第三十回

第三十回 宝钗借扇机带双敲 龄官划蔷痴及局外

话说林黛玉自与宝玉口角后，也自后悔，但又无去就他之理，因此日夜闷闷，如有所失。紫鹃度其意，乃劝道：“若论前日之事，竟是姑娘太浮躁了些。别人不知宝玉那脾气，难道咱们也不知道的。为那玉也不是闹了一遭两遭了。”黛玉啐道：“你倒来替人派我的不是。我怎么浮躁了？”紫鹃笑道：“好好的，为什么又剪了那穗子？岂不是宝玉只有三分不是，姑娘倒有七分不是。我看他素日在姑娘身上就好，皆因姑娘小性儿，常要歪派[3]他，才这么样。”

林黛玉正欲答话〔二〕，只听院外叫门。紫鹃听了一听，笑道：“这是宝玉的声音，想必是来赔不是来了。”林黛玉听了道：“不许开门！”紫鹃道：“姑娘又不是了。这么热天毒日头地下，晒坏了他如何使得呢！”口里说着，便出去开门，果然是宝玉。一面让他进来，一面笑道：“我只当是宝二爷再不上我们这门了，谁知这会子又来了。”宝玉笑道：“你们把极小的事倒说大了。好好的，为什么不来？我便死了，魂也要一日来一百遭。妹妹可大好了？”紫鹃道：“身上病好了，只是心里还气不大好。”宝玉笑道：“我晓得有什么气。”一面说着，一面进来，只见林黛玉又在床上哭。

那林黛玉本不曾哭，听见宝玉来，由不得伤了心，止不住滚下泪来。宝玉笑着走近床来，道：“妹妹身上可大好了？”林黛玉只顾拭泪，并不答应。宝玉因便挨在床沿上坐了，一面笑道：“我知道妹妹不恼我。但只是我不来，叫旁人看着，倒像是咱们又拌了嘴的似的。若等他们来劝咱们，那时节岂不咱们倒觉生分了？不如这会子，你要打要骂，凭着你怎么样，千万别不理我。”说着，又把“好妹妹”叫了几万声。

林黛玉心里原是再不理宝玉的，这会子听见宝玉说别叫人知道他们拌了嘴就生分了似的这一句话，又可见得比别人原亲近，因又撑不住哭道：“你也不用哄我。从今以后，我也不敢亲近二爷，二爷也全当我去了。”宝玉听了笑道：“你往那去呢？”林黛玉道：“我回家去。”宝玉笑道：“我跟了你去。”林黛玉道：“我死了呢？”宝玉道：“你死了，我做和尚！”林黛玉一闻此言，登时将脸放下来，问道：“想是你要死了，胡说的是什么！你家倒有几个亲姐姐亲妹妹呢，明儿都死了，你有几个身子去作和尚？明儿我倒把这话告诉别人去评评。”

宝玉自知这话说的造次了，后悔不来，登时脸上红胀起来，低着头不敢则一声。幸而屋里没人。林黛玉直瞪瞪的瞅了他半天，气的一声儿也说不出话来。见宝玉憋的脸上紫胀，便咬着牙用指头狠命的在他额颅上戳了一下，哼了一声，咬牙说道：“你这——”刚说了两个字，便又叹了一口气，仍拿起手帕子来擦眼泪。

宝玉心里原有无限的心事，又兼说错了话，正自后悔；又见黛玉戳他一下，要说又说不出来，自叹自泣，因此自己也有所感，不觉滚下泪来。要用帕子揩拭，不想又忘了带来，便用衫袖去擦。林黛玉虽然哭着，却一眼看见了，见他穿着簇新藕合纱衫，竟去拭泪，便一面自己拭着泪，一面回身将枕边搭的一方绡帕子拿起来，向宝玉怀里一摔，一语不发，仍掩面自泣。宝玉见他摔了帕子来，忙接住拭了泪，又挨近前些，伸手拉了林黛玉一只手，笑道：“我的五脏都碎了，你还只是哭。走罢，我同你往老太太跟前去。”林黛玉将手一摔道：“谁同你拉拉扯扯的。一天大似一天的，还这么涎皮赖脸的，连个道理也不知道。”

一句没说完，只听喊道：“好了！”宝林二人不防，都唬了一跳，回头看时，只见凤姐儿〔三〕跳了进来，笑道：“老太太在那里抱怨天抱怨地，只叫我来瞧瞧你们好了没有。我说不用瞧，过不了三天，他们自己就好了。老太太骂我，说我懒。我来了，果然应了我的话了。也没见你们两个人有些什么可拌的，三日好了，两日恼了，越大越成了孩子了！有这会子拉着手哭的，昨儿为什么又成了乌眼鸡[6]呢！还不跟我走，到老太太跟前，叫老人家也放些心。”说着拉了林黛玉就走。林黛玉回头叫丫头们，一个也没有。凤姐道：“又叫他们作什么，有我服侍你呢。”一面说，一面拉了就走。宝玉在后面跟着出了园门。

到了贾母跟前，凤姐笑道：“我说他们不用人费心，自己就会好的。老祖宗不信，一定叫我去说合。我及至到那里要说合，谁知两个人倒在一处对赔不是了。对哭对诉，倒像‘黄鹰抓住了鹞子的脚’，两个都扣了环[7]了，那里还要人去说合。”说的满屋里都笑起来。

