Grandmother Jia nodded thoughtfully.
‘One thing I should mention,’ said Mother Ma (observing the thoughtfulness): ‘if the offering is for an older person -a mother or father, say – it doesn’t matter how much you subscribe; but if it’s an older person making it for a younger one, like as it may be Your Ladyship for Bao-yu, you don’t want to subscribe too much, or it would overload his luck and have the opposite effect. In the case of Your Ladyship subscribing for Bao-yu, I should suggest between five and seven pounds a day.’
‘Make it five pounds a day, then,’ said Grandmother Jia. ‘We’ll work out the total and send you a month’s supply every month.’
‘Amitabha, Merciful Buddha! Bless His Holy Name!’ said Mother Ma.
As a further precaution Grandmother Jia called in some of Bao-yu’s maids and told them that in future whenever Bao-yu went out anywhere his pages were to be provided with several strings of cash to give as alms to any itinerant monks or priests or any poor or afflicted persons they might meet upon the way.
After seeing Grandmother Jia, Mother Ma drifted round the mansion calling at various other apartments. Presently she came to Aunt Zhao’s room. After they had exchanged greetings, Aunt Zhao told her little servant to pour the old woman a cup of tea. Aunt Zhao was pasting pieces of cloth together for soling shoes with, and Mother Ma observed that the kang around her was piled with miscellaneous remnants of material.
‘I’m looking for something to make a pair of uppers out of, dearie,’ said Mother Ma. ‘I suppose you haven’t got an old bit of silk or an old bit of satin that would do? It doesn’t matter about the colour.’
Aunt Zhao heaved a long-suffering sigh:
‘Take a look at this lot! You won’t find anything much worth having here. Nothing worth having in this family ever comes my way. But you’re welcome to pick out a couple of pieces if you don’t mind the poor quality.’
Mother Ma rummaged around in the heap, and having picked out several pieces, stuffed them into her sleeve.
‘I sent someone round to you the other day with five hundred cash to pay for an offering to the Medicine Buddha,’ said Aunt Zhao. ‘Have you managed to make it yet?’
‘Oh yes. That was done days ago.’
‘Holy Name!’ said Aunt Zhao. ‘I’d do it oftener if things were a bit easier; but you know the saying: “my heart is willing but my purse is lean”.’
‘Don’t you worry about that!’ said Mother Ma. ‘You only have to hold out a few more years. When your Huan has grown up and got himself a job in the Service, you’ll be able to afford all the good works you want.’
Aunt Zhao made a scornful sound in her nose:
‘Hfn! Let’s not talk about it! It’ll be no different then from what it is now: Huan and I will never be able to compete with the Other One. It’s like the Heavenly Dragon appearing when he comes on the scene. Mind you, I don’t hold it against the child. He’s a good-looking boy, is Bao-yu, and you can understand the grown-ups being silly about him. No, this is the one I can’t stand.’
As she uttered the word ‘this’, she held up two fingers. Mother Ma guessed her meaning: ‘Number Two’ – the younger of the Rong mansion’s two daughters-in-law.
‘You mean Mrs Lian?’ she said.
Aunt Zhao’s face assumed an expression of terror. Motioning agitatedly to the other to remain silent, she got up, went to the door, raised the door-blind, looked around, and having satisfied herself that there were no eavesdroppers, came back and sat down again, her face close to Mother Ma’s.
‘She’s a dreadful person – dreadfuf! If that woman doesn’t end up by carrying off every stick of property belonging to this family to line her own nest with, my name’s not Zhao!’
Mother Ma sensed interesting possibilities in this conversation, and was quick to explore them:
‘It doesn’t need you to tell me that,’ she said. ‘You surely don’t think I haven’t noticed that? I’ve often wondered why you all let her get away with it – though I suppose it’s probably just as well you do.’
‘My dear good woman,’ said Aunt Zhao, ‘we’ve no choice but to let her get away with it. Who would ever have the nerve to stand up to her?’
‘Well,’ said Mother Ma, ‘I don’t want to seem a troublemaker, but if you don’t mind my saying so, you do all seem to have acted a bit helpless about her – not that I’m blaming you, mind. But I mean to say, even if you daren’t stand up to her openly, there are things you could do in secret. I’m surprised you haven’t thought of it before.’
