The Golden Days

  But he was out of luck, for as he did so he found himself facing Zhan Guang and Shan Ping-ren, two of the literary gentlemen patronized by his father, who were walking towards him from the opposite direction. They descended on him gleefully, one of them clasping him round the waist, the other taking him by a hand.

  ‘Angelic boy! How seldom one has the pleasure! Is it really you, or is this some delightful dream?’

  They prattled on for what seemed an age before finally releasing him. As they were going, one of the old nurses detained them a moment longer.

  ‘Have you two gentlemen just come from the Master’s ?’

  The two gentlemen nodded and smiled conspiratorially:

  ‘Sir Zheng is in his little study in the Su Dong-po Rooms, having his afternoon nap. All is well !’

  They hurried off. Bao-yu smiled too, relieved that his father was safely out of the way. Turning once again, this time north-wards, he made his way swiftly towards Pear Tree Court.

  Once more he was unlucky. The Clerk of Stores Wu Xin-deng, a man called Dai Liang who was foreman at the granary, and five other foremen were just at that moment coming out of the counting-house together and, catching sight of Bao-yu, at once stood respectfully to attention. One of their number, a buyer called Qian Hua who had not seen Bao-yu for some considerable time, hurried forward, dropped on his right knee, and touched his hand to the ground in the Manchu salute. Bao-yu smilingly extended a hand to raise him up. The men all relaxed in smiles.

  ‘I saw some of your calligraphy in town the other day, Master Bao,’ said one of them. ‘It’s getting really good! When are you going to give us a few sheets for ourselves, to put up on the wall ?’

  ‘Where did you see it?’ Bao-yu asked.

  ‘Any number of places,’ the men told him. ‘Everyone has been praising it no end. They even come to us asking for specimens.’

  ‘You can have some easily enough if you really want to,’ Bao-yu said. ‘You have only to ask one of my boys.’

  He hurried on. The men waited for him to pass before dispersing about their business.

  To omit further details of his progress, Bao-yu came at last to Pear Tree Court, and going first into Aunt Xue’s room, found her giving instructions to her maids about some embroidery. Her response to his greeting was to draw him towards her and clasp him to her bosom in an affectionate embrace.

  ‘What a nice, kind boy to think of us on a cold day like this! Come up on the kang and get warm!’

  She ordered a maid to bring him some ‘boiling hot tea’.

  Bao-yu inquired whether Cousin Pan was at home. Aunt Xue sighed.

  ‘Pan is like a riderless horse: always off enjoying himself somewhere or other. He won’t spend a single day at home if he can help it.’

  ‘What about Bao-chai? Is she quite better?’

  ‘Ah yes, of course!’ said Aunt Xue. ‘You sent someone to ask about her the other day, didn’t you? That was very thoughtful of you. I think she’s inside. Go in and have a look! It’s warmer in there than here. You go in and sit down, and I’ll be with you in a moment when I’ve finished tidying up.’

  Bao-yu got down from the kang and going to the doorway of the inner room, lifted up the rather worn-looking red silk curtain which covered it. Bao-chai was sitting on the kang inside, sewing. Her lustrous black hair was done up in a simple bun without any kind of ornament. She was wearing a honey-coloured padded gown, a mulberry-coloured sleeveless jacket with a pattern in gold and silver thread, and a greenish-yellow padded skirt. All her clothing had the same sensible, rather well-worn look about it.

  He saw no hint of luxury or show,

  only a chaste, refined sobriety;

  to some her studied taciturnity

  might seem to savour of duplicity;

  but she herself saw in conformity

  the means of guarding her simplicity.

  ‘Have you quite recovered, cousin?’ Bao-yu asked.

  Raising her head, Bao-chai saw Bao-yu enter the room. She rose quickly to her feet and smiled at him.

  ‘I am quite better now. It was nice of you to think of me.’

  She made him sit on the edge of the kang and ordered Oriole to pour him some tea. Then she proceeded to ask him first about Grandmother Jia, then about Lady Wang and then about the girls, while her eye took in the details of his dress.

  He had a little jewel-encrusted coronet of gold filigree on the top of his head and a circlet in the form of two dragons supporting a pearl round his brow. He was dressed in a narrow-sleeved, full-skirted robe of russet-green material covered with a pattern of writhing dragons and lined and trimmed with white fox-fur. A butterfly-embroidered sash with fringed ends was fastened round his waist, and from his neck hung a padlock-shaped amulet, a lucky charm, and the famous jade said to have been inside his mouth when he was born.

