‘To hear you speak, it sounds as if the two of you would get on very well together,’ said Er-jie. ‘I think we ought to betroth you to him. Why not?’
San-jie was prevented from answering by Joker’s presence. She merely looked down and occupied herself by cracking a melon-seed between her teeth.
‘They’d make a fine pair,’ said Joker, ‘whether from the point of view of looks or of character. The only thing is, he’s got someone else already. Although it hasn’t been made official yet, it’s as good as certain that he’s going to marry Miss Lin. The reason they haven’t been properly engaged yet is because Miss Lin is so often ill, and also because they are still a bit on the young side; but two or three years from now, as soon as Her Old Ladyship gives the word, they are sure to be.’
They were still discussing this when Rich arrived with a message from Jia Lian.
‘Sir She is sending the Master to Ping-an in a few days’ time on important secret business. He’ll probably be away for fifteen or sixteen days. He can’t come back here tonight, but he says, Mrs You, will you and the Mistress get that business you know about settled, so that when he comes tomorrow, he’ll know what he has to do?’
Having delivered this message, he went back again, taking Joker with him. Er-jie had the gate closed after them and retired early for the night, a good part of which she spent in extracting the required information from her sister.
Jia Lian did not arrive until after noon next day. Er-jie expressed concern that he had come at all.
‘If you have something important to do, you don’t need to put yourself in a rush by coming here. I should hate to be the cause of your starting late.’
‘It isn’t anything really important,’ said Jia Lian, ‘just a job that needs doing which happens to be rather far away. I shall have to leave by the beginning of next month and it will be about half a month before I get back.’
‘Well, while you are away, just concentrate on the job,’ said Er-jie. ‘You don’t have to worry about anything here. We shall be perfectly all right. San-jie isn’t the sort of girl to change her mind overnight and she has definitely chosen her man now. I think you will have to go along with her choice.’
‘Ah yes,’ said Jia Lian. ‘Who is it?’
‘Someone who may not be available at present, in which case it’s anyone’s guess when he will be back,’ she smiled. ‘I must admit, she has a very good eye. And she says that she is prepared to wait as long as it will take – ten years if necessary. If by any chance he’s dead or for some reason or other can’t ever come, she says she will cut her hair off and become a nun. She would rather spend the rest of her life in prayer and fasting than marry anyone else.’
‘Well, come on!’ said Jia Lian. ‘Who is this person who has made such a powerful impression on her?’
‘It’s a long story,’ said Er-jie. ‘Five years ago my mother took us both with her to her old home for my grandmother’s birthday. The family had invited a troupe of amateur actors for the occasion, all young men of good family. The one who played the junior male lead was called Liu Xiang-lian. He is the only man my sister is prepared to marry. Last year he got himself into some sort of trouble and had to go into hiding, and we don’t know whether he’s out of it yet or not.’
‘So that’s who it is!’ said Jia Lian. ‘No wonder she is so keen. Yes, she certainly has a good eye. There’s something you probably don’t know about him, though. Young Liu is a very handsome young man, but he’s an awfully cold fish. He has very few real friends. Bao-yu is probably the person he gets on best with. He took himself off somewhere or other last year after beating up that oaf Xue Pan – I suppose because he wanted to avoid meeting us. I haven’t seen him since then. Someone did tell me that they’d heard he was back, but it may have been only a rumour. I can easily find out by asking one of Bao-yu’s pages. – But suppose it is only a rumour. He’s such a rolling stone, it may be years before he comes back again. Won’t it be rather a waste for her to put off marrying for so long?’
‘When our San-jie says she’s going to do something, she does it,’ said Er-jie. ‘I think you will have to go along with her.’
They were interrupted at this point by San-jie herself, who had evidently been listening to their conversation and chose this moment to come into the room.
‘Set your mind at rest, brother-in-law. I am not one of those people who say one thing and mean another; I really do mean what I say. If Liu turns up, I shall marry him. From now on and until he does I shall spend all my time praying, fasting and looking after Mamma. If he has still not turned up when Mamma is no longer here to look after, I shall go into a convent.’
