Chapter 31

Chapter 31

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Chapter 31: A Tossed Fan Becomes a Thousand-Gold Smile; A Pair of Stars Foreshadows a White-Haired Union

Xiren had seen the fresh blood she had coughed up on the ground, and her heart turned cold halfway. She recalled what she had often heard people say: "If a young person coughs blood, their years are not assured; even if they live long, they will be a broken vessel." Remembering these words, she could not help but let the ambitions she had always harved for future glory and distinction turn entirely to ash, and tears fell from her eyes unbidden. Baoyu saw her weeping, and his own heart ached. "How do you feel inside?" he asked. Xiren forced a smile. "I'm perfectly fine. What's wrong with me?" Baoyu's immediate impulse was to have someone warm yellow rice wine and fetch the Goat's Blood Lidong Pills. Xiren took his hand and smiled. "If you make a fuss over this, you'll stir up a crowd, and they'll blame me for being frivolous. If no one knows about it now, you'll make sure everyone does. That won't be good for you or for me. The proper thing is to send a page tomorrow to ask Doctor Wang for some medicine, and that will set things right. Wouldn't it be better if no one knew?" Baoyu saw the sense in this and had to let it go. He poured tea from the desk and gave it to Xiren to rinse her mouth. Xiren knew that Baoyu's mind was unsettled. If she didn't let him wait on her, he would certainly insist; and if she insisted, she would only alarm the others. Better to let him have his way. So she simply lay on the couch and let Baoyu serve her. As soon as the fifth watch struck, Baoyu paid no attention to washing or dressing, but hurriedly threw on his clothes and went out. He summoned Wang Jiren and questioned him personally. Wang Jiren asked about the cause—it was nothing more than an internal injury—and gave the name of a pill, along with instructions for how to take it and how to apply it externally. Baoyu memorized this and returned to the garden to prepare the medicine according to the prescription. But let us leave this aside.

That day happened to be the Dragon Boat Festival. Mugwort and calamus were pinned to the doorways, and tiger amulets were tied to the arms. At noon, Lady Wang prepared a banquet and invited Aunt Xue and her daughter to the midday feast. Baoyu noticed that Baochai was distant and would not speak to him, and he knew it was because of what had happened the day before. Lady Wang saw that Baoyu was listless and assumed it was because of what had happened with Jinchuan the previous day—he was too ashamed to show his face—so she paid him even less attention. Lin Daiyu saw that Baoyu was languid and assumed it was because he had offended Baochai and was feeling out of sorts, so she too became languid in her bearing. The previous evening, Lady Wang had told Xifeng about the incident with Baoyu and Jinchuan. Knowing that Lady Wang was out of sorts, how could Xifeng dare to be merry? She simply followed Lady Wang's mood and became even more distant. When the young ladies Jia Yingchun and the others saw that everyone was cheerless, they too became cheerless. And so, after sitting together for a while, they all dispersed.

Lin Daiyu by nature preferred parting to gathering. She had her reasoning. "When people gather, they must also part," she said. "When they gather they are happy, but when they part, is it not lonely? And loneliness brings sorrow. So it is better not to gather at all. For example, when flowers bloom, people admire them, but when they fade, it only adds to melancholy. So it is better that they never bloom." Therefore, when others thought something joyful, she thought it sad. Baoyu's temperament, on the other hand, was to wish that gatherings would last forever, fearing that a moment of parting would bring sorrow; he wished that flowers would always bloom, fearing that a moment of fading would bring tedium. But when the feast was over and the flowers had fallen, though there were ten thousand kinds of grief, there was nothing to be done about it. And so, when today's feast broke up in low spirits, Lin Daiyu felt nothing, but Baoyu's heart was heavy with gloom. He returned to his own room and heaved long sighs. It so happened that Qingwen came in to change her clothes, and without warning she let the fan slip from her hand and fall to the ground, breaking the rib. Baoyu sighed. "What a fool, what a fool! What will become of you? When you have your own household to run tomorrow, will you still be so careless of everything?" Qingwen said with a cold smile, "The Second Master has been in a terrible temper lately, making sour faces at every turn. The other day he even beat Xiren, and today he's come looking for faults with us. If you want to kick or hit someone, go ahead. Even breaking a fan is nothing unusual. In the past, who knows how many glass vases and agate bowls were smashed, and no one made a fuss over it. Now one little fan, and look what happens! How ridiculous! If you're tired of us, then send us away and pick better ones. A clean parting would be just fine." When Baoyu heard these words, his whole body trembled with rage. "Don't rush," he said. "There will be a day of parting yet!"