  Bao-chai’s eye came to rest on the jade.

  ‘I am always hearing about this famous stone of yours,’ she said smilingly, ‘but I have never yet had a chance of examining it really closely. Today I think I should like to have a look.’

  She moved forward as she spoke, and Bao-yu too leaned towards her, and taking the stone from his neck, put it into her hand.

  Looking at it as it lay on her palm, she saw a stone about the size of a sparrow’s egg, glowing with the suppressed, milky radiance of a sunlit cloud and veined with iridescent streaks of colour.

  Reader, you will, of course, remember that this jade was a transformation of that same great stone block which once lay at the foot of Greensickness Peak in the Great Fable Mountains. A certain jesting poet has written these verses about it:

  Nü-wa’s stone-smelting is a tale unfounded:

  On such weak fancies our Great Fable’s grounded.

  Lost now, alack! and gone my heavenly stone -

  Transformed to this vile bag of flesh and bone.

  For, in misfortune, gold no longer gleams;

  And bright jade, when fate frowns, lack-lustre seems.

  Heaped charnel-bones none can identify

  Were golden girls and boys in days gone by.

  The words which the scabby-headed monk had incised on the stone when he found it lying in its diminished shape under Greensickness Peak were as follows.

  (On the front side)

  MAGIC JADE

  Mislay me not, forget me not,

  And hale old age shall be your lot.

  (On the reverse side)

  1. Dispels the harms of witchcraft.

  2. Cures melancholic distempers.

  3. Foretells good and evil fortune.

  When Bao-chai had looked at the stone all over, she turned back to the inscription on the front and repeated it a couple of times to herself out loud:

  ‘Mislay me not, forget me not,

  And hale old age shall be your lot.’

  ‘Why aren’t you pouring the tea?’ she asked Oriole. ‘What are you standing there gawping for?’

  Oriole laughed.

  ‘Because those words sounded like a perfect match to the ones on your necklace.’

  ‘So you have an inscription, too ?’ said Bao-yu pricking up his ears. ‘I must have a look.’

  ‘Don’t take any notice of her!’ said Bao-chai. ‘There is no inscription.’

  ‘Cousin, cousin,’ said Bao-yu entreatingly, ‘you’ve had a look at mine. Be fair!’

  Bao-chai could not escape the logic of this entreaty.

  ‘There is a motto on it which someone gave us once for luck and which we had engraved on it,’ she admitted. ‘That’s the only reason I always wear it; otherwise it would be too tiresome to have a heavy thing like this hanging round one’s neck all the time.’

  As she was speaking she undid the top buttons of her jacket and gown and extracted the necklace that she was wearing over the dark red shift beneath. Its pendant was a locket of shining solid gold, bordered with sparkling gems. There was a line of writing engraved on either side of it which together made up the words of a char
m:

  Ne’er leave me, ne’er abandon me:

  And years of health shall be your fee.

  He recited them a couple of times and then recited the words of his own inscription a couple of times.

  ‘Why, yes!’ he cried delightedly. ‘The two inscriptions are a perfect match !’

  ‘A scabby-headed old monk gave Miss Bao-chai the words,’ said Oriole. ‘He said they must be engraved on something made of gold…’

  Bao-chai angrily cut her short, telling her to mind her business and pour the tea. To change the subject she asked Bao-yu where he had just come from.

  Bao-yu was now sitting almost shoulder to shoulder with her and as he did so became aware of a penetrating fragrance that seemed to emanate from her person.

  ‘What incense do you use to scent your clothes with, cousin?’ he asked. ‘I have never smelt such a delicious perfume.’

  ‘I can’t stand incense perfumes,’ said Bao-chai. ‘I could never see the point of smoking perfectly good, clean clothes over an incense-pot.’

  ‘In that case, what is this perfume I can smell ?’

  Bao-chai thought for a moment.

  ‘I know! It must be the Cold Fragrance Pill I took this morning.’

  ‘What’s a Cold Fragrance Pill?’ said Bao-yu with a laugh. ‘Won’t you give me one to try?’

  ‘Now you’re being silly again. Medicine isn’t something to be taken for amusement.’