She drew a jade hairpin from her hair and deliberately broke it in two.
‘So be it with me if I do not do exactly as I have sworn!’
She went straight back to her room then; and from that day onwards her conduct was indeed exemplary.
Jia Lian could see that he had no choice but to fall in with her wishes, and after a brief discussion of domestic matters with Er-jie, went home for further discussions with Xi-feng about the preparations for his journey. While at home he sent someone to ask Tealeaf about Liu Xiang-lian.
‘I’m afraid I don’t know,’ said Tealeaf. ‘I should think he probably hasn’t come back yet. If he had, I should almost certainly have got to hear about it.’
Inquiries made among Xiang-lian’s neighbours confirmed that he had not returned. Jia Lian was obliged to report back to Er-jie that he had drawn a blank.
A little before he was due to begin his journey, Jia Lian took leave of Xi-feng and the family, but only in order to spend his last two nights with Er-jie. He found San-jie so altered on this visit as to seem almost a different person. Er-jie, too, showed herself so careful and competent in her management of the little household that he could see there would be no need to worry about either of them while he was away.
Jia Lian left the city early on the day of his departure and thereafter followed the main road to Ping-an, putting up at some staging-post or hostelry each night and making shorter stops for meals and refreshments during the day. After two days of uneventful travelling he came, on the third day, upon a little caravan moving towards him along the road ahead consisting of a number of pack-animals and some ten or so horsemen, of whom the leading two appeared to be masters and the rest servants. As they drew near enough for him to make out their faces, Jia Lian saw with astonishment that the two leading horsemen were Xue Pan and Liu Xiang-lian and urged his horse forwards to meet them. After greetings and the customary generalities had been exchanged, the three of them went into a near-by inn to sit down together and talk. Jia Lian asked the question that had been puzzling him.
‘After your little incident last year, the rest of us were anxious to make it up between you, but young Liu seemed to have disappeared without a trace. How do you come to be together now?’
‘It’s a very strange story,’ said Xue Pan. ‘My boys and I finished selling our stuff off in the spring and we’ve been on our homeward journey ever since. Everything was going quite smoothly until a couple of days ago. Then just as we were approaching Ping-an, we ran into a gang of robbers who took away all our things. But just at that very moment up pops young Xiang-lian out of nowhere, drives off the robbers, gets all our stuff back for us, and saves our lives. He refused to let me thank him, but in the end he agreed that we should become blood-brothers. We’ve been travelling together ever since. From now on we’re going to be just like real brothers to each other. He’s leaving me at the next crossroads and going off sixty or seventy miles south of here to look up an aunt of his, while I go on ahead to the capital. When I’ve settled my own affairs, I’m going to find a new house for him and fix him up with a nice little wife, and we’re both going to settle down and be family men.’
‘I see,’ said Jia Lian. ‘Well, I’m glad to hear it. It’s a pity we had all that worry for nothing.’
He paused a moment before continuing.
r /> ‘You said something a moment ago about finding young Liu a wife. I happen to know of someone who would suit him perfectly.’
He proceeded to tell the other two about his own marriage to Er-jie and how they were anxious to find a husband for her younger sister, omitting to mention, of course, that San-jie had chosen Liu Xiang-lian herself.
‘Don’t say anything about this to the others when you get home,’ he told Xue Pan. ‘I’m waiting until we have a son. I shall tell them about it then.’
Xue Pan seemed delighted.
‘High time, too!’ he said. ‘Cousin Feng is to blame for not giving you one.’
“There you go again!’ said Xiang-lian, laughing. ‘You mustn’t say things like that to people. Better keep your big mouth shut!’
Xue Pan obediently fell silent, merely observing, before he did so:
‘We ought to take Lian up on his suggestion, though.’
‘I’d always set my heart on marrying a stunningly beautiful girl,’ said Xiang-lian. ‘However, since you both recommend this one, I’m prepared to lower my expectations a bit. Yes, all right, Mr Jia. I leave it to you to arrange this, then. I put myself in your hands.’
