousand taels.”
Granny Lai put in, “Just now I went to invite the old lady, and she’s promised to come too, so it seems I really have face.”
After pressing the invitations she was rising to leave when the sight of Zhou Rui’s wife reminded her of something.
“Oh, there’s something else, madam,” she said to Xifeng. “What has Mrs. Zhou’s son done wrong that you want to dismiss him?”
“Yes, I meant to tell your daughter-in-law, but I was so busy I forgot,” said Xifeng. “When you go home, Mrs. Lai, tell your husband that neither mansion is to keep Zhou Rui’s son. He must go.”
While Mrs. Lai had to agree to this, Zhou Rui’s wife fell on her knees to beg her son off.
“What happened?” asked Granny Lai. “Tell me what he did, and I’ll be judge for you.”
“On my birthday yesterday, he got drunk before the feasting even started,” said Xifeng. “And instead of seeing to the presents my parents’ family sent, he sat there swearing and wouldn’t bring them in. Only after the two serving-women delivering the things came in themselves did he at last get some pages to help him carry them in. The boys did all right, but he went and dropped a hamper so that dumplings started rolling all over the courtyard. After the two women had gone, I sent Caiming to tell him off, and he had the nerve to swear at him. How can we keep on such an insolent, lawless young bastard?”