Xiren, who had overheard everything from the other side, hurried over and said to Baoyu, "What's wrong now? Everything was fine—didn't I say, 'Whenever I'm not here for a moment, there's some mishit'?"

Qingwen heard this and said with a cold smile, "Since Sister speaks so well, you should have come earlier and saved His Lordship his anger. Since ancient times, you've been the only one attending him—we've never done it before. Because you attend him so well, yesterday you took a kick in the heart. We who don't know how to serve won't even know what punishment awaits us tomorrow!"

Xiren was both vexed and ashamed at these words. She was about to say something, but seeing that Baoyu's face had already flushed with anger, she had no choice but to check her temper and pushed Qingwen gently. "Dear sister, go out for a stroll. It was our fault."

When Qingwen heard her say "our," naturally she meant herself and Baoyu. A pang of jealousy rose up again, and she laughed coldly several times. "I don't even know who 'you people' are. Don't make me blush for you! Even the things you do on the sly behind closed doors—they're no secret to me. Where do you get off calling yourselves 'we'? Open and proper, you haven't even earned the title of 'young miss' yet—you're no different from me. And you have the nerve to call yourself 'we'!"

Xiren flushed purple with shame. She thought it over and realized she had misspoken.

Baoyu said on one side, "You're both indignant, but tomorrow I'll promote him on purpose."

Xiren quickly took Baoyu's hand. "He's a foolish fellow—why argue with him? Besides, you've always been tolerant. You've let far greater things pass. What's wrong today?"

Qingwen said with a cold smile, "I'm the foolish one. How could I be fit to speak with you?"

Xiren replied, "Are you bandying words with me, or with the Second Master? If you're angry with me, you should tell me directly—you needn't make a scene in front of him. If you're angry with the Second Master, you shouldn't carry on like this for all the world to hear. I only came in to mediate for the sake of peace, so we could all keep well. But you've turned your spite on me. You don't seem angry with me, and you don't seem angry with the Second Master either—speaking with such barbed words, what exactly are your intentions? I won't say more—you go ahead and talk."

With that, she started to walk out.

Baoyu said to Qingwen, "Don't be angry either. I can guess what's on your mind. I'll go to Lady Wang and tell her. You're grown now—shall I send you away?"

When Qingwen heard this, her heart ached again, and she said with tears, "Why should you want me to leave? If you want to be rid of me, you can't just find some pretext to send me away."

Baoyu said, "When have I ever been through such a scene? You must be the one who wants to leave. I'd better go to Lady Wang and have you sent away." With that, he stood up, ready to go.

Xiren quickly turned back and blocked his way, smiling. "Where are you going?"

Baoyu said, "To see Lady Wang."

Xiren smiled. "How pointless! If you really went and told her, wouldn't you be ashamed? Even if she were serious about leaving, you could wait until the anger dies down and mention it to Lady Wang casually some quiet time. If you rush off now to make a formal report of it, won't it make Lady Wang suspicious?"

Baoyu said, "Lady Wang won't be suspicious. I'll simply tell her that she insisted on leaving."

Qingwen cried, "When did I ever insist on leaving? You've barely finished making me angry, and now you're twisting words to pressure me. Go ahead and report it—I'll dash my head against the wall and die before I step out of this door."

Baoyu said, "This is strange. You don't want to leave, and yet what are all these tantrums about? I can't bear this quarreling—better that I just leave and have peace."

He was determined to go and report. Seeing she couldn't stop him, Xiren had no choice but to kneel down.

Bihen, Qiuwen, Sheyue, and the other maids, who had been listening silently outside at all the commotion, now heard that Xiren had knelt to plead, and they all came in and knelt down together.

Baoyu hastily helped Xiren up, sighed, sat down on the bed, told the others to get up, and said to Xiren, "What am I to do? My heart is breaking, and no one knows it."

As he spoke, tears rolled down his cheeks. When Xiren saw Baoyu weeping, she began to cry too.

Qingwen, weeping nearby, was just about to speak when she caught sight of Lin Daiyu coming in and slipped out at once. Daiyu said with a smile, "On this grand holiday, why are you carrying on with such a good cry? Could it be that you've quarreled yourselves into a rage over who gets the sticky-rice dumplings?" Baoyu and Xiren both burst out laughing.