To Aunt Zhao the words seemed to contain a hidden promise. She concealed her pleasure.
‘What do you mean: “things we could do in secret”?’ she said. ‘I’m willing enough to do them: it’s just that I’ve never met anyone who could tell me how. If you would show me the way, I’d pay you. I’d pay a lot.’
Mother Ma could see that they understood each other, but she was taking no chances.
‘Holy Name! Don’t ask me about things like that! I don’t touch that kind of business. No, no, no. That’s wicked.’
‘There you are!’ said Aunt Zhao. ‘That’s all the help I ever get. And I thought you were such a kind person, always helping those in trouble. Are you prepared to stand by and watch me and my Huan being made mincemeat of by that scheming woman ? I suppose it’s because you think I wouldn’t pay you.’
‘If you was to say that I am too tender-hearted to stand by and watch you and your boy being wronged,’ said Mother Ma, ‘you would be saying no more nor less than the truth. But I don’t know what you mean about pay. What have you got that you could tempt me with, dearie, even if I was willing to do it for pay?’
Aunt Zhao observed that her opposition to the very idea of helping her in the desired way had considerably weakened.
‘For someone so clever,’ she said, ‘aren’t you being rather stupid ? If you help me and it works, with the two of them safely out of the way, everything in this household will be ours. You’ll be able to ask for what you like. Fancy not thinking of that!’
Mother Ma lowered her head and reflected for a while in silence.
‘When that time comes and you’re safely landed,’ she said eventually, ‘you won’t want to have anything more to do with me, dearie – not when I’ve got no proof to show what I done for you.’
‘That’s no problem,’ said Aunt Zhao. ‘I’ve got a few taels put by of my own savings, and I’ve got some dresses, and there’s my jewellery. You can take some of each to be getting on with and I can give you an IOU promising to pay you so much later on. We can have a witness too, if you like.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Why should I tell a lie?’ said Aunt Zhao, and summoned a trusted crone into whose ear she whispered instructions:
‘Ps-ps-ps-ps-ps-ps-ps-ps.’
The old crone nodded and went out, returning after a few minutes with a promissory note for five hundred taels of silver. Aunt Zhao made her mark on it and then went to the wardrobe to get out her savings. The white shine of silver and the signed and sealed IOU dispelled whatever residual doubts the Wise Woman may have entertained, for she seized and pocketed both with alacrity, giving hearty assurances of her aid as she did so; then, after rummaging for some time in the capacious waistband of her trousers, she fished out twelve little paper cut-out figures – ten of them demons with green faces and red hair and two of them plain human figures – and handed them to Aunt Zhao. Dropping her voice to a whisper, she instructed her to write the eight symbols of her victims’ nativity – two for the year, two for the month, two for the day and two for the hour – on each of the human figures, wrap five of the demons round each of them, and slip them somewhere under her victims’ beds.
‘That’s all you have to do,’ she said. ‘I shall be doing other things at home to help you. It’s sure to work – no question of that. But you must be very, very careful. And you mustn’t be afraid.’
While she was still talking, one of Lady Wang’s maids came
in looking for her.
‘Oh, here you are! Her Ladyship is waiting for you.’
Mother Ma went off in the company of the maid.
And there we leave her.
Because of the injury to his face, Bao-yu had stopped going out of doors since his accident and Dai-yu spent a good deal of time in his apartment talking to him.
One morning after lunch she had settled down to read, but after a couple of chapters grew bored with the book and did some sewing instead with the maids Nightingale and Snowgoose. When that, too, became boring, she stood for a while leaning against the doorway, vacantly looking out. The young bamboo shoots were just breaking through in the forecourt, and after inspecting them, she drifted out into the Garden. Everywhere the flowers were blooming, the birds were singing, and the water splashed and tinkled, but not a human soul was to be seen. Almost without thinking where she was going, she made her way to the House of Green Delights. A group of maids had fetched some water from the well and were watching the white-eyes in the gallery giving themselves a bath. A sound of laughter came from inside the house. Li Wan, Xi-feng and Bao-chai were there already. Their friendly laughter greeted Dai-yu as she entered:
‘Another one! Come in! Come in!’