此时宝钗正在这里。那林黛玉只一言不发，挨着贾母坐下。宝玉没甚说的，便向宝钗笑道：“大哥哥好日子，偏生我又不好了，没别的礼送，连个头也不得磕去。大哥哥不知我病，倒像我懒，推故不去的。倘或明儿恼了，姐姐替我分辨分辨。”宝钗笑道：“这也多事。你便要去也不敢惊动，何况身上不好。弟兄们日日一处，要存这个心倒生分了。”宝玉又笑道：“姐姐知道体谅我就好了。”又道：“姐姐怎么不看戏去？”宝钗道：“我怕热，看了两出，热的很。要走，客又不散。我少不得推身上不好，就来了。”宝玉听说，自己由不得脸上没意思，只得又搭讪笑道：“怪不得他们拿姐姐比杨妃，原来也体丰怯热。”

宝钗听说，不由的大怒，待要怎样，又不好怎样。回思了一回，脸红起来，便冷笑了两声，说道：“我倒像杨妃，只是没一个好哥哥好兄弟可以作得杨国忠的！”二人正说着，可巧小丫头靛儿因不见了扇子，和宝钗笑道：“必是宝姑娘藏了我的。好姑娘，赏我罢。”宝钗指他道：“你要仔细！我和你顽过，你再疑我。和你素日嘻皮笑脸的那些姑娘们跟前，你该问他们去。”说的个靛儿跑了。宝玉自知又把话说造次了，当着许多人，更比才在林黛玉跟前更不好意思，便急回身又同别人搭讪去了。

林黛玉听见宝玉奚落宝钗，心中着实得意，才要搭言也趁势儿取个笑，不想靛儿因找扇子，宝钗又发了两句话，他便改口笑道：“宝姐姐，你听了两出什么戏？”宝钗因见林黛玉面上有得意之态，一定是听了宝玉方才奚落之言，遂了他的心愿，忽又见问他这话，便笑道：“我看的是李逵骂了宋江，后来又赔不是。”宝玉便笑道：“姐姐通今博古，色色都知道，怎么连这一出戏的名字也不知道，就说了这么一串子。这叫《负荆请罪》[8]。”宝钗笑道：“原来这叫作《负荆请罪》！你们通今博古，才知道‘负荆请罪’，我不知道什么是‘负荆请罪’！”一句话还未说完，宝玉林黛玉二人心里有病，听了这话早把脸羞红了。

凤姐于这些上虽不通达，但只见他三人形景，便知其意，便也笑着问人道：“你们大暑天，谁还吃生姜呢？”众人不解其意，便说道：“没有吃生姜。”凤姐故意用手摸着腮，诧异道：“既没人吃生姜，怎么这么辣辣的？”宝玉黛玉二人听见这话，越发不好过了。宝钗再要说话，见宝玉十分讨愧，形景改变，也就不好再说，只得一笑收住。别人总未解得他四个人的言语，因此付之流水。

一时宝钗凤姐去了，林黛玉笑向宝玉道：“你也试着比我利害的人了。谁都像我心拙口笨的，由着人说呢。”宝玉正因宝钗多了心，自己没趣，又见林黛玉来问着他，越发没好气起来。待要说两句，又恐林黛玉多心，说不得忍着气，无精打采一直出来。

谁知目今盛暑之时，又当早饭已过、各处主仆人等多半都因日长神倦之时，宝玉背着手，到一处，一处鸦雀无闻。从贾母这里出来，往西走过了穿堂，便是凤姐的院落。到他们院门前，只见院门掩着。知道凤姐素日的规矩，每到天热，午间要歇一个时辰的，进去不便，遂进角门，来到王夫人上房内。只见几个丫头子手里拿着针线，却打盹儿呢。

王夫人在里间凉榻上睡着，金钏儿坐在旁边捶腿，也乜斜着眼乱恍。宝玉轻轻的走到跟前，把他耳上带的坠子一扚[9]，金钏儿睁开眼，见是宝玉。宝玉悄悄的笑道：“就困的这么着？”金钏抿嘴一笑，摆手令他出去，仍合上眼。宝玉见了他，就有些恋恋不舍的，悄悄的探头瞧瞧王夫人合着眼，便自己向身边荷包里带的香雪润津丹掏了一丸出来，便向金钏儿口里一送。金钏儿并不睁眼，只管噙了。宝玉上来便拉着手，悄悄的笑道：“我明日和太太讨你，咱们在一处罢。”金钏儿不答。宝玉又道：“不然，等太太醒了我就讨。”

金钏儿睁开眼，将宝玉一推，笑道：“你忙什么！‘金簪子掉在井里〔四〕头，有你的只是有你的’，连这句话语难道也不明白？我倒告诉你个巧宗儿，你往东小院子里拿环哥儿同彩云去。”宝玉笑道：“凭他怎么去罢，我只守着你。”只见王夫人翻身起来，照金钏儿脸上就打了个嘴巴子，指着骂道：“下作小娼妇，好好的爷们，都叫你教坏了。”宝玉见王夫人起来，早一溜烟去了。

这里金钏儿半边脸火热，一声不敢言语。登时众丫头听见王夫人醒了，都忙进来。王夫人便叫玉钏儿：“把你妈叫来，带出你姐姐去。”金钏儿听说，忙跪下哭道：“我再不敢了。太太要打骂，只管发落，别叫我出去就是天恩了。我跟了太太十来年，这会子撵出去，我还见人不见人呢！”王夫人固然是个宽仁慈厚的人，从来不曾打过丫头们一个，今忽见金钏儿行此无耻之事，此乃平生最恨者，故气忿不过，打了一下，骂了几句。虽金钏儿苦求，亦不肯收留，到底唤了金钏儿之母白老媳妇来领了下去。那金钏儿含羞忍辱的出去，不在话下。

