Jia Lian, delighted to hear that Xiang-lian had already come to call, came hurrying out to meet him and conducted him to the inside sitting-room to introduce him to his future mother-in-law. He was somewhat surprised when Xiang-lian merely bowed to the old lady instead of making her a kotow and addressed her formally as ‘Mrs You’. The significance of this became apparent presently when tea was served and Xiang-lian came at once to the point.
‘I am afraid that when I met you recently on my travels I acted far too hastily. I didn’t know at the time, but it seems that my aunt had already in the fourth month chosen another girl to be my wife. When she told me about it, there was obviously nothing I could say. To hold to my agreement with you would have meant disobeying my aunt, and that of course is out of the question. Now, if the pledge I gave you had been gold or silk or something of that sort, I should simply have forgotten about it; but those swords I gave you were a family heirloom left me by my grandfather, so I’m afraid I shall very regretfully have to ask you for them back.’
Jia Lian was unable to take this calmly.
‘Now look here, young Liu, this won’t do, you know! A pledge is a pledge. The whole idea of it is to guard against people having second thoughts like this. An engagement to marry isn’t something you can just jump into and out of at will. I’m afraid what you are proposing is quite impossible.’
Xiang-lian smiled patiently.
‘No doubt you are in the right, and I am perfectly prepared for you to reproach me; but I’m afraid I cannot go through with this marriage under any circumstances.’
Jia Lian seemed about to argue, but Xiang-lian frustrated him by rising to his feet.
‘Could we go and discuss this somewhere else, please? It isn’t very convenient, talking about it in here.’
You San-jie had been able to hear the whole of this conversation quite clearly from her room. She had waited so long for Xiang-lian, and now that at last he had come, he was rejecting her. It must be because of something he had heard about her in the Jia mansion. He probably thought of her as a shameless wanton, the sort of woman who throws herself at men, unworthy to be his wife. If she allowed the two men to go off together, there was little likelihood that Jia Lian could do anything to stop him breaking off the engagement; and even if he tried arguing with him, the probable outcome would only be further damage to her reputation. As soon, therefore, as she heard Jia Lian agreeing to go outside with him, she snatched the swords down from the wall, and having first drawn out the Duck and hidden it behind her back, she hurried into the sitting-room to see them.
‘There is no need for you to go out and discuss anything,’ she said. ‘Here is your pledge back.’
The tears were pouring down her cheeks like rain. She held out the scabbard with the single sword in it in her left hand. As Xiang-lian took it, she whipped the other sword out with her right hand and slashed it across her throat. It was all over in a moment.
Red scatter of broken blossoms, and the jade column fallen, Never to rise again…
The terrified servants made futile attempts to resuscitate her, but she was already dead. Old Mrs You wept and screamed, breaking off from time to time to inveigh against Xiang-lian as a murderer. Jia Lian seized hold of Xiang-lian and called for someone to bring a rope, intending to tie him up and take him to the yamen; but Er-jie checked her weeping and did her best to dissuade him.
‘He didn’t force her to do it, it was her own decision. What good will taking him to the yamen do? We don’t want a public scandal on top of everything else. Much better let him go.’
Jia Lian, whose resolution seemed temporarily to have deserted him, let go of Xiang-lian automatically: but Xiang-lian made no attempt to escape.
‘I didn’t know she was like this,’ he said, weeping. ‘She had a noble heart. It wasn’t my luck to have her.’
He lifted up his own voice then and wept, as if he had been weeping for his bride. He stayed with the family until the coffin had been bought and San-jie laid inside it; and when the lid was closed over her, he threw himself on it and clung to it for a long time weeping. Only then did he take leave of them, walking alone out of the gate, blinded by his tears and scarcely knowing where he was going.