‘ What is this ?’ said Dai-yu, joining in the good humour. ‘A party?’
‘I sent someone round to you the other day with two caddies-full of tea,’ said Xi-feng, ‘but you were out.’
‘Yes,’ said Dai-yu. ‘I’m sorry: I forgot to thank you.’
‘Have you tried it?’ said Xi-feng. ‘What did you think of it?’
‘I wouldn’t ask, if I were you,’ said Bao-yu, chipping in. ‘I thought it was rotten. I don’t know what the rest of you thought about it.’
‘I thought the flavour was all right,’ said Bao-chai. ‘The colour wasn’t up to much.’
‘That was tribute tea from Siam,’ said Xi-feng. ‘I didn’t like it at all. I thought it wasn’t as nice as the tea we drink every day.
‘Oh, I quite liked it,’ said Dai-yu. ‘Your palates must be more sensitive than mine.’
‘If you really like it,’ said Bao-yu, ‘you’re welcome to have mine.’
‘I’ve still got quite a bit left,’ said Xi-feng. ‘If you really like it, you can have it all.’
‘Thank you very much,’ said Dai-yu. ‘I’ll send someone round to fetch it.’
‘No, don’t do that,’ said Xi-feng. ‘I’ll send it round to you. There’s something I want you to do for me. The person I send round about it can bring the tea as well.’
Dai-yu laughed mockingly:
‘Do you hear that, everybody? Because she’s given me a bit of her old tea, I have to start doing odd jobs for her.’
‘That’s fair enough,’ said Xi-feng. ‘You know the rule: “drink the family’s tea, the family’s bride-to-be”.’
Everyone laughed at this except Dai-yu, who turned her head away, blushing furiously, and said nothing.
‘Cousin Feng will have her little joke,’ Li Wan observed to Bao-chai with a smile.
‘Do you call that a joke?’ said Dai-yu. ‘It was a silly, idle remark, and very irritating.’
She gave a snort of disgust by way of reinforcement.
Xi-feng laughed:
‘What’s so irritating about it? Look at him!’ – She pointed at Bao-yu – ‘Isn’t he good enough for you ? Good looks, good family, good income. There are no snags that I can see. It’s a perfect match!’
Dai-yu rose and fled.
‘Oh, Frowner’s in a rage! Come back Frowner!’ Bao-chai called out after her. ‘If you go, it will spoil all the fun.’
She got up and went after Dai-yu to bring her back. At the doorway they ran into Jia Zheng’s two concubines, Aunt Zhao and Aunt Zhou, come to see Bao-yu. Li Wan, Bao-chai and Bao-yu made them welcome and invited them to sit down and talk, but Xi-feng and Dai-yu conversed with each other and rather pointedly ignored them.
Bao-chai was in the middle of saying something to the rest of the group when a maid arrived from Lady Wang’s to say that Wang Zi-teng’s wife had come and the presence of the young ladies was requested. Li Wan and Xi-feng rose to go. Aunt Zhao and Aunt Zhou hurriedly took their leave.
‘I can’t go out,’ said Bao-yu. ‘For heaven’s sake don’t let Aunt Wang come over here! – Cousin Lin!’ he called to Dai-yu. ‘Stay here a bit! There’s something I want to say to you.’
Hearing him, Xi-feng turned back to address Dai-yu:
‘Do you hear that ? Someone wants a word with you. You’d better go back and see what he wants to say!’
She gave her a push in the direction of the house; then she and Li Wan went off, both laughing.
When they were alone together, Bao-yu took Dai-yu by the hand. He smiled and smiled, but said nothing. Dai-yu felt herself blushing, and tried to break away.
‘Aiyo!’ he said. ‘My head!’
‘Good!’ said Dai-yu. ‘It serves you right!’
