by Cao Xueqin
“Well, what does he say?” she asked.
By way of answer he tore the note into pieces.
To change the subject she asked, “Will you be studying again after dinner?”
Leaving her question unanswered he exclaimed, “What a swine this young Yun is—ridiculous!”
“What’s the matter anyway?” she asked with a smile.
“Why ask? Let’s eat now, then we can rest. I’m fed up.”
He told a young maid to light a fire and burned the scraps of the letter. But when the meal was ready presently, he sat down in a daze and Xiren had to coax him to get him to eat one mouthful. Soon he pushed aside his bowl and flung himself down moodily on the couch. Then he suddenly burst into tears.
Xiren and Sheyue were nonplussed.
“Why carry on like this for no reason at all?” cried Sheyue. “It’s all that Jia Yun’s fault! Why should he send such a stupid note to addle Master Bao’s wits and send him into hysterics. If he goes on bottling up his feelings like this, what are we to do?” She started sobbing too.
Xiren could hardly help laughing.
“Cut that out, good sister!” she urged her. “It’s bad enough him making a scene without your joining in. What has that letter got to do with you?”
“That’s crazy talk,” Sheyue countered. “Who knows what rubbish he wrote? Why pin it on me? Come to that, his note may have had to do with you!”
Before Xiren could answer Baoyu burst out laughing and, scrambling off the couch, smoothed out his clothes.
“Stop squabbling and let’s sleep now,” he said. “I must get up early tomorrow to go to school.”
So they went to bed, passing an uneventful night.
The next morning when Baoyu had dressed he set off to school. But as he was leaving his compound, struck by a thought he told Beiming to wait, then turned to call Sheyue.
“What brings you back?” she asked him, coming out.
“If Jia Yun comes again today, tell him not to fool about here. If he does, I’ll tell the old lady and the master.”
Sheyue agreed to this. But Baoyu had no sooner started off again than he saw Jia Yun hurrying towards him. At sight of Baoyu he swept him a bow.
“Congratulations, uncle!”
“You’ve got a nerve!” Baoyu retorted, remembering his note of the previous day. “Disturbing me when I have other things on my mind.”
“You can have a look, uncle, if you don’t believe me. The heralds are already here at the main gate.”
More exasperated than ever Baoyu cried, “What are you talking about?”
Just then they heard shouting outside. “Listen, uncle, to that!” This set Baoyu wondering.
“Have you no manners?” they heard someone shout. “How dare you make such a row here?”
Another voice answered, “Your master has been promoted! How can you stop us proclaiming the good news? Other families would be only too pleased to hear us!”
Then Baoyu realized with delight that they were announcing his father’s promotion to be vice-minister. He started off.
Jia Yun caught up with him, saying, “Are you pleased, uncle? Once your marriage is fixed, that’ll be double happiness for you!”
Baoyu flushed and spat. “Clear off, you oaf!”
“What have I said wrong?” Jia Yun reddened. “Wouldn’t you...?”
“Wouldn’t I what?” demanded Baoyu sternly.
Then Jia Yun dared say no more, and Baoyu hurried off to school.
“What brings you here today?” asked Dairu beaming. “I just heard of your father’s promotion.”
“I came to see you, sir, before going to my father,” said Baoyu respectfully.
“You need not study today, you can have a holiday. But don’t spend it playing in the Garden. You’re no longer a child, remember. Though you can’t handle affairs yet, you should learn from your elder cousins.”
Baoyu assented and went home. At the inner gate he met Li Gui coming out.
“So here you are, young master!” The steward halted, smiling. “I was just going to the school to fetch you.”
“On whose instructions?”
“The old lady sent to find you, and your maids said you’d gone to school. So just now she sent again to tell me to ask for a few days’ leave for you—I hear operas will be put on to celebrate. You’ve turned up just in time, Master Bao.”
Passing through the gate, Baoyu observed that all the maids and matrons in the court were beaming.
“Why so late, Master Bao?” they cried. “Go in and congratulate the old lady, quick!”
Baoyu entered his grandmother’s room and his face lit up when he saw Daiyu sitting on her left, Xiangyun on her right. All the ladies of the house had assembled there except for Baochai, Baoqin and Yingchun. Beside himself with joy, he offered congratulations to his grandmother and then to Their Ladyships, after which he greeted his cousins one by one.
“Are you better, cousin?” he asked Daiyu.
“Yes, much better,” she answered with a smile. “I heard you were unwell too. Are you all right now?”
“Oh yes. That night I suddenly had a pain in my heart, but these last few days I’ve been well enough to go back to school. That’s why I’ve had no time to call on you.”
While he was still speaking Daiyu turned away to talk to Tanchun. Xifeng standing near them smiled.
“You two are behaving like guests, not like inseparables,” she teased. All these civilities! Well, as the saying goes, ‘you show each other respect as to a guest.’“
The others laughed while Daiyu blushed furiously, not knowing whether to let this go or not. After some hesitation she blurted out:
“What do you know about it?”
That set the company laughing even more loudly. Xifeng, conscious of her gaffe, was wondering how to change the subject when Baoyu suddenly exclaimed to Daiyu:
“Cousin Lin, you never saw anyone as boorish as Jia Yun...” He broke off without finishing the sentence.
This provoked a fresh gale of mirth.
“What is all this?” others asked.
Daiyu, also in the dark, smiled shyly too.
Baoyu hedged, “Just now I heard that some operas are to be presented. When will that be?” All looked at him, still laughing.
“If you heard that outside,” quipped Xifeng, “you should come and tell us, not ask us about it.”
“I’ll go and find out,” he offered.
“Don’t go running around outside,” warned the old lady. “For one thing, the heralds would laugh at you. For another, your father’s in a good humour today, but if he saw you outside he would be angry.”
“Yes, madam,” said Baoyu, then slipped away.
The old lady asked Xifeng, “Who’s talked of presenting operas?”
“Uncle Wang. He said that the day after tomorrow, which is an auspicious day, he’ll send over a new company of actresses to congratulate you, madam, as well as the master and mistress.” She added with a twinkle, “It’ll not only be an auspicious day but a happy occasion too. That day...” She winked at Daiyu, who smiled back.
“Why, of course!” exclaimed Lady Wang. “It’s our niece’s birthday.”
The old lady thought for a second and then said, “It shows I’m growing old, I get so muddled. “It’s lucky I have Xifeng as my mentor. All right then. If Baoyu’s uncle wants to offer congratulations, Daiyu’s uncle’s family can celebrate her birthday too.”
Everybody laughed.
“Whatever our Old Ancestress says is so aptly put, no wonder she has such good fortune!” someone exclaimed.
Baoyu coming back just then was in raptures when he heard about Daiyu’s birthday. Presently they all had a meal there and made merry with the old lady.
After the meal, Jia Zheng came back from thanking the Emperor and kowtowed to the ancestors, then to his mother. Standing before her, he spoke to her briefly before going out to entertain his guests. A constant stream of kinsmen was coming and
going now, with a great noise and bustle. Carriages and horses thronged the gate; silks and sables filled the hall. Truly:
Bees and butterflies converge on flowers in bloom;
Sea and sky stretch boundless under the full moon!
These visits continued for two days till the time for the celebration. Early that morning Wang Ziteng and other kinsmen had sent over a company of actresses, and a stage was set up in front of the Lady Dowager’s main hall. Outside it waited the men of the family, in official robes. More than ten tables of feasts had been prepared for relatives; and as the actresses were new and the old lady was in high spirits, they set up a glass screen in the inner hall to feast the ladies there. At the table of honour sat Aunt Xue accompanied by Lady Wang and Baoqin. Opposite was the table for the old lady accompanied by Lady Xing and Xiuyan. The two lower tables were vacant, and the old lady urged the girls to seat themselves there quickly.
Presently Xifeng, a troop of maids behind her, escorted in Daiyu. Dressed in new clothes and made up, she appeared like the moon goddess come down to earth as she greeted the others with a bashful smile.
Xiangyun, Li Wen and Li Qi invited her to take the best seat at their table, but she declined.
“You must sit there today,” insisted the old lady, smiling.
Aunt Xue rose to ask, “Is this a happy occasion for Miss Lin too?”
“Yes, it’s her birthday.”
“How could I have forgotten!” Aunt Xue went over to Daiyu. “Excuse my bad memory, child! I’ll send Baoqin over presently to offer her congratulations.”
“You are too kind.” Daiyu smiled. While every one took a seat, she looked around and seeing Baochai was not there, she asked Aunt Xue, “How’s Cousin Baochai? Why hasn’t she come today?”
“She should have come, but we have no one to keep an eye on things at home, so she has to stay in,” Aunt Xue explained.
“But now she has a sister-in-law, aunty, surely you don’t need Baochai to mind the house? I suppose she doesn’t like joining in noisy parties, but I do miss her so!”
“It’s good of you to think of her,” said Aunt Xue. “She longs to see you all too. One of these days I’ll send her over to have a chat with you.”
Now maids came in to pour wine and bring in dishes, while outside the performance had started. The first two items, of course, had propitious themes. When it came to the third, they saw fairy pages and maids with flags and pennons lead in a girl dressed as a goddess, with black gauze on her head, who sang an aria and then left the stage. No one knew what opera this was till they heard it said outside that this was the scene “Returning to Heaven from Hell” from the new opera The Tale of Ruizhu. The girl was the moon goddess who descended to earth and became betrothed to a mortal; luckily the goddess Guanyin had shown her the right course and she died before her marriage took place. She was now going back to the moon. That was why she sang:
Sweet they say is the love of mortals,
Yet autumn moon and spring flowers are soon abandoned,
And I nearly forgot the palace of the moon.
The fourth item was “Eating Husks” from The Tale of the Lute. The fifth was about Bodhidharma leading his disciples back across the river—a fantastic and most spectacular performance.
At the height of their enjoyment, one of the Xue family servants came rushing in, pouring with sweat.
“Go back quickly, sir!” he panted to Xue Ke. “And ask madam to go back too. There’s bad trouble at home!”
“What’s happened?” Xue Ke demanded.
“I’ll tell you when we get back, sir.” Xue Ke went off without stopping to take his leave. And when maids took word of this to Aunt Xue, she turned pale with alarm. After a hasty leave-taking she mounted her carriage with Baoqin to go back, amid general consternation.
“We must send someone over to find out what’s amiss and to show our concern,” said the Lady Dowager.
The others approved this, then went on watching the opera.
Aunt Xue, reaching home, saw court runners standing by the inner gate. Some assistants from the pawnshop were telling them:
“Wait till the mistress comes home, then everything can be settled.”
The runners, at the arrival of an old lady attended by so many servants, knew that this must be Xue Pan’s mother. And as she looked someone of consequence they kept themselves in check, standing at attention to let her pass. She went to the back from whence came sounds of wailing, and discovered Jingui there. As she hurried forward Baochai came out to meet her, her face wet with tears.
“So you’ve heard the news, mother,” she said. “Don’t worry. We must find some way to square things!”
Aunt Xue went inside with her daughter, trembling with fright after having heard from the servants in the court what her son had done.
“Whom had he been quarrelling with?” she asked tearfully.
“Don’t try to get to the bottom of it now, madam,” they urged her. “Taking a life is a capital offence regardless of persons. We had better discuss what to do.”
“What is there to discuss?” she sobbed.
“What we propose is this,” they said. “We’ll get ready some silver tonight and go straight with Master Ke to see Master Pan. We can find some shrewd scrivener there and pay him to tear up that capital offence charge; then we can ask the Jia family to intercede with the magistrate of the yamen. There are those runners waiting outside too. First give them a few taels of silver to get rid of them, madam, and then we can get started.”
“Better find the other man’s family,” was Aunt Xue’s counter-proposal. “Promise them some money for the funeral as well as for compensation. If they drop the charge, the matter can be hushed up.”