且说那宝玉见王夫人醒来，自己没趣，忙进大观园来。只见赤日当空，树阴合地，满耳蝉声，静无人语。刚到了蔷薇花架，只听有人哽噎之声。宝玉心中疑惑，便站住细听，果然架下那边有人。如今五月之际，那蔷薇正是花叶茂盛之时，宝玉便悄悄的隔着篱笆洞儿一看，只见一个女孩子蹲在花下，手里拿着根绾头的簪子在地下抠土，一面悄悄的流泪。

宝玉心中想道：“难道这也是个痴丫头〔五〕，又像颦儿来葬花不成？”因又自叹道：“若真也葬花，可谓‘东施效颦’[12]，不但不为新特，且更可厌了。”想毕，便要叫那女子，说：“你不用跟着那林姑娘学了。”话未出口，幸而再看时，这女孩子面生，不是个侍儿，倒像是那十二个学戏的女孩子之内的，却辨不出他是生旦净丑那一个角色来。宝玉忙把舌头一伸，将口掩住，自己想道：“幸而不曾造次。上两次皆因造次了，颦儿也生气，宝儿也多心，如今再得罪了他们，越发没意思了。”

一面想，一面又恨认不得这个是谁。再留神细看，只见这女孩子眉蹙春山，眼颦秋水，面薄腰纤，袅袅婷婷，大有林黛玉之态。宝玉早又不忍弃他而去，只管痴看。只见他虽然用金簪划地，并不是掘土埋花，竟是向土上画字。宝玉用眼随着簪子的起落，一直一画一点一勾的看了去，数一数，十八笔[13]。自己又在手心里用指头按着他方才下笔的规矩写了，猜是个什么字。写成一想，原来就是个蔷薇花的“蔷”字。

宝玉想道：“必定是他也要作诗填词。这会子见了这花，因有所感，或者偶成了两句，一时兴至恐忘，在地下画着推敲，也未可知。且看他底下再写什么。”一面想，一面又看，只见那女孩子还在那里画呢，画来画去，还是个“蔷”字。再看，还是个“蔷”字。里面的原是早已痴了，画完一个又画一个，已经画了有几千个“蔷”。外面的不觉也看痴了，两个眼睛珠儿只管随着簪子动，心里却想：“这女孩子一定有什么话说不出来的大心事，才这样个形景。外面既是这个形景，心里不知怎么熬煎。看他的模样儿这般单薄，心里那里还搁的住熬煎。可恨我不能替你分些过来。”

伏中阴晴不定，片云可以致雨，忽一阵凉风过了，唰唰的落下一阵雨来。宝玉看着那女子头上滴下水来，纱衣裳登时湿了。宝玉想道：“这时下雨。他这个身子，如何禁得骤雨一激！”因此禁不住便说道：“不用写了。你看下大雨，身上都湿了。”那女孩子听说倒唬了一跳，抬头一看，只见花外一个人叫他不要写了，下大雨了。一则宝玉脸面俊秀；二则花叶繁茂，上下俱被枝叶隐住，刚露着半边脸，那女孩子只当是个丫头，再不想是宝玉，因笑道：“多谢姐姐提醒了我。难道姐姐在外头有什么遮雨的？”一句提醒了宝玉，“嗳哟”了一声，才觉得浑身冰凉。低头一看，自己身上也都湿了。说声“不好”，只得一气跑回怡红院去了，心里却还记挂着那女孩子没处避雨。

原来明日是端阳节，那文官等十二个女子都放了学，进园来各处顽耍。可巧小生宝官、正旦玉官两个女孩子，正在怡红院和袭人玩笑，被大雨阻住。大家把沟堵了，水积在院内，把些绿头鸭、花[14]、彩鸳鸯，捉的捉，赶的赶，缝了翅膀，放在院内顽耍，将院门关了。袭人等都在游廊上嘻笑。

宝玉见关着门，便以手扣门，里面诸人只顾笑，那里听见。叫了半日，拍的门山响，里面方听见了，估谅着宝玉这会子再不回来的。袭人笑道：“谁这会子叫门，没人开去。”宝玉道：“是我。”麝月道：“是宝姑娘的声音。”晴雯道：“胡说！宝姑娘这会子做什么来。”袭人道：“让我隔着门缝儿瞧瞧，可开就开，要不可开，叫他淋着去。”说着，便顺着游廊到门前，往外一瞧，只见宝玉淋的雨打鸡一般。袭人见了又是着忙又是可笑，忙开了门，笑的弯着腰拍手道：“这么大雨地里跑什么？那里知道是爷回来了。”

宝玉一肚子没好气，满心里要把开门的踢几脚，及开了门，并不看真是谁，还只当是那些小丫头子们，便抬腿踢在肋上。袭人“嗳哟”了一声。宝玉还骂道：“下流东西们！我素日担待你们得了意，一点儿也不怕，越发拿我取笑儿了。”口里说着，一低头见是袭人哭了，方知踢错了，忙笑道：“嗳哟，是你来了！踢在那里了？”袭人从来不曾受过一句大话的，今儿忽见宝玉生气踢他一下，又当着许多人，又是羞，又是气，又是疼，真一时置身无地。待要怎么样，料着宝玉未必是安心踢他，少不得忍着说道：“没有踢着。还不换衣裳去。”

宝玉一面进房来解衣，一面笑道：“我长了这么大，今日是头一遭儿生气打人，不想就偏遇见了你！”袭人一面忍痛换衣裳，一面笑道：“我是个起头儿的人，不论事大事小事好事歹，自然也该从我起。但只是别说打了我，明儿顺了手也打起别人来。”宝玉道：“我才也不是安心。”袭人道：“谁说你是安心了！素日开门关门，都是那起小丫头子们的事。他们是憨皮惯了的，早已恨的人牙痒痒，他们也没个怕惧儿。你当是他们，踢一下子，唬唬他们也好些。才刚是我淘气，不叫开门的。”