Then Bao-yu let out a dreadful cry, jumped two or three feet into the air, and began to shout and babble deliriously. Dai-yu and the maids were terrified and ran to tell Lady Wang and Grandmother Jia. Wang Zi-teng’s lady was with them and hurried over with the rest to see him. By the time they arrived he had already tried several times to kill himself and was raving like a madman. His mother and grandmother were so stricken by the sight that for a few moments they stood mute and trembling. Then, breaking into loud weeping, they cried out to him piteously between their sobs: ‘my son!’, ‘my child!’, ‘my darling!’
Soon the news had spread to the other parts of the Rong household and to the household next door and Jia She, Lady Xing, Cousin Zhen, Jia Zheng, Jia Lian, Jia Rong, Jia Yun, Jia Ping, Aunt Xue and Xue Pan – not to mention Zhou Rui’s wife and a great bevy of domestics both high and low -came hurrying into the garden, adding numbers and confusion to the group of helpless spectators.
While they were still wondering what to do with Bao-yu, Xi-feng appeared, brandishing a gleaming knife in one hand and attacking whatever came in her path. She had already massacred several luckless dogs and hens and now, seeing people ahead, glared at them madly and would have rushed upon them too had not Zhou Rui’s wife and a few hefty and resourceful womenservants advanced upon her while the others looked on helplessly, clasped her about the arms and body, wrested the knife from her hand, and carried her off to her room. Patience and Felicity wept piteously to see their mistress in such a state.
On this occasion even Jia Zheng’s customary impassivity seemed to have deserted him, as he turned this way and that, uncertain on whom to direct his attention. And if Jia Zheng was distraught, the state of the others can be imagined. Most remarkable, perhaps, was the spectacle of Xue Pan fussing over his womenfolk, one moment afraid that his mother would be jostled in the crush, the next that Bao-chai might be ogled or Caltrop glad-eyed by some wanton male. Cousin Zhen, he knew for a fact, was a notorious womanizer. Then he caught sight of Dai-yu (whom he had never seen before) and forgot his anxiety in gawping admiration of that ethereal beauty.
Although no one knew what to do themselves, there were a great many opinions about what ought to be done. Some said an exorcist should be called in to expel the malignant spirits, some that it required a dancing medium to draw them out, some offered charm-sheets invoking the demon-quelling powers of the Heavenly Master and issued under the hand of the Taoist pontiff; yet in spite of prayers, incantations, divination, and all the expedients that faith and physic could provide, there was no visible improvement in the condition of the patients. At sundown Wang Zi-teng’s lady took her leave and went home.
Next day she made another visit to inquire after them. This was followed by visits from the wife of Grandmother Jia’s nephew the Marquis, from Lady Xing’s brothers’ wives, and from the wives of other marriage connections of the family. Bottled charm-water, wonder-working monks and Taoists and highly recommended physicians were also sent round to the mansion by various friends and relations.
> But the cousins continued delirious and lay on their beds burning with fever and babbling incomprehensibly. At nightfall they became even worse, so that the maids and even the older women no longer dared go near them. The two of them had to be carried into Lady Wang’s room on their beds and set down there side by side so that Jia Yun and a group of pages could watch over them in shifts throughout the night. Grandmother Jia, Lady Wang, Lady Xing and Aunt Xue stayed near at hand, refusing to budge, though unable to do anything but sit by and weep. Jia She and Jia Zheng, afraid that their mother’s health would suffer, displayed their concern by keeping themselves and everyone else up throughout most of the night. There were lights burning everywhere and hardly anyone slept at all.
Jia She continued to hunt everywhere for monks and exorcists reputed able to cure diseases of the mind. Finally Jia Zheng, who saw that their methods were all useless, lost patience with him and tried to make him stop:
‘Young people will die if they must. Nothing can alter fate. And that they are fated to die would appear from the fact that all efforts to cure them have been unavailing. I think we should allow them to die in peace.’
But Jia She took no notice, and the commotion continued as before.
By the third day the patients were so weakened that they lay on their beds motionless and their breathing was scarcely perceptible. The whole family had by now abandoned hope and were already making preparations for their laying-out. Grandmother Jia, Lady Wang, Jia Lian, Patience and Aroma had cried themselves into a state bordering on prostration. Only Aunt Zhao was cheerful – though she did her best to look miserable.
Early on the fourth day Bao-yu suddenly opened his eyes wide and spoke to Grandmother Jia: