The enemies of Fivey and her mother, disappointed that the sentence could not be carried out on them immediately and fearful that the morrow might bring some remission, rose up next morning at crack of dawn and went secretly to Patience, hoping, by means of bribes and flattery, to buy her over. They extolled her resoluteness and drew her attention to various past misdemeanours of Cook Liu in order to strengthen the evidence against her. Patience accepted their presents, listened politely to their advice, and as soon as they had gone, slipped quietly over to Green Delights and asked Aroma whether Parfumée had in fact given some Essence of Roses to Fivey.
‘I certainly gave some to Parfumée,’ said Aroma, ‘but whether or not she passed it on to someone else, I couldn’t say.’
She called in Parfumée to ask her. Parfumée, in some alarm, at once confirmed that she had given the bottle to Fivey and went off to tell Bao-yu what had happened. Bao-yu was as shocked as she was.
‘The Essence of Roses is no problem,’ he said; ‘but what about the Lycoperdon Snow? I’m sure what she told them about it was the truth, but if it gets known that her uncle took it while on duty, then he’s going to get into trouble – which seems a rather poor exchange for his kindness.’
He thought he had better see Patience himself and point this out to her.
‘Look,’ he said, ‘the Essence of Roses can be accounted for easily enough, but that Lycoperdon Snow business still looks a bit fishy. Why don’t you be a nice, kind girl, Patience, and tell them that the Lycoperdon Snow was given to her by Parfumée as well? Then that disposes of the whole affair.’
‘That’s all very well,’ said Patience, smiling, ‘but she told everyone last night that her uncle gave it to her. How can she now make out that she got it from you? And apart from that, don’t forget that the bottle of Essence of Roses from Her Ladyship’s room has still to be accounted for. If this isn’t it, where are they going to look for it? It’s not very likely that anyone else will own up to having taken it.’
Skybright stepped over at this point to join in the discussion.
‘The Essence of Roses from Her Ladyship’s place must have been stolen by Sunset to give to young Huan. It’s as plain as the nose on your face. I don’t understand why you’re all making such a mystery of it.’
‘I know that as well as you do,’ said Patience, ‘but it’s not so simple. Silver, who was so worried about finding that bottle missing that she was in tears, did go, very quietly and nicely, and ask Sunset if she had taken it, and if Sunset had had the grace to say ‘yes’, Silver herself would have done nothing, and I’m quite sure that no one else would have made an issue of it. Who’s going to stir up trouble about a little thing like that? But unfortunately not only would Sunset not admit to having taken it, but she even had the gall to accuse Silver of taking it herself. The two of them made such a hullabaloo between them that soon everyone in the household had heard about it. By that stage I couldn’t ignore the matter any longer, even if I’d wanted to. I had to investigate it. And the first thing I found, of course, was that the one doing all the accusing was actually the thief. But without any evidence, there was nothing much I could do.’
‘I can take responsibility for that too,’ said Bao-yu. ‘You can tell them I stole the bottle from Her Ladyship’s room to give the girls a scare. Now everything is accounted for.’
‘No doubt it’s an act of merit to clear someone else of suspicion,’ said Aroma, ‘but Her Ladyship won’t be very pleased when she hears. She’ll say you’ve been up to your old childish tricks again.’
‘Oh, that’s of no consequence,’ said Patience. ‘We could of course clear this matter up quite easily by looking for the stolen bottle in Mrs Zhao’s room. The only reason I hesitate to do that is because I’m afraid it would make things difficult for a certain person whose feelings I do care about very much. I know she would be distressed, and the last thing I want to do is “damage the jade vase while trying to hit the mouse”.’
She held three fingers up as she said this to indicate that it was Tan-chun she was referring to. Aroma and the rest nodded in agreement.
‘That’s true. Perhaps it would be better if Bao-yu took all the blame.’
‘Yes,’ said Patience, ‘but at the same time I think we ought to call Sunset and Silver here and get this matter properly sorted out. We don’t want whoever it is to think she can get away with it. If we do nothing, she’s sure to think it’s because we haven’t the wit to find out rather than that it’s for the reason I’ve just said, and she’ll think she can go on stealing things with impunity.’