Daiyu said, "If Second Brother won't tell me, I'll just ask you." So saying, she patted Xiren on the shoulder and said with a smile, "Good sister-in-law, tell me. The two of you must have had a tiff. Tell your little sister, and I'll put in a word to patch things up between you."

Xiren pushed her away. "Miss Lin, what are you up to? We're merely a servant girl — how can you talk such nonsense?"

Daiyu said with a smile, "If you say you're a servant girl, then I shall simply treat you as a sister-in-law."

Baoyu said, "Why go out of your way to bring trouble on her? Even without that, people already have plenty to gossip about — how much more when you go and say such things yourself!"

Xiren said with a smile, "Miss Lin, you don't know what's in my heart. Unless I stop breathing and die, that will be the end of it."

Lin Daiyu said with a smile, "If you died, I can't say what others would do, but I myself would weep myself to death first."

Baoyu said with a smile, "If you died, I'd become a monk."

Xiren said with a smile, "Do behave yourself — why go on saying such things?"

Lin Daiyu held up two fingers, pursed her lips, and said with a smile, "That makes two monks now. From this day forward I shall keep a careful tally of how many times you've said you'll become a monk."

Baoyu understood at once that she was alluding to what he had said the other day, and so he simply smiled and let the matter drop.

Once Daiyu had left, someone came to say, "Master Xue is asking for you." Baoyu had no choice but to go. It turned out to be a drinking party—he could not refuse, so he stayed until the evening and only then got away. When he returned in the evening, he was already somewhat drunk. He stumbled into his own courtyard and saw that the cool summer couch had already been set up in the yard. Someone was lying asleep on it. Baoyu assumed it was Xiren. He sat down on the edge of the couch and nudged the person. "Is the pain better now?" he asked.

The person turned over and sat up. "Why must you come and provoke me!" Baoyu looked again—it was not Xiren at all, but Qingwen. He pulled her over and sat her down beside him, laughing. "Your temper has grown even more spoiled. This morning you merely dropped a fan, and after no more than two words from you went on and on. I could let that pass, but when Xiren came with good intentions to mediate, you lashed out at her too. Tell me yourself—was that right or wrong?"

Qingwen said, "It's dreadfully hot. Why all this pulling and tugging? What will people think if they see us? I don't even belong sitting here."

Baoyu laughed. "If you know you don't belong, then why were you lying here asleep?"

Qingwen had nothing to say. She snorted and laughed. "It was all right as long as you weren't here. Now that you've come, I don't belong anymore. Get up—let me go take a bath. Xiren and Sheyue have both already bathed. I'll call them over."

Baoyu laughed. "I've just had quite a lot of wine myself. I need a wash too. Since you haven't bathed yet, fetch some water and we'll wash together."

Qingwen waved her hand. "No, no, I wouldn't dare cross you. Remember the time Bihen drew your bath? It took two or three hours—no idea what was going on in there. None of us dared go in. When it was finally done, we went to look—water had flooded the floor up to the legs of the bed, and even the mat was soaked. We never did figure out how you bathed. We laughed about it for days. I haven't the time to clean up a mess like that, and I'm not washing with you either. It's cool today—I bathed earlier, so I don't need to bathe again. I'll ladle out a bowl of water for you to wash your face and comb your hair. Just now Yuanyang sent over some fruit—it's all chilling in the crystal jar. I'll have them bring it out for you."

Baoyu laughed. "In that case, you don't need to bathe either. Just wash your hands and come eat the fruit."

Qingwen laughed. "I'm far too flustered—I even broke a fan. How could I be trusted to serve fruit? If I broke a dish on top of that, it would be even worse."

Baoyu laughed. "Break things if you like—these objects are only borrowed for our use. You like one thing, I like another; our natures are different. Take a fan, for instance. Its original purpose is to fan with, but if you want to tear it up for fun, that's fine too—just don't take your anger out on it. The same goes with cups and plates. Their purpose is to hold things, but if you enjoy the sound of shattering, you may deliberately break them—just don't do it in a fit of temper. That is truly treasuring things."

Qingwen listened and laughed. "In that case, bring me a fan and I'll tear it up. I love tearing things the most."

Baoyu laughed and handed her one. Qingwen took it and tore it in two with a rip. Then came several more ripping sounds. Baoyu laughed from the side. "What a fine sound! Rip some more!"