说着，那雨已住了，宝官、玉官也早去了。袭人只觉肋下疼的心里发闹，晚饭也不曾好生吃。至晚间洗澡时脱了衣服，只见肋上青了碗大一块，自己倒唬了一跳，又不好声张。

一时睡下，梦中作痛，由不得“嗳哟”之声从睡中哼出。宝玉虽说不是安心，因见袭人懒懒的，也睡不安稳。忽夜间听得“嗳哟”，便知踢重了，自己下床悄悄的秉灯来照。刚到床前，只见袭人嗽了两声，吐出一口痰来，“嗳哟”一声，睁开眼见了宝玉，倒唬了一跳道：“作什么？”宝玉道：“你梦里‘嗳哟’，必定踢重了。我瞧瞧。”袭人道：“我头上发晕，嗓子里又腥又甜，你倒照一照地下罢。”宝玉听说，果然持灯向地下一照，只见一口鲜血在地。宝玉慌了，只说“了不得了！”袭人见了，也就心冷了半截。要知端的，且听下回分解。

[1] 机带双敲——意近“一语双关”，即机智地用一语同时触及两方，既敲了甲，也刺了乙。

〔一〕 “龄官划蔷痴及局外”，原作“椿灵划蔷痴及局外”，从蒙府、戚序本改。

[3] 歪派——故意找碴编派别人的意思。

〔二〕 “正欲答话”，原无“正”字，从梦稿、蒙府本补。

〔三〕 “看时，只见凤姐儿”，原作“看是凤姐”，从各本增改。

[6] 乌眼鸡——乌眼鸡好斗，形容人吵架，怒目而视。

[7] 扣了环——喻亲密不可分。鹰鹞爪距相互紧扣，不易掰开。

[8] 《负荆请罪》——当指元代康进之《李逵负荆》杂剧，演二歹徒假冒宋江、鲁智深之名，抢去良家之女，李逵信以为真，大闹忠义堂，后辨明真相，李逵向宋江等负荆请罪。“负荆请罪”成语本于《史记·廉颇蔺相如列传》，演为戏曲另名《完璧记》。

[9] 扚——底本作“滴”。滴是“”、“扚”的同音字。吴语以两手指甲掐物叫“”或“扚”。此语今仍在流行。此处指宝玉轻掐。

〔四〕 “掉在井里”，“掉”原作“吊”，从舒序、甲辰本改。

〔五〕 “这也是个痴丫头”，原作“这也是个痴子”，“是”为旁添。从各本改。

[12] 东施效颦（pín贫）——颦：皱眉。相传春秋时越国美女西施因病捧心皱眉，显得更美，邻女东施，如法仿效但却更丑，引起人们的讥笑。见《庄子·天运》。后遂以“东施效颦”喻不自量地模仿别人，效果适得其反。

[13] 十八笔——“蔷”的繁体字，且“回”写作“”共合十八笔，即“蔷”。

[14] （xī　chì溪赤）——水鸟，似鸳鸯。

CHAPTER 30. Bao-chai speaks of a fan and castigates her deriders Charmante scratches a ‘qiang’ and mystifies a beholder

Dai-yu, as we have shown, regretted her quarrel with Bao-yu almost as soon as it was over; but since there were no conceivable grounds on which she could run after him and tell him so, she continued, both day and night, in a state of unrelieved depression that made her feel almost as if a part of her was lost. Nightingale had a shrewd idea how it was with her and resolved at last to tackle her:

‘I think the day before yesterday you were too hasty, Miss. We ought to know what things Master Bao is touchy about, if no one else does. Look at all the quarrels we’ve had with him in the past on account of that jade!’

‘Poh!’ said Dai-yu scornfully. ‘You are trying to make out that it was my fault because you have taken his side against me. Of course I wasn’t too hasty.’

Nightingale gave her a quizzical smile.

‘No? Then why did you cut that cord up? If three parts of the blame was Bao-yu’s, I’m sure at least seven parts of it was yours. From what I’ve seen of it, he’s all right with you when you allow him to be; it’s because you’re so prickly with him and always trying to put him in the wrong that he gets worked up.’

Dai-yu was about to retort when they heard someone at the courtyard gate calling to be let in. Nightingale turned to listen:

‘That’s Bao-yu’s voice,’ she said. ‘I expect he has come to apologize.’

‘I forbid you to let him in,’ said Dai-yu.

‘There you go again! ’ said Nightingale. ‘You’re going to keep him standing outside in the blazing sun on a day like this. Surely that’s wrong, if nothing else is?’

She was moving outside, even as she said this, regardless of her mistress’s injunction. Sure enough, it was Bao-yu. She unfastened the gate and welcomed him in with a friendly smile.

‘Master Bao! I was beginning to think you weren’t coming to see us any more. I certainly didn’t expect to see you here again so soon.’

‘Oh, you’ve been making a mountain out of a molehill,’ said Bao-yu, returning her smile. ‘Why ever shouldn’t I come? Even if I died, my ghost would be round here a hundred times a day. How is my cousin? Quite better now?’

‘Physically she’s better,’ said Nightingale, ‘but she’s still in very poor spirits.’

‘Ah yes – I know she’s upset.’

This exchange took place as they were crossing the forecourt. He now entered the room. Dai-yu was sitting on the bed crying. She had not been crying to start with, but the bittersweet pang she experienced when she heard his arrival had started the tears rolling. Bao-yu went up to the bed and smiled down at her.

‘How are you, coz? Quite better now?’