This being agreed on, Patience sent someone to call them over.
‘Well, you can stop worrying now, you two,’ she said when they had arrived. ‘They think they’ve found the thief.’
‘Where is she?’ said Silver.
‘At the moment she’s in Mrs Lian’s room being questioned,’ said Patience. ‘She’s admitted taking everything they’ve asked her about. I happen to know myself that she didn’t take them and is only confessing because she’s frightened. Master Bao can’t bear the idea of an innocent person suffering and has already agreed to take responsibility for some of them. As regards the rest, I could tell them who the real thief is, but there are certain difficulties. One is that the real thief is a very good friend of mine. The other is that the receiver of stolen goods, who is a pretty poor specimen, is closely related to a very nice person who would be very much upset if all of this were to come into the open. It looks as if I shall have to ask Master Bao to take responsibility for the whole lot, so that everyone is clear of suspicion. Before I do that, however, there’s something I should like to be clear about first. Can I be sure, if I do ask him to do us this favour, that everyone is going to be a bit more careful in future? Because if not, then rather than stand by and see an innocent person suffer, I shall have to tell all I know to Mrs Lian.’
A blush had overspread Sunset’s face while Patience was saying this. Her natural decency suddenly getting the better of her compelled her now to speak.
‘Don’t worry, Patience. There’s no need for any innocent person to suffer and there’s no need for that other person you mentioned to be upset. I stole those things. It was because Mrs Zhao kept on at me to take them. I stole them to give to Huan. Even when Her Ladyship was here I often used to steal things for him, so that he could give them away to his friends. I thought that the fuss made when they found out that things were missing would die down in a day or two. I can’t stand by and let an innocent person take the blame. You’ll have to take me with you to Mrs Lian and let me make a clean breast of it.’
Her courage took all of them by surprise.
‘You’re a good sort, Sunset, I always knew you were,’ said Bao-yu admiringly, ‘but there’s really no need for you to tell her. All I’ve got to do is say that I stole those things for a lark, to give you all a scare, and that now there’s been all this fuss about them, I feel I ought to own up. There’s only one thing, though. I really must ask you girls to be more careful in future, for all our sakes.’
‘I did it,’ said Sunset, ‘it’s up to me to face the music.’
Patience and Aroma disagreed.
‘That’s not the way to look at it at all. If you confess, they’re sure to worm something out about Mrs Zhao, and that will upset Miss Tan again when she gets to hear about it. You’d much better let Master Bao accept responsibility, so that everyone is cleared. Nobody except the few of us here knows the truth, so it’s terribly easy for him to do this. But as Master Bao says, you really will have to be more careful in future. If you must take anything, at least wait until Her Ladyship is here. When she is back, you can give the whole room away if you like, because then we shan’t be involved!’
Sunset hung her head and pondered for some moments before finally agreeing to go along with this.
When it was settled exactly what they should do, Patience went with Parfumée and the two maids from Lady Wang’s apartment to the watch-ro
om, called out Fivey, and quietly instructed her to say that the Lycoperdon Snow as well as the Essence of Roses had been given to her by Parfumée. Fivey was deeply grateful. Patience next took Fivey with her to Wang Xi-feng’s place, where Lin Zhi-xiao’s wife and her helpers had already been waiting for some time with Fivey’s mother in their custody.
‘I brought her here first thing,’ Lin Zhi-xiao’s wife told Patience in reference to her prisoner. ‘As that left no one to get the lunch ready, I put Qin Xian’s wife temporarily in charge, so that the young ladies should get their meal on time.’
‘Who is Qin Xian’s wife?’ said Patience. ‘I don’t think I know her.’
‘She does night duty in the south corner of the Garden. She doesn’t do anything in the daytime: that’s probably why you don’t know her. Very high cheek-bones and big round eyes. She’s a very clean, lively little body.’