“That won’t do, mother!” called Baochai from the inner room. “In a business like this, the more money you pay them the more trouble they’ll make. What the servants suggested was right.”
“I wish I were dead!” wailed Aunt Xue. “I’ll go and see my son for the last time, then die together with him!”
Baochai urged her to be of good comfort and called to the servants in the outer room, “Quickly go with Master Ke to deal with this business.”
Maids helped Aunt Xue inside.
“If you have any news, cousin, send word at once!” called Baochai to Xue Ke who was starting out. “But stay there yourselves to cope.”
Xue Ke assented and left. And Jingui seized this chance, while Baochai was consoling her mother, to round upon Xiangling.
“You used to boast that this family came to the capital after getting away scot-free with murder!” she raged. “Now he’s really gone and killed a man! And for all your bragging about the Xues’ wealth and powerful connections, look at the panic everybody’s in now! If my husband’s for it and can’t come back, you’ll all clear off leaving me to bear the brunt!” She burst out storming and sobbing.
Aunt Xue hearing this nearly fainted away with anger and Baochai, though frantic, was helpless. At the height of this scene, one of Lady Wang’s trusted maids came from the Jia Mansion to ascertain what had happened. Baochai knew she was going to marry into their household, but as this had not yet been announced, and she was feeling desperate, she did not hide herself as etiquette demanded but told the maid:
“At present this business isn’t very clear. All we’ve heard is that my brother has been arrested by the county yamen for killing a man outside. We don’t know what the verdict will be. Xue Ke has just gone to make inquiries. As soon as we have definite news, we’ll send word to your mistress. Go back now and thank her for her concern. We shall be asking later for help from your master.”
The maid accepted these instructions and left.
Aunt Xue and Baochai stayed at home in suspense until, two days later, a page came back with a letter which a young maid brought in. Baochai opened it and read:
This case involving Brother Pan was inadvertent manslaughter, not murder. This morning I sent in a plea in my name, but it has not yet
been approved. Brother Pan’s first confession was most unfortunate. Once my plea is ratified, we shall ask to go to court again to retract it, and then he may be let off. Five hundred more taels of silver to cover expenses are needed at once from our pawnshop. There must be no delay! Tell Aunt not to worry. For the rest you can question the page.
Having perused this, Baochai read it out again in full for her mother. “So it seems his fate is still in the balance!” cried Aunt Xue, wiping her tears.
“Don’t be upset, mother,” urged Baochai. “Let’s first call in the page and find out the details.”
She sent a maid to fetch him in, and Aunt Xue asked him to tell them just what had happened.
“When I heard what Master Pan told Master Ke the other evening, I was frightened out of my wits!” he began.
To know his account of the matter, read the next chapter.
Chapter 86
An Old Magistrate Takes a Bribe to Re-open a Case
A Young Girl, to While Away Time, Explains a Lute Score
After listening to Xue Ke’s letter, Aunt Xue called in the page who had brought it.
“You heard what Master Pan said. How did he come to kill a man?” she asked.
“I didn’t get it too clear, madam. That day he told Master Ke.... “The page looked round to make sure they were alone before continuing, “Master Pan said he was so sick of all these rows at home that he made up his mind to go south to buy goods. He decided to ask somebody to go with him—a certain Wu Liang who lives more than two hundred li south of this city. On his way to find him he met that Jiang Yuhan who used to be such a friend of his, bringing some young actors to town. While they were having a meal and drinking together in his inn, Master Pan was annoyed by the way the waiter kept staring at Jiang Yuhan. But then Jiang left.
“The next day, while drinking with Wu Liang, Master Pan remembered what had happened the day before and, when the waiter was slow in bringing fresh wine, he started cursing him. When the fellow answered back, he threatened him with his wine bowl. The rogue craned his neck, daring our master to hit him. Then Master Pan brought the bowl down on his head. Blood spurted out and he dropped to the ground swearing— but very soon he fell silent.”