As Dai-yu seemed to be too busy wiping her eyes to make a reply, he sat down close beside her on the edge of the bed:

‘I know you’re not really angry with me,’ he said. ‘It’s just that if the others noticed I wasn’t coming here, they would think we had been quarrelling; and if we waited for them to interfere, we should be allowing other people to come between us. It would be better to hit me and shout at me now and get it over with, if you still bear any hard feelings, than to go on ignoring me. Coz dear! Coz dear! —’

He must have repeated those same two words in the same tone of passionate entreaty upwards of twenty times. Dai-yu had been meaning to ignore him, but what he had just been saying about other people ‘coming between’ them seemed to prove that he must in some way feel closer to her than the rest, and she was unable to maintain her silence.

‘You don’t have to treat me like a child,’ she blurted out tearfully. ‘From now on I shall make no further claims on you. You can behave exactly as if I had gone away.’

‘Gone away?’ said Bao-yu laughingly. ‘Where would you go to?’

‘Back home.’

‘I’d follow you.’

‘As if I were dead then.’

‘If you died,’ he said, ‘I should become a monk.’

Dai-yu’s face darkened immediately:

‘What an utterly idiotic thing to say! Suppose your own sisters were to die? Just how many times can one person become a monk? I think I had better see what the others think about that remark.’

Bao-yu had realized at once that she would be offended; but the words were already out of his mouth before he could stop them. He turned very red and hung his head in silence. It was a good thing that no one else was in the room at that moment to see him. Dai-yu glared at him for some seconds – evidently too enraged to speak, for she made a sound somewhere between a snort and a sigh, but said nothing – then, seeing him almost purple in the face with suppressed emotion, she clenched her teeth, pointed her finger at him, and, with an indignant ‘Hmn!’, stabbed the air quite savagely a few inches away from his forehead:

‘You—!’

But whatever it was she had been going to call him never got said. She merely gave a sigh and began wiping her eyes again with her handkerchief.

Bao-yu had been in a highly emotional state when he came to see Dai-yu and it had further upset him to have inadvertently offended her so soon after his arrival. This angry gesture and the unsuccessful struggle, ending in sighs and tears, to say what she wanted to say now affected him so deeply that he, too, began to weep. In need of a handkerchief but finding that he had come out without one, he wiped his eyes on his sleeve.

Although Dai-yu was crying, the spectacle of Bao-yu using the sleeve of his brand-new lilac-coloured summer gown as a handkerchief had not escaped her, and while continuing to wipe her own eyes with one hand, she leaned over and reached with the other for the square of silk that was draped over the head-rest at the end of the bed. She lifted it off and threw it at him – all without uttering a word – then, once more burying her face in her own handkerchief, resumed her weeping. Bao-yu picked up the handkerchief she had thrown him and hurriedly wiped his eyes with it. When he had dried them, he drew up close to her again and took one of her hands in his own, smiling at her gently.

‘I don’t know why you go on crying,’ he said. ‘I feel as if all my insides were shattered. Come! Let’s go and see Grandmother together.’

Dai-yu flung off his hand.

‘Take your hands off me! We’re not children any more. You really can’t go on mauling me about like this all the time. Don’t you understand anything – ?’

‘Bravo!’

The shouted interruption startled them both. They spun round to look just as Xi-feng, full of smiles, came bustling into the room.

‘Grandmother has been grumbling away something awful,’ she said. ‘She insisted that I should come over and see if you were both all right. “Oh,” I said, “there’s no need to go and look, Grannie; they’ll have made it up by now without any interference from us.” So she told me I was lazy. Well, here I am – and of course it’s exactly as I said it would be. I don’t know. I don’t understand you two. What is it you find to argue about? For every three days that you’re friends you must spend at least two days quarrelling. You really are a couple of babies. And the older you get, the worse you get. Look at you now – holding hands crying! And a couple of days ago you were glaring at each other like fighting-cocks. Come on! Come with me to see Grandmother. Let’s put the old lady’s mind at rest.’

As she said this, she seized Dai-yu’s hand and began marching off with her. Dai-yu turned back and called for her maids, but there was no response.

‘What do you want to call them for?’ said Xi-feng. ‘You’ve got me to wait on you, haven’t you?’

She continued to walk away, still holding Dai-yu by the hand. Bao-yu followed a little way behind. They went out of the Garden and through into Grandmother Jia’s apartment.

‘I told you they could be left to themselves to make it up and that there was no need for you to worry,’ said Xi-feng to Grandmother Jia when they were all in the old lady’s presence; ‘but you wouldn’t believe me, would you? You insisted on my going there to act the peacemaker. Well, I went there; and what did I find? I found the two of them together apologizing to each other. It was like the kite and the kestrel holding hands: they were positively locked in a clinch! No need of a peacemaker that I could see.’

There was a burst of laughter from all present. Bao-chai was among these, but Dai-yu slipped past her without speaking and took a seat next to Grandmother Jia. Bao-yu, rather at a loss for something to say, turned to Bao-chai.

‘I’m afraid I wasn’t very well on your brother’s birthday; so apart from not giving him a present, I couldn’t even make him a kotow this year. I’m afraid he may not have realized I was ill and thought that I was merely making excuses. If you can spare a moment next time you see him, I do hope you will explain to him for me.’

Bao-chai looked amused.

‘That seems a trifle excessive. I am sure he would have felt uncomfortable about your kotowing to him, even if you had been able to come; so I’m quite sure he wouldn’t have wanted you to come when you weren’t feeling well. It would be rather unfriendly, surely, if cousins who see each other all the time were to start worrying about trifles like that?’

Bao-yu smiled.

‘Well, as long as you understand, that’s all right – But why aren’t you watching the players?’

‘I can’t stand the heat,’ said Bao-chai. ‘I did watch a couple of acts of something, but it was so hot that I couldn’t stay any longer. Unfortunately none of the guests showed any sign of going, so I had to pretend I was ill in order to get away.’