As he walked along in a daze, his thoughts full of San-jie’s rare combination of beauty and resoluteness which he had so wantonly rejected, one of Xue Pan’s little pages came looking for him to take him to his new house. Xiang-lian was too distracted to pay the boy much attention and allowed himself to be led there by the hand. It was a pleasant, well-appointed little house. While he and the page stood waiting in the sitting-room, he heard a little tinkling noise – the sound made by the girdle-gems of a hurrying woman – and San-jie came into it from outside. She had the Duck cradled in her right arm. Her left hand was holding some sort of album or ledger.
‘I loved you for five years,’ she said. (The tears were still running down her cheeks.) ‘I did not know that your heart was as cold as your face. It was a foolish love, and I have paid for it with my life. Now I am ordered to go to the Fairy Disenchantment’s tribunal in the Land of Illusion to keep the records of the other lovers who are under her jurisdiction. But I could not bear to leave without seeing you just once more before I go. After this I shall never see you again.’
She began to go, but Xiang-lian wanted to question her and tried to stop her going. She spoke again, but this time it sounded more like an incantation.
‘From love I came; from love I now depart. I wasted my life for love, and now that I have woken up, I am ashamed of my folly. From now on we are nothing to each other, you and I – nothing.’
A little gust of wind with a faint fragrance on it seemed to blow past him as she uttered these last words, and the very next moment she had vanished.
Xiang-lian came to himself with a start, uncertain whether or not he had been dreaming. He could see no sign of Xue Pan’s little page when he looked about him, and the new house had turned into a dilapidated temple. Not far from him a Taoist with a crippled leg sat catching and killing his lice. Xiang-lian got up and went over to him.
‘What is this place, holy one?’ he asked, having first clasped his hands and knocked them against his forehead in the appropriate salutation. ‘And may I know whom I have the honour of addressing?’
The Taoist chuckled.
‘I don’t know where this place is any more than you do. Nor who I am. It is a place where I am resting a little while before going on elsewhere.’
It felt to Xiang-lian as if a douche of icy water had penetrated him to the bone with its coldness. He understood. Without a moment’s hesitation he drew the companionless Drake out of its scabbard, stretched out his queue, slashed through
… the unnumbered strands
That bind us to the world and its annoys,
and as soon as the Taoist was ready, followed him out into the world. But where the two of them went to, I have no idea. Other information apart from that will be available in the following chapter.
CHAPTER 67
Frowner sees something that makes her homesick And Xi-feng hears something that rouses her suspicions
The grief occasioned in old Mrs You, Er-jie, Cousin Zhen and Jia Lian by San-jie’s suicide can be imagined. It long outlasted her burial outside the city walls, which took place shortly after the encoffining. As for Liu Xiang-lian, the human repinings felt by that somewhat cold young man when he realized the value of what he had lost were brought to an abrupt end (as we have shown) by the even colder words of the Taoist, which, by breaking through the Barrier of Confusion and opening his eyes to the vanity of human affections, caused him to renounce the world by symbolically severing his hair and following the mad holy man in his wanderings. The direction these took them in is unknown, as we stated in the previous chapter. Let us leave them and see how others were affected by these events.
Aunt Xue had been delighted by the news of Xiang-lian’s betrothal to You San-jie. The wedding would give her an opportunity of
demonstrating her gratitude to him for saving her son’s life. She was excitedly planning for this event – discussing the purchase of a house and furniture, selecting a date, making arrangements for the ceremony and so forth – when one of the household boys came in with the appalling news that San-jie had cut her throat and Xiang-lian decided to become a Taoist. She was still puzzling over the incomprehensible nature of this disaster when Bao-chai came over from the Garden.
‘Child, have you heard the news?’ Aunt Xue asked her. ‘Mrs Zhen’s younger sister, San-jie – the one that was engaged to marry Pan’s new “brother” Liu Xiang-lian – has cut her throat. I’ve no idea why. And Xiang-lian has renounced the world and just disappeared. Isn’t it terrible? I don’t know what to make of it.’
Bao-chai heard her without emotion.