  Just at that moment the servants outside announced ‘Miss Lin’ and almost simultaneously Dai-yu came flouncing into the room. Catching sight of Bao-yu she let out a wail of mock dismay.

  ‘Oh dear! I have chosen a bad time to come!’

  The others rose and invited her to be seated.

  ‘Why did you say that?’ Bao-chai asked her.

  ‘If I had known he was coming, I shouldn’t have come myself.’

  ‘What exactly do you mean by that?’

  ‘What do I mean by that?’ said Dai-yu. ‘I mean that if I only come when he does, then when I don’t come you won’t have any visitors. Whereas if we space ourselves out so that he comes one day and I come the next, it will never get either too lonely or too noisy for you. I shouldn’t have thought that needed much explaining.’

  Observing that Dai-yu was wearing a greatcoat of red camlet over her dress, Bao-yu asked whether it was snowing outside.

  ‘It’s been snowing for some time,’ said one of the old women standing below the kang.

  Bao-yu asked someone to go and fetch his winter cape.

  ‘You see!’ said Dai-yu. ‘When I come, he has to go!’

  ‘Who said anything about going?’ said Bao-yu. ‘I just want them to have it ready for me.’

  ‘It’s no time to go now, while it’s still snowing,’ said Bao-yu’s old nurse, Nannie Li. ‘Much better stay here and play with your cousins. In any case, I think your Aunt Xue is getting tea ready for you. I’ll send a maid to fetch your cape. Shall I tell the boys outside they can go?’

  Bao-yu nodded, and Nannie Li went outside and dismissed the pages.

  By now Aunt Xue had finished laying tea, which included a number of delicious-looking things to eat, and invited the cousins to partake. While they were doing so, Bao-yu happened to mention the excellent goose-foot preserve made by his Cousin Zhen’s wife that he had eaten at the Ning mansion only two days previously. Aunt Xue at once hurried out and fetched some of her own for him to try.

  ‘This really needs to be eaten with wine,’ said Bao-yu.

  Aunt Xue gave orders for some of the best wine to be decanted; but Nannie Li disapproved.

  ‘He shouldn’t have wine, Mrs Xue.’

  ‘Oh go on, Nannie I’ Bao-yu pleaded good-humouredly. ‘I shall only drink one cup.’

  ‘It’s no good!’ said Nannie Li. ‘I don’t mind if you drink a hogshead as long as your grandmother or your mother is there. But look at the trouble I got into the other day just because when I had my back turned for a moment some wretched person who ought to have known better gave you a sip or two to humour you! I didn’t hear the end of it for days after.

  ‘You don’t know how wild he can be, Mrs Xue,’ she continued. ‘And he gets even worse when he’s had something to drink. With Her Old Ladyship you can never tell. One day when she’s feeling high-spirited she’ll let him drink as much as he likes; other days she won’t let him touch a drop. But come what may, I’m always the one that gets into trouble.’

  ‘Poor old thing!’ said Aunt Xue with a laugh. ‘Have a drink yourself and stop worrying I I’ll see that he doesn’t drink too much. And if Lady Jia does say anything, I shall take full responsibility.’ She turned to one of the maids: ‘Come on, now! Pour Nannie a nice warm cup of wine to keep the cold out!’

  Nannie Li could scarcely sustain her objection after this and went off with the other servants to have her drink.

  ‘Don’t bother to heat the wine for me,’ said Bao-yu. ‘I prefer it cold.’

  ‘Good gracious, that will never do!’ said Aunt Xue. ‘You mustn’t drink wine cold, or when you write your hand will shake!’

  ‘I’m surprised at you, Cousin Bao!’ said Bao-chai with a smile. ‘With all your enthusiasm for out-of-the-way learning, fancy not knowing a thing like that! Wine has an exceptionally fiery nature, and therefore must be drunk warm in order to be quickly digested. If it is drunk cold, it congeals inside the body and harms it by absorbing heat from the internal organs. From this day on you must reform! No more cold wine!’

  Dai-yu, who sat cracking melon-seeds between her teeth throughout this homily, smiled ironically. Just at that moment her maid Snowgoose came hurrying in with a little hand-warmer for her.

  ‘Who told you to bring this?’ Dai-yu asked her. ‘Very kind of them, I am sure. But I was not actually freezing to death here.’

  ‘Nightingale told me to bring it, Miss. She was afraid you might be cold.’