‘Touché!’ thought Bao-yu; but he hid his embarrassment in a stupid laugh.

‘No wonder they compare you to Yang Gui-fei, cousin. You are well-covered like her, and they always say that plump people fear the heat.’

The colour flew into Bao-chai’s face. An angry retort was on her lips, but she could hardly make it in front of company. Yet reflection only made her angrier. Eventually, after a scornful sniff or two, she said:

‘I may be like Yang Gui-fei in some respects, but I don’t think there is much danger of my cousin becoming a Prime Minister.’

It happened that just at that moment a very young maid called ‘Prettikins’ jokingly accused Bao-chai of having hidden a fan she was looking for.

‘I know Miss Bao’s hidden it,’ she said. ‘Come on, Miss! Please let me have it.’

‘You be careful,’ said Bao-chai, pointing at the girl angrily and speaking with unwonted stridency. ‘When did you last see me playing games of this sort with anyone? If there are other young ladies who are in the habit of romping about with you, you had better ask them.’

Prettikins fled.

Bao-yu realized that he had once again given offence by speaking thoughtlessly; and as this time it was in front of a lot of people, his embarrassment was correspondingly greater. He turned aside in confusion and began talking nervously to someone else.

Bao-yu’s rudeness to Bao-chai had given Dai-yu secret satisfaction. When Prettikins came in looking for her fan, she had been on the point of adding some facetiousness of her own at Bao-chai’s expense; but Bao-chai’s brief explosion caused her to drop the prepared witticism and ask instead what play the two acts were from that Bao-chai said she had just been watching.

Bao-chai had observed the smirk on Dai-yu’s face and knew very well that Bao-yu’s rudeness must have pleased her. The smiling answer she gave to Dai-yu’s question was therefore not without a touch of malice.

‘The play I saw was Li Kui Abuses Song Jiang and Afterwards Has to Say He Is Sorry.’

Bao-yu laughed.

‘What a mouthful! Surely, with all your learning, cousin, you must know the proper name of that play? It’s called The Abject Apology.’

‘The Abject Apology? said Bao-chai. ‘Well, no doubt you clever people know all there is to know about abject apology. I’m afraid it’s something I wouldn’t know about.’

Her words touched Bao-yu and Dai-yu on a sensitive spot, and by the time she had finished, they were both blushing hotly with embarrassment.

Xi-feng was insufficiently educated to have understood all these nuances, but by studying the speakers’ expressions she had formed a pretty good idea of what they were talking about.

‘Rather hot weather to be eating raw ginger, isn’t it?’ she asked.

No one present could understand what she meant.

‘No one’s been eating raw ginger,’ they said.

Xi-feng affected great surprise and rubbed her cheek meaningfully with her hand:

‘If no one’s been eating raw ginger, then why are they looking so hot and bothered?’

At this Bao-yu and Dai-yu felt even more uncomfortable. Bao-chai was about to add something, but seeing the abject look on Bao-yu’s face, she laughed and held her tongue. None of the others present had understood what the four of them were talking about and treated these exchanges as a joke.

Shortly after this, when Bao-chai and Xi-feng had gone out of the room, Dai-yu said to Bao-yu.

‘You see? There are people even more dangerous to trifle with than I. If I weren’t such a tongue-tied, slow-witted creature, you wouldn’t get away with it quite so often, my friend.’

Bao-yu was still smarting from Bao-chai’s testiness. To be set upon now by Dai-yu as well seemed positively the last straw. But though he wanted to reply, he knew how easily she would take offence and controlled himself with an effort. Feeling in very low spirits, he left the room himself now and went off on his own.

It was the hottest part of the day. Lunch had long been over, and in every apartment mistress and maids alike had succumbed to the lassitude of the hour. As he sauntered slowly by, hands clasped behind his back, everywhere he went was hushed in the breathless silence of noon. From the back of Grandmother Jia’s quarters he passed eastwards through the gallery that ended near the wall of Xi-feng’s courtyard. He went up to the gate, but it was closed, and remembering that it was her invariable custom when the weather was hot to take two whole hours off in the middle of the day for her siesta, he thought he had better not go in. He continued, instead, through the corner gate that led into his parents’ courtyard.

On entering his mother’s apartment, he found several maids dozing over their embroidery. Lady Wang herself was lying on a summer-bed in the inner room, apparently fast asleep. Her maid Golden, who was sitting beside her gently pounding her legs, also seemed half asleep, for her head was nodding and her half-closed eyes were blinking drowsily. Bao-yu tiptoed up to her and tweaked an ear-ring. She opened her eyes wide and saw that it was Bao-yu.

He smiled at her and whispered.

‘So sleepy?’

Golden pursed her lips up in a smile, motioned to him with her hand to go away, and then closed her eyes again. But Bao-yu lingered, fascinated. Silently craning forward to make sure that Lady Wang’s eyes were closed, he took a Fragrant Snow ‘quencher’ from the embroidered pouch at his waist and popped it between Golden’s lips. Golden nibbled it dreamily without opening her eyes.

‘Shall I ask Her Ladyship to let me have you, so that we can be together?’ he whispered jokingly.

Golden made no reply.

‘When she wakes up, I’ll talk to her about it,’ he said.

Golden opened her eyes wide and gave him a little push.

‘What’s the hurry?’ she said playfully. ‘ “Yours is yours, wherever it be”, as they said to the lady when she dropped her gold comb in the well. Haven’t you ever heard that saying? – I’ll tell you something to do, if you want a bit of fun. Go into the little east courtyard and you’ll be able to catch Sunset and Huan together.’

‘Who cares about them?’ said Bao-yu. ‘Let’s talk about us.’

At this point Lady Wang sat bolt upright and dealt Golden a slap in the face.