‘Yes, of course you know her, Patience,’ said Silver. ‘She’s the auntie of Miss Ying’s maid, Chess. Chess’s father works for Sir She, but her uncle and auntie work on this side of the mansion with us.’
Patience remembered with a laugh.
‘Oh, that’s who you’ve chosen! If you’d told me that, I should have known who you meant.’ She laughed again. ‘You’ve been a bit too quick with your appointment. It’s all cleared up now, this business. The waters have gone down and we can see the rocks. We know now who the real thief was who stole that stuff from Her Ladyship’s room. It was Bao-yu. He went round to Her Ladyship’s apartment some days ago and asked Silver and Sunset for something and just for a tease the silly girls said he couldn’t have it, because they couldn’t give him anything while Her Ladyship was away. So he simply slipped in later on when they weren’t there and helped himself. When these two found the things missing, they were scared out of their wits. But as soon as Bao-yu heard that someone else had been accused of taking the things, he told me everything. He even brought them round to show me, so that I could see they exactly corresponded with what the girls had told me was missing. As regards the Lycoperdon Snow, that was something that Bao-yu had got from outside. He’s been giving it away to all kinds of people – not only in the Garden: one or two of the old nannies begged some off him to give to their relations outside and they have given it to other people as presents; and Aroma gave some of hers to Parfumée and that lot and they’ve been passing the stuff to and fro between themselves. So you see, it’s all over the place. The two baskets that were left in the jobs room the other day for Their Ladyships are still untouched. The seals on them haven’t been broken. So as far as that’s concerned, there are no grounds for a charge either. If you’ll wait here a few moments longer, I’m just going in to tell Mrs Lian about this and we’ll see what she says.’
Patience then went into the bedroom and repeated almost verbatim to Xi-feng what she had just been telling Lin Zhi-xiao’s wife.
‘That’s as may be,’ said Xi-feng when she had finished; ‘but we all know how ready Bao-yu is to cover up for other people. Someone only has to go to him with a hard-luck story – especially if there’s a bit of flattery thrown in with it – and he’ll own up to anything in order to get them off. If we believe him now, how are we going to deal with more serious cases later on? I think this needs going into more carefully. I think you ought to get hold of those girls from Her Ladyship’s apartment and – well, I wouldn’t say torture them exactly, but you could get them to kneel in the sun on broken china all day without anything to eat or drink. If one day doesn’t make them confess, just go on day after day until they do. They’re sure to give in sooner or later, even if they’re made of iron.’
‘And as for that Liu woman,’ she went on, ‘you know what they say. When flies gather on an egg, it’s generally a sign that there’s a crack in it. She may not have stolen anything in this instance, but I suspect she’s no better than she should be for all these people to be complaining about her. We’ll let her off the flogging, of course, but I still think we ought to dismiss her. Even in the Emperor’s court people get punished for what they call “guilt by association”, so she can’t complain if we sack her merely on suspicion.’
‘Yes, but why bother?’ said Patience. ‘They say that where mercy is possible, mercy should be shown. What better opportunity than this could you have of showing yourself merciful for once? Look at all the trouble you give yourself on account of these people, and they aren’t even your own household: it’s Lady Xing’s household that you really belong to. And where does it all get you, at the end of the day? All you do is build up a lot of resentment against yourself and turn a lot of nasty, spiteful people into your enemies. A person in your delicate health can’t afford to make enemies. Think of all the time it took you to conceive a man-child – and then to lose it after carrying it inside you for six or seven months! How do we know that that wasn’t brought on by too much worrying about this sort of thing? I think you ought to start straight away taking things a bit easier. Close your eyes to things a bit oftener. “What the eye doesn’t see the heart doesn’t grieve”!’
Patience’s little homily quickly won Xi-feng to a better humour.
‘All right,’ she said, laughing. ‘Do as you wish. I’m not going to get myself worked up about it.’
‘Now you’re talking sensibly,’ said Patience happily, and going out of the bedroom, proceeded to dispose of the business outside in the way she had all along intended to.