  ‘I am glad you are so ready to obey her. Generally when I tell you to do anything it goes in one ear and out the other; yet anything she tells you to do is followed out more promptly than an Imperial Edict!’

  Bao-yu knew perfectly well that these words were really intended for him, but made no reply, beyond laughing good-humouredly. Bao-chai, long accustomed to Dai-yu’s peculiar ways, also ignored them. But Aunt Xue protested.

  ‘You’ve always been rather delicate and you’ve always felt the cold badly. Surely it was nice of them to think of you ?’

  ‘You don’t understand, Aunt,’ said Dai-yu. ‘It doesn’t matter here, with you; but some people might be deeply offended at die sight of one of my maids rushing in with a hand-warmer. It’s as though I thought my hosts couldn’t supply one themselves if I needed it. Instead of saying how thoughtful the maid was, they would put it down to my arrogance and lack of breeding.’

  ‘You are altogether too sensitive, thinking of things like that,’ said Aunt Xue. ‘Such a thought would never have crossed my mind!’

  Bao-yu had soon finished his third cup of wine and Nannie Li once more came forward to restrain him. But Bao-yu, who was now warm and happy and in the midst of a hilarious conversation with his cousins, was naturally unwilling to stop, and pleaded humbly with the old lady for a reprieve.

  ‘Nannie darling, just two more cups and then I’ll stop !’

  ‘You’d better look out,’ said Nannie Li. ‘Your father’s at home today. He’ll be asking you about your lessons before you know where you are.’

  At these words all Bao-yu’s happiness drained away. Slowly he set down his cup and bowed his head in dejection.

  ‘Don’t spoil everyone’s enjoyment,’ said Dai-yu. ‘Even if Uncle does call for you, you can always say that Aunt Xue is keeping you. I think that old Nannie of yours has had a cup too many and is looking for a bit of excitement at our expense.’ She gave him a gentle nudge to encourage a more valiant spirit in him, muttering, as she did so, ‘Take no notice of the old fool I Let’s go on enjoying ourselves and not mind about her!’
r />   Nannie Li knew only too well what Dai-yu was capable of.

  ‘Now Miss Lin,’ she said, ‘don’t you go taking his part! If you encourage him he’s only too likely to do what you say!’

  Dai-yu smiled dangerously. ‘Take his part? Why should I want to encourage him? You are over-cautious, my dear Nannie. After all, Lady Jia often lets him drink; why should it matter if Mrs Xue lets him have a cup or two ? I suppose you think he can’t be trusted to drink here because Mrs Xue is not one of us ?’

  Nannie Li did not know whether to feel upset or amused.

  ‘Really, Miss Lin. Some of the things you say cut sharper than a knife !’

  Bao-chai could not suppress a giggle. She pinched Dai-yu’s cheek playfully.

  ‘Really, Miss Frowner, the things you say! One doesn’t know whether to grind one’s teeth or laugh!’

  Aunt Xue laughed too.

  ‘Don’t be afraid, my boy! Heaven knows I’ve got little enough to offer you when you come to see me. You mustn’t get upset over a small thing like this, or I shall feel quite uncomfortable. Drink as much as you like; I’ll look after you! You may as well stay to supper, in any case; and even if you do get drunk, you can always spend the night here.’ She told a maid to heat some more wine.’ There! Auntie will drink a cup or two with you, and then we shall have some supper.’

  Bao-yu’s spirits began to revive a bit under his aunt’s encouragement.

  ‘Keep an eye on him,’ said Nannie Li to the maids. ‘I’m just going back for a few minutes to change my clothes.’ Then aside to Aunt Xue she said, ‘Don’t let him drink too much, Mrs Xue!’ and went off home.

  Although two or three old women still remained after her departure, none felt very much concern for Bao-yu, and as soon as Nannie Li was out of the way they quietly slipped off about their own concerns, leaving, of the attendants who had come with him, only two small maids, whose only anxiety was to please their young master by indulging him as much as possible.

  Fortunately Aunt Xue, by exercising great tact and finesse, managed to spirit the wine away when Bao-yu had drunk only a few more cups, and to replace it with a hot, sour soup of pickled bamboo-shoots and chicken-skin. He drank several bowls of this with great relish and then ate half a bowl of green-rice gruel. After that, when Bao-chai and Dai-yu had finished eating, he drank several cups of very strong tea. At this point Aunt Xue felt sure that he would be all right.