‘Shameless little harlot!’ she cried, pointing at her wrath-fully. ‘It’s you and your like who corrupt our innocent young boys.’

Bao-yu had slipped silently away as soon as his mother sat up. Golden, one of whose cheeks was now burning a fiery red, was left without a word to say. The other maids, hearing that their mistress was awake, came hurrying into the room.

‘Silver!’ said Lady Wang. ‘Go and fetch your mother. I want her to take your sister Golden away.’

Golden threw herself, weeping, upon her knees:

‘No, Your Ladyship, please! Beat me and revile me as much as you like, but please, for pity’s sake, don’t send me away. I’ve been with Your Ladyship nigh on ten years now. How can I ever hold up my head again if you dismiss me?’

Lady Wang was not naturally unkind. On the contrary, she was an exceptionally lenient mistress. This was, in fact, the first time in her life that she had ever struck a maid. But the kind of ‘shamelessness’ of which – in her view – Golden had just been guilty was the one thing she had always most abhorred. It was the uncontrollable anger of the morally outraged that had caused her to strike Golden and call her names; and though Golden now begged and pleaded, she refused to retract her dismissal. When Golden’s mother, old Mrs Bai, had eventually been fetched, the wretched girl, utterly crushed by her shame and humiliation, was led away.

But of her no more.

Embarrassed by his mother’s awakening, Bao-yu had slipped hurriedly into the Garden.

The burning sun was now in the height of heaven, the contracted shadows were concentrated darkly beneath the trees, and the stillness of noon, filled with the harsh trilling of cicadas, was broken by no human voice; but as he approached the bamboo trellises of the rose-garden, a sound like a suppressed sob seemed to come from inside the pergola. Uncertain what it was that he had heard, he stopped to listen. Undoubtedly there was someone there.

This was the fifth month of the year, when the rambler roses are in fullest bloom. Peeping through the fragrant panicles with which the pergola was smothered, he saw a girl crouching down on the other side of the trellis, scratching at the ground with one of those long, blunt pins that girls use for fastening their back hair with.

‘Can this be some silly maid come here to bury flowers like Frowner?’ he wondered.

He was reminded of Zhuang-zi’s story of the beautiful Xi-shi’s ugly neighbour, whose endeavours to imitate the little frown that made Xi-shi captivating produced an aspect so hideous that people ran from her in terror. The recollection of it made him smile.

‘This is “imitating the Frowner” with a vengeance,’ he thought, ‘– if that is really what she is doing. Not merely unoriginal, but downright disgusting!’

‘Don’t imitate Miss Lin,’ he was about to shout; but a glimpse of the girl’s face revealed to him just in time that this was no maid, but one of the twelve little actresses from Pear-tree Court – though which of them, since he had seen them only in their make-up on the stage, he was unable to make out. He stuck out his tongue in a grimace and clapped a hand to his mouth.

‘Good job I didn’t speak too soon,’ he thought. ‘I’ve been in trouble twice already today for doing that, once with Frowner and once with Chai. It only needs me to go and upset these twelve actresses as well and I shall be well and truly in the cart!’

His efforts to identify the girl made him study her more closely. It was curious that he should have thought her an imitator of Dai-yu, for she had much of Dai-yu’s ethereal grace in her looks: the same delicate face and frail, slender body; the same

… brows like hills in spring, And eyes like autumn’s limpid pools;

– even the same little frown that had often made him compare Dai-yu with Xi-shi of the legend.

It was now quite impossible for him to tear himself away. He watched her fascinated. As he watched, he began to see that what she was doing with the pin was not scratching a hole to bury flowers in, but writing. He followed the movements of her hand, and each vertical and horizontal stroke, each dot and hook that she made he copied with a finger on the palm of his hand. Altogether there were eighteen strokes. He thought for a moment. The character he had just written in his hand was QIANG. The name of the roses which covered the pergola contained the same character: ‘Qiang-wei’.

‘The sight of the roses has inspired her to write a poem,’ he thought. ‘Probably she’s just thought of a good couplet and wants to write it down before she forgets it; or perhaps she has already composed several lines and wants to work on them a bit. Let’s see what she writes next.’

The girl went on writing, and he followed the movements of her hand as before. It was another QIANG. Again she wrote, and again he followed, and again it was a Q I A N G. It was as though she were under some sort of spell. As soon as she had finished writing one QIANG she began writing another.

QIANG QIANG QIANG QIANG QIANG QIANG QIANG …

He must have watched her write several dozen QIANG’S in succession. He seemed to be as much affected by the spell on his side of the pergola as the girl herself was on hers, for his eyeballs continued to follow her pin long after he had learned to anticipate its movements.

‘This girl must have something on her mind that she cannot tell anyone about to make her behave in this way,’ he thought. ‘One can see from her outward behaviour how much she must be suffering inwardly. And she looks so frail. Too frail for suffering. I wish I could bear some of it for you, my dear!’

In the stifling dog-days of summer the transition from clear to overcast is often sudden, and a little cloudlet can sometimes be the harbinger of a heavy shower. As Bao-yu watched the girl, a sudden gust of cool wind blew by, followed, within moments, by the hissing downpour of rain. He could see the water running off her head in streams and soaking into her clothes.

‘Oh, it’s raining! With her delicate constitution she ought not to be outside in a downpour like this.’

In his anxiety he cried out to her involuntarily:

‘Don’t write any more. Look! You’re getting soaked.’

The girl looked up, startled, when she heard the voice. She could see someone amidst the roses saying ‘Don’t write’; but partly because of Bao-yu’s almost girlishly beautiful features, and partly because she could in any case only see about half of his face, everything above and below being hidden by flowers and foliage, she took him for a maid; so instead of rushing from his presence as she would have done if she had known that it was Bao-yu, she smiled up at him gratefully:

‘Thank you for reminding me. But what about you? You must be getting wet too, surely?’