But more of that in the next chapter.
CHAPTER 62
A tipsy Xiang-yun sleeps on a peony-petal pillow And a grateful Caltrop unfastens ber pomegranate skirt
‘It’s the sign of a really thriving household,’ said Patience, ‘that their big troubles turn into little ones and their little ones into nothing at all. To make a great song and dance over a trifle like this would be plain ridiculous. You can take them both back to the kitchen. The mother is to keep her job. Qin Xian’s wife will have to go back where she came from. There is to be no further mention of this matter. Let there be no slackening in the daily inspection of the Garden, though. That’s most important.’
As she turned to go, Cook Liu and her daughter stepped quickly forwards and kotowed their thanks. Lin Zhi-xiao’s wife then conducted them back to the Garden, after which she reported to Li Wan and Tan-chun on what had been decided. Both expressed satisfaction that the matter had resolved itself without further trouble.
The victory that had been gained by Chess and her faction was thus an empty one, and Qin Xian’s wife, that aunt of Chess’s whose installation in the kitchen had been the result of long and patient scheming, enjoyed only the briefest moment of triumph in her new position. Beginning in a great bustle with a general stock-taking of the kitchen’s equipment and stores, she detected – or claimed to detect – various shortages in the latter. Two piculs of best rice were missing, she said; a month’s supply of general purpose rice had been overdrawn; and the amount of charcoal was not what it was supposed to be. While so engaged, she was at the same time making discreet arrangements for the conveyance of various ‘presents’ (they included, by a strange coincidence, a pannier of charcoal and a load of rice) to Lin Zhi-xiao’s quarters outside; and there were to be presents for the clerks who worked in Accounts. She also prepared several dishes for a little repast to which she invited her new colleagues.
‘Now that I’ve got this job, I rely entirely on your support to run things here,’ she told them. ‘So if there are any little matters that I fall down in, I shall look to you all to help me out.’
Suddenly, in the midst of this activity, new orders arrived:
‘As soon as you have finished serving this lunch, you must leave. Liu has been cleared. They’re putting her back in charge here.’
Stunned though she was by this news, the wretched woman had at once to begin packing her things, and soon, with drums muffled and colours furled, beat a hasty retreat from the kitchen. The things she had given away to others – pointlessly, it now appeared – had to be made
good, in some cases by selling her own possessions. Even Chess, for all her fury, was powerless to help her.
Ever since the fuss made by Silver about the missing objects, Aunt Zhao, the secret recipient of many of the things which Sunset had stolen, had been living in fear of discovery. Each day, as she made her surreptitious inquiries about the current progress of investigations, she perspired afresh. When Sunset herself suddenly came in and announced that Bao-yu had owned up and that there was nothing more to fear, she was naturally very much relieved. The effect on Jia Huan, however, was somewhat different. He immediately became suspicious, and taking out all the things that Sunset had been at such pains to get for him, he threw them in her face.
‘Two-faced thing!’ he shouted. ‘You must be thick with Bao-yu or he wouldn’t have covered up for you. If you were prepared to take those things in the first place, you ought to have kept quiet about it and not told anyone. Now that you’ve told him, I don’t want them any more. They would only remind me of your treachery.’
Sunset swore by the most desperate oaths that she had been faithful to him; she even wept; but Jia Huan was adamant.
‘If it weren’t that we used to be friends,’ he said, ‘I’d go straight along now to Aunt Lian and tell her that you stole those things. I’d tell her that you offered them to me, but I wouldn’t take them. Think about that then, and consider yourself lucky to have got away with it!’
With those words he flounced out of the room, to the great indignation of his mother, who shouted after him angrily.
‘Ungrateful little blackguard! What do you mean by it?’
Sunset meanwhile was weeping as if her heart would break.
‘Poor child!’ said Aunt Zhao, trying to comfort her. ‘He doesn’t appreciate you. But at least I know you are faithful to him. Let me look after these things for you. He’s sure to come round to a more sensible way of thinking in a day or two.’