‘I don’t ask you to believe this now,’ said Jia Lian, smiling. ‘You’ll be able to judge for yourself when you see her: but this sister-in-law of mine is a stunningly beautiful girl. I should go so far as to say she must be one of the most beautiful women who have ever lived.’
Xiang-lian brightened.
‘All right, then. Shall we fix it up when I get back to the capital in about a month’s time, when I have finished seeing my aunt?’
‘If you and I were the only ones involved, I would gladly leave it at that,’ said Jia Lian, ‘but knowing how unpredictable your movements are, I can’t help feeling a little nervous on the girl’s behalf. Suppose you failed to turn up? It could mean a whole lifetime wasted. I think you ought to give me some sort of pledge.’
‘A gentleman’s word ought to be pledge enough,’ said Xiang-lian. ‘In any case, I’m always hard up; I’m not in a position to give you a betrothal gift – particularly when I am on the road like this, away from home.’
‘There’s all my stuff at your disposal,’ said Xue Pan. ‘Help yourself. Give him a share of that.’
‘It isn’t money or jewellery I’m after,’ said Jia Lian. ‘It doesn’t have to be anything valuable. Just give me something you carry about with you that I can take back with me as a token.’
‘At all events, I can’t give you this sword,’ said Xiang-lian. ‘I need it for self-defence. I have got another sword in my luggage I could let you have – well, two swords, really: it’s a pair of swords in one scabbard, what they call a “Duck and Drake” sword. It’s a family heirloom. I never use it, but I always carry it around with me. I could never bear to be parted from it for long, so however much I may wander, if you take that as my pledge, you can be sure of my eventually coming back to get it.’
He handed Jia Lian the heirloom when he had got it out of his bundle, and after a few more drinks the three men remounted, took leave of each other, and went their separate ways.
*
In due course Jia Lian arrived at Ping-an and saw the Military Governor, only to be told that the business he had come about could not be dealt with satisfactorily until some time in the tenth month. As there was no point in staying, he started back the very next day for the capital, calling in first at Er-jie’s place on his arrival.
Er-jie had run the little household during his absence with exemplary circumspection. The courtyard gate had been kept shut and bolted all day and she had received no outside visitors. San-jie, too – a young woman who never did anything by halves – had continued as good as her word. When not actually keeping to her own room, she had spent the whole of the time either ministering to the wants of her mother or sitting and sewing with Er-jie. Jia Lian was gratified to find all these signs of prudent housekeeping on his return and his respect for Er-jie’s wifely virtues increased.
When the greetings and routine questionings were over, he told the sisters about his encounter with Liu Xiang-lian, and getting the Duck and Drake swords out of his luggage, he handed them to San-jie to take care of. San-jie first examined the scabbard. It was embossed with a design of interlacing dragons and sea-monsters and encrusted all over with jewels. Then she took out the swords, identical except that one had the character ‘Duck’ and the other the character ‘Drake’ engraved on its blade. And what blades! Cold, cruel; glittering with the cold brightness of autumn waters. San-jie was enraptured by them. She put them both back into their scabbard and carried them off to her own room, where she hung them up over her bed. Thereafter she would look up at them from time to time and smile, happy in the knowledge that now her future was assured.
After a couple of nights with Er-jie, Jia Lian went back to Rong-guo House to report to his father and to rejoin the other members of the family. He found Xi-feng with the rest. She had by now recovered sufficiently to get about and had resumed her duties as household manager. As soon as he could, he went to see Cousin Zhen and tell him about San-jie and Liu Xiang-lian. Cousin Zhen was lately much taken up with a new acquaintance and had lost his former interest in the You sisters. He therefore received Jia Lian’s news with equanimity and seemed perfectly content to leave the matter in his hands, merely insisting on himself contributing thirty taels towards the expenses, since he feared that Jia Lian’s resources might be inadequate. Jia Lian accepted the money and handed it to Er-jie to spend on San-jie’s trousseau.