Just then Sheyue came over, laughing. "Do a little less mischief, won't you?"

Baoyu ran up, snatched the fan from her hands, and handed it to Qingwen. Qingwen took it and tore it into several pieces. Both of them burst out laughing.

Sheyue said, "What is this? Making sport of my things?"

Baoyu laughed. "Open the fan chest and pick whichever one you like—all fine things!"

Sheyue said, "If that's how it is, why not carry out the whole chest and let her tear her heart out? Wouldn't that be even better?"

Baoyu laughed. "Go ahead and carry it out then."

Sheyue said, "I'm not committing that kind of sin. She hasn't broken her hands—let her carry it out herself."

Qingwen laughed and leaned back against the bed. "I'm tired. I'll tear them tomorrow."

Baoyu laughed. "The ancients said, 'A thousand pieces of gold can't buy a single laugh.' How much are a few fans worth anyway!"

As he spoke, he called for Xiren. Xiren had just changed her clothes and came out. The little maid Jiahui gathered up the broken fans, and everyone settled in to enjoy the cool evening breeze—there is no need to describe this in detail.

The next day at noon, Lady Wang, Xue Baochai, Lin Daiyu, and the other young ladies were seated in Grandmother Jia's room when someone came to report: "Miss Shi has arrived."

In a moment, Shi Xiangyun came into the courtyard, attended by a retinue of maids and serving women. Baochai, Daiyu, and the others hurried down to the steps to welcome her. The young cousins had not seen each other for a whole month; when they met again, their intimacy needs no detailed description.

They entered the room, paid their respects, and greeted everyone. Grandmother Jia said, "It's hot—take off your outer clothes."

Shi Xiangyun quickly stood up and removed her outer garments. Lady Wang said with a laugh, "I wonder why she puts all these on in the first place?"

Shi Xiangyun laughed, "It's all because Second Aunt insisted. Who wants to wear all this?"

Baochai, standing to one side, said, "Auntie doesn't know—when it comes to clothes, she even prefers wearing other people's. Remember last year in the third or fourth month, when she was staying here? She put on Master Bao's robe, his boots, and tied on his forehead band too. At a quick glance, she looked exactly like Master Bao—just with two extra pendants. She stood behind the chair, and Grandmother kept calling, 'Baoyu, come over here carefully—mind the lamp tassel above, the dust might get in your eyes.' She just laughed and wouldn't go. In the end everyone couldn't hold back and laughed, and then Grandmother laughed too and said, 'She does look more like a boy in costume...'"

"'That's nothing,'" said Dai-yu. "Do you remember how the year before last, when we asked him to come and stay the first month of the year, it snowed after he had been here only a couple of days? Grandmother and your mother had just been offering incense before the ancestral portraits. Grandmother's brand-new great red felt cloak was lying there. Nobody noticed it, and he put it on. It was so big and long that he tied it round his waist with a sash and went out with the maids into the back courtyard to play at making snowmen. He slipped and fell right into a ditch and got himself covered in mud and water." As she spoke, the others recalled the incident and all laughed.

Baochai turned to Zhou, the nurse, and said with a smile, "Nurse Zhou, is your young mistress still as mischievous as ever, or has she improved?"

The nurse laughed too.

Ying-chun said, "Mischievous or not, I just find her too talkative. Even when she's sleeping there, she's still chattering away—laughing one minute and talking the next. I don't know where she gets it all from."

Lady Wang said, "She's probably better now. The other day someone came to look at her—she's got a mother-in-law's family waiting for her—so she's probably more settled."

The Dowager asked, "Is she staying here today, or going home?"

Nurse Zhou smiled and said, "Didn't you notice, madam, that she brought all her clothes with her? She's certainly staying a couple of days."

Shi Xiang-yun asked, "Is Cousin Bao-yu not at home?"

Baochai smiled. "He doesn't think about anyone else—he's always thinking about Cousin Bao. The two of them are quite a pair. It just shows he hasn't reformed his mischievous ways."

The Dowager said, "Now that you're all grown up, you shouldn't use childhood names anymore."

They had barely finished speaking when Bao-yu arrived. He smiled and said, "Yun! You're here. Why didn't you come the other day when I sent someone to fetch you?"

Lady Wang said, "We were just talking about that, and here he comes using given names again."

Lin Dai-yu said, "Your brother has something nice waiting for you."

Shi Xiang-yun said, "What nice thing?"