‘Aiyo!’ – her words made him suddenly aware that the whole of his body was icy cold, and when he looked down, he saw that he was soaked.

‘Oh lord!’

He rushed off in the direction of Green Delights; but all the time he was worrying about the girl, who had nowhere where she could shelter from the rain.

As this was the day before the Double Fifth festival, Élégante and the other little actresses – including the one whom Bao-yu had just been watching – had already started their holiday and had gone into the Garden to amuse themselves. Two of them, Trésor – one of the two members of the company who played Principal Boy parts – and Topaze – one of the company’s two soubrettes – happened to be in the House of Green Delights playing with Aroma when the rain started and prevented their leaving. They and the maids amused themselves by blocking up the gutters and letting the water collect in the courtyard. When it was nicely flooded, they rounded up a number of mallards, sheldrakes, mandarin ducks and other waterfowl, tied their wings together, and having first closed the courtyard gate, set them down in the water to swim about. Aroma and the girls were all in the outside gallery enjoying this spectacle when Bao-yu arrived at the gate. Finding it shut, he knocked on it for someone to come and open up for him. But there was little chance of a knock being heard above the excited laughter of the maids. He had to shout for some minutes and pound the gate till it shook before anyone heard him inside.

Aroma was not expecting him back so soon.

‘I wonder who it can be at this time,’ she said. ‘Won’t someone go and answer it?’

‘It’s me!’ shouted Bao-yu.

‘That’s Miss Bao’s voice,’ said Musk.

‘Nonsense!’ said Skybright. ‘What would she be doing visiting us at this time of day?’

‘Let me just take a peep through the crack,’ said Aroma. ‘If I think it’s all right, I’ll let them in. We don’t want to turn anyone away in the pouring rain.’

Keeping under cover of the gallery, she made her way round to the gate and peered through the chink between the double doors. The sight of Bao-yu standing there like a bedraggled hen with the water running off him in streamlets was both alarming and – she could not help but feel – very funny. She opened the gate as quickly as she could, then, when she saw him fully, clapped her hands and doubled up with laughter.

‘Master Bao! I never thought it would be you. What did you want to come running back in the pouring rain for?’

Bao-yu was by now in a thoroughly evil temper and had fully resolved to give whoever opened the gate a few kicks. As soon as it was open, therefore, he lashed out with his foot, not bothering to see who it was – for he assumed that the person answering it would be one of the younger maids – and dealt Aroma a mighty kick in the ribs that caused her to cry out in pain.

‘Worthless lot!’ he shouted. ‘Because I always treat you decently, you think you can get away with anything. I’m just your laughing-stock.’

It was not until he looked down and saw Aroma crying that he realized he had kicked the wrong person.

‘Aiyo! It’s you! Where did I kick you?’

Up to this moment Aroma had never had so much as a harsh word from Bao-yu, and the combination of shame, anger and pain she now felt on being kicked and shouted at by him in front of so many people was well-nigh insupportable. Nevertheless she forced herself to bear it, reflecting that to have made an outcry would be like admitting that it was her he had meant to kick, which she knew was almost certainly not the case.

‘You didn’t; you missed me,’ she said. ‘Come in and get changed.’

When Bao-yu had gone indoors and was changing his clothes, he said to her jokingly:

‘In all these years this is the first time I’ve ever struck anyone in anger. Too bad that you should have been the one to get in the way of the blow!’

In spite of the pain, which it cost her some effort to master, Aroma was helping him with his changing. She smiled when he said this.

‘I’m the person you always begin things with,’ she said. ‘Whether it’s big things or little things or pleasant ones or unpleasant ones, it’s only natural that you should try them out first on me. Only in this instance I hope that now you’ve hit me you won’t from now on go around hitting other people.’

‘I didn’t mean to kick you, you know,’ said Bao-yu.

‘Who said you did?’ said Aroma. ‘It’s the younger ones who normally see to the gate; and they’ve grown so insolent nowadays, it’s enough to put anyone in a rage. If you’d given one of them a few kicks and put the fear of God into them, it would have been a very good thing. No, it was my own silly fault. I should have made them open the gate and not gone to open it myself.’

While they were speaking, the rain had stopped and Trésor and Topaze had left. The pain in Aroma’s side was such that it was giving her a feeling of nausea and she could eat no dinner. At bedtime, when she took off her clothes, she saw a great black bruise the size of a rice-bowl spreading over the side of her chest. The extent of it frightened her, but she forbore to cry out. Nevertheless even her dreams that night were full of pain and she several times uttered an ‘Aiyo’ in the midst of her sleep.

Although it was understood that he had not kicked her deliberately, Bao-yu had felt a little uneasy when he saw how sluggish Aroma seemed in her movements; and when, during the night, he heard her groaning in her sleep, he knew that he must have kicked her really hard. Getting out of bed, he picked up a lamp and tiptoed over to have a look. Just as he reached the foot of her bed, he heard her cough a couple of times and spit out a mouthful of something.

‘Aiyo!’

She opened her eyes wide and saw Bao-yu. Startled, she asked him what he was doing there.

‘You’ve been groaning in your sleep,’ he said. ‘I must have hurt you badly. Let me have a look.’

‘My head feels giddy,’ said Aroma, ‘and I’ve got a sweet, sickly taste in my throat. Have a look on the floor.’

Bao-yu shone his lamp on the floor. Beside the bed, where she had spat, there was a mouthful of bright red blood. He was horrified.

‘Oh, help!’

Aroma looked too, and felt the grip of fear on her heart.

The outcome will be told in the following chapter.