Round about the middle of the eighth month Xiang-lian arrived back in the capital and at once went to pay his respects to Aunt Xue and make the acquaintance of Xue Ke. He was told that Xue Pan had been ill in bed almost since the day he got back (some sickness brought on by change of water or the effects of travel) and was still under doctor’s treatment. However, on hearing that Xiang-lian had come, Xue Pan insisted on having him brought into his bedroom. He and his mother, whose earlier resentment against Xiang-lian had been completely banished by her gratitude to him for saving her son’s life, spoke eloquently of their indebtedness, and when the conversation turned to the subject of Xiang-lian’s marriage, they insisted that all the material things required for it should be supplied by them, so that he should have nothing to do himself except name the day. It was now Xiang-lian’s turn to be grateful.
Next day Xiang-lian went to see Bao-yu. The two of them were always wonderfully at ease in each other’s company and Xiang-lian felt sufficiently intimate to ask him confidentially about the circumstances of Jia Lian’s second marriage.
‘I really don’t know – beyond what Tealeaf has told me,’ said Bao-yu. ‘I haven’t been to see them. I don’t really think it’s my business. Tealeaf mentioned that Cousin Lian was very anxious to see you about something, but I don’t know what it was.’
Xiang-lian told him about the various things that had happened to him on his travels, ending up with an account of his encounter with Jia Lian.
‘Congratulations!’ said Bao-yu. ‘You are a lucky man. She’s a ravishingly beautiful girl. The perfect match for a good-looking chap like you!’
‘If she is so beautiful,’ said Xiang-lian, ‘there can be no shortage of suitors wanting to marry her. Why should your cousin pick on me? I’ve never been particularly friendly with him in the past – certainly not to that extent – yet when I met him on this journey, he was so pressing, so insistent that I should give him a definite undertaking to marry her. What am I to make of it? It’s almost as if the girl’s family was doing the pursuing. I can’t help feeling very dubious about the whole affair. I wish I hadn’t given him those swords. I thought of you as the person most likely to be able to help me get to the bottom of this business.’
‘For a person so intelligent you have left it a bit late to start feeling dubious now that you have promised to marry the girl and already given them your pledge,’ said Bao-yu. ‘You started off by saying that you wante
d to marry a beauty. Now that you’ve got one, why not leave it at that? Why these suspicions?’
‘You said just now you didn’t even know about her sister’s marriage,’ said Xiang-lian. ‘How do you know she is so beautiful?’
‘I saw her practically every day for a month at Ning-guo House when she and her sister were brought there by Cousin Zhen’s mother-in-law,’ said Bao-yu. ‘How could I fail to know? Ravishingly beautiful. Obviously made for you. You San-jie, you see: even the name makes her yours!’
Xiang-lian stamped impatiently.
‘And everyone else’s, no doubt.’ Bao-yu’s execrable pun had not amused him. ‘It won’t do. This is a thoroughly bad business. The only clean things about that Ning-guo House are the stone lions that stand outside the gate. The very cats and dogs there are corrupted!’
Bao-yu reddened, and Xiang-lian, realizing that he had gone too far, began pumping his hands apologetically.
‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. – But surely you can tell me something about her character?’
‘Since you appear to know already, I don’t quite see the point,’ said Bao-yu wryly. ‘In any case, perhaps I’m none too clean myself.’
‘What I said was spoken in the heat of the moment,’ said Xiang-lian. ‘You mustn’t take it to heart.’
‘I’ve already forgotten it,’ said Bao-yu. ‘If you go on talking about it, you will make it seem that the one who has taken it to heart is you.’
Xiang-lian pumped his hands again and took his leave. He was still thoroughly unhappy about the whole affair. At first he thought of going back to Xue Pan and talking it over with him; then he changed his mind, partly because Xue Pan was ill but mainly because in any case he had little confidence in his judgement. In the end he decided that perhaps the best thing would be simply to ask for his pledge back. Once he had made up his mind, he decided to tackle Jia Lian about it immediately. He found him at Er-jie’s place.