‘It is as the proverb says, Mamma: “The weather and human life are unpredictable.” This was probably preordained because of something they did in their past lives. The other day you were planning to do everything you could for him because of what he did for Pan. Now she is dead and he has disappeared. I think the best thing you can do is just forget about them. There is no point in upsetting yourself on their account; there are other things to worry about. It is more than a fortnight now since Pan got back from the South and the goods he brought with him must all have been disposed of by now. Surely you ought to have a word with him about entertaining the people who went with him on the journey? They had a good deal of hardship to put up with during their months of travel. It will seem very uncouth of us if we do not find some way of showing our appreciation.’
While Bao-chai and her mother were talking, Xue Pan came in from outside. His eyes were still wet from recent weeping.
‘Mamma,’ he said, ‘have you heard about Xiang-lian and San-jie?’
‘They told me only a few minutes ago,’ said Aunt Xue. ‘Your sister and I were talking about it when you came in.’
‘You heard that Xiang-lian had gone off with some Taoist then,’ said Xue Pan.
‘Yes,’ said Aunt Xue. ‘That’s what’s so extraordinary. Why should an intelligent young man like that suddenly take leave of his senses to go wandering off with a Taoist? As he had no parents or brothers, I think it’s up to you as his best friend to find him. They say the Taoist is both mad and lame, so they cannot have got very far – probably no farther than one of the temples or monasteries in this vicinity.’
‘That’s exactly what I thought, Mamma,’ said Xue Pan. ‘As soon as I heard the news, I went around looking for him with the boys, but we couldn’t find a trace of him anywhere, and none of the people we talked to seemed to have seen him.’
‘Well, if you’ve already looked for him and he can’t be found, you’ve done as much as a friend could do,’ said Aunt Xue. ‘Some good might yet come of it, you never know. What you’ve got to do now is start getting your business back into shape. And for another thing, it’s time you started thinking about your own marriage and making a few preparations. We’ve got no other man in the family but you and you’re not as bright as you might be. You know what they say about baby birds learning to fly. The sillier the bird, the sooner it must begin. If you start getting ready well in advance, there will be less danger of making yourself ridiculous when the time comes by finding that there are all sorts of things you have forgotten. And there’s something else I want to talk to you about. Your sister has just been pointing out to me, it’s more than a fortnight since you came back and the goods you brought back with you must all have been sold off by now. You ought to give a little party for those of our employees who went with you on the journey – just a little gesture to show them that you appreciate their services. After all, it was a long journey. What would it be? A thousand miles there and back? Pretty nearly. You were four or five months away, at all events. And don’t forget, they underwent some very alarming experiences on your behalf.’
‘You’re absolutely right, Mamma,’ said Xue Pan. ‘And sis, she always thinks of everything. I had thought about it myself, but during these last few days, what with running around everywhere disposing of the stock until my head feels as if it will burst and running around getting things ready for Xiang-lian’s wedding (fat lot of good that was, now that it’s all come to nothing!) I somehow didn’t get round to it. Still, it’s not too late. We can fix a time for tomorrow or the day after and send the invitations out straight away.’
‘I leave all that to you,’ said his mother.
The words were scarcely out of her mouth when one of the pages came in from outside to report.
‘There are some men here from the shop with two cases of stuff for you and a message from Mr Zhang. He says these are the things you bought for yourself, that aren’t on the stocklist. He would have sent them round earlier, but there were a lot of other cases on top of them and he couldn’t get them out. He says they didn’t finish selling the stock off until yesterday, so this is the first time he has been able to get at them.’
Two other pages carried the two cases in, one after the other, while he was speaking. They were large coir trunks, protectively crated between pairs of roped-together boards.
‘Aiyo!’ said Xue Pan. ‘How stupid of me! I brought these things back specially for you and sis, Mamma, but I completely forgot to bring them home with me. Fancy the boys in the shop having to remember them for me!’