Bao-yu laughed. "Don't believe her! You haven't been here for a few days, and you've grown even taller."

Xiang-yun asked with a smile, "How is Xiren?"

Bao-yu said, "Thank you for asking."

Xiang-yun said, "I've brought her something nice." She took out a handkerchief and untied a knot in it.

Bao-yu said, "What's so special? You might as well have brought a couple of those carnelian rings you sent the other day."

Xiang-yun said with a laugh, "What do you mean?" She opened the handkerchief.

When the others looked, they saw it was indeed the same carnelian rings she had sent before—a packet of four.

Lin Dai-yu laughed. "Just look at his idea. The other day she sent us some just like these. If you'd just brought hers along, it would have been simpler. Today she went to the trouble of bringing them herself. I thought it must be some wonderful new thing—and it turns out to be the same old thing. You really are a silly person."

Shi Xiang-yun laughed. "You're the silly one! Let me explain, and we'll let everyone judge who's silly. When you send things, the messenger doesn't need to say anything. You just bring them in, and naturally you can see they're for the young ladies. But if you're carrying things for the maids, I'd have to tell the messenger beforehand which maid gets what. If the messenger is sensible, well and good; but if he's muddled and can't even remember the maids' names and starts babbling nonsense, he'll just mix everything up with yours. If you send a woman who knows them, that's fine—but the other day you sent a young fellow. How was he supposed to know the maids' names? Anyway, I brought them myself. That's clear enough, isn't it?"

She put down the four rings. "One for Sister Xiren, one for Sister Yuanyang, one for Sister Jinchuan, and one for Sister Ping'er. There are four maids—do you think the young fellows would have remembered so clearly?"

Everyone laughed and said, "She really is clear-headed."

Bao-yu laughed. "She certainly knows how to talk without letting anyone get a word in."

Lin Dai-yu said coldly, "He can't talk, but his gold unicorn can talk." With that she got up and walked away.

Fortunately no one heard her except Xue Baochai, who smiled with pressed lips.

Bao-yu had heard her and regretted having said the wrong thing again. Then he saw Baochai smile and couldn't help smiling himself.

When Baochai saw Bao-yu smile, she quickly got up and went off to find Lin Dai-yu and talk to her.

"What a lot of trouble this has caused! Now, how are we going to deal with it?" Daiyu was thinking that Baochai's birthday celebration was about to begin, and since Baoyu was feeling unwell, there would inevitably be some awkwardness between them. She was worrying about this when she suddenly heard someone crying. She looked up and saw a maid kneeling on the ground, weeping.

Daiyu recognized her as one of the junior maids from the Grand View Garden. She had never paid much attention to her before.

"What are you crying about here?" Daiyu asked.

The maid kowtowed and said, "I was playing with Xiuyan and lost my way. I ended up here by mistake. I was afraid someone would scold me, so I cried."

Daiyu felt a wave of sympathy. "So that's all it is," she said gently. "There's nothing to cry about. Come, I'll take you back." She took the maid's hand and led her out of the garden.

"What are you up to? Why didn't you go look for Xiren?" Xiangyun quickly hid the unicorn brooch away. "I was just about to. Let's go together." With that, they all entered Happy Red Court. Xiren was leaning on the railing by the steps, enjoying the breeze, when she suddenly saw Xiangyun coming and hurried down to greet her, taking her hand and smiling as they talked about how long it had been since they'd last seen each other. After a while, they came inside and settled into their seats, and Baoyu said with a smile, "You should have come earlier. I got something wonderful, and I was saving it just for you." As he spoke, he felt around on himself, searching for a while, then let out an "Oh!" and asked Xiren, "Did you put that thing away?"

"What thing?" Xiren asked.

"The unicorn I got the other day," Baoyu said.

"You wear it on you every day. Why are you asking me?"

When Baoyu heard this, he slapped his hand and said, "It must be lost! Where can I find it?" He was about to get up and search for it himself.

Xiangyun, upon hearing this, realized it was the one he had dropped, and asked with a smile, "Since when do you have an unicorn?"

"I only just got it the other day, and I have no idea when I lost it. I'm so absent-minded."

Xiangyun laughed. "It's a good thing it's just a plaything. You're making such a fuss about it." With that, she opened her hand. "Take a look — is this it or not?"

When Baoyu saw it, he was overcome with joy and said... What happened next? Listen to the explanation in the next chapter.