‘It’s a good thing you “brought them back specially”, said Bao-chai. ‘Now we’re only getting them a fortnight late. If you hadn’t “brought them back specially”, we should probably have had to wait until the end of the year! It’s the same with everything you do. You are so thoughtless.’
Xue Pan laughed.
‘I think it’s because of that scare we had on the journey. It scared the wits out of me and they haven’t got back into the right holes yet.’
The others laughed. He turned to the boy who had come in with the message.
‘All right. Tell the men outside we’ve got the stuff now and they can go back to the shop.’
Aunt Xue and Bao-chai were curious.
‘Well, what is it you’ve got all crated and corded up so carefully?’
Xue Pan told the pages to untie the ropes, remove the protecting boards and undo the fastenings of the trunks. The first one contained mostly materials – silks, satins, brocades and so forth – and various foreign articles of domestic use.
‘The other trunk is stuff I got specially for you, sis,’ said Xue Pan.
He undid the fastenings of it himself. Besides writing-brushes, ink-sticks, inkstones, different sorts of fancy stationery, purses, rosaries, fans, fan-cases, face-powder, rouge and other feminine articles, it contained a whole lot of novelties from Hu-qiu-shan: little mercury-filled automata who turned somersaults when you put them down on the floor or a table, automata with sand-filled cylindrical bodies whose arms, legs and heads moved when you set the sand running, and lots and lots of scenes from drama made up of tiny figures moulded in coloured clay in cases of transparent green gauze. Most fascinating of all was a tiny made-to-order figure of Xue Pan himself, looking exactly like the original in every detail. Bao-chai had no eyes for anything but this. Picking the tiny replica up in her hand to examine it, she looked from it to the original and burst out laughing. She had the other things put back into the trunk and ordered two of the older servants to carry it to All-spice Court for her under Oriole’s supervision while she herself stayed chatting a little longer with her mother and brother. Then she too went back into the Garden.
After she had gone, Aunt Xue proceeded to go over the contents of the other trunk with Providence, taking them out, putting them into separate piles, and explaining which pile was to be given to Grandmother Jia, which to Lady Wang, and so forth.
Xue Pan for his part began there and then to make preparations for a party. The invitations to his employees were dispatched with great urgency, for he was determined that the party should be on the very next day. As a number of people were invited, it t
ook some time for all of them to assemble and there was much talk about trading, accountancy and the disposal of stock before the last of the guests had arrived. When they were all present, Xue Pan invited them to take their places at table and went round himself with the wine-kettle to fill their cups. Aunt Xue sent someone in to thank them on the family’s behalf for their loyal service. Thereupon drinking began and conversation of a more general kind among the guests. Presently one of them observed that a good friend was missing from their company whose presence might have been expected.
‘Oh?’ said the others. ‘Who’s that?’
‘Mr Liu,’ the man said, ‘that saved all our lives and became a blood-brother to the master.’
This started a good deal of speculation among the guests and finally one of them asked Xue Pan outright why he had not invited him. Xue Pan frowned and sighed.
‘Don’t ask me about him,’ he said. ‘It’s a very funny business. It isn’t “Mr Liu” now any longer. It’s “Father Liu”.’
The others expressed surprise.
‘How can that be?’
Xue Pan related the whole story to them. They were even more surprised when they heard.
‘Now I understand what they were shouting about yesterday outside the shop,’ said one of them. ‘It was something about a man having been converted by only two or three words spoken to him by a Taoist. Someone else said the two of them had vanished into thin air. They didn’t say who the man was. We were all busy selling stock at the time, so we couldn’t go outside to find out and we’ve been wondering ever since whether to believe the story or not. We never imagined it was Mr Liu they were talking about. If we’d known, we’d have gone after him and tried to reason with him. I’m sure we’d have found some way of stopping him.’
‘I’ve got a different theory about what happened,’ said one of them.
‘Oh? What’s that?’ the